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Episode Notes for
Anatomy of a Beast

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
photo

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.

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