Latest / Crime and Horror / MrBallen – If you look like this actor you might die...
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to share four stories about people who
- 0:02Speaker 1: took big career risks in order to be as successful
- 0:06Speaker 1: as possible, but in each case, the risk did not
- 0:11Speaker 1: pay off. But before we get into today's stories, if
- 0:15Speaker 1: you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered
- 0:18Speaker 1: in story format, then you've come to the right place,
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- 0:23Speaker 1: even four times every week. So if that's of interest
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- 0:29Speaker 1: velvet cake, but don't tell them that the red in
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- 0:38Speaker 1: miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into
- 0:42Speaker 1: today's stories. Around noon on May twenty ninth, nineteen seventy five,
- 1:05Speaker 1: a twenty six year old man named Homer B. Lawyer
- 1:07Speaker 1: Junior left the store where he worked as a shoe
- 1:10Speaker 1: salesman in Miami, Florida for his lunch break, and he
- 1:13Speaker 1: walked down the street. He tried not to rush or
- 1:15Speaker 1: looked like he was in a hurry, but the truth
- 1:18Speaker 1: was he was extremely antsy as he walked along here.
- 1:21Speaker 1: And the reason for that is he knew that soon
- 1:24Speaker 1: he would either be rich or in jail, because Homer
- 1:29Speaker 1: was actually on his way to rob his very first bank.
- 1:33Speaker 1: So Homer had decided that he was done being a
- 1:35Speaker 1: shoe salesman. He didn't make nearly enough money and it
- 1:39Speaker 1: was just so boring. I mean, every single day felt
- 1:42Speaker 1: the same, and again, there's like no money in it.
- 1:44Speaker 1: And so for the last couple of weeks, Homer had
- 1:46Speaker 1: been trying to think of a way to make lots
- 1:49Speaker 1: of money really quickly that might also be kind of
- 1:51Speaker 1: exciting along the way. Hence how he landed on robbing
- 1:55Speaker 1: a bank. And it just so happened there was a
- 1:58Speaker 1: bank right around the corner from his work that he
- 2:01Speaker 1: decided would be his first target. Now, Homer was aware
- 2:04Speaker 1: that he was brand new to roubing banks here, so
- 2:08Speaker 1: you know, before he actually stepped out to go do
- 2:10Speaker 1: this thing, he'd put a lot of thought into how
- 2:12Speaker 1: to actually do it. He'd spent days preparing for this
- 2:15Speaker 1: by mulling over and scribbling down ideas and plans until
- 2:20Speaker 1: he'd finally landed on what he felt was the best
- 2:23Speaker 1: way to pull.
- 2:24Speaker 2: This thing off.
- 2:25Speaker 1: And so now as he rounded the corner and he
- 2:27Speaker 1: saw the bank up ahead. His stomach fluttered with nerves,
- 2:31Speaker 1: but he took a breath and told himself that he
- 2:33Speaker 1: had a solid plan in place and the risk was
- 2:37Speaker 1: definitely going to be worth the reward. Seconds later, Homer
- 2:41Speaker 1: walked into the mostly empty bank with one hand in
- 2:45Speaker 1: his pocket. He had a finger stretched out so that
- 2:48Speaker 1: it looks like he had a weapon in his pocket,
- 2:50Speaker 1: a gun, but he was not armed. He was just
- 2:53Speaker 1: hoping to fool people into thinking he was armed, and so,
- 2:55Speaker 1: with his hand conspicuously located in his pocket, he headed
- 2:59Speaker 1: over to the short line where one other customer was
- 3:02Speaker 1: at the counter, being helped by the only bank teller
- 3:05Speaker 1: on duty. And so Homer, you know, doing his best
- 3:07Speaker 1: to stay calm, he waited his turn, and then when
- 3:11Speaker 1: the other customer was done and had left the bank,
- 3:14Speaker 1: Homer walked up to the teller and handed her a
- 3:17Speaker 1: note that said he had a gun and he was
- 3:20Speaker 1: robbing this bank, and now she just needed to give
- 3:22Speaker 1: him all the cash in her register. Homer watched as
- 3:26Speaker 1: the teller read this, snowed and then got this terrified
- 3:29Speaker 1: look on her face, like it suddenly sunk in what
- 3:31Speaker 1: was happening here. Then, as calmly as she could, because
- 3:34Speaker 1: now she was really frightened and very on edge. She
- 3:36Speaker 1: set the note aside, and then with shaking hands, she
- 3:40Speaker 1: unlocked a drawer and began pulling out all these stacks
- 3:43Speaker 1: of bills from inside of it. And then when she
- 3:46Speaker 1: was done pulling all this cash out, she put it
- 3:48Speaker 1: into a bag and then slid the bag over to Homer,
- 3:51Speaker 1: And for a second, Homer just stared at this bag.
