December 3, 2025 • 49 mins
In December 1971, Oklahoma Game Warden Melvin “Bucky” Garrison was found drowned in just two and a half feet of water in the Tiger Mountain area of Lake Eufaula. The circumstances surrounding his death remain a mystery. Was it a bizarre accident—or something more?
Join host Clay Newcomb as he sits down with retired Oklahoma Game Warden Ed Rotabush and Hank Jenks, 1st District Chief of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, to explore what is known, what remains uncertain, and the boundaries of the law that shaped the investigation.
If you have comments on the show, send us a note to beargrease@themeateater.com
Connect with Clay and MeatEater
Clay on Instagram
MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips
MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube
Shop Bear Grease Merch
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is the story of the unusual death of Oklahoma
game Warden Melvin Bucky Garrison, who drowned in two and
a half feet of water in the Tiger Mountain area
in the Deep Fork arm of Lake Ufalla in December
nineteen seventy one. I'm pretty much just gonna let this
story tell itself. I really doubt that you're going to
(00:28):
want to miss this one.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
His shotgun was missing. It's never been found to this day,
so most of the people involved immediately started thinking, you
know that he probably didn't drown in two feet of water.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
My name is Clay Knukem, and this is the Bear
Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search
for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the
story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land.
Presented by f h F Gear, American made purpose built
(01:15):
hunting and fishing gear as designed to be as rugged
as the place as we explore. I'm just outside of Okema, Oklahoma.
(01:39):
A man in a cowboy hat and spurs has taking
the saddle off a red Roan quarter horse. A few
weeks back, I was eating at the Shonees Buffet with
this man Andrew Stubbs, and he told me a story
that seemed as familiar to him as a nursery rhyme,
but the details were confusing. So you would have grown
(02:02):
up hearing about Bucky Garrison.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yes, sir. So when we were probably eighteen nineteen years old,
we started going down there to Bartlett Bottoms and hog
hunting and stuff. And there were some older guys that
took us and that we went with, and they, you know,
would just when we would go, they would tell us
about an outlaw that used to live down there and
had killed a game warden. And so yeah, we you know,
(02:27):
we heard stories from from many people, you know, as
we were growing up.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
If it feels like it's just like common knowledge in
this community, would you say it's just common knowledge that
Bucky Garrison was murdered. I mean, that's just what you
grew up. You never really would have even questioned it,
or would you have.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
You know, all of the older guys that that hunted
in that area and that you know, was familiar with it. Yeah,
that's that's what everybody has told us, that he was
murdered down there, you know, by a guy that was
you know, kind of an outlaw.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You know, murder is a heavy word, and it's clear
the community doesn't even question it. The story intrigued me
enough that I wanted to find out more and I
got connected with retired Oklahoma Wildlife Officer Ed Roodebush. But
there's a twist right off the bat.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
The first day when I went to Oklahoma City, I
was delivered up there by the Tulsa County Warden and
there was nine of us there and Darryl Musgrove, who
was our assistant chief. He told the whole Bucky Garrison
story to us, and at that time I didn't know
I'd be going there. And he told us, you know,
(03:42):
whoever went to McIntosh County to be careful and you know,
be on triple dog alure.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So is your introduction as your intro packet to becoming
a game warden? They told you this story, yes, back
in nineteen eighty one. Yes, wow. In the in the
what was coming from the top was that this guy
had been murdered.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, and that this guy whose name he mentioned, who
was the same guy Bullet said, did it is who
they suspected. I don't think back in nineteen seventy one
they could do as thorough investigation as they could today.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And ed has just alluded to the twist. There is
no actual evidence that it was murdered. It was deemed
an unusual drowning, and after fifty four years, no one
has ever been charged, tried, or convicted of murder. But
I believe that if you pulled one hundred people in
Macintosh County, Oklahoma, today, ninety nine of them would say
(04:49):
it was a murder. This is a story about how
much precision can the law have when there's no evidence,
no confessions, no video, and no witnesses. Here's the first
district Chief of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife, Officer Hank Jenks.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So this story is around the death of a Oklahoma
game warden was on December the twenty seventh, nineteen seventy one.
He was recently hired in McIntosh County and worked with
an older game warden by the name of Bullet Burns,
(05:36):
who was if you were a game arden, if you
were a poacher, you knew bullet Burns. I mean, he's
got quite a history. I would love to have talked
to him about this, but we can't. He's no longer
with us. I went to his funeral. So I know
for a fact that he's no longer with us. But
so they're around the area of Lake Ufalla in Oklahoma,
(05:57):
and the north west part of that lake is a big,
giant wooded bottom land, and Bullet had told him to
be careful when he was in that area, that it's
notorious for poaching, no tours, for all kinds of bad actors,
and had warned him to not go by himself into
(06:21):
that area. You know that it's just it's just not
a good place.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Historically, Oklahoma has been a dangerous place for law men.
More US Marshalls have been killed there than in any
other state. Oklahoma became a state in nineteen oh seven,
that's pretty late, and for nearly a century before that,
it was known as Indian Territory. As someone who grew
up twenty miles from the Oklahoma border, I can tell
(06:46):
you their reputation, at least to the east was a
rough one. We knew it as a lawless place, especially
known for wildlife outlaws. Here's ed Rodebush.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
This is a very wild area. And until they built
sixty nine Highway and I forty, it was kind of inaccessible.
There was no jobs down here. So a lot of
people lived here, lived off the land, and they didn't
really like when the lake came in because it brought
tourism in. And for years there was just one warden here,
(07:21):
and finally when the lake got going, they brought a
second one on. So when I came here the game morning,
his name was bullet Burns, been through World War two
and Korea. He went to work in September of nineteen
fifty three, and I was born in June and fifty four.
(07:43):
So I told him, I said, the month I was conceived,
you went to work, and he didn't like that too well.
But I started in September the fourteenth of nineteen eighty
one and retired on October first of twenty sixteen, thirty
five years, okay, And I was here the whole time
(08:06):
in Macintosh County, Macintosh County, and when they hired me
and we finally got our assignments, they told me I
was coming to Macintosh County and they said, the last
one thing we had killed and the last one we
had shot all the pieces was in your area, and
(08:29):
no one can get along with bullet Burns, who was
my partner. So they said two years and you can
transfer out. So I worked thirty five years here and
it's really a good place to work. But I mean
there's some rough customers down here. Probably a sixth of
this county is underwater, and there's places where you had
(08:51):
to drive twenty miles just to get on the other
side of the lake. But Bucky was twenty five year
years old and he had two little girls, and he
was from Wagner, Oklahoma. Well, I was twenty seven years
old and I had a two year old and a
(09:13):
four month old, and I was from Wagner too, And
Bullet really took this heart about Bucket because Bullet had
warned him not to go where he did because it
was dangerous. There's dangerous people up there, and he told him,
don't to go up there unless you're with me. But
(09:33):
at that time, the lake was just a few years
old and all that bottom was only two to three
foot deep and it was green timber, and ducks by
the thousands would flog in there. So there would be
hundreds of hunters up there and they would shoot, ducks, laid,
they would, you know, just do everything. So Bullet had
(09:57):
showed him that spot and had showed him told him
not to ever go there. Well, the day after Christmas
is listed as the day Bucky died. Some deals will
say it was December twenty seven, but he was to
have some friends or family come that wanted to duck
(10:18):
hunt on the weekend. So he told Bullet he was
going to be scouting over there to find a good
place to take these guys. Well, he left on December
twenty sixth at four pm, and it's maybe a fifteen
minute drive twenty minute drive from where he was.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
So ed became partners with Bucky Garrison's former partner, Bullet Burns.
Ed inherited the ripples from Bucky's death, and later we'll
learn that we really don't know exactly why Bucky was
over around Tiger Mountain, whether he was patrolling or scouting
for ducks. Here's Officer Jenks.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And it was early in the duck season, and he
found his way up there by himself and kind of
jumped forward a little bit. He didn't come home that night,
and someone had finally got in touch with Bullet and
had told him, you know, that Bucky was missing, and
he that's the first place he thought of. I think
the exit to this place. If you've ever been down
(11:21):
I forty. It's enter and around that if you've ever
seen the Son of Tiger Mountain exit, which is just
east of Henrietta on I forty. Now and big search
party came together. They found his truck, found his game
warden truck, and his shotgun was not in the truck.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
And Bullet drove over there and was met by the
district chief and one of the biologists from Moulga came over.
His name was Johnny Shelton, and Bullet took him right
to Bucky's vehicle, and of course the hood was cold.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You could tell he'd been there a long time.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
And they got to waiting around there, and he had
one of the old type six Folt flashlights and had
the square battery in a plastic case and it was floating.
