The Fake Bob Gimlin

[Bill]

I was recently asked by another interested person about the fake Bob Gimlin who toured with Roger when he showed the film in theaters around the country.  It seems well accepted that a man impersonating Bob was used to attend these showings.

 

The question was asked, who was this man? Does anyone know his identity? And was he ever asked what he and Roger talked about when they had spare time on the show tour?

 

Anybody have info that might answer these questions?

 

Thanks

[Backdoc]

Just a thought:   Bob Gimlin knew Al DeAtley and Roger Patterson (obviously).  I have to think Bob Gimlin would have a decent chance to know who the 'fake Gimlin' might have been.  It's worth a try while Bob is still with us.

[OldMort]

No name available, but a write-up from Loren Coleman's Cryptomundo site:  https://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/patterson-deathbed/

 

"Bob and I were discussing the confusion that sometimes occurs with people mixing up who is who in the field. Bob then stopped me short by sharing a startling turn of events he once found out about, regarding his buddy Roger." 

 

It was a couple years or so after the film had been taken, and Bob got a call from a friend of his with a strange tale. It seems the friend heard about a talk on Bigfoot, which was to take place in a little hall in a Southwestern town near where the guy lived. It happened to be a road appearance by Roger Patterson, who was taking around the raw footage and showing it for a little admission price on a haphazard lecture circuit.

 

The talk and film were interesting, the friend told Gimlin, but it was what occurred next that really got the guy a bit hot under the collar.

All of a sudden, in an apparently scripted scenario, after Patterson showed the Bigfoot film, up on the stage strolled out a man dressed like a Western ranch-hand. To the friend’s and most of the audience’s surprise, the cowboy introduced himself: “Hi everyone. I’m Bob Gimlin and I saw the Bigfoot too, like Roger did. I was there.”

 

Bob Gimlin’s friend said that he felt like standing up and yelling out something like, “Hey, **** it, I know Bob Gimlin and that’s not Bob Gimlin.”

Instead of a confrontation, the friend decided to call up Bob about what he had just witnessed with his own eyes with this staged act."

 

It is unclear if Patterson used this imposter just one time or on a regular basis.

 

I can't imagine anyone doing this for long as it constitutes outright fraud.

 

Its possible that Patterson may have had different individuals perpetrating fraud for him depending on what part of the country he was in.

 

 

[Bill]

If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on Al arranging for the impostor, moreso than Roger. That is, of course, speculation, not fact, but that's what my collective intuition thinks is the more probable.

[MIB]

At the risk of muddying the waters further, this might raise the question of whether any specific statements attributed to Bob which seem to contradict either known information, or contradict what is seemingly possible regarding timeline, could have come from his, uh, "stunt double" rather than Bob himself.   No, I don't have anything specific in mind, just ... thinking out loud.

 

MIB

[OldMort]

2 hours ago, Bill said:

If I was a betting man, I'd put my money on Al arranging for the impostor, moreso than Roger.

 

From the same Coleman article:

"It wasn’t long before Roger Patterson’s health started to decline, and dying, Roger called Bob to his bedside. Weak, obviously near death, and apparently wanting to die with a clean slate, Gimlin told me that Roger said to him, “Bob, we did you wrong. I shouldn’t of had that fella act like he was you. I did wrong.”

[Bill]

Old Mort:

 

I wasn't aware of the quote, but it does lend a suggestion of authenticity to the film, in that Roger was apparently remorseful about his errors and mistakes, but not remorseful about claims of the film's authenticity.

 

Bill

[Patterson-Gimlin]

I can understand a dying man not coming clean about the films authenticity. I would think he would not want to burden his wife with that knowledge.

No future dividends and shame  .

[Arvedis]

I probably shouldn't admit this but I am the fake Bob Gimlin.

[Bill]

Okay, I'll bite.

 

Serious or just joking?

[Patterson-Gimlin]

Lol. You beat me to it. I am going out on a limb and say "joke"