- 3:55Speaker 1: I mean, at first he was just totally thrilled that
- 3:57Speaker 1: his plan had even worked here. I mean, he was confident,
- 4:00Speaker 1: but this is amazing. I can't believe this is going
- 4:02Speaker 1: so well. But he quickly snapped out of his you know,
- 4:06Speaker 1: elation here and he realized that, you know, the bank
- 4:08Speaker 1: robbery is far from over here, like right now, he
- 4:11Speaker 1: needs to take this money and get out of here
- 4:13Speaker 1: as fast as he can. So he grabbed the bag
- 4:16Speaker 1: with his free hand, you know, he still got the
- 4:18Speaker 1: other hand in his pocket, you know, pretending there's a
- 4:20Speaker 1: gun there. He grabs the bag, he turns, and he
- 4:23Speaker 1: sprints out of the bank, and as soon as he
- 4:25Speaker 1: was outside, he just kept on running until he was
- 4:27Speaker 1: a few blocks away. And at that point he stopped
- 4:30Speaker 1: and he turned around to look and to listen, but amazingly,
- 4:34Speaker 1: there weren't any police following him, or he didn't see any,
- 4:37Speaker 1: and there weren't any sirens in the distance. And so
- 4:40Speaker 1: Homer relaxed because he knew he was safe and that
- 4:43Speaker 1: he'd been right to give robbing banks a try. I mean,
- 4:46Speaker 1: he was a natural, and now there was no way
- 4:50Speaker 1: he'd be going back to his boring shoe sales job
- 4:53Speaker 1: ever again. The next day, when Homer woke up, I mean,
- 4:56Speaker 1: he felt the best he had ever felt in his life. This,
- 5:00Speaker 1: this successful robbery, was like the best thing he had
- 5:03Speaker 1: ever done. And so with a big grin on his face,
- 5:06Speaker 1: he decided he would leave his house and he would
- 5:08Speaker 1: head out and treat himself to a nice, expensive breakfast
- 5:12Speaker 1: and maybe then after that go spend some more of
- 5:14Speaker 1: that new hard earned money on whatever he wanted, because
- 5:17Speaker 1: he was rich now. So with a pep and hist step,
- 5:20Speaker 1: he walked around the house, he got himself dressed and
- 5:23Speaker 1: ready to go, and then he headed out the front
- 5:25Speaker 1: door out onto the street. But as soon as he did,
- 5:28Speaker 1: he found himself completely surrounded by a swarm of Miami
- 5:33Speaker 1: police officers and FBI agents. So it would turn out
- 5:38Speaker 1: somewhat unbelievably that Homer was not actually a natural at
- 5:42Speaker 1: robbing banks. He had robbed a bank in broad daylight,
- 5:47Speaker 1: close to his work, and without even wearing a mask
- 5:49Speaker 1: or any sort of disguise. He had just sort of
- 5:52Speaker 1: gone in there and done it. And while those are
- 5:54Speaker 1: all things that could have gotten him caught and likely
- 5:57Speaker 1: would have gotten him caught, the actual reason he got
- 6:01Speaker 1: caught so quickly after the robbery was because of one
- 6:05Speaker 1: very avoidable and truly just completely idiotic mistake that he made.
- 6:11Speaker 1: So when Homer fled the bank, he was so intent
- 6:14Speaker 1: on getting out of there as fast as he could
- 6:17Speaker 1: that he had forgotten to grab the note that he
- 6:20Speaker 1: had given to the teller with him. He had left
- 6:22Speaker 1: it on the counter. That note had been written on
- 6:25Speaker 1: the back of some scrap paper that Homer had been
- 6:28Speaker 1: using in the days prior to the robbery to scribble
- 6:31Speaker 1: down all his ideas and thoughts about the robbery. And
- 6:36Speaker 1: one of the things that Homer and all his thoroughness
- 6:38Speaker 1: had written down on that scrap piece of paper included
- 6:42Speaker 1: his own extremely distinctive name. So when the investigators arrived
- 6:48Speaker 1: at the bank to take the teller's statement the one
- 6:50Speaker 1: who was actually robbed by Homer and try to collect
- 6:53Speaker 1: some evidence. The bank teller literally just handed them that
- 6:58Speaker 1: note with the robber's full name on it and also
- 7:01Speaker 1: clearly their intention to come.
- 7:03Speaker 2: And rob this bank. Like it was basically, my name
- 7:05Speaker 2: is Homer, and I'm going to rob this bank.
