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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/truthisfictionyt on 2024-09-02 16:00:25+00:00.
Cryptozoology, or the study of animal science doesn't currently recognize, is obviously controversial. A lot of figures within it have received quite a few criticisms. But one man stands out as the most widely disliked figure: Jon Erik Beckjord or JEB. He was an American cryptozoologist known for some outlandish claims. There are some fun ones, like his theory that Nessie was using wormholes (which he claimed to have captured on tape). He also claimed to have caused the mothman sightings during an out of body experience! But he also clashed a lot with other people, earning the name "The Bad Boy of Bigfootry".
On early cryptozoology and especially bigfoot forums, Beckjord was known for arguing with people. A lot. He was known for making multiple sock puppet accounts to argue with people more. One person I talked to said that people thought he was one of JEB's alts just because he was from San Francisco, where JEB was based out of. Ray Gravel was so incensed by Beckjord that he published a lengthy multi page site of some of his comments. Many of the arguments revolved around Beckjord arguing that bigfoot was a supernatural creature while others like Ray believed it was simply an unknown primate. Here are a couple I found interesting.
JEB: NONE of you guys is a zoologist, nor an ecological zoologist.
Ray: neither are you. You are no more qualified than my cat.
Another conversation:
EB: no matter what, you cannot, and no one is ABLE to kill a sasquatch.
Ray: that's right, they're proven shape shifters. They've been known to change into cats, dogs, horse, owls, sparrows, baboons, snakes, candy bars, trees, bushes, sticks, books, stereos, cheese, yogurt, and throw rugs.
EB: They are not normal, and not prt of zoological system.
Ray: Erik, that's what everyone's starting to think about YOU.
A lawsuit threat:
JEB: Dear Ray Gavel:
My attorney took a look at your new website, and reminds me that I have an Internet business running separate from my museum, and that some people not in any way connected with the Bigfoot area might actually believe some of the defamatory material you have posted on your site.
Therefore, if you do not remove 100% this site, by 6 pm Sat. Pacific Time, he will move to suponea your server to get your personal address and he will arrange to deliver papers to you notifying you of a lawsuit for $100,000
I should remind you that Henry Franzoni and John Horrigan both had defamatory sites re myself, and both wisely terminated these sites once contacted by my attorney. Both sites that mentioned me are now dead.
Mr. Franzoni spent $2,500 on legal advice. Mr. Horrigan is very possibly in jail with the Needham,Mass. Police. The FBI is also investigating mr. Horrigan.
I sincerely advise you to follow my request. Immediately. Furthermore, if not done, in addition to the lawsuit, you will never in your lifetime rejoin the BF201 list, if the site does not disappear at once.
I say this in total, 100% sincerity. I suggest you not argue, for this is not negotiable in any manner. Signed,
Jon Erik Beckjord
Gravel would one-up Beckjord, responding that nothing he said about the man was illegal, saying he had freedom of speech to criticize him, and jokingly threatening him with a million dollar lawsuit of his own.
JEB would respond
**EB:**Freedom of speech, you moron, does not cover defamation of character and libel.
You are a deeply UN-educated man.
I file the papers Monday.
"The Beatings will stop when Morale Improves"
Gravel would fire back with "that's ok, my counter suit just went up another $500,000 because of this email. Hey, you're gonna make my lawyer a very rich man."
Beckjord's lowest moment would come during an expedition with Tara Hauki (She admitted that she's not the best at making a website, so this is my attempt to piece together what she wrote. I may have gotten some stuff wrong). Hauki claims that before and during the expedition tensions started to rise. JEB told her beforehand that her reputation had been tarnished because she talked to another bigfooter he disliked, Tom Biscardi. Hauki was also forced to mediate between JEB and his girlfriend Christine or "Chris" who were in a lengthy process of breaking up at the time. Chris and JEB would frequently scream at each other and Chris would often get drunk (and drive). Chris later drunkingly drove away from the expedition site after several arguments. After this Hauki asked for him to take her home, but Beckjord refused (also guilting her to stay by revealing that he had cancer).
Things would then get physical as Beckjord allegedly hit her in the head with a heavy flashlight during a discussion about the ethics of bigfoot. Then he began to record her as she screamed at him for doing so (seemingly to prove that she was acting crazy). Beckjord would also threaten to leave her in the woods alone, and threatened to call the cops on her claiming that she had hit him with a shovel. As JEB had all the camping supplies in the trailer they were in, he stopped her from eating. When she tried to get in through a side door he grabbed her and threw her to the ground.
Hauki was in a fairly remote area alone, so she left on foot to get the cops. That's when she saw Beckjord began to go though her stuff, so she ran back to stop him (she later claimed he had stolen some of her notes). He then maced her in the face. Beckjord began to walk around the camp with an axe, and threatened to not take her back unless she stopped writing in her journal. He would also leave half eaten food out in front of her while locking her outside the camper. She responded by throwing some of his bigfoot books and other trinkets into a lake Eventually he left, and she was 15 miles away from civilization. Thankfully one man gave her a lift for part of the route while another man (who was actually homeless) bought her some food.
JEB would deny the allegations and respond to some of her criticisms she later posted online with this:
Update: Now she calls me an “Internet Predator”. This is absurd. Those men want sex from young girls. Hauki is 50, looks 60, and you couldn’t pay me to have sex with her. Claims to be 45, but really is 50, claims to have been forced to walk (hike) out 15 miles when the real distance to the paved road is 3 miles, claims I repeatedly hit her when in fact she hit me with a shovel, claims her journal is accurate when it is just a litany of lies, claims to be a maniac, and this is actually true – manic-depressive psychosis – Bi-polar
He also allegedly told her friends that she was "half bigfoot, half alien", said she was half a foot taller than she was, and claimed that she had a crack pipe in her bag. Very graciously, Hauki would attribute some of his actions to him suffering from cancer which he would pass away from in 2008.
In the 1990s during the OJ Simpson murder trial Beckjord tried to sell a "ghost photo" of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman for half a million dollars. He tried to sell his services as an anti-terrorism consultant after 9/11, advocating for people to carry spam with them to throw at terrorists. Finally, according to Animals and Men after he died his "acolytes" stated that he was still alive and that his cancer was in remission. The founder of Fortean Times stated: "I wouldn’t put it beyond Beckjord to be dead and still want attention!"
This is one of the final things he posted to his website
My enemies will rejoice. It comes to us all. To some earlier; to some later. Like Rene Dahinden, I have advanced prostate cancer and it has advanced to the bones. I was warned on the Lummi Indian Reservation that if you see Bigfoot/Sasquatch too often, it is a sign they are taking you to them, to join them…Roger Patterson got the best Bigfoot movie of all time, 58 sec, and within four years passed on with Lymphatic cancer (Parkenson’s disease [?] ). Bob Titmus also suffered cancer and he had a number of very excellent sightings. He survived quite a long time but it got him in the end….Bob Gimlim has had four heart by-pass operations. His time, too, is limited….The ride, however, has been one hell of a ride, and I have met some fabulous people, and learned some incredible things. I’m 68, Dahinden was 70, Titmus was in his 80s. I’ve crammed in a life of 200 years into one life
Alongside this post he also tried to sell his copy of the Patterson Gimlin film for one million dollars
Further reading:
The Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology by Michael Newton
The Cryptid Archive Wiki
https://web.archive.org/web/20011019130306/http://www.cgocable.net/~rgavel/index.html