This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing

events which may not be suitable for all audiences.

Listen to discretion is advised.

Free Willy hipped the eaters in the summer of 1993.

It was a movie about a good-hearted but troubled orphan named Jesse, who befriends a frustrated

captive orca whale named Willy. Willy was housed at an amusement park where Jesse cleaned graffiti

to satisfy core-ordered community service. Long story short, Jesse successfully returns

Willy to the ocean after uncovering plans by the amusement park's owners to kill the whale,

took a lecton a $1 million insurance policy, not a dry eye in the house.

For you, Willy was a massive box office success. Critics called it truly inspiring.

Michael Jackson wrote an original song for the soundtrack. It was a big deal at the time.

Two sequels hit the big screen before the decade was over. All three started kid named Jason

James Richter, who played Jesse. Willy, the whale, was eventually replaced with CGI,

but in the original movie, the role was portrayed by a real-life orca named Keko.

Unfortunately for Keko, the undeniable art of free Willy imitated his life.

Keko had been captured off the coast of Iceland 14 years before the movie was released.

At two years old, Keko was sold to marine land in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where he was bullied

relentlessly by the other orcas. Mercifully, Keko was sold again in 1985 to Reino Aventura,

Latin America's largest amusement park at the time, located in Mexico City.

The conditions were inadequate to say the least. Keko, a 10-foot-long orca, was housed in a 22-foot

deep pool filled with warm Mexican tap water, supplemented with bags of salt now and then.

The sun was relentless. Keko was literally cooking in his environment. He developed lesions all over his

...