1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:07,200 You're listening to the Mind over Murder podcast. My name is Bill Thomas. 2 00:00:07,719 --> 00:00:12,039 I'm a writer, consulting, producer, and now podcaster. I am now 3 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:16,000 trying to use my experience as the brother of a murder victim to help other 4 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:20,239 victims of violent crime. I'm working on a book on the unsolved Colonial Parkway 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:24,640 murders, and I'm the co administrator of the Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook group together 6 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:28,440 with Kristin Dilley. My name is Kristin Dilley. I'm a writer, a 7 00:00:28,519 --> 00:00:32,439 researcher, a teacher, and a victim's advocate, as well as the social 8 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:37,759 media manager and co administrator for the Colonial Parkway Murders Facebook page with my partner 9 00:00:37,799 --> 00:00:46,920 in crime, Bill Thomas. Hey, it's Bill Thomas. You know. 10 00:00:47,039 --> 00:00:51,399 Each week, Kristin Dilley and I co host mind over Murder. Here this 11 00:00:51,439 --> 00:00:58,119 week we're doing something special for Easter. We're participating in an Easter collaboration with 12 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:02,479 Shane Waters and a group of very talented podcasters, so it's kind of a 13 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:07,439 compilation show. Of course, we do a segment and other very talented podcasters 14 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:12,159 also participate. We think you'll really enjoy it. Next week we'll be back 15 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:18,920 to our usual schedule of interviews and discussions about what's happening in the true crime 16 00:01:18,959 --> 00:02:44,520 space. Thanks, and we hope you enjoy. Hello, friend, have 17 00:02:44,599 --> 00:02:52,479 a seat. Welcome to another fascinating collaboration podcast I've arranged. I'm Shane Waters, 18 00:02:52,759 --> 00:02:57,280 the host of foul Play crime series, and today we're about to embark 19 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:04,639 on a wondrous journey and Easter adventure unlike any other during our time together. 20 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:10,039 Twelve podcast or friends of mine will be joining us to share true stories of 21 00:03:10,159 --> 00:03:17,120 fake deaths. All podcasts are listed in the show notes, along with a 22 00:03:17,199 --> 00:03:23,879 link on where to find them. As we prepare for the excitement that lies 23 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:29,800 ahead, let's take a moment to reflect on the origins of this cherished holiday. 24 00:03:30,439 --> 00:03:37,199 The history of Easter is a fascinating blend of religious, cultural, and 25 00:03:37,319 --> 00:03:44,879 pagan traditions. At its core, Easter is a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection 26 00:03:45,439 --> 00:03:51,960 of their central religious figure from the dead, an event that holds great significance 27 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:59,039 for Christians worldwide. However, the origins of Easter can be traced back to 28 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:05,080 even earlier traditions, with some elements of the holiday borrowed from ancient pagan customs. 29 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:13,400 The name Easter is believed to have originated from the Old English word Istra 30 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:18,279 or Ustra, which is connected to the name of a pagan goddess Istra. 31 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:27,079 Eastra was a goddess of spring and fertility in Englo Saxon and Germanic mythology, 32 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:34,360 celebrated during the spring equinox. The connection to the spring equinox, with spring 33 00:04:34,439 --> 00:04:41,560 being a time of renewal and rebirth, likely influenced the adoption of Easter as 34 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:47,720 the name for the Christian holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. Now that 35 00:04:47,759 --> 00:05:01,160 we've set the stage, let's dive into our adventure. Walking through the sun 36 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:09,240 dappled forest, a flash of movement catches our eye. A rabbit. But 37 00:05:09,399 --> 00:05:15,560 this isn't just any ordinary rabbit. It's wearing a waistcoat and carrying a pocket 38 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:23,279 watch. Curiosity piqued, we follow the rabbit down a hole, tumbling into 39 00:05:23,279 --> 00:05:30,600 a world of wonder and whimsie. As we dust ourselves off, we meet 40 00:05:30,639 --> 00:05:38,560 our first peculiar character, a wise old owl named Ophelia, perched on a 41 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:46,279 tree branch. Hello, dear traveler, Welcome to the enchanted easter Lands. 42 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:50,480 I see you met our rabbit friend. I encourage you to continue on this 43 00:05:50,680 --> 00:06:01,319 mysterious path at the base of the tree. As our first storyteller of the 44 00:06:01,439 --> 00:06:14,560 night, Charlie from Crime Lines. It started on March fifteenth, nineteen fifty 45 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:18,920 seven, when thirty year old Lawrence Bader kissed his wife Mary Lou goodbye and 46 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:26,439 left their Akron, Ohio home for a business trip to Cleveland. Larry wrapped 47 00:06:26,519 --> 00:06:30,680 up his business around four pm and set out to Lake Erie to sneak in 48 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:38,000 a little fishing time before he headed home. At four thirty. Larry shoved 49 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:42,639 off in a rented boat. That evening, a storm hit the area, 50 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:48,639 and Larry Bader disappeared. When the boat was found abandoned the next day, 51 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:54,360 all of the life jackets were accounted for. Without a life jacket, there 52 00:06:54,439 --> 00:06:58,720 was no way Larry could survive long on the cold waters of Lake Erie. 53 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,360 A search of the lake in the surrounding area gave no clues, and Larry 54 00:07:02,399 --> 00:07:09,600 Bader was quote presumed dead, leaving behind three young children and a pregnant wife. 55 00:07:10,879 --> 00:07:15,639 Three years after Larry disappeared, Mary Lou had him declared officially dead, 56 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:20,439 and the family continued their lives in Akron, missing Larry, but moving forward 57 00:07:21,879 --> 00:07:27,279 in nineteen sixty five, five years after Larry was declared dead and eight years 58 00:07:27,279 --> 00:07:30,839 after he was last seen, a friend of his traveled to Chicago for a 59 00:07:30,959 --> 00:07:36,759 sporting goods convention, and there he saw a man who was the spitting image 60 00:07:36,839 --> 00:07:43,600 of Larry Bader. Almost the spitting image. This man had an eyepatch, 61 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:48,199 having lost an eye to cancer a couple of years before, and he had 62 00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:54,839 a mustache. But other than that, this was Larry Bader alive and well, 63 00:07:55,439 --> 00:08:01,120 at least the friend thought so. This friend quickly called Larry's family, 64 00:08:01,160 --> 00:08:05,439 who showed up in Chicago and were also convinced that this man was Larry, 65 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:11,800 but he said he wasn't. He was Fritz Johnson of Omaha, Nebraska. 66 00:08:11,879 --> 00:08:15,959 The family did talk Fritz into going to the police station to be fingerprinted. 67 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:20,399 Since Larry had been in the Navy his prince were on record, Fritz agreed, 68 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:26,560 seeing this as the fastest way to clear this whole thing up. The 69 00:08:26,639 --> 00:08:31,120 fingerprint card was sent off to the FBI to compare to the Navy records, 70 00:08:31,439 --> 00:08:39,960 and the prince matched. Fritz Johnson was, in fact Lawrence Bader. Even 71 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:45,639 after this, Fritz still denied his identity. He wasn't a Larry, and 72 00:08:45,679 --> 00:08:50,279 he wasn't from Akron. He had arrived in Omaha five years before, four 73 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:56,480 days after Larry had disappeared, but Fritz said that was just a coincidence. 74 00:08:56,159 --> 00:09:01,600 He had grown up in Boston, having been based in an orphanage there. 75 00:09:01,399 --> 00:09:07,519 After arriving in Omaha, Fritz had a quickly gained popularity thanks to his flamboyant 76 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:13,279 personality. He bought an old horse and had the back converted into a mobile 77 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:18,879 lounge. He hosted champagne parties in his home and dated the most eligible young 78 00:09:18,919 --> 00:09:22,919 women in town. After getting his dream job at a radio station, Fritz 79 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:28,639 threw himself into the promotional site of being a public personality. He addressed in 80 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:33,600 colonial garb for a Washington Day event. He sat on top of a fifty 81 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:39,360 foot flagpole for fifteen days to raise money for charity. He had his friends 82 00:09:39,399 --> 00:09:45,120 poisted up to martinis a day to keep him sustained. Soon, Fritz was 83 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:50,600 noticed by television station KETV, and he was hired on as the sports director 84 00:09:50,919 --> 00:09:56,879 and later married a local model, Nancy Zimmer. Fritz Johnson certainly wasn't playing 85 00:09:56,919 --> 00:10:00,879 the part of a man who was trying to hide, going on TV and 86 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:07,639 rallying up publicity for himself. But after his true identity was revealed, Fritz 87 00:10:07,679 --> 00:10:11,720 went back to Omaha and hired a lawyer. He was in a pickle. 88 00:10:11,879 --> 00:10:16,480 He was both currently dead and a big mist, two situations that put him 89 00:10:16,480 --> 00:10:22,279 in precarious legal standing. The lawyer recommended a full work up at the hospital. 