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His-song-will-KILL-you · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Both of today's stories are about people who actually achieved
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: their big career ambitions, but at an extremely high cost.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: But before we get into today's stories, if you're a
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  Speaker 1: let's get into today's stories. On the afternoon of June tenth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, a defense attorney named Clement Valen Dinger
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  Speaker 1: sat in a courtroom in Lebanon, Ohio, listening intently as
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  Speaker 1: a prosecutor question to witness, and with each word that
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  Speaker 1: this witness said on the stand, it made the knot
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  Speaker 1: in Clement's stomach get tighter and tighter because this testimony
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  Speaker 1: was very bad for Clement's client, an accused murderer named
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  Speaker 1: Thomas mcgean. So the murder that mcgean was on trial
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  Speaker 1: for had happened about six months earlier on Christmas Eve
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  Speaker 1: in the nearby city of Hamilton. That night, mcgean had
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  Speaker 1: stormed into a saloon with a group of men and
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  Speaker 1: attacked another man named Tom Myers, and at some point
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  Speaker 1: during this attack, a gun went off and tom Myers.
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  Speaker 2: Was shot and killed.
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  Speaker 1: Now, there were at least thirty witnesses in the saloon
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  Speaker 1: at the time, but the whole attack had happened so
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  Speaker 1: fast and was so chaotic that no one had seen
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  Speaker 1: who did the actual shooting. Despite that, everyone in town
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  Speaker 1: immediately decided that mcgean had done it. However, even Clement
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  Speaker 1: had to admit that that was a reasonable assumption. Mcgean
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  Speaker 1: and the victim, tom Myers, had a long standing feud,
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  Speaker 1: and everyone knew they hated each other. Also, mcgean was
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  Speaker 1: a well known violent criminal who was said to have
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  Speaker 1: killed at least four other people. So when tom Myers
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  Speaker 1: got killed, the citizens of Hamilton didn't even wait for
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  Speaker 1: a trial. They wanted to hang mcgean right now. Now,
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  Speaker 1: the police had obviously intervened and arrested mcgean instead, but
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  Speaker 1: word had spread all over Ohio about how messy and
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  Speaker 1: dramatic this case was, and as a result, the trial
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  Speaker 1: itself had become very high profile. Every Day journalists and
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  Speaker 1: important people from all over the state came to sit
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  Speaker 1: in court and listen to the testimony. And now all
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  Speaker 1: of these important people were watching Clement's defense case get
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  Speaker 1: just obliterated by this witness. The witness was one of
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  Speaker 1: the men who had been in the saloon at the
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  Speaker 1: time of the murder, and he was making a very
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  Speaker 1: big claim. He was saying that even though no one
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  Speaker 1: in the saloon saw mcgean fire the gunshot that killed
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  Speaker 1: tom Myers, he must have because after the gun went off,
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  Speaker 1: this witness saw smoke coming from mcgean's jacket pocket, like
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  Speaker 1: he had been concealing his gun inside his jacket when
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  Speaker 1: he had fired it. Clement looked around the courtroom while
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  Speaker 1: the witness explained this and saw that everybody was nodding
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  Speaker 1: like what the witness said made perfect sense. Clement could
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  Speaker 1: tell basically, at this point, everybody thought his client was guilty,
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  Speaker 1: but Clement he did not agree. He knew mcgeean's case
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  Speaker 1: looked bad, but Clement was absolutely certain that his client
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  Speaker 1: really was innocent. Clement's theory was that the victim, Tom Myers,
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  Speaker 1: had shot himself by accident when he pulled out his
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  Speaker 1: own gun during the fight to defend himself. Unfortunately for Clement, though,
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  Speaker 1: this was eighteen seventy one, so there was no forensic
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  Speaker 1: evidence about gunshots except for some scorch marks on tom
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  Speaker 1: Myers's shirt. So the whole entire case was really just
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  Speaker 1: based on witness testimony, and of course this witness was
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  Speaker 1: very convincing for the other side. The prosecutor finished up
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  Speaker 1: his questioning and then walked back to a seat with
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  Speaker 1: a smirk on his face like he knew what he
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  Speaker 1: had just done. They pretty much had just won the case.
