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0:33

Never in

0:34

a billion fucking

0:36

years. Never. Would

0:38

I ever think this kid is capable

0:41

of ever doing something like

0:43

this? You would never He

0:45

would never do this.

0:46

This is Katie. She's from

0:48

my hometown, ringwood, New Jersey.

0:50

We're hanging out at a house party, taking

0:52

shots at the kitchen table, because there's just really

0:54

nothing else to do in our town. And, inevitably,

0:57

the conversation turns to Zach Worcester,

0:59

our classmate, an accused murderer,

1:02

Wait.

1:02

So what what did you say before? I

1:04

said. I

1:06

dated Zach. Uh-huh. End

1:08

of summer into

1:10

fall.

1:11

So when did you find out that he was involved

1:13

in his car?

1:14

I found out from

1:16

my best friend who also knew

1:18

him, like, literally, my jaw was on the floor.

1:20

I was like, no. She's like,

1:22

this was Zach. I'm like, no fucking way.

1:24

Like Yeah. Yeah. And she said the same thing because

1:26

we both knew him. Like, we we're hanging

1:28

out with him every fucking day in the

1:31

summer.

1:31

Like And so you found out that he, like, was involved

1:33

with his murder then, like, what was going through your mind?

1:35

I knew it wasn't him. knew

1:38

it. Yeah. Knew it was not

1:40

him.

1:40

There was never a moment where you're like,

1:42

I I wonder if he actually did this.

1:44

Never. I was like, what?

1:47

actually happen because this

1:49

is all fake to cover up somebody

1:51

else's story.

1:58

How do you know? Like, what was he like?

2:00

He was just the chillest kid

2:02

in the world. Never did he

2:04

have a bad

2:06

part of his soul.

2:08

He likes music. He likes all the crystal

2:11

scene. He was so, like, good

2:13

vibes. Literally, I think he used

2:15

to say good vibes. He

2:17

was so, like, spiritual, literally

2:20

the nicest, like, hearted person. Sorry

2:22

to interrupt. one day, it's all gonna come out and,

2:24

like, the real person's gonna be fucking back. That's what

2:26

I'm trying to do. Yeah. I'm gonna take the

2:28

shot. Take that for the record. It

2:30

is for the record. Okay. It's for the record.

2:32

baby. This is Zach because I know you're innocent.

2:35

Cheers. Cheers.

2:38

I'm Sam Anderson, and this

2:40

is the Emerald Triangle.

2:43

How much marijuana is off here? How

2:46

much is not that much? I am

2:48

fucking have a poop

2:50

And then I shine the light on him,

2:53

and he just had that stare

2:55

at the only scene in fucking movie that only

2:57

ever fucking radio movies.

3:00

There

3:00

was blood everywhere around

3:03

him and on him. It looked personal

3:06

like there was some retribution there. Who

3:08

would have had the biggest issue with Jeff? I personally

3:11

think Zach, Zach, orchestrating it.

3:13

That's what it's seemed like to me, yes.

3:16

Chapter two, outlaws.

3:37

For me, this

3:39

story begins in my childhood bedroom

3:42

in two thousand seventeen. I

3:45

was twenty five years old and trying to make a career

3:47

as a journalist in New York. But

3:49

I had just gotten laid off from my job in public

3:51

radio, and I couldn't afford the rent in

3:53

New York City. So I wound up

3:55

back in my parents place, in Jersey. And

3:58

if you've ever moved back in with your folks after

4:00

trying to make it on your own, you know that

4:02

transition can be surreal,

4:05

sleeping in your childhood bedroom, staring

4:07

up at the Bob Marley poster that seventeen

4:09

year old you thought was cool. It's

4:12

hard not to feel like a failure. I

4:15

did take some consolation in the fact that

4:17

most of my friends burp still around.

4:19

In fact, many of them never left at all

4:22

because ringwood is a hard place to leave.

4:25

It's the epitome of small town America,

4:28

a place where time seems to have stopped somewhere in

4:30

the mid seventies. The kind

4:32

of town where the neighbors all know each other.

4:34

and people leave their doors unlocked at night.

4:37

I spent my childhood riding bikes around the cold

4:39

to sack and taking swimming lessons at the

4:41

lake. In the spring, we played Little

4:43

League Baseball. My dad was a coach

4:45

and my mom ran the snack stand.

4:50

In the summertime, as

4:53

kids roamed the streets and packs, untethered

4:55

by cellphones or parental supervision, we

4:58

were free, floating through

5:00

the neighborhood, like the fireflies that

5:02

lit up our backyards at night.

5:07

These are the memories that flooded into my

5:09

mind. As I lay there, looking

5:11

up at Bob Marley's face, wondering

5:13

how the hell I ended up back in this

5:15

town that no one seems able to

5:17

leave. So yeah,

5:19

I was having a bit of a quarter life crisis

5:22

there in my childhood bedroom when I noticed

5:24

something else hanging on the walls. A

5:26

pile of medals from my days on the wrestling

5:28

team, mostly participation

5:31

medals. I was never that good at

5:33

wrestling But you know who was?

