Documents / FOIA release
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.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Springs Naturally, I was scanning one skies for flying mute squads. Suddenly I saw a light appear under the clouds. I was excited! I could use the headlines: "BEATNIE INVESTIGATOR BREAKS INTERSTATE TERROR CASE." I looked for an entrance to the grazing range, envisioning a cross-country chase after evil Satan scientists. I stopped the car and got out to listen for the whirring of copter blades; alas, the light had disappeared, and there was nothing to do but drive onward. I was feeling a mixture of disappointment and elation—I mean, who really wants to have a rumble with airborne surgical professionals? And the ugly headlines: "BEATNIE INVESTIGATOR MAILED TO FRIENDS." As we continued, however, we were pummed by a shiny white van, which was pulling a large shiny white trailer and must have been traveling at 85 miles per hour. I tried to catch up, hoping to copy down the license number, but couldn't keep up. The trailer, I decided, was definitely large enough to carry a small helicopter, and I had just suggested to someone at the sheriff's office that maybe the mute mob was using trucks to transport boppers into the vicinity of impaired cattle rangers. Months later, I was speaking with the chief investigator at the district attorney's office in Trinidad, Colorado. Louis Girodo, about the theory that the mutilations were part of a bacteriological warfare research project, I asked Girodo about the staging areas or ground-support systems that the mutilation mob would have in order to operate with safety and impunity. "Well, we know they are ground supported," he replied. "We know there are maintenance people on the ground with trucks." He mentioned a rancher in Kim, Colorado, who had shot at and hit one. "I then asked, 'Do you have anything on big white vans pulling white trailers?'" And he replied: "Yeah, Texas plates; yeah, sure do." Girodo went on to describe an east Colorado ranch that he knew to be made heavy security—with guards, guard dogs, chainal access routes, and so forth. The ranch was owned by some sort of doctor. "And," he continued, "this was one place where they had taken photos of this particular type of trailer you're talking about." Officials had flown over the armed ranch to take photos of the vehicles and the doctor had called up the local Federal Aviation Administration office to complain; when officials then asked to be allowed onto the property, the doctor refused. "We feel that he's using those damn tractors." Girodo said. "That return is
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.