Lingit stories say the Kushtaka or Kushtaka is a shape-shifting otter-like creature that lures people into the wilderness, sometimes tricking them to their deaths. 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 Talton man who spent winters caretaking a hunting guide's cabin and horses in Sheesley, 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. In the beginning, Vance and his wife had to take care of the boy as he struggled to stay alive. But over time, Vance watched the young man harden and develop his wood 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 a sudden, Vance got the feeling that Oros was considering murdering him. Another time, he threatened to kill Vance's wife over a pitied dispute over Oros's 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. Our Talton people are helpful people. We help people who are down and out, Vance said in an interview on a Canadian radio station. 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 She-Slay River, which is a tributary of the massive Taco River watershed that originates in British Columbia and drains into southeast Alaska. It's likely that the isolation of living at She-Slay contributed to Oros becoming increasingly feral, paranoid, and delusional. He took to carving trees and building 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. The heart of Oros' territory began more or less in Shisle and stretched west to Atlan and north to Teslin to encompass more than 30,000 square miles. Much of the area is the Taku Lingit people's ancestral home, where many still live today. Stories of Oro's 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, and at other times he would suddenly appear as if he were conjured. Over time, Oros ran the Teslan Lingit off their legally owned trapping grounds and claimed them as his own. They could have filed charges, but they declined to talk to the police. Sitka Lingit cultural bearer Dave Kanoche 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 Oros 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. But he wasn't always that way. He was born in Oregon in 1952, the only child of a single mother who worked as a petroleum geologist, a chemical engineer, and a university professor. He never knew his father. Arla Clyatt got to know the boy and his mother in the early 1960s when the two moved to her neighborhood in Lawrence, Kansas. One of Clyde's first interactions with the two was taking Michael, whom she described as lonely and shy, to his first day of school because his mom was busy. In 1968, when Michael was in the 10th grade, he became deeply affected by the Vietnam War. He developed a deep hatred for the government and authority in general. Not long after, his mother claimed she sent him away to live with relatives and work horses in Wyoming. Clyde never saw Michael or heard his mother talk about him again. Whether Oros actually went to Wyoming is unclear. Either way, he was soon on his own, wandering the country. When he turned 18, he became a draft dodger and began using aliases. He'd used at least 15 during his short life. In Taos, New Mexico, he joined a commune where he got tangled up in drugs and violence, though the details around this part of Oros' story are unclear. Eventually, he fled to Fairbanks, Alaska. Vernon Froelich a Canadian writer and prosecutor had full access to Oros diaries He published the book about Oros entitled Descent into Madness The Diary of a Killer The book describes Oros when he first comes north as a hardcore back-to-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. Like a lot of young people moving to Alaska in that era, Oros was also looking to escape his past and reinvent himself. Oros was on a quest for freedom and truth, and the Wild North seemed to be the perfect place to find it. More than that, he wanted to build a utopic community in the wilderness that would be a sanctuary for those seeking escape from society. He read esoteric books, studied Zen, and was obsessed with concepts like trying to grasp the unseen reality. He took up with different small groups of hippies, mostly draft dodgers, and lived in primitive cabins. The cold, darkness, and isolation of Fairbanks winters was too much for him, though. In the spring of 1972, he set out for Telegraph Creek in northwest British Columbia. One story goes that he was run out of Telegraph Creek by locals, and that's why he ended up in SheSlay. Another is that he was offered a job helping the same hunting outfitter Henry Vance was working for. Regardless, She-Slay is the place that marked the beginning of his 13-year war with the tortured druggers and the sneak-arounds. It wasn't long before he became known as She-Slay Free Mike, or just She-Slay, and before long became Bane of the country. Oros kept prolific journals documenting his paranoia, delusions, and rage. He'd leave notes or poems posted to trees or cabin doors stating things like, I'm a free man, let me be. In his journals, he constantly referred to tortured druggers who experimented 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 into a murderous rage and he constantly wrote in his journals about wanting to kill any government officials he might encounter At the time, the only government employees who spent time in his territory were Alaska Department of Fish and Game fishery biologist conducting research annually from April through October. Lead biologist Paul Kisner worked in the Taku watershed from 1971 to 1990. At first, Kisner told me that he and his crew thought Oros was weird but a mostly harmless mountain man. Mike Beathers, a retired King Salmon biologist who worked with Kisner, said that changed as they learned more about him. Quote, the women at camp were especially scared. No one ever saw him, but we were always looking over our shoulders, Beathers said. In