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His-curiosity-had-a-TERRIFYING-ENDING · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Today's story is about a man and his quest for
0:03
Speaker 1: the perfect photo. He would eventually get it, but it
0:06
Speaker 1: would cost him dearly. We will show you his picture
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Speaker 1: at the end of today's video, but before we get
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Speaker 1: into today's story. If you're a fan of the strange,
0:15
Speaker 1: dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come
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Speaker 1: don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get
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Speaker 1: into today's story. Saturday, April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty seven
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Speaker 1: was a beautiful spring day in the mountains.
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Speaker 2: Of northwest Montana.
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Speaker 1: It was exactly the kind of day that forty year
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Speaker 1: old Charles Gibbs and his wife Glinda had been waiting
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Speaker 1: for for months. The sky was clear, the sun was bright,
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Speaker 1: and the breeze was warm and so at around nine
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Speaker 1: am that morning, Charles and Glenda had a quick breakfast
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Speaker 1: inside of their house in the rural city of Libby,
1:18
Speaker 1: and then they started stuffing their backpacks full of their
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Speaker 1: hiking equipment. Charles and Glenda were going to go to
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Speaker 1: Glacier National Park, which is a one million acre wilderness
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Speaker 1: preserve with alpine meadows, forests, rivers, and lakes that are
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Speaker 1: so bright and crystal blue they almost look like they're glowing.
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Speaker 1: The park is ringed by snow covered mountains, and it's
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Speaker 1: dotted with glaciers, which are huge masses of pure ice
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Speaker 1: that jut up out of the rock and make you
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Speaker 1: feel like you've stumbled onto some ancient frozen planet. The
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Speaker 1: park is actually so otherworldly that when Hollywood producers were
1:53
Speaker 1: looking for a location to shoot the heaven scene in
1:56
Speaker 1: the big movie What Dreams May Come, they chose Glacier
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Speaker 1: National Park as their location. And for Charles and Glinda,
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Speaker 1: this place practically was heaven. It was the place they
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Speaker 1: went all the time to go hiking, especially on beautiful
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Speaker 1: sunny spring days. After packing all of their gear, Charles
2:13
Speaker 1: and Glenda made their way out the front door and
2:15
Speaker 1: began heading to their car. When as they were walking,
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Speaker 1: Charles suddenly stopped short, shook his head, turned around, and
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Speaker 1: ran back inside the house. When he came back out again.
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Speaker 1: He was carrying his camera bag, and so he ran
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Speaker 1: over to the car. He sat down in the driver's seat,
2:30
Speaker 1: and he grinned at his wife, and he held up
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Speaker 1: the bag and he said, now we're ready. Both Charles
2:35
Speaker 1: and Glenda worked for the public schools in Libby. Glenda
2:38
Speaker 1: was an elementary school teacher and Charles drove a school bus.
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Speaker 1: But like a lot of people who lived in Montana,
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Speaker 1: their real passion was the outdoors, and for Charles specifically,
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Speaker 1: his real passion was wildlife photography. He was actually a
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Speaker 1: pretty accomplished amateur photographer. He'd had a couple of photo
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Speaker 1: exhibits locally, and he'd gotten a few of his picks
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Speaker 1: published in the local newspaper. But what Charles really wanted
3:04
Speaker 1: to do with his photography was get one of his
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Speaker 1: wildlife pictures published in a weekly publication called The Hungry
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Speaker 1: Horse News. The Hungry Horse News was a tiny publication,
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Speaker 1: but they had won a Pulitzer Prize, which is the
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Speaker 1: highest award for American journalism, and the Hungry Horse News
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Speaker 1: was famous for its nature photography. Charles had been submitting
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Speaker 1: his work for years to the Hungry Horse News, but
3:29
Speaker 1: the editor kept rejecting them, telling Charles that his photos
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Speaker 1: were totally beautiful, but they weren't dynamic enough. Nothing was
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Speaker 1: happening in these photos. And so that morning, on the
3:40
Speaker 1: couple's drive to Glacier National Park, Charles began talking out
3:44
Speaker 1: loud to Glenda about what strategy he was going to
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Speaker 1: use for his photographs during their hike, you know, what
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Speaker 1: route they were going to be on, and what was
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Speaker 1: the best angle to.
