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| Rick and Hank |
This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.
I know some people may end up not liking this post, but in a weird sort of way I think we should be thanking Rick Dyer. First, lets be totally clear, Rick Dyer is by far one of the best hoaxers of all time, he is a excellent promoter and can tell outrageous stories with a straight face.
Now that Chris Russell has come out and admitted that he was hired by Dyer to make the dead bigfoot known as Hank, there should be no doubt the bigfoot in the travel trailer is not real.
All the while Dyer still continues to bob and weave by telling some truths and making some questionable statements, but has admitted that Hank is a prop.
So why should we be thankful to Dyer? Well there is some obvious reason that any blogger can tell you as to why we can all thank Dyer and that would be for lots of web traffic and a continuous steam of material to write about but that is not what I think is the most important thing we should be thanking Dyer for.
We should be thanking Dyer for exposing these "Bigfoot Experts" as the phonies they are. Just look at some of the people, some of which are still supporting the story, that stood by Dyer, Hank and the many false claims. These "Bigfoot experts", the people who claim to know more about bigfoot than any one on the planet, have written numerous books, produced numerous videos, attended numerous speaking engagements, been on TV shows and have a large loyal following of supporters. They have now proven they know nothing about bigfoot.
These so called "bigfoot experts" have duped most of the people of the bigfoot community for years now. It is now safe to say that some of these "bigfoot experts" do not even go out in the woods, they sit in their backyards and watch the quarter acre of woods between their house and the next door neighbors. They have never seen a bigfoot, never found a track but yet have conned people into buying their books and supporting them. So thank you, Rick Dyer, through your hoax you have hopefully helped others finally realize the fake and phony "bigfoot experts" that seem to thrive in the bigfoot community.
No matter what we do there will always be fakes and hoaxes from time to time but these people who have hardcore supported the Hank Prop have proven they actually don't know and in some cases may not even believe in bigfoot, they should never be supported again.
So why we of course can blame Rick Dyer, lets not forget he has had many noted people from the bigfoot community helping in this large scale hoax. Lets not forget their statements and their involvement in helping this hoaxing money machine roll on down the road for well over a year.
Now, I know we all make mistakes and we sometimes get fooled but once we learn different we stop and correct ourselves, we don't hide behind fake names and phony accounts. If you're honest and truthful, keeping the story straight should not be a problem.
Also a thanks should go to Chris Russell for coming out and telling the truth. He was not part of the bigfoot community until he was hired to make Hank. He should not be shunned as this is his profession to make stuff.
Here is his interview.
LM: Ok guys. here it is. One thing Chris Russell did want me to say, is that he wanted this to be copied, shared, or whatever, with his exact words. Please don’t edit it at all. Thanks!
I sent him questions via email and he worked on the answers while working in his shop.
CR: This is part of the mold for Hank. He was sculpted in WED clay to look like " and old, poorly made taxidermy prop" per clients request.
This is what is left of the plaster mold. The rest of it went to the dumpster. Latex is the yellow color seen in the photo in the mold. I will pull out the casting of hanks face tonight and send photos.
HANK was made of polyfoam filled latex with latex paints and red camel hair glued on… intentionally to look like an "old poorly made taxidermy of a bigfoot nearly 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide at shoulders" at clients request to tour the country while filming of a movie for film studio I will not publicly name at this time.
I signed non disclosure agreements with Dyer LLC to keep this a secret until the code word PROJECT FOOTPRINT was said. I was only to answer phone calls from a number listed in my phone as project footprint.
The email correspondent during the project also gave that code word. Last night in a live audio / video chat revealing the truth behind "the hoax" Rick Dyer said that he cannot reveal the maker of the prop because they wish to remain anonymous I spoke up and said the code word and Rick spoke the code word and identified myself as the maker of the body known as Hank the bigfoot.
I was the person who told Rick from the beginning that I did not want to be involved in the film, credited for the prop building, leaked to media, or on camera for the film crew filming everything. I specifically requested no film crew at my studio on pick up day and that only two people come, Rick himself and one helper.
He contacted me last year inquiring about having a prop bigfoot body made. I did not know him or his name prior to the phone call. He asked about different styles of props and I discussed options and prices for his body from realistic silicone and punched hair to the flat back prop with glued hair that was chosen.
Within a couple of days of Rick picking up the body I began hearing internet buzz and news reports on Rick and his story.
Rick did send me drawings and images of bigfoot and asked me to recreate certain features in his prop like facial features, fur, feet etc..
Many of the features explained in your question were intended by myself, although some were just happy accidents due to the nature of casting latex and foam.
When Rick inquired about the prop he did ask if I could have it finished in December 2013. I accepted the job knowing I was booked on current projects that would be finished to allow time for Ricks project.
I was paid and put the job on the project board in the shop. Once I started the project it was sculpted, molded , cast, painted and haired within two weeks. Rick did not rush me, I agreed to finish the job by a certain time and I did.
Project footprint is the code word that Rick Dyer and myself used to communicate about the project. There was an agreement because of the top secret nature of the prop that we neither of us would speak to anyone about this unless the code word project footprint was spoken unless this was said I was to keep everything a secret and never admit involvement.
My phone had a phone number listed under project footprint that Rick would call me from and I also received emails with the code word project footprint and information about the project. Rick had initially said that we needed a code word to know if it was okay to talk about this and project footprint was my suggestion.
Rick did have one person with him who came into my studio and did see the prop knowing it was fake. I asked Rick to only bring one person into my studio with him and I was introduced to the person although at this point I
do not remember his name but I believe that person to be Lynk according to his description.
Rick and his associate came into the basement of my studio and I lifted the body made of latex and poly foam by myself and took it upstairs where Rick and his associate put it into the box added curtains around the edge of the box and the three of us pushed the box down the driveway into the back of his "Rick Dyer see bigfoot inside " trailer that was parked in front of my studio
LM: Although Rick has confessed to having the body made, he still claims he has at least one Bigfoot body…somewhere. Did he ever tell you, during any of your conversations, that he DID kill a Bigfoot?
CR: Rick has maintained throughout all of our correspondence that he did indeed kill a real Bigfoot yet needed a prop body to take on tour so that the real Bigfoot would not be stolen.
—Chris Russell via Facebook March 29th, 2014
Thanks
~Tom~
[Source: Steve Kulls Blog ]
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This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years of experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and a poet.
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