Is Bin Laden As Tall As Bigfoot?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 10th, 2007
The sixth anniversary of 9/11 is here. It seems like the right time to consider: Is bin Laden as tall as Bigfoot? For this is a serious consideration of a subject few would rather make fun of by just reading the headline and not the blog here: What happens with eyewitness reports of height? The parallel between the alleged stature of Osama bin Laden and Bigfoot, two topics that do not make me laugh, is remarkable.
Is bin Laden as tall as Bigfoot?
The answer may be a careful “Yes.” Here’s why.
According to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted notices and poster, Osama bin Ladin is given as having a height of 6′ 4″ to 6′ 6″. Six and a half feet tall. A half a foot short of seven feet tall.
A new video of bin Laden has his name in the news again, naturally close to the anniversary of 9/11. (By the way, I don’t think that’s a dyed black beard being worn by bin Laden. It could be an artificial beard and bin Laden is merely passing as clean shaven to hide-in-plain-sight most of the time. But that’s not really the topic here.)
If you overview the sources for the heights of Bigfoot and Sasquatch, a reader can locate all kinds of height quotes. One can find reports of 12- 14 feet tall Sasquatch (Pitt Lake, BC), and the run-of-the-mill 9 feet tall Bigfoot and 8 feet tall Forest Giants. Some reports of Bigfoot range up to 20 feet tall, which have been categorized as “True Giants” by researcher Mark Hall. In general, various books, television shows, and experts talk about Bigfoot being between 7 and 8 feet tall.
John Green says Bigfoot average seven and a half feet tall, a figure Jerome Clark repeats in his Encyclopedia of Strange and Unexplained Physical Phenomena. George Eberhart in his two-volume encyclopedia Mysterious Creatures writes that Bigfoot’s height is “an average of 7 feet 10 inches.”
What’s realistic in both of these realms, regarding the height of Osama bin Laden and the height of Bigfoot?
The general feeling for Osama bin Laden, from the FBI and governmental sources, is of a giant of a man. An urban myth has developed of this large, imposing figure who heads Al Qaeda. His height, as noted, is, thanks to the FBI, said to be six and a half feet, towering above others. Thus, in some fictionalized movie scenes, the character of bin Laden or a Osama-clone is shown walking tall among men in a crowded marketplace or at a desert encampment.
With the publication of Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, the beginning of the demystification of Osama bin Laden started.
After five years of talking to interviewees who had met bin Laden, Wright shattered the myth of the 6′ 6″ height of bin Laden, bringing to light that the leader of Al Qaeda stands only about six feet tall, with some eyewitnesses saying he is only 5′ 7″ in height.
Wright says that an optical illusion is often created by bin Laden who surrounds himself with bodyguards from Yemen, who traditionally are physically short. (The Yemeni mastermind of the bombing of the Cole, Jamal Mohammad al-Badawi is said to be 5′ 5″ tall. Other Al Qaeda fugitives wanted for the African embassy bombings are Yemenis Ahmed Salim Swedan and Fahad Mohammed Ally and both are listed as 5′ 6′ - 5′ 8″.)
Now, let’s get to the reality behind how tall Bigfoot is.
In one forgotten but famous statement Bernard Heuvelmans said: “A creature covered with long hair always looks bigger than it really is,” (Personality, South Africa, June 5, 1969), in reference to reported heights of 7 feet for creatures leaving 10 inch long tracks.
Eyewitness reports and the linked height estimates for how tall is Bigfoot must be viewed with skepticism.
Please look to the one piece of evidence that clearly gives us a good foundation from which to judge the height of Bigfoot: the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin footage.
Roger Patterson was physically short and rode a short Welsh pony at Bluff Creek in 1967. His frame of reference for any experience must be considered from his point of view.
The Bigfoot filmed along Bluff Creek on October 20, 1967, rose to a full height which Roger Patterson estimated to be seven feet, four inches. 7′ 4″!
Jim McClarin (above, left), as filmed by John Green, is compared to the Bigfoot, in situ, at Bluff Creek, California, as filmed by Roger Patterson.
Though the initial reaction, even after viewing the film repeatedly, was that a 7 feet tall Bigfoot had been sighted and filmed, soon the so-called McClarin analysis showed something entirely different, heightwise. This first filmed analysis by John Green of the exact site using researcher Jim McClarin as a stand-in for Bigfoot, showed the creature may have been only six feet, six inches tall.
A closer reading of John Green demonstrates that this filmed Bigfoot may be even shorter.
Dr. D. W. Grieve, an English anatomist, after looking at the Patterson-Gimlin footage and the McClarin film, thought the Bigfoot was not over 6 feet, 5 inches. John Napier in his The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality wrote: “Earlier comments that this specimen was just under 7 ft. in height and extremely heavy seem rather extravagent. The present analysis suggests that Sasquatch was 6 ft. 5 in. in height.”
