Well, I did say "if..." I do have to admit, based on Loren Coleman's initial reaction that he posted in his original blog entry Bigfoot Body: "Georgia Gorilla" Will Shock the World, I was cautiously hopeful that this could indeed be "the real deal". Sadly, however, the public has been subjected to another pathetic hoax by a trio (Matt Whitton, Rick Dyer, and Tom Biscardi) of financially-motivated scam artists. One bit of news that gave me a modicum of satisfaction was that Matt Whitton, the cop from Clayton County, Ga, was fired from his job because of his involvement in this scam (link to article here).
Those of us who have a sincere interest in topics such as cryptozoology, ufology, and the paranormal in general, are a community; and as a community we do not tolerate publicity-seeking idiots that perpetrate hoaxes in the interest of making a fast buck. The best thing that we can do, as a community, is to completely ostracize these people: do not visit their website, do not call in on any radio show on which they appear or attend any event at which they're appear, do not buy any book, dvd or any other product or service that they are selling. In the case of Biscardi, who makes a living in the "bigfoot business", that would essentially cripple him financially - and he deserves nothing less. Ignore them, and they will go away.
What bothers me the most about this whole business is the fact that it hurts the field of cryptozoology and devalues and belittles the work of gentleman like Loren Coleman, Matt Moneymaker (head of BFRO), Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, and our friend Adam Davies.
Adam Davies has appeared on our Internet radio show 'The Paranomalists' and will be speaking with us again on Sunday, August 31st at 9:30 AM EST. If you haven't read it, pick up a copy of Adam's excellent and highly entertaining book "Extreme Expeditions: Travel Adventures Stalking the World’s Mystery Animals". He is a tireless investigator of mystery animals (as the subtitle indicates) and he has frequently put himself in life-threatening situations in his search for these creatures. In a recent email Adam wrote to me, in his understated way, "Man, when you risk your life for this stuff, its difficult to find anytime at all for hoaxers..." (hope you don't mind me putting that out there, Adam).
The fact is, these types of pranks/scams/hoaxes - call them what you will - shed a poor light on a legitimate field that, unfortunately, already suffers from a lot of bad press because of the involvement of liars, hoaxers and the lunatic fringe. A good friend of mine said to me yesterday, "Well that should put to rest all this bigfoot nonsense". "Of course it doesn't!", I argued. "Simply because a few asses decide to perpetrate a hoax, does not invalidate all the strong evidence that points to the existence of such creatures". I do believe that, and I continue to respect those serious individuals who dedicate themselves to the search for and classification of cryptids.
John Carlson
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Protecting the Georgia Gorilla
Note: I'm using the terms "Georgia Gorilla", "Georgia Bigfoot", "bigfoot" and "sasquatch" interchangeably. The creature found in Georgia by Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer (if it's real) may be one and the same as the creature known as sasquatch or bigfoot that has been seen for centuries throughout North America, or it could be a subspecies. It might be a while before we have the answer to that question.
Last month, my co-hosts Ash Hamilton and Mark Gray and I interviewed an avid and experienced hunter on our paranormal radio show, The Paranomalists. The hunter happened to be Ash's dad, Marvin Hamilton. Because we're always searching for new subjects and twists on existing ones, we thought it would be interesting to ask, in a purely speculative manner, what it would be required to bring down an animal with the size and bulk of the legendary sasquatch. Mr. Hamilton has hunted some very large game I'm told, and we thought it might be an interesting to get a hunter's perspective on what kind of firepower would be needed if one would choose to hunt such a creature. It was a relatively short interview (for us) and it can be downloaded on the Audio page of Disclose.tv. The segment is titled "Paranomalists - What Can Take Down Bigfoot?".
I was quick to add that this conversation was purely speculative and that in no way do The Paranomalists advocate the hunting and killing of sasquatch, should the creature actually exist. Now, less than a month later, we're facing the possibility that the legendary bigfoot may indeed exist (see my previous post, The Georgia Bigfoot - could this be the real thing at last? or go to Loren Coleman's article Georgia Gorilla: Bigfoot Body’s First Photo!).
