you are now listening to cryptid cocktail party
Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of
Crypto Cocktail Party, a show where we have a
few drinks, share a few laughs, take a dive into
the unknown. I'm your host, Dave. Unfortunately,
Sarge cannot be here today. He is stuck in the
Lone Star State. So I have a special guest lined
up to take his place, and that is my good friend
Dipper from Killed by a Yeti. How you doing,
buddy? I'm doing good. How are you doing, man?
I'm doing fantastic. I'm so glad you're here.
I'm happy we could finally do this again. Me
too. I love coming on here. I love this show.
It's great. Yeah. So what's new? What's new in
your world? What's going on with you? We just
released a new album. You did, and it fucking
rips, dude. Dude, thank you. And that has the
voice actor of Chowder on it, so that's cool.
I love that album. It's my favorite so far. Yeah,
it's really good. Thank you. I'm going to be
honest. I did get a sneak peek of it before it
came out, so I may be biased. It took everything
in me to not talk about it to people. You're
like, you should listen to this. You're like,
oh, wait, you can't. Yeah. You know, it feels
good to be in the know about things that other
people aren't in the know about. You know, I
feel honored and blessed to have been given that
opportunity. It makes you feel special. It really
does. You're like, hey, you want me to listen
to my new song? Yeah. Did Gabe send it to you?
Yeah. Of course he did. I would have sent it
to you, but he has more access than I do to things.
I think he was just eager to have people listen
to it before it came out. yeah we were we all
we all were we were so pumped on that album it
turned out good yeah it was uh it's really really
good uh but we'll talk about at the end you can
plug it more we'll you know maybe tell the people
what it's called you got it uh all right so dipper
i already know the answer to this uh you're a
cryptids guy right yes i love them okay fun are
you a true crime guy I like true crime. I married
a goth girl. So, you know, it's guilty by association
with goth girls. So true crime is just there
and I do enjoy it. Okay. All right. Well, what
if I say today's story is kind of like a combination
of the two? Does that make sense? I'd be stoked.
Would that pique your interest? Give it to me.
All right. It would pique my interest very much.
All right, Dipper. So this week, we are headed
to beautiful Northern California, but not like
the fun version with like wine tastings, hikes
through the redwoods, and tech bros doing ayahuasca.
We are heading deep into what's known as the
Emerald Triangle, which for those of you who
may be unfamiliar, this is like a remote, heavily
forested region that for decades was one of the
biggest illegal weed production areas. In the
country, rugged terrain, not many roads in or
out, lots of money and guns and spattered with
folks that aren't too keen on outsiders or the
law. It's kind of like the perfect place to have
an illegal grow operation. So this is where we're
going to be today and where our story begins.
Are you familiar with the Emerald Triangle at
all? You just blew my mind about a whole weed
operation. Let's go. All right. So in 1993, three
men on a remote grow site in Mondesino County
were allegedly, which is a word you're going
to hear a lot throughout this episode. So be
ready. They were allegedly found dead in the
woods and not like a someone shot them for trying
to raid their crops and then dumped in the woods
kind of way. The rumors were that these men were
torn apart limb from limb type shit. And the
explanation. people gave as to who or what could
have done something so heinous wasn't some rival
crew or robbery gone bad word around town was
that the perpetrator was in fact bigfoot semantics
aside that's that's a movie i want to see all
right so this is kind of this i don't know how
well known this story is i mean it's pretty kind
of well but you're not familiar with the bigfoot
murders No, I'm not, actually. And this is this
is brand new. So I'm I'm glad I came out with
this, but not knowing shit. So I assume you're
ready to dive in to the story. Oh, hell yeah.
OK, so allegedly there's that word again. Sometime
in the fall of 1993, three men working on a remote
grow site off of Spy Rock Road in Mendocino County
were found dead out in the woods by some neighboring
growers. Not too uncommon, but not super common
either. But this is. An area that at the time
was already known for being pretty isolated,
paranoid, and not exactly welcoming of strangers.
What makes this story different than just like
your typical grower on grower violence was the
manner in which they were killed. Normally you
would think shooting, stabbing, hit over the
head with a large branch. Unfortunately, these
dudes weren't so lucky. According to accounts,
these dudes were straight up mutilated. Their
bodies were torn to shreds, their limbs were
ripped off, and then scattered around the site.
