What Stopped the First UFO Convention?

There was no Ufology as we know it in 1949. There were not yet any UFO non-fiction books, newsletters, clubs or organizations, and therefore, no saucer celebrities. Yet it was a pivotal year in UFO history, transforming flying saucers from a novelty newspaper topic into a legitimate scientific mystery. The flying saucer fever that began with Kenneth Arnold in 1947 nearly died out several times in the following two years, but sightings or manufactured publicity kept stoking the flames. On April 27, 1949, the second-biggest saucer story to hit newspaper headlines was generated by a press release. The U.S. military’s Office of Public Information published a 22-page statement from the Air Force, “a digest of preliminary studies made… on ‘Flying Saucers.’" It emphasized that while the majority of sightings reported were caused by misidentifying planes, stars, birds, balloons, etc., not all reports could be explained, “there are still question marks in the ‘Saucer Story.’" The press seized on it and quoted out of context that, “The ‘saucers’ are not a joke.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 27, 1949

That sets the stage for what happened a few months later in Alexandria, Louisiana

 

The Flying Saucer City

Alexandria sits in the center of the state of Louisiana, and in 1949, the city had a growing population of about 34,000. On July 5, two witnesses reported a flying saucer sighting, the city’s first of many.  

Mrs. Edward Wolf and her sister, Mrs. V. Dardeau, were sitting outside July 5 at 9:30 p.m. when they saw an object fly by, lower and somewhat slower than a plane would go. Mrs. Wolf told the Air Force investigator that she spotted a disc-like object the size of auto tire, gray with luminous amber center. She observed it for about 30 seconds as it flew or drifted like a balloon, then it was lost from sight by trees. 

The Town Talk, July 6, 1949

The second sighting was reported in The Town Talk, July 8, 1949.

Saucer Takes Peek at City

Five persons today reported another mysterious flying saucer took a peep at Alexandria at 9 o’clock last night. Mrs. G. S. Hart, who made the discovery, said she had no idea how big it was. She said she and four others watched it almost five minutes.

“At first, I thought it was a falling star,” she said. “It was all lit up. Then it stopped or changed course and drifted toward the east, then it moved toward the west and changed its course once more and disappeared in the east.”

Mrs. Hart, who lives at 1414 Military highway, Pineville, was visiting Mrs, S. E. Pool 1823 Warshauer street. They were sitting on the lawn with Mrs. Georgie Smith, 1822 Warshauer street, when the object first appeared. Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Hart’s niece, was the first to dub it a flying saucer and the other agreed. They went across the street and called Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Phillips, 1819 Warshauer street and they also saw the object.

“It grew brighter as it came down,” Mrs. Hart said, “Then it began drifting. I couldn’t give you any guess as to how high it was. No, we did not hear any noise.”

Mrs. Phillips confirmed the report. She said the most puzzling thing about it all was the fact the object disappeared behind the trees, then apparently made a 180-degeree turn and came back.

This sighting was also investigated, and a report was filed by Troy R. Sherman, S/A, of Barksdale AFB, 7/15/49.

The National I-Have-Seen-A Flying-Saucer Convention

At this time, Adras Paul LaBorde was 34, and wrote for the Alexandira newspaper. During World War II, LaBorde served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and wrote the 1944 book, Roger Wilco: ABC of Radio for Flyers. LaBorde started with The Town Talk in 1945 and wrote the column, "The Talk of the Town," also working as a reporter, and later the editor.

The Town Talk, March 17, 1958

LaBorde was president of Alexandria’s Young Men’s Business Club, which was formed in 1947 to “encourage the advancement of material prosperity and progress” of the city. The club hosted luncheons, talks, tours, and other civic-minded events, mostly with the underlying purpose of stimulating the town’s economy. LaBorde and many of the other YMBC members had served in the military during WW II, and they were comfortable cooperating with government officials and agencies.

The Town Talk, Nov. 11, 1949

From his newspaper job, Laborde saw the huge public excitement over the local flying saucer sighting reports. Almost on a lark, he was inspired to suggest idea of the YMBC holding a convention, a national conference for flying saucer witnesses. The story ran in the local papers, then it was picked up and spread nationwide. 

