It's Florida, Man. (2024) s01e06 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR:
What you're about to see
may be dangerous,
illegal, unethical,
petty, misguided, immoral,
and most definitely stupid.
But it's also all true.
Hmm. Sort of.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC STING) ♪
My name is Charles McDowell,
a.k.a. Damn Wide Neck.
So how did I get famous?
REPORTER 1: Just got famous.
Damn Wide Neck
-REPORTER 2: Charles McDowell
-(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
REPORTER 3: Two hundred
and fifty thousand comments
CHARLES DION MCDOWELL:
Well, that's a crazy-ass story.
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(POLICE SIREN BLARING)
CHARLES: I was out
one late night,
and there was a warrant out
for my arrest.
Police seen me.
I ended up taking them
on a chase, and I never stopped.
-(SIREN CONTINUES WAILING)
-(TIRES SCREECHING)
My car ended up running hot.
(CHUCKLES) So I had to, like,
pull over into this yard.
-And I ran to the woods.
-Slow down, pal!
This when them little man purses
was just coming out.
-I had a little fanny pack.
-MENDOZA: Come back here!
And I had it loaded. I got
a whole bunch of dope on me.
I'm telling you to stop!
CHARLES: In Florida,
like, that's the worst case
you can catch.
A heroin trafficking
and Ice trafficking case,
so I ate all that.
MENDOZA: Son, slow down! Hey!
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Howdy!
I got you on gunpoint.
(IN DISTORTED VOICE)
Do not move!
"Don't move,"
but I'm (ECHOING) wigging.
Why you moving?
CHARLES: I'm out my mind.
MENDOZA: Why you moving?
Hey, buddy, don't move!
This is a lot of touching, man,
which qualifies as moving.
Uh. Why we spinning?
Why we spinning?
You need a doctor or something?
-Hey!
-(LOUD THUD)
CHARLES:
That's how it all started
(CHUCKLES)
but shit got way crazier.
(LAUGHS)
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
-(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(ENGINES REVVING)
INTERVIEWER:
How many high-speed chases
do you think
you've been in total?
I have been in a lot of them.
Over 14, 15.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REPORTER: A Florida man
arrested for taking police on,
you won't believe this,
his 20th high-speed chase.
CHARLES: That's how
the whole thing started.
(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
-(CAMERA WHIRS)
-PHOTOGRAPHER: One, two
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
CHARLES: That's when
they took my mugshot,
and my whole life changed.
INTERVIEWER:
I mean, I'm from Florida.
Like, I don't know, like,
Florida Man, like, is it, like,
dude that breaks laws
all the time,
or just constantly
getting in trouble?
That's what they call
Florida Man?
INTERVIEWER:
Crazy headlines,
that's what it is.
(GASPS) Florida Man can be me.
A 24-year-old man,
this man right here,
accused of throwing an alligator
through a drive-thru window.
CARL HIAASEN:
I think for those of us
who have spent our lives here,
there was always a sense
that this was a different place.
(GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
And at times,
a very peculiar place.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
I'm Carl Hiaasen,
and I'm a, uh, an author,
a longtime journalist
with Miami Herald,
and born and raised in Florida.
(QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CARL: I've been writing
about Florida Men
for, you know, my whole career.
This one was banned
in a Texas prison system.
I was honestly
incredibly proud of that.
I've written
between 20 and 30 novels,
including novels for kids.
Most of the sickest stuff
in my books
is based on something real
that happened in Florida.
It's the right mix
for this incredible vortex
of weirdness
that the whole country
seems interested in now.
I mean, it's almost a brand.
I don't think we're ever going
to escape this.
There's absolutely no chance
of Florida becoming
a normal, uh, place to live.
-(CHILDREN SHOUTING)
-(CHEERFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
People from
fucking New York, California,
wherever in the US,
they think that it's this
crazy gator-riding place,
but, like, if you look outside,
it's pretty fucking chill,
you know?
(PLAYING UPBEAT MELODY) ♪
I like Florida
because we're free.
