Scoriton Affair
As he later told the story, on April 24, 1965, at about 530
in the late afternoon, Ernest Arthur Bryant, a resident of Scoriton,
Devonshire, England, saw a flying saucer approach. It
stopped near to him, and a door opened. Three beings appeared
and beckoned to him. He approached the saucer. Two
of the three beings appeared to be nonhuman, but the third
seemed to be a youth in his teens. The youth spoke with an accent
that Bryant thought might be Russian and called himself
Yamski. He said that he was from Venus, and then remarked
that he wished Des was there, as he would understand what was
happening. At the close of their conversation, he said that in
a month he would return and bring proof of Mantell.
Ufologists who would eventually hear the story immediately
associated Yamski with George Adamski, the controversial flying
saucer contactee who had died on April 23, 1965. Adamski
was of Polish background and had a noticeable accent. If this
were Adamski, he would have immediately lost the signs of his
Sciomancy Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology 5th Ed.
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aging. Adamski had a friend Desmond Leslie with whom he
had written his first book. Captain Thomas F. Mantell, piloting
an F-51, had been killed when he began chasing what he
thought was a flying saucer. According to Bryant, the saucer returned
in June and left some items, including several pieces of
metal that could have possibly come from an F-51.
He reported the story to the British UFO Research Association
(BUFORA), and an investigation was launched. The various
items Bryant turned over to the two investigators proved
to be mundane and of no relation to the F-51. In spite of problems
with the story, one of the investigators, Eileen Buckle,
rushed into print with a book. Shortly thereafter, Bryant unexpectedly
took ill and died from a brain tumor. The other investigator,
Norman Oliver, visited his widow. She reported that
she was familiar with the story in the book as her husband has
presented it to her first as the script for a science fiction novel.
It was only after the investigation was well along that she realized
her husband was trying to sell the story as a real event. She
indicated that the supposed items related to Mantell had been
purchased at a naval surplus store.
Alice Wells, head of the Adamski Foundation, dismissed the
Scoriton story from the beginning, as did Desmond Leslie. Between
their rejection and Olivers uncovering of the hoax, few
remained to support Bryant except Buckle. It is remembered
amid the many UFO hoax attempts primarily because it extends,
however briefly, the entertaining story of George Adamski.
Sources
Buckle, Eileen. The Scoriton Mystery. London Neville Spearman,
1967.
Oliver, Norman. Sequel to Scoriton. London The Author,
1968.
Zinstagg, Lou, and Timothy Good. George AdamskiThe Untold
Story. Beckenham, Kent, UK Ceto Publications, 1983.
