CNN Wades in
CNN reports:
(CNN) -- A pair of Georgia men faced more than a half-hour of skeptical questions from reporters Friday as they defended their claim that they stumbled upon the body of Bigfoot while hiking in a remote North Georgia forest.
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The thawed body of a creature reputed to be Bigfoot reportedly weighs more than 500 pounds.
1 of 3
<script type="text/javascript"> var CNN_ArticleChanger = new CNN_imageChanger('cnnImgChngr','/2008/US/08/15/bigfoot.body/imgChng/p1-0.init.exclude.html',2,1); //CNN.imageChanger.load('cnnImgChngr','imgChng/p1-0.exclude.html'); </script> <!--endclickprintexclude--> Introduced by a publicist and beside a man who promoted what turned out to be a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer repeatedly said that their claim is not a hoax and that scientific analysis will prove it.
"We were not looking for Bigfoot. ... We wouldn't know what we were doing if we did," said Whitton, a police officer on leave after being shot in the hand while making an arrest. "I didn't believe in Bigfoot at the time. ... But you've got to come to terms with it and realize you've got something special. And that's what it was."
The men say they were hiking in early June when they discovered the body of a 7-foot-7, 500-pound half-ape, half-human creature near a stream. They also claim to have spotted about three similar living creatures -- and showed reporters video stills of what they say is one of those creatures shadowing them through the woods.
Watch report of scientist skeptical of Bigfoot claim »
The announcement, which the men first made on the Internet radio show "Squatch Detective" several weeks ago, has been greeted with healthy skepticism, even among some Bigfoot enthusiasts.
Scientists, including the head of North Georgia College and State University's biology department, have said it's unlikely a tribe of 7-foot-tall creatures would have avoided discovery in a region popular among hikers, hunters and vacationers.
<!--startclickprintexclude--> Don't Miss
<!--endclickprintexclude--> Several Web sites have popped up questioning the claim and comparing a photo that the men say is the creature's body inside a freezer to a widely available Bigfoot costume.
On Friday, Whitton acknowledged creating a pair of videos posted on the Internet video site YouTube, one in which his brother poses as a scientist and another in which Whitton briefly seems to admit that the body is a fake.
"It seems that the stalkers have busted us in a hoax," he says in the video. But then adds, "we still have a corpse. We just wanted to give you something to do for the weekend."
At Friday's news conference, Whitton first said that no video existed in which he calls the discovery a hoax.
But after speaking to Tom Biscardi, the self-described "Real Bigfoot Hunter" who has been searching for the creature of legend since 1971, he said the video was made "to have a little fun with it" and was originally intended to throw off the "psychos" who had stalked him and his family since the men first made their claim.
The two also promoted a Web site registered to Whitton on June 16 and said they plan to write a book about their experience.
Friday's news conference was held in Palo Alto, California, near the home of Biscardi. About 100 reporters and onlookers attended the event, in a hotel banquet room, including a man who shouted questions while wearing a gorilla suit.
Dyer and Whitton said they were carrying a video camera during their hike to film wildlife.
They said they handed the body over to Biscardi, who is keeping it at an undisclosed location until a team of scientists can examine it.
One of the two photographs the men gave to reporters Friday showed what appears to be the creature's mouth, an effort to disprove allegations that what's in the photo is a costume.
"I want to get to the bottom of it," Biscardi said. "I'll tell you what I've seen and what I've touched and what I've felt, what I've prodded was not a mask sewed onto a bear hide, OK?"
Biscardi acknowledged that he promoted a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, saying the woman who claimed to have the body convinced his staff members before he visited her and discovered that she was mentally ill.
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<!--endclickprintexclude--> Alleged Bigfoot sightings have surfaced from time to time for years, dating to at least the 1800s. The most famous was the so-called Patterson film from 1967, which is purported to show a tall, furry, apelike creature walking along, at one point looking over its shoulder at the videographer.
Most scientists who have studied the film say there's no way to authenticate it, and many say the creature appears to be a man in a costume. <!--startclickprintexclude-->
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<!--endclickprintexclude--> CNN's Doug Gross and Chuck Afflerback contributed to this report.
