title: Keith Thurman

text: In an old-fashioned fight of the year candidate, Thurman successfully defended his title, before a crowd of 12,718, when all three judges scored an identical 115–113 in his favor. Thurman rocked Porter badly on multiple occasions in the fight, he was also hurt himself by a body shot in the eighth round. Thurman earned a $1.4 million purse. This was the first main event televised by CBS in prime time since February 15, 1978, when Muhammad Ali lost a 15-round split decision and the heavyweight title to Leon Spinks in a massive upset. Thurman landed 235 of 539 punches (44 percent) and Porter landed 236 of 662 (36 percent). After the fight, there was immediate talks of a rematch. The fight averaged 3.1 million viewers, according to ESPN. The card itself averaged 2.4 million viewers. The live gate was over $1.1 million in ticket sales, the highest gate in the history of Barclays Center to date, it was also the second highest attendance in the history of Barclays Center, with over 12,000 paying customers in attendance. Premier Boxing Champions voted the bout as their 'Fight of the Year'.


title: Keith Thurman

text: On July 15, WBA announced Thurman would have a mandatory defense against interim WBA champion David Avanesyan (22-1-1, 11 KOs). Both camps had until August 13 to negotiate the fight or the WBA will order a purse bid. Due to negotiations breaking down, the WBA elevated Avanesyan to 'regular' champion and Thurman was named as the WBA's 'super' champion.


title: Keith Thurman

text: On October 25, 2016, Showtime announced several fights to take place towards the end of 2016 and early 2017. One of them was the much anticipated welterweight unification fight between Thurman and fellow undefeated welterweight champion Danny García (33-0, 19 KOs), who holds the WBC title. García defeated journeyman Samuel Vargas in a tune-up fight on November 12, which officially set up the fight for March 4, 2017, at the Barclays Center in New York City. Unlike García, Thurman chose not to have any tune-up and would fight García after a long 9 month rest. Thurman was ringside at García vs. Vargas and entered the ring after the bout was over. In an interview, he stated, "You have two big punchers meeting on March 4, I don't see how the fight can go 12 rounds. I see myself as the best competition that Danny has ever faced." García replied by simply telling Thurman, he was next. At a press conference on January 18, 2017, the fight was officially announced and it was said that it would be shown live on CBS. The conference got extremely heated, leading to Angel García standing up and shouting racial slurs towards Thurman.


title: Keith Thurman

text: Thurman won the fight match via split decision with the scorecards 116–112, 113-115 & 115–113, making him a unified welterweight world champion. Thurman started off as the aggressor hitting and moving back to avoid García's counter hooks. This was the case for the majority of the fight. García began coming forward through the middle rounds and push Thurman on the back foot. Thurman backed off the championship rounds believing he had a comfortable enough lead to win the fight. MC Jimmy Lennon Jr. gave García false hope that he had won the fight when he announced WBA before WBC, making García believed he had won. In the post fight, Thurman credited his defensive work, "I was not giving the fight away. I felt like we had a nice lead, [and] we could cool down. I felt like we were controlling the three-minute intervals every round. My defense was effective. He wasn't landing." Compubox stats showed Thurman landed 147 of 570 punches thrown, a percentage of 26% and García landed 130 punches of his 434 thrown (30%). It was also reported that both fighters received a purse of $2 million a piece. The fight was attended by a boxing record of 16,533 at the Barclays Center.


title: Keith Thurman

text: According to The Ring, the fight peaked at 5.1 million viewers, which was at the last three rounds. The fight averaged 3.74 million viewers. This was the first time since 1998 that a Saturday primetime boxing telecast drew that kind of audience. The entire card drew an average 3.1 million viewers.


title: Keith Thurman

text: On May 19, it was reported that Thurman would be out of action for at least six months following surgery on his right elbow. Thurman said he would get back into training after four months.


title: Keith Thurman

text: On October 3, Lamont Peterson wrote to the WBA officially vacating his 'Regular' title, which meant Thurman was now their only belt-holder at welterweight. At the WBCs 55th annual convention in October 2017, it was revealed that Thurman would next fight in January 2018 in a voluntary defence. On October 14, Thurman confirmed that he would return to the ring latest by March 2018. He stated that he would not be taking the rematch with Porter nor would he be fighting IBF titleholder Errol Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs) on his return bout. According to sources in early January 2018, former welterweight titlist Jessie Vargas (28-2, 10 KOs) was being lined up to challenge Thurman on his return. On January 24, Showtime announced that Thurman would return to the Barclays Center for the third consecutive time on May 19 and Thurman denied any rumours, stating that he would not be fighting Vargas. On March 30, it was reported that Thurman suffered a deep bruise to his left hand and has been forced to pull out of his next fight, scheduled for May 19.


title: Keith Thurman

text: On April 24, Thurman vacated his WBC title, forcing the organisation to mandate Porter vs. García for the vacant title. The WBC made Thurman champion emeritus. Thurman explained, "Due to my rehabilitation from my injuries, I agreed to relinquish my WBC title at this time. I continue to rehab my hand and elbow and I look forward to getting back in the ring this summer. This is a temporary setback and I will be the unified champion once again and look forward to winning back my WBC title as soon as possible."


title: Keith Thurman

text: In November 2018, it was announced that Thurman would fight Josesito López on January 26, 2019, at Barclays Center, to defend his WBA welterweight title. López stated that for his return, he wanted to have one "tune-up" fight, and then "return to being an active world-class fighter again". Thurman got rocked in the seventh round, but ultimately he won the fight by majority decision.


title: Keith Thurman

text: In May 2019, it was announced that he would face eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KO's) on July 20, 2019. Pacquiao won the first round with a late knockdown following a left-right combination to the body and head. This was only the second time Thurman had been knocked down in his career. Pacquiao continued to outbox Thurman until the mid-rounds, when Thurman found some success. Pacquiao was ultimately declared the victor by split decision (113–114, 115–112, 115–112). Thurman praised Pacquiao after the fight, calling him a legendary boxer, also stating "nothing wrong with losing to a legend".


title: Keith Thurman

text: Thurman would not return to the ring following the first defeat of his professional career for almost 31 months, declaring "Until my retirement every day is a day closer to my fight", when he fought former WBA (Regular) super lightweight champion Mario Barrios on February 5, 2022. Similar to Thurman, Barrios was also coming off the first defeat of his professional career, when he had been stopped by Gervonta Davis in June 2021. Thurman imposed himself on Barrios and proved to be a class above his opponent, winning a unanimous decision with judges' scorecards of 117–111 and 118–110 twice in a dominant display on Fox Sports pay-per-view.,


title: Keith Thurman

text: Thurman was born in Clearwater, Florida to an African-American father and a European-American mother of Polish and Hungarian descent. In 2016, he started dating Nepalese native Priyana Thapa. In 2017, the couple got married.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The Patterson–Gimlin film (also known as the Patterson film or the PGF) is an American short motion picture of an unidentified subject that the filmmakers have said was a Bigfoot. The footage was shot in 1967 in Northern California, and has since been subjected to many attempts to authenticate or debunk it.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The footage was filmed alongside Bluff Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River, about northwest of Orleans, California, in Del Norte County on the Six Rivers National Forest. The film site is roughly south of Oregon and east of the Pacific Ocean. For decades, the exact location of the site was lost, primarily because of re-growth of foliage in the streambed after the flood of 1964. It was rediscovered in 2011. It is just south of a north-running segment of the creek informally known as "the bowling alley".


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The filmmakers were Roger Patterson (1933–1972) and Robert "Bob" Gimlin (born 1931). Patterson died of cancer in 1972 and "maintained right to the end that the creature on the film was real". Patterson's friend, Gimlin, has always denied being involved in any part of a hoax with Patterson. Gimlin mostly avoided publicly discussing the subject from at least the early 1970s until about 2005 (except for three appearances), when he began giving interviews and appearing at Bigfoot conferences.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The film is long (preceded by of "horseback" footage), has 954 frames, and runs for 59.5 seconds at 16 frames per second. If the film was shot at 18 fps, as Grover Krantz believed, the event lasted 53 seconds. The date was October 20, 1967, according to the filmmakers, although some critics believe it was shot earlier.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Patterson said he became interested in Bigfoot after reading an article about the creature by Ivan T. Sanderson in "True" magazine in December 1959. In 1961 Sanderson published his encyclopedic "Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life," a worldwide survey of accounts of Bigfoot-type creatures, including recent track finds, etc. in the Bluff Creek area, which heightened his interest. Thereafter, Marian Place wrote:


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Patterson's book, "Do Abominable Snowmen of America Really Exist?", was self-published in 1966. The book has been characterized as "little more than a collection of newspaper clippings laced together with Patterson's circus-poster style prose". The book, however, contains 20 pages of previously unpublished interviews and letters, 17 drawings by Patterson of the encounters described in the text, 5 hand-drawn maps (rare in subsequent Bigfoot books), and almost 20 photos and illustrations from others. It was first reprinted in 1996 by Chris Murphy, and then again re-issued by Murphy in 2005 under the title "The Bigfoot Film Controversy," with 81 pages of additional material by Murphy.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: In May/June 1967 Patterson began filming a docudrama or pseudo-documentary about cowboys being led by an old miner and a wise Indian tracker on a hunt for Bigfoot. The storyline called for Patterson, his Indian guide (Gimlin in a wig), and the cowboys to recall in flashbacks the stories of Fred Beck (of the 1924 Ape Canyon incident) and others as they tracked the beast on horseback. For actors and cameraman, Patterson used at least nine volunteer acquaintances, including Gimlin and Bob Heironimus, for three days of shooting, perhaps over the Memorial Day weekend. Patterson would have needed a costume to represent Bigfoot, if the time came to shoot such climactic scenes.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Merritt soon moved back to Yakima and became Patterson's neighbor, and later his collaborator on his Bigfoot documentary.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Both Patterson and Gimlin had been rodeo riders and amateur boxers—and local champions in their weight classes. Patterson had played high school football.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: In October 1967, Patterson and his friend Gimlin set out for the Six Rivers National Forest in far Northern California. They drove in Gimlin's truck, carrying his provisions and three horses, positioned sideways. Patterson chose the area because of intermittent reports of the creatures in the past, and of their enormous footprints since 1958. (His familiarity with the area and its residents from prior visits may also have been a factor.)