She's out there
showing her tits. (LAUGHS)
RESIDENT: It's like
the Wild West, right?
We don't gotta wear helmets.
If you wanna catch an alligator
and drag it across the road,
and show it to your friends,
that's cool.
That's Florida for you.
(CHUCKLES)
JOHN LONGENECKER: I mean,
when I hear "Florida Man,"
I think I'm a Florida Man.
Whoo, Florida Man!
(MUSIC FADES) ♪
INTERVIEWER:
The sunshine law
in the state of Florida
has basically made it such that
if you come into contact
with the justice system
-(INTRIGUING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-within 24 to 48 hours,
anyone from the public,
from anywhere in the world,
can basically pull up
a mugshot of you,
and see any and every allegation
against you.
CARL: The sunshine law
made public records
available to the actual public.
From all of that was something
that I had the benefit of
as a journalist
for all those years.
And certainly,
a strong argument,
constitutional argument,
can be made that
we have every right
to see everything.
These public records,
arrest records,
really perpetuate
that "Florida Man" stereotype.
CARL: That is the danger,
is you could take
a very small news story,
and put somebody's mugshot
on the internet.
I mean, that was a whole way
to gain readers.
Every single day you go
in that gas station to get gas,
and get a little drink
or something to go to work,
and you see the actual mugshots
of every single person
that got arrested
the night before.
So, everyone knows,
you get arrested,
you're on that cover
of that newspaper the next day,
right in the gas station.
Guilty or innocent, you know,
you're right on there, so
It's entertaining at some level,
but it also can be
very, very destructive
to somebody's life.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
GROUP: Wheel of Fugitive!
Hello, everyone,
I'm Sheriff Wayne Ivey
of the Brevard County
Sheriff's Office.
I'm excited.
You know why I'm excited?
'Cause it's Tuesday night,
eight o'clock.
It's time for Wheel of Fugitive.
You know how it works.
Ten fugitives,
I'm gonna spin this wheel.
One of them is gonna be
our fugitive of the week.
Let's see who it is.
Wheel of Fugitive, like,
they just went too far
with that.
Wheel of Fugitive
is Sheriff Wayne Ivey
making a joke or a mockery
out of public safety
and justice.
We got a bunch
of fugitives out there.
I wanna get 'em all
off the streets.
Let's go fishing for fugitives.
Just stick to regular
public service announcements.
You know?
Don't try to be a comedian.
Adam, you can do the right thing
and turn yourself in, son.
Don't make us come chase you.
It's like this weird,
"Yeah, we wanna see people
get in trouble," type of thing.
Talking about people
that genuinely live
in your community.
They work here,
they pay their taxes here.
Well, maybe they don't all
pay their taxes, but
Let's see who this week's
Fugitive of the Week is.
ALTON EDMOND: Many employers
in this conservative county
watch the sheriff's shows
for entertainment.
And if they see an employee
on that show,
many of the employers
in Brevard County,
and business owners,
will fire a person
who has not been convicted
of a crime,
just because they appeared
on that show.
When we talk about people
being basically denied
their constitutional rights
to be treated as innocent
until proven guilty,
and you're taking that
to the next level
by then making a public mockery
of those people,
it's a dangerous thing.
When they spin that wheel
and your face on there
or whatever,
they're gonna come get you.
ANNOUNCER: Right here
from your Escambia
County Sheriff's Office,
we present you with
GROUP: Wheel of Fugitives!
Well, you heard 'em.
It's Wanted Wednesday
here at the Escambia
County Sheriff's Office.
That means one thing.
-Let's spin the wheel!
-Yeah!
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHIP W. SIMMONS: Looks like
this week's winner is
Charles McDowell.
(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
They spin that wheel,
and so what happened,
it stopped on me.
AMBER SOUTHARD: Ooh, Charles,
fleeing and eluding?
You can run,
but you can't hide, Charles.
CHARLES:
People was calling there,
trying to get a reward
or whatever,
putting the police on me.
(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)
CHARLES: So they had
the whole Escambia County
-looking for me.