Growing equipment and plants were knocked over
and destroyed. But what's weird is that none
of the weed was missing. In this area, weed is
serious money. So if this had been a robbery
or a raid from a rival crew, you would have expected
that crop to be just straight up gone. But it
was left behind, which just added to how bizarre
and unsettling the scene was. And again, just
to be clear, everything up to this point is alleged.
I just want to make that clear. Clear again real
quick, because this next part is where the story
actually starts to become documented, all thanks
to a chance encounter between a journalist and
the men who say they discovered the scene. So
according to journalist David Holthaus, on the
night that this all happened, two men from a
neighboring grow site showed up at a cabin he
happened to be staying at. It's important to
note he wasn't working as a journalist then.
He was just some 20 -something -year -old fresh
out of college. Just dude in the woods. Yeah,
he was like bouncing around odd jobs writing
and then like occasionally weed adjacent jobs.
So yeah, so they show up at his cabin panicked
visibly shaken and barely coherent. They told
him that they had stumbled onto three bodies
in the woods and whatever did this to them. wasn't
human they told them about massive footprints
in the mud strange sounds in the trees and something
large moving through the forest just out of sight
and then they flat out just told them it was
bigfoot and uh and uh at the whole house the
men weren't joking or exaggerating like they
to him they seem genuinely terrified But after
that night, nothing followed. There was no police
reports. No one was called. No investigation
ever started, which I mean, yeah, it's an illegal
grow up. Like calling the cops just because you
found a couple bodies shredded up like pulled
pork is basically like calling them calling in
your own raid. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly.
Hey, I found these bodies, but don't worry about
the grow field in the back. Like they would just
like look over that. Like I mean, I guess murder
is worse than. Maybe not in 1993. I feel like
that was like the height of the war on drugs.
Like you would have been fucked. They wouldn't
have overlooked one for the other. They would
have skipped over the dead bodies and just moved
over to the weed. Probably. And actually, that's
probably truer than you think for reasons we'll
get into coming up. Yeah. So instead of law enforcement
getting involved, the story stayed where it happened.
Among the people living and working there passed
around from grower to grower, neighbor to neighbor.
And as far as the outside world was concerned.
Nothing happened. Again, there was no police
reports, no missing persons, no body, no crime
scene. And inside the Emerald Triangle, people
knew something violent had gone down. But why
did they jump to the conclusion that it was Bigfoot?
Like, where did that even come from? Do you want
to venture any guesses? I mean, I don't know
how prominent mountain lions or some sort of
big cat are out there, you know, or a wolf, like,
you know, a bear. It is California. It is bear
country. Like that's the biggest thing that comes
to mind. I was like, yeah, they were shredded
to pieces. I was like, yeah, do you know how
big a bear is? I mean, bear is valid. I honestly
should have probably looked into some of the
more, some more of the nature that's in that
area. I didn't. I could be wrong because I don't
know if bears are up there. Yeah, that's true.
Well, as I'm sure. A lot of people listening
know, and I'm sure you know, you probably just
didn't put this together right away, is that
Northern California, especially up around Bondesino,
Humboldt, and Trinity counties, this has been
like steeped in Bigfoot lore for almost forever.
It's the same region where the Patterson -Gimlin
footage was filmed back in like the 60s. There's
also like roadside Bigfoot statues, museums,
gift shops, you name it. And if you grew up around
or lived in those woods long enough, Bigfoot
was just kind of part of your life. And honestly,
the woods do a lot of that heavy lifting for
you, too. Like the forests there are fucking
ancient. They got massive redwoods, thick canopies.
It's pretty much dark there in the middle of
the day. Sound travels. That's cool as fuck,
though. Yeah. Distances are hard to judge and
you can hear shit moving around you and have
absolutely no idea what it is or where it is.
