UFO Crash Near Detroit 1974?

The story about David Bowie, Angie Bowie, Alan Yentob and possibly others being together when TV and/or radio news broadcasts gave details of a UFO crash near Detroit, Michigan in 1974, seems to have first surfaced in book-form in STARDUST - the David Bowie biography by journalist Henry Edwards and Mainman employee Tony Zanetta, published c.1986.

The story had appeared closer to the time of the broadcasts in an edition of David Bowie's diary published in the British magazine Mirabelle - apparently this diary was ghost-written by Cherry Vanilla (another employee of Mainman).

Then, in 1993, Angie Bowie provided her own account of the broadcasts in her book BACKSTAGE PASSES. According to Angie, these news broadcasts were on television, and were videotaped by Alan Yentob, who was making the (now) well-known documentary 'Cracked Actor.'

Recently, an internet source has cast doubt on the story of the alien-craft crash story.
This source quotes from Angie Bowie's book, and from a Detroit Free Press article of October 19th 1974. The accuracy of this newspaper article is questionable, as it gives the publication date of Frank Scully's book 'Behind The Flying Saucers' as 1953, when it is actually 1950 (there could have been a re-print in '53). Nevertheless, no substantial evidence has come my way, or to anyone that I'm aware of, to suggest that there really was a crash of an alien craft anywhere near Detroit in 1974.

In addition to the Detroit Free Press article, a further short article of relevence was published later that year, in the December 1974 issue of Skylook, published by the Mutual UFO Network, U.S.A.

This article which I'm quoting in full below has clearly been written subjectively, and the fact that Frank Scully's surname is mis-spelled (for example) tends to suggest that the writer should not be taken as any kind of authority on the subject of either Mr.Scully or Robert Carr...

Nevertheless, here it is for the record... whether the video recordings of the TV broadcasts would add any credibility to the crash story is doubtful, I think; but maybe someone reading this will make an effort to obtain these recordings from Alan Yentob.

If you are that person, maybe you could forward this info to him when you do.....

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Frozen bodies from saucer a 1950's hoax

Through the dubious efforts of a retired University of Southern Florida instructor, the old, old undocumented and discredited story of a crashed UFO, the finding of 12 bodies, and the "deep-freezing" of those bodies by the Air Force has been publicized again.

Robert Carr, who apparently was attempting to generate interest in a symposium Nov. 1-3 in Tampa, Fla., told the story on radio talk shows in California and Florida.

The story was apparently first widely publicized in the early 1950's in a book by Frank Skully, who seemingly was taken in by a hoax. Skully lived to regret his involvement with the story, but Carr has apparently found that it still creates a certain amount of interest.

Many listeners to Carr's radio talk shows got the impression that the case was a current one, rather than one which supposedly took place in 1948.

The press accounts concerning Carr's speculations have varied a great deal, disagreeing on whether the alleged case took place in California's Mojave Desert or near Aztec, N.M.; whether the space vehicle crash-landed or made a soft landing; and even whether there were two vehicles or only one.

A quick check of responsible UFO groups indicates that not one takes the case seriously, despite the fact that Carr has publicly claimed a long-time affiliation with NICAP. NICAP did not even bother to note the alleged case in its highly detailed and informative "The UFO Evidence" (1964), edited by Richard Hall.

[From Skylook No.85, December 1974]

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"Just A Coincidence"??

- A Postscript

It occurred to me after typing the above text that Angie Bowie's book 'Backstage Passes,' which included her account of the UFO Crash news broadcasts, was co-written with a man named Patrick Carr. The very same surname as the man who is supposed to have inspired the story of the 1974 crash as a consequence of his research into earlier UFO crashes.

Incidentally, having carefully read Frank Scully's book more than once, I definitely do not think that his findings were simply the result of his having been hoaxed by Silas Newton (the same surname as the extraterrestrial visitor played by David Bowie in 'The Man Who Fell To Earth') and Leo Gebauer.

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