Bigfoot Film Journal

Everything Christopher L Murphy presents is based on his current knowledge. He has had to continually revise his findings in view of new revelations. The story of the Patterson/Gimlin film is complicated, confusing, and lacking critical details. To make matters worse, as the years roll by memories fade and important facts become harder and harder to obtain. Indeed, in most published works that mention the film, the authors virtually tiptoe around the films history. They have done this to avoid becoming embroiled in the mass of loose ends and dead ends. There are only two people who know (or knew) all or most of the historical answers -- Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin. Patterson, of course, is no longer with us, he passed away in 1972. There are many questions he should have been asked before he passed away. Investigators failed to realise the importance of certain details. We are, therefore, left with Bob Gimlin alone. Bob has certainly done his best to answer questions. Thomas Steenburg and I recently (2003) spent some five hours with him and went through the events of the filming and its aftermath in considerable detail. The information Bob provided was straightforward and simple. There are some specific things he just does not know or cannot remember, and he told us exactly that when such was the case. I am totally convinced beyond any doubt that he is not hiding anything. Certainly, we would be much further ahead if questions asked of Gimlin in recent times had been asked thirty-nine years ago, but there is nothing we can do about that now. There is one other major player who I thought for many years could possibly shed a little more light, Pattersons brother-in-law, Al DeAtley Jr. I was told that DeAtley gave the cold shoulder to researchers, so I never attempted to interview him. However, current research by others indicates that DeAtley remembers very little of what happened on 20 to 22 October 1967. While this might appear odd on the surface, trying to remember details of an event (even a major event) that occurred 40 years ago is impossible for many people, including myself.