[foreboding music playing]
[distant crows cawing]
[Interviewer in Tamil] Who is Veerappan?
[Muthulakshmi] My husband.
[Interviewer] What do you like the most about him?
If someone was true to him,
he was even ready to sacrifice his life.
But if someone tries to betray him,
he wouldn't hesitate to kill them.
[theme song playing]
[journalist in English] There has never been a set of developments like this
in the history of the modern world.
There never ever has been a man, a criminal like Veerappan.
[siren wailing]
[female reporter] Veerappan and his gang members
have killed 119 persons so far.
Despite a decade-long effort by two states to nab this dreaded criminal,
he has run away scot-free every time.
It is a matter of concern for the whole country.
We are going hammer and tongs to get at the forest brigand Veerappan.
[theme song continues]
[police officer] How could he hold two states to ransom?
It was not insurgency, it was not terrorism.
Veerappan's phenomenon is a unique phenomenon.
-[hissing] -He was a wild animal in human form.
[journalist] The hunt for him became one of the longest,
costliest manhunts in the history of India.
[Veerappan in Tamil] "We must catch Veerappan at any cost," they said.
Like hell you will! Fuck off, you bastards.
People who come here to catch me won't go back alive. [chuckles]
[theme song continues]
[distant animals calling]
[pensive music playing]
[Muthulakshmi] Back then not many had met Veerappan in person.
But news about him spread around.
"Veerappan hunts elephants."
"He had committed two murders too."
"So the forest officials and police are looking for him."
"He could jump from one cliff to another."
"He can never be caught."
At one point, the gang was staying
at the lowland near our house.
When he walked, he always kept his gun like this. [chuckles]
He'd walk in front with the gun,
and 15 to 20 of them would follow him in a line.
All of them had guns.
It was an attractive sight.
[soft instrumental music playing]
There was a huge albizia tree and I stood behind it.
I did not completely reveal myself.
I could only see his mustache.
He said, "Muthu, come here."
That sent a shiver down my spine.
I was wondering how this man knew my name.
And why he wants to talk to me.
"Muthu, come here. I need to ask you something."
"I'm thinking about marrying you. What do you think about that?"
[bird squawking]
He said, "If you refuse to marry me,
I'll not look at another woman in this lifetime."
"I'll turn my heart to stone."
[chuckling] I let him melt my heart with just that statement.
[Interviewer] How old were you at the time?
I must have been 14 or 15 years old.
Fifteen years old.
[Interviewer] How old was he?
[Muthulakshmi] He was 39 years old.
I didn't expect my life will take this direction.
[wind whistling]
[journalist in English] Beyond Kollegal, lay the jungles of the MM Hills.
[birds chirping]
The deep gorges, the forested mountains,
the unfathomable chasms that exist there…
There have been places where no man has ever set foot at all.
And it is in a setting like this
that India's most dangerous criminal existed.
This was my first ever attempt at investigative journalism.
I found my way to Gopinatham, Veerappan's hometown.
[bell tolling]
A rural hamlet on the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
But nobody was willing to talk about Veerappan openly.
-[man in Tamil] Do you know-- -I don't know anything about him.
-I just don't want to talk about him. -[man] If you know, you can share with me.
We don't know anything about him.
[Sunaad in English] There was illiteracy,
poverty,
hunger,
and the only way out
was to take advantage
of the humongous forest wealth that lay all around.
For Veerappan, that is how it all began.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Interviewer] With respect to crime in forests--
[forest officer] Crime in forests?
No one could match Veerappan.
Crime in forests, crime to wildlife, Veerappan has been the leader.
Maybe the leader of last five decades, maybe last six decades.
And to my bad luck,
I was the DFO, 'District Forest Officer', for that forest.
Combined together, nearly 15,000 square kilometer area
Veerappan was operating.
[elephant trumpets]
[Interviewer] In what sense was he different from other poachers?
His conviction. His courage. His, uh, fearlessness.
Ninety-nine out of hundred criminals
will not go near the front two legs of the elephant.
Whereas Veerappan could go very close to elephant.
[elephant growling]
[gang member in Tamil] Veerappan was the first from Gopinatham
to shoot an elephant.
[gripping music playing]
He started running gangs.
He started bringing revenue. Slowly he became the leader.
-[gunshots] -At first, we operated locally.
