Biscardi Ripped Off?!
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on July 20th, 2006
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting Wednesday that Tom Biscardi sued his old organization, the Great American Bigfoot Organiztion.
You probably remember GABRO. They were the ones that set up in Happy Camp, CA with streaming video cameras selling subscriptions to their exploits with promises of capturing Bigfoot within 90 days. The capture was to be shown on the live streaming video feed. The video was available at findingbigfoot.com. While the GABRO website is still, as of today, advertising live expedition feeds, the site is no longer available.
Shortly after the claim of a captured Bigfoot was revealed as a hoax, Biscardi packed up at Happy Camp and hit the road.
Apparently, this was the same time that he split from GABRO, because he started a new website and organization, Searching For Bigfoot, Inc.
Bigfoot deal gets hairy, legally
EXPERT SUES LOCALS OVER PAY, COLLECTION
By Dan Reed
Mercury News
This film frame and other material are part of every Bigfoot collection.Bigfoot — that bashful, large lug of a hairy monster — is causing trouble among his believers.
Not that he — or she, or whichever — ever did anything to anyone except pose for really fuzzy pictures, leave mammoth footprints in remote areas and never get caught.
But late last week, C. Thomas Biscardi, a Redwood City man who bills himself as a "World Renowned Bigfoot Researcher," sued the Great American Bigfoot Research Organization, its president and vice president. The group was established last year "to track, study and learn about the Bigfoot creatures that are believed to inhabit North America."
Biscardi, who’s been in the Bigfoot business for 33 years, says he was supposed to be paid $250,000 to "lend his experience, knowledge and reputation," to conduct "Bigfoot expeditions," and to provide the group with use of his library — which consists of things such as plaster footprint casts, films, photos and sound recordings.
The group, the lawsuit claims, paid him only $65,000 and won’t give back his stuff. Dennis Kazubowski, the San Jose lawyer representing Biscardi, said he’d been negotiating with the attorney for the defendants, North Bay residents Carole Rubin and Robert Shorey, for the return of Biscardi’s library, but then "the attorney quit because he wasn’t getting paid."
Neither defendant could be reached for comment.
"They return Tom’s property and the lawsuit is dismissed in a minute," Kazubowski said.
Last year, Biscardi led an expedition to find Bigfoot at Happy Camp, in the Klamath River Valley, in far Northern California. He had a pay-per-view Webcast. The seemingly sure-fire plan was to nail the big fellow with a stun gun, keep him in a zoo for 90 days so a medical team could study him, then release him back into the wild.
No luck.
I had thought that Biscardi was the Great American Bigfoot Organiztion. On the website, he is listed as one of 2 founders of the organization, along with Peggy Marx. The "top notch management" of the org is listed as Tim McMillen, Secretary; Robert Shorey, VP of Operations; Ruby Rubin, CFO; and Elbert Yee. You may remember Tim McMillen as the stand-in for the Clarence, NY Bigfoot here.
Tim McMillen is also listed as one of the 3 trackers for the org, the other 2 being Lee and Jimmy Hickman, grandsons of Ivan Marx. Mr. McMillen is also listed as being on the board of directors for the org, along with Dick Fletcher and Charles E. Pintard.
The official supporter of the org, and also it’s publicity agent, is Robert Barrows. He is also apparently the PR person for the new organization, as he was listed on the press release for "The Hand of Unknown Origin."
Mr. Barrows also had the following photo on his website at one time promoting Tom Biscardi. The website has been revamped and I can’t find mention of it now, but here is the photo. Here is a link to the cached page on google containing the text below the following photo.
An adult male Bigfoot is shown here eating the entrails of some kind of animal. This photo was taken in the Shasta area of northern California, from a distance of about a hundred feet with a 135 mm lens. Other photos from this encounter with a group of four Bigfoot, including a baby Bigfoot with white fur, are also available.
There are conflicting reports regarding the lawsuit coming out. The Houston Chronicle is reporting the following:
One of the leading searchers for the creature is suing the Great American Bigfoot Research Organization for breach of contract, claiming it never paid to use keepsakes he collected in his pursuits, including a plaster impression of what he describes as the hairy beast’s actual big foot.
"You can’t get this stuff anywhere," C. Thomas Biscardi said Wednesday by cell phone from Texas, where he says he has spotted a Bigfoot yet again. "It’s worth thousands of thousands of dollars."
