Latest / Crime and Horror / They were awake the WHOLE TIME - MrBallen

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They were awake the WHOLE TIME - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you two stories about people
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: who basically unknowingly risked everything just to travel to their
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: dream locations. And they didn't realize they were in danger
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: until it was already too late. But before we get
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: the right place because that's all we do and we
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• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that's of interest to you, please promise the like button
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a luxurious trip to Paris and but don't tell them
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: you're sending them to Paris, Texas. Also, please subscribe to
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  Speaker 1: miss any of our uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: On the morning of Monday, January 7th, 1985, a 31-year-old
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: man arrived at an international airport in order to board
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: his flight to the United States. The man was very nervous.
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  Speaker 1: His heart was beating fast and his palms were sweating
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  Speaker 1: so much that he could barely hold the handles of
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: his very heavy tan-colored suitcase. And the reason he was
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: so nervous is because he was feeling very conflicted about
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: what he was about to do. On the one hand,
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  Speaker 1: this trip was something he'd been dreaming of for months.
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  Speaker 1: And it was supposed to represent the start of a
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  Speaker 1: great brand new life. Now, this man hadn't actually packed
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: very many personal items to take with him. But one
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  Speaker 1: thing he had brought was a little bound book full
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: of photographs, which showed what mattered the most to him.
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  Speaker 1: And what mattered the most was waiting for him in America.
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  Speaker 1: But on the other hand, the man was terrified. Because
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: before he could begin this brand new life, he had
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a huge problem he needed to take care of. And
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  Speaker 1: that problem was why he needed to drop off his
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: very heavy suitcase and without anybody looking inside of it.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: And so now, inside the airport, the very nervous man
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: stopped and readjusted his grip on the suitcase handles and
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: then made his way over to the ticketing area where
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: he would check his bag for his almost 11-hour flight
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  Speaker 1: to California. And then, you know, once he touched down
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  Speaker 1: and they landed in California, he could get off the plane,
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  Speaker 1: go to the baggage carousel and get his luggage, and
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: then everything would be fine. Now, of course, he knew
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: this was a big gamble. If it had been possible,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: he would have just brought this bag with him on
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  Speaker 1: the plane to stow it in the overhead bin, but
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: he just couldn't do it because the bag was too big,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: too heavy. And so really his only other choice, if
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: he wanted the suitcase to make it to California, was
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  Speaker 1: to check it like he was doing because the alternative
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  Speaker 1: was leaving it behind and there was no way he
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: was going to do that. He cared far too much
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: about what was inside of this luggage. And so by
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  Speaker 1: the time the man actually got in line in the
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  Speaker 1: ticketing and baggage check area, He was so stressed out
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: that he was beginning to feel physically ill. By the
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  Speaker 1: time he got to the front of the line, he
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  Speaker 1: still felt very sick, but he composed himself enough that
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  Speaker 1: he walked up to the counter of the airline he
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  Speaker 1: was traveling with, which was Lufthansa Airline, and the employee
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: who was working behind the counter was very cheerful, and
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  Speaker 1: they greeted the man and took his passport to verify
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: his information. Then the employee put down the passport. and
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: then reached out his hand and gestured for the nervous
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: man to give him his very important suitcase. This was,
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  Speaker 1: of course, the moment the man had feared the most.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: You know, when everything could really go astray. But, as
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: calm as he could, he lifted up the suitcase, and
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: for a second he almost panicked because it was just
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: so obviously heavy. He realized the employee might make him
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: open it right there because it just seemed wrong that
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: this suitcase was that heavy. And he knew if that happened,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: he was done for. He'd be arrested immediately. But instead,
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  Speaker 1: the employee just dragged the heavy suitcase over to a
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  Speaker 1: conveyor belt behind the counter and the nervous man watched
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  Speaker 1: as the employee heaved the suitcase onto the belt and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: the man kept his eyes locked on the suitcase as
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  Speaker 1: it rolled down the belt and then disappeared through a
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: pair of rubber flaps at the very end. He was
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: so focused on the bag, he almost didn't notice the
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  Speaker 1: airline employee returning to try to hand him his boarding
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  Speaker 1: pass for the plane. Finally, the employee literally just waved
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  Speaker 1: the ticket in the man's face to get his attention
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  Speaker 1: and It kind of snapped him out of it, and
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: he took the boarding pass, and as calmly as he could,
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  Speaker 1: he thanked the employee, and then he turned and hurried
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: off to catch his flight. About 12 hours later, on
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  Speaker 1: the other side of the world, another employee of Lutonza
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  Speaker 1: Airlines walked around the baggage claim area at Los Angeles
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: International Airport, which is typically just called LAX. It was
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  Speaker 1: about 2 p.m. Los Angeles time. and the employee was
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  Speaker 1: working in the international terminal. It was his job to
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  Speaker 1: monitor the circular carousels where passengers picked up their luggage
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  Speaker 1: after their flights, and his job was to make sure
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: no bags were left behind. And as he was making
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  Speaker 1: one of these loops, he noticed there was a tan-colored
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  Speaker 1: suitcase with soft sides sitting all alone on one of
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  Speaker 1: the carousels. The employee stopped and checked the monitor above
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  Speaker 1: the carousel to see the last time this carousel had
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: been used by an incoming plane, and it was quite
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  Speaker 1: a while ago. And all the passengers clearly had come
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  Speaker 1: through and picked up their luggage, except for this one
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  Speaker 1: lone bag. So, based on the timing, the employee figured that, well,
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  Speaker 1: this bag must be unclaimed. But this was not remotely
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: concerning to him. I mean, luggage went unclaimed all the time.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes because bags were sent to the wrong airport, or
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  Speaker 1: because the suitcase's owner missed their flight, or even just
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  Speaker 1: forgot to get it. But whatever the reason was, it
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  Speaker 1: was this employee's job to simply start the process again.
