Joe Rogan Experience #1646 — David Holthouse Transcript

Transcript

0:00 The Joe Rogan Experience. don't know the the docu-series is called sasquatch and you look at it on hulu, you go, oh man, it's a Bigfoot documentary. Nope. Not really. No, it's a lot scarier. the Redwoods. Now that didn't make it in the show. Okay. But that night, as we were coming down, I was 23 years old. knew it wasn't a ripoff. They were saying, because, you know, it was all the weed had been harvested,

3:31 And it was one that I told it around like a ghost story around the campfire kind of thing a few times. but it's a podcast. It's like, it's basically like people's reporting their Sasquatch Chronicles? I don't even listen to it. I've never listened to it. But it's a podcast. It's basically like people's reporting their Sasquatch encounters. that worked in that area at that time in the dope game. Be like, did you ever hear a story like this?

5:10 But, I mean, I don't want to spoil the show for anybody who hasn't seen it. that the war on drugs ruined this sort of utopian community up there. until somebody came to work the patch and then, you know, nail them. the time where medical marijuana was And one of the weird things, shout out to Todd McCormick, And it's just like it was this weird sort of gray area where it was kind of legal but not legal federally so they could get busted.

7:40 They don't know what the deal was back in the 80s and the 90s. They're in prison for marijuana. when when you show these guys who were the cops and you show them show them today yeah and they're don't feel like city life and modern life and even modern life back then in the 1970s and 80s or And they were talking about how living like that after a while it

10:16 They start moving around. man there's there's something that happens to people when we go outside you know you smell think they were in that cop culture of like these are bad people these are hippies these are the other and they were dehumanized it's one of the in the late 60s early 70s and it was people looking to get off the grid, get back to the land.

12:41 land hippies anymore. You know, it started to bring in a real pretty hardcore criminal element they were drawn there by the opportunity for a quick profit and they're still They got these like death stars of weed. Oh right yeah who's growing it who's doing that Times are hard, man. these uh creeks that had run dry and they couldn't figure out what was going on and you know it was

15:51 California in the National Forest and the park lands and they would just go to public land and hike in many mile like these guys are Oh, really? it's pretty it's pretty far uh pretty far back up in the woods you know how far in uh probably about How do you say it? You know, it's like in those woods, and no one would ever find you. of lat i mean laska obviously has some dense shit like prince of wales and stuff like that but

18:31 there and black bears walk on foot and sometimes i mean the woods are so dense it's like the way Yeah. He told me he would cut his finger off these people are fucking idiots Bobo gave me a hat that says, out Squatchin'. There's all these people that are pissed off at us for calling the show Sasquatch or it not being a real Sasquatch show. And it's always the same shit.

20:39 Nine seasons? business in that. Les Stroud, he went looking for Bigfoot for a long time. He apparently had I believe, was in an apothecary shop, depictions of what it looked like next to a human being. And this is what they think it looked like. likely extinct but they think that human beings encounter because it they've i think the the bones there's on the mountain and on the mountain up there is it's not just a physical physical location it's also like a state of mind

24:37 is the highest in the country, like, by far, by a factor of, like, 3x, right? And a lot of people that get killed up there, I mean, you know, you sort of get into the fact the bud's ready. And that's, that's dangerous work, man. There's rip crews out there. So, you know, Yeah, but I tend to gravitate towards deep, heavy Finding other people up there that had heard this story, but B, figuring out that there's a long tradition up there

27:23 like growers would use these big fake bigfoot footprints on Sasquatch. It's like, okay, like the leap is starting to get a little bit more manageable all creepy but there's something extra disturbing about this because it seemed like love and that people appreciate. I'm like, fuck. And yeah, they may have weapons, violent? Money, money, just the price of weed. And you know, and what drove up the price of weed,

31:07 Yeah, Matanuska Thunderfuck. And the thing is, the secret ingredient of Alaska is the sunlight the the sunlight in the summer you know 22 23 hours of of sunlight so you get a really fat harvest you're looking again it's book of world records like every like world record like cabbage Go back to that other picture. are like heartier here they're like they're a little bit more capable you know because they

33:05 So I have a different perception. They will kick a bald eagle's ass every day. I've talked to people up there and they were like, they're like fucking pigeons, man. It's just like you have to spend so much time and attention on just like the basic things of life that you don't have all he has a permit to keep this cabin because he's sort of grandfathered in but once he's gone like

35:22 He's got to find caribou and if he can't find a caribou then he has a real concern about running out of food and it's uh it's they did a Someone showed him a photograph of planes hitting the tower. and uh he lives up there with his wife and it's really sad too because uh he said that's all he They say Eskimo sometimes. Is everybody, anyway, they had a child and the child drowned, a baby,

37:57 um but there still are a lot of people that that live uh uh an off the grid life up in alaska but That's a problem. Well, we can take care of it ourselves or a guy is going to take care of it. book about uh how america needs to have a billion people on it we need a billion people in america And I was like, I don't think it's good and just having than Austin.

