My youngest brother, Jerry D. Coleman, on the Sunday evening before Labor Day, September 1, 2024, went out to his patio to enjoy the evening air, look at the trees behind his Harvard, Illinois home, and have a smoke.
Neighbors saw him there after supper and the next morning, September 2, 2024. Curious, they checked on why he had not moved. About 10 am, they discovered he had passed away, of what the authorities said was a heart attack.
Born in Decatur, Illinois, Jerry was 73, and his death was a surprise. He had been defeating his health issues of late. A dozen years ago, his doctors were discussing two separate kinds of throat cancer overtaking his body. He’d struggled with medical advice, and continued smoking, while refusing recommendations to carry around an oxygen tank. Despite no longer driving, he felt good enough to live alone.
As to the youthful Brothers Coleman, they were, from L to R, Bill, Jerry in the middle, and Loren.
“Expeditions” occurred throughout the “jungles” of central Illinois, in search of the elusive “uncaught apes” of the Midwest. Here is our brother, Bill, who died January 21, 2014, and Jerry, who died September 1, 2024. Loren took the photo.
Susan and Jerry were the youngest, and very close.
Cousins were never too far away. Older than us all was our cousin Mark Chaney, who became a police officer and an officer of the Illinois Bureau of Investigation. Members of the family worked with the fire department, police department, and state police. It was no wonder that we were interested in cryptozoological and Fortean investigations too.
Jerry Dale Coleman was the author of two books, Strange Highways: A Guidebook to American Mysteries and More Strange Highways, thanks to publisher Troy Taylor. An original assortment of true unexplained stories from hauntings to monster birds, Jerry’s books revealed cases, hoaxes, critical analysis, and introduced exclusive tales of phenomenon. His first book was published on Halloween in 2003 from Whitechapel Press. His second book was released in January 2006.
Jerry became an investigator of strange phenomenon and bizarre events in the 1970s, and contributed to numerous books in the 1970s and 1980s. He wrote several newspaper articles, was a guest of several radio broadcasts, traveled the continental United States, from coast to coast, as well as to Hawaii, Mexico, Canada, Europe, and the Bahamas Islands, establishing his unique style while examining the unexplained. His first article was published in the December 1983 issue of Fate Magazine. He then created and produced the earliest of its kind in collector cards, Myth or Real Cards, in 1994.
These cards contained Jerry’s art, and his curating choices for what should be included; most of the text was by Loren. It was a combination that worked well. It also contained cases of special interest to Jerry.
Lawndale’s Thunderbirds
First and foremost, Jerry D. Coleman will always be known for his in-depth investigative work on the 1977 Lawndale, Illinois, Thunderbird case.
Jerry Coleman’s Myth or Real Card contained his illustration of the event.
Jerry D. Coleman was the first researcher to talk to Ruth and Marlon Lowe about the Thunderbird abduction. The description he obtained from the eyewitnesses was exacting and has been repeated often in the cryptozoological literature.
Jerry, formerly of Decatur, Illinois, was able to interview Marlon, Ruth and Jake Lowe on two occasions in 1977, within hours of the incident. Loren returned in 1979, with Jerry, to re-interview the Lowes. Due to Jerry’s involvement, he was quoted often by the media, in newspapers and in reality television programs.
The best materials on the Lawndale incident, from the Coleman brothers’ field examinations, are found in the following sources:
(1) Creatures of the Other Edge (NY: Warner Books, 1986; Anomalist Books, 2006). Contains the first, original 1977 notes from Jerry D. Coleman.
(2) Mysterious America (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1983; NY: Simon and Schuster, 2007). Chapter Two is partially the revised original Fortean Times article on the first interviews with the Lowes.
(3-4) Strange Highways (Alton, IL: Whitechapel, 2003) and More Strange Highways (Alton, IL: Whitechapel, 2006). These books have chapters on Jerry Coleman’s memories of his interviews with the Lowes in 1977, 1979, and his documentary television experiences.
(5) Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds (NY: Paraview, 2004). Mark A. Hall’s overview of the entire Lawndale incident is placed in the context of the other sightings occurring throughout central Illinois and the Midwest in 1977. Hall’s use of original source material sets it apart from other concurrent and later discussions from non-Coleman books, on these matters.
(6) “The 1977 Lawndale, Illinois Thunderbird Case” (2007; lost in cyberspace). Jerry D. Coleman’s timeline on the abduction with his detailed footnotes on the incident.
(7) Birdzilla (MonsterQuest, November 21, 2007) Jerry did the consulting work for this Discovery Channel special on the Thunderbird “attack”, and assisted in involving Marlon Lowe in the program.
