WEBVTT - Ep. 230: Run't Over 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:07.680 And leard loading me on the stretcher to put me 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.680 in the back of the amulets. And I looked up 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.160 and the guy attended me. I'd had in federal court before, 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.160 and I remember looking at my boss. I remember grabbing 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.080 him by the shirt and pulling him down, and I said, 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:22.040 don't leave me. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.120 On this episode, we'll be peeking behind the veil of 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:31.160 the same world as we hear a wild story of 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:35.559 attempted murder, a high speed chase, illegal drugs, and steaming 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:40.199 hot irony, all on America's public lands. The host of 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.360 our story is an old Bear Grease friend who spent 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.440 his career as a special agent with the United States 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.519 Forest Service. He spent time under cover, and in a 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:53.120 past life, he was a bricklayer from Southeast Tennessee. His 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.920 name is Russ Arthur. We first heard snippets from his 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:01.360 career in our Genuine Outlaws series on Bear Grease, which 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:05.280 started at episode fifty two. In this Russ described his 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.760 memorable covert interactions with Louis Dale Edwards in Polk County, 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:14.399 Arkansas in the nineteen nineties. But in Russ's real life, 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.280 he's a real turkey hunter and a good one and 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.880 he told two gobbler chasing stories on our Spring twenty 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.920 twenty four Turkey Story series. You might remember him finding 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.720 his father's journal on the day of his dad's funeral. 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:34.920 Russ has lived an adventurous, interesting and rich life embedded 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.080 in the hunting community of Appalachia, bringing law and order 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.440 to public lands, but he's also worked all across America 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.800 and in the latter years even into the far reaches 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:50.240 of Southeast Asia. We'll learn where that passion came from 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:55.200 on this podcast, and hear the story of attempted murder 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.680 on his life. I really doubt that you're gonna want 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.760 to miss this one. And hey, folks, remember that you 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.280 can watch The Bear Grease Render, our every other week 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:09.760 roundtable discussion podcasts on Meat Eater's new podcast YouTube channel. 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:10.760 Check it out. 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:13.280 And I said, why would you be telling me this, 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.320 and a true Appalachian spirit, he just said, you know 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.160 you didn't do anything wrong. It was boys in prison 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.040 are the one that did something wrong. And I can't 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.799 convince some of these members of the community that you've 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:24.640 done nothing wrong. 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:36.560 My name is Klay Nukem and this is the Bear 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:41.600 Grease Podcast where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant search 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:45.359 for insight and unlikely places and where we'll tell the 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.519 story of Americans who live their lives close to the land, 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:55.880 presented by FHF gear, American made purpose built hunting and 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.400 fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as the 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:00.720 places explored. 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.640 I'll never forget it. I was on the passioner's side 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.679 front and it was in a sedan. The agents Drew 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.840 drove Crown Vicks then and they laid the seat back 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.120 and the agent from Georgia got in the back and 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:22.480 it tore his shirt off. 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.440 It's down to his T shirt and would wrap my head. 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:28.720 My head was bleeding, and it's funny how your mind 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:33.920 will drift. And I reached up and I felt this 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:40.400 real warmth in my ear. This may sound a little crude, 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.560 but it's funny how your mind works. I'm coming and going. 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:46.480 I don't know if I'm gonna pass out or not, 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:51.120 but I'll never forget my thoughts were if I'm bleeding 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:55.040 out my ear. This is not good. I've seen Daddy 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:59.080 put down too many dogs, and you know, Son, this 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.200 dog has been hit by car, is bleeding out the here. 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:02.119 We gotta put it down. 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:07.440 Yeah, I mean you know, you grow up in the 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:08.800 South and a round dogs. 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.440 I mean, bleeding out the ear is a bad sign. 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.920 I mean, I don't mean to make light of that, 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:18.720 but that's what was going through my mind at that time. 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.480 How fast do you think the truck was going when 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:21.960 it hit you? 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.720 It probably wasn't going, but I'm gonna say when it 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.000 excel because it slowed down like it's gonna stop, and 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:29.680 it just immediately turned and gassed it. 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.400 And I can remember hearing the gravels. I can remember seeing, you. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.640 Know, and it just that that front end and that 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:38.240 front tire just clipped me and flip me and it 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:39.400 and it raced off. 