Death of a Tree: Roots of a Rivalry

tumors tree did die. They're not dead yet, but they definitely will die. You heard that right, This man calling himself Al from Dadeville calls into a radio show to say that he's poisoned two oak trees. Is that against the law to poison the tree? What do you think I care? Okay, I really don't roll down, roll damn tiede and he hung up. I didn't give it much thought. Two weeks later, a man named Harvey Updike was arrested.

It became one of the biggest stories of the year and one of the ugliest college football related crimes that has ever been reported. To understand how a man with no criminal record, became one of the most hated individuals in the history of college sports. You have to know a thing or two about college football in Alabama and the rivalry that's long defined it, and to understand why a whole town would mourn over the death of two

old oak trees like they were people. He needed to know about a small college town named Auburn with a big football tradition. This episode, I'll go to the scene of the crime and meet the man who did it. I wanted Auburn people gonna hate me as much as I hate them. I'm Morocca and this is mobituaries, This mobid death of a tree, roots of a rivalry. It's

a night. We have a story about a long standing rivalry where things have now gotten out of hand and became Alabama have arrested this man who they say poisoned a pair of beloved oak trees. At already we took Harvey Updike Junior into custody for the poison. Trees were started find that somebody would do something like this to a few trees that had never done anything to anybody. How important a trees to to Auburn. Without trees, this campus is nothing to me without the trees. It's just

buildings on a side. I'm with horticulturist Gary Kiver at Auburn University in eastern Alabama, about an hour outside state capital of Montgomery. Auburn has one of the most beautiful campuses in the South, in part because of all the trees. That's nice. What kind of trees are those? Is that birchrtle? Kind? So path with trees? There are over one D twenty species of trees on campus. Not so surprising at a school where you can major in forestry. That is a

mini magnolia. That is a silver bill. And that thing over there that looks like a Christmas tree? Is that a sort of It's not a pine, it's a cryptomeria. No one knows what that is. If you're in horticulture, you know what it is. By now you can tell I didn't major in forest tree. I guess? Can I guess that that is? It's a is it alive oak? It is d D Ding Dan Dan. I'm so excited that I got something right. But at one spot on campus,

the trees have deep symbolic value. We're standing here in the Tumors corner and this is the gateway to campus and imagined the term where town meets down. Tumors Corner, the intersection of College Street and Magnolia Avenue. Two massive old growth oak trees once stood sentry here, about eighty feet apart. They're glorious crowns of foliage joined overhead, indeed forming a kind of gateway the heart and soul of

Auburn's campus. The Tumors Oaks that's t O O M E R S. We're over eighty years old and named after the founder of a drug store that's still there just across the street. Okay, this is kind of a big deal for me because I'm actually now seeing it. So where are the trees? I'm looking here and right here, the slender trees i'm seeing are replacements, perfectly nice, but you certainly wouldn't try climbing one these. One day they might touch overhead, but right now they seem disconnected from

each other. Two trees among many on campus. And we look here and for each of these new Tumors Oaks, fairly immature. There's a little sign around them. And what does it say? Please do not roll rolling. It's a school tradition, really a ritual that goes back to the nineteen seventies. When Auburn's football team wins, students rushed Tumors corner and hurl rolls of toilet paper up into the trees. The original tumors oaks that stood here were majestic, but

when rolled, they looked kind of magical. In photographs, the long streams of toilet paper resemble white flowing mains that at night seemed to glow, made from pounds and pounds make that many hounds of toilet paper. Usually rolling and it's still done is to celebrate Auburn's winds, but sometimes the students roll trees to celebrate another holy occasion when their arch nemesis, the University of Alabama, loses no matter

who beats them. These two teams hate each other. But why where did this rivalry that divides the whole state and led one man to poison two oak trees originate? Turns out that's an old story, like Civil War old. During the Civil War, the federal government decides to fund what are called land grant universities. These are schools that teach programs on farming and mechanical trades, basically aggie schools.

