Otherworld - Episode 78: The Chicken Whackers Pt. 1

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

A man named Luke originally reached out to the show on behalf of his younger brother. His brother Keegan left home to hitchhike and travel the country, which eventually turned into living on the street for years. When the family finally got Keegan off the street, he had many stories, but there was one in particular that he was nervous and afraid to discuss, involving a mysterious group called "The Chicken Whackers". This story was very different from our normal submissions, which is why we liked it. This first part is mostly Keegan's backstory, what it's like living on the street, and how dangerous it can be. Part 2 will be out in just a few days. Want more episodes? For bonus episodes and videos, sign up for the Otherworld Patreon Check out our Merch Follow us on: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter If you have experienced something paranormal or unexplained, email us your story at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Otherworld. I'm your host, Jack Wagner. This episode is the first part of a two-part story. And this one is very, very unique. When this story got sent into me, the first line of the email was this. Jack, please, even if you toss this in your trash,

just answer this one question. Have you ever heard of the chicken whackers? The answer to that question was no. I have not heard of the chicken whackers. after a quick Googling, it seemed like not many people have heard of the chicken quackers. There were not many results for this search. The email was from a guy named Luke,

and he was writing in on behalf of his little brother named Keegan. Keegan was homeless and living on the streets until very recently. And when he finally got off the streets, he came back pretty terrified of something that he called the chicken whackers. I have to admit, the description of this group sounded pretty outlandish.

A gang of Satan worshippers involved in drug trade, human trafficking, mind control. It was a lot. I mean, part of me, I'd say a large part of me, was thinking,

this sounds completely ridiculous and made up. Another part of me was thinking, if it's not made up, should I even be talking about this group? Because they sound pretty bad. I don't know if I would want to draw attention to myself when it comes to a group like this.

Maybe it's not worth a risk. There was a lot of mixed emotions at play. Ultimately, curiosity got the best of me. I at least wanted to hear this person's story because it was so unusual. And I'm really glad I did. In the end, it was mostly a story about Kegan and his journey.

I'll tell you right now, I do not have any more answers about the chicken whackers than when I first got that email, but I really enjoyed hearing this story. More than anything, it was fascinating, hearing this firsthand account of what it's like living on the street.

You know, human trafficking, serial killings, kidnapping, random acts of violence, all the stuff they talk about in the true crime podcast, these are the things Americans are most afraid of, perhaps even paranoid of. People spend lots of money on security systems, locks, cameras, firearms to protect their homes from these crimes specifically. But the thing is, most of the time, the people who are targeted are not the ones snug in

their beds at night. They're the ones living on the streets. the most vulnerable people among us. That vulnerability is exactly what makes them targets of these crimes. And the wildest part about it is that most of these crimes never even get reported because they're happening to people who, for various reasons, have fallen through the cracks. Just so you know, this first part is not paranormal at all. This part is about how this all got started, what being homeless was like for Kegan,

and all of the events that led up to what he originally wrote in about. This is episode 78. The title is The Chicken Wackers Part 1, and you're listening to Otherworld. Is this Bobby? At its core, the science, you can't argue. I'm worried about all the science. Up in the sky. It's almost frustrating that it's happening.

I'm going to die. Its limbs were just like wrong. Everybody moves back into the light. even if it takes them a minute. Hi, my name is Luke. I got in touch with Otherworld about my younger brother Keegan's story. To give you guys some background, we grew up in a town called Rochester, Illinois. It's a very, very small town outside of Springfield, Illinois, the capital of Illinois, central Illinois.

Not much going on, really, like, quote-unquote, nice place to live. But very small town. Like, we're kind of in a bubble. Me and Kagan, like, generally speaking, I see us as, like, we're very similar people. We relate a lot to each other. But in many ways, we are different. For instance, like, now, you know, I have a full-time job. I work as a software engineer.

I don't think he ever found himself. fitting comfortably within the context of capitalism. So that was never, especially as a kid, like that was just never on his mind. I think he's, he's very like he's a skeptic, you know, of just, you know, he doesn't really accept the world as it is and go, okay, let me take it from here. He's, he's definitely somebody who pushes back. he started traveling as a way to explore kind of counterculture. And he spent some time in Slab City, which is kind of improvised settlement.

So he was very interested in like alternative ways of living. You know, I remember a trip to New Mexico to work on this farm. And then he came back for a little bit. And then it was living in Slav City for a little bit. And, you know, we saw Lessa Kagan because he was on the road, which, you know, call it what you want. He was homeless. He didn't have a home, which is scary when your little brother is, you know, being exposed to God knows what out there. I'd actually would see him, like, because I was a musician on tour.