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The most recent of these reports was the nearby Blue Creek Mountain track find, which was investigated by journalist John Green, Bigfoot hunter René Dahinden, and archaeologist Don Abbott on and after August 28, 1967. This find was reported to Patterson (via his wife) soon thereafter by Al Hodgson, owner of the Willow Creek Variety Store.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Though Gimlin says he doubted the existence of Sasquatch-like creatures, he agreed to Patterson's insistence that they should not attempt to shoot one.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: As their stories went, in the early afternoon of Friday, October 20, 1967, Patterson and Gimlin were riding generally northeast (upstream) on horseback along the east bank of Bluff Creek. At sometime between 1:15 and 1:40p.m., they "came to an overturned tree with a large root system at a turn in the creek, almost as high as a room".


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: When they rounded it, "there was a logjam—a 'crow's nest'—left over from the flood of '64," and then they spotted the figure behind it nearly simultaneously. It was either "crouching beside the creek to their left" or "standing" there, on the opposite bank. Gimlin later described himself as in a mild state of shock after first seeing the figure.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Patterson initially estimated its height at to , and later raised his estimate to about . Some later analysts, anthropologist Grover Krantz among them, have suggested Patterson's later estimate was about too tall. Gimlin's estimate was .


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The film shows what Patterson and Gimlin claimed was a large, hairy, bipedal, apelike figure with short, "silvery brown" or "dark reddish-brown" or "black" hair covering most of its body, including its prominent breasts. The figure in the film generally matches the descriptions of Bigfoot offered by others who claim to have seen one.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Patterson estimated he was about away from the creature at his closest. Patterson said that his horse reared upon sensing the figure, and he spent about 20 seconds extricating himself from the saddle, controlling his horse, getting around to its other side, and getting his camera from a saddlebag before he could run toward the figure while operating his camera. He yelled "Cover me" to Gimlin, "meaning to get the gun out". Gimlin crossed the creek on horseback after Patterson had run well beyond it, riding on a path somewhat to the left of Patterson's and somewhat beyond his position. Perez estimates he came within of "Patty". Then, rifle in hand, he dismounted, but did not point his rifle at the creature.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The figure had walked away from them to a distance of about before Patterson began to run after it. The resulting film (about 59.5 seconds long at 16 fps) is initially quite shaky until Patterson got about from the figure. At that point, the figure glanced over its right shoulder at the men and Patterson fell to his knees; on Krantz's map this corresponds to frame 264. To researcher John Green, Patterson would later characterize the creature's expression as one of "contempt and disgust ... you know how it is when the umpire tells you 'one more word and you're out of the game.' That's the way it felt."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Shortly after this point the steady, middle portion of the film begins, containing the famous look-back frame 352. Patterson said, "it turned a total of I think three times," the other times therefore being before the filming began and/or while he was running with his finger off the trigger. Shortly after glancing over its shoulder on film, the creature disappeared behind a grove of trees for 14 seconds, then reappeared in the film's final 15 seconds after Patterson moved to a better vantage point, fading into the trees again and being lost to view at a distance of as the reel of film ran out.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Gimlin remounted and followed it on horseback, keeping his distance, until it disappeared around a bend in the road away. Patterson called him back at that point, feeling vulnerable on foot without a rifle, because he feared the creature's mate might approach. The entire encounter had lasted less than two minutes.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Next, Gimlin and Patterson rounded up Patterson's horses, which had run off in the opposite direction, downstream, before the filming began. Patterson got his second roll of film from his saddlebag and filmed the tracks. Then the men tracked "Patty" for either or , but "lost it in the heavy undergrowth". They went to their campsite south, picked up plaster, returned to the initial site, measured the creature's step-length, and made two plaster casts, one each of the best-quality right and left prints.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: According to Patterson and Gimlin, they were the only witnesses to their brief encounter with what they claimed was a sasquatch. Their statements agree in general, but author Greg Long notes a number of inconsistencies. They offered somewhat different sequences in describing how they and the horses reacted upon seeing the creature. Patterson in particular increased his estimates of the creature's size in subsequent retellings of the encounter. In a different context, Long argues, these discrepancies would probably be considered minor, but given the extraordinary claims made by Patterson and Gimlin, any apparent disagreements in perception or memory are worth noting.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The film's defenders have responded by saying that commercially motivated hoaxers would have "got their stories straight" beforehand so they wouldn't have disagreed immediately upon being interviewed, and on so many points, and so they wouldn't have created a suit and a creature with foreseeably objectionable features and behaviors.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: A more serious objection concerns the film's "timeline". This is important because Kodachrome II movie film, as far as is known, could only be developed by a lab containing a $60,000+ machine, and the few West Coast labs known to possess one did not do developing over weekends. Patterson's brother-in-law Al DeAtley claims not to remember where he took the film for development or where he picked it up.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Critics claim that too much happened between the filming (at 1:15 at the earliest) and the filmmakers' arrival in Willow Creek (at 6:30 at the latest). Daegling wrote, "All of the problems with the timeline disappear if the film is shot a few days or hours beforehand. If that is the case, one has to wonder what other details of this story are wrong." The film's defenders retort that although the time window was tight, it was do-able.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Chris Murphy wrote, "I have confirmed with Bob Gimlin that Patterson definitely rode a small quarter horse (which he owned), not his Welsh pony 'Peanuts'. Also, that Patterson had arranged to borrow a horse by the name of 'Chico' from Bob Heironimus for Gimlin to use ... Gimlin did not have a horse that was suitable (old enough) for the expedition." Heironimus stated that Chico (a middle-aged gelding) "wouldn't jump or buck ..."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: At approximately 6:30p.m., Patterson and Gimlin met up with Al Hodgson at his variety store in Willow Creek, approximately south by road, about by Bluff Creek Road from their camp to the 1967 roadhead by Bluff Creek, and down California State Route 96 to Willow Creek. Patterson intended to drive on to Eureka to ship his film. Either at that time, or when he arrived in the Eureka/Arcata area, he called Al DeAtley (his brother-in-law in Yakima) and told him to expect the film he was shipping. He requested Hodgson to call Donald Abbott, whom Grover Krantz described as "the only scientist of any stature to have demonstrated any serious interest in the [Bigfoot] subject," hoping he would help them search for the creature by bringing a tracking dog. Hodgson called, but Abbott declined. Krantz argued that this call the same day of the encounter is evidence against a hoax, at least on Patterson's part.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: After shipping the film, they headed back toward their camp, where they had left their horses. On their way they "stopped at the Lower Trinity Ranger Station, as planned, arriving about 9:00p.m. Here they met with Syl McCoy [another friend] and Al Hodgson." At this point Patterson called the daily "Times-Standard" newspaper in Eureka and related his story. They arrived back at their campsite at about midnight. At either 5 or 5:30 the next morning, after it started to rain heavily, Gimlin returned to the filmsite from the camp and covered the other prints with bark to protect them. The cardboard boxes he had been given by Al Hodgson for this purpose and had left outside were so soggy they were useless, so he left them.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: When he returned to the camp he and Patterson aborted their plan to remain looking for more evidence and departed for home, fearing the rain would wash out their exit. After attempting to go out along "the low road"—Bluff Creek Road—and finding it blocked by a mudslide, they went instead up the steep Onion Mountain Road, off whose shoulder their truck slipped; extracting it required the (unauthorized) borrowing of a nearby front-end loader. The drive home from their campsite covered about , the initial on a low-speed logging road, and then about on twisty Route 96. Driving a truck with three horses, and allowing for occasional stops, it would have taken 13 hours to get home Saturday evening, at an average speed of ; it would have taken 14.5 hours at a average speed.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: US Forest Service "Timber Management Assistant" Lyle Laverty said, "I [and his team of three, in a Jeep] passed the site on either Thursday the 19th or Friday the 20th" and noticed no tracks. After reading the news of Patterson's encounter on their weekend break, Laverty and his team returned to the site on Monday, the 23rd, and made six photos of the tracks. (Laverty later served as an Assistant Secretary of the Interior under George W. Bush.) Taxidermist and outdoorsman Robert Titmus went to the site with his sister and brother-in-law nine days later. Titmus made plaster casts of ten successive prints of the creature and, as best he could, plotted Patterson's and the creature's movements on a map.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Grover Krantz writes that "Patterson had the film developed as soon as possible. At first he thought he had brought in proof of Bigfoot's existence and really expected the scientists to accept it. But only a few scientists were willing to even look at the film," usually at showings at scientific organizations. These were usually arranged at the behest of zoologist, author, and media figure Ivan Sanderson, a supporter of Patterson's film. Seven showings occurred, in Vancouver, Manhattan, The Bronx, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. again (all by the end of 1968); then, later, in Beaverton, Oregon. Of those who were quoted, most expressed various reservations, although some were willing to say they were intrigued by it.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Christopher Murphy wrote, "Dahinden traveled to Europe [with the film] in 1971. He visited England, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Russia. Although scientists in these countries were somewhat more open-minded than those in North America, their findings were basically the same . ... A real glimmer of hope, however, emerged [in Russia, where he met Bayanov, Bourtsev, and their associates]."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Though there was little scientific interest in the film, Patterson was still able to capitalize on it. He made a deal with the BBC, allowing the use of his footage in a docudrama made in return for letting him tour with their docudrama, into which he melded material from his own documentary and additional material he and Al DeAtley filmed. This film was shown in local movie houses around the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. A technique commonly used for nature films called "four-walling" was employed, involving heavy local advertising, mostly on TV, of a few days of showings. It was a modest financial success. Al DeAtley estimated that his 50% of the film's profits amounted to $75,000.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The film generated a fair amount of national publicity. Patterson appeared on a few popular TV talk shows to promote the film and belief in Bigfoot by showing excerpts from it: for instance, on the "Joe Pyne Show" in Los Angeles, in 1967, which covered most of the western US; on Merv Griffin's program, with Krantz offering his analysis of the film; on Joey Bishop's talk show, and also on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". Articles on the film appeared in "Argosy", "National Wildlife Magazine", and "Reader's Digest".


