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Tuesday 27 November 2012

Mike Rugg on Sasquatch DNA and Dr. Ketchum PR



 Mike Rugg of The Bigfoot Discovery Museum gives his take on the Sasquatch DNA news:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA1r_eaXXBg&feature=g-u-u

And, a couple days late -sorry- Dr. Melba Ketchum's press release about the DNA news:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

‘BIGFOOT’ DNA SEQUENCED IN UPCOMING GENETICS STUDY

Five-Year Genome Study Yields Evidence of Homo sapiens/Unknown Hominin Hybrid Species in North America

Contact: Robin Lynne, media@dnadiagnostics.com, 231.622.5362

DALLAS, Nov. 24–A team of scientists can verify that their 5-year long DNA study, currently under peer-review, confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species, commonly called “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch,” living in North America. Researchers’ extensive DNA sequencing suggests that the legendary Sasquatch is a human relative that arose approximately 15,000 years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo sapiens with an unknown primate species.

The study was conducted by a team of experts in genetics, forensics, imaging and pathology, led by Dr. Melba S. Ketchum of Nacogdoches, TX. In response to recent interest in the study, Dr. Ketchum can confirm that her team has sequenced 3 complete Sasquatch nuclear genomes and determined the species is a human hybrid:

“Our study has sequenced 20 whole mitochondrial genomes and utilized next generation sequencing to obtain 3 whole nuclear genomes from purported Sasquatch samples. The genome sequencing shows that Sasquatch mtDNA is identical to modern Homo sapiens, but Sasquatch nuDNA is a novel, unknown hominin related to Homo sapiens and other primate species. Our data indicate that the North American Sasquatch is a hybrid species, the result of males of an unknown hominin species crossing with female Homo sapiens.

Hominins are members of the taxonomic grouping Hominini, which includes all members of the genus Homo. Genetic testing has already ruled out Homo neanderthalis and the Denisova hominin as contributors to Sasquatch mtDNA or nuDNA. “The male progenitor that contributed the unknown sequence to this hybrid is unique as its DNA is more distantly removed from humans than other recently discovered hominins like the Denisovan individual,” explains Ketchum.

“Sasquatch nuclear DNA is incredibly novel and not at all what we had expected. While it has human nuclear DNA within its genome, there are also distinctly non-human, non-archaic hominin, and non-ape sequences. We describe it as a mosaic of human and novel non-human sequence. Further study is needed and is ongoing to better characterize and understand Sasquatch nuclear DNA.”

Ketchum is a veterinarian whose professional experience includes 27 years of research in genetics, including forensics. Early in her career she also practiced veterinary medicine, and she has previously been published as a participant in mapping the equine genome. She began testing the DNA of purported Sasquatch hair samples 5 years ago.

Ketchum calls on public officials and law enforcement to immediately recognize the Sasquatch as an indigenous people:

“Genetically, the Sasquatch are a human hybrid with unambiguously modern human maternal ancestry. Government at all levels must recognize them as an indigenous people and immediately protect their human and Constitutional rights against those who would see in their physical and cultural differences a ‘license’ to hunt, trap, or kill them.”

To me it is no surprise how vitriolic some of the attacks on Ketchum are -people calling her DNA evidence everything from "pseudo science" to fake and the personal attacks are just disgusting. People CANNOT refute her DNA evidence, especially if other laboratories were involved to do their own seperate DNA work.   The clincher is, however, the results and the paper regarding these has not yet been published!  So no one can say the results are...basically, crap.

Sunday 25 November 2012

Bigfoot Evidence

 If you want to learn about the latest evidence and see possible Sasquatch photographs then you reall NEED to checkout Bigfoot Evidence regularly:

http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/new-footage-trapper-in-alberta-canada.html

Saturday 24 November 2012

'Bigfoot' DNA Sequenced In Upcoming Genetics Study

In case you've just woken up -the World HAS changed.

Well, maybe -IF all the name-calling and deciding it's all bunk....before the report is released!!

 
PRWEB.COM Newswire

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) November 24, 2012

A team of scientists can verify that their 5-year long DNA study, currently under peer-review, confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species, commonly called “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch,” living in North America. Researchers’ extensive DNA sequencing suggests that the legendary Sasquatch is a human relative that arose approximately 15,000 years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo sapiens with an unknown primate species.

The study was conducted by a team of experts in genetics, forensics, imaging and pathology, led by Dr. Melba S. Ketchum of Nacogdoches, TX. In response to recent interest in the study, Dr. Ketchum can confirm that her team has sequenced 3 complete Sasquatch nuclear genomes and determined the species is a human hybrid:

“Our study has sequenced 20 whole mitochondrial genomes and utilized next generation sequencing to obtain 3 whole nuclear genomes from purported Sasquatch samples. The genome sequencing shows that Sasquatch mtDNA is identical to modern Homo sapiens, but Sasquatch nuDNA is a novel, unknown hominin related to Homo sapiens and other primate species. Our data indicate that the North American Sasquatch is a hybrid species, the result of males of an unknown hominin species crossing with female Homo sapiens.