Like, you know, this was maybe like six or seven years ago. And he came out. We were playing House of Blues, San Diego. He came out. He looked like a pirate. I remember my best friend, another Luke, being with me and like describing Kegan as like a happy pirate. And he was happy, you know. It was like, you know, it's easy to be fearful when you're like, like, my.

brother's living on the road like he's homeless like you have shame almost like why am i okay with my brother live this way like i'm his older brother like he should be here with me but then that trip was really nice because i saw that there was a aspect of joy to the way that he was living like he seemed like he was doing well on some level he wasn't putting money into a 401k but like spiritually he seemed to be doing good. But then eventually, you know, it took a darker turn. And I don't know when the switch happened when it was like he's traveling to like he's homeless. He just wasn't doing well.

It was evident. My sister, God bless her, took cue to that, put him in a hotel. I happened to be in L.A. working. So I was close because he was in Olympia, Washington. So I just took a plane up there. I saw him in the hotel. He was, yeah, not doing well. We were able to convince him.

Come back to Springfield. You know, come back home. Take care of yourself. You know, I'd heard story. I've always been curious, you know, I still, I always will be curious with Keegan what his life was actually like on the road, you know? And he has stories that he's told me, like, the guy just saw a lot, you know.

And one day, he told me a particular story. He seemed like there was a little bit more heavier weight to him at the time, a little bit more, like, darker energy. And I realized this is looking back, but we were just kind of hanging out for the day, the night, had dinner, you know, started like, just catching up, drinking a little bit, shooting the shit. And then he started alluding to this thing that happened to him,

this like episode. And Grand Junction, Colorado is where it happened. He started like, you could tell that, you could tell he was getting activated just by bringing it up. you could tell he was getting shy about it. Like, it was just like, Kagan, you know, he's my little brother. I was like, what's going on here? Like, this isn't really normal for him to be, like, hesitant about this story.

But what his fear was was that me, his bigger brother probably might not believe him. Or might question it or might, like, laugh in his face. I have no idea, you know. But he told me the story and I thought it was, I mean, I thought it was crazy when I heard it. I didn't think it was crazy as in it wasn't true. I just thought like, whoa, this is like, I mean, I thought the whole thing like, it sounded too crazy to not be true coming from Kegan because he just doesn't lie. He's just not a liar. He doesn't do for attention, you know. I just never, I never seen the side of him before where he was so scared, just like

going back to this place of like real terror. You know, if I choose to believe this and like, which I do, it definitely shakes your sense of reality a little bit. All right. So, yeah, my name's Keegan. I'm from central Illinois. I grew up, you know, in a small town out surrounded by cornfields and not very remarkable life growing up.

I knew I wanted to just like, you know, I moved to a bigger town and was just working. And I really knew I wanted to just get out there and see the world. Yeah, so I'm 2017. I'm 23 when this all started. There's this website called Workaway, which is where you can pretty much find places, like people's homes or farms, and you pretty much trade work for, like, a place to stay and food to eat.

So my idea was to do that. And I did go do one of those, like in Georgia, and the Appalachian Mountains for a minute, and then I came back home. And, you know, I was just kind of listless. and like, you know, just kind of struggling to find like a meaning in life and like what I really wanted to do with my life. And, you know, and I had that, I kind of had that just like, fuck it attitude of like,

fuck it. I'm just going to like do it. I'm just going to go do it and get out there. So my plan was to start doing workaways. And I just chose Joshua Tree because I was like, yeah, I've always wanted to go to Joshua Tree. driving from central Illinois, it's probably like the furthest you can get away from where I'm from. So I set up a time for myself. I'm like, okay, December 2017, I think it was. I was like, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to quit my job and I'm going. And none of the workaway places were hitting me up yet. So Slap City is out there in Southern California. And my plan was, was I was like, okay, I'll jump from these workaways. And then for Christmas and New Year's, I'll go down to Slab City and hang out there. And it'll be cool to just like, you know, since I'm not going to be able to go home for the holidays, I'll just be able to be around like other people who are kind of just out there doing their own thing. So Slab City started out there in the 60s. There was like a army base out there in the desert.

and a bunch of like concrete bunkers and stuff, they left, they tore it all down, so there was just like these concrete slabs left. And people moved out there and they started building on it. And it's essentially just like it's turned into kind of a haven for squatters. A lot of like rejects of society go out there. This man, Leonard Knight, this old man, kind of made the place famous by creating Salvation Mountain,

which is like what you see before you even get into Slab City is this huge mountain covered in like plaster and painted. You know, it's off the grid. No one pays rent out there. People have been out there for a while and there's some pretty solid structures, but there's nothing like there's not like solid like houses out there. It's all pretty makeshift. People are upcycling stuff.

