



Schmidt continued his lectures and appearances and spoke at the AFSCA’s second national convention in Los Angeles, August 13 and 14, 1960. Reinhold (along with Dan Fry, Calvin Girvin and others) endorsed Gabriel Green’s candidacy for President of the United States. Green’s platform stated: “We affirm that flying saucers are real… making contact with various persons of our planet for the purpose of imparting information which can be used for the benefit of all men of earth.”

Eva Newcomb stopped selling the healing quartz crystals on Aug. 15, 1960, when California state authorities informed her Schmidt was violating postal laws. She placed the remaining crystals in sacks and stored them in her basement. There’s no word on how Schmidt responded, but his frequent absences had begun to make Eva suspicious.

On Aug. 27 & 28, 1960, Schmidt was a guest at the third Northern California Space Craft Convention, in Berkeley, CA, where he seized the opportunity to advertise his own show. The Oakland Tribune reported he said maybe a few aliens were there among them, and. “If they’re here, I’m sure they’ll attend my convention and Rosamond next weekend."

Schmidt’s own production was the International Space Craft Project Convention at Rosamond, CA, held Sept. 3 - 5, 1960. It received advance press in the Bakersfield Californian and Schmidt mailed flyers throughout the saucer community, announcing it as an annual event: “Meetings are scheduled for Labor Day weekend for the next five years.” The site was Burton’s Tropico Mine, a tourist attraction and former gold mine. Schmidt hosted the event and also gave a lecture. Other invited speakers included: Gabriel Green, Otis T. Carr, Wayne Aho, Della Larson, Hope Troxell, Rose Hackett Campbell, Daniel Fry, Chief Standing Horse, Gloria Lee, Ralph Hoffman, John Otto, George King of the Aetherius Society, and Brigadier General Herbert C. Holdridge, US Army, retired.





International Man of Mystery





Schmidt’s booklet had been translated and published in 1959 in Germany as Zwischenfall in Kearney, by Karl Veit, president of Deutsche UFO/IFO-Studiengemeinschaft (DUIST), a group that supported Contactees. That helped build an audience for Schmidt, and his German heritage helped make him an honored guest at DUIST’s International UFO Congress in Wiesbaden, Germany, held October 22 - 24, 1960.

Ufo-kongress in Wiesbaden 1960. From left to right, Karl Veit, Reinhold Schmidt, Carl Anderson. (Also pictured, a model of Otis T. Carr’s saucer, sent in his place.)





The auditorium was reported to have filled each day to capacity with 1000 eager fans. During the event, Schmidt seems to have shared some of his crystals, he presented a handful of “glasperlengems”(glass beads) for an auction to benefit DUIST. This caused some excitement, since the audience believed these to be jewels from his Saturnian visitors.





When he got back to the states, Schmidt lectured on Nov. 12, 1960, for the Womens Club in Grover Beach, CA. About the same time Schmidt was entertaining the ladies, Edward C. Easton, a boarder in Eva Newcomb’s home, informed the Oakland police that he thought Schmidt was “a confidence man” trying to cheat Eva by selling her a crystal mine. According to the later testimony of Police Inspector Lester King, that launched a 6-month investigation into Schmidt.





1961: Arrest and Rejection

Reinhold O. Schmidt attended a Los Angeles Contactee gathering along with Gabriel Green, Margaret Storm, Gloria Lee, Dr. Frank E. Stranges, Orfeo Angelucci, Hope Troxell, and others for several nights. They ran a classified March 30 to April 2, 1961, in The Los Angeles Times:

★ NEW AGE-SPACE CENTER

SPEAKERS on most exciting topics

of OUR ERA. Lectures Nightly.

COSMIC COUNSEL CENTER

250 N. WILTON PL. HO, 6-3055

Schmidt at the Cosmic Counsel Center in Los Angeles with Gloria Lee, Schmidt and Rev. Frank E. Stranges

On April 11, 1961, Oakland Police Inspector Lester King located Reinhold Oscar Schmidt, who “was found living well in the Padre Hotel in Bakersfield.” He was arrested, taken to Oakland and jailed, charged with two counts of grand theft.

While he was locked up, the Oakland Tribune April 13, 1961 revealed that Dan Fry’s organization was no longer supporting Schmidt, saying, “It was disclosed today by Mrs. Mary L. McAlpine of Understanding Unit 31, he fell out of favor with Understanding… Inquiries disclosed that some of his ‘witnesses’ disclaimed the testimonials Schmidt credited to them, she said. Schmidt is now ‘out’ with the outer space people.” Bertha Mantzurani had received nothing for her investment, and had been writing to Schmidt for months, asking for the return of her money. In May, seeing that he was now facing criminal charges, she stopped writing and waited to be called as a witness to testify against him.

