His primary flaw is – as many UK cryptozoologists clearly agree – that Owlman is a genuine Fortean phenomena, and Tony “Doc” Sheils is, as Guffey states, simply “.. a surrealist magician, painter, Punch and Judy professor, and all around roustabout of some note..”

How about adding proven hoaxer to the list, and Owlman is one of his most successful creations.

Anyone who doubts this needs to get a copy of the late Mark Chorvinsky’s devastating piece on Sheils’ range of hoaxes in Strange Magazine (Fall 1991). Excerpt here.

No-one has ever met the original Owlman witnesses – it was all via Doc. I also believe that its Doc who gets the image royalties for the famous ‘eyewitness’ sketches. Its clearly a complete fake and its time researchers wrote it off. But clearly they can’t, because it plays to their theories around the source of the weirder cryptids. The UK Forteans are a smart bunch, but it just amazes me that they can’t let go of Owlman.

There were some strong rumours flying around a few years ago that one very well-known UK cryptozoologist had had their own Owlman encounter. I can always stand being corrected – maybe time to stand up publically and prove this colonial wrong?