Obituaries

Steve Irwin’s New Turtle Discovery

Steve Irwin’s father, Bob, pictured lower left, discusses the naming of the new turtle, lower right, after Steve. To round out the picture of the late Steve Irwin’s contributions to cryptozoology, beyond his search for Thylacines, it is worthy of mentioning that Steve Irwin discovered a new animal, a turtle, which has now been named after him. Television personality Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin and his father, Bob, caught a unknown turtle on a fishing line during a camping trip in 1990. It was new to them, and thus Steve took photographs and sent them to turtle authority John Cann. After [...]

For Sale: Yeti History

Eric Shipton, above, (August 1, 1907 – March 28, 1977), has a name that will live on forever within cryptozoology, in conjuction with the famed “1951 Shipton Yeti footprints photos.” Shipton found these tracks during his exploratory 1951 expedition in which he and his team worked out the now famous route over the Khumbu Glacier to assault Mount Everest. I thought the death on October 7, 2005, of Michael Ward, 80, closed a living chapter of that remarkable event and soon thereafter, more might be heard from Ward’s or Shipton’s estates. Ward was the medical doctor, along with Eric Shipton, [...]

Tony Carras Dies

The film was Beast From Haunted Cave, released in 1959, and filmed in Deadwood, South Dakota. Alexander “Alex” Ward (Frank Wolff), who along with his lover Gypsy Boulet (Sheila Carol), leads a gang of gold thieves (Richard Sinatra, Wally Campo) in pulling off a heist and fleeing into the snowy wilderness. But they find themselves being pursued by a horrible, spider-like monster. For Tony Carras, it would be one of his first bigtime movie jobs, as the editor. Tony Carras came to be known for his beach and monster movies. Anthony “Tony” Carras was born on November 23, 1920, in [...]

Takahē Discoverer Dies

The Takahē (Porphyrio hochstetteri ). Photo: New Zealand’s Mount Bruce Organization. Geoffrey Orbell (October 7, 1908 – August 15, 2007) was a doctor and keen tramper/bush walker best known for the rediscovery of the Takahē (Porphyrio hochstetteri ) in 1948. The Takahē was widely thought to be extinct but Orbell suspected it might survive. While taking time off from his Invercargill practice to search for the Takahē, he discovered a set of unfamiliar footprints. After following the footprints with three companions he rediscovered the species on November 20, 1948, in a remote valley of the Murchison Mountains near Lake Te [...]

Beyond Mothman: I-35W Blues

Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.Magnolia, 1999. The collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minnesota is a tragedy, some say of epic proportions. Certainly, it is the most significant bridge collapse, not caused by an easily visible external reason like an earthquake or an impact from a barge, since 1967. An Anomaly National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said it is too early for officials to know if the accident could have been avoided. “They are built not to fall down. This is an anomaly and we’re going to try to find out [...]

Mothman Deaths Keep Away No One

Anniversaries are those logical points on the calendar when we all naturally think about events that may have been too overwhelming to have sink too deeply into our psyche at the time. Three years ago the Mothman Death Curse, if there is such a thing, hit close to home. On July 19, 2004, the first copies of the August 2004 issue of Fortean Times went on sale in London, with distribution to the USA, later in July. It contained the first publication of “The Mothman Death Curse” article that I had completed a few weeks earlier, after researching the subject [...]

The Day of the Triffids’ Kieron Moore Dies

In 1969, on July 20th, a man walked on the moon. Five days ago, one of the first men to walk with a Triffid died. Irish actor Kieron Moore, 82, died Sunday, July 15, 2007. He is one of the lead characters, Tom Goodwin in the motion picture, The Day of the Triffids. Playing an alcoholic biologist, Goodwin finds his core and ends up fighting the Triffids with vigor, while his character’s wife (played by Janette Scott) is credited with screaming a lot. The humans are stereotyped; the Triffids are not. For more on the acting career of Kieron Moore, [...]