After the war ends when the former Confederate states joined the Union, the state of Alabama wants to get in on that money. Then all of a sudden there comes this fierce competition to see who will become the land grant university in each state. That's historian Wayne Flint. He wrote the book on Alabama. Like literally, he wrote the Encyclopedia of Alabama. So which Alabama school will win this distinction and the money that goes with it. University of

Alabama wants to be the language school. And the last thing they want is for a college in East Alabama that would be Auburn to get this ultimate plum of the federal money. And in this their first head to head competition, Auburn, a formerly small Methodist college out in the Sticks, wins out over the older, than more affluent University of Alabama, thus sparking a rivalry that lives on even today. So how can two in state schools that compete for wealth, political power, and for stege settled the

score football? So there is in sublimated form this rivalry that is about politics and wealth. It immediately manifest medal metastasizes, tastasizes onto the gridiron and into the stands. The football rivalry gets so intense, brawls between fans, fights over regulation rules, that it's suspended at one point for forty years. Seriously, it takes an act of state government, a House joint

resolution to bring these teams back together. And in the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers pick up where they left off. It's like they never stopped hating each other. At its heart, this rivalry is less about two schools and more about class. I'm thinking of that awful cheerio sometimes here at high school games. That's all right, that's okay, You're gonna work for us someday. Does that kind of sum up feeling that that Alabama has for abur heicks

strawberries of second hand forward trucks. You said it, not I did, because that's the stereotonuk. Never mind that today Auburn is ranked higher than Alabama on the list of top state schools. It's sent six alumni into space and one into the top office at Apple, as in CEO Tim cook yep he went to Auburn. In fact, Auburn grads on average make more than Alabama grads, a fact which may have made this rivalry even more poisonous. I would say that college football is as close to a

religion in that state as you could possibly find. The main difference is that people practice it every day. Where religion, they show up when they feel like it. This is beyond obsession. It's addictive. There's people that live for football s. I have heard people tell stories of going into labor in the middle of the game and being told that they need to wait alburn football. I have to believe that part of this is that Alabama doesn't have a

professional football team. Does that matter? I've always thought that was a big part of it. Um there are there are just no professional teams of any which means in Alabama you've got two choices, arguably the most intense rivalry

in all of college football. You pledge your allegiance from Burns, Auburn or Alabama, you must choose us brother versus brother, battle of wills, dividing families at Tensions between these teams are so high that matrimony between Auburn and Alabama fans is called a mixed marriage, and once a year, on Thanksgiving Day weekend, the two teams meet on the gridiron in the game known simply as the iron Ball. This

game is basically a high holiday in the state. Virtually everyone will be either act this game or watching from home. The highways are empty, stores are shut down. The winner of the iron Ball secures bragging rights for the whole next year. And when football fans in Alabama want to boast about their team's big wins, they call into the Paul fine Bound Show. And it must be great being known as the Oprah Winfrey of college football. Oh that

was a compliment to that treasure. Hello, Hello, show isn't isn't a radio show. It's a family kind of like the Manson's who are a family? Can turned? How dare

you say that about Alabama? Reading the telebrampt then you are just keep your mouth about Alabama sometimes because you don't want to hear it's not done obvious really needs a professional I mean, I dare say that no one in the history of mankind has profited more from the Alabama Auburn rivalry than the person you're currently listening to. The sec is over this conflict has been good for you. I I will admit that under oath God, you're like

a war profit here. But when Harvey Uptake called into the Paul find Bound show in early two thousand eleven. He wasn't ranting a raving. The weekend after the Iron Bowl, I went to Auburn, Alabama, poisoned the two tumors treats. He sounded deliberate, he sounded proud. They die. They're not the idea, but they definitely will die. Is that against the tree? When I first read about what Harvey Uptake

had done, I found it disturbing. Really more than disturbing, I found a sinister What kind of a person will kill two beautiful, innocent living things. I thought about how cruelty to animals is a predictor of violence against other people, sometimes horrific violence. I thought of a kid up the street from where I grew up named Kevin. He used to get a kick out of crushing little baby bird eggs he found in nests. I don't know what happened to him, but I still don't like the name Kevin.