So they waited around, and they got three or four
other of the game mornings from district too to come over,
and because the water would be almost blood red and
(12:25):
it was real dark from the Oklahoma City area where
that water comes from, and Bullet actually bumped into him
and found him, and he was in the water core underwater,
and he had on chest waiters and they were pulled
plumb off of him except his feet was still stuck
(12:47):
in and so it'd be kind of like a sock
inside out, only these waiters were inside out. And they
found this derringer with one shell fire. It was a
two shot darringer, and they never did find a shot again.
They even lowered the lake and brought metal detectors and
really looked hard. But even back then, I'd say that
(13:11):
Browning was worth four hundred dollars or so. One thing
I failed to mention Bucky's fingernails were filled with mud
and debris and stuff where he had been clawing in
that mud, and I don't know how probably not even
ten seconds she would have been gone. And that plus
(13:33):
it was ice cold water too, because it's in December.
In fact, they found no wounds on him. There was
no assault, evidence of assault other than he had to
dirt under his fingernails and he drowned in two and
a half feet of water and his chest waiters were
pulled inside out. So it was ruled by the corners
(13:54):
in accidental drowning. I mean, yeah, don't look good, but
you know, I understand why it was real dead.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
So that just didn't From the time it happened, nobody
believed that. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
No, No, our people didn't. The local people didn't. Yeah,
and you know, I just that don't even make sense.
Of course, if one was just shocked that that would happen.
Because I don't think we had had a warden killed,
or they were called rangers back then. I don't think
(14:32):
we'd had one killed. You know, we had had some
guys injured, but he only had seven months on so
bullet took that real personal.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Bucky Garrison's death was ruled in accidental drowning. Now would
be a good time to run through the possible scenarios
in your mind, especially those of you who are duck
hunters and who get in dark water with waiters. Do
you think it would be possible well for a healthy,
strong man to drown in two and a half feet
(15:04):
of water? And why would the waiters be pulled down?
Why would one shot be fired from his derringer? Why
would there be mud all under his fingernails. Here's Officer
Jinks with a very critical piece of info. We've already
said it, but I want to say it again.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
His shotgun was missing. It's never been found to this day.
I've been told that the corp of Engineers was involved.
In the investigation and even lowered the lake because it's
in a real dealty area and it can you know,
it can be drawn down, and it's down a lot.
But he never found the gun, and so most most
(15:49):
of the people involved immediately started thinking, you know that
he probably didn't dround in two feet of water.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Did Bullet just immediately think that he had been murdered.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
He did when they found him drowned with his waiters
pulled off, and that's not normal, and his browning was missing,
which he thought was odd. But he knew that truck
would be parked in that one spot, and I would
guess they probably had a good duck hole there. But
we're talking hundreds, maybe a thousand acres of flooded forest
(16:36):
up there at that time, and this was really the
only road into it, and it had a little two
tracker off of it, and he was down there. In fact,
the first day I was here, Bullet took me up
there and he showed me exactly where the truck was,
told me the whole story, and it didn't really scare me,
(16:57):
but it sure put me. Like I said, said, I'd
already knew that I could trust this guy if he
lived through World War Two in Korea. He was a survivor.
You know, Bullet was just sick about it because you know,
he was kind of under his wing, you know, trying
to train him and everything. And Bullet had two sons,
(17:18):
and you know, for someone to lose a twenty five
year old son with two little kids doing his job,
it was just unthinkable. And I could tell it really
bothered him. But it also had me intrigued too, And
I think that is one reason bull and I got
so close, was he had a chance to redeem himself
(17:42):
with me. And I tell you why. He told me
the same thing, don't go up there without him. And
I did not go up there without anybody until I'd
been on about fifteen years. Because the guy that everyone
thinks did it, and Bullet things too, he still worked
(18:03):
that area up there. He's still hundred and fished up there.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Ed just told us the most twisty part of this story.
They not only believed that Bucky was murdered, but they
had a high level of certainty who did it, but
it wasn't from any physical evidence. As a matter of fact,
on one of Ed's first days on patrol with Bullet Burns,
they bumped into the man they believe that did it.
(18:31):
This person shall remain nameless on this podcast. I've actually
worked pretty hard to not even Noah's name, but it's
on the lips of just about everyone that you meet
over in that part of the world. But how could
they be so certain and have no evidence? I'm very
interested and the person that they thought did this, Can
(18:53):
you tell me about this suspect and why they thought
it was him? How much certainty everybody had that this
guy did it? What was it that was so compelling
that made them believe this guy did it?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
He was the Jesse James of the poachers upon the
Tiger Mountain and Deep four Bottoms, and he was a
big man, and he was a mean man, and he
had a reputation for fighting, drinking, killing deer, and after
the late come in for selling fish. And he was
actually caught selling fish. Of all the things, he did
(19:34):
a little time on that, but he was the number
one target. And on the side with all them ducks
up Prayer, there was a lot of people willing to
pay good money for a duck guide, and he was
guiding people and he had the perfect boats for it
because he had small light aluminum boats with old motors.
(19:54):
He didn't mind driving over a tree or through the
mud with his motor. And he was just famous. He
was like the boss hog of all of them up there.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
What did you think the first time you met him?
You're a young young guy with bullet you already know,
you know you're coming in with this information that they
think he's the one that did it. Yes, what was
your perception of him?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
We carried a three fifty seven six shot at that time,
Smith and Wesson, and I drew a mental tenoring right
here on his chest, and I said, that's where I
put all six of my shots. And I'm in it.
I mean, I told myself it'll be him, it won't
be me. He was that bad of a character, Yes,
(20:41):
And I could tell he just gave off a sense
of just evilness.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Was he just arrogant and loud? Was he like? What
would you have thought if you ran into him? Not you,
but a stranger met him in a gas station? Would
you have been afraid of the guy or what? He
just look like a normal guy.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
No, And that's what was so evil about him. First
time I met him, his exact words were, you guys,
come over the house. The old lady just made a
peach cobbler. And he's the kind of guy that would
patch on the back and all that stuff. And like
I said, didn't kill you. But he was a very strong,
big man. You could tell that he was awesome. And
(21:25):
the thing he was doing that day and I had
never even heard of this. The lake was up two
or three foot and it's a pecan bottom that this
was in, you know, lots of pecan trees, and he
was smashing his boat into the pecan trees and then
scooping up the pecans with nat you know, a fine
mesh map. He had a literally boat full of pecans.
(21:50):
But I just you know, my spider sins kicked in
on him, and I you know, I would never get
as close to him as like to me to you
unless I was handcuffed me and then i'd have someone
with me.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
And in your career, did you ever have that feeling
quite like that with other people?
Speaker 4 (22:09):
I did a few times, but it never came to
bear fruit. And it's something just like the hair on
your neck stands up, and if you have time to
prepare for it, you mentally think, well, I'm going to
do this. If he does this or if this happens,
I will do that. And I rested him another time,
(22:33):
me and a different partner, and he was actually selling
fish to this guy and they were standing in knee
deep water. And I jumped out of that truck and
still kind of barely rolling, and run out there and
grab the boat. And I was three foot from him
at that time. And the thing was, even though he
was a feeling already, we never ever found him with
(22:56):
any kind of a fire but he had edged weapons everywhere.
There was seven big butcher knife tight knives in that boat.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
So was that a sting operation? Was he selling to
one of your guys?
Speaker 4 (23:10):
No, that was just you just caught him, dumb luck.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
We weren't even looked.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
We just drove in there and saw him and before
my partner could get it out of gear, you know,
of course, we was barely rolling. I bailed out as
soon as he got in gear. He wound up on
the other side and he had shocked those fish because
he had a shocking device and a small flashlight like
the sixth volt I talked about, but it was one
(23:37):
of the older ones that was metal. And I had
already got some intelligence that.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
He had that.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So when I saw that there, I noticed that the
button you pushed down was missing broke, So I said,
what's that and well he just got nervous. Well, that's
the flashlight. So I had Mike handed to me across
the boat and I said, where's the switch and he said, oh,
it's broken, don't work. And I said, why would you
(24:04):
carry a broke flashlight in a boat? And he and
I unscrewed the lid off and looked down there and
I said, well, here's why. It's got a fish shocker
in it. You can't let's get a light out of that.
