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You-can-touch-him-but-you-can-t-help-him · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Today's story is a claustrophobic nightmare. But before we get
0:03
Speaker 1: into that story, if you're a fan of the strange,
0:05
Speaker 1: dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come
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0:26
Speaker 1: let's get into today's story. A little after three pm
0:45
Speaker 1: on March twenty second, nineteen fifty nine, a twenty year
0:48
Speaker 1: old British college student named Neil Moss stood in a
0:51
Speaker 1: cavern about a thousand feet underground in northern England, and
0:54
Speaker 1: as he stood there, he was staring with excitement into
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Speaker 1: this dark hole right in front of him. The cavern
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Speaker 1: that Neil was standing inside of was known as Peak Cavern,
1:02
Speaker 1: and it was one of the biggest and most twisting
1:04
Speaker 1: cave systems in the entire country. In fact, it was
1:07
Speaker 1: so big that at one point an entire village of
1:10
Speaker 1: thirty rope makers lived inside of this cave, and then
1:14
Speaker 1: also after those rope makers, the cave system became a
1:17
Speaker 1: hideout for criminals and thieves because there were so many
1:20
Speaker 1: secret passageways and basically places to hide inside of this system.
1:24
Speaker 1: So basically Peak Cavern was a pretty famous place, and
1:27
Speaker 1: as a result, basically all of it had been mapped
1:30
Speaker 1: out or at least explored by scientists and splunkers, except
1:35
Speaker 1: for this hole right in front of Neil. It was
1:37
Speaker 1: an entrance to a tunnel that nobody even knew about.
1:40
Speaker 1: Neil and the amateur exploration group that he was a
1:42
Speaker 1: part of had discovered this entryway about two weeks earlier. Now,
1:46
Speaker 1: neither Neil nor anybody else in this group had actually
1:49
Speaker 1: gone into this hole yet, and the reason for that
1:52
Speaker 1: was it was pretty dangerous. I mean, the opening to
1:54
Speaker 1: this tunnel was pretty small. It was one and a
1:56
Speaker 1: half feet by two feet wide at the opening, and
1:59
Speaker 1: just looking down into it, I mean it's a dark
2:01
Speaker 1: hole that you really can't tell how tight or how
2:04
Speaker 1: far it even goes. And so once you went inside
2:06
Speaker 1: of it, you know, the deeper you got, the higher
2:08
Speaker 1: the risk of entrapment. And so whoever actually went into
2:11
Speaker 1: this hole really needed to be prepared, But Neil and
2:14
Speaker 1: the rest of his amateur expiration group really felt like
2:17
Speaker 1: it would be worth it to try to go down
2:19
Speaker 1: this tunnel, not just because nobody had done it before,
2:22
Speaker 1: but specifically they thought there was a chance that beyond
2:25
Speaker 1: this tunnel, basically deep underground, if you followed it long enough,
2:29
Speaker 1: it could lead to another big open chamber that nobody
2:32
Speaker 1: had found before. And those types of big open chambers,
2:35
Speaker 1: whoever finds them gets it named after them. And so
2:38
Speaker 1: Neil and his group were thinking, you know, hey, if
2:40
Speaker 1: we find this big chamber, you know it'll be named
2:43
Speaker 1: after us. We'll be famous at least in you know,
2:45
Speaker 1: spelunking circles. But they also understood that there might be
2:48
Speaker 1: nothing at the other end of this tunnel. It could
2:50
Speaker 1: just be a dead end. But the only way to
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Speaker 1: know for sure would be if one of the members
2:54
Speaker 1: of this group went into the hole. Now, in addition
2:57
Speaker 1: to a fear of being trapped in the hole, there
2:59
Speaker 1: were other big issues with blindly crawling into a tunnel
3:02
Speaker 1: no one's been in before, like, for example, there could
3:05
Speaker 1: be a sudden drop off or running water or some
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Speaker 1: other hazard that whoever went into the hole wouldn't know
3:11
Speaker 1: about until they were facing it. And so naturally everybody
3:14
Speaker 1: in this group was excited about the hole, but also
3:17
Speaker 1: a little apprehensive about being the guinea pig to actually
3:20
Speaker 1: go into the hole. And so after the group had
3:22
Speaker 1: kind of stood around the hole for a minute kind
3:23
Speaker 1: of talking through who was going to do it, Neil
3:25
Speaker 1: had finally courageously volunteered to be the guinea pig. He
3:29
Speaker 1: would go down. And in many ways, Neil was kind
3:32
Speaker 1: of like the perfect candidate for this job. He was smart,
3:35
Speaker 1: he was strong, and most importantly, he was thin, which
3:38
Speaker 1: meant he could navigate a really tight space. The only
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Speaker 1: drawback to Neil was he was pretty tall. He was
3:43
Speaker 1: over six feet and generally speaking, the best cavers in
3:47
Speaker 1: the world are very short and thin because it allows
3:49
Speaker 1: them to get into the smallest, tightest spaces underground. And
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Speaker 1: so Neil, who was standing over the hole, began to
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Speaker 1: mentally prepare himself for what he was about to do.
