Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Pathland, Chile for part two of
Speaker 1: our series on the disappearance of Glenn and Bessie Hyde. Robin,
Speaker 1: do you want to catch everyone up and what we
Speaker 1: talked about in our previous episode.
Speaker 2: Well, this is one of the oldest mysteries we covered,
Speaker 2: as it took place nearly a full century ago in
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty eight. Involved a newlywed couple named Glenn and
Speaker 2: Bessie Hide who lived in Twin Falls, Idaho. But because
Speaker 2: Glenn was a very adventurous guy, he decided that for
Speaker 2: their honeymoon, he and Betsy were going to go on
Speaker 2: a whitewater river rafting trip through the Grand Canyon on
Speaker 2: the Colorado River, which would right about two hundred and
Speaker 2: seventy seven miles, and he was hoping to break the
Speaker 2: speed records so that they could become famous. But they
Speaker 2: were making good progress, but then they vanished without a trace,
Speaker 2: and their abandoned boat would be found in one section
Speaker 2: of the river, and even though their supplies and all
Speaker 2: their personal possessions were still inside and the boat looked undisturbed,
Speaker 2: no trace of Glenn or Bessie could be found. There
Speaker 2: was an initial assumption that they had drowned or drive
Speaker 2: of exposure after wandering through the park, but nothing. The
Speaker 2: search effort failed to turn up anything, but over the
Speaker 2: years there would be some weird twists and turns. In
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one, there was another river rafting trip that
Speaker 2: was going through the Grand Canyon and a woman named
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Cutler told the group that she was Bessie Hyde
Speaker 2: and that she had killed Glenn and decided to walk
Speaker 2: out of the canyon on her own and start a
Speaker 2: new life under a new identity. But this was pretty
Speaker 2: much completely debunked as the facts did not line up.
Speaker 2: There was another woman, a very famous female whitewater rafter
Speaker 2: named Georgie White Clark who died in nineteen ninety two
Speaker 2: at the age of eighty one, and she lived a
Speaker 2: very private, secretive life, and they wound up finding a
Speaker 2: copy of gled and Bessie Hyde's Mary Certificate in her
Speaker 2: possessions following her death, so they looked at the possibility
Speaker 2: that perhaps she was Bessie, but when they looked at
Speaker 2: the backstory of Georgie's life, they realized that this just
Speaker 2: was not possible. In nineteen seventy six, the skeleton remains
Speaker 2: of a man with a bullet hole in his head
Speaker 2: was found inside a boat house belonging to a photographer
Speaker 2: named Emery Colb who lived in the Grand Canon on
Speaker 2: the Colorado River, and because he was one of the
Speaker 2: last people who had seen the hides alive, there was
Speaker 2: speculation that perhaps he killed Glenn and kept his remains
Speaker 2: in the boat house, but they completely debunked this idea
Speaker 2: and realized that the remains likely belonged to a unidentified
Speaker 2: man who had shot himself in the Grand Canyon sometime
Speaker 2: during the nineteen thirties, and because Cold worked for the
Speaker 2: coroner's office at that time, it's been speculated that because
Speaker 2: the victim could not be identified, that Colb took his
Speaker 2: remains home with him and kept them in the boat
Speaker 2: house and forgot about them for several decades before he died. So,
Speaker 2: even though this skeleton is not believed to have any
Speaker 2: connection to the high case, it's still a big mystery
Speaker 2: who exactly this John Doe really is. But nearly one
Speaker 2: hundred years have passed and no trace of Glenn and
Speaker 2: Bessie has ever been found, so this is still an
Speaker 2: unsolved mystery. So I couldn't tell you how many times
Speaker 2: I watched the Unsolved Mystery segment about this story when
Speaker 2: I was a kid, as I once take this particular
Speaker 2: episode off of TV and pretty much wore out the VHS.
Speaker 2: It may not be the first Unsolved Mysteries episode ever produced,
Speaker 2: as there were others made before it, which were hosted
Speaker 2: by Raymond Burr and Carl Malden, but if you decide
Speaker 2: to start watching the series on Amazon Prime or YouTube,
Speaker 2: this is the first episode you're going to get. The
Speaker 2: theme of the episode was four mysterious stories involving a
Speaker 2: husband and a wife, and it's pretty much a gold
Speaker 2: mine of some of the most memorable segments Unsolved Mysteries
Speaker 2: ever produced. In addition to this case, the episode covers
Speaker 2: the murder of Shannon Moore by her husband Dave Davis,
Speaker 2: the unexplained death of Alien Conway, and the disappearance of
Speaker 2: Dottie Kaylor. And of course, while there was hope that
Speaker 2: the exposure on national television might help law enforcement solve
Speaker 2: the other three featured cases on the show, the Glen
Speaker 2: and Bessie Hyde disappearance was nearly sixty years old by
Speaker 2: that point, so the segment was pretty much just there
Speaker 2: for entertainment, but It's a very well done segment and
Speaker 2: does not scamp on the production values for the reenactments,
Speaker 2: as you get to see unedited shots of the actors
Speaker 2: portraying Glenn and Bessie going down the dangerous rapids of
Speaker 2: the Colorado River in a wooden scow, much like the
Speaker 2: real people did back in nineteen twenty eight. I used
Speaker 2: to find it incredibly creepy that this couple would completely
Speaker 2: vanish without a trace, while their supplies and personal belongings
Speaker 2: were found inside this completely empty, undamaged boat, especially.
Speaker 3: When you think about the way that unsolved mysteries dramatizes things,
Speaker 3: it leaves things out. And then, like you said, this
Speaker 3: was the very first episode of the entire series that
Speaker 3: came out. So since we've learned a lot of information
Speaker 3: two about some of these myths being kind of debunked,
Speaker 3: I think it could be as basic as they fell
Speaker 3: off of the scow and they passed away. I think
Speaker 3: that Glenn was incredibly reckless and Bessie was not experienced,
Speaker 3: and even on the easy parts of the rapids, they
Speaker 3: were having struggles where Glenn even was falling off and
Speaker 3: needing to be rescued from the water. So who's to
Speaker 3: say that without life preservers, without any of those other things,
Speaker 3: that it wasn't just simply one of those moments where
Speaker 3: neither of them were able to actually wrests.
Speaker 1: Like a micro version of a ghost ship. And I
Speaker 1: couldn't remember the details of it, so I just looked
Speaker 1: up the Mary Celeste and I don't know if you
Speaker 1: both are familiar with this. It was founded direct in
Speaker 1: the Atlantic Ocean in eighteen seventy two with no crew aboard,
Speaker 1: but in seaworthy condition and with personal belongings and cargo intact,
Speaker 1: and the fate of what happened to the captain and
Speaker 1: the cruise still remains a mystery. So this is an
Speaker 1: interesting parallel to that, where all the belongings on the
Speaker 1: boat are still intact, the boat is still in river
Speaker 1: worthy condition, but yet Glenn and Bessie are nowhere to
Speaker 1: be found.
Speaker 4: That's horrifying. The entire crew is missing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, wow, Okay, this is two crazy adventurers going missing,
Speaker 3: But that's an entire crew.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to go do a deep dive there.