And that serious offense. That's kind of like a regular
policeman finding a murder, you know, catching the guy that
(24:25):
did it.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So did you did I hear you say you caught
him one time with a bunch of with nets out
or trot lines.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
My partner and I watched him for about three days
from about half a mile away in a remote area
with the spotting scopes, and I watched him, well, we
both watched him run seventy five trot lines when three
is your limit. And these are short trout lines that
he wouldn't bait, and he would just stick his oar
(24:58):
down he had in that notch out of it, and
if he felt that line and it was tug and
he would pull it up. And most of these fish
you'd run five to eight pounds, and he probably caught
ten that we saw that day. I actually drew crude
maps of where the trees were, where his trot lines were,
(25:18):
because we would need to find some for evidence. You know,
when we did the takedown and when he run those
lines all three days, he was missing for about an
hour he went out of our view, so there's no
telling how many lines he had up there. But when
we actually brought some fellow game orders in and set
(25:42):
up on him, someone in the woods watching him make
sure he didn't pull anything. Then I had another game
ordered me. We went in and affected the arrest, and
then that my partner and another guy were over there
watching and we actually said up radio coach, because people
had scanners. When my partner told me that the wind's
(26:06):
starting to blow out of the west, that means that
he had left and went around where he couldn't see
us and we could get in position. And then he
told me, he said, boy, they're doing a lot of
snagging over here. To Dan today. We were thirty thirty
five miles from the dam. And then when he told
me the cats in the bag, that meant he was
(26:27):
coming in. And when he came in, I knew we
had him already, so I cuffed him up. And then
when everyone showed up, my partner I think he got
on the radio and he said, hey, he ran a
net too, which is net's a big violation. And we
(26:48):
wound up taking him to jail. On that actually had
my district chief over there when we put him to work.
He was our chauffeur. And this guy and myself sat
in the back seat and told life to each other,
because in my chief less is hard. I mean, he's
good intended. But he asked him how much a pound
(27:08):
he got for these fish? Oh, I don't sell these fish.
I give him away. And there was a young girl
that had been had died in a fire over by there,
and he said, I took a fifty pound fish over
to that family for that little girl. And he probably did,
you know, he just kind of liked that. But that
(27:29):
time I actually took leg irons to handcuff him with
because his wrist were so big, and I had borrowed
the leg irons from you fall a police department, and
that's a pretty big deal because when they heard us
go ten fifteen, which means we were bringing a prisoner
in about half a Macintosh County showed up because they
wanted to see what kind of arm and I had
(27:52):
drug in in leg irons on his frist and he
got thirty days out of that and a few hundred
dollars fine. And I got mad because when I checked
on the cases later, I saw that he served six days,
not the thirty. So I went down because it said
(28:12):
he had worked down into National Guard armory on those
six days. So I asked the head guy down there
and said, what's the deal on this? And he said,
had those prisoners didn't like to work very good? When
he got down here. I think he backslapped one of
them or something. He said, that's the most work we've
ever got out of prisoners. So he was a valued supervisors,
(28:36):
so they gave him five for one and he just
had to do six days.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Was he in his community? Was he well liked?
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Not really here because he actually lived in Moga County.
He was a lone wolf. You never saw anyone with him,
you know, he always went by himself. I must have
checked him or times in my career, and mostly when
he'd come in, and he always brought fish in head
(29:07):
and guts out of him. But he left a tail
on because the flathead to bring more money into Blue Cat.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So what did this guy say about being accused of
this murder?
Speaker 4 (29:18):
I don't know, because I'm sure he heard about it,
and Bullet didn't say okay. Of course, lots of people
ask him about buying fish, and he he never admitted
it or bragged on and he was very smart.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
As Ed's telling me this story, I'm trying to understand
his certainty. If I told you that a person was
a murderer before you met him, that would be really
hard to overcome. Could it have been confirmation biased? I
really don't have the right to have an opinion, but
could it be possible that the biggest wildlife outlaw in
(29:55):
that region was falsely pinned with the murder of this
game warden. But I also know that the judicial systems
sometimes just don't work, and I put a lot of
stock in what the people on the ground during that
time believed. In full disclosure, the suspect is no longer
alive today, but in the eyes of the law, he
(30:18):
is completely innocent. You heard me ask ed if the
guy was well liked in this community. I find it
a trend that sometimes these old school wildlife outlaws can
be charismatic, likable people in their community, even generous. And
my suspicions were confirmed when a local who isn't on
this episode told me that each Christmas the suspect would
(30:41):
go to the local grocery store and buy apples and
oranges to give his gifts to people. I also heard
some pretty negative stuff about the guy and his character.
My intent isn't to defend this guy. These are just
questions that I have, but there are some things that
we haven't learned yet. Here's Officer Jinks.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
So you know, we we sent in the best guys
we had at the time. We really didn't have an
undercover unit at the time, but they sent in folks
that to try to maybe get some intel on what
could have happened. Who could have happened. The LSB, I'm
sure was involved, but it was. It was eventually deemed
(31:31):
a drowning because they just never got any They could
never prove that he was you know, attacked or held
underwater or and and for for years after that. We
we've spent you know, the Department, my my agency, the
Oklahoma Department a Wildlife has you know, had had sent
folks in trying to infiltrate that area. They tried, you know,
(31:54):
there there were folks that were suspected, but they could
just never bee sit together and prove it. So I've
talked to a lot of the guys that are retired
but were investigators, and they it all goes back to
the main investigator was at He was a game ward
(32:16):
and his name was Haskell Moseley, and he was he
was probably our best investigator. He did some uc work,
you know, and this was in a time where we
really didn't have undercover, but he he from everyone that
I've talked to, he one hundred percent believed in that
there was a one suspect, but but he just was
(32:38):
never able to piece together enough information to bring charges.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
They could never pin this guy with Bucky's murder. There
are some things that the law just can't prove. But
I'll tell you that more than one person, none of
which work for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife or were
on this podcast, told me personally with the suspect quote
all but admitted to the murder, and some say that
(33:06):
he did admit to the murder, but it was never proven.
They never had a wire on somebody when he said that,
And I know that rumors spread easily. Maybe he didn't
say that at all. Maybe that's just a convenient rumor
that was started. All that I do know is that
time has erased a lot of details. But I do
want to know what the man who was actually on
(33:29):
the crime scene believed happened. So what do you think happened?
What did Bullet think happened? Like, just he was there,
He found Bucky with his waiters pulled down there, one
shot deringer, one bullet spent. What did he think happened?
Speaker 4 (33:48):
He thought someone was shooting late, because Bucky, if he'd
have got over, say four point thirty, got out in
the water, there wasn't thirty five forty minutes the shooting
time left. I mean, that's you wanted to try and
get over and set up is just a little before.
And he thinks he heard him shooting late and they
were probably having a great time. Bullet thinks he had
(34:10):
someone with him and when Bucky fired that shot. Now
that pistol. Bullet thinks that he shot it in the
air to get their attention and probably shine that flashlight
at him if it was you know, dusk, And they
came over there, and Bullet thinks that one of them
run the boat and the other guy grabbed him and
(34:31):
kind of held him under and actually drove the boat
away similar to water skiing. But he was hanging over
the edge underwater, and that would have pulled your waiters off.
