Netflix: Murder Mountain

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mickey2942 said:
Netflix’s ‘Murder Mountain’: Where Marijuana Can Kill

Netflix has an entire series about Humboldt County, CA, and the drug trade, "trimimmigrants", people who work in the drug industry.

Definitely worth watching.
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As a former resident of Southern Humboldt County and well aware of the danger the marijuana industry brought to Humboldt, I will check it out.

Here is a review from the Eureka Times Standard with a plot synopsis and critique of some details.

Editor’s note: Some thoughts on ‘Murder Mountain’ – Times-Standard
 
This is the origin of the name “Murder Mountain” for that particular area of Humboldt County:

As reported by Kym Kemp, the area dubbed “Murder Mountain” is the Rancho Sequoia subdivision near the town of Alderpoint, about 45 minutes east of the 101 and Garberville. In 1968, the mountainous land was subdivided in response to a proposed dam project that was never built. Marijuana farmers snapped up lots as small as ten acres, and soon the area became notorious for law enforcement raids and rampant criminality.

In 1982, a Manson-esque pair of serial killers, James and Suzan Carson, murdered Clark Stephens, a fellow worker on a marijuana farm, dismembering him and burying him beneath a pile of chicken manure. When Suzan Carson ordered her husband to kill Stephens, she said it was because he was “a demon.” The psychopathic pair cultivated a bizarre philosophy around Moslem teachings, yoga, vegetarianism and the belief that they were responsible for exterminating “witches.”

The Carsons confessed to several other murders, including their roommate in the Haight-Ashbury, Karen Barnes, and hitchhiker John Hillyar, shot by the side of the road in Napa County, but they were suspects in as many as nine more killings. The couple was convicted in 1984 and sentenced to 50 years to life.

More at link
Humboldt County: Murder, Mayhem and Marijuana | HuffPost

At the time of this story in HuffPo, Garrett Rodriguez, whose story is told in the Netflix series was still missing.
 
I actually think that the ending was a message, that this criminal activity doesn't end. There is no neat bow here, with criminals in jail. Nope, they are still out there. And that is the very, chilling truth. Sadly.
 
mickey2942 said:
I actually think that the ending was a message, that this criminal activity doesn't end. There is no neat bow here, with criminals in jail. Nope, they are still out there. And that is the very, chilling truth. Sadly.
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Yes, this is exactly the message and the chilling truth:

“As long as there’s money to be made out here,” says the man under the mask, “and, like, an idea, being free, as long as that still exists out here, there will always be outlaws here in Humboldt County. Maybe not many of us, but we’ll still be here.”
 
I actually saw the beginnings of the “Alderpoint 8” start to emerge in the Lost Coast Outpost comments section. I think they must have been deleted for legal reasons because I can’t find them now. But I read comments at the time by these local guys saying they needed to do something to find Garret since they all knew who did it. They discussed it in some detail. Next thing I knew, the vigilantes “persuaded” the suspect to take them to where Garret was buried by shooting him several times in non-lethal places IIRC.

In this story, the sheriff wasn’t yet willing to connect this incident to Garret until after the autopsy.
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2013/dec/5/humboldt-co-sheriffs-office-unready-confirm-connec/
 
mickey2942 said:
The documentary sounded like the LEO up there was not overly aggressive in searching for missing people...yes, we binge watched it.
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Binge watching sounds like a good plan. HCSO is not overly aggressive in a lot of missing and/or murdered cases in this area. Having lived there, I do understand why. For one thing, it’s a vast mountainous county. There just aren’t enough sheriff’s deputies, especially in southern Humboldt. The growers are armed, hate LE and it’s very dangerous for a couple of deputies or detectives to visit a grow to interview people. So they don’t. When raids are conducted on illegal grows there is a LOT of money for personnel from various agencies. But not for an investigation into something like Garret’s disappearance.

