Mokele-Mbembe Deaths

As I mentioned in 2005, when several Mokele-mbembe researchers died in a temporal cluster, I’m not talking about a curse. I’m merely noticing that several African-linked researchers have passed away seemingly together.

The sudden death of Scott Norman at 43 years of age merely goes to reinforce my memories of all of these losses.

The Mokele-mbembe-involved individuals who have recently passed away, some who have died suddenly, are:

Scott Norman, 43, who was a member of the CryptoSafari and the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club expedition to Africa in search of Mokele-Mbembe in 2001. Scott died suddenly in Fullerton, California, on February 29, 2008, from a blood clot, apparently. Norman tribute.

Mark K. Bayless, 46, moderator of a cryptozoology group and an active researcher, died in Berkeley, California, from complications of diabetes on the morning of November 1, 2006. For at least a decade, Mark studied the relationship of Mokele-mobembe, Kipeckwe, and Akani and other African cryptids to his speciality. A herpetoculturist for 23 years, he had written extensively about giant monitor lizards, especially the African species, including in his recent book Savannah Monitors. Bayless tribute.

Pastor Eugene P. Thomas, 78, a missionary for several years among the Congo pygmies, died on December 21, 2005, in Canton, Ohio. It was Reverend Eugene Thomas who first told James Powell and Dr. Roy Mackal that pygmies in 1959 said they had killed a Mokele-mbembe. Thomas tribute.

Rev. Eugene Thomas and Sandy Thomas in 1986. Photograph courtesy of William Gibbons.

Dr. Herman Regusters , 72, an aerospace engineer who worked on many NASA and JPL projects, died December 19, 2005, at Huntington Beach, California. Regusters conducted two expeditions to Lake Tele, in 1981 and 1992. Regusters tribute.

J. Richard Greenwell, 63, cofounder of the defunct International Society of Cryptozoology (ISC), died November 1, 2005, of cancer, in Tucson, Arizona. Greenwell accompanied Roy Mackal on his second Mokele-mbembe expedition to Lake Tele in the Congo.Greenwell tribute. More on Greenwell.

Pastor Phil Anderton, 48, who was a missionary for 15 years in the Cameroons among the Baku pygmies, died in Kansas City, of a brain tumor, on August 24, 2005. Anderton assisted several of the Bill Gibbons-John Kirk-Scott Norman expeditions in the Cameroons. Anderton tribute.

Happily, despite a heart attack five years ago, Roy Mackal is strong and healthy, as are John Kirk, Bill Gibbons, Milt Marcy, Peter Beach, Rob Mullin, and other individuals linked to past Mokele-mbembe expeditions.

Mokele-mbembe art courtesy of Bill Rebsamen. Click on image directly above for a larger view.

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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