Original subtitles

synced by dom.smrc -addic7ed.com-

I was frozen with fear.

I saw a figure

at least 7 to 8 feet tall covered in hair.

It walked just like a person,

but it was smashing trees like this as it went through.

And I see a huge fricking boulder 15, 20 feet in the air.

It was something a normal human could not have thrown.

That thing could kill us with no problem.

My name is Dave Spinks.

It was the summer of 1983.

I was really excited because I was getting to spend

the weekend with my grandfather.

We always had a great time.

We enjoyed hunting and fishing together.

I was born in Braxton county, West Virginia.

I come from a long line of military people.

My dad was in the military.

Both my grandfathers were in the military.

My great-grandfathers were in the military,

and it goes way back to the revolutionary war.

I went into the military because it was a family tradition.

I felt obligated to a sense to serve my country.

It was bred into me, if you will.

I spent eight years active duty,

and I went into federal law enforcement

for the U.S. department of justice.

It means a lot to our family to serve our country.

Being born in West Virginia, we were...

Most west virginian boys are born and raised into the woods.

We are taught at a very young age

how to hunt and fish and survive off the land.

I love the outdoors.

I've spent many, many nights in the outdoors

and most of my life in the outdoors.

In the summer of 1983, I went on a fishing trip

with my grandfather on the gauley river

in south central West Virginia, in Nicholas county.

Are you ready?

Yes, sir. All right.

The state of West Virginia is nothing but woods

and rivers and mountains.

There's a several county area in West Virginia

that there is a lot of talk of people

seeing different creatures, if you will.

Our whole home state is...

It's all wilderness pretty much.

That area was one of our favorite spots

'cause we always did well fishing there.

We'd usually catch our limit.

We took enough supplies for two days.

We took a tent, our sleeping bags, our fishing gear.

Of course, I wanted to get a line in the water right away,

so I kind of begged him.

He's laughing at me 'cause he knew

how excited I was, you know.

He's like, "Okay, son, go ahead. Throw."

Get your line in the water."

The sun had gone down, so it was a little bit gray.

You know... getting that time before dark.

Boy, did you hear that?

Hey, da...

Davey!

Davey!

Caught a fish! I got one!

Okay, okay. No, no, not too much.

I was super-excited, and I was...

You know, my grandpa's yelling and barking orders at me

'cause he knew it was a decent-sized fish

from the way I was fighting it.

Don't let it get away. You got it.

I'm fighting and reeling it in, reeling it in, and...

I'll get it. I'll get it.

...he's ran and got the net

and went out there and grabbed it for me.

He weighed it. It was 2 1/2 pounds.

Rainbow... It was a nice one.

Settling before dark,

the animals kind of shut down in the woods,

and the crickets and the frogs come out

and start making their noises for the night.

Go get us some firewood.

That's how you know it's getting ready for dark.

It was very easy to get firewood.

You could just go up in the woods...

...you know, 20 yards,

and find all the firewood you want.

It was just this big "A-waaah."

I mean, I can't even re-create it.

I mean, you could feel it just hit you.

I mean, I was like, "What the hell just did that?"

The howl was the most blood-curdling,

scary thing I've ever heard in my life.

There's nothing like fresh-caught fish

and all that right on the open fire.

I mean, the fish is just great, and we've got fried potatoes,

beans, and cornbread from grandma.

I am done.

We're full, just sitting there relaxing, you know, talking,

and then... like, we're in heaven right now, you know.

- Grandpa? - Yeah?

How old were you when you fought in the war?

17.

Did you ever kill anyone?

When it comes down to it, you either take their life,

or they take yours.

I'm gonna hit the hay.

Then it starts.

I'm scared to death.

I'm literally shaking all over.

I'm so scared, I can't move...

...because it's the unknown.

I'm scared to death.

I'm literally shaking all over.

I'm so scared, I can't move...

...because it's the unknown.

Wake-y, wake-y. Rise and shine.

Come on, sleepyhead. Rain's all gone.

We got fish to catch.

Come on, soldier.

Keep up.

Come on.

Catch up.

It was a beautiful day.

I'll never forget the day.

Just the sound of the river.

You know, there's something about the sound of the river

that just calms you and relaxes you.

Anything coming?

Everything stopped.

It was like a slow-motion time warp.

All the crickets stopped.

The frogs stopped.

Everything stopped when that splash hit.

But you can tell it was something very big

because it went deep in the water,

and then the water explodes back out,

and then you hear the rain-down of all the other water coming.

We don't see anything.

What was that, grandpa? What was that?

Nothing's floating in the river.

You don't know what to think.

Your mind's racing, trying to figure out

what the heck could have caused that.

And I was asking him, "What was that, grandpa?

What was that?" 'Cause I'm scared a little bit.

You know, it scared me.

Grandpa said, "Well, maybe a rock rolled off the cliff",

or an old, rotten tree branch fell."

But where it fell, I'm thinking, "There's no way,"

because where it fell was out in the middle of the river

and there's no trees overhanging the river.

We were a little bit on edge, you know,

because something just happened we couldn't explain.

It couldn't have been more than a minute or two,

and then...

My grandpa jumped up out of his chair.

