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Hoaxes, Hoaxers, Frauds, And Con-Men In The Bigfoot Community

Guest RayG

By Guest RayG
in General Bigfoot Discussion

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Guest RayG

Guest RayG

Posted
Posted

In another thread someone mentioned keeping a list of known hoaxers, and though we may have listed a few in individual threads, to my knowledge there's never been a thread dedicated to this topic. I think as bigfoot enthusiasts we should be policing ourselves as much as we can, digging for facts, pointing out unfavorable characters and incidents whenever possible, winnowing the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

Just want to clarify too, the material I'm presenting here is my own opinion as a member of the forum, and is in no way reflective of the opinion of the staff of the BFF.

So here's a partial list of hoaxes, hoaxers, frauds, and con-men spanning the last six decades or so of bigfootery:

  • Agawan, Massachusetts, 1977
  • Biscardi, Tom
  • Carter, Janice
  • Dewdney, BC 2006
  • Dfoot
  • Dickens, Ray
  • Dyer, Rick
  • Elbe Trackway & Creator
  • Fasano, Tim
  • Freeman, Paul
  • Gable Film
  • Green, John
  • Green, Mary
  • Kimberley, Kevin
  • Marx, Ivan
  • Mission, BC Bus Hoax
  • Morgan, Robert
  • Mullens, Rant
  • Patterson, Roger
  • Penn & Teller Sonoma Hoax
  • Pirello, Chayse
  • Robo
  • Shiawassee County, Michigan 'Hairy Creature' Hoax of 1978
  • Snow Walker Video
  • Sohl, John
  • Stillwell, Oklahoma 1977
  • Sweeten, Danny
  • Tenley, Randy Lee
  • Wallace, Ray
  • Whitton, Matt

Additions, subtractions, comments, or opinions?

RayG

gigantor Sasquatch

gigantor

Posted
Admin
Posted (edited)

Good idea Ray.

I don't think Roger Patterson belongs in that list. At least, not yet.

Edited by gigantor
bipedalist Sasquatch

bipedalist

Posted
BFF Patron
Posted (edited)

Tell me more about how John Green, Robert W. Morgan and Paul Freeman got wrapped up on the list. A simple key word will suffice.

And could we move a version of this thread to the Tar Pit so we can air it out?

Agree with the Roger Patterson comment ^ maybe you could do the same for him above.

Edited by bipedalist
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

And could we move a version of this thread to the Tar Pit so we can air it out?

Ditto

adam2323 Oh Mah

adam2323

Posted
Posted

Interesting list...However I believe you have overstepped on a few of the names.

Guest Cervelo

Guest Cervelo

Posted
Posted

Yes this would be much more interesting in the Tar Pit LOL!

Guest OntarioSquatch

Guest OntarioSquatch

Posted
Posted

I didn't know John Green was a fraud and a con-man.

Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

The list is sort of useless unless you know the story behind each name. I am not that well versed in Bigfootery.

Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

That reads more like a wish list, than a verified actual list of hoaxers. I agree, move it to the tar pit, so the rest of us do not have to be subjected to yet another twisted propaganda campaign that is obviously agenda driven.

Guest RayG

Guest RayG

Posted
Posted

Tell me more about how John Green, Robert W. Morgan and Paul Freeman got wrapped up on the list. A simple key word will suffice.

Nah, I'll give you some sources & quotes too...

Patterson isn't on the list because of the PGF, he's on there for his habit of accepting membership request money, but failing to mail back any memberships. Similar con games still exist today. Patterson is also on there because of this:

"The shape of a footprint can be dug into the ground with the fingers and/or a hand tool, the interior pressed flat, and it can then be photographed or cast in plaster. My first footprint cast was made by a student in just this manner (Fig.10). Roger Patterson told me he did this once in order to get a movie of himself pouring a plaster cast for the documentary he was making. (A few days later, he filmed the actual Sasquatch; See Chapter 4)." -- Dr. Grover Krantz, Big Footprints, page 32 (my bolding)

John Green is on the list because of a fake bigfoot story he published in 1955, prior to taking an interest in pursuing the bigfoot mystery.

Morgan's inclusion is because of his fiasco with the National Wildlife Federation back in the 70's. Morgan claimed that he and his heavily financed team had "found 161 tracks, collected fur, seen the beast, and recorded its vocalizations.... [Peter] Byrne accused Morgan of faking the tracks--and was promptly fired... He [Morgan] left behind a load of unpaid bills." -- from Joshua Blu Buhs, The Life and Times of a Legend: Bigfoot, page 194.

