Sasqwatch: The Original Bigfoot Watch

Under The Bigfoot Microscope: David Paulides

Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 17th, 2010


According to the Cupertino Courier, “Los Gatos resident David Paulides is photographed at his home holding a plaster impression of what is believed to be a footprint of a Bigfoot on July 13, 2008 in Los Gatos, California.” (John Medina/Cupertino Courier)

Sometimes backchannel emails can come back to bite you in the ass. David Paulides, in 2009, allegedly was the author of several communiques in which he extended some of the M.K. Davis fantasy theories about Bob Gimlin and Roger Patterson killing Bigfoot at Bluff Creek in 1967, and John Green, Bob Titmus, and others being behind a coverup of this “massacre.” He caused some folks to think he had some new, correct answers. Those “answers” crumbed like a house of cards when John Green decided to call Paulides on some of his accusations, such as the fact that the “Titmus” photos were of a pilot, and the “red blood pools” were color-filtered rainwater images.

Now backchannel chatter is looking at where Paulides came from and what did he do before he was a “Bigfoot researcher.” Are there any holes in his own record?, the emails are asking.

Let’s compare the recent Paulides with what might allegedly be the private (but in the public record) other “David Paulides.”

David Paulides widely promotes himself as a former police investigator and noted Bigfoot researcher who wrote a book entitled Hoopa Project: Bigfoot Encounters in California.

It is further well-known that Paulides had several of the eyewitnesses who appear in his books sign affidavits testifying to what they have seen, as he feels truth is important. Paulides, furthermore, utilized a forensic sketch artist (Harvey Pratt) to add illustrations to his books. This individual, allegedly, according to Paulides, worked with the FBI. Some critical analyses have pointed out that most of the “Bigfoot” drawings appear to be so human-like because of the significant influence of the police artist, not because of the nature of the creatures being described. A human forensic sketch artist mostly creates human-appearing art.

Paulides arrived on the scene within the Bigfoot community, and some have felt his attitude is rather abusive, neglecting sensitivity and protocol. He has obtained funding, nevertheless, and has taken to buying up archives, for his own use, and making questionable alignments.

Paulides’ style has come under attack, as noted, for example, by “Bigfoot Reporter” Sharon Lee in 2009, regarding Paulides appearance at Discovery Day II. In her blog, Lee wrote the following:

Finally, the most difficult presentation to sit through was that of David Paulides….I had no idea who this Paulides guy was, but I guess I should have! In his words, he is the best researcher. His organization is the best. He doesn’t consider individual people researchers. He insulted Michael Rugg, the host of the event, by telling Mike that he was not a researcher, but just a museum. He then went on to talk about what a bad rap he gets, and how no other organizations will step forward to work with him.

Gee, I wonder why? This guy had no shortage of arrogance!

I felt really badly for Mike Rugg. He has dedicated his life to Bigfoot research and to be insulted at his own event that Paulides was invited to, was so disrespectful.

Meanwhile, late in 2009, over at the Bigfoot Books Blog, in Steven Streufert’s “Open Letter to David Paulides,” Streufert wrote, in part,

We’d interviewed David Paulides earlier, hoping to get him to open up on some of the more controversial issues he has raised or that surround his attitude and public behavior and written statements. However, he declared he’d only talk about non-controversial things. So, we talked a lot about Ray Crowe and the Track Record product that NABS has recently released. However, at the end of that blog we placed a small “Coming Soon” slug about an interview with his arch-rival, Daniel Perez. Dave became angry. “Disappointed” was how he put it, bluntly. And for what? Just for interviewing Mr. Perez, and not being “loyal” to Mr. Paulides. Apparently, Dave does not understand the concept of objective and investigative journalism.

Now, in Paulides’ book, we are “disloyal, a backstabber, dishonest, not to be counted on,” etc. He even rudely implied that we might not pay him for products he’d sent for the store. He accuses US of ignoring facts and not doing research when, in fact, it is HE who won’t read my email, who won’t consider any of the information included below. He’d rather think he is the first to interview Al Hodgson, or the first to read the 1992 Green-Gimlin interview. Sorry Dave, you’re a late-comer to this party. All this despite the obviously discoverable FACT that it is his own misunderstanding and hot-headed emotional reaction that has led him to this point, he has cut off all communications with us and vows to never do another interview with anyone ever again.

As has been documented by Sasquatch investigator and author John Green, the backchannel campaign to extend the “Bigfoot Massacre” mess allegedly was swept along by Dave Paulides. Paulides is allegedly the one behind 2009’s renewed email campaign, which tried to raise doubts about John Green’s role in the making of the Patterson-Gimlin footage.