90 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:26,559 Fritz went impatient for ten days and the doctors could come to no conclusions. 91 00:10:28,279 --> 00:10:33,799 Through multiple interviews, they could not rattle Fritz's story. He showed no 92 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:39,399 memory of his life as Larry Bader, yet remembered many details from Fritz's origin 93 00:10:39,519 --> 00:10:45,759 story without issue. But the doctors also could not find any physical reason why 94 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:50,120 Fritz would have suffered from amnesia. Even if he was injured in the boat 95 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:54,639 incident, it didn't explain having a whole new life backstory. Four days later, 96 00:10:54,679 --> 00:10:58,840 when he showed up in Omaha, some believed a Larry was lying, 97 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:05,480 having fled his considerable debts and the confines of his respectable life in Akron. 98 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:09,519 His second wife, Nancy, may have been among the doubters because she soon 99 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:13,480 sought an annulment. Fritz then lost his job at the TV station due to 100 00:11:13,519 --> 00:11:18,879 the bad press and had to go work as a bartender. After he paid 101 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:22,320 child support to both of his wives, he had around thirty dollars left each 102 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:28,879 week and could only afford to live in a YMCA men's shelter. And then, 103 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:33,279 seven months after being legally restored to life, Lawrence Joseph Bader and or 104 00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:39,919 Fritz Johnson died of cancer on September sixteenth, nineteen sixty six, at the 105 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:46,759 age of thirty nine. A memorial service was held for Fritz in Omaha, 106 00:11:46,799 --> 00:11:50,919 after which his body was sent to Akron to be buried as Lawrence Joseph Bader 107 00:11:50,279 --> 00:11:56,159 in the family plot. The question of if this was a hoax or a 108 00:11:56,279 --> 00:12:01,919 true instance of a rare form of amnesia has never fully been answered. Some 109 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:05,879 have offered a middle of the road theory, marrying the two options. It 110 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:11,679 was first suggested by Fritz's attorney, whose job was to keep him from getting 111 00:12:11,759 --> 00:12:16,879 charged criminally or civilly. In this version of events, Larry decided to ditch 112 00:12:16,919 --> 00:12:24,519 the family in Akron and to live unencumbered in the wild metropolis of Omaha. 113 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:28,080 But after he had that first surgery that removed his eye due to his cancer, 114 00:12:28,279 --> 00:12:35,000 something went wrong and his memory was affected. This surgery essentially erased his 115 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:41,320 memories of being Larry Bader, but left Fritz Johnson intact, and Fritz began 116 00:12:41,399 --> 00:12:56,919 to believe his own lies. The rabbit leads us to a field of flowers, 117 00:12:56,519 --> 00:13:01,440 swaying in the wind. As we meander through the field, the vibrant 118 00:13:01,480 --> 00:13:07,919 colors of the flowers create a mesmerizing tapestry, and the sweet fragrance of blossoms 119 00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:16,000 fills the air. Blossom dancing flower with a stunning smile, twirls gracefully, 120 00:13:16,799 --> 00:13:22,399 her petals a brilliant shade of pink, the embodiment of joy and renewal. 121 00:13:28,159 --> 00:13:33,480 Hello, traveler, don't be shy. Join me and my dance together. 122 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:39,399 We celebrate the rebirth of life in the enchanted easter lands. We dance with 123 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:45,240 blossom, our spirits lifted by the sight and scent of the blooming flowers. 124 00:13:46,639 --> 00:13:50,879 Joining us now in the field of flowers is Josh from rotten to the core. 125 00:14:00,559 --> 00:14:05,559 Hello, and a happy Easter everyone. It's time to celebrate the resurrection 126 00:14:05,639 --> 00:14:11,279 of nature from the death of winter. It is also officially spring time and 127 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:16,639 time to shake off those winter blues. I asked my magic mirror to show 128 00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:22,000 me a fake death from history, but make it funny, and it did 129 00:14:22,039 --> 00:14:26,120 not disappoint. I bring to you the tale of a man who was born 130 00:14:26,279 --> 00:14:33,440 a poor fool, grew to be a rich fool, and die an old 131 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:39,440 fool. His name was Timothy Dexter, and he faked his death not for 132 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:46,080 money, safety, or any of the usual reasonings. He did it solely 133 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:52,039 for the attention and to make sure his wife would be sad enough. Now, 134 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:56,399 most men will only receive flowers at their funeral. Timothy didn't want to 135 00:14:56,440 --> 00:15:01,679 wait. But this was long before HI told us that we could buy them 136 00:15:01,679 --> 00:15:07,080 ourselves. Timothy was born to poor colonial farmers in seventeen forty eight in what 137 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:13,799 is now Massachusetts. He only had a few years of schooling before dropping out 138 00:15:13,919 --> 00:15:18,440 at the age of eight. After several years working on his parents farm, 139 00:15:18,559 --> 00:15:22,440 he left for Boston to apprentice for a tanner. He is known as a 140 00:15:22,559 --> 00:15:28,320 lucky fool, and when he was twenty one, Timothy met an older widow 141 00:15:28,399 --> 00:15:33,360 who happened to be loaded. He was soon living with her on her lavish 142 00:15:33,519 --> 00:15:39,000 estate in Boston. While he could have just enjoyed the lifestyle of having a 143 00:15:39,039 --> 00:15:43,720 sugar mama, Timothy wanted to make a name for himself as well. As 144 00:15:43,759 --> 00:15:48,080 his own fortune. So, being the somewhat pushy guy that he was, 145 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:54,039 he began to seek business advice from his neighbors. Like John Hancock. His 146 00:15:54,279 --> 00:16:03,480 problem would be that his neighbors absolutely despised him humm new money, how droll. 147 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:08,159 Not only was he from out of their social circles, but he was 148 00:16:08,279 --> 00:16:15,120 uneducated and eccentric beyond all get out. In an attempt to bankrupt him and 149 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:21,039 rid themselves of his presence, they gave him a lot of bad advice, 150 00:16:21,799 --> 00:16:26,480 and he didn't hesitate to listen to every word. He had no knowledge of 151 00:16:26,519 --> 00:16:33,440 their business dealings and foolishly trusted them. Again, his luck would show its 152 00:16:33,519 --> 00:16:38,240 hand because out of all the bad advice they gave him, it miraculously kept 153 00:16:38,399 --> 00:16:44,240 working out in his favor. One thing they convinced him to do was to 154 00:16:44,279 --> 00:16:49,360 send a shipment of bed warming pans to the Caribbean sheet warmers to a tropical 155 00:16:49,399 --> 00:16:56,399 climate. Well, he listened and lucked out. There was a desperate need 156 00:16:56,480 --> 00:17:02,960 for ladles and pots for the booming sugarcane business on the islands. It gets 157 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:08,599 worse or better, I should say. They also convinced him to trap and 158 00:17:08,759 --> 00:17:15,200 ship all the stray cats He could and send them as well. Just imagine 159 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:22,720 a cargo ship full of nothing but stray cats. He again listened and long, 160 00:17:22,799 --> 00:17:26,920 and behold, guess who was in desperate need of a solution to their 161 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:33,359 rat infestation. You guessed it, the Caribbean. He sold out of cats 162 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:40,279 and the pans, all at a high price. Timothy made the largest portion 163 00:17:40,319 --> 00:17:45,119 of his wealth after the end of the American Revolution. His neighbors had convinced 164 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:49,039 him to buy the newly printed Continental currency, which was a new form of 165 00:17:49,079 --> 00:17:53,839 money used to help fund the war. They weren't backed by any kind of 166 00:17:53,920 --> 00:18:00,200 asset like precious metals. They ended up losing value quickly. And that is 167 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:06,519 right when Timothy poured all of his and his wife's money into buying them for 168 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:11,839 a portion of a penny each. And yet again, as luck would have 169 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:15,920 it, everything worked out in his favor. At the end of the war, 170 00:18:17,039 --> 00:18:19,319 Congress had agreed to buy them back at one penny on the dollar. 171 00:18:21,319 --> 00:18:26,200 It was bad for everyone except Timothy. He had so many, in fact, 172 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:33,039 that it actually ended up making him a millionaire. Why isn't his life 173 00:18:33,039 --> 00:18:36,480 a movie? Yet? It sounds like a high school drama where the rich 174 00:18:36,519 --> 00:18:41,039 girls are mean to the not so smart new girl, all her ideas backfire, 175 00:18:41,079 --> 00:18:45,200 and then it's revealed that the new girl was actually a genius the whole 176 00:18:45,240 --> 00:18:52,240 time. The whole time, his neighbors were livid, and his increase in 177 00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:57,799 wealth only fueled his eccentricity. He went and bought a mansion and decorated the 178 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:04,240 yard with huge stone bases topped with forty life size wooden statue. Next to 179 00:19:04,279 --> 00:19:12,039 his own was one of Thomas Jefferson that had the Constitution of Independence engraved on 180 00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:18,920 it. All bless his heart. By this time, the American Revolution was 181 00:19:19,079 --> 00:19:23,680 over and it caused an end to people having titles such as lord and ladies. 