Hi, Park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Dillia Diambra. And the case I'm going to share with you today

is one of those true stories that has, in a strange way, turn the villain into somewhat of a legend,

but for all the wrong reasons. I think it's important to be clear from the outset of this

episode that the man at the center of this double murder was, without a

doubt, a dangerous individual. But for some reason, I saw several retellings of this case that

indirectly and sometimes directly portrayed the killer as almost a folklore-like hero, which just

doesn't feel quite right to me. The murders that he carried out happened in

O'IHE County, Idaho, which is located in the southwest corner of the state. The city of Boise

isn't too far away, and neither is the Twin Falls area. A key landmark in this region is the

Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area.

According to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management website,

this landscape has the greatest concentration of nesting birds of prey in all of North America.

The Snake River runs through a deep canyon there and steep cliffs with lots of ridges and

overhangs that

overlook the water, create the perfect home for birds like eagles, falcons, hawks, and owls to

make nests and raise their young. It's a protected area, one of many in the state of Idaho,

that hunters and poachers are supposed to respect. And the people responsible for enforcing the laws around

wildlife are the state's game wardens, also known as conservation officers. Back in the winter of

1981, a trapper with a bad reputation broke the rules. And the events that followed played out

like something from an American Western movie plot.

Except, it's not fiction.

Every bit of what I'm about to tell you actually happened.

...