0:04

Proclaimed there's one of America's best

0:07

sports shows by Sports Illustrated.

0:09

This is the Pauline

0:11

Ball Radio Network to be

0:14

part of the show. One day um

0:16

going through the show in January of two

0:18

thousand and eleven, and we get a call from

0:20

a guy who describes himself as

0:23

Al from Dadeville, Alabama. Are

0:26

doing well? Thanks? He lost

0:28

his core with me, and he said, we'll tell you what I did last

0:31

week, the weekend after the Iron

0:33

Bowl, I went to Auburn, Alabama, and

0:35

I poisoned the two tumors tree did

0:37

die. They're not dead yet, but they

0:39

definitely will die. You

0:42

heard that right, This man calling

0:45

himself Al from Dadeville calls

0:47

into a radio show to say that

0:50

he's poisoned two oak trees.

0:52

Is that against the law to poison the tree?

0:55

What do you think I care? Okay,

0:58

I really don't roll down, roll

1:00

damn tiede and he hung up. I

1:03

didn't give it much thought. Two weeks

1:05

later, a man named Harvey

1:07

Updike was arrested. It became

1:10

one of the biggest stories of the year and

1:12

one of the ugliest college football

1:15

related crimes that has ever been reported.

1:18

To understand how a man

1:20

with no criminal record, became

1:23

one of the most hated individuals

1:25

in the history of college sports. You

1:27

have to know a thing or two about college

1:30

football in Alabama and

1:32

the rivalry that's long defined

1:34

it, and

1:38

to understand why a whole

1:40

town would mourn over the death of

1:42

two old oak trees like they

1:44

were people. He needed to know about

1:46

a small college town named Auburn

1:49

with a big football tradition.

1:52

This episode, I'll go to the scene

1:55

of the crime and meet the man

1:57

who did it. I wanted Auburn

1:59

people gonna hate me as much as I hate them.

2:03

I'm Morocca and this

2:05

is mobituaries, This

2:13

mobid death of a tree,

2:16

roots of a rivalry.

2:21

It's a night. We have a story about a long standing

2:23

rivalry where things have now gotten

2:26

out of hand and became Alabama have arrested

2:28

this man who they say poisoned a pair

2:30

of beloved oak trees. At already

2:32

we took Harvey Updike Junior into custody

2:35

for the poison. Trees were started find that

2:37

somebody would do something like this to a few

2:39

trees that had never done anything to anybody.

2:46

How important a trees to to Auburn. Without

2:49

trees, this campus is nothing to

2:51

me without the trees. It's just buildings

2:53

on a side. I'm with horticulturist

2:56

Gary Kiver at Auburn University

2:58

in eastern Alabama, about an hour outside

3:01

state capital of Montgomery. Auburn

3:03

has one of the most beautiful campuses

3:06

in the South, in part because

3:08

of all the trees. That's nice. What

3:10

kind of trees are those? Is that birchrtle?

3:14

Kind? So path with trees?

3:16

There are over one D twenty

3:18

species of trees on campus. Not

3:21

so surprising at a school where you can

3:23

major in forestry. That is a mini

3:26

magnolia. That is a silver

3:28

bill. And that thing over there that

3:30

looks like a Christmas tree? Is that a sort of It's

3:32

not a pine, it's a cryptomeria.

3:35

No one knows what that is. If

3:38

you're in horticulture, you know what it is. By

3:42

now you can tell I didn't

3:44

major in forest tree. I guess? Can I

3:46

guess that that is? It's a is

3:48

it alive oak? It is d

3:51

D Ding Dan Dan. I'm so

3:53

excited that I got something right. But

3:55

at one spot on campus, the trees

3:57

have deep symbolic value.

4:00

We're standing here in the Tumors corner and

4:02

this is the gateway to campus

4:05

and imagined the term where town

4:07

meets down. Tumors

4:11

Corner, the intersection of

4:13

College Street and Magnolia Avenue.

4:16

Two massive old growth

4:18

oak trees once stood

4:20

sentry here, about

4:22

eighty feet apart. They're glorious

4:25

crowns of foliage joined overhead,

4:28

indeed forming a kind of gateway

4:31

the heart and soul of Auburn's

4:33

campus. The Tumors Oaks that's

4:36

t O O M E R S. We're

4:38

over eighty years old and named

4:40

after the founder of a drug store that's

4:43

still there just across the street.

4:45

Okay, this is kind of a big deal for me because I'm actually now

4:47

seeing it. So where are

4:49

the trees? I'm looking here and

4:51

right here, the slender

4:54

trees i'm seeing are replacements,

4:56

perfectly nice, but you certainly wouldn't

4:59

try climbing one these. One

5:01

day they might touch overhead, but right

5:03

now they seem disconnected

5:06

from each other. Two trees among

5:08

many on campus. And we look

5:10

here and for each of these new

5:12

Tumors Oaks, fairly immature. There's a little

5:15

sign around them. And what does it say? Please

5:17

do not roll rolling.

5:23

It's a school tradition, really a

5:25

ritual that goes back to the nineteen

5:28

seventies. When Auburn's football

5:30

team wins, students rushed

5:33

Tumors corner and hurl

5:35

rolls of toilet paper up

5:37

into the trees. The

5:40

original tumors oaks that stood

5:42

here were majestic, but when

5:44

rolled, they looked kind of

5:46

magical. In photographs,

5:49

the long streams of toilet paper

5:51

resemble white flowing mains

5:54

that at night seemed to glow, made

5:56

from pounds and pounds make

5:59

that many hounds of toilet

6:01

paper. Usually

6:03

rolling and it's still done is to celebrate

6:06

Auburn's winds, but sometimes

6:08

the students roll trees to celebrate

6:10

another holy occasion when their

6:12

arch nemesis, the University

6:15

of Alabama, loses no

6:17

matter who beats them.