182 00:19:25,559 --> 00:19:30,000 He still declared that he should be considered as a lord from now on 183 00:19:30,079 --> 00:19:36,200 and began going by Lord Dexter. Eventually, Lord Dexter, as I said, 184 00:19:36,559 --> 00:19:41,519 grew to be an old fool, and out of what I can only 185 00:19:41,559 --> 00:19:45,160 imagine as boredom, he decided to fake his own death to see how many 186 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:51,240 people would show up and how hard they would mourn him. He had a 187 00:19:51,279 --> 00:19:56,920 mausoleum built for it and told his family to play along. Over thirty thousand 188 00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:02,079 people showed up to the funeral, but during he noticed that his wife wasn't 189 00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:07,559 crying hard enough. She was even seen laughing and having just a gay old 190 00:20:07,599 --> 00:20:10,960 time. So when she was alone in a corner, he got up and 191 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:17,519 began beating her loud enough that everyone soon became aware. I wonder how everyone 192 00:20:17,599 --> 00:20:22,000 reacted to him just suddenly coming up out of his coffin. I would have 193 00:20:22,079 --> 00:20:26,319 taken off running for the rest of the funeral. In fact, he acted 194 00:20:26,359 --> 00:20:32,480 as if it was just a big joke and a surprise party. Oh good, 195 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:37,400 you're back. I'm not sure why people stayed after that. I know 196 00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:41,160 there wasn't a lot to do then, but I don't deal with buffoonery. 197 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:48,519 Before his actual death in eighteen oh six, Lord Dexter managed to self publish 198 00:20:48,559 --> 00:20:53,720 several books that had so many errors that he added eleven pages of punctuation marks 199 00:20:53,759 --> 00:21:00,279 for them too. And I quote they made peeper and soul it as they 200 00:21:00,319 --> 00:21:06,319 plays. I will end with a poem that he had written about himself. 201 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:11,839 Lord Dexter is a man of fame, most celebrated. Is his name more 202 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:25,119 precious far than gold. That's pure, Lord Dexter, shine for evermore well, 203 00:21:25,279 --> 00:21:30,000 mirror. I asked for funny, and you did not disappoint I laughed, 204 00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:36,200 I cried, and I felt better about all my own decisions. I 205 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:41,079 hope you all enjoyed learning about the lucky fool that was the false Lord Timothy 206 00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:45,680 Dexter. Have a happy Easter, Shane and everyone else. Enjoy your candy. 207 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:52,880 Remember rabbits are a tenure commitment, and it's a lot harder to catch 208 00:21:52,880 --> 00:22:08,720 a chicken than you might think. Trust me. As we continue our journey, 209 00:22:10,319 --> 00:22:15,119 we stumble upon a quaint village where the houses are made of chocolate, 210 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:22,839 eggs and candy. Here we encounter our third character, Chacolina, a sweet 211 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:29,799 and bubbly chocolate tear Greetings traveler, feel free to sample my Easter treats. 212 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:33,559 They are crafted with love, and each bike can take a touch of enchantment. 213 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:42,160 We savor Chacolina's delicate confections, the rich, velvety chocolate melting in our 214 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:49,240 mouths, and we feel a warmth spread through our body. Suddenly, Peter 215 00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:56,200 appears from Frightful to join in on the chocolate goodness and to share our next 216 00:22:56,200 --> 00:23:10,359 story. Tonight, I'll be taking you back to the nineteenth century for a 217 00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:15,079 case of ghosts and murder. When nothing is as it seems. This is 218 00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:22,839 the case of the fake yet still deadly ghost of Hammersmith. Toward the end 219 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:27,039 of November eighteen oh three, something frightening was being reported in Hammersmith, which 220 00:23:27,039 --> 00:23:30,799 at the time was a small village on the outskirts of London. Locals were 221 00:23:30,839 --> 00:23:34,839 claiming to have seen a ghostly specter drifting through the dark streets at night. 222 00:23:36,519 --> 00:23:40,319 Rumor was that this was the ghost of a villager who had committed suicide the 223 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:45,279 year before by slitting his own throat. One pregnant woman claimed she'd been crossing 224 00:23:45,279 --> 00:23:48,200 the churchyard when she saw this spirit rise up from the two stones. It 225 00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:53,279 grabbed her as she ran away. People were terrified, and during those wintry 226 00:23:53,319 --> 00:23:56,359 months of eighteen oh three, you had to be brave or mad to walk 227 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,559 the streets of Hammersmith at night. Until a group of young men gathered rifles 228 00:24:00,559 --> 00:24:04,400 and pistols to take down this supernatural being. And so on the third of 229 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:10,160 January eighteen oh four, twenty nine year old excise officer joined the spooky hunt. 230 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:12,960 His name was Francis Smith, and on that fateful night he was armed 231 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:18,480 with a fowling piece, a shotgun designed for shooting wild birds. He headed 232 00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:21,839 out into the streets hunting for the spirit, and found himself in a part 233 00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:26,440 of Hammersmith called Black Lion Lane, near the River Thames. But at the 234 00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:30,359 exact same time, a twenty two year old man called Thomas Millwood was leaving 235 00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:33,839 his parents house. He was a bricklayer and was heading out to pick up 236 00:24:33,839 --> 00:24:37,559 his wife from a late job. He didn't want to walking these haunted streets 237 00:24:37,559 --> 00:24:42,160 alone, and Thomas's outfit for work was a white shirt, a white flannel 238 00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:47,839 waistcoat, a white apron, and freshly washed white linen trousers. Perhaps you 239 00:24:47,839 --> 00:24:51,519 can see where this is going. I read the court transcripts, which state 240 00:24:51,599 --> 00:24:55,559 that it had been an exceptionally dark night, and the lane where the encounter 241 00:24:55,559 --> 00:24:59,759 took place was narrow and ran between two high hedges. I also checked the 242 00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:03,680 as of the moon for that evening on January the fourth, eighteen oh four. 243 00:25:03,759 --> 00:25:07,519 The moon was in its last quarter, not full, but big enough 244 00:25:07,559 --> 00:25:11,039 to cast an eerie glow across the city and over the white clothes of Thomas. 245 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:17,000 The two men stumbled upon one another at the junction where Black Lion Lane 246 00:25:17,039 --> 00:25:21,000 meets Beaver Lane, and poor old Thomas simply turned the corner and saw a 247 00:25:21,079 --> 00:25:25,640 random man holding a gun in the darkness, but Francis saw the white, 248 00:25:25,799 --> 00:25:30,400 ghostly figure that had terrorized London and shocked at the sight of this specter, 249 00:25:30,039 --> 00:25:33,720 Francis started to shout demand, saying, damn you, who are you? 250 00:25:33,799 --> 00:25:37,680 What are you? Damnuel shoots you. And this is where Thomas Millwood made 251 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:41,799 a fatal choice. He began to walk closer to Francis. Maybe he hadn't 252 00:25:41,839 --> 00:25:45,960 realized the danger he was in, or hadn't even seen the gun in the 253 00:25:45,079 --> 00:25:49,079 darkness, but he knew about the weapons soon enough, when a second later 254 00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:53,920 Francis seemed the barrel of the spirited and pulled the trigger. The street boomed. 255 00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,680 His shot scattered into a deadly pattern around Thomas, and the man dressed 256 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:02,640 all in white, who just wanted to walk his wife home, fell to 257 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:07,119 the floor dead Now once he was shot, Francis Smith was shaken, yes, 258 00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:11,359 but he was excited. He had killed the ghost of Hammersmith, and 259 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:15,400 at ten thirty pm he sprang off to tell people of his success. He 260 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,480 gathered some men to come to see this spirit he had destroyed, and they 261 00:26:18,519 --> 00:26:22,880 all raced back and saw the reality of the situation. Lying in the street. 