Expedition None

Introduction

Here comes a long one folks…

There are times that make me shake my head. As with all things in life there are folks out there that lie through their teeth, to deceive and obtain funds from folks. One such person is an self proclaimed East Texas Sasquatch researcher by the name of Robert “Bob” Garrett, who often calls himself, “The Hermit.” The man eventually became the leader of a for profit LLC, called the The Texas Big Thicket Watch Guide Service.

 

Bob “The Hermit” Garrett

Many came to know Garrett from the controversial podcast, “The Sasquatch Chronicles.” Which for a long time catered to the notion that Sasquatch is a violent creature with a disdain for his less hairy primate relatives, us.

Garrett started off appearing to be a legitimate, caring researcher, never espousing a violent nature of the creatures, but I believe, in my opinion, seeing the early success of the “Sasquatch Chronicles,” hitched his wagon to the malevolent side of Sasquatch, and began to tell tales on the podcast of the mean streak of the hairy hominid creatures.

The Sasquatch Chronicles, itself was not shy of controversy as it was born out of the show hosts’ encounter. Wes and Woody had alleged an encounter in which they claim they were surrounded by a group of Sasquatch, where some of the environmental surroundings claimed on the encounter, did not seem to mesh up with the actual weather data collected at the time.

They asked for the intervention of the Washington Sasquatch Research Team (WASRT), which responded to the scene the next day, but they failed to find any corroborative evidence to their claims.

…Wes said on the show that he’d contacted WASRT—perhaps hoping for great validity. So WASRT’s report was revealed (no moon, no evidence) and then Wes curiously insisted that he’d merely called them (even though their website had no phone number) and certainly had never emailed them. Upon hearing this, WASRT promptly disclosed that at least 26 emails existed between Wes and the team.

                                                  – Brad Lockwood May 9th, 2015

                                                               The Daily Beast

 

A full account of that can be read here in the DailyBeast.com

As far as Garrett’s tales of violence inside the Big Thicket of east Texas, Researcher Julie Rench, having relatives in the area decided to reach out on her own to corroborate Garrett’s claims with Texas Wildlife and Law Enforcement Officials.

“…Mrs.  Rench, we have not found anyone dead in the big thicket. We have no reports of such story. This does not match any deaths that we in Hardin County have had. If you get more information on this let us know…

…Not aware of this story you are asking about. We did have two people missing near Chester who were later found deceased in 2012-2013. This investigation was conducted by Tyler County Sheriff’s Office. They were residents of Polk County.

…I sent an email to Sasquatch Chronicles on February 1st and advised them that I had been in contact with some of the Law Enforcement in Texas and I could not verify the story that two people were killed and asked if they had checked into it as well.  I did not receive a response.  Shortly after the email I was removed and blocked from the Sasquatch Chronicles Facebook group.”

                                                              -Julie Rench March 19th, 2015

                                                             Bigfoot Anarchy Blog

Her research can be found here on the Bigfoot Anarchy Blog. It is very thorough and concise. 

The phone call

In December I had received a call from a couple of concerned members of the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center (MABRC) that a friend of theirs had been taken for $1000.00 on one of Garrett’s expeditions that had been cancelled. They set up a phone call with the young lady from Missouri.

The victim, receiving instructions from Garrett’s daughter.

In February of 2016 she had paid for an expedition with the Texas Big Thicket Watch Guide Service, payable to one Robert Garrett, in the amount of $1000.00. Only to be told later that the expedition had been cancelled because they had been shut down by the federal government. When she spoke with Garrett she had asked about getting her money back, but Garrett said he was broke because he had to pay huge fines. If he gave her some time he would pay her back. He eventually stopped answering her calls.

First, I had to research Garrett’s claims and second, see if he would be willing to pay the victim back.

Garrett had made claims of Federal harassment because of the “murders” he uncovered of the Sasquatch, including a ripped up campsite he allegedly came across with his son Travis.

