Latest / Crime and Horror / The first rule of Fight Club... - MrBallen

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The first rule of Fight Club... - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Both of today's stories are about just how hard it
0:03
Speaker 1: is to really know somebody. Basically, everybody beneath their exterior
0:09
Speaker 1: is oftentimes not what you think they are. But before
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Speaker 1: we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of
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Speaker 1: the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then
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Speaker 1: you've come to the right place because that's all we do,
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Speaker 1: and we upload two, three, even four times every week.
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Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into
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Speaker 1: the Like Button's house and steal the glass tray inside
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Speaker 1: of their microwave. Also, please subscribe to our channel and
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Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories. One
1:02
Speaker 1: afternoon in March of 2004, a 53-year-old handyman named Carl
1:07
Speaker 1: Fenwick sat on the floor of a vacant studio apartment
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Speaker 1: in the rundown apartment building where he lived and worked
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Speaker 1: in northern England. The apartment building was called The Cliff,
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Speaker 1: and it was across the street from the ocean in
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Speaker 1: the coastal town of Seton Carew. Carl was in the
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Speaker 1: middle of painting the apartment and getting it ready for
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Speaker 1: a new tenant. but he had stopped to eat some
1:25
Speaker 1: lunch and to read a few chapters of one of
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Speaker 1: his favorite spy novels. Carl loved spy novels, and he
1:30
Speaker 1: had a few that he just read over and over again.
1:33
Speaker 1: But as he turned the page, something out the window
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Speaker 1: caught his eye. It was his landlady, Anne Darwin, who
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Speaker 1: lived in a big Victorian house right next door. And
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Speaker 1: at this moment, she was standing in front of her
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Speaker 1: house with her two adult sons, Anthony and Mark, and
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Speaker 1: they were all dressed in black and each were holding
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Speaker 1: a wreath made of flowers. And now, Carl felt a
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Speaker 1: little bit like a spy himself, as he secretly watched
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Speaker 1: the family of three walk across the street together to
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Speaker 1: this grassy knoll that looked out over the water. Anne
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Speaker 1: and her sons bowed their heads, and Carl could tell
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Speaker 1: they were very likely praying, and then all three of
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Speaker 1: them tossed their wreaths into the ocean. Carl knew that
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Speaker 1: Anne and her sons were honoring Anne's husband, John Darwin,
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Speaker 1: who had actually died in a kayaking accident two years
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Speaker 1: ago basically in the water right out in front of
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Speaker 1: their house. Carl could also see that Anne was visibly shaking,
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Speaker 1: so he knew she must be crying. And when he
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Speaker 1: saw that, you know, Carl himself started to feel sad
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Speaker 1: because Carl cared deeply for Anne. He was not just
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Speaker 1: her handyman and tenant. They had been secretly romantically involved
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Speaker 1: ever since he had moved into the cliff almost two
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Speaker 1: years ago. But Carl had actually known Anne for most
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Speaker 1: of his life, and had been in love with her
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Speaker 1: for decades. So Carl and Ann were both from a
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Speaker 1: town that was near Seton Carew, and Carl had first
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Speaker 1: seen Ann on the school bus in high school, but
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Speaker 1: he hadn't worked up the courage to say hello. Then
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Speaker 1: soon after that, he left to go to college, but
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Speaker 1: he had never stopped thinking about her. After college, Carl
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Speaker 1: had started a family of his own and became a
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Speaker 1: school teacher, but he lost everything after making some really
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Speaker 1: bad real estate investments a few years ago, and his
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Speaker 1: financial troubles had led to legal trouble And finally, he'd
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Speaker 1: left his family and gone on the run from the police,
3:19
Speaker 1: living in the woods outside of Seton Carew. That's when
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Speaker 1: he and Anne had found their way back to each other.
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Speaker 1: One night, in a parking lot near his campsite, Carl
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Speaker 1: saw Anne pull in in her car, looking very upset.
