- This is my review of the Greg Long book, as published
in the current issue of the US edition of FATE Magazine.
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- FATE May 2004 Book Reviews Page 82-83
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- The Making of Bigfoot: The Inside Story
By Greg Long
New York: Prometheus Books (New York),
- 2004, 475 pages; $25
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- Greg Long's book is not so much about Bigfoot as it is
a well-orchestrated character assassination of Roger Patterson, the man
holding the camera at Bluff Creek, California, on October 20, 1967, who
allegedly filmed Bigfoot. (Patterson died in 1972.) At 475 pages, it is
badly in need of more editing and less about when Greg Long eats chocolate
doughnuts (p. 354). Two-thirds of this book is mostly flowery prose that
you will have to endure to locate the kernel of the story. That core turns
out to be a "he said/he said" tale viewed through Greg Long's
biased sunglasses.
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- The psychological warfare this book engages in is in
evidence from one end of the text to the other. For example, Long wastes
no opportunity to frame Roger Patterson using the phrase "little man,"
14 times in the first nine pages of chapter one. (Some of the characterizations
are extremely harsh, e.g. "the puny little man on his little white
horse," p. 22.)
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- Long has also filled the book full of "innocent"
mistakes and interpretations; including these examples:
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- - Getting the chronology wrong about when Sasquatch researcher
John Green got into the field, saying he began with the 1958 Bluff Creek
finds (p. 34).
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- - Projecting psychological feelings on people (e.g. Long
writes on p. 452 of a London conference's preview of the "man-in-the-suit"
confession, "much to Coleman's embarrassment," which, of course,
is ridiculous).
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- - Misidentifying Ivan T. Sanderson, the well-known Scottish
zoologist who lived in America, as a "botanist" (p. 163)
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- - Talking of court records that show that plywood was
found in Bob Gimlin's garage and Gimlin was charged with receiving stolen
property. Long reports that the charges were later dismissed (pp. 169-170).
What Long forgets to tell his readers, which the Gimlin family shared with
me, is that Bob Gimlin was working for the city at the time and the person
that told him to store the plywood was his boss, the Chief of Police. Greg
Long has chosen what he wants to place in his book in the making of his
case.
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- By the time you get to the "confession" of
Bob Heironimus (pp. 336ff), the alleged "guy-in-the-suit," you
don't know what or whom to believe. Heironimus started shopping around
his story in 1998, according to media reports not mentioned in this book,
to try to get some financial rewards from the tabloid The Sun. Then Heironimus
hooked up with Greg Long.
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- Heironimus's story is as full of holes as the elusive
Bigfoot suit surely must be, if it ever existed and could be found again
in 2004. Several questions remain open thanks to Long's narrative. Most
are technical ones, but a few that obviously leap out include:
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- - When and where did Heironimus met Patterson and Gimlin?
-
- - Was it a three- or six-piece suit? The book gives both
stories.
-
- - Was the alleged Bigfoot suit created from a hide of
a red horse skinned by Patterson or an artificial gorilla suit from a guy
in North Carolina? The book details both origins.
-
- - Did the Carolina suit maker get paid by Patterson or
not? He has said one thing in the book and another to a reporter recently.
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- - Was Heironimus first approached by Gimlin as noted
in the book, or by Patterson, as mentioned on a publicity appearance on
MSNBC?
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- - How did the hair-covered breasts (seen in the October
20, 1967 footage) get on the front of the supposed three- or six-piece
"gorilla" suit - despite Long's "thought" that maybe
they were "attached black balloons filled with sand"?
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- Of course, there's more to the filming of Bigfoot than
meets the eye. An open-mind about all aspects of this melodrama is helpful,
but after you wade through this torturous book, you will walk away unsatisfied.
I look forward to future examinations of the film. In the meantime, the
Patterson-Gimlin footage remains worthy of our time as possible evidence
of a filmed furry cryptid primate. And evidence of Bigfoot exists beyond
the legacy of Roger Patterson and Greg Long. - Loren Coleman
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- Comment
From Charlette LeFevre
5-4-4
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- Hi Jeff,
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- Loren Coleman's review on Greg Long's book is accurate
and yes the book is disappointing for researchers.
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- I only object to one comment that Loren Coleman made
and that was putting Greg Long's name in the same sentence as that of Roger
Patterson.
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- Charlette LeFevre Seattle UFO/Paranormal Group
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