Bigfoot

[wayoutwest]

It would be cool if Bigfoot existed....BUT......

I recall some time ago, someone on their death bed admitted the Patterson video was a hoax. (I think he admitted it to his niece.) He admitted he was in the suit, as I recall he was over 6' tall. The costume was in the closet...I'm sure some searching around on the internet would turn this story up. The hype was too strong, as there is still to this day "sightings". It's fun to believe, even if it's hard to imagine it being possible.

a quick search

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37507

Thirty-six years after the fact, Bob Heironimus' conscience finally caught up with him: He confessed to having donned a gorilla costume and appearing in the famous 1967 footage of Bigfoot.


1967 footage of alleged 'Bigfoot' creature

"It's time people knew it was a hoax," Heironimus told the Washington Post.

For decades, the grainy film clip has fueled study and speculation about the existence of a large mysterious creature in the Pacific Northwest.

"It's time to let this thing go," he told the paper. "I've been burdened with this for 36 years, seeing the film clip on TV numerous times. Somebody's making lots of money off this, except for me. But that's not the issue – the issue is that it's time to finally let people know the truth."

The Post reported Heironimus makes his official confession in a new book, "The Making of Bigfoot" by paranormal investigator Greg Long. The author says he spent four years investigating the 60-second film and the people behind it.

Long traced the Bigfoot costume to Philip Morris, a North Carolina gorilla suit specialist, who says he sold it for $435 to an amateur documentary maker named Roger Patterson (who died in 1972), according to the paper.

The hoax was staged near Bluff Creek in Northern California, according to Heironimus.

"Patterson was the cameraman," Long told the Post. "They made a gentleman's agreement that Bob would get in the suit and walk in front of the camera for $1,000."

Heironimus' story is a bit different.

"I was never paid a dime for that, no sir," he said, adding, "Sure I want to make some money. I feel that after 36 years I should get some of it."

The news doesn't change the view of an open-minded Jane Goodall, a well-known primatologist.

"She's spoken to people whom she respects who say they have seen one of these hominids," said Nona Gandelman, an aide to Goodall, according to the report. "And to many other people she respects who have heard strange calls they thought were made by Bigfoot. As a scientist, she has a very open mind about this and has yet to close the door on the possibility."

An associate of the deceased filmmaker is challenging the veracity of Heironimus' story. The Post says it was contacted by Tom Malone, a Minneapolis lawyer, working on behalf of Bob Gimlin, an associate of Patterson's.

"I'm authorized to tell you that nobody wore a gorilla suit or monkey suit and that Mr. Gimlin's position is that it's absolutely false and untrue," Malone told the paper.

and also this

http://www.bigfootforums.com/

 

[dragonsden73]

a quick search

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37507






and also this

http://www.bigfootforums.com/

OK, well, it's been a very long time since I heard the story...same idea though. You would think that after more than 40 years and literally hundreds if not thousands of sightings, someone would actually have pulled their head out and busted out the cellphone camera or something by now. All the nature hikers with cameras and video equipment, heat seeking equipment, I mean really.....

I did see a zombie the other night though.

 

[Grizzly_A]

Though I have not had any personal experience with Bigfoot, I had a hunting partner a few years back who was out hunting and ran across an area that smelled interesting, kinda like elk but had a more musky odor. He also ran across some impressions in the ground that were bigger than any bear he had ever seen and didn't have the same gait/track pattern.

He started feeling a little uncomfortable and odd and kept moving just in case it was a bear...

Just thought I'd share

 

[wichaka]

Been thru every wilderness area in the NW horse packing and hiking, never ran across such a thing...I think the bigfoot thing is a bunch of garbage.

 

[billc]

My wife thinks he is real!

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

I am not sure I believe they exist, but I am very open to the possibility. I used to go on expeditions when I was in Cali with a group from UC Davis.

I have a great uncle who swears he has seen one up close and personal. He is not the type to make up stories either. He is an ex-navy pilot and wildlife conservationist who specialized in bears.

He never really has told the story to anyone outside the family but he swears he went out early one morning to see what his dogs were barking about and when he opened the pen two of the males bolted towards the gardens. When he ran around the barn after them he found them at the edge of the garden barking at a huge hairy creature running from his watermelon patch.

I always believed him and then when I moved to the west coast I heard story after story about bigfoot sightings taking place in watermelon patches. I guess they like watermelon.

 

[Trlsmn]

Until I see proof I will continue to beleive they aren't real. With the huge proliferation of Cameras, digital cameras, video camera, cell phone cameras we should have some irrefutable evidence and I've yet to see anything other than self appointed "experts" with lots of enthusiasm and no proof stating they exist!

Now if you want to talk about zombies............................In a word Meth!

 

[MilitaryMan84]

man those are some amazing stories on that website! Freak me out a bit.