6:22

These two teams hate

6:24

each other. But why

6:26

where did this rivalry that divides

6:28

the whole state and led one man to poison

6:31

two oak trees originate? Turns

6:33

out that's an old story, like

6:37

Civil War old. During

6:44

the Civil War, the federal government

6:46

decides to fund what are called land

6:48

grant universities. These are

6:50

schools that teach programs on farming

6:52

and mechanical trades, basically

6:55

aggie schools. After

6:57

the war ends when the former Confederate

6:59

states joined the Union, the state

7:01

of Alabama wants to get in on that money.

7:05

Then all of a sudden there comes this fierce

7:07

competition to see who

7:09

will become the land grant university

7:12

in each state. That's historian Wayne

7:14

Flint. He wrote the book on Alabama.

7:17

Like literally, he wrote the Encyclopedia

7:20

of Alabama. So which Alabama

7:22

school will win this distinction and

7:24

the money that goes with it. University

7:26

of Alabama wants to be the language school.

7:29

And the last thing they want is for a college

7:31

in East Alabama that would be Auburn

7:33

to get this ultimate plum

7:35

of the federal money. And in this their

7:38

first head to head competition, Auburn,

7:41

a formerly small Methodist college

7:43

out in the Sticks, wins out

7:45

over the older, than more affluent

7:48

University of Alabama, thus

7:50

sparking a rivalry that lives

7:52

on even today. So

7:55

how can two in state schools

7:57

that compete for wealth, political power,

7:59

and for stege settled the score

8:02

football? So

8:06

there is in sublimated

8:09

form this rivalry that is about

8:11

politics and wealth. It immediately

8:13

manifest medal metastasizes,

8:16

tastasizes onto the gridiron

8:18

and into the stands. The

8:21

football rivalry gets so intense,

8:24

brawls between fans, fights

8:26

over regulation rules, that it's

8:29

suspended at one point for forty

8:31

years. Seriously, it

8:33

takes an act of state government, a

8:35

House joint resolution to bring

8:38

these teams back together. And

8:40

in the Alabama

8:42

Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers

8:45

pick up where they left off. It's

8:47

like they never stopped hating each other. At

8:50

its heart, this rivalry is

8:52

less about two schools and

8:54

more about class. I'm

8:57

thinking of that awful cheerio sometimes

8:59

here at high school games. That's all right, that's okay,

9:01

You're gonna work for us someday. Does

9:03

that kind of sum up feeling that that

9:06

Alabama has for abur heicks

9:08

strawberries of second hand forward trucks.

9:10

You said it, not I did, because

9:13

that's the stereotonuk. Never

9:15

mind that today Auburn is ranked

9:17

higher than Alabama on the list of top

9:19

state schools. It's sent six

9:22

alumni into space and one

9:24

into the top office at Apple, as

9:26

in CEO Tim cook yep

9:29

he went to Auburn. In fact,

9:31

Auburn grads on average make

9:33

more than Alabama grads, a

9:36

fact which may have made this rivalry even

9:39

more poisonous. I

9:42

would say that college football is as

9:45

close to a religion in

9:47

that state as you could possibly find. The

9:49

main difference is that people practice it every

9:51

day. Where religion, they show up when

9:54

they feel like it. This is beyond obsession.

9:56

It's addictive. There's people that live

9:59

for football s. I

10:02

have heard people tell stories of

10:05

going into labor in the middle of the game

10:07

and being told that they need to wait alburn

10:09

football. I

10:12

have to believe that part of this is that Alabama doesn't

10:14

have a professional football team. Does that matter? I've

10:16

always thought that was a big part of it. Um there

10:18

are there are just no professional teams of any

10:23

which means in Alabama you've

10:25

got two choices, arguably the

10:28

most intense rivalry in all

10:30

of college football. You pledge your allegiance

10:32

from Burns, Auburn or

10:35

Alabama, you must

10:37

choose us brother versus brother, battle

10:39

of wills, dividing families

10:42

at Tensions between these teams

10:44

are so high that matrimony

10:47

between Auburn and Alabama fans

10:49

is called a mixed marriage, and

10:52

once a year, on Thanksgiving Day

10:54

weekend, the two teams

10:56

meet on the gridiron in

10:58

the game known simply as

11:01

the iron Ball. This

11:04

game is basically a high holiday

11:07

in the state. Virtually everyone

11:09

will be either act this game or watching

11:11

from home. The highways are empty,

11:14

stores are shut down. The winner

11:16

of the iron Ball secures bragging rights

11:18

for the whole next year. And when

11:21

football fans in Alabama want to boast

11:23

about their team's big wins, they

11:25

call into the Paul fine

11:27

Bound Show. And it must

11:30

be great being known as the Oprah Winfrey

11:32

of college football. Oh that was a compliment

11:34

to that treasure. Hello, Hello,

11:40

show isn't isn't a radio show. It's a family

11:42

kind of like the Manson's who are a family? Can

11:45

turned? How dare you say

11:47

that about Alabama? Reading the telebrampt

11:50

then you are just keep your mouth about

11:52

Alabama

11:55

sometimes because you don't want to hear it's

11:57

not done obvious

12:00

really needs a professional I

12:02

mean, I dare say that no one in

12:04

the history of mankind has profited

12:07

more from the Alabama Auburn rivalry

12:09

than the person you're currently listening to. The

12:12

sec is over this

12:15

conflict has been good for you. I

12:17

I will admit that under oath God, you're

12:19

like a war profit here. But

12:22

when Harvey Uptake called into the Paul

12:25

find Bound show in early two thousand

12:27

eleven. He wasn't ranting

12:29

a raving. The weekend after

12:31

the Iron Bowl, I went to Auburn, Alabama,

12:34

poisoned the two tumors treats. He

12:36

sounded deliberate, he sounded

12:38

proud. They die. They're not

12:40

the idea, but they definitely will die. Is

12:42

that against the tree?

