We who study nature should all understand that there are many niches on the food chain that need to be filled… the Roll of the Grand King of the Trolls will always be filled.

It’s only a matter of time.

Speaking of humor, to me, John-Erik Beckjord will always be the cryptozoologist who once showed David Letterman what he believed was a petrified piece of Bigfoot droppings. Without bringing ridicule into it (as any given comedian would be tempted to do), David still got a lot of comedy mileage out of that.

I understand your position, and I understand that his passing may inspire relief. I think the rejoicing in the community as a whole is a tad extreme. My comment was in no way aimed at this site, it’s posters, or you. I’m sorry if that is the impression I gave. If I thought that was what was going on here, I would have said that flat out.

Even though Mr. Beckjord had his enemies and apparently deservedly so, I feel sorry for any family who has to lose a loved one to cancer. Both my mother and my dad, half a country apart, are battling cancer. In my dad’s case they have told us it’s just a matter of time, there is nothing more they can do for him but pallative drugs to help ease pain. He’s like a very fierce independent bear or something, who has gotten old and sick and backed into a corner, but he fought it with everything he had, and now he has made peace with the idea of his death and is facing it with a kind of grim dignity. My mother has a much better prognosis but, having very aggressive small-cell lung cancer, she has a terribly rough chemo/radiation therapy to go through before she hopefully comes out clean of cancer on the other side. I’m so glad that she quit smoking many years ago; that gives her a fighting chance to beat this awful thing.

I feel empathy with Mr. Beckjord’s family and friends – surely he had some friends? – who had to not only lose their relative but who also now have to try to make sense of the way that he alienated people in his life.

Erik was certainly entitled to his theories and views; however odd they may have seemed to others in the field. But his behaviors were reprehensible and made Heath Ledger’s performance in “Dark Knight” seem sane by comparison.

Chi — being what it is — I’m sure the ying won’t last long without the yang and another abusive crackpot (to put it nicely) will step up to take his place.

Okay I stopped in the middle of writing this and called his family–Yes Beckjord did pass away for real this time.

Frankly, I do not miss someone that telephoned my wife at the time up in the middle of the night and yelled at her, calling her a “****” and a “****” repeatedly, despite requests that EB not phone at all. This happened on more than one occasion.

Also, he routinely lied about me, my fieldwork, and about other people to every person that listened. He tried to ruin my relationship with my brother, wrote the president of the university where I was working, and on and on. The man was not well, but people paid attention to him, as if he was.

Beckjord’s family reportedly had rejected his insanity long ago, and according to some reports, him too.

I am not dancing on his grave, like others, merely commenting on the relief I have (as do some others) because he is resting, hopefully, in peace someplace, far away from any telephones.

Others have said much worse about the guy.

I never knew him personally, only of his deeds, and I understand he had a lot of enemies, but he didn’t strike me as a totally evil man and therefore I’m a little appalled that there would be so much rejoicing over the death of another human being. I didn’t agree with most of his ideas or how he interacted with people, he seemed like a bit of an (well, it rhymes with ‘pass the bowl’), but I’m not sure how much happiness that should invoke upon his passing. Does his death really need to be celebrated? He had some pretty wild, outlandish theories and he pestered and hurt some people, so I can understand some sense of lack of sympathy and sense of relief. But rejoicing? That seems a little harsh in my opinion.

BAH! The guy behaved like a four-wheeled, first-class red-blooded American JERK, obnoxiously interfering with other researchers’ work, inventing and twisting his warped tales and ideas into unrecognizably comic cartoons, dancing around the fringes of Paranormal research, scattering confusion and ridicule with wild abandon!

Perhaps we can all now take a deep breath and get back to serious Para-business, keeping a wary eye out for neo-JEBs.

Like Ol’ Bub sez, Live and Learn.