[elephants trumpeting]
As we were growing bigger and bigger,
money started pouring in.
Elephants had to die for it.
[elephants growling]
We had no qualms about it.
[B K Singh] He was so confident because with muzzleloader,
you can't be very sure of the shot.
You can't be very sure that you will make the shot correctly.
[Mahalingam in Tamil] If he had a good shot, he took it.
Shot to the head or the heart.
-[gunshot] -[elephant groaning]
[B K Singh in English] There was a hardcore criminality in him.
He must have killed nearly 1000-odd elephants.
And there must have been a time, he himself has admitted,
that there is no tusker moving in the forest.
He has finished all of them.
And if at all there is some tusker, it will be in the womb of the mother.
Somewhere it has to be stopped. It cannot be allowed to be continued.
Those days, the heads of the departments were telling me,
"Mr. Singh, why can't you create a chain of your men, 200-odd men,
and then close into him?"
I only laughed. He has not seen the terrain.
Huge jungle, I tell you. Huge jungle.
Looking for a needle in the haystack, you will not be able to locate anything.
So what is the method? What is the option? What is the way out?
"Let us create a rival gang who will help us in
bringing information against Veerappan."
So that they can act and apprehend him.
Some seized police guns were given to rival gang.
Why? So that if necessary, you kill Veerappan and come and report to us.
[Interviewer] But isn't this a crime?
One hundred percent. It is indeed a crime.
And it is… It is illegal. It is definitely illegal.
But how else to get a bigger thorn removed from your leg,
without using a smaller thorn?
[in Tamil] We murder only when our back is pushed against the wall.
They have the financial backing.
The support of the authorities. Muscle.
We have only a gun.
[distant animals screeching and howling]
[B K Singh] All of them were done to death by Veerappan.
And their bodies were disposed in the river Cauvery.
Nothing was found.
Very turbulent time.
Those days were extremely turbulent.
Anyone walking into some of these areas is walking into the death trap.
Forest department was all the time
requesting police department to extend us help.
"If you do not extend help, situation is going to go out of control."
But the police department did not act.
[Sunaad] It felt like the entire MM Hills area
was the private preserve of Veerappan.
[wood cracking]
Sandalwood trees have always been state property.
The heady fragrance and the precious oils
are in huge demand all over the world.
Quite coincidentally, these precious trees
grew in huge abundance in the jungles of the MM Hills
and Veerappan very conveniently
turned from being an elephant poacher to a sandalwood smuggler.
[gang member in Tamil] The gang knew every inch of the forest,
which hills have sandalwood in it.
A lot of the village people were called and sent into the forest.
Some days there were 100, some days there were 300 people.
-[goat bleating] -[trees cracking]
The whole area will have a rumbling noise.
[intriguing music playing]
When the vehicle arrives and gets loaded,
I will tell the driver,
"Whether it's the police department or forest department,
if they flag the vehicle, slow down, but don't stop,
and if they stand in the way, just run them over with the lorry."
"If they still pursue us, we have guns, we'll figure it out."
After that, four lakhs, five lakhs, six lakhs,
little by little, more loads came.
We got new clothes.
They even began wearing perfume… [chuckles]
…since the money started coming.
If Boss had wished to, he could have bought trucks.
Buses. Helicopters. He could have amassed a lot of wealth.
The more he smuggled, his fame kept growing.
He was named the "Forest King" by public,
"Forest King Veerappan, King of Smuggling Sandalwood."
People called him all these names.
[people praying indistinctly]
[Interviewer] Has this ever happened before in Tamil Nadu?
[gang member] No, it was unprecedented.
He was a Forest King indeed.
He mingled with members of all caste and creed
without any discrimination or difference.
His gang had members from every caste. I was the youngest of them all.
So many men, so much food,
it had become a village.
There were people staying in every nook and corner.
Sentries with rifles everywhere.
With Veerappan in the center,
issues of the village will come to Veerappan.
The cases held up in court
were brought to Veerappan for justice.
[Muthulakshmi] Whenever he had a guest,
the first thing he'd ask them was, "Have you eaten?"
He went without food for many days during childhood.
"What is one going to do with all that money?"
"We should give it to those in need."
"The poor remain poor, and the rich want to remain rich."
"It makes me really sad," he would say.
