Latest / Crime and Horror / He stood up to the government and became a LEGEND
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Today's stories are about how sometimes doing what you think
- 0:03Speaker 1: is the right thing can actually be the most dangerous
- 0:07Speaker 1: choice you can make. But before we get into today's stories,
- 0:10Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
- 0:13Speaker 1: delivered in story format, and you've come to the right place,
- 0:16Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
- 0:18Speaker 1: even four times every week. So if that's of interest
- 0:21Speaker 1: to you, the next time you're walking into a building
- 0:24Speaker 1: and the like buttons right behind you obviously following you,
- 0:27Speaker 1: make sure to turn around, make eye contact, and then
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- 0:35Speaker 1: you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's
- 0:38Speaker 1: get into today's stories. On a Saturday afternoon in February
- 1:01Speaker 1: of twenty eleven, eighteen year old Michael Peary was one
- 1:05Speaker 1: thousand feet underground, crouched inside of a dark cave in Lafayette, Georgia,
- 1:09Speaker 1: along with four of his friends. As Michael looked around,
- 1:13Speaker 1: his head lamp beam bounced off all the low hanging
- 1:15Speaker 1: rocks and underground waterfalls and deep crevices, and it all
- 1:19Speaker 1: just kind of felt like some kind of dark and
- 1:21Speaker 1: otherworldly planet down here. So this cave that they were
- 1:24Speaker 1: in was a famous cave called Ellison, and Michael and
- 1:28Speaker 1: his friends had driven over four hundred miles from their
- 1:30Speaker 1: college town in Gainesville to see it. Ellison was almost
- 1:34Speaker 1: twelve miles of tunnels and shaps and crevices, and thousands
- 1:39Speaker 1: of cavers went through it every year. It was very popular. Now.
- 1:42Speaker 1: To be clear, caving as an activity was not really
- 1:45Speaker 1: Michael's thing. He was a marketing major at the University
- 1:49Speaker 1: of Florida, and he mostly considered himself to be a
- 1:51Speaker 1: pretty quiet person and liked studying, or playing in his
- 1:55Speaker 1: school band, or volunteering with his church youth group, and
- 1:58Speaker 1: so crawling through a a tiny, pitch black, very claustrophobic
- 2:02Speaker 1: hole hundreds of feet underground was not really his first
- 2:06Speaker 1: choice for fun. But Michael was not there today for fun.
- 2:10Speaker 1: He was there because his close friend, a guy named
- 2:12Speaker 1: Grant Lochenbach, had suggested it. So he had said, Okay,
- 2:15Speaker 1: I'll go with you. Just now, Michael looked over to
- 2:18Speaker 1: where Grant was sitting with his girlfriend, whose name was Carry,
- 2:21Speaker 1: and also they were sitting with two of their other friends,
- 2:23Speaker 1: and the group of them were all looking through a
- 2:25Speaker 1: backpack and sort of taking stock of the various pieces
- 2:28Speaker 1: of gear that they had brought along with them. Now
- 2:30Speaker 1: they'd only entered Ellison just a few minutes ago, but
- 2:33Speaker 1: already the group had stopped because there was something in
- 2:36Speaker 1: this area that Grant really wanted to see. And when
- 2:39Speaker 1: Grant wanted to do something, it usually happened. Hence why
- 2:42Speaker 1: Michael capitulated and wound up in this cave because Grant
- 2:45Speaker 1: wanted him to, and so, you know, like normal, he
- 2:48Speaker 1: went along with it. So Grant he was the president
- 2:51Speaker 1: of their school's Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which Michael Carey
- 2:55Speaker 1: and the other two friends were also members of. And
- 2:58Speaker 1: when Michael had joined the fellowship, Grant had sort of
- 3:00Speaker 1: taken him under his wing and told Michael that he
- 3:03Speaker 1: had tons of potential. In fact, he said Michael had
- 3:06Speaker 1: enough potential to be the next president of the fellowship,
- 3:09Speaker 1: and this had given Michael a ton of confidence because
- 3:12Speaker 1: he really looked up to Grant. I mean a lot
- 3:14Speaker 1: of people did. Grant was just cool. He was a
- 3:17Speaker 1: few years older than Michael and was basically like a
- 3:20Speaker 1: six foot tall ball of positive energy who was always
- 3:23Speaker 1: looking for some adventure to go off and do. Grant
- 3:26Speaker 1: had been exploring caves as a hobby for the last
- 3:29Speaker 1: three years, and he was actually really the only member
- 3:31Speaker 1: of their group with any real caving experience, and it
- 3:34Speaker 1: was actually this lack of experience amongst the other people
- 3:37Speaker 1: that were with Grant, you know, including Michael, that was
- 3:40Speaker 1: the reason they were going through an easier tunnel within
- 3:43Speaker 1: Allison that was basically a straight shot through the mountain
- 3:46Speaker 1: and did not require much gear like rope or climbing equipment.
- 3:50Speaker 1: It was like very beginner But despite that, despite the
- 3:54Speaker 1: low level of difficulty of the caving route they had chosen,
- 3:57Speaker 1: they'd brought that stuff anyway, all that extra equipment because
- 4:00Speaker 1: along this easier route, at the place where they were
- 4:03Speaker 1: now stopped was the entrance to a vertical shaft that
- 4:06Speaker 1: Grant specifically wanted to climb down, even if he went alone.
