11. The most convincing evidence for Bigfoot is the Patterson-Gimlin Footage, shot in 1967
Here we go – the single biggest event in Bigfoot history. The story goes that Roger Patterson had been researching Bigfoot for several years, spending thousands of dollars in the process. In 1967, he began filming a docudrama about cowboys hunting for Bigfoot near Bluff Creek, California (see above). On October 20th, Patterson and Bob Gimlin (an actor) were riding horses alongside Bluff Creek when they spotted something unusual on the other side of the creek. Fortunately, they had cameras with them, and managed to shoot just under a minute of a creature walking away, and eerily turning to face them.
For Bigfoot believers, this is the single most important piece of evidence for the creature’s existence. They say that the physical characteristics, and especially the height and apparent weight of the creature, exceed that of a human, and certain experts have identified muscle definition and a mode of locomotion which indicate that the subject of the film was a real, unidentified biped. They also point to the many failures to recreate precisely the Patterson-Gimlin film. Indeed, the footage has never been conclusively proven a fake, and both Patterson and Gimlin went to their graves adamant that it was real.
Or it could just be a guy in a monkey suit. That was the astonishing claim of Bob Hieronymus in 2004, who claimed to be the film’s subject, and a host of other people in the movie industry. Since Patterson was making a film about Bigfoot, he presumably had access to a costume. The creature’s comically large breasts are also suspiciously reminiscent of sketches of female Sasquatches in Patterson’s Bigfoot book published in 1966, and Patterson has been described as a con man by close acquaintances. Whatever the truth, he undeniably made a huge sum out of his 1967 magnum opus.