The recent tragic death of a Montana man killed on a highway as he tried to imitate a Bigfoot reminded me of another hoax effort: the so-called Gable films of Michigan, part one and part two. The costume of choice in both states was a ghillie suit, a stringy, head-to-toe covering hunters often wear for camouflage in the woods.
The Gable films were made by amateur video buff Mike Agrusa as a sort of homage to the cryptid known as the Michigan Dogman. Agrusa added wire coat hanger “ears” as you can see in his intentionally grainy still at left, and was at least smart enough not to step onto a busy highway as he was filmed.
He confessed his part in the ruse on national television in the season four finale of
Mike Agrusa in Ghillie Suit copyright Linda Godfrey
History Channel’s Monsterquest . I was part of that show’s interview team and witnessed a re-creation of Agrusa’s performance. The ghillie suit was not convincing in person, and was effective in the video mostly due to the poor quality of the vintage film Agrusa used in order to make everything in the 2007 vid look as if it dated from the 1970s.
The Montana man was not so crafty – – or lucky, may he rest in peace.
I have written many times about hoaxing’s impact on the field of cryptozoology. Although I don’t believe that impact is ever as big as hoaxers would like it to be, staged “encounters” can waste the precious time and resources of investigators, endanger public safety by startling motorists, and as we have seen, may prove very risky for the hoaxer.
One near-death incident I like to cite is that of the Choccolocco Monster, the creation of several teenagers in Alabama in the spring of 1969. Two of the boys provided transportation to and from various highway sites while the third, Neal Williamson, jumped out at cars after donning a cow skull and some type of long garment.
Once word got out that a ” monster” was on the loose in Calhoun County, creature hunters began to cruise the country lanes with rifle-toting passengers literally riding shotgun. After Williamson had been fired upon once or twice he hung up his cow skull for good and waited 32 years to confess it to a local newspaper.
As for the Montana incident, I think the most important statement in the CNN link above is: “But authorities received no calls from drivers thinking they had seen Bigfoot, the station reported.”
The Montana hoaxer gave his life in vain.
Several people have tried to hoax sightings of the Beast of Bray Road over the years, but none that I know of correspond to a credible sighting report. And even if an observer is occasionally fooled, this does nothing to prove that other sightings are invalid.
Let’s hope that this tragedy at least serves one purpose — giving other would-be pranksters great pause.