Bear Grease - Ep. 395: The Unusual Death of Melvin “Bucky” Garrison

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

In December 1971, Oklahoma Game Warden Melvin “Bucky” Garrison was found drowned in just two and a half feet of water in the Tiger Mountain area of Lake Eufaula. The circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery. Was it a bizarre accident—or something more? Join host Clay Newcomb as he sits down with retired Oklahoma Game Warden Ed Rotabush and Hank Jenks, 1st District Chief of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, to explore what is known, what remains uncertain, and the boundaries of the law that shaped the investigation. If you have comments on the show, send us a note to [e-mail] 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.

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Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. This is the story of the unusual death of Oklahoma Game Warden Melvin Bucky Garrison, who drowned in two and a half feet of water in the Tiger Mountain area in the deep fork arm of Lake Eufaula in December 1971. I'm pretty much just going to let this story tell itself. I really doubt that you're going to want to miss this one.

his shotgun was missing, never been found to this day. So most of the people involved immediately started thinking, you know, that he probably didn't drown in two feet of water. 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.

I'm just outside of Okima, Oklahoma. A man in a cowboy hat and spurs has taken the saddle off a red roan quarter horse. A few weeks back, I was eating at the Shoney's buffet with this man, Andrew Stubbs, and he told me a story that seemed as familiar. to him as a nursery rhyme. But the details were confusing.

So you would have grown up hearing about Bucky Garrison. Yes, sir. So when we were probably 18, 19 years old, we started going down there to Bartlett Bottoms and hog hunting and stuff. And there were some older guys that took us and that we went with. And they, you know, would just, when we would go, they would tell us about an outlaw that used to live down there and had killed a game warden.

So, yeah, we, you know, we heard stories from many people, you know, as we were growing up. It feels like it's just, like, common knowledge in this community. Would you say it's just common knowledge that Bucky Garrison was murdered? I mean, that's just what you grew up. You never really would have even questioned it, or would you have? You know, all of the older guys that hunted in that area and that, you know, was familiar with it, yeah, That's what everybody has told us that he was murdered down there, you know, by a guy that was, you know, kind of an outlaw, you know. Murder is a heavy word, and it's clear the community doesn't even question it.

The story intrigued me enough that I wanted to find out more, and I got connected with retired Oklahoma Wildlife Officer Ed Rodabush. But there's a twist right off the bat. The first day when I went to Oklahoma City, I was delivered up there by the Tulsa County warden, and there was nine of us there. And Darrell Musgrove, who was our assistant chief, he told the whole Bucky Garrison story to us. And at that time, I didn't know I'd be going there. And he told us, you know, whoever went to McIntosh County to be careful and be on Triple Dog Alert. So is your introduction, as your intro packet to becoming a game warden, they told you this story?

Yes. Back in 1981. Yes. Wow. What was coming from the top was that this guy had been murdered. Yeah. And that this guy, who named he mentioned, who was the same guy, Bullitt said, did it, is who they suspected. I don't think back in 1971 they could do as thorough investigation as they could today.

And Ed has just alluded to the twist. There is no actual evidence that it was murder. It was deemed an unusual drowning. And after 54 years, no one has ever been charged, tried, or convicted of murder. But I believe that if you pulled 100 people in McIntosh County, Oklahoma, today. 99 of them would say it was a murder. This is a story about how much precision can the law have when there's no evidence, no confessions, no video, and no witnesses. Here's the first district chief of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife, Officer Hank Jinks. So this story is around

the death of a Oklahoma game warden. It was on December the 27th, 1971. He was recently hired in McIntosh County and worked with an older game warden by the name of Bullet Burns

who was, if you were a game warden, if you were a poacher, you knew Bullet Burns. I mean, he's got quite a history. I would love to have talked to him about this, but we can't. He's no longer with us. I went to his funeral so I know for a fact that he's no longer with us but so they're they're around the area of lake ufala in Oklahoma and the northwest part of that lake is uh is a is a big giant wooded

you know bottom land and uh bullet had told him to be careful when he was in that area that it's notorious for poaching notorious for all kinds of bad actors and uh had one of warned him to not go by himself into that area, you know, that it's just not a good place. Historically, Oklahoma has been a dangerous place for lawmen. More U.S. Marshals have been killed there than in any other state. Oklahoma became a state in 1907. That's pretty late. And for nearly a century before that, it was known as Indian Territory.