CNN reports:
(CNN) -- A pair of Georgia men faced more than a half-hour of skeptical questions from reporters Friday as they defended their claim that they stumbled upon the body of Bigfoot while hiking in a remote North Georgia forest.
<!--startclickprintexclude-->
1 of 3
<script type="text/javascript"> var CNN_ArticleChanger = new CNN_imageChanger('cnnImgChngr','/2008/US/08/15/bigfoot.body/imgChng/p1-0.init.exclude.html',2,1); //CNN.imageChanger.load('cnnImgChngr','imgChng/p1-0.exclude.html'); </script> <!--endclickprintexclude--> Introduced by a publicist and beside a man who promoted what turned out to be a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer repeatedly said that their claim is not a hoax and that scientific analysis will prove it.
"We were not looking for Bigfoot. ... We wouldn't know what we were doing if we did," said Whitton, a police officer on leave after being shot in the hand while making an arrest. "I didn't believe in Bigfoot at the time. ... But you've got to come to terms with it and realize you've got something special. And that's what it was."
The men say they were hiking in early June when they discovered the body of a 7-foot-7, 500-pound half-ape, half-human creature near a stream. They also claim to have spotted about three similar living creatures -- and showed reporters video stills of what they say is one of those creatures shadowing them through the woods.
The announcement, which the men first made on the Internet radio show "Squatch Detective" several weeks ago, has been greeted with healthy skepticism, even among some Bigfoot enthusiasts.
Scientists, including the head of North Georgia College and State University's biology department, have said it's unlikely a tribe of 7-foot-tall creatures would have avoided discovery in a region popular among hikers, hunters and vacationers.
<!--startclickprintexclude--> Don't Miss
<!--endclickprintexclude--> Several Web sites have popped up questioning the claim and comparing a photo that the men say is the creature's body inside a freezer to a widely available Bigfoot costume.
On Friday, Whitton acknowledged creating a pair of videos posted on the Internet video site YouTube, one in which his brother poses as a scientist and another in which Whitton briefly seems to admit that the body is a fake.
"It seems that the stalkers have busted us in a hoax," he says in the video. But then adds, "we still have a corpse. We just wanted to give you something to do for the weekend."
At Friday's news conference, Whitton first said that no video existed in which he calls the discovery a hoax.
But after speaking to Tom Biscardi, the self-described "Real Bigfoot Hunter" who has been searching for the creature of legend since 1971, he said the video was made "to have a little fun with it" and was originally intended to throw off the "psychos" who had stalked him and his family since the men first made their claim.
The two also promoted a Web site registered to Whitton on June 16 and said they plan to write a book about their experience.
Friday's news conference was held in Palo Alto, California, near the home of Biscardi. About 100 reporters and onlookers attended the event, in a hotel banquet room, including a man who shouted questions while wearing a gorilla suit.
Dyer and Whitton said they were carrying a video camera during their hike to film wildlife.
They said they handed the body over to Biscardi, who is keeping it at an undisclosed location until a team of scientists can examine it.
One of the two photographs the men gave to reporters Friday showed what appears to be the creature's mouth, an effort to disprove allegations that what's in the photo is a costume.
"I want to get to the bottom of it," Biscardi said. "I'll tell you what I've seen and what I've touched and what I've felt, what I've prodded was not a mask sewed onto a bear hide, OK?"
Biscardi acknowledged that he promoted a fake Bigfoot discovery in 1995, saying the woman who claimed to have the body convinced his staff members before he visited her and discovered that she was mentally ill.
<!--startclickprintexclude-->
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<!--endclickprintexclude--> Alleged Bigfoot sightings have surfaced from time to time for years, dating to at least the 1800s. The most famous was the so-called Patterson film from 1967, which is purported to show a tall, furry, apelike creature walking along, at one point looking over its shoulder at the videographer.
Most scientists who have studied the film say there's no way to authenticate it, and many say the creature appears to be a man in a costume. <!--startclickprintexclude-->
E-mail to a friend
Share this on:Mixx Digg Facebook del.icio.us reddit StumbleUpon MySpace
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<!--endclickprintexclude--> CNN's Doug Gross and Chuck Afflerback contributed to this report.
