Glen and Bessie Hyde Pt. One

Over the next several decades, there would be a number of twists and turns, including a woman you claimed to be Bessie Hyde, and the discovery of an unidentified male skeleton in Emery Colb's boat house, but no trace of Glen or Bessie is ever found after that.

episode of the show, hosted by Robert Stack. Glen and Bessie Hyde were a newlywed couple who decided to take a very adventurous honeymoon by embarking on a lengthy whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon along the Colorado River, and they hoped to find fame by achieving a new speed record, but they would eventually go missing, and even though the couple's empty boat was found completely into with all their supplies still on board, Glenn and Bessie had

seemingly vanished into thin air. This story has become a pretty legendary unsolved disappearance with a number of twists and turns, and even contains a compelling mystery within a mystery, as a skeleton initially believed to be Glenn Hyde, would be found on the property of one of the last people

known to have seen the couple alive. Four decades later, there would also be a woman who popped up on another rafting trip through the Grand Canyon and told a number of witnesses that she was Bessie Hyde and had disappeared on her own and started a new life after killing her husband. All we know for certain is that nearly one hundred years have passed since the Hides went missing and they have still never been found. So I

thought it was about time that the path went. Chile tackled the very first Mysterious Legends case featured on Unsolved Mysteries.

Is there any information more about those two incidences and are we positive that either are either true or false at this time?

these connected to each other? I mean, when you first hear about a couple going missing on a whitewater rafting trip, you're thinking, initially, okay, it's probably obviously drowned. But then they had all these weird twists and turns come up in the story several decades later.

happened to them. The couple first met on a passenger ship traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles in February of nineteen twenty seven, and they pretty much fell head over heels in love with each other. The problem was that Bessie was technically still married to another man in

another state at that point. Bessie was born in Maryland and raised in Parkersburg, West Virginia, under the name Bessie Hayley, and was attending Marshall College when she married a man named Earl Helmick in Kentucky in June of nineteen twenty six. Even though Bessie and Earle had known each other for years and attended high school together, their relationship was pretty much doomed from the start, as Earle was known to

have a violent temper. The couple lived together for less than two months before they separated, and Bessie moved to San Francisco to study art in poetry at the California School of Fine Arts. It's been reported that while she was living there, Earl sent Bessie money for an operation, fueling speculation that she'd traveled out West to terminate an unwonted pregnancy or to secretly give birth to a child that she put up for adoption, but this has never

officially been confirmed. Whatever the case, Bessie would meet Glen several months later and wanted to marry him as soon as possible, but Earle refused to grant her a divorce. In response, Bessie decided to move to Elko, Nevada, since the state had the most lenient divorce laws in the country at that time. She lived there for a couple of months to meet the residency requirements and filed for divorce, which was officially granted on April eleventh, nineteen twenty eight,

when Earle failed to show up in court to contest it. Bessie, then in meeting, mediately traveled to Twin Falls to meet up with Glenn, and they were married the following day.

Bessie may become pregnant. And of course this is the nineteen twenties, when an abortion or giving up a child for adoption with scandalous, so they figured that, well, this is one of those cases where they sent her away before anyone noticed she was pregnant, and then just she miraculously reappeared after she had either terminated or given birth

to the child. But it just kind of shows that Bessie was a woman who was kind of ahead of her time for willing to go through this during the nineteen twenties, and that she was a very independent woman who probably would not have been happy in a marriage to a guy like Earle and was much happier meeting up with an adventurous guy like Glenn.

somewhere else and actually petition for a divorce, risking the fact that he could show up if he ever found out about it, but really having this confidence that I bet I can beat the system and get away from this man and the very next day go be with my adventurer. Glenn's pretty pretty bold, especially back in the nineteen twenties, but I mean even today, that's a lot of power that she wielded.

could have attempted something like that again. Anyway, since Glenn was an avid outdoorsman and an experienced rafter who had run the salmon and snake rivers in Idaho, he came up with a very unusual idea for a delayed honeymoon.

