Georgia Hoaxer To Visit International Cryptozoology Museum
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 23rd, 2012
One of Rick Dyer’s Facebook public photos.
This week on Facebook, Rick Dyer was shocked to see that the donated duplicate of the head of the costume used in the infamous Tom Biscardi-Rick Dyer-Matt Whitton hoax is on display at the International Cryptozoology Museum.
Tom Biscardi, center, chairs the news conference with fellow hoaxers Rick Dyer, left, and Matthew Whitton, right, announcing that what they claimed may be a “deceased Bigfoot or Sasquatch” was in their possession on Friday, August 15, 2008, in Palo Alto, California (Photo Credit: Ben Margot)
Jumping into a FB comment series about the museum, Rick Dyer posted: “I’m going to journey up there next month. Are you up for a road trip?”
That would be quite a road trip. According to Facebook, Dyer doesn’t live in the Atlanta, Georgia area any longer, but in Santa Rosa, California. Hope he isn’t making the common mistake that we are in Portland, Oregon, when we really are located in Portland, Maine.
One commenter asked directly if Dyer is serious about going up to Maine to visit the museum. Dyer replied: “Yes, I’m going.”
Rick Dyer (R) and Matt Whitton, who both claim to have the corpse of Bigfoot, are shown at their news conference in Palo Alto, California, August 15, 2008. Photo Credit: Kimberly White
We certainly hope Rick is prepared to donate his autograph to the Bigfoot hoax head, and perhaps contribute his cap or shirt worn at the news conference to the museum collection during his visit.
Cryptomundo broke the story that it was Chuck Jarman’s costume purchased online (via Horror Dome) that was the one used for the Georgia hoax. Photo Credit: Ryan Thrash.
The Jarman costume head is on display at the International Cryptozooogy Museum. Photo Credit: Dixie Comic.
The International Cryptozoology Museum is appreciative that Chuck Jarman, the designer of the costume, donated the head for our fakes/hoaxes/rogue taxidermy display area. The Georgia Bigfoot hoax is placed between the FeeJee Mermaid and the Fur-bearing trout as a “cautionary tale.”
Bigfoot Trackers “apologized” to L.C. (Loren Coleman) in 2008. Forgive, just never forget.
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.
Mr Coleman, I hope Dryer and other proven hoaxers do not enter your museum. It is a museum of biological wonder and scientific possibilities that should not be tarnished by associations like this. I’m trying as a Christian not to be judgmental, but these men did add to the ridicule and bad press Crypto-zoology gets. It’s like having a poacher who shot the last of a known species making a public tour of a museum devoted to recently extinct animals.
To everybody: Dryer and Whitton are 2 more reasons why photography is horse hockey for evidence. Imagine if the scientific community had accepted their photos as a type specimen and then had to face the music when it was discovered to be a hoax. The Georgia Gorilla hoax only reinforces the better-skeptical-than-embarassed-paradigm. Even well respected scientists would be the targets of extreme skepticism if they had only photos and or film to “prove” that Sasquatch is real. With DNA, maybe but a long shot (and i mean Friggin long!). Only by laying a corpse out on a cold hard slab will get the skeptics to eat their own words.
Is that one of the guys who burned your book?
Please refer to the previous posting entitled “Bigfoot!: A Book for Burning?” for the answer to your question, Kopite.
Does he know we don’t have electricity in Maine? He’d have to keep his suit in an ice house.
Loren, you are certainly a forgiving person, if you even let him enter the premises of the museum.
After all those disgusting things he said in those videos about you, attacking you personally, questioning your sexuality, even burning your book and trying to slam this site, I would get a restraining order on him. But that is me! You are a much bigger person than me if you let him near the museum after all the problems he caused, not to mention perpetrating that hoax. Everything he did was directed towards you initially and he was more than mean spirited in his intent.
If you do decide to let him enter the museum, it might be because of your interest in the study of Neanderthal behavior. You would be able to witness this specimen in person. Or maybe you might decide to let him in because of your passion of psychology and you want to study the psychotic behavior of this redneck, firsthand. I really don’t know why you would even entertain the thought of allowing this backwoods hillbilly into such a fine establishment as the ICM.
But if you still decide to allow him to enter the premises, I’d be watching to make sure nothing goes missing. Usually, when you allow people like him and his ilk, to enter your personal space, one is asking for trouble. I hope you have security cams installed if you allow this ex-cop anywhere near valuable cryptozoological displays.
But who knows, maybe his conscience has gotten the best of him and he is driving all that way to Portland, Maine to apologize personally to you. I would not be holding my breath. But that is a possibility.
