Another Journalist Gets Roger Patterson's Deathbed Confession Wrong

Roger Patterson, known for filming a bigfoot in Bluff Creek, CA on October 20, 1967

"I was absolutely devastated the day I heard Roger Patterson had made a deathbed confession that the 1967 bigfoot footage he shot was a hoax." --Tony Casey, perpetuating a rumor

In an article titled, "Why we're always looking for the monsters on the hillside" and published by the Johnson City Press, journalist Tony Casey claims Roger Patterson had confessed on his deathbed he had hoaxed the film. There is no evidence for this. He continues to reason in his article how the "confession" shattered his hope that bigfoot was real, while shoring up his critical thinking. Read an excerpt below:

Leading up to Patterson’s admission, I was objectively sure — albeit in a non-scientific way — that if that footage was real, bigfoot was also most likely real because the creature in the film, according to my eyes, couldn’t be anything but bigfoot. It very clearly wasn’t a bear walking on two legs. It was one of two things: a human in an ape suit or bigfoot itself. The scene shot in the creek bed that day is forever ingrained in my mind: the massive upright ape-like creature, calmly walking with an impressively taut arm swing and carriage, moving away from the camera, looking over its shoulder to acknowledge the equipment, but not in too much of a hurry.

It was too good to be true. It was literally too good to be true. When I found out it was a hoax, things changed for me, but for the better I’d argue. Instead of taking things at face value, I began to require concrete evidence for my beliefs.

How about concrete evidence for your rumors?

The BFRO.net has a great article about how that deathbed confession rumor may have started. You can read about it below.

The most commonly heard false fact about the Patterson footage:

"The guy who got the footage admitted on his deathbed that he faked it."

This is not true. This is a mixup. Here's how the mixup started.
The man who obtained the most well known photo of the Loch Ness monster (not bigfoot) admitted on his deathbed that he faked that photo.

The story of his confession popped up in newspaper headlines around the world. The story didn't last long as a news item, but every new agency, in every country, on every continent, ran the story.

The story mutated in the press, from a crypto story about one photo from Loch Ness being debunked, to "Mystery of Loch Ness Finally Solved." 

The BFRO article continues to explain how things got worse.

 The Patterson footage was mistakenly associated with a "deathbed confession" related to a famous "monster" mystery.

The Loch Ness deathbed confession story grabbed such big headlines, it was inevitable that someone would try the same formula down the line. It only took a few more years.

The heirs of a man named Ray Wallace initially reported his "deathbed confession" about faking the first famous bigfoot tracks in Northern California.

Ray Wallace left behind a few pairs of wooden feet for making fake tracks. He would sell plaster casts of fake tracks at his roadside tourist shop.

His heirs later recanted the "deathbed confession" part of the story, and instead said they "just know he started the whole thing."

The initial "deathbed confession" element helpd [sic] get the story onto the AP Wire. It became "The Father of Bigfoot Dies". 

If you are interested, click to read New York Time's Ray Wallace deathbed confession article printed January 3, 2003.

You can even go to Tony Casey's article, Why we're always looking for the monsters on the hillside to let him know that Roger Patterson's deathbed confession is only a rumor and he can keep hoping for bigfoot.

Judge Reinhold is Producing a Bigfoot Movie about Ray Wallace

Judge Reinhold announced he will produce a
Bigfoot movie about Bigfoot prnkster Ray Wallace

"It makes me laugh…When we read on the front page of The New York Times about this guy who pretended to be Bigfoot for 40 years and got away with it..." -- Judge Reinhold

In a USA Today article Judge Rheinhold,  known for his iconic roles in films like Beverly Hills Cop and Fast Times at Ridgemont High announced a project he is producing based on the Bigfoot prankster Ray Wallace.

 It is short teaser, but interesting none the less.

Judge Rheinhold references the New York Times Article published published: January 03, 2003 and  written by Tinothy Egan. The article is summed by Wikipedia.

...where, upon Wallace's death, his son Michael revealed that Wallace was in possession of large wooden feet. According to Wallace's family, Ray's brother Wilbur Wallace and nephew Mack McKinnley used these wooden feet to stamp imprints around northern California as a prank. src: wiki

We checked the Internet Movie Database for more clues, as they usually have movie information on projects long before production even starts. There was nothing. The only source and information is in the USA Today article. We have all the Bigfoot excerpts below.

Reinhold and his wife are expecting their first child in January, he's hell-bent on helping our returning veterans, and he's extremely passionate about his new producing project – the hilarious and fascinating real life story of Bigfoot hoax artist Ray Wallace.

Let's talk about your cool new project that you have in the works. What can you tell me about Bigfoot?

