CALHOUN COUNTY- Alabama

The Choccolocco Monster: Jokester reveals 32-year-old prank
By Matthew Creamer - The Anniston Star.
Star Staff Writer
10-31-2001

Trent Penny/The Anniston Star: Neal Williamson poses with a replica of the skull he used when he was the Choccolocco Monster 32 years ago.  CHOCCOLOCCO

He suspected something was wrong when the oncoming truck slowed up sooner than expected. He knew something was wrong when the rifle blasted again and again into the warm night.

When the shots rang out, Neal Williamson was standing on the side of Choccolocco Road, draped in a white sheet and holding a cow skull above his head. He was doing a little dance, which, when combined with the outfit, made him the Choccolocco Monster, the chimera that haunted these backwoods for days more than three decades ago.

It was only the fourth time Williamson, then a 15-year-old jokester, had pulled this particular prank, prowling overgrown roadsides until some approaching headlights etched out his bizarre silhouette just as he rushed off into the woods. Word of a shaggy beast had nevertheless spread all the way to Talladega and Birmingham, drawing the curious and their itchy trigger fingers to this sleepy community.

It was all done for laughs, a cheap way to beat the boredom of those slow Alabama weekends. But, now, Williamson and two friends who had tagged along were under fire, a spotlight from the truck sweeping through the trees.

By the second shot he was off, and whatever rush he got from giving chills to passersby must have been magnified a hundredfold as he raced through the woods, across a pasture, and then into a barbwire fence.

The shooter, whose shots all missed, was never identified.

"To this day," Williamson said recently, "I don't know who it was and I didn't care. But that was the last appearance that monster made."

In an interview at his Nances Creek home last week, Williamson, now 48, drove a stake through the heart of Calhoun County's version of the Sasquatch legend. He described how the extended practical joke began and how it ended, and laughed as he recalled how a little media attention turned the joke into frenzy unseen before or since in these quiet parts.

The interview ended a myth that no one seemed to believe in anyway. At the time, most Choccolocco residents were pretty sure the monster was really just a cow or a bear. These days, locals just raise an eyebrow, shake their heads or laugh deeply when that dead memory is brought back to life.

Though the truth's cold fingers unravel this already threadbare tale, it leaves behind an amusing swatch of a story of a few people who shuddered at the glimpse of a strange figure and the many more who came from far and wide to shoot it dead.

"I knowed it was a booger."

Margaret Teague was driving to her Choccolocco home from work at Cleburne County Hospital one night in May 1969 when she saw what she thought was a monster.

It was late, and the way home took her over the secluded Iron City Cutoff. She saw it sitting on its hind legs on the edge on the woods. She would later tell the county sheriff as well as The Star that the monster had a huge head and was hairy. She said the hair prevented her from telling whether it had paws or hooves; she exclaimed only "Oh, Lordy, Lordy, what a head."

Mrs. Teague, who died several years ago, was one of at least eight people who said they saw a monster during those late spring weeks. A composite portrait of the monster developed, and then evolved as the days went by. At first, it was gray or black and about the size of the cow with a hump and large teeth. Then it had stringy white and black hair that obscured many of its features.

At least three newspaper articles, all of which quoted people who doubted the existence of the monster, helped to drum up interest. By early June, cars from other counties were roaming the backwoods, their drivers taking potshots at anything that moved in the night.

"People came with flashlights and guns and different things," said Beverly Graham, a teenager during this time. "That scared me."

Aside from fear, whether generated by the creature or the trigger-happy visitors, there was anger. You could practically smell the reporter's notebook burning when a Mrs. Bobby Murphy warned those who were unloading their weapons near her farm.

"But I'll tell you one thing, if one of our cows or bulls is shot, and we can find out who it is, somebody is going to pay dear," she told The Star.

Mrs. Murphy said she thought the monster was in reality a beaver or a cow or a bull, a skepticism echoed by many in the area.

But as for the believers, no matter which of them saw it, they were dead-certain it was a monster, and not a member of the local wildlife. Mrs. Teague was certain her eyes weren't fooling with her.

"And, oh Lordy, they weren't, for I knowed it was the booger," she told The Star. "I turned the car around in the middle of the road to get another look, and it (the car) got caught in a ditch … I just knowed the booger had me for sure."

"You just had to create your own fun."

