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Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety seven Cattle Mutilation by Charles Lear. The

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cattle mutilation mystery and its association with UFO activity didn't

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get the attention of researcher investigators until the nineteen seventies.

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There is an article on page two of the March

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nineteen seventy five APRO Bulletin headlined More on Mutilations, discussing

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the findings of APRO field investigators Bill pitt Lee Spiegel,

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and Kevin Randall. It was the opinion of APRO at

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the time that no satisfactory evidence has emerged which links

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UFOs to mutilated animals. The first mutilation to get the

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public's attention was that of a horse named Snippy, found

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by its owners in the San Luis Valley of Colorado

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on September eighth, nineth eighteen sixty seven. Shortly after that,

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in his article in the July August nineteen sixty eight

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Flying Saucer Review headlined West Virginia's Enigmatic Bird, John Keel

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mentions that cow and horse mutilations are now common in

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the midst of sightings of mothman and UFOs in the

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area around Point Pleasant. However, there is a report far

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earlier than this that, by most accounts, appeared in the

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April twenty third, eighteen ninety seven Yates Center Farmer's Advocate.

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This involves a mystery airship caught in the act of

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abducting a cow right in front of prominent Woodson County,

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Kansas citizen Alexander Hamilton, not the one on the twenty

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dollar bill. While the Advocate article remains elusive, credit user

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Ramsey two nine o seven found an article in what

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appears to be The Globe Democrat that includes the details

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of and references the Advocate article. According to the Democrat,

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article dated April twenty sixth and headlined the airship Steeles. Hamilton,

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a farmer who lived near Yates Center, said that last Monday,

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at ten thirty o'clock April nineteenth, he and his family

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stood mute in wonder and fright as an airship appeared

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and proceeded to, in the reporter's words, swooped down upon

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the cow lot and steal a two year old heifer.

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Backing up Hamilton's story is an affid David signed by

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eleven prominent citizens, including a sheriff and a Justice of

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the Peace, stating that they believe Hamilton's story to be

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true and correct. The details of the story are presented

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in Hamilton's words. According to him, we were awakened by

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a noise among the cattle. He got out of bed,

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went to the door, thinking that his bulldog was performing

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some of his pranks, and was astonished to see an

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airship coming down over his cow lot, almost forty row

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from the house. He called his son Wall and his

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tenant gid Heslip, and after grabbing some axes, they ran

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to the corral. When they were about fifty yards from

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the ship. It was no more than thirty feet above

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the ground. Hamilton describes it as cigar shaped, about three

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hundred feet long, with a carriage underneath made of panels

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of glass or other transparent substance, alternating with a narrow

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strip of some material. The rest of the craft was

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dark red. It was brilliantly lit from within and had

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three external lights, an immense searchlight and two smaller lights,

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one red and one green. The search light was pointed

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directly on Hamilton and the others, and then a great

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turbine wheel about fifty feet in diameter, which was slowly

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revolving below the craft, now began to buzz. The craft

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rose up, and when it was about three hundred feet high,

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it appeared to be hovering over a two year old

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heifer that seemed to be stuck to a fence. They

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went over to her and saw there was a half

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inch red cable tied in a slip knot around her

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neck that went up to the ship. They tried to

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free the cow, but were unable to, and they watched

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as the ship rose up and carried the cowway towards

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the southwest. According to Hamilton Link Thomas of Coffee County,

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about four miles west of Leroy, Kansas, found the hide

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of the cow, along with its head and legs in

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his field on Tuesday. Hamilton was able to identify it

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by his brand on the hide. This story got widespread

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public exposure thanks to Frank Edward's best selling nineteen sixty

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six book Flying Saucers Serious Business, and Jacques Vlllet included

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it in his nineteen sixty five book Anatomy of a

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Phenomenon in his nineteen sixty nine book Passport to Magonia.

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It seems, however, that the story was a hoax, and

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how this was discovered is told in detail by Jerome

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Clark in his article headlined the Great Airship Hoax, published

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in the February nineteen seventy seven issue of Fate magazine.

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According to Clark, the truth about the affair came out

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in an article published in the January twenty eighth, nineteen

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forty three Kansas newspaper The Buffalo Enterprise. A week before,

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the paper had recounted Hamilton's original tale, and this prompted

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ed F. Hudson, who had been the editor of The

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Farmer's Advocate in eighteen ninety seven, to write a letter

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to the Enterprise. According to Hudson, he had just installed

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a small gasoline engine to replace hand power on his

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old country Campbell press and invited friends, including Hamilton, to

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watch it operate. Hudson explains the origin of the story.

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Hamilton exclaimed, now they can fly, hence the airship story

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that we made up, Clark says. The Enterprise article was

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discovered in nineteen seventy six by an American correspondent of

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Fourteen Times editor J. M. Ricard. Recard sent Clark a copy,

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and Clark got a letter seeking confirmation, published in the

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September sixteenth Yates Center News. This got a reply from

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Donna Steebe of Wichita, Kansas, who said that her ninety

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three year old mother, Ethel L. Shaw, had heard the

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story from Hamilton himself. Shaw provided Clark with a statement.

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According to Shaw, when she was about fourteen years old,

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she was at the Hamilton house with Missus Hamilton and

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their daughter Nell, when mister Hamilton came in and said, ma,

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I've fixed up quite a story and told the boys

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in town, and it will come out in the Advocate

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this weekend. Missus Hamilton was rather shocked by the story,

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but the girls weren't bothered, as we felt it was

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just a fabricated story. Shaw goes on to say that

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it seems there were a few men around who had

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formed the club, which they called Anonius Liar's Club. To

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her knowledge, the club broke up not long after the

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story was published. She adds that the men who signed

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the affid David knew it to be a falsehood, but

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simply went along with it for fun. According to Clark,

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Lucius Ferish had an article about the case published in

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the April nineteen sixty six issue of Fate, in which

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he proclaimed this case is one of the most astounding

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to be found on record. The editor's note at the

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end of Clark's article states, Lucius Ferish has asked us

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to convey his apologies to Fate readers for his unwinning

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role in publicizing this fallacious incident. Charles Lear is the

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author of The Flying Saucer Investigators, available in its second

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edition at Amazon dot com.