Glenn constructed a two tent. Glenn constructed a two ton, twenty foot long, five and a half foot wide, flat bottom wooden sweep scout, which he named Rain in the Face, and decided that he and Bessie would spend their honeymoon taking a lengthy whitewater rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. They would travel to Green River, Utah, and spend the next several weeks in their scou traveling hundreds of miles down the rapids of the Colorado River before they arrived

in Needles, California. The Colorado River was considered to be the most dangerous stretch of water in the world at that point, and only forty five people had managed to travel the full two hundred and seventy seven mile length of the Grand Canyon by river. But Glenn was an adventurous thrill seeker who wanted to set a brand new all time speed record, and by taking Bessie along, she would make history by because I mean, the first documented

woman to run the canyon. If they succeeded, the couple would likely become famous, and Glenn hoped that Bessie would use the writing skills to publish a book so they can make money recounting their adventure by touring the lecture circuit. Well, in spite of Glenn's vast river rapting experience, Bessie was pretty much a complete novice at this sort of thing.

Glenn also made the decision not to carry any life jackets on board the boat, as apparently using life jackets was just not something that was done in Idaho during that time period, and they were not even readily available.

in an adventure novel. And for someone who's a novice, that's pretty crazy and scary, like my guts, like, uh, they simply had an accident and they drown or something happened. They hit their head on a rock because I would not go down on this sweep scal named rain in the face, right, it looks incredibly dangerous and they're not going down just some quiet river, they're going whitewater rafting. So if you get a chance, google it. It's crazy.

I do see where his adventure side said, we could really make something of this if we survived Asterist Right, if we survived this trip, we would be the talk of the town because this is crazy. You are correct, Glenn, it's crazy. So I assume that life vests were basically like seat belts used to be, where they just weren't part of the narrative and they just weren't very common.

And so not shaming him for not having life jackets, but my god, he was definitely taking a knowing risk putting her on this sweep scal because, like I said, I just picture, you know, these two main characters with a piece of wood shoving themselves off the you know, side of a slow river. That's not what's happening here. They're going whitewater rafting on this basically flat piece of wood.

we're just taking our life in our hands. Yes, we've found love and we will be legends if we make it all the way through, but who knows, we may not escape with our lives.

say she was enthusiastic. But most women when they hear this story have this reaction saying, not only would I not want to do this, but I certainly want to wouldn't want to do this on my honeymoon to a guy I just married, Because even though Glenn's added like an adventurous guy, going down two hundred and seventy seven miles in like a piece of wood is my idea of a good time.

at the Phantom Ranch near River mile eighty eight. They then proceeded to hike up the Bright Angel Trail until they arrived at the home of a photographer named Emery Colb. Emory and his brother, Ellsworth Colb had become legendary figures in the Grand Canyon by successfully navigating the Colorado River and filming the entire experience. Emory's home also doubled as a photography studio named Cold Studio, which had been in

business for nearly twenty five years. At this point, Glenn knew that Colb was pretty much the area's foremost expert on the Colorado River, which is why he and Bessie paid him a visit, and while there, the Hides asked Colb to take a photograph of them posing by the canyon's rim. However, during their interactions, Cold noticed that Bessie seemed to have grown tired of the trip and appeared apprehensive because they were about to embark on the most

dangerous stretch of the river. Earlier on their journey, while traveling through the rapids of the Cataract Canyon, Bessie, who was only five feet tall and weighed ninety pounds, was knocked into the water, but Glenn managed to grab her ankle and pull her back into the boat. Glunnad also apparently fallen out of the scal on two separate occasions

before Bessie managed to get a rope to him. Since the Hides were going to be facing cold winter weather, Cold proposed the idea of them staying with him for a while until the weather improved, but Glenn refused. Colb also offered to let the hides boils his life jackets or some inner tubes, but Glenn turned this down as well, referring to the items as quote artificial aids and assuring Cold but he and Bessie were both very strong swimmers.