His parents asleep, Neal Williamson jacked his family's old 1950 Ford, which he didn't have a license to drive, and started cruising down the backroads of Choccolocco. He was bored, just driving around, and realized that in the backseat there was a cow skull he'd found.

And so, the Choccolocco Monster was born.

He'd put on a long black coat, raise the skull up, and do a dance. That, and a little bit of timing, was all there was to it.

"I'd wait," he said, "until somebody come around the road there, and I'd run out and don't let them get a good look at me. When they'd let off the gas, I'd run up back in the woods."

He did it just four times before the hail of bullets put an end to the creature. But so far, it's the most famous of pranks in a lifetime of joking that includes locking a cow in the hallway of his high school, as well as a number of stunts that could get him in trouble if word got out.

Williamson, who works for Southwire, talks about all the joking with a mischievous glint in his eye. He's unapologetic and says he liked to give people a fright just to relieve his own boredom and have a little fun.

"Back then, you didn't have nothing to do really," he said. "You didn't have computers.
You just had to create your own fun. And that was fun until that last appearance."

His wife, Glenda, on the other hand, feels a little sorry for the victims.

"His wife apologizes for him," she said. "Please don't be angry with him."

Looking for snakes

When told recently that the Choccolocco Monster had been in fact a kid playing a joke, few in the community were surprised. Some were hard-pressed to dredge up the memory of the episode, and those who could recalled it as overblown.

"We thought it was a cow," said Georgia Calhoun, president of the Choccolocco Heritage Society. "It was the outsiders who was all so interested in a monster."

One woman who did doubt Williamson's story was Demarest Teague, Margaret's older sister. Though Demarest never saw what Margaret did, she vividly remembers the terror that arose in her sister. Margaret would never travel down the Iron City Cutoff alone again.

Upon hearing how Williamson created the monster, Demarest was skeptical, asking how it could be a teenager when whatever Margaret saw was so big and hairy. As an explanation for the monster, Demarest suggested another legend -an old man rumored to have wandered off into those woods, reappearing to give people a fright.

By the end of the interview she seemed anything but convinced. But, she allowed, "I guess if he says he did it, he did it."

To Williamson, a lot of what you see depends upon what you want to see.

"It's just like snakes," he said. "You go hunt snakes, you'll find snakes. You don't hunt them you ain't gonna find them. You get to looking around for them, man, you're gonna find one before it's over with."

While his account can be neither verified nor disproved, one thing is certain: On the edge of a summer when a man would first walk on the moon, some folks in the eastern part of Calhoun County feared there was a monster in the woods.

About Matt Creamer  Matt Creamer covers rural life for The Anniston Star.

Credit: John Mathia

The Sun News [Myrtle Beach, SC] | 2 Sept 2001

Sasquatch story grabs national attention

By Natalie Burrowes
The SUN NEWS

Simon Garth blames his mischievous buddies for the 15 minutes of fame he received when a practical joke gone awry spurred national reports that he had a Bigfoot monster stored in his freezer. Garth said he received more than 300 telephone calls Friday after Wireless Flash, an Internet-based pop culture news service, published a story that said he had shot and killed the elusive Bigfoot.

After reading about Garth's supposed feat, people nationwide were offering the 30-year-old security guard from Aynor blank checks for the frozen Sasquatch. Others wanted samples of its DNA.

Despite the flood of phone calls, Garth said he didn't mind being the butt of his friends' practical joke.

"It's been a fun day," he said Friday. "I wish I did have Bigfoot in a meat locker."

But like any tall tale, there's at least two versions of this Bigfoot story.

David Moye the Wireless Flash reporter who wrote the story said Garth was in on the joke from the start, but cried wolf when he was bombarded with telephone calls. Moye ran a second story Friday that said Garth admitted his Bigfoot tale was nothing more than a stunt designed to get him a guest shot on Howard Stern's morning radio show.

"Now, after being flooded by media interest, Garth has decided to come clean because he doesn't want to `... disrespect Bigfoot fans' and Howard Stern still hasn't called him," Moye's latest story states. Garth disagrees. He claims his friends used his name and cell phone number, unbeknownst to him, to carry out the hoax. Furthermore, Garth said his friends were the ones who called Moye on Friday to admit the story was false.

Moye said he stumbled onto the story last week. While scanning eBay, the popular Internet auction site, Moye said he noticed that Garth claimed to have Bigfoot's corpse and had placed the monster's soul up for auction.

