Finally! A Journalist Does Real Research on Tom Biscardi

Before we praise Paul Gackle of The San Francisco Examiner for doing real journalism. We have to give Tom Biscardi accolades and credit. No one can write a press release like Tom Biscardi. Tom Biscardi must be the William Shakespeare of press releases. How else do you explain the newest coverage of his BBC expedition. How can a man claim to have a bigfoot body twice (once in 2005 on Coast-to-Caost AM and then again on CNN in 2008), fail to produce evidence, and then continue to get legitimate news coverage? In all fairness during both cases he claims he was hoodwinked. He was the victim of a hoax.

We asked a similar question in a previous post titled, "Why Don't Journalist Just Google Todd Standing?"

In that post we displayed what Google users think of Todd Standing--or at least what they type when searching for Todd. We showcased Google's well-known feature called "Google Suggest" or "Auto Complete". Start typing in a search, and Google offers suggestions before you’ve even finished typing.

Here are Todd's results (The second suggestion includes the word Hoax):


What are the results for respectable bigfoot researchers?





Now, for Tom Biscardi: (Similar to Todd, the second suggestion is Hoax)



This brings us to a refreshing article by Paul Gackle of The San Francisco Examiner. Mr. Gackle seem to have done more than reprint the press release, he actually respectively asked other bigfoot researchers what Biscardi's story is.

Redwood City Bigfoot hunter hopes to make giant capture
By: Paul Gackle | 10/08/11 4:00 PM
Special To The Examiner

True believer: Tom Biscardi says he’s come close to catching Bigfoot.
If Redwood City native Tom Biscardi is right, one of the world’s most baffling mysteries is about to be solved.

For decades, scientists, adventurers and monster hunters have explored the furthest reaches of North American wildlands in search of undeniable evidence that a species of gigantic, bipedal apelike creatures — known as Bigfoot — exist. Recently, Biscardi launched an expedition being filmed by English documentarians for BBC that he claims will finally put the Bigfoot mystery to rest.

“We’re going out there for a possible capture,” Biscardi said. “I really think this is going to be it.”

Biscardi hopes to finally silence his critics during an expedition that will focus on Arkansas, Florida, West Virginia and Illinois, where Bigfoot-related activity has recently been reported.

But others working to solve the Bigfoot mystery think Biscardi’s latest hunt is just another gimmick.

“It always ends up being nothing,” said Diane Stocking, who has researched Bigfoot sightings for almost four decades and created Stocking Hominid Research Inc. in Oregon. “To the Bigfoot community, he’s a joke. No one takes him seriously.”

In the past 40 years, Biscardi said he’s encountered Bigfoot six times. But while capture has eluded him, the infamous monster hunter, who moonlights as a Las Vegas promoter, has managed to turn Bigfoot into a thriving commercial industry.

Over the years, the founder of Searching for Bigfoot Inc. has produced four documentaries while hosting the weekly radio show “Bigfoot Live” on his website, www.searchingforbigfoot.com, where he sells caps, T-shirts, mugs and doormats, among other creature items.

“You bet I’m in it for the money. I don’t work for free,” Biscardi said.

This isn’t the first time Biscardi has been accused of plotting a hoax. In 2005, he went on the radio show “Coast to Coast AM” claiming he knew the location of a captured Bigfoot close to the Oregon border and would air footage online via webcam for a small fee. But on the day footage was slated to be released, he said he’d been “hoodwinked” by a woman in Nevada.

Then in 2008, Biscardi held a news conference in Palo Alto with two Georgia men who claimed they were holding a Bigfoot carcass in their freezer. Biscardi confirmed the creature’s authenticity, saying he had measured its feet and touched its intestines. But soon after, the Georgia men admitted the pictures were nothing more than a Halloween costume stuffed with animal parts.

British director Morgan Matthews said his documentary, tentatively titled “Of Monsters and Men,” will be a portrait of several men like Biscardi, who devote their lives to chasing mysterious creatures.

