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

Transcript

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

0:00
Speaker 1: Both of Today's stories are about just how hard it is.
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Speaker 2: To really know somebody.
0:05
Speaker 1: Basically, everybody beneath their exterior is oftentimes not what you
0:11
Speaker 1: think they are. But before we get into today's stories,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
0:16
Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place,
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Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two, three,
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Speaker 1: even four.
0:22
Speaker 2: Times every week.
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Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into
0:26
Speaker 1: the like Button's house and steal the glass tray inside
0:30
Speaker 1: of their microwave. Also, please subscribe to our channel and
0:33
Speaker 1: turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of
0:36
Speaker 1: our weekly outloads. Okay, let's get into today's stories. One
1:02
Speaker 1: afternoon in March of two thousand and four, a fifty
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Speaker 1: three year old handyman named Carl Fenwick sat on the
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Speaker 1: floor of a vacant studio apartment in the Rundown apartment
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Speaker 1: building where he lived and worked in northern England. The
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Speaker 1: apartment building was called the Cliff and it was across
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Speaker 1: the street from the ocean in the coastal town of
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Speaker 1: Seaton Carew. Karl was in the middle of painting the
1:21
Speaker 1: apartment and getting it ready for a new tenant, but
1:24
Speaker 1: he had stopped to eat some lunch and to read
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Speaker 1: a few chapters of one of his favorite spine novels.
1:28
Speaker 1: Carl loved spine novels and he had a few that
1:31
Speaker 1: he just read over and over again. But as he
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Speaker 1: turned the page, something out the window caught his eye.
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Speaker 1: It was his landlady Anne Darwin, who lived in a
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Speaker 1: big Victorian house right next door, and at this moment
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Speaker 1: she was standing in front of her house with her
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Speaker 1: two adult sons, Anthony and Mark, and they were all
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Speaker 1: dressed in black, and each were holding a wreath made
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Speaker 1: of flowers. And now Carl felt a little bit like
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Speaker 1: a spy himself as he secretly watched the family of
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Speaker 1: three walk across the street together to this grassy.
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Speaker 2: Knoll that looked out over the water.
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Speaker 1: Anne and her sons bowed their heads and Carl could
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Speaker 1: tell they were very likely praying, and then all three
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Speaker 1: of them tossed their wreaths into the ocean. Carl knew
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Speaker 1: that Anne and her sons were honoring Ann's husband, John Darwin,
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Speaker 1: who had actually died in a kayaking accident two years ago,
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Speaker 1: basically in the water.
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Speaker 2: Right out in front of their house.
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Speaker 1: Carl could also see that Anne was visibly shaking, so
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Speaker 1: he knew she must be crying, and when he saw that,
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Speaker 1: Carl himself started to feel sad. Because Carl cared deeply
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Speaker 1: for Anne, he was not just her.
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Speaker 2: Handyman and tenant.
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Speaker 1: They had been secretly romantically involved ever since he had
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Speaker 1: moved into the cliff almost two years ago. But Carl
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Speaker 1: had actually known Ann for most of his life and
2:45
Speaker 1: had been in love with her for decades. So Carl
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Speaker 1: and Anne were both from a town that was near
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Speaker 1: Seaton Carew, and Carl had first seen Anne on the
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Speaker 1: school bus in high school, but he hadn't worked up
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Speaker 1: the courage to say hello, and soon after that he
2:58
Speaker 1: left to go to college, but he had never stopped
3:01
Speaker 1: thinking about her. After college, Carl had started a family
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Speaker 1: of his own and became a school teacher, but he
3:07
Speaker 1: lost everything after making some really bad real estate investments
3:10
Speaker 1: a few years ago, and his financial troubles had led
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Speaker 1: to legal trouble, and finally he left his family and
3:17
Speaker 1: gone on the run from the police, living in the
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Speaker 1: woods outside of Seaton Carew. That's when he and Anne
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Speaker 1: had found their way back to each other one night
3:25
Speaker 1: in a parking lot near his campsite, Carl saw Anne
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Speaker 1: pull in in her car looking very upset, and.
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Speaker 2: This time he did approach her.
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Speaker 1: It turned out that Anne's husband had only just had
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Speaker 1: his kayaking accident a few weeks earlier, and she was
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Speaker 1: obviously in a very bad place emotionally because of it.
3:42
Speaker 1: She was also desperate for help around the properties that
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Speaker 1: she and her husband had owned together, so that same
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Speaker 1: night she actually let Carl move into the cliff, and
3:50
Speaker 1: once Carl moved in, he and Anne began a somewhat
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Speaker 1: unconventional romance. Carl would spend his days working to fix
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Speaker 1: up the apartments inside the cliff, and then he would
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Speaker 1: spend his nights with Anne in her house. It was
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Speaker 1: weird for both of them to keep their relationship secret,
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Speaker 1: but they both had their reasons. For Carl, I mean,
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Speaker 1: he was just afraid of being arrested if anybody knew
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Speaker 1: where he was.
