FBI 62-HQ-83894-94 — Mrs. A. Sarbanis 'Radio Ham' Newsday Coded Message Witness Follow-Up: FBI Laboratory Decoding, New York Field Investigation, FCC Amateur Radio Records, City Editor Editorial Judgment as Disposition Authority, September 17, 1947

Summary

On September 17, 1947, FBI Headquarters official W. V. Cleveland submitted an internal memorandum to Mr. J. P. Coyne (indexed as “Holt” on the routing slip, indicating handling by a different official) documenting the completed investigation of a civilian informant case — Mrs. A. Sarbanis, who had submitted a coded newspaper clipping from Newsday (Nassau and Suffolk County, Long Island, New York) signed “Radio Ham” to the FBI on July 10, 1947. The clipping contained a coded message, which Mrs. Sarbanis decoded and submitted with her cover letter. The FBI Laboratory verified that her decoding was “substantially correct.” The Laboratory’s own decoding of the message read: “TIRED OF HUMAN NONSENSE WONT AWAIT ATOMIC WAR DISRUPTING ORDER SOLAR SYSTEM SO SENT FLYING DISKS AND WILL SET UP WORLD ORDER UNDER MARTIANS LATE THIS YEAR.” The New York FBI Office was tasked with locating the source newspaper and attempting to identify the “Radio Ham” sender. By September 4, 1947, the New York Office had traced the clipping to Newsday and reported that the City Editor could not identify the writer, characterizing the code as the work of a local “screwball” affected by flying-disc newspaper publicity. The FBI Laboratory identified an additional investigative pathway — FCC amateur radio records in the Bellmore, Long Island area could potentially identify the sender — but the HQ memorandum recommends no further action, citing the City Editor’s dismissal judgment as dispositive. Filed as FBI serial 62-83894-94, two serials before the Twin Falls Hedstrom memo (62-83894-96). The memorandum is routed through a 19-name HQ distribution list, the same senior officials who appear across the entire 62-HQ-83894 case file.

What the Cleveland-to-Coyne Memorandum Documents

The Sarbanis Submission (July 10, 1947)

The memorandum establishes the civilian-informant entry point:

“You will recall that a letter was received from the above captioned individual dated July 10, 1947, in which she inclosed a newspaper clipping signed ‘Radio Ham.’ This newspaper clipping contained a coded message which Mrs. Sarbanis decoded.”

The submission contains three elements: (1) Mrs. Sarbanis’s cover letter; (2) the newspaper clipping signed “Radio Ham”; (3) Mrs. Sarbanis’s own decoding of the coded message. She is identified as an informant — the standard Bureau designation for a civilian source providing information voluntarily to the FBI.

The July 10, 1947 date establishes the submission occurred during the early weeks of the national flying-disc wave, 16 days after Kenneth Arnold’s June 24, 1947 Mt. Rainier sighting and before the Maury Island incident was fully public.

FBI Laboratory Decoding — Martian Authorship Claim

The memorandum documents the Laboratory’s verification:

“The FBI Laboratory checked Mrs. Sarbanis’ decoding of this message and advised that it was substantially correct. The Laboratory’s decoding of the message is being set forth below:”

“TIRED OF HUMAN NONSENSE WONT AWAIT ATOMIC WAR DISRUPTING ORDER SOLAR SYSTEM SO SENT FLYING DISKS AND WILL SET UP WORLD ORDER UNDER MARTIANS LATE THIS YEAR.”

This is the only entry in the 62-HQ-83894 archive where the FBI Laboratory decodes a message explicitly attributing flying-disc origin to Martian agents. The message’s content — “sent flying disks,” “world order under Martians,” “late this year” — is clearly a prank or fiction. However, the Bureau’s institutional response (Laboratory decoding, New York field office investigation, 19-name HQ routing) documents that the Bureau treated civilian coded-message submissions about flying discs as requiring formal investigation, not automatic dismissal.

The coded message also contains a reference to “ATOMIC WAR DISRUPTING ORDER SOLAR SYSTEM” — linking the flying-disc phenomenon to atomic weapons concerns in July 1947, one month before the Bulletin #57 stand-down of October 1947 and two years before the Soviet atomic bomb test (August 1949). This framing — flying discs as a response to human atomic weapons development — appears in multiple 1947 civilian flying-disc theories in the archive (see Jones negative-gravity speculation, Gasser atomic-propulsion briefing).