“I think Tom has something to prove and that makes it interesting for us,” Matthews said.

“When you’re on top of the mountain, they all want to knock you down,” Biscardi said. “Hopefully this will be the time we put an end to this thing.”

Close encounters

Bigfoot buff Tom Biscardi says he’s had several run-ins with Bigfoot, and he is launch an expedition in hopes of finally capturing the mythological beast.

FIRST ENCOUNTER
WHEN: Late 1960s
WHERE: Near Spokane, Wash.
QUOTE: “I was shocked. I said to myself, ‘What the hell is that?’”

SECOND ENCOUNTER
WHEN: October 1971
WHERE: Near Mount Burney
QUOTE: “It looked at us and had juice from eating chokecherries all over its mouth.”

THIRD ENCOUNTER
WHEN: April 1973
WHERE: Beaver Lake
QUOTE: “It was bathing itself in the water.”

FOURTH ENCOUNTER
WHEN: October 1977
WHERE: Near Mount Lassen
QUOTE: “It was an albino — pure white. It blew me away; he looked like a stuffed animal.”

FIFTH ENCOUNTER
WHEN: July 2006
WHERE: Deer River, Minn.
QUOTE: “We were pretty damn close to catching him. They move faster than lightning.”

SIXTH ENCOUNTER
WHEN: June 2008
WHERE: Lamar Point, Texas
QUOTE: “We tried to jump on it, but it moved too quick.”

SRC: The San Francisco Examiner

Huffington Post: U.S. And Russian Scientists Target Elusive Siberian Snowman

Click to read our entire coverage of the Siberian Yeti.

The news of the Russian Yeti conference has reached mainstream media. This article at Huffington Post quotes author Loren Coleman.

U.S. And Russian Scientists Target Elusive Siberian Snowman
Lee Speigel

Snowmen aren't just playthings children build in wintertime. Some say they're living beings, and an international group of scientists are about to go hunting for one -- specifically, the Siberian Snowman.

Around the world, there have been reports of large, hairy, human-like creatures. Known variously as Bigfoot, Sasquatch, the Abominable Snowman and the Siberian Snowman, none of the elusive animals have ever been captured to confirm their existence.

But cryptozoologists -- researchers who study the alleged existence of unknown animals -- say eyewitness accounts, photographs, films, videos, footprints, hair and even fecal material all suggest the possibility of an unknown species that doesn't seem to want to be discovered.

That may all change, as scientists from the U.S., Russia and other countries come together this week for a conference that will include a trek to the Siberian region of Kemerovo to hunt for the alleged snowman.

An alleged footprint of a Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, appears in snow near Mount Everest in 1951. Now, scientists are setting out to find evidence of a reported unknown, hairy, bipedal creature known as the Siberian Snowman.

"The creatures are generally five and a half to seven and a half feet tall, a lot thinner than what most people think of as a Yeti or Bigfoot," said Loren Coleman, founder and director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

"They're hearty-looking and have multi-colored brownish-black fur, sometimes with a lighter top to their head and patches of white on their arms, which is unique to the Siberian Snowmen."


Coleman, who is the co-author of "The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates," added that the elusive Siberian Snowman is reportedly not as fearful of humans as are his hairy counterparts on other continents.

"They're sometimes seen at the edge of a forest just staring at people and not really considered as wild creatures, compared to some Yeti reports in Nepal where they reportedly attack yaks or sherpas," Coleman told The Huffington Post.

Sightings of the Siberian Snowmen have increased three-fold over the past 20 years, prompting scientists at Moscow's Darwin Museum to speculate that there may be a small population of these creatures.

Igor Burtsev, head of the International Center of Hominology in Moscow -- which investigates so-called snowmen -- told The Voice of Russia radio that "when Homo sapiens started populating the world, it viciously exterminated its closest relative in the hominid family, Homo neanderthalensis."