Moye said he called Garth, who told him he had a 6-foot, 2-inch, 285-pound Sasquatch tucked away in his freezer. Moye said Garth claimed he shot the beast 20 miles from his house and used voodoo magic to capture Sasquatch's soul.

Moye's initial excitement was dampened, though, when he received an e-mail signed by Garth on Friday.

"This whole incident stemmed from problems with eBay," Garth's alleged e-mail stated. "A group of us got together and decided to have some fun with a fake auction.

"Over 300 people looked at it, but few bid before eBay yanked it," the e-mail continued. "Sorry for the mislead. I really just wanted to talk to Howard Stern."

Moye is sticking by his claim that Garth was using the Bigfoot story as a way to meet Stern. And Garth still claims he's the innocent victim of a practical joke that got out of hand.

Regardless of whose story is true, one thing is for certain there's no Bigfoot in Simon Garth's freezer. Just some steak, TV dinners and a couple of Popsicles.

Ersatz Sasquatch Has Feet of Clay, Police Say

By Leef Smith Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 15, 1997; Page B05

The Washington Post:  An ape-like creature, covered in a tangle of leaves and branches, emerged yesterday from the bushes along a rural road in Fauquier County, prompting several very startled motorists to call police.

Bigfoot, they said, was afoot.

Virginia State Police didn't know what to make of the first sighting, at 3 a.m. Or the second. Or the third. So they sent out a trooper, and there he was, right there in the middle of Route 647. Sasquatch.

Sort of.

Officials say Bigfoot was being played by an 18-year-old prankster who, thinking himself clever, covered himself in fish netting and brush to resemble the infamous beastie more commonly thought to live in the Pacific Northwest.

"We get calls on bears in the road and different types of animals, but never has anybody called in and said they saw Bigfoot," said State Police Sgt. Perry Benshoof, who was not the lucky officer dispatched to the scene. "But that's what happened. One woman called up and said, `I don't know what I saw, but it looked like a small Bigfoot.'"

Police said the teenager's goal was not to frighten groggy motorists. The young man and an 18-year-old companion were on their way to play a practical joke on one of their sisters. She was house-sitting in nearby Marshall and apparently was headed for a shock.

The teenagers' prank was cut short when they tried to fool a passing police cruiser, officials said, and Bigfoot was unmasked.

Police said no laws were broken, so no charges were filed. The young men were sent home, and the officer didn't take down their names.

"Other than being in the roadway and walking in front of cars, they violated no laws," Benshoof said with a sigh.

Hinton Hoaxed Piltdown

by Associated Press, 24 May 1996

LONDON (AP) - After 84 years, the man behind one of science's biggest frauds -- in which a skull was held as evolutionary proof of a missing link between apes and humans -- may have been identified.

The apparent culprit was Martin A.C. Hinton, a curator of zoology at Britain's Natural History Museum when the so-called Piltdown Man skull was dug up in 1912, according to Brian Gardiner, professor of paleontology -- the study of fossils -- at King's College London.

Many other suspects have been suggested over the years. But Thursday's issue of the weekly science magazine Nature says a trunk with Hinton's initials, found in a loft at the musuem in London, appears to identify him unequivocally as the hoaxer.

The trunk contained animal bones stained the same way as the Piltdown fossils to make them look old, indicating it was Hinton who faked and planted the skull at a gravel pit at Piltdown, 30 miles south of London.

Credit: Loren Coleman

From the UPI newswire.

10-10-85 8:52 ped (10th October 1985)

Ape-like visitor stalking community

By VINCE PISCOPO

Harrisburg, Pa. (UPI) - Someone is playing a pre-Halloween prank on residents of nearby East Pennsboro Township by lurking around in an ape costume, the township police chief says.

But one of two township residents who reported seeing the creature late last month says the big, hairy, smelly thing could
not possibly have been a person in a costume.

Following a published report of the sightings, dozens of motorists, wielding spotlights and flashlights, Wednesday night
cruised the rural road where the monster reportedly was last seen.

"I'm afraid it will develop into someone shooting someone," Police Chief James Corbett said Thursday. "When the article came
out, I said Holy God get ready. We're going to get run over."

At the end of August, residents started reporting strange noises to police, the chief said. Then, two men reported seeing a
foul-smelling creature with fangs on Sept. 29.

"It was 6 1/2 feet tall and covered with hair from top to bottom," said Tom Leach, one of the residents who reported seeing
the monster. "It didn't have a neck."

