Episode 73 - Bridge of Death: A Deep Dive into a Controversial Documentary

The Golden Bridge is one of the most internationally recognized landmarks of all time, spanning over a mile and a half lengthwise and 746 feet high. It's as majestic as it is gigantic, making a very popular site for tourists the world over. 

On a darker note, the bridge is also a magnet for suicide jumpers. In 2004, a filmmaker shot 10,000 hours of footage and managed to capture 23 people who jumped to their deaths. The result is a fascinating and morbid documentary that's hard to watch, yet just as hard to look away from.  Hear the full story, this week on Death in Entertainment!

Transcript

0:02

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most internationally recognized landmarks of all time. Spanning over a mile and a half lengthwise and 746 feet high. It says majestic as it is gigantic, making it a very popular site for tourists the world over. On a darker note, the bridge is also a magnet for suicide jumpers. In 2004, a filmmaker shot 10,000 hours of footage and managed to capture 23 People who jumped to their deaths. The result is a fascinating and morbid documentary that's hard to watch yet just as hard to look away from That's This Week on death in entertainment. Live from Los Angeles. 911. What is your emergency? Here in Hollywood now. 2 counts of murder, injury and death! Oh my God! Shocking new details that has stunned the entertainment world. Um, This makes me a little nervous. The hair stood up on my arms. Just like in the movies. What do you call this thing anyway? Death in entertainment! and hello deados here we are. We're back again. Are Good to see ya cannot escape us. Yeah. And we will not escape you. Yes. We're here for you feeling's mutual. We're both addicted to each other. Yes. What is going on everybody? My name is Kyle Ploof. My name is Mark Mulkerron. And I'm Alejandro Dowling. And this week we are delving into the story of the ominous Golden State bridge Jovin is a good word delving diving. I hope not. We're gonna do the belly flop into this episode. Oh, boy. I mysterious beauty. Yes. Of the Golden Gate Bridge, of course, the most murderous freestanding structure in America. A serial killer, it'd be Gacy. Yeah. A lot of bodies on it. This piece of architecture? And off it? Yeah. off it. Yeah. And we're off to before we go. Okay. Oh, hold the phones. I think. Arguably, this is something we may need every episode from now on. But this one, especially a little disclaimer. Yes. serious topic here. Yeah. And there'll be some jokes. Yes. Where appropriate, and probably inappropriate. But hey, that's why you listen to us? Yes. But we will be respectful. And you know, that's all I got. This is not the first episode. We should have done this. But it's a good point to be made at the beginning. At the top. There will be talks of suicide throughout this. So if that's not your thing, then you can skip this one. We'll see you next week. Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of bridges, a lot of falling off or jumping off. And if that affects you in any negative way, tune out now. Yes, I'll come back next week. Yeah. Come back next week. And then this week, we'll go to 2004. Okay. Oh, my goodness, the year of 2004 What was going on in the world of pop culture? And we're going to be looking at the entire year 2004 Because the filmmaker responsible for the documentary we'll be talking about today shot the bridge for an entire year. Oh, wow. So from January Oh, four to December. Oh, four. That's a big project. It's a lot of film. Imagine. Yeah. So we're gonna cover what was going on? Why not? Why not? Yeah. Mark. Ah, yeah. Well, let's, I will delve into the top TV shows around this time around 2004. If anyone can remember this, CSI and American Idol are hot on television one massive Yeah, friends finally comes to an end after 10 fucking years. And a lot of money made by a lot of people on that show still to this day. And a lot of drug money for Matthew Perry. Let's be honest. 20 million a year for every main character in France. Oh my god, Matthew Perry was able to buy a pharmacy. The finale was the fourth most watched show in history with 52 point 2 million viewers. That's more than two years I think or is it? Wow, that I think is less than cheers. Less than two years. That was probably the second only to mash. Maybe like Seinfeld. Cheers, mash and friends. No, I think it's actually mash Seinfeld. Cheers, friends. Okay, wow. Well, you notice as the years go on more and more options on television become the like when mash was was There's only three TV channels basically. Right? Yeah. And happy Buddy was talking about and watching the friends finale. Yeah, except for me. Yeah, I didn't care. Was there a wedding at the end? I feel like I think so. Yeah. It was very back to Alejandro it's hot corner over here. scorching for the friends finalities You watch it? No. Well, let's see. Local podcasts are all on. Yeah. 20 years in the making. Yeah. Top Movies at this time. Number three, the Passion of the Christ. Thank God still haven't seen it. Jesus Christ. I saw that literally. I saw that at a matinee with a church group. Oh, yes, it was not my church group. Wow. I feel just snuck in. I was hung over and I got dragged to it. When you said hung, I'm like, Whoa, where are we going? We got dragged like Christ. by the Romans. They practically had to nail me to the seat. Oh, come on crucifixion combo. Number two at this time, Sam Raimi going hard with the you know, blockbuster movies this time Spider Man two. Oh, okay. I believe that was the sequel to Spider Man. Yes, I would. I would think so. Yeah. Tobey Maguire, right. Yeah. Maguire right. Yeah, of course. I hate all those. I watched the first Spider Man. I'm like, that's not worth any of this hype. Yeah, this one though people thought was better than the first. A lot of people at the time considered this to be the best comic book movie ever made. Yeah. Is that with Willem de foe and Jim Franco. This one is with Alfred Molina Molina that's where he's got all the claws. dakak same character from Boogie Nights. Yeah. Shooting everyone. Yeah. Number one at this time. Another sequel? Shrek two. Yeah, so that adds that spider man to for the most money making. Wow, I really until this moment right now. I did not know they made a sequel to Shrek. Oh, there's like four of them. Now. I really didn't know he was chastising me about the friends for now. And he doesn't notice the 10 Shrek Yeah. It just blew right past me. Yeah. Well, let's talk about the songs right now. Top songs 2004 Number three. If it ain't got you by Alicia Keys. If I ain't got oh, if I ain't got you. I ain't heard that one. Oh, it's a beautiful song. It makes me cry. I ain't trying to hear that song well, nothing is actually good song. A bad rendition. We're just hearing right now. Alicia Keys in the studio right now. Yes, she is. I just killed her. Oh, take us to number two. Number two is burned by Russia. Yo, okay. I don't know what that song is. Okay, not bad. Not a better rendition than the Alicia Keys. Well, number one is yeah by Usher. Featuring Little John and ludicrous. This one you couldn't miss out about No, this one. Was that David Spade? How does this one go? I really don't remember. Yeah. But