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Speaker 2: Take certain pictures.
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Speaker 1: And as Glenda listened to Charles, she just smiled to
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Speaker 1: herself because it was like, no matter how many many
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Speaker 1: times Charles got shot down by the Hungry Horse News,
4:03
Speaker 1: she knew he was never going to give up, and
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Speaker 1: so she loved his determination and just unflappable attitude about
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Speaker 1: his craft. At around eleven am, Charles and Glenda pulled
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Speaker 1: off the highway and began heading towards the trailhead where
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Speaker 1: they would start their hike that day, which was located
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Speaker 1: at the base of Elk Mountain on the southern border
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Speaker 1: of the park. The route they had chosen for that
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Speaker 1: day was not one of the most popular at the park,
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Speaker 1: and the reason for that was the trail was.
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Speaker 2: Really steep and in certain parts of it.
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Speaker 1: It was fairly overgrown, and so really only the most
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Speaker 1: hardcore hikers would go up this trail, of which there
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Speaker 1: weren't that many, and so Charles and Glenda were used
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Speaker 1: to being on this trail and seeing no one, but
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Speaker 1: they preferred it that way. They loved being alone out
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Speaker 1: in nature. Finally, they reached the gravel parking lot right
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Speaker 1: at the trailhead, and Charles parked their car and then
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Speaker 1: he and Glenda hopped out. They grabbed their bags, and
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Speaker 1: then began walking on this trail. The first mile of
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Speaker 1: this trail brought the couple out along an abandoned road
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Speaker 1: and then over some railroad tracks and then out into
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Speaker 1: this beautiful field full of white flowers. And then the
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Speaker 1: trail really started to get difficult because it basically went
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Speaker 1: straight up the side of a mountain. And as they
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Speaker 1: walked up this really steep part of the trail, Charles
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Speaker 1: was non stop taking pictures of everything he saw. There
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Speaker 1: were deer and mountain goats, and at some point the
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Speaker 1: couple reached a clearing on this steep section where they
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Speaker 1: could look down and see a lake, and they saw
5:27
Speaker 1: there were beavers hard at work building a dam, and
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Speaker 1: so of course.
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Speaker 2: Charles got a picture of that too.
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Speaker 1: Now, these were the days before digital photography, and so
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Speaker 1: all these pictures that Charles was taking.
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Speaker 2: He couldn't actually see.
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Speaker 1: He needed to go home and develop the film to
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Speaker 1: see if anything he took.
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Speaker 2: Was worth keeping.
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Speaker 1: But as Charles and Glenda continued their hike up this mountain,
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Speaker 1: Charles was getting more and more excited about some of
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Speaker 1: the shots he was getting. He felt like they were
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Speaker 1: going to be really, really good, and Hungry Horse News
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Speaker 1: was going to finally accept his work. The couple made
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Speaker 1: it to the summit of this trail by early afternoon,
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Speaker 1: and from up there they had this beautiful panoramic view
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Speaker 1: of all these jagged mountaintops that were covered in snow,
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Speaker 1: separated by these huge valleys and prairies, and Charles and
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Speaker 1: Glenda were the only ones up there, and so they
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Speaker 1: had this unbelievable view all to themselves. And so the
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Speaker 1: couple would eat the lunch that they brought with them
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Speaker 1: while sitting on this rocky outcropping kind of looking.
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Speaker 2: Out over the stunning view.
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Speaker 1: And then when they were done, they packed up their
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Speaker 1: stuff and began heading back down because they knew they
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Speaker 1: wanted to get off of this trail and out of
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Speaker 1: the park before sundown. It was just about five pm
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Speaker 1: when Charles and Glenda had reached the final slope of
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Speaker 1: this steep section of the trail, and they were getting
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Speaker 1: closer and closer to that big open field with the
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Speaker 1: white flowers. And as they're going down this last section
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Speaker 1: of steepness, Charles suddenly grabs Glenda and stops her and
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Speaker 1: puts his fingers to his lips and then turns around
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Speaker 1: and points behind him. Charles was visibly excited about whatever
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Speaker 1: he was pointing at, but when Glenda looked in the
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Speaker 1: direction he was pointing, she couldn't see anything, but she
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Speaker 1: obviously knew that whatever he was pointing at Charles wanted
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Speaker 1: to take.