Before the Hides left, Cold's young daughter said goodbye to them, and Bessie looked at the shoes the girl was wearing and said, quote, I wonder if I shall ever wear pretty shoes again. End quote. The Hides then hiked back down right Angel trail, climb back into their boat, and continued their trip down the river.

grand adventure story. And even in the face of seeing Bessie's struggle, having people warn him about dangers, offering these lifelines to him, seeing that Bessie's kind of getting worn out, and knowing that they've already had close calls on the easier part of the trip, it almost just seems like arrogance and kind of ignorance on his part.

while they traveled downstream to Hermit Camp. Sutro took one final photograph of Glenn and Bessie before they went their separate ways, but after this there would be no more confirmed sightings of the Hides. They failed to arrive at the Needles, California at their schedule time, and when Glenn's father, Our Sea Hide, did not hear from them by December to sixth, he organized a search effort involving the National

Park Service and several volunteers. Arcia had previously lost two sons when they were children, and was so dedicated to finding Glenn that he pretty much drove himself into poverty by financing multiple searches over the next few years. At one point during their journey, the Hides across passed with a reporter from the Denver Post and shared their story, which soon garnered some coverage in the press, and by the time the couple went missing, the search for them

became national news. In fact, the story got so much attention that it even wound up reaching President Calvin Coolidge, who ordered his Secretary of War to authorize an air search of Grand Canyon National Park with an army plane. While on December the nineteenth, the plane finally spotted the Hyde skow, which appeared to be trapped in some rocks in the middle of the water near river mile two thirty seven. Even though the boat seemed to be intact,

Glen and Bessie were not inside. It would not be until Christmas Day when a search party which included Emery and Ellsworth Cob made it to this location and located the scow. Much like when it was spotted from the search plane, the boat was fully intact, with no noticeable signs of damage, and was fully stocked with supplies and the hide's personal possession, including their clothing and hiking boots, Glenn's rifle, and a diary that Betsy had been using

to chronicle their journey. The only thing which appeared to be missing was the hides themselves. Forty two notches were found carved in the boat's gunwale, which seemed to represent each day of the trip. If the count was accurate, then this meant that the last notch had been carved on November thirtieth, which coincided with the date of the

final entry in Bessie's diary. The scow's bowline stretched from the front of the boat into the river and appeared to be fastened into crevice in one of the rocks and had caught on something underwater. Since the Coal brothers had no success with their attempts to dislodge the bowline, they decided to cut it. In spite of this discovery, subsequent search efforts turned up no trace of Glenn or Bessie.

trying to rescue the other one. I mean that could have had anywhere along the route, and then that boat gets lodged just by naturally drifting with the currents.

that wouldn't necessarily happen. It seems unlikely with two bodies, but it could have happened the last specific location Bessie had mentioned in her diary was Diamond Creek, rapid located at River mile two twenty five, and evidence was discovered to suggest the hides and set up camp in the area. In fact, two years later, a search party for an unrelated event wound up finding an inscription on the beam of a ceiling in an old shack near Diamond Creek.

It read quote Glenn and Bessie Hide November thirty first, nineteen twenty eight. If either Glenn or Bessie had inscribed that, they probably did so on December first of that year and had forgotten that November only had thirty days. There was also an eyewitness account from a prospector who reportedly saw a brown leather jacket floating in the Colorado River around the approximate time the Hides went missing. The currents were too swift for him to retrieve it, but Bessie

was known to have worn a leather jacket on the trip. Ironically, the location the boat was found was just over forty miles from the mouth of the Grand Canyon, and if the details in Bessie's diary were accurate, the couple had actually been ahead of schedule and would have easily broken the speed record if they had traveled the entire distance. Anyway, even though the hide's bodies could not be found, many people suspected that Glenn and Bessie had fallen out of

their scow and drowned in the river. Others theorized that they may have become separated from the boat and attempted to hike their way to the canyon, but died of exposure before they made it. However, over the course of the next several decades, a number of unusual events would occur, which caused speculation that there was a lot more to the story.

too dangerous and it cost them their lives. So in nineteen seventy one, a tour group went on a three week commercial rafting trip through the Grand Canyon, and near the end of their trip, they set up camp at Diamond Creek. Since this was near the location where Glenn and Bessie Hyde's boat had been found four decades earlier, the tour guy decided to share the story about their

mysterious disappearance around the campfire that night. It was here that an elderly woman in the group named Elizabeth Cutler remarked that she was actually Bessie Hyde. She claimed that Glenn had become so obsessed with completing the rafting trip that things erupted into a violent fight, which resulted in Glenn beating her. In response, she grabbed a knife, stabbed Blent to death, sank his body, and let their float

and let their boat float downstream. She then proceeded to hike her own way out of the Grand Canyon to Peach Springs, climbed on a bus, and then went on to start a new life for herself under her new identity.