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  Speaker 1: of identifying the owner of the suitcase. So like he
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  Speaker 1: always did, he walked over to the carousel and grabbed
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  Speaker 1: the suitcase handle and went to pick it up. But
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  Speaker 1: when he did, he let out a sort of surprised
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  Speaker 1: grunt and stumbled because the suitcase was so much heavier
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  Speaker 1: than he had expected. So he went back and he
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  Speaker 1: grabbed the handle with a better grip this time with
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  Speaker 1: two hands and braced himself and yanked and the suitcase
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  Speaker 1: kind of toppled over and fell off the carousel onto
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  Speaker 1: the floor. And this was also around the time that
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  Speaker 1: the employee noticed that this really heavy suitcase had no
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  Speaker 1: tags on it. And so now this bag did seem
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  Speaker 1: very unusual. The extreme weight and no tags, like that's
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  Speaker 1: not normal. So he knelt down and he began to
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  Speaker 1: unzip the suitcase to see what was inside. He was
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  Speaker 1: legally allowed to do this because unclaimed bags at airports
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  Speaker 1: are subject to search. But he had only unzipped it
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  Speaker 1: a little bit before he froze. And for a second,
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  Speaker 1: he just stared in shock at what was inside of
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  Speaker 1: the suitcase. But then he immediately got to his feet,
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  Speaker 1: just left the bag there, and ran to go find
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  Speaker 1: a phone to call the police. A little less than
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  Speaker 1: two hours later, around 3.45 p.m., Detective Don Ravens of
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  Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Division stood in the
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  Speaker 1: baggage area of LAX's International Terminal, looking down grimly into
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  Speaker 1: the tan suitcase that was lying open on the floor.
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  Speaker 1: He was surrounded by officials from the LAPD, as well
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  Speaker 1: as the FBI, who had all been called to the
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  Speaker 1: airport because of what was found inside of the suitcase.
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  Speaker 1: the dead body of a young woman. Detective Ravens was shocked.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: He guessed this woman was maybe less than 30 years old,
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  Speaker 1: and judging by her features and dark hair, he thought
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  Speaker 1: she could be from an Asian or Latin American country.
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  Speaker 1: But that was about as far as he could get,
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  Speaker 1: since she didn't have any identification with her, and there
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  Speaker 1: were no tags on the back. There were also no
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  Speaker 1: obvious wounds on her body, so he couldn't immediately tell
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  Speaker 1: how she died. Ravens spent some time speaking to airline
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  Speaker 1: and airport employees, including Customs, which is the government agency
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  Speaker 1: that's in charge of inspecting bags that are coming in
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  Speaker 1: and out of the country. And he was puzzled as
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  Speaker 1: to how a suitcase with a body inside of it
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  Speaker 1: had somehow cleared customs. But an agent explained that they
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  Speaker 1: didn't actually open up all the suitcases, which meant whoever
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  Speaker 1: checked this bag through customs had taken a huge risk
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  Speaker 1: because realistically, they could have been searched and then the
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  Speaker 1: body would have been found. So this suggested a certain
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  Speaker 1: level of desperation. But apparently, this risk this person took
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  Speaker 1: to check the bag had paid off because... The bag
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  Speaker 1: had gone all the way to California. But despite that,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you know, Ravens didn't find much to go on here.
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  Speaker 1: At this moment, the victim was a Jane Doe, which
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  Speaker 1: meant there was no identification for her. And Ravens knew
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  Speaker 1: she could really be from anywhere in the world, despite,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: you know, his snap judgment that perhaps she was from
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  Speaker 1: an Asian or Latin American country. And because LAX was
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  Speaker 1: an international airport, you know, whoever checked this bag and
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  Speaker 1: potentially even put her into the suitcase could now be
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  Speaker 1: anywhere in the world too. Once Detective Ravens and the
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  Speaker 1: other investigators had finished examining the body, as it was
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  Speaker 1: found inside of the suitcase, they didn't actually pull her
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  Speaker 1: body out, they sent the suitcase and her body to
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  Speaker 1: the coroner. Hopefully, an autopsy would turn up evidence that
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  Speaker 1: could tell Ravens and the other investigators who this Jane
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  Speaker 1: Doe was and what happened to her. The following day,
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  Speaker 1: on Tuesday, Ravens sat down at his desk, And he
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  Speaker 1: opened up a manila folder he had been given. Inside
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  Speaker 1: of it was his Jane Doe's autopsy report. And when
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  Speaker 1: the detective began reading it, he couldn't help but feel sick.
