Goatsucker
(experimental lecture)

On March 20, 1998, rancher Jesse Gonzales made a startling discovery at his ranch near Arroyo Honda, New Mexico. One of his bulls was dead. But it was more than dead: its eyes were missing, its rectum cored, and its blood drained from the body. The previous evening, Gonzales had heard bizarre sounds and seen inexplicable lights coming from the desert skies.

For the last three decades, this scene has been repeated over and over throughout the Southwest. Some have explained the “cattle mutilation” phenomenon as the work of malevolent aliens, others claim that it is the work of the “black helicopters” of the New World Order, teenage satanic cults, or the infamous Chupacabras.

The vast majority of cattle mutilations occur in the vicinity of military operating areas, huge tracts of land (several the size of small countries) reserved for military activities: the Nellis Range, the White Sands Range, and many others. These places are home to secret squadrons of marauding “Goatsuckers,” “Screamin’ Demons,” and “Ghost Riders.”

The fatal effects of nuclear testing on humans and animals in the Southwest are well-known, but in the mid 1970s a new kind of death was being manufactured in hidden military enclaves. The programs, collectively known as “stealth,” have included some of the most highly-classified technologies since the bomb. And although “stealth” carried the promise of bringing invisible death to the state’s enemies, it, like the bomb before it, has brought invisible death to all life in its vicinity. From the clandestine production facilities in Burbank, California through the secret bases at Groom Lake and Tonopah, to simulated night raids on unsuspecting civilians, the legacy of stealth is a legacy of unseen environmental and social ruin. If stealth machines are not directly responsible for the wave of cattle mutilations since the mid 70s, there is nevertheless a weird resonance between these phenomena.

Presented as an experimental lecture in the form of an intelligence briefing, Goatsucker is a virtual tour through the killing fields of the stealth-fighter program.