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: One radio interview, with Gimlin, by Vancouver-based Jack Webster in November 1967, was partly recorded by John Green and reprinted in Loren Coleman's "Bigfoot!" Patterson also appeared on broadcast interviews on local stations near where his film would be shown during his four-walling tour in 1968.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Patterson subsequently sold overlapping distribution rights for the film to several parties, which resulted in costly legal entanglements.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: After Patterson's death, Michael McLeod wrote, "With the consent of Al DeAtley and Patricia Patterson, the film distributor Ron Olson took over the operation of Northwest Research ... and changed its name to the North American Wildlife Research Association. ... He worked full-time compiling reports, soliciting volunteers to join the hunt, and organizing several small expeditions. A Bigfoot trap Olson and his crew built still survives. ... Olson ... continued to lobby the company [American National Enterprises] to produce a Bigfoot film. ... In 1974 ... ANE finally agreed. ... [It was released in 1975,] titled "Bigfoot: Man or Beast". [H]e devised a storyline involving members of a Bigfoot research party. Olson spent several years exhibiting the film around the country. He planned to make millions with the film, but says it lost money." Olson is profiled in Barbara Wasson's "Sasquatch Apparitions".


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: On November 25, 1974, CBS broadcast "Monsters! Mystery or Myth", a documentary about the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. (It was co-produced by the Smithsonian Institution, which cancelled their contract with the producer the next year). The show attracted fifty million viewers. In 1975, Sunn Classic Pictures released "Bigfoot: The Mysterious Monster" aka "The Mysterious Monsters", which remixed parts of "Monsters! Mystery or Myth" another documentary called "Land Of The Yeti", and also included footage from the Patterson–Gimlin film.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Patterson's expensive ($369) 16 mm camera had been rented on May 13 from photographer Harold Mattson at Sheppard's Camera Shop in Yakima, but he had kept it longer than the contract had stipulated, and an arrest warrant had been issued for him on October 17; he was arrested within weeks of his return from Bluff Creek. After Patterson returned the camera in working order, this charge was dismissed, in 1969.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: While Patterson sought publicity, Gimlin was conspicuous by his absence. He only briefly helped to promote the film and avoided discussing his Bigfoot encounter publicly for many subsequent years; he turned down requests for interviews. He later reported that he had avoided publicity after Patterson and promoter Al DeAtley had broken their agreement to pay him a one-third share of any profits generated by the film. Another factor was that his wife objected to publicity.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Daegling wrote, "Bigfoot advocates emphasize that Patterson remained an active Bigfoot hunter up until his death." For instance, in 1969, he hired a pair of brothers to travel around in a truck chasing down leads to Bigfoot witnesses and interviewing them. Later, in December of that year, he was one of those present in Bossburg, Washington, in the aftermath of the cripplefoot tracks found there. Krantz reports that "[a] few years after the film was made, Patterson received a letter from a man ["a US airman stationed in Thailand"] who assured him a Sasquatch was being held in a Buddhist monastery. Patterson spent most of his remaining money preparing an expedition to retrieve this creature" only to learn it was a hoax. He learned this only after having sent Dennis Jenson fruitlessly to Thailand (where he concluded that the airman was "mentally unbalanced") and then, after receiving a second untrue letter from the man, going himself to Thailand with Jenson.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: To obtain money to travel to Thailand, "Patterson called Ron, who had returned to ANE, and sold the company the theatrical rights to the clip for what Olson described as a pretty good sum of money."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Patterson died of Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1972. According to Michael McLeod, Greg Long, and Bill Munns, "A few days before Roger died, he told [Bigfoot-book author Peter] Byrne that in retrospect, ... he [wished he] would have shot the thing and brought out a body instead of a reel of film." According to Grover Krantz and Robert Pyle, years later, Patterson and Gimlin both agreed they should have tried to shoot the creature, both for financial gain and to silence naysayers.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: In 1995, almost three decades after the Patterson–Gimlin filming, Greg Long, a technical writer for a technology firm who had a hobby of investigating and writing about Northwest mysteries, started years of interviewing people who knew Patterson, some of whom described him as a liar and a conman.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Greg Long reports that a 1978 legal "settlement gave Dahinden controlling rights—51 percent of the film footage, 51 percent of video cassette rights, and 100 percent of all 952 frames of the footage. Patty Patterson had 100 percent of all TV rights and 49 percent rights in the film footage. Dahinden had ... bought out Gimlin, who himself had received nothing from Patterson; and Mason and Radford, promised part of the profits by Patterson, had nothing to show for their investment or efforts." The film will enter the public domain on January 1, 2063, when all works published in 1967 enter the public domain in the United States.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The whereabouts of the original is unknown, although there are several speculations as to what happened to it.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Bill Munns listed four other missing reels of derivative works that would be helpful to film analysts.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The second reel, showing Patterson and Gimlin making and displaying plaster casts of some footprints, was not shown in conjunction with the first reel at Al DeAtley's house, according to those who were there. Chris Murphy wrote, "I believe the screening of this roll at the University of British Columbia on October 26, 1967, was the first and last major screening." It has subsequently been lost. John Green suspects that Al DeAtley has it.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: A ten-foot strip from that reel, or from a copy of that reel, from which still images were taken by Chris Murphy, still exists, but it, too, has gone missing.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: One factor that complicates discussion of the Patterson film is that Patterson said he normally filmed at 24 frames per second, but in his haste to capture the Bigfoot on film, he did not note the camera's setting. His Cine-Kodak K-100 camera had markings on its continuously variable dial at 16, 24, 32, 48, and 64 frames per second, but no click-stops, and was capable of filming at any frame speed within this range. Grover Krantz wrote, "Patterson clearly told John Green that he found, after the filming, that the camera was set on 18 frames per second (fps). ... " It has been suggested that Patterson simply misread "16" as "18".


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The Patterson–Gimlin film has seen relatively little interest from mainstream scientists. Statements of scientists who viewed the film at a screening, or who conducted a study, are reprinted in Chris Murphy's "Bigfoot Film Journal". Typical objections include: Neither humans nor chimpanzees have hairy breasts as does the figure in the film, and Napier has noted that a sagittal crest is "only very occasionally seen, to an insignificant extent, in chimpanzees females". Critics have argued these features are evidence against authenticity. Krantz countered the latter point, saying "a sagittal crest ... is a consequence of absolute size alone."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: As anthropologist David Daegling writes, "[t]he skeptics have not felt compelled to offer much of a detailed argument against the film; the burden of proof, rightly enough, should lie with the advocates." Yet, without a detailed argument against authenticity, Daegling notes that "the film has not gone away." Similarly, Krantz argues that of the many opinions offered about the Patterson film, "[o]nly a few of these opinions are based on technical expertise and careful study of the film itself."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Regarding the quality of the film, second-generation copies or copies from TV and DVD productions are inferior to first-generation copies. Many early frames are blurry due to camera shake, and the quality of subsequent frames varies for the same reason. Stabilization of the film (e.g., by M. K. Davis) to counter the effect of camera shake has improved viewers' ability to analyze it. Regarding "graininess," Bill Munns writes, "Based on transparencies taken off the camera original, ... the PGF original is as fine grain as any color 16mm film can achieve." He adds that graininess increases as images are magnified.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Bernard Heuvelmans—a zoologist and the so-called "father of cryptozoology"—thought the creature in the Patterson film was a suited human. He objected to the film subject's hair-flow pattern as being too uniform; to the hair on the breasts as not being like a primate; to its buttocks as being insufficiently separated; and to its too-calm retreat from the pursuing men.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Prominent primate expert John Napier (one-time director of the Smithsonian's Primate Biology Program) was one of the few mainstream scientists not only to critique the Patterson–Gimlin film but also to study then-available Bigfoot evidence in a generally sympathetic manner, in his 1973 book, "Bigfoot: The Sasquatch and Yeti in Myth and Reality".


