Crime in Sports - #450 - Gang Brawls, Tall Tales & Hollywood - Evel Knievel - Part 3

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

This week, we keep this crazy tale going, as Evel acquires a bit of fame, but is too injured from his numerous crashes to take advantage. He goes on a one man publicity blitz to promote his non existent jump over the Grand Canyon. He also cuts casts off of body parts in order to jump, gets in a bleacher clearing brawl with The Hell's Angels, and is approached by a major Hollywood actor, who wants to make his life into a movie!!Be so physically broken that you have to be helped on to your motorcycle, in order to jump things, attack a man by jumping off a moving motorcycle, and be played by George Hamilton in a movie with Evel Knievel - Part 3!!Check us out, every Tuesday!We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!! Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail] Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!!  Contact us on... twitter.com/crimeinsports [e-mail] facebook.com/Crimeinsports instagram.com/smalltownmurderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to crime and sports early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. In the depths of an Atlanta forest, a clash between activists and authorities ends in tragedy. I'm Matthew Scherr, and on my new podcast, We Came to the Forest, we expose the hidden truths behind a shootout that left one activist dead and countless lives forever changed. Binge all episodes of We Came to the Forest ad-free on Wondery Plus. Hello everybody and welcome back to Crime and Sports. Yay! Oh yay indeed Jimmy.

Yay indeed. My name is James Petragallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks for joining us today on another edition of Crime and Sports. We are really getting deep into this evil Knievel thing. We're going to do part three today and we are nowhere near done with evil. So it's going to be a few more parts.

Yeah. I mean we're only at 1968 at the moment is where we're going to start back and he's not even really famous yet. No, that's what's fucking crazy. Like he's not even super famous yet. The jump. The jump in Vegas certainly catapulted him. That made him known, but that's when he started getting on TV all the time and became famous. So yeah, we just have the seed of him being famous

at this point. Gross. And the nut, the jizz of him being famous. So we'll get into all that and more. First of all, head over to shutupandgivemurder.com. Everything there for you. There's merchandise you could buy, all sorts of stuff. Mainly though, tickets to live small town murder shows

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So we'll talk all about that and more and we'll do small town murder too. Patreon.com slash crime in sports and you get a shout out at the end of the show too. So stay tuned for that. Jimmy will mess your name all up while he's trying to get it correct. That said, let's dive back into evil here here we go yeah we last left evil broken and battered in Las Vegas from his horrifying not as bad as he wanted as long as he sold it you know I mean oh yeah him and the Sarno guy made up a whole thing and we're gonna say you're half dead and we're gonna do all this shit meanwhile he's like he's got hookers in there and stuff. It's a whole other. Broken and battered, but not as much. I guess I wasn't as sick as I put on.

Exactly, he doc-holidated that shit. So they say, here's a newspaper article from this time, from January 5th, 1968, saying, Daredevil Evil Knievel will ride again, says doctors. Will he? Will he? The doctor said Thursday night Daredevil Evil Knievel would not have to undergo surgery, that he probably would be able to ride his motorcycle again.

That's when they came out with the whole, as they were saying his hip needs to be fused and they won't be able to do anything and all of this type of shit. They said the treatment originally diagnosed for Mr. Knievel is going to be continued. And they said no surgery is considered needed. 15 years ago, surgery was felt necessary, but now improved techniques will allow it to be treated with traction." That's the thing about a smashed pelvis used to have to have surgery. So it says that next article says, daredevil cyclists to leave wheelchair for circus bow. Yeah he said well he says that he's first of all, he's talking about

the, uh, the whole Grand Canyon jump, obviously, but he is also, uh, talking about, uh, the, uh, will be the special attraction at the Doe Bridge International Circus when it opens here on April 3rd. Knievel is to ride a motorcycle on a wire strung 50 feet above the arena floor. That sounds insane. That's not a thing you do, right? Is that a thing people do? I've never seen that before. Is that possible? It's not a wire. That's crazy. People walk on wires but they like stop and get their balance. They don't just fucking ride a motorcycle. Yeah, that sounds crazy. Still confined to a wheelchair, doctors assure him he can recover in time to open with the

circus. He'll also attempt to jump over nine elephants for the show. Which what if you miss and run into an elephant? That's not cool for the elephant. That's pretty fucked up. Of course, how are you gonna keep him in... Stand right there. You're gonna have him hold trunk to tail? What fucking circus has nine elephants also?

That's a herd. That's a giant herd of elephants. That well-trained, yeah. Yeah, nine elephants could take over a city. Like literally, nine elephants could run Las Vegas. That aren't spooked by the sound and smell of a two-stroke. Holy shit, yeah. That elephant doesn't like ring ring ring.

He doesn't like that. Holy shit, man. This is kind of crazy, obviously. They talk about his experiences are greater than his age would suggest. He boasts 30 parachute jumps, holds the world record for jumping a cycle over 16 automobiles. Again, no one else, it's not a record anyone's taking. No one else is trying, yeah. And bucking Broncos and amateur rodeos,

and owns credentials as a champion ski jumper. Oh, that's true. Yeah. So that's nice. Interesting. By the way, right under that is an ad for a movie that has, looks like a picture of a chick moaning and it says, a shattering sophisticated study of a sick society and

the name of the movie is Turn Me On, Adults Only. Oh yeah, then Adults Only, then the second hit, then plus a second hit, Baby Baby Baby, which I assume is more porn who the fuck is sitting through double features of porn you didn't finish I was gonna say by the second fucking actual sex scene of the first movie you should be leaving what are you doing how long are you sitting why are you edging yourself so hard in public this is gonna get it now this one's a baby baby, baby, baby's the one, I feel it. Drop those teaspoons and get the fuck out of there.

Brutal, man. So 1968, March 18th, 1968, he finally gets a little national exposure when actor Joey Bishop has him on, as a guest on the Joey Bishop show. Because he had a talk show. Who the fuck is Joey Bishop? He was a comic and an actor from the.

Oh he was funny. He hung around the Rat Pack, he was part of the Rat Pack crew. He was the comic of the Rat Pack I think for awhile there. So yeah he's one of those real old timey comics. Hey, you know, one of those guys who has seven million jokes on the top of their head, those one linliners and

Jokebook guys Yes, exactly that's a good show a bishop so This got him a little more famous because Joey Bishop was a national was on national TV And back then there's three channels and no cable So if you were on a fucking national TV talk show, you were famous the next day. People will know you.

Oh yeah, period. Remember even like comics talk about like when you were on The Tonight Show in like 1981, the next day people would recognize you walking down the street. Absolutely, yeah. You know what I mean? Like some comic was a waiter too and the next day he was waiting tables

and immediately first two customers recognized You were on the tonight show last night the hell you doing here. No you yeah, why you what are you doing here? Why are you refilling my water? Yeah, whereas now you could be on the biggest thing on television and no one sees it No one cares. No one knows anything but back then you know even the shit show 30 million people are watching it Even if it was the bad show of the unless show's Instagram page shows a clip of you. Yeah. Then maybe. Maybe. Maybe. So this was, got him also. Now a lot of women saw him and he was pretty popular with the ladies.

Yeah. Because he's got a swagger to him, number one. He's ballsy. Shakes a lot of the dude on a motorcycle. Well, especially back then when it was like, you know, cool. Yeah, it was counterculture. Let's be honest now, it's not cool now like that. Cause everybody's dad has a motorcycle, it's not cool. Here's the thing about motorcycles.

A form of transportation now. You gotta have credit to get a motorcycle now. That's the thing, yes. So, it's not scumbags. Right, back then you didn't have credit. That's why you wrote a motor Yeah, you cuz you built it Right fucking put it together and you're having made it right recovered and shit from it all the time Motorcycle that motorcycle costs you thirty eight thousand dollars. Yeah, and you need a seven eighty credit score to buy shit. Oh Man, so on the Joey Bishop show,

he brought a motorcycle out on the fucking stage with him. And some guy just slapped it together as like, here's what a rocket bike would look like, because he's gonna talk about jumping the Grand Canyon still and he's like, I need a rocket bike. So he brings out this thing and it's sort of a motorcycle with like wings crazy glued to it and it's not an operational prototype it is a it's a gag it might as well be made of cardboard like it's it's it's one of those things right

so there's a guy named Doug Malawicki and he's the chief rocket designer at rocket design manager at Century Engineering in Phoenix He built actual rockets. No shit there that they were the leading maker of like hobby Rockets like science classes or you know, oh I took my son out in a park and we did it like yeah, those must be Hmm. Yeah, I've never seen those really much elsewhere. I've seen a shitload of those in Arizona Yeah, cuz there's a lot of people in the desert people in the park It's been no trees to catch them and shit like that. So yeah, I took my son out We fired off a few of those last year when I was out there. So you got you got a chase the fucking thing Yeah, one got caught in a tree and we were like, well, that's that we're not doing that again. That one's gone

It's exactly what it was. So this guy's doing that and this guy was intrigued by the idea of a rocket powered motorcycle flying off a ramp and out over the Grand Canyon. He said that's because in his mind he goes well he starts putting the physics of it together and goes well it's possible you could do that. Yeah engines aren't that hard to build it's just a shitload of sulfur. And that's the thing and he's talking about you just need the right thrust and you know the hardest part of it would be to make it look like a motorcycle because Yeah, what he's gonna ride is not a motorcycle

It's not but they have to make it sort of look like a motorcycle and really it's just like a little Like rocket pod is the best way to fucking put it. So anyway He convinced another guy That he worked with this Malawiki guy to come along and to this Watkins Ford Which is where they were showing off evils rocket bike that he put out there. He said comes a dealership. It's a dealership Yeah, it's just a car dealership and wonder why they want people to come down. Yeah Yeah, it was just a car dealership and wonder why they want people to come down. Yeah Wonder so this guy's like come on down and let's look at this fucking thing and where at Watkins for Watkins Ford where?

0% financing through Sunday unapproved credit of course So I've heard off any Ford Lincoln Mercury So part of the presentation along with the 40- foot flatbed and the trucks and the motorcycles, was the prototype jet cycle for the Canyon Jump. Now, it was a guy named Ray Gun that we talked about that had the motorcycle shop for Moses Lake. He's the guy who slapped it together.

So he doesn't know shit about rocket propulsion and physics or any of that shit. He sells motorcycles in- Flaps or lift, any of that shit. He sells motorcycles in... Flaps or lift? None of that. No. Sells fucking dirt bikes in rural Washington. Knows dick about this shit. So he just made it look like a cool-looking motorcycle. So the way this guy put it, he said, the prototype was nonsense, partly slapped together by Ray Gunn, who'd been hired as Knievel's mechanic, truck driver, and

general handyman. And Gunn said he'd been hired as Knievel's mechanic, truck driver and general handyman. And Gunn said he'd been... Man of many parts. ... doesn't know... Yeah, I don't hear physics fucking scholar in there anywhere. Nowhere. May as well be president of the anti-Chinese league. Yes, exactly.

None of this makes you be able to make a rocket motorcycle of any fucking stretch. So Gunn said he'd be asking me to go with him from the beginning, but I couldn't see any financial sense in it. Then when he crashed at Caesar's Palace and got all that publicity, I thought it might be worthwhile after all. Oh, look at you, fucking fair weather asshole. So how can I capitalize? What can I sell based on this bullshit? How can I fucking yeah when I said no at first? I didn't believe in the guy So gun and attached to pay this is from the evil Knievel book here gun and attached a pair of ominous looking wings

And a pair of bottle-shaped thrust units to an ordinary motorcycle To create a contraption evil could use when he talked about the jump on television or in front of crowds It was just a prop They said evil had wielded onto the set of the Joey Bishop show two months earlier, sat down with Jerry Vale, Leslie Gore and Charlie Callis and talked about doing the jump on July 4th, 1968. The thing looked like a science fiction version of a deranged mechanical housefly. You just got to get yourself in front of people. You just sell your shit and have figured out later, have the balls to be blatantly full of shit in front of people and they believe it. It's

Incredible how much people believe bullshit from confident charlatans. It's wild. It's fucking incredible How don't you deal and then I'll figure it out later? That's that's it whole plan with everything and he's like I'll figure it out We'll slap it together because there's some of these jumps that he makes where it's like he's like yeah There's no way with this I can make it And he's like, I'll figure it out and we'll slap it together. Cause there's some of these jumps that he makes where it's like, he's like, yeah, there's no way with this I can make it. But he's like, I'll figure it out on the fly. It's like, what?

You can't just figure that out. Again, physics, evil. Evil should have just taken like two college physics courses. Would have saved him so many injuries if he was just like, yeah, that's impossible because this doesn't go to here. Not gonna work. But the thing is, if he doesn't make make it it makes the next jump so much more

Interesting because then people are rooting for him to make it because they feel bad They just watched a man break his hip well the fucking problem is they just want him to crash It becomes more of oh, I bet he's gonna crash Because they want to see the soaring over shit And they get to see that whether he crashes or not and then when he lands they get to see the soaring over shit and they get to see that whether he crashes or not and then when he lands they get to see a spectacular crash. It's like people for years and years just watch NASCAR to see crashes because they're like oh there's going to be 180 mile an hour car crashes.

I don't see that all the time. That and hockey to watch fights. To watch fights. I mean I guess the humanity is lost when you get to see carnage. Who gives a shit when there's carnage? You don't know this fucking guy. Right. And he seems like a lunatic. Fuck him.

So this guy said Malawiki, the engineer, as he looked at it during his lunch hour, was aghast at what he saw. The deranged mechanical housefly was worthless, a piece of garbage, a hoax. Look at this. Look at this. Wow. He had the outrage of a basic slide rule book smart nerd finding something so obviously wrong that the general public assumed was legitimate. He's a general contractor fixing the previous general contractor's errors.

I can't believe this. Oh my god, they put the, these joists don't even go to, oh my god, Jesus Christ. Every time. Who would do this? Even fucking barbers do that who did oh my god things over here we need to everybody does that professional doing something after another it's so funny I said where were the general public's brains his buddy Cameron part of the 99% of Americans who knew little about Rockets and mostly didn't care listened and said hey if you feel so strongly

about it leave him a letter yeah so Malawiki borrowed three pieces of stationary and a pen from the Bill Watkins Ford receptionist he detailed how to write a three page letter well he details okay how shitty this thing is and how useless it is and how this is a piece of garbage, but he did outline how a proper rocket cycle could actually clear the canyon and land with you not being killed. You actually could do this. Wiley Coyote blueprint.

Yeah. So this guy is like, listen, stop ordering shit from ACME. It's not working out. So he filled three pages, left it with the receptionist and the receptionist put it in an envelope and this guy said, you never thought he'd hear from this guy or whatever. He said Knievel called him the next afternoon. Really? Yeah. He said, quote, what kind of bullshit is this? The daredevil wanted to know who are you to tell me what I should be doing. So Mel Wicke, he was antagonistic. He was mad. I could never figure that out. He knew what he had was bogus. So why would he start

out antagonistic? He was mad at me for what? You knew you glued wings to a fucking Harley and stuck it on a fucking, you know that that's not going to fly over a Canyon. Don't yell at me for understanding science. You stapled antlers to a mouse's head, Scrooge. You can't do that. That's not gonna work. It's slowly losing brain fluid right now. So it said Malawicki made rockets for a living. So he ended up saying that he recruited four other engineers who had heard about Evil Knievel

in the canyon to come to his house and work on a prototype. He said, let's work on it for you. That's his way of challenging him. That's his way of challenging him. Yeah, who are you to do that? It's his way of telling him that he's full of shit. You can't do that. And that's what's gonna charge this man up to go ahead and do it for him for free.