5:37

Zach Worcester. I

5:39

was probably twelve or thirteen years old at

5:42

the time. And I remember Zach is one of the

5:44

kids on the team I didn't wanna get paired up

5:46

with during practice because he would

5:48

toss me around the mat like a hacky sack. Zack

5:51

was two years younger than me, but he was

5:53

bigger and stronger than I was, with a

5:55

buzz cut and a tough guy persona to match.

5:58

He had this in tensity to him that I

6:00

found pretty intimidating. The

6:02

kind of kid who seems to have a lot going on

6:04

beneath the surface.

6:10

After high school, Zach and I lost touch.

6:12

Then, a few years later,

6:14

I was home on summer break and I ran

6:16

into Zach. but he

6:18

had completely changed from what I remembered.

6:21

The buzz cut was grown out into a long

6:23

mop of hair going down to his shoulders.

6:25

He wore baggy clothes and a crystal

6:27

around his neck. He transformed into

6:29

a hippie. Zach and

6:31

I caught up a bit and I felt like we connected

6:33

that night. Because back in high school,

6:35

I was kind of a hippie too. So

6:37

it was cool to see someone else breaking out

6:39

of the mold. After

6:41

that, I didn't see Zach again.

6:44

Now, years

6:45

later, he's all anyone can talk

6:47

about. The ringwood Kid accused of

6:49

murdering a pot farmer in California. I

6:51

would say about seven or eight headlines. Just headlines,

6:54

Zachary Wheeler wanted for murder. All

6:56

these articles said the same thing that Zachary

6:58

Wheeler was accused of killing Jeffrey Shutler

7:00

and I just couldn't believe my eyes.

7:02

From

7:04

my bedroom, I opened my laptop and

7:06

started searching the Internet.

7:09

The first headline I saw read homicide

7:12

in ladenville, suspects sought,

7:14

warrant issued for Zachary Worcester.

7:16

With a big picture of Zach's face right below

7:18

the headline. He has a beard and he's

7:20

wearing sunglasses and a blue flowery shirt.

7:23

actually looks super chill and confident in

7:25

this photo. Then, I

7:27

found a photo of the guy Zach was accused of

7:29

murdering. Third

7:30

thirty five year old Jeffrey

7:31

Settler. He looks like a hippie

7:33

version of Jesus, with

7:35

long dark hair and a beard even

7:37

bushier than Zach. he has a big

7:39

smile on his

7:39

face. Why

7:42

would Zach wanna kill

7:43

this man? There

7:47

has to be more to the story. The

7:49

first thing I did was get in touch with my friend

7:51

Abby. Their brother was Zach's

7:53

best friend. I knew that at one point

7:55

after graduation, Zack started spending

7:57

a lot of time with their family. Here's

7:59

Abby. It

8:00

was like an unassumed brother

8:03

that just kind of like became part of

8:05

the family, if you

8:05

will. And here's Evan. Abby's little

8:08

brother. Zach probably hung out

8:10

here eighty percent of the week. I'd

8:12

say he moved out of his mom's place when he was

8:14

eighteen, nineteen years old? Uh-huh. Right.

8:17

Pretty much right after high school. Evan

8:20

explained that Zach was having trouble at home.

8:22

His parents were divorced, his dad lived at a

8:24

state, and his mom wanted him to join the

8:26

military. But Zach didn't want to go

8:28

down that path. Money was

8:30

tight, and Zach's mom was forced to move in with

8:32

a friend, which meant Zach was on his

8:34

own. That's when he basically moved in

8:36

to Evan and Abbie's house. It

8:38

was

8:38

almost like a seamless transition, like,

8:41

very normal for him to be there. Weird

8:43

if he wasn't there or, like, you know, my

8:45

parents would be like, where is Zach today? mom

8:48

fucking loved Zach. My mom, like, stands Zach

8:50

so much. My mom wishes that Zach

8:52

was her child. The same with my

8:54

dad. They really loved him. Yeah. They

8:56

fucking loved him. would

8:57

you describe his personality? Very,

8:59

like, mellow, passive,

9:02

not, like, passive aggressive, just, like, very, like,

9:04

go with the flow. chilled,

9:06

respectful, quiet, a very

9:08

kind, gentle soul.

9:11

Around

9:11

the same time, Abi was going through a difficult time

9:13

in their life. they had recently

9:15

come out to their parents.

9:16

Being home and, like, being, like, queer

9:19

and a family that, like, doesn't know what the fuck that

9:21

means, there'd be this, like, weird tension.

9:23

nobody wants to talk about or address it. But Zach would be

9:25

like asking me about like my girlfriend

9:27

or like engaging in like that

9:29

side of me, which I was

9:31

very appreciative of. Did he

9:33

ever tell you about what his future, what he

9:35

thought of himself doing, what he wanted to

9:37

do? There's

9:38

always business ideas. This

9:40

is Derek. He's another one of Zac's close

9:42

friends. I felt like every three months was a

9:44

new business idea. He wanted

9:46

to buy a bunch of school

9:48

buses and start like a sort

9:51

of like a limo service or some shit.

