Did Police in La Crosse, Wisconsin Cover Up a Serial Killer?
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
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Lacrosse, Wisconsin is home to 50,000 people, three universities, and a host of mysterious drownings of young men. Among them was Luke Homan, a 21 year old basketball player at the University of Wisconsin - Lacrosse. After a night of partying in late September of 2006, Luke vanished, and the story just gets weird after that. Many have asked if there is a serial killer stalking the streets of Lacrosse, and some have suggested it's a nexus point for the alleged Smiley Face Killers. Was it a simple accident, or was there something more sinister at play? Welcome back to The Lore Lodge...
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0:00 - Intro
1:15 - Fum Ad
3:10 - Local History
9:22 - Disappearance of Luke Homan
32:58 - Connecting the Dots - Розваги
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fuck that stupid shit. love the vid but that shit super dumb and will do nothing to kick a smoking habit. its not the oral fixation that causes addiction its the nicotine that product is a stupid toy.
If you aren't connecting the last potential victim because he doesn't fit the attractiveness level did you consider that a potential female killer was 10 years older at the time and possibly just not able to pull the same caliber of victim? It being on V-Day could be her pulling out the big guns to really get someone lonely and desperate
Damn straight that stuff isn't pizza
Once again, a Ü (U with a diaresis) is an "oo" sound, as the diaresis denotes a doubling of the letter and therefore also its sound. This means the name of the product is pronounced "foom", not "fume". The manufacturers likely aren't even aware of this and simple chose an umlaut to be edgy. But their mistake need not be yours. Correct the pronunciation as you make it, and do your part in combating inaccurate information.
For gods' sakes, *please* listen to me.
@TheLoreLodge 7:35 😂 Love how Quick you are to easily Gloss over the Ra*e, M**der, & Gen**ide by European Kleptocratic Settlers.
As far as his body not floating, if the water is cold enough, bacteria wont be able to grow and a body wont float at all. Hence the common phrase “Lake Superior never gives up her dead”
Lake superior whole lot colder body of water and stronger currents than u realize
Actually bodies almost always sink when they drown they pop up after gas buildup inside the body
@@fafarmsthat gas buildup is from bacteria during teh decomposing process
@@cheeseeygamer2997 even in cold water bodies pop up very deep water is different. Also sometimes animals eat the body causing the gas to not form or be contained
@@user-cz9wg1ks2e plus the fish eat dead people
Fun fact I learned in my French class: the reason the language has so many unnecessary letters is because the monks who were tasked with transcribing the language into a written form were *PAID BY THE LETTER*.
Is the word "queue" French? It's a Q with four silent letters following.....
Sorry to burst your bubble, but....this feels like a folk explanation. I learned some real stupid bullshit from teachers growing up that I later realized were simply not true.
That's genius on their part
@@francinesmith1889 That is almost always the case with odd spellings - they used to once reflect the actual pronunciation. People don't realize how much language changes.
Do you know why the word "knight" has so many silent letters? In Old and Middle English, the K used to be pronounced, and the "gh" too. If you've ever heard a German pronounce "Nacht," the "ch" is what the "gh" in knight once sounded like.
Eventually those consonants were dropped, and the vowels changed too, and the spelling never caught up. So we were left with a bunch of silent letters and words that don't sound like how they're spelled.
@@056561022it is but that’s not how it’s pronounced in french, the other letters are not silent
I know you mainly cover American stories, but something incredibly similar to the smily face killer is happening in Manchester, England with the “Manchester Pusher”. It looks like an urban myth about a serial killer pushing people into the canals has possibly incited real copycat killers. It would be really cool to see you cover it.
Thought that was Bristol? Maybe similar story there
@@darkstonefire2530 BRINDLEY!
Thanks I've heard about this with the Missing 411 stuff these are super bizarre cases.
It's already in missing 411 about young men being found in water with mysterious/unsolved circumstances
@@darkstonefire2530
Bristol has had a lot of these cases-
Manchester has had even more.
One thing is undeniable-
the cases are pretty much all men…
no women.
Demographically speaking,
that is irrational.
You nailed it bud alot of people around the lacrosse area think it's a female killer too
What other evidence points there? I'm genuinely curious.
@@user-ll1ot6qo6o she appears to have a type and someone is luring these guys down by the river I live 35 miles from there we are warned to stay away from the river if we go to downtown lacrosse to drink everyone knows to stay away from the river literally either a woman luring them with sex or a cop forcing them with a gun alot of people think it's a cop too some people think it's a couple maybe truckers
Water is genderless and the wasted idiots drowned themselves. The one here in Stevens Point walked out on the river ice which is never fully safe and there was one set of footprints. This conspiracy has been disproven by other credible youtubers, this dude and the tiktoker are idiots
Could be a short male, also.
i used to live there and frequent the bars regularly most thought it was someone in law enforcement. i think it was a man who was jealous of athletic good-looking men who got all the girls when he was in college while he being a dork couldn't score with any. i have a suspect in mind someone in law enforcement who was ran out of town for being a creep.
I live in lacrosse and have for 29 years. This is so neat to see this covered.
We do definitely have a drug and alcohol problem here.. however, our "homeless camp" is set up right on the river at a different park, drugs and alcohol are rampant there, yet people aren't continuously falling in the river.
That’s a great point. I think the camp has moved from Houska park now inland and north a bit. But I think it’s right on the black river behind the south side fest grounds.
So because people arent generally dumb enough to walk into or onto a river wasted, it's likely a national serial killer? Lol yall want this so badly to be a killer when in reality these kids are dumb and drunk.
We have shit cops. Racist too. They hung a noose on their black co workers locker.
I live in lacrosse too it has very rampant drug problem and alchohol problem and the homless shrlter is in a very wrong place
It’s made its way into google maps. If you go on street view you can see our homeless encampment
Weird how there have been ZERO similar cases 25 miles upriver in Winona where there is equal drunken college intoxication problems and the bars are even closer to the river 🤷🏼♂️
What if it’s bouncers throwing drunks into the river after kicking them out
I lived in Winona and was wondering the same thing. In high-school, we basically lived at the river during summertime and lots of partying. No murders.
@@ardyrc4531 the downtown bar scene is not that close to the river.