That's, he's gonna do it. Well for- I'll prove you wrong, evil. For, he's gonna build this just to talk a model. This guy said, I can build you a model in a couple of days because that's what we do. And then obviously we'd have to make it bigger later, but short to scale. So he said that it was basically a rocket with wheels. And he said, that's what evil was talking about. So that's what we built. So a day or two later,

evil called Malawiki and invited him to the hospital and could be, well, basically he went Malawicki went to take it to To the jump because he said meet me at this jump I'm doing and bring it there and I'll look at it So Malewicki and these four guys got it on a truck and they brought it there when they got there evil wasn't at the jump Because in the practice rounds he had already like shattered a pelvis and like cracked his arm and he was gone He was out. So the emergency he's at the emergency room he's fucked so they were like shit okay so that's they left with the motorcycle and we're like

I guess we don't know what's going on show him another time so this time he invited got invited to the hospital and he said that evil had heard that the model rocket firing had been good it worked out from what he heard so he's interested So anyway sits him down this guy says this is the engineer He says quote sitting in a chair outside evils room was his wife Linda. I introduced myself. She was very nice She told me to go inside and well it was classic evil Knievel. He was in the room with a blonde gogo dancer classic Evil Knievel. He was in the room with a blonde go-go dancer. His wife is outside in the chair and he's in there with this blonde. His wife is outside the door. What an angel. This is crazy. This guy is like, listen, sweetheart, there's going to be a hot chick coming in.

You let her in and close the door and shut your ears, all right?" So he said, they seemed very friendly. His leg was in a big cast. It was the absolute perfect introduction to the man. Yeah, hospital room with a blonde chick with his wife outside and he's full of shit. So Malawiki convinced Knievel and maybe the go-go dancer, that's funny from the book, that he could build a rocket motorcycle that could take the daredevil across the canyon of his choice. He said this not only could be done, it could be done easily. He said, any canyon?

Yeah. Well, I mean, as long as you're firing, he said, NASA's getting ready to send people to the moon. We can fucking fire you across a canyon. That's not that hard on a rocket. I mean, it's not going to be a motorcycle, but we could definitely get you across a canyon. So Knievel liked the idea and wanted to make a deal so he convinced Malawiki that you can make a

lot of money off this in the future he offered him 30% of any canyon jumping process profits oh plus expenses to build the shit so okay he'll pay to build it and you get 30% of my canyon jumping profits which seems like a good deal yeah they made the deal yeah yeah and this guy's the engineer said quote there was no contract there's just a handshake which that's a mistake with evil right there you got a hold evil down with certainly with contracts and with a lawyer's written contract notarized and yeah, don't write it on a bar napkin No, no You need something here. So this guy said I was 28 years old. What did I know?

Yeah, not to make a deal with evil So May 19th 1968. He's trying to keep his name in the news So this is when he starts really his name in the news. So this is when he starts really amping up and ramping up the Grand Canyon talk. He's trying to do that. So this newspaper article here from the Arizona Republic actually from 1968 says Evil Knievel routinely jumps a motorcycle over lineups of 10 to 13 automobiles and wants to vault the Grand Canyon and a two-wheeler on Labor Day. And first reaction is, why?

Or what kind of flaky thing is this? And then you meet the intently serious young gentleman who deems to do the impossible and understand Evil Can Evil must fly motorcycles for the same reason men climb mountains or plumb the sea. Cause it's there for those. Yeah. And traditionally, yeah. Adventure first publicity and capital gain to a degree, but mostly because their lies in rich, their lives, rich and blooded desire, the urge to do the impossible. Maybe impossible. Isn't the word.

Can evil is the in the valley to expedite negotiations with the Navajo Indian council and sundry government, governmental controllers and finalize plans to jump a super bike 1.1 miles over the grand Canyon. Holy shit. Is that how far he's trying to go? Over a mile a mile, which again, if you're in a fucking rocket, easy. Yeah. Not a problem. I mean it's not a motorcycle. Yeah. Yeah. I guess it's not that big of a deal if there's brakes and a soft landing, but if you're just belaying yourself across the open canyon. Essentially the plan is to fire him off in a rocket over the canyon and then he's gonna parachute down. So it's not even, it's nothing to do

with a motorcycle jump, literally. It's not a motorcycle jump at all. No, it's just firing a man in a rocket over a hole and then launching a parachute to the ground. It's a model rocket with a guy in it, that's it. That's just vertical or horizontal skydiving, that's what that is. That's it, that's all it is. You're going up first and you're just,

you're coming down in the craft, that's all. Skydiving. That's it. That's all it is. You're going up first and you're just you're coming down in the craft That's all skydiving without jumping from anything. That's essentially those little Army parachute men that we used to throw or throw in the air, you know, remember those? Yeah. Yeah, exactly Yeah, you throw them up in the parachute. That's exactly what it is He says quote I've offered the Indians $100,000 or 50% of the TV rights, whichever is greater. That's the deal he's trying to make. The Triumph 650 he'll ride will be streamlined,

equipped with a special turbo engine supplemented by booster rockets, and will have a small wingspan and stabilizer to give it an airplane-like appearance. More like the other way around. It's a little rocket airplane thing that's given two motorcycle wheels to make it look like a motorcycle it's not a motorcycle there's hardly any of it is motorcycle but it's a motorcycle

engine a 650 that doesn't seem like enough no because it's not because it's not even gonna be on the motorcycle engines are relevant oh that's what I mean because it's rocket and it's a rocket it's just a little rocket pod that they try to make look as much like a motorcycle as possible So he can say it's a motorcycle jump and not just I'm a human fucking hobby rocket cuz that's what he is essentially I'm an experimental aircraft. That's all it is. Yeah, let's do this They said according to Gnevel the takeoff ramp will have to be 700 feet long as much as 200 feet high. Yeah it's gotta have. It's a crazy. It's a trajectory that's insane. Think about the ramp that is 700 feet long 200 feet high. 200 feet is a 20 story fucking building. Think about. Yeah it is. A 700

foot long ramp that that goes up 20 stories 45. That's fucking crazy It's got to be higher than 45 degrees right? It's got a shit. Yeah, you need the yeah 20 degree Wow that is fucking insane And the jump degree I guess the jump from north to south will give him a 600 foot variance the south rim being that much lower So it's gonna come down so that's why I need to see yeah he said evil said the machine will be capable of 250 to 300 miles an hour going into the ramp where I'll cut in jet power I'll ride the arc until I'm above the south rim going 300 miles an

hour Jesus Christ yeah he's Wow yeah that's when he'll cut the jet power in at 300 miles an hour. He's going to get the bike up to 250, he says. Then he's going to cut the, bring the jet power in at 300 and switch that on. So that's 650 is going to do 250 miles. That's what he's saying. That's what I mean. Cause he's going to juice it up, you know? Right. Yeah. And the fucking wheels won't come off. Yeah, he won't melt pistons in the process. Jesus. Can you imagine that you'd just be pinned in the red?

I would imagine. How many gears does this thing have? Yeah. How many fucking RPMs you gonna take? It's a 38 speed. Don't worry about it. Just keep going. Keep fucking shifting.

Just keep banging gears, man. Keep doing it. Drive another. Wow. Then I'll... Keep going. Keep fucking shifting. Just keep banging gears, man. Keep doing it. Drive another. Wow. Then I'll... You'll be the biggest transmission ever built. That'd be wild, right? I don't know how you'd even... The transmission would be bigger than the whole rocket.

Then I'll pop my parachute and float to Earth. Another chute is intended to salvage the bike. Okay. Oh, so the bike's got its own. Yeah, he's supposed to pop out of the fucking thing basically in the parachute He's gonna eject he's got to eject and then they both fall separately Which that does not work at all when it happens and it makes it hilarious Oh, no, the Indians are gonna be oh man the natives they're gonna be upset cuz that's littering. That's littering a motorcycle

So he said I I cleared okay. Well, he's talking about the Caesar's palace jump. He said, I cleared okay, but I was just a trifle short hitting the landing ramp only because I knew how to roll and absorb the shock. I was able to come off alive. So he says, quote, I heal fast. You'd have to. I'm Deadpool.

Okay. What the fuck, man? He'll fast. You'd have to. I'm Deadpool. OK. What the fuck, man? He says that he went into Las Vegas, a solid 206 pounds. He said he's lost he lost 60 pounds during convalescence, which wasn't true. It takes one guy out there to say, who's that? Kyle, who thinks he can just get on a microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this From I heart podcasts and tenderfoot TV comes a new true crime podcast crook County

I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old me Kenny an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit and that was my mission to snuff the life out of this guy He lived a secret double life as a firefighter paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department. I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Torn between two worlds. I'm covering up murders that these cops are doing. He was a freaking crazy man.

We don't know who he is, really. He is my father. And I had no idea about any of this until now. Welcome to Crook County, available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In the 1980s, a rose swept the country. Hey, Mike, I really like this white Zinfandel.

Well, good, good. Now put it down. I'm going to try another one. White Zin became America's top-selling wine. But most don't know that this sweet drink has a sour history. What began in 1986 with counterfeit bottles... A big fraud. A multi-million dollar fraud. ...sent investigators chasing one of the most powerful families in the business, the LeChardies.

But the closer the feds got to them, the more dangerous things became. It's a story of deceit. At the time I was paranoid. Threats. You touch my kids, I will kill you. And murder. With a.22 caliber bullet to the head.

What started with a scheme to mislabel wine spilled into a blood-soaked battle for succession. Welcome to Blood Vines. You can binge listen to Blood Vines to mislabel wine spilled into a blood-soaked battle for succession. Welcome to Blood Vines. You can binge listen to Blood Vines exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify. But now he's back to 180 and feeling great. None of that's true.

Okay. He just- 60 pounds. 60 pounds. Congrats on your AIDS or cancer He said about the about the jumping the canyon a fellow up in Butte, Montana Told me I was only 600 feet across the narrowest point and I assured him I could jump that Yeah, I was surprised when I found out it was a mile, but I still believe I could make it This guy said 600 feet no problem. Oh a mile? I mean that's a little longer than 600 feet.

You know like, I suppose I can try it. Like fucking eight times less than that. But yeah sure. Why not? If you were going to go 600 and you're just like I'll just shoot a mile and I'll make the 600. That's not even close at all. Wow. That's like saying I'm going to fight a child or I'm going to fight the heavyweight champion of the world. Either one. Don't know which one yet. Both I'm capable of. I think I'm capable fight a child or I'm going to fight the heavyweight champion of the world either one don't know which one yet Both I'm capable. I think I'm capable of either They said with rich TV contracts and sponsor pledges if he does it Knievel is a one-of-a-kind Entrepreneur with no competition in his trade that is uniquely lucrative. Yeah, there was no other There was daredevils doing shit, but there was no like nobody else like this

Nobody saying they're gonna jump a mile. James. Nobody doing that So after his Vegas crash five months later on May 25th, 1968 in Scottsdale He tries to jump 15 Ford Mustangs Yeah, and crashes then make it probably on that McDowell motor mile. Yeah breaks his right leg and foot as a Doesn't make it probably on that McDowell motor mile. Yeah breaks his right leg and foot as a Yeah, yeah, fuck himself all up there, too That's the problem all of these jumps None of them you land and you get up and go hoof man I was that hurt a little bit like they're all broken bone jumps like you can't land and not yeah destroy the bikes

He's jumping dude. You need are not made either. No Fucking cruiser nope they didn't make bikes like this no like for that He's jumping, dude you need, the guys in, no, these are fucking cruisers. Nope, they didn't make bikes like this, like for that. The suspension on them is trash. You're gonna bottom out as soon as you hit, and then your body's gotta absorb the rest, and if you don't absorb it and stay on the bike, it's over, it's gonna be ugly.

Later on, he'll end up riding this American Eagle bike, which is basically American Eagle with some repackaged shitty Italian motorcycle that was like a big heavy piece of shit. He was riding that. Really? Trying to jump it. Now? He's crazy.

Now it's clothing for feminine men. Now it's clothing from 1998. Does that still exist? They make a hell of a flannel. Yeah. It does? Wow. They make a great flannel.

Interesting. I didn't know that place even existed anymore. I haven't seen an American Eagle since 2007, I think. Is it owned by Hollister? Again, Hollister's one of those. Does that still exist? Yeah, oh it does. Wow, what the fuck are you people,

why are you buying that shit still? Because girls love it. The teenage girls buy it like fucking crazy. That's what I mean, how? I take my daughter in there all the time Yeah, why this was I don't we made fun of this one time ago Why are you still wearing it? That's what I'm trying to get at an abracrombie is coming back I'll get the fuck out of here. No, it's not

Swear and if I see a child wearing that shit, I'll make fun of them Stop that shit was mockable when it was big. It's very popular again. It shouldn't be popular at all. It is. It's garbage. It's fucking garbage. It's clothes for douches. It's douche wear. My daughter fucking loves it. Oh, God. Poor kid.

She can't get enough. She doesn't know. Wait, is Hollister owned by Abercrombie? Who the fuck knows? And American Eagle is its own thing? I don't know. Who cares? It's, they're all the three, they're all three the same thing.

It's all terrible clothes in places with fucking that smell weird. Every one of those stores smells weird. I don't like it. No good. So, Arizona Republic here, Evil Knievel grounded is an article here in 68. Evil Knievel may be sidetracked, but he's not finished.

The motorcycle daredevil suffered a multiple compound fracture of his right leg Saturday night in a practice jump for a scheduled exhibition at B-Line Dragway. Multiple. Multiple. He said, I got up too much speed and I went past the landing ramp, managed to hang on but I ended up in a heap and shattered the leg in three places. I'll be in a cast six weeks but I hope to be jumping again in about 90 days.

Okay, he's out of his mind. He's gonna jump on the beeline too? I guess the raceway out there, that was where it was scheduled to take place. Yeah, yeah. It's out there off of, out by the, Way the fuck out there.

Oh, it's all river. Yeah, out there. Yeah, Fountain Hills. When you get outside of everything, there it is. Yeah, it's all desert. It's all desert, yeah. It's just a racetrack out there. is. Yeah it's all desert. It's all desert. Yeah.

Just a racetrack out there. June 11th 1968 here again he's just he really keeps it going with this Grand Canyon jump man. He's in all of these all of these articles he like he must have the weird part is he doesn't have like a PR guy he's doing this all himself which is wild. He says about the Caesar's palace jump. I'll admit the Caesar's palace jump accident shook me pretty bad. It gave me the sensation of a fly being splattered on a windshield. I woke up 14 days later.

Not true. He was fine. He was in the hospital joking with that guy an hour and a half later. It gave me the sensation of death. Yeah, because that's what he wants. He wants people, he wants everybody to think that every time he goes out there, more likely than not he'll be dead. Yeah because people want to want to see that spectacle. Don't you want to see a man kill himself? Which is really fucking funny. He said that the nearest anyone ever came to breaking my record for jumping over cars is my stuntman Jack Stroh, who jumped over 10. Jack still performs a stunt that I quit doing after I

missed once and ended up in the hospital. That's the jumping over you leapfrogging you deal there. Jumping Jack, yeah. Old jumping Jack there. I like this article, June 19th, 1968, from the Albuquerque Tribune, and the headline is, The Big Question is Why? That's, yes, yes, why?