And it gets so hot in the summer that the population, I would say, goes down to about 300 people who are like year-round slabbers, as they would call themselves. And these are people who, like, are there year-round because it gets hot as fuck during the summer. It gets up to like 120 degrees. So that's why there's not a lot of people there. And, like, in the winter, I would say the population gets up to, like, 2,000 or so. Yeah, I went out there and I just kind of showed up because none of the workaway places, that I had been emailing, like, replied to me.

So my plan of, like, visiting Slab City for a week turned into, instead, me, like, living there for two months. I don't know what I can say about that period of time. It was a bit of a mess. I still had no idea what I was doing with my life. But what happened there was that I met travelers, essentially. I met this whole like subculture of travelers that I never knew existed that they call themselves dirty kids. You know, if you live on the West Coast or San Francisco, you've probably seen them. Cross punks?

Huh? Yeah, like cross puns. Yeah, train hoppers. Like carhart bibs, like hiking backpack and like dogs. Always a dog. Yeah, always a dog. Yeah. So I was like blown away like discovering these people for the first time.

And just there was a couple, specifically there was a couple who, this guy who went by Toad and then his girlfriend Joyce. And I just kind of like hung out with them and asked them a lot of questions about like just what, you know, what they did and how it all worked. And essentially I met this woman named Chandra out there. And she was, yeah, that was all kind of. of a mess, but we got into a relationship together that was off on a little bit. And like the really important thing about that relationship was that it introduced me to like the rest of her small group of friends, which pretty much became like my secondary family. She was a bit of a matriarch among the group.

She was older. But she also had like bipolar disorder. drank a lot and like so she would blow up a lot and like I don't know there was a lot going on with her I'll just I'll say that was she older than you yeah how much she was like um well I was 23 and she was 34 so like 11 years older than me yeah yeah so yeah we uh at some point I left and went to Joshua Tree finally by myself and I just camped on like the BLM land like south of Joshua tree and just lived out there for a few weeks which if anyone doesn't know what that is it's just Bureau of Land Management which is like a federal agency you can camp there for pretty much as long

as you want to the rule is like up to 14 days and then you have to move at least a thousand feet but it's not like they have like people coming to fucking check on you and stuff. So like people go out to BLN land to like shoot guns, camp, all kinds of shit. But I mean, it was very peaceful. That was my first like time away from everyone and just like out in the middle of nowhere in the desert just watching like the sunset at night, building a fire for myself and just fucking relaxing. I don't know what I was looking for out there. I was, I mean, I guess I was looking for a day.

way of life, like finding a different way of life where, you know, something that would work for me that didn't involve, like, work a nine to five and make just enough money to keep paying the rent for the place, you know, because that's like, that's been my experience with jobs, essentially. It's been, like, making just enough money to pay my rent. And so essentially just like doing the same thing day in and day out and like for no reason really because i'm not saving money so yeah that all seemed pretty pointless to me so i wanted to find something more meaningful than that at least like eventually i ran out of money and i was in the slabs because you know i brought like a couple grand with me and that that went pretty quick yeah i knew like i'd seen these travelers do like you know

what they call spanging which is just like spare changing people essentially and ways to try to make money while you travel. So, like, I had started teaching myself how to play banjolalee. And I was just like, fuck it, I'm just going to leave. So I left there with no money and I was just, I'm, I was like, I'm just going to try to make money as I go. That's essentially what started my traveling experience of, like, having no money and getting really used to that and comfortable with that and, like,

not panicked about having no money because it's like, eventually you really, realize everything's going to work out for the most part if you just keep trying. What really helped was like the first time I went to Busk after leaving Slab City was I was in this gas station like in the middle of nowhere and it was nighttime and it was super dead. And I was sitting on this rock playing my banjolalee. And like some woman came over and handed me like a $100 bill. And that was like the first money I ever made busking. And I had nothing at that point, too.

Like, I needed water. I needed food. And, like, I broke down a little bit when that happened. And I was like, shit, maybe, I mean, maybe I can do this. Like, you know, it was kind of like a sign for me that, you know, maybe it wouldn't be so, so bad. So I have a question. Forgive me for asking, but I do have to ask. There's this reputation that some train hoppers, traveler types,

have and the reputation is that a lot of them are just doing this for fun and secretly they come from wealthy families and have big houses in the suburbs somewhere that they go home to when it gets too cold or when they get bored. Is there any truth to that? If so, how much? Okay. That does exist, but that's like a really small percentage. That's like a really small percentage. There's a name for those people. Usually they get called like trustafarians. I don't know if you've heard that one.

