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Glen and Bessie Hyde Pt. Two · The Path Went Chilly

0:27
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Pathland, Chile for part two of
0:30
Speaker 1: our series on the disappearance of Glenn and Bessie Hyde. Robin,
0:34
Speaker 1: do you want to catch everyone up and what we
0:35
Speaker 1: talked about in our previous episode.
0:38
Speaker 2: Well, this is one of the oldest mysteries we covered,
0:40
Speaker 2: as it took place nearly a full century ago in
0:42
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty eight. Involved a newlywed couple named Glenn and
0:46
Speaker 2: Bessie Hide who lived in Twin Falls, Idaho. But because
0:49
Speaker 2: Glenn was a very adventurous guy, he decided that for
0:52
Speaker 2: their honeymoon, he and Betsy were going to go on
0:55
Speaker 2: a whitewater river rafting trip through the Grand Canyon on
0:58
Speaker 2: the Colorado River, which would right about two hundred and
1:00
Speaker 2: seventy seven miles, and he was hoping to break the
1:03
Speaker 2: speed records so that they could become famous. But they
1:06
Speaker 2: were making good progress, but then they vanished without a trace,
1:09
Speaker 2: and their abandoned boat would be found in one section
1:12
Speaker 2: of the river, and even though their supplies and all
1:14
Speaker 2: their personal possessions were still inside and the boat looked undisturbed,
1:18
Speaker 2: no trace of Glenn or Bessie could be found. There
1:21
Speaker 2: was an initial assumption that they had drowned or drive
1:23
Speaker 2: of exposure after wandering through the park, but nothing. The
1:27
Speaker 2: search effort failed to turn up anything, but over the
1:30
Speaker 2: years there would be some weird twists and turns. In
1:32
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one, there was another river rafting trip that
1:35
Speaker 2: was going through the Grand Canyon and a woman named
1:37
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Cutler told the group that she was Bessie Hyde
1:41
Speaker 2: and that she had killed Glenn and decided to walk
1:43
Speaker 2: out of the canyon on her own and start a
1:45
Speaker 2: new life under a new identity. But this was pretty
1:48
Speaker 2: much completely debunked as the facts did not line up.
1:51
Speaker 2: There was another woman, a very famous female whitewater rafter
1:55
Speaker 2: named Georgie White Clark who died in nineteen ninety two
1:58
Speaker 2: at the age of eighty one, and she lived a
2:01
Speaker 2: very private, secretive life, and they wound up finding a
2:04
Speaker 2: copy of gled and Bessie Hyde's Mary Certificate in her
2:07
Speaker 2: possessions following her death, so they looked at the possibility
2:10
Speaker 2: that perhaps she was Bessie, but when they looked at
2:13
Speaker 2: the backstory of Georgie's life, they realized that this just
2:16
Speaker 2: was not possible. In nineteen seventy six, the skeleton remains
2:20
Speaker 2: of a man with a bullet hole in his head
2:22
Speaker 2: was found inside a boat house belonging to a photographer
2:26
Speaker 2: named Emery Colb who lived in the Grand Canon on
2:29
Speaker 2: the Colorado River, and because he was one of the
2:32
Speaker 2: last people who had seen the hides alive, there was
2:34
Speaker 2: speculation that perhaps he killed Glenn and kept his remains
2:38
Speaker 2: in the boat house, but they completely debunked this idea
2:42
Speaker 2: and realized that the remains likely belonged to a unidentified
2:45
Speaker 2: man who had shot himself in the Grand Canyon sometime
2:48
Speaker 2: during the nineteen thirties, and because Cold worked for the
2:51
Speaker 2: coroner's office at that time, it's been speculated that because
2:54
Speaker 2: the victim could not be identified, that Colb took his
2:57
Speaker 2: remains home with him and kept them in the boat
2:59
Speaker 2: house and forgot about them for several decades before he died. So,
3:03
Speaker 2: even though this skeleton is not believed to have any
3:05
Speaker 2: connection to the high case, it's still a big mystery
3:08
Speaker 2: who exactly this John Doe really is. But nearly one
3:12
Speaker 2: hundred years have passed and no trace of Glenn and
3:14
Speaker 2: Bessie has ever been found, so this is still an
3:16
Speaker 2: unsolved mystery. So I couldn't tell you how many times
3:20
Speaker 2: I watched the Unsolved Mystery segment about this story when
3:23
Speaker 2: I was a kid, as I once take this particular
3:25
Speaker 2: episode off of TV and pretty much wore out the VHS.
3:29
Speaker 2: It may not be the first Unsolved Mysteries episode ever produced,
3:32
Speaker 2: as there were others made before it, which were hosted
3:35
Speaker 2: by Raymond Burr and Carl Malden, but if you decide
3:38
Speaker 2: to start watching the series on Amazon Prime or YouTube,
3:41
Speaker 2: this is the first episode you're going to get. The
3:44
Speaker 2: theme of the episode was four mysterious stories involving a
3:47
Speaker 2: husband and a wife, and it's pretty much a gold
3:49
Speaker 2: mine of some of the most memorable segments Unsolved Mysteries
3:52
Speaker 2: ever produced. In addition to this case, the episode covers
3:55
Speaker 2: the murder of Shannon Moore by her husband Dave Davis,
3:58
Speaker 2: the unexplained death of Alien Conway, and the disappearance of
4:02
Speaker 2: Dottie Kaylor. And of course, while there was hope that
4:05
Speaker 2: the exposure on national television might help law enforcement solve
4:09
Speaker 2: the other three featured cases on the show, the Glen
4:12
Speaker 2: and Bessie Hyde disappearance was nearly sixty years old by
4:14
Speaker 2: that point, so the segment was pretty much just there
4:17
Speaker 2: for entertainment, but It's a very well done segment and
4:20
Speaker 2: does not scamp on the production values for the reenactments,
4:24
Speaker 2: as you get to see unedited shots of the actors
4:26
Speaker 2: portraying Glenn and Bessie going down the dangerous rapids of
4:30
Speaker 2: the Colorado River in a wooden scow, much like the
4:33
Speaker 2: real people did back in nineteen twenty eight. I used
4:36
Speaker 2: to find it incredibly creepy that this couple would completely
4:39
Speaker 2: vanish without a trace, while their supplies and personal belongings
4:43
Speaker 2: were found inside this completely empty, undamaged boat, especially.
4:48
Speaker 3: When you think about the way that unsolved mysteries dramatizes things,
4:51
Speaker 3: it leaves things out. And then, like you said, this
4:53
Speaker 3: was the very first episode of the entire series that
4:57
Speaker 3: came out. So since we've learned a lot of information
5:00
Speaker 3: two about some of these myths being kind of debunked,
5:04
Speaker 3: I think it could be as basic as they fell
5:07
Speaker 3: off of the scow and they passed away. I think
5:11
Speaker 3: that Glenn was incredibly reckless and Bessie was not experienced,
5:16
Speaker 3: and even on the easy parts of the rapids, they
5:19
Speaker 3: were having struggles where Glenn even was falling off and
5:22
Speaker 3: needing to be rescued from the water. So who's to
5:25
Speaker 3: say that without life preservers, without any of those other things,
5:28
Speaker 3: that it wasn't just simply one of those moments where
5:31
Speaker 3: neither of them were able to actually wrests.
5:34
Speaker 1: Like a micro version of a ghost ship. And I
5:38
Speaker 1: couldn't remember the details of it, so I just looked
5:41
Speaker 1: up the Mary Celeste and I don't know if you
5:43
Speaker 1: both are familiar with this. It was founded direct in
5:45
Speaker 1: the Atlantic Ocean in eighteen seventy two with no crew aboard,
5:49
Speaker 1: but in seaworthy condition and with personal belongings and cargo intact,
5:53
Speaker 1: and the fate of what happened to the captain and
5:55
Speaker 1: the cruise still remains a mystery. So this is an
5:59
Speaker 1: interesting parallel to that, where all the belongings on the
6:03
Speaker 1: boat are still intact, the boat is still in river
6:05
Speaker 1: worthy condition, but yet Glenn and Bessie are nowhere to
6:09
Speaker 1: be found.