- 4:10Speaker 1: This shaft was one hundred and twenty five feet deep,
- 4:13Speaker 1: so think of like a ten story building. That is
- 4:15Speaker 1: how deep this pit went. But it was actually called
- 4:18Speaker 1: the warm up pit because compared to the other deep
- 4:22Speaker 1: pits in Allison, it was nothing. Some were way deeper,
- 4:26Speaker 1: like over five hundred feet, so this was definitely not beginner,
- 4:30Speaker 1: this was an advanced thing to be doing, so Grant
- 4:32Speaker 1: was going to do it, but again it's sort of
- 4:35Speaker 1: a novice level, more advanced thing to be doing in
- 4:38Speaker 1: this cave. Now, Michael watched Grant take the backpack with
- 4:42Speaker 1: all the equipment in it over to this pit's entrance,
- 4:45Speaker 1: which was basically just a very large hole in the
- 4:47Speaker 1: ground that was over near this waterfall, and it was
- 4:50Speaker 1: only about a few feet away from Michael, and so
- 4:52Speaker 1: Michael walked over to Grant to help set him up,
- 4:54Speaker 1: which involved attaching a climbing rope to the rocks that
- 4:57Speaker 1: Grant could then use to lower himself into this with
- 5:00Speaker 1: This process is called rigging, and it took them a
- 5:03Speaker 1: while since really Michael had to wait for Grant to
- 5:05Speaker 1: instruct him on every step because Michael, again is not
- 5:08Speaker 1: an experienced caver at all. But as Michael worked with
- 5:11Speaker 1: Grant to get him all rigged up, he found himself
- 5:14Speaker 1: peering into the pitch black hole and as he looked
- 5:17Speaker 1: down into it just felt like this bottomless abyss. He
- 5:20Speaker 1: felt his stomach kind of flip. He was glad he
- 5:23Speaker 1: had not promised Grant that he would go into the
- 5:24Speaker 1: pit too, because you know, seeing it now up close
- 5:27Speaker 1: in person, I mean, this was terrifying. He did not
- 5:29Speaker 1: want to go into this thing, but Grant clearly did.
- 5:32Speaker 1: He was excited, and so Michael and Grant continued to
- 5:35Speaker 1: get Grant all set up, and then eventually, finally, when
- 5:38Speaker 1: Grant was rigged, Michael heard the sound of something pretty
- 5:41Speaker 1: heavy sliding off of a rock, and then moments later
- 5:45Speaker 1: there was this loud, echoing thud from deep inside of
- 5:49Speaker 1: this hole, the warm up pit. For a moment, Michael
- 5:52Speaker 1: was just confused. He didn't know what the sound was,
- 5:54Speaker 1: you know, maybe it was a rock falling into the pit.
- 5:57Speaker 1: But he looked over at Grant, and Grant had a
- 5:59Speaker 1: very unhappy expression, and he was looking at the ground
- 6:02Speaker 1: right next to the pit hole, and that was where
- 6:04Speaker 1: their backpack had been with all the equipment inside of it,
- 6:06Speaker 1: at least the equipment that they weren't using, and the
- 6:09Speaker 1: backpack was not there anymore. The backpack had just fallen
- 6:13Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five feet down into this pit. Now,
- 6:16Speaker 1: obviously this was not good. They did not want their
- 6:18Speaker 1: backpack in this hole, but it was actually worse than
- 6:21Speaker 1: just losing their equipment potentially, because in that bag was
- 6:25Speaker 1: their only cell phone that they had brought with them,
- 6:28Speaker 1: and it was also where they'd put all their ropes
- 6:30Speaker 1: and other climbing gear. They'd taken some stuff out, you know,
- 6:32Speaker 1: to get Grant rigged up here, but still losing this
- 6:36Speaker 1: bag felt really bad. Without its contents, they could easily
- 6:39Speaker 1: get stranded or trapped inside of this cave and they
- 6:42Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to call or text anybody. They'd be stuck.
- 6:45Speaker 1: And so Michael could actually feel himself starting to panic.
- 6:48Speaker 1: But then Grant cut in and played it cool as always,
- 6:50Speaker 1: and he said, look, it's no big deal. He would
- 6:53Speaker 1: just go down there and he would get it. I mean,
- 6:55Speaker 1: he was going into the hole anyway, and he was
- 6:57Speaker 1: rigged up after all, so he would just go down
- 6:59Speaker 1: and retrieved the bag. It would be fine. And then
- 7:02Speaker 1: before Michael or you know, Grant's scholfriend or the other
- 7:04Speaker 1: friends could say anything, Grant just you know, strapped on
- 7:08Speaker 1: his harness and a pair of ascenders, which were climbing
- 7:10Speaker 1: tools that would help him move down the rope in
- 7:12Speaker 1: a controlled way, and he began sort of positioning himself
- 7:16Speaker 1: to go down into this pit, and Michael just watched
- 7:18Speaker 1: Grant in complete awe. I mean, Grant was so confident
- 7:22Speaker 1: that he was able to basically make everybody else around
- 7:25Speaker 1: him feel calm too, And I mean Michael felt himself
- 7:27Speaker 1: calming down just watching Grant. And this was not the
- 7:30Speaker 1: only time that Grant had projected calm in the face
- 7:33Speaker 1: of danger. During Grant's freshman year, he'd casually climbed up
- 7:37Speaker 1: the exterior of one of their school's dormitories just to
- 7:40Speaker 1: see if he could do it, and he did do it.