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  Speaker 1: It was now Clement's term with the witness, and he
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  Speaker 1: really didn't know how it was going to go. But
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  Speaker 1: as Clement stood up and crossed the courtroom floor, he
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  Speaker 1: felt a calm come over him because he was thinking
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  Speaker 1: to himself, I don't have much to lose. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: pretty much everybody thinks my client is guilty, and so
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  Speaker 1: if he's found guilty, no one's going to be shocked.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, maybe I can find a way to
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  Speaker 1: prove his innocent and that would be just great. But
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  Speaker 1: if I don't, it is what it is. So to
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  Speaker 1: be clear, Clement was a very controversial figure in Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: At this time, which was right after the Civil War,
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  Speaker 1: he had been very vocally against the then President Abraham Lincoln,
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  Speaker 1: and his viewpoints had gotten him banished from Ohio and
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  Speaker 1: the other Northern states. And then after the war ended,
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  Speaker 1: he had returned to his home state of Ohio and
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  Speaker 1: had gone back to being an attorney, but he had
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  Speaker 1: never really been able to fully rehabilitate his public inanda image.
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  Speaker 1: Even now six years later, a lot of people still
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  Speaker 1: really hated him for behavior during the war. And so,
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  Speaker 1: in essence, Clement knew that pretty much his public profile
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  Speaker 1: was not about to change if he lost this case.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, basically nothing would change. You know, he's the
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  Speaker 1: guy that everybody hates and his client's the murderer.
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  Speaker 2: It is what it is.
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  Speaker 1: But if he won, he could recreate himself in the
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  Speaker 1: court of public opinion as a sensational criminal defense lawyer
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  Speaker 1: who overturned impossible cases. And again he really believed his
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  Speaker 1: client was innocent. So this would be like a two
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  Speaker 1: pronged major victory for Clement. And so Clement stepped up
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  Speaker 1: to the witness box and began firing off questions to
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  Speaker 1: this witness. By the end of the day, Clement had
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  Speaker 1: gotten that witness to admit he hadn't actually seen a
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  Speaker 1: physical gun, and eventually Clement was able to completely destroy
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  Speaker 1: the jacket shooting theory when he showed the court that
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  Speaker 1: the jacket that McGee had been wearing that night there
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  Speaker 1: was no hole anywhere on it. As the week went
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  Speaker 1: on and more witnesses took the stand, Clement was pleased
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  Speaker 1: to find that none of them had any actual proof
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  Speaker 1: that mcgehan shot tom Myers. But he also couldn't find
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  Speaker 1: any evidence that proved his client was innocent either. So
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  Speaker 1: later that week, on Friday, June sixteenth, as the trial
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  Speaker 1: came to a close, Clement was kind of worried. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: he knew that he had not done enough to get
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  Speaker 1: his client acquitted, and even though he knew that the
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  Speaker 1: likelihood of success here was always going to be slim,
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  Speaker 1: he felt like he had begun to make some serious
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  Speaker 1: headway and they could win. Victory felt possible and it
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  Speaker 1: was just slipping out of his hand. That afternoon, Clement
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  Speaker 1: sat behind the defence table, sweating profusely as he listened
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  Speaker 1: to the prosecutor's team deliver there just brutal closing arguments.
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  Speaker 1: This was giving Clement a lot of anxiety. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: he was moments away from giving his own closing arguments,
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  Speaker 1: and it was really his very last chance to convince
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  Speaker 1: the jury that his client was innocent.
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  Speaker 2: But he just did not.
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  Speaker 1: Feel like the speech he had prepared would do that,
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  Speaker 1: especially after you know, the prosecutor is really just a
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  Speaker 1: very powerful speech that he was giving right now. And
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  Speaker 1: so as the prosecutor very eloquently and beautifully wrapped up
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  Speaker 1: his speech, Clement was busy furiously crossing out lines on
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  Speaker 1: his speech and rewriting things and trying to make it better,
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  Speaker 1: but he just couldn't. So he just sat there racking
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  Speaker 1: his brain on what to say. But as he was
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  Speaker 1: sitting there in silence, and like the prosecutors sat down
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  Speaker 1: and everybody's waiting for Clement to stand up and deliver
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  Speaker 1: his speech, here an idea suddenly hit Clement.
