So Supernatural - THE UNKNOWN: Bigfoot

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

In the summer of 1958, a strange creature terrorized construction crews in rural California. Since then, Bigfoot true-believers have collected a wealth of information on the strange ape-like being — including a minute of undoctored footage of a female Sasquatch in the wild. 

Stories about UFOs resonate with a lot of people, and it's obvious why. They reveal something about what makes us human. If we could ever meet an alien, it would put our existence into context. It would mean we're not the only intelligent creatures in the universe. But we haven't met any other intelligent species yet. And maybe it's because we're looking in the wrong place. We keep searching for answers in outer space. But maybe what we're seeking is right here in our own backyard.

Lots of people have spotted strange, hairy, human-like creatures wandering through the Pacific Northwest. Yeah, I'm talking about Bigfoot. And if these apes exist, they're probably our closest genetic relatives on Earth. They might finally reveal something about humanity's place in the world. All we have to do is make contact. After all, we definitely know something's out there, because we have the This is Supernatural. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. This week, I am talking about the so-called missing link called Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Paranormal enthusiasts believe that this part-human, part-ape-like creature lives somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. And that's not baseless speculation. There is solid, hard evidence that it exists,

as in indisputable video footage and footprints. But some people still insist the creature isn't real. And maybe that's because the government is suppressing the little bit of hard evidence that we have. I'll talk about all of that coming up. Stay with us. In the summer of 1958, this construction crew was toiling away in Humboldt County, California. That's a heavily wooded coastal region toward the northern part of the state. So they were scrambling to finish building Bluff Creek Road

and the job wasn't going well. A couple days in a row, the crew shows up to work to find their equipment isn't where they left it. And I don't mean like a misplaced hammer or something like that. We're talking these 700 pound spare tires and 50 gallon barrels of diesel fuel that are scattered across their work site, like almost like a tornado just whipped through without anyone noticing. Except, obviously, there hasn't been a tornado.

Nobody knows what could be big and strong enough to fling this equipment around, especially without anyone seeing or hearing it during the night. Because I mean, the workers are actually staying in trailers right near the construction zone. So naturally, the crew don't know what's going on. And they're pretty uneasy about coming to work every day. The foreman assure them that everything's fine, but nobody takes them at their word. I mean, 15 employees end up walking off the job because they're too spooked. Things aren't looking good. The team's falling behind schedule because there aren't enough people around to operate all the equipment. And then, just when it seems like they'll never figure out what's wreaking all this havoc, one of the workers finds a footprint.

And it's huge. More than 16 inches long. I mean, think roughly the distance from your elbow to your fingertips. So whatever left those tracks has to be massive. But the creepiest thing about the footprint is its shape. If you're building a road through the middle of the forest, you've got to be used to seeing like wolf and bobcat tracks. You might even stumble across a bear paw here and there. But these prints? They came from something with a long human-like foot and five forward pointing toes. In other words, it looks an awful lot like a ginormous barefoot person walked through the construction site and tossed some equipment around.

Clearly, the team is dealing with something that nobody's ever heard of before. So the machine operator named Jerry Crew decides he's going to get to the bottom of whatever's going on. He makes a plaster mold of the footprint, which is about as long as his arm, and takes it into town. He shows everyone he can, thinking somebody will be able to identify it. The locals dub the creature Bigfoot because it literally has a big foot. They're still not totally sure what the animal is, but it sounds a lot like these legends from the area's Native American tribes. All through the northwestern United States and Canada, the indigenous people have stories of these ape-like creatures that live in the forest. They have a bunch of different names for these beasts, including wild men and saskets,

which is where the word Sasquatch comes from. For the most part, up until now, most people treated these legends as just that, legends. Jerry is the first person to come forward with actual hard evidence that the wild men might exist. And this is big news. Literally, in October, he ends up on the front page of the local Humboldt Times. And then that story gets picked up by bigger papers all across the nation.

And just like that, Bigfoot is a household name. The account throws the paranormal enthusiast community into a frenzy. But there's a problem. See, Jerry's foreman was this guy named Wilbur Wallace. And Wilbur's brother, Ray, also works on the project. Now, Ray, you see, he has this reputation for being a bit of a goof. Like the whole time the team's trying to build a road, Ray's constantly playing pranks on the other guys, like just goofing around. So some skeptics start wondering, did Ray maybe fake the footprints? Now, Ray denies this completely. Now, he does mention like, OK, yeah, I like to joke around, but he's like, I'm not going to sabotage my brother's career.