Biscardi claims the suburban San Francisco company agreed to pay him $215,000 but only made one initial payment. His attorney, Dennis Kazubowski, said the company hasn’t replied to repeated requests to return the items.
The company didn’t immediately return a call on Wednesday seeking comment.
In the suit filed in Marin County Superior Court, Biscardi asked for $185,000 plus interest and the return of his rare Bigfoot stash including original film reels, magazine articles, books and pictures. He’s also asking the organization not to use his name or likeness on its Web site, which was still offering Biscardi-led expeditions Wednesday.
Kazubowski said the Bigfoot expert entered a licensing agreement with research organization executives Carole Rubin and Robert Shorey in 2005 to conduct Bigfoot expeditions and allow the organization to use his collection.
The lawsuit claims Biscardi "is publicly renowned for leading the research into whether the Bigfoot creature exists."
Fellow Cryptomundo blogger Loren Coleman offered this commentary on the articles:
If you read the article carefully you will see that the organization that paid him that amount (as per the legal papers filed) was *his* organization.
This is a typical inside job.
The fees, indeed, paid by the "pay-per-view" public, generated by TB’s high-powered publicity firm’s campaign and TB’s Coast to Coast AM appearances, were more than imagined. We don’t know how much came in when TB was promising to broadcast video
of a live captured Bigfoot, but I think we have a figure to play with now. The overhead was small since there were no Bigfoot being held and no Bigfoot footage, so the money had to end up somewhere. Any ideas into what individual’s pocket that would have been?
TB is well-known in Las Vegas as a figure sued for alleged broken promotional promises and other failed deals. This latest news should be no surprise to those who have followed his "career."
It is exactly the "shady characters" that get this kind of money, and the regular Bigfooters and cryptozoologists of the world who survive on less than $10,000 a year!
Loren’s website documents these dealings here.
The San Jose Mercury News also reported additional incredible news:
The Mercury News reached Biscardi by cell phone Monday. He was Bigfoot hunting just outside Paris, Texas. He didn’t much want to talk about his lawsuit, which he considers his "private business.”
But he was in a high state of excitement. The crew had a Bigfoot sighting Sunday night. Biscardi said they had found a spot that looks like "Jurassic Park,” and saw — guess who? — yep, Bigfoot. Biscardi said he’s had five "close encounters” with a Bigfoot in his career, but nothing like this.
"I gotta tell you something,” he said, "this is the largest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Biscardi said television captured its image and he figures the find will hit the national news today or Thursday.
I will have additional information regarding the Bigfoot situation outside Paris, TX soon…stay tuned.
So far, the only news hitting yesterday and today was regarding the lawsuit…and minor mentions of his exploits outside Paris. Nothing more regarding the image captured by television. I guess that’s minor news compared to the lawsuit…
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Interesting article. I doubt any photo will be hitting the headlines anytime soon. We’ll have to wait and see.
Greed, will bring us all down.
quote;
The lawsuit claims Biscardi “is publicly renowned for leading the research into whether the Bigfoot creature exists.”
close quote.
well as i read this i destroyed yet another monitor with a mouth full of cold frothy beverage that was expelled due to uncontrollable laughter.
the only thing he is publicly renowned for is as a grade a duffus and side show promoter.
i guess his pay per hoax scam on the great american bigfoot group site didn’t go too well. when he was found to have been bent over and duped falling for the capture story it kinda put a kink into his title as “leader of research into the bigfoot mystery”.
It truly is a sad comment on modern media that mainstream newspapers (I note the number is up to 64 of them this morning) have run variations on this story, while a credible sighting of a Sasquatch would hardly garner four or five mentions.
that photo looks very real lol
Well, now we know how this guy can afford to fly all over the country, investigating dubious claims, rooting through taxidermist’s trash bins, falsifying evidence, and pointing at random broken branches as proof of Sasquatch’s existence. Personally, I don’t think he’s ever had an actual sighting and, you know what? I hope he does. And when he does, I hope he has no means to document it but his own eyes. I don’t think this guy has ever actually considered whether or not Sasquatch really exists or not. I, for one, would not like to be the guy that has a real experience after crying wolf so many times, but if anyone deserves such a fate, it’s him.
Good Morning Bloggers…
Legitimate respected researchers are too poor to pay attention….but two bit grifters get the funds and the exposure….no bucks…no Buck Rogers…JMHO
support your local researcher…
seeing is believing…
ole bub and the dawgs
Further proof that true justice lies beyond this veil of tears.
