Episode Transcription

00:00 Hey, welcome to things I learned last night. This is a comedy podcast where you learn something new every week. This week is no different. They're learning about the guy that did now yep force. Finn is a Vietnam veteran and wrote a very controversial book yeah and led hundreds of thousands of people on a chase. So yeah, I think you'll like it. This episode comes out on May twentieth, so next month I am on the church comedy tour. We'd love to see it. My shows sure 00:29 and you know, will be in Florida in North Carolina, Ohio, Alabama, Texas. It's very good time, so please come to those all of my shows as always jaron Myers, dot com slash shows. What do you got anything to add? I don't have any shows coming up all right. Here's the episode 00:51 Hey man, what's up? Have you ever heard of forest fan? Forest fan, forest fan, no forest fan. Okay here, let me show you. Let me show you a picture. We'll see if you can tell who he is from this photo. Can you guess now? 01:12 Oh, he's on the phone and looks concerned. 01:21 This is a stock image that you would for a person who is getting the call from the police that their son is in custody and they don't know why yet. He's just like. 01:36 Okay, who's force fan? I hear the Misa. What about now? Can you guess if you see this picture, the stock photo of a guy? He's got some. love this house, so many books. Yeah, yeah, none of them are real. They're all they're all show books. Whatever is the top pottery at the top? Is that what that is? I think so yeah. What is with old guys this age and this 02:03 hat. So a lot of love that in their sixties have the Indiana Jones hat and I really do think it's because when they were young adults, the Indiana Jones movies came out and they were like that so cool. I wish I was that guy. Now they got old. They're like I can afford. can be that guy. I can afford that hat straight up my retirement, my pension, Indiana Jones hat is crazy. My pension will give me that hat. My pension will restore my dreams. 02:26 old dudes love the Indiana Jones hat the way Gen Z loves crew socks same. You know saying like that's like they're they're like oh dude, the trendy old guys are all wearing the all John's hat. Yeah, tell me the story buddy. Oh here. Yes, if you could guess from this, don't know what about this one here. He is pointing out a map. 02:52 Okay fine, I'll tell you about the guy Forest, Forest, Forest, then Forest, then Forest, then all the theme song. We're bringing it back, we're bringing it back. 03:33 Things I learned last night. 03:42 Okay, yeah, so for is fed bored in August, twenty second, nineteen thirty about the same time as the tariffs didn't work. I was an insane thing to bring up sure. 03:59 all right now, so you can always tell when we're recording stuff by like the stuff that is like if you follow you, if you line the episodes up with like current news stories, you can probably figure out loosely when we were stuff yeah. 04:15 because I did the whole rant on the Department of Education a couple weeks ago in that episode and that was like the day that it was announced at the most like to cut it the heart and so we were like you know and then today you're just like the remember the thirties when they put in the tariffs and then it tanked everything actually the tariffs were before the thirties. No, it was nineteen thirty they they enacted it in the middle of it. They enacted it in the middle of the depression to try to lessen the effect of the press and twenty or three. There was a set of tariffs that might have been another set 04:44 I'm that I'm talking about to oh yeah yeah for sure they were like low. Okay, we've dug a hole. Let's dig a bigger one yeah exactly yeah. I'm talking about the nineteen twenty three tears. Let's see nineteen twenty three history of terrorists in the United States. So this week's episode is about this. I guess just because you were like nineteen thirties. Yeah, friggin crazy person over here. 05:10 Tell us about force fin. Oh yeah, force fin so nineteen thirty, political or yourself and nineteen thirty he was born. He came up with that. I it's listen everyone say oh, I'm so tired of people talking about politics. No, you're not. You're tired of people talking about politics. You don't like doesn't be honest about it because you like it when people talk about your politics. You love it. Actually you love when people talk about your paws. What you don't like is when they talk about the politics that you don't have 05:35 Yeah exactly. Oh, I wish because wait because I wish people would be more brave and stand up for what they actually believe and then when they do you're like. I wish that they would quit talking about this whole time. You're like freaking which is it speaking of standing for what you believe. Show me your shirt stand for Sam for what you believe. No context unless you're a true fan. True fans know what it means to honk and bonk all right. 05:58 if you're new to this podcast, figure it out, figure it out. There's only two hundred and seven on a figure out what it means to be a honker and a bonker. A lot to listen to honking and bonking to listen lot to learn honestly, you know, listening back and trying to find that is like rolling a dice. You know, it is kind of interesting because like a if you're one of those people who like starts a podcast like at the 06:24 most recent and goes backwards yeah. It takes you a freaking says it takes you two hundred and sixty seven episodes to figure out why we say fiddle off at the end of every oh yeah. You're like I don't know why they do if you're a person who finds a podcast. You found this episode and now you're like okay. I'm gonna go start from the beginning yeah and you go 06:42 wow, they were really bad at audio back then wow yeah Alex has gotten a lot better over the yeah. He some things in beginning. He was terrible. We sent him to sound school. We sent him to sound school after he flunked out a clown college. We hired him to be a clap that so forest flin no f forst fenn okay forest fan. Okay, so he he was born nineteen thirty 07:11 and then in Temple, Texas, okay, and then he you know he did what a lot of people did in that time and he joined the army went to the army yeah. Well, he actually went air force eventually obtain eight forties. I don't know what year he would have gone. I saw a guy at the airport the other day yeah who had a pin on his hat. It said cold war veteran 07:39 I just... 07:44 you know. You know yeah, I don't know if it counts. Do I yeah you don't get to wear a pin for like I almost went yeah yeah. I could have at any time had to say at any time I could have I was ready at any. I was on the edge of my seat. I could have at any moment you're like any minute. I was staring at the sky when for the bomb to drop cold or vet. I don't know if that counts Alex wrote it down just in case just in case we'll look it up if it counts. He was walking to the airport and I was like buddy 08:14 somebody did you did you confront him yeah valer? I stood in front of him. I say excuse me Sir, that's crazy. Now the forest was awarded the silver star for his service and nom he did Vietnam here. We actually have a picture of him. 08:37 he did Vietnam. He got a so was our from nom. He did. He did Vietnam. You might, you might recognize that of the fame Vietnam. She's dude. He did