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Speaker 1: And this time, he did approach her. It turned out
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Speaker 1: that Anne's husband had only just had his kayaking accident
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Speaker 1: a few weeks earlier, and she was obviously in a
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Speaker 1: very bad place emotionally because of it. She was also
3:43
Speaker 1: desperate for help around the properties that she and her
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Speaker 1: husband had owned together. So that same night, she actually
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Speaker 1: let Carl move into the cliff. And once Carl moved in,
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Speaker 1: he and Anne began a somewhat unconventional romance. Carl would
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Speaker 1: spend his days working to fix up the apartments inside
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Speaker 1: the cliff, and then he would spend his nights with
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Speaker 1: Anne in her house. It was weird for both of
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Speaker 1: them to keep their relationship secret, but they both had
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Speaker 1: their reasons. For Carl, I mean, he was just afraid
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Speaker 1: of being arrested. if anybody knew where he was. I mean,
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Speaker 1: he was on the run. And for Anne, she felt
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Speaker 1: like her family and friends expected her to be a
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Speaker 1: grieving widow basically forever. So she didn't want to look
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Speaker 1: like she basically immediately moved on from her dead husband. Now,
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Speaker 1: at some point, the two of them hoped that Anne
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Speaker 1: could sell her properties and that they could move far
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Speaker 1: away together and start over. But they both knew that
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Speaker 1: was easier said than done because Carl would first have
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Speaker 1: to figure out a way to leave the country and
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Speaker 1: without getting arrested. Now, Carl watched as Anne and her
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Speaker 1: sons made their way back across the street, and he
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Speaker 1: went back to reading his spy novel. And as he
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Speaker 1: read the story, he made mental notes about the plotline
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Speaker 1: and the main character, because Carl was actually working on
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Speaker 1: a plan that maybe would allow him and Anne to
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Speaker 1: start their new life together. He was actually using all
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Speaker 1: of these spy novels basically as inspiration for this plan.
5:05
Speaker 1: He actually smiled to himself as he thought about how
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Speaker 1: brilliant he was being. And he pictured that someday in
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Speaker 1: the future, an author would likely write a spy novel
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Speaker 1: about him. It would take another two years for Carl
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Speaker 1: to finally work out his plan. But finally, one morning
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Speaker 1: in July of 2006, he was ready to put it
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Speaker 1: all into action. On this morning, he walked through the
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Speaker 1: airport near Seton Carew, trying to act casual as he
5:31
Speaker 1: approached the ticket encounter. He handed his passport to the
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Speaker 1: gate agent and then glanced over his shoulder and Looking
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Speaker 1: back to where Anne was, she was standing at the
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Speaker 1: back of the line. She met his eyes, but then
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Speaker 1: quickly sort of looked away because they had agreed to
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Speaker 1: pretend they didn't know each other. When Carl turned back around,
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Speaker 1: he saw the ticketing agent was now staring intently at
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Speaker 1: his passport, and he felt his heart rate begin to
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Speaker 1: pick up. So this passport that Carl was using was
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Speaker 1: a fake. He had created a new identity for himself
6:00
Speaker 1: using the birth and death records of a baby that
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Speaker 1: had been born in the same year as him. which
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Speaker 1: was an idea from the spy novel The Day of
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Speaker 1: the Jackal, about an assassin who constantly changes identities. And
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Speaker 1: if it worked, he and Anne would be able to
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Speaker 1: travel to Panama in Central America. Carl's plan was he
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Speaker 1: was going to stay there permanently if he got to Panama,
6:20
Speaker 1: and he hoped that Anne would love it enough that
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Speaker 1: she would eventually move there too. Carl had read a
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Speaker 1: brochure on Panama that called it a place for schemers, dreamers,
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Speaker 1: and nutcases, which already made him feel right at home.
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Speaker 1: Plus the country was really cheap compared to the UK
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Speaker 1: and far away from anyone who knew them. So we
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Speaker 1: thought this was like the perfect place for them to
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Speaker 1: move to. But all of that depended on this fake
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Speaker 1: passport being convincing enough that the ticketing agent didn't say anything.