9:53

Suffice it to say, the school bus limo

9:56

service didn't work out. But

9:58

it was inspired by one of Zac's

9:59

passions, going to

10:00

music festivals, mostly

10:03

EDM and subset. And

10:07

he was just, like, my go to, like,

10:09

hey, you down to have a good time. Like, let's go

10:11

with this music festival because I feel

10:13

like that was his gave. What

10:15

was the escaping from? Yeah. It was the

10:17

escaping from a man. The

10:19

brutal fucking truth of life.

10:24

I was getting the idea that Zach was

10:26

pretty lost, and I could relate to

10:28

that. Being in your early twenties,

10:30

not really sure what to do with your life, We

10:32

all go through it, but it seemed to hit

10:34

Zac harder than the rest of us. He

10:37

was dealing with a lot and all

10:39

he wanted was an escape. I mean,

10:41

the best way to put it was good kid,

10:43

good heart, just try new

10:45

things, got hooked onto these things. You shouldn't

10:47

have drugs. adventures out to

10:49

other states just to go to festivals and

10:51

spend god knows how much money exactly

10:54

came his own enemy.

10:58

In the latest

11:00

season of Cold, host David Cauley

11:02

digs into the story of a young mother looking

11:04

for a fresh start. Her name

11:06

is Sherry Warren, She was recently

11:08

divorced, starting a new job, and excited

11:10

about her new boyfriend. But when Sherry

11:12

said goodbye to her coworkers at the end of an

11:14

otherwise normal workday, They had no

11:16

way of knowing it will be the last time they saw

11:18

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11:20

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11:22

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11:24

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11:26

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11:28

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11:30

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11:32

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12:00

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12:02

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12:04

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12:39

So,

12:42

Zach

12:45

is on his own at a young age. He's

12:48

partying too much and his friends are

12:50

starting to worry. But what does all

12:52

this have to do with Zach being accused of

12:54

killing a pot farmer in Northern California?

12:57

Well, about a year before Jeff Sellar was

12:59

murdered, Zach went to a show

13:01

in Virginia.

13:08

because

13:09

I was dancing like a maniacal night long.

13:11

I wanted to take a shower. We go back

13:13

to the hotel,

13:15

This is another one of Zach's friends.

13:17

Brian. It was like a little

13:19

scummy sheep one. So Zach

13:21

was breaking out like bed bugs or

13:23

something. Oh, shit. he goes in my car,

13:25

gets my Benadryl. Zach gets

13:27

to the car, while Brian jumps in

13:29

the shower.

13:31

because

13:33

back

13:33

in the room, I'm in the shower, all of a sudden, I

13:36

hear him pounding on the door. He's

13:38

like, he's got shot. I'm like, What?

13:40

He's like, yeah, I I just got shot. And

13:43

I'm just That's insane. I'm just like, what? What are you

13:45

talking about? He's like, hey, look. Zach

13:47

shows Brian his t shirt. It's stained

13:49

with blood. Apparently, someone was

13:51

breaking into my car. He went to go to the front

13:53

of a gentleman from what he told me, and the

13:55

guy shot at him and he, like, dodged

13:57

it. But still grazed his chest. So

13:59

Oh my god.

14:02

We

14:04

were hallucinating at this time and

14:07

You were high on looks like a deal. Yeah. Yeah. We were

14:09

tripping on acid at this point.

14:12

And he's like, I'm gonna call the cops and like,

14:14

think think about this for a second. have drugs on

14:16

us. So, like, you know, there's no pull in here with

14:18

gray issue and stuff. But, you know, he says, like, III

14:20

don't feel safe. We can't go outside. I'm gonna

14:22

feel like we're trapped in here. I'm calling the cops.

14:24

Zach

14:28

calls the cops, but

14:30

they can't find the guy who shot at him. or

14:33

any evidence of a shooting. So

14:34

instead, they searched Zach

14:36

and Brian's hotel room. They

14:38

found his drugs that he had. I'm gonna arrest

14:41

at

14:41

him. I

14:43

couldn't

14:43

believe what Brian was telling me.

14:45

So I called the cops because he'd gotten

14:47

shot, but then they arrested him.

14:50

Brian told me that he scrounged together the money

14:52

for sex bail. But in the end,

14:54

he was convicted of drug possession with

14:56

intent to sell. The

14:58

judge put him on probation, which

15:00

means if he fucks up, there's

15:01

gonna be big time consequences.