So even and even people that like don't believe
in Bigfoot will tell you the woods up there just
kind of feel a little off. I guess. So when you
combine all that with extreme isolation, armed
paranoid growth sites, people already on edge
from raids and a brutal unexplained act of violence,
Bigfoot becomes an easy answer. It also happens
to be a safe answer because blaming a cryptid
doesn't get anyone arrested. It doesn't start
a war with a neighboring grow and doesn't force
you to name a killer who might still be living
20 minutes up the mountain with an AR -15 and
a meth problem. Does that make sense? Just blame
Bigfoot. Just blame Bigfoot. Just blame Bigfoot.
Jeff won't come down the hill and murder us all.
Kind of, yeah. That's kind of the thing. So whether
the men that told the story truly believed it
was Bigfoot or whether they just didn't want
to accuse a very real human being that could
potentially do the same to them, the result was
the same. Saying Bigfoot did it shut the conversation
down. And in a place like Spirock in the 90s,
Shutting the conversation down can be the difference
between staying alive or being quote unquote
Bigfoot's next victim. But but yeah, for decades,
that's where the story stayed. Just kind of like
a fucked up rumor that Bigfoot went medieval
on three dudes in the mountains. You know what
it is? It's like they caught Bigfoot in a stash
and they didn't know it was Bigfoot. And they're
like, hey. And he's like, it was a bad move,
guys. I'm going to kill you now. And then he
killed them and took a little bit of weed. He
at least took like, you know, just. Just maybe
like an ape with him. Yeah. Maybe like a planter.
I feel like you won't miss a planter too in an
operation like this. But how are we feeling so
far on the story before we go any further? Whether
it's real or not, it's a fun story. Regardless,
it's a fun story. That's a fun story. And it
gets funner, kind of. Not really. It kind of
gets sad. But then it gets funner again, maybe.
I don't know. We'll figure it out. It's a roller
coaster. Yeah. But that night, all the way back.
in 1993. And that story was stuck in the back
of the mind of the man who had heard about it
way back when it first happened, David Halthouse.
Now, by now, he isn't some broke 20 -something
crashing in a cabin anymore. He's gone on to
become an investigative journalist covering extremist
groups, outlaw subculture, and violent underground
worlds. And the more time he spent reporting
on these kinds of environments, the more the
1993 story kind of started eating at him. Because
the thing is, once you've seen and reported on
enough real violence like he has, you start to
recognize a pattern. And the whole quote unquote
Bigfoot tore three men apart story didn't really
jive with him anymore as he got older. Like it
didn't sound like folklore or whatever you want
to call it to him anymore. It sounded like misdirection.
So he went back to Mendocino County decades later
and started asking questions. Carefully, of course,
dude wasn't trying to be next. You know what
I mean? While you ask him questions. Yeah. He
just wanted to get to the bottom of what really
happened. And this reinvestigation eventually
became the Hulu docuseries Sasquatch. Did you
ever see that? No. I've seen it, though. Every
time I go through Hulu, I'm like, is it worth
my time? Have you seen it? I have. It's really
good. I should watch it then. Yeah. It starts
out like it's going to be like a cryptid mystery.
Like the interviews, like Bigfoot researchers,
they talk about sightings. typical Squatch documentary
type shit, but it doesn't stay that way for long.
That's sick. Okay, cool. Yeah, because the deeper
Hull House dug, the mystery really isn't Bigfoot.
It was why nobody ever talked about the very
real human beings up there. And as Hull House
started to track down and talk to old growers,
former camp officers, and people who had been
around Spy Rock in the 90s, a different picture
started to kind of form, one that had nothing
to do with folkloric beasts in the woods, but
more to do with money, violence, and power. all
connected to the illegal weed trade, obviously.
That makes sense. Yeah, and for anyone wondering,
when I say camp officer, I don't mean like a
security guard at a campground. Camp stands for
Campaign Against Marijuana Planning, which was
a joint state and federal task force that would
drop into the woods by helicopter during the
fall and summer and raid grow sites. You know,
that's a normal thing that we do. Yeah, it's
a normal thing. I just wanted to clarify, so
if anyone wanted to know what camp meant. So
yeah, so once Hothouse started to peel back the
layers, the Bigfoot explanation fell apart pretty
fast. How it took them several decades to get
there, I don't know. The first thing you learned
was who the victims were, and this is where the
episode gets... kind of topical uh they weren't
random drifters or rival kingpins they were mexican
migrant workers just laborers working the grow
site these were the people who did the hardest
and most dangerous work but had the least power
when shit went sideways and that fact is important
in the early 90s the illegal weed trade wasn't
some chill communal hippie operation like i'm
sure it was at one point It was all about money.
