Bear Grease - Ep. 236: Bonus - Apalachicola Tree Bandits

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

In this Bonus Episode of the Bear Grease podcast, Retired US Forest Service Agent, Russ Arthur, tells host Clay Newcomb one more unforgettable story of one of his first undercover jobs infiltrating a wild group of outlaws stealing Atlantic White Cedar along the Apalachicola River in Florida. Russ uses his construction background to assimilate into their group and gain their trust, but little do they know that the trap is being set for an arrest story worth making a motion picture about. Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. I pulled in. He was there at the store, and I got out. As I got out, there was an arrest team took him. And he said, what's going on? I said, I don't know when I'm getting out of here.

I got my car and I left. drove on down the road, the next one. They said, hey, what happened, oh, so-and-so? I said, hey, he didn't show. They'd come out and had rest him. So we went all the way down the line, and I'd make an excuse at each stop of why nobody was with me. Welcome to Bear Grease's first bonus episode. We interview so many people each year and aren't able to tell all the stories in our regular episodes, so we're trying to remedy that.

And as many of our regular listeners know, the Bear Grease podcast has two kinds of shows. We have our premium documentary-style, like true Bear Grease episodes where we dive deep to uncover some of those wild, gritty American stories that we love. love, but we also have our Bear Grease Render podcast, which comes out every other week, where we gather up a group of five or six folks and sit around and have a conversation about the last Bear Grease. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot more informal. Well, what you're listening to today is different.

It's bonus content. It's shorter, but highly relevant. We've spent the last two Bear Grace episodes listening to two stories from United States Forest Service Special Agent Rust Arthur from Tennessee. In the first episode called Runt Over, he told of citing a man for illegal squirrel hunting and how later in retribution the man tried to kill him and ended up in prison. Later, Russ would work an unrelated marijuana grow case in the National Forest and sent the man to prison for the second time.

Truly a wild story with every type of twist and turn. In the last episode about Yellowstone, Russ found himself working undercover in Montefar. Tanna trying to bust an illegal outfitter and gun thief. Truly an unbelievable story as well. But what you're about to hear is a story of timber theft, arson, rattlesnakes, and barefoot criminals in the swamps of Florida. I really doubt that you're going to want to miss this one. Let us know what you think of this episode on social media. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is the Bear Grease podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten

but relevant. Search for insight in unlikely places and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. Presented by FHF Gear, American-made, purpose-built, hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. Well, they all got different flavors and favorites, but probably one of my first understanding. undercover was one of the most interesting and nerve-wracking and kind of had it all. There was a group of guys on the Appalachicola River that was stealing Atlantic Cedar, juniper. And that's a tree species that kind of grows between the swamps and what they call the ridges, the hills. And it was highly sought after for decking wood for cutting up.

It was very resilient and highly sought after him. And there was a mill down there that they were selling it to. And these guys were all friends. There was four or five of them that turned out being. The agent down there had done a lot of background on the best way to infiltrate this crowd. But I went down and basically hired on as a Sawyer for them. And I portrayed a guy that was down in his luck. I just needed a job.

I was from Tennessee. And they took me in and told me not, you know, obviously not to tell anybody and they could get me a little bit of money. And it would all be based on what all we sold. And that was early years of technology where wearing a wire was very hard to do, do and especially in an environment of cutting wood. And there's a lot of legal sideboards on when you can turn a tape recorder on, when you can turn it off, do you run it continuously, do you just run it for a few minutes or you'd

be in selective of, you know, you turning it on and off. So it was a lot of pressure on a young kid. I was still in my 20s then. So hired on with them and then they would cut. all at night. Really? In the dark. In the dark. In the swamps.

And one of them. Using headlamps. Yep. Not even headlamps. It was handhelds. I mean, headlamps really hadn't come around in the mid-late 80s yet. And they're just using handheld lights.

And one of them actually lived in the swamps and no electricity, no plumbing. It was just kind of sad, but. We later found out what he's done with all of his money, but anyway, he would always do barefooted. And I'll never forget one night we were riding around through there, and they had found some during the day they wanted to cut, and we were just throwing these on the back of an F-250, the handle of them. I shined my light, and he was standing facing away from me, and there was this huge

rattlesnake. And it was laying, stretched out, about six inches from the back of his heels. And he's barefooted. And I'll never forget, I called his name, and I said, man, that is a don't move. There's the biggest rattlesnake that you've ever seen right behind your feet. And I'll never forget, he mumbled. I know where that one's at. There's usually two of them.