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Napier conceded the likelihood of Bigfoot as a real creature, stating, "I am convinced that Sasquatch exists." But he argued against the film being genuine: "There is little doubt that the scientific evidence taken collectively points to a hoax of some kind. The creature shown in the film does not stand up well to functional analysis." Napier gives several reasons for his and other's skepticism that are commonly raised, but apparently his main reasons are original with him. First, the length of "the footprints are totally at variance with its calculated height". Second, the footprints are of the "hourglass" type, which he is suspicious of. (In response, Barbara Wasson criticized Napier's logic at length.)


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: He adds, "I could not see the zipper; and I still can't. There I think we must leave the matter. Perhaps it was a man dressed up in a monkey-skin; if so it was a brilliantly executed hoax and the unknown perpetrator will take his place with the great hoaxers of the world. Perhaps it was the first film of a new type of hominid, quite unknown to science, in which case Roger Patterson deserves to rank with Dubois, the discoverer of "Pithecanthropus erectus", or Raymond Dart of Johannesburg, the man who introduced the world to its immediate human ancestor, "Australopithecus africanus"."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The skeptical views of Grieve and Napier are summarized favorably by Kenneth Wylie (and those of Bayanov and Donskoy negatively) in Appendix A of his 1980 book, "Bigfoot: A Personal Inquiry into a Phenomenon".


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Esteban Sarmiento is a specialist in physical anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History. He has 25 years of experience with great apes in the wild. He writes, "I did find some inconsistencies in appearance and behavior that might suggest a fake ... but nothing that conclusively shows that this is the case." His most original criticism is this: "The plantar surface of the feet is decidedly pale, but the palm of the hand seems to be dark. There is no mammal I know of in which the plantar sole differs so drastically in color from the palm." His most controversial statements are these: "The gluteals, although large, fail to show a humanlike cleft (or crack)." "Body proportions: ... In all of the above relative values, bigfoot is well within the human range and differs markedly from any living ape and from the 'australopithecine' fossils." (E.g., the IM index is in the normal human range.) And: "I estimate bigfoot's weight to be between 190 and 240 lbs[]."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: When anthropologists David J. Daegling of the University of Florida and Daniel O. Schmitt examined the film, they concluded it was impossible to conclusively determine if the subject in the film is nonhuman, and additionally argued that flaws in the studies by Krantz and others invalidated their claims. Daegling and Schmitt noted problems of uncertainties in the subject and camera positions, camera movement, poor image quality, and artifacts of the subject. They concluded: "Based on our analysis of gait and problems inherent in estimating subject dimensions, it is our opinion that it is not possible to evaluate the identity of the film subject with any confidence."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Daegling has asserted that the creature's odd walk could be replicated: "Supposed peculiarities of subject speed, stride length, and posture are all reproducible by a human being employing this type of locomotion [a "compliant gait"]."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Daegling notes that in 1967, movie and television special effects were primitive compared to the more sophisticated effects in later decades, and allows that if the Patterson film depicts a man in a suit that "it is not unreasonable to suggest that it is better than some of the tackier monster outfits that got thrown together for television at that time."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Jessica Rose and James Gamble are authors of "the definitive text on human gait", "Human Walking". They operate the Motion and Gait Analysis Lab at Stanford University. They conducted a high-tech human-replication attempt of "Patty's" gait, in cooperation with Jeff Meldrum. Rose was certain their subject had matched Patty's gait, while Gamble was not quite as sure. Meldrum was impressed and acknowledged that "some aspects" of the creature's walk had been replicated, but not all. The narrator said, "even the experts can see the gait test could not replicate all parameters of the gait." It was shown in an episode of the Discovery Channel's "Best Evidence" series.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: A computerized visual analysis of the video conducted by Cliff Crook, who once devoted rooms to sasquatch memorabilia in his home in Bothell, Washington, and Chris Murphy, a Canadian Bigfoot buff from Vancouver, British Columbia, was released in January 1999 and exposed an object which appeared to be the suit's zip-fastener. Zooming in on four magnified frames of the 16 mm footage video exposed what appeared to be tracings of a bell-shaped fastener on the creature's waist area, presumably used to hold a person's suit together. Since both Crook and Murphy were previously staunch supporters of the video's authenticity, Associated Press journalist John W. Humbell noted "Longtime enthusiasts smell a deserter."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Krantz also showed the film to Gordon Valient, a researcher for Nike shoes, who he says "made some rather useful observations about some rather unhuman movements he could see".


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: A first-season episode of "MonsterQuest" focuses on the Bigfoot phenomenon. One pair of scientists, Jurgen Konczak (Director, Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, University of Minnesota) and Esteban Sarmiento, attempts and fails to get a mime outfitted with LEDs on his joints to mimic the Patterson Bigfoot's gait. A second pair, Daris Swindler and Owen Caddy, employs digital enhancement and observes facial movements, such as moving eyelids, lips that compress like an upset chimp's, and a mouth that is lower than it appears, due to a false-lip anomaly like that of a chimp's. The episode concludes, "the new findings are intriguing but inconclusive, until a body is found."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Bill Munns, retired, was a special effects and make-up artist, cameraman, and film editor. He argues that Universal and Disney were not the most knowledgeable studios to consult with. He says that Fox, MGM, and special effects artist Stuart Freeborn in England, "who had just completed his groundbreaking ape suits for """, would have been preferable.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Munns started posting his online analysis of the film in 2009 and summarizing it in the online Munns Report. In 2013 he and Jeff Meldrum co-authored three papers in Meldrum's online magazine, "Relict Hominoid Inquiry". In 2014, Munns self-published "When Roger Met Patty", a 488-page book incorporating material from those articles that analyses the film and film subject from various perspectives.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: He argues the film depicts a non-human animal, not a man in a fur suit. He proposes a new diagnostic test of authenticity, at the armpit: natural concave skin fold vs. artificial vertical crease. Munns' analysis has been featured in an episode of the History Channel series "MonsterQuest".


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: In 2002, Philip Morris, owner of Morris Costumes (a North Carolina-based company offering costumes, props and stage products) claimed that he made a gorilla costume that was used in the Patterson film. Morris says he discussed his role in the hoax "at costume conventions, lectures, [and] magician conventions" in the 1980s, but first addressed the public at large on August 16, 2002, on Charlotte, North Carolina, radio station WBT. His story was also printed in "The Charlotte Observer". Morris claims he was reluctant to expose the hoax earlier for fear of harming his business: giving away a performer's secrets, he said, would be widely regarded as disreputable.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Morris said that he sold an ape suit to Patterson via mail order in 1967, thinking it was going to be used in what Patterson described as a "prank". (Ordinarily the gorilla suits he sold were used for a popular sideshow routine that depicted an attractive woman, supposedly from some far-flung corner of the globe, being altered by a sorcerer or scientist into a gorilla or otherwise apelike monster.) After the initial sale, Morris said that Patterson telephoned him asking how to make the "shoulders more massive" and the "arms longer". Morris says he suggested that whoever wore the suit should wear football shoulder pads and hold sticks in his hands within the suit.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: The Bigfoot researchers say that no human can walk that way in the film. Oh, yes they can! When you're wearing long clown's feet, you can't place the ball of your foot down first. You have to put your foot down flat. Otherwise, you'll stumble. Another thing, when you put on the gorilla head, you can only turn your head maybe a quarter of the way. And to look behind you, you've got to turn your head and your shoulders and your hips. Plus, the shoulder pads in the suit are in the way of the jaw. That's why the Bigfoot turns and looks the way he does in the film. He has to twist his entire upper body.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Morris' wife and business partner Amy had vouched for her husband and claims to have helped frame the suit. Morris offered no evidence apart from his own testimony to support his account, the most conspicuous shortcoming being the absence of a gorilla suit or documentation that would match the detail evidenced in the film and could have been produced in 1967.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: A re-creation of the PGF was undertaken on October 6, 2004, at "Cow Camp," near Rimrock Lake, a location west of Yakima. This was six months after the publication of Long's book and 11 months after Long had first contacted Morris. Bigfooter Daniel Perez wrote, ""National Geographic's" [producer] Noel Dockster ... noted the suit used in the re-creation ... was in no way similar to what was depicted in the P–G film."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Morris would not consent to release the video to National Geographic, the re-creation's sponsor, claiming he had not had adequate time to prepare and that the month was in the middle of his busy season. However, he has not attempted to create a suit more to his liking since that time.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Bob Heironimus claims to have been the figure depicted in the Patterson film. Heironimus says he had not previously publicly discussed his role in the hoax because he hoped to be paid eventually and was afraid of being convicted of fraud had he confessed. After speaking with his lawyer he was told that since he had not been paid for his involvement in the hoax, he could not be held accountable.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: A month after watching the December 28, 1998, Fox-television special "World's Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed?", he went public, via a January 30 press release by his lawyer, Barry Woodard, in a Yakima newspaper story. He stated, "I'm telling the truth. I'm tired after thirty-seven years." Five days later, a second newspaper story reported that his "lawyer's office has been inundated with calls from media outlets. ... 'We're just sort of waiting for the dust to settle,' he said, explaining he and his client are evaluating offers." He also said, "We anticipate that we will be telling the full story to somebody rather quickly."