okay. So you got to have a purple heart as well. 09:07 yeah, he got a purple art, a silver star. He was a pilot, so in the middle of Vietnam, he in a span of three and sixty five days. Okay, he flew three hundred and twenty eight combat missions, a ton and one of them. He actually went blind, 09:25 I know you not you mess with you. Oh my gosh, so does the war thing does that for a little while comes home back to the states and here's a thing. This is something that I feel like you hear about from like ancient history was a thing that happened all the time okay, and like I think it still happens. If you're a war guy, leave it below in the comments. Let us know if this still happens where calling all war guys. 09:54 Hey, did you do war? 10:08 We're losing it, man. 10:13 No, this is you hear about all the time like ancient wars like the pillaging thing where like they go women and they just took stuff. They're like oh, this is my stuff now. Geez, did this guy pillage he comes back from the war and he has a bunch of rare artifacts all of a sudden. No real like explanation of where the hobby lobby got those tablets to right yeah the Bible yeah exactly behind. 10:38 yeah, that's what it was yeah. They got the Dead Sea Scrolls. It wasn't tablets as the Dead Sea Scrolls. No, I think I'm trouble for that. had a couple tablons and retrying. Maybe he comes back. Yeah, it has all these artifacts. Sure. What kind of artifacts we're talking? We have pictures of them. Is that what he was standing in front of and the other photo? Yeah, yeah, so this is like I mean up there. You can see a lot of his pottery that he managed to get. bet a lot of these books over on the side there. It looks like there's a doll hanging from the wall. That's his wife. Okay, or at least that's where he like 11:08 and then I passed away, but he's got this doll that he's like she's in there yeah. Her ashes are in the doll. No, I know. I opened up a baby doll and just poured the urn in the dolls. Have you seen these people online? These are people that exist in the world who are they call themselves fake moms? Oh where they had the doll yeah yeah. I've seen that yeah. Do you have a thought to go with that or did you just want? just 11:35 you remember they exist. I think there was a there was a push that we made to be more authentic on the internet and I went too far. I think we should dial that back quite a bit yeah bring back the yeah bring back like social media used to be a highlight reel. You know you feel a post like the yeah highlights of your life and that's part of the whole push like be yourselves be authentic cut that out. I don't want to see the number of people who are sobbing and are like this is a great time to pull my phone out and make a video of me crying on the internet cut that out. 12:08 Okay, that's fair, that's fair. I agree with you. I just I just got fired from Olive Garden because apparently like you know, it's like and here's the thing is like we do know that's what I'm saying. Like I see you crying on the internet. That's the biggest thing is the videos of people who are crying on the internet. I go. I understand yeah, my friends, they don't talk to me anymore. I wouldn't either if I if imagine 12:38 one of the people you know in real life comes across your tick tock feed yeah, they're crying on the internet yeah. I'm never talking to you again yeah. That's fair, that's fair. Well, I mean I guess it depends on what you're crying about. Let's try real yeah. You could have some legitimate cries. You can have some crap. If it also depends hold on, hold on. If you're making a video and you start crying different, if the video opens and you're already signing, you are a psycho. Go get some friends 13:06 go get a counselor yeah yeah yeah yeah that's that's fair. What you don't do to run from your feelings is join the army do Vietnam and then steal a bunch of artifacts like forest fan, so he calls up. He gets back from the war okay, calls up his friend Rex Rex Aero Smith and he says, which is his real last name. Apparently I don't know if it was that before Aero Smith or if he just like liked it. 13:34 Yeah and changed it. I do not know. I can't find much about him, but he calls up his friend Rex and says hey, I got all these rare artifacts and Rex is like you know what? I've got some rare artifacts as well. Are you okay over there? What are you doing? 13:52 No, don't hear anything. It does it every once in a while. 13:58 okay, go ahead. It's like I watched this video yesterday and this girl she was sitting at her desk and she said hey, if you like this song flash the light and then and for some reason she set her camera up in the other room and so you looked through the doorway into the room where the flashlight was and then she starts playing the song and she's dancing around and then the flashlight is flashing and she's like look the ghost likes the song. 14:25 and really what's happening is like your flashlights almost out of it's kind of a similar thing where you're like oh that's just you're just crazy. If I died, 14:41 and I am forced. My soul is trapped in a house with a teenage girl. That's the other cut. My soul's trapped in the house of the T. I'm saying 14:56 let's take this with a ghost perspective, because the ghost is just mining its own eternal damnation, right and it's stuck in this house and the girls like. Do you like this song? You can't go anywhere, you can't you can't leave it's like it's just hot to go to the for the god for the seventy time of the day. The ghost is like 15:20 alive me. I guess I don't know what the ghost said. I wish I was alive. I wish I was alive. I'd rather be alive. I wish I was alive so someone could kill me right now. 15:35 Yeah, that's true. That's a good bit. You'll see that in my next day. No special that's that's the bummer about being a ghost like you don't get to choose who you ha like they just show up. That's what I'm saying yeah. You don't get to choose your haunts. That's what I'm saying man. I know yeah you have no control over who shows up and that's okay and that's why it's like you had to have a 15:59 a I'm sure all I stick with me, give it to you, haunt owners association, there we go away for go yeah, like a homeowner association. You can kind of control who your neighbors are all, but yeah, some strict rules. If you're a ghost and you die in that house and then some idiot moves in yeah, the rest of the neighbor, oh, go to the neighborhood, have to work together to make sure that the people trying to buy the house aren't undesirable haunts. Yeah, what? Well, what if you would what if what if you're a ghost and then a hoarder moves in 16:29 but then they also die in the house. Now you're stuck. You're stuck with a hoarding ghost yeah, they're hoarding all these other roomate stuff. Yeah, no one talks about that. No one talks about having to live with young ghosts. Of course they're mad all the time. Yeah, young ghost, no control who moves in rapper name. Yeah, young ghost is the new young sheldon. It's after he died. 16:59 now like that was in go so okay. So fan calls up his friend Rex and he says hey young Sheldon is like eleven seasons in that freaking crazy to you. Is that not why other people that there's people who enjoy that nonsense? I guess they look at our show. It's it. They go look at that nonsense. You know what 17:26 Like what you