I’m into Sas staying beyond the reach of cages collars and dart guns. And yep, I hope TB sees one per day for the rest of his life. The excitement will be offset by the frustration more than enough for Cry Wolf Boy’s punishment to fit the crime(s).
It’s funny. But I’m starting to think that Sas’s biggest allies now are the TBs of the world. If no one takes Sas seriously, maybe no one will “find” him in the way that science tends to find stuff. Which can only be good for Sas, if not for the curious among our species.
Or not. No one taking him seriously means no one protecting the huge reserves such a critter would require.
Which won’t be good for anybody.
So on second thought (sorry to do this out loud): somebody give this TB jerk the hook! Wasn’t it supposed to be 15 minutes….?
Biscardi will be the source of his own downfall. I think the word for today is “implosion”
He may want to watch out as legal action against something he has very recently been involved heavily in will no doubt bring an investigation on the back end to see if everything transpires according to the law even after a settlement has been reached.
I feel very sorry for all the subscribers that were duped but maybe this will also be a big lesson for a lot of people.
Craig, Jurrasic Park in your own state and you never investigated it!? Bad cryptozoologist! 🙂
As always, thanks for the news!
I would like to add more but I guess you folks have said it all..I could add to it but we can’t publish the remarks of the greywolf in private so I will lol lol and say he deserves what he gets…Back in the old days people would tar and feather and run them out of town on a rail.
What the hell kind of photo of bigfoot is that above? What the hell kind of head is on that costume?
Too funny.
Eating entrails…I think the last thing it wants to eat.
Photo from 100 yards away, huh, I can’t even get a good shot in the woods from 20 feet away of a human.
He’s cryptozoology’s Don Knotts!
Frankly I wouldn’t insult Don Knotts or the beloved deputy he played so well.
::Has sudden images of a lost CZ episode in Mayberry::
“Andy! Andy! There’s a Bigfoot in the backyard! Honest!”
Scammer gets scammed.
Poor Biscardi, though if I were him I wouldn’t argue over the library I just don’t like to carry dead weight. Photo looks like it’s from a Ray Harryhausen (I hope thats how you spell it) movie. Well enough talk about Biscardi for now.
Ray Harryhausen was a skilled artist, this “thing” looks like a 4th grade art project.
Wow. He actually did collect $65K though… I could afford to take, 2 or 2 1/2 years off of work to dedicate to the “search” for that kind of cash.
Shoot, with that kind of cash, I’d be more than happy to finance a one year “in the bush” expedition…
correction… 65K is 3 years salary for me…
Umm… That picture is obviously not real. You can’t see any muscular structures and the face is… 😕
Please oh Please MR. B. go away!
Is it just me, or does anybody else think that picture looks like Grimace from McDonalds has gone feral in the forest? 😀
Yeah, you don’t hear much from Grimace these days, do you? Could it be that all these blobsquatches are actually encounters with the purple one?
When I heard “Biscardi Ripped Off,” my first thought was something like “Oh great, who’d he rip off this time.” When I found out that he is trying to do in his old organization, I rolled my eyes, scratched my nose, and wrote the whole thing off.
Biscardi – inside news is that Rob Shorey has proof that Biscardi’s people took the “library” to Biscardi one year ago.
Not that there is anything worth a d*mn in it.
I think Tom is well on his way to his next big scam and that’s the only way people in the Big Foot community will ever see him again . Also Hooray to the Clayton County Police Department who said he didn’t find it funny. Turner fired Whitton from the Clayton County Police Department. I hope this is a fact also . Now we can only hope they lift up the jail cell some where and slide Tom under it when alls said and done . What goes around comes around , maybe a Big Foot might just pull their ears off or something else !
Cowboy
The photo of the sitting creature “eating entrails” might certainly be faked. The presumed head area is very strange indeed. But let’s devote a little critical evaluation to what the image seems to show.
The supposed entrails resemble more than anything else that comes to mind the foot of a white person. In fact, it appears to be a foot with painted toenails and the skin of the leg and part of the foot stripped back and flopped over what could be the hand and forearm. To have it so close to the head does strongly suggest eating. So is it a Bigfoot or other erect, hair-covered cryptid eating the foot of a woman? And is that another flesh-colored human body part we see in what could be the subject’s lap?