The Town Talk, July 8, 1949

A “deluge” of letters from interested parties started to arrive, from sincere witnesses, and also jokers and crackpots. The YMBC replied, inviting the witnesses to attend. Meanwhile, more people in Alexandria were reporting UFO sightings. Two separate reports, an hour apart: Mr. C. S. DuPree. Also, Miss Bobbie Owens (14) Witnesses eight & nine. 

The Town Talk, July 9, 1949

The Times (Shreveport LA) July 15, 1949, reported that, “Delegates are coming from New York, California, Florida, New Jersey, Texas, Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Kansas and Louisiana.” It also reported that, “at least two government agencies will have official observers to hear stories and take notes.”

Alexandria has a smaller neighboring town, Pineville, which sits just across the Red River. The Pineville News, July 15, 1949, reported details of two recent saucer sightings in the area, and concluded, "It's becoming harder and harder to be skeptical about these mysterious discs." When the Air Force investigated, three newspaper employees confessed to concocting the story “purely as fun.”

On July 17, Mrs. Andrew Rino, her husband, and two neighbors reported seeing a stationary object too bright to be a star, stationary for about ten minutes total before it disappeared.

The Town Talk, July 18, 1949

By late July, the YMBC the had organized a committee, with “Earl Bordelon chairman of the flying saucer witness conference.” The date was set for Saturday and Sunday Dec. 10-11, 1949, at the Hotel Bentley. 

The FBI, The Army and the Air Force were Watching

With all the media attention, the local interest from sightings, and especially the volume of mail received, the YMBC’s prospects of bringing witnesses together looked good. The CNS article of July 22, 1949, stated, "It may have been a big joke when it started, but it’s serious business now, this business of a convention for flying saucer witnesses." Government files show that the flying saucer convention was a matter of some concern.

YMBC officer A.M. D’Angelo invited FBI Special agent Walter E. Moehle to the convention and told him about their many letters from potential attendees. The info was forwarded to headquarters, and the FBI was concerned about potential fraud. The FBI document stated: “This information is being furnished the Bureau, as it is possible such an enterprise may cause people to falsify that they have seen flying discs or flying saucers. Such falsifications might be made so that they might attend such a convention or become official delegates thereto.”

FBI Memo, July 21, 1949

The FBI also got a tip from the Army. Someone from Military Intelligence in the G-2, Fourth Army alerted the FBI’s SAC of San Antionio, Texas, on July 15, 1949, that he’d seen a newspaper (AP) story on the YMBC’s convention plans. The information was forwarded to the FBI director.

FBI Memo, July 26, 1949

In mid-July, an investigators from Barksdale Air Force Base were in town interviewing local witnesses and preparing case reports. Apparently, one also talked to A.M. D’Angelo of the YMBC, who briefed him on the convention’s progress. The YMBC wanted to include officials and investigators from the U.S. government and planned to invite representatives from the FBI, the Air Force (Office of Special Investigations), the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Army, and investigators from Wright-Patterson AFB. A memo dated Aug. 9, 1949, from Major Edward R. Ford of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, revealed, “A representative of the 9^th OSI District will attend the convention.” The information was passed up to the brass, classified under “Subversive Activity.”

Air Force document, Aug. 9, 1949

The Air Force and FBI may have regarded the convention as trouble since it would spotlight witnesses as celebrities. To be included in the events and publicity, attention-seekers might make false flying saucer reports. A reservation was made for Lt. Col. John C. McClendon to attend. He was from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Barksdale AFB.

As the convention date approached, more witnesses surfaced. The Town Talk reported that Abel E. Dauzat, Albert Vanderlick, and Albert Traver had each seen a flying saucer in late August. On Sept 2, 1949, Mrs. John M. Sherill saw a fiery UFO, and the report was investigated by the Air Force. Also, the same month about 40 miles away in Tullos, J. E. Smith, sr. and Emery Watson had a sighting. For the next few months, sightings intermittently continued in the area.

 The Associated Press and news agencies continued to report on the convention plans and that the YMBC had been “deluged with mail from most states and Great Britain.” They had replied, reportedly inviting 50 witnesses across the USA to attend. The convention got some additional free publicity via a series of advertisements from the American Bank of Carlsbad, Ohio.