I mean, the footprints and moving the equipment made 15 guys quit. No way would Ray push a practical joke that far. And he maintains his innocence for decades. But he also makes a small fortune selling Bigfoot memorabilia that's obviously fake. So think like doctored photographs, tufts of deer hair that he says comes from an unidentified species, even rocks that he claims Sasquatches use as projectile weapons. To make matters worse, right after Ray dies in 2002, his family comes out and says that he faked the footprints from the Bluff Creek Road construction site.

You see, they even produced these wooden feet that they say he used to make the tracks. So I'm sure you're thinking Sasquatch has to be a hoax, right? Like Ray lied about the whole thing. But there are a few problems with this explanation. For one thing, Ray's wooden feet are almost two inches smaller than the cast that Jerry made. Plus, the toes are kind of spaced a bit differently, and the wooden ones are more square than the plaster version. I mean, this anthropologist and anatomist named Jeff Meldrum compared the wooden feet to Jerry's tracks. Jeff is an expert specifically in ape feet, and he says that the wooden devices couldn't have left the footprints. So even if Ray is a fraud, we still can't completely dismiss Jerry's account.

That original footprint had to come from something. Unfortunately, Ray's dishonesty basically makes all Bigfoot hunters look like shysters, which means hundreds of enthusiasts are scrambling for some hard evidence to prove the beast exists and to show that they're not all wasting their time. Unfortunately, they don't really find anything. I mean, this creature is surprisingly elusive. In fact, it might even know how to avoid trackers. Once, a group of Bigfoot researchers

actually set up a trap. They left some fresh fruit in the middle of this, like, wet, muddy area, and they figured that if any animal tried to take the bait, it would have to leave a trail of footprints. But when they come back, they see the fruit is gone, but there are no footprints. As near as the researchers can tell, it's like an animal walked to the edge of the wet mud, then laid down on its side and stretched toward the fruit. I mean, think like how you might reach to hit your snooze button without leaving the bed.

Now, the weird thing is, there's no good reason for a creature to grab the fruit this way. Not unless it figured out this was a trap and it knew not to leave footprints. And that might sound bonkers, but primatologists say that chimpanzees walk on dry land differently than on like muddy or thick vegetation because they know that they're leaving a trail that predators can follow. So it's not all that outlandish to think that Sasquatches know how to avoid leaving prints at all because they're more intelligent than chimps and they're hiding from us on purpose. That may be why, to this day, nobody has ever uncovered undisputed proof that Bigfoot exists. A handful of people have spotted

footprints that look a lot like the one Jerry found, but nobody's ever captured the creature alive or even found a pelt or bone or tooth. But even though they haven't produced any definite proof yet, researchers have found compelling clues. The most persuasive piece of evidence comes from two guys named Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson. They had a rare face-to-face encounter with the beast, and they managed to capture it all on film. Coming up, two Bigfoot hunters get the creature on tape. Now back to the story. In 1967, these two friends named Bob and Roger were horse camping in Six Rivers National Forest,

specifically right near the construction site where Jerry made his cast. They're old friends who used to work together on the rodeo circuit, and they're both on this trip for different reasons. You see, Roger is a Bigfoot fanatic, and he thinks that they might actually find some evidence that Sasquatch is out there. He even rented a camera before he headed out into the woods, and he's always got it with him, just in case. But Bob, on the other hand, thinks this is ridiculous. He's heard the rumors about the eight black creatures in the area, and he's even seen some plasters that Roger made in the

past, and he doesn't believe a word of it. Now, luckily, that's not a huge problem for him. I mean, every day these guys ride their horses through these gorgeous mountain trails. And Bob likes Roger, and he's having a good time. So he treats this whole Bigfoot thing kind of as like this personal little quirk, and he keeps his mouth shut. But all that changes a few weeks into their vacation. See, Bob and Roger are out riding on this crisp October day and Roger pauses near a stream because he wants to snap some pictures of the autumn foliage. They're trying to maneuver

around this felled tree that's blocking the trail when all of a sudden the horses start acting skittish. For whatever reason, they're whinnying and kicking. Rogers even rears up like it's trying to buck him off. And Bob's probably thinking he should help, but he can't because his horse starts to panic too. It's a good thing he has all this rodeo experience because it takes all the skill he has not to fall off. Somehow, in the midst of all this excitement, Bob spots this movement out of the corner of his eye. There's this dark furry mass just across the river from him. It's on two legs like a bear, except its posture isn't anything like he's ever seen from a bear. Its shoulders and head are kind of like sloped forward, and it's got these long arms that are