- 7:42Speaker 1: And he also had joined the school's ROTC which is
- 7:45Speaker 1: a military reserve training program, and learned how to jump
- 7:48Speaker 1: out of planes, so he had skydived, you know, sort
- 7:50Speaker 1: of a thrill seeking activity. And so this moment in
- 7:53Speaker 1: the cave seemed like yet another example of why Grant
- 7:57Speaker 1: was really such an incredible leader, and Michael found himself
- 8:00Speaker 1: hoping that by the time he potentially took over as
- 8:03Speaker 1: president of the fellowship, that he could be just as
- 8:05Speaker 1: fearless as Grant. But for now, Michael watched as Grant
- 8:09Speaker 1: very calmly lowered himself into the hole and then disappeared
- 8:12Speaker 1: into the abyss below. And for the next few minutes
- 8:14Speaker 1: it was very quiet, and all Michael could hear was
- 8:17Speaker 1: the sound of the waterfall, So he and Carrie and
- 8:19Speaker 1: the others just sort of talked amongst themselves and waited
- 8:22Speaker 1: for Grant to call back up that he was down
- 8:24Speaker 1: there and had successfully grabbed the backpack. And finally they
- 8:27Speaker 1: did hear Grant, and he did call out from somewhere
- 8:30Speaker 1: down in the hole, but Michael couldn't really understand what
- 8:33Speaker 1: Grant was saying because the waterfall that was kind of
- 8:35Speaker 1: blasting nearby was really loud, and also Grant's voice echoed
- 8:39Speaker 1: around the cave, which made it hard to tell what
- 8:41Speaker 1: he was saying. So at this point Michael and Carry
- 8:44Speaker 1: and the others were not worried. They figured that this
- 8:46Speaker 1: was just an acoustics problem, not a safety problem. So
- 8:49Speaker 1: Michael just walked over to the edge of this pit
- 8:51Speaker 1: and kind of leaned over and just looked down, but
- 8:54Speaker 1: he couldn't see Grant. He was too far down and
- 8:56Speaker 1: it was too dark, And so Michael called out, asking
- 8:59Speaker 1: Grant to repeat himself because I couldn't understand what he
- 9:02Speaker 1: was saying, and Grant did yell back. He clearly replied
- 9:05Speaker 1: to Michael, but Michael still couldn't really make out what
- 9:08Speaker 1: he was saying. However, this time there was something really
- 9:11Speaker 1: different about the way Grant sounded. Again. Even though he
- 9:14Speaker 1: doesn't know what Grant's saying, one thing was definitely clear.
- 9:19Speaker 1: Grant no longer sounded like the calm, cool and collected,
- 9:22Speaker 1: fearless leader that he normally was. He was talking really fast,
- 9:26Speaker 1: he was repeating himself. He was saying something really really quickly,
- 9:30Speaker 1: very urgently, and even though again it wasn't clear what
- 9:33Speaker 1: it was, the tone was very clear. Grant was scared.
- 9:37Speaker 1: There was a problem. Now. Obviously, problems arise when you
- 9:46Speaker 1: are repelling into a one hundred and twenty five foot
- 9:49Speaker 1: hole underground in this cave, that problems can happen. But
- 9:53Speaker 1: for Michael and the others, when they sort of realized
- 9:55Speaker 1: that something was wrong for Grant, it was really shocking.
- 9:59Speaker 1: I mean, Grant is the guy that got other people
- 10:01Speaker 1: out of problems. He was the calm guy. Nothing rattled him,
- 10:04Speaker 1: and so just to hear him basically panicking, it was
- 10:08Speaker 1: really unsettling for those at the surface, and so Michael
- 10:11Speaker 1: and the others, I mean, they're kind of hit with
- 10:13Speaker 1: this sudden realization that one it's very unsettling to hear
- 10:17Speaker 1: Grant sounding this way. But worse two is they're not cavers.
- 10:22Speaker 1: They can't go into this pit and save Grant if
- 10:25Speaker 1: he needs saving, not only because they lacked experience, but
- 10:29Speaker 1: also all the caving, all the climbing equipment was in
- 10:32Speaker 1: that backpack that fell into the pit that's down there
- 10:35Speaker 1: with Grant, So there's no way they can realistically help
- 10:39Speaker 1: him if he is in any sort of trouble down there.
- 10:41Speaker 1: And also their one cell phone is down in that
- 10:45Speaker 1: backpack in the pit. And so unless Grant can figure
- 10:47Speaker 1: out whatever problem he's got and get back up here
- 10:49Speaker 1: on his own, Michael and the others, without even saying it,
- 10:53Speaker 1: new like they were kind of helpless. And so as
- 10:55Speaker 1: this realization is setting in for Michael and the others,
- 10:58Speaker 1: Grant goes from trying to talk to them, even though
- 11:01Speaker 1: again they can't tell what he's saying. He just sounds
- 11:03Speaker 1: sort of panicked, just straight up screaming. He's screaming for
- 11:07Speaker 1: them something is horribly wrong. And so Michael and carry
- 11:10Speaker 1: I mean, they start yelling down to Grant, trying to
- 11:13Speaker 1: get him to clarify what's going on. But you have
- 11:15Speaker 1: this waterfall that's causing all this noise and splashing everywhere.
- 11:18Speaker 1: It's dark, and Grant clearly is so panicked that he's
- 11:22Speaker 1: not even listening to them, and so it's chaos, it's madness.
- 11:26Speaker 1: And so Michael and Carry they turn to the other
- 11:28Speaker 1: two friends and they say, look, we're gonna stay here
- 11:31Speaker 1: at this hole and wait for Grant. You two leave
- 11:34Speaker 1: the cave, go get help. And so the other two
- 11:37Speaker 1: they rushed off to do just that, while Michael and
- 11:39Speaker 1: Carrey just sat there listening to Grant, getting more and
- 11:43Speaker 1: more hysterical by the second. You know, somewhere down in
- 11:45Speaker 1: this hole, they still have no idea what's wrong, but
- 11:48Speaker 1: clearly there is an emergency here. And so for a
- 11:51Speaker 1: little while after the friends have gone off, Michael and Carry,
- 11:54Speaker 1: even though they're not really talking to Grant because he's
- 11:57Speaker 1: just kind of rambling and yelling and screaming. They can't
- 11:59Speaker 1: understand them. They're just kind of shouting down into the
- 12:02Speaker 1: hole that everything's gonna be okay. We've sent to get help,
- 12:04Speaker 1: it's gonna be okay. You're gonna get out of here soon.