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Speaker 2: A picture of it. Now.
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Speaker 1: Glinda by this point was really tired from the hiking
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Speaker 1: and just wanted to go back to the.
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Speaker 2: Car and go home.
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Speaker 1: I mean, after all, Charles had taken dozens and dozens
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Speaker 1: of pictures that day, like, we don't need to get
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Speaker 1: one more, and so Glinda would look at Charles impatiently
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Speaker 1: basically suggesting like, come on, we can come back another time.
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Speaker 1: But Charles didn't budge, and he looked at her like please,
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Speaker 1: I want to get one more photo. And so Glenda
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Speaker 1: kind of did one of these and was like okay,
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Speaker 1: and Charles said, thank you, I'll meet you the car.
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Speaker 1: And so Glenda stood there and watched as her husband
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Speaker 1: got his camera out, turned around and began slowly making his.
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Speaker 2: Way back up the trail. And again Glenda's looking.
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Speaker 1: She can't see what he's going to take a picture of,
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Speaker 1: but she figured, you know, he had his plan, and
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Speaker 1: Glenda she turned around and began heading back down towards
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Speaker 1: the car. It didn't take long for Glenda to get
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Speaker 1: back to the car. She got there right around six pm.
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Speaker 1: And when she got there, she hopped inside, sat in
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Speaker 1: the front passenger seat. She turned on the radio, and
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Speaker 1: then she expected to have to wait for maybe another
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Speaker 1: twenty minutes or so for Charles to finish up and
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Speaker 1: come join her. But Glinda, after sitting in the car,
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Speaker 1: was so tired that she accidentally fell asleep. And when
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Speaker 1: she woke up again, she was kind of disoriented, and
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Speaker 1: immediately she looked to see if her husband was in
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Speaker 1: the car with her, and he wasn't. And she's looking outside.
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Speaker 1: It's getting pretty dark out. She glanced at her watch.
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Speaker 1: It was seven pm, which means Charles had left her
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Speaker 1: for at least an hour by this point, and she's thinking,
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Speaker 1: there's no way Charles would have been gone for an hour.
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Speaker 2: He would never do that, he would never leave me
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Speaker 2: alone like that.
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Speaker 1: And so Glinda began glancing around her kind of half
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Speaker 1: expecting to see Charles just outside of their car, you know,
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Speaker 1: doing something. But she was all alone. There was no
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Speaker 1: other hikers or cars. Charles wasn't there, and so starting
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Speaker 1: to panic, Glenda got out of her car and began
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Speaker 1: hustling back onto the trail to go look for Charles.
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Speaker 2: And so she's yelling for Charles. She's looking around.
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Speaker 1: It's getting darker and darker, and there's no sign of Charles.
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Speaker 1: He's not calling back to her. It's just totally silent.
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Speaker 1: She walks along the abandoned road, she reaches the railroad tracks,
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Speaker 1: she gets into that meadow with the white flowers, and
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Speaker 1: still there's no sign of Charles. And she gets to
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Speaker 1: the base of that steep section of the trail and
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Speaker 1: she's looking up at all these trees and how dark
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Speaker 1: it was getting, and she's thinking to herself, if Charles
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Speaker 1: is in trouble somewhere, up there. There's no way I
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Speaker 1: can help him by myself in the dark, with no equipment.
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Speaker 1: No one knows I'm here. I mean, this is an
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Speaker 1: emergency and I need help. And so Glinda would scream
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Speaker 1: a few more times for Charles, and after not hearing
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Speaker 1: any response, she turned and ran all the way back
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Speaker 1: to her car. She turned it on and she drove
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Speaker 1: to the nearest ranger station. Thank you to Better Help
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11:30
Speaker 1: When she got there, she ran inside and immediately told
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Speaker 1: the ranger where her and Charles had been, which trail
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Speaker 1: they were on, and where roughly they were on this
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Speaker 1: trail when she had gone to the car and Charles
11:42
Speaker 1: had turned around and gone uphill to take a picture
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Speaker 1: of something. And as Glinda told the ranger all these
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Speaker 1: details about where they were inside of the park, he
11:51
Speaker 1: really started to look worried. And when Glinda was done explaining,
11:55
Speaker 1: he told her that, yes, we need to go right
11:57
Speaker 1: now and look for your husband, but I can have
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Speaker 1: you on that trail.