Speaker 3: But this one too, the way the way it's portrayed,
Speaker 3: there really were to me, there also could have been
Speaker 3: the ability that at least one of them could have
Speaker 3: gotten to a shoreline and tried to hike out. But again,
Speaker 3: they're in the middle of the Grand Canyon, right, Yes.
Speaker 2: And it wouldn't have been very easy to get out
Speaker 2: of there, even if you were an experienced hiker.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, And who knows.
Speaker 3: That's such a vast, unkind of navigatable place that if
Speaker 3: they had climbed out on the banks, especially only one
Speaker 3: of them, I could see also perishing on, you know,
Speaker 3: in the Grand Canyon, trying to find a resource to
Speaker 3: get away, to get out.
Speaker 2: As a side note, the Unsolved Mysteries episode featuring this
Speaker 2: story is also the same infamous episode featuring the interview
Speaker 2: with Juwel Kaylor that we always liked to poke fun of.
Speaker 2: So if you have not seen this episode, track it
Speaker 2: down right now on YouTube because it is a gold mine.
Speaker 1: All that being said, if you do further research into
Speaker 1: this story and check out Brad Dimmick's book Sunk Without Sound,
Speaker 1: it becomes apparent that Unsolved Mysteries greatly exaggerated some of
Speaker 1: the more mysterious aspects of the story, such as the
Speaker 1: discovery of the skeleton in Emery Colb's boathouse and Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Cutler's so called confession that she was Bessie Hyde. Since
Speaker 1: the segment put a lot of emphasis on Cutler's confession
Speaker 1: that she stabbed her husband to death in self defense
Speaker 1: after he beat her up, it's easy to come away
Speaker 1: thinking that Glenn Hyde was some sort of abusive brute
Speaker 1: who dragged his naive, innocent newlywed wife on a dangerous
Speaker 1: trip against her will, with no regard for her personal safety.
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, this segment gets Bessie's age wrong,
Speaker 1: claiming that she was only eighteen years old when she
Speaker 1: was actually twenty two. They made no mention of the
Speaker 1: fact that Bessie already had one previous marriage and divorce
Speaker 1: under her belt, which was not very common for a
Speaker 1: young woman during the nineteen twenties. So she was definitely
Speaker 1: a lot more worldly and independent than the segment portrayed her,
Speaker 1: and pretty much ahead of her time. In fact, Bessie's
Speaker 1: brother was once quoted as saying she should have been
Speaker 1: born a man, and he meant it as a compliment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course he did. I mean, think about the
Speaker 3: power that men had compared to women. We couldn't vote,
Speaker 3: we education wasn't something prioritized for women. Having your own
Speaker 3: financial access was not something that women had when you know,
Speaker 3: when they were married, and we talk about there's a
Speaker 3: chance she might have been pregnant and sent away, she
Speaker 3: was in an abusive first marriage. She's trying to navigate
Speaker 3: the world and creating very innovative ways to get a
Speaker 3: divorce from.
Speaker 4: Her first husband.
Speaker 3: So she is absolutely filled with it. This kind of confidence.
Speaker 3: It was not given to women at the time, right,
Speaker 3: You weren't allowed to have those kinds of feet underneath
Speaker 3: of you to say I will do what I want
Speaker 3: with who I want.
Speaker 4: I'm going to say no to a man. I'm going
Speaker 4: to divorce a man against his will or knowledge.
Speaker 3: Even if let's say she went ahead and had an
Speaker 3: abortion and or put a baby of her adoption, that
Speaker 3: too would have been something incredibly controversial back then. So
Speaker 3: she just seemed like a very innovative, ahead of her
Speaker 3: time kind of woman. And when she runs into Glenn,
Speaker 3: it's like this magical relationship where she sees this other
Speaker 3: very bold, very clever, very kind of risky kind of man.
Speaker 3: And I think she liked that because she was so
Speaker 3: bold herself. And could that have been their demise as
Speaker 3: being a little too confident. Bessie did show a little
Speaker 3: sign of fear throughout this trip and concern, but it
Speaker 3: almost seems like Glenn could either comfort her or kind
Speaker 3: of override that and continue on with this legacy trip
Speaker 3: that he was hoping to have.
Speaker 2: When Brad didn't research sunk without a sound, everything he
Speaker 2: turned up about Glenn Hyde suggested he was a gentleman,
Speaker 2: and there was no indication that he ever abused his wife.
Speaker 2: At the outset, at least, it seemed like Bessie was
Speaker 2: just as enthusiastic about this lengthy rafting trip as Glenn was.
Speaker 2: You can definitely question Glenn's judgment about a lot of things,
Speaker 2: particularly as refusal to bring along life jackets, but it
Speaker 2: sounds like he and Bessie genuinely loved each other. Now.
Speaker 2: To fully understand Glenn's reasoning for this trip, you have
Speaker 2: to remember that adventurers were very popular during this time period.
Speaker 2: It was only one year beforehand when Charles Lindbergh took
Speaker 2: the world's first solo NonStop transatlantic flight from New York
Speaker 2: to Paris in his plane the Spirit of Saint Louis,
Speaker 2: which made him one of the most famous celebrities in
Speaker 2: the world. So you can see why Glenn would be
Speaker 2: tempted to achieve his own fame and fortune by setting
Speaker 2: a new speed wrecord for river rafting through the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure he loved the idea of putting his
Speaker 2: wife in the history books by making her the very
Speaker 2: first woman to accomplish this feat. And they almost pulled
Speaker 2: it off because when you look at the hides and
Speaker 2: known movements and see the location where the empty boat
Speaker 2: was found, they were only about forty to fifty miles
Speaker 2: from their destination and on pace to break the speed
Speaker 2: record before they vanished. You can understand why there has
Speaker 2: always been a major fascination with this story, even though
Speaker 2: in the grand scheme of things, it's not hard to
Speaker 2: come up with a logical theory about what likely happened
Speaker 2: to Glenn and Bessie.
Speaker 4: And I do very much think she was excited about this.
Speaker 3: I think she could have been hesitant, or she could
Speaker 3: have concerns because anyone when they see this scal they're like, Okay,
Speaker 3: we're going to go on this incredibly complex route. Like
Speaker 3: we said, maybe ignorance was bliss because how much exposure
Speaker 3: would she have to information, but I think this kind
Speaker 3: of high. They had just gotten married, this is their honeymoon.
Speaker 3: He Glynn chose a woman who was bold and adventurous,
Speaker 3: and she chose a man who was bold and adventurous.
Speaker 3: So I think this was very much an exciting thing
Speaker 3: for them. I don't think he forced her. I don't
Speaker 3: think any of that. I think as a trip went on,
Speaker 3: it's possible Bessie started to go, WHOA, I might have
Speaker 3: bitten off more than I could chew here, But again
Speaker 3: I think Glynn could have probably reassured her and said, hey,
Speaker 3: we've got this. Like you know, just keep in mind,
Speaker 3: we're ahead of schedule, we're going to make records, we're
Speaker 3: going to be in the history books. And to Bessie
Speaker 3: that's exciting.
Speaker 1: It is exciting, and I can understand why a married couple,
Speaker 1: no matter how much you love each other, there's going
Speaker 1: to be periods while you're stuck on this small vessel
Speaker 1: that you are going to irritate each other to no end.
