Joe Simonton recounts his 1961 Wisconsin encounter where three-foot-tall beings in black suits exchanged water for four buckwheat pancakes, a physical artifact analyzed by the FDA and chemist Alexander Mabane. Despite NICAP's skepticism and Project Blue Book's dismissal of the event as a hallucination influenced by Judge Carter, isotopic tests revealed no extraterrestrial anomalies, yet the case remains unique for offering tangible food evidence rather than biological samples. Ultimately, this episode highlights the tension between sensational contactee claims and rigorous scientific scrutiny, leaving the symbolic nature of the exchange open to interpretation. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, Qwen/Qwen3-ForcedAligner-0.6B, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Joe Simonton's Alien Pancakes00:03:29
April 18th, 1961.
Joe Simonton, a 54 year old plumber and chicken farmer, is having breakfast when all of a sudden, in his backyard, a giant flying saucer descends from above, hovering about a foot over the ground.
Curious to see who it was, Joe makes his way outside to notice that a hatch is already open.
A small human like figure hands Joe a jug and signing to him to fill it up with water.
After filling it up and returning it to the visitor, He is then handed possibly the strangest and most bizarre piece of physical evidence ever recorded in UFO history a pancake.
This is the story of Joe Simonton.
I live in northeastern Arizona, east of Snowflake.
And in 1993, I was hiking on 60 acres.
My son and I had just gotten.
And there was a spaceship, and I communicated with the beings on the ship.
They told me they'd be back in 30 years.
And in 2023, I wasn't even thinking about it, but there was a voice.
It's been 30 years.
And I've been communicating with them ever since.
The last time was last night.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Debriefed.
My name is Chris Ramsey.
And today, we're going to be taking a look at one of the most bizarre, unexplainable, And completely strange encounters in history.
This is the story of Joe Simonton.
Before we dive deep into this case, and diving deep, we will, as our research team over at Area 52 went well above and beyond to find not only a lot of the evidence that was presented back in 1961, but a lot of the corroborating sightings that happened in that area around the exact same time.
And you'll want to stick around because we actually made these famous pancakes.
All that coming up.
But before we get into any of that, I just want to say that our out of body merch is currently still available.
These go fast.
We've, I think, in the first day, half of the stock was gone.
So I'm not even sure if by the time I'm recording this, that any of it will be available.
But do check it out area52.shop.
Plus, we got all the MJ12 stuff.
Got a whole bunch of stuff going on over there if you want to check it out.
And, folks, we.
Just paid the bills.
Like this video, subscribe, hit the notification bell.
It is time to get into one of the wackiest, zaniest, dare I say, strangest cases in all of UFO history.
This is the case of Joe Simonton and his alien pancakes.
In here, we've got newspaper clippings, we've got reports from Project Blue Book, we've got reports from NICAP, we've got judges demanding.
The samples of the evidence.
We've got the Air Force actually doing a deep analysis on these pancakes or cookies.
We've got witness testimonies.
This is actually a really, really fascinating case.
And most people only know about the surface level stuff.
The Strangest UFO Case Ever00:02:05
But to give you an idea about what this case is, April 18th, 1961, the landing.
So, Joe Simonton, a chicken farmer and a plumber, had just finished a late breakfast when he heard a rushing.
Whirring noise, like knobby tires on wet pavement.
Stepping outside, he watched a brilliant metallic disc drop vertically and hover a few feet above his driveway.
The craft stood roughly 12 feet high and 30 feet across, brighter than chrome.
No windows were visible.
The air hummed like a big electric motor.
Inside the hatch, the color was black, like wrought iron.
Control boards, about two feet high and four feet long, line the wall.
Belts or cables clipped at each man's waist.
Three occupants, five feet tall, about 120 pounds, wore black two piece suits with turtleneck tops, snug caps down to the eyebrows, no buttons, zippers, or visible shoes.
Their complexions were dark, and Simonton thought they looked Italian, mid 20s to early 30s.
Oh, folks, it gets stranger yet.
One handed a silvery two handled jug and motioned for water.
Simonton filled it.
At his basement pump.
He's quoted here.
I handed the water up to the man.
As he took it, I balanced my left hand on the side of the saucer.
No burn, no radioactivity.
Then I stepped back.
The man gave me a salute with the back of his hand, and I returned our salute.
Simonton gestured toward a second figure, cooking on a flameless square griddle.
The being passed him four hot, perforated cakes.
Simonton tasted one immediately and is quoted saying it tasted exactly like cardboard.
The hatch sealed so smoothly, you couldn't see where it had been.
Water Poured Into Saucer Hatch00:10:36
The disc rose 20 feet, tilted south at 45 degrees, and shot away in about two seconds, the blast bending pine treetops.
This is the broad strokes of the encounter.
We're going to get into Simonton's actual witness testimony, as well as what I find most intriguing is all of the follow up to this case.
Folks, I just wanted to interject and take a second to thank David Marler from the UFO National Archive in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I reached out to David because in the files that are available online, namely the KUFOS file, which is the organization made by J. Allen Hynek, but also the NICAP and APRO files, nowhere to be found are the drawings that Joe Simonton himself made.
Two drawings are missing from those files it is the drawing of the craft that he himself drew out, and the drawing of the jug handed to him by this extraterrestrial being.
So, David Marlar was not only nice enough to send me a picture of each of them, which I have here, and you're seeing this for the first time on the internet.
That is the jug that he drew, which is a little strange.
And this is the UFO that he drew.
But David also sent us a picture of the actual pancake.
You might be looking at an actual extraterrestrial pancake held by David Marlar.
So, thank you so much to David.
And I'll leave the link to the UFO archive below.
Also, folks, I have taken the time to actually cook up according to the deep analysis and research of what these pancakes were made of.
I actually took the time to make some of them.
They do smell like cardboard.
Stay tuned to the end of the video.
I'm actually going to try one of these.
And if you want to see me actually make these, I'll be uploading a behind the scenes video on Sunday for the members.
Check that out.
All right, back to the video.
A few things that are really interesting that we should note here.
The rushing, whirring noise, like knobby tires on wet pavement.
This is not uncommon when looking into different cases around the same time.
There was the Staffordshire witness who said that she had heard this sound, what sounded like water being poured out, like hot water being poured out.
I heard this terrific noise.
It was just like a.
Giant cauldron of water being poured onto a fire, a sort of noise, you know.
So maybe this is the sound of the craft sort of, I don't know, phasing in or something.
Also interesting and maybe not even related, but many people who've had out of body experiences say they hear this loud wave crashing or whooshing sound during the out of body experience.
So is he potentially experiencing some inner dimensional phenomenon that happens to make this sound when?
Interacting with it.
I don't know.
I don't know.
We're just throwing it out there.
The next thing I want to talk about is the hatch.
The hatch closed, and he's quoted as saying, You couldn't see where it had been.
I could give you a list of probably 100 witnesses that say the same thing.
If we look at recently, we talked about Antonio Villas Boas.
This gentleman in 1957 got picked up by a bunch of little beings, and he said the same thing.
Aside from the color of the craft, which is like wrought iron, something akin to what Bob Lazar describes.
As a pewter color of the craft, I thought was very interesting.
And finally, the craft rose in the air, tilted at a 45 degree angle before shooting off.
This is extremely common.