Streufert notes,

This goes along the lines of what Paulides has been promoting non-publicly, using an email rumor campaign: the “BLUFF CREEK MASSACRE THEORY.” Yes, Dave claims that he came up with the very same theory that MK Davis propounded earlier, but to have found it independently, in some archival materials and film found in the Western Bigfoot Society/Ray Crowe archives that NABS had purchased. The rumor campaign? Much like MK’s tactics, it was conducted within the Bigfoot researcher community, and began to spread out like a virus.

An extensive response to the whole Paulides affair is shared at Streufert’s blog from Daniel Perez too.

Now it can be revealed that a new wave of backchannel communications are occurring, examining David Paulides’ own claims about his law enforcement background.

First, what does David Paulides say on his own website, which, btw, subtly uses a law-enforcement type of patch for his logo:

“Welcome to the most professional Bigfoot research organization in the world.”

“Our ability to communicate and align with all facets of government, business, academics and various levels of society make our field personnel an unusual commodity in Bigfoot circles. The researchers we field may be from any one of a variety of academic backgrounds, private industry and university adjunct positions. We pride ourselves in being professional, discrete and open to all ideas and feedback.”

“a former police investigator for 30 years”

“Paulides, who has an extensive background of 30 years as a former police officer and professional investigator.” ~ Hugh White

“David Paulides recorded his conversations with Bigfoot witnesses in the same way he prepared his reports in police work.” ~ Chris Murphy

“…the author, a veteran of 20 years as an officer and investigator with the Los Gatos Police Department.” ~ Jessie Faulkner/The Times-Standard

“David Paulides holds two degrees from the University of San Francisco, and has a professional background that includes twenty years in law enforcement and senior executive positions in the technology sector.” ~ 2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference bio.

How long has Paulides actually been a police officer and where?

” A former Santa Clara Valley detective who now heads the Los-Gatos based North America Bigfoot Search…” wrote Jessica Fromm of the Los Gatos Observer on June 8, 2009.

How many “David Paulides” are there who have been former police officers in California? The following two articles, found in the public record (infoweb.newsbank.com), are now making the rounds among Bigfoot researchers. Questions are being asked about whether they are tied to the “Bigfoot researcher” Paulides or someone else.

For example, in fourteen pages of documents shown to Cryptomundo, “David Paulides and Rick Martinez of the department’s MERGE unit (an acronym for Mobile Emergency Response Group and Equipment, San Jose’s SWAT team)” were involved in the Christmas night alleged beating of an African American assault suspect.

Here are some of the sources, and their opening summary and relevant paragraphs:

ASSAULT SUSPECT SAYS S.J. POLICE BEAT HIM
San Jose Mercury News (CA) – Friday, January 9, 1987
Author: BRAD KAVA, Mercury News Staff Writer
A man who allegedly assaulted two San Jose police officers [David Paulides and Rick Martinez] Christmas Night says that two days later, a group of police officers retaliated by kicking him and hitting him in the head with batons while they were arresting him in a friend’s apartment….

BLACKS SAY THEY ARE VICTIMIZED
San Jose Mercury News (CA) – Friday, January 9, 1987
Author: Brad Kava and Betty Barnacle
The alleged beatings of Jerry Stevens and two other black men Dec. 27 are the latest in a series of disturbances that have increased tensions at the San Jose Apartments,and Story roads…Black residents there say they have been victims of police violence and insensitivity….In November, a black man, Anton Ward, whose house borders the troubled complex, was shot to death by police when he pointed a shotgun at San Jose officers who were between two fences in the alleyway between his yard and the complex. A grand jury decided not to indict the officers….Police officers David Paulides and Tim Halpin said they saw two men under a street light at about 9:15 p.m., exchanging bills and several small rocks, which later turned out to be crack….when Gary swung at them, Paulides hit Gary in the right shoulder with his baton and got kicked. Paulides hit Gary in the lower legs….