- 7:07Speaker 1: Here's how I'm going to do it, like that's what
- 7:09Speaker 1: he gave the teller an essence, and so using that note,
- 7:12Speaker 1: the police located Homer pretty much immediately and arrested him.
- 7:30Speaker 1: On an afternoon in early June of nineteen thirty eight,
- 7:33Speaker 1: a twenty one year old actor named Jack Dunn paced
- 7:36Speaker 1: nervously around the lobby of a film studio in Los Angeles, California,
- 7:40Speaker 1: waiting to be called into the next room.
- 7:42Speaker 2: Jack was incredibly.
- 7:43Speaker 1: Anxious, and as he paced around, he kept stopping in
- 7:47Speaker 1: front of this mirror to adjust his outfit and fiddle
- 7:49Speaker 1: with the ring on his finger. So Jack was actually
- 7:52Speaker 1: being considered for a lead role in a major motion
- 7:55Speaker 1: picture and he was about to do this one final audition.
- 7:59Speaker 1: This would be on camera to prove to the film's
- 8:02Speaker 1: producers that he was the guy for the job and
- 8:05Speaker 1: not the others. And this was a job that Jack
- 8:07Speaker 1: not only wanted, but I mean he desperately needed it.
- 8:12Speaker 1: Even though Jack was young, he'd been trying to make
- 8:14Speaker 1: it as an actor out here in Hollywood for years,
- 8:17Speaker 1: but everything he'd auditioned for or had actually been cast
- 8:21Speaker 1: in had invariably fallen through. So he hadn't actually been
- 8:26Speaker 1: in a movie yet, and so he was starting to
- 8:28Speaker 1: feel like if he didn't get a big break soon,
- 8:31Speaker 1: he would literally just run out of money and then
- 8:33Speaker 1: he'd have to go back to England, where he was from.
- 8:36Speaker 1: But if he got this part, the one he was
- 8:38Speaker 1: auditioning for today, I mean, there was no question in
- 8:41Speaker 1: his mind that it would launch him not just into
- 8:44Speaker 1: a viable career out here in Hollywood, but perhaps superstardom
- 8:49Speaker 1: because this film was a biopic about the life of
- 8:53Speaker 1: this Italian actor, Rudolph Valentino, who was a massive movie
- 8:57Speaker 1: star from the nineteen twenties, who'd had millions and millions
- 9:01Speaker 1: of obsessive fans, and he was considered at the time
- 9:05Speaker 1: to be like the biggest sex symbol in Hollywood. Now,
- 9:08Speaker 1: Rudolf had unfortunately died young and sort of unexpectedly, at
- 9:12Speaker 1: just thirty one years old, from this sudden illness, but
- 9:16Speaker 1: his sudden passing had actually made him even more legendary
- 9:20Speaker 1: and more beloved, So this was like a very iconic
- 9:24Speaker 1: film to be involved with. Now, Jack had never met
- 9:27Speaker 1: or gotten to know Rudolph, but from what he'd heard
- 9:30Speaker 1: about him, they had a lot in common. They were
- 9:33Speaker 1: both tall, dark, and handsome, and they were both immigrants
- 9:37Speaker 1: and accomplished athletes. Jack had been an ice skater and
- 9:40Speaker 1: Rudolf had been a dancer. Now Jack hoped the producers
- 9:44Speaker 1: also could see these similarities as well, but he knew
- 9:47Speaker 1: even if they did, that still wouldn't be enough to
- 9:50Speaker 1: get him the part. Rudolf was singular and special, and
- 9:55Speaker 1: so Jack really needed to actually become him if he
- 9:59Speaker 1: wanted a shot at the So today, for this screen test,
- 10:03Speaker 1: Jack had dressed up like Rudolf and put on a
- 10:06Speaker 1: very expensive, flashy outfit, since that's the kind of thing
- 10:09Speaker 1: that Rudolph liked to wear. And Jack had even gone
- 10:11Speaker 1: one step further and managed to get a hold of
- 10:14Speaker 1: this vintage ring that Rudolph himself had actually owned. It
- 10:18Speaker 1: had this huge yellow stone and this really ornate platinum setting,
- 10:23Speaker 1: and apparently, at some point in the history of this
- 10:26Speaker 1: ring in part because Rudolf had owned it, it had
- 10:29Speaker 1: gotten this sort of over the top nickname.
- 10:32Speaker 2: It was called the Destiny Ring.
- 10:34Speaker 1: And now Jack hoped that by wearing this, this Destiny Ring,
- 10:39Speaker 1: that it would help him sort of get the role
- 10:41Speaker 1: that he felt destined to play. And so now as
- 10:45Speaker 1: he looked into the mirror for the umpteenth time and
- 10:47Speaker 1: checked his hair and his outfit, he heard the door
- 10:50Speaker 1: open and the producer's voice called out, asking if Jack
- 10:53Speaker 1: was ready. Jack took one last deep breath and then
- 10:57Speaker 1: silently told himself that once he walked out of this lobby,
- 11:00Speaker 1: he was no longer Jack done, he was Rudolph Valentino.
