As I'm sure, many of you know,
the Nutty Putty incident is probably the most famous caving incident of all time. It's also the story that probably sparked this entire genre and instilled a caving phobia in so many people. But did you know that 40 years earlier, there was
another incident with eerily similar circumstances? This is that story. [music] If you enjoy Scary Interesting, odds are that you
enjoy stories of humanity surviving, or sometimes not, in some of the most
difficult conditions on Earth. So today, I want to introduce you to one of these stories,
which is a horror fiction podcast and YouTube channel set within the chilling
polar night of Svalbard, called The White Vault. It's an audio story similar to Scary Interesting
but with a full voice cast where an international rescue and repair team
is sent to discover the source of a mysterious signal at a
remote arctic research station. On their mission, they become trapped
when the weather takes a turn for the worst, and they also make a number of shocking
discoveries lurking beneath the ice. What makes the White Vault particularly unsettling though
is that you feel like you're actually with the team as they march through
the sunless arctic snowscape. The creators of the show also go through great pains to ensure the scientific, linguistic, oral,
and cultural accuracy. You can hear languages like Icelandic,
Arabic, Portuguese, Mandarin, and even endangered languages like
Manchu and Yiddish. The White Vault also features actual audio
from endangered species like polar bears, Andean condors, and more
that you won't hear anywhere else. The complete story is now available because
The White Vault's main story recently concluded, so you can hear all of the collected records
for free without having to wait on new releases. A sequel series is also planned to release
in October of 2023, and other seasons follow stories that would be
right at home here on Scary Interesting. Like an archaeology team that survives an
avalanche in Patagonia, and spinoff series in the Antarctic, England,
Japan, and 18th century China. You can check out The White Vault wherever
you listen to podcasts, or right here on YouTube. And by the way, the feedback that I've seen
both in my comment section and their comment section since the last time
they sponsored a video, has been fantastic. Some people have even binged their
entire catalogue already, so I'd highly recommend you head on over
to their channel now or using the links in the description and subscribe now.
to delve into the awaiting horrors. On the morning of October 5th, 1965,
Morris Baetzold woke up excited. It was another day of school for the 15-year-old, but it was the best kind of day;
it was field trip day. Morris was one of just 16 kids from the
Methodist Children's Home in Berea, Ohio, and heading two Shelburne Village, which is
a site significant to Ohio's history. It wasn't an amusement park by any means, but it
beat a day in the classroom any day. So Morris and his classmates were loaded
onto the bus by their three teacher chaperones,
and then they were on their way. The drive to Shelburne Village would take
about an hour and a half, so the students settled in for the trip. Not far down US Route 21, the students
all looked up toward the driver as he suddenly pulled the bus onto the shoulder. He opened the door, got out and discovered a flat tire. Fixing it would take hours, so the trip they had all been
looking forward to was unfortunately cancelled. Before announcing it to the bus, the three teachers
got together to discuss their options. They could go back to school, but the teachers
didn't wanna disappoint the students either. They also knew that not far from where
they were was Hinckley Reservation, which is a park with more than 3000 acres
of mostly untouched nature. When the bus was fixed, they decided they
could at least drive a few miles and treat the kids to lunch in the park in an opportunity
to burn off some the field trip excitement. Hinckley Reservation is the southernmost park
in Cleveland's Metropark system and is a popular spot for locals. For children and teenagers, it was known
for being home to Wildcat Cave, and kids would play war or cops and robbers there. Teenagers would explore or hang out
and smoke cigarettes, and young couples would immortalize their relationships
by carving their names into the exposed sandstone. And in fact, just the previous summer, Morris had
actually visited Hinckley Reservation and explored Wildcat Cave for the first time. While they waited for the bus to be fixed,
Morris and his two friends talked it over and decided they'd head
straight there after lunch. The bus pulled into Hinckley Reservation
a little while later and made its way to a picnic area known
as Whipp's Ledges. This just so happens to be where
Wildcat Cave is located too. It's a surprisingly rugged area right between
the urban sprawl of Cleveland to the north and Akron to the south. It was still well before noon but the teachers served lunch