like. Never mind. I was judgmental for a second. That was on me. Yeah. Yeah. 17:34 In the early days of this show, we did like affiliate ads where we were like a sign up for grammarly and use code till and and we got like fifteen cents and now we just do patreon. It's a much better way. It's better for us as creators. It's better for you as listeners and it's a much more fun way for us to interact. We do monthly hangouts like on zoom. We just hang out and play games online and and get to know each other. It's a really fun time so 18:01 but still use our code till in at grammerly dot com because I think it's still I might get like a couple cents from that, but join us on patreon because we're having a great time. If you don't, we're going to have to start doing mobile game ads. 18:18 so he's hard of he calls rex. He says a rex. I got a bunch of cool artifacts and Rex is like me to dude and he's like where did you rob that place to yeah man and they're like we should open up a gallery as they open up the Aerosmith fan gallery. They put Aerosmith first because it sounds cool. Yeah, eventually, eventually Aerosmith 18:44 gets pushed out and it becomes just the fan gallery and this actually becomes there. They're in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a internationally acclaimed gallery and they sell of artifacts, primarily Native American artifacts, paintings, sculptures, other art copies of works from like famous artists to like the they have like and we should we should state these are forged copies of like monase yeah got them in the gallery. 19:14 and because it's Monet, a Monet for they've got this thing to have a valuable ship and in the sea and it's an original because they what they did yeah. They pretended to be cops okay and then they duct taped the security guards eyes shut yeah and 19:40 put him in a basement. He didn't look like a security guard. He looked like a like a stoner and they put him in the base and they stole those paintings yeah and then they turn to Santa Fe San Fates a newsies reference for the you know, but the newsies so yeah and they took a Santa Fe and then they have it they're like it's for just not a real one, but it is a real. It is the real one yeah. You know I'm talking about yeah. I know exactly what you mean. What I'm referencing you're referencing that the heist 20:09 episode we did. I couldn't tell you what the ice was called, but I do know we gardener museum, our museum heist yep, so their gallery over time gets the point where it's it's grossing six million a year in revenue. Oh my so like they're very successful with this gallery gal. Yeah, we should steal stuff. Oh that's what they were doing kind of that's allegedly. That's what I'm saying. Like were they stealing everything well allegedly okay? 20:36 Well, I mean, I guess matter of fact, now that you bring it up in two thousand nine, that's the I he never even went to Vietnam. He comes up that he's not even real. He does nine the FBI shows up at his house as a part of Operation Cerberus Action, sick, which essentially was this this FBI sting, okay, where they it's a little weird like it's 21:06 primarily in this one city in Utah, but there's a couple people in like around four corners, yeah and then some people and then some people in Santa Fe, New Mexico, okay that were targeted and there's about a hundred armed FBI agents on the same day when they found what was allegedly a grave robbery ring. Oh, much people who were robbing native stealing Native American are artifacts from burial grounds. 21:35 and is a part of like a I don't know what to call it like a like an effort from the US government to write some of the wrongs that we have committed against the Native American population over history, and so they were cracking down on. learned about any of that. They're cracking. I only learned about how great this nation is yeah, so they were cracking down on never to you and as you want to see how bad we are as a country and this is listen. I'm proud to be an American proud to be. not saying that 22:04 he's acknowledging. We you were looking at how many buffaloes we killed yeah a lot of you ever see the pictures of the book like let's just look that up yeah. It's pretty crazy. The gander yeah we can't do an episode on it because it's not funny. It's not funny neither is this story. This is real serious, so what was funny about it was no, so they they did confiscate a couple items from his home yeah. He didn't get arrested though 22:32 but twenty three people did get arrested okay for being a part of this grave robbery. He was like I just bought it off a guy yeah. I'm a little confused how he didn't get arrested sure, but as a result there was three people who were targeted by the FBI that ended up taking their own life and it was became a massive scandal like because it was like the FBI cause these people's deaths and the FB is like FBI was like those people broke the law yeah. I don't think we yeah and they were like they were like they took their lives because they were afraid of the consequences of their actions. 23:01 which and so it became a huge scam. Me trying to hold you accountable isn't yeah me yeah yeah, so it became this huge scandal right. He was involved in that. This well, if you didn't try to hold him accountable, then they wouldn't have had that mental breakdown and you're like okay yeah all right, and so meanwhile there's this kind of there's this thing brewing in forest in forest fin and it dates all the way back to the nine nineteen eighty eight. 23:31 because in nineteen ninety nineteen eighty eight. This is going to sound crazy the way I started this fifty eight years old yeah, so in nineteen eighty eight he's diagnosed with cancer okay, and he's a big outdoorsman and so he said that he's a big outdoorsman. Remember he's also got a bunch of rare artifacts and so in nineteen eighty eight when he's diagnosed with cancer, he decides you know what when this becomes terminal when this gets to the point where it's like oh you you only have a few months to live. He's like I'm going to bury a treasure 24:00 and then I'm going to take my life on top of that treasure. That's what he decides. He's like that's how I want to go okay, and so he starts putting together his treasure and so he goes through some of his favorite artifacts that he is acquired somehow and putting together a treasure okay ends up going into remission and becoming totally fine, and so he's just for a couple decades. 24:29 sitting on this treasure that I saw a stat as far as cancer goes yeah. Sometime in the last like ten years, we we crossed the threshold where more than fifty percent of people survive. Oh now I didn't know that that's crazy. Yeah, I don't know which what year it happened, but we now have a higher survival rate of that's wild general cancer. That's insane. I don't know that at all. That's wild and you know what did that science medicine doctors science 24:59 Yeah, that's crazy actually, so he sat on this treasure for like twenty years and that lady who can smell cancer. That lady, can smell it. He sat on this treasure flight twenty years that he put together and in two thousand nine he gets rated and he's like the clock is ticking and bury this treasure already. No, when he was when he was preparing his stuff, no he didn't bury it yet, but he paired a treasure. 