Hominins are members of the taxonomic grouping Hominini, which includes all members of the genus Homo. Genetic testing has already ruled out Homo neanderthalis and the Denisova hominin as contributors to Sasquatch mtDNA or nuDNA. “The male progenitor that contributed the unknown sequence to this hybrid is unique as its DNA is more distantly removed from humans than other recently discovered hominins like the Denisovan individual,” explains Ketchum.

“Sasquatch nuclear DNA is incredibly novel and not at all what we had expected. While it has human nuclear DNA within its genome, there are also distinctly non-human, non-archaic hominin, and non-ape sequences. We describe it as a mosaic of human and novel non-human sequence. Further study is needed and is ongoing to better characterize and understand Sasquatch nuclear DNA.”

Ketchum is a veterinarian whose professional experience includes 27 years of research in genetics, including forensics. Early in her career she also practiced veterinary medicine, and she has previously been published as a participant in mapping the equine genome. She began testing the DNA of purported Sasquatch hair samples 5 years ago.

Ketchum calls on public officials and law enforcement to immediately recognize the Sasquatch as an indigenous people:

“Genetically, the Sasquatch are a human hybrid with unambiguously modern human maternal ancestry. Government at all levels must recognize them as an indigenous people and immediately protect their human and Constitutional rights against those who would see in their physical and cultural differences a ‘license’ to hunt, trap, or kill them.”

Full details of the study will be presented in the near future when the study manuscript publishes.
###

Dr. Ketchum is available for interview or to answer further questions about the Sasquatch genome study and associated research on novel contemporary hominins at media(at)dnadiagnostics(dot)com
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/11/prweb10166775.htm
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/943177#ixzz2DAYHjby7

I ought to point out that in science you have findings you produce a report that is assessed by others in the field to double-check and CONFIRM the findings and make sure all the "science" is spot on. You cannot go releasing portions of the paper as that starts negating its value.  I have been involved in a couple of these on other matters -never signed a non-disclosure agreementbut then, I can keep my mouth shut!

I CAN understand why certain hominologists want that data out in the open now.  But they need to wait.

I have seen sites where Ketchum is called some of the most disgusting names possible and where racism and low IQs abound. Now, a lot of those sites are hunting sites. Am I surprised?  But, the cryptozoology community is also joining in with this nastyness.

Grow up. Wait.  The Christmas present will still be on top the cupboard.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

HAUNTED SKIES

Phenomena X –Things Strange And Sinister: UFOs





In 1947, businessman Kenneth Arnold observed a group of crescent shaped object flying over Mount Rainier, Washington state.  He described their movement as being akin to a saucer skipped across water.   The press coined the term “flying saucer”
for many, this was the “birth of UFOs.”

However, on the 24th January, 1878, farmer John Martin, living a few miles north of Dennison, Texas, described the object he saw approaching his position and moving overhead as “the size of a large saucer.”  The brightness from the object slightly blinded Martin – in the same way as looking at a powerful light or the sun does.  All it would have taken was for some newspaperman to write Martin had seen a “flying saucer”!

There are those who claim that UFOs –a term coined by the United States Air Force to define a sighting of an “unidentified object”- were around long before that.  The likes of Erich von Daniken have made a great deal of money out of books, articles and TV shows about “Ancient Astronauts.” 


The good thing is that if you are so minded you can call anything “proof of ancient visitations by extra-terrestrials” –you don’t really need proof.  Stone Henge built by aliens? Of course it was –why look at all the archaeological discoveries of the last 15 years?  Pyramids built by aliens –because humans just could not lift the stones used –of course. It just needs our ignoring the many, many years of archaeological discovery work.  Around 3100 B.C., the Pharaoh Narmer crashed his chariot into a landed flying saucer.  Prove he did not.

Who is going to argue with you? Historians and archaeologists? Well, we all ‘know’ they are part of the cover-up, don’t we?

Ancient and Medieval and other accounts of “flaming chariots”, “shields of bright flame” and so on are probably down to meteorites since we know these were common names.  “Writhing serpents in the sky” were undoubtedly aurora.  Accounts of aliens emerging from crashed UFOs and actual UFO sightings in the 18th and 19th century suddenly vanish when you go to the actual source quoted.

It was during World War II that Allied and Axis pilots observed “Foo-fighters” (“foo” from the French for fire –“le Feu”), “Kraut-balls” and, amongst other names the Luftwaffe gave them was “Feuerbälle“ (fire balls).  All sorts of theories have been given over the years from static electricity to actual alien craft.  Although those in charge at British Technical Intelligence dismissed these incidents, intelligence officers in the field still recorded and reported sightings.  The Germans did like-wise.  Each side suspected a secret weapon from was involved.


Then there were the so called “Scandinavian Ghost Rockets“ of  1946-1948. In fact, reports came from Europe, North Africa and even the Soviet Union.  Royal Air Force Intelligence was greatly interested in reports of cylindrical objects because of the V1 and V2 rockets of WW II –the possibility of the Soviets having captive German scientists building rockets for them was scary.  Even Field Marshal Smuts warned about the “rockets.”

There are interesting reports from the period but many were not thoroughly investigated though official reports were, incredibly, destroyed after a few years because these reports might be scientifically interesting but had no real defence significance. This practice continued for many years with some reports only surviving because they were hidden in other files by personnel who thought they ought not be burnt.