15:05

A

15:06

couple months later, Zach's back in New

15:09

Jersey at a neighborhood dive bar called

15:11

Flipps and his friend Derek

15:13

Watson. And he just had

15:15

this look on his face. And I was just like

15:17

dude, like, what the fuck? I was like, you do not

15:19

look happy right now. And he was

15:21

just like, bro, I got fucking caught

15:23

again. Derek told me that Zach was

15:25

doing a drug deal in a car when the cops

15:27

rolled up. He was arrested

15:29

again, and now he's

15:31

violated his probation. And

15:33

I was like, are you fucking kidding me, dude?

15:35

Or he goes, you know, I called my lawyer

15:37

and, you know, he said, I was gonna

15:39

go to jail for five years. And I

15:42

was like, bro, like, it sounds crazy,

15:44

but, like, at least, go

15:46

to court and see what they said. It was no.

15:48

Like, I'm leaving tomorrow. I already talked to

15:50

my friend blah blah blah blah blah.

15:52

Zach made up his mind. He was

15:54

going to run. I'm just

15:56

like, what? I hope this is like,

15:58

you know, the ketamine talking

15:59

and you being drunk talking. This

16:02

is madness. I kind of just thought it was just

16:04

like a little drunk emotional type dang. And I

16:06

was like, you're really not gonna

16:08

fucking leave be a fugitive. It's

16:10

just so outrageous. Like, you're gonna go on

16:12

the run. Dude

16:13

what?

16:17

But

16:17

to Zach, it wasn't outrageous.

16:20

That's because he knew someone who had already

16:22

done this. His name was

16:24

Michael Kain. Kain had also been

16:26

arrested for selling drugs. But instead

16:28

of going to court, he skipped town. and

16:30

headed to Northern California to hide out on

16:32

a pot farm in the Emerald Triangle.

16:34

And Zac decided to follow

16:36

in Kain's footsteps. It was a choice

16:38

that would change his life forever.

16:41

I didn't

16:43

hear from him for

16:46

five months. well.

16:48

Yeah. It was just kind of bugs. Like, I don't know

16:50

what the fuck happened. And I was just like,

16:52

is this kid dead?

16:54

finally, Evan

16:57

gets a phone call. It's Zach.

16:59

He explained the other literally,

17:01

like, hundreds of people that live in this, like,

17:03

city that govern themselves. He's No cops or

17:05

no nothing. You said it was absolutely crazy. The

17:07

people that own the farms and the people that kinda

17:09

like control most of it because they're paying everybody

17:12

and they controlled people. He said hundreds of people lived

17:14

there and they all worked on the farm. Some migrated

17:16

there from other states. Some didn't most of

17:18

them in the same predicament as him evading

17:20

the working for cash off

17:22

the books. He seemed happy. He

17:24

seemed to be working out.

17:30

Six days

17:34

after

17:34

that phone call, the news broke that

17:36

Zach Worcester was wanted for

17:39

murder. In a panic, he called Derek

17:41

for advice. And I was like,

17:42

dude, I don't know what the fuck happens, but

17:45

I was like, you can't be

17:47

running from this now. you

17:49

can't be a fugitive, wanted for

17:51

drugs, like, didn't even go fuck about the drugs at this point. Like,

17:53

you're wanted for murder. I was like,

17:55

you really have to go in and own

17:57

up to your fucking shit. You really do. He's like, dude.

17:59

Like, I love you man. Like, you know, I'm

18:01

turning myself into the police station now.

18:03

And he goes, also, you don't have to do what's right

18:05

to. He goes, I don't fucking do it.

18:07

Zack

18:08

did turn himself in. He would be the

18:10

first of seven suspects arrested

18:12

for this crime. And one of the

18:14

others was Michael Kain. That

18:16

was ex friend from back east who he followed out there.

18:18

All of them were charged with

18:20

murder, and all of them plead

18:23

not guilty. If convicted, they could

18:25

face twenty five years to life in

18:27

prison. Every

18:28

once in a

18:31

while, I would check-in to see if there was an

18:33

update on the case. And then

18:35

in

18:36

the summer of two thousand eighteen, it was

18:38

back in the news.

18:39

the suspects had struck a deal.

18:41

All seven

18:42

pled guilty and agreed to sentences

18:44

ranging from

18:44

three to fourteen years. Zach

18:48

put out to first degree robbery and got nine years

18:50

in prison, but nobody was convicted

18:52

of murder. And because there was never

18:54

a trial, there nothing in

18:56

the public record explain what really happened or how Zach

18:59

was involved. How

19:00

could this possibly be the end of the story?

19:03

What

19:05

happened out there in those mountains

19:07

to cause this totally normal hippie

19:10

kid to become involved in a

19:12

horrible murder? I realized I'd probably

19:14

never know the answer. Unless,

19:16

I went to the Emerald Triangle myself

19:19

to investigate.

19:24

Plus, I was still unemployed. So

19:26

I spent the next

19:28

few months writing pitches to anyone I could

19:30

think of. who might be interested in this story.

