March 29, 2023 • 44 mins
Despite the worsening nightmares and blackouts, Julien continues his investigation, connecting the dots between James Fincher’s fascination with the Mantawauk Caves and their disturbing history. The true identity of James Fincher’s nephew is revealed.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Minowat Caves is intended for mature audiences. It contains
strong language and depictions of bullying, violence, and sexual assault
that some may find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised. Also,
this is an extremely immersive experience, and headphones are recommended.
You're listening to The Manawat Caves, a production of iHeartRadio,
(00:21):
Blumhouse Television, and Psycopia Pictures. Her skin glowed. All the
other kids had that no look, no shine to him,
(00:44):
but she glowed. I don't want to build her. You
wanted that glow for your own. It weren't for me.
Like I said, I had to, you had tom. Are
(01:07):
you saying that someone made you do it? Are you
saying that there was somebody that was horsing now? I
ain't nobody made me m I think what you're saying
is that someone coerced you. You know, he showed me
the way, though. Who I'm supposed to talk about him?
(01:36):
Mister Rydell? Who is he? Every minute I remain in
Maniwa County, In every minute James Fincher's execution draws near
(02:04):
the thick of the fall gets a ghost and I
need to set things right. The only way to do
that is to find out who or what really killed
the Hadley brothers and sings time claim save Steeds. You
(02:33):
can't get elected sheriff to man a Walk County without
the endorsement of the first Baptist Church. Delivering on a
case like this was only sure fire away Hooper could
guarantee his re election. The truth to leave Hi, I'm
(02:55):
give you a bit of advice tween you and me.
I wouldn't go to around stirring up troubled. If I
was you, He's passed if you just let things play
out the way they're supposed to. August fourth, twenty twenty one.
(03:19):
It's eleven. It's eleven eleven am. I'm tracing Detective Solomon
Smith's footsteps from his investigation of the Haley murders fourteen
years ago. One place's investigation led him Carter High School.
So this morning I'm meeting with Principal Wesley Hunt. Mister
(03:40):
Hunt was principal when I went to school there, and
for a long time before that, probably went to Carter
High himself. Everyone did no other choice in this part
of mana Walk anyway. Principal Hunt was one of the
last people Detective Smith talked to before he disappeared, and
I want to know why, Principal Hunt. Yep, Julian, Julian Silace.
(04:08):
Oh right, mister Silace, agive me. It's been a long
time now still in okay time? Yep, fine, you don't
mind walking with me? Sure? So you are wanted to
know about Richard Riddell. Oh well, not exactly. Oh on
the phone you mentioned a Detective Solomon Smith. That's right,
(04:28):
so I figured it's about Ride Doll. He was a
joiner the head when Jennifer was a senior. Yes, I know,
in the way he didn't exactly stick out, you know,
kind of kind of just blended in with a wallpaper,
kept his head down, wapped the floors, kept the place spotless,
and left when he was done. Just an unremarkable type
of guy until he wasn't. I guess. Yeah, it's unthinkable
(04:52):
what he did to that girl. She's one of the
brightest we'd ever had, got herself into that women's college
all by herself. I'm actually hear about the last time
you talked to Detective Smith when he was here investigating
the murders of Deacon and Thomas Hathley. Okay, I was
just curious if you remember what the detective was looking
for when he stopped by that last time. Montainers records
(05:15):
from May eighteen, two thousand and seven. Attendance records yep, okay,
do you still have those? Nope? Gave him to the detective.
You never returned him neither. Do you know what he
wanted with us? Well? I imagine he wanted to know
who else was absent from school that afternoon, Shives, Deacon
(05:37):
and Thomas, and of course James fink you. Maybe he
was aiming to figure out who else might have gone
out to the caves that day. Someone always knows something.
That was a graduation week. There were lots of ceremonies
and such as. I'm sure you'll recall, antenance is always
highest on that week. I'll have to see if Joe
(06:01):
Campbell can help me find those school records. The principal,
Hunt said he gave the detective Smith if there were
other kids absent from school on May eighteenth, two thousand
and seven, then maybe they were there at the caves
when the Hadley brothers were murdered. Maybe they saw something,
or hell, maybe they killed him. But as far as
(06:21):
I knew, the only one who spent more time at
the caves than anyone was. In fact, James Fincher, he
was like a brother. We both came from pain. Though
our stories were different, we were the same. We weren't
(06:43):
just lonely. We were alone, in charge of ourselves, our lives,
even though far too young. I remember the first time
we brought him down to see the caves. When we
crusted over the small ridge and laid eyes on the hole.
I fell silent. I watched Finch see them for the
first time, wonder mixed with fear, mixed with excitement. I'll
(07:09):
never forget that. It's burned into my brain. He was
taken by them, like me. What I remember finished his
body against the mouth of the cavern, small and unguarded.
He'd walked ahead of me, and I remember catching up
to him, placing my hand on his shoulder. We walked
(07:32):
in far, heard the sounds of the bats above, and
deep inside, heard the strange echoes of air, the wind
catching stone off kilter. It was as humid inside as
it was outside, but so cool. You felt almost naked
as your teenage sweat evaporated off your back and chest
in that air, and here in your own breath I'm
(07:55):
a breath of your friend. We stood there in the dark,
looking deeper in, wondering if we should go further down,
holding hands on shore and clammy, but holding hands. This
(08:17):
bell completely fucking broken by the eruption of the belch,
reverberating off the cave walls and echoing into the sky.
Tyler was waiting for us. Inside. He'd managed to spirit
a few tall boys away from an uncle, and so
the three of us sat there on the rocks and
drank them warm and told dumb jokes and talked about
some imagined future. But I remember the spell before it
(08:39):
was broken. Finch was mesmerized by the case Hypnotust. It
was like we'd shown him the only cool thing in
the hell hole of a town he was stuck in.
He loved the case. All he wanted to do was
go there, and after he was expelled he would go
there alone. We were worried Griff Washington might catch him trespassing.
(09:03):
No telling what that racist would do, maybe loose one
of the pit bulls on him, but Finch one anyway.
He'd found it out a world apart in escape, and
he'd become completely fascinated. He even spent the night there
a few times by himself and started mapping the caves
out in great detail. He also started going to the
(09:25):
library to find out their history. That's when he read
doctor Trattner's book God's in the Mountain and Monsters in
the Valley or some shit like that. There was a
history of appellation in folklore. Finch wrote to Professor Trattner too,
wanting to know everything you could. These same letters were
later used to convict him of murder August fourth, twenty two,
(10:11):
twenty three PM. By the time Tyler and I found
the remains of Deacon and Thomas, any rite of passage
involving Griff Washington's property had long since been squashed. Back
in the nineties, it used to be the Griff was
the older guy who'd sell your cigarettes or a six
pack of crappy beer for twenty dollars mark up. He
didn't give a shit about kids hanging out in his
land because he saw it as a financial opportunity of anything.
(10:35):
So when kids wanted to get away from their parents,
you know, be a rebel for the night, they'd sneak
off to Griffs. Eventually, this led to a tradition amongst
Manowa County high schoolers. Everybody knew the caves weren't safe.
There were all kinds of stories about monsters and kids
going missing and what have you. But when you're a teenager,
(10:55):
that's part of the appeal. So the legend grew as
leg and stew and they still lingered today. Here's the deal.
Knowledge comes in different flavors. Right in the case of
the Man of Wad case. On the one hand, there's evidence, testimony,
(11:18):
police reports, all autopsies of corners, report, expert analysis and
so on. On the other hand, they're superstition and folklore.
It's the horrible thing. What happened those boys? Did you
ever meete James Fincher in person? Doctor tredne Man only
(11:41):
respond to letters of his son. Do you think he did?
