Transcript
Mr. Ballin (0:00)
Hey, prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature three stories about places people were never meant to venture to. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called the Whale, and it's about a place you'd truly never want to go. The second story you'll hear is called Horsehead, and it's about an adrenaline junkie who gets swallowed up. And the third and final story you'll hear is called the Fixer Upper, and it's about a horrifying discovery a man makes after checking on his house that's for sale. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast.
Co-host (0:54)
Because that's all we do.
Mr. Ballin (0:55)
And we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, the next time you take the Amazon Music Follow button camping with you, offer to set up their tent and then immediately pitch it directly on a fire. Okay, let's get into our first story called the whale.
Co-host (1:39)
At 12:20am on Aug. 17, 2020, a police sergeant named Kevin Bingham was sitting inside of his cruiser in a parking lot in Scottsdale, Arizona, with the windows rolled down when he heard a strange sound. He couldn't place exactly what it was. At first, it sort of sounded like a woman screaming, but then it kind of morphed into more of like a screech like a cat would make in a fight. But at the same time, this sound was sort of echoey, almost like it was in a cave or something. But Sergeant Bingham is looking around him, and, you know, there's a school and a baseball field. There's houses and apartment buildings. I mean, he's in a typical American neighborhood. There's no caves anywhere near him. But regardless of where specifically this noise was originating from, what was clear to Sergeant Bingham is that whoever or whatever was making this noise sounded like they needed help. And so he decided he would go investigate. So Sergeant Bingham left the parking lot, turned right onto the road, and began driving roughly in the direction of the sound. But again, remember, the sound is kind of echoey. It's very hard to place where it's coming from. But as he continued driving down this road, Sergeant Bingham realized the noise was getting louder. And so he must be getting closer. And so just ahead of Sergeant Bingham, at the end of this road is this huge health club. There's a big fitness center. And then behind it, kind of attached to it, was an outdoor pool area. And then surrounding the pool area was a 12 foot tall brick fence. And so Sergeant Bingham thought, you know, based on the proximity to this noise, you know, maybe the sound, the screeching sound is coming from somewhere in this health club. And so Sergeant Bingham drives up to the health club, parks his cruiser, he gets out, turns on his flashlight, and. And right away he hears more screeching. And immediately Sergeant Bingham can tell it's coming from inside of the enclosed pool area behind that 12 foot tall wall. And so Sergeant Bingham can't see into the pool area, but again, he can tell, you know, whatever it is, it's in there. And also at the same time, he's kind of pinpointing the sound. He can tell that this noise, this screeching sound, really doesn't sound like an animal. It sounds like a person. And so Sergeant Bingham runs up to the brick wall and he listens really intently to see if maybe in addition to the screeching sound, if he can hear, you know, splashing sounds or some other activity inside of the pool area that would kind of give away what's actually happening. You know, maybe somebody snuck in after hours and now they're struggling to swim in one of these pools. But as he strained to listen, all he heard over and over again was the screeching sound, but nothing else. There's no splashing, there's no other activity. It's just the screeching sound. And so as Sergeant Bingham was wondering how he was gonna get into this pool area to see what was going on, he looked over and he saw there were two gym cleaners coming out of the fitness center. And so Sergeant Bingham ran over to them and he asked them, like, hey, are you the only two that are working in this health club right now, or is there somebody out in the pool area? And the cleaners looked at Sergeant Bingham and just shook their head and said, no, we are the only ones working right now. And we've been listening to that screeching sound too. We don't know what it is. And then shortly after they said this to Sergeant Bingham, suddenly the noises, the screeching sounds changed. And it went from just being these guttural, high pitched screeches to somebody yelling out a single Help. And so the second, Sergeant Bingham, heard this. He grabbed his radio and called for. About two minutes later, another officer showed up. And right away, the cleaners opened up the doors to the fitness center, and Bingham and the other officer ran inside. They cut through the huge gym to the very back where there were doors that led out to the pool area. And this pool area is huge. It's actually the biggest part of this health club. And so they open up the doors, they go outside, and both officers are expecting to see this person that's calling out for help. But instead, once they get outside, it's eerily silent, and there's absolutely no activity anywhere. Right in front of them are these two pools. There's this huge lap pool. No one's in it. The