-(POLICE SIREN WAILING)
That's when I fled
to another county or whatever.
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(POLICE SIREN WAILING)
(TIRES SCREECHING)
(GROANS)
MENDOZA: (ECHOING) Stop!
CHARLES: So after eating
a whole bunch of drugs
-or whatever
-(IN DISTORTED VOICE) Howdy!
my body just went to,
like, wigging on me.
(LAUGHS EXAGGERATEDLY)
Touch me.
CHARLES: I ain't know
what was going on.
I had passed out.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
-(EKG MONITOR BEEPING)
-(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHARLES: I was on life support
for, like, three days.
I had died that night
for three days.
True story.
(EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHARLES: I woke up, like,
on my third day,
and I'm shackled to the bed.
Like, my arms and stuff, like,
stuck to the bed.
I got this big-ass pipe
in my throat.
Got all these IVs.
I don't know what's going on.
(GROANS)
First thing I said,
"I gotta go."
I gotta get up outta here.
-No police was around. Uh
-(QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I took off again.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
MARILYN MCDOWELL:
I have four boys.
Charles was
He's my special one.
The doctor was amazed
to see him.
It was different.
He was surprised, too.
'Cause he'd never--
He never seen nothing like it.
A little boy with a wide neck.
Charles was amazing.
Charles, like,
gets up in the little-
if it's a hole
that he can put his body in,
he's gonna get in it.
Any way Charles can get away,
Charles gonna get away.
-(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(TIRES SCREECHING)
(CAR ENGINE REVVING)
CHARLES: I was on my way
to Atlanta.
About, like, 15, 20 minutes
into the drive,
I see Christmas lights.
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(POLICE SIREN WAILING)
I'm on another high-speed chase.
I can't make this up.
I'm on another high-speed chase.
(ENGINES REVVING)
CHARLES: Throwing money,
drugs, all out the car.
-(SIREN CONTINUES WAILING)
-(TIRES SCREECHING)
CHARLES:
I look at the dashboard,
you know,
the little light come on,
when it's like,
your tire pressure's going out.
That was happening, I'm like,
"What the fuck going on?
Damn, how the tires blow?"
(MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
MENDOZA: Feeling better?
They spiked the car.
I spiked your car.
And when you threw the drugs
out of the window,
it hit my windshield.
-Get your ass out of the car!
-(QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHARLES: They pulled me out,
put me in handcuffs,
threw me inside the back seat
of the car,
and took me straight
to the nearest county.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
CHARLES: The next day,
the whole staff
at that jailhouse,
they was coming to see me.
MENDOZA: (LAUGHS) That's him!
CHARLES: And they was like,
"Yeah, that's him, that's him!"
-That's you, man!
-(BOTH LAUGH)
The officer turned
the computer to me.
He was like,
"I'mma show you something."
And he Googled me.
He turned it around,
he was like, "Look at this."
Charles Dion McDowell
was featured
on the Wheel of Fugitives
from Escambia County. (LAUGHS)
And then
NEWS ANCHOR: (ON LAPTOP)
He has a giant's neck.
I mean, seriously,
look at this guy's neck.
My nephews called me and said,
"He's on TV."
We turned the TV on.
He's not on one channel.
The whole TV,
they talking about him!
REPORTER: So far,
his mugshot has gotten
about 250,000 comments.
CHARLES: My mugshot went viral.
Wasn't nothing
about my charges, the cases,
or what I was
going through, like, physically.
It was like,
"Oh, he got a big-ass neck."
"Oh, look at Neck Man."
"Oh, it's like
he swallowed a plate."
Just crazy comments,
and it just kept going
and going and going and going.
I bet when you was little,
you liked
to run around "neckked,"
eating neck bones,
watching Neck-elodeon,
until it got dark,
and then you watched
Neck at Nite.
Roasting the fuck out of me.
Like, they-- they cooked me.
(CELL DOOR CLOSING)
CHARLES:
So after he showed me that,
I go back into the pod.