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  Speaker 2: It hit him so hard that he actually just dropped
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  Speaker 2: his pen.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't know why this idea hadn't occurred to him earlier,
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  Speaker 1: but he suddenly realized there was a way he could
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  Speaker 1: prove mcgeean was innocent. It was so obvious, and if
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  Speaker 1: he was right, he would go down in history as
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  Speaker 1: probably the greatest defense attorney Ohio had ever seen, and
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  Speaker 1: so Clement he lunged for his pen again. Then he
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  Speaker 1: frantically scribbled down what he was thinking. And then a
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  Speaker 1: minute later he heard the judge call his name and
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  Speaker 1: tell him, come on, it's your turn to.
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  Speaker 2: Speak, and so clemente.
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  Speaker 1: He shot to his feet and he cleared his throat,
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  Speaker 1: and instead of launching into the speech he had prepared
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  Speaker 1: for this moment, he asked the judge to let him
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  Speaker 1: do it instead on Monday. The judge was a little apprehensive,
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  Speaker 1: but eventually they agreed, and when they did, Clement felt
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  Speaker 1: a surge of excitement rushed through his body, and after
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  Speaker 1: the court proceedings officially ended for the day, Clement could
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  Speaker 1: not get out of there fast enough. Clement waited until
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  Speaker 1: nightfall to act. He needed to run a test to
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  Speaker 1: make sure his theory he was going to employ on
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  Speaker 1: Monday was correct, but he didn't want anybody from the
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  Speaker 1: prosecution team to see him doing it. So after dinner,
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  Speaker 1: Clement slipped out of his hotel and into the quiet
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  Speaker 1: streets of Lebanon. He'd spent the last few hours having
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  Speaker 1: dinner with some friends, and while he was pretty vague
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  Speaker 1: about what he actually planned to do tonight, he did
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  Speaker 1: tell them that they really needed to stay in town
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  Speaker 1: long enough to hear his big final argument on Monday.
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  Speaker 1: He was so confident in what he'd uncover tonight doing
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  Speaker 1: this test that he was sure his speech on Monday
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  Speaker 1: would be like the greatest legal moment in the history
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  Speaker 1: of Ohio. And so now, as Clement made his way
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  Speaker 1: to the edge of town, he was filled with adrenaline
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  Speaker 1: and kept increasing his speed until he was basically running.
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  Speaker 1: And then he finally arrived at a quiet, isolated part
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  Speaker 1: of Lebanon, and as soon as he got there, he
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  Speaker 1: set up for this test he had planned and then
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  Speaker 1: ran through it. And after he finished, Clement smiled because
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  Speaker 1: he knew he had just found a way to prove
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  Speaker 1: that his client was innocent. Just a few minutes later,
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  Speaker 1: around nine pm, and Clement was back inside of his
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  Speaker 1: hotel room. He was so excited about the results of
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  Speaker 1: his test that he couldn't even sit down, and so
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  Speaker 1: he just kept pacing.
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  Speaker 2: Around and around and trying.
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  Speaker 1: To get his thoughts together.
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  Speaker 2: But he was just so excited.
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  Speaker 1: His hotel room door was cracked open, and as he
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  Speaker 1: paced around, he saw his co counsul, who was another
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  Speaker 1: lawyer on the defense team, walk by. So this hotel
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  Speaker 1: was sort of like the home base of everyone who
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  Speaker 1: was in town for the trial, and so most of
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  Speaker 1: the prosecution and the defense teams were staying there. When
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  Speaker 1: Clement saw his co council, he immediately waved him inside
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  Speaker 1: and tried to tell him what he'd figured out, but
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  Speaker 1: the words just kind of tumbled out, and all he
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  Speaker 1: really got across was that the prosecution had it all wrong,
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  Speaker 1: but he Clement had figured it out, but his co
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  Speaker 1: counsel was just looking at him like he really didn't
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  Speaker 1: understand what he was saying. And so at some point
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  Speaker 1: Clement realized he really needed to do a physical demonstration here.