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Speaker 1: And finally, after what felt like a very long time,
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Speaker 1: the agent looked up from the passport and smiled and
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Speaker 1: handed it back to Carl along with his ticket. Carl
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Speaker 1: had to physically stop himself from literally sighing with relief
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Speaker 1: when this happened. And instead, he just, you know, as
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Speaker 1: casually as he could thanked the agent. And as he
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Speaker 1: walked off, he turned and he sort of winked at Anne,
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Speaker 1: who was still in line. After decades of reading about
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Speaker 1: international spies, Carl kind of felt like one himself. And
7:17
Speaker 1: he liked this feeling a lot. And soon, he would
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Speaker 1: be living permanently as John Jones, an international man of mystery.
7:26
Speaker 1: A few days later, Carl sat beside Anne in the
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Speaker 1: back of a Jeep, as a real estate agent drove
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Speaker 1: them through the Panamanian countryside. They sped along the highway
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Speaker 1: into the jungle, and as they did, Carl felt more
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Speaker 1: alive than he had in years. They came around a
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Speaker 1: bend in the road, and suddenly they were driving along
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Speaker 1: a sandy beach, and the realtor pulled over and said
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Speaker 1: to get out and take a look and see if
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Speaker 1: this plot of land felt like it could be their
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Speaker 1: new home. So Carl figured that once Ann sold the
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Speaker 1: cliff apartment building that she owned and combined that money
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Speaker 1: with the money Ann had inherited from her husband's life
7:57
Speaker 1: insurance policies... they'd have around 600,000 pounds in savings, which
8:02
Speaker 1: was around 800,000 American dollars. Now, that was more than
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Speaker 1: enough money to get set up. But they were going
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Speaker 1: to need some kind of income in Panama as well.
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Speaker 1: And Carl wanted to buy this land in particular in
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Speaker 1: the jungle and use it to open up an eco-lodge resort.
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Speaker 1: Eco-lodges were becoming really popular in Central America, and tourists
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Speaker 1: paid a lot of money to stay in beachside cabins
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Speaker 1: for a week and go canoeing and horseback riding and
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Speaker 1: jungle trekking. Carl also wanted to build a villa on
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Speaker 1: the property for just him and Anne, right there on
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Speaker 1: the beach. So he led Anne down to the edge
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Speaker 1: of the water and pointed to the tree line on
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Speaker 1: the other side of the bay, and he told her
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Speaker 1: to imagine a row of cabins and a dock for
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Speaker 1: a bunch of canoes and a path that led to
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Speaker 1: a horse stable. And then he pointed to the opposite
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Speaker 1: side of the bay and told her to imagine a
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Speaker 1: beautiful seaside villa where the two of them would live.
8:51
Speaker 1: Anne kicked off her sandals and walked into the water,
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Speaker 1: and Carl could tell that she was picturing what their
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Speaker 1: lives might look like here. To Carl, it was like
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Speaker 1: years of careful planning were finally paying off. I mean,
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Speaker 1: this had been like the best week of his relationship
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Speaker 1: with Anne ever. They had finally been able to act
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Speaker 1: like a normal couple for the first time. They had
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Speaker 1: gone out in public to dinner every night together and
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Speaker 1: walked down the street holding hands. Carl loved living as
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Speaker 1: John Jones. He felt free. And weirdly enough, despite the
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Speaker 1: fact that his identity was fake, he felt like his
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Speaker 1: old self again. The way he He used to feel
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Speaker 1: before he got tangled up with all of his debt.
9:29
Speaker 1: By the time they got back to the realtor's office
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Speaker 1: that afternoon, Anne said that she was completely taken with
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Speaker 1: Panama and that, yes, she did want to move here
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Speaker 1: with Carl and that when she got back to England,
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Speaker 1: she would get her affairs in order and get ready
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Speaker 1: for this big move. Carl beamed and their realtor grabbed
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Speaker 1: a camera and took a picture of the three of
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Speaker 1: them to commemorate the moment that they had decided to
9:50
Speaker 1: change their lives forever. Hey guys, I have some pretty
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Speaker 1: you at the show. It took another full year for
11:10
Speaker 1: Anne to sell her properties in Seton Carew and to
11:13
Speaker 1: tell her family that she was moving to Panama, of
11:15
Speaker 1: all places. They'd all been shocked at first, but eventually
11:19
Speaker 1: they started to understand that she really needed to get
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Speaker 1: away from England and all the unhappy memories of her
11:25
Speaker 1: old life. Shortly afterwards, Carl bought a condominium in Panama
11:28
Speaker 1: City so that he and Anne would have a place
11:31
Speaker 1: to live while they built their resort. And then finally,
11:34
Speaker 1: on October 22nd, 2007, Anne moved to Panama permanently. However,
11:40
Speaker 1: when Carl picked her up at the airport that night
11:42
Speaker 1: and drove her to their new home, he had to
11:45
Speaker 1: fake a smile because he had recently discovered some news
11:48
Speaker 1: that that was going to throw their new life into jeopardy.