early summer of 1979, Kistner and crew returned to their research camp on the Nakina River, a tributary of the Taku, and found that Oros had stolen their river boat. From raiding their camp, Oros knew at least some of the crew's names, and that many of them lived in Juneau. Kisner reported the theft to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was willing to testify against Oros. Police were well aware of Oros by the time and suspected him in numerous crimes. Now they had an arrest warrant, but they made no move. Locating Oros would be difficult and dangerous, not to mention the charge likely wouldn't amount to a substantial conviction. Despite his aversion to civilization, Oros would go into the town on occasion for short-term work to stock up on supplies and look for women. He'd do this sometimes in Juneau, where he wasn't infamous. The fall after he stole the ADF&G riverboat, it appears he went to Juneau and was working with a road crew paving the highway. Kisner was still up at Taku when late one night, a hippie with long and sandy blonde hair knocked on his and his wife's condominium door. Through the door, Kisner's wife asked the man what he wanted. Quote, he told her there was a problem with her newspaper and that she needed to let him in, Kisner said. He seemed threatening and she retreated to the kitchen to call the police. The man became irate, pounding and demanding to be let in. And when a trooper finally arrived, the only sign of the prowler was the evidence he left dripping down the door. Later, upon seeing a photo of Oros, Kisner's wife guessed it could have been him. Phil Tempany, a Canadian woodsman, was the only member of Kisner's fishery crew who ever actually saw Oros. It happened sometime after the fall of 1979 while Oros was being held in custody in Atlan. A cop wanted to come in and see Oros, and Tempany was out in the same country as the madman and the cop was worried for his safety. The officer told Tempany they suspected Oros of a number of disappearances and murders Quote I ask what to do if I meet up with him in the woods He said don ever say goodbye Basically just shoot him At the jail Tempany expected there would be a one window or something blocking Oros from seeing him Instead, the cop took him right in front of Oros. Quote, I saw him at the store a couple of days later, and he never took his eyes off me. He was the most wild-looking guy, but not in a woodsy way. His eyes were just intense, like a caged animal. He had intense eyes, Tempany said. Just about everyone was scared of Oros except for an old enigmatic trapper named Gunther Lischie, an ex-Nazi who fought in World War II before being imprisoned in a Russian camp. Lischie immigrated to Canada to live in the woods. He was tough, and he was woods-wise and apparently dangerous. Tempani, who also had a trap line, treaded lightly around Lishi. He recalled hearing a story of Lishi encountering another trapper on his line. Lishi aimed his gun at the man, and Lishi's companion, who happened to be a cop, told him to stop. Lishi said something along the lines that he'd killed many men in his life and one more wouldn't make any difference. Supposedly, Lishi and Oros only met twice. once was briefly in the wilds when Lishi took a photo of Oros. It was one of the three photos found on the German's cabin wall after he disappeared. The second was in the late summer of 1981. Lishi, knowing Oros had a cabin and a trap line on Hunsagola Lake, got dropped off there by a float plane in late July. Oros was gone. and Lishi began building a cabin less than 100 yards from Oros' cabin. Lishi's actions were bizarre. For one, Lishi knew it was illegal to trap the area. Trap lines are owned in British Columbia. You can't go laying steel wherever you please. And second, knowing it was illegal, why would Lishi allow his business to be known by chartering a commercial float plane? Finally, Lischie was well aware of Oros' reputation. Why would he build a cabin so close? One likely explanation could be that Lischie, knowing Oros had run the legal trapline owners out of the area, planned on taking over the fur-rich country for himself. After surviving World War II, the German might have believed that dealing with Oros wouldn't be that difficult. On September 10, 1981, pilot Dave Weeb landed in Hunsagola Lake to pick up Lishy as they had scheduled weeks before. But instead of Lishy, Weeb was confronted by Oros who said he'd never heard of the old trapper, let alone seen him. Weeb's instinct told him that Oros was going to try to kill him, so he played it as cool as he could and he got away. He flew to Atlin and immediately contacted the RCMP. Police, believing they finally had solid evidence on Oros, immediately mobilized the team. Their plan was to use the arrest warrant from Oros' 1979 theft of the ADF&G riverboat to pick him up and hold him in jail while they built a murder case against him. When the team arrived at Hutsagola Lake on September 12th, Oros was long gone, deep in the wilderness. The officers searched the area and gathered Lishi's belonging, many of which Oros had tried to hide. They also took Oros' diaries for evidence. They searched hard, but they couldn't find Lishi's body. Oros got caught the following March after he returned to his cabin at Hutsagola for the winter. Oros had spent most of the winter hunting sneak-arounds and fantasizing about killing an ever-growing list of people. When police flew in, Oros inexplicably went without much of a fight. The only thing that Oros seemed to care about were his dogs. Many people have referenced his devotion to them. What happened after Oros was handcuffed is unclear. Officially, he was put on a helicopter and his dogs were later destroyed. There's another story that, out of spite, an officer shot Oros' favorite dog right in