FBIUnknown

Scoutmaster Desvergers encounter — West Palm Beach, Florida: burned cap examined by FBI lab

~Aug 1952West Palm Beach, Florida (desolate area) (approx.)

⟳ Deeper read pending. This record is from the FBI 62-HQ-83894 flying-disc file, whose cursive, clippings and faint scans are under-read by automated OCR. It is flagged for a vision-transcription pass and likely undercounts what the source contains — see the documents collection note.

Analysis — our summary

The Air Force requested the FBI Laboratory examine the cap of D.S. Desvergers, a scoutmaster at West Palm Beach, Florida, who claimed an unidentified flying object approximately 30 feet in diameter hovered over his head and shot a 'red blob' that caused him to lose consciousness; his cap showed burns and his arm hair was singed. FBI Laboratory examination found burns in the cap but no residue permitting material identification, non-uniform singeing inconsistent with a single overhead flash source, and noted the front edge was more severely singed than the top — suggesting the cap may not have been worn at the time of singeing.

As reported — verbatim from the document

“"a object 30 feet in diameter, hovered over his head and shot a 'red blob' which caused him to lose consciousness. The cap has some holes burned in it and it is reported that the hair on Desvergers' arms was singed."”

Analyst notes — caveats & confidence

Physical evidence (burned cap) was forensically examined by FBI Laboratory. Lab findings were ambiguous and somewhat inconsistent with Desvergers' account (singeing pattern suggests cap may not have been worn). Single witness. Air Force requested the examination. OCR quality is good for this section.

Provenance

Source document65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_5.pdf

Document typecorrespondence collection

Reporting agencyFBI

Source pages209

Redaction markers in doc6

DeclassifiedFirst public at this release (2026)

Held classified~74 years (≥, to this release)

Extraction confidence ModerateHow cleanly this record could be parsed from the source — driven by legibility & redaction. It is not a measure of how credible or anomalous the sighting is.