Schmidt was released on $10,500 bail and went back to his saucer business in the hopes he’d beat the charges For the next few weeks, Schmidt was busy promoting his motion picture debut. The Pasadena Independent May 26, 1961 column, “As I See It,” reported: “...there will be a showing of a film called ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ at the Wilshire-Ebell Theatre, 4401 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, this Sunday evening at 8 p.m. ...based on the experiences of Reinhold Schmidt, and he, as any saucer fan knows, has chatted with people from Saturn.”

The First Saucer Contact Movie: Edge of Tomorrow

June and Ron Ormond’s “The Real Flying Saucer Story” documentary never happened. According to June, she had collected about $18,000 at various saucer conventions, but Ron eventually said, “I don’t know if I actually and truly believe everybody 100%.” June was stunned and said, “Are you kidding? I’ll have to give back all the money.” The Ormonds did make a saucer movie, but only Reinhold Schmidt was in it. The film was based solely on his story and financed by money he’d raised. Like June had promised her backers, Schmidt told his marks that the movie would not only help prove the reality of aliens to the public, it would also produce an enormous return for their investments. Schmidt raised at least $25,000 to finance the film, but said the film cost $20,000 to make, while June later said he paid them $10,000 to make the movie. That’s classic Hollywood accounting.

On May 28th, 1961, Edge of Tomorrow debuted in a special screening at the Wilshire-Ebell theater in Los Angeles. The opening credits provided the only information on the cast and crew:

International Space Project presents

Reinhold O. Schmidt in

EDGE OF TOMORROW

Adapted from “The Kearney Incident”

and “To the Arctic Circle in a Space Craft”

Screen Adaptation, Camera and Direction

June and Ron Ormond

Reinhold O. Schmidt’s movie was reviewed in James Moseley's Saucer News June 1961, by Fred Browman (reprinted on pages 44-45 of UFOs: A History January - June 1961 by Loren Gross). Browman reported that Edge of Tomorrow was a 16mm color movie, advertised by flyers mailed to 7,000 Los Angeles buffs, and that “one thousand starry-eyed saucer addicts” attended the premiere. Browman said, “the bulk of the picture comprises an endlessly tedious, badly photographed interview… The hour-long monotony opened with Reinhold O. Schmidt-hero, star, and martyr--driving interminably around Kearney… Then, at long last, the film re-enacts the famed encounter: briefly the audience spots what appears to be an aluminum cucumber lying in an untidy garden. ..."Reinhold Schmidt, playing himself, was excruciatingly self-conscious and static throughout the film. As for acting and direction, neither of these qualities was evident in the opus.”

Browman’s review was fair, and it's hard to believe that anywhere near $10,000 went into the production. Of the spaceship, they only showed a section with its hatch from the outside, then a set of a control console inside. As in Schmidt’s account, the aliens looked human, but in the film they were given nothing interesting to do or say. Disappointingly, there wasn’t even a scene of the spaceship in flight. During the long “interview” scenes, Schmidt recounted further adventures, including a few details about his flight to Egypt, however, there’s no mention of seeing Jesus’ spaceship. At the abrupt and undramatic conclusion, Schmidt swore on a Bible that all he had said was true. None of Schmidt’s confidence and charisma made it onto screen: he appeared stiff and unnatural. The whole thing was a mess, but that would have been forgivable had it not been so dull.

Schmidt had convinced some of the women attending his lectures to help finance his movie, but it turned out to be a poor investment. He was arrested a month before the movie’s debut, and worse, the film was never released theatrically. It was shown only at a few saucer conventions - and at his trial.

Smitty’s picture was on the cover of Ray Palmer’s Search Magazine June 1961 for Richard S. Shaver’s article written before his arrest, “Comment On Reinhold Schmidt.” Shaver rejected the Contactees’ stories of benevolent aliens. However, he accepted much of Schmidt’s story as true, but thought that he was being duped, that some of the experiences were sinisterly manipulated illusions. Shaver said the Saturnian Mr. X worked for “the Cocks,” explaining, “The Cock is a contemptuous epithet for the head, who is supposed to be the actual old devil himself.” It would have been interesting to hear what Shaver thought about the criminal charges against Schmidt, but he’d likely have blamed it on the Devil or the deros.

