Photo : Rich Legg ( Getty Images )

Today, June 5, 2019, at precisely 12 p.m. CT, the Federal Bureau of Investigation published the details of perhaps its most important investigation. Yes, the FBI Records Vault, which publishes FBI files that have been requested under the Freedom Of Information Act, has released the FBI’s Bigfoot file.




The bulk of the records show correspondence from the mid-’70s between the FBI and Peter Byrne, director of the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition, which was evidentially supported by the Academy of Applied Sciences in Boston. In his correspondence with the FBI, Byrne’s request was two-fold. First, Byrne requested confirmation of reports allegedly published in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ “The Washington Atlas” that the FBI had previously tested a sample of hair found in the Pacific Northwest and found it to belong to “no known animal.” Second, Byrne wanted to know if, hey, would the FBI mind testing some Bigfoot hair he had found?


“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; when this took place, if it did take place; what the results of the analysis were,” wrote Byrne.

“Please understand that our research here is serious,” he added.

While the FBI denied having tested Bigfoot hair in the past, they were, as it turned out, more than happy to analyze Byrne’s sasquatch sample. After agreeing to test the sample in late December 1976, the FBI delivered their findings to Byrne just two months later.


“It was concluded as a result of these examinations that the hairs are of deer family origin,” wrote FBI Scientific and Technical Services Division Assistant Director Jay Cochran, Jr. The FBI, helpfully, also gave Byrne his Bigfoot sample back.

The FBI’s official Bigfoot testing results. Screenshot : FBI


By our interpretation of these findings, two things are now clear. One: the FBI will apparently test your Bigfoot samples if you ask nicely. Two: Bigfoot has deer hair.



You can check out the rest of the FBI’s file on Bigfoot, including a file photo, over at the FBI Records Vault.


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