A detective? I'd be very interested to hear. What do
you think picked up your relationship with James? I'd say
it's hardly relationship. You corresponded, we weren't pipiles. If best,
you're trying to imply there's displayed a certain engagement, shall
(12:03):
we say, students come in don't care? Doctor Dale Trattner.
I looked him up on their website. It says he
was a cultural anthropologist and his story and at the
University of Tennessee Nastas and give him some sense when courage. Okay,
what was he curious about? He's cured for those damn caves.
There is a particularly disturbing trend to those narratives that
(12:23):
attacks themselves in the man a Lot caves. Then she'd
been writing letters to doctor Trattner before he was arrested,
so Smith was doing his due diligence. Stories about the
caves go way back beyond early settler folklore. What do
you mean, like like ghosts in which is some kind
of he'll billy voodoo or something. I guess something like that.
(12:45):
You know, there's some history about it too. What was that?
The Nadine O'Leary story. In the eighteen nineties, the O'Leary
family took shelter during a winter blizzard, who became tratt
inside the caves got note in that spring. As the
world followed, only the youngest daughter, Nadine Ole, merged in
(13:06):
the cave. That's the event Fincher was most interested in discussing. Okay,
why is that? It's one of these great unsolved mysteries
of this area. Last little Nadine she made out of
those caves back to town. She said she didn't do
it alone. But when they searched the caves that spring,
(13:27):
all the family members were accounted for, the remains were
still there. There's no way a little Nadine O'Leary could
have survived that track out of those damn mountains by herself.
She's only four years old. Detective, you still have those letters,
Fincher wrote you. I'm sure I have him somewhere. I'll
find them for you. These were the letters that the
prosecution used against Finch. They said that the letters prove
(13:49):
he was rational and aware of his actions. They claimed
this revealed the strategy on Fincher's part, a criminal mind.
They wove a narrative for the jury the Finch killed
the Hadley brothers out of revenge after he was bullied
by them. To add spice to their argument, they referenced
his library books and his second hand collection of VHS
(14:10):
tapes and CDs. They claimed his revenge plot was based
in adolescent fantasies delusions about the supernatural spirits and demons,
and that based on the violent nature of his killings,
he had been inspired by extreme horror movies and violent
music and deathcore metal. Their big legal fucking argument was
(14:32):
that Fincher's motive was revenge, and that his plot to
kill the Hadley brothers was fueled by delusions, beliefs about possession,
the paranormal, and evil from within the case. I want
you to take a look at the applicant share. On
one hand, we have a crime scene, the cave system
(14:54):
on mister Washington's property and the injuries sustained by the
Hadley boys. Then that crime scene, and then on the
other hand we have James Fincher. We have his letters
revealing an insatiable curiosity about the and I quote curse
of the Caves, including the mutilation of human flesh as
(15:19):
part of a ritual sacrifice required by the demonic forces
within those caves, the letting of human blood, and so on. Now,
when you take those factors and put them together, the
overwhelming evidence points to the fact that this case has
all the markings of a ritualistic, a cult murder, a
(15:44):
satanic murder, if you will. Then there's evidence of premeditation,
evidence that this was a meticulously constructed crime. The crime
scene itself, matching the drawings and diagrams found in the
defendant's own bedroom, diagrams of the caves with markings that
(16:06):
match the exact location where the bodies were found. And
it is clear that James Fincher calculated, plotted, and premeditated
the cold blooded murders of Deacon and Thomas Hadley in
those caves. What was done to Thomas and Deacon Hadley
(16:26):
is hard to comprehend, but it happened. It's not a dream,
it's not fiction. The defense will tell us that there
is no concrete evidence that the defendant, James Fincher, perpetrated
these heinous and brutal acts, despite witness testimony and a
(16:49):
clear motive. These are the facts, and the fact is
that it doesn't matter if we believe the caves are hard.
It doesn't matter if any of us believe in demons,
our ghosts, or are Satan themselves. The only thing that matters,
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that's what James Fincher believes. Finchers was a witch trial.
I highly doubt such arguments as the prosecution made then
would have held weighted anywhere else in the civilized world.
But this is Manowa County. Between the mind grip that
Reverend Perkins had on the folks of this little Salem
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and the deep seated superstitions about the caves. It's actually
kind of a genius prosecution strategy. After all, there was
plenty of lore surrounding the case. The legend I always
heard was that someone lived in the caves, half man,
half demon like. Doctor Trattner said, these kinds of stories
exist all over the world. They're basically warnings for kids
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to stay out of the woods, right There are fucking
wolves in there, and they want your innocence in any
food you're bringing to Granny. In the case of Maniwa,
the stories were meant to keep us away from those
goddamn caves. But rumors are built partially on evidence too.
(18:15):
They're kind of more like theories that live somewhere between
fact and fiction. Two years after Jennifer Fowler left Maniwa County,
a boy named Matthew Sweetzer was found dead in the
cave with a single action revolver in his hand. Apparently
he was related to Richard Rydell second Cause and once
(18:36):
removed or something. Well. When the Haley brothers were found
dead in the cave, everyone had the same thought, there's
a murderer amongst us. You'd think that thought would charge
every interaction with dread suspicion, but instead it sort of
bound the town together, in entire town against one one
(19:00):
eighteen year old boy. I'm heading over to meet Fincher's sister. Now, Dina,
you're recording this if it's all right with you yet
helps with the details, which helps with you know, Okay,
(19:24):
h listen, thanks you know, for a grant to even
this though, like, just thanks for meeting with me. I'll
get it twisted. This is for James, not for you.
I don't care about whatever little self forgiveness journey you're on.
You said you wanted to help my brother get off
death row. That's the only reason, and I mean the
only reason you are here. Yeah, I get all that.
(19:49):
You're right obviously, and that's what I want to do too.
So Jimmy, turn that thing down. We got company. Dina's son, Jimmy,
was born a few months after his uncle, James Fincher
was put on death row. Jimmy's fourteen. Now. He was
named after his uncle, but James Fincher was never Jimmy
to me. He wasn't even James, he was just Finch.
(20:10):
Finch had a speech impediment, told me once that words
that start with the letter Jay gave him a hard
time any letters that required his tongue to touch the
top of his mouth. So he hated saying his own name, James.
He would stutter, elongate the vowels, try to bury the confidence.
(20:30):
I always made a point to call him Finch after
he told me that, so Finch. Finch and his younger sister,
Dina moved to Maniwa County when they were twelve and sixteen.
I felt sorry for Finch from the second he first
stepped foot on our school bus. He looked frail and
(20:51):
wide eyed. The wheels were spinning in his mind like
a turbine. It's tough to be a new kid, but
a new kid that stood out. I mean, who was
this guy? Where did he come from? And the rumors
spread quick He thought her both of his parents with
nothing but a pocket knife. He was really a thirty
(21:12):
five year old undercoverage and sent by the FBI to
investigate a chemical spill in the town's drinking water. He
was a genuine homosexual and sent a man a walk
for conversion therapy. Whatever was said about James Fincher when
he first showed up, it was a disruption, and it
stoked the tribal instincts in Pottsville clans. And it didn't
(21:33):
take long for bullies to prey on him either. I
wanted to stand up for him, but I couldn't. Not
the time Deacon Hadley threw a couple of Warren pists
on his head from the second story bathroom, and not
the time Thomas Hadley locked him in his locker. I
wanted to stop it, but I knew it would just
(21:55):
make matters worse for me. I'd suffered bullying self all
through Junior High, and I learned how not to call
attention to myself, so I did nothing at first. But
not calling attention to yourself isn't the skill Finch would
ever be able to master. He had only been riding
(22:18):
the bus for a week before Thomas Hadley sat down
next to him, reached into his lunch bag, pulled out
a carton a chocolate milk, and poured it over Finch's head.