I'm looking for that second one. And I remember thinking, this is pretty rough crowd. What happened? We continued on. Well, I mean, he just stepped away from the snake. Yeah, he just stepped away from the snake. Now, why was he barefoot? He never wore shoes.

I never seen him wear shoes. He never did wear a pair of shoes. He drank Old Milwaukee's best and he never had a cooler, put it in. He'd always drink it hot. And just logged barefoot at night. Yeah, that's right. Right. they'd get a tree hung, you know, with a maker into the top of another tree,

and he'd climb up at barefoot, he'd limine it till it shook down. I mean, it's a wonder they didn't get killed out there. But I would go down, and I'd cut timber with them, and we'd take it to the meal. We'd always get the meal right when it opened, and then we would, I'd do that for like a month with them, and then I'd tell them, going back to Tennessee and we'd process everything you know you were recording a lot of it I would you know obviously not when the saw was running but uh then uh then I'd call them and come back you know hey got any more work and and they were uh they that always take me back in and because the rumor

had it they were setting fires too and so of course we're working with our federal were prosecutors and they wanted me to, they made it clear one night. They wanted me to go with them to set a wildfire. Well, it was my job to talk them out of it. Now, that might sound funny, but, you know, we didn't want to be the ones part of setting a wildfire

that ended up burning up a community, you know. So we never did. Like you were there to say, no, let's not do it. And then if they did it anyway. It was on their own. I wasn't going to be there. You know, I voted,

hey, let's don't do it. You know, and that was through guidance from our prosecutors. You know, we're not going to be involved in setting any of these. You know, matter of fact, we need to discourage it, you know. So, you know, so some interesting guys. And then one of them, there was five of them. They lived in five separate, four different separate communities up and down the Apocola River.

And one of them invited me down to come down and help him. and I ended up helping him with his marijuana grow. So, you know, went in and found out who he was selling it to. It was a lady in Tallahassee. So that become a spur off of that timber theft case was, you know, a marijuana grow case. And so it was a, that was an interesting case. And we had all successful prosecutions. It was kind of funny the day of the takedown.

we had it was five separate arrest warrants for each one of them and we had it all mapped out where they all lived and I had contacted the one that had a telephone and only one of them had a telephone at their house and told them said hey said if y'all want to help me out on I think it was St. George Island it's out there you want to help me out on St. George Island, I've got a deck to build. We can all make some good money because during that, it was a year and a half spread out. I had kind of established that I had this little construction thing going, and actually the agent that was overseeing the case was seen out there as kind of a builder. So they all bit hook line and sinker on, we're going to meet this guy.

Tennessee and we're going to each make us a couple hundred bucks in a day to build this deck. And I told him I'd pick him up. And I said, let so-and-so know I'll pick him up at eight at that store. And I identified these five different areas that I was going to pick him up. And they were all, you know, relative to the times of what it would take us to drive between them from north to south. as we were going to go. I told him I'd drive, and the first one we met, I pulled in, he was there at the store, and I got out.

And as I got out, there was an arrest team took him. And he said, what's going on? I said, I don't know when I'm getting out of here. I got my car and I left. drove on down the road, the next one. They said, hey, what happened, oh, so-and-so? I said, hey, didn't show, and then about, they'd come out and arrest him.

So we went all the way down the line, and I'd make an excuse at each stop of why nobody was with me. And of course, this was back in the day where they didn't have cell phones and communications and stuff like that would work back then. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps Game Calls

and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called Prime Cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record.

If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did,

and you'll find out that the Steve Rinellillilli cut is an easy to use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. You were in your 20s. Yeah. What does it take to be able to hold your cover? I mean, you work up with these guys that are so rough and, man, you, you, you had to be believable or it could have been a dangerous situation. How did you, can you describe what it's like to be?

deep undercover? Well, you know, if you're going to go undercover for any length of time, you have to have what's called a good backstop. A good backstop in today's world is a social media profile. It's the whole nine yards through the world of electronics. A good backstop back when I was doing it was you had an identification and maybe a little bit of criminal record that was created by the state for you.