Leach said he is positive what he saw was not a person in a costume, but Corbett disagrees.

"I definitely feel it's a costume - some clown," he said.

"It could be someone dressed up in a Halloween costume. ... They (pranksters) actually get joy out of knowing people are
frightened."

The chief attributed the foul smell to a faulty septic tank.

Corbett said he called two area department stores and discovered they sell costumes for $69 that look almost like the
description of the creature. And the chief had a warning for the prankster:

"I tell you there are people who would shoot him."

In addition to the increased traffic in the community, Corbett said his department has had a boost in reports about
eerie happenings since the newspaper story about the creature.

The chief said the talk of the creature and the resulting traffic is a change for his community. He said on a normal night
"You could strike a match and hear the crack."

From the AP newswire.

11 Oct. 85 21:09  Friday (11 October 1985)

The-Creature, 'Bigfoot' Was a Little Prank

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A man admitted donning an apesuit and mask in a night time prank that scared residents into locking their windows and taking up weapons was charged as a disorderly person Friday, police said.

Craig A. Brashear, 24, of Enola, was charged and released after admitting he was the "hairy creature" seen by residents in
a wooded section of nearby east Pennsboro Township, said police Chief James Corbett.

"You have to laugh at this, but, really, it has scared people to death. There are people who are going to be thrilled
that 'Bigfoot' has been captured," the chief said.

Brashear bought "fur-type cloth" and a mask with fangs after seeing a local newspaper story about residents who were noticing
a foul odor and screeching noises emanating from the wooded area, the chief said.

Brashear wanted "to stir up more activity, to make it seem like there was a creature out there," the chief said.

In the early morning of Sept. 29, friends dropped Brashear off in the neighborhood and he stood in an area where his furry
body would be illuminated by headlights, the chief said.

One young man saw the "creature" and described him as being hairy, 6 1/2-feet tall and with arms extended below the knees.
After the local paper published the report, panic - and curiosity seekers - spread through the community, the chief said.

"Old ladies were locking their windows, it was just a panic out there," the chief said. "There were people going out there
with rifles and guns looking for it - the vigilantes. You know how high school kids are, but there were adults too."

Bigfoot was captured after police were tipped off that Brashear had an ape costume, Corbett said. He confessed after
being questioned Thursday night and Friday morning, the chief said.

Brashear will get a summons in the mail, the chief said.

"Basically, the kid doesn't smoke, doesn't drink. He's probably a good kid," the chief said.

Brashear did not respond Friday to messages left at the local printing company where he works.
 

Credit: Mark A. Hall

From the Kentucky Post; Thursday, September 17, 1981

IS THERE A BIGFOOT LOOSE AND FANCY FREE?

Covington - The warm, sunny days of summer fade, and the cool, gloomy days of autumn approach. Out of the gloom, a large
hairy creature emerges, walking upright down a wooded hill towards the city street below.

Is it Big Foot?

"If everyone remembers, five weeks from now is Halloween," said Covington officer Robert Fletcher.

"As an outside hunch, we think it's some guy playing around in a monkey suit," said Capt. William Dometrich, head of
Covington's patrol bureau.

The creature, beast or man, was first seen about 9 p.m. Tuesday night in the 2300 block of Alden Court near the Ida
Spence housing project in Covington. Nearby residents reported seeing it again Wednesday afternoon and evening.

Officer Daniel Torres responded Tuesday night to the first calls from area residents on the creature. Wednesday night,
Officer Tom Epperson and his canine unit, Keeno, searched vainly for the creature.

A man who identified himself as representing "a group that monitors Big Foot movements from this area" called Covington
police late Wednesday night seeking more information.

Reports of a similar creature roaming around the Covington area were made several years ago, according to Dometrich.

"We think the guy got his suit out and dusted it off," Dometrich said.

Paris, Texas; News, Sun; Sunday, April 13, 1980

BIG FOOTPRINTS ARE CALLED HOAX

By Celia Laska
News Staff Writer

Members of the Bigfoot Research Society said Friday that the Powderly Bigfoot has wooden feet.

Members of the society, who said they have researched reports of Bigfoot sightings around the continent were in Powderly Friday to see whether the four-toed tracks found around a pond in Powderly were a hoax. Bob Throneberry, an anthropologist and head of the society, said that the tracks were made by a wooden foot shaped with a bandsaw.