I've never been to either place, so this comment might not apply but proximity to water is just one risk. Infrastructure plays a huge role in how likely people are to go near the water & how easy it is to accidentally fall in.
Like, I grew up in a sea-side town & went to university in another one. While the water was very close to bars in both places, accidental drownings were basically unheard on. One town the bars were oriented in a way that naturally pointed people away from the water. The other, there was a boardwalk with good barriers built-in that would have required significant effort to cross.
The bars in winona are NOT closer to the river.
I actually grew up with Luke in Brookfield, and knew him up until we went to college. This was a very shocking incident for us all. Miss him, he was a great guy.
My condolences for your loss. I hope you're doing better ❤️
I hope he’s not lying on the internet for attention
@@RealJuiceWrld funny that your mind goes to that (and spending time posting it on here) as opposed to a simple internet search. My user name is my name and out of the two of us that exist, my LinkedIn shows Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Similarly, my furthest back listed education on there lists Brookfield central high school, class of 2003. I then suggest you look up Luke Homan, and from this you could likely deduce that I am not lying. Did you try any of that before making your statement?
I grew up in Brookfield too
Hi my name is Evelyn Wells this case reminds me of the happy face killer,Keith Jesspersen.
I love to see Aiden continually picking fights with States, Countries, languages.
As someone whose lived in and around La Crosse for over 35+ years, the police are horrid and would rather spend time catching/ticketing people 2 mins over on 2 hour parking than deal with the actual problems in the city...
Pretty much just like every where
Yeah thats what cops do lol they are a gang
Nj same.
Then you clearly have not met any of the officers in La Crosse. Stop breaking the law and maybe you will actually have a good experience. Idk just a thought 🥴
@@sadderdazehaze there's no such thing as a good experience with a cop
I’m a LaCrosse alum. We had a student die in winter 2009, I think it was, from drinking and drowning in the river. Always thought it might not have been an accident.
Seeing the drinking culture there kept me from overdoing it.
I remember that being on the local news.
It was t a accident there was a serial killer up there the police covered it up. Never once did any
Guy in la crosse say after bar hopping say “ ya hey lets go hang out by the river “ BS never happened.
What you weren't here for was the string of them through the 90's. Lots of similarities between the crime scenes where the people went into the water.
One guy actually came to in the river around when you should have been attending.
@@danilecashin4126 people do chill at rivers, I chill by the Cape fear river all the time, we also had a marine get drunk and jump in a few years ago, which is a bad idea because the current pulls you 40ft straight down took a month to find his body. However I agree it probably was a serial killer, I'm just pointing out that people do chill at rivers and drunk people do jump in sometimes.
True but it usually happens in the winter. Being from the midwest - we are just trying to survive the cold. Not sitting by the river. @@RexM-od1vt
Born and raised in this area, the river is NOTHING to mess with, especially after drinking. Our town has been incredibly strict about creating as many barriers as possible between downtown and the river.
Awesome to see this discussed more fully.
Agreed were you warned to stay away from the river when you went out drinking in lacrosse like we used to in those days I grew up going to see shows at the lacrosse center and I remember my parents making it a point to warn us to stay away from the river and don't trust people we didn't know was a weird time
Yeah, and after seeing some of Donut Operator's videos covering police bodycam footage from LaCrosse Wisconsin, I could buy the idea that drinking/drug related drowning accidents could be a tad higher than average...
That they have. I got questioned one night by Riverside when I wasn't aware of the rule change. Cops came out of nowhere and scared the crap out of me. Lol
If I may ask, A) Is the current strong enough to get caught in? and B) Is it rocky in this area?
I'm only wondering because some of the injuries they describe occurred while Luke was alive. Would it be plausible, to you, for him to have been caught in the current and hit rocks before tragically drowning?
This case is so heartbreaking, I hope for everyone's sake that it truly is a case of horrible accidents, but I think it's worth questioning.
@@missmay713 possible but if that's the case he wouldn't have had ligature blisters cause water would prevent friction rash likely and the potential lady shoe print I mean I don't think the investigators would have said shoe print if they werent seeing a tread pattern and not just random bruising you'd likely get from falling onto the rocks along the river or getting tangled in brush and people swim the mississippi frequently so its not super dangerous to that end there are places with undertow and drop-offs that are dangerous but every river has that
Very interesting theory! Women as serial killers is something that's often overlooked in police investigations because it's so rare (something like 15% of cases, less the more violent the murder is), but I definitely think it's the most likely possibility here.
Yes, very true and they’re also responsible for drawing people/children away to be trafficked, beaten up by boyfriends and killed.
I mean, is it overlooked because it's rare or is it rare because it's overlooked
Yes
I mean, my intent was overlooked because it's rare, but it does kind of go both ways lol.
Wouldn't you think the woman would be more like the honey pot to get the man to the killers? or maybe it's not a woman but a tranny ....
Can you look at the serial killer in Chicago? A CPD officer told me that they know there’s a serial killer, they’re just keeping it quiet. Young men keep dying in Chicago after leaving concerts and they find them in the Chicago River.
And at least one was from the Great Lakes naval base as well. I totally think cover up
@@dominicschiro9939that kid was a good friend i played lacrosse with my whole life in florida. Knowing him it doesn’t seem like its open and closed like they had it
@@kylleepstein6954 I completely agree with you
Yo that just happened at the Gizzard concert last year
A thing to consider, if this was during oktoberfest, there would have been anywhere from 25-50k more people than there usually are in lacrosse. We have one of the biggest if not the biggest Oktoberfest in the us. A lot of out of towners come
It seems like it’s similar to State Paddy’s. Every year State College has like 20k extra people show up for that.
@@TheLoreLodge it’s also set up basically right on the water. Not a good combo for avoiding drowning deaths
I live about 5 hours from La crosse maybe I’ll check out October fest 2024
@@TheLoreLodgeu seem to be anti police
@@johnriley-wr7cg nope, just holding them accountable for their failures
I don't always watch the local history segment (though most of the time I do) but I wanted to say how awesome it is that you cover it. I hope you always keep this part of your research in, because it's really nice to have regional context.
Agreed it's honestly one of my favorite parts also love his take from the drunk cannibal episode at the end The statement about the value of native folklore and the information contained within them I often find myself screaming get out of my head you f ing warlock
Totally agree. It's really a unique and contextually important feature of this channel. My mom has the attention span of a gnat and I forced her to listen through the episode with the Michigan State Police. She hates history. By the end of the episode she was subbed and addicted. (If you see this, Sorry Mom, but you know it's true😅).