- 12:07Speaker 1: They have no idea if he can hear them or
- 12:08Speaker 1: understand them. I mean, they're assuming that the acoustics are
- 12:11Speaker 1: bad down there, too. Again, the sound of that waterfall
- 12:14Speaker 1: is so loud, it's so dark, and so they're just
- 12:17Speaker 1: like having this this awful moment. But then what cut
- 12:20Speaker 1: through all this chaos was at some point Michael heard
- 12:24Speaker 1: Grant say something that he really did understand. Grant, at
- 12:29Speaker 1: some point, in a very high pitched, almost screaming voice,
- 12:33Speaker 1: yelled out Michael's name like he was directly yelling to Michael,
- 12:38Speaker 1: like I need you, Michael, to help me. Now. At
- 12:41Speaker 1: this point, obviously the situation has escalated dramatically and already
- 12:45Speaker 1: like things are bad. And for Michael this felt like
- 12:48Speaker 1: a big deal. I mean, before that all the yelling
- 12:51Speaker 1: and screaming was obviously bad. But Michael, you know, he
- 12:54Speaker 1: kind of views himself as, you know, Grant's successor potentially
- 12:58Speaker 1: he's going to be the next, you know, president this fellowship,
- 13:00Speaker 1: and he looked up to Grant so much, primarily because
- 13:03Speaker 1: Grant was like this fearless leader, and so Michael sort
- 13:07Speaker 1: of felt like when he heard his name called out
- 13:08Speaker 1: that Grant was specifically sort of challenging him, like you, Michael,
- 13:12Speaker 1: I need you. Michael took on that responsibility and he
- 13:16Speaker 1: felt like I can't just sit here. I can't just wait.
- 13:19Speaker 1: Something needs to be done and I need to do it.
- 13:21Speaker 1: I need to save Grant. And so Michael he jumped
- 13:23Speaker 1: up and he grabbed the extra harness they still had
- 13:26Speaker 1: and he put it on. And as he was doing that,
- 13:28Speaker 1: he could hear carry who. You know, she's seeing what's happening,
- 13:31Speaker 1: and she's telling him, don't do it. You don't know
- 13:33Speaker 1: what you're doing. You don't know how to go down
- 13:34Speaker 1: this thing like this is dangerous or what are you doing?
- 13:37Speaker 1: Don't go And Michael he just looked at her and
- 13:39Speaker 1: he said, I have to do this. I know Grant
- 13:42Speaker 1: would do this for me. I'm doing it for him.
- 13:44Speaker 1: He needs me. I'm going down and Michael, you know,
- 13:47Speaker 1: he's listening to Carrie's still trying to tell him not
- 13:49Speaker 1: to go. But he just said to her, please pray
- 13:51Speaker 1: for me. And then he walked over and he attached
- 13:53Speaker 1: his harness to the same rope that Grant presumably was
- 13:56Speaker 1: still attached to down at the bottom, but stuck for
- 13:59Speaker 1: some reason, into the pit. He went. As soon as
- 14:02Speaker 1: Michael disappeared into this hole, Carrie knelt down beside the pit.
- 14:06Speaker 1: She put her hands together and she prayed as hard
- 14:09Speaker 1: as she could for Michael and Grant to be okay.
- 14:11Speaker 1: And after a few minutes, she heard Michael call out
- 14:14Speaker 1: from somewhere in the hole, and for some reason, she
- 14:17Speaker 1: could actually understand what Michael was saying, which was basically
- 14:21Speaker 1: that he and Grant were okay. He was with Grant,
- 14:23Speaker 1: you know, but they were just very, very cold. Really
- 14:26Speaker 1: flooded over Carrie, and as she exhaled all the tension
- 14:30Speaker 1: she'd been holding in, and as the adrenaline kind of
- 14:32Speaker 1: began to leave her body because now she's thinking everything's okay,
- 14:35Speaker 1: she also realized that she too was very cold. She
- 14:38Speaker 1: just hadn't been thinking about it. She was so fixated
- 14:40Speaker 1: on the safety of her boyfriend and also Michael. You know,
- 14:43Speaker 1: after all, she was only wearing a T shirt, and
- 14:45Speaker 1: the cave was very damp, and there's this waterfall kind
- 14:48Speaker 1: of spraying water everywhere. It was cold, it was a
- 14:50Speaker 1: damp environment, and so she's you know, her teeth are
- 14:52Speaker 1: chattering too, she's cold, and so Carrie naturally yelled down
- 14:55Speaker 1: into this hole. You know, she can't see them, of course,
- 14:57Speaker 1: she just yelling into the darkness. You know, what's going on?
- 15:00Speaker 1: What's wrong? You know, is Grant okay, But Michael just
- 15:03Speaker 1: shouted back to her I'm fine, I'm fine, but didn't
- 15:07Speaker 1: answer her question about Grant. And at this, you know,
- 15:10Speaker 1: Carrie could tell clearly there's something really wrong down there
- 15:13Speaker 1: and it probably has to do with Grant, and so
- 15:16Speaker 1: she stood up. She began pacing back and forth, you know,
- 15:18Speaker 1: her stomachs and knots, and she's periodically yelling down into
- 15:21Speaker 1: the hole to Michael, like, what's going on? Is Grant okay?
- 15:24Speaker 1: Are you okay? But Michael, all he would say back
- 15:27Speaker 1: to her is I'm fine, I'm fine. He would just
- 15:30Speaker 1: say that back to her, but his response time began
- 15:34Speaker 1: to slow down. He wasn't responding to each and every
- 15:36Speaker 1: one of her calls. He would just you know, yell
- 15:39Speaker 1: out I'm fine, I'm fine and fine. But it just
- 15:40Speaker 1: it began to become more and more spaced out as
- 15:43Speaker 1: Carrie began to ramp up her questioning, asking more and
- 15:46Speaker 1: more what's going on, until finally Michael just stopped answering altogether.
- 15:50Speaker 1: There were no more voices coming out of the hole,
- 15:53Speaker 1: and so the minutes ticked by and Carrie she continued
- 15:55Speaker 1: to pace around, yelling out to Michael and Grant but
- 15:58Speaker 1: the only reply she got was the sound of the
- 16:00Speaker 1: water from the waterfall lapping up against the cave walls.