19:32

And by the spring of twenty nineteen, I

19:34

was able to secure just enough money

19:36

to travel to California and survive for a

19:38

couple weeks of reporting. Before I left,

19:40

I made one last visit to Brooklyn to see some

19:43

friends. And I was telling them that I

19:45

was going to the Emerald Triangle to

19:47

chase crazy story about how this kid I

19:49

grew up with might be a murderer.

19:51

Everyone found it totally shocking

19:53

except for this one guy.

19:56

His name was John. John

19:58

wasn't shocked at all. Not even a little

20:00

bit. He just sat there,

20:02

smoking a cigarette, and shaking his

20:04

head. Sounds like

20:07

classic fucking weed world shit

20:09

to me.

20:15

This is an

20:18

American story. When I opened the box,

20:20

I could feel the heat of the memo

20:22

coming out eighty years later about politics

20:24

going over at the edge. He actually says,

20:26

outright, I intend to overthrow the US

20:28

government. He's open about these objectives. His

20:30

his supporters are armed and ready. You have problem

20:33

not heard this story before, but there

20:35

is good reason to know it

20:37

now. Which Almato presents Ultra

20:39

a new podcast series from

20:41

MSNBC. Search for Chonato

20:43

presents Ultra wherever you're listening

20:45

and follow. A

20:47

mysterious death happened in April twenty

20:49

twenty two in Lynchburg, Virginia.

20:51

Johnny Cashman's mother who lived far

20:53

away in Maine hadn't heard from her son in

20:55

a few days and started to worry. He wasn't

20:58

like him. She asked the police to go

21:00

to his house for a welfare check where they

21:02

found Johnny on his back with

21:04

pools of blood around him. His death

21:06

was quickly ruled a medical issue and

21:08

the case was closed. But the

21:09

family was suspicious and demanded an

21:12

autopsy. They were denied being told to

21:14

trust the system. But

21:15

when Johnny's ex girlfriend entered his

21:17

apartment a few days after he was cremated.

21:20

It was obvious his death was not a

21:22

medical issue. There was blood

21:24

everywhere. The bathroom looked like a

21:26

murder scene. The generation y podcast has spent

21:28

the past ten years breaking down

21:30

cases like Johnny Cashman's, diving

21:32

deep into the details combing

21:34

through all the evidence to find out what

21:36

really happened. To hear the story of

21:38

Johnny Cashman and other incredible

21:40

cases like it, listen to the y podcast on

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Amazon Music or wherever you get

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your podcasts.

21:46

Alright.

21:48

So we're rolling down the

21:50

beer store. I'm holding the mic. This

21:53

is John. When he told

21:55

me he had experience working on pot

21:57

farms, I convinced him to jump in my

21:59

car for an

21:59

interview. Here we are. We're in the car. We're

22:02

making a podcast. We're just hanging

22:04

out. We're talking about living the

22:06

outlaw lifestyle.

22:07

though So how

22:08

do I start this?

22:11

At

22:12

the very beginning, I

22:15

hitchhiked out to California looking for a

22:17

week job. Two

22:18

thousand nine, you know. And it was still pretty

22:20

woolly out there, you

22:23

know. John was in his mid 20s and looking for

22:25

adventure. He'd never been out to what he calls weed

22:27

world before, but he'd heard it was

22:29

a free and easy place where you could smoke weed

22:31

and make money at same time. So he drove

22:33

out to the mountains of Northern California.

22:36

I just go

22:38

to the coffee shop that all

22:40

the people with dreadlocks for

22:42

hanging out at, and I just sit there

22:44

and wait for somebody to pick me up.

22:47

Eventually,

22:47

I get picked up and I start working on

22:50

a farm. And

22:52

that was fine. I was young and

22:54

I made like seven hundred bucks.

22:56

And at the time, being on the road, seven hundred

22:58

bucks cash for a week of work partying on

23:00

the side of the mountain was, like,

23:02

booh yeah. Cool. Like, you know,

23:04

I realized, like, okay, you can go out here and,

23:06

like, make some money and be a total like,

23:09

tramp. You know, I was at that point in my

23:11

life, I was just on the road, hitchhiking,

23:13

riding freight trains, doing whatever the fuck.

23:15

Like, just did wanna have a regular

23:17

job.

23:20

John

23:20

wasn't alone in this desire to escape

23:22

conformity. He followed in the footsteps of

23:24

those who came before him. In the

23:26

late sixties, a group of long haired peace

23:28

loving reefer smoking hippies became

23:30

demoralized with urban life in San Francisco. And

23:33

they headed north to the mountains where

23:35

the land was cheap and more importantly

23:38

isolated. They called this

23:40

movement back to the land. They

23:42

started communes, grew vegetables, and

23:44

planted cannabis crops, there among

23:46

the Redwood trees. In the

23:49

eighties, the government cracked down and

23:51

tried to eradicate cannabis,

23:53

but then in nineteen ninety

23:56

six, California legalized medical

23:58

marijuana.