[Anburaj] The people who live in the hills,
all of them considered Veerappan as the "forest angel".
They'd come and kiss his hand. Both men and women would hug him tightly.
This was how he twirled his mustache.
He'd twirl his mustache and smile like this.
He would constantly twirl his mustache with his hand.
[Sunaad in English] He always had to have this huge, big mustache.
I mean, if you are a big zamindar or a landlord in the village,
you sport a huge mustache.
It is one of the symbols of authority, of strength, of importance.
The mustache became an integral part of his persona.
-[birds chirping] -[distant rooster crows]
[Interviewer in Tamil] Why did the people listen to him?
Was it because of his gun, or was it his words?
It was because of his integrity.
Uh, he was a man of his word.
Uh, he always gave me that hope
that someday we will live a normal life in the society.
He told me, "I've located a land in Assam."
"I went and checked out the entire property and came back."
"If I sell the remaining sandalwood, we'll have money for ourselves."
"We can live there in hiding."
"Once we sell these sandalwood loads, we will move out."
[in English] So for six months, sandalwood was cut.
And forests were practically sandal-less.
All other trees you will find in the forest.
Only sandalwood you will not find.
For the first time, forest department
started getting some support from police.
We took lot of time in preparation.
More than two months.
Because we had one shot, that's all.
"Let us go after the sandalwood. Let us seize the sandalwood."
-[soft instrumental music playing] -[cows mooing]
[Muthulakshmi in Tamil] He was of the opinion
that his wedding should remain a secret.
I was not able to sense any kind of overwhelming happiness in him.
[clicks tongue] Something was disturbing him.
Exactly when the nuptial thread
was being tied around my neck, the gunfight in the forests erupted.
[foreboding music playing]
Just as we came home, a guy came running from Palar and said,
"Uncle, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu police attacked us,
and we couldn't do much."
"They have taken all our wood and burned our trucks."
[Sunaad in English] The raid was highly coordinated,
the authorities seized whopping 65 metric tons of sandal.
Even to this day,
is the largest sandalwood seizure in the history of the world.
Veerappan's business empire
which was slowly beginning to take shape and thrive, crumbled.
[in Tamil] Does the forest belong only to them? Does it not belong to us too?
If they had created jobs for the villagers,
why would they continue to do this?
"You make a cot out of sandalwood for the Chief Minister."
"How did you get that wood?"
"When you do it, it is not wrong."
"But when I do it for my livelihood, how can you say it is wrong?"
That used to be his question.
[K M Govindan] "Kill all the foresters and policemen who come in our way."
"Should I come?"
"Let me come, and you watch how many people I will kill."
[distant owl hooting]
[vehicle running]
[guns firing]
[indistinct chatter and static on radio]
[newsreader in English] Forest brigand and sandalwood smuggler,
Veerappan, has attacked a police jeep,
killing four police officers and seriously injuring two others.
[Veerappan in Tamil] Nephew, it was night when they came. It was dark.
I was in a rage and wanted to shoot as many as possible.
Their jeep was trying to reverse. We kept shooting… [imitates gunshots]
There was so much blood everywhere. The police kept screaming.
[Sunaad in English] When I heard about this incident,
I was shocked. I was astounded.
A villager had become so emboldened
that he would take on the very might of the police force itself.
We'd never heard of anything like this.
The Government of Karnataka was forced to react.
And the state very promptly set up a Special Task Force
to nab Veerappan.
It came to be known as the STF.
The hunt had begun.
[dramatic music playing]
[police officer] Twenty-five officers sat in the big helicopter.
We crossed, uh, Gopinatham.
And the river I could see, Cauvery River.
The helicopter was flying so low, lot of elephants were running.
Bisons were running.
Just like an English movie, Rambo English movie.
[helicopter blades whirring]
It is like a war field.
Men are with their mounted LMGs.
And all around with sandbags.
And, no, I was not nervous.
But I was thinking that something very serious thing is happening here.
I was known for some toughness.
I detected very sensational murder cases of Bangalore City.
I shot one notorious rowdy, an underworld don of Bangalore City.
Why I am telling this is, I created my name in the department.
I was in limelight as a police officer.
So definitely, I can finish this fellow, Veerappan.
It was in our mind,
by combing the forest, we would come across Veerappan
and we can shoot or nab him.
He has a gang, group people are there.
