Goodbye Bigfoot, we never knew you
• Psychics & Other Frauds
I long thought that Bigfoot was mainly the topic of many bad horror movies. It was only a few months ago I came to realize that there are plenty of people spending their free time out searching for Bigfoot or 'researching' it. Research consisting of reading websites that assert that old adaptable playfellow often called the truth.
My earlier entries noting the final exposure of the origins of the Bigfoot legend-cum-hoax have drawn a few dull remarks from the true believers. There's no dissuading the converted, Jesus, Bigfoot, Chiropractics, once you believe your mind freezes.
Jay Ingram, Debunking book stomps on Bigfoot footage"Science" topics have a scientific veneer, but a little scraping and sanding reveals there's nothing underneath. UFO's, crop circles and the Loch Ness monster are all perfect examples, but my favourite is Bigfoot, although this man-ape of the Pacific Northwest has just taken a shot that might put him down forever.
A man with a skeptical bent, Greg Long, has published a book, The Making Of Bigfoot — The Inside Story, in which he claims to have found not only the man who wore the gorilla suit in the famous 1967 film of a female Bigfoot but also the guy who supplied the suit.
There is no doubt that the film has been the best — although not the only — piece of evidence for the animal. It is about 60 seconds of hastily shot footage of a female Bigfoot ambling across a clearing in northern California. Two men, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, claimed to have stumbled across the creature as they wandered through the woods.