No shit. I lived in Iowa City and have no clue where that is.
Opossum DNA??
PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Bigfoot remains as elusive as ever.
Results from tests on genetic material from alleged remains of one of the mythical half-ape and half-human creatures, made public at a news conference on Friday held after the claimed discovery swept the Internet, failed to prove its existence.
Its spread was fueled by a photograph of a hairy heap, bearing a close resemblance to a shaggy full-body gorilla costume, stuffed into a container resembling a refrigerator.
One of the two samples of DNA said to prove the existence of the Bigfoot came from a human and the other was 96 percent from an opossum, according to Curt Nelson, a scientist at the University of Minnesota who performed the DNA analysis.
Bigfoot creatures are said to live in the forests of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. An opossum is a marsupial about the size of a house cat.
Results of the DNA tests were revealed in an e-mail from Nelson and distributed at the Palo Alto, California, news conference held by Tom Biscardi, host of a weekly online radio show about the Bigfoot.
Also present were Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the two who say they discovered the Bigfoot corpse while hiking in the woods of northern Georgia. They also are co-owners of a company that offers Bigfoot merchandise.
Despite the dubious photo and the commercial interests of the alleged discoverers, the Bigfoot claim drew interest from Australia to Europe and even The New York Times.
Biscardi said the DNA samples may not have been taken correctly and may have been contaminated, and that he would proceed with an autopsy of the alleged Bigfoot remains, currently in a freezer at an undisclosed location.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin in Palo Alto; writing by Jim Christie; editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Henderson)
PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - Bigfoot remains as elusive as ever.
Results from tests on genetic material from alleged remains of one of the mythical half-ape and half-human creatures, made public at a news conference on Friday held after the claimed discovery swept the Internet, failed to prove its existence.
Its spread was fueled by a photograph of a hairy heap, bearing a close resemblance to a shaggy full-body gorilla costume, stuffed into a container resembling a refrigerator.
One of the two samples of DNA said to prove the existence of the Bigfoot came from a human and the other was 96 percent from an opossum, according to Curt Nelson, a scientist at the University of Minnesota who performed the DNA analysis.
Bigfoot creatures are said to live in the forests of the U.S. Pacific Northwest. An opossum is a marsupial about the size of a house cat.
Results of the DNA tests were revealed in an e-mail from Nelson and distributed at the Palo Alto, California, news conference held by Tom Biscardi, host of a weekly online radio show about the Bigfoot.
Also present were Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, the two who say they discovered the Bigfoot corpse while hiking in the woods of northern Georgia. They also are co-owners of a company that offers Bigfoot merchandise.
Despite the dubious photo and the commercial interests of the alleged discoverers, the Bigfoot claim drew interest from Australia to Europe and even The New York Times.
Biscardi said the DNA samples may not have been taken correctly and may have been contaminated, and that he would proceed with an autopsy of the alleged Bigfoot remains, currently in a freezer at an undisclosed location.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin in Palo Alto; writing by Jim Christie; editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Henderson)
Opossum DNA? That's the biggest possum I've ever seen. They should get credit for taking this monster possum out of the forest. Apparently it eats humans cause they also found human DNA in it. It's eaten so many humans that its starting to look human, look at the picture! This has got to be the biggest anthropological find in human history!!! What should we name it ??? Carnipossum? Possumlicious? Stanley? Poss? Gigantoposs? Icky, :think2:
<table id="post1422038" class="tborder" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td class="alt1" id="td_post_1422038" style="border-right: 1px solid rgb(43, 41, 94);"> Re: Body proves Bigfoot no myth, hunters say - CNN
<hr style="color: rgb(43, 41, 94);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message -->
Bigfoot's teeth look too white, compare them to the guy holding the photo.
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</td> <td class="alt1" style="border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color rgb(43, 41, 94) rgb(43, 41, 94) -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 0px 1px 1px 0px;" align="right"> <!-- controls -->
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<hr style="color: rgb(43, 41, 94);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message -->
Bigfoot's teeth look too white, compare them to the guy holding the photo.
