Old Leatherman mystery could be solved: experts expose troubling probe

Old Leatherman mystery could be solved as experts expose troubling probe into America 's real-life Bigfoot and demand hidden archive is unsealed.

Schoolchildren were let out of class to greet and feed the friendly vagabond as he passed by on his 365-mile circuit of New York and Connecticut towns, which he traversed, like clockwork, once every 34 days .

According to lore, he was Jules Bourglay , the disgraced suitor of the daughter of one of France 's top leather merchants, who had brought about that family's financial ruin and fled to the US from Lyon , France .

Local researcher Dan DeLuca started to debunk the myths about him, with a study of newspaper and other records that led to his 2008 Wesleyan University Press authoritative account, The Old Leather Man.

De Luca believed the Leatherman was French Canadian , and had learned to hunt, fish and trap from his Native American grandfather.

He'd visited his grandfather in Canada until the relative's death in the early 1880s .

After that, he is thought to have walked his famous loop for the final six years of his own life.

In 2011 , researchers excavated the grave and reburied it away from Route 9 traffic so schoolkids would be safer.