Speaker 1: Lingo Ann's stories say the Kushtaka or koushtaka is a
shape shifting otter like creature that lures people into the wilderness,
sometimes trigging them to their deaths. Michael Oros arrived in
the wilds of northwest British Columbia in nineteen seventy two
with a peach fuzz beard carrying a bamboo flute. Henry Vance,
a First Nation taunting man who spent winters caretaking a
hunting god's cabin and horses in she Slay, an abandoned
native village and mining settlement, encountered Oros hiking along the
trail from Telegraph Creek. When Oros moved into a deserted cabin,
Vance suddenly found himself with a neighbor. In the beginning,
Vance and his wife had to take care of the
boy as he struggled to stay alive, and over time,
Vance watched the young man harden and develop his wood skills.
He also witnessed increasingly spooky violent behavior from Oros. For instance, once,
when Oros showed up asking for dinner, he took offense
when Vance asked him to wash his hands. All of
a sudden, Vance got the feeling that Oros was considering
murdering him. Another time, he threatened to kill Vance's wife
over a pitied dispute over Oros's dogs. Years later, after
Vance learned that Oros had gone on to commit horrible
crimes and murders across the region, Vance said he felt
guilty for having helped him. Our taulting people are helpful people.
We help people who are down and out, Vance said
in an interview on a Canadian radio station. Vance could
not have known at the time that he was helping
a man who would become known as she Slay Free Mike,
one of the most infamous and mysterious criminals to ever
roam the North Country. At first, Oros's home base was
near the headwaters of the she Sleiy River, which is
a tributary of the massive Taco River watershed that originates
in British Columbia and drains into southeast Alaska. It's likely
that the isolation of living at she Sleay contributed to
Oros becoming increasingly feral, paranoid, and delusional. He took to
carving trees and building with his personal mark, a blazing
sun symbol, which signified that he owned the country and
everything in it. He roamed deeper into the wilderness, living
in a tent and in abandoned structures, illegally hunting and trapping,
and occasionally raiding a cabin. The heart of Oros's territory
began more or less in she Slay, and stretched west
to Atland and north to Teslon to encompass more than
thirty thousand square miles. Much of the area is the
Taku ling At people's ancestral home, where many still live today.
Stories of Oros menacing nature and his cabin raids began
to circulate as de detales of his almost superhuman ability
to travel through the woods. He could supposedly snowshoe while
hauling a heavy sled at a steady six miles per hour,
covering sixty miles a day. He moved like a ghost,
most of the time unseen, and at other times he
would suddenly appear as if he were conjured. Over time,
Oros ran the Tesla and Lingot off their legally owned
trapping grounds and claimed them as his own. They could
have filed charges, but they declined to talk to the police.
Sit to ling At culturer bearer Dave Kenoe said that
some families moved to southeast Alaska to get away from Oros.
Canadian police officer Chris Morgan was stationed in Teslain for
several years and had encounters with Oros. In a nineteen
eighty five interview for the Vancouver Sun newspaper, Morgan called
Oros the missing link, the closest thing a man can
be to being an animal and the closest thing an
animal can be to being a man. But he wasn't
always that way. He was born in Oregon in nineteen
fifty two, the only child of a single mother who
worked as a petroleum geologist, a chemical engineer, and a
university professor. He never knew his father. Arla Clia got
to know the boy and his mother in the early
nineteen sixties when the two moved to her neighborhood in Lawrence, Kansas.
One of Client's first interactions with the two was taking Michael,
whom she described as lonely in show, to his first
day of school because his mom was busy. In nineteen
sixty eight, when Michael was in the tenth grade, he
became deeply affected by the Vietnam War. He developed a
deep hatred for the government and authority in general. Not
long after, his mother claimed she sent him away to
live with relatives and work horses in Wyoming. Clia never
saw Michael or heard his mother talk about him again,
and whether Oros actually went to Wyoming is unclear. Either way,
he was soon on his own, wandering the country. When
he turned eighteen, he became a draft dodger and began
using aliases. He'd used at least fifteen during his short life.
In Taos, New Mexico, he joined a commune where he
got tangled up in drugs and violence, though the details
around this part of Oros's story are unclear. Eventually he
fled to Fairbanks, Alaska. Vernon Frolic, a Canadian writer and prosecutor,
had full access to Oros's diaries. He published the book
about Oros entitled Descent into Madness The Diary of a Killer.