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Speaker 2: It's too dangerous.
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Speaker 1: And so this ranger had Glinda wait at the ranger
12:05
Speaker 1: station and the ranger by himself headed back to the
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Speaker 1: trailhead to go looking for Charles. And so the ranger
12:12
Speaker 1: he gets to the trailhead, he hops out. He's got
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Speaker 1: a rifle and a flashlight, and he begins walking along
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Speaker 1: this trail and by now it's dark out, and so
12:19
Speaker 1: he's looking straight ahead with his flashlight and scanning side
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Speaker 1: to side. He's calling out for Charles, and he's walking
12:26
Speaker 1: this trail. He gets all the way across the train
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Speaker 1: tracks through the meadow, and he gets to the steep
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Speaker 1: section and he actually begins going up this part of
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Speaker 1: the trail until roughly the area where Glenda had described
12:38
Speaker 1: Charles going one way and her going back down, And
12:40
Speaker 1: when he got there, there was no sign of Charles,
12:43
Speaker 1: and so the ranger just took his rifle and fired
12:46
Speaker 1: three shots into the air, hoping that that might get
12:49
Speaker 1: Charles if he was in the area, to hear him
12:52
Speaker 1: and call out or do something to indicate where he
12:55
Speaker 1: had gone. But after firing his gun, the ranger heard nothing.
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Speaker 1: By this point, it was approaching midnight, it was totally
13:02
Speaker 1: pitch black outside, and the ranger knew that at this
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Speaker 1: point Charles was missing and they really needed to organize
13:09
Speaker 1: a true search party to try to find him, but
13:11
Speaker 1: they would have to do that the next morning when
13:13
Speaker 1: they had light again. And so the ranger called out
13:16
Speaker 1: a few more times for Charles, and after not hearing anything,
13:19
Speaker 1: he reluctantly turned around and made his way back to
13:22
Speaker 1: his truck and drove back to the ranger station, where
13:25
Speaker 1: he would tell Glenda that he could not find her
13:27
Speaker 1: husband and they would now have.
13:28
Speaker 2: To wait for sunrise.
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Speaker 1: At sunrise the next morning, twenty searchers arrived at the
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Speaker 1: trailhead where Charles and Glinda had been and the searchers
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Speaker 1: had dogs, and all the dogs had Charles's scent from
13:40
Speaker 1: some clothes that was in Glenda's car, And so this
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Speaker 1: big search team very slowly and methodically began moving down
13:47
Speaker 1: this trail. And so they went across the abandoned road,
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Speaker 1: over the train tracks, through the meadow with the white flowers.
13:53
Speaker 1: They got to the steep section of the trail, and
13:56
Speaker 1: they got all the way up to that point where
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Speaker 1: Charles and Glenda had separated, and Charles had gone uphill
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Speaker 1: to do whatever he was going to do. And it
14:03
Speaker 1: was at that point on the steep section that one
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Speaker 1: of the searcher's dogs picked up Charles's scent and took
14:09
Speaker 1: off running uphill, and the searcher whose dog this was,
14:13
Speaker 1: took off running after the dog. And the dog it
14:15
Speaker 1: went up for a little while up the steep rocky outcropping,
14:19
Speaker 1: and then it turned and began going down again until
14:22
Speaker 1: it reached a different meadow, so not the same one
14:25
Speaker 1: they walked through with the white flowers. This was farther
14:27
Speaker 1: away to the right, and in this meadow, the dog,
14:30
Speaker 1: who still very much had the scent, began to slow
14:33
Speaker 1: down and it went straight for this tree that was
14:36
Speaker 1: kind of a standalone tree right at the base of
14:38
Speaker 1: this steep section, and this tree had low hanging branches,
14:42
Speaker 1: maybe five feet off the ground. And the dog went
14:45
Speaker 1: right up to the tree, and then it stopped for
14:46
Speaker 1: a second. And the searcher by this point had caught
14:49
Speaker 1: up to the dog, and so he's looking at this tree,
14:51
Speaker 1: and he sees the ground looks really disturbed, and there's
14:54
Speaker 1: deep gouges in this tree.
