March 8, 2019 • 48 mins
The legendary rivalry between college football powerhouses Auburn and University of Alabama turned ugly with the 2011 poisoning of two beloved oak trees on Auburn's campus. Mo explores the history behind the rivalry and the line between fandom and fanaticism.Learn more about the Mobituaries book: http://bit.ly/MobituariesBook
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Proclaimed there's one of America's best sports shows by Sports Illustrated.
This is the Pauline Ball Radio Network to be part
of the show. One day um going through the show
in January of two thousand and eleven, and we get
a call from a guy who describes himself as Al
from Dadeville, Alabama. Are doing well? Thanks? He lost his
(00:29):
core with me, and he said, we'll tell you what
I did last week, the weekend after the Iron Bowl,
I went to Auburn, Alabama, and I poisoned the two
tumors tree did die. They're not dead yet, but they
definitely will die. You heard that right, This man calling
himself Al from Dadeville calls into a radio show to
(00:49):
say that he's poisoned two oak trees. Is that against
the law to poison the tree? What do you think
I care? Okay, I really don't roll down, roll damn
tiede and he hung up. I didn't give it much thought.
Two weeks later, a man named Harvey Updike was arrested.
It became one of the biggest stories of the year
(01:12):
and one of the ugliest college football related crimes that
has ever been reported. To understand how a man with
no criminal record, became one of the most hated individuals
in the history of college sports. You have to know
a thing or two about college football in Alabama and
(01:32):
the rivalry that's long defined it, and to understand why
a whole town would mourn over the death of two
old oak trees like they were people. He needed to
know about a small college town named Auburn with a
big football tradition. This episode, I'll go to the scene
(01:55):
of the crime and meet the man who did it.
I wanted Auburn people gonna hate me as much as
I hate them. I'm Morocca and this is mobituaries, This
mobid death of a tree, roots of a rivalry. It's
(02:21):
a night. We have a story about a long standing
rivalry where things have now gotten out of hand and
became Alabama have arrested this man who they say poisoned
a pair of beloved oak trees. At already we took
Harvey Updike Junior into custody for the poison. Trees were
started find that somebody would do something like this to
a few trees that had never done anything to anybody.
(02:46):
How important a trees to to Auburn. Without trees, this
campus is nothing to me without the trees. It's just
buildings on a side. I'm with horticulturist Gary Kiver at
Auburn University in eastern Alabama, about an hour outside state
capital of Montgomery. Auburn has one of the most beautiful
campuses in the South, in part because of all the trees.
(03:09):
That's nice. What kind of trees are those? Is that birchrtle? Kind?
So path with trees? There are over one D twenty
species of trees on campus. Not so surprising at a
school where you can major in forestry. That is a
mini magnolia. That is a silver bill. And that thing
over there that looks like a Christmas tree? Is that
(03:32):
a sort of It's not a pine, it's a cryptomeria.
No one knows what that is. If you're in horticulture,
you know what it is. By now you can tell
I didn't major in forest tree. I guess? Can I
guess that that is? It's a is it alive oak?
It is d D Ding Dan Dan. I'm so excited
(03:53):
that I got something right. But at one spot on campus,
the trees have deep symbolic value. We're standing here in
the Tumors corner and this is the gateway to campus
and imagined the term where town meets down. Tumors Corner,
the intersection of College Street and Magnolia Avenue. Two massive
(04:17):
old growth oak trees once stood sentry here, about eighty
feet apart. They're glorious crowns of foliage joined overhead, indeed
forming a kind of gateway the heart and soul of
Auburn's campus. The Tumors Oaks that's t O O M
E R S. We're over eighty years old and named
(04:40):
after the founder of a drug store that's still there
just across the street. Okay, this is kind of a
big deal for me because I'm actually now seeing it.
So where are the trees? I'm looking here and right here,
the slender trees i'm seeing are replacements, perfectly nice, but
you certainly wouldn't try climbing one these. One day they
(05:01):
might touch overhead, but right now they seem disconnected from
each other. Two trees among many on campus. And we
look here and for each of these new Tumors Oaks,
fairly immature. There's a little sign around them. And what
does it say? Please do not roll rolling. It's a
(05:24):
school tradition, really a ritual that goes back to the
nineteen seventies. When Auburn's football team wins, students rushed Tumors
corner and hurl rolls of toilet paper up into the trees.
The original tumors oaks that stood here were majestic, but
(05:44):
when rolled, they looked kind of magical. In photographs, the
long streams of toilet paper resemble white flowing mains that
at night seemed to glow, made from pounds and pounds
make that many hounds of toilet paper. Usually rolling and
it's still done is to celebrate Auburn's winds, but sometimes
(06:08):
the students roll trees to celebrate another holy occasion when
their arch nemesis, the University of Alabama, loses no matter
who beats them. These two teams hate each other. But
why where did this rivalry that divides the whole state
(06:29):
and led one man to poison two oak trees originate?
Turns out that's an old story, like Civil War old.
During the Civil War, the federal government decides to fund
what are called land grant universities. These are schools that
(06:51):
teach programs on farming and mechanical trades, basically aggie schools.
After the war ends when the former Confederate states joined
the Union, the state of Alabama wants to get in
on that money. Then all of a sudden there comes
this fierce competition to see who will become the land
(07:11):
grant university in each state. That's historian Wayne Flint. He
wrote the book on Alabama. Like literally, he wrote the
Encyclopedia of Alabama. So which Alabama school will win this
distinction and the money that goes with it. University of
Alabama wants to be the language school. And the last
thing they want is for a college in East Alabama
(07:32):
that would be Auburn to get this ultimate plum of
the federal money. And in this their first head to
head competition, Auburn, a formerly small Methodist college out in
the Sticks, wins out over the older, than more affluent
University of Alabama, thus sparking a rivalry that lives on
(07:53):
even today. So how can two in state schools that
compete for wealth, political power, and for stege settled the
score football? So there is in sublimated form this rivalry
that is about politics and wealth. It immediately manifest medal metastasizes,
(08:16):
tastasizes onto the gridiron and into the stands. The football
rivalry gets so intense, brawls between fans, fights over regulation rules,
that it's suspended at one point for forty years. Seriously,
it takes an act of state government, a House joint
(08:36):
resolution to bring these teams back together. And in the
Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers pick up where
they left off. It's like they never stopped hating each other.
At its heart, this rivalry is less about two schools
and more about class. I'm thinking of that awful cheerio
(08:58):
sometimes here at high school games. That's all right, that's okay,
You're gonna work for us someday. Does that kind of
sum up feeling that that Alabama has for abur heicks
strawberries of second hand forward trucks. You said it, not
I did, because that's the stereotonuk. Never mind that today
Auburn is ranked higher than Alabama on the list of
(09:19):
top state schools. It's sent six alumni into space and
one into the top office at Apple, as in CEO
Tim cook yep he went to Auburn. In fact, Auburn
grads on average make more than Alabama grads, a fact
which may have made this rivalry even more poisonous. I
(09:42):
would say that college football is as close to a
religion in that state as you could possibly find. The
main difference is that people practice it every day. Where religion,
they show up when they feel like it. This is
beyond obsession. It's addictive. There's people that live for football s.
I have heard people tell stories of going into labor
(10:06):
in the middle of the game and being told that
they need to wait alburn football. I have to believe
that part of this is that Alabama doesn't have a
professional football team. Does that matter? I've always thought that
was a big part of it. Um there are there
are just no professional teams of any which means in
Alabama you've got two choices, arguably the most intense rivalry
(10:29):
in all of college football. You pledge your allegiance from Burns,
Auburn or Alabama, you must choose us brother versus brother,
battle of wills, dividing families at Tensions between these teams
are so high that matrimony between Auburn and Alabama fans
is called a mixed marriage, and once a year, on
(10:53):
Thanksgiving Day weekend, the two teams meet on the gridiron
in the game known simply as the iron Ball. This
game is basically a high holiday in the state. Virtually
everyone will be either act this game or watching from home.
The highways are empty, stores are shut down. The winner
(11:16):
of the iron Ball secures bragging rights for the whole
next year. And when football fans in Alabama want to
boast about their team's big wins, they call into the
Paul fine Bound Show. And it must be great being
known as the Oprah Winfrey of college football. Oh that
was a compliment to that treasure. Hello, Hello, show isn't
(11:40):
isn't a radio show. It's a family kind of like
the Manson's who are a family? Can turned? How dare
you say that about Alabama? Reading the telebrampt then you
are just keep your mouth about Alabama sometimes because you
don't want to hear it's not done obvious really needs
(12:01):
a professional I mean, I dare say that no one
in the history of mankind has profited more from the
Alabama Auburn rivalry than the person you're currently listening to.
The sec is over this conflict has been good for you.
I I will admit that under oath God, you're like
a war profit here. But when Harvey Uptake called into
(12:24):
the Paul find Bound show in early two thousand eleven.