262 00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:26,519 His face staring upward at the moon was the very real corpse of a 263 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,599 human being, Thomas Millwood. He had been shot in the lower part of 264 00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:34,039 the jaw on the left side, and the impact had broken that jaw and 265 00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:38,160 penetrated the vertebra of his neck, injuring his spinal marrow. It was, 266 00:26:38,279 --> 00:26:44,160 as court records would state later, a mortal wound. The gravity of the 267 00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:48,240 situation started to sink in for Francis Smith as the men called for the High 268 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:52,880 Constable to come and advise, and Francis just paced back and forth, agitated, 269 00:26:52,960 --> 00:27:00,400 saying. The Constable arrived and immediately told Francis Smith to go home and 270 00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:03,440 wait, which he did. Then the men lifted the shattered corpse of Thomas 271 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:08,240 Millwood and carried him to the nearby Black Lion Inn and set his corpse down, 272 00:27:08,519 --> 00:27:12,119 probably on a table or perhaps the floor. Thomas would have spent many 273 00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:15,799 a night here drinking with his parents and wife, but now he lay dead. 274 00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:21,880 Yet this was no ordinary murder, because there was no mystery. Francis 275 00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:26,440 Smith had done this, but was he actually guilty of murder? An inquest 276 00:27:26,519 --> 00:27:30,480 was carried out right there in the inn, and it came to the only 277 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:36,039 conclusion they felt was possible that Francis Smith had indeed willfully murdered Thomas Millwood in 278 00:27:36,039 --> 00:27:40,960 the street Ghost or no Ghost. The coroner announced that Francis would stand trial 279 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:45,240 at the Old Bailey for murder. The trial began and the witnesses were called, 280 00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:48,960 testifying to what they saw that night, but also of the ghost stories 281 00:27:49,079 --> 00:27:53,480 leading up to it. The court records confirmed that there were actually several ghost 282 00:27:53,599 --> 00:27:57,960 hunting parties out that very night. One man who attended the corpse a night 283 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,079 watchman, admitted that he had seen the ghost himself on the Thursday before. 284 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:07,799 Another local told the court that this ghost had attacked him in the churchyard, 285 00:28:07,240 --> 00:28:11,279 leaping up from behind a tombstone and grabbing him by the throat. And it 286 00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:15,480 was even said in that court room that, on account of his white clothes, 287 00:28:15,759 --> 00:28:21,359 Thomas Millwood had already been mistaken for the Hammersmith Ghost on two previous occasions, 288 00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:25,200 so much so that his family had advised him to wear a long coat 289 00:28:25,559 --> 00:28:30,039 whenever he went out at night. Anne Millwood also took the stand. She 290 00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:33,480 was the sister of Thomas, and she had heard the entire exchange between Thomas 291 00:28:33,519 --> 00:28:37,359 and Francis. She said this, I ran out of the door, and 292 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:41,680 when I got halfway from my father's house to my brothers, I saw my 293 00:28:41,759 --> 00:28:45,119 brother laying dead at the gate. I took hold of his right hand and 294 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:48,559 said, speak to me, but he could not, and his head was 295 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:52,680 laying towards me. I thought I went up to him. The jury retired 296 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:56,279 for about three quarters of an hour and returned with a verdict of manslaughter, 297 00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:03,440 but the Lord Chief baron them that this option was simply not available to them. 298 00:29:03,559 --> 00:29:07,680 They would have to find the prisoner either guilty or not guilty of murder, 299 00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:11,839 because in a case where someone has deliberately shot another, there was no 300 00:29:12,039 --> 00:29:18,000 in between, and so the jury disgusted it again and came back with a 301 00:29:18,039 --> 00:29:23,319 devastating verdict. Francis Smith was guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to 302 00:29:23,359 --> 00:29:27,759 hang, and his body would be given to the Medical College to be dissected 303 00:29:27,839 --> 00:29:33,079 afterwards. He left the court room with little hope, but there was a 304 00:29:33,079 --> 00:29:36,680 great amount of public sympathy for him, and after an agonizing few weeks, 305 00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:40,720 Francis heard the news he had prayed for. Despite the deliberate shooting, those 306 00:29:40,799 --> 00:29:45,279 ghostly elements meant that this was not a cold blooded murder after all, and 307 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,680 he was granted a stay of execution and was offered a pardon if and only 308 00:29:48,759 --> 00:29:53,000 if he served a year hard labor in prison. And what of the ghost 309 00:29:53,079 --> 00:29:57,240 of Hammersmith who started all this? Well, the publicity surrounding the shooting and 310 00:29:57,279 --> 00:30:02,200 court case caused a local shoe make it to come forward. His name was 311 00:30:02,279 --> 00:30:06,880 John Graham, and he admitted to dressing as a ghost to scare villagers. 312 00:30:07,519 --> 00:30:11,759 He did this to take revenge on his apprentices because they had told Graham's children 313 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:18,720 some scary ghost stories. It seemed that the Hammersmith Ghost was no more until 314 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:22,480 eighteen twenty four, when reports began that the ghost had returned to Hammersmith, 315 00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:26,839 only this time it could breathe fire. The ghost was sighted up until the 316 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:30,559 eighteen thirties, until a new supernatural figure took its place, Spring Heeled Jack. 317 00:30:32,279 --> 00:30:34,839 Yet, those who say the Hammersmith Ghost never existed might have some caution, 318 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:40,440 because after Thomas Millwood was shot, there have been reports of his spirit 319 00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:44,960 haunting the Black Lion Inn, where his corpse lay on that night. The 320 00:30:45,079 --> 00:30:48,759 landlord of the inn in two thousand and four told the BBC that there had 321 00:30:48,799 --> 00:30:52,279 been a strange voice speaking to people in the pub, and yet no one 322 00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:57,759 was there to speak it. Perhaps the clearly fake ghost of Hammersmith ended up 323 00:30:57,759 --> 00:31:03,319 creating a very real ghost who still wanders those streets after all these years, 324 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:22,640 searching for a wife you will never find. We leave the village with a 325 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,880 spring and our step, and soon arrive at a serene lake, shimmering with 326 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:33,039 the golden light of the setting sun. Here we meet our fourth character, 327 00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:42,440 Ripple, a wise and gentle water spirit. Welcome traveler. My like is 328 00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:48,880 a place of reflection, a respite for those who seek inner peace. Allow 329 00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:55,720 yourself a moment to be still and let the water's tranquility wash over you. 330 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:05,960 We pause at the lake's the water's calming embrace, soothing our soul. Suddenly 331 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,319 appearing on a small boat on the lake. It's Bill and Kristen from Mind 332 00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:22,720 Over Murder. On this episode of Mind Over Murder, we're discussing Wally Thrasher, 333 00:32:22,839 --> 00:32:27,839 the notorious drug smuggler from Virginia's New River Valley. During the nineteen seventies 334 00:32:27,839 --> 00:32:32,440 and nineteen eighties, Thrasher transported marijuana and cocaine into the United States from South 335 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:37,359 America, working under some of the biggest drug kingpins in South Florida. According 336 00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:42,480 to Ron Peterson, author of Chasing the Squirrel, in nineteen seventy four, 337 00:32:42,599 --> 00:32:46,240 Thrasher was one of the highest paid drugs smuggling pilots in the business, earning 338 00:32:46,319 --> 00:32:52,440 up to ninety six thousand dollars per playing load of weed. Hailing from Pulaski, 339 00:32:52,519 --> 00:32:55,759 Virginia, Thrasher was a criminally handsome, charming, and gifted athlete. 340 00:32:55,920 --> 00:33:00,960 He was known as the Squirrel for being widely and a loose. He served 341 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:06,400 in the US Navy for three years before being honorably discharged. He attended Virginia 342 00:33:06,519 --> 00:33:09,279 Tack for less than a year before deciding to forge his own path without further 343 00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:14,720 education. After marriage, a child, a divorce, and a stint owning 344 00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:20,200 a hippie clothing story called the Hydraulic Buffalo, Thrasher finally found his niche when 345 00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,519 he took flying lessons in Roanoke, Virginia. He earned both his private and 346 00:33:23,759 --> 00:33:30,440 commercial pilot certificates and moved to Florida to pursue his new career, eventually saving 347 00:33:30,519 --> 00:33:34,880 up enough to buy his own airplane, a twin engine Beach eighteen. In 348 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:39,000 nineteen seventy two. Wally Thrasher was introduced to Ken Bernstein, who hired Thrasher 349 00:33:39,039 --> 00:33:44,920 to run loads of weed from Mexico or the Caribbean to Fort Lauderdale, waiting 350 00:33:45,039 --> 00:33:50,200 vans would take the drugs north on Interstate ninety five. Thrasher was wildly successful 351 00:33:50,279 --> 00:33:53,880 and was making money hand over fist, though his career wasn't without its problems, 352 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:58,680 including a two year stint in a Mexican prison. He worked for various 353 00:33:58,759 --> 00:34:02,039 kingpins throughout Florida until nineteen seventy seven, when he married his third wife, 354 00:34:02,079 --> 00:34:07,079 Olga Wright. After his marriage, he tried very hard to get out of 355 00:34:07,119 --> 00:34:09,760 the business. In order to go legit. He attended real estate classes and 356 00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:14,599 tried a series of business adventures, all of which failed. Eventually, he 357 00:34:14,639 --> 00:34:17,719 got back into the smuggling business to earn money for his growing family. By 358 00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:22,960 the end of nineteen seventy nine, Wally Thrasher was running drugs for forty six 359 00:34:22,039 --> 00:34:25,639 year old kingpin Frank Brady, who was well on his way to building the 360 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:30,440 largest drug smuggling operation on the East Coast. Thrasher again wanted out of the 361 00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:35,199 smuggling game for the safety of his family. He tried once more for a 362 00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:38,280 career out of the drug smuggling buss he and Olga opened up a furniture store 363 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:44,760 called Captain's Catch Furniture, first illegitimate business and then a shell corporation for laundry 364 00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:49,119 and his smuggling profits. Back into the Games, Thrasher went. This time, 365 00:34:49,119 --> 00:34:52,280 he had a few close calls, including ending up in jail in the 366 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,000 Bahamas. Olga had to buy his way out of the Bahamian prison to the 367 00:34:55,039 --> 00:35:00,280 tune of fifty thousand. In nineteen eighty two, Olga and Thrasher decided moving 368 00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:02,719 to their home in Virginia full time was the best option for their family. 