Johor Juggernaut

Four years ago, on the 4th of July, 2006, hominology was in the midst of the Johor Juggernaut. Very real sightings of giant hairy unknown hominoids (see drawings, above) had been recorded for several months, since 2005, in the Johor area of Malaysia. These had links and flashbacks, needless to say, to reports from the 1970s (see below).

Then in May 2006, allegedly, it was announced that previously taken photos had been obtained of the creatures.

The following is a midway report I published on July 4, 2006, about the then current state of affairs:

Patience is a virtue. Patience and passion are two important components of cryptozoology research, as I have often mentioned, as per Bernard Heuvelmans.

Speculations on the Johor Hominid have reached new lows and highs, from muddled discussions of “reverse evolution” to the creation of a new Peter Loh sketch (above) based on all the information available to a new website.

But the time has come for a challenge to those saying they have more evidence. Based on a recent turn of events in the Johor Hominid or Malaysian Bigfoot situation, there are new reasons for people to feel frustrated and to want to “see the photographs” of the Malaysian hairy bipedal creatures.

Bigfooters Scott Herriott, Chris Kraska, and Craig Woolheater all used the phrase “Show me the monkey suit!” They were pressing Greg Long to produce the evidence behind his hoax claims that Roger Patterson had employed a gorilla costumed person for his 1967 film. We could very soon begin to hear a similar chant, “Show us the Johor pix!” – more and more – on webpages and in emails.

Vincent Chow reported a few months ago that he had been shown a group of three of twelve photographs taken by a former Cambodian guerilla. Chow somewhat described them to Peter Loh, me, and a few others. But he said they would not be shown publicly, and would not be shared further until he published in a book in a year or more from now. [Initially, it was suppose to be published in the summer of 2006.]

How Peter Loh first drew (above) the “Malaysian Mawas” based on his initial descriptions from Vincent Chow.

With the establishment of the Johor Hominid website, now an interesting tidbit has slipped out. Sean Ang said on a comment posted on Cryptomundo that he has been shown the photographs. On July 3rd, Sean Ang posted this comment:

I noticed there is alot of interpretation for the little information that we have.

At my personal level, I am still compiling a list of questions to be asked regarding the Johor Hominid.

There [sic] reason I am involved (currently using my own time and resources) is that I have seen some of the photographs. Unless someone can point to me a world class con-men who can produce a photo like that, which is crystal clear (I mean that of National Geographic standard), then we wish to put forward the photos as a tentative “evidence”, so that someone else can falsify them (remember Karl Popper).

I have compared with pictures from Planets of the Apes and winners of the 3D artists, none could come so close.

When something is SO new, we try to come out with as many possible explanations as possible, micro-evolution, mutation, genetic drift and of course reverse evolution. These are meant to provoke dicussions..[sic]

As Ang himself has clarified, he is not a paleoanthropologist, a museum researcher, but instead a IT (information technology) consultant or worker. He seems to be an important addition to Chow’s team, for the development of the website, although errors in basic factual content and getting online have been a problem, thusfar.

It has been a confusing journey with Chow and Ang. Cryptomundo readers are showing the strain. Jason James Pritchett, a frequent critic of Vincent Chow’s at Cryptomundo, has observed: “Sean Ang says that he has seen some of the now-infamous photos–and he does not appear to be talking about photos of footprints this time.

Chow has now shown the photographs to a new associate, despite what he said about the owner of the photos leaving the country and the images not being shown until they would be published. What clearly does need to happen, now, is Chow has to diplomatically find a way to show the photographs to an international body of hominologists soon, in a stepped approach to their greater release….

In an ideal world, Vincent Chow democratically would feel the time has come to have some photographs published for all to ponder, for example, at a site like Cryptomundo or on his new website.

But has Sean Ang’s addition only hardened his position? Ang just commented to me that asking to see the photographs is “like asking for Angelina Jolie’s unpublished baby photos,” and that I now have to “be patient like the rest.”

Yes, patience is a virtue, as is trust in fellow cryptozoologists, hominologists, and Cryptomundo readers.

Unfortunately, as history will show, a little more than a month later, in August 2006, all of this “Johor Hominid” photographs business would be exposed to have been a hoax. The “photos” were from a French documentary (stills, below).

Everyone forgot about the original credible sightings because of the 2006 hoax. That was unscientific. Much was to be learned from those 2005 encounters.

Loren Coleman 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.

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