Cryptids & UFOs on TVNovember 2012

Descriptions of and Comments on presentations broadcast on cable tv.

Bigfoot, The Definitive GuideThe original air date: 2 Feb 2011; H2.

The show: “Five of the world’s leading scientists have come together to solve this global mystery....Their mission is to establish once and for all... if they exist.” Cryptomundo: “They begin the programsaying that they’ve brought together a few experts that will ’settle the question, once and for all,’ butthe program ends predictably, saying, ’We may never know.’ ”

In 2009, there were over 250 reported sightings of Bigfoot in North America. July 1934 Tom Cedar,Chilliwack, BC encountered rock-throwers.1 Bigfoot has reputation for rock throwing. Sightings [?] goback to 500 ad.

Introduction of show’s experts. Jeff Meldrum.2 In 2007 in Canada; rocks thrown. First job: look athundreds of videos and eliminate hoaxes. Most of the videos turn out to be hoaxes or are too blurred.Anna Nekaris (bringing extensive field research studying nocturnal primates).3 Bill Sellars (taxonomistand fossil primate expert).4 Jack Rink (geochronologist who has studied Gigantopithecus fossils). IanRedmond, (leading gorilla tracker). Forests of B.C. identified as prime habitat. They head off to Van-couver Island and find a mysterious structure, a “Sasquatch Stick Structure,” the significance of whichis unclear other than it is probably not a nest. Maybe a warning to other Sasquatches: Gorillas do stufflike that. A Sasquatch hot-spot is the town of Duncan. In 2005 Cory Combs, dirt bike rider, saw one“face-to-face”. June 2006 17 miles west Alan Robertson was attacked by what he thought was a giantape. June 2009 6 1/2 miles from Sicker Mountain Andrew Dewaal saw one or more of them. CindyDosen (a “bigfoot investigator” characterized as an “expert” by the show) and Ian stage a moonlightstakeout. They make a few calls. Maybe got an answer. Jeff Meldrum and John Mionczynski (“fieldbiologist”) try dogs. They have two scent samples, one twenty years old and one recent sample fromsomewhere in the Rockies. One of two dogs has some kind of response to the second sample. Break.

The Patterson film,5 40 seconds of 16mm. Patterson was an inventor. He was a Bigfoot believer andwanted to make a movie so he borrowed money and got equipment. Six Rivers National Park fall 1967.He wrote a book in 1966 and included a drawing very much like the Sasquatch he filmed the next year.He got the film of the female Sasquatch by accident. Mike McLeod,6 journalist, talks about this storya bit. Nobody has been able to prove the film is a fake. Panel experts are impressed by how it walks.And to fake it, why a female, wouldn’t that be much harder to fake?

Ohio, Texas, Montana, even Maryland. There were certainly many more reports of sightings afterthe film. There were even sightings of something in Florida termed the “Skunk Ape,” so they investigate.

1 Story: Cryptomundo: Sasquatch 1934A transcription of “Are they the Last Cave Men?” by Francis Dickie in LincolnStar, Lincoln, NB (29 July 1934).

2 Biographical Wikipedia article.3 A biographical article in Huffington Post says, “In addition to her work for Oxford Brookes University, Professor

Nekaris is the Director of the Leverhulme Trust Little Fireface Project.” This is an endeavor to study the ecology and raiseawareness of slow lorises in Indonesia.

4 Currently Dr. Bill Sellers is at Manchester University. His field is given as “Computational and Evolutionary Biology.”5 There is a Wikipedia article on this film, more generally known as the Patterson-Gimlin film. It’s legitimacy is still

debated. Reference to Meldrum’s book Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science in connection with the possible involvement ofRay Wallace, admitted bigfoot hoaxer.

6Author: Anatomy of a Beast: Obsession and Myth on the Trail of Bigfoot, University of California Press (2009). Formore, see North Kitsap Herald On the Trail of Robert Patterson (2009)

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Swamps are said to be ideal habitat. Photos of one were sent to the Sarasota sheriff. Jack Rink: maybeit’s an escaped chimp. Bill Sellers. “The Team” concludes this wild goose chase is the result of mistakenidentity, but what about sightings in the Pacific Northwest? Break.

July 1934 Chehalis Indian Reservation two women see a giant hairy hand on the outside of awindowpane. In 1941 Jennie Chapman and kids saw something, and it definitely was not a bear. Theyflee for their lives. Later her husband returns home, finds some stray strange hairs and a ransacked housefrom which fish was stolen. Bill Sellers: what do they eat here. It’s not an especially snowy area andthere are lots of resources. But what about a Sasquatch living high on a mountain? Maybe a specializeddigestive tract? They refer to their map: sightings do seem to line up with the best habitat. How didSasquatch get to America? From Asia? Need to consider the Yeti. Break.

Tight cluster of sightings at 9,000+ feet in areas with 40+ inches of rain. Footprint seen by EricShipton in 1951. Meldrum is convinced. Single footprint at 20,000 feet. The fact that a Yeti would liveso high is not completely without precedent: the Japanese macaque lives at 10,000 feet at -4 degrees.Then again maybe it doesn’t really live that high, maybe it was just en route to a forest. Redmond pointsout that Nepal forests have lots of foodstuffs just like those that Mountain Gorillas eat. Yeti artifactskept by monks have been analysed but have turned out to be from other animals. Mande Barung,7seemingly a lowland Yeti, nearby, but even more cryptic. And in China there are the Yeren (wild men).8Perhaps the three are descended from a common ancestor. The best guess for who that would be isGigantopithecus. Gigantopithecus’s molars seem to have turned up frequently, because they are said tohave been sold by Chinese apothecaries. Jack Rink dated them to 300,000 years ago (how). Did theymigrate? Is Sasquatch a descendant of Gigantopithecus? Break.

Robert Wilson, 2007, Vancouver Island, thought he saw a bear while driving, but when he sloweddown he saw it was a large, bear-sized man, “cave-man” like in appearance. So perhaps Sasquatch isnot an ape but a prehistoric Neanderthal-like human. In the Caucasus area there are the Almas,9 or“wild people.” In 1925 a Russian Army unit looking for rebels heard noise from a cave and shot theroaring creature inside, only to discover it was some kind of prehistoric human. (No follow up described,like what happened to the body.) Narrator notes that there are more than just the Neanderthals; earlyhumanity had many offshoots, like a bush, not a tree. For example, on Flores island in southeast asia theydiscovered small, hobbit-like, fossils. But there is a local legend of a similar entity called Orang Pendek.10

Maybe a relic population. And there’s the new finger bone of Denisova near the location of the Almasty.There’s a belief a relic population could survive. In China there are the bones of homo heidelbergensis,who died 12,000 years ago, about when modern humans were migrating to North America. So was theSasquatch a primitive human? Break.

In 1891 Herman Gilbert and others in Northern California near where Patterson made his famous filmfound giant footprints, gore, bones and a bad smell. Then they saw a huge hairy man covered in bloodand beating his chest in anger. Maybe he was a heidelbergensis, the biggest ancestor of Neanderthal.Why can’t we find them? Maybe as humans they have rituals, such as burying their dead in unmarkedgraves. They try to avoid us, and operate at times and in places where they are less likely to encounter

7 Wikipedia describes this as a cryptid thought to inhabit the Garo Hills of northeast India. In what may be a follow-upto this, there is a discussion under “Yeti” in Wikipedia about a “Dipu Marak” from the Garo Hills. “On 25 July 2008, theBBC reported that hairs... had been analyzed at Oxford Brookes University in the UK by primatologist Anna Nekaris et al....Ape conservation expert Ian Redmond told the BBC that there was similarity between the cuticle pattern of these hairsand specimens collected by Edmund Hillary during Himalayan expeditions in the 1950s... This analysis has since revealedthat the hair came from the Himalayan Goral.”

8 Wikipedia article but very cursory; notes that scientists generally discount the existence of this one.9 There is a Wikipedia article under this name. The article says the red army killed one in 1941, thinking it was a

German spy. This article says scientists doubt its existence.10 Lots of sightings, but no conclusive evidence. Some woman tried to get it on film for 15 years and failed. Footprint

and hair analyses inconclusive. See Wikipedia article.

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us. Heidelbergensis had big bones, so he also had big muscles, which would explain why he was rumored(by whom) to be able to run 30 mph, while our best human runners can only reach 27. Also, NativeAmericans say Sasquatch is attracted to modern women. Cindy Dosen on Vancouver Island was chasedby a Sasquatch about two steps behind her, who pursued her several hundred yards until she got to her4X4 and drove off. Break.

Rink proposes that Sasquatch is not a prehistoric but rather a modern human that transformeditself. Prof. Rudy Reimer11 found evidence of stone tools recently used in some out of the way places.These places were on Squamish sacred lands which the Squamish didn’t use, but left for the use ofthe Smayleeh, wild people. Squamish shamen in training were supposed to go off into the wild andavoid contact for up to ten years. They would have become unrecognizable. They covered their bodiesin thick black moss for warmth. They would have looked like the hairy cave men. And they are stillcarrying on shamanic training. Also, tribes across the Pacific Northwest have similar traditions. Perhapsthe sightings are of shamen in training. Kathy Strain (USFS biologist) doubts. Break.

Conclusions of the Show. Could Sasquatch be a shaman? No! He’s bigfoot, and humans have littlefeet. Meldrum has collected a lot of Sasquatch footprints and says their size distribution is ok for apopulation, but there are so many hoaxes that footprint data cannot be trusted. No fossils, but ina forest you don’t get fossils. No dung, but maybe they have a tradition of burying it. All there isfor evidence is some unidentified hairs, vague recorded calls, and a lot of sightings. Patterson’s filmprovoked lots of sightings. So were their efforts a waste of time? No, because they have actually ruledout mistakes like the Swamp creature in Florida, and been suggestive of an as yet undiscovered butlikely creature in southeast asia. Also, their map of sightings is useful. It highlighted the Yeti and othertwo creatures in close proximity, and therefore possibly related by descent from gigantopithecus. Whatabout the Almasty? Sellers thinks they didn’t cross. No bones, no support. If they could just find even atooth! Rink is “open minded.” Nekaris and Redmond are for more investigation. And there is a chancethat Bigfoot has already vanished. End.

