November 2, 2007
It’s stuff like this that gives hominology a bad name.
I don’t especially like to report on scandals and personal disagreements. However, there seems to be something happening on the fringes of Bigfootry that might boil over into public media exposure, jail time or a court confrontation. Therefore, I should at least give you a chance to know it’s occurring, mention highlights of both sides of the story, and then you can decide to read more about it or not.
It involves Tara Hauki (above) of Happy Camp, California, and Jon-Erik Beckjord (pictured below) of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ms. Hauki has had a history of believing Tom Biscardi was going to assist her in her quest for Bigfoot, and she found she was disappointed, to put it mildly, after her time with him.
More recently, Ms. Hauki placed her trust in Mr. Beckjord, and that seems to have turned out with negative results.
Okay, she was warned by several people about both men, but some people just won’t listen without seeing for themselves.
Now Ms. Hauki is claiming during during September 2007, she was physically assaulted by Jon-Erik Beckjord. It has become an online war since then. She has written: “That particular situation is not over until he goes to jail. I am going to make sure of it.”
Her side of the story, as revealed in her published online journals and more, is here.
Intriguingly, some of it is about her saying, through almost a Charlie Manson suggestive fog, she was strongly encouraged to read Beckjord’s copy of Hunt for the Skinwalker by Colm A. Kelleher and George Knapp.
But more to the point, she says, it is about graphic violence. Ms. Hauki wrote:
September 17, monday, morning
It’s hard to write or see. My face is burning from the pepper spray, or mace Jon-Erik just sprayed in it.
I just caught him rifling through my bag as I walked back into camp from leaving to go get the police, or out of here, or just plain away from him. I’m going to leave the mace on my face as physical evidence because he is recording our conversation. He just informed me that he has been recording us and he is lying about the things he has been doing to me so far, saying he has’nt (sic) done it so it will record that way, i.e. he hit me with a flashlight in the head last night at the campfire and w/o my knowledge at that point kept denying it as I was yelling at him to get away from me. [snip]
We have been arguing over whether or not it is ethical to make money off of a bigfoot picture. I do not believe it is. He does. He shoved me too! He is definitely a big huge FREAK!!!
[snip]
I am screaming at him, anything to keep him away! [snip] I AM SCARED!!!
[snip]
My face is starting to burn very badly now, but I won’t remove the mace because of his verbal threats and physical abuse.
September 17, (cont)
When I attempted to go through the side door to get some food, he came up behind me, grabbed me… and threw me down.
I am adding here that unlike the compliment EB has given me on his website, I am not 5’10”, 200 lbs. I am 5’5″, 225. He is 6’2″ or 6’3″, 300 plus. It was’nt (sic) very hard for him to swing me around and knock me down.
[snip]
My face is starting to swell. Luckily he missed my eyes. He got across my forehead and down my right side… including my ear. My lips are starting to burn now. I saw the can as he held it up and knocked it up, thank god.[snip]Tara Hauki
Also fellow Happy Camp resident Linda Martin has come to her defense, posting Ms. Hauki’s photograph (above top) on her bigfootsightings.org blog and discussing the matter.
Meanwhile, Mr. Beckjord, apparently having recovered from his cancer, has countered with various postings about the incidents. Intriguingly, some of it is about Ms. Hauki throwing six of Mr. Beckjord’s books in a creek.
But more to the point, he says, it’s about her yelling at him nonstop for six hours.
It all seems to be heating up, with Ms. Hauki getting ready to attempt to throw Jon-Erik Beckjord in jail, and his countering with this:
Update: Now she calls me an “Internet Predator”. This is absurd. Those men want sex from young girls. Hauki is 50, looks 60, and you couldn’t pay me to have sex with her. Claims to be 45, but really is 50, claims to have been forced to walk (hike) out 15 miles when the real distance to the paved road is 3 miles, claims I repeatedly hit her when in fact she hit me with a shovel, claims her journal is accurate when it is just a litany of lies, claims to be a maniac, and this is actually true – manic-depressive psychosis – Bi-polar. [snip] Amador Co Sheriff’s Dept checked on her address in Happy Camp, and Happy Camp Sheriff’s Dep. reports “Multiple contacts with this subject”. The Horrid,Harridan Hag of Happy Camp. eb.
Linda Martin’s blog says she finds no arrest record for Ms. Hauki in Happy Camp.
Certainly, there are two sides to every story, but one thing is clear about this one: There are no happy campers in this tale of these two.
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, Books, Breaking News, Conspiracies, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Men in Cryptozoology, Public Forum, Sasquatch, Women in Cryptozoology