In the early 1950s there was a rise in alleged  Contactees.  These were women and men who claimed to have come across a flying saucer that had landed, or one of its occupants.  There were trips into space on board flying saucers and one of the biggest hoaxsters, who achieved international notoriety, George Adamski even claimed to have photographs taken of him and aliens looking out through portholes.

Venusians, Martians, Neptunians and others of the “interplanetary brotherhood” were here to observe and guide Earth.  Messages extolling peace abounded.  The fact that these planets could not support humanoid life often received the response that our space brothers lived in cities under the ground or at a “different time-phase” to us. Dumb explanations that proved profitable on the tour circuit or amongst New Age publishers.


While all this was going on groups of interested people set up groups to look into and discuss the phenomena.  In the UK the Flying Saucer Club was the first such group which later merge with the British Flying Saucer Bureau in 1952.  Manchester Flying Saucer Research set up by, amongst others, David Cowdy followed.

And while the bogus contactees drew everyones attention and made it far too easy for scientists to scoff much more was going on.  Dr. J. Allen Hynek was the United States Air Force scientific consultant and noted astronomer.  While he played off every UFO as marsh gas, ball lightning and misidentification, he was well aware that there were sightings that could not be explained –in 1978 he gave several TV and press interviews declaring that he could do little else: even if he could not explain away a sighting, if it was labelled “unidentified” his USAF bosses expected him to do so.

Hynek later went on to set up the Centre for UFO Studies in Illinois.

But are UFOs real?  Well, they are real in the sense that observers cannot explain what they see.  However, there are a number of reports of objects of unknown type being sighted by unconnected multiple witnesses and where there has been damage caused to trees, houses, people and the ground.  When combined with radar returns from local airfields those UFOs are real but just what they are we have no idea.

Civilian pilots see these objects but usually only report them if they think that there is a danger to air traffic but there is no regulation demanding they report UFOs.  In the case of military pilots there are a few regulations and if you are flying the latest fighter and something runs rings round your aircraft and shoots off at incredible speed well, yes, you need to report that.

Reports of abductions by aliens began to rise during the 1950s, though few realised they had been abducted until much later when they realised that their sighting of a flying saucer landing and occupants getting out, walking about and then returning before the craft took off did not last just “two or three minutes”.  On getting home these people found that an hour or two had simply gone missing from their memory.


What suddenly made investigators and others take these accounts of what, in 1977, I termed Time Lapse cases, was the hypnotic regression of  Betty and Barney Hill who encountered a UFO close-up in New Hampshire in 1961.  The Hills were confronted with all sorts of problems both physically and mental stress-wise.  Under hyptnosis the Hills revealed that they had been involuntarily taken aboard the craft they had seen.  There followed a medical type exam –a common theme in these cases- aqnd a certain degree of communication with the crew.  From her memory, Betty Hill later drew a “star map” she had seen on the craft –the actual star system in question was not discovered until many years later.

All sorts of theories abound as to what UFOs are.  Time-travellers, inter-dimensional intelligences and, naturally, extraterrestrials.  These theories are good if you are dealing with alleged craft that obviously have to be constructed, however, no matter how big the strange light seen it is still just that –a big light that cannot be labelled a “craft”.

In the “old days” we used to test new investigators by showing them photographs of alleged UFOs.  The good ones were those who could spot the fakes straight away: “cut-out stuck on a window frame,” “a model” or even a light from inside the room pointed at the window and then photographed.  Today we have computers and photo-shop and the number of fakes (some quite glaringly obvious) photographs and video footage on You Tube is a nuisance if you seriously investigate these things.  It also acts as a deterrent –investigators not wanting to be caught up in hoaxes ignore these things and so genuine footage of a UFO gets ignored.

But there are many out there who still persist in the investigation to get to the truth. For many months those “in the know” stated that 2011 was the UFO Disclosure year.  The year when the U.S. government finally revealed all it knows about UFOS: it was the year to make history.  Now, in 2012, the time for this disclosure has been given a little more time.

I seriously doubt that there will be any major governmental disclosure on UFOs in 2012 and, even if there was, there would be many still calling it part of a cover-up.





Some Things Strange & Sinister
 
 A4
Paperback
358pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
After more than 30 years as an investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,the author has opened some of the many files he has accumulated dealing with such things as.. The Terrifying EventsAt The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints Church,Dead Aquatic Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all exclusively presented for the first time and with new added research previously unseen. 
 
PLUS a vastly expanded section on Spring-heeled Jack! Photographs,maps,line drawings and up-dated to make 358 pages looking at Things truly Strange and Sinister. 
 
Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!


Some More Things Strange & Sinister

A4
Paperback
327pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
Follow-up to the hugely successful Some Things Strange & Sinister. For those interested in Ufology,cryptozoology,hominology,unusual natural history,ghosts and mysteries in general. The secret history of gorillas -before they were 'discovered'.

Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.

And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html



Pursuing The Strange & Weird

A4
Paperback
223pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
From Dead Aquatic (Humanoid) Creatures, the giant squid and yet undiscovered sea creatures;submarine and ships crews encountering true leviathans. 
 