Fall brought Schmidt’s second and final annual convention, the International Space Project Convention Sept. l - 3, 1961, at Bakersfield Inn, but not much is known about the particulars. Karl L. Veit, leader of the German saucer group DUIST gave a lecture, printed in the Dec. 1961 issue of Understanding, and he described the other lecturers present as “prominent speakers,” and we can be confident that Schmidt’s film, Edge of Tomorrow was shown. A few weeks later, Schmidt’s trial began.

The Trial of Reinhold O. Schmidt

The trial of Reinhold Schmidt was held at Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, California, and ran from Oct. 17 to 26, 1961, a total of seven days actually in court. Schmidt’s 1957 saucer story made national newspaper headlines, but his 1961 trial was not front page news, not even in the local California papers. Judge Donald K. Quayle presided over the case, representing the state was Deputy District Attorney, John S. Mead, and the defense, Attorney Robert S. Forsyth. The jury of twelve contained seven men and five women. Schmidt was charged for two counts of grand theft against Mrs. Eva Newcomb.

On the first day, Eva Newcomb gave testimony for four hours about how she had met Schmidt and how he’d convinced her with his stories about space people and healing crystals. Described as “frail and small-voiced” Eva testified, “His description was so vivid and his manner so convincing that I believed him.” To help persuade her, Schmidt presented quartz jewelry that “he said the Space Brother sent me as a gift.” She started selling Schmidt’s crystals and gave him $5,000 for partnership in his mining projects. In cross-examination by Schmidt’s attorney Forsyth, he rejected the allegations that Schmidt had romanced Newcomb or had claimed healing properties for the quartz. Eva broke down in tears and Judge Quayle adjourned court for the day. She was taken to the hospital, suffering “a disorientation by the strain of the trial.”

During the second day, prosecutor Mead called Fred Babcock, a Bakersfield mining consultant, to the stand. Babcock testified that the quartz mine documents Schmidt had shown Mrs. Newcomb were really for a failed uranium mine. It came out later that the “healing” quartz crystals had been purchased for the scheme, and had not come from Schmidt’s mine.

On day three, Mrs. Bertha Mantzurani was called to testify, but Schmidt was not charged in the case for taking the $5,500 from her, as it was considered “business loans for ventures that have not worked out.” Bertha was called as a witness to demonstrate Schmidt had used similar fraudulent techniques on other victims. Her testimony revealed that she was still working to pay back the loan she'd taken from the bank, and that Schmidt never gave any return for her money invested. It turned out that the property deeds he had given her were worthless phonies, actually only mine paperwork, “notices of location.” Also those called to testify was Inspector Lester King of the Oakland Police, who discussed gathering evidence on Schmidt from Newcomb and others during their six-month-long investigation.

When Eva Newcomb returned to testify, Schmidt’s defense attorney Robert S. Forsyth continued his cross-examination of her. As for the quartz mine investment, he pressed the narrative that there was no fraud or seduction, that Schmidt had only borrowed, not stolen the money.





Schmidt on the Stand and the Surprise Expert Testimony





The big day came when Reinhold Schmidt testified in his own defense. Like in his film, he put his hand on the Bible and was sworn in. He boasted that his movie was scheduled to be shown in fifty theaters in the US and abroad, and testified that it was based on his true experiences of meeting Saturnians who helped him discover his crystal and gold mines. At length, Schmidt told the court all about his spaceship travels and adventures, and to the shock of some in the courtroom, including the part about seeing the spaceship of Jesus in the Great Pyramid.

Under questioning from prosecutor Mead, Schmidt admitted he’d taken $25,000 from two other California women to finance his movie. Mead also confronted him about romancing Eva Newcomb, and produced the flowery card Schmidt had sent for her birthday. It opened with, “Until the day we fell in love..." Schmidt’s explanation was that he just grabbed a card and sent it to her without reading it. He did admit to using “loving talk” to widows Newcomb and Mantzurani, but said that was “mere friendship,” not romance. He also stated that the women had initiated the investments, and that it was Mrs. Newcomb who had requested to sell the crystals, and he denied saying that they had healing powers. However, he did admit to telling her the story about his brother’s paralysis recovery, insinuating she jumped to conclusions. Schmidt stated Mrs. Newcomb was at fault since she had not properly accounted for the crystal sales, so he had not returned her $2,000 loan. As for the $3,000, he was about to pay her back, but he was arrested first. The press coverage made no mention of trial evidence proving the reality of Schmidt’s Alaska mine, and it’s like the gold never existed.