Speaker 1: My husband had these friends that years ago they did
Speaker 1: basically an around the world sailing thing, and it was
Speaker 1: this big idea with the three kids, the two of
Speaker 1: them are going to go and at first everything was great.
Speaker 1: But by the time they were getting off that boat,
Speaker 1: she was leaving him, they were getting divorced, and she'd
Speaker 1: already found another man, and everything was everything fell apart.
Speaker 1: It was like a catastrophe. So I think these small,
Speaker 1: all enclosed spaces can have different results for people. But
Speaker 1: with just Glenn and Bessie, this tiny little boat and
Speaker 1: these arduous conditions, I can't imagine the stress that they
Speaker 1: were both under for sure.
Speaker 3: It's almost like when you think about instances where like
Speaker 3: even a healthy couple, I would murder my husband if
Speaker 3: we lived in a tiny home, right, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 3: I'd probably have to take out some of my kids too, right, Like,
Speaker 3: it's just not it's not for me. I need my space,
Speaker 3: I need my privacy, and they do too. And then
Speaker 3: you think about couples like you have Gabby Petito and
Speaker 3: her killer.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, And so even had they been super healthy on
Speaker 3: their ride, I think there would have been problems because
Speaker 3: they're young. They're new now. Remember Glenn and Bessie are newlywed.
Speaker 3: So to what extent, I think as you age in
Speaker 3: your marriage, you learn the goods, the bads, and the
Speaker 3: ugly about your spouse, especially if you haven't been dating
Speaker 3: that long and there's still love and respect and admiring,
Speaker 3: but you can definitely the longer you're together or start
Speaker 3: to realize, oh man, I don't like that, or this
Speaker 3: is scares me, or I'm worried. So I think Bessie
Speaker 3: and Glynn were good to each other. I think they
Speaker 3: went on this adventure. But when I do think they
Speaker 3: could fuss hurt each other, I doubt it, But I
Speaker 3: also think I'm sure there were moments where people saw
Speaker 3: them kind of at each other like I want to
Speaker 3: go faster, I need to slow down, this seems too
Speaker 3: risky for me.
Speaker 4: Could we try this?
Speaker 3: And kind of debating back and forth because they're still
Speaker 3: navigating their relationship much less the treacherous track they're on
Speaker 3: as well, And.
Speaker 1: You also have to take into account the fact that, like,
Speaker 1: what type of creature comforts can you have? Like maybe
Speaker 1: Bessie is bold and she's a risk taker and she's
Speaker 1: out there, but when you take away things like getting
Speaker 1: to sleep in clean sheets, being able to bathe properly
Speaker 1: when you're both probably smelly and you're in this small
Speaker 1: space together and you just aren't comfortable a lot of
Speaker 1: the time. I think that that could breed resentment, and
Speaker 1: it could breed irritation, And I think you're right Ash,
Speaker 1: like they did love each other, Otherwise, I don't think
Speaker 1: she would have agreed to have gone on this adventure.
Speaker 1: But I do think that things can happen to you,
Speaker 1: even the healthiest of couples, when you're put into a
Speaker 1: pressure cooker like this.
Speaker 2: And that's pretty much what Emory Cole felt when they
Speaker 2: stopped at his place, because it looked to him like
Speaker 2: Bessie was becoming less enthusiastic about the trip and wasn't
Speaker 2: sure she wanted to continue. And you can imagine after
Speaker 2: visiting him at his house, she's probably thinking to herself, Ooh,
Speaker 2: I could sleep in a bed tonight if we stay
Speaker 2: here for the little river and not have to be
Speaker 2: out in the wilderness. But I don't think that fits
Speaker 2: the narrative that like Glenn pretty much forced her against
Speaker 2: her will to go back on the remainder of the trip.
Speaker 2: I think she went along voluntarily, and I don't think
Speaker 2: things escalated into violence where Bessie flat out murdered Glenn
Speaker 2: and then just took off.
Speaker 1: Of course, another compelling aspect to this mystery was the
Speaker 1: discovery of the skeleton in Emery Colb's boathouse nearly fifty
Speaker 1: years after the hides went missing, which helped bring their
Speaker 1: disappearance back into the spotlight. If this situation happened today,
Speaker 1: it would be very easy to answer the question of
Speaker 1: whether or not the victim was Glenn Hyde, as all
Speaker 1: it would require is getting DNA from Glenn's surviving relatives
Speaker 1: and comparing it with DNA from the remains. So it's
Speaker 1: quite amusing to watch the Unsolved Mystery segment and see
Speaker 1: how they handled this situation. In the pre DNA world
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty seven, doctor Walter Burkby uses a rather
Speaker 1: primitive method of superimposing a photograph of Glenn's over the
Speaker 1: victim's skull in order to conclude that they did not match.
Speaker 1: Since a bullet was found in the skull. I can
Speaker 1: see why people would instantly jump on the theory that
Speaker 1: Emery Cold murdered Glenn, particularly since Bessy had allegedly expressed
Speaker 1: concern to him about completing the rafting trip, as this
Speaker 1: would have been a perfect opportunity for Cold to quote
Speaker 1: rescue her. But doctor Burkeby pretty much shoots that theory
Speaker 1: down in his interview and makes a valid point. If
Speaker 1: Cold committed murder, why would he have kept the damn
Speaker 1: body around? L Ay Unsolved Mysteries segment frame things, you
Speaker 1: get the impression that the hides vanished immediately after visiting
Speaker 1: Colb's place. They make no mention of their subsequent meetup
Speaker 1: with Adolph Gilbert Seutro or the abundance of evidence such
Speaker 1: as Bessie's journal entries which showed that the couple were
Speaker 1: still alive for at least the next two weeks after
Speaker 1: they parted ways with Cole. I guess this was done
Speaker 1: in order to build the suspense over the idea that
Speaker 1: Cold murdered Glenn, But once you know all the full facts,
Speaker 1: you realize just how absurd this idea really is. In
Speaker 1: order for Cold to have been the killer, he would
Speaker 1: need to have traveled around one hundred and forty miles
Speaker 1: to track Glen down, and instead of disposing of him
Speaker 1: in the water or somewhere in the wilderness, he inexplicably
Speaker 1: decides to lug Glenn's body all the way back to
Speaker 1: his property and store it in the boathouse.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just seems like an odd decision, but I
Speaker 3: do understand when he sits there and he says, hey, listen,
Speaker 3: this is a John Doe.
Speaker 4: No one's going to claim him, so I'm going to
Speaker 4: take him home.
Speaker 3: It seems kind of interesting that in his mind it's
Speaker 3: possible he thought it was a more respectable, kind of
Speaker 3: interesting thing for him to do and kind of find
Speaker 3: some kind of scientific or career value to this skeleton.
Speaker 3: But it's definitely a bizarre choice. I do not, in
Speaker 3: a moment, think that Colb actually went and killed Glenn
Speaker 3: to rescue Bessie. I mean, he wouldn't have stuck around,
Speaker 3: and if he was that passionate, wouldn't Bessie and him
Speaker 3: have ended up together or something. So I think that's
Speaker 3: quite a stretch.
Speaker 2: Even after it was conclusively determined that the skeleton did
Speaker 2: not belong to Glenn Hyde, there was still a big
Speaker 2: mystery for a while about who this man really was
Speaker 2: and why colp had his remains. It's actually pretty remarkable
Speaker 2: that they were able to at least partially solve this
Speaker 2: mystery seventy five years after the fact, when the uncovered
Speaker 2: the photograph of the skeleton remains of a suicide victim
Speaker 2: found a Grand Canyon National Park in nineteen thirty three
Speaker 2: and matched it to the remains from Colb's boathouse. Once
Speaker 2: it became apparent that Coolb served on the county Coroner's
Speaker 2: journey at that time, this became less of a case
Speaker 2: of quote deranged murderer keeps victims remains on his property
Speaker 2: than quote while meeting citizen keeps an unidentified decedance remains
Speaker 2: on his property and forgets about them for four decades.
Speaker 2: It's very likely that Cold decided to take the John
Speaker 2: Doe's remains home with them, which might seem weird, but
Speaker 2: I can understand his reasoning. Since the victim couldnt be identified,
Speaker 2: he likely would have been buried in a pauper's grave
Speaker 2: somewhere and been difficult to find, so I think Cold
Speaker 2: wanted to hold onto the remains on the off chance
Speaker 2: that the victim's loved ones might come around looking for
Speaker 2: him someday. Sadly that never happened and we may never
Speaker 2: find out the true identity of this John Doe. But
Speaker 2: the evidence clearly showed that there was no foul play
Speaker 2: involved in his death, and due to Emery Colb's connection
Speaker 2: to the Hydes, disappearance, the situation pretty much blew up
Speaker 2: into a major misunderstanding. As a side note, I originally
Speaker 2: covered this story on episode number one twenty one of
Speaker 2: the Trail Went Cold six years ago, and I soon
Speaker 2: received an email from one of my listeners who had
Speaker 2: heard the episode and realized that the unidentified Cold Skeleton
Speaker 2: was not listed on the Dough Network. So this listener
Speaker 2: took the initiative to submit all the victims information to
Speaker 2: the website, and by October the nineteenth of that year
Speaker 2: that the seeded finally had his own profile page. And
Speaker 2: given the remarkable things that have been done with DNA
Speaker 2: and genetic genealogy these past several years, perhaps the Cold
Speaker 2: Skeleton will finally get his name back someday.
Speaker 3: Robin, that's incredibly cool that a listener was sitting there
Speaker 3: hearing your podcast took the initiative to go look on
Speaker 3: the Dough network and said, wait a minute, this is
Speaker 3: not listed. And so the individual got their own profile page,
Speaker 3: And like you said, who knows there is a potential
Speaker 3: that through some even maybe other cases, there could be
Speaker 3: a link to this individual's identity. It was a long
Speaker 3: time ago, but crazier things have happened in the world
Speaker 3: a criminal justice, So very very interesting.
Speaker 2: Good job, Robin, Yes, thank you. I was pretty flattered
Speaker 2: by that. And this listener was a very humble person
Speaker 2: who didn't want any credit for it, and they probably
Speaker 2: did not want me to mention their name on this episode,
Speaker 2: so I won't do it. But it was so cool
Speaker 2: that they just realized that this person who died back
Speaker 2: in the nineteen thirties was not on the Dough Network,
Speaker 2: so they took the initiative to submit him. So put
Speaker 2: it this way, if Henry Cole had not kept this
Speaker 2: man's remains in his boat house for four decades, he
Speaker 2: would not be listed on the Dough Network today. So
Speaker 2: silver linings.
Speaker 1: Of course, The Unsold Mystery segment also put a heavy
Speaker 1: emphasis on the possibility that Bessie Hyde could have murdered
Speaker 1: her husband heights out of the canyon and traveled somewhere
Speaker 1: to start a new life under a new identity. This
Speaker 1: idea came about because of the story shared by Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Cutler during a commercial wrapting trip in nineteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: where she told everyone else sitting around the campfire that
Speaker 1: she was Bessie Hyde and revealed the full truth about
Speaker 1: what happened. The way the segment frames it is that
Speaker 1: Cutler was dead serious when she told the story and
Speaker 1: became incredibly defensive when people tried to question her about it,
Speaker 1: later denying that she ever told the story or even
Speaker 1: knew who Glenn or best Hide was well. When Brad
Speaker 1: Dimmick did further research into this angle in Sunk without
Speaker 1: a Sound, he concluded that the details of Cutler's alleged
Speaker 1: confession seemed to have been greatly exaggerated by the sound
Speaker 1: of things. Since she had worked for many years in
Speaker 1: the field of psychology, Cutler had a tendency to say
Speaker 1: outrageous things just to see people's reactions. Since this rafting
Speaker 1: trip was camped near the spot where the Hide' vote
Speaker 1: was found and the guide decided to share the story
Speaker 1: about the disappearance, Cutler probably thought this would be a
Speaker 1: fun opportunity to troll people and claim she was Bessie Hyde.
Speaker 1: One of the members of this group was interviewed on
Speaker 1: Unsolved Mysteries and he claimed the Cutler was a very
Speaker 1: serious and quiet person throughout the trip, which is why
Speaker 1: her story about being Bessie came across as believable. However,
Speaker 1: when some of the other group members were interviewed for
Speaker 1: Sunk without a Sound, they described Cutler as a witty,
Speaker 1: cheerful character who loved to tease everyone, so they just
Speaker 1: felt that she was joking when she told them that
Speaker 1: she was Bessie. I think it's likely that when the
Speaker 1: legend of her story grew and eventually got blown out
Speaker 1: of proportion, Cutler tried to deny ever telling it because
Speaker 1: technically she did confess to committing murder, which joking or
Speaker 1: not could have landed her in some hot water. But
Speaker 1: whatever her motivations were, there is concrete evidence that Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Keutler was born in Pomeroy, Ohio and was living under
Speaker 1: that identity in nineteen twenty eight when Bessie went missing.
Speaker 1: So there's no way that they could possibly be the
Speaker 1: same person.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: I mean, they are able to prove that it's not her,
Speaker 3: But it does make you think, a psychologist or not,
Speaker 3: what is the motive for claiming you are a killer?
Speaker 3: It would be wildly incredible if she made this whole
Speaker 3: story that she's Bessie and she says, you know, Glenn
Speaker 3: drown this is you know, we were on this wild
Speaker 3: trip we were going to make history, and she really
Speaker 3: became kind of this infamous legend as Bessie. I could
Speaker 3: get that that's for attention, But when you start to say, hey,
Speaker 3: I actually killed my husband, I have no qualms telling
Speaker 3: you that, and I'm Bessie, it seems like one she
Speaker 3: would get in trouble and I assume she didn't, and
Speaker 3: two like it boggles my mind that someone would think
Speaker 3: that was a smart thing to do. We see false
Speaker 3: confessions all the time, but this doesn't seem like someone
Speaker 3: who would be desperate for attention like that. Because she
Speaker 3: is a professor, I mean she had to work very different,
Speaker 3: very hard as someone born in the what twenties or no, no,
Speaker 3: nineteen oh eight, right, yes, yes, Okay, so she's born
Speaker 3: in nineteen oh eight. This is a woman in the
Speaker 3: field of psychology that used to be male dominated. She'd
Speaker 3: becoming a professor also a job that started as a
Speaker 3: male dominant thing, and she's moving and making waves just
Speaker 3: like Bessie did. Why would you kind of regress and say, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm going to try to get attention by being Bessie
Speaker 3: and saying I killed someone.