Like the hippies with the trust funds. Honestly, I don't know how many crustpunks I met who were like that. I will say, I had one friend, like their dad was like a lawyer for like

lays, like the chip company and they were fucking loaded. So, but he wasn't out there, he would busk and he was a great musician and like he would do that for money. But it was like yeah, he's like he, when he turned 20, he was

getting something like a million dollars or something. That's the closest I saw to that in real life. But honestly though, most of my friends were foster kids who had a really shitty life and who at some point

ran away from their home and started being homeless. and then ran into travelers and the travelers scooped them up and took them with them. Like my one friend, Roo, and she's an extreme case of this, but like she was homeless since she was 11 years old. And like she was living in Chicago with her dad was homeless. She was in and out of foster care.

She started doing heroin with her mom when she was like 14 or some shit. Like just a fucking mess. and when she was 14, she met some train hoppers in Chicago and she started hopping trains. And yeah, that's how like most of those people, there's a lot of people out there who don't have any other options, you know?

And like even myself, like I still had a family back home. You know, I don't, my parents aren't rich by any means, but I also had more of a safety net than like other people did who were traveling. But like, I didn't really have like a solid home base to come back to. So I've left Slab City at that point. I go to L.A. for some reason. You know, I'd heard cool things about it, I guess.

And so I drove to L.A. And I was walking down, like, the road, like, right by the beach. And it was just, like, cocktail lounges. and like young people in like suits and tuxedos and nice-ass dresses. And I was just like, why did I come here? Like, where am I? And then I went over one block, literally the next block over the street that's parallel to that.

And it was tense as far as you could see in either direction. Just like, it was just like the most visible like disparity, just visualization of like the wealth cap that I've ever seen. who just like, here's this block and then one over, here's this. Yeah, I stayed there for like a few days. I just kind of slept wherever I could. I think when I was there, I'd just like find a spot on the beach. I was never afraid of other homeless people.

I've never been afraid of other homeless people that whole three years. The only times I ever got scared or was worried was because of the police or if I was in like a really nice part of a town. I was having a good time. I was like, it was exciting for me. I was like kind of seeing the world really and like talking to, honestly, it's what I kind of learned too was just because I, I, like, when I went to Venice Beach, it was when I went that one block over is when I found people I could actually hang out with and like

talk to. I had picked up this guy Marty hitchhiking, which he's a fucking, he was a, he, he, he, he is just like a character. He called me when I was in L.A. He was like, yeah, man, I'm in Colorado. Like, you should come get me and we'll travel together. And I was like, fuck yeah, because I didn't know what I was doing next. So I left L.A. and headed to Colorado.

So I get to Moscow, which is like this tiny-ass town. I picked him up. Well, I went. I stayed a night at the trailer he was staying in. Yeah, he knew. I'd been looking for a dog, too. for about a month at this point. I got there and they had a bunch of dogs,

like a whole family of dogs, and they had cats and children. It was a lot of souls packed into like one trailer. Yeah, when I was in there, I was just sitting cross-legged on the ground and they were like, yeah, we have this one dog dozer who we don't really, you know, we're trying to get rid of.

And they're like, we can bring them in. and they opened this door and I was sitting cross-legged on the ground and he comes in and comes over to me and just curls up in my lap immediately. And that's Skinny. I renamed him Skinny. Yeah.

He's wagging his tail now because he just heard me and he could say his name. I got super, super lucky. And yeah, that's where I got skinny. I still have him. He's right here. Yes.

And that's just, that's when I picked up Marty and we started just, you know, I had no plans or anything at this point. I'm just like open to the world, you know, I'm just starting to move around and really feel this sense of like agency and like kind of like, wow, like I have like the whole, you know, the whole world kind of open to me. And like, yeah, it was a, that feeling in and of itself was almost. somewhat of, it was kind of an addictive feeling of like hitting the road and leaving a place behind and not knowing exactly where you're going or what's going to happen.

And just like the freedom of that, the feeling of freedom essentially is like it's, it's, yeah, I don't know if I would call it addictive or what, but it was, it was a, it was a great feeling. Me, me and my friend Marty, we decide to travel to Austin, Texas. to visit my friend Katie who lives there. And she's just like living in this hostel there, working for the hostel. Yeah, I met her like downtown or something. But at this point, me and Marty, we'd been spending a lot of time together.

He, you know, he's definitely a character. And you kind of have to take him in doses. And I guess like that dose of him was kind of like wearing off or whatever. I don't know. It was getting to the point where, and then it was like the night, me and Katie were like trying to

just like meet and catch up. And he was kind of drunk. And essentially we split ways in Austin and he went his own way, hitchhiking and stuff. Weirdly enough, I think everybody can relate to this. Yeah.

In their own way, I think. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. I was in a, Austin for a little bit. And then this bar that Katie worked at, there was a fire there. And so she was going to have a couple weeks off while she repaired that. And I was like, you should come travel with me. Me and Marty had been to this place out in Colorado, this BLM land.

