This Paranormal Life - #006 The Loch Ness Monster Died in WW2

Episode Date: May 23, 2017

We finally examine one of the most elusive creatures on this earth, The Loch Ness Monster. Does Nessie still reside in the Scottish Loch? Or was he killed in WW2? Find out as Rory Powers and Kit Grier investigate.Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Bigfoot an interdimensional ghost? Is Beyonce an Illuminati show? Does Satan assume the form of a large bird and stop the rooftops of homes in New Jersey? There are some things we're just not meant to know. Until now! Welcome to This Paranormal Life. My name is Kit Greer and I'm here with my trusty partner in paranormal crime, Rory Pars. Hello.

Hello. Man, I really hope Satan is a bird who stalks people. That would be incredible. We will get there. We will get to that case. Absolutely. The New Jersey devil. Today, I've got a doozy for you, Rory.

Okay. Let me ask you a question. Let me pose a question to you. How much do you know about the Loch Ness Monster? Ooh. So that's one of the big, like big few the big yes the big name if if you know globally recognized if there was some sort of paranormal squad like a boy band style squad like yeah like if there's a mountain nessie would be nessie you have mountain rushmore of

paranormal creatures bigfoot nessie aliens Yeah. Maybe a lizard like down there somewhere. I don't know a lot. I don't know a lot about it. We should go diving. We should get it. We should just go on vacation. We should freaking catch it, dude. Drain the swamp.

Drain the swamp. Get Nessie out. Okay. Let me paint a picture for you. So Nessie has got to be one of the most famous paranormal cases of all time. The tale is known worldwide and like all good paranormal mysteries, remains unsolved until today. I disagree. I totally disagree. I think a lot of good paranormal studies would be better if they existed.

That would be fantastic. I'm a purist. I'm dedicated to the search. So sightings of Nessie go back a long time. In fact, sightings go back over 1,400 years. Jesus. That's right. The first written report of the Loch Ness Monster goes back to the year 565 AD. Triple digits.

What? Was it delivered by Falcon? How was this spread? I will tell you. The story goes that an Irish monk named St. Columba was living in Scotland. And one day he encountered local residents in this area in Scotland, up in the highlands, around kind of Inverness sort of area. And they were burying someone. They were burying someone by the River Ness.

Is this creepy already? Yeah, that's a bit weird. Maybe, I don't know, 1500s. This is what was normal. Or 500s. Oh, Jarrah, sorry. Yeah, I know. Yeah, maybe people are dropping like flies every single second.

But, you know, this guy, he's a saint. He's a freaking saint. So he's going to come over and probably bless this kid. And he inquires as to what happens. To his horror, they recounted that this young man was swimming in the river when he was attacked by a water beast and mauled dragged him onto the water by the time his friend grew up too he was dead now this is fascinating because saint columba was you know he's like a prolific monk he founded abbeys he was involved in irish politics right up until he died he had

a great deal written about him this is just like a little side note in kind of the story of his life. But if you think about it back then, it took someone like this to just run into the story for it to kind of enter, you know, the annals of history. Right. And that's the first sighting. How many creatures do we not know about because people can't write? That's what I want to know about.

I can barely write. What happened in want to know about i can bear what happened in medieval time the unspoken crimes the numerous water beasts because there wasn't a saint there with a biro with a freaking iphone with snapchat put it down to snap it to his followers something weird's happening ghost emoji ghost emoji yeah there was no worldstarhiphop.com to post your alien sightings. BRB, blessing this bro. It's a picture of the corpse. Just like...

I know. So that was the first sighting. So that's the first sighting. In fact, it's over a thousand years until Nessie is maybe not seen again, but until Nessie is documented as being seen again. Right. So the next major sighting is in until 1871, again right so the next major sighting isn't until 1871 and mr d mckenzie sees the outline of a beast moving quickly to the water of luckness he must be standing you know somewhere on the shore and he

sees this beast moving quickly through the water and he does what any honorable citizen would do and he actually reports this to the lieutenant commander of the british royal navy that is surprisingly level-headed level level-headed isn't it that's really impressive like that would today that would never cross your mind if you saw something creepy yeah you're gonna post it like on yeah i posted it yeah absolutely he's ring like you'd be like bbc news won't bite this but like huffpo huffpo my boy yeah yeah buzzfeed or something That's so true. But he just goes straight to the top. Maybe he's a guy with connections. I don't know.