After Schmidt testimony, the state produced Dr. Carl Sagan, a University of California astronomer and National Academy of Sciences consultant, to testify about the scientific veracity of Schmidt’s claims. Sagan thought the whole story was impossible since it hinged on people coming from Saturn. He testified that the planet was too cold and contained noxious gases that a human being could not survive. According to Sagan, Schmidt’s attorney went on the attack by saying, “Dr. Sagan, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but isn’t it a fact that four or five hundred years ago, university scientists like yourself were maintaining that the Earth was . . . flat?”

Carl Sagan wrote about the Schmidt trial in his 1966 book, Intelligent Life in the Universe,” as chapter 2, "Extraterrestrial life as a psychological projective test,"where he used the pseudonym“Helmut Winckler” for Schmidt. He wrote that Schmidt’s crystal was supposed to be “a rather special kind of quartz. It cured cancer.” When Sagan asked him about the catastrophic scientific flaws in his story, “[Schmidt’s] response was that he could hardly be held responsible for statements made by inhabitants of the planet Saturn. He was merely relaying information.”

After Sagan’s testimony, Judge Donald K. Quayle finally agreed to Schmidt’s request and allowed jurors to view the film Edge of Tomorrow, probably its final public screening. The court then heard the closing arguments from both the prosecution and defense. The state said it had proved its case, so Schmidt should be convicted. The defense argued that the money from Mrs. Newcomb was a loan that Schmidt intended to repay, and insisted that the defendant should not be punished for his saucer stories.

On Oct. 27, Judge Quayle gave final instructions to the jury. After deliberating for 4 ½ hours, the jury came back with the verdict: Guilty. Schmidt’s attorney immediately moved for a new trial. The $10,000 bond was revoked and the judge ordered Schmidt held in Alameda county jail pending sentence. Prosecutor Mead said he was “more than satisfied” by the verdict. Subsequently on November 17, 1961, Schmidt was sentenced to a term of one to ten years in California state prison for grand theft. An appeal was again filed by Schmidt’s attorney Forsyth on the grounds that the verdict was not supported by evidence. As a result, Schmidt was granted a release pending the appeal, but his bail was increased to $20,000, so he was confined until the additional $10,000 could be raised.





Fate magazine, April 1962





Apparently Schmidt was released while his conviction was under review, but once again faced a psychiatric evaluation. “Law Steps in on ‘Spacemen’” was the article from a March 1962 Los Angeles paper reprinted in Norbert Gariety’s S.P.A.C.E. April 1962. Agents of the State Division of Corporations said Schmidt had “purportedly bilked Californians of some $50,000 to make a movie.” The specific complaint came from an unnamed 74-year-old Long Beach woman who had been lured to invest $18,000 in the film Edge of Tomorrow. It stated that after his conviction, Schmidt “was sent to the State Medical Facility at Vacaville, where psychiatrists found him to be sane,” and that he was “now in a state mental prison in Northern California.” Additional charges were apparently never filed in the complaint by the Long Beach woman. As in the instance of Mrs. Bertha Mantzurani, the prosecutors probably lacked enough persuasive evidence to prove criminal wrongdoing in court.

Schmidt was free for about a year while his conviction was under review. In June of 1963 Judge Leonard Dieden denied the appeal and Schmidt was sent to prison for his crimes.

Oakland Tribune June 9, 1963

With Schmidt’s conviction, the international distribution of his film never took place. Schmidt’s final bow in ufology was the 1963 publication of his story, revised as a 64-page booklet with photographs from his movie, a drawing of the planet Saturn on the cover. The new title was Edge of Tomorrow: The Reinhold O. Schmidt Story.





While Schmidt was in prison, his name faded from the UFO press, however it surfaced at least once - and not favorably. It was in the April/May 1965 issue of the journal of Borderland Sciences Research, Round Robin. Helen Anderson of the Understanding Inc. Unit No. 9 in Santa Cruz (a frequent host of Schmidt’s lectures) wrote about a new Contactee, Sidney Padrick, who had been invited to speak at her group. She said that as a precaution, one of their members “interviewed Padrick first, searching for holes in his story; and decided this was no Reinhold Schmidt.” This goes to show that Smitty was not entirely forgotten, at least by the people he’d burned, members of Daniel Fry’s Understanding Inc.





