FBI AND THE MYSTERY OF ORFEO ANGELUCCI
FBI AND THE MYSTERY OF ORFEO ANGELUCCI
Declassified documents reveal the fate of a UFO-related file
A FOIA Request That Led to a Dead End
In October 2017, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) responded to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records related to UFO contactee Orfeo Angelucci.
The request had been submitted by John Greenewald Jr., the researcher behind the well-known FOIA archive website The Black Vault.
The official letter from the FBI’s Records Management Division delivered an unexpected answer:
Records that may have been responsive to the request were destroyed on October 30, 2009.
Because the materials were no longer available, the Bureau stated it could not determine whether the destroyed records were actually relevant to the request.
What the FBI Letter Reveals
The document—signed by David M. Hardy—clarifies that the destruction of records followed federal archiving procedures supervised by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Under U.S. law, federal agencies periodically dispose of certain records once they reach the end of their retention schedule.
The letter also included several standard FOIA notifications:
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Some law-enforcement and national security records are exempt from disclosure.
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The response does not confirm or deny whether other classified records might exist.
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Requesters have the right to file an appeal within 90 days if they dispute the decision.
These statements are part of routine FOIA procedures used across U.S. government agencies.
Who Was Orfeo Angelucci?
Books written by Orfeo Angelucci describing alleged encounters with extraterrestrial beings.
Orfeo Angelucci (1912–1993) was one of the most famous figures in the early UFO contactee movement of the 1950s.
He claimed to have experienced encounters with extraterrestrial beings and to have traveled aboard flying saucers.
Angelucci described these experiences in several books, including:
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The Secret of the Saucers (1955)
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Son of the Sun (1959)
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The Nature of Infinite Entities (1963)
His writings blended UFO experiences with spiritual and philosophical ideas about humanity’s place in the universe.
The FBI and UFO Reports
The released document does not contain investigative details about Angelucci. Instead, it mainly provides administrative information about the FBI’s FOIA process.
The enclosure attached to the letter includes an FBI Fact Sheet, explaining that:
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The FBI’s primary mission is national security and law enforcement.
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FBI files typically contain investigative reports covering a wide range of issues, from organized crime to counter-intelligence.
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Not every individual has an FBI file, and records may be archived or destroyed over time.
A Missing Piece of UFO History
The destruction of the Angelucci records means researchers may never know exactly what information the FBI once held about him.
For historians of UFO culture, this leaves an intriguing gap:
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Did the FBI investigate Angelucci’s claims?
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Were there reports linking him to government inquiries about UFO sightings?
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Or were the files simply routine references?
Without the original documents, these questions remain unanswered.
✅ Conclusion
The released FBI response illustrates a common challenge in historical research: sometimes the most intriguing records are the ones that no longer exist.
While the FOIA process continues to reveal previously hidden government documents, the case of Orfeo Angelucci shows how parts of UFO history may have been lost to routine archival destruction.