Black Panthers and Back Road Tales
Jerry Coleman also traveled widely talking to eyewitnesses who saw “Black Panthers” in the Midwest, record out-of-place alligators, and, as it turned out, to debunk the stories associated with the location of the Carter Farm “Bigfoot” incidents.
While Jerry was living in Tennessee, he undertook an in-depth examination of the Janice Carter and Mary Green reports of generations of interactions with Bigfoot. Jerry decided to tackle this by doing background research and traveling to the site. His field notes were raw, insightful, and topnotch. He introduced his summary of the subject by noting, in part:
The authors of 50 Years with Bigfoot, Mary Green and Janice Carter Coy will tell you Bigfoot has existed on this farm for 50 years and still does! The allegedly true story encompasses practically everything ever testified to or theorized about Bigfoot: What they eat, how they kill, how they have sex, Bigfoot births, Bigfoot burial, Bigfoot at play, Bigfoot raping a human female, Bigfoot masturbating, Bigfoot speech, and of course a complete head to toe description of Bigfoot. However what is absent from this comprehensive view of the Bigfoot clan is solid, public documentation and consistency in the story. Most questionable of all is after 50 years of Bigfoot’s close encounters Coy, neighbors or invited (or uninvited) investigators have yet to obtain one single clear photograph of this infestation.
Janice Carter allegedly meeting “Fox” in the Carter Farm’s basement, April 2002.
The location of the former Carter Farm was 57 miles south of Knoxville and 80 miles north of Chattanooga, then east off of Interstate 75. To be precise, the farm was formerly located south of Madisonville off of route 411 by taking Reynolds Road east (county road 838) to the 500 block of Reynolds Road. Avoid bothering the residents there now. They have nothing to do with the Bigfoot stories.
The date of this initial investigation was May 27-28, 2004.
Note the above photograph shows another angle of the composite below created by Igor Burtsev.
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As recently as May 25, 2023, Jerry had tracked down another Decatur, Illinois out-of-place alligator report, to forward to the International Cryptozoology Museum.
A Life Well Lived
Jerry Dale Coleman was born in Decatur, Illinois, at the Macon County Hospital, on October 3, 1951, at a whopping 11 pounds, 14 and a half ounces; his mother called Jerry a phenomena!
In his life, as the father of six (he lost his son Jerry Denton to SIDS), JDC tended to agree with his mother’s first impression. Jerry loved his kids (Michelle Marie, Jerry Denton, Jennifer, Stephanie, Tara, & Nick) and being a dad. His sister Susan, brother Loren, lots of grandkids, maybe one great-grandchild, and lots of friends and ex-wives/lovers recall him with deep affection.
An experienced outdoorsman and accomplished guide, his commonsense approach to the world around him served him well. He took pride in wearing no labels from organized groups, thus giving him the true freedom to speak his mind.
When Jerry wrote his books and their “About the Author,” he summarized how he wanted to be remembered. Jerry first joined his childhood’s “Abominable Snowman Club” in his Decatur, Illinois neighborhood. Jerry then worked for Firestone Tire, a shift supervisor of paramedics, and a sales manager at Wareham Alarm Systems in Illinois. Soon he owned a trucking company in Northern Illinois, before moving to California to installed burglary alarm systems. In looking back at his life, he talked about the articles he’d written on the “unexplained” and how he’d traveled “all over the country, as well as [to] South America and Europe, in a quest for the unknown.” After working for 17 years as the production manager of printing ink company, Jerry left that job in 1998, to give himself more time to be on the road investigating. Finally, he saw the early 2000s, while in Tennessee, to spend some time “as a counselor for troubled teens.”
Jerry often would say he received his education “the hard knocks way,” because he never attended college. He became known as a candid, impartial, and pleasant interviewer, and a serious veteran monster hunter.
Jerry’s sense of humor was alive to the end. He told me in 2010 that he had finally been “admitted to a university,” knowing this day would come.
I asked him what he meant, and he said that the University of Tennessee had accepted his final remains in the forensic Body Farm at Knoxville. This was the same spot that had taken Grover Krantz’s body (1931-2002) too.
Anthropologist Grover Krantz left his remains to the Body Farm, and then his skeleton was displayed at the Smithsonian.
Jerry’s smile and laughter will be dearly missed.
I’m in shock.
One last cup of tea with Jerry….
Goodbye, brother. I love you.
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My thanks to Tara, Stephanie, Nick and Susan, with photos and info.