Extinct animals at sea that have been re-discovered and the subject of Sasquatch and other Hominids around the world as well as two early French UFO entity cases that still baffle, ghosts, strange creatures-and the Star-Child hoax.
 
 All dealt with by the naturalist and pursuer of the strange and weird 
 

Phenomena X –Things Strange And Sinister: “UK Big Cats”





I corresponded and spoke to the man on the telephone a good few times but he still insisted that, on his way to Cheshire, having taken the wrong turning onto a quiet dual carriageway, he had stopped his car to observe a large cat start crossing the road, stopping and then continuing on its way for a good minute. He got out of his car and quickly took measurements and made notes so that everything was recorded on the spot.

Why should I believe him?  Well, for one thing this man was a professor of and senior lecturer in zoology with many years of field work in the UK and overseas to his credit.  He was also used by governmental departments as an advisor on wildlife.  Above all else he was totally familiar with the cat species he had seen: a puma.  He was dumbfounded since, a few months earlier in Wales, he had almost run over another exotic cat –a Jungle or Marsh cat; these have been killed on British roads and photographed.

For over thirty years, since 1977, I acted as an exotic wildlife consultant to UK police forces.  I saw the plaster casts, the photographs and even hair samples that proved non native cats were spread from the Scottish Highlands to the Isle of Wight. Most police wildlife officers who gather this evidence or speak to witnesses in these cases do not doubt the existence of these cats either.

I once spoke to a former government minister in a radio studio and during the on air conversation he poured scorn on the whole subject.  Off air we were talking and the photograph of paw prints from a certain incident fell from a folder I was carrying.  He picked it up and looked at it before handing back to me.  “That’s from the Derby sheep killing site last month, isn’t it?”  I was stunned. It turns out that he had seen my report that went to Derbyshire police.  “I think you are right that it was a puma” he said. Why had he been so negative on air, I asked?  “Oh, well, you can see the headlines of ‘government minister admits UK big cats are real!’ and my job would be gone.”

In fact, the continued claim by the government of whichever day that UK big cats do not exist is a public one.  Would people panic if they were told there were large, non native cats in the countryside?  There would be calls for the government to do something about it –but what?  These are elusive wild cats that have not, in well over a hundred years –and more- of sightings have never seriously injured or killed a human being –alleged attacks in the past have all been proven hoaxes.  Compensate farmers for live stock killed by a large cat (if proven) but there is little else that can be done.

It needs to be made clear that there is only one member of the Big Cat family recorded in UK incidents and that is the leopard –melanistic (black) and regular light coloured.  We have plaster casts of their pawprints, their droppings and even DNA testing on hairs by laboratories that identify them as “leopard species”.

The other cats most often reported in the UK are the puma –a native, normally, of North and South America.  This cat is a member of the Medium sized cat family and its colouring ranges from sandy, grey, dark brown, reddish and, yes, even black.
The next cat species is the Lynx –found in North America and Europe and was, at one point, a native to the UK.  Some argue that, because of the centuries of reports from the UK, the lynx may have never died out in the wilder parts of the country.  Again, we have good lynx prints as well as analyses of hairs proving their existence in the UK.

Then come the Jungle cats and what are very likely Golden cats.

John Aves was driving his van through the quiet Somerset countryside during good, clear sunny weather in June, 1999. Some 100 metres ahead of him he saw “the hugest black cat I’ve ever seen in my life –I just braked!”  The description given by John was perfect for a large male leopard.  The cat had walked past a fence that meant John could later estimate its height accurately. But at the time John could not believe his eyes as the cat moved over the grassy verge and disappeared by hedgerows.  Hoping to see more of this animal, he got out of the van and then onto the roof. He saw the cat looking at something through the hedgerow.  It was then that he saw a woman riding her horse through a field was the object of the cats curiosity.  Rider and horse seemed oblivious though John did note the rider correcting the horse when it acted a bit skittish. The woman rode by and glanced up at John.  He decided to say nothing about the cat.

In Scotland, during 2002, a couple were returning from church on a sunny morning when the wife told her husband to stop the car they were in.  She thought that she had seen a stray dog in the tall grass of a field next to forestry.  Then she realised that it would have to be a very big dog.  The couple got out of the car and looked into the field –the road they were on was slightly elevated above the field.  “Nothing” said her husband who then froze.  A huge black cat got up from where it had obviously been lying and “slowly and cautiously” moved to a specific spot where it then stopped and looked around.  The couple were even more flabbergasted by what happened next.  The cats head went down and then rose, having grabbed the neck of a dead deer and started dragging it off into the forestry.  “We will swear on the Holy Bible that this is the truth” they told me.

In certain areas the local cat is well known.  I was amazed time and again when I began to advise people on the obvious precautions to take if a cat was seen only to be told “Oh, we know all that –most of our parents told us when we were kids.”  In some areas cats had been seen and known about from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.  Everyone locally knew about them including the police and everyone behaved with not the slightest hint of panic “its just out there doing what it needs to survive” I was told more than once.