Carlsbad Current Argus, Oct. 3, 1949

 

The Last Month before the Convention

In mid-November, the Associated Press reported the “Club officials said invitations have gone out to more than 50 persons in a dozen states who have reported they saw the mysterious flying objects.” However, the YMBC had only received one confirmed registration from out of state. It came from Mrs. Eliza Taylor of Valdosta, Georgia, whose sighting had been reported in The Atlanta Journal, July 15, 1949. Her case had also been investigatedby the Air Force. 

The Tuscaloosa News, Nov. 17, 1949 

Preston McGraw’s interview of  LaBorde was a widely published United Press article. Here’s how it appeared in The Daily Herald, (Provo, Utah) Nov. 18, 1949:

Flying Saucer Witnesses Hard to Find

Alexandria, La. Nov. 18 (UP) - A young businessman who wants to find out whether flying saucers are fact or mirage said today he is having a hard time getting 10 witnesses together for a convention. Adras Laborde got the idea of a ‘flying saucer witness’ enclave last Summer and began writing letters to people who say they saw the peculiar objects flitting across the sky. Laborde set December 10 for the meeting here and said he would hold the convention if he could get 10 people to come. So far he has only two reservations.

“My idea is to get as many witnesses as I can together, compare their stories and try to determine whether flying saucers are facts or mirages,” Laborde said. But the way things look now, he may have to postpone the meeting and work up more saucer enthusiasts.

Laborde said that he is getting a show of interest from air force intelligence. One of the reservations is from Lt. Col. John C. McClendon of the air force training command at Barksdale Field, La. The air force made McLendon’s reservation, Laborde said, “so it appears that G-2 (intelligence) is just as anxious as we are to find out what people are seeing.”

The other reservation came from Mrs. Eliza Taylor of Valdosta, Ga. Laborde said Mrs. Taylor just wrote and told him she would be glad to compare notes with other observers. Otherwise, Laborde said, the biggest response has been from middle-aged widows. They seem interested but don’t see how they can get here for the meeting. One widowed letter-writer said she would come if Laborde would pay her expenses. He said he couldn’t do that.

Most witnesses are serious, Laborde said. “They are convinced they saw mysterious flying objects and what they want to learn all they can about them. There is a chance that many of them will attend.” Two of the less serious witnesses who wrote that they could not come were Charles and Greta Carpenter of Wilmington, Ohio. But they did send Laborde good wishes, along with a paper plate equipped with wings which could be used to decorate the convention hall.

Laborde admitted that his interest is not entirely in flying saucers. He is president of the Young Men’s Business Club, here and secondarily, he said, he hopes to get publicity for the club. Just on the chance that 10 witnesses won’t appear, Laborde is also organizing a “witnesses club” which limits the expenditure to the price of a postage stamp for an application. So far he has received membership applications from 2 states and the United Kingdom.

Failure to Launch

The Town Talk, Dec. 1, 1949, carried news for the YMBC meeting: “President Adras LaBorde told the club that Life Magazine was interested in covering the proposed convention of flying saucer witnesses. But, he said, the convention may be postponed because of lack of advance reservations.”

The YMBC was co-sponsor of a big annual event for fisherman, the Garfish Rodeo held Aug. 8-14. We can only speculate, but it’s reasonable to think that planning and promoting the flying saucer convention wasn’t given their entire attention that summer. Their model for events was to invite people to show up, hosting gatherings like dinners, award ceremonies, competitions, and so on. There had never been a flying saucer convention before, so the YMBC didn’t have a model to follow. All they announced was that witnesses would exchange and compare stories. There was nothing said about any programming, speakers, presentations, entertainment or attractions. Guest were being asked to travel at their own expense for hundreds of miles south, then provide the program themselves. 

Maybe the plan for the convention was doomed from the start, anyway. They intended to be exclusive, inviting only witnesses and investigators, not the general public. That’s just not how show business is done. The convention was officially called off on Dec. 7, 1949. 

The Town Talk, Dec. 7, 1949

The next week, Alexandria’s Young Men’s Business Club hosted their annual banquet and for them, life went on without flying saucers.

