Looking back at alleged UFO crash of 1941 near Cape Girardeau

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KFVS) - As the U.S. Secretary of Defense prepares to release a report on unidentified flying objects, the facts about the alleged UFO crash in the Cape Girardeau area still remain up in the air.

“I thought Cape Girardeau, spaceship crash, aliens, you’ve got to be kidding me,” said Paul Blake Smith, the author of “MO41 The Bombshell Before Roswell.”

That sparked Smith’s desire to write a book about the alleged crash.

“Everyone was told, do not talk about this. This is a matter of national security. It didn’t happen,” he said “Getting hard evidence for this has been like trying to nail JELL-O to the wall. It’s very frustrating.”

According to what Smith found out, the crash happened late April 1941.

He said the UFO went down in a field somewhere west of the Cape Girardeau Airport between Cape Girardeau and Chaffee.

His main source for the details about the crash was the granddaughter of a pastor named William G. Huffman. The granddaughter said Huffman was called to go to a scene of a plane crash to pray for the victims.

“When he got there, he got the shock of his life. There was no cylindrical airplane with wings or propellers. There was a round silver disc that was broken open, and there was debris metallic shards in the field that had set fire to the field,” said Smith.

According to Smith and Huffman’s granddaughter, there were three creatures at the scene. They said two had already died by the time Huffman arrived.

“One of them was apparently still alive, still breathing as Reverend Huffman knelt over this creature. And they were about three and a half to four feet tall. Your typical grays as we would call them today, with big black eyes and long, thin arms and legs, and the creature expired in front of him,” said Smith.

Smith said the the U.S. military eventually arrived at the crash site, forced everyone to secrecy, and took all the evidence.

“Ever since, it’s a big mystery. Where did they take the physical evidence, the bodies, the debris, and the crashed vehicle that was cracked open, which Reverend Huffman said had little gauges on a kind of instrument panel and tiny little seats? And some hieroglyphic writing on a silver band inside the cockpit. He couldn’t make it out. He thought it was very mysterious,” said Smith.

After KFVS12 reached out to the FBI, officials responded and said, “We were unable to identify records responsive to your request.”

The United States Air Force had a similar response and said they “researched their files and found no documentation concerning this event.”

Air Force officials also said “a review of the histories for the Air Corps Training Detachment at Sikeston, Missouri was undertaken. Regrettably, no mention was found in the official unit histories regarding such an incident.”

“The Cape Girardeau story should be a big bombshell story that got squelched,” said Smith.

Smith said he’s not convinced the Secretary of Defense will release more information next month in its report about unidentified flying objects.

“I’m a little pessimistic. The government has covered this up for about 80 years. I don’t see them suddenly reporting to Congress and the American people. But others feel that yes, closure is coming,” he said.

So, did the alleged UFO crash of 1941 happen? The answer depends on what people believe, but Smith said it doesn’t need to stay that way.

“It really should have put Cape Girardeau on the map, and to this day it could, if someone would just come up with the physical evidence, a piece of metal, even a small one. We sure encourage you to come out and prove this story once and for all,” he said.

Smith wrote a second book about UFOs titled “President Eisenhower’s Close Encounters.”

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