As someone who grew up 20 miles from the Oklahoma border, I can tell you their reputation, at least to the east, was a real. rough one. We knew it is a lawless place, especially known for wildlife outlaws. Here's Ed Rhoda Bush. This is a very wild area. And until they built 69 highway and I-40, it was kind of inaccessible. There was no jobs down here. So a lot of people that lived here lived off the land. And they didn't really like when the lake came in because it brought tourism in. And And for years, there was just one warden here, and finally when the lake got going, they brought a second one on. So when I came here, the game warden's name was Bullet Burns, been through World War II and Korea.

He went to work in September of 1953, and I was born in June of 54 or so I told him, I said, the month I was conceived, you went to work. And he didn't like that too well. But I started in September the 14th of 1981 and retired on October 1st of 2016, 35 years. Okay. And I was here the whole time in McIntosh County. Mackintosh County. And when they hired me and we finally got our assignments, they told me I was coming to McIntosh County. county and they said the last warden we had killed and the last one we had shot all the pieces

was in your area and no one can get along with bullet burns who was my partner so they said two years and you can transfer out so i worked 35 years here and it's really a good place to work but i mean there's some rough customers down here probably a sixth of this county is underwater and there's places where you have to drive 20 miles just to get on the other side of the lake. Bucky was 25 years old and he had two little girls and he was from Wagner, Oklahoma. Well, I was 27 years old and I had a two-year-old and a four-month-old, and I was from Wagner, too. And Bullitt really took this heart about Bucky because Bullitt. had warned him not to go where he did because it was dangerous. There's dangerous people up there

and he told him don't to go up there unless you're with me. But at that time the lake was just a few years old and all that bottom was only two to three foot deep and it was a green timber and ducks by the thousands would flog in there. So there would be hundreds of hunters up there and they would shoot ducks late, they would, you know, just do everything. So Bullard had showed him that spot and had told him not to ever go there. Well, the day after Christmas is listed as the day Bucky died. Some deals will say it was December 27, but he was to have some friends or family come that wanted to duck hunt on the weekend. so he told Bullitt he was going to be scouting over there to find a good place to take these guys.

Well, he left on December 26 at 4 p.m. And it's maybe a 15-minute drive, 20-minute drive from where he was. So Ed became partners with Bucky Garrison's former partner, Bullet Burns. Ed inherited the ripples from Buckey's death. And later we'll learn that we'll learn that we were. really don't know exactly why Bucky was over around Tiger Mountain, whether he was patrolling or scouting for ducks. Here's Officer Jinks. But I mean, it was early in the duck season, and he found his way up there by himself and kind of jumped forward a little bit. He didn't

come home that night, and someone had finally got in touch with Bullitt and had told him, you know, that Bucky was missing, and that's the first place he thought of. I think the exit to this place, if you've ever been down I-40, it's in and around that, if you've ever seen the sign, Tiger Mountain exit, which is just east of Henrietta on I-40 now. And a big search party came together. They found his truck, found his game warden truck, and his shotgun was not in the truck.

And a bullet drove over there, and it was met by the district chief. And one of the biologists from Okmoggi came over. his name was Johnny Shelton, and Bullitt took him right to Bucky's vehicle. And, of course, the hood was cold. You could tell he'd been there a long time. And they got to waiting around there, and he had one of the old type six-volt flashlights had had the square battery in a plastic case, and it was floating. So they waited around, and they got three or four other of the game ordnors from District 2 to come over.