6:10
Speaker 4: That's horrifying. The entire crew is missing.
6:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, wow, Okay, this is two crazy adventurers going missing,
6:17
Speaker 3: But that's an entire crew.
6:19
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to go do a deep dive there.
6:20
Speaker 3: But this one too, the way the way it's portrayed,
6:24
Speaker 3: there really were to me, there also could have been
6:27
Speaker 3: the ability that at least one of them could have
6:30
Speaker 3: gotten to a shoreline and tried to hike out. But again,
6:33
Speaker 3: they're in the middle of the Grand Canyon, right, Yes.
6:36
Speaker 2: And it wouldn't have been very easy to get out
6:38
Speaker 2: of there, even if you were an experienced hiker.
6:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, And who knows.
6:44
Speaker 3: That's such a vast, unkind of navigatable place that if
6:48
Speaker 3: they had climbed out on the banks, especially only one
6:52
Speaker 3: of them, I could see also perishing on, you know,
6:56
Speaker 3: in the Grand Canyon, trying to find a resource to
6:58
Speaker 3: get away, to get out.
7:00
Speaker 2: As a side note, the Unsolved Mysteries episode featuring this
7:03
Speaker 2: story is also the same infamous episode featuring the interview
7:06
Speaker 2: with Juwel Kaylor that we always liked to poke fun of.
7:09
Speaker 2: So if you have not seen this episode, track it
7:11
Speaker 2: down right now on YouTube because it is a gold mine.
7:15
Speaker 1: All that being said, if you do further research into
7:18
Speaker 1: this story and check out Brad Dimmick's book Sunk Without Sound,
7:22
Speaker 1: it becomes apparent that Unsolved Mysteries greatly exaggerated some of
7:26
Speaker 1: the more mysterious aspects of the story, such as the
7:29
Speaker 1: discovery of the skeleton in Emery Colb's boathouse and Elizabeth
7:33
Speaker 1: Cutler's so called confession that she was Bessie Hyde. Since
7:37
Speaker 1: the segment put a lot of emphasis on Cutler's confession
7:40
Speaker 1: that she stabbed her husband to death in self defense
7:43
Speaker 1: after he beat her up, it's easy to come away
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Speaker 1: thinking that Glenn Hyde was some sort of abusive brute
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Speaker 1: who dragged his naive, innocent newlywed wife on a dangerous
7:52
Speaker 1: trip against her will, with no regard for her personal safety.
7:56
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, this segment gets Bessie's age wrong,
8:00
Speaker 1: claiming that she was only eighteen years old when she
8:02
Speaker 1: was actually twenty two. They made no mention of the
8:05
Speaker 1: fact that Bessie already had one previous marriage and divorce
8:08
Speaker 1: under her belt, which was not very common for a
8:10
Speaker 1: young woman during the nineteen twenties. So she was definitely
8:13
Speaker 1: a lot more worldly and independent than the segment portrayed her,
8:17
Speaker 1: and pretty much ahead of her time. In fact, Bessie's
8:20
Speaker 1: brother was once quoted as saying she should have been
8:23
Speaker 1: born a man, and he meant it as a compliment.
8:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course he did. I mean, think about the
8:29
Speaker 3: power that men had compared to women. We couldn't vote,
8:32
Speaker 3: we education wasn't something prioritized for women. Having your own
8:36
Speaker 3: financial access was not something that women had when you know,
8:40
Speaker 3: when they were married, and we talk about there's a
8:44
Speaker 3: chance she might have been pregnant and sent away, she
8:47
Speaker 3: was in an abusive first marriage. She's trying to navigate
8:51
Speaker 3: the world and creating very innovative ways to get a
8:55
Speaker 3: divorce from.
8:56
Speaker 4: Her first husband.
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Speaker 3: So she is absolutely filled with it. This kind of confidence.
9:01
Speaker 3: It was not given to women at the time, right,
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Speaker 3: You weren't allowed to have those kinds of feet underneath
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Speaker 3: of you to say I will do what I want
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Speaker 3: with who I want.
9:11
Speaker 4: I'm going to say no to a man. I'm going
9:14
Speaker 4: to divorce a man against his will or knowledge.
9:17
Speaker 3: Even if let's say she went ahead and had an
9:19
Speaker 3: abortion and or put a baby of her adoption, that
9:22
Speaker 3: too would have been something incredibly controversial back then. So
9:25
Speaker 3: she just seemed like a very innovative, ahead of her
9:27
Speaker 3: time kind of woman. And when she runs into Glenn,
9:30
Speaker 3: it's like this magical relationship where she sees this other
9:34
Speaker 3: very bold, very clever, very kind of risky kind of man.
9:39
Speaker 3: And I think she liked that because she was so
9:41
Speaker 3: bold herself. And could that have been their demise as
9:44
Speaker 3: being a little too confident. Bessie did show a little
9:47
Speaker 3: sign of fear throughout this trip and concern, but it
9:51
Speaker 3: almost seems like Glenn could either comfort her or kind
9:53
Speaker 3: of override that and continue on with this legacy trip
9:57
Speaker 3: that he was hoping to have.
9:59
Speaker 2: When Brad didn't research sunk without a sound, everything he
10:02
Speaker 2: turned up about Glenn Hyde suggested he was a gentleman,
10:05
Speaker 2: and there was no indication that he ever abused his wife.
10:08
Speaker 2: At the outset, at least, it seemed like Bessie was
10:10
Speaker 2: just as enthusiastic about this lengthy rafting trip as Glenn was.
10:15
Speaker 2: You can definitely question Glenn's judgment about a lot of things,
10:17
Speaker 2: particularly as refusal to bring along life jackets, but it
10:21
Speaker 2: sounds like he and Bessie genuinely loved each other. Now.
10:24
Speaker 2: To fully understand Glenn's reasoning for this trip, you have
10:27
Speaker 2: to remember that adventurers were very popular during this time period.
10:31
Speaker 2: It was only one year beforehand when Charles Lindbergh took
10:34
Speaker 2: the world's first solo NonStop transatlantic flight from New York
10:38
Speaker 2: to Paris in his plane the Spirit of Saint Louis,
10:41
Speaker 2: which made him one of the most famous celebrities in
10:43
Speaker 2: the world. So you can see why Glenn would be
10:46
Speaker 2: tempted to achieve his own fame and fortune by setting
10:48
Speaker 2: a new speed wrecord for river rafting through the Grand Canyon.
10:52
Speaker 2: And I'm sure he loved the idea of putting his
10:54
Speaker 2: wife in the history books by making her the very
10:56
Speaker 2: first woman to accomplish this feat. And they almost pulled
10:59
Speaker 2: it off because when you look at the hides and
11:01
Speaker 2: known movements and see the location where the empty boat
11:04
Speaker 2: was found, they were only about forty to fifty miles
11:06
Speaker 2: from their destination and on pace to break the speed
11:09
Speaker 2: record before they vanished. You can understand why there has
11:12
Speaker 2: always been a major fascination with this story, even though
11:15
Speaker 2: in the grand scheme of things, it's not hard to
11:18
Speaker 2: come up with a logical theory about what likely happened
11:20
Speaker 2: to Glenn and Bessie.
11:24
Speaker 4: And I do very much think she was excited about this.
11:26
Speaker 3: I think she could have been hesitant, or she could
11:29
Speaker 3: have concerns because anyone when they see this scal they're like, Okay,
11:35
Speaker 3: we're going to go on this incredibly complex route. Like
11:39
Speaker 3: we said, maybe ignorance was bliss because how much exposure
11:42
Speaker 3: would she have to information, but I think this kind
11:45
Speaker 3: of high. They had just gotten married, this is their honeymoon.
11:48
Speaker 3: He Glynn chose a woman who was bold and adventurous,
11:52
Speaker 3: and she chose a man who was bold and adventurous.
11:55
Speaker 3: So I think this was very much an exciting thing
11:57
Speaker 3: for them. I don't think he forced her. I don't
12:00
Speaker 3: think any of that. I think as a trip went on,
12:02
Speaker 3: it's possible Bessie started to go, WHOA, I might have
12:04
Speaker 3: bitten off more than I could chew here, But again
12:07
Speaker 3: I think Glynn could have probably reassured her and said, hey,
12:10
Speaker 3: we've got this. Like you know, just keep in mind,
12:13
Speaker 3: we're ahead of schedule, we're going to make records, we're
12:15
Speaker 3: going to be in the history books. And to Bessie
12:18
Speaker 3: that's exciting.
