Cryptomundo
for Bigfoot, Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents and More

Petal. Animals usually live longer in zoos, of course, than they do in the wild. Needless to say, zoos regularly experience animal deaths. During the last month, however, there has been a bit of a cluster of older animals dying, some of them notable enough to get media attention. Have the deaths been routine or […]

Read: Rash of Zoo Deaths »

Intriguing that today, of all days, I should update a posting on a special effects genius, the late John Chambers. Now word comes in another great in the field, Stan Winston (above), 62, passed away, late Sunday, June 15, 2008, in Los Angeles, California. He died following a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma. “Stan died […]

Read: SFx Legend Stan Winston, 62, Dies »

It all began with a December 22, 2000, letter signed “God Bless. I prefer to remain anonymous,” mailed to the Sarasota (Florida) Sheriff’s Department. Two photographs were enclosed. Did you ever think you would hear that the motion picture Planet of the Apes (the 1968 version) would be used by skeptics of the photos to […]

Read: Myakka, Masks, and Apemania »

Talk of the Mothman or Mokele-Mbembe curses aside, I find myself in the midst of some times that have me reeling and beyond my understanding. My stepsister Shelley Atkins, 57, who was diagnosed with bone cancer less than two weeks ago, died around 7:30 pm, last night, June 9, 2008, in southern California. Shelley was […]

Read: Death Cluster »

Frank Searle and Lieve Peten For years I searched for Frank Searle, the Loch Ness Monster hunter. Finally, I found him, but it was too late, and instead, had to write an obituary, noting “Nessie Seeker Frank Searle (1921-2005) Dies.” Recently, repeats of a documentary The Man Who Captured Nessie, directed by Andrew Tullis and […]

Read: Seeking Searle: Nessie Hunter »

I received this email from the brother of the late Scott Norman and it is dedicated to all who supported the Norman family in their time of bereavement: Hello all My folks Tom and Diane and I, Javin, would like to say thank you for all the thoughts prayers and writings that have come our […]

Read: A Word of Thanks From The Family Of Scott Norman »

Bob Dale, San Diego TV legend and host of the famed animal program, “Zoorama,” died at 83, on Monday, May 26, 2008. He had been in declining health for some time, but his daughter, Linda, said he kept his wonderful spirit and wit right up to the end. People who grew up in southern California […]

Read: Zoorama’s Host Dies »

Strix varia A former neighbor of a Durham, North Carolina, man convicted of his wife’s murder claims the death was not caused by a human, but rather by an aggressive owl. Larry Pollard claims his deceased neighbor Kathleen Peterson was killed by an owl attack in December 2001, not by her husband, novelist Mike Peterson, […]

Read: New Murder Theory: Killed By Owl? »

Giant pandas are one of the “classic animals of discovery” in cryptozoology. Taotao, at 36, China’s oldest captive panda and the enduring favorite of millions of visitors to Shandong Province’s Jinan Zoo, died Wednesday, May 22, 2008, following a battle against old age and illness, China News Service reported. Only a few weeks ago, it […]

Read: China’s Oldest Panda Dies »

On May 19, 2008, a press release entitled “Official Statement – Demise of the American Bigfoot Society” was issued. Here it is: It is with sadness in my heart that I announce the closing of the doors of the American Bigfoot Society. Today, I received a communication from ABS Chairman Sean Forker [above] that the […]

Read: Bigfoot Group Shuts Down »

Joined by her husband, Jack (left), and brother-in-law Quentin Young is Adelaide “Su-Lin” Young. Photo courtesy of her family. Forget about the fictional “Indiana Jones,” or even the real “Zoology Jones,” for a minute. Recall, please, that women were part of the early exploration adventures too! Ruth Harkness is often remembered as the first woman […]

Read: First Panda Lady Has Died »

John Phillip Law, a tall, blond actor who cut a striking figure as the blind angel opposite Jane Fonda in 1968’s Barbarella (below), as Sinbad in 1974’s The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (above), and as Harry Holt with Bo Derek in 1981’s Tarzan the Ape Man, has died. He was 70. Law died Tuesday, May […]

Read: John Phillip Law, Played Sinbad, Dead at 70 »

The Good For several months, there have been no new Mothman news, as it relates to the Mothman Death List. That’s great. Not since 26 January 2007, when a member of the cast of the Mark Pellington-Richard Gere movie, The Mothman Prophecies, died five years after the national release of the film, has there been […]

Read: Mothman Deaths: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly »

Roy Snelling (1934-2008). Cryptozoologically, insects are not really in the realm of animals that Bernard Heuvelmans, myself and others strictly defined as of interest to the field, but nevertheless, we must admire those toiling to make the new discoveries of all those little animals out there that remain to be described. One such giant in […]

Read: Dynamic Discoverer of Ants Dies »

Tarzan of the Apes, the first book cover, 1914. In Mark Evanier’s blog, News From Me, he writes that Danton Burroughs, the grandson of Edgar Rice Burroughs and “a major force in keeping that man’s work alive,” died Wednesday evening, April 30, 2008, at his home in Tarzana, California. The suburb, of course, was named […]

Read: Tarzan Creator’s Grandson Dies »