Urban Legends (2007) s03e03 Episode Script
Stranger Than Fiction
The world is full of urban legends.
Remarkable stories that spread like viruses around the planet.
Mutating and evolving until no one can remember which ones are true, and which ones are urban legends.
[.]
In this episode called Stranger Than Fiction, you'll see three stories that will make you wonder which is stranger: fact or fiction.
[.]
First up, the story of a Peruvian woman who experiences a grizzly night of horror.
[.]
Then, a Florida fisherman reels in a whopper of a tale no one can believe.
[.]
NARRATOR: And finally, an All-American football team seriously fumbles rookie night.
RICKY: I don't want to do this.
Ahhh! NARRATOR: Watch all three stories and decide which urban legends are true and which ones are false.
Find out if you guessed right at the end of the show.
[.]
First, it's a story we like to call Skin Deep.
[.]
As a young woman living in a small South American village where everyone knows each other, Susana Juarez never imagined anything bad would ever happen to her.
Until it did.
[.]
NARRATOR: In the small village of Huanaco, Peru, strangers are few and far between.
But in the fall of 2008, everyone notices that there's outsiders hanging around the town.
NARRATOR: When they do come to town, the Brazilians like to throw money around buying drinks and winning over the locals.
One night, Susana's friends decide to cash in on the free drinks, but Susana's reluctant.
SUSANA: No, no quiero.
NARRATOR: Susana gives in.
She's soon having a good time hanging out with her friends and the Brazilians.
NARRATOR: As the night wears on, Susana and her friends agree to go back to the Brazilians' camp in the jungle for more drinks.
NARRATOR: Susana and her friends have been drugged.
Two hours later, she wakes up to a nightmare.
NARRATOR: Susana is forced to watch what the men have in store for Tito, something even more disturbing than murder.
NARRATOR: Is there a purpose to this bizarre ritual? Susana realizes that she's likely to die as brutally as her friend.
[.]
NARRATOR: But remarkable luck gives Susana a chance.
The men leave the room.
NARRATOR: But can she act fast enough? She has no idea where the men have gone or when they'll return.
NARRATOR: Susana is faced with a terrible dilemma: Save herself or die trying to help Tito.
She chooses life.
[.]
NARRATOR: At the police station, no one believes her crazy story.
NARRATOR: Still doubting Susana, Sergeant Alvarez contacts his boss and relays what she's told him.
The reaction is stunning.
NARRATOR: It's a shocking revelation.
The Brazilians have been killing locals and harvesting their body fat for use in beauty products.
Highly sought after because of their anti-aging qualities, these illegal cosmetics can fetch thousands on the international black market.
Sadly, it's too late to save Tito, and his murderers have disappeared.
NARRATOR: Against the odds, Susana Juarez escaped alive but with terrible memories that will haunt her forever.
NARRATOR: Beauty comes at a high price, none higher than the lives of Susana's friends.
But did this story actually happen? Or is it a big fat lie? We'll let you know at the end of the show.
But before then, take a look at this mini myth.
[.]
Mini myth number 965: The cow jumped over the moon.
On finding her roof seriously damaged, Meryl Jones of Somerset, England first thought her house had been robbed.
But there's no sign of burglars and no explanation, until a neighbour came forward with a bizarre story.
He was looking out the window and saw a cow leap two meters up in the air and land on the roof.
Holy cow! Did this really happen? Find out after the break.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to Urban Legends.
Before the break, we showed you a mini myth about a British woman whose roof was damaged by a leaping cow.
So did this happen or will we claim next that pigs can fly? It was totally true.
It's a little known fact cows can jump two meters or higher.
Why they would still remains a mystery.
[.]
On Urban Legends, we show you three stories.
You have to decide which ones really happened and which ones are merely legends.
So far, you've seen the story of Susana Juarez and her narrow escape from becoming an illegal beauty product.
But is it true or false? Find out at the end of the show.
Now it's time for our next story.
It's called A fish Tale.
[.]
When Eric Bartos gets too caught up in life, he knows there's one sure release.
ERIC BARTOS: I like to think that my worship is while I'm out fishing.
