THE MURPHY FILE NEWSLETTER #28

April 1, 2007
©C. L. Murphy - cmurphy101@shaw.ca

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APRIL 1ST IS NOTORIOUS in the world of sasquatch/bigfoot studies. I shudder when I see the date
on any old newspaper articles. However, believe me, it is just a date where this newsletter is
concerned.

THIS ARTWORK of a Neanderthal man intrigued me

An early 20th century view of how
Neanderthal man may have looked.
somewhat. I don’t think there is any relationship with
the sasquatch, but most certainly with the Russian
snowman or almasty (which I think may also be in
North America). Indeed, it has been theorized that
such are relict Neanderthals. It is very strange that
they all disappeared, and would you believe that one
highly unlikely theory on the reason here is that their
brains (heads) continued to enlarge and eventually
became too big for the female birth canal. Incidentally,
by my calculation, the size of a sasquatch’s head (i.e.,
Patty) is about one-sixth of its height; while with
humans it is one-eighth (see page 99, Meet the
Sasquatch).

ROGER KNIGHTS has asked me

to be a little more explicit on the
path the creature took in relation BLUFF
to the elevated photograph of the CREEK
film site. Shown here is what I
believe to be fairly close, starting
at frame 352 (heading East). In EAST
effect, the creature did head into
the forest on its left hand side.
The reason the film site got
“wiped out” is that at some point
in time (likely several times) after
1972, torrential rains turned Bluff
Creek into a raging torrent, and it
could not negotiate the bend shown. It could not go straight ahead because it was blocked by a
mountain. There was nowhere else to go but the film site. For certain, judging by the soil rocks and so
forth, the creek had done the same thing in the past, and was likely responsible for the little clearing
in the first place. This time, however, it was much stronger and left a great gorge, well over two-thirds
into the site. However, standing in the gorge on a sunny autumn day gives one the feeling that it has
always been there. I would say the entire region, referred to as the “primitive area,” is in a state of
constant change, but few, if any, people really notice because so few go into the area.
(More on this subject is available on my blog under Film Site Album (link provided).

Note: My diagram is only generally the same as the diagram Bob Titmus made as seen on page 42 of Meet the
Sasquatch. Bob’s drawing was not intended to be a scale diagram, so it is difficult to reconcile with an actual photograph.
Also, please note that the photograph covers just a portion of the area Bob shows.
 ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO René Dahinden gave me
this photo (7”x 9.25”) that shows Sheriff Bill Closner
holding a cast he made of footprints found in
Skamania County, Washington in March 1969. At the
time, it was reported that the cast was 22 inches long.
René showed this in his books (first and later edition),
and I show the same in Meet the Sasquatch, p, 175.
On the back of the photo, René shows a notation that
the cast was actually only 15.5 inches long. Although I
was aware of this when I wrote Meet the Sasquatch,
the newspaper reports stated the cast was 22 inches,
so I decided to leave the original figure. Now, lo and
behold, Dr. Meldrum has told me that Closner provided a copy of this cast to Dr. Grover Krantz, and
the cast is 15.5 inches long. Please put a little note next to the photo in Meet the Sasquatch.

SHOWN HERE, AT LONG LAST, is a photo of John W.

Burns, the teacher at the Chehalis Indian Reservation,
British Columbia, who developed the word “sasquatch,”
which is now the Canadian word for creature. Burns started
working there in 1925 and became acquainted with native
encounters with the creature. Here is what he wrote
regarding the name: “The older Indians called the tribe
‘Saskehavis,’ literally, ‘wild men.’ I named them “Sasquatch,”
which can be translated freely into English as, “hairy giants.”
(See page 31 of Meet the Sasquatch for the full article on
Burns.)

One of the sasquatch encoun-

ters Burns recorded was the
abduction of 16-year-old
Serephine Long in about 1890.
He offered the artwork shown
here to illustrate the story. It
appears the work was created
under his direction.

This is Serephine Long in a photo that I believe

was taken in 1954. I will guess that she is about
80 years old. This would put her birth date at
1874. She probably told her story to Burns in the
1930s, making her in her 50s at the time.
All of these photos were published in the
Canadian edition of Liberty magazine, December
1954. All I have is a photocopy of the article that
was given to John Fuhrmann. I am trying to
obtain (purchase) a copy of the actual magazine.
If anyone has any leads in this regard please contact me.
DAVID CUSICK (died c.1840), author of Sketches
of Ancient History of the Six Nations (1828), created
this engraving of “Stonish Giants” chasing native
people. The giants, it is said, started to overrun the
country in about 242 AD. We are told they were so
ravenous that they “devoured the people of almost
every town in the country.” With the help of the
“Holder of the Heavens,” the Giants were defeated
and forced to “seek asylum in the regions of the
north.” I really don’t think there were any “towns”
around at that time, but there were certainly
settlements.