water is calm. And then next to it is another pool, a smaller pool that has a water playground right in the middle of it, but that one as well is devoid of people and totally calm. And so the officers are looking at each other like, where is this person that clearly was calling for help a second ago? But just then, the cries for help began again. And this time, they were able to kind of pinpoint where it was coming from. It was coming from a third pool. Kind of in the back of the pool area. Beyond these two pools and beyond some cabanas, there was this third shallow pool with two water slides going into it. And from the sound of these screeches, it sounded very much like this person must be in or near these slides. And so at this point, Sergeant Bingham became a little bit skeptical that whoever this was really needed helping. He felt like it was more likely that, you know, somebody had just snuck in after hours who maybe was high on drugs or mentally ill, and now they're just kind of causing a scene inside one of the slides. Or maybe it's somebody who snuck in just to play a prank to screw with the cops and act like they were in trouble when they really weren't. And so Sergeant Bingham looks at the other officer, and they kind of are like, okay, let's go see what's going on here. And they make their way over to the slides, and when they get there, you know, there's two slides. There's one slide which is blue, and it's an open top, so if you were sliding down it, you'd be visible the entire time you're on the slide. And there's nobody on this slide. So whoever is making these sounds, they're not on or in the blue slide. But the other slide, the red slide, was a Tube, slide. And so if you were going down the slide, you'd be hidden inside the tube. And so both officers are thinking, okay, the person who's yelling out for help has got to be inside of this red slide. And so the two officers went to the base of the red slide, and. And they looked up inside of it, but they couldn't see anyone. But it was a big enough slide that it was possible they were just beyond their line of sight. And so Sergeant Bingham just yelled in, like, hey, are you okay? And the person did respond to this, but they didn't respond with words. They just responded with more screeching. And so Sergeant Bingham tells the other officer, you know, hey, stay right here at the foot of the slide. I'm gonna go up and go down the slide. We'll meet in the middle. We'll find this person, and we'll get them out of here. And so the other officer stays put, and Sergeant Bingham goes to the stairs. He makes his way up to the top of the platform that led to both slides. He went to the top of the red slide, and he looked down into it, but he couldn't see anybody. But again, the slide was long enough. You know, it's possible that from both sides, looking up and looking down, your line of sight would not allow you to see the person right in the middle. And so Sergeant Bingham yelled into the slide, like, hey, I'm coming down, and my partner's coming up. We're gonna find you here. Like, if you're in there, go down, get out of the slide. But again, the response they got was not words. It was just more guttural screaming and moaning. And so, feeling kind of annoyed, Sergeant Bingham gets his flashlight and aims it straight ahead of him, and he begins slowly making his way down the slide. And at the same time, his partner at the bottom began making his way up the slide. So as they're doing it, both officers are yelling like, hey, if you're in here, we're coming in. Like, let's go. You gotta get out of here. But again, all they're hearing is more screaming. And as the officers get closer and closer to the middle, they're expecting to see someone. But then suddenly, both officers come face to face right in the middle of this red slide, and there's nobody there. It's just them. And so at this point, both officers are totally freaked out. This did not make sense. They've been listening to this person screaming out for the last few minutes, and. And it sounded so much like they were in this slide. Like, how could they not be? And so Sergeant Bingham and the other officer get out of the slide and they start screaming out for this person like, hey, tell us where you are. But in response, they just continued to get more and more desperate sounding screeches. And it sounded like the screeches really were in this red slide, or at least somewhere really close by. But there's no one anywhere near them. There's nowhere for this person to be. It didn't make any sense. And so, having no other ideas, Sergeant Bingham went over to the blue slide, the open top slide that very clearly nobody is on. But he hopped on it and thought, let me just check. And he began going up the slide. Now, this slide was not a straight slide. It actually went around in the middle like a corkscrew. And so as Sergeant Bingham began walking up the slide, the slide began to turn. And so he began walking along this corkscrew section of the slide on the way to the top. And about halfway up the corkscrew section, when he's basically halfway up the slide, Sergeant Bingham just stopped and just kind of scanned around because now he's at a higher position, you know, a better vantage point across this outdoor area, and he's looking all around him, despite still hearing these screams