PDFs : APRO files - First third of microfilmed records now added to my online archive

I have now added the first of three microfilms of the UFO records of APRO to my online archive as PDF files.

Aerial Phenomena Research Organization ("APRO") was a UFO group founded by Coral Lorenzen and her husband Jim Lorenzen in the early 1950s which was particularly active in the 1950s-1970s but lasted until into the 1980s. Jacques Vallee has written that APRO "had a sterling international reputation and worked successfully with foreign specialists", commenting in his book "Forbidden Science" that the Lorenzens "had perhaps come closest of all of us, in the sixties and seventies, to assembling a complete documentation about the mystery".

American UFO researcher Steve Kaesar of FUFOR kindly worked with me in 2014 to create downloadable copies of several interesting and important UFO microfilms and make them available to view free of charge as searchable PDF files. Russian researcher Mikhail Gershtein provided very useful assistance in relation to enhancement of the images. Those files were originally uploaded to Steve's website but Philip Mantle recently asked me if I could share them online again and I'm happy to help out. (I'm still gradually moving more material into my main online UFO archive, kindly hosted by the AFU in Sweden).

Jan Aldrich wrote an article about the content of APRO Microfilm Reel 1 back in 1999 (long before it became available online a few weeks ago).

Apart from case reports submitted by individuals to APRO, APRO Microfilm Reel 1 contains quite a few press reports - many of which relate to classic UFO cases. Those that want to find original source material rather than just read summaries in UFO books may be interested in some of these press reports. While these are certainly interesting (and generally complemented the collections of relevant material I have accumulated from other sources), I was rather disappointed not to find more investigative notes and material in relation to classic cases. Perhaps there would be more case analysis and investigative notes on APRO Microfilm Reel 2 onwards - discussed in Section D below.

For example, there are copies of several of the newspaper articles from July 1952 following the well-known Washington D.C. sightings. Those sightings regular feature in UFO books and documentaries.

APRO Microfilm Reel 1 also includes copies of newspaper items on various other early classic cases, including - for example - the following:
(1) the 19 August 1952 report by Florida Scoutmaster D S “Sonny” Desvergers and three boy scouts of a UFO near Palm Beach, Florida. This report was the subject of an article by Karl Pflock entitled “The Best Hoax in UFO History”.

(2) Newspaper reports about Oscar Linke's claims to have seen a UFO. Oscar Linke himself can be seen discussing his claims half way through one of the first (?the very first?) UFO documentaries - "The Flying Saucer Mystery" (1952).

APRO Microfilm Reel 1 is in (roughly) chronological order of events discussed, beginning with material relating to pre-1947 reports. There is no index for the files, but about half way through reading them I started creating a basic finding aid which merely records the folder headings given at various points on that Reel.

Page 1103 (Part 6 page 103) - "Desvergers Case, Aug 19, '52"
Page 1112 (Part 6 page 112) - "1952 September"
Page 1158 (Part 6 page 158) - "Flatwoods, W.V. Sep 12 '52"
Page 1194 (Part 6 page 194) - "1952 December"
Page 1173 (Part 6 page 173) - "Oct 1952"
Page 1205 (Part 7 page 5) - "No dates 1953"
Page 1225 (Part 7 page 25) - "Jan 1953"
Page 1250 (Part 7 page 50) - "Feb 1953"
Page 1284 (Part 7 page 84) - "April 1953"
Page 1290 (Part 7 page 90) - "May 1953"
Page 1308 (Part 7 page 108) - "June 1953"
Page 1313 (Part 7 page 108) - "July 1953"
Page 1320 (Part 7 page 120) - "Aug 1953"
Page 1347 (Part 7 page 147) - "Sept 1953"
Page 1354 (Part 7 page 154) - "Oct 1953"
Page 1362 (Part 7 page 162) - "Nov 1953"
Page 1378 (Part 7 page 178) - "Dec 1953"
Page 1381 (Part 7 page 181) - "1954 (No Def. Date)"
Page 1438 (Part 8 page 38) - "Jan 1954"
Page 1470 (Part 8 page 70) - "March 1954"
Page 1495 (Part 8 page 95) - "April 1954"
Page 1507 (Part 8 page 107) - "May 1954"
Page 1533 (Part 8 page 133) - "June 1954"
Page 1584 (Part 8 page 184) - "July 1954"
Page 1639 (Part 9 page 39) - "Aug 1954"
Page 1667 (Part 9 page 67) - "Sept 1954"
Page 1702 (Part 9 page 102) - "Oct 1954"
Page 1749 (Part 9 page 149) - "Nov 1954"
Page 1832 (Part 10 page 32) - "Dec 1954"
Page 1952 (Part 10 page 152) - 1955 "No Specific Date"
Page 1979 (Part 10 page 179) - "Jan 1955"
Page 2045 (Part 11 page 45) - "Feb 1955"
Page 2071 (Part 11 page 71) - "March 1955"
Page 2096 (Part 11 page 96) - "April 1955"
Page 2103 (Part 11 page 103) - "May 1955"
Page 2127 (Part 11 page 127) - "June 1955"
Page 2132 (Part 11 page 132) - "July 1955"
Page 2158 (Part 11 page 158) - "August 1955"
Page 2215 (Part 12 page 15) - "Sept 1955"
Page 2257 (Part 12 page 57) - "Dec 1955"
Page 2280 (Part 12 page 80) - "No Definite Date 1956"
Page 2304 (Part 12 page 104) - "Jan 1956"
Page 2320 (Part 12 page 120) - "Feb 1956"
Page 2332 (Part 12 page 132) - "March 1956"
Page 2338 (Part 12 page 138) - "April 1956"
Page 2344 (Part 12 page 144) - "May 1956"
Page 2358 (Part 12 page 158) - June 1956
Page 2374 (Part 12 page 174) - July 1956
Page 2419 (Part 13 page 19) - "Aug 1956"
Page 2479 (Part 13 page 79) - "Sept 1956"
Page 2520 (Part 13 page 120) - "October 1956"
Page 2537 (Part 13 page 137) - "Nov 1956"
Page 2578 (Part 13 page 178) - "Dec 1956"

A considerable proportion of APRO Microfilm Reel 1 consists of correspondence from members of APRO and members of the public regarding their personal sightings or UFO information they have heard.

Some of the correspondence contain relatively early stories about alleged UFO crashes.

For example, the files include a letter from a Dr D A Waterbury a "osteopathic physician" from Marion, Illinois. His letter sought further information about a "crashed disc". He stated that a friend of his taught a Los Angeles County policeman that reported having seen "the occupant (dead) of this disc" that crashed "around 1929 in Mexico". The policeman reportedly claimed that the Mexican army had confiscated this aerial disc. The policeman is named in the handwritten letter as "A O Ellison".

The letter from Dr D A Waterbury also states that he knew a Paul Frick "who had a desk job in Washington" in 1948 and told Dr Waterbury about seeing "the paper-work go over his desk" regarding an alleged UFO crash.

More details and example can be found in my relevant posts from 2014 on the AboveTopSecret discussion forum.

I'll try to find time to upload more scanned microfilms in the next week or so (and help with a much larger collection of scanned case files from one of the biggest UFO groups in the world) - although I'm trying to spend less time on archiving UFO material so that I can get back to focusing my limited spare time on my own original research and publishing the results of deep-dives into several UFO cases / issues.

Also, see a recent press release by David Marler's National UFO Historical Records Center about David's coup in obtaining hard copies of APRO case files.