12:20
Speaker 1: It is exciting, and I can understand why a married couple,
12:25
Speaker 1: no matter how much you love each other, there's going
12:27
Speaker 1: to be periods while you're stuck on this small vessel
12:30
Speaker 1: that you are going to irritate each other to no end.
12:34
Speaker 1: My husband had these friends that years ago they did
12:38
Speaker 1: basically an around the world sailing thing, and it was
12:41
Speaker 1: this big idea with the three kids, the two of
12:44
Speaker 1: them are going to go and at first everything was great.
12:47
Speaker 1: But by the time they were getting off that boat,
12:49
Speaker 1: she was leaving him, they were getting divorced, and she'd
12:52
Speaker 1: already found another man, and everything was everything fell apart.
12:56
Speaker 1: It was like a catastrophe. So I think these small,
13:00
Speaker 1: all enclosed spaces can have different results for people. But
13:03
Speaker 1: with just Glenn and Bessie, this tiny little boat and
13:06
Speaker 1: these arduous conditions, I can't imagine the stress that they
13:10
Speaker 1: were both under for sure.
13:12
Speaker 3: It's almost like when you think about instances where like
13:15
Speaker 3: even a healthy couple, I would murder my husband if
13:18
Speaker 3: we lived in a tiny home, right, I couldn't do it.
13:21
Speaker 3: I'd probably have to take out some of my kids too, right, Like,
13:24
Speaker 3: it's just not it's not for me. I need my space,
13:28
Speaker 3: I need my privacy, and they do too. And then
13:31
Speaker 3: you think about couples like you have Gabby Petito and
13:34
Speaker 3: her killer.
13:36
Speaker 4: Yes.
13:37
Speaker 3: Yes, And so even had they been super healthy on
13:41
Speaker 3: their ride, I think there would have been problems because
13:44
Speaker 3: they're young. They're new now. Remember Glenn and Bessie are newlywed.
13:48
Speaker 3: So to what extent, I think as you age in
13:51
Speaker 3: your marriage, you learn the goods, the bads, and the
13:54
Speaker 3: ugly about your spouse, especially if you haven't been dating
13:57
Speaker 3: that long and there's still love and respect and admiring,
14:00
Speaker 3: but you can definitely the longer you're together or start
14:03
Speaker 3: to realize, oh man, I don't like that, or this
14:05
Speaker 3: is scares me, or I'm worried. So I think Bessie
14:08
Speaker 3: and Glynn were good to each other. I think they
14:10
Speaker 3: went on this adventure. But when I do think they
14:12
Speaker 3: could fuss hurt each other, I doubt it, But I
14:16
Speaker 3: also think I'm sure there were moments where people saw
14:19
Speaker 3: them kind of at each other like I want to
14:21
Speaker 3: go faster, I need to slow down, this seems too
14:24
Speaker 3: risky for me.
14:25
Speaker 4: Could we try this?
14:26
Speaker 3: And kind of debating back and forth because they're still
14:28
Speaker 3: navigating their relationship much less the treacherous track they're on
14:32
Speaker 3: as well, And.
14:33
Speaker 1: You also have to take into account the fact that, like,
14:36
Speaker 1: what type of creature comforts can you have? Like maybe
14:40
Speaker 1: Bessie is bold and she's a risk taker and she's
14:42
Speaker 1: out there, but when you take away things like getting
14:45
Speaker 1: to sleep in clean sheets, being able to bathe properly
14:49
Speaker 1: when you're both probably smelly and you're in this small
14:53
Speaker 1: space together and you just aren't comfortable a lot of
14:57
Speaker 1: the time. I think that that could breed resentment, and
15:01
Speaker 1: it could breed irritation, And I think you're right Ash,
15:04
Speaker 1: like they did love each other, Otherwise, I don't think
15:06
Speaker 1: she would have agreed to have gone on this adventure.
15:09
Speaker 1: But I do think that things can happen to you,
15:12
Speaker 1: even the healthiest of couples, when you're put into a
15:15
Speaker 1: pressure cooker like this.
15:18
Speaker 2: And that's pretty much what Emory Cole felt when they
15:20
Speaker 2: stopped at his place, because it looked to him like
15:23
Speaker 2: Bessie was becoming less enthusiastic about the trip and wasn't
15:26
Speaker 2: sure she wanted to continue. And you can imagine after
15:29
Speaker 2: visiting him at his house, she's probably thinking to herself, Ooh,
15:31
Speaker 2: I could sleep in a bed tonight if we stay
15:33
Speaker 2: here for the little river and not have to be
15:35
Speaker 2: out in the wilderness. But I don't think that fits
15:37
Speaker 2: the narrative that like Glenn pretty much forced her against
15:40
Speaker 2: her will to go back on the remainder of the trip.
15:42
Speaker 2: I think she went along voluntarily, and I don't think
15:45
Speaker 2: things escalated into violence where Bessie flat out murdered Glenn
15:48
Speaker 2: and then just took off.
15:51
Speaker 1: Of course, another compelling aspect to this mystery was the
15:54
Speaker 1: discovery of the skeleton in Emery Colb's boathouse nearly fifty
15:58
Speaker 1: years after the hides went missing, which helped bring their
16:00
Speaker 1: disappearance back into the spotlight. If this situation happened today,
16:05
Speaker 1: it would be very easy to answer the question of
16:07
Speaker 1: whether or not the victim was Glenn Hyde, as all
16:09
Speaker 1: it would require is getting DNA from Glenn's surviving relatives
16:13
Speaker 1: and comparing it with DNA from the remains. So it's
16:16
Speaker 1: quite amusing to watch the Unsolved Mystery segment and see
16:19
Speaker 1: how they handled this situation. In the pre DNA world
16:22
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty seven, doctor Walter Burkby uses a rather
16:26
Speaker 1: primitive method of superimposing a photograph of Glenn's over the
16:29
Speaker 1: victim's skull in order to conclude that they did not match.
16:33
Speaker 1: Since a bullet was found in the skull. I can
16:35
Speaker 1: see why people would instantly jump on the theory that
16:38
Speaker 1: Emery Cold murdered Glenn, particularly since Bessy had allegedly expressed
16:43
Speaker 1: concern to him about completing the rafting trip, as this
16:46
Speaker 1: would have been a perfect opportunity for Cold to quote
16:48
Speaker 1: rescue her. But doctor Burkeby pretty much shoots that theory
16:52
Speaker 1: down in his interview and makes a valid point. If
16:55
Speaker 1: Cold committed murder, why would he have kept the damn
16:58
Speaker 1: body around? L Ay Unsolved Mysteries segment frame things, you
17:02
Speaker 1: get the impression that the hides vanished immediately after visiting
17:05
Speaker 1: Colb's place. They make no mention of their subsequent meetup
17:09
Speaker 1: with Adolph Gilbert Seutro or the abundance of evidence such
17:13
Speaker 1: as Bessie's journal entries which showed that the couple were
17:16
Speaker 1: still alive for at least the next two weeks after
17:19
Speaker 1: they parted ways with Cole. I guess this was done
17:22
Speaker 1: in order to build the suspense over the idea that
17:25
Speaker 1: Cold murdered Glenn, But once you know all the full facts,
17:29
Speaker 1: you realize just how absurd this idea really is. In
17:33
Speaker 1: order for Cold to have been the killer, he would
17:35
Speaker 1: need to have traveled around one hundred and forty miles
17:38
Speaker 1: to track Glen down, and instead of disposing of him
17:41
Speaker 1: in the water or somewhere in the wilderness, he inexplicably
17:44
Speaker 1: decides to lug Glenn's body all the way back to
17:47
Speaker 1: his property and store it in the boathouse.
17:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just seems like an odd decision, but I
17:52
Speaker 3: do understand when he sits there and he says, hey, listen,
17:55
Speaker 3: this is a John Doe.
17:56
Speaker 4: No one's going to claim him, so I'm going to
17:58
Speaker 4: take him home.