I even thought about the Taliban blowing up the monumental statues of Buddha at bam Yon in two thousand one. Look, you might think that comparing the killing of two trees to the torture of animals or human beings, or to the destruction of a religious shrine is over the top, and maybe it is, but sorry, what kind of a person would do this? The question for me boiled down to this, is he a person who did something terrible and, as it turns out, dangerous or is he a dangerous person?

I headed down to Texas or Harvey Updyke was living last summer to find out. Now, before I introduce you to Harvey Updyke, the University of Alabama fan who killed Auburn's two beloved oak trees, there's another person I have to tell you about. Like those trees, He's no longer with us in body, but in spirit he's very much alive.

University of Alabama coach Bear Bryant is an icon, and not just for leaving the Crimson Tide to unprecedented glory with six national championships over a twenty five year career beginning in the late nineteen fifties. He had an aura, A man of few words. He stood tall six ft three, sporting his trademark houndstooth Fedora, projecting the gravitas and the intensity of a John Wayne or Gary Cooper. But he wasn't playing a character in a movie. He got his

nickname Bear when he was thirteen years old. Naturally, when he agreed to wrestle a captive bear at a carnival. He became so influential across Alabama. From that, of course, he had to have his own TV show Sundays at four pm. He would sit down, crack open a bottle of Coca Cola and a bag of golden flaked potato chips the show's two sponsors, and break down the Alabama game from the day before. That was what we wanted to do either. We didn't want to kick all of Everton.

We could help it, but we were forces here. They His mother had always wanted him to be a minister, and he famously said coaching and preaching are a lot alike. And watching his show on late Sunday afternoons was like a second church for die hard fans for four years. From now we're walking out of here. Nice good chance. After he died on January, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Reagan. A few years

back when they had those commemorative state quarters. From surprised Alabama didn't put Bear Bryant on theirs on both sides. Now, I'm telling you all this for a reason. Harvey Updike grew up watching the Bear Bryant Show, and like for many young kids, Brian gave him someone to look up to. And I'll tell you this, I expect nothing less. We're driving down the street in Texas and in about point two miles we are going to meet Harvey Updyke. He's canceled,

he's confirmed, he's canceled. He's confirmed, he's hedged. I get it, I get it. He's not sure what he's getting into. The destination is on your right, and neither are Well. Hello there, Hey, I'm Morocca. How are you? John Buddy breaks to meet too. You must be Harvey, right, I'm Hardy And then I said I love your hat, thank you. What do you know? Harvey is wearing a hound's tooth Alabama cap to match his short sleeved polo with a Crimson a insignia that look like if she did on

Bart very much. And what's her name, Princess? That doesn't sound like anything to do with the Crimson tide. Well, I didn't name her. I had Harvey sixty nine. And he looks at his hair is such a light blonde that it looks white. He has a biker mustache, the kind that Hull Cogan has with a goatee, or is that a soul patch. I meet Harvey's son, Bear Upnight. Nice to meet you. That's right, Harvey named his son Bear. Incidentally, he's got a daughter in another state named, wait for it,

Crimson Tide update. Nice to me, alright, alright. I also meet his two granddaughters and they're Adorableley, Briley, how do you do a mode that? I'm good? And this is princess right? I learned quickly that travel softball is a huge thing for these girls and their grandfather. I cheer all my girls as hard as I can. I'll love him to death. What does he, Briley? What does he do? How does he cheer? He's like, let's go of dyke.