Why must, I mean, it's money, that's why. I mean, yeah, there's gotta be a better way to make a fucking living, though. This is his job, because theft is illegal of him. He found that out, he's like, oh man, this is bullshit. I can't even steal things. So June 30th, 1968, Salt Lake Tribune, Evil Knievel, just the man to talk about cycle jump.

Okay. First of all, the name Evil Knievel raises eyebrows to a sort of, are you kidding level? Next, his story of broken bones, broken motorcycles, and a spectacular series of death-defying jumps he has taken in his 29 years spreads the eyeballs wide open. This is every newspaper in the country. This is like an example on it, is doing this. Evil said I risk my life every time I sign for and make a jump. Risk in my life. He said there are sideshows and stuntmen traversing the country from one end to the other. But believe me, I am no stuntman and we do not put on a sideshow.

Okay. This isn't a circus. This is for real. This is real shit right here. He said time marches on while scratching the tender area. If they say while scratching the tender area around the stitches, he says that. Gross. I know each time I start to make a jump that it could be my last. But life has been full of challenges for me and you can't meet a motorcycle challenge sitting in a motel room. Yeah. Got to get out there and do it.

So that's what he says. He says I'm searching for publicity. That's a fact. He says from his motel room while his pert wife, Linda and three children romped around the swimming pool outside. He said, but I was told we would be in the Grand Canyon when we made the plans for the three quarter mile jump. If that's not the case now, we meaning all everybody in the team here will do everything legal under the sun to get a spot from which to jump inside the Grand Canyon

I don't know what the point of that would be the whole point is to see if you fall three miles to your death Inside the can you care out around inside the grand? No, that's even outside it'd be so hard to gather a crowd. Where would they park? Where would they how? You know what I mean? We learned that for your stupid opinions. We learned that for sure. Yeah, it's very mid from what I understand. There's no vending machines.

There's no restaurants. There's no fucking. Yeah, what a bunch of bullshit. God damn. So they said he doesn't earn 10 to 15 thousand dollars a week for nothing. He also doesn't make 10 to 15 thousand dollars a week at all.

He'll do a jump for 2,500 bucks, be broken for two months and have to pay hospital bills and everything else. Or the guy will pay his hospital bills and then never do business ever again. Ever ever. Right under this is an ad for a tear gas pistol. What? Look at this fucking thing dude. You can just just buy that in 1969 you could I guess That is while protect yourself protect your home protect your business men give this gun to your wife or daughter Holy shit stop Wow stops aggressor without permanently injuring him fires five cartridges without reloading it holds five tear gases Five are you trying to get the fucking Waco people to come out what like how many how often do you need five tear gas rounds?

You could clear a shopping mall with that. That's insane Holy shit That has been funny if that day just a whole bunch of women showed up and they were like, I brought my purse with my tear gas and I'll get them out. I got this. Holy shit. Send the ATF home. I got this.

Boom, boom, boom, boom. There we go. My husband gave this to me. My daughter has one too if we need more. She's back up. Each gun comes with 10 tear gas shells and 10 blanks for practice. What the fuck do you do it like bird shot buck shot type of situation? Holy shit man.

What a hilarious weapon. I mean it's essentially bear spray but it's a fucking pistol. It's a fucking tear gas gun. And if you're worried about, you know, the safety of this, don't worry. It says right on here, not sold to miners. So that's good. Oh, okay. It's fine. The kids can't buy it.

Don't worry about it. One, one gun, $13, two guns you get for $11 each. You get a bargain. Three guns, 950 each, four guns or get for $11 each you get a bargain three guns 950 each four guns or more 850 each and an extra box of 10 tear gas shells is a hundred or a dollar fifty and an extra box of a hundred blanks is a dollar seventy five. That's the most affordable self-protection I've ever heard of. That's crazy you can get a gun and 10 more of these things,

20 tear gas things for $14.50. Under $100, you can get like fucking 10 of them. You could clear a stadium for under $15. You could just, a stadium running for their lives. That is fucking amazing. July 5th, 1968, Deseret News in Utah there, they said that Evil Knievel is a successful family man. He has a pretty wife named Linda, three energetic children ages four to seven, and an excellent

salary with which to support them, sometimes upwards of $10,000 a week. At this point in time, He is dead broke by the way Ten grand a week does not make ten grand a week, which would be but his wife's honest shit Oh, that's great. His kids are rambunctious and his wife's pert. So don't worry about it Pert ten grand a week would be $520,000 a year, which is great money in 2024 back then fucking Frank Sinatra wasn't making that kind of money, you know what I mean?

Hank Aaron wasn't making that a year. Like, literally, to play fucking. That's unbelievable. Like, this is crazy. But few family men make their living the way evil does, defying death with motorcycle stunts that verge on the border of being unbelievable. That's what he keeps doing.

He says, I'll bet if I offered you, this is evil talking, verge on the border of being unbelievable. That's what he keeps doing. He says, I'll bet if I offered you, this is evil talking, because they say, why do you keep doing this? Excellent question. What's the story, man? He says, I bet if I offered you $16,000 to jump 15 cars on a motorcycle, you wouldn't do it. The fact that the challenge is there is the biggest incentive.

Oh. Okay. Yeah, if you didn't know how to jump motorcycles over cars, no amount of money would make you be able to do that. That's the thing. And what he's doing has almost zero talent involved in it. It's- Oh, yeah. Or capability. It's all balls.

All it is is shifting and then holding on tight. Because there's an engineer that's figuring out the trajectory and how fast you gotta be going to do it. That's all. You have to know, you have to know at least, am I going fast enough? Am I gonna be able? That's it, but otherwise it is just balls.

You're just. Fucking hang on. Yeah, do you have the guts to fucking Almost kill yourself, you know more than 50% of the time. Do you have those balls? Yeah, so they say evils Latest idea to jump the Grand Canyon or a gorge nearby on a $25,000 motorcycle equipped with weight. He pulled that out of his ass. They haven't even built the fucking bike yet There's no idea what it's going to cost. So he says equipped with wings and jet power when near enough the other side he plans parachuting to safety.

Admittedly it sounds impossible especially at first. But after you realize some of the things evil has already accomplished you begin to wonder. Then you look at his $15,000 maroon Rolls Royce, natty sports suits, finally the elaborate preparations he's made for the Grand Canyon jump and you begin to think he may just be $20,000 maroon Rolls Royce natty sports suits finally the elaborate preparations He's made for the Grand Canyon jump and you begin to think he may just be zany and confident enough to make it Yeah, they said for his sake and his family's we hope so Now here we go if you are You've looking at this and you're like this is all great. Maybe I should change my image

Well right under this you can get here we go more hair toupees five five name-brand toupees financing available I wear one either Doug I love this guy was I wear one no shit rug we can see that we see your fucking your goddamn area throw rug on your head, that's nice Talk to either. It's so common James. I've I see them fucking everywhere rugs So many people are wearing rugs and they're bad I mean if people are wearing my and I don't recognize them good for them Yeah, I know bad ones all the time especially now can't isn't there like

Don't like famous people get like surgeries all the time and get like their hair fixed and shit I don't know what the fuck they do, but there's got to be something There's people that are that are plug in the way plug in a way there I mean there's famous comics that are doing it now. It's yeah Embarrassing get over yourself. You're losing especially if you're a comedian if you're a comedian You should see that as like oh, here's another fucking ten minutes. Well, you know, I'm making fun of myself for being bald great Good, that's I need that Watching these guys fucking hair plug there. It's so sick. So sad nothing

Nothing worse than a comic who wants to be handsome Because yeah the whole reason you're a comic is because there's something you didn't get when you were younger and rather than embracing that and knowing it you're still trying to get it but also trying to get like the nerd credit at the same time like fuck you you can't have both so so terrible it's weird so talk to Doug or Lamar for a to pay and it says under there strict privacy everybody, so just in case you're worried about that.

You don't want Doug or Lamar. You do it discreet, like Housewives buying dildo. Yeah, that's all. You don't want, we're not gonna be yelling your name out in the street here about his fucking, your Toupe. Here's an article from the Idaho State Journal. Knievel performs motorcycle stunt at Blackfoot Oval. Okay.

So Knievel, who claims to be the world record, they say, is going to jump 16 parked cars. So that's what he's going to do. He says, as many cars as I can get traction for. That's what he said. So he's going to do it. July 28th, 1968, Evil hits one car but sails over 10 vehicles. That's not good. That's not good. That's not good here.

Knievel's motorcycle flew approximately 30 yards from ramp to ramp. The rear wheel bounced off a flat roof trailer parked next to the landing ramp, but Knievel held the big triumph under control to land safely. So he did it. So he jumped 11. He jumped, yeah, he did it. He rocked it out there. What else we got here? July 31st 1968 here there is a cartoon and it looks like Boise Dodge has an ad here

and they have an ad including Evil Knievel. This is in Idaho. See Evil Knievel's motorcycle that will jump the Grand Canyon. Oh we got's just, this bullshit wings glued to a fucking triumph shit box motorcycle is being literally shipped from car dealer to car dealer all over the west coast. Come see the motorcycle that obviously isn't going to make it across. It's not going to do it. A fucking Grand Canyon here. But they're trying to get people in. August 3rd 1968 he returns to jumping makes more money than he ever did before now he's

making dough now people are offering him some people are offering him 25 grand to come jump which is a big fucking deal now or at least that's what he says. So who knows here, but he's doing much better Evil Knievel finally August 20th 1968. He finally hears from the Interior Department. Oh These are the people that have governments gonna give him a rocket Well, these are the people have to clear him for the job He needs to hear about that from them and then from the Navajo people at the same time They has to get cleared by two agencies to jump because you're jumping from one side to the other. So it's, it's a lot going on here. Uh, evil, can evil, uh, they say, unfortunately for Knievel or fortunately,

depending on your own fears and faith, evil has a recent letter from Stuart Udall, secretary of the interior and it says don't jump evil who's scheduled to jump 13 parked automobiles at the fairgrounds next Monday night, has been long preparing for the attempted canyon jump here. He says, I have a letter from the Department of the Interior of two years ago that gives me permission to try it as long as I take off and land outside Grand Canyon National Park.

It even wishes me luck. Now this, Secretary Udall has reneged on his promise of two years ago, I'll sue him. If it's possible to sue him, my attorney will find out about that. Yeah, but if you do it and land inside the park, now you've broken a law. That's the thing. And there's no way to, there's just no way to there's just no way there's no guarantee There is so much red tape to go through when you're talking about Also jumping from like res land to non res land or back right vice versa, whatever He said I've had some sponsors some big sponsors

But one tire company for instance didn't want me plunging to the bottom of the Grand Canyon screaming good year Yeah, that'd be bad you son of a bitches in the Grand Canyon screaming good year. Yeah, that'd be bad. You son of a bitches. He said I have spent $50,000 on the sky cycle. I even have a spare. Bullshit. It's now called a sky cycle.

Yeah. Just got its name. Yeah. And it's, he has not spent anywhere. He hasn't given this fucking guy a dime yet. He doesn't have 50 grand. And he doesn't have 50 grand. So that's interesting. And they said, well, where are you going to practice. And he doesn't have 50 grand. So that's

interesting and they said well where are you gonna practice? And he said there's no practice. The sky cycle can do it once on a machine that will hit, he said hit the ramp, full bore, 300 miles an hour, 3,000 pounds of jet thrust. He says the main thing will be maintaining stability after the jets go on. Well yeah if you fire you're gonna wobble. Anything you fly, you know, anything will fly, you know, if you put enough jet out the back end of it and in proper balance.

There's also a danger at separation. When the chute pulls me out of the streamlined canopy, I'll be pulling about 21 Gs. Okay. I don't think so. That seems a little far-fetched. You're only going a mile, dude. Why do you need to go 21 Gs?

Twenty-one Gs? That seems, right? That seems... They don't do that in fucking fighter planes, do they? That seems like a lot. I don't know how many Gs they do, but 21 seems an awfully high number. Just too many Gs, Evil. I don't think so.

Knievel says if Secretary Udall wins the fight, there are other one mile jumps in this country. I'll find some other fucking hole to jump. I'll jump one mile elsewhere. He says if I make the canyon jump, then I might retire. But this is a great living. You don't have to worry about the competition. No, because there's nobody else that's as fucking stupid here. It's basically the letter says it's against public policy to do what he's doing. No, because there's nobody else that's as fucking stupid here.

Basically the letter says it's against public policy to do what he's doing. So I don't know where they, I doubt there was a policy in place that says, hey, don't let people jump the grand canyon in a fucking rocket and parachute to the other side. I don't think the founding fathers thought of that as a possibility When that wasn't even part of the country either so August 25th 1968 evil Knievel plans to leap at car races So he's just doing all these little like yeah shitty things, you know In between this trying to get publicity for the big shit here So they said this is August 29th 1968 Arizona Daily Sun. Where's evil everybody asks is the headline. Let's find out. Where's evil? Not a few

people around northern Arizona are wondering about jumping Jack and his motorcycle this week. It was a few months ago he predicted he would leap the Grand Canyon on his battered motorcycle on Labor Day. The permission was apparently denied by the National Park Service, but the great giant Navajo nation said, okay, but that's the last anyone heard of evil. Evil's been jumping over everything in sight for almost three years, and for that same span he's been breaking next to every bone in his body with spectacular crashes. So they said he wants to do the Grand

Canyon. That was bombed by the Park Service, but the Navajos were approached and they said, sure, just as long as we aren't liable for any accidents. Which is what most people make him sign a waiver wherever he jumps. They said that's about where it stands today as far as the the rumor jumps somewhere on the reservation and using the Little Colorado River as a gap. The Tribal office contacted and said yes, he has permission. So he's got Tribal permission to do this. Evil told the Tribe he'd guarantee them a percentage of the gate he expected to get and the Tribe said they would build the necessary ramp wherever Evil wanted it.

He's never picked a site, according to a public relations officer for the tribe. Like a phantom, he's been reported in Page as late as last week and in Albuquerque at almost the same time. Contacts in Page have no information of that, but Bill Warner, Chamber of Commerce president, noted he'd been in contact on and off with Gnevel and the cycle jumper was in Page about three months back to pose for pictures. So he said according to the write up here Knievel according to his recent Sports Illustrated article is 6'1 198 and uses hairspray.

I don't know why that's in 1968 it wasn't normal for men to use men. That was like oh he's a real fancy guy, he uses hairspray. 6'1'' waxes his back. Holy shit. What? 6'1'' plucks his unibrow. They say he's quote, undeniably handsome. Recently, according to the write up, when a waitress in Hollywood nightclub learned

he had his heart set on jumping the Grand Canyon, she said, oh God, don't let him do it, he's too beautiful to die. Yeah, he made that up, obviously, don't let him do it. He's too beautiful to die. Okay. Yeah, he made that up, obviously, and told them about it here. Evil calls himself a conservative wild man business man, and he still has the green light from the Navajos any time he wants.