18:00
Speaker 3: It seems kind of interesting that in his mind it's
18:02
Speaker 3: possible he thought it was a more respectable, kind of
18:05
Speaker 3: interesting thing for him to do and kind of find
18:07
Speaker 3: some kind of scientific or career value to this skeleton.
18:11
Speaker 3: But it's definitely a bizarre choice. I do not, in
18:15
Speaker 3: a moment, think that Colb actually went and killed Glenn
18:19
Speaker 3: to rescue Bessie. I mean, he wouldn't have stuck around,
18:22
Speaker 3: and if he was that passionate, wouldn't Bessie and him
18:25
Speaker 3: have ended up together or something. So I think that's
18:28
Speaker 3: quite a stretch.
18:30
Speaker 2: Even after it was conclusively determined that the skeleton did
18:33
Speaker 2: not belong to Glenn Hyde, there was still a big
18:35
Speaker 2: mystery for a while about who this man really was
18:38
Speaker 2: and why colp had his remains. It's actually pretty remarkable
18:41
Speaker 2: that they were able to at least partially solve this
18:43
Speaker 2: mystery seventy five years after the fact, when the uncovered
18:46
Speaker 2: the photograph of the skeleton remains of a suicide victim
18:50
Speaker 2: found a Grand Canyon National Park in nineteen thirty three
18:53
Speaker 2: and matched it to the remains from Colb's boathouse. Once
18:56
Speaker 2: it became apparent that Coolb served on the county Coroner's
18:59
Speaker 2: journey at that time, this became less of a case
19:02
Speaker 2: of quote deranged murderer keeps victims remains on his property
19:05
Speaker 2: than quote while meeting citizen keeps an unidentified decedance remains
19:09
Speaker 2: on his property and forgets about them for four decades.
19:13
Speaker 2: It's very likely that Cold decided to take the John
19:15
Speaker 2: Doe's remains home with them, which might seem weird, but
19:18
Speaker 2: I can understand his reasoning. Since the victim couldnt be identified,
19:22
Speaker 2: he likely would have been buried in a pauper's grave
19:24
Speaker 2: somewhere and been difficult to find, so I think Cold
19:27
Speaker 2: wanted to hold onto the remains on the off chance
19:30
Speaker 2: that the victim's loved ones might come around looking for
19:32
Speaker 2: him someday. Sadly that never happened and we may never
19:36
Speaker 2: find out the true identity of this John Doe. But
19:38
Speaker 2: the evidence clearly showed that there was no foul play
19:41
Speaker 2: involved in his death, and due to Emery Colb's connection
19:44
Speaker 2: to the Hydes, disappearance, the situation pretty much blew up
19:47
Speaker 2: into a major misunderstanding. As a side note, I originally
19:51
Speaker 2: covered this story on episode number one twenty one of
19:54
Speaker 2: the Trail Went Cold six years ago, and I soon
19:57
Speaker 2: received an email from one of my listeners who had
19:59
Speaker 2: heard the episode and realized that the unidentified Cold Skeleton
20:03
Speaker 2: was not listed on the Dough Network. So this listener
20:06
Speaker 2: took the initiative to submit all the victims information to
20:09
Speaker 2: the website, and by October the nineteenth of that year
20:12
Speaker 2: that the seeded finally had his own profile page. And
20:15
Speaker 2: given the remarkable things that have been done with DNA
20:17
Speaker 2: and genetic genealogy these past several years, perhaps the Cold
20:21
Speaker 2: Skeleton will finally get his name back someday.
20:24
Speaker 3: Robin, that's incredibly cool that a listener was sitting there
20:28
Speaker 3: hearing your podcast took the initiative to go look on
20:32
Speaker 3: the Dough network and said, wait a minute, this is
20:34
Speaker 3: not listed. And so the individual got their own profile page,
20:38
Speaker 3: And like you said, who knows there is a potential
20:40
Speaker 3: that through some even maybe other cases, there could be
20:44
Speaker 3: a link to this individual's identity. It was a long
20:47
Speaker 3: time ago, but crazier things have happened in the world
20:50
Speaker 3: a criminal justice, So very very interesting.
20:52
Speaker 2: Good job, Robin, Yes, thank you. I was pretty flattered
20:55
Speaker 2: by that. And this listener was a very humble person
20:57
Speaker 2: who didn't want any credit for it, and they probably
21:00
Speaker 2: did not want me to mention their name on this episode,
21:02
Speaker 2: so I won't do it. But it was so cool
21:04
Speaker 2: that they just realized that this person who died back
21:06
Speaker 2: in the nineteen thirties was not on the Dough Network,
21:09
Speaker 2: so they took the initiative to submit him. So put
21:11
Speaker 2: it this way, if Henry Cole had not kept this
21:13
Speaker 2: man's remains in his boat house for four decades, he
21:16
Speaker 2: would not be listed on the Dough Network today. So
21:18
Speaker 2: silver linings.
21:20
Speaker 1: Of course, The Unsold Mystery segment also put a heavy
21:24
Speaker 1: emphasis on the possibility that Bessie Hyde could have murdered
21:27
Speaker 1: her husband heights out of the canyon and traveled somewhere
21:31
Speaker 1: to start a new life under a new identity. This
21:34
Speaker 1: idea came about because of the story shared by Elizabeth
21:37
Speaker 1: Cutler during a commercial wrapting trip in nineteen seventy one,
21:40
Speaker 1: where she told everyone else sitting around the campfire that
21:43
Speaker 1: she was Bessie Hyde and revealed the full truth about
21:46
Speaker 1: what happened. The way the segment frames it is that
21:49
Speaker 1: Cutler was dead serious when she told the story and
21:52
Speaker 1: became incredibly defensive when people tried to question her about it,
21:56
Speaker 1: later denying that she ever told the story or even
21:59
Speaker 1: knew who Glenn or best Hide was well. When Brad
22:02
Speaker 1: Dimmick did further research into this angle in Sunk without
22:05
Speaker 1: a Sound, he concluded that the details of Cutler's alleged
22:09
Speaker 1: confession seemed to have been greatly exaggerated by the sound
22:12
Speaker 1: of things. Since she had worked for many years in
22:14
Speaker 1: the field of psychology, Cutler had a tendency to say
22:18
Speaker 1: outrageous things just to see people's reactions. Since this rafting
22:22
Speaker 1: trip was camped near the spot where the Hide' vote
22:24
Speaker 1: was found and the guide decided to share the story
22:27
Speaker 1: about the disappearance, Cutler probably thought this would be a
22:30
Speaker 1: fun opportunity to troll people and claim she was Bessie Hyde.
22:34
Speaker 1: One of the members of this group was interviewed on
22:36
Speaker 1: Unsolved Mysteries and he claimed the Cutler was a very
22:39
Speaker 1: serious and quiet person throughout the trip, which is why
22:42
Speaker 1: her story about being Bessie came across as believable. However,
22:46
Speaker 1: when some of the other group members were interviewed for
22:48
Speaker 1: Sunk without a Sound, they described Cutler as a witty,
22:51
Speaker 1: cheerful character who loved to tease everyone, so they just
22:55
Speaker 1: felt that she was joking when she told them that
22:57
Speaker 1: she was Bessie. I think it's likely that when the
23:00
Speaker 1: legend of her story grew and eventually got blown out
23:02
Speaker 1: of proportion, Cutler tried to deny ever telling it because
23:05
Speaker 1: technically she did confess to committing murder, which joking or
23:09
Speaker 1: not could have landed her in some hot water. But
23:12
Speaker 1: whatever her motivations were, there is concrete evidence that Elizabeth
23:16
Speaker 1: Keutler was born in Pomeroy, Ohio and was living under
23:19
Speaker 1: that identity in nineteen twenty eight when Bessie went missing.
23:22
Speaker 1: So there's no way that they could possibly be the
23:24
Speaker 1: same person.
23:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
23:27
Speaker 3: I mean, they are able to prove that it's not her,
23:29
Speaker 3: But it does make you think, a psychologist or not,
23:34
Speaker 3: what is the motive for claiming you are a killer?
