Aztec, NM 'crashed saucer' (1948).
disputedcrash_retrievalCrash-Retrieval Cases
Alleged 1948 recovery of a 99-ft saucer with 16 bodies near Aztec; originated in Scully's book, exposed as a con-man fabrication.
The Aztec story claimed a 99-foot disc carrying sixteen small humanoid bodies was recovered at Hart Canyon in March 1948. It first appeared in Frank Scully's 1950 bestseller Behind the Flying Saucers, sourced entirely from con men Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer. They used the tale to sell fraudulent 'doodlebug' oil-detectors. J.P. Cahn's 1952 True magazine expose dismantled it; both men were convicted of fraud in 1953. It is the canonical fabricated crash-retrieval case, periodically revived by later authors.