I think that's where I find the most peace.
[.]
NARRATOR: But in January 2005, that peace was shattered when Eric reeled in a mysterious creature from the deep.
JAMIE ARTZT: I couldn't believe my eyes.
If I wasn't there on board I, I still, it still gives me chills.
JAMIE: Unbelievable.
[.]
NARRATOR: This story begins off the coast of Florida.
It was 2002, the worst year of Eric Bartos's life.
EX-WIFE: Remember Eric, you are the father.
Start acting like one.
ERIC BARTOS: I've got a divorce pending.
I was probably a wreck at the time.
NARRATOR: Fishing was Eric's only escape and there was nothing he liked more than fighting with a sailfish, the fastest fish in the sea.
But today, Eric plans to do something with this catch no angler has ever done before.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: Eric said, you know, I'm pretty much divorced.
I don't want this ring anymore.
ERIC: Hold it up guys.
I got a great idea.
Here we go.
Look at this.
ERIC BARTOS: It, it dawned on me it would fit nicely on a tapered bill of a sailfish so why not release it on a sailfish and, you know, move on with my life.
JAMIE: Say cheese.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: You know, this is where his love is.
It was more on the water than I guess with his wife at the time.
NARRATOR: But Eric's impulsive act will bring new meaning to the saying 'what goes around comes around.
' Two years later and Eric is officially divorced.
The strange ceremony with his wedding ring seems to have cursed him.
ERIC BARTOS: Dealing with my ex-wife wasn't the most pleasant experience.
It was a very bitter divorce and my kids, they see that their parents aren't getting along and it's gonna have some negative impact on them.
[.]
NARRATOR: At least there's still fishing.
[.]
But today's trip is turning into a disaster.
With nothing biting, they resort to superstition.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: And he did his little Costa Rican tradition.
Eric actually kissed the fish.
NARRATOR: It will be a kiss he never forgets.
ERIC BARTOS: I remember a black shadow coming up.
ERIC: Come on boys.
We got one here.
NARRATOR: It grabs the lucky bait but it's putting up one heck of a fight.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: As I starts coming up I started to see a sailfish, seemed like a normal sailfish until the bill was shining gold and I said holy, it's the bleeping ring fish.
I couldn't believe it.
ERIC: It's the ring fish! ERIC BARTOS: I was going to laugh.
I didn't even know what to say or do.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: We all looked at each other like is that really your ring? NARRATOR: It seems impossible.
The same fish and the same fishermen ending up in the same spot.
ERIC BARTOS: If we had been out there a day later or a day earlier the fish could have been twenty miles north or twenty miles south of us.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: Wow.
You know, the odds of this is just crazy, you know? I need to buy a lottery ticket.
NARRATOR: But with the fish onboard, the boys face a bigger problem.
ERIC: We gotta throw her back guys.
BLAKE: What are you, nuts? BLAKE LIEBESKIND: I said kill the fish.
I said no one's gonna believe the story.
Kill the fish.
ERIC: No.
NARRATOR: Eric refuses.
ERIC BARTOS: I just feel that that fish deserved to be back in the ocean and swimming around.
NARRATOR: But Eric does want his ring back.
ERIC BARTOS: I actually put it on my hand just so I wouldn't lose it and I just was perplexed about the whole situation.
NARRATOR: Back on land, the recapture of the ring fish is about to have serious consequences.
[.]
Eric's wife reads about the story in a local paper.
ERIC BARTOS: She was not aware that I'd put my ring on a sailfish and let it go.
It was just shared with a few close friends.
NARRATOR: And then something remarkable happens.
ERIC BARTOS: My wife phoned me after she heard about the story.
EX-WIFE: Is it true? NARRATOR: Eric is about to get a big surprise.
His ex-wife isn't angry with him.
ERIC BARTOS: Hearing her tell me that hey I think this is a sign and it's a sign for peace, I was very relieved and I felt that my relationship with her and my kids would benefit and my life would be better.
NARRATOR: But how could this happen? A man puts his wedding ring on a fish.
Then the same fish brings the ring back two years later, just in time to heal the scars of a bitter divorce.