New York Field Office Investigation (By September 4, 1947)

The Bureau tasked the New York Office with two investigative objectives:

“The New York Office was asked to interview Mrs. Sarbanis to determine from what newspaper the clipping in question was obtained. They were further instructed to contact this newspaper in an effort to ascertain the identity of the person who sent in the coded message, in order that the person might be interviewed for information concerning the alleged receipt of the coded message.”

The New York Office completed both tasks by September 4, 1947:

“By letter dated September 4, 1947, the New York Office advised that they had ascertained from Mrs. Sarbanis that the coded message had appeared in ‘Newsday,’ the local newspaper of Nassau and Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. The City Editor of this newspaper stated that the original had been signed only ‘Radio Ham’ and knew of no way of determining the identity of the writer.”

City Editor’s editorial judgment: The City Editor of Newsday rendered the dispositive assessment:

“It was the City Editor’s opinion that the code had been made up by some local ‘screwball’ who had been affected by all of the newspaper publicity that had been given to stories concerning ‘flying discs.’”

This judgment — a newspaper editor’s editorial assessment of a reader-submitted item — became the basis for the Bureau’s recommendation of no further action. No other investigative basis for the dismissal is cited. The City Editor’s opinion is not corroborated by a technical assessment of the code, a psychological evaluation of the sender, or any law enforcement determination.

FCC Amateur Radio Records — Available But Not Pursued

The FBI Laboratory identified an additional investigative pathway that was not taken:

“The FBI Laboratory has now advised that the FCC maintains their amateur records by a geographical breakdown as well as by call letters and that the Laboratory could possibly get the names of all amateurs in the Bellmore, Long Island, New York Section in the event it is desired that another attempt be made to identify the person who sent this coded message to the ‘Newsday.’”

This establishes that in September 1947, the FBI Laboratory had standing knowledge of FCC amateur radio record structures and could access them geographically — by section, not just by call sign. The Bellmore area on Long Island would have a limited number of licensed amateur radio operators. The Bureau’s decision not to pursue this pathway, and to cite the City Editor’s opinion as sufficient basis for dismissal, is operationally significant: the FCC records route was explicitly available, explicitly identified, and explicitly left unexercised.

HQ Recommendation and Disposition

The memorandum closes with a formal recommendation:

“RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended that no further action be taken in connection with this matter in view of the opinion expressed by the City Editor of the ‘Newsday’ that the letter received by him signed ‘Radio Ham’ was from some local ‘screwball.’”

The recommendation is based solely on the City Editor’s opinion. The Bureau does not independently assess the code, evaluate the message content, investigate Newsday’s publication record, or pursue the FCC amateur radio records pathway.

Reference numbers: WVC:tgh / 105-0-2270 1947/76 — the “105-0-2270” prefix suggests the case was also tracked under a domestic-security file number (105 = foreign counterintelligence / domestic security investigations), not solely under the 62-83894 flying-disc file. Filed as 62-83894-94.

19-Name HQ Routing List

The memorandum is distributed through a 19-name routing list, the same senior Bureau leadership that appears across the entire 62-HQ-83894 flying-disc case file:

Mr. Tolson / Mr. E. A. Tamm / Mr. Clegg / Mr. Glavin / Mr. Ladd / Mr. Nichols / Mr. Rosen / Mr. Tracy / Mr. Carson / Mr. Egan / Mr. Gurnea / Mr. Harbo / Mr. Mohr / Mr. Pennington / Mr. Quinn Tamm / Tele. Room / Mr. Nease / Miss Holmes / Miss Gandy

This is a Director-adjacent routing list — Associate Director Tolson, Assistant Directors Ladd (Intelligence), Tamm (Executive), Clegg (Investigations), and Nichols (Press / Domestic Intelligence) are all present. Routing a coded-message civilian informant case to 19 senior officials for a “no further action” recommendation indicates the Bureau’s institutional posture: even cases destined for non-action required senior HQ visibility before closure.

Why This Matters

1. Only in-archive case where the FBI Laboratory decodes a message explicitly attributing flying-disc origin to Martian agents. The message is clearly fiction or prank. But the Bureau’s institutional response — Laboratory decoding, New York field investigation, 19-name HQ routing — documents that coded-message civilian submissions about flying discs were processed through formal investigative channels rather than summarily dismissed at intake. The Lab’s confirmation that Mrs. Sarbanis’s decoding was “substantially correct” indicates she had genuine cryptographic skill, not just guesswork.