I remember a nice lady from Ireland who had moved to the UK and loved the countryside of Derbyshire.  On several occasions while walking her dogs she had encountered a large black cat –her description fitted a black leopard and size she could estimate by later measuring a wall and so on the cat had been against.  Eventually it all unnerved her and so she moved to Cumbria.  Three nights after moving to her new home she was walking along in the dark, torch in hand, when she saw two large things reflecting light from the torch. She aimed the torch at these to see that it was a large black leopard sat on a wall –she made her way home quickly.  This cat was far from a figment of her imagination –it was seen about thirty minutes later by a motorist.  The woman eventually moved back to Ireland.

The one thing I find interesting is that people in a particular area will report large cat sightings confidentially and some will even say “I wish I wasn’t the only one seeing them here!”  Restrained by promises of confidentiality regarding witness name and location I could never tell them they weren’t or that their neighbour had actually already made a report.  All I could say was “Oh, there are reports from the general area in the past.”  Seriously, in one month I had seven reports from one Wiltshire village of the same cat, a puma, but not one of the witnesses had told anyone else because “I don’t want people thinking I’m mad!”


In one case the old farm lady had taken to walking around with a pitchfork having seen a puma a good few times around her property.  On one occasion she rounded a corner and stopped. She was face-to-face with the puma which turned an ran “faster than I did!”  In encountering such cats you should never turn and run.  I then got a phone call about a puma crossing a road by a farm.  The couple involved had only moved to the village a few months before so regarding location all they could tell me was “It’s right next to a farm, no idea what its called but it’s owned by this eccentric old lady that walks around with a pitchfork.”

Another plus point in accounts is that people absolutely insist that they have seen the puma even though they are clearly and accurately describing a black leopard or lynx. They have seen on  TV items or in newspapers that “the big cat at large is a puma” so what they saw was the puma.  If they wanted to hoax a cat sighting they would declare it to be a black leopard or whatever. 

Then you get the real gems.  People who want to report an odd cat but describe perfectly a juvenile puma.  They do not expect young pumas after all there is “only” the one black one reported!  And mother and cubs have been documented in the UK, particularly in Wales.

But where do they come from?  Those not doing their research all claim that this all started after the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act when people keeping these cats dumped them in the wild.  There was the odd one or two escapees before that.

In fact, these sightings, escapes and even hunts go well back to the start of the 19th century and before.  Anyone could buy or keep a tiger, puma, leopard –even, incredibly, polar bears- or other exotic to keep in the house or to roam the estate and even be kept in little private zoos –menageries.  And escapes and dumping of animals from travelling menageries seemed quite common –and in many cases breeding pairs.

The funniest account I received was over the telephone by a zoologist from Canada. He had been involved in work on pumas in Canada but told me that, apart from the odd call or paw-print he and his colleagues had yet to see one in the wild.  In 1997 he saw driving to the home of relatives in the Scottish Highlands. It was a beautiful, warm and clear day and he was enjoying the open countryside and taking in the air through the open window.  At one point he saw a “clearly adult male puma, reddish-brown in colour walking about twenty feet away in an open field.”  He made a mental note to tell his colleagues later.  A hundred yards or so up the road he screeched to a halt “This is Scotland!” he said out loud.  He had not seen a wild puma in Canada but on holiday in Scotland he had.  What made him angrier was the fact that he had a still camera fully loaded and a video camera on the seat next to him.

So, if someone jokes about “big cats” in the UK the joke is on them.  These cats do exist and have been here a very long time.







© 2012 T. Hooper



Some Things Strange & Sinister
 
 A4
Paperback
358pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
After more than 30 years as an investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,the author has opened some of the many files he has accumulated dealing with such things as.. The Terrifying EventsAt The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints Church,Dead Aquatic Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all exclusively presented for the first time and with new added research previously unseen. 
 
PLUS a vastly expanded section on Spring-heeled Jack! Photographs,maps,line drawings and up-dated to make 358 pages looking at Things truly Strange and Sinister. 
 
Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!


Some More Things Strange & Sinister

A4
Paperback
327pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
Follow-up to the hugely successful Some Things Strange & Sinister. For those interested in Ufology,cryptozoology,hominology,unusual natural history,ghosts and mysteries in general. The secret history of gorillas -before they were 'discovered'.

Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.

And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html



Pursuing The Strange & Weird

A4
Paperback
223pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
From Dead Aquatic (Humanoid) Creatures, the giant squid and yet undiscovered sea creatures;submarine and ships crews encountering true leviathans. 
 
Extinct animals at sea that have been re-discovered and the subject of Sasquatch and other Hominids around the world as well as two early French UFO entity cases that still baffle, ghosts, strange creatures-and the Star-Child hoax.
 
 All dealt with by the naturalist and pursuer of the strange and weird 
 

Phenomena X Things Strange And Sinister –Ghosts





It is one of the oldest questions Man has asked: is there life after death?  Oddly, you might think it a bit morbid as a subject for a dinner party conversation but it does crop up.

It tends to shock many when you quote the Church dictum on the subject –“de occultis non judicat ecclesia” or, if you don’t read Latin; “The Church has not decided about ghosts and the ghostly.” After more than two thousand years you might think they would have –particularly since there are an endless number of the clergy who have, over the centuries, seen and even claimed to have spoken with the departed.


