Jay Cooney has posted something on his blog that seems to cinch the matter of the sibject in the Patterson-Gimlin film as being real and not a man in the suit on his blog, Bizzare Zoology:
http://bizarrezoology.blogspot.com/2013/05/incredible-evidence-toe-extension-of.html
http://bizarrezoology.blogspot.com/2013/05/incredible-evidence-toe-extension-of.html