Jon-Erik Beckjord (April 26, 1939 – June 22, 2008) was an American paranormal investigator, photographer, and cryptozoologist interested in UFOs, crop circles, the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot. Throughout his life, he owned three separate, small-scale museums that featured displays, mostly photographs, of alleged UFO, Nessie, and Bigfoot sightings. He made guest appearances on national radio and television shows, but was criticized by skeptics and fellow cryptozoologists alike for not providing substantive evidence to back up his claims of the existence of paranormal beings.
Personal life
Born Cedric Jon Beckjord in Duluth, Minnesota, he was the son of Col. Philip Beckjord, a World War II army physician, and Margaret (née McGilvry) Beckjord. He had three siblings: Ross, Peter, and Pam. His family came from Oslo, Norway.
Education
Beckjord attended the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado for two years.
He studied sociology at Tulane University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1961.
He studied law for one year at Boalt Hall at University of California, Berkeley. He later graduated with an MBA from U.C. Berkeley in 1966.
Career
After graduation, Beckjord became a city planner in the Bay area, but wearied of a traditional job and decided to hunt for Bigfoot instead. "I don't do what most MBAs do," he said, "Most people in my class are bored to death or dead. The object in life is not simply to make money." Rather, he believed his most important task was to "find out why we're here (on Earth)"
Beckjord collected photographs, castings, and other memorabilia that, to him, represented evidence of the existence of UFOs and alien life, the Loch Ness Monster, as well as Bigfoot. He appeared on several nationwide radio and television shows, including Coast to Coast AM, The Tonight Show, and Late Night with David Letterman. In reference to his explorations, Beckjord compared himself to Galileo, Louis Pasteur, and the Wright brothers.
In 1983, Beckjord, then director of the Crypto Zoological Society, spent a week in Scotland videotaping what he believed were three monsters in Loch Ness.
In February, 1989, Beckjord opened the Crypto-Zoology Museum, housed in the corner of Trancas Restaurant in Malibu, CA. The museum had its start on October 31, 1986, when he opened his home to visitors to see his collection. The display primarily consisted of photographs from Beckjord's research into the phenomena of the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and the Mokele M'Bembe of Africa. According to Beckjord, the museum focused on "creatures of fact or fancy" that "to the best of our knowledge appear to be verified, or haven't at least been debunked."
When Trancas Restaurant went out of business, Beckjord put the museum's contents in storage. Most of it was lost to fire in 1993.
On October 31, 1996, Halloween, Beckjord opened the in San Francisco, California, which featured crop circles. He charged a nominal entrance fee ($3 for adults; $2 for children), but the museum's closing, reportedly, was "due to lack of any substantial evidence."
After this museum closed, Beckjord repaired electrical appliances for a company called Captain Neon.
In 1997, Beckjord opened a third museum in North Beach, CA, which he called the Bigfoot and Loch Ness Monster Museum. It was billed as the city's "strangest museum" and consisted of photographs, drawings, and articles devoted to such topics as the Roswell Declaration, Bigfoot, and a sea serpent named "Sassie" which, allegedly, lived in the San Francisco Bay.
Cryptozoology
Beckjord defined cryptozoology as "the search for mysterious creatures." His searches included hidden "animals"—those that could, theoretically, exist in nature—and hidden "critters" or those that looked like animals, but resisted capture: the Loch Ness Monster, Sasquatch, and Quixacotal Big Bird.