swinging by its side. I mean, think like a gorilla. And it's a female that's apparently pregnant or nursing because it has exposed swollen breasts. Bob's first thought is that this can't be real. But here it is, right in front of his eyes. The truth is undeniable. Bob and Roger just spotted a Bigfoot in the wild. Now, Bob's heart is racing and all he can think is that he's in danger. I mean, this creature is huge and it is super close to them. He has no idea if it's going to run away or charge at them. And if it attacks, Bob doesn't know if he's strong enough to fight off this massive beast. But he's good at dealing with stressful situations. He's a former soldier. So even though every instinct is screaming at him to run, Bob grabs a gun and takes aim. He doesn't want to

hurt the Sasquatch, but he'll do what he has to do to keep himself safe. Meanwhile, Roger climbs off his horse, grabs his camera from a saddlebag, and just starts filming. Roger's been dreaming of this day for months, maybe years, but it seems like he never believed he'd actually see a Bigfoot face to face because he's freaking out. I mean, like his hands won't stop shaking. So the footage he shoots is really wobbly. And when he tries to step forward and steady the shot, Roger actually trips and falls and the camera tumbles to the ground. Now, the good news is the Sasquatch doesn't seem aggressive. She doesn't take advantage of Roger's vulnerability because she's actually running away. But before she can disappear into the trees, she slows and glances back over her shoulder, almost like she's checking to see if Bob and Roger are following

her. They aren't, but Roger does manage to get back on his feet in time to capture a shot of this lone Sasquatch framed by trees looking directly into the lens. And that is probably the most famous image of Bigfoot in the world. You've probably seen it on t-shirts and coffee mugs and memes. Like everyone knows what Sasquatch looks like because of the 59.5 seconds of footage that Roger managed to capture during his encounter. But before that clip has the chance to spread around the world, it debuts at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. You can tell Bob and Roger are really confident in the film's credibility because they drum up a room full of biologists and anthropologists and zoologists for the screening. If anyone's going to be able to find an inconsistency in the shot, it's going to be these guys.

But honestly, the response is mostly positive. I mean, one of the attendees is a museum director, and he promises Roger and Bob he's going to go looking for more evidence. Their movie made him into a true believer. The problem is, the other viewers aren't quite so quick to endorse the video. I mean, everyone agrees that it's persuasive. Nobody can spot an indication that it's a hoax, but they also know how it'll look if they get on board with these Bigfoot hunters. It'll torpedo their careers. Remember, the general consensus at this point in time is that Sasquatch doesn't exist. Con artists like Ray haven't helped the matter with their fabricated hairs and footprints. This kind of dishonesty has

completely colored everyone's perception of Bigfoot research. So even though they have the proof right in front of their eyes, these experts won't come right out and say that they're convinced. One attendee, this guy named Dr. W.J. Houck, tells the papers, quote, I'm not going to call it a hoax, yet the alternative is still too fantastic to accept. Where does that leave me? Darned if I know, end quote. Now, this is really discouraging for Bob, and he decides he doesn't want anything to do with Sasquatch anymore. So he actually sells the rights to the footage for just $10 and tries to move on. But even though Bob's trying to distance himself from the paranormal community,

he still gets quite the reputation as a Bigfoot fanatic. And it's not long before all of Bob's friends turn on him. They basically think he's a joke, and they're not shy about harassing him for believing in Sasquatch. A few guys get in the habit of pulling up to Bob's house in the middle of the night. They shout out that they want to go Bigfoot hunting until he wakes up, and then they all run away before he can get outside. This happens on multiple occasions

and Bob isn't even the only person who has to deal with this. His wife Judy works as a teller at the local savings and loan and Judy starts getting this steady stream of customers who tease her because they think she's married to some kind of con artist or conspiracy theorist. Maybe they think this is all in good fun, but she seriously feels like she can't do her job anymore. She dreads showing up to work and dealing with all the comments and the jokes. She just can't take the humiliation. At one point, the stress gets so bad that Bob and Judy actually consider divorce. You'd think that if the video was a hoax, he'd confess at some point to save his marriage or

his friendships. But he doesn't. He insists that every frame of that clip is real. Which leaves us with the question, given how strong the evidence is, why are there so many skeptics out there? I mean, it's not that unlikely that there's an undiscovered ape-like creature living in the Pacific Northwest. Every year, scientists classify roughly one new species per week, including large mammals. Like, researchers identified a new species of giraffe in 2016. It's not that outlandish to think that Bigfoot could be real.