I just go board and go out there. I have to wonder what going overboard means for Harvey up Dyke. But the girls seem to love their grandfather's fervor. I like it. I like how big of a fan he is. All my friends like it too. They laugh, they walk up to me and they're like, me and your Grandma's awesome. I wish I had a grandpa like that. And I'm like, yeah, he's amazing. But he's loud, loud and proud, and Briley and Madison imitate Harvey's signature catchphrase man. Then Harvey shows

him how it's done. Is there a fault line in Texas? Because the walls just shut twenty minutes in. If I have to sum up Harvey in one word, it isn't scary or creepy, but grandpa. So far, at least he's kind of a regular grandpa. Then, without any prompting, I hear what sounds like Harvey's origin story, how he lost his dad when he was just four years old, and how a certain legendary coach filled the voice my mother

when I was seven or eight years old. If I ever have a boy, I'm gonna name him Bear Bryant. And she asked me why. I said, will. He's everything at a father figure should be. He makes his players called their parents on weekends, and I just thought he was a great person. Harvey fondly describes sitting and watching The Bear Bryant Show on a black and white TV while his mother ironed he still members of the show's

two sponsors. Yeah, yeah, he had opened the bag and you know, about three or four and drunk his coke and I think it lasted about an hour. We all head down the road now to a local surf and turf spot to grab some lunch. On the car ride over, Harvey tells me about his previous life as a police officer in Texas. There's the best job I ever had. I love being a trooper. I put a lot of people in jail for d W which is a huge point of pride for Harvey. He says his father was

killed by a drunk driver. Newspaper accounts from the time, though, report that his father died when he lost control of his tractor trailer and flipped over, and that no other vehicle was involved. But I believe that Harvey believes his father was killed by a drunk driver. He says it's something that defined his career in law enforcement. The only thing I remember about my dad is uh, At the funeral, they picked me up to kiss him and I just his forehead and it scared me to death. You know

it's it felt like marble or something. And you know, I was three years old. I didn't know what. It's pretty out here? It is pretty? What is his belt in lake? I'm genuinely moved by Harvey's story. But wait a second, am I being manipulated? Look? This is my first true crime episode, so maybe I'm being gullible. I need to be more circumspect. Anyway, do you want to go ahead and at the restaurant? I ordered the mixed field green salad and catfish fingers. Now, like any good

lunch spot, it's a little noisy. If there's levels of fans like weekend fans, you know, avid fans, radical fans. Where are you? I would say probably radical? I know it's it's unhealthy. Do you what? What have you? Well? I mean, besides my kids and grandkids, I love that Alabama you know, right below him, not too far below him. Madison who goes by move seems to take this and stride move. Do you love anything as much as your

grandpa loves Alabama football? Um? I mean, I love him as much as he loves Alabama, but he loves it a lot. And what do you think of that? Did you understand it? No? I don't understand why he had to kill the trees. I don't. I mean, I don't know. He's a little crazy. I didn't mean it. I did, and just like that, courtesy of his eleven year old granddaughter, we're talking about the crime itself. You just I didn't mean it. I did. What does that mean? I was saying I didn't mean it, but then I then I

was gonna tell you truth. I didn't mean it. I wanted to alburn people to hate me as much as I hate him, because they bought Cam Newton. Scam. You know who he is. Scam Newton, a camp back. Okay, I'm gonna do some translating for the non sports people you may have heard of NFL quarterback Cam Newton. Harvey calls him Scam Newton. Back in college, Newton was a star player at Auburn, which made him enemy number one

at Alabama. Throughout two thousand ten, Newton was under investigation after allegations that he had been paid to play for Auburn. That's a big no no in college sports. Cam Newton was eventually officially cleared of these allegations. That season, Newton led Auburn to a historic comeback victory over Alabama in the Iron Ball, a stinging defeat coming on the heels of an even greater outrage for Harvey. They home the Scam Newton jersey on Bear bryan statue. That's when I

went crazy. Yes, fans taped Cam Newton's jersey onto Bear Bryant's statue a week before the iron Ball This is true. You can it or that like like I like sacrileged. Yes. Yes. Harvey also says that when Bear Bryant died in Auburn, fans rolled Tumors corner in celebration. Now, there's no proof that something so ghoulish as that happened, but again, I believe that Harvey believes it. At this point in the meal, I'm kind of understanding why all of this was so

upsetting for Harvey. Auburn fans taped Scam Newton's Forgive Me Cam Newton's jersey onto a statue of Bear Bryant, which I'm guessing in Harvey's mind was tantamount to mocking his father. But then Harvey goes into a clinical, step by step description of how he poisoned the trees in the middle of this family seafood restaurant in front of his granddaughter. Took me a month. Ever, now I stay up all not long, and I used to have cameras on the trees.