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Speaker 2: And then the dog went around.
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Speaker 1: This tree and sprinted another fifty feet or so and
15:01
Speaker 1: then stopped like it had found something. And when the
15:04
Speaker 1: searcher caught up to his dog, he looked down and
15:07
Speaker 1: he found what they feared the most. It was Charles,
15:10
Speaker 1: and he was deceased. His body was totally mangled, his
15:13
Speaker 1: arms and legs were eaten away. There were deep cuts
15:16
Speaker 1: and gouges all over his body, and there was a
15:19
Speaker 1: blood trail from Charles all the way back to this tree. Also,
15:23
Speaker 1: just a few feet from Charles's outstretched hand was a camera,
15:28
Speaker 1: Charles's camera. Now it was obvious that something horrific had
15:31
Speaker 1: happened to Charles, and there were clear signs of a
15:34
Speaker 1: struggle that took place near this tree and then also
15:37
Speaker 1: over here where he was found. There were clear marks
15:40
Speaker 1: on the ground that there was some sort of fight
15:42
Speaker 1: that happened right here. But interestingly, Charles was carrying a gun,
15:47
Speaker 1: but it appeared that he did not unholster it and
15:50
Speaker 1: he didn't fire it. Instead, it almost looked like whatever
15:53
Speaker 1: was happening to Charles, he refused to put his camera down,
15:57
Speaker 1: which is why it was so close to his hand
15:59
Speaker 1: when he finally died. And so it was decided that
16:02
Speaker 1: the only way to determine what happened to Charles would
16:06
Speaker 1: be to develop his camera to figure out what he
16:08
Speaker 1: was taking pictures of before he died, and so authorities
16:12
Speaker 1: would send off Charles's camera roll to be developed, and
16:15
Speaker 1: two weeks later, when they got it back, they couldn't
16:18
Speaker 1: believe what they saw. The photos very clearly told the
16:22
Speaker 1: story of what happened to Charles. This is what happened
16:26
Speaker 1: after Charles left his wife on that trail. When Charles
16:29
Speaker 1: stopped his wife and signaled to her that he wanted
16:32
Speaker 1: to take one more picture up the trail, he had
16:35
Speaker 1: found a photographic opportunity of a lifetime. The warm spring
16:39
Speaker 1: weather that had drawn Charles and Glenda out of their
16:42
Speaker 1: house to Glacier National Park had also woken the grizzly
16:46
Speaker 1: bears in the park from their hibernation, and what Charles
16:50
Speaker 1: had seen up the trail was a mother grizzly bear
16:54
Speaker 1: and her three cups. The first few photographs that Charles
16:57
Speaker 1: would take of these bears were shot from a good
17:00
Speaker 1: distance away, and it just showed the mother bear and
17:03
Speaker 1: her three babies just kind of sauntering around the rocks,
17:06
Speaker 1: not really paying any.
17:07
Speaker 2: Attention to Charles.
17:08
Speaker 1: To Charles, grizzly bears were the most majestic creatures in nature.
17:13
Speaker 1: He didn't just love them, he viewed them as if
17:16
Speaker 1: they were sort of magical in some way. He was
17:18
Speaker 1: always going to local town meetings to speak about grizzly
17:21
Speaker 1: bear's beauty and we needed to defend their natural habitat
17:25
Speaker 1: as such. Anyone who knew Charles knew about his passion
17:29
Speaker 1: for grizzlies. And while of course Charles knew that grizzly
17:32
Speaker 1: bears were dangerous, he also thought that the bears, who
17:36
Speaker 1: were very smart and sensitive, could sense his own very
17:39
Speaker 1: gentle and protective feelings towards them, and so if he
17:43
Speaker 1: was around them, they would never perceive him as a threat.