Well The other members of the group initially figured that Cutler was just making up this story, even though she would have been around the same age as Bessie if she was still alive at that time, But word about this story eventually spread, and when historians tracked down Cutler to her home in Palm mo Roy, Ohio and asked her about it, she denied ever telling the story and claimed to have never heard of Glen or Bessie Hyde. Once further research was done, it became clear that Kutler's

story could not have been true. Not only was she around half a foot taller than Bessie Hyde, but birth records showed that Kutler was born in Palm Moroy on December the second nineteen oh eight. In fact, old newspaper articles were uncovered which showed photographs of Cutler attending some family reunions in Palm Roy, Ohio during the late nineteen twenties, effectively debunking the idea that she was Bessie Hyde living

under a false identity. Cydler died in nineteen ninety eight, and since she had once worked as a psychology professor and had a reputation for playing games with people, this may have been the reason she decided to tell people she was Bessie.

This is saying I even she's saying I killed somebody, right. How did she think she.

didn't really take it that seriously. But it just seems like a very brazen thing to do, to confess to a murder you didn't do while you're out there in the woods with a bunch of strangers. So the next surprise development took place when Emery Coal passed away on December the eleventh, nineteen seventy six, at the age of ninety six. Two months later, Colp's grandson was going through the boathouse on his property at Cold Studio when he was surprised to discover the remains of a male skeleton

inside a canoe being kept in the rafters. Some remnants of clothing, a shoe and a belt were next to the remains, and everything was subsequently turned over to the Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office. The victim was determined to have been a Caucasian mail in his twenties, but most importantly, a bullet from a thirty two caliber gun was found embedded in his skull and there was a bullet hole

in his right temple. Tests showed that the bullet originated from a Revolver originally manufactured in nineteen oh two, and the condition of the bones and the clothing fragments seemed to suggest that the victim's death that occurred sometime during the nineteen twenties. Of course, this began to feel rumors that the victim was Glenn Hyde and that Emery Colb

could have murdered him well. Like I mentioned on the intro, this case would be featured on the very first episode of Unsolved Mysteries hosted by Robert Stack, which originally aired on November twenty nine to nineteen eighty seven. For the segment, the show consulted with doctor Walter Burkby, a forensic anthropologist

from the University of Arizona. While Birkeby was a nationally recognized expert in his field and it earned the nickname Doctor Death because he specialized and unidentified human remains basically long before the era of DNA testing and websites such as the dough Network, Doctor Birkby was one of the best people to turn to if you ever wanted to identify the skeleton remains of a John or Jane Doe, so the skeleton found in Colb's boat house was passed

on to him. The segment showed Birkeby performing a test where he compared the facial structure of the skull to a photograph of Glenn Hyde and to Term and they did not match at all. Well, Burntney was unable to determine the victim's true identity. He was able to conclude with one hundred percent certainty that it was not Glenn.

Of course, this only opened up a lot more unanswered questions, creating a mystery within a mystery about who the remains did actually belong to and why Colb had been keeping them on his property.

was he keeping remains in his boat house? But it turned out that the explanation was a lot less gruesome than barrigely thought.

the Grand Canyon and Arizona's Marble Canyon. Following her death, Georgie's caretaker was searching through her lingerie er and was surprised to discover a certified copy of Glenn and Bessie Hyde's marriage certificate, which also happened to be resting alongside

a pistol. Furthermore, when Georgie's birth certificate was uncovered, it revealed that she had originally been born under the name Bessie de Ross, as White and Clark were the surnames of the two ex husbands that she'd previously been married to. Throughout her life, Georgie was always known for being a very secretive woman, even to her closest friends and Georgie's caretaker, who also recalled her expressing a personal hatred towards Henry coleb and refusing to even be in the same room

with him, though she never specified why. So naturally, this only fueled speculation that Georgie White Clark was actually Bessie Hyde, however, since Georgie was about five inches taller than Bessie and didn't really resemble her that much. However, since Georgie was about five inches taller than Bessie and didn't really resemble her that much, it didn't take much for historians to debunk this idea, particularly since Georgie's early life was well

documented in a biography titled Woman on the River. Georgie married her first husband at an early age. It was only seventeen years old when she gave birth to a daughter in March of nineteen twenty nine. If Georgie was Bessie High, then this meant Bessie would have had to have been five months pregnant at the time she vanished, so the idea of them being the same person was pretty much completely dismissed.

find it in her drawer till after her death. And we still don't know the story about why she had a hatred towards Emery Cole. That is also a big mystery. So I can understand why I'd be tempting to believe that she might be Bessie, but obviously that has been completely debunked. So in two thousand and one, two separate books about the disappearance of Glenn and Bessie Hyde were

released pretty much simultaneously. Interestingly enough, one of them was factual while the other was fictionalized, and apparently neither of the authors even knew that the other book was being published. The factual book was sunk without a say. The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde, which was written by a Grand Canyon River guide named Brad Dimmick and is the most complete and detailed account of the story.

As part of his research, Dimmick even went so far as to build an exact replica of the hides Wooden sweep scow and used it to travel down the Colorado River in order to get an exact idea of what the couple went through. The other book was titled Grand Ambition, and while author Lisa Michaels based the story on actual events, it was written in the style of a fictional novel, with Glenn and Bessie as the main characters. Anyway, in two thousand and eight, there would finally be some answers

about the male skeleton found in Emery Colbs boathouse. The cold case squad at the Coconino County Sheriff's Office were able to determine that the victim was likely an unidentified John Doe, who had been found in the Grand Canyon at Shoshone Point in June of nineteen thirty three. This discovery came about when the son of a former Grand Canyon ranger sent a number of photographs and docum eguments from his father's collection to the Grand Canyon Museum collection.

One of these photos featured the skeleton remains of the aforementioned John Doe. When he was originally found. The victim carried no identification, and it was estimated that his actual death occurred about two years beforehand. He had a bullet hole in his right temple, and since a thirty two caliber gun was next to the remains, his death was ruled to be a suicide. Clothing fragments, a shoe and a belt were also at the scene and perfectly matched

the same items found with Emery colb skeleton. It turned out that in nineteen thirty three, Colb had been a representative on the County Corner's journey for death inquests at the Grand Canyon. Since the John Doe could not be identified and there was no next of kin to claim his remains, it seemed likely that Colb took them home

himself and stored them in his boat house. In fact, Colb's grandson, who eventually found the remains four decades later, would recall having seen some bones on his grandfather's property when he was just a small boy during the nineteen thirties. The actual identity of the John Doe is still unknown, but authorities are certain that no foul play was involved in his death and he has no connection to the

High Case. As for Glenn and Bessie, the legend of their disappearances continues to live on after nearly a century, but the truth about what happened to them remains a mystery. So I guess you could say the path went chili.

to them. So it is just kind of amusing that he kind of forgot about them for about four decades, and that after he dies people start suspecting he's a murderer or a serial killer or something because of this mistake. But yeah, it made the whole thing, the connection to the High case, less mysterious than we thought. But it

is still a mystery. Who this person? Well, it was, and I guess Cole technically did a good thing because if this victim had been buried in a pauper's grave back in the nineteen thirties, people would have forgotten about him. But now he's part of this very mysterious story.

in nineteen seventy four. But yeah, for many years afterwards, the lead investigator on the case actually kept the victim's skull on his desk, just as a reminder, as a motivator to solve the case an identify her. But I'm sure if this happened today, a lot of people would frat upon that. So I think that about brings an end to Part one. Join us next week as we present part two of our series on the disappearances of Glenn and Bessie Hyde.

ten dollar tier. One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsolved Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over was

the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a commentary track in which I make more smart ass remarks about Jewel Kaylor, then be sure to join Tier three.