But he contacts Mr. Rupert Gould. He is the lieutenant commander of the British Royal Navy at this time. He's a highly respected commander in the Navy. So whenever someone rings him up to tell him that there's something was moving through the water of Loch Ness, you can kind of guess his reaction you would be wrong uh he takes it really really really seriously the navy mustn't have had that much on in 1871 because he dedicated a lot of time to this for the rest of his life you knew like he was waiting he was like waiting for the opportunity to just to do something weird

with that lake so it's like it's like um i was just wondering do you guys know so you've seen it too you've seen the beast it's like i don't know if you know what's called hi i know just ready to jump it's like what was his name oh his name's ripper good ripper you got a lot of paperwork here you know this has been stacking up nay no i got to go down to the lake there's a lot going on down there we're literally at war sir we're going to be at war with a sea beast

with a sea beast he's just a coward he doesn't want to fight we are being pressed from all sides by international threats at this point we need to start diverging funds into the places they are most needed this time

have we got a harpoon I don't feel like you're hearing me I am I'm listening you're reading the same letter over and over again you're packing rations into a backpack as you speak you're wearing wellies sir i see you on red bubble you're making your own nessie t-shirts you're trying to capitalize on this no no mainly snapbacks that or he's just like

one of those guys he puts in like a really good day at the office you know his wife calls him at the end of the day everyone's packing up to go home she's like when are you going to be home and he's like oh it's 3 late there's something turning up now in Loch Ness I don't think I'll be I'm very busy now tonight so I think I'll be late tonight again on the eye

and he just goes up and gets like pissed with the lads let's give him the benefit of the the doubt and assume that he is an honorable man he is he's a respected commander he he is a he's a long uh career in in the navy so he actually goes the lake himself by motorbike drives to the lake to try and spot nessie himself not just that he actually goes around the lake around the surrounding areas, and interviews as many witnesses as he could,

and I guess at this point there's quite a few words getting out. People are on the lookout. He even goes as far to write the first book about the Loch Ness Monster. I bet he did. I bet he did. I bet he sold it too with a free t-shirt. I know his plan. I know your plan, Rupert. He became a regular contributor to radio shows and newspaper articles about the beast.

In fact, he became the de facto Nessie expert globally. Nesspert. Nesspert. Nespresso-pert. All of this to the point where he suffers two nervous breakdowns. Oh, okay. He kind of went hard on the Nessie thing for a few years. Just to reiterate, this is a naval commander the british royal navy and he

this is what he's spending his time doing i think this is kind of crazy like you know a lot of the time we see crackpots yeah attracted to these you know paranormal cases but what we find with the nessie case is it's nearly the opposite it's actually the history is littered with like really respectable people that i think give the story a lot more credence. And I think we're going to come across that a lot in our discussions and our examinations, is that the most interesting cases are the people that gain nothing from this.

Yes. Going out and preaching this message that they were abducted or they saw something is ruining their lives. But what happened to them was so shocking that they have to tell people and i think that's the craziest thing when it comes to paranormal stories like this because this guy he's got a good job presumably he has some sort of family friends relationships imagine experiencing something in your life that horrifies you so much or just fascinates you so much that drives you to madness.

You literally have stress-induced breakdowns. Yeah, that's the truth. It's the hunt for the truth. It's like, I think we talked a little bit before about Tom DeLonge from Blink-182. Yeah. He's quit music to become a full-time UFO investigator. As a water beast. To become, to go to the lock itself.

He's ready for plastic surgery to get gills. That's crazy that he's become an actual ufo investigator that's it he's out there searching for the truth he's done enough though you've made music you've made money do what you want you're about to pivot go search alien go search for aliens go for it so what was rupert gold so sure about what did he see and hear on the late shore that convinced him doesn't his career and his reputation give the story a lot more weight and did the search for the mythical beast cause his breakdowns yes absolutely more than certainly fast forward to 1933 july 22nd we're about to see the first full sighting of the beast in all its terrifying glory. Mr. George