12:46

When I first read about what Harvey Uptake

12:49

had done, I found it disturbing.

12:51

Really more than disturbing, I found a sinister

12:55

What kind of a person will kill two

12:57

beautiful, innocent living things.

13:00

I thought about how cruelty to animals is

13:02

a predictor of violence against other

13:04

people, sometimes horrific violence.

13:07

I thought of a kid up the street from where I grew up

13:10

named Kevin. He used to get a kick

13:12

out of crushing little baby bird eggs

13:14

he found in nests. I don't know what

13:16

happened to him, but I still don't like the name

13:18

Kevin. I even thought

13:20

about the Taliban blowing up the monumental

13:23

statues of Buddha at bam Yon in

13:25

two thousand one. Look, you might

13:27

think that comparing the killing of two trees

13:30

to the torture of animals or human

13:32

beings, or to the destruction of

13:34

a religious shrine is over the top, and

13:36

maybe it is, but sorry,

13:39

what kind of a person would do this? The

13:42

question for me boiled down to this, is

13:45

he a person who did something terrible

13:47

and, as it turns out, dangerous or

13:50

is he a dangerous person? I

13:53

headed down to Texas or Harvey Updyke

13:56

was living last summer to find

13:58

out. Now,

14:00

before I introduce you to Harvey Updyke, the

14:02

University of Alabama fan who killed

14:05

Auburn's two beloved oak trees, there's

14:07

another person I have to tell you about. Like

14:10

those trees, He's no longer with us

14:12

in body, but in spirit he's

14:15

very much alive. University

14:22

of Alabama coach Bear Bryant

14:25

is an icon, and not just

14:27

for leaving the Crimson Tide to unprecedented

14:30

glory with six national

14:32

championships over a twenty five year

14:34

career beginning in the late nineteen fifties.

14:37

He had an aura, A man

14:39

of few words. He stood tall

14:41

six ft three, sporting his

14:44

trademark houndstooth Fedora,

14:46

projecting the gravitas and the intensity

14:50

of a John Wayne or Gary

14:52

Cooper. But he wasn't playing a character

14:54

in a movie. He got his nickname

14:56

Bear when he was thirteen years old.

14:59

Naturally, when he agreed to wrestle

15:01

a captive bear at a carnival. He

15:04

became so influential across Alabama.

15:07

From that, of course, he had to have his own TV

15:09

show Sundays at four pm.

15:11

He would sit down, crack open a bottle

15:14

of Coca Cola and a bag of golden

15:16

flaked potato chips the show's two sponsors,

15:19

and break down the Alabama game from

15:21

the day before. That was what we wanted to do

15:23

either. We didn't want to kick all of Everton. We could

15:25

help it, but we were forces here. They His

15:28

mother had always wanted him to be a minister,

15:30

and he famously said coaching and preaching

15:33

are a lot alike. And

15:35

watching his show on late Sunday afternoons

15:38

was like a second church for die hard

15:40

fans for four years. From now we're

15:43

walking out of here. Nice

15:45

good chance. After he died

15:47

on January,

15:50

he was posthumously awarded the Presidential

15:52

Medal of Freedom by President Reagan.

15:55

A few years back when they had those commemorative

15:57

state quarters. From surprised Alabama

16:00

didn't put Bear Bryant on theirs on

16:03

both sides. Now,

16:05

I'm telling you all this for a reason. Harvey

16:08

Updike grew up watching the Bear

16:10

Bryant Show, and like for many young kids,

16:13

Brian gave him someone to look

16:15

up to. And I'll tell you this,

16:19

I expect nothing less. We're

16:26

driving down the street in Texas and

16:30

in about point two miles we

16:33

are going to meet Harvey Updyke. He's

16:37

canceled, he's confirmed, he's canceled. He's confirmed,

16:39

he's hedged. I get it, I get it. He's

16:41

not sure what he's getting into. The

16:43

destination is on your right, and neither are

16:46

Well.

16:52

Hello there, Hey, I'm Morocca.

16:54

How are you? John Buddy breaks

16:56

to meet too. You must be Harvey, right, I'm Hardy

16:59

And then I said I love your hat,

17:01

thank you. What do you know? Harvey is

17:04

wearing a hound's tooth Alabama

17:06

cap to match his short sleeved

17:08

polo with a Crimson a insignia

17:11

that look like if she did on Bart very much.

17:13

And what's her name, Princess?

17:17

That doesn't sound like anything to do with the Crimson

17:20

tide. Well, I didn't name her.

17:22

I had Harvey sixty nine. And

17:24

he looks at his hair is such

17:26

a light blonde that it looks white. He

17:29

has a biker mustache, the kind that Hull

17:31

Cogan has with a goatee, or

17:34

is that a soul patch. I

17:37

meet Harvey's son, Bear Upnight. Nice to meet

17:39

you. That's right, Harvey named his son

17:41

Bear. Incidentally, he's got

17:43

a daughter in another state named, wait

17:46

for it, Crimson Tide update.

17:49

Nice to me, alright,

17:51

alright. I also meet his two granddaughters

17:54

and they're Adorableley,

17:57

Briley, how do you do a mode that?

18:01

I'm good? And

18:03

this is princess right? I

18:06

learned quickly that travel softball

18:09

is a huge thing for these girls and

18:11

their grandfather. I cheer all my girls

18:13

as hard as I can. I'll love

18:15

him to death. What does he, Briley?

18:18

What does he do? How does he cheer? He's

18:20

like, let's go of dyke.

18:24

I just go board and go out there.

18:27

I have to wonder what going overboard

18:29

means for Harvey up Dyke. But the

18:31

girls seem to love their grandfather's fervor.