If, on Friday, 8/15 we discover that the so-called "Georgia Gorilla" is the real thing, bigfoot, then I can envision an ugly scenario taking place that must somehow be prevented. Does anyone remember the scene in the movie "Jaws", when all those overzealous morons descended on the town of Amity to try to claim the reward money by bagging the shark that ate the poor little Alex Kintner boy? What do you think will happen if this bigfoot body is the real deal? Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the two Georgia residents that discovered the body, are keeping the exact location of its discovery a secret in order to protect the creatures. However, the fact that it's known that the place where the carcass was found is in the northern woods of Georgia is enough. I can see the area being overrun by "bigfoot hunters" with high-powered rifles. The fact that Whitton and Dyer have been offered a million dollars for just the photos of the body is sure to bring a lot of greedy idiots with weapons to the woods of northern Georgia. Hey, if getting a second body of one of these creatures will bring millions of dollars, it's going to tempt both experienced hunters and novices to enter the fray in the hope of taking home the ultimate trophy.
As for myself, I'm not a hunter and probably couldn't bring myself to kill a squirrel (although I've run over a few with my car) and I certainly could not kill something that looks very close to being a human being (hell, I saw a dozen guys hairier than that this weekend down at the Jersey Shore). To me, that would be akin to murder rather than simply "hunting". But, once again, this whole thing could turn out to be a big hoax, in which case my point here is moot. However, if this is an actual flesh-and-blood, living animal or being, then it needs to be protected. State and Federal laws need to be put into place immediately to protect the Georgia Gorilla and the North American sasquatch from indiscriminate slaughter. Heavy fines should be levied, as well as jail time, for anyone who kills them. Who really knows how many are left in the wild? Can we afford to lose even one to a hunter's bullet?
John Carlson
Last month, my co-hosts Ash Hamilton and Mark Gray and I interviewed an avid and experienced hunter on our paranormal radio show, The Paranomalists. The hunter happened to be Ash's dad, Marvin Hamilton. Because we're always searching for new subjects and twists on existing ones, we thought it would be interesting to ask, in a purely speculative manner, what it would be required to bring down an animal with the size and bulk of the legendary sasquatch. Mr. Hamilton has hunted some very large game I'm told, and we thought it might be an interesting to get a hunter's perspective on what kind of firepower would be needed if one would choose to hunt such a creature. It was a relatively short interview (for us) and it can be downloaded on the Audio page of Disclose.tv. The segment is titled "Paranomalists - What Can Take Down Bigfoot?".
I was quick to add that this conversation was purely speculative and that in no way do The Paranomalists advocate the hunting and killing of sasquatch, should the creature actually exist. Now, less than a month later, we're facing the possibility that the legendary bigfoot may indeed exist (see my previous post, The Georgia Bigfoot - could this be the real thing at last? or go to Loren Coleman's article Georgia Gorilla: Bigfoot Body’s First Photo!).
If, on Friday, 8/15 we discover that the so-called "Georgia Gorilla" is the real thing, bigfoot, then I can envision an ugly scenario taking place that must somehow be prevented. Does anyone remember the scene in the movie "Jaws", when all those overzealous morons descended on the town of Amity to try to claim the reward money by bagging the shark that ate the poor little Alex Kintner boy? What do you think will happen if this bigfoot body is the real deal? Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the two Georgia residents that discovered the body, are keeping the exact location of its discovery a secret in order to protect the creatures. However, the fact that it's known that the place where the carcass was found is in the northern woods of Georgia is enough. I can see the area being overrun by "bigfoot hunters" with high-powered rifles. The fact that Whitton and Dyer have been offered a million dollars for just the photos of the body is sure to bring a lot of greedy idiots with weapons to the woods of northern Georgia. Hey, if getting a second body of one of these creatures will bring millions of dollars, it's going to tempt both experienced hunters and novices to enter the fray in the hope of taking home the ultimate trophy.
As for myself, I'm not a hunter and probably couldn't bring myself to kill a squirrel (although I've run over a few with my car) and I certainly could not kill something that looks very close to being a human being (hell, I saw a dozen guys hairier than that this weekend down at the Jersey Shore). To me, that would be akin to murder rather than simply "hunting". But, once again, this whole thing could turn out to be a big hoax, in which case my point here is moot. However, if this is an actual flesh-and-blood, living animal or being, then it needs to be protected. State and Federal laws need to be put into place immediately to protect the Georgia Gorilla and the North American sasquatch from indiscriminate slaughter. Heavy fines should be levied, as well as jail time, for anyone who kills them. Who really knows how many are left in the wild? Can we afford to lose even one to a hunter's bullet?
John Carlson
The Georgia Bigfoot - could this be the real thing at last?