And there doesn't seem to be a good reason for so many people to dismiss the sightings and the footprints and the video out of hand. That goes way beyond healthy skepticism. For whatever reason, researchers and scientists refuse to dig into the evidence for Bigfoot. And maybe it has to do with the fact that the evidence is hard to get your hands on. And part of that might be because Sasquatches are so good at hiding. But they should still leave something behind, which means maybe someone or something

is covering up the truth. Up next, the FBI hides potential Bigfoot DNA. Now back to the story. After Bob and Roger shot their Bigfoot footage, they faced a ridiculous amount of hostility. It was like all their friends and family members and even random strangers instantly turned on them. And a ton of papers accused them both of perpetuating a hoax. But that leaves one big question. Why would they fake the video? I mean, it's pretty unlikely that they're in it for the money.

Because like I said before, Bob sold all his rights to the footage for 10 bucks. And it's hard to imagine that he'd put up with all the harassment he faced if it was just some elaborate prank. It's just as tough to come up with an explanation for how these guys could have faked the footage. I mean, it's not like Bob or Roger are VFX artists or professional video editors. And keep in mind, in 1967, they didn't have apps like Photoshop or iMovie, so it would be really challenging to pull something like this off. Most critics say that the pair must have hired someone to like walk through the woods in a furry suit. And okay, sure, like the video is more than 50 years old. It is

grainy and it's kind of washed out. And if you're looking at the original print, it can be hard to make out the details. So sure, it could be a man in a costume. Except a few enthusiasts have restored the footage. And when you look at these updated sharper clips, the rubber suit theory just seems impossible. Like try flexing your arm. Like when you do that, you can actually see your muscles moving under your skin. And if you take a close look at the creature in the footage, you can see her bones and tissues moving too. There just isn't a fursuit in the world that's form-fitting enough for that to be possible. And then there's the size of the thing. As near as anyone can tell, the creature is just too big to be human.

It's more than seven feet tall with a five foot wide chest, and it has to weigh about 700 pounds. And again, a bulky suit might make an actor look bigger, but it couldn't create the muscles and sinew effect I mentioned before. So there's no way Bob and Roger could find a performer big enough to pull this off. But you don't have to take my word for it. Countless video editing experts have scoured this footage looking for some kind of evidence that it is doctored. And every single one of them has come up empty. There's no rational explanation for how Rogers shot it, other than it being real. But the bizarre thing is,

even though everyone agrees that the video seems to be authentic, a lot of skeptics still insist that Bigfoot doesn't exist. Instead, they treat Rogers' footage like it's inconclusive, like someday someone's going to figure out how he faked it because the critics would rather believe this is a hoax than acknowledge the evidence that's right in front of their faces. And to me, that's a weird stance. I mean, the whole concept of the scientific method is that you're not supposed to draw conclusions until after you've examined all the data. So it makes zero sense that all these anthropologists and biologists would just shut down every person who brings forward evidence of

Bigfoot's existence. Unless their hostility doesn't reflect their real feelings. Maybe they're under pressure to dismiss the proof. A lot of Sasquatch enthusiasts think there's actually an international cover-up and Canadian and American government officials are doing everything they can to destroy the evidence of Bigfoot's existence. I mean, take what happened with a paranormal researcher named Peter Byrne. Now, Peter was obsessed with undiscovered great apes for as long as he could remember. He built up a reputation for himself in the paranormal enthusiast community. And by the 1970s, he gets a job offer at the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition in Oregon. Peter accepts, and it turns out to be his dream career. I mean, he's at the office seven days a week, he never takes a break, and he loves every second of it.

His duties include gathering evidence about the Sasquatch. He has hidden cameras scattered all through the Oregonian mountains, and he checks the footage regularly to see if they got anything interesting. And he also takes statements from people who report Bigfoot sightings. Sometimes these accounts end up being hoaxes, which is frustrating, but there are plenty of incidents that seem like they have to be real. So one day, Peter gets a call from a couple of U.S. Forest Service employees. They say that they saw a figure in the woods and they're not really sure what it is, but they want Peter to come check it out. Well, when Peter meets up with them, they lead him deep into the forest and show him exactly where they saw the beast. By now, it's long gone, but Peter kind of like looks around, scouring the brush and the ground for scat or footprints or some other clue. He notices that the trees are all super close together.