- 16:04Speaker 1: About an hour and a half later, just before four pm,
- 16:07Speaker 1: a man named Ann Marmrza, along with two other men
- 16:10Speaker 1: ran into the Ellison Cave with a bag of climbing
- 16:13Speaker 1: equipment and medical supplies. Now there was a bigger team
- 16:16Speaker 1: of rescue workers on their way up the mountain behind them,
- 16:18Speaker 1: that had more gear and more personnel, but that group
- 16:21Speaker 1: was moving slowly because it took time to respond to
- 16:23Speaker 1: a cave accident, because typically there were a lot of
- 16:26Speaker 1: people and a lot of equipment, specialized equipment that was required,
- 16:30Speaker 1: and also usually the victims were trapped in you know,
- 16:32Speaker 1: pretty remote and difficult to access places, you know, like
- 16:35Speaker 1: tunnels and shafts deep inside of these caves. So An
- 16:38Speaker 1: Maar and his team were the initial, smaller group that
- 16:41Speaker 1: went ahead of the larger one to just kind of
- 16:43Speaker 1: get the rescue started. A few minutes after entering the cave,
- 16:46Speaker 1: and Mar saw a headlamp beam up ahead in the darkness,
- 16:49Speaker 1: kind of bobbing around, and as soon as he reached
- 16:52Speaker 1: the origin of this light, he found a young woman
- 16:55Speaker 1: who was sitting by a large hole, and she was
- 16:57Speaker 1: shaking and terrified. She explained that her name was Carrie
- 17:01Speaker 1: and that her boyfriend, whose name was Grant, along with
- 17:03Speaker 1: one of his friends whose name was Michael, were down
- 17:06Speaker 1: in this hole, and that Grant had gone in there
- 17:08Speaker 1: had been some issue, Michael had gone in after him,
- 17:12Speaker 1: and now when she called out for them, neither of
- 17:14Speaker 1: them were responding. After hearing this, and Mar directed one
- 17:17Speaker 1: of his team members to take carry and bring her
- 17:20Speaker 1: out of the cave. And then once they had left,
- 17:22Speaker 1: a Mar put on his climbing gear and as soon
- 17:24Speaker 1: as he was ready, he began to repel down into
- 17:27Speaker 1: this pit. As ann Mar repelled, he's looking straight down
- 17:30Speaker 1: into this dark shaft and at first he can't see anything,
- 17:33Speaker 1: But after a little while he began to see somewhere
- 17:36Speaker 1: down below were what appeared to be two lights towards
- 17:39Speaker 1: the bottom of this pit, which he assumed belonged to
- 17:42Speaker 1: the two men. But before he could actually reach them,
- 17:45Speaker 1: he felt something wet and freezing cold splash his cheek.
- 17:49Speaker 1: Then he saw something emerge out of the darkness right
- 17:52Speaker 1: below him. It would turn out when Grant repelled down
- 17:55Speaker 1: into this warm up pit, he had made a terrible,
- 17:58Speaker 1: terrible mistaken his rig to a section of rock that
- 18:02Speaker 1: was directly in the path of a freezing cold waterfall.
- 18:06Speaker 1: Now this alone could have been okay. You can repel
- 18:10Speaker 1: effectively through a waterfall if you're careful, except what happened
- 18:14Speaker 1: with Grant is as he was repelling literally through the water,
- 18:18Speaker 1: like the water is coming off this waterfall, it's hitting him,
- 18:21Speaker 1: he got stuck. His rope got tangled, and where he
- 18:24Speaker 1: got stuck was literally in the path of the waterfall.
- 18:28Speaker 1: So he's stuck in the cave. He can't go up,
- 18:31Speaker 1: he can't go down, and he's just getting pounded by
- 18:34Speaker 1: freezing cold water. Now, at first, what Grant likely did
- 18:38Speaker 1: is kind of flail around to try to get out
- 18:40Speaker 1: of the path of this water, but there was nowhere
- 18:42Speaker 1: to go. He's in this shaft, there's nowhere to go,
- 18:45Speaker 1: and he's just dangling there. And he began trying to
- 18:48Speaker 1: stream out for help. But that was why his words
- 18:51Speaker 1: were muffled, because the water was hitting him in the face,
- 18:53Speaker 1: so he couldn't speak clearly. And then also as he's
- 18:56Speaker 1: just dangling there very quickly, having that icy water hitting
- 19:00Speaker 1: him NonStop would have actually sent his body into shock,
- 19:04Speaker 1: and it's like he wouldn't have been able to speak
- 19:06Speaker 1: or think anymore. I mean, he was becoming hypothermic. And then,
- 19:09Speaker 1: in what was possibly one of his final moments of clarity,
- 19:12Speaker 1: he managed to belt out Michael's name and he said
- 19:15Speaker 1: it really clearly, kind of managed to get his face
- 19:18Speaker 1: out of the water for a second. And Michael, who
- 19:21Speaker 1: trusted Grant completely, when he heard his name being called,
- 19:24Speaker 1: it felt like it was his calling. He needed to
- 19:26Speaker 1: go in there and save Grant himself. And so into
- 19:29Speaker 1: the hole he went, and he hooked his rope up
- 19:31Speaker 1: into the same exact spot that Grant had and down
- 19:34Speaker 1: he went. And Michael, you know, he did an incredibly
- 19:37Speaker 1: brave thing by doing this, and it was something that
- 19:39Speaker 1: Grant very likely would have done for him too. But again,
- 19:42Speaker 1: Michael really had no idea what he was doing. He
- 19:44Speaker 1: was basically just going in blind. However, unfortunately, because he
- 19:49Speaker 1: just kind of followed Grant's lead and went down there
- 19:51Speaker 1: without a plan, well in the darkness. As he went down,
- 19:55Speaker 1: he eventually reached where Grant was, but got stuck as well,
- 19:59Speaker 1: also in the path of the waterfall. Granted, he was
- 20:03Speaker 1: not nearly as exposed to the water. As Grant was like,
- 20:05Speaker 1: his face was not getting blasted by water, so he
- 20:08Speaker 1: was able to call out and be heard by carry
- 20:11Speaker 1: but he also got tangled at the same spot, couldn't
- 20:13Speaker 1: move his bodies getting hit by this icy water, and
- 20:16Speaker 1: so even though the rescuers did eventually get down to
- 20:20Speaker 1: Michael and Grant, by the time they did it was
- 20:23Speaker 1: too late. The two men had froze to death. They
- 20:26Speaker 1: basically dangled inside of this hole, getting hit by this
- 20:29Speaker 1: water for about two hours before their bodies just shut down.