Comments. The show could have been much worse. But it could have been much better too.For a very interesting and seemingly balanced critique of the show from a pro-bigfoot source, see

Bigfoot: The Definitive Guide, A Second Point of View.With respect to this show, even the enthusiasts complain about the scarcity of new information and

generally content-less presentation. Once complaint was that the “research” wasn’t made available foraudience perusal, most notably the frequently pictured and bragged-about “interactive” map of 10,000sightings. I have to add that this number of sightings surprised me.

To some, the Patterson film has been successfully discredited (admission from one guy that he madethe suit, from another that he wore it, etc.); but to true believers the discreditation is second-rate anditself not to be believed. The Wikipedia article suggests that the problem with discrediting the film isthat not enough serious scientists of any stature have examined it at all, perhaps feeling that it wasn’tworth their time?

The organization of the show was too loose, and the links between one segment and another morestream of consciousness than logical. If this had been a lecture, it would have had to be regarded asvery poor. Too much wasted time on the Florida stinky ape and the absurd shaman idea; and whateverevidence they had (e.g. the “interactive map” with which they didn’t interact–and you can’t either)referred to but not spelled out or made available.

11 Reimer, Rudy (2007) “Smaylilh or Wild People Archaeology,” NEXUS: Vol. 20: Iss. 1, Article 1. Available at: Nexus:Smaylilh or Wild People Archaeology.

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One site refers to a NatGeo episode of Is It Real which dealt with–and discredited–the Pattersonfilm. Another site references an old In Search of... episode approvingly. There was also a Monster Questepisode, not well spoken of.

Is it real 19–BigfootAir National Geographic Channel (2005)

“If there’s one out there, there must be thousands, otherwise they would have gone extinct longago.” Every year there are a few dozen reported encounters. Dr. David Gaegling, UFL Anthropologist:There’s lots of evidence, but is any of it any good? Juxtapose: Meldrum: “I’m compelled to concludethat there is a high degree of probability that this creature exists.”

Our search begins in Six Rivers National Forest. Back in 1958 some of the first Bigfoot tracks werefound on a logging road construction site here. Some Forest Ranger thinks we should look, because he’sheard stuff from people he regards as reliable sources. “Many biologists” say a minimum breeding pop-ulation would number in the thousands, too many to escape detection. Fire Lookout Rebecca disagrees.She gets 3-4 bigfoot stories a year. Meldrum again: “Many people have encounters or see things that fitinto this profile of an upright, broad-shouldered, flat-faced, hair-covered figure. Many of them just don’ttalk about it.” Benjamin Radford, Skeptical Enquirer (on why people don’t talk about it): “All thesestories and anecdotes are at their core just eyewitness testimony. It doesn’t mean you dismiss it out ofhand, but it means you have to be careful how much weight you give it.” Witness: Highway PatrolmanRichard [Cahill?]: 8-9 feet tall. Messy. Definitely neither human nor bear. Witness Katheryn [Markofer?]:I’ve never seen a torso so big. It wasn’t just that it was tall, but also the fact of the broad shouldersthat astonished her. Benjamin Radford: research shows how crappy memory becomes when people areafraid.

Eyewitness are one thing, but what about people who conveniently–perhaps too conveniently–havea film camera with them. “That was the case in 1967 when two cowboys and bigfoot fans went in searchof the creature.” Rodeo cowboy Roger Patterson who was broke and fighting cancer had a dream ofselling a Sasquatch documentary to hollywood for big bucks. He rented a camera and headed off with hisrodeo friend Bob Gimlin. Had looked for weeks. A few hours into the ride, they noticed a horrible smellin the air. Their horses became skittish. Going round a bend, they spotted a creature and he chasedafter it, camera rolling. A face in frame 352 that “bigfoot enthusiasts” insist cannot be a fake. Theymade casts of the tracks. Patterson died in 1972. Most scientists dismiss the film out of hand: it wasclearly a guy in a suit. But enthusiasts are still obsessing over the film. And even established scientistslike anthropologist Jeff Meldrum believe “there is more here than meets the eye.” Meldrum: To trivializethat evidence as no more than a man in a fur suit is to diminish the significance of it. [Duh!] “And toreveal a lack of appreciation for the sophistication of that piece of evidence.”

Before dissecting the film, we need to consider what Bigfoot is, if it does indeed exist. [Curious whythis detour...]. Meldrum thinks it may be a descendant of Gigantopithecus. Meldrum: a large terrestrialhominoid. This would be a parallel evolution.

Skeptics point to another possibility. Such giant ape legends are common to almost every wildernesssociety on earth: North America, the Sasquatch; Australia, the Yowie [?]; Borneo has the Maias [?]; inMongolia and Russia numerous accounts of the Almanaty12 [so it sounds] (which Russians believe aredescendants of Neanderthal); and Bigfoot’s most glamorous cousin and possible inspiration, the Yeti. In1951 mysterious tracks were found on an 18,000 foot glacier by Eric Shipton. Searches came up empty

12 Igor Burtsev refers to Homo sapiens almas in a Facebook post as republished on Cryptomundo (4 Dec 2012) explaininghis reasons for releasing Ketchum’s supposed Bigfoot DNA findings.

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and Hilary eventually concluded that these were probably tracks of ordinary animals distorted by meltingsnow. Did this report inspire modern Bigfoot sightings?

Back to Bigfoot evidence... Giant footprints: are they real or fake? Answers are contradictory. Thereare hundreds, even thousands of casts. (Again, I’m astonished by the numbers.) Broad, skinny, three-toed, five-toed, six-toed. Nobody believes they are all real. When there is a hoax, someone often spillsthe beans, and in 2001 there came the story of Ray Wallace. He planted fake Bigfoot tracks from the1950s. The 1958 tracks that kicked off the craze were found on one of his construction sites. His wifeknew about it, and son learned after his death. His cousin Dale Lee was in the loop. He had many casts.They would hold rope on a pickup truck to make big strides.

OK so he may have kicked off the craze, but one hoaxer does not disprove Bigfoot. Conroe TX:a “forensic detective” is on the Sasquatch case. Jimmy Chilcutt. 13 He’s a fingerprint expert and alsoan expert on primate prints. He examined Bigfoot foot casts and found that some of them had dermalridges. Friction ridges that ran lengthwise down the foot. Dermal ridges about twice the thickness of ahuman. In humans they ridges go across the width of the foot. Here they go down the side of the foot.1967 California cast. Then similar pattern taken from cast made in Walla Walla, WA 20 years later.Also there were scars that curved inwards, like they are supposed to do, and someone faking that wouldhave to have a lot of specialized knowledge. Dr. Estevan Sarmiento disagrees: dermal ridges etc. can befaked. He showed how. David Daegling:14 people don’t give hoaxers enough credit and think they mustbe stupid.

Off to Texas bayou in search of a Bigfoot with a bad attitude. Guide for their search will be a talkradio host. Their Bigfoot has three toes. They have a theory that this is the result of inbreeding of theirsmall population, because loss of a digit is one of the first symptoms of inbreeding. Of course, they’venever had a sighting themselves. They make a couple of calls, like those in the “definitive” show. Theyall jabber away while cheesy IR photography pans across their faces. It’s like the Blair Witch Project.Unsurprisingly, they found nothing.

Tennessee next. Benjamin Radford (journalist). The Texas Bigfoot was mean. CA Bigfoot is a hippy.These different personalities are to be expected if it’s all a social construct. OK, some woman, Janice,15 claims to have grown up with a whole colony of Bigfeet. Russian researcher, Igor Bourtsev, thinksshe’s the real deal. [Credentials unstated.] He was one of a group who dug up remains of Kwit, 50 yearsago, half-breed Bigfoot & Russian mother. Janice’s Bigfoot family is so large that Igor is having troublekeeping them straight (a few glimpses of a big family tree diagram). The father of the family is named“Fox”. She’s known them since she was 4. They visited her grandfather. She got some hair sampleswhen Fox knocked on her door to ask for some garlic, which they use as insect repellant. She asked if hewanted powdered garlic and he said no, he wanted clove garlic. Yes, he speaks English! They creep upon deer and kill it with their bare hands. Slit belly with fingernails and gut it. David Daegling: Bigfootis a mythological creature.

Back to the Patterson film finally. Two bigfoot enthusiasts discuss the Patterson film. Eyes blink.Lips part and you see huge blocky teeth (not really visible on Youtube version anyhow) and the breastsflop (again not really clear). Meldrum thinks maybe they’re reading too much into the film grain. Hesays he can list muscle-group after muscle-group clearly evident even given resolution of the film. In the

13 For more on Chilcutt and the ridges see “Experiments cast doubt on Bigfoot ’evidence’,” by Michael Dennett,Skeptical Enquirer Vol. 16.3 (September 2006), CSI: Experiments Cast Doubt on Bigfoot Evidence.

14 Dr. David J. Daegling, author of Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America’s Enduring Legend (2005),professor at UFL Gainesville. See interview at Bigfootencounters: Conversations: Bigfoot Exposed.

15 I found a reference to a Mary Green in Tennessee that Bourtsev was working withBigfootencounters: Russian researchervisits Overton County Tennessee. No mention of the family and “Fox”. There is mention of Janice Carter Coy and “Fox”in Cryptomundo: Igor Bourtsev Defends Carter Claims. Also, in this note, Bourtsev claims to have found hair. But noreference to analysis, DNA or otherwise. Seems Mary and Janice wrote a book, 50 Years with Bigfoot. These referenceslead to a number of illuminating articles appearing in Cryptomundo.

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film you can see the shoulder blades move as the arms swing. Ratio of limb lengths are well outsidethe limits of human variation. Dr. Daniel Schmidt using video analysis. Unfortunately the film is prettyuseless: you can’t tell where the wrists are, hips, shoulders etc. Limb ratios, speed, stride length. Noneof this can be determined, and to say so is not really honest. (Criticism of Meldrum.) Back to the sceneof the film. Patterson is dead. Gimlin isn’t talking. (Interesting.) Several people have claimed to haveworn the suit. Bob Hieronymous.

Narrator: everyone agrees you can’t prove it and you can’t disprove it. Meldrum: these footprintsexist, these casts exist, something is making them. I think it’s a great ape. Red Shirt: people don’t wantthe mystery solved. UFL: if there’s an animal out there, why haven’t we found it?