3:58
Speaker 1: He pulled out his flashlight and he shined it straight
4:00
Speaker 1: down into this hole, which again is a pretty narrow hole,
4:03
Speaker 1: and it basically went straight down and as he was
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Speaker 1: shining it, he saw about twelve feet down the hole
4:09
Speaker 1: kind of turned and you couldn't see what was beyond it,
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Speaker 1: and so Neil knew the only part of this trip
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Speaker 1: he would know about is that first twelve feet once
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Speaker 1: he made that turn. I mean, everything beyond that was
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Speaker 1: totally unknown. Literally, no one in the world knew what
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Speaker 1: was beyond it, but Neil was about to find out.
4:26
Speaker 1: The cave explorers anchored this seventy five foot long wire
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Speaker 1: ladder that was all rolled up to this rock that
4:31
Speaker 1: was inside the cavern right near the opening to this hole.
4:34
Speaker 1: Once that was in place, they spooled out the ladder
4:37
Speaker 1: and kind of dumped it down into the hole, and
4:39
Speaker 1: so it fell twelve feet down and landed right where
4:41
Speaker 1: this tunnel turned and sort of went into oblivion where
4:44
Speaker 1: nobody knows what happened after that. And so Neil his
4:47
Speaker 1: job was going to be to go into this hole
4:49
Speaker 1: feet first, go down twelve feet, and then with his
4:52
Speaker 1: feet as he kind of blindly crawled backwards feet first
4:56
Speaker 1: into the tunnel, he'd be kicking with his feet this ladder,
4:59
Speaker 1: extending it far and farther into this tunnel. The idea
5:02
Speaker 1: was this ladder was his way back out again. So
5:05
Speaker 1: he's basically on top of the ladder making his way
5:07
Speaker 1: and at any point he can just grab the ladder
5:09
Speaker 1: and climb back out again. And so once the ladder
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Speaker 1: was in place and all the cave explorers were kind
5:13
Speaker 1: of waiting for Neil, Neil walked up to the edge
5:16
Speaker 1: of the hole. He took a deep breath, and then
5:18
Speaker 1: he swung one leg into the hole, placed it on
5:20
Speaker 1: one of the rungs of the ladder, put his other
5:22
Speaker 1: leg on the ladder as well, and kind of tested
5:24
Speaker 1: it to make sure the rock that was anchoring the
5:26
Speaker 1: ladder could hold his weight. Once he was sure it could,
5:29
Speaker 1: he said goodbye to the explorers and then began his
5:31
Speaker 1: descent feet first down into the hole. As Neil slowly
5:35
Speaker 1: and carefully climbed down the s ladder during this first
5:38
Speaker 1: twelve foot section, he felt the walls of this hole
5:41
Speaker 1: closing in on him. When he was close to the
5:43
Speaker 1: bottom of this first section, the walls were literally flush
5:46
Speaker 1: with his shoulders and back. I mean, this was a
5:48
Speaker 1: really tight space. And so finally he got to the
5:51
Speaker 1: very bottom of this twelve foot section and he was
5:53
Speaker 1: about to step onto what he thought was another rung
5:55
Speaker 1: because he can't actually see where he's going He's just
5:57
Speaker 1: using his feet to feel and he stepped down and
6:00
Speaker 1: he felt something hard. It was the ground. So he
6:02
Speaker 1: had reached the bottom of the twelve foot section. He
6:05
Speaker 1: kind of tested the ground with his foot, you know,
6:07
Speaker 1: seeing if it would support his weight, and after feeling confident,
6:10
Speaker 1: he stepped off the ladder and just stood at the
6:12
Speaker 1: bottom of the hole. At this point, Neil used his
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Speaker 1: feet to kick the ladder that was still coiled up
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Speaker 1: at the bottom of the hole into the next turn,
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Speaker 1: into the next section of the tunnel that he'd be
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Speaker 1: going down, and as soon as he kicked it, he
6:23
Speaker 1: heard it kind of spool out as it tumbled down.