The Town Talk, Dec. 19, 1949

Bad timing? Maybe in more ways than one. Scheduling the convention in December two weeks before Christmas was a poor choice to attract people with families. Maybe the YMBC was just too early. Just a few weeks later in December, True magazine published an explosive bestselling article that turned the UFO topic into an enduring enterprise, “The Flying Saucers are Real,” by Donald E. Keyhoe.

In 1949, the YMBC helped launch the ship, yet somehow missed the boat themselves.

The Woman Who Made UFO News

The Washington, D.C. area was a hotbed of UFO activity in the early 1950s, for news, events, and as a locale for researchers. The flying saucers reports in July 1952 over the nation’s Capital made UFOs a matter of national security and front-page news. The flying saucer fever led to clubs springing up all over, including Washington.

A major figure in the D.C. area saucer scene was Clara L. John, but her role in UFO history has been largely forgotten, making  her one of ufology’s “Hidden Figures.” STTF set out to find out more about Clara and her work.

Clara Louise Colcord, age 19.
The Evening Star, Oct. 8, 1907 

Clara Louise Colcord was born on June 12, 1888, in Scranton, Iowa. In the early 1900s, her family lived in Maryland near Washington, D.C, and her father was the editor of religious publications for the Seventh-day Adventists. At the age of 19, Clara married Ray Albert Leslie, and in the following years, they moved to Michigan. Census records show they didn’t have any children, and she gave her occupation as “none.” Unofficially, Clara Louise Leslie was a writer for general interest articles in magazines and newspapers. Two examples: In “Why Do We Love Mary Pickford?,” for Motion Picture, May 1918,  Clara hyperbolically wrote, “Mary Pickford is a fairy! She is not of this world.” Her essay, “An Evolutionary Eyeful,” in Photoplay Journal, Feb. 1919, was on the virtues of movies as a medium for entertainment and education.

After her husband Ray died on July 25, 1924, Clara moved back to the Washington area. She researched and wrote about the invention of the microphone, and who deserved credit for it, as seen in The Radio Home, June/July 1926 “The Man Who Made the Mike: A Brief History of Emile Berliner, the Man Who is Responsible for the Microphone.”

Time magazine, May 21, 1928

We could find no documentation of Clara’s interest in the occult before 1927, but afterwards, most of what she wrote was on supernatural topics. In the Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Jan. 10, 1929, Clara’s letter defended against criticism of Spiritualism. She felt the “materialistic world” was at its limit, and the spiritual realm was the new frontier.

Reason Quarterly no. 2, 1927, “Analyzing Prayer and Telepathy”

Evening Star, Jan. 10, 1929

Clara was in her early 40s when she married Dr. Walton Colcord John (1881-1942) on December 24, 1930, a professor who worked for the United States Bureau of Education. Shortly afterwards Clara published an article about a strange guest her husband had hosted. “Science Studies Pow-Wowing,” was Clara’s article about Jacob Zellers, who claimed to have killed five people with witchcraft. Zellers spoke to an audience at the Graduate School of American University at Washington. D.C., “all advanced students and educators working under Dr. Walton Colcord John.” It was published in Every Week Magazine, reprinted in newspapers such as the Lubbock Morning Avalanche, Jan 23, 1931.

They lived at 4811 Illinois Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. and she continued to write professionally under her old name, Clara Louise Leslie, as in this piece, “Live Ghosts in a Senator’s House” Feb. 7, 1931, in The Evening Independent.

Clara’s letter to the Washington Post, on June 2, 1938, suggesting the planned national memorial for Thomas Jefferson be created as “a planetarium instead of a pile of stone.” Her remarks about the universe and its “orderly energy” may have been a hint of how she’d later feel about flying saucers.

She returned to the topic of ghosts in True Mystic Science, Jan/Feb 1939, for “When the Camera Catches Ghosts.”

Walton Colcord John became ill and was treated at the Washington Sanitarium. He died at the age of 61 on June 18, 1942. There’s not much to document Clara’s life during this time, but her father had died in 1935, she’d lost two of her brothers by 1937, then her mother in May of 1950. Clara was 62 then, and her only surviving family was her youngest brother, Glenn. But Clara was not alone, she had a wide circle of friends and frequently hosted discussions and lectures in her home. 