And with that came biker gangs, armed growers,
territorial disputes, and a very clear hierarchy.
And way down at the bottom of that hierarchy
were the migrant workers. So once Holstead discovered
the identity of the victims, it started to make
a lot more sense. The men who were killed weren't
the people that owned the land or the people
running the operation. They were migrants. They
were temporary, paid in cash, often undocumented,
and with the least protections. And if anything
happens to them... There isn't like a clean path
to report it. Can't go to the cops. Their employer
for sure isn't calling the cops. Their families
are hundreds, if not thousands of miles away.
And the other migrant workers working alongside
them aren't going to open their mouths because
doing so could put their names next on the list.
So when these three men were killed, the system
was already set in place to let it just kind
of vanish, if that makes sense. Yeah, I mean,
it's the easiest way to get rid of the problem,
blame it on something that doesn't exist and
just move past it. Yeah. And as Halstead learned,
violence like this wasn't out of the ordinary.
People went missing. People got hurt. People
got torn into pieces and scattered around the
woods like human confetti. And most of the time,
the news never made it past the tree line. It
became just another thing that everyone knew
about, but never talked about. And that's where
this story shifts from victims. to power violence
like this doesn't happen in a vacuum it happens
in a system and in the emerald triangle systems
are enforced by people who sit at the top not
at the bottom and once whole house started asking
who controlled the area one name kept coming
up a local grower and heavy hitter known by the
name can you guess what his name is no bigfoot
gary are you serious So Bigfoot did kill them
technically. It makes sense now. Okay. Multiple
sources told Halthouse that the description of
the murders fit him. Even former law enforcement
admitted that the rumor, quote unquote, sounded
like Gary. Now, at this point, Halthouse even
started questioning his own memory of that night
in 1993. Did the men who told him the story say
Bigfoot killed them? Or did they say Bigfoot
Gary killed them? And that distinction matters
because if the killer had a nickname like that,
it's not hard to see how the story could go from
Bigfoot Gary killed these guys to Bigfoot killed
these guys. You are okay. This is an amazing
story. This is like an, this is like better than
an M night Shyamalan ding dong twist. Like, you
know, his name was Bigfoot Gary. Dun, dun, dun.
it's pretty good it's pretty wild yeah it's good
it's a good i like this story yeah uh whole house
eventually tracked gary down and confronted him
but gary denied any involvement because why the
fuck would he admit to some random journalist
that he literally tore three dudes apart yeah
i was just out in the woods you know just tearing
some of the workers apart it was just telling
some you know what i did on the daily just just
part of my day -to -day But based on all the
evidence, anonymous calls, off -the -record conversations,
and people who were very careful about what they
would and wouldn't say, it became clear to Hothouse
that these killings were deliberate. I mean,
they would have to be. You don't just rip someone's
limbs off by accident. But no, in the sense that
it was a planned hit to assert power, control,
and fear. And the brutality of it all wasn't
even the point. It was the message it sent. You
leave the bodies, don't take the weed, let everyone
see what happens when you fuck with... The wrong
people. Big fuck Gary. Yeah. So obviously the
story isn't about Bigfoot or cryptids. It's just
kind of fun. Not really fun. You know what I
mean. But the reason I wanted to cover the story
is because it's about what cryptids and monsters
are used for in places where the truth is dangerous.
This isn't the only time a monster has been blamed
for something very human. In a lot of isolated
communities, especially ones built around illegal
activity, folklore can kind of act as a camouflage.
It gives people a way to explain violence without
pointing at someone who could hurt them back.
Blaming a cryptid doesn't get anyone arrested.
It doesn't lead to retaliation. It doesn't invite
cops or reporters. It lets people acknowledge
that something fucked up happened without having
to say who did it, even if they probably all
know who did. Does that make sense? Yeah. And
this isn't unique. This isn't unique to Northern
California. You see versions of this everywhere.
