Is That A Fastener On Bigfoot In Film?

BOTHELL - For true believers, the existence of Bigfoot was long ago confirmed by a single minute of jerky, grainy film footage that shows a startled Sasquatch retreating into the Northern California woods.

But two longtime Bigfoot buffs are parting company with the others over the so-called "Patterson-Gimlin Film," alleging that four magnified frames show tracings of a bell-shaped fastener at the creature's waist.

After decades of debate, they say the famous image can finally be dismissed as a man in a monkey suit.

"It was a hoax," said Cliff Crook, a longtime Bigfoot tracker who devotes rooms to Sasquatch memorabilia at his home here. "How can an artificial, manmade object end up on a Bigfoot?"

Crook's opinion is heresy among many Bigfoot believers.

"There's a few broken friendships because of this," he said. "I just figured, `This is a search for the truth. When it becomes something different, that's when it should stop.' "

"Even though the Patterson film is a hoax, it doesn't mean Bigfoot doesn't exist," Crook said.

The 16-mm film, purportedly showing a female Sasquatch running out of a streambed, was taken by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin on Oct. 20, 1967, during a horseback search for the creature.

It has largely withstood independent scrutiny, and Bigfoot buffs consider it proof of the species' existence.

Patterson is dead, and Gimlin refuses interview requests.

"There's no way of really detracting from it," said Ray Crowe,

president of the Western Bigfoot Society in Portland. He said the image captured in the film "has a fluid motion. It's a wild creature of nature."

The film has a significant place in Bigfoot lore, enthusiasts agree. Many believers compare all plaster-cast footprints made at Bigfoot sites with those made by Patterson the day he purportedly filmed the creature slinking across a sandbar in the Six Rivers National Forest.

Discredit the film and the veritable gold standard for Bigfoot tracks is washed away.

Crook's hoax assertion is based on computer enhancements performed by Bigfoot buff Chris Murphy of Vancouver, B.C., who says he discovered an aberration in the footage while helping his son with a class project in 1995.

Murphy declined to be interviewed, instead supplying a written narrative about his discovery. According to that, the Murphys used a color photocopier to duplicate a frame of the Patterson film.

Zooming in tighter and tighter, Chris Murphy's suspicions were raised. Something out of place - the shape of a wine opener or an ornate latch - kept showing up on Bigfoot's torso.

According to Murphy, four sequential computer-scanned frames of the film show the object in motion. He theorizes the item is cinching the Sasquatch costume in place.

Grover Krantz, a Washington State University anthropology professor and Bigfoot expert, remains a fan of the footage.

"I fully accept the Patterson film," Krantz said. "If there was a fastener, it could not be seen in an enlargement. The film grain is such that it cannot hold an image of something that small."

The filmed creature's loping, primordial gait is "consistent with a 500-pound biped," he said. "I've attempted to imitate it, and I really can't do it worth a damn."