He wasn't ranting a raving. The weekend after the Iron Bowl,
I went to Auburn, Alabama, poisoned the two tumors treats.
He sounded deliberate, he sounded proud. They die. They're not
the idea, but they definitely will die. Is that against
the tree? When I first read about what Harvey Uptake
(12:49):
had done, I found it disturbing. Really more than disturbing,
I found a sinister What kind of a person will
kill two beautiful, innocent living things. I thought about how
cruelty to animals is a predictor of violence against other people,
sometimes horrific violence. I thought of a kid up the
street from where I grew up named Kevin. He used
(13:11):
to get a kick out of crushing little baby bird
eggs he found in nests. I don't know what happened
to him, but I still don't like the name Kevin.
I even thought about the Taliban blowing up the monumental
statues of Buddha at bam Yon in two thousand one. Look,
you might think that comparing the killing of two trees
to the torture of animals or human beings, or to
(13:33):
the destruction of a religious shrine is over the top,
and maybe it is, but sorry, what kind of a
person would do this? The question for me boiled down
to this, is he a person who did something terrible and,
as it turns out, dangerous or is he a dangerous person?
(13:53):
I headed down to Texas or Harvey Updyke was living
last summer to find out. Now, before I introduce you
to Harvey Updyke, the University of Alabama fan who killed
Auburn's two beloved oak trees, there's another person I have
to tell you about. Like those trees, He's no longer
with us in body, but in spirit he's very much alive.
(14:21):
University of Alabama coach Bear Bryant is an icon, and
not just for leaving the Crimson Tide to unprecedented glory
with six national championships over a twenty five year career
beginning in the late nineteen fifties. He had an aura,
A man of few words. He stood tall six ft three,
(14:43):
sporting his trademark houndstooth Fedora, projecting the gravitas and the
intensity of a John Wayne or Gary Cooper. But he
wasn't playing a character in a movie. He got his
nickname Bear when he was thirteen years old. Naturally, when
he agreed to wrestle a captive bear at a carnival.
(15:04):
He became so influential across Alabama. From that, of course,
he had to have his own TV show Sundays at
four pm. He would sit down, crack open a bottle
of Coca Cola and a bag of golden flaked potato
chips the show's two sponsors, and break down the Alabama
game from the day before. That was what we wanted
to do either. We didn't want to kick all of Everton.
(15:25):
We could help it, but we were forces here. They
His mother had always wanted him to be a minister,
and he famously said coaching and preaching are a lot alike.
And watching his show on late Sunday afternoons was like
a second church for die hard fans for four years.
From now we're walking out of here. Nice good chance.
(15:46):
After he died on January, he was posthumously awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Reagan. A few years
back when they had those commemorative state quarters. From surprised
Alabama didn't put Bear Bryant on theirs on both sides. Now,
I'm telling you all this for a reason. Harvey Updike
(16:08):
grew up watching the Bear Bryant Show, and like for
many young kids, Brian gave him someone to look up to.
And I'll tell you this, I expect nothing less. We're
driving down the street in Texas and in about point
(16:31):
two miles we are going to meet Harvey Updyke. He's canceled,
he's confirmed, he's canceled. He's confirmed, he's hedged. I get it,
I get it. He's not sure what he's getting into.
The destination is on your right, and neither are Well.
(16:52):
Hello there, Hey, I'm Morocca. How are you? John Buddy
breaks to meet too. You must be Harvey, right, I'm
Hardy And then I said I love your hat, thank you.
What do you know? Harvey is wearing a hound's tooth
Alabama cap to match his short sleeved polo with a
Crimson a insignia that look like if she did on
(17:12):
Bart very much. And what's her name, Princess? That doesn't
sound like anything to do with the Crimson tide. Well,
I didn't name her. I had Harvey sixty nine. And
he looks at his hair is such a light blonde
that it looks white. He has a biker mustache, the
kind that Hull Cogan has with a goatee, or is
(17:34):
that a soul patch. I meet Harvey's son, Bear Upnight.
Nice to meet you. That's right, Harvey named his son Bear. Incidentally,
he's got a daughter in another state named, wait for it,
Crimson Tide update. Nice to me, alright, alright. I also
meet his two granddaughters and they're Adorableley, Briley, how do
(17:58):
you do a mode that? I'm good? And this is
princess right? I learned quickly that travel softball is a
huge thing for these girls and their grandfather. I cheer
all my girls as hard as I can. I'll love
him to death. What does he, Briley? What does he do?
(18:18):
How does he cheer? He's like, let's go of dyke.
I just go board and go out there. I have
to wonder what going overboard means for Harvey up Dyke.
But the girls seem to love their grandfather's fervor. I
like it. I like how big of a fan he is.
All my friends like it too. They laugh, they walk
(18:38):
up to me and they're like, me and your Grandma's awesome.
I wish I had a grandpa like that. And I'm like, yeah,
he's amazing. But he's loud, loud and proud, and Briley
and Madison imitate Harvey's signature catchphrase man. Then Harvey shows
him how it's done. Is there a fault line in Texas?
(19:02):
Because the walls just shut twenty minutes in. If I
have to sum up Harvey in one word, it isn't
scary or creepy, but grandpa. So far, at least he's
kind of a regular grandpa. Then, without any prompting, I
hear what sounds like Harvey's origin story, how he lost
(19:25):
his dad when he was just four years old, and
how a certain legendary coach filled the voice my mother
when I was seven or eight years old. If I
ever have a boy, I'm gonna name him Bear Bryant.
And she asked me why. I said, will. He's everything
at a father figure should be. He makes his players
(19:45):
called their parents on weekends, and I just thought he
was a great person. Harvey fondly describes sitting and watching
The Bear Bryant Show on a black and white TV
while his mother ironed he still members of the show's
two sponsors. Yeah, yeah, he had opened the bag and
you know, about three or four and drunk his coke
(20:06):
and I think it lasted about an hour. We all
head down the road now to a local surf and
turf spot to grab some lunch. On the car ride over,
Harvey tells me about his previous life as a police
officer in Texas. There's the best job I ever had.
I love being a trooper. I put a lot of
people in jail for d W which is a huge
(20:26):
point of pride for Harvey. He says his father was
killed by a drunk driver. Newspaper accounts from the time, though,
report that his father died when he lost control of
his tractor trailer and flipped over, and that no other
vehicle was involved. But I believe that Harvey believes his
father was killed by a drunk driver. He says it's
(20:49):
something that defined his career in law enforcement. The only
thing I remember about my dad is uh, At the funeral,
they picked me up to kiss him and I just
his forehead and it scared me to death. You know
it's it felt like marble or something. And you know,
I was three years old. I didn't know what. It's
pretty out here? It is pretty? What is his belt
(21:12):
in lake? I'm genuinely moved by Harvey's story. But wait
a second, am I being manipulated? Look? This is my
first true crime episode, so maybe I'm being gullible. I
need to be more circumspect. Anyway, do you want to
go ahead and at the restaurant? I ordered the mixed
field green salad and catfish fingers. Now, like any good
(21:34):
lunch spot, it's a little noisy. If there's levels of
fans like weekend fans, you know, avid fans, radical fans.
Where are you? I would say probably radical? I know
it's it's unhealthy. Do you what? What have you? Well?
(21:55):
I mean, besides my kids and grandkids, I love that
Alabama you know, right below him, not too far below him.
Madison who goes by move seems to take this and
stride move. Do you love anything as much as your
grandpa loves Alabama football? Um? I mean, I love him
as much as he loves Alabama, but he loves it
(22:18):
a lot. And what do you think of that? Did
you understand it? No? I don't understand why he had
to kill the trees. I don't. I mean, I don't know.
He's a little crazy. I didn't mean it. I did,
and just like that, courtesy of his eleven year old granddaughter,
we're talking about the crime itself. You just I didn't
(22:41):
mean it. I did. What does that mean? I was
saying I didn't mean it, but then I then I
was gonna tell you truth. I didn't mean it. I
wanted to alburn people to hate me as much as
I hate him, because they bought Cam Newton. Scam. You
know who he is. Scam Newton, a camp back. Okay,
(23:02):
I'm gonna do some translating for the non sports people
you may have heard of NFL quarterback Cam Newton. Harvey
calls him Scam Newton. Back in college, Newton was a
star player at Auburn, which made him enemy number one
at Alabama. Throughout two thousand ten, Newton was under investigation
after allegations that he had been paid to play for Auburn.
(23:25):
That's a big no no in college sports. Cam Newton
was eventually officially cleared of these allegations. That season, Newton
led Auburn to a historic comeback victory over Alabama in
the Iron Ball, a stinging defeat coming on the heels
of an even greater outrage for Harvey. They home the
(23:46):
Scam Newton jersey on Bear bryan statue. That's when I
went crazy. Yes, fans taped Cam Newton's jersey onto Bear
Bryant's statue a week before the iron Ball This is true.
You can it or that like like I like sacrileged. Yes. Yes.