If the Flying Saucers are True… 

Like many interested in spiritualism and the occult, when flying saucers made the news, Clara became interested in the mystery – and the hope that they were the craft of friendly otherworldly visitors. The first public documentation of her involvement with UFO topic was in the Times Herald (Washington, D.C.), May 18, 1952, where Clara wrote a letter to the editor: 

“If the flying saucers are ‘true,’ it will be the biggest news since Adam. The evidence now seems to be piling up in that direction. One thing beclouds the issue - peoples’ fears of such things - born out of science fiction which in turn is based on war-filled earth history. A moment’s observation shows this fear to be unwarranted. Sightings have been going on for years and not once have these ‘visitors’ done us any harm. Another self-evident thing, whatever or whoever they are, their knowledge of astronautics and propulsion is far ahead of ours. Newspapers easily have the power to remove this tendency to mass fear which, in turn will remove the attitude of ridicule on the part of many (a defense mechanism) so that from here on the subject can be faced open mindedly. I have even heard some of your readers propose a weekly ‘clearing house’ for worthy observations and opinions. This should make interesting reading, to say the least.

Clara Louise John

Speaking of interesting reading… Clara must have read and loved Frank Scully’s 1950 bestseller, Behind the Flying Saucers. A portion of the book discussed Meade Layne and his Borderland Sciences Research Associates, who believed flying saucers were “ether craft come to us from the ’other side,' who’d come with the “intention to prevent destruction of the omniverse by makers of hydrogen bombs.” Clara began corresponding far and wide with others with similar views. As she became more involved, saucers were one of the many unusual topics discussed in meetings she held in her home. T. Townsend Brown was a regular, and his daughter Linda Brown recalled “a childhood memory of a farm in Maryland, the home of a 67-year-old widow, Mrs. Walton Colcord John… [who] indulged an abiding interest in the unusual and esoteric, subjects that today might be considered ‘New Age.’ … Clara hosted some like-minded friends… For one such gathering... Townsend Brown brought his daughter, who mostly remembers that Mrs. John ‘had white ponies in a nearby field.’” (The Man Who Mastered Gravity 2023 by Paul Schatzkin, 2023)

In late 1952 Clara made contact with flying saucer lecturer George Adamski.

Fate July 1951

According to Loren Gross in his UFOs: A History, 1952: November–December, even prior to Adamski’s claim of meeting an alien, he had “established a number of epistolary friendships with persons across the country, perhaps the most notable being Mrs. Clara [Louise] John…” and that, “correspondence between Mrs. John and Adamski was extensive before and after November 20, 1952 and that it was no accident Mrs. John was working on the ‘professor's’ crude notes in preparation for a book on the ‘desert contact."

According to Frank Edwards (in Flying Saucers - Here and Now!, 1967), Clara first approached him with the manuscript. “I declined to have anything to do with the mess and she left my office in a bit of a huff.”

A publisher in the UK was far more receptive and packaged Adamski’s tale with a previously completed Theosophical manuscript by Desmond Leslie. Their book was published in the Fall of 1953, the international bestseller, The Flying Saucers have Landed. Clara’s involvement in the book was not public knowledge, and she wanted to keep it that way.

 

The Little Listening Post

By early 1954 Clara decided to draw on her connections and sources and produce a newsletter. In it, she did not use her name, early editions were signed as “C.L.J.” Gray Barker’s The Saucerian, Sept. 1954 described her publication. 

“THE LITTLE LISTENING POST, published by Mrs. Walton Colcord John… is a two-or-three-page mimeographed bulletin reporting a remarkable volume of saucerdoings and occult phenomena. The bulletin is informative and will keep the reader briefed on the goings-on in those fields. The project is supported by good-will donations, and we' re sure a quarter will bring at least some sample copies your way.”

