What a difference a week can make. Since last Friday's press conference, the Georgia Bigfoot hoax perpetuated by Matthew Whitton and Ric Dyer has become the biggest Bigfoot story since the Patterson/Gimlin footage of 1967. However, this was a hoax, unlike the footage that Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin showed the world. After the press conference, hundreds of Bigfoot researchers, enthusiasts, and members of the scientific community began to question the appearance of the body. Once again, there were those who had done a simple Google search and found the company website for Thehorrordome.com and saw plainly that the costume was what the pair was showing as the Sasquatch body in the freezer. Interestingly enough, I knew the two men who did the Google search and found the costume. They included me on a email list they sent out immediately after discovering the site. The two hoaxsters, Dyer and Whitton, should never have messed with the two real Bigfoot experts I talk with and are sources for my upcoming book on the Georgia Bigfoot. These guys are actually smart, unlike Whitton and Dyer.
I actually spoke with Ric Dyer back in early July. Honestly, when I spoke with him, it was during the early stages of this hoax, and he and Matthew Whitton had not changed their stories. One of the guys I spoke of earlier who is actually a credible Bigfoot researcher in Georgia called me to tell me that there was a new website out there about a group who did Bigfoot research in Georgia, and that I might want to check them out. I told him I would, and the next day, I had surfed the site and put in a call to the tip line just to see what the two guys were involved with and if I could interview them about their work. Once I made the call, hours later, Dyer called me back and told me he would be willing to allow me to interview him. We talked on the phone for over an hour. Only moments in to that conversation he told me that he and Whitton had discovered a body. He said that they discovered it while tracking the creatures in the North Georgia Mountains. Although he would not tell me specifically where, I asked if it were near Blue Ridge, Ellijay, Cherry Log, or Helen. He mentioned that it was closer to Blue Ridge and Ellijay. Since there have been sightings that have come from those areas, I felt it might be plausible to believe that there was indeed a body found there.
Continuing the conversation, Dyer told me that Whitton stayed with the body while the other members of the team went back in to civilization and got materials to retrieve it and store it. He told me that he and Matthew Whitton had spent tons of money on this, but that they fully intended to make that money back by selling the body. He specifically said that a CNN news crew had already been there to interview them and that he and Whitton had shown the crew the body. He told me that the crew laughed and giggled at the mention of a body, but when they showed the crew and its producer the corpse and allowed them to "stick their hands down in to the ice" to touch it, they quickly stopped laughing. Little did I know that there was no CNN news crew that visited their home, and that what they had in the freezer under ice was a Sasquatch costume from TheHorrorDome.com. Keep in mind that all that they told me sounded fairly believable. I remember calling my contacts after speaking with Dyer and telling them that they could indeed have a specimen and we should find out more about it. Nonetheless, going back to the conversation I had with Dyer, I remember him telling me that they had sold out their July expedition to the North Georgia Mountains to find more Sasquatch, and that they indeed knew where a family of them lived and were going to capture a live one. I guess they planned on having someone dress up in the costume and allow them to film while they pretended to capture the Bigfoot. I must admit that the costume looks fairly real, and that these guys were probably convinced a video of such would be perceived as possibly real. Who knows?
Dyer told me that he and Whitton had lost a lot of money so far on this, but that they had planned on selling the body for a large sum of money. However, no pictures or videos could be released because CNN had first release rights on the footage. That was questionable, but I am no lawyer. Speaking of lawyers, he told me that the pair had one, Monroe Ferguson. This lawyer was supposedly helping them get their contracts and legal rights to the body and copyrights together. Once that had been done, all would be released and the world would see just how real Bigfoot was. I suppose they were laughing at me the whole time that I was on the phone. But the way I look at it now is I still have my job and the whole world does not look at me as a known liar. Yes, I am an academic historian who believes there is enough evidence to suggest the existence of Bigfoot. I am not the only college professor who does. Check out Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, or the late Dr. Grover Krantz. Listen to the ideas of Dr. John Bindernagel. For heaven sakes, Loren Coleman of Cryptomundo.com is a former college professor and holds advanced degrees. There are a number of learned men and women who believe this creature indeed does exist. Wayne Ford, a very intelligent, college educated man, is a journalist for the Athens Banner-Herald in Athens, Georgia and he has pretty much staked his reputation on it, releasing a number of articles for the paper on it and even engages in ongoing field research. So, the way I see it, those two are the ones I am laughing at now, not the other way around.