"Most of the Bigfoot-type footprints that we see in Texas are hoaxes, but we want to check every report just to make sure,"
Throneberry said.

"Whenever a report like this comes out, amateur Bigfoot hunters come out and disturb the people living there. We think
its our duty to call a hoax when we see it. Those of us who do serious on Bigfoot get a bad name from thinks like that."

"We were skeptical when we heard about it," he said.

"There's no such thing as a four-toed one." Bigfoot, if he exists is probably a primate, Throneberry said.

Throneberry said that the wooden forms were probably pounded into the ground to make the tracks appear as though they were made by a heavy animal.

Game Warden Bill Milling said that he is somewhat relieved that the society considers the tracks a hoax.

"I wasn't concerned about the calls I was getting. I was concerned about people coming out her to hunt Bigfoot," he said.
Milling said Throneberry brought casts of other Bigfoot prints that had been made in California and the Ozarks in Arkansas.

"They had five toes and looked more like a human foot except that they were much longer," he said. "They had a little more
detail to them."

However, Milling would not say whether he believed that Bigfoot exists.

"I really don't know much about all this," he said, "but I do wonder."

POLICE THINK MYSTERY FOOTPRINTS ARE FAKES

ALTOONA, Fla. (UPI) - Most investigators figure its a hoax, but there is enough doubt in their minds to order casts made of the size 18 footlike prints found in a remote area of the Ocala National Forest.

"I think its a hoax," said Doug Sewell, chief investigator for the Lake County Sheriff's department. "There was no indication that something big enough to make those prints went back through the woods."

Less sure, however, is Lake County Sgt. Dee Kirby, called out to make casts of the half dozen 17-inch-by-6 1/2-inch footprints found near a bulldozer in the vicinity of Camp Ocala, a federal job training site.

He said the prints showed a definite arching of the instep. five distinct toes and even some wrinkling along the instep.

"(The prints) had a full four feet of distance between each of one," he said, speculating that if they were real the creature
that made them must be 10-to-12 feet tall and weigh close to 1,000 pounds.

The prints were discovered by a private contractor doing roadwork for the U.S. Forestry Service. Forestry officials also made casts of the prints, but doubted if they would investigate further.

Informal speculation centered on whether the creature was the infamous "skunk ape" - Florida's own version of Bigfoot and the abominable snowman - reportedly last sighted in the Everglades.

Credit: Mark A. Hall

Probable hoax in Vinton County, Ohio Autmun, 1980

'BIGFOOT' ELUDES TEAM ON OVERNIGHT CAMPOUT

By MARY MIGLIORE
Union Staff

AGAWAM, MASS. - "Bigfoot" remained at large Thursday in a wooded area off Moore Street, but a New York investigator says the 27-inch footprints left by the creature could be authentic.

"The prints look good - but "Bigfoot" tracks are a dime a dozen...we really need to see him," said Lee Frank, who reportedly travels all over the United States investigating sightings of the legendary animal.

Frank and other trackers spent Wednesday night camping in zero temperatures beside the footprints in the snow, but failed
to spot a 7 to 12-foot monster on the prowl by Westfield River.

"Bigfoot" investigators also planned to spend Thursday camping in the woods in hopes of spotting the big fellow.

"Whatever the tracks are, they merit further investigation," Frank said, adding that it is impossible to determine at this
point how the tracks were made.

Agawam Police have called off their "Bigfoot" team for the time being, but dozens of interested residents are continuing to
visit the site of the huge tracks near Robinson State Park.

Marianna Cascio of Agawam, who asked Frank to conduct an investigation at the site, said she believes the tracks are
authentic and belong to a 1,500-pound giant.

But no fresh tracks have been spotted since the first prints were discovered Monday evening, and she said the creature may
have left the area.

Police, who say this is their first investigation into reports of a monster on the loose, still maintain they have no idea whether the five-toed tracks are that of a legendary ape- like mammal or the work of a prankster.

Kenosha (Wisconsin) News; January 6, 1977

BIGFOOT SORRY ABOUT STEPPING ON LAW

AGAWAM, Mass. (UPI) - A teen-agar says he's sorry his "big foot" joke was taken more seriously than he intended.

Police say they confiscated two, 28-inch-long plywood boards constructed to look like big feet from David Deschenes, 16, of
Agawam. A police spokesman said Deschenes told authorities he spent two days shaping the boards and then wore them on a walk along the river Dec. 20.

