Authors: Charlette LeFevre,Philip Lipson
The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story behind the Air Force’s first military plane crash (9 page)
Private citizens could round up strays on their own and return them to
the owners.
Soon a dozen or more free-lance patrol boats were
roaming Puget Sound in search of runaway fir, hemlock, and cedar.
The going price for returned branded logs averaged $17.50 a thousand
board feet –
John Covington,
Harold Dahl lived in Tacoma, Aberdeen, and Tenino. He was a selfemployed surplus dealer and a
member of
the Gun
Collectors
Association.
Dahl moved twenty miles south to Tenino, Washington, where he
started a used furniture/second hand store and lived peacefully until
his death in 1982.
An article in a Centralia paper showed an interesting aspect of Dahl’s
later life in 1975 near Tenino as a used car and junk dealer. The article
states “now he has a collection of ‘you name it we have it’ that fills his
shop, his junkyard, his Cadillacs, and even his house.
‘It took us 16 years to accumulate all this junk’ Dahl says proudly, his
hand sweeping across the acreage he owns along Washington 507 in
Thurston County. Dahl deals in just about anything, but he can’t resist
Cadillacs. ‘I was a travelling repairman for Cadillac’ he explains. He
specialized in hearses and ambulances. “The other vehicles serve as
fine homes for his collection of pets-chickens ,ducks, dogs, and one
lovable wild goose named “Silver.”.. ’ We’re constructing a new
building out back, said Dahl ‘We’re going to use it as a showroom.
We’ll line up our Cadillacs and display some of our antiques.’ The new
building, of course will be made of scrap material-discarded telephone
poles, sheets of metal from a steam power plant and lumber from the
Tenino Dreamland Dance Hall
, which Dahl razed.
When the main building began to sag, Mrs. Dahl even though she
describes herself as ‘more of a businesswoman than a housekeeper,’
became restive when her husband ‘set up shop in the house.
“You name it, he’s got it: all but space that is.” Centralia Daily Chronicle November
19, 1975
He had two sons Charles who later moved to Hammond, LA and
Daniel of Tacoma. He had two daughters Louise Bakotich who is now
83 and living in Aberdeen and Lynn Palmer of Portland
Obituary Harold A Dahl Tacoma News Tribune, February 1, 1982
There has been much controversy over whether Charles Dahl
was actually injured or was even on Harold Dahl’s patrol boat.
MAURY
ISLANDS
NO
LONGER
A
MYSTERY: A
UFO
HOAX
EXPOSED! by Anthony Bragalia, July 2010
http://ufocon.blogspot.com/2010/07/maury-island-no-longer-mystery-ufo-hoax.html
In Anthony Bragalia’s 2010 article, he claims that Charles Dahl said
that he was never on his father’s boat, and “the entire affair was a hoax
and characterized Crisman as a smooth talking con artist.”
There is little doubt that most people saw Crisman as a con artist.
When the authors talked to Louise Bakotich, Dahl’s daughter recently
in the preparation of this report she mentioned, “This is a mystery no
one knows what to think about.” In 2003, Frank Warren sent her 50
pages of material about the incident. “She also told me that she was
estranged from her brother early in life and didn't know him well; nor
were they together as family at the time of the occurrence. “ She
wasn’t raised by her father and only reunited with him after 1965. She
also told Warren that she took care of her father the last two weeks of
his life, and although he didn't reference the Maury Island Incident, he
did talk mildly about UFOs, which he held onto as a belief until the day
he died.”
Haldor Dahl
Many researchers have assumed that Harold Dahl’s boat was called the
“North Queen.” This comes from the listing in
Merchant Vessels of The
United States-1947
of a boat called North Queen owned by a “Haldor
Dahl.” Researchers have considered this to be merely a misprint and
assumed that it really was Harold Dahl. However, the 1947 Tacoma
City Directory lists
both Haldor Dahl as president of the Tacoma
Boat
Building Company and Harold Dahl
at
different
addresses.
Haldor Dahl was a well-known figure in the shipping industry. As the
Merchant Vessels of 1946-1948 do not list a Harold Dahl, Harold Doll,
or Crisman, there is no documented reference to the name of the boat
Harold Dahl was using at the time of the claimed sighting. Arne Strom
and his brother-in-law, Haldor Dahl, established Strom
&
Dahl
Boatbuilding, built purse seiners, and trollers.
Haldor Dahl-Obituary, Tacoma News Tribune, November 4, 1953
Fred Lee Crisman(photo of Fred Crisman courtesy of Dr. Larry
Haapanen, photographer unknown)
Early connection with UFOs
Crisman would become one of
the most interesting characters in
the Maury Island UFO Incident
with
even
more
covert
relationships
than
one
would
think
of
a
Tacoma
small
businessman and teacher would
have.
FBI documents and statements
from friends would show Crisman
would later be involved with
political campaigns, shady church organizations
as well as eventually
be subpoenaed by Jim Garrison on the JFK assassination. It is very
likely much of his skills played a part in manipulation and
cover up in
the Maury Island UFO Incident.
In June 1946, Crisman wrote a letter to the editor of Amazing Stories
who was Palmer about his battle in Burma with Deros. Crisman would
write:
Sirs:
I flew my last combat mission on May 26 [1945] when I was shot up
over Bassein and ditched my ship in Ramaree Roads off Chedubs
Island. I was missing five days. I requested leave at Kashmere.