And because the water would be almost blood red. It was real dark from the Oklahoma City area where that water comes from. And Bullitt actually bumped into him and found him. And he was in the water, of course, underwater. And he had on chest waiters. And they were pulled plumb off of him except his feet was still stuck in it. So it'd be kind of like a sock inside out. Only these waiters were inside out.

And they found this Derringer with one shell fire because it's a two-shot derringer. And they never did find a shotgun. They even lowered the lake and brunt metal detectors and really looked hard. But even back then, I'd say that Browning was worth $400 or so. One thing I failed to mention, Bucky's fingernail, were filled with mud and debris and stuff where he had been clawing in that mud. And I don't know,

probably not even 10 seconds, he would have been gone. Plus it was ice cold water too because it's in December. In fact, they found no wounds on him. There was no evidence of assault other than he had the dirt under his fingernails and he drowned in two and a half feet of water

in his chest weight. were pulled inside out. So it was ruled by the coroner's an accidental drowning. I mean, yeah, it don't look good, but, you know, I understand why it was ruled that. So that just didn't, from the time it happened, nobody believed that. No, no. No, our people didn't, the local people didn't. Yeah.

And, you know, I just, that don't even make sense. Of course, everyone was just shocked that that would happen because I don't think we had had a warden killed. They were called Rangers back then. I don't think we'd had one killed. You know, we had had some guys injured. But he only had seven months on. So Bullitt took that real personal. Bucky Garrison's death was ruled in accidental drowning.

Now would be a good time to run through the possible scenarios in your mind. especially those of you who are duck hunters and who get in dark water with waiters. Do you think it would be possible for a healthy, strong man to drown in two and a half feet of water? And why would the waiters be pulled down? Why would one shot be fired from his derringer? Why would there be mud all under his fingernails? Here's Officer Jinks with a very critical piece of info. We've already said it, but I want to say it again.

his shotgun was missing. It's never been found to this day. I've been told that the Corps of Engineers was involved in the investigation and he even lowered the lake because it's in a real Delta area and it can be drawn down and is down a lot,

but he never found the gun. And so most of the people involved, immediately started thinking, you know, that he probably didn't drown in two feet of water. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in 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 Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning calls. who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. Did Bullitt just immediately think that he had been murdered? He did when they found him drowned with his waiters pulled off of him.

That's not normal. And his browning was missing, which he thought was odd. But he knew that truck would be parked in that one spot. And I would guess they probably had a good duck hole there. But we're talking hundreds, maybe a thousand acres of flooded forest up there at that time. And this was really the only road into it and it had a little two-tracker off of it. And he was down there. In fact, the first day I was here, Bullitt took me up there and he showed me exactly where the truck was,

told me the whole story. And it didn't really scare me, but it sure put me, like I said, I'd already knew that I could trust this guy. If he lived through World War II in Korea, he was a survivor. You know, Bullitt was just sick about it because, you know, he was kind of under his wing, you know, trying to train him and everything. And Bullitt had two sons. And, you know, for someone to lose a 25-year-old son with two little kids doing his job, it was just unthinkable. And I could tell it really bothered.

but it also had me intrigued too. And I think that is one reason Bull and I got so close was he had a chance to redeem himself with me. And I tell you why, he told me the same thing. Don't go up there without him. And I did not go up there without anybody until I'd been on about 15 years.

And because the guy that everyone thinks did it and bullet things too. He still worked that area up there. He's still hunted and fished up there. Ed just told us the most twisty part of this story. They not only believed that Bucky was murdered, but they had a high level of certainty who did it. But it wasn't from any physical evidence.

As a matter of fact, on one of Ed's first days on patrol with bullet burns, they bumped into the man they believed that did it. This person shall remain nameless on this podcast. I've actually worked pretty hard to not even know his name, but it's on the lips of just about everyone that you meet over in that part of the world. But how could they be so certain and have no evidence? I'm very interested in the person that they thought did this. Can you tell me about this suspect and why they thought it was him?

