Skinwalkers

The Dark Wind
$14.98
This is a nice addition to my Native American movie collection. Interesting plot and produced well for the time.

Mystery! Coyote Waits
$29.98
Great movie based on the book by Tony Hillerman. We Studi and Adam Beach make a great Chee/Leaphorn team.

Skinwalkers (Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Novels)
$7.99
Tony Hillerman is one of the most readable authors of Native American mysteries. There is a lot of history/lore/meaning including in his books.

Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah
$15.00
I was given this piece of trash-in-print by a friend who was utterly convinced of its authenticity - a friend who urged me to read the damn thing so I could really see what was happening in some of those eerie remote locations across America. Well, I read the damn thing, alright. Here are my conclusions:

1. The authors wrote this nonsense to capitalize on the true-believing stupidity of a great seqment of the American population.

*** They didn't even bother to use correct terms of description ( a "HERD of wolves", is a great example! This from a so-called award-winning journalist like Knapp!! Hey, George! Try a PACK of wolves! ). In other words, this drivel was thrown together in such haste (no doubt as visions of profits whirled around in the minds of the two nincompoops who wrote it ) that even obvious errors like the HERD of wolves were happily and carelessly overlooked.

2. The authors go to great lengths to sell the readers on the idea that the Gorman family ( who live on the property in question which is beset by paranormal phenomenon ) are ultra-intelligent people with strong characters and some sort of ludicrous "pioneer spirit" - people who just wanted to escape "small town politics and gossip". If you choose to purchase and then read this tripe, I call your attention to the fact that by the time you reach the end of chapter four, you will learn that after a number of absolutely impossible and exceptionally bizarre incidents and sightings, Tom Gorman "began to realize that something strange was going on at his property"! I mean, really! Flying refrigerator-shaped craft, impossible animals, strange metalic noises coming from invisible sources somewhere in the air above their heads, and Tom Gorman "began to realize that something strange was going on"!! If the reader is expected to even remotely entertain the possibility of this account is authentic, it should have been obvious to the authors that if it took Tom Gorman that long and that many encounters to finally wake up to the fact that "something strange was going on in his property", then obviously, Tom Gorman is a complete imbecile who can't be counted on to reliably relate ANY information about ANY sort of occurance, "strange" or otherwise. This kind of absurdity is something you can look forward to encountering throughout this book. But this is only the beginning!

3. In the initial chapters of the book you will read about the Gorman family's encounter with gigantic, bullet-proof "wolves", which the authors outdo themselves in describing in the most insane and laughable manner. For example; the "wolves" enountered by the Gormans on two occasions were "larger than any wolf the Gormans had ever seen". Really? The Gormans felt the first wolf they encountered must have weighed "TWO HUNDRED POUNDS"!!! They estimated this because when Tom and his son followed it through the property after Tom had shot it several times with no visible effects, they found its tracks in some mud in a river or stream bed - sunk in "four or so inches deep"!! Well, for your information AND FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE AUTHORS AND THE INTELLECTUALLY "BRILLIANT" GORMAN'S, the largest wolf ever shot was well over THREE HUNDRED POUNDS and a TWO HUNDRED POUND WOLF is typically AVERAGE for the weight of timber wolves. For a quadraped like a wolf to sink its tracks four inches deep into mud, the weight would have to be significantly greater than TWO HUNDRED POUNDS. But as you'll see when or if you purchase this garbage, the authors repeatedly stress "THE TWO HUNDRED POUND WOLF", as if this is something really remarkable. And again, if this size estimate is an indication of the "brilliance" and the "high intelligence" attributed to the Gorman's by the authors, well..let's just say that anything and everything the Gorman's did provide to the authors in terms of relating accounts of their paranormal ordeals needs to be considered highly suspect right off the bat.
And since I'm on the topic of these "wolves" which the Gorman's encountered, I might as well tell you about the "wolf" which was so large it had to bend its head and neck down just to breathe on the windows of Mrs. Gorman's car while she sat inside. Now just ponder this a moment, folks. You're sitting in your car and a wolf AT LEAST THE SIZE OF A CLYDESDALE HORSE comes up beside your car's door and bends its head and neck down to look in at you and breathe on your windows. Do you fill your pants? Do you suffer sever shock and psychological trauma? Do you become terrified and insist that your family leave that Twilight Zone of a property? Heck no! Not if you're Mrs. Gorman! No, if you're Mrs. Gorman, you drive back to your ranch house and get on with ordinary, routine family affairs!!!! And the two authors wrote this, how? Tongue-in-cheek? I ask you! HOW could two professionals in their fields produce this sort of completely unbelievable NONSENSE with anything except laughter while being in the grip of a very pervese sense of humor?!!

4. But gigantic, bullet-proof wolves and flying refrigerator-like objects are just the beginning in terms of what the Gorman's supposedly ran into while residing on this remarkable piece of real estate. I won't bore you with an account of the other horrors that beset this family of "high intelligence and sturdy pioneer character". Instead I'll mention just one of the many linked-in absurdities that the authors attempt to weave into their "book". One of these is the "CURSE". That's right boys and girls, the Gorman ranch property is CURSED!! The Ute and Navaho Indians of the area believe ( according to the authors ) that the property is cursed and no tribal member will set foot on it. Well, I'd say the place is cursed alright.....cursed with repeated infestations of idiots! I say this because once you read this entire book and then actually think about its content in terms of the behavior patterns of the people who were involved and who are being described by the authors, you'll probably arrive at the same conclusion I did; which was to feel that the gigantic wolves and all the other oddities showed remarkable RESTRAINT over having their backyard invaded by a lot of bumbling, ridiculous FOOLS! ***( take special note of Tom Gorman's irrational and "livid" reactions toward the members of his family one two occasions when a couple of his tools disappeared! See if his reasoning as described by the authors even remotely suggests a balanced personality!!).

Yes folks, if you purchase and read this book with a critical eye and a questioning intellect, you'll find so many holes in what the authors are presenting you with, you'll either laugh yourself to tears or feel sick to your stomach for having wasted your time reading it!

ONE STAR - and its not even worth that! - for this hyped-up, profit-motivated rubbish.