SASQUATCH by Don Hunter with Rene Dahinden

Author Don Hunter presents the story of one of the Grand Old Men of Bigfooting, Rene Dahinden (1930-2001), and his quest to expose the SASQUATCH! Dahinden grew up a foster child, was re-adopted by his birth mother and abandoned yet again, and eventually settled in Canada from his native born Switzerland whereupon the quest for Sasquatch would consume him, to the point of ending his marriage. To finance his work he scraped by collecting and reselling spent lead shot from the Vancouver Gun Club. He became involved in millionaire Tom Slick's Bigfoot expedition, which is described herein with mixed feelings from Dahinden and some truly bizarre details ... 

What the hell, Bob?

An anecdote which is fortunately absent from the modern Bigfoot canon has expedition member Bob Titmus stealing used sanitary pads from women's rest rooms and nailing them to trees around camp in an attempt to attract horny Bigfoots. This is, admittedly, in keeping with classic stories of Bigfoot kidnapping forest brides and the modern, sleazy underbelly of the Bigfoot genre:

From the Men's Adventure Library's excellent Cryptozoology anthology

Amidst this sleaze, Dahinden struggles to make scientists and the public appreciate the serious nature of witness sightings. The death of Slick in a 1962 plane crash robs the field of a major donor, and at times money is tight for Dahinden and he has to suspend field work. Always though he continues collecting reports, and the fact that people are seeing something out there - something that leaves enormous footprints - keeps him going. Some sheriffs and policemen have sightings, along with mineral prospectors and various First Nations individuals, and these witnesses are treated as especially reliable and important by Dahinden.

Co-author Don Hunter

Not so reliable is fellow Bigfoot hunter and confirmed hoaxer Ivan Marx, who leads his comrades on a merry chase around Bossburg, WA, with the infamous "Cripplefoot" tracks of 1969, alongside a grift from one Joe Metlow, a local prospector who claimed at first to have an entire Sasquatch captured in a mine, and then later only a foot in a freezer. 

Here is where extreme fractures appear in the Bigfoot community, as Roger Patterson, John Green, and Dahinden and their cliques all find themselves at odds over the Bossburg mystery. Dahinden is offended by the moneymaking attitudes of both Patterson and Green, with Patterson acting a carnival barker and Green throwing money at Metlow's bogus captured Bigfoot.

Eventually Peter Byrne discovers he's been swindled by Marx when he checks some supposed film of the crippled Bigfoot taken by Marx and finds it blank. Other accounts have said it was snippets of Mickey Mouse cartoons but in either case it was a bust, and Dahinden is left with a bad taste in his mouth.

Co-author Rene Dahinden and his quarry

Dahinden again, in the field

Despite his friction with Patterson, Dahinden is bullish on the Patterson-Gimlin Film. Expertise from Grover Krantz and "the Russians" Dmitri Bayanov and Igor Bourtsev is brought to bear in support of its authenticity.

It's interesting 50 years on that despite Dahinden's approval of it the film is only one small part of the book - nowadays it's one of the few pieces of Bigfoot evidence left for us to pick over, and instead of blurry reprints of still frames in black white we can watch a "hi-def" (give or take) stabilized version on youtube. But Dahinden was after the real thing, the genuine article of a live Bigfoot. 

Sketches from the Bords' Bigfoot Casebook Updated

One especially evocative sighting doesn't quite get the full treatment from Hunter and Dahinden: two prospector brothers who sighted a gigantic, auburn haired creature near Pitt Lake, BC in 1965. The creature was "only a city block away" from them but on the other side of a steep gorge, and had immense hands, "like canoe paddles" and yellow in color. The brothers also found huge footprints before and after their sighting.

Hunter and Dahinden leave out the mysterious parallel grooves found beside the tracks, as well as the brothers' description of a pink tint within the tracks. Janet and Colin Bord's Bigfoot Casebook Updated (2004) includes these as well as sketches made by the brothers. Perhaps Hunter and Dahinden thought the additional details too outré, a common tension in Bigfooting that sees "scientific" perspectives of relict hominoids set against cases that include UFO, ESP, and high strangeness.

The Bords' casebook also includes three other reports of captured Bigfoots beside the famous Jacko case, with two from 1800s newspaper accounts and one from 1940 in Alaska. Hunter and Dahinden do not mention these, as they term Jacko the only captured Bigfoot. Maybe they thought the other cases too flimsy or weren't aware of them, but the point of this nitpicking is to illustrate the varied perspectives within the Bigfoot field.

Above, the original 1973 hardcover edition from McClelland and Stewart Limited. One gets a melancholy feeling reading Dahinden's quest, and he himself admits it may be a fool's errand, but that he can never give it up. Despite his searching, he never had a sighting of his own.

We'll leave Dahinden with the last word here, as recollected by fellow Bigfooter Christopher Murphy: "You know, I've spent over 40 years - and I didn't find it. I guess that's got to say something."

Sasquatch is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Signet Books, 1975 (original pub. 1973)

ESP AND YOU by Susy Smith

"An incubus is as good an excuse for hanky-panky as has even been invented."