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  Speaker 1: Because what he was reading told him that this poor
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  Speaker 1: woman had died a horrible, torturous death. The report said
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  Speaker 1: the woman had bruises all over her body, like the
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  Speaker 1: kind you would get from repeated heavy blows delivered over
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  Speaker 1: a period of at least several hours while she was
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: still alive. And her actual eventual cause of death was
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: ultimately suffocation. which meant she either was suffocated and then
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  Speaker 1: put into the suitcase or was in the suitcase, trapped
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  Speaker 1: inside of there and suffocated. Ravens put down the report
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  Speaker 1: and leaned back in his chair and just sort of
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  Speaker 1: thought through what he had just learned. Based on the autopsy,
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  Speaker 1: he now knew this poor woman had died a brutal,
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  Speaker 1: awful death, but the coroner had not found any identifying
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  Speaker 1: information or anything on her that would give away or
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  Speaker 1: help to give away who she actually was. Or who
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  Speaker 1: did this to her? So really he had very little
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  Speaker 1: here other than knowing this lady suffered. Ravens had spent
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the last 24 hours pouring over all the surveillance footage
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  Speaker 1: from the airport security cameras, looking for any suspicious passengers
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  Speaker 1: leaving without any luggage, but nothing had jumped out at him.
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  Speaker 1: He'd also interviewed a bunch of airport employees who would
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: have been in the baggage claim area on the day
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  Speaker 1: the body was found. but none of them had noticed
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: anything strange either. And so, despite it only having been
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: one day since this woman was found, Ravens was already
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: worried that this case was going to go cold. But
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: what Ravens had not counted on was the huge amount
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of publicity his Jane Doe would generate. The TV news,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: as well as the newspapers, were reporting feverishly on the
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: body that was found in the LAX suitcase. And by Wednesday,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: so 48 hours after the body was found, the reporting
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: had made it all the way to Peru. where a
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: man named Juan Espinoza contacted authorities to report that the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: body might actually belong to his wife. Officials in Peru
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  Speaker 1: called the LAPD, and Juan's report ended up on Raven's desk.
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  Speaker 1: Raven's opened up that report and began reading. Juan and
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  Speaker 1: his wife lived in Peru's capital city of Lima, but
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  Speaker 1: his wife had been trying to leave Peru to escape poverty.
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  Speaker 1: She had left their home, hoping to basically sneak into
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the United States. so she could get a job there
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  Speaker 1: and then send money back to her family in Peru.
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  Speaker 1: She had promised Juan that she would contact him when
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: she arrived in America, but after she left, Juan said
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  Speaker 1: he never heard from her. This report felt like a
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: promising lead to Ravens. Juan and his wife checked a
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  Speaker 1: lot of boxes, especially because, you know, Ravens' Jane Doe
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: had features that indicated she could be from a South
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: American country like Peru. And so Ravens wondered if Juan's
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: wife had tried to get into America... by using a
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: human smuggler, which is someone who transports immigrants across borders illegally.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Human smuggling was obviously an unregulated industry, and Ravens knew
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: smugglers could be very violent or reckless, and the people
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: they were transporting often had no protection. Meaning, sometimes when
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: people would go to these smugglers to try to get
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: help to go to these other countries, sometimes the smuggler
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: wouldn't help them. They would just rob them, or in
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: some cases, rob them, and then kill them and dispose
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: of their body. And unfortunately, again, because there's no regulation
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: or oversight, a lot of times these horrible crimes would
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: just go unnoticed. And so maybe if that's what had
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: happened to Ravens Jane Doe, it would explain why the
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: tags were ripped off the suitcase. The smuggler who, you know,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: committed this crime would not have wanted to leave any
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: ID on or around the body that could be traced
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: back to them. And so Ravens picked up his phone
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: to call the LAX Airport Operations Manager and to see
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: if he could get the logs for any flights coming
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: from Peru to LAX on the day the body was found.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: And that was when he discovered there was a big
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: problem with this theory, because there were no flights from Peru.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: The only flights that day that used the luggage carousel
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: where the body was found were from Korea, Japan, and Germany.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: And there weren't any flights that originated in Peru that
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: had layovers in those countries either, which meant it just
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: wasn't possible that his Jane Doe was Juan's wife. And
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: so now, Ravens was stumped all over again. He had
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: almost no evidence to go on. All he really had
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: was the suitcase and the body. And the actual crime
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: scene itself was maybe somewhere in Korea or Japan or Germany.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And so Ravens really didn't have a good idea of
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: where he should begin looking for more evidence. But then,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: he got an idea. Detective Ravens got up from his
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: desk and headed straight to the evidence room. He put
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: on a pair of disposable gloves and he found the
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: box that contained evidence from Jane Doe's case and he
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: opened it up. And there really wasn't much. All that
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: was in there were pieces of jewelry and some clothing
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: that were found on the woman's body. And all of
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: it had already been examined for trace evidence like blood
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: or hair. However, blood and hair were not what Ravens
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: was looking for. One at a time, he lifted out
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: each of the sealed plastic bags that contained Jane Doe's
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: belongings until he got to her blue sweater. He took
