An article from the SF Gate about the FBI’s real world equivalent to the X-Files, called the Zero Files. They are files which the FBI deems to be “unactionable” but which don’t get thrown away, just on the off chance that they end up relating to other investigations down the road.

They are letters, faxes, e-mails and photographs, diagrams and maps, legal papers and photocopies. Some are a single scrap of scribbled paper, others reams of carefully typed explanation, replete with references and footnotes. Some were forwarded to the FBI by courts, police officers or businesses; most were submitted to the bureau by the authors themselves.

Each describes a unique delusion, a single person’s fantasy committed to paper and recorded for posterity. Conspiracy theories. Claims of paranormal abilities. Celebrity fantasies. To flip through the Zero Files is to peer into a palimpsest of lunacy, a travelogue of realms where the residents wish very much to leave…

The article isn’t fantastic, but it’s nonetheless interesting. There’s something about the author’s disdain for the people who are writing and sending these letters to the FBI that I think is a bit disheartening. But I guess it’s not altogether difficult to understand why he’s making fun of them when you see a letter like this:

I had a visit yesterday from two gentlemen who said they were from the SECRET SERVICE! They were looking for the HAMBURGLAR who said the PRESIDENT might choke on a CHEESEBURGER on AIR FORCE ONE! No wonder they can’t balance a TRILLION DOLLAR BUDGET in DC, they have to check out all the MCDONALDS in AMERICA for the DEADLY CHEESEBURGER that might KILL the PRESIDENT! This is not a JOKE!

Apparently, I’m not the only person looking into the rascal characters of McDonaldland… the Secret Service is after them too. Interesting…

(Found via Chapel Perilous)