25:23 and was waiting for him to be terminal. Then he's like I'm not yeah. We can sell that we can get rid of that over that. That is that's treasure. 25:35 part of my treasure for us. That's a build a bear. 25:41 That's a build a bear that you hug on the wall. Pardon my treasure. That's my wife. She's in there. 25:50 You don't know. 25:53 there's a girl in the bear. What girl in the bear? Okay, what does that mean? 26:04 so so he survives. He gets rated survives the raid and then says the clock stick and I got to hurry up. I think is what happened. We don't know for sure he's never out come out and said the clock is sticking. I got to hurry up, but what happens in two thousand and ten a girl in there? 26:26 the FBI raid clock is tick. I got to get going fair. I was they're looking for artifacts like Sir Sir. Do have any rare? I got to go and he says there's a girl in the bear and they say that'll be all Sir. There's a girl in the bear. You can stay. You're clearly insane. It's fine, so there's a girl bear clock sticking 26:57 Okay, so twenty ten he puts out his memoir and he self publishes it. It's called the thrill of the chase, a memoir heck yeah, and so he goes to a local bookstore to sell his memoirs, my local bookstore. No, it's just like he's like he's like hey. Will you sell some of my books and they're like sure? I don't care and so he puts it's just a collection of short stories from his life right and then on one page there's just this 27:25 and it just says the thrill of the chase. It's a map of the Rocky Mountains and on the side of it here, home is a poem and I'm going to read this poem to you. You want to hear it, please, can you put some music behind this begin it where don't put music that fits the poem. I to be really clear like I thought you're going to put some kind of soothing music or something behind it. No, no, I don't put some soothing music behind 27:53 Okay, so put some put the sound of rushing water by you know like like one that's like a creek bed or something like ASMR never mind. 28:06 Never mind keep it silent actually just mute him. I'll let him talk all right. It says begin it where warm water waters halt okay, all about that and I can read and take it in the canyon down not far, but too far to walk put in below the home of Brown. From there it's no place for the meek. The end is drawing ever nigh. There'll be no paddle up your creek, just heavy loads and water high. 28:37 If you've been wise and found the blaze, look quickly down your quest to cease. But Terry scant with Marvel gaze, just take the chest and go in peace. And then he just straight up says, I've hidden and buried treasure. 28:58 I love something like a rhyming. I was up take the chest and go in peace. I've hidden two point seven million dollars in a chest in the rocky mountains and you're like oh, you try to rhyme that he says. He says I've hidden a collection of my artifacts in a ten inch by six inch chest bronze chest is somewhere north of Santa Fe in the mountains and he adds a picture of all of the artifacts and so it's like it is gold 29:27 it's necklaces, it's rare metals. There's like a some sort of rolled scroll thing in there okay, and so the estimate is that this is depending on the appraisal value. Well, after people see the quality of it, some are between one million and five million dollars worth of artifacts in this chest and the chest itself is also an artifact that right and he says I've left it. Whoever finds it can have it and what year did bury it two thousand and ten 29:57 is when the book is published and so so this goes to the local store and the store, the shop owner's like I don't want to sell your book and he's like there's a treasure hunt in it. 30:15 there's a map in the book. She says there's a girl on the bear and a map in the book. I don't understand. Yeah, you'll never find it. You're not going to find it. You're not going to find it. This is like in two thousand and twelve when just eleven rather when dodge released the all new dodge journey. 30:45 and this is real and they this I know whether it doesn't live in doesn't twelve sometime in that window when the dodge journey came out dodge he like four or five different dodge journeys around different places and then they just in the commercials would just show a picture of the of like a road sign or like a tree. I kind of like that game that people play on tick tock. 31:12 the geoguesser and literally they were like the keys are in the car. That's crazy and they just gave away five dollars and they were all like pretty sick. They were all located near like you know, a beautiful scenery kind of stuff. None of them were just thinking a parking lot at a best by G. You know yeah, but yeah and they just gave away guys journeys. That's kind of cool. It was pretty sick. Did everyone find him? 31:38 Yeah, the problem is the dodge journey sucks. I don't know if you've been in it. I don't even I couldn't even tell you what a dodge journey is size SUV, not a good car. Oh yeah, it looks like it looks like a mini van look, but it's like journey release trying to not look like a mini van. Yes, yeah, maybe you'd like it. You seem to like bad things. I do think we pretend that many van doors aren't as cool as they are. 32:04 I was just thinking this the other day. I it's so crazy people are like oh Tesla doors like guys we figured out doors already yeah guys. It's really cool. If you look at a van door, how it opens and we have that big of a it's so sick. The Ford Econ line vans we have were open in bad too much space too much mini van so sick sick. We used to do that. Did you ever ride with Michael borders and his mini van? 32:33 and I can't say that I have many van door was broken so like or is it was either right. You'd write it like a chopper. It was either broken or it was before they had the safety feature, but yeah you could open it and he had the swivel seats, so you could you could open the door and swivel and hang your legs out and we used to he would get so mad, but me and Todd we would Todd same guy who drank everyone's waters. We would we would yell chopper gunner. We would open our doors, swivel our things and we would take his ice breaker or his ice. What do call that ice scraper? 33:02 and we just get on Glenstone and everyone would look at us and be like you guys are dumb. I'm calling the yeah guys look like a bunch of losers and that I'm pretending you're a chopper crazy. You didn't have a girlfriend in a Vangel. That's crazy. Yeah, I had a girlfriend at Missouri State, Missouri State University, go bears. Where were you going with that? So do you look up the Dodger any release campaign? Yeah, I did. I closed the tab though, all right, 33:33 so we'll say after the fiddle, that's the stuff you can pay extra to hear us talk about is the dodge journey release campaign. So he puts he takes a book. They're like they were not interested. He's like there's a treasure hunt. They're like that's a great idea. That's a good way to market this book, so they take it and he's like well, don't tell it, but it's kind of a fun little it's got a fun little like surprise that they finished the book. I also kind of want him to read the story. It's a beautiful love story of a 33:59 you know of a thirty two year old man and started twenty six year old gal. She shows up out you know he's in nom. I don't know if you know, but I did that and 34:13 She's there. 