18:34

I like it. I like how big of a fan he

18:36

is. All my friends like it too. They laugh,

18:38

they walk up to me and they're like, me and your Grandma's

18:40

awesome. I wish I had a grandpa like that. And I'm

18:42

like, yeah, he's amazing.

18:46

But he's loud, loud

18:48

and proud, and Briley and Madison

18:50

imitate Harvey's signature catchphrase

18:54

man. Then

18:56

Harvey shows him how it's done. Is

19:00

there a fault line in Texas? Because the walls

19:03

just shut twenty

19:05

minutes in. If I have to sum up Harvey

19:07

in one word, it isn't scary

19:10

or creepy, but grandpa.

19:14

So far, at least he's kind

19:16

of a regular grandpa. Then,

19:18

without any prompting, I hear what sounds

19:21

like Harvey's origin story,

19:24

how he lost his dad when he was just

19:26

four years old, and how a certain

19:29

legendary coach filled the voice

19:31

my mother when I was seven or eight years

19:33

old. If I ever have a boy, I'm gonna

19:35

name him Bear Bryant. And she asked me why.

19:38

I said, will. He's everything

19:40

at a father figure

19:42

should be. He makes

19:45

his players called their parents

19:47

on weekends, and I

19:49

just thought he was a great person. Harvey

19:51

fondly describes sitting and watching

19:54

The Bear Bryant Show on a

19:56

black and white TV while his mother

19:58

ironed he still members

20:00

of the show's two sponsors. Yeah,

20:02

yeah, he had opened the bag and you know, about three

20:04

or four and drunk his coke and I

20:07

think it lasted about an hour. We all

20:09

head down the road now to a local surf

20:11

and turf spot to grab some lunch. On

20:14

the car ride over, Harvey tells

20:16

me about his previous life as a police

20:18

officer in Texas. There's the best

20:20

job I ever had. I love being

20:22

a trooper. I put a lot of people in jail

20:24

for d W which is a huge point

20:27

of pride for Harvey. He

20:29

says his father was killed by a drunk

20:31

driver. Newspaper accounts

20:33

from the time, though, report that his father

20:36

died when he lost control of his tractor

20:38

trailer and flipped over, and that

20:40

no other vehicle was involved. But

20:43

I believe that Harvey believes his father

20:46

was killed by a drunk driver. He

20:48

says it's something that defined his career

20:51

in law enforcement. The only

20:53

thing I remember about my dad is

20:55

uh, At the funeral, they picked me

20:57

up to kiss him

20:59

and I just his forehead and it scared

21:01

me to death. You know it's it felt

21:04

like marble or something. And you know, I was three

21:06

years old. I didn't know what. It's

21:09

pretty out here? It is pretty? What

21:11

is his belt in lake? I'm genuinely

21:14

moved by Harvey's story. But

21:16

wait a second, am I being manipulated?

21:19

Look? This is my first true crime

21:21

episode, so maybe I'm being gullible.

21:24

I need to be more circumspect. Anyway,

21:26

do you want to go ahead and at

21:28

the restaurant? I ordered the mixed field

21:30

green salad and catfish fingers.

21:33

Now, like any good lunch spot, it's

21:35

a little noisy. If there's levels

21:38

of fans like weekend

21:41

fans, you know, avid

21:43

fans, radical

21:45

fans. Where are you? I would say

21:47

probably radical? I know

21:49

it's it's unhealthy.

21:52

Do you what? What have you? Well?

21:55

I mean, besides my kids and grandkids,

21:58

I love that Alabama you know, right below

22:00

him, not too far below him.

22:03

Madison who goes by move seems

22:06

to take this and stride move. Do you

22:08

love anything as much as

22:10

your grandpa loves Alabama football? Um?

22:14

I mean, I love him as much as he loves

22:16

Alabama, but he loves it

22:18

a lot. And what do you think of that?

22:21

Did you understand it? No?

22:24

I don't understand why he had to kill the trees.

22:27

I don't. I mean, I

22:29

don't know. He's a little crazy. I didn't mean

22:31

it. I did, and

22:34

just like that, courtesy of his eleven

22:36

year old granddaughter, we're talking

22:39

about the crime itself. You just I

22:41

didn't mean it. I did. What does that mean?

22:43

I was saying

22:45

I didn't mean it, but then I then

22:47

I was gonna tell you truth. I didn't mean it. I

22:50

wanted to alburn people to hate me

22:52

as much as I hate him, because

22:55

they bought Cam Newton. Scam.

22:58

You know who he is. Scam Newton, a camp

23:00

back. Okay, I'm gonna

23:02

do some translating for the non sports people

23:05

you may have heard of NFL quarterback Cam

23:07

Newton. Harvey calls him Scam

23:09

Newton. Back in college, Newton

23:12

was a star player at Auburn,

23:14

which made him enemy number one at Alabama.

23:17

Throughout two thousand ten, Newton

23:19

was under investigation after allegations

23:22

that he had been paid to play for Auburn.

23:25

That's a big no no in college sports.

23:28

Cam Newton was eventually officially cleared

23:30

of these allegations. That season,

23:32

Newton led Auburn to a historic

23:35

comeback victory over Alabama in

23:37

the Iron Ball, a stinging

23:40

defeat coming on the heels of

23:42

an even greater outrage for

23:44

Harvey. They home the Scam

23:46

Newton jersey on Bear bryan statue.

23:50

That's when I went crazy. Yes,

23:52

fans taped Cam Newton's

23:54

jersey onto Bear Bryant's statue

23:57

a week before the iron Ball This is true.

23:59

You can it or that like like I like sacrileged.

24:02

Yes. Yes. Harvey

24:05

also says that when Bear Bryant

24:07

died in Auburn,

24:09

fans rolled Tumors corner

24:11

in celebration. Now, there's no proof

24:14

that something so ghoulish as that happened,

24:17

but again, I believe that Harvey

24:19

believes it. At this point

24:21

in the meal, I'm kind of understanding

24:24

why all of this was so upsetting for Harvey.