How could Freeman not make the list? It seems everywhere he went he found bigfoot evidence. When Joel Hardin, a tracking expert for the US Border Patrol examined tracks Freeman presented as supposedly from bigfoot, he reported that the tracks "were a very clever attempt to perpetrate a hoax, [with the thought that] involving your office or agency ...[would] lend authenticity or credibility to [the hoax in the eyes of] the general public." -- from Dahinden/Hunter's Sasquatch: Bigfoot, page 191

"It's awfully suspicious. The first tracks ever discovered in the watershed are discovered by a man who gets the job a month before. Then more tracks are found--not once, but three times--several miles apart. And never unless Paul Freeman is around." -- Statement by Rene Dahinden to a magazine writer, and included in his book Sasquatch: Bigfoot, page 192.

That's not even counting the pair of fake 21-inch wooden feet Freeman carved.

And could we move a version of this thread to the Tar Pit so we can air it out?

I'd have no objection to a copy of this moving to the Tar Pit.

That reads more like a wish list, than a verified actual list of hoaxers. I agree, move it to the tar pit, so the rest of us do not have to be subjected to yet another twisted propaganda campaign that is obviously agenda driven.

I fail to see how closing our eyes to the history of fakes and fakers within bigfootery will make it cease to exist or go away. My 'agenda' is to point out some factual information. If anyone can present good reason why a name or incident should be removed from the list, I'm certainly willing to revise it.

RayG

Rockape Sasquatch

Rockape

Posted
Posted

How did the Gable film make the list? I never considered it as having anything to do with bigfoot.

Guest thermalman

Guest thermalman

Posted
Posted

In another thread someone mentioned keeping a list of known hoaxers, and though we may have listed a few in individual threads, to my knowledge there's never been a thread dedicated to this topic. I think as bigfoot enthusiasts we should be policing ourselves as much as we can, digging for facts, pointing out unfavorable characters and incidents whenever possible, winnowing the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

So here's a partial list of hoaxes, hoaxers, frauds, and con-men spanning the last six decades or so of bigfootery:

  • Agawan, Massachusetts, 1977
  • Biscardi, Tom
  • Carter, Janice
  • Dewdney, BC 2006
  • Dfoot
  • Dickens, Ray
  • Dyer, Rick
  • Elbe Trackway & Creator
  • Fasano, Tim
  • Freeman, Paul
  • Gable Film
  • Green, John
  • Green, Mary
  • Kimberley, Kevin
  • Marx, Ivan
  • Mission, BC Bus Hoax
  • Morgan, Robert
  • Mullens, Rant
  • Patterson, Roger
  • Penn & Teller Sonoma Hoax
  • Pirello, Chayse
  • Robo
  • Shiawassee County, Michigan 'Hairy Creature' Hoax of 1978
  • Snow Walker Video
  • Sohl, John
  • Stillwell, Oklahoma 1977
  • Sweeten, Danny
  • Tenley, Randy Lee
  • Wallace, Ray
  • Whitton, Matt

Additions, subtractions, comments, or opinions?

RayG

I'm surprised you left out Ketchum? ;)

bipedalist Sasquatch

bipedalist

Posted
BFF Patron
Posted (edited)

That reads more like a wish list, than a verified actual list of hoaxers. I agree, move it to the tar pit, so the rest of us do not have to be subjected to yet another twisted propaganda campaign that is obviously agenda driven.

RayG started the thread and said a "copy" of it could move to tthe Tar Pit (paid members view and discuss only).

In response, I'd say that Freeman's early track casts seemed to appear to have sausage links inserted at differing angles into some of them to me. Toe flexibility a given with Sasquatch is fine but I will admit, I viewed some of that as suspect. I had early problems with the Freeman Footage.

The more recent efforts by Thom Powell to find original footage and paste them up on Youtube of Freeman's tracking and discussions had me take a relook at his stuff though.

Link:

Didn't know about Robert W. Morgan's adventures with NWF. Was it a grant-funded operation or was it some attempt to misrepresent to obtain a grant. Where did Byrne comment about it? Any online sources?

Re: Patterson, I guess you got to practice on something. Breaking a contract for memberships could have been a postal fraud offense if the amounts added up and U.S. Postal Inspector's may have been involved then? Were they?

Edited by bipedalist
Guest thermalman

Guest thermalman

Posted
Posted

That reads more like a wish list, than a verified actual list of hoaxers. I agree, move it to the tar pit, so the rest of us do not have to be subjected to yet another twisted propaganda campaign that is obviously agenda driven.

Agreed. This has the potential to get ugly, really fast.

Guest RayG

Guest RayG

Posted
Posted

I'm surprised you left out ..... ;)

If anyone can present good reason why a name or incident should be added to the list, I'm certainly willing to revise it.

RayG

Guest
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