Dozens of huge, five-toed prints were found in a wooded area along the Westfield River two weeks ago.

"I did it as a joke for the little kids around here, but it got out of hand. The next thing I knew the police were out at two in the morning looking around, taking it seriously. I didn't feel like going out to tell them I was 'bigfoot'", Deschenes said.

Deschenes said he hopes to get the feet back from police. If they are returned, he said, he's not going to take them on any
more strolls through the woods.

"I want to have them mounted," he said.

Oklahoma City Times; Monday, May 16, 1977

SIGHTING OF LEGENDARY BIGFOOT REPORTED IN CANADA

MISSION, British Columbia (AP) - A furry creature about seven feet tall lumbered across Highway 7 near this Fraser Valley
community Sunday and made some believers in the legendary Sasquatch.

The sighting, 35 miles east of Vancouver, occurred as a Pacific Stage Lines bus driven by Pat Lindquist was westbound a
mile east of Lake Erroch on the Harrison Hot Springs-to-Vancouver run.

The passengers and Lindquist saw ahead of the bus a glimpse of something they all described as a seven-foot tall, 300-pound
beast with dark brown to black fur or hair and a light-colored face.

"At first we thought it was a prankster in a fur suit," said Lindquist, 28, a reserve Vancouver city policeman. "But people
were shouting 'what is it, what is it', so I slammed on the brakes to have a look.

"To tell the truth, I thought it was someone trying to con us so I took off after it. I guess I thought I was going to pull off his hat and bawl him out. I don't know why I did it. I'm not sure I really intended to catch up with it."

Lindquist, who police here describe as "very nervous and pale" when they arrived on the scene, later described what
happened when he gave pursuit.

"The first thing I noticed was the smell...a horrible smell like very rotten meat. The bush was thick and I was pushing the
branches apart when I saw it about 20 or 25 feet away. I just couldn't believe it."

"At first I was mad. But then I went to awe and then to fright and I began to shake. I couldn't stop shaking and then I got out of there."

The smell has been a common element in the reports from numerous people who claim to have been close to the Sasquatch,
also known as Bigfoot.

Lindquist, who is 6-foot-2, said the thing before him was no more than seven feet tall, only "much heavier than I am."

"It had flat, flared nostrils like a monkey and large, wide eyes. It didn't make any sound except heavy breathing. It had a
broad chest and it was heavy up and down."

"It could have taken two steps and grabbed me, but it didn't do anything. It didn't growl. It didn't show its teeth. It just
looked at me."

 Lindquist said the hair on its face was a light brown and "it appeared to have the mange; the skin underneath looked kind
of white."

San Antonio, Texas; Evening News; Friday, May 27, 1977

'BIGFOOT' WAS JUST MAN IN MONKEY SUIT

VANCOUVER, Canada (AP) - A  bus driver and several passengers who reported seeing the legendary man-beast Sasquatch were tricked by four practical jokers using a $200 monkey suit and shoulder pads, according to the hoaxsters.

"It was a good practical joke, we thought it might fool a few people," said Ken Ticehurst, the 5-foot-11, 165-pound man who
dressed up in the gorilla costume. "I was running like O.J. Simpson."

The pranksters said the hoax took three weeks to prepare, including buying the suit from a costume shop, manufacturing a
foot to make a footprint, checking bus schedules so enough people would see it "to make it more believable" and planting a phony witness on the bus to make the first move and get passengers excited.

The reported sighting occurred on May 15 as Pat Lindquist was driving a Pacific Stage Lines bus westbound on the Harrison
Hot Springs, British Columbia-to-Vancouver run May 15 when he and several passengers saw what they thought was a Sasquatch lumber across Highway 7 about 35 miles east of Vancouver.

 Lindquist stopped the bus and pursued the creature into the bush.

"At first we thought it was a prankster in a fur suit," said Lindquist, a 28-year-old Vancouver city policeman, at the time of
the incident.

"It had flat, flared nostrils like a monkey and large white eyes. It didn't make any sound except heavy breathing."

Ticehurst, 24, of Port Coquitlam, revealed the scam Thursday in an interview on a radio talk show along with Don Ticehurst,
26, and Rene Quesnel, 19 of Port Moody. The three said they planned the stunt with Gordon Jacobi, 26.

They said they based their pattern for a resin-cast Sasquatch foot on a book about the creature by Don Hunter and Rene Dahinden.

