FBI Records on Contactee Wayne Aho Another Indictment of UFO Genre
- Jack Brewer
- 3 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Wayne Sulo Aho (1916-2006) was born in Washington State, the son of Finnish homesteaders. He spent most of his life as a logger before hitting the UFO contactee circuit with stories of Space Brothers in 1957.
It was not Aho's tales of lifelong ET visitation or his association with common criminals or even his role in a saucer stock scam that made him of interest to EFR, but it was his reference in FBI records of involvement with UFO groups and people accused of subversive activity that put him on our radar. Specifically, a 1958 FBI memo obtained by EFR documented how Ivan Sanderson and Hans Santesson advised FBI of their concerns about the New York Saucer Information Bureau. Major Aho, as he liked to be known, was identified as a staple of the group, along with fellow alleged contactees Daniel Fry and Truman Bethurum, among others.
When they first started, meetings held by the NYSIB around New York City dealt primarily with UFO matters, the Sanderson and Santesson informed the FBI, but that changed around February of 1958. All meetings after that had no connections to scientific or factual information about UFOs and became filled with calls to complain to Congress about the U.S. government.
In their book “A” Is for Adamski: The Golden Age of the UFO Contactees, authors Adam Gorightly and Greg Bishop explain how Aho claimed to receive telepathic communications and frequently observe craft while attending events held by fellow contactees. He also took up with Otis T. Carr, a conman who once tried to sell the FBI – of all agencies – a bogus fingerprinting invention and doubled down by pitching the Army a $20 million scheme for a flying saucer that could go to the moon and back. Carr and Aho embarked on a nationwide tour, collecting donations to help them build the spacecraft that never came to fruition (no, they didn't front a famous rock band).
FBI records collected by EFR include material obtained from the National Archives as well as files previously released to The Black Vault through the Freedom of Information Act. As reported by Gorightly and Bishop, Aho was not charged in the saucer stock scheme, but Carr went to prison after an SEC investigation was conducted. Mail fraud was also at issue, as solicitations were sent far and wide.
FBI records show that following Carr's presentation to the Army, at least one source indicated Uncle Sam would further entertain a proposal if Carr and company could produce blueprints, plans and other specifications. They could not produce such details but that did not stop them from setting a date in 1959 to launch Aho to the moon from Frontier City, Oklahoma. Suffice it to say Aho remained earthbound.
From a 1959 FBI memo:
More than one Carr and Aho fan was enthusiastic enough to write Dir. Hoover himself, alerting him to the circumstances, in the event he was unaware, and encouraging J Edgar to... promote Carr's groundbreaking discoveries of free energy and spaceflight:
Evidence of Carr's downfall, per the FBI, which noted the courts "finally stepped in to protect gullible New Yorkers" from a flying saucer firm:
Interesting and darkly entertaining as some of this may very well be, these are probably not the reasons that individuals ranging from Ivan Sanderson to Leon Davidson were concerned about subversion in the UFO genre. Our ongoing investigation here at EFR would suggest that, while confidence men and their targeted audiences certainly play starring roles in the history of UFOs, it was likely those with designs on influencing political loyalties that most concerned select UFO investigators and FBI agents.
As suggested by Ivan Sanderson and Hans Santesson when taking it upon themselves to initiate contact with the FBI, Aho's involvement as a key individual with the New York Saucer Information Bureau, a group called Washington Saucer Intelligence, and the social circles of those in their orbits lead to areas of concern. From a 1960 FBI memo from the Salt Lake City Field Office to Dir. Hoover, featuring the now-common theme of luring people in with promises of scientific information about UFOs while flopping to a full complement of unrelated and often anti-social agendas:
The meeting attendee interviewed above added that the topics were unusual for inclusion in a purported discussion of technical matters. In another memo from the Salt Lake City FBI office, this one dated 1964, documentation is made of an attendee at a meeting of the New Age Foundation who became concerned enough about the proceedings to reach out to the Bureau. Aho was a speaker who left the attendee confused, alternating between promoting peace and opposition to the U.S. Government.
After the regular meeting, the source continued, there was a second gathering at the home of one of the women in attendance. At this second gathering, a man known as “Pierce” asserted that a civil revolution was forthcoming and that citizens should collect arms for protection. According to the informant, Pierce “proposed doing away with all Negroes”:
As we continue to work through the saucer-related FOIA records of the eras, as motivated by Sanderson and Santesson, it should become increasingly apparent why leaders of UFO groups and public meetings were typically assumed by the IC to be subversive, oblivious, and/or manipulating credulous followers for reasons that included financial gain or political agendas. The NYSIB, Washington Saucer Intelligence, NICAP, and eventually CUFOS, MUFON and others, were often associating with the same pool of unsavory characters and enabling their access to the public. That access was provided through publishing their articles, inviting them as speakers, and generally complicit in extremist rhetoric while giving them platforms to disseminate their ideologies. We might further consider how much, if any, the circumstances ever changed.
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