The cattle mutilation reports of the early ‘70s spanned the Nebraska map: an angus outside Denton. A calf at Elgin. A cow near Callaway.
A 500-pound steer by O’Neill, its tongue and jaw missing, its stomach opened to the elements.
Dozens and dozens of incomplete cows, from Sarpy, Kearney and Pawnee counties -- nearly 100 reported by late 1974, more the next year.
Hysteria spread across the state, too. Extraterrestrials? The occult?
“The terror reign started when farmers and ranchers in Nebraska … began finding livestock that had been killed and cut up in sadistic and demented fashion,” a state senator wrote, appealing for state agencies to investigate.
But there was calm beneath the laboratory lights on East Campus in Lincoln, where more than 100 cows ended up under the careful and measured examination of Dr. Oliver Grace.
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