FBI Releases 22 Pages from Its Bigfoot Files
The FBI on Wednesday released 22 pages of documents related to Bigfoot.
In 1977, the bureau’s scientific division conducted an analysis on hairs alleged to have belonged to the mythical creature, only to find that they were from a deer.
The documents consist mostly of letters from the 1970s between the FBI and Peter Byrne, the director of the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition.
Byrne, who was located in Oregon, sought the FBI’s help in analyzing hairs he claimed to have obtained from an unidentified animal.
The FBI Laboratory was focusing its efforts on criminal investigations.
However, Jay Cochran Jr., the assistant director of the FBI’s scientific and technical services division, approved analysis of the hairs.
“Occasionally, on a case-by-case basis, in the interest of research and scientific inquiry, we make exceptions to this general policy,” he wrote.
“With this understanding, we will examine the hairs and tissue mentioned in your letter.”
The results were soon returned, confirming the hairs were not of fantastical origin.
“It was concluded as a result of these examinations that the hairs are of deer family origin,” Cochran wrote to Byrne on Feb. 24, 1977.
“The hair sample you submitted is being returned as an enclosure to this letter.”
According to The New York Times, Melissa Hovey-Larsen, president of the American Bigfoot Society, said the conclusion was not surprising.
“What we hear a lot when we get back hair samples is horse or deer or cow or bear,” she explained.
“We hear everything. But every so often you get one that comes back and it says ‘unknown source,’ and then nothing ever comes of it from there.”
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