March 1950 saw a news item going the rounds in Los Angeles and from there various outlets utilizing AP news stories. A rumor in LA men's club locker rooms was claiming of a crashed flying saucer near Mexico City.
Explosive's salesman Ray L. Dimmick claimed he had seen a crashed saucer, its occupant and handled a piece of the craft.
The crash he claimed had happened about three months early (Jan. 1950), that the crash had a 23 inch deceased occupant "from Mars" with a big head.
He claimed the ship was eight feet across (one say 45 feet) and 90 inches thick and had two motors. In addition, he saw a strip of metal taken from it" and describe the piece as a foot (one source say 8 feet), 8 inches wide and about 3/4 inches thick.
As expect both the Mexican and United States authorities denied any such event occurred. The story Dimmick shared - was framed by "top secret" and "classified" parts he could not share but apparently these did not stop him from sharing the broad sweep of the story.
The story emerged after a December 1949 closing the books on investigating the "flying saucers" under a project known popularly as "Project Saucer" but was in reality the Air Force Project Sign. That work, the press release announcing its closure, had begun January 22, 1948. The books were being closed because "there was nothing to show that the reports were not the results of natural phenomena." The Air Force asserted again that "all evidence pointed to three factors as cause of the sightings. They were 1) misidentification of various conventional objects*, 2) a mild form of mass hysteria, and 3) hoaxes." The Air Force defined various conventional objects as "birds, meteors, balloons, optical illusions, aircraft, etc."
The closure of the Project Sign came, most felt, due to the comments in papers and the planned inclusion in a major publication of seeing the unbelievable by Commander Robert B. McLaughlin, USN.
As the Project Sign was buried, a story was already going the rounds, with comments by McLaughlin that challenged the 'nothing to see- move along' attitude of the Air Force. Eagerly looked forward to was the March 1950 issue of True magazine. It was a headache to anyone wishing to keep something secret, the worst thing about it was McLaughlin was high enough ranked and in the U.S. Navy that the Air Force was hard pressed to do much to squash the interest in flying saucers or flying discs his comments generated. The competition between all the branches was running high in the 1947 to 1950 window. It would be so fierce that finally a division of research and oversight would be formulated. This meant the missile development went to the U.S. Navy, the helicopter and ground launched missiles went to the U.S. Army, and all things in the sky that flew went to the U.S. Air Force.
As we noticed in an early entry here, the similarities between the story of Roswell and the Aztec crash hint at a connection. My argument was that the best way to weaken a potential leak about a Roswell Incident was the corrupted leak of one similar but too extreme to be easily believed. A story that immediately places anyone suggesting a serious examination of it as a candidate for a white room with a very tight-fitting jacket.
Here again, the basic motif emerges and the inclusion of the particulars of the incident are question begging in themselves. A crashed alien craft, a dead occupant, a piece of metal from the craft.
Some may argue that the emergence of the Roswell Incident in the 1970's and 1980's might have been a mash-up of memories of these stories of the Aztec, New Mexico crash first mentioned in Frank Edwards book Flying Saucers: Series Business and these news articles of the Mexico City crash. That might float except for the fact that Roswell actually bears the weight of officially sanctioned news, detailed publication in a newspaper and photos. Roswell - no matter which side of the issue a person comes down on - was a real event that was covered by real newspaper reporters. The same cannot be said of the Aztec or the Mexico City alleged events.
The time of the release of the story, the same month as the appearance of the story in True Magazine could be a clever marketing gimmick or a more sinister attempt to continue to lather on ridicule any who might believe the story of extraterrestrial craft, or worse, those who might be tempted to share what they saw or think they saw as a civilian contractor, low level technician, or military personnel who allegiance to the service diluted once released.
An additional motivating factor might have been that in this 1948 to 1950 time period there were large lay-offs going on across the country. Those massive civilian workforces that had driven the war effort were now being downsized. The government, with its projects and institutions, still remained one of the largest direct or indirect employers of the era. It is possible that keeping quiet was job insurance.
1947 - July, 4/5, Roswell Incident. Two crash sites (one 75 miles northwest of Roswell and one further to the west near a mountain range); 1 or more "bodies"; an odd piece of metal like material with odd markings.
1948 - April )?) Aztec, NM Incident. Reported in Frank Edwards Flying Saucers: Serious Business (published in the early 1960's). 100 foot across craft; many bodies.
1950 - January, Mexico City. Reported in March 1950. 40 foot across craft, 90 inches tall, 1 or more dead bodies; a strange piece of the craft in an 8 ft. x 8 in. and 3/4 wide section.
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