front of him. Vernon Frolic, the prosecutor who'd later write Descent into Madness, worked with the police during the investigation. Without Lishy's body or a confession and only minor charges, Frolic and the police tried to have Oros locked up in a psychiatric hospital. Hospital. While Oros was deeply disturbed, he was also extremely intelligent and cunning. His diaries were largely free-form madness, but it appeared that he never wrote anything legally incriminating. By late August, Oros had been acquitted and set free. He roamed all over the lower 48 in Canada. Tempany heard a cop in Atlan claimed Oros was being tracked daily during his travels. Around this time, 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 sit back and enjoy himself 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. The night before, Elrod had been seen at a bar with a man described as having long sandy blonde hair like Oro's and being within a similar age height and weight range A composite sketch shows a baby man with long hair parted in the middle the same as Oro hair was in pictures During his last years Oro rambling journal showed he believed that an elite paramilitary unit would be helicoptered into an area to hunt him down. This prediction became a reality in March of 1985, after Frank and Aileen Hayes arrived at their cabin in Teslin Lake and found that Oros had looted and destroyed it. He had taken everything of value, including their wedding rings. He left the partially butchered remains of a cow moose inside. Clumps of hair and rotting blood were splattered on the walls and soaked into the floorboards. The Hasses, rightfully worried for their lives, snow-machined back to Teslin and reported the break-in to the police. The RCMP reconnaissance flight was sent out, and when the pilot found Oros hauling a sled through the snowy wilderness, the madman fired at the plane. Teslin police contacted emergency response teams, and literally overnight, a team of RCMP's most elite officers were mobilized. Two of the men on the ERT were close friends with Mike Bidet and Gary Rogers, both of whom dealt with Oros in 1982 while he was in custody in Terrace and afterward while he was waiting for his trial. Bade was a larger-than-life character. One night, after having a few drinks and showing up at Rogers' house, he decided to use his chainsaw to cut the door rather than to be rude by knocking. In Descent into Madness, Frolic wrote that when Oros was detained in 1982 and tore apart his jail cell, officers went and fetched Boudet, who was off duty and drinking at the bar, to subdue him. Boudet is more than just a muscled-up drinker, though. When Oros was waiting for his trial in 1982, he slept on a police station bench when the weather was bad. If anyone tried to mess with him, Boudet put a stop to that. While members of the ERT were on their way north, Oros slept on Big Island in Teslan Lake, the burial place of a Lingit shaman. There had long been a belief circulating around Oros, especially with the Lingit people, that he was not human. They believed that he was a physical manifestation of the Kushtaka, an evil spirit that preys upon and possesses the lost, turning them into a reflection of itself. The Kushtaka is a shape-shifting monster associated with madness and disappearances and wildness. The Kushtaka can be linked to the wild man of the woods archetype in that it lures its victims into the wilderness, turns them insane, and causes them to lose their humanity. To this day, many people who were involved with Oros believe this, including Rogers. Some also believe that Oros, by sleeping at the burial site on Big Island, woke the spirit of the shaman. One of the most important functions of the Lingant shaman was to battle the Kustika. Oros knew police would be coming for him. He could have escaped into the wilderness, but instead he chose to wait for them. His journals indicate his belief that his war with the real and imagined world was about to end in a big shootout. On the morning of March 19, Rogers, Bidet, and the rest of the ERT flew into Teslin Lake. Rogers and Bidet, armed with M16s along with a sharpshooter, made up one of the units. Their unit was dropped off in front of Oros while another was dropped behind him. While Rogers and Bidet were hiding in the deep snow, hoping to intercept Oros as he snowshoed toward them, the mad trapper disappeared into the brush. Unseen, he circled around and snuck up on Rogers and Bidet. Oros fatally shot Bidet through the back of the neck with his .303 rifle and then turned to Rogers. 44 yards separated the two men. Rogers said he believes he and Bidet had some higher power with them that day. The moment after Bidet was shot, Rogers 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 boat, took aim, and pulled the trigger. And then Rogers watched himself raise his M16 and shoot. His bullet went through Oros' forehead, killing him instantly. Examination of Oros' rifle afterwards showed that the firing pin had been worked and dented the primer, but hadn't ignited the powder. Rogers should have been killed. Lishi's remains were found a year and a half later, when a constable from Teslin flew into Tutsigola Lake and stumbled on the German scattered bones. There was a bullet hole through the right scapula. Forensics showed Lishi had been shot in the back with a bullet matching a .303 cartridge. With Oros dead, a wave of relief washed over the region. Forty years later, much of the land he once roamed is still wild, though there is a massive mining operation planned for the region. Oros has been pretty much forgotten except by those who were affected by him directly. He remains as cryptic in death as he was in life. People who dealt with him still lower their voices when they talk about she-slave-free Mike, if they speak of him at all.