34:17 It's more eloquently written in the book. Yeah, it's put a little better now she's the story ends. I'll give away the ending. She's in a bear. 34:28 You 34:35 but her ghost told me that she likes the music I've been listening to lately, so that's all your books. If you leave this store right now, I'll buy a thousand of these please get out of here and never come back. So he puts the books out. He starts going on some local like daytime tv shows to promote it and it becomes a relatively and when I say daytime tv, I should be clear like 35:01 daytime public access television in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It's just yeah local daytime tv, but it garners some attention. All their sets look like this. You know, saying all their sets were like that black curtain with the round table. Yeah, that's exactly what public access television was. I wish we could put this on public. We can right. We can put this on public access. Yeah, we can make some calls that be freaking whole like the eleven o'clock hour of pbs. We get on the public at access 35:32 that's kind of sick. Actually, we should call ever green and see if they can make that happen. 35:43 Well, if you're watching on public access, it worked in it. If you're not 35:50 sorry so that's my new tour campaign is just trying to get on public access television in that city and I'm just like I'm literally going to only sell tickets to people who watch public access TV. Yeah okay, so Alex just send us a link, a link to sign up for public access TV, also to join his door dash order. 36:15 he's like yeah. Can you guys pay for this? the story, please I do so dozens of people does go start looking for this treasure and they're all looking in the like mountains north of Santa Fe right yeah. Here's the thing about the people who find this. They are the kind of people who watch public access television, so not like outdoorsy people. This starts slowly spreading an online community forms and it slowly spreads and over the course of the next few years it goes from a few dozen people in Santa Fe 36:43 to a few hundred people in New Mexico to a few thousand people throughout the Rocky Mountain region. And again, these are not the kind of people who are really outdoorsy people and understand the outdoors and so they're going out and they're putting themselves in dangerous situations. Yeah, in situations that are yeah, dangerous. If you you're not aware of what you're doing, you know, like it's inherently dangerous. Some of them are dangerous like there was 37:11 There was a group that had to get rescued from the Grand Canyon because they tried to repel down the walls, but they didn't have enough rope. They didn't calculate how much they needed to rope held down, and so they had to get rescued, which also didn't know this, but they got fined four thousand dollars each and they got a seven year ban from the canyon for that because yeah, because they rescue like you have to pay for your rescue. No, my buddy, Derek, got rescued for free. Well, it must be just depending on the park then. 37:39 I don't know these guys got a foot and maybe maybe in that case it was like oh you weren't doing anything wrong. Maybe maybe because this is like you were irresponsible were you repelling down the canyon without a permit to do that yeah. Maybe it was like yeah you did something you shouldn't do yeah. You were being a dumb yeah. If this he was he was being a dumb, but he he just went down a hill, but didn't know he couldn't get back up yeah yeah yeah they helicopter rescued him. That's hilarious actually yeah. 38:08 Because his friends are, I think I told her the podcast before I thought. 38:11 but his he's with a group of friends helicopter comes to get him and they just flies away. You have no way the helicopter doesn't go hey, meet us at the jack stack down the road. You know we're taking them over to we're going to go to hardies. You guys would have me to there. It's just like they're going to take it. I just go. Oh, I guess we're to find out where the helicopter went. We got my friends that that was hopefully that was the rest. That was the because the what a billionaire takes Derek away. 38:41 and then five minutes later, the park rangers helicopter rolls up and you're like wait, who was the other helicopter? I thought that helicopter was the hell got every every base. Oh he's other with the sunglasses and his ripped arm. You know he's not doing legs and he's like 39:01 yeah. He's like I got that guy. I got that dumb in the white park. He blinds the park rangers helicopter with the shine from his bald head like he's like a laser. 39:14 I'm tired of Batman villains being like super realistic like one that shines the sun off his bald head. You know saying give me like a yeah, give me like a villain. It's like bad is my shrink ray. You know those instead of like this. I was came from a dark. My dad cut these scars and my shot. I don't want to able to relate with your villain. I want to know if you went crazy. You do that makeup every day. You know, I don't need to be like oh my mouth is just shaped like this now 39:44 my wife is in the bear. You know so anyway, so a bunch of people who didn't know what you do it. We're shrinking, we're shrinking Robin. Ah, no, that's the kind of stuff we need. I need Jeff Bezos to be shining and lights off this bald glistening head. Okay, so this blows up on the end of that this blows up. You see the glare right? 40:09 I mean you've been looking at nothing but it. What am I talking about? You see it right you've I mean like we're getting messes up. We don't even use a white balance thing. We literally just sit down and they white balance off the glare on his head. I told my wife the other day. I said what would you think if I died in my hair gray and he was like and she was like she was like why would you do that? She's like that. I'll just make you go bald faster because you have to bleach it. I got had the bleach it to go great. Oh true and I told her I said well here's the deal. I'm going to go bald in the next five years, no matter what 40:37 and I was like so I feel like I don't think it's thinning that fast. I don't think I don't think I think there's I think there's crap for it because it's not that bad. I don't think I'm going to make it to forty with hair and so I think that I need to if I ever want to go gray do it soon, because I'm not going to have a chow. My supposed to be a silver foc. If I don't die my hair gray now, 41:06 I might miss my chance at going gray. If I don't force it, 41:15 she thinks is a bad idea. Thousands of people are now looking for yeah, it becomes like this big online community. They're all doing they call them solves. They're all putting together their solves sure where they're they're online. They're sharing what they think and it's all over the map. It's everywhere from the hot springs in New Mexico to the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone to the middle of the Colorado. It's all over the Rocky Mountains, people's solves yeah because you heard that poem it 41:42 is not very descriptive like it could be pretty much anywhere. What is also happening is he's continuing to go on these daytime PBS, local access, San Fae, new he's like shows. No one's found it. He's doing these interviews and he just keeps giving out little hints. Oh and these interviews and so he's like sharing these little little tidbits of hands and so people are putting together what this could be. It's growing, it's becoming a bigger thing and it lasts until twenty sixteen six years of this 42:12 chase that people are going and a guy by the name of Randy Ballou. He went working as he died at this point. He's alive, who the forest for yeah forces alive. Okay, so Randy Bill you goes looking for the treasure thinks he knows where it might be, but then he goes missing and long story short, a couple weeks later, some workers discover his body floating down the Rio Grand River. 