and then let the kids have some free time, and Morris and his friends made a beeline
for Wildcat Cave. At the entrance, they were met with a large
opening, about 15 feet wide, but only four and a half feet high. Just inside this entrance was a chamber
not even big enough to stand up in and the opening of a small tunnel on its back wall. Morris and his friends then crouched their way in
and began crawling headfirst down the tunnel. Altogether, the cave's main tunnel
was only about 80 feet long and ended in a large chamber that locals say
was part of the Underground Railroad. In any case, about 60 feet from the entrance
and 35 feet underground, the main tunnel intersects with another. When they got there, they'd have to squeeze through
an opening only about 12 inches wide where a leaning boulder juts out and squeezes the
last part of the tunnel before the intersection. Since Morris had been there before,
he felt confident being the lead, and although he didn't remember every part of the cave, he recalled certain parts and where they had to go
once they went through the intersection. After wiggling through the choke point, he got
turned around a bit in the darkness, but found where the tunnel continued
to the large chamber and kept crawling. Then a few feet in, the tunnel sloped downhill sharply, and he didn't recall that from the last time he was there, but he shrugged it off and thought maybe he just
wasn't remembering this part correctly. Unfortunately, it wasn't Morris's memory
that was wrong; it was the turn he made. Instead of continuing straight ahead
when he got past the choke point, Morris crawled into the tunnel to his left,
and it wasn't a tunnel. Morris had crawled into a crevice with a
15-degree downward slant and walls that closed in tighter and
tighter the further he went. When he was almost at the bottom of the crevice
and saw there was nowhere to go, Morris realized his mistake. He tried to back himself out, but with one arm
now pinned beneath him, he didn't have enough power to push against gravity. Morris was suddenly hit with another realization; he was stuck nearly upside down in complete darkness. Those of you familiar with this story
might be thinking of what is arguably the most well-known
and terrifying caving incident. In 2009, 26-year-old John Jones and his brother ventured into Nutty Putty Cave
near their hometown in Utah. While crawling through a tunnel, John took
a turn into a cramped passage and continued headfirst down the slope. He thought he was in a tunnel called the Birth Canal, named for how tight it gets before
ending in a large chamber. John wasn't in the Birth Canal though; he had unknowingly crawled into a crevice
just like Morris. John crawled until he was pressed
against rock on all sides. Still believing he was in the right tunnel too, John thought he'd just need to keep squeezing through, so he exhaled all of the air out of his lungs
to make his torso as small as possible and pushed himself ahead, only to end up more stuck
than he was before. Rescuers then spent all night and the next day
trying to free John, but every attempt failed. Because he was positioned nearly
upside down in the crevice, John's heart had to work that much harder
to keep blood from pooling in his head. And tragically, after more than 24 hours in that position,
John's heart gave out. And because of the angle of the crevice,
his body couldn't be removed. His body is still in that crevice to this day. 44 years earlier in Ohio, Morris screamed back
to his friends that he was stuck. The boys tried to reach him, but Morris
was more than 10 feet down. Right away, the two boys then left Morris in the cave
and ran to tell their teachers. One of the teachers then ran back to
Wildcat Cave with them, and at the opening of the crevice, he took off
his belt and made a loop. Reaching as far as he could, he managed
to lasso Morris' feet with it, and Morris slowly started to rise as he pulled. A moment later though, the belt snapped, and Morris
dropped right back to where he started, only this time, he was wedged in tighter than before. All of the momentum from the fall had wedged him in
further than he originally was. And realizing that this was a serious situation and with nothing more they could do,
they left to call the fire department. When firefighters arrived, they entered Wildcat Cave,
and similar to the teacher's idea, they attempted to loop a rope around
Morris' leg to pull him out. As if his situation wasn't bad enough already, firefighters only succeeded in pulling Morris'
jeans around his ankles. Next, they tried stagging Morris' jacket with a
metal hook attached to the end of a rope, but the hook ripped right through his jacket. So now with a torn jacket and his pants off, Morris
was still stuck at the bottom of a crevice. The hope of a quick rescue faded as emergency personnel
realized how much trouble he was in. Meanwhile, as they tried to figure out their next move,
another team set up a generator, and ran lights and a heater into the cave to make
Morris a little more comfortable. Temperatures that day were typical of early fall
in the Northeast US, with an afternoon high of 50 degrees Fahrenheit
or 10 Celsius. If Morris was still stuck after sunset, however, temperatures were expected to drop
to near freezing overnight. Being almost completely upside down,
just like John Jones, his condition would become more and more
fragile the longer he was stuck. If he was there long enough and temperatures
dropped low enough, it could push his heart over the edge. As word spread around town, Hinckley Reservation
started to fill up with emergency personnel, reporters, curious locals,
and groups offering assistance. Several volunteer groups showed up to keep rescuers
going with a steady supply of food and coffee, and the Salvation Army and American Red Cross
also set up outside the cave to support rescuers as long as they were needed. Down in the crevice, Morris had no idea that he had become a household name
across the country by dinnertime. His story was plastered all over front pages
of evening newspapers and TV and radio stations, providing constant updates
on the efforts to rescue him. Already unsuccessful in several attempts to
free him though, rescuers needed to get creative, and thankfully, all of the attention on the ordeal
could be used to their advantage. Rescue officials asked reporters to send out word that people of small stature were needed immediately
in Hinckley Reservation. If someone small enough could get
far enough into the crevice, maybe they could just pull Morris out. Soon enough, locals who fit the description
started showing up, including a 5'2, 80lb nurse so small
that she earned the nickname Pinky. Listening to the radio on her way home from work, Pinky heard a report about what was
happening in Hinckley, and started racing to Hinckley Reservation. When she arrived, firefighters thought she was
the perfect size to give it a shot. When she got to the intersection, she squeezed
her way around the choke points, and with ropes attached to her legs to pull her out
if she couldn't pull herself out, she crawled as far as she could to the crevice. That's when the flaw in this plan
became apparent to rescuers. Anyone small enough to fit in the crevice
likely wouldn't be tall enough to reach him or strong enough to pull him out. As hard as she tried, Pinky couldn't get any
closer than 5 feet to Morris. At the very least though, since she couldn't
be the one to save him, she kept him company for several hours
inside the little crevice. Back outside, Curtis Peck, a 26-year-old
caver from Akron, showed up to see if his experience
could be helpful to rescuers. After explaining the situation and
what they'd tried already, Curtis suggested spiking a pulley into the roof
of the cave to make pulling Morris up easier. Once it was firmly in the rock ceiling, rescuers lassoed one of Morris' legs again
to give it another try, but every time they started to pull, they got nowhere;
he just wouldn't budge. The pulley helped, but it didn't solve the issue of getting a tight enough grip on something
other than Morris' ankle. Incredibly, throughout all of this, rescuers noticed that despite all of the trial and error
to get him out so far, Morris' demeanor was uncharacteristic of someone
wedged inside a cold, dark cave for hours. His ability to remain calm stuck out to long-time rescuers
who had been on countless emergency calls. One rescue worker even told reporters that he had
never seen a boy with so much guts in his life. Between attempts to pull him out,
Morris was visited by doctors who kept a close eye on his condition. Each time they checked on him though,
they came away encouraged, but they knew it wouldn't last if he wasn't rescued soon. As with John Jones,
Morris' position caused blood to pool in his head and his heart to pump harder. Over enough time, Morris would grow exhausted, and keeping him awake was crucial
the longer this went on. Throughout this ordeal, Morris didn't talk much
other than to answer questions and occasionally express how much
he wanted to get out of there. Rescuers needed to keep him talking though. If he passed out, there was a chance
he just wouldn't wake up. Working in shifts throughout the night, rescuers kept him company, sitting at the top
of the crevice and asking him questions. This not only kept him awake,
but it also prevented his mind from wandering into what ifs that could lead to panic. At around 11 o'clock that night, Morris' family
finally showed up at Hinckley Reservation. They would have been there much sooner, but they
didn't find out until they heard a radio report. Neither the police nor the school reached out
to them to let them know what happened. To say Morris' family situation was complicated
is drastically understating the reality. Morris' parents divorced about 10 years earlier, and because of what records vaguely termed