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:45.479 After that truck hit Russ, it would bust through a 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:49.320 roadblock and lead officers on a high speed chase through 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.960 the smoky mountains of North Carolina, leading into a three 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.279 day man hunt. What twists and turns in a man's 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:01.200 life would lead him into a scenario like this. I 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.160 think we need to go back to the very beginning. 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:08.200 My name is Russ Arthur. 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:12.839 I was born in nineteen fifty nine in Southeast Tennessee. 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.440 My parents raised me and two sisters in the Hickson 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:22.159 Red Bank area of Tennessee and graduated high school in 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.120 seventy seven. I did a lot of construction work during 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.760 high school and during my few years in college did 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:35.560 brick block work and always was a passionate turkey hunter. 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.359 My dad was always a passionate turkey hunter. He was 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:43.480 turkey hunting when turkey hunting wasn't cool, and he would 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.920 always go to the mountains and turkey hunt. And when 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.120 I got about ten eleven years old, he started taking 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.440 me and he always camped in an area up there 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:57.200 close to where our ancestors were born, which is now 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:01.880 National Forest. And there's Arthur Cemetery right there next to 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:07.280 that campground where goes back to five generations of Arthur's 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:08.080 that's buried there. 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:13.760 This camp would be the philosophical cradle of Russ's life's work. 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.800 He was enamored with the men that hunted there, their conversations, 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:20.880 and like the bedrock forming at the bottom of an 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:25.719 ancient ocean, he developed a foundational appreciation for the land. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.640 But I want to go even deeper into Russ's foundations. 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:37.480 My dad was very well respected in the community. He 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:43.240 respected the law enforcement. He was a philosopher son, always 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.039 do the right thing when nobody's looking. He was all 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:51.320 about honor, all about integrity. He was a man of 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:55.560 many talents. He was a beekeeper, he was a housman 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.600 at one time with beagles, and rabbit hunting was his thing. 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.400 He loved the art of shooting. 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:05.120 And he was a very good father to our family. 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.840 Anybody who was around he would grain their respect. But 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:13.680 he was a true woodsman. He knew everything there was 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.560 to know about the mountains, not only their history, but 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:19.440 he knew every plant species. 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:21.320 He really took. 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.520 In everything in those mountains, and he was a self 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:25.440 taught naturalist. 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.640 At Russ's core, I think you can perceive a genuine 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.320 and deep appreciation for wild places, stretching a net of 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:40.120 knowledge that supersedes a veneer of simply knowing about and 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:44.880 hunting on some land. His appreciation is informed by a 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.560 complex sequence of data points. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:48.520 It was real. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.240 As this story unfolds, you'll see the extent to which 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.080 Russ will go to do his job with the Forest Service, 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.040 and at the heart of it, going back to his father, 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.000 is a sacred respect wild places. 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.520 And I was just infactuated by by their skills, by 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.040 their turkey call making skills, by the types of tactics 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.320 they used, and uh just love the mountains. 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.840 And I always uh would interact. 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.760 With the forest Service as they came through, really admired them, 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:24.080 really respected them, and I would always ask them, how 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:25.120 did I get a job with you? 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:27.280 How did I get a job with you? Even as 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.200 a little kid, And they would just always talk to 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:31.520 me and be cordial. 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:35.800 And when I got on up in high school, one 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:36.880 of them told me, said. 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:37.960 You need to get in college. 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:38.200 Son. 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.720 My dad wasn't very high on this, but when I 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.840 told him I wanted to get a degree in forestry, 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.520 he he said, son, if I not told you and 0:08:46.600 --> 0:08:51.160 talk to you enough about trees, so uh, but I'll 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:52.920 never forget that. I said, well, day, it's a little 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.040 more than that. It's a it's a I think it 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.679 would be a good profession. I just knew I wanted. 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.080 I want to ride around those green trucks, and I 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.600 wanted to be part of managing that land that I cared. 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:04.360 So much about. 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.359 The things that catch our eyes children, and the decisions 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.599 we make early in life are critical, often determined the 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:16.559 out comes far beyond the site of the time. When 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.559 I meet people that I respect, I find their formative 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:24.520 influences interesting and Russ would never turn his gaze from 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.400 these early directions that he was looking. But I don't 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.280 think that it played out the way that he would 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:36.040 have predicted. Russ would end up graduating from the University 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.520 of Tennessee with a forestry degree in the spring of 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.720 nineteen eighty two, and his first job was a volunteer 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.320 position as an intern for the Forest Service, where he 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.160 lived in a camper without electricity. Then they offered him 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:49.400 some seasonal work. 