"The Hand"

Occasionally something extremely controversial comes up in the Bigfoot field that rocks the foundations of belief.

In late May of 2006, I met with Tom Biscardi with all intent of interviewing him for the various problems of last year.

What ended up happening is a Squatchdetective.com exclusive. Something bigger than expected.

On that May day, I, Squatchdetective.com founder Steve Kulls actually saw the hand.

Aside from being a Private Investigator, as a man in his young twenties I was a paramedic and firefighter. I know what rotting flesh smells like. It was definitely a decaying flesh object. It appeared to be a primate hand.

The hand was given to the Butte, Montana Police Department in 2001, found by an unknown person, who had come across the hand in a dump. When the police had it examined and it was ruled not human, it was forwarded to Don Monroe, a locally known Bigfoot researcher. Don in turn turned it over to Dr. Todd L. Reese, a Doctor of Chiropractics from Idaho. Later the hand was given to Tom Biscardi in an effort to investigate the hand's origin and possible promotion.

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Dr. Todd L. Reese, D.C. and I am a chiropractor in the state of Idaho. I received my bachelor's degree from Idaho State University in Microbiology and went to chiropractic school in California. During my education, we study anatomy and physiology in detail. One study published in the Journal of Alternative Therapies in September 1998 compared chiropractic education to medical school education. Chiropractors have more hours of classroom instruction than do primary care M.D's and have much more emphasis on anatomy and physiology. My only purpose in stating this fact is to alert the reader that bone structure is very much a part of chiropractic education and that I feel adequate to comment on it.

Now that we have established a thorough background of my educational foundation I am going to explain how I came into contact with the hand of unknown origin. Mr. Donald L. Monroe has been a personal friend of my family for many decades. I am pleased to call him my friend and have always been pleasantly amazed at his understanding of the outdoors and wildlife.

He called me one day in July 2003 and asked me if I could x-ray a hand. I thought that he may have injured his hand and told him that I could. He then brought into my office, on July 24, a severed hand that had been carefully wrapped and placed in a cooler. Frost was visible on the posterior aspect of the hand and it was evident by the coloration that the hand had been skinned and was in a state of decay. My knowledge of the rate of decay of the stratum basale layer below the epidermis is lacking, so no estimated time of death could be calculated. The browning of the tissues, though, did concern me because I felt the rate of decay would soon render much of the specimen worthless. I have included digital pictures of the hand with this document.

I sterilized my x-ray cassettes and proceeded to take an x-ray of the hand and was careful not to contaminate the specimen. I never did touch the hand. The first observation I made was that each of the digits 2-5 had the distal phalanges removed or severed. The first digit appeared to be removed at the metacarpo-phalangeal joint. The metacarpals were all intact and three of the carpal bones are visible. In comparison to the human hand, the carpal bones were similar, but the trapezium and the trapezoid seem to be one bone in the unknown hand. The other two carpals seem to be the capitate and the hamate. The density of the metacarpal bones were quite different from the human hand. The bones were much denser with pearl shaped densities in the distal heads. The metacarpo-phalangeal joint spaces were much wider in the unknown hand when compared to a human hand. The proximal phalanges showed slightly irregular cortices (maybe slightly arthritic) near the interphalangeal joints. These joint spaces also proved irregular with v-shaped joint lines. This would prove to increase the surface area of the joint and could serve to increase strength at the joint. This is only speculation, though.

In comparing the two hands, one could safely say that the unknown hand is not human. There are far more differences than there are similarities. Further DNA testing and study of the hand by those more knowledgeable than I should yield answers to the origin of the hand.

In conclusion, I feel that this specimen needs to be examined by open-minded individuals who will give it the attention it deserves. I have compared the bone structure to bears, apes and other animals with my limited resources and cannot come up with any tangible answers. I do believe that it is not human, but it seems to be human-like.

Todd L. Reese, D.C.

May 31, 2006

Allegedly the X-Ray of the Hand

According to the official report both specimens yielded no usable DNA and yielded a result too degraded to sequence (or classify). Tom Biscardi claims that there was an original verbal report which deemed it unclassified, but the official report is the official report. No useable DNA found on the samples provided.

Is it possible that this item was too hot to handle for the lab. This is not the first time, in Bigfoot Research that such has happened. I have received independent corroboration of similar episodes in the field where bones, body samples, have been tested in a lab, and nothing is ever heard of again.

Reports of a Sasquatch charge, and being warded off by an axe, seem to be misinformation, as is the "Illinois" aspect of the hand as some internet rumors have stated. Biscardi's story has always been consistent.

An article on Cryptomundo.com had stated that Don Monroe was upset with Biscardi and that the hand was lent to Biscardi.

On July 3, 2006 I spoke with Don Monroe here are the highlights in reference to the misnomers:

Well I saw it and didn't think so at first. However many experts are weighing in as such such as Dr. Jeff Meldrum who are stating according to X-ray comparisons it is a bear paw however Dr. Todd Reese who examined the "Hand" up close and personal and has compared the X-Rays to that of Bear Paws and says, "No, it's not a bear paw." Dr. Reese also points out the specimen has a saddle joint, which a bear does not have, but any animal with an opposable thumb does.

The bottom line is that MORE testing needs to be done. Has time elapsed that DNA may not yield further results?

This will be the final word from us on the matter until such DNA test are completed and yield a DNA strand.

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