Harvey also says that when Bear Bryant died in Auburn,
(24:09):
fans rolled Tumors corner in celebration. Now, there's no proof
that something so ghoulish as that happened, but again, I
believe that Harvey believes it. At this point in the meal,
I'm kind of understanding why all of this was so
upsetting for Harvey. Auburn fans taped Scam Newton's Forgive Me
(24:30):
Cam Newton's jersey onto a statue of Bear Bryant, which
I'm guessing in Harvey's mind was tantamount to mocking his father.
But then Harvey goes into a clinical, step by step
description of how he poisoned the trees in the middle
of this family seafood restaurant in front of his granddaughter.
(24:51):
Took me a month. Ever, now I stay up all
not long, and I used to have cameras on the trees.
I figured out when the slow most time, what day
of the week, and what hour of the night was
the slowest around old oak trees, so I could go
in there at that time and not get caught at
what time was it? And boy am on Sunday night.
(25:15):
The chemical he used was an herbicide called spike a
D D F. Mixed it with water and put it
in a Milton jugs. I had to milk guts roots
tree and I walked around the the outside of the tree,
you know where the bulgage came out, so just pouring
(25:36):
it around, almost like gasoline to set a fire. Like
when he arrested me, they came to my house. They
brought I'm not lying to you. They brought twenty five
police cards out there are searching my house. We can't
verify that. And they told me that, uh, I used way, way,
way too much. We can verify that. Try five times
(25:59):
the lethal I'm out there was even concerned from federal
police officers that he might have poisoned the water table.
In other words, Harvey Updyke put Auburn's drinking water at risk.
You know, I wouldn't have chemist. I didn't know how
much do you use? I just want to make sure
they died. It felt like I was sitting across from
someone who had been radicalized. I know, fanaticism in sports
(26:22):
didn't start with Harvey. In nineteen seventeen, Texas A and
M fans stole the University of Texas's mascot steer Bibo
and branded him, And just the last year, West Point
Cadets kidnapped the Air Force mascot falcon Aurora and seriously
injured her. Grown ups did this. Maybe it's fitting that
(26:43):
the voice of reason at this table belongs to eleven
year old Madison. Yeah. I don't know why he wants
people to hate him my name. They probably already do.
But he's not really acting like his age. He's kind
of acting young, like he's back in elementary school. I
would never want someone to hate me as much. I
would hate that. I'm sorry, baby, And just like that,
(27:06):
I'm feeling a little better about Harvey. Do you like
trees in general? Yeah? I like trees in general. You know,
I just don't like alb There's several things in this
world and I really intruded. I don't like and Alburn's
one of them. What are the others? Liver? I ain't
gonna eat no liver. It's got a lot of protein.
I don't care what had happened. I don't eat liver.
(27:29):
And what are the other things you don't like? I
hate to say this because this is an upset a
lot of people, but I hold my breath. I'm not
crazy about cats. I didn't know what you were gonna say.
Just now. Okay, So Harvey is so matter of fact
describing his crime, but there was nothing matter of fact
(27:51):
about it for the Auburn community. After the trees were poisoned.
The first thing that happened after it was announced was
the fans rolled the trees, almost like, Okay, we're gonna
show our concern for you by rolling you. I'm back
with Gary Kiev, the horticulturist and former Auburn professor, and
(28:13):
he's telling me about the aftermath of the two thousand
eleven poisoning. I empathized with the students because they were
filling the trees pain And the next thing they did
was to begin to insurround the trees. They began to
bring up flowers, They began to bring up memorabilia to
pay respects. Toilet paper rolls inscribed with get well messages
(28:39):
were laid down a bouquet of flowers made out of
toilet paper. I began to see the human quality that
these trees brought out in people. This vigil. Absolutely, absolutely
thank you to the Auburn family for the outpouring of
love that you are showing now during this time of hurt.
(29:02):
These trees will likely die, but the Auburn spirit we'll
continue to live on. While the prognosis was Grandma, some
held out hope, including Gary Kiver and are you in
rescue mode right now? What is where is your head
when all of this is happening. Well, at this point
we didn't know where the herbside had been placed, we
(29:24):
didn't know how much, so we were way behind the curve.
The university consulted with the nation's best tree doctors. Various
treatments were tried at great expense, Sugar injected into the roots,
liquid activated carbon drenched over tree beds, but the tumors
oaks only got sicker. In essence, the trees was starving
(29:48):
it seft today. I mean when you see something like
that happening, I mean, do you feel for the tree
without a doubt, without a doubt, you know. I mean,
We've got this majestic trees that do no harm to
anyone if someone has chosen to harm them, and it
makes no sense to me. If you want to know
how this felt for Auburn, listen to the voice of
(30:09):
Gary Keeper's colleague Stephen and Low, when he was asked
by a reporter if the trees were definitely going to die.
It's an emotional question. Oh, I always want to hold
that home. Based upon the technical experts are consulted with
around the country, the concentration of spike basically found within
(30:33):
the soil would suggest there is a very low probability.
On April thirteen, two and a half years after Harvey
uptake had poisoned them, the tumors oaks were removed, it
is so said. And then every time the chain stow
(30:56):
cuts and just listen to the people get closed. So
that's a sad day. It's uh tough to talk about.
Just think this, it's like a funeral. I mean, just
people have tears in their eyes, or they did when
the street was barricaded off and there were hundreds of
people out there. Uh, there were people crying without a doubt,
(31:20):
and surprisingly some of those who had come to bear
witness were from Alabama. In the effort to save the trees,
Auburn's arch rival had raised it over fifty dollars on
a Facebook page called Tied for Tumors. In many ways,
of poisoning brought Auburn in Alabama closer together because many
of the Alabama fans felt maybe, in some way a
(31:44):
small part responsible for their poisoning. I'm driving with Harvey now.
We've just left the restaurant where he described in detail
his crime. Let me ask when we were sitting in
the restaurant, so you said you you were honest, and
(32:04):
you said you don't regret it. But do you think
it was wrong what you did? Yes, I think it's wrong.
You know, them trees wouldn't hurt me, but that's the
only way I felt like I could get back at.
You know, I wasn't gonna hurt anybody, and at the
time we had just found out that my ex wife
(32:29):
had cancer. On the one hand, unrelieved that Harvey actually
recognizes that what he did was wrong, I guess I
was depressed. On the other hand, he's making excuses again. Yeah,
I think everybody has done things that they regret, probably
not a magnitude that I did. But if you could
(32:51):
say anything to those trees, what would you say to them?
I'd probably say sorry, but too late. Now we're back
at Harvey's house now, actually it's his son Bears house.
(33:13):
Harvey moved in here in two thousand seventeen. Oh you
got a huge upstairs. Well, that's where I stay. It's
not really a bedroom where he's staying when I visit,
more like the second floor landing. Do you see all
my hats? They're really nice. I mean, I got a
bunch of them. That's a pretty good looking hat. I care.
(33:35):
I like that. Bam. This is the one Bear Brynet
used to wear. The kind of he wore. I didn't
start liking on yesterday. Uh, you've been with them for
four decades now, you know. I stayed with him when
day was down, but they didn't stay with him when
he was down. Too many Crimson Tide fans. Harvey became
(33:57):
a pariah, denounced by no less a person than Alabama
head coach Nick Saban. Part of what makes this so
sad is that Harvey didn't even go to Alabama. He
didn't even grow up in the state, but across the
line in the Florida Panhandle. Harvey is a member of
what's known unofficially as the pickup truck Alumni, working class
(34:19):
people so inspired by the heroics of Bear Bryant that
they became die hard fans who take the rivalry way
more seriously than the actual alumni do. And now the
Alabama community was looking down at him worse than they
ever looked at those kids from Auburn. You got your
pills there? What are the pills for? I take about
(34:42):
thirty pills a day for what everything? I mean everything,
I've got everything. It's a veneerial disease. Harvey spent six
months in a small jail in Lee County, that's where
Auburn is. He said he got jumped several times by
Auburn fans serving time there, and that people would spit
in his food. He said he lost over eighty pounds,
(35:04):
and if you compare photos before and after his sentence,
you can see that he's not lying. He came out
looking gaunt and pale. Do you think it was extreme
the punishment? Yes, I do. I mean what what I
did I shouldn't have done. But I think I pretty
well got what I deserved. You know, I think, I mean,
(35:25):
I think I deserved to go to jail for doing it.
