Raymond L. Wallace
| Ray Wallace | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Raymond L. Wallace April 21, 1918 Clarksdale, Missouri, USA |
| Died |
November 26, 2002 (aged 84) Centralia. Washington, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Bigfoot hoaxing |
Raymond L. "Ray" Wallace (April 21, 1918 − November 26, 2002) was an American amateur Bigfoot hoaxer and, according to most who knew him well, a pathological liar.[1][2][3][4]
Wallace was born in Clarksdale, Missouri. He worked as a logger for much of his life, but also in road construction throughout much of Washington, Oregon and California. He served in the Army during World War II as an aircraft gunner. Wallace finally settled in Toledo, Washington in 1961.
In August 1958, the Humboldt Times of Eureka, California, was the first to use the term "Bigfoot" in their story about huge footprints found by a worker of Wallace's Humboldt County construction company.[5]
Upon Wallace's death, his son Michael revealed that Wallace was in possession of large, poorly crafted, obviously fake wooden feet.[5] According to Wallace's family, Ray's brother Wilbur Wallace and nephew Mack McKinnley used these wooden feet to stamp imprints around northern California as a prank.[5] Ray Wallace also created hair and feces samples which the family left in the woods for Bigfoot researchers to find. He created the hair samples by processing hair from the bison he kept on his wild animal farm near Toledo.[6]
Wallace died in a Centralia, Washington nursing home at the age of 84.[5]
References
- ↑ Heuvelmans, Bernard (January 9, 1995). On The Track Of Unknown Animals (3rd, illustrated, revised ed.). London, England: Kegan Paul International. ISBN 978-0-7103-0498-8. OCLC 31076126. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
- ↑ Green, John Willison (June 30, 2006). Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us (2nd, illustrated ed.). Surrey, British Columbia: Hancock House Pub Limited. ISBN 978-0-88839-123-0. OCLC 84903675. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
- ↑ Napier, John Russell (March 1973). Bigfoot: the yeti and sasquatch in myth and reality (1st, illus. ed.). New York, USA: Dutton Penguin. ISBN 9780525066583. OCLC 600219. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
- ↑ "Bigfoot hoaxer dies - legacy lives on". newsmodo. newsmodo.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Egan, Timothy (January 3, 2003). "Search for Bigfoot Outlives The Man Who Created Him". The New York Times (Manhattan, New York, USA: Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.). ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved May 4, 2012.
- ↑ "Wallace Hoax Behind Bigfoot?". BFRO.net. Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2012.