Frank Searle

Frank Searle Biographical information Born 18 March 1921 Staines, Middlesex, United Kingdom Died 26 March 2005 Fleetwood, Lancashire, United Kingdom Professional information Occupation Soldier, photographer, writer Notable works • Over twenty hoaxed photographs • Nessie: Seven Years in Search of the Monster Notable investigations • Loch Ness monster

Frank Searle (born Eric Frank Searle; 18 March 1921 - 26 March 2005) was an English soldier, photographer, and Loch Ness monster investigator who lived in a caravan around Loch Ness from 1969 until the early 1980's, and claimed to have taken over twenty photographs of the monster during this time. A "colourful and controversial character" who often clashed with other investigators, he is now widely recognised as a serial hoaxer, although some cryptozoologists have written that he also made a positive contribution by drawing media attention to Loch Ness and its monster.

Biography

Searle was born in Staines, Middlesex, on 18 March 1921. He joined the army at the age of 14, straight out of school, but was discharged after he lost his lower left leg during an alleged anti-terrorist mission in Palestine.

Inspired by Constance Whyte's More Than a Legend (1957), in 1969 he quit his job as a greengrocer and relocated to Loch Ness, where he lived in a tent for the first three years, before moving into a caravan. To keep him company, he advertised for what he called "girl Fridays" to join him on the hunt, by placing signs in parts of the country where unemployment was high. One of them, the Belgian Lieve Peten, supported him until 1983.

For the first two years, Searle claimed to have had several sightings, but took no photographs. Eventually, on 27 July 1972, after 20,000 cumulative hours of scanning the Loch, Searle took his first alleged photograph of the monster, near Balachladoich Farm. The photograph was published in the 1 September issue of London’s Daily Mail, and Searle became a minor celebrity. People visited him to learn about the monster, he often appeared on television, and he was generally well-regarded by the Loch Ness monster-hunting community.

Searle set up an free exhibition by the Loch, supported by donations and often managed by assistants, his "girl Fridays", children on school trips, and other fans. By the late 1970's, he could be seen wearing a badge reading "I'm nearly famous".

From this point, alleged photographs of the monster taken by Searle appeared with increasing regularity, until he claimed to have taken more than twenty photographs. Searle credited his constant presence on the Loch and his army training for his incredible success. His last supposed photograph was taken on 26 February 1976.

Searle was only taken seriously for about a year. Eventually, the sheer number of alleged photographs taken by him - as well as his attempt to "sell a photograph of Nessie and a UFO in the same shot" - made many people suspicious, and several sought to disprove them. Roy P. Mackal and Ronald Binns simply identified his photographs as logs, but other researchers including Nicholas Witchell outright accused him of deliberate hoaxes. Searle always denied that his photographs were hoaxes, and stories of "sometimes violent altercations with journalists, television crews and rival hunters" have appeared over the years. He allegedly left threatening notes on cars, attempted to sabotage rivals, struck Nicholas Witchell, and threatened Lee Frank with a knife.

Intending to defend himself against claims of hoaxing, Searle wrote his first book, Nessie: Seven Years in Search of the Monster, in 1976, but was accused of libel and plagiarism, resulting in the book being withdrawn from publication. From April 1977 to December 1983, Searle published a quarterly newsletter, which was often critical of other researchers such as Tim Dinsdale and Robert Rines.

In the early 1980's, the Loch Ness and Morar Project under Adrian Shine arrived at the Loch and began to openly critisize Searle's reputation and expose many of his photographs as hoaxes. In 1983, Searle wrote his second book, Loch Ness Investigation: What Really Happened, which was intended to be an "exposé" of Shine, Tim Dinsdale, and several other investigators including members of the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau. According to the Loch Ness and Morar Project, Searle's publisher dropped the libellous book after being contacted by Shine with evidence of hoaxing on Searle's part; Searle claimed that Shine had convinced his publishers that "it wouldn’t be in certain people’s interests to tell the world what was really happening at Loch Ness". Shine later wrote of the issue: "basically, we wanted to get rid of him, and in effect we did because he went too far. We had removed any remaining credibility that he had by preventing the publication of his book. Hence he had every reason to dislike us". Shortly afterwards, Shine's team's station was firebombed by an unidentified person who threw a Molotov cocktail from a boat on the Loch.

Searle suddenly disappeared from the Loch in 1983, 1984, or 1985. It was rumoured that he had left to go treasure hunting in Cornwall, had moved to the United States to lecture on monsters, or had died in the Loch. In fact, he moved to Fleetwood in Lancashire in 1986, and lived a quiet and reclusive life. In 1998, he suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed on the right side. Although confined to a wheelchair, he refused to enter an assisted care facility or nursing home, preferring to look after himself. He died at his home on 26 March 2005, aged 84. Searle never married and had no known children.

Loch Ness monster photographs

All of Searle's photographs are regarded as hoaxes, but his motive is unclear, as it is obvious that he was a genuine believer in the Loch Ness monster. It has been suggested that he was frustrated by the fact that he had spent so much time on the Loch - allegedly having several sightings of the monster - without being able to photograph it.

According to journalist Andrew Tullis, the first photograph Searle took, he gave to the Loch Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau to publish, but when they failed to do so after a year, he believed they intended to pass it off as their own and make money out of it. Tullis believes this is what caused him to begin created hoaxed photographs.

Legacy

Journalist Andrew Tullis attempted to track down Searle in 2005, and eventually found him by placing an ad in a treasure hunting magazine, but by this point he had been dead for four weeks. However, Paul Harrison had allegedly tracked him down before his death, and claimed to have conducted an interview with him.

Searle inspired a character in the film Loch Ness (1996), Gordon Shoals (played by Keith Allen) an eccentric who claims the monster is his property. His career at Loch Ness was documented in The Man Who Captured Nessie (2005).

Bibliography

• Searle, Frank (1976) Nessie: Seven Years in Search of the Monster
• Searle, Frank (1983) Loch Ness Investigation: What Really Happened