And this thing, the size of a Prius, blacker than black, reared up 45 degrees and then shot up into the sky faster than anything you'd ever seen.
In so many cases, including the craft mentioned by Bob Lazar, that somehow with the emitters and the amplifiers, The craft has to sort of tilt before it goes into this really fast mode.
There are three amplifiers.
The way in which it's propelled are two different ways.
There's what they call Omicron configuration, where the craft is using one generator, or a Delta configuration, where it's utilizing all three.
Delta configuration would be for space travel.
Essentially, the craft will tilt up on its side, as opposed to a science fiction movie where you see a flying saucer moving around.
The craft will tilt up on its side, focus the three gravity generators to a single point, and move through space that way.
We also are reminded of Westall, the sighting at Westall, where the craft, as well, there's this famous Polaroid that I'll pull up here, where the craft went to its side before taking off.
So, are these craft all using the same technology?
Are they all built at the same factory?
Is this just something that you need to do to travel really fast?
I don't know, but it's interesting.
And not to mention the gimbal footage.
This seems also like something we witnessed in 2017 when that footage was released, that the craft looked like it stopped and then started tilting on its axis.
So, immediately we're looking at things that seem to corroborate future sightings, or at least that act as a genesis to all the other reports.
Now, most people stop there when it comes to Joe Simonton.
They think, well, this guy's clearly gone mad.
He's clearly gone insane.
We'll save that for a bit later because very reputable, credible, and trustworthy people will actually vouch for Joe Simonton's mental health.
And the fact that he is a stand up person and really a pillar in the community.
He's not someone who is known to exaggerate, lie, or make things up.
And the fact that he really didn't profit from any of this, I think, should also be noted.
So during the same hour, Savino Borgo, driving Highway 70 about a mile west, saw a metallic disc lift diagonally and fly parallel to the road, silent, shiny, and gone in moments.
Here is his testimony in the Milwaukee Sentinel, April 28, 1961.
Savino Borgo, about 50, Eagle River insurance agent and scoutmaster, said he had seen the saucer while driving on Highway 70 about a mile from Simonton's home.
He said it rose diagonally and flew west, generally parallel to Highway 70, about the time that Simonton said he saw it.
Jack Long, who runs a market near Boulder Junction, and Gibb Sanborn, Wisconsin State Employment Service Office Manager at Eagle River, both told of recently sighting saucers.
And then Simonton goes on to say that he had received a bale of letters from people, particularly in the Fort Atkinson area, who said they had seen flying saucers, but had not had the courage to report their findings in the face of ridicule they expected.
So, that, my friends, is an incredibly interesting little piece of corroborative evidence that I think many people omit to this story.
That in the same hour, the same craft described by Simonton was seen in that general vicinity, also flying diagonally in the same direction.
But then, sometime between April 18th, the landing, and April 21st, Joe Simonton brought a single pancake to County Judge Frank W. Carter.
On April 21st, Carter forwarded that specimen to NICAP in Washington for laboratory analysis.
And NICAP is actually pretty interesting.
So, it's one of the most prominent civilian UFO research organizations in the United States, especially during the 50s and the 60s.
This was founded in 1956 by none other than Thomas Townsend Brown.
I think I hear Jesse Michaels' ears burning from here.
It later came under the leadership of retired Marine Major Donald E. Kehoe.
Who became the most public face of the organization?
NICAP stands for National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon.
It should also be noted that NICAP helped fund the Condon Committee, which went on from 66 to 68, which was like a government funded organization to see if there was a there there regarding UFOs.
And then, you know, the famous Condon report came out saying that no, nothing's going on, nothing to see here, folks.
Move it along.
There was also another sighting on April 18th.
1961, and this is the report given to NICAP at the time.
This is from Mrs. Paul Cooper and Daughters.
So, this is the report that you would have to fill out.
This is Mrs. Paul Cooper.
So, I'm guessing Paul Cooper's wife, occupation, housewife.
They give the address here, the telephone number, and the date of observation being April 18th, 1961.
Within the same area, how long did you see the object?
Three to five minutes.
The weather conditions, it was dusk.
Position of the sun or moon, we were east.
The object was traveling north and sighted in the west.
She describes it as seemingly revolving, which is interesting.
The object also seemed to be brighter than the background of the sky.
It wasn't standing still, but it might have been giving off smoke.
Okay, so did she see an airplane?
Did she see a possible UFO crash?
Who knows?
She said the object was sharply outlined and looked like a bright star.
It looked, it was perhaps self luminous and perhaps reflecting.
She said it had a curved, bright streak, curved as a comet might be if orbiting.
She says it seemed to me like something traveling across the sky in a sort of orbit.
And the reason she reported this is because she read in the newspaper later on of Joe Simonton's report and then remembered what she saw, and that's why she wanted to.
Curved Comet Trail Witnessed00:05:53
Submit this retroactively.
But alas, we don't have a solid description of an object.
It seemed like a defined object that was rotating, that was emitting a light, but also had some type of trail that was curved.
Who knows what she was seeing?
Was that the same object?
It happened to be on the same day, which I think is interesting and definitely worth mentioning.
So, following this, on April 19th, somewhere between April 19th and April 21, we don't exactly know because there isn't any.
Real evidence here or any paper trail, but Joe hands over the pancakes to County Judge Frank W. Carter.
And then on April 21st, Carter forwarded that specimen to NICAP in Washington for laboratory analysis.
Carter saying, Today I forward you a cake alleged to have been taken from a UFO that landed on Mr. Joseph Simonton's farm.
Kindly arrange scientific analysis and advise whether similar specimens have ever been reported.
Now, between April 21 and April 22, this is where things begin to get a little complex.
Because this is when the story hits the wires.
Meanwhile, the pancakes are sent off to being tested, and this will all in a second alert the Air Force.
But before we get there, let's look at these articles.
Got Cakes from Saucer Men is a claim of Joe Simonton.
This is from the Three Lakes News.
The alleged landing and contact between three men in a flying saucer and Joe Simonton, 54 year old Eagle River plumber, has rocketed to first statewide and then nationwide attention since it broke to the public shortly after.
Noon Saturday.
Simonton claims he received several small pancake shaped pieces of food from visitors from outer space.
He turned over one of the cakes, about three inches in diameter, and perforated with many little small holes to Judge Frank Carter, who said he sent them to the Washington, D.C., organization investigating unidentified flying objects.
The National Press Services became interested in the story, picked it up, and received confirmation from Washington that the cakes had been received.
But a lab report based on an analysis of the cakes would be unavailable.
Until Friday, April 28th, or as late as Monday of next week.
Meanwhile, the story simmers, and the question rages what is behind the incredible report from Joe Simonton?
The claimed landing of the flying saucer was said to have occurred about 11 a.m. on Tuesday, April 18th, but Simonton said he was reluctant to spread the word, realizing some would claim his experience was preposterous.
He said he was attracted to his yard when he heard a noise outside and the saucer gleaming silver.
Brighter than chrome had landed in his yard.
He said about 12 feet from top to bottom and about 30 feet in diameter.
Simonton said the hatch opened about five feet from the ground and he could see three men in the machine.
He said one of the men, dressed in a black two piece suit, held up a jug which appeared to be of the same material as the spaceship.
Oh, that's interesting.
That's something I didn't know.
And motioned to indicate he would like water.
Simonton said he took the jug, hurried to the house to comply, and brought it back to the men.
