When Bill
Barilko and friend Henry Hudson went missing there were many stories regarding
what happened to them. Some stated that Barilko, because of his Russian
background, fled to the Soviet Union to teach them how to play defence in
hockey (“Storm Halts”, 2001).The more popular rumor was that the two men from
Timmins, which was a gold-mining town, had a deal in which Barilko would
invest in gold and Hudson, being a dentist, used gold for fillings and caps
(“Storm Halts”, 2001). This caused some people to think that the two were
smuggling gold in the pontoons of their plane, causing excess weight requiring
them to lighten the load at Fort George (O’Toole, 2011). Hearing rumors, the
police stated strict rules about entering the crash site before they arrived
(“Storm Halts”, 2001) and when spectators arrived at the scene the pontoons
that were supposed to be filled with fish were curiously cut open and empty (2001).
Further
controversy was created when the position of the plane was observed as the
front of the plane was facing up and in a Northward direction, rather than down
due to a plummeting crash and facing south towards Timmins (2001). The
skeletons in the cockpit were never truly identified either leaving the
possibility that the two skeletons found were not Bill Barilko’s and Henry
Hudson’s (2001). Everything was left in a positive manner, allowing people to
assume that the pontoons were full of fish which weighed them down causing the
crash.