FOIA: The incredible Mr. Rhodes

Phoenix_AZ_Jul_7_1947.pdf
Unamed/Blacked Out
A very indepth background check of a witness who spotted a UFO on July 7, 1947 in Phoenix AZ
Document date: 1949-08-17
Department: Inspector General USAF in conjunction with the FBI
Author: Special Agent Lynne C. Aldrich FBI Phoenix Office
Document type: Investigation Report
pages: 33

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Archivist's Notes: Out of all the documents I've read so far this one is definitely up there in the intersting category.

While copies themselves are in poor to fair condition it seems that both the FBI and USAF spent a lot of time investigating a Mr. Rhodes of Phoenix Arizona, who on July 7, 1947 at approximately 2pm spotted what he thought at first was a navy "Flapjack". He soon realised there were significant differences to the flapjack. Where the flapjack had propellers and visible landing gear; this object did not.

Mr. Rhodes was also able to snap two photos of this object with a box camera.

It seems the FBI and Air Force went to a lot of trouble to black out Mr. Rhodes name but on page two of the packet it seems the person in charge of the magic black marker missed one. It is the only reference to Mr. Rhodes by name as he is either referred to as SUBJECT or his name, wifes name and parents names and addresses were blacked out.

It seems that while the initial reports and negatives where taken near the time of the initial sighting, the background investigation seems to be spurned on by a small letter in the Q&A section of "Amazing Stories" magazine.

It seems Mr. Rhodes wrote a letter to the magazine explaining that he had spotted something on july 7, 1947 and had subsequently turned over his photos and negatives to the Air Force but they had not been returned. He wanted to know if he could sue the government. This little letter of course caught the attention of our government, who then wanted to ascertain two things.

1) Did the air force in fact ever receive the negatives from Mr. Rhodes.

2) What is the credibility of Mr. Rhodes.

The pages must be read very carefully due to poor condition, but Mr. Rhodes is an incredibly intersting guy.

In the report about him it is stated that he built the following; a telescope he used for his astronomy, a working television and various radios to name a few.

He was a musician by trade but spent most of his time researching astronomy, radar, radio. He was also considered to be a "genius" when it came to radios and electronics in general.

His wife was a fourth grade school teacher and seemed to provide all the income for the family.

Mr. Rhodes also wrote an article that was published in a magazine. A local professor was so impressed with the article that the university awarded Mr. Rhodes an honorary doctorate of science.

This does not seem like a stupid man, but a true beatnik in the "On The Road" sense of the term.

Lt. Ruppelt makes an appearance in the packet in one of the memos during the investigation. He states that it is his belief that Mr. Rhodes was attempting to cash in on the photo craze by faking photos.

From the pages I read this is not a man concerned with money.

Ruppelt also makes assertions that he feels it is unlikely Mr. Rhodes turned over the negatives in the first place, but if he did that it could cause a problem for the air force.

Later in the packet near the end it's recorded that Mr. Rhodes did in fact turn over the negatives to special agent Aldrich and was told that it was highly unlikely the he would get them back.

Of course the things that stand out the most are the fact that this sighting took place hours before the roswell incident and that the description of the object is incredibly similar to the description of a the roswell craft made by ex military personel.

This investigation was taken very seriously by both the Air Force and the FBI.

A very interesting if at times frustrating read.

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Here is some info about this incident from the UFOcasebook and also a very easy read......

Yeah that's a lot easier to read

Still it's good to have the government documents to go with your link.

Nice find.

Spiderj

Here is a case where cooperation caused a lot of problems for the witness. Not only did he see a UFO and get two pictures of it, he turned over the evidence to the Air Force and than got the shaft.

They investigated him every way they could, as is stated in the documents here. In the end, they simply told him he shouldn't ask for them because they had told him at the outset that he wouldn't get them back.

Some things about government never changes.

great document, i am a noob here, can anyone tell me what is springer referring to when he mentions the "MSM"?

msm = mainstream media

great read tho, it was extremely informative

this really helps putting the whole jigsaw puzzle togeather

the funniest part is, we answer one question, but it only causes 10 new questions...

notice how he said the object was silent, but a loud roar was what called his attention to it? extremely provacative..

[edit on 4-12-2007 by muzzleflash]

Amazing report - two things of note:

Firstly, do those images not ring any bells with anyone - they look very much like quite a lot of the eye witness testimonies for the Roswell craft... for example here
Remember, Roswell - 1947, Mr Rhodes - 1949. So it may have been either a contemporary US Black Aircraft or the du jour scout craft for our little green buddies...

Secondly, there might a trail to follow back to the man himself via Amazing Stories - if someone was to enquire into the archives of the magazine (Paizo Publishing: homepage), for around late 1947 - early 1948, Mr Rhodes may very well appear (if he was expecting to hear a response to his question, he must have left a return address!)

One thing to note, most timelines put the crash of Roswell on July 4th, so this would have been before the sighting. The newspaper headline was on the 8th, but this was days after the crash.

However, given the area, it certainly could have been someone looking for a lost ship!

reply to post by scratchresistor

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This story interests me because I am a Phoenix native (but currently living in IL). Paizo Publishing is not the original publisher of Amazing Stories so I doubt that they would have any record of Mr. Rhodes.

Here is what I found on wiki about Amazing Stories.

From what I read in the documents, the letter from Mr. Rhodes appeared in an issue in early 1949 or late 1948. That could be a good starting point to find out any info on Mr. Rhodes and his letter.

I am not sure how to go about searching for someone in the Phx. area from that time. Two pieces of info to start with, if anyone can, is the name "Rhodes" and that his wife was a 4th-grade school teacher in the Phx. area. Another avenue would be that a local university gave him an honorary doctorate degree sometime prior to his sighting.

[edit on 27-1-2008 by scooler1]

Actually, after doing a little researching on the Amazing Stories magazine I think that trying to find any info on Mr. Rhodes down that road will be pretty close to impossible.

The original publisher from that time was Ziff-Davis Publishing. They published the mag from April '38 to June '65. The mag was then sold to four other publishing companies until Paizo bought it in 2004.

Ziff-Davis also changed hands a few times. Ziff Jr. took over in the mid-50's when his dad died. He owned the company until 1994 when he sold it to Forstmann Little & Co. In 1995 they sold it to a Japanese conglomerate, where it was eventually dismantled. The article I found this info is here.

Here is a list of all the Amazing Stories issues and the publishers.

I really hope that someone else has an interest in this and looks in Mr. Rhodes.

reply to post by NGC2736

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Wow! They really were interested in this guy's story and photographs! They searched back through his family history, how he voted, his religious beliefs, etc.