Editor's Note: I had the opportunity of interviewing John Kraft at his home by phone in the summer of 2001. Dirk Vander Ploeg

MonsterTracker: Can you tell me John when you saw Bessie?

John: I beleive it was in 1991 in July.

MonsterTracker: Can you explain how you and your family happened to be near lake Erie?

John: Yes, my inlaws live in the Erie area and we were renting a cottage as we did every summer, right on the lake in Northeast Pennsylivania. We usually rent this cottage for one week. And on this particlular evening I had been taking some pictures of the sunset, it was above 8.30. in the evening. Around Lake Erie the sun sets later than does when were live.

I was framing the sunset with a tree branch and after I had finished my picture taking I sat down with my mother-in-law, wife and my brother-in-law and about five minutes later my wife said to me, "John, look out about 100 yards, there appears to be some men in wet suits, about 8 to 10 men swimming. And since I had a telephoto lens on my camera, because of the sunset picture taking I zoomed in on it and it wasn't men in wet suits. It was, I don't know what it was, but for lack of a better name, I call it a monster fish. I could see its head and the neck went under the water, could see the top of the body and could actually see the fotilla action of the tail. I took two pictures of it and handed the camerra to my wife so she could see closeup.

MonsterTracker: Could you describe what the head of the animal looked like?

John: It looked like a snake. You know, where the head came up out of the water. It pretty difficult to describe. It didn't have any fins. It had the head of a snake or an eel maybe.

MonsterTracker: I undertand that over the years you have had the opportunity of looking at pictures and trying to determine exactly what you saw. Right. Some prehistoric...some living.

John: Yes, but I am sorry I can not remember the latin name for it.

MonsterTracker: John, can you send me a copy of the photos for my website?

John: Yes, my secretary has them on her computer and will send you one.

MonsterTracker: Thankyou for your time and this interview.