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  Speaker 1: He really needed to repeat the test he had just
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  Speaker 1: done to show actually show the co.
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  Speaker 2: Council exactly what he was talking about.
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  Speaker 1: So, without a whole lot of explanation to his co counsel,
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  Speaker 1: Clement got up, he set up the test, and then
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  Speaker 1: he turned and he told his co council to watch carefully,
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  Speaker 1: and then Clement began to perform the test. But this time,
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  Speaker 1: during the test, there was a sudden explosion and Clement
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  Speaker 1: collapsed to the ground. It would turn out that Clement's
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  Speaker 1: test did prove, without a shadow of a doubt that
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: his client really was innocent. His theory was that tom
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  Speaker 1: Myers shot himself by fumbling with his own gun, but
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  Speaker 1: in order to make sure his theory held weight with
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  Speaker 1: the jury, he wanted to show everyone that it was
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  Speaker 1: definitely physically possible to do that. So when Clement had
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  Speaker 1: gone to the edge of town to do this test
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  Speaker 1: by himself for the first time, he took a gun
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  Speaker 1: with him and he basically experimented with ways it could
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  Speaker 1: have actually happened by shooting the gun through fabric from
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  Speaker 1: different angles and looking at the resulting scorch marks. And
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  Speaker 1: when he did this, he realized that the scorch marks
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  Speaker 1: that had been left on the victim's clothes the only
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  Speaker 1: forensic evidence they had. They could have only been made
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  Speaker 1: if the victim was shot at point blank range.
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  Speaker 2: Which meant that mcgeean was standing too.
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  Speaker 1: Far away to be the shooter. But it was not
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  Speaker 1: until later, when Clement acted out the shooting again for
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  Speaker 1: his co counsul, that his discovery went from great to
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  Speaker 1: perfect because completely by accident, he did exactly what tom
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  Speaker 1: Myers had done.
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  Speaker 2: He fumbled with the gun and shot himself.
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  Speaker 1: Clement died from his self inflicted wound twelve hours later,
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  Speaker 1: but his death made his argument so convincing that his
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  Speaker 1: client was eventually acquitted.
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  Speaker 2: So Clement had been right.
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  Speaker 1: This was the greatest case of his life. It was
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  Speaker 1: also his last. Our second and final story is about
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: a song. But we're not going to be playing this
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: song during the episode, and when you get to the
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: end of this story you'll see why. On an overcast,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: chilly sunday in the fall of nineteen thirty two, thirty
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: two year old composer resid Oh Sharesh sat in his
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: apartment in Paris trying to write a new melody. He'd
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: been at it for hours, and it was not going
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  Speaker 1: well at all. Each time he jotted down a new
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: combination of notes, he'd just tear it up and toss
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  Speaker 1: it into his trash bin, where there was already a
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: pile of other discarded drafts.
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  Speaker 2: So Rezo was used to this kind of messy creative process.
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  Speaker 1: He had made a name for himself as a musician
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  Speaker 1: in his home country of Hungary.
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  Speaker 2: Over the last decade.
