Buzz
In December 1984, a mysterious briefing purportedly from "Operation Majestic-12" was sent to a man in Los Angeles, who was delving into UFO phenomena. The document suggested that Majestic-12 (MJ-12) was a secretive group consisting of 12 influential individuals from military, intelligence, and scientific sectors.
Jerome ClarkMain Insights
- Majestic 12 is rumored to be a clandestine U.S. government group tasked with investigating UFOs and extraterrestrial events.
- Several conspiracy theories assert that the group is responsible for overseeing secret research and covering up alien-related incidents.
- Although there is no solid proof, discussions and theories surrounding Majestic 12 persist.
In December 1984, Jaime Shandera received an unusual package with no sender details, postmarked from Albuquerque, New Mexico, arriving at his North Hollywood, California address. Inside was a 35mm film roll, which, after developing, revealed an eight-page document. The pages contained a briefing, allegedly from November 18, 1952, in which Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter informed President-elect Dwight Eisenhower about the recovery of two crashed UFOs.
The first of these incidents took place in early July 1947, when authorities reportedly recovered the remains of four humanoid beings. According to a document, which attached what was said to be the actual executive order, President Harry Truman approved the formation of a top-secret group known as 'Majestic 12' (MJ-12), tasked with investigating the bodies.
Acting on a lead from individuals claiming to be affiliated with Air Force intelligence, Shandera and his collaborator William Moore, co-author of 'The Roswell Incident,' traveled to Washington, D.C. They sifted through the National Archives for references to MJ-12 in official documents. They unearthed a memo from General Robert Cutler, an assistant to President Eisenhower, dated July 1954, which mentioned an 'MJ-12 SSP [Special Studies Project]' scheduled to take place at the White House on the 16th of that month.
When this document was made public in May 1987, it caused a major stir. Although the document is widely considered a hoax, the identity of the individual behind it and their intentions remain a mystery.
Jerome ClarkIn the spring of 1987, an anonymous individual, believed to have ties to an intelligence agency, provided British author Timothy Good with a copy of the MJ-12 document. When Good planned to make it public, Moore and Shandera released their own version, along with the Cutler memo. This ignited a significant uproar, which included coverage in The New York Times, Nightline, an FBI investigation, and ongoing controversy.
Although most investigators agree that the MJ-12 document is a forgery, the true identity of the forger remains an unsolved enigma that even the FBI has been unable to uncover. The forger seemingly had access to highly classified information, some of which wasn't available to the public, leading to speculation that the document may have been created by an intelligence agency as part of a disinformation campaign. Regardless of the reason, the MJ-12 document is undoubtedly one of the most perplexing hoaxes in UFO history.
