Page 17 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - April 2024

Silicon Valley’s Flying Saucer Man 17

The Forgotten Legend of

Silicon Valley’s Flying

Saucer Man

Continued from Page 16

Off to the left of this main room, Hunter
had built a small movie theater with a
velvet rope he’d pull to the side so you
could enter. If you had 20 minutes to
spare, he’d show you the Weygers
documentary he had commissioned and
let you flip through the screenplay
proposal he’d ginned up for a Hollywood

blockbuster about the man. A pair of
Weygers’s larger sculptures flanked the
movie screen, and the lights overhead
were custom UFO-shaped fixtures. At
the back of the room was a desk that
contained information on what he called
the Weygers Program: a list of the
sculptures, Discopter prints, and other art
Hunter hoped to sell. The theater’s
bathroom had more UFO memorabilia “I’m going to build a world-class moneymaking venture to something
and artography photos; the metal stand sculpture garden, too,” he said. “And re- different. At that point, he seemed to

holding up the sink had Weygers’s create the studio and put in a gift shop.” genuinely care most about the world
initials, AGW, forged into it. His grand plan at this point was to make knowing who this Weygers man was. As
a Weygers museum that people could his cancer worsened, Hunter figured I
To the right of the main room, Hunter visit. “I am the largest collector of this was his best bet at making this happen,
had re-created his studio UFO collection, guy’s work, and I feel guilty just and he continued to keep the seriousness
only this time it was bigger, grander, and hoarding it,” he said. He hoped the of his illness a secret from me because he
packed with more objects. He’d located a wealthy residents and tourists in Carmel didn’t want me to give up on the story.
miniature version of the Discopter that Valley would stop by, get hooked, and
Weygers made and enclosed it under perhaps buy some sculptures. For those Almost exactly a year ago, Thomas sent

glass. Open any drawer in this room, or who couldn’t get to the property, he’d me a note, saying it was important that I
the living room, or the movie theater, and created a traveling roadshow with giant get to the house. Hunter had battled

you’d find reams of papers about Discopter and sculpture displays that different forms of cancer—lung, spine,
Weygers’s life, including letters, could be fitted along the walls of a trailer and liver—and it now appeared he didn’t
newspaper clippings, patent filings, and brought to science and art fairs. have long to live.
correspondence with lawyers, Freedom
of Information Act requests, and CIA All told, Hunter figured he’d spent $2.8 I returned to Carmel Valley, and Hunter
record requests. Over the past decade, million on his Weygers obsession. greeted me outside of his Weygers rooms.
Hunter had tracked down many of Almost all of that, though, came from his In just a few weeks, he’d lost a lot of
Weygers’s students and family members partner, Thomas, a finance manager for weight. His clothes hung off his body
and interviewed them all. He’d also wealthy families. She had fretted about except around his belly, which was
managed to discover that Weygers had the extent of Hunter’s obsession but let distended and full of air from the
been keeping a secret: He had an him do his thing while trying to put some treatments and the illness. His liver had

illegitimate son born in 1935, whom financial order around the Weygers habit. given out, and he’d turned yellow. His
Hunter found and befriended. “He looks “Thank God, I have Cathy. Otherwise, big, once-energetic eyes were sallow and
exactly like his dad,” Hunter said. “He’s I’d be broke,” Hunter said. He was aware haunting. But he didn’t dwell on any of
only ever seen a couple of photos of people thought he might have gone a bit that, because he’d located the old steam-
Alex, and I have hundreds that I’m going mad, but he remained convinced that the powered car Weygers had once driven
to share with him.” world just needed to hear about the from Los Angeles to the valley. “F---, it’s
artwork and the Discopter, then amazing,” he said. “The car has come to

As we toured the property, Hunter took everything would take care of itself. me.”
me to the backyard, where he’d started
construction on a 20-foot-wide, UFO- Hunter and I had only spent time together (Continued on Page 18)
shaped fire pit. There were small on and off over the course of two years,
bulldozers smoothing the land on the left but we always got along well and The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show
edge of the property. This is where enjoyed each other’s company. Since our with Rob McConnell
Weygers’s blacksmith shop had been, first meeting in my office, I’d seen his Monday - Friday at Midnight Eastern on
and Hunter was going to resurrect it. pursuit of Weygers shift from a CLASSIC 1220 - www.classic1220.ca