Old cattle mutilation stumped Feds

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A 130-page file reveals just how deep the Federal Bureau of Investigation probed into the cattle mutilation mystery that mystified cattle ranchers in New Mexico and a string of other states from the west coast to the Midwest.

More than 10,000 cattle deaths were reported across the county by 1979. More than 100 were reported in New Mexico between 1975 and 1980.

"One thing about it was they seemed to be healthy animals," said Bobby Pierce, deputy director for the New Mexico Livestock Board.

In the mid to late 1970s, cows were dying and no one could explain why. They were often found mutilated, sometimes with no blood, certain organs missing, and precision cuts in various sections of the carcass.

"Usually all swollen up," Pierce said. "Its eyes, ears, tongue, soft tissue, sexual organs and stuff missing from them."

Some questioned if UFOs were behind the deaths. Others speculated the involvement of a mysterious criminal enterprise, or secret government operatives. The strange deaths were making headlines across the country. Eventually, New Mexico ended up at the center of the cattle-mutilation mystery. The FBI got involved at the urging of New Mexico Senator Harrison Schmitt.

In a December, 1978 letter, Senator Schmitt wrote to then U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell "...very concerned at what appears to be a continued pattern of organized interstate criminal activity."

Bell responded by mail the following month, referring to the subject as "...one of the strangest phenomena in (his) memory."

The letters are part of the FBI's one-inch thick file on cattle mutilations, filled with incident reports, newspaper clippings, letters and memos that reveal a resistance on the part of the bureau to participate in the investigation.

"I couldn’t think of any jurisdiction we would have in this matter," said Forrest Putman, who served as special agent in charge for the FBI's Albuquerque field office when the mutilation mystery was at its peak.

The U.S. Justice Department directed the FBI to participate in March 1979, limiting the scope of the bureau's involvement to 15 cattle mutilations on New Mexico's Indian land – in federal jurisdiction. According to the FBI, cattle deaths outside of Indian reservations did not appear to qualify as federal offenses.

Memos contained in the FBI file reveal federal agents started coordinating and sharing information with state and local agencies, under the code name "BOVMUT."

"There was a lot of theories [about] what they were, what was causing it," Putman said.

Even though the FBI was on board, FBI memos communicate a clear concern the bureau may have overstepping its bounds. FBI officials asked the justice department to secure congressional approval, or an executive order, clearing the way for federal agents to investigate.

In April 1980, the FBI laboratory analyzed "flakes of unknown material" taken from the roof a pickup truck whose driver reported seeing a UFO in Taos.

The lab determined the flakes came from a type of exterior house paint. The flakes were sent by Kenneth Rommel, a retired FBI agent who took on the role of chief investigator for the Santa Fe County District Attorney’s office, in a project funded by a government grant.

The FBI’s involvement eventually faded away, with the Albuquerque office placing the matter in a "closed status."

"Well I was curious to what the hell happened," said Robert Burns, a New Mexico rancher listed in the FBI file.

More than 30 years after finding one of his cows lying on its back, with certain organs missing, he still has questions.

"I think more could have been done," said Burns. "Because a cow – a critter wouldn't do that I don't think."

The government-funded Santa Fe County District Attorney’s office report was complete in June 1980. Former FBI agent Ken Rommel determined the "...so-called 'cattle mutilation phenomenon' was nothing more than the normal decomposition of animals that had died from natural causes, assisted by whatever scavengers and or predators that were accessible to the carcass."

According the New Mexico Livestock Board, investigators' findings explain most of the deaths from the 1970s, but not all of them.

"About 95-percent of the cases were natural cause deaths and predators," said Pierce. "About 5-percent of these cases there was never an answer. It was always unknown exactly what happened."

Recent mutilation cases are not as abundant as they were in the past, according to the Livestock Board, and modern cases are more easily explained.

"There's still some deaths now that people view as suspicious," Pierce said.