<!-- / message --> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="alt2" style="border-style: none solid solid; border-color: -moz-use-text-color rgb(43, 41, 94) rgb(43, 41, 94); border-width: 0px 1px 1px;">
</td> <td class="alt1" style="border-style: none solid solid none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color rgb(43, 41, 94) rgb(43, 41, 94) -moz-use-text-color; border-width: 0px 1px 1px 0px;" align="right"> <!-- controls -->
</td></tr></tbody></table>CBS news:
http://www.cbs46.com/news/17232407/detail.html#-
Web Site: Bigfoot Finding A Fraud
ATLANTA -- A Web site that claimed two Georgia men had found Bigfoot says the men's claim is a fraud.SearchingForBigfoot.com has confirmed that the two Georgia men who claimed they found Bigfoot were lying.The Web site said that Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer delivered the freezer containing the reported remains of the Bigfoot the day after the press conference that they called for. It also said that Whitton and Dyer were given an undisclosed amount of money from Searching For Bigfoot before they went public with their find."On August 15th, 2008, Tom Biscardi, Ricky Dyer and Matthew Whitton held a press conference at the Cabana Hotel in Paolo Alto, California, announcing that the corpse of a creature fitting the description known as 'Bigfoot' had been discovered. A police officer of seven years, on medical leave, labeled as a hero for being wounded in the line of duty, got up in front of the world and told the world of how he and Ricky Dyer uncovered this creature. This has since been proven a lie. It is notable that Rick Dyer insisted on this press conference and told Tom Biscardi he would not release the 'body' unless the conference was held on this specific date," said Executive Director of Squatchdetective.com Steve Kulls on SearchingForBigfoot.com
After the Searching For Bigfoot team and "The Real Bigfoot Hunter" Tom Biscardi began to thaw out the creature in a 1,500 lb. cooler of ice, they discovered it was a rubber suit. Biscardi contacted Whitton and Dyer and they agreed to admit the truth to the public. When Biscardi arrived at their hotel, the pair had vanished.Searching For Bigfoot believes that their motive was financial."It is still unclear why Whitton who, being a police officer for the Clayton County Police Department in Georgia got up before the world and lied and was complicit in a scheme to defraud in a felonious manner" said Kulls.CBS 46 News tried to contact Whitton or Dyer on the Bigfoot Tracker Tip Line and left a message, but neither has returned our calls.CBS46.com called Chief Jeff Turner with the Clayton County Police Department and left a message, but no one has returned our call.
http://www.cbs46.com/news/17232407/detail.html#-
Web Site: Bigfoot Finding A Fraud
ATLANTA -- A Web site that claimed two Georgia men had found Bigfoot says the men's claim is a fraud.SearchingForBigfoot.com has confirmed that the two Georgia men who claimed they found Bigfoot were lying.The Web site said that Matthew Whitton and Ricky Dyer delivered the freezer containing the reported remains of the Bigfoot the day after the press conference that they called for. It also said that Whitton and Dyer were given an undisclosed amount of money from Searching For Bigfoot before they went public with their find."On August 15th, 2008, Tom Biscardi, Ricky Dyer and Matthew Whitton held a press conference at the Cabana Hotel in Paolo Alto, California, announcing that the corpse of a creature fitting the description known as 'Bigfoot' had been discovered. A police officer of seven years, on medical leave, labeled as a hero for being wounded in the line of duty, got up in front of the world and told the world of how he and Ricky Dyer uncovered this creature. This has since been proven a lie. It is notable that Rick Dyer insisted on this press conference and told Tom Biscardi he would not release the 'body' unless the conference was held on this specific date," said Executive Director of Squatchdetective.com Steve Kulls on SearchingForBigfoot.com
After the Searching For Bigfoot team and "The Real Bigfoot Hunter" Tom Biscardi began to thaw out the creature in a 1,500 lb. cooler of ice, they discovered it was a rubber suit. Biscardi contacted Whitton and Dyer and they agreed to admit the truth to the public. When Biscardi arrived at their hotel, the pair had vanished.Searching For Bigfoot believes that their motive was financial."It is still unclear why Whitton who, being a police officer for the Clayton County Police Department in Georgia got up before the world and lied and was complicit in a scheme to defraud in a felonious manner" said Kulls.CBS 46 News tried to contact Whitton or Dyer on the Bigfoot Tracker Tip Line and left a message, but neither has returned our calls.CBS46.com called Chief Jeff Turner with the Clayton County Police Department and left a message, but no one has returned our call.