And then this Black lady
come to the door
and she was like
(IN DEEP VOICE)
Your bail has been posted.
The whole time,
I ain't never used the phone.
So, I'm like,
"Who made my bond?"
-(IN DEEP VOICE) Your lawyer.
-All right, a lawyer?
Now I come out.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I don't see nobody,
just two White men
and all their kids.
There he is.
CHARLES: Me, I'm like,
"What's going on?"
-That's your bail bondsman.
-I'm Tim, your bail bondsman.
-And your lawyer.
-You're going to be a star.
That neck's
gonna make you famous.
You're going
right to the tip-top.
CHARLES: He was like,
"You don't owe me nothin'."
Would it be too much trouble
if we got
a couple of photos with you?
"I just want you to take
pictures with my family."
-(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
-(BABY CRYING)
Would you like some pulled pork?
CHARLES: The bondsman,
he offered me
pulled pork sandwiches.
You're missing out. So moist.
-(ECHOING) So stringy.
-(ECHOING) Pork!
(IN DISTORTED VOICE) If it
ain't messy, it ain't good.
(IN NORMAL VOICE)
Do you want some of this?
CHARLES: And I'm like,
"No, sir, I'm good,
I just need some cigarettes."
You go get yourself
a pack of cigarettes.
I ate it all. (MOANS)
It's on me.
He gave me 20 dollars
to go to the store.
-(STORE BELL RINGING)
-(GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(EXCITED CHATTER)
CHARLES: I don't know
what's going on.
I'm looking out the window,
I just see, like,
three, four people, like,
running into the store.
They're like, "Oh, my God,
it's him, it's him."
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)
The parking lot crowded,
so now we gotta have like
The county police
is, like, right there,
like, they gotta move me
from the store.
(FANS CLAMORING)
CHARLES: And the police
actually trailed us
as far as they can,
to keep people from,
like, following me.
It just blowed up everywhere.
All over the TV.
It was all over there.
-To me, it was just crazy.
-(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I gotta say,
a huge congrats to you, man.
I've never seen someone
pulling that many Google hits.
Thank you, man. (CHUCKLES)
I ain't even understand
social media.
I wasn't with
the internet, period.
No Facebook. No, none of that.
I wasn't even, like,
Googling stuff.
You feel me? YouTube and all.
I wasn't doing none of that.
-(CROWS CAWING)
-(QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHARLES: Back in my hood,
I wasn't never called
"Wide Neck," or none of that.
When that mugshot came out,
it's like, "Damn, nigga,
you 'Wide Neck' now."
Like, "Wide Neck, Wide Neck!"
They was, like, roasting
the fuck out of me like, "Damn."
And I called my bondsman,
and he was like,
"There's nothing
too much you can do
about what they're saying
on the Internet,
'cause it's public records,
whatever."
He was like, "But, however,
I think you should
call this guy."
Daddy Long Neck here,
and it's about to get litty
like a fucking titty.
CHARLES: And I'm looking
at the picture, it's Long Neck.
Long Neck is David.
I forget his last name,
but his name "Damn Long Neck"
or whatever.
The White kid
with the long neck,
the world know about him
or whatever.
They was like, "You need to try
to get in touch
with his managers."
I made that phone call,
and they was like,
"Look, we in Miami.
We're gonna fly you out,
we're gonna to cash out.
We just want you to do two
or three skits with Long Neck,"
da-da, "And we'll see you
back home," da-da-da.
I went to Miami.
And my first time
meeting Daddy Long Neck,
-it was like, "Damn."
-(QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
"What the fuck I'mma do
with this kid?"
Isn't that fucking Wide Neck?
CHARLES:
But, frankly, I'mma do it.
First time recording
or whatever.
INTERVIEWER:
Do it for the money.
I'm doing it
for the money this time.
