Editing Roswell incident (section)

===Aztec crashed saucer hoax===
[[File:Aztec-hoax-pic.png|alt=Three men demonstrate the Aztec hoax claims using an inverted bowl to represent Earth and a copy of Frank Scully's book to represent a magnetism-powered flying saucer.|thumb|Author Frank Scully (right) and confidence man Silas Newton (center)<ref>{{harvnb|Severson|1952}}</ref>]]
The [[Aztec, New Mexico crashed saucer hoax]] in 1948 introduced stories of recovered alien bodies that later became associated with Roswell.<ref name="Saler-p13" /><ref name="Clarke-2015-chpt13">{{harvnb|Clarke|2015|loc=ch.&nbsp;13}}: "It appeared the Aztec story was destined to join the Aurora airship crash and the Roswell weather balloon as a flash in the ufological pan, quickly to be forgotten. In hindsight all three provided the basic template for what became the modern crashed saucer legend."</ref> It achieved broad exposure when the con artists behind it convinced ''Variety'' columnist [[Frank Scully]] to cover their fictitious crash.<ref>{{harvnb|Peebles|1994|pp=48–50, 251}}</ref> The hoax narrative included small grey humanoid bodies, metal stronger than any found on Earth, indecipherable writing, and a government coverup to prevent public panic{{snd}}these elements appeared in later versions of the Roswell myth.<ref name="Saler-p13">{{harvnb|Saler|Ziegler|Moore|1997|pp=13–14}}</ref><ref name="Peebles-1994-p242">{{harvnb|Peebles|1994|pp=242, 251}}</ref> In retellings, the mundane debris reported at the actual crash site was replaced with the Aztec hoax's fantastical alloys.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2000|p=99}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Saler|Ziegler|Moore|1997|pp=14, 42}}</ref> By the time Roswell returned to media attention, [[grey alien]]s had become a part of American culture through the [[Barney and Betty Hill incident]].<ref>{{harvnb|Levy|Mendlesohn|2019|p=136}}: "However, it is the Betty and Barney Hill abduction account that brings the grays fully into public consciousness [...] As knowledge of the Hills' experiences spread, so too did sightings of grays. This included the addition of grays to popularized accounts of the 1947 Roswell UFO incident."</ref> In a 1997 Roswell report, Air Force investigator James McAndrew wrote that "even with the exposure of this obvious fraud, the Aztec story is still revered by UFO theorists. Elements of this story occasionally reemerge and are thought to be the catalyst for other crashed flying saucer stories, including the Roswell Incident."<ref>{{harvnb|McAndrew|1997|pp=84–85}}</ref>