Cliff Barackman

When Roger Met Patty—Bill Munns In light of the SXSW premiere of “Capturing Bigfoot” directed by Marq Evans and the stir it’s creating within the Bigfoot community, I wanted to remind everyone about Bill Munn’s book, “When Roger Met Patty”. Bill appears in the new documentary and emphasizes that nothing has changed what is seen in the frame by frame analysis of the Patterson-Gimlin film. In his book he demonstrates that “Patty” could not have been a man in a cheap monkey suit. Bill Munns, born in 1948 in Los Angeles, is a retired Hollywood makeup/special-effects artist, filmmaker, and costume designer with over 45 years of experience. Trained under Mike Westmore, he created creatures for TV and film, worked with animal trainers at Gentle Jungle, and later built wildlife exhibits and embraced CGI. A lifelong cryptozoology fan, he devoted years to the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin Film (PGF), assembling the most detailed frame archive available and co-authoring peer-reviewed papers with Dr. Jeff Meldrum. Munns wrote “When Roger Met Patty” for open-minded readers and scholars. It’s strictly fact-based, using only the film itself as evidence—avoiding speculation about Roger Patterson’s or Bob Gimlin’s motives. His goal was to determine if 1967 technology could fake “Patty” or if the footage shows a real unknown bipedal primate. The book starts with pointing out remoteness of Bluff Creek site being hard to stage a hoax, Patterson’s amateur camera work (shaky from running, finger slip), and Patty’s natural behavior—slow walk, sudden hurried retreat, one backward glance. Munns shares his Hollywood background and details 1960s creature suit limits, strict union rules, no public makeup books, inevitable seams/folds, restricted movement, and padding artifacts. He built test suits and maquettes to demonstrate what was impossible. He debunks specific hoax claims (e.g., Bob Hieronimus suit: football helmet yields unnatural high forehead; arm sticks ruin proportions and swing). Using filmed naked human subjects mimicking Patty’s gait, he compares real flesh dynamics—breast/hip rippling, muscle flow, armpit fold—to costumes. Only living anatomy matches; suits show creases and stiffness. Technical analysis covers film integrity (no edits/tampering), photogrammetry, scale, stride length, and lens/motion details. Patty’s sloping skull, fluid primate locomotion, and lack of suit artifacts stand out. He concludes that the PGF is authentic, depicting a real female Bigfoot-like primate unknown to science. No 1967-era costume could achieve her anatomical subtleties, natural motion, or absence of fakery signs. The film remains strong evidence until someone replicates it using only period technology. The new documentary fails to falsify any of Munns’s core findings. I recommend reading his book to see for yourself.

Happy birthday to Wes Montgomery, born on this day in 1923!