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AFFIDAVIT OF LYDIA A. SLEPPY

(1)  My name is Lydia A Sleppy

(2)  My address is:  XXXXXXXXXX

(3)  I am employed as: _________________________________

   (X)I am retired: 9/30/77 from State of California, Dept. Parks & Recreation

(4)  In 1947, worked at KOAT Radio in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  My duties included operating the station's teletype machine, which received news and allowed us to send stories to the ABC and Mutual networks, with which KOAT was affiliated.

(5)  In early July 1947, I received a call from John McBoyle, general manager and part-owner of KSWS Radio in Roswell, New Mexico, which was associated with KOAT.  I do not remember the exact date, but it definitely was a weekday (I never worked weekends) and almost certainly after the Fourth of July.  The call came in before noon.

(6)  McBoyle said he had something hot for the network.  I asked Karl Lambertz, our program director and acting manager (KOAT owner and manager Merle Tucker was out of town), to be present in my office while I took the story from McBoyle and put it on the teletype.  Using the teletype, I alerted ABC News headquarters in Hollywood to expect an important story, and Mr. Lambertz stood behind me while I typed.

(7)  To the best of my recollection, McBoyle said, "There's been one of these flying saucer things crash down here north of Roswell."  He said he had been in a coffee shop on his morning break when a local rancher, "Mac" Brazel, came in and said he had discovered the object some time ago while he was out riding on the range, and that he had towed it in and stored it underneath a shelter on his property.  Brazel offered to take McBoyle to the ranch to see the object.  McBoyle described it as "a big crumpled dishpan."

(8)  As I typed McBoyle's story, a bell rang on the teletype, indicating an interruption.  The machine then printed a message something to this effect: "THIS IS THE FBI.  YOU WILL IMMEDIATELY CEASE ALL COMMUNICATION."  Whatever the precise words were, I definitely remember the message was from the FBI and that it directed me to stop transmitting.  I told McBoyle the teletype had been cut off and took the rest of his story in shorthand, but we never put it on the wire because we had been scooped by the papers.

(9)  I never again discussed the matter with McBoyle, but the next day, he told Mr. Lambertz the military had isolated the area where the saucer was found and was keeping the press out.  He told Lambertz he saw planes come in from Wright Field, Ohio, to take the think away.  He also said they claimed they were going to take it to one place, but the planes went to another.  Either they were supposed to have gone to Texas but went to Wright Field or vice versa.

(10)  I have not been paid or given anything of value to make this statement, and it is the truth to the best of my recollection.

Signed:  Lydia A. Sleppy

Date:  9-14-93

Signature witnessed by:

Ada A Somers

[Source:   Karl Pflock, Roswell in Perspective, 1994]