The Revealing Truth of Ufos, Secret Aircraft, Cover-Ups & Conspiracies: Area 51
Now it’s time to take a look at the connection between black helicopters and what have become controversially known as “cattle mutilations,” a subject that appears to attract the attention and concerns of Area 51. Declassified FBI documentation makes a distinct connection between the mutilations and mysterious, black helicopters. Dated February 2, 1979, one particular FBI document notes the following: “For the past seven or eight years mysterious cattle mutilations have been occurring throughout the United State of New Mexico.
Officer Gabe Valdez, New Mexico State Police, has been handling investigations of these mutilations within New Mexico. Information furnished to this office by Officer Valdez indicates that the animals are being shot with some type of paralyzing drug and the blood is being drawn from the animal after an injection of an anti-coagulant. “It appears that in some instances the cattle’s legs have been broken and helicopters without any identifying numbers have reportedly been seen in the vicinity of the mutilations.
Officer Valdez theorizes that clamps are being placed on the cow’s legs and they are being lifted by helicopter to some remote area where the mutilations are taking place and then the animal is returned to its original pasture. “Officer Valdez is very adamant in his opinion that these mutilations are the work of the US Government and that it is some clandestine operation either by the CIA or the Department of Energy and in all probability is connected with some type of research into biological warfare.”
Tom Adams, a researcher who spent many years investigating the mutilation problem, said: “The helicopters are of military origin. The government of the United States possesses a very substantial amount of knowledge about the mutilators, their means, motives and rationale. The government may be attempting to persuade mutilation investigators and the populace as a whole that perhaps the military might be behind the mutilations, a diversion away from the real truth.”
How did the FBI get involved in the issues of unmarked helicopters and cattle mutilations? Let’s see.
From January to March 1973, the state of Iowa was hit hard by cattle mutilations. Not only that, many of the ranchers who lost animals reported seeing
strange lights and black-colored helicopters in the direct vicinities of the attacks. The fact that the FBI took keen notice of all this is demonstrated by the fact that, as the
Freedom of Information Act has shown, it collected and filed numerous media reports on the cattle mutilations in Iowa.
The next piece of data dates from early September 1974. That’s when the FBI’s director, Clarence M. Kelley, was contacted by Senator Carl T. Curtis, who wished to inform the bureau of a wave of baffling attacks on livestock in Nebraska—the state Curtis represented.
At the time, the FBI declined to get involved, as Director Kelley informed the senator: “It appears that no Federal Law within the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI has been violated, inasmuch as there is no indication of interstate transportation of the maimed animals.” One year later, in August
1975, Senator Floyd K. Haskell of Colorado made his voice known to the FBI on the growing cattle mutilation controversy: “For
several months my office has been receiving reports of cattle mutilations throughout Colorado and other western states.
At least 130 cases in Colorado alone have been
reported to local officials and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI); the CBI has verified that the incidents have occurred for the last two years in nine states. The ranchers and rural residents of Colorado are concerned and frightened by these incidents. The bizarre mutilations are frightening in themselves: in virtually all the cases, the left ear, rectum and sex organ of each animal has been cut away and the blood drained from the carcass, but with no traces of blood left on the ground and no footprints.” The senator had much more to say, too: “In Colorado’s Morgan County area there has [sic] also been reports that a helicopter was used by those who mutilated the carcasses of the cattle, and
several persons have reported being chased by a similar helicopter.
Because I am gravely concerned by this situation, I am asking that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation enter the case. “Although the CBI has been investigating the incidents, and local officials also have been involved, the lack of a central unified direction has frustrated the investigation. It seems to have progressed little, except for the recognition at long last that the incidents must be taken seriously. Now it appears that ranchers are arming themselves to protect their livestock, as well as their families and themselves, because they are frustrated by the unsuccessful investigation.
Clearly something must be done before someone gets hurt.” Again, the FBI—some ranchers and media people thought, rather suspiciously—declined to get involved in the investigation of the phenomenon. It was a stance that the FBI rigidly stuck to (despite collecting numerous, nationwide newspaper and magazine articles on the subject) until 1978. That was when the FBI learned of an astonishing number of horse and cattle mutilations in
Rio Arriba County, New Mexico—mutilations that actually dated back to 1976. They had all been scrupulously investigated and documented by a police officer, Gabe Valdez of Espanola.
It was when the FBI was
contacted by New Mexico senator Harrison Schmitt (also the twelfth person to set foot on the moon in December 1972), who implored the FBI to get involved, that action was finally taken. In March 1979, Assistant Attorney General Philip Heymann prepared a summary on the
New Mexico cases for the FBI and—for good measure—photocopied all of Officer Valdez’s files for the bureau’s director. Things were about to be taken to a new level.
As Valdez’s voluminous records showed, from the summer of
1975 to the early fall of 1978, no fewer than twenty-eight cattle mutilation incidents occurred in Rio Arriba County. One of the most bizarre events occurred in June 1976, as Valdez’s files demonstrate: “Investigations around the area
revealed that a suspected aircraft of some type had landed twice, leaving three pod marks positioned in a triangular shape. The diameter of each pod was 14 inches.
Emanating from the two landings were smaller triangular shaped tripods 28 inches and 4 inches in diameter. Investigation at the scene showed that these small tripods had followed the cow for approximately 600 feet. Tracks of the cow showed where she had struggled and fallen. The small tripod tracks were all around the cow. Other evidence showed that grass around the tripods, as they followed the cow, had been scorched. Also a yellow oily substance was located in two places under the small tripods. This substance was submitted to the State Police Lab.
The Lab was unable to detect the content of the substance. “A sample of the substance was submitted to a private lab and they were unable to analyze the substance due to the fact that it disappeared or disintegrated. Skin samples were analyzed by the State Police Lab and the Medical Examiner’s Office. It was
reported that the skin had been cut with a sharp instrument.” Seventy-two hours later, Valdez liaised with Dr. Howard Burgess of the New Mexico-based Sandia
Laboratories with a view to having the area checked for radiation. It was a wise move. The radiation level was double that which could normally be expected. Valdez’s
conclusions on this issue: “It is the opinion of this writer that radiation findings are deliberately being left at the scene to confuse investigators.”
