Editorial: Heironimus-Gate: 5 Years Later, How Is It Affecting the Bigfoot Community?

5 Years Ago this past Sunday, on the Jeff Rense Radio program, a group of Paranormal researchers and television producers appeared to introduce a controversial topic-the claim that the famous Patterson/Gimlin Film was a hoax, and that author Greg Long (The Making of Bigfoot: The Inside Story), along with Investigator Kal K. Korff had done some looking into the claim by a Zillah, Washington native who had attempted to come out in 1999 to tell his story that he was the man in the suit in the film through his attorney Barry Woodard. The man was introduced in full on March 1st, 2004, on the Rense program. His name? Bob Heironimus, a retired Pepsi bottler who had told Long in 1998 that he might or might not be the man in the suit. After having seen the TV special World's Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed produced by Bob Kiviat, he decided to come forward and tell the truth of how he allegedly was the man in the suit, and proceeded to tell Greg Long the supposed story of how he met Patterson and Gimlin near Willow Creek and then went to the film site and put the suit on that they had brought with them (and that Roger had allegedly modified when he bought it from costume maker Philip Morris) and put it on and was filmed by Patterson. Of course, Heironimus has told many conflicting and contradictory stories as to the origin of the suit, the location of the film site or even how to get there, so you have to wonder how he can get so many details wrong, whereas Gimlin has maintained his story for 42 years and has not wavered from it. As to the impact on the Bigfoot Community, I would say it is minimal, because it has not really had much impact one way or another and the work of a lot of dedicated individuals such as M.K. Davis, Chris Murphy, Daniel Perez, Roger Knights, Bill Munns and others, who have done their best to prove the film to be true-bill has strengthened the case for the film. Heironimus is largely forgotten by the Bigfoot Community at large, except when he crops up every now and then on TV. I myself am 98.7% convinced the film is true-bill, and I defy anyone to attempt to change my mind on it. Overall, the Heironimus story is just another in a series of claims and counterclaims which I feel will go nowhere and will only serve to strengthen the case in favor of the film.