"family difficulties", Morris and his three siblings were placed in foster care
instead of their parents splitting custody. Morris and his sister, Linda, lived together
with foster parents until 1964, but when his guardians needed to move to New Jersey, they took Linda with them but left Morris behind. He then became a ward of the state, and the courts
placed him in the Methodist Children's Home, an institution for emotionally disturbed children,
as the newspapers described it in 1965. Morris kept in touch with his brother, Donald,
who was now on the scene, through letters, and he occasionally saw his mother and stepfather. He hadn't even seen his biological father in a year,
but just a week before the whole ordeal, his dad was in a Cleveland court
for a hearing involving him. His father had been trying to gain custody
of Morris for some time, and was hoping the courts would finally come
to a decision that day. But instead, the judge took no action which
would only prolong the process. Had custody been awarded to his father then and there, Morris probably never would have ended up
in Wildcat Cave in the first place. After local efforts failed to get Morris out, a call was made
to the National Speleological Society, which is an organization of more than
2,000 caving experts and enthusiasts across 84 chapters in the US at the time. The NSS was formed in 1941 with a mission to study,
explore, and preserve caves in the US, but if someone in a cave was in need of rescue,
they were the pros to call. The Washington DC chapter in particular
trained every weekend for cave rescues. After getting word that rescuers in Ohio could use
a hand, seven of the Washington DC's members were flown by US Air Force to Cleveland
first thing in the morning. That call to assist Morris' rescue was actually
the twelfth they received that year. In the majority of cases, the NSS is able to
organize a quick and efficient rescue, but not every rescue has a happy ending. Earlier that year, they were in New York state
assisting with another rescue, when a sudden cave in seriously injured
two NSS members, and ended the hopes of reaching the 23-year-old man
they were attempting to rescue. He died and his body remained stuck
in the cave for 41 years before it could be removed for a proper burial. In Utah that same year, two kids died
when they got lost in a cave, and the NSS team couldn't locate them. Still, the group is very good at what it does, and local officials believe they were Morris'
best chance of escape. At the same time, as inexperienced as
they were at cave rescue, local emergency personnel were actually
on the right track. There was no other way to extract him. The way into the crevice was the only way out,
so pulling him out was the best option. They just hadn't found the right person
who was small enough to reach him and strong enough to do anything about it. Pinky was just one of dozens
who went into the crevice to try. Another man, whose hips were only 19 inches wide, was able to make physical contact with Morris,
but he couldn't reach any further than his feet. And because of this, he didn't have the strength
to pull Morris out fully; he was only able to move him about 6 inches. Like Pinky, the man stayed for a while
to keep Morris company after realizing he couldn't do much more for him. And even though everyone who went in failed, rescuers were encouraged by the man's ability
to move Morris a few inches. To rescuers, this confirmed their theory that the right grip onto Morris
was the key to getting him out. They just needed the person who could make that happen
to show up at Hinckley Reservation. In the town just north of Hinckley, a man was listening
to the radio on his way to work, and even though most of the country was fixated
on what was happening just down the road from him, the radio report
was the first he'd heard of it. Hearing the urgent pleas for small people of any
abled age to come to Hinckley Reservation, he turned the car around and raced back home. The man's sons, 15-year-old Mike and 12-year-old Jerry,
were getting ready for school when their father burst in
and told them to get in the car. Their father just had a feeling that one of his boys
could do what others hadn't been able to. Mike and Jerry were accomplished Boy Scouts, so they were familiar with the outdoors
and survival in a variety of situations. There's no Boy Scout badge for cave rescue,
but he believed in his boys anyway. They arrived around 9 o'clock that morning, but the situation had become urgent
about an hour earlier. Efforts to keep Morris awake were starting
to fail as he briefly and involuntarily lost consciousness a few times. Rescuers fed a hose down to the crevice and
pumped oxygen in which woke him right up, but Morris passing out wasn't a good sign at all. Mike and Jerry met with the NSS official
in charge of the rescue, and being the smallest of the two,
Jerry was chosen to go first. His father's confidence in him didn't do much