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: the sweater out of the plastic... And he turned it
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: over in his hands and then checked inside the neckband.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: And there he found exactly what he was looking for. Immediately,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: he felt a rush of adrenaline. He was onto something here.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: And so he reached back into the box and he
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: grabbed another plastic bag with a pair of gray pants
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: in it. And he did the same thing. He looked
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: at the waistband. Then he opened a third bag and
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: he checked inside of her blouse. And each time, his
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: hunch had been right. Jane Doe's clothing had labels sewn
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: into them. And the labels were clearly written... in some
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: language that was not English. Ravens wasn't sure, but to him,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: he thought maybe the letters looked Middle Eastern. It didn't
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: take long for the FBI to help Ravens and the
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: LAPD identify the origin of Jane Doe's clothing. All of
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: it had been made in the Middle East, in Iran.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: This meant that finally, Detective Ravens had a likely country
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: of origin for his Jane Doe. But he also had
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: another problem now. Really, he had the same problem he'd
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: had when he thought his victim was from Peru. And
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: that was that there were only three international flights that
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: his Jane Doe could have been on. And none of
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: them originated in Iran. And there were no connecting flights
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: from Iran that day either. And so Ravens needed the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: public's help. On Thursday, so three days after the body
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: was found, he and another detective sat down with a
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: reporter from the city's newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, a
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: publication that's read all over the world. And Raven and
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: this other detective's goal was, you know, to give as
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: many updates as they could about the case. you know,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: hoping that somebody somewhere would read the story, recognize a detail,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and come forward. However, that's not really how the interview
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: played out. By the end of it, Ravens was feeling
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: pretty discouraged by all the questions he and his partner
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: just couldn't answer. In fact, the last thing he said
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: to the reporter, which ended up getting printed as the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: sort of last line of the story, the lasting impression,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: if you will, was, don't be too surprised if you
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: never find out where she came from or who she is.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: The next morning, Detective Ravens got to his office and
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: had barely taken off his coat when his phone rang.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: A police officer from Sacramento, California was on the other line,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and he sounded all worked up. He told Ravens that
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: he knew that, you know, the L.A. investigators had been
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: working on the airport Jane Doe case, and even though
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: it wasn't going anywhere, he knew it was a big
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: deal for them. But he told Ravens that he actually
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: had this unbelievable development in Northern California where, that was
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: connected to the airport Jane Doe case. He said authorities
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: in Northern California had just found another body. But when
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Ravens heard this, his first reaction was not excitement that
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: there was new evidence or something. It was confusion. He
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: didn't need another body. He needed to find his Jane
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Doe's name. And so he asked the Sacramento officer, you know,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: what he meant. Had they found another woman in another
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: suitcase or something? But the Sacramento officer said, no, the
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: body belonged to a man. And this guy's name had
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: never even been on police radar. He had died from
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: a gunshot wound, you know, 400 miles away from Ravens
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Jane Doe. But the officer said that the story they
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: had uncovered behind this new body would likely solve Ravens
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Jane Doe case. This is the story that the Sacramento
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: officer told Ravens. On the evening of Monday, January 7th,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: just a few hours after Jane Doe's body had been
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: found at LAX, A man named Hadi had picked up
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: his friend and roommate, a 31-year-old man named Mahmoud Ayazi,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: at the Sacramento airport, which is about 400 miles north
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of LAX. Hadi was excited to see Mahmoud, who had
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: been away for a few weeks. They were good friends,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: and Mahmoud was always very optimistic and fun to be around.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: But on this day, when Mahmoud got in his car,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Hadi immediately noticed that his friend seemed sullen and quiet
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and just very clearly upset about something. And so Hadi
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: asked him what was wrong. And Mahmoud just said, oh,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I'm sick with the flu. But to Hadi, Mahmoud did
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: not look very sick. He looked worried and kind of
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: jittery and nervous. And as they started to drive, he
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: kept looking out the windows and out the back of
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: the car, like he was nervous about somebody following them
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: or something. And when they got back to their apartment,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Mahmoud went straight to bed. And for the next two days,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Mahmoud continued acting increasingly weird and paranoid. He asked Hadi
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: to disconnect the phone in their apartment. and said he
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: didn't want to see any of their mutual friends. He
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: also kept looking out the windows of their apartment, but
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: whenever Hadi asked what was wrong, Mahmoud refused to explain. Then,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: sometime before 6am on Thursday morning, so now three days
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: after Hadi picked Mahmoud up from the airport, Hadi woke
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: up to the sound of the front door of his
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: apartment opening and then shutting. So it felt way too
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: early for Hadi or Mahmoud to be up. And they
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: also lived in a city where break-ins were unfortunately not uncommon.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: So the sound of the door opening was enough for
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Hadi to get out of bed and go make sure
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: everything was okay. But when he got to the door,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: he did not find an intruder or something. He found
