Project Blue Book Socorro file

The hoax hypothesis is, of course, one that suggests itself immediately. It is Quintanilla's and my opinion that both Chavez and FBI agent Byrnes must have been in on the hoax if we adopt the hoax hypothesis. They testified that there were no tracks in the immediate neighborhood and so that the hoaxsters must themselves have arrived and left by balloon! Had it been a hoax, certainly some paraphernalia should have been left around if the pranksters beat a hasty retreat. These gentlemen said that nothing of that short was found.

The wind was blowing strongly from the south, yet the object was reported to have gone on directly west. This would hardly fit a balloon, unless, of course, the directions are wrong. I questioned and questioned the people on this point and couldn't shake them from that.

Pranksters could have hidden behind the knoll directly to the south, particularly had they lain prone. The dynamite shock is too small and too far away to have risked hiding behind it.

Opal Grinder does have a high school student working for him, and I talked with him at length. Teenagers generally hate Zamora's guts, but it was added that they hate all "fuzz" and that if they wanted to get even with Zamora, they would simply beat him up or do something more direct, like letting the air out of his tires or something with immediate results rather than resort to an involved hoax. Opal Grinder, of course, would have to be in on the hoax, also. He again told me the story of the tourist who said that he had sighted a strange object crossing directly in front of him on the road and landing in the gully, and toward which an instant or so later, he saw a police car going. I checked out the time on that, and it fits. Opal Grinder's wife was just preparing to get to the bank before it closed at six (apparently she takes the week's loot to the bank on Friday's just before they close). The sighting as you know, was supposedly at 5:45 P. M.

Some of the high school students do have walkies-talkies, but the hoax hypothesis does involve Chaves, Opal Grinder, and FBI agent Byrnes; the reported tourist would have to be mythical.

Zamora knew exactly where the dynamite shack was, because this is precisely why he left the road when he heard the noise. He thought there had been an explosion in the dynamite shack.

The dynamite shack does not stand on legs as I have inspected it closely and have taken photographs. The shack and the reported UFO must be considered distinct.

Furthermore, I doubt very much whether a hoax could have been kept secret this long. If a hoax comes off well, perpetrators like to gloat abit, and there would have been no point about getting even with Zamora if they couldn't have gotten some ludos out of it. La Pas once told me of an instance in which some college students wanted to get even with a geology professor so they planted a "meteorite" and contrived an explosion at some distant part of the state, and had this poor professor running around ragged chasing a meteorite. The perpetrators, however, were caught and expelled from school because they simply couldn't keep their secret. They "confided" to friends who in turn confided to others, and there you are.