The book describes Oros when he first comes north as
a hardcore back to Earth, part of a movement to
reconnect with the land that began in the nineteen fifties
in response to industrialization and capitalism, and arguably reached its
peak during the early nineteen seventies. Like a lot of
young people moving to Alaska in that era, Oros was
also looking to escape his past and reinvent himself. Oros
was on a quest for freedom and truth, and the
wild North seemed to be the perfect place to find it.
More than that, he wanted to build a utopic community
in the wilderness that would be a sanctuary for those
seeking escape from society. He read esoteric books, studied zen,
and was obsessed with concepts like trying to grasp the
unseen reality. He took up with different small groups of hippies,
mostly draft dodgers, and lived in primitive cabins. The cold,
darkness and isolation of Fairbanks Winners was too much for him, though,
In the spring of nineteen seventy two, he set out
for Telegraph Creek in northwest British Columbia. One story goes
that he was run out of Telegraph Creek by locals
and that's why he ended up in She Slay. Another
is that he was offered a job helping the same
hunting outfitter Henry Vance was working for. But regardless, She
Slay is the place that marked the beginning of his
thirteen year war with the torture Druggers and the sneak Arounds.
It wasn't long before he became known as She Slay
Free Mike or just She Slay, and before long became
bane of the country. Oros kept prolific journals documenting his paranoia, delusions,
and rage. He'd leave notes or poems posted to trees
or cabin doors, stating things like I'm a free man,
let me be. In his journals, he constantly referred to
torture druggers who experimented and poisoned him, as well as
sneak arounds, whom he never seemed to catch sight of,
but who he believed were stalking him. Armed with a
three to zero three rifle, he'd spend a significant portion
of many days hunting sneak arounds. Oros also imagined that
every time a plane flew overhead, it sprayed him and
the earth with poisonous chemicals. His hatred of authority figures
had deepened into a murderous rage, and he constantly wrote
in his journals about wanting to kill any government officials
he might encounter. At the time, the only government employees
who spent time in his territory were Alaska Department a
Fish and Game fishery biologists, conducting research annually from April
through October. Lead biologist Paul Kissner worked in the Taku
Watershed from nineteen seventy one to nineteen ninety. At first,
Kissner told me that he and his crew thought Oros
was weird but a mostly harmless mountain man. Mike Beathers,
a retired King Salmon biologists who worked with Kissner, said
that changed as they learned more about him. Quote, the
women at camp were especially scared. No one ever saw him,
but we were always looking over our shoulders feathers set.
In early summer of nineteen seventy nine, Kissner and crew
returned to their research camp on the Nakuina River, a
tributary of the taku and found that Oros had stolen
their river boat from and raiding their camp. Oros knew
at least some of the crew's names and that many
of them lived in Juno. Kisner reported the theft to
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was willing to testify
against Oros. Police were well aware of Oros by the
time and suspected him in numerous crimes. Now they had
an arrest warrant, but they made no move. Locating Oros
would be difficult and dangerous, not to mention, the charge
likely wouldn't amount to a substantial conviction. Despite his aversion
to civilization, Oros would go into the town on occasion
for short term work, to stock up on supplies and
look for women. He'd do this sometimes in Juno, where
he wasn't infamous. The fall after he stole the ADF
and G riverboat, it appears he went to Juno and
was working with a road crew paving the highway. Kisner
was still up at Taku when lay one night, a
hippie with long and sandy blonde hair knocked on his
and his wife's condominium door. Through the door, Kisner's wife
asked the man what he wanted quote He told her
there was a problem with her newspaper and that she
needed to let him in. Kisner said he seemed threatening,
and she retreated to the kitchen to call the police.
The man became irate, pounding and demanding to be let in,
and when a trooper finally arrived, the only sign of
the prowler was the evidence he left dripping down the door. Later,
upon seeing a photo of Oros, Kisner's wife guessed it
could have been him. Phil Timpany, a Canadian woodsman, was
the only member of Kisner's fishery crew whoever actually saw Oros.
It happened sometime after the fall of nineteen seventy nine,
while Oros was being held in custody in Atlan, a
cop wanted to come in and Oros and Timpany was
out in the same country as the madman, and the
cop was worried for his safety. The officer told Timpany
they suspected Oros of a number of disappearances and murders. Quote.