Macfadden-Bartell's classy cover hides one sexy journey into the unknown from that "girl with the improbable name" (I still haven't figured out what that's supposed to mean) Susy Smith, as she uncovers incubi, succubi, ghost lovers, and mass sexual hysteria from the middle ages to modern day suburbia! That's only a part of her exploration of ESP, but man is it a heady brew to lead with.

Smith covers multiple cases of nuns (and Mohammedan girls too!) succumbing to sexual mania, lest we think the literature doesn't support the existence of incubi. Modern housewives and widows aren't immune either, though sometimes Smith says it's hard to tell whether they're being visited by departed lovers or by demons. This is one reason she advises against Ouija boards, as any old demon can call themselves whatever they want when you're pushing the planchette around. She also questions how many "genuine" cases of possession or visitation it really takes to kick off a fad or mania from otherwise unaffected ladies.

Smith carries on with a racy theme through subjects such as ESP in twins, with showgirls Lou and Lee Gerick explaining their psychic connection: once they even purchased identical all white outfits at the same time, despite the two of them being separated in Idaho and Hollywood!

Twins Lou and Lee ... or is it Lee and Lou?

Picture from a 1964 USO show they did.

Their card!

Smith outlines Freud and Jung's ESP experiences, cites heavily from Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun, and interviews a man developing his ESP through LSD under the pseudonym Melvin Mallory. Poltergeists, witches, and vampires all come in for guest roles as well, with Smith very interested in the interplay between psyche, culture, and forces from beyond - how much of any given phenomenon is culturally expressed, or projected out from one's self, or otherwise influenced in ways we might not appreciate?

After so much steamy research, Smith has to assure us that the psychically gifted aren't just a bunch of perverts, though "still, all in all, Nandor Fodor found a lot of psychics who were weirdos!" And there's always Aleister Crowley, too!

According to Fodor's research, Smith tells us that spirits and demons can change one's sexual orientation through possession, leading to lesbianism and homosexuality in heterosexual mediums! Smith also hedges that perhaps these are cases of repressed feelings. Throughout this text, Smith comes back to the idea that no matter what strange forces may be at work, we are all human after all.

Susy includes a nice bibliography in her usual practice, though her discernment as to the quality of various sources may be a bit lacking at times - she admits as much when repeating somewhat shaky stories such as the fraudulent medium Eusapia Palladino, who Smith believes possessed genuine powers while still resorting to trickery from time to time. Sometimes, Smith says, we just can't be sure as to the true facts of a case and can only take people at their word, and she concludes that many of the stories she's covered are just too subjective to prove something one way or the other.

Smith also cites cases and correspondence from her own previous books including World of the Strange, previously reviewed at this blog.

She ends her saucy psychic tour with some final words from author R. Dewitt Miller:

ESP and You is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Macfadden-Bartell Books, 1972

MYSTERIOUS PLACES by Daniel Cohen

And there was Elvis - not the real one 

When he kissed me goodbye he called me hon

Just another shot in the dark 

Like El Dorado or Noah's Ark

Another very readable pop-sci primer from Daniel Cohen, collecting the most cutting edged research c.1969 around such mysterious places as Atlantis, Mu, Camelot, and others! This is a journey not just to unknown lands but through academic debates and pop culture mutations, as interpretations and explanations rise and fall through the years - was Atlantis real, or just a metaphor? Where the hell did Prester John come from? How many times do we have to establish the creators of Great Zimbabwe before the Rhodesian government will admit it wasn't a lost white race? Cohen dives into the archives to tackle all of these questions head on ...

Per usual, Cohen is gentle but firm in his exploration of fringe science and crank ideas, and by putting theories about lost worlds like Atlantis in their historical and social contexts Cohen lights the way as surely as a torch in a dusty tomb. Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination, and a few dead ends and side paths here and there can be edifying.

This title was published the same year von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods? made it to American shores, and so while Cohen does not answer von Daniken's mystery mongering by name, his chapter on Easter Island is notable nonetheless for including research and information that von Daniken would pretend was impossible and unknowable for decades to come.

Throughout his world tour of the unknown Cohen makes reference to our romantic yearning for cataclysm and mystery. The work is a pleasure to read, and Tower Books' cheap and flashy presentation (dig the ad for smokes!) adds spice to a volume that surely undercuts a good deal of other titles in their occult oeuvre.

Cohen includes a nice bibliography, and Tower Books include a nice page of juicy ads for other occult/paranormal titles such as Stefan Elg's Fortean mixer Beyond Belief and Devi Sonero's pro-phrenology reader!

Tower Books also put this title out as Lost Worlds, with new cover art and a different ad spread in the back. Check out Otto Binder's sci-fi entry Night of the Saucers, published under his Eando pseudonym:

It's been said that a girl trying to find herself the perfect man is like trying to find Atlantis. Even 50+ years on, this work is illuminating and enjoyable. Mysterious Places is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Tower Books, 1969

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: The Wandering Isle

On the track of the phantom Thompson Island in the South Atlantic. Map by Charles Green, from A Grue of Ice by Geoffrey Jenkins.

Courtesy Fontana Books, 1964 (original pub. 1962).