I think it was called Buena Vista. We started discovering like bones everywhere, just like horse bones, cow bones. So I ended up taking a bunch of them with me to Austin and then like ran into some occult people in Austin and I was like, hey, I have all these animal bones and then was able to like sell a bunch of them. So my plan was to take Katie, go back there, like load back up on animal bones, take them back to Austin.

And yeah, yeah. All right. Sorry, I just like every... No, you're going, yeah, it's kind of, yeah, it's kind of weird. I wasn't expecting the bone plan. Please keep going, sorry. So my car breaks down and retone New Mexico. So we start hitchhiking out of there.

And we get to Salida and spend like one night there before we have to split ways. And she has to go back to her job in Austin, Texas. And I continue on my way hitchhiking. and yeah that's when i pretty much get a ride to the middle of nowhere and i'm out on this highway this two lane highway in the middle of nowhere hitching and it's starting to get dark and i'm thinking about i'm probably just going to have to camp out here somewhere which wasn't a huge deal like i had a i always had a water jug with me um it was just kind of a pain in the ass because there was nothing out there And so I started counting whenever I was like ready to almost call it quits, I would, I'd give myself like, okay, I'm going to count 13 more cars.

Like, and if none of them pick me up, then I'll stop and I'll go camp. Hitchhiking was the first time I hitchhiked, I really had no fucking clue what I was doing. Like the first guy who ever pulled over for me, I wasn't even on the right side of the highway. I was like, I'm trying to go south and he's like, you're on the wrong side of the road. because it's like where you want to go is you go to the on ramp to whichever direction you want to go and you just like

stand at the beginning of the on ramp where there's like enough room for people to pull off and stick out your thumb pretty much yeah I mean the big things about that we're really just making sure like wherever you're taking me is there somewhere I can get food and water there some states you can't

it's illegal to walk on the interstate and like you will get fucked with by cops for me, I'm a pretty big guy. I like not huge, but I'm six two. I have a dog with me. I don't have to worry about a lot. You know, if you're a woman hitchhiking, you got to worry a bit more.

You know, people always like, there's that fear that's kind of been instilled. Don't pick up a hitchhiker. Like, they'll kill your whole family. But really, it's the hitchhikers who, like need to be scared of who's picking you up because those are the people that's the people who kill

it's like it's the people who pick up hitchhikers I mean when it comes down to it and it comes down to people disappearing like the one thing I'll say is that you always always want to follow your gut because your gut instinct is always going to be right

and if there's like even just like a little thing that makes you say like I don't know about this guy. Like, they've done studies on this shit. Like, people who have survived, like, serial killers and stuff, there was, like, one little thing that made them be like, I don't know. Like, I'm good, man.

I don't want to ride with you. And, like, honestly, like, the weirdest person I ever got picked up by was the first ride I ever got hitchhiking when I was even younger. When I was, like, I was 21. Looking back, I should have known more, but I didn't because I just started hitchhiking. What was weird was that I was walking to go hitch. It was nighttime.

First of all, don't ever hitch at nighttime. Because no one's going to kill you and dump your body in the middle of the day, usually. But like, it was nighttime. I didn't even have my thumb out. I didn't have a dog at this point either. So it's just me. And this guy pulled over and was like, hey, do you need a ride? And I was like, yeah.

I just like, I got all my stuff because it's just like the pickup truck like that bench, you know, and there's really nothing between us. So I got all my stuff and I like put it in between me and this big dude. And then, yeah, he was just really fucking weird. Like he started talking to me about like asking me if I like to party. He started talking about like pretty much it sounded like he does a. bunch of meth and like takes people in at his house and like makes videos with them and just it was all super disturbing. So I just like had him drop me off at a truck stop like the closest

truck stop. And yeah, he didn't he didn't get violent or even forceful with anything. He was pretty upfront weird about it. So he thought you were a meth addict that would like maybe do porn in exchange for drugs. Probably. Yeah. That's probably what you thought. Yeah. I don't know. I will say my friend Maddie and Grant, they got one ride from a trucker in Canada. And that's the weirdest story I've heard so far because he started talking about how he could kill Grant and then rape Maddie if he wanted to like ha ha ha and all this shit. and like Grant was like,

Grant was like in the back seat and he told me that he was just like, yeah, I mean, I had my hand on my knife and I was just like ready to stab this dude in the neck pretty much. But like they, he stopped to get like fuel somewhere and they just got the fuck out. But that's like the weirdest thing I've ever heard.

I mean, you get picked up by weirdos all the time just because it's like people, lonely, lonely people are usually who pick you up. So it's like dusk is coming and I'm counting cars and this pickup truck pulls over. This dude gets out, hands me a joint and he's like, we're taking you to Peonia, Colorado. And I was like, cool. I don't know where that is, but it's not here. It's an actual town.