But your feet are hard to get out of waiters
if you've ever warm. It wouldn't have taken a couple
of three minutes to do that, so they didn't come
(34:53):
off of him, and they probably grabbed that shotgun at
the same time too, because he probably grabbed the boat
because that'd be the natural deal to do on something
like that. And since he's by himself, you know, he
had no backup. But that scenario Bullet told me, and
especially after working thirty five years, I think he was
(35:15):
spot on. I think that was it.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I guess it's just hard to make sense how a healthy,
twenty five year old guy trained in law enforcement competent
would have drowned in two and a half feet of water.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Yeah, see there's no way that scenario. You know, he
didn't have a heart attack.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
But even if he'd had a heart attack, that didn't
explain waiters being pulled down to his.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
There's no way because out in two and a half
foot of water, wearing waiters, if you were going to
take him off, you would go to the bank. You
can't take water, and you wouldn't get in your sock
feet in the day after Christmas in two and a
half foot of water, I mean that water probably was
forty degrees.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah, and he didn't hypothermia. He does drowning.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Yeah, he died. They're drowning because what I read what
the corner said in the report was that he there
was no evidence of foul play.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
No evidence of foul play. Here's Officer Jinx with an
interesting point.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
If someone's gonna hold me underwater and I'm fighting for
my life, I'm gonna have some marks on me. Now
you throw waiters on, you throw you know, a heavy
coat on, I don't know if those marks would be.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
There or not.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
That's a great point. If I was decked out.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
If I looked like a duck hunter, or I was
checking duck hunters, I'm gonna have so many clothes on
that quite frankly, it would be easy for you know,
for someone that was bigger than me and I got
too close to them, or most likely more than one person,
that they're going to grab you and and and they're
(36:57):
gonna hold you underwater. And I don't know if there
would be any indications other than water in your lungs.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Originally, one of my bigger questions was why wouldn't he
have shown signs of a struggle, But big clothes could
have been the reason. When I look at this story,
to me, the biggest piece of evidence that indicates that
there was some kind of foul play, which I know
is calculated into this, was that his gun. His shotgun
(37:29):
was never found. If he was recreational duck hunting or
if he was patrolling, which we really don't know, we
don't we truly don't know what he was doing. But
he was in his company, he was in Oklahoma Wildlife truck,
and in either one of those siting situations, he would
have had his shotgun.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yes, if he was checking, you know, if he was
down checking duck hunters, he may have felt like that
was would have been a good cover for him. I
mean I wouldn't necessarily take a shotgun to walk out
on a peninsula and check hunt it's not.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
But he would have had it in the truck, oh absolutely, absolutely,
So the fact that it's just like gone, it's gone.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
And and to me, you know, not to not to
get you know, to be disrespectful, but you know, the
body wouldn't have traveled that far where. It's not like
something that would float for even a few feet, especially
in a bottom, in a timbered bottom land. You're gonna
it's gonna bump into trees. It's not gonna it's not
gonna be far from that weapon if the weapon was there,
(38:29):
and so I would I'm I agree. I think it's
the biggest it's the most damning piece evidence that there
was foul play involved the fact that it never showed
up ever.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
But that's not the full story of the gun. Jinx
has been holding out on us.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
So one other aspect to this that so this this
Haskell Mosley that investigated this, He dug around, he was
he lived down there for a certain period of time,
would go to bars and was trying to get in
with some of the suspects or suspect if you will.
He went to his grave saying that he had an
(39:10):
opportunity to buy that shotgun. He had a guy come
to him somewhere along the way and said he knew
where the shotgun was at and was willing to sell it.
But for whatever reason, and the story that I got
not to talk about about my agency because I don't
know who knows what the truth was or and I
(39:32):
can't put my head around why they would even again
this was fifty years ago, why they wouldn't want to
do that. But it never happened. But his story was
that he wasn't allowed well to say that, to go
through with that, But he claims that he talked to
someone who knew where it was at.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Interesting. Wow, I could see that being a legitimate thing,
just inside of the bureaucracy of any yeah, big agency,
you know, the legality. I could see how it could
get caught in the wires. But now it seems like
a no brainer.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, well, if you think about it, and again I've
thought about this a lot. If you think about fifty
years ago, I can tell you there's probably weapons in
my house that maybe I've had or my dad has.
There's no serial number that's ever been logged anywhere. He
bought it at a from a friend, or bought it
at Walmart, And so I'm like you, I think that's
probably what it came down to, is that even if
(40:30):
they had this, someone handed him this shotgun and he
the Department provided money for him to buy it, would
they really know if that was the shotgun.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
He had a chance to buy Bucky Garrison's gun. Wouldn't
it be interesting to know all the details that Haskell
Moseley knew? But maybe we can. Officer Jinks keeps giving
me new information. He may have just found all the
answers we've been looking for.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
So I got permission to delve back into the records
as deep as I could, because most of the I
talked to. When Clay called me, I was at a
conference in Pennsylvania, and I started immediately thinking, Okay, who
would know the story? And I called and they're like, oh,
there's one hundred percent of case file somewhere. But I
talked to my bosses. Neither one of them knew where
(41:23):
that was at, if it even still existed, And they
gave me permission to go and look in in an
area that they thought it might be if it existed,
and so I dug through a folder a file, and
I'm cruising along and down about four folders. I see
Bucky Garrison written on a folder and I thought, bingo,
Praise the Lord, here we go.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I hurried to it.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
It's an empty folder and I don't think there's an
I don't think there's any you know, it could have
been someone was going to start a file or whatever.
But it was just kind of ironic that I thought, man,
I'm gonna there's going to be some great stuff here,
and it was. There was a file somewhere, but you know,
we don't keep fifty year old cases around, even though
(42:08):
this was a big one, you know, in the history
of our department. He was he died in the line
of duty. But I don't know where it's at. And
you know, I don't think anybody stole it or anything
like that. I just think it's time has made it disappear.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
So that's it's not odd to you that it's not there.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
It's not uh, you know, I'm sure that's a folder
that that when a probably some old game warden who
was maybe the guy mentioned earlier not to throw Haskell
under the bus, but he probably had that case file
and when he was trying to invest do his investigative work,
and it may have just you know, he could have
got picked up again by another game. You know, And
(42:47):
because we've they've looked at this, I can remember, are
our undercovered folks looking at this numerous times? From what
I've been told that they've they've tried to pick it up,
maybe maybe hoping that uh, you know, this suspect to
talk to somebody, or that a relative or maybe someone
maybe someone else was there who goes duck hunting by themselves.
(43:09):
I don't normally do that, and so it doesn't it
doesn't seem that odd to me that after fifty years,
it's it got misplaced or whatever. You know, it's a shame,
because I'd love to get Ebb my hands on it
to see. You know, there's no we have no primary
sources on this. There's no one live that we that
we can talk to that.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Was there.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
An empty folder. I think there was some evidence in
that case file that gave all these wardens confidence in
their suspicions of foul play, but it was probably stuff
that couldn't be proven or used in court. I don't know.
I'm just speculating. But I've got one final question for Ed.
(43:53):
After all your years of law enforcement, now that you're retired,
do how much faith do you have insight out of
the system when it comes to specifically deaths that corners
get right? Because I know how time sensitive stuff like
that is. I mean, you know, you get a body
(44:13):
and it's everybody immediately makes assumptions and usually you know
what happened. The guy's got a bullet wound, or the
guy's laying in the water under the water, and but
then it goes to the corner. I mean, are you
and I'm it's not a leading question. I mean, are
you like one hundred percent confident when you hear stuff
like that or just being on the scene all these
(44:34):
years and seeing stuff or hearing about stuff, would you
be like.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
Ah, back in the seventies, how it is said, Yeah,
But now because of the computers and the AI and
all that, I think they hit it right on the nose.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
So back then, didn't you depend on if it was
a new guy doing the autopsy or an old hand. Yeah,
but there were to been water in these Yeah, he drowned.
You know, it's pretty easy, and you know on an autopsy,
they're looking a lot of stuff from the inside out,
and there was no other wounds or anything other than
(45:12):
the His fingers had to dirty, I mean, just caked
like they were driven up in there, and that be
indicative of clawing, trying to get away or stop. You know,
it would have been an instinct move that anyone would
have done. So to me, that call of they found
(45:34):
no evidence of foul play made it look even more
fishy to me than you know what it would have
if they'd said, well, he's been hitting the head of everything,
you would have known.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
I'm struck to buy. Now, fifty years later, we've got
this story, We've got this interesting story that you know,
there's so many questions of you know that that time
has kind of swept away, like we just we just
don't know all the answers. But it feels like, I mean,
(46:10):
if the crime lab says that it was a drowning,
like what are you supposed to do? Because there could
be there could be somebody that would be like, well
if if if everybody knew that he was actually murdered,
why didn't they do more? And I think the answer
is they did do more. But there's I mean in
(46:30):
the in the law systems. Even in a country like ours,
which you know, say what you will, it's better than others.
Some other places the system can fail at times when
there's just a dead end. And then in an autopsy
that says the man drowned and there's no signs of
foul play is a dead end, you know, yes, And
(46:53):
so because I think at first blush, You're like, well,
this clearly wasn't you know this this case, apeable, strong
young man didn't drown in three feet of water two
and a half feet of water. No, something happened, and
you know, how did something like this not get discovered?
(47:14):
But the truth is too as I hear this story
and have no dog in the fight other than just
you know, it's a human being. It's hard to completely
put the blame on this on this suspect when there's
no evidence that the guy did it. No, it's it's
hard to be too sure of anything.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Really. Our agency magazine Outdoor Oklahoma, I dug around and
was curious what it said, you know, and it basically
just said that he was checking on hunting activities in
the Tiger Mountain area, and it said he drowned on
December twenty second, in the Deep Fork arm of Let
(47:54):
You Follow.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
There is no doubt that something on you Usual happened
in the death of Melvin Bucky Garrison. Some things, many things,
will remain mysteries forever, but ultimately I'd like to dedicate
this episode to Melvin Bucky Garrison for his service and
to his living family, but also to the law enforcement
(48:20):
officers who serve our communities every day. If you are
intrigued by this episode, you're gonna want to stick around
for the next full bear Grease episode when we talk
with a warden who had to use deadly force when
someone tried to drown him. I can't thank you enough
(48:42):
for listening to Bear Grease Brints, this country life and
Lakes Backwoods University. It really is a joy and an
honor to bring these stories to you guys every week.