So, interesting here. Has a tough time in Reno. Okay. Goes to Reno, where his mom lives, and he brings his mom in and she makes her wave to the crowd, dedicates this jump to his mom, all this type of shit here. Yeah, he has a problem though. They said his motorcycle is in the air for 50 yards on its own power, reportedly a record, he still carries a grip.

Okay, that's from before all right so he said um he's i guess he uh is going to jump in uh in reno here he's trying to get insurance and he can't find insurance here uh yeah because who the fuck wants to ensure that the centennial coliseum where he was going to jump asked him to provide an insurance policy for 4.1 million dollars going to jump asked him to provide an insurance policy for $4.1 million. One million in public liability, three million in catastrophe insurance and 100,000 for property damage. Lloyds of London said they would write the policy, but the insurance carrier for the Coliseum refused to approve the policy. So he's having problems there, obviously with different things.

In Reno, yeah, he has his mom there and he crashes again. His mom thought he was dead. Oh. His mom said, oh my God, he's dead as soon as he. That's the end of it. As he was, it was one of those where this was the one, there was apparently a dip in the run up in the way, where it was in the fairgrounds.

There was this dip, so when he'd hit the dip, he'd lose speed, coming back up the dip. Yeah, coming back up with the dip. Yeah, coming back up, yeah. And they did a few practice things and they never could figure it out. And Evil just said, fuck it, I'll figure it out. I'll do it when I do it. I'll do it.

He goes, I'll make sure I don't lose that much speed. I'll downshift. Not possible. So he went off too soft and everybody in the crowd, they said everybody gasped as soon as he went off. They were like, oh shit, he's not making it. As soon as he went off they were like oh shit He's not making it As soon as he came oh you could just see the angle wasn't gonna work and he crashed and

Yeah, obviously and so that didn't work out well his mom thought he was dead and he was in the hospital in Reno Here is an ad for him Sunday, October 13th, Sierra Nevada Auto Racing Association, modified and stock car races, plus in person, the spectacular, evil-knevel, daredevil motorcycle jumper. Interesting, so there's a picture of him flying through the air as well. So you gotta have that. He never wore a cape, right?

That was just his son? I think he might have worn it. Did he ever put one on later? No, not that I can think of. He had the leathers that, he might have had one later, like before when he would ride around, but I don't think he did jumps with it,

if I'm not mistaken. By the way, we'll talk about it probably on the next show, but there's an Evil Can Evil movie. There's two Evil Can Evil movies. There's the one that we'll talk of, no, no, no, there's one that'svel movies. There's the one that will talk of no no no There's one that's about him That is the story of evil Knievel that George Hamilton had made and written everything because he found him so interesting

Then there's a movie he's in Yeah, where he's plays himself and oh boy, and he's the movie and it is he's so bad fucking Horribly awesome. It's so good. It's on Prime It's so good on Prime they have the riff tracks version of it Yeah, so they're making fun of it obviously But you can watch it on there on Amazon Prime the riff tracks version of it And it is I think it's called Viva Caneval. I believe Viva Caneval, I think is what it's called. It is

Evil I believe. Viva Caneville I think is what it's called. It is absolutely fucking hard. He's such a bad but like a cocky actor too. Like hey buddy let me tell you something. He's so bad dude it's so funny. This is from the evil book here. On the afternoon of October the 13th 1968, still well removed from both money and fame, so he had no money at this time. Sometimes not making more than a couple thousand bucks per show, and that would be including to pay his guys, drive the truck there, have his motorcycle ready, pay his hospital bills. A lot of these jumps he'd come out upside down on them. Sure. So they said the money tied to the gate receipts, Knievel dedicated a jump to his mother. This is Reno

He stopped at the Tahoe Carson Speedway in Carson City outside Reno to jump 10 cars His mother was at the track along with his half sisters They've been in the crowd at Caesars Palace so they know things that can happen about poorly here The memory made everyone jumpy especially his mother. She was so nervous at Caesar's Palace She couldn't even come out of the hotel room to watch. It's okay, Loretta said to her mother. He's done this a million times. He's dedicated the jump to you. He made you stand up and wave to the crowd. It'll be fine. Unknown to Loretta and Katie and their mother, there was one hitch in the approach that made

this jump different. The dirt racetrack had a dip midway between Knievel's starting point when he hit the ramp. He and Gunn, his mechanic guy, had not been able to figure out the effects of the dip. Every time he went into his approach, he lost speed and didn't have time to recapture it before he hit the ramp. They knew there was a problem, but Showtime came and Knievel said, I'll be fine. He said that he would just quote, would make sure he didn't lose speed.

You know, don't worry I'll make sure physics don't affect me in this one lean into the throttle You're going up a hill. It's like Behind the closed doors of government offices and military compounds There are hidden stories and buried secrets from the darkest corners of history From covert experiments pushing the boundaries of science to operations so secretive they were barely whispered about. Each week, unredacted, declassified mysteries, we pull back the curtain on these hidden histories.

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shaping our world today. The stories are real. The secrets are shocking. Follow redacted, declass Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Redacted early and ad free right now on Wondery Plus. It was late, past midnight, when they broke into the farmhouse. Never in a million years would you think that you'd see your parents' house taped off by that yellow tape.

Wrong. And they said, your mom and dad have been killed. They left behind a wall of blood and the key to a secret. It was a very brutal crime scene. One of the worst I've ever seen. Murder in the Moonlight, a new podcast from Dateline. Listen now. Imagine this.

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desperate phone calls, and dangerous rescue attempts, Scam Factory reveals a brutal truth. The only way out is to scam their way out. Follow Scam Factory on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Scam Factory early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Okay, the afternoon was windy but not windy enough to stop the show. Knievel went through his trial runs, came back to the appointed takeoff spot, this time for real, traveled halfway to the ramp, hit the dip, slowed down, tried to recover on the second half and couldn't.

The moment he left the ramp the entire crowd knew he would not make the jump successfully, the arc of his motorcycle indicated immediately that he would land very short of his target. Quote, he's dead, his mother screamed even before he hit the panel truck at the end of the line of cars and went flying. The afternoon ended at Washaw Medical Center, his mother holding his hand as he lay in yet another hospital bed. He underwent surgery for a broken left hip the next day, a broken right collarbone later in the week. His discomfort was extended when he picked up a painful and life-threatening staph infection from a catheter.

Oh no. Oh God, Jesus Christ. Oh, staph in the dick? In dick staph, yeah. You want your dick to be a staph, not have staph. Oh boy. He said, quote, this is his ray gun, he said, quote, he was a sick guy.. He said quote, this is Ray Gunn, he said quote,

he was a sick guy, just to visit him, I had to take off my clothes and wear one of those hospital uniforms. Because he had a staff infection, I know that, because when Rod had his staff infections, I went and visited him, they made you put on a whole suit. It was crazy. No Jay Sarno appeared from Caesars Palace

to provide us financial assistance for the hospital bill this time. Any money from those combined insurance policies had been spent long ago, scam policies. He was on his own. The racetrack promoter in fact declared in the newspaper that Knievel had to sign a liability waiver as part of the contract. One day ran into another as hospital time tends to do and Knievel complained to everyone that he wanted to go back to Butte. When no plans were made for that to happen, he made his own plans. He escaped?

He escaped. Now he owes a shitload of money at this hospital and he just takes off. So Ray Gunn showed up at the hospital with a station wagon in the middle of the night. Jailbreak. Jailbreak his ass. He collected Knievel in a wheelchair, padded quietly and deliberately through the hospital maze, careful to keep out of sight of nurses and doctors. Gunn almost lost his man when they reached the outside and the wheelchair stopped short and Knievel

flew back through the air as if he'd been shot off a motorcycle one more time. But eventually Gunn helped him back into the chair. He dumped him with a broken hip and they reached the station wagon. Knievel lay in the back moaning, gun drove. They stopped in Twin Falls, Idaho where Knievel knew a man who owned a mattress store. They picked up a mattress, put it in the back, that was better, and they completed their trip to Butte. And he laid down on the mattress. The Washoe Medical Center soon announced that it was seeking $1,808 for 22 days of care

for the daredevil. That's all that cost back then. That's incredibly affordable. That would be what, $3 million now, I think, roughly? Yeah, you're going bankrupt. With a couple of surgeries? Holy shit. Knievel claimed he was broke.

The 22 days added to the 37 days at Southern Nevada Memorial meant he'd spent almost two months in Nevada in hospitals in 1968. Holy fucking shit. So yeah he's all fucked up now. November 23rd 1968 there's an article saying officials fuss over Stunter's hospital bill. It's all it becomes public. He owes his hospital bill and they're saying they want to collect from him and they said... They don't have anything to collect. The district attorney said that Wausau County claim was justified but questioned Knievel's

lack of resources. The district attorney said Knievel's assets included three automobiles and I presume one bent motorcycle, he said. So he has something. So they said he tried to perform one more jump before the end of the year. He set up a date at Portland in Portland at the Coliseum with Ted Pollock a few days before the jump, no more than six weeks after two surgeries. He checked into a low rent hotel in Portland. He looked terrible.

He looked like he couldn't walk much less ride a motorcycle. He had a fever and he had pus coming from open wounds. Jesus Christ. He's got a persistent staph infection and he's just like, I'm fucking fine. Yeah, I'm fine. He literally said, I'm fine. He assured Pollock. Yikes. They said as each day passed, he looked less and less fine because he's got a Yeah, the promotion was also less than fine customers were not forming lines outside the box office Pollock had paired him with country music with an act that featured singer Molly B How how much have you brought in so far can evil asked on the day of the show Maybe 25,000 Pollock said no more than that. I'm not gonna jump, Evil decided.

It's not worth it. He's like, I'm not gonna make that much money and I'm all fucked up. Now Pollock had a partner in the promotion and Pollock though, he saw Evil's condition and felt sorry for him. Pollock's partner saw it and said, this guy's fucking up our promotion.

He wanted to sue him. He said basically, jumper, we're suing you, is what this guy's fucking up our promotion. He wanted to sue him. He said basically jumper we're suing you is what this guy wanted to say. But the other guy, Pollock, said, Bill, just take a look at this guy. If he goes out there and kills himself, you want that on your conscience? Yeah, that's on you.

He said, look at him. He's in no shape for this. Just forget it. And the other promoter agreed. And he was pissed off. But this guy said he will not announce to the crowd that Evil is sick and unable to perform. He said the people will all get their money back and they'll still get to see Molly B. That's good. That's nice, yeah.

But he said, I will not be doing these announcements to tell these people that. So Evil Knievel's father, who had come up for the show, made the announcement that Evil couldn't jump. Is that right? Yep. They said evil didn't jump again till April 24th, 1969, which is like six months. Yeah. And they said that is, yeah, that's a big deal. He said, they said how could his notoriety from Caesar's

ever pay off if he couldn't work? He was broke again, slightly famous, but totally broke. Got nothing. Got nothing completely here. Then, this is wild, The Montana Standard has an ad for him and it says new ideas for Butte. Tonight on KXLF-TV 1130pm Robert Evel Knievel, nationally famous motorcycle stuntman, tells why he could not jump the Grand Canyon. See the prototype of the jet-assisted motorcycle He will use to jump the London Bridge in 1970

Okay New ideas for Butte sponsored by Knievel imports, which is his dad's fucking company Your Toyota dealer. So this is fuck and you bring this coupon to Knievel Imports and you get gas for cheaper. They'll fill you up down there. So. Is he talking about the London, is this in London or is it the one in Havasu?

I think he means London Bridge London Bridge. Like the London fucking bridge. I don't think he means the Havasu Bridge. Well the London Bridge in Havasu is from London. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, they brought it over there. Why did they give it to them is what I'd like to know. I don't know. And why did Havasu, it was like,

yeah, give us an old bridge. We'll build, we'll rebuild it. I don't understand why they, I don't understand any of it. That makes no sense, what's it mean? Of a place, how did London, how did they become aware of Havasu? That's what I mean. You can't get two more disparate, oddly different places than Lake Havasu City and London.

And did they have any idea that white trash on jet skis would be fucking flying, flying under it with their wives' pancake fucking saggy overly tan tits out underneath it. Is there like a Facebook marketplace for bridges where they're like, we need a bridge and we've got one for sale so that's how we meet. All of that while blasting George Thorogood from your jet ski stereo. So anyway they talk about his motorcycles. He briefly used a Honda 250 CC to jump at the crate full of rattlesnakes and two mountain lions but that's not strong enough to do anything. No. So then he used a Norton motorcycle

for a 750 CC one for only 1966. Then he was using the Triumph Bonneville T120 with a 650 CC engine. Then he used the Triumph Bonneville T120 with a 650 cc engine. Yeah. Then that he used the Triumph at Caesar's palace and crashed that. That's that bike. Um, then he used the Triumph for the remainder of 68. And, uh, I guess basically they're talking about how you attempt a motorcycle jumps with suspensions that were designed for street riding, right.

Not made to jump from the sky So that's how they all these landings are happening if they had if he had a little bit of bounce He might be able to hold on but when it's just all shock and you right but it's it's not necessarily the recoil that that'll that'll Get it's when that shock and spring expands cuz yeah It's in the air, but once it expands it just rockets you off of that for fucked. Yeah So they talked about one guy. This is from the book. Oh, this is fucking hilarious He told he needed a fucking he needed a trailer hitch on his car There's something happening. It's something well back on this hitch, right? So he found a welder in Butte When he was up there and the guy said yeah, I could fix that for you.

No problem. I can do it today. So this guy said, quote, he told me I'd done a great job. He said that he said the work was so good that he wanted to buy me dinner. That's how good it was. That's nice. He said he'd take me to dinner and pay me at the same time. He said I should go back to the hotel, take a good shower and meet him in the lobby at 7 o'clock that night

So I went back to the hotel and took a shower He says I suppose I could still be waiting except that was 30 years ago. He's That was his way of not paying this guy to well It's so good not that I it's that's not good work enough to get away from him. It's so good. That's not good work. I won't pay you. It's so good. I need to pay you more.

He's such a fucking con man. I want to give you so much money. Come with me. Oh my fucking God. January 6th, 1969 here, the Akron Beacon Journal. Oh, the action line. Call the action line. That's pretty, above that there the action line. Call the action line. That's pretty, above that there's a thing.

Call our action line. It's got like a phone. They said, whatever happened to the guy who is, this is like someone writing into the editor. Whatever happened to the guy who was going to jump the Grand Canyon on a motorcycle? Whatever, yeah. Now they don't even know his name though. That's a thing.

A year's gone by. It's just a guy. So they said, stuntman Evil Knievel of Butte, Montana Whose real name is Robert planned to jump the canyon last day on Labor Day But they talked about the Secretary of Interior and saying he hopes to get a permit this year from the new Nixon administration If he makes the jump he and his specially built sky cycle capable of 300 miles an hour Will speeds and equipped with a jet engine and parachutes. Okay. This is the sketch specially built sky cycle, capable of 300 miles an hour, will speed and equip with a jet engine and parachutes. Okay, this is the sketch of the sky cycle.