S.J. POLICE BEAT SUSPECT, WITNESSES SAY
San Jose Mercury News (CA) – Monday, February 9, 1987
Author: BRAD KAVA Mercury News Staff Writer
For the third time in the past two months, the elite MERGE unit of the San Jose Police Department has been accused of brutality against criminal suspects. Last month, three men said they were beaten by members of the MERGE — Mobile Emergency Response Group and Equipment — team at the San Jose Apartments in two separate arrests on Dec. 27. The allegations, which are under investigation by the department, were supported by friends and relatives of the suspects who witnessed the events.
In a new case, two women and a 12-year-old girl who were not friends or relatives of a suspect have testified in court that they watched a group of MERGE officers beat a suspected drug dealer with billies after he raised his arms to surrender during a December arrest.
The two women testified Jan. 29 and 30 at a preliminary hearing for Gary Sires and his co-defendant, Daniel Johnson,…
The officers said they struck Sires with clubs, but in self-defense after he swung at an officer. The witnesses and the suspect claim the beating was unprovoked. In his arrest report and in court testimony, officer David Paulides said officers hit Sires in the legs with billies after he took a combative stance and swung at officer Neal Wilson.
Officer Paulides, who wrote the police report about the incident, gave a different version when he took the stand.
”The officers chased him and caught him on Jackson, near Luz,” Paulides said when questioned by prosecutor Tim Pitsker. “I observed them catch Sires. He turned around, raised his fist as if to strike them.”
Paulides said officer Wilson reached Sires first.
”He hit the defendant in the leg with a baton,” Paulides said. “The defendant continued to fight with the officer until other officers arrived.”
Asked if Wilson needed help containing Sires, Paulides said he “definitely needed assistance.”

In the police report, Paulides said he saw Sires in the upstairs one-bedroom apartment through the living room window. He said Sires was running in the apartment and he feared Sires was about to destroy evidence, so, after three tries, officers kicked in the door.
Paulides said in his report that seven officers went to the apartment and, “Suspect Sires ran around us and out the door.” He listed the officers as “myself, (Tim) Halpin, (Mike) Crescini, (Rick) Martinez, (parole agent Louis) Garcia, (Tim) Knea and (Brian) Little.”
In court, he said he, Halpin and two parole agents went inside the apartment and couldn’t find Sires. While the two officers were searching the back bedroom, Paulides said he heard a sound and saw Sires run by the parole agents in the living room and out the front door.
Defense attorneys asked him repeatedly about this.
”Did he run like O.J. Simpson?” Robinson asked. “Did he touch the officers when he ran by?”
”He ran around them,” Paulides answered. “I don’t know how he got around them, but he did.”

Ten years later, apparently this same San Jose police officer also allegedly found himself in hot water.

S.J. OFFICER ACCUSED OF FALSE SOLICITATION AUTOGRAPHS: A FORCE VETERAN
ALLEGEDLY USED CITY STATIONERY TO ASK FOR MEMORABILIA.
San Jose Mercury News (CA) – Saturday, December 21, 1996
Author: SANDRA GONZALES, Mercury News Staff Writer
When a veteran San Jose police officer began soliciting celebrity autographs on city stationery, he wound up with more than just a friendly letter from singer Lionel Richie to hang on his wall.
He also got an arrest warrant last week charging him with a misdemeanor count of falsely soliciting for charity – a crime for which he could face a year in jail.
Officer David Paul Paulides, 40, aroused suspicions after he was seen using city stationery on the department’s computer printers. Paulides also sent and received large quantities of unofficial mail at the department, police reports say.
None of those activities fell within his duties as a court liaison officer, prompting an internal investigation that began last September.
”He’s an autograph hound,” said Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu, who filed the complaint last week in Municipal Court. ”It was a stupid thing to do – to spend your time enhancing your personal collection when taxpayers are paying for you to work.”
Suspicions were heightened when the police department received a phone call from a Los Angeles publicist asking to speak with Paulides about the ”Police Hall of Fame,” and a letter from the Lionel Richie Fan Club which enclosed an autographed compact disc by the singer.
As it turned out, Paulides had solicited autographs from such people as newswoman Diane Sawyer, astronaut Mae Jemison, model Carol Alt, exercise guru Jack La Lanne and Ivana Trump – allegedly by falsely claiming he was working on a city project.
In the letter to Trump, for example, Paulides wrote: ”You are a great role model for young women. . . . I’ve been given the task by my city to develop a display for our lobby of successful businesswomen. . . . We are respectfully requesting an autographed photo for our display. . . . Your success on a professional as well as personal level make you a superior businesswoman and mother.”
Several of the celebrities had returned autographed photographs of themselves.
Paulides attorney Daniel Jensen claims it was all an unfortunate misunderstanding. ”He feels badly and is embarrassed,” Jensen said.
Jensen said that the officer was gathering the autographs to serve as teaching aids for a class he had taught and that Paulides had envisioned hanging the pictures in the department’s lobby.
”They were to be inspirational examples of people who’ve done very well,” Jensen said.
Authorities, however, say there was no authorized ”Hall of Fame” being developed for any lobby. They could find nothing Paulides was associated with in an official capacity that would give him the authority to seek autographs on the department’s behalf.
Paulides was one of several instructors who taught a city-sponsored organizational development class, but he had not taught the course since March.
Police spokesman Officer Louis Quezada said Paulides is on vacation. Quezada could not say what sort of job action.