24:27

Auburn fans taped Scam

24:29

Newton's Forgive Me Cam Newton's jersey

24:31

onto a statue of Bear Bryant, which

24:34

I'm guessing in Harvey's mind was

24:36

tantamount to mocking his father. But

24:40

then Harvey goes into a clinical,

24:43

step by step description of

24:45

how he poisoned the trees in

24:47

the middle of this family seafood restaurant

24:50

in front of his granddaughter. Took me a month.

24:53

Ever, now I stay up all not long, and

24:55

I used to have cameras on the trees. I

24:58

figured out when the slow most time,

25:01

what day of the week, and what hour of

25:04

the night was the slowest

25:07

around old oak trees, so I could go in there

25:09

at that time and not get caught

25:11

at what time was it? And boy am

25:13

on Sunday night. The chemical

25:16

he used was an herbicide called

25:19

spike a D D F. Mixed

25:21

it with water and put it in a

25:24

Milton jugs. I

25:26

had to milk guts roots tree

25:29

and I walked around the the outside

25:32

of the tree, you know where the bulgage came

25:34

out, so just pouring it around, almost

25:36

like gasoline to set a fire. Like

25:40

when he arrested me, they came to my house.

25:43

They brought I'm not lying to you.

25:45

They brought twenty five police cards

25:47

out there are searching my house. We can't

25:50

verify that. And they told me that, uh, I

25:53

used way, way, way too much.

25:55

We can verify that. Try

25:57

five times the lethal I'm out

26:00

there was even concerned from federal police

26:02

officers that he might have poisoned

26:04

the water table. In other words,

26:07

Harvey Updyke put Auburn's

26:09

drinking water at risk. You

26:11

know, I wouldn't have chemist. I didn't know how much do you use?

26:13

I just want to make sure they died. It felt

26:16

like I was sitting across from someone who had

26:18

been radicalized. I know,

26:20

fanaticism in sports didn't start

26:22

with Harvey. In nineteen seventeen,

26:24

Texas A and M fans stole

26:27

the University of Texas's mascot

26:29

steer Bibo and branded

26:31

him, And just the last year, West

26:33

Point Cadets kidnapped the Air

26:35

Force mascot falcon Aurora

26:38

and seriously injured her. Grown

26:40

ups did this. Maybe it's

26:42

fitting that the voice of reason at this table

26:45

belongs to eleven year old Madison.

26:47

Yeah. I don't know why he wants people to hate him

26:49

my name. They probably already

26:51

do. But he's not really acting

26:53

like his age. He's kind of acting young,

26:56

like he's back in elementary school. I

27:00

would never want someone to hate me as much. I

27:02

would hate that. I'm sorry, baby, And

27:05

just like that, I'm feeling a

27:08

little better about Harvey. Do you

27:10

like trees in general? Yeah? I

27:12

like trees in general. You know, I

27:15

just don't like alb There's several

27:17

things in this world and I really intruded.

27:19

I don't like and Alburn's one of them. What

27:21

are the others? Liver? I ain't

27:23

gonna eat no liver. It's got a lot of protein. I

27:26

don't care what had happened. I

27:28

don't eat liver. And what are the other

27:30

things you don't like? I

27:32

hate to say this because this is an upset a lot

27:34

of people, but I hold my breath.

27:37

I'm not crazy about cats. I

27:41

didn't know what you were gonna say. Just now. Okay,

27:44

So Harvey is

27:46

so matter of fact describing his

27:49

crime, but there was nothing matter

27:51

of fact about it for the Auburn community.

27:54

After the trees were poisoned. The

27:56

first thing that happened after it was

27:58

announced was the fans

28:00

rolled the trees, almost like, Okay,

28:02

we're gonna show our concern for you by

28:05

rolling you. I'm

28:08

back with Gary Kiev, the horticulturist

28:11

and former Auburn professor, and

28:13

he's telling me about the aftermath of

28:15

the two thousand eleven poisoning. I

28:17

empathized with the students because they were

28:19

filling the trees pain And

28:22

the next thing they did was to begin to insurround

28:24

the trees. They began to bring up

28:26

flowers, They began to bring up memorabilia

28:29

to pay respects. Toilet

28:36

paper rolls inscribed with get well

28:39

messages were laid down a

28:41

bouquet of flowers made out of toilet

28:43

paper. I began to see

28:45

the human quality that

28:48

these trees brought out in people.

28:51

This vigil. Absolutely,

28:53

absolutely thank you to the Auburn family

28:56

for the outpouring of love that you are showing

28:58

now during this time

29:01

of hurt. These trees will

29:03

likely die, but the Auburn

29:06

spirit we'll continue

29:08

to live on. While

29:10

the prognosis was Grandma, some

29:12

held out hope, including Gary

29:15

Kiver and are you in rescue mode

29:17

right now? What is where is your head when

29:19

all of this is happening. Well, at this point

29:22

we didn't know where the herbside had been placed,

29:24

we didn't know how much, so

29:26

we were way behind the curve. The

29:30

university consulted with the nation's

29:32

best tree doctors. Various

29:34

treatments were tried at great expense,

29:37

Sugar injected into the roots, liquid

29:39

activated carbon drenched over

29:42

tree beds, but the tumors

29:44

oaks only got sicker. In essence,

29:47

the trees was starving it seft today.