And there's a process to go through with that. You had an ID. You had a social security number, and there's a process to go through that. And you set up yourself. You have a phone line at your residence if you're going to use your residence. And most of the time,

you'll do undercover and you'll stay in a temporary quarters, and that's what you would do sometimes. is like rent, like an apartment or something under that same name. And but you, the biggest thing is, is to have knowledge of don't be somebody you're not. And, and I was very lucky in that, you know, I worked constructions for so many years. I could talk to talk of, of a bricklayer. You know, I could talk to talk of, you know, laying mountain stone, you know, some, some, some,

some of the construction work. So you want to tell people your profession is something that you can talk about, first of all. And back in the day, they didn't have Facebook they could check you on. Only they could check you on is maybe if they had a friend in the police department, they may figure out a way to get your driver's license and run your driver's license. You know, in some of these small communities, you know, even though it's illegal, somebody might could do that and or running your tag number you know have run your tag number make sure so you'd always want to have that vehicle tied back to that driver's license so so it wasn't

that complicated back in the day and especially if you set it up to where I'm not from this area I'm just down here looking for work I'm actually from a state or two away you know And it seemed to work. You know, yeah, you can be compromised, and if you are, you've got to recognize the way out. One time I thought I was compromised before I even left, and I pulled out. Turns out I wasn't compromised, but the way the guy was talking to me, we had a case in Alaska that I was going to be a part of on a brown bear hunt. I hadn't paid the down on the hunt yet. We were just communicating.

Something came up to where he was questioning me, and I just didn't feel right. And it was going to be me and another undercover agent, because when you're going into a remote area, you need two. You really need two people. And this was actually an agent from Arkansas was going to go with me, and I called him up. I said, look, I don't feel good.

good about this guy. He said, well, I'm not getting that feeling. Well, I told my boss, I said, I'm just not feeling it. So he got somebody else, and he and the other agent went, and it turned out that it was legit. He just was really intrigued about my background. He didn't. Oh, so this guy was quizzing me. Right, right. He was quizzing me, and it turned out, they went ahead and worked the case, and they made the case and it was a good case. And he said, man, you missed it. There was some beautiful country. But the thing about it is, he wasn't on to me.

But it was my own gut feeling, which, you know, that's just the way it goes. And a lot of people have a misconception. Some of my friends, I'll talk to them and, you know, and I don't talk that much, even with my close friends about some of the work I've done. I'm just, you know, just don't. But the ones that really don't know me, they'll hear about it, they'll say, man, you got it made. You've got to see the Bitterroot Sailway Wilderness area.

You've got to see Yallisone. You've got to see all this. Going on under cover is not fun. Because normally, the only fun part about it is seeing countries that you probably normally wouldn't see in that intrigue. and that intrigues me. I love that. But being with somebody that you know

has been violating for a long time, you may or may not know a lot more about the resources than they do, and you having to listen to them and do what they tell you is not fun. There is no glory in that because nine times out of ten, the people that do that are sloths.

And it's just not the type of people that you would enjoy hanging around with him. You know, do I want to hang around a guy that, you know, in the swamps of Florida that uses a hole in the floor to do his business into the swamp because he don't have a toilet? You know, that's not the type of people I want to hang around with. Do I want to hang around the guy

that's guiding me 22 miles in the back country? that I know is getting ready to try to steal my pre-64, Winchester, because he's running guns too. You know, that's not the kind of guy I want to... Yeah, I see what you're saying. Hang out with. Do I want to wake up at 5.30 in the morning over there in some of the most pristine country that God put on this earth

and sat there by the fire drinking coffee listening to elk bugle all around me and the guides in there snoring because he stayed up drunk all night? that's not the kind of guy I want to hang out with. And that stuff happens. Yeah, it has happened. Yeah. The level of stress on an undercover agent is hard to comprehend.

If you haven't listened to our Secret Agent Man series we did with R.T. Stewart out of Ohio in 2022, those are episode 78 through 84. You probably should. Truly some wild stories in there. And, I mean, I guess we talked to an undercover. agent almost every week. Brent Reeves. You know he's working me. I think we all do. I can't thank Russ enough for opening up with us about these stories. Like was said before, he doesn't talk about this often, and I had to twist his arm to get him to tell these stories. I hope you enjoyed this extra drop, and we'll see you on the next episode. Thanks a ton for listening

to Bear Greece and Brent's This Country Life podcast. Be sure to leave us a review on on iTunes and share this podcast with your friends. Thank you. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag and there was a full of blood. Oh my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't.

This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwards. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest.

Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, IHeart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.