I mean I do, I mean I shouldn't have done it. Yes,
I know, Harvey just completely contradicted himself. Again. As for
whether Harvey's punishment that is crime, no surprise, Alabama's legal
community is divided. It was almost a personal attack. These
(35:46):
weren't just a couple of trees. There are a lot
of cheers have been shed over this. That's Lee County
d A. Brandon Hughes. If you remove that emotional attachment
to those two trees, his case is way out of
proportion of what ordinarily would be charged. And that's University
of Alabama law professor Jenny Carroll. Harvey was charged with
a Class C felony, which for a non violent first offense,
(36:10):
was not typical. There was also a misdemeanor charge for
and I find this significant, desecrating a venerated object. There
were plenty effects who felt like, if ever there was
a time for capital punishment, it was this time. There
was no trial, A plea deal was struck, which included
the six month long jail sentence, a five year probationary
(36:32):
period and over eight hundred thousand dollars in restitution at
a payment rate of two hundred dollars a month. It
will take Harvey more than three hundred years to make good.
I think it was garbage. I think he got off easy.
To call it a slap on the wrist is overstating.
I think it was a kiss on the cheek. That's nothing,
absolutely nothing for what he did. Harvey was banned for
(36:56):
life from Auburn's campus as part of the probation, he
had a seven pm curfew, and worst of all, for Harvey,
was not allowed to go to any college sporting events,
which meant no Alabama football for five years. They are
punishing him at the very heart of the thing he
loves the most. It's like a modern day shunning, right,
Like you have to leave our community that we all
(37:18):
consider so valuable. Still, a lot of people weren't satisfied.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody around
here that says, yes, justice was served. After he was
out of jail. That guy didn't look back. He was
He was a hero to the Alabama people. I wondered
what this was like for Harvey's family, while this was
(37:38):
all happening, It doesn't. Marcia Updyke is Bear's wife and
Harvey's daughter in law. She's just home from work and
we sit in the kitchen to chat. Do you think
if he'd been living with you all and been involved
with the grandkids, then that he would have done it? Oh?
Heck no, because he would have been like, hey, I
got this idea, and I'm like, heck no, we're not
(37:58):
going to go do that. But anything. I don't even
let him take food upstairs. She wanted to run and
take the food upstairs. So sometimes I'll naked, I put
in my pockets take upstairs anymo. Yeah, So there would
have been no poison. No, no poison. It would have
been a different world when this was all happening. Marcia,
(38:19):
What did you think? I don't know. We weren't directly involved.
You know. On a serious note, there were fans that
would like Bear had to shut down his Facebook page
because he would receive death threat and that was ridiculous.
So it's so funny because they would get so upset.
These Auburn fans would get so upset because of what
happened and then message his son and that they're his
(38:40):
kids should die. And seriously, it was hypocritical of them
to say they were outraged by this and then turn
around and threaten your kids. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, do you
feel bad for the trees? So here's the thing, their trees.
I mean, I get it, don't get me wrong. I
mean that's going to be super insensitive to something oaks,
and Um, what people need to know is I don't
(39:04):
care about I mean it, I shouldn't say I don't care,
but it's it's football, it's Auburn, it's Alabama. But when
I found out like the value that they placed on
those trees and things like that, I was a little
surprised myself. I do have to say, so I understand
they are special and um, it was devastating. But you know,
(39:27):
if someone comes and breaks a statue or something along
those lines, I'm not sure that the ramifications are as
I don't know, intricate as they were for that, they
would be punished as much. Yeah, they definitely breaks him
over the coals a little bit. They definitely threw the
book at him and said, hey, we're going to go
to the highest of the high. Yeah, I'm gonna go
(39:50):
Ald Barbara Walters on you if the trees could talk,
what do you think they would say when they see
those toilet paper rolls coming at them? Brace for contact.
I guess I don't. I'm sure. I'm back with horticulturist
Gary Kiever at Auburn. Now, if you're an Auburn partisan,
you're probably fuming right now from Marcia's they're just trees.
(40:11):
Take But before you go all lo rax speaking for
the trees, listen to this. There there hazards associated with
the rolling tradition. Historically, the paper was removed with high
pressure fire hoses and that damaged the trees. That weakened
the trees. Oftentimes, by the end of the football season
there was no no foliage on the lower third of
(40:32):
the tree. You know, they had declined over time. Plant
pathologists had warned against rolling. One even dared to joke
that it would help if Auburn just stopped winning. So
it sounds like the trees weren't always treated right. They
were not. They were They were special because of the
tradition and their location. If they had been located elsewhere
(40:53):
on campus, we might have replaced them, but we were
going to keep them at all costs because of their role.
In the tradition. So was the tradition that made these
trees so beloved also the thing that was slowly killing them.
They weren't on Magnolia. In my opinion, it was getting
close to the end of his life. This wasn't privileged information.
(41:14):
In the summer of two thousand seven, three years before
Harvey doused the trees and Spike a d d F,
a headline in Auburn's Alumni magazine asked the question too
late for the tumors trees. Local outlets reported on the
trees declining health. The student newspaper declared, even more bluntly,
(41:36):
landmark tumors trees dying. Now. I don't know if you're
aware of this, but as early as two thousand and
seven the trees were in pretty poor health. Does that matter? No,
I mean, you don't get a pass for killing a
nine year old person because they were in bad health
to begin with. That's Lee County d A. Brandon us Again.
Please don't think I'm comparing a tree to a person.
(41:58):
But the point being is, you know, Dr Calvorkian didn't
get away with murder because the person was going to
die anyway. But Jenny Carroll says that if they could
do it all again, Harvey might have a case. If
Auburn fans were already killing those trees, then I think
he could make a claim that he did not actually
kill them. If he was looking for a defense lawyer
who would actually take his case, I would be perfectly
(42:19):
willing to defend that man. I think we could have
done better maybe than he did on that plea deal.
On November tenth, two thousand eighteen, Harvey Updike was feeling
good driving in his deep red pickup truck towards Bryant
Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama,
to watch his beloved Crimson Tide take on Mississippi State,
(42:43):
his first Alabama home game since his probation ended Denny Stadium.
And it is beautiful, thousands of Alabama fans and in
(43:06):
Harvey's not lying load today, bring Cowboy. He hoots and
hollers through the whole game, turns Da Baba. One of
the Bama fans sitting behind him, realizes who he is
and high five. No Burday night. I didn't think I'd
(43:39):
ever get to come back here before I died. Something
tells me Harvey will be with us for a while.
Just listen to him at one of his granddaughter's recent
softball games. Yes, yes, yes, I'll admit it. I've developed
a little bit of a soft spot for Harvey. Look,
(44:00):
I'm not saying he's innocent of a crime he clearly committed.
This isn't making of a tree murderer. But I don't
see the seeds of a homicidal maniac in him. I
see someone who latched onto a community, to an identity
that made him feel like he belonged, who got carried
away by the tide of what really is an obsession,
(44:21):
Alabama football. He did something terrible. He's a fanatic, for sure,
but I guess I don't think he's a dangerous fanatic,
at least not any longer. There's not a day it
doesn't go by that I don't get up and read
tighter and tighter, and then I go look at de bituaries,
and if my name is not in there, then I'll
(44:43):
probably go back and lay down sleep a little bit longer.
He knows what he did was wrong, and deep down
I think he does regret it. I want to be
cremated and and I want half my ashes put on
REALM Bryant Denny Stadium in a best them around too
mus corner, so they don't know I've been there, or
(45:06):
maybe he doesn't. When I leave this world, I want
people to say he was a good father, he was
a good step father, and he was a very very
good Alabama fan. I admit I I like them too much.
(45:44):
We should note that on Sunday, March three, tornadoes ravaged
parts of the southeast. At least twenty three people were
killed in Lee County, Alabama, home of Auburn University. Our
sympathies are with the victims and their family and friends.
(46:05):
I certainly hope you enjoyed this first season of Mobituaries.
If you haven't heard the previous seven episodes, please go
back and listen while you're there. It would be awfully
nice if you'd rate and review the podcast. You can
also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can
follow me on Twitter at Morocca. You can subscribe to
(46:25):
Mobituaries wherever you get your podcasts. For more great content
and to see Harvey's reaction to Alabama's lost to Clemson
in the two thousand eighteen Championship game, please go to
Mobituaries dot Com at your own risk. This episode of
Mobituaries was produced by Kate mccauliffe. Our team of producers
also includes Gideon Evans, Megan Marcus, Megan Dietrie, and me Morocca.
(46:50):
It was engineered by Bart Warshaw, indispensable support from Genius Staneski,
Show she Cement, Zach Gilcrest and Richard Roarer. Special thanks
to Coach Pat Die, Greg Schmidt and Auburn's Special Collections,
Sean McManus, Benjamin Dietrich, Steve Kerasak Preston Sparks, Mike Clardy
(47:10):
and everyone at CBS News Radio OWUR. Theme music is
written by Daniel Hart and as always, undying thanks to
Rand Morrison and John carp without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi,
(47:32):
It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries the podcast, may I
invite you to check out Mobituaries the book. It's chock
full of stories not in the podcast. Celebrities who put
their butts on the line, Sports teams that threw in
the towel for good, forgotten fashions, Defunct diagnoses presidential candidacies
(47:53):
that cratered whole countries that went to put and dragons, yes, dragons,
you see. People used to believe the wagons will reel
until just get the book. You can order Mobituaries the
book from any online bookseller, or stop by your local
bookstore and look for me when I come to your city.