It's interesting how much. certainty everybody had that this guy did it. What was it that was so compelling that made them believe this guy did it? He was the Jesse James of the poachers up on the Tiger Mountain and Deep Fork Bottoms. And he was a big man and he was a mean man. And he had a reputation for fighting, drinking, killing deer. And after the lake coming in for selling fish. And he was actually caught selling fish, and of all the things, he did a little time on that. But he was the number one target, and on the side with all them ducks up there, there was a lot of people willing to pay good money for a duck guide, and he was guiding people, and he

had the perfect boats for it because he had small light aluminum boats with old motors. He didn't mind driving over a tree or through the mud with his motor. and he was just famous. He was like the boss hog of all of them up there. What did you think the first time you met him? You're a young guy with Bullitt. You already know you're coming in with this information that they think he's the one that did it.

Yes. What was your perception of him? We carried a 357 six shot at that time, Smith and Weston, and I drew a male tin ring right here on his chest, and I said, that's where I put all six. of my shots. And I'm in it. I mean, I told myself,

it'll be him. It won't be me. He was that bad of a character. Yes. And I could tell he just gave off a sense of just evilness. Was he just arrogant and loud? Was he, like, what would you have thought if you ran into him, not you, but a stranger met him in a gas station?

Would you have been afraid of the guy? Or would he just look like a normal guy? No, and that's what was so evil about him. First time I met him, his exact words were, You guys come over the house, the old lady just made a peach cobbler. And he's a kind of guy that would pat you on the back and all that stuff, and like I said, didn't kill you. But he was a very strong big man.

You could tell that he was awesome. And the thing he was doing that day, and I had never even heard of this, The lake was up two or three foot, and it's a pecan bottom that this was in, you know, lots of pecan trees. And he was smashing his boat into them pecan trees and then scooping up the pecans with net, you know, a fine mesh net. He had a literally boat full of pecans. But I just, you know, my spider sense kicked in on him and I, you know, I would never get as close to him as like to me to you unless I was handcuffed. and then I'd have someone with me. In your career, did you ever have that feeling quite like that with other people?

I did a few times, but it never came to bear fruit. And it's something just like the hair on your neck stands up. And if you have time to prepare for it, you mentally think, well, I'm going to do this if he does this. Or if this happens, I will do that. And I raced him another time, me and a different partner, and he was actually selling fish to this guy, and they were standing in knee-deep water. And I jumped out of that truck. It was still kind of barely rolling, and ran out there and grabbed the boat. And I was three foot from him at that time.

And the thing was, even though he was a felon already, we never, ever found him with any kind of a fire. But he had edged weapons everywhere. There was seven big butcher knife-type knives in that boat. So was that a sting operation? Was he selling to one of your guys? No, that was just... You just caught him. Dumb luck.

We just drove in there and saw him, and before my partner could get it out of gear, of course, we was barely rolling. I bailed out, and as soon as he got in gear, he wound up on the other side. And he had shocked those fish because he had a shocking device in a small flashlight, like the 6th volt I talked about, but it was one of the old ones that was metal. And I had already got some intelligence that he had that.

So when I saw that there, I noticed that the button you pushed down was missing. Broke. So I said, what's that? And well, he just got nervous. Well, that's the flashlight. So I had Mike hand it to me across the boat. And I said, where's the switch? And he said, oh, it's broke.

It don't work. And I said, why would you carry a broke flashlight in a boat? And I unscrewed the lid off and looked down there. And I said, well, here's why it's got a fish shocker in it. You can't just get a light out of that. And that's serious offense. That's kind of like a regular policeman finding a murder. You know, catching the guy that did it.

So Did I hear you say you caught him one time With a bunch of With nets out or trot lines? My partner and I Watched him for about three days From about half a mile away In a remote area

With the spotting scopes And I watched him We both watch him Run 75 trot lines When three is your limit And these were short trot lines that he wouldn't bait and he would just stick his ore down. He had a notch cut out of it.