- 20:33Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, two years after both Michael and Grant
- 20:36Speaker 1: died inside of that cave, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission
- 20:39Speaker 1: gave Michael a posthumous medal for risking his life to
- 20:42Speaker 1: save Grants. On a Friday night in late March of
- 21:04Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, an eighty three year old man named Harry R.
- 21:07Speaker 1: Truman sat on his couch in his Washington State lodge
- 21:10Speaker 1: with a whiskey and coke and turned on his battery
- 21:13Speaker 1: operated radio to listen to the news, And just a
- 21:15Speaker 1: second or two later, he found himself having to jack
- 21:18Speaker 1: up the volume of the radio because he couldn't hear
- 21:21Speaker 1: it anymore. Because a couple of his cats in the
- 21:23Speaker 1: other room were fighting and yowling, and it was causing
- 21:25Speaker 1: a whole commotion. Harry had lost track of how many
- 21:27Speaker 1: cats he actually had, but it was a lot, you know,
- 21:30Speaker 1: maybe a dozen. And even though at this moment he
- 21:32Speaker 1: yelled and cursed at them and told him to knock
- 21:35Speaker 1: it off, he was actually glad they were out there
- 21:37Speaker 1: with him because he liked their company. Five years earlier,
- 21:40Speaker 1: Harry's wife, Edna, had died, and since then he had
- 21:43Speaker 1: lived alone minus all these cats, and he also didn't
- 21:46Speaker 1: have a lot of neighbors either, so for the most
- 21:48Speaker 1: part he had been fairly isolated the last few years. Also,
- 21:51Speaker 1: Spirit Lake, the lake that his lodge was on, was
- 21:54Speaker 1: four hours south of the major city of Seattle and
- 21:57Speaker 1: pretty far into the wilderness. The lake did get busy
- 22:00Speaker 1: in the summer with Taurus, but at this time in March,
- 22:02Speaker 1: there were only about sixty people that lived there and
- 22:04Speaker 1: they were very spread out. But Harry didn't really mind
- 22:07Speaker 1: the solitude. He missed Edna a lot, but he had
- 22:10Speaker 1: his cats, and he had his radio and the jaw
- 22:13Speaker 1: dropping mountain scenery and lake, and he had his whiskey
- 22:16Speaker 1: and cokes. So overall, even though he was sort of
- 22:18Speaker 1: a gruff guy, he was actually quite happy with his life.
- 22:22Speaker 1: But just then there was a loud knock on Harry's door,
- 22:25Speaker 1: and Harry was not surprised by this. I mean, yes,
- 22:28Speaker 1: he lives way out in the middle of nowhere and
- 22:29Speaker 1: he did not expect visitors, but in this case he
- 22:33Speaker 1: knew who it was, and as soon as he thought
- 22:35Speaker 1: about that, his face contorted into a scowl. He was
- 22:38Speaker 1: really annoyed. At this point in Harry's life, he really
- 22:42Speaker 1: had only one problem, and it was a major problem,
- 22:45Speaker 1: at least to him, and that was the government. And
- 22:48Speaker 1: for the last few days, government agents, like almost certainly
- 22:52Speaker 1: the ones that were knocking on his door, had been
- 22:54Speaker 1: harassing him, trying to get him to leave his lodge
- 22:57Speaker 1: in the wilderness that he loved so much, because they
- 23:00Speaker 1: needed to conduct some kind of federal operation and they
- 23:02Speaker 1: wanted everybody to clear out. Now, Harry loved his country,
- 23:05Speaker 1: and he'd even fought for it during the First World War,
- 23:08Speaker 1: but he really did not like authority and he could
- 23:11Speaker 1: not tolerate being told what to do. During Prohibition, for example,
- 23:14Speaker 1: which was a period of time in the nineteen twenties
- 23:17Speaker 1: when alcohol was illegal in America. Harry had simply ignored
- 23:21Speaker 1: the law and made his own booths like he just
- 23:23Speaker 1: didn't care. So over these last few days that these
- 23:26Speaker 1: federal agents had come to his house trying to get
- 23:28Speaker 1: him to leave, Harry had not been intimidated. He had
- 23:31Speaker 1: simply stood his ground, and he figured it was really
- 23:33Speaker 1: only a matter of time before the federal government sent
- 23:36Speaker 1: a local police officer over and hopes that Harry would
- 23:39Speaker 1: be more cooperative with somebody that he likely already knew.
- 23:42Speaker 1: But what they didn't know about Harry is that Harry
- 23:45Speaker 1: really didn't cooperate with anybody, not with the government, certainly,
- 23:49Speaker 1: not with local police, not with his own family, not
- 23:51Speaker 1: with his friends, or not with the two ex wives
- 23:54Speaker 1: he'd been with before finding Edna. He was just somebody
- 23:57Speaker 1: who who marched to the beat of his own drum. Now,
- 24:00Speaker 1: Harry did not get up to answer the knock at
- 24:02Speaker 1: his door. Instead, he just waited until the person out there,
- 24:06Speaker 1: the visitor, yelled through the door and announced who they were.
- 24:09Speaker 1: And not really to Harry's surprise, it was the local
- 24:12Speaker 1: deputy that Harry did know, you know, clearly being sent
- 24:15Speaker 1: here by the federal agents to try to get Harry
- 24:17Speaker 1: to leave, and when Harry still didn't answer the door,
- 24:20Speaker 1: when the deputy clearly had announced themselves, knowing Harry would
- 24:23Speaker 1: know who they were, when Harry still didn't get up,
- 24:26Speaker 1: didn't answer the door, the deputy finally just sort of frustrated,
- 24:29Speaker 1: called out, Harry, are you sure you don't want to
- 24:32Speaker 1: go now? Even though this deputy was being a whole
- 24:35Speaker 1: lot more amicable than the government agents had been, they
- 24:38Speaker 1: had been really forceful basically telling him you gotta leave.