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:52.000 For the next two or three years. 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.600 Mark Timber with firefighter held the dumb end of an 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:00.520 engineer tape on laying out, you know, logging roads, just 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.920 anything that they had at the lowest grade level. I 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.000 took it all the time, not knowing which direction my 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.400 career was going to go. I just enjoyed the diversity 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.560 of the work. I enjoyed the people, I enjoyed the environment. 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.280 It was just a I was articled to death. 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.760 Then one day Russ literally got a knock on the 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.439 door from two Forest Service agents from North Carolina. 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.160 They said, look, we've got a job opening coming into 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:33.240 North Carolina. We want you to apply. And I said, well, guys, 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:34.840 what is it? And they said it's a full time 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.080 law enforcement officer job, and for service is just now 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.880 getting into these positions. Most of the positions are you know, 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.000 you'll do ten percent law and ten percent fire and 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:50.120 twenty percent recreation, and you know, thirty percent temper marking. 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.560 But this one's full time law enforcement, and we think 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:54.400 you'd be a good fit. 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:59.880 Prior to this, the Forest Service hadn't heavily dealt in 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.320 law enforcement, but the need was now rising from full 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.360 time officers. He applied for the job and got it. 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.240 I've always wondered who I beat out for that job, 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.680 because man, I didn't have that much experience, And. 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.000 They finally told me I was the only applicant. 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.079 That made you feel good, That made me feel real good. 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.560 Sometimes just showing up is all that it takes. And 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:30.960 to go back to the guys that told him to apply. 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:34.760 Sometimes we aren't able to see the potential in ourselves 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:38.400 and it takes someone else to spot it. That's why 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:44.040 it's critical to surround yourself with selfless, honest people. In 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.640 July nineteen eighty five, Russ would relocate to the mountains 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:51.319 of rural western North Carolina, but he had no way 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.040 to predict the direction of his career would go. 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:00.320 That duty station in North Carolina. It was pretty remote area. 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:01.760 It is in Robbinsville. 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.720 I think at the time Robinsville was seventy or something 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.240 percent US for service and the rest of it was private. 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.720 So there there was a lot of animosity there against 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.000 the Forest Service, and that goes back to some of 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:19.360 the things that TVA did with Fontana in the flooding 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:23.200 of homes and things. But they just weren't a good 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:28.280 fan of the government back in the eighties. 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.319 This is the perfect entry point to understanding the full 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:37.160 story and all its twists and turns of Russ with 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:41.319 the bleeding ear in the crown vic you're gonna want 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.920 to pay attention and don't get too comfortable. Here's the 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:46.160 whole story. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:52.280 Back in nineteen eighty six, while working in Robinsville, North Carolina, 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.720 you know, again with a Forest Service law enforcement my 0:12:55.840 --> 0:13:00.480 first position. There was an unusual group came to the 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:07.439 National Forest and Robinsville was a very quiet, very calm, 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:11.920 very southern type small town. You know, one red light, 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:16.880 two places to eat, one small hotel, just good, easy living, 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.640 very proud. People loved their community, loved their National Forest. 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.200 Most everybody there had some type of a tide of 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.800 the National Forest, whether it was hunting or working in 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:31.719 the logging business. And one day we got notified for 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.600 service did that there was a group going to set 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:39.400 up a camp in a place called Maple Springs, which 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:41.800 was one of the most remote areas you could drive 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.319 to in that county, and there was going to be 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:48.360 a national gathering there called the Rainbow Living of Light, 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:53.120 and said there's going to be about ten thousand people 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:54.240 come in here. 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:55.000 This community. 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.040 This group had become well known in the nineteen seventies, 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:03.880 traveling across the country gathering in the name of world peace. However, 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.680 every place they went to they'd set up in national forest, 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.480 intending to protest the government through their right to gather 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.719 without a permit. However, the Forest Service required gatherings of 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.040 over seventy five people to have a permit, and thousands 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.840 were coming, so there was some head button with the 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:26.040 Forest Service. However, it wouldn't be the Rainbow people that 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.400 wanted to kill Russ Arthur. 