I ask what to do if I meet up with
him in the woods. He said, don't ever say goodbye. Basically,
just shoot him. At the jail, Timpany expected there would
be a one way window or something blocking Oros from
seeing him. Instead, the cop took him right in front
of Oros. Quote. I saw him at the store a
couple of days later, and he never took his eyes
off me. He was the most wild looking guy, but
not in a woodsy way. His eyes were just intents,
like a caged animal in intense eyes. Timpany said. Just
about everyone was scared of Oros, except for an old,
enigmatic trapper named Gunther Lishey, an ex Nazi who fought
in World War Two before being imprisoned in a Russian camp.
Lichy emigrated to Canada to live in the woods. He
was tough, and he was woods wise and apparently dangerous Timpany,
who also had a trap line, treaded lightly around Lishey.
He recalled hearing a story of Lichy encountering another trapper
on his line. Lichy aimed his gun at the man,
and Lishy's companion, who happened to be a cop, and
told him to stop. Lischi said something along the lines
that he'd killed many men in his life and one
more wouldn't make any difference. Supposedly, Lichi and Oros only
met twice. Once was briefly in the Wiles, when Lichi
took a photo of Oros. It was one of the
three photos found on the German's cabin wall after he disappeared.
The second was in the late summer of nineteen eighty one. Lichy,
knowing Oros had a cabin and a trap line on
Hudsongola Lake, got dropped off by a floatplane. In late July,
Oros was gone, Lichi began building a cabin less than
one hundred yards from Oros's cabin. Lishi's actions were bizarre.
For one, Lichi knew it was illegal to trap the area.
Traplines are owned in British Columbia. You can't go laying
steel wherever you please, and second, knowing it was illegal,
why would Lichi allow his business to be known by
chartering a commercial floatplane. Finally, Lichi was well aware of
Oros's reputation. Why would he build a cabin so close.
One likely explanation could be that Lichy, knowing Oros had
run the legal trapline owners out of the area, planned
on taking over the fur Ridge country for himself. After
surviving World War II, the German might have believed that
dealing with Oros wouldn't be that difficult. On September tenth,
nineteen eighty one, one pilot Dave Weeb landed in Hutzegola
Lake to pick up Lishey as they had scheduled weeks before,
but instead of Lishy, Web was confronted by Oros, who
said he'd never heard of the old trapper, let alone
seen him. Web's instinct told him that Oros was going
to try to kill him, so he played it as
cool as he could and he got away. He flew
to Atland and immediately contacted the RCMP. Police, believing they
finally had solid evidence on Oros, immediately mobilized the team.
Their plan was to use the arrest warrant from Oros
as nineteen seventy nine theft of the ADF and G
riverboat to pick him up and hold him in jail
while they built a murder case against him. When the
team arrived at Hutsgola Lake on September twelfth, Oros was
long gone deep in the wilderness. The officer searched the
area and gathered Lihi's belonging, many of which Oros had
tried to hide. They also took Oros' diaries for evidence.
They searched Tor, but they couldn't find Lishi's body. Oros
got caught the following March after he returned to his
cabin at Hutzegola for the winter. Oros had spent most
of the winter hunting sneak arounds and fantasizing about killing
an ever growing list of people. When police flew in,
Oros inexplicably went without much of a fight. The only
thing that Oros seemed to care about were his dogs.
Many people have referenced his devotion to them. What happened
after Oros was handcuffed is unclear. Officially, he was put
on a helicopter and his dogs were later destroyed. There's
another story that out of spite, an officer shot Oros's
favorite dog right in front of him. Vernon Frolic, the
prosecutor who'd later write to sent into Madness, worked with
the police during the investigation. Without Lehi's body or a confession,
and only minor charges. Frolic and the police tried to
have Oros locked up in a psychiatric hospital. While Oros
was deeply disturbed, he was also extremely intelligent and cunning.
His diaries are largely free form madness, but it appeared
that he never wrote anything legally incriminating. By late August,
Oros had been acquitted and set free. He roamed all
over the Lower forty eight in Canada. Timpany heard a
cop in that one claimed Oros was being tracked daily
during his travels. Around this time, Oros directed the lion's
share of his hatred toward police officers. He wrote in
his last diary that focusing his hatred allowed him to
set back and enjoy himself doing a few things I
wanted to do before I died. One of those things
may have been the rape and murder of Cindy Elrod,
whose body was found on August twenty third, nineteen eighty three,
in Juno. The night before, el Rod had been seen
at a bar with a man described as having long,
sandy blonde hair like Oros and being within a similar age,
height and weight range. A composite sketch shows a baby
faced man with long hair parted in the middle, the
same as Oro's hair was in pictures. During his last years,
Oros's rambling journals showed he believed that an elite paramilitary
unit would be helicoptered into an area to hunt him down.