Comments Not bad except for the Texas rednecks who wanted to shoot one and the Tennessee lady.Those two bits didn’t deserve any air time at all. The discussion of the Patterson film with the pro campbeing represented by “enthusiasts” was somewhat telling. Meldrum does not impress; he’s clearly a truebeliever.

Sasquatch: Legend Meets ScienceDiscovery Channel (original air date 9 January 2003)

Broadcast 2003. [Intro and teasers] Gigantopithicus (big reconstruction of one–remember: there’sonly a jawbone). Gigantopithecus was a contemporary of Homo erectus, although how they interactedis unknown. There are over 400 sightings each year. Dr. George Schaller16: about once a year a newprimate is discovered. Sasquatch, if it exists, might be even closer to humans than the primates weknow today, which would be very important. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence, so I feel there issomething worth pursuing.

One kind of evidence in abundance is footprints. These footprints provide an important clue: dermalridges. Jimmy Chilcutt. Chilcutt will examine casts for dermal ridges. He looked at over 100 allegedBigfoot footprints. In time, some were 20 years older than the most recent, and some casts are separatedhundreds of miles in distance. Narrator: Chilcutt should be able to tell us if the footprints are real or aclever forgery. Looking for characteristic ridge scar curling inwards following wound. He discusses howthe ridges run the length of the foot and are wider than in humans.

If casts of footprints would be telling, casts of a lower torso would be groundbreaking. September2000 expedition (Skookum) by Richard Noll, Bigfoot Field Research Organization. They took a bigplaster cast of an impression of something. It was big. It was vague. They were completely unsure whatthey were looking at. So they needed real scientists to look at it. They trot out Meldrum and EstebanSarmiento.17 Daris Swindler (1925-2007), University of Washington.18 Sarmiento came up with morequestions than answers. Hair yields were from known animals.

The Memorial Day Film Clip

Other evidence is in rare clips of film and video footage. Lorie and Owen Pate 26 May 1996 on fishingtrip in Northeast Washington (the “Memorial Day Clip”). Tiny figure runs across a field. Then the 1967Patterson-Gimlin film. In 1994 a similar clip from the Blue Mountains of Washington state. Paul Freeman

16 Has a Wikipedia page. Occupation seems to be “senior conservationist” at Wildlife Conservation Society. Famous forhis field work with Mountain Gorillas.

17 On Sarmiento, see the Wikipedia article about him. Evidently has also appeared on Monster Quest.18 See interesting Wikipedia article on him, especially regarding cold case investigations into bones in his possession

when he died. He was a Bigfoot skeptic until Skookum, after which he is reported to have become more flexible in hisattitude.

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(1943-2003), Forest Service employee gets about 3 seconds of blurry images.19 Sarmiento analyses: wecan tell height of individual from how it walks, how fast are the paces etc., and we can determine that inthe Memorial Day clip the individual was 5’9” to 6’3”. In the Freeman clip, the slow pace and bobbingof the head gives the impression that the animal is rather large. But the quality of resolution etc. makeit difficult to determine if the creature is real or a man in a monkey suit.20

Its difficult to see much in these old films, so they decide to try 3-D modeling. Reuben Steindorf,Vision Realm, got a copy of the Patterson film from Meldrum. He seeks to determine whether thePatterson film could even be made by a man in a monkey suit. He uses “reverse kinematics.”

Some important clues from films lie in the backgrounds. Robert Taft, “Forensic Reconstructionist.”If we can get some measurements of the background stuff, we can determine stride and creature height.As the narrator notes, the background of the Patterson footage has changed a lot over the years, but theMemorial Day site remains much as it did. Goal: to determine whether the creature runs across the fieldat a rate too fast for a human. Shot by Lorrie and Owen Pate. Tom Lines [?] witnessed it through hisbinoculars. Team of 5 measurements experts bringing his own skills to the art of forensic reconstruction.Doug Divine of Pacific Survey Supply. They get Derek Prior, sprinter from WSU to run the path.

Dr. Robert Benson21 from Texas A & M (Physics, bioacoustics). We can rule out Barn Owl, Elk,Wolves and Cayotes. A thin population could benefit from a loud vocalization such as on the tapes. Afirst pass at analysis doesn’t give Benson enough to give a probable answer. Further analysis may help.

Back to footprints as they are the largest body of data, and they need a systematic evaluation.Meldrum again. Examined successive footprints and noted differences. He notes lots of things theycan look for in the tracks, even possibly linking different tracks to the same individual. Narrator: cansimultaneous tracks and film be somehow linked to amplify our understanding, because that’s whathappened in the Patterson film. Steindorf’s 3-D modeling goes to Meldrum. Meldrum characterizeswhat he sees as a peculiar bent-kneed gait on a flexible flat foot. Also interesting rotation of leg andfoot. Meldrum consults with Andrew Nelson of Center for Motion Analysis. He notes bulge on the leg.How could a monkey suit of such detail have been created 35 years ago.

Statistical data. Dr. W. Henner Fahrenbach, Ph.D.22 Foot length. Also have foot width, that canbe combined into a ratio. Again we are left hanging for the results.

DNA evidence. Lab-coated scientist will examine a hair, an apple slice, and a stool sample. CraigNewton.23

The conclusions. (1) Fingerprint (Chilcutt): there is a Great Ape living in North America; (2) DrBenson on vocalization: the source is probably primate, but that includes human; (3) footprint lengthetc. the statistics: there is a bell curve that probably came from real instead of faked data; (4) thememorial day footage and size, speed, gait: 5.3’ and leg length 2.5’, similar to human, speed 8.56 mph,but our runner ran at 17 mph, stride 2.5’, our runner was 6.8’: why did it seem to get taller, carryinga youngster; (5) DNA apple nothing, stool lots of bacteria but no animal gene, hairs, sequences werehuman like and thus probably contaminated. (6) Meldrum et al look at Skookum. Patterson, how couldsomeone have faked this in 1967; Skookum has some mystery imprints, not artificial, deer, bear, and elkbut an unknown hominid. Is it more likely this is a widespread series of hoaxes over distance or time, or

19 See Cryptomundo: Freeman Bigfoot Footage Revisited.. Freeman saw BF in 1982 and took the video in 1994. Thisarticle notes an exchange between Freeman and Meldrum recorded in the December 2007 Scientific American. Meldrumwas convinced by the casts; many others regarded Freeman as a hoaxter.

20 According to Bigfootencounters: Updates and Thoughts on the Memorial Day Footage, “the late Dr. Grover Krantz,Ph.D., sternly announced he would not waste ink on the Memorial Day footage in his revised edition of Big Footprints.”

21 Benson also appeared in Monster Quest’s search for the “vampire beast,” the Beast of Bladenboro, NC.22 Fahrenbach is associated with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (“BFRO”). See their note concerning some

DNA tests run (with disappointing lack of results): BFRO: DNA Analysis of Hair Samples at Ohio State Univ...23 Said to be from “BC Research” in Canada; now appears to be at “ATG Genetics.” “BCResearch Forest Biotechnology

Center (1987 - 1996) [was] located on the University of British Columbia campus.”

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that it’s an undiscovered ape?

In Search ofYouTube: Season 1, Episode 5. IMDB says April 1977.

• Incident 1924 men working at mine near Mt. St. Helens come under siege at night by a troupe ofthem, throwing rocks and trying to break into their cabin. Described as “large hairy apes.” Areanow known as “Ape Canyon.”

• Bigfoot has a long history in Indian lore and one explanatory theory is that they came over theland bridge from Asia at the same time as the Indians.

• Interview with Washington State University anthropologist Dr. Grover Krantz.24 He had a jawbonecast of what he felt was Bigfoot: more particularly, it was a cast of Gigantopithecus’s jaw-bone,and he felt Bigfoot was probably a Gigantopithecus.

• Patterson film. Dr. Kranz said he felt it was authentic. He’s being interviewed in a room with theword “Sasquatch” on the wall behind him, like some kind of conference. He noted that he hadactually talked to Patterson.

• Reported sightings go back to 1811. In 1882 in a newspaper story railroad workers saw andcaptured a creature, but no one knows what happened to it. Of 2,000 reported sightings, half areregarded as fakes.

• Louis Alway25 and daughter Cindy were driving when Lewis thought he saw a bear, but then ittook off and ran across the road on its hind legs.

• Sheriff William Clausner26 got a call from some people about strange tracks near their cabin.Clausner said the tracks were real large, way bigger than a human. Skamania Co., Washington.There was a strong odor of sulfur. He’s no longer a skeptic.

• James Strahan and Harold Teskey27 saw something on the roadside near Colton, Oregon. A big,huge object at the side of the road, 3 1/2 to 4-feet wide and 6-7 feet tall. It gave off a veryoffensive odor, which persisted in the car overnight.

• Outside The Dalles, Oregon several members of the Bigfoot Project and Information center ledby Peter Byrne,28

24 Wikipedia article. Dr. Grover Sanders Krantz (1931-2002). Appeared in “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science” (2003),a companion documentary to Meldrum’s book.

25 Spelling confirmed via IMDB. He has appeared as himself also in “Monsters! Mysteries or Myths?” (1974) Could notlocate another source reporting this story.

26 Cannot locate another reference to this story. This county is near Mt. St. Helens. Not sure of the spelling of his nameas In Search of... does not use captions.

27 The fact that their story appeared in In Search of was reported at The Colton Archive: Bigfoot.28 Born Ireland (22 August 1925). Started looking for Bigfoot c. 1960. Krantz called him a fake and objected to Byrne’s

reluctance to kill one. He was in the Himalayas in 1947 (Nepal) hunting tigers for money and the Yeti on the side. See,Bigfoot Encounters: On the Trail of Bigfoot.. He also searched for the “Skunk Ape,” as documented in a production called“Shaawanoki” who has looked for Bigfoot for the past 5 years, armed with his camera. His procedure is to backgroundcheck people who make a report before he interviews them.

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• One of the most credible sightings took place near Mt. Hood in [July] 1974, where two loggers,Jack Cochran29 and Fermin Osborne, got within 50 feet of one. Cochran sketched it and remarkedon its very broad shoulders and long arms.

• Peter Byrne “professional bigfoot investigator” does footprint casts. Had a 13 ½ inch cast, andremarked on the peculiar bulge on the outside of the foot, which he says he has seen in most ofthe footprints he’s observed.