It's not a motorcycle. It's a rocket car. It's a car that looks like a rocket. It looks like a paper airplane. It kinda does, yeah. Yeah, it looks like one of those foam airplanes you buy and put together, and that's what it kind of like

Doesn't look safe to know fly over a canyon in here I would say and he's kind of sitting on it like you would on like a crotch rocket though So your feet are kind of back well rather than forward. He's just in a little pod Yeah, is he's like in a little cockpit almost in there And then the rest of it's supposed to fall away away and he's supposed to like parachute from the cockpit. Shoot out of it, okay. He also says, he talks about how at this point in time, he is having a lot of steel fatigue. What does that mean? Metal fatigue.

From all the screws and plates in his body are breaking and he needs to keep having them replaced. Oh, Jesus. Because it gets metal fatigue because when you have screws and shit, you're not supposed to land on a motorcycle putting all that stress on the screws and everything. So he said the screws break, that's what happened.

Nothing's wrong with this plate he's talking about in his leg, but screws break all the time and I have to keep them, I have to keep replacing them here, so that's what's tough. So no good. He says though, he tries to keep replacing them here. So that's what's tough So no good. He He says though he tries to keep all of his commitments. That's a big deal

he's like, you know, I don't want to I get hurt and I have shit scheduled the next week, but You know, what am I supposed to do? I can't just cancel He said I've made 100 car jump jumps. He in the paper, and I've missed only eight times. Not true. He's jumped a hundred times is what he said? He hasn't jumped a hundred times and he's missed way more than eight times out of the smaller amount that he said.

So he's all, it seems like it's about, he's about, got about a two-third success rate, it seems like from- So far, yeah. Anecdotally, from what I'm listening to here There's no stats on it. Unfortunately, I would love evil Knievel stats How many jumps how many cars all that kind of shit Yeah

So he keeps talking about these fucking Grand Canyon though He said I'm determined to jump it in a streamline Shell sky cycle that'll produce 3,000 pounds of jet power. Holy shit, and he keeps complaining about the Department of the Interior. That's his main, that's his huge complaint now. Those Department of Interior sons of bitches. The only reason I'm not is because there's overreach of government.

That's the reason I can't jump. That's what it is. It's just government screwing me over as what it is. That's it Yeah, write your congressman and tell him to let me jump the canyon So the Sacramento be as an article February 10th 1969 cycle daredevil breaks ribs in Autorama spill Oh, no, he's all fucked up. Yeah, he fucks himself up there motorcycle Daredevil Chuck Burt is reported in satisfactory condition with fractured ribs at American River Hospital.

This was his replacement for a jump cut he couldn't make because he was hurt. So he got this guy to do it. And he got hurt. Yeah, he was a former Hollywood stunt man, Burt, and it was a replacement for Knievel, who's on crutches, and he fucked himself up too. So no one can do this shit.

That's the problem. Well, I think it's because it doesn't take talent. It takes stupidity. Yeah, it just takes a dumb belief in yourself. Or not even that, a dumb belief that you'll be fine no matter what happens. That's the other thing. A narcissism really is what it is. You have to be overwhelmed with people like this today.

Oh, it's true. We'd have so many evil Knievels today. A trillion evil Knievels. Everyone would see it and not go, wow, that's crazy. Everything everyone sees, they'd go, well, I could probably do that. Well, I'm going to build it in the backyard tomorrow. If he could do it, then I could probably do it too. Yeah.

People are fucking nuts. So, March. I'm on TikTok and I'm going to be famous tomorrow. Yeah, that's the problem too. They'd be like, I'll be famous. And they wouldn't have to jump a hundred different cars. They'd have to have one video. So and then they'd be doing, they'd be fucking stealing weekends at comedy clubs somehow. Next thing you know they'd be doing an hour.

So March 24th 1969 it says Knievel say die is the Roanoke Times headline Okay, meet evil Knievel a daredevil cyclist with an unlikely name and a dream the 30 year old Montana made $167,000 in the last two years no Fucking way even if he did that two years and the amount of money he spent on hospitals is crazy. It's fucking ridiculous, man. They keep talking about, does he have a death wish and all this type of shit? And they said, we have a better idea. NASA should let him try for the moon. If he makes it, taxpayers would save a whole lot of money because it would be on TV and

whenever blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So yeah, he talks about, this is when on October or April 24th, 1969, the Oregonian, now the headline is metal fatigue hits, evil can evil, body screws breaking. Okay. But he talks about kidnapping his wife in this, which is fucking hilarious. What? Yeah. So we'll get to that.

He says that in the past two years, I've had seven injuries where I've had major operations. I've broken my left hip and pelvis twice each, broken my left arm, my right ankle and foot, and my right shoulder, both wrists and knees. Besides that I've had one bad brain concussion and I broke my back." He said, I have a problem with mental fatigue, they keep breaking, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He talks about his fucking canyon jump and he says, now I just want to do it to keep my word because I said I'd do it. He said I'm going to make one more effort through senator Mansfield and my attorney to get permission from the new secretary of the interior fall goes right this request will be denied this role this request. This request also will be denied. Okay that's what his admirers say,

because they don't want him to get hurt. So he says, I got my nickname time when they had me in jail back home, at the same time they had Bill Knafel, he was in jail, the jailer said we better be careful, we've got an awful Knafel and evil Knievel, okay, we knew about that. He says, they say throw why did they throw you in jail why were you in jail to begin with and he says I guess it was for stealing some

hubcaps I was in high school then I went the wrong direction when I was a kid I was involved in a lot of robberies but I straightened out I try to work a lot with kids I go to detention homes and talk to them I think I can get through to them better than a lot of people. Here's a guy named Evil these kids can associate with type of thing. He said, yeah, they talk about his wife. They asked what his wife thinks about his line of work and he said, she worries a lot, but I think I've just about got her ready to face the facts of life. That I'm a fucking idiot that cares nothing about you or my family. And I'll leave myself. This is going to cost us everything.

If he changes her thinking, it won't be the first time, quote, she didn't want to marry me in the first place. I kidnapped her. That's true. You shouldn't say that. Yeah. They said you kidnapped her and he said twice. The first time she was coming out of a movie with her boyfriend. I threw her in my truck

But her boyfriend and some others chased us I had a blowout and they caught us the second time she was at a skating rink I threw her in the back of my truck. I had another guy driving They started a manhunt and caught us two days later as her at a roadblock The kidnapping charge was dropped but the judge issued a restraining order saying I couldn't see her The kidnapping charge was dropped, but the judge issued a restraining order saying I couldn't see her He said I guess Linda finally decided I was a good guy six months later. She consented to go away with me Holy shit. He said I'm glad I'm the only guy doing what I'm doing, but you know sometimes I wish nobody was doing it

Including him apparently yeah Dude, he is a fucking... Did it twice. Imagine that. They gotta be taking him like with a grain of salt, right? Because if you just say that out loud, you can be arrested for that. No, I guess, I mean he was, and they dropped the charges. Wow. And now they're married, so I mean, you know, I don't think they're gonna arrest him for kidnapping his current wife. Can they just drop? Can they just drop charges? They were married.

That's why from what I understand the real story is when they caught them, they were married already. And it was like, oh, they were like, what are we going to do now? At that point, legally married, you still kidnapped a woman and married her. There's got to be something to do. But they were, she was saying she was happy. And that was that they arrested that guy that kidnapped Elizabeth Smart because even though he married her.

Yeah, no shit. Well that wasn't the 1961 either. No, true, yeah. Back then you could kidnap a woman and marry her, and as long as you married her, they go, well you made an honest woman out of her, so we really can't say anything about it. I mean we can't prosecute a man, we can't let her testify against them they're

married. Yeah exactly. So Evil Knievel here's a Montana Standard newspaper Evil Knievel's cycling life will be filmed by Hollywood. Hinkel Pictures of Studio City California an independent motion picture studio announced Tuesday the signing of a contract with motorcycle daredevil Robert Evelknevel of Butte for a motion picture based on his life story. Robert Henkel, president of the production company, said it would be called Color Me

Lucky. He said shooting would begin this summer on the $500,000 picture with many scenes shot in Butte. Yeah. Interesting. So they're saying watch out for that. That's a big deal That's not how it'll go at all That'll have a lot of incarnations. Good for Butte having that yeah, they were exciting. That's why they're jacked about it Yeah, August and plus he just told Butte that that was happening. So they would go. Okay, cool so

August 6 1969 in the Reno Gazette Journal evil Knievel drops plans for cycle stunt he's dropped his plans to attempt a motorcycle jump over 13 cars at the TASA Tahoe Carson Speedway they said that the apparently the factor mainly was his unpaid hospital bill Oh Because he didn't want to appear because local officials said the bill must be cleared up before he appears again So basically they're gonna serve him papers there They're gonna take him to jail based on this based on you can't do anything until he's done

So they said by mutual consent. He's not going to jump Sunday. I would like to have him come back later Knievel told Reno sports writers. He had hired a local lawyer and hyped hopes to iron out the matter of the bill But he can't pay $1875 and he should just pay say pay them my fucking money and I'll do the jump and we clear this out That way I can come back to Nevada. I'll jump to solve my fucking debts. Oh shit He's got a chauffeur they're talking about here. They talk about him traveling with a caravan of cars and trucks sporting his equipment from place to place. A staff of six men accompany him. Among the six are Evil's personal chauffeur Willie Bigtime Bass of El Centro, California, who pilots

Evil's beautiful 1950 Rolls Royce around, and Ray Gunn of Moses Lake, who Knievel calls his super tuner. Just a guy who works on motorcycles. He said, he's the only man in the world that works on my cycles. He has my life in his hands. When asked if he would enter the Rolls Royce in the demolition derby, he said, oh no, the king wouldn't like that. And that's what Ray Gunn said. The king is Knievel, by the way.

Not Elvis at this point. He walks with his head held high, shakes hands with anyone who wants to meet him, and signs autographs left and right. Three youngsters said, quote, gee, nice as they uh as he autographed copies of a record entitled evil evil evil keneval released by a and m records wow that is fucking amazing i wish i could find that um evils a family man that married his high school sweetheart after he graduated with honors from butte high school None of that's true. He didn't graduate, he certainly wasn't an honor student,

and he wasn't high school's sweetheart, so he kidnapped her twice when he already dropped out and she was still in high school, that's crazy. They just quote him on everything and just take his word. People still do that to this day, for everybody. A friend of his who's known him for 15 years said, he's the type of guy that hasn't let success go to his head. Bullshit.

He said, but he has been the type of person that it's safe to stretch your neck an inch, he will stretch it a mile. Yeah, I would say so. September 20th, 1969 here. This is in Butte, a story of another crash here. The deal with Triumph motorcycles had ended badly and he now wrote a fat assed American Eagle 750 the book says. The bike was the product of an old line Italian manufacturer, La Verda, but had been imported recently to

the United States under the American Eagle name. Knievel, the most recognizable motorcycle rider in the country, was the perfect choice as a spokesman. The bike, alas, has been built for endurance racing. It dominated the European endurance circuit but isn't very good at jumping and flying. Yeah. Right. Not made for that. It's on the road.

It does fine. They said Knievel couldn't handle the bike. Or maybe the bike couldn't handle the jumps. Take away the four days outside the LA sports arena where he was jumping. Basically there was a car show and they hired him to jump cars outside, jump like a small amount of cars in the parking lot for a spectacle here. The first crash was back in Butte on September 20th, 1969 in Naranje Stadium, the old football field for Butte High School.

He attempted to clear 16 Toyotas parked side by side in front of family and friends. He landed a little short, ran into a fence at the end of the field and was thrown into it and broke an ankle. Dan Killoy, the longtime neighbor, visited him in the double wide a few days later. He was in a cast but getting ready for his jump at Tri City Speedway in Richland, Washington the next weekend So they said this would be 17 Subaru's he supposed to jump And he's in a cast at the moment his friend said you're in a cast How are you gonna do this quote?

I'll cut the cast off do the jump then go back to the hospital and get the cast put on again no problem oh my god that is fucking insanity spectacular and that's kind of that's how he did things for like the next year he's cutting casts off going getting to put back on like it's it's fucking insane that's his life at that point. So yeah, he's gonna try that again. He's gonna do all of that shit. Oh, by the way, attention fund seekers. Here we go. This is from the, what is this?

The Montana Standard newspaper. Attention fund seekers, something new has been added at the Midget Bar. Anaconda? Anaconda, the one and only Kenny, I thought that said Rustard, Rustad, and his brother Carney and our fabulous drummer Gary. Gary's gonna be around. Gary will be.

No one's named before Gary. There's Keith Moon, there's this, but Gary's there. That's different. We don't know about Gary. He goes by one name, Gary. He's so good he doesn't even need two names and it said best music going apostrophe Yeah, whoa, try your luck out. Try your luck with the hour with our New registration. I don't even know what that means. That's why it was hard for me to read that at the midget bar, Anaconda

You can get smorgasbord chicken to go every day at the shanty cafe yeah and deep deep fried shrimp at tinkerbell drive-in also so there's that good for you deep fried shrimp the most cholesterol bombing son of a bitch oh my god yeah you're gonna be hurting after that for you in the first place and then you're gonna do well it's not bad you, but it is cholesterol II, but yeah. Yeah You can't drink it. You can't eat it all the time. It's what not like every day. You shouldn't eat shrimp every day That's what I'm getting at Also the summer wind Bob's one-man band tonight at the Ponderosa

So you can go there and find out all that stuff if you happen to be If you happen to be in Butte, Montana in 1969 stop by It's there So here is from again September 26 1969 the Montana Standard Rotarians here Butte Dale or daredevil. He's making a an appearance at the Rotary Club to talk to them for some fuck Aryans what what the fuck? making an appearance at the Rotary Club to talk to them for some fuck. Rotarians. What the fuck? October 12th, 1969 here.

Great Falls Tribune. They say, though he appears to live modestly in his native butte with his wife and three children, the stunt expert travels in a Rolls Royce. He said, if you have a car, a man might as well own the best, he explains. Okay. Yeah. What a ridiculous thing. Yeah, we'd love...

I got a car. What kind of piece of shit am I? I don't drive a Rolls. You're a loser. That's why. We're both losers that don't want to do this type of shit. He... What a scumbag I am.

I like how they try... He appears to live modestly. That's because he's like how they try. He appears to live modestly. That's cause he's poor. That's why he appears to live modestly. He lives in a trailer and owes hospital bills. He's not a celebrity roles in the driveway. Yeah. With a 20 year old roles in the driveway. You know that come on. Can evil said he's grossed $212 from stunt jumping so far this year. $21212 $212 thousand dollars. Oh, okay So he said 167 for the last two years combined and now he's made to 12 just this year as the year's not even over yet Wow

So far this year and frequently uses the word sick to describe many organizations including the American Motorcycle Association many organizations including the American Motorcycle Association. He said the AMA is controlled by importers. I'm sick of seeing those greedy bastards in the grandstand watching racers get killed. The riders should get a flat 40% of the gate receipts instead of five to six percent they get now. Motorcycle racing won't amount to anything until something is done about the AMA. He's not wrong. No. He says that he classifies himself as a stunt artist, not a motorcycle racer. He said he did race cycles for 10 years

and has quote, about 200 trophies gathering dust. There weren't many races in which I didn't take the main event. We know that's complete horse shit. He came in last most of the time. He just wasn't a good motorcycle. He was no good at riding it. Not a good, yeah. He says, while auto racers defy death, I stare death in the face. He is highly critical of what he terms freeloaders. He

said the great fall speedway where he jumped September 12th where 2000 fans watched from outside the bleachers without paying is one of the poorest run facilities in the state. Some people got to see it for free. This is a guy who freeloaded in a hospital for 22 fucking days getting medical care and everything else and he's complaining about freeloaders. How dare you see what I do without paying for it. Dude anybody that complains about freeloaders is usually a fucking asshole who's doing shit and trying to scam anything they can.