Peter knows that if the animal was a Bigfoot, it would have been way too big to slip between them. And that gives him an idea. He takes a close look at the bark and sure enough, he finds a tuft of hair, likely because the creature brushed up against it and left a few strands behind. Now, this is super exciting, but it doesn't prove anything yet. I mean, that hair could have come from anything. So Peter gathers some samples and he takes them back to the information center to analyze it. But nobody at the center is able to identify the hair. I mean, the hair definitely doesn't come from any known species, so it has to be something that

nobody's discovered yet. So that, combined with the Forest Ranger's testimony, has Peter feeling like he has indisputable evidence that Bigfoot exists. But he doesn't want to get ahead of himself. So just to be on the safe side, he sends the hair to the FBI with a request that they test it too. He probably figures that if they can confirm his findings, it'll add some legitimacy. The Bureau writes back to him in December 1976, and they agree that they'll help him out. Except a few weeks pass and Peter doesn't hear anything. Maybe he figures like, OK, you know, it's going to take a while. This is around the holiday season. But then winter turns to spring.

Still no word. Eventually, a full year goes by without a peep from the FBI. And he doesn't hear anything the year after that either. In fact, the agency never tells him what they found. And you might figure, well, maybe they just never got around to running the test, right? I mean, those labs are examining samples from crime scenes. They are helping solve actual murders. So it's not like a potential Bigfoot hair is going to be like super high on the priority list for them. Except in 2019, the FBI declassifies this 22-page report on Bigfoot. And it turns out they did test the samples way back in February 1977, only three months after Peter sent it in. And they say that the Tufts are, quote, of dear family origin, end quote. Now, this seems like it should settle the matter,

but a lot of paranormal enthusiasts have questions. First, why didn't Peter see that the hairs came from a deer when he did his initial analysis? And why didn't the agency just tell Peter the findings right after they finished the examination. Like, why so much secrecy about deer hair? It's almost like the FBI lied about their findings in the declassified report because they didn't want the truth to get out there. There are a ton of Bigfoot enthusiasts who think the government is hiding all the evidence that Sasquatches exist. But the problem is, nobody's clear why they would do that. Like, what makes this secret so explosive? For context, there are roughly 20 living species of apes in the world right now,

and nobody's trying to deny that gorillas or chimpanzees are real. Plus, if you look at extinct species like Neanderthals, we know that human beings coexisted with closely related cousins for thousands of years. So it's not like people are going to start panicking if they learn about another sentient ape that's out there. At least, they probably wouldn't. But let's be honest, the Sasquatch isn't like other apes. For one thing, it's probably highly intelligent, and it might be a lot more human-like than anyone would be comfortable admitting. One researcher named Melba S. Ketchum analyzed the DNA in an alleged Bigfoot hair, and she reached an explosive conclusion. The creatures aren't even a separate species.

They're some kind of hybrid, the descendants of ancient human women who bred with an unidentified hominid. Now, to be fair, Melba's research isn't peer-reviewed, and there are a lot of questions about her methodology, in part because she hasn't let anyone review her evidence. So her findings aren't super reliable, but they are consistent with what a lot of Bigfoot fanatics believe. Based on the encounter Bob and Roger had, the way it moves, the way it apparently knows to avoid leaving tracks, this thing seems more intelligent and more human than any other ape. If Bigfoot is real, it might be humanity's closest relative. Maybe that actually is why Bigfoot accounts feel so incendiary. If Sasquatch is real, that means we Homo sapiens aren't that special. We're not even

the only intelligent species on earth today. And that might be why so many scientists refuse to look into the evidence and why so many people write off Bigfoot sightings as hoaxes. It's because they don't want to uncover the truth. It's better to believe that human beings are unique. Except that's also why so many people find the legend so fascinating. It implies that we've got some potential friends and allies in the world, some long-lost relatives who are just waiting for us to reconnect with them. Which means it's worth keeping an open mind, not just because we want to learn more about these forest-dwelling creatures, but to discover what makes us, us.

Thanks for listening. I'll be back next week with another episode. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and all AudioChuck originals.