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Sometimes it is amazing that a simple question can reveal a web of lives surprising to discover. Who is Lee Frank? And where is he today?

One of the ongoing mysteries of the 1970s is the one surrounding a shadowy individual named “Lee Frank.” Frank showed up on the scene in the waning days of high strangeness in the Midwest, and went around the country investigating Bigfoot cases for a magazine article. His research developed into at least one article on Bigfoot activities in Tennessee in High Times and perhaps other periodicals.

Then he disappeared.

In recent years, his name has come up, now and then.

For example, George Noory had Lee Frank on “Coast to Coast AM” in 2008. Here’s the bio for that appearance:

“Lee Frank

Biography:
Lee Frank has been on three expeditions in search of the Loch Ness monster. He worked for the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, which maintained surface observation posts along Loch Ness, and later, he was field monitor and chief diver with the MIT-based Academy of Applied Science. This is the team which obtained the famous flipper photo in 1972 and underwater photo of the head and torso. Lee Frank has also investigated Bigfoot sightings in British Columbia, New Jersey, and Tennessee. Through the help of Betty Hill, he has also explored the Bigfoot/UFO connection.”

Lee’s program is described, thusly:

Nessie & Bigfoot

Date:
06-17-08
Host:
George Noory
Guest:
Lee Frank,
Writer and producer Lee Frank discussed his expeditions in search of the Loch Ness monster (Nessie), as well as his investigations into the Bigfoot mystery. Sightings of Nessie date back to 565 AD when a Celtic monk reported seeing the creature. Though a lot of photos of Nessie over the years have turned out to be hoaxes, Frank visited Loch Ness in the 1970s and was impressed by witness testimony.

Terrified locals described seeing a creature with a horse-like head, red eyes, and horn-like appendages, he noted. In addition, there’s been around 20 land-based sightings, he detailed. For instance, in 1933, a huge beast with a long bulbous body was seen crossing a road. The Loch Ness area has also been home to a lot of supernatural activity such as “corpse lights,” said Frank, and cryptozoologists such as Ted Holiday came to believe that Nessie might have a paranormal connection.

Frank said he has a hair sample of Bigfoot, which has so far proved to be inconclusive. He suspects that Bigfoot is an unclassified species of animal, but some of the evidence doesn’t add up, such as footprints that suggest the creature’s weight is around 900 lbs– heavier than it should be for its height. Witnesses often describe Bigfoot moving the same way– it doesn’t straighten out its leg when it walks, as would be expected of a creature of this size. He also talked about a possible Bigfoot-UFO connection, which famed abductee Betty Hill first suggested to him.

On August 28, 2010, two visitors to the International Cryptozoology Museum asked me about Lee Frank, knowing that I had worked with him in the 1970s.

The two folks were Anne and Ivan Kronenfeld. These two are intriguing people, in their own right.

Ivan Kronenfeld identified himself as a Ph. D. in parapsychology, and almost immediately asked me about Lee Frank. Kronenfeld, a quick Google search reveals, has a background that includes acting, boxing and working as a private eye. Dr. Kronenfeld has had an interesting life.

His wife, Anne, said she had worked in ballet and movies. I inquired if I might have seen her in films, and she responded by saying that she was in Woody Allen’s Manhattan. Look up “Anne Byrne,” she said.

I did and was surprised to find out that this woman was the former wife of Dustin Hoffman. As they say, you never know whom you might run across in the pursuit of cryptozoology.

The following is from IMDb:

Anne Byrne Hoffman

Date of Birth
28 September 1943, Chappaqua, New York, USA

Birth Name
Anne Byrne

Spouse
Dustin Hoffman (4 May 1969 – 6 October 1980) (divorced) 2 children

Trivia
She and then husband Dustin Hoffman once lived on West 11th Street in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The couple’s anonymity was abruptly shattered in March 1970 when the house next door exploded and caught fire due to a gas leak. It wasn’t long before the block was crawling with fire engines, police cars, TV crews and reporters, most of whom had more on their minds than the actual fire. Investigators shortly discovered that the explosion was not caused by a gas leak as first thought but actually by the accidental ignition of a stockpile of weapons in the building next door. The radical group The Weather Underground had been living there, preparing for their next attack. An unusually-shaped window on the front of the building now memorializes the explosion.

Mother, with her ex-husband Dustin Hoffman, of Jenna Byrne and Karina Hoffman-Birkhead (born 1966-adopted).

The Kronenfelds wondered about what has become of Lee Frank, and so do I.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 12:03 am and is filed under Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Expedition Reports, Men in Cryptozoology, Museums. You can follow responses via our RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.