With the widespread news that actor Heath Ledger, 28, has been found dead in New York City, all other deaths have a tendency to be overlooked. Therefore, it is important to mention the quiet announcement this week of the passing of a legendary person known within the exotic cat business, Jeannette Giacinto of Tarzana, California. A longtime breeder and salesperson of exotic cats, Mrs. Jeannette Giacinto, known to her family and friends as Jan, died on January 6, 2008, succumbing to injuries sustained in a traffic collision on Halloween, October 31, 2007. Mrs. Giacinto remained hospitalized from the time of [...]
Nazis & The Search for Yeti
Heinrich Harrer in Tibet. I got to first thinking about Nazis, Tibet, and Yeti, three years ago, when I heard that famed mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, 93, died on January 7, 2005. The entire story does feel like it is straight out of Indiana Jones, of course. Movies are often a point of reference, needless to say. Harrer was portrayed by Brad Pitt in Seven Years in Tibet, a 1997 movie based on Harrer’s 1953 nonfiction memoir with the same title. But sometimes the movies leave out the best parts. Harrer’s interest in what today we mostly know as the lore [...]
My Favorite Hillary & Yeti Photo
The tributes to Sir Edmund Hillary continue to roll in from afar, a fact acknowledged in today’s New York Times. The man’s reach was far indeed. In Portland, Maine, the local newspaper recalled Sir Edmund visited here in 1962, and gave a lecture for teachers and school children at the-then-grand Lafayette Hotel on his Abominable Snowman expedition. As a final goodbye to Sir Edmund Hillary, I want to share my favorite photograph of him. It is Hillary with an unknown artist’s drawing of the Abominable Snowman that Hillary loved to show to the media before his 1960 expedition. To prepare [...]
Yeti Hunter Sir Edmund Hillary Dies
Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to climb the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, has died at the age of 88, on January 11, 2008, local New Zealand time. He climbed the 29,035 ft (8,850m) peak with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, reaching the top on May 29, 1953. Hillary’s health had reportedly been in decline since April 2007, after a fall while visiting Nepal. He suffered a heart attack in hospital on Friday morning. Sir Edmund’s fellow climber, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (right), died in May 1986. Born July 20, 1919, in Auckland, New Zealand, Sir Edmund Hillary began [...]
Taunted Tusker Killed
This story is being posted here, not because it is cryptozoological, but because it appears to relate to the recent discussion regarding the San Francisco Zoo tiger event. Tusker, a large 50 year old bull African elephant (seen in this October 2007 photograph) was shot dead on Sunday, January 6, 2008 at Charara camp on the shores of Lake Kariba, 370 kilometres northwest of Harare, Zimbabwe. The elephant had trampled several cars at a safari camp after being provoked by revellers at a new year party, say conservationists in Zimbabwe. Johnny Rodrigues, of the independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, disputed [...]
Skookum’s Dr. Swindler Dies Suddenly
Sadly word has just reached Cryptomundo of the death a month ago of a figure important to the investigation of the Skookum Cast. University of Washington professor emeritus of anthropology, World War II veteran, consummate teacher, and beloved father, husband and friend of cryptozoology, Daris R. Swindler, 82, died suddenly in Spokane, Washington, on December 6, 2007, of cancer. Though a longtime skeptic of Sasquatch, Swindler was one of the few experts willing to examine physical evidence cited in support of the unknown hominoids’ existence. Swindler’s opinion regarding Bigfoot changed after the September 22, 2000, discovery of the so-called Skookum [...]
Year Ends With Zoos in News
Goodbye to Nonja. The final days of December seem an appropriate time to talk about death, a metaphor for an internal feeling of the artificial human construction of a year ending. Death drives the mainstream news. How can we extract something useful out of all of this? This year thoughts of death have occupied many due to the assassination of Bhutto in Pakistan, of course, and also because of the deaths of two unfortunate victims, Carl Sousa Jr. and the Siberian tiger Tatiana, both at the San Francisco Zoo on December 25, 2007. Zoos are in the news. Zoos are [...]
Tiger Escapes SF Zoo, Kills One
Tatiana, San Francisco Zoo’s Siberian tiger, attacked three men, killing one. Infrequently, discussions occur here about escaped animals, mostly as alleged explanations for cryptid animals. When a situation such as the following does occur, the fact is that the animal is quickly caught, returned to captivity, or killed. This is a sudden, sad, and startling story for Christmas Day. San Francisco, California – Police say a tiger escaped from its cage at the San Francisco Zoo today, killing one visitor and injuring two others. Several police officers shot the tiger to death when it started moving toward a group of [...]
Ten Notable 2007 Cryptozoology Deaths
Ten Notable 2007 Cryptozoology Deaths by Loren Coleman, author of the biography, Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology . Who did we lose this year in the field of cryptozoology? In 2006, I easily assembled a list of 25 notables, but it is obvious that far fewer people connected to cryptozoology passed away in 2007. The following is a roundup of ten significant personalities who died this year. It includes two Mystery Cat investigators, two Bigfoot researchers, two cryptofiction authors (one of whom made coelacanth-related findings), three involved in discovering or rediscovering new or formerly extinct species, and one [...]
40th Anniversary of Silver Bridge Collapse
December 15, 2007, is the 40th anniversary of the collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River. This year has been one of reflection with regard to this event. John A. Keel (above), who has written about Mothman as well as the suicides and deaths associated with it for decades, had his 1975 book turned into its namesake movie, The Mothman Prophecies, in 2002. Following is the clip from that motion picture of the dramatic recreation of the Silver Bridge collapse of December 15, 1967, which has been compared to the I-35W Bridge collapse of August 1st, 2007. In [...]
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