Frank Searle

Photographer, Visual Artist

1921 – 2005

61

Who was Frank Searle?

Frank Searle was a photographer who studied the disputed existence of the Loch Ness Monster. He took up residence at Loch Ness in 1969 living a frugal existence in a tent looking for definitive proof of the monster's existence. Eventually photographs began to appear from 1972 onwards and earned Frank a degree of fame as a monster hunter.

However, as the detail of the pictures increasingly improved with time, people began to suspect they were fakes. The matter was finally exposed in 1976 when the Scottish Sunday Mail carried a centre-page article proving that one of his photographs was taken from a postcard showing an Apatosaurus. Another picture was also proven to be a wooden post at a pier that was covered with cloth to make it monster-like.

As his reputation declined, he was involved with some skirmishes with other monster researchers which eventually led to a failed molotov cocktail attack on one of their boats. Searle denied any involvement in the matter and was never charged over it. Eventually he left the loch for good in the early 1980s to allegedly embark on a treasure hunting expedition.

Some years later he was eventually tracked down by Andrew Tullis for his documentary The Man who Captured Nessie. Searle had been living in a bedsit in Fleetwood, Lancashire, but had died only a few weeks before.

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Born
Mar 18, 1921
Nationality
  • United Kingdom
Profession
Died
Mar 26, 2005

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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