And if he felt that line and it was tugging, he would pull it up. And most of these fish would run five to eight pounds. And he probably caught 10 that we saw that day. I actually drew crude maps of where the trees were, where his trot lines were, because we would need to find some for evidence, you know, when we did the takedown. and when he run those lines all three days he was missing for about an hour he went out of our view so there's no telling how many lines he had up there but when we we said we actually brought some fellow game ordens in and set up on him uh someone in the woods watching him make sure he didn't

pull anything then i had another game order than me we went in and affected the arrest and And then that my partner and another guy were over there watching, and we actually set up radio codes because people have scanners. When my partner told me that the wind starting blow out of the west, that means that he had left and went around where he couldn't see us, and we could get in position. And then he told me, he said, boy, they're doing a lot of snagging over here at the dam today. we were 30, 35 miles from the dam. And then when he told me the cats in the bag,

that meant he was coming in. And when he came in, I knew we had him already. So I handcuffed him up. And then when everyone showed up, my partner, I think he got on the radio, and he said, hey, he ran a net too, which is a big violation. And we might have taken him to just. on that one. I actually had my district chief over there and we put him to work. He was our chauffeur and this guy and myself sat in the back seat and told lies to each other because

and my chief bless his heart. I mean, he's good intended, but he asked him how much a pound he got for these fish. Oh, I don't sell these fish. I give them away. And there was a young girl that had died in a fire over by there. And he said, I took a 50-pound fish over that family for that little girl. And he probably did. You know, he just kind of like that. But that time, I actually took leg irons to handcuff him with because his wrists were so big. And I had barred the leg irons from you follow police department.

And it's a pretty big deal because when they heard us go 10-15, which means we were bringing a prisoner in. About half of McIntosh County showed up because they want to see what kind of varma and I had drugged in and leg irons on his wrist. And he got 30 days out of that and a few hundred dollars fine. And I got mad because when I checked on the cases later, I saw that he served six days, not the 30. So I went down because it said he had worked down into National Guard Army.

on those six days. So I asked the head guy down there and said, what's the deal on this? And he said, had those prisoners didn't like to work very good. When he got down here, I think he back slapped one of them or something. He said,

that's the most work we've ever got out of prisoners. So he was a valued supervisor. So they gave him five for one. And he just had to do six days. Was he in his community? Was he well-liked? Not really here because he actually lived in Okmoggi County. He was a lone wolf.

You never saw anyone with him. You know, he always went by himself. I must have checked him 30 times in my career, and mostly when he'd come in. And he always brought fish in head and guts out of him, but he left the tail on because a flathead would bring more money into Blue Cat. So what did this guy say about being accused of this murder? I don't know because I'm sure he heard about it and Bullitt didn't say.

Of course, lots of people ask him about buying fish and he never admitted it or bragged on him. And he was very smart. As Ed's telling me this story, I'm trying to understand his certainty. If I told you that a person was a murderer before you method, them, that would be really hard to overcome. Could it have been confirmation bias? I really don't have the right to have an opinion, but could it be possible that the biggest wildlife outlaw in that region was falsely pinned with the murder of this game warden? But I also know that the judicial system sometimes just don't work, and I put a lot of stock in what the people on the ground during that time

believed. In full disclosure, the suspect is no longer alive today, but in the eyes of the law, he is completely innocent. You heard me ask Ed if the guy was well liked in his community. I find it a trend that sometimes these old school wildlife outlaws can be charismatic, likable people in their community, even generous. And my suspicions were confirmed when a local, who isn't on this episode, told me that each Christmas, the suspect would go to the local grocery store and buy apples and oranges to to give his gifts to people. I also heard some pretty negative stuff about the guy and his character. My intent isn't to defend this guy. These are just questions that I have. But there are some

things that we haven't learned yet. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in 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 help 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 Rinella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. Here's Officer Jinks. So, you know, we sent in the best. guys we had at the time. We really didn't have a undercover unit at the time, but they sent in

folks to try to maybe get some intel on what could have happened, who could have happened, the OSBI, I'm sure, was involved. But it was eventually deemed a drowning because they just never got any, they could never prove that he was, you know, attacked or held underwater. And for For years after that, we've spent, you know, the department, my agency, the Oklahoma Department Wildlife has, you know, had sent folks in trying to infiltrate that area. They tried, you know, there were folks that were suspected, but they could just never piece it together and prove it. I've talked to a lot of the guys that are retired, but were investigators, and, and they,