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  Speaker 1: He'd written more than forty musical compositions for various singers
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: and artists, and a few had been really successful, so
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Rezo knew he had the talent to be a huge
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: star and to change people's lives with his music. But recently,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you know, despite trying many different iterations and just allowing
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: the messy creative process to take hold and just kind
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: of letting it run its course, Rezzo still just could
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  Speaker 1: not come up with any new good work, mainly because
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: he was incredibly stressed out. So at this point in
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two, Rezzo and many other people were very
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: nervous about the state of the world and their future
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: because there were really violent political views spreading across Europe,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: especially in Germany. This was still seven years before the
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: start of World War Two, but Hitler and his Nazi
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Party were already starting to gain power, and Resso, who
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: was Jewish, was worried about all the anti Jewish rhetoric
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: that the Nazis were spreading. And while that was terrifying
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: and kept Reso up at night, the more urgent worry
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: he had on a daily basis that was really impeding
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: his creativity was how to literally afford food, because the
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: world was also in the middle of the Great Depression,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: which was a period of time in the nineteen twenties
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and thirties when multiple countries were dealing with terrible economies
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: and mass unemployment. Back in Reso's home country of Hungary,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: things were especially bad and getting worse. Banks and businesses
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: were closing almost every day, and more than a quarter
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: of the population was unemployed living in extreme poverty. Resso
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: had moved to Paris so we could find more opportunities. Paris,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: after all, was the art mecca of Europe, and even
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: though the state of the world felt depressing, Rezzo thought
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: that the creative energy there would inspire him to create
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: something beautiful.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Amid all the darkness.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: But now Rezo sighed and lean back to look around
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the tiny, drafty Parisian apartment of his. He'd been here
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: for months, and his fortunes certainly had not changed. He
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: still didn't have any work, and he still could not
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: seem to write anything good. But you know, Rezzo, he
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: kept leaning back over and trying to write, but it
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: was like immediately he would tear it up, and he
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: was just getting more and more frustrated, until finally he
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: just did give up and put his head in his
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: hands and basically said, I can't do this. It seemed
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: like the harder he worked, and the harder he tried
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: to ignore all the despair and sadness and awful things
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: going on in the world, the worse he felt, and
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: obviously the worse his work was. Like right now, he
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: actually almost felt physically ill from kind of bottling up
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: all these competing terrible feelings and thoughts. But as he
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: thought about the fact that he was doing matt he
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: suddenly decided, he just can't do that anymore. He can't
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: continue to keep that stuff in. It was at that
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: moment that Rezo exhaled and let in all the anguish
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: he'd been trying to push away. Sadness and fear and
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: quiet desperation just washed over him and into him, and
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: he didn't fight it anymore. He just suddenly started writing.
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  Speaker 1: His pen flew across the page as wave after wave
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: of terrible emotion hit him, and when he was done,
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  Speaker 1: he ran over to his piano to play the notes
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  Speaker 1: that he had just written, and as his fingers moved
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  Speaker 1: across the keys, a very slow, sad melody began to
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  Speaker 1: fill the air, and it was so beautiful and so
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  Speaker 1: sad that he actually felt like crying as he heard it.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: When he was done playing, he just sat back in
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  Speaker 1: his chair, and now tears filled his eyes and his
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: heart was pounding so fast that he knew he needed
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to get some air fast or he might actually just
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: pass out. And so Resso went outside to take a
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: walk and hope the fresh air would help him snap
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: out of the wild emotional fog that had just come
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: over him. But the Paris streets were gray and cold,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: and this new melody continued to ring in his ears.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: He was thrilled that he'd actually written something, something real
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and powerful, for the first time in what felt like
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: a long time, but it was such an intense expression
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: of his own sadness that it almost hurt. Shortly into
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: his walk, he heard somebody call his name.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: When he looked up, he saw it was his.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Good friend, a poet named Loslow Yevor, who rushed right
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: up to him. And right away, when Rezo saw his friend,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: he felt.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Himself lightening up a little bit. He liked Laslow.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: They were both Hungarians in Paris, trying to make good
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: art and a name for themselves, but neither of them
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: had really done it yet. But as soon as Laslow
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: reached Rezso. Ressou could tell that his friend seemed really
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: upset about something too, and his friend told him that
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: his fiance had just ended things with him and he
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: was completely heartbroken. After Reso said that he was terribly sorry,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: the men just walked together in silence. They were both