23:37
Speaker 3: It would be wildly incredible if she made this whole
23:40
Speaker 3: story that she's Bessie and she says, you know, Glenn
23:43
Speaker 3: drown this is you know, we were on this wild
23:46
Speaker 3: trip we were going to make history, and she really
23:48
Speaker 3: became kind of this infamous legend as Bessie. I could
23:52
Speaker 3: get that that's for attention, But when you start to say, hey,
23:56
Speaker 3: I actually killed my husband, I have no qualms telling
23:58
Speaker 3: you that, and I'm Bessie, it seems like one she
24:02
Speaker 3: would get in trouble and I assume she didn't, and
24:04
Speaker 3: two like it boggles my mind that someone would think
24:08
Speaker 3: that was a smart thing to do. We see false
24:10
Speaker 3: confessions all the time, but this doesn't seem like someone
24:14
Speaker 3: who would be desperate for attention like that. Because she
24:18
Speaker 3: is a professor, I mean she had to work very different,
24:22
Speaker 3: very hard as someone born in the what twenties or no, no,
24:26
Speaker 3: nineteen oh eight, right, yes, yes, Okay, so she's born
24:29
Speaker 3: in nineteen oh eight. This is a woman in the
24:31
Speaker 3: field of psychology that used to be male dominated. She'd
24:34
Speaker 3: becoming a professor also a job that started as a
24:37
Speaker 3: male dominant thing, and she's moving and making waves just
24:41
Speaker 3: like Bessie did. Why would you kind of regress and say, oh,
24:46
Speaker 3: I'm going to try to get attention by being Bessie
24:49
Speaker 3: and saying I killed someone.
24:51
Speaker 1: Were they drinking? Robin?
24:53
Speaker 2: It's never been specified, but I wouldn't be the least
24:55
Speaker 2: bit surprised because that would probably shed a lot of
24:58
Speaker 2: light on this because they don't get the impression Cutler
25:00
Speaker 2: knew much about the story beforehand and maybe was learning
25:03
Speaker 2: about it for the first time when the guy told
25:05
Speaker 2: it around the fire, and if they were drinking or
25:07
Speaker 2: possibly even smoking pot, she might have just at the
25:11
Speaker 2: time thought it was an amusing thing to do, to
25:12
Speaker 2: spontaneously claim that she was Bessie and that she killed
25:15
Speaker 2: her husband.
25:16
Speaker 1: So I don't think it's that wild in that context.
25:19
Speaker 1: If we've all known somebody that says things just for
25:22
Speaker 1: pure shock value, and if they've had a little bit
25:24
Speaker 1: of alcohol, I could see a situation where somebody would
25:27
Speaker 1: say that completely joking. But if somebody else takes it
25:31
Speaker 1: the wrong way, or if they retell that story, it
25:34
Speaker 1: becomes a game of telephone. Whereas she could have very
25:37
Speaker 1: obviously been teasing or joking about it and been like, oh, yeah, haha,
25:41
Speaker 1: and I killed my husband and this is how I
25:42
Speaker 1: did it. And then you get somebody who says, oh, no,
25:45
Speaker 1: she was a very serious person. That's why we took
25:48
Speaker 1: it very serious. So I think it's just context matters.
25:53
Speaker 1: And the way that somebody relays the story it as
25:57
Speaker 1: we can see with a game of telephone, and like
25:59
Speaker 1: eyewitness idifications, any ear witness identification, any type of recalling
26:04
Speaker 1: of events, we don't have one hundred percent accuracy. So
26:09
Speaker 1: I think that there is a scenario where she could
26:11
Speaker 1: have been joking and that after she just backpedals like WHOA,
26:15
Speaker 1: Now investigators are coming to ask me about this, I'm
26:17
Speaker 1: just going to deny it.
26:19
Speaker 3: Especially you have to pay attention to to who's saying it,
26:21
Speaker 3: because you're right, I didn't even think about it from
26:23
Speaker 3: that perspective. But what if someone's frustrated with her, insecure
26:26
Speaker 3: about her those kinds of things. Could they then say like, oh,
26:30
Speaker 3: this is how she meant it and actually try to
26:32
Speaker 3: slander her character when literally ingest she's teasing, which you know,
26:37
Speaker 3: I probably wouldn't encourage people to tease about murdering somebody.
26:39
Speaker 3: But you know, if she really was let's say, drinking
26:42
Speaker 3: or being silly or taking someone's comment and twisting it
26:46
Speaker 3: out of jest, and someone else is like, you know what,
26:49
Speaker 3: I'm really going to try to bring her down, then
26:51
Speaker 3: they could start that's you know, spreading the rumor there too.
26:55
Speaker 2: And then there was a theory that George white Clark
26:57
Speaker 2: might have been Bessie Hyde, an idea which spread when
27:00
Speaker 2: a copy of the Hyde's marriage certificate was found in
27:02
Speaker 2: her possessions after she died, along with a birth certificate
27:06
Speaker 2: that showed that Georgie's original birth name was Bessie. It
27:09
Speaker 2: is odd that Georgie would have a copy of that
27:11
Speaker 2: marriage certificate, but when you consider that her life were
27:14
Speaker 2: evolved around river rafting through the Grand Canyon, you'd have
27:17
Speaker 2: to think that she was familiar with the story of
27:19
Speaker 2: the Hide's disappearance, and she probably decided to acquire their
27:22
Speaker 2: marriage certificate as a souvenir, much like the Elizabeth Cutler situation.
27:27
Speaker 2: The problem with believing that Georgie white Clark and Bessie
27:30
Speaker 2: Hyde are the same person is that there's an actual
27:32
Speaker 2: historical paper trail for Georgie prior to nineteen twenty eight
27:36
Speaker 2: disproving the notion that she had assumed a new identity.
27:39
Speaker 2: And when you consider the fact that Georgie gave birth
27:41
Speaker 2: to a daughter in March of nineteen twenty nine, there's
27:44
Speaker 2: no way Bessie Hide would have been whitewater rafting through
27:46
Speaker 2: the Grand Canyon without anyone noticing she was five months pregnant.
27:51
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so, especially because remember they said
27:53
Speaker 3: she was tiny, she was ninety pounds. I mean, I
27:56
Speaker 3: feel like you would quite notice that five months at
27:59
Speaker 3: least a poot where people would make assumptions of saying,
28:02
Speaker 3: do you guys think she's pregnant?
28:03
Speaker 2: Right?
28:04
Speaker 3: I don't think even Glenn would be that arrogant to say,
28:07
Speaker 3: I love this woman. You know what I'm going to
28:09
Speaker 3: do if she's pregnant with my child or someone else's child.
28:12
Speaker 4: Even if you loved.
28:13
Speaker 3: Her, you probably wouldn't put your pregnant wife on the raft.
28:17
Speaker 3: So even poor Glenn, right, I don't think his story
28:20
Speaker 3: needed to be my pregnant wife made it as a
28:22
Speaker 3: hero on this trip. I think he would have been
28:25
Speaker 3: probably more cautious at that point because Bessie becomes a
28:27
Speaker 3: more fragile woman he wants to protect instead of this
28:30
Speaker 3: person who's going to be his partner in a legacy.
28:35
Speaker 1: So while the idea of Elizabeth Cutler or Georgie white
28:38
Speaker 1: Clark being Bessie Hyde has been conclusively disproven, I guess
28:42
Speaker 1: it's still tempting to explore the possibility that Betsy really
28:45
Speaker 1: did hike out of the canyon of her own accord
28:47
Speaker 1: and started a new life somewhere. During their trip, Glenn
28:51
Speaker 1: and Bessie were photographed multiple times and were usually shown smiling,
28:55
Speaker 1: but a number of people have taken note of the
28:57
Speaker 1: fact that the final photo of the couple, taken by
28:59
Speaker 1: Ali about Gilbert Sutro, the last known person to have
29:02
Speaker 1: seen them alive, see some much different picture. So in
29:06
Speaker 1: this picture, Glenn and Bessie looked pretty sullen, almost as
29:09
Speaker 1: if the riggers of their journey had completely sucked the
29:11
Speaker 1: life out of them. Since Bessie had expressed noticeable concern
29:15
Speaker 1: about embarking on the rest of the trip during her
29:18
Speaker 1: visit with Emery Cole, perhaps there is some truth to
29:20
Speaker 1: the idea that she wanted to bring an end to
29:22
Speaker 1: this and the only way to escape from Glenn was
29:25
Speaker 1: to kill him and leave the area on foot. Well.