I also think there is probably an LE attitude that people who take the risk of working on a grow are putting themselves in danger. It’s not that they deserve to disappear or die, but how much risk should LE take on for someone who risked their life for $$? Unfortunately, that leaves families and friends without a resolution. But it’s the harsh reality in so many cases in the Emerald Triangle.
 
I started watching last night. Its riveting, and yet, I am very annoyed that something like this doc was not made sooner. For YEARS now Ive been thinking about how INCREDIBLE a movie or documentary would be if it were based on the missing persons and the industry and the lifestyle of this area. If it were truthful, and a real expose... It would make a lot of money. Because its all too fascinating, sinister, and very few know the truth about that area. It would ALSO SAVE LIVES. Young people would either NOT go up there anymore, or if they did, they would not be totally naive about the actual dangers. It would ALSO help the families of the MISSING PEOPLE... greatly. So the question is... WHY HASNT ONE BEEN MADE TILL NOW? Answer: Its legalized. And this greatly disturbs me. Because so far, the series (only on episode 3, so I could be wrong here in my summation) seems like an ornate SALES AD for GROWS hurt by legalization. I will continue watching and hope I am wrong about the manipulative intent of those who finally ALLOWED the series/doc to be made. From what I have heard... it leaves out a number of important cases such as Wilmers, for example. WHY???
 
The Carson murders is a fascinating story, almost everyone they killed was due to a combined psychosis, they thought everyone was a witch or demon. There is video of them doing a press conference after arrest and its... bizarre. Definitely worth researching just for fun.
 
Vesuvious said:
I started watching last night. Its riveting, and yet, I am very annoyed that something like this doc was not made sooner. For YEARS now Ive been thinking about how INCREDIBLE a movie or documentary would be if it were based on the missing persons and the industry and the lifestyle of this area. If it were truthful, and a real expose... It would make a lot of money. Because its all too fascinating, sinister, and very few know the truth about that area. It would ALSO SAVE LIVES. Young people would either NOT go up there anymore, or if they did, they would not be totally naive about the actual dangers. It would ALSO help the families of the MISSING PEOPLE... greatly. So the question is... WHY HASNT ONE BEEN MADE TILL NOW? Answer: Its legalized. And this greatly disturbs me. Because so far, the series (only on episode 3, so I could be wrong here in my summation) seems like an ornate SALES AD for GROWS hurt by legalization. I will continue watching and hope I am wrong about the manipulative intent of those who finally ALLOWED the series/doc to be made. From what I have heard... it leaves out a number of important cases such as Wilmers, for example. WHY???
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I’ll be interested to watch it keeping your points in mind. I don’t think the series could have been made until marijuana was legalized in CA this year though. No one would have spoken or wanted to be seen on the film except the sheriff. I hope future seasons will cover other cases like Jennifer Jade Wilmer.

“Pot cops” followed along on LE raids back in 2013.
Pot Cops -- A Look Inside the First Episodes of the New Discovery Channel T.V. Series Filmed Here in Humboldt

There are still more illegal grows than legal. This WaPo article delves into the ramifications of legalization in Humboldt.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-reckoning-legal-weed/?utm_term=.89a18cbedc47
 
macabremom said:
The Carson murders is a fascinating story, almost everyone they killed was due to a combined psychosis, they thought everyone was a witch or demon. There is video of them doing a press conference after arrest and its... bizarre. Definitely worth researching just for fun.
Click to expand...

Its always amazed me how psychopaths have the uncanny ability to hone in on another psychopath just like them knowing both are evil to the core.

I havent watched Murder Mountain although it sounds very interesting.

I do watch the series Killer Couples on ID quite often though.

The crimes they commit as diabolical teams of psychopaths are some of the most gruesome cases imaginable.

They seek other evil people just like they are and it's always fascinated me how quickly they find them.

It shows no one knows how to recognize pure evil than other alike evil people.

It's quite scary actually and to know how many are out there at any given time.
 
My husband and I finished binge watching all 6 episodes just now at 1:30 a.m.! We couldn’t stop. Overall we thought it was very well done. It brought back a lot of memories. It’s such an incredibly beautiful place. We are very familiar with Garberville and Alderpoint. The sheriff shown driving in the first episode, was one of my husband’s elementary school students.