 

[treemanx]

Well, I'll share my step-dads experience with yall, although none of you know him to verify his credibility. He is an honest man.

Larch Mountain in the late 70's early 80's, my step dad Scott is up with buddies riding dirt bikes and packing .22 rifles for rabbits. They had been riding hard, and stopped for a break. Scott mentioned the area they stopped at was the base of hill, fairly open with scattered trees and tall grass. He said they noticed what they first thought was a tall dead stump, black and very tall at the base of the hill, within around 25 to 50 yards from them.

They didnt take much notice of it, and got off their bikes to sit down for a bit. This "stump" suddenly turned around and began running upright like a man up the steep hill. Scott described it as being around 8 or 9 feet tall, covered in brown shaggy hair that was very matted, and running like a man would swinging it's arms. They all saw the thing, and Scott and another guy grabbed their .22 rifles and began chasing it up the hill. The creature crested the hill and went over the other side, and as my step dad and his friend crested and started over the other side they noticed it dropped into a fairly steep and heavily treed canyon. As Scott ran he said he started to get whiffs of this things very strong and pungent odor.

He saw it once more way out in front of them through the trees, and it was dashing through trees and jumping dead logs. The farther he got down the hill, the darker and stinkier it got, and he started thinking to himself, "what the **** am I doing??" He stopped, and realized that he didnt hear his buddy, so he turned and saw the guy who had went with him had stopped way before and was staring at him with huge eyes. Scott proceeded to high tail it out of there back to their bikes, and they left.

Scott actually took my Mom, brother and I to the spot he saw it on Larch years later, and was able to describe where he saw it and where it went. I was only about 15 at the time, but I remember it well. Scott is a very serious dude, and not one who would lie. I believe what he saw was a bigfoot, as I cant imagine there being anything else it could be. Bears wont/cant run up hill on their hind legs, they will always drop to their front feet. Scott said this thing was like a huge hairy man, but this spot is very isolated and its unlikely it was some sort of a hoaxer waiting to give someone a bigfoot experience. Especially the way it out ran them. Plus, all of the guys saw it, and described the exact same thing.

 

[Buddhalux]

I believe that there is something out there. The PNW and Cascade range are pretty damn rugged. I'm sure that there are many spots that haven't been touched by humans in decades if at all. If it is a Neanderthal or offshoot it wouldn't surprise me given their reported intelligence as well as the lack of dead bodies that we've discovered. I find it hard to believe that the thousands of reports are hoax's. Just like the whole UFO thing, I saw one thru military Gen III NVG's in Texas back in 95. But that's another thread I imagine.

 

[MilitaryMan84]

I have never had a personal experience and I am not sold completely, but I think that there is to much evidence to just say it doesn't exist. I have watched alot of the shows about Bigfoot and it seems like every time that they do a show there is more and more scientific evidence to say that there is something there.

 

[buyamonkey]

http://www.mysterycasebook.com/silverstarmountain.html

My Father in-law talked to the guys who took this and said they were pretty convinced. I could go either way on it.

I've spent a lot of time running around in the hills and talking with my Dad and other
"old timers" who have heard things or seen things that didn't seem to fall under the traditional Flora and fauna category. I tend to give the benefit of the doubt and believe there could be something running around up there.

Eddie
"Have you hugged a bigfoot today?"

 

[dragonsden73]

Ok well....there was one time, maybe 3 years ago I was elk hunting. Usual spot, at the edge of road overlooking a valley, small valley. Just getting dark, Dad and I heard an awful growl/roar/cry/scream.....whatever it was it was VERY loud, and poured through the canyons forever. We never heard anything like it. We figure MAYBE it was a big Cougar who was suddenly injured or something. I have searched relentlessly trying to find a soundbite of all kinds of wild animals in Oregon to try and match up what we heard. Let's just say I'm still searching. And yes, the hairs stood up all over my body. It was probably at least 500 yards away, maybe much further but I cannot even begin to tell people how loud this sound was. But until I see a bigfoot with my own two eyes, I'll keep searching for bear and cougar sounds.

 

[Mutoman]

Ok well....there was one time, maybe 3 years ago I was elk hunting. Usual spot, at the edge of road overlooking a valley, small valley. Just getting dark, Dad and I heard an awful growl/roar/cry/scream.....whatever it was it was VERY loud, and poured through the canyons forever.

Sorry about that, was those awful camp beans!

 

[robertg]

My wife and I had a personal experience 8 years ago. I never gave much thought about Bigfoot. I’ve spent allot years back country fishing and camping outdoors, I’m very comfortable in the wilderness. We were south of John Day at the most remote campsite I could find for car camping, I prefer to be by ourselves, we were the only people there. It was a campground on the side of a hill overlooking a large meadow; I was hoping to see some game come out as it got dark so we were sitting quietly watching. It was a nice clear and still August weeknight.