17:46
Speaker 1: Charles had taken some very good photos of other bears,
17:49
Speaker 1: black bears, but he had never taken what he called
17:52
Speaker 1: the definitive grizzly bear photo. And it was going to
17:56
Speaker 1: be this definitive grizzly photo of the mother and her
17:58
Speaker 1: three cubs that would finally get him a spot in
18:02
Speaker 1: the Hungry Horse News publication. As Charles took more and
18:05
Speaker 1: more photos of these bears, you could see in the
18:08
Speaker 1: photos that Charles was getting closer and closer.
18:11
Speaker 2: And closer to this mother bear and her cubs.
18:14
Speaker 1: It was obvious that he was tracking them, even as
18:17
Speaker 1: the mother bear and the cubs were clearly trying to
18:20
Speaker 1: walk away from him. Finally, when Charles got about fifty
18:23
Speaker 1: feet away from this family of grizzly bears, he must
18:26
Speaker 1: have kicked a rock or stepped on a twig that
18:28
Speaker 1: broke that startled the bears. And so the second to
18:32
Speaker 1: last photo that Charles would take of this family shows
18:35
Speaker 1: the mother bear very clearly turning around to look at Charles,
18:40
Speaker 1: and she's making perfect eye contact with him, as is
18:43
Speaker 1: one of her cubs. Charles would take one more photo,
18:46
Speaker 1: and in this photo you can see the bears are.
18:49
Speaker 2: Not just staring at Charles. They are running towards him.
18:52
Speaker 1: They are charging him, and it was likely after taking
18:55
Speaker 1: this photo that Charles realized the danger he was in.
18:58
Speaker 1: At this point, Charles tried to make a run for
19:00
Speaker 1: it by running down the side of this mountain. He
19:03
Speaker 1: got down to that tree with the low hanging limbs,
19:06
Speaker 1: and he attempted to climb up into it, maybe hoping
19:09
Speaker 1: he could get one more picture of this bear if
19:11
Speaker 1: they would just leave him alone. But the mother bear
19:14
Speaker 1: and her cubs they came charging down. They saw him
19:17
Speaker 1: up in the tree, and the mother bear began climbing
19:20
Speaker 1: into the tree and she reached Charles. Now, she likely
19:23
Speaker 1: weighed about four hundred pounds, and when mother grizzly bears
19:27
Speaker 1: are defending their young, they are absolutely merciless, and so
19:32
Speaker 1: she must have grabbed him or bit onto him and
19:34
Speaker 1: yanked him from the tree. And Charles somehow, after being
19:38
Speaker 1: pulled to the ground and getting slashed and bit by
19:41
Speaker 1: this bear, he managed to break away from her, as
19:44
Speaker 1: we can tell from the blood trail, and he made
19:46
Speaker 1: it about fifty feet away from this tree before the
19:49
Speaker 1: bear chased him down again, jumped on top of him
19:52
Speaker 1: and killed him. When authorities figured out that Charles had
19:55
Speaker 1: managed to briefly get away from this mother grizzly bear
19:59
Speaker 1: and made it fifty feet away from her. They wondered
20:02
Speaker 1: why he hadn't pulled out his gun and shot at
20:04
Speaker 1: the bears to defend himself, but Charles's wife, Glinda, said
20:08
Speaker 1: it made perfect sense that Charles had not tried to
20:11
Speaker 1: harm this grizzly bear or her cubs. He loved grizzly
20:14
Speaker 1: bears and he would never dream of leaving these three
20:18
Speaker 1: cubs without their mother. After Charles's death, the rangers did
20:22
Speaker 1: not attempt to track down this bear and her cubs
20:25
Speaker 1: and do anything to the bears because they felt like
20:28
Speaker 1: the bears were just acting like bears and it was
20:31
Speaker 1: Charles who was in the wrong. And Charles's family and
20:34
Speaker 1: friends would say that is a decision that Charles would
20:38
Speaker 1: definitely support. Charles's photos of the grizzly bear family were
20:42
Speaker 1: published in the Hungry Horse News alongside an article about
20:46
Speaker 1: his death.
20:50
Speaker 2: So that's going to do it. If you enjoyed today's.
20:52
Speaker 1: Story, be sure to check out our podcast. We have
20:56
Speaker 1: over one hundred episodes. Many of them are exclusive to
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Speaker 1: available exclusively on Amazon Music.