29:49

I mean when you see something like that happening,

29:51

I mean, do you feel for the tree without a doubt,

29:54

without a doubt, you know. I

29:56

mean, We've got this majestic

29:58

trees that do no harm

30:00

to anyone if someone has chosen

30:02

to harm them, and it makes no sense to

30:04

me. If you want to know how

30:07

this felt for Auburn, listen

30:09

to the voice of Gary Keeper's colleague

30:11

Stephen and Low, when he was asked

30:13

by a reporter if the trees were definitely

30:16

going to die. It's

30:18

an emotional question. Oh,

30:22

I always want to hold that home. Based

30:26

upon the technical experts are consulted with around

30:28

the country, the concentration

30:30

of spike basically

30:33

found within the soil would suggest

30:35

there is a very low probability. On

30:38

April thirteen,

30:41

two and a half years after Harvey

30:43

uptake had poisoned them,

30:45

the tumors oaks were removed,

30:49

it is so said. And

30:55

then every time the chain stow cuts and

30:57

just listen to the people get closed.

30:59

So that's a sad day. It's

31:01

uh tough to talk about. Just

31:04

think this, it's like a funeral.

31:09

I mean, just people have tears in their eyes, or

31:11

they did when the street was barricaded off

31:13

and there were hundreds of people out there.

31:16

Uh, there were people crying without

31:18

a doubt, and surprisingly

31:21

some of those who had come to bear witness

31:23

were from Alabama. In the effort

31:26

to save the trees, Auburn's arch

31:28

rival had raised it over fifty dollars

31:31

on a Facebook page called Tied for

31:33

Tumors. In many ways,

31:35

of poisoning brought Auburn in Alabama

31:38

closer together because many of the

31:40

Alabama fans felt maybe,

31:42

in some way a small part responsible

31:45

for their poisoning.

31:53

I'm driving with Harvey now. We've just

31:55

left the restaurant where he described in

31:57

detail his crime. Let

32:00

me ask when we were sitting in the restaurant, so you said

32:03

you you were honest, and you said you don't regret

32:05

it. But do you think it was wrong

32:08

what you did? Yes, I think it's wrong. You

32:11

know, them trees wouldn't hurt me, but

32:15

that's the only way I felt like I could get back

32:17

at. You know, I wasn't

32:19

gonna hurt anybody, and

32:23

at the time we

32:26

had just found out that my

32:28

ex wife had cancer. On the

32:30

one hand, unrelieved that Harvey actually

32:33

recognizes that what he did was wrong, I guess

32:35

I was depressed. On the other

32:37

hand, he's making excuses again. Yeah,

32:40

I think everybody has

32:43

done things that they regret, probably

32:47

not a magnitude that I did.

32:49

But if you could

32:51

say anything to those trees, what would

32:53

you say to them?

33:01

I'd probably say sorry,

33:04

but too

33:07

late. Now we're

33:09

back at Harvey's house now, actually

33:11

it's his son Bears house. Harvey

33:14

moved in here in two thousand seventeen. Oh

33:18

you got a huge upstairs. Well, that's where

33:21

I stay. It's not really a

33:23

bedroom where he's staying when I visit, more

33:25

like the second floor landing. Do you

33:27

see all my hats? They're

33:30

really nice. I mean, I got a bunch of them.

33:33

That's a pretty good looking hat. I care. I like

33:35

that. Bam.

33:37

This is the one Bear Brynet used to wear. The

33:39

kind of he wore. I didn't start liking

33:42

on yesterday. Uh,

33:45

you've been with them for four decades

33:47

now, you know. I stayed with him when day was

33:49

down, but they didn't stay

33:51

with him when he was down. Too

33:54

many Crimson Tide fans. Harvey

33:56

became a pariah, denounced

33:59

by no less a person than Alabama

34:01

head coach Nick Saban. Part

34:03

of what makes this so sad is

34:05

that Harvey didn't even go to Alabama. He

34:08

didn't even grow up in the state, but across

34:10

the line in the Florida Panhandle. Harvey

34:13

is a member of what's known unofficially

34:16

as the pickup truck Alumni, working

34:19

class people so inspired

34:21

by the heroics of Bear Bryant that

34:23

they became die hard fans who

34:26

take the rivalry way more seriously

34:28

than the actual alumni do. And

34:31

now the Alabama community was

34:33

looking down at him worse than they ever

34:35

looked at those kids from Auburn. You

34:38

got your pills there? What are the pills for? I

34:42

take about thirty pills a day for what

34:45

everything? I mean everything, I've got everything.

34:47

It's a veneerial disease. Harvey

34:50

spent six months in a small jail

34:52

in Lee County, that's where Auburn

34:54

is. He said he got jumped several

34:56

times by Auburn fans serving time

34:59

there, and that people would spit in his food.

35:01

He said he lost over eighty pounds,

35:04

and if you compare photos before and after

35:06

his sentence, you can see that he's not

35:09

lying. He came out looking gaunt

35:11

and pale. Do you think it was extreme

35:14

the punishment? Yes, I do. I

35:17

mean what what I did I shouldn't have

35:19

done. But I think I pretty

35:21

well got what I deserved. You know, I

35:24

think, I mean, I think I deserved to go

35:26

to jail for doing it. I mean

35:28

I do, I mean I shouldn't have done it. Yes,

35:31

I know, Harvey just completely

35:33

contradicted himself. Again.

35:37

As for whether Harvey's punishment that is crime,

35:39

no surprise, Alabama's legal

35:42

community is divided. It

35:44

was almost a personal attack. These weren't

35:46

just a couple of trees. There are a lot of cheers

35:49

have been shed over this. That's Lee

35:51

County d A. Brandon Hughes.

35:53

If you remove that emotional attachment

35:55

to those two trees, his case is way out

35:58

of proportion of what ordinarily would be charged.

36:00

And that's University of Alabama

36:02

law professor Jenny Carroll. Harvey

36:05

was charged with a Class C felony,

36:08

which for a non violent first offense,

36:10

was not typical. There was also a

36:13

misdemeanor charge for and I find

36:15

this significant, desecrating

36:17

a venerated object. There

36:19

were plenty effects who felt like, if ever there was a

36:21

time for capital punishment, it was this time.