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.320 It was kind of like a freak show, if you will. 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.480 For the locals. They hear about it, they don't want 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:35.920 to drive. 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:36.400 Up and see it. 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:43.760 Well, one Friday night, we for Service along with the state, 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:48.320 set up a roadblock just to check for DUI DOI 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:52.160 checkpoint and one of the curves that went up and 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.440 down there because we were now allowing vehicles to drive 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:56.840 up and down, but they couldn't take equipment in and 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:01.120 out now, So we've got a roadblock going on, and 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:05.000 I'll digress a little bit. The fall before that, I 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:08.920 had a run in with a young man up there 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.440 that suspected of hunting berry legal. 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.360 And when I got up. 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.720 With him in a remote area up there, he had 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.440 a rifle, but it wasn't a large caliber and he 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:26.480 claimed he was only squirrel hunting, so I cited him. 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.160 I think it was a forty or fifty dollars collateral 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.760 citation for hunting squirrels out of season on Wildlife Managinary, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.240 And that type of collateral ticket was the lowest level 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.040 of enforcement action that you can take other than a warning, 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.240 and he can mail it in if it's paid on time, 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:48.760 it don't even go on your record, so it wasn't 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:53.360 a big deal to me. Well, time passes were back 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.960 to the national gathering and we're at a road check 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.080 and it's starting to get a little bit dark. And 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.440 this truck comes down down the road and it was 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:05.520 I'll never forget it was a seventy seven forward one 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.120 because I've got a seventy eight still got it. It's 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.360 trucks coming down the hill. And I recognized the truck 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:16.000 of being tied to that family of that boy. I 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.040 wrote the ticket to you live in a small community, 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.480 you get to know everybody's vehicle, what they drive. 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.160 And I was what called the point. 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.920 Person, and I turned my flashlight on and stepped out, 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.600 held my hand up to stop the vehicle, and it 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:36.800 immediately accelerated and turned toward me and ran over me, 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.440 and it caught right side of my leg, flipped me 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.640 over in the ditch, head hit the hit the gravel road, 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.480 and I just I went out for a few few seconds. 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:49.640 The vehicle's gone. 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:55.920 The next thing I know, the agent out of Ashville 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.240 and when the agents out of Georgia that was there 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.840 loaded me up in the back their vehicle was taking 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:07.800 me trying to get me to the hospital. Of course, immediately, 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:11.160 you know, we had five or six marked units at 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:15.159 that roadblock, and I can remember in that ditch, laying 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:20.760 there just seeing them go by, blue lights blazing where 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:26.359 this happened was probably running wide open more than an 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:29.639 hour of the closest hospital, and it's back for the 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.840 days of medevac. And I remember the agent getting on 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:38.480 the radio any radioing to the amulets meet me. I'm 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:41.320 going to be headed to town where the hospital wasn't 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:42.080 in the town. 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:43.720 The hospital was in Bryson City. 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:46.359 You know, if you know anything about Western Carolina, and 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.080 that's you know, that's a pretty long way from Robbinsville. 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.040 But they did have ammelet service in Robinsville. So he's 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:57.040 communicating with the ambulets. I'm coming up one twenty nine. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.960 They almost met each other, and it was almost erected 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:04.000 meeting each other. And I'm still just in it, just 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.280 can't figure out what's going on. And they're loading me 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.560 on this stretcher to put me in the back of 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:13.600 the amulets. Only this can happen in a small town now. 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:19.080 And I looked up and the guy tended me. I'd 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.960 had in federal court before, and I remember looking at 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:25.800 my boss and I did go out after this is 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.080 I remember grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:35.720 down and I said, don't leave me. So next thing 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:37.600 I know, I wake up and I'm in the hospital 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:42.879 and praise God, I'm good. I had had concussions, I 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:47.200 had stitches in my knees, I had stitches and half 0:18:47.280 --> 0:18:50.560 to hide off my back of my head, and they 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:52.359 had to wait awhile for they could give me the 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.719 pain medication cause of the concussions or whatever that process was. 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.760 But when they finally I was able to sleep for 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.360 eight or ten hours. I know what the feeling is 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:10.200 of bet right over by truck, and I just couldn't hardly. 