The Little Listening Post 1954-1965 Collection
at Archives for the Unexplained (AFU)

LLP reached a small but devoted audience of devoted flying saucer fans, and provided news on saucer sightings, clubs, conventions, literature, ESP, ghosts, spirit radio, and other associated paranormal topics. Her sources? Often anonymous, they included mainstream reporters and broadcasters, UFO witnesses, Contactees, government insiders, and psychic channelers. The tone was often fervent and hyperbolic with big saucer news perennially coming soon, typed lots of things in ALL CAPS and underlined for emphasis!!! 

In Clara’s Feb. 1954 article, “Need for Unity between Science and the Occult,” she talked about how UFOs might be an indication that “our familiar old three dimensional world is in some sense bursting its shell… Patience will be needed… And enough humility to lay aside old vaunted traditions…”  

In LLP Dec/Jan 1954-55, Clara showed her devotion to George Adamski and quoted from his recent letter to her. She believed as he did that, “for the first time in this civilization we are becoming alerted to the reality of other inhabited planets and growing into a greater consciousness and understanding of the vast universe…”

Clara received many saucerian guests at LLP, and in early 1955, Morris K. Jessup (1900-1959) paid a visit. She taped the only known recording of either of them, a discussion of saucers and his forthcoming book, The Case for the UFO. From Wendy Connors’ Faded Disc archives: Morris Ketchum Jessup's only Known Recorded Interview by Clara John of the Little Listening Post at Washington, DC. in 1955. 21:42.

Clara said that ufology had become “practically your life’s work now.” Jessup replied, “I’m not doing anything else…” and she said, “Well the subject owns us it’s so, so much bigger than we are, I don’t blame you.” Jessup said, “That is certainly the truth, and this subject takes hold of you, and you practically become a slave to it. It’s a little hard to explain, but once you get into it, you recognize the length and the breadth and the depth of it, to a point where it is not only amazing, but perhaps a falling as well.”

Later, promoting Jessup's book in LLP, she wrote; “Saucer Fans, here is a weapon to use in convincing the Skeptics.” It became famous for something different, however. Gray Barker was one of many paranormal researchers Clara kept in touch with. Writing in his 1963 book, The Strange Case of Dr. M. K. Jessup, Barker tells how he got a call from Clara: 

“I first learned of the annotated copy [of The Case for the UFO] when… over the telephone, Mrs. John told me of a strange rumor going around, to the effect that somebody had sent a marked-up copy to Washington and that the government had gone to the expense of mimeographing the entire book, so that all the underlinings and notations could be added to the original text. This was being sent around rather widely, she told me, through military channels. She… seemed to connect it with an alleged Naval experiment wherein a ship had completely disappeared from sight. I couldn't make too much out of all this until later I had also heard about the strange Allende Letters, which told of such an experiment in a most horrifying way.”

That was the infancy of the legend that became known as “the Philadelphia Experiment.” Over the years, LLP endorsed just about every claim, from Frank Scully’s crashed saucer story, to the schemes and yarns of Otis T. Carr and Reinhold O.Schmitt. Spiritualist Enid Brady, who channeled aliens, called Clara, to tell her about her work. She published an announcement about it in the LLP Dec 55/Jan 56 issue, saying Enid “gave much intimate ‘contact info’” from Venus, and also had formed the Daytona Beach (Florida) Flying Saucer Research Club.  

From the Saucer Group to NICAP

Clara decided to turn her own gatherings into the Flying Saucer Discussion Group.

Classified ad, possibly for Clara’s group. Evening Star, March 04, 1956

Clara John’s notes from the group’s fourth meeting on July 20, 1956, stated:

"Today there are great thousands of little research groups all over the world, as well as people working singly on this thing. The time has come to coordinate their activities into a pattern that will prepare humanity for this startling new event in human existence.”

The idea went over, and soon T. Townsend Brown came up with a prospectus for what was soon named the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP).

By 1957, UFO author Donald Keyhoe took charge of the organization. Curtis Peebles in Watch the Skies! (1995), “Given the anticontactee stance NICAP took under Kehoe, the involvement of Clara L John in the group's founding is, to say the least ironic.”

Although she was supportive of NICAP, Clara was not an active part of it. When Donald Keyhoe stepped in as director, he purged the group of any connections with the Contactees. Nevertheless, Clara continued to report on Don Keyhoe and NICAP’s crusade and urged readers to support it. 