PLEASE NOTE THIS UPCOMING MAJOR Bigfoot

Conference in Ohio. Don Keating is the organizer, and all
the necessary information on the event can be found on his
website >http://www.angelfire.com/oh/ohiobigfoot/abc.html<
(Link Provided)

Don has some great speakers lined up, including Tony Healy
from Australia, who will later be visiting me in British
Columbia.

A while back, I mentioned that these events are very friendly,

and I encouraged you to attend them. If you live in Ohio or
plan on being in that great state during May, then I strongly
recommend you take in this conference.

THE FOOTPRINTS FOUND last October in the Plumas National

Forest, California, by Chuck and Michelle Padigo, were located in
the area seen here. The whole region is a very heavily forested
park preserve, so most certainly there could be sasquatch living
in there. Unfortunately, it’s a case of, “Lord, we don’t need
another footprint.” We are also at the same point with regard to
sightings. We are not there yet with regard to photographs or
videos–although the hoaxed material always counts for two
strikes against anyone who presents images.

MOST CERTAINLY, when we read about new discoveries in far-away places with strange-sounding
names, we marvel at the intrepid scientists who risked life and limb so that we can enjoy reading
about their adventures in National Geographic or some other prestigious scientific publication.
However, I am pleased to see that a few of our treasured professionals do appear to stick around
home, although not many wander very far into the “badlands.” One, nevertheless, did kick a rock, and
got to wondering about something that intrigued me many, many years ago.
If you get out into the garden now and then and shift things around, you have undoubtedly seen
lots of “wood bugs.” They always reminded me of little armadillos – somehow they’re not quite the
same as the other “bugs.” Well, guess what? Someone has just discovered that they are not bugs,
they’re isopods–a kind of crustacean (which has crabs and lobsters in its ranks). The newspaper
report that appeared in the Vancouver Sun, March 10, 2007, is provided below in case you like this
sort of thing.
 If your question is what’s all this got to do with hominology, the answer is, nothing really, other
than perhaps a glimmer of hope that a few budding scientists in anthropology or zoology will give
some thought to another creature that appears to be in our back yard.

THIS DECEIVING WORK actually got me going there for a while.

Crichton, of course, is a Hollywood personality, so I should have known
better. What he did, however, was a “no, no”, in my books. He directly
quoted material from the actual journal of a man (true life journal) and
then he faked entries to that journal. As a result, some material is
absolutely true, while other material is fabricated, but you don’t know
which is which. Indeed, he went to great ends to make sure you are led
to believe that everything is true (i.e., from the journal).
The material in question involves Vikings coming into contact with
what appear to be Neanderthals; very important information for
hominologists as there is strong speculation that the Russian snowman
is a Neanderthal.
Now, having said all of that, Erik Knatterud of Norway, waded in on
this issue, and while he points out that what Crichton says is indeed
trash, there is a saga about 2500 years old that talks of a Viking killing
several strange hairy man-like creatures (they were called trolls). The
Viking had traced the creatures to a cave where he saw them sitting
around a fire. Although I don’t think Crichton saw this material, he did
fabricate a scene in which the creatures (“wendols”–a word he made up) are in a cave sitting around
a fire. Anyway, I am sure Mr. Crichton would get a big laugh out of all this… ‘nuf said.

ON MY HANCOCK HOUSE BLOG, you will find an entry entitled, The

Sasquatch Chronicle (link provided). You will then see a link to a PDF that
covers the first part of this work (sightings/incidents from the beginning to
1849). EVERYTHING you need to know regarding the work is in the
introductory pages. PLEASE DON’T OVERLOOK the invitation to provide
illustrative material for the work. I have received a lot of great material from
some really great people (as you will see as I proceed), but I need a lot more.
 DR. JEFF MELDRUM has provided me with
information on a very interesting and intriguing funded
initiative he has undertaken. What you see here is a
series of views of a high-resolution 3D scan of a
footprint cast from the P-G film site, created at Idaho
State University's IDAHO VIRTUALIZATION
LABORATORY (IVL). The virtual model can be viewed
from various angles, with varied illuminations; it can be
measured, sectioned, superimposed, and rendered with
contour lines, etc. Jeff is now doing this with all the
footprint casts in the collection housed in his lab. He will
be traveling to the Willow Creek Museum to scan the
holdings there, and a copy of the skookum cast will be
shipped to Idaho for scanning as well. He will establish
a virtual archive of casts that will be accessible to the
public (especially sasquatch/bigfoot researchers)
through the IVL website. One will be able to select a
cast, view it in 3D space, and read details of its
provenience. He has provided links to both the website
and an example of a lower resolution "rotateable" cast.
The addresses are shown below.
If you have alleged sasquatch footprint casts,
would you please make them available for inclusion in this project. Please provide a photo of
the cast and all particulars via email to Jeff Meldrum:<jeff.meldrum@gmail.com>. Jeff will get back to
you as to directions.

