(Historic) Jon-Erik Beckjord
Cedric Beckjord (b. April 1939 - d. 22 June 2008) changed his name in 1977 to Jon-Erik Beckjord and was a paranormal researcher based in California. He was a proponent of blobsquatches, and was considered by many to be eccentric. Best known for his far-reaching ideas regarding such phenomena as UFOs, crop circles, the Loch Ness Monster, his 'specialty' was bigfoot, which he believed to be an extradimensional ghost-like entity that lives in mountains, forests and even farmers' fields. Because of his speculation that creatures such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot may be interdimensional aliens, he was considered a fringe theorist, not only by skeptics, but also by the vast majority of his fellow cryptozoologists.
Career
Beckjord attended the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs, CO for two years. He then moved on to Tulane University, where he graduated with honors in sociology,1961. He studied law for one year at Boalt Hall at UC Berkeley, and later received an MBA from UC Berkeley,1966. He has appeared on several nationwide radio and television shows, such as Coast to Coast AM and Good Morning America, as well as Late Night with David Letterman.[1] He claims that he captured the Loch Ness Monster on film in 1983; this film aired on the BBC and on NBC in 1987. [2] Beckjord has briefly owned three UFO/Bigfoot/Nessie museums in Los Angeles, Malibu and San Francisco.
Conflict
Beckjord's strong beliefs about Bigfoot and similar entities brought him into conflict not only with skeptics, who consider Bigfoot sightings to be a cultural phenomena purely resulting from wishful thinking or hoaxes, but also with those who believe Bigfoot to be an actual physical creature. CNN correspondent Rusty Dornin wrote in 1997 "if it's far-fetched and unproved, Beckjord buys it."
He actively promoted his claims on Internet message boards, arousing long, lively discussions that often turned into flame wars between Beckjord and his opponents. Indeed, many webmasters banned Beckjord from their sites, considering him to be too disruptive. He had, at times, asked his readers to "trash" or "attack" forums where he felt he was being treated unfairly. However, despite the extreme nature of his claims, his powerful and aggressive personality drew much attention from the paranormal research community.
Death
Beckjord died from prostate cancer on 22nd June 2008, near his home in Lafayette, California, which was ironic, since he had spent several years promoting and selling cancer 'cures' on his now defunct website.