I remember panicing, My heart was pounded in my chest,
my mouth got dried and I couldn't breathe. I remember
(22:39):
Thomas crushing the carton against Finch's chest. Finch didn't five
back he didn't even react. Maybe he felt that if
he did stand up to them, it would only make
things worse for him and his sister. Maybe he just
checked out, disassociated as a means of survival. That's what
I used to do in this sixth grade was the
(23:00):
easy target. I wasn't into the ship that the other
kids liked. I didn't play sports, I love Doctor Who
an anime, and would rather read a book than play outside.
So they called me a loser or geek or faggot.
They didn't ask what you're eating, They asked what you're
eating for. Thomas and Deacon used to terrorize me once.
(23:24):
They cornered me in the back of the auditorium and
they beat my ass and dumped a piss on me,
and I was too terrified and too ashamed to call
for help. Instead, I remember feeling like I wasn't even there,
Like I had gone from my body, gone from the school,
gone from Manowa County, my solo taking refuge someplace safe,
(23:44):
any place but there. But that day on the bus
with Fincher or something snapped after Thomas Porter's melk on
Fincher's head, Duelly Tapper joined in. Monkey see Monkey do
I remember seeing Dully des I had to do it
his dull fucking face, looking around and see if the
(24:05):
bus drivers even gave a shit. He started to pour
his arms juice on finish. I don't know. Maybe it
was because Duty was less of a threat than Thomas Hadley,
but suddenly all of the PTSD in the shame i'd
carried him, a guy sixth grade, I turned to rage.
I don't think I was even completely conscious when I
reached out and smacked the juice out of Duy's fat
(24:27):
hand man and watched the explode on his face. You
getting nap back. It was my first let chit fat.
When we lasted a minute before the bus driver stopped
the bus and broke it up. I remember the tears
came hot and salty, and I couldn't stop him. I'm
(24:49):
not supposed to cry on when you're a seventeen year old,
but I couldn't hold him back anymore. Well, look who
wears the pants in this love affair, that's deacon, said
Everyone laughed. After that, they called us lovers, me and Finch.
(25:09):
They spread their rumors anyway. Me and Dually got suspended
from the bus, so Dina and Finch were on their
own after that, and it wasn't long before Dina suffered
the attention of the Hadleys. The looks in the stairing
probably wasn't new for Dina. Even at fourteen years old,
Dina wasn't particularly well developed. She was behind what would
(25:32):
be considered average for her age. Physically speaking. She dressed
primarily and her brother's hand me down clothes. She kept
her eyes down, her nose out of trouble, and I
tried not to be noticed. And that's because she was
always noticed. Dina Fincher was her own disruption in Manowa County,
but where Finch had a speech impediment for people to
(25:53):
latch on to, Dina was just female. And to borrow
the phrase the Deacon Hadley was so fond of using,
Dina was exotic. The same word used to describe alien
fruits and endangered animals and lascivious dances applied here to
a young girl. Her skin, darker, eyes deeper, gate timid,
(26:17):
and Deacon became fixated on Dina Fincher. He started referring
to her as his little squaw, a blatant ethnic and
sexual slur. That's when the Fincher's quit riding the bus. Unfortunately,
in the end, the bus probably would have been safer.
It was the last day before spring break. Dina left
(26:40):
school that day, same as any other day. While she
waited for her brother, she noticed Deacon and Thomas Hadley
propped up against a tree watching her. When they caught
her eye, things escalated, lewd mouth gestures, wolf whistles, crotch grabbing.
When Finch finally arrived, Dina didn't mention it because it
wasn't out of the ordinary behavior. This kind of thing
(27:00):
happened so often with the boys in Maniwa County that
Tina had just gotten used to it, so she dismissed
it like she would on any other given day, and
began a three mile walk back to the Splinter Gap
trailer park with her brother. Dina was aware that the
Hadley brothers were following them, but she wasn't worried. She
had her brother there, and besides, following wasn't new either.
(27:23):
Anything to get a rise out of her wasn't new.
She had been trained time and time again to believe
the men were full of empty threats, but lacked the
gumption to actually make good on them. When the Hadleys
were still following them out passed where the sidewalk endid
down the descolate stretch of mountain road leading towards Splinter Gap.
(27:43):
Dina started getting nervous that it happened. Thomas Harley had
gotten a hold of a rock about the size of
a great prudent and let it fly across the back
of Inch's head. It dropped them and Thomas hind him
down on the grass where he was powerless to stop
(28:04):
taking from going after his sister. Jimmy doesn't know the
(28:26):
particulars about his birth or that his uncle's in jail
because he killed Jimmy's biological father. Way what Jimmy's biological father.
Jimmy's biological father was Deacon Hadley. I don't know why
(28:56):
it never occurred to me who was the father of
Dena's son, Jimmy. But you wasn't bashful about letting me know.
Dina was assaulted, violated, and impregnated by Dickon Hadley. I
didn't know. No one does. It's a town secret, except
that at ain't. It was kept out of the trial.
(29:16):
Why Bobby Hadley didn't want it out? The defense attorney
didn't want the jury here in that either. It only
made the prosecution's argument stronger because what has shown a
clear motive undernobyl. They still went with revenge, but they
couldn't prove anything. James was convicted completely on circumstantial evidence.
(29:40):
Well I didn't have an alibi. Look, I know he's
innocent too, but it doesn't matter what we think. We
need to think out of the box anything to help
us do that. I just I want to get your
perspective if I can. Okay, Look, James lol always try
(30:01):
to protect me, but he ain't capable of murder. Look,
we come from a fucked up situation. Our father was abusive.
I don't remember much. He was just a monster for
when I was little. I was terrified of him. But
(30:22):
when he was gone, I started to come out of
my shell. They thought I was a mute, but when
he left I started talking. Nobody knew I could talk
until he left us. But our problems weren't over. Far
from it. Our mother had her serious mental illness like what,
(30:45):
I don't know. She just wasn't right, and by the
time I was five she was certifiable. Like I had
this doll, right, a Barbie knock off doll that I
found out in the playground. Somewhere, and James said I
would spend hours playing with her like she was my
only friend. Then one morning I found my mother burying
(31:07):
my doll in the backyard. Mama says she thought the
doll was evil. I thought she was talking to me,
telling me bad things, turning me against her. After that
she started getting mean, lashing out, taking over where Dad
left off. And there were some beans. The point is
(31:30):
James always tried to protect me. Eventually they took her
away Florida Stay Psychiatric Hospital, and me and James got
shipped up here to beautiful manu Wa County. We'd never
even met our grandma till the day we arrived in
Splinter Gap, and boy did she ever make it clear
that she only took us in for the government assistance money.
(31:53):
She didn't even have a room for us her old Really,
I had one bedroom and she never came out of it.
So James he slept on the floor so I couldn't
sleep cozy on the couch. And when Grandma died and
he became a legal guardian, he gave me her bedroom.
There was no single day I went to school and
he wasn't right there next to me on the bus
(32:14):
or walking me to school and back home again. And
that includes after he got expelled, even when he wasn't
allowed on campus no more. He told me not to
ride the bus, He'd walk me, and he'd just wait
outside of school property all day long until the last
bell rang and he could walk me home again. I'd
(32:35):
see him there through the class and windows, just sitting
and waiting, keeping an eye out. Never met a sweeter
human being than James. No, I know, and I remember,
But isn't that the same motive that the prosecution used
to convict him. His need to protect you. Grandma used
(32:56):
to keep chickens back and me and James. Our job
was to make sure they had worms and feed and water.
Sometimes Grandma would let the rooster and the coop to breathe,
and when the little chicks would hatch, it was James's
job to keep them alive to protect them from the predators.
Rats mostly rats would eat the baby chicks. So Mamma
(33:17):
gave James the twenty two rifle and made him sit
out there in the cold and the dark, and his
job was to shoot the rats. Well. One day he
shot one blew its back half off, but it didn't die.