369 00:35:04,119 --> 00:35:07,719 Thrasher suggested that he fly the drugs into Virginia instead. It was a much 370 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:12,920 shorter road trip between Virginia and New York. Now the spring of nineteen eighty 371 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:16,920 three, Whalley was a bona fide drugs smuggling ring leader, heading up operations 372 00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:22,599 in Virginia. They started small, flying in one thousand to fifteen hundred pounds 373 00:35:22,599 --> 00:35:27,039 of weed into the NRV airport a few times a month. Thrasher was also 374 00:35:27,199 --> 00:35:30,239 mentoring a copilot named Nelson King, who made the trips back and forth to 375 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:35,639 Belize with him for drugs While King wasn't the most skilled pilot out there, 376 00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:38,119 he was calm and steady, and he made a good backup for Thrasher when 377 00:35:38,159 --> 00:35:42,800 he needed a quick cat nap on a long flight. In October of nineteen 378 00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:45,119 eighty four, Thrasher was set to make a run to Belieze to pick up 379 00:35:45,119 --> 00:35:49,440 a load of pot. A Jeff and the family forced him to curtail his 380 00:35:49,559 --> 00:35:53,039 plan, so he allowed Nelson King to make the run along with smuggling associate 381 00:35:53,079 --> 00:35:58,280 and close friend Mark Bailey as copilot. At this point, King had been 382 00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:02,559 copilot with Thrasher on four flights. He extensively planned every aspect of the trip 383 00:36:02,599 --> 00:36:06,639 with the two men, laying out that they would make the run over two 384 00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:09,760 days, flying from Virginia to Florida for a refueling stop, then Florida to 385 00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:14,199 Belize, where they would pay two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the pot 386 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,760 and fly it back to Virginia. The first part of the flight went smoothly, 387 00:36:19,039 --> 00:36:22,519 the second part did not. King did not hand over the two hundred 388 00:36:22,559 --> 00:36:27,360 and fifty thousand dollars to Thrasher's contacts in Belize. King said Thrasher had instructed 389 00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:30,440 him that the load was to be fronted, that is, paid for in 390 00:36:30,519 --> 00:36:35,760 full later. Thrasher had such a stellar reputation with this Belize contact that they 391 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,599 agreed and allowed the two men to take off with the twelve hundred pounds of 392 00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:44,119 Belize breeze pot and the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The trip back 393 00:36:44,159 --> 00:36:50,440 to Virginia ended in disaster. King attempted to avoid fog over Fancy Gap Mountain 394 00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:54,159 in Virginia by flying under the weather a danger was productice, rather than attempting 395 00:36:54,199 --> 00:36:58,800 to climb over it, as Thrasher had instructed. King, not good at 396 00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:02,199 reading instrument panels, tried to navigate visually, but found himself unable to do 397 00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:07,039 it because of the fog. He crashed the plane into the side of Fancy 398 00:37:07,079 --> 00:37:10,880 Gap Mountain, going one hundred and seventy five miles an hour. The plane 399 00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:15,840 broke into four pieces. Mark Bailey was burned to literal ashes. In the 400 00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:22,480 ensuing inferno, Nelson King miraculously survived. Limping away from the crash site. 401 00:37:22,559 --> 00:37:25,800 King called Thrasher to come to his rescue. Thrasher came to the panicky realization 402 00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:30,679 that the plane full of pot would shortly be traced to him, as with 403 00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:34,719 the injured pilot. He burned all paperwork that linked him to the aircraft, 404 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:37,400 the log books, the bill of sale for the plane, and the maintenance 405 00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:42,960 records. He loaded King into his truck and drove thirteen hours to a hospital 406 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,400 in Florida. They decided on the story that King had been injured in a 407 00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:51,679 motorcycle accident. As expected, Thrasher's plane was traced back to him within forty 408 00:37:51,679 --> 00:37:54,920 eight hours of the crash, as was the identity of Mark Bailey via dental 409 00:37:54,960 --> 00:38:00,079 records. Hoping to recoup his losses for the load of pot and unaware that 410 00:38:00,199 --> 00:38:02,880 King had stolen two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Thrasher made a call to 411 00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:07,320 Belief to ask if he could fly down for another load. When he learned 412 00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:09,880 of King's double cross, he went in search for his associate, but no 413 00:38:10,039 --> 00:38:14,559 dice. King was now in the wind. Thrasher decided to go back to 414 00:38:14,639 --> 00:38:17,320 Virginia to sell a significant stash of pot that he'd stored in a shit at 415 00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:21,679 clatter Lake in order to pay off the debt that he owed his contacts in 416 00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:24,760 Belize. He called a smuggling associate, Joe Selby, and offered him the 417 00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:29,760 pot, which was worth about three hundred thousand dollars. Selby agreed to buy 418 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,039 it, but only for one hundred and fifty thousand. Between a rock and 419 00:38:32,039 --> 00:38:36,639 a hard place, and needing to pay back his debt, Thrasher agreed, 420 00:38:37,079 --> 00:38:40,719 but the double crossing wasn't done. Thrasher and Selby stopped at a New Jersey 421 00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:45,039 motel overnight on their way to New York to sell the load of pot. 422 00:38:45,199 --> 00:38:50,079 While Thrasher slept, Selby absconded with the product and the van. Thrasher now 423 00:38:50,079 --> 00:38:52,960 owed two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to a Beliesian kingpin. He was being 424 00:38:53,039 --> 00:38:57,480 hunted by authorities, He had lost his favorite plane, and was now out 425 00:38:57,559 --> 00:39:00,719 another three hundred thousand dollars worth of pot. Unable to do anything else, 426 00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:06,239 Thrasher flew to Believes to meet with his contact and convinced him to front how 427 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,280 one more load of pot to sell in order to pay back his depths. 428 00:39:09,719 --> 00:39:15,559 Thrasher did not return home as planned on November fifth. Finally, on November 429 00:39:15,599 --> 00:39:19,960 eighth, one of his Florida associates, Dicky Synot, called Olga and reported 430 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,599 bad news. Wally had been in a plane crash in Jamaica. The fire 431 00:39:22,639 --> 00:39:27,400 had burned so hot that Wally had been incinerated. There was nothing left of 432 00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:30,800 him but his wedding ring, which Dicky brought back to Olga unscathed. Olga 433 00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:35,800 heartbroken, and Breft did the only things she could do, arranged a funeral 434 00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,519 for her husband. But even at the funeral, groups of Wally's friends whispered 435 00:39:38,519 --> 00:39:43,639 that they didn't think Wally was dead. He was pulling in an audacious stunt 436 00:39:43,679 --> 00:39:47,159 to avoid legal trouble over the plane crash and the drug snuggling. They firmly 437 00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:53,039 believed the squirrel was still alive. The federal government didn't buy that Wallace Thrasher 438 00:39:53,079 --> 00:39:57,519 had died in the plane crash. They set up a federal grand jury to 439 00:39:57,599 --> 00:40:00,360 look into Thrasher's business dealings. When she was subpoena to appear in front of 440 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:05,760 a federal grand jury to discuss her husband's business dealings, she pled the fifth 441 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:08,559 and was held in contempt of court. The grand jury found that Wallace Samuel 442 00:40:08,559 --> 00:40:14,280 Thrasher was guilty of a dozen instances of smuggling drugs in addition to tax evasion. 