Speaker 1: Were they drinking? Robin?
Speaker 2: It's never been specified, but I wouldn't be the least
Speaker 2: bit surprised because that would probably shed a lot of
Speaker 2: light on this because they don't get the impression Cutler
Speaker 2: knew much about the story beforehand and maybe was learning
Speaker 2: about it for the first time when the guy told
Speaker 2: it around the fire, and if they were drinking or
Speaker 2: possibly even smoking pot, she might have just at the
Speaker 2: time thought it was an amusing thing to do, to
Speaker 2: spontaneously claim that she was Bessie and that she killed
Speaker 2: her husband.
Speaker 1: So I don't think it's that wild in that context.
Speaker 1: If we've all known somebody that says things just for
Speaker 1: pure shock value, and if they've had a little bit
Speaker 1: of alcohol, I could see a situation where somebody would
Speaker 1: say that completely joking. But if somebody else takes it
Speaker 1: the wrong way, or if they retell that story, it
Speaker 1: becomes a game of telephone. Whereas she could have very
Speaker 1: obviously been teasing or joking about it and been like, oh, yeah, haha,
Speaker 1: and I killed my husband and this is how I
Speaker 1: did it. And then you get somebody who says, oh, no,
Speaker 1: she was a very serious person. That's why we took
Speaker 1: it very serious. So I think it's just context matters.
Speaker 1: And the way that somebody relays the story it as
Speaker 1: we can see with a game of telephone, and like
Speaker 1: eyewitness idifications, any ear witness identification, any type of recalling
Speaker 1: of events, we don't have one hundred percent accuracy. So
Speaker 1: I think that there is a scenario where she could
Speaker 1: have been joking and that after she just backpedals like WHOA,
Speaker 1: Now investigators are coming to ask me about this, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to deny it.
Speaker 3: Especially you have to pay attention to to who's saying it,
Speaker 3: because you're right, I didn't even think about it from
Speaker 3: that perspective. But what if someone's frustrated with her, insecure
Speaker 3: about her those kinds of things. Could they then say like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is how she meant it and actually try to
Speaker 3: slander her character when literally ingest she's teasing, which you know,
Speaker 3: I probably wouldn't encourage people to tease about murdering somebody.
Speaker 3: But you know, if she really was let's say, drinking
Speaker 3: or being silly or taking someone's comment and twisting it
Speaker 3: out of jest, and someone else is like, you know what,
Speaker 3: I'm really going to try to bring her down, then
Speaker 3: they could start that's you know, spreading the rumor there too.
Speaker 2: And then there was a theory that George white Clark
Speaker 2: might have been Bessie Hyde, an idea which spread when
Speaker 2: a copy of the Hyde's marriage certificate was found in
Speaker 2: her possessions after she died, along with a birth certificate
Speaker 2: that showed that Georgie's original birth name was Bessie. It
Speaker 2: is odd that Georgie would have a copy of that
Speaker 2: marriage certificate, but when you consider that her life were
Speaker 2: evolved around river rafting through the Grand Canyon, you'd have
Speaker 2: to think that she was familiar with the story of
Speaker 2: the Hide's disappearance, and she probably decided to acquire their
Speaker 2: marriage certificate as a souvenir, much like the Elizabeth Cutler situation.
Speaker 2: The problem with believing that Georgie white Clark and Bessie
Speaker 2: Hyde are the same person is that there's an actual
Speaker 2: historical paper trail for Georgie prior to nineteen twenty eight
Speaker 2: disproving the notion that she had assumed a new identity.
Speaker 2: And when you consider the fact that Georgie gave birth
Speaker 2: to a daughter in March of nineteen twenty nine, there's
Speaker 2: no way Bessie Hide would have been whitewater rafting through
Speaker 2: the Grand Canyon without anyone noticing she was five months pregnant.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so, especially because remember they said
Speaker 3: she was tiny, she was ninety pounds. I mean, I
Speaker 3: feel like you would quite notice that five months at
Speaker 3: least a poot where people would make assumptions of saying,
Speaker 3: do you guys think she's pregnant?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: I don't think even Glenn would be that arrogant to say,
Speaker 3: I love this woman. You know what I'm going to
Speaker 3: do if she's pregnant with my child or someone else's child.
Speaker 4: Even if you loved.
Speaker 3: Her, you probably wouldn't put your pregnant wife on the raft.
Speaker 3: So even poor Glenn, right, I don't think his story
Speaker 3: needed to be my pregnant wife made it as a
Speaker 3: hero on this trip. I think he would have been
Speaker 3: probably more cautious at that point because Bessie becomes a
Speaker 3: more fragile woman he wants to protect instead of this
Speaker 3: person who's going to be his partner in a legacy.
Speaker 1: So while the idea of Elizabeth Cutler or Georgie white
Speaker 1: Clark being Bessie Hyde has been conclusively disproven, I guess
Speaker 1: it's still tempting to explore the possibility that Betsy really
Speaker 1: did hike out of the canyon of her own accord
Speaker 1: and started a new life somewhere. During their trip, Glenn
Speaker 1: and Bessie were photographed multiple times and were usually shown smiling,
Speaker 1: but a number of people have taken note of the
Speaker 1: fact that the final photo of the couple, taken by
Speaker 1: Ali about Gilbert Sutro, the last known person to have
Speaker 1: seen them alive, see some much different picture. So in
Speaker 1: this picture, Glenn and Bessie looked pretty sullen, almost as
Speaker 1: if the riggers of their journey had completely sucked the
Speaker 1: life out of them. Since Bessie had expressed noticeable concern
Speaker 1: about embarking on the rest of the trip during her
Speaker 1: visit with Emery Cole, perhaps there is some truth to
Speaker 1: the idea that she wanted to bring an end to
Speaker 1: this and the only way to escape from Glenn was
Speaker 1: to kill him and leave the area on foot. Well.
Speaker 1: The problem with this theory is that all of the
Speaker 1: couple's supplies, including their food, winter clothing, and hiking boots,
Speaker 1: were left behind in their abandoned scale. Hiking out of
Speaker 1: the Grand Canyon in late November or early December is
Speaker 1: no picnic. So I think that if Bessie took off
Speaker 1: on her own, she would have at least taken some
Speaker 1: of the supplies along with her, because otherwise there's no
Speaker 1: way that she would have gotten out of there alive. No,
Speaker 1: it just seems likely that when the couple disappeared, they
Speaker 1: disappeared together. I know that over the years, Bessie's brother
Speaker 1: often liked to point of finger at her ex husband,
Speaker 1: Earl Helmet, since he was known for having a violent
Speaker 1: temper and had refused to grant Bessie a divorce. Perhaps
Speaker 1: he tracked down the couple and murdered them in revenge.