29:28
Speaker 1: The problem with this theory is that all of the
29:31
Speaker 1: couple's supplies, including their food, winter clothing, and hiking boots,
29:35
Speaker 1: were left behind in their abandoned scale. Hiking out of
29:38
Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon in late November or early December is
29:41
Speaker 1: no picnic. So I think that if Bessie took off
29:44
Speaker 1: on her own, she would have at least taken some
29:46
Speaker 1: of the supplies along with her, because otherwise there's no
29:50
Speaker 1: way that she would have gotten out of there alive. No,
29:52
Speaker 1: it just seems likely that when the couple disappeared, they
29:55
Speaker 1: disappeared together. I know that over the years, Bessie's brother
29:59
Speaker 1: often liked to point of finger at her ex husband,
30:01
Speaker 1: Earl Helmet, since he was known for having a violent
30:04
Speaker 1: temper and had refused to grant Bessie a divorce. Perhaps
30:08
Speaker 1: he tracked down the couple and murdered them in revenge.
30:11
Speaker 1: Earle wound up getting remarried in nineteen thirty, and whenever
30:14
Speaker 1: he was asked about Bessie, he refused to talk about her. However,
30:17
Speaker 1: there is no evidence at all that Earle was involved
30:20
Speaker 1: in Glen and Bessie's disappearance, or that he even traveled
30:23
Speaker 1: to the Grand Canyon National Park at all. Really, what
30:26
Speaker 1: are the odds that Earl, who lived in an entirely
30:29
Speaker 1: different state, would have been able to track down the
30:31
Speaker 1: couple to a remote wilderness area along the Colorado River.
30:35
Speaker 1: To put this into perspective, even though the Hydes boat
30:38
Speaker 1: was spotted on the river from the airplane during the
30:40
Speaker 1: search efforts. It was six days before anyone physically made
30:45
Speaker 1: it to that location and found the boat. That should
30:48
Speaker 1: give you an idea of how inaccessible this jagged terrain was.
30:51
Speaker 1: So I'd say the odds of Glen and Bessie running
30:54
Speaker 1: into anyone there who murdered them are pretty much nonexistent.
30:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, that did not happen. It's not as if they
31:01
Speaker 3: are social media vlogging their trip or something right where. Oh, today,
31:06
Speaker 3: we're at this point. Tomorrow, we're hoping to get to
31:08
Speaker 3: this point and if someone can hop on a plane
31:11
Speaker 3: or you know, quickly get to them, or even like
31:13
Speaker 3: you said, scale down the terrain to find them.
31:16
Speaker 4: They're on this wild trip through.
31:19
Speaker 3: The Grand Canyon, which is just a crazy, incredible physical existence.
31:26
Speaker 3: And so the fact that some ex husband who couldn't
31:29
Speaker 3: even find her when she was filing for divorce behind
31:31
Speaker 3: his back, is going to be able to locate her
31:33
Speaker 3: in the exact spot alone on this trip and access
31:38
Speaker 3: her physically is just that just did not happen.
31:43
Speaker 2: The most logical explanation is that the hides drowned in
31:46
Speaker 2: the river and their bodies were simply never recovered. I guess.
31:50
Speaker 2: One of the things that has given their disappearance is
31:52
Speaker 2: an extra or a mystery, is the fact that their
31:54
Speaker 2: empty boat was found upright and completely intact, with no
31:57
Speaker 2: signs of any damage, so on the surface, it doesn't
32:00
Speaker 2: look like they could have gotten into any accidents which
32:03
Speaker 2: caused them to drown. After all, all of their supplies
32:06
Speaker 2: and possessions were still inside the scow, which would not
32:09
Speaker 2: have been the case if they tipped over. But let's
32:12
Speaker 2: not forget that earlier in the journey, the rough rapids
32:14
Speaker 2: had caused Bessie to fall out of the boat before
32:17
Speaker 2: Glenn was able to rescue her, and Glenn also apparently
32:20
Speaker 2: fell into the water on two separate occasions as well,
32:23
Speaker 2: so it's reasonable to assume that this could have happened again,
32:26
Speaker 2: only this time they were not lucky enough to survive.
32:29
Speaker 2: There's also been this romanticized theory that Bessie fell into
32:32
Speaker 2: the water and let heroically dived into save her, but
32:35
Speaker 2: the two lovers wound up drowning together. According to Bessie's journal,
32:39
Speaker 2: the couple had made it as far as Diamond Creek rapid,
32:42
Speaker 2: which was located at river mile two twenty five, and
32:45
Speaker 2: they were about to enter one of the most dangerous
32:47
Speaker 2: sections of the river, in particular the two thirty two
32:51
Speaker 2: mile rapid, which has been nicknamed Killer Fang Falls. This
32:54
Speaker 2: is a spot where a pair of large, jagged bedrocks
32:57
Speaker 2: aka the Fangs, protrude from under water at the end
33:00
Speaker 2: of the rapids and they can just sneak up on rafters,
33:03
Speaker 2: as there are numerous documented cases of boats being capsized
33:07
Speaker 2: or seriously damaged after crashing into them. Considering that Killer
33:11
Speaker 2: Fang Falls is only five miles away from the spot
33:13
Speaker 2: where the Hide's empty scow was ultimately found, it seems
33:17
Speaker 2: like this is one of the most logical spots where
33:19
Speaker 2: they could have fallen into the water. Even though Glen
33:21
Speaker 2: and Bessie were both considered to be excellent swimmers, this
33:24
Speaker 2: was a very rough section of the river, and let's
33:27
Speaker 2: also not forget that Glenn stubbornly refused to carry life
33:30
Speaker 2: jackets in the boat. If he and Bessie are wearing
33:32
Speaker 2: life jackets at that time, then this is a survivable accident,
33:36
Speaker 2: but without them they may not have made it out
33:38
Speaker 2: of the river alive. This also would have taken place
33:41
Speaker 2: at the start of December, so even if the couple
33:43
Speaker 2: made it to shore, the cold winter temperatures could have
33:46
Speaker 2: caused them to succumb to hypothermia or exposure.
33:50
Speaker 3: It's also interesting when you think about you know, people saying, oh, well,
33:53
Speaker 3: they were strong swimmers. Like you just said, if you
33:55
Speaker 3: don't have a flotational device and you hit a current
33:58
Speaker 3: in a rapid, remember there's different levels of rapids and
34:02
Speaker 3: when there's actually places where they they are known kind
34:06
Speaker 3: of fatal risk, like you assume the risk in a
34:09
Speaker 3: good whitewater rafting boat. You think about this scal that
34:13
Speaker 3: is basically this handmade floating log. I don't know that
34:17
Speaker 3: you're going down the river end. I could easily see
34:19
Speaker 3: them getting bucked out of that, standing up at the
34:22
Speaker 3: wrong spot and falling over. But if you're a great
34:25
Speaker 3: swimmer and you get caught up in a current, if
34:27
Speaker 3: you get ripped under and get caught on a log
34:29
Speaker 3: or a branch and the current holds you underneath the water,
34:32
Speaker 3: if you hit your head on a rock, I mean
34:34
Speaker 3: there's a billion things that at that point you can't
34:38
Speaker 3: get back to the surface. Like you said, if we
34:41
Speaker 3: have a life veest on, it's possible to get back
34:43
Speaker 3: to the surface. But even with that you see people's
34:46
Speaker 3: life fest get caught on logs and actually be held
34:49
Speaker 3: underneath the water. So a million things can go wrong.
34:53
Speaker 3: It is so risky, and especially when it's just the
34:56
Speaker 3: two of you, if one person has to go in
34:58
Speaker 3: after the other, it's like all bets are off. There's
35:01
Speaker 3: no one watching for y'all. There's no one else who
35:03
Speaker 3: can rescue you. So incredibly scary to think about, but
35:07
Speaker 3: that is by far the most probable thing. I could
35:10
Speaker 3: see Glenn falling in and Bessie trying to save him,
35:13
Speaker 3: and I could also see Bessie falling in and Glenn
35:15
Speaker 3: trying to save her and both losing their lives.