443 00:40:14,559 --> 00:40:17,719 Olga Thrasher found herself in the hot seat being questioned about her husband's business 444 00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:22,880 transactions. Eventually, in an effort to save herself and her family, she 445 00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:27,159 became a federal informant. All the while, Olga continued wondering what happened to 446 00:40:27,199 --> 00:40:30,639 her husband. Was he still alive? The FBI, the DA, Customs, 447 00:40:30,679 --> 00:40:36,360 and the US Marshals were all actively looking for Thrasher. FBI, DA 448 00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:39,760 and VSP agents who worked on this case all have different theories. Some believe 449 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:44,599 he died in a crash and believes Others believe he faked his own death to 450 00:40:44,639 --> 00:40:47,840 go into hiding but has died since then. Still others believe he's gone off 451 00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:53,199 the grid and is alive today. The US Marshals actively hunted or Wally Thrasher, 452 00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:58,400 following up on tips and sidings until twenty fifteen, when the US Attorney 453 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:01,719 filed a motion in Roanoke to dismiss the open warrant for Thrasher's arrest. He 454 00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:07,119 stated that available evidence showed Thrasher to be deceased and there was no further reason 455 00:41:07,199 --> 00:41:10,920 to keep the warrant open. Wally Thrasher would be eighty three years old today. 456 00:41:12,199 --> 00:41:15,840 Is he still somewhere out there living his best life? Or did he 457 00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:20,679 die in a fiery plane crash in nineteen eighty four. Much like the notorious 458 00:41:20,679 --> 00:41:24,800 case of skyjacker dB Cooper, we will never really know the answer. For 459 00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:30,400 more information on the fascinating case of Wally Thrasher, pick up Chasing the Squirrel 460 00:41:30,519 --> 00:41:34,760 by Ron Peterson, available on Amazon or wherever books are sold. Thank you 461 00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:37,480 so much for listening to this episode of Mind Over Murder. We'll see you 462 00:41:37,559 --> 00:41:49,519 next time. With renewed purpose, we set off on the next leg of 463 00:41:49,559 --> 00:41:55,719 our journey, traversing a whimsical forest of towering candy canes and marshmallow mushrooms. 464 00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:02,960 Our path is illuminated by the soft, magical glow of fairy lights. In 465 00:42:04,039 --> 00:42:09,760 the heart of this sugarcoated wonderland, we encounter our fifth character, Sir Sticky, 466 00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:19,000 a dashing, chivalrous candy cane night he'll travel. Be on your guard, 467 00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:22,440 for as farest is full of surprises. Stay true to your path, 468 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:30,559 and you'll reach the heart of the enchanted easter Lands. With a firm grasp 469 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:36,679 of our newfound courage, we think, Sir Sticky, and press onward. 470 00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:43,119 Just as Sir Sticky dashes out of sight, Robin appears from the trail went 471 00:42:43,199 --> 00:42:47,480 cold. It's good to see a familiar face, and he has our next 472 00:42:47,519 --> 00:43:00,679 story. So one of the most controversial and divisive topics in the world today 473 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:05,400 is the death penalty. Obviously, one of the biggest arguments against the death 474 00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:08,440 penalty is that there's always a risk of an innocent person being executed for a 475 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:13,320 crime they did not commit. But if you want a more extreme version of 476 00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:16,559 this scenario, what if an innocent person was sensed to death for murdering someone 477 00:43:16,599 --> 00:43:21,360 who turned out to be alive. Or even worse, what if the so 478 00:43:21,519 --> 00:43:27,360 called victim's family hated the defendant's family so much that they intentionally faked the victim's 479 00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:30,400 death in order to frame the defendant had hoped to see him executed for a 480 00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:37,079 murder that never happened. We'll believe it or not this exact scenario actually occurred. 481 00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:42,840 Yes, there have been documented cases of innocent people being executed for supposedly 482 00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:46,360 murdering a victim who turned out to be alive, but these incidents mostly occurred 483 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:51,880 over a century or two ago. However, this particular case took place during 484 00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:55,960 the nineteen eighties in Uganda at the start of the decade twenty seven year old 485 00:43:57,079 --> 00:44:01,079 Edward and Marie Mapogey lived in Uganda's capital city of Kampala and had a wife 486 00:44:01,079 --> 00:44:07,199 and six children. He ran a successful taxi business, but after an incident 487 00:44:07,199 --> 00:44:10,960 in which his taxi was stolen at gunpoint, Edward decided to relocate his family 488 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:15,000 to the village of Kayambala, where he had grown up. They moved in 489 00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:20,239 with Edward's father, and he quickly established himself as one of the village's most 490 00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:24,280 well respected citizens. But on June the twelfth, nineteen eighty one, everyone 491 00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:30,880 was taken by complete surprise when Edward and his cousin Fred Massembe were arrested and 492 00:44:30,039 --> 00:44:36,719 charged with murder. The alleged victim was George William Wandiaka, who went by 493 00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:40,840 his middle name and was one of Edward's neighbors in Kayambala. Edward and Fred 494 00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:45,519 were both accused of robbing William and stabbing him to death. One year after 495 00:44:45,559 --> 00:44:50,559 their arrest, the two men were taken to trial for William's murder, where 496 00:44:50,559 --> 00:44:54,320 they were both found guilty and sense to death. The two defendants continued to 497 00:44:54,360 --> 00:45:00,559 maintain their innocence and seemed to have one fairly convincing piece of evidence their favor 498 00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:06,400 namely the fact that Edward were certain he had seen William standing in the courtroom 499 00:45:06,519 --> 00:45:09,679 during the trial. Maybe it's just me, but I do feel that if 500 00:45:09,719 --> 00:45:15,840 someone is being tried for murder, the victim not actually being dead should probably 501 00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:22,000 be enough to generate reasonable doubt. Regardless, I'm sure the courts just thought 502 00:45:22,039 --> 00:45:25,840 that Edward was hallucinating or making up any ridiculous story he could to save himself, 503 00:45:27,239 --> 00:45:30,559 as both he and Fred were sent to death row at Lazera Maximum Security 504 00:45:30,599 --> 00:45:36,519 Prison in order to await execution. Now, when someone is sends to death 505 00:45:36,559 --> 00:45:39,960 in the United States, it will usually be many years before their execution goes 506 00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:45,440 through, as they are entitled to file numerous appeals, and once they run 507 00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:49,679 out of legal options and execution, data is officially set for them. So 508 00:45:49,760 --> 00:45:52,880 the defendant will at least know when they are scheduled to die. However, 509 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:57,360 that's not how the system worked in you Gonda back in the nineteen eighties, 510 00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:01,639 as condemned prisoners were taken to death row but not given any information about when 511 00:46:01,639 --> 00:46:07,239 they were scheduled to die. They would only find out when someone suddenly showed 512 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:09,599 up and dragged them out of their cell, informing them that they were going 513 00:46:09,639 --> 00:46:15,880 to be executed in three days by hanging, So you can imagine the psychological 514 00:46:15,920 --> 00:46:19,599 torture of being on death row for years, never knowing if this was the 515 00:46:19,639 --> 00:46:22,519 week you were going to die. Edward would later say that he witnessed a 516 00:46:22,519 --> 00:46:27,840 total of fifty two inmates get taken from their cells and executed in this fashion, 517 00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:30,880 and they would often do this with batches of ten or eleven prisoners at 518 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:36,360 a time. This experience was pure hell for Edward and Fred, and while 519 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:42,039 Fred's execution never went through, he wound up developing malaria and stomach complications. 520 00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,199 Since Fred was a condemned prisoner who was going to die anyway, prison authorities 521 00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:50,599 did not feel the need to provide him with proper medical treatment, so he 522 00:46:50,679 --> 00:46:54,320 passed away in nineteen eighty five. To make things even more tragic, Edward's 523 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:59,199 wife also died while he was incarcerated. Well. As time went on, 524 00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:04,000 he'd appeared that Edward's account about having seen William in the courtroom might have actually 525 00:47:04,039 --> 00:47:07,880 been true, as numerous sightings started pouring in from witnesses who were certain they 526 00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:14,679 had seen William at various locations throughout Uganda. In nineteen eighty nine, eight 527 00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:20,639 years after William's murders supposedly took place, the authorities finally uncovered conclusive evidence that 528 00:47:20,679 --> 00:47:23,679 he was alive and living in the village of Mobico, as he sometimes took 529 00:47:23,760 --> 00:47:29,320 trips back to Kaiabala in order to visit his family. So how in the 530 00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:32,280 world could something like this have happened. Well, since this story took place 531 00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:37,360 in Uganda, they're not exactly in abundance of English language sources available out there, 532 00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:42,880 so certain details are very big. But the gist of it seems to 533 