Pecos, New Mexico: Disinformation Letter About UFO Sighting
AFOSI agent Richard Doty sent an anonymous letter to APRO describing an embellished UFO incident involving cadet Craig Weitzel, later admitting the account was fabricated disinformation.
Background
The Weitzel Letter
In July 1980, Richard Doty of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations submitted an anonymous letter to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) describing a UFO encounter allegedly witnessed by Craig Weitzel, a Civil Air Patrol cadet visiting Kirtland Air Force Base. The letter claimed Weitzel observed and photographed a metallic disc near Pecos, New Mexico, and referenced involvement of an extraterrestrial being, a mysterious figure from Sandia Laboratories, and recovered craft at the Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility.
Verification and Admission
When investigator William Moore and later Benton Jamison (in 1985) interviewed Weitzel, he confirmed seeing a UFO in 1980 but described a conventional daylight disc sighting in the southeastern United States, contradicting the letter's account. Doty subsequently admitted to Moore that he had deliberately composed the letter as disinformation, designed to test whether the Lorenzens would become "useful idiots" in spreading false information.