Police 'hero' fired as Bigfoot claim melts away
<!-- END: Module - Main Heading --><DIV id=region-column1-layout2><!--CMA user Call Diffrenet Variation Of Image --><!-- BEGIN: Module - M24 Article Headline with portrait image (b) --><SCRIPT src="/tol/js/m24-image-browser.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="/tol/js/tol.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--/* Global variables that are used for "image browsing". Used on article pages to rotate the images of a story. */var sImageBrowserImagePath = '';var aArticleImages = new Array();var aImageDescriptions = new Array();var aImageEnlargeLink = new Array();var aImageEnlargePopupWidth = '500';var aImageEnlargePopupHeight = '500';var aImagePhotographer = new Array();var nSelectedArticleImage = 0;var i=0;var aImageAltText= new Array();//--></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--aArticleImages = '/multimedia/archive/00383/BIGFOOT_383332a.jpg';//--></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--aImageDescriptions = 'Bigfoot was actually a huge rubber bodysuit';//--></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--aImagePhotographer = '';//--></SCRIPT><!--Don't Display undifined test for credit --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--aImageAltText = 'A Bigfoot in the freezer';//--></SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--aImageEnlargeLink = '/multimedia/archive/00383/BIGFOOT_383332a.jpg';i=i+1;//--></SCRIPT><DIV><DIV class=article-author><!-- BEGIN: Portrait image -->
<!-- Remove following to not show photographer information --><!-- Remove following to not show image description -->Bigfoot was actually a huge rubber bodysuit
<!-- Tip: This here with the id "dynamic-image-navigation" is used so that the innerHTML can be written to by the JS call below. --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--fCreateImageBrowser(nSelectedArticleImage,'portrait',"/tol/");//--></SCRIPT>
<!-- END: Portrait image --><!-- Print Author name from By Line associated with the article -->Philippe Naughton
<!-- END: Module - Module - M24 Article Headline with portrait image (b) --><!-- Article Copy module --><!-- BEGIN: Module - Main Article --><!-- Check the Article Type and display accordingly--><!-- Print Author image associated with the Author--><!-- Print the body of the article--><STYLE type=text/css>div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;**</STYLE><!-- Pagination --><!--Display article with page breaks -->Video: how the hoax was discovered
An American police officer who claimed to have found Bigfoot has been fired from the force after it emerged that the hairy heap in his freezer was not the half-man, half-ape of myth, but a full-length rubber gorilla costume.
In an elaborate hoax Matthew Whitton, a police officer in Clayton County, Georgia, and his partner, Rick Dyer, announced in a radio interview and YouTube video that they had found the creature's corpse in the remote forests of Georgia state.
They sold the rights to the corpse to Rick Biscardi, a Californian Bigfoot hunter, for a reported $50,000, and Mr Biscardi then presented the pair to the world at a press conference in Palo Alto last Friday, although he was forced to defend the lack of physical evidence on show.
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</FORM>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article4525824.ece
<FORM name=relatedLinksform action="" method=post></FORM><FORM name=relatedLinksform action="" method=post></FORM><!-- BEGIN: POLL --><!--This block will execute if an article of type Poll is attached--><!-- END : POLL --><!-- BEGIN: DEBATE--><!-- END: DEBATE-->
<!-- END: Module - M63 - Article Related Attachements --><!-- Call Wide Article Attachment Module --><!--TEMPLATE:call file="wideArticleAttachment.jsp" /-->However, after Mr Biscardi asked Steve Kulls, a self-styled "Sasquatch detective", to examine the men's find, doubts about the find's authenticity began to emerge.
On Sunday, having had his suspicions already aroused by the creature's unnatural hair, Mr Kulls started melting down the large block of ice enclosing the specimen, according to a detailed statement posted on Mr Biscardi's website.