Did it really happen? You'll have to wait till the end of the show to find out.
But for now, take a look at this mini myth.
[.]
Mini myth number 213: Smells Like Death.
One night over drinks, a friend told Gary Preston that heart attack survivors report smelling burnt toast just before collapse.
Gary returned home drunk and was greeted by - you guessed it - the smell of burnt toast, despite the fact that he didn't own a toaster.
In panic, Gary grabbed his chest and collapsed to the floor, only to discover his wife had bought a new toaster oven and was cooking up a sandwich.
But it was too late.
The fright had provoked a genuine heart attack.
So is it true or have we cooked up a lie? We'll let you know after the break.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to Urban Legends.
Before the break, we showed you the mini myth about a man who was tricked into a heart attack by a toaster.
Was it true or false? It was false.
There are many urban myths along these lines but there's no scientific evidence connecting burnt toast and bad hearts.
[.]
On Urban Legends, we show you three incredible stories.
Your mission is to sort out the totally true from the fantastically false.
So far, you've seen the tale of Susana Juarez forced to watch as her friends were harvested for their body fat.
And the story of Eric Bartos.
His incredible fishing fortuity brought him back his wedding ring.
But which ones are real and which ones are fake? All will be revealed at the end of the show.
[.]
In the meantime, watch our final story.
We've named it Crazy Hazing.
[.]
Gray Richards lives and breathes football.
For the last fourteen years, he's devoted himself to coaching high school football in Falls City, Oregon.
GRAY RICHARDS: The day comes when you cannot play anymore and you want to be involved as much as you can and uh for me coaching is the way to do it.
NARRATOR: But no amount of success on the field can erase his memory of a tragedy that happened twenty-one years ago.
In 1989, Richards was entering his senior year of college.
From the start of the season at training camp, Richards is at the top of his game.
He's not going to let anything bring him down, least of all a lowly freshman.
But hotshot Ricky Whittle is no average rookie, and he knows it.
Right from the beginning, he refuses to accept his position as low man on the totem pole.
GRAY RICHARDS: Sometimes the seniors might look at a player like this and think well maybe he thinks he's too good.
RICKY: That's how the rookies do it, baby.
NARRATOR: The seniors will soon have an opportunity to put Ricky in his place at the dreaded rookie night.
RICKY: Y'all can't take a joke? SENIOR: Rookie night's coming up.
anyway.
[.]
NARRATOR: Rookie night is the culmination of training camp, where the seniors take the rookies out for an initiation to the team.
GRAY RICHARDS: And we all went into the rooms of the rookie players and we uh blindfolded them and, for lack of a better word, kidnapped them.
NARRATOR: Hazing is a tradition for many sports teams, meant to build camaraderie and trust among players.
But while the others go along for the ride, Ricky is being a poor sport.
GRAY RICHARDS: Sometimes that will get you, you know, a rookie player into difficulty so the seniors might point him out.
NARRATOR: Trust building stunts are the heart of hazing and meant to be harmless fun.
GRAY RICHARDS: We had the uh players sit on a ladder, a length of toilet paper clenched between their butt cheeks and we'd light the toilet paper on fire.
NARRATOR: But once again, Ricky is standoffish.
His attitude problem will cost him during a stunt that no one will soon forget.
GRAY RICHARDS: We walked the players up to a flat roof.
SENIOR: You're not afraid of heights, are you? GRAY RICHARDS: Which was probably two hundred feet high.
NARRATOR: The players stand on the roof blind to what's in store.
ROOKIE: No I can't see.
RICKY: I don't want to do this man! NARRATOR: One false move and the rookies could plummet sixty meters.
GRAY RICHARDS: We asked them to stand on their toes for thirty seconds and hope that they didn't fall off the roof.
Ricky was very reluctant.
NARRATOR: The seniors have a plan.
They'll show Ricky who's boss.
GRAY RICHARDS: If you looked at the box, you know, it's, they're not in any danger at all and, you know, we all thought oh we're really gonna get him now.
SENIOR: Come on now, tippy toes.
Ahhhh! Good job.
NARRATOR: But Ricky doesn't get up.
It looks like he's pulling a prank of his own.
