Second Hand Witnesses

Second Hand Witnesses — Including those that were threatened in 1947, although they are not our primary focus.

  • Barbara Dugger – Is the granddaughter of George and Inez Wilcox, the sheriff of Roswell, New Mexico. My grandmother said, “Don’t tell anybody. When the incident happened, the military police came to the jailhouse and told George (Wilcox) and I that if we ever told anything about the incident, not only would we be killed, but our entire family would be killed!” (Friedman, S. & Berliner, D. 1992. Crash at Corona. p. 75.)

  • Phyllis McGuire – Daughter of Sheriff Wilcox.

  • Master Sgt. Robert Porter (Ret.) – was a B-29 flight engineer with the 830th Bomb Squadron. We flew these pieces… and were told they were parts of a flying saucer. The packages were in wrapping paper, one triangluar shaped, about 2 1/2 feet across the bottom, the rest smaller, shoebox-sized packages. It was just like I picked up an empty package… very light.” (Friedman, S. & Berliner, D. 1992. Crash at Corona. p. 121.)

  • Marian Strickland – A former neighbor of Brazel, she recalled in a 1990 visit that a week or two after Brazel had been released by the military from his period of confinement, he had stated how nasty the officers at the airbase had been. They made it plain he was not supposed to tell anyone about the material he found on the ranch. Mac definitely felt insulted, mis-used, and disrespected. (Friedman, S. & Berliner, D. 1992. Crash at Corona. p. 86.)

  • Elizabeth Tulk and Phyllis McGuire – The daughters of Chaves County Sheriff, George Wilcox, who was the first official person contacted by William Brazel after he discovered unusual debris at the Foster ranch near Corona, New Mexico, in early July 1947. Wilcox subsequently contacted the Roswell Army Air Force base that launched an investigation. Although Wilcox never referred to the event publicly, members of the Wilcox family have stated that the sheriff viewed a number of alien bodies recovered at one of the New Mexico crash sites. The bodies were small with large heads and one creature was believed to still be alive at the time of the recovery.

  • Walt Whitmore – On the same night that Major Jesse Marcel and Captain Sheridan Cavitt returned from the Foster ranch with highly unusual metallic-like debris, the rancher William Brazel was brought back to the town of Roswell by Walt Whitmore, Sr., co-owner of radio station KGFL. Whitmore apparently heard of Brazel’s story after it had been told to Sheriff George Wilcox and then drove out to Brazel to speak with him in person. Whitmore reportedly wire-recorded an interview with Brazel that was to air the next day. However, prior to the broadcast of the interview between Whitmore and Brazel, the military quickly took charge, as the following affidavit from George “Jud” Roberts makes clear:

    In July 1947, I was a minority stockholder and manager of KGFL Radio in Roswell, New Mexico. We did an interview with W.W. “Mac” Brazel, the rancher who found some debris on his property. He hid him out at the home of the station owner, W.E. Whitmore, Sr., and recorded the interview on a wire recorder.

    The next morning, I got a call from someone in Washington, D.C. It may have been someone in the office of [Senators] Clinton Anderson or Dennis Chavez. This person said, “We understand that you have some information, and we want to assure you that if you release it, it’s very possible that your station’s license will be in jeopardy, so we suggest that you not do it.” The person indicated that we might lose our license in as quickly as three days. I made the decision not to release the story. I made an attempt to go out to the crash site to see it for myself, but I was turned back by a military person who said we were in a restricted area.

    At that time, there was quite a clamp on any discussion concerning the event. We just decided for Walter Haut’s sake that we should sit tight and not say anything, even though in our own minds, we had some question about the validity of the weather balloon explanation. Weather balloons were launched about a block from our station every day. We didn’t accept the official explanation, but we had no evidence to the contrary.

    I have not been paid or given anything of value to make this statement, and it is the truth to the best of my recollection. Signed: George F. “Jud” Roberts