I'm just saying yeah, over and over. Here's the thing. I graduated high school congratulations for and I'm very disappointed by the top three songs of that year because that year what I remember is Modest Mouse sure that should be the number one song flowed on. Yeah, and it would actually be a great song for this episode. Yikes. If you're on the ledge, yeah, just remember will offload. Right. Yeah, even as a body will just float down the river. Yeah. We'll float right into this story. Let's go the Golden Gate Bridge. grand, majestic, iconic thoughts. I concur. I agree. Yeah. What do you expect some? Some bad response to that heartache? Yeah, it's ugly. I think it's great. I don't know. I don't I've never even seen it in person. Never been up there. I have really? Yeah. Is it worth it? Is it all the hype? It's yeah, it's a bridge that's there. Oh, it's stunning. It is. It's beautiful. It took your breath away. Yeah. Okay. Okay, yeah. Go away the breath of a bunch of other people are gonna tell Talk about, Hey, come on. I'm trying to lighten the mood. Hey. So yes, it's a bridge and it carries pedestrians and bikers between the city of San Francisco and Marin County, where Robin Williams lived. But it takes cards too, though, right? Of course. Okay. You said you said pedestrian. You did highlight the pedestrians and bike. Yeah, my car. Yeah. I've seen full house. Yeah, they're driving on it. I see cars on it before. Green Screen. Everywhere you look. You're right. Okay. It takes cars as well dye cycles. I'm highlighting that you can walk on it as well. Yeah. And it'll take it to Moraine county coming from the city. And the tunnel connecting the two is actually named the Robin Williams tunnel. Now it is yes. Oh, from the bridge, you can see Angel Island you can see Alcatraz, it's a beautiful orangish Art Deco design. It is also unfortunately, a popular site for suicide jumpers. 1600 Plus have ended their lives there. And it's actually a higher number in reality, because they don't find all the bodies. Exactly, yeah. And some people could go there at night. And maybe they didn't, no one knows that they kind of came jumped and left and their bodies just never recovered. That's a frightening thought to me. The people that jumped and nobody noticed. Yeah. And their body wasn't found. Yeah. Brutal. Other suicide magnets. That's the term for these places. It's kind of a McCobb McCobb term. Yeah. Other suicide magnets include the Empire State Building. I'm like, what's the word? I have two empires. St. Peter's Basilica and the Eiffel Tower. And guess what? Those all have suicide barriers now? Yeah, there's not much suicide going on at those places. So you can't like jump over the side of it? No, yeah, Empire State Building at the observatory. They have like a big fence that curls over. So you can't like climb up, you get to climb around and then up. By the time that happens, you'll get like, yeah, if you're prepared enough to actually do that you're not the type of person that's ended your life. Yeah, that's just like training in order to jump off a building. Right? The Golden Gate Bridge is second only to the naging Yangtze River Bridge and China, which is responsible for over 2000 deaths. Well, they got a lot more people. So have you adjusted for population? Marks? Not impressed? It's almost it's a wash at Golden Gate is like I'm number one per capita. And there's a lot of symbolism with the bridge. It is technically at the edge of the world or end of the world Western civilization. Yes, yeah. Originally, the rail was going to be five and a half feet high, but it was lowered to four feet, which is pretty short. Maybe because chief engineer Joseph Strauss was only five feet tall. Really. He was no short King. Slaking he was known as the little man who built the big bridge. That's a little route. Kind of too far. Actually. That's what it's called. In May 1937, the bridge was completed. At the opening ceremony, Joseph Strauss declared who would want to jump from the Golden Gate Bridge would nature rent asunder? Long ago man has joined today. I think he was drunk. And then one guy just jumped off. Black guy. Three months later, Harold Whopper, did hop over the rail shoes. He was walking and he told the stranger next to him. This is as far as I go, and then jumped. Man, Joseph Strauss died himself a year later in 1938. Due to stress Wow. At his funeral, the bridge director gave a rather dark eulogy, saying, Joseph put so much work into this bridge. And out of its completion, he got so little, the Golden Gate Bridge for my dear friend turned out to be a mute monument of misery. Wow. So all the adulation that came with the bridge was not worth it. Yeah, so that shows you it's not worth any don't work at all. If you build a bridge, why would the first thing when you're like cutting the ribbon and breaking the champagne on the side? Like, why would you be like who wants to jump off this? You're like putting it in people's head? Yeah, there were some accidents during its concert. struction Well, this this type of big American projects were like 30% of the workers would die. Like, there was no like, you know, OSHA or anything like that that would stop like, you know, very dangerous workplaces. Yeah. So people would just die and they just throw him in a pit and they just, you know, get a new person. Go and keep going. Yeah, refresh the supplies. And I'm sure Strauss like, it's hard to sleep at night when you you know, that you're, you are responsible for this entire structure and if anything bad happens, because like before, didn't they try to build an another bridge there. It just totally wobbled and it just collapsed. And yeah, it broke down. That's why this one was innovative, because it's a suspension bridge with cables. Yeah. Which is also why it's stunning to look at. Yeah, yeah, I've seen videos of like old timey videos of bridges that were just like wobbling and just kind of all just collapsed and stuff. I think that was in Tacoma. Washington is our that was yeah, just snapping. And it's like, it looks odd. Yeah, it looks like a cartoon. Yeah, it's crazy. Imagine driving on that when that's happening? Yeah. Oh, hell no. Oh, hell, no. That'd be out of pocket. Or imagine if you were one of the jumpers and then it collapses while you're trying to jump. Yeah, he's land on it. God dammit. You hear the guy who can't kill himself. Yeah. He takes a cyanide pill that to dead. It's a breath mint. Someone comes up and kisses him. Yeah. Six people had jumped by the time Joseph Strauss died. In 1973, the San Francisco Chronicle and examiner had countdowns to the 500th jumper. That's gross. 