An Extremely Disturbing Camping Story

today's episode is a very creepy and highly disturbing camping story but before we get into that story if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format and you come to the right place because that's all we do and we upload once a week so if that's of interest to you the next time the like button is asleep go to their front yard and spell the words I hate my neighbors in gasoline all across their front yard and then light it on fire also please subscribe to our Channel and turn on

all notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads okay let's get into today's [Music] story on the afternoon of May 6th 2008 a 54-year-old man called Ricky Williams stood on the River Bank casting out his line into the Waters of dismal Creek in Western Virginia Ricky was hoping to get lucky and catch some trout but he'd been out here fishing for 30 minutes so far and there were no bites normally Ricky wouldn't care because he loved just fishing for hours and hours at a time but today he and his dog who was right

with him were really hungry because they'd been out in these Woods camping for several weeks now and their food supply was finally dwindling down to the end and so if they didn't catch any fish today they might not eat now for context where Ricky was fishing dismal Creek despite its Bleak name it was actually a beautiful secluded spot on top of a mountain that was on the Appalachian Trail the Appalachian Trail is a very famous 2200m long trail that runs up and down the east coast of the United States and why that is relevant is

because there's this special code for people that hike on the Appalachian Trail and the code which all hikers know is basically if you come across another hiker on the Appalachian Trail it is your responsibility to help them if they need help and it is their respons responsibility to help you if you need help so it's this community of hikers that are always looking to help each other and so Ricky was very aware of this code on the Appalachian Trail and he was secretly hoping as he cast his line over and over again and didn't get

any bites that a hiker or a group of hikers might come by this area and maybe they would see him and come down and learn that he needed food and they might just give him some of their food but another half hour passed and no hikers came by and still Ricky could not catch any f but then suddenly Ricky's dog who was right next to him began to whine and kind of began shifting around like it was sensing a predator in the area or something but as Ricky was trying to calm his dog down he

began to hear a voice in the woods right behind him somebody was moving towards him and when Ricky heard this voice on the one hand he was pretty excited because maybe this is a hiker who can give him some food but on the other hand Ricky couldn't help but feel really uneasy now you need to understand that Ricky was an older guy he was kind of frail and over over the past few weeks that he'd been camping with his dog you know as his food supply had run down he had become skinnier and skinnier and

skinnier and so he really did not pose any sort of threat to anybody he's like this weak older man now generally speaking the Appalachian Trail was a very safe place but over the last few decades there had actually been several murders that took place on the Appalachian Trail and in fact one of those killings took place less than 2 miles away from where Ricky was fishing with his dog and in that double homicide a very well-known killer named Randall Lee Smith had stabbed and shot to death two hikers and so while Ricky was really looking

for help from fellow hikers at the same time he couldn't help but feel somewhat apprehensive because again Ricky was like this small frail guy and Ricky was well aware of these murders and he was well aware of the fact that he was super close to one of the murder sites and so Ricky was totally on edge as he's listening to this male voice get closer and closer and then finally this man in his early 30s steps out from the tree line and he looks over and he sees Ricky and for a second the two men

just kind of look at each other but then this guy just grinned at Ricky and said hey how you doing and immediately Ricky felt relieved because he could tell just from looking at this guy that very likely he was not a threat the man introduced himself as Scott Johnston and he told Ricky he was actually camping in the area with a friend of his and they were out here fishing just like Ricky and Ricky pretty much immediately said oh great nice to meet you do you have any food for me and Scott was like absolutely

and he dug into his bag that he had with him and he pulled out a couple energy bars and a bag of chips and he threw them over to Ricky and he also gave some fresh bait to Ricky so he too could cast out again and for the next couple of hours Scott and Ricky just stood on the river bank and fished together and after a while the trout did start biting and they did start catching fish so the day kind of turned into a great outing for Ricky and it got even better because as

soon as the men were done fishing Scott asked Ricky if he wanted to join him and his friend back up at the camp site for dinner and remember Ricky had no food so this was an amazing invitation and he said yes of course I'd love to join you so the two men packed up their stuff right as the sun was going down and then they began walking back into the forest where Scott had emerged from and as they were walking Scott's fishing pole got tangled on a low hanging branch and he was really struggling to

get it out of the tree and so finally he just told Ricky to you know go on ahead my campsite is right up there it's a straight shot just go up the hill and you'll see it Ricky asked Scott he was sure and Scott said no it's totally fine go ahead so Ricky said okay and he walked the rest of the way up the hill and then when he walked out of the tree line into the clearing where Scott's campsite was immediately what Ricky noticed was this enormous man who was like twice the size of

