Episode 188: The Life and Times of Tom Slick

You may have heard of Tom Slick, the man who financed many early expeditions in search of Sasquatch both the in US and internationally. But did you know he was also a scientist, military man, inventor, philanthropist, and much more? Learn the strange, fascinating and tragically short history of Thomas Baker Slick Jr. with Heather Moser, Mark Matzke and guest host Aaron Deese. 

Email - Monsteropolis@smalltownmonsters.com

 

SHOW NOTES

Monsteropolis: Tom Slick

 

Welcome back, you lawless knaves. 

 

READER MAIL - got at least one - HERE IT IS, from our friend Christine!

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Hi Guys,

 

First of all, congratulations on the success of your 10th anniversary Kickstarter!  I can't wait to see your new films, especially The Siege of Ape Canyon and The Kinderhook Creature.

 

I listened with interest to the Monsteropolis episode where you described the changing nature of the appearance of the Wendigo in popular culture from an emaciated human being to one with antlers and a stag's skull. In the fall last year I became aware of the legend of the Leshy of pagan Slavic culture through an excellent YA novel called "Where the Dark Stands Still" by Polish writer A.B. Poranek. When I googled the Leshy I was astounded to see images of what I recognised as the Wendigo. So this got me thinking - is there a Slavic influence at play here too? Perhaps this is something you could look in to! 

 

I am really looking forward to the book and film regarding the Wendigo which I understand may come out next year. I have been fascinated by the Wendigo since reading Algernon Blackwood's novella and there is one passage in particular that always sticks in my mind:

 

"And soon after he slept, the change of wind he had divined stirred gently the reflection of the stars within the lake. Rising among the far ridges of the country beyond Fifty Island Water, it came from the direction in which he had stared, and it passed over the sleeping camp with a faint and sighing murmur through the tops of the big trees that was almost too delicate to be audible. With it, down the desert paths of night, though too faint, too high even for the Indian’s hair-like nerves, there passed a curious, thin odor, strangely disquieting, an odor of something that seemed unfamiliar—utterly unknown."

 

Christine

 

(your biggest Scottish fan who lives in Germany 😄)

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• Today we’re gonna talk about a special guy. A real, real special guy. We’re also going to talk about the history of Sasquatch research in the US, and by extension, the world, and how we might not be where we are without this very special guy. 

 

Thomas Baker Slick, Jr. was born on May 16th, 1916, so this episode will air just under a month before his 109th birthday (right? 109?). Not to be confused with his father, Thomas Baker Slick Sr, who was born in 1883. This can get confusing if you go looking into it and weren’t aware of that. He was from Oklahoma, but moved to San Antonio, Texas pretty much as soon as he could. 

 

Tom inherited a vast fortune at a very young age when his father passed away in August of 1930 - age 46. Remember that number, it’ll be important later. 

 

Unlike the common perception many of us have when we hear the word “millionaire,” Tom Slick didn’t retire to the hamptons and spend his days playing croquet, using words like, “indubitably” and attending the Kentucky Derby. Those are just things I’m assuming millionaires do. 

 

Instead, he spent the remainder of his life pouring all of his energy - and tremendous financial resources - into a number of scientific and industrial pursuits. 

 

He helped to invent the “lift slab” method of construction, which is still used to this day. It sped up the construction process of large buildings and made it a lot safer. Starts with concrete foundations and then uses hydraulic lifts to put pieces into place. 

 

He also financed a TON of scientific research. You could argue it was kind of his main thing, but he had a lot of things. 

He founded the Mind Science Institute, which studied the human mind (wow imagine that), INCLUDING Psychic Phenomena. Yep, it’s getting paranormal now! You were like, “why are we talking about the history of lift-slab construction?”, haha! I know. Just wait there’s more. 

They still exist today, and in fact most of the organizations Slick founded are still in operation at one capacity or another, though some have merged or are now nested under other groups.  

