" Message posted by Peter Byrne:

      In recent days and in regard to his rather unpleasant spreading of the word that yours truly had gone to the Happy Hunting Grounds, not a few people have emailed me to ask me why Mr. Loren Coleman of Portland,Maine, seems to "have it in for me",
and why he would do something as unpleasant as this, and what his problem is. It seems to me that you, and they, should know
what is behind his deplorable behavior. As follows...

    Some years ago Coleman called me and said that he was doing a book on Tom Slick, and could he come and visit me in Oregon
and look at my records and pictures from my Himalayan Yeti expeditions. I said yes, and he duly arrived.  He seemed like a nice sort of chap (although my ex of those days  did not like or trust him for some reason) so I let him in and he spent two whole days
at my place, as my guest, going though my somewhat voluminous files and albums of slides and B&W pictures from the old Nepal  and Sikkim Yeti expeditions.  When he was ready to leave I let him have some B&W pictures for his book; he was to copy these for the book, use them in the book with a credit to me and return them; this he did in due course.

   But when he left my house he pocketed, without my knowledge or consent, about twenty of my slides.  I have about 3000 slides, too many to check, too many to count and so did not miss them.

  About two years ago, I was at Larry Lund's house and he asked me if I had ever seen the Unsolved Mysteries show, "The Mystery of the Yeti" . I said no, so together we watched a tape of it that Larry had.

  The show opened with the usual stuff and then brought up a B&W still of mine., from one of my Yeti expeditions. Then another. Then another. To where I suddenly realized that altough I was in the show, (which U.M. shot with me at Mammoth Lakes in CA),
I had never given the U.M. people any of those pictures.  I told Larry  to run the tape back and he did and then we counted....the show contained seventeen pictures of mine altogether.  I was very surprised and at the same time almost certain that I had not given those particular pictures.

  So I called U.M. in Los Angeles and asked them where they got the pictures they used in their Yeti show. They said ......talk to Production. I did this. U.M. Production told me they got them from one Loren Coleman, Portland,Maine.

  I called Coleman next day and asked him if he ever given any of my pictures to Unsolved Mysteries. He said no, absolutely not,ever. I asked him if he was sure, and he said yes, very sure.

  The following day he called me back and said, "well maybe just a couple of the pictures, the ones I had loaned him for his book."
I asked him, "A couple?" H said, "well, yes, just one or two...I was meaning to tell you about it but I forgot."

  I asked him if he was paid anything by U.M. for the pictures. He said "No, absolutely not,not a penny."

  I called U.M. and asked them if they had paid Coleman for the use of the pictures he gave them. They said "talk to Accounts". I talked to U.M. Accounts and they told me, "Yes, $1,700.00"   (Note - $100 per photo -- ed)

  I called Coleman again, and asked him again if he had been paid anything by U.M. for the use of  the (my) pictures,that he gave
them. He said,"Well, maybe a few dollars.Not much. In fact, I've been meaning to split it with you and send it to you."

  I said, " How about $1,700 ?"  He said "No,never, not that much. A few dollars maybe. But not anything like $1,700."

  So I called U.M. again to verify and asked them, the possibility of a lawsuit by me, to immediatgely fax me all the documentation
in the matter of the contract with Coleman, plus records of their payments to him. They did this.

  The documedntation they sent me (which I kept on file) verified that he had been paid $1,700 and included a letter from him, containing a statement, signed by him, to the effect that of the slides and pictures he sold to them were his personal property
and as such, his to sell as he wished.

   So, another call to Mr. C. and  this time as more suited to the occasion, a certain brevity. A check for $1,700, plus all of my pictures that he stole and illegally sold, in the mail, Fed X, within twelve hours or a lawsuit.

   Guess what came in the mail next day?  Right. With the check

(and the pictures) came what fiction writers call a sad and plaintive  little letter saying that he was truly sorry about what had happened but that truly, he had been meaning to send the money to me, (it is now note, three years since he pocketed the slides and two since he sold them to U.M.)  But that, (Ready  for this?) truly, it had slipped his mind.

  Since then Mr Coleman has told several people that "I treated him very badly" in this matter and that by threatening him with a
lawsuit  " I was really being quite nasty" because by mentioning me in the book he had given me a lot of publicity and that as far as he was concerned this was ample compensation for ' Er, illegally selling my property for gain !

   Ain't human psychology wonderful ?  I think the moral of this story is when you have guests in your house that you really don't know very well, just remember to count the silver before they leave.

                  Onward, onward,  Peter Byrne  "

Note:    I was recently reminded of this criminal incident  by JERRY COLEMAN, his brother, who called me about it.

           Coleman then sold the photos, AGAIN, for $800 for a rerun to go on History Channel.

           See contract below:

      What really gets me is the ingrained arrogance of this guy. He really, really, really thinks he is  important.
       He talks to his email list about how www.artistfirst.com would be unable to get a host with any
       "standing" in the bigfoot field, as if he had any...........!!!!!!!!!!!

NOTE:

        The check above is for $1100, not the $1700 owed. Coleman has tried to claim he was owed $600 for an interview fee,
but he would never have been interviewed were it not for the photos. Also,the payment was $100 per photo, for 17 photos, not less.
Thus Coleman still owes Byrne $600. (Unsolved Mysteries show).

      Then, after being caught and paying part back, he DOES IT ALL OVER AGAIN. This time for $800 to History Channel, see
above contract.

      This is theft beyond theft. Violation of Federal law, section 105 of the copyright code, Title 17, USC. Could make Coleman a Federal
Felon.

     He now owes $600 plus $800 = $1400.  STILL NOT PAID.

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