It all goes back to the main investigator. He was a game warden. His name was Haskell Mosley, and he was probably our best investigator. He did some UC work. You know, and this was in a time where we really didn't have undercover. But he, from everyone that I've talked to, he 100% believed in that there was one suspect. But he just was never able to piece together. enough information to bring charges.

They could never pin this guy with Bucky's murder. There are some things that the law just can't prove. But I'll tell you that more than one person, none of which work for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife or were on this podcast, told me personally that the suspect, quote, all but admitted to the murder, and some say that he did admit to the murder.

But it was never proven. They never had a wire on somebody. when he said that. And I know that rumors spread easily. Maybe he didn't say that at all. Maybe that's just a convenient rumor that was started. All that I do know is that time has erased a lot of details. But I do want to know what the man who was actually on the crime scene believed happened.

So what do you think happened? What did Bullet think happened? Like, just he was there. He found Bucky with his waist. Parder pulled down, one shot Daringer, one bullet spent. What did he think happened? He thought someone was shooting late. Because Bucky, if he'd have got over, say, 4.30 got out in the water,

there wasn't 35, 40 minutes of shooting time left. I mean, that's usually when we try and get over and set up is just a little before. And he thinks he heard him shooting late, and they were probably having a great time. Bullitt thinks he had someone with him. And when Bucky fired that shot out of that pistol, Bullet thinks that he shot it in the air to get their attention and probably shine that flashlight at him if it was, you know, dusk. And they came over there,

and Bullitt thinks that one of them run the boat and the other guy grabbed him and kind of held him under and actually drove the boat away, similar to water skiing, but he was hanging over the edge under water, and that would have pulled your waiters off, but your feet are hard to get out of waiters, if you've, you know, ever warm.

It wouldn't have taken a couple, three minutes to do that, so they didn't come off of him. And they probably grabbed that shotgun at the same time, too, because he probably grabbed the boat, because that would be the natural deal to do on something like that. and since he's by himself, you know, he had no backup. But that scenario, a bullet told me,

and especially after working 35 years, I think he was spot on. I think that was it. I guess it's just hard to make sense how a healthy 25-year-old guy trained in law enforcement, competent, would have drowned in two and a half feet of water. Yeah. See, there's no way that scenario, you know,

he didn't have a heart attack. But even if he'd had a heart attack, I didn't explain waiters being pulled down to his... There's no way. Because out in two and a half foot of water we're in waiters, if you were going to take them off, you would go to the bank. You can't take waiter. And you wouldn't get in your sock feet in the day after Christmas in two and a half foot of water.

I mean, that water probably was 40 degrees. Yeah. And he didn't die hypothermia. He died of drowning. Yeah, he died of drowning. Because what I read, what the coroner said in the report was that there was no evidence of foul play. No evidence of foul play. Here's Officer Jinks with an interesting point.

If someone's going to hold me underwater and I'm fighting for my life, I'm going to have some marks on me. Now, you throw waiters on, you throw a heavy coat on, I don't know if those marks would be there or not. That's a great point. If I was decked out. If I looked like a duck hunter or I was checking duck hunters, I'm going to have so many clothes on that, quite frankly, it would be easy for, you know, for someone that was bigger than me and I got too close to them or most likely more than one person that they're going to grab you and they're going to hold you underwater.