36:24

There was no trial, A plea

36:26

deal was struck, which included the

36:28

six month long jail sentence, a

36:31

five year probationary period and

36:33

over eight hundred thousand dollars in

36:35

restitution at a payment rate

36:38

of two hundred dollars a month. It will

36:40

take Harvey more than three hundred

36:42

years to make good. I think

36:44

it was garbage. I think he got off easy.

36:47

To call it a slap on the wrist is overstating.

36:50

I think it was a kiss on the cheek. That's nothing,

36:52

absolutely nothing for what he did. Harvey

36:55

was banned for life from Auburn's

36:57

campus as part of the probation,

37:00

he had a seven pm curfew, and

37:02

worst of all, for Harvey, was not allowed

37:04

to go to any college sporting events,

37:06

which meant no Alabama football

37:09

for five years. They are punishing

37:11

him at the very heart of the thing he loves the most.

37:14

It's like a modern day shunning, right, Like you

37:16

have to leave our community that we all consider

37:18

so valuable. Still, a

37:20

lot of people weren't satisfied.

37:22

I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody around

37:25

here that says, yes, justice was served. After

37:27

he was out of jail. That guy didn't look back. He was

37:29

He was a hero to the Alabama people. I

37:35

wondered what this was like for Harvey's family,

37:37

while this was all happening, It doesn't. Marcia

37:40

Updyke is Bear's wife and Harvey's

37:42

daughter in law. She's just home

37:44

from work and we sit in the kitchen

37:46

to chat. Do you think if he'd been living with

37:49

you all and been involved with the grandkids,

37:51

then that he would have done

37:53

it? Oh? Heck no, because he would have been like,

37:55

hey, I got this idea, and I'm like, heck no,

37:58

we're not going to go do that. But

38:01

anything. I don't even let him take food upstairs.

38:04

She wanted to run and take the food upstairs. So

38:07

sometimes I'll naked, I put in my pockets

38:09

take upstairs anymo. Yeah,

38:12

So there would have been no poison. No,

38:15

no poison. It would have been a different world when

38:17

this was all happening. Marcia, What did you

38:19

think? I don't know. We weren't

38:21

directly involved. You know. On a serious

38:24

note, there were fans

38:26

that would like Bear had to shut down

38:28

his Facebook page because he would receive death

38:30

threat and that was ridiculous.

38:32

So it's so funny because they would get so upset.

38:34

These Auburn fans would get so upset because

38:37

of what happened and then message his

38:39

son and that they're his kids should

38:41

die. And seriously, it was hypocritical of them

38:43

to say they were outraged by this and then turn around

38:45

and threaten your kids. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely,

38:48

do you feel bad for the trees? So

38:51

here's the thing, their

38:54

trees. I mean, I get it,

38:56

don't get me wrong. I mean that's going to be super

38:58

insensitive to something oaks, and

39:01

Um, what people need to know is I

39:03

don't care about I

39:05

mean it, I shouldn't say I don't care, but

39:07

it's it's football, it's Auburn, it's

39:09

Alabama. But when I found

39:12

out like the value that they

39:14

placed on those trees and things like that,

39:16

I was a little surprised myself. I do have

39:19

to say, so I understand

39:22

they are special and

39:24

um, it was devastating. But you

39:27

know, if someone comes and breaks a statue or

39:29

something along those lines, I'm not sure

39:31

that the ramifications are as I

39:34

don't know, intricate as they were for that,

39:36

they would be punished as much. Yeah, they

39:38

definitely breaks him over the

39:40

coals a little bit. They definitely threw

39:42

the book at him and said, hey,

39:44

we're going to go to the highest of the high.

39:49

Yeah, I'm gonna go Ald Barbara Walters on you if

39:51

the trees could talk, what do you think they

39:53

would say when they see those toilet paper

39:55

rolls coming at them? Brace for contact.

39:59

I guess I don't. I'm sure. I'm

40:01

back with horticulturist Gary Kiever

40:03

at Auburn. Now, if you're an Auburn

40:06

partisan, you're probably fuming

40:08

right now from Marcia's they're just

40:10

trees. Take But before

40:13

you go all lo rax speaking for

40:15

the trees, listen to this.

40:17

There there hazards associated with

40:19

the rolling tradition. Historically,

40:22

the paper was removed with high pressure fire

40:24

hoses and that damaged the trees.

40:26

That weakened the trees. Oftentimes, by the end of the

40:28

football season there was no

40:30

no foliage on the lower third of the tree.

40:33

You know, they had declined over time. Plant

40:36

pathologists had warned against

40:38

rolling. One even dared to joke

40:40

that it would help if Auburn just stopped

40:43

winning. So it sounds like the trees

40:45

weren't always treated right. They were

40:47

not. They were They were special because of the

40:49

tradition and their location. If

40:51

they had been located elsewhere on campus, we

40:53

might have replaced them, but we were going to keep

40:56

them at all costs because

40:58

of their role. In the tradition. So

41:01

was the tradition that made these trees so

41:03

beloved also the thing that was

41:06

slowly killing them. They weren't on Magnolia.

41:08

In my opinion, it was getting close to the end

41:10

of his life. This wasn't

41:12

privileged information. In the

41:15

summer of two thousand seven, three

41:17

years before Harvey doused

41:19

the trees and Spike a d d F, a

41:22

headline in Auburn's Alumni magazine

41:25

asked the question too late

41:27

for the tumors trees. Local

41:29

outlets reported on the trees declining

41:31

health. The student newspaper

41:33

declared, even more bluntly, landmark

41:37

tumors trees dying. Now.

