The FBI released 22 documents from its records vault on Wednesday concerning the agency’s investigation into a possible Bigfoot.
The records, dated from 1976 and 1977, chronicle an analysis of an unidentified hair and tissue sample that some believed belonged to Bigfoot. The samples were said to have come from “a member of the deer family,” the documents show.
In August 1976, then-Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition Director Peter Byrne sent a letter to the FBI urging the agency to test the sample of 15 hairs “attached to a tiny piece of skin.”
“Will you kindly, to set the record straight, once and for all, inform us if the FBI., has examined hair which might be that of a Bigfoot,” the letter reads. “Please understand that our research here is serious. That this is a serious question that needs answering.”{mosads}
The documents also include a letter from Jay Cochran, who was serving as assistant director of the FBI’s Scientific and Technical Services Division. In a letter dated February 1977, Cochran wrote to the Academy of Applied Sciences about the FBI’s findings regarding the sample.
The sample was “examined by transmitted and incident light microscopy” and included “a study of morphological characteristics such as root structure, medullary structure and cuticle thickness in addition to scale casts,” the document says.
“The hairs were compared directly with hairs of known origin under a comparison microscope. … It was concluded as a result of these examinations that the hairs are of deer family origin,” it continues.