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Mahmoud in the process of leaving the apartment. Hadi asked
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: his friend, you know, where are you going? But Mahmoud
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: just shook his head and said he was simply going out.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: And so there was really nothing Hadi could do. I mean,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: he couldn't stop Mahmoud from going out. So he watched
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: his friend leave. And then Hadi went back to bed.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: But as he was in bed, he had this sick
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: feeling in his stomach that something bad was about to happen.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: About two hours later, somebody called the Sacramento Police Department
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: to report finding a dead body in the driver's seat
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: of a car in a parking lot. The dead man
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: had clearly died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. And on
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the passenger seat next to the body were two Iranian
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: passports and one Lufthansa Airlines plane ticket. When the Sacramento
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: police officer finished telling Detective Ravens the story, he said
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: he believed that one of the passports that were found
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: in the car with the body belonged to Ravens Jane Doe.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: He said he would send it over that afternoon by
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: courier so Ravens could make a positive ID. And when
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the passport did arrive, Ravens was able to finally give
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: his Jane Doe her name back. She was a 20-year-old
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Iranian woman. named Katan Safawi. And after investigators searched Mahmoud's apartment,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: they would find another piece of evidence that would actually
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: explain why Katan Safawi had ended up beaten and pummeled
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and asphyxiated to death in an abandoned tan suitcase in LAX.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: The evidence was a little-bound book. and it was full
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: of photographs. Back on January 7th, 1985, Mahmoud very nervously
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: dropped off the tan suitcase that contained Catan at the
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: international airport and then boarded a Lufthansa flight to LAX.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: He was traveling from Frankfurt, Germany, one of the three
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: cities that had flights into LAX that day that specifically
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: used the carousel where the body was found. But Mahmoud's
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: trip had not started in Frankfurt. It had started in Iran.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: But his travel plans had gotten all messed up, and
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: he'd gotten stuck in Germany for several days. And so
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: this was him finally getting out. But he was insanely
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: nervous about this leg of the trip because of what
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: was in his suitcase. He had expected to feel much
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: less worried once he had successfully checked the suitcase and
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: got his ticket and boarded his flight. But when he
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: did all that, and when his plane took off, Mahmoud
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: only got more and more anxious. Every time the plane
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: hit even the tiniest amount of turbulence, he wanted to
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: scream from the anxiety. But finally, the flight landed at LAX,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: and as soon as it touched down, Mahmoud got off
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: as fast as he could and practically sprinted to the
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: baggage carousel where he would pick up his suitcase and
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: then board another flight to Sacramento. But when he got
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: to baggage claim and he picked up his suitcase, he
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: knew immediately something was wrong. With a shaking hand, he
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: unzipped the suitcase. And when he looked inside, he felt
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: a wave of grief and horror that was so powerful,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: he almost fainted right there. Because the trip that Mahmoud
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: had been dreaming of for months, that he was returning
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: home from now, was a journey to his home country
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: of Iran to get married to the woman he loved, Catan.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: And now, inside the suitcase... was the dead body of
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: his new wife, Kattan, who Mahmoud had been trying to
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: smuggle into America to start their new life together. Kattan
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: had run into issues with her visa in Frankfurt, and
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: officials wouldn't let her board the plane to America. And
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: so Kattan and Mahmoud tried for days to fix this problem,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: but it became clear that only Mahmoud would be able
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: to actually enter the United States, not Kattan. And so ultimately,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Kattan willingly got into that suitcase. Mahmoud had not murdered her,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: or at least not intentionally so. She hadn't been trafficked
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: or anything. She chose to get in that suitcase. Together,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: they decided that they would smuggle her in the cargo
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: hold of the plane, and that's how they would get
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: her to the United States. But during the flight, when
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: she had boarded, she had been totally alive. But when
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: she was in the cargo hold, other luggage had fallen
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and piled on top of her. and slowly crushed her
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: to death. And so when Mahmoud got to LAX and
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: opened up the suitcase and saw what had happened, he panicked.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: He pulled the tags off the suitcase and left the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: suitcase and just got on his flight to Sacramento. And
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: then once he landed there, he was so overcome with
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: guilt and grief that three days later, he took his
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: own life. When police searched Mahmoud's room, They found the
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: little bound book full of photographs that he had so
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: carefully packed for his trip to America. And those photos
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: were of his and Ketan's wedding. The following week, Mahmoud
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and Ketan's bodies were sent back to Iran via the
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: same route they had taken to get to Los Angeles.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: But this time, they traveled together. On the morning of
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: December 11, 1960, a 27-year-old man named Leonid Rogozov stood
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: on the deck of a Soviet ship that was sailing
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: across a freezing ocean at the very bottom of the world.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Up ahead, finally, he could see the enormous, desolate, white
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: landmass of Antarctica, a continent that was too brutally cold
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: for human civilization to last at scale. Basically, nobody lived
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: there except for like a handful of scientists and other
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: people who were researching the area, like Leonid. Antarctica was
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: about to be Leonid's home for the next year and
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: a half. And Leonid, he looked around him on the