I figured out when the slow most time, what day of the week, and what hour of the night was the slowest around old oak trees, so I could go in there at that time and not get caught at what time was it? And boy am on Sunday night. The chemical he used was an herbicide called spike a D D F. Mixed it with water and put it in a Milton jugs. I had to milk guts roots tree and I walked around the the outside of the tree, you know where the bulgage came out, so just pouring

it around, almost like gasoline to set a fire. Like when he arrested me, they came to my house. They brought I'm not lying to you. They brought twenty five police cards out there are searching my house. We can't verify that. And they told me that, uh, I used way, way, way too much. We can verify that. Try five times the lethal I'm out there was even concerned from federal police officers that he might have poisoned the water table.

In other words, Harvey Updyke put Auburn's drinking water at risk. You know, I wouldn't have chemist. I didn't know how much do you use? I just want to make sure they died. It felt like I was sitting across from someone who had been radicalized. I know, fanaticism in sports

didn't start with Harvey. In nineteen seventeen, Texas A and M fans stole the University of Texas's mascot steer Bibo and branded him, And just the last year, West Point Cadets kidnapped the Air Force mascot falcon Aurora and seriously injured her. Grown ups did this. Maybe it's fitting that the voice of reason at this table belongs to eleven year old Madison. Yeah. I don't know why he wants people to hate him my name. They probably already do. But he's not really acting like his age. He's kind

of acting young, like he's back in elementary school. I would never want someone to hate me as much. I would hate that. I'm sorry, baby, And just like that, I'm feeling a little better about Harvey. Do you like trees in general? Yeah? I like trees in general. You know, I just don't like alb There's several things in this world and I really intruded. I don't like and Alburn's one of them. What are the others? Liver? I ain't gonna eat no liver. It's got a lot of protein.

I don't care what had happened. I don't eat liver. And what are the other things you don't like? I hate to say this because this is an upset a lot of people, but I hold my breath. I'm not crazy about cats. I didn't know what you were gonna say. Just now. Okay, So Harvey is so matter of fact describing his crime, but there was nothing matter of fact about it for the Auburn community. After the trees were poisoned.

The first thing that happened after it was announced was the fans rolled the trees, almost like, Okay, we're gonna show our concern for you by rolling you. I'm back with Gary Kiev, the horticulturist and former Auburn professor, and he's telling me about the aftermath of the two thousand eleven poisoning. I empathized with the students because they were filling the trees pain And the next thing they did

was to begin to insurround the trees. They began to bring up flowers, They began to bring up memorabilia to pay respects. Toilet paper rolls inscribed with get well messages were laid down a bouquet of flowers made out of toilet paper. I began to see the human quality that these trees brought out in people. This vigil. Absolutely, absolutely thank you to the Auburn family for the outpouring of love that you are showing now during this time of hurt.

These trees will likely die, but the Auburn spirit we'll continue to live on. While the prognosis was Grandma, some held out hope, including Gary Kiver and are you in rescue mode right now? What is where is your head when all of this is happening. Well, at this point we didn't know where the herbside had been placed, we didn't know how much, so we were way behind the curve.

The university consulted with the nation's best tree doctors. Various treatments were tried at great expense, Sugar injected into the roots, liquid activated carbon drenched over tree beds, but the tumors oaks only got sicker. In essence, the trees was starving it seft today. I mean when you see something like that happening, I mean, do you feel for the tree

without a doubt, without a doubt, you know. I mean, We've got this majestic trees that do no harm to anyone if someone has chosen to harm them, and it makes no sense to me. If you want to know how this felt for Auburn, listen to the voice of Gary Keeper's colleague Stephen and Low, when he was asked by a reporter if the trees were definitely going to die. It's an emotional question. Oh, I always want to hold

that home. Based upon the technical experts are consulted with around the country, the concentration of spike basically found within the soil would suggest there is a very low probability. On April thirteen, two and a half years after Harvey uptake had poisoned them, the tumors oaks were removed, it is so said. And then every time the chain stow cuts and just listen to the people get closed. So that's a sad day. It's uh tough to talk about.