 

He founded the Texas Biomedical Institute and the Southwest Research Institute, which are also both still in operation in San Antonio to this day. Southwest Research does RND for private contractors and the government, and no one is allowed on the facility grounds without a good reason to be there. They’ve been on the History Channel! Modern Marvels, Season 8/Episode 8 “bulletproof,” showing experimental non-lethal weaponry sound stuff, goo stuff, etc.) They also have a test course for self driving cars you can see from the road.  

Barbed wire, security check points, cameras, the works. I drive past it all the time. One of my listeners at HS is a local and has worked there a few times - he says you can’t go anywhere you’re not supposed to be and it’s basically exactly what you’d imagine from a secretive research facility that does work for the government. 

 

Another fun fact though, there is a metal cutout silhouette of Bigfoot on the SWRI grounds which is occasionally moved to different places so people can “search” for it. The SWRI PR rep confirmed as recently as 2022 that it’s still there, and was even kind enough to send me pictures of it, which I’m pretty sure made it into my first book. Hold on I think I have it somewhere.

•  Why Bigfoot? Oh, don’t worry. You finna find out. 

 

SWRI (Under the sub-organization Southwest Primate Research Center) has one of the largest “pedigreed non-human primate populations in the world.” They have 2500 specimens on the grounds. Yep, almost 3000 apes, right in the heart of West Side San Antonio. Someday I figure maybe society will collapse and if I’m still around I’ve got a note to go let these guys free so they can inherit the earth. Ape Future, it’s my plan to save the world. We can talk about it another time probably.  

 

This might already be happening though, because rumors also roll around town about escaped specimens, and some San Antonio old timers remember walking past the grounds and seeing the actual primate enclosures before security was upped and the perimeter extended. 

 

Anyway, why are we talking about a bunch of Texas Apes and some guy named Tom? This dude who was also a philanthropist, pilot, adventurer, military veteran (he served as a “dollar a year” man during WW2, taking an officers commission but effectively collecting no salary) and Sasquatch enthusiast?

• That’s why. That last bit. 

 

- Tom Slick is widely considered to be one of the first, if not the first “patron” of modern cryptozoology. Why? WHY!?

 

- I’ll tell you WHY, jeez, so impatient lol Because Tom spent A BUNCH of money financing expeditions to search for Bigfoot. He was FASCINATED by Cryptozoology, and truly believed it was worth the time and money to investigate. 

 

And not JUST Bigfoot, young ones, oh no no. Slick was fascinated by the whole scope of Cryptozoology. 

 

• In college, he visited Scotland to search for the Loch Ness Monster. (After that he paid a visit to the Soviet Union to “see what it was like” - this will also be important later on). 

 

• But Nessie was just the start. Tom didn’t find her, obv, but it was enough to hook him. Hook? Like a fish? In the water? Eeh? Eh. 

 

• For starters, he traveled to, and later financed expeditions he wasn’t on, to the Himalayas in search of the Yeti. There are some great historical photos of Tom hiking and camping in them there mountains. He preferred to be on the trips himself, but on one of them was injured in a bus crash while traveling through the mountains. Broke his legs if I recall correctly.  

 

- He was involved in a plot to steal the Pangboche Hand, an alleged Yeti hand kept in the Pangboche Monastery in Nepal. It’s bad to steal from monasteries, just to be clear on that. Robbing temples and other sacred places of their cultural artifacts is bad. But they pulled it off - THEY being Tom Slick, famous actor Jimmy Stewart, and a few other interested parties. 

- The story goes that Stewart smuggled the hand through customs in the case containing his wife’s Particular Garments For Ladies, and that officers were unwilling to search it. Smuggling was a lot easier in the old days dude. Like people talk about old timey criminal masterminds like they were super smart but honestly I think I’d be a great 1950s criminal and I’m not very smart.

- Tom also financed the late great Peter Byrne, AKA, one of the Four Horsemen. Tom would link up with Byrne in the early days and provide just about everything Byrne needed to continue his on the ground research. 

- See, this is where a lot of overviews of Slick’s life begin. It’s obviously super important and the main reason we’re talking about him, but I intentionally stuck 2 ½ pages of notes about Slick’s not bigfoot stuff first. I think it gives you an idea of how BIG A DEAL it is that a guy with this many resources and credentials was so invested - literally - in the search.

