◆ SpookStack

| | = SP A a AD Makeig at the e Fort Worth Siar-Tele- yram had also been receiving letters from {wo of the informants—con- yicted armed robbers in the Marion federal prison—and was able to con- clude that the federal investigators had become convinced that the in- formants were putting out a lot of . ‘bogus information in an altempt to get moved to prisons from which it would be easier for them to escape. This view was strengthened by the fact that all three informants had in- deed made escape attempts. Thus ended federa} involvement in the investigation of cattle mutila- tions and thus also ended the last convincing series of leads anyone has yet come up with. © ‘What are we left with? In the hun- -~ dreds of cases of cattle mutilations, no one has ever been seen at or near the scene of the crime. No trace of the perpetrators—footprints, car tracks or even evidence of the use of helicopters—has ever been detected. Many ranchers believe that heli- eopters have been used, partly be- cause a large number of sightings of unidentified helicopters have been re- ported, partly because it seems this is the only form of transport allow- ing easy access to remote rangeland. Some investigators believe that such ms, plain the large number of U.F.O. sightings in the affected states, : Gynics say that small predators are responsible for many of the al- leged mutilations. This may some- times be the case, but Carl White- side, the Colorado Bureau of Investi- gation officer, told me that out of all the dead animals sent to the veteri- nary schoo] at Colorado State Uni- versity six were fresh enough to be amenable to autopsy. One had been the victim of a predator, five had definitely been mutilated by humans. In all cases, he added, the animals had died of natural causes and the . mutilations had occurred post-mor- tem, which he said produced curious questions: “Are the cattle being killed and mutilated by the same peo- ple, or do the mutilators come upon them and do the cutting?” Out of all the investigations only one clue has emerged. In the late summer a Colorado rancher found a blue plastic valise on his land. In it were a cow’s tongue, an ear and a scalpel. The day I spoke with Whiteside he had just returned from a meeting of | three hundred ranchers in Kiowa, Elbert County. Elbert County suf-. fered sixty-three cases of mutilation over the summer. Whiteside said the " srms,... The thing that’ and frightening to them is body can get onto their r: actually cut up an animal no trace. What we're afraid We are going to have a ho our hands, A person runs a wanders onto a ranch and ‘thing you know these peop! spooked become involved i der.” Seo be careful about road s° time you drive around the ! states. Ed Sanders, who is a an, told me that one of the j driving around mutilation was seeing trucks trundling to orthodox slaughter, You steak fora lifetime and stil. tated over the fate of ons “whose organs have been slice unknown cow molesters, It': ironic tension between homi tistics versus humdrum deat roads. As I said at the sta: question of viewpoint. Crim what you care to see, - And how to solve the ea jolly A.T.F. official told me swer is “to get two guys dr asa bull with specially large atand them on the range ar It could work, I suppose, but see that the investigators ar furtive use of helicopters would ex- ranchers “were literally — up in desperate. 4# 2 Fe ee ee ee OO Sa a abe as a ° es ye eo @ e oP ae “The Sportables” are seven brand-new Dlack and while television sets fram E 7 RCA—featuring two models with battery packs built right into their bases. Pull the Hees “ olug on either AC/DC model and you'll still get up to four hours of great viewing. od tS ILS ie An advanced VHF tuner helps keep the picture clear almost everywhere itg <! See the entire RCA line, including the smart, new, indoor “Sportables” (Ac only) Solid idStateTV a with Ihe same great picture a and Sound. Now showing at your RCA Dealer. - ree