40:16 in Bigfoot and would tell me about their encounters. Like I just didn't dismiss them and I didn't have But it's only gotten worse, I think, to that guy Ghost Dance, his point. too close to finding out the truth mountain to get it. And they would use that to set me up. And so I was always afraid that was it's like, they're not shooting at you because you're a reporter. You're just there. Right.

43:20 Really? that had some information for me. But I could only meet this person by going up the mountain. and these guys got killed and they knew they were going to be killed long enough. Like they knew But on the inside, I'm like, fuck, it's like, have I pushed this too far? dude, no, don't do it. Now, when you're talking about this area, But then off of those dirt roads, you start having spikes of smaller, more gnarly roads into smaller, narrower roads.

47:11 search warrant perfectly dialed and they don't have a warrant to be like entering that that that would have been that would have read as suspicious to me in some way to have posing as a buyer or something, how human beings sort of adapt to the culture that's around them? wow it's fucking weird man it's weird uh that that whole the the whole culture of the the

49:40 You're like smoking your Northern California,ia like kgb killer green bud right I went up there on the coast with my family, and we stayed up there for a couple days. It's just, it's a culture that just doesn't get highlighted. You know, you talk about, It is what it is, right? he's in cartel grown weed there's a lot of it and that's why he was talking about the chemicals

52:45 that's what it is they're diverting water up there but yeah i mean they fuck with the watersheds and them and, or a lot of them are dope addicts. They're addicted to meth and or heroin and growing They're not moving into Northern, California Isn't that crazy? Correct. Tyson Ranch is going to feature a luxury hotel He's going to have a resort No. And if he can watch the documentary be even better, you know

56:13 we gotta like release it to the public and there's for me there's always like there's always more and sort of enjoy them Frankly, you know, all I see is like, yourself you're like oh shut the fuck up like you know there's like probably this misconception So, like, you putting together a documentary and always feeling like, And obviously, you know, it worked out. It seems like the reception of the show is pretty positive.

59:18 of express on camera? Well, I'm pretty comfortable talking about that, um, about being, yeah, about adapted as a play. It's been produced all over the world. Like that was the subject of the, of the essay. Yeah. for what he did to you? if you will, And I didn't tell him that when we met. He was, So 16, a FedEx letter, and I just made sure he was going to get this letter

1:03:11 like pretty quickly and we set a meeting uh at a restaurant and then I switched up the location And I frankly, I just wanted to keep him off balance the entire day so that he would be he wouldn't he wouldn't have a possibility to sort of arrange anything Were you still thinking about killing him? that just infuriates me. But he apologized. He said that it happened to him when he was a kid

1:05:45 it was like we were just like an hour from the print deadline, the crowd on the mall and went with that one. That one felt right. It felt like a better ending. And I was at a library, and I was looking at these books, and crying i just i was paralyzed with fear and and the guy ran he ran away you know and that was We used to go fishing at this lake.

1:09:01 And I remember him telling me that he loved me. I said, get the fuck away from me. mentoring kids or something like that i'm assuming he probably raped a kid or something And as you said, a guy who is a victim of that very same horrific act himself when he's young then becomes the perpetrator when he gets older. and prey date on them, I was going to kill myself.

1:11:25 or a vampire, you know, and that it's only a matter of time before it's going to happen to you. lying, that he lied to me, but because other people that had been raped by him approached me years later. But, you know, so I had to navigate. I spent a good chunk of my childhood until he went for some reason. They can fucking sniff it out, man. And I don't know how they do it, but they do.

1:13:46 adults or like a big kid, you know, some of them were adults, he was a big kid can just like rip, mean by that? The idea of the idea of killing him or frankly killing any pedophile, I'll tell you, Okay. some raving a kid yeah if i saw some man holding down a seven-year-old boy yeah i don't think i'd Well, most adults are looking out for you. It's not everywhere.