coming out of what feels like right where he is. He doesn't see anybody. But then right as he's about to continue going up the slide, something catches his eye just below him and he stops and he kind of leans over the edge of this blue slide and looks straight down. And he could not believe what he saw. It would turn out earlier that night. So right before 12:20am, which is when Sergeant Bingham first heard that screeching sound, a 32 year old man named Ryan Kelly, who was naked and high on meth, snuck into the pool area. He climbed over that wall, jumped inside, and eventually he found his way over to the stairs that led up to the platform that allowed you to go down the red and blue slides. And once he got up there, instead of, you know, sliding down the slide, he began walking down that blue slide, the open top slide that has a corkscrew section in the middle. He began walking down it, and when he got about halfway down it, around the part where it began to corkscrew, he stopped and at some point must have looked around him and noticed there was a support beam basically running from the ground straight up. Basically as high as the blue slide was, where there were all these arms branching off of it that supported the corkscrew section of the slide. It was just holding the corkscrew up. And from where Ryan was standing, he would have had the ability to see the top of this beam, and he would have seen that the top of this beam was open. It was a round beam with about an 18 inch diameter across. And to any sane person, it would be very apparent that you're not supposed to go inside of this support beam. But Ryan, being high on meth, decided he would go inside of the support beam. He climbed up to the top of it and then wedged his feet into this narrow opening. And Ryan's a pretty skinny guy. He's naked, he's slick with sweat. And he began lowering himself into this pipe, this hollow pipe that goes all the way to the ground. And after he got his feet in there and his legs in there, you know, he's forcing himself down. He finally got most of his torso in. And then he would have realized his hands would not be able to fit unless he put them over his head. And so he put his arms over his head and just continued to wiggle himself down into this pipe. And at some point, probably around the time that his shoulders cleared the pipe, he kind of slipped pretty quickly, about halfway down the pipe, not to the ground, basically suspended right in the middle of this tiny, tight pipe. Now, we don't know for sure if Ryan intended to get out of this pipe at some point, but. But once he was about halfway down the pipe with his arms up over his head, there was absolutely no way he could get himself out again. There was just nowhere to pull or anything. He's completely wedged, barely able to breathe. And on top of that, he's in Arizona. It's one of the hottest places in the world. And on top of that, they were experiencing a heat wave. And his body, his naked body is pressed all against the inside of this metal pipe that conducts heat. And so he's basically in this really tight space, cooking alive, and there's no way to get out. And so at some point, as Ryan is likely realizing that he is completely screwed here and he's beginning to literally cook to death, he began trying to scream out for help, but he was likely in so much pain and also, again, under the influence of meth, that he couldn't quite yell out words. He just let out those horrible screeching sounds, and those were the noises that sergeant Bingham heard. But then when Sergeant Bingham and his partner got into the pool area, they were able to identify roughly where Ryan was stuck. But Ryan, again, couldn't make words. He's so messed up, he's in so much pain that he just continued to scream. And because he was in that pipe, it kind of created this weird echoey phenomenon where when he would scream out, his voice would come out of the pipe and almost kind of get thrown around the park. That's why Sergeant Bingham and the other officer couldn't quite figure out where he was. And at one point, it sounded like he was in that red slide when obviously he wasn't. And so finally, at some point, Sergeant Bingham walked up the blue slide. He's halfway up, he's hearing Ryan screaming. And he turns and he looks down, and from his perspective where he was standing, he was looking down into that pipe and looking up at him. Inside of this pipe is Ryan, arms up over his head, wide eyed, screeching, trying to be saved. But unfortunately for Ryan, his rescue was a very technically difficult thing to pull off. He was too far down the pipe for anyone to reach him to pull him up. And when they threw a rope down to him inside of the pipe, Ryan was too weak to grab onto the rope. And so for hours and hours, rescue crews tried to get Ryan out. The whole time, Ryan is panicking and screaming and cooking to death. Basically, you know, they couldn't get him out. And so finally, at the seven hour mark after he was found, they had to bring in a crane and they had to fully dismantle the slide and pull that pipe out of the ground. But unfortunately, by that point, it was too late for Ryan. He had passed away. An autopsy would show that ultimately what killed Ryan was the combination of the meth in his bloodstream and the extreme heat he was exposed to inside of that pipe.