I feel like he said that so we could also skip his ad at the beginning, good man
@@bighuncho1435 Seriously? That's my favorite part.
I love how he values and respects native perspectives and history because it provides so much context to a lot of the subjects he covers.
I lived in La Crosse and went to college there at the time of a few of these "drownings." Many, many people believe that there was more than alcohol at play.
like drugs or foul play?
Rogue cop...
Many people believe that about everything, though. Everyone wants to see true crime in every death.
No offense but many people believe lots of things. That 5g gives causes cancer. Simple facts are that it's a college town in Wisconsin where binge drinking is a cultural norm.
Five extremely similar drownings isn’t a theory, it’s a pattern. There is a reason that Riverside Park is a location where items belonging to the victims were found. As for the idea that a pretty girl lured them there, it seems very plausible. However, I think lifting, tying, dragging and throwing the victim into the river would require more strength than a single female could muster. I’m leaning toward either a male/female couple or multiple females with a vendetta against nice looking drunk young men. As @cw-ol3gv pointed out, Winona, a similar demographic town upriver has had no similar cases. Why do they only occur in LaCrosse? The police and coroner are withholding information for some reason and they are quick to label these deaths as accidental drowning. I’m very suspicious of this place and these deaths. Thanks for looking into this Aidens, Brenda P
They even started operation River watch where college students would patrol riverside park all night on the weekends. I know they did stop some really drunk young men who had no idea where they were.
Thank you Andy for the reply. I’m so glad that they are trying to be more proactive. If there are patrols, then anyone with nefarious intent should be scared off, I hope. I was young and had a great time with my friends, and I drank with them. Nothing wrong with that. I’m old now, and I think it’s lucky that I didn’t do something stupid. I hope that these people continue doing patrols for a very long time. 😎
Winona's water front wasnt as easy to get to as La Crosses was. Eau Claire (similar geography) had way less than La Crosse
Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for the info. 😊
The patrol would help regardless of there being one or more killings plus well. You have no idea who the killer is, what if there is just female killer who used whatever is at her disposal to transport and dispose of her victims. As for why the examiner would hide this information. If it was really something to hide, then it would make more sense for a potential killer to be an influential member of the community (see the boys on the train tracks incident where a prosecutor killed 2 boys for seeing his drug smuggling operation and worked with government officials to get an examiner under their thumb). So if it is an influential figure, yeah it could very well be a case where multiple people are involved and we would have no idea. This isn’t the first time similar things happened in America.
Thank you for the local Native American history, I’m not huge into missing person cases so the native history bit is my favorite part and I’m extra happy about this video because I live in Madison on Ho-Chunk land. Fun fact about the glacial period in this area, at UW madison arboretum there are a line of rocks that are from where the shore was during the glacial period
Me too!
Mentioning the chapters bar right before the ad and having the ad as a chapter so I know where to go… Legends
I used to run wing night there back in the late 2000's. Lol
The "female killer tricks drunk men into going to the park and then drowns them" angle definitely makes a lot of sense, and it also explains the timing of the deaths - they happen during times when theres guaranteed to be a lot of college boys getting drunk at the bar and looking for dates.
It would also explain why all the victims are drunk, since an inebriated victim cant put up as much of a fight
You're an idiot if you believe that. How many female serial killers have there ever been in all of history? You could count them on one hand and you'd still have fingers left over.
This was clearly a case of kids getting way too drunk and accidentally drowning. Occam's Razor. Google it.
Yeah...What doesn't make any sense is the idea that a female serial killer would be able to even move a 6'3" male athlete much less "prey" on them. It's dumb.
@@michaelhill6451 i mean, im a 5 foot 8 female and i can definitely drag my 6 foot 3 former athlete brother across the ground. And im not an athlete. Woman athletes also exist and they can get pretty strong too. Not to mention that, if theyre in the park and on the waterfront to begin with, you dont /have/ to move them far, just get them to the railing and then over it.
Theres also the fact that, when women commit these kinds of crimes, they usually have an accomplice, and 2 people could definitely lift a guy over a railing. If it was a case of a female killer tricking guys she picked up from the bar into going to a secondary location, then probably she just lead them to her accomplice/s and then they did the rest together.
@@foolsenigma Serial killers with accomplices are really rare (only about 10% of all serial killers have accomplices), as are female serial killers to begin with (less than 9% of serial killers in the U.S.). I don't like your chances in a fight against a 6'3" tall man even if he is drunk, despite the fact you are 4" taller than the average woman. I also don't think you understand how hard it is to pick up a 6'3" tall man who is unconscious to throw them over a railing. I guarantee you aren't picking up an unconscious 6'3" tall man off the ground. It's a pretty dumb theory IMHO. I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying it is just about the least likely explanation of any of the explanations under consideration, which is probably why the Police don't think it is likely.
I'd like to see statistics for alcohol related drowning deaths in College towns with similar proximity to a large river. I would bet there is no statistically significant difference between La Crosse drowning deaths and drowning deaths in similar towns.
@@michaelhill6451 Perhaps they are rare because they rarely caught. If some group of street kids have habit kicking to death local hobos - no one even investigate such shit, you don't even hear about it, no one care. Perhaps those kids grow up and decided to kill someone else, someone who annoyed them by being more successful than they are.
37:30 people always say this, but honestly as someone who has serious ideation and keeps it to myself, there are plenty of people who you just wouldn’t know were feeling some kind of way because they’re stoic about it.
very true! stay safe buddy
So excited for this series!! As a retired female bartender and (unfortunately but still experientially) a semi-retired major alcoholic I have NEVER thought these cases were just drunk boys accidentally drowning. I've lived for 30+ years in the state of Florida and I cannot remember a single instance where someone just walked/fell into the water and drowned due to alcohol. And that's in warm water where you can walk into, just about anywhere. Growing up in Michigan (sorry) the only instances I've ever known of accidental winter drownings were when the ice broke underneath them -- and still, alcohol was not a major contributing factor. Alcohol does not a hydrophilic make. However, many have claimed accidental drownings (looking at you, MSP).
