Washington, DCDecember 1958

In December 1958, an Air Force investigator met with a Washington, D.C. resident who claimed to have photographs of unidentified flying objects, including what he said were "blast-offs" from the moon. The man had previously contacted the Air Force multiple times through the office of a general, claiming he possessed evidence of extraordinary phenomena both in Earth's atmosphere and on the lunar surface.

During their meeting, the photographer proved reluctant to release his images. He expressed frustration with the Air Force, fearing his work would be stolen or misused. He also worried about causing public panic and mentioned concerns about Soviet competition in space. Only after invoking national security and consulting with his attorney did he finally hand over prints to the Air Force investigator.

The photographer presented himself as someone with special knowledge. He claimed his eyesight allowed him to see things others could observe only through photography. He spoke of calculating speeds and mysterious concepts like "a wheel within a wheel" and "Mach 27." The Air Force investigator who met with him later described the man as intelligent but prone to boasting about his photographic and technical expertise beyond what his actual knowledge seemed to support. The investigator noted signs of a persecution complex and questions about the man's emotional stability.

The Air Force sent the photographs to its technical analysis division. Experts examined the images extensively, though they noted that working with copies of copies rather than the original film made their analysis difficult. The analysts concluded that one purported UFO actually resembled a small, open change purse made of plastic. Streaks of light supposedly showing objects near the moon were likely scratches, lint, or static electricity effects on the film. Mysterious circular objects in another photograph appeared to be water droplets on the camera lens, not spacecraft. Overall, the technical assessment was that the photography was of poor quality, marred by careless developing and printing practices.

The Air Force concluded that the photographer was perpetrating a hoax. Whether done for financial gain, psychological reasons, or some combination of both remained unclear, but the file notes show that the man's insistence on payment for his "discovery" tilted investigators toward suspecting mercenary motives. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, containing 44 pages of microfilm.