2. City Editor’s editorial judgment as the sole dispositive basis for federal investigation closure. The investigation was closed on the opinion of a newspaper City Editor that the sender was a local “screwball.” No FBI technical assessment, no law enforcement determination, no psychological evaluation corroborated this judgment. The case documents a structural reliance on third-party editorial opinion as sufficient grounds for federal case closure in the 1947 flying-disc period.

3. FCC amateur radio records identified as an available investigative pathway but deliberately not pursued. The FBI Laboratory explicitly flagged the FCC amateur records by geographic section (Bellmore, Long Island) as a potential identification route. The decision not to pursue this pathway is a documented investigative choice, not an investigative limitation. The Bureau had the institutional access but chose not to use it, citing the City Editor’s opinion as sufficient.

4. 69-day investigation lifecycle preserved in primary form. July 10, 1947 (Sarbanis submission) → FBI Lab decoding → NY field office tasking → September 4, 1947 (NY Office response) → September 17, 1947 (HQ recommendation) = 69 days from civilian submission to HQ disposition. This documents the standard HQ flying-disc informant investigation tempo in the 1947 period.

5. 19-name senior HQ routing for a non-escalated civilian-informant case. The same routing list that appears on URGENT teletypes and Director-level memos appears here for a case ending in “no further action.” This distribution pattern indicates all civilian-informant flying-disc submissions received Director-level routing visibility regardless of anticipated disposition, consistent with the Bureau’s posture that flying-disc reports were institutionally intelligence-relevant even when individually dismissed.

6. Atomic war framing in the coded message positions the sender within the 1947 civilian-physics-vocabulary corpus. The message’s “WONT AWAIT ATOMIC WAR DISRUPTING ORDER SOLAR SYSTEM” connects to the same conceptual framework as Gasser’s atomic-propulsion briefing (pass 8), Jones’s negative-gravity speculation (pass 14), Merchant’s defense-interest framing (pass 35 case 3), and Pervier’s slotted-saucer engineering theory (pass 16). Whether a genuine coded alien communication or a prank, the author inhabited the same conceptual universe as other 1947 civilian theorists connecting flying discs to atomic weapons development.

7. “Radio Ham” pseudonym documents amateur radio operator culture’s intersection with 1947 flying-disc mythology. The sender chose a call-sign pseudonym — a standard amateur radio practice. This indicates the sender was likely an amateur radio operator or sufficiently familiar with amateur radio culture to use it as an identity marker. The FCC records route was specifically noted in the Bellmore area, suggesting a geographically specific amateur radio cluster.

8. Filing as 62-83894-94 places this case two serials before the Twin Falls Hedstrom memo (96), both from September 1947. The Sarbanis case (94) and the Hedstrom case (96) were received and filed at FBI headquarters within the same processing batch in early September to early October 1947. They represent different sub-types of the Bureau’s 1947 flying-disc caseload: Sarbanis = anonymous coded-message civilian informant; Hedstrom = named multi-witness field investigation with law enforcement corroboration.

Connections

• PURSUE full inventory
• fbi-investigative-memo-case-follow-up-1947 — Filed as serial 62-83894-96, two serials after Sarbanis (94); both September 1947; contrasting case types (coded-message informant vs. named multi-witness field investigation)
• civilian-correspondence-hoover-pattern-1949-1950 — Broader civilian-witness correspondence pattern; Sarbanis case (1947) predates the Hoover form-reply formula that stabilized January 1948 – February 1950
• danforth-illinois-instrument-examination-september-1947 — Contemporaneous September 1947 case (serial 62-83894-122, later that month); same month, different investigative type (artifact vetting vs. coded-message informant)
• parker-rix-ledges-lebanon-september-1947 — September 17, 1947 (same date as this memo); professional-witness sighting letter to Hoover vs. anonymous coded-message in public newspaper; both September 1947 HQ processing
• oak-ridge-gasser-atomic-propulsion-1947-1949 — Atomic-propulsion framing parallel; Gasser’s off-the-record briefing connects flying discs to atomic propulsion; coded message connects flying discs to “ATOMIC WAR” concern
• Concept: City Editor's Judgment as Federal Investigation Disposition Authority
• Concept: FCC Amateur Radio Records as Identified-But-Unused FBI Investigative Tool, 1947
• Concept: Civilian Coded-Message Submission Protocol, FBI 62-HQ-83894, 1947

Open Questions

1. Who was Mrs. A. Sarbanis and what was her FBI informant history? The memo’s reference to “You will recall” and her “informant” designation suggest she had prior contact with the FBI or was a registered informant. Was she a recurring Bureau source? Did she have other submissions in the 62-HQ-83894 file or adjacent case files?