"Some of the Neanderthals, however, may have survived to this day in some mountainous wooded habitats that are more or less off limits to their arch foes. No clothing on them, no tools in hands and no fire in the household. Only round-the-clock watchfulness for a Homo sapiens around."

While the Darwin Museum invited Coleman to join its Siberian conference and to give a presentation, he declined, because rather than extending to him the professional courtesy of paying for his trip, "they turned around and said, 'Oh, no, we can't afford that!' And they suggested I go to one of the online travel services to get a cheap flight," Coleman said.

Despite that little inconvenience, Coleman said he thinks the museum is doing serious work in the realm of hominology -- the study of unknown hairy bipedal creatures.

Another reason why it's not the most convenient time for Coleman to be trekking through Siberia is that he's in the process of a major expansion of his museum -- the only cryptozoology museum in the world.

"We're going to have enough space now to exhibit more of the evidence, including my collection of 150 footprint casts and other materials from Yeti, Bigfoot and other hominids from around the world," he said.

As scientists search for evidence of the Siberian Snowman in the mountains of Kemerovo, Coleman will have a grand monster re-opening of his museum on Oct. 30 in Portland.
SRC: Huffington Post

Yeti Institute Director, Igor Burtsev: Around 30 Yetis live in area of Kemerovo

Click to read our entire coverage of the Siberian Yeti.

Yesterday we posted the story "Scientists from Seven Countries Gather in Russia to Discuss Yeti"

Today we have a follow up with the director of the International Centre of Hominology in Tashtagol, Igor Burtsev. Igor is also the head of the 'Yeti institute' at Kemerovo State University.

Below is the full article from the Daily Mail, where Igor estimates the number of Yeti's. He also proposes the Yeti's may be Neanderthals that have survived to this day.

Russian and American Yeti hunters join forces to track down '30-strong Siberian tribe'

International team of scientists to share secret Cold War evidence
By WILL STEWART

Its legend has long haunted the icy wastes of the Himalayas and Siberia.

Yet for all the mysterious sightings and strange footprints in the snow, the Yeti has proved remarkably elusive to those seeking solid evidence of its existence.

Now, however, the Abominable Snowman has an international team of scientists on its trail in a Russian region which one expert claims is home to around 30 of the creatures.

An expedition and conference – the largest of its kind since 1958 – will this week bring together scientists from Russia and the U.S. who have even agreed to share secret Cold War evidence in the effort to prove the humanoid beasts exist.

It follows a rise in apparent Yeti sightings in the Kemerovo region 3,000 miles – and four time zones – east of Moscow.

One of the most recent was reported by 82-year-old Raisa Sudochakova, who claims her dogs howled in fear and ran when they saw the Yeti.

She said: ‘It was still a tall creature, but not giant. It was covered with long brown-grey hair, like a bear. It wasn’t a bear – I have lived all my life in Siberia and wouldn’t make that mistake. This creature walked like a human, or almost like a human.’

Experts speculated she may have seen a young Yeti, as other sightings have suggested the creatures are about 7ft.

This week’s expedition will begin with experts from six nations gathering at the International Centre of Hominology in Tashtagol.

Igor Burtsev, the centre’s director, believes around 30 Yetis live in the Kuzbass coal mining area of Kemerovo, where villagers say they steal sheep and hens. He claims they are Neanderthals who have survived to this day.

The event comes after the most recent expedition to find the Yeti failed, despite the efforts of Russian heavyweight boxing champion Nikolai Valuyev, known as the ‘Beast from the East’.

‘Valuyev did not manage to meet the Yeti itself but on the way he discovered traces such as broken tree branches,’ said a local government spokesman.

‘By the time they reached the Azass cave, the expedition saw gigantic footprints.’

Not surprisingly, there has been a degree of scepticism over the latest hunt – not least from those who reckon it’s just an attempt to boost tourism in Kemerovo.

SRC: www.dailymail.co.uk