42:41 and they couldn't determine the cause of death, but he that he went missing out searching for the treasure. So then this becomes a national scandal news all over the country, like twenty four seven news channels are picking it up and doing running stories on this treasure hunt leads to yeah, a man going missing and dying in the in the Rio grand and so now he's getting put under all this media scrutiny and they're asking them all these questions. 43:08 trying to say. Are you going to cancel the hunt? Like are you going to call it because now it's like dangerous yeah and he puts his foot down and basically says no, it's his fault. He doesn't say that, but he kind of does like he doesn't say it's his fault, but he says if he a quote he said over and over again. He said if if child drowns on a swimming pool, do we drain the pool? He said no, we teach the kids how to swim and so he's like 43:32 he's like he's his whole motivation for the hunt and what he had said multiple times is like he's like I want to encourage people to get off their couch and go do something and like go out in the world. He's like the rocky mounds are a beautiful place like I've spent. He was a average like fly Fisher and he loved all like the outdoors, a big outdoors man and so he wanted to create something that got people going out and living out in the world, something kind of fun and so he thought that the good outweighed the bad here, but this become him like 44:02 digging his heels in on that made it even more scandalous and so more and more coverage was happening of more and more pressure getting put on them to cancel the hunt, but he just want to do it yeah that pressure and that publicity blew the hunt up and so it went from a few thousand to over a hundred thousand people participating in this now trying to figure out what there is is because they're like oh somebody died looking for a treasure. I should do it yeah. 44:26 and so and all this was super popular two thousand sixteen, two thousand seventeen and then Pokemon Go came out and everyone's like this is way easier. It's so much easier to find the Pokemon digitally yeah yeah and so this is where it just reaches astronomical levels and so the situation in the news and in the publicity of like the death starts to simmer down a little bit and but now there's hundreds of thousand people doing this. They're posting videos online, they're posting YouTube videos, sharing their solves all the series, 44:56 showing videos of them out. They call it boots on the ground, doing their searches out in somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and crazy videos of people getting bit by snakes and like snowmobiling and crashing their snowmobiles like it's all over the Internet. So the Today Show is like, well, this seems like this might be good television now. So the Today Show starts having him as a regular recurring guest, almost like biweekly where he comes in and he shares a hint nationally on the Today Show. And so 45:25 okay, it becomes it's now like a larger than life thing sure and the majority of people that are participating in this are they've read the book, they've read the poem, they've got their solve, they have the theories, they're going out there camping, they're doing their hunt, they're doing whatever there's a handful of people that are getting a little insane. For example, there's a guy. Let me see what I can't remember what his name was 45:51 but his name doesn't matter that much. There's a guy who becomes convinced. Okay, there's a guy who becomes convinced that the that the treasure that the poem leads to forest fens house and he's like the treasure, he the treasure in his house. He's like that's why his name is Robert Miller and he's like he's like so I need to go there, so he flies from Pennsylvania to Santa Fe, New Mexico. 46:21 and he waits for force fend to leave and he breaks into his house and he steals a chest from his house doesn't open it because the chest was filled with clothes, but he sees this old looking chest. says that must be the treasure and so on his way out for his fence, grandson happens to see him. His grandson's an adult and by the way, this isn't a kid, his grandson sees him and basically like blockades him from getting off the property until the police arrive. The police show up and we have this body cam footage 46:50 with this subtitle. I'll let you read this. I thought the poem directed me into I thought it said it was in his house as I thought it said. I thought the poem directed me into here and the best part about this is in the body cam video. You can hear the cops say a poem and he said yeah, the treasure hunt and the cops like 47:14 like you can just hear that audible. So okay yeah, so there's this and then there are people calling forest and like threatening his life to be like if you don't tell me where this is, I'll kill you and then there's also more. 47:34 Thanks for checking out this episode. you like it, there is some great news for you. have a mailing list. that mailing list, we give updates on past episodes. So things in the news, things that happen for episodes. We've got over 200 episodes we've done and every week things are changing. New updates are coming out and we're keeping you up to date on what's happening in the happenings of Till and Topics. So if you want to keep learning stuff, even beyond the content of the episodes, that's a great place to do it. Also, we give updates on things that's happening in the Till and Verse. 48:00 I like that. I've never said till inverse before, but I'm sticking with it. If you want to know what's happening in the till inverse, that's the best place to do it. You can go to till and dot com. There's a link in the description or you can text till into six, six, eight, six, six. There's a lot of ways to sign up for the mailing list to make sure you keep up to date with everything that we've talked about and everything that's going on in the till inverse. But anyways, now back to this episode. 48:26 there's also a guy. Oh, I've got cancer anyway. I was supposed to be afraid of you. I did. I did not, so you know you're talking to survived this cancer. I'm the treasure guy in the treasure that everyone's talking about yeah, so he gives he could very clearly is like loving the attention by the way yeah. Oh for sure there's like 48:49 conferences he's holding where he does book signings and like he meets all these people at the conference making so much money from this. Oh for sure he's a lot of book sells. All we got a public appearances is say here's the play say you have hidden a treasure not actually 49:05 and then write a book about it. Do the conferences make enough money that you can then actually bury a treasure right? Well, here's the thing. It was a pretty big conspiracy that there was no treasure at this point, because now it's like it's been eight years. It's like there's no way there's actually a treasure out there. This was just a marketing poi, and so now he's having a backtrack and be like no, there's a real treasure. I promise you there's a real treasure. You guys guys guys guys guys. What I'm saying is that then you can make enough money that you can actually bury a real treasure 49:34 and then you let someone find it yeah, so then you go, but I've also buried another one and you just bread crumb them yep, yep. You just slow and for twenty dollars a month, you can join my my patreon and I have special, special hints in there. My premium hints her group anyway, so the another guy, another guy became convinced after reading the book and the poem. He became convinced 50:05 this is crazy. He became convinced that the treasure was forest fens grand daughter and he wanted someone to marry her and if they could figure out the poem, then they could have her no force. I figured out a poem. She's mine. That's not what the poem is the no, no, no, I figured it out. She's betrothed to me yeah yeah, because I just I solved it and then she's like he's on that 50:34 like what's the yeah, it's a little crazy grand dad. He did he did solve the treasure. Yeah, I am the treasure. You do call me treasure grandpa. No yeah, so and it actually became very serious like he started stalking her and they had to the whole family had to go into protective custody for a little bit until they got the guy like it was a major serious thing yeah so 51:00 this is obviously oh and then in twenty seventeen I almost forgot in twenty seventeen three more people died out doing the hunts. There was a group of people who they tried to they rented snowmobiles to go up in the mountains, but they were not graded for the amount of snow that they traveled in yeah got stuck, died another pastor drown got stuck, died pastor yeah pastor went looking for a pastor Paris Wallace. 51:28 from Grand Junction. He went out there and I think I believe he drowned because he was found downstream seven miles from where he said he was and then another one in also in Colorado also passed away looking for his raft overturned and he got trapped there. I crazily though he went out there with his dog like a little shit Sue and they found his dog survived, but he 51:58 died and it's like the raft somehow like overturned so and then so at this point now the pressure is getting stronger and stronger and stronger to cancel call off the hunt and people are starting to say okay one person died last year three people died this year. There's more and more attention getting put on this more and more people are trying this who don't have any experience in the outdoors, putting themselves at risk and so he starts putting out some hints to be a little bit more like hey 52:27 don't be dumb yeah, and so he starts saying like it. He starts putting an elevation limit. He rules out specific or he says it's not in Idaho. It's not in Utah. He says don't go anywhere where a eighty year old man couldn't go because I put this there and so like he starts giving a lot of hands to where it's like this is this shouldn't be dangerous like you should never be dangerous and so nobody dies in twenty eighteen. Nobody dies in twenty nineteen, but in twenty twenty 52:57 Oh yeah, you are outside in twenty twenty in March twenty first twenty twenty, the fifth person was killed out here outside of the Danis Dinosaur National Monument, searching for this for the treasure again, and so I feel like you spent so much time beginning the episode talking about this guy and then really it's about the treasure. 53:23 But now you're going to be like trying to rush the treasure story at the end because you're like, oh shoot, this is super long. And I just need you to know, I'm not going to take the blame for that. 53:34 he's like this is really interesting here at the end, but you spent the first half of this being like forest. He was in he did nom and so he's got these. He's got this museum and he did like the antique road show and also he made a map. People have died searching for this treasure like that's the interesting part. Maybe jump to that next time dude. 53:59 because I'm thinking like the way that I'm going to have to market this episode is about the treasure hunt. People are going to find the episode and they're going to sit through thirty minutes of me being like honking and bonking and they're going be so like no one's going to get to this point of the episode. 54:15 It's really freaking annoying. 54:20 So in twenty twenty, March twenty first who died. It was I scrolled so far past that Michael Wayne, sex in yeah he yeah he passed away looking for it. Here's the thing throughout the course of this. This blew up to the point where Buzzfeed did a search for it, Discovery Channels Expedition unknown did a search for it. There was a show on Apple TV about it like 54:48 this was all over the place like this was mainstream big news. It became a best selling book yeah, but again so much controversy because so many people are getting hurt. So many people are dying and so they're telling them to call it off his granddaughters getting stocked. Yeah, his house has been broken into. She's now mary to a psycho. They went through with it and it's it's twenty twenty, so this has been out for ten years. People have been looking for this, and so there's a lot of chatter online about what's going to happen. The 55:17 lockdown starting in twenty twenty, and so this is kind of this weird like double edged sword because more people have more time to do solves, but some parks have weird rules and weird hours now. So like things are getting harder to get into and do the searches. There's not a lot of word from forest for a while, and so there starts to become some speculation that oh he's going to shut it down and then he comes forward and he says somebody found it. 55:46 and he says, but they wish to how would he know? Well, I what I should say is there was a one extra item that he kept that he was like. I will give to the person who finds it, but you have to bring me the treasure for to get that other item, and so it was kind of an incentive to be like I want to I want to meet you basically, but this person who found it came to him and was like hey. I found it brought him the treasure showed him the treasure and everything and 56:15 allegedly told him I wish to remain anonymous and so forest that's crap that's made up. That's though you're telling me a guy who stole a bunch of artifacts from Vietnam is going to be honest about that. No come on. This is what I'm saying. Okay, is that I can see this stuff and I go this is stupid and made up easy. That's how easy that is just so you know so forest honors this guy's wishes and comes forward and says yeah 56:45 Hey everybody, somebody found it. Hey guys, somebody found it, but I can't tell you. 56:53 I'm just saying be on the lookout for my granddaughter's wedding. Yeah, I 57:02 yeah, so he says someone found it and he puts out this in June six twenty twenty. He puts out a post on the searcher blog that was started for the thrill of chase, saying that the treasure been found. He said it was under a canopy in the lush forested vegetation of the rocky mountains and it had not been moved from the spot where I hit it over ten years ago. So I he said I do know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot. I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and hope they will continue to be 57:31 drawn by the promise of other discoveries. So the search is over. Look for more information and photos in the coming days. No more information or photos came. Everybody was like, wait, where was it hidden though? Like tell us where you hit it. Like now that it's been found, we just want to know if we were close. Like were we figuring it out? Because that was one of the other frustrating things is people were posting all this stuff online. So he saw people solves. He knew where it was. And so there was multiple interviews where he's like, he's like, I've seen some people are like within feet. 58:00 of where I hit it on their searches and they haven't found it yet. So it's like there have been people who have been very, very close okay, and so people are wanting to know like was I one of the close ones, because obviously everybody everybody hears that and thinks oh I was just feet away from it. I was the one who was almost there, but he doesn't do that. He never he doesn't come forward. He doesn't say what it is and then in September seventh that year he died dying because he never hit it. 58:30 and so so this becomes a thing. The family of forest is dealing with his death. All of the post life things you have to hand ours like twice, not to go through it. So the man's guy and so they're dealing with all of this and the ghost of grand dad turned the flashlight on that meant yes and so for us was like yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, he found it. 58:59 and so them's the rules. They're getting all these calls from searchers all the time to be like hey. know for us just died. Can you tell us where the treasure was and they're getting really mad about they don't know well? They don't know, but also like they're like hey yeah, my grandpa just died. My dad just died. Can you leave us alone and let us deal with this? Yeah, you stocked us for the last ten years. You psychopaths we're going to bury him. 59:26 because we're going to bury it, but we're going to where the treasure was, so you tell me if you can find him and so they, I guess the grandson got to because he had lived in the guest house at his father's house at the time got to meet the guy who found it. He was a part of the quote unquote cover up, I guess, or agreed to not publicize that and as a part of this whole drama of everything that happened. He said we can't take this anymore, 59:55 we're going to go public with who you are. So you have to tell everybody what happened and they can stop bothering us and so the family of forest comes forward after a few months of being hounded and says that medical student Jack Stouffe. This guy here is the guy who found it and so this is a picture when he brought the treasure to for my gosh to show him. I take back what I said. You were not gullible and dumb 01:00:27 turns out he did and so he did do it, but I'll tell you what that guy is not what you thought he was going look like is he that's not what you thought a great adventure treasure finder would look like. This guy was a former journalist, but could turn medical student and is in medical school. He's actually had only been searching for two years, but he solved the poem before ever going out and then he went out and he found it. 01:00:54 he did he find it when it went public. He found it in twenty twenty in the beginning of twenty twenty. Wow he posted this picture and it was not buried. It was literally just in some brush in the woods and it had been sitting there undisturbed for twenty years. That case or not twenty years, ten years, ten years just sitting there in the woods, but here's the thing it goes public. Jack's name is still now out there and but he 01:01:20 doesn't share where he found it and everyone's like okay. Where was it? He wouldn't share it and so everybody else still as it wasn't hidden. They never hit it. Jack's a part of this. It's just a made up scheme to sell more books and so everybody goes out there trying to still they continued trying to find the resting space of where this was by looking at the picture that he posted 01:01:50 and say well, we know the clues that for us gave us. We have this picture. If we could match that little spot of to somewhere in the woods, we could figure out where this was out there guys. It's all made up and so people continued searching for it after even after forest died to try to find the treasure. Eventually Jack took the treasure to auction 01:02:18 he sold it at auction for one point three million dollars low yeah. I mean they did say between one and five yeah, but I feel like there's more lore around it that it could have been more because you would think so. Yeah, I think so they sold it not as a lot. They sold it as separate items and so a bunch of the treasure hunters came and bought individual items in this so they could have a piece of the treasure yeah and yeah. He made one point three million dollars off of it and that is a that's for that he split with the family 01:02:47 because it's an entire cover up that was never hidden. That's actually a really smart play. It's a really good like marketing campaign for a a really smart play. 01:03:00 when you find out. I mean, but to be fair and the was like fine to be fair. If you put yourself in shush, if you listen to the even numbered episodes of our podcast in it, our directions yeah to a hidden treasure. 01:03:20 sorry here, making me if you listen to the odd numbers, it's directions on how to fiddle off the devil. 01:03:37 Hey, thanks for checking out this episode. If you like this one, you might like the last Dutchman mine. There's a guy who drew a map in the shape of a heart. They call it the heart map creative name, another treasure hunting episode. So check that one out. And if you like this show, you can check out next week's episode right now on our Patreon. All you got to do is go to till and dot com slash support and you become a patron supporters or supporters get all sorts of perks. 01:04:01 They get every episode early with ad free. They get a discord with our host and producers. Why do you say that's all sorts of I'm really tired of him saying our hosts and producers? What do you just say us our hosts? It's you and me dude. I'm the hosts and produce with yeah me and Alex like we're in the league with our hosts and producers. What are we MSNBC all of our hosts for this weekend? What are you talking about? 01:04:28 and you get access to a discord with our hosts and producers, but this is an evergreen podcast. You can find out more about evergreen at evergreen podcast dot com. We'll see all the other ever read our our disk. Things I learned last night. You say that all the time and every time I listen to it, I go. I wish you quit saying that 01:04:47 and I thought where what else should I confront him, but on in the middle of him saying it well, because I couldn't think of it earlier. All right, all we'll see you next week. Unless you buy the patron where you can get this right now, you can join the discord for our hosts and we'll talk to you in there. Well, I don't know. We won't talk to you. Our hosts will 01:05:13 What you talking about? 01:05:19 Okay