- 24:41Speaker 1: The deputy here was at least kind of giving Harry
- 24:43Speaker 1: a chance to make a decision. Despite that, the question
- 24:46Speaker 1: that deputy had asked just made Harry really mad, because
- 24:50Speaker 1: leaving his house was just not something he would ever
- 24:53Speaker 1: consider doing. Harry had lived in this lodge for fifty
- 24:58Speaker 1: four years, and seven those years were spent running this
- 25:01Speaker 1: lodge as an inn as a business with his late wife, Edna,
- 25:05Speaker 1: who was the love of his life. Now he'd let
- 25:06Speaker 1: the lodge go a little after she had died, so truthfully,
- 25:09Speaker 1: it was kind of falling apart and it smelled terrible,
- 25:12Speaker 1: you know, because of all the cats. But it had
- 25:15Speaker 1: been theirs and now it was his, and he would
- 25:17Speaker 1: never give it up. And not only that, but just
- 25:20Speaker 1: outside his doorstep was Spirit Lake, which Harry believed was
- 25:23Speaker 1: the most beautiful, perfect place in the entire world. It
- 25:27Speaker 1: was quiet and serene and situated right at the base
- 25:30Speaker 1: of some of the most breathtaking mountains he had ever
- 25:33Speaker 1: seen in his whole life, and so to say Harry
- 25:35Speaker 1: loved it here was a complete understatement. His lodge and
- 25:39Speaker 1: Spirit Lake were basically his whole identity. Harry didn't know
- 25:42Speaker 1: if he believed in God, but he did believe in
- 25:44Speaker 1: the trees and the lake and the birds that screeched
- 25:47Speaker 1: at him at all hours of the day. It was
- 25:49Speaker 1: like his home. This area was his religion, and he
- 25:53Speaker 1: certainly was not about to give it up just because
- 25:55Speaker 1: some federal authority or government agent or whoever told him to. So,
- 26:00Speaker 1: all Harry said to the deputy waiting outside was a
- 26:03Speaker 1: very firm good night, which Harry was actually quite proud
- 26:07Speaker 1: of himself for because he had a really hard time
- 26:09Speaker 1: not swearing, so this seemed pretty mild. After that, Harry
- 26:13Speaker 1: waited to see if the deputy would challenge him or
- 26:16Speaker 1: say anything else, but he didn't, and moments later Harry
- 26:19Speaker 1: heard the deputy's footsteps, crunching down the gravel driveway and
- 26:22Speaker 1: heading back towards his cruiser. After that, Harry leaned back
- 26:25Speaker 1: into his couch and smiled to himself and picked up
- 26:28Speaker 1: his drink, kind of toasting himself or standing his ground,
- 26:31Speaker 1: and at the same time sort of hoping that maybe
- 26:34Speaker 1: now finally officials would understand that he was not going
- 26:38Speaker 1: to change his mind. But that's not what happened. A
- 26:41Speaker 1: little more than a week later, on the morning of
- 26:43Speaker 1: April fifth, Harry sat in a folding chair and a
- 26:46Speaker 1: clearing by his house, with his binoculars pressed to his
- 26:49Speaker 1: eyes and a glass of whiskey in the cupholder of
- 26:51Speaker 1: his chair. This was an area of the woods near
- 26:54Speaker 1: his house he called his cocktail lounge, where he'd often
- 26:57Speaker 1: go to relax with a drink. It was covered by
- 26:59Speaker 1: a a thick canopy of evergreens, but it also had
- 27:02Speaker 1: a great view of the mountains and also the lake.
- 27:04Speaker 1: But Harry was not here to relax. He was actually
- 27:07Speaker 1: on very high alert because the woods were absolutely crawling
- 27:11Speaker 1: with federal agents and local law enforcement officers. Harry could
- 27:15Speaker 1: literally see them right now through his binoculars walking around
- 27:19Speaker 1: the various camps They had set up all over the
- 27:21Speaker 1: mountain side and also near the lake, and there was
- 27:23Speaker 1: nobody to stop them, because everybody else who lived in
- 27:26Speaker 1: this forest had bowed to the pressure and left when
- 27:30Speaker 1: told to, which meant Harry was quite literally the last
- 27:34Speaker 1: resident still fighting the good fight. Now, so far, officials
- 27:38Speaker 1: had not physically attempted to force him out, But now
- 27:41Speaker 1: that Harry saw them assembling all over the mountain side,
- 27:44Speaker 1: he had to wonder how long he had before they
- 27:46Speaker 1: did try. But at the same time, he also knew
- 27:49Speaker 1: that he had one piece of very important and very
- 27:52Speaker 1: surprising leverage over the authorities, and that was that over
- 27:56Speaker 1: the past couple of days, Harry's refusal to leave his
- 27:59Speaker 1: willder his home just because the government told him to
- 28:02Speaker 1: had turned him into a media attraction. Reporters had heard
- 28:06Speaker 1: about what was going on, and they'd started coming to
- 28:08Speaker 1: his house. Now, usually, Harry just did not like the press,
- 28:13Speaker 1: you know, even though he clearly listened to the news himself,
- 28:16Speaker 1: he still thought of the press, thought of the media
- 28:18Speaker 1: like they were they were vultures, always looking for dead
- 28:21Speaker 1: meat and chaos. But Harry also really liked to talk,
- 28:25Speaker 1: and he had a lot of very strong opinions, and
- 28:28Speaker 1: now seeing his beautiful lake inundated by outsiders, Harry realized
- 28:33Speaker 1: he had to take full advantage of this, this media
- 28:36Speaker 1: interest in him if he wanted to stay in his home,
- 28:38Speaker 1: because the way he saw it was the government could
- 28:41Speaker 1: really not make him do anything against his will if
- 28:44Speaker 1: the whole world was watching. So over the next month,
- 28:47Speaker 1: Harry gave a lot of interviews and pretty quickly he
- 28:51Speaker 1: became kind of an international celebrity. He was this single
- 28:55Speaker 1: older man standing up to something way bigger and way
- 28:58Speaker 1: more powerful, which was admirable, although people didn't really understand it,
- 29:02Speaker 1: but it was still a big story. It was very interesting.
