Meldrum-Radford-Coleman on Georgia “Find”
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 15th, 2008
ABC News
Bigfoot Believers: Discovery? Try Hoax.
Veteran Bigfoot Bounty Hunter Claims Big Find But Even Believers Cry Foul
By Ki Mae Heussner
Aug. 15, 2008 —
Even the Bigfoot believers aren’t buying it.
Three men have scheduled a press conference this afternoon in Palo Alto, Calif., to share the details surrounding what they claim is their “discovery” of a Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, in northern Georgia two months ago.
Matthew Whitton, a police officer, and Rick Dyer, a former correctional officer, maintained they happened upon the corpse of a half-human, half-ape creature while hiking in the woods. Along with Tom Biscardi, an old hand at bigfoot hunting, the men intend to substantiate their bold claims with DNA evidence and photographs.
But long-time Bigfoot experts and trackers are almost certain the trio is taking the public for a ride.
“Discovery? It’s a hoax. It’s a Halloween costume in a box,” said Matt Moneymaker, president and founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.
Created in 1995, the group maintains a database of Bigfoot sighting reports and organizes tracking expeditions for interested members of the public.
Jeff Meldrum, a leading Sasquatch researcher and Idaho State University professor of anatomy and anthropology, is equally skeptical.
“There’s a whole number of things that raise red flags, in my opinion,” he said.
The most glaring red flag: Whitton and Dyer’s appeal to Biscardi.
“He does not carry a reputation of credibility,” Meldrum said of Biscardi.
The ‘Real Bigfoot Hunter’
Dyer said he and Whitton encountered the alleged Bigfoot body approximately two months ago and froze it to stave off rigor mortis. But, until they involved Biscardi two weeks ago, no one gave them much attention.
“We started to tell people the week after we found the body, but no on believed us,” he said. “So we started to make fun of the Bigfoot trackers, and that got attention.”
Whitton and Dyer landed themselves on the “Squatch Detective” radio show and announced their discovery on the air. When the host pressed the pair to let someone verify the body, they asked for Biscardi, the so-called “real Bigfoot hunter.”
“You type in ‘Bigfoot’ and that’s the name that comes up,” Dyer said.
Biscardi, a 35-year veteran of the Bigfoot business, who declined to give his age, is CEO of Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., producer of the documentary “Bigfoot Lives,” and host of an Internet radio show about… yes, Bigfoot.
He said he’s been fascinated with the ape-like creature ever since watching a short film made by Roger Patterson in 1967 that famously purported to contain footage of a real Bigfoot.
After being contacted by the Whitton and Dyer, Biscardi flew to Georgia to see the body for himself.
“Be still my heart, I felt bad for the poor thing,” Biscardi said of viewing the alleged corpse. “After being in the industry for the past 30 years, I wondered: Was it diseased? Did it die of old age?”
Scientific Findings Promised
Biscardi said he gave tissue from the body to Curt Nelson, a research scientist at the University of Minnesota with a personal interest in Bigfoot. Biscardi said he and his colleagues will present Nelson’s findings this afternoon’s press conference.
But on Thursday, Nelson told ABCNews.com that he’s not certain he’ll have anything to present at the conference.
For the world to really believe the existence of bigfoot, Nelson said, teams of unbiased scientists would have to collect and analyze DNA and thoroughly inspect the body.
“It would take a lot more than I’m doing,” he said, noting that people will want to see an actual body rather than just tissue samples. “If the guy claims to have a body, he really should produce one,” Nelson said.
Instead, Biscardi said he plans to keep the body at an undisclosed location while scientists, including two Russian hominid specialists, study the creature. Biscardi said the entire process will be filmed and then released as a documentary.
Besmirching the Legend of Bigfoot?
Instead of proving the existence of Bigfoot, Meldrum said profiteering antics like Biscardi’s lend support to the cynics.
“Unfortunately, this kind of incident simply just casts further aspersion on the topic,” he said.
Still, despite rampant skepticism within the community of Bigfoot believers and outside of it, there’s also overwhelming interest.
“There’s always an interest in these creatures, dating back hundreds of years — mermaids, unicorns, dragons,” said Benjamin Radford, managing editor of the science magazine The Skeptical Inquirer and a widely published writer on urban legends, Bigfoot and media criticism. “There isn’t a populated place on earth that doesn’t have these kinds of creatures.”
But regardless of the doubts, most longtime Bigfoot devotees will be tuned in to Friday’s news.
Loren Coleman, a prolific writer on the Sasquatch, Yeti and other mysterious creatures, said he thinks this is going to be one of the biggest Bigfoot stories of the decade, even it turns out to be hoax.
When it comes to the alleged creature, he says he doesn’t use the word “believe.”
“I accept or deny evidence,” he said.
With this one body found in Georgia, however, it’s “99 percent a hoax and 1 percent a probability of reality,” he said.
But he’s still excited about the alleged discovery.
“I’ll never turn down a chance to look at a body because it could be real, and we can’t choose the accident of history. The most undesirable people might be the ones to discover it, but who am I to judge them.”
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Where does Biscardi go from here? This is a crossroads moment for him.
No amount of rationalization or excuses can indemnify him from the title of “fraud” if this is a hoax. A lifetime of hunting for answers will be wasted if he has once again been tied to a not so elaborate scam.
If this is a true discovery, he will move to the rarified air with the likes of Darwin or even Goodall and be forever associated with the discovery of a lifetime.
No one has more to lose or gain than Biscardi. Good luck with that Tom. You are about to cross a very busy intersection which will determine your place in crypto history.
Yeah and the Russians have invaded Georgia too. That is why the press conference has been moved to California.
There are no Georgia Gorillas or Georgia Bigfoots. Notice the lack of press coverage in Georgia other than the publicity being an issue for the Police Chief due to this particular officer being on administrative leave. (Yes he was shot during a KFC robbery in South Atlanta and is on leave). If you know this area, you would realize that the mountains are not rugged and extremely developed. There have been large populations in the Georgia mountains for centuries (the Cherokee used to farm the land until gold discovery and the many mountains were stripped mined). This is a well traveled area and largely hunted along with hiking, biking, camping and expensive homes. You may see an occasional Georgia Black Bear (smaller than their Black Bear Cousins) and a rare Mountain Loin with plenty of whitetail deer, but nothing this size. Costume or not, this was not something roaming around the Georgia Mountains. There are plenty of folk that have exotic animals locked up but no reports of anything like a Gorilla having escaped over the last few years. (We do have a missing Alligator in Lake Lanier-but that is about it. These show up from time to time as a released pet as they can’t survive the winters and don’t live this far North).
As for me. I have my Shotgun on the front porch and I have the paths coming down from the Mountains well guarded to keep those Russians from advancing down Sherman’s path and retaking the ATL!
Thanks for all you have done for this story and the field Loren, its a shame its going down this way, but man, what a ride at times!