1:17:09 Yeah, so I mean these guys like they try and explain away their pedophilia by saying that it happened in them I know you're saying it like you're missing a thing, you know, That's what I mean about something. You know, so yes. the thick of about a 15-year run of gonzo journalism, right, where my specialty was no, we don't have anybody that wants to do that. But she called the Westward, the weekly paper in

1:20:44 and then I was going to be done with it. But once I got behind that curtain and That's only really gained sort of widespread public awareness just in the recent years about how pervasive like right wing domestic terrorism, neo-Nazi movement, whatever you want to call it, you know, on the one hand, yes, But just to see the recruiting that was going on,

1:23:15 like trying to move the skinheads put on a suit and get elected. And when I saw that, I like this is these people are fucking serious this is this Really? is perfectly legal to make this stuff. So they make it and they burn CDs or whatever. When I Yeah, flight jacket, dark martins, you know, suspenders, Wow. Wow. alaska i mean use your real first name so you don't fuck that up. So somebody like, you know, they, David, and you turn around like you want it to, you know, um, just steep yourself,

1:27:10 I showed up a little early, and guys were sober, and there wasn't too many, and they didn't really recognize me. a lot of words like two of them were truckers and then they were trying to get me to go with them into their like with one right and then you're stuck with this one. Right. You don't want to sack up with one. Right. Tendrils? The fuck is that?

1:29:01 I borrowed a friend's car because I needed an American sedan. right. Searched it for anything that I thought would incriminate me. And for whatever, I actually apart and then this one guy he's ripping ripping up the passenger side floor mat. So it's like, I'm thinking, one part of me is like, deny so it's like i'm thinking what uh like at one part of me is like deny that it's here about i was like oh i was like this is a friend of mine's car like that's her cd man you

1:31:19 Yeah. Hate music. I mean, yes, there's been some horrible hate crime murders eventually actually thought that I treated them sort of fairly in the piece that i'd written i was like are you guys or do we have a problem And so then if you want to like throw up a flag, This is not obviously at a white power gathering. over it i don't know i don't know i gotta figure that out for just for some reason i haven't gotten

1:35:10 football team, like hurling invective at us for like two hours. And after the rally, And you couldn't explain to them. I finally got in a jam where I realized like, because I kept Yeah, no shit. Yeah. knew like, this is tremendously painful and terrifying. So I'm just going to leave my body. Because if you're scared, then you don't belong here. up against the wall my hands are sweating like crazy. Like, whew.

1:39:02 You pretended to be someone who you're not. fuck the the Yeah, I mean when they when they're like their racism is like we want to put people in death camps That was the other thing that I found really alarming. Some of them that had some sort of traumatic experience involving a non-white or Jewish person that just sent them down that road. Okay. Um,

1:42:16 you can become a major fucking player in this movement, okay? They're always there. i went to renaissance fair only once but i had a great moment i was with my kids and you know she wouldn't let this lady yes i think that shit. Yes. I think it's so mad, too. Yes. When you're like, well. It's awesome. and pretending they're a blacksmith that have all agreed that it's okay to murder people

1:45:40 that are, like, really hardcore and committed to this it finds a place where it's like, And there was something very sort of affirming and enjoyable about it. is like the rave scene when everyone's on ecstasy. And I got down this rabbit hole because someone sent me this video saying that here's these guys that are speaking to these people in this other country.

1:47:56 all these other religions. about someone who has this incredible confidence very attractive and whether it's this or whether it's uh whether it's Islam or whether it's you I want to be with a woman. I'll play you to wear a purse. I want to be with a woman. He's got a bow tie on. and hang around him. Like Wild Wild Wild, wild country. different Todd,

1:50:04 you're like, And they even brought in homeless people and vagrants. It's weird these little traps these little switches that can go off in the brain where they can become I learned a lot of discipline from it. and he would kill him. they really did a great job of exposing that was American History X. movie that was based on this guy tom metzger that uh i ran across several times at these festivals

1:53:35 Um, you know, I, there was, there was this story I did where I was up for three days with speed freaks, That was what it was. Is that a common thing? He's on the wall. off people exhaling meth vapor oh for sure you were talking about that in your documentary yeah They knew you were. How many days? I wasn't taking notes properly. I wasn't recording interviews as much anymore. And I was like,

1:56:10 thick tongue jutting from a blood ounce of nearly 100% pure crystallized methamphetamine hydrochloride known on the the next few years some of them got out of it and the others it became a lot Next thing you know, you're just fucking going for it all the time. It was just it was nuts now. It's all about now all the shits like cartel. Yeah friends I mean, this was that era. I read once a story about Japanese suicide bombers, the kamikazes.

1:59:36 A Japanese chemist, That's incredible. Crystalline powder was soluble in water, making it the perfect candidate for injection. What scares the shit out of me, and I'm sure you know journalists, journalists like Adderall. Yeah. But the discipline to only use it productively and use it for your writing. Because party promoting was like throwing a party, like often in a warehouse and stuff.

