I think this is one of the more interesting mysteries in cryptozoology. I have no doubts that Frank Hansen was a show/conman (his story of where the Iceman came from keep changing) and that he did have a fake copy made. But I wouldn't think a fake would be able to fool two men with the credentials of Sanderson and Heuvelmans into believing it was real. It would be interesting to know if anybody here actually had a chance to see the display.
http://www.unmuseum.org/iceman.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/mnbf/iceman.html
Full Version: Minnesota Iceman
I never saw it in person, but I always find the story intriguing.
Seems the Iceman isn't a very popular cryptid, lol, lots of readers but only one post. 
I really don't remember a lot about this case. I think Unsolved Mysteries did a story on it a many years ago, but that is all that I really heard about this story.
This came up quite a few times before... This is what I know about it, i posted this in the Homo Pongoids topic a few months ago:
"This photo connects to an utterly strange incident. In the sixties, Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson was informed about a travelling circus group that was at that time in Chicago and that had a frozen, furry, man-like creature. In 1968, they got to see it at the house of the leader of the company in 1968 in Winona, Minnesota.
The scientist examined it for three days, and they found out that it was a 175 cm tall male, and it looked more like a Homo Neanderthalensis, than a modern man. The only problem was that the creature was shot in the head. the bullet entered at the right eye and exited at the back of the head leaving a huge hole.
By this time, the Smithsonian started to get curious, and wanted to examine the body, but the owner, Frank Hansen said that it is not his, but a millionaire owned it, so the institute can't have it, and the body was never shown again in public. instead, a model made of latex and hair was used. The FBI was also interested, because it was a murdered man-like creature...
But, in 1969 the corpse disappeared, but the model is still on exhibition. before his death, Sanderson stated to doubt the originality of the corpse, in 1981 a suspicion rose that Howard Ball, a model-maker made it, but Heuvelmans clung to its originality. He said that he even felt the stench of rotten flesh from the body.
The strange thing is that Hansen gave different accounts on where the body came from: Once he told hat Russian seal-hunters found it, next time it was found frozen in an iceberg by Japanese fishermen in an iceberg on the Ohotsk-Sea(near Kamchatka), then from Hong-kong and so on... Heuvelman claimed that it was shot in Vietnam and it was the neanderthal-like almas/almasty, and it was brought to the US in a bag that was normally used to bring back the dead soldiers. This is all I know, the source is the book of Karl Shuker entitled The Lost Ark"
"This photo connects to an utterly strange incident. In the sixties, Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson was informed about a travelling circus group that was at that time in Chicago and that had a frozen, furry, man-like creature. In 1968, they got to see it at the house of the leader of the company in 1968 in Winona, Minnesota.
The scientist examined it for three days, and they found out that it was a 175 cm tall male, and it looked more like a Homo Neanderthalensis, than a modern man. The only problem was that the creature was shot in the head. the bullet entered at the right eye and exited at the back of the head leaving a huge hole.
By this time, the Smithsonian started to get curious, and wanted to examine the body, but the owner, Frank Hansen said that it is not his, but a millionaire owned it, so the institute can't have it, and the body was never shown again in public. instead, a model made of latex and hair was used. The FBI was also interested, because it was a murdered man-like creature...
But, in 1969 the corpse disappeared, but the model is still on exhibition. before his death, Sanderson stated to doubt the originality of the corpse, in 1981 a suspicion rose that Howard Ball, a model-maker made it, but Heuvelmans clung to its originality. He said that he even felt the stench of rotten flesh from the body.
The strange thing is that Hansen gave different accounts on where the body came from: Once he told hat Russian seal-hunters found it, next time it was found frozen in an iceberg by Japanese fishermen in an iceberg on the Ohotsk-Sea(near Kamchatka), then from Hong-kong and so on... Heuvelman claimed that it was shot in Vietnam and it was the neanderthal-like almas/almasty, and it was brought to the US in a bag that was normally used to bring back the dead soldiers. This is all I know, the source is the book of Karl Shuker entitled The Lost Ark"
??? Coast to Coast AM needs to stop with this story and get Karl Shuker or someone in the field to interview on the show.
[EDIT:removed swearing]
[EDIT:removed swearing]
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