admin

admin

Narrator of The Legend of Loch Ness Dies

Arthur Franz, a character actor whose voice will forever be remembered as the narrator of The Legend of Loch Ness, died at St. John’s Hospital in Oxnard, California, of heart failure and emphysema, on June 17, 2006, at the age of 86. The film was a 1976 documentary on the famed Scottish Lake Monsters, Nessie. Franz was earlier best known for his role in Invaders from Mars (1953). Franz, who lived in New Zealand until the last month or so, had been in failing health for some time and wanted to spend his remaining days in California. Franz also played [...]

Orang Pendek in Maine

Delivered today, for inclusion in the Bates College exhibition, "Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale," the Adam Davies-Andrew Sanderson-obtained Orang Pendek original cast, from September 2001. During their next expedition, they were recorded on the National Geographic Channel’s documentary, Is It Real?: Ape-Man, Episode 14, Season 2, which first aired Monday, February 27, 2006. Please click on the image for a larger version of the photograph. The description of the program asked: Does the Orang Pendek — a.k.a. the "Little Man of Sumatra" — really exist? Those who insist they have seen it describe a three-foot-tall ape-like creature that walks [...]

Cryptomundo Attacked as Crypto-Tattler

What does sometimes Fate Magazine skeptic Robert A. Goerman (pictured below) have against Cryptomundo and the readers of the blog here? What is with his name-calling our blog “Crypto-Tattler” and his insults to readers who have comments on new mystery photographs? We are taken aback by Goerman’s scathing posting on the Fate Magazine blog, in which he blasts Cryptomundo. Taken to task for our use of words, and for sharing the Omaha backyard and the Mt. Hood cam photographs, in the Cryptomundo fashion of asking readers to assist in identifying them, seems too much for Goerman. My former Mothman-research colleague, [...]

Flashback: Houston Bat Man

Fifty-three years ago on this date in 1953, a mysterious encounter occurred at 118 East Third Street, Houston, Texas. The sighting will forever be characterized as the “Houston Bat Man.” Is it more bat or man? Even thoughts of Mothman flitter about, as the thing was first compared with a moth. The story has been mixed up in the lore of “winged weirdies” and, probably inappropriately, within the David Grabias 2002 documentary, In Search of the Mothman. * * * According to witness testimony, at 2:30 a.m. on June 18, 1953, Mrs. Hilda Walker, Judy Meyers and Howard Phillips were [...]

Storsie To Resurface

The forthcoming Storsjoyran Great Lake Festival on July 27-29, 2006, will have the local “president” Ewert Ljusberg of Jämtland making his annual speech to the region, again marked by a new imaginative and spectacular entrance. According to John Gammon’s June 17, 2006, Pollstar article, the idea is to top last year’s stunt: In 1996 [Ewert Ljusberg] rode in on a seven-ton elephant, which was making a guest appearance while en route from a Spanish to a Swedish circus, but he topped that in ’99, when he tried to float down in a huge air balloon. He missed the main 20,000-capacity [...]

Karl Pflock’s Official Obituary

When it was learned that Karl Pflock died recently, Cryptomundo noted his passing due to the fact he had, now and then, skeptically also tackled a few cryptozoological topics. I had corresponded with Karl during his life, and I wanted to note his departure from the scene. I have since, again, heard from his widow, who sends a formal obituary to be published here, so exacting details can be shared properly. We express our sympathies to Karl’s family, once again. Mary Martinek emails along the following: Karl Tomlinson Pflock 06 January 1943 — 05 June 2006 PFLOCK — Karl T. [...]

Living Fossil Caught on Video

David Redfield’s journey to Southeast Asia leads to live specimens of the Laotian rock rat TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The first images of a live specimen of a small, furry animal once believed to have gone extinct more than 11 million years ago have been captured during a Southeast Asian expedition led by a retired Florida State University researcher. The remarkable video and photos shot by David Redfield, a professor emeritus of FSU’s science education faculty, and Thai wildlife biologist Uthai Treesucon are being hailed as historic images documenting a true “living fossil,” the Laotian rock rat. The Laotian rock rat [...]