The Making Of Bigfoot by Greg Long claimed to be the final nail in the coffin for the P-G film. Both Mr. Long and colleague, Kal Korff, have been heard on recent radio talk shows claiming this book will forever kill any notion in the minds of the North American public and I assume Canadian public as well, the P-G film of October 20 th 1967 was in any way a real animal.

As far as I am concerned, I am sorry to say Greg Long has failed. Mr. Long does deserve high praise for spending a long time running down rumors and leads in Yakima, Washington...a race against the clock...as three of the interviewed witnesses have since died.

It seems he had his mind made up from the start. Everybody Long talked to who said something he didn't like ended with Long saying something like, 'he's hiding something,' etc. People who told him what he wanted to hear, Long would acknowledge it with 'there's a ring of truth here,' etc.

In short, Mr. Long's entire thesis is based on hearsay and personal opinions of those he talked with and the dubious claims by one man, Bob Heironimus; that it was him who wore the 'suit' on that October day in 1967.

Curiously, Mr. Long makes no mention of the positive studies of the P-G film done by Dr. Don Grieve; Dr. Dmitri Donskoy; Dmitri Bayanov and more recently by forensic scientist Jeff Glickman. No mention of the studies by the late Dr. Grover Krantz and others. Oversight, or did Greg Long just choose to ignore them?

Looking through the book, here are some items I found: page 32, Long says that Jerry Crew was managing a construction crew. Wrong. Mr. Crew was simply a bulldozer operator.

On page 34 Long says that J.W. Burns' story about British Columbia's wildmen came out in a major magazine in 1927. Wrong. It was 1929.

On the same page Long states John Green really didn't start Bigfooting until the Jerry Crew story hit the media in 1958. Wrong. Green had started looking into the matter about three years earlier.

On page 64 Long states the battle of the Coral Sea was at or near war's end. Wrong. It was actually the first major clash between the United States and the Imperial Japanese Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was fought in 1942.

On page 78-79 I have to admit I nearly fell out of my chair when I read the Smithsonian Institution gave Roger's film a clean bill of health and presented him with a plaque. It was my understanding they rejected the footage and treated Roger with that; 'why are you bothering us with this Bigfoot stuff.

On page 163 Greg Long makes note of the fact Bob Gimlin rose early on the morning of October 20th and did some riding on his own while Roger was still asleep. When Bob came back to camp Roger was gone. The author uses this event to suggest Roger was down river setting up the hoax.: He forgets that at no time did Bob say Roger's horse was gone. Bob told me that Roger had gone down to Bluff Creek to wash up and that he was on foot.

On page 164 the author brings to light the height and weight estimates for the subject have not stayed the same in the ensuing years. Both Roger and Bob have changed their view when interviewed. How tall was it? How heavy was it, etc.? Having interviewed many witnesses, I would be more in doubt if both Roger and Bob had said the same thing and continued to do go year after year.

Also on page 164 Long says, "Patterson and Gimlin took castings of several of the creature's tracks. In fact, Roger only cast two prints; one right and one left, picking what he thought were the best and clearest prints. Long then makes the point, how could Bob Titmus have cast such clear prints 9 days later after they had been rained on so heavily?

I wonder if Mr. Long ever bothered to look at Bob Titmus' original castings. He could have, as they are on display in Willow Creek. The Titmus castings show weathering and water damage. If Bob Gimlin had not covered the tracks in the sandbar most likely Bob Titmus would have found nothing left.

Page 251: Mr. Long states he knows for a fact that John Green was able to stop work due to royalties from his book, Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us . I was taken aback a bit when I read this and John and I laughed about it. I told John you must have had a far better deal with Hancock House Publishers than I ever did. He replied, "If only that were true."

Then, on page 267 Long asks Al DeAtley, Roger Patterson's brother-in-law, "Did you ever hear that Patterson faked evidence?" Answer: "Never did." Long seems frustrated with DeAtley and who can blame him; I still scratch my head when DeAtley just can't seem to remember what he did between the time he received the film to the first showing at his house on 'October 22nd? But Long seems to downplay the fact that at no time did DeAtley say that the film was faked.

On pages 345 and 346 Bob Heironimus describes Roger's homemade Bigfoot suit, made from a dead horsehide. This description completely contradicts the Philip Morris's description and story told in the last “breakthrough" chapter.

Perhaps Long's biggest blunder comes on pages 380-381 in which two stills from the P-G film are presented. Long states, "Frame 323 of the film reveals the left foot of the 'Bigfoot." Wrong! Mr. Long needs to study the stills more closely as in frame 323 the right foot is being raised, not the left! And these are the obvious mistakes.

On page 432 Mr. Long states when news of the film first hit the media that for unknown reasons they bought into the story and accepted Roger's word. It seems to me at the time most researchers were highly disappointed in the media's attack on the film and with only a few exceptions most academics were crying fake. North American science, for the most part, was simply not amused or interested in this film.

And finally there is a chapter on costume maker Philip Morris starting on page 443. By the look of things here, this chapter was a last minute addition to what was a completed book and don't understand why Greg Long included it. This chapter completely contradicts the previous 442 pages.

The costume Philip Morris' describes is completely different from the costume Bob Heironimus said he tried on. Morris fails to produce any paper trail to substantiate his claim that he sold Roger Patterson the 'suit.'

However, author Greg Long, through some mind-bending self-logic tries to paste the two stories together and fails completely!

The Making of Bigfoot only proved that Roger Patterson is in many ways Yakima's version of Mr. Halley from the Green Acres television show; most people liked him but for gosh sake, don't give him any money. Long's book is mostly one man's claim he wore the suit and another man, Philip Morris, who said he sold Patterson the suit.

In my view, Mr. Long should write a follow up book, (perhaps less outrageous than his first) saying Patterson was in cahoots with the late John Chambers in making the suit and that Bob Heironimus shared suit-wearing duties with Jerry Romney and later followed in the sandbar by none-other than Ray Wallace with his wooden fake feet! All the while the late Rant Mullins is sulking' in the background that his fake big feet from 1924 were far better.

Tom Steenburg
Mission, British Columbia, Canada

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