for Jerry unfortunately. He was terrified to go anywhere near the cave,
and it took some soothing, but he did eventually find the bravery to give it a shot. When he got to the top of the crevice, he slowly
worked his way down the slope toward Morris, and sure enough, Jerry made it further than
anyone else who attempted to reach him. He tried to get the ropes around Morris, but he wasn't
strong enough to work the rope under him. And the more Jerry struggled in the tight space,
the faster his fears returned. And then, close to the point of panicking,
he had to back out and leave. Next was Mike's turn. At 5'5, 120 pounds, he was built similarly to Morris, so they knew
he'd fit into the crevice. Mike was also a few years older than Jerry and more capable to mentally and
emotionally handle the task. When he finally reached the opening of the fissure,
he squirmed his way down the slope. Four ropes led from Mike to the rescuers outside. Two were attached to Mike's legs to pull him out
if he encountered trouble, and the two others were in his hands to tie around Morris. And the ones meant for Morris were different
than those used in other attempts. Two Akron firefighters came up with a
strap system on the spot that they hoped would make it easier to get around Morris, while also providing him the tight grip
getting him out required. With every inch Mike moved toward Morris, the walls
around him closed tighter and tighter. The space Morris was trapped in, like most cave tunnels,
wasn't uniform either. It was taller than it was wide, and about 3 feet
from floor to ceiling, but it was only 10 inches wall to wall. Because he was similar in size, Mike would have to mimic
Morris's position in order to reach him. That meant Mike would be without the use of one arm
for a task that required at least two. He then rolled onto his right side,
keeping his right arm under him to support his body weight, and used his left arm
to pull himself forward. Once he was low enough,
he introduced himself to Morris and started to assess how to get the straps around him. Before Mike arrived with his father and brother, the team outside listened to another outlandish idea;
this time from a surprising source. Curtis Peck, the experienced caver from Akron who remained on site in case he could be of use,
was a machinist by trade. Whenever he encountered a piece or a part
that was stuck at work, he'd grease it up and it'd pop right out,
so why not do the same to Morris? The team initially recoiled hearing this odd suggestion
from someone so familiar with caves, but as they listened, Curtis idea went from
crazy to crazy enough to work. So while Mike was being briefed before heading in, the team sent Curtis back in to pour a
glycerin solution into the crevice, soaking Morris and the surrounding rock. Unfortunately, this meant that as if things
weren't already challenging enough, the only hand Mike had available was
covered in slippery goo. Then like his brother, he struggled to get the rope
under the leg that was pinned under Morris. His only option seemed to be what they
had already tried, but he also thought that maybe manually fixing the rope
to his leg would produce better results. When he was done, he backed out of the tunnel,
fed the rope through the pulley, and then signaled the rope team to start pulling. To everyone's surprise, Morris moved about 6 inches before the rope inevitably slipped to his ankles again. Despite this slight progress,
the constant disappointment of unsuccessful attempts were starting
to wear Morris down. He started to cry softly as Mike
worked his way back toward him. When Mike got to his legs, Morris spoke to him
and sounded scared for the first time. And with desperation in his voice, he asked Mike if there was anything he could do to help him
get the straps on him. The little bit of progress that was made opened up
enough of a gap between the crevice floor and Morris' legs to get the straps around
both of them this time. Mike got the straps secured and once again backed out, and then the rope team started to pull,
and were quickly signaled to stop. Morris' hips and arms had popped free,
but now his chest was wedged. The rope team then held Morris in place while
Mike went back into the crevice. With Morris' new positioning, he could finally
access his upper body. By the time Mike ran a strap around
Morris just below his arms, it had been 24 hours since Morris became stuck
and even longer since he had slept or eight. Like before, Mike backed out and flashed a thumbs up. The rope team got the signal and started
to pull in unison again. Morris' chest came free and the men on the rope
could pull slack hand over hand for the first time. It was slow-going though, and with each heave, Morris was pulled up only about four inches, only to fall
back another three when they'd reset. But as difficult as it was, moving him one inch at a time felt like miles of progress after so many
attempts without success. As he advanced upward though, the contours