Tour information and lots more at mobituaries dot com
Proclaimed there's one of America's best sports shows by Sports Illustrated.
This is the Pauline Ball Radio Network to be part
of the show. One day um going through the show
in January of two thousand and eleven, and we get
a call from a guy who describes himself as Al
from Dadeville, Alabama. Are doing well? Thanks? He lost his
(00:29):
core with me, and he said, we'll tell you what
I did last week, the weekend after the Iron Bowl,
I went to Auburn, Alabama, and I poisoned the two
tumors tree did die. They're not dead yet, but they
definitely will die. You heard that right, This man calling
himself Al from Dadeville calls into a radio show to
(00:49):
say that he's poisoned two oak trees. Is that against
the law to poison the tree? What do you think
I care? Okay, I really don't roll down, roll damn
tiede and he hung up. I didn't give it much thought.
Two weeks later, a man named Harvey Updike was arrested.
It became one of the biggest stories of the year
(01:12):
and one of the ugliest college football related crimes that
has ever been reported. To understand how a man with
no criminal record, became one of the most hated individuals
in the history of college sports. You have to know
a thing or two about college football in Alabama and
(01:32):
the rivalry that's long defined it, and to understand why
a whole town would mourn over the death of two
old oak trees like they were people. He needed to
know about a small college town named Auburn with a
big football tradition. This episode, I'll go to the scene
(01:55):
of the crime and meet the man who did it.
I wanted Auburn people gonna hate me as much as
I hate them. I'm Morocca and this is mobituaries, This
mobid death of a tree, roots of a rivalry. It's
(02:21):
a night. We have a story about a long standing
rivalry where things have now gotten out of hand and
became Alabama have arrested this man who they say poisoned
a pair of beloved oak trees. At already we took
Harvey Updike Junior into custody for the poison. Trees were
started find that somebody would do something like this to
a few trees that had never done anything to anybody.
(02:46):
How important a trees to to Auburn. Without trees, this
campus is nothing to me without the trees. It's just
buildings on a side. I'm with horticulturist Gary Kiver at
Auburn University in eastern Alabama, about an hour outside state
capital of Montgomery. Auburn has one of the most beautiful
campuses in the South, in part because of all the trees.
(03:09):
That's nice. What kind of trees are those? Is that birchrtle? Kind?
So path with trees? There are over one D twenty
species of trees on campus. Not so surprising at a
school where you can major in forestry. That is a
mini magnolia. That is a silver bill. And that thing
over there that looks like a Christmas tree? Is that
(03:32):
a sort of It's not a pine, it's a cryptomeria.
No one knows what that is. If you're in horticulture,
you know what it is. By now you can tell
I didn't major in forest tree. I guess? Can I
guess that that is? It's a is it alive oak?
It is d D Ding Dan Dan. I'm so excited
(03:53):
that I got something right. But at one spot on campus,
the trees have deep symbolic value. We're standing here in
the Tumors corner and this is the gateway to campus
and imagined the term where town meets down. Tumors Corner,
the intersection of College Street and Magnolia Avenue. Two massive
(04:17):
old growth oak trees once stood sentry here, about eighty
feet apart. They're glorious crowns of foliage joined overhead, indeed
forming a kind of gateway the heart and soul of
Auburn's campus. The Tumors Oaks that's t O O M
E R S. We're over eighty years old and named
(04:40):
after the founder of a drug store that's still there
just across the street. Okay, this is kind of a
big deal for me because I'm actually now seeing it.
So where are the trees? I'm looking here and right here,
the slender trees i'm seeing are replacements, perfectly nice, but
you certainly wouldn't try climbing one these. One day they
(05:01):
might touch overhead, but right now they seem disconnected from
each other. Two trees among many on campus. And we
look here and for each of these new Tumors Oaks,
fairly immature. There's a little sign around them. And what
does it say? Please do not roll rolling. It's a
(05:24):
school tradition, really a ritual that goes back to the
nineteen seventies. When Auburn's football team wins, students rushed Tumors
corner and hurl rolls of toilet paper up into the trees.
The original tumors oaks that stood here were majestic, but
(05:44):
when rolled, they looked kind of magical. In photographs, the
long streams of toilet paper resemble white flowing mains that
at night seemed to glow, made from pounds and pounds
make that many hounds of toilet paper. Usually rolling and
it's still done is to celebrate Auburn's winds, but sometimes
(06:08):
the students roll trees to celebrate another holy occasion when
their arch nemesis, the University of Alabama, loses no matter
who beats them. These two teams hate each other. But
why where did this rivalry that divides the whole state
(06:29):
and led one man to poison two oak trees originate?
Turns out that's an old story, like Civil War old.
During the Civil War, the federal government decides to fund
what are called land grant universities. These are schools that
(06:51):
teach programs on farming and mechanical trades, basically aggie schools.
After the war ends when the former Confederate states joined
the Union, the state of Alabama wants to get in
on that money. Then all of a sudden there comes
this fierce competition to see who will become the land
(07:11):
grant university in each state. That's historian Wayne Flint. He
wrote the book on Alabama. Like literally, he wrote the
Encyclopedia of Alabama. So which Alabama school will win this
distinction and the money that goes with it. University of
Alabama wants to be the language school. And the last
thing they want is for a college in East Alabama
(07:32):
that would be Auburn to get this ultimate plum of
the federal money. And in this their first head to
head competition, Auburn, a formerly small Methodist college out in
the Sticks, wins out over the older, than more affluent
University of Alabama, thus sparking a rivalry that lives on
(07:53):
even today. So how can two in state schools that
compete for wealth, political power, and for stege settled the
score football? So there is in sublimated form this rivalry
that is about politics and wealth. It immediately manifest medal metastasizes,
(08:16):
tastasizes onto the gridiron and into the stands. The football
rivalry gets so intense, brawls between fans, fights over regulation rules,
that it's suspended at one point for forty years. Seriously,
it takes an act of state government, a House joint
(08:36):
resolution to bring these teams back together. And in the
Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers pick up where
they left off. It's like they never stopped hating each other.
At its heart, this rivalry is less about two schools
and more about class. I'm thinking of that awful cheerio
(08:58):
sometimes here at high school games. That's all right, that's okay,
You're gonna work for us someday. Does that kind of
sum up feeling that that Alabama has for abur heicks
strawberries of second hand forward trucks. You said it, not
I did, because that's the stereotonuk. Never mind that today
Auburn is ranked higher than Alabama on the list of
(09:19):
top state schools. It's sent six alumni into space and
one into the top office at Apple, as in CEO
Tim cook yep he went to Auburn. In fact, Auburn
grads on average make more than Alabama grads, a fact
which may have made this rivalry even more poisonous. I
(09:42):
would say that college football is as close to a
religion in that state as you could possibly find. The
main difference is that people practice it every day. Where religion,
they show up when they feel like it. This is
beyond obsession. It's addictive. There's people that live for football s.
I have heard people tell stories of going into labor
(10:06):
in the middle of the game and being told that
they need to wait alburn football. I have to believe
that part of this is that Alabama doesn't have a
professional football team. Does that matter? I've always thought that
was a big part of it. Um there are there
are just no professional teams of any which means in
Alabama you've got two choices, arguably the most intense rivalry
(10:29):
in all of college football. You pledge your allegiance from Burns,
Auburn or Alabama, you must choose us brother versus brother,
battle of wills, dividing families at Tensions between these teams
are so high that matrimony between Auburn and Alabama fans
is called a mixed marriage, and once a year, on
(10:53):
Thanksgiving Day weekend, the two teams meet on the gridiron
in the game known simply as the iron Ball. This
game is basically a high holiday in the state. Virtually
everyone will be either act this game or watching from home.
The highways are empty, stores are shut down. The winner
(11:16):
of the iron Ball secures bragging rights for the whole
next year. And when football fans in Alabama want to
boast about their team's big wins, they call into the
Paul fine Bound Show. And it must be great being
known as the Oprah Winfrey of college football. Oh that
was a compliment to that treasure. Hello, Hello, show isn't
(11:40):
isn't a radio show. It's a family kind of like
the Manson's who are a family? Can turned? How dare
you say that about Alabama? Reading the telebrampt then you
are just keep your mouth about Alabama sometimes because you
don't want to hear it's not done obvious really needs
(12:01):
a professional I mean, I dare say that no one
in the history of mankind has profited more from the
Alabama Auburn rivalry than the person you're currently listening to.
The sec is over this conflict has been good for you.
I I will admit that under oath God, you're like
a war profit here. But when Harvey Uptake called into
(12:24):
the Paul find Bound show in early two thousand eleven.
He wasn't ranting a raving. The weekend after the Iron Bowl,
I went to Auburn, Alabama, poisoned the two tumors treats.