He judged they were about five feet in height and weighed about 125 pounds.
He said they were smooth shaved and appeared to resemble those of Italian descent.
He does not recall hearing them speak to each other or to him.
Simonton said he looked into the interior of the spaceship and said it was the color of black wrought iron.
He said he could see several instrument panels and he could hear a slow whining sound like the hum of a generator.
It appeared one of the men in the ship was frying food on a flameless grill, and Simonton said he motioned to indicate an interest in their food.
He said one of them, dressed in black, But with a narrow red trim along the trouser, he handed him three of the small cakes, which he has shown to authorities in Eagle River, which he apparently also ate.
He ate one, which is insane.
That's an insane thing to do.
You know, we're told at a young age not to take candies from a stranger, but I have yet to be told not to eat pancakes from an alien.
So, this is something interesting that I didn't know before either.
He recalls along the edge of the saucer, he noted exhaust pipes about six or seven inches in diameter.
Now, the rest of the articles echo roughly the same story.
It said that this story was told to attorney Calvin A. Burton of Vilas County, and that Burton eventually said that Simonton.
Sounded sincere.
Now, how sincere did Simon sound?
Well, here's an interview of Simonton talking about the interaction.
Have a look.
Right here is where this flying saucer, this UFO, landed.
Right here, about where I'm standing.
And it was a big, huge thing, and I wondered what the heck it was.
I was in my kitchen having a bite of lunch, and I turned around, put the dishes in the sink and I looked out the window and that's when I first saw this thing coming straight down just like an elevator, and first I thought the roof went off of my house and I thought, no, the roof is green and this is bright.
Penetrating Eyes And Hot Cakes00:03:32
What the heck is it?
So I rushed out to see what it was and by that time there was a hatchway opening up in the top of it, just like the trunk of your car, and in there there stood a little man I say a little man, about five foot tall, holding up a jug or a container, And he motioned, he wanted to drink.
He motioned for water.
So I walked up to him to get this jug, and I looked at his eyes, and they were so penetrating that I had to look away.
So I went to the basement to get this water, and I thought, well, they want water, so I'll take it up to them and see what happens.
And with that, I brought the water up, and he was looking at me when I first came out of the basement, but I didn't look at his face until I got right up to him.
Then I looked up, and I handed the jug up with both hands.
And I had that same look in his eyes, a sort of a penetrating look.
And when he took the water, I balanced myself with this hand against the machine, and I stepped back a few steps.
And then with that, he set the jug down, and he gave me a salute with the back of his hand, a gesture of thanks, I presume.
And then, well, I gave him my salute.
What am I going to do?
I noticed this little man, the same size of a man, right to the side, the right side of the hatchway, cooking these pancakes, which I have one here yet.
He was frying these pancakes, and I pointed to him and made a gesture like eating.
I thought maybe I'd get a conversation out of them.
Nobody was saying anything.
But he didn't say a word.
He just reached over and he got a handful of them, four of them, and he handed them down to me, and they were hot.
And it was greasy, and this man cooking these pancakes, it was on a square grill like concern.
I couldn't see any flame, but it seemed to be very hot.
There was smoke coming from it.
And if that was their food, God help them, because I took a bite of one of them and it tasted like a piece of cardboard.
And if that's what they lived on, no wonder they're small.
And with that, he reached up and he closed his hatch with a heavy thud click like it latched.
And you couldn't a bit more see where that hatch was than you could see a hole in my hand.
And with that, the thing started to raise just like it came down.
Everything was time perfect.
It went up about 20 feet, it tilted a 45 degree straight south and shot off.
And within two or three seconds, it was out of sight.
Well, there I stood in the driveway with a handful of greasy pancakes, my mouth open, wondering what the heck I saw, what had happened.
Interesting to hear him describe the jug that looked like a trophy of some kind, like one of those.
Generic trophies.
And also that he wasn't afraid.
He says there was nothing to be afraid of, that he was a deputy sheriff and he lives right and he doesn't get scared.
Here's where it gets interesting.
He says, So I walked up to him to get this jug and I looked at his eyes.
They were so penetrating that I had to look away.
When I brought the water up, he was looking at me when I came out of the basement.
I didn't look at his face until I got right up to him.
Then I looked up and handed the jug with both hands.
Press Chomping At The Bit00:06:23
He had some sort of penetrating look in his eyes.
So, the interesting thing here is the penetrating look in his eyes.
You know, he goes from saying that he wasn't scared, he's not scared of anything, to I couldn't look this guy in the eye because it was so penetrating.
Maybe just like so many other cases of extraterrestrial encounters, the eyes play a big factor in how telepathy is used.
We often hear of the grays interacting with certain experiencers or abductees, and they say that when they look in the eyes, they're kind of locked in and fixed in and sort of hypnotized, even.
Dan Barish says that the eyes are used to sort of help the pumping or flowing of endorphins into your own body, and it feels like you're falling into them.
So it looked like a large pupil, basically.
When you look into his eyes, you feel like you're going to fall into his eyes forever.
And I think that probably had something to do with the telepathic nature of his mental structure.
So maybe there is something universal among all these species in which you need eye contact in order for communication to happen.
And since Joe wasn't going to let that happen, he instead opted for sign language, which seemed to work out in his favor, anyways.
And he does describe them as Italian.
So I think it's fun that they talk with their hands.
Stranger and stranger, this story.
So this story hits the news.
It goes nationwide, it goes bananas.
Meanwhile, Judge Carter took the pancakes and sent them out for analysis to NICAP.
Now, NICAP has to do damage control.
They have a reputation to maintain.
So they had to put out some of the fires during this time.
The press was also clawing and chomping at the bit because people were really interested about this story.
This was just a fascinating, different take.
You know, this is a really prominent time for UFO sightings and alien encounters, but this one, you know, kind of takes the cake, no pun intended.
So, among all of the press's interests, here's just a list of telephone notes from Bob Shogun, the writer of Newsweek, who called.
You had news director from WIKB in Iron City, Bud Meyer from Minneapolis, KSTP, George Popowicz from Akron.
And these are all different press organizations that were trying to get the results at the time.
Meanwhile, Professor Charles Maney, who was a prominent UFO researcher and physicist at the time, he also served as president of the Borderland Sciences Research Association, or BSRA, which was a group that studied fringe sciences and metaphysics and other unexplained phenomena at the time.
But he was a board member of NICAP.
So one pancake goes to local authorities, which ends up eventually going to the Air Force.
One was consumed by Joe, and the other was sent to Charles Maney.
Maney of NICAP and BSRA.
So, Charles Maney, who is going to be testing this, gets orders from NICAP to literally get rid of this thing.
This thing is causing us a nightmare.
The press is making a mockery of this.
And, you know, we're trying to do some serious work here.
We're not trying to, you know, become some ridiculous organization that tests intergalactic pancakes.
NICAP urges Charles Maney to write a letter and send the sample to the FDA.
The Food and Drug Administration.
Dear Charles, the enclosed artifact is allegedly an extraterrestrial pancake.
What next?
The minute I read the cover letter, I knew this story would be an ideal setup for the news wires, who just love to carry the most ridiculous of contactee stories.
My fears were justified because within an hour, UPI was on the phone.
Their Chicago bureau had notified them that the pancake had been sent to us for analysis, and they wanted our reaction.
I told them NICAP was highly skeptical.