It was still breathing, suffering. James had to shoot it
again at point blank. He couldn't kill nothing anymore after that,
(33:42):
not even spiders or snakes or nothing. There's no way
he could have killed those boys, even if he had
more than enough reason to do so. It's not in
his nature. What about that fight he publicly attacked the
healthy brothers, jam right, he did fight, and they murderate
the same And that one fot I use against them.
(34:05):
They keep the people that are on top on top,
and they keep the people on the bottom on the bottom.
That one fot. That was all it took to get
James where he is now. But he still just doesn't
have the poison inside him it would take to do
a thing like that the way they found their bodies.
(34:25):
Dena Fincher was sexually assaulted by Deacon Hadley, and she
became an adult in a single instant. The gap between
her innocent years and the rest of her life was
about three minutes, three minutes outside of her own body.
Maybe her soul drifted far away from her body that day.
(34:48):
Maybe in her mind she flew away, maybe back to
Florida to bury her innocence in the dirt. Next to
that knockoff Barbie Dall. When it was over, Tomy and
Deacon just got up. They slung their backpacks over their
shoulders like they would walk at home from their bus
stop on any other day of the week. They didn't
(35:10):
say anything, no threats, no warnings. They just got up
and left Dna and Finch line in the high grass.
The Finchers had no health insurance. Their grandmother had passed
(35:32):
away only months after Finch turned eighteen, thrusting him into
the responsibilities of adulthood long before most kids his age
have even figured out how to microwave a cup of noodles.
Somewhere between becoming DNA's legal guardian and trying to graduate
high school, it had never occurred to Finch that they
might need healthcare. They didn't have any money saved. Every
(35:54):
job Finch had applied for he had been denied because
of some bullshit claims of his disability, yes that's what
they called his speech impediment, being a liability, or whatever
other excuse was being doled out at the particular establishment.
So Finch and Dina never forgot medical help that day,
even though Finch suffered from a nasty head wound and
(36:15):
bled from the back of his skull, and Dina was
now a physically and emotionally traumatized survivor of Diacon Headley.
The Fincher siblings walked back to their trailer. Finch did
everything he could help his sister, while presumably suffering through
a concussion. The next day, they went back to school.
(36:37):
According to Dina Fincher, it was her brother's idea to
go back. He knew their best better survival was to
finish their educations, get their diplomas, and get the hell
out of Dodge. So they put their heads down, studied hard,
and worked towards that goal. But the forces that be
weren't content on letting the Finchers get on with their lives,
(36:58):
and a few weeks later, Dina found out that she
was pregnant. There were so many factors, but I think
that's what really did it. The mountain weight of everything
gets so heavy you can't carry it anymore, and you're
crushed under the pressure of all that muck and bullshit.
(37:20):
When Finch found out that Dina was pregnant, that in
spite of all that fighting to survive and remain in
calm and steadfast, despite that torment, trying to win through
sheer endurance that there was still gonna be another life
dragged against its will into the cesspool of a world.
(37:40):
He fucking cracked. He waited all through the school day.
I remember seeing him all hopped up on adrenaline, his
face going purple in the blotchy patches around his cheeks
and collar, his leg bouncing so hard that it made
his desk to shake and caused the eruption in class.
(38:02):
The second that bell rang, he went for it. He
humped the Deacon Hadley down like a well trained predator.
He had stashed a broken axe handle in the bushes
near where the Hadley brothers used to roost in the
schoolyard at recess. Finch just walked quietly walked over to
them as they watched him a snicker and despite his
(38:25):
fearless approach, before they could put together what was happening,
Finch retrieved his axe handle and started swinging. He gave
them hell on Earth right there in the schoolyard. I
remember he was standing over deacons, swinging wildly. Thomas tried
to pull him back but ended up on the wrong
side of Finch's elbow that laid him out. To bleeding
(38:49):
on the grass, the explosive power of so much pent
up rage contents under pressure, he snapped. I swear to God,
Finch had the strength to ten full grown men that day. Man.
What's then the tears came, but not to Hadley's. Finch,
(39:13):
for all his rage, was the only one crying. And
then came the laughter, Thomas Hadley, that goddamn laugh. I'll
never forget it. Fincher held back by Tyler crying and
Thomas bleeding on the ground, laughing like a fucking hyena.
(39:33):
James may have done some physical damage, he drew a
little blood, but they'd still won. They had broken him
and his sister, and because of that nothing would ever
change around these parts, Or so I thought. Finch was
expelled obviously, Bobby Hadley, Thomas and Deacon's father just so
(39:56):
happened to be good friends with the district attorney at
the time they were about the press charges. But it
was Dina who retaliated a DNA test proving Deacon was
the father of her unborn child. She rebutted with a
proof of the Hadley boy's own guilt off any legal
moves were made against her brother, and so she created
(40:17):
a stalemate. If her brother was going to jail, so
were Bobby Hadley's sons. And if Bobby would back down,
she'd keep the rape out of the papers and no
one would ever know about it. So he backed down,
and the Hadley boys not even a slap on the wrist.
It was perfect injustice. It's no wonder Sheriff Hooper picked
(40:40):
Finch as his lead suspect in the Hadley murders after
those boys were found eviscerated in the caves four months later,
and the whole town lit up like a medieval mob,
ready to hunt the monster down with pitchforks, torches, drive
it out from the fucking cave. Everyone wanted Fincher's head
down a stick, everyone excepted Detective Solomon Smith, a ghost
(41:31):
in the meal and the hounds of Hell. Dancing in
Your Dancing in the Manowat Caves stars Jonathan Tucker as
Julian Salis, Eddie Gathegi as James Fincher, Clark Peters as
(41:54):
Detective Solomon Smith, Nick Sercy as Sheriff Kirby Hooper, Justin
Wellbourne as Tyler Wilson, Jill Jane Clements as Jill Campbell,
Brad Carter as Dooley Tappert, Scott Poythress as Reverend Perkins,
Samantha Ashley as Dena Fincher, Justin Matthews Smith as Paul Salis,
Tara Oakes as Laura Salis, Jonathan Horn as Deacon Hadley,
(42:17):
Alden Kronovitch as Thomas Hadley, Mike w Anderson as Griff Washington,
Bodie Walter Roth as Jimmy Fincher, Brian McClure as Ian Speaks,
Larry Clark as Bobby Hadley, Paydon Fallis as ed le Blanc,
Vic Polisis as William Fowler, Nick Takosky as Richard Rydell,
and Aileen moy as The Darkness, with additional performances by
(42:41):
Clint McGowan, Dina Dill, Edward Howard, Henry Foster Brown, Jamie Joseph,
Juan Monsalvez, Christopher Curry, Bailey Hyneman, David Mitchell, and Bernard
Sataro Clark. Created by Connel Byrne and Dan Bush, written
by Dan Bush, Zoe Cooper and Nicholas Dakaski, featuring our
(43:02):
theme song Killer Inside, written produced and performed by Lear Lynn.
Our executive producers are Matt Frederick, Alexander Williams, Michael Monty,
and Courtney Dufrees. Our executive producers at Blumhouse Television are
Jeremy Gold, Chris Dickey, and Noah Feinberg. Produced by Dan Bush,
(43:23):
Music by Ben Lovett. Additional music by Alexander Rodriguez. Edited
by Dan Bush, Chris Childs, Stephen Perez and David Chen.
Sound design by Benjamin Malcolm. Dialogue editing and sound mixing
by Jan Campus recorded at Studio Awesome in Los Angeles,
sound Bite Studio in Atlanta and Echo Mountain in Asheville.
(43:44):
Casting by Sunday Bowling Kennedy and Meg Morman. Our dialect
coach is Linda Bassetti. Assistant director Michael Monty, Second assistant director,
script supervisor and production coordinator Sarah Klein. Supervising producer Josh Thine.
Special thanks to Mary Ellen and Jason Davis, Jonathan Deeter,
and Joe Rickman. The manowat Caves is a production of iHeartRadio,
(44:08):
Blumhouse Television and Psychopia Pictures. So please
The Minowat Caves is intended for mature audiences. It contains
strong language and depictions of bullying, violence, and sexual assault
that some may find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised. Also,
this is an extremely immersive experience, and headphones are recommended.
You're listening to The Manawat Caves, a production of iHeartRadio,
(00:21):
Blumhouse Television, and Psycopia Pictures. Her skin glowed. All the
other kids had that no look, no shine to him,
(00:44):
but she glowed. I don't want to build her. You
wanted that glow for your own. It weren't for me.
Like I said, I had to, you had tom. Are
(01:07):
you saying that someone made you do it? Are you
saying that there was somebody that was horsing now? I
ain't nobody made me m I think what you're saying
is that someone coerced you. You know, he showed me
the way, though. Who I'm supposed to talk about him?
(01:36):
Mister Rydell? Who is he? Every minute I remain in
Maniwa County, In every minute James Fincher's execution draws near
(02:04):
the thick of the fall gets a ghost and I
need to set things right. The only way to do
that is to find out who or what really killed
the Hadley brothers and sings time claim save Steeds. You
(02:33):
can't get elected sheriff to man a Walk County without
the endorsement of the first Baptist Church. Delivering on a
case like this was only sure fire away Hooper could
guarantee his re election. The truth to leave Hi, I'm
(02:55):
give you a bit of advice tween you and me.
I wouldn't go to around stirring up troubled. If I
was you, He's passed if you just let things play
out the way they're supposed to. August fourth, twenty twenty one.
(03:19):
It's eleven. It's eleven eleven am. I'm tracing Detective Solomon
Smith's footsteps from his investigation of the Haley murders fourteen
years ago. One place's investigation led him Carter High School.
So this morning I'm meeting with Principal Wesley Hunt. Mister
(03:40):
Hunt was principal when I went to school there, and
for a long time before that, probably went to Carter
High himself. Everyone did no other choice in this part
of mana Walk anyway. Principal Hunt was one of the
last people Detective Smith talked to before he disappeared, and
I want to know why, Principal Hunt. Yep, Julian, Julian Silace.
(04:08):
Oh right, mister Silace, agive me. It's been a long
time now still in okay time? Yep, fine, you don't
mind walking with me? Sure? So you are wanted to
know about Richard Riddell. Oh well, not exactly. Oh on
the phone you mentioned a Detective Solomon Smith. That's right,
(04:28):
so I figured it's about Ride Doll. He was a
joiner the head when Jennifer was a senior. Yes, I know,
in the way he didn't exactly stick out, you know,
kind of kind of just blended in with a wallpaper,
kept his head down, wapped the floors, kept the place spotless,
and left when he was done. Just an unremarkable type
of guy until he wasn't. I guess. Yeah, it's unthinkable
(04:52):
what he did to that girl. She's one of the
brightest we'd ever had, got herself into that women's college
all by herself. I'm actually hear about the last time
you talked to Detective Smith when he was here investigating
the murders of Deacon and Thomas Hathley. Okay, I was
just curious if you remember what the detective was looking
for when he stopped by that last time. Montainers records
(05:15):
from May eighteen, two thousand and seven. Attendance records yep, okay,
do you still have those? Nope? Gave him to the detective.
You never returned him neither. Do you know what he
wanted with us? Well? I imagine he wanted to know
who else was absent from school that afternoon, Shives, Deacon
(05:37):
and Thomas, and of course James fink you. Maybe he
was aiming to figure out who else might have gone
out to the caves that day. Someone always knows something.
That was a graduation week. There were lots of ceremonies
and such as. I'm sure you'll recall, antenance is always
highest on that week. I'll have to see if Joe
(06:01):
Campbell can help me find those school records. The principal,
Hunt said he gave the detective Smith if there were
other kids absent from school on May eighteenth, two thousand
and seven, then maybe they were there at the caves
when the Hadley brothers were murdered. Maybe they saw something,
or hell, maybe they killed him. But as far as
(06:21):
I knew, the only one who spent more time at
the caves than anyone was. In fact, James Fincher, he
was like a brother. We both came from pain. Though
our stories were different, we were the same. We weren't
(06:43):
just lonely. We were alone, in charge of ourselves, our lives,
even though far too young. I remember the first time
we brought him down to see the caves. When we
crusted over the small ridge and laid eyes on the hole.
I fell silent. I watched Finch see them for the
first time, wonder mixed with fear, mixed with excitement. I'll
(07:09):
never forget that. It's burned into my brain. He was
taken by them, like me. What I remember finished his
body against the mouth of the cavern, small and unguarded.
He'd walked ahead of me, and I remember catching up
to him, placing my hand on his shoulder. We walked
(07:32):
in far, heard the sounds of the bats above, and
deep inside, heard the strange echoes of air, the wind
catching stone off kilter. It was as humid inside as
it was outside, but so cool. You felt almost naked
as your teenage sweat evaporated off your back and chest
in that air, and here in your own breath I'm
(07:55):
a breath of your friend. We stood there in the dark,
looking deeper in, wondering if we should go further down,
holding hands on shore and clammy, but holding hands. This
(08:17):
bell completely fucking broken by the eruption of the belch,
reverberating off the cave walls and echoing into the sky.
Tyler was waiting for us. Inside. He'd managed to spirit
a few tall boys away from an uncle, and so
the three of us sat there on the rocks and
drank them warm and told dumb jokes and talked about
some imagined future. But I remember the spell before it
(08:39):
was broken. Finch was mesmerized by the case Hypnotust. It
was like we'd shown him the only cool thing in
the hell hole of a town he was stuck in.
He loved the case. All he wanted to do was
go there, and after he was expelled he would go
there alone. We were worried Griff Washington might catch him trespassing.
(09:03):
No telling what that racist would do, maybe loose one
of the pit bulls on him, but Finch one anyway.
He'd found it out a world apart in escape, and
he'd become completely fascinated. He even spent the night there
a few times by himself and started mapping the caves
out in great detail. He also started going to the
(09:25):
library to find out their history. That's when he read
doctor Trattner's book God's in the Mountain and Monsters in
the Valley or some shit like that. There was a
history of appellation in folklore. Finch wrote to Professor Trattner too,
wanting to know everything you could. These same letters were
later used to convict him of murder August fourth, twenty two,
(10:11):
twenty three PM. By the time Tyler and I found
the remains of Deacon and Thomas, any rite of passage
involving Griff Washington's property had long since been squashed. Back
in the nineties, it used to be the Griff was
the older guy who'd sell your cigarettes or a six
pack of crappy beer for twenty dollars mark up. He
didn't give a shit about kids hanging out in his
land because he saw it as a financial opportunity of anything.
(10:35):
So when kids wanted to get away from their parents,
you know, be a rebel for the night, they'd sneak
off to Griffs. Eventually, this led to a tradition amongst
Manowa County high schoolers. Everybody knew the caves weren't safe.
There were all kinds of stories about monsters and kids
going missing and what have you. But when you're a teenager,
(10:55):
that's part of the appeal. So the legend grew as
leg and stew and they still lingered today. Here's the deal.
Knowledge comes in different flavors. Right in the case of
the Man of Wad case. On the one hand, there's evidence, testimony,
(11:18):
police reports, all autopsies of corners, report, expert analysis and
so on. On the other hand, they're superstition and folklore.
It's the horrible thing. What happened those boys? Did you
ever meete James Fincher in person? Doctor tredne Man only
(11:41):
respond to letters of his son. Do you think he did?
A detective? I'd be very interested to hear. What do
you think picked up your relationship with James? I'd say
it's hardly relationship. You corresponded, we weren't pipiles. If best,
you're trying to imply there's displayed a certain engagement, shall
(12:03):
we say, students come in don't care? Doctor Dale Trattner.