6:25
Speaker 1: This next section, however, it was not a straight drop
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Speaker 1: like this first section was. This next section he'd be
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Speaker 1: going into was more of a gradual decline, just based
6:34
Speaker 1: on the sound this ladder was making as it tumbled down.
6:36
Speaker 1: And so after the ladder had stopped making noise and
6:38
Speaker 1: he knew it had stopped, Neil gave one final look
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Speaker 1: up at his friends above gave them a little wave,
6:43
Speaker 1: even though he could barely move his hands because it's
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Speaker 1: so tight around him, and then he got down on
6:47
Speaker 1: his stomach and feet first began shimmying himself down into
6:52
Speaker 1: this next section. Now, during the first twelve feet and
6:55
Speaker 1: during the initial turn into this new section, Neil had
6:58
Speaker 1: been able to turn his head and basically look down
7:01
Speaker 1: and see where his feet were going. But after only
7:03
Speaker 1: a few feet of going into this new section, the
7:06
Speaker 1: walls had become so tight on his body that he
7:09
Speaker 1: couldn't even move his head. He really was blind and
7:12
Speaker 1: had no idea where he was going. Now, for a
7:14
Speaker 1: lot of people, this would have been a claustrophobic nightmare.
7:18
Speaker 1: Neil is in this unbelievably tight space. He has no
7:21
Speaker 1: idea what's going to happen next. He doesn't know if
7:23
Speaker 1: it's going to get so tight he'll get wedged in there.
7:26
Speaker 1: It's cold, it's damp, I mean, it's pitch black in there.
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Speaker 1: He does have a headlamp, but his head is like
7:31
Speaker 1: kind of pressed to the ground and he can't really
7:33
Speaker 1: move it, so, you know, he's not really able to
7:35
Speaker 1: look around him. And periodically, as he was shimmying his
7:39
Speaker 1: way down deeper into this tunnel, he would dislodge rocks
7:42
Speaker 1: from the wall and he would hear them strike the
7:44
Speaker 1: wall as they tumble down into oblivion. He had no
7:48
Speaker 1: idea if these rocks were tumbling into a dead end
7:50
Speaker 1: or if they were tumbling off a ledge somewhere, a
7:53
Speaker 1: ledge that he wouldn't be aware of until he got
7:55
Speaker 1: to it. But for Neil, this environment was something he
7:58
Speaker 1: thrived in. It was why he was so drawn to
8:00
Speaker 1: cave exploration. As much as cave exploring was a physical
8:04
Speaker 1: exercise and a physical test, it was much more a
8:07
Speaker 1: mental test. I mean, can you handle being in these
8:10
Speaker 1: tight spaces and persevering and continuing on when you're all
8:13
Speaker 1: by yourself and it's like dangers all around you. And
8:16
Speaker 1: also Neil just loved being alone and in the dark,
8:20
Speaker 1: So cave exploration was like perfect for him. When Neil
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Speaker 1: had made it about ten feet down this new section,
8:25
Speaker 1: his feet touched the rolled up section of the ladder,
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Speaker 1: and so with his toes he kind of gave it
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Speaker 1: a kick, and the ladder tumbled for a second and
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Speaker 1: he could hear it, and then it just kind of
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Speaker 1: vanished all together, like the ladder had gone over a cliff.
8:38
Speaker 1: And so Neil realized, very likely, just beyond his feet,
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Speaker 1: even though he cannot see it, is a ledge, and
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Speaker 1: very likely either a drop off or a new cavern,
8:47
Speaker 1: you know, the thing they hope is on the other
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Speaker 1: end of this tunnel. And so this was exciting for Neil.
