Top Secret Alien Abduction Files kitchen appliances. It paid the bills, but that was nowhere near enough for Hunrath. He wanted out, he wanted excitement, and he wanted to be the man who solved the UFO riddle. Wilkinson was as interested in the saucer phenomenon as Hunrath, but he lacked his friend’s get-up-and-go. While Wilkinson just wanted answers as to what the aliens were, where they were from, and what they wanted, Hunrath wanted to uncover the truths surrounding their technology: What was it that powered flying saucers? How could those same craft perform left- and right-hand turns at hundreds—maybe even thousands—of miles per hour? Did they possess destructive weapons far beyond our atomic arsenals? If he was to stand even a small chance of getting the answers, Hunrath knew he had to make a move to UFO Central: California. So Hunrath—a ticking time bomb at the best of times—gave his boss the finger, emptied his bank account, and hit the road to Los Angeles. And he told Wilbur that if he really wanted to find the truth of alien visitations, then he’d better move to California, too. For a while, Wilkinson dithered, but eventually, and just like a dutiful puppy, he followed his master across the country. Fortunately for Wilkinson, his family was quite enthused about a move to the West Coast. In no time, one and all were settled in Los Angeles apartments. The lives of Hunrath and Wilkinson were about to change in the strangest way possible. The first thing that happened was that the two men hooked up with just about all of the ufological players in California, which included George Adamski and George Van Tassel—two men who, as we have seen, had secret files opened on them by the FBI. They also became friendly with another of the contactees: George Hunt Williamson of Arizona, who was also a subject of scrutiny by J. Edgar Hoover’s finest. It’s hardly surprising, then, that the FBI soon opened records on Hunrath and Wilkinson as well. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves: let’s see how things started out.
A Stranger Pays a Visit The FBI’s papers on Wilkinson amount to just a few biographical notes and background checks—that’s about it. The Hunrath file, however, is a
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