Green writes on page 124 of his Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us (1978): “At one time I was certain that the creature was several inches taller than Jim (at 6 ft. 5 1/2 ins. in his boots, 180 lbs.), particularly since it is more stooped. Now I am aware that it is possible to line up some frames so that Jim appears to be as tall or even taller.”
So it appears, legend and myth have turned Osama bin Laden and Bigfoot into giants bigger than they are. In reality, both bin Laden and the Bluff Creek Bigfoot may be both closer to 6 feet in height than is generally acknowledged. If the understanding is held they both exist, unfortunately, it also must be said they both remain elusive and at large.
- Similar Phenomena:
Lots of people would be similar in height to Bigfoot. How tall is a Bigfoot at birth? How about at 5 years old? I just feel a mature male Bigfoot would be much larger than Patti… which would make BL a very small man!
And, just as with Bigfoot, to catch Bin Laden alive or to shoot him on sight is still a matter of wild debate…
The size of the foot print is a good indicator of size.I would say a mature well fed Big Foot to max out at 8ft.
The question is……would you trade finding Bin Laden for finding Bigfoot?
“Bluff Creek Bigfoot may be both closer to 6 feet in height” - i think you’re playing fast and loose with 6 inches of height. The superimposed frames i’ve seen that best match up with Jim show the creature to be as tall or taller, and clearly the creature is somewhat hunched over in nearly all the frames (perhaps a full upright posture isn’t even possible due to physiology, but that could add several inches as well). I’ll accept 6′6″, which is quite a bit more than 6′. There are a lot of 6′ men walking around, but when you see someone 6′6″, they really stand out.
Perhaps Osama bin Laden is taking the metrosexual route by dyeing his beard. [;>))] Seriously, he would want to remain bearded as most tribesmen in the wilds of Pakistan are bearded. Any clean shaven and/or tall individual would stand out.
I suppose matted hair atop the head and overall hairiness would contribute to Bigfoot looking taller than he/she actually is. How many reported juveniles have been spotted?
One frequently hears from skeptics that eyewitness testimony is unreliable.
But one never hears the reason from them, and that’s because it is in fact damning to the skeptical position.
There’s only one reason eyewitness testimony is unreliable: PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY ARE PREPARED TO SEE. (And, sure, testify to what they saw as they see fit.)
The problem with the skeptical take on eyewitnesses to the sasquatch is that the people that report sightings are seeing something they were totally unprepared to see. There is no reason a rational person would report a bigfoot encounter except one: they saw something they were totally unprepared for, they kept looking, hoping against hope that their eyes were deceiving them, and it never resolved itself into something they would have been prepared to see. It was what it was. Read sighting reports (RSR! I haven’t said that in too long), and you’ll see it, over and over again. I can’t believe I’m typing this. But I know what I saw. And they go on to show you how good a look they got at what they saw. (Skeptics don’t RSR! and you can tell this by what they say about sighting reports. They are no more vague than sighting reports of known critters, by and large. Eyewitnesses have descriptions that read like the same species, with expected individual variations, over and over and over.)
And no, I’m not sure any of the other “rational” reasons for reporting a sas sighting (They’ll believe me, and I’ll be RICH!) are rational at all, given how eyewitness accounts are treated.
OK, there might be one. You want to pull a prank. Those are incredibly easy to spot, whether the fake is video, written or spoken. I used to think not. But I’ve seen too many to deny it now. People who have seen something this unfamiliar simply don’t behave, or sound, or write like pranksters.
And as to size.
I think there can be quite a bit of variability in the size of adult sasquatch, just as in humans. That said, it’s astonishing how many reports (RSR!) use the same yardstick of: around seven feet. Some run to eight; some to nine or ten. That’s actually not unreasonable; when you see something you are totally unfamiliar with, a foot or so off isn’t far off at all. And THAT said, a number of nine-to-ten-foot accounts refer to physical objects in the vicinity of the animal that allowed pretty close measurement.
I’d say seven feet is around average - but just as in humans, there are some really big ones.
And, just as with Bigfoot, to catch Bin Laden alive or to shoot him on sight is still a matter of wild debate…
Bin Laden, Shoot on site with a 50 cal.
BigFoot, Shoot on site with a super telephoto lenz, Or hi def video… Should be no debate…
Gee I never compared the two in one sentence. I think you are insulting those poor sasquatch. For one the sasquatch have been here longer with less murders on their plate. DWA probably has the average height the closes. Yet, years ago when I had my experiance that huge creature took 3 steps to cross a 32′ road. My guess is the female is slightly smaller then the male sasquatch. Is there a way to get an approximate height by it’s gaip of step. One thing for sure seeing it from a half a small block away it was huge. Benny is probably a small monkey compared to a full grown sasquatch with no comparison; except, the dirty feet.