I get in the back of the pickup truck and yeah, we drive. They take me to Peonia, Colorado. And it was one of the most beautiful drives I'd ever been on. It was always nice getting rides in the back of a pickup kind of because you're just kind of have like the whole world. Nothing blocking your view. And we were driving up something called like the Black Canyon Gorge, I'm pretty sure. And the sun was setting on all of it. So it was just like the colors of the sun setting on like this beautiful landscape and just in the back of this pickup truck.

And yeah, got to Payonia. Shandra has hit me up on Messenger and I'm talking to her I was like yeah it's fucking awesome here Piano's really cool I think I was like oh you should come out here and you know we talked for a while and she decided you know she would come out

to Colorado she's like my friend Grant is with me I'm gonna take I'm gonna bring him with me and we're gonna come meet you and I was like awesome cool all right We'll be right back after this quick break. So she brings Grant out there and, you know, me and Grant get along.

He was a little quiet, but my dog, Skinny, like, fucking loved him. Like, Skinny's nice. He likes other people, but, like, there was something about Grant that he was, like, really drawn to him. She has her van, you know, so we're all, we're using her van to get around. you know, things are already, you know, like the third day, they're starting to fall apart like a little bit. Chandra's always going to, there's always going to be something that comes up. There always is.

So we stayed at like a K-O-A campground. And I remember like she went to sleep in her van. And I was just like outside with Grant, like getting some air. We had just argued about, she had argued with like me and Grant. about like I don't even know what but I was just talking to Grant and I was like like am I crazy you know it's like am I really doing all these things wrong

to make her mad like am I really what's wrong in this equation like am I like I feel like I'm going crazy like when I'm around her because it's just like you get all of this shit thrown at you out of nowhere and he was like the first person who was like no man you're not you're not crazy

that's just like how she is yeah, which was like, I don't know, I remember that moment. That was very reassuring for me. And that was kind of like when we, I don't know, you know, we started bonding over that kind of. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, 23-year-old dating a 34-year-old, I feel like. Yeah, yeah. I feel like I understood the situation without you even having to tell me.

Yeah, yeah. So we're in Chandra's van. We're trying to find somewhere to camp. And eventually, I just find, like, an actual campground we can go to. And that night was just, like, a mess. Because, like, Shandra started, like, yelling. She woke up and she just started, like, yelling for some reason. Was, like, yelling about how we didn't have the water.

I don't know. She was just, she just, like, woke up on a roll and then was, like, Like, you guys don't even care about me or I just told you this. And like, where's the fucking water? And it was just like that whole night was a fucking mess. I remember we sat outside and I just remember like me and Grant sitting there and her standing and just like screaming at us about shit. Eventually, she actually punched me in the face. At that point, I was like, me and Grant just like left and why.

walked away to go sleep somewhere else. I don't know where Grant went. I found somewhere to just have my sleeping bag with my dog, my pack, and just slept on the ground. And I woke up the next day. And I went back to the van. Because of the last night,

I wanted nothing to do with Chandra anymore at this point. Grant wasn't with her or the van. I was like, yeah, I'm leaving. like I'm hitching. I don't even. And she was like, well, at least let me give you a ride to Grand Junction. I told her, I was just like, I would literally rather just walk than be in a vehicle with you. And then she started screaming at me again.

It was like, fuck you, fuck you. And then like pulled out, ripped out of there, stopped and was like, I love you. I love you. And that was just like a quintessential like Chandra moment. Like if I could sum her up in one moment, Like that was it right there. Just like being like, fuck you. And then like, I love you.

So she left. I looked for Grant, actually, and I couldn't find him anywhere. So I was like, all right, time to hit the road and start walking. And eventually this guy picked me up. I remember he had a Trump sticker on his truck. And he had a cooler, a beer in his truck. And he was drinking a beer. And I was like, all right.

I guess, okay. And he was like, yeah, I'm going to Grand Junction. I'll take you to Grand Junction. He's like, yeah, I'll drop you off of Bum Park at Bum Park in Grand Junction. He's like, that's where all the homeless people are. And I'm like, okay, I guess, yeah, that works for me, I guess. Offered me a beer, get me a beer while we're driving there. So it's not very far.