Keep the wild Places wild, because that's where the bear left.
This is the story of the unusual death of Oklahoma
game Warden Melvin Bucky Garrison, who drowned in two and
a half feet of water in the Tiger Mountain area
in the Deep Fork arm of Lake Ufalla in December
nineteen seventy one. I'm pretty much just gonna let this
story tell itself. I really doubt that you're going to
(00:28):
want to miss this one.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
His shotgun was missing. It's never been found to this day,
so most of the people involved immediately started thinking, you
know that he probably didn't drown in two feet of water.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
My name is Clay Knukem, and this is the Bear
Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search
for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the
story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land.
Presented by f h F Gear, American made purpose built
(01:15):
hunting and fishing gear as designed to be as rugged
as the place as we explore. I'm just outside of Okema, Oklahoma.
(01:39):
A man in a cowboy hat and spurs has taking
the saddle off a red Roan quarter horse. A few
weeks back, I was eating at the Shonees Buffet with
this man Andrew Stubbs, and he told me a story
that seemed as familiar to him as a nursery rhyme,
but the details were confusing. So you would have grown
(02:02):
up hearing about Bucky Garrison.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yes, sir. So when we were probably eighteen nineteen years old,
we started going down there to Bartlett Bottoms and hog
hunting and stuff. And there were some older guys that
took us and that we went with, and they, you know,
would just when we would go, they would tell us
about an outlaw that used to live down there and
had killed a game warden. And so yeah, we you know,
(02:27):
we heard stories from from many people, you know, as
we were growing up.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
If it feels like it's just like common knowledge in
this community, would you say it's just common knowledge that
Bucky Garrison was murdered. I mean, that's just what you
grew up. You never really would have even questioned it,
or would you have.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
You know, all of the older guys that that hunted
in that area and that you know, was familiar with it. Yeah,
that's that's what everybody has told us, that he was
murdered down there, you know, by a guy that was
you know, kind of an outlaw.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You know, murder is a heavy word, and it's clear
the community doesn't even question it. The story intrigued me
enough that I wanted to find out more and I
got connected with retired Oklahoma Wildlife Officer Ed Roodebush. But
there's a twist right off the bat.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
The first day when I went to Oklahoma City, I
was delivered up there by the Tulsa County Warden and
there was nine of us there and Darryl Musgrove, who
was our assistant chief. He told the whole Bucky Garrison
story to us, and at that time I didn't know
I'd be going there. And he told us, you know,
(03:42):
whoever went to McIntosh County to be careful and you know,
be on triple dog alure.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So is your introduction as your intro packet to becoming
a game warden? They told you this story, yes, back
in nineteen eighty one. Yes, wow. In the in the
what was coming from the top was that this guy
had been murdered.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, and that this guy whose name he mentioned, who
was the same guy Bullet said, did it is who
they suspected. I don't think back in nineteen seventy one
they could do as thorough investigation as they could today.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And ed has just alluded to the twist. There is
no actual evidence that it was murdered. It was deemed
an unusual drowning, and after fifty four years, no one
has ever been charged, tried, or convicted of murder. But
I believe that if you pulled one hundred people in
Macintosh County, Oklahoma, today, ninety nine of them would say
(04:49):
it was a murder. This is a story about how
much precision can the law have when there's no evidence,
no confessions, no video, and no witnesses. Here's the first
district Chief of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife, Officer Hank Jenks.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So this story is around the death of a Oklahoma
game warden was on December the twenty seventh, nineteen seventy one.
He was recently hired in McIntosh County and worked with
an older game warden by the name of Bullet Burns,
(05:36):
who was if you were a game arden, if you
were a poacher, you knew bullet Burns. I mean, he's
got quite a history. I would love to have talked
to him about this, but we can't. He's no longer
with us. I went to his funeral. So I know
for a fact that he's no longer with us. But
so they're around the area of Lake Ufalla in Oklahoma,
(05:57):
and the north west part of that lake is a big,
giant wooded bottom land, and Bullet had told him to
be careful when he was in that area, that it's
notorious for poaching, no tours, for all kinds of bad actors,
and had warned him to not go by himself into
(06:21):
that area. You know that it's just it's just not
a good place.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Historically, Oklahoma has been a dangerous place for law men.
More US Marshalls have been killed there than in any
other state. Oklahoma became a state in nineteen oh seven,
that's pretty late, and for nearly a century before that,
it was known as Indian Territory. As someone who grew
up twenty miles from the Oklahoma border, I can tell
(06:46):
you their reputation, at least to the east was a
rough one. We knew it as a lawless place, especially
known for wildlife outlaws. Here's ed Rodebush.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
This is a very wild area. And until they built
sixty nine Highway and I forty, it was kind of inaccessible.
There was no jobs down here. So a lot of
people lived here, lived off the land, and they didn't
really like when the lake came in because it brought
tourism in. And for years there was just one warden here,
(07:21):
and finally when the lake got going, they brought a
second one on. So when I came here the game morning,
his name was bullet Burns, been through World War two
and Korea. He went to work in September of nineteen
fifty three, and I was born in June and fifty four.
(07:43):
So I told him, I said, the month I was conceived,
you went to work, and he didn't like that too well.
But I started in September the fourteenth of nineteen eighty
one and retired on October first of twenty sixteen, thirty
five years, okay, And I was here the whole time
(08:06):
in Macintosh County, Macintosh County, and when they hired me
and we finally got our assignments, they told me I
was coming to Macintosh County and they said, the last
one thing we had killed and the last one we
had shot all the pieces was in your area, and
(08:29):
no one can get along with bullet Burns, who was
my partner. So they said two years and you can
transfer out. So I worked thirty five years here and
it's really a good place to work. But I mean
there's some rough customers down here. Probably a sixth of
this county is underwater, and there's places where you had
(08:51):
to drive twenty miles just to get on the other
side of the lake. But Bucky was twenty five year
years old and he had two little girls, and he
was from Wagner, Oklahoma. Well, I was twenty seven years
old and I had a two year old and a
(09:13):
four month old, and I was from Wagner too, And
Bullet really took this heart about Bucket because Bullet had
warned him not to go where he did because it
was dangerous. There's dangerous people up there, and he told him,
don't to go up there unless you're with me. But
(09:33):
at that time, the lake was just a few years
old and all that bottom was only two to three
foot deep and it was green timber, and ducks by
the thousands would flog in there. So there would be
hundreds of hunters up there and they would shoot, ducks, laid,
they would, you know, just do everything. So Bullet had
(09:57):
showed him that spot and had showed him told him
not to ever go there. Well, the day after Christmas
is listed as the day Bucky died. Some deals will
say it was December twenty seven, but he was to
have some friends or family come that wanted to duck
(10:18):
hunt on the weekend. So he told Bullet he was
going to be scouting over there to find a good
place to take these guys. Well, he left on December
twenty sixth at four pm, and it's maybe a fifteen
minute drive twenty minute drive from where he was.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
So ed became partners with Bucky Garrison's former partner, Bullet Burns.
Ed inherited the ripples from Bucky's death, and later we'll
learn that we really don't know exactly why Bucky was
over around Tiger Mountain, whether he was patrolling or scouting
for ducks. Here's Officer Jenks.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And it was early in the duck season, and he
found his way up there by himself and kind of
jumped forward a little bit. He didn't come home that night,
and someone had finally got in touch with Bullet and
had told him, you know, that Bucky was missing, and
he that's the first place he thought of. I think
the exit to this place. If you've ever been down
(11:21):
I forty. It's enter and around that if you've ever
seen the Son of Tiger Mountain exit, which is just
east of Henrietta on I forty. Now and big search
party came together. They found his truck, found his game
warden truck, and his shotgun was not in the truck.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
And Bullet drove over there and was met by the
district chief and one of the biologists from Moulga came over.
His name was Johnny Shelton, and Bullet took him right
to Bucky's vehicle, and of course the hood was cold.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You could tell he'd been there a long time.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
And they got to waiting around there, and he had
one of the old type six Folt flashlights and had
the square battery in a plastic case and it was floating.
So they waited around, and they got three or four
other of the game mornings from district too to come over,
and because the water would be almost blood red and
(12:25):
it was real dark from the Oklahoma City area where
that water comes from, and Bullet actually bumped into him
and found him, and he was in the water core underwater,
and he had on chest waiters and they were pulled
plumb off of him except his feet was still stuck
(12:47):
in and so it'd be kind of like a sock
inside out, only these waiters were inside out. And they
found this derringer with one shell fire. It was a
two shot darringer, and they never did find a shot again.