Scott and so four times the size of Ricky kind of hunched over the campfire and this huge man who presumably was Scott's friend he heard Ricky walk into the circle and remember it's nighttime and they're kind of in the middle of nowhere and so this guy he turns his head around and sees this strange man just standing there and Scott's nowhere to be found and so this guy he grabs a club like a piece of wood and he looks at Ricky kind of menacingly like what are you doing here and Ricky who was so caught

off guard by just how big this guy was he put his hands up and he said I'm so sorry Scott sent me up here I don't know if this is the right sight I'm sorry but just at that moment Scott had finished untangling his fishing line and he came out of the tree line and he patted Ricky on the back and he said oh you've already met my friend Shawn and as soon as he said that Shawn looked like he basically let his guard down you know he put the wood down and he stopped glaring

directly at Ricky but Ricky felt like Shawn was not happy that Ricky was in his campsite even though clearly Scott is the reason that Ricky is in this campsite and so Ricky just felt really uncomfortable and at the same time Scott is ushering Ricky closer to the campfire to take a seat next to Shawn you know Sean's a great cook he'll cook up this fish for us it's going to be great you know take a seat Ricky felt kind of annoyed that Scott was really forcing him to stay but Ricky didn't want to be rude

and just kind of abruptly leave so he did take a seat next to Shawn who definitely was not excited to be sitting next to Ricky and Ricky just kind of sat there waiting to see what would happen next and what happened next is Scott walked over to Shawn and handed off all the fish that he and Ricky had caught so that Shawn could begin to prepare them to cook them and then as Ricky is still just sitting there right next to Shawn Scott walked away from the campfire up to his truck which was parked right

next to Shawn's Jeep and Scott turned on the radio and began blasting country music and when Ricky heard this music he kind of winced because to him you know part of the reason the outdoors the Appalachian Trail you know being out in nature part of the reason it was so wonderful was for the peace and quiet and so it felt kind of like borderline disrespectful to be out in the middle of this beautiful place blaring country music and so to Ricky he just couldn't help but feel like there's something off about these two guys they

just seem really disrespectful and kind of pushy and maybe aggressive and so Ricky is just not happy but again Ricky didn't say anything and didn't attempt to leave because again he's really hungry and so is his dog and he needs to eat that fish a moment later Scott walked back from the truck and took a seat next to Shawn and then he along with Shawn pulled out their knives and began deboning the fish and as they were doing this Ricky again is just kind of sitting there doing nothing and so he kind of meagerly asked

you know hey can you give me a knife and I'll clean a fish but Sean and SC kind of waved him off and said don't worry we got this and so Ricky just continued to sit there nervously it's all he could watch was the flashing of the light bouncing off their blades but eventually Scott and Shawn finished deboning all the fish and they put their knives away and at that point they began cooking the fish over the Open Flame and suddenly for Ricky it felt like you know the mood had shifted a little bit at

least now the two men were not fiddling around with weapons you know it felt kind of safe again and so Ricky began making some small talk in hopes that would kind of you know settle his nerves and so Ricky told the two men about how much he loved the Appalachian Trail and how he came out here all the time for weeks at a time with his dog and Ricky would tell the men that you know sometimes he felt more at home out in the wild than he did at home it was almost like being out

in nature was a religious experience for Ricky and he would even tell Sean and Scott that sometimes when he was out in nature he would meditate and pray and even do some chanting like part of a ritual I mean he was really trying to be in tune with mother nature but as Ricky continued to tell Shawn and Scott about his personal life he noticed the two men were definitely paying attention and kind of nodding along at appropriate points in the story but at the same time Ricky felt like these two men were also kind of

looking at him like Ricky was kind of weird as if they were not prepared to come out and say it but after hearing all these things about his life it was like huh what's going on with this guy and so Ricky suddenly felt really embarrassed about being so open with these two guys who once again just seem like they don't quite like him or even really want him here but luckily right at that moment the fish were done and so the men just sat there in silence and wolfed down the food by the time they