This prediction became a reality in March of nineteen eighty five,
after Frank and Aileen Hayes arrived at their cabin in
Teslin Lake and found that Oros had looted and destroyed it.
He had taken everything of value, including their wedding rings.
He left the partially butchered remains of a Ca hal
mooso In's side. Clumps of hair and rotting blood were
splattered on the walls and soaked into the floorboards. The Hasses,
rightfully worried for their lives, snow machined back to Teslin
and reported to break into the police. The RCMP reconnaissance
flight was sent out, and when the pilot found Oros
hauling a slid through the snowy wilderness, the madman fired
at the plane. Teslain police contacted emergency response teams and
literally overnight, a team of rcmps, most elite officers, were mobilized.
Two of the men on the ERT were close friends
with Mike Badey and Gary Rogers, both of whom dealt
with Oros in nineteen eighty two while he was in
custody and terrace and afterward while he was waiting for
his trial. Budday was a larger than live character. One night,
after having a few drinks and showing up at Roger's house,
he decided to use his chainsaw to cut the door,
rather than to be rude by knocking and descent into madness.
Frolic wrote that when Oros was detained in nineteen eighty
two and tore apart a jail, sell officers went and
fetched Budet, who was off duty and drinking at the bar,
to subdue him. Buddet is more than just a muscled
up drinker, though. When Oros was waiting for his trial
in nineteen eighty two, he slept on a police station
bench when the weather was bad. If anyone tried to
mess with him, but they put a stop to that.
While members of the ERT were on their way north,
Oros slept on Big Island in Tusslin Lake. The burial
place of a lingo Ant shaman. There had long been
a belief circulating around Oros, especially with the lingo Ant people,
that he was not human. They believed that he was
a physical manifestation of the kushta Ka, an evil spirit
that preys upon and possesses the loss, turning them into
a reflection of itself. The kushta Ka is a shape
shifting monster associated with madness and disappearances and wildness. The
kushta Ka can be linked to the wild man of
the woods archetype, and that it lures its victims into
the wilderness, turns them insane, and causes them to lose
their humanity. To this day, many people who were involved
with Oros believe this, including Rogers. Some also believe that Oros,
by sleeping at the burial site on Big Island, woke
the spirit of the shaman. One of the most important
functions of the Lingolnt shaman was to battle the cousta Ka.
Oros knew police would be coming for him. He could
have escaped into the wilderness, but instead he chose to
wait for them. His journals indicate his belief that his
war with the real and imagined world was about to end.
In a big shootout. On the morning of March nineteen, Rogers, Badet,
and the rest of the ert flew into Teslin late.
Rogers in Budet, armed with them sixteen's along with a sharpshooter,
made up one of the units. Their unit was dropped
off in front of Oros, while another was dropped behind him.
While Rogers in Bedet were hiding in the deep snow,
hoping to intercept Oros. As he snowshoed toward them, the
mad trapper disappeared into the brush unseen. He circled around
and snuck up on Rogers in Budet. Oros fatally shot
Bedey through the back of the neck with his three
to zero three rifle and then turned to Rogers. Forty
four yards separated the two men. Rogers said he believes
he and Bidet had some higher power with them that day.
The moment after Budet was shot had an out of
body experience, like he was watching the events happen from above.
He says he looked down on Oros as the man
worked his rifle. Boat took aim and pulled a trigger,
and then Rogers watched himself raise his M sixteen and shoot.
His bullet went through Oros's forehead, killing him instantly. Examination
of Orosa's rifle afterwards showed that the firing pin had
been worked in, dented the primer, but hadn't ignited the powder.
Rogers should have been killed. Lihi's remains were found a
year and a half later when a constable from Teslain
flew into Hutzegola Lake and stumbled on the German scattered bones.
There was a bullet hole through the right scapula. Forensics
showed Lichi had been shot in the back with a
bullet matching a three to zero three cartridge. With Oros dead,
a wave of relief washed over the region. Forty years later,
Much of the land he wants roam is still wild,
though there is a massive mining operation plan for the region.
Oros has been pretty much forgotten except by those who
are affected by him directly. He remains as cryptic in
death as he was in life. People who dealt with
him still lower their voices when they talk about she
Slave Free Mike, if they speak of him at all.