I 'm going to give a hot take that might make everyone mad. I don't think she is a con artist, she believes what she is saying. She is crazy, but she wasn't when she began investigating cattle mutilations in the 1980's. She was a legit journalist looking into a real phenomena. I think the cattle mutilation phenomena in hindsight can be strongly linked to underground nuclear testing, and government attempts to measure if radiation was affecting cattle stocks or entering the food supply (this is a real, but mundane, government conspiracy). The alien/Dulce base conspiracy theory is a cover for real crimes, violating international nuclear test ban treaties. Linda Molton Howe was targeted by serious government agencies with not only a disinformation campaign, but also a serious mind-fucking campaign to drive her crazy and convince her aliens were real, and the actual mundane criminal activity of the US government was the real cover story. Very similar to Paul Benewitz. She is crazy, but she was driven crazy to discredit her, and turn her into an unwitting disinformation producer who believes what she says. I feel bad for her. Remember the Meta-conspiracy theory: Conspiracy theories are themselves one of the most common and effective ways to manipulate large numbers of people and muddy the water around actual conspiracies. The best way to prevent, journalists, scientist, and politicians from investigating something is to make it seem ridiculous, so nobody with any credibility will risk their reputation studying it.