Frank Searle and Lieve Peten For years I searched for Frank Searle, the Loch Ness Monster hunter. Finally, I found him, but it was too late, and instead, had to write an obituary, noting “Nessie Seeker Frank Searle (1921-2005) Dies.” Recently, repeats of a documentary The Man Who Captured Nessie, directed by Andrew Tullis and released on December 29, 2005, have been broadcast on Scottish television. While trying to relocate my obituary on Frank Searle, I have discovered it has disappeared from the Internet. So here, to revisit the legacy of this man, I republish my look at Searle, who [...]
Zoorama’s Host Dies
Bob Dale, San Diego TV legend and host of the famed animal program, “Zoorama,” died at 83, on Monday, May 26, 2008. He had been in declining health for some time, but his daughter, Linda, said he kept his wonderful spirit and wit right up to the end. People who grew up in southern California in the 1950s and 1960s, may remember Dale’s stylist bowtie and good humor. “Few people connect with an audience the way Bob did,” NBC 7/39 Vice President of News Greg Dawson said Wednesday. “As a television personality, he did it all. For those of us [...]
New Murder Theory: Killed By Owl?
Strix varia A former neighbor of a Durham, North Carolina, man convicted of his wife’s murder claims the death was not caused by a human, but rather by an aggressive owl. Larry Pollard claims his deceased neighbor Kathleen Peterson was killed by an owl attack in December 2001, not by her husband, novelist Mike Peterson, who is serving a life sentence in prison for the crime, the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer reported on May 26, 2008. Kathleen and Mike Peterson, in happier times. Pollard, who formerly worked as a lawyer, said he has spent years gathering information that indicates [...]
China’s Oldest Panda Dies
Giant pandas are one of the “classic animals of discovery” in cryptozoology. Taotao, at 36, China’s oldest captive panda and the enduring favorite of millions of visitors to Shandong Province’s Jinan Zoo, died Wednesday, May 22, 2008, following a battle against old age and illness, China News Service reported. Only a few weeks ago, it will be recalled, Tokyo’s popular giant panda, Ling-Ling, died of old age at the age of 22 years and seven months. Taotao died from brain thrombus disease and cerebral hemorrhaging at 36, far beyond the normal life expectancy of 25 years for a panda in [...]
Bigfoot Group Shuts Down
On May 19, 2008, a press release entitled “Official Statement – Demise of the American Bigfoot Society” was issued. Here it is: It is with sadness in my heart that I announce the closing of the doors of the American Bigfoot Society. Today, I received a communication from ABS Chairman Sean Forker [above] that the decision was made to cease operations of the organization effective immediately. It is times like these that makes me often think why such an organization, with such dedicated individuals, fails. The answer is simple, dedication to this field is often in conflict with our family [...]
First Panda Lady Has Died
Joined by her husband, Jack (left), and brother-in-law Quentin Young is Adelaide “Su-Lin” Young. Photo courtesy of her family. Forget about the fictional “Indiana Jones,” or even the real “Zoology Jones,” for a minute. Recall, please, that women were part of the early exploration adventures too! Ruth Harkness is often remembered as the first woman to have found the giant panda. But why was that first cub named Su-Lin? Here is the rest of the story. After Ruth Harkness’ husband William died as he set out to find the first live giant pandas, she turned to a man only identified [...]
John Phillip Law, Played Sinbad, Dead at 70
John Phillip Law, a tall, blond actor who cut a striking figure as the blind angel opposite Jane Fonda in 1968′s Barbarella (below), as Sinbad in 1974′s The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (above), and as Harry Holt with Bo Derek in 1981′s Tarzan the Ape Man, has died. He was 70. Law died Tuesday, May 13, 2008, at his Los Angeles home, his ex-wife, Shawn Ryan, said. The cause of death was not announced (although privately, on various celebrity obit forums, a fast-moving cancer is being blamed). Born in Los Angeles on September 7, 1937, to L.A. County Deputy Sheriff [...]
Mothman Deaths: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good For several months, there have been no new Mothman news, as it relates to the Mothman Death List. That’s great. Not since 26 January 2007, when a member of the cast of the Mark Pellington-Richard Gere movie, The Mothman Prophecies, died five years after the national release of the film, has there been a well-documented, well-publicized passing of anyone on the cast. (For more details on that 2007 death, click on “Cyrus Bills”.) The void in deaths has been welcome. Or is the absence of information perhaps only a lack of knowledge of such deaths, as the movie [...]
Dynamic Discoverer of Ants Dies
Roy Snelling (1934-2008). Cryptozoologically, insects are not really in the realm of animals that Bernard Heuvelmans, myself and others strictly defined as of interest to the field, but nevertheless, we must admire those toiling to make the new discoveries of all those little animals out there that remain to be described. One such giant in that arena of insects is to be celebrated in his passing. For many of us, our first intrigue may have been with the tiny crawling and flying things found around our backyards, and for some, such as this explorer of the kingdom of ants, the [...]
Tarzan Creator’s Grandson Dies
Tarzan of the Apes, the first book cover, 1914. In Mark Evanier’s blog, News From Me, he writes that Danton Burroughs, the grandson of Edgar Rice Burroughs and “a major force in keeping that man’s work alive,” died Wednesday evening, April 30, 2008, at his home in Tarzana, California. The suburb, of course, was named for his grandfather’s legendary creation. Danton Burroughs was 64. He was the son of John Coleman Burroughs, who was himself distinguished in the arts as a photographer and illustrator. Burroughs had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease, but the immediate cause of death was said to [...]
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