Hoax: Another Mystery Man In Indiana
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 31st, 2008
According to Uncanny Radio’s Linda Godfrey (plus Steve Sullivan) and Beyond The Dial’s Lesley, another person present and involved in the Indiana segment of the Bigfoot hoax has been revealed. His name is J. C. Johnson, a Tom Biscardi associate.
It will be recalled that Steve Kulls said he allegedly could not speak freely from Indiana because he was there with T. J. Biscardi, Tom Biscardi’s son, and “other people.” Radio listeners got the feeling later he was surrounded by “enforcers” and Kulls was supposedly fearful and careful of what he said.
The true circumstances of what happened in Indiana, clearly, is unknown. What really took place there, as told by some who were there, appears to not match up, and a continuing analysis of the timeline just does not add up.
J. C. Johnson.
Left to right are; JC Johnson, Brian Mazzola, Steve Kulls, TJ Biscardi, David Ortiz, Jim Snell, and Leonard Dan (2007).
J. C. Johnson mentions on the radio show that “Java Bob, T.J., Chief Dan” and he drove the “frozen body” up from Georgia to Indiana. Brian Mazzola is noted as videotaping the melting of the ice in Indiana.
Steve Kulls is a former employee of Tom Biscardi’s, having been paid by Biscardi’s organization in August and December 2006, October and November 2007, and January and March 2008, according to answers to direct questions asked by Cryptomundo this weekend.
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.
How does Tom Biscardi make any money to pay these people? I just don’t get it.
I have had some casual contact with J.C. “Johny” Johnson. “Johny” is how he spells it. He corresponded with me and suggested that I team up with him and come to the Four Corners area to research Native American reports of the Dogman type creatures. He seemed like an amicable fellow. Then, a few months ago, I received word through an email list that he had “joined Biscardi’s team”…something that dismayed me as I was actually considering his offer.
Down the road we may see the truth about how many were actually in on the creation of the hoax and how many were duped into their participation.
Worthy of note: about a month before all of this hit the fan Biscardi called me at home. (My number is freely available on my website.) He more or less beat around the bush about why he was calling…something that scares me a little in retrospect. I am very glad I wasn’t offered some outrageous amount of money or film funding to join him in a “project”.
I seem to stay in enough hot water without his help.
My suggestion is to give everyone involved with the man the best benefit of the doubt you can. He has a way of throwing money at people to get their cooperation (my opinion) and some or most of his cohorts may also be victims.
John Johnsen
Grendel Films
Good morning Cryptos
I’m with John…on this one…
I was saddened to see J. C. Johnson and Leonard Dan, drug into the SFB mess. I’ve been on the air with both and felt them to be honorable men.
Some folks have an unsavory reputation for a reason…unfortunately some folks learn that the hard way…JMHO
My late Father used to say…”its hard to soar like an eagle…when ya work with turkeys”
live and let live…
ole bub and the dawgs
And the bleat goes on…and on…and on…
too bad, but we are in a field that require suspension of disbelief in order to partake, sometimes you get burned sometimes not.
The information surrounding the Georgia Bigfoot Hoax continues to grow. The people now being identifird should be left out.
Tom doesn’t throw money at anyone. He’s too greedy to spread the money around.
In March 2007, he charged innocent people $375 per person, per day to attend his “live capture hunt’ which he heavily promoted and advertised.
He claimed a film crew would be on hand to film a pilot for a reality based TV series titles “CAPTURING BIGFOOT”.
There was no film crew filming a pilot. There were two Tv stations out of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex which sent reporters out to interview Biscardi and report on his attempts. They left before dark.
A lot was said in the days that followed that “hunt”. Both myself and TBG took a lot of flack from the Bigfoot community, and many doubted what I reported on my own message board.
Bill Hankins the reporter from the PARIS NEWS was given information about what happened by Biscardi who made our encounter, and the actions surrounding it sound as if we were in peril for our lives; and that he and his “team” were assembled and came into the field to rescue us.
[Never happened the way he says]
I tried unsucessfully to contact Mr. Hankins and his editor to clarify the facts as they were reported, and neither chose to return my email or phone calls.
Each time Biscardi goes to Paris, Texas, he throws some money around…for his motel rooms, meals, etc.
Reporters and certain law enforcement authorities who should be checking for his nonresident hunting license [and his teams] and a type II permit to hunt in wildlife management land.
[He purchases none of these things, and will have others checked. He had me checked, and all my paper work was in order]
He doesn’t throw long green around…just his weight.
Time to move on and concentrate on other matters.
Just how many people does it take to execute a woefully poor hoax??
I can’t quite tell what side of the fence “Bigfoot Adventurer” (a/k/a David Holley) is sitting on, and what is meant by the essence of the comment. The money trail, per who is getting what and when, is indeed instructive, and certainly Kulls and others have been receiving money from Biscardi’s organization, as did Ray Crowe and others. Money tends to influence the way certain things are said.
As far as what happened and to whom in Texas, please re-read earlier entries here and here.