11:52
Speaker 1: And so he gave Anne a quick tour of the
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Speaker 1: penthouse apartment, and then he asked her to take a
11:56
Speaker 1: seat at the kitchen table. And immediately, Anne sensed something
12:00
Speaker 1: was off and looked very worried. Carl took a deep breath,
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Speaker 1: and then he told Anne that he was really excited
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Speaker 1: to build their resort together. But there was one last
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Speaker 1: unexpected obstacle standing in the way of their dreams. He
12:13
Speaker 1: said he had only learned about this obstacle a few
12:15
Speaker 1: weeks ago, and he had been waiting for the right
12:17
Speaker 1: moment for them to talk about He had just found
12:19
Speaker 1: out that the Panamanian government had instituted new procedures for
12:24
Speaker 1: anyone moving to Panama from another country. And now, English
12:28
Speaker 1: citizens needed to present a Certificate of Good Conduct from
12:33
Speaker 1: the British police to prove they had no criminal record. Now,
12:38
Speaker 1: this was no problem for Anne, but it was a
12:41
Speaker 1: huge problem for Carl, because he was living in Panama
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Speaker 1: as John Jones. So if the police looked into his identity,
12:49
Speaker 1: they would quickly learn that John Jones was a fake identity.
12:52
Speaker 1: Anne put her head in her hands and just said,
12:55
Speaker 1: what are we going to do? And Carl said he
12:57
Speaker 1: didn't have an answer yet, but he promised he would
13:00
Speaker 1: figure something out. The next morning, Carl walked with Anne
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Speaker 1: as they window shopped on a busy street in Panama City.
13:07
Speaker 1: And Carl thought about ways that he could get around
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Speaker 1: this awful new procedure. He didn't want to live in
13:11
Speaker 1: this country illegally because he was done hiding. I mean,
13:14
Speaker 1: the whole point of coming here to Panama... was so
13:17
Speaker 1: that he and Anne could live together out in the open.
13:19
Speaker 1: He followed Anne into an old vintage shop so that
13:22
Speaker 1: she could look at furniture. And as he wandered around
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Speaker 1: the shop, he came across a bookshelf full of old books,
13:28
Speaker 1: including a few spy novels. Now, all the books were
13:30
Speaker 1: in Spanish, so he couldn't understand any of them, but
13:33
Speaker 1: he still picked one up and began flipping through it,
13:36
Speaker 1: hoping that maybe it would inspire him. And as he
13:38
Speaker 1: did this, he did feel inspired, but it was not
13:41
Speaker 1: by this book. He remembered the plotline of a different
13:44
Speaker 1: spy novel that he had read over a decade earlier.
13:48
Speaker 1: Even when he had been reading the novel at the time,
13:50
Speaker 1: he had thought that that plotline was too crazy to
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Speaker 1: work in real life. But as they walked around that afternoon,
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Speaker 1: Carl kept coming back to that idea, that plotline, and
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Speaker 1: started to see how he might be able to make
14:02
Speaker 1: that work. Finally, at dinner that night, Carl told Anne
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Speaker 1: that he was pretty sure he knew how to solve
14:08
Speaker 1: their visa problem once and for all. He warned her
14:11
Speaker 1: that the idea was risky, but he was confident that
14:14
Speaker 1: he could pull it off. Six weeks later, on the
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Speaker 1: afternoon of Sunday, December 2nd, 2007, Carl was back in
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Speaker 1: the United Kingdom, wandering around the West End of London.
