Documents / FOIA release

FBI file: Animal Mutilation, Animal Mutilation Part 02

Federal Bureau of Investigation · 25 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This FBI file release, date unknown, reproduces press coverage of cattle mutilations: a magazine report by Ed Sanders and a Newsweek article dated September 30, 1974. The material describes about 1,500 mutilated cattle across 22 states, helicopter sightings, and theories ranging from predators to satanic cults to UFOs. It details a 1975 federal investigation into informants A. Kenneth Bankston and Dan Dugan, whose claims about a satanic cult the investigators came to doubt. It records that the inquiry was then dropped without resolution.

  • p. 1 # The Mutilation Mystery DURING THE PAST THREE YEARS. MORE THAN 1500 CATTLE IN 22 STATES HAVE…
  • p. 2 …some reknown, who had been investigating the cattle mutilations since they first occurred in his home…
  • p. 3 …and that this biker talked about earlier cattle mutilations. The biker also described his experiences in…
  • p. 4 …Tinsley, an employee of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, who was investigating the mutilations…
  • p. 5 …hovered at night and anusless cattle lay stiff and mutilated in the dawn. Despite the organized…
  • p. 6 …Louis Girodo, about the theory that the mutilations were part of a bacteriological warfare research project…
  • p. 7 THE MUTILATION MYSTERY As far as I have been able to determine, it was investigators in…
  • p. 8 The Colorado Bureau of Investigation officially began its investigation of the mutilations in the summer of…
  • p. 9 …t the mutilators just rent a ranch somewhere and buy a herd of cattle and start…
  • p. 10 …the CIA wants a couple of their cattle—national security, you know—and to please leave…
  • p. 11 THE MUTILATION MYSTERY In Idaho, a man was driving his jeep at about 3:30 A…
  • p. 12 …One researcher, in fact, does claim that the mutilators have got their disease death time down…
  • p. 13 …and boyotes refuse to eat the mutilated horses and cattle. Ben, Schmidt, WM received a Ph…
  • p. 15 …CATTLE MUTILATION FILE: 198-1048 SECTION / OF / THIS SECTION IS COMPRISED OF 96 PAGES WHICH WERE…
  • p. 18 …to look into our jurisdiction over the cattle mutilation problem with which you are concerned. We…
  • p. 19 …Cockburn implies the investigation may have been terminated because cattle mutilation per se is not a…
  • p. 22 …Like myself, he had taken only a passing interest in cattle mutilations. The arrival in June…
  • p. 23 …A survey of newsclips and other literature on cattle mutilation seems to indicate that the whole…
  • p. 24 …What are we left with? In the hundreds of cases of cattle mutilations, no one has…
  • p. 25 …May, more than 100 cattle have been found dead and gruesomely mutilated in Nebraska, Kansas and…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

Another question is: Since We ranchers are among the most patriotic of Americans, why not just hand them checks and tell them that the CIA wants a couple of their cattle—national security, you know—and to please leave the gate unlocked and to keep quiet about it?

Down in Nara Vista, New Mexico, for instance, Kathy Cammack operates a ranch with her husband in an area that has been hard-hit with mutes and copiers and even UFOs. Mrs. Cammack has investigated the mutes for a local newspaper. In spite of the weirdness and terror, she wrote, "If this is Government military maneuvers, then it is time people are informed. To say that there are experiments or research in process that are classified would set many minds at ease. And, at the same time, Americans could be pleased, proud and appreciative of the endeavor. We, the people, are called on to provide tax money and to provide young men to fight in wars. Surely we can be trusted to be kept informed about things that affect us."

Apparently not. First of all, the activities of a rogue group of chopopaths who defy a Presidential order could well become a hot election-year campaign issue in a country where millions distrust the Government after years of Watergate, CIA revelations, corruption, et multa alia.

Secondly, there is a good chance that some of these researchers, whatever their credentials, are insane. They may have some of the highest security clearances obtainable and impeccable reputations in their fields, but they're still pickies. Sometimes I think these bovine surgeons are trying for art. You look at photos of these smooth and perfect chop-up patterns—neat circles, occasionally sporting a saw-toothed edge, etc.—and you wonder if they aren't striving to produce some sort of military-industrial-surrealist sculpture movement. Consider, for instance, the two-week-old calf killed near Sterling, Colorado, in early March 1976. It was small enough for the mutes to carry away, the body. Only the head was left behind. They cut off the back part of the tongue and then reinserted the tip into the calf's mouth, where it was later found by the lucky person who had to poke within.

SUMMER, FALL AND WINTER It was the summer and fall of 1975 that fully revealed the enormous scope and security precautions of the mutilators. Between September and December, the acute wave broke in 13 states and there was terror in dozens of counties throughout the West. Tide wave and flash torn oopters and UFO reports. There

Cases discussed

About this file

FOIA release, from the fbi-vault collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 25 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.