His pursuit of money ended in a way you wouldn't wish for an enemy... (12 photos)

The desire to become rich has repeatedly pushed people to crazy deeds. What are the crime stories described by me on this channel, when, for example, one of the spouses killed the other in order to get insurance...





The person I'm about to talk about didn't mean to no one to kill, but his reckless desire to get rich led to such a sad end that no one will envy him.

Passion

Floyd Collins was born June 20, 1887 on a farm in state of Kentucky. His parents, Lee and Martha Collins, owned agricultural land near the Mammoth Cave - the most longest cave system in the world, stretching nearly 700 kilometers.



Naturally, Mammoth Cave was and remains popular a place for curious people who like to explore its depths. That the same feeling came over little Floyd Collins when he first visited there at the age of 6 years.

Since then, he has embraced a passion for speleology. And looking at that how popular Mammoth Cave has become, and how much money she brings to her owner, Floyd decided to find another dungeon and make it look like a tourist attraction.

Deal

In 1917, Floyd's dream came true. He managed to discover Crystal Cave just a few kilometers from his father's farm. However, it was too far from the roads, and therefore few people from tourists expressed a desire to walk to it for almost an hour.



For this reason, Floyd turned his attention to another cave known as the Sand Cave. She was located next to Cave City Road, along which tourists drove to Mammoth Cave, which means much more profit could be made from it.

Collins made a deal with the owner of the land under which there was a cave. According to the plan of the entrepreneurs, she had to bring them thousands of dollars when it becomes popular. Running ahead I will say that their plan was a success - the cave gained fame, but at what cost ...

In depth

Before turning the cave into a tourist site, its it was necessary to survey and build future routes. So in the afternoon 30 January 1925, Floyd, taking a kerosene lamp with him, went to Sand cave.



Inside, he discovered a series of narrow and dangerous passages, one of which was so small that it took him a lot of effort to squeeze inside.

By that time he had been underground for more than an hour, so the kerosene in his lamp had run out, and he needed come back. But when Floyd started to crawl out, he accidentally dropped the lamp. Trying to grab her, he jerked his leg sharply and knocked out a 15-kilogram a stone that pinched his shin.

So Collins was trapped at a depth of 18 meters underground...

Rescue operation

The next day, the son of the owner of the land where Sand cave, went to the dungeon to find out why Floyd up still hasn't returned. Going down a little, he heard cries of help. So it became known that Collins was stuck.



Illustration in The Times newspaper depicting Floyd Collins and one of his rescue plans

Floyd's brothers, Homer and Marshall, were able to get to the man to give him food and water. But attempts to get him out were unsuccessful. success, since the stone that pressed the foot did not move forward or back.

Soon dozens and hundreds of people began to arrive at the place, who wanted to help get the poor guy out. Alas, it only made things worse. saving Floyd because they could not agree for a long time on how get Collins out of the cave.

Interview

Debate and haphazard attempts to rescue Floyd continued For two days now, on February 2, a reporter from "Louisville Courier-Journal" - William Miller.



William Miller after an interview with Floyd Collins

In total, he went down to Collins 3 times, taking from him a series of interviews, asking him about his health and mood. He would later receive the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism for this.

- My flashlight illuminated the face on which was written unspeakable suffering, and eyes that spoke of agonyAnd. He had painful to look at, and the most terrible thing for me was to realize the fact that I I can’t help him in any way,” Miller wrote in his report.

"Festival"

As one rescue attempt gave way to another, the news of Floyd Collins, stuck in the Sand Cave, has spread throughout America, and crowds of curious onlookers began to gather there.



The site next to the Sandy Cave on February 4, 1925

On February 4, a "festival festival" reigned next to the cave. atmosphere", so after the onlookers, food vendors pulled up there, drinks and souvenirs. All of them, without a twinge of conscience, profited from tragedy.

It was calculated that during the entire time that the rescue was going on Floyd, about 50,000 people attended the "festival". And some of those present did not even know about Collins, locked underground ...

Failure after failure

Meanwhile, all attempts to free Floyd are still failed, and on the evening of February 4, something happened that everyone was afraid of - part of the cave collapsed.



Rescuers try to hear Floyd Collins' heartbeat after cave collapse

Rescuers tried to remove the stones, but several days of rain, unstable stones and a sharp thaw in the middle of winter led to the fact that the cave collapsed again.

In an attempt to rescue the unfortunate caver, the rescuers decided lay a vertical shaft to get to Floyd from another sides. 75 people worked around the clock to build it.

last hope

Interestingly, on February 6, rumors began to circulate in the media about that Floyd set it all up to attract tourists to his cave. There were even witnesses who allegedly saw him every night goes outside and goes home.



Rescuers next to the mine

However, the rescuers did not pay attention to the rumors, and continued to literally "bite" into the rock. difficult weather, interspersed with rains and frosts, seriously complicates the advance in depth, so the rescuers were able to get to Floyd only on February 16 ...

Alas, they are too late. Collins was dead.

“His pursuit of money ended in a way that you wouldn’t wish for an enemy either ...” they wrote about Floyd in one of the newspapers.

extraction

According to the report of the doctors who examined Floyd on the spot, the man died about 4 days ago, having gone without food and water for about 10 days. It is terrible to imagine what he experienced, being under a huge mass of stones and not the name of the opportunity to budge ...



Floyd Collins funeral

It will sound strange, but the rescuers did not dare to pull out the body of a man from the cave, deeming it too dangerous. Although it turns out later that there was nothing difficult about it.

The Collins family initially agreed to leave Floyd in the cave, but after a while they changed their minds. In April 1925, relatives the men hired cavers who finally pulled him out of the trap, which became fatal for him.

"Adventures"

It seemed that Floyd's story should have ended there, but it wasn't there. 2 years after Collins was buried on family farm, it was sold, and the man's parents moved to another place.



Sign at the entrance to the Sandy Cave

The new owner of the farm decided to exhume Collins' body and place him in a coffin with a glass lid in one of the vaults of the Crystal caves. So he wanted to attract tourists there. His plan succeeded. Hundreds of people came daily to see the caver, famous for his death.

However, in September 1927, unknown persons tried to steal Floyd's body from the cave. The first attempt ended in failure, but the second, organized in March 1929, was a success.

End of the road

To trace Floyd's body, the police even used sniffer dogs. Ultimately, he was found and brought back to Khrystalnaya cave. True, during this "adventure" he lost his leg.



"Grand Canyon Avenue" postcard with Floyd Collins' grave in the center

This strange exposition flaunted in the cave for more than 30 years, until in 1961 the authorities acquired the Crystal Cave and restricted access to Collins' coffin, deeming it disrespectful attitude towards the deceasedto him.

The last, fourth in a row, Floyd's funeral took place in 1989. The caver was buried in the cemetery of the Baptist church near Mammoth Cave. Since then, no more attempts have been made to steal it, so we can say that he finally found peace.