I looked him up on their website. It says he
was a cultural anthropologist and his story and at the
University of Tennessee Nastas and give him some sense when courage. Okay,
what was he curious about? He's cured for those damn caves.
There is a particularly disturbing trend to those narratives that
(12:23):
attacks themselves in the man a Lot caves. Then she'd
been writing letters to doctor Trattner before he was arrested,
so Smith was doing his due diligence. Stories about the
caves go way back beyond early settler folklore. What do
you mean, like like ghosts in which is some kind
of he'll billy voodoo or something. I guess something like that.
(12:45):
You know, there's some history about it too. What was that?
The Nadine O'Leary story. In the eighteen nineties, the O'Leary
family took shelter during a winter blizzard, who became tratt
inside the caves got note in that spring. As the
world followed, only the youngest daughter, Nadine Ole, merged in
(13:06):
the cave. That's the event Fincher was most interested in discussing. Okay,
why is that? It's one of these great unsolved mysteries
of this area. Last little Nadine she made out of
those caves back to town. She said she didn't do
it alone. But when they searched the caves that spring,
(13:27):
all the family members were accounted for, the remains were
still there. There's no way a little Nadine O'Leary could
have survived that track out of those damn mountains by herself.
She's only four years old. Detective, you still have those letters,
Fincher wrote you. I'm sure I have him somewhere. I'll
find them for you. These were the letters that the
prosecution used against Finch. They said that the letters prove
(13:49):
he was rational and aware of his actions. They claimed
this revealed the strategy on Fincher's part, a criminal mind.
They wove a narrative for the jury the Finch killed
the Hadley brothers out of revenge after he was bullied
by them. To add spice to their argument, they referenced
his library books and his second hand collection of VHS
(14:10):
tapes and CDs. They claimed his revenge plot was based
in adolescent fantasies delusions about the supernatural spirits and demons,
and that based on the violent nature of his killings,
he had been inspired by extreme horror movies and violent
music and deathcore metal. Their big legal fucking argument was
(14:32):
that Fincher's motive was revenge, and that his plot to
kill the Hadley brothers was fueled by delusions, beliefs about possession,
the paranormal, and evil from within the case. I want
you to take a look at the applicant share. On
one hand, we have a crime scene, the cave system
(14:54):
on mister Washington's property and the injuries sustained by the
Hadley boys. Then that crime scene, and then on the
other hand we have James Fincher. We have his letters
revealing an insatiable curiosity about the and I quote curse
of the Caves, including the mutilation of human flesh as
(15:19):
part of a ritual sacrifice required by the demonic forces
within those caves, the letting of human blood, and so on. Now,
when you take those factors and put them together, the
overwhelming evidence points to the fact that this case has
all the markings of a ritualistic, a cult murder, a
(15:44):
satanic murder, if you will. Then there's evidence of premeditation,
evidence that this was a meticulously constructed crime. The crime
scene itself, matching the drawings and diagrams found in the
defendant's own bedroom, diagrams of the caves with markings that
(16:06):
match the exact location where the bodies were found. And
it is clear that James Fincher calculated, plotted, and premeditated
the cold blooded murders of Deacon and Thomas Hadley in
those caves. What was done to Thomas and Deacon Hadley
(16:26):
is hard to comprehend, but it happened. It's not a dream,
it's not fiction. The defense will tell us that there
is no concrete evidence that the defendant, James Fincher, perpetrated
these heinous and brutal acts, despite witness testimony and a
(16:49):
clear motive. These are the facts, and the fact is
that it doesn't matter if we believe the caves are hard.
It doesn't matter if any of us believe in demons,
our ghosts, or are Satan themselves. The only thing that matters,
(17:10):
that's what James Fincher believes. Finchers was a witch trial.
I highly doubt such arguments as the prosecution made then
would have held weighted anywhere else in the civilized world.
But this is Manowa County. Between the mind grip that
Reverend Perkins had on the folks of this little Salem
(17:31):
and the deep seated superstitions about the caves. It's actually
kind of a genius prosecution strategy. After all, there was
plenty of lore surrounding the case. The legend I always
heard was that someone lived in the caves, half man,
half demon like. Doctor Trattner said, these kinds of stories
exist all over the world. They're basically warnings for kids
(17:54):
to stay out of the woods, right There are fucking
wolves in there, and they want your innocence in any
food you're bringing to Granny. In the case of Maniwa,
the stories were meant to keep us away from those
goddamn caves. But rumors are built partially on evidence too.
(18:15):
They're kind of more like theories that live somewhere between
fact and fiction. Two years after Jennifer Fowler left Maniwa County,
a boy named Matthew Sweetzer was found dead in the
cave with a single action revolver in his hand. Apparently
he was related to Richard Rydell second Cause and once
(18:36):
removed or something. Well. When the Haley brothers were found
dead in the cave, everyone had the same thought, there's
a murderer amongst us. You'd think that thought would charge
every interaction with dread suspicion, but instead it sort of
bound the town together, in entire town against one one
(19:00):
eighteen year old boy. I'm heading over to meet Fincher's sister. Now, Dina,
you're recording this if it's all right with you yet
helps with the details, which helps with you know, Okay,
(19:24):
h listen, thanks you know, for a grant to even
this though, like, just thanks for meeting with me. I'll
get it twisted. This is for James, not for you.
I don't care about whatever little self forgiveness journey you're on.
You said you wanted to help my brother get off
death row. That's the only reason, and I mean the
only reason you are here. Yeah, I get all that.
(19:49):
You're right obviously, and that's what I want to do too.
So Jimmy, turn that thing down. We got company. Dina's son, Jimmy,
was born a few months after his uncle, James Fincher
was put on death row. Jimmy's fourteen. Now. He was
named after his uncle, but James Fincher was never Jimmy
to me. He wasn't even James, he was just Finch.
(20:10):
Finch had a speech impediment, told me once that words
that start with the letter Jay gave him a hard
time any letters that required his tongue to touch the
top of his mouth. So he hated saying his own name, James.
He would stutter, elongate the vowels, try to bury the confidence.
(20:30):
I always made a point to call him Finch after
he told me that, so Finch. Finch and his younger sister,
Dina moved to Maniwa County when they were twelve and sixteen.
I felt sorry for Finch from the second he first
stepped foot on our school bus. He looked frail and
(20:51):
wide eyed. The wheels were spinning in his mind like
a turbine. It's tough to be a new kid, but
a new kid that stood out. I mean, who was
this guy? Where did he come from? And the rumors
spread quick He thought her both of his parents with
nothing but a pocket knife. He was really a thirty
(21:12):
five year old undercoverage and sent by the FBI to
investigate a chemical spill in the town's drinking water. He
was a genuine homosexual and sent a man a walk
for conversion therapy. Whatever was said about James Fincher when
he first showed up, it was a disruption, and it
stoked the tribal instincts in Pottsville clans. And it didn't
(21:33):
take long for bullies to prey on him either. I
wanted to stand up for him, but I couldn't. Not
the time Deacon Hadley threw a couple of Warren pists
on his head from the second story bathroom, and not
the time Thomas Hadley locked him in his locker. I
wanted to stop it, but I knew it would just
(21:55):
make matters worse for me. I'd suffered bullying self all
through Junior High, and I learned how not to call
attention to myself, so I did nothing at first. But
not calling attention to yourself isn't the skill Finch would
ever be able to master. He had only been riding
(22:18):
the bus for a week before Thomas Hadley sat down
next to him, reached into his lunch bag, pulled out
a carton a chocolate milk, and poured it over Finch's head.
I remember panicing, My heart was pounded in my chest,
my mouth got dried and I couldn't breathe. I remember
(22:39):
Thomas crushing the carton against Finch's chest. Finch didn't five
back he didn't even react. Maybe he felt that if
he did stand up to them, it would only make
things worse for him and his sister. Maybe he just
checked out, disassociated as a means of survival. That's what
I used to do in this sixth grade was the
(23:00):
easy target. I wasn't into the ship that the other
kids liked. I didn't play sports, I love Doctor Who
an anime, and would rather read a book than play outside.