8:51
Speaker 1: He felt a rush of adrenaline. You know, there's a
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Speaker 1: new turn in the tunnel, and for all he knows,
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Speaker 1: this is the cavern they're looking for, or it's just
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Speaker 1: another section of tunnel he would have to explore. But
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Speaker 1: either way he's making progress. And so Neil very carefully
9:04
Speaker 1: scooched backwards until he felt the edge, at which point
9:07
Speaker 1: he let his legs go over the edge. He found
9:09
Speaker 1: his footing on the ladder, and it was at this
9:12
Speaker 1: point when he kind of turned around a little bit
9:14
Speaker 1: that he could see this was not some big open
9:16
Speaker 1: cavern he had found. It was just a turn in
9:19
Speaker 1: the tunnel system. It was now going back to basically
9:21
Speaker 1: a vertical hole big enough to fit inside of. But
9:24
Speaker 1: Neil has no idea how deep it goes or what
9:27
Speaker 1: it leads to. But Neil was totally undeterred. He lowered
9:30
Speaker 1: his whole body into the section, got on the ladder
9:33
Speaker 1: and began descending, and very quickly. As he began this descent,
9:37
Speaker 1: the walls of this section, this new vertical section, were
9:41
Speaker 1: so tight it was about eighteen inches in diameter that
9:44
Speaker 1: he actually couldn't just go straight down. His body didn't
9:47
Speaker 1: fit just trying to maneuver down. So the only way
9:50
Speaker 1: he could get himself to go down further was to
9:53
Speaker 1: like shimmy himself side to side like a corkscrew, basically
9:57
Speaker 1: forcing his body deeper and deeper in to this hole.
10:00
Speaker 1: And so Neil continued doing this for an additional eighteen
10:03
Speaker 1: feet down in this new section of tunnel, which put
10:06
Speaker 1: him at a total of forty feet down into this
10:09
Speaker 1: tunnel from the entrance where the rest of his friends were.
10:12
Speaker 1: And when he got down there eighteen feet down, he
10:14
Speaker 1: went to step onto the rung to continue his descent,
10:17
Speaker 1: but his foot hit rock and he felt around with
10:19
Speaker 1: his feet and he realized this tunnel did not lead
10:22
Speaker 1: to a big new chamber. It instead was a dead
10:25
Speaker 1: end after all. Now, just to be sure, Neil actually
10:28
Speaker 1: kicked as hard as he could. You know, he's kind
10:30
Speaker 1: of restricted, but he kicked with his legs as much
10:32
Speaker 1: as he could to see if maybe this wasn't a
10:34
Speaker 1: true dead end, maybe it was just an obstruction and
10:37
Speaker 1: he could clear it. But he could tell, you know,
10:39
Speaker 1: after a few stomps, this was not moving. This really
10:42
Speaker 1: was the end. Now. Part of Neil was disappointed because
10:45
Speaker 1: he was hoping that by doing this they would discover
10:48
Speaker 1: this big new chamber and they'd get it named after them.
10:50
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, he was also relieved because
10:53
Speaker 1: by this point it was extremely claustrophobic, even for a
10:57
Speaker 1: guy who thrived in this environment. You know, by the
11:00
Speaker 1: bottom of this forty foot section, he is completely wedged
11:03
Speaker 1: in place, and so Neil decided it was time to
11:05
Speaker 1: head back to the surface. But from where he was
11:07
Speaker 1: at he couldn't even hear his friends. He's way down
11:10
Speaker 1: deep in this tunnel. It's totally pitch black, and so
11:12
Speaker 1: what he needed to do was just begin climbing back
11:15
Speaker 1: up this ladder and then you know, about halfway up
11:17
Speaker 1: he could call up to his friends and tell them, hey,
11:19
Speaker 1: you know, I'm returning. But remember to get to where
11:22
Speaker 1: Neil is. He has literally forced his body down into
11:26
Speaker 1: this tiny hole, basically corkscrewing himself as deep as he
11:30
Speaker 1: could get, and so he's totally restricted and his arms
11:33
Speaker 1: are basically by his side and his hands are basically
11:36
Speaker 1: pinned in front of his body, and so Neil tried
11:40
Speaker 1: to grab the ladder, which is literally pressed up against
11:42
Speaker 1: his chest to begin the ascent. But even though his
11:46
Speaker 1: fingers could touch the rungs of the ladder, he couldn't
11:49
Speaker 1: actually move his arms to pull himself up the ladder.
11:53
Speaker 1: He could just hold the rung. That was it. But
11:55
Speaker 1: Neil had been in similar situations before, and what you
11:58
Speaker 1: do is you just use your leg You drive with
12:01
Speaker 1: your legs and push your body up until your arms
12:03
Speaker 1: can go above your head, and then you continue the ascent. However,
12:07
Speaker 1: his legs also were basically in the same situation. It
12:10
Speaker 1: was so unbelievably tight around his legs that he couldn't
12:14
Speaker 1: lift his legs up. He could just basically wiggle his feet. Basically,
12:18
Speaker 1: there was no way physically for Neil to get himself out.