We lived in southern Humboldt from the late ‘60’s to early ‘80’s on a few acres doing the back to the land thing with goats, chickens, garden, etc. We were not growers and weren’t part of the culture. Until toward the end of our time there, most growing was done in other parts of our area, so it only impacted us indirectly. But we were there for CAMP and watched violent crime increase even in our quiet spot until we decided it was time to leave.

Watching Garret’s story unfold was heartbreaking. It didn’t even have to happen. All for a quick buck. I hadn’t realized that he was in as deep as he was, in partnership on a grow, with sketchy people. That increased the danger. I thought he just helped seasonally with growing.

I do think HCSO dropped the ball on finding and interviewing people, and could have more aggressively pursued the kid who killed Neil. But I also understand the legal and economic constraints they operate under. Too many people expect LE to go beyond what is allowed. Chris Cook was great.

While I’m glad Garret’s family got him back, I would not want anyone to take the law into their own hands for my child as the Alderpoint 8 did. I can’t admire an outlaw lifestyle, even if I benefit.

Those getting permits and becoming legal growers will find themselves put out of business by the big corporations that can afford all the fees. I don’t think the end of prohibition was good for any small mom and pop distilleries, and the same will be true now. Eventually, I think the black market people will be driven out too.

We still have old friends who still live there and have to cope with “the industry.” I hope someday Humboldt will return to the “good old days” that we briefly knew.
 
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Murder Mountain was very well done. The fact that they interviewed a number of insiders made for an insightful portrayl. I appreciate the candid nature of the interviewees. They shared the sad story of their area, it was not sensationalized to make a new generation want to go move there. It was real and it was raw. Maybe that is why a lot of us binge watched it. The history there is heavy. Yet it is only the tip of the iceberg.

IMO a true crime series should be developed that focuses in on the many unsolved missing persons across the county. I understand LE not wanting to stick their nose into the goings on in various rural locations but lots of people disappeared from Eureka and that is not rural at all. There is a need for television programs to help with the places in the US where there are not enough police resources but the murder rate and kidnapping rates are high. Lots of us tune in for these types of programs and you never know when the right person will help solve a crime and give a family some answers.
 
I binge watched all the episodes. My first reaction was what a beautiful area! Mountains, forests, streams... And then they showed the devastation brought on by humans.

I have no sympathy for vigilante justice but I can understand the frustration felt by the locals when they knew who committed a murder and the LE did not do anything. At the other hand - if I understood it correctly - the LE is vastly understaffed considered the problems the area faced/is facing.
 
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BillieL said:
I binge watched all the episodes. My first reaction was what a beautiful area! Mountains, forests, streams... And then they showed the devastation brought on by humans.

I have no sympathy for vigilante justice but I can understand the frustration felt by the locals when they knew who committed a murder and the LE did not do anything. At the other hand - if I understood it correctly - the LE is vastly understaffed considered the problems the area faced/is facing.
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Yes, it is beautiful...except for the trashy grows destroying the environment for $$$.

Although LE is vastly understaffed, as you pointed out, an even bigger “problem” is that our justice system does not require anyone to speak to LE, and LE requires a search warrant to go on private property. There has to be probable cause (facts, not suspicions and gossip) to get a search warrant, as we all know. So there was no way for LE to get to the bottom of Garret’s disappearance. No one involved was talking to LE, and second-hand gossip goes nowhere. Even if they had probable cause to get a search warrant for the Jewett Ranch, or were allowed to search by the Jewetts (a longtime local family), where do they start?

So when the locals (and even Chris Cook PI and former LE) being interviewed complain that the cops don’t do anything, they seem to forget what is required for the police to act. Does LE drop the ball sometimes? Of course. But as the sheriff pointed out in the first episode, they have to prioritize the cases that get attention. They can’t work miracles. And they are dealing with the Wild West and people who have no respect for LE and love being outlaws.
 
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