To the nature of the report, but that we would make an attempt to analyze it and check up on the report.
I emphasize that our case rested on serious reports from many competent observers.
It remains to be seen what kind of publicity will result.
Needless to say, we want no publicity based on such a case unless and until we are able to state something concrete about the artifact and the originator of the report.
Unfortunately, we have no subcommittee in the Eagle River area.
And the nature of the report gave me pause in regard to who might analyze the substance.
Perhaps it would be better to ignore the case, but we want to be objective, and the claim apparently is made in all seriousness.
Could you or Professor Meltz analyze it privately for us?
UPI also expressed an interest in knowing the results of our investigation, which creates another touchy problem.
If we tell them anything at all, we could do so without mentioning any names.
As mentioned here, the UPI, being the press organization, I guess, is just nonstop hammering these guys, being like, hey, what's going on with their pancake?
So that is April 25th.
Okay.
But now, folks, here's where the government gets involved.
You see, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, renowned astrophysicist and Project Blue Book consultant, is called in to see if he can substantiate this case or to see if these claims are at all.
Verifiable.
So Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Major Robert Friend interviewed Simonton on site, photographed the driveway, collected soil and vegetation, and requested the pancake sample from NICAP for government testing.
We shall get into Dr. J. Allen Hynek's lengthy report a little bit later as it really puts a nice ribbon on all of this.
But prior to that, Dr. J. Allen Hynek also visits the Lorbetsky farm on April 27th.
Hynek Investigates The Incident00:15:30
So, Brent Lorbetsky, Tom Hunt, Mrs. Lorbetsky, and Adrian Lorbetsky were all witnesses.
This is from J. Allen Hynek.
We are at the Tony Lorbetsky Farm residence about 12 miles east of Eagle River, where another saucer sighting was reported.
Thursday, April 27th.
The first person to witness the second sighting is Tom Hunt.
Is that correct?
Yes, sir.
And how old are you?
17, sir.
Can you tell us what you saw?
At first, I didn't realize it was a flying saucer or an unidentified object.
I thought it was a plane.
I was just.
Looking at the moon.
And what time of day was this?
This was about 25 or 20 till 7.
And I noticed it had a funny shape to it.
Was that during the evening?
Yes, during the evening.
And I told Brent, and he looked.
He didn't believe me at first, and he wasn't going to look.
I told him to look.
I jumped out of the car to look, and he looked too.
Then he ran into the house and told his mother and brother and sister.
When Tom reported this sighting to you, Brent, what was your first reaction?
Well, we were sitting in the car at first, and when he first said, Brent, You want to see a flying saucer?
And I said, You're crazy.
And he says, I ain't kidding you, Brent.
I jumped out of the car and looked, and sure enough, I couldn't believe my own eyes.
But there it was, right before me.
Can you describe what it looked like?
Oh, it was a big, discular object, probably between 40 and 50 feet in diameter, and around 15 feet high, I would say.
And it was like if you would put two pie plates together.
That is roughly what it looked like.
It had more of a rounded top.
What direction did it seem to be flying in?
Well, it was flying north to south.
Can you tell me how high it was?
Any way of estimating that?
Oh, I would say probably 4,000 or 5,000 feet high.
Are you familiar with other types of flying objects, helicopters, satellites?
You've seen all of these in the air before.
Yes, I have seen them.
And this object definitely was not an object of this type.
No, it wasn't, sir.
What did you do then after you and Tom had gotten out of the car and were watching this object?
Then you called your family out, is that correct?
That is true.
We watched it for a short period of time, and I ran into the house and said, Ma, you want to see a flying saucer?
She just sort of snickered at me.
She thought I was joking.
I says, I'm not kidding, Ma.
I says, Come to the window.
She came over by the window and looked out, and she agreed.
Well, was it a joke, Mrs. Lorbetsky?
No, it wasn't a joke.
I saw it in the sky just as plain as the boys described it.
Could you describe it in your own words for us?
Well, in my own words, I would say that it was.
The first words I said were that it was as Joe Symington.
Had seen it in Eagle River.
He is the plumber in Eagle River who reported that he even visited with the inhabitants of the saucer.
That is right.
Are you familiar with Joe Symington?
Have you known him before?
No, I've never known him.
I see.
When Joe first reported that he had seen a flying saucer, that he had talked with the inhabitants, what was your reaction when you heard that story?
Well, I didn't believe it.
How about now?
Well, I believe it more so, yes, of course.
When did you see this flying object, Adrian?
I was just in the house and Brent came in and told us to look out of the window.
It was maybe 20 till 7 when I looked out the window.
And what did you see?
Well, it seemed to me just like the guy in Eagle River described it like two bowls or pie plates put together.
It seemed to me the same on top as it was on the bottom.
Could you tell how fast it was going?
How long did you sight it in the sky?
Well, I saw it for maybe two or three minutes, that's all.
Brent, have any military authorities or governmental agencies questioned you about this sighting?
No, they haven't.
There has been no attempt made to get in touch with you?
No, sir.
Are any of you people familiar with Judge Carter, the judge in Eagle River?
Tom, how well do you know him?
Have you ever heard him speak on the subject of flying saucers?
No.
I have never heard him speak on the subject of flying saucers.
I understand there is an agency or a society within Eagle River which concerns itself with the study of unidentified flying objects.
Are any of you people familiar with this organization or members of it, perhaps?
No, we aren't.
So that was the Lorbetsky's farmland in Eagle River just 10 days after.
Another piece of corroborating evidence.
The plot, folks, thickens.
Now we fast forward a few weeks.
This is on April 27th.
And remember, we will eventually get to Dr. J. Allen Hynek's report, and I'll save that for a little bit later.
Right after this testimony, we have a letter on April 29th.
From again, Charles Maney in the Department of Physics in Ohio, writing yet another letter to the FDA.
And he's saying here since Professor Meltz, who is the person who should have taken the sample, is in the hospital and cannot possibly be in a position to return to the laboratory for some time, I am regrettably returning to you all of this material on the Eagle River case.
He says there is a remote possibility that this case is genuine.
And that the cake could be divided into two or three parts for analysis.
He also says that it appears to be getting moldy rather rapidly within the last few hours.
We now have a letter on May 2nd from Major Kehoe at NICAP to Alexander Mabane.
Alexander is the chemist who will take care of the analysis of a portion of the pancake.
Major Kehoe says Dear Lex encloses one slightly moldy extraterrestrial pancake.
So, what else is new?
I recommend immediate refrigeration of the artifact before reading further.
In case you have not heard of this contactee case, I'm enclosing the original letter from Judge Carter and the Newswire story.
We sent the pancake to Professor Maney, hoping Professor Meltz could analyze it, but Meltz has been hospitalized and Professor Maney suggested you.
Can you do anything with it?
Any analysis you could conduct discreetly would be appreciated.
This case has caused a furor for the following reasons Simonton is well known in the community, and local people believe him.
He is backed by Judge Carter.
Hynek flew up at the request of ATIC and interviewed Simonton.
Other sightings in the area.
Within a few days, two Air Force B 47s crashed in the area after reporting strange balls of fire.
At first, we were saying that since the analysis was requested, we would do it, but we dissociated ourselves from the contactees and expressed strong skepticism due to the past record of similar cases.
Then AP, UPI, Newsweek, etc. started clamoring for information and the analysis report.