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Speaker 2: I mean, he was on the run.
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Speaker 1: And for Anne, she felt like her family and friends
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Speaker 1: expected her to be a grieving widow basically forever, so
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Speaker 1: she didn't want to look like she basically immediately moved.
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Speaker 2: On from her dead husband.
4:26
Speaker 1: Now, at some point the two of them hoped that
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Speaker 1: Anne could sell her properties and that they could move
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Speaker 1: far away together and start over, but they both knew
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Speaker 1: that was easier said than done, because Carl would first
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Speaker 1: have to figure out a way to leave the country
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Speaker 1: without getting arrested. Now, Carl watched as Anne and her
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Speaker 1: sons made their way back across the street, and he
4:47
Speaker 1: went back to reading his spine novel, and as he
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Speaker 1: read the story, he made mental notes about the plotline and.
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Speaker 2: The main character.
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Speaker 1: Because Carl was actually working on a plan that maybe
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Speaker 1: would allow him and Anne to start their new life
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Speaker 1: time together, he was actually using all of these spine
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Speaker 1: novels basically as inspiration for this plan. He actually smiled
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Speaker 1: to himself as he thought about how brilliant he was being,
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Speaker 1: and he pictured, you know that someday in the future,
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Speaker 1: an author would likely write a spine novel about him.
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Speaker 1: It would take another two years for Karl to finally
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Speaker 1: work out his plan, but finally, one morning in July
5:22
Speaker 1: of two thousand and six, he was ready to put
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Speaker 1: it all into action. On this morning, he walked through
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Speaker 1: the airport in near seat and crew, trying to act casual.
5:31
Speaker 1: As he approached the ticketing counter, he handed his passport
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Speaker 1: to the gate agent and then glanced over his shoulder,
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Speaker 1: looking back to where Anne was. She was standing at
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Speaker 1: the back of the line. She met his eyes, but
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Speaker 1: then quickly he sort of looked away because they had
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Speaker 1: agreed to pretend they didn't know each other. When Carl
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Speaker 1: turned back around, he saw the ticketing agent was now
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Speaker 1: staring intently at his passport, and he felt his heart
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Speaker 1: rate begin to pick up. So this passport that Carl
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Speaker 1: was using was a fake. He had created a new
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Speaker 1: identity for himself using the birth and death records of
6:02
Speaker 1: a baby that had been born in the same year
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Speaker 1: as him, which was an idea from the Spine novel
6:06
Speaker 1: The Day of the Jackal, about an assassin who constantly
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Speaker 1: changes identities, and if it worked, he and Anne would
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Speaker 1: be able to travel to Panama in Central America. Carl's
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Speaker 1: plan was he was going to stay there permanently if
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Speaker 1: he got to Panama, and he hoped that Anne would
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Speaker 1: love it enough.
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Speaker 2: That she would eventually move there too.
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Speaker 1: Carl had read a brochure on Panama that called it
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Speaker 1: a place for schemers, dreamers, and nutcases, which already made
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Speaker 1: him feel right at home. Plus the country was really
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Speaker 1: cheap compared to the UK and far away from anyone
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Speaker 1: who knew them, so we thought this was like the
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Speaker 1: perfect place for them to move to. But all of
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Speaker 1: that depended on this fake passport being convincing enough that
6:45
Speaker 1: the ticketing agent didn't say anything, And finally, after what
6:48
Speaker 1: felt like a very long time, the agent looked up
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Speaker 1: from the passport and smiled and handed it back to Carl,
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Speaker 1: along with his ticket. Carl had to physically stop himself
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Speaker 1: from literally sighing with relief when this happened, and instead
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Speaker 1: he just, you know, as casually as he could, thanked
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Speaker 1: the agent, and as he walked off, he turned and
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Speaker 1: he sort of winked at Anne, who was still in line.
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Speaker 1: After decades of reading about international spies, Carl kind of
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Speaker 1: felt like one himself, and he liked this feeling a lot,
7:18
Speaker 1: and soon he would be living permanently as John Jones,
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Speaker 1: an international man of mystery. A few days later, Carl
7:27
Speaker 1: sat beside Anne in the back of a jeep as
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Speaker 1: a real estate agent drove them through the Panamanian countryside.
7:33
Speaker 1: They sped along the highway into the jungle, and as
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Speaker 1: they did, Carl felt more alive than he had in years.
7:39
Speaker 1: They came around to bend in the road and suddenly
7:41
Speaker 1: they were driving along a sandy beach and the realtor
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Speaker 1: pulled over and said to get out and take a
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Speaker 1: look and see if this plot of Ann felt like
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Speaker 1: it could be their new home. So Carl figured that
7:51
Speaker 1: once Anne sold the cliff apartment building that she owned
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Speaker 1: and combined that money with the money Ann had inherited
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Speaker 1: from her husband's life insurance policies, they'd have her und
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Speaker 1: six hundred thousand pounds in savings, which was around eight
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Speaker 1: hundred thousand American dollars. Now, that was more than enough
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Speaker 1: money to get set up, but they were going to
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Speaker 1: need some kind of income in Panama as well, and
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Speaker 1: Carl wanted to buy this land, in particular in the
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Speaker 1: jungle and use it to open up an.