That's just the way it is. And it's just a thing I've noticed over the years. It's always the most full of shit people who are the most upset at people getting something for free. He's critical of the lack of protection for the performers at the Cascade County Fairgrounds. The whole town can stand outside the fairgrounds and look through a wire fence Racers all have a problem with their friends and relatives who think they should get in for nothing those well Those are called just comps. Yeah, you're gonna charge your mom to come see you those who don't want to put what are you an open?

mic comic Those who don't want to bring her jumps Yeah, bring her jumps is real weird. Those who don't want to pay to see me risk my life, the hell with them. He says his touring equipment includes five vehicles, including his Rolls Royce trailer and a trailer to haul his cycles. The cycles have solid steel wheel spokes three to four times stronger than chrome, he says, oversized handlebars,

the biggest you've ever seen, and other modifications. The impact after a jump when Knievel and Cycle touch grounds at speeds up to 100 miles an hour at a 30 degree angle is so great he says that sometimes I have to be taped to a cycle, which is also not true. He's got to be able to fly off of it so it doesn't crush him as it rolls. There's a reason you can't put seat belts on a motorcycle. Yes. Because if you stick with the bike, you're going to fucking die.

Your best bet is to fly through the fucking air magically. That's the best bet. So that's pretty fucking funny. They talk about all his injuries, like every fucking article talks about his injuries. He says though that it would be easy to become addicted to narcotics if you spend as much time in the hospitals as I do. He says for this reason, he shuns painkillers whenever possible.

Oh really? And criticizes racers who use pep pills, greenies like ball players and shit. Yeah, he said this gives them a false sense of confidence. Yeah, that's why, you drink whiskey before you go out there. What are you talking about? A bottle of whiskey. He's the biggest hypocrite of all time. It's so fucking funny. Don't you dare do anything that gets your attention on the bike. Oh my God. That is fucking wild talking about a sky cycle and you know all that shit here he says that uh he keeps changing

things to changes how much money he offered the tribes he changes all that kind of things here he um he said he believes senator barry goldwater is the one blocking his jump from the of the canyon really the Arizona senator is the reason that you can't jump the canyon he said i asked him for help a few years ago, and he didn't even have the decency to answer. That's because you don't even live in his state. You're not a constituent. You're a Butte, Montana resident,

and he's running for the presidency. And you're a motorcycle dirt bag who just wants to jump over things. He doesn't care about you. No. So anyway, he says, if they can get astronauts to the moon, they can get me across the Grand Canyon He said the jump would bring more traffic to Butte than and then the double a basketball tournament. He said I Probably just found out that they had I don't know what the hell that is. What the fuck is that?

so Yeah, so they talked about the mines and all this type of shit up there too because he's the Anaconda company, he wants them to sponsor it and all this type of shit here. So anyway, he's trying to figure it out. He said, I can't jump the world, but I'll settle for 21 cars. If I can jump 21 cars, it will be three times as far as any other man has gone. So frequently he's asked about why he's trying to commit suicide. Why don't you take pills they ask.

He replies, why not make life interesting. He maintains he's not trying to kill himself and he carries a fortune cookie slip in his wallet that says you will live long and enjoy life. So he's doing all this based on a cookie. Yeah. A message from a cookie. That's pretty fucking amazing. A cookie told him.

They said a smash record hit by John Herring, Evil, Evil, Evil, Knievel, decorates the walls of many bedrooms of Butte teenagers. No. Except as, at Knievel's house, as one of his children children told them we don't need the record. You're my daddy We've got him. Yeah, that's he's right here So here's some reader opinions, which is fucking funny from October 16th 1969 It's right after this great Falls Tribune and it says Sunday story critics got criticized to the editor What a pity to waste Sunday feature space on Evil Can Evil.

Our boys in Vietnam are risking their lives daily through no choice of their own. Making a career out of senseless life risking for the sake of the thrill and money surely does not rate the space devoted to it in Sunday's issue. If evil chooses such a hazardous career, it's his right, but let's not contribute to it by publicizing it so flagrantly Wow, interesting here. Very nice. That is Helen McPhail that said that October 12th, 1969 There's all these ads for him see him jump these motorcycles See him attempt the longest motorcycle jump in the world over 17 Subaru automobiles

Wow, let's do that October October 20th, 1969, he clears 17 cars. Jesus. Clears it. 17 Subarus and he did it. And he landed it? He landed it, didn't crash or anything. Yeah. They said the force of the landing

ripped the exhaust pipe off the back of the cycle. It was not a soft landing as Evaluantin. He said, I came down nearly sideways But good no, but he said he figured it out He said and for a moment I nearly lost control So he let up on the gas and he felt like he could have probably you know, he was okay He did it. So I don't know You can try though. Are you a regular Jimmy? I'm irregular as fuck if you are it says irregular due to lack of food bulk in your diet

Try Kellogg's brand buds. Yeah. Yeah, what the fuck is a brand bud? We're taking it out of flake form you need it and like compressed little You need condensed little buds of this shit sounds like Grape nuts. That's oh, yeah, this probably does sound like grape nuts. Grape nuts are just, what, like kitty litter? Grand nuts. Kitty litter. That's what they, that's what they are. It's ball bearings.

My grandfather used to eat grape nuts, or at least had them, and I remember trying a ball when I was a little kid, and I was like, oh god, they're so hard. Why they- Plant these and let them grow. Oh, they go everywhere in your mouth too. They like, you can't keep them in one spot. They're all over the place. They're in hard why they plant these and let them grow. Oh, they go everywhere in your mouth, too They like you can't keep them in one spot. They're all over the place and it's so they were brutal man. Yeah brutal November 6th 6th 1969 he's eyeing a record leap again But he it's every fucking he's back with by the way Molly B and Jerry Inman And the Cherry Hill for so somebody Cherry Hill 4. So somebody has said

Evil Can Evil goes with people who want to listen to Molly B sing. That's it. Your audience, your core audience is Molly B. It goes together man, sorry. He's gonna skip that jump though because he's hurting because he's all fucked up and his wife reported that he didn't have the strength to hand a hang on to The handlebars, okay, so he couldn't do it. Okay enter George Hamilton. Here we go Okay George fucking Hamilton. This is bonkers. You don't know who George Hamilton is I'm trying to think of what like very young because he was when I was a kid

I was like he's that though He's a guy who seems to be famous for being famous like I don't know who he is because he was a big movie star In the 60s and 70s that love what was the on the love boat? I? Mean, maybe he might have been a guest star. He's one of those people that guest starred in a lot of things What was he was in? He was in movies. Yeah when I was a kid fuck though, man He was already he was already, he was just that tan guy who was real old, overly tan guy. Yeah.

What was he in when we like in the nineties that it was a, he was in a movie, a movie in the nineties. Fuck. Was he the father, the eight heads in a duffel bag? Was he in that one? Was he the father in law in that Diane Cannon being the fucking excellent question. I mean fucking IMDB and just see what his fucking movies are 2000 2000s he was in He hosted a reality show called the family nobody saw that I saw that but he did something in the 90s were like we were like, oh that tan guy. Yeah. Yeah

Fuck man. Yeah, he wasn't a Hidson. Okay,. Okay, he's the father-in-law of that kid, future father-in-law, okay. And meet Wally Sparks. Meet Wally Sparks, he's in too, the Rodney Dangerfield, that's right. He's in a TV show called Jenny. I mean, he was in a super. That was when they tried to give Jenny McCarthy a sitcom

and went, oh yeah, she's not funny at all. Yeah, Casper meets Wendy. She's just a dummy who can't read fucking medical reports about how things work Rough writers he portrayed William Randolph Hearst. He was in Once Upon a Crime in 92, Doc Hollywood He was Doc Hollywood Five thing I've seen 700,000 times that he was in okay. Yes And I always mix him up with the guy

that chomped his gum a lot in Police Academy, the bad guy. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember that guy? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I forget what else, he's been in a million things, but. But this guy. He was on Dynasty in the 80s.

He was a big fucking deal, like before our time. He was a big deal. So they said at the time, Hamilton, this the book Hamilton was 30 years old same age as evil actually three months older He was a bona fide movie star Starring in 1952 when he was 13 years old cast as a servant to Lionel Barrymore and lone star If I think that's Drew's grandfather by the way, yeah a Western featuring Clark Gable Gable and Ava Gardner. Holy shit That's a big one. Yeah, I've been in movies with Clark Gable. Do you know he's still alive? He was 13 He was in movies with Clark Gable. Yeah, he's still alive Wow

How does he not have skin cancer Jesus Christ only 85 only Wow his skin must look You could bounce a quarter off that shit right now. It's rock hard. Well, he's bright fucking red now. Oh boy. Said to stop. He said, um, he's already appeared at this point in time. Appeared in 18 movies. He was a leading man, handsome and certainly tanned. As most stories pointed out, urbane and charming. He had made gossip headlines when he dated Linda Byrd Johnson

while her father was in the White House. He's probably best known for his roles as an Ivy League smooth talker in Where the Boys Are in 1960 and country music legend Hank Williams in Your Cheatin' Heart in 1964. I don't see him being Hank Williams at any stretch of anything. That is fascinating. So they said he was involved in assorted projects and always looking for more. His immediate job was a role in the

Survivors with Lana Turner, the first miniseries that followed a story from beginning to end on network television. That's when they experimented with that. The producers wanted him to do some stunt that seemed a bit perilous to him. He asked for a stuntman and the producer said, well, hire a stuntman if you want. I don't fucking care. We're not doing it for you. So he tried to hire Evil Knievel because he'd heard about him. Genius.

Yeah. George said, quote, his name was bouncing around with some people I knew. They said there was this guy, Evil Knievel, wind him up and he crashes. So that's what they're looking for. How could you forget a name like that? He sounded perfect. I had my secretary track him down. Okay.

The phone dialogue went a little something like this. Question, can you do this stunt? You'll have to do it in the next week or two. Answer, I can do anything. I'm evil, can evil. Jesus Christ. I can do anything. I'm evil, can evil. I can do anything.

I'm evil. I'm evil. Then he didn't show up. Never show up. Nope. He had returned to Los Angeles to appear at the ninth annual custom car motorcycle and dune buggy show that we all attend every year. Obviously at the Los Angeles sports arena.

He appeared outside to do the jumping of the cars. Remember I told you that this was his latest return to action. He still hadn't fully recovered from the staph infection. He was still on crutches from his broken hip. He had to be helped on his motorcycle. As he's weeping. Oh, sores, God, Jesus. As the pus drips from his open, open fucking wounds.

Gross. Oh my God, so that is fucking wild. They said there was some overstatement of his injuries, but that's normal. He was certainly busted up. The Times noted in Los Angeles Times that he might have more metal parts inside of himself than his motorcycle. Hamilton soon just forgot about Evil Knievel because that happened. He didn't show up.

He hired somebody else. Yeah. A couple of months passed, then he got a phone call from a guy named Scotty who is a guard at the front gate at Universal Studios. George Hamilton is in his office at Universal Studios. And Scotty said, a Mr. Knievel would like to see you. He's three months late for his gig.

The movie's wrapped, man. It's long gone. So Hamilton said, well, fuck it, send him up. He sounds, I want to meet this crazy fuck, right? So Scotty said, there's a problem. The problem is he arrived at the gate with two other guys in the fucking big rig truck that he drives everywhere, which doesn't fit in a fucking parking lot, obviously, of a movie studio.

So they said his name and the world ramp to ramp record is on the side and his I'm gonna jump the Grand Canyon's written on the side, all this shit. So they said the rig will take up too much room inside the movie lot. So Hamilton said, well, tell him to park outside and walk it through the gate. What the fuck are we doing here? So Scottie said, well, Knie evil, he can't walk is the problem. No, no. So the two men truck parked the truck outside and carried evil inside his, his people.

And that's how they met. And they said, they said the daredevil was delivered to his office like an animated side of beef. They carried him in and put them in a chair. So he's saying that his career was going great, people wanted to see what he did, he had a number of jumps lined up, and George Hamilton said,

looks like the last one didn't work out too well, huh? Yeah. And Hamilton said he was one of the slickest, maybe the slickest character I've ever met. Yeah. Think about who's saying that. An actor. A Hollywood actor with

Fucking grease in his hair and a tan that you wouldn't as like a literally unfathomable tan is saying agents producers Bullshit actors actresses direct all none of them. He's the slickest of all a guy a guy who dated LBJ's daughter. While he was fucking like ramping up a war. He said he was a con man but it was all petty con. Do you know what I mean? He was one of those guys who would bet you in a bar that he had your name tattooed on his cock. Then he'd whip it out and he'd have the words your name tattooed so he could win bar bets.

That kind of guy. George Hamilton called it a cock? Then he'd whip it out and he'd have the words your name tattooed so he could win bar bets. That kind of guy. George Hamilton called it a cock? A cock, yes. Cock. And this book was written when George Hamilton was in his 70s. He said cock. He said Hamilton signed him up to do some stunt in a week.

Knievel said he was going in for surgery to remove 11 and a half pounds of metal, but would be back and ready for the job. I'll be right back. Hamilton was dubious. Eleven and a half pounds of metal sounded like a lot of metal to him. So on the day the daredevil called from the hospital in Burbank, Hamilton talked to him for a moment, then heard a thud and the line went dead. When Hamilton finally got through to the room again, a nurse answered, she said Knievel had

passed out, that's why the phone went dead. He felt passed out. They said this was another paragraph and an interesting story, Hamilton had been thinking about a movie that somehow involved this guy. He thought he was just the most interesting fucking weird guy he's ever met. He said his first thought was something about a whacked out stuntman, but the more he saw Knievel in action he said he passed out. What? This guy's fucking nuts. The more he became convinced that Knievel himself was the movie. He's not a character in a movie. He's the movie.

He just needs to do it about him. Yeah. Yeah, yeah this is crazy people need to see this he said it get motorcycles America insanity he loved the whole thing he said it's all part of this he said after a little negotiation he made a deal with Knievel $25,000 for the rights to his life story great deal 25 grand not bad but and for evil, fuck, that's a lifeline. He needs that fucking money. I mean, that's gonna do a lot for him. Hamilton said, I was happy when I got the rights. Then I said to myself, what the hell

am I gonna do with this? This is useless. What am I doing? So they said the answer came from Joe Solomon, a Grind'em Out executive producer of B movies, many of them with motorcycle themes. He had made Hell's Angels on Wheels two years earlier starring Jack Nicholson, which didn't do shit.

And then in 69, Jack Nicholson was in Easy Rider, which was a fucking monstrous huge hit that now everybody was trying to. Jack Nicholson was in Easy Rider? Wasn't he in Easy Rider? Wasn't it him in Denison? That was Peter Fonda. And Jack Nicholson, he's in it.