GRAY RICHARDS: We waited a few seconds to see if he was actually playing a joke on us and we were laughing and pointing at him and thinking this was, you know, fantastic.
NARRATOR: But is it really a joke? Or has an age old bonding tradition gone terribly wrong? SENIOR: Get him up.
GRAY RICHARDS: We nudged his shoulder a little bit and he wasn't moving.
Somebody tried to perform some CPR on him.
That wasn't working.
It wasn't till the paramedics came when we knew for sure that he was dead.
He had a weak heart, which couldn't handle that, that sort of surprise if you will.
We thought he was playing a joke on us by not getting up uh but he didn't.
NARRATOR: A night meant to bond an All-American football team ends in tragedy during a supposedly harmless prank.
So did you fall for Ricky Whittle's terrible end at the hands of the hazers? Or did we betray your trust with a tall tale? Find out the truth about all three stories after the break.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to Urban Legends.
It's time to reveal the truth about our three incredible stories.
First up, it's the story of Susana Juarez who barely escaped becoming an ingredient in a high priced beauty product.
But is it fact or fiction? [.]
SUSANA: It's a big fat lie.
NARRATOR: This popular Peruvian folktale stems all the way back to a distrust of foreigners from the time of the Conquistadors.
Next, it's the tale of Eric Bartos and the sailfish who returned his wedding ring.
But did it happen? ERIC BARTOS: My name is Eric Bartos and this is a real fish tale.
NARRATOR: No one believed the fishermen but Eric showed them by passing a polygraph test in 2005.
ERIC: Yes.
NARRATOR: Which leaves the story of Gray Richards and a night meant to be a harmless bonding ritual between teammates, which ended in a foul.
But is it true? I'm not Gray Richards, and this story didn't happen.
NARRATOR: This story is completely fake.
It's just one of many urban legends involving the theme of college pranks gone wrong.
That's the end of our episode called Stranger Than Fiction.
Were you able to split the tellingly true from the fictitiously false? Don't worry if you couldn't.
You'll get another chance to separate fact from fiction in the next installment of Urban Legends.
Remarkable stories that spread like viruses around the planet.
Mutating and evolving until no one can remember which ones are true, and which ones are urban legends.
[.]
In this episode called Stranger Than Fiction, you'll see three stories that will make you wonder which is stranger: fact or fiction.
[.]
First up, the story of a Peruvian woman who experiences a grizzly night of horror.
[.]
Then, a Florida fisherman reels in a whopper of a tale no one can believe.
[.]
NARRATOR: And finally, an All-American football team seriously fumbles rookie night.
RICKY: I don't want to do this.
Ahhh! NARRATOR: Watch all three stories and decide which urban legends are true and which ones are false.
Find out if you guessed right at the end of the show.
[.]
First, it's a story we like to call Skin Deep.
[.]
As a young woman living in a small South American village where everyone knows each other, Susana Juarez never imagined anything bad would ever happen to her.
Until it did.
[.]
NARRATOR: In the small village of Huanaco, Peru, strangers are few and far between.
But in the fall of 2008, everyone notices that there's outsiders hanging around the town.
NARRATOR: When they do come to town, the Brazilians like to throw money around buying drinks and winning over the locals.
One night, Susana's friends decide to cash in on the free drinks, but Susana's reluctant.
SUSANA: No, no quiero.
NARRATOR: Susana gives in.
She's soon having a good time hanging out with her friends and the Brazilians.
NARRATOR: As the night wears on, Susana and her friends agree to go back to the Brazilians' camp in the jungle for more drinks.
NARRATOR: Susana and her friends have been drugged.
Two hours later, she wakes up to a nightmare.
NARRATOR: Susana is forced to watch what the men have in store for Tito, something even more disturbing than murder.
NARRATOR: Is there a purpose to this bizarre ritual? Susana realizes that she's likely to die as brutally as her friend.
[.]
NARRATOR: But remarkable luck gives Susana a chance.
The men leave the room.
NARRATOR: But can she act fast enough? She has no idea where the men have gone or when they'll return.
NARRATOR: Susana is faced with a terrible dilemma: Save herself or die trying to help Tito.