Spicer and his wife are driving along the coast of Loch Ness when pulling into view they see what they describe as a most extraordinary form of animal. Four foot tall and 25 foot long. What? With a long

wavy neck. Its neck alone was the entire width of the road that's how long this thing was and as they approached it they reported

that it just turned around and lurched slowly across the road and back into the lake wait so it's not it's not in the water

it's on the ground it's on the road that's something that I did not know Nessie could do which is leave the lake yeah

how is it traversing the land it's something we will get to know Nessie could do, which is leave the lake. Yeah. How is it traversing the land? It's something we will get to, but yes, I suppose. Like a slug? This would be helpful to describe at this point that this is kind of the general popular conception of Nessie, is that Nessie has an extremely long neck, you know, a bit like one of those dinosaurs with a really long neck. But it's also got little diamond-shaped fins, you know, so. Oh, right, oh right yeah big ones at the front and little ones at the back you know so it can kind of plod along you know and and that's something that does exist in nature you know it's catfish that can that can you know walk on land and stuff like that and as it leaves the road it leaves a

trail of undergrowth in its wake and this wasn't an isolated incident this is what's interesting just one month later it's 1am on a moonlit august night and mr arthur grant was driving around the northwestern end of the lock when suddenly he sees a long neck too and sees a head on the end of it jesus in the middle of the road it's her it's nessie nessie turns to see mr grant and slowly lurches back into the lock leaving only ripples behind. He tries to see where Nessie's gone, and that's all that's left is ripples on the surface of the lake. That's crazy.

I did not know that there were two actual sightings of Nessie out of lake. Yes, I know. There's lots of sightings. There's actually, to date, there is at least 1,000 sightings officially listed online, which you can check out. Almost every single one is documented online with dates. Now, what's interesting about Mr. Grant was he's actually a vet. So knowing a thing or two about animals, he gave a pretty accurate description.

And he said that what he saw was a cross between a seal and a plesiosaur. Now, a plesiosaur is a... If I showed you the image, you would recognize it. It's just a sea beast. Okay, sea beast. A dinosaur sea beast with a very long neck. Giraffe-style neck. Exactly.

So he describes it across between a seal and that. But huge, but massive. Yes. Now, this is the first time it's suggested that the descriptions of the Loch Ness Monster somewhat line up to the description of the prehistoric beast, the plesiosaur. Is this the last of its kind, the plesiosaur? Is an ancient monster living in the cold, dark waters in the highlands of Scotland?

And that's certainly one theory that we will continue to see going forward in the present day. This event in the 30s, this kind of shaped the modern perception of the Loch Ness Monster is that it looks like a dinosaur. And it's that size. All right. I got some questions.

I got some questions. Okay. Were we at like a halfway point or like a touch? Yeah, thereabouts. A little moment here, a little TO, TO. When was the first sighting? The Saint one. Yeah, the year 565.

And we're already up to when? Now we're in the 1930s. How old is this thing? Because dinosaurs did exist a very long time ago, but they also died. They weren't like super living creatures. I don't know. What was the lifespan of a dinosaur?

I did look into this. What's the lifespan of a plesiosaur? And it's not really confirmed. Should I ask Siri? We don't know that much. Go for it. Hey, Siri. I'm not connected to the internet.

I do want to do this. I do want to do this. Hey, Siri. What's the life expectancy of a dinosaur? It's a big range. Let me check on that. How long did dinosaur? Oh, Jesus. The life expectancy of a dinosaur.

Have a look. No immediate answers. I should have expected that. That is what I found, honestly, was No one had a solid answer for me. There are sharks that live for hundreds of years alive today. Sharks or sea beasts? At what point does a creature become a sea beast? I think whether they're real or not.

So I don't know. I don't know where to draw the line. As you will see going forward, this line becomes pretty blurred. So at this point in the tale, the people of the highlands, the locals, are in a fervor. Word's gotten out that there's an ancient, dangerous beast living in their seemingly tranquil lake. Okay. So people at this point band together and create a vigilante hunting party. Oh, God, no.