I don't know where I stand on a serial killer(s) theory but I do not doubt for a moment that cops cover things up, and for a myriad of reasons. They also treat their jobs as a 9-5 instead of committing to the always-on-duty lifestyle such a career requires. Yes, there are a few good cops here and there, and a few bad cops here and there, but the majority lie in the below average category. Don't take the job unless you're willing to commit.
Grumblers: This is my decades-long, educated opinion and you won't change it. I don't have a record but I've *still* been faced with the ineptitude of cops my entire life. Lying is second nature; they're trained to do it FFS. Sadly, they receive little to no training in mental health awareness. From tip to tail our municipal/penal system is all fucked up. Fight me.
Hey, I both went to uni and tended bar for a long while in Toronto (also female), and encountered more than my fair share of drunk-off-their-faces college boys while doing so. Never had a problem with drinking due to a dodgy stomach, but we've got great weed here, so... Anyway, in spite of being right on Lake Ontario, I've never run into any cases of young drunk guys wandering into the lake and drowning either, apart from the Oshawa 6, a well known case where a few guys got loaded at a party and decided to steal a small boat and a water bike (you read that right) from a marina in cold weather after midnight, and were never seen again.
I'm not entirely sold on the serial killer(s) theory either, but I agree on the lazy/corrupt cops angle. They're like that everywhere. And you're right about their lack of mental health awareness - I work in that field now, and so many people in the trauma and crisis groups I work with have scary cop experiences in their history because the police just don't understand or care about mental health or addiction related issues.
As for the idea of a possible female killer(s), I haven't heard this theory before, but I'm not surprised. I know I'm going to get grief here from ever guy on the internet, but have you ever watched how a lot of these guys act toward girls when they're loaded? *I'm not justifying murder here or saying that drunk college girls act wonderfully (they don't, they're awful too), just suggesting a possible motive.* It's part of why I stopped tending bar - I'd been attacked on my way home too many times by guys who thought a woman out at night was a free target. Maybe someone who was sick of it decided to move the target.
@@thing_under_the_stairs I couldn't possibly agree more! Understanding the origin of a motive and agreeing with it are two separate things. That said, many of my thoughts are contingent on a lot of If's.
For example, if the television documentary was onto something: I was thinking either a network of traumatized females, or even a network of incels, if all the cases are to be linked. I hear there are even cases in the UK. To be fair I've never gone anywhere that there wasn't a happy face spray-painted somewhere. That would have to be one hell of an organized club with the only group of tight-lipped individuals known to modern humanity. Not impossible, but definitely improbable.
*However* if they're not linked, I can totally see a female (or incel) serial killer active in the Midwest for the better part of 10 years. Pointy boots and neon orange nail polish (if that's what it was) scream insecure female to me, after a certain age. Not that there's anything wrong with it (I'm 50 and have pink hair😆). Just saying if it were the same fashion-oriented woman for all the killings it's very possible she got emotionally stuck at a certain age as a symptom of trauma. Or I'm self-referencing. But sometimes. I make a damn good reference.
There's also the mundane reasons -- that bodies placed in water are well known to offer far less in the way of DNA, mask times of death, are never discovered or simply overlooked by cops, intentionally or otherwise. It might just be a local way of hiding bodies, like Florida is with swamps and lobster traps (if you like lobster, don't ask). In this regard, very few of them could be related. There's also the possibility that these victims get so much attention because they're males. To be honest, when there's a female victim people tend to think, Again? It doesn't arouse a lot of interest unless it hits super close to home. Conversely, male victims are an unusual curiosity so we look for ways to connect them.
Anyway, I trust Aidan's research more than most and if anyone can find an overlooked connection it's him. I can't wait to see what he comes up with.
I LOVE Toronto. Honestly I haven't been there in years but I always loved trips to Toronto, it's truly an awesome city. I've never heard of the Oshawa 6 but I'll be looking it up in a minute. Seriously, water bike??
I don't work in mental health but I am sometimes a patient -- nothing exciting, just your typical cPTSD/social anxiety/avoidant PD. I most certainly do not have a formal education in psych but I like to think I've done my research better than most. Also, I try to be a sort-of, informal advocate. If people feel comfortable talking to me then they may feel more open to hearing someone in their daily life, and that's how change comes about -- grindingly slow and in tiny increments.
Anyway, it was refreshing to talk with you, I really enjoyed it. And I just love your name; I can relate. It also reminds me of an Edward Gorey novella.💜
@@thing_under_the_stairsI’m willing to bet a fair number of the ‘drowning’ victims in these sort of cases has been being aggressively drunk towards a group of girls, and the group in an effort to defend a member accidentally ends up causing the guy to drown. Not a majority, but more than most people would think.
This is a serial.killee on the loose u damn circus clown
Since 2009 there have been between 349-465 alcohol related, non-boating, drownings in FL per year.
I went to a college that was right up against a river, and as far as I know, no one has ever drowned. Granted, the river is basically on campus which makes anyone under 21 try to stay away from public safety (near the river) and it's a small college. So, not the best comparison but still. My anecdotal evidence also points to wow that's a lot of drownings.
i swear every video i go okay time for some true crime, and after 10 minutes of native lore i’m like dam that’s interesting. then he brings it back to the topic and i’m like awesome now i have a better understanding
This was going on while I was in school at University Wisconsin Milwaukee, shortly after there were also a number of mysterious deaths near rivers there! Would you please cover that as well? I feel like it doesn’t get enough coverage!
Edit: holy cow, I just rewatched and realized some of the friends came into town from Milwaukee!
We actually lost a few acquaintances and friends in the river these past three years. One friend of mine lost a friend who was found in the river and was last seen on brady st. and that case is still open. Its scary here. We lost a friend after he ran off while tripping on LSD, and was found days later in the river. That river is toxic asf.
We have a lot of similar stories about mysterious deaths on the U of MN campus in Minnesota. There have been something like 26 drownings where it is completely undetermined where the person entered the Mississippi river.
I grew up near the twin cities in MN, and I remember people writing off the drownings as “out of towners trying to take a swim in the unforgiving waters” And as an adult I find that explanation…odd?
@@roefane2258I think you may find that explanation odd as a local. People that didn’t grow up around rivers have no idea just how dangerous they are.