35:20
Speaker 2: And considering that Bessie was only five feet tall and
35:22
Speaker 2: weighed only ninety pounds, it would have been very easy
35:24
Speaker 2: for her body to disappear and never be found if
35:27
Speaker 2: she wound up in the water.
35:29
Speaker 1: So we previously mentioned that while writing Sunk without a Sound,
35:33
Speaker 1: Brad Dimmick went all out when doing his research, going
35:36
Speaker 1: so far as to build an exact replica of the
35:39
Speaker 1: Hides wooden scal in order to recreate their journey along
35:42
Speaker 1: the Colorado River as closely as possible. After personally navigating
35:47
Speaker 1: the two hundred and thirty two mile rapid. Dimmick's conclusion
35:51
Speaker 1: was that Glenn or Bessie likely fell out of the
35:52
Speaker 1: boat and drowned there well. The empty scow continued to
35:55
Speaker 1: float down to where it was found at river mile
35:58
Speaker 1: two thirty seven. It seems odd that the scow could
36:01
Speaker 1: have potentially collided with the fangs without sustaining any damage,
36:04
Speaker 1: but in the book, Dimmick recounts incidents from his trip
36:07
Speaker 1: down the river whereas scow got involved in violent collisions
36:10
Speaker 1: which failed to leave noticeable damage. Now, I know Glenn
36:14
Speaker 1: and Bessie's bodies were never found, but the Grand Canyon
36:17
Speaker 1: is a large place, the search effort didn't launch until
36:20
Speaker 1: a week or so after the couple went missing, and
36:22
Speaker 1: there's no way to check every single into the Colorado River.
36:25
Speaker 1: But there are two little details in this story which
36:28
Speaker 1: could potentially shed some light on what might have happened
36:31
Speaker 1: to the couple. You may recall that when Emery and
36:34
Speaker 1: Ellsworth Colb found the scow, its bowline appeared to be
36:38
Speaker 1: fastened in a crevice in one of the rocks and
36:40
Speaker 1: caught on something underwater. Since the brothers were unable to
36:44
Speaker 1: dislodge it, they decided to cut the bowtline. While the
36:47
Speaker 1: Colbs received some criticism for this decision and later expressed
36:51
Speaker 1: regret about it, because some people believe that the other
36:53
Speaker 1: end of the bowline may have been attached to a
36:56
Speaker 1: body that was stuck in some rocks under water, which
36:59
Speaker 1: is why the boat had cut into a halt at
37:00
Speaker 1: that particular spot. So by cutting the bowline, the Kolbs
37:04
Speaker 1: may have severed their best chance of possibly recovering Glenn
37:06
Speaker 1: or Bessie. The other interesting detail is the alleged sighting
37:10
Speaker 1: by the prospector of the brown leather jacket floating in
37:13
Speaker 1: the Colorado River. Now, this jacket was never recovered and
37:17
Speaker 1: no one could confirm this sighting was one hundred percent legitimate.
37:20
Speaker 1: But if the prospector was telling the truth, what if
37:23
Speaker 1: he did not just see a leather jacket, but rather
37:26
Speaker 1: a jacket being worn by somebody whose body was floating
37:28
Speaker 1: down the river. After all, Bessie was known to have
37:31
Speaker 1: worn the jacket on this trip, so this sighting could
37:34
Speaker 1: have very well been the closest edyone ever came to
37:37
Speaker 1: uncovering conclusive proof that the couple drowned.
37:41
Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, I mean it could be something as simple
37:44
Speaker 3: as the jacket fell out of the boat, it could
37:46
Speaker 3: also be as tragic as saying, you know that was
37:49
Speaker 3: not just the jacket, that was Bessie in the jacket
37:51
Speaker 3: floating by. But when you talk about the rope, remember
37:54
Speaker 3: it was lodged in those rocks, and when they're trying
37:57
Speaker 3: to heave it out right, pull this line out, they can't.
38:01
Speaker 3: There's something that's stuck on. The weight is there. So
38:04
Speaker 3: you know, you would think if it's just a rope,
38:06
Speaker 3: it almost would feel like you could have an easier
38:10
Speaker 3: chance of dislodging it. But if there's a weight attached
38:12
Speaker 3: to that rope and then that weight is stuck underneath
38:16
Speaker 3: something like an anchor, a body, something like that, it
38:20
Speaker 3: makes it way harder to dislodge and get that rope
38:23
Speaker 3: pulled out of those rocks. So think of the weight
38:26
Speaker 3: it has on the boat itself and then the weight
38:28
Speaker 3: it has of this object.
38:29
Speaker 4: Pulling it underneath the water.
38:31
Speaker 3: And it really kind of creates like dental floss almost
38:33
Speaker 3: where it's stuck down in between the two rocks because
38:36
Speaker 3: of the weight. But if you could, you know, let
38:39
Speaker 3: go of the weight on one side, you could pull
38:40
Speaker 3: it out of that crack, and so when they.
38:42
Speaker 4: Cut it, who knows.
38:43
Speaker 3: It could have been a tree log, It could have
38:45
Speaker 3: been an actual little anchor that they had self created
38:48
Speaker 3: right that got stuck. But it also could have been
38:51
Speaker 3: a body. There's really zero way to know that. And
38:54
Speaker 3: it's sad when you think about the poor colds. They're
38:57
Speaker 3: sitting there going, oh my god, did we like actually
38:59
Speaker 3: cut their bodies away? Or at least one of them.
39:02
Speaker 3: There had to be some you said, there's regret. There
39:04
Speaker 3: had to be some guilt and a lot of emotion
39:07
Speaker 3: surrounding that too. Did we blow it? Because these are
39:10
Speaker 3: two individuals who likely lost their lives in these waters,
39:13
Speaker 3: but they had no way of knowing that.
39:15
Speaker 2: And I do wonder if either Glenn or Bessie, in
39:18
Speaker 2: order to protect themselves, could have tied the bowline to
39:21
Speaker 2: their legs. Like Bessie is a small person, so maybe
39:23
Speaker 2: she was thinking, this will save me if I get
39:26
Speaker 2: knocked out of the scow and I go overboard, or
39:29
Speaker 2: maybe if Bessie fell in and Glenn decided, I'm going
39:32
Speaker 2: to tie this to my leg so that I can
39:34
Speaker 2: go in and rescue her and hopefully remain tied to
39:37
Speaker 2: the boat but still wound up drowning, and for all
39:39
Speaker 2: we know, maybe if the sighting of the leather jack
39:42
Speaker 2: was legitimate, maybe Betsy's body was floating downstream at that
39:46
Speaker 2: at a totally different spot. But Glenn was separated from
39:49
Speaker 2: her because he was still tied to the bowline and
39:51
Speaker 2: he was underwater next to the abandoned scow, and the
39:54
Speaker 2: cold didn't even realize it. So when you look at
39:57
Speaker 2: all the evidence, the only explanation which made makes complete
40:00
Speaker 2: sense is that Glenn and Bessie both fell out of
40:02
Speaker 2: the scow and drowned, likely around the two hundred and
40:05
Speaker 2: thirty two mile rapid, and their bodies were simply never recovered.
40:09
Speaker 2: All the other twists in turns of this story, such
40:11
Speaker 2: as Emery kolbs skeleton and the woman claiming to be
40:14
Speaker 2: Bessie Hyde, are nothing more than red herrings, though they
40:17
Speaker 2: have allowed the legend of the story to live on
40:19
Speaker 2: for nearly a century, and I'm sure this tale is
40:21
Speaker 2: still told around the campfire in the Grand Canyon today. Obviously,
40:25
Speaker 2: given all the time that has passed, the Highs disappearance
40:28
Speaker 2: is no longer being actively investigated by law enforcement, so
40:31
Speaker 2: I'm not going to advise you to contact the appropriate
40:34
Speaker 2: authorities in case you have any information. I think the
40:37
Speaker 2: only chance this case will ever have of being solved
40:40
Speaker 2: is if someone happens to stumble upon Glenn or Bessie's
40:42
Speaker 2: skulls remains in the Colorado River somewhere, and with all
40:46
Speaker 2: the advances we've had with DNA technology, remains could be
40:49
Speaker 2: positively identified if this ever occurred. Overall, however, I think
40:54
Speaker 2: it's most likely this story is destined to remain an
40:56
Speaker 2: unsolved mystery. Jules Ashley, any final thoughts on this case?