He sounded deliberate, he sounded proud. They die. They're not
the idea, but they definitely will die. Is that against
the tree? When I first read about what Harvey Uptake
(12:49):
had done, I found it disturbing. Really more than disturbing,
I found a sinister What kind of a person will
kill two beautiful, innocent living things. I thought about how
cruelty to animals is a predictor of violence against other people,
sometimes horrific violence. I thought of a kid up the
street from where I grew up named Kevin. He used
(13:11):
to get a kick out of crushing little baby bird
eggs he found in nests. I don't know what happened
to him, but I still don't like the name Kevin.
I even thought about the Taliban blowing up the monumental
statues of Buddha at bam Yon in two thousand one. Look,
you might think that comparing the killing of two trees
to the torture of animals or human beings, or to
(13:33):
the destruction of a religious shrine is over the top,
and maybe it is, but sorry, what kind of a
person would do this? The question for me boiled down
to this, is he a person who did something terrible and,
as it turns out, dangerous or is he a dangerous person?
(13:53):
I headed down to Texas or Harvey Updyke was living
last summer to find out. Now, before I introduce you
to Harvey Updyke, the University of Alabama fan who killed
Auburn's two beloved oak trees, there's another person I have
to tell you about. Like those trees, He's no longer
with us in body, but in spirit he's very much alive.
(14:21):
University of Alabama coach Bear Bryant is an icon, and
not just for leaving the Crimson Tide to unprecedented glory
with six national championships over a twenty five year career
beginning in the late nineteen fifties. He had an aura,
A man of few words. He stood tall six ft three,
(14:43):
sporting his trademark houndstooth Fedora, projecting the gravitas and the
intensity of a John Wayne or Gary Cooper. But he
wasn't playing a character in a movie. He got his
nickname Bear when he was thirteen years old. Naturally, when
he agreed to wrestle a captive bear at a carnival.
(15:04):
He became so influential across Alabama. From that, of course,
he had to have his own TV show Sundays at
four pm. He would sit down, crack open a bottle
of Coca Cola and a bag of golden flaked potato
chips the show's two sponsors, and break down the Alabama
game from the day before. That was what we wanted
to do either. We didn't want to kick all of Everton.
(15:25):
We could help it, but we were forces here. They
His mother had always wanted him to be a minister,
and he famously said coaching and preaching are a lot alike.
And watching his show on late Sunday afternoons was like
a second church for die hard fans for four years.
From now we're walking out of here. Nice good chance.
(15:46):
After he died on January, he was posthumously awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Reagan. A few years
back when they had those commemorative state quarters. From surprised
Alabama didn't put Bear Bryant on theirs on both sides. Now,
I'm telling you all this for a reason. Harvey Updike
(16:08):
grew up watching the Bear Bryant Show, and like for
many young kids, Brian gave him someone to look up to.
And I'll tell you this, I expect nothing less. We're
driving down the street in Texas and in about point
(16:31):
two miles we are going to meet Harvey Updyke. He's canceled,
he's confirmed, he's canceled. He's confirmed, he's hedged. I get it,
I get it. He's not sure what he's getting into.
The destination is on your right, and neither are Well.
(16:52):
Hello there, Hey, I'm Morocca. How are you? John Buddy
breaks to meet too. You must be Harvey, right, I'm
Hardy And then I said I love your hat, thank you.
What do you know? Harvey is wearing a hound's tooth
Alabama cap to match his short sleeved polo with a
Crimson a insignia that look like if she did on
(17:12):
Bart very much. And what's her name, Princess? That doesn't
sound like anything to do with the Crimson tide. Well,
I didn't name her. I had Harvey sixty nine. And
he looks at his hair is such a light blonde
that it looks white. He has a biker mustache, the
kind that Hull Cogan has with a goatee, or is
(17:34):
that a soul patch. I meet Harvey's son, Bear Upnight.
Nice to meet you. That's right, Harvey named his son Bear. Incidentally,
he's got a daughter in another state named, wait for it,
Crimson Tide update. Nice to me, alright, alright. I also
meet his two granddaughters and they're Adorableley, Briley, how do
(17:58):
you do a mode that? I'm good? And this is
princess right? I learned quickly that travel softball is a
huge thing for these girls and their grandfather. I cheer
all my girls as hard as I can. I'll love
him to death. What does he, Briley? What does he do?
(18:18):
How does he cheer? He's like, let's go of dyke.
I just go board and go out there. I have
to wonder what going overboard means for Harvey up Dyke.
But the girls seem to love their grandfather's fervor. I
like it. I like how big of a fan he is.
All my friends like it too. They laugh, they walk
(18:38):
up to me and they're like, me and your Grandma's awesome.
I wish I had a grandpa like that. And I'm like, yeah,
he's amazing. But he's loud, loud and proud, and Briley
and Madison imitate Harvey's signature catchphrase man. Then Harvey shows
him how it's done. Is there a fault line in Texas?
(19:02):
Because the walls just shut twenty minutes in. If I
have to sum up Harvey in one word, it isn't
scary or creepy, but grandpa. So far, at least he's
kind of a regular grandpa. Then, without any prompting, I
hear what sounds like Harvey's origin story, how he lost
(19:25):
his dad when he was just four years old, and
how a certain legendary coach filled the voice my mother
when I was seven or eight years old. If I
ever have a boy, I'm gonna name him Bear Bryant.
And she asked me why. I said, will. He's everything
at a father figure should be. He makes his players
(19:45):
called their parents on weekends, and I just thought he
was a great person. Harvey fondly describes sitting and watching
The Bear Bryant Show on a black and white TV
while his mother ironed he still members of the show's
two sponsors. Yeah, yeah, he had opened the bag and
you know, about three or four and drunk his coke
(20:06):
and I think it lasted about an hour. We all
head down the road now to a local surf and
turf spot to grab some lunch. On the car ride over,
Harvey tells me about his previous life as a police
officer in Texas. There's the best job I ever had.
I love being a trooper. I put a lot of
people in jail for d W which is a huge
(20:26):
point of pride for Harvey. He says his father was
killed by a drunk driver. Newspaper accounts from the time, though,
report that his father died when he lost control of
his tractor trailer and flipped over, and that no other
vehicle was involved. But I believe that Harvey believes his
father was killed by a drunk driver. He says it's
(20:49):
something that defined his career in law enforcement. The only
thing I remember about my dad is uh, At the funeral,
they picked me up to kiss him and I just
his forehead and it scared me to death. You know
it's it felt like marble or something. And you know,
I was three years old. I didn't know what. It's
pretty out here? It is pretty? What is his belt
(21:12):
in lake? I'm genuinely moved by Harvey's story. But wait
a second, am I being manipulated? Look? This is my
first true crime episode, so maybe I'm being gullible. I
need to be more circumspect. Anyway, do you want to
go ahead and at the restaurant? I ordered the mixed
field green salad and catfish fingers. Now, like any good
(21:34):
lunch spot, it's a little noisy. If there's levels of
fans like weekend fans, you know, avid fans, radical fans.
Where are you? I would say probably radical? I know
it's it's unhealthy. Do you what? What have you? Well?
(21:55):
I mean, besides my kids and grandkids, I love that
Alabama you know, right below him, not too far below him.
Madison who goes by move seems to take this and
stride move. Do you love anything as much as your
grandpa loves Alabama football? Um? I mean, I love him
as much as he loves Alabama, but he loves it
(22:18):
a lot. And what do you think of that? Did
you understand it? No? I don't understand why he had
to kill the trees. I don't. I mean, I don't know.
He's a little crazy. I didn't mean it. I did,
and just like that, courtesy of his eleven year old granddaughter,
we're talking about the crime itself. You just I didn't
(22:41):
mean it. I did. What does that mean? I was
saying I didn't mean it, but then I then I
was gonna tell you truth. I didn't mean it. I
wanted to alburn people to hate me as much as
I hate him, because they bought Cam Newton. Scam. You
know who he is. Scam Newton, a camp back. Okay,
(23:02):
I'm gonna do some translating for the non sports people
you may have heard of NFL quarterback Cam Newton. Harvey
calls him Scam Newton. Back in college, Newton was a
star player at Auburn, which made him enemy number one
at Alabama. Throughout two thousand ten, Newton was under investigation
after allegations that he had been paid to play for Auburn.
(23:25):
That's a big no no in college sports. Cam Newton
was eventually officially cleared of these allegations. That season, Newton
led Auburn to a historic comeback victory over Alabama in
the Iron Ball, a stinging defeat coming on the heels
of an even greater outrage for Harvey. They home the
(23:46):
Scam Newton jersey on Bear bryan statue. That's when I
went crazy. Yes, fans taped Cam Newton's jersey onto Bear
Bryant's statue a week before the iron Ball This is true.
You can it or that like like I like sacrileged. Yes. Yes.