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: deck of the ship at the other 11 men who
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: made up his team, and he smiled. They were all
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: part of what was called the 6th Soviet Antarctic Expedition.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: and they'd been sailing for 36 days, all the way
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: from Leningrad, Russia, to get here. Their job was to
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: get to Antarctica, disembark, and then travel nearly 50 miles
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: inland over brutal terrain, where they would eventually build a
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: brand new scientific research facility from the ground up, and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: then they would stay there and begin studying the local climate.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Leonid and the rest of the men had been chosen
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: for this expedition because they all had specific skills that
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the team needed. Leonid was a meteorologist. and also knew
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: how to drive this special all-terrain vehicle that they'd brought
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: on the ship. There were a few other meteorologists on
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the team, as well as several engineers and other scientists,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: and also one of the men was a doctor. Their
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: work was part of a larger Cold War-era effort by
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the Soviet government to expand scientific research and knowledge. So
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Leonid saw this job both as a way of having
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: this big adventure, and also as a way of serving
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: his country. And so he ultimately felt proud to be here.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: But as he was actually looking at the vast emptiness
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: of Antarctica right in front of him for the first time,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: the reality of the situation they were in began to
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: dawn on him. and he began to feel a jolt
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: of fear. Everything on this expedition had to go exactly right,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: or he and the other men's lives would be in danger.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is not a safe place for people.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: They were arriving in a place with literally zero infrastructure,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: and they only had about two months before the polar
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: winter was gonna hit Antarctica, which meant they had to
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: construct the entire research facility and make sure it was
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: polar winter proof in those first two months. because that
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: was their shelter. And just to make the stakes clear,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: if they didn't get it done in time, or if
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: the structure was flawed in some way, they would almost
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: certainly die. When the polar winter came, temperatures would drop
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: as low as negative 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and the ocean
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: would literally freeze solid. The closest help would be about
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: a thousand miles away, and could take weeks or even
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: months to arrive. And their only way to contact the
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: outside world was with this long-range radio that was not
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: always reliable. So essentially, Leonid and these 11 other men
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: that made up this expedition, they were going to be
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: completely isolated, with nobody to rely on except each other,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: until their scheduled pickup, which was in April of 1962. Again,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: a year and a half later. So now, when their
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: ship docked on the coast of Antarctica, and the captain
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: called out for everyone to start unloading the ship, Leonid hesitated.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: And so did some other men. I mean, this was it.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: This was the real start. But one at a time,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: they began grabbing their supplies and climbing down a ramp
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: on the side of the ship. Leonid watched his fellow
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: scientists step onto the snow. And as he did, he
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: sort of shook off his own fear as a moment
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: of weakness. Right now, he needed to be strong. And ultimately,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, Leonid was a very strong-willed person. He had
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: been born in a remote village in eastern Siberia. So
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: he knew he could handle the isolation and the extreme cold.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: He had already done that before. He was also the
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: son of a World War II veteran who had died
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: in combat. And his father had taught him to soldier
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: on at all costs, even under the toughest circumstances. So
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: right now, that's what Leonid did. He soldiered on. He
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: took a deep breath of the ice-cold air, then grabbed
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: his things, walked down the ramp, and stepped onto the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: snow with the others. And then once they had everything
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: they had packed for the next 16 months off the ship,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the crew on board the ship still wished all the
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: men good luck, and then they lifted up the ramp.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: And then Leonid and the rest of the team watched
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: as that ship began sailing away, leaving them all alone
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: for the first time. At first, things at the new
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Antarctic Research Center went pretty well. Leonid and the team
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: successfully built the entire research building in time before the
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: polar winter, so when the worst weather came, they were
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: able to hunker down inside and be safe. They'd also
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: set up a whole bunch of atmospheric measurement tools that
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: allowed them to study the Antarctic climate exactly as they
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: wanted to. So by April, so four months after getting
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: dropped off by that ship, and now only about a
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: month or so into the six-month-long polar winter, the men,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: for the most part, were really just trying to stay warm,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: conserve their supplies, and gather data. However, they hit their
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: first real snag on the morning of April 29th. Leonid
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: woke up in his bunk that day with a stomach ache.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: When Leonid woke up, he had that pain in his stomach,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: but he also He felt nauseous and so weak that
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: he could barely roll over inside of his bed. And
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: this really concerned Leonid. Because getting a stomachache back at
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: home was one thing, but getting a stomachache in Antarctica
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: was totally different. For one, there was a huge blizzard
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: going on outside that was making both land and air
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: travel literally impossible, which meant that even if Leonid radioed
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: for help, nobody would be able to get to him
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: for a very long time. And to make matters even worse...
