Britain's Big Cats and Princess Diana

Some of you may have seen this breaking story: a new and highly controversial claim to the effect that elements of the British Army were somehow involved in the death (or as the claim suggests, the murder) of Princess Diana, in 1997.

I know nothing about this, aside from what the press is saying. And as this new story - from the UK's Daily Mail newspaper - shows, the claim is steeped in major controversy.

What I do know, however, is that there really was a link between the secret world of the British Army and Princess Diana. It had nothing to do with her death, however, but everything to do with the so-called, ABCs, or Alien Big Cats, that roam the U.K.

I tell the story in my recently published book, Monster Files. The chapter in question details the work of a small, elite group in British Army Intelligence that was watching Diana's every move in the late 1980s, amid fears that she might be kidnapped or assassinated by hostile forces.

While keeping Diana under surveillance during one, particular, late-night visit the princess made to an old village in the county of Devon, the Army team caught sight of something amazing prowling around. It was nothing less than a large, black cat, around the size of a mountain lion.

Since the ABC was seen very close to the property in which Diana was staying, the military unit was placed in a deep quandary: should they shoot the cat and alert the entire village (and, quite probably, and quickly, the media too) as to what was going down? Or should they just hope that the huge, black creature finally made its way out of the village and onto the wild countryside and moors of Devon? They chose the latter.

As for the story itself, it was provided to Jon Downes, of the Center for Fortean Zoology, who, in turn, provided it to me, years ago, after Jon personally spoke with one of the soldiers involved. It's important to note that Jon's source proved to be highly credible, since he correctly named at least one of Diana's lovers, long before the relationship became public knowledge.

It may well prove to be the case that the current controversy surrounding Diana and the British Army will implode on itself and vanish into obscurity.

But even if that does happen, it doesn't rule out the fact that there really was a British Army unit watching Diana's every move back in the latter part of the '80s. And, it was a unit that - in a very curious and roundabout fashion - became embroiled in the controversy surrounding Britain's notoriously famous ABCs.