With some few ladies, Muthulakshmi was also with the gang.
It was like a rat and cat chasing.
[Muthulakshmi in Tamil] That was the start.
The news slowly spread everywhere.
For about two to three days I would run and hide if I spotted the police.
They were going to each and every house, asking questions about Veerappan.
He took me across the river
and we spent a week on the hill.
That was my first experience with him inside a forest.
[birds squawking]
For about two or three days,
my dreams were full of elephants chasing us.
I told him, "If you die, I'll also die."
"If you decide to jump off a cliff, I'm ready to do that, as well."
[suspenseful music playing]
[in English] I was seeing some ray of light. I was having some hope.
I thought now within about a year or so, we'll be able to catch Veerappan.
['Tiger' Ashok] It is a Darwin theory, survival of the fittest.
But we were not knowing the difficulty of the operation.
In summer, absolutely no water.
No water at all.
We used to lick the water drops early morning on the grass.
And in winter, it is tremendous cold.
The mist is like rain only.
See, we were not like army people, trained so tough for the terrain.
We were from Bangalore.
So we had such difficulty in the forest.
[B K Singh] All these people wanted to come and try their luck.
All these people. They thought…
"What type of people you are?"
"You've not caught Veerappan? I'm coming on such and such day."
"One week I'll stay, and we will get Veerappan."
They came,
camped,
changed their dress,
changed their style,
and failed to get anywhere near Veerappan.
To catch a criminal, there are two methods.
Either you go after him. Get his location, go after him.
Then the other method is, make him surrender.
Then how to make him surrender? Now you have to act psychologically.
And in that connection, I must take the name
of senior forest officer, Srinivas.
Srinivas was a person who was very much interested in reforming people.
Gandhian type of person.
Without even hitting a person, he would like to reform them.
He was planning to persuade him to surrender.
To rehabilitate him.
While we were taking up aggressive patrolling in the forest,
Srinivas was building his relationship with the kith and kin of the gang members.
-[distant bell tolling] -[distant cows mooing]
He opened his headquarters, his house, his place in Gopinatham.
Every single human being of Gopinatham was loving Srinivas.
[soft hopeful music playing]
[in Tamil] The other officials put forward their demands.
They asked for our help to catch Veerappan in return.
But he had a different method.
He cleaned our temple and renovated it.
[Selvi] He built houses for people who didn't have one.
He gave medicines to the sick.
Drove pregnant women to the hospital for delivery.
When I was pregnant, he took me as well.
He was genuinely a good person.
He is not a good man.
And he put on an act.
He wanted to know why the villagers treated Veerappan like a God,
and he found out why. [clicks tongue]
"Veerappan is very kind and affectionate with everyone."
"He solves the problems of his villagers."
"So if I start doing the things that Veerappan does for them…"
"Will the villagers trust Veerappan or me, the DFO?"
My husband was filled with rage towards DFO Srinivas.
[suspenseful music playing]
['Tiger' Ashok in English] People became very close to Srinivas
and slowly the information was coming.
Srinivas became whole and sole in charge of the STF.
[Muthulakshmi in Tamil] We were staying at the foothills
of Bodhamalai for almost a month.
It was autumn.
"If we go there, no one will be able to find us."
"We've got food rations. We don't have to go anywhere."
-[owl hooting] -[trees rustling]
[birds chirping]
[Anburaj] When it comes to forests,
in each and every minute,
there was an ongoing communication between us and its elements.
Even right now, I can hear nature talking to me.
[imitates bird calls]
The gang's attention to nature was at par with the best of the animals.
-[imitates bird calls] -[bird chirping]
The gang may be engrossed in doing something entirely different,
but their focus remained on the movements and sounds of the forest.
The moment the enemy stepped foot, they were alerted.
[bird chirping]
The babblers make a noise, right? They saw the police.
A flock of them flew towards my husband, started making noise. [mimics chirping]
He said, "The police are here, run!"
Imagine how I felt.
"Why did you come here? The police are here, run!" he said.
[indistinct chatter and static on radio]
['Tiger' Ashok in English] The information was perfect information to Srinivas
that Bodhamalai is somewhere he takes shelter.
From all the directions, the entire radius of 25 kilometers of Bodhamalai
were covered by the Tamil Nadu police and the Karnataka police.