And I don't know if there would be any indications other than what. water in your lungs. Originally, one of my bigger questions was why wouldn't he have shown signs of a struggle? But big clothes could have been the reason. When I look at this story, to me, the biggest piece of evidence that indicates that there was some kind of foul play, which I know was calculated into this, was that his gun, his shotgun was never found. If he was recreational duck hunting, or if he was.

patrolling, which we really don't know. We don't. We truly don't know what he was doing. But he was in his company, he was in Oklahoma Wildlife Truck. And in either one of those situations, he would have had his shotgun. Yes. If he was checking, you know, if he was down checking duck hunters, he may have felt like that would have been a good cover for him.

I mean, I wouldn't necessarily take a shotgun to walk out on a peninsula and check hunt. It's not my way. But he would have had it in the truck. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So the fact that it's just like gone. It's gone, and to me, you know, not to not to get, you know, to be disrespectful, but, you know, the body wouldn't have traveled that far. It's not like something that would float for even a few feet, especially in a bottom, in a timbered bottom land.

You're going to, it's going to bump into trees. It's not going to, it's not going to be far from that weapon if the weapon was there. And so I would, I agree. I think it's the biggest, it's the most damning piece of evidence that there was foul play involved, the fact that it never showed up, ever. But that's not the full story of the gun. Jinks has been holding out on us. So one other aspect to this, so this, this Haskell Mosley that investigated this, he dug around,

he was, he lived down there for a certain period of time, would go to bars and was trying to get in with some of the, suspects or suspect, if you will. He went to his grave saying that he had an opportunity to buy that shotgun. He had a guy come to him somewhere along the way and said he knew where the shotgun was at and was willing to sell it. But for whatever reason, and the story that I got not to talk bad about my agency, because I don't know, who knows what the truth was. or, and I can't put my head around why they would even, you know, again, this was 50 years ago,

why they wouldn't want to do that, but it never happened. But his story was that he wasn't allowed, we'll just say that, to go through with that. But he claims that he talked to someone who knew where it was at. Interesting. Wow. I could see that being a legitimate thing just inside of the bureaucracy of any big agency. You know, the legality, I could see how it could get caught in the wires. But now it seems like a no-brainer.

Yeah. Well, if you think about it, and again, I've thought about this a lot. If you think about 50 years ago, I can tell you there's probably weapons in my house that maybe I've had or my dad has. There's no serial number that's ever been logged anywhere. He bought it from a friend or bought it at Walmart. And so I'm like you. I think that's probably what it came down to is that even if they had it. this someone handed him this shotgun and he the department provided money for him to buy it would

they really know if that was the shotgun he had a chance to buy bucky garrison's gun wouldn't it be interesting to know all the details that haskell moseley knew but maybe we can officer jinx keeps giving me new information he may have just found all the answers we've been looking for So I got permission to delve back into the records as deep as I could because most of the, I talked to, when Clay called me, I was at a conference in Pennsylvania, and I started immediately thinking, okay, who would know the story? And I called and they're like, oh, there's 100% a case file somewhere. But I talked to my bosses. Neither one of them knew where that was at, if it even still existed. And they gave me permission to go and look in an area that they thought it might be, if it's, existed and so I dug through a folder, a file, and I'm cruising along and down about four folders,

I see Bucky Garrison written on a folder. And I thought, bingo, praise the Lord, here we go. I hurry to it. It's an empty folder. And I don't think there's in, I don't think there's any, you know, it could have been someone was going to start a file or whatever, but it was just kind of ironic that I thought, man, I'm going to, there's going to be some great stuff here. And it was there was a file somewhere, but, you know, we don't keep 50-year-old cases around, even though this was a big one, you know, in the history of our department. He died in the line of duty, but I don't know where it's at, and I don't think anybody stole it or anything like that. I just think it's time has made it disappear. So that's, it's not odd to you that it's not there?