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Heironimus's name was first publicly revealed, and his allegations first publicly detailed, five years later, in Greg Long's book, "The Making of Bigfoot", which includes testimony that corroborates Heironimus' claims:


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Long argues that the suit Morris says he sold to Patterson was the same suit Heironimus claims to have worn in the Patterson film. However, Long quotes Heironimus and Morris describing different ape suits in many respects. Among the notable differences are:


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Long speculates that Patterson modified the costume, but only by attaching Morris's loose hands and feet to the costume, and by replacing Morris's mask. However, there's nothing he wrote on "suit" modification. There's no evidence or testimony that Patterson changed the Morris suit to horsehide, or dyed it a darker color, or cut it in half at the waist to agree with Heironimus's description.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: Some film proponents say that Heironimus' arms are too short to match that of a Bigfoot and that he was a few inches shorter than the creature on the film (up to shorter).


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: It has also been said that Heironimus was not as bulky as the creature, but film critics claim that a suit could correct for that (and for height). However, Heironimus did not mention there being padding in the torso, either when questioned by Long about the suit or when specifically asked about padding by Rob McConnell in his 2nd "XZone" radio interview, on August 6, 2007.


title: Patterson–Gimlin film

text: After the death of Ray Wallace in 2002, following a request by Loren Coleman to "The Seattle Times" reporter Bob Young to investigate, the family of Wallace went public with claims that he had started the Bigfoot phenomenon with fake footprints (made from a wooden foot-shaped cutout) left in Californian sites in 1958.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: Thomas and Jackie Hawks were a couple from Prescott, Arizona, United States, who were murdered in 2004.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: In April 2009, Skylar Julius Deleon and Jennifer Henderson were convicted of charges relating to their murders. Deleon was sentenced to death while Henderson was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole. Two other people, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Alonso Machain, were convicted separately of the killings. Kennedy was sentenced to death, and Machain accepted a plea bargain after testifying for the prosecution in the trials of Deleon, Henderson, and Kennedy. He was sentenced to 20 years and four months in prison.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: Thomas Hawks was a retired probation officer and bodybuilder. He and his second wife Jackie owned a 55-foot yacht, the "Well Deserved", which they treated as their permanent home and on which they sailed for two years around the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California. In 2004, they decided to sell their yacht and set up a home in Newport Harbor to be closer to their grandchild. Jackie (née O'Neill) Hawks had helped raise Tom's sons from his first marriage since adolescence. When the wife of Hawks' older son was expecting their first child, Jackie treated the news as if it would be her natural grandchild.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: Their advertisement for the yacht sale was answered in November by Skylar Deleon. The couple was initially cautious of Deleon, but they became more receptive when Deleon's then-pregnant wife Jennifer and their other child came to the meeting. The Hawks were last seen alive on the morning of November 15, 2004, heading out of the harbor. The yacht returned, but they did not. Neither body has ever been recovered.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: Skylar Preciosa Deleon (born John Julius Jacobson Jr. a.k.a. Skylar Julius Deleon) is a convicted murderer of three people. Deleon claimed that she was a child actor who appeared in commercials and also claimed that at 14, she appeared in the series "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" as an uncredited extra in the episode "Second Chance". However, casting sheets for that episode show no extras named "John Jacobson" (or with any similar name) as having appeared on the show.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: At 20, Jacobson joined the United States Marine Corps, but deserted after 15 days ("went on Unauthorized Absence (UA)"). She was later given an other than honorable discharge.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: Police inquired into the couple's disappearance. On November 26, 2004, an attempt was made to access the Hawks' bank account from Mexico. The family was notified and filed a missing-persons report with the Carlsbad, California police department.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: On November 29, the police interviewed Skylar Deleon. She told them that she bought the boat from the Hawkses and showed them proof-of-purchase documents. She told police that the Hawkses left in their car with their money and named Alonso Machain as a witness to the purchase. Deleon claimed to have purchased the boat with the intent of laundering money related to an armed burglary in 2002 for which she had been convicted.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: In March 2005, after initially fleeing to Mexico and returning, Machain confessed to the crime. He was arrested in connection with the couple's disappearance along with Deleon and Deleon's wife, Jennifer. Skylar Deleon initially maintained innocence, claiming they were not present at the time and speculated that the Hawkses were killed over a bad drug deal.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: Authorities alleged that during a sea trial of the boat in Newport Beach Harbor a few days after meeting the Hawkses, Deleon and accomplices Machain and Kennedy, bound and gagged the couple and threw them overboard, tied to the yacht's anchor. Deleon allegedly masterminded the plan to kill the couple for financial gain and enlisted Machain to help.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: Deleon's then-wife, Jennifer ( Henderson), was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder on November 17, 2006, after four hours of jury deliberation. In October 2007, Henderson was sentenced to two life terms without parole. She is currently housed at Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: While awaiting trial in jail, Skylar Deleon was charged with soliciting another inmate to murder her cousin and father. Deleon was also accused of killing John Jarvi, a resident of Anaheim, California, who was found dead in Mexico in 2003. Deleon's father and cousin (who was charged as an accessory to the Jarvi murder) are considered "important witnesses" in both murder cases. On March 13, 2008, Deleon, who had been born male, partially severed her penis with a razor blade while being held in jail. After receiving medical attention, she was returned to jail the following day. In an interview with ABC's "20/20", Deleon indicated that she attempted to cut off her penis because she wanted to be a woman. Defense lawyers claimed that Deleon's need for money to finance sex reassignment surgery was the motivation for the Hawks' murders. In 2019, Deleon's gender was legally changed to female and Deleon's name is now Skylar Preciosa Deleon.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: On September 22, 2008, jury selection began in the case against Deleon. In a consolidated case, Deleon was jointly tried for the murders of Thomas and Jackie Hawks and John Jarvi. Despite Deleon's earlier protestations of innocence, once the trial began, Deleon's attorney conceded that Deleon had indeed committed all three murders. The attorney said she had taken the case to trial only to argue to a jury that Deleon should not be sentenced to death. On October 20, Deleon was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for financial gain and multiple victims and on November 6, 2008, the jury rendered a death verdict. Sentencing was originally scheduled for January 16, 2009, but was then rescheduled to March 20 on request by Deleon's attorney. On March 13, it was announced that sentencing would again be rescheduled, to April 10, so that the families of the victims could attend. On April 10, 2009, Deleon was sentenced to death by Orange County Superior Court Judge Frank Fasel. She is on death row at San Quentin State Prison.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: On February 19, 2009, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was found guilty on two counts of first degree murder after fewer than three hours of jury deliberation. He was sentenced to death on May 1, 2009. Like Deleon, Kennedy is on death row at San Quentin State Prison.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: Alonso Machain, after testifying against Deleon, Henderson, and Kennedy, pleaded guilty to two counts each of voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping, and robbery. On June 15, 2009, he was sentenced to 20 years and 4 months. He was first eligible for parole in September 2021. He is currently serving his sentence at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California.


title: Murder of Thomas and Jackie Hawks

text: In March 2009, after spending four years incarcerated, Myron Gardner pleaded guilty to "accessory after the fact" and the murder charges against him were dropped.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: In classical mechanics, a harmonic oscillator is a system that, when displaced from its equilibrium position, experiences a restoring force "F" proportional to the displacement "x":


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: If "F" is the only force acting on the system, the system is called a simple harmonic oscillator, and it undergoes simple harmonic motion: sinusoidal oscillations about the equilibrium point, with a constant amplitude and a constant frequency (which does not depend on the amplitude).


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: If a frictional force (damping) proportional to the velocity is also present, the harmonic oscillator is described as a damped oscillator. Depending on the friction coefficient, the system can:


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The boundary solution between an underdamped oscillator and an overdamped oscillator occurs at a particular value of the friction coefficient and is called critically damped.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: If an external time-dependent force is present, the harmonic oscillator is described as a "driven oscillator".


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Mechanical examples include pendulums (with small angles of displacement), masses connected to springs, and acoustical systems. Other analogous systems include electrical harmonic oscillators such as RLC circuits. The harmonic oscillator model is very important in physics, because any mass subject to a force in stable equilibrium acts as a harmonic oscillator for small vibrations. Harmonic oscillators occur widely in nature and are exploited in many manmade devices, such as clocks and radio circuits. They are the source of virtually all sinusoidal vibrations and waves.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: A simple harmonic oscillator is an oscillator that is neither driven nor damped. It consists of a mass "m", which experiences a single force "F", which pulls the mass in the direction of the point and depends only on the position "x" of the mass and a constant "k". Balance of forces (Newton's second law) for the system is


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The motion is periodic, repeating itself in a sinusoidal fashion with constant amplitude "A". In addition to its amplitude, the motion of a simple harmonic oscillator is characterized by its period formula_5, the time for a single oscillation or its frequency formula_6, the number of cycles per unit time. The position at a given time "t" also depends on the phase "φ", which determines the starting point on the sine wave. The period and frequency are determined by the size of the mass "m" and the force constant "k", while the amplitude and phase are determined by the starting position and velocity.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The velocity and acceleration of a simple harmonic oscillator oscillate with the same frequency as the position, but with shifted phases. The velocity is maximal for zero displacement, while the acceleration is in the direction opposite to the displacement.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: In real oscillators, friction, or damping, slows the motion of the system. Due to frictional force, the velocity decreases in proportion to the acting frictional force. While in a simple undriven harmonic oscillator the only force acting on the mass is the restoring force, in a damped harmonic oscillator there is in addition a frictional force which is always in a direction to oppose the motion. In many vibrating systems the frictional force "F" can be modeled as being proportional to the velocity "v" of the object: , where "c" is called the "viscous damping coefficient".