Dyer also told me that Matt Moneymaker of the BFRO had offered them $100,000 for the body. They refused, holding out for more. When Moneymaker asked them more questions, specifically about their June expeditions, he became convinced they were lying. The reason: he had evidence of them sending out emails on the days when they were SUPPOSED to be deep in the North Georgia Mountains leading that expedition. I go to those mountains a good bit on vacation, and I can tell you that wireless access is almost non-existent once you leave the municpal areas like Blue Ridge and Ellijay. Moneymaker knew this too; he has done research in those same mountains, and unlike Matt Whitton and Ric Dyer, he is not ignorant. Moneymaker immediately called them a pack of liars and hung up the phone with them. Obviously that pissed them off with Moneymaker. Dyer told me on the phone that night that they planned to show Moneymaker how wrong he was and they were going to expose him for the fraud he was. It looks like Moneymaker got the last word. Check out the BFRO website on the Georgia hoax. Moneymaker had the article put on the front page of the website. It can be found at http://www.bfro.net/.
I cannot figure out why these two lied the way they did. They soon made contact with Tom Biscardi who then told Fox News he had touched, prodded, and seen the body and that it was no costume. Later, after the hoax was exposed, he claims he was duped and that he had not seen their body until it was dethawed. Is he lying? Most certainly. Being interviewed now by Fox, CNN, and other outlets, Dyer is telling everyone that Biscardi and Steve Kulls of http://www.squatchdetective.com/ were both in on it and that they were coached by them. Kulls denies this, and Biscardi is attempting to sue the two. Dyer says he has proof of that. He also tells reporters that they were just playing a joke and that they never intended for this to get as big as it did. "It got legs,"is what some are saying, including Dyer. But what should he have expected? He and Whitton went on national television with Biscardi and lied. Did they not expect it to go this far? Why call the press conference if you did not want this to get out of hand, and why get involved with Tom Biscardi, a known hoaxer? Whitton, an injured Clayton County police officer has now been fired by police chief Jeff Turner. Turner says there is no way Whitton can be trusted in court now and is virtually useless to the force. I agree. Now, Whitton has no job. So why did they do it.
I think it might be possible that these two think they could make money on a book deal. Sure, they have gotten their names all over the news, and I would say that they were seen in the last week almost as much as Olympic swimmer and gold medalist Michael Phelps was, and as such, perhaps they feel they can cash in by selling their story for a book deal. But they are now being sued by Biscardi and his company, SearchingforBigfoot Inc. They have hired a lawyer to handle their legal affairs. Whitton did not even know he had been fired until he heard it on the news. Oh well, he used the news to perpetuate a lie; Chief Turner just returned the favor by using the news to inform Whitton of his employment status.
Should we have all known this was a hoax? Probably. But we had a hard time trying to figure out why they were doing this if it were a hoax. How would they have gotten out of it? It was too stupid to be a hoax, we thought. There were some clues. For instance, they hoaxed Whitton's brother and presented him as a Dr. Paul Van Buren. We all caught that and they had to come clean. We should have learned from that. But then again, they had no way out of this, we felt. If they did not have the body, it would be too obvious. They had to have something. As it turns out, they did not. What I hope does not happen is that people begin to doubt that there really is Sasquatch in Georgia. There is so much proof that there is. My book, which will be released in the coming months, will lay out the evidence for such a possibility. It is being published by Idyll Arbor publishers. In that book, you will see the real Bigfoot research community who will more than likely be the ones to bring in a real corpse. Honestly, Whitton and Dyer will be included in my book. They have an entire chapter devoted to their lie. It would not be complete without them. Afterall, this was a huge event in Georgia Sasquatchery-lie or not. But they did lie, and this is all over now. They are left to fight the legal battles and political fall out they have caused. True research will go on, and the story of the Big Georgia Hoax will now be part of history. What a summer!!!!
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