Over the years there have been many famous ghost incidents such as the Samford Ghost of 1810 which attracted a lot of publicity but eventually was proven a hoax. But what of others such as the Cock lane Poltergeist in 1762.  Cock Lane was near to Smithfield Market and St. Paul’s Cathedral.  After the death of a William Kent’s wife, Elizabeth, during childbirth, he became romantically involved with her sister, Fanny. However, ecclesiastical laws prevented the couple marrying so eventually they moved to London and took the apartment in a three storey house in Cock Lane, owned by Richard Parsons –his daughter, Elizabeth also lived in the property.

There are several accounts of ghostly apparitions and loud and “strange” knocking sounds.  The couple moved out and things “went quiet.”  Kent was not very lucky in marriage and, like many others of the time, Fanny contracted smallpox and died. Kent did, however, get lucky in his legal action against Parsons over a small debt. Now the haunting began again and Parsons claimed that Fanny was haunting his property. There were regular séances to discover what “Scratching Fanny” wanted and these no doubt pulled in a few shillings.  At times Cock Lane was blocked by the curious wanting to “take a peek.”

It seemed that “Fanny” claimed in séances that her husband had killed her using arsenic and so Kent was publicly suspected of murder. Someone smelt a rat. A commission, including the famous Samuel Johnson, looked into the matter and declared the haunting a hoax: Elizabeth Parsons admitted that it was a scam she had been forced into by her father –resulting in Richard Parsons being pilloried and serving two years in prison.



There was money to be made in hauntings. But the motives for the poltergeist events at the Lamb Inn, Bristol between 1761-1762 are a bit vague.  Investigators held out fingers in their pockets so that they could not be seen by the two young girls at the centre of events.  Raps and voices told how many fingers were extended.  Objects were also seen to rise into the air in front of investigators –all in a small room which excluded a hoax using string, etc..  Also, the two poorly educated daughters of the inn-keeper responded to questions in Greek and Latin –understood by the investigators but not the girls.

And the inn-keeper himself died after observing a “evil old witch” appear close to him one day. Even today, you can argue both for and against the case being genuine for hours.  Was a fraud involved?  Certainly the educated investigators could find none.
Historical accounts are full of people seeing loved ones who are many miles away (some times hundreds of miles) appearing before them before vanishing.  Those who note the times of such events are later shocked to learn that their loved ones died at around the same time.

And then there are the ghosts who help living relatives recover documents or hidden treasures.  Such is the case of  the Reverend Dr. Blomberg, who was rector at Shepton Mallet and later a Canon at St. Paul’s.   Blomberg’s father, a major serving in the army during the Seven Years War (1756-1763), died of a violent fever in Martinique. Not unusual in those days but what followed was. Resplendent in his “Regimentals”, the late Major appeared before a Colonel Stewart and Captain Mounsey and asked them to take care of his “little boy” back in England. Blomberg told the duo about his estate in England and said that the papers necessary for his son to inherit the estate were in a certain old chest in Yorkshire.

Mounsey Stewart could hardly refuse such a request from beyond the grave.  The papers were located and, after legal action, Blomberg’s son won the estate. But there was an extra “gift” due to this curious ghost story because, when it reached the ears of Queen Charlotte, she “became interested in the youth and took him into the Royal household,where he was ‘educated in intimate association with the children of George the Third.’ 



All Saints Church in Bristol is situated right next to the St. Nicholas covered market just off the city centre and there are thousands of others who also pass it on the way to work or while on shopping trips.  Surrounded by businesses and narrow streets it looks rather “snug”.  Snug but with “a history”.

    All Saints dates from the 12th  Century with enlargements and alterations such as the 15th Century aisles and East nave and in 1716 the NE tower was designed by William Paul and eventually completed by George Townsend,  The Chancel was rebuilt in the mid-19th Century.

    The church contains memorials and graves to a number of 18th Century businessmen and merchants not to mention the tomb of Edward Colston (1636-1721); Colston helped to fund the restoration of the All Saints Church's tower in 1716.

    The Church itself is said to be haunted by a “black monk” of the Kalendars Order, who supposedly hid the treasures of the place from Henry VIII.  How the monk died, whether killed by Henry’s men or having committed suicide is uncertain.  However, at that period the act of suicide was to damn oneself so it’s rather unlikely a religious man would resort to this.  As for the treasure….never been found.

In 1846 the local talk was of poltergeist activity in the house associated with the church.  Strange lights crossed the room of the servant-maid whose honesty was strongly attested to.  She had the unenvied honour of seeing this restless night visitor;
she declared she had repeatedly had her bedroom door unbolted at night, “between the hours of 12 and 2 o’clock” by something in human semblance. This was a whiskered man whose clothing was that of the Kalendars –something the maid knew nothing about.


My personal experience on so called “ghostly matters” are not very spectacular.  Back in 1966/1967,I was living in Dalborn,Germany.  One overcast,slightly drizzly but very oppressive thundery day,along with two of my cousins,I headed for a stream that had become flooded –we had much fun crossing the stream using the trunk of an old tree placed there by someone months before.  We watched as soldiers in trucks drove by and waved but the horrible,smokey brown low cloud made little difference –we were having fun! 

Not far from the stream, in easy view, was an upward sloping path near to a reputedly haunted mill [though we never knew that at the time].  The entire length of the path was covered in an arch of tree branches with the far end allowing in light.  At one point, all three of us turned to look up this path. At the very end of  the path stood a tall, misty grey figure devoid [seemingly] of any facial or clothing features.  The figure moved forward.