"Within one hour we were able to see the partially exposed head," Mr Kulls wrote.
"As I was now able to touch it, I was able to feel that it seemed mostly firm, but unusually hollow in one small section. This was yet another ominous sign.
"Within the next hour of thaw, a break appeared up near the feet area. As the team and I began examining this area near the feet, I observed the foot which looked unnatural, reached in and confirmed it was a rubber foot."
After admitting their deception in a telephone conversation with Mr Biscardi and promising to pay his money back, the two hoaxers swiftly checked out of their California hotel before the Bigfoot hunter could get there, making themselves as scarce as their mythical prey.
The hoaxers' own BigfootTracker website does not explain the motives behind it - except to offer visitors $499 Bigfoot hunting expeditions. Callers to a voicemail "tipline" advertised on the site are advised that the pair are also now searching for leprechauns, dinosaurs, the Loch Ness Monster and, of course, Elvis.
The joke fell flat with Jeffrey Turner, who as Chief of Police in Clayton County, Georgia, put Mr Whitton on medical leave when he was shot in the wrist as he tried to foil a robbery earlier this summer.
"As soon as we saw it was a hoax, I filed the paperwork to terminate his employment," said Chief Turner.
“He’s disgraced himself, he’s an embarrassment to the Clayton County Police Department, his credibility and integrity as an officer is gone, and I have no use for him,” he declared.
“This turn of events from hero to someone who defrauds a nation is just baffling. I don’t know how he got from one point to the other... For someone to do a complete three-sixty like that, I can't explain it."
The police chief said that he wanted to send Mr Whitton his termination paperwork and get back his uniforms - but had not yet managed to track him down.
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<!-- Remove following to not show photographer information --><!-- Remove following to not show image description -->Bigfoot was actually a huge rubber bodysuit
<!-- Tip: This here with the id "dynamic-image-navigation" is used so that the innerHTML can be written to by the JS call below. --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript><!--fCreateImageBrowser(nSelectedArticleImage,'portrait',"/tol/");//--></SCRIPT>
<!-- END: Portrait image --><!-- Print Author name from By Line associated with the article -->Philippe Naughton
<!-- END: Module - Module - M24 Article Headline with portrait image (b) --><!-- Article Copy module --><!-- BEGIN: Module - Main Article --><!-- Check the Article Type and display accordingly--><!-- Print Author image associated with the Author--><!-- Print the body of the article--><STYLE type=text/css>div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;**</STYLE><!-- Pagination --><!--Display article with page breaks -->Video: how the hoax was discovered
An American police officer who claimed to have found Bigfoot has been fired from the force after it emerged that the hairy heap in his freezer was not the half-man, half-ape of myth, but a full-length rubber gorilla costume.
In an elaborate hoax Matthew Whitton, a police officer in Clayton County, Georgia, and his partner, Rick Dyer, announced in a radio interview and YouTube video that they had found the creature's corpse in the remote forests of Georgia state.
They sold the rights to the corpse to Rick Biscardi, a Californian Bigfoot hunter, for a reported $50,000, and Mr Biscardi then presented the pair to the world at a press conference in Palo Alto last Friday, although he was forced to defend the lack of physical evidence on show.
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<!-- END: Module - M63 - Article Related Attachements --><!-- Call Wide Article Attachment Module --><!--TEMPLATE:call file="wideArticleAttachment.jsp" /-->However, after Mr Biscardi asked Steve Kulls, a self-styled "Sasquatch detective", to examine the men's find, doubts about the find's authenticity began to emerge.
On Sunday, having had his suspicions already aroused by the creature's unnatural hair, Mr Kulls started melting down the large block of ice enclosing the specimen, according to a detailed statement posted on Mr Biscardi's website.
"Within one hour we were able to see the partially exposed head," Mr Kulls wrote.
"As I was now able to touch it, I was able to feel that it seemed mostly firm, but unusually hollow in one small section. This was yet another ominous sign.