23:59

By the time John arrived in

24:01

the Emerald Triangle in the late

24:03

two thousands, Demand for high quality weed was

24:05

soaring, and thousands of new pot farms

24:07

had sprung up. This time

24:09

became known as the green

24:11

rush. It was a

24:13

boom time. Weed growers were

24:15

making bank and the huge demand for labor

24:17

to help harvest the crop attracted

24:20

people like John who could make a lot of

24:22

money without having to give up the itinerant

24:24

train hopping lifestyle. There

24:26

were other perks too.

24:28

You're in literally like the

24:30

most beautiful part of the country

24:33

you could ever imagine. Fucking enormous

24:35

ancient Redwood trees coming

24:38

off the ocean, mountains, the

24:40

beach, everything's there. It

24:42

was beautiful, you know. And just

24:44

like everywhere, just freaks. literally

24:47

everywhere you

24:49

look.

24:52

The people attracted to the Emerald Triangle during

24:54

the wheat harvest are not your average nine to

24:56

fiveers. The cast of characters I

24:58

interacted with out there was pretty

25:00

huge, you know, from like old

25:02

school hippies to young

25:04

flat brim, hat wearing

25:06

we bros to, like,

25:08

total fucking, like, junky,

25:11

graffiti kids on the side of the

25:13

road, you know, and, like, oogles,

25:15

dreadlocks, fucking tweezers and

25:17

vans, just like every hotel

25:19

room is filled with fucking,

25:21

like, trimmers with money who

25:23

are trying to party, you know, a

25:25

couple of After his first season of trimming,

25:27

John was hooked. so we headed back next

25:30

spring to do it again.

25:36

Started with little

25:36

seeds, put them in little pods. The

25:39

entire thing from soup to nuts, grew the

25:41

fucking grass, you know, guarding

25:43

the farm, staying there

25:45

constantly. you know, living up in the plants,

25:47

just making sure, like, no one's

25:49

gonna show up and rob you because that shit happens

25:51

all the time. And we grew

25:53

the grass, and we got our friends to come out

25:55

and trim it, and we send it off and

25:58

made like, I don't know, forty

25:59

grand. It was cool. And for

26:02

you, that was your cut, forty grand. Yeah.

26:04

Yeah. People who had experience were making a hell

26:06

of a lot more money than that, but for someone

26:08

who just, like, got their feet in the dirt

26:10

for the first time really growing pot. Like, it was a

26:12

slammin deal, you know.

26:15

For the

26:17

first

26:17

time in his life, John was making

26:19

real money and he didn't have to pay

26:21

rent either, not bad

26:22

for a

26:24

tramp. But

26:24

there are downsides.

26:27

Trimmers are paid by the pound. So the

26:29

more you trim, the more you

26:31

make. The work is repetitive, and the days

26:33

are long. Conditions

26:34

are shitty. You know what I mean? Crapping

26:36

in the woods. no access to town. A lot of the times

26:38

there's one person that's allowed to go to town.

26:41

Everybody's stuck on the mountain, and you just

26:43

gotta put your order in and just hope they

26:45

come back with it. and

26:47

that's the that's the rule of the the boss

26:49

is like you guys can't go down because he doesn't

26:51

want you Totally. They don't want they want as

26:53

little in and out as pop possible.

26:55

Once you're out

26:57

there on a farm, it's customary to stay

26:59

there until the job is done because

27:01

most of these farms are illegal.

27:03

and they don't want cars driving in and out, revealing their

27:06

location. So you're all stuck

27:07

in them. Some tiny shit cabin

27:09

could just be a bunch of fucking

27:11

tarps strung up in trees and you're all

27:13

crapping in a fucking like

27:15

toilet that's not hooked up to anything and

27:17

it's just totally outside and completely

27:19

exposed the elements. that that shit

27:21

was nasty dude. Like, Jesus

27:24

Christ. I have some fucking so respect

27:26

dude. He kidding me.

27:28

trimming weed

27:28

and shitting in the woods for months on end

27:30

could get old for sure. But the

27:32

real downside of working in the Emerald

27:34

Triangle is the risk. cops,

27:37

thieves, and the constant fear of

27:39

violence.

27:40

John told me

27:42

one story about a time he was put in charge of

27:44

guarding a whole crop by

27:46

himself after the grower left town on some sort

27:48

of business trip. I'm

27:51

out on the side of the mountain like

27:53

turning over soil in the

27:56

rainy season's harsh up there.

27:58

And my phone falls out of my pocket,

28:00

lands in the mud, and just scraped

28:02

out totally. So

28:04

now I'm on the mountain with no

28:06

phone, no nothing, closest neighbors like

28:08

a mile away.

28:12

I'm sitting on the porch I'm drinking a tall can. I'm

28:14

nervous. And some guy

28:16

in a big giant truck rolls up,

28:18

hops out of the truck. And it's just

28:21

like, We gotta clean this place right now. Feds are

28:23

coming, like, we're out of

28:25

here. We get rid

28:27

of everything, you know. We're throwing

28:30

guns, ammunition, fucking

28:33

weed. Just throwing shit in contractor bags and

28:35

putting the back of a trap middle of the night.