Speaker 1: Earle wound up getting remarried in nineteen thirty, and whenever
Speaker 1: he was asked about Bessie, he refused to talk about her. However,
Speaker 1: there is no evidence at all that Earle was involved
Speaker 1: in Glen and Bessie's disappearance, or that he even traveled
Speaker 1: to the Grand Canyon National Park at all. Really, what
Speaker 1: are the odds that Earl, who lived in an entirely
Speaker 1: different state, would have been able to track down the
Speaker 1: couple to a remote wilderness area along the Colorado River.
Speaker 1: To put this into perspective, even though the Hydes boat
Speaker 1: was spotted on the river from the airplane during the
Speaker 1: search efforts. It was six days before anyone physically made
Speaker 1: it to that location and found the boat. That should
Speaker 1: give you an idea of how inaccessible this jagged terrain was.
Speaker 1: So I'd say the odds of Glen and Bessie running
Speaker 1: into anyone there who murdered them are pretty much nonexistent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that did not happen. It's not as if they
Speaker 3: are social media vlogging their trip or something right where. Oh, today,
Speaker 3: we're at this point. Tomorrow, we're hoping to get to
Speaker 3: this point and if someone can hop on a plane
Speaker 3: or you know, quickly get to them, or even like
Speaker 3: you said, scale down the terrain to find them.
Speaker 4: They're on this wild trip through.
Speaker 3: The Grand Canyon, which is just a crazy, incredible physical existence.
Speaker 3: And so the fact that some ex husband who couldn't
Speaker 3: even find her when she was filing for divorce behind
Speaker 3: his back, is going to be able to locate her
Speaker 3: in the exact spot alone on this trip and access
Speaker 3: her physically is just that just did not happen.
Speaker 2: The most logical explanation is that the hides drowned in
Speaker 2: the river and their bodies were simply never recovered. I guess.
Speaker 2: One of the things that has given their disappearance is
Speaker 2: an extra or a mystery, is the fact that their
Speaker 2: empty boat was found upright and completely intact, with no
Speaker 2: signs of any damage, so on the surface, it doesn't
Speaker 2: look like they could have gotten into any accidents which
Speaker 2: caused them to drown. After all, all of their supplies
Speaker 2: and possessions were still inside the scow, which would not
Speaker 2: have been the case if they tipped over. But let's
Speaker 2: not forget that earlier in the journey, the rough rapids
Speaker 2: had caused Bessie to fall out of the boat before
Speaker 2: Glenn was able to rescue her, and Glenn also apparently
Speaker 2: fell into the water on two separate occasions as well,
Speaker 2: so it's reasonable to assume that this could have happened again,
Speaker 2: only this time they were not lucky enough to survive.
Speaker 2: There's also been this romanticized theory that Bessie fell into
Speaker 2: the water and let heroically dived into save her, but
Speaker 2: the two lovers wound up drowning together. According to Bessie's journal,
Speaker 2: the couple had made it as far as Diamond Creek rapid,
Speaker 2: which was located at river mile two twenty five, and
Speaker 2: they were about to enter one of the most dangerous
Speaker 2: sections of the river, in particular the two thirty two
Speaker 2: mile rapid, which has been nicknamed Killer Fang Falls. This
Speaker 2: is a spot where a pair of large, jagged bedrocks
Speaker 2: aka the Fangs, protrude from under water at the end
Speaker 2: of the rapids and they can just sneak up on rafters,
Speaker 2: as there are numerous documented cases of boats being capsized
Speaker 2: or seriously damaged after crashing into them. Considering that Killer
Speaker 2: Fang Falls is only five miles away from the spot
Speaker 2: where the Hide's empty scow was ultimately found, it seems
Speaker 2: like this is one of the most logical spots where
Speaker 2: they could have fallen into the water. Even though Glen
Speaker 2: and Bessie were both considered to be excellent swimmers, this
Speaker 2: was a very rough section of the river, and let's
Speaker 2: also not forget that Glenn stubbornly refused to carry life
Speaker 2: jackets in the boat. If he and Bessie are wearing
Speaker 2: life jackets at that time, then this is a survivable accident,
Speaker 2: but without them they may not have made it out
Speaker 2: of the river alive. This also would have taken place
Speaker 2: at the start of December, so even if the couple
Speaker 2: made it to shore, the cold winter temperatures could have
Speaker 2: caused them to succumb to hypothermia or exposure.
Speaker 3: It's also interesting when you think about you know, people saying, oh, well,
Speaker 3: they were strong swimmers. Like you just said, if you
Speaker 3: don't have a flotational device and you hit a current
Speaker 3: in a rapid, remember there's different levels of rapids and
Speaker 3: when there's actually places where they they are known kind
Speaker 3: of fatal risk, like you assume the risk in a
Speaker 3: good whitewater rafting boat. You think about this scal that
Speaker 3: is basically this handmade floating log. I don't know that
Speaker 3: you're going down the river end. I could easily see
Speaker 3: them getting bucked out of that, standing up at the
Speaker 3: wrong spot and falling over. But if you're a great
Speaker 3: swimmer and you get caught up in a current, if
Speaker 3: you get ripped under and get caught on a log
Speaker 3: or a branch and the current holds you underneath the water,
Speaker 3: if you hit your head on a rock, I mean
Speaker 3: there's a billion things that at that point you can't
Speaker 3: get back to the surface. Like you said, if we
Speaker 3: have a life veest on, it's possible to get back
Speaker 3: to the surface. But even with that you see people's
Speaker 3: life fest get caught on logs and actually be held
Speaker 3: underneath the water. So a million things can go wrong.
Speaker 3: It is so risky, and especially when it's just the
Speaker 3: two of you, if one person has to go in
Speaker 3: after the other, it's like all bets are off. There's
Speaker 3: no one watching for y'all. There's no one else who
Speaker 3: can rescue you. So incredibly scary to think about, but
Speaker 3: that is by far the most probable thing. I could
Speaker 3: see Glenn falling in and Bessie trying to save him,
Speaker 3: and I could also see Bessie falling in and Glenn
Speaker 3: trying to save her and both losing their lives.
Speaker 2: And considering that Bessie was only five feet tall and
Speaker 2: weighed only ninety pounds, it would have been very easy
Speaker 2: for her body to disappear and never be found if
Speaker 2: she wound up in the water.
Speaker 1: So we previously mentioned that while writing Sunk without a Sound,
Speaker 1: Brad Dimmick went all out when doing his research, going
Speaker 1: so far as to build an exact replica of the
Speaker 1: Hides wooden scal in order to recreate their journey along
Speaker 1: the Colorado River as closely as possible. After personally navigating
Speaker 1: the two hundred and thirty two mile rapid. Dimmick's conclusion
Speaker 1: was that Glenn or Bessie likely fell out of the
Speaker 1: boat and drowned there well. The empty scow continued to
Speaker 1: float down to where it was found at river mile
Speaker 1: two thirty seven. It seems odd that the scow could
Speaker 1: have potentially collided with the fangs without sustaining any damage,
Speaker 1: but in the book, Dimmick recounts incidents from his trip
Speaker 1: down the river whereas scow got involved in violent collisions
Speaker 1: which failed to leave noticeable damage. Now, I know Glenn
Speaker 1: and Bessie's bodies were never found, but the Grand Canyon
Speaker 1: is a large place, the search effort didn't launch until
Speaker 1: a week or so after the couple went missing, and
Speaker 1: there's no way to check every single into the Colorado River.
