DEL.ICIO.USBigfoot tricksters blame hoax on promoter
Middleman has filed theft complaint against the men
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Two Clayton County men who “punk’d” the world with a bogus Bigfoot discovery were pawns of a promoter who promised them books and movie deals, the pair’s attorney said Friday.
Now that Matt Whitton and Rick Dyer have walked away with $50,000, a purported middleman is out the money, and promoter Tom Biscardi of California is left holding a Halloween costume filled with road kill, the public may be wondering if the tail is now wagging the dog.
Associated Press
Rick Dyer (left) and Matthew Whitton answer questions during a news conference Aug. 15 in Palo Alto, Calif., to announce what they claimed was a deceased Bigfoot in their possession.
searchingforbigfoot.com
The frozen, furry object turned out to be a Halloween costume.
A police report filed Thursday by an Indiana man who said he fronted the $50,000 on behalf of Biscardi alleges Whitton and Dyer took the money “by deceitful means” in exchange for the frozen carcass of a Bigfoot-like creature they claimed to have found in north Georgia.
But the men’s attorney, Steve Lister of Jonesboro, said the money was for publicizing the alleged find that Biscardi knew to be fabricated.
“My clients were paid a promotional fee,” Lister said. “This started out as fun for them. Now they are caught in the middle of damage control by the ‘big’ Bigfoot. That’s what this is.”
Biscardi did not return a phone call Friday asking for comment.
Lister said his clients will cooperate with police.
“These guys haven’t done anything wrong,” Lister said. “They did what they were supposed to do – Biscardi told them to create the body – but it fell apart. They are ready for this to go away now.”
Lister declined to make his clients available for comment now that an investigation is pending, and said he doesn’t know what became of the $50,000. “They didn’t give it to their attorney, I can tell you that,” he said.
Whitton, hailed as a hero last month when he was shot by a robbery suspect, lost his six-year job with Clayton Police Department because of the hoax.
Dyer worked as a state corrections officer 2004-2006 but now drives a truck for Big Foot Towing Co. of Forest Park and sells used cars online.
Neither man is talking to the media since a WSB-TV report Wednesday in which they admitted to the hoax and expressed disbelief that the public actually bought the story.
Little is known about Whitton, 28, beyond the fact he was a Clayton police officer. Police said his personnel file and four closed Internal Affairs investigation files will be available next week.
The Georgia Department of Corrections has not yet responded to an open records request for Dyer’s personnel file.
A search of Clayton court records paints a picture of Dyer, 31, as someone plagued by financial struggles.
Records show an auto finance company won a default judgment against Dyer in 2001 for more than $15,000.
According to a child-support complaint filed by his ex-wife in 2004, Dyer went AWOL from the U.S. Army in June 2002 and was discharged in January 2004.
In July 2006, a customer won a default judgment against Dyer in Clayton Magistrate Court after claiming Dyer sold him a “broken” 1984 Chevrolet Corvette for $3,800.
Dyer faces an open complaint in the same court alleging a debt of several thousand dollars.
Other demands for money were dismissed in three separate suits, records show.
Clayton police took a theft complaint report Thursday from Indiana investor William Wald Lett Jr., who said he fronted the $50,000 as a favor to Biscardi. Lett told police he expected Biscardi to pay him $50,000 plus $25,000 interest in 90 days.
After the hoax was revealed, Lett said he immediately tried to get the money back from Whitton and Dyer. Clayton police Capt. Greg Dickens said Friday the complaint is a pending investigation.