For any of you who are reading this that haven't yet heard the news, this Friday, August 15th, a press conference will be held to reveal DNA evidence and photographic evidence of the creature as "bigfoot" or "sasquatch". The body of this creature was said to have been found in the northern woods of Georgia, here in the USA. If you go to Loren Coleman's excellent site, Cryptomundo.com, you can read the article for yourself. Also, a photograph was leaked of the supposed Georgia Gorilla (as Mr. Coleman has suggested calling it) or Georgia Bigfoot, and Mr. Coleman was given permission to post the photo on his site. (NOTE: Their web server is understandably swamped right now, so you may or may not be able to get to the page, or at least, it may take a while to load).
Now, I'm sure many of you are skeptical, as am I. We've all seen our share of blobsquatch photos and have endured the shenanigans of so many hucksters that have attempted to profit by capitalizing on people's desire to believe in the existence of this creature. With so many past disappointments, we're all hesitant to get our hopes up. Having said that, however, I am more than a little curious (maybe even a little excited, I'll admit) about this latest development in the bigfoot saga. And that's because none other than Loren Coleman, one of the preeminant figures in the search for conclusive evidence of the North American ape, has said that this "...indeed, may be the real deal". Wow. If Loren Coleman is putting that out there, even tentatively, it has to get your hopes up a little, doesn't it?
The other reason to believe that this might be the real deal is the fact that the two Georgia residents who discovered the creature, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, are allowing the body to be investigated by credentialed scientists. According to Loren Coleman's article on Cryptomundo:
If this "Georgia Gorilla" is the real thing, I'll be overjoyed that this discovery has been made within my lifetime, and I'll be even happier for people like Loren Coleman, Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, Jane Goodall - people who have worked and sacrificed and often have opened themselves up for ridicule among their peers because of their belief in the existence of these creatures. I wonder also how this will affect other areas of research that are considered by some of the public and much of the mainstream scientific community to be "fringe" or "pseudo-science" - other areas within cryptozoology, as well as subjects such as ufology, parallel dimensions. It's my belief that if this Friday, August 15, 2008 we are finally given conclusive proof of bigfoot's existence, that we must then open our minds to the possibility of other undiscovered creatures existing in the wild, other entities in our midst. What was once "impossible" now because possible. If bigfoot exists, what else might be out there?
John Carlson
Now, I'm sure many of you are skeptical, as am I. We've all seen our share of blobsquatch photos and have endured the shenanigans of so many hucksters that have attempted to profit by capitalizing on people's desire to believe in the existence of this creature. With so many past disappointments, we're all hesitant to get our hopes up. Having said that, however, I am more than a little curious (maybe even a little excited, I'll admit) about this latest development in the bigfoot saga. And that's because none other than Loren Coleman, one of the preeminant figures in the search for conclusive evidence of the North American ape, has said that this "...indeed, may be the real deal". Wow. If Loren Coleman is putting that out there, even tentatively, it has to get your hopes up a little, doesn't it?
The other reason to believe that this might be the real deal is the fact that the two Georgia residents who discovered the creature, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, are allowing the body to be investigated by credentialed scientists. According to Loren Coleman's article on Cryptomundo:
"The hominoid (please note, not hominid) body, found in the Georgia woods, is now in a secure location, under armed guard, and set to be examined by a battery of academic scholars, skeptical scientists, Bigfoot researchers, and debunking writers."If Mr. Whitton and Mr. Dyer are willing to do that, then they may actually be the first to have gathered solid, physical evidence in the way of a carcass of the creature known as "bigfoot" or "sasquatch". Of course, this could all turn out to be an elaborate hoax, in which case Whitton and Dyer deserve to be collectively spanked and fully ostracized by the public. But.., their willingness to present physical evidence to a objective group of scientists is encouraging. And this is exactly as it should be: nothing short of a full scientific analysis and necropsy of the creature will do if we are to take this seriously. The public and the scientific community needs nothing less than complete and total proof that this is truly an unclassified, undiscovered species of ape (or perhaps something between ape and human).
If this "Georgia Gorilla" is the real thing, I'll be overjoyed that this discovery has been made within my lifetime, and I'll be even happier for people like Loren Coleman, Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, Jane Goodall - people who have worked and sacrificed and often have opened themselves up for ridicule among their peers because of their belief in the existence of these creatures. I wonder also how this will affect other areas of research that are considered by some of the public and much of the mainstream scientific community to be "fringe" or "pseudo-science" - other areas within cryptozoology, as well as subjects such as ufology, parallel dimensions. It's my belief that if this Friday, August 15, 2008 we are finally given conclusive proof of bigfoot's existence, that we must then open our minds to the possibility of other undiscovered creatures existing in the wild, other entities in our midst. What was once "impossible" now because possible. If bigfoot exists, what else might be out there?
John Carlson
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