So they called me a loser or geek or faggot.
They didn't ask what you're eating, They asked what you're
eating for. Thomas and Deacon used to terrorize me once.
(23:24):
They cornered me in the back of the auditorium and
they beat my ass and dumped a piss on me,
and I was too terrified and too ashamed to call
for help. Instead, I remember feeling like I wasn't even there,
Like I had gone from my body, gone from the school,
gone from Manowa County, my solo taking refuge someplace safe,
(23:44):
any place but there. But that day on the bus
with Fincher or something snapped after Thomas Porter's melk on
Fincher's head, Duelly Tapper joined in. Monkey see Monkey do
I remember seeing Dully des I had to do it
his dull fucking face, looking around and see if the
(24:05):
bus drivers even gave a shit. He started to pour
his arms juice on finish. I don't know. Maybe it
was because Duty was less of a threat than Thomas Hadley,
but suddenly all of the PTSD in the shame i'd
carried him, a guy sixth grade, I turned to rage.
I don't think I was even completely conscious when I
reached out and smacked the juice out of Duy's fat
(24:27):
hand man and watched the explode on his face. You
getting nap back. It was my first let chit fat.
When we lasted a minute before the bus driver stopped
the bus and broke it up. I remember the tears
came hot and salty, and I couldn't stop him. I'm
(24:49):
not supposed to cry on when you're a seventeen year old,
but I couldn't hold him back anymore. Well, look who
wears the pants in this love affair, that's deacon, said
Everyone laughed. After that, they called us lovers, me and Finch.
(25:09):
They spread their rumors anyway. Me and Dually got suspended
from the bus, so Dina and Finch were on their
own after that, and it wasn't long before Dina suffered
the attention of the Hadleys. The looks in the stairing
probably wasn't new for Dina. Even at fourteen years old,
Dina wasn't particularly well developed. She was behind what would
(25:32):
be considered average for her age. Physically speaking. She dressed
primarily and her brother's hand me down clothes. She kept
her eyes down, her nose out of trouble, and I
tried not to be noticed. And that's because she was
always noticed. Dina Fincher was her own disruption in Manowa County,
but where Finch had a speech impediment for people to
(25:53):
latch on to, Dina was just female. And to borrow
the phrase the Deacon Hadley was so fond of using,
Dina was exotic. The same word used to describe alien
fruits and endangered animals and lascivious dances applied here to
a young girl. Her skin, darker, eyes deeper, gate timid,
(26:17):
and Deacon became fixated on Dina Fincher. He started referring
to her as his little squaw, a blatant ethnic and
sexual slur. That's when the Fincher's quit riding the bus. Unfortunately,
in the end, the bus probably would have been safer.
It was the last day before spring break. Dina left
(26:40):
school that day, same as any other day. While she
waited for her brother, she noticed Deacon and Thomas Hadley
propped up against a tree watching her. When they caught
her eye, things escalated, lewd mouth gestures, wolf whistles, crotch grabbing.
When Finch finally arrived, Dina didn't mention it because it
wasn't out of the ordinary behavior. This kind of thing
(27:00):
happened so often with the boys in Maniwa County that
Tina had just gotten used to it, so she dismissed
it like she would on any other given day, and
began a three mile walk back to the Splinter Gap
trailer park with her brother. Dina was aware that the
Hadley brothers were following them, but she wasn't worried. She
had her brother there, and besides, following wasn't new either.
(27:23):
Anything to get a rise out of her wasn't new.
She had been trained time and time again to believe
the men were full of empty threats, but lacked the
gumption to actually make good on them. When the Hadleys
were still following them out passed where the sidewalk endid
down the descolate stretch of mountain road leading towards Splinter Gap.
(27:43):
Dina started getting nervous that it happened. Thomas Harley had
gotten a hold of a rock about the size of
a great prudent and let it fly across the back
of Inch's head. It dropped them and Thomas hind him
down on the grass where he was powerless to stop
(28:04):
taking from going after his sister. Jimmy doesn't know the
(28:26):
particulars about his birth or that his uncle's in jail
because he killed Jimmy's biological father. Way what Jimmy's biological father.
Jimmy's biological father was Deacon Hadley. I don't know why
(28:56):
it never occurred to me who was the father of
Dena's son, Jimmy. But you wasn't bashful about letting me know.
Dina was assaulted, violated, and impregnated by Dickon Hadley. I
didn't know. No one does. It's a town secret, except
that at ain't. It was kept out of the trial.
(29:16):
Why Bobby Hadley didn't want it out? The defense attorney
didn't want the jury here in that either. It only
made the prosecution's argument stronger because what has shown a
clear motive undernobyl. They still went with revenge, but they
couldn't prove anything. James was convicted completely on circumstantial evidence.
(29:40):
Well I didn't have an alibi. Look, I know he's
innocent too, but it doesn't matter what we think. We
need to think out of the box anything to help
us do that. I just I want to get your
perspective if I can. Okay, Look, James lol always try
(30:01):
to protect me, but he ain't capable of murder. Look,
we come from a fucked up situation. Our father was abusive.
I don't remember much. He was just a monster for
when I was little. I was terrified of him. But
(30:22):
when he was gone, I started to come out of
my shell. They thought I was a mute, but when
he left I started talking. Nobody knew I could talk
until he left us. But our problems weren't over. Far
from it. Our mother had her serious mental illness like what,
(30:45):
I don't know. She just wasn't right, and by the
time I was five she was certifiable. Like I had
this doll, right, a Barbie knock off doll that I
found out in the playground. Somewhere, and James said I
would spend hours playing with her like she was my
only friend. Then one morning I found my mother burying
(31:07):
my doll in the backyard. Mama says she thought the
doll was evil. I thought she was talking to me,
telling me bad things, turning me against her. After that
she started getting mean, lashing out, taking over where Dad
left off. And there were some beans. The point is
(31:30):
James always tried to protect me. Eventually they took her
away Florida Stay Psychiatric Hospital, and me and James got
shipped up here to beautiful manu Wa County. We'd never
even met our grandma till the day we arrived in
Splinter Gap, and boy did she ever make it clear
that she only took us in for the government assistance money.
(31:53):
She didn't even have a room for us her old Really,
I had one bedroom and she never came out of it.
So James he slept on the floor so I couldn't
sleep cozy on the couch. And when Grandma died and
he became a legal guardian, he gave me her bedroom.
There was no single day I went to school and
he wasn't right there next to me on the bus
(32:14):
or walking me to school and back home again. And
that includes after he got expelled, even when he wasn't
allowed on campus no more. He told me not to
ride the bus, He'd walk me, and he'd just wait
outside of school property all day long until the last
bell rang and he could walk me home again. I'd
(32:35):
see him there through the class and windows, just sitting
and waiting, keeping an eye out. Never met a sweeter
human being than James. No, I know, and I remember,
But isn't that the same motive that the prosecution used
to convict him. His need to protect you. Grandma used
(32:56):
to keep chickens back and me and James. Our job
was to make sure they had worms and feed and water.
Sometimes Grandma would let the rooster and the coop to breathe,
and when the little chicks would hatch, it was James's
job to keep them alive to protect them from the predators.
Rats mostly rats would eat the baby chicks. So Mamma
(33:17):
gave James the twenty two rifle and made him sit
out there in the cold and the dark, and his
job was to shoot the rats. Well. One day he
shot one blew its back half off, but it didn't die.
It was still breathing, suffering. James had to shoot it
again at point blank. He couldn't kill nothing anymore after that,
(33:42):
not even spiders or snakes or nothing. There's no way
he could have killed those boys, even if he had
more than enough reason to do so. It's not in
his nature. What about that fight he publicly attacked the
healthy brothers, jam right, he did fight, and they murderate
the same And that one fot I use against them.
(34:05):
They keep the people that are on top on top,
and they keep the people on the bottom on the bottom.
That one fot. That was all it took to get
James where he is now. But he still just doesn't
have the poison inside him it would take to do
a thing like that the way they found their bodies.
(34:25):
Dena Fincher was sexually assaulted by Deacon Hadley, and she
became an adult in a single instant. The gap between
her innocent years and the rest of her life was
about three minutes, three minutes outside of her own body.
Maybe her soul drifted far away from her body that day.
(34:48):
Maybe in her mind she flew away, maybe back to
Florida to bury her innocence in the dirt. Next to
that knockoff Barbie Dall. When it was over, Tomy and
Deacon just got up. They slung their backpacks over their
shoulders like they would walk at home from their bus
stop on any other day of the week. They didn't
(35:10):
say anything, no threats, no warnings. They just got up
and left Dna and Finch line in the high grass.
The Finchers had no health insurance. Their grandmother had passed
(35:32):
away only months after Finch turned eighteen, thrusting him into
the responsibilities of adulthood long before most kids his age
have even figured out how to microwave a cup of noodles.
Somewhere between becoming DNA's legal guardian and trying to graduate
high school, it had never occurred to Finch that they
might need healthcare. They didn't have any money saved. Every
(35:54):
job Finch had applied for he had been denied because
of some bullshit claims of his disability, yes that's what
they called his speech impediment, being a liability, or whatever
other excuse was being doled out at the particular establishment.
So Finch and Dina never forgot medical help that day,
even though Finch suffered from a nasty head wound and
(36:15):
bled from the back of his skull, and Dina was
now a physically and emotionally traumatized survivor of Diacon Headley.
The Fincher siblings walked back to their trailer. Finch did
everything he could help his sister, while presumably suffering through
a concussion. The next day, they went back to school.
(36:37):
According to Dina Fincher, it was her brother's idea to
go back. He knew their best better survival was to
finish their educations, get their diplomas, and get the hell
out of Dodge. So they put their heads down, studied hard,
and worked towards that goal. But the forces that be
weren't content on letting the Finchers get on with their lives,
(36:58):
and a few weeks later, Dina found out that she
was pregnant. There were so many factors, but I think
that's what really did it. The mountain weight of everything
gets so heavy you can't carry it anymore, and you're
crushed under the pressure of all that muck and bullshit.
(37:20):
When Finch found out that Dina was pregnant, that in
spite of all that fighting to survive and remain in
calm and steadfast, despite that torment, trying to win through
sheer endurance that there was still gonna be another life
dragged against its will into the cesspool of a world.
(37:40):
He fucking cracked. He waited all through the school day.
I remember seeing him all hopped up on adrenaline, his
face going purple in the blotchy patches around his cheeks
and collar, his leg bouncing so hard that it made
his desk to shake and caused the eruption in class.
(38:02):
The second that bell rang, he went for it. He
humped the Deacon Hadley down like a well trained predator.
He had stashed a broken axe handle in the bushes
near where the Hadley brothers used to roost in the
schoolyard at recess. Finch just walked quietly walked over to
them as they watched him a snicker and despite his
(38:25):
fearless approach, before they could put together what was happening,
Finch retrieved his axe handle and started swinging. He gave
them hell on Earth right there in the schoolyard. I
remember he was standing over deacons, swinging wildly. Thomas tried
to pull him back but ended up on the wrong
side of Finch's elbow that laid him out. To bleeding
(38:49):
on the grass, the explosive power of so much pent
up rage contents under pressure, he snapped. I swear to God,
Finch had the strength to ten full grown men that day. Man.
What's then the tears came, but not to Hadley's. Finch,
(39:13):
for all his rage, was the only one crying. And
then came the laughter, Thomas Hadley, that goddamn laugh. I'll
never forget it. Fincher held back by Tyler crying and
Thomas bleeding on the ground, laughing like a fucking hyena.
(39:33):
James may have done some physical damage, he drew a
little blood, but they'd still won. They had broken him
and his sister, and because of that nothing would ever
change around these parts, Or so I thought. Finch was
expelled obviously, Bobby Hadley, Thomas and Deacon's father just so
(39:56):
happened to be good friends with the district attorney at
the time they were about the press charges. But it
was Dina who retaliated a DNA test proving Deacon was
the father of her unborn child. She rebutted with a
proof of the Hadley boy's own guilt off any legal
moves were made against her brother, and so she created
(40:17):
a stalemate. If her brother was going to jail, so
were Bobby Hadley's sons. And if Bobby would back down,
she'd keep the rape out of the papers and no
one would ever know about it. So he backed down,
and the Hadley boys not even a slap on the wrist.
It was perfect injustice. It's no wonder Sheriff Hooper picked
(40:40):
Finch as his lead suspect in the Hadley murders after
those boys were found eviscerated in the caves four months later,
and the whole town lit up like a medieval mob,
ready to hunt the monster down with pitchforks, torches, drive
it out from the fucking cave. Everyone wanted Fincher's head
down a stick, everyone excepted Detective Solomon Smith, a ghost
(41:31):
in the meal and the hounds of Hell. Dancing in
Your Dancing in the Manowat Caves stars Jonathan Tucker as
Julian Salis, Eddie Gathegi as James Fincher, Clark Peters as
(41:54):
Detective Solomon Smith, Nick Sercy as Sheriff Kirby Hooper, Justin
Wellbourne as Tyler Wilson, Jill Jane Clements as Jill Campbell,
Brad Carter as Dooley Tappert, Scott Poythress as Reverend Perkins,
Samantha Ashley as Dena Fincher, Justin Matthews Smith as Paul Salis,
Tara Oakes as Laura Salis, Jonathan Horn as Deacon Hadley,
(42:17):
Alden Kronovitch as Thomas Hadley, Mike w Anderson as Griff Washington,
Bodie Walter Roth as Jimmy Fincher, Brian McClure as Ian Speaks,
Larry Clark as Bobby Hadley, Paydon Fallis as ed le Blanc,
Vic Polisis as William Fowler, Nick Takosky as Richard Rydell,
and Aileen moy as The Darkness, with additional performances by
(42:41):
Clint McGowan, Dina Dill, Edward Howard, Henry Foster Brown, Jamie Joseph,
Juan Monsalvez, Christopher Curry, Bailey Hyneman, David Mitchell, and Bernard
Sataro Clark. Created by Connel Byrne and Dan Bush, written
by Dan Bush, Zoe Cooper and Nicholas Dakaski, featuring our
(43:02):
theme song Killer Inside, written produced and performed by Lear Lynn.
Our executive producers are Matt Frederick, Alexander Williams, Michael Monty,
and Courtney Dufrees. Our executive producers at Blumhouse Television are
Jeremy Gold, Chris Dickey, and Noah Feinberg. Produced by Dan Bush,
(43:23):
Music by Ben Lovett. Additional music by Alexander Rodriguez. Edited
by Dan Bush, Chris Childs, Stephen Perez and David Chen.
Sound design by Benjamin Malcolm. Dialogue editing and sound mixing
by Jan Campus recorded at Studio Awesome in Los Angeles,
sound Bite Studio in Atlanta and Echo Mountain in Asheville.
(43:44):
Casting by Sunday Bowling Kennedy and Meg Morman. Our dialect
coach is Linda Bassetti. Assistant director Michael Monty, Second assistant director,
script supervisor and production coordinator Sarah Klein. Supervising producer Josh Thine.
Special thanks to Mary Ellen and Jason Davis, Jonathan Deeter,
and Joe Rickman. The manowat Caves is a production of iHeartRadio,
(44:08):
Blumhouse Television and Psychopia Pictures. So please
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