• Prof. Kranz holds a cast of an “obviously crippled” Bigfoot and notes that the bulge gives someindication of the balance point, which in Bigfoot has moved relative to where it is in humans,like it would have to in order to handle the 800 pound creature. He says it is unlikely that thefootprints have been faked, because knowledge of what that bulge means is pretty specialized,and a faker would be unlikely to appreciate it.

• As for obvious fakeries, there was the film someone tried to sell for some outrageous price, claimingthe being shown therein was some 8 1/2 feet tall. But when they located where it had been shot,they were able to determine it was only 6 feet or so.

• Don Peterson, Jack Sullivan and James Houskin have searched for several years and believe thesearch will only be ended by a body.

• Some city enacted an ordinance against shooting Bigfeet.

• Prof. Kranz feels one should be shot in the name of science, even if it is the last of its kind.

UpdatesYahoo News: 24 August 2012

The Yahoo article, from an ABC News Blog dated 24 August 2012 by Katie Kindelan titled “BigfootSighting or Big Joke? You Decide,”30 describes two recent reports of Bigfoot sightings. It also has anincidental mention of Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” series.

The first sighting was shown in a 38-second YouTube video shot April 2012 in the Grand River areaof Northeast Ohio by an author who claimed to be “looking for UFO’s, Bigfoot, Paranormal activity,current events a rick roll or two lol.” The Ohio sighting seems to have been “near Mt. Orab.” Reporting by10TV.com (WBNS).31 The 10tv report named “Bigfoot believer” Doug Waller and one Gayle Veselenak.Veselenak said there have been “responses back” from a Bigfoot when she and her son, Matt, used abat to communicate with the creature. The 10tv article related the story of an audio recording knownas the “Ohio Howl,” which is claimed to present evidence that Bigfoot is real. “A barking dog is heardin the recording and then a siren-like moan is audible, Barry reported.” The recording that was made inColumbiana County, Ohio, was the first documented recording of what is believed to be coming from alarge, male Sasquatch.

The second sighting was made by a group of high-school students in Idaho who “may” have happenedupon a Bigfoot in in May 2012 during a class project. The nature of the class project was not mentioned.Reportedly they got a “few seconds” of footage. This was reported by KIFI-TV.

29 Cochran saw Bigfoot watching crane worked by three loggers. Next day all three saw it at same time; dft Bigfootwalked quickly away from them. Investigated by Bigfoot Information Center. Source: Bigfoot Encounters: Article haspossibly been removed..See also, “Sightings of Bigfoot Becoming More Common,” Lakeland Ledger (27 November 1975)(via Google News).

30 ABC News Blogs: Bigfoot Sighting or Big Joke? You Decide (24 Aug 2012)..31 10TV.com: Bigfoot Sightings Common in Ohio (21 May 2012).

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Appendix: Other Links

1. Bioreference.net: BigfootThis seems to be one of a number of independent encyclopedias derivedfrom Wikipedia. The Wikipedia article itself has morphed far beyond this, and is convoluted andhas only a veneer of neutrality. The information and description of the “Pro” and “Con” argumentsseem useful and neutral.

2. Texas Bigfoot Research ConservancyThe stated purpose of this site is to prove the existence ofBigfoot.

3. Sarmiento explains that Bigfoot could not be an ape ..Bigfoot Encounters: Primatologist: If Bigfootexists, it’s not an ape, a newspaper article transcript, which comments on the Patterson film byway of explanation. He comments on the gait, turning to look at the camera and the breasts,really in unstated contradiction of Meldrum. Also another site mentioned the female has a crest,which normally only a male would have.

4. Skeptical Enquirer article on the Memorial Day video: “The Memorial Day Bigfoot Video: A CloserLook,” by Daniel Perez, vol. 17.3 (September 2007). Peter Byrne regarded it as faked too. Repeatsthe runner issue, green color shift to the ape costume, the videographers’ interest in how muchthey could get for it, Krantz and Sarmiento’s rejection of it, and the fact that the audio, whichwould cast suspicion on it all, was left out of the broadcast version. Evidently one voice in thebackground was from a famous Bigfoot proponent, and leads to the question why he was therewhen this “accidental” sighting took place.

Finding Bigfoot: CSI BigfootAnimal Planet. Finding Bigfoot. “CSI Bigfoot.” Original air date: 25 Nov 2012. Location: Oklahoma.Personnae: Cliff Barackman, James “Bobo” Fay, Ranae Holland,32 Matt Moneymaker.

Segment 1

The cast sees alleged Bigfoot footprints which look like indistinct shallow holes in the soil. They determinethe stride length is 57 inches. The footprints are 15-16 inches long. They are in a straight line, which issaid to be a bigfoot characteristic. They discuss this in terms of straddle. It is noted that to walk thisway is awkward. They try to copy the stride length, and Ranae does this by jogging and says it’s easy.The True Believers respond that Bigfoot had that stride while walking and therefore Ranae is not testingthis attribute fairly. Ultimately this whole line of discussion is fruitless and leads to no conclusion.

One cast member makes the incidental observation that Bigfoot is well-known to be a dumpsterdiver.

Segment 2

A man named Roger shows up and gives them a packet of hair that was collected some 10-12 yearsago. They eyeball the wad of hair and conclude that it is not from a bear or a horse. They will take itto the neighborhood DNA lab for analysis later.

32 The official biography of Ranae Holland, provided by Holland herself, is at Animal Planet: Ranae Holland. Holland’sspecialty is fisheries science. She is the show’s token skeptic, although not often appearing particularly forceful in herskepticism.

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They go out at night. The reason they’re here in Oklahoma to begin with is that there have beenmany reported sightings in the area and we are told that it is known that, amazingly, where Bigfootsgo once, they often go again. The name for interest in and pursuit of Bigfoot is called “bigfootery.”Anyhow, we see black and green footage of these people wearing lights shining on their faces so as toshow up in this night footage. They have an infrared video camera. They see an armadillo! This is saidto be good, because the armadillo and Bigfoot pursue the same food supply, grubs–although Bigfootwould not be above eating the occasional armadillo too.

Someone whistles and we are told that on a previous night, there was a whistle back.

Segment 3

Thump, crack, wood-knock? Such knocks are another known artifact of Bigfoot existence. They runalong some railroad tracks and find some cow bones, and someone remarks that this constitutes yetanother food source. They note that there has been activity in this 2.59 square mile area for years.[Query: 1.6 miles or 8,500 feet per side; 1,660 acres? This is not a big forest.]

Next we show up at the lab and talk to Dr. Brandt Cassidy. They tell him the hair was found 9 feetoff the ground. He has never been presented with a possible Bigfoot hair before. Yes, he will conduct amicroscopic examination as well as testing DNA.

Segment 4

They conduct a Town Meeting and ask how many people have actually seen a Bigfoot. It looks like aquarter to a third of the town has. We hear some testimonials, including one from a child. One womansays, “Yes we get them coming through here all the time; there’s a family in there.” They decide toinvestigate two of the reported sightings.

They go to a reservation where Keith saw one after a hard night of halloween partying. He and afriend went out in the woods the next morning, and he took a photo of the friend to prove that thefriend was actually up and working, and lo-and-behold there was a bigfoot in the background. He gottwo or more shots. About 45 yards away. They re-enact the photo to try to get a sense of how big itwas and end up with an estimate of 800-900 pounds weight.

Ranae goes to someone’s farm and identifies numerous tracks, but nothing from a Bigfoot. Shedecides to camp out. At night she yells a few “woo-hoo’s” and knocks on a tree, and says she got somekind of ill-defined and inconclusive response.

Segment 5

Next day it was raining. She says that the rest of the night was quiet.Ian Macdonald says he and his wife saw one while drifting on a kayak. It was about six-foot six and

ran back into the woods. Very black, and broad.

Segment 6

Back to the lab. The doctor says the microscopics show it was not human hair. One interesting charac-teristic was that none of the ends were cut (as in, by scissors). Alas, the DNA in the hair shaft was toodegraded after all these years to produce meaningful results with the tests he used, although he will tryto do more and call them if anything turns up. Ranae notes that there are issues with who collected thespecimen and how they are stored.

Having determined by mapping the eyewitness reports that almost all the sightings are associatedwith water, and after Macdonald’s story, they decide to float the river (north fork of the Canadian River).

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More black and green tv. Wood knock? They see a beaver! They try whooping. They see somethingbig and bright in a tree far away, but it disappears. They land and search. Something bright!

Final Break

Oh dear, it’s a deer. More whooping. Coyotes respond. Sorry folks, they didn’t find one this episode, butthey note that there are lots of animals here, and it’s the perfect spot for Bigfoot to live unobserved,lots to eat, and they are convinced they are here ... somewhere.

Finding Bigfoot: Peeping BigfootOriginal air: 28 Oct 2012. Animal Planet. Finding Bigfoot–Further Evidence. Location: Minnesota.

Segment 1

Somebody made a recording, and there’s an eyewitness to a really tall one seen in the daylight, whichis unusual. So they go to Moose Lake, MN and meet Andy Pieper. They listen to his recording; manysounds of other animals: wolves, coyotes and the like—and a couple of indistinct sounds that mightabeen a Bigfoot. But we are told that Bigfoot is an intelligent animal and likely communicates on purposeusing ambiguous sounds designed to throw humans off the track; therefore, the wolf and coyote soundsmight be Bigfoot after all.

They get on some fun-looking, tracked golf-carts and joyfully mow down the underbrush in a bog ontheir way to investigate an “island” from which the suspect sounds seem to have come. On the islandthey see five broken trees. “These are markers!” They find some deer bones.

Night, and the obligatory green and white TV. They split up into two teams and the idea is to makenoises back and forth to attract the ever-curious Bigfoot. (Yes, the Bigfoot doesn’t want to be found,so it encrypts its communications with wolf and coyote noises; but it will still show up when humans tryto mimic its exceedingly primitive whistles, whoops, and knocking on trees.) Whoop! Whoa! Whistle!“Give us a knock!” What, was that a knock?

Segment 2

They hear a sound like two rocks plopping into the water. What threw them there? (This hearkens backto one of the original Bigfoot accounts, where a Bigfoot threw rocks at a man in a boat.) They wantedto investigate, but were blocked by a giant hedge of Poison Ivy. Oh, the frustration. For all of us.

Now we have the obligatory “town meeting,” where they ask for a show of hands of those who haveactually seen a Bigfoot. And a third of the town raises its hands. One witness describes a Bigfoot whowas 10-11 feet tall. West Fork of the Kettle River. Three incidents in broad daylight.

Bobo goes hair collecting on a “scratching pole.”[my viewing of the segment was interrupted]

The Loch Ness Monster Revealed (2008)The monster entered modern public consciousness in 1933 (with footprints), and with the famousphotograph a year later. The footprints were exposed as a hoax at the time, but the photograph wasnot exposed as such until the 1990’s, perpetrated by the same individual. Marmaduke Wetherell.33 A

33 Museum of Hoaxes: The Surgeons Photo

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problem with the kind of animal portrayed by the photograph is that evolution doesn’t really supportthe notion of a long-necked swimming monster. Kenneth Carpenter34 appears.

Plesiosaur Theory

It looks like a plesiosaur, and they gave birth in the water, which would allow it to be hidden. Buta plesiosaur was a salt-water animal and Loch Ness is fresh water. Also, LN is a very cold waterenvironment, which again isn’t consistent with plesiosaurs. And a long neck doesn’t fit well with such anenvironment, because the neck would result in heat loss. What about evidence? Is there fossil evidence?Someone claimed there was, but examination of the fossil shows the replacement material is limestone,which is not a local material; accordingly, the fossil appears to have been a plant.

What Else Could It Have Been?It is suggested that a number of animals could have been responsible for sightings, such as eels, a

sturgeon, or a seal. The Peter McNab 1955 photograph35 is discussed. The show notes it was not a hoax,but the question remains, what does it really portray? They note that it could be a boat wake, wherewe just don’t see the boat, which could be some distance away. Then they discuss the thermocline,and note that it is distorted when winds play on the lake, and snaps back into its original shape whenthe wind stops. There is some 50-hour cycle involved. And a new series of distortions could compoundthings. The result would be all kinds of surface disturbances. Again they mention that local stuff suchas seals, sturgeons, otters, birds, and flotsam might be involved.

A Slightly Scientific Detour

They discuss the 1987 Operation Deepscan project conducted by Adrian Shine36 (who is interviewedbriefly). They ran 20 boats and sonar down the lake and didn’t find the monster, but there wereanomalies that have still not been explained. They are on a Deepscan boat. Cousteau dives, but can’tfind anything. Visibility only a few feet and very cold. He likens it to swimming in tea. Erika MaPhee-Shaw37 and Theodore Willis38 talk about collecting some data. They measure visibility of the photiczone, temperature, and plankton count. They send a camera down to the bottom at 800 feet, wherethey see some salmon, char, and trout. Is there enough for such a monster to eat? They calculate thatthe loch contains 200 tons of plankton, which would support 20 tons of fish, which would support 2tons of monster.

Temperature Issues

Cousteau points out that the loch’s temperature goes down to around 40 degrees F. What would thismean for a monster? It wouldn’t necessarily have to be warm-blooded. They point out that tuna is anintermediate-temperature animal. Maybe it has blubber. And perhaps it isn’t a plesiosaur at all. Perhapsanother creature has evolved to look like a plesiosaur through convergent evolution. They point out thatthis happens when different organisms evolve to manifest similar capabilities, and then they go backto the plesiosaur’s long neck, after having previously discussed the fact that the long neck is the oneaspect of the plesiosaur’s structure least adapted to life in frigid water. Anyhow, they go off on a tangent

34 Paleontologist. See Wikipedia page. Director, USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum.35 Museum of Hoaxes: Loch Ness Monster Hoaxes36 Shine is somehow affiliated with the “Loch Ness & Morar Project,” and is said to be a “Scottish Naturalist,” but I

cannot locate anything further on his credentials. He is a non-believer, and helped to expose the Wetherell photo hoax.37 Director, Physical Oceanography Group, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, California State University, Moss Landing

Marine Laboratories38 This seems to be: Theodore V. Willis, Environmental Science, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME

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about a sea-turtle. They mention that the leatherback turtle has lots of oil, and its flippers resemble aplesiosaur’s. Possibly a turtle evolved a beak capable of snapping fish or developed hairlike structuresfor eating plankton. Then they note that turtles typically lay eggs on land, but that some reptiles givebirth to live young, so then they speculate that their hypothetical plesio-turtle has this capability too.

Another issue arises in that the loch was frozen solid until 15,000 years ago, so whatever the monsteris, it would have had to have entered after that time. They never mention that the evolutionary processthey have been hypothesizing no longer has a long time to take place. And they note that this leads toa question about how the monster got to the loch to begin with. Did it swim up the River Ness? Nowit is shallow, but when the loch defrosted it was probably deeper, although it would also have had astronger current. It’s 7 miles from the loch to the ocean.

This discussion then considers whether the Plesio-turtle migrates. The river is deemed too shallow.There is a canal dating back a couple of hundred years, but how did it hide during the waits in thelocks? They discuss the river again: maybe it swam up when the river was deeper after a rain, butagain the problem with the current is raised. Then there is the problem with the two weirs. To test thePlesio-turtle’s likelihood of reaching the loch via the river, they attempt to climb up the weir with azodiac and fail.

Conclusion

They feel the hypothetical Plesio-turtle is the best candidate. What about reproduction? For someunknown reason they again hypothesize one female Plesio-turtle swimming mate-less in the loch. Thenthey mention that a female Komodo Dragon with no exposure to a male laid and hatched fertile eggs ina process called parthenogenesis. Problem solved: sole female Plesio-turtle can make a new Plesio-turtleto replace herself ad infinitum.

But more likely is that the monster is some combination of hoaxes and false sightings, mis-identificationsof some every-day animal or item. Although there’s always a chance...

Transcript at Livedash: The Loch Ness Monster Revealed

Comments An interesting cast of experts with real credibility featuring an interesting look at a tidbitsof science and some alternative theories. The production became totally derailed by the hypotheticalPlesio-turtle. Cousteau did little more than lend his name. No, Nessie was never revealed.

Ancient Aliens: “Underground Aliens”11/18/2010

This is like Connections written by someone in a delirium.

Turkey

The story starts in the Turkish site named Derinkuyu [see Wikipedia], a multi-level underground complexcapable of sheltering a multitude of people, their animals, and supplies. It is very sophisticated inconstruction–obviously too sophisticated for the local yokels. One example is the air shafts that ventilateeven to the bottom levels of the excavation. This gets linked to the Zoroastrians whose legends sayAhurumazda, a sky god (hint, hint) told Vima to build underground city to protect from ice age.Since the last ice age was 18,000 years ago, the logic goes that if the legend was actually factualthen Darinkuyu was really much older than thought Then if the legend was actually historical fact,then what does that say about who Ahurumazda really was. Universal consciousness? Extraterrestrial?Advanced being from another world. Did he provide the technology to build Darinkuyu? Was there a

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“Darker truth”? Specifically, why were there 1,000 lb doors that could be opened only from inside.They were hiding from something! Since the legends say Ahurumazda fought some other demon, nowunder the theory that we are dealing with actual beings, and since Ahurumazda is now presumed to bean extraterrestrial, then these defenses were to protect against another extraterrestrial. Zoroastrianismwas therefore really about a battle between extraterrestrials. Darinkuyu was built in fear of an aerialenemy! This is obvious because–flying fast–such an enemy couldn’t have seen their ventilation shafts.It’s obviously not a defense against a conventional enemy who could have defeated them by pluggingtheir ventilation shafts. (Believe it or not, this crappy episode was cited in Wikipedia as authority forDarinkuyu facts.) Are their other such places? In the American southwest.

North America

Native American tribes from the area have aspects of the creation myth that are similar: that theymerged from some underground world into today’s world. Hopi said they went underground to avoidfalling stars helped by snake people who took them there, and helped by ant people who helped them.Were these legends based on fact? Did they go underground for same reasons as at Darinkuyu. Shamanssay they were brought here by star gods who were from outer space. See their rock paintings with big-eyed figures. Are they lizard-like and ant-like extraterrestrials? Could some of them still be living there?Well, Apaches have stories about aliens, who resemble the hopi-legend lizard and ant peoples. ArchuletaMesa: people say they have seen UFOs flying out of it. In Wikipedia see “Dulce Base.” Has been featuredin UFO Hunters TV series. Obvious collaboration between US Military and the Aliens. We know thisbecause there is too much black helicopter traffic. The Apaches found vents and groans were heardfrom them, giving credence to human vivisection stories.

South America–The Metal Library

This was definitely the most appealing segment of the show, but it turns out to be absolute fabricationand distortion.

Are there such underground alien visitors? Some think the truth is in North America, but othersthink the answer lies thousands of miles to the south. in Ecuador. Shuar natives protect their homelandand secrets. Cave of Tayos. Father Carlos Crespi (1891-1982), cited by von Daniken, was given gifts bythe Shuar in the form of elaborate carved artifacts, often metallic, bearing symbols not associated withthe Shuar. Stanley Hall from Scotland in 1975 went to see the collection because of the von Danikenreports. Metallic tablet with 36 writings nobody could read. Hall had an expedition accompanied by NeilArmstrong, the astronaut. They entered the cave via an Ecuadorian army entrance. The cave appearedto have been excavated; there were large galleries that the expedition geologist couldn’t explain. Funeralgoods circa 1500 BC. But nothing like Crespi’s stuff. In 1991 they found a guy who went to the cave in1946, Petronio Jaramillo, via an underwater entrance. He was very young at the time. He saw a book withwriting and formulae unknown to him. But Jaramillo died before he could show Hall the entrance. ThenHall died in 2008. His daughter, Eileen Hall, wants to find it now. And Crespi’s collection “mysteriously”vanished when he died in 1982. Did the Shuar take it back? [Many artifacts burned in fire in 1962, afact not mentioned after that misleading, rhetorical question.]

Phil Coppens featured on the show. Wrote a pro-ancient-aliens book titled The Ancient Alien Ques-tion with a foreword by von Daniken. (Note, Coppens speaks with apparent approval of Grist, below.)Here’s an expanded and probably better chronology from Coppens’ web page. (The page is out of date,and the truth of the matter seems to have been unearthed by Stan Grist.)

1. Petronio Jaramillo (c1929-1988)) stated that he had entered the library in 1946, when he was 17years old. He was shown it by an uncle, whose name has gone unrecorded but who was known as

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“Blanquito Pelado” (a loving description of the man’s appearance). He was apparently on friendlyterms with the local Shuar population, who invited him to see a secret in gratitude for the kindnessand goodness he had shown towards the tribe. Jaramillo never produced any physical evidence forhis claims, which may explain why he wanted to live in the shadows of this story. Hall did ask himwhy he never took photographs. “He said that it would not prove anything.”

2. According to the author, Count Pino Turolla (1922-1984) contacted Jaramillo in the 1960s con-cerning the library, on the notion that it would confirm Cayce’s prophecy of a Hall of Records.Wikipedia identifies him as an explorer, inventor, author, and psychic. How did Turolla know ofthe library? Someone’s sandbox in Wikipedia cites Jaramillo, but with zero references.

3. Moricz arrived in Guayaquil in 1964.

4. Affidavit 8 July 1969 got him rights to finds. In 1969 Moricz went on an expedition to the TayosCave.

5. In 1972 Moricz took von Daniken into a cave.

6. 1973 Von Daniken claims to have entered cave system. Janos Moricz.

7. In 1973 Der Spiegel interview, Moricz said he had been taken to [the cave] by someone he wouldnot identify. But Moricz denied he took von Daniken to the cave in question.

8. Hall’s expedition was 1976.

9. Moricz dies 1991.

10. Hall finally meets Jaramillo. Various people had tried to direct Hall towards Jaramillo as early as1975, but it took until 1991 before the two met.

11. Jaramillo and Hall realised that had it not been for Moricz, who focused attention on the Cuevade los Tayos (which was not the actual location of the reported metal library), the 1976 expeditioncould have resulted in the discovery of the century. From Jaramillo, Hall was able to learn the truestory of the Tayos library–which was not in the Cueva de los Tayos at all! Jaramillo and Hall weregoing to have an expedition. But in 1995 Peru bombed Ecuador; then in 1997 the Ecuadorianregime changed hands and Hall moved back to Scotland; finally in 1998 Jaramillo was reportedby his mother to have been “assassinated.” In May 1998 Hall looked around with Jaramillo’s sonbut couldn’t find the rumored underwater entrance.

How did Moricz know of the Metal Library? In 1973 he told Der Spiegel that someone whom he wouldnot identify showed it to him. But in 1969 he had gone to Tayos Cave, which did not contain the library.Hall tried to locate the unnamed man, and determined it was Jaramillo. But this was odd, becauseJaramillo then took him to Tayos, which Jaramillo knew was the wrong cave. Moricz died in February1991, but Hall located Jaramillo in September 1991. So there was really no way to confirm he was theguy.

Now it is reported by Stan Grist that (surprise, surprise) Jaramillo made it all up! See WealthyAdventurers Library Metallic Library Tayos Cave. Jaramillo was going to write a novel, and then fooledMoricz with the story. Supposedly Pino Turolla wasn’t fooled. Grist’s page says to see Turolla’s book.Also, “The late Stan Hall clearly describes in his book, Tayos Gold, how Juan Moricz basically stole theentire Tayos Cave story from Petronio and then made it all out to be his own, non-fictional discovery.”

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Questions How did von Daniken know about the Metal Library? Exactly how does the priest fit intoall this?

Stan Hall dies and his daughter takes up the torch, doesn’t find the cave, but Ancient Aliens saysshe found pottery with elongated heads that look uncannily like Egyptian stuff. Narrator: did Egyptianculture cross to influence South America?–Or were both influenced by aliens?

Comment if this had been done as a documentary on the scam, it could have been an interesting andvaluable show.

Central America: Mayan Caves

Also 700 miles north, the Mayan caves... In 2007 cenope legends of Tahzibichan underground templein caves. Guillermo de Anda. Why here? Mayan legend of underground world, featured in Popol Vuh.Xibalba, underground kingdom, ruled by evil lord of dead, and entrance through series of torture cham-bers. Many rooms vaguely can be construed to resemble things described in legend. Of course theydeny they constructed it based on legend. So, if it was real, who were the therefore real lords of thedead? Road to stars descended from sky and a number of beings descended. So could they have beenextraterrestrials? Why were they torturers? Well, we didn’t naturally torture; the aliens taught us.

The Poles and the Hollow Earth

There are those who believe the secrets, the answer, lies even deeper, perhaps as deep as the earth’score! Cut to the North Pole. Gets to 90 below. 30 miles of crust. Then molten crust, and metallic crustthe size of the moon. But nobody has ever seen them. But could the north pole be hiding a gateway?Hollow Earth theorists say yes. There’s an inner sun. Hollow Earth idea “scientific basis” dates backto Haley of comet fame. He thought this because the magnetic field moved every year, which “could”be explained by concentric spheres. Symmes then got the idea of an opening at the poles. Then 1864Jules Verne novel Journey to the Center of the Earth gave it a popularity. Verne thought interior hadsurviving dinosaurs; others think advanced aliens are whats there. Adm. Byrd flew over the poles; butHollow Earth people felt he went further, into the interior, his plane brought in via tractor beam. Theyare the planets guardians, and said they didn’t approve of our use of nukes. Washington hid his report.Secret Diary published in 1990s. It gives the story but others say its a forgery. But at time he supposedlyvisited north pole entrance, he was actually in exercise at South Pole. But perhaps this was just a coverstory...

UFO Files: Alien Encounters: 2006Michigan case. Woman drives down the road and she sees a white basketball size object approachingrapidly, pinwheel configuration, like its rotating rapidly. Impact passenger side roof and thing keeps ongoing. Finds trail of yellowish residue on red paint. “Trace evidence.” These are like the fingerprints ofUFOs. Like burnt circle growth ring surrounding vegetation that doesn’t grow any more.

Analytical chemist Phyllis Budinger39 finds material is composed of a metal oxide she couldn’totherwise identify and celluloidal material, plants, natural origan. Probably the thing submerged in farm

39 Budinger is described by Wikipedia as a ’research scientist’. Her LinkedIn page self-describes her as a ’ResearchScientist at Standard Oil of Ohio [and at] BP’. MUFON sells her book UFOs–A Search for Physical Evidence: Abductions,regarding the Betty Hill and Stan Romanek abductions, where she shows that “something unusual” happened to thesepeople. Budinger seems to be thoroughly legitimate: see her negative findings in her statement at Scientist Phyllis BudingerSays Her Analysis of Brazil Bedsheets Does Not Support Anything Unusual(2003)

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pond a short time before it hit car. No heat. Extremely low mass. One of more than 3,000 incidentscategorized as trace cases. Abnormalities that can’t yet be explained. J. Allen Hynek40 focused attentionon trace cases. Hynek’s friend Ted Phillips is on the show.

Example statistic from their researches. UFOs as egg shape objects 8-14 tons.Socorro NM. Lonnie Zamora41 (1933-2009) heard a noise. Officer Ken W. Storch42 talks; he’s the

narrator describing this incident. Zamora thinks someone blew up a shack. He sees an egg-shaped objectwith two child sized figures standing next to it. Then it took off. The Air Force collected evidence.

Delphos. Rural Kansas. Woman’s photograph “changes everything.” 11/2/71. Ronnie Johnson,43

16, starts chores. He hears a noise which sounded like a large, out of balance washing machine. Arealit up. Hovering 5 feet above the ground was an object about 8 feet in diameter, top 10 feet above theground, glowing multi colors. Brightness, sound, and glow at base all increase. John Schussler (one ofthe founders of MUFON, now headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio) briefly speaks. Ron gets his parents.They see the object too. They go to where it was said to hover and see luminescence on the groundand on nearby trees. Mom brings out the Polaroid and there is only 1 exposure left. Irma, mom, took it.“This is the only photo I’ve ever seen taken within ten minutes of takeoff,” says someone. They toucha substance on the ground. Mom’s fingers go numb. She touches her leg, and her leg becomes numbtoo. Searched for more evidence. A tree that had been upright the day before was down. Ralph Enrow,sheriff, investigates next day and sees a broken tree limb. Also finds mysterious residue: inside the ringthere was a pure white crust. He bottles soil samples and locks them in his safe. Then Hynek hearsabout it and sends Ted Phillips44 to investigate. They took him out to the site in a mud bog and therewas a ring of unmelted snow covering just the ring. The ring is hydrophobic. Something has affectedthe soil. The episode doesn’t mention it, but Phillips wrote a book about the case.

Phillips tells us this crust is significant because in a number of cases UFOs change the soil. Phillipsapproaches it “like a crime scene investigator.” Storch amplifies what a crime scene investigation is.Phillips photographed it and measured it. He scrutinized Mrs. Johnson’s photo and tried to re-create itwith no success. He brings 40 lbs of soil and a hundred photos. What was in the samples? Budinger, thechemist, shook it up and the water turned red. Traces cases might be the key to solving the UFO enigma.Hynek asked scientists about soil. They said it was really different/changed. (No further elaboration ofthis point.) Twenty years later Phillips asks Budinger’s help. Her specialty is spectroscopy. She’s inChagrin Falls, Ohio. Surprised that the soil is still hydrophobic after 30 years. In 2006 she re-creates testand its still hydrophobic. She notes water changed color, so something was extracted. After 10 years no

40 Josef Allen Hynek (1910-1986). Wikipedia article. Ph.D. (Astrophysics) Yerkes Observatory. Prof. Physics andAstronomy, Ohio State. Prof. & Chmn., Dept. of Astronomy, Northwestern.

41 There is a Wikipedia page about him.42 Wikipedia lists Storch as one of the “scientists and experts” who have appeared on the show. Storch is described as

a retired police officer.43 A (non UFO) site has this tidbit: “Only later did we learn that Ronnie Johnson, after his UFO encounter, had been

visited by a mysterious ‘wolf girl’ with wild blonde hair and torn red clothes. She ran off into the woods on all fours–and thenthree years later she returned to town, reportedly was seen eating out of dog dishes, and attacked a couple of residents!”(see: Roadside America: That Grow a beard Abe town). It is also reported that Johnson claimed he had acquired psychicpowers as a result of the incident. (See: Mysterious People: The Delphos wolf girl ). There are many reports of what hesaw as a 16 year old, but no recent interviews or follow up that I can find.

44 Phillips had something called “Center for Physical Trace Research” (CPTR) established 1998. He had a web site.One internet bio describes him: “Ted R. Phillips is the Director of the Center for Physical Trace Research. He beganinvestigating UFO reports in 1964 and was a research associate of Dr. J. Allen Hynek from 1968 until Dr. Hynek’s deathin 1986. It was at Allen Hynek’s suggestion that he began specializing in physical traces associated with UFO sightingsin 1968. Ted has personally investigated some 600 UFO cases.” It’s unclear what his background really is. A bio Phillipshimself wrote says “Ted is an engineer, professional photographer, professional musician.” What kind of engineer, whatdegree, from where, and what work experience? Elsewhere we learn “Ted Phillips was born in 1942 and has lived all his lifein Missouri.” It was reported he lives in Branson, although an old broadcast says Sedalia. Evidently Phillips has a databaseof UFO appearances, evidence, etc., but there’s no hint of anything published, just a lot of lectures.

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plant growth there. Budinger said organic material, fulvic acid, on ground. The concentration was not anatural concentration, so it can’t be explained by plant decomposition. Also found high levels of oxalicacid, which probably caused numbing that lasted rest of Mrs. Johnson’s life. So what is the connectionwith the glowing? Budinger says propulsion system created ionic field which was somehow the cause.

Three years later in Missouri there was a new case that caused “widespread panic.” Ted Phillips hasinvestigated hundreds of cases. But first we are to consider the following.

9/1/74 Langenberg, Sask., Canada. Edward Fuhr sees metallic object, flat on bottom, domed ontop, 15 feet away, emitting no sound, rotating at high rate, a foot above the ground. There is a widebelt at its base and grooves at its side. He gets back on his tractor and sees four more, equidistantfrom each other. The ground under the object spun in a spiral and plants were knocked down overeach. A few minutes later they ascended vertically one after another. Under each object was a vent-likeextension, out of which came a six foot long plume of gray material. Constable Ron Morier of theRCMP hears about it and investigates. He finds grass compressed in rings 8-11 feet in diameter. Theepisode doesn’t mention it, but supposedly the UFOs returned 15 years later. I can’t find a web referenceverifying this. Source: Amazon customer reviews for UFO Files Alien Encounters, which gives a sourceof STAR-PHOENIX Thurs. Oct. 26, 1989. See Unidentified in Saskatchewan 1989 and in particular thestory at Star Phoenix report by Dave Yanko. It was Fuhr’s opinion, based on reported UFO sightings atthe time that the UFOs had returned. Fuhr didn’t witness this bunch.

10/8/78. Cato, Missouri. A grandmother and grandson (never named) see an oval something in afield 185 feet from house. (The re-enactment appears to be taking place not in Missouri, but probablyCalifornia.) She called her husband; he called his son. The object wasn’t doing anything. They thought itwas a piece of metal blown in from a storm. When dad started the tractor, the object leapt 10 feet in air.It was about 4 feet in diameter. It ascended, rotated, turned to right across wind (the fact that it turnedacross the wind was spoken of as if it were a very significant fact, but then the fact was not followedup on), then it turned left across the wind, and finally merged with a much larger cylindrical shapedUFO up in the sky. Looking around, they found a 4 foot area of dehydrated plants, already turningbrown. A photo was taken a few minutess later. This proved to Phillips that something unexplainedtook place. It’s not clear, however, that Phillips actually went there. Can’t locate any other discussionsof this incident on the web.

Val Johnson incident. There is a Wikipedia article about this. An object leaves trace evidence andnearly kills a deputy sheriff. 8/27/79. Warren, MN. 2 am. Deputy sees a light in the distance and thinksmaybe a plane is making an emergency landing, so he turns to see if he can help. Light is already thereand it hits him. Sheriff Maurstad sees Val Johnson in the car. Didn’t know what happened. Considerabledamage to his Ford LTD. Busted headlight. No deer hair. On the hood a round dent. Windshield busted,cracked but no evidence of a rock. One of lenses on roof lights is broken. And the antenna is bent.He was found to have “welders burn” to his eyes presumably from the bright light from the UFO. Hiswatch and car clock stopped for 14 minutes. The car is now on display at a local museum. Phillipsgoes to see it. Sheriff Maurstad shows it to him. Maurstad says that the windshield was forced in andpulled out again. Jim Duckstad, current deputy, believes the story. Johnson seems to now be gone, buthe had been held in high regard. (Note: this incident actually has some news coverage.) So Phillips hasreopened his investigation of this incident.

Stanton T. Friedman (b. 1934) (Wikipedia: first investigator of Roswell incident45 opines that thisevidence is very important.

The logic goes: something unusual took place there and that something is inexplicable; thus these45 This is its own can of worms. Roswell was 1947; Friedman got his B.S. in 1955. Maybe this is typical for an engineer,

but from 1956-70 he worked for 6 different employers. Wikipedia is silent about his activities between 1970 and until thelate 1990s, by which time he was apparently a full-time ufologist living off his writing.

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trace evidence cases prove the existence of UFOs.

Comments

• One wonders why there is no significant follow-up with the witnesses to these events. I’m remindedof the Metal Library story, which seems to have been a hoax and was uncovered by interviewsconducted in more current times. What would the stories of these people be a similar number ofyears later?

• The Fuhr episode and its twisted crops where the craft had reportedly landed reminded me ofcrop circles, a phenomenon which for years was believed to have betokened UFO visitations butlater were discredited.

• The idea floated here was that the “investigators” were applying scientific methods to “traceevidence” left behind, yet there was very little science and what there was seemed unconvincingand cursory.

• I was surprised that there were such a number of UFO sightings in recent years. Thus I would beintrigued to see the list kept by Phillips in his database. Yet this seems not to have been published.See the next point.

• How do these guys support themselves? It’s pretty clear that they do this by writing books andarticles, and through appearances on the lecture circuit. Other than Hynek and Budinger, none ofthem seem to have been gainfully employed in quite a while, or have any substantial backgroundin the sciences.

H2: UFO Hunters: “Area 52”The theme of this is reverse engineering of extraterrestrial craft.

Area 51 as a reverse engineering site was exposed so they probably had to move, but where?Dugway: it is really big and really secret. They have upgraded it so the shuttle can land there. Theyhave contractors working there and they work on black budget projects.

Who might know what really goes on here? They interview a guy who retired 1983 as a captain insecurity there. An old guy whose name seems to be “Bush Faux.” (They also dredge up Bush Faux onthe episode “The Silencers.”) He saw 4 lights in 1970s ... UFOs! He told the provost marshal, who saidhe would investigate, but he died shortly afterwards after. His death was premature and it’s downrightsuspicious. Ken Storch and Bob who have been here eight times. Someone told him it was “the newarea 51.” Helicopter gunship came over them and rocked their RV. They were under surveillance all thetime they were there. Convoy of 80 humvees disappeared into the earth. But underground facilities notsurprising. ... While we view the show an SUV with flashing lights drives up. break...

They conducted their interview on “what they thought to be public land.” Base police officer drivesup. He says they are on Dugway grounds and that if they take pictures of... something... they will con-fiscate everything. Public Affairs Officer Paula Nicholson appears. She won’t identify which contractorswork here. Narrator notes that experiments may actually originate with contractors! They want to knowwhy Dugway wants more land. She says they aren’t trying to expand. Regarding contractors, Narratorsays of course they’d give reverse engineering work to contractors because contractors do not have toanswer Freedom of Information Act (FOI) requests. She says to her knowledge there is no UFO stuffhere. The Narrator says this shows other people have been asking about it too, and that is probably

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why they are trying to expand Dugway, which she just denied. So they go to where Dugway wants toexpand and take a look-see.

Next witness please. Lee Davidson, award winning journalist with Deseret News, will tell them aboutthe pattern of secrecy. Lee says yeah, lots of secret stuff went on there they didn’t want the world toknow about during WW2 and during the cold war. But recently FOI requests have exposed some stuff,like WW2 when they used 7th Day Adventist volunteers as human guinea pigs. Someone makes anoffhand reference to this as if it were some kind of war crime. More on the supposed desired expansion:even though the Public Affairs Officer denied it, a local congressman told the producers that the Armywants to push back all the people showing up because of the allegations of a UFO connection. Of course,there is a straightforward justification: contamination they don’t want to clean up. Anyhow, with theexpansion that they already have they can fly in and out. People say they see a lot of strange things,such as trucks with covers that may be covering what witnesses think are UFOs or their components.OK, says the cast, we need to find out the truth. Witnesses are telling us ’compelling’ stories. But thereis a problem: they get followed all the time they go looking because vehicles kick up dust and alertbase security to their presence. They need to come up with a plan for “stealth.” Cut to them on bikes.break...

We know corporations are here. Which ones? What are they doing? They go biking around. “Maybethey’ll see some craft.” They examine what’s on the airfield. They see some kind of demolished vehicle.On the airfield itself nothing is happening. Is there any signage identifying the contractors, or corporateactivity? No, sorry, nothing. It’s eerie being out here, says someone. If the government wanted to hidesomething, this would be the perfect place.

Now we’ll hear about something that happened on the west side from a police officer who sawsomething there, Bob Ward. Bob: in 2004 around midnight got a request to help a stuck resident.Looked up and saw saucer shaped craft with 6 lights about 80 feet going 5-10 mph flying not faroverhead. (Not three lights like a “black triangle”?) He shined a spotlight on it, and it came back. Wentback over Ibapah peak, and then two F-16s from the direction of Nevada headed after it. They clearlyweren’t an escort since they weren’t flying with it and at the same speed: they were in pursuit. So thisis clearly not our craft. Clearly looking at flight characteristics that are not conventional. So it is eithera UFO or our re-construction (so why the pursuit). Bob didn’t discuss it at the time for fear of how hisfellow police would view him. In the same area he found two decapitated horses. ...break

Bob not only saw a UFO, he also saw 2 decapitated horses, laying as if they were placed there, andhe found no trace of blood from either animal. (I thought an express mention of a Chupacabra wouldbe forthcoming, but they left the notion implicit.) Query how the heads were sliced clean off so neatly.Could Dugway have been testing a laser weapons? Note that the eyes were gone as were the horses’ lips.Strange mutilations. (I notice that Bob is retired from the police, but he appears on the show wearinga hat labeled “Police.”)

Lets speak to another witness who knows something about advanced laser technology here at Dug-way. Dave Rosenfeld, a Utah UFOlogist. What has he seen? Michael Army Airfield. We need to gosomewhere on ATVs. UTTR (Utah Test and Training Range), which is run by the Air Force. The AFand the Army are all in cahoots as we know. (A sign says “Utah bombing and gunnery range.”) Hisstory: We were parked here at 1 am. We saw a huge flashing light in distance, and then a light beamfrom the middle for about 4 mins. He guesses the light beam was as wide as a car. Smell of ozone.“That’s huge for a laser.” In a thunderstorm lightning results in that smell, so the beam must have beenmillions of watts. Someone explains: Maser creates a hole, then a laser punches through. Also saw fourblue lights which switched off when the beam did. Was this an anti-satellite weapon, such as they havebeen working on for years, or maybe anti-UFO weapon? Hook segment and break...

Dave Rosenfeld has seen things anything but normal. He once saw two jets, but then one disappeared.What’s this, invisibility technology? Also, in 2004 he saw a dust trail but no vehicle. Definitely not a dust

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devil. Pop Mechanics reported that this is the new Area 51, and then security ramped up. He believesit.

The shill skeptic props up a few straw men for Bill to burn down: I don’t think the evidence supportstheory. The security is obviously justified by a rational explanation. Yeah says Bill. Look at the hugebeam, Bob Ward, attempted expansion. Skeptic: private contractors enjoying unparalleled secrecy. Bill:Private contractors are reversing UFO tech. Top secret black ops military aircraft are what people areseeing. Bill: We’ve debunked the debunkers. The truth is so frightening that of course the governmentwill go to any lengths to cover it up.

UFO Hunters: “Giant Triangles”Witness 1: Kevin; occupation “engineer” invites us to take his account more seriously. He saw something;and the location of his observation draws us into the whole notion of a UFO hot spot where trianglesare spotted, somewhere in California. Normal supposed skeptic Kevin was with someone who videotapedone. Documents, witnesses, videos promised. Don’t recall seeing many documents, the video all sucked,and as for the witnesses...

All over the world people have been seeing giant triangles: Belgium, Phoenix, Arizona, and an areaof California known, at least to the producers of the show, as “triangle alley.” What was seen: threelights in formation, flying slowly. They talk to Mark & Jed, two “sky-watchers.” On 6/15/04 videoedsuch a sighting, and their bud was there, but he was late getting his cam rolling. I think this is normally-skeptical guy who says he saw it. The lights were equidistant. There are no nearby military bases so itwasn’t a military aircraft. It was daytime footage and “that’s incredibly rare.” It was also crappy footage,and that isn’t.

Mark Olson video. Similar to 1989 Belgium video: 3 lights in a triangular pattern. The Belgian videoshowed an object holding the lights together (i.e. they were light fixtures mounted on some kind ofcraft). For more analysis, they visit Terrence Masson, who will stabilize the lights. Masson says they’redefinitely locked in place. Setting up a straw horse, they ask if it could have been a helicopter? No, hesays, adding that there is laundry list of things that show this isn’t a conventional aircraft. Is his expertisein photo enhancement or what exactly. He says that there is “clearly some evidence of structure behindthe lights” So the query is thrown out, could it have been a black triangle? Best guess of their expert:single dark craft with three lights or propulsion not consistent with any known craft.

Sonoma to Mt Shasta is triangle alley. Pat another participant. Pat Uskert46 “UFO Researcher”.So they will spend the night to see if they see anything. 38 7 52 n 120 5 45.7 w. Hook: do you seewhite/red light? are we onto something? break...

Back to the show. The whole night out camping was a frolic and detour and they come up withexactly nothing.

Next they talk to Marvin Taylor.47 Multiple objects multiple witnesses and what they can do isamazing.

Some guy with a big database of sightings. Is this Taylor? I missed a bit of the transition. Anyhow itis pointed out that Tonopah and Area 51 very close by. Over 60 sightings since the year 2000 in TriangleAlley. Bill suggestively talks about how many must have been missed. There was a 1986 sighting, whichwas before the B2 (so we know it wasn’t that). It was huge, hovering, and observed for over half hour.

46 Per History Channel, his credentials are that he saw a UFO in 2004 and has been looking for answers ever since. Inan interview he says he had what “he believed was” a UFO sighting.

47 Modesto Bee 20 Oct 88: Taylor (b. circa 1936) operated a UFO library and museum in Sonora, and has beenresearching the subject for 40 years (c. 1948), ever since seeing a flying saucer hover over his childhood home in Oakland.Northern California director of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) which served as technical advisers to Spielberg in CloseEncounters.

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That’s the pattern: hover silently in the sky then shoot off at tremendous speed. Pay attention tothat, because later they try to make a case that these things are somehow gliders that require minimalpropulsion.

History: these sightings may have begun as long ago as strange airship sightings in 1896/7 in SF.Now he points out it’s gold country. Maybe they’re after gold! Bill: gold has a high conductivity. Weshould be looking at what’s attracting the UFOs. So they go to a working gold mine near where Olsonmade his sightings. They’re going to look for radiation and magnetism that might be attracting UFOs.Or is it that they’re looking for radiation and magnetic changes wrought by visiting UFOs. The rationaleseems to change. Anyhow, they brought a magnetometer and geiger counter. So they go into the mine.There is no explanation why inside the mine would be a better place to look for magnetic anomaliesthat aliens would be scanning for from the air, or to look for radiation that would be the tell-tale of analien landing.

Georgio Tsoukalos:48 he shows Bill an artifact he found in [Columbia?]. Looks like a fighter jet andit’s pre-Columbian. Georgio says that archaeologists think they’re probably stylized birds, but from hisbackground in biology [?] he knows this can’t be, because the wings on this ornament are not wherebirds have wings, and it has an upright tail fin in contrast to birds, which have horizontal tail fins.How 1500 years ago would they understand it? Answer: because they saw something. So they wrote,and made models so their descendants wouldn’t forget. Bill: Either aliens came, or someone was timetraveling. ... (This out of sequence cut will really be explored in the last segment.) break ...

Antoinette Crain... sound bites. Lost track of who she is. She doesn’t readily pop-up on Googleeither. Evidently pretty minor.

Are they mining gold here to use as a conductor? Aliens in search of gold! Eh, when were theylooking. Most California gold has petered out. Why wouldn’t the aliens go to Alaska too? Or to Nevadawhere there actually is gold. Or South Africa. Should find radiation because thats been found at UFOsightings. As I said, they go into the mine. It’s pointed out that standard radiation count is 15 countsper minute. Lo and behold no unusual radiation, but they don’t give us the count. They explain thatUFOs are reportedly attracted to high levels of magnetism. No unusual magnetism either. Pat says somepeople say UFOs are attracted to high levels of various minerals and metals. Anyhow, this is all a wildgoose chase.

Back to the Greek and his carvings. Legend has it these kind of craft were flown by ancient astronauts.Bill thinks indigenous peoples were visited by ancient astronauts seeding culture. Maybe time travelers.Seeding the past. No explanation why they would need to go back. Couldn’t modern aliens seed cultureas well? When the shill-skeptic objects to time travel and asks for proof, Bill says it happened 20 yearsago “it’s totally documented” that an army officer travelled into the future.

Ok, skeptic admits the trinket is suggestive. For him to become a believer he says, let’s make amodel and see if it flies.

But first we get to see the next witness, Mike Daciek,49 a retired pilot of 40 years experience fromTexas who saw something he couldn’t identify 5/18/96. We are reminded that pilots are professionalstrained to observe, so their testimony deserves special credence. Daciek saw the triangularly configuredlights. What he saw was really fast, faster than SR71, so it definitely wasn’t one of those. Perhaps itwas some other military aircraft. No, it was not the silhouette of any plane he was trained to identify.His opinion: I saw something very unusual, and now I believe it was aliens. break...

Gordon Scott. Witness from TX. Where did he come from? We’re told the producers got hundreds48 I thought perhaps he was a biologist or someone with a scientific background, but Wikipedia says “Giorgio A.

Tsoukalos is a Swiss-born Greek writer, television presenter, and proponent of the idea that ancient astronauts interactedwith ancient humans.”

49 For an account of what led Daciek to contact UFO Hunters see UFO Triangles. See also, transcript of UFO Huntersfeaturing Daciek: UFO Hunters Giant Triangles Transcript

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of emails when they started investigation. Ok so they what, made the show, people saw it, responded,and they revised it? Or they put an ad in the paper? How they got Scott in a timeline that resultedin him being on the show is unclear. Anyhow on 8/15/2001 Scott ran out and saw it approaching.Bright red light. Could have hit it with softball it was so low. No noise, no breeze, no scent. Theseare characterists of a black triangle. Moving horizontally and abruptly vertically. To my knowledge, sayssomeone, we have nothing that can do this. Then he saw an F16. Some kind of military activity. TheF16 was not chasing the black triangle; rather, it seemed like an escort. They flew off to the south.South of his home is Johnson Space Center in TX. Bill: Was it a hybrid we built with extraterrestrialtechnology? Skeptic objects to the idea of alien-military collaboration. Bill responds that it’s been goingon since WW2. Skeptic asks what proof do we have of this kind of collaboration? Bill: what GordonScott saw.

Next we are taken to Brick Price in L.A., a special effects artist. He made an “exact scale model”of the object that the Georgio gave Bill. Price “believes” it will fly. (Are we supposed to believe thathe hasn’t tested it yet?) He says that the body has a shape like a lifting body. So it is optimized as aglider made to fly with minimal propulsion. (The thing has a really fat body; and it’s supposed to glidewith minimal propulsion but be faster than a speeding SR71.) The skeptic concedes that if the modeldoes indeed fly, then it is possible that the natives of 1,500 years ago had knowledge of extraterrestrialcraft. break...

We’re back. We’re reminded that if the model flies, it is proof that alien visitations have beentaking place for thousands of years. Ancient civilizations may have had knowledge of aerodynamics,flying machines, and maybe aliens. Of course the model flies. So there is indeed proof of ancient flyingtriangles. Darn! It dropped its tail and settled down and looked just like the space shuttle landing. Howcould 1,500 years ago natives have figured this out? Bill again proposes time travel! Of course there isno theory preventing the existence of advanced aliens 1,500 years ago giving up their secrets. Skepticsays its just a model of a toy. It shows nothing. Bill just laughs at how stupid he is.

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