The Gralien Report

The death of a man who could arguably be called one of the most interesting Bigfoot researchers ever to have lived, Jon-Erik Beckjord, has taken many of us by surprise. That is, those of us who have indeed heard by now. As Loren Coleman says over at Cryptomundo, “Considering that Erik Beckjord impulsively communicated at all hours of the day and night, via phone and emails, it is ironic to learn that he died over a month ago, without the word getting out until now.”

I can’t say I’m unfamiliar with what Coleman is describing. In fact, the very last thing Beckjord ever said to me personally came via email at around midnight one evening close to three years ago. Regarding an interview I had hoped to do with him for an article I was writing, I had asked when would be best to call him. “Now,” he shot back in an email almost immediately, followed shortly thereafter by this second transmission, an enigmatic message that would be the last I would ever receive from him:

“Stop being weird.”

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This just in from Nick Redfern:

Yesterday, fellow-Fortean, author and good friend Marie Jones interviewed me about my cryptozoological research. We covered a lot of ground, including my research into werewolves, phantom black-dogs, the issue of giant birds in the US, the legends of still-surviving mammoths, what drives me to continue my crypto-research, why I think that at least some of the unknown “animals” in our world have paranormal origins, and much more.

The interview has just been posted to the Para-Explorers site that Marie runs with Larry Flaxman, and can be found right here:

http://paraexplorers.com/index.php?page=on-the-road-with

The website Londonist reported on Saturday Strangeness this past weekend, involving one of my favorite subjects: creatures below the Earth.  

Urban legends of the more sinister variety have always intrigued me, so continuous whispers and friend-of-a-friend tales concerning a mutant race of beings inhabiting the dark tunnel systems, sewers and subterranean passages beneath the capital are always welcome, even if unfounded (despite rumours circulating as far back as the nineteenth century). However, one thing us folklorists do know is that the underbelly of the city is teeming with all manner of spectres, and a majority of these seem trapped in the London Underground.

 http://londonist.com/2007/11/the_saturday_st_24.php

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…but refuse to pay it back to the investor who forked over the sum in exchange for the biggest freezer-full-of-roadkill in Georgia. As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer are saying they still plan to make $500,000 off of their hoax.   

The nasty situation involving two men from Georgia and their frozen rubber monkey-suit continues to get nastier. The Journal-Constitution reported on August 22 that William Wald Lett Jr., an investment broker from Indiana, had filed a theft complaint late last week with the Clayton County police. Lett says that the amount paid to hoaxers Dyer and Whitton was indeed $50,000, confirming rumors that had been circulating over the last several days via the internet.   

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2008/08/22/bigfootmet.html?cxntlid=inform_artr 

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I read this entry today over at the Switched blog, where author Tim Stevens questions the credibility of photographic evidence of extraordinary claims:

http://www.switched.com/2008/08/22/with-photoshop-a-click-away-can-photography-be-trusted/

Photoshop isn’t always the culprit; as we’ve seen recently with the Bigfoot hoax down in Georgia, sometimes juicy photos that show just enough of something, but not enough of anything to make it distinguishable, can sometimes get enquiring minds working without the use of digital manipulation. Still, the convenience of having sofware of this sort has made hoaxing even simpler than dangling a hubcap UFO horizontally from fishing line.

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Though it’s old news by now, there are interesting things being reported about a document, having to do with an incident that occurred on July 18th 1947 (a mere eleven days after the alleged recovery some kind of craft at Roswell, New Mexico), which details a hauntingly similar turn of events… accross the globe in China! The following appeared several days ago on The Oz Files blog:

Reporter Gao Yang Ji-Yong reported on Sichuan Online on August 7 2008 on the “significant discovery” of a July 18 1947 document from Chengdu archives describing the discovery and investigation of a “flying saucer” found by a local farmer. The material was rushed to the Physics Institute of Sichuan University where it was personally examined by the Dean of Physics Zheng Zhanhan. It seemed locals were initially puzzled by the find. Shades of Roswell! The culprit it seems was US hardware - a “high altitude weather measuring” device the report indicated. Or perhaps it was a rogue Mogul array - I’m kidding … perhaps?

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During a startling turn of events recently in the town of Leavenworth, Kansas, it looks like a small “underground city” has been discovered, possibly dating back to the 1800s:

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Bigfoot…

…and Wild Boy

My friend Regan Lee, one of my favorite bloggers who is a writer and fellow columnist for UFO Magazine like myself, has weighed in on the recent Bigfoot hoax:

http://paranormalbigfoot.blogspot.com/2008/08/bigfoot-in-freezer-dont-get-so-excited.html

The day before the dreaded conference in California, Regan and I had corresponded about what may come to pass in the 24 hours that would follow, as well as the shameful, “carnival-like” atmosphere it was generating. Though I’m certainly glad my own associations with one individual at the heart of this mess, if nothing else, may have helped hold Regan’s attention (as well as that of a few others) to the matter at hand, reading her perspectives here in the “aftermath” only further brings home the clear and ever-present danger involved in this kind of research.

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Here in North Carolina where I live, occasionally we hear stories of feral cats and dogs which, after being released into the wild by owners who longer wanted them, resort to instictive survival by acclimating to living in the wild. Similarly, there are some folks who believe creatures like the Chupacabra may be “alien pets” dumped here on Earth by extraterrestrials who no longer wanted them. Recently over at a blog called My Seattle Pets, one writer has been discussing this idea:

Along with Bigfoot, there was another mysterious creature in the news recently: “Chupacabra.”

The Miami UFO Center describes the elusive creatures as pets of aliens left behind to fend for themselves. Other theorists claim they are the product of an experiment gone wrong. In any case, they’re apparently not as cute and cuddly as “E. T.”

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