- 11:05Speaker 1: Then he straightened his shoulders, he adjusted his Destiny Ring,
- 11:09Speaker 1: and followed.
- 11:09Speaker 2: The producer through the doorway.
- 11:12Speaker 1: And wouldn't you know it, just a few days later,
- 11:15Speaker 1: almost every paper in Hollywood had a new headline, newcomer
- 11:19Speaker 1: Jack Dunn has been cast as the icon Rudolph Valentino.
- 11:24Speaker 2: He got the part at the end of June.
- 11:26Speaker 1: So now about two weeks after Jack officially got the part,
- 11:30Speaker 1: he was out in the California desert, less than one
- 11:32Speaker 1: hundred miles from Los Angeles, and he was carrying a
- 11:35Speaker 1: rifle through some brush. So Ever, since Jack had been
- 11:38Speaker 1: officially cast as Rudolph, his life.
- 11:41Speaker 2: Had become a whirlwind.
- 11:42Speaker 1: The movie was set to shoot in the fall, but
- 11:45Speaker 1: he was already getting a ton of attention and lots
- 11:47Speaker 1: of press about his casting. However, to Jack's surprise, a
- 11:52Speaker 1: lot of this attention was pretty negative. The media seemed
- 11:56Speaker 1: to think that Jack himself was just too inexperienced to
- 12:00Speaker 1: handle playing someone as famous and iconic as Rudolph. And also,
- 12:05Speaker 1: Jack had received literally thousands of letters from Rudolph's fans
- 12:09Speaker 1: who had basically said the same thing, only more rudely. Now,
- 12:13Speaker 1: Jack had always coveted, you know, the life of famous
- 12:17Speaker 1: actors and actresses who were in the public eye, but
- 12:20Speaker 1: he had never been in the public eye, and so
- 12:22Speaker 1: this this criticism had been really hard to hear, like
- 12:25Speaker 1: he wasn't used to this, but the criticism had also
- 12:29Speaker 1: made him want to prove the naysayers wrong.
- 12:31Speaker 2: Here.
- 12:32Speaker 1: So Ever, since getting cast, Jack had been working even
- 12:36Speaker 1: harder on this role, like he had really tried to
- 12:39Speaker 1: become Rudolph Valentino to really show that he could do this.
- 12:44Speaker 1: And so after being cast, he just kept on dressing
- 12:48Speaker 1: like Rudolph. He'd used Rudolph's dance moves at clubs and
- 12:52Speaker 1: actually invented a dance that he called the Valentino Rumba.
- 12:56Speaker 1: He'd also started dating around, sort of seeing a bunch
- 12:58Speaker 1: of women all the time, just like apparently Rudolph had,
- 13:01Speaker 1: Like he was trying to really be this guy. And today,
- 13:04Speaker 1: you know, sort of in keeping with this trend, Jack
- 13:07Speaker 1: had come all the way out here to the desert
- 13:10Speaker 1: to hunt, which had been a hobby of Rudolph's. And
- 13:13Speaker 1: so Jack, he's he's trudging across the desert landscape, trying
- 13:17Speaker 1: to act like this hardened hunter that he really wasn't.
- 13:20Speaker 1: And at some point he looked down at his hand
- 13:23Speaker 1: and he saw there was a tick that was actually
- 13:25Speaker 1: on his hand, near where his destiny ring was. Now,
- 13:29Speaker 1: the tick had not bit him yet, and so quickly
- 13:31Speaker 1: Jack squeezed his hand and crushed it with his thumb
- 13:35Speaker 1: against Rudolph's destiny ring. Fast forward a few days. Jack
- 13:39Speaker 1: has now come back home. You know, he's back to
- 13:43Speaker 1: fully pretending to be Rudolph, and he's he's getting ready
- 13:46Speaker 1: to shoot that fall, like he's doing all the things
- 13:48Speaker 1: he's supposed to be doing. But he started to feel
- 13:51Speaker 1: like he was having a hard time being able to focus,
- 13:54Speaker 1: like it was like every time he tried to work,
- 13:56Speaker 1: it's like his mind would just wander. And he started
- 13:58Speaker 1: to realize what was going on here is is he
- 14:01Speaker 1: was getting sick. He could sort of feel it coming on.
- 14:04Speaker 1: And then shortly after that, one of his eyes got
- 14:06Speaker 1: really swollen and his throat became raw, and then he
- 14:10Speaker 1: had this really bad fever, and then not long after that,
- 14:14Speaker 1: he became completely delirious, like just out.