- 29:05Speaker 1: But more than that, it seemed like the public just
- 29:07Speaker 1: sort of liked Harry. In his interviews, Harry would swear
- 29:11Speaker 1: and yell and rant and rave and tell reporters about
- 29:14Speaker 1: how no authority figure would dare try to get him
- 29:16Speaker 1: out of his house.
- 29:17Speaker 2: No, I'm not gonna leave it, right, I'm not gonna leave.
- 29:21Speaker 2: I'm gonna stay here, damn right, this is my home.
- 29:24Speaker 2: It's gonna have to come and get me, and no
- 29:27Speaker 2: authority could take me out of here, No authority dare.
- 29:30Speaker 1: And he'd also talk about his life just telling these
- 29:33Speaker 1: crazy stories that had nothing to do with the wilderness,
- 29:35Speaker 1: like about the whiskey that he'd bottled and distilled during
- 29:38Speaker 1: his prohibition days, which he called pantherpy, and about his
- 29:42Speaker 1: relationship with his late wife and how they used to
- 29:44Speaker 1: dance together at the edge of the lake, or his
- 29:46Speaker 1: war stories from World War One. I mean, this guy
- 29:48Speaker 1: was just really quite fascinating. And so by the time
- 29:51Speaker 1: May rolled around that year, Harry went from being bombarded
- 29:54Speaker 1: by the government to being bombarded by the media. Today,
- 29:58Speaker 1: this would be like going crazy viral, where everybody seeing
- 30:02Speaker 1: you on their feed. But this is nineteen eighty and
- 30:04Speaker 1: so people got their news from newspapers and the television
- 30:06Speaker 1: and the radio. But those mediums were all full of Harry,
- 30:10Speaker 1: and people were kind of obsessed. Everybody from average citizens
- 30:14Speaker 1: to school kids sent Harry fan mail, and reporters and
- 30:18Speaker 1: news crews came to Harry's and droves and some even
- 30:21Speaker 1: took helicopters just to get there more quickly. And Harry,
- 30:24Speaker 1: if he was being honest, he sort of relished all
- 30:27Speaker 1: the attention. A few months earlier, he'd been happy with
- 30:30Speaker 1: his quiet life, you know, no phone, and he just
- 30:33Speaker 1: had his one thousand cats per company. But now it's
- 30:36Speaker 1: like the whole world cared about him, and it was
- 30:38Speaker 1: it was pretty cool. A few weeks later, though, everything changed.
- 30:43Speaker 1: On Sunday, May eighteenth, the sun came up on Harry's
- 30:47Speaker 1: lodge and the woods around it were totally quiet for
- 30:50Speaker 1: the first time in weeks because Harry in some ways
- 30:53Speaker 1: had won. He had kept his word, and he'd stayed
- 30:55Speaker 1: strong and refused to give in to the government's demands
- 30:59Speaker 1: to leave, and finally the government had backed down, and
- 31:02Speaker 1: the sheriff had even come by the day before to
- 31:04Speaker 1: tell Harry that, okay, you know, no one's going to
- 31:07Speaker 1: come by and ask you to leave anymore. It's on you.
- 31:09Speaker 1: And so now on May eighteenth, as Harry was getting up,
- 31:13Speaker 1: it was just him, the lake, the trees, and the
- 31:16Speaker 1: big beautiful mountain. And then at eight thirty two am
- 31:20Speaker 1: that morning, a deafening boom shook the earth. It would
- 31:23Speaker 1: turn out the media was not totally finished with the
- 31:26Speaker 1: story of Harry R. Truman. In fact, what happened on
- 31:29Speaker 1: the morning of May eighteenth, nineteen eighty would in many
- 31:32Speaker 1: ways make Harry even more famous than he already was.
- 31:35Speaker 1: Because Harry didn't live at the base of just any
- 31:39Speaker 1: old mountain. His lodge was situated directly at the foot
- 31:43Speaker 1: of Mount Saint Helen's, which was an active volcano. The
- 31:47Speaker 1: government operation that the federal agents and local law enforcement
- 31:50Speaker 1: were trying to run here was an evacuation. They were
- 31:54Speaker 1: not trying to impede on Harry's rights. They were trying
- 31:58Speaker 1: to save him. But Harry was so convinced that the
- 32:01Speaker 1: land he loved so much that he had lived on
- 32:03Speaker 1: for nearly sixty years would not hurt him, and so
- 32:08Speaker 1: he ignored the authority's repeated warnings. But Harry's decision was
- 32:12Speaker 1: the wrong one, and on May eighteenth, he paid for
- 32:15Speaker 1: his mistake because that morning, Mount Saint Helens erupted, sending
- 32:20Speaker 1: an avalanche of searing lava and mud directly onto Spirit
- 32:25Speaker 1: Lake and Harry's lodge, killing him and his cats instantly.
- 32:29Speaker 1: His remains were never found. Fifty seven people died during
- 32:32Speaker 1: this eruption, including Harry. Today, in that area, Harry has
- 32:37Speaker 1: both a trail and a ridge that are named after him,
- 32:40Speaker 1: so in a way, he remains a part of the
- 32:42Speaker 1: mountain that he loves so much. Thank you so much
- 32:48Speaker 1: for watching today's episode. Let me know what you thought
- 32:51Speaker 1: of it in the comments below, And remember we have
- 32:53Speaker 1: a whole playlist of places you can't go episodes ready
- 32:57Speaker 1: for you to binge right now, So go ahead and
- 32:59Speaker 1: click here and give them a watch, all right, until
- 33:02Speaker 1: next time see it.