Desmond Leslie, George Adamski, and Ancient Aliens

George Adamski and Desmond Leslie, authors of Flying Saucers Have Landed, 1953.

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George Adamski had a series of UFO sightings, but became a major flying saucer celebrity after the release of his 1953 book, Flying Saucers Have Landed, where he told the story of encountering and communicating with Orthon, the pilot of a landed extraterrestrial spaceship. Better still, he had an abundance of evidence: multiple witnesses, physical traces and photographs! He later took movies of the saucer and continued to have contact and adventures with the visitors from space and share their message of peace and love with the people of Earth. 

(For the story on how Adamski's claims were challenged, see 

Saucer News Presents: The George Adamski Exposé

Orthon's spaceship, as photographed by George Adamski.

Desmond Leslie

Desmond Leslie's contribution is all but forgotten, but he was the primary author of the book. Adamski's section was added since it was a sensational new case, and it helped propel sales to the international bestseller status. Leslie's text examine old texts to find evidence of UFOs throughout history. 

A contemporary review of Flying Saucers Have Landed by P. Schuyler Miller adds some valuable insight:

"...the Leslie-Adamski book merits serious consideration by saucer students only in so far as Desmond Leslie, a British occultist, extends the documentation of saucers and saucerlike phenomena through obscure sources and into ancient times. Drawing on the works of Madame Blavatsky, Ouspensky, James Churchward, Ignatius Donnelly, Annie Besant, C. W. Leadbeater, A. P. Sinnelt, ‘The Tibetan’ and other occultists...

Fanatics of the Leslie - Adamski school need no physical explanation for flying saucers, since by definition unexplained phenomena belong in the realm of the occult, and the occult ‘explains’ all things.”      Astounding Science Fiction April 1954

More recently, UFO historian Jerome Clark wrote about Leslie's lasting influence:

"In his section of 'Flying Saucers Have Landed' (1953), Irish occultist Desmond Leslie drew on esoteric lore (including James Churchward’s literary-hoax 'history' of the lost continent Mu), Celtic legends, pyramidology, and Eastern holy works...
If Leslie’s speculations owe more to occultism, science fiction, and crankish sensibility than to history as ordinarily understood, their echoes would resound through the 1950s and beyond, first in the saucerian ruminations of George Hunt Williamson, M. K. Jessup, Brinsley le Poer Trench, and W. Raymond Drake, then in the 'ancient astronauts' genre inspired by Jacques Bergier, Louis Pauwels, Robert Charroux, and most prominently, Erich von Daniken." 

From "A Brief History of UFO History" http://sohp.us/Sign-Historical-Group-Workshop-Proceedings.pdf

Although many today are unaware of the source, both Desmond Leslie and George Adamski laid the foundation for what ufology is today. They deserve to be remembered for all they've done.

Unlike many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book does have files on George Adamski's stories.
Project Blue Book: Mt. Palomar, CA, 25 Nov 1949 

Multiple Witness UFO Sighting: Tucson Sept. 3, 1952.

Frame from AF film, Operation Moby Dick, 01/1952

Dateline: Tuscon Arizona, September 3, 1952.

A UFO appeared high over the city, a hovering, silvery reflective object seen by multiple witnesses, and was reported on live over a radio broadcast. This story is notable for the testimony by a "trained observer," USAF pilot instructor Don McCraven who described the UFO's phenomenal flight, speed and maneuvers in detail.

Tucson Daily Citizen, September 3, 1952.

May Appear as "Flying Saucers" 

1951 DoD photo.

On 11 October 1951, the Department of Defense sent out an official press photo on the 

USAF research project "Moby Dick,"stating that: 

The 50 to 110 diameter balloons will drift over the United States and altitudes of 10 to 20 miles for the purpose of transmitting data concerning the high altitude winds and will be clearly visible at 100,000 feet above the earth during clear days. The transmitter suspended 100 feet below the balloon will send out signals to direction-finding stations. The Air Force has warned that the "Moby Dick" balloons may appear as "flying saucers" during the early and late hours of the day because of the sun reflecting from the transparent coverings. Persons finding collapsed balloons will receive a reward for the return of the radio unit.

Weather balloons? It was a cover story. The Moby Dick project was being developed for a Cold War surveillance program. For more details, see The Cold War’s Classified Skyhook Program: A Participant’s Revelations by B.D. Gildenberg

As with so many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book has no file on this incident.

UFO Burns Witness: Amarillo, Texas, April 8, 1950

Welcome to The Saucers That Time Forgot, where we focus on the cases that UFO historians either missed, or would like to keep buried. Your hosts are Curt Collins and Claude Falkstrom, and our first case is from Amarillo, Texas, 1950, about a boy who made contact with a flying saucer:

The first report of a UFO burning a witness seems to be this April 8. 1950 CE2 case from Amarillo, Texas. According to the story, David Lightfoot, age 12, and his brother Charles age 9, saw an object land behind a hill, and they were able to walk up to it. David reached out: "My fingers just barely touched it and it felt slick, sorta like a snake would. It was hot, too." It sped off toward northeast, and after the encounter, David's face and arms became red with welts.

Amarillo Sunday News Globe, April 9, 1950.

The Unbeliever

The man who told the world that Flying Saucers are real did not want to believe. In Flying Saucers from Outer Space, while discussing the Sonny Desvergers 1952 Florida Scoutmaster case, Major Donald Keyhoe noted: 

"However, there had been one other case where a saucer was said to have burned an observer. Two boys at Amarillo, Texas, had reported seeing a small disc land near them, its top section still spinning. When one boy touched it, the rotating part speeded up, throwing off a hot gas or spray. Then the disc took off with a whistling sound and quickly disappeared.

To back up this incredible story, the boy displayed some odd red spots on his face and arms. Later I was told that Intelligence had made no investigation; apparently they believed the story had been made up to cover some childish prank which had caused the burns. It sounded like a logical answer." 

As with so many of the most interesting UFO cases featured here at The Saucers That Time Forgot, Project Blue Book has no file on this incident.