- 14:17Speaker 2: Of his mind.
- 14:18Speaker 1: And so it was around this time where it's like
- 14:20Speaker 1: Jack is losing touch with reality that he knew, you know,
- 14:24Speaker 1: his acting career really needed to be set aside for now.
- 14:28Speaker 2: He needed to go to the hospital.
- 14:29Speaker 1: And so Jack he goes to the hospital and as
- 14:32Speaker 1: soon as he is admitted, his condition only got worse,
- 14:35Speaker 1: like no matter what they did, it's like they could
- 14:37Speaker 1: not stop whatever was happening to him, and he declined
- 14:41Speaker 1: really quickly to the point where it was clear Jack's
- 14:45Speaker 1: body was shutting down. Then even though the doctors, the nurses,
- 14:49Speaker 1: the staff did everything they could to try to save him,
- 14:52Speaker 1: about a week after being admitted to the hospital, he died.
- 14:57Speaker 1: So when Jack was out hunting doing his best Rudolphin orcation. Well,
- 15:01Speaker 1: that tick that he saw on his hand that he
- 15:03Speaker 1: ultimately killed by crushing against the Destiny ring, well he
- 15:07Speaker 1: was smart to kill it because it was it was
- 15:09Speaker 1: infected with this rare illness called tularimium, and it had
- 15:13Speaker 1: not bit him yet. So it was like he saved
- 15:15Speaker 1: himself by crushing this tick. Right, except later that day,
- 15:19Speaker 1: like after he got back, he rubbed his eye with
- 15:23Speaker 1: his fist and his Destiny ring, and the guts of
- 15:26Speaker 1: that tick and this this disease were still on the ring,
- 15:30Speaker 1: and so he basically rubbed it directly into his eyeball
- 15:33Speaker 1: and then it got into his bloodstream and that literally
- 15:37Speaker 1: killed him. And so, in a weird way, that Destiny Ring,
- 15:43Speaker 1: which had become such a part of Jack's identity as
- 15:46Speaker 1: he took on this persona as Rudolph, it's like the
- 15:50Speaker 1: ring kind of is the reason he died, Like the
- 15:53Speaker 1: ring is the mechanism by which he got this disease.
- 15:57Speaker 2: But it actually goes much deeper.
- 16:01Speaker 1: So the Destiny Ring was famous not just because Rudolph
- 16:04Speaker 1: Valentino had at one time owned it, but also because
- 16:08Speaker 1: the Destiny Ring was said to be cursed, specifically that
- 16:12Speaker 1: the owner of the ring, the possessor of this Destiny Ring,
- 16:16Speaker 1: could potentially be killed. Basically, the curse could kill them.
- 16:20Speaker 1: And so it's very likely that Rudolph Valentino was aware
- 16:24Speaker 1: of the lore behind this ring because he was known
- 16:27Speaker 1: to collect superstitious objects. He didn't believe in things like curses,
- 16:32Speaker 1: but he really liked things that had sort of scary
- 16:34Speaker 1: lore around them, and so he very likely bought this
- 16:37Speaker 1: ring in part because it was cursed. But then he
- 16:41Speaker 1: dies this sudden tragic death when he's really young while
- 16:45Speaker 1: wearing this ring, and it only added to the lore
- 16:48Speaker 1: of this ring. And then from there the ring did
- 16:52Speaker 1: not go directly to Jack Dunn. No, there were three
- 16:55Speaker 1: people in the middle. There was a radio star, a singer,
- 16:58Speaker 1: and a burglar who all possessed this ring following Rudolph,
- 17:03Speaker 1: and each of them, while wearing the ring, died sudden
- 17:07Speaker 1: unexpected deaths.
- 17:09Speaker 2: And then finally the ring winds.