of the crevice kept changing. Before the walls of the crevice widened,
Morris became wedged again, but the ropes remained firmly around him
to keep him from falling. However, continuing to pull wasn't freeing him this time. Curtis then offered another idea that was
crazy enough to work. If they slid a board coated in grease under Morris, it might make it easier to pull him out of
whatever was keeping him stuck. His earlier suggestion to grease Morris up
in the first place was pivotal in getting him moving in the right direction,
so the team lead sent Curtis back in. On his stomach, at the top of the crevice, Curtis carefully guided a thin board coated in the
same glycerin solution under Morris. When the rope team started pulling again,
Morris slid free, and as he popped loose and the crevice started to widen, Morris found the strength to help in any way could. The arm that was pinned under him was still numb, but he put everything he had into pushing with
both arms when the rope team pulled. Finally, after 26 hours and 24 minutes,
Morris was freed from Wildcat Cave. When he was finally within arm's reach, a rescuer
latched onto his leg and helped pull him to safety. With nothing left to give, Morris collapsed into him, and the rescuer could only cradle him while he cried. Many of the emergency workers spent time with Morris
in the overnight effort to keep him awake, and the rescue became personal to people
working so hard to get him out. Morris' courage and calm only endeared him
further to rescuers, so when he was finally safe, it was like every one of them
had pulled their own child from the crevice. Outside the cave, it felt like forever before the rope team
got the signal to stop pulling, but when it came, they knew it meant
that Morris was free. When the hundreds of people outside the cave
saw the rope team begin to celebrate, they erupted in cheers, and Morris' family could
only hug one another and cry tears of joy. With the hardest part over, they still had to get Morris
out of the cave and then into a waiting ambulance. Unable to get out under his own power,
EMTs strapped Morris to a backboard, and then one EMT went into the main tunnel
feet-first and pulled the backboard, while another pushed from the opposite end. It was another hour before Morris finally emerged
from the cave, and the crowd roared the moment they saw the stretcher come out. Morris was then hurried to an ambulance that had been
waiting for him almost as long as he was stuck. Once police got word that Morris was at
the top of the crevice, they went through town and closed every road leading
from Hinckley Reservation to the nearest hospital. Then at the hospital and their first moments with him,
they were shocked by Morris' condition. He was lucid and relaxed, and didn't seem
to be in any pain either. As doctors looked him over, they only found
a few scrapes and bruises, including a particularly nasty one on his cheek
that was pressed to the crevice floor for more than a day, but little else was wrong with him. His organ function was perfect, and he even wasn't all that
dehydrated after more than a day without water. After all he'd endured, Morris' two biggest problems
were hunger and exhaustion, in that order. Once settled in the hospital room, staff brought him
a huge meal that he wolfed down, and doctors prescribed an extended period
of uninterrupted rest. After a long night of sleep, Morris met with
eager reporters from his bed. As you might imagine, they had a lot
of questions for him, and Morris talked about what it was like in the crevice and what he was thinking as rescuers
failed several times to free him. He also told them about visiting Wildcat Cave
the previous summer too, and they could barely believe it when he told them
he got stuck then too. Apparently, it was a different area of the cave, but after
some effort, he was able to free himself. As for how he stayed so calm, Morris didn't
even think he did a very good job of it. He later admitted to being terrified the entire time and resigned himself to being stuck there forever. Just two hours after Morris was put
into an ambulance, the park service got to work lining the inside of
Wildcat Cave with dynamite. It was a hasty decision, but the park wanted to make sure what happened to Morris could never happen again. In fact, Morris hadn't even been placed in a hospital room before the cave that held him captive was destroyed. Eventually, its entrance was also sealed
with concrete for good measure. Hello everyone and welcome to Scary Interesting. Just a reminder that we now have a
Scary Interesting podcast with new episodes released every Friday
at 11:00 AM Eastern. It features brand new Scary Interesting content
similar to what you see here on YouTube wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find links in the description and more details
in the community post about it. Thank you all so much for watching, and hopefully,
I will see you in the next one.
