Captured Flying Saucers: July 7, 1947, The Disk that Slipped by the FBI

The FBI is shut out

There was a FBI memo allegedly about flying saucers recovered with a handwritten notation by director J. Edgar Hoover:

"...we must insist upon full access 

to discs recovered. For instance 

in the La. case the Army grabbed it & 

wouldn't let us have it for cursory 

examination." 

(signed "H" for Hoover.)

The FBI file with the Hoover "La." memo is on page 45 of this PDF:

https://vault.fbi.gov/UFO/UFO%20Part%201%20of%2016/view#document/p45

Some UFO proponents like James Fox have insisted the memo is connected to the recovery of a crashed alien space craft. A few have misinterpreted Hoover's handwriting of La. as SW for South West, thinking that his memo was about Roswell, NM. Others have speculated that it was LA for Los Angeles, CA. However, the facts is that La. was short for Louisiana, as in the case of the July 7, 1947 crashed disk case in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Not Roswell

Top and bottom of the sloppy saucer from the south.

There have been many crashed flying saucers recovered over the years, but this is one of the very few instances where the object's flight and actual crash were witnessed 

From the files of Project Blue Book:

"Mr. (F. G. Harston), Shreveport, Louisiana, stated in an interview on 7 July 1947 that at 1805, 7 July 1947, he heard the disc whirling through the air and had looked up in time to see it when it was approximately 200 feet in the air and coming over a sign board adjacent to the used car lot where he was standing. ( Harston) stated that smoke and fire were coming from The disc and that it was traveling at a high rate of speed and that it fell into the street and his immediate vicinity. ( Harston) further stated that he retrieved the disc from the street and immediately notified Army officials at Barksdale Field."

Project Blue Book's file on this case: 7 July 1947, Shreveport, Louisiana. Here's a picture of F. G. Harston, lucky survivor of the close encounter. 

LIFE: "A Rash Of Flying Disks Breaks Out Over The U.S." in LIFE July 21, 1947

Case Closed

Investigation showed that this disk was yet another made here on Earth:

"A flying disk' fell in the street in a Southern city.  It was composed of aluminum strips, fluorescent-lamp starters, condensers, rivets, screws and copper wire.  A little investigation resulted in a confession from the culprit, the superintendent of an electric-fan factory, who said he concocted the device and threw it from the roof of the factory, hoping to scare his boss, who was getting into his car."

What You Can Believe About Flying Saucers - Conclusion by Sidney Shalett, Saturday Evening Post May 7, 1949

The object was determined to be of Earthly origin, and the identity of the hoaxer was determined, so this in one of the rare cases closed as definitively solved.