But Srinivas gave very strict instructions to all the policemen,
"If you sight Veerappan, you should not kill."
"You should not open fire on Veerappan."
This was, openly he told.
-[animals calling] -[leaves rustling]
[Muthulakshmi in Tamil] "Veerappan, come out. I won't shoot you."
I heard DFO Srinivas call out to my husband.
-[branches creaking] -[birds chirping]
It was a tense moment.
I was pregnant too. What could I have done?
He said, "Crouch and walk."
"Let's go north and escape."
And we finally climbed down Bodhamalai.
Out of nowhere, my husband said to me, "You should go and surrender."
"In this situation, I can't do anything with you by my side."
"The police won't harm you because you are pregnant."
[Interviewer] How many months pregnant were you?
[Muthulakshmi] Eight months.
[melancholic music playing]
It was a very emotional moment.
['Tiger' Ashok in English] Because of Srinivas, Veerappan escaped.
The entire STF headed by police.
But he is a forest official.
He was giving instructions to the police not to shoot.
We were so furious and angry.
We could have shot Veerappan then and there.
Lot of people will say,
"Because he asked me not to fire, therefore I did not fire."
Huh?
Don't you think that they are trying to hide their incompetency?
Little strong answer, huh?
But at the same time,
Srinivas made about 20-odd gang members surrender.
Surrender to Srinivas.
And they were all staying in Srinivas' place in Gopinatham.
Can you imagine, in that room, Srinivas was sleeping with 20 of them?
And it was with a purpose.
Srinivas wanted them to connect with the remaining ten fellows.
To get Veerappan. Srinivas' target was big.
[Muthulakshmi in Tamil] I was at the hospital for two months.
The baby was delivered in the tenth month.
I stayed at my mother's house
until the baby was eight months old.
One day,
DFO Srinivas was approaching our bungalow and I saw him from a distance.
The DFO was holding his gun just like my husband used to.
And our men were following him in a single file.
Just like how they used to walk behind my husband.
Later, when I thought about it, I felt really sad.
I was thinking of all possible ways to go back to my husband.
I can't live without him.
I couldn't live without seeing him.
I had overflowing affection for him,
and I became addicted to it.
I received a message from my husband
to leave the baby with my parents and join him in the forest.
I held the baby close and gave her a kiss.
I had tears in my eyes.
I said, "Mother, please take care of my child for some time."
I am going to be with him.
[water splashing]
The police did not search for me.
[chuckles]
They were scared that the gang might shoot at them.
Uh, they didn't search for me until morning.
[Sunaad in English] Muthulakshmi escaped back into the jungle
and this only created further discontent
which had already been growing within the ranks of the STF.
Srinivas' actions did not go well with some of the officers in the STF.
They did not take kindly to his philosophy of reconciliation.
And this led to a certain degree of friction.
Because Srinivas was the only person who had made this progress.
And others did not even catch one case.
Did not make even one guy to surrender.
The entire police department of Karnataka was frustrated.
And to take out their frustration, they were fixing stories against Srinivas.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Sunaad] Mari was a very favorite sister of Veerappan.
Srinivas took her in,
gave her the job of a nurse.
And Mari began to trust Srinivas immensely.
['Tiger' Ashok] He used to make Mariyamma sit in his jeep
at about six, seven o'clock in the night.
Villagers were watching, our police people were watching.
And they started gossiping.
Even constables were openly talking.
"Srinivas is having affair with Mariyamma."
[priest in Tamil] There were rumors in the village.
The word went around that Mari was the DFO's mistress.
I didn't believe that he was the kind of person who would do such a thing.
One should only pray to him. He was a very honest man.
Someone with a loose tongue must have spread that rumor.
[in English] In Kannada there is a word called "gaalimath."
It went on. Everywhere.
Gaalimath means…
X will tell it to Y, Y will tell it to Z and A.
A will tell it to B, C, D and so on.
It will go on multiplying in geometric progression.
[Interviewer] So it definitely reached Veerappan.
One hundred percent.
Absolutely correct.
[eagle screeching]
['Tiger' Ashok] He wrote a letter to Mariyamma directly.
[in Tamil] "The whole world knows the name Veerappan."
[in English] "I am a world figure today."
"I am ruling the forest. I am the law of the jungle."
"And what the hell you are doing in the village?"