Now we are saying that the incident is receiving attention all out of proportion.
To its importance, that our case rests on well substantiated reports of an altogether different type, and that very likely we will have nothing further to say on the matter, even though we will accumulate information on the case as time permits.
So, this cake is being bounced around.
It is being handed person to person, department to department.
It is constantly with the mail carrier.
But right now, we fast forward to the 8th of May because now we have Carter's second letter.
To NICAP.
This is from Frank W. Carter at the county judge at Eagle River in Wisconsin.
And this is a letter to Major Donald E. Kehoe, director of NICAP in Washington.
Dear sir, regarding Joe Simonton sightings, Tuesday, April 18th, 1961.
On Friday, April 21st, 1961, I mailed you a letter in reference to an alleged sighting of a UFO here on the Joe Simonton property four miles west of Eagle River, Wisconsin, and also included therein one of the alleged Pancakes that said Simonton claimed he received from three five foot men or occupants of said space machine.
I mailed it to you for analysis.
I have had no acknowledgement of the contents as yet.
The metropolitan newspapers all over the country in the Midwest, as well as TV stations, are stating definitely that you were returning the cake unanalyzed.
Is this true?
In one way, I wouldn't blame you because the publicity this case has aroused has made me tired of answering phones, letters, etc.
One day, alone, I had six different metropolitan newspapers telephone me and take time answering their many questions.
And TV stations have come here, as well as UFO fans, as well as writing from all over the world.
One wrote Simonton today from Australia, and many of them do not even enclose a stamp.
They expect Joe to drop everything and answer their many questions.
They all wanted to know my personal opinion, and I replied, I am waiting for the jury to bring in their verdict.
And then I would comment.
Meaning, The report on the analysis.
You and I have not believed in these so called contact stories, and here was an opportunity to actually test one of them.
Was this a hoax, or was it legitimate?
The analysis might have told the tale, who knows?
Hold the cake longer, and why not analyze it?
Because you represent the NICAP as a national investigating committee.
Do you really mean this, or is this too a hoax?
Here's a chance to investigate one specific alleged contact sighting with a real or alleged exhibit other than a mere sighting.
But if you do refuse to analyze it, then return same and I'll send it to our University of Wisconsin for analysis.
If analyzed, I shall remit my $5 and will be proud to renew member.
But if not analyzed, then why should I renew?
Oh, I see.
So it seems like Frank Carter is a member, at least, or some type of subscriber to NICAP and pays NICAP to, I guess, get information.
I'm not entirely sure.
But we can clearly hear the frustration in the tone by Judge Carter, and rightfully so.
Judge Carter sent it in confidence to NICAP.
NICAP then sends it to the FDA.
Trying to wash their hands clean of this.
We now have on May 9th the reply from NICAP to Judge Frank Carter.
And it says here Dear Judge Carter, thank you for your letter of May 7th regarding, oh, May 7th.
Okay.
Not May 8th.
Regarding the claims of Mr. Joe Simonton, we did receive the cake, much to our surprise, without any advance notice that you had announced this to the press.
Ever since, we too have been plagued by phone calls, and it has eaten into our valuable time so much that we were forced to make no further comment publicly.
I should like to explain a few things to you with the understanding that this is a privileged communication for your private information only.
In view of the past history of so called contactee claims and the subsequent exposure of many of them as frauds, we can only adopt a position of extreme skepticism in the present case.
If Mr. Simonton is telling the complete truth, it is unfortunate that he will suffer for the sins of previous contactee claimants.
You have put us on the spot somewhat by announcing, before consulting us, that we would analyze the cake and announce the results publicly.
In effect, It seems you expected that we would accept Mr. Simonson's story at face value and be willing to link ourselves publicly with it.
Again, in view of the past history of such claims, this would make us appear uncritical indeed.
We are engaged in very important liaison and we do not propose to compromise this work for the sake of an unproven and, you must admit, fantastic sounding claim.
Accordingly, we do not wish to have any further publicity in connection with this claim unless strong supporting evidence is forthcoming.
It is extremely doubtful that analysis of An apparently ordinary pancake would prove anything at all, to begin with.
And to announce negative or neutral results would only make us look like fools for bothering with it in the first place.
However, because we realize you are serious about your part in this case, we have arranged for an analysis by a competent chemist who said he would send a report to you in his own name.
Again, I stress that this analysis is being done only as a favor to you by a private party at our request.
We are very dubious of the whole affair, and when the analysis is made, we do not wish to be named in connection with it.
One good reason for our attitude is the type of news reporting you quote as saying, We are returning the cake.
I have been interviewed by several newsmen about this, and I stated only that we would have no further comment on it and would gather evidence as time permits, but that we intend to continue concentrating on well substantiated sightings by scientists, pilots, and other trained observers.
The ludicrous nature of the story is ready made for ridicule and distortion.
It is also a rather incredible story, and it sums up two claimants in such cases to substantiate their stories, not for us to disprove them.
We have heard about the effects on the chickens.
This.
This is also something that we didn't talk about.
We'll get into this in a second.
We have heard about the effects on the chickens and would like to have any written reports by health agents, etc., which might help to shed light on the story.
If these effects can be documented, it would go a long way towards showing that something strange did happen on April 18.
If, in the long run, there is no substantiation of any kind and it comes down to a choice of accepting Mr. Simonton at his word or remaining skeptical, we shall remain skeptical.
Only the strongest kind of evidence could ever convince critical people that such.
An incident really happened, and we deal only in things that we think we can prove.
I trust that this will clarify our position.
If not, I would be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Sincerely yours, Richard Hall of NICAP.
Ah, the famous chicken story.
Okay, so the plot thickens yet again because on Thursday, May 4th, the Milwaukee Sentinel, again, in the heat of everyone wanting to know what the heck is going on with these pancakes, while the Milwaukee Sentinel followed up with Joe Simonton in an interview and reported this.
Chickens dead after saucer visit report.
On May 3rd, Joe Simonton, the plumber and chicken raiser, who said he contacted a flying saucer on April 18th, said Wednesday that his chickens have been ill and several have died since the saucer's visit.
Simonton asked Viaz County Sheriff John Schroeder to notify the Air Force about the chickens' deaths.
The sheriff called the Antigua radar station but was told that the officers there doubted that the chicken deaths would be investigated.
Simonton reported the visit by a saucer, which he said hovered a foot off the ground in his yard four days after it happened.
Dead Chickens After Visit00:14:31
He said he filled a water jug for the three man crew and they gave him some little cakes in return.
The cakes were sent to NICAP, but Simonton himself seemed inclined to let the story die.
He told a reporter that he received so many letters concerning the visitation that it will take a long time to answer all of them.
One of those letters, he said, came from Australia.
So, weirder yet, apparently, this craft ended up.
Killing his chickens.
This is getting really complicated, but essentially, Charles Maney, who was the guy at NICAP who was told that he should look into it, he was getting just absolutely bombarded by press, sent one to the FDA.
I think the FDA then had it, did their tests.
It was then sent to Richard Hall, the secretary at NICAP.
Richard then, fed up with Judge Carter, sends it to Alexander Mabane, the chemist and head of CSI or Civilian Saucer Intelligence in New York.
He says the following Dear Lex, in view of the strains and frustrations here while we are fighting for survival, I am amazed at how restrained my letter to Judge Carter is.