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: At their research station, they didn't have access to most
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: of the regular medical treatments. that would have been available
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: back at home. Basically, if this stomach ache was anything serious,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Leonid could die. As a result, Leonid would basically not
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: allow himself to even consider the possibility that this stomach
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: ache was serious. Instead, he told himself that, you know,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: he must have just eaten something weird. They were all
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: living off of rations of preserved food. And so he
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: figured he must have gotten a bad batch of something.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: And maybe he just had a mild case of food poisoning.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: So he dragged himself out of bed and he went
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: to the kitchen for a glass of water to hopefully
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: settle his stomach. But when he got there, he saw
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: two other men, another meteorologist and an engineer, who were
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: sitting at a nearby table having breakfast. And they took
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: one look at Leonid. and immediately asked him, like, hey,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: are you okay? And Leonid didn't want to worry them,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: because again, like, any medical emergency is a huge deal
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: here for everybody. So he quickly forced a smile and said,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, everything's fine. Then Leonid quickly grabbed his glass
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: of water, chugged it down, and made his way back
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: to his bunk. And when he got there, he didn't
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: just climb back in bed. Instead, he grabbed some clean
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: clothes and a towel, and then walked down the hallway
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: to the shower stalls. And he turned one on as
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: hot as it would go, and then got inside. However,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: before he could even wash his hair, his vision began
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: to go blurry around the edges, and his ears began
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: to ring. He felt like he was about to faint,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: and he quickly sat down on the floor of the
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: shower so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself. And as
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: he was sitting there with his head spinning and the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: hot water raining down on him, the dull, aching pain
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: in his stomach suddenly sharpened. It was like a horrible,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: stabbing pain ripping through his stomach now. Leonid barely had
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: time to wrap a towel around his waist and rush
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to a toilet before he began to vomit. A few
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: minutes later, Leonid stumbled into a small storage closet where
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the research team kept a reserve of basic medications like
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: pain relievers and antibiotics. Leonid took some antibiotics and tried
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: to power through the day, but that pain in his
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: abdomen just got more and more intense. Eventually, He told
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the other men on his team that he really had
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: to stop, lie down, and rest, that something was wrong here,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: but maybe if he just lays down long enough, it'll
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: go away. Leonid would spend the entire evening going back
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: and forth from his bed to the toilet because he
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: kept vomiting, and he didn't sleep at all that night.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: And by the next morning, April 30th, Leonid was in
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: so much pain that he really couldn't even try to
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: hide it anymore. He was still vomiting, he was still
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: very dizzy to the point where he could barely stand up,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: and he could tell he was also running a very
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: high fever. However, what really scared Leonid the most was
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: what his belly actually looked like. He had not been
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: able to keep any food down for the last 24 hours,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: so he knew his stomach was completely empty. And yet,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: he was so bloated that his belly was sticking out
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: like a balloon. And so lying in bed, feeling feverish, nauseous,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and dizzy, and looking down at his grotesquely swollen abdomen,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Leonid had to admit to himself that This was definitely
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: more than just food poisoning. Something was very wrong and
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: he needed help. The scientific research team's doctor took stock
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: of all of Leonid's symptoms and he immediately came up
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: with a diagnosis. And the diagnosis was simple, but the
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: treatment was not. Leonid definitely did not have food poisoning.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: He was in a life or death situation. This was
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: a very serious thing. But to save him, the doctor
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: was going to have to perform a surgery immediately. that
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: had only ever been done successfully two times in all
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: of history. And that was because this surgery required a
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: very risky technique that most doctors refused to even try
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: because it was so dangerous both to the patient and
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: also to the doctor. Basically, Leonid was likely going to
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: die if the doctor attempted the surgery. But Leonid was
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: definitely going to die if he didn't. And so ultimately,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: a decision was made that the doctor would give it
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: his best try. At least that way, they were trying
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: to save Leonid's life, even if they were unsuccessful. At
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: 2 a.m. that night, so technically early morning on May 1st,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: the doctor took a deep breath and mentally prepared themselves
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: for this surgery. Leonid was lying on a makeshift operating
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: table inside the research center. He was wearing a surgical gown.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: And despite the fact he was about to undergo real
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: surgery here, he was wide awake because he had to be.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Due to the nature of this incredibly risky and rare surgery,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: The doctor couldn't actually give Leonid any real anesthesia to
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: knock him out. Leonid had to be wide awake and
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: fully aware for this entire procedure, which meant all he
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: could get were some local anesthetics, which sort of dulled
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the pain but did not get rid of it. The
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: doctor looked over at the four other research team members
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: who were in the operating room. There was a driver,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: a meteorologist, and two aerologists, which are scientists who study
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the Earth's atmosphere. Now, none of these four had any
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: real medical training, but the doctor needed assistance to do
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: this operation. So he'd recruited them to help him out.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Leonid had his head propped up with pillows and his
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: knees were turned to the left. So he was twisted
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: into a position where the lower right side of his
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: abdomen was facing up towards the ceiling. The doctor had
