The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 216 - Catastrophe Jim

Episode Date: November 3, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine James Scott and what he did during The Great Flood of 1993. SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

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Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is gonna be about. You're really a really stretch in that tail. He's holding the microphone to the dog's tail to show that he is capable of giving others joy. You want to look who to do? I'll do one buck. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gareth. Dave, okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not going to come to tickle you quite good. Okay. You are queen fakie of made-up town. All hell queen shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle. And do what? Pray. Hi, Gary. No. Missing done, my friend. No. No.

Jane, November 20th, 1969. Hot. Hot date. Hot. James Scott was born in Illinois. He grew up in the town of Quincy on the Mississippi River. Quincy had at one time been the second largest city in Illinois. In the 19th century, it was a bustling area that linked riverboats and trains. Sure. You know how important that was. Huge. I mean, so much depended on that. Get off the boat. Get on the train. You remember the song? I've always loved that song. Get off the boat. Get on the train. Yeah. The city got its first skyscraper in 1925. But they're fucking just cocky. Well, now what? How much bigger can we get? Life achieved. Next. Its first

bridge was built across the Mississippi in 1930. When James was born in 1969, the city population was at its peak around 45,000. The dog is just looking deep into my eyes. Yeah. No, the dog. The dog's not kidding around. James had a normal Midwestern life growing up. He got average grades in school and was athletic, playing soccer and football. He was a quote, real sports nut. I see no problems. But things started going south when he was just 13 years old. That's when James began his reputation as a bad seed. He and his brother, Jeff, burned down Webster Elementary High School. Whoa, that's bull. That's not a prank. Look, if you're

going bad, go bad. I mean, that's evil. Go full bore. Very bad. Don't mess around. Very bad. I mean, that's not cute. No, it's not. It's not a thing where the kid runs back and you go, you were at school. You burned down the school. It's not one of those. Well, egg on our face, boys. You've done it again. So a hundred thousand square foot school destroyed. James had dreams of grandeur. The night he burned down the school, he sat in his bed awake for most of the night thinking about what he had done. He knew newspapers would cover the story and maybe even TV stations. He was about to become a celebrity with one

drawback being he couldn't tell anybody that he had burned down the school. Oh, boy. Well, he was caught and so began his life of crime. Now, due to their juvenile status, I don't know what happened to him, but they were caught. Okay. We know that. That was before you charged people as adults, probably. Yep. Yeah, probably. Always a fun little wrinkle. Oh, God, I love putting a 13 year old in the fucking fed pen, man. In the pen, 13 year old. You want to act like a man and burn down a school? Then why don't you get treated like a woman in prison? Wait, what? I made a mistake. I was 13. Not in America. Pack a man. So, he

said other, oh, well, his love of fire wasn't done. When he was 17, he burned down a garage. Okay. He was into watching things burn. Sure. He liked watching it spark, kick off and then just start burning away. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but he, you know, he liked it. He enjoyed it. Though he didn't understand why, quote, I never got anything I asked for when I was a kid, but mom and dad was always trying to be there. Good. Good. Doesn't sound like they were too well. No, because was. Yeah. Still, his dad blamed himself for James Troubles. James set other fires and then he was caught. James ended up getting a five year sentence

for burning down the garage and the other fires that he had been caught setting off. But when he got out, he returned to his life of crime and became super into petty burglary. Okay. Although he did hold down a pretty great job as a janitor at the Burger King. Okay. So, he's kind of like a good will hunting, but without the math and replaced that with theft. I'd also like to point out that there fire and arson. There was a time when Burger Kings had janitors. That's a fun time. They don't anymore. They just make everybody clean it. It works there, but they actually had a guy that they clearly had a guy that they employed as

janitor. Not anymore, right? Yeah. When you're done with the fries, can you clean the bathroom? It's a lot of that. Clean the messes from the animals. There's no way they actually don't do the animals there. I'm calling the people. Oh, after work, James enjoyed, after work, James enjoyed drinking at the local dive bar or at his half brother's house. He would drink a case of beer every night. Can I just say that this, it sounds all right. It's not a bad life. Terrible. He's made his choices. He hasn't hurt anyone. I mean, he's starting to steal. He enjoys beer nights a little heavy. He enjoys, he enjoys being near burgers. Yeah. He

enjoys a beer, a lot of it. A case. Simple pleasure. Like fire. This is like his dating problem. He's a basic man. Yeah. I enjoy lighting fires, hanging out at Burger King's and drinking a case of beer a night. He was also, I'm a Scorpio. I like, I like long walks near the fire. Long walks near the fire going in the fire, lighting fires. I like to get burgers from the Burger King and take it over to the fire. I like beer. Did I mention that? I'm running out of room. He was also said to be the quiet. He was quiet. He wasn't like a crazy loud guy. He was like the quiet guy. They always say you gotta watch out for those ones. He married

a woman named Susan. Okay. Let's just hit pause. Sure. How low is her self-esteem? Well, does she know the deal? She's got to. Everyone in the town knows the deal. Yeah, case of beer a night is like. She's not like he's hiding the case of beer a night. Problematic. Yeah. And he works at, he's a janitor of Burger King. So yeah. He's not the greatest catch. No, low. You know, low. Although she worked at a truck stop. Still. They'd like to go dancing at the local roadhouse and would then head down to the river to talk. Right? So a little couple's time. Sure. Before River Dance, there was River Talk. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. But wherever he