If that is the case, just hold your nose and use him any way you can if you think it will benefit Cryptozoology in some way.
If he had treated me the same way he treated you and there was no apology forthcoming, I don’t know what I would do if he showed up on my doorstep.
Kudos to you Loren for being a better man than me!
I was going to say he should try out a fisher cat costume, but he’s already a weasel.
Well, you could shoot him and mount him.
KIDDING.
At least get him to pose with that head!
Well, I’ll bet you feel honored.
Add a security detail and take inventory before he gets there and after he leaves. That is all.
Perhaps there could be a spontaneous pot luck lunch? Forgiveness such as you offer is a desert dish best served after a healthy entree of humble apologies.
@ PhotoExpert:
Why would you denigrate all of us backwoods hillbillies? In my neck of the Ozarks, these kind of people were tarred, feathered, and rode out of town on a rail….
Ok, Loren. Here’s what you do:
1. Get a replica freezer.
2. Ask Mr. Dyer to pose for a picture, inside, while wearing the mask.
3. Take the picture.
4. Close the freezer.
It’s your museum, Loren, but I think this guy is an embarrassment to cryptozoology.
This whole episode would be better forgotten.
Why would anyone put a gorilla suit in a freezer and claim it to be Bigfoot, knowing that sooner or later it would be subject to examination?
When Hansen was promoting the “Minnesota Iceman”, at least he had the discretion to keep the thing safely hidden in a block of ice. I worked at the garage his display truck was serviced at, and remember whenever the truck was in the shop he made certain the cooler was kept plugged in, lest the ice melt. But Hansen never offered his “specimen” up for scientific examination.
I had a friend (who has sadly passed away since) who told me he thought the reason behind the Georgia Bigfoot Hoax was so the hoaxers would get to spend some time with (Fox News Anchor) Megan Kelly.
In all of my years researching Sasquatch, the one thing I learned at an early age was that hoaxing was considered an unforgivable offense. The rational for this is that once your deemed guilty of hoaxing, anything that you might legitimately discover at a later time would be considered tainted evidence, because of the repudiated nature of the researcher. With that said, I have recently heard that Mr. Dyer is currently attempting to become a legitimate researcher of Sasquatch. I suggest that he find another way to occupy his endeavors and leave the research to those with honor and integrity.
Personally, I can find no humor or understanding for the antics of Mr. Dyer, as he has done nothing but damage the credibility of all researchers with his escapades. I believe any contact with him and the ICM only deepens the damage to the subject of Cryptozoology that he has caused.
Desertdweller
“I had a friend (who has sadly passed away since) who told me he thought the reason behind the Georgia Bigfoot hoax was so the hoaxers would get to spend some time with (Fox news anchor) Megan Kelly.”
….Okay I can see that. Doesn’t make it right, though. Still should not be allowed at the Museum.
BTW: for those who have not seen her, here is Megyn Kelly:
I don’t like it anymore than anybody else but it’s all part of Bigfoot history.
This guy’s threatened visit will probably turn out to be just as real as the other things he’s claimed. Blowhards are always “gonna do this” and “gonna do that.” He’d probably get caught stealing fuel for his pickemup truck long before he ever found his way to Maine anyway.
Hey Dweller, the reason someone does all that stuff including a fake suit into a freeze is for 50 LARGE!!
krs9864–LOL Sorry about that! Yes, there is nothing wrong with rednecks or hillbillies. In fact, some of my family might consider me the same. I love fishing, the woods and have a pinch of Cherry Skoal in my mouth right now as I type.
Anyway, I hope this guy pays a visit up to your neck of the woods in the Ozarks. I would love to see him tarred and feathered and ran out of town. But that might create a whole new set of igfootsightings.
I definitely enjoyed your sense of humor in your post. And my apologies to my fellow good hillbillies in the Ozarks!
If the man does show up and apologizes to you in person, then he will prove he is a more mature and courageous individual than we all thought him for.
I for one think there’s no finer way to close this unsavory chapter in the annals of Cryptozoology… aside from a public display of Tom Biscardi riding the rail & wearing that same Bigfoot costume 😛
Bit late with my reply but thanks for the link to the ‘burning’ story Loren.
He doesn’t have the balls to walk into Lorens shop..
its all talk…
kinda like one of his videos where he looks into the camera and says “thank you for the “OVERWHELMING” support”…
yeah right… I about fell out of my chair when I heard/saw him say that…
absolutely comical…
my point is..I wouldn’t believe a word he says..