It's like 10 miles, like I said. We get there and we pull over, like, there's this bridge on the way in going in. I remember like looking down and like under the bridge. is just like a rail yard pretty much like a bunch of tracks some train cars just sitting there so i noticed that because i was you know i was looking out for those things because i knew i wanted to try to hop a train but um yeah so i he dropped me off at this park and um you know there's a bunch of people sitting around there's like a bunch of people with their shit that you can tell there's like there's like quite a few groups of like different homeless people hanging out there and um

yeah, I just, I got out. I thanked the guy for the ride and I just went and I sat up against a tree and was just, you know, finishing my beer and just relaxing. And right away, someone comes up to me and is like, hey man, like what's up? And I'm like, hey. and, you know, like a little bit of small talk maybe, and then they're like, hey, while you're here, you need to watch out for the chicken whackers. And I was like, oh, okay, like, yeah, who were the chicken whackers? And they're like, yeah, it's this, like, satanic cult here. They do a bunch of fucked up shit.

Like, they nail a cat to a tree. Yeah, it was weird. I remember overhearing another group talking to, and I remember this big woman talking about, I could overhear her talking about chicken whackers, and she was like, she was like, yeah, I don't go to the other side of the train tracks. They light people on fire over there.

And I was just like, what the fuck? I was like, what are these people talking about? Because someone else came up to me too, and it was like my second interaction and was like immediately talking to me about chicken whackers. I mean, honestly, I was pretty skeptical. I didn't really put any credence to what they were telling me. I was like, yeah, yeah, okay.

Like, you know, people talk. Honestly, I kind of got the vibe from when I was in Slab City because people talk about how dangerous Slab City is and like they make these YouTube videos that are like, oh, I spent a month in Slab City and it was so, so fucking dangerous, man. And really, it's not. And, like, so I knew people liked to talk about

how dangerous places were when they really weren't dangerous. And I think coming from that, I was kind of like, yeah, okay, like, sure, you know. Because no one was ever like, yeah, the chicken whackers, they did this to me. They were just like, it was all just like secondhand. and shit. So I didn't really pay any attention to it.

Did you hear stuff like that a lot? No, no, I didn't hear stuff like that a lot. I will say in Denver, I remember hearing weird shit about like homeless people getting stabbed to death. And, you know, around that area, I heard more about the chicken whackers, like later when I was in,

Delta, Colorado, but honestly, no. You know, the most you'd get somewhere would be people being like, oh, yeah, like the cops are assholes here. Like, don't, don't sleep over there, like avoid this area, shit like that. Yeah, people's camps get burnt down sometimes when they're like sexual predators. and like the community rejects those people and forces them out of the community, like that's the major extent of the danger that's out there. So it was strange looking back and I should have, I mean, I should have listened to them honestly, but I didn't.

I thought they were all full of shit. I was just like, man, these are just, you know, it's local people. They, you know, everyone likes to have something to talk about. You know, it sounded just like some sensational, like, bullshit that people, you know, it just, I really didn't put any credence into it, like, at all. Yeah, I should have listened to them. I got up and left to go to the, I think it was a save a lot that they have there. Go to the grocery store, get whatever, water jug, you know, food probably. And so I'm walking across town.

I'm walking over to the stable lot. And like from a distance I can see like on the wall facing me. There's like some dude is just like sitting up against it like chilling there. And I get closer and closer. And then I'm like almost walking past the guy. And I'm like, I'm like, Grant. And he's like, hey, hey, hey, man. And I was like, oh, holy shit, dude.

like where the fuck did you go? And like that was when I realized he had walked he had just fucking walked to Grand Junction which like he was yeah

that dude could walk but yeah so we link back up and we're like fuck yeah dude and just like kind of kind of went over you know went over the night before with Chandra and all that bullshit

and we're just like yeah that was fucking crazy that was like, because that was like the worst I'd ever seen her and the worst I would ever see her at was that night. We end up hanging out. We go back to that park. I tell him about how I want to, you know, how I want to hop a train. We decide pretty much to travel together.

We both liked each other. We got along while. You know, we bonded over our share. Chandra experiences. Get back to the park and we're sitting in the park and, you know,

we hear more about the chicken whackers. And I go around, I ask people, so there's this thing called the crew change, which is this huge text, which usually gets sent in like a PDF form.

And some people have like physical copies of them. But it gets passed among train hoppers because it essentially has every major city, town in the country, compiled by other travelers and train hoppers. And it tells you where the crew changes are, where the trains stop, exactly where to go, what like signs to look for, where there's holes in the fence. Because there's so much information and it's so tightly packed in there,

there's a bunch of like abbreviations for shit um so i had to like in order to read it i had to actually like make a glossary for myself of like all of the abbreviations and what they meant and i was like okay cool it says grand junction between 7th and 9th street 8 to 11 p.m there was supposed to be a train that stops there so this is when we meet jiggy Jiggy is a traveler. People tell me he's a traveler. When I'm asking around for someone who hops trains, he's the person who they point me to.