"Within the next hour of thaw, a break appeared up near the feet area. As the team and I began examining this area near the feet, I observed the foot which looked unnatural, reached in and confirmed it was a rubber foot."
After admitting their deception in a telephone conversation with Mr Biscardi and promising to pay his money back, the two hoaxers swiftly checked out of their California hotel before the Bigfoot hunter could get there, making themselves as scarce as their mythical prey.
The hoaxers' own BigfootTracker website does not explain the motives behind it - except to offer visitors $499 Bigfoot hunting expeditions. Callers to a voicemail "tipline" advertised on the site are advised that the pair are also now searching for leprechauns, dinosaurs, the Loch Ness Monster and, of course, Elvis.
The joke fell flat with Jeffrey Turner, who as Chief of Police in Clayton County, Georgia, put Mr Whitton on medical leave when he was shot in the wrist as he tried to foil a robbery earlier this summer.
"As soon as we saw it was a hoax, I filed the paperwork to terminate his employment," said Chief Turner.
“He’s disgraced himself, he’s an embarrassment to the Clayton County Police Department, his credibility and integrity as an officer is gone, and I have no use for him,” he declared.
“This turn of events from hero to someone who defrauds a nation is just baffling. I don’t know how he got from one point to the other... For someone to do a complete three-sixty like that, I can't explain it."
The police chief said that he wanted to send Mr Whitton his termination paperwork and get back his uniforms - but had not yet managed to track him down.
Just happened to come across this. We lived by main. White n Black house. I'm the youngest of my two older sisters....if that gives you any clue who I am. Misty is my name.
'10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty' Judges Skeptical of Hunter's New Claims
http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/-...eptical-of-hunter-s-new-claims-004013134.html
One of the judges from Spike's new "10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty" calls Rick Dyer's assertion that he shot and killed a Sasquatch last year "completely worthless."
"Dude, I'm not going to take your word [for] it or your crappy picture. Show us real data," says Todd Disotell, a professor of anthropology at New York University who also runs NYU's Molecular Anthropology Laboratory.
Of course, Dyer's case is probably hurt by the fact that he was responsible for a Bigfoot hoax back in 2008, not to mention that he was a used car salesman before that and plans to go on tour with the now-stuffed body (which he says he shot in Washington, not San Antonio, as originally reported). "The second profit pops into science, science goes squiggly," concluded Disotell. "It's strange that he chose to have it taxidermied rather than have better-preserved live samples sent for testing," said Natalia Reagan, a primatologist who co-judges "Bounty" with Disotell and actor Dean Cain.
Natalia Reagan, Dean Cain, and Dr. Todd Disotell in "10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty"
Disotell and Reagan bring years of lab and field research experience to the hunt for Bigfoot in the new series. Disotell established the terms for what would be considered definitive proof of Bigfoot so that Lloyd's of London would insure the $10 million stakes of the show.The contestants are an assortment of Bigfoot hunters, or "Squatchers," along with survivalists, paranormal researchers, and ordinary hunters and trackers. Their different methods lead to conflict and sometimes even cooperation through various challenges designed for this particular kind of search.
The scientists likened visiting with the contestants to "a primatological study," according to Reagan, "where you see the coalitions form and the infighting and who's going to band together next week." But living with them also gave her a respect for their passion, and even though some of their theories were far-fetched, she was open to them. "[Science] is not static. It changes and adapts. It evolves. And so to hear their theories, maybe my take on things will change and evolve."
The scientific rigor is what sets this show apart from most of the other Bigfoot shows that have been on TV. Part of Reagan's job was "to teach [the hunters] the correct collection protocol," so if something were found, it could be considered incontrovertible proof of Bigfoot's existence. She said Disotell "didn't test any sample that wasn't collected properly."
Real scientific methods were surprisingly compatible with the reality-show format. "It's exactly the same laboratory techniques and even field techniques that we use in my anthropological research. There's no difference. We collect scat, hair; we dart, trap. We do whatever to get a biological sample from primates in the wild and then try to figure out who they're related to. Are they something new?" Disotell says, "That's sort of the hunt for Bigfoot."