14 people were stopped by the bridge patrol, including a man who was wearing a cardboard sign that said 500 Wow, that could Well, that's good advertising though for him. And in the midst of all the commotion, a hippie guy snuck through and he was on acid. And he ended up becoming number 500. Wow, the quote unquote, winner. Yeah. Another winner. Well, that that was like the thing about the 60s and acid everyone. There was a fear bongaree thing that everyone said, if you do too much of it, you'll think you can fly. Yeah. Which is crazy. That could be what this guy was thinking. My mom went to UMass and she said someone jumped off one of the big towers. They're thinking he could fly in the 60s. That's all this everyone has that story. I saw a guy jump because he was on acid. It's like if you've ever done acid, you just want to crawl into a corner and go to sleep. And Linklaters daughter, Art Linkletter who was the emcee of parka carcasses row. Yes. Fado roast. Yeah. His daughter Diane Linklater leapt off the building on acid. Thinking she could fly they think maybe Hey, maybe there's something to this. Yeah, maybe it's not just an old wives tale could be in 1995. As number 1000 approached, there was a media frenzy. A local DJ even offered a case of Snapple to the family of the eventual victim. That's pretty fucked up. Yeah. And that Snapple lady shows up remember her? With all the facts. To calm the tide, the California Highway Patrol stopped the official count at 997. The Bay Area media then stopped reporting jumps unless they were noteworthy. What does that even mean? You gotta have some credits as celebrity. Yeah, like someone wearing a clown outfit or something that causes a traffic jam. Yeah. Wow. This did nothing to reduce the numbers. However, first talks of a barrier occurred as early as the 1950s. And in 1976, an engineer named Roger Grimes walked to the bridge with a sandwich board advocating for a barrier from jumping. And he said the people were hostile to him. They would throw soda cans at me or yell jump. She said, Who are these people? Yeah, it's a 1978 study by Dr. Richard Sidon at Berkeley followed up on 515 suicidal people who were prevented from jumping at the Golden Gate Bridge between 1937 and 1971 94% of them were still alive or died of natural causes. What does that tell you? Yikes. Most suicides are impulsive. Yeah, yeah. There are people that have chronic suicidality that just like you know, if I'm late to work, I'll just kill myself. Like it's just always there. Oh, they'll talk about it. A lot. I've had jobs where I'm like, you know, I think I'd rather drive my Toyota Camry into a brick wall then go to this job. I honestly thought of that. Oh, yeah. Certain job and who hasn't joked about it? I mean, it's yeah, all the time. Yeah. People who don't even realize they're making suicide jokes, like, Oh my God, just kill me. Right? I'd rather kill myself then go to that show. Yeah, go to that improv show. Yeah, and Culver City. Can't blame you there. One man who made the jump was in his 30s and lived alone in a bear apartment. A suicide note was found in his desk that read, I'm going to walk the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I will not jump. Well, nobody ended up smiling at him. But that tells you a lot to random acts of kindness to strangers goes a long way. So a reminder out there dedos Yeah, just be a little nice to your common people in public pay it for the calm and fee for the common. I I tried to do that as much as possible. Like yeah, just be nice to you know, especially you know, working people are having a tough time out there. Yeah. I've been in the most rotten the moods and someone knows be like, Hey, cool shirt. Yeah, I don't even know what shirt I'm wearing. Yeah, I looked down. I'm like, Oh, okay. Oh, you're not wearing one. They're being ironic. Yeah. And then I'm a little less pissed off. Yeah. One person jumps every 15 days. Wow. And as I mentioned, you know, most popular suicide location in the United States, second in the world. Second to China, just like Hollywood. Yeah. And about this four foot railing. Kids could crawl over that, oh, absolutely believe nine to a suicidal person. It's as easy as them having a loaded gun in their nightstand. Ready to go. If you make that far, there's no way you're surviving. Oh, there's people that have survived. What? Yeah, and that's coming up. Oh, my God. little teaser. What a tease. Yeah. All over the internet books. It would list the Golden Gate Bridge as the go to place if you want to get it done. Clean and fast. And with a 98% success rate, for lack of a better word. Yeah. So that that 2% is what I really want to talk about. Yeah. So what happens when people jump from this bridge, they are falling from about 220 feet up, okay. 25 stories, takes about four, four and a half seconds, the body hits the water at 75 miles per hour with a force of 15,000 pounds per square inch 85% of people who had jumped suffered broken ribs, which would rip inward and tear the spleen, lungs and heart. And those who would be lucky enough to survive the initial impact don't last long after that. Either plunging so deeply into the water that they drown. Or by freezing to death. Yeah, because those are rough, cold waters. And it's the ocean. Yeah. It's choppy down there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you could survive the impact. And then like, have all those internal injuries. You break your arms and your legs and you can't swim. Yeah. So then you're just a floating body in the water. You're done. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, you're relatively quickly. It's a horrible way to go. If you survive the hit of the water. It's like, you know, hitting concrete. Yeah. Because a lot of people think, Oh, isn't it just like jumping in the water? Water soft? It's like jumping in a pool. Yeah. She's in the booth. Yeah, my dad said, when 911 happened? He's like, why the fuck didn't they go to the top floor? And just he's like, I would have held on to that antenna the whole way down. Yeah, yeah. Just luck. And if only people had thought of that, Yeah, no shit. Just rattling a surfboard down it. Literally thought if you held on to the antenna, you would have survived. Your dad's like, Yeah, this guy. Steven is easy. That's how he survived. He was on my basketball team. With a cancer guys. Yeah. Lost a lot of good one. Cantor Fitzgerald. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So before we'll talk of the barriers, here was the system for preventing jumping security cameras 13 telephones that go to the control tower, anti suicide signs with phone numbers. Okay. And random patrolmen. Well, and through this system, the non physical barrier saved about 80 people per year. And Miss then about 24 to 30. Wow. One girl Mary curry, the bridges spokesperson at one time, went on foot patrol once and saw a man jump. She said she had nightmares afterwards. And it haunted her. Could she have done more? Would a barrier have stopped him? And because she works for the bridge, she basically decided that they were going to do it anyway, they were going to find another way to do it, if not the bridge, right? Because that's how she can sleep at night. So at the end of the day, that was the rationale for not really doing that much about is that they're gonna go somewhere else to jump, which we know is bullshit. Yeah, because 80% of suicides are impulsive. Yeah. And if they walk all the way down that bridge, or they parked their car, I that's what I'm wondering too, like how many cars are just left there. You're like running in and people just jump right off the bridge, a ton of rental cars are found. So people just want to go to that spot. Like maybe they even take the plane to San Francisco Airport and just kind of rent a car that they know. They don't care how much it is because it's not coming back. Oh, yeah. Or taxi. Uber. Stop here, please. Just right up here. I'll