Posted: 09 Apr 2014 04:30 AM PDT
New book churns up mysteries of 1947 UFO frenzy
On Aug. 1, 1947, an Army B-25 bomber crashed in Rose Valley, killing two of the four men aboard. That’s one subject in a new book, “The Maury Island UFO Incident,” that can be verified as factual.
However, many of the incidents discussed in the book are unsolved mysteries, if not outright fabrications:
• Reported sightings of UFOs over Mount Rainier and what is now known as Vashon Island in Puget Sound in the months before the plane crash.
• A visit by a Man in Black to someone who witnessed the UFOs spewing mysterious metallic slag.
• The early death of a hard-hitting newspaper man who asked the Army tough questions about the UFOs and the plane crash.
• A key figure who claimed to have seen the UFOs — and also was spotted on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas from which some people insist shots were fired at President John F. Kennedy.
Yes, conspiracy theories fly through the “The Maury Island UFO Incident” faster than an alien spacecraft over Roswell, N.M. (Those famous encounters actually occurred a few months after our 1947 Northwest UFO sightings.)
The book by Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson of the Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore in Seattle is a haphazard collection of reprints of newspaper and magazine articles and biographies of key players. Despite the book’s disorganization, “The Maury Island UFO Incident” makes for entertaining, if not always believable, reading.