 

Controversies and Exposures

It went largely ignored for years, but Flying Saucers Have Landed included George Adamski’s recognition of a key contributor: 

“With grateful thanks I acknowledge the sincere co-operation and untiring efforts of those who have helped me make this book possible. And without the editing and helpful encouragement of C.L.J. this book in its present form and at this time would have been impossible.”

Lonzo Dove was skeptical of Adamski and quoted correspondence that revealed Clara’s role in his book, and he also found material that suggested Adamski had hoaxed UFO photographs to just for the book. Uranus Dec. 1956, Vol 03 No 3, “Adamski - The Last Nail?” quotes her Jan. 23, 1953, letter to Dove, where Clara said while working on the manuscript: "Things are all mixed up, publicity not handled right, pathetic and his [Adamski] story is too prosaic, not put together right. Please don't mention my name in any of this."

Leave it Jim Moseley. Clara was “outed” by name in his Saucer News Feb-March 1957.

The scandal continued in Lonzo Dove’s “Open Letter to George Adamski’s ‘C.L.J.’ in Saucer News April/May 1957. Working from Dove’s evidence, Adamski Critic David Wightman, implicated Clara in "The Adamski Photographs, Where And How?" in  Flying Saucer Review. 6:3 May-June 1960.

Clara did not seem to respond publicly, but maybe this was her indirect response from LLP Aug-Oct. 1958:

“Within the ranks war continues between those who accept the contact stories and those who don't. Dif[ferences] of opinion O.K. but in a subject as big.as this one it is SMART to keep openminded. Also POLITE. YOU ARE DEALING WITH A MYSTERY. A SITUATION FOR WHICH THERE IS NO PRECEDENT! “Judge not!" IT IS A SERIOUS THING TO BRAND ANOTHER AS CROOKED, or A FAKE.”

Clara was branded as a fake to the FBI. Page 21 of the FBI file on Otis T. Carr contains a letter from sent to them by Dan B. Haber, and he enclosed an ad 1958 from a 1958 LLP announcing the publication of Margaret Storm’s (Contactee biography of Nikola Tesla) Return of the Dove. Haber’s handwritten notation on it stated: “This page was written by Clara Johns… [who] wrote George Adamski’s first book, ‘Flying Saucers have Landed!’ She seems to be the center of much fiction that is branded as fact.”  

If the FBI had come after Carla, she would have thought it was part of the government’s saucer silencing policy, a crime against the Cosmos! In LLP Jan-March 1959, she said that for their saucer cover-up, someday the Air Force would face a reckoning!

 

The 1960s and the Final Issue

Clara was eternally cheerful and optimistic about what tomorrow’s promise for the saucer scene. In LLP Mar./Apr./May 1963:

*SAUCER FRONT: U.S.A.F. trying doggedly to sink the Saucers, but public won't be hoodwinked! NICAP official tells LLP that interest in UFO's is now at an all-time high; a great expectancy is felt across the land----"people are waiting for SOMETHING!"….. O'er the ramparts we watch, the Saucers still zoom….”

However, after ten years, the Contactee era was on its way out. While the notion had been popular, it just wasn’t taken seriously by many for very long.

Nevertheless, Clara continued to zealously believe, and sometimes to preach, as in LLP Jan/Feb 1964:

“In our skies are VISITORS… today, most of the world is blind to the glorious ‘GOSPEL’ - - the ‘Good News’ - - being WRITTEN OUT BEFORE THEIR EYES by swift, shining, unearthly ‘messengers’ world-over in our skies.”

The Little Listening Post continued publication until 1965. The May/June/July issue announced the death of George Adamski, and the following Aug./Sept./Oct. issue was its last. On January 29, 1968, Clara died at the age of 79. She was buried next to Walton in Glenwood Cemetery, Washington, D.C.  

Flying Saucers International, March 1968.

Clara John was a pioneering woman in the UFO field, a well-connected advocate who published an influential periodical, and helped create one of the most respected saucer organizations of all time. Her work forged the UFO topic into what it is today, and she deserves to be remembered for that. 

. . .