They even lowered the lake and brought metal detectors and
really looked hard. But even back then, I'd say that
(13:11):
Browning was worth four hundred dollars or so. One thing
I failed to mention Bucky's fingernails were filled with mud
and debris and stuff where he had been clawing in
that mud, and I don't know how probably not even
ten seconds she would have been gone. And that plus
(13:33):
it was ice cold water too, because it's in December.
In fact, they found no wounds on him. There was
no assault, evidence of assault other than he had to
dirt under his fingernails and he drowned in two and
a half feet of water and his chest waiters were
pulled inside out. So it was ruled by the corners
(13:54):
in accidental drowning. I mean, yeah, don't look good, but
you know, I understand why it was real dead.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
So that just didn't From the time it happened, nobody
believed that. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
No, No, our people didn't. The local people didn't. Yeah,
and you know, I just that don't even make sense.
Of course, if one was just shocked that that would happen.
Because I don't think we had had a warden killed,
or they were called rangers back then. I don't think
(14:32):
we'd had one killed. You know, we had had some
guys injured, but he only had seven months on so
bullet took that real personal.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Bucky Garrison's death was ruled in accidental drowning. Now would
be a good time to run through the possible scenarios
in your mind, especially those of you who are duck
hunters and who get in dark water with waiters. Do
you think it would be possible well for a healthy,
strong man to drown in two and a half feet
(15:04):
of water? And why would the waiters be pulled down?
Why would one shot be fired from his derringer? Why
would there be mud all under his fingernails. Here's Officer
Jinks with a very critical piece of info. We've already
said it, but I want to say it again.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
His shotgun was missing. It's never been found to this day.
I've been told that the corp of Engineers was involved.
In the investigation and even lowered the lake because it's
in a real dealty area and it can you know,
it can be drawn down, and it's down a lot.
But he never found the gun, and so most most
(15:49):
of the people involved immediately started thinking, you know that
he probably didn't dround in two feet of water.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Did Bullet just immediately think that he had been murdered.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
He did when they found him drowned with his waiters
pulled off, and that's not normal, and his browning was missing,
which he thought was odd. But he knew that truck
would be parked in that one spot, and I would
guess they probably had a good duck hole there. But
we're talking hundreds, maybe a thousand acres of flooded forest
(16:36):
up there at that time, and this was really the
only road into it, and it had a little two
tracker off of it, and he was down there. In fact,
the first day I was here, Bullet took me up
there and he showed me exactly where the truck was,
told me the whole story, and it didn't really scare me,
(16:57):
but it sure put me. Like I said, said, I'd
already knew that I could trust this guy if he
lived through World War Two in Korea. He was a survivor.
You know, Bullet was just sick about it because you know,
he was kind of under his wing, you know, trying
to train him and everything. And Bullet had two sons,
(17:18):
and you know, for someone to lose a twenty five
year old son with two little kids doing his job,
it was just unthinkable. And I could tell it really
bothered him. But it also had me intrigued too, And
I think that is one reason bull and I got
so close, was he had a chance to redeem himself
(17:42):
with me. And I tell you why. He told me
the same thing, don't go up there without him. And
I did not go up there without anybody until I'd
been on about fifteen years. Because the guy that everyone
thinks did it, and Bullet things too, he still worked
(18:03):
that area up there. He's still hundred and fished up there.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Ed just told us the most twisty part of this story.
They not only believed that Bucky was murdered, but they
had a high level of certainty who did it, but
it wasn't from any physical evidence. As a matter of fact,
on one of Ed's first days on patrol with Bullet Burns,
they bumped into the man they believe that did it.
(18:31):
This person shall remain nameless on this podcast. I've actually
worked pretty hard to not even Noah's name, but it's
on the lips of just about everyone that you meet
over in that part of the world. But how could
they be so certain and have no evidence? I'm very
interested and the person that they thought did this, Can
(18:53):
you tell me about this suspect and why they thought
it was him? How much certainty everybody had that this
guy did it? What was it that was so compelling
that made them believe this guy did it?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
He was the Jesse James of the poachers upon the
Tiger Mountain and Deep four Bottoms, and he was a
big man, and he was a mean man, and he
had a reputation for fighting, drinking, killing deer, and after
the late come in for selling fish. And he was
actually caught selling fish. Of all the things, he did
(19:34):
a little time on that, but he was the number
one target. And on the side with all them ducks
up Prayer, there was a lot of people willing to
pay good money for a duck guide, and he was
guiding people and he had the perfect boats for it
because he had small light aluminum boats with old motors.
(19:54):
He didn't mind driving over a tree or through the
mud with his motor. And he was just famous. He
was like the boss hog of all of them up there.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
What did you think the first time you met him?
You're a young young guy with bullet you already know,
you know you're coming in with this information that they
think he's the one that did it. Yes, what was
your perception of him?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
We carried a three fifty seven six shot at that time,
Smith and Wesson, and I drew a mental tenoring right
here on his chest, and I said, that's where I
put all six of my shots. And I'm in it.
I mean, I told myself it'll be him, it won't
be me. He was that bad of a character, Yes,
(20:41):
And I could tell he just gave off a sense
of just evilness.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Was he just arrogant and loud? Was he like? What
would you have thought if you ran into him? Not you,
but a stranger met him in a gas station? Would
you have been afraid of the guy or what? He
just look like a normal guy.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
No, And that's what was so evil about him. First
time I met him, his exact words were, you guys,
come over the house. The old lady just made a
peach cobbler. And he's the kind of guy that would
patch on the back and all that stuff. And like
I said, didn't kill you. But he was a very strong,
big man. You could tell that he was awesome. And
(21:25):
the thing he was doing that day and I had
never even heard of this. The lake was up two
or three foot and it's a pecan bottom that this
was in, you know, lots of pecan trees, and he
was smashing his boat into the pecan trees and then
scooping up the pecans with nat you know, a fine
mesh map. He had a literally boat full of pecans.
(21:50):
But I just you know, my spider sins kicked in
on him, and I you know, I would never get
as close to him as like to me to you
unless I was handcuffed me and then i'd have someone
with me.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
And in your career, did you ever have that feeling
quite like that with other people?
Speaker 4 (22:09):
I did a few times, but it never came to
bear fruit. And it's something just like the hair on
your neck stands up, and if you have time to
prepare for it, you mentally think, well, I'm going to
do this. If he does this or if this happens,
I will do that. And I rested him another time,
(22:33):
me and a different partner, and he was actually selling
fish to this guy and they were standing in knee
deep water. And I jumped out of that truck and
still kind of barely rolling, and run out there and
grab the boat. And I was three foot from him
at that time. And the thing was, even though he
was a feeling already, we never ever found him with
(22:56):
any kind of a fire but he had edged weapons everywhere.
There was seven big butcher knife tight knives in that boat.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
So was that a sting operation? Was he selling to
one of your guys?
Speaker 4 (23:10):
No, that was just you just caught him, dumb luck.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
We weren't even looked.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
We just drove in there and saw him and before
my partner could get it out of gear, you know,
of course, we was barely rolling. I bailed out as
soon as he got in gear. He wound up on
the other side and he had shocked those fish because
he had a shocking device and a small flashlight like
the sixth volt I talked about, but it was one
(23:37):
of the older ones that was metal. And I had
already got some intelligence that.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
He had that.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So when I saw that there, I noticed that the
button you pushed down was missing broke, So I said,
what's that and well he just got nervous. Well, that's
the flashlight. So I had Mike handed to me across
the boat and I said, where's the switch and he said, oh,
it's broken, don't work. And I said, why would you
(24:04):
carry a broke flashlight in a boat? And he and
I unscrewed the lid off and looked down there and
I said, well, here's why. It's got a fish shocker
in it. You can't let's get a light out of that.
And that serious offense. That's kind of like a regular
policeman finding a murder, you know, catching the guy that
(24:25):
did it.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So did you did I hear you say you caught
him one time with a bunch of with nets out
or trot lines.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
My partner and I watched him for about three days
from about half a mile away in a remote area
with the spotting scopes, and I watched him, well, we
both watched him run seventy five trot lines when three
is your limit. And these are short trout lines that
he wouldn't bait, and he would just stick his oar
(24:58):
down he had in that notch out of it, and
if he felt that line and it was tug and
he would pull it up. And most of these fish
you'd run five to eight pounds, and he probably caught
ten that we saw that day. I actually drew crude
maps of where the trees were, where his trot lines were,
(25:18):
because we would need to find some for evidence. You know,
when we did the takedown and when he run those
lines all three days, he was missing for about an
hour he went out of our view, so there's no
telling how many lines he had up there. But when
we actually brought some fellow game orders in and set
(25:42):
up on him, someone in the woods watching him make
sure he didn't pull anything. Then I had another game
ordered me. We went in and affected the arrest, and
then that my partner and another guy were over there
watching and we actually said up radio coach, because people
had scanners. When my partner told me that the wind's
(26:06):
starting to blow out of the west, that means that
he had left and went around where he couldn't see
us and we could get in position. And then he
told me, he said, boy, they're doing a lot of
snagging over here. To Dan today. We were thirty thirty
five miles from the dam. And then when he told
me the cats in the bag, that meant he was
(26:27):
coming in. And when he came in, I knew we
had him already, so I cuffed him up. And then
when everyone showed up, my partner I think he got
on the radio and he said, hey, he ran a
net too, which is net's a big violation. And we
(26:48):
wound up taking him to jail. On that actually had
my district chief over there when we put him to work.
He was our chauffeur. And this guy and myself sat
in the back seat and told life to each other,
because in my chief less is hard. I mean, he's
good intended. But he asked him how much a pound
(27:08):
he got for these fish? Oh, I don't sell these fish.
I give him away. And there was a young girl
that had been had died in a fire over by there,
and he said, I took a fifty pound fish over
to that family for that little girl. And he probably did,
you know, he just kind of liked that. But that
(27:29):
time I actually took leg irons to handcuff him with
because his wrist were so big, and I had borrowed
the leg irons from you fall a police department, and
that's a pretty big deal because when they heard us
go ten fifteen, which means we were bringing a prisoner
in about half a Macintosh County showed up because they
wanted to see what kind of arm and I had
(27:52):
drug in in leg irons on his frist and he
got thirty days out of that and a few hundred
dollars fine. And I got mad because when I checked
on the cases later, I saw that he served six days,
not the thirty. So I went down because it said
(28:12):
he had worked down into National Guard armory on those
six days. So I asked the head guy down there
and said, what's the deal on this? And he said,
had those prisoners didn't like to work very good? When
he got down here. I think he backslapped one of
them or something. He said, that's the most work we've
ever got out of prisoners. So he was a valued supervisors,
(28:36):
so they gave him five for one and he just
had to do six days.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Was he in his community? Was he well liked?
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Not really here because he actually lived in Moga County.
He was a lone wolf. You never saw anyone with him,
you know, he always went by himself. I must have
checked him or times in my career, and mostly when
he'd come in, and he always brought fish in head
(29:07):
and guts out of him. But he left a tail
on because the flathead to bring more money into Blue Cat.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So what did this guy say about being accused of
this murder?
Speaker 4 (29:18):
I don't know, because I'm sure he heard about it,
and Bullet didn't say okay. Of course, lots of people
ask him about buying fish, and he he never admitted
it or bragged on and he was very smart.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
As Ed's telling me this story, I'm trying to understand
his certainty. If I told you that a person was
a murderer before you met him, that would be really
hard to overcome. Could it have been confirmation biased? I
really don't have the right to have an opinion, but
could it be possible that the biggest wildlife outlaw in
(29:55):
that region was falsely pinned with the murder of this
game warden. But I also know that the judicial systems
sometimes just don't work, and I put a lot of
stock in what the people on the ground during that
time believed. In full disclosure, the suspect is no longer
alive today, but in the eyes of the law, he
(30:18):
is completely innocent. You heard me ask ed if the
guy was well liked in this community. I find it
a trend that sometimes these old school wildlife outlaws can
be charismatic, likable people in their community, even generous. And
my suspicions were confirmed when a local who isn't on
this episode told me that each Christmas the suspect would
(30:41):
go to the local grocery store and buy apples and
oranges to give his gifts to people. I also heard
some pretty negative stuff about the guy and his character.
My intent isn't to defend this guy. These are just
questions that I have, but there are some things that
we haven't learned yet. Here's Officer Jinks.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
So you know, we we sent in the best guys
we had at the time. We really didn't have an
undercover unit at the time, but they sent in folks
that to try to maybe get some intel on what
could have happened. Who could have happened. The LSB, I'm
sure was involved, but it was. It was eventually deemed
(31:31):
a drowning because they just never got any They could
never prove that he was you know, attacked or held
underwater or and and for for years after that. We
we've spent you know, the Department, my my agency, the
Oklahoma Department a Wildlife has you know, had had sent
folks in trying to infiltrate that area. They tried, you know,
(31:54):
there there were folks that were suspected, but they could
just never bee sit together and prove it. So I've
talked to a lot of the guys that are retired
but were investigators, and they it all goes back to
the main investigator was at He was a game ward
(32:16):
and his name was Haskell Moseley, and he was he
was probably our best investigator. He did some uc work,
you know, and this was in a time where we
really didn't have undercover, but he he from everyone that
I've talked to, he one hundred percent believed in that
there was a one suspect, but but he just was
(32:38):
never able to piece together enough information to bring charges.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
They could never pin this guy with Bucky's murder. There
are some things that the law just can't prove. But
I'll tell you that more than one person, none of
which work for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife or were
on this podcast, told me personally with the suspect quote
all but admitted to the murder, and some say that
(33:06):
he did admit to the murder, but it was never proven.
They never had a wire on somebody when he said that,
And I know that rumors spread easily. Maybe he didn't
say that at all. Maybe that's just a convenient rumor
that was started. All that I do know is that
time has erased a lot of details. But I do
want to know what the man who was actually on
(33:29):
the crime scene believed happened. So what do you think happened?
What did Bullet think happened? Like, just he was there,
He found Bucky with his waiters pulled down there, one
shot deringer, one bullet spent. What did he think happened?
Speaker 4 (33:48):
He thought someone was shooting late, because Bucky, if he'd
have got over, say four point thirty, got out in
the water, there wasn't thirty five forty minutes the shooting
time left. I mean, that's you wanted to try and
get over and set up is just a little before.
And he thinks he heard him shooting late and they
were probably having a great time. Bullet thinks he had
(34:10):
someone with him and when Bucky fired that shot. Now
that pistol. Bullet thinks that he shot it in the
air to get their attention and probably shine that flashlight
at him if it was you know, dusk, And they
came over there, and Bullet thinks that one of them
run the boat and the other guy grabbed him and
(34:31):
kind of held him under and actually drove the boat
away similar to water skiing. But he was hanging over
the edge underwater, and that would have pulled your waiters off.
But your feet are hard to get out of waiters
if you've ever warm. It wouldn't have taken a couple
of three minutes to do that, so they didn't come
(34:53):
off of him, and they probably grabbed that shotgun at
the same time too, because he probably grabbed the boat
because that'd be the natural deal to do on something
like that. And since he's by himself, you know, he
had no backup. But that scenario Bullet told me, and
especially after working thirty five years, I think he was
(35:15):
spot on. I think that was it.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I guess it's just hard to make sense how a healthy,
twenty five year old guy trained in law enforcement competent
would have drowned in two and a half feet of water.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Yeah, see there's no way that scenario. You know, he
didn't have a heart attack.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
But even if he'd had a heart attack, that didn't
explain waiters being pulled down to his.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
There's no way because out in two and a half
foot of water, wearing waiters, if you were going to
take him off, you would go to the bank. You
can't take water, and you wouldn't get in your sock
feet in the day after Christmas in two and a
half foot of water, I mean that water probably was
forty degrees.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah, and he didn't hypothermia. He does drowning.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Yeah, he died. They're drowning because what I read what
the corner said in the report was that he there
was no evidence of foul play.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
No evidence of foul play. Here's Officer Jinx with an
interesting point.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
If someone's gonna hold me underwater and I'm fighting for
my life, I'm gonna have some marks on me. Now
you throw waiters on, you throw you know, a heavy
coat on, I don't know if those marks would be.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
There or not.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
That's a great point. If I was decked out.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
If I looked like a duck hunter, or I was
checking duck hunters, I'm gonna have so many clothes on
that quite frankly, it would be easy for you know,
for someone that was bigger than me and I got
too close to them, or most likely more than one person,
that they're going to grab you and and and they're
(36:57):
gonna hold you underwater. And I don't know if there
would be any indications other than water in your lungs.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Originally, one of my bigger questions was why wouldn't he
have shown signs of a struggle, But big clothes could
have been the reason. When I look at this story,
to me, the biggest piece of evidence that indicates that
there was some kind of foul play, which I know
is calculated into this, was that his gun. His shotgun
(37:29):
was never found. If he was recreational duck hunting or
if he was patrolling, which we really don't know, we
don't we truly don't know what he was doing. But
he was in his company, he was in Oklahoma Wildlife truck,
and in either one of those siting situations, he would
have had his shotgun.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Yes, if he was checking, you know, if he was
down checking duck hunters, he may have felt like that
was would have been a good cover for him. I
mean I wouldn't necessarily take a shotgun to walk out
on a peninsula and check hunt it's not.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
But he would have had it in the truck, oh absolutely, absolutely,
So the fact that it's just like gone, it's gone.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
And and to me, you know, not to not to
get you know, to be disrespectful, but you know, the
body wouldn't have traveled that far where. It's not like
something that would float for even a few feet, especially
in a bottom, in a timbered bottom land. You're gonna
it's gonna bump into trees. It's not gonna it's not
gonna be far from that weapon if the weapon was there,
(38:29):
and so I would I'm I agree. I think it's
the biggest it's the most damning piece evidence that there
was foul play involved the fact that it never showed
up ever.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
But that's not the full story of the gun. Jinx
has been holding out on us.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
So one other aspect to this that so this this
Haskell Mosley that investigated this, He dug around, he was
he lived down there for a certain period of time,
would go to bars and was trying to get in
with some of the suspects or suspect if you will.
He went to his grave saying that he had an
(39:10):
opportunity to buy that shotgun. He had a guy come
to him somewhere along the way and said he knew
where the shotgun was at and was willing to sell it.
But for whatever reason, and the story that I got
not to talk about about my agency because I don't
know who knows what the truth was or and I
(39:32):
can't put my head around why they would even again
this was fifty years ago, why they wouldn't want to
do that. But it never happened. But his story was
that he wasn't allowed well to say that, to go
through with that, But he claims that he talked to
someone who knew where it was at.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
Interesting. Wow, I could see that being a legitimate thing,
just inside of the bureaucracy of any yeah, big agency,
you know, the legality. I could see how it could
get caught in the wires. But now it seems like
a no brainer.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, well, if you think about it, and again I've
thought about this a lot. If you think about fifty
years ago, I can tell you there's probably weapons in
my house that maybe I've had or my dad has.
There's no serial number that's ever been logged anywhere. He
bought it at a from a friend, or bought it
at Walmart, And so I'm like you, I think that's
probably what it came down to, is that even if
(40:30):
they had this, someone handed him this shotgun and he
the Department provided money for him to buy it, would
they really know if that was the shotgun.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
He had a chance to buy Bucky Garrison's gun. Wouldn't
it be interesting to know all the details that Haskell
Moseley knew? But maybe we can. Officer Jinks keeps giving
me new information. He may have just found all the
answers we've been looking for.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
So I got permission to delve back into the records
as deep as I could, because most of the I
talked to. When Clay called me, I was at a
conference in Pennsylvania, and I started immediately thinking, Okay, who
would know the story? And I called and they're like, oh,
there's one hundred percent of case file somewhere. But I
talked to my bosses. Neither one of them knew where
(41:23):
that was at, if it even still existed, And they
gave me permission to go and look in in an
area that they thought it might be if it existed,
and so I dug through a folder a file, and
I'm cruising along and down about four folders. I see
Bucky Garrison written on a folder and I thought, bingo,
Praise the Lord, here we go.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I hurried to it.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
It's an empty folder and I don't think there's an
I don't think there's any you know, it could have
been someone was going to start a file or whatever.
But it was just kind of ironic that I thought, man,
I'm gonna there's going to be some great stuff here,
and it was. There was a file somewhere, but you know,
we don't keep fifty year old cases around, even though
(42:08):
this was a big one, you know, in the history
of our department. He was he died in the line
of duty. But I don't know where it's at. And
you know, I don't think anybody stole it or anything
like that. I just think it's time has made it disappear.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
So that's it's not odd to you that it's not there.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
It's not uh, you know, I'm sure that's a folder
that that when a probably some old game warden who
was maybe the guy mentioned earlier not to throw Haskell
under the bus, but he probably had that case file
and when he was trying to invest do his investigative work,
and it may have just you know, he could have
got picked up again by another game. You know, And
(42:47):
because we've they've looked at this, I can remember, are
our undercovered folks looking at this numerous times? From what
I've been told that they've they've tried to pick it up,
maybe maybe hoping that uh, you know, this suspect to
talk to somebody, or that a relative or maybe someone
maybe someone else was there who goes duck hunting by themselves.
(43:09):
I don't normally do that, and so it doesn't it
doesn't seem that odd to me that after fifty years,
it's it got misplaced or whatever. You know, it's a shame,
because I'd love to get Ebb my hands on it
to see. You know, there's no we have no primary
sources on this. There's no one live that we that
we can talk to that.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Was there.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
An empty folder. I think there was some evidence in
that case file that gave all these wardens confidence in
their suspicions of foul play, but it was probably stuff
that couldn't be proven or used in court. I don't know.
I'm just speculating. But I've got one final question for Ed.
(43:53):
After all your years of law enforcement, now that you're retired,
do how much faith do you have insight out of
the system when it comes to specifically deaths that corners
get right? Because I know how time sensitive stuff like
that is. I mean, you know, you get a body
(44:13):
and it's everybody immediately makes assumptions and usually you know
what happened. The guy's got a bullet wound, or the
guy's laying in the water under the water, and but
then it goes to the corner. I mean, are you
and I'm it's not a leading question. I mean, are
you like one hundred percent confident when you hear stuff
like that or just being on the scene all these
(44:34):
years and seeing stuff or hearing about stuff, would you
be like.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
Ah, back in the seventies, how it is said, Yeah,
But now because of the computers and the AI and
all that, I think they hit it right on the nose.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
So back then, didn't you depend on if it was
a new guy doing the autopsy or an old hand. Yeah,
but there were to been water in these Yeah, he drowned.
You know, it's pretty easy, and you know on an autopsy,
they're looking a lot of stuff from the inside out,
and there was no other wounds or anything other than
(45:12):
the His fingers had to dirty, I mean, just caked
like they were driven up in there, and that be
indicative of clawing, trying to get away or stop. You know,
it would have been an instinct move that anyone would
have done. So to me, that call of they found
(45:34):
no evidence of foul play made it look even more
fishy to me than you know what it would have
if they'd said, well, he's been hitting the head of everything,
you would have known.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
I'm struck to buy. Now, fifty years later, we've got
this story, We've got this interesting story that you know,
there's so many questions of you know that that time
has kind of swept away, like we just we just
don't know all the answers. But it feels like, I mean,
(46:10):
if the crime lab says that it was a drowning,
like what are you supposed to do? Because there could
be there could be somebody that would be like, well
if if if everybody knew that he was actually murdered,
why didn't they do more? And I think the answer
is they did do more. But there's I mean in
(46:30):
the in the law systems. Even in a country like ours,
which you know, say what you will, it's better than others.
Some other places the system can fail at times when
there's just a dead end. And then in an autopsy
that says the man drowned and there's no signs of
foul play is a dead end, you know, yes, And
(46:53):
so because I think at first blush, You're like, well,
this clearly wasn't you know this this case, apeable, strong
young man didn't drown in three feet of water two
and a half feet of water. No, something happened, and
you know, how did something like this not get discovered?
(47:14):
But the truth is too as I hear this story
and have no dog in the fight other than just
you know, it's a human being. It's hard to completely
put the blame on this on this suspect when there's
no evidence that the guy did it. No, it's it's
hard to be too sure of anything.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Really. Our agency magazine Outdoor Oklahoma, I dug around and
was curious what it said, you know, and it basically
just said that he was checking on hunting activities in
the Tiger Mountain area, and it said he drowned on
December twenty second, in the Deep Fork arm of Let
(47:54):
You Follow.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
There is no doubt that something on you Usual happened
in the death of Melvin Bucky Garrison. Some things, many things,
will remain mysteries forever, but ultimately I'd like to dedicate
this episode to Melvin Bucky Garrison for his service and
to his living family, but also to the law enforcement
(48:20):
officers who serve our communities every day. If you are
intrigued by this episode, you're gonna want to stick around
for the next full bear Grease episode when we talk
with a warden who had to use deadly force when
someone tried to drown him. I can't thank you enough
(48:42):
for listening to Bear Grease Brints, this country life and
Lakes Backwoods University. It really is a joy and an
honor to bring these stories to you guys every week.
Keep the wild Places wild, because that's where the bear left.
Host
Clay Newcomb
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.