12:22
Speaker 1: He would need his team up above to pull him out.
12:25
Speaker 1: And so Neil began shouting as loud as he could,
12:28
Speaker 1: trying to get the attention of his friends up above,
12:31
Speaker 1: you know, telling them, hey, I'm stuck, pull me out.
12:34
Speaker 1: And then also as best as he could with his
12:36
Speaker 1: hands on the wrung, he kind of pulled on the ladder,
12:38
Speaker 1: signaling to them like, hey, get me out of here now.
12:41
Speaker 1: He couldn't really hear anything up above, it was sort
12:44
Speaker 1: of muffled, and you know, he couldn't tell if they
12:45
Speaker 1: were yelling back down to him. But as he was
12:48
Speaker 1: holding onto the ladder, he felt a little bit of tension,
12:50
Speaker 1: suggesting they were pulling on him. However, as he held
12:53
Speaker 1: on waiting to be pulled up and out, he didn't budge,
12:57
Speaker 1: like despite the tension on this ladder clearly coming from
12:59
Speaker 1: the surface from his friends, he wasn't moving. And that's
13:03
Speaker 1: when Neil realized he had made a critical mistake. When
13:06
Speaker 1: he had reached the bottom of this tunnel, when he
13:09
Speaker 1: realized it was a dead end, he had stomped with
13:11
Speaker 1: his feet to confirm it really was a dead end,
13:14
Speaker 1: and when he had done that, he had inadvertently kicked
13:17
Speaker 1: the rungs of this ladder into a crevice, and then
13:21
Speaker 1: rocks which he had heard kind of falling when he
13:23
Speaker 1: was kicking, landed on top of it, basically pinning the
13:26
Speaker 1: ladder in place. Basically, this ladder was now anchored inside
13:31
Speaker 1: the cave, which meant no matter how hard his friends
13:34
Speaker 1: on the surface polled, they would not be able to
13:37
Speaker 1: pull the ladder up, which meant they couldn't pull Neil
13:39
Speaker 1: up and Neil. Once he realized this was the issue,
13:42
Speaker 1: he tried to move his feet to clear the rocks
13:45
Speaker 1: off the bottom of the ladder, but he couldn't. It
13:47
Speaker 1: was too tight around him and so Neil was totally stuck.
13:54
Speaker 1: As many of you may know, aside from telling stories
13:56
Speaker 1: on this YouTube channel, I also tell stories on my
13:59
Speaker 1: foot Lagship podcast, the Mister Ballin podcast Strange, Dark and
14:03
Speaker 1: Mysterious Stories. And in addition to that podcast, we over
14:07
Speaker 1: at Balin Studios actually have a whole slate of other incredible, strange,
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Speaker 1: dark and mysterious podcasts for you to enjoy. If you're
14:14
Speaker 1: into baffling and horrifying medical mysteries, we'll check out my
14:18
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14:23
Speaker 1: maybe you want to hear somebody else from Ballin Studios
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Speaker 1: with a far better radio voice tell you a story,
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Speaker 1: like Luke LEHMANA. Luke has two podcasts under the Ballin
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Speaker 1: Studios Umbrella. One is called Wartime Stories, which sort of
14:35
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Speaker 1: you follow along and tune in each week for new episodes.
15:37
Speaker 1: The members of Neil's exploration group pretty much immediately realized
15:41
Speaker 1: this was a crisis because not only was Neil stuck
15:45
Speaker 1: in this cave, but in these tight little tunnels underground,
15:49
Speaker 1: there's limited oxygen. So it's not just a matter of oh,
15:52
Speaker 1: you know, we'll figure it out and get Neil out somehow.
15:54
Speaker 1: It's like, no, you have a limited amount of time
15:57
Speaker 1: before Neil runs out of oxygen down there. Even if
16:00
Speaker 1: you come up with a solution, it might be too late.
16:03
Speaker 1: And so immediately members of the Expiration group left Peak
16:06
Speaker 1: Cavern to go get help, and before long, over two
16:09
Speaker 1: hundred people had flooded the cavern, including a mountain rescue
16:12
Speaker 1: unit and a coal mining extraction team and a whole
16:15
Speaker 1: bunch of civilians who were all there to try to
16:18
Speaker 1: figure out how to get Neil out now. At first,
16:21
Speaker 1: Neil was very optimistic about his recovery. He could hear
16:24
Speaker 1: clearly all the commotion forty feet above him. He couldn't
16:27
Speaker 1: fully discern what was going on there, but he could
16:30
Speaker 1: clearly tell a major rescue operation was afoot. And so
16:33
Speaker 1: as ropes were cast down and ladders were cast down
16:36
Speaker 1: to try to get him out, and they continued to fail,
16:39
Speaker 1: and as the air he was breathing began to thin
16:41
Speaker 1: out and it was getting harder to breathe, Neil's reaction
16:44
Speaker 1: was to kind of be positive. He actually began cracking
16:47
Speaker 1: jokes and calling up like, hey, how much longer do
16:49
Speaker 1: you have to wait down here. But as the minutes
16:52
Speaker 1: turned into hours and none of the efforts by any
16:55
Speaker 1: of the rescuers were working, Neil began to panic. His
16:57
Speaker 1: heart was racing, not only from his nerves, but also
17:00
Speaker 1: because he was running out of oxygen. He had begun
17:03
Speaker 1: to grit his teeth really hard to kind of control
17:05
Speaker 1: his fear, but he was really starting to lose it.
17:08
Speaker 1: At one point, the rescuers threw down an oxygen mask
17:11
Speaker 1: for him to breathe, because it was clear the air
17:13
Speaker 1: was becoming a real issue. But even though the mask
17:16
Speaker 1: literally tumbled down and hit him right on the head,
17:19
Speaker 1: so it's right here, he couldn't get his arms up
17:21
Speaker 1: to put the mask on, and so there it is salvation,
17:24
Speaker 1: but he couldn't use it. And so before long Neil
17:27
Speaker 1: sort of began drifting in and out of consciousness. You know,
17:30
Speaker 1: one moment he'd be calling up to his rescuers, you know,
17:32
Speaker 1: asking for an update. The next they'd call down to
17:35
Speaker 1: him and get no response. Clearly this situation was becoming dire.
17:39
Speaker 1: Now to this point, the way the rescue had gone
17:42
Speaker 1: was the rescuers were basically throwing equipment into the hole
17:45
Speaker 1: be it ladders or ropes or oxygen masks for Neil
17:49
Speaker 1: to grab onto or put on him. And they were
17:51
Speaker 1: hoping that basically Neil could get himself out of the hole,
17:55
Speaker 1: because the great fear was if we send a rescuer
17:58
Speaker 1: or rescuer's plural into this hole to get him, they
18:01
Speaker 1: could get stuck. And now we have an even bigger problem.
18:04
Speaker 1: But when Neil began losing consciousness, when they couldn't get
18:06
Speaker 1: him to call back to them, they knew they were
18:08
Speaker 1: genuinely running out of time, and so they began pumping
18:11
Speaker 1: oxygen into the hole to hopefully buy some extra time.
18:14
Speaker 1: And then they decided, we got to send someone into
18:17
Speaker 1: the hole. Someone has to go in there, get Neil
18:19
Speaker 1: and pull them out. And so one by one, these
18:22
Speaker 1: courageous rescuers went down into the hole, and eight times
18:26
Speaker 1: they tried, and eight times they failed. All eight either
18:29
Speaker 1: got stuck along the way or they passed out along
18:32
Speaker 1: the way. Three people actually reached Neil and actually touched Neil,
18:36
Speaker 1: but there was no way to grab him and pull
18:39
Speaker 1: him out. And so Neil, who was conscious for a
18:41
Speaker 1: lot of this, like he's hearing and literally in some
18:44
Speaker 1: cases seeing rescue. It's right there, it's right in front
18:47
Speaker 1: of him. But it just didn't work. By the time
18:50
Speaker 1: the eighth man was pulled back out of the hole,
18:53
Speaker 1: they could hear in the hole this horrible sound, which
18:56
Speaker 1: was Neil gasping for air. Even though they were attempting
18:59
Speaker 1: to hump air into this hole, it wasn't enough and
19:03
Speaker 1: Neil just couldn't fill his lungs with enough oxygen. And
19:05
Speaker 1: so the rescuers yelled into the hole for Neil to
19:08
Speaker 1: just hold on. They were gonna get him out of there.
19:10
Speaker 1: Just be strong, hold on. But by this point Neil
19:13
Speaker 1: he wasn't even saying anything back. He just continued making
19:16
Speaker 1: these awful gasping sounds. By about seven pm, when Neil
19:20
Speaker 1: had been stuck in this hole for four hours, the
19:22
Speaker 1: rescuers decided to send one more guy into this hole,
19:25
Speaker 1: this really small civilian, and he went down there with
19:28
Speaker 1: a rope to attach around Neil and hopefully pull him out.
19:31
Speaker 1: And this little civilian managed to get all the way
19:34
Speaker 1: down all the way to Neil, and when he found Neil,
19:37
Speaker 1: Neil was unconscious but alive, and the rescuer put the
19:40
Speaker 1: rope around Neil's shoulders and then signaled to the surface
19:43
Speaker 1: to begin pulling, and so from the surface they pulled
19:46
Speaker 1: on this rope and slowly, but surely, Neil began to
19:49
Speaker 1: be pulled out of the hole and he moved about
19:52
Speaker 1: eighteen inches, being monitored by the civilian who was down there. However,
19:56
Speaker 1: because they were pulling so hard on this rope to
19:59
Speaker 1: get Neil to the pressure from that rope was basically
20:02
Speaker 1: crushing Neil's chest and he stopped breathing, and the civilian
20:06
Speaker 1: who was down there with Neil noticed it and yelled
20:08
Speaker 1: up to the group to stop, and they had to
20:10
Speaker 1: take the rope off, because yeah, they might be able
20:12
Speaker 1: to pull him out this way, but they would kill him.
20:15
Speaker 1: He would suffocate. And so once the civilian rescuer came
20:17
Speaker 1: out of the hole, he told the group, like, look,
20:20
Speaker 1: Neil's body is simply too big to be yanked out
20:23
Speaker 1: of the hole safely. He needs to be conscious and
20:26
Speaker 1: able to contort and twist his body, basically undoing what
20:30
Speaker 1: Neil did to get down there in order to get
20:32
Speaker 1: out again, Like, we need his participation and he's unconscious,
20:36
Speaker 1: so we can't do that. And so at this point
20:38
Speaker 1: the rescuers were totally desperate. You know, they know Neil
20:42
Speaker 1: is still alive. They can hear some of his ragged
20:44
Speaker 1: breathing coming out of the hole, but they knew they
20:46
Speaker 1: had to do something drastic right now or Neil was
20:49
Speaker 1: going to die. And so they came up with this
20:50
Speaker 1: plan for this even smaller rescuer, this woman, to go
20:55
Speaker 1: down into the hole, get to Neil and break his
20:58
Speaker 1: collarbone to try to shrink his body to be able
21:01
Speaker 1: to pull him out. And so this woman, she goes
21:03
Speaker 1: down there and she reaches Neil, but she failed to
21:06
Speaker 1: break his collarbone, and so she too had to come
21:09
Speaker 1: out of the hole, leaving Neil behind. And so once
21:11
Speaker 1: the woman came out of the hole, it became clear
21:14
Speaker 1: to the rescuers that Neil was not getting out of
21:16
Speaker 1: this hole, even though he was just forty feet away
21:19
Speaker 1: and at this moment still very much alive. They could
21:22
Speaker 1: hear his ragged breathing, but there was just nothing anybody
21:25
Speaker 1: could do. And so one of the rescuers called Neil's
21:27
Speaker 1: father and told him, you need to come out to
21:30
Speaker 1: Peak Cavern. Not long after that, Neil's father, Eric Moss,
21:33
Speaker 1: arrived at Pete Cavern. Now he knew going into this
21:36
Speaker 1: that his son was stuck that's why he got the
21:38
Speaker 1: phone call to come out here, but he did not
21:41
Speaker 1: understand just how dire the situation really was. But as
21:44
Speaker 1: soon as he got to Pete Cavern and saw these
21:46
Speaker 1: vehicles outside and the hundreds of rescuers coming in and
21:50
Speaker 1: out of the cave with these sad, dark expressions on
21:52
Speaker 1: their faces, Eric knew this was really bad. And so
21:56
Speaker 1: Eric made his way into Peak Cavern and for hours
21:59
Speaker 1: he just hoped and prayed that whatever was happening would
22:02
Speaker 1: be enough to get his son out. And for hours
22:05
Speaker 1: Eric just stood there in Peak Cavern, hoping to see
22:08
Speaker 1: his son emerge from the hole, hoping to come up
22:10
Speaker 1: and say everything is okay. But he didn't, and things
22:13
Speaker 1: only got worse. It eventually began to rain, and unfortunately
22:18
Speaker 1: Peak Cavern, and specifically the hole that Neil was stuck
22:21
Speaker 1: inside of, flood when it rains, and so as rainwater
22:26
Speaker 1: is pouring into this cavern and Neil is still alive
22:29
Speaker 1: but stuck in this hole, they had to make the
22:32
Speaker 1: heart wrenching decision in front of Neil's father to abandon
22:35
Speaker 1: the operation and get out of the cave, knowing Neil
22:39
Speaker 1: was going to die. Rescuers were finally able to get
22:41
Speaker 1: back into Peak Cavern at about three am on March
22:44
Speaker 1: twenty fourth, which is approximately thirty six hours after Neil
22:47
Speaker 1: got trapped. By this point, the rains had subsided, the
22:50
Speaker 1: flood had cleared, and so they went in there hoping
22:53
Speaker 1: for a miracle. And when they got to the hole
22:56
Speaker 1: and listened into it, they actually heard Neil's still breathing.
23:00
Speaker 1: He was still alive, but it was very clear he
23:03
Speaker 1: was at the end of his life, and all they
23:05
Speaker 1: could do was just sit around this hole and listen
23:07
Speaker 1: as Neil took his last few final ragged breaths. And
23:11
Speaker 1: then eventually they listened as Neil took his final breath
23:14
Speaker 1: and the hole went silent. Now, at this point it
23:17
Speaker 1: was too dangerous to send anybody back down into this hole,
23:20
Speaker 1: and so no one could get physically close enough to
23:22
Speaker 1: Neil to actually confirm that he really is dead. However,
23:26
Speaker 1: after the hole remained silent for quite a while, a
23:29
Speaker 1: doctor who was on site did walk over and declare
23:32
Speaker 1: Neil dead, and so at this point the rescue operation
23:35
Speaker 1: became a recovery operation. However, as rescuers were getting ready
23:40
Speaker 1: to go back down into the hole to retrieve Neil's body.
23:43
Speaker 1: It was at this point that Neil's father, Eric Moss,
23:45
Speaker 1: who had been there this whole time and had been
23:48
Speaker 1: witnessed to the doctor declaring his son dead. It was
23:51
Speaker 1: at this point that he stepped in and said, stop,
23:53
Speaker 1: get everybody out of the cave. I don't want anybody
23:56
Speaker 1: else to lose their lives. And so ultimately Eric made
23:59
Speaker 1: the decision to leave his son's body where it was. Eventually,
24:02
Speaker 1: once it was one hundred percent certain that Neil really
24:05
Speaker 1: must be dead, at this point, they would fill in
24:08
Speaker 1: the hole that Neil had climbed down inside of with
24:10
Speaker 1: loose rocks from the cave and tombing him inside of
24:13
Speaker 1: it forever and in his memory. The tunnel that Neil
24:16
Speaker 1: died inside of was named after him. It's called Moss Chamber.
24:27
Speaker 1: I am about to play you a clip from one
24:29
Speaker 1: of our Ball and Studios podcasts called Wartime Stories. After
24:32
Speaker 1: you're done listening, be sure to check them out on
24:34
Speaker 1: any podcast platform and give them a follow up new
24:37
Speaker 1: episodes every Monday. Enjoy. The story you are about to
24:50
Speaker 1: hear comes from the front lines of World War One,
24:53
Speaker 1: a place where many men lost everything, their friends, their limbs,
24:58
Speaker 1: their lives. Some men survived but lost something else their minds,
25:05
Speaker 1: perhaps borne out of the delusions that any man might
25:08
Speaker 1: suffer when taken from his ordinary life and subjected to
25:12
Speaker 1: an unfamiliar and hillacious environment that pushes both his body
25:16
Speaker 1: and his mind to the breaking point. Some of these
25:20
Speaker 1: young men returned home with far more than the usual
25:23
Speaker 1: stories of combat. They spoke of something else that they encountered,
25:28
Speaker 1: something unnatural, a highly intelligent creature that prowled the front
25:33
Speaker 1: line trenches. The men who might have assured us that
25:37
Speaker 1: what they saw was indeed real and not a figment
25:40
Speaker 1: of their imagination. They are now gone, but their incredible
25:44
Speaker 1: story remains the story of the Hound of Mands