Witnesses & participants · Government & military
Lonnie Zamora
Socorro police officer and reporting witness
Who they are
Lonnie Zamora was the Socorro police officer who reported an unusual object and apparent landing on April 24, 1964. FBI records preserve his account and investigators’ subsequent observations of the location. His testimony is central to the case; the later examination of marks and vegetation does not by itself identify what he reported seeing.
He is the principal reporting witness in the Socorro encounter entry.
Selected contributions
- Gave investigators the account underlying the documented Socorro inquiry.Source ↗
Primary records
Archival document · 1964
Unidentified Flying Object, Socorro, New Mexico, April 24, 1964 — FBI memoranda
The memoranda record Zamora’s account and Byrnes’s subsequent site observations, including ground marks and burned vegetation. They let readers distinguish a witness narrative from what investigators observed afterward.
Memoranda dated May 8, 1964 describe April 24–25 events; the scanned bundle contains additional correspondence.
Reading scope & citation
Reused prior inspected evidence: Read extracted text of Byrnes’s site observations, the interview provenance, and the opening witness account. Not a complete audit of every memorandum or original physical exhibit.
In the timeline
- Apr 24, 1964Lonnie Zamora reports a landing near Socorro
Biography sources
- Unidentified Flying Object, Socorro, New Mexico, April 24, 1964 — FBI memoranda ↗Federal Bureau of Investigation; scan hosted by The Black Vault