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: lost in their own sad, heavy feelings, and neither of
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: them could think of anything to say, and without even
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: meaning to, Resso just began whistling the song that he
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: had just written. And when he did this, it was
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: like the tune had an immediate effect on Laslow. His
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: eyes welled up and he sort of began to cry.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: And also he began to sing along, using words from
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: a very sad poem that he had recently written. Resso
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: couldn't believe it, because, without even trying, Laslow's words were
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: perfectly fit for his melody. And so as this sort
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: of impromptu collaboration has begun, the men went from this
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: really dark, gloomy mood to a purely excited one. They
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: were so inspired that they rushed into a nearby restaurant
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to sit and work out the rest of the song,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and before they knew it, Rezo had written an entire
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: composition with Laslow's lyrics, and the song was about someone
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: whose lover had just died and their desire to be
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: reunited with them.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: When the men finished, they.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Wanted to hear their song out loud, so they asked
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the restaurant's resident musicians to play it, and pretty soon
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: their song, something that hadn't even existed a few hours ago,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: was blaring around the crowded restaurant, and as far as
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Reso and Laslow could tell, everybody inside was loving this song.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Some of the restaurant patrons actually cried, and others closed
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: their eyes and just kind of swayed to the sound.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: It was what Rezo had always hoped his music would do,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: which was truly affect those who heard it. Resu and
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Laslow looked at each other, and for the first time
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: in days, they smiled. Rezzou and Laslow decided to call
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: their song Gloomy Sunday, since it had been created on
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: that hazy fall Sunday. They both had a feeling that
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: this tune was very special and that it would finally
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: be the thing that changed both of their lives. So
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: over the next few months, they took the song around
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: to producers and tried to get somebody to buy it,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and finally someone did. A company agreed to publish the
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: sheet music and record it. After that, Rezo went back
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: to his shabby Parisian apartment and waited the song to
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: take hold and the money to start pouring in.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: But that's not what happened.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: As the months passed by, Rezo didn't hear Gloomy Sunday
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: on the radio, or see it on any charts, or
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: hear it in restaurants or performed in theaters. It was
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: like it really had never existed at all, and this
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: crushed Rezzo. He was even more upset and defeated than
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: he had been before he had written it, because he'd
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: gotten a taste of hope and it felt even worse
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to fail. After that, the rest of Ressou's life and
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the state of the world got worse too. The Great
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Depression was still going strong, and as Hitler got more
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and more popular, people started to wonder if there was
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: going to be a war. So Rezo and pretty much
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: everyone else around him just sank further into their fears
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and worries and kept praying for something to change. Three
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: years later, on a spring evening in nineteen thirty five,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Rezo was back in Hungary walking down a street in
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: the country's capital city, Budapest. He was on his way
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: to a friend's house, but as he strode down the sidewalk,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: he heard a song coming from an open window. He
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: stopped cold and his heart began to pound because he
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: knew that song.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: It was his. It was Gloomy Sunday. Rezo had no idea.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: How or why he was hearing his song, which as
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: far as he knew, no one had really been that
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: interested in. But it was completely shocking. I mean, someone
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: he didn't know was listening to his song on the radio.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: That meant it was being put out on the airwaves
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and being consumed by the public. This was incredible, and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: so Reso just stood there, letting his own notes wash
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: over him for the first time, you know, hearing this
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: out in public. And then when it was done, he
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: just stood there and just absolutely beamed. And after that,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: for months, Gloomy Sunday was everywhere. Reso heard it played
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: at social gatherings, streaming from people's windows, street performers sang
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: at the passer, and it was even performed at concert
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: venues all over the city. And so by the end
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: of the year it seemed like there was hardly anyone
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: in Hungary who hadn't heard and loved his song. Reso
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: even read in the papers that his song was being
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: played in England, in France, and as far away as
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the United States, so Rezo knew that he had actually
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: done it. He had realized his dream of being a successful,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: internationally recognized composer with a hit song that truly resonated
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: with the public. A few months later, on a morning
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: in late February of nineteen thirty six, Rezzo left his
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: apartment and was heading out for the day, and on
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: his way down the street, he passed by a newsstand
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and he noticed that one of the headlines mentioned his song,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Gloomy Sunday. Initially, he was really excited to see that