28:37

Darkest fuck right now, by the way. Wait. What's

28:39

going through your mind at this point?

28:41

I'm fucked. Like, it's all going down

28:43

and I gotta just move. I

28:46

don't know. straight up. Like, I'm in over my

28:48

head. You know, like, I'm on some crème

28:50

shit and I gotta fucking do

28:52

whatever the fuck this guy says and

28:54

get the fuck off property.

28:57

They

28:57

remove all the weed, all

28:59

the guns, anything incriminating, and

29:01

they take off. They drive south

29:04

towards the Bay area.

29:05

It's quiet

29:06

in the car and we're just like sitting

29:08

there, looking ahead, I'm freaked out,

29:10

you know. They're guys fucking

29:13

driving. And he's like,

29:15

you know, don't worry about getting pulled over.

29:17

Like, you know what happens if we get pulled

29:19

over? I'm like, like what? And he flips

29:22

open the center console and

29:25

there's a, you know, butt of a gun in

29:27

there. He just pulls the gun out, flips

29:29

it and puts my head is, like, I'm just do

29:32

this. It puts the gun in my

29:34

head and, like, puts it back in

29:36

the center console

29:38

on keeps driving.

29:42

Finally, after

29:42

driving for hours, they arrive

29:44

in Oakland. The sun is starting to

29:46

come up and the driver takes

29:48

John out for breakfast at a diner. Then he

29:50

goes to an ATM, pulls out a

29:52

hundred bucks, gives it to John,

29:55

and then takes off leaving

29:57

him alone. in a parking lot.

29:59

I never

30:00

fucking heard or saw from any

30:02

of them again. And they still

30:04

owe me a fucking grip of money.

30:06

How much would you say they owe you? Thirty thousand

30:09

bucks, you know. Which for me, there's a lot of

30:11

fucking money. Eight

30:12

months' worth of pay, gone

30:14

in an instant. It sounded

30:16

ruff rough, but

30:17

John told me that it's actually really

30:19

common for workers not to get paid

30:21

out there. It happens all the time

30:23

for all sorts of reasons. The

30:25

crop fails, the grower gets robbed or busted by

30:27

the feds, or sometimes just takes

30:29

off without paying anyone. And for

30:31

the workers, there's really not much they can

30:33

do about it. It's not like they can

30:35

file a complaint with the labor board. But

30:38

despite the conditions, John said he wouldn't

30:40

trade the experience for anything.

30:43

You miss it? Definitely,

30:44

big time.

30:46

Hugely. The work

30:49

can suck, and it's hassy

30:51

and stressful. And, like, there is,

30:53

like, tweakers pulling knives

30:56

and being crazy, but it's all sort of

30:58

part of the whole just reality you're

31:00

in at the time, like, you know you're

31:02

an outlaw country. And so if

31:04

you're, like, totally prepared to just, like, be an

31:06

outlaw country, no

31:08

one gives a fuck what you're doing as long

31:10

as you're just like, not

31:12

in arc. Have

31:14

you

31:14

ever heard the term Hill crazy?

31:16

Oh, yeah. California

31:19

paranoia. Yeah. Totally. Yeah.

31:21

Tell me about Hillcrest. Mountain fever.

31:23

I was actually gonna bring

31:25

that up. Yeah. Well,

31:27

you just start

31:28

freaking out. Everybody does. You know?

31:30

You just see it happening around harvest

31:33

season. Everybody out there is

31:35

fucking nuts. you know, everybody's

31:37

paranoid. Looking over their shoulder, no one

31:39

trusts each other. Like, being alone on a

31:41

mountain for eight months, paranoid

31:43

is just a part of day to day

31:45

existence. How much does that have

31:46

to do with smoking the

31:49

weed? Did

31:49

you smoke when you're out there? Yeah. Totally.

31:52

That's a good question, honestly. I mean,

31:55

if you never thought of it, that is some no.

31:57

Never. That is some

31:59

chicken before the egg shit.

32:02

Dude, what we call hard hitting

32:04

journalism. I'm gonna be honest with you.

32:06

Kinda just blew my mind. I

32:09

mean, of course, it's gotta do something. Yeah. I

32:11

mean, everybody's fucking stone out of their gourd

32:13

up there all the time in. And if

32:15

they say they're not their total liars,

32:17

dude, like, It's crazy. But no,

32:19

I I don't think so. There is something

32:21

that happens to your brain when

32:23

you're alone

32:24

on a mountain for

32:25

that long and doing something

32:27

illegal. You know, all those things combined,

32:30

it's a perfect recipe for just

32:33

like a total paranoid cock

32:35

tail. Mhmm. And it it is real, you know,

32:37

there's reason to be paranoid. People get busted all

32:39

the time. People do get robbed all the time. It's

32:41

just real, man. It is the Wild

32:44

West. It's straight up the wild west out there. The

32:46

cops are not coming, man. That's it.