2. Where did the clipping appear in Newsday and on what date? The memo identifies Newsday as the Nassau and Suffolk County Long Island newspaper. What section and date did the “Radio Ham” coded message appear? Was it a letters section, a personals column, or a puzzle/games section? The placement would indicate the intended audience and the editorial selection context.

3. What was the complete coded message before decoding? The memo provides only the decoded plaintext. What was the original code system used? The fact that Mrs. Sarbanis decoded it without assistance, and the FBI Lab confirmed the decoding as “substantially correct,” suggests a relatively simple substitution cipher. The original coded text is not preserved in this memo.

4. Did the “Radio Ham” code appear in any other publication? Newsday was Nassau/Suffolk County only. Did identical or similar coded messages appear in other regional newspapers? The timing (July 1947, peak of the national flying-disc wave) suggests this may have been one of several such prank submissions circulating among amateur radio enthusiasts.

5. Why was Bellmore specifically cited as the FCC records target area? The memorandum identifies “the Bellmore, Long Island, New York Section” as the relevant FCC geographic breakdown. This geographic specificity suggests the New York Office had additional information — perhaps from Mrs. Sarbanis’s interview or from the City Editor — that pointed to the Bellmore area as the probable sender location. What was the basis for this geographic targeting?

6. Did the “105-0-2270” file reference indicate a parallel domestic-security file? The reference number “105-0-2270 1947/76” uses a 105 prefix, which in Bureau filing conventions typically indicates foreign counterintelligence or domestic security investigations. Was the Sarbanis case also tracked as a potential domestic security matter — for instance, as a possible attempt to create public confusion or panic about flying discs as an intelligence operation?

7. Were other coded-message flying-disc submissions received by the Bureau in 1947? The Sarbanis case is the only coded-message flying-disc informant submission documented in the OCR’d sections of 62-HQ-83894. Were there others? Were they filed under different case numbers?

8. Did J. P. Coyne or the handling official (Holt) concur with the no-further-action recommendation? The routing slip shows “Holt” as the handling notation, suggesting a different official than the addressee (Coyne) handled the memo. Was the recommendation formally approved? Did any of the 19 routing-list recipients dissent or request additional investigation?

Quotes Worth Keeping

“TIRED OF HUMAN NONSENSE WONT AWAIT ATOMIC WAR DISRUPTING ORDER SOLAR SYSTEM SO SENT FLYING DISKS AND WILL SET UP WORLD ORDER UNDER MARTIANS LATE THIS YEAR.” — FBI Laboratory decoding of the “Radio Ham” coded message, as reported in W.V. Cleveland memorandum to J.P. Coyne, September 17, 1947. Section 2 page 157. Only in-archive flying-disc case where the FBI Lab decodes a message attributing disc origin to Martian agents.

“The City Editor of this newspaper stated that the original had been signed only ‘Radio Ham’ and knew of no way of determining the identity of the writer. It was the City Editor’s opinion that the code had been made up by some local ‘screwball’ who had been affected by all of the newspaper publicity that had been given to stories concerning ‘flying discs.’” — W.V. Cleveland memorandum, September 17, 1947. Section 2 page 157. City Editor’s editorial judgment as the basis for federal investigation closure.

“The FBI Laboratory has now advised that the FCC maintains their amateur records by a geographical breakdown as well as by call letters and that the Laboratory could possibly get the names of all amateurs in the Bellmore, Long Island, New York Section in the event it is desired that another attempt be made to identify the person who sent this coded message to the ‘Newsday.’” — W.V. Cleveland memorandum, September 17, 1947. Section 2 page 157. FCC amateur radio records as identified-but-unexercised investigative pathway.

“RECOMMENDATION: It is recommended that no further action be taken in connection with this matter in view of the opinion expressed by the City Editor of the ‘Newsday’ that the letter received by him signed ‘Radio Ham’ was from some local ‘screwball.’” — W.V. Cleveland memorandum, September 17, 1947. Section 2 page 157. Formal HQ recommendation citing third-party editorial judgment as sole dispositive basis.