All language subtitles for Its.Florida.Man.S01E06.1080p.HEVC.x265-MeGusta

What you're about to see may be
dangerous, illegal, unethical, petty,

immoral, and most definitely stupid.

But it's also all true.

Sort of.

My name is Charles McDowell, a .k .a.
Dan Widenick.

So how did I get famous?

Well,

that's a crazy ass story.

I was out one late night, and there
wasn't no one out for my arrest.

I ended up taking them on a chase, and I
never stopped.

My car ended up running hot, so I had
to, like, pull over into this yard, and

ran to the woods.

This one, that little man person's just
coming out. I had to do a fending pack.

I had it loaded.

I got a whole bunch of dope on me.

Lord, like, that's the worst case you
can get.

I have run a trapping and ice trapping
case, so I hate all this.

Howdy.

I got you on gunpoint. Don't move.

Don't move, but I'm waiting.

Why you moving?

I'm out my mind.

Why you moving?

This is a lot of touching, man. This
qualifies as moving.

I was spinning. I was spinning.

Give me the doctor or something.

That's how it all started.

But she got way crazy.

High speed chases, do you think you've
been in?

I have been in a lot of them.

Over 14, 15.

A Florida man arrested for taking police
on, you won't believe this, his 20th

high speed chase.

That's how the whole thing started.

One, two.

That's when they took my mud shot and my
whole life changed.

Do you know what a Florida man is?

I mean, I'm from Florida. Like, I don't
know, like, Florida man. Like, is it

like dude that breaks laws all the time
or just constantly getting in trouble?

That's what they call Florida man?

Yeah, and kind of like crazy headlines.

Crazy headlines. That's what it is.

Florida man can be mean.

24 -year -old man, this man right here,
accused of throwing an alligator through

a drive -thru window. I think for those
of us who have spent our lives here,

there was always a sense that this was a
different place.

at times a very peculiar place.

I'm Carl Hyasson, and I'm an author, a
long -time journalist with Miami Herald,

and born and raised in Florida.

I've been writing about Florida men for
my whole career. This one was banned in

a Texas prison system.

I was incredibly proud of that.

I've written between 20 and 30 novels,
including novels for kids.

Most of the sickest stuff in my books is
based on something real that happened

in Florida. It's the right mix for this
incredible vortex of weirdness that the

whole country seems interested in now. I
mean, it's almost a brand.

I don't think we're ever going to escape
this. There's absolutely no chance of

Florida becoming a normal place to live.

People from fucking New York,
California, wherever in the U .S., they

it's this crazy gator -riding place, but
like, you look outside, it's pretty

fucking chill, you know?

I like Florida because we're free.

She's out there doing her shit.

It's like Wild West, right? We don't
gotta wear helmets.

If you want to catch an alligator and
drag it across the road and show it to

your friends, that's cool.

That's Florida for you.

I mean, when I hear Florida man, I think
I'm a Florida man.

Woo, Florida man!

I'm going to ask you what the Sunshine
Law is.

The Sunshine Law in the state of Florida
has basically made it such that if you

come into contact with the justice
system, within 24 to 48 hours, anyone

the public...

from anywhere in the world can basically
pull up a mugshot of you and see any

and every allegation against you.

The Sunshine Law made public records
available to the actual public. All of

was something that I had the benefit of
as a journalist for all those years, and

certainly a strong argument,
constitutional argument, can be made

every right to see everything.

These public records, arrest records,
really perpetuate that Florida man

stereotype.

That is the danger, is you can take a
very small news story and put somebody's

mugshot on the Internet. I mean, that
was a whole way to gain readers.

Every single day you go in a gas station
to get gas and get a little drink or

something to go to work, and you see the
actual mugshots of every single person

that got arrested the night before.

So everyone knows you get arrested,
you're on the cover of that newspaper

next day right in the gas station.

Guilty or innocent, you know, you're
right on there.

It's entertaining at some level, but it
also can be very, very destructive to

somebody's life.

Hello everyone, I'm Sheriff Wayne Ivey
of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.

I'm excited. You know why I'm excited?
Because it's Tuesday night, 8 o 'clock,

it's time for Wheel of Fugitive. You
know how it works. Ten fugitives. I'm

to spin this wheel. One of them is going
to be our Fugitive of the Week. Let's

see who it is.

Wheel of Fugitive, right?

They just went too far with it.

Wheel of Fugitive is Sheriff Wayne Ivey
making a joke or a mockery out of public

safety. and justice.

We got a bunch of fugitives out there. I
want to get them all off the streets.

Let's go fishing for fugitives. Just
stick to regular public service

announcements. You know, don't try to be
a comedian.