14:26
Speaker 1: He did his best to look very confused as he
14:28
Speaker 1: walked through Christmas displays and waited until a store clerk
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Speaker 1: came over to ask if he was okay. And Carl
14:34
Speaker 1: gave her a sort of shy smile and then asked,
14:37
Speaker 1: why are all the Christmas decorations up? And when she said,
14:41
Speaker 1: It was December. You know, it's Christmas. That's why. He
14:44
Speaker 1: pretended to be confused about what day it was and
14:46
Speaker 1: where he was. And then he asked the clerk for
14:48
Speaker 1: some help. And just like he had hoped, the store
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Speaker 1: clerk frowned with concern and then escorted him into the
14:54
Speaker 1: nearest police station. And she told the officer at the
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Speaker 1: front desk that something was really wrong with this guy.
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Speaker 1: The officer smiled at Carl and asked what the problem was.
15:04
Speaker 1: And now Carl knew that for his plan to work,
15:08
Speaker 1: he was going to have to give an award-winning acting
15:10
Speaker 1: performance here. So he kind of scratched at his head
15:13
Speaker 1: and then told the officer that he had lost his
15:16
Speaker 1: whole family. The officer sat up and asked for his name.
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Speaker 1: And for the first time in two years, Carl didn't
15:23
Speaker 1: say John Jones. Instead, he gave the officer his real name.
15:30
Speaker 1: Because Carl had realized that the only way to truly
15:33
Speaker 1: feel like his old self in Panama was was to
15:36
Speaker 1: actually become his old self and reclaim the old identity
15:40
Speaker 1: that he had left behind. But to reclaim this identity
15:44
Speaker 1: without also reclaiming all his old dead and legal problems
15:48
Speaker 1: was going to require one more huge lie. So Carl
15:53
Speaker 1: explained to the police officer that he knew his name,
15:56
Speaker 1: but nothing else about himself, because he said he had amnesia.
16:01
Speaker 1: The officer just stared at Carl, obviously dumbfounded. Then he
16:04
Speaker 1: turned and called for a supervisor. From this moment onward,
16:08
Speaker 1: things moved fast, but not in the direction that Carl
16:12
Speaker 1: or anyone else had expected. Carl had believed that if
16:15
Speaker 1: he just claimed he had amnesia, it'd be like wiping
16:18
Speaker 1: the slate clean in England. He could just resume his
16:21
Speaker 1: old name and his old life and make a plan
16:24
Speaker 1: to pay back his creditors now that he was in
16:26
Speaker 1: a better financial situation with the eco-lodge. And he'd be
16:29
Speaker 1: able to get a real passport with his real name
16:32
Speaker 1: and live happily and truly openly in Panama. But this
16:35
Speaker 1: was not what happened. Because almost immediately, newspapers caught wind
16:39
Speaker 1: of Carl's story. And it made the front page. Because
16:43
Speaker 1: to the rest of the world, Carl had this incredible story.
16:47
Speaker 1: He had supposedly spent years wandering around as a homeless person,
16:52
Speaker 1: never knowing his true identity. And so almost overnight, Carl
16:57
Speaker 1: became big-time international news. The entire world wanted to know,
17:03
Speaker 1: where had he been? the past few years. Now, Carl
17:07
Speaker 1: had not expected any of this publicity. So he and
17:11
Speaker 1: Anne were both horrified when two days later, a British
17:15
Speaker 1: newspaper published a photograph from an obscure real estate website.
17:20
Speaker 1: And in this picture, Carl can be seen standing with
17:24
Speaker 1: Anne and their realtor and beaming with happiness after a
17:27
Speaker 1: day of viewing properties in Panama. And this photograph was Very,
17:33
Speaker 1: very bad for Carl because it proved that he had
17:36
Speaker 1: not been wandering around homeless with amnesia in the UK
17:40
Speaker 1: like he had said to police. But this photo was
17:43
Speaker 1: really bad, really the worst for Anne because it proved
17:48
Speaker 1: something more shocking and more terrible than regular old financial fraud.