We all know how the media sometimes may infrequently get the facts wrong, and how internal investigations often clear up miscommunications, factual errors, and eyewitness testimony. We look forward to hearing David Paulides’ side of the story, and other pieces of this puzzle. What is the truth here?

What is the work history of Bigfoot investigator Paulides? When and why did he leave the law enforcement profession?

Talk about what might actually be a needed forthcoming episode of “Destination Truth,” this sure seems like a full investigation of the facts on this one would be helpful.

You’ll ultimately have to decide for yourselves how you feel about [these speculations]. I will leave you with this thought though — for more than 40 years, nothing has been able to diminish the impact of the [Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot] Film. But maybe this grand conspiracy theory will.D. B. Donlon, Blogsquatcher, May 22, 2008.


5 Responses to “Under The Bigfoot Microscope: David Paulides”

  1. kgehrman responds:

    Interesting article Loren.

    I read Paulides Hoopla Book and found the illustrations odd.

    Mostly because many of them seemed to look like regular people with exaggerated facial features above and below the eye line.

    When I read that it was a Forensic Artist who did them it reminded me of a comment made in a forensic art book I recently read: Many forensic artists new to the field tend to make their drawings (and sculptures) look like people that happen to be in the same drawing (or sculpting) class that they happen to be in. They seem to be influenced by nearby faces more than the descriptions they are given to illustrate.

    You seem to be showing this very well in the Pratt drawing you chose for this article when it is compared to the photo of Paulides you can clearly see that the creature has the eyes and eyebrows of Paulides himself.

    The brow ridge and the lower nose/jam features have been exaggerated. But the eyes themselves are curiously Paulides-like, right down to the epicanthic fold above his eyes. I’m sure you saw this when you picked the drawing.

    The artist seems to be making a small cottage industry of his drawings and sculptures now. I suspect that a close look at the friends and family of Mr. Pratt might show features that are also “borrowed” from particular people.

    Not to say there is anything wrong with that. I am just making an observation which to be honest, I did not notice until you set the drawing and the photo right next each other.

    Beyond this observation is the fact that some believe the epicanthic fold is most often found in populations of people “without” large brow ridges (like Mr Paulides). So why would Hoopa Sasquatch even have an epicanthic fold?

  2. jerrywayne responds:

    Interesting comments by kgehrman.

    Concerning the Davis-Paulides “massacre at Bluff Creek” scenario, in my view it can only have originated by one of either two means. Either D-P are graduates of the Glenn Beck Trade School of Connecting Imaginary Dots, or they have “off the record” sources who have supplied them with the scenario. If they have unnamed sources, their attempts to verify their sources’ story have fallen way, way short.

    Why have both gentleman displayed curt and even angry responses to legitimate criticisms of their arguments? They both seem intelligent enough to know their case is weak to almost non-existent. Are they being totally frank with us?

    As to the police artist portrayal of Sasquatch, I am less concerned. To the Pacific West native peoples, Sasquatch are members of a shy, giant tribe of fellow peoples. If Sasquatch are real biological entities, who is to say a “native peoples” explanation is not more realistic than the romantic “apes among us” idea promoted by Green and a slew of other advocates. (Remember, Sanderson apparently thought Sasquatch was human or proto-human).

  3. MattBille responds:

    Sad. I know I’m not involved in the front lines here, but this is supposed to be about science. Not rivalries, not spinning wild tales, but hunting seriously for truth.

  4. grandmamoses responds:

    Although I find Paulides apparent explosive sociopathic behavior somewhat discomforting, I find Karl Rose’s (kgehrman) planting of unsubstantiated seeds of doubt, even more discomforting. I know who Karl Rose works for, so I think we can safely assume that Paulides and Rose do not have the same employer. I am sure there is something to be learned here by having so much star power on the same thread, I am just not quite sure what it is.

  5. Bigfoot_Books_Steven_Streufert responds:

    As far as the “massacre” goes–the only “source” is MK Davis’ active imagination.

    Read more on the Paulides issue here:
    http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com

    and especially this one:
    http://bigfootbooksblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/bigfoot-wars-1-truth-you-cant-handle.html

    Look to the links on the side for various topics, including interviews with both the guys in question. Click around and you’ll find a bunch of coverage on this issue.

    Also, coming up sometime in late May the blog will have the FULL ISSUE of THE BIGFOOT TIMES for May 2010, with the Paulides thing on the front cover, up on the blog for free. Daniel Perez is providing us with it with his permission to post it. Perhaps you’d also be inclined to subscribe—we should support the noble field of actual print publishing; and it’s well worth it, too.

    Best,
    Steve, Bigfoot Books, Willow Creek



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