@@stumpf9938 you don't get it. Simply accessing the river in the twin cities is incredibly difficult. Most areas have high safety railings or are literally 50-100 feet above the water, the only reason to jump off that is suicidality.
I’m born & raised, and still live in La Crosse, WI. Thank you for covering this. This town definitely has an alcohol problem, that’s no debate. This is coming from first hand experience and observations. People do get drunk enough where they don’t know where they are going.
Several years ago, the La Crosse Police Department added cameras along the river, and even fences/gate’s to prevent people from falling in. Seems to have helped. No one just seems to walk in now.
Sadly, if we see an alcohol related death in public, it’s often in the winter and a drunk will slip and fall. Unfortunately they hit their head and freeze, that’s happened more than once.
There’s obviously more to it than what I’m mentioning, but this is part of it.
I live in Onalaska. I went to college at the Univ. of South Carolina. Is there any town/city in the US that doesn't have a drinking problem? I feel a lot safer here than Columbia SC. La Crosse has rough areas....just like every other city. Eau Claire has bad areas. Madison has bad areas. Rochester has bad areas . I think it is just society at this point.
@@danielrn133 This country has a drug problem in general. Really, a despair problem.
Lived in La Crosse during this period.
Spent many nights at the Vibe. Scott sponsored my pool and dart teams. My GF worked there part-time.
He was a good guy and got a lot of hassle over the band fight story.
3rd Street was the weekend binge district. All the 20 somethings. Witnessed constant bad behavior by young kids unaware of their limits.
The city was cracking down on DUI. It was unwise to drive and park nearby. Most people had to walk some distance.
This made for a relatively safe and fun experience to bar hop, meet people, and have a good time.
The west bank of the river in that area was dredged long ago for shipping. It has a deceptively wicked current. Even a sober strong swimmer could get in trouble.
The city failed to address the poor lighting and lack of safety barriers but rather focused on the overserving and tavern responsibility.
Once some common sense was used, frequent drownings were no longer an issue.
As for the foul play rumors, I never once heard the lady killer theory.
Some thought it was a bad cop or someone impersonating one, others would whisper about an evil cab driver.
It was inexperienced drinkers in an unfamiliar place with bad lighting, inadquete safety measures, and a river that will kill you.
I do have to say, there was a student where I was at uni who went missing and was later found dead, reportedly having drowned in a stream after having fallen in drunk. But I always thought it was very weird that he somehow went miles away from the city centre where he'd been with his friends, in the opposite direction of where he lived, and the little more information that came out only made it more confusing about what had actually happened.
Glad to see you covering this i live 35 miles from lacrosse and there are a ton of people who think this is the case lacrosse has a drug and alcohol problem i mean its got the largest six pack in the world there are deffinately gang elements to not very large but they exist but there has been talk of a serial killer for atleast 2 decades
Drunk people drown, smily graffiti is everywhere. There's no conspiracy
Puncuation woulda made this sooo much easier to read. Correct spelling as well....
My friends who grew up there thinks it's a cop.
@Lezzyboy87 people are murdered all the time too
@@briantomcollinsThat was my first thought as well.
The bodies taking longer to surface because of the water temperature is consistent with what I've heard about Lake Superior. In Gordon Lighthouse's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," he describes Lake Superior by saying, "The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead." Apparently, it just stays too cold for bodies to decompose enough to float.
I live in LaCrosse. Oktober fest is one of three drinking festivals here. A couple of things that you didn't cover are as follows. 3rd and 4th streets have lots of bars. They are BOTH one way streets running in the opposite directions. 3rd St. runs south and 4th St. runs north. If a disoriented drunk thought they were on 4th St. and they were walking with traffic they would turn right to go toward campus. But if they were actually on 3rd street, that right turn would head them toward the river. The river is down hill from the bars and drunks tend to stumble downhill. If they stumbled into the park and had to pee, they would probably go to the river to do that. As far as meeting a girl at Riverside Park, the park closes at 9 PM. It is NOT known as a place to meet up with college girls. There are two downtown parks in the direction of campus. Drunks falling into the river from the park is so common here that we now have a group of volunteers known as "River watch" who patrol the park on nights with a lot of drunks downtown.
I was born in La Crosse and moved back there for just over a decade after leaving the Army. I worked with a former sheriff of one of the nearby counties, and he told me that while a lot of the Smiley Face killer stuff ended up being overblown, there was (or still is) a consensus among the local law enforcement that there was a killer in the La Crosse area they missed because they got misdirected. He also pointed out that La Crosse has a small FBI office, despite being a county of only 50,000 people (primarily university students) which he claims was originally set up to track a potential serial killer, but became permanent to address cross state criminals between Milwaukee, the Twin Cities, and Chicago who often end up passing through La Crosse.
I love that you guys are covering more police coverups.
covering coverups? or uncovering them? while going undercover?
no cowering while covering the undercover uncovering of these coverups by the cove.
Covering cover ups hahahah.
@@beeb6809
Well if he is covering cover-ups, then it will just lead to more questions.
If uncovering cover-ups, it will lead to more answers.
It’s alleged and untrue until proven otherwise
@@sadderdazehaze That’s not how truth works.
This was an interesting listen. I went to college just across the river and visited Lacrosse and Onalaska many times. My ex had started visiting those very bars around 2007/2008 (when he was single, we met a few years after that). It’s a fun visit, but there’s definitely a lot of problematic issues there including the police being negligent towards civilian safety and concerns. Grateful my ex and his friends never joined the death count, I don’t think many of them were even aware of that trend, so thank you for covering it and increasing the awareness about this suspicious trend.
Was just in Onalaska 😮
As a 21 year old man I can 100% confirm that I would ignore all my survival instincts if a cute enough girl (or guy for that matter) asked me to, ESPECIALLY if I was wasted.
Little fruity I see
A little tooty I see
Not sure people realize just how messed up anything over .12 (much less over .20) makes you.
During Octoberfest 2008 I was at who's on 3rd street with a group of friends. There was a small group of young women that were being flirty with us. I was at the bar and getting one last round of drinks for us and we were planning on moving on after that round. One of the girls sat next to me with a shot and the bartender asked me what I wanted, I ordered the 5 beers for me and my buddies and she said get him a shot too. I said I'm good, but she talked me into doing a shot with her. After we finished our beers we were leaving and the same girl asked me if I would help her find her friends. While I was helping her, my friends assumed that I had went to the library so they left. We never found her friends so we started bar hopping to try to find her friends or my friends. At some point I remember smoking weed behind a bar with her and doing more shots. I must have blacked out for quite awhile, and the next thing I remembered I was walking down state st towards the river. The girl was about a half of a block in head of me talking on her phone. I heard her say that she's heading towards the park and will be there in a couple of minutes. She kept on encouraging me to hurry up and to keep following her. When she wasn't paying attention I took a left in a ally and started heading south. I sat down behind a dumpster not far down the alley, I heard her yelling my name and arguing with someone on her phone. After that I blacked out again and woke up on a couch behind a bar and walked home. I don't remember large portions of the night, because I'd gotten way drunker than I intended on. I barely spent any money either, so I assume that the girl was buying most of the drinks, and I do remember her pressuring me to stay out and to keep drinking when I wanted to call it a night. Who knows what it all means, but I know as soon as I realized that she was leading me to riverside park that I needed to nope right out of the whole situation.
This was 08? Can you recall anything more?
I’m impressed
You coverage of the native lands is almost completely covered.
So much is missed and since it’s a topic I love to study. I am impressed with your research style. If everybody started and finished close to this or better our history could retain more color than the black and white or old history.
I’m from the area (or was.) and indigenous as well.
French island has a spot for me as I was a Engineer for the local railroad here. CMStP&P, then Soo now CP.
Coffee hound too.
Well done
Well played
And well executed.
I wish they taught more of this Native American history in schools. The way you tell history in addition to these crazy events is so interesting. We need more people like you teaching in schools brother!
I've heard that this was a thing, but I have no idea about the particulars... so I'm watching the premier.
Also, as a history fan, I really enjoy the historical context that is a big part of each post, particularly because the history included often covers topics that I otherwise would not have been exposed to (or even thought about.)
Cheers! (Good so far...)
I live in Kenosha in SE Wisconsin (almost 4 hours away from La Crosse) and this is all new to me lmao. I know friends that’s in La Crosse a lot, but every time I watch a bodycam video from Wisconsin a lot of time it’s a La Crosse video 😂
I adore your videos. You remind me so much of Cayleigh Elise with the level of respect you show the victims (and that she also covered folklore topics as well). I think that's why I have so much affection and respect for this channel. When Cayleigh left it felt like losing a friend. Finding you guys was like seeing that friend again after years apart.
I’m so glad someone else feels this way, I miss her so much ❤
I’ve lived in La Crosse my whole life, and let me tell ya it is so surreal to hear a UA-camr as big as you talking about places and events that took place in my little Wisconsin town lol
Also, a little bit of context about La Crosse: bar hopping is very very common here, with many downtown blocks being 80-100% bars. Alcohol is a big problem here. Anyone who has seen the riverfront in the Riverside park area could see how easy it is to just fall off or be pushed off. There is one area in Riverside that is an embankment covered in jagged, unsteady rocks for 20 or so feet, but most of it is a dock and a walkway that just goes straight into the water. With how popular Oktoberfest is here, it’s a wonder there aren’t way, way more accidental drownings here.
Shower shanties? Your username “The Deathly Smile” seems a bit odd with that avatar and all the creepy ass shit on your channel
It’s incredibly common for drunk college students to end up in the river, there’s a huge homeless camp on the river in La crosse, if there was a serial killer there would be way more bodies being pulled out of the river
I think it's also important to note that a lot of human trafficking rings target areas where young people will be vulnerable, drinking etc. To your point could be that women were used to lure these men to a specific area, then overtaken by a group of men. Perhaps they didn't fit what these criminals were looking for, and so got dumped in the river. If there's already a lot of accidental drownings, it's an easy cover. Rest in peace to these people that passed❤
Interesting theory but there are not a lot of missing college aged men in LaCrosse to fit the pattern here.
I’m a La Crosse native so it’s insanely cool seeing a 45 minute video on some of the town lore
This happens a lot in Boston also. And I’ve almost walked into the river after having a few downtown. The Charles River isn’t shallow near the edges and long stretches of it are docked on the side for quite awhile, so good luck climbing up while drunk AF and all cold and shocked from the water. If your walking on the paths it’s not always straight and there are not always gates along the edge, when the lights play off the water and the path looks straight and open and well lit, you are possibly drunkenly shambling towards a 90 degree bend in the bank of sorts.
Please never stop the content. You have some of the best content on yt. I look forward everyday to watching your videos. Unparalleled quality and research. You’re the man Aidan.
Donut Operator has taught me that lacrosse Wisconsin is a wild place lol
I am so glad that you include the history segment. Please, don't stop.
Love this channel. Found it by chance, binged a bunch and now I eagerly await each new episode.
Drunk people can do Incredibly and unreasonably erratic and unexpected things. Had an incredibly drunk friend we tucked into the upstairs futon, we gound him downstairs disassembling our toaster. We have no idea where he got the screwdriver from.
Another time we had a friend show blind stumbling drunk at 5am at the same apartment with mud to his thighs. From what we could piece together he left another friends house at 1am and walked 5 miles, partially cross country, to our place which he had only been to once.
It's so true 😂 so back in my party days I also went thru a period of meth use, and I remember hanging out with friends and a friend of a friend had come along and was SO DRUNK, like falling down passing out drunk. Not really what you want when everyone else is doing meth. Well at any rate, he ended up doing some of the meth and then we drove him MILES on rural winding roads back to his home so we could get rid of him and he could sleep it off. Several hours later, there he was on the porch again! He had walked all the way back, to a home he had only been to that one time, because he wanted more meth 🤦♀️ it definitely tripped all of us out lol.
It's a very good thing that people like you bring these possibilities to light. And the fact that you present only facts that you verify is rare! Plus the fact that you still leave all possible outcomes open to discussion only using actual facts to lean any direction is also not seen often. Please keep up the awesome work! The world needs more like you two!
Man im so glad you covered this i havent thought about this in ten yrs really brings me back in fact it reminds me that people used to joke around here that if you went drinking up there in that era people would say stay away from the river half seriously making reference to all the strange happenings
This is the first video I'm watching from you, and I am LOVING the history you give. I would 100% watch videos of you just talking about history
You and your team go so in depth and the history lessons at the beginning are like the cherry on top of a well crafted narration.