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:10.920 Move all over. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.600 I think the main thing keeping Russ's injuries from being 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:19.800 much worse was simple. He was six foot two in 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:21.679 the neighborhood of two hundred and forty pounds in his 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.400 late twenties. He was tough, but he was bleeding out 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.720 his ear, and that's never good. But an even more 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:33.960 interesting question is what madness would cause someone to think 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.600 that they could get away with this or even want 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:41.280 to do it. But then the situation escalated even more. 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.480 They came and took statements from me. The State Borough 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:49.280 Investigation got involved, and that's when I learned that there 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:49.880 was still. 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.800 A man hunt. There are three people in that truck, 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:55.359 and if you know anything about that area. 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.200 Highway one twenty nine goes from Maryville all the way 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:03.679 up through the mountain around by the Smokies, comes around 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:07.399 the bottom of Fontana Dam and people call it the 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:12.760 Dragon's Tail. It's a very windy road, but that's where 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:13.639 they were fleeing to. 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.080 And it was ironic. 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:21.239 My old boss, the one that first men towards me 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.119 into getting into law enforcement, was the one right behind them. 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:27.800 And if you knew less, you'd know that they're probably 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.040 not going to get away from him. And I learned 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:32.560 all this, of course after the fact. 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:37.439 The truck went around so many of those curves, it 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.800 couldn't hold a curve like a crown vick. Literally he 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:45.080 was pushing them all accounts that I heard later. So 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:48.879 these guys knew what they were doing. All three of 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:51.639 them were locals from that area, very avid. 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.000 Hunters, and it all of. 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:56.960 A sudden ditched and they all three jumped out and 0:20:57.040 --> 0:20:58.320 ran into the smokies. 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:02.800 He was able to catch one. It was a juvenile. 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.760 It was just a passenger. So you've got one call 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:10.960 that's a juvenile that you can't prosecute. And there was 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:11.960 a huge man hunt. 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.520 Stay of Tennessee got involved because This was closest Tennessee 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.320 state line. State of North Carolina got involved with their 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:21.960 highway patrols and they set up roadblocks trying to catch 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:27.280 these guys. So three days hadn't caught them. And let 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:29.800 me get this straight. It was one of the guys 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.960 who was still in there. Dad came to the authorities 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:36.240 and said, need to talk. 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:37.960 I know where they're at. 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:40.840 I'll get them to come out on their own, if 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:42.080 you'll get rid of everybody. 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:45.159 They've got a spot. 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:47.920 Over there to the illegal hunt camp in the smokies 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:51.520 that they're holed up in, and only I know where 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:55.399 it's at. Y'all back out of here. I don't want 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.880 them shot, I don't want them hurt. I'll go get 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:03.400 them within two days, they'll they'll turn himself in. And 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:06.879 evidently this man did a good job of convincing the 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:09.360 authorities that that that would happen, and he held true 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.199 to his word and they brought the guys out, and 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:12.640 one of. 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:14.840 Them was the guy that I had written the squirrel 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:16.600 hunting ticket with m M. 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:22.159 The squirrel hunter. Why did he do this? They were 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:24.280 about to find out why in federal court. 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:30.440 Him and his brother were prosecuted and he got three years. 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:34.360 He was not the driver, he was the passenger. His 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:36.720 brother was the driver, and he got three years in 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:37.560 federal prison. 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:41.760 And the brother that was the driver or the past the. 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:43.000 Paler hunter, the squirrel hunter. 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:44.480 The squirrel hunter got three years. 0:22:44.520 --> 0:22:46.199 He got three years in federal prison. 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:50.639 We were able to find a person in that encampment 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:53.400 that actually came to the courts and testified. 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:55.640 They were on their way up. 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:59.119 They stopped that truck as that truck was coming down 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:03.920 to the roadblock, and they told the driver, you all need. 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:04.480 To be careful. 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.240 The Forest Service has a roadblock set up down there, 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:12.000 and I don't want anybody get in trouble. The passenger, 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.639 which was the scraw hunter, leaned over the driver and 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:18.639 looked at the guy and said, do you know Russ 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:21.360 Arthur And this guy said yeah, said. 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:21.920 Is he down there? 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:26.959