2:02:26 Recreationally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I've only done ecstasy once I loved I loved it Like, in terms of drugs, like, people on coke, what do they want to do? And it has great promise. What is that shit called? Jamie will pull it up. Yeah. people don't abuse it or they're less likely to abuse it, but make sure that it's pure I mean, yeah. Why South Korea?

2:06:20 I mean, it's the same thing Cold turkey? yeah i was really hardcore in it for like three years and then kind of tapered off and moved on And I haven't done that. I mean, that's easy. were some of the best sources that I had. There were these hackers and this group it to me. He was like, you might want to check this out. So I went and staked out the coffee

2:08:51 Yeah, I know. Bull Gravano, you know, cause there's no fucking way. And this silver Lexus pulls in the parking university every friday night at coffee house i think i got a story and he's like yeah you got I know, you know, I would really like to do a story about the fact that you're living in Phoenix. It still to me is the story that got away. that were in their 20s,

2:11:15 Let me take you to like a proper rape clothing store and thing. like probably $10,000 in cash at the gate, And eventually, one guy gets taken up, gets nabbed, and taken up into the Superstition Mountains outside Phoenix. to your earlier point, but it's like the price per pill is such that everybody's making more money. And in there is a picture of Sam and the Bull's son and his son's friends.

2:13:53 was trafficking ecstasy in Arizona. The war on drugs. against him again, though, because I let him win. I think I can beat him. and the next thing you know, you're one of those fucking guys lots of tricks lots of like lots of trap I mean that's what chess is sometimes I'm pretty good. Oh, that's pretty good. So don't you think though, that it's like a muscle

2:17:00 guy who's in his 40s with gray hair, this criminal with fucking missing teeth and shit, would play no board chess with this young kid who's like 16 years old. chess but I don't know how to play chess really yeah and I'm watching these guys doing this He's a jujitsu master. Yeah. are all really fucking smart. I guess that does make sense, right? You're like, no, it's incredibly intricate and detailed,

2:19:11 all start at zero and then i move to one and when i move to one i'm not going back to zero and i go And there's all this stuff going on. You have to understand where the right place to be and the wrong place to be is. So it's not nearly as much brute strength and athleticism as You don't realize it until you start doing it. their ears are all fucked up,

2:21:13 study Tang Soo Do and like my teachers like 70 years old and close to and like but I wrestling team it's not one of those things. It's a good thing to know and learn. But the thing about it is it's a very friendly game in that, like, Did I leave my hand this? And there's the details. It's about this one team, and their gym's called Daisy Fresh. And what it is, is I think they're in Illinois.

2:23:53 that young man's name? And they train, like, 24-7. with like wrestling mats, and what it really is is them trying to figure out a game. Like I said, I got to a certain point. and he was playing online and his score jumped up way too fast and someone decided this guy was a cheater. And so they red flagged everybody realized like oh the guy who said he was cheating was correct he

2:27:27 Like, this is it. And there's a bunch of videos online on YouTube in particular of fake black belts getting exposed at gyms. Maybe. I think he made several thousand dollars doing that. This article is not saying. What do you think you're going to do now? Why a play? Every once in a while, I'd pair up with a photographer. mine who was on your show recently, Tiller Russell, uh, he's great. Yeah. So he and I have a few

2:30:53 Was that when you were trying to buy the sub? rooms aren't bugged but in the lobby of the hotel and in every hotel in that area actually following us and so we're like texting with our with one of the producers and we're like because And so then we just, like, panicked you realize that these are real real real human beings were involved in this The kid's name that I couldn't put my finger on, it's Andrew Wiltsey.

2:33:50 He can't get a passport because he doesn't have a birth certificate. because I couldn't quite replace his name. story's finished and the director that i worked with on sasquatch joshua fey and i he and i are And I wrote about his murder at the time and, you know, kind of got a few leads on who'd done it, Yeah, because it was, lived there. I'd lost track of where he was living. Right. So I just flipped out like nightmares,

2:37:01 know that's like the space that i was sort of operating in the mind space i was operating in um so to give that up was hard but i but i found that i achieved I don't know what he told her, but I don't think he told her the truth because she went to the cops and filed a complaint. know, what the fuck are you doing? An airport in Louisiana. Yeah. Again.

2:39:43 Like, I don't like these things. I have moral qualms about it He would have loved seeing his face on billboards around LA and when they came out with the marketing campaign You certainly are. let's just see. Thank you. good luck with whatever you do.