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: already cut a hole in his hospital gown. So Leonid's
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: swollen stomach was visible. And now through that hole, the
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: doctor injected Novocaine, which is a type of local anesthetic
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: right into Leonid's abdomen. And then once the Novocaine took effect,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: The doctor used a scalpel to carefully make a four-inch
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: long incision into Leonid's lower abdomen. Leonid took in a
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: sharp breath, but he did his best to stay perfectly still.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: The incision began to bleed heavily, and one of the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: assistants came over and used a pair of metal tongs
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: to spread open Leonid's skin and muscles and fat, revealing
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Leonid's internal organs. At this point, the doctor was so
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: nervous that his hands began to shake, but he took
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: a deep breath, and slowly cut his way with the
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: scalpel through the protective membrane that surrounded Leonid's organs. But
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: as he did, he accidentally poked a hole in Leonid's
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: large intestine, and Leonid noticed right away because he began
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: gushing blood. And when the doctor realized what he'd done,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: he sort of began to panic, and he began yelling
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: for the assistants to hand him his surgical sewing kit.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: And when they did, he kind of clumsily began trying
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: to to sew the hole shut. But by the time
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: the doctor had finally closed up the wound, Leonid had
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: already lost a lot of blood. And the real problem,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the reason the doctor was doing this surgery in the
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: first place, still had not been solved. Like the surgery
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: had not really even happened. We just had this incision,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: that's it. And so the doctor knew he really had
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: to hurry before Leonid bled out. And so he threw
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: his standard operating procedures out the window. He just had
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: to go for it here. So he just took one
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: of his hands and reached inside of Leonid's abdominal cavity
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: and started literally feeling around, trying to find the source
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: of Leonid's illness. But as he did, it was like
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: all the blood drained out of Leonid's face. I mean,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: he's feeling this. This must have been horrific. His body
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: went limp and his head kind of rolled back on
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: his pillow. And this was actually the exact moment that
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: this surgery truly became its most dangerous. Not just for Leonid,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: but for the doctor too. Right as Leonid's head rolled backwards...
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: The doctor felt himself go weak, and suddenly he was
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: seeing stars. And this was because Leonid and the doctor
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: were actually the same person. In addition to being a
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: meteorologist and a driver of that special vehicle, Leonid was
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: also a recent medical school graduate, and he was the
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: one doctor at this research station. So Leonid was performing
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: surgery on himself. He had given himself that Novocaine shot.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: and then forced himself to stay still as he carved
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: a four-inch-long incision into his own abdomen, accidentally slicing into
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: his intestines that he had the wherewithal to then stitch
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: up as he's bleeding to death, and then he shoved
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: his own hand into his abdominal cavity. But it was
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: at that point that Leonid actually looked like he might die,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: because he began to show signs like he was going
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: to pass out, likely from blood loss or just shock.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: But he'd given his assistants specific instruction... on what to
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: do if he passed out during the procedure. They were
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: supposed to inject him with a specific drug mixture and
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: then give him CPR until he woke up. But just
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: as one of the assistants readied the needle to inject
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: into Leonid because it did appear like he was about
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: to pass out, Leonid suddenly sucked in a huge breath
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: and his head snapped back up. Leonid, with his hands
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: still inside of his abdomen, told his assistants that he
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: was okay. Then he looked over at the mirror that
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: one of his assistants had been holding up this whole
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: time so that he could see what he was doing
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: during the surgery. And with a combination of the mirror
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: and just sort of feeling around inside of his own body,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: which must have been horrifically painful, Leonid finally found the
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: thing that was making him so sick. It was his appendix.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: This entire time, Leonid had been suffering from acute appendicitis.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Then he cleaned out his abdominal cavity with antibiotics and
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: then sutured up the entire incision. When he was finally
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: all done, Leonid examined his appendix that he had cut
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: out of himself, and he saw there was this dark,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: diseased-looking spot right on the bottom of it. Leonid estimated
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: that if he had not removed this thing, it very
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: likely would have burst in less than 24 hours, and
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: that definitely would have killed him. Within just two weeks,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Leonid was back up on his feet and helping out
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: at the research center like normal. And when the whole
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: team went back home to the Soviet Union in April
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: of 1962... So about a year after Leonid's self-surgery, he
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: was greeted like a hero. The government actually gave him
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: a medal called the Order of the Red Banner of Labor,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: which was for extraordinary contributions to Soviet society. And he
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: would go down in history as the third person to
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: ever perform a successful auto appendectomy. And he did it
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: outside of a real hospital with no other trained medical
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: professionals anywhere nearby. And that's actually not the only way
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: that Leonid's legacy lived on. Today, some countries actually require
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: doctors who are stationed in Antarctica to undergo preventative appendectomies
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: just so that they will never be in a situation
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: like Leonid. Because it turns out, the one thing you
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: really can't bring to Antarctica is your appendix. Thank you
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: so much for watching today's episode. Let me know what
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: you thought of it in the comments below. And remember,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: we have a whole playlist of Places You Can't Go
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: episodes ready for you to binge right now. So go
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: ahead and click here and give them a watch. All right,
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: until next time, see ya.