finished right about 8:00 p.m. it was very dark outside and Ricky at this point is just ready to go you know he just felt so uneasy here and so after putting down his plate and his silverware and saying thank you to Shawn and Scott for their Hospitality he quickly got up and grabbed his dog and he began walking into the woods towards his campsite but after Ricky and his dog had walked maybe 10 or 15 ft away from this campsite two things happened in Rapid succession number one Ricky suddenly stopped and turned around and looked

back at the campsite and number two right as he did this there was this enormous bang sound like a small explosion that echoed through the forest okay so if you're not listening to our show called run fool then you are really missing out on a truly special and unique podcast now it's technically a horror podcast but honestly it's so much more every episode is a fresh take on terrifying lore like a modern ghost story wrapped up in a tightly spun narrative also remember run fool is a ball in studios podcast which means there's always going

to be a big plot twist or reveal at the end Rodney Barnes is the iconic host of run fo and every story he tells on there it feels like this fully immersive horror movie also the sound design on the show is is like expert level Barnes really knows what he's doing even if you never watch the show you should tune in just for a second at least once just to hear barnes's radio voice it is like the best most soothing voice I think I've ever heard so if run fo feels like a show you might

like go run and follow the show and start listening also be sure you stick around till the end of today's video because we're going to play a clip from last week's episode of runp about 30 minutes later and about 4 miles away from where Ricky and Shawn and Scott had been there were these two women who were in their house eating dinner when they heard the sudden frantic knocking on their front door now these women live in a very isolated part of the country and so the women were very concerned one of them rushed over

to the phone just to be ready to call the police while the other very carefully made their way towards the front of the house and they kind of peered out the window but they couldn't see anything outside it was too dark and so they went to their door which was still getting pounded on by whoever was out there and the woman she unlocked the door and she opened it just a crack and what she saw nearly made her faint there was a man standing on her porch who was absolutely covered in blood as if he

had been fully submerged in a tank of blood I mean he is all red and the man had his hand over his neck and the woman who opened the door she looked at him and she saw that there was this rhythmic pulsing of blood pumping out of his neck that was into time with his heart this man is clearly bleeding to death and so the woman she screamed for The Other Woman to please call 911 we have someone who's dying here and so she began calling 911 and then the man on the porch just said

please help me and then he said something about dismal Creek and then he collapsed and this was so shocking for the woman who had opened the door that she just stood there staring having no idea what to do but then she happened to look up and she noticed there was a jeep that was idling out on the road in front of her house that she hadn't even registered until now and so either this guy got dropped off or he drove that jeep but before she could even begin to understand what had just happened an ambulance

and a whole bunch of police cars came screaming up and parked in front of her house and then the Medics got out they rushed up and they grabbed the bleeding man and they put him in the ambulance and they rushed him off meanwhile not far from the house police officers were speeding towards dismal Creek because when the women called 911 they said you know this guy who shown up on the porch bleeding said something about dmal Creek but they had no idea what it was about and so instead of trying to wait to figure out

what was even going on police had basically said let's just go to dismal Creek and look around and see if we can figure out you know why someone would leave that area and show up at this house covered in blood but as the police were making their way up this winding Mountain Road they saw a truck bombing down the road coming straight at them and the truck they initially hit their brakes and did kind of attempt to get out of the way of the police cars but after this truck had basically come to a stop

the driver of the truck just hit the gas all over again and they veered wildly off the side of the road into an embankment and they crashed and flipped several times and then came to a stop and the police officers who had veered to the side of the road to avoid getting hit by this truck you know they just watched this happen and they couldn't understand why the driver had gunned it again after stopping and then seemingly intentionally drove off the road it almost seemed like the driver was trying to crash and so the police

they got out of their car and they approached the wrecked truck with their guns drawn but when they looked into the vehicle they saw there was a single occupant the driver and he was still somehow alive so the police got him out of the vehicle and they called an ambulance but they actually sent an officer with the ambulance to escort them because the police were actually pretty suspicious of this truck driver because remember they were going up that road to get to dismal Creek to see what had happened there that would lead to another man