- 17:11Speaker 1: Up on Jack Dunn's finger, who's playing the role of
- 17:14Speaker 1: Rudolph Valentino, and he too would die a sudden, unexpected
- 17:19Speaker 1: tragic death young while wearing the Destiny Ring. Since Jack
- 17:23Speaker 1: Dunn's death, the destiny ring has seemingly disappeared, and nobody
- 17:28Speaker 1: knows who has it now or whether they know about
- 17:31Speaker 1: the curse. One afternoon in the summer of nineteen oh nine,
- 17:55Speaker 1: a man named Andrew Dunn knelt inside of a wooden
- 17:57Speaker 1: shack just outside the very remote of Galgonda, Canada, taking
- 18:02Speaker 1: sticks of dynamite out of a crate. And Andrew was
- 18:06Speaker 1: really excited because he was about to use this dynamite
- 18:10Speaker 1: to get at this huge deposit of silver that would
- 18:13Speaker 1: make him and his team very rich. So Andrew was
- 18:17Speaker 1: a miner, and up until recently, he'd been living in
- 18:19Speaker 1: this town called Cobalt, which was about one hundred miles
- 18:23Speaker 1: east of where they were right now and was famous
- 18:25Speaker 1: for its very lucrative silver mines. Andrew had made a
- 18:29Speaker 1: ton of money there, but recently Cobalt had been overrun
- 18:33Speaker 1: by other miners also trying to get rich. So Andrew
- 18:37Speaker 1: and two of his friends from Cobalt had come out
- 18:40Speaker 1: to this more remote area where they'd been able to
- 18:43Speaker 1: find these new untouched silver deposits, and this one that
- 18:47Speaker 1: they had just found would be their biggest haul so far,
- 18:50Speaker 1: and so very excitedly, Andrew continues pulling out all this
- 18:53Speaker 1: dynamite until he has enough, at which point he scoops
- 18:57Speaker 1: it all up and he leaves the shack and he
- 18:59Speaker 1: walks over to where his partners are standing in front
- 19:01Speaker 1: of all these huge rocks that they're going to blow
- 19:04Speaker 1: up to get to the silver. And so he goes
- 19:06Speaker 1: over and he hands out the dynamite and they place
- 19:09Speaker 1: them strategically in the rocks and tether them all together
- 19:12Speaker 1: to a single fuse, and then when they're ready, they
- 19:15Speaker 1: light the lead fuse that would burn into all the dynamite,
- 19:19Speaker 1: so they have a little bit of a lead time here.
- 19:20Speaker 1: They light the fuse and they all turn and they
- 19:23Speaker 1: run over to the shack where they're going to take cover.
- 19:26Speaker 1: They get inside, they're behind the wall. They crouch down
- 19:28Speaker 1: and they're waiting, and they're waiting, and it's going to
- 19:31Speaker 1: be a minute before it explodes. But as they're waiting,
- 19:34Speaker 1: Andrew hears something outside the shack, and immediately it prompts
- 19:39Speaker 1: him to just peek out the window just to see
- 19:41Speaker 1: what it is, because he knows he's got a little
- 19:43Speaker 1: bit of time before this detonates. Then he looks out
- 19:46Speaker 1: the window, and specifically he looks down at what's right
- 19:50Speaker 1: outside the window, and he can't believe what he's looking at,
- 19:55Speaker 1: but it was already too late. So it would turn
- 19:57Speaker 1: out Andrew, despite being real really excited about being in
- 20:01Speaker 1: this new area to get to the silver.
- 20:04Speaker 2: That was all true.
- 20:05Speaker 1: But also Andrew was a big family man and it
- 20:08Speaker 1: was really hard for him to be so far away
- 20:10Speaker 1: from his family. He would get homesick, and so to
- 20:14Speaker 1: combat the homesickness for this trip, he had brought with
- 20:17Speaker 1: him his beloved dog for company. And this dog was
- 20:21Speaker 1: so loyal It basically followed him everywhere. It kept things
- 20:25Speaker 1: light at camp. It was like this great dog. Everybody
- 20:28Speaker 1: loved the dog. And on this day, after lighting the
- 20:31Speaker 1: fuse and sort of putting the dynamite down the lit dynamite.
- 20:35Speaker 2: They run back over to the shack.
- 20:37Speaker 1: And Andrew he thinks his dog is with him, that
- 20:40Speaker 1: the dog has run with them as he has in
- 20:42Speaker 1: the past, into the shack with him. But when he's
- 20:45Speaker 1: he's crouched down in the shack, he realizes he can't
- 20:48Speaker 1: see his dog. The dog's not in the shack. He
- 20:51Speaker 1: panics for a second, then he thinks he hears the dog.
- 20:54Speaker 1: He looks out the window and there's his dog. And
- 20:57Speaker 1: what has the dog done. It's begun to play its
- 21:00Speaker 1: favorite game, fetch. He saw Andrew put that stick of
- 21:04Speaker 1: dynamite down after lighting it, and the dog thought that
- 21:07Speaker 1: was the beginning of a game of fetch, and so
- 21:10Speaker 1: as soon as they had bolted ran back to the shed,
- 21:13Speaker 1: the dog had scooped up one of those lit sticks
- 21:15Speaker 1: of dynamite and ran it right back over and dropped
- 21:19Speaker 1: it right outside the shack, and the dog's looking up
- 21:22Speaker 1: at Andrew. Andrew looks out the window, sees the stick
- 21:24Speaker 1: of dynamite, sees the dog. The dog, stoked, turns and
- 21:28Speaker 1: runs off, ready for his master to throw this stick
- 21:31Speaker 1: to him.