Three kids ran like Hell!

Of course, in the prevailing weather conditions it is possible any normal person might have seemed grey and featureless.  That would explain it away to my satisfaction.  But why did all three of us turn at the same time and run without speaking to each other?

In my grandparents home in St Werburgh’s, Bristol, we had a typical terraced house situation for the mid-1960s.  The old tin bath has on a hook outside the back door for bath nights and the toilet was outside the house.  The row of houses looked out onto Mina Road Park and there was a stream, an off-shoot of the River Frome which ran under houses.  On more than one occasion, while seated in “the throne room” I heard voices quite distinctly, though what exactly was being said I couldn’t tell you.  I was not the only person to hear these voices –my mother dreaded having to use the outside toilet but just said, in a thick German accent “it’s spooky”.

There was a small back bedroom that over-looking the garden, privy and park and there was definitely something “odd” about it.  The room had been given over to my mother and father on returning from Germany.  Within the week my mother would not even venture into the room alone and rooms were swapped around.  It is odd but, thinking about it years later, I recall my grand mother never ventured into the room by herself either and never used it for a bedroom.  Two later lodgers did complain about “something wrong” with the room.

 

There are many thousands of such accounts and even a few photographs.  Some of these photographs are proven hoaxes or even misidentifications –optical effects caused by shadow and light.  There are some interesting images, though, but not having looked into those cases personally it is hard to say “genuine.”  It was the advent of digital video recorders and cameras that brought us the “orb” phenomena.

Unlike old cameras, digital ones pick up every small detail and the big thing back in the 1990s were “ghost orbs” –the alleged manifestations of the departed.  Orbs were everywhere and said to be the “final evidence” that ghosts existed.  In fact, particles of dust, hair and even insects were being picked up by the digital camera.  Even today, when this has been proven, orbs are still cited as evidence –as are camera flashes reflected off camera straps, cobwebs and even the photographers thumb!

But with increased use of infra red and night vision cameras some interesting things have been filmed and photographed.

EVP –Electronic Voice Phenomena- are recordings of, allegedly, the departed at haunting sites.  In the old days investigators used reel-to-reel tape recorders or dictaphones but today, again, digital sound recorders and other pieces of equipment are recording odd sounds but in many cases you really do have to use your imagination to accept that some of the EVPs are not just noises that “sound like” words.

Maybe the Church knows what it is doing by sitting on the fence but to those having items move around the house, sees strange figures and are some times chased out of their dream homes, the ghostly undoubtedly exist.











© 2012 T. Hooper


Some Things Strange & Sinister
 
 A4
Paperback
358pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
After more than 30 years as an investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,the author has opened some of the many files he has accumulated dealing with such things as.. The Terrifying EventsAt The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints Church,Dead Aquatic Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all exclusively presented for the first time and with new added research previously unseen. 
 
PLUS a vastly expanded section on Spring-heeled Jack! Photographs,maps,line drawings and up-dated to make 358 pages looking at Things truly Strange and Sinister. 
 
Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!


Some More Things Strange & Sinister

A4
Paperback
327pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
Follow-up to the hugely successful Some Things Strange & Sinister. For those interested in Ufology,cryptozoology,hominology,unusual natural history,ghosts and mysteries in general. The secret history of gorillas -before they were 'discovered'.

Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.

And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html



Pursuing The Strange & Weird

A4
Paperback
223pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
From Dead Aquatic (Humanoid) Creatures, the giant squid and yet undiscovered sea creatures;submarine and ships crews encountering true leviathans. 
 
Extinct animals at sea that have been re-discovered and the subject of Sasquatch and other Hominids around the world as well as two early French UFO entity cases that still baffle, ghosts, strange creatures-and the Star-Child hoax.
 
 All dealt with by the naturalist and pursuer of the strange and weird 
 

Phenomena X –Things Strange And Sinister -Sasquatch





They are the sub-humans of Central and Eastern Asia known as the “Almas.” The proto-pigmies of Asia, Africa and South America –the “Teh-Ima,” “ Duende,” “Orang-Pendek” and the “Agogue.”  They are also the neo giants of Indochina, Asia, North and South America such as the “Dzu-teh” of the Himalayas and Tibet.

You may be mystified but three Western names for some of these creatures will probably be more familiar to you: “Yeti”, “Sasquatch” and “Bigfoot.”

The old days of calling the sightings of these creatures a misidentification of a bear or a more familiar primate such as an orang-utan under poor lighting conditions are gone.  

Naturalists, anthropologists and biologists have been drawn into the study of these reports of what are collectively known as Hominids, and those researching them Hominologists.  For over 50 years scientists  in Russia have conducted expeditions and studied reports and physical evidence concerning the Almas.  In China the Yeren has been the subject of official investigations and expeditions by scientists.  In China there are written historical accounts along with illustrations of the Yeren going back thousands of years.

But there are also early records of sightings of these creatures and their activities going back to the early settlers and explorers of both North and South America –all centuries before any “popular mythology” on Bigfoot began.  In fact, some of those early explorers went so far as to dismiss what they saw with their own eyes and one was prepared to believe he had found mammoth footprints in snow rather than believe his native guides insistence that they were tracks of a huge hairy man.