I love the history section it’s my favorite segment in your videos! It adds some realism to some of the more outlandish topics
Another addition to the Lacrosse cinematic universe
Can't believe your covering this. Some locals believe it's a cop.
I feel like this could be very possible unfortunately.
Wouldn't be surprising. Have access to tons of drunks. Would have to be smart and opportunistic though - not something you could plan.
Would also make sense with how the men got to the river from miles away.
Man oh man, your videos are great! I stumbled onto your channel yesterday and I've been watching them non-stop. As a Canadian, I don't know a whole lot about your Native American history, so the learning bit of your videos is exceptionally interesting. I appreciate the fact that you can seamlessly work the history and the story in together. This is super cool!
I loved your take on this and all the cases. Yeah its not 10 connected ones but maybe 5 that actually could be. And like you said it could be nothing as well we just dont know
I always like you videos, but wanted to drop a comment that i really really enjoy the history lesson parts as much as the headline story. Your well thought out, well researched videos scratch multiple itches for the kind of content i enjoy.
i’m sick at the moment so seeing that you posted a new video just instantly made my day a thousand times better!
I’ve heard of lacrosse Wisconsin not only from you but from donut operators videos covering all the absurd arrests they have to make there and all the repeat offenders who pop up in these videos so I’d have to agree that they do have a substance issue
Noah the 🦖 T-Rex 😂
Did not expect this many donut operator comments but I would love to meet the guy 😂
@@TheLoreLodge he would be interesting to have on the show but I dunno how that would work considering he mainly covers chest cam footage but you and Aiden could always go shoot guns with him , he has done it with a lot of other UA-camrs and I even think wendigoon
the smiley face theory is one of the only things I don't believe it's a sense of correlation and causation
i am from this area. I lean more towards serial killers due to the frequency of deaths in La Crosse. One actually happened in Febuary 2022, Hamud Faal. But the river front pre 2006 was very easy to enter the river near riverside park. Post 2006, a lot of fences went up plus there is more people watching the river front at night. Reports from that show a lot of drunk people getting close to the fence are saved by the river watch program. When i ask friends from La Crosse about this case, you get mixed views. 1/3 saying serial killer, 1/3 say no idea, 1/3 say accidental drownings.
I'm abiding by the Long Haul Trucker theory. Major interstates passing through La Crosse with very active rest stops within walking distance of the river/bars. Easily believed that these kids just got drunk and fell.
I believe theres a theory that thinks that it's a trucker couple that travels the I90 corridor or something like that I think there may be Merritt to that theory for sure like she lures em and he kills em
@@user-qg7vj7nb9cThat sounds more likely than that many “coincidental drownings”, everyone near the Mississippi knows how powerful the current is and to never swim in it unless they were all just on another level of drunk…….
I’m wondering if anyone has considered a supernatural explanation at all either….. there’s many Native American stories of spirits that lure people into waterways to drown them
@@user-qg7vj7nb9c The trucker couple theory is interesting and plausible. Question I have is how does she keep doing it? If it started in 1997 and she was 25, she'd be 51 by now and probably not as "good" at luring in college kids. I've also thought the killer was targeting guys who were secretly gay or bi because they'd cover their tracks, not tell people where they were going, etc.
@@user-ll1ot6qo6o there's a theory that it's two different killers Aiden mentioned he thought it was two sets of 5 I kinda think it might be gang related like punishment for crossing the cartel or the Asian crips they both have a presence there
wow serial killing cartel or asian crips there?@@user-qg7vj7nb9c
My day is MADE when I see a video or live from you. Thank you so much for the quality content.
Being from Wisconsin it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a cover up. There has been lots of mysterious deaths along the river as well.
Like?
U of M Minneapolis, and Winona are both on the Mississippi. Winona and LA Cross party together. All 3 have similar problems.
Also... Cowboy Boots are popular in the area, with farmers. But think meat packing. Tied up in a cooler... Boot print on forehead.
Not interested in a history segment? My dude, that's the best part! I really appreciate you as a YT for that. Old American movies taught us foreigners that Native people "go UAUAUAUUAUAUA" and "shoot arrows, dunno." And I kinda get it. Those were movies from the settlers' point of view. It is so interesting to hear the real story about Native Americans. Their history, languages, differences... Alliances and wars! I'm so into it all of the sudden. Thanks to you, man. Cheers!
Love all your older and newer videos. Excellent job. ❤❤❤❤
Luke was in water that was likely 40 degrees MAYBE a little warmer. It fully makes sense to me that he wouldn’t have decomposed. It also makes sense that his wounds would be before his death. He likely fell in and died from striking rocks or debris.
Edit: you did address some of this, sorry I made the assumption you were going to push the smiley face killers thing, which lowkey is ridiculous. I think this case is a lot more sus than I suspected, but more in the “maybe he was murdered” way than “maybe there’s a gang of serial killers with no suspects ever found” way
tbf sometimes he does take things/push things is a bit of weird direction
@@I_AM_HYDRAAor maybe you all are a bit closed minded. I bet you think there’s nothing strange about the missing 411’s growing list either
@@Bravetrain13 You really are going to put stock in the idea made by Paulides when he's some bigfoot and UFO enthusiast who's work has been proven to contain a lot of inaccurate and wrong details and facts.
@@Bravetrain13 no agree that some are weird but I think we underestimate the stupidity of humanity and panicking does to humans.
We do try to be as rational as possible given the information available/provided to us
I was wondering if the Smiley Face Killer would get some love in LaX with your recent pivot into the topic. Happy to see as a La Crosse native.
There's a space in LA____CROSSE tho.
Awesome as always thanks
I love the little history info you provide! You have great hair & eyebrows!💖
Fitz Gerald (a sports writer from the 20’s) coined the term Big Apple, it’s likely from jazz culture, where a saying goes “there are many apples on the tree but only one Big Apple.”
Fitz covered horse racing and he heard a couple black stable hands down in New Orleans calling New York City the Big Apple to refer to the city as the biggest and best city in the country at the time.
Previously a writer named Billy Tucker for a black newspaper in the 20’s that had national distribution called both Los Angeles and New York as a big apple, referring to them being the biggest and best cities around. So the saying “there are many apples on the tree but only one big apple” being popular with black entertainers - specifically jazz musicians- and then gradually seeping into pop culture to describe premier cities (and possibly other top of the line things) from there, over time coming to exclusively be used for NYC is the most likely reasoning for why it’s called that.
41:49 doesn’t have to be a female killer, just a female accomplice or a team including a woman.
Doughnut operator covers Lacross quite a bit in his police videos.
Ryan, Nick, Brian, Scott, Zack.... These are the most frat bro names I've ever heard 😂
I love as the more I watch your channel, the closer the killers get to me. There was a murder in my county that ended up going cold. It’s really crazy
This is the worst of all conspiracies. Whats with all the smiley face graffiti with no murders...
I live 35 miles from lacrosse and I disagree and fact is you don't know chit about it so just stfu
That's how the pattern/MO started off with connecting these cases, however there are other factors that puts them into this category.
Only reason it's called "Simely Face Killers" is becasue that's how it was known as from the start & is still mostly known as.
Though tbe actual smiley faces aren't an important factor in the cases
As someone whose been there alot as a kid it really wouldn't surprise me at all. I've seen alot of interesting stuff there lmao.
What would be helpful in these longer form videos is an infographic thrown on screen periodically. When you made the statement of the 5 connected cases in you could have thrown one up. Nothing fancy, just the names/dates/pictures of victims and then the connecting factor.
Always love the content!
Hopefully one day we'll have the budget and staff, but right now our team is just too small.
Great job man, love your channel!!
i live in a college town in sw pa that has a river running through it and no one has ever drowned. to be fair our school is WAYYYY smaller than state college but has a similar size to uw- la crosse
Great job, clearing up several unanswered questions from way back, and once again contributing to my growing fury toward LE. They routinely hide facts they dislike and refuse to keep public and families in the loop.
Thank you for an excellent job. Love your channel. Your video was interesting and informative. Great job❤❤❤❤❤
Something I DEEPLY appreciate about this channel is its consistent coverage of Native American history and how it intertwines with US history. It's often a detail other channels forgo or quickly gloss over when covering the Missing 411 or other similar incidents. Keep up the great work. 👍
i thought Wisconsin was cheese
I really like you covering these smiley face killers cases not because I believe the theory but I think the cases are extremely interesting and there is definitely something fishy going on even if not a grand conspiracy
The idea that a serial killer drowning young men all over the country is silly. But I do think some of these probably aren't accidents.
The idea of Ted Bundy is silly too. Doesn't mean it wasn't real. @@agdoren
@@agdorenwhat if it’s an organized group of serial killers….. you never know man, crazier shit has happened in this world
Could also be accidental self defense killings. Drunk guys follows and harasses a girl, she shoves him or hits him and he falls into the water and drowns. Girl wouldn’t come forward because she would get in trouble and wouldn’t be able to prove anything, and that’s why it’s common in college towns. Not a conspiracy, but just women defending themselves from creeps. I’ve seen something similar happen on my own campus, guy was harassing a girl, she shoved him, he tripped and fell into the lake, I can definitely see a drunk guy drowning from it.
Edit: Creep was fine. He got out of the water, and security kicked him out because apparently he wasn’t even a student, and had multiple reports of creeping on students.
@@dacrosber Three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.
I'm so grateful for your research. I love this channel, the quality of the narration and the informations provided. It's absolutely perfect and in this day and age full of half-truths and sensationalism, really rare.
As someone who lives in the county, it's kind of awesome to be seeing anyone talk about it in any light. I always saw it as a small town, so it's cool seeing this :)
Grew up in this area and even lived in lacrosse during this period of time or at least was of college age between 04 and 08. It was widely accepted that something funny was going on and that you need to be "safe" when partying downtown lacrosse if you were in this age range.
For those who watch donut operator Lacrosse Wisconsin is also known for a different kind of criminal
my cousin went to school, and currently lives in La Crosse and when he first told me he was going I was like "oh no".
Thank you for talking about Ho-Chunk history too, my family has deep Wisconsin roots that extends to Winnebago ancestry.
I'm getting fumed up by this ad read that's better. Carry on.
I've friends up in the LA Crosse area, I was there last month even.
I don't really think serial killer, based off my limited experience just booze and river and homeless.
I'm interested to have my opinion changed.
More over, I will note the party grounds are an easy walk to the River.
I've heard that men found drowned, with alcohol in their system) are often found with their flies down (this is not a joke), because they stopped to urinate in a body of water- as a logical spot to do so, for privacy, etc...
So, naturally, when they fall, they falll forward into sometimes swiftly moving/cold/deep water in an inebriated, not completely dressed state, with (due to a desire for privacy) nobody around to see their accident/predicament. Tragedy ensues.
Occam's Razor dictates that the explanation with the fewest complications (NOT that which is the most simple/least complex) is usually the most likely, and the 'Fell in the river while drunk and taking a leak' explanation satisfies that condition best, I think. (Though that is just a probabilistic explanation, not proof by any means.).
I to am willing to be convinced otherwise, and, of course, there could be different explanations for different cases which could muddy the waters (bad pun, sry), but, unfortunately, I think this may remain a mystery.
If this is indeed a female serial killer, one thing that I'd be curious about is the victims wounds. Oftentimes female killers use guns or drugs/poison to kill, and don't rely on things like knives, blunt objects, fists, etc. While a gun wound wouldn't fit with the wounds described in this video, something like drugs or poison could make sense (assuming it didn't get picked up by toxicology)
It may not be a solo female killer. It could be a dominant killer with a subservient female partner, or even a group. But, personally, I lean more towards the male/female partnership.
Note: I'm fully aware that a female would not necessarily need a male partner if she decided to be a killer, Ailenn Wournos is a prime example, but looking at the victims and the wounds sustained, I think male involvement has a higher probability than a single female.
I'd wonder what the medical examiner tested for actually. Because if they weren't thinking to look for something, and didn't test for it, it would be easy to slip it on. Also could be a male and female together. Guy shows up thinking he's going to hook up with the woman and the man shows up.
@@RLKmedic0315 I could see it being a couple- maybe the woman acts like bait to get the person to the right place, and then the man jumps them.
Hey man, you're looking really good I can tell the gym is paying off. Keep improving yourself and i love the videos, especially at the gym 💪