00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:49,760 be that William Wandiaka's parents had a major grudge against Edward Mapaguy's father. Unfortunately, 534 00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:52,840 I haven't been able to find out exactly what this grudge was, only 535 00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:57,880 that it was based around the land dispute, but it was apparently serious enough 536 00:47:58,199 --> 00:48:01,599 that William's family believed that going to the trouble of faking his death in order 537 00:48:01,639 --> 00:48:07,239 to frame Edward for his non existent murder was the most appropriate way to handle 538 00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:10,320 it. You might be wondering how they pulled something like this off, but 539 00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:15,559 apparently they bribed witnesses to say that they had seen Edward and Fred kill William 540 00:48:15,599 --> 00:48:21,320 and dispose of his body, and their frame up job was given additional credibility 541 00:48:21,599 --> 00:48:25,079 when they bribed a pathologist to falsely testify that he had done a post mortem 542 00:48:25,159 --> 00:48:30,559 on William's body. I'm not sure why the defense team never asked to see 543 00:48:30,599 --> 00:48:35,039 the body or any other corroborating evidence to prove that a crime took place, 544 00:48:35,559 --> 00:48:38,440 but it's good to know that the courts were totally fine was sentencing two innocent 545 00:48:38,559 --> 00:48:43,920 end to death on the basis of one witness who testified. Do take my 546 00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:49,039 word for it, it was totally a murder. Unfortunately, as is often 547 00:48:49,039 --> 00:48:52,400 the case in many wrongful conviction stories, the higher powers did not want to 548 00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:58,199 admit that they had made a colossal mistake. So even after the Attorney General 549 00:48:58,199 --> 00:49:01,960 of Uganda was given conclusive evidence that no murder ever took place and the so 550 00:49:02,079 --> 00:49:07,840 called victim was still alive, Edward continued to language on death row for another 551 00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:13,199 eleven years, as it's apparently very difficult to overturn a conviction in that country. 552 00:49:14,039 --> 00:49:17,159 It was not until July of two thousand when Edward finally received a full 553 00:49:17,239 --> 00:49:22,599 pardon from the President of Uganda and was released from prison, but by that 554 00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:27,559 point he had spent nineteen years behind bars for a crime that never happened. 555 00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:32,199 Not surprisingly, Edward has become a major activist for abolishing the death penalty, 556 00:49:32,599 --> 00:49:37,199 and his story is considered to be one of the worst miscarriages of justice the 557 00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:42,199 world has ever seen. And if you're wondering what happened to William Wandiaka, 558 00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:45,800 he actually wound up dying in natural causes in two thousand and two, two 559 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:52,199 years after Edward was released, and hopefully William's family didn't try to frame anyone 560 00:49:52,199 --> 00:49:57,320 again. Edward never got the opportunity to confront William, and that's probably the 561 00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:00,679 best outcome for everyone involved, since i there's a good chance that Edward would 562 00:50:00,679 --> 00:50:15,400 have wound up going back to death Row for a real murder. As we 563 00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:21,880 make our way through the enchanted forest, we come across a beautiful garden where 564 00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:25,880 the grass is a lush emerald green and the trees are adorned with shimmering silver 565 00:50:27,079 --> 00:50:32,320 leaves. It is here that we mean our sixth character, Melodia, a 566 00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:37,960 songbird with a voice so enchanting you could hear the heart of the most troubled 567 00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:46,119 soul. Welcome traveler. My songs are an expression of love and harmony. 568 00:50:47,159 --> 00:50:53,719 Listen and live in melody. And feels your spirit with joy. We pause 569 00:50:53,840 --> 00:51:00,239 to appreciate Melodia's tunes, and our hearts are filled with a sense of contentment 570 00:51:00,639 --> 00:51:07,199 and unity. Appearing now at the call of Melodia's tune is Kristen from the 571 00:51:07,280 --> 00:51:32,360 Hidden Staircase with our next story. It's officially spring time, and along with 572 00:51:32,519 --> 00:51:37,800 it comes Easter and all of the flowers popping open. You may even feel 573 00:51:37,840 --> 00:51:43,159 the urge to run through a field of them and enjoy being high on life. 574 00:51:44,280 --> 00:51:49,320 The man in my story today was often high on more than life and 575 00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:53,119 wrote one of the most popular books ever because of it, One Flew Over 576 00:51:53,159 --> 00:51:59,679 the Cuckoo's Nest, which happens to be my personal favorite. This was all 577 00:51:59,719 --> 00:52:04,480 when LSD was still legal, but when he was busted for marijuana, he 578 00:52:04,639 --> 00:52:14,519 decided to fake his death and escape to Mexico. The author's name is ken 579 00:52:14,639 --> 00:52:21,360 Tz, and his success began when he participated in a CIA RAN's psychoactive drug 580 00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:27,440 test, during which he was exposed to drugs like LSD and cocaine. The 581 00:52:27,559 --> 00:52:31,679 trials were only temporary, but he became hungry to further his distortions of reality. 582 00:52:34,079 --> 00:52:38,079 Ken soon became engulfed in a world of LSD, pills, THHC, 583 00:52:38,639 --> 00:52:45,159 mushrooms, and payote, later even attributing the success of his famous book to 584 00:52:45,239 --> 00:52:51,760 his participation in the drug test and further personal tests afterward. If you've read 585 00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:54,480 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, You'll probably know what I'm talking about. 586 00:53:00,519 --> 00:53:06,000 During his escapades, Ken became friends with like minded people who dubbed themselves the 587 00:53:06,119 --> 00:53:12,039 Mary Pranksters. Together, they began to study the effects of the mind altering 588 00:53:12,119 --> 00:53:16,360 medication by traveling in a road show on an altered school bus known as the 589 00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:23,719 Further. They used the Further to express themselves and spread the word about a 590 00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:30,840 lifestyle based on freedom of self and creating art out of daily life. Riders 591 00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:36,800 in the trippy bus shared in a plethora of mind altering substances while road noise 592 00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:42,320 was piped in through the speakers from the outside and their conversations were blasted through 593 00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:47,239 a speaker on the outside. As Ken said, their motto was freedom of 594 00:53:47,280 --> 00:53:59,880 body and mind, no matter what the law states. They played a massive 595 00:54:00,119 --> 00:54:04,079 part in the blooming of hippie culture and the success of The Grateful Dead. 596 00:54:04,719 --> 00:54:09,599 You were essentially the house band of the Pranksters. As you can imagine authorities 597 00:54:09,639 --> 00:54:15,840 didn't usually react kindly to a rainbow bus full of tripping people. Sadly, 598 00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:20,960 for Ken, when he was found with marijuana in his possession, he was 599 00:54:21,079 --> 00:54:25,679 arrested two separate times in an effort to not only crack down on marijuana users 600 00:54:25,920 --> 00:54:31,679 but also the widespread influence Kesey seemed to have. As a result in arrest, 601 00:54:31,760 --> 00:54:37,280 warrant was issued for Ken in nineteen sixty six, not for the further 602 00:54:37,639 --> 00:54:45,880 or for LSD, but just over marijuana possession. That began a several month 603 00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:52,840 long ploy to evade arrest and prosecution, and it started with the author faking 604 00:54:52,880 --> 00:55:01,119 his death. To do so. Ken drove the f to a secluded cliffside 605 00:55:01,159 --> 00:55:07,239 along the coast of California and left a suicide note that read, Ocean, 606 00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:12,400 Ocean, I'll beat you in the end. I'll break you this time. 607 00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:15,840 I'll go through with my heels at your hungry ribs. Then, with the 608 00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:20,639 help of his pranksters, Ken lay in the trunk of a getaway car and 609 00:55:20,800 --> 00:55:31,519 was driven to Mexico. Kenn evaded the FBI and the Federals in Mexico for 610 00:55:31,679 --> 00:55:38,519 eight months. He was traveling to several towns, including Puerto Volata and a 611 00:55:38,559 --> 00:55:44,960 place known as Marijuana City. His time on the Lamb was filled with sunshine 612 00:55:45,039 --> 00:55:50,880 and a plethora of thhc Eventually, Ken grew tired of his life in Mexico, 613 00:55:51,320 --> 00:55:55,480 and with a continued help of the pranksters, he returned to California. 614 00:55:59,039 --> 00:56:01,559 Then, one day, as he was driving, a couple of police officers 615 00:56:01,599 --> 00:56:07,880 recognized him and quickly pulled him over. Ken jumped from his truck and once 616 00:56:07,920 --> 00:56:12,920 again attempted to flee arrest. The officers chased him down a steep embankment, 617 00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:17,320 over a fence, and eventually apprehended him. After a five block pursuit, 618 00:56:20,039 --> 00:56:24,800 Ken Kesey was finally caught and sentenced to five months in an experimental Redwood's work 619 00:56:24,840 --> 00:56:35,760 camp clearing brush. After serving time, Ken moved to Pleasant Hill, Oregon, 620 00:56:36,480 --> 00:56:40,239 and began a more secluded life with his family. However, he still 621 00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:46,079 managed to write and eventually made a second Trippy Bus in the nineties to accompany 622 00:56:46,119 --> 00:56:52,039 his memoir based on his time on the first bus. His actual death occurred 623 00:56:52,039 --> 00:57:00,320 on October twenty first, two thousand and one, after complications from liver surgery. 