 

- Tom was also fascinated by the Orang Pendek, which we talked about in Bigfoot International. He sent teams to Sumatra to look for the thing, and we might argue that he’s responsible for introducing it into the modern cryptozoological roster. Don’t quote me on that. 

 

• Slick was also really into giant salamanders, and would also task his “bigfoot teams” with looking for it, which was apparently a point of contention in some cases. “Bro you ain’t paying me to find lizards”

 

• We could go on, and on, and on (CAN YOU GUYS THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE THERE’S MORE I JUST HAD TO STOP SOMEWHERE) 

 

• Slick died tragically in a plane crash on his way back to Texas from Canada at the age of… wait for it… 46. Same age as his daddy, Thomas Baker Slick Sr. 

 

Life is a simulation. 

 

For real though, some people do find this very suspicious. 

 

Even more suspicious when you consider his early trip to the soviet union. 

 

And even MORE suspicious what you consider that Slick owned/was involved in companies that were essentially shell corporations for the CIA. Loren Coleman documents this quite empirically in Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology.

 

Harkening back to the Soviet visit, some people have speculated that maybe he was visiting on behalf of the CIA. He made the trip to Loch Ness with friends, but moved on to Russia solo. So, I dunno. The fact that he was an officer in WW2 doesn’t do much to knock this idea off either - Slick had documented government/military connections, so who knows what’s still classified. 

 

SO, in summary - very rich very young, poured tons of money into science, industry, philanthropy and cryptozoology, had connections to the CIA and military, also had connections to a lot of famous people like Jimmy Stewart, died at the same age as his father in a plane crash before Slick’s vision/money could intersect with the modern Bigfoot search. It’s likely that Mr. Slick would have passed from natural causes by NOW, but with his resources he probably could have hung on to life for many, many more years. Who knows what else he might have accomplished. 

 

SOOOO it’s really not a stretch to say that Bigfoot Research wouldn’t be where it is today without the four horsemen. Dahinden, Krantz, Green and Byrne paved the way, babyyyy, and Mr. Byrne had some help - a lot of help, by most accounts - from good old Tommy Baker Slick. 

 

A few more factoids about Slick,

 

THAT PODCAST WITH LUKE WILSON

 

He was a major art collector and a good chunk of his collection is housed today in the McNay Art Museum. 

His huge ranch property, Cable Ranch, was donated in parcels to various organizations, like the SWRI and the San Antonio Parks Department. Cable Ranch is a common street name in San Antonio, and Tom Slick Park sits today next to a brand new neighborhood with street names like Nessie’s Way, Yeti Trails and Wildcatter Way (Oklahoma oil guys, like Slick and his cohorts, were often referred to as Wildcatters - Slick’s father was considered the “King” thereof)

Slick was also an author, and a strong proponent of nuclear disarmament. He wrote two books on this topic - The Last Great Hope, and Permanent Peace; A Check and Balance. Haven’t read them myself, but the titles are super inspiring. Really gives you an idea of what his vision of a peaceful future could be like. 

 

Pretty infamous series of Sasquatch sightings in San Antonio from the 70s. I went on a few local SA discussion groups to ask if anyone remembered it during a podcast research dealy, and several people said they had heard that the “bigfoot” in question was an escaped orangutan from the Primate research facility. Not saying that’s what it was because I’m pretty sure we have Bigfoot here, but it’s a fun anecdotal connection between Slick, his real world legacy and Bigfoot. I’m fairly certain that it’s a mix of the two and Slick captured a Bigfoot and today it lives on the SWRI, but nobody seems to agree with me on that even though I dreamed it up all on my own. 

Personally - Just being from here and living in the area for going on 20 years, Slick did a TREMENDOUS amount to bring jobs/development/what have you to San Antonio. Pretty good chance I wouldn’t even live here if it wasn’t for all the industrial development he helped establish. Nevermind the fact that he helped usher Sasquatch research into the twenty first century and give it credibility.