But one of the men who owns rights to the film says: Prove it.
"This guy is probably No. 64 who claims he was in the fur suit," Rene
Dahinden of Richmond, British Columbia, said Saturday in telephone
interview. "This guy better have proof. If he doesn't, he better have a good
lawyer."
Barry M. Woodard, a lawyer in nearby Zillah, told the Yakima
Herald-Republic on Friday that the 58-year-old man contacted him a
few months ago after a network news program called, questioning the
authenticity of the film.
The man wanted help negotiating a deal for rights to his story in
addition to advice on whether he might be in legal trouble for the
hoax, Woodard said.
Woodard provided a statement from retired Yakima police officer Jim
McCormick, a certified polygraph examiner who administered a
lie-detector test Thursday to Woodard's client. The test showed the
man was telling the truth when asked about having worn the bigfoot
suit in the 1967 film, McCormick wrote. Woodard would not identify the man and did not return calls seeking
additional comment Saturday.
The 16mm film, purportedly showing a female sasquatch running out of
a stream bed in the Six Rivers National Forest, was taken by Roger
Patterson and Bob Gimlin on Oct. 20, 1967, during a horseback search
for the creature.
It largely withstood independent scrutiny, although some prominent
scientists quickly labeled it as foolishness. Many bigfoot believers
consider it proof of the species' existence.
Patterson died in 1972. Gimlin refuses interview requests. A woman
who answered the telephone at his home here Saturday said he wasn't
there and she would not take a message.
The Patterson-Gimlin film came under fresh scrutiny last year, with
the assertion by a Bothell bigfoot tracker that the film was a hoax. Cliff Crook based his contention of deceit on computer enhancements
of film frames made by bigfoot buff Chris Murphy of Burnaby, British
Columbia.
In some frames of the film, there appears to be an artifact -- "a
little bell-shaped thing" -- on the torso of the bigfoot, Murphy
said. That led to speculation that it might be fastener or a buckle on fur
costume. The frames are still being analyzed for greater detail.
Dahinden said the Patterson-Gimlin footage is "a very, very complex
strip of film. You do not realize this when you see it on
television." Examined close up, it's possible to see the sasquatch's "tremendous
muscles masses moving," something that wouldn't show up in a fur
suit, Dahinden said.
In 1967, movie-making was much less sophisticated than it is today.
It would have been impossible then to make something so convincing,
Dahinden said. Additionally, Patterson and Gimlin made plaster casts of footprints
they said came from the creature.
Bob Swanson, who now lives near Seattle, owned Chinook Press in
Yakima back in the mid-1960s and agreed to print 10,000 copies of
Patterson's first book, a history of bigfoot sightings and evidence.
That was before the 1967 film.
With sluggish book sales and a large printing bill still unpaid,
Yakima suddenly became a hotbed of bigfoot activity, with sightings
all over the area, Swanson told the newspaper in recalling the
earlier days.
In October 1967, Patterson and Gimlin traveled to northern California
for what they described as an expedition to investigate numerous
reports of bigfoot tracks being found in the area.
Man Claims to be Bigfoot in Famous 1967 Sasquatch Film
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- A Yakima man is claiming he wore the fur suit
in the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin home movie of a sasquatch in northern
California -- film footage considered the gold standard among bigfoot
buffs.