Adam, you can do the right thing and
turn yourself in, son. Don't make us

chase you. It's like this weird, yeah,
we want to see people get in trouble

of thing. Talking about people that
genuinely live in your community. They

here, they pay the taxes here. Well,
maybe they don't all pay the taxes,

Let's see who this week's Fugitive of
the Week is.

Many employers in this conservative
county watch the sheriff's shows for

entertainment. And if they see an
employee on that show, many of the

in Brevard County and business owners
will fire a person who has not been

convicted of a crime just because they
appeared on that show. When we talk

people being basically denied their
constitutional rights to be treated as

innocent until proven guilty and you
taking that to the next level by then

making a public mockery of those people.

It's a dangerous thing. When they spin
that wheel and your face on there or

whatever, they're going to come get you.
Right here from your Escambia County

Sheriff's Office, we present you with...
Wheel of Fugitives!

Well, you heard them. It's one of
Wednesday here at the Escambia County

Sheriff's Office. That means one thing.

Let's spin the wheel. Yes.

Looks like this week's winner is Charles
McDowell.

They spin that wheel, and so what
happened, it stopped on me. Ooh,

fleeing and eluding. You can run, but
you can't hide, Charles.

People were calling in trying to get a
reward or whatever, putting the police

me.

So they had the whole Scanlon County
looking for me.

That's when I fled to another county or
whatever.

So after eating a whole bunch of drugs
or whatever, my body just went to, like,

reeling on me.

I didn't know what was going on. I
passed out.

I was on ice puff for, like, three days.

I had died that night for three days.

True story.

I woke up, like, on my third day, and
I'm strapping to the bed.

Like, my arms and stuff, like, stuck to
the bed. I got this big -ass pipe in my

throat. Got all these IVs. I don't know
what's going on.

First thing I said, I got to go. I got
to get up out of here.

No police was around.

I took off again.

I have four boys.

Charles was, he's my special.

The doctor was amazed to see him. It was
different. He was surprised, too.

He'd never seen nothing like it.

A little boy with a wide neck.

Charles was amazing.

Charles, like, gets up in the middle. If
it's a hole that he can put his body

in, he's going to get in it. Any way
Charles can get away, Charles is going

get away.

I was on my way to Atlanta.

About like 15, 20 minutes into the
drive, I see Christmas lights.

I'm on another high -speed train. I
can't make this stop. I'm on another

-speed train.

I'm running the drawers out of the car.

I think at the gas point, you know, the
light will come on when it's like the

tire pressure going up.

That was happening. I'm like, what the
fuck going on? Damn, how'd the tires

blow?

Feeling better?

They spiked the car.

I spiked your car.

And when you threw the drugs out of the
window, it hit my windshield.

Get the ass out of the car.

They pulled me out.

Put me in handcuffs, threw me inside the
backseat of her car, and took me

straight to the nearest counter.

The next day, the whole staff at the
jailhouse, they was coming to see me.

And they was like, yeah, that's him,
that's him, that's him.

The officer turned the computer to me.
He was like, I'm going to show you

something. And he Googled me. He turned
it around. He was like, look at this.

was featured on the Wheel of Fugitives
from Escambia County.

It has a giant's neck. I mean,
seriously, look at this guy's neck. My

called me and said, he's on TV. We
turned the TV on.

He's not on one channel.

The whole TV, they talking about you. So
far, his mugshot has gotten about 250

,000 comments. My mugshot that went
viral wasn't nothing about my charges,

cases, or what I was going through like
this. It was like, oh, he got a big -ass

neck. Oh, little neck, man. Oh, he look
like he swallowed a plate.

Just crazy comments, and it just kept
going and going and going and going.

I bet when you was little, you liked to
run around naked, eating neck bones,

watching Nickelodeon until it got dark,
and then you'd watch Nick at night.

Roasting the fuck out of me. Like, they
cooked me.

So after he showed me, then I go back
into the pod, and then this black lady

come to the door, and she was like, Your
bill has been posted.

The whole time, I ain't never used the
phone.

So I'm like, who made my bun?

Your lawyer.

All right.

A lawyer.

I come out.

I don't see nobody that's two white men
and all their kids.

There he is.

Me, I'm like, what's going on?

That's your bail bondsman. I'm Jim, your
bail bondsman. And your lawyer. You're

going to be a star.

My neck's going to make you famous. I'm
going right to the tip top. It was like,

you don't owe me nothing.

Would it be too much trouble if we got a
couple photos with you? I just want you

to take pictures with my family.

You like some pulled pork?

The bridesmaids eat often pulled pork
sandwiches.

You're missing out. So moist.

So stringy.

It ain't messy.

It ain't good.

You didn't want some of this? I don't
like no something good. I just need some

cigarettes. You go get yourself a pack
of cigarettes.

Buy it all.

It's on me.

Give me $20 to go to the store.