And I looked at his face, and he was...

He had a scared look on his face.

His eyes were wide, like, you know, really wide,

like he wasn't believing what he was just hearing.

It was guttural.

It came from way deep down,

and it just echoed through the whole fricking canyon

like you can't even imagine.

I mean, you could feel it just hit you.

I was frozen with fear.

Grandpa's eyes were like he wasn't believing

what he was just hearing.

I'd never seen that look on his face,

and it scared the hell out of me.

Get to the truck, boy!

Get to the truck!

You heathens better knock it off, or I'm gonna shoot!

I got behind the tire, and I looked back at my grandpa,

'cause I heard the shotgun.

The howl was, like, louder and more directed at us.

I hear something come through the limbs of the trees.

And I see a huge fricking boulder 15, 20 feet in the air.

It was something a normal human could not have thrown.

There's no way.

I was petrified, and I was peeking around the bumper.

Just can't believe my eyes, what I'm seeing right now.

The trees just start shaking.

The tops of them are just crashing together.

You could follow its path from the tree movement.

They were probably 60-foot trees.

I don't even think a person could do that.

That's when I caught visual sight of it.

The chills went from my head to my toes.

Like that.

The trees just start shaking.

And I see a huge fricking boulder 15, 20 feet in the air.

It was something a normal human could not have thrown.

There's no way.

I saw a figure over there at least 7 to 8 feet tall

covered in hair, maybe 400 or 500 pounds.

Looking at it from a child's eyes, it was huge.

It was way bigger than my grandpa,

and, like I said, my grandpa was a very big man... 6'4".

And it dwarfed him.

I estimate it to be 7 or 8 feet tall.

And I've seen plenty of bears and stuff.

It was not a bear.

It walked just like a person.

But it was smashing trees like this as it went through.

Just grunting and growling and hitting trees

and making the most hellacious racket

you could ever imagine.

My grandfather's about 20 yards from me

as I see him aiming the shotgun.

I knew, at that point, he saw what I was seeing.

I'd never seen that look on his face.

I've been shot at. Been in riots.

Never been that scared before.

He was looking at the creature,

and then he looked at me like that,

and he said, "Get in the truck, boy."

Boy, get in the truck!

That's the only time I've ever seen my grandfather run.

Come on! Hurry up!

He knew that that thing... I mean,

that thing could kill us with no problem.

Run, grandpa!

Hurry up! Come on, son. Get over.

Come on.

He said, "Son, we're getting out of here."

That thing is not of god."

Come on! Start the car, grandpa.

Car, come on!

Come on!

And he slaps that thing in gear, and we just burn out of there,

I mean, as fast as that truck would go.

He's not saying a word.

He's just driving us out of there.

I couldn't stop thinking about and running the whole thing

back over in my head over and over at what I just saw.

It was the most scary thing I've ever been through in my life.

And to see him scared, Mr. unshakable,

Mr. our family rock, it scared me even more.

He drove around for a little while,

and I guess he was trying to gather himself, too.

Son...

Probably ought not to tell no one about this.

People will think we're crazy.

We kind of made a pact together not to tell anyone.

Me and my grandfather never talked about this story,

even up until the day he died.

Hey.

You done good today, kiddo.

It took him over 30 years to share the story with anyone,

and then he didn't share it with anyone

until two weeks before he died.

I grew up in the woods,

and I spent a lot of time in the woods,

and it took me a long time to go back in the woods.

And even to this day,

I still don't feel comfortable in the woods.

And I never go in without a heavy firearm with me.

Until you actually experience something like that,

you think it's all a bunch of hogwash.

But until you live it, it's a whole different ballgame then.

There's stuff out there we don't understand yet.

There's still things that we do not understand.

It changed my life, really.

An experience I'll never forget.

There's monsters out there.

That was the scariest thing

that's ever, ever, ever happened to me.

Are you seeing that?!

It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Whatever was in that cave was following us

to make sure that we did not come back.

Let's go, let's go!

Did you see that?

There's something out there...

Can't be explained.

My name is Lesla settle.

And I'm from Louisville, Kentucky.

My name is Zach Winstead,

and I'm from Louisville, Kentucky.

What a beautiful afternoon.

I met Lesla through a mutual friend,

and from the get-go, we hit it off.

Her personality was inviting and upbeat and energetic.

Zach and I became friends

for probably going on almost 10 years, maybe.

We just like to hang out.

In Louisville, there is a state park called E.P. "Tom" Sawyer,

and it's a huge, huge park in the middle of Louisville.

It's a beautiful park.

Just be mindful that that park used to have really bad history.

I had no idea of the history behind the park,

but after meeting Lesla,

that's when I actually when I found for the first time

that that's where lakeland asylum

was before being torn down.

I mean, that's where you sent the crazies,

the people who didn't fit into society, the outcasts.

We just got a whim, and we decided,

"Let's go to the Lakeland Asylum."

The asylum ruins are that way, right?

Yeah. You want to go?

Yeah, sure.

Back in that time, at insane asylums,

the treatments were inhumane.

It was used for all kinds of things...

Lobotomies, water-shock therapy,

electroshock therapy.

