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There seem to be a lot of people sayting "we know this" and "we know that" about the Patterson film being faked, and about how there have been "confessions." I would just like to point out that one cannot really know anything for a fact in such cases based solely on what someone says, because it is an unfortunate part of the human condition that people tell lies, sometimes to an astonishing degree. Of course there are people who claim to know in intricate detail how Patterson faked his Bigfoot film. There are no doubt also people who claim to know how Elvis faked his death.
In fairness, I should turn this back on myself and admit that we cannot be sure of the "facts" given by Patterson and Gimlin either. For instance, their story includes them camping and exploring the area for several days before they had the Bigfoot encounter, unnecessary if they were just there to make a fake film. It also includes Gimlin, not Patterson, suggesting on Oct. 20th that they check out the area in which the filming occurred, making any scenario in which Patterson had costume-man lying in wait unknown to Gimlin impossible. And even if that scenario did somehow occur, Gimlin (who is still alive by the way and does not waver from the story) says he drew his rifle and pointed it at the Bigfoot, never putting it to his shoulder but just covering Patterson as he shot the film. Costume-man therefore would have been risking his life and could not have been sure that Gimlin's adrenaline wouldn't get the better of him. Any hoax scenario, it seems, would have had to have Gimlin in on it and yet his lack of any financial gain from it is well known. But as I said, the two mens' story cannot be considered fact as it is mostly unwitnessed by anyone else. Maybe the whole thing is made up. Maybe Gimlin did profit secretly. Maybe, maybe, maybe... I just think that the stories of any and all who say they know it's a hoax and the details thereof need to be given just as much scrutiny as Patterson and Gimlin themselves.
There have been no true "confessions." The only real confessions would be from Patterson or Gimlin fessing up. Patterson died a few years after the filming from Hodgkin's Disease never having done so, and Gimlin to this day makes occasional appearances at Bigfoot conferences and has never changed his story. Admittedly, Roger Patterson was a jack of all trades and master of none who had a personality that many might have seen as being capable of a hoax, not helped at all by the fact that he owed money on the camera rental and a warrant for his arrest was issued because of it (though that would seem to negate any idea of his being paid money for making the film). But I tend to see him as a kind of fly by night character who had one insanely lucky day.
By the way, it is a matter of record that in the immediate aftermath of the filming Patterson called a museum in British Columbia where he had contacts to try and have tracking dogs brought to the film site to pick up the creature's trail. This did not end up materalizing, but he could not have known that it would not. If he'd been staging a hoax, what more foolhardy a move could he have possibly made?
In fairness, I should turn this back on myself and admit that we cannot be sure of the "facts" given by Patterson and Gimlin either. For instance, their story includes them camping and exploring the area for several days before they had the Bigfoot encounter, unnecessary if they were just there to make a fake film. It also includes Gimlin, not Patterson, suggesting on Oct. 20th that they check out the area in which the filming occurred, making any scenario in which Patterson had costume-man lying in wait unknown to Gimlin impossible. And even if that scenario did somehow occur, Gimlin (who is still alive by the way and does not waver from the story) says he drew his rifle and pointed it at the Bigfoot, never putting it to his shoulder but just covering Patterson as he shot the film. Costume-man therefore would have been risking his life and could not have been sure that Gimlin's adrenaline wouldn't get the better of him. Any hoax scenario, it seems, would have had to have Gimlin in on it and yet his lack of any financial gain from it is well known. But as I said, the two mens' story cannot be considered fact as it is mostly unwitnessed by anyone else. Maybe the whole thing is made up. Maybe Gimlin did profit secretly. Maybe, maybe, maybe... I just think that the stories of any and all who say they know it's a hoax and the details thereof need to be given just as much scrutiny as Patterson and Gimlin themselves.
There have been no true "confessions." The only real confessions would be from Patterson or Gimlin fessing up. Patterson died a few years after the filming from Hodgkin's Disease never having done so, and Gimlin to this day makes occasional appearances at Bigfoot conferences and has never changed his story. Admittedly, Roger Patterson was a jack of all trades and master of none who had a personality that many might have seen as being capable of a hoax, not helped at all by the fact that he owed money on the camera rental and a warrant for his arrest was issued because of it (though that would seem to negate any idea of his being paid money for making the film). But I tend to see him as a kind of fly by night character who had one insanely lucky day.
By the way, it is a matter of record that in the immediate aftermath of the filming Patterson called a museum in British Columbia where he had contacts to try and have tracking dogs brought to the film site to pick up the creature's trail. This did not end up materalizing, but he could not have known that it would not. If he'd been staging a hoax, what more foolhardy a move could he have possibly made?
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