My true feelings are that he is a stupid clod.
And if his last long ranting letter is any indication of his reasoning ability, I wonder how many innocent people reside in Wisconsin jails.
Grrr.
I am enclosing his letter and my reply.
He wants the cake returned.
So if you want to wash your hands of the whole affair, Please return it to him or to me.
To date, we don't have one single bit of firsthand evidence on this case aside from the cake.
Even the people who went to Eagle River to investigate for us are mad at us.
And other Wisconsin members who have no conception of the situation here are raking us over the coals for not making a big issue out of it.
Our investigators, quote unquote, have never been heard from.
Maybe they suffer the same fate as Simonton's chickens.
I am losing all patience with otherwise sensible members who, one, try to tell us.
What we should do in touchy situations while, too, having no inkling of our handicaps.
Part of the reason for the above outburst is that we know Ray Palmer and Judge Carter are planning a double barreled assault on NICAP Ree Simonton, yada, yada, yada.
So there is clearly a lot of frustration back and forth through all these science departments, all these chemists, all these unofficial and official channels.
People are passing around the pancake, phones ringing off the hooks.
Pancake pandemonium is upon us.
Also on June 29th, 1961, this is a letter to Judge Carter from Richard Hall of the Secretary of NICAP, CC'd Lex Mabane here.
And he goes, I'm sorry to be slow about answering your letter of a few weeks ago inquiring about the alleged extraterrestrial artifact, but other matters of more basic importance to us, chiefly a fight for survival of NICAP, have taken priority.
Since you and a few other NICAP members in Wisconsin doubt our judgment and motives in this matter, I will make No further attempt at explanation of our policy.
However, your efforts and those of the other members, in effect, have been directed towards preventing us from carrying out our usual policy in the case of contactee claims.
Ordinarily, we do try to investigate them to the best of our ability, quietly without publicity unless something definite is determined.
Polemics on such claims serve no useful purpose and, in fact, do a great deal of harm since they detract attention from well established factual evidence.
Since you and the others will not let us conduct this investigation in our own way, I am forwarding copies of the current correspondence to the scientist who has the artifact with the request that he return it to you.
In the event that he is in the midst of an analysis, he may want to retain a small portion.
This was being done at his own expense, and it would be unfair to him to have to stop in the middle of any tests.
At any rate, you will be hearing either directly from him or from me again shortly in regard to returning the sample.
In closing, I request that you reread my letter of May 9.
I also repeat my request for additional documentary evidence from health officials in regard to reported effects on Mr. Simonton's chickens.
Sincerely yours, Richard Hall.
Okay.
Needless to say, that this didn't go over well with the judge, because the judge then writes an angry letter to Major Donald E. Kehoe, saying Dear Major, I now write you definitely to send me the name and address of the chemist in New York City.
I believe you wrote me.
That you turned the Simonton pancake over to for chemical analysis.
I sent this to you April 22nd, 1961, and still have had no word from him.
I do not even know his name or address.
Yours, Judge Frank Carter.
All this kafufa over a pastry.
The food did get analyzed, folks, and it was analyzed on June 8th, so a month before.
But nobody was sent any of that.
But this is from the Health Education and Welfare of the FDA.
On June 8th.
So the FDA, and this was sent to Colonel Philip C. Evans at Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright Patterson Air Force.
We have completed our examination of the material submitted with your letter of May 5th.
Microscopic analysis shows the presence of fat, starch, buckwheat hulls, wheat bran, and soybean hulls.
The material appears to be a portion of an ordinary pancake made predominantly of.
Buckwheat.
So this was then sent to Wright Patterson, where, by the way, folks, it currently lives.
The funniest little artifact on display in that entire museum, but arguably for me, possibly the most interesting.
So, not only do we have the FDA saying that this was normal, now we have Alexander Mabane's final report of the pancake after sending it off for isotopic analysis, literally reaching out to like nuclear physicists and all sorts of scientists.
This guy spent his own money.
On this.
As you can see here, this is a $180 bill just to get this tested.
Mabane, obviously really intrigued by this pancake, wanted to know what the deal was.
He says these pancakes were an instance of something exceedingly rare, tangible physical evidence from a UFO produced by an apparently credible witness.
Any significant difference that might be detected between them and ordinary terrestrial pancakes would constitute strong concrete evidence not only for the truth of Mr. Simonton's story.
But also for the general proposition that some UFOs are vessels of extraterrestrial origin operated by beings differing little in appearance and metabolism from the Caucasian race of Homo sapiens.
The importance of examining the space pancakes for such differences needs no underlining.
One of the pancakes was given by Mr. Simonton to agents of the official UFO research project of the Air Force, the Air Technical Intelligence Command.
CSI has seen no written report on ATIC's findings, but in a telephone conversation, we were informed by Major Friend, the current head of the project, that the following tests were made.
1.
Immediate examination for radioactivity detected no difference from ordinary ground level samples.
The significance of this was that an object arriving from the upper atmosphere or above acquires such radioactivity as a result of its exposure to the cosmic rays.
This negative evidence, however, carries little weight, since any space traveling vehicle of a superior Humanoid culture would presumably be shielded against radiation for the protection of its occupants.
Number two, emission spectronomy revealed the same pattern of inorganic chemical elements as in ordinary terrestrial food grains.
This evidence is also inconclusive because of the circumstance that the UFO occupants were described as completely humanoid, though somewhat short and swarthy, breathing our atmosphere and moving under our gravity without discomfort.
The chemical makeup of such beings and consequently also their food plants.
Would be expected to differ very little from our own.
In particular, they could hardly be expected to utilize elements completely foreign to the corresponding terrestrial life forms.
And number three, microscopic examination by food technologists of the Department of Health revealed the presence of buckwheat hulls.
This is a most significant finding because the use in pancakes of this particular seed, buckwheat is not a grain in the usual sense, is a peculiarity of certain areas of human civilization which one could hardly expect.
To be duplicated by the inhabitants of another planet.
All that mitigates the force of this evidence for an earthly origin of the pancakes is a question as to the uncertainty with which the buckwheat hulls were identified.
Since we have seen no evidence on this point, it is still possible to suppose that the identification might have been an error.
The second pancake was sent by Judge Carter to NICAP in Washington, who immediately sent it to one of their scientific advisors, Dr. Charles Maney. Professor of physics at Defiance College in Ohio.
However, since Dr. Maney could find no one able to undertake the examination, he returned the specimen to NICAP.
It was then sent to CSI of New York, and he gets a letter back saying Dear Mr. Mabane, I'm enclosing a graph which I hope will supply the graphic illustrations of the results of our analysis.
As you can see, it by no means exemplifies the epitome of draftsmanship.
The values shown on the graph are fairly close to average values for environmental carbon during the indicated times.
The actual value for an organism may vary a few percent depending upon the geographical location, sources of carbon, and various other factors.
None of these should produce any radical variation.
So basically, this is just a chart showing like the isotopic ratios.
All seems normal here.
We now have a letter on August 17th to Mr. Donald Kehoe from Austin LaMarche.
Austin LaMarche is a concerned citizen and friend of Joe Simonton, and he writes Dear Mr. Kehoe, on May question mark of this year, a good friend of mine, Joe Simonton of Eagle River, Wisconsin, sent you a pancake taken from a flying saucer.
