Bigfoot

In the mid-late 1970’s there existed among the maze of alleys in London’s Soho district a bookshop with the grandly-intriguing name Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed. The name came from the title of a short story by the noted science fiction author Ray Bradbury, and signaled the specialist theme of the shop in that genre. But the shop’s range of literature also included such topics as Atlantis and cryptozoology, and it was there that I came across an American-import paperback edition of a book which has gone on to become one of the treasures of my library. The book is simply titled Bigfoot, by the investigative journalists B. Ann Slate and Alan Berry.

Yes I know: there are plenty of books about this particular cryptid on offer, so why should this one be so different? Well, one clear reason is because it is so well-written. The narrative really cracks along, and although the second half of the book slows down somewhat to take in more considered themes, the first half is at times a truly nerve-grinding white-knuckle read. So much so that the first time I read it I was sitting up until around four in the morning, both wanting desperately to know what would happen next and half-dreading to find out.

Left: Author Alan Berry and fellow Bigfoot tracker Warren Johnson seal their Sierra shelter entrance with logs – a precaution used when the creatures began to stalk them. Right: Author Ann Slate with friend. A man in a gorilla suit demonstrates the unlikelihood of a Bigfoot hoax using theatrical costumes.

And that is the clue as to why this is such a standout read: it actually succeeds in being genuinely unnerving. The circumstances of the various related encounters range from a group of unsuspecting campers in the woods who suddenly realize that they are not the only ones sharing their campfire in the darkness to a young Native American couple being driven from their newly-rented cabin in fear to three terrified student friends being chased down the road in their pickup by... well, by what, exactly?

Three students – Brian Goldojarb, Richard Engels and Willy Roermerman (left to right) – and a cardboard reconstruction of the huge figure that pursued them from their campsite, loping along after their pickup truck in Angeles National Forest, southern California, March, 1973.

If you choose to endorse them, then all the explanations are between the covers of this title, including the troubling question as to why no actual mortal remains of the creature have ever been forthcoming, even when we have an almost embarrassing abundance of the casts of its huge alleged footprints (hence the creature’s colloquial name). And if the authors’ theorizing holds good, then don’t expect such remains to come to light anytime soon – and that fortunately includes the best efforts of those irresponsible idiots who have vowed to hunt and kill a specimen as ‘unquestionable proof’.

Author Alan Berry’s own foot-long boot alongside the cast of one of many footprints he found in the snow in 1974 and 1975. 

I think that I can guess what you’re probably thinking: is my belief in such phenomena grounded in any personal experience? Oh, yes. And I’m not talking about “maybe it was just a shadow”, or “maybe it was just the wind rustling the branches of that tree”, or any other vague ‘maybe justs’. I’m talking about the kinds of truly unsettling in-your-face encounters with unknown phenomena which so etch themselves on the memory that, even decades afterwards, they can be replayed in the mind like a movie.

Timbered area on the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington where mysterious lights have been seen and frightening Bigfoot encounters have occurred.

One thing I know for sure: I can guarantee that someone who scoffs at such things and whose reaction is a mere derisive sneer of disbelief is someone who has never been through such brushes with the unknown. A healthy skepticism can be a good thing, but ridicule directed at those sincere individuals who have encountered such phenomena is surely the result of arrogance disguised as ‘sound common sense’, because, after all, we humans are the ‘superior’ life-form on the planet and we know best. So perhaps such vigorous denial serves only to mask an uncomfortable truth: these phenomena are reminding us that we might not be as in control of things as we would prefer to imagine. So if you are in this scoffing sceptics category then, although you might disagree with me, you have no right to ridicule me, call me a liar, or whatever, just to cover up your own insecurity.

But those of you who indeed have had such experiences, whether with shadow beings, ghosts, cryptids, UFO’s or other such phenomena will, I know, recognize the distinct thumbprint of these ‘real deal’ encounters, and bless you if you do. 

HAWKWOOD

THE PATTERSON-GIMLIN FILM: This YouTube video is an interview in 2020 with Bob Gimlin. The Patterson-Gimlin film, as it has become known, is a compelling minute-long piece of film shot by Roger Patterson on October 20, 1967. He was accompanied at that time by his friend Bob Gimlin, the subject of the above interview. The film was shot in the remote woods around Bluff Creek, Northern California, and shows a biped obliquely walking away from the camera. At one point the creature turns and looks back over its shoulder directly at the two men, at which point it clearly is seen to be a female with pendulous breasts. Its gait is a distinctive loping forward, and it has a cone-like skull, a short neck, and muscle mass on its back and limbs which synchronizes with its gait. It has an estimated height of just over seven feet. The frame-adjusted black-and-white animated gif below gives a reasonably good impression of what was captured. Click to view full-size.

A MAN IN A COSTUME? A third man named Bob Heironimus later came forward and claimed that he was hired by Patterson to wear the ‘suit’, although no costume or other further evidence for a hoax has ever been forthcoming. Heironimus in interviews has not once remarked upon the striking fact that the suit, if it ever existed, was clearly of a female creature. And Bob Gimlin acknowledges that in the fever of the moment it did not register with him that the creature was female; something which only a later examination of the film established for him. But if he was helping a third man into a suit he would have known this all along. This claim of the existence of a suit by Heironimus needs to be weighed against the modest means of both Patterson and Gimlin at the time to both commission and acquire a costume of such convincing quality that we probably could only achieve such visual realism today with CGI (‘computer generated imagery’) and with the involvement of such notable motion capture character acting talents as Andy Serkis. If the Patterson-Gimlin film is what it purports to be, then over half a century later it remains the best evidence yet for the creature’s existence.

BIGFOOT, by B. Ann Slate and Alan Berry. Ace Books, 1976. All photos in this post, including their captions, are taken from this title. To be fair to any readers who might be inspired to acquire their own copy, I had better make it clear right here that as far as I know the book has never been reprinted, and you have to be lucky to pick up an occasional (and pricey) second-hand copy online. In 1976 (the year of its publication) I bought it new for just 60 pence. The online price I saw in 2012 was a copy which was being offered on Amazon for US$74.50 (€70.00). It currently is being offered on that website for US$169.99. 

SASQUATCH/BIGFOOT and the Mystery of the Wild Man: Cryptozoology and Mythology in the Pacific Northwest, by Jean-Paul Debenat, PhD, translated by Paul LeBlond, PhD. Hancock House Publishers Ltd, 2009. I include this title as it has the virtue of placing the Bigfoot phenomenon within both an anthropological, mythological, ethnic and cultural context. As this author makes clear, the Bigfoot phenomenon existed in North America long before any European settlement, and appears both in cultural artefacts and traditional stories, particularly in the Pacific Northwest; still the geographical location of many of today’s sightings. 

THE AVAILABLE FILM REMAINING: From the above title comes the further nugget of information about Roger Patterson’s film: The 16mm color film roll was just 100 feet (30.5m) long. Patterson had already used up 74 feet (22.6m) filming the surrounding scenery. When the creature appeared he had only 26 feet (7.9m) of unexposed film left. The creature is seen on just the last 953 frames before the film runs out: in terms of the film time remaining to Patterson it was a fleeting moment. Which begs the question: why, if the whole setup was an elaborate hoax, did Patterson first waste three quarters of the available footage on scenery and save only the precious remaining quarter of the entire roll to film such an exhaustively-planned subterfuge? It makes no practical sense.