It makes me laugh…When we read on the front page of The New York Times about this guy who pretended to be Bigfoot for 40 years and got away with it, and in doing, almost single handedly saved the economy of his little town – it's not an option not to make that story. It's like not an option for me. If they bury me with the scripts, with different re-writes, then so be it. But that's the one I'm climbing up the hill for…I think the Bigfoot thing is played out, but this story isn't. This story is the story behind the story.
SRC: USA Today

Pioneering News Agency Claims: Ahead of the curve on Bigfoot

The news agency, Wireless Flash News is calling it quits after 30 years. They are claiming they were ahead of the curve before Art Bell was talking about aliens and Bigfoot. They also claim to be the ones who made Ray Wallace famous. Below is an excerpt from the AOL news report.

"We redefined news prep by offering contact numbers to celebrities and to the characters we interviewed," Glynn said.

One of these so-called 'characters' was Ray Wallace, a man from Toledo, Wash., known as "the Father of Bigfoot" after he allegedly saw the hairy creature in 1958.

Glynn interviewed him many times over a 22-year period before Wallace died in 2002. As a result, Wallace was also interviewed by hundreds of other radio stations, TV shows and print media.

"When he died, The New York Times did a story on him," Glynn said. "Without FlashNews, he would have been remembered by a few Bigfoot researchers and the folks in Toledo, Wash. He had fun with it. When I called, his wife, Ulna, would say, 'He's not here,' and Ray would say, 'Now, Ulna, don't be saying that,' and he'd get on the phone."

Glynn points out the Flash -- as the staff referred to it -- wasn't just ahead of the curve on Bigfoot. The agency also reported on extraterrestrials long before Art Bell and the History Channel -- disseminating and popularizing much of the information that has become accepted as E.T. lore.

"At the time, we were owned by Copley Press, a very conservative news organization," Glynn said. "My bosses used to get calls from the Washington bureau claiming that the D.C. radio stations didn't want any of the 'serious' stories they were doing because they'd rather talk about Bigfoot and aliens."

RELATED LINKS
Read the original article at AOL News
Flash News Article on Ray Wallace
Ray Wallace at Wikipedia

The Chronicle Respects Squatching and the BFRO

An article that is not dismissive or tongue-in-cheek. A nice refreshing look at squatching, or Bigfooting as we prefer here at BLC. The great thing about The Chronicle, a newspaper serving Lewis County Washington, is it a great introduction for those not familiar with Bigfooting, while remaining fair and balanced.

Here's an exerpt below.

ELBE — He stands 9 feet tall with stringy brown fur all over his body and glowing red eyes, and if he truly does exist, he probably lives in a forest near you.
The ape-like beast known as Sasquatch is mere legend to skeptics, but to members of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, he is a legitimate scientific conundrum. The group regularly scours areas in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and other wooded parts of the state in search of “squatches” — that’s right — plural Sasquatch.
Based on sightings reported by BFRO’s Web site, Washington state is effectively Bigfoot central, more specifically the densely covered Cascade foothills of Southwest Washington. The group believes Sasquatches live in complex communities with advanced social norms and complex forms of communication, including their own language.

“These people who live here, if you could get them to talk to you, they would tell you, ‘We hear them all the time,’” said Scott Taylor, a particularly active member of BFRO who led a group of eight people on a research trip near Mount Rainier National Park last Saturday. “We try to come out to places like this to meet the witnesses and sit and talk and let them get it off their chest, because many of them have been bottling it up for years.”

The group’s claim to fame is the “Skookum Cast,” a body impression of an ape-like figure found in the Skookum Meadow, in the southern portion of the Gifford Pinchot. It was unveiled in 2000 and studied by the late Washington State University anthropologist Grover Krantz, who dedicated much of his career to studying Bigfoot, along with the Kennewick Man — skeletal remains of a prehistoric man found on the Columbia River in 1996.

The article even touches on the subject of Ray Wallace, although it may be an oversimplification.

Wallace died in 2002, but is survived by family still in the area. Bigfoot believers generally don’t buy the Wallace hoax because its announcement came after his death when family members found the foot pressings after sorting through his old junk. The Bigfoot faithful also take particular umbrage with what they say are fabricated quotes in a 2002 article by the New York Times calling Wallace’s passing “the death of Bigfoot.”

Overall we appreciate the tone of the article, it even highlights The Chronicles past coverage of Bigfoot and has a list of sightings in the Lewis County Area. to us that means theres enough information there that some reader will get the "bug" and be the one that helps us find Bigfoot.

EXTERNAL LINKS
The Chronicle Article: In Search of ’Squatch
NY Times Article at BigfootEncounters.com
Bigfoot Did Not Die by John Green