Yet such is the call of all the wild stories about this mythic creature that even Meldrum let himself hope against hope when he started to hear reports in July that two men had dragged the body of a Bigfoot-like beast out of the north Georgia woods and frozen it solid in a 1,500-pound block of ice. The news sounded like the breakthrough that the Bigfoot community has been waiting for: a body, specifically DNA evidence; the proof they need to satisfy a skeptical world.
Then Meldrum heard that Las Vegas promoter and self-described Bigfoot hunter Tom Biscardi was involved, and his excitement evaporated. Meldrum had dealt with what he calls Biscardi's "shenanigans" before. In 2005 Biscardi brought him what he claimed was "a hand of unknown origin" that turned out to be nothing more than a bear paw in a pickle jar. That same year, Biscardi claimed to have a live, captured Bigfoot in Nevada and convinced listeners of a late-night radio show to pay $14.99 for access to his "webcam" to view the beast. Later Biscardi said he was the one who'd been duped—by an elderly woman whose claims that Bigfoot was in her backyard he'd never even checked out.
Whether Biscardi really believed that the Georgians' frozen Sasquatch was the real deal or not--and he insists that he did—he certainly knew how to turn the story into a hot topic for the 24/7 news cycle in a country that's more than a little weary of politics, war and economic woes.
You'd have thought one look at the YouTube clips posted by the two Georgia men who claimed the discovery would be enough to tip off even the blindest of the faithful that this was bogus. In one, Matt Whitton, a sheriff's deputy then on sick leave for getting shot in the hand (and now reportedly fired for perpetrating the hoax) has his brother pose as an absurdly implausible "very busy scientist." In others, Whitton and his partner, Rick Dyer, a former corrections officer, simply drive around to the theme of "Knight Rider," proclaiming themselves the "best Bigfoot trackers in the world."
Yet because Biscardi had the audacity to promise DNA evidence, photos, and even video of Bigfoot creatures lurking in the woods, some 50 media outlets flocked to the Crowne Plaza hotel in Palo Alto, Calif., on Aug. 15 for the press conference that Biscardi had set up: ABC, CBS, The Associated Press … NEWSWEEK.
By the end of the day, this latest installment in the Bigfoot saga was the most-viewed story on MSNBC and CNN.com, which carried live coverage of the 45-minute conference that Friday afternoon. But, then, despite the excitement, the proof proved nonexistent. The pictures were laughable. There was no video. And the DNA evidence? It came back possum. "It means he'd probably eaten one," insisted Biscardi, who at the time had taken the Georgians under his wing but now says he plans to sue them for fraud. Their lawyer says they were the ones who were duped as Biscardi spun their little joke into a national news event.
Biscardi says he and his backers shelled out $50,000 for the body, only to discover days later that—shock!—it was nothing but a costume stuffed with animal parts: ham bones, intestines, eyes, teeth, an entire pig and, it would seem, some possum. "We're still pulling things out of it," says Bob Schmalzbach, one of Biscardi's associates who went to Georgia the day before the press conference to deliver $50,000 in cash to Whitton and Dyer. He said he thought what he saw in the block of ice was the real deal. "I could see a silhouette. I chipped the ice down to teeth and eyeballs, and thought, "This is a real animal here." So Schmalzbach handed over the money and hauled away the enormous Sasquatch-sicle in a trailer while toasting his fellow Bigfoot hunters. "We were sure we'd solved the mystery."
By Sunday morning the jig was up. The body had thawed enough for Schmalzbach to see it was a rubber costume. An irate Biscardi called Whitton and Dyer, who admitted to the hoax, then skipped town, allegedly leaving Biscardi with the bill for their Palo Alto hotel room.
Bigfoot investigators who hope to be taken seriously claim the hoax is a blight on the reputation of an industry, if not a science.