624 00:57:05,639 --> 00:57:08,000 Ken lives on today through his writings and is known as one of the 625 00:57:08,039 --> 00:57:15,079 most influential authors in history. Unfortunately, through his efforts to avoid arrest, 626 00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:19,880 he fled longer than his actual punishment. It seemed to be enough to set 627 00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:22,679 him on the straight and narrow, or at least be a lot less public 628 00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:50,960 about his mind altering lifestyle. Our journey then leads us to a grand listening 629 00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:57,119 palace made of crystal, where we meet our seventh character, King Erulus, 630 00:57:58,480 --> 00:58:07,119 a wise and benevolent ruler whose kindness knows no bounds. Readings Traveler, my 631 00:58:07,159 --> 00:58:13,079 palace is a symbol of hope and light, shining bright even in the darkest 632 00:58:13,079 --> 00:58:22,079 times. May your journey be filled with courage and resilience. King a Rules 633 00:58:22,119 --> 00:58:29,119 allows us to rest tonight within his beautiful palace. Before we end this night, 634 00:58:29,800 --> 00:58:32,639 do you mind if I share a story myself. I mentioned at the 635 00:58:32,679 --> 00:58:38,519 beginning that I am a crime podcaster, but I also am a history podcaster, 636 00:58:39,440 --> 00:58:44,079 and I'd like to share a quick story to end the night for my 637 00:58:44,199 --> 00:59:08,360 show Hometown History. Hello. Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello. This 638 00:59:08,519 --> 00:59:15,320 is the sound of a resurrection. This is actual audio from the funeral of 639 00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:31,280 an irishman named Shay Bradley in Dublin, Ireland. It's a plee sucking here 640 00:59:32,280 --> 00:59:37,760 and yes it's coming from inside the coffin, from the bottom of a six 641 00:59:37,800 --> 00:59:51,119 foot hole. The family is surrounding the graveside, five to ten people deep. 642 00:59:52,480 --> 00:59:57,719 The initial shock is giving way to laughter that grows as more people realize 643 00:59:57,880 --> 01:00:13,000 what's happening. He can show the fuck no. Shortly before his death, 644 01:00:13,559 --> 01:00:17,840 Bradley have recorded this message to be played from his casket for one last laugh 645 01:00:19,039 --> 01:00:25,679 with his loved ones. But sometimes it's not so funny because sometimes it's real. 646 01:00:32,119 --> 01:00:37,880 This is actual audio from another grave side. And notice no one is 647 01:00:37,960 --> 01:01:04,679 laughing. What may be. In July of twenty sixteen, pregnant teenager Nicey 648 01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:09,719 Perez collapsed in the middle of the night on her way to the bathroom. 649 01:01:09,760 --> 01:01:15,840 The sound of gunfight in a nearby street triggered a stress reaction, either a 650 01:01:15,880 --> 01:01:22,039 panic attack or what is known as a cataphylactic episode, in which the victim's 651 01:01:22,039 --> 01:01:29,760 body shuts down in response to trauma, a kind of waking coma. Within 652 01:01:29,800 --> 01:01:36,239 an hour, Nacy was pronounced dead and buried on the following day in an 653 01:01:36,239 --> 01:01:43,280 above ground vault in the town of Lahentrada, Honduras. The day after the 654 01:01:43,320 --> 01:01:47,639 burial, muffled screams were heard in the area of the tomb. Her mother 655 01:01:47,679 --> 01:01:52,800 would later say, as I put my hand on her grave, I could 656 01:01:52,840 --> 01:01:59,360 hear noises inside. I heard banging, then I heard her voice. She 657 01:01:59,440 --> 01:02:21,920 was screaming for help. What you hear is a circle of people attempting to 658 01:02:21,960 --> 01:02:27,840 perform CPR. In the next video, Lacy does not look dead, but 659 01:02:27,960 --> 01:02:34,559 by the time she's rushed to the hospital, she's gone. Oxygen deprived may 660 01:02:34,559 --> 01:02:39,360 have been the final cause of death. According to her mother, even after 661 01:02:39,400 --> 01:02:44,639 a day in the tomb, the color of her body was normal. Her 662 01:02:44,679 --> 01:02:49,199 corpse didn't smell. She just looked like she was in a deep sleep. 663 01:02:50,320 --> 01:02:55,199 There was no rigor mortis. Her body was still flexible. It was impossible 664 01:02:55,239 --> 01:03:02,239 that she had been dead for so many hours. Tragically, there are countless 665 01:03:02,320 --> 01:03:08,639 other examples from history of this type of halfway resurrection. In twenty eleven, 666 01:03:09,039 --> 01:03:15,159 in Kazan, Russia, a woman named macomic Xanev set up in her casket 667 01:03:15,559 --> 01:03:22,280 in the middle of her own funeral. The shock of that experience led to 668 01:03:22,320 --> 01:03:30,320 a second heart attack, which was unfortunately fatal. History is full of stories 669 01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:34,880 like this, and there are times, of course where people do it on 670 01:03:34,960 --> 01:03:40,320 purpose. Sometimes they faked their death, as in many of these other stories. 671 01:03:42,159 --> 01:03:49,679 Sometimes it's a performance. Harry Hudini had himself buried alive to prove that 672 01:03:49,719 --> 01:03:53,880 he could escape even the grave. As it turned out, he could not 673 01:03:54,440 --> 01:04:00,079 escape the grave, and he had to be rescued when he nearly died for 674 01:04:00,199 --> 01:04:06,599 real. Years later, in Fresno, California, a Houdini admirer named Joe 675 01:04:06,639 --> 01:04:13,360 Burris would attempt the same feat with a twist. He would have six thousand 676 01:04:13,440 --> 01:04:18,679 pounds of wet concrete poured on top of his casket. Amazing Joe was a 677 01:04:18,719 --> 01:04:25,599 struggling magician looking for his big break, so he invited a camera crew to 678 01:04:25,679 --> 01:04:30,719 cover his escape. More than one hundred and fifty people were in attendance. 679 01:04:31,119 --> 01:04:36,760 This footage would later be used by television programs like A Current Affair to tell 680 01:04:36,880 --> 01:04:44,840 Joe's story and then buried alive under seven tons of dirt and cement. But 681 01:04:45,039 --> 01:04:55,840 something goes terribly wrong Exclusive the Greatest show of Amazing Joe. All of Joe's 682 01:04:55,880 --> 01:05:00,079 family was there to witness his greatest moment, and they were videotaping it so 683 01:05:00,119 --> 01:05:02,920 they could cherish it forever. But his arm Mike Watchett tells us something happened 684 01:05:02,960 --> 01:05:08,719 that turned this video into a horror movie. In the video, you can 685 01:05:08,760 --> 01:05:14,719 see Joe wins as a uniform police officer cuffs his hands in front of him, 686 01:05:14,760 --> 01:05:18,400 and it's clearly not an act. The cuffs are too tight, but 687 01:05:18,440 --> 01:05:26,079 it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Through a change, through the shadow, through 688 01:05:26,119 --> 01:05:36,039 the hand shuff grow my way through a three and a half feet You can't 689 01:05:36,039 --> 01:05:45,360 do all this before A reporter covering the events ask Joe if he understands the 690 01:05:45,400 --> 01:05:50,320 four implications of what he's about to attempt here. It's clear that he does 691 01:05:50,400 --> 01:05:56,840 not. He tries to play off the awkward moment with a joke, but 692 01:05:56,960 --> 01:06:01,119 it's obvious that he's in over his head. You realize it. So it 693 01:06:01,119 --> 01:06:09,159 starts a hardened verse at a lower elevation. It's gonna be hard the hardened 694 01:06:09,159 --> 01:06:15,559 at the lower part. In fact, I didn't. It's a very serious 695 01:06:15,599 --> 01:06:20,480 there's no magic trick. But you've been seeing this night. Your heart sinks 696 01:06:20,679 --> 01:06:26,639 as you watch them pour concrete, six thousand pounds of it, on top 697 01:06:26,679 --> 01:06:30,679 of Joe in his frail plastic coffin at the bottom of a seven foot hole 698 01:06:32,159 --> 01:06:39,639 for contexts, six thousand pounds is roughly the same weight as the largest SUVs 699 01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:45,639 or two Volkswagen Beetles. Almost immediately after being filled to the top, the 700 01:06:45,760 --> 01:06:53,719 concrete drops a foot and a half. The plastic coffin has collapsed. By 701 01:06:53,719 --> 01:06:59,320 the time rescuers reached him by digging a second hole beside the first, Joe 702 01:06:59,400 --> 01:07:05,559 has passed way. He told me just a few days before that something Udini 703 01:07:05,760 --> 01:07:15,119 said that it will either be say to my foolishness, that giousy and it 704 01:07:15,360 --> 01:07:32,000 was Rudini's foolishness and Joe's too. As easy as it is to criticize someone 705 01:07:32,039 --> 01:07:40,039 like Joe, we all do foolish things. If we're lucky we survive them. 706 01:07:40,079 --> 01:07:45,119 And this may seem like an unusual takeaway from stories like these, but 707 01:07:45,239 --> 01:07:49,880 they really just make me glad to be alive. Life is precious, and 708 01:07:50,000 --> 01:07:55,920 we can waste a lot of time and energy trying to impress people or pulling 709 01:07:55,960 --> 01:08:01,400 stupid stunts that are really just attempts to feel alive. What I'm reminded of 710 01:08:01,400 --> 01:08:08,400 when I hear stories like this is that we're already alive. We already have 711 01:08:08,480 --> 01:08:13,239 a lot to be grateful for, and the older I get the more I 712 01:08:13,320 --> 01:08:18,039 look at every morning as a little resurrection. I think of all the people 713 01:08:18,079 --> 01:08:24,520 who didn't wake up on that day or any other day, who didn't come 714 01:08:24,560 --> 01:08:29,680 back from the darkness, and I feel grateful that I did. So. 715 01:08:29,720 --> 01:08:33,920 I make a commitment just to be completely present in the present, and ironically, 716 01:08:34,479 --> 01:09:00,159 that's one of the things the history helps us do. Happy Easter everyone, 717 01:09:06,720 --> 01:09:12,760 Hello again, friend. Thank you for joining me tonight in what was 718 01:09:12,840 --> 01:09:18,039 part one in this two part special collaboration Easter episode. I'm Shane Waters, 719 01:09:18,399 --> 01:09:25,079 the organizer and creator of these collaborations, and I truly hope that you enjoy 720 01:09:25,159 --> 01:09:30,640 them. If you do consider leaving a review for this podcast wherever you're listening. 721 01:09:31,880 --> 01:09:36,520 If this isn't your cup of tea, well then my name is George, 722 01:09:38,119 --> 01:09:43,399 and forget all about the whole review thing, won't you remember? All 723 01:09:43,479 --> 01:09:47,319 podcasts that you heard are listed in the show notes in order of appearance, 724 01:09:48,279 --> 01:09:53,920 along with a link on where to find them. I'll see you soon. 725 01:10:00,159 --> 01:10:06,640 It is distant sting of