It is not only the historical accounts that hominologists have to study.  Ancient native rock art in North America has revealed images of known animals but also tall, hairy hominids.

Then there are the footprints.  Over the years various people have come forward claiming that they faked Bigfoot tracks using carved wooden templates.  These are very easy to spot because the tracks they leave have no flexibility in them. 

Today, there are anthropologists specialising in anatomy who study genuine Bigfoot track casts. The later Grover Krantz pioneered this work and D. Jeffery Meldrum, Department of Biological Sciences, Idaho State University, has taken this further. Meldrum has, probably, the largest collection of Almas, Bigfoot, Yeti and Orang-Pendek casts in the world.  Meldrum has access to digital scanning equipment that picks up fine details in casts –some unseen with the naked eye.  Fakes and misidentifications are easily dismissed.  A study of casts shows not just how the alleged Bigfoot walks (completely different to a man) but even its weight and height –it is the science used in criminal cases to secure convictions.

And genuine hominid tracks have something else.  Dermal ridges.  Take a look at your hand and you’ll notice they are covered by large and small lines and you’ll find these are also on your feet –in the US and other countries babies have their footprints taken in hospitals to positively identify them if required.  Former police latent-finger-print examiner Jimmy Chilcutt has prints from every type of primate kept in captivity so has a unique record.  Chilcutt has examined Bigfoot cast dermal ridging and states that they are not like any of the primate prints he has –they are from an unknown animal.  It needs to be noted that Chilcutt is using the same methods that get convictions of criminals in court.



The famous Patterson-Gimlin footage of a Bigfoot (known as “Patty” today) taken in 1967 is often mimicked in hoaxes or jokes.  For years I joked about it and called it a fake. It was shaky footage and not great quality. But in forty years technology has moved on.  Not only have digital image scans been taken on the location of the incident but microscopic digital photographs have been taken of each frame of the footage to reveal detail no one could ever have guessed at in 1967.  The “costume” needed could not be produced in 1967 even by Hollywood and anatomical analysis has shown a man could not have fitted into any such item. The walk has been examined and using a very tall athlete covered in sensors in a lab.  There are a lot of hoaxers claiming they wore the ‘costume’. Not only could the athlete not duplicate the walk but after the tests were concluded the experts agreed that “Patty” did not walk like a human and neither did it walk like a gorilla. 

There is also another fact that could not have been faked.  While checking the cleaned up footage it was noted that something odd appeared on the creature’s upper right leg. It turned out to be a muscle that had obviously been damaged that kept popping up during walking.  Now just how did Patterson and Gimlin fake that.

It is the only piece of film evidence that has stood the test of time and been attacked by every critic going who discovers “this” or “that” in the footage.  They all get shot down in flames.  The Patterson-Gimlin footage could well be the most important piece of wildlife footage ever.

There are the tracks, the footage and reports from the area before and after this event. Try as I might I can no longer cry “hoax” on this one.

But what are these hominids?  The general concensus of opinion is that in some cases they are an unknown primate.  In the case of the Almas and Orang-Pendek it is thought that they may be relic populations of ancient Man still living, endangered, in the wildest places on Earth.





© 2012 T. Hooper



Some Things Strange & Sinister
 
 A4
Paperback
358pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
After more than 30 years as an investigator and more than forty as a naturalist,the author has opened some of the many files he has accumulated dealing with such things as.. The Terrifying EventsAt The Lamb Inn,The Ghosts Of All Saints Church,Dead Aquatic Creatures of Canvey Island,captured bigfoot like creatures in India -all exclusively presented for the first time and with new added research previously unseen. 
 
PLUS a vastly expanded section on Spring-heeled Jack! Photographs,maps,line drawings and up-dated to make 358 pages looking at Things truly Strange and Sinister. 
 
Cryptozoologist,Ghost Hunter,Ufologist or Fortean:this book has something for everyone -including the just plain inquisitive!


Some More Things Strange & Sinister

A4
Paperback
327pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
Follow-up to the hugely successful Some Things Strange & Sinister. For those interested in Ufology,cryptozoology,hominology,unusual natural history,ghosts and mysteries in general. The secret history of gorillas -before they were 'discovered'.

Wild men of Europe, the UK and US. Hominology. Giant snakes. Amazons. The Giant serpent of Carthage. Girt Dog of Ennerdale. The Beast of Gevaudan. Crocodiles in the UK. Silent City of Alaska.

And much more. Updated with extra pages and photographs

http://www.lulu.com/shop/terry-hooper-scharf/some-more-things-strange-sinister/paperback/product-18763730.html



Pursuing The Strange & Weird

A4
Paperback
223pp
Price: £10.00
Ships in 3–5 business days
 
From Dead Aquatic (Humanoid) Creatures, the giant squid and yet undiscovered sea creatures;submarine and ships crews encountering true leviathans. 
 
Extinct animals at sea that have been re-discovered and the subject of Sasquatch and other Hominids around the world as well as two early French UFO entity cases that still baffle, ghosts, strange creatures-and the Star-Child hoax.
 
 All dealt with by the naturalist and pursuer of the strange and weird