41:01
Speaker 3: Okay, let me ask you guys this honestly, do you
41:03
Speaker 3: know who fred Noonan.
41:05
Speaker 2: Is Amelia Earharts navigator?
41:07
Speaker 4: Dang it?
41:08
Speaker 3: No, Robin, I didn't know that, Okay, so let me
41:11
Speaker 3: just say I did not know that. But in the
41:13
Speaker 3: back of my head, I was like, I'm pretty sure
41:16
Speaker 3: that she had a male companion, but I don't know him,
41:19
Speaker 3: Robin stop. I did not know who his name his
41:23
Speaker 3: name was, And in my head I just kept thinking, Man,
41:26
Speaker 3: had they made it, would Bessie be the next Amelia
41:30
Speaker 3: Earhart of the rap is right where she's this woman
41:33
Speaker 3: who Glenn even almost gets forgotten, and Bessie becomes this
41:36
Speaker 3: person that I'm reading to my girls about, right about
41:40
Speaker 3: this strong woman who has broken the mold.
41:42
Speaker 4: She stepped out.
41:43
Speaker 3: She's a legend in her own right, and Glenn or not,
41:46
Speaker 3: Bessie has this legacy behind her, and so it's I
41:50
Speaker 3: don't know. The whole time, I'm just kind of smiling
41:52
Speaker 3: thinking of her on the cover of like a.
41:53
Speaker 4: Who was book?
41:54
Speaker 2: Right?
41:54
Speaker 4: Who was Bessie?
41:56
Speaker 3: And unfortunately you have these two newlyweds who had actually
42:00
Speaker 3: like literally moved mountains and gone into hiding and tried
42:05
Speaker 3: to set up residency and fled an abusive marriage all
42:09
Speaker 3: for the name of love and freedom and kind of
42:12
Speaker 3: this hunt for adventure. And we have no way of
42:15
Speaker 3: knowing what happened to them, but most likely in their
42:18
Speaker 3: pursuit of creating this story that they could go around
42:21
Speaker 3: the world and tour telling people, they ended up losing
42:24
Speaker 3: their lives together. Which is just this really tragic start
42:29
Speaker 3: to what should have been a really long, adventurous life
42:31
Speaker 3: together and it was cut short.
42:34
Speaker 1: It really is a sad case. Betsy was such a
42:37
Speaker 1: trailblazer at this time to be going from having this
42:42
Speaker 1: really difficult husband who was prone to these violent outbursts
42:46
Speaker 1: and for her to go, I don't want to be
42:49
Speaker 1: with this man. She had the fortitude to leave him,
42:52
Speaker 1: and even when he didn't want to grant her a divorce,
42:55
Speaker 1: she doggedly pursued that she moved so that to a
42:58
Speaker 1: different state so that she would have an easier time
43:01
Speaker 1: divorcing him, and she basically did an abventia because he
43:04
Speaker 1: didn't show up. She goes on to Mary Glenn and
43:07
Speaker 1: they have this amazing adventure planned and I can imagine
43:12
Speaker 1: how exciting it would be, Like this is like climbing
43:14
Speaker 1: a mountain. Like I said earlier, you got this exciting
43:18
Speaker 1: prospect that very few people have been able to accomplish this,
43:22
Speaker 1: and Glenn has made this boat and although I'm sure
43:25
Speaker 1: it was a little bit scary, it was also very exciting.
43:28
Speaker 1: So to think of their mindset at the beginning of
43:31
Speaker 1: this trip to them disappearing, it's very sad. And then
43:36
Speaker 1: I do think it does get very convoluted when you've
43:38
Speaker 1: got Cutler confessing to being Bessie and murdering her husband,
43:43
Speaker 1: and then Georgie having this marriage certificate and having the
43:47
Speaker 1: name so similar that it can be very compelling. But
43:52
Speaker 1: it's very obvious that these two people were not Bessie.
43:55
Speaker 1: I think that the most likely scenario is that they
43:58
Speaker 1: perished in this river. I didn't even realize it was
44:01
Speaker 1: one week when they started the search efforts, so those
44:04
Speaker 1: bodies very likely could have surfaced and then gone back
44:07
Speaker 1: down again in that time.
44:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mentioned many times that I was introduced to
44:11
Speaker 2: this story as a child when it was featured on
44:13
Speaker 2: Unsolved Mysteries, and we've talked about what a trailblazer Bessie was,
44:17
Speaker 2: but the segment kind of does a disservice to her
44:19
Speaker 2: because they don't really talk about her achievements and her
44:22
Speaker 2: prior divorce or anything like that, and kind of makes
44:24
Speaker 2: it look like she was kind of a naive newlywed
44:27
Speaker 2: who was dragged along on this trip by her domineering
44:30
Speaker 2: husband and wasn't that enthusiastic about it. But actually she
44:33
Speaker 2: was a very adventurous person who really loved her husband
44:36
Speaker 2: and was hoping to make history, possibly go down in
44:38
Speaker 2: the history books like Amelia Earhart. But unfortunately she became
44:42
Speaker 2: famous for a completely different reason, and that was vanishing
44:45
Speaker 2: without a trace. Of course, back when I watched this
44:48
Speaker 2: on TV in the eighties, I thought there was some
44:50
Speaker 2: credence to the idea that maybe Bessie was still alive
44:53
Speaker 2: and had killed Glen and had hiked out of the
44:56
Speaker 2: canyon and started a new life under a new identity.
45:00
Speaker 2: Also wondered like if Emery Cole was involved in their disappearances,
45:03
Speaker 2: and what this big mystery was with the skeleton inside
45:06
Speaker 2: his boat house. But once you do further research into this,
45:09
Speaker 2: you find out that a lot of this stuff isn't
45:11
Speaker 2: as mysterious as as it looks, and that all these
45:13
Speaker 2: angles with like Elizabeth Cutler and Georgie white Clark and
45:16
Speaker 2: the cold skeleton are nothing more than red herrings, and
45:20
Speaker 2: that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one, and
45:23
Speaker 2: Glenn and Besley probably just drowned after falling out of
45:26
Speaker 2: their boat and are still somewhere in the Grand Canyon.
45:29
Speaker 2: I got to give a shout out to the excellent
45:31
Speaker 2: book Sunk Without a Sound by Brad Dimmick, and Ashley
45:35
Speaker 2: was talking about at the startup part one, how terrifying
45:37
Speaker 2: it sounded, the idea of going down the entire Grand
45:40
Speaker 2: Canyon on the Colorado River on a wooden scow back
45:42
Speaker 2: in the nineteen twenties, and Brad Dimmick decided to recreate that.
45:46
Speaker 2: He took the initiative to build his own scow so
45:48
Speaker 2: that he could try to recreate Glenn and Bessie's journey
45:51
Speaker 2: as accurately as possible in order to figure out what
45:53
Speaker 2: happened to them. Even though it sounds like a pretty
45:56
Speaker 2: terrifying prospect in modern times to go on such a
45:59
Speaker 2: lengthy trip on such a primitive boat, but it did
46:02
Speaker 2: pay off, and the book does provide an excellent recounting
46:05
Speaker 2: of the events and comes up with the most logical
46:07
Speaker 2: theory about what might have happened. But regardless, this is
46:11
Speaker 2: still a fascinating mystery, and even though a full centuries passed,
46:14
Speaker 2: it has not been forgotten, and I'm sure people won't
46:17
Speaker 2: be talking about it still for centuries to come.
46:21
Speaker 1: Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
46:22
Speaker 1: about the Trail Went Cold?
46:23
Speaker 4: Patreon?
46:24
Speaker 2: Yes, The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
46:27
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46:47
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Speaker 2: the ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer
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Speaker 2: the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
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Speaker 2: the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
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Speaker 2: first episode that I did a commentary track over was
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Speaker 2: the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
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47:49
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48:08
Speaker 1: Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy