Latest / Crime and Horror / His song will KILL you...

Transcript

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

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Speaker 1: Both of today's stories are about people who actually achieved
0:03
Speaker 1: their big career ambitions, but at an extremely high cost.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's stories, if you're a
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Speaker 1: let's get into today's stories. On the afternoon of June tenth,
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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, a defense attorney named Clement Valen Dinga
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Speaker 1: sat in a courtroom in Lebanon, Ohio, listening intently as
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Speaker 1: a prosecutor question to witness, and with each word that
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Speaker 1: this witness said on the stand, it made the knot
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Speaker 1: in Clement's stomach get tighter and tighter because this testimony
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Speaker 1: was very bad for Clement's client, an accused murderer named
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Speaker 1: Thomas mcgean. So the murder that mcgean was on trial
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Speaker 1: for had happened about six months earlier on Christmas Eve
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Speaker 1: in the nearby city of Hamilton. That night, mcgean had
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Speaker 1: stormed into a saloon with a group of men and
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Speaker 1: attacked another man named Tom Myers, and at some point
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Speaker 1: during this attack, a gun went off and tom Myers
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Speaker 1: was shot and killed. Now, there were at least thirty
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Speaker 1: witnesses in the saloon at the time, but the whole
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Speaker 1: attack had happened so fast and was so chaotic that
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Speaker 1: no one had seen who did the actual shooting. Despite that,
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Speaker 1: everyone in town immediately decided that mcgean had done it. However,
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Speaker 1: even Clement had to admit that that was a reasonable assumption.
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Speaker 1: Mcgean and the victim, tom Myers, had a long standing feud,
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Speaker 1: and everyone knew they hated each other. Also, mcgean was
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Speaker 1: a well known violent criminal who was said to have
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Speaker 1: killed at least four other people. So when tom Myers
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Speaker 1: got killed, the citizens of Hamilton didn't even wait for
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Speaker 1: a trial. They wanted to hang mcgean right now. Now,
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Speaker 1: the police had obviously intervened and arrested mcgean instead, but
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Speaker 1: word had spread all over Ohio about how messy and
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Speaker 1: dramatic this case was, and as a result, the trial
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Speaker 1: itself had become very high profile. Every Day journalists and
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Speaker 1: important people from all over the state came to sit
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Speaker 1: in court and listen to the testimony. And now all
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Speaker 1: of these important people were watching Clement's defense case get
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Speaker 1: just obliterated by this witness. The witness was one of
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Speaker 1: the men who had been in the saloon at the
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Speaker 1: time of the murder, and he was making a very
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Speaker 1: big claim. He was saying that even though no one
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Speaker 1: in the saloon saw mcgean fire the gunshot that killed
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Speaker 1: tom Myers, he must have because after the gun went off,
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Speaker 1: this witness saw smoke coming from mcgean's jacket pocket, like
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Speaker 1: he had been concealing his gun inside his jacket when
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Speaker 1: he had fired it. Clement looked around the courtroom while
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Speaker 1: the witness explained this and saw that everybody was nodding
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Speaker 1: like what the witness said made perfect sense. Clement could
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Speaker 1: tell basically, at this point, everybody thought his client was guilty,
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Speaker 1: but Clement he did not agree. He knew mcgeean's case
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Speaker 1: looked bad, but Clement was absolutely certain that his client
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Speaker 1: really was innocent. Clement's theory was that the victim, Tom Myers,
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Speaker 1: had shot himself by accident when he pulled out his
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Speaker 1: own gun during the fight to defend himself. Unfortunately for Clement, though,
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Speaker 1: this was eighteen seventy one, so there was no forensic
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Speaker 1: evidence about gunshots except for some scorch marks on tom
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Speaker 1: Myers's shirt. So the whole entire case was really just
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Speaker 1: based on witness testimony, and of course this witness was
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Speaker 1: very convincing for the other side. The prosecutor finished up
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Speaker 1: his questioning and then walked back to a seat with
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Speaker 1: a smirk on his face like he knew what he
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Speaker 1: had just done. They pretty much had just won the case.
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Speaker 1: It was now Clement's turn with the witness, and he
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Speaker 1: really didn't know how it was going to go. But
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Speaker 1: as Clement stood up and crossed the courtroom floor, he
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Speaker 1: felt a calm come over him because he was thinking
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Speaker 1: to himself, I don't have much to lose. I mean,
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Speaker 1: pretty much everybody thinks my client is guilty, and so
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Speaker 1: if he's found guilty, no one's going to be shocked.
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Speaker 1: But you know, maybe I can find a way to
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Speaker 1: prove he's innocent, and that would be just great. But
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Speaker 1: if I don't, it is what it is. So to
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Speaker 1: be clear, Clement was a very controversial figure in Ohio.
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Speaker 1: At this time, which was right after the Civil War,
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Speaker 1: he had been very vocally against the then President Abraham Lincoln,
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Speaker 1: and his viewpoints had gotten him banished from Ohio and
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Speaker 1: the other Northern states. And then after the war ended,
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Speaker 1: he had returned to his home state of Ohio and
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Speaker 1: had gone back to being an attorney, but he had
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Speaker 1: never really been able to fully rehabilitate his publicanda image.
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Speaker 1: Even now six years later, a lot of people still
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Speaker 1: really hated him for behavior during the war. And so,
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Speaker 1: in essence, Clement knew that pretty much his public profile
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Speaker 1: was not about to change if he lost this case.
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Speaker 1: I mean, basically, nothing would change. He's the guy that
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Speaker 1: everybody hates and his client's the murderer. It is what
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Speaker 1: it is. But if he won, he could recreate himself
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Speaker 1: in the court of public opinion as a sensational criminal
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Speaker 1: defense lawyer who overturned impossible cases. And again he really
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Speaker 1: believed his client was innocent. So this would be like
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Speaker 1: a two pronged major victory for Clement. And so Clement
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Speaker 1: stepped up to the witness box and began firing off
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Speaker 1: questions to this witness. By the end of the day,
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Speaker 1: Clement had gotten that witness to admit he hadn't actually
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Speaker 1: seen a physical gun, and eventually Clement was able to
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Speaker 1: completely destroy the jacket shooting theory when he showed the
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Speaker 1: court that the jacket that McGee had been wearing that
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Speaker 1: night there was no hole anywhere on it. As the
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Speaker 1: week went on and more witnesses took the stand, Clement
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Speaker 1: was pleased to find that none of them had any
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Speaker 1: actual proof that mcgehan shot tom Myers. But he also
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Speaker 1: couldn't find any evidence that proved his client was innocent either.
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Speaker 1: So later that week, on Friday, June sixteenth, as the
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Speaker 1: trial came to a close, Clement was kind of worried.
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Speaker 1: I mean, he knew that he had not done enough
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Speaker 1: to get his client acquitted, and even though he knew
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Speaker 1: that the likelihood of success here was always going to
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Speaker 1: be slim, he felt like he had begun to make
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Speaker 1: some serious headway and they could win. Victory felt possible
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Speaker 1: and it was just slipping out of his hand. That afternoon,
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Speaker 1: Clement sat behind the defence table, sweating profusely as he
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Speaker 1: listened to the prosecutor's team deliver there just brutal closing arguments.
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Speaker 1: This was giving Clement a lot of anxiety. I mean,
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Speaker 1: he was moments away from giving his own closing arguments,
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Speaker 1: and it was really his very last chance to convince
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Speaker 1: the jury that his client was innocent. But he just
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Speaker 1: did not feel like the speech he had prepared would
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Speaker 1: do that, especially after you know, the prosecutor is really
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Speaker 1: just a very powerful speech that he was giving right now.
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Speaker 1: And so as the prosecutor very eloquently and beautifully wrapped
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Speaker 1: up his speech, Clement was busy furiously crossing out lines
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Speaker 1: on his speech and rewriting things and trying to make
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Speaker 1: it better, but he just couldn't. So he just sat
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Speaker 1: there racking his brain on what to say. But as
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Speaker 1: he was sitting there in silence, and like the prosecutors
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Speaker 1: sat down and everybody's waiting for Clement to stand up
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Speaker 1: and deliver his speech, here an idea suddenly hit Clement.
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Speaker 1: It hit him so hard that he actually just dropped
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Speaker 1: his pen. He didn't know why this idea hadn't occurred
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Speaker 1: to him earlier, but he suddenly realized there was a
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Speaker 1: way he could prove mcgeean was innocent. It was so obvious,
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Speaker 1: and if he was right, he would go down in
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Speaker 1: history as probably the greatest defense attorney Ohio had ever seen,
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Speaker 1: and so Clement he lunged for his pen again. Then
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Speaker 1: he frantically scribbled down what he was thinking. And then
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Speaker 1: a minute later he heard the judge call his name
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Speaker 1: and tell him, come on, it's your turn to speak.
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Speaker 1: And so Clemente shot to his feet and he cleared
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Speaker 1: his throat, and instead of launching into the speech he
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Speaker 1: had prepared for this moment, he asked the judge to
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Speaker 1: let him do it instead on Monday. The judge was
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Speaker 1: a little apprehensive, but eventually they agreed, and when they did,
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Speaker 1: Clement felt a surge of excitement rushed through his body,
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Speaker 1: and after the court proceedings officially ended for the day,
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Speaker 1: Clement could not get out of there fast enough. Clement
8:26
Speaker 1: waited until nightfall to act. He needed to run a
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Speaker 1: test to make sure his theory he was going to
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Speaker 1: employ on Monday was correct, but he didn't want anybody
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Speaker 1: from the prosecution team to see him doing it. So
8:38
Speaker 1: after dinner, Clement slipped out of his hotel and into
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Speaker 1: the quiet streets of Lebanon. He'd spent the last few
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Speaker 1: hours having dinner with some friends, and while he was
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Speaker 1: pretty vague about what he actually planned to do tonight.
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Speaker 1: He did tell them that they really needed to stay
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Speaker 1: in town long enough to hear his big final argument
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Speaker 1: on Monday. He was so confident in what he'd uncover
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Speaker 1: tonight doing this test that he was sure his speech
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Speaker 1: on Monday would be like the greatest legal moment in
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Speaker 1: the history of Ohio. And so now, as Clement made
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Speaker 1: his way to the edge of town, he was filled
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Speaker 1: with adrenaline and kept increasing his speed until he was
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Speaker 1: basically running. And then he finally arrived at a quiet,
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Speaker 1: isolated part of Lebanon, and as soon as he got there,
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Speaker 1: he set up for this test he had planned and
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Speaker 1: then ran through it. And after he finished, Clement smiled
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Speaker 1: because he knew he had just found a way to
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Speaker 1: prove that his client was innocent. Just a few minutes later,
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Speaker 1: around nine pm, and Clement was back inside of his
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Speaker 1: hotel room. He was so excited about the results of
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Speaker 1: his test that he couldn't even sit down, and so
9:42
Speaker 1: he just kept pacing around and around and trying to
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Speaker 1: get his thoughts together. But he was just so excited.
9:47
Speaker 1: His hotel room door was cracked open, and as he
9:50
Speaker 1: paced around, he saw his co counsul, who was another
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Speaker 1: lawyer on the defense team, walk by. So this hotel
9:55
Speaker 1: was sort of like the home base of everyone who
9:57
Speaker 1: was in town for the trial, and so most of
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Speaker 1: the prosecution and the defense teams were staying there. When
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Speaker 1: Clement saw his co council, he immediately waved him inside
10:06
Speaker 1: and tried to tell him what he'd figured out, but
10:09
Speaker 1: the words just kind of tumbled out, and all he
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Speaker 1: really got across was that the prosecution had it all wrong,
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Speaker 1: but he Clement had figured it out, but his co
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Speaker 1: counsel was just looking at him like he really didn't
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Speaker 1: understand what he was saying. And so at some point
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Speaker 1: Clement realized he really needed to do a physical demonstration here.
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Speaker 1: He really needed to repeat the test he had just
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Speaker 1: done to show actually show the co council exactly what
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Speaker 1: he was talking about. So, without a whole lot of
10:35
Speaker 1: explanation to his co counsel, Clement got up, he set
10:39
Speaker 1: up the test, and then he turned and he told
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Speaker 1: his co council to watch carefully, and then Clement began
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Speaker 1: to perform the test. But this time, during the test,
10:48
Speaker 1: there was a sudden explosion and Clement collapsed to the ground.
10:54
Speaker 1: It would turn out that Clement's test did prove, without
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Speaker 1: a shadow of a doubt that his client really was innocent.
11:03
Speaker 1: His theory was that tom Myers shot himself by fumbling
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Speaker 1: with his own gun, but in order to make sure
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Speaker 1: his theory held weight with the jury, he wanted to
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Speaker 1: show everyone that it was definitely physically possible to do that.
11:16
Speaker 1: So when Clement had gone to the edge of town
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Speaker 1: to do this test by himself for the first time,
11:21
Speaker 1: he took a gun with him and he basically experimented
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Speaker 1: with ways it could have actually happened, by shooting the
11:27
Speaker 1: gun through fabric from different angles and looking at the
11:30
Speaker 1: resulting scorch marks. And when he did this, he realized
11:34
Speaker 1: that the scorch marks that had been left on the
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Speaker 1: victim's clothes the only forensic evidence they had. They could
11:40
Speaker 1: have only been made if the victim was shot at
11:43
Speaker 1: point blank range, which meant that mcgeean was standing too
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Speaker 1: far away to be the shooter. But it was not
11:49
Speaker 1: until later, when Clement acted out the shooting again for
11:53
Speaker 1: his co counsul that his discovery went from great to
11:57
Speaker 1: perfect because completely by accident, he did exactly what tom
12:03
Speaker 1: Myers had done. He fumbled with the gun and shot himself.
12:10
Speaker 1: Clement died from his self inflicted wound twelve hours later,
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Speaker 1: but his death made his argument so convincing that his
12:18
Speaker 1: client was eventually acquitted. So Clement had been right. This
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Speaker 1: was the greatest case of his life. It was also
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Speaker 1: his last. Our second and final story is about a song.
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Speaker 1: But we're not going to be playing this song during
12:50
Speaker 1: the episode, and when you get to the end of
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Speaker 1: this story you'll see why. On an overcast, chilly sunday
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Speaker 1: in the fall of nineteen thirty two, thirty two year
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Speaker 1: old composer resid Oh Sharesh sat in his apartment in
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Speaker 1: Paris trying to write a new melody. He'd been at
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Speaker 1: it for hours, and it was not going well at all.
13:07
Speaker 1: Each time he jotted down a new combination of notes,
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Speaker 1: he'd just tear it up and toss it into his
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Speaker 1: trash bin, where there was already a pile of other
13:15
Speaker 1: discarded drafts. So Rezo was used to this kind of
13:18
Speaker 1: messy creative process. He had made a name for himself
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Speaker 1: as a musician in his home country of Hungary. Over
13:23
Speaker 1: the last decade. He'd written more than forty musical compositions
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Speaker 1: for various singers and artists, and a few had been
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Speaker 1: really successful, so Rezo knew he had the talent to
13:33
Speaker 1: be a huge star and to change people's lives with
13:35
Speaker 1: his music. But recently, you know, despite trying many different
13:39
Speaker 1: iterations and just allowing the messy creative process to take
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Speaker 1: hold and just kind of letting it run its course,
13:46
Speaker 1: Rezzo still just could not come up with any new
13:49
Speaker 1: good work, mainly because he was incredibly stressed out. So
13:54
Speaker 1: at this point in nineteen thirty two, Rezzo and many
13:57
Speaker 1: other people were very nervous about the state of the
14:00
Speaker 1: world and their future because there were really violent political
14:04
Speaker 1: views spreading across Europe, especially in Germany. This was still
14:08
Speaker 1: seven years before the start of World War Two, but
14:11
Speaker 1: Hitler and his Nazi Party were already starting to gain power,
14:14
Speaker 1: and Resso, who was Jewish, was worried about all the
14:18
Speaker 1: anti Jewish rhetoric that the Nazis were spreading. And while
14:21
Speaker 1: that was terrifying and kept Reso up at night, the
14:24
Speaker 1: more urgent worry he had on a daily basis that
14:27
Speaker 1: was really impeding his creativity was how to literally afford food,
14:32
Speaker 1: because the world was also in the middle of the
14:34
Speaker 1: Great Depression, which was a period of time in the
14:37
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties and thirties when multiple countries were dealing with
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Speaker 1: terrible economies and mass unemployment. Back in Reso's home country
14:45
Speaker 1: of Hungary, things were especially bad and getting worse. Banks
14:49
Speaker 1: and businesses were closing almost every day, and more than
14:52
Speaker 1: a quarter of the population was unemployed living in extreme poverty.
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Speaker 1: Resso had moved to Paris so we could find more opportunities. Paris,
15:01
Speaker 1: after all, was the art mecca of Europe, and even
15:04
Speaker 1: though the state of the world felt depressing, Rezzo thought
15:07
Speaker 1: that the creative energy there would inspire him to create
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Speaker 1: something beautiful amid all the darkness. But now Rezo sighed
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Speaker 1: and lean back to look around the tiny, drafty Parisian
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Speaker 1: apartment of his. He'd been here for months, and his
15:20
Speaker 1: fortunes certainly had not changed. He still didn't have any work,
15:23
Speaker 1: and he still could not seem to write anything good.
15:26
Speaker 1: But you know, Rezzo, he kept leaning back over and
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Speaker 1: trying to write, but it was like immediately he would
15:32
Speaker 1: tear it up, and he was just getting more and
15:34
Speaker 1: more frustrated, until finally he just did give up and
15:37
Speaker 1: put his head in his hands and basically said, I
15:39
Speaker 1: can't do this. It seemed like the harder he worked,
15:42
Speaker 1: and the harder he tried to ignore all the despair
15:45
Speaker 1: and sadness and awful things going on in the world,
15:48
Speaker 1: the worse he felt, and obviously the worse his work was.
15:51
Speaker 1: Like right now, he actually almost felt physically ill from
15:54
Speaker 1: kind of bottling up all these competing terrible feelings and thoughts.
15:58
Speaker 1: But as he thought about the fact that he was
15:59
Speaker 1: doing that, he suddenly decided, he just can't do that anymore.
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Speaker 1: He can't continue to keep that stuff in. It was
16:07
Speaker 1: at that moment that Rezo exhaled and let in all
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Speaker 1: the anguish he'd been trying to push away. Sadness and
16:14
Speaker 1: fear and quiet desperation just washed over him and into him,
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Speaker 1: and he didn't fight it anymore. He just suddenly started writing.
16:22
Speaker 1: His pen flew across the page as wave after wave
16:25
Speaker 1: of terrible emotion hit him, and when he was done,
16:29
Speaker 1: he ran over to his piano to play the notes
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Speaker 1: that he had just written, and as his fingers moved
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Speaker 1: across the keys, a very slow, sad melody began to
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Speaker 1: fill the air, and it was so beautiful and so
16:41
Speaker 1: sad that he actually felt like crying. As he heard it.
16:44
Speaker 1: When he was done playing, he just sat back in
16:47
Speaker 1: his chair, and now tears filled his eyes and his
16:50
Speaker 1: heart was pounding so fast that he knew he needed
16:52
Speaker 1: to get some air fast or he might actually just
16:55
Speaker 1: pass out. And so Resso went outside to take a
16:57
Speaker 1: walk and hope the fresh air would help him snap
17:00
Speaker 1: out of the wild emotional fog that had just come
17:03
Speaker 1: over him. But the Paris streets were gray and cold,
17:06
Speaker 1: and this new melody continued to ring in his ears.
17:10
Speaker 1: He was thrilled that he'd actually written something, something real
17:13
Speaker 1: and powerful for the first time and what felt like
17:15
Speaker 1: a long time, but it was such an intense expression
17:19
Speaker 1: of his own sadness that it almost hurt. Shortly into
17:22
Speaker 1: his walk, he heard somebody call his name. When he
17:24
Speaker 1: looked up, he saw it was his good friend, a
17:26
Speaker 1: poet named Loslow Yevor, who rushed right up to him.
17:29
Speaker 1: And right away, when Rezo saw his friend, he felt
17:31
Speaker 1: himself lightening up a little bit. He liked Laslow. They
17:35
Speaker 1: were both Hungarians in Paris, trying to make good art
17:37
Speaker 1: and a name for themselves, but neither of them had
17:40
Speaker 1: really done it yet. But as soon as Laslow reached
17:43
Speaker 1: Resso resou could tell that his friend seemed really upset
17:47
Speaker 1: about something too, and his friend told him that his
17:49
Speaker 1: fiance had just ended things with him and he was
17:51
Speaker 1: completely heartbroken. After Reso said that he was terribly sorry,
17:56
Speaker 1: the men just walked together in silence. They were both
17:59
Speaker 1: lost in their own sad, heavy feelings, and neither of
18:02
Speaker 1: them could think of anything to say, and without even
18:05
Speaker 1: meaning to, Resso just began whistling the song that he
18:08
Speaker 1: had just written. And when he did this, it was
18:10
Speaker 1: like the tune had an immediate effect on Laslow. His
18:14
Speaker 1: eyes welled up and he sort of began to cry.
18:17
Speaker 1: And also he began to sing along, using words from
18:21
Speaker 1: a very sad poem that he had recently written. Resso
18:24
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it, because, without even trying, Laslow's words were
18:28
Speaker 1: perfectly fit for his melody. And so as this sort
18:31
Speaker 1: of impromptu collaboration has begun, the men went from this
18:36
Speaker 1: really dark, gloomy mood to a purely excited one. They
18:39
Speaker 1: were so inspired that they rushed into a nearby restaurant
18:43
Speaker 1: to sit and work out the rest of the song,
18:45
Speaker 1: and before they knew it, Rezzo had written an entire
18:48
Speaker 1: composition with Laslow's lyrics and The song was about someone
18:52
Speaker 1: whose lover had just died and their desire to be
18:55
Speaker 1: reunited with them. When the men finished, they wanted to
18:58
Speaker 1: hear their song out loud, so they asked the restaurant's
19:01
Speaker 1: resident musicians to play it, and pretty soon their song,
19:05
Speaker 1: something that hadn't even existed a few hours ago, was
19:09
Speaker 1: blaring around the crowded restaurant, and as far as Reso
19:12
Speaker 1: and Laslow could tell, everybody inside was loving this song.
19:16
Speaker 1: Some of the restaurant patrons actually cried, and others closed
19:20
Speaker 1: their eyes and just kind of swayed to the sound.
19:23
Speaker 1: It was what Rezo had always hoped his music would do,
19:25
Speaker 1: which was truly affect those who heard it. Resu and
19:28
Speaker 1: Laslow looked at each other, and for the first time
19:31
Speaker 1: in days, they smiled. Rezzou and Laslow decided to call
19:34
Speaker 1: their song Gloomy Sunday, since it had been created on
19:37
Speaker 1: that hazy fall Sunday. They both had a feeling that
19:40
Speaker 1: this tune was very special and that it would finally
19:43
Speaker 1: be the thing that changed both of their lives. So
19:46
Speaker 1: over the next few months, they took the song around
19:48
Speaker 1: to producers and tried to get somebody to buy it
19:51
Speaker 1: and Finally someone did. A company agreed to publish the
19:54
Speaker 1: sheet music and record it. After that, Rezo went back
19:57
Speaker 1: to his shabby Parisian apartment and waited the song to
20:00
Speaker 1: take hold and the money to start pouring in. But
20:03
Speaker 1: that's not what happened. As the months passed by, Rezzo
20:07
Speaker 1: didn't hear Gloomy Sunday on the radio, or see it
20:10
Speaker 1: on any charts, or hear it in restaurants or performed
20:13
Speaker 1: in theaters. It was like it really had never existed
20:16
Speaker 1: at all, and this crushed Rezzo. He was even more
20:19
Speaker 1: upset and defeated than he had been before he had
20:22
Speaker 1: written it, because he'd gotten a taste of hope, and
20:26
Speaker 1: it felt even worse to fail. After that, the rest
20:28
Speaker 1: of Ressou's life and the state of the world got
20:31
Speaker 1: worse too. The Great Depression was still going strong, and
20:34
Speaker 1: as Hitler got more and more popular, people started to
20:38
Speaker 1: wonder if there was going to be a war. So
20:40
Speaker 1: Rezo and pretty much everyone else around him just sank
20:43
Speaker 1: further into their fears and worries and kept praying for
20:46
Speaker 1: something to change. Three years later, on a spring evening
21:00
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty five, Rezo was back in Hungary, walking
21:04
Speaker 1: down a street in the country's capital city, Budapest. He
21:07
Speaker 1: was on his way to a friend's house, but as
21:09
Speaker 1: he strode down the sidewalk, he heard a song coming
21:12
Speaker 1: from an open window. He stopped cold and his heart
21:15
Speaker 1: began to pound because he knew that song. It was his.
21:18
Speaker 1: It was Gloomy Sunday. Rezo had no idea how or
21:22
Speaker 1: why he was hearing his song, which as far as
21:24
Speaker 1: he knew, no one had really been that interested in.
21:27
Speaker 1: But it was completely shocking. I mean, someone he didn't
21:30
Speaker 1: know was listening to his song on the radio. That
21:34
Speaker 1: meant it was being put out on the airwaves and
21:36
Speaker 1: being consumed by the public. This was incredible, and so
21:38
Speaker 1: Reso just stood there, letting his own notes wash over
21:41
Speaker 1: him for the first time, you know, hearing this out
21:43
Speaker 1: in public. And then when it was done, he just
21:46
Speaker 1: stood there and just absolutely beamed. And after that, for months,
21:51
Speaker 1: Gloomy Sunday was everywhere. Reso heard it played at social gatherings,
21:56
Speaker 1: streaming from people's windows, street performers sang at the passer,
22:00
Speaker 1: and it was even performed at concert venues all over
22:03
Speaker 1: the city. And so by the end of the year
22:05
Speaker 1: it seemed like there was hardly anyone in Hungary who
22:07
Speaker 1: hadn't heard and loved his song. Rezzo even read in
22:11
Speaker 1: the papers that his song was being played in England,
22:14
Speaker 1: in France, and as far away as the United States,
22:17
Speaker 1: so Rezo knew that he had actually done it. He
22:21
Speaker 1: had realized his dream of being a successful, internationally recognized
22:25
Speaker 1: composer with a hit song that truly resonated with the public.
22:30
Speaker 1: A few months later, on a morning in late February
22:32
Speaker 1: of nineteen thirty six, Rezzo left his apartment and was
22:36
Speaker 1: heading out for the day, and on his way down
22:38
Speaker 1: the street, he passed by a newsstand and he noticed
22:42
Speaker 1: that one of the headlines mentioned his song, Gloomy Sunday. Initially,
22:46
Speaker 1: he was really excited to see that he was getting
22:48
Speaker 1: some press, so he immediately grabbed a copy and opened
22:52
Speaker 1: it up to read. But as his eyes scammed the page,
22:55
Speaker 1: his stomach flipped because this was not good press. Actually,
23:00
Speaker 1: what this article had to say was so terrible that
23:03
Speaker 1: Reso's first reaction was that he'd read it wrong, and
23:05
Speaker 1: so he read it again and again and again. But
23:08
Speaker 1: each time he read it, it just said the same
23:12
Speaker 1: horrible thing, and so Rezzo found himself starting to panic,
23:15
Speaker 1: Reso quickly shut the paper and just began looking around him,
23:18
Speaker 1: and he saw there were a few other people who
23:21
Speaker 1: were also by the newsstand, and they were reading the
23:23
Speaker 1: same paper, and they were all talking to one another
23:25
Speaker 1: in hushed voices and pointing at that headline about his song,
23:28
Speaker 1: and Rezo just stood there, listening to this unsettling murmur
23:33
Speaker 1: and feeling a wave of absolute horror wash over him.
23:36
Speaker 1: Over the next month, more and more headlines about Rezo's
23:39
Speaker 1: song continued to appear in the papers, and it was
23:42
Speaker 1: like each day they only got worse. And then the
23:45
Speaker 1: story went international, I mean, the Catholic Church weighed in
23:48
Speaker 1: on it, and then the police got involved. Finally, one afternoon,
23:52
Speaker 1: at the end of March in nineteen thirty six, Rezzo
23:55
Speaker 1: was sitting at his piano, staring down at the keys.
23:58
Speaker 1: He knew he should be right music, but instead he
24:01
Speaker 1: was just filled with dread, just like he had been
24:04
Speaker 1: every day since he first read that dreadful headline. And
24:07
Speaker 1: then suddenly there was a knock at the door, and
24:10
Speaker 1: when Rezo got up and answered it, a cold sweat
24:13
Speaker 1: broke out all over his body because it was the
24:15
Speaker 1: Budapest police and they wanted him to come down to
24:19
Speaker 1: the station. Rezzo's pulse raced with nerves, but at this
24:23
Speaker 1: point he wasn't surprised, because by now he knew that
24:26
Speaker 1: writing Gloomy Sunday had been a horrific mistake, because it
24:30
Speaker 1: would turn out Gloomy Sunday had been a very shockingly
24:35
Speaker 1: impactful song, just as Rezo thought he wanted it to be.
24:39
Speaker 1: But over the course of the last year, the police
24:41
Speaker 1: had begun finding its sheet music, or its written lyrics,
24:44
Speaker 1: or the actual song playing on record players at scenes
24:49
Speaker 1: of suicides. Dozens of people across Hungry Europe and the
24:54
Speaker 1: United States, from police officers to teenagers to wait staffed students,
24:59
Speaker 1: had taken their own lives basically while listening to Gloomy Sunday.
25:04
Speaker 1: These deaths were so widespread that a Hungarian archbishop actually
25:09
Speaker 1: wrote a letter to the general public begging them to
25:12
Speaker 1: stop hurting themselves, and multiple bands of the song itself
25:16
Speaker 1: were enacted across Europe, in England and the United States.
25:20
Speaker 1: On the day that the Budapest police knocked on Resou's door,
25:23
Speaker 1: they demanded that he stop sales of the song, and
25:27
Speaker 1: Rezu agreed, and eventually so did the song's publisher and
25:31
Speaker 1: his musical partner, Laslow and Resso's partner. Laslow was especially
25:35
Speaker 1: grief stricken by this whole thing because his fiance the
25:39
Speaker 1: one who had broken his heart on the day he
25:41
Speaker 1: had written this song with Rezzo. She ended up being
25:44
Speaker 1: one of the many suicide victims. Before she took her
25:46
Speaker 1: own life, she sent Laslo a telegram which simply said,
25:51
Speaker 1: gloomy Sunday. No one knows why Gloomy Sunday potentially caused
25:55
Speaker 1: the sudden wave of death. One theory is that people
25:59
Speaker 1: were already really suffering from depression and feeling hopeless because
26:04
Speaker 1: of the Great Depression and the worsening political climate, and
26:07
Speaker 1: the song's popularity was either a coincidence or sort of
26:10
Speaker 1: an unfortunate trigger. As for Rezzo, he was devastated by
26:14
Speaker 1: the legacy of his song. Even though it did technically
26:17
Speaker 1: live up to his original vision, it did deeply resonate
26:21
Speaker 1: with people and was unquestionably a hit, and over the years,
26:24
Speaker 1: despite all the negative associations with the song, it's been
26:28
Speaker 1: translated into twenty eight different languages and was even performed
26:31
Speaker 1: by legendary singers like Frank Sinatra and Billie Holliday. Initially,
26:36
Speaker 1: there was an estimated twenty suicides attributed to Gloomy Sunday
26:40
Speaker 1: across Europe and the United States. In the years that
26:43
Speaker 1: have followed, however, lore around the song has only grown,
26:47
Speaker 1: and some estimates put the death toll in the hundreds,
26:50
Speaker 1: although the numbers are difficult to verify. Rezzo never wrote
26:54
Speaker 1: another hit, and in fact, ultimately he followed in the
26:57
Speaker 1: footsteps of some of his listeners. He jumped out the
27:01
Speaker 1: window of his eighth floor apartment on another overcast gloomy
27:04
Speaker 1: Sunday and died two days later. Before I wrap this
27:09
Speaker 1: episode up, I want to say that if you are
27:12
Speaker 1: experiencing suicidal thoughts or suicidal ideations, or you're just struggling
27:16
Speaker 1: right now, number one, you're not alone. But number two,
27:20
Speaker 1: you really need to talk to someone. Don't hold that
27:22
Speaker 1: stuff in. Thank you so much for watching today's episode.
27:29
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of it in the
27:30
Speaker 1: comments below. And remember, we have a whole playlist of
27:34
Speaker 1: places you can't go episodes ready for you to binge
27:37
Speaker 1: right now, So go ahead and click here and give
27:40
Speaker 1: them a watch. All right, until next time, see it