"You are having affair with my enemy Srinivas."
[eagle screeching]
[Muthulakshmi in Tamil] "If you really are my sister,
pour hot oil over him and kill him."
"If you are truly my sister, do it, otherwise, never show me your face again."
[suspenseful music continues]
[Ammasi] Meanwhile, the police questioned Mari
for being in touch with her brother.
"You won't speak the truth till we give you electric shock."
They threatened her.
The girl got scared.
The girl lost all hope.
A young boy came to me and said, "Mariyamma has consumed poison."
"I was just talking to her!" I said.
"No, she consumed poison."
Across the road, there was a well.
She came and leaned against the well.
She had tears in her eyes.
Then I went directly to her.
"Who suggested this to you?"
"Why did you do this to yourself?" I asked her and she cried.
They took her to the hospital, but she didn't make it.
After she was brought back dead, the DFO arrived.
The others offered to carry the corpse.
He said, "Don't come anywhere near me."
"I will carry her all the way to the graveyard."
I remember the officer crying at the burial grounds
like it was today.
Like she were his kin.
The newspapers carried the news of her death two days later.
My husband couldn't eat that day.
He sat alone and cried.
He strongly felt that DFO Srinivas was responsible for his sister's death.
[B K Singh in English] See, he was under tremendous pressure
from the colleagues of the forest department
across the state that, "Your life is in danger."
"You leave capturing Veerappan to the police officers."
[in Sanskrit] "As doom approaches, your intellect starts working against you."
[in English] So what he did? He had a different plan altogether.
He says, "Sir, give me another 15 days."
What is that 15 days?
Because he was waiting for Arjunan to come.
[Sunaad] Srinivas planned to use Arjunan
to somehow convince his brother
to give up his life of crime.
[in Tamil] Arjunan believed the DFO.
"Please surrender. We are not able to live in peace because of you."
"See, Mari is dead."
"The whole family is suffering."
"Maybe you can surrender and change your life for the better."
My husband said,
"All right, I will surrender."
"Go fetch the DFO, and then hand him over to me."
[foreboding music playing]
[B K Singh in English] From Gopinatham, Srinivas went on foot,
walked six kilometers.
[in Tamil] Arjunan and the DFO walked enthusiastically ahead of us.
As we were starting, the DFO slipped and fell.
I told him that it was a bad omen.
"We all have to die someday, let's go!"
[clicks tongue] What more could I have told him?
So I went along.
-[birds chirping] -[animals calling]
We reached a water crossing.
The water was ankle-deep and we had to cross a puddle.
With his slipper on, DFO placed his feet onto a tree's root.
He was trying to wash his soiled feet.
[water lapping]
Three shots.
[three gunshots]
[birds squawking]
[Veerappan] First shot, and thud, he fell.
That DFO thought I was going to surrender after everything he had done to me.
How will I surrender to this scoundrel? [scoffs]
I was waiting for this day for a long time.
I took his arms and cut them off.
To get medals and awards,
what's all this drama that you did?
He was the reason for my sister's death.
I put petrol over his body
and burnt him.
Still I couldn't get over my anger.
Then I cut his head off.
[melancholic music playing]
I have kept his head as a souvenir.
['Tiger' Ashok in English] Some humans I've seen…
They cannot be reformed at all. There is no question of reform.
Whatever facility you give,
such characters cannot be reformed.
The feeling you get is terrible.
You feel that, "Oh, we were expecting that. He did not listen to us."
"We were expecting this. He did not listen to us."
All the time, everyone is hitting their head and saying this.
[Selvi in Tamil] They dropped him off at the camp.
[melancholic song playing]
We ladies went, touched his feet, and cried.
A good man died, we felt.
[melancholic song continues]
[K Munusamy] Is the goal to destroy? It should be to create.
Why destroy such a life?
That's not becoming of a brave person. No matter who it is.
They said that the head was gone.
His face was his best feature.
The eyes, the smile.
That's the real beauty.
[voice breaking] What's left to see once that beauty is taken away?
[sobbing softly]
[dramatic music playing]
[Interviewer] Veerappan might have believed he was wronged,
but why does he always retaliate with another wrongdoing?
Why? Because you can only remove a thorn by using another thorn.
[Interviewer] Akka, all hell broke loose here on.
Couldn't this have been stopped?