I don't know what's going on.

I'm looking at the window. I just see
like three, four people like running

the store.

Oh my God, it's him. It's him.

The parking lot crowded, so now we got
to have the D County police. They're

like, they got to move in front of the
store.

And the police actually trailed us as
far as they can to keep people from,

following us.

We just blowed up everywhere, all over
the TV. It was all over there. To me, it

was just crazy.

I got to say a huge congrats to you,
man. I've never seen someone pulling

many Google hits. Thank you, man.

I ain't even understand social media.
Like, I wasn't with the Internet,

No Facebook, no none of that. I wasn't
even, like, Googling stuff.

You feel me? YouTube and all. I wasn't
doing none of that.

Back in my hood, I was never called wide
neck or none of that. When that mugshot

came out, it's like, damn, if you wide
neck now, like.

Why, Nick? Why, Nick? They was, like,
roasting the fuck out of me, like, damn.

And I called my guns, Nick. And he was
like, there's nothing too much you can

about what they saying on the Internet
because it's public records, whatever.

He was like, but however, I think you
should call this guy.

Danny Longneck here.

And it's about to get lit like a fucking
tinny.

And I'm looking at the picture. It's
Longneck.

Longneck is David. I forget his last
name, but his name is damn Longneck.

Or whatever.

The white kid with the long neck, the
world know about it or whatever.

They was like, you need to try to get in
touch with his manager.

I made that phone call, and they was
like, look, we in Miami. We're going to

you out. We're going to cash you out. We
just want you to do two or three skits

with a long neck, da -da, and we'll see
you back home, da -da -da.

I went to Miami.

And my first time meeting that long
neck, it was like, damn.

What the fuck I'm going to do with this
kid? And that fucking wide neck.

But, frankly, I'm going to do it.

First time recording or whatever.

I'm doing it for the money at this time.

When

they

put it together and released it, it was
crazy.

It just went crazy.

Wide Neck would amass over one million
Instagram followers and achieve

notoriety.

Ah, Neck Madden. I think there's people
with abnormally large necks all over the

country, but I think Florida is a place
where you can exploit it and turn it

into a little career. And I say, go Wide
Neck.

It was definitely a blessing. It was
nothing but a blessing.

I never dreamed of being in Hollywood.

I'd never been on a plane at the time,
you feel me? Never been to Miami.

It was like a lot of stuff that I never
did. I was like in and out of prison, in

and out of jail, like most of my adult
lifetime, you feel me? And I just made a

transition, like second chance at life.

I'm real proud of him. I am really happy
for him.

He making better choices.

He doing better things. He got a
positive attitude now. It's going to be

little tight, but we can work with it.

I consider myself a street dude or
whatever, but at the end of the day, I'm

softer than a bear, you feel me? Like, I
want to have a good life. I want to be

there with my kids.

I haven't sold no drugs since that day.
I'm not who the mugshot is or I'm not

what they're trying to make me out of,
you feel me?

Wayne Ivey has actually been sued.

for his use of will of fugitives. The
Florida Today investigation has found

a large number of people featured on the
segment weren't fugitives. And he

really doesn't seem to care. He's still
pushing the shows, and it still

continues to move on. You can almost be
certain that if you have a sheriff named

Wayne Ivey spinning a wheel for it, you
can almost be certain that there's going

to be a screw -up.

It's an interesting business how YouTube
works. You know, anybody can make a

channel. This cop started it with the
Wheel of Fugitive.

Wide Neck wound up showing up on there.
Wide Neck got a successful YouTube

channel. You know, it's a great economy
that we got.

What you think, boss man? Look.

That's all right, bro.

They go anywhere.

They're going to be behind me like
deathly. Go anywhere with that, bro. I'm

going to be the proper duck. They're
going to be behind me like deathly.

Yeah.

Scanley County.

I already know they're trying to get me,
but I gave them a shout out.

It got me out of the hood. It got me
away from all that.

It's cool with me.

I'm good with it.

That's heartwarming. He's no longer
dealing drugs, and he's found fame and

fortune from a mugshot.

That's pretty cool.

This is just the way the world works
now.

A Florida man, the words by which many
strange stories begin in the world.

Storytelling tradition in America, going
back.

In folklore and in days of Mark Twain,
Will Rogers, passing along stories that

get bigger and bigger and wilder and
wilder and funnier and funnier, more

than not, they weren't true.

But in Florida, they're all true.

They were laughing at the mud side. I
was checking out the drug house. In the

kitchen, there would be no pipe. Before
they announced, they done rocked. They

were laughing at the mud side. I was
checking out the drug house. In the

kitchen, there would be no pipe.

Before they announced, they done rocked.
They were laughing at the mud side. In

the kitchen, there would be no pipe.
Before they announced, they done rocked.