I
and Capt. (deleted by request) left Srinagar and went to Rudok then
through the Khesa pass to the northern foothills of the Kabakoram.
We found what we were looking for.
We knew what we were
searching for.
For heaven's sake, drop the whole thing!
You are playing with
dynamite. My companion and I fought our way out of a cave with
submachine guns. I have two 9" scars on my left arm that came from
wounds given me in the cave when I was 50 feet from a moving
object of any kind and in perfect silence. The muscles were nearly
ripped out. How? I don't know. My friend has a hole the size of a
dime in his right bicep. It was seared inside. How we don't know.
But we both believe we know more about the Shaver Mystery than
any other pair.
You can imagine my fright when I picked up my first copy of
Amazing Stories and see you splashing words about the subject.
Crisman was born on July 22, 1919, He moved with his family to
Vale, Oregon, in 1933 where his father was the proprietor of a hotel.
He graduated from Vale Union High School in 1939 and attended
Eastern Oregon College in LaGrande, Oregon, for a short time during
the 1939-1940 school year before leaving to go to work for the Union
Pacific Railroad as a brakeman. In 1942, Crisman joined the military.
He was a graduate of Williamette University with degrees in political
science, history, and education and psychology
-“Crisman Native Tacoman,”
Tacoma News Tribune, Dec 16, 1975
In 1942, in Ontario, Ore., he married Filomena Veristain just before he
was sent to the Pacific Theater as a fighter pilot in the US Army Air
Corp. Later that year, Filomena gave birth to a daughter, Rita Louise
Crisman who was killed in a car accident in 1964.
In 1955, Filomena
gave birth to a son, Fred Lee Crisman Jr.
According to political ads, he enlisted into army service on May 26,
1942 and he flew 211 combat missions, was wounded twice, and was
shot down twice. He separated from the Army Air Force on February
19, 1946 and went to work for the State Department of Veterans
Affairs.
In Crisman’s own words, in his book “Murder of
a
City…
Tacoma” he would state: “in 1946-1947, as a recently released fighter
pilot, I had been appointed a Special Investigator and assigned to a
now defunct
department
of
the state
government, The
State
Department of Veteran Affairs. My job – take a look at the variety of
rackets, con jobs and out right cheating of newly discharged veterans
from our Washington located camps of the armed forces.
My job
brought me into contact with many of the local men and most of the
political leaders of the day.”
Crisman would also relate he had a close
working relationship with most of the police officers of Tacoma and
Seattle and most of the judges and a great many lawyers.
It is highly likely that Crisman met Harold Dahl at this time and
established what would appear to be a mutually beneficial relationship
that often seemed strained.
According to an FBI report on Crisman of September 13, 1947 after
working for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs up until March 31,
1947, he “went to work for Harold Dahl piloting Dahl’s personal
plane.”
This is the only reference we have seen that Dahl owned a
personal plane.
Crisman worked for the State Veterans Rehabilitation Council from
March
20, 1946
to
March
31, 1947
handling Veteran
problems
“Particularly those in trouble with the law.” Crisman was terminated
following a reduction in force and is stated to have then worked for
Harold Dahl. An unknown person interviewed by the FBI stated they
thought Dahl “was rumored to be a black market operative.”
Crisman told an informant that he had developed an idea for a log
patrol
and beach
patrol, which
would
involve the recovery of
unmarked logs from Puget Sound and the patrolling of summer beach
cottages for private owners.
Crisman said that Dahl stole this idea
from him.
A few days after the Kelso crash Crisman was ordered by the Army to
Alaska. There is no evidence of Crisman actually going. A statement
given to the FBI on August 8th led the Fourth Air Force headquarters
to revoke his Air Force Reserve Commission as “undesirable and
unreliable officer.”
Maury Island UFO Incident was a hoax.
“Why, if we were such blackguards and deliberately caused the deaths
of two Air Force Pilots and the loss of a $150,000 airplane did not the
government or some agency there attempt to seek justice through the
courts of the state and federal government”
Fate, January,1950
Crisman was recalled to active duty during the Korean War in 1950.
He served as a fighter pilot for the next two and a half years and he
moved to Japan with his family. In 1953, he returned to teaching in
Elgin, OR. At one point Crisman in the 1950’s underwent psychiatric
treatment in Ft. Steilacoom, Washington.
He later was a teacher and school administrator in a number of high
schools in Washington and Oregon, and he worked for the Boeing
Aircraft Company in Seattle for two years in the early 1960s.
According to Joan Mellen,”Some thought the entire brouhaha was a
scam to cover up a Boeing aircraft accident involving radioactive
material. Boeing refused to supply Garrison with Crisman’s
employment records.”
Mellen, Joan. A Farewell to Justice.
For years, he was a freelance writer, especially writing books, speeches,
and campaign materials for many political figures, including state
governors and members of the U.S. Congress.
In the late 1960s, Fred Crisman moved back to his native Tacoma,
Washington, and became involved in a highly charged political struggle
in which he and friends and colleagues sought to end the CityManagement form of government. As part of this struggle, Crisman
became well known and controversial as the host of a radio talk show
using the pseudonym Jon Gold, and he wrote a book about the period
called
Murder of a City
that was published in 1970.
