New Haven Cryptozoology Article: The Rest of the Story

Last Tuesday, January 15, 2013, I made a charity appearance at the Institute Library in New Haven, Connecticut.

Reporter Randall Beach of the New Haven Register in Sunday’s January 20, 2013 edition, gave a good overview of the flavor of the crowd. As often happens in reports coming from the notes of the writer, some items are the ones that different factions in Bigfootery settle on in recalling an event, even if what is reported to have been said is not exactly what happened.

In discussing the recent DNA news, I quoted John Hawks, the Wisconsin anthropologist, in my agreeing with his notion that “no data, no discovery” is the stance to take. My attribution to Hawks was absence from the article.

I said that quotes supposedly from the researcher in Texas, saying ridiculous things like “These are angels from heaven,” were released on Facebook, and that does not help the cause of serious research on Bigfoot. Those remarks were denied later as having been said by the Texas individual. The article does not make it clear I was talking about the leakage and not the exacting quotations.

In the solving of the source of the “Montauk Monster,” at my New Haven talk, I was clear to credit myself and others for pointing to a “raccoon in second-stage decomposition,” as what the thing on the beach was. Besides myself and a New York game official, Darren Naish was behind the solution too.

My quote about Bigfoot hoaxers being “really evil people” came in the midst of some joking between myself and the reporter who was supporting a past presenter as not being “evil.” I agreed, because, of course, I was not talking about the “fun element” that his friend seemed to get from being a trickster. Therefore, I limited the “evilness” just to Bigfoot hoaxsters, alone, in a light moment between the reporter and me, in front of the entire audience. But that is not too obvious in the article.

Also, the news item said: “He got interested in the field when he was a kid. The date was March 20, 1960. He saw a Japanese documentary, Half Human, about the Yeti (the Abominable Snowman).”

Actually, I would never call Half Human a “documentary.” It is a narrative science fiction film made by a former documentary filmmaker. I am rather certain I may have called it a “docudrama,” but not a “documentary.” That’s a big difference.

The last paragraph tries to capture the last story and joke I told for the night.

What I actually said was that I took my two sons, Caleb and Malcolm, with me on my Loch Ness expedition in 1999. Upon returning to the USA, and after the beginning of the school year, one of them was required to write an essay on “what did you do last summer.”

One of my sons wrote about how he had gone to Loch Ness, searching for the Loch Ness Monster. A teacher called me and was worried that perhaps my son was making up things, delusional, and needed counseling. I went to the school, educated them about my work, books, television appearances, and the reality of the expedition. I said, with a smile and a laugh, “No, my son is not delusional, but you might think I am the one who is delusional.”

Great laughter broke out, and Joshua Foer turned to me, saying, “On that, let’s end and go to questions….”

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, left, speaks with host Joshua Foer during a talk about legendary creatures such as the Abominable Snowman and Bigfoot at the Institute Library in New Haven. Photo-Peter Casolino 1/15/13

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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