17:53
Speaker 1: This photo revealed a story so outlandish that it sounds
17:57
Speaker 1: like it must have come directly out of a fictional
18:00
Speaker 1: spy novel. Because it would turn out, Anne was not
18:04
Speaker 1: the grieving widow she pretended to be. And her handyman boyfriend,
18:08
Speaker 1: Carl Fenwick, was not Carl Fenwick. Carl's real name, the
18:13
Speaker 1: one he had given that police officer in the UK
18:15
Speaker 1: when he pretended to have amnesia, was John Darwin. He
18:19
Speaker 1: was Anne Darwin's dead husband. He and Anne had faked
18:24
Speaker 1: his death in that kayaking accident to escape his debt,
18:28
Speaker 1: and so that he and Anne could claim life insurance money.
18:32
Speaker 1: Not even their own kids knew that their father was
18:35
Speaker 1: still alive. Only Anne and obviously John did. John and
18:40
Speaker 1: Anne were both soon arrested for fraud and wound up
18:42
Speaker 1: serving more than three years in prison. John's very unhappy
18:46
Speaker 1: ending does in some ways mirror the ending of the
18:49
Speaker 1: very book, The Day of the Jackal, which he used
18:52
Speaker 1: for inspiration. In that book, the assassin does lots of
18:57
Speaker 1: impressive things to change his identity, but in the end,
19:01
Speaker 1: he still gets caught. Today's second and final story is
19:20
Speaker 1: about a man who makes an unforgivable mistake and pays
19:24
Speaker 1: dearly for it. At around noon on October 9th, 2018,
19:28
Speaker 1: a 52-year-old Russian engineer named Oleg Belogasov sat in the
19:33
Speaker 1: common room of a tiny research station on a remote
19:36
Speaker 1: island in Antarctica. The common room was like the general
19:39
Speaker 1: hangout multi-purpose area at the station, and Oleg was in
19:42
Speaker 1: there watching TV while his co-worker, Sergei, sat in a
19:46
Speaker 1: chair nearby reading a book. They were both drinking alcohol.
19:50
Speaker 1: and had been for some time, because when they weren't working,
19:53
Speaker 1: there really was not much else to do besides sit
19:56
Speaker 1: around and drink. So Oleg had been at the station
19:59
Speaker 1: for about six months. He was part of a 14-person
20:02
Speaker 1: crew that was doing a year-round research stint, observing the
20:06
Speaker 1: island's ocean and weather patterns and and collecting data for
20:09
Speaker 1: their home country of Russia. Oleg was primarily in charge
20:12
Speaker 1: of maintaining the station's machinery and equipment, which took up
20:15
Speaker 1: most of his time. But there was still quite a
20:18
Speaker 1: bit of downtime, which Oleg spent inside, because being outside
20:23
Speaker 1: in Antarctica was generally pretty dangerous. There were hundreds of
20:27
Speaker 1: these lethal, deep ice crevasses that you could barely see
20:30
Speaker 1: that if you fell into, you're dead, couldn't get out again,
20:33
Speaker 1: or the fall alone would kill you. Obviously, freezing temperatures,
20:36
Speaker 1: there's lethal, violent blizzards. I mean, this is not a
20:40
Speaker 1: place built for people. So Oleg and his co-workers really
20:44
Speaker 1: only went outside when their work required it. Otherwise, they
20:47
Speaker 1: stayed put. But inside any of the various buildings at
20:51
Speaker 1: the station, their entertainment options were limited. I mean, there
20:54
Speaker 1: was just this two-channel TV set, there was a small gym,
20:58
Speaker 1: there was a nearby church, and there was a library.
21:02
Speaker 1: And at this point, Oleg was pretty much sick of everything.
21:05
Speaker 1: I mean, he was even tired of the library. And
21:08
Speaker 1: he loved to read. But the library was really small
21:11
Speaker 1: and he basically read pretty much all the books that
21:14
Speaker 1: were in there. His colleague, Sergei, who was sitting right
21:16
Speaker 1: next to him, he loved reading too. And books were
21:19
Speaker 1: something they both spent a lot of time talking about.