showing up on somebody's doorstep in the middle of the night covered in blood and now they have this truck driver who looks like he's speeding away from dismo Creek who crashes his truck I mean there was no clear connection between the truck crash and the Bloody guy but the police were suspicious that they had to be connected so they sent the officer to the hospital as well about 30 minutes after the truck crash the police left the scene and continued the rest of the way up the road to dismal Creek and once they got up

up there the police fanned out all across the area and just began looking for anything just any clue that might explain what the heck happened here if anything happened at dismal Creek at all and pretty quickly the police actually did find something unique in the middle of the Dismal Creek area they found a campsite but it was not the campsite where Shawn and Scott were staying where Ricky had gone and shared dinner with them this was a different campsite and not long after searching this other campsite police concluded that whoever was staying here did not

seem like they were mentally well this seems like a mentally unstable and potentially dangerous person lives here so the campsite was really simple it was just a tent and a campfire but when the police lifted up the flap and looked inside the tent they found a collection of 30 knives along with a police scanner that basically picked up police radio chatter in the area so you could listen to a scanner and basically know what the police were doing in your area there were also all these weird pip piles of clothing some were for kids some

were for adults some were for men some were for women there were piles of eyeglasses and there were eight pairs of women's underwear and then also there was a map of the Appalachian Trail inside of this tent and all over this map along the trail were all these spots that were circled but there was no information about what these circles meant however one of the places that was circled was dismal Creek and then next to the map was a radio and inside the radio was a cassette and so the police just hit play and immediately

what they heard totally creeped them out because the tape sounded like some kind of Satanic ritual it was basically this one man's voice just kind of howling and chanting over and over again but by far the most shocking thing that was found inside of that tent was a single piece of paper and this piece of paper was a birth certificate and the name on the birth certificate was a name that basically all police in this area knew and in fact anybody living in or around the Appalachian Trail definitely would know this name and the identity

of this person the name on the birth certificate was the key to putting together all these seemingly disconnected events that had happened on this night from the explosion when Ricky walked away from the fire to the bloody man at the house to the truck crash they were all connected through this single person a few hours earlier after Ricky had gotten up and walked away from Shan and Scott's campsite and then after barely making it onto the trail he had turned around and there was that loud explosion well at that point in the story Ricky who's

now looking back at the campsite and looking at Shawn and Scott he can see that the two of them they've heard the sound too and they were now staring at each other with looks of absolute shock and Terror on their faces but then Ricky watched as Shawn reached up and touched his face and he put his hand out in front of his face and it was covered in red and the reason for that was because Shawn had just been shot in the face because is that loud explosion was the sound of Ricky shooting his gun

at Shawn and as Shawn and Scott stood there staring at each other in absolute disbelief Ricky who's still in the tree line ran towards the fire and just kept on shooting and so Shawn at this point as he sees Ricky coming into the campsite he stands up and kind of staggers back and falls on the ground but Scott who's not hurt at this point he just gets up and starts running away from the campsite and Ricky turns his attention toward W Scott and he shoots at him and he hits him straight in the neck and

also in the back but somehow Scott just kept on running despite these horrible wounds and so Ricky watched as Scott disappeared into the woods and then Ricky turned back to Shawn who's laying on the ground and can't go anywhere he's been shot in the face and Ricky just casually raised his gun and shot Shawn right in the chest but amazingly Shawn after getting shot this second time it created what must have been the most extreme Adrenaline Rush ever because he jumped up up to his feet and right in front of his attacker he just turned

and sprinted to his Jeep he hopped inside fired it up and just sped away as fast as he could and when Shawn flipped on his headlights and turned a corner after getting away from the campsite he looked down the road and he actually saw his buddy Scott who would run away first come tumbling out of the woods onto the road and so Shawn who's Gravely injured you know drives over next to Scott and he stops the Jeep long enough for Scott to climb inside and they shut the door and they speed the way towards the

nearest help which happened to be that house where those two women lived and so it was Scott who looked like he was drenched in blood who knocked on the women's door Shawn was down in the Jeep out on the road but he was just too weak to get out and come up to the door as well but when the ambulance and police arrived they would find not only Scott up on the porch but also Shawn in the Jeep and both men would be taken to the hospital via helicopter and then as for the man who