She chooses life.
[.]
NARRATOR: At the police station, no one believes her crazy story.
NARRATOR: Still doubting Susana, Sergeant Alvarez contacts his boss and relays what she's told him.
The reaction is stunning.
NARRATOR: It's a shocking revelation.
The Brazilians have been killing locals and harvesting their body fat for use in beauty products.
Highly sought after because of their anti-aging qualities, these illegal cosmetics can fetch thousands on the international black market.
Sadly, it's too late to save Tito, and his murderers have disappeared.
NARRATOR: Against the odds, Susana Juarez escaped alive but with terrible memories that will haunt her forever.
NARRATOR: Beauty comes at a high price, none higher than the lives of Susana's friends.
But did this story actually happen? Or is it a big fat lie? We'll let you know at the end of the show.
But before then, take a look at this mini myth.
[.]
Mini myth number 965: The cow jumped over the moon.
On finding her roof seriously damaged, Meryl Jones of Somerset, England first thought her house had been robbed.
But there's no sign of burglars and no explanation, until a neighbour came forward with a bizarre story.
He was looking out the window and saw a cow leap two meters up in the air and land on the roof.
Holy cow! Did this really happen? Find out after the break.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to Urban Legends.
Before the break, we showed you a mini myth about a British woman whose roof was damaged by a leaping cow.
So did this happen or will we claim next that pigs can fly? It was totally true.
It's a little known fact cows can jump two meters or higher.
Why they would still remains a mystery.
[.]
On Urban Legends, we show you three stories.
You have to decide which ones really happened and which ones are merely legends.
So far, you've seen the story of Susana Juarez and her narrow escape from becoming an illegal beauty product.
But is it true or false? Find out at the end of the show.
Now it's time for our next story.
It's called A fish Tale.
[.]
When Eric Bartos gets too caught up in life, he knows there's one sure release.
ERIC BARTOS: I like to think that my worship is while I'm out fishing.
I think that's where I find the most peace.
[.]
NARRATOR: But in January 2005, that peace was shattered when Eric reeled in a mysterious creature from the deep.
JAMIE ARTZT: I couldn't believe my eyes.
If I wasn't there on board I, I still, it still gives me chills.
JAMIE: Unbelievable.
[.]
NARRATOR: This story begins off the coast of Florida.
It was 2002, the worst year of Eric Bartos's life.
EX-WIFE: Remember Eric, you are the father.
Start acting like one.
ERIC BARTOS: I've got a divorce pending.
I was probably a wreck at the time.
NARRATOR: Fishing was Eric's only escape and there was nothing he liked more than fighting with a sailfish, the fastest fish in the sea.
But today, Eric plans to do something with this catch no angler has ever done before.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: Eric said, you know, I'm pretty much divorced.
I don't want this ring anymore.
ERIC: Hold it up guys.
I got a great idea.
Here we go.
Look at this.
ERIC BARTOS: It, it dawned on me it would fit nicely on a tapered bill of a sailfish so why not release it on a sailfish and, you know, move on with my life.
JAMIE: Say cheese.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: You know, this is where his love is.
It was more on the water than I guess with his wife at the time.
NARRATOR: But Eric's impulsive act will bring new meaning to the saying 'what goes around comes around.
' Two years later and Eric is officially divorced.
The strange ceremony with his wedding ring seems to have cursed him.
ERIC BARTOS: Dealing with my ex-wife wasn't the most pleasant experience.
It was a very bitter divorce and my kids, they see that their parents aren't getting along and it's gonna have some negative impact on them.
[.]
NARRATOR: At least there's still fishing.
[.]
But today's trip is turning into a disaster.
With nothing biting, they resort to superstition.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: And he did his little Costa Rican tradition.
Eric actually kissed the fish.
NARRATOR: It will be a kiss he never forgets.
ERIC BARTOS: I remember a black shadow coming up.
ERIC: Come on boys.
We got one here.
NARRATOR: It grabs the lucky bait but it's putting up one heck of a fight.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: As I starts coming up I started to see a sailfish, seemed like a normal sailfish until the bill was shining gold and I said holy, it's the bleeping ring fish.
