April 10, 2008
Are we entering an era when gorilla-suit-wearing workshop may become the next big rage (see the story at Boing Boing) and help people out in their cryptid hoaxes? Actually, using what Charles Fort called the “Wipe,” here’s the latest example of a quick explanation for something anomalistic, this time using the old chestnut, a gorilla suit, out of Tupelo, Mississippi.
With four gorilla sightings on Thomas Street on Wednesday [April 9, 2008], it seemed the infamous Oliver inspired a copycat or copy primate.
According to police, two postal workers and two parents picking their children up from school claimed to have seen a huge primate run into the woods behind the post office shortly after 2 p.m.
Because all the accounts were separate instances, School Resource Officer Lt. Terry Sanford said he doesn’t doubt that people saw something, but he’s almost sure it wasn’t a gorilla.
“We got a few calls about the gorilla, but we didn’t see anything,” said Sanford. “People said they saw the animal run into the woods. I think what they saw was a person dressed in a suit trying to get a reaction out of people.”
A local costume dealer said a man and a woman bought a gorilla head and hands Tuesday, stating that they already had a suit.~ “Gorilla spotting said to be hoax,” by Danza Johnson, Daily Journal, 9 April 2008 6:44:42 PM.
At least, the infamous Morris Costume Company isn’t involved in this debunking!
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.
Filed under Bigfoot, Breaking News, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Eyewitness Accounts, Folklore, Hoaxes, Pop Culture, Sasquatch, Swamp Monsters