21:21
Speaker 1: So since Oleg wasn't finding anything good to watch on
21:24
Speaker 1: TV and was feeling bored and kind of stir crazy,
21:27
Speaker 1: he decided to see if Sergei wanted to get into
21:30
Speaker 1: one of their deep literary conversations. And so Oleg turned
21:33
Speaker 1: off the TV and tossed the remote into the chair
21:36
Speaker 1: and took a swig of his drink And then he
21:38
Speaker 1: glanced over to the corner where Sergei was reading the
21:41
Speaker 1: novel Fight Club. Oleg had already read Fight Club. It
21:44
Speaker 1: was about this depressed man with insomnia who meets a
21:47
Speaker 1: charismatic stranger and starts this secret club where people literally
21:50
Speaker 1: fight each other. Oleg thought the book was amazing, mostly
21:54
Speaker 1: because it had an epic plot twist at the end.
21:57
Speaker 1: And so Oleg walked over and asked what Sergei thought
22:00
Speaker 1: of the book so far. But Sergei just kind of
22:03
Speaker 1: ignored him. But Oleg wasn't surprised. He knew Sergei really well,
22:07
Speaker 1: since the two of them had worked very closely together
22:10
Speaker 1: on various research projects over the years. So he knew
22:13
Speaker 1: Sergei was generally a very quiet person and not a
22:16
Speaker 1: big talker. Whereas Oleg loved getting into big, long, passionate discussions.
22:21
Speaker 1: Sometimes Oleg could get Sergei to open up by asking
22:25
Speaker 1: questions and telling jokes. But today did not seem to
22:28
Speaker 1: be one of those days. Now, this was definitely frustrating
22:31
Speaker 1: for Oleg, but you could tell, you know, Sergei wanted
22:33
Speaker 1: to be left alone. So he stood up and left
22:36
Speaker 1: to go find something else to do. Oleg spent some
22:38
Speaker 1: time just kind of wandering around the station, checking research
22:42
Speaker 1: logs and sipping his drink. He thought about going outside
22:45
Speaker 1: just for a minute to get some fresh air. But
22:47
Speaker 1: when he checked the temperature, he saw that it was
22:50
Speaker 1: below freezing. So he decided against it. And so after
22:53
Speaker 1: three hours of trying to kill time, Oleg finally just
22:56
Speaker 1: headed to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat.
22:59
Speaker 1: It was around 3 p.m. when Oleg stepped into the
23:01
Speaker 1: dining room, feeling a bit flushed from all the booze
23:04
Speaker 1: he'd been drinking. And the first thing he saw when
23:07
Speaker 1: he got inside of there was Sergei. And Sergei was
23:09
Speaker 1: at a table still reading Fight Club, just like he'd
23:12
Speaker 1: been doing earlier in the common room. So Oleg got
23:15
Speaker 1: some food and went over to sit with Sergei and
23:18
Speaker 1: see if now maybe he was more open to chatting.
23:21
Speaker 1: And to his surprise, Sergei was. When Oleg sat down,
23:25
Speaker 1: Sergei put his book down and looked up, ready to talk.
23:28
Speaker 1: Possibly because he'd also had a lot to drink and
23:31
Speaker 1: was feeling kind of chatty. And so the two men
23:33
Speaker 1: began discussing the book, Fight Club. And quickly, their conversation
23:37
Speaker 1: got really energetic because they were both drunk and excited
23:41
Speaker 1: about what they were saying. And then Oleg made what
23:45
Speaker 1: he thought was a fantastic point about the book and
23:49
Speaker 1: what it all meant. To Oleg, it seemed like everything
23:53
Speaker 1: was going great. But all of a sudden, after making
23:56
Speaker 1: this point, Oleg noticed that Sergei had gone really quiet.
24:02
Speaker 1: And Oleg, who could read Sergei well by this point,
24:05
Speaker 1: knew what this meant. Sergei was done talking and wanted
24:07
Speaker 1: some space. So Oleg looked down at his watch. He
24:11
Speaker 1: actually did need to get some more work done before
24:13
Speaker 1: the day was over. And he was about to look
24:15
Speaker 1: up and tell Sergei that he was going to go
24:17
Speaker 1: leave and check one of their weather instruments. But when
24:20
Speaker 1: he looked up from his watch, Sergei was gone. And
24:24
Speaker 1: at that same exact moment, a wild scream cut through
24:29
Speaker 1: the air right behind Oleg. A few minutes later in
24:33
Speaker 1: another building, The research station's manager was in his office
24:37
Speaker 1: going through some paperwork when his door suddenly flew open.