I couldn't believe it.
ERIC: It's the ring fish! ERIC BARTOS: I was going to laugh.
I didn't even know what to say or do.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: We all looked at each other like is that really your ring? NARRATOR: It seems impossible.
The same fish and the same fishermen ending up in the same spot.
ERIC BARTOS: If we had been out there a day later or a day earlier the fish could have been twenty miles north or twenty miles south of us.
BLAKE LIEBESKIND: Wow.
You know, the odds of this is just crazy, you know? I need to buy a lottery ticket.
NARRATOR: But with the fish onboard, the boys face a bigger problem.
ERIC: We gotta throw her back guys.
BLAKE: What are you, nuts? BLAKE LIEBESKIND: I said kill the fish.
I said no one's gonna believe the story.
Kill the fish.
ERIC: No.
NARRATOR: Eric refuses.
ERIC BARTOS: I just feel that that fish deserved to be back in the ocean and swimming around.
NARRATOR: But Eric does want his ring back.
ERIC BARTOS: I actually put it on my hand just so I wouldn't lose it and I just was perplexed about the whole situation.
NARRATOR: Back on land, the recapture of the ring fish is about to have serious consequences.
[.]
Eric's wife reads about the story in a local paper.
ERIC BARTOS: She was not aware that I'd put my ring on a sailfish and let it go.
It was just shared with a few close friends.
NARRATOR: And then something remarkable happens.
ERIC BARTOS: My wife phoned me after she heard about the story.
EX-WIFE: Is it true? NARRATOR: Eric is about to get a big surprise.
His ex-wife isn't angry with him.
ERIC BARTOS: Hearing her tell me that hey I think this is a sign and it's a sign for peace, I was very relieved and I felt that my relationship with her and my kids would benefit and my life would be better.
NARRATOR: But how could this happen? A man puts his wedding ring on a fish.
Then the same fish brings the ring back two years later, just in time to heal the scars of a bitter divorce.
Did it really happen? You'll have to wait till the end of the show to find out.
But for now, take a look at this mini myth.
[.]
Mini myth number 213: Smells Like Death.
One night over drinks, a friend told Gary Preston that heart attack survivors report smelling burnt toast just before collapse.
Gary returned home drunk and was greeted by - you guessed it - the smell of burnt toast, despite the fact that he didn't own a toaster.
In panic, Gary grabbed his chest and collapsed to the floor, only to discover his wife had bought a new toaster oven and was cooking up a sandwich.
But it was too late.
The fright had provoked a genuine heart attack.
So is it true or have we cooked up a lie? We'll let you know after the break.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to Urban Legends.
Before the break, we showed you the mini myth about a man who was tricked into a heart attack by a toaster.
Was it true or false? It was false.
There are many urban myths along these lines but there's no scientific evidence connecting burnt toast and bad hearts.
[.]
On Urban Legends, we show you three incredible stories.
Your mission is to sort out the totally true from the fantastically false.
So far, you've seen the tale of Susana Juarez forced to watch as her friends were harvested for their body fat.
And the story of Eric Bartos.
His incredible fishing fortuity brought him back his wedding ring.
But which ones are real and which ones are fake? All will be revealed at the end of the show.
[.]
In the meantime, watch our final story.
We've named it Crazy Hazing.
[.]
Gray Richards lives and breathes football.
For the last fourteen years, he's devoted himself to coaching high school football in Falls City, Oregon.
GRAY RICHARDS: The day comes when you cannot play anymore and you want to be involved as much as you can and uh for me coaching is the way to do it.
NARRATOR: But no amount of success on the field can erase his memory of a tragedy that happened twenty-one years ago.
In 1989, Richards was entering his senior year of college.
From the start of the season at training camp, Richards is at the top of his game.
He's not going to let anything bring him down, least of all a lowly freshman.
But hotshot Ricky Whittle is no average rookie, and he knows it.
Right from the beginning, he refuses to accept his position as low man on the totem pole.
GRAY RICHARDS: Sometimes the seniors might look at a player like this and think well maybe he thinks he's too good.