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: he was getting some press, so he immediately grabbed a
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: copy and.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Opened it up to read.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: But as his eyes scammed the page, his stomach flipped
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: because this was not good press. Actually, what this article
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: had to say was so terrible that Reso's first reaction
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: was that he'd read it wrong, and so he read
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: it again and again and again, But each time he
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: read it, it just said the same horrible thing, and
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: so Rezo found himself starting to panic. Rezo quickly shut
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the paper and just began looking around him, and he
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: saw there were a few other people who were also
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: by the newsstand, and they were reading the same paper,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: and they were all talking to one another in hushed
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: voices and pointing at that headline about his song. And
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Rezo just stood there, listening to this unsettling murmur and
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: feeling a wave of absolute horror wash over him. Over
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the next month, more and more headlines about Rezo's song
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: continued to appear in the papers, and it was like
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: each day they only got worse. And then the story
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: went international, I mean, the Catholic Church weighed on it,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: and then the police got involved. Finally, one afternoon, at
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: the end of March in nineteen thirty six, Rezzo was
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: sitting at his piano, staring down at the keys.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: He knew he should be right.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Music, but instead he was just filled with dread, just
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: like he had been every day since he first read
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: that dreadful headline. And then suddenly there was a knock
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: at the door, and when Rezo got up and answered it,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: a cold sweat broke out all over his body because
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: it was the Budapest police, and they wanted him to
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: come down to the station. Rezzo's pulse raced with nerves,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: but at this point he wasn't surprised, because by now
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: he knew that writing Gloomy Sunday had been a horrific mistake,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: because it would turn out Gloomy Sunday had been a
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: very shockingly impactful song, just as Rezo thought he wanted
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: it to be. But over the course of the last year,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the police had begun finding its sheet music, or its
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: written lyrics, or the actual song playing on record players
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: at scenes of suicides. Dozens of people across Hungry Europe
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and the United States, from police officers to teenagers to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: wait staff to students, had taken their own lives basically
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: while listening to Gloomy Sunday. These deaths were so widespread
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: that a Hungarian archbishop actually wrote a letter to the
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: general public begging them to stop hurting themselves, and multiple
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: bands of the song itself were enacted across Europe, in
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: England and the United States. On the day that the
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Budapest police knocked on Ressou's door, they demanded that he
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: stop sales of the song, and Rezu agreed. And eventually
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: so did the song's publisher and his musical partner, Laslow.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: And Resso's partner. Laslow was especially grief stricken by this
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: whole thing because his fiance the one who had broken
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: his heart on the day he had written this song
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: with Rezzo, she ended up being one of the many
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: suicide victims. Before she took her own life, she sent
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Laslow a telegram which simply said, gloomy Sunday. No one
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: knows why gloomy Sunday potentially caused the sudden wave of death.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: One theory is that people were already really suffering from
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: depression and feeling hopeless because of the Great Depression and
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the worsening political climate, and the song's popularity was either
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: a coincidence or sort of an unfortunate trigger. As for Rezzo,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: he was devastated by the legacy of his song.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: Even though it did technically live up.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: To his original vision, it did deeply resonate with people
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and was unquestionably a hit, and over the years, despite
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: all the negative associations with the song, it's been translated
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: into twenty eight different languages and was even performed by
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: legendary singers like Frank Sinatra, and Billie Holliday. Initially, there
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: was an estimated twenty suicides attributed to Gloomy Sunday across
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Europe and the United States. And the years that have followed, however,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: lore around the song has only grown, and some estimates
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: put the death toll and the hundreds, although the numbers
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: are difficult to verify. Rezzo never wrote another hit, and
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: in fact, ultimately he followed in the footsteps of some
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: of his listeners. He jumped out the window of his
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: eighth floor apartment on another overcast gloomy Sunday and died.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Two days later.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Before I wrap this episode up, I want to say
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: that if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or suicidal ideations,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: or you're just struggling right.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Now, number one, you're not alone.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: But number two, you really need to talk to someone.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Don't hold that stuff in. Thank you so much for
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: watching today's episode. Let me know what you thought of
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: it in the comments below. And remember, we have a
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: whole playlist of places you can't go episodes ready for
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: you to binge right now, So go ahead and click
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: here and give them a watch. All right, until next time,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: see it