was driving the truck down the road away from dismal Creek who then crashed right in front of the police well the driver of that truck was Ricky Williams however that was not his real name there was no Ricky Williams that was the name he just used his real name which was on the birth certificate that police found in that other campsite inside of the tent was Randall Lee Smith the same Infamous Randall Lee Smith who had murdered those two hikers not far from dismal Creek that double homicide had happened in 1981 and Randall was caught

in and convicted but he was paroled 15 years later in 1996 for good behavior and for 10 years after that Randall lived with his mother and he wore this electronic bracelet and you know he followed the rules but by 2008 his electronic bracelet had came off and even though Randall had attempted to continue living with his mother it just wasn't tenable he didn't have enough money and so ultimately he packed up his things grabbed his dog and moved out onto the Appalachian Trail and on May 6th 2008 when Shawn and Scott arrived in dismal Creek

to go fishing Randall was waiting nobody has any idea why Randall murdered those two hikers back in 1981 or why he targeted Shawn and Scott in 2008 all we know is that Randall Lee Smith was very mentally unwell and very likely viewed the Appalachian Trail as like his sacred place this is his home this is the place he loves more than anything and so maybe you know he felt like Shawn and Scott had somehow disrespected the appalation Trail and that was enough to attack them now we know Shawn and Scott did not do anything intentionally

disrespectful to Randall because amazingly Shawn and Scott survived this attack and they would say that when they saw Randall they just felt bad for him they thought he was like this alcoholic Drifter who didn't have a home of his own and so he was just living out in the woods on the Appalachian Trail and so they didn't judge him instead they really did just want to give him some food and spend some time with him and make him feel human again that was it and and because Randall appeared to be this kind of small older

man Shawn and Scott who were you know very big and imposing they didn't feel threatened by this guy as for that bizarre other campsite that police found up around dismal Creek the one that contained all those knives and the bir certificate well obviously that was Randall's campsite and that weird cassette tape that they listened to that sounded like a Satanic ritual that was Randall going through his meditations and chants that he would do when he was out in the middle of nowhere it was like his way of respecting mother nature and the Appalachian Trail and

then all those items that were found inside of his tent the different clothes and the eyeglasses and the women's underwear it's believed those could be Randall's other victims however when police pulled DNA samples from all of those items that were found inside of his tent like the clothes and the underwear and the eyeglasses well those DNA samples did not match any of the missing people or murder victims in the police's database and so that wasn't useful and then also police went to all those places on that map that were circled and with the exception of

obviously dismal Creek they didn't find anything else at the other locations that suggested any violent event had happened there so only Randall knows the truth which means we will never know the truth because just 4 days after Randall was pulled out of that truck that he crashed he died in police custody from a blood clot that formed as a result of the crash and in those 4 days that Randall was in custody he never gave up that there were any other victims today Shawn still has a bullet in his head and in his chest and

Scott still has big scarring on his neck and on his back but both men have made a full recovery relatively speaking and they still go back to dismal Creek all the time to go camping and fishing as promised here is a clip from last week's episode of our amazing podcast run full hosted by the incredible iconic storyteller Rodney Barnes enjoy the first guy that stood up was about 6 feet tall with thinning hair he wore swept back from his forehead he was dressed elegantly in a sweater and button down unusual enough in a sea of

fleece jackets and his eyes were hollowed in his skull you write a lot about monsters that the rest of us don't actually believe in the guy said reptiles werewolves murder goats whatever a chuckle roll through the theater I'm wondering if you'd ever consider addressing the other kind monster the real kind he went on the kind of monster that looks more like a man I stared back unnerved I'd met far more of the human type of monster than I ever had the type with fur but that's not what was giving me pause instead it was the

certainty that this guy had a story to tell I was right about that because his story it would be one of the most frightening Tales I'd ever heard so that's going to do it if you enjoyed today's story be sure to check out our podcast called the Mr Ballin podcast where we literally have hundreds of stories that sound an awful lot like this one but many of them are only on the podcast again it's called the Mr Ballin podcast and you can listen to it on Amazon music or wherever else you get your podcasts thank

you so much until next time see you wait don't go anywhere if you're looking for more strange dark and mysterious videos click here