It's not. You know, I'm sure that's a folder that when a, probably some old game warden who was maybe the guy mentioned earlier not to throw Haskell under the bus but he probably had that case file and when he was trying to do his investigative work and it may have just you know he could have got picked up again by another you know because we've they've looked at this I can remember our undercover folks looking at this numerous times from what I've been told that they've tried to pick it up maybe maybe hoping that's you know this suspect to talk to somebody or that a relative or maybe someone maybe someone else was there who goes duck hunting by themselves we I don't normally do that and so it doesn't it doesn't seem that odd to me that after 50 years it's it got misplaced or whatever you know it's a shame because I'd love to get my hands on it to see you know there's no we have no primary sources on this where there's no one live that we that we can talk to that was there an empty fold

I think there was some evidence in that case file that gave all these wardens confidence in their suspicions of foul play, but it was probably stuff that couldn't be proven or used in court. I don't know. I'm just speculating. But I've got one final question for Ed. After all your years of law enforcement, now that you're retired, how much faith do you have inside of the system when it comes to specifically deaths? that coroners get it right because I know how time-sensitive stuff like that is. I mean, you know, you get a body and it's everybody immediately makes assumptions.

And usually you know what happened. The guy's got a bullet wound or the guys laying in the water under the water. And but then it goes to the coroner. I mean, and I'm not, it's not a leading question. I mean, are you like 100% confident when you hear stuff like that or just being on the scene all these years and seeing stuff or hearing about stuff, would you be like, back in the 70s, I would have said, yeah, but now because of the computers and the AI and all that, I think they hit it right on the nose.

Yeah. So back then, and it would depend on if it was a new guy doing an autopsy or an old hand. Yeah. But there would have been water in his lungs. Yeah. He drowned. You know, it's pretty easy. And, you know, on an autopsy, they're looking a lot of stuff from the inside out,

and there was no other wounds or anything. Other than his fingers had the dirt, I mean, just caked, like they were driven up in there. And that would be indicative of clawing, trying to get away or stop, you know. It would have been an instinct move that anyone would have done. So to me, that call of, they found no evidence of foul play, made it look even more fishy to me than it, you know, what it would have if they'd say, well, he's been hitting the head of everything you would have known. I'm struck to by now, 50 years later, we've got this story,

we've got this interesting story that, you know, there's so many questions. of, you know, that time has kind of swept away. Like, we just, we just don't know all the answers. But it feels like, I mean, if the crime lab says that it was a drowning, like, what are you supposed to do? Because there could be, there could be somebody that would be like, well, if, if everybody knew that he was actually murdered, why didn't they do more? And I think the answer is they did do more.

But there's, I mean, in the law systems, even in a country like ours, which, you know, say what you will, it's better than some other places. The system can fail at times when there's just a dead end. And an autopsy that says the man drowned and there's no signs of foul play is a dead end, you know? Yes. And so, because I think at first blush, you're like, well, this clearly wasn't. You know, this capable, strong young man didn't drown in three feet of water, two and a half feet of water. No. Something happened.

And, you know, how does something like this not get discovered? But the truth is, too, as I hear this story and have no dog in the fight other than just, you know, it's a human being, it's hard to completely put the blame on this suspect when there's no evidence. that the guy did it. No. It's hard to be too sure of anything, really. Our agency magazine, Outdoor Oklahoma, I dug around and was curious what it said, you know, and it basically just said

that he was checking on hunting activities in the Tiger Mountain area. And it said he drowned on December 22nd in the deep fork arm of Lake Ufala. There is no doubt that something unusual happened in the death of Melvin Bucky Garrison. Some things, many things, will remain mysteries forever. But ultimately, I'd like to dedicate this episode to Melvin Bucky Garrison for his service

and to his living family, but also to the law enforcement officers who serve our communities every day. If you were intrigued by this episode, you're going to want to stick around for the next full Bear Grease episode when we talk with a warden who had to use deadly force when someone tried to drown him.

I can't thank you enough for listening to Bear Greece, Brent's this country life and Lakes Backwoods University. It really is a joy and an honor to bring these stories to you guys every week. Keep the wild

places wild because that's where the bears live. 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 bed. 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.