be good. Yeah, there was a Howard Stern episode where a guy pulled over and was about to jump. Brooklyn Bridge. Yeah, well, yeah. Howard talked him off. Yeah. They had people there. Like talk them off. Yeah. In 1994 Yeah. That was a big thing. Yeah. Apparently it was real. Yeah. And it all happened live on the air. Crazy. Happy ending there. Yeah. Which already situation? Already lives. So yeah, he continues to live Yes. As Gilbert and norm and Bob Saget. If that's true. Yeah. All everyone else in that universe is gone. already knows died so he could live about a nosedive. Oh, what was I gonna say, though about? Oh, the Howard Stern situation also goes to show you where I was just saying that. A lot of people if you can just talk to them, they won't actually do it. Yeah. And look how many people admitted that they just wanted one person to be nice to them on the way. And most of the time, we're so busy. You hardly even smile at people, right? These are just socially isolated people that just no one really in public just wants to deal with. It gets to that point sometimes even if they have good friends. Yeah, some notable jumpers. Dwayne Garrett in 1995. He was a democratic fundraiser and friend of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth with another number added to the Clinton body count. Yeah. And there's some really disturbing ones in the 1930s a father instructed his five year old daughter to jump what and then he proceeded to jump. And in the car, they found a note that said, me and my daughter have committed suicide. I mean, that's pretty much murder on his end, obviously. Yeah, it is murder. Well, so like parents like that, or just kind of selfish where they just they want everyone to go with them. You know, that's why you see like some some crazy dad kills the entire family and then himself because he really just want to kill himself. Right? But he's like, this family cannot go on without me. Yeah. And the people who commit suicide by like taking their car and driving it head on into someone else. I hate them and they fucking end up killing the other person. It's like, you fucking coward to just drive off another drive off the Golden State bridge? Yeah. Honestly, that person I don't care about because I just rather than take out other innocent civilians, yeah. Yeah, it's horrible. Yeah. And in that note, you may have noticed he used the term commit suicide. Yeah. I have learned that that is an offensive term. And you should say die by suicide. Yeah. Mac brought this up. Yes. To us. And for tomato Berry. Shout out very eloquently said that. It sounds like a person's committing a crime. If they kill themselves. Well, it's technically illegal. It is a crime. In America, it is illegal to commit suicide. Yeah, yeah, yeah, crime this problematic. It's the only on prosecutable crime. Exactly. I think it's one of those crimes that like, they put it on the book for a reason for maybe insurance purposes or something like that, because it has to be deemed. Not lawful. Right. Some reason? Yeah. But in other European countries, you know that you're allowed to commit suicide if you want to. Yeah. And I also think it's because the stigma is just so bad for suicide. People are angry, of course. But I understand saying die by suicide now because it's a mental health issue. Yeah, I think it's looked at differently now. I think growing up even as like, in the Catholic Church, it's like very frowned upon. Yeah. They would lie that people didn't kill themselves when they did. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, it was. I have family members that I recently found out like, stuff like that, like, friends of the family all say non members, friends of the family, they like, you know how my uncle really died, you know? Yeah, it's tragic. Yeah. In 1985, Ken Baldwin, then 28 years old, said he wanted to disappear. He told his wife not to expect him until late. And he had heard that the water just sweeps you under. He counted to 10 twice. Then hurled himself over flying over the cord. By the way, the cord is the name of the platform right under the rail. Yeah. And a lot of people jump from that point. Okay, so it's not just like a huge jump right off like the the side there. It's just there's another way fence. The court the platform on app. Yeah, but people have jumped skipping the cord. You can do it. Oh, yeah. And other people have miscalculated and landed on the ground land. Wow. Because it looks like they're further out than they think. Yeah. which I imagine is a quicker death then the water. Yeah. Alright, so back to Ken Baldwin. He counted to 10 twice, then hurled himself over, flying over the cord, quote, I instantly realized that everything in my life that I thought was unfixable was totally fixable, except for having just jumped. He survived. Really? Yeah. So there's one or 2% right there. That's create a full recovery. Wait, so what were the mechanics of how that worked? You have to land feet first at an angle, that's the only survivable position so like an angle like this, so like, like your, your feet, your butt over the water, feet first angle, almost like you're sitting on a chair, like you're going down a waterslide. Protect yourself a bit covering your chest. So you just kind of inject yourself into the water at that angle and use your you're just going to be fine. You didn't know you didn't break anything. Yeah, no, you're not going to be fine. Okay, you're gonna have a lot of recovery. And the next guy will get into that. His name is Kevin Haynes. He was 19 years old at the time in the year 2000. Yeah, in the year 2000. When he was young, he was thrown into foster care where his brother died. But then he was adopted into a loving home at age four, but he had inherited bipolar disorder through his genetics that comes into your 20s. He started getting that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, a little earlier for him. He was a star wrestler at his high school, then quit and withdrew. At a school assembly, he froze in front of the entire class, my God, what he thought was going to be his last meal consisted of Starbursts and Skittles. And so in September 2000, he went to the Golden Gate Bridge, after telling his dad that everything was fine that morning, because his dad was trying to convince him to come to work with them. Yeah. He's at the bridge, sobbing and pacing back and forth. He said that he just wanted one person to ask how he was doing. And then he wasn't going to jump. It didn't get that. So a German tourist comes up to him and says, Excuse me, can you please take a photo of me? And he did. But then she didn't even notice that he was in pain. While it's hard to know when when you have different nationalities, you know what's going on within a person when you don't speak the same language? Right? What do you agree? Like if I saw a German guy on the side of the road, and he was like, either crying or he was the happiest person in the world? I wouldn't know the difference. Yeah, it's hard to know. Still got some of that world war two baggage. Yeah, maybe subconsciously. Yeah. He later said that it was an interesting juxtaposition that she was there to celebrate life while he was trying to end his Yeah. And he couldn't see that at the time. In some way. She's inviting him mad. Like, hey, we're doing this together. Isn't this fun? Yeah. So he decided that nobody cared. And after jumping, he instantly regretted it landed feet first at an angle and was you know, broken ribs collapsed lung the whole deal, but he survived and the recovery made a full recovery but who's there to like fish them out and the German lady was like, you know, that's mine does John No, she didn't notice that a surfer that got him. No, eventually the Coast Guard got Okay. People witnessed that. He felt something below him and thought it was a shark and some witness actually He told him later on that it was a seal, o sea lion. And he thinks that God sent the sea lion to save him. That'd be that sounds like a Pixar movie or sea lion takes him under and saves lives. Sort of up, it's down. It's kind of a sad kids movie, news underground lair. So that's when things get dark down there. Kevin Hines has since become an advocate for suicide prevention. And a motivational speaker wrote a book called cracked but not broken. And in 2018, made a movie called suicide, the ripple effect, citing that there's a good ripple effect and a bad ripple effect in the sense that you can spread the positivity. And that's a good ripple effect. Yeah, learning from our past and creating a better future. Obviously, the bad ripple effect is that so many people are affected when someone kills themselves. Yeah. So you got to think about these things. Yeah. Well, much like the 911 jumpers, who were forced to jump from windows on the world and other spots in the Twin Towers as they were burning down. Yeah, that was a shocking revelation. Nobody really heard about these jumpers for a little while, right? Yeah. Because of the shame. And so this writer named tad friend was fascinated by that. And then also fascinated by this iconic landmark being such a haven. Yeah, for suicidal people. So he wrote an article called jumpers, which was published in the New Yorker in 2003. And he has a curious quote In this article, almost everyone in the Bay Area knows someone who has jumped. And that is perhaps not surprising that the most common fear among San Franciscans is Jeff for phobia, the fear of crossing bridges. Well, what what's that called again? G P. H. HYR. Oh, phobia. That's a real thing. Did I say it right, Jeff? Oh, tall, whatever. Fire? Oh, yeah, that sounds about right. So I ran this by my friend Ben, who lives in San Francisco. The part about everybody knows someone who has jumped. Yeah, he's like, I don't know anybody. Yeah, yeah. 30 people a year is not going to constitute everybody being connected to them. Yeah, that's true. That's that's not enough. Yeah, no, but a very interesting article and outline some of the things that I just told you about. Yeah. Inspired by the article, The Rock Band Sleater Kinney wrote a song called jumpers and it's a hopeful song well, because I remember I they did that song but I also remember Third Eye Blind that a jumper song I wish you would step away but LEDs my friend not not ledge but what they call it their the ledge. No, but the court they should have said court because they're a San Francisco Bantu? Are they? Yeah. Oh, that's probably why they wrote that song. It could have been do with crystal meth to lift you up to your break. That was a different song. Yes. The whole catalog a man Yeah. Chicken, the China the Chinese chicken. Different family. Yeah, same error, though. 90 day. Back to the dreads. Yeah. So my guy Dre once told me Roma, Shrek Shrek to frack and Mystery Men. Yes. Mystery Man. First. Just remind first. Yeah, I heard that it was a placeholder in the editing studio for Shrek. But then they are loved it so they left it in. Oh, wow. All right, back to our topic at hand. Okay, sorry. Let's get back. This brings us to the main course the reason I decided to do this episode, okay, a movie, a documentary called the Bridge. Eric Steele was also inspired by this New Yorker article. He bought $100,000 worth of camera equipment and flew to San Francisco. He said, quote, I tried to make a film that was very sensitive, very honest. That took something that happened in broad daylight at a national monument. People were walking out onto the Golden Gate Bridge with great regularity in front of strangers in front of tourists and ending their own life. What I wanted to do is show that to people and quote, he lied on his permit application to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, stating that his purpose was to capture the powerful spectacular intersection of monument and nature that takes place every day at the Golden Gate Bridge. So he went under the radar with the officials from the Golden Gate. Bridge committee and the public because he wanted to avoid suicidal people who would wish to be immortalized on film. Yeah. And there was a rotating crew of about 10 people. They would start shooting at dawn and end at dusk. And they did this every single day in the year 2004. Wow. 10,000 hours. Malcolm Gladwell would be proud. Yeah, exactly like a boyhood type of project, though. Like it's like not not 13 years. Yeah, it was, but like something similar, right? similar in scope or plan. 23 of the 24 jumpers that year were captured on camera. But like, did it lead to less jumpers? Yes, it did. It had to have. As soon as the crew saw signs, which include the untying of shoes, setting the wallet down someone's foot on the rail. When they saw these signs, they immediately alerted the bridge patrol. And they claim that six people were saved that way, including one woman on camera dramatically saved on camera in the movie. Yeah, I gotta watch this movie. So Eric Steele says they were humans first filmmakers second. Yeah, I always noticed that a documentary was like, look at these people getting beat up and killed. I'm like, What are you doing behind the camera? Yeah, well, that's the age old question about a documentarian. Yeah. They're there to document the world. Yeah. Which like they're not there to intervene, necessarily. We went really hard on Mr. Butler, who filmed the station nightclub as it was burning. Yeah. And we went in on him, and I sense have changed my opinion on it. Where did I go in on him? Oh, we all did. Yeah. Because I think it's a great piece of media. That's valuable. Yeah. Similar. Oh, we were going in as I'm doing now. But like, Yeah, we had a recent comment, or that was like, What do you want him to do? Put down the camera. He's like, look at all the other people that are in the parking lot. Not doing shit. Yeah. Like he's documented, you know, like he was clogging the entire entrance or anything with the camera. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's just hard to know the exact scenario when you have some of the survivors claiming he was blocking. Yeah. What do you say to that person? Right? I don't know. Yeah, but it is a very educational piece of footage. Yeah, that was the commenter on our YouTubes point was that that video has done more for safety than anything he could have done that night. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I agree with that. And so while they're filming, you know, there'd be a big splash when someone jumped. But then in a matter of minutes, the water would settle. And they'd be the same tourists on the bridge passing by business as usual. That's insane. To me how quick like the turnover is people just forget about it. Oh, yeah, I bet on that, but you wouldn't even it would be like a pin drop. Like you wouldn't even really see the person hitting the water. Right? It just be like, Wait, that's it. So yeah, we just talked about the ethics of intervention. Obviously, they said that they saved lives when they could but that you couldn't always tell one guy was laughing on his cell phone and a second later he jumped. You wouldn't be able to tell Joker something? Yeah. And that some bystanders would walk past these anguish people without giving a second look. Yeah, there was just a guy recently in Berkeley on the campus of Berkeley he lit himself he self emulated himself I lit on fire that was crazy and there was people filming but there was also people putting trapping him slapping him trying to put them out and stuff like he didn't want to be put out it's crazy you're screaming get on the ground get on the ground. He's just walking it was it was tough to watch and I don't know I'm like I watched it against my will basically I didn't it was on tick tock. I'm like tikka is bad take time. Yeah. Oh yeah. She's you're watching someone lip sync the maca Raina one. Yeah. burning themselves. Yeah. All right. So they completed the project and there was a bunch of controversy once word got out. It kicked open the debate immediately after filming wrapped about whether there should be a barrier and just how bad the problem had gotten. Officials from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area said Eric Steele misrepresented his project, which we know why he did because he didn't want word to get out. Yeah, quote, this is like a newspaper carrying a front page photo of someone blowing his head off. It's irresponsible, exploitative, voyeuristic, ghastly and immoral said Mark Chaffee, president of the Suicide Prevention advocacy network in California. Yeah. One of those one of those organizations has way too long of a wait It's not an acronym that just like, I'm getting more gray hair just reading names. Of course that man had not seen the movie yet. A lot of the outrage was before they had seen the movie. The bridge premiered in April 2006 at the Tribeca Film Festival. You know, De Niro's at good festival. Pretty good bridge, but he's a bridge. Yeah. Would you milk me bridge? I got nipples, like De Niro. This is a serious movie. Yeah. Yeah. Why are you making why you riffin at the top of this suicide movie dinero, Executive Director of the San Francisco's suicide, prevention, whatever, and they just got out they have so many titles and so many, like, man, love wasting people's time with their support to the project. And meanwhile, the Medical Director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, it's like a who's on first but with all these like titles, I'm the executive assistant of the executive of the United suicide workers, you know, formerly known as come on that person worried about copycats? Which there really weren't any, we're talking about the Sigourney Weaver movie. Yeah. With dermal Moroni in a Harry Connick Jr. For some reason, right. And he was pretty scary and he was sad guy. Still have nightmares? Yeah, no piano and sights. That in the Harry Met Sally soundtrack. Yes. Give me the chills. You know what I mean? Big Chill. There was possibly a copy cat named Kyle Gam boa in 2013. He was a high school kid that yelled yah hoo. Before leaping off the bridge. And in his browsing history, they found that he had been watching a lot of Golden Gate Bridge videos including the trailer for the movie The Bridge repeatedly. Yikes. But I do say that he was watching a bunch of stuff. So you can blame the bridge for that the movie? Yeah, you can blame the real bridge. Okay. So yeah, anyway, the project has been called voyeuristic and morbid, but also a powerful and unflinching look at suicide. Eric Steele said on any other two mile stretch, this many deaths would be dealt with, which is a good point. And another reason why it wasn't that was sooner is because it is water that's below. Yeah. If it was pavement, they'd have to clean up the bodies. Yeah, that's true. This can literally be washed away. It just goes right out to sea. Yeah, under the bridge. Yeah. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yes. For sure. Oh, no, no, no, no. John, who? There was a study at Temple University where 180 medical students watched the bridge as part of a neuroscience curriculum on understanding suicide. And the conclusion is that the students consistently reported they found watching the movie to be valuable. The New York Times said quote, it's an eerie and indelible documentary about suicide juxtaposes transcendent beauty and personal tragedy as starkly as any film Baltimore Sun said, quote, the most picturesque snuff film ever made, so they didn't care for it. No, no, but to that I say that's a negative review. A snuff film is actually when someone commits homicide. Yeah, on camera for profit. Yeah. And there's really no record of that. Yeah. Think about it for profit. Yeah. That won't hold up in court. The LA Times said, quote, The criticism is misplaced. It's a meditation on the nature of suicide and attempt to understand the inexplicable. So the bridge was ultimately distributed by IFC Films In fall of 2006. And it was a box office success worldwide gross of about $206,000 against a $25,000 budget. So we have a clip here. This is near the beginning of the movie. It was one of those epic days in San Francisco driving across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was crystal clear, they was calm. On that particular day, I looked over I was probably a little bit more than mid span when I saw this gentleman on the railings. And then he just kind of held his arms out and disappeared. And I thought to myself, Wow, I might One of the last people that have ever seen this person alive. When I went into the height the tower and I talked to the highway patrolman, and I asked him blatantly, I said, Is this a rare occurrence or does this happen often? And he looked at me and kind of smiled and just said, it happens all the time. Yeah. Crazy. So that's powerful. Yeah. So some of the people featured in the movie. For better or worse, fill up man, a cow died January 16 2004. He was disillusioned with life after two failed relationships. He took out the recycling as normal at home before driving to the bridge. And before he jumped, he told the stranger it's a long way down, and they didn't know what he was talking about. They thought he meant like walking across the way. Like, yeah, like surviving. David Paige died April 28. He felt like a failure. He was given meds by his friend but then those gave him trouble sleeping and the friend felt guilty. And he decided to jump in order to redeem himself. Magical thinking people think that there's some kind of redemption and finally doing that. Yeah. Which is totally ludicrous. There was Bernard Blackburn died September 16th. He was a teacher and researcher. This is interesting. Authorities found that New Yorker article in his bag after he jumped. Lisa Smith died April 11. She was addicted to pills lived in a halfway house lost most of her teeth, which her family things contributed