Prison and Beyond

Not much was known about what happened to Reinhold Schmidt after his conviction, but his grandson Tom was able to fill in some of the blanks. We spoke to Thomas Ronald Schmidt by telephone on Oct. 19 and 22, 2018, but sadly, Tom passed away on April 26, 2019. Tom remembered where Reinhold Schmidt’s sentence was served, and thought Reinhold actually served only two or three years.





Based on the information Tom Schmidt provided, we contacted the California State Archives for Reinhold's prison documents. They only had what amounted to 3 pages' worth, confirming the date of his prison sentence and showed that the first four months of his time was served at the California State Medical Facility at Vacaville, then he was transferred on Aug. 13, 1963, to the California Men's Colony, a minimum-security prison close to San Luis Obispo. Tom emphasized that his grandfather wasn’t crazy, but part of his prison stay was at the nearby Atascadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

California Men's Colony prison parole mugshot





The documents show that in July 1966 Schmidt received a parole for the last 2 years and 6 months of his sentence and was released, having spent a total of three years in prison. After his parole in 1966, Schmidt was granted a divorce from his estranged wife Friedda. Tom said Reinhold struck up a romance and married a waitress, Helen Dietrich Gable, 51, a divorcee from Nebraska. He went back to work, trading in agricultural products as a crop buyer, but not in the flying saucer business. After prison, Schmidt rarely spoke about that. On Sept. 6, 1968, his parole was up, and Schmidt he was officially discharged from the system as a free man, and it was around that time he moved back to Bakersfield.

Tom’s father was Reinhold’s youngest son, Arthur Dale Schmidt, and his family also lived in Bakersfield. Tom was particularly close to his grandfather and loved visiting him by riding his bicycle across town to Reinhold’s house where they’d watch old movies together on television. Though Tom had been too young to experience the saucer events and convention days, he heard about them later, and was the family member most interested in them. Tom fondly recalled how when he was seven or eight years old, he asked his granddad it felt to fly in a flying saucer, and Reinhold said, “It was like riding in an automobile.” Around the same time, his grandfather gave him a flyer for the saucer movie which Tom brought to school for show and tell. When the teacher saw that Tom intended to talk about saucer contact, she told him he could be excused from giving a presentation. Tom thought she found it too controversial for grade school.

Tom Schmidt and an illustration of the mementos left behind by Reinhold.





In 1974 Schmidt was 77 years old and Tom was a teenager. Reinhold was packing to move back to Nebraska, and he gave the Tom a suitcase full of his UFO memorabilia. It contained newspaper clippings, books, reel-to-reel tapes, 8 mm film of lectures, letters, telegrams and more. Tom still had the collection and cited the correspondence from the US and abroad, Germany in particular as evidence that his grandfather was an engaging speaker who was well-liked by people everywhere. Sadly, that visit was the last time that Tom saw his granddad. Reinhold Schmidt went back to Nebraska, and died there just one day later, on September 20, 1974.





Tom said that some time later, a man from the military came by to ask him if Schmidt had left any UFO material behind. Tom was afraid he would take away the souvenirs, so he said no, there was nothing. He wrote down the name - the man was Wayne Aho.





At the end of our talk, Tom said he thought there really was something to his grandfather’s story, that Reinhold Schmidt “wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble, if it was just something he’d made up.”

Reinhold O. Schmidt 1897 - 1974

Obituary from Star-Herald, Scottsbluff, NE, Sept. 21, 1974





Left on the Edge of Tomorrow

June Ormond, the widow of Ron was interviewed in 1987 for Film Comment magazine about their movie work. There had been very little around 1960, but she said, "We made a film of Reinhold Schmidt’s experience, though it wasn't much of a story.” June said he paid them $10,000 to make the film Edge of Tomorrow, and that it was shown “to packed houses at the flying saucer conventions.” Mrs. Ormond had a negative impression of Schmidt, “A con man, if there ever was one. They put him in prison because he got money on false pretenses from quite a few women. He was a real charmer…”





Carl Sagan said, “In my discussions with [Schmidt] during recesses, I was unable to decide to what extent his escapades with the Saturnians were a conscious fraud, and to what extent he genuinely believed his account.”

Many figures in the flying saucer business traded in falsehood, but the majority of them dealt in intangibles such as spiritual enlightenment. The mistake that Schmidt made, like Silas Newton, Harold J. Berney, and Otis T. Carr was in dealing with physical products under false pretenses, with the promise of producing great wealth for the investors. That’s something that earthly laws are equipped to deal with. Schmidt’s 1963 book closed with a teaser for his next adventure: