Ronald Binns
Published
1983
Reviewed by Lana Nightingale
In
August of 1972 two most amazing photographs were taken in the dark,
cold
murky waters of Loch Ness of the heretofore mythical monster.
After
their publication the ‘monster’ was identified as a plesiosaur… or was
it?
In
fact these two photographs, which have [since] undergone computer image
enhancement and showed a flipper and neck, were tampered with. And so
yet
another hoax had been perpetrated in an idyllic Scottish country scene.
Ronald Binns
has, in his very readable book, solved the mystery. And once having
read
his book one is left with an even greater mystery: how people believed
the improbable for so long and wasted so much time, effort, and money
in
a fruitless search for the mythical beast.
The
first surprise that the author springs on us is the complete lack of a
monster tradition prior to the famed ‘surgeon’s photograph’ of 1934.
This
photograph, taken on April Fools Day, was the first ‘evidence’ since
the
‘monster’ commotion started the previous year.
Modern
monster hunters lead us to believe that there is a centuries-old
history
of sightings of a strange animal in the
Binns explains all of
the numerous sightings
and photographs as either misinterpretations
or outright frauds.
Specially
telling is his dissection of sightings. In one case there is an
illustration
of a ‘sighting’ through binoculars with the telltale double circles.
Only
that is a
The
Loch Ness Mystery Solved has one serious
drawback in that it
completely shatters what we have all
passionately wanted to believe: an atavism a short drive from the city.