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The value of the damping ratio "ζ" critically determines the behavior of the system. A damped harmonic oscillator can be:


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Driven harmonic oscillators are damped oscillators further affected by an externally applied force "F"("t").


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: This equation can be solved exactly for any driving force, using the solutions "z"("t") that satisfy the unforced equation


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: in the case where . The amplitude "A" and phase "φ" determine the behavior needed to match the initial conditions.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The time an oscillator needs to adapt to changed external conditions is of the order . In physics, the adaptation is called relaxation, and "τ" is called the relaxation time.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: In electrical engineering, a multiple of "τ" is called the "settling time", i.e. the time necessary to ensure the signal is within a fixed departure from final value, typically within 10%. The term "overshoot" refers to the extent the response maximum exceeds final value, and "undershoot" refers to the extent the response falls below final value for times following the response maximum.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: where formula_24 is the driving amplitude, and formula_25 is the driving frequency for a sinusoidal driving mechanism. This type of system appears in AC-driven RLC circuits (resistor–inductor–capacitor) and driven spring systems having internal mechanical resistance or external air resistance.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The general solution is a sum of a transient solution that depends on initial conditions, and a steady state that is independent of initial conditions and depends only on the driving amplitude formula_24, driving frequency formula_25, undamped angular frequency formula_28, and the damping ratio formula_29.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The steady-state solution is proportional to the driving force with an induced phase change formula_30:


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: is the phase of the oscillation relative to the driving force. The phase value is usually taken to be between −180° and 0 (that is, it represents a phase lag, for both positive and negative values of the arctan argument).


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: For a particular driving frequency called the resonance, or resonant frequency formula_34, the amplitude (for a given formula_24) is maximal. This resonance effect only occurs when formula_36, i.e. for significantly underdamped systems. For strongly underdamped systems the value of the amplitude can become quite large near the resonant frequency.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The transient solutions are the same as the unforced (formula_37) damped harmonic oscillator and represent the systems response to other events that occurred previously. The transient solutions typically die out rapidly enough that they can be ignored.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: A parametric oscillator is a driven harmonic oscillator in which the drive energy is provided by varying the parameters of the oscillator, such as the damping or restoring force.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: A person on a moving swing can increase the amplitude of the swing's oscillations without any external drive force (pushes) being applied, by changing the moment of inertia of the swing by rocking back and forth ("pumping") or alternately standing and squatting, in rhythm with the swing's oscillations. The varying of the parameters drives the system. Examples of parameters that may be varied are its resonance frequency formula_25 and damping formula_39.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Parametric oscillators are used in many applications. The classical varactor parametric oscillator oscillates when the diode's capacitance is varied periodically. The circuit that varies the diode's capacitance is called the "pump" or "driver". In microwave electronics, waveguide/YAG based parametric oscillators operate in the same fashion. The designer varies a parameter periodically to induce oscillations.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Parametric oscillators have been developed as low-noise amplifiers, especially in the radio and microwave frequency range. Thermal noise is minimal, since a reactance (not a resistance) is varied. Another common use is frequency conversion, e.g., conversion from audio to radio frequencies. For example, the Optical parametric oscillator converts an input laser wave into two output waves of lower frequency (formula_40).


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Parametric resonance occurs in a mechanical system when a system is parametrically excited and oscillates at one of its resonant frequencies. Parametric excitation differs from forcing, since the action appears as a time varying modification on a system parameter. This effect is different from regular resonance because it exhibits the instability phenomenon.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: is known as the universal oscillator equation, since all second-order linear oscillatory systems can be reduced to this form. This is done through nondimensionalization.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The solution to this differential equation contains two parts: the "transient" and the "steady-state".


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The solution based on solving the ordinary differential equation is for arbitrary constants "c" and "c"


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Apply the "complex variables method" by solving the auxiliary equation below and then finding the real part of its solution:


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Compare this result with the theory section on resonance, as well as the "magnitude part" of the RLC circuit. This amplitude function is particularly important in the analysis and understanding of the frequency response of second-order systems.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: This phase function is particularly important in the analysis and understanding of the frequency response of second-order systems.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The solution of original universal oscillator equation is a superposition (sum) of the transient and steady-state solutions:


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: For a more complete description of how to solve the above equation, see linear ODEs with constant coefficients.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Harmonic oscillators occurring in a number of areas of engineering are equivalent in the sense that their mathematical models are identical (see universal oscillator equation above). Below is a table showing analogous quantities in four harmonic oscillator systems in mechanics and electronics. If analogous parameters on the same line in the table are given numerically equal values, the behavior of the oscillatorstheir output waveform, resonant frequency, damping factor, etc.are the same.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The problem of the simple harmonic oscillator occurs frequently in physics, because a mass at equilibrium under the influence of any conservative force, in the limit of small motions, behaves as a simple harmonic oscillator.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: A conservative force is one that is associated with a potential energy. The potential-energy function of a harmonic oscillator is


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Given an arbitrary potential-energy function formula_56, one can do a Taylor expansion in terms of formula_57 around an energy minimum (formula_58) to model the behavior of small perturbations from equilibrium.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Because formula_60 is a minimum, the first derivative evaluated at formula_61 must be zero, so the linear term drops out:


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: The constant term is arbitrary and thus may be dropped, and a coordinate transformation allows the form of the simple harmonic oscillator to be retrieved:


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Thus, given an arbitrary potential-energy function formula_56 with a non-vanishing second derivative, one can use the solution to the simple harmonic oscillator to provide an approximate solution for small perturbations around the equilibrium point.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Assuming no damping, the differential equation governing a simple pendulum of length formula_65, where formula_66 is the local acceleration of gravity, is


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: If the maximal displacement of the pendulum is small, we can use the approximation formula_68 and instead consider the equation


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: where formula_76 is the largest angle attained by the pendulum (that is, formula_76 is the amplitude of the pendulum). The period, the time for one complete oscillation, is given by the expression


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: which is a good approximation of the actual period when formula_76 is small. Notice that in this approximation the period formula_80 is independent of the amplitude formula_76. In the above equation, formula_25 represents the angular frequency.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: When a spring is stretched or compressed by a mass, the spring develops a restoring force. Hooke's law gives the relationship of the force exerted by the spring when the spring is compressed or stretched a certain length:


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: where "F" is the force, "k" is the spring constant, and "x" is the displacement of the mass with respect to the equilibrium position. The minus sign in the equation indicates that the force exerted by the spring always acts in a direction that is opposite to the displacement (i.e. the force always acts towards the zero position), and so prevents the mass from flying off to infinity.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: By using either force balance or an energy method, it can be readily shown that the motion of this system is given by the following differential equation:


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: If the initial displacement is "A", and there is no initial velocity, the solution of this equation is given by


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: Given an ideal massless spring, formula_86 is the mass on the end of the spring. If the spring itself has mass, its effective mass must be included in formula_86.


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: In terms of energy, all systems have two types of energy: potential energy and kinetic energy. When a spring is stretched or compressed, it stores elastic potential energy, which is then transferred into kinetic energy. The potential energy within a spring is determined by the equation formula_88