Wide Neck on the scene
Smokin' propane ♪
Yeah, the bitch gave me brain
Off a new chain ♪
I was sittin' in the counter
Now I'm switchin' lanes ♪
Every bitch in the world
Wanna know my name ♪
Shorty wanna fuck
But she's too cheap ♪
Diamonds on my neck
Jordans on my feet ♪
Me and Wide Neck, we on TV ♪
Daddy Long Neck
Crazy in the sheets ♪
CHARLES:
When they put it together
and released it, it was crazy,
it just went crazy.
REPORTER:
Wide Neck would amass
over one million
Instagram followers,
and achieve worldwide notoriety.
-(LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-BOTH: All necks matter.
CARL: I think there's people
with abnormally large necks
all over the country,
but I think Florida is a place
where you can exploit it
and turn it
into a little career.
And I say, "Go Wide Neck!"
CHARLES:
It was definitely a blessing.
-It was nothing but a blessing.
-(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I never dreamed
of being in Hollywood.
I'd never been on a plane
at the time.
You feel me?
Never been to Miami.
It was like a lot of stuff
that I never did.
I was like in and out of prison,
in and out of jail,
like, most of my adult lifetime,
you feel me?
And I just made a transition,
like, a second chance at life.
MARILYN: I'm real proud of him,
I am really happy for him.
He making better choices,
he doing better things.
He got a positive attitude now.
It's just gonna be
a little tight,
but we could work with it.
Over here to the mirror.
CHARLES: I consider myself
a street dude or whatever,
but at the end of the day,
I'm softer than a bear,
you feel me?
I want to have a good life.
I want to be there with my kids.
I haven't sold no drugs
since that day.
I'm not who the mugshot is,
or I'm not what they trying
to make me out to be,
you feel me?
Wayne Ivey
has actually been sued
for his use
of Wheel of Fugitive.
REPORTER:
The Florida Today investigation
has found
that a large number of people
featured on the segment
weren't fugitives.
And he really doesn't
seem to care.
He's still pushing the shows,
and it still continues
to move on.
You can almost be certain
that if you have a sheriff
named Wayne Ivey
spinning a wheel for it,
you can almost be certain
that there's going
to be a screw-up.
It's an interesting business
how YouTube works.
You know,
anybody can make a channel.
This cop started it
with the Wheel of Fugitive.
Wide Neck wound up
showing up on there.
Wide Neck got
a successful YouTube channel.
You know, it's a great economy
that we got.
What you think, boss man? Look.
That's hot, bro.
They go anywhere.
They're gonna be behind me
like ducklings.
-Go anywhere with that, brother.
-I'm gonna be the papa duck.
They gonna behind me
like ducklings.
-(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-Yeah.
Escambia County?
I already know
they're trying to get me,
but I gave them their shout-out.
They got me out the hood,
like, they got me away
from all that.
It's cool with me, like
(CHUCKLING) I'm good with it.
CARL: That's heart-warming,
he's no longer dealing drugs,
and that he's found fame
and fortune from a mugshot.
That's pretty cool.
This is just the way
that the world works now.
REPORTER:
"A Florida Man," the words
by which many strange stories
begin in the world,
arrested on char
CARL: Storytelling tradition
in America,
going back in folklore,
and the days
of Mark Twain, Will Rogers.
Passing along stories
that get bigger and bigger
and wilder and wilder
and funnier and funnier.
More often than not,
they weren't true.
But in Florida,
they're all true.
-("MUGSHOT" BY WIDE NECK) ♪
-Evil G ♪
For real
Deputy Wayne, 400 ♪
They was just laughing
At the mug shot ♪
They was laughing
At the mug shot ♪
I was trapped
In that drug house ♪
In the kitchen
I was beating the pot ♪
Fold it in
Now I'm selling rock ♪
They was laughing
At the mug shot ♪
I was trapped
In that drug house ♪
In the kitchen
I was beating the pot ♪
Fold it in
Now I'm selling rock ♪
They was laughing
At the mug shot ♪
In the kitchen
I was beating the pot ♪
They was laughing
At the mug shot ♪
Fold it in
Now I'm selling rock ♪
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CREW LAUGHING)
CHARLES: Whoo!
Damn, this nigga off for real!
(PLEASANT GUITAR
MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