Just think this, it's like a funeral. I mean, just people have tears in their eyes, or they did when the street was barricaded off and there were hundreds of people out there. Uh, there were people crying without a doubt, and surprisingly some of those who had come to bear witness were from Alabama. In the effort to save the trees, Auburn's arch rival had raised it over fifty dollars on

a Facebook page called Tied for Tumors. In many ways, of poisoning brought Auburn in Alabama closer together because many of the Alabama fans felt maybe, in some way a small part responsible for their poisoning. I'm driving with Harvey now. We've just left the restaurant where he described in detail his crime. Let me ask when we were sitting in the restaurant, so you said you you were honest, and you said you don't regret it. But do you think it was wrong what you did? Yes, I think it's wrong.

You know, them trees wouldn't hurt me, but that's the only way I felt like I could get back at. You know, I wasn't gonna hurt anybody, and at the time we had just found out that my ex wife had cancer. On the one hand, unrelieved that Harvey actually recognizes that what he did was wrong, I guess I was depressed. On the other hand, he's making excuses again. Yeah, I think everybody has done things that they regret, probably

not a magnitude that I did. But if you could say anything to those trees, what would you say to them? I'd probably say sorry, but too late. Now we're back at Harvey's house now, actually it's his son Bears house. Harvey moved in here in two thousand seventeen. Oh you got a huge upstairs. Well, that's where I stay. It's not really a bedroom where he's staying when I visit, more like the second floor landing. Do you see all my hats? They're really nice. I mean, I got a

bunch of them. That's a pretty good looking hat. I care. I like that. Bam. This is the one Bear Brynet used to wear. The kind of he wore. I didn't start liking on yesterday. Uh, you've been with them for four decades now, you know. I stayed with him when day was down, but they didn't stay with him when he was down. Too many Crimson Tide fans. Harvey became a pariah, denounced by no less a person than Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Part of what makes this so

sad is that Harvey didn't even go to Alabama. He didn't even grow up in the state, but across the line in the Florida Panhandle. Harvey is a member of what's known unofficially as the pickup truck Alumni, working class people so inspired by the heroics of Bear Bryant that they became die hard fans who take the rivalry way more seriously than the actual alumni do. And now the Alabama community was looking down at him worse than they ever looked at those kids from Auburn. You got your

pills there? What are the pills for? I take about thirty pills a day for what everything? I mean everything, I've got everything. It's a veneerial disease. Harvey spent six months in a small jail in Lee County, that's where Auburn is. He said he got jumped several times by Auburn fans serving time there, and that people would spit in his food. He said he lost over eighty pounds, and if you compare photos before and after his sentence, you can see that he's not lying. He came out

looking gaunt and pale. Do you think it was extreme the punishment? Yes, I do. I mean what what I did I shouldn't have done. But I think I pretty well got what I deserved. You know, I think, I mean, I think I deserved to go to jail for doing it. I mean I do, I mean I shouldn't have done it. Yes, I know, Harvey just completely contradicted himself. Again. As for whether Harvey's punishment that is crime, no surprise, Alabama's legal community is divided. It was almost a personal attack. These

weren't just a couple of trees. There are a lot of cheers have been shed over this. That's Lee County d A. Brandon Hughes. If you remove that emotional attachment to those two trees, his case is way out of proportion of what ordinarily would be charged. And that's University of Alabama law professor Jenny Carroll. Harvey was charged with a Class C felony, which for a non violent first offense, was not typical. There was also a misdemeanor charge for

and I find this significant, desecrating a venerated object. There were plenty effects who felt like, if ever there was a time for capital punishment, it was this time. There was no trial, A plea deal was struck, which included the six month long jail sentence, a five year probationary period and over eight hundred thousand dollars in restitution at a payment rate of two hundred dollars a month. It will take Harvey more than three hundred years to make good.

I think it was garbage. I think he got off easy. To call it a slap on the wrist is overstating. I think it was a kiss on the cheek. That's nothing, absolutely nothing for what he did. Harvey was banned for life from Auburn's campus as part of the probation, he had a seven pm curfew, and worst of all, for Harvey, was not allowed to go to any college sporting events, which meant no Alabama football for five years. They are punishing him at the very heart of the thing he

loves the most. It's like a modern day shunning, right, Like you have to leave our community that we all consider so valuable. Still, a lot of people weren't satisfied. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody around here that says, yes, justice was served. After he was out of jail. That guy didn't look back. He was He was a hero to the Alabama people. I wondered what this was like for Harvey's family, while this was all happening, It doesn't. Marcia Updyke is Bear's wife and

Harvey's daughter in law. She's just home from work and we sit in the kitchen to chat. Do you think if he'd been living with you all and been involved with the grandkids, then that he would have done it? Oh? Heck no, because he would have been like, hey, I got this idea, and I'm like, heck no, we're not going to go do that. But anything. I don't even let him take food upstairs. She wanted to run and take the food upstairs. So sometimes I'll naked, I put

in my pockets take upstairs anymo. Yeah, So there would have been no poison. No, no poison. It would have been a different world when this was all happening. Marcia, What did you think? I don't know. We weren't directly involved. You know. On a serious note, there were fans that would like Bear had to shut down his Facebook page because he would receive death threat and that was ridiculous. So it's so funny because they would get so upset.

These Auburn fans would get so upset because of what happened and then message his son and that they're his kids should die. And seriously, it was hypocritical of them to say they were outraged by this and then turn around and threaten your kids. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, do you feel bad for the trees? So here's the thing, their trees.

I mean, I get it, don't get me wrong. I mean that's going to be super insensitive to something oaks, and Um, what people need to know is I don't care about I mean it, I shouldn't say I don't care, but it's it's football, it's Auburn, it's Alabama. But when I found out like the value that they placed on those trees and things like that, I was a little surprised myself. I do have to say, so I understand

they are special and um, it was devastating. But you know, if someone comes and breaks a statue or something along those lines, I'm not sure that the ramifications are as I don't know, intricate as they were for that, they would be punished as much. Yeah, they definitely breaks him over the coals a little bit. They definitely threw the book at him and said, hey, we're going to go

to the highest of the high. Yeah, I'm gonna go Ald Barbara Walters on you if the trees could talk, what do you think they would say when they see those toilet paper rolls coming at them? Brace for contact. I guess I don't. I'm sure. I'm back with horticulturist Gary Kiever at Auburn. Now, if you're an Auburn partisan, you're probably fuming right now from Marcia's they're just trees. Take But before you go all lo rax speaking for the trees, listen to this. There there hazards associated with

the rolling tradition. Historically, the paper was removed with high pressure fire hoses and that damaged the trees. That weakened the trees. Oftentimes, by the end of the football season there was no no foliage on the lower third of the tree. You know, they had declined over time. Plant pathologists had warned against rolling. One even dared to joke that it would help if Auburn just stopped winning. So it sounds like the trees weren't always treated right. They

were not. They were They were special because of the tradition and their location. If they had been located elsewhere on campus, we might have replaced them, but we were going to keep them at all costs because of their role. In the tradition. So was the tradition that made these trees so beloved also the thing that was slowly killing them. They weren't on Magnolia. In my opinion, it was getting close to the end of his life. This wasn't privileged information.