to her wanting to die. And she jumped in front of some witnesses. And we have a second clip here from the movie. And the clip starts with the mom and sister talking about her and then the witnesses. After she and eaten I said she was very quiet when she was eating. She got up and took her person her jacket. off she went. And that's the last they saw her are taking pictures of each other. And we were walking. And we saw that lady, the lady just put the bag on the ground. And she jumped off. When I said she jumped she job and I was like and he and she told my brother Oh call the cops while polo and running down to get some help because I want somebody to caliber because for us was first time to see somebody jump off the bridge. And before she jumped, she looked at me and we darlin she was laughing. She laugh like a smile like you don't know what to do. But she's my jump. Like he she, she she was acting like a gorilla or something. I know that. He likes to make things. I like how the kid can't be interjecting like he's like, let's get to the boy, that lady jumped and while the mouse trying to tiptoe around the subject, and he brings up the gorilla thing. But that's scary thinking of a five year old processing now seeing that side. Yeah. And then finally, I would say the star of the movie is a man named Jean spragg. He was born in old man. And Benjamin Button. Yeah, a curmudgeon. Yeah. And he would talk about suicide all the time. If asked a question like, did you get a job? Or what do you want for breakfast, he would say, I don't know, just kill me. His mom told him that she didn't invest a lifetime in him for him to just kill himself. But unfortunately, she died of cancer without putting up much of a fight when he was very young. Jean was always looking for love in all the wrong places, as they say, some close friends but battled depression every single day. Yeah, he was staying with his friends Jen and Matt. And she says that on the day he died, she noticed there was an answering machine message from a store like GameStop. They wanted to interview him for a manager position because he had been desperately looking for a job. Yeah. And she wonders if he heard that message or not, that would have changed things. I actually came across a bunch of Live Journal entries, like blog posts that he had written in 2003 in early 2004. And they are very disturbing. He gives every detail of his life. And in one of them he says quote, perhaps I am blind and do not see the beauty that is in the world. All I can see is shit piles of it for miles and miles. I look behind me and see a steady, unending stream of failures, one after another. So he was really desperate for money and was feeling alone, he had about 15 bucks to his name. She's an older friend who is also a friend of his mom's named Caroline. In this movie, she's empathetic and philosophical. And she says that she told him that when he finally decided to do it to please say goodbye. Another friend Matt says he couldn't have lasted much longer and he was the last person to speak with Jean. So Matt says he was leaving for work and gave them five bucks so he could get a pack of smokes and go grab a paper. And that's when Jean disappeared. On May 11 2004, was a beautiful sunny day. To onlookers. Jean seemed like he was enjoying himself on the bridge, you know, by the outward appearance. Yeah, because he's wearing a leather jacket. He was a rocker type. Yeah, it looks like he's taking in the views of the city and the ocean. And he paced back and forth for 93 minutes, and then decided it was time. Yeah. And here's the last clip from the movie. His friend Caroline talks about it. I don't know why people kill themselves. And yet, it's a small step to empathize, to say because I think we all experienced moments of despair, that it would just be so much easier not to do this anymore. But for most of us, the sun comes out. And then Oh, well. Tomorrow is another day. Why he chose the bridge. I don't know. Maybe there's a certain amount of release from pain by pain. Maybe he just wanted to find one. That's haunting. Oh, my God. So for those logist listening. Jean, has his arms outstretched leaps off the bridge backwards. Yeah. It falls right and plopped right in the water. Yeah. So that is eerie. Yeah. Sad. By all accounts, a really decent guy. Yeah. His friend said that scene His death on film brought closure because there was no funeral. And in fact, all the loved ones and witnesses in the movie weren't told beforehand that there was footage of the person's death. That came afterwards. All right, so when actually I have a clip from of all people, Dr. Phil. Oh, no, this shows their reaction. So as you can tell, seeing these clips, it's a sensitive movie. Yeah. And some people were still upset about it. It's shocking. It's disturbing. A close look at a controversial film. Somebody said that y'all actually allowed people to die. That's not true. We see him jump to his death. A movie director under fire. It's been said that it could be the most morally loathsome film ever made. ographers got involved in fights. You know, like, what is he talking about? Dr. Phil's I was trying to stir up something. He's like, you're encroaching on my territory. People that are in crisis. Yeah. Why did my job fuck Dr. Phil. Oh, my God, He sucks. Next week, bam, Margera has come to me and talks to Shelly Deval when she's obviously Yeah, well, that acetate it gets like Okay, great. We see she's on well now. Next week we got on that. The girls coming back the Kashmir outside girls. Yeah. How about that? So yeah, but most people once seen the film, different opinion. Obviously. That brings us to the current state of things. The net as they say, not the Sandra Bullock movie. Okay. The safety net. I was thinking Dennis Miller had been talking about net my movie. People, you know, his character is so ridiculous as a weirdo. Okay, so more than 40,000 people die by suicide in the United States every year. By comparison, about 18,000 people in this country are murdered annually. So it's a much higher suicide rate way higher deaths by death of despair, they call them and Golden Gate Bridge approximately 15 to 30 deaths per year. And that number did not get better or worse after the release of the bridge movie, but there was a lot more awareness. Men have outnumbered women almost three to one, the average age of victims that jumped on the bridge is 42. So it's a younger demographic. The advertisers would love. Okay, demo Yeah. All right. That the survival rate has risen from 2% to 3%. Wow, incrementally going up. Around 35 people have actually survived the jump, with only five being able to walk and talk normally. Well, despite the common belief that people come from all over the world to jump from the Golden Gate Bridge. 85% of jumpers live within an hour's drive of the bridge. Less than 8% are from out of state or abroad. The Marine County Coroner's office is responsible for handling the deaths because most of the jumps occur near Marin County. Yeah, their territory. We and the Coast Guard station is in Marion County. And they're the ones that have to they handle it. Yeah. They retrieve them. I was looking for the word retreat. I was gonna say fish out the bodies, but that didn't sound very bad. But think of the Coast Guard alone. Think of all the people that have to deal with these situations. Yeah, it's brutal, because I read that about 115 people on average are affected with one person dying by suicide. 115 people? Yeah. And the Coast Guard, they have to deal with it. They have nightmares. I bet. Oh, I'm sure it's highly drug. Awful. Yeah. The nonprofit bridge rail foundation made up of psychiatrists and families of bridge jumpers, had been pushing officials to create the barrier for years, Harvard University and UC Berkeley among other studies found that nine out of 10 people who attempt suicide and survive will not go on to die by suicide at a later date. That's huge. Yeah, striking you, you gotta pay attention and the biggest argument against the barrier, cost and aesthetics. There's still some assholes that are like, but the bridge is so beautiful. It's gonna ruin its aesthetic. There conservationists that they just want to keep Yeah, keep things the way they were. conserve the bridge. Not lives. Yeah, exactly. I like the bridge. I don't like these people. Yeah, not even Joseph Strauss who constructed the bridge care that much about it. He's what they call NIMBYs not in my backyard people. Ah, yeah, those effing NIMBYs Oh, excuse my French warrior. In 2014. Bay Area officials finally approved a $76 million package to fund the safety net, officials decided that it should be a stainless steel mesh net, because it would be most cost effective and less aesthetically disruptive. And so it's a 20 foot wide net, and it's going to be on both sides of the bridge. Work began in 2018 and was supposed to be wrapped up in 2021. But the project has been repeatedly delayed, and the cost has ballooned to nearly $400 million now. Wow. Yeah. Suicide, that's everything that you make in California these days. It's like the astronomical cost never gets done. It all goes to the contractors. Yeah. Politicians, acids. Suicide prevention advocates say they are frustrated by the delays. Because they are costing lives 25 people jumped to their deaths in 2021 25. Wow. After all this talking and setting up of the barrier and awareness, it's still happening. Yeah. And this is really going to cut into that. I mean, because now if someone jumps When this is complete, it's going to be painful. Yeah, but they're not going to be debt. Currently, the net project is about 75% completed and it's expected to be fully completed by the end of the year. 2023. That's good. This current year. Well, we'll do an update on it maybe later. And here's a little video I shot when I was at the bridge recently. Oh, yeah. You were there last week. I was and it still looked beautiful. All with the safety bears Oh, wow. Yeah, there it is. That's the net that so people can't get you got to be a good jumper up on that net. And you got to be good at track and field. Yeah. If you're doing that you're probably not the people that are gonna. You like my avant garde close up here too. That's CQRS obscure there. I call this clip the bridge part to Purdue nice Electric Boogaloo. There you go. We're dusting off the old jokes, I gotta do it, you gotta bring him back. And I have one more clip. This is Kevin Hines who I told you about earlier, one of the few to survive. He is prominently featured in the bridge documentary. And in his own documentary called the ripple effect. He talks with Eric steel director of the bridge. So Eric still ends up calling me and saying I really like you to consider being in this film, the bridge the bridge, that would become the catalyst raising the dead at the Golden Gate bridge, the bridge will become the catalyst my dad found in the bridge wall foundation to do just that. And the bridge that would make the movement and suicide prevention change from from really from from doctors and clinicians to lived experience my brother. So he obviously big fish. And I said, I remember a year in the life of the Golden Gate Bridge that we were going to be filming every day these people are behind every day for years. Yes, we put together in a time lapse form. But I wouldn't take much logic for the people who were reviewing this to say, okay, great, it's beautiful. There's also this little thing happening there every couple of weeks that we don't want anybody to know about and if someone is there filming they are going to see it. So he's just explaining that there was every opportunity for the bridge association to put two and two together what he was up to when making the documentary and it just shows how secretive this whole issue is because they couldn't even warn him against it because it was that much a secret yeah swept under the rug under the bridge not to be talked about and yet shocked when he showed the world what was really going on. So yes, Kevin Hines and a bunch of other people that advocate for the barrier safe safe rail that they thought the movie was important open the dialogue and that's that but the purists of the bridge didn't want to touch do ya know that there's always those people ridiculous yeah final thoughts all right, Peter, everybody that's brutal way to go and you know, it just it's like the chicken or the egg is it are they gonna do it because of the bridge? Are they doing it because the bridge is there and yeah, it's just a method to make sure definitely happens. Yeah, exactly. But I'm for spending the money on it to make sure that people can't go out that way and yeah, no judgment, but it's a shitty situation but I think we're better off with the the net and all that yeah, be kind. Definitely be kind. Yeah. And rewind. That's right. Yes. We have some new comments and reviews here on iTunes. Dare Gordon said he just found this podcast yesterday while looking for a podcast on actor River Phoenix. Great group of guys who dive deep into the lives of the famous I've listened to two more five stars shout out thank you. Thank you, sir. And on the Instagram look alike killer episode we we got a new fan here, Gustavo Brule. Pointing out that I kept the Black Eyed Peas streak strong talking about them bringing them up. I don't know where we're bringing them up again. In that we have got this. So thank you, Gustaf we do love you. Yeah. Where there's a will i am. There's a way there's a will I way up the street that we live on? Yes, shoot us an email. Let us know what episode you want to hear in the future. Let us know what you think. Send us a death threat, whatever you want. Death and entertainment@gmail.com. Yeah. And a lot of nice praise for the Corey Haim episode. Yes, yes. Yes. Thank you very much. Yeah. Louise Lewinsky said We want him we got we want him and we got him. Yeah. Yeah, thank you everybody for sending comments and suggestions and all that. Keep on it. Yeah, fine. Oh, keep on it. That's right. YouTube, Instagram, tick tock, tick tock blown up. We get almost 7000 followers now. Come on. Don't sleep on us. Get in there. Get in there. And this was a heavy topic today. Yes. And I would like to remind people of the logic song that was a hit a few years ago. Yes. 1-800-273-8255 It's not just a hit SOG it's also a very real suicide hotline very much is Yeah. So if you are having troubling thoughts, yeah, please call is free. Yes. And we love you, by all means. Until next time, though. Don't go die and on us. That's right. Bye later.