As it was just getting dark we heard a loud, I mean LOUD howl from up on the hill behind us, I figure about ½ mile away. It kept going about every three or 4 minutes, so I was going thru my list of things it might be, not a cat, a bear, coyote, owl, elk, moose, not a person (no road or trail up that way). It sounded like nothing I’ve ever heard, kind of like the biggest guy I can think of roaring, but much deeper. Something big, really big.

My wife kept asking me what it was, I kept saying I don’t know, but I was trying to be cool cause she was getting a little scared. It stopped for a while, then started again more to the north, but this time there was another one answering further away. OK, my tent and stuff is all set up and we had been driving all day so I figured we just go to bed and it will stop No, this stuff went on all night, different howls, some hoo hoo sounds, several times a koo koo koo noise, it’s hard to explain. Sometimes it came from the other side of the valley; there were several of them. Did I sleep? No way, like I said, I was trying to be calm and logical in front of my wife, but I was getting freaked myself just sitting there. I thought about leaving, but I didn’t want to move my tent and stuff in the middle of the night. We ended up sitting on the picnic table all night with a flashlight and a 9mm, like that would be any use other than a noisemaker. After several hours I knew I was hearing Bigfoot, it could not be anything else, the closest thing I can think of was large gorillas. We never saw anything and they didn’t get closer than several hundred yards (that was close enough). As soon as it got light I packed and drove into John Day and got a motel room for the next night, this ended my camping trip, we drove home the following day.

I reported it to the Bigfoot Research Association; these guys are with the University Of Idaho. They interview us and had me listen to several recorded sounds; some were close to what we heard, but crappy quality. If I had a tape recorder I would have by far the best sounds. They had heard many reports like mine before, but not so long. They said the Koo Koo sound was something the female used to round up a youngster, and the howling was used to keep track of each other as the moved thru the area. They traveled in small groups at night.

Well, I’m a believer now; I don’t care what anybody else thinks. We heard large apes in the woods all night, it was nothing else.

 

[284guy]

ok, so heres the million dollar question. Your hunting elk and see what you believe is a bigfoot, you have a bear tag in your pocket, do you shoot it knowing youll make millions in endorsements? what if your wrong and its an idiot in a suit? what would you do?

 

[Mutoman]

ok, so heres the million dollar question. Your hunting elk and see what you believe is a bigfoot, you have a bear tag in your pocket, do you shoot it knowing youll make millions in endorsements? what if your wrong and its an idiot in a suit? what would you do?

I would be hard pressed to shoot something that was intelligent enough to avoid human contact as much as they have. Would be like shooting another intelligent being as far as I'm concerned. For defense, of course, for glory, no way.

 

[SavageGerbil]

If you draw down on a guy in a suit and he doesn't shout in protest, you'd have shot the most dedicated actor I've ever heard of.

 

[ob1]

No sightings or stories, personal or second hand, but, has anyone heard of the "Cape Ape" ?..... Supposedly a big foot like creature in the woods around Cape Lookout to Hebo. Occasionally have heard about this one for approx. 30 years.

Do I believe there could still be something out there in the remote woods that has yet to been proven to exist ? ...Sure...Just go to downtown Portland in the NW side, real late on a Saturday night. You'll see all kinds of scary creatures that you wont be able to identify.

In a more technical vein: I noticed in your main post you spoke of some "specialists" the were worling on the "Patterson" film.

Treemanx quote
They also contracted an independant research team to try and calculate the dimensions of the objects in the video, to establish an approximate size of the "creature" in the video. In doing this, they were able to definitively prove that the target in the video is between 7 and 8 feet tall

The technique these guys supposedly used is called "Linear Photogrammetry". It is a forensic technique that is used to determine the height / size of a subject depicted in a known video / film. It's origins trace back to WWII photographic interpretation and recon satellite imagery. It is commonly used today in bank robbery investigations to identify the bad guys in security camera videos.......Heres the rub: For this technique to be conclusive, you need a series of precise mathematical values taken from the original site where the image was made, (the exact height of the camera, the exact camera to subject distance, the exact size of stationary objects seen in the image, just to name a few) Now, how could anyone get this data from the original scene in the woods, years after the image was taken ? Answer ? no one could....TV is loaded with so-called forensic experts willing to do a "song and dance" for a buck. Common example - so-called polygraph (lie detector) experts on day time talk shows. They can throw up data and diplomas for provenance, but the product they peddle is SWAG (scientific wild azz guess)

 

[MilitaryMan84]

@ Robertg - Man I think I would have packed up and left lol, Don't think I could have stayed there all night. My wife for sure would have been running back to the car! She pretends to be tough but she is kind of a wussy when it comes down to it LOL!

I for one am going to be putting up a few game cameras around my camp and pointing at my tent so if we do get a visitor I have him on film