Is he in it too? I'm pretty sure he's in it, right? I don't know. Wait, no, it's Dennis Hopper. No, it's, he's in it, not in one of the stars, but he's in it. Oh, okay, all right. Doesn't he play, doesn't he, the guy picks,

they pick him up for a while and bring him somewhere? I could see it, yeah, he's definitely in it. Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson. I can see him on the, sitting there with them. He's not a motorcycle guy. Mac Machurian's in it, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson. I can see him sitting there with them. He's not a motorcycle guy. Mac Machurian's in it, James. It's what? Mac Machurian's in it.

I don't know who that is. Fuck that. Okay, I was like, damn, I missed that one. So this guy was like, fuck man, I want my own easy rider. So Hamilton said, I don't know if I can make you an easy rider, but I can give you Evil Knievel in a pretty weird movie here. Terrible rider, yeah. He said, I wanna't know if I can make you an easy rider, but I can give you Evil Knievel in a pretty weird movie here. Terrible rider, yeah.

He said, I wanna make a movie about this guy that shows the insanity of America. Something about what our values are. This guy said, great, put a bunch of motorcycles in it, you can make whatever the fuck you want, I don't care. Just making a motorcycle movie. Come in on budget, on time, motorcycles, I'm happy guy, don't give a shit. Done. Yeah.

So he said, okay, let's do this. I'm going to do it, Hamilton says. So then there's an article in the Reno Gazette Journal, motion picture might feature Evil Knievel. Might, yeah. May talk about it. He's known for his disastrous jumps and now blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. December 14th, 1969. He's still talking about the Grand Canyon still he's got to do it this is life is useless the Boston Globe and he's still fucking this he said I'm afraid I'm going to get killed in a car you know he's afraid of cars but not motorcycles he said if I go I want to go the way I want to go splatting against the side of the Grand Canyon

but not getting hit by a drunk on the freeway. Yeah, interesting. So, oh, by the way, he's calling his motorcycle at this point the Alabaster bomb. That's what he's calling the sky cycle right now in this newspaper article for some reason. And then finally, in the newspaper, December 31st, 1969, George Hamilton and motorcycle racer, Evil Knievel,

will produce a movie based on Knievel's exploits with Hamilton starring. So now it's official, it's public, and everything like that. It's happening, yep. The screenplay had to be written a couple of times. Yeah. First attempt was a guy named Alan Kellew,

who was a writer, and this is what the studio guy found. He's an Englishman who's a middle-aged guy who drives a period Bentley around Hollywood. Not the guy for like a new age, new kind of motorcycle, edgy, that's not the guy you want. No. Some English fart fucking driving around a Bentley an old fire fucking Bentley around Yeah, it's ridiculous so they did it they he wrote a thing and George Hamilton said it was fucking terrible nothing

He wanted it was a straight laced straight ahead portrayal of Knievel He said it was kind of a World War two movie brought up to date man in combat with death every day He's like that's not what I'm looking for here. I'm looking for to capture the weirdness of what this whole weird shit is, not some weird strange hero story. I need it to almost be a documentary about this one man circus. I need him to be an ambiguous character. I need him to, is he a hero?

Is he a heel? What is this fucking guy? Is he a charlatan? I don't know. Yeah. So he, this this guy said let me get a guy to do a rewrite So he said no characters will be changed no expenses added just you know It'll be nothing to add to the finances just let me do it So this guy said will there be motorcycles and he said yeah same thing he could great don't care motorcycles So he ended up he interviewed George Lucas was interviewed for this.

Really? To write this. Yeah, he was a writer at the time, an up and comer. Paul Schrader, Steven Spielberg. Wow. Bunch of people here. None of them got it though, he said, none of them. And there's John Milius, and that's the writer that got it basically.

He said it was a peculiar American insanity is the way he put it. It's crazy man, crazy country, crazy everything. You know what I mean? So Hamilton told the guy, tell it back to me. Tell me what you think it is. So the guy described the story, the jumps, the injuries. He described the canyon jump.

He described the probable ending. He said the guy splatters on the other side. That's what America really wants to see. He said the guy splatters on the other side That's what America really wants to see they want to see him splatter on the other side Yeah, they don't give a fuck about this guy. All right, and that's what George Hamilton said perfect evil Knievel wasn't selling success He was selling failure Right, but spectacular failure and the and the opportunity to see the biggest failure you've ever seen totally So he said that's what America, the danger of it all. That's what they were into.

That's the core of what makes Evil Can Evil interesting. So he set up the screenwriter in a house. This is funny. In the house with white walls and Strauss waltzes, the Cuban cigars and the sunbathing women. Hamilton had women brought in. He put them up in this house and had a bunch of women brought in, but told him, this is great had a bunch of women brought in but told

Him this is great Hamilton said quote. I knew a guy. I don't know where he got these women I made one rule Milius doesn't get to touch one of them till he's finished. Oh He had a bunch of women brought in as motivation for this year writer You can fuck these girls when you're done, but finish the screen like You got a fit that'll get you right and fast if you're horny fuck Yeah, so he said he loved the arrangement He's read the screenplay and he said I felt like I had the jellyfish in my hand But Milius gave it the sting he said he was proud of the script. He sent the script to evil Knievel and Waited and evil Knievel called him and he said he was shocked when Knievel called and started yelling at him. He hates it. The script was terrible

the daredevil demanded that Hamilton come to the Hollywood land motel. Okay by the way this is he walks in he walks in and Hamilton said I don't think evil read very much of it, if at all. Someone had read the script for him and told him and said that it had bad things about his sister. I didn't know what the hell he was talking about. I think it might have been the stuff about kidnapping his wife. Anyway, quote, he pulled the gun.

He pulled the gun out, put it to George Hamilton's's head told him to sit down and read him the fucking script right now And kept the gun to his head While he read him the script I hate it. I Hate it click read it. That's insane. That's insane. Who does that Wow? So he said and I never read better never talked faster. I Explained the scenes to him, I finally convinced him that it was alright, he was making suggestions to me by the end. So by the end he had uncocked his fucking 38 and put it down thankfully.

I'm gonna help you rewrite it right now. God, he said the parts that Hamilton thought would bother him were never mentioned by him. He said Milius had drawn him as a self-absorbed, egotistical character, silly in a lot of ways, crafty and crazy, but not a pleasant guy by any means. He said that's what should have set Knievel off, but Hamilton thought the subject of the movie never really understood what the movie was about. Knievel was worried about small deviances from facts. He said Hamilton said, quote quote people are so close to

something sometimes that they can't see. The movie I did about Hank Williams was like that. He was this tragic character drank himself to death at the age of 29. He was pushed there first by his mother who brought him into the bars to sing when he was 13 years old then kept him there by his wife who did the exact same thing. The women were the villains. His mother was dead when we did the movie, but his wife was alive and signed off on everything. She never saw what the story was." He said, I don't think evil did either. He said the two lines Hamilton liked best in the script were simple. They captured the wonder of Knievel's performance to date and the surprise relief at every finish the movie would use Linda Evans footage of the Caesars crash gotta have that in there

After the crash Knievel would lie on the pavement with his injuries all fucked up in a heap But they'd get a close-up, and he would blink and smile. I'm alive. I'm alive. He would say That's the if he's alive. He wins. That's that's how it works for him So he said it was his triumph. He performed every time he said that was the truth. So that's what he was going for He then he needs a new motorcycle Sure in December of 1970. He's gonna switch to a Harley Davidson XR 750 okay, that's the one he's really known for jumping, is that bike. That's his like main bike. Yeah. He would use that in association with Harley-Davidson

up until 1977. They said that the odd part of Knievel's red, white and blue motorcycle career, the words America and American mentioned virtually every time he spoke in public, was that he never performed on an American motorcycle. Right. Yeah, from his first jump at Moses Lake on a Honda through the jumps on Norton's and Triumph's in the Italian La Verda 750 under the name American Eagle, he took whatever small deal was available to get a free motorcycle. That's all I could do. He always went for price over performance. Said he risked his life on whatever discount equipment he could find

He said the logical motorcycle for him would have always been Harley made in America and strong But now it's made by AMF. That's a bad Harley. That's the worst Harley Those were those are the ones they said you'd have to buy two one for parts, right? That was that They remember when I was a little kid in the 80s, that was the cliche of Harleys. Yeah, they were known for 20 years as a piece of shit. So they said Harley Davidson was the star spangled American racing representative on the world stage. Knievel, alas, always made the company executives nervous.

Yeah. He said Harley Davidson was the most conservative company you can find. That is a guy who was the advertising manager and promotions director for Harley Davidson in the 70s. He said, extremely image conscious. I said to my boss one day, I wouldn't mind buying one of those Datsun Z sports cars. And he looked at me and said, well, you'll have to pay for it in yen.

Oh, Jesus. Okay. God damn. He said, you couldn't wear a beard or long hair if you worked for Harley back then. It was like playing center field for the Yankees or something. What the fuck?

You'd be fired in a moment. The word the company hated most was hog. It hated that entire image of the motorcycle gangs fought against it. Really? Absa-fucking-lutely. Yep, didn't like it at all. Everything that's made them big and famous and everything that all these bikers

Worship and love and put fucking stickers on everything up Yeah, it's all what they hated not what they wanted Harley hated the hog the hog name and now they they use a Their Harley ownership group. That's what it's called. It's a club called hog Yeah, they didn't like it back then they used to fight if anybody would like use that shit They would sue them if they use the name hog and sue them back then and everything now It's totally different now. They sue them because it's like hey, that's our that's our thing. It's our brand Yeah, so he said yeah, it hated hated the entire image of motorcycle gangs fought against it They said Knievel was small and not very pleasant looking potatoes to Harley in the past

He was too noisy too wacky Harley spent its promotional budget on the racing team That was the image the company wanted that number one Harley logo represented the success of the racing team Knievel was a circus act He'd become but he'd become a motorcycle. He's the most famous motorcycle rider in America at this point though So they're like, what do we wanna do here? Are you trying to spread your shit or not? So they said the company at the same time was struggling. The Honda campaign about meeting the nicest people

on a Honda had been devastating. It's true too, I was reading in the Hunter Thompson, Hells Angels book, he talks about how in five years, Harley went from like 98% market share of motorcycles to like 30% market share in five years. He goes, imagine GM at the time doing that. It would be the sky would be falling.

He goes, that's how much Honda just took the fuck over the motorcycle market because it was like college kids and people like that were buying them. So he said, attention had turned to those 150 cc bikes, an entirely different look from Harley. Sales were down, even the racing results were down. Harley was struggling on the track, which is why it built the new XR750. Enter Knievel. He sent word through racers he knew that he would love to ride the XR750. He was available now, his deal with American Eagle had finished as the importers of the La Veritas from Italy had gone broke. The business was being liquidated.

Harley people were interested, at least some of the Harley people. The marketing guy said, I thought it was a great idea. Our dealers were screaming for help. They wanted us to do something to give the brand publicity. They were getting killed by Honda. They loved the idea of putting some Evil Knievel posters on their wall make it look fun and cool make the young people like it so the person who had to be convinced was John Davidson the president of Harley Davidson a no-nonsense character who is the gatekeeper of the company image yeah so they said they tried to convince him including vice president Willie G. Davidson,

John's brother. They all argued for Knievel, the marketing people, this guy, the vice president. Finally the guy said, fine, whatever. Do what you want. I don't care. But with one clause, one clause in this contract, there was a paragraph, a long paragraph that detailed all the things Knievel couldn't do. Okay. If he went to jail, if there was a public scandal, an arrest for drunkenness, drugs, anything, the contract was finished. He couldn't spit on the street. There were a lot of ways out of the deal for the company. So they said he got a chunk of money, but more importantly, he got that motorcycle and they would like refine it for him too like they said basically tell us exactly how you want us to make it for you and we'll do it yeah that's nice so he was linked into the dealer network and would have local Harley mechanics at

most of his events that they would come to help him so he would have parts service backup motorcycles at a moment's notice he would have things he never had he He said also he would have a version of safety the most amazing result of the deal the every other jump crashes would stop because the bikes better. So he said it was a revelation the bike it was faster than any motorcycle he ever rode after some modifications it was also lighter than any motorcycle he ever rode too. They said factory riders on the bike dominated all levels of racing after 72 and Knievel found he could gauge his speed better, was not surprised when he landed that he could

survive and he said, fuck, if I was doing this all along, I'd be in much better shape and my legs wouldn't be broken 40 fucking times. That wouldn't be having 11 and a half pounds of metal pulled out of me. No, right? Here is from January 4th, 1970. Evil Knievel got the coveted 1-1 license plate issued by Silver Bow County Treasurer Emmett Jones. 1-1? What does that mean? That's his license plate number.

Oh, he's one of one. One of one. Yeah. Knievel's wife was the first person in line at 5 AM Friday, the first day the new plates were issued. Knievel said he would the first person in line at 5 a.m. Friday the first day the new plates were issued Knievel said he would mount the plates on his new Rolls Royce limousine to publicize Montana during his tours around the country That's what it is here the publicize

Fucking Montana, so he's going to do the Cow Palace. They're talking about in San Francisco 1970 and we'll end it with this. This is what I was waiting for to end this on here. This is crazy. Okay, Hell's Angels enter the picture. Oh boy, yeah. Okay. They're going on early.

This is the Cow Palace. Well, also he talks, he says he doesn't wanna be associated with them. That's why he wears the white leathers and all that kind of thing. Sure. So in the newspapers, he's constantly saying, don't want to be associated with those bums and I don't want so after a while They're like a word of that. Yeah. Yeah, what the fuck man? That's bullshit

So the Hells Angels were treated to this is from the newspaper We're treated to a bit of rough and ready justice Friday night when hundreds of persons at the Cow Palace Took on 12 of the motorcycle club members for a free for all following a motorcycle stunt show by Evil Knievel. Oh my god, there was a brawl? They attacked Evil Knievel and they got the living shit beaten out of them, all these Hells Angels. They ended up in the hospital, they almost got killed, these guys.

Surprise surprise, Evil's fans are fucking lunatics. The greatest fucking thing, following the junk. I'll tell it from the book I I think we have that in here. So what ended up happening is he brought on a new bodyguard guy And by the way, this is right after Altamont The the you know, the angels Hell's Angels killed a guy in the crowd while the Rolling Stones were playing So they said I'll read from the book the announcer for the show had been drinking all night is what Gene Sullivan said Fantastic when evil came to do his jump the announcer said something he shouldn't have he announced the canyon jump then said if evil Makes this jump he'll set the Hell's Angels back 100 years or he'll set back the Hell's Angels 100 years

I don't know what that even means. Why would he say that? So Sullivan was new to the Knievel operation he was a big guy fresh out of the Navy where he'd been the heavyweight boxing champion for the seventh fleet. Okay. This guy basically he was the his father was the sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. So in the run up to the jump, his father went to interview Evil Knievel and this guy went along to listen. His son, Knievel was going into overdrive

talking about all his bullshit and everything like that. And this guy liked him, the son, the Navy boxing champion. He told Knievel he liked the message and offered his services. He said, maybe Knievel needed a bodyguard, an expensive bodyguard. He said a couple hundred bucks a week to live. I'd be happy with that. Don't care.