title: Harmonic oscillator

text: When the spring is stretched or compressed, kinetic energy of the mass gets converted into potential energy of the spring. By conservation of energy, assuming the datum is defined at the equilibrium position, when the spring reaches its maximal potential energy, the kinetic energy of the mass is zero. When the spring is released, it tries to return to equilibrium, and all its potential energy converts to kinetic energy of the mass.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country. It allows diplomats safe passage and freedom of travel in a host country and accords almost total protection from local lawsuits and prosecution.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Diplomatic immunity is one of the oldest and most widespread practices in international relations; most civilizations since antiquity have granted some degree of special status to foreign envoys and messengers. It is designed to facilitate relations between states by allowing their respective representatives to conduct their duties freely and safely, even during periods of political tension and armed conflict. Moreover, such protections are generally understood to be reciprocal and therefore mutually beneficial.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: As a longstanding and nearly universal concept, diplomatic immunity has long been considered customary law; however, it was traditionally granted on a bilateral, "ad hoc" basis, leading varying and sometimes conflicting standards of protection. Modern practices of diplomatic immunity have largely conformed to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which formally codified the legal and political status of diplomats, and has been ratified by the vast majority of sovereign states.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Contrary to popular belief, diplomats are not entirely immune from the jurisdiction of their host country. Like most foreign persons, they may still be declared "persona non grata" and expelled. A foreign official's home country may waive immunity, typically in the event that they are involved in some manner in a serious crime unrelated their diplomatic role (as opposed to, for example, allegations of spying). However, many countries refuse to waive immunity as a matter of course, and diplomats have no authority to waive their own immunity (except perhaps in cases of defection). Alternatively, the home country may prosecute the individual on its own accord or through the insistence of the host country.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: The concept of diplomatic immunity can be found in ancient Indian epics like "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata", where messengers and diplomats were given immunity from capital punishment. In "Ramayana", when the demon king Ravana ordered the killing of Hanuman, Ravana's younger brother Vibhishana pointed out that messengers or diplomats should not be killed, as per ancient practices.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: During the evolution of international justice, many wars were considered rebellions or unlawful by one or more combatant sides. In such cases, the servants of the "criminal" sovereign were often considered accomplices and their persons violated. In other circumstances, harbingers of inconsiderable demands were killed as a declaration of war. Herodotus records that when heralds of the Persian king Xerxes demanded "earth and water" (i.e., symbols of submission) of Greek cities, the Athenians threw them into a pit and the Spartans threw them down a well for the purpose of suggesting they would find both earth and water at the bottom, these often being mentioned by the messenger as a threat of siege. However, even for Herodotus, this maltreatment of envoys is a crime. He recounts a story of divine vengeance befalling Sparta for this deed.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: A Roman envoy was urinated on as he was leaving the city of Tarentum. The oath of the envoy, "This stain will be washed away with blood!", was fulfilled during the Pyrrhic War. The arrest and ill-treatment of the envoy of Raja Raja Chola by the king of Kulasekhara dynasty (Second Cheras), which is now part of modern India, led to the naval Kandalur War in AD 994.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: The Islamic prophet Muhammad sent and received envoys and strictly forbade harming them. This practice was continued by the Rashidun caliphs who exchanged diplomats with the Ethiopians and the Byzantines. This diplomatic exchange continued during the Arab–Byzantine wars.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Classical Sharia called for hospitality to be shown towards anyone who has been granted "amān" (or right of safe passage). "Amān" was readily granted to any emissary bearing a letter or another sealed document. The duration of the "amān" was typically a year. Envoys with this right of passage were given immunity of person and property. They were exempt from taxation, as long as they didn't engage in trade.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: As diplomats by definition enter the country under safe conduct, violating them is normally viewed as a great breach of honor. Genghis Khan and the Mongols were well known for insisting on the rights of diplomats, and would often take terrifying vengeance against any state that violated these rights; at times razing entire cities in retaliation for the execution of their ambassadors. The Mongols invaded and destroyed the Khwarezmid Empire after their ambassadors were mistreated.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: The British Parliament first guaranteed diplomatic immunity to foreign ambassadors under the Diplomatic Privileges Act in 1709, after Count Andrey Matveyev, a Russian resident in London, was subjected to verbal and physical abuse by British bailiffs.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Modern diplomatic immunity evolved parallel to the development of modern diplomacy. In the 17th century, European diplomats realized that protection from prosecution was essential to doing their jobs, and a set of rules evolved guaranteeing the rights of diplomats. These were still confined to Western Europe and were closely tied to the prerogatives of nobility. Thus, an emissary to the Ottoman Empire could expect to be arrested and imprisoned upon the outbreak of hostilities between his state and the empire. The French Revolution also disrupted this system, as the revolutionary state and Napoleon imprisoned numerous diplomats who were accused of working against France. More recently, the Iran hostage crisis is universally considered a violation of diplomatic immunity. Although the hostage takers did not officially represent the state, host countries are obligated to protect diplomatic property and personnel. On the other hand, during World War II, diplomatic immunity was upheld and the embassies of the belligerents were evacuated through neutral countries.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: For the upper class of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, diplomatic immunity was an easy concept to understand. The first embassies were not permanent establishments but actual visits by high-ranking representatives, often close relatives, of the sovereign or the sovereign in person. As permanent representations evolved, usually on a treaty basis between two powers, they were frequently staffed by relatives of the sovereign or high-ranking nobles.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Warfare was a status of hostilities not between individuals but between their sovereigns, as well as the officers and officials of European governments, and armies often changed employers. Truces and ceasefires were commonplace, as was the fraternization between officers of opposing armies. If officers were taken prisoner, they usually gave their parole and were only restricted to a city away from the theatre of war. Almost always, they were given leave to carry their personal sidearms. Even during the French Revolutionary Wars, British scientists visited the French Academy. In such an atmosphere, it was easy to accept that some persons were immune to the laws. After all, they were still bound by strict requirements of honour and customs.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In the 19th century, the Congress of Vienna reasserted the rights of diplomats; they have been largely respected since then, as the European model has spread throughout the world. Currently, diplomatic relations, including diplomatic immunity, are governed internationally by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which has been ratified by almost every country in the world.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In modern times, diplomatic immunity continues to provide a means, albeit imperfect, to safeguard diplomatic personnel from any animosity that might arise between nations. As one article put it: "So why do we agree to a system in which we're dependent on a foreign country's whim before we can prosecute a criminal inside our own borders? The practical answer is: because we depend on other countries to honor our own diplomats' immunity just as scrupulously as we honor theirs."


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: During 18 April 1961 Vienna Convention, the Holy See was granted diplomatic immunity to its foreign ambassadors as well.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In the United States, the Diplomatic Relations Act of 1978 ( et seq.) follows the principles introduced by the Vienna Conventions. The United States tends to be generous when granting diplomatic immunity to visiting diplomats, because a large number of US diplomats work in host countries less protective of individual rights. If the United States were to punish a visiting diplomat without sufficient grounds, US representatives in other countries could receive harsher treatment. If a person with immunity is alleged to have committed a crime or faces a civil lawsuit, the State Department asks the home country to waive immunity of the alleged offender so that the complaint can be moved to the courts. If immunity is not waived, prosecution cannot be undertaken. However, the State Department still has the right to expel the diplomat. In many such cases, the diplomat's visas are revoked, and they and their family may be barred from returning to the United States. Crimes committed by members of a diplomat's family can also result in dismissal.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Some countries have made reservations to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, but they are minor. A number of countries limit the diplomatic immunity of persons who are citizens of the receiving country. As nations keep faith to their treaties with differing zeal, other rules may also apply, though in most cases this summary is a reasonably accurate approximation. The Convention does not cover the personnel of international organizations, whose privileges are decided upon on a case-by-case basis, usually in the treaties founding such organizations.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: The United Nations system (including its agencies, which comprise the most recognizable international bodies such as the World Bank and many others) has a relatively standardized form of limited immunities for staff traveling on UN laissez-passer; diplomatic immunity is often granted to the highest-ranking officials of these agencies. Consular officials (that do not have concurrent diplomatic accreditation) formally have a more limited form of immunity, generally limited to their official duties. Diplomatic technical and administrative staff also have more limited immunity under the Vienna Convention; for this reason, some countries may accredit a member of technical or administrative staff as an attaché.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Other categories of government officials that may travel frequently to other countries may not have diplomatic passports or diplomatic immunity, such as members of the military, high-ranking government officials, ministers, and others. For the US military, official passports can be used for work related travels only. Many countries provide non-diplomatic official passports to such personnel, and there may be different classes of such travel documents such as official passports, service passports, and others. De facto recognition of some form of immunity may be conveyed by states accepting officials traveling on such documents, or there may exist bilateral agreements to govern such cases (as in, for example, the case of military personnel conducting or observing exercises on the territory of the receiving country).