- 21:32Speaker 2: But after the dog.
- 21:33Speaker 1: Ran off into the distance, there was nowhere for Andrew
- 21:36Speaker 1: or his partners to go. They were trapped, and so
- 21:39Speaker 1: the dynamite exploded, ultimately killing Andrew and horribly maiming his partners,
- 21:45Speaker 1: and as for the dog, who.
- 21:46Speaker 2: Had playfully run off totally unharmed.
- 22:10Speaker 1: Around seven am on August twenty second, nineteen thirteen, a
- 22:13Speaker 1: twenty one year old businessman named Abraham Wells Boyd Junior,
- 22:17Speaker 1: quietly got dressed in his bedroom in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on
- 22:21Speaker 1: the bed. Just behind him was his wife and their
- 22:24Speaker 1: two year old son, who were fast asleep, and as
- 22:27Speaker 1: Abraham watched them, you know, the two things that he
- 22:29Speaker 1: treasured most in the world, he couldn't help but feel
- 22:32Speaker 1: unbearably sad because these days he was never home when
- 22:37Speaker 1: his family was actually awake. So Abraham was a part
- 22:40Speaker 1: owner of an automobile racetrack that was currently under construction. Now,
- 22:45Speaker 1: this construction project was supposed to be a huge step
- 22:48Speaker 1: forward in his career, and he was supposed to make
- 22:51Speaker 1: a ton of money once the track was open again.
- 22:54Speaker 2: But for right now, Abraham.
- 22:56Speaker 1: Felt like this construction project was kind of like a nightmare.
- 23:00Speaker 1: I mean, on the one hand, yeah, like in the future,
- 23:03Speaker 1: this is going to make me a lot of money,
- 23:04Speaker 1: but it was like, the project is enormous, it's expensive,
- 23:08Speaker 1: and it also means he's not earning money while he's
- 23:11Speaker 1: putting money into doing the project. And then on top
- 23:13Speaker 1: of all that, he had this huge issue with thieves.
- 23:18Speaker 1: Thieves were breaking into the construction site and stealing lumber.
- 23:23Speaker 1: And because of these thefts, in addition to all the
- 23:25Speaker 1: costs Abraham was incurring just to do the construction, he
- 23:29Speaker 1: had also had to hire a full time security guard.
- 23:32Speaker 1: But then last night the security guard hadn't shown up
- 23:35Speaker 1: on time, and so Abraham's the guy, the part owner
- 23:39Speaker 1: of this place who's stepping in as a security guard,
- 23:42Speaker 1: stand up all night doing a job he has no
- 23:44Speaker 1: idea how to do, like you, pretending to.
- 23:46Speaker 2: Be a security guard.
- 23:48Speaker 1: And now he's back home and he's exhausted and like
- 23:51Speaker 1: he can't just go to bed.
- 23:52Speaker 2: He has to go back out to work.
- 23:54Speaker 1: But before he could go to work, he had to
- 23:56Speaker 1: take some equipment that he had accidentally taken with him
- 23:59Speaker 1: from his his shift as the security guard. He had
- 24:01Speaker 1: brought something home he wasn't supposed to. He had to
- 24:03Speaker 1: go drop that off. Then he had to go back
- 24:05Speaker 1: to work. It's like his whole life is a mess
- 24:07Speaker 1: right now, and all he wants is this stupid project
- 24:10Speaker 1: to be over so we can start earning real money
- 24:12Speaker 1: again and can seize family in the daytime hours. But
- 24:15Speaker 1: it just felt like that was eons away. So with
- 24:17Speaker 1: one more glance over at his wife and kid, who
- 24:20Speaker 1: he wished he could just crawl in bed with, Abraham
- 24:23Speaker 1: sighed and began gathering up all the things he would
- 24:26Speaker 1: need for work that day. His briefcase, some paperwork, and
- 24:29Speaker 1: also that equipment that he had to return to the
- 24:31Speaker 1: job site, and then also his coat and his hat.
- 24:34Speaker 2: And then at some point as he was doing.
- 24:36Speaker 1: This, Abraham's wife woke up, which Abraham was very happy about.
- 24:40Speaker 1: He wanted to talk to her, but he felt bad
- 24:42Speaker 1: waking her up, and so she gets up and they
- 24:44Speaker 1: talk for a minute and she helps him finish getting ready,
- 24:47Speaker 1: and then after saying bye to her, Abraham went over
- 24:50Speaker 1: to the bed to bend over and say good night
- 24:53Speaker 1: to his son before he left. I mean, in some ways,
- 24:55Speaker 1: his son was like the reason he was putting up
- 24:57Speaker 1: with all of this, Like it was to give he
- 25:00Speaker 1: and his wife's child the best life he possibly could.