RICKY: That's how the rookies do it, baby.
NARRATOR: The seniors will soon have an opportunity to put Ricky in his place at the dreaded rookie night.
RICKY: Y'all can't take a joke? SENIOR: Rookie night's coming up.
anyway.
[.]
NARRATOR: Rookie night is the culmination of training camp, where the seniors take the rookies out for an initiation to the team.
GRAY RICHARDS: And we all went into the rooms of the rookie players and we uh blindfolded them and, for lack of a better word, kidnapped them.
NARRATOR: Hazing is a tradition for many sports teams, meant to build camaraderie and trust among players.
But while the others go along for the ride, Ricky is being a poor sport.
GRAY RICHARDS: Sometimes that will get you, you know, a rookie player into difficulty so the seniors might point him out.
NARRATOR: Trust building stunts are the heart of hazing and meant to be harmless fun.
GRAY RICHARDS: We had the uh players sit on a ladder, a length of toilet paper clenched between their butt cheeks and we'd light the toilet paper on fire.
NARRATOR: But once again, Ricky is standoffish.
His attitude problem will cost him during a stunt that no one will soon forget.
GRAY RICHARDS: We walked the players up to a flat roof.
SENIOR: You're not afraid of heights, are you? GRAY RICHARDS: Which was probably two hundred feet high.
NARRATOR: The players stand on the roof blind to what's in store.
ROOKIE: No I can't see.
RICKY: I don't want to do this man! NARRATOR: One false move and the rookies could plummet sixty meters.
GRAY RICHARDS: We asked them to stand on their toes for thirty seconds and hope that they didn't fall off the roof.
Ricky was very reluctant.
NARRATOR: The seniors have a plan.
They'll show Ricky who's boss.
GRAY RICHARDS: If you looked at the box, you know, it's, they're not in any danger at all and, you know, we all thought oh we're really gonna get him now.
SENIOR: Come on now, tippy toes.
Ahhhh! Good job.
NARRATOR: But Ricky doesn't get up.
It looks like he's pulling a prank of his own.
GRAY RICHARDS: We waited a few seconds to see if he was actually playing a joke on us and we were laughing and pointing at him and thinking this was, you know, fantastic.
NARRATOR: But is it really a joke? Or has an age old bonding tradition gone terribly wrong? SENIOR: Get him up.
GRAY RICHARDS: We nudged his shoulder a little bit and he wasn't moving.
Somebody tried to perform some CPR on him.
That wasn't working.
It wasn't till the paramedics came when we knew for sure that he was dead.
He had a weak heart, which couldn't handle that, that sort of surprise if you will.
We thought he was playing a joke on us by not getting up uh but he didn't.
NARRATOR: A night meant to bond an All-American football team ends in tragedy during a supposedly harmless prank.
So did you fall for Ricky Whittle's terrible end at the hands of the hazers? Or did we betray your trust with a tall tale? Find out the truth about all three stories after the break.
NARRATOR: Welcome back to Urban Legends.
It's time to reveal the truth about our three incredible stories.
First up, it's the story of Susana Juarez who barely escaped becoming an ingredient in a high priced beauty product.
But is it fact or fiction? [.]
SUSANA: It's a big fat lie.
NARRATOR: This popular Peruvian folktale stems all the way back to a distrust of foreigners from the time of the Conquistadors.
Next, it's the tale of Eric Bartos and the sailfish who returned his wedding ring.
But did it happen? ERIC BARTOS: My name is Eric Bartos and this is a real fish tale.
NARRATOR: No one believed the fishermen but Eric showed them by passing a polygraph test in 2005.
ERIC: Yes.
NARRATOR: Which leaves the story of Gray Richards and a night meant to be a harmless bonding ritual between teammates, which ended in a foul.
But is it true? I'm not Gray Richards, and this story didn't happen.
NARRATOR: This story is completely fake.
It's just one of many urban legends involving the theme of college pranks gone wrong.
That's the end of our episode called Stranger Than Fiction.
Were you able to split the tellingly true from the fictitiously false? Don't worry if you couldn't.
You'll get another chance to separate fact from fiction in the next installment of Urban Legends.