The Story of Sheslay Free Mike, an Infamous, Mad, and Murderous Woodsman of the North Country
Michael Oros arrived in the wilds of northwest British Columbia in 1972 with a peach-fuzz beard, carrying a bamboo flute. Henry Vance, a First Nation Tahltan man who spent winters caretaking a hunting guide’s cabins and horses in Sheslay, an abandoned Native village and mining settlement, encountered Oros hiking along the trail from Telegraph Creek. When Oros moved into a deserted cabin, Vance suddenly found himself with a neighbor.
Oros
In the beginning, Vance and his wife had to take care of the boy as he struggled to stay alive. Over time, however, Vance watched the young man harden and develop woods skills. He also witnessed increasingly spooky, violent behavior from Oros. For instance, once, when Oros showed up asking for dinner, he took offense when Vance asked him to wash his hands. All of sudden, Vance got the feeling that Oros was considering murdering him. Another time he threatened to kill Vance’s wife over a petty dispute over Oros’ dogs.
Years later, after Vance learned that Oros had gone on to commit horrible crimes and murders across the region, Vance said he felt guilty for having helped him.
Vance could not have known at the time that he was helping a man who would become known as Sheslay Free Mike—one of the most infamous and mysterious criminals to ever roam the North Country.
At first Oros’ home base was near the headwaters of the Sheslay River, which is a tributary of the massive Taku River watershed that originates in British Columbia and drains into Southeast Alaska. It’s likely that the isolation of living at Sheslay contributed to Oros becoming increasingly feral, paranoid, and delusional. He took to carving trees and buildings with his personal mark, a blazing sun symbol, which signified that he owned the country and everything in it. He roamed deeper into the wilderness, living in a tent and in abandoned structures, illegally hunting and trapping, and occasionally raiding a cabin.
Stories of Oros’ menacing nature and his cabin raids began to circulate, as did tales of his almost superhuman ability to travel through the woods. He could supposedly snowshoe while hauling a heavy sled at a steady six miles per hour, covering 60 miles a day. He moved like a ghost, most of the time unseen. At other times he would suddenly appear, as if he were conjured.
Sitka Tlingit cultural bearer Dave Kanosh said that some families moved to Southeast Alaska to get away from Oros.
Canadian police officer Chris Morgan was stationed in Teslin for several years and had encounters with Oros. In a 1985 interview for the Vancouver Sun Newspaper, Morgan called him, “the missing link…the closest thing a man can be to being an animal and the closest thing an animal can be to being a man.”
Vernon Frolick, a Canadian writer and prosecutor, had full access to Oros’ diaries. He published the one book about Oros, entitled “
Descent into Madness: Diary of a Killer.” The book describes Oros when he first comes north as a hardcore back to the earther – part of a movement to reconnect with the land that began in the 1950s in response to industrialization and capitalism and, arguably, reached its peak during the early 1970s.
Sheslay was the place that marked the beginning of his 13-year war with “torture druggers” and “sneak arounds.” It wasn’t long before he became known as “Sheslay Free Mike” or just “Sheslay” and, before long, became the bane of the country.
In his journals he constantly referenced “torture druggers,” who experimented on and poisoned him, as well as “sneak arounds,” whom he never seemed to catch sight of but who he believed were stalking him. Armed with a .303 rifle, he’d spend a significant portion of many days hunting “sneak arounds.”
Oros also imagined that every time a plane flew overhead it sprayed him and the earth with poisonous chemicals. His hatred of authority figures had deepened to murderous rage, and he constantly wrote in his journals about wanting kill any government officials he might encounter.
Phil Timpany, a Canadian woodsman, …actually saw Oros. It happened sometime after the fall of 1979, while Oros was being held in custody in Atlin. A cop wanted him to come in and see Oros. Timpany was out in the same country as the madman, and the cop was worried for his safety. The officer told Timpany they suspected Oros of a number of disappearances and murders.
I asked what do I do if I meet him in the woods? He said don’t ever say goodbye. Basically, just shoot him. The cop was trying to be honest with me,” Timpany said.
Oros directed the lion’s share of his hatred toward police officers. He wrote in his last diary that focusing his hatred allowed him to “set back and enjoy myself, doing a few things I wanted to do before I died.”
One of those “things” may have been the rape and murder of Cindy Elrod, whose body was found on August 23, 1983, in Juneau.
Oros slept on Big Island in Teslin Lake, the burial place of a Tlingit shaman. There had long been a belief circulating around Oros, especially with Tlingit people, that he was not human. They believed he was the physical manifestation of the
Kóoshdaa Káa, an evil spirit that preys upon and possesses the lost, turning them into a reflection of itself. The Kóoshdaa Káa is a shapeshifting monster associated with madness, disappearances, and wildness. The Kóoshdaa Káa can be linked to the
wild man of the woodsarchetype in that it lures its victims into the “wilderness,” turns them insane, and causes them to lose their humanity.
[RCMP SWAT] flew into Teslin Lake. Officers Rodgers and Buday, armed with M-16s, along with a sharpshooter, made up one of the units. Their unit was dropped in front of Oros, while another was dropped behind him. While Rodgers and Buday were hiding in deep snow, hoping to intercept Oros as he snowshoed toward them, the mad trapper disappeared in the brush. Unseen, he circled around and snuck up on Rodgers and Buday. Oros fatally shot Buday through the back of the neck with his .303 rifle and then turned to Rodgers. Forty-four yards separated the two men.
Rodgers says that he believes he and Buday had some higher power with them that day. The moment after Buday was shot,
Rodgers had an out-of-body experience, like he was watching the events happen from above. He says he looked down on Oros as the man worked his rifle’s bolt, took aim, and pulled the trigger. Then Rodgers watched himself raise his M-16 and shoot. His bullet went through Oros’ forehead, killing him instantly.
Examination of Oros’ rifle afterward showed that the firing pin had worked and dented the primer but hadn’t ignited the powder. Rodgers should have been killed.
https://www.outdoorlife.com/survival/sheslay-free-mike-story/
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