“I have reviewed the videos and I still do not see anything that can not be attributed to human activity. In my younger days I went to many bush parties and witnessed things far worse than this. I have seen "tore up" woods and it was due to drunken idiots hacking down trees or from people intentionally running in to trees with their trucks. People due stupid things while under the influence of alcohol.

I have been on bike runs and plenty of poker runs that involved over night stays in campgrounds. I have seen what sauced up, half-in-the-pail adults will do. I have seen torn up camps and the camp in this video pales in comparison.”

                                                            – Rand Filipovic March 24th, 2015

                                                          Bigfoot Anarchy Blog

 

An analysis of that was done by researcher Steve Alcorn and Randy Filipovic and can be found here on Bigfoot Anarchy.

I had to be sure Garrett was telling the truth about being shut down by the Feds. It was…just not for the reasons he claimed. We all know about running paid expeditions on Federal lands. In case you don’t; You need permits. Something Garrett wasn’t apparently willing to do, or unable to do.

 

An investigation full of surprises

First and foremost I wanted to ascertain the validity he was shut down by the government. The answer to that was no. He just wasn’t able to go to the National Park anymore. Last I knew the NP wasn’t the only game in town in East Texas for Bigfoot research, as I have been there in the past on expeditions and never hit that NP once. So he was not “shut down,” just at that location. His acumen as a Bigfoot researcher really shows poorly, for if he as good as he claims, he could have moved onto another active area (as Texas is full of them) and at least had some modest results.

This led me to looking at the profiles of Bob Garrett, Tim Sermons and Mo Michaux who were the three involved in organizing the Big Thicket expeditions.

Nothing on Garrett or Sermons on social media. Sermons was not active at all, and Garrett was very active, but just not about Sasquatch for some time. However in looking at The Big Thicket Watch Guide Service Facebook profile, I noticed  comments by Mo Michaux.

 

 

Intrigued I contacted Michaux and got a plethora of information.  So lets go over the basics.

1. The Texas Big Thicket Watch Guide Service conducted 3 expeditions between February 2016 and April 2016.

2. In February 16th they were confronted by the NPS. The NPS warned them and told them they had to leave within 24 hours.

This was confirmed by a participant I contacted,

FEDs showed up and informed us that BG didn’t have a permit and we all need to be out of there within 24 hours.

3. The Texas Big Thicket Watch Guide Service was not shut down because of any government conspiracy covering up murders in the park as claimed by Garrett, but because he was consistently told he did not have a permit to do what he was doing. He ignored the first warning and got shut down and fined. But just in the park.

4. The first expedition Garrett proceeded to play an audio recording and spin a yarn at the “real reason” why they were being thrown out. Because a Sasquatch had torn up a camp and after the night video they had shot, he and his son had found a woman twisted, but alive, in a tree with a Sasquatch guarding it, in which Garrett had gotten an audio of it growling at them. He then proceeded to play the audio for the expeditioners.

Again confirmed with the participant,

“We were then informed by either Mo or Tim that Bob was pissed-off about the FED’s harassing him and was going to tell us the whole story about the Torn Up Camp Ground. BG presented the whole story which I conveyed to you. He then played the.…vocals for the first time.”

5. It was also confirmed to me by Sasquatch Chronicles host Wes Germer that the recording indeed was Garrett’s.

6. Germer originally blew off Michaux’s revelation that Garrett was hoaxing, by stating the two recordings sounded similar but weren’t the same in his opinion. He did try to say that to me as well but I told him, in no uncertain terms the recordings were the same and provided him the waveforms which proved such.

Here’s our analysis of the audio which is concrete evidence of Garrett hoaxing,

 

The original sound came from a YouTube video which contained Gorilla Sound effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1ViN9Q8iao

It was very clear from the wave form analysis that this was the same audio file. The waveform on the alleged “Bigfoot” was not as loud indicating it was recorded from perhaps a speaker, and had noise in it, with a fan or electronic noise in the background creating the “fuzziness” on the waveform.

 

The top stereo track is from the Gorilla effects video and the bottom Mono track is Garrett’s alleged audio of a Sasquatch.

When the two recordings were lined up the perfectly matched in timing and spacial distance. When played together they are clearly the same recording.

Another interesting fact, was that in speaking with Michaux, he stated they never set an LLC up. I had asked that because I had seen that in some of the NDA’s and Waiver forms sent to the victim.

I found out indeed that an LLC was set up electronically by someone without Michaux’s knowledge, despite listing him as a managing member.

Back to the Money Trail

April 2016 –

“BG gathered everyone together and stated that if the FED’s showed-up and asked if we paid to be on the expedition that we were to say NO. Ten minutes later the FEDS pulled up and stated BG did not have a permit and began to questioned us separately & in groups for approximately 2 hours. While the FEDs where speaking to some of the participants at the other end of the camp, Bob sat down with a few of us and stated that he would be refunding everyone’s money.”

This is again another quote from the participant that went to all of Bob’s expeditions. She ended up having to reverse the charge on her credit card.

Another person I spoke with is from Canada, and she too never had gotten her money back as well from Garrett. To pacify the crowd Garrett had given Michaux the recording to play for everyone which is how the recording ended up in his hands. He in turn shared it with the one of the participants who discovered the Gorilla clip.

The Canadian witness was appalled.

 “For someone you don’t even know to ask people that he doesn’t know to lie…he didn’t even blink an eye.”

Not only was she out the $500, but she was out the money  for the car rental, flights, hotel etc., because Garrett did not obtain a permit. Something he was warned about on his very first expedition.

She wrote the Big Thicket email, but never received a response.

After the last incident with the NPS, he was barred, so the remaining expeditions were cancelled, (not rescheduled elsewhere)

 

The Confrontation

On March 20th, 2017 I had an 18 minute conversation with Bob Garrett after contacting Wes Germer. I had tried for a  week via Facebook messenger and for that day on YouTube mail to contact Garrett with no response, which seems to be a common denominator with him.

 

 

To make a long story short, Garrett stated he had no money and ha to pay $6000 in fines. He blamed Michaux, stating he gave him the money to pay people back. When asked about a list of paid participants for the June expedition he said Michaux had it and that he never had one.

“Well if people were paying you, how did Mo know who to pay?”

The conversation went south from there and he raised his voice to me, first questioning why I am involved. My answer was, because one of the people you owe money to asked me.

He stated he doesn’t do the Facebook thing as the reason why he didn’t answer me. But didn’t know what to say when I gave him the exact amount of posts he put on Facebook since my message.

That aggravated him even more. Caught in his own lie.

In fairness, I reached out to Wes Germer afterwards and told him point blank what I thought of Garrett, showed him the evidence and that he is refusing to pay anyone back on the claims that he has no money. Funny thing is Wes knew the real fine, but I had informed him of EXACTLY what Garrett had said. His fine was $6000 Wes stated he had felt horrible people had lost money to this because of his show.

Michaux upon hearing what Garrett had said confronted Garrett and stated I, yes me, had lied and that Tim Sermons had been given the money to pay people back. At that point I needed no verification or authentication that Garrett was a liar and had no intention whatsoever paying people back.

In actuality the fines were slightly less $6000, but it was to be divided by the three men involved, costing each around $1400.

And the kicker…it could be paid in installments.

 

 

The Case of the Missing FLIR

A friend known to many Sasquatch researcher by the pseudonym Maximus Decimus Meridius was the property master of a FLIR project where they built FLIR devices much like trap cameras. He provided Tim Sermons with three of them and researcher Chris Noel mailed them one. Long story short they all turned up into the hands of Bob Garrett and only 3 were returned, after first reporting the mailed one never got to him and another was stolen in the woods.

The FLIRs returned in a horrible state.

 

Three of the cameras were returned with $5000 in damage according to Max. According to Michaux, Garrett made the claim they were “given” to him and that wording was used once to “Max.” Michaux also claims that Garrett still has one in proper working order. Michaux also stated that Garrett stated his intention of keeping one stating he will tell them one was stolen. Again these claims are of a he said she said type of thing, but the corroboration of the act of being “given” them versus lent them, was both in the narratives of Michaux and Max.

 

Thoughts and lessons

First let me give you my thoughts on the Sasquatch Chronicles. Do I think badly of Wes Germer. Well the show’s premise is based on an alleged event, that has been disputed, mainly the evidence of weather. Was Wes caught in a lie when he stated he did not email WASRT. It appears so.

Wes had told me that night of the confrontation that, he told Garrett that I wanted to talk to him and that’s all. He said he was going to call him right away but it took a while for Garrett to get back to me via a text message.

 

Text from Garrett before the phone call. The name is KULLS by the way!

So does it look like Germer had just told Garrett I wanted to talk to him? It would appear much of my conversation with him went to Garrett thus preparing him for what was coming.

In 2005 Coast to Coast with George Nhouri had Tom Biscardi on, where Biscardi claimed he had a captured Sasquatch in Stagecoach, Nevada. Biscardi at the time had a webcam feed subscription and had promised he would get the cams on the captured Sasquatch. Of course the story turned out to be false.

What did George Nhouri do? He banned Biscardi and demanded that all the extra web cam subscriptions since the night of the announcement were refunded.

That is what a responsible journalist does. It’s not Germer’s fault directly that people had gotten taken money. It is a show host to entertain, and yes sometimes people get on shows that are full of shit, but most of the time we are not in a position to immediately investigate their claims. That is entertainment. However as a journalist, and I have does this countless times, if something doesn’t sound right, I question it. If something like this happened on my show, you are damned straight, there are announcements about the validity of the previous guest. If one story is a lie, then guess what? The rest of them true or not are worth a pile of crap.

Germer stated he felt bad about what had happened, and I would like to truly believe him. And if he is truly the man he claims to be then he will do in kind what George Nhouri had done on Coast to Coast some 12 years ago. He will not see this as an attack but as a reflection of perception and reality.

He has known this for a week now…and not a peep as far as I can tell. As to his encounter with his brother, I cannot state any opinion, only report the facts as told by others. I did not investigate it, I was not there end of story. But the first thing I always check is the weather data to help prove some corroboration. That was not there.  I will let the audience be the jury.

I hold no ill will because he provides a service for the money he gets. A form of entertainment. How real is it? Again that’s the audience’s decision. I can only report what I can prove and give you my opinion when I clearly state it is my opinion.

On Tim Sermons, I cannot speak wholly for the FLIR deal, but it seems like he was pressured to do Garrett’s bidding, again an opinion. Not being able to speak to the man, I withhold judgment.

On Mo Michaux, I can only state that when he smelled something rotten, the oblivious hoax by Garrett, at least one he could prove, did his due diligence and he tried to warn Germer, tried to give Garrett time to come clean, and when it didn’t happen he bailed, and was attacked for doing such by Garrett’s friends.

Sometimes, as we have seen in other cases, you need a slap across the face to see the truth around you. And when Michaux opened his eyes he did what he could. When he crossed paths with me, he gave me everything I asked for and more, feeling his name was tarnished with his association with Garrett.

Now on to Garrett. In my opinion of him, well here’s a guy that lies and lies about those lies. He’s easy to catch in them if you listen carefully. But he likes manipulation, and will call someone with truth on their side a liar, we’ve given ample and concrete evidence of a hoax and a man who clearly received $1000 from at least one person, and didn’t bother to even pay them back. It’s his name on that PayPal receipt, not anyone else’s. It’s his responsibility to pay them back.

We know though he never had any intention of paying anyone back for 3 day expeditions that last a day or hours, or one that didn’t even kick off.

That is why Mr. Garrett has earned himself a spot in the Squatchdetective Hall of Shame.

Bob Garrett in his final sentence to stated he wished he never heard of me. Well I take that as a compliment coming from him.

But I dare assume there is at least a few people out of money that wish they never heard of Bob Garrett.

 

Till Next Time,

Squatch-D

“The Anti-Hermit”