I'm a big guy. I'll keep people away from you. You know, I'm a boxing champ. Knievel said, I'll think about it. That's fine. But Sullivan went to the Cow Palace and he went to watch Knievel jump. It's the first time he ever saw him jump. And Sullivan said it was one of those providential things. Now Knievel and the Hells Angels, this is from the book,

never had good thoughts about each other. Knievel always took great pains to say dressed in white leather, not black, because he didn't want to be associated with them or anything like that. And the angels were pissy about that. Yeah. So they also had been hounded and beaten up in the newspapers and on television about the Altamont disaster because they're still talking about that now it's fucking 55 years ago so anyway when the announcer said what he said there was a history so when Knievel came flying up the ramp for his jump a Hell's Angel came down from the stands and threw something

at him. Oh, you son of a bitch. And they said they thought it was a wrench or a pair of pliers. Something of that. So not like a cup. Something hefty. A fucking metal chunk. So they said the wrench or pliers or whatever missed Knievel.

But this is the fucked up part. He knew it was happening, but he did the jump knowing it. They said he landed perfectly, cleared the 11 cars, stopped himself in a very short landing area, then did a U-turn. He's fucking pissed. That's one thing about evil is he will fucking fight you. He does not care.

Obviously, bodily harm does not scare him. So this is the wrong guy to fight. It really is. You don't fight a guy who doesn't give a shit about his body. No, he doesn't care. The hospital, great, take me there, I don't fucking care. So he came back, did a U-turn and came back

to the offending Hells Angels whom he had spotted from the corner of his eye as the fuck, he saw the guy throw shit, which is wild. So he jumped from his still moving motorcycle ghost rode the whip Pushed this guy against the concrete wall and started punching the fuck out of him Wow, the guy didn't expect it. Yes, he said he's just driving by and all of a sudden boom He's springs at him off the motorcycle tackles him against the wall

He's left the bike going. Yeah. Yeah, let the bike go didn't give a shit about that. So This is what happened. So then four or five Hells Angels came to their defense, as we know, the one on all and all on one shit there. So Sullivan, who's the boxing guy, was watching this whole mess develop and he goes, wow, if I ever want to get hired, this is the way to do it. This is it. Here comes my interview.

He jumps in and just starts fucking bashing Hells Angels, exploding their fucking heads. I mean, when there's 10 of them, fine. And when they're, you know, somebody doesn't know how to fight, fine. But if you have a heavyweight naval boxing champion and they don't have weapons, he's going to destroy these guys. Otherwise they're just drunks. That's all they are. So he's beating them.

And so it's evil and this guy versus like more Hells Angels now, more are coming. So then people in the crowd started going, Oh, fuck that shit. They started beating the shit out of the Hells Angels too. So by the end of it, they're all in the hospital beaten to pulps because hundreds of people have stopped them to shit, which is well deserved because they've done that plenty of times too. They've killed people like that.

Yeah, ask Hunter Thompson. Well, not now because he's dead, but read about what Hunter Thompson happened to him. So anyway, after that, he said he invited, Knievel invited this guy back to his trailer for some wild turkey and said, do you want a fucking job? Yeah. Sure do. He goes, you got it, man. That was great.

Thanks. Done. He said, you start now. And the worry was that the Hell's Angels will be looking for them for retribution because this happened. I need you around forever. You please just hang out with me. So Knievel went to Sacramento to go to a friend's house so he could hide for the night basically,

because he thought they were going to be looking for him. So the other, he's got this guy, the Sullivan and the ray gun guy are left with this big trailer at a motel that advertises that here's Evil Knievel. Oh, God damn it. So they're like, shit, those letters aren't getting any smaller. Those are huge on the side. Why'd we do that? So they shared a room and they were waiting for the Hells Angels and they were so paranoid

that the Sullivan, the boxer guy went to get food, came back and the other guy jumped up from bed and pointed a gun at him. He was ready to shoot him. Yeah, thinking he was in the Hells Angels. Anyway, the Angels never came. Wow. They never showed up. I think they got enough.

They got an ass full of it. They got an ass kicking full of it. So they were done. So yeah, and that is is that and that is where we will leave the story today What a story is a he's a hero with him beating the shit out of her him and half of a fucking Half of a spectator group beating the shit out of a group of Hells Angels Which I mean, obviously if he's the star did you expect these people to be like yes beat up our hero It's probably a bad move Don't throw a wrench at

Luca in LA you're gonna know that whole stadium beating the fuck out of their fucking pummel your ass for that shit Yeah, or any any star for that matter of any sporting? Yeah, you're gonna get it if we went out on stage at a show and somebody threw a fucking wrench at us and started attacking us If we went out on stage at a show and somebody threw a fucking wrench at us and started attacking us Yeah, we'd have a lot of people helping us probably cuz that's all I'm calling and and we have that lady that's willing to kick people That was not for us though That was just cuz she was drunk. That was a different thing completely. Yeah. Oh My god, so there you go. That is evil Knievel part Wow

And we're building up his fame and that's a good point to leave it at because from here it's kind of really gonna launch. Once he gets the Harley and all that kind of shit, he's gonna be on Wide World of Sports and the toys are gonna come out and the movies are gonna come out and everything like that. We'll talk about that and I'm gonna show you next week too. We'll have some footage of him on talk shows

just so you can get kind of his whole attitude and how he is how he behaves It's interesting. I'll show you that dick cavett show appearance I'll show you a couple others too that are real fucking have it still alive And that's why criminally under followed on every form of social media, and he's active tell stories. He's fucking great Nobody knows who he isn't anymore now. Yeah, it's fucking great. Nobody knows who he is anymore now. Yeah, no, it's too bad. No one under 30 knows who the fuck Dick Cavett is. I wanna be his best friend.

Right, he's so interesting, he's got a lot of interesting shit. Fascinating man. Like when I was a kid I'd hear his name, but I didn't know who the fuck he was. He was some guy who had a talk show before I was born, I don't know. He's one of the guys that gets tossed by a shrimp hand

in Beetleju juice for Christ's sake. And nobody knows that. Nothing. I had no idea. I didn't know that at all. I had no idea. I knew who the other people were.

I knew who Otho was more than that guy. I didn't know. Then once YouTube came out, I started seeing like Dick Cavett show shit and I was like, oh, he had a great talk show. That was fucking awesome. He'd do a death conversation. He was cool. Yeah.

And a close personal relationship with Muhammad Ali and he's a fucking fascinating human being. I love him, I love him so much. Great interview with Hitchcock that I saw, it's really awesome on there. Hitchcock, also Jimi Hendrix, there's a cool one. He has Hendrix on there, it's so different. He would ask great questions and then people would be like mad at him and treat him like a dick.

Yeah, yeah, because back then you were on there to promote your thing. So tell us why this movie's great and everyone should see it. Tell us why everything's great rather than, so why'd you do that? That was interesting, huh? He was like a mixed- I treated him like an asshole.

It was like a mix between Letterman and Barbara Walters, he was. He was like a mixture, because he wasn't a comedian and didn't claim to be and wasn't trying to be funny, so he was more of a straight man interviewer. Yeah, it was wild. We will pick back up next week with evil getting more famous and All that kind of shit can't wait for that. This I love this fucking story. This is awesome So if you love it to tell everyone about it get on whatever app you are listening on Please give us five stars and tell the world about it post on social media. It helps so much

I don't know why the reviews help it really really helps So thank you everyone that does that and please do that if you haven't done that also head over to shut up and give me Murder calm tickets for live shows all of the merchandise is there next live shows for small-town murder are in May They are in st. Louis and Chicago st. Louis is just about sold out But Chicago you can still get in there and get your tickets for the rest of the year too. It's a big theater. We found out Portland sold out in November. Grand Rapids is I think sold out.

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Hundreds of bonus episodes you've never heard before so like a whole other show worth of bonus episodes And then on top of that you get new ones every other week. Sure. Can't beat that, one crime in sports, one small town murder, and you get them all, baby. All of it. This week for crime in sports, we are gonna talk about the, I think it was 2012, Miami Dolphins bullying scandal.

What a story. They were saying an offensive lineman was getting bullied and it was Richie Incognito. One of the Pouncy Brothers was involved in that too. Yeah. He skates on that shit, because everyone onlyie incognito one of the Pouncy brothers was involved in that too Yeah, he skates on that shit cuz everyone only remembers good cognito Neato such a piece of shit. He's a dick and he wants to be a dick boy He the guy Jonathan Martin the bullying subject at the time. He has now come out now talking about it a lot

So we'll talk all about that down and he needs to clean it up Yeah, he well he got arrested because of it too really yeah there we'll talk about it This has been going on for the whole time here still going still kind of a thing that's going on So we'll talk all about that and more that shut up and give me more. That's not though. That's our website Patreon calm slash crime and sports is where you get all that shit. And what else do you get a shout out? Jimmy well as he's about to do Mispronounce your name good here So Jimmy hit me with the names of the people who would never ever ever throw pliers at us

We were while we were driving a motorcycle 80 miles an hour. Hit me with them right fucking now This week's executive producer Angela Corey Wow, thank you so much. You're an angel that thank you very kind of you are wonderful Honestly job and and quit patreon because it and then she came back to don't Giant amount of money. She didn't have to do. Thank you so much. Thank you Gary Howard also, thank you very much Thank you Gary son that's getting bigger all the time other producers this week Peyton Meadows happy hour is in Lafitte, Louisiana. Thank you happy happy see you Janice Hill Sherrilyn Henderson Audrey week with Janice Hill. We never say thank you Janice Hill. I hear your name every week Thank you constant. Yeah, you fucking rock. So nice Jordan Bennett and Peyton Meadows. Yeah, thank you Liz Liz Vasco

Jordan Bennett and Peyton Meadows. Yeah, thank you. Liz Vasco, they're our regulars. Thank you guys. You do too much and you don't have to, we appreciate it. Thank you. Sherrilyn Henderson, Audrey Allen, Ricky Hargett. Taylor Marcelino, Goldino would know last name. Joshua Gary Alley would know last name.

That sounds like a magician. The Great Goldino. The Great Goldino, yes. He makes pizzas. Jace Chancellor, Kaylin, is that Kaylin? It is Kaylin Soros. Chris Bourne, that is Jason's brother, right? Abel Martinez, right?

Is it Jason Bourne? Yeah. Sandals with no last name. Rebecca Borkshire. You didn't watch those movies? Me neither. No, I don't know. I don't like action shit.

I don't care. I understand pop culture references. Ashley Young, Holly Stansberry, Dakota Jenkins, Stephanie Deese, Abby Bowden, Bowden maybe, Cameron Kraft, Lisa Stelter, yes. Hayden Smith, Samantha with no last name, Sam O'Connor, Elizabeth Jacobs, April C, Sam Coleman, Derek Schwab, Tiffany West, Bob Soa, Jodie Moore, Alexandra LeClair, Carrie Fowler, James Wilkinson, Naomi with no last name, Ash Egan Burke, Daniel Hardesty, Allison Rainford, Justin Johnson, Shane McDowell, Sludge Monkey, gross,

Amanda Smith. Nasty fuck. A Sludge Monkey sounds like a poop dick, that's viral. Yeah, it does. Anita Falk, Joe Bryant, Kathleen Schmidt, Alyssa Wilson, Lola Brown, Michelle Wood, Jessica Jones, Robin Noguchi, Elliot Wurm, Zach Duffy, Matt Harris, Doug Rose, Bruce would know last name, Wake Wake.

Oh, that's gonna be a miss. That's gonna be a correct, auto correct. An auto correct on your end. Agbenia, yeah, Wake is not the first miss. That's gonna be a correct Benya yeah wake is not the first name. It's something else ag Benya though is your last name Laura Joe Tiffany Osborne Laura would know last name Mont Romance or Montromancer Bradley Germain, maybe German maybe German. We don't know Sophie Hull, Jenica Angus she signed up twice thank you Jenica. Tommy would know last name Danielle would know last name Whiskey would know last name Cassandra Hegebo bad news bad new James Mahaffy Christina Brennan Madison Parker Missy Johnson Nancy would know last name

Luis Block Lois nope it's Luis Cass Louis, Cassie Wernley, Wernley, Staff McGot, McGough, Staff McGough, I don't know, I don't know what you want me to say. Rebecca Reifschneider-Gocchi, I think, Julie Sanchez, Reba Talbot, Tara with no last name, Laura Berg, Kaia, Kaia Stroh, Stroh like the beer. Kachina Cameron Jacobson. She's got Stroh's money. Theresa, not a stat. Old timey beer money. Not a lot of money there.

It's like a dollar 90 for like a 12 pack. Next thing I know is the fall staff person's gonna be here bringing that old money. Maddie Osborne, Olivia Bernal, Nikola Sundin, Inhabit Jewelry, Christine M, Lindsey Straighten, Kate Cheatwood, Virginia Babeu, Wendy Fried, Rachel, nope, yeah, that's Rachel Roach, perhaps Roachy, Feeling Funny, Erica S, Gretchen Hagenboochgin bootch Hagen bootch crystal howl Corey Franken hauser franken hauser Trey Dewitt Brittany mcnaught Jacqueline McGinnis green Lin and Caroline Carolina hammers Joey Jenkins Dave and Jade

Bo Bo Harnois what the fuck? He broke him you broke Jimmy with this last name. Tucker Basosa. Tyler Harrison. Jesse Robbins. Mitchie Baggs. Mike Holland. James Fleming.

Jimmy is adorable. Ken Morris. I'm disgusting. Jeremy Regan. Regan. Regan. Regan. Maria Noel.

Peter Cerny. Doc, no last name. Wyatt Gray. How about that? Doc and Wyatt donated. All together. Back to back. At the same time. Megan Maria Noel Peter Cerny Doc with no last name Wyatt Gray How about that Doc and Wyatt donated all together back to back same time Fascinating Andrew Hillis Eric Enos Kathy with no last name Pookie with no last name Ricky Lindsay Shelly with no last name Christopher Clarks ferns ferns fair Sphere Kern Svery, I don't know Maria

Paolella Svair Kern, Svairie, I don't know, Maria, Powelella, Powelella, that's fucking, that's my ending. Powelella Graham? Powelella, she's a, Monica, Monica Rolla, Alex with no last name, Tammy with no last name, Rain with no last name, and Elizabeth with no last name, and then obviously every other person that's a patron, you guys are the best, thank you so much. Thank you so much everybody for all that you do for us and that you keep doing and have done and continue to do and

Hopefully we'll do in the future. We appreciate the shit out of all of you. Thank you so much You want to follow us on social media real easy to do that just? Head over to shut up and give me murder calm drop down many things will take you everywhere you want to go Keep doing it keep follow us keep hanging out with us, and live from the Crime and Sports studios, we will see you next week. Bye. If you like crime and sports, you can listen early and ad free now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts.

Prime members can listen early and ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. In the 1980s, a rose swept the country. Hey Mike, I really like this white Zinfandel. Well, good, good. Now put it down, we're going to try another one. White Zin became America's top-selling wine. But most don't know that this sweet drink has a sour history.

What began in 1986 with counterfeit bottles… A big fraud. A multi-million dollar fraud. Sent investigators chasing one of the most powerful families in the business, the Lacharties. But the closer the feds got to them, the more dangerous things became. It's a story of deceit. At the time I was paranoid. Threats.

You touched my kids. I will kill you. And murder. With a.22 caliber bullet to the head. What started with a scheme to mislabel wine spilled into a blood-soaked battle for succession. bullet to the head.