We start talking to him, and he's like, I ask him how long he's been there, and he tells me he's been there for two weeks. You know, we talk to him for a while. We really just, like, kind of hang out in the park for a minute. But then that first night, we just go by ourselves,

and we find this spot along the train tracks where that train should be stopping. We spend the night there. We're like up against this wall and there's kind of like a tree right here. We're pretty well hidden from like, because there is like a railroad crossing, like a little distance to the left where cars drive over and then there's one like two walks down that way. Anyways, we just wait all night for a train, and we're kind of like, you know, dozing off here and there. But it's like, obviously you're going to wake up when a train is like stopping right in front of you.

So it wasn't something where we had to be like super alert. What you're looking for with a hopable train is like an intermodal, an IM, which is like those trains that have like the storage containers on top of you. other because like on the end of that like there's those storage containers and then on the ends there's like this little gap that they call the gondola where like you can get down in there and like if you lay down no one can see you and then there's like grainers and coal cars you can travel if they're empty so you have to like which you you can see them if they're empty because like I'm sure you've seen that ones that are full and you can literally see like the coal or rocks or whatever they have.

With those, you literally just like walk up the ladder and you go down inside and then you have like a whole ass, like a very big space to yourself. So the first night, we're trying to get a train out of there and we just couldn't. There was no trains that were stopping that were ridable. There was like an oil tanker stopped, but that's not rideable. So we're there into the next day now and we want to get out of there. because this town is just weird. They don't like homeless people there.

So the second night is when all this shit happens. And we actually go with that guy, Jiggy. We talked to him, and he was like, yeah, I'll show you guys. You know, he acted like he was going to hop out with us. And we'd have someone, like, experienced with us who could, like, you know, kind of show us the ins and outs a little bit. So there's an important part here that, like, at the time, was meaningless, but looking back was like really stupid, something that I did that was like,

we were in the park, we were talking about hopping this train, and there's, you know, there's people all around us. This park is like filled with like homeless people who, who live there. And I'm like, yeah, there's this train that's stopping in between 7th and 9th Street from 8 to 11 p.m. And I say that like several times. Yeah, I'm just broadcasting to everyone like exactly where we're going to be later that night, which I mean, I didn't think that would be an issue or a problem. Looking back, that was probably like a stupid thing to do. So we go with him to the tracks.

It's like getting dark now, nighttime. We go right back to the spot where we were the night before. This is where the first weird thing that I noticed happens. And like on the wall right above, like where we had been sleeping the night before, there was like Rooms, like Nordic Rooms, like in red, like on the wall, like right above the spot where we were sleeping. And I was just like, oh, that's weird. Like, I don't remember seeing that last night.

I mean, I would have noticed it. I would have noticed it definitely getting up the next morning when it was light outside. Because it was like, it was in red. It was almost like someone wanted you to think that they had written it in blood or something. Like, a lot of, like, white supremacist groups, like, use Nordic ruins, you know, because it's like, oh, white, Aryan, whatever, you know. It's like some overlap with, like, white supremacist groups. with like white supremacy and occult kind of stuff there with the runes.

But at the time, I mean, I still didn't really think much of it. I was kind of, I think that was like when I started getting, being like something weird might be going on. And like, Jiggy just didn't. He was, he seemed kind of off and he like didn't say anything about it really. So we just like hunker down there. We're in between these two railroad crossings. Like, you can look, we can look to our left, and there's one that's, like, kind of right there, but we're kind of hidden. We've got some bushes to the left of us and, like, this little tree.

I think Grant was the first one to notice it. The same truck keeps driving by, like the same two, like the same truck and the same car. And I was like, really? And then I noticed it, too. it was a white pickup truck and then it was like a white just like sedan that would come after it and it was weird because it was like we would see them cross on the tracks to our left and then later you couldn't see where they were going but later you'd see them like cross the other tracks like back this way so it was like they were just going in a circle like around like right where we

were. I didn't think much of it until the white pickup truck was driving over the tracks again that were closest to us. And there was a guy in the passenger seat and he had the window rolled down and he was smoking a cigarette and I could see the cherry on his cigarette and like him hitting it. And he was looking like straight at us where we were up against the wall. like almost like it was like almost like making eye contact with him and I was like oh they definitely know we're right here at that point that jiggy dude was just like I gotta go okay that brings us to the end of part one of this story I hate to do it but we had to split this one up otherwise it would have been way too long we're gonna be back very soon with the rest of the story in part two thank you so much to Luke and Keegan for sharing this with us. This has been episode 78. The title is The Chicken Wackers Part 1,

and you've been listening to Otherworld. Otherworld is executive produced and hosted by myself Jack Wagner. Our theme song is by Cobra Man. The soundtrack of this episode is by North Americans. This episode was edited and engineered by Theo Schaefer. Our artwork is by Coldestack Studios. Production help by Nikki Kate Delgado and Haley Pearson.

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