went, James would hear laughing and people pointing and saying, there's the guy who burned down the elementary school. So he can't get away from this town. Right? Sorry. That's his rep. Sorry. But does he have a leg to stand on when it comes to complaining about? I don't know if he's complaining, but it's not like he has a weird leg. He's trying to start over. Like he's like, man, oh man, get over it. Yes, I burned down a school in a garage. Good Lord. Enough of the glaring already. I'm a person too. Like you've never burned down a school. Good Lord. Then came 1993. They were high soil moisture levels throughout the Mississippi River Valley

that year because of a big snowpack from the winter. Don't gotta worry about that no more. Then came the rains. They started in April. 48 inches fell in Central Iowa. That was 15 inches over normal. How is this gonna? By the time June came along, the soil was soaked and any rain was just running off. Then came an unusual weather pattern that would soak the northern Mississippi River Valley even more. A high pressure ridge moved in from the Atlantic and parked itself in front of the stream of clouds. Now the rain clouds were just stopped, held up by what seemed like an invisible air dam. Some places got over 30 inches of rain,

which is 200% more than normal. It usually rains for eight days in that area, but that July it rained for 20 or more days. The weather systems just sat there. The Missouri River crested at a record 48.9 feet at Kansas City on July 27th. The water, that water then poured into the Mississippi River, which crested at 49 feet in St. Louis on August 1st. This was a flood event on a scale that had never before been seen. Now there's a flood control system for the upper Mississippi, which is made up of reservoirs, urban levees, and agricultural levees, and the levees began to fail. Upriver from Quincy, hundreds failed.

Near Quincy, 10 failed. It seemed pretty clear to the media that there was no stopping what was happening. The New York Times wrote, quote, there is nothing anyone can do. People sandbagged like crazy and still lost. Flooding was so bad that people didn't have drinking water and Anheuser-Busch distributed water in six packs with their logo on it. Wait, they... Instead of filling up beer cans, they filled it up with water and they gave those out. But the label said Anheuser-Busch? Yeah, water, I guess. I guess it said water, or it just said Anheuser-Busch. Almost beer. Yeah, okay. People are buying it. What the fuck? Could you imagine the

time that James had with that? Oh man, okay, I could just do these things. I don't feel nothing. And this was the world James Scott was living in. For the person, you know, when people used to get, like, people used to play that joke on people where they give them the sharps test, where you'd give them a non-alcoholic beer and see if they... Oh yeah, yeah. Those people, too. Yeah. Man, I'd say it's nice to have a couple cocktails with friends. It's watered. Oh man, I'm a loser. Yeah, that's why we're here. Oh god. Hey, loser. That's such a pussy. Yep. There was something called near beer when I was a kid. Near beer? Do you understand that? It's near to beer, but

it's not beer. That was not alcoholic. Yeah. Or it was just like... It was near beer. Like molasses with alcohol? I can't imagine how bad it tasted. So this is where James Scott is there in mid-July 1993. The earthen levy was not in great shape in Quincy. The townspeople had sandbagged the West Quincy levy, which was made to hold back 30 feet of water. The earth levy was covered in plastic sheets to stop erosion. Sandbags were put on top of the sheets to keep them in place. Plastic was also used to form shoots on the back of the levy to siphon off the rainwater instead of having it soak in. But now the water looked like it would be

higher than 30 feet. So bulldozers were used to build the levy up. This was a great sign that the Army Corps of Engineers had miscalculated the situation. At this point, they should not have been using bulldozers on the levy. Right? So that's something they should have already had it at the height it should be, not when the water starts coming. Right. You're saying, yeah, they underestimated this problem. Yeah. It had been raised earlier in the summer by topping with 15 feet of dredged sand. So moving earth around on a levy at this point, you're making the levy skinnier and higher. Which is worse or a not

betterer. That's, yeah, that's, I mean, it's higher, but it's less. Yeah, not good. Federer's not better. No. They teach you that in engineering school. Well, look, we have one or two. I mean, we don't have a lot of good options here. So let's skinny it up. Class. This is day one of engineering. This lecture is called Thinnerer is not better better. I already have a question. Okay. Okay. Huh? We're gonna move on. Damn. The move according to the ACE supposedly made it strong enough for 32 feet of water and the water level was at 31.9 feet. Well, it's not a lot of this time. Yeah, there's not a lot of leeway is fine. The residents kept

an eye on the levy watching for it. I'll bet they did watching for it. This is really important to me. Watching for issues using sandbags to help shore up unsafe looking areas. James mother's friend, Janet Maglio Shetty Italian, I think double Italian, okay, told James to go out and help. And that's what he did. James went and started sandbagging the levy on July 12th. He worked on it with many other volunteers for four days. He saw this as a way to fix his tarnished reputation in the town. He thought people would see him and think quote, Jimmy's not that bad. Jimmy's a good kid. Jimmy can do good. So he's

trying to he's trying to fix his reputation, but also trying to fix it. Let's be honest. He's also just doesn't have a condition to make fires right now. So he's got idle hands. He's trying to fix it. He's trying to fix his back because he's like bored because he can't light fires because he if anyone wants the water to not come down near him, it's him. Yeah, that's true. I mean, he want this is a fire based man, but I don't think he hasn't lived a fire since he's been out of prison. Well, it's been raining most of the time. Oh, no, he's been at prison for a while. Listen, he totally deflight a fire at his wedding. Wait,

what? No, I don't know. Has anyone seen my dad? And now the groom will set the bride on fire. This is the best part. One day, James and his wife Susie went down to the levy to stand back together, but it was too late and the volunteers had shut down for the night. So the couple went to a Villa Catherine Castle on Front Street. It just sounds like they don't seem like it sounds like it sounds like Catherine Castle wanted to open up a place. So she called the Villa Catherine Castle. Okay, as long as it's not an actual castle, because they should not be in a real cast. No, this is not a castle. This is a dive bar. Okay, good. That was

where they like to do their drinking. So after they rode around and then went, they went to his half brother Dan's house and there James said, quote, I partied like a rock star. We were drinkers. There were a lot of parties around that time, a lot of drinking. So he's turned it loose. Yeah, but see also if there's a quote of him being on record talking specifically about this, that tells me that our levy's about to break. You don't know that. Our levy's too high and thin. The next day, James and Susie woke up early. Susie went to her job at 18 Wheeler, a truck stop in nearby Missouri. James decided to go out sandbagging. He worked through the

morning with volunteers showing up the levy. It was really hot and muggy. The Army Corps of Engineers were there and they told the volunteers what to look for and how to fix it. They were told to look for boils and other problem spots. Like I think it's like a, like a... I found a cancerous mole, sir! Cut her out! Get her biopsied! Even though levies were giving, giving in up and down the river from Quincy, the people in the town thought theirs was going to hold. For no reason really. They just believed their levy would hold. You know, I went, I went back because I, I couldn't understand why everyone thought their levy was gonna hold based on all

the other levies failing. And then I found a new, a local news guy, a new, like TV station. He had his own TV station, K something. Good, good already. And he's walking around and he's interviewing people. And then I realized, oh, this guy's a minister and he's like covering the town as like a news guy, but it's all like, and Jesus will provide, and he like... Okay, wait, sorry. Jesus will provide, will be okay. And then he, at one point he went up to a group of guys and he talked to him and then he was like, all right, God bless! And they were like, God bless! They all like yelled it back and I was like, okay, so this is a religious town. Good news! This is a

town who believes that maybe God is going to provide for them and save them from the levy, unlike the other towns who are full of heathens and monsters. He's gonna put a big hand there and be like, oh! What I'm talking about. James and some others were given the job of waiting along the northern levy to duct tape holes in the plastic tarp. Well! They know... What?

Look, they say it can, it's a very versatile product. However, I think we all know that it's not the best thing to be doing in any situation. It is, stop so many floods. Unless you're trying to tape a box really shut. Duct tape is not the main, the main thing is used for stopping floods. I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. Well, prove me wrong. James was with, I'm talking. Oh, oh, sir! You said, wow! James was another guy who he thinks was named Rudy.

Or Bob. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What? Sorry, you're right. You are talking. Well, James was walking with another guy on the levy who he thinks was named Rudy. Or Bob. Okay. So it was Rudy or Bob.

Okay. Not even close. It's so weird. Not even remotely similar. Yeah. Just completely different names. It's either Rudy or Jebediah. Hard to tell them to. I always get those two mixed up. Jebediah and Max.

Yeah. So they were walking along looking at the levy and they came upon a National Guard member named Duke Kelly. James told Kelly that he had seen water coming from under the plastic tarp. And Kelly said if it was a big problem, he'd contact someone to deal with it. Then he walked off to look at the problem area. That evening, James was wrapping it up for the night and got into his car when two men told them the levy had broke.

And it was a hell of a break. Water came fast and furious. The video was great. Like it's just like a, it's like a white water fucking situation. Like it's just pouring in. It was, it's moving fast within seconds, a barge parked up river came through the breach and into the town. That's how fast it's moving.

It has sucked a barge in and then it sucks in a second barge behind it. One of them crashed into a gas station and four gas tanks exploded. So now it's a giant fiery disaster river situation. They need me fire. 14,000 farm makers would be ruined and hundreds of people's homes. James walked on the levy talking to people about what he'd seen and heard. Of course that's what you do in that situation, right? You fucking walk around and you go, Jesus Christ, can you believe this?

You know what I saw. And then he was talking to a state employee when a newscaster named Michelle McCormick asked him or Stephanie Andrews or Stephanie Bob asked me to comment on the levy. And tell her audience what he knew and what he had done to help with the levy. He was nervous, but he managed to brag about what he had done and said he had seen spots that were a problem. James then went to help the Coast Guard load boats into the water. And as he walked down from the levy, the reporter grabbed him again and asked him if he would

do a live interview on the 10 PM news. Sure he said. So he was good. Sure he said. There was something about him. Yeah. So Sergeant Neil Baker was watching the news when up popped good old James Scott. Baker just returned from FBI training in Quantico that day.

So he's probably on high alert. Oh no. Sniffers up. No. His local town cop sniffers up. It's like a Coen Brothers scene. Sergeant Baker had been working in Quincy for many years and knew James pretty well for all the wrong reasons.

Baker was the cop who had arrested James for arson. He had also been a cop when James and his brother burned down the elementary school. So what a cop like that seems to have known bad guy on TV pays attention, right? Quote. When I see Jim Scott standing on a levy with it as hot as it was professing out his love for mankind to have worked on a levy, it just went against everything I knew about him. And the sergeant was immediately suspicious of James' stories. James couldn't name anyone else there.

He didn't know what happened at the time and he couldn't describe just simple things he had done. Also James looked way too clean for a guy who said he was working on the levy that day and he wasn't wearing a life jacket. And Baker, Baker knew James. His answer seemed squirrely like he was lying. Sergeant Baker said, quote, my antenna were raised as I listened to him. He can't answer these simple questions and if you watch it, he's looking around there

at first and the things he had to say and the way he said them and the fact that he's over there to begin with, you know, you scratch your head. So this is James Scott starting off that interview because there's only a tiny bit of what he did. Okay, so that doesn't sound like a guy who sounds squirrely at all, does it? That sounds like a guy who is being very explanatory about what he has seen. I also love when like, when rednecky people try to sound super competent, I was walking around earlier this evening, come on, say what you want to say, well I was kicking shit

earlier tonight. So that doesn't really jive up with the cop's description of him because the cop's description of him, he doesn't know what he was doing, he couldn't answer any questions right at the bat. So the terms he's using are like, they certainly make it seem like he knows a little bit. I'm still trying to figure out his side work. I wish I could have found more of that interview, but it cut off then. That was from another piece about what happened, so immediately someone started doing a voiceover

at that part, but I couldn't find the full interview, but it would be great to find. Here, Sergeant Baker also noticed that, you know, he's not dirty. He doesn't have the life's vest on, and he didn't have a partner working with him, which is also a weird thing because he's doing an interview, there shouldn't, it's not like there would be a partner with him, but Sergeant Baker's making a lot of conclusions based on it. So he wants guilt. Deputy Sheriff John McCoy turned on the news because what he heard over this radio sounded

like something was wrong, and there was James Scott being interviewed, and James was someone he knew well. Not a good person, according to Sheriff McCoy. McCoy immediately thought, James quote, went and sabotaged the levy. I mean, from what he was saying, who he was, and what his past track record is, my suspicions were that he broke it. What? Oh, do you have any questions at this point?

Does it seem like maybe there was a jump? Does it feel like we went from one to 30? I think it's literally no other evidence other than just deciding that since he's there in the levies down and he's being interviewed that he destroyed the levy. That is correct. Well, that's justice for you. Yeah. Okay.

That's exactly right. Okay. So, so two people individually have already decided. Two police officers have independently have decided that just by seeing him on the news and probably I would imagine just getting angry, seeing this guy that they'd have to deal with as a criminal for so long up there, right, being angry at that, I would imagine. So now the focus is on though, making sure people are safe, waiting for the floodwaters to receive and get people in the town back in the place, et cetera.

And they did. But James said the suspicion began right away in the town. What was that troublemaker James Scott doing on the levy, everyone was wondering. Soon the police got to work. James said he was interviewed many times about the levy. Sorry. What's up with the levy? Last I heard barges were hitting gas stations.

Oh, it's gone. There's just a giant, a giant. And it's, and this is how they're putting the pieces back together by pinning it on him. Blame, blame fucking Jimmy Jam. That's right. Okay. That'll do.

That's your duct tape. Soon the police got to work. They said he was interviewed many times about the levy, but Sergeant Baker said James was making himself scarce. Actually, Sergeant McCoy said that. Did he not like cops for some reason? I don't know. I don't know why when they're, when they're looking for him, he's avoiding them.

He would. I'll assume, I'll, we'll assume both this happening. We'll assume that he is making himself scarce and they're interviewing him many times. They're probably going on. Sergeant Baker talked to people in James neighborhood. He said, well, he, he reported that they said, the people's neighborhood said, James had said things like, quote, I'm going to break the levy now and, and, I mean, I mean, I'm going to go get some pancakes.

And wouldn't it be cool to be there when the levy broke? So now there's walking cartoon, there's, well, there's something that comes up. If you, if you look at a lot of cases and stuff, and that's when cops lie, a lot of times they do it horribly. Like these aren't cops that probably are used to lying. Cause these, these, these are atrocious statements to think that any, no matter how dumb he, he's not gonna say, I'm going to break the levy now. Oh, you know what's weird about James?

He's horribly autistic. Like it's just completely insane. Well, I think I should tear the levy apart. I don't know, he didn't say anything weird, well, other than the time he said he should try to run through the levy and break it so he could be there. And then it would be swim time. I want to be on the news by breaking the levy. And just, just like, if someone's like duct-taping a hole, do you hear that kid just said, I

think I just said, what's the break the levy so he could be on the news? That's right. You heard me correct. This levy going down will be great for me to get on the news. What the hell are you worried about? We're, we're coming on the levy here. A little weird or what? Baker said in the investigation, everything kept coming back to James.

And I would imagine because that's all they were asking about. Right, because it's an investigation into James. Yeah. That is weird. Your questions will lead you to that. I don't know. We asked him about this guy about James for 20 minutes and he just kept talking about James.

Yeah. I'll be honest, he answered the questions about James. That name keeps coming up. On October 1st, months later, Sergeant Baker, so they started a hole, like they got the state involved. Like it's a whole, there's like a task force now. Sure. Created.

Good. October 1st, months later, Sergeant Baker found James eating at Burger King after getting off work. Well. Of course he's eating there. I mean. Yeah. Walk to a camp safe.

He was arrested for a burglary in Quincy and taken to the police. A burglary? A burglary. He's a hamburger. Burger King. We're calling it a burglary. He was taken to the police station questioning. They did this even though they had already determined James was working the night of the

burglary. So they know he's innocent of this burglary, but they're bringing him in to question him on a burglary that they know he's innocent of. They're just trying to get him in to talk to him about the levy. Right. Cool. So it wasn't like a harsh interrogation. It was very conversational.

They even took a couple of smoke breaks together, like casual playing the nice cop thing. Quote, there were several things Mr. Scott was suspected of, and we talked about all of them, Sergeant Baker said. James knew he was being questioned about the levy break. James had a different memory. He says he was denied. He denied all the crimes that he was being, because they were accusing him like Florida from burglaries and different things.

He said he denied. So any time that he looks like out of one, they're like, all right. I'm sure you're going to match up with one of these eventually. I got one right here too. Oh, yeah, exactly. Someone stole the lady's computer, her home computer. Now you? You know about that?

Now you? You take it? Come on. My daughter's jacket's missing. All right, easy, Kyle. Easy, easy. You son of a bitch, you fucking, you kid jacket. You kid jacket.

Take her. Let me get him. You got to let Kyle be. Okay. You see, Kyle's a little hot right now. James. That's because my kid's jacket's gone. I want answers.

You look me in the eyes and you tell me you didn't take her jacket. Kyle, maybe take her five. I'm taking five. He better not be here when I get back. He better not be here when I get back. He better not, or shouldn't he? I'm not going to let him go. Go take a smoke.

All right, I'll be outside. That's a fucking jacket. Shut the door. So James says he was denied, he denied all the crimes, and then he'd been trying to put his life back together since he got out of prison and had not committed any crimes. They talked about the levy last, that they both agree on. That was a column button. Such a beggar says James admitted to two of the crimes they discussed but denied to others.

Obviously, James completely disagrees with that. Just as James then admitted he sabotaged the levy, that James told him he took the sandbanks off a depressed area of the levy. Three times. I don't think I'm good enough. Three times. You know what? You know what, Sarge, now that you asked me about it months later, you're right, I did

pick up sandbags and put them somewhere else. I'm doing my impression of the depressed levy. Oh. I don't think I can hold it anymore. It's okay. No. Not worth it. You know what?

Just let your feelings out. Talk about it. No. It's not worth it. It does never change anything. I'm letting all the water go. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No. No. No. That actually holds up. James then told Baker he didn't mean to make it worse. If that's what happened, he was just trying to help. Ah-ha. Quote, my town's in trouble.

The folks in Quincy and in West Quincy were about to lose everything. That's why I went down to that levy. I had no plans to hurt anything. They needed help so I helped. His statement that he moved sandbags was taken as a confession by Sergeant Baker. That must have been a really fun miscommunication. Aha! No, no.

I moved the sandbags because there was another part that was really bad, so I was trying to fix that. You're admitting it. I don't change. I'm proud of you. No, no. I'm admitting that I tried to help. Help with the levy.

I'm admitting it. Right now, I'm saying that I moved the sandbags to a- All right. You heard it here first, folks. No, no. Part that was worse. I was trying to- there was a- there was water. Did you move the sandbags?

Yeah, because- Yeah! Yeah! James- Yeah! James Scott was charged with- you ready? Oh, my God. Causing a catastrophe.

Wow, that is- Yep. That's- That's a serious- If you get on a jury and you hear that, you're like, okay. Now, let's just step back. Causing a catastrophe. And think that if you, when you were a kid, burned down the school, the effect of that

is that they either had to have school in weird places, or kids had to be bussed farther away to go to another school until the school was rebuilt, probably affected a lot of people's lives. Sure. Oh, boy. He was the first person in Missouri charged with the crime, causing a catastrophe. And the last? It-

I think, believe so. I haven't heard it since. There's a woman in Utah who was charged with it, but I haven't looked up why yet. It had only been on the books for 20 years. Now people in Quincy had found a reason, the levee, which they were so sure would hold, did not hold. Of course, it was James Scott. Yep.

Town bad boy. He had burned down the elementary school. The story they heard wasn't that he found a trouble spot and tried to fix it with sandbags that were there, but that he had removed the sandbags. If we don't put him in jail, wind will be next. But prosecutors had a tough case on their hands. All the evidence they had was the interrogation and the TV interview. Why?

It's not a lot of evidence. Oh, it's actually no evidence. What did they have in the interrogation? It was recorded? Or it was- I don't know. There's no indication. So it's just going to be cops-

Yeah, yeah. Word versus- I didn't see any indication that it was recorded. It's- Is that not abnormal? It's a little weird. Yeah. Then another shifty character came forward with an amazing story.

We call shifty character. Joe Fox, who was a young kid, often in trouble, currently under house arrest, suddenly he has a story. He said that James had told him he was going to break the levee, so Susie would be stuck in Missouri, which would allow James to keep partying in Illinois and screw other women. He also said James was excited that the levee breaking would lead to some great fishing. James said that conversation absolutely did not happen. But we all wish that it did.

Here's what he told me. He told me he's going to break the levee, so you get a bunch of pussy. I mean, it's, what is it, but I mean, you know, look, it's hard to justify it, but- It's not justified. If that was his angle, I'm listening a little further. I'm leaning James. All right, James. Let him finish.

Let him finish. Now this, of course, made it a very enticing story to the media. The 1993 flood was already huge news all over the country, and now it seemed there was a crazy asshole who had made it worse. The AP put up a story on the newswire, then the New York Times wrote up an article about James. CBS and ABC Evening News led off. Their Evening News was stories about James Scott, the levee breaker, so I can party and

make ladies get fucked, guy. CNN and Court TV Center reporters- I don't know what's going to be wetter. The land or my bedroom from all the pee. What? The pussy, that's true for pussy. Because it seemed like, yeah, because you drink a case of beer at night. Is that why?

Why? You pee in your bed? Yeah, yeah, okay. That's why I broke the levee. I get it. I want to get my bed cleaned. That's not how to do it. That is not how to do it.

Well, now I know, now I know. James Attorneys asked for a change of venue. None of the, none of the reporters covering it told their audience James's side of the story. The truth was, James had gone to get his wife the next morning, but the bridge in Quincy was closed because of the flood, so he had to drive a five hour detour each way to pick up his wife in Missouri. So instead of breaking the levee and then fucking all over town, what he really did

was drive 10 hours to pick up his wife, who he apparently wanted to cheat on according to the cops. Right, yeah. He just wanted to keep the party going. That's, that's a, that's a hard, that's a hard one to, you think you'd take advantage of it. James said a flak story was completely fabricated quote, my car was in the shop getting a new starter and as soon as it was ready on July 17th, I went and picked Susie up.

I brought her home less than 24 hours after the levee failed. She was home with me in Illinois. But the people in the town wanted bad things to happen to James because they were convinced he had done it. Maybe that was because of the West Quincy levee district commissioner, Donald the Balman had gone on TV three days before the levee broke to guarantee that it wouldn't break. Interesting. Local insurance agent Jack Freeberg said quote, if you ask me, they should have the trial

here locally. Know what we would do? We'd hung, we'd have hung them from the Bayview Bridge and let the birds get at them. The birds should get a crack at Jimmy Scott. Well, I think that's a case for not holding it there. I rest my case, your honor. That's why we should have her here. The defense, it's your turn.

We just love what he did, your honor. That's what we think. May I speak of your honor? I would like to cut him in half. So we should have it here. Thank you. I rest. My name's Jimmy Earl.

You've already rested. Local farmer Bob Huffmeister said James was a sick man who could do no right. He believed James was too dangerous to be in society. When he was asked how he knew James was guilty of the crime, he said just knowing James Scott over the years was enough knowledge. That's good enough. Don't know why we can't hold the trial here. We knew he was the man.

He's guilty of being a prick. We knew he's the man. It was only a matter of proving it. He's a man to society and too dangerous to be free. I mean, that literally just goes against your rights. Yeah. I mean, that's the exact opposite. They would like to lynch him.

We know that he's guilty. Now we just got to prove it. Bob also had a suggestion for how to deal with James. We hang him from a tree and go, everybody go home for lunch. My idea was actually that we hang him from the Bayview Bridge and let the birds peck him to death. Okay. But what about the food part?

Oh, good point. That is a good point. So dinner? Yeah. I think that works. I rest again. I can make meatballs. Oh, good.

Marge will make meatballs. I rest. I rest. They had a trial a few months later due to all the publicity. The trial was moved to Kirksville, 68 miles west of West Quincy. Prosecutors put up a flax on the witness stand with his sex and fishing story. And it's weird that it's always weird that a guy who already has like a criminal situation happening then takes the witness stand.

But there you go. You mean, and then is like, suddenly now is like credible. Yeah. When he says what they want. Yeah. Yeah. But when your cover is that good, share it. That's right.

Oh, his idea was to just fucking fish. Oh, that was the whole angle, guys. He said he came up to me and he said, I want to get pussy and I want to fish with my hands. Yeah, that was it. He said he wanted to live like a bear with a boner. Just eating raw fish and what are you up to later? There's a river monster. That's right.

There is a river monster. It's in my pants. And they made the case that James cut the plastic sheets covering the levee and then this is their case. James cut the plastic sheets covered the levee and then burrowed through the sand until the water rushed in. So he turned himself into a human worm. So he's mole, man?

Yeah. So his plan is to cut the sheets and then just burrow in there like a mole. And then swim through earth. That'll be fine. Oh, God. Now this is a place where the water. Human torpedo, man. The water, remember, is so forceful that it carried a barge through within seconds.

So if he did that, he'd be dead. Never mind that, right? Standing under a tidal wave. Yeah. It's always been a dream. Anyway, and also remember James Baker, Sergeant Baker, I mean? He said his clothes were clean, remember? You're burrowing like a worm?

And also like if you were, like you're saying, like if you were to, if you were to, if that were to hit you. Yeah. It'd be filthy. Fucking a mess. Yeah. A clean man who burrowed into the dirt, levee, like a worm. Yep.

Prosecutors had claimed before the trial that James was making up National Guardsman Duke Kelly and the other guy who, he said, was named Rudy or Bob. Well, that. He only pegged out who it is. Then Duke Kelly was located, but not Bob Rudy. The defense call witnesses, one was Dr. Charles Morris, a civil engineer with the University of Missouri. Dr. Morris testified that the West Quincy levee would have broken without being sabotaged.

Dr. Morris said there was water coming through the levee days before it failed, a sign it was failing. Yeah. Quote, the reason I testified is I thought the jury should know that no one had anything to do with the, to cause the levee to fail. I don't know if Mr. Scott did anything or not. They also called Duke Kelly, the National Guardsman. He testified that a man had told him about a soggy spot in the levee and that man was

with the Bob Rudy character. But he's corroborating. He's corroborating that Bob Rudy was there and exists and that he was also told by, but Duke Kelly could not ID James. He didn't remember the guy who said it to him, but he couldn't specifically say that was the guy. The Guardsman also said he started to go to the soft spot, but then turned around before inspecting it.

Wait, who did? The guard. So James goes up and tells the National Guardsman, Hey, there's a soft spot over there. You should check it out. And he goes, Yeah, I'm going to do that. And then he didn't. Right. Okay.

That broke. Right. Interesting angle on the plan. Very confident. And then I turned into Mole Man. James did not testify in his defense because he had burned down a school, a garage and other stuff. The other big defense witness was Dr. David Hammer, who was a professor and soil.

Yeah. Bring in the hammer. Dr. Hammer, PhD in soil. He was a professor. He was a soil scientist at the University of Missouri's civil environment engineering department. Hammer's testimony was simple. Quote, it wasn't a matter of if that levy would fail, but when.

So that's an expert guy. Expert guy saying. It really is shot. Yeah. Like, of course it's going to fail. Yeah. They were all failing up and down the river. It was failing.

It was in the process of failing. After the flood, it ended. Hammer had participated in a study of 1,083 levies that broke in the 1993 flood. They came up with six factors that would lead to levy failure. The West Quincy levy had all six factors. So it had everyone. It was going to fail. Right.

The levy was actually so expected to fail that three news airplanes were flying above the town at the time with cameras rolling ready for it to go helpful. The river had been above flood stage at Quincy since April, four feet above the original earth levy, but below the new sand edition. When Dr. Hammer showed six colleagues a map of Quincy, two of them guessed exactly where the break had occurred. The other four were within 50 yards. Okay.

This is the place the townspeople were convinced was the strongest part of the levy until James came. The same part, the A.C.E. had bulldozed in July oddly and made it thinner. Hammer said Mississippi River levies were built to handle a quick rise and fall, but in 1993, this was like an end with months long flood, not how they were built. They basically, by bulldozing it, were making it taller and thinner, or as Dr. Hammer called it, quote, absolutely insane. Just from a scientific point of view, this is fucking batshit crazy.

A total disaster. That was my favorite quote of the whole fucking thing. That's great. Keeping it real. A 100 foot wide breach opened up in seconds after the levy was over top. That's why the barge went through, because it was a fucking giant, like 100 feet is crazy. So Dr. Hammer also said if James had breached the levy like a worm, as prosecutors claimed, he would have drowned.

Hammer was very critical of the Army Corps of Engineers and of the prosecutors after the trial. Hammer believed James was innocent due to science, and the prosecutor spent all his time trying to make the science confusing. How weird. Science can be so annoyingly. How so very weird. Yeah.

Quote, one of the things the prosecutor said that was absolutely dumbfounding, his opening statement was, we were fighting the river, and we were winning. Bullshit. There had been something like 11 or 12 levy failures, almost one a day up river. So Hammer's not having it. What kind of fuck cut is this guy? No, after the trial. And Hammer believes the local government and the Army Corps of Engineers set themselves

up. The West Quincy Levy District Commissioner, who had guaranteed the levy wouldn't break, was also a prosecution witness, so a man who only had his entire reputation to gain by lying and finding a scapegoat. So what did he say? I did it. Well, I have to be honest, my guarantee was off. A bit.

Just a tad. A tad. And then it was up in bed. Oh, thank God. Oh, Jesus. Thank God it hit him. The chairman of the West Quincy Levy Drainage District also testified, saying the levy was a rock solid.

The one they had to bulldoze. To make it. That one was rock solid. Rock solid. He explained that he had patrolled the levy and that the bulldozed area held the high water when the river was at 31.97 feet. When the water came through, the level was at 31.67 feet, four inches lower. So hey, if it goes down, it's only 30 feet of water, why would it make a thing?

Don't even. Don't even apply science to this. So now, so no way in earth and dam that had been thinned and soaking for months could break. The chairman said there was a 5% chance the levy would break before James Scott came along. That's 5%. Okay. Well, we felt there's a chance. The 5%.

Yeah. Well, we felt that we could have held it out without James being there. It's sort of like a basketball game. It's very much like a basket. You're behind by one point and you're going up for the easy layup and the ref stops the game with about 10 seconds left. You can't prove you're going to win, but we felt we could have the jury nods like morons. It is like a basketball game.

I agree. What God damn it, that happened to me once. I was going to make a layup and then the ref blew. Get off me. The Army Corps of Engineers also stated, also started, sorry, the Army Corps of Engineers also started an internal investigation to find out why so many levies failed. Just two months after the flood, yeah, it turns out it's all James up and down the river, up and down the river, worming, worming, worming through all of them.

Just two months after the flood, the ACE concluded the levies failed due to piping. That's when water seepage bores holes that cause caverns that allow the river to go over the levy at its weakest point. The water's making holes in the levy and then it's causing the levy to go down because it's making holes. The levy's getting smaller and then it goes over. Which just seems like, yeah, basically what you would expect. That seems basically like what would be the totally rational reason.

That's correct. Or a guy, or a worm man. Or a magic worm boy sent from the skies. Now the piping was made much worse by the bull dosing, so they were idiots. Idiots who did not make their internal report available to James Scott's defense team. So the jurist did not know about a piece of evidence that could undermine one of the prosecutor's main witnesses. Bob Rudy was never found.

But there was a picture of James walking with him on the levy. But prosecutors just turned that into him proof that he was on the levy. And people didn't care that Bob Rudy was there. James was convicted. Judge Robert Clayton was harsh, quote, I think you have a problem with unbridled aggressive behavior. I'm not sure where that anger comes from, but I cannot and will not run the risk that you may or may not be able to curtail your aggressive impulse and anger.

You are a threat to society. You are in touch with reality, but you are out of touch with empathy. So maybe the water will put the fire in you out. And then he, and then he, and then he fucking dropped his gavel and fucking walked off. Is there any ironic twist to the idea of being like you have no empathy? Now have a really extended jail sentence. You got no empathy and I'm putting you away for what seems like in your window. He was given a sentence of life in prison.

Oh shit. He's up for parole in 2023. Now, due to a technicality, James got another trial in 1998. Most of the same people testified, except once again, the Army Corps of Engineers internal report was not given to the defense. So the thing that the most important piece of evidence, this time the state's expert on levies who used to work for the Army Corps of Engineers said if the levy had failed due to natural causes, a larger part would have failed.

He said sabotage was the only way this could have happened. Well, there you go. Yeah. Can't argue with that. Quote, our products are solid. We like to build them with quality and our performance ever since we've been in this kind of construction has been outstanding. So we know how they're supposed to perform.

There's nothing unusual here. A thousand levies broke. Yeah, but come on. Take those out of the equation. Besides those. Take those out. We know what we're doing. Take those out.

We're perfect. Those are all interesting stories too. Under cross examination, he admitted he could not rule out that natural processes could have caused the break. Joe Flaks, who said James had told them he wanted to break the dam so he could fuck ladies and party till dawn did not testify in 1998. As a matter of fact, the prosecutor did not even bring up motive. James was found guilty again.

Wow. The same, the same scientist testified again that the levy would have totally broke. He was convicted on less evidence. They, yeah. Right. They literally, they literally just told the science to fuck off. Right. Well, that's a good thing we don't do that anymore.

Later an A.C.E. employee came forward to a member of the press. He wanted to remain anonymous to keep his job. He called the trial a witch hunt and said people at the Army Corps of Engineer Office were openly talking about pinning the whole thing on James Scott, quote, I think they found their witch. Mr. Scott is a local. Mr. Scott has had problems his whole life. He is not an upstanding citizen, as most people like to view it.

And Mr. Scott was there. Is Mr. Scott capable of doing that sort of thing? Very definitely. He has created these little disasters before. Yes. He has. Is he a nice person? Definitely not.

My personal problem with the whole thing is that our system is supposed to presume innocence until guilt is proven. In my opinion, that was never done. And yet this guy still believes society is better off with James Scott in jail, but just not in this way. An actual crime would be better. Right. Yeah.

Right. And more fair. Well, suffice it to say, within the first 15 minutes that his broadcast aired, he was considered guilty. They knew it and there was no way they were going to walk away without it. They wanted somebody's head. Documents from the Army Corps of Engineers reveal that six levees upriver from West Quincy were overtopped in the week before the Quincy failure.

Then the Corps classified the Fabius River Drainage District, aka West Quincy, as having been overtopped and not sabotaged as of August 1993, two months before James Scott was arrested. The A.C.E. reports specifically called out the exact area of the levee that broke as being a problem on July 1st. Well, did he have access to that information? The human worm knew where it was most vulnerable? I'm going to the Army Corps of Engineers to break it, to find out where the worm.

Time to put on the worm, goggles. James and his wife divorced while he was in prison. James is a human worm man. Guilty! James and his wife divorced while he was in prison. He saves what money he makes and the so-called legal expert convict tries to help him. He has found God. When a reporter tracked down Joe Flax in 2000 to get his story, Joe Flax refused to comment

unless the reporter paid him. So he worked out. Joe Flax has worked out. Maybe we should just go right into another doubt about Joe Flax. How many he's got in his story? God! Fucking small town. So he's still in jail?

Small town justice. They were just all mad. And he's still in jail? Still in jail. He's not eligible for parole until 2023. Good Lord. Oh, he did. But that really, that is totally one of the many downsides to the way that our legal system

works is that, you know, if you are, like, once, you know, in order to get a new trial, you need to have a lot of new evidence. And even when you have that, they make it so problematic. And there's so many hoops to jump through in order to actually even get that heard. And then again, it's almost like, you know, when they review plays in sports, like, the call's already been made. There needs to be something astounding now to change people's perception of it. Totally.

Totally. I guess the moral of the story is, don't try to get on the news, dummy. That is the moral of the story. Don't try to get on the news. That's it. Don't be that guy. At most, be the guy in the background just distracting. Or like, run around like an idiot in the background, and then they'll be like, there's Jim Scott

doing his thing, moron. Yeah, that's what I mean. But don't talk like an expert, because the people get mad. No, no, don't go out there and seem nice. The whole fucking town was like, how dare that son of a bitch. There's no way our Levy could have broken the way in hell we made that Levy with God. He's in jail in that city. And he's in jail somewhere in, in, um, near where this all took place.

Yeah, but isn't that crazy though, that it doesn't, at some, at some point people will be like, should we revisit that? You know, it doesn't matter, because everyone's going to come out and say the same thing that he did it. They just want this guy in jail. And they probably want him in jail because when he's there, Cheney burned her. Let's just, let's start a Kickstarter to pay Joe Flax and do a Skype with him. By the way, that reporter that interviewed him on the Levy, so there's a guy that's

been doing a lot of investigating about this, and he wrote a book, and he's written articles, and he wrote an article somewhere, and there was only one comment at the bottom of the article, and she was like, you're a liar, and you're a liar, and you're making it worse for him. And I was like, and I was like, so you're a, so you're a journalist, and you're going on this random news site, and you're the only person commenting, publicly commenting, and against the science. The science does not agree with you at all.

Now maybe, now let's take the case that he did, let's say that he did remove sandbags and did want to do it. The Levy was still going to break. So is that worth life in prison? Because he didn't technically cause a catastrophe, it was going to happen. He didn't do it. Yeah. Right?

I mean, that's the whole thing. The science says he did not do it. And I'm one who, I have this weird thing where I believe in science. How's that going? And angels. It's supposed to be like 85 degrees tomorrow. You proved to me that angels aren't real, and I'll believe in your 95 degrees. We signed cars, we just don't do it at the L.A.

Soffitel, and neither should you. And now we're going to watch the Revenant and do commentary for people. Go! Bye!