Harvey also says that when Bear Bryant died in Auburn,
(24:09):
fans rolled Tumors corner in celebration. Now, there's no proof
that something so ghoulish as that happened, but again, I
believe that Harvey believes it. At this point in the meal,
I'm kind of understanding why all of this was so
upsetting for Harvey. Auburn fans taped Scam Newton's Forgive Me
(24:30):
Cam Newton's jersey onto a statue of Bear Bryant, which
I'm guessing in Harvey's mind was tantamount to mocking his father.
But then Harvey goes into a clinical, step by step
description of how he poisoned the trees in the middle
of this family seafood restaurant in front of his granddaughter.
(24:51):
Took me a month. Ever, now I stay up all
not long, and I used to have cameras on the trees.
I figured out when the slow most time, what day
of the week, and what hour of the night was
the slowest around old oak trees, so I could go
in there at that time and not get caught at
what time was it? And boy am on Sunday night.
(25:15):
The chemical he used was an herbicide called spike a
D D F. Mixed it with water and put it
in a Milton jugs. I had to milk guts roots
tree and I walked around the the outside of the tree,
you know where the bulgage came out, so just pouring
(25:36):
it around, almost like gasoline to set a fire. Like
when he arrested me, they came to my house. They
brought I'm not lying to you. They brought twenty five
police cards out there are searching my house. We can't
verify that. And they told me that, uh, I used way, way,
way too much. We can verify that. Try five times
(25:59):
the lethal I'm out there was even concerned from federal
police officers that he might have poisoned the water table.
In other words, Harvey Updyke put Auburn's drinking water at risk.
You know, I wouldn't have chemist. I didn't know how
much do you use? I just want to make sure
they died. It felt like I was sitting across from
someone who had been radicalized. I know, fanaticism in sports
(26:22):
didn't start with Harvey. In nineteen seventeen, Texas A and
M fans stole the University of Texas's mascot steer Bibo
and branded him, And just the last year, West Point
Cadets kidnapped the Air Force mascot falcon Aurora and seriously
injured her. Grown ups did this. Maybe it's fitting that
(26:43):
the voice of reason at this table belongs to eleven
year old Madison. Yeah. I don't know why he wants
people to hate him my name. They probably already do.
But he's not really acting like his age. He's kind
of acting young, like he's back in elementary school. I
would never want someone to hate me as much. I
would hate that. I'm sorry, baby, And just like that,
(27:06):
I'm feeling a little better about Harvey. Do you like
trees in general? Yeah? I like trees in general. You know,
I just don't like alb There's several things in this
world and I really intruded. I don't like and Alburn's
one of them. What are the others? Liver? I ain't
gonna eat no liver. It's got a lot of protein.
I don't care what had happened. I don't eat liver.
(27:29):
And what are the other things you don't like? I
hate to say this because this is an upset a
lot of people, but I hold my breath. I'm not
crazy about cats. I didn't know what you were gonna say.
Just now. Okay, So Harvey is so matter of fact
describing his crime, but there was nothing matter of fact
(27:51):
about it for the Auburn community. After the trees were poisoned.
The first thing that happened after it was announced was
the fans rolled the trees, almost like, Okay, we're gonna
show our concern for you by rolling you. I'm back
with Gary Kiev, the horticulturist and former Auburn professor, and
(28:13):
he's telling me about the aftermath of the two thousand
eleven poisoning. I empathized with the students because they were
filling the trees pain And the next thing they did
was to begin to insurround the trees. They began to
bring up flowers, They began to bring up memorabilia to
pay respects. Toilet paper rolls inscribed with get well messages
(28:39):
were laid down a bouquet of flowers made out of
toilet paper. I began to see the human quality that
these trees brought out in people. This vigil. Absolutely, absolutely
thank you to the Auburn family for the outpouring of
love that you are showing now during this time of hurt.
(29:02):
These trees will likely die, but the Auburn spirit we'll
continue to live on. While the prognosis was Grandma, some
held out hope, including Gary Kiver and are you in
rescue mode right now? What is where is your head
when all of this is happening. Well, at this point
we didn't know where the herbside had been placed, we
(29:24):
didn't know how much, so we were way behind the curve.
The university consulted with the nation's best tree doctors. Various
treatments were tried at great expense, Sugar injected into the roots,
liquid activated carbon drenched over tree beds, but the tumors
oaks only got sicker. In essence, the trees was starving
(29:48):
it seft today. I mean when you see something like
that happening, I mean, do you feel for the tree
without a doubt, without a doubt, you know. I mean,
We've got this majestic trees that do no harm to
anyone if someone has chosen to harm them, and it
makes no sense to me. If you want to know
how this felt for Auburn, listen to the voice of
(30:09):
Gary Keeper's colleague Stephen and Low, when he was asked
by a reporter if the trees were definitely going to die.
It's an emotional question. Oh, I always want to hold
that home. Based upon the technical experts are consulted with
around the country, the concentration of spike basically found within
(30:33):
the soil would suggest there is a very low probability.
On April thirteen, two and a half years after Harvey
uptake had poisoned them, the tumors oaks were removed, it
is so said. And then every time the chain stow
(30:56):
cuts and just listen to the people get closed. So
that's a sad day. It's uh tough to talk about.
Just think this, it's like a funeral. I mean, just
people have tears in their eyes, or they did when
the street was barricaded off and there were hundreds of
people out there. Uh, there were people crying without a doubt,
(31:20):
and surprisingly some of those who had come to bear
witness were from Alabama. In the effort to save the trees,
Auburn's arch rival had raised it over fifty dollars on
a Facebook page called Tied for Tumors. In many ways,
of poisoning brought Auburn in Alabama closer together because many
of the Alabama fans felt maybe, in some way a
(31:44):
small part responsible for their poisoning. I'm driving with Harvey now.
We've just left the restaurant where he described in detail
his crime. Let me ask when we were sitting in
the restaurant, so you said you you were honest, and
(32:04):
you said you don't regret it. But do you think
it was wrong what you did? Yes, I think it's wrong.
You know, them trees wouldn't hurt me, but that's the
only way I felt like I could get back at.
You know, I wasn't gonna hurt anybody, and at the
time we had just found out that my ex wife
(32:29):
had cancer. On the one hand, unrelieved that Harvey actually
recognizes that what he did was wrong, I guess I
was depressed. On the other hand, he's making excuses again. Yeah,
I think everybody has done things that they regret, probably
not a magnitude that I did. But if you could
(32:51):
say anything to those trees, what would you say to them?
I'd probably say sorry, but too late. Now we're back
at Harvey's house now, actually it's his son Bears house.
(33:13):
Harvey moved in here in two thousand seventeen. Oh you
got a huge upstairs. Well, that's where I stay. It's
not really a bedroom where he's staying when I visit,
more like the second floor landing. Do you see all
my hats? They're really nice. I mean, I got a
bunch of them. That's a pretty good looking hat. I care.
(33:35):
I like that. Bam. This is the one Bear Brynet
used to wear. The kind of he wore. I didn't
start liking on yesterday. Uh, you've been with them for
four decades now, you know. I stayed with him when
day was down, but they didn't stay with him when
he was down. Too many Crimson Tide fans. Harvey became
(33:57):
a pariah, denounced by no less a person than Alabama
head coach Nick Saban. Part of what makes this so
sad is that Harvey didn't even go to Alabama. He
didn't even grow up in the state, but across the
line in the Florida Panhandle. Harvey is a member of
what's known unofficially as the pickup truck Alumni, working class
(34:19):
people so inspired by the heroics of Bear Bryant that
they became die hard fans who take the rivalry way
more seriously than the actual alumni do. And now the
Alabama community was looking down at him worse than they
ever looked at those kids from Auburn. You got your
pills there? What are the pills for? I take about
(34:42):
thirty pills a day for what everything? I mean everything,
I've got everything. It's a veneerial disease. Harvey spent six
months in a small jail in Lee County, that's where
Auburn is. He said he got jumped several times by
Auburn fans serving time there, and that people would spit
in his food. He said he lost over eighty pounds,
(35:04):
and if you compare photos before and after his sentence,
you can see that he's not lying. He came out
looking gaunt and pale. Do you think it was extreme
the punishment? Yes, I do. I mean what what I
did I shouldn't have done. But I think I pretty
well got what I deserved. You know, I think, I mean,
(35:25):
I think I deserved to go to jail for doing it.
I mean I do, I mean I shouldn't have done it. Yes,
I know, Harvey just completely contradicted himself. Again. As for
whether Harvey's punishment that is crime, no surprise, Alabama's legal
community is divided. It was almost a personal attack. These
(35:46):
weren't just a couple of trees. There are a lot
of cheers have been shed over this. That's Lee County
d A. Brandon Hughes. If you remove that emotional attachment
to those two trees, his case is way out of
proportion of what ordinarily would be charged. And that's University
of Alabama law professor Jenny Carroll. Harvey was charged with
a Class C felony, which for a non violent first offense,
(36:10):
was not typical. There was also a misdemeanor charge for
and I find this significant, desecrating a venerated object. There
were plenty effects who felt like, if ever there was
a time for capital punishment, it was this time. There
was no trial, A plea deal was struck, which included
the six month long jail sentence, a five year probationary
(36:32):
period and over eight hundred thousand dollars in restitution at
a payment rate of two hundred dollars a month. It
will take Harvey more than three hundred years to make good.