32:48

You're on your own, you know. Finally,

32:50

our

32:50

conversation turned to Zach.

32:53

And I asked John if he thought that Hillcrazy had

32:55

something to do with the murder of Jeff Shutler.

32:58

Who

32:58

knows what the fuck happened

33:00

on that mountain and

33:04

you,

33:04

way like, I

33:05

totally respect you for, like, going

33:07

to try and find the fucking answer. You

33:10

are never are gonna find out the fuck

33:12

happened on that mountain. No one's gonna

33:14

tell the truth. You know what I mean?

33:17

Are you gonna go interview

33:18

people in the hills in Mendocino?

33:21

In my mind, I was like, yeah. I'm gonna show

33:23

up. My little podcast gear would be like, hey,

33:25

my name's Sam. Oh, fucking.

33:28

No. Good luck

33:30

with that, man. You ever been to the Bar

33:32

in Laytonville? No. Yo, dude.

33:35

You're in for it, man. If I like you, I'm

33:37

having a killer time. I'm gonna

33:39

tell you straight. No one

33:41

is going

33:42

to talk to you. you know,

33:44

in this situation, in Laytonville, California, in

33:46

no way, you know. I'll take

33:48

that as a challenge. Yeah. I

33:50

hope you do it. I hope you

33:52

find somebody out there, but it's no joke out

33:54

there.

33:59

Next time, on the

33:59

Emerald Triangle We're going on a road

34:02

trip to Laytonville, California.

34:04

I pulled out

34:07

my binoculars

34:08

and I'm sort of

34:10

searching a hillside for like pot I think I found

34:12

a couple and I make some new friends.

34:14

Man, the legend

34:16

fucking

34:19

Jackie. When

34:20

he passed, I felt like a

34:22

part of me passed with him.

34:24

Until everything goes off the

34:26

rail. Fuck man. I feel like I'm in too deep. Like,

34:28

why did I let that happen? Why

34:30

the fuck did I let that happen?

34:42

Don't want wait

34:44

for that next episode? You don't have

34:46

to. Unlock all episodes of

34:48

Crooked City, The Emerald Triangle, ad

34:50

free right now by subscribing to

34:53

the binge. our new podcast channel. Visit Crooked City,

34:55

The Emerald Triangle on Apple Podcasts,

34:57

and hit subscribe at the top of the

34:59

page to get started. or visit

35:01

get the binge get access wherever you get

35:04

your podcasts.

35:08

Crooked City, the

35:11

Emerald Triangle, is a production

35:13

of truth media in partnership with novel

35:15

and Sony Music Entertainment.

35:18

The series is written and reported by me, Sam Anderson.

35:21

Our senior producer is Joe

35:23

Wheeler. Our producers are Alexa Burke,

35:25

Lee Meyer, and Zach

35:28

St. Louis. Story editing by Mark Smurling and Austin

35:30

Mitchell. Our assistant producer is Sasha

35:32

Baker. With additional research by

35:34

Ivan DeVont, Scott Curtis and

35:36

Sri Houston,

35:38

are our production managers. In fact, checking by Donia

35:40

Sewleman, mixing and sound design

35:42

by Daniel Kempson. Our title

35:44

track and additional tracks are composed

35:47

and produced by Robert Kehoeffer and Christopher Rose with additional

35:49

production by Nicholas Alexander. It

35:51

was engineered by Peter Oviatt and

35:53

recorded at Moonflower

35:56

sound studio in Taos, New Mexico. Additional

35:58

music from Marmoset and Epidemic

36:00

Sound. Development by

36:02

Willard Foxtin

36:04

with special thanks to Endeer Bernie, Max O'Brien, Sean Glynn,

36:06

and Matt O'Mara. Also, special

36:08

thanks to all the studio musicians

36:11

at Moonflower Sounds. Continue the

36:14

conversation with us online by tweeting at crooked

36:16

CityPod. And if you've enjoyed the show,

36:18

please don't forget to leave us a review on

36:20

Apple Podcast. It really helps other people find a show. And thanks

36:22

for listening.

36:27

And I'll get you

36:29

guys

36:29

some beers because you're doing me a

36:32

favor.

36:32

Alright.

36:34

Cool. This

36:37

is

36:38

weird. I'll be

36:40

a miked up. Yeah. I never do

36:43

this shit. a strange.

36:44

The fuck up thing is if you're

36:46

wearing if you're wearing a microphone,

36:49

you'll forget it. and then you

36:51

start seeing all kinds of weird stuff. That's when I feel

36:53

like you guys are the best thing would be. Like,

36:56

this guy's doing the right thing. Getting me

36:58

fucking loaded in this, like,

37:00

town stores. Listen. I'll do like You did

37:02

a great thing, Nate. I like this

37:04

guy. Yeah. So, like, what's his

37:06

name? Sam?

37:08

isn't

37:10

he? I

37:12

have no idea. This goes.