They even had, you kind of called god no they even had you kind of called already they even had a homemade harpoon gun and they declared that they were going to catch the luckness monster quote dead or alive jesus a straight up beauty in the beat was it led by gaston like it's insane kill the beast like they're all like on the lakes i know that's madness i know and there's some scottish beauty no don't kill it don't kill it i love it oh you know and as i say about respectable people in society you know rallying behind this hunt for the beast the next person to step up is local chief constable william frazier of the police department he wrote an article and you can actually read this online

it is archived online uh declaring that the Loch Ness monster absolutely exists beyond doubt and there's nothing he could do to protect the beast from the hunting party i mean shut it down stop it he's like loading his gun no it's too late for that now there's nothing I don't know why he's the only southern American there's like nothing I can do I'm gonna have to kill it

before they get it I know it does feel like this is like you know like a Lassie movie and the kids are trying to protect the beast and the local police chief goes there's nothing I can do

nothing I can do kids so as crazy as this all sounds needless to say they were totally unsuccessful in capturing the beast dead or alive because the mystery continues to this day they were unsuccessful now unfortunately for nessie more than one band of morons declared war on her in 1941 during the second world war an italian newspaper owned by Mussolini, Popolo d'Italia, reported that the Loch Ness Monster had been killed

in the extensive Nazi bombing of Scotland. This was literally global news, all the way to Australian newspapers that Nessie was killed in action. Shortly after this, however, sightings of Nessie started popping up again and Britain's Daily Mail reported that, thankfully, Nessie had survived the Nazi assassination attempt.

Nessie survived the Second World War. The assassination attempt, I love that. As if, like, the military was going to have to send, like, giant dog tags to its, like, parents. I don't know how to tell you this. I'm sorry it's kia this is the hardest part of my job in terms of large investigations for this beast things only got bigger so in 1934 edward mountain who owned one of brit Britain's largest insurance companies, That's a great name. financed a search.

He hired 20 men with binoculars and cameras to watch the lake for nine hours a day for five weeks. Oh my gosh. This is in 1934. Mr. Mountain, you have too much time. But there must have been nothing to do back then. You have constables, you have a commander in the Navy, you have this, you you know magnate of insurance companies just carrying out nessie you know investigations it's insane so by the end nest of nestigations i think you may say you're you're on fire uh because it's the 30s i guess you know 20 men working nine hours a day for five weeks only managed to take

21 photographs right of course and they had these professionally reviewed by zoologists this is quite an exciting moment you know you've put in just insane amounts of money you know hundreds of thousands by modern standards and zoologists were able to confirm they saw one seal one gray seal oh that was it what a letdown yeah and this continues in 1962 the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau was formed. Seven years later, it had over a thousand members in 1969. It's still going today. And in 2003, even the BBC got involved, sponsoring a giant search for the monster,

used 600 sonar beams and satellite tracking to scan the entire lake, finding nothing. Nothing. My favorite search story began the the morning Of Friday March 31st 1972 An eight member team Of scientists From Yorkshire's Flamingo Park Zoo

Were on a joint mission With the Loch Ness Phenomenon Bureau To prove the existence Of Nessie They developed A new form of Quote

Hormone sex bait Whoa I don't like Where this is going That they would Use to lure Nessie out of the depths Presumably this is how Like Link use the lure nasty out of the depth presumably this is how like

Link's deodorant got invented he just sprayed a bunch of Link's Africa sprayed a seal with Africa just let him like put him on a rock oh god

that's so horrible what I'm assuming is like you know when they need to get the like the semen from bulls. So they have like those fake cows. That's right, yeah. The fake mating cows.

Like a cow fleshlight for sure. I'm just imagining like, yeah, basically like a giant Nessie float. Just like big eyes, like eyelashes, like make it look really attractive. Some rouge on the cheeks. Yeah, just covered in, I don't know. Yeah, Looney Tunes style Nessie comes up. Oh, mademoiselle. Like floating to the scent of this like aphrodisiac Nessie.

That is presumably exactly what they had in store. They didn't actually get to use this because no longer had they just geared up to get ready for this search. That they get wind immediately. The morning of at 8 a.m. they get wind immediately. The morning of, at 8 a.m., they get wind that something's on the lake. Someone reported seeing a large hump floating in the lock. So they head out to investigate, and sure enough, a large dark object

was bobbing up and down the waves about 300 yards away. They immediately get into the water. They get it in a boat, set out to get it. 20 minutes later, they're back on shore, dragging behind them this bizarre object. What about the sex potion? Forget the potion gary he's here he's here gary's like mixing like these potions in the back just like flying eyeliner to the beast putting on his nessie costume like running out down to the lake they arrive back on land with to all intents and purposes the dead body

of the Loch Ness Monster what? I thought you were going to say like a log or a boot or something we're making some ground here oh my god within hours news of this discovery

had reached the rest of the world television news anchors solemnly informed their audiences that the Loch Ness Monster had been found but was dead he got so aroused it had a heart attack.

It's just like, so horny, it died. Too much C. Viagra. It's freaking out, had a heart attack. It's like, imagine if you're just, that's just what happens when you're alone for a thousand years and a possible mate appears, like your heart just explodes. That is what would happen to a thousand year old man, to be fair. Yeah, like all, like so much blood would rush to his penis that he would like it'd be like

the end of indiana jones they just shrivel up and just like die that's almost certain i know it's like we pulled him into shore and it was fully erect but totally dead it'd be the most embarrassing way to go television news anchors informed their audiences that the lockdown sponsor had been found but was dead reporters rushed to the lock to get more details local residents confirmed to the tv station what had happened a 23 year old robert mckenzie said i touched it and put my hand in its mouth it's real all right what yeah robert's got some issues

man yeah it's a bit weird again i just want to reiterate not much to do around the lake this is what they got going so he was like you know he's been dreaming about this moment the entire time i said I swear to god if I ever see that beast I'm going to put my hand on its tongue and yank it so help me god

that son of a bitch he's just yanking the tongue who's crazy now please stop that this is a rare scientific fact. Oh, sorry. It was real, all right. I thought it looked half bear and half seal, green in colour,

with a horrific head like a bear with flat ears. I was shocked. End quote. Other witnesses told reporters that the creature was between 12 and 18 feet in length and must have weighed up to one and a half tons. So this kind of matches up to those descriptions of the 30s. Yeah, not far off. They said it had a green body without scales.

Okay. And was a cross between a walrus and a seal, some sort of sea beast. The next morning, the Discovery made front page headlines around the world. Los Angeles Times ran the headline, monster, inverted commas, hauled out of Loch Ness. And then a quote underneath green and scaly the British press

dubbed the creature son of Nessie oh so not even well that's what that's what they said you know right

do you think that's like just to keep the myth alive exactly like tourism is up because of this creature son of Nessie yeah I think that's it

he's still out there we got his we got his kid then we can Son of Nessie. Yeah. I think that's it. He's still out there. We got his kid. Then we can like send Nessie a picture of him with like today's newspaper and be like, show yourself. Can you come out? Send them like a part of a fin in the post, you know? Like, that's sort of like holding for ransom sort of thing. That's dark.

Yeah. I went there. I went there. So after dragging the carcass back to the shore, scientists from the Flamingo Park Zoo quickly loaded the body into the truck and took off, intending to transport the monster back to the zoo for study. But when local police realized what had happened, they were furious and took off after them to recover the body of Nessie,

citing a 1933 Act of Parliament that prohibited the removal of unidentified creatures from Loch Ness. This was written into law. That's an actual, really? Written into law. I cannot stress how seriously people were taking the Loch Ness Monster at one time. And right now, in this podcast. Yeah.

When they caught up with the scientists, they made them open the truck. And sure enough, there's a large, green and scaly creature inside. They immediately took it to researchers to imagine. They even convinced, again, so many important people turning up. Michael rushed in the then curator of Edinburgh Zoo to come and see it. So he looks around it, pokes it once or twice, and announces that it's a seal. It's another seal.

Are you serious? It's a goddamn seal. How did they get this far and not realize that it's a seal? The people on the shore, the locals said it was 12 to 18 foot. It turned out to be like seven foot. Oh my God. People just want to believe. They really do.

He probably like when they were dragging it in, like got covered in a bit of seaweed and like maybe some barnacles and stuff. And then by the time it gets to shore, they're like, Nessie, I'm sorry, Peter, or whatever your name was, you put your hand in a seal's mouth. You have been duped. You have been duped.

I know. I know. Imagine being that guy. It's like, I touched it. I touched it. Tell all my friends. And then the next day it comes out that it was a fake.

Didn't you say you touched that? No, no, no. No, I said he touched me so at this point mr john shields who worked at flamingo park zoo admitted he took a dead elephant seal shaved off its whiskers padded its cheeks with stones froze it for a week dumped it into the lock and phoned an anonymous tip into the into the uh

hotel the morning that his colleagues found it are you serious he did all this time perfectly so that the news broke internationally on april 1st april fool's day oh my god that's so grim that's really grim again not much to do. Needless to say, this wasn't the first, and it won't be the last Loch Ness Monster hoax. There were many from that point to the present day. There's been a rich history of photographic evidence of the Loch Ness Monster over the years,

and I'm going to present you some of the photos, and you're going to try and guess whether they're real or not. Well, whether they turn out to be official hoaxes or whether it's still unknown as to whether they are real or not. Well, whether they turn out to be official hoaxes or whether it's still unknown as to whether they are real or not. Yeah. Okay. You're going to guess. Because I was like, I'll guess they're all fake.

Those are my two options. Okay. If some of them are confirmed hoaxes, then that makes a bit of sense. Okay. Quite right. At this point, I will present to you image one. Okay. This is the Sturt photo.

This is some very early photographic evidence of the Loch Ness Monster. I see you trying to enlarge the image there. I was trying to enlarge it. Zoom and enhance. It's just old as hell. NCIS style. Yeah, I think it's just really old. I'm going to say not a hoax.

I'm going to say authentic. It looks legit. That looks really legit to me. It's quite grainy. It's quite grainy. It's quite authentic looking. Yeah. I can confirm that those are hay bales.

Damn it to hell. Because that's what I always imagine Nessie like. Like the serpentine up and down. Not like a giraffe dinosaur. Yeah, that's true I always imagine Nessie like. The serpentine up and down, not like a giraffe dinosaur. Yeah, that's true. That's true. This has become quite an iconic image. So we'll go to image two.

Okay. Now this is the most famous image of all time. This is the iconic Nessie photo. This is the surgeon's photo from 1934. I know this one. I've seen this one before. It's the famous one. It looks like you get a bit of a body and then a head popping up but it's all silhouetted because it is a very old photograph

it's an extreme photograph i'm going to say this one is real because of its uh significance and importance that's that's an educated guess um and a wrong guess that is actually several hay bales uh stacked on top of each other with a sliver of hay. You really should have seen it coming. It obviously wasn't disproven immediately, otherwise it never would have become, you're quite right, so attached to the tale of it. But what happened was, this was taken in 1934.

A gentleman that was attached to the story of the surgeon's photo admitted on his deathbed in the 90s that he had faked it and this is in fact a toy animal from Woolworths why do you not have anything more important to say on your deathbed than you faked a Nessie picture that That's my biggest fear. Like, you've gathered all your loved one, your family, your children, and you're like, Nessie isn't real. Like, how much of this affected your life as a human? This was your dying message.

I know. Imagine that. Just, Nessie isn't real. Yeah, we know. Yeah, exactly. Really? I thought the photo was pretty great. It was pretty good.

So, as I say, we'll move on to the next image. You can look these up. That was the surgeon's photo. Moving on. This is the Edwards photo, which is, I believe, very recent, as recent as 2011. I'm going to say fake. I'm going to say fake. I'm going to say fake. That's a hoax.

You are absolutely right. Yes, I knew it. It is, as many of them do. This one has another funny story to it. So Mr. Edwards has dedicated most of his life to hunting Nessie. And Mr. Edwards has been searching for Nessie for 26 years. Too long. That's too long.

Stop after one. If you don't find anything after one, stop. I mean, honestly, I could put in a weekend. I'd be satisfied. Honestly. I mean, this guy has been looking for Nessie longer than either of us have lived. He's been alive, yeah. Oh, my God.

He spends up to 60 hours a week on his boat, the Nessie Hunter 4. The other three were claimed by the beast itself. You mean Rust? I mean Rust. The true beast of the sea, Rust. He spent 60 hours a week on the Nessie Hunter 4 scouting the waters. And in 2011, he took this photo

claiming to have actually photographed nessie saying he had the photo independently verified by and you know we're professionals so so we know what it takes when it comes to verifying something as fact or fiction that's what this entire podcast about absolutely takes expertise and dedication years of training experience so he ran this by a hybrid body a nessie sighting specialist. Right. Not real. That shouldn't exist.

And a group, this is fantastic, a group of US military monster experts. Oh my God. Where do these people get their money from? Who's paying them? How do they pay rent? Exactly. I struggle to pay rent, and I have a job.

I don't understand. I don't understand. Am I doing something wrong? Should I be chasing beasts? He says he worked for the military. That's possible. Actually cool. Monster hunters for the military?

That's pretty good. That's sweet. Now I changed my mind. Yeah, I want in. I want in. So needless to say, he received substantial criticism for this photo right uh and just two years later admitted the photo was a hoax and but in a funny turn of events he maintains that his 1986 photograph is still genuine no you don't get to do that you don't

get to do that that's not how this works the thing i don't understand is so these people they search for a period of time or they're at least infatuated by the legends and the rumors and the myths. They want it to be taken seriously because they take it seriously. I mean, this guy spent 26 years of his life doing it. So why then,

like do this, make a hoax, make a fake one, a doctored photo. All you're doing is tarnishing the reputation of Nessie and Nessie Hunters. Yeah, down the toilet. Yeah. You've gone from

um you know a scientific hunter of these this mythological creature which yeah granted it's crazy but it's admirable he cares about it something he's interested in to just a lunatic like an absolute madman and that's not a good that's not you don't want to be called that you don't want to be seen as that but yet there are are so many. I know. It blows my mind. So you get a feeling for the photographic evidence. Yeah. It's dicey at best. Despite the hoaxes, what is quite incredible is how people have dedicated themselves to finding Nessie.

We talked before about Mr. George Edwards, but there's another professional Nessie hunter, Steve Felton, who's been searching for the beast for 24 years. He gave up his job, his home and girlfriend to live by the lake in a mobile home and spend all day, every day looking for the Loch Ness Monster. Oh, dude. This is kind of what you described. This is people who have a life. Yeah. And leave it behind. I mean, this is kind of amazing.

He claims that he once saw the beast in 1993, but didn't have his camera. Right. That's fine. I'd rather he didn't have his camera than he make some hoax or photo or something it's true i don't have my this is before smartphones so i didn't have a camera all the time it's fine dude so he keeps camera on him all the time now uh in 2014 in an interview he said this is my passion this is exactly what i want to do with my life when he was interviewed one year later in 2015 he changed his mind he said the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist at all

it's a catfish and he had been on quote a long journey of realization I don't regret the last 24 years at all that's really sad that's so sad well the article which I got this information from

I did see in the comment section that someone who seemed to be aware of him in some way said that he has a girlfriend now so i'm actually okay so he's like people go through moments in their life little dips 24 years it's a big big ass moment yeah um but he's he's come to a realization he's been big enough to realize when he has been mistaken and i appreciate that it's a smart man yeah he's a to a realization. He's been big enough to realize when he has been mistaken, and I appreciate that. He's a smart man. Yeah, he's a better man than that shill George Edwards.

Yeah, that shithead making hoax photos, tarnishing Nessie's name. I know. Unacceptable. Unacceptable. So needless to say, the 21st century evidence has not been conclusive. Right.

But does that discount all the eyewitness reports dating back to the last century and even back to St. Columba in 565 AD? Is it possible that something like Nessie did live in Loch Ness until relatively recently? And that explains the drop-off in sightings. One prominent Nessie hunter speculated that global warming, which is wreaking havoc on global environmental habitats, could have wreaked havoc on a potentially prehistoric animal population.

And it is known in the Nessie hunting community that sightings have dropped off considerably in the last few years. So people are speculating. Maybe Nessie died. Damn. But unless we go full Donald Trump and drain the lock, we may never know. We may never know.

So, Rory, I have pos to you uh just a tome of evidence and hoaxes and all the info over the last 1400 years luckness monster what do you make i believe at one point in history yeah there could have been a monster in that lake. I'm fully ready to accept that. I don't believe that myths start with no smoke without fire. There has to be some spark that sets off these myths. They're grounded in reality. That's essentially where they come from. So maybe people were throwing dead seals into the river in olden days. Maybe there was genuinely a monster.

Maybe the lake is the holy grail and that mischievous saint was stealing shit and like hiding things I don't think he's in there anymore

yes I think either he's dead or he has gone somewhere else via underground tunnels yeah I'm going to for the first time

conclude with a yes I'm going yes I think at one time yeah I think I'm gonna go yes that's a double yes yeah confirmed this is real according to this paranormal life the loch ness monster is real uh so hopefully you enjoyed that and if you have any paranormal stories that you think that we should be investigating or you have any yourself you want to send in email us in at this paranormal life podcast at gmail.com if you enjoyed this week's episode

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