There is every reason to believe that this pancake was given to Mr. Simonton for a good reason.
This pancake was sent to you for analysis and none has been given.
Please answer at your earliest convenience, Austin LaMarche.
Well, Austin gets a return from Richard Hall, the secretary of NICAP, saying, Dear Mr. LaMarche, in your reply to your recent letter, the current UFO investigator has a story on the pancake analysis.
The news reports on this were badly distorted.
We have never called Mr. Simonton a liar or anything of the sort.
We simply do not have enough evidence to warrant making.
An issue out of such a sensational case.
It would be helpful to us in our evaluation if you would give us more information about your friend, Mr. Simonton.
This would be kept confidential if you so request it.
And that is the end of the back and forth of this complete debauchery regarding this pancake.
We're now going to transition into J. Allen Hynek's report of this, and that's how we're going to end this story.
So, this is the project record card.
So, for Project Blue Book, Joe Simonton, Eagle River, Wisconsin.
A ground visual, April 18th.
It says photos or physical specimen?
No.
And then in parentheses, it says pancake.
And the conclusion is that the only explanation was that this was a hallucination.
So in the summary here, it says the object shaped like two soup bowls together as a round saucer configuration, approximately 30 feet in diameter, 12 feet thick at the center, tapering to one foot at the rim.
Brighter than chrome, exhaust pipe six to eight inches in diameter, space.
Spaced one feet apart around the rim.
Landed and encountered with space people ensued.
Object caused severe air turbulence when departing, sounded like snow tires on pavement at high speed, only louder jet like sound landed outside observer's window.
The case received wide publicity through news media and saucer fans, investigated by Air Force at scene.
And in the opinion of the investigators, the eyewitness was found to be a balanced person of good mental health.
Here's the report from J. Allen Hynek and his friend, Major Friend.
Major Friend called me at approximately 10 45 a.m., April 26, to say that he had just been in touch with Judge Frank Carter at Eagle River, and that the judge stated that he had sent some material to Donald Kehoe and NICAP.
Major Friend felt it would be advisable to learn more what the actual situation was before NICAP built a big story out of this.
In view of the fact that we had been strongly urging immediate capability on the part of the Air Force to investigate cases before they went sour, Heineck decided to fly up and investigate personally.
He took with him Mr. Weller and Mr. Tumlin, a graduate student in astronomy at Northwestern University.
A Bonanza single engine plane was hired from the Powaukee Airport.
Take off at approximately 3 40 p.m.
Arrived at Eagle River at about 5 45.
Obtained taxi, went into town to make phone calls.
Contacted Mr. Bob Satran, brother of the editor of the News Review of Vias County.
Tried to contact Joe Simonton, but couldn't get through, so he offered to take us to the farm or his chicken ranch about four miles outside of Route 1.
Jet Sound On Descent00:04:37
Simonton was not present at our arrival, so we took the opportunity of taking pictures while Saturn pointed out to us the alleged landing place where the spacecraft had landed.
That was about 6 30 p.m.
Weller rode with Simonton, said he was damn sick and tired of being pestered by newsmen, assured Weller that this whole thing was not a hoax or a joke.
Wouldn't take two weeks out of his work to perpetrate a hoax, now would he?
Weller reports that Simonton sounded sincere.
So once and for all, here's a story of what he said happened as follows.
About 11 a.m. on April 18th, he was having a late breakfast in his home.
See picture.
When he heard a noise which he described as a car going around the curve in a great hurry, a screeching like that, or something like a jet.
He said it was actually like a jet.
It was Judge Carter who stated that he had told him it sounded like a screeching motorcar.
The consensus seems to be that the sound it made while coming down was, in Simonton's words, like a jet.
Apparently, he told Tumlin that on its way down, it sounded like knobby tires on wet pavements.
He looked out the window and saw it descending, a bright, chromium colored disc shaped object, which he described as two soup bowls, one overturned on the other.
Simonton stated he was not frightened by the apparition, but went out immediately because of his curiosity.
When he got there, the hatch, or hatchway, was already open.
Simonton stated that the hatchway operated something like the trunk of a car and that it hinged from on top, and the lower lip would coincide with the equator of the ship.
He stated that when closed, it was completely imperceptible, and that he would have sworn there was no possible opening there.
The spaceship, as drawn by him, is enclosed.
When he came out, an occupant of said vehicle was leaning out of the hatch and making motions with his hands, suggesting that he needed water or some other liquid.
He made drinking motions.
Simonton was handed a thermos jug like bottle, C drawing, which he says was quite unlike any other jug he'd ever seen here.
A beautiful thing, he said.
He took it to the basement where he has a pump and filled it with water, carried it out to the craft, and handed it up to the chap.
In doing so, he had to get up on tiptoe to put one hand against the craft, he says, and effected the transfer of the jug.
He described the interior.
As essentially black, and he said he saw three control panels and noted that there were two other men inside.
The men he described as extremely clean shaven, he said very smooth faced, but dark and short, about five feet, he estimates.
He said they looked like Italians.
Their dress was also black, a knitted jersey was as close as he could come to it, and he insisted that they had turtleneck sweater type apparel.
From his account, it seemed to me that it was more like the stereotype picture one gets of Italian sports car racers.
All right.
Or at any rate, of the sporty set.
There was no communication except by sign language between them.
And as he backed away from the craft, he said he saw the interior dimly lighted and it was extremely beautiful.
He said he would love to have a room painted in the same way.
He noticed that one of the men was apparently cooking something.
And in his attempt to communicate by sign language, indicating that they now had water, he made motions with his mouth that they could now drink.
But apparently, this sign language was misinterpreted as indicating that he wanted some of the stuff they were cooking, and whereupon they handed him three or four of these little pancake like cakes.
And as soon as the transfer was effected, the hatch swung down, closed with a click.
And he says that the thing was imperceptible.
He could not tell where the hatch had been.
And immediately the craft, he stated, rose up like an elevator, without any apparent acceleration, except, of course, at the very beginning.
And when it arrived at a height of about 20 feet, it tilted 45 degrees and took off toward the south, and it disappeared in a matter of seconds.
Two seconds, as he stated.
As it took off, there was a considerable blast from the rear, without smoke, however, which did shake his little pine tree severely.
Although it came back to normal shortly afterward, we examined the tree.
There were some broken branches on it, but he stated that that was not caused by the ship, but had been caused by a snowplow some weeks previous.
Town Believed His Story00:08:27
After we had taken a number of pictures, we went over numerous points with Simonton and invited him to dinner and headed into town.
In the meantime, renting a car from a garage so that we could look up other people in the case.
We had a rather lengthy dinner in which I attempted to draw him out on various topics.
People passed the table frequently, and he was greeted as though he was a very respected member of the community.
I excused myself and went to the bar to strike up a conversation with the people there.
And both in that encounter and in many other casual conversations, it appeared that the town, by and large, believed him, although there were some rather voluble skeptics.
I was advised to talk with his neighbor, a man named Remus, who I was told could tell me quite a bit about Joe.
But since our time was extremely limited, I did not get to do this.
Mr. Weller talked with Judge Carter and experienced great difficulty in being admitted to the house.
Apparently, the judge thought he was from.
The Air Force, and the Air Force appears to be strictly persona non grata among the flying saucer people around there.