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Formally, diplomatic immunity may be limited to officials accredited to a host country, or traveling to or from their host country. In practice, many countries may effectively recognize diplomatic immunity for those traveling on diplomatic passports, with admittance to the country constituting acceptance of the diplomatic status. However, this is not universal, and diplomats have been prosecuted and jailed for crimes committed outside the country they are accredited to.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: As a result of their title, diplomats are exempt from being prosecuted by the state in open court when they are suspected to be guilty of a crime. Not only are these agents free from the criminal jurisdiction of the state, they are also immune from administrative and civil jurisdiction. This applies for most scenarios, however, there are some exceptions when the diplomatic immunity is subject to waiver.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Asadollah Asadi, an Iranian diplomat, was arrested while returning to his residence in Austria on a highway in Germany on June 10, 2018, accused of being involved in an attempted bombing at a gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (a political organisation opposing the Iranian regime). While Assadi was entitled to diplomatic immunity where applicable, it was deemed that he was not protected when he was arrested as he was on holiday (in Germany) outside the country where he was posted and hence protected.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In reality, most diplomats are representatives of nations with a tradition of professional civil service; they are expected to obey regulations governing their behaviour and suffer severe disciplinary action if they flout local laws. In many nations, a professional diplomat's career may be compromised if they (or members of their family) disobey the local authorities or cause serious embarrassment, and such cases are, at any rate, a violation of the spirit of the Vienna Conventions.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: The Vienna Convention is explicit that "without prejudice to their privileges and immunities, it is the duty of all persons enjoying such privileges and immunities to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State." Nevertheless, on some occasions, diplomatic immunity leads to some unfortunate results; protected diplomats have violated laws (including those that would be violations at home as well) of the host country and that country has been essentially limited to informing the diplomat's nation that the diplomat is no longer welcome ("persona non-grata"). Diplomatic agents are not, however, exempt from the jurisdiction of their home state, and hence prosecution may be undertaken by the sending state. For minor violations of the law, the sending state may impose administrative procedures specific to the foreign service or diplomatic mission.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Violation of the law by diplomats has included espionage, smuggling, child custody law violations, money laundering, tax evasion, making terrorist threats, slavery, preying on children over the internet for sex, and murder.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: On-duty police officer Yvonne Fletcher was murdered in London in 1984, by a person shooting from inside the Libyan embassy during a protest. The incident caused a breakdown in diplomatic relations until Libya admitted "general responsibility" in 1999. The incident became a major factor in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's decision to allow President of the United States Ronald Reagan to launch the US bombing of Libya in 1986 from American bases in the United Kingdom.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In 1987 in New York City, the Human Resources Administration placed 9-year-old Terrence Karamba in a foster home after his elementary school teachers noticed suspicious scars and injuries. He and his 7-year-old sister, who was also placed in City custody, told officials the wounds had been inflicted by their father, Floyd Karamba, an administrative attaché at the Zimbabwean Mission to the UN. No charges were filed, as Karamba had diplomatic immunity.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In February 1999 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Kazuko Shimokoji, wife of the Japanese Consul-General, showed up at the emergency department of a city hospital with two black eyes and a bruised neck. She told doctors that her husband had beaten her. When local police questioned her husband, Mr. Shimokoji said, "Yes, I punched her out and she deserved it", and described the incident as "a cultural thing and not a big deal". Although an arrest warrant was issued, Mr. Shimokoji could not be arrested due to his diplomatic immunity. However, his statement to the police was widely reported in both the local and Japanese press. The subsequent public uproar prompted the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to waive Mr. Shimokoji's immunity. Though he pleaded guilty in Canadian court, he was given an absolute discharge. Nonetheless, he was recalled to Japan where he was reassigned to office duty and had his pay cut.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In 2002, a Colombian diplomat in the United Kingdom was prosecuted for manslaughter once diplomatic immunity was waived by the Colombian government.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In November 2006 in New York City, Fred Matwanga, Kenyan diplomat to the UN, was taken into police custody by officers responding to reports that he had assaulted his son; he was released after asserting diplomat immunity.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In 2011, Turkish president Erdogan and his team started fighting with UN officials at the United Nations Headquarters. The then secretary general, Ban Ki Moon soon ran over and apologised to Erdogan.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In April 2012 in the Philippines, Erick Shcks Bairnals, a technical officer of the Panama Maritime Authority's regional office in Manila, was accused of raping a 19-year-old Filipino woman. Being an attached agency to the Panamanian Embassy in Manila, the AMP office was classified as a diplomatic entity, its officers possessing the same privileges conferred to the embassy's diplomats. Shcks was later released from detention because Shcks "enjoys protection under the 1961 Vienna Convention."


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In March 2013, the Supreme Court of India restricted Italian ambassador Daniele Mancini from leaving India for breaching an undertaking given to the apex court. Despite Italian and European Union protests regarding the restrictions as contrary to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Supreme Court of India said it would be unacceptable to argue diplomatic immunity after voluntarily submitting to the court's jurisdiction. The Italian envoy had invoked Article 32 of the Constitution of India when filing an affidavit to the Supreme Court taking responsibility for the return of the two Italian marines to India after casting their votes in the March 2012 general elections in Italy. The Indian Supreme Court opined that the Italian ambassador had waived his diplomatic immunity and could be charged for contempt. The two marines were being tried in India for the murder of two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala (see the Enrica Lexie case).


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In October 2013, Russian diplomat Dmitri Borodin was arrested in The Hague, The Netherlands, after neighbours called the police. Borodin was alleged to have been drunk and violent towards his children, aged two and four. Police were in the area because Borodin's wife had lost control over her car while also intoxicated, and had rammed four parked cars near the diplomats' house. Russia immediately demanded an apology from the Dutch government for violating Borodin's diplomatic immunity. The row came at a time of tension between Russia and the Netherlands, after the Russian security services captured a Greenpeace vessel sailing under the Dutch flag, "Arctic Sunrise", that was protesting against oil drilling in the Prirazlomnoye field.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In June 2014, the New Zealand government confirmed that Mohammed Rizalman Bin Ismail from Malaysia, aged in his 30s and employed at Malaysia's High Commission in Wellington, had invoked diplomatic immunity when faced with charges of burglary and assault with intent to rape after allegedly following a 21-year-old woman to her home. He returned to Malaysia in May 2014 with his family while the case was still in hearing. The New Zealand foreign ministry was criticized for allowing the defendant to leave the country, which was blamed on miscommunication between the foreign ministries of the two countries, as Prime Minister John Key expressed his view that "the man should have faced the charges in New Zealand". Malaysia eventually agreed to send the diplomat back to assist in investigations and he was eventually tried and sentenced to nine months' home detention in New Zealand.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In July 2017, in Jordan, two Jordanian carpenters were invited to repair furniture at an Israeli diplomatic security agent's residence near the Israeli Embassy. It is believed that the Jordanians and Israeli security agent quarreled over the ongoing tensions regarding the installations of metal detectors at entry points to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. One carpenter, a teenager of Palestinian origin reportedly tried to stab the Israeli security agent with his screwdriver, and the Israeli security agent shot and killed the Jordanian carpenter, and also shot the property landlord as well, a doctor, who happened to be there at the time. Israel refused to allow Jordanian authorities to question the agent, claiming diplomatic immunity under the Vienna convention.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In August 2017, Zimbabwe first lady, Grace Mugabe, invoked diplomatic immunity on 15 August after assault charges were laid against her by a South African model.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In 2018, Saudi American journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by Saudi officials inside the Saudi embassy in Turkey. The Turkish police were not allowed to enter the premises days after this death. Furthermore, a Saudi government vehicle with diplomatic license plates was spotted entering a park.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In August 2022, UN diplomat Charles Dickens Imene Oliha of South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed diplomatic immunity and was released from jail in New York City after raping a woman twice inside her apartment building. He subsequently returned to South Sudan, where he was suspended from his duties and is to be investigated.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In April 2021, two Pakistani diplomats in South Korea were caught shoplifting in Seoul. The Pakistani diplomats were caught stealing $1.70 chocolate and a $10 hat. The case was closed owing to their diplomatic immunity.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Diplomats and officials involved in drug smuggling have benefited from diplomatic immunity. For example, a Venezuelan general wanted in the United States on drugs charges was arrested in Aruba only to be released after the Venezuelan government protested his diplomatic immunity and threatened sanctions if Aruba did not release him.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In December 2014, Gambian diplomats were found guilty by Southwark Crown Court of London for selling tax-free tobacco from the Gambian embassy in the United Kingdom. The Crown Prosecution Service told the court that much of this was sold from the embassy without paying value-added tax and excise duty.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Diplomatic immunity from local employment and labor law has precipitated incidents in which diplomatic staff have been accused of abusing local workers, who are often hired for positions requiring local knowledge (such as an administrative assistant, press/PR officer) or for general labor. In such situations, the employees are in a legal limbo where the laws of neither the host country nor the diplomat's country are enforceable. Diplomats have ignored local laws concerning minimum wages, maximum working hours, vacation and holidays, and in some cases have imprisoned employees in their homes, deprived them of their earned wages, passports, food, and communication with the outside world, abused them physically and emotionally, and invaded their privacy. Reported incidents include the following:


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: A particular problem is the difficulty in enforcing ordinary laws, such as prohibitions on double parking. For example, the Autobahn 555 in Cologne, Germany was nicknamed the "Diplomatenrennbahn" (Diplomat's Raceway), when Bonn was the capital of West Germany, because of the numerous diplomats that used to speed through the highway under diplomatic immunity. Certain cities, for example The Hague and New York City have taken to impounding such cars rather than fining their owners. Diplomats' status does not guarantee the release of impounded cars. Diplomats' cars may not be searched or entered in the US.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: Diplomatic missions have their own regulations, but many require their staff to pay any fines due for parking violations. A 2006 economic study found that there was a significant correlation between home-country corruption (as measured by Transparency International) and unpaid parking fines: six countries had in excess of 100 violations per diplomat: Kuwait, Egypt, Chad, Sudan, Bulgaria and Mozambique. In particular, New York City, which hosts the United Nations Headquarters, regularly protests to the United States Department of State about nonpayment of parking tickets because of diplomatic status. In 2001, the city had more than 200,000 outstanding parking tickets from diplomats, totaling more than $21.3 million, of which only $160,682 had been collected; a decade later, the total cost of unpaid parking tickets was over $17 million. In 1997, then-mayor Rudy Giuliani proposed to the Clinton administration that the U.S. State Department revoke the special DPL plates for diplomats who ignore parking summonses; the State Department denied Giuliani's request.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In cities that impose a congestion charge, the decision of some diplomatic missions not to furnish payment has proved controversial. In London, embassies have amassed approximately £58 million in unpaid charges as of 2012, with the American embassy comprising approximately £6 million and the Russian, German and Japanese missions around £2 million each.


title: Diplomatic immunity

text: In January 1997, Gueorgui Makharadze, a high-ranking Georgian diplomat, caused a five-car pileup in Washington, D.C., in the United States, which killed a 16-year-old girl. Makharadze's claim of diplomatic immunity created a national outrage in the United States, particularly given Makharadze's previous record of driving offenses: In April 1996, Makharadze had been charged with speeding in Virginia, and four months later, he was detained by District of Columbia police on suspicion of drunk driving. In both prior cases, charges were dismissed based on his immunity. On the basis of the media coverage, Georgia revoked Makharadze's immunity, and he was ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter and four counts of aggravated assault.