- 25:03Speaker 1: And so he goes over and he bends over and
- 25:05Speaker 1: he gives the kid a kiss. However, as he bent
- 25:08Speaker 1: over to give his son a kiss, there was this sudden,
- 25:13Speaker 1: really loud noise coming from somewhere. It was like off
- 25:17Speaker 1: to the side of Abraham, or at least it felt
- 25:19Speaker 1: like it was over here, And it's so loud that
- 25:22Speaker 1: Abraham actually jumped up. It startled him, and he noticed
- 25:25Speaker 1: his son, who had been soundly sleeping. Also, you know,
- 25:29Speaker 1: is now awake and crying like it's sort of madness
- 25:31Speaker 1: in the room. But Abraham has no idea what this
- 25:34Speaker 1: noise was or where it came from. Abraham's wife, who
- 25:37Speaker 1: had sort of been off to the side of the
- 25:39Speaker 1: room at this point, she rushes over because obviously she's
- 25:42Speaker 1: heard the sound, she sees the commotion. She's totally bewildered,
- 25:46Speaker 1: and she's asking her husband what's going on. And Abraham
- 25:50Speaker 1: was about to reply to her that he had no idea,
- 25:54Speaker 1: but all of a sudden, he started feeling really dizzy
- 25:57Speaker 1: and really hot.
- 25:58Speaker 2: He took off his.
- 25:59Speaker 1: Coat and he he tried to balance himself against the dresser,
- 26:02Speaker 1: but his vision started to get really blurry, and then
- 26:04Speaker 1: his legs gave out, and the next thing he knew,
- 26:07Speaker 1: he had crumpled to the ground and was lying on
- 26:09Speaker 1: his back on the floor. So it would turn out
- 26:12Speaker 1: that Abraham filling in for that security guard who missed
- 26:16Speaker 1: his shift that night. You know, suddenly Abraham's up all night.
- 26:19Speaker 2: Being the security guard.
- 26:21Speaker 1: Even though that that specific example only happened one time.
- 26:25Speaker 1: It was like across this whole construction project, there were
- 26:29Speaker 1: always so many problems that seemed to all fall in
- 26:33Speaker 1: Abraham's lap, and so he was constantly over extending himself
- 26:37Speaker 1: and pulling overtime shifts and doing things that he wasn't
- 26:40Speaker 1: even getting paid to do.
- 26:41Speaker 2: It was like his.
- 26:42Speaker 1: Mind and his energy and everything was being spread across
- 26:46Speaker 1: every single place in his life. He was just totally
- 26:48Speaker 1: completely burned out. And for the most part, this really
- 26:51Speaker 1: only affected Abraham. He just sort of felt really run
- 26:55Speaker 1: down all the time. But on the night of the
- 26:59Speaker 1: loud sound in the room, well, his over extension of himself,
- 27:04Speaker 1: his total exhaustion, had put him and his whole family
- 27:09Speaker 1: in danger. So the equipment that Abraham had accidentally taken
- 27:14Speaker 1: home with him from having been a fill in security
- 27:18Speaker 1: guard the night before, well it was a gun.
- 27:21Speaker 2: Because he had been a security guard.
- 27:23Speaker 1: He was borrowing someone's gun in order to be the
- 27:25Speaker 1: security guard, and then he had brought.
- 27:27Speaker 2: It home with him.
- 27:28Speaker 1: And that morning, as Abraham is looking at his wife
- 27:31Speaker 1: and son and just sort of run down, like he
- 27:33Speaker 1: was especially groggy, and he was not a gun owner himself,
- 27:38Speaker 1: so he didn't have really any experience handling a loaded weapon.
- 27:42Speaker 1: So even though he had put the gun in its holster,
- 27:45Speaker 1: he hadn't actually fastened it in so it's not locked
- 27:48Speaker 1: in there, it's just sitting in the holster. So when
- 27:51Speaker 1: he bent down to give his son a kiss, the
- 27:53Speaker 1: pistol had slipped out of the holster, hit the floor
- 27:58Speaker 1: and went off, firing a single round into Abraham's chest.
- 28:03Speaker 1: Abraham unfortunately died of his injuries. Thank you so much
- 28:15Speaker 1: for watching today's episode. Let me know what you thought
- 28:17Speaker 1: of it in the comments below, And remember, we have
- 28:20Speaker 1: a whole playlist of places you can't go episodes ready
- 28:24Speaker 1: for you to binge right now, So go ahead and
- 28:26Speaker 1: click here and give them a watch.
- 28:28Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see it