Conservation biology — the field that led Reagan to the disappearing forests of Panama to study spider monkeys — is ideal for the search because it studies endangered species that are also elusive. By using environmental DNA — "saliva when they take a bite off a tree," Reagan explains, or blood from a mosquito or a leech — and camera traps, which she calls "the TMZ of the natural world," the search for mythical creatures gains more real-world credibility.
Disotell and Reagan are both familiar with using the media to further science education. Disotell has appeared on "Monster Quest" and "The Daily Show;" Reagan hosts a show called "Science! It's Your Friend" on YouTube. They're hoping that by being involved with a show meant as entertainment, they can impart some real information about science. "If you can trick people into learning something," says Disotell about a lesson he learned as a teacher, "they learn it much better than if you force-feed it to them."
"10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty" premieres Friday, Jan. 10 at 10 p.m. on Spike.
http://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/-...eptical-of-hunter-s-new-claims-004013134.html
One of the judges from Spike's new "10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty" calls Rick Dyer's assertion that he shot and killed a Sasquatch last year "completely worthless."
"Dude, I'm not going to take your word [for] it or your crappy picture. Show us real data," says Todd Disotell, a professor of anthropology at New York University who also runs NYU's Molecular Anthropology Laboratory.
Of course, Dyer's case is probably hurt by the fact that he was responsible for a Bigfoot hoax back in 2008, not to mention that he was a used car salesman before that and plans to go on tour with the now-stuffed body (which he says he shot in Washington, not San Antonio, as originally reported). "The second profit pops into science, science goes squiggly," concluded Disotell. "It's strange that he chose to have it taxidermied rather than have better-preserved live samples sent for testing," said Natalia Reagan, a primatologist who co-judges "Bounty" with Disotell and actor Dean Cain.
Natalia Reagan, Dean Cain, and Dr. Todd Disotell in "10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty"
Disotell and Reagan bring years of lab and field research experience to the hunt for Bigfoot in the new series. Disotell established the terms for what would be considered definitive proof of Bigfoot so that Lloyd's of London would insure the $10 million stakes of the show.The contestants are an assortment of Bigfoot hunters, or "Squatchers," along with survivalists, paranormal researchers, and ordinary hunters and trackers. Their different methods lead to conflict and sometimes even cooperation through various challenges designed for this particular kind of search.
The scientists likened visiting with the contestants to "a primatological study," according to Reagan, "where you see the coalitions form and the infighting and who's going to band together next week." But living with them also gave her a respect for their passion, and even though some of their theories were far-fetched, she was open to them. "[Science] is not static. It changes and adapts. It evolves. And so to hear their theories, maybe my take on things will change and evolve."
The scientific rigor is what sets this show apart from most of the other Bigfoot shows that have been on TV. Part of Reagan's job was "to teach [the hunters] the correct collection protocol," so if something were found, it could be considered incontrovertible proof of Bigfoot's existence. She said Disotell "didn't test any sample that wasn't collected properly."
Real scientific methods were surprisingly compatible with the reality-show format. "It's exactly the same laboratory techniques and even field techniques that we use in my anthropological research. There's no difference. We collect scat, hair; we dart, trap. We do whatever to get a biological sample from primates in the wild and then try to figure out who they're related to. Are they something new?" Disotell says, "That's sort of the hunt for Bigfoot."
Conservation biology — the field that led Reagan to the disappearing forests of Panama to study spider monkeys — is ideal for the search because it studies endangered species that are also elusive. By using environmental DNA — "saliva when they take a bite off a tree," Reagan explains, or blood from a mosquito or a leech — and camera traps, which she calls "the TMZ of the natural world," the search for mythical creatures gains more real-world credibility.
Disotell and Reagan are both familiar with using the media to further science education. Disotell has appeared on "Monster Quest" and "The Daily Show;" Reagan hosts a show called "Science! It's Your Friend" on YouTube. They're hoping that by being involved with a show meant as entertainment, they can impart some real information about science. "If you can trick people into learning something," says Disotell about a lesson he learned as a teacher, "they learn it much better than if you force-feed it to them."
"10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty" premieres Friday, Jan. 10 at 10 p.m. on Spike.