Speaker 1: But there are two little details in this story which
Speaker 1: could potentially shed some light on what might have happened
Speaker 1: to the couple. You may recall that when Emery and
Speaker 1: Ellsworth Colb found the scow, its bowline appeared to be
Speaker 1: fastened in a crevice in one of the rocks and
Speaker 1: caught on something underwater. Since the brothers were unable to
Speaker 1: dislodge it, they decided to cut the bowtline. While the
Speaker 1: Colbs received some criticism for this decision and later expressed
Speaker 1: regret about it, because some people believe that the other
Speaker 1: end of the bowline may have been attached to a
Speaker 1: body that was stuck in some rocks under water, which
Speaker 1: is why the boat had cut into a halt at
Speaker 1: that particular spot. So by cutting the bowline, the Kolbs
Speaker 1: may have severed their best chance of possibly recovering Glenn
Speaker 1: or Bessie. The other interesting detail is the alleged sighting
Speaker 1: by the prospector of the brown leather jacket floating in
Speaker 1: the Colorado River. Now, this jacket was never recovered and
Speaker 1: no one could confirm this sighting was one hundred percent legitimate.
Speaker 1: But if the prospector was telling the truth, what if
Speaker 1: he did not just see a leather jacket, but rather
Speaker 1: a jacket being worn by somebody whose body was floating
Speaker 1: down the river. After all, Bessie was known to have
Speaker 1: worn the jacket on this trip, so this sighting could
Speaker 1: have very well been the closest edyone ever came to
Speaker 1: uncovering conclusive proof that the couple drowned.
Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, I mean it could be something as simple
Speaker 3: as the jacket fell out of the boat, it could
Speaker 3: also be as tragic as saying, you know that was
Speaker 3: not just the jacket, that was Bessie in the jacket
Speaker 3: floating by. But when you talk about the rope, remember
Speaker 3: it was lodged in those rocks, and when they're trying
Speaker 3: to heave it out right, pull this line out, they can't.
Speaker 3: There's something that's stuck on. The weight is there. So
Speaker 3: you know, you would think if it's just a rope,
Speaker 3: it almost would feel like you could have an easier
Speaker 3: chance of dislodging it. But if there's a weight attached
Speaker 3: to that rope and then that weight is stuck underneath
Speaker 3: something like an anchor, a body, something like that, it
Speaker 3: makes it way harder to dislodge and get that rope
Speaker 3: pulled out of those rocks. So think of the weight
Speaker 3: it has on the boat itself and then the weight
Speaker 3: it has of this object.
Speaker 4: Pulling it underneath the water.
Speaker 3: And it really kind of creates like dental floss almost
Speaker 3: where it's stuck down in between the two rocks because
Speaker 3: of the weight. But if you could, you know, let
Speaker 3: go of the weight on one side, you could pull
Speaker 3: it out of that crack, and so when they.
Speaker 4: Cut it, who knows.
Speaker 3: It could have been a tree log, It could have
Speaker 3: been an actual little anchor that they had self created
Speaker 3: right that got stuck. But it also could have been
Speaker 3: a body. There's really zero way to know that. And
Speaker 3: it's sad when you think about the poor colds. They're
Speaker 3: sitting there going, oh my god, did we like actually
Speaker 3: cut their bodies away? Or at least one of them.
Speaker 3: There had to be some you said, there's regret. There
Speaker 3: had to be some guilt and a lot of emotion
Speaker 3: surrounding that too. Did we blow it? Because these are
Speaker 3: two individuals who likely lost their lives in these waters,
Speaker 3: but they had no way of knowing that.
Speaker 2: And I do wonder if either Glenn or Bessie, in
Speaker 2: order to protect themselves, could have tied the bowline to
Speaker 2: their legs. Like Bessie is a small person, so maybe
Speaker 2: she was thinking, this will save me if I get
Speaker 2: knocked out of the scow and I go overboard, or
Speaker 2: maybe if Bessie fell in and Glenn decided, I'm going
Speaker 2: to tie this to my leg so that I can
Speaker 2: go in and rescue her and hopefully remain tied to
Speaker 2: the boat but still wound up drowning, and for all
Speaker 2: we know, maybe if the sighting of the leather jack
Speaker 2: was legitimate, maybe Betsy's body was floating downstream at that
Speaker 2: at a totally different spot. But Glenn was separated from
Speaker 2: her because he was still tied to the bowline and
Speaker 2: he was underwater next to the abandoned scow, and the
Speaker 2: cold didn't even realize it. So when you look at
Speaker 2: all the evidence, the only explanation which made makes complete
Speaker 2: sense is that Glenn and Bessie both fell out of
Speaker 2: the scow and drowned, likely around the two hundred and
Speaker 2: thirty two mile rapid, and their bodies were simply never recovered.
Speaker 2: All the other twists in turns of this story, such
Speaker 2: as Emery kolbs skeleton and the woman claiming to be
Speaker 2: Bessie Hyde, are nothing more than red herrings, though they
Speaker 2: have allowed the legend of the story to live on
Speaker 2: for nearly a century, and I'm sure this tale is
Speaker 2: still told around the campfire in the Grand Canyon today. Obviously,
Speaker 2: given all the time that has passed, the Highs disappearance
Speaker 2: is no longer being actively investigated by law enforcement, so
Speaker 2: I'm not going to advise you to contact the appropriate
Speaker 2: authorities in case you have any information. I think the
Speaker 2: only chance this case will ever have of being solved
Speaker 2: is if someone happens to stumble upon Glenn or Bessie's
Speaker 2: skulls remains in the Colorado River somewhere, and with all
Speaker 2: the advances we've had with DNA technology, remains could be
Speaker 2: positively identified if this ever occurred. Overall, however, I think
Speaker 2: it's most likely this story is destined to remain an
Speaker 2: unsolved mystery. Jules Ashley, any final thoughts on this case?
Speaker 3: Okay, let me ask you guys this honestly, do you
Speaker 3: know who fred Noonan.
Speaker 2: Is Amelia Earharts navigator?
Speaker 4: Dang it?
Speaker 3: No, Robin, I didn't know that, Okay, so let me
Speaker 3: just say I did not know that. But in the
Speaker 3: back of my head, I was like, I'm pretty sure
Speaker 3: that she had a male companion, but I don't know him,
Speaker 3: Robin stop. I did not know who his name his
Speaker 3: name was, And in my head I just kept thinking, Man,
Speaker 3: had they made it, would Bessie be the next Amelia
Speaker 3: Earhart of the rap is right where she's this woman
Speaker 3: who Glenn even almost gets forgotten, and Bessie becomes this
Speaker 3: person that I'm reading to my girls about, right about
Speaker 3: this strong woman who has broken the mold.
Speaker 4: She stepped out.
