The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

Episode Notes for
Anatomy of a Beast

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In this episode

• Remembering a monster
• Patterson-Gimlin film “for dummies” overview
• Possible hoaxing-motive for Patterson was that he needed money
• Yeti legend tied directly to efforts at Mt. Everest
• The dual nature of the believer and the strength of belief

The Men Behind the Beast

Charles Fort

The man for whom “Fortean phenomena” is named.  He chronicled the bizarre and scoffed at science.

Ivan T. Sanderson

A naturalist and adventure writer who became obsessed with the unknown and the mysterious.  His descriptions of the Yeti profoundly influenced a young Roger Patterson.

Bernard Heuvelmans

a Belgian-French explorer often regarded as the father of cryptozoology

Roger Patterson

The rancher and entrepreneur who shot the famous Patterson-Gimlin film.

Bob Gimlin

Patterson’s friend and fellow bigfoot enthusiast, he was there when the film was shot

Mike McLeod, author of Anatomy of a Beast

René Dahinden

A Swiss immigrant to Canada who spent much of his life searching for Bigfoot

John Green

a Canadian newspaper man who joined Dahinden in the search and wrote about it

Peter Byrne

an Irish tracker who hunted for the Yeti in India before coming to the US and joining the search

Jerry Crew

the logger whose camp was plagued by giant foot-prints

Ray Wallace

the local who said he was the original foot-print hoaxer at the Jerry Crew site

Tom Slick

a wealthy Texas oil-man who funded searches for the Yeti and for bigfoot until his death in an air-crash

Greg Long

the author of The Making of Bigfoot who says that a man named Bob Heironimus wore the suit in the film and that the suit itself was provided by costume-maker Phillip Morris and then modified by Patterson

Music

• Theme music “Monster” by Peach Stealing Monkeys
• “Patterson Film for Dummies” music: “Frejas Breakdown” by Freja
• “The Men Behind the Legend” music: “War Drums” by Ben Base.

Correction

In this episode, Peter Byrne is incorrectly called “a Brit” but he is actually Irish.

The views expressed on this program are not necessarily the views of the Skeptics Society or Skeptic magazine.