Texas resident David Holley founded a group called Texoma Bigfoot Research and Investigations in 2002, which morphed into the Texas Shadow Chasers, which changed into the Timberline Bigfoot Hunters group, becoming part of Biscardi’s group for its “November ‘06 Cross Country Expedition” and work in Texas in 2007. Searching For Bigfoot, Inc. (Tom Biscardi’s group), in its “Paris Texas March 2007” announcement, gives “special thanks to David Holley and the Timberline Bigfoot Organization of Texas.”
Although I understand there has been a break between Biscardi and Holley, what does the above comment mean: “He’s too greedy to spread the money around.”
Were not some players in the Georgia hoax, indeed, paid for their time and travel? JC Johnson certainly says clearly he was an employee of Biscardi’s.
Where is Biscardi getting his money?
Follow the money. Don’t ignore it.
Let’s just forget Biscardi, he is bad news, and a loser. Let’s get back to REAL crypid research and info. I think he is one of those people with an ego who live off fame(or infamy). If we quit talking about about him, maybe he will just go away and fade out.
I’m in total agreement with Loren here. I have felt from the beginning of this mess that those responsible would love nothing more than for everyone to ‘just forget about it’, as was evident in their cries of innocence, claiming, ‘hey, it was only a big joke that got out of hand’ and ‘we didn’t hurt anyone, right?’.
If we let this slide and allow those dirtbags to slither away unscathed, THEY will have the last laugh. The entire field of study was damaged by this hoax and many hard-working researchers have gotten lumped in with the nutjobs that perpetrated this deal.
TB, along with the two Georgia morons that spit in the face of everyone that enjoys this website, deserve to hounded and hopefully, prosecuted.
I may well not be the mystery man as has been portrayed.
JC Johnson
I’d like to comment on some misinformation.
Biscardi continually called my group the Texas Shadow Chasers, or something like that, and if I read your post correctly you said this morphed into the TIMBERLINE BIGFOOT GROUP.
There has never been a Texas shadow Chasers, [Period] TBG, has several field teams. One is called “The Headhunters”, and my field team is called THE SHADOW CHASERS [because most people can see anything in the shadows if they imagine hard enough]
My “limited” association with C. Thomas Biscardi was very much like yours. I played a hand which I was dealt, and got burned.
When I spoke about Tom not spreading the money around, I meant [and surely some understand] that he’s not going to give anyone $50,000 [which is what I understand he paid the Georgia boys, you probably know the amount as you seem to have been in contact with Biscardi many times before the hoax was busted open]. He probably paid for the suit. The story those guys told about walking up and finding the body is something I’ve written on various message boards for years. Think Biscardi doesn’t monitor more than simply this blog? A wolf knows a wolf, and my purpose in associating with him was to find out if what he was claiming to be finding at Pat Mayse Lake was true. IT WASN’T. You do not habitually find pristene, castable tracks in the woods around that lake. Ask your friends from the TBRC.
What neither Biscardi or you and your bloggers knew was that while I may have been the guy everyone was watching, TBG had someone inside the actual Searching For Bigfoot team who observed Biscardi altering a cast.
When in 2007, TBG was asked to join the “live capture” hunt; it was understood that we would be compensated for our time; and we would serve only in a support capacity. Of course none of us believed this would happen, but like you we were hopeful.
We did this because it has always been our policy to help anyone who asks us for help. The promised compensation meant we might be able to purchase equipment which our teams needed. He even held a press conference in Paris, Texas. Those attending had to sign a wavier stating anything they found belonged to SFB, Inc.
Neither my son or myself was there and we never agreed to sign any wavier.
What we got Loren, was a great big ol’ knife in the back. A few nights after his hunt, I appeared on his blogtalk radio show and when asked how I was doing, I told him I had been doing fine until I read the Paris News. He tried to cut me off, but I managed to get my story out. People forget this also.
However, because Cryptomundo printed the Paris News report without considering what might have really happened…we had to sit back and take a lot of verbal abuse.
Neither you or any other of the bloggers, including Craig Woolheater of the TBRC [a gentleman who I have great respect for, and who has spoken to me over the phone] considered asking us what our story was. Why wasn’t I given that opportunity?
People seem to believe the worse about people. What I did for my group; IS NO DIFFERENT than you listening politely.
Regardless…the TIMBERLINE BIGFOOT GROUP has no association now with Tom Biscardi and Searching For Bigfoot, Inc.
The past is in the past, and I am simply one of many who cross swords with Biscardi.
By the way, if you listen to TruthNLies on blogtalk radio, and listen to some interesting tapes [especially one with Biscardi calling David Holley a “piece of s**t”, you’ll understand he has no love for me either.
My thanks to you, but lets get the story straight. You’re an author, and you need to forget what the rest of the Bigfoot Community says about people they disrespect and get to the truth. No one wanted the truth then…no one wants it now.
Mr Coleman, thanks for posting up a photo w/myself on your website. My small business traffic has increased tenfold, and I can’t thank you enough for the help. With the economy making small business owners like myself looking forward to possible lean times, any form of advertisement is appreciated. Thank you so much!
Dave Ortiz (DaveO)