Appalachian ghost stories used to keep people
off moonshine trails, shit like that. Alaskan
villages would blame disappearances on wild men
in the woods. And in Mendocino County, Bigfoot
was already a huge part of the culture there.
So it was all right there. So when three men
were brutally killed and nobody could safely
talk about it, the myth was there waiting to
be used. Whether the people spreading the story
truly believes it or not. It really doesn't matter
because the result was the same. A real crime
got buried under a legend. And once that happens,
the story takes on a life of its own. It turns
into a campfire tale, a rumor, something spooky
instead of actionable. And the longer it sits,
the harder it is to untangle, especially when
the people who know the truth are still very
much alive and still very dangerous and could
do the same. You want to go talk to Bigfoot,
Gary? I don't. Yeah. No, thanks. The Bigfoot
story didn't really like. It wasn't there to
distract from the truth. It was there to protect
the truth and protect the people saying the truth.
The amount of history, the amount of like, like
spooky stuff that's used to like cover up stuff.
Like, yeah, is, is, is wild. I mean, like even
if you go in the CIA in the fifties, they were
covering stuff up with vampires. Yeah. The, uh,
the CIA Oswald thing in the Philippines or whatever.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. That's really covering.
I mean, I guess it was. Was it really a cover
-up, though? I feel like it was them exploiting
folklore. Well, it was using them to create violence,
essentially, is what I'm getting at. They were
using it to create violence and be like, you
shouldn't do this or this is going to happen
to you. So where does that leave us? Well, we
know this wasn't Bigfoot. There's no evidence
of a cryptid attack, no physical proof, no pattern
that supports anything supernatural at all. What
does exist is decades of violence tied to the
illegal weed trade. a culture of silence and
a system that made it very easy for certain people
to disappear without consequence. We also know
that the story didn't spread because people were
stupid or gullible. It spread because it worked.
It gave everyone a way to acknowledge something
horrific without pointing a finger at someone
who could hurt them. Like we said before, in
a place like where they are, that can be the
difference between surviving and just vanishing
off the face of the earth altogether. And the
fucked up part is that it worked for a long time.
Like no one was arrested. No one's been charged.
No one has ever officially answered for what
happened to those three men. And that's really
what makes this story kind of stick. Not the
idea of like a monster in the woods, but the
realization that folklore can be used as a shield.
That legends, they aren't just there to entertain
us. They can protect people. Sometimes the wrong
people. It's just so fucking wild. That is a
fucking wild story. Yeah. It is a good fucking,
that's going to be a new Yeti song. Like for
sure. Like I am, that is, that just inspired
me to write a song about, you know, all that
going on, but just been like, but yeah, Sasquatch
did it. You know, Bigfoot did it. It was, it
was him. And you're like, it was really Bigfoot.
Yeah. Like Bigfoot Gary down the road. It was
actually Bigfoot. Yeah. But I think the lesson
here, if there is one, I've, I've never, done
a lesson on the show before is that when you
strip the myth away, what you're left with isn't
mysterious or unknowable. It's just humans doing
what humans have always done in places where
they think no one is watching. Some monsters
don't leave footprints. They don't make a sound.
They don't live in the forest unless you're Bigfoot
Gary. Sometimes they just know the woods well
enough to make the truth disappear. But there
you have it. That is the Bigfoot murders. I'm
glad you enjoyed the story. You got any thoughts,
questions, concerns? The story fucked. Great
story, by the way. When he started it off, I
thought it was going to be an actual like, oh,
they're going to try to present this as like
a real Bigfoot story. But then at the end, like
you're like, it's Bigfoot Gary. And I was like,
dude, what the fuck? Bigfoot Gary. So I feel
like somebody Bigfoot Gary isn't a murderous
weed grower. I feel like somebody Bigfoot Gary
is just like a tall friend of yours who gives
the best hugs. Like Bigfoot Gary sounds like
a nice dude. nickname, not someone who hacks
up texting you in the morning. He's like, you
doing okay today? He's like, you feeling okay?
I heard you were sick. Let me bring you some
soup. That's Bigfoot Gary. He'll bring you pho
when you're hungover. Bigfoot Gary's a nice guy.