In the summer of two thousand seven, three years before Harvey doused the trees and Spike a d d F, a headline in Auburn's Alumni magazine asked the question too late for the tumors trees. Local outlets reported on the trees declining health. The student newspaper declared, even more bluntly, landmark tumors trees dying. Now. I don't know if you're aware of this, but as early as two thousand and

seven the trees were in pretty poor health. Does that matter? No, I mean, you don't get a pass for killing a nine year old person because they were in bad health to begin with. That's Lee County d A. Brandon us Again. Please don't think I'm comparing a tree to a person. But the point being is, you know, Dr Calvorkian didn't get away with murder because the person was going to die anyway. But Jenny Carroll says that if they could

do it all again, Harvey might have a case. If Auburn fans were already killing those trees, then I think he could make a claim that he did not actually kill them. If he was looking for a defense lawyer who would actually take his case, I would be perfectly willing to defend that man. I think we could have done better maybe than he did on that plea deal.

On November tenth, two thousand eighteen, Harvey Updike was feeling good driving in his deep red pickup truck towards Bryant Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama, to watch his beloved Crimson Tide take on Mississippi State, his first Alabama home game since his probation ended Denny Stadium. And it is beautiful, thousands of Alabama fans and in Harvey's not lying load today, bring Cowboy. He hoots and

hollers through the whole game, turns Da Baba. One of the Bama fans sitting behind him, realizes who he is and high five. No Burday night. I didn't think I'd ever get to come back here before I died. Something tells me Harvey will be with us for a while. Just listen to him at one of his granddaughter's recent softball games. Yes, yes, yes, I'll admit it. I've developed a little bit of a soft spot for Harvey. Look, I'm not saying he's innocent of a crime he clearly committed.

This isn't making of a tree murderer. But I don't see the seeds of a homicidal maniac in him. I see someone who latched onto a community, to an identity that made him feel like he belonged, who got carried away by the tide of what really is an obsession, Alabama football. He did something terrible. He's a fanatic, for sure, but I guess I don't think he's a dangerous fanatic,

at least not any longer. There's not a day it doesn't go by that I don't get up and read tighter and tighter, and then I go look at de bituaries, and if my name is not in there, then I'll probably go back and lay down sleep a little bit longer. He knows what he did was wrong, and deep down I think he does regret it. I want to be cremated and and I want half my ashes put on REALM Bryant Denny Stadium in a best them around too mus corner, so they don't know I've been there, or

maybe he doesn't. When I leave this world, I want people to say he was a good father, he was a good step father, and he was a very very good Alabama fan. I admit I I like them too much. We should note that on Sunday, March three, tornadoes ravaged parts of the southeast. At least twenty three people were killed in Lee County, Alabama, home of Auburn University. Our sympathies are with the victims and their family and friends. I certainly hope you enjoyed this first season of Mobituaries.

If you haven't heard the previous seven episodes, please go back and listen while you're there. It would be awfully nice if you'd rate and review the podcast. You can also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow me on Twitter at Morocca. You can subscribe to Mobituaries wherever you get your podcasts. For more great content and to see Harvey's reaction to Alabama's lost to Clemson in the two thousand eighteen Championship game, please go to

Mobituaries dot Com at your own risk. This episode of Mobituaries was produced by Kate mccauliffe. Our team of producers also includes Gideon Evans, Megan Marcus, Megan Dietrie, and me Morocca. It was engineered by Bart Warshaw, indispensable support from Genius Staneski, Show she Cement, Zach Gilcrest and Richard Roarer. Special thanks to Coach Pat Die, Greg Schmidt and Auburn's Special Collections, Sean McManus, Benjamin Dietrich, Steve Kerasak Preston Sparks, Mike Clardy

and everyone at CBS News Radio OWUR. Theme music is written by Daniel Hart and as always, undying thanks to Rand Morrison and John carp without whom Mobituaries couldn't live. Hi, It's mo. If you're enjoying Mobituaries the podcast, may I invite you to check out Mobituaries the book. It's chock

full of stories not in the podcast. Celebrities who put their butts on the line, Sports teams that threw in the towel for good, forgotten fashions, Defunct diagnoses presidential candidacies that cratered whole countries that went to put and dragons, yes, dragons, you see. People used to believe the wagons will reel until just get the book. You can order Mobituaries the book from any online bookseller, or stop by your local bookstore and look for me when I come to your city.

Tour information and lots more at mobituaries dot com