I think it was garbage. I think he got off easy.
To call it a slap on the wrist is overstating.
I think it was a kiss on the cheek. That's nothing,
absolutely nothing for what he did. Harvey was banned for
(36:56):
life from Auburn's campus as part of the probation, he
had a seven pm curfew, and worst of all, for Harvey,
was not allowed to go to any college sporting events,
which meant no Alabama football for five years. They are
punishing him at the very heart of the thing he
loves the most. It's like a modern day shunning, right,
Like you have to leave our community that we all
(37:18):
consider so valuable. Still, a lot of people weren't satisfied.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody around
here that says, yes, justice was served. After he was
out of jail. That guy didn't look back. He was
He was a hero to the Alabama people. I wondered
what this was like for Harvey's family, while this was
(37:38):
all happening, It doesn't. Marcia Updyke is Bear's wife and
Harvey's daughter in law. She's just home from work and
we sit in the kitchen to chat. Do you think
if he'd been living with you all and been involved
with the grandkids, then that he would have done it? Oh?
Heck no, because he would have been like, hey, I
got this idea, and I'm like, heck no, we're not
(37:58):
going to go do that. But anything. I don't even
let him take food upstairs. She wanted to run and
take the food upstairs. So sometimes I'll naked, I put
in my pockets take upstairs anymo. Yeah, So there would
have been no poison. No, no poison. It would have
been a different world when this was all happening. Marcia,
(38:19):
What did you think? I don't know. We weren't directly involved.
You know. On a serious note, there were fans that
would like Bear had to shut down his Facebook page
because he would receive death threat and that was ridiculous.
So it's so funny because they would get so upset.
These Auburn fans would get so upset because of what
happened and then message his son and that they're his
(38:40):
kids should die. And seriously, it was hypocritical of them
to say they were outraged by this and then turn
around and threaten your kids. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, do you
feel bad for the trees? So here's the thing, their trees.
I mean, I get it, don't get me wrong. I
mean that's going to be super insensitive to something oaks,
and Um, what people need to know is I don't
(39:04):
care about I mean it, I shouldn't say I don't care,
but it's it's football, it's Auburn, it's Alabama. But when
I found out like the value that they placed on
those trees and things like that, I was a little
surprised myself. I do have to say, so I understand
they are special and um, it was devastating. But you know,
(39:27):
if someone comes and breaks a statue or something along
those lines, I'm not sure that the ramifications are as
I don't know, intricate as they were for that, they
would be punished as much. Yeah, they definitely breaks him
over the coals a little bit. They definitely threw the
book at him and said, hey, we're going to go
to the highest of the high. Yeah, I'm gonna go
(39:50):
Ald Barbara Walters on you if the trees could talk,
what do you think they would say when they see
those toilet paper rolls coming at them? Brace for contact.
I guess I don't. I'm sure. I'm back with horticulturist
Gary Kiever at Auburn. Now, if you're an Auburn partisan,
you're probably fuming right now from Marcia's they're just trees.
(40:11):
Take But before you go all lo rax speaking for
the trees, listen to this. There there hazards associated with
the rolling tradition. Historically, the paper was removed with high
pressure fire hoses and that damaged the trees. That weakened
the trees. Oftentimes, by the end of the football season
there was no no foliage on the lower third of
(40:32):
the tree. You know, they had declined over time. Plant
pathologists had warned against rolling. One even dared to joke
that it would help if Auburn just stopped winning. So
it sounds like the trees weren't always treated right. They
were not. They were They were special because of the
tradition and their location. If they had been located elsewhere
(40:53):
on campus, we might have replaced them, but we were
going to keep them at all costs because of their role.
In the tradition. So was the tradition that made these
trees so beloved also the thing that was slowly killing them.
They weren't on Magnolia. In my opinion, it was getting
close to the end of his life. This wasn't privileged information.
(41:14):
In the summer of two thousand seven, three years before
Harvey doused the trees and Spike a d d F,
a headline in Auburn's Alumni magazine asked the question too
late for the tumors trees. Local outlets reported on the
trees declining health. The student newspaper declared, even more bluntly,
(41:36):
landmark tumors trees dying. Now. I don't know if you're
aware of this, but as early as two thousand and
seven the trees were in pretty poor health. Does that matter? No,
I mean, you don't get a pass for killing a
nine year old person because they were in bad health
to begin with. That's Lee County d A. Brandon us Again.
Please don't think I'm comparing a tree to a person.
(41:58):
But the point being is, you know, Dr Calvorkian didn't
get away with murder because the person was going to
die anyway. But Jenny Carroll says that if they could
do it all again, Harvey might have a case. If
Auburn fans were already killing those trees, then I think
he could make a claim that he did not actually
kill them. If he was looking for a defense lawyer
who would actually take his case, I would be perfectly
(42:19):
willing to defend that man. I think we could have
done better maybe than he did on that plea deal.
On November tenth, two thousand eighteen, Harvey Updike was feeling
good driving in his deep red pickup truck towards Bryant
Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama,
to watch his beloved Crimson Tide take on Mississippi State,
(42:43):
his first Alabama home game since his probation ended Denny Stadium.
And it is beautiful, thousands of Alabama fans and in
(43:06):
Harvey's not lying load today, bring Cowboy. He hoots and
hollers through the whole game, turns Da Baba. One of
the Bama fans sitting behind him, realizes who he is
and high five. No Burday night. I didn't think I'd
(43:39):
ever get to come back here before I died. Something
tells me Harvey will be with us for a while.
Just listen to him at one of his granddaughter's recent
softball games. Yes, yes, yes, I'll admit it. I've developed
a little bit of a soft spot for Harvey. Look,
(44:00):
I'm not saying he's innocent of a crime he clearly committed.
This isn't making of a tree murderer. But I don't
see the seeds of a homicidal maniac in him. I
see someone who latched onto a community, to an identity
that made him feel like he belonged, who got carried
away by the tide of what really is an obsession,
(44:21):
Alabama football. He did something terrible. He's a fanatic, for sure,
but I guess I don't think he's a dangerous fanatic,
at least not any longer. There's not a day it
doesn't go by that I don't get up and read
tighter and tighter, and then I go look at de bituaries,
and if my name is not in there, then I'll
(44:43):
probably go back and lay down sleep a little bit longer.
He knows what he did was wrong, and deep down
I think he does regret it. I want to be
cremated and and I want half my ashes put on
REALM Bryant Denny Stadium in a best them around too
mus corner, so they don't know I've been there, or
(45:06):
maybe he doesn't. When I leave this world, I want
people to say he was a good father, he was
a good step father, and he was a very very
good Alabama fan. I admit I I like them too much.
(45:44):
We should note that on Sunday, March three, tornadoes ravaged
parts of the southeast. At least twenty three people were
killed in Lee County, Alabama, home of Auburn University. Our
sympathies are with the victims and their family and friends.
(46:05):
I certainly hope you enjoyed this first season of Mobituaries.
If you haven't heard the previous seven episodes, please go
back and listen while you're there. It would be awfully
nice if you'd rate and review the podcast. You can
also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can
follow me on Twitter at Morocca. You can subscribe to
(46:25):
Mobituaries wherever you get your podcasts. For more great content
and to see Harvey's reaction to Alabama's lost to Clemson
in the two thousand eighteen Championship game, please go to
Mobituaries dot Com at your own risk. This episode of
Mobituaries was produced by Kate mccauliffe. Our team of producers
also includes Gideon Evans, Megan Marcus, Megan Dietrie, and me Morocca.
(46:50):
It was engineered by Bart Warshaw, indispensable support from Genius Staneski,
Show she Cement, Zach Gilcrest and Richard Roarer. Special thanks
to Coach Pat Die, Greg Schmidt and Auburn's Special Collections,
Sean McManus, Benjamin Dietrich, Steve Kerasak Preston Sparks, Mike Clardy
(47:10):
and everyone at CBS News Radio OWUR. Theme music is
written by Daniel Hart and as always, undying thanks to
Rand Morrison and John carp without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi,
(47:32):
It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries the podcast, may I
invite you to check out Mobituaries the book. It's chock
full of stories not in the podcast. Celebrities who put
their butts on the line, Sports teams that threw in
the towel for good, forgotten fashions, Defunct diagnoses presidential candidacies
(47:53):
that cratered whole countries that went to put and dragons, yes, dragons,
you see. People used to believe the wagons will reel
until just get the book. You can order Mobituaries the
book from any online bookseller, or stop by your local
bookstore and look for me when I come to your city.
Tour information and lots more at mobituaries dot com
Host
Mo Rocca
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