Jerry D. Coleman
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Jerry D. Coleman (born October 3, 1951 in Macon County, Illinois) is an American writer and researcher of anomalous phenomenon. For several decades, he has investigated reports of Bigfoot, thunderbirds, phantom cats, and other paranormal entities throughout the United States. He is the author of two books, Strange Highways and More Strange Highways, and he is the younger brother of Loren Coleman, a sociologist best known for his books on cryptozoology [1].
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[edit] Background
Jerry D. Coleman began investigating anomalous phenomenon as a young man in Decatur, Illinois, where he and his brother organized a neighborhood "Abominable Snowman Club" for children interested in cryptozoology. In 1962, the club members discovered an ape-like footprint with an opposed left toe in a nearby dried creek bed. [2], and for several decades, cryptozoologists would use this footprint as evidence of Bigfoot-like creatures in the Midwestern United States [2]. Jerry Coleman later determined that the print was a hoax planted by one of his friends [3], but he has credited the experience with sparking his lifelong interest in paranormal research [4].
Jerry Coleman has explained to interviewers that, while his brother Loren pursued a career in academia, he received his education "the hard knocks way," gaining skills and experience from a variety of different occupations [4]. Since the 1970s, he has conducted most of his research alongside full-time jobs as an ambulance crew member, truck driver, private investigator, and counselor [3]. These occupations have, at times, provided him with material for his paranormal investigations; for example, his research into the road troll phenomena (see below) was inspired by conversations by fellow truckers.
[edit] Research
[edit] Lawndale incident
In 1977, Coleman became the first person to investigate the Lawndale (Illinois) Thunderbird incident, in which a large bird supposedly lifted a ten year-old boy off the ground while he was playing in his backyard. The bird allegedly carried the boy, Marlon Lowe, for 35 feet before it dropped him; Lowe later lost clumps of his hair due to pyschological stress [2]. Coleman interviewed the family on July 28, 1977, three days after the incident was said to have occurred. Although he noted that the witnesses appeared to be sincere, he found the evidence at the scene to be inconclusive. Coleman later suggested that the witnesses may have seen an abnormally large bird (perhaps an out-of-place Andean condor) swoop down towards the boy, but he could not find any indication (e.g. torn clothing, physical marks on body) that the boy was actually carried and dropped by anything [3].
The Lawndale incident has since become one of the best-known cryptozoological anecdotes. It was featured on the 1990s Discovery Channel series Into the Unknown, and it has appeared in multiple books, such as Jerome Clark's Unexplained!, Loren Coleman's Mysterious America, and several Weird US compilations.
[edit] Phantom cats
Coleman later became interested in the so-called "phantom cat" phenomenon in North America. "Phantom cat" is a term invented by his brother to describe any big cat reported outside of its known biological range. Many reported phantom cats are dark in color and do not resemble any known species. Since the early 1980s, Jerry Coleman has investigated dozens of reports throughout the American Midwest and American Southeast, and he has described the creatures as one of the cryptids most likely to exist[1]. He claims to have personally seen a black panther near Byron, Illinois in 1995 [4], and in 2004 he described a taxidermic mount of a strangely-colored big cat in a North Carolina trading post. Dubbed the "Cherokee Cougar", it was rumored to have been shot in Tennessee, but Coleman was unable to verify the origins of the specimen [5].
[edit] Road trolls
Coleman was also the first investigator to collect reports of a paranormal being known as the "Road troll" or "peg-leg". Truckers have allegedly encountered this being along roadways throughout the United States, describing it as a seven-foot tall, hairy, limping humanoid with tattered clothes. According to Coleman, witnesses say that the being moves very slowly and stares at drivers as they pass by. Coleman has theorized that "Road trolls" may be nothing more than human beings with unkempt hair and clothing, although he has suggested that it may also be a ghostly entity. In his book More Strange Highways, he describes reports from Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Illinois, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Tennessee, ranging from 1981 to 2003 [5].
[edit] Other investigations
In 2006, Coleman and researchers Gerry Bacon and Robert Coppen investigated reports of Bigfoot sightings at Carter Farm near Madisonville, Tennessee. Here, one Janice Carter Coy had claimed to have interacted with such creatures for over fifty years, observing their feeding patterns, sexual behavior, and death rituals. Coy chronicled her observations in the 2002 book Fifty Years with Bigfoot [6]. Unfortunately, Coy never produced any photographic evidence for her claims, and Coleman's investigation uncovered no evidence for Bigfoot activity [7].
In addition to the above, Coleman has investigated many UFO and ghost sightings, along with relatively more mundane reports of wild coydogs and living ivory-billed woodpeckers [4].
[edit] Writings and other works
Coleman's first published work appeared in Fate Magazine in December 1983 [8]. He has since released two full-length books under Troy Taylor's Whitechapel Press. The first, Strange Highways (ISBN 1-892523-37-X), was released in 2003, and the second, More Strange Highways (ISBN 1-892523-42-6), was released in 2006. Jerry and Loren Coleman also collaborated on an non-sports trading card series called "Myth or Real," which was first released in 1994 [9]. In addition, Jerry Coleman appeared as a guest on the radio program Darkness on the Edge of Town in 2006 [10], and he has served as a consultant for Discovery Channel specials on cryptozoology [4].
He currently maintains a blog at cryptozoology.com.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America: The Revised Edition. New York: Paraview Press, 2001.
- ^ a b c Clark, Jerome and Loren Coleman. Cryptozoology A to Z. New York: Fireside, 1999.
- ^ a b c Coleman, Jerry D. Strange Highways. Alton, Illinois: Whitechapel Press, 2003.
- ^ a b c d e http://www.americanmonsters.com/interviews/jerry/interview.html. Retrieved 8 October 2006.
- ^ a b Coleman, Jerry D. More Strange Highways. Alton, Illinois: Whitechapel Press, 2006.
- ^ http://www.bigfootlady.net/fiftyyears.html. Retrieved 8 October 2006.
- ^ http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/cartergate/.
- ^ Coleman, Jerry D. "Man or Ape?" Fate Magazine. Decemmber 1983.
- ^ Wells, Valerie. "It's in the cards: Decatur natives create spooky collector's item". Decatur Herald and Review. 14 June 1994. p. A5.
- ^ http://www.darknessradio.com/listen. Retrieved 8 October 2006.