41:40

I don't know if you're aware of this, but as early as two

41:42

thousand and seven the trees were in pretty

41:45

poor health. Does that matter? No,

41:47

I mean, you don't get a pass for killing a nine

41:49

year old person because they were in bad health

41:52

to begin with. That's Lee County d A.

41:54

Brandon us Again. Please don't think I'm

41:56

comparing a tree to a person. But the point

41:58

being is, you know, Dr Calvorkian

42:00

didn't get away with murder because the person was going to

42:02

die anyway. But Jenny Carroll says that

42:05

if they could do it all again, Harvey might

42:07

have a case. If Auburn fans

42:09

were already killing those trees, then I

42:11

think he could make a claim that he did not actually

42:13

kill them. If he was looking for a defense

42:16

lawyer who would actually take his case, I would

42:18

be perfectly willing to defend that man. I

42:21

think we could have done better maybe than he did on that plea

42:23

deal. On

42:26

November tenth, two thousand eighteen,

42:29

Harvey Updike was feeling good driving

42:32

in his deep red pickup truck towards

42:34

Bryant Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa,

42:36

home of the University of Alabama, to

42:39

watch his beloved Crimson Tide take

42:41

on Mississippi State, his

42:43

first Alabama home game since

42:46

his probation ended Denny

42:49

Stadium. And it is beautiful,

42:52

thousands of Alabama fans

42:54

and in Harvey's

43:07

not lying load today,

43:11

bring Cowboy.

43:13

He hoots and hollers through the whole

43:15

game, turns Da Baba.

43:18

One of the Bama fans sitting behind him,

43:21

realizes who he is and high five.

43:26

No Burday

43:36

night. I didn't think

43:38

I'd ever get to come back here before I died.

43:41

Something tells me Harvey will be with us for

43:44

a while. Just listen to him at one of

43:46

his granddaughter's recent softball games.

43:49

Yes, yes, yes,

43:55

I'll admit it. I've developed

43:58

a little bit of a soft spot for Harvey.

44:00

Look, I'm not saying he's innocent of a

44:02

crime he clearly committed. This isn't

44:04

making of a tree murderer. But I

44:07

don't see the seeds of a homicidal

44:09

maniac in him. I see

44:11

someone who latched onto a community,

44:13

to an identity that made him feel like

44:16

he belonged, who got carried away

44:18

by the tide of what really is

44:20

an obsession, Alabama football.

44:23

He did something terrible. He's

44:25

a fanatic, for sure, but

44:27

I guess I don't think he's a dangerous

44:30

fanatic, at least not any longer.

44:32

There's not a day it doesn't go by

44:35

that I don't get up and read tighter

44:37

and tighter, and then I go look

44:39

at de bituaries, and if my

44:41

name is not in there, then I'll probably

44:44

go back and lay down sleep a little bit

44:46

longer. He knows what he

44:48

did was wrong, and

44:50

deep down I think he does

44:52

regret it. I want to be cremated and

44:55

and I want half my ashes put on REALM

44:57

Bryant Denny Stadium in a best

45:00

them around too mus corner, so

45:02

they don't know I've been there, or

45:06

maybe he doesn't. When

45:09

I leave this world, I

45:12

want people to say he

45:14

was a good father, he

45:16

was a good step father, and

45:19

he was a very

45:21

very good Alabama fan.

45:24

I admit I

45:26

I like them too much. We

45:44

should note that on Sunday, March three,

45:47

tornadoes ravaged parts of the southeast.

45:50

At least twenty three people were killed

45:52

in Lee County, Alabama, home

45:55

of Auburn University. Our

45:57

sympathies are with the victims and

45:59

their family and friends. I

46:05

certainly hope you enjoyed this first

46:07

season of Mobituaries. If

46:09

you haven't heard the previous seven episodes, please

46:12

go back and listen while you're there. It would

46:14

be awfully nice if you'd rate and review the

46:16

podcast. You can also follow

46:18

Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram,

46:21

and you can follow me on Twitter at

46:23

Morocca. You can subscribe to Mobituaries

46:26

wherever you get your podcasts.

46:28

For more great content and to see Harvey's

46:30

reaction to Alabama's lost to Clemson

46:32

in the two thousand eighteen Championship game,

46:35

please go to Mobituaries dot

46:37

Com at your own risk. This

46:39

episode of Mobituaries was produced

46:41

by Kate mccauliffe. Our team

46:44

of producers also includes Gideon

46:46

Evans, Megan Marcus, Megan Dietrie,

46:48

and me Morocca. It was engineered

46:51

by Bart Warshaw, indispensable

46:53

support from Genius Staneski, Show

46:56

she Cement, Zach Gilcrest and

46:58

Richard Roarer. Special

47:00

thanks to Coach Pat Die, Greg

47:02

Schmidt and Auburn's Special Collections,

47:05

Sean McManus, Benjamin Dietrich, Steve

47:07

Kerasak Preston Sparks, Mike Clardy

47:10

and everyone at CBS News Radio

47:13

OWUR. Theme music is written by Daniel

47:15

Hart and as always, undying

47:17

thanks to Rand Morrison and

47:19

John carp without whom Mobituaries

47:23

couldn't live. Hi,

47:32

It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries

47:34

the podcast, may I invite you

47:37

to check out Mobituaries the book.

47:39

It's chock full of stories not

47:42

in the podcast. Celebrities

47:44

who put their butts on the line, Sports

47:46

teams that threw in the towel for good, forgotten

47:49

fashions, Defunct diagnoses

47:51

presidential candidacies that cratered

47:54

whole countries that went to put and

47:56

dragons, yes, dragons, you

47:58

see. People used to believe the wagons will reel

48:00

until just get the book.

48:03

You can order Mobituaries the book from

48:05

any online bookseller, or stop

48:07

by your local bookstore and look for

48:09

me when I come to your city. Tour information

48:12

and lots more at mobituaries

48:14

dot com