A documentary about the discovery of the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil ever found.
When Paleontologist Peter Larson and his team from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research made the world's greatest dinosaur discovery in 1990, they knew it was the find of a lifetime; the largest, most complete T. rex ever found. But during a ten-year battle with the U.S. government, powerful museums, Native American tribes, and competing paleontologists, they found themselves not only fighting to keep their dinosaur but fighting for their freedom as well.—Anonymous
The film depicts the event of 1990, when American paleontologist Pete Larson and his team (Terry Wentz, Susan Hendrickson, Neal Larson, ) discovered the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever found (nicknamed "Sue") while digging in the badlands of South Dakota. Prior to 1990, only 12 T Rex specimens were found & each less than 40% intact. Sue was extracted in 17 days. Maurice Williams, the landowner was paid $ 5,000 for Sue, by the Black Hills Institute (founded by Pete), with the intention of displaying her in its museum. It was a handshake agreement and no paperwork was signed. Sue was 80% complete.The initial estimate was to have the dinosaur prepared in about 2 yrs. The Black Hills Institute got famous on account of Sue & planned to open a bigger museum to display it.
However the skeleton was seized from Larson by the federal government, on claims that the skeleton was taken from Federal grounds. The FBI teamed up with the National Guard to take possession of Sue & to transfer it to an undisclosed location. Since the FBI had no expertise in preserving fossils, the Black Hills team helped with it. Sue was transported 30 miles to Rapid city & kept in a shipping container at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.what followed was a ten-year-long battle with the FBI, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Maurice Williams, the landowner on whose property the bones were discovered.
In the subsequent media trial, Maurice Williams changed his statement & said that he did not sell Sue to Black Hills & also claimed that Peter Larson tried to cheat him. Subsequent events proved that Maurice never had any intention of selling Sue to Peter Laron & knew exactly what he was doing.
Also it emerged that Maurice, a part of an Indian tribe, has placed the parcel of land on which Sue was found, under a trust with the US GOvt in 1969. Maurice was supposed to take permission from the GOvt before selling anything found on this land.The first trial ended in 1993, when a state judge decided that the fossil was in essence land itself & since Maurice had no right to sell his land, the sale itself was null and void & that the fossil belonged to Maurice.
Following the custody battle the US Parks service opened another line of investigation against Black Hills regarding what they considered to be illegal trading in fossils collected from public lands. In Nov 1993, the US Govt charged Black Hills & its members with 153 counts of illegal trading in fossils. The prosecution was not keen on taking the case to trial and a settlement was being negotiated when a newspaper article came in the paper leaking the negotiations. This basically backed the Govt into a corner & forced them to go to trial. The case hit trial in 1995 & the prosecution took 6 weeks to make a case that Black Hills, along with its members, obtained fossils illegally from public lands & sold it illegally to buyers in US & internationally and contributed to money laundering by taking large sums of cash across borders. The jury found the team guilty on a total of 13 charges, (5 misdemeanors & 8 felonies). This was a great moral victory for the Black Hills institute. Upon appeal, only the 2 felony charges against Larson were upheld and the rest were dropped. The judge on the trial was exceptionally tough on Pete Larson & gave a sentence of 2 yrs in Prison, when the precedence range for the 2 felonies committed was only 0-6 months. Pete entered a Federal prison in Feb 1996.Maurice Williams then decided to auction the fossils through Sotheby's. Sue was again transported 1800 miles to New York city & put in storage before auction. Pete was released 18 months after imprisonment.
At Sotheby's Sue sold for $7.6 MM to the Chicago museum, backed by McDonald's & Walt Disney. It took another 3 yrs to prepare Sue & she was finally put on display in 2000, where she has been visited by millions over the years.Pete Larson was not invited to the unveiling. He has since then unearthed 9 more dinosaur specimens, none as complete as Sue.