The judge admitted membership in NICAP, and in his library, had one long shelf devoted entirely to flying saucer books, and other shelves were devoted to topics which are generally regarded as lunatic fringe items, though I myself do not necessarily regard them as such.
I later had the opportunity to talk with the judge in Weller's presence, and by that time the judge was quite voluble.
And went into great detail as to his initial encounter with Simonton and the types of questions he had asked Simonton.
The judge posed as an initial skeptic, but it is apparent that in this questioning of Joe, he undoubtedly introduced many details into the story, which were later incorporated bodily by Simonton as gospel.
As far as technical details, as regards propulsion systems, trajectories, and the like, it was futile to attempt to pursue the matter further.
Simonton is an inherent plumber and chicken farmer.
He lives alone.
His wife works in Chicago and apparently has been for the past two years.
He would seem a fit subject if regarded by a psychologist, I believe, as one to whom a mental aberration might occur.
The judge stated, in fact, that he at first thought that Joe had become shack happy, but that after sufficient questioning, he, the judge, had been convinced that the sighting was valid.
In talking with Simonton, one did not get the impression that he was the Adamski type.
This is a reference to George Adamski, who also had multiple sightings during that time, but was considered to be someone who would greatly embellish his encounters.
He answered questions directly, did not contradict himself, insisted on the facts being exactly as he stated, and he refused to accept embellishments or modifications.
He stated that he was sure that he wouldn't believe him, but that he didn't care whether he was believed.
He stated simply, this happened, and that was that.
The duration of the entire episode was about five minutes.
He stated also that at no time was he frightened, and at no time did the men appear in any way to threaten him.
As they left, the man to whom he had handed the jug placed his hand on his forehead in a gesture of salute and appreciation, which gesture was returned by Simonton.
The weather was clear, and the sun was shining brightly on the metallic surface.
As far as noise was concerned, he stated that there were continuous whining sounds in the interior of the cabin, and that the takeoff did not involve any particular noise.
Dr. Hynek then says that Mr. Simonson appears to be sincere and did not appear to be the perpetrator of a hoax, and that perhaps there is some type of mental condition or observation, but this should be in the hands of, in the realm of psychology.
To conclude, as far as town reaction is concerned, it was evidently quite a high spot of conversation in the pre tourist season.
The town certainly has something to talk about, and the local bakery has a whitewashed sign on its window stating spaceship cakes.
And a local service station has a sign stating, Spaceships Served Here.
It was established that Simonton is not a reader of books and probably did not have any preconceived notions as to UFOs, except that we do not know what previous contact he had with the judge and how much the judge may have told him of the Flying Saucer game.
The judge did say that when he talked with Joe, who had asked for an appointment late in the evening, he had shown him numerous pictures of flying saucers in various books.
But in each case, Joe said, No, it wasn't like that.
It was like this, and so on.
There is some connection between a soup tureen that the judge has in his home and the jug that was supposedly handed down, at least insofar as the handles and general overall contours are concerned, although the drawing that Joe made of the jug does not, by any means, bear a one to one correspondence with the soup tureen.
He's saying here that there is some semblance of his description and what he might have had at the home, but that Yeah, there's no direct one to one correspondence.
In view of the fact that it is not our practice to investigate cases in which there is only one observer, such cases are a priori suspect of mental aberration.
This case should not be given too much weight, and certainly one cannot expect any sort of definite solution.
From the appearance of the man, his habits of life, and his evident loneliness, it would appear to me that the situation was ripe for suggestibility and mental aberration.
The presence of the NICAP judge in the picture probably accounts in large part for the embellishment of the story and the publicity it has attained.
It would be the advice and opinion of your consultant that the Air Force, in discussing this case, should hold fast to the advisability of the general custom of not considering seriously any sighting or report from a single individual and to state that this case was investigated solely because of its possible nuisance value and because there will undoubtedly be an attempt made to jockey.
This incident into a full fledged production.
The judge already intends to have public meetings in which Joe will describe this thing and answer questions, and this, of course, means undoubtedly that there will be public lectures with paid admission.
There seems to be some indication that since Eagle River is a tourist town, Joe's place will be a tourist attraction this summer and the like.
Simonton has already received many letters which he kindly allowed me to read.
The general tenor was that he had been a very privileged individual to have had this experience and that he should.
Be very careful of the Air Force in divulging any information or, particularly, of giving them any material evidence.
He was warned that the Air Force would attempt to hush him up, and that if he gave the Air Force any material evidence, he would never get it back.
I was questioned a number of times on my feelings towards NICAP Major Kehoe, and I, of course, stated that I thought that NICAP was attempting to do a serious job, and that they had a lot of interest and sincere members who were trying to do the best they could.
In no case, of course, did I attempt to say, Anything that could later be turned against us, as are the unsympathetic towards the efforts of NICAP.
Likewise, this holds for my two colleagues who did a very fine job in interrogation and without whom I could not have completed this little job in hours we had located.
We left Eagle River about midnight or shortly thereafter and arrived back in Chicago at about 3 a.m.
So to conclude, as we've read and we found out through the letter written by Judge Carter, he was a member of NICAP, a paying member of NICAP.
So, he did have some vested interest in this actually being a UFO, being someone not unlike myself, someone who's a fan of this stuff, who's got books about it, who wants it to be true.
So, there definitely is a bias there.
But I do find it interesting because although this is a case where there was only one witness, and we know that from previous documents that we've read, that Project Blue Book doesn't deal with those types of things, there was another witness.
Greasy Syrup And Bad Butter00:03:23
There's a whole family who saw what seems to be the exact same craft.
Plus, we have another witness that saw the same craft within the same hour.
So, just to follow up, Simonton did later print a four page pamphlet called The Story of the Flying Saucer.
And then in 1964, he did a radio interview and he said, I haven't earned a penny from plumbing since the reporters started swarming.
And if it happened again, I wouldn't tell anyone.
I'll be honest buckwheat pancakes aren't that delicious.
They do taste a little stale, but they are good for you.
It is funny to me that Joe didn't really like the taste of the pancakes, maybe because those pancakes might have been healthy and not filled with, you know, butter and syrup and the like.
Yeah, there are so many fascinating parts of this case, even what they were wearing, these tiny.
Men.
They were seemingly wearing these skull caps and turtlenecks and cooking something, which means they eat, you know, which is all very, very strange.
I don't know what to make of this.
This case is also cited in Passport to Magonia by Jacques Valet, in that historically, fairy encounters often also see this exchange of food happen.
Is the exchange of food some type of symbolic cooperation between two species, some type of peace offering?
Or did they simply need water to power their craft and happen to be making snacks and offer him a few greasy hot pancakes?
I don't know.
But, folks, that is one of the most fascinating tales, one of the most well documented encounters with extraterrestrials, and one of the rare times we actually have physical evidence that isn't an implant or a piece of hair.
No, it's food and it rests.
By itself in a museum.
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Here we go.
A taste test.
They are greasy with the ingredients that were used.
There's a reason why they're greasy, but yeah, the aftertaste, I can understand how he would say cardboard.
Watch it down with some coffee.
Honestly, not bad.
I think Joe was probably exaggerating with how bad they taste.
They don't taste that bad.
I feel like if you just eat a pancake without butter or syrup, It's not going to taste super flavorful, anyways.
Definitely tastes a little different than flour.
Honestly, that's something I would have.
Throw some maple syrup on there, maybe some butter.
Not bad.
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