Don Ticehurst, one of six passengers on the early morning bus, said he "had to act pretty excited. Some people were still
asleep." Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Bob Eyford, who did some independent investigation, said he's convinced the pranksters are telling the truth.

For years, stories have persisted that the gorilla-sized Sasquatch, North America's version of the Abominable Snowman,
lives in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

From time to time sightings are reported and there is at least one photograph of an alleged Sasquatch, although it looks
more like a blurry picture of a gorilla. Several books and articles have been written about the beast.

Credit: Tom Adams

San Antonio News; Thursday, August 11, 1977

'BIG FOOT' ATTACK DRAWS SEARCHERS

STILWELL, OKLA. (AP) - Members of a group searching for the legendary creature "Big foot" will come here Saturday.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has joined the group in investigating a reported creature described by a youth
as being 9-feet tall, hairy, and having glowing red eyes.

The 15-year-old youth, Brian Jones, told authorities the creature grabbed him and ripped off his shirt outside a friend's
rural home near here Friday night.

The State Bureau of Investigations is studying the boy's shirt, which authorities said had long coarse brown hair attached
to it.

Bob Stamps of Oklahoma City, director of a group calling itself Sasquatch Investigation of Mid-America said he has talked
with authorities in the eastern Oklahoma town and is convinced "that there is something there - just what, I don't know."

Stamps and other members of his group will search the area Saturday night, after interviewing persons in the area during the
day.

"We believe these people (who have reported a strange creature) are telling the truth and we just want to find out what
this thing is," said Adair County Civil Defense Director Tobe O'Neal.

Oklahoma City; Oklahoman and Times; Saturday; August 27, 1977

YOUTH PUTS BIG FOOT IN MOUTH
by Jim Etter

STILWELL - A report Big Foot is in this area is a tall tale, authorities said Friday.

A 15-year-old youth who earlier this month told officials he was attacked by a nine-foot-tall, hairy creature with "glowing
red eyes" admitted his story was a hoax, Adair County Civil Defense Director Tobe O'Neal said.

O'Neal said the youth said he made up the story of the attack. O'Neal said other reported sightings of the creature were
apparently "just something somebody thought they saw" and a hair on the youth's shirt after the reported attack probably came from a mule's tail.

"He said he just made it up when he was with his friends, and probably after the sheriff and others began investigating,
he was kind of afraid to go back on it," O'Neal said. No disaction is planned for the youth, he said.

O'Neal said the youth, Brian Jones of rural Stilwell said the story was a fib after he failed to pass a polygraph test in
Fort Smith, Arkansas.

"We just wanted to investigate this whole thing and get it all settled and before we continued we wanted to know whether he
was telling the truth," O'Neal said.

The youth's story on Aug. 5, led to investigtion by O'Neal, the Adair County Sheriff's office, the Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation and the Sasquatch Investigation of Mid-America, a group which hunts the legendary creature also known as Big Foot. The case gained national attention.

An OSBI laboratory test of the hair found on Jone's shirt indicated it could have come from a bear.

However, O'Neal said there are some mules at the rural home where the story first began and "it could be the hair was from
the tail of one of those mules."

Neither the youth, nor an adult neighbor who had told authorities they saw the creature's red eyes, Robert Ritchie,
could be contacted Friday for comment.

Bob Stamps, Midwest City, director of the Sasquatch  Investigation group who led an expedition into the hilly, wooded
area of eastern Oklahoma soon after the report, said Friday's hoax report deosn't deter his research into Big Foot.

He said he is currently planning an investigation in nearby states where incidents have been reported that indicate Sasquatch
creatures have been there.

From WLWT; Channel 5, Cincinnati, Ohio - live broadcast
11:00 PM; December 2, 1972

Ironton, Ohio

"Ohio's furry-white monster has turned into a peeping tom. I'm talking about a weird thing up in Ironton. It was first sighted last night when a cab driver said it shook the front end of his taxi, peered at him through its protruding eyes and then moved off dragging a dead animal of some kind in its bloody arms. Then late last night, Mr. And Mrs. Harry DeLouder said they saw the creature looking through their window.

Police say they found some "phony white hair" in the area.

Police warned today that the monster, or whatever it is, is going to scare somebody who's got a gun and a great Ironton prank is going to end in tragedy.

Apparently, what it looks like is that somebody is just dressed up as an ‘Abominable Snowman type and is just trying to fool around and scare people."