July 3, 2006

The Hand of Unknown Origin

There has been much speculation here on Cryptomundo, and elsewhere, that "The Hand of Unknown Origin" that Tom Biscardi has been promoting as a Bigfoot hand is the paw of a bear.

Below are some stills taken from a news story from last year regarding a hand that was found in Guilderland, NY, a town of a little over 32,000 near Albany. At first, it was thought to be a severed human hand. It had been stuffed into a clear surgical glove and made up to look like a human hand. It turned out to be a bear paw. It was found on Thursday evening, February 17, 2005.

Here is the link to the Capital News 9 website with the video of the find.

The above still is from their website, the one below is a capture from the video off the website. Interestingly, the finger tips were removed from this "hand" as well. Of course, as it is a bear paw, they would have to be removed to disguise the fact that there were claws, not nails.

Paul Gleasman couldn’t decide if the thing on his front lawn was a severed human hand, or a Halloween fake. Gleasman, worried that his young daughters might see the prank, used a shovel to toss the hand into trees behind his West Old State Road house.

But the hand haunted him — perhaps it was real. His wife urged him to talk to authorities Friday, the day after Gleasman had discovered the hand on their property. As he dropped off his youngest daughter at day care, he mentioned the hand to a parent who is a Guilderland police dispatcher and, in turn, called police, who recovered the apparent hand from the trees. All day police combed the neighborhood for clues, even interrogating Gleasman.

The find even fooled pathologists at the Albany Medical Center, who thought it was a human hand as well. Until they X-rayed it.

"It is not a human hand," said Guilderland Police Lt. Curtis Cox, who got the news at 11 p.m. Friday. "Preliminary X-rays pathology shows that it is an animal claw that was very realistically made up to look like a human hand."

It may have been a bear claw, Cox said.

Source: Times Union, Albany, NY

The article is not available other than in the archives for a fee 

And this:

A massive investigation underway last night after homeowner Paul Gleasman found the bloody appendage in a rubber glove on his front lawn — police released the photos today — but the hand is so real and bloody we decided not to show them. Even the experienced coroner — who has over 30 years on the job thought it, was a real hand. But it was at 11 o’clock last night when lab tests showed otherwise. Police say it looks like a prank at this point — but it certainly was no joke for most of the night. 

Source: FOX 23 News WXXA-TX Albany, NY 

So it fooled the pathologists and an experienced coroner.

When did Biscardi’s hand first turn up? Biscardi claims on his website that it was turned in anonomously to a police station in Butte, Montana in 2002. Could they be one and the same?

One of the commenters here on Cryptomundo stated that Don Monroe had given it to Bigfoot researcher Dick Grover before turning it over to Tom Biscardi. He stated that Dr. W. Henner Fahrenbach had attempted to conduct DNA testing on the hand.

I have contacted Dr. Fahrenbach to get his input on this matter. I have also contacted the DNA Diagnostics Center in Fairfield, Ohio that Biscardi says in his "press release" conducted DNA testing. I am awaiting a response from them regarding this matter. I will post updates as they come in here on Cryptomundo.

The X-Ray on the left allegedly was taken of the alleged Bigfoot hand and the X-Ray on the right is alleged to be that of a human hand.

Click image for full-size version

Cave bear paw

Click image for full-size version

Filed under Artifacts, Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Breaking News, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Forensic Science, Hoaxes, Public Forum, Sasquatch