24:40
Speaker 1: And when the manager looked up, he saw that one
24:43
Speaker 1: of his employees was standing in the doorway looking completely panicked.
24:46
Speaker 1: The employee's eyes were wide and his breath was ragged
24:50
Speaker 1: like he was in shock. And when the employee explained
24:53
Speaker 1: why he was so upset, the manager shot to his
24:56
Speaker 1: feet and told the employee not to move. He then
24:59
Speaker 1: grabbed his coat and flew out the door into the
25:01
Speaker 1: freezing cold. The manager pulled on his coat as he
25:04
Speaker 1: ran across the ice-packed ground to the building where the
25:07
Speaker 1: cafeteria was. And the whole way he just felt his
25:10
Speaker 1: panic growing and growing because what that employee had just
25:13
Speaker 1: said had never happened. ever happened at their research station before.
25:18
Speaker 1: He wasn't even sure if it had happened in the
25:20
Speaker 1: entire continent of Antarctica before. When the manager finally got
25:24
Speaker 1: to the cafeteria, he flung the door open and looked inside,
25:28
Speaker 1: and immediately he felt sick to his stomach. It would
25:31
Speaker 1: turn out Oleg and Sergei had been co-workers for a long,
25:37
Speaker 1: long time, and they did know each other really well.
25:40
Speaker 1: And what that meant was they knew each other so
25:43
Speaker 1: well that that Oleg had sort of learned what specifically
25:48
Speaker 1: really annoyed Sergei. And Oleg used this knowledge whenever he
25:53
Speaker 1: got bored and wanted to find a way to entertain himself.
25:57
Speaker 1: The way Oleg would intentionally upset Sergei was by violating
26:02
Speaker 1: a serious rule that virtually every human being knows not
26:06
Speaker 1: to violate. Even if you've never heard the rule explicitly,
26:10
Speaker 1: you know you don't do this. Every time Sergei would
26:13
Speaker 1: start a new book, Oleg would wait until he got
26:17
Speaker 1: about halfway through and then tell him the ending. This
26:21
Speaker 1: was not just a one-time thing. Whenever they talked about books,
26:25
Speaker 1: Oleg repeatedly ruined them for Sergei. which always made Sergei really,
26:31
Speaker 1: really mad. And that day in the cafeteria, when Oleg
26:34
Speaker 1: sat down with Sergei, he didn't just make a great
26:37
Speaker 1: point about Fight Club. He told Sergei how it ended.
26:40
Speaker 1: And don't worry, if you haven't read it or you
26:42
Speaker 1: haven't seen the movie, we are not going to ruin
26:44
Speaker 1: the twist for you because it is amazing. You should
26:46
Speaker 1: check it out. But Oleg did. And Sergei was very drunk.
26:51
Speaker 1: And like Oleg, he had also been very restless and
26:53
Speaker 1: tense from having been cooped up in this isolated station
26:57
Speaker 1: for months on end. And so this time, when Oleg
27:00
Speaker 1: told him the ending, Sergei completely snapped. He grabbed the
27:05
Speaker 1: knife from the kitchen, walked behind Oleg, and began repeatedly
27:10
Speaker 1: stabbing him in the chest while allegedly screaming, didn't see
27:14
Speaker 1: that coming, did ya? Once Sergei calmed down, he was
27:18
Speaker 1: so shocked by what he'd done that he immediately turned
27:21
Speaker 1: himself in to the station's manager. He was then transported
27:25
Speaker 1: back to Russia and and rested, but he was eventually
27:28
Speaker 1: acquitted since he had no previous record. Oleg's heart was
27:31
Speaker 1: damaged in the attack, but amazingly he would survive after
27:35
Speaker 1: being transported to a hospital. Thank you so much for
27:43
Speaker 1: watching today's episode. Let me know what you thought of
27:45
Speaker 1: it in the comments below. And remember, we have a
27:48
Speaker 1: whole playlist of Places You Can't Go episodes ready for
27:51
Speaker 1: you to binge right now. So go ahead and click
27:54
Speaker 1: here and give them a watch. All right, until next time,
27:57
Speaker 1: see ya.