Trapped!
The Story of Floyd Collins

Author: Murray & Brucker
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, KY. 1982.
ISBN: 0-8131-0153-0
Number of Pages: 335

When Floyd Collins became trapped while exploring a small Kentucky cave in 1925, he set in motion one of the most widely publicized events of modern times. The sixteen days that followed were filled with mounting tension, confusion, sensationalism, and hysteria. Collins's situation drew the attention of the entire country. Hourly bulletins interrupted radio programs, Congress recessed to hear the latest word, and even the president was kept informed. At the rescue site itself an unruly mob collected, complicating the rescue efforts and turning them into a carnival.

In this masterful narrative Murray and Brucker have recreated the excitement and suspense, the bravery and conflict that surrounded the rescue attempts. They analyze the press exploitation of the event and the folklore that subsequently grew around it. They even speculate on the psychological motives that may have led Collins to his solitary forays underground. Finally, they tell of entering the cave for the first time since Collins's death, of finding mute evidence of the rescue attempts, and of discovering a new passage that might of permitted freeing the trapped man.

Trapped! is at once a tale of tense adventure and a brilliant historical recreation of the past.

"The Story of Floyd Collins' entrapment in a Kentucky cave makes for chilling and exciting reading in what will probably stand as the definitive study of the 1925 tragedy. ...The story of the rescue attempt is compelling, even though the reader knows its ending. Highly recommended" -Library Journal.