April 24, 1964, Socorro, N.M. UFO case
One of the very best UFO cases ever, the close-encounter sighting of Socorro policeman Lonnie Zamora, with physical evidence left behind (freshly burned ground and vegetation; ground tracks from craft), police backup swarming all over the site within minutes, and an admission from the Air Force that a real craft was involved and they had no clue what it was.
This is a portal page, with plans to greatly expand it in the future.
Interviews (transcripts and audio):
- Interviews with primary witness Lonnie Zamora within days of the sighting, first with Walter Shrode of KSRC radio Socorro, and a shorter interview with Streeter Stuart of NICAP.
- Interview with Dr. Allen Hynek, consultant to USAF Project Blue Book, by Walter Shrode of KSRC. Hynek denies that Air Force instructed Zamora not to discuss certain things, but Zamora in the earlier interview with Shrode refuses to answer question about the symbol he saw saying he was instructed not to talk about it.
- Interview with Socorro newspaper publisher Louis Reidel by investigator Ray Stanford. Reidel speaks of seeing the next morning fresh, rectangular landing indentations and other "hoof-like" depressions on the west side of the object, near where Zamora told him about seeing two small beings on west side of object. Reidel vouches for Zamora's integrity. Stanford speculates that circular depressions are from ladder where beings got back into object
- Short interview with gas station operator Opel Grinder by Ray Stanford. Grinder describes tourists pulling into his gas station and reporting an odd-looking, low-flying object pass over their car and seeing a policeman chase after it, at the same time of Zamora's encounter. Grinder says he reported it to the radio station the next day to tell them Zamora was telling the truth.
Miscellaneous
- Socorro Winds: A plotting of almost 3 dozen weather stations from five regional states (about 18 stations in New Mexico) showing that the winds at the time of Zamora's encounter at Socorro would have been out of the South to Southwest, while the object departed to towards the nearby mountains to the South-southwest. Thus the object departed into a strong headwind/crosswind, ruling out any possibility that Zamora saw something like a balloon of some type.
- Zamora's UFO view: A 3-D recreation of what Zamora would have seen at about 60 feet from the object, near his closest approach.