Speaker 3: She's a legend in her own right, and Glenn or not,
Speaker 3: Bessie has this legacy behind her, and so it's I
Speaker 3: don't know. The whole time, I'm just kind of smiling
Speaker 3: thinking of her on the cover of like a.
Speaker 4: Who was book?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: Who was Bessie?
Speaker 3: And unfortunately you have these two newlyweds who had actually
Speaker 3: like literally moved mountains and gone into hiding and tried
Speaker 3: to set up residency and fled an abusive marriage all
Speaker 3: for the name of love and freedom and kind of
Speaker 3: this hunt for adventure. And we have no way of
Speaker 3: knowing what happened to them, but most likely in their
Speaker 3: pursuit of creating this story that they could go around
Speaker 3: the world and tour telling people, they ended up losing
Speaker 3: their lives together. Which is just this really tragic start
Speaker 3: to what should have been a really long, adventurous life
Speaker 3: together and it was cut short.
Speaker 1: It really is a sad case. Betsy was such a
Speaker 1: trailblazer at this time to be going from having this
Speaker 1: really difficult husband who was prone to these violent outbursts
Speaker 1: and for her to go, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: with this man. She had the fortitude to leave him,
Speaker 1: and even when he didn't want to grant her a divorce,
Speaker 1: she doggedly pursued that she moved so that to a
Speaker 1: different state so that she would have an easier time
Speaker 1: divorcing him, and she basically did an abventia because he
Speaker 1: didn't show up. She goes on to Mary Glenn and
Speaker 1: they have this amazing adventure planned and I can imagine
Speaker 1: how exciting it would be, Like this is like climbing
Speaker 1: a mountain. Like I said earlier, you got this exciting
Speaker 1: prospect that very few people have been able to accomplish this,
Speaker 1: and Glenn has made this boat and although I'm sure
Speaker 1: it was a little bit scary, it was also very exciting.
Speaker 1: So to think of their mindset at the beginning of
Speaker 1: this trip to them disappearing, it's very sad. And then
Speaker 1: I do think it does get very convoluted when you've
Speaker 1: got Cutler confessing to being Bessie and murdering her husband,
Speaker 1: and then Georgie having this marriage certificate and having the
Speaker 1: name so similar that it can be very compelling. But
Speaker 1: it's very obvious that these two people were not Bessie.
Speaker 1: I think that the most likely scenario is that they
Speaker 1: perished in this river. I didn't even realize it was
Speaker 1: one week when they started the search efforts, so those
Speaker 1: bodies very likely could have surfaced and then gone back
Speaker 1: down again in that time.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mentioned many times that I was introduced to
Speaker 2: this story as a child when it was featured on
Speaker 2: Unsolved Mysteries, and we've talked about what a trailblazer Bessie was,
Speaker 2: but the segment kind of does a disservice to her
Speaker 2: because they don't really talk about her achievements and her
Speaker 2: prior divorce or anything like that, and kind of makes
Speaker 2: it look like she was kind of a naive newlywed
Speaker 2: who was dragged along on this trip by her domineering
Speaker 2: husband and wasn't that enthusiastic about it. But actually she
Speaker 2: was a very adventurous person who really loved her husband
Speaker 2: and was hoping to make history, possibly go down in
Speaker 2: the history books like Amelia Earhart. But unfortunately she became
Speaker 2: famous for a completely different reason, and that was vanishing
Speaker 2: without a trace. Of course, back when I watched this
Speaker 2: on TV in the eighties, I thought there was some
Speaker 2: credence to the idea that maybe Bessie was still alive
Speaker 2: and had killed Glen and had hiked out of the
Speaker 2: canyon and started a new life under a new identity.
Speaker 2: Also wondered like if Emery Cole was involved in their disappearances,
Speaker 2: and what this big mystery was with the skeleton inside
Speaker 2: his boat house. But once you do further research into this,
Speaker 2: you find out that a lot of this stuff isn't
Speaker 2: as mysterious as as it looks, and that all these
Speaker 2: angles with like Elizabeth Cutler and Georgie white Clark and
Speaker 2: the cold skeleton are nothing more than red herrings, and
Speaker 2: that the simplest explanation is probably the correct one, and
Speaker 2: Glenn and Besley probably just drowned after falling out of
Speaker 2: their boat and are still somewhere in the Grand Canyon.
Speaker 2: I got to give a shout out to the excellent
Speaker 2: book Sunk Without a Sound by Brad Dimmick, and Ashley
Speaker 2: was talking about at the startup part one, how terrifying
Speaker 2: it sounded, the idea of going down the entire Grand
Speaker 2: Canyon on the Colorado River on a wooden scow back
Speaker 2: in the nineteen twenties, and Brad Dimmick decided to recreate that.
Speaker 2: He took the initiative to build his own scow so
Speaker 2: that he could try to recreate Glenn and Bessie's journey
Speaker 2: as accurately as possible in order to figure out what
Speaker 2: happened to them. Even though it sounds like a pretty
Speaker 2: terrifying prospect in modern times to go on such a
Speaker 2: lengthy trip on such a primitive boat, but it did
Speaker 2: pay off, and the book does provide an excellent recounting
Speaker 2: of the events and comes up with the most logical
Speaker 2: theory about what might have happened. But regardless, this is
Speaker 2: still a fascinating mystery, and even though a full centuries passed,
Speaker 2: it has not been forgotten, and I'm sure people won't
Speaker 2: be talking about it still for centuries to come.
Speaker 1: Robin, do you want to tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about the Trail Went Cold?
Speaker 4: Patreon?
Speaker 2: Yes, The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three
Speaker 2: years now, and we offer these standard bonus features like
Speaker 2: early ad free episodes, and I also send out stickers
Speaker 2: and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up
Speaker 2: with us on Patreon if you join our five dollars
Speaker 2: tier Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus episodes in
Speaker 2: which I talk about cases which are not featured on
Speaker 2: The Trail Went Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to
Speaker 2: Patreon and if you join our highest tier tier free
Speaker 2: the ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer
Speaker 2: is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Saw Mysteries,
Speaker 2: where you can download an audio file and then boot
Speaker 2: up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or
Speaker 2: YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in
Speaker 2: the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about
Speaker 2: the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very
Speaker 2: first episode that I did a commentary track over was
Speaker 2: the episode featuring this case. So if you want to
Speaker 2: download a commentary track in which I make more smart
Speaker 2: ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join
Speaker 2: Tier three.
Speaker 5: So I want to let you know a little bit
Speaker 5: about the Jules and Nashty Patreons. So there's early ad
Speaker 5: free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our
Speaker 5: Path Went Chili mini's, which are always over an hour,
Speaker 5: so they're not very many, but they're just too short
Speaker 5: to turn into a series, and we're really enjoying doing those,
Speaker 5: so we hope you'll check out those patreons, we'll link
Speaker 5: them in the show notes.
Speaker 2: So I want to thank you all for listening, and
Speaker 2: any chance you have to share us on social media
Speaker 2: with a friend or d rate and review is greatly
Speaker 2: appreciate it. You can email us at the pathwent Chili
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. You can reach us on Twitter
Speaker 2: at the Pathwin. So until next time, be sure to
Speaker 2: bundle up because cold trails and chili pass call for
Speaker 2: warm clothing.
Speaker 1: Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy