Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - Unravel the Mysteries of The Emerald Triangle

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

From true crime legend Marc Smerling  (Crimetown, The Jinx) comes a new podcast Crooked City: The Emerald  Triangle, available now, binge all  episodes ad-free on Apple Podcasts. When  journalist Sam Anderson learns that one of his high school classmates  has been accused of murder in California  he travels to the scene of the crime to find out what happened. Sam  becomes immersed in the Emerald Triangle, the legendary home of pot  growers, hippies, and outlaws unraveling a web of psychedelic drugs,  money, greed and desperation to find the truth. Search  for Crooked City: The Emerald Triangle wherever you get your podcasts  to listen now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What price would you pay for ultimate freedom? Would you work on a pot farm in the mountains of California? Would you take LSD for days on end? And if your boss took everything from you, would that justify murder? Chances are, you've never had to ask yourself these questions. But I know someone who has. While you wait for the next season of Witnessed,

here's another wild investigative true crime podcast that just dropped on the binge. Crooked City, the Emerald Triangle. This second season of the hit series from Mark Smirling, the creator of Crime Town and the Jinx, is available right now, and you can binge all episodes ad-free on Apple Podcasts. In 2016, reporter Sam Anderson discovered

one of his former high school classmates, Zach Worcester, had been arrested for murder. But by all accounts, Zach was just a nice normal guy. There's no way he could have killed someone. So what happened? What or who took Zach Worcester from a normal kid from suburban New Jersey into a convicted murderer? Join Sam Anderson as he travels to the emerald triangle to get answers from the people who were there. Take a listen. When I was 25 years old,

I got laid off from my job as a journalist and wound up back at my parents' place in the suburbs. It's a sleepy town called Ringwood, New Jersey. And if you go through my childhood bedroom, you'll find a few things. A Bob Marley poster, an acoustic guitar, and some participation medals for my days on the wrestling team. I was never that good at wrestling, but you know who was? This kid named Zach Worcester. Zach had a buzz cut and a tough guy persona to match.

He was two years younger than me, but he could toss me around the mat like a hacky sack. That was a long time ago. I hadn't thought about Zack much since high school. But then, in 2016... A man was found murdered in a royal property of Highway 101. The police say their main suspect is 24-year-old Zachary Worcester. Could Zach Worcester really have murdered someone? Never in a billion fucking years.

Everybody who knew Zach said the same thing. Zach's got a big heart and I know that's something Zach would never do. And he was so like, good vibes. Literally, I think he used to say good vibes. How did this regular kid for my hometown get accused of murder? So I hit the road and headed to Northern California, the place where it all went down, a place called the Emerald Triangle. That's where a good week comes from

that everybody smokes in the whole country. It's a place where people go to escape their past in search of freedom. This shit's real, man. It is the Wild West. I've never seen 350 pounds of weed. Now it's a shit ton of weed. First, I got in with the locals. It's smoked a little weed. I'm a little high.

I think I'm gonna just play it cool. I was seriously thinking, is this a fucking undercover of CIA agent? Of course, dude, the microphone's and stuff. How many drugs do I have to do to prove it's real? I'm not a fucking CIA agent. Then my mom called. Where are you?

We're at the scene of the murder right now. And we just hiked four miles on foot to get here. Oh my God, are you going to save him there? I think we're safe. And that's the sound of someone shooting guns. But the deeper I went, the more complicated Zack's story became. I am a reporter, hopefully, to get some documents about a certain case. Nothing made any sense at all. Until I found these.

Please start just with your name. It was Zachary Worcester, the ZICH-A-R-I. any sense at all. Until I found these. The original tapes from the investigation. I'm like, fuck. I did not kill anybody. I have not murdered anybody. Excellent. A lot of acid, like 300 hits. At least we're correct. 48 hours straight. Man, I got so scared, dude. I didn't do it. I didn't know. I don't know what happened.

I don't know what happened. I'm Sam Anderson, and I'm trying to find out what happened. You are never going to find out what the fuck happened on that mountain. From truth media, in partnership with novel and Sony Music Entertainment, this season on Crooked City, we're going to the Emerald Triangle. Do I tie in the fucking brutal truth? Does the brutal truth is fucked up?

Discover the brutal truth on November 7th. Subscribe to the binge on Apple Podcast podcasts for all episodes at once, or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Sounds like classic fucking weed world shit to me.