VIRTUALIZATION WEBSITE (link provided): <http://ivl.imnh.isu.edu/ >

ROTATEABLE CAST (link provided): <http://ivl.imnh.isu.edu/SpecimenLibrary/java_applets/foot1.html>

JUST ME WONDERING ABOUT HAIR AGAIN, but I do

find this photograph fascinating. Here is the caption:

Many of these aborigine children, playing at a mission

station in Australia, have the Australian aborigines’
characteristic light blond hair, which turns dark at
puberty, and which is wavy rather than kinky. As adults,
they have a tendency towards hairy bodies and
premature balding. These typically Causcasoid features
suggest that ancient Caucasoid migrants to Australia
may have interbred with Mongoloids from Southeast
Asia.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. I am not saying that
aboriginal people are in any way connected to the yowie
or to sasquatch. However, that such creatures could be
connected to human beings is a possibility and there is
one funny little thing here that amuses me–a witness who said he saw a sasquatch baby noted that it
had white hair.
For certain, I’m going to bombard Tony Healy with questions when he gets here.

Source: Casson, Claiborne, Fagan, Karp, 1977. Mysteries of the Past. American Heritage Publishing Co. Inc., New York, pp.228,229.
Photo by David Moore.
 THE BIGFOOT LIVE RADIO SHOW on March 14 hosted by Tom
Biscardi and featuring Greg Long, Bob Heironimus, Philip Morris, Pat
Holdbrook and Marlon Davis was, in my opinion. very good. It takes a lot
of effort to put something like that together, and Biscardi did a good job
hosting it. Davis provided numerous illustrations that one could access on
the radio show website. As he was interviewed, one simply clicked on the
illustration referenced. Unfortunately, Long, Heironimus and Morris don’t
seem to be this far along with computers, so they could not see the
images. Nevertheless, Biscardi explained well what was shown, but I
really wish they would have seen the images. If there is a “next time” for a
show like this, then we should somehow make sure all of those
interviewed can see the images.
I did phone in and provided a few bits and pieces of information, one being confirmation that
Roger Patterson did undergo a polygraph test (lie detector) and he did pass the test. National Wildlife
magazine insisted on the test before they did an article on his film. Back in September 2006, I posted
the entire article on my blog under National Wildlife Article (link provided).
The alleged bigfoot “costume” was discussed at length, and we were told that it was essentially
made of dynel fabric (sort of like fur–stuff used for bathroom mats). To this, Patterson added a large
head, breasts, and some sort of hip-waders that I suppose were also covered in dynel. In addition we
are told that he shaved the dynel to make it patchy. I believe the smelly horsehide was used to make
the breasts. With all of these drastic changes, it surprises me greatly that Philip Morris claims he
recognized “his” costume when he first saw the film footage.
I am also a bit surprised that with all of this knowledge, Phillp Morris was unable to effectively
duplicate the creature seen in the film, although he offered time constraints as an excuse for this.
Well, perhaps he could work on it now and take all the time he wants.
Greg Long continues to insist that he has “evidence” in his book that the creature was a
fabrication. I sincerely wish this were true because if I could just get scientists to consider testimony
as “evidence,” then the sasquatch will be immediately recognized as a living creature. There is not
one piece of evidence in his book that can be considered “hard evidence.” There are millions of men
who could claim (testify) that they were the “creature” – even me. In 1967, I was 26 years old, the
same age as Bob Heironimus. I am also six feet tall and at that time weighed well over 200 pounds. If
I were to say I were the “man in the costume” it would be very difficult to prove otherwise, apart from
the fact that the film itself does not support a man in a costume.
Whatever the case, I am totally at a loss to rationalize this whole issue. I continue to believe that it
is all just a conspiracy to sell books, but have to admit that I think Phillip Morris is far beyond that, and
the fact that Heironimus knew Patterson and Gimlin does sort of “turn the blade” if you know what I
mean. Anyway, on the other side of the coin, we have Gimlin’s word, plus the forensic evaluation
performed by Jeff Glickman, evaluations by other scientists, and now Marlon Davis’s research, so it is
not a case of testimony vs. testimony.

End of Newsletter #28

Your comments are welcome.