I feel like you should have had a different nickname.
Oh, yeah. It's like Bigfoot Greg. You're like,
yay, there you go. Fuck Greg. That sounds like
someone who murdered you for a penny. Yeah, so,
oh, I'm glad you liked it. Do you have any questions?
I really did. Maybe I can answer them. I don't
think I do. Really, if anyone has any questions
or want to know more about it. I'm going to watch
that documentary. Yeah, just watch Sasquatch
on Hulu. It's really good. It's not that many
episodes. I think it's like three or four at
the most. I think you pretty much summed up the
whole story. And it's like, in the beginning,
like, yeah, I have a shit ton of questions. And
by the end, you're like, here. And you're like,
oh, never mind. I have no more questions. It's
all done. It's, you know, it's really sad that
like, all these atrocities can be covered up
by you know bigfoot and then you're like yeah
we know who did it but we're not going to talk
about it because i don't want to die do you want
to die you're like no we'll just leave it here
what's bigfoot that's all you gotta say just
shut the fuck up you didn't hear no evil see
no evil you just go left and yeah it's it's wild
i can't believe that like this type of shit i
can't believe i've never heard this story what
gets me though is that His name is Bigfoot Gary.
Why wouldn't you find another monster or something?
Because if you're just saying Bigfoot did it,
everyone fucking knows who Bigfoot is. Even he
knows. He's like, they're fucking talking about
me, obviously. Who else would it be? You'd think
they would have found a different creature or
just blamed it on a bear. Yeah, I would have
blamed it on a bear. Bears got them. I don't
know if we're bear country that I'd have blamed
it on a cat. Cat showed up. Exactly. Big cat.
Like this big. This big of a cat showed up and
just dragged him into the woods. People weren't
that imaginative back then, I guess. I don't
know. How come it has to be like some poor person
that has to die? How come it can't just be like
the asshole supervisor who's working there and
he's like, fuck you. Go back to work. And he's
like, he's dead. I don't like his attitude. We
already discussed this because they're usually
undocumented migrants. It's not unlike what's
happening today. Yeah, I know, and I feel bad
for them, so I just want to help them and use
my Buster story to stop all the evil against
them. Well, Godspeed. Thanks for having me. Thanks
for bringing me on for this story. Yeah, I figured
you would enjoy it. Fuck you, Sarge. Fuck you,
Sarge. You missed out on a good story. Yeah,
he... He stayed in Texas to miss the good story.
It is what it is. Sorry it took so long. It was
crazy. This wasn't even a long episode. I just
never had to write a mixture of a cryptid story
and true crime before, so I was trying to hit
all the notes. I think it was alright. Whatever.
You did a great job. I love you, Sarge, by the
way. I was kidding when I said fuck you. I want
to give you kisses. Fuck him. That is the episode.
Thank you so much for listening, everyone. Dipper.
Uh, we talked about it at the beginning episode,
but do you think you want to plug where can people
find you, your band, all that good stuff? Um,
I'm a lead vocalist of killed by, uh, killed
by a Yeti. We did the cryptic cocktail theme
song. We just dropped an album. Um, it's got
the voice actor of chowder, um, from cartoon
network on it. And he's really cool. His name
is Nick Jones. He's my best friend. Uh, you can
find me on Tik TOK. I make a lot of Tik TOK videos
about dumb and random stuff. Um, I will piss
you off if you are not empathetic. You know this
already. You know how far I go. And I'm on Instagram.
Find me there. I make dumb videos and talk about
One Piece a lot. Yeah, and I'll put some links
somewhere for people to find you. I'll tag you
in all the posts and stuff like that. But if
you're having trouble finding Killed by a Yeti,
they are tagged in our Instagram bio. And you
can find us at Cryptic Cocktail. Find us at TikTok,
Cryptic Cocktail Party. Please leave us a five
-star rating or review wherever you can. Spotify,
Apple. It really helps. Share as much as you
can. That way, more people can find us. And I
think that is all I have to say. So with that
out of the way, Dipper. Would you like to say
goodbye? And I love you to the audience. Thanks
for watching. Thanks for having me. Goodbye.
I love you.