They did all kinds of experiments.

And once you got put in there, they didn't come back for you.

The asylum is pretty out of the way.

It makes me wonder if they're trying to hide it.

So I think they purposefully put it within a wooded area

outside of the public's view.

There's actual burial grounds

that the university of Louisville

has excavated where they buried the patients,

and when you walk through it,

there's actually dips where they would just bury body over body.

There's at least 5,000 people buried there.

How much of the old building was left standing

after they pulled it down?

Just the basement and a cave underneath.

A cave?

We decided, "Let's go to this cave."

I had no idea that there was anything more within the woods

than what met the eye.

It's creepy walking to the cave.

I always call it the Blair witch trail

'cause that's what it looks like.

If you don't know where the cave is, you won't find it.

I mean, I was born and raised right by it and never knew

that cave was there

until probably 10 years ago,

so that's how off and hidden it is.

You were right.

Itiscreepy.

There's a lot of stories about the caves.

There was a lot of suicides that were there.

Some people say people go in there and do witchcraft

and all that stuff.

There's a tunnel at the back.

There is a tunnel that runs through the cave.

Story goes that when the insane asylum was there,

the patients would try to escape through the cave,

not knowing that it eventually ended in a dead end.

Being in the cave, that's when the fear kicks in.

You just feel like somebody's watching you

when you go to the cave.

I've never heard a sound like this before.

Over to the right-hand side, in the cave,

there's still the original tiles.

I mean, that's what it sounded like...

Someone picked up one of those tiles

and threw it as hard as they could up against that cave wall.

At first, we were like, "Well, maybe somebody"

was in the cave with us,

"and we just didn't see them."

Anybody there?

But there wasn't anybody in there.

You...

You've got flashlights in the car, right?

She said, "I think we should go,"

'cause it was starting to get dark at that point.

We decided to go back and get a flashlight,

and she wanted to try to catch the sound on a recording.

What's that?

I want to record it.

Okay.

I think, this time, my adrenaline

was pumping a little more.

It's exciting to walk through woods, you know,

with a flashlight with you after the park's closed.

At this point, we should not have been there.

I'm even more excited to go back because now we have flashlights.

We can see inside the cave and figure out what that noise

was that we initially heard.

The only way to do that was to go into the cave

and to get a good look at everything.

It's really dark in there.

You sure you want to go in there?

Yeah.

I want to know what that noise was.

The flashlights weren't strong enough

to be able to fully illuminate the cave,

so we slowly kept moving closer and closer.

You know when you have something tell you,

"Don't do it," but you still want to do it?

Well, that's what happened to us.

Lesla turned the recorder on and was like,

"If someone or something's here,

can you please make that noise again?"

Is someone in there?!

Crack.

I mean, I can't explain how loud this noise was.

It was crazy.

It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

I wasn't sure what to believe at that point.

Are you seeing that?!

No, no.

We're just like, "Okay,"

trying figure out what happened.

We're looking at the ceiling. We're looking at the walls.

Hey!

It's broken.

Mine, too.

The final time is what truly scared me.

Aah!

Aah!

I'm getting out of here.

Oh!

Oh!

All right.

Aah!

Oh!

I felt physically ill.

It's working.

What happened back there?

I don't know.

So, we were walking back up the hill to the parking lot

where her car was parked,

and at this point, you could hear something...

What sounded like a crack in the woods next to us.

And it sounded like someone took a big old limb

and cracked it as hard as they could on the tree.

You see that?

Something was following us.

I'm out of here.

Something was following us.

Zach took off, and I'm just standing there, going, "Wait."

You left me. Wait for me."

I took off immediately, and I felt bad for Lesla

'cause I did not wait for her at all.

Oh!

And on the right side of us, it's, like, the line of trees

from where we just came out.

All the way down, crack...

Crack...

...like it was following us back to the car.

Whatever was in that cave was following us

to make sure we did not come back.

Lesla!

Come on, come on, come on, come on.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry! Let's go, let's go!

Let's go!

I cannot explain how loud this was.

It sounded like someone took a metal bat

and hit it as hard as they could up against this building.

Come on, come on.

Come on!

Come on! Come on!

Zach and I both get in the car,

and we're just shaking our heads.

We're like, "What just happened?"

I was confused and dazed and scared.

And I normally don't get scared like that,

but that was the scariest thing

that's ever, ever, ever happened to me.

To be a skeptic is good, but with E.P. "Tom" Sawyer,

to be honest, there's no being a skeptic out there at all.

I mean, if you are a skeptic, go out there.

You won't be anymore.

I never in a million years

would believe anyone else that told me this story,

but when it happens to you, and you feel it,

and you go through the emotions and the physical changes,

and the hair stands up on the back of your neck,

and you feel like you're in danger, it's different.

It will make you believe.

What just happened?

That night at the cave

is definitely the most unexplainable

and most jarring situation I've been in.

I've never been made to feel so threatened

by something that I could not physically see

or physically hear or explain.

It was an experience that I haven't had since.

I don't know if I want to have that experience again.

It's hard to explain.

But it happened.

I mean, you can't make up something like that.

There's something out there...

Can't be explained.