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Speaker 2: Eco lodge resort.
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Speaker 1: Eco lodges were becoming really popular in Central America, and
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Speaker 1: Taurus paid a lot of money to stay in beachside
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Speaker 1: cabins for a week and go canoeing and horseback riding
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Speaker 1: and jungle trekking Carl also wanted to build a villa
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Speaker 1: on the property for just him and Ann, right there
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Speaker 1: on the beach, so he led Anne down to the
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Speaker 1: edge of the water and pointed to the tree line
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Speaker 1: on the.
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Speaker 2: Other side of the bay, and he told her to imagine.
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Speaker 1: A row of cabins and a dock for a bunch
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Speaker 1: of canoes, and a path that led to a horse stable.
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Speaker 1: And then he pointed to the opposite side of the
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Speaker 1: bay and told her to imagine a beautiful seaside villa
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Speaker 1: where the two of them would live. Anne kicked off
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Speaker 1: her sandals and walked into the water, and Carl could
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Speaker 1: tell that she was picturing what their lives might look
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Speaker 1: like here. To Carl, it was like years of careful
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Speaker 1: planning were finally paying off. I mean, this had been
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Speaker 1: like the best week of his relationship with Anne ever.
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Speaker 1: They had finally been able to act like a normal
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Speaker 1: couple for the first time. They had gone out in
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Speaker 1: public to dinner every night together and walked down the
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Speaker 1: street holding hands. Carl loved living as John Jones. He
9:19
Speaker 1: felt free and weirdly enough, despite the fact that his
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Speaker 1: identity was fake. He felt like his old self again,
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Speaker 1: the way he used to feel before he got tangled
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Speaker 1: up with all of his debt. By the time they
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Speaker 1: got back to the realtor's office, that afternoon, Anne said
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Speaker 1: that she was completely taken with Panama and that yes,
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Speaker 1: she did want to move here with Carl, and that
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Speaker 1: when she got back to England she would get her
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Speaker 1: affairs in order and get ready for this big move.
9:43
Speaker 1: Carl beamed, and their realtor grabbed a camera and took
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Speaker 1: a picture of the three of them to commemorate the
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Speaker 1: moment that they had decided to change their lives forever.
9:54
Speaker 1: Hey guys, I have some pretty big news I know
9:57
Speaker 1: many of you are excited to hear. I am going
10:00
Speaker 1: to be doing another live storytelling tour this year. You
10:04
Speaker 1: can find me in a bunch of cities, including new
10:06
Speaker 1: ones on the West Coast and across the United States
10:09
Speaker 1: where I have never played before. Plus, I'm really excited
10:12
Speaker 1: to share that I will also be performing in an
10:15
Speaker 1: international city, since so many of you have been asking
10:18
Speaker 1: me to visit. We put together an absolutely amazing show
10:22
Speaker 1: with a whole bunch of awesome stories, including stories you
10:25
Speaker 1: will not hear anywhere else, new content you can only
10:29
Speaker 1: get if you come to this show and guess what.
10:31
Speaker 1: Tickets for this tour are available right now at tour
10:35
Speaker 1: dot ballinstudios dot com. In terms of the types of
10:38
Speaker 1: tickets you can buy. They range from general admission to
10:41
Speaker 1: VIP again that's tour dot ballinstudios dot com.
10:45
Speaker 2: I'm also going to be giving.
10:46
Speaker 1: Away a trip to meet me at one of my
10:49
Speaker 1: live shows, and so if you want to enterpre your
10:51
Speaker 1: chance to win that, all you have to do is
10:53
Speaker 1: donate to win at FANDM dot com slash mister ballin
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Speaker 1: again that's FA n D i EM dot com slash
11:03
Speaker 1: mister ballin. Get your tickets and enter the sweepstakes today.
11:06
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see you at the show. It
11:08
Speaker 1: took another full year for Anne to sell her properties
11:11
Speaker 1: and seat in Carew and to tell her family that
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Speaker 1: she was moving to Panama, of all places. They had
11:16
Speaker 1: all been shocked at first, but eventually they started to
11:20
Speaker 1: understand that she really needed to get away from England
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Speaker 1: and all the unhappy memories of her old life. Shortly afterwards,
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Speaker 1: Carl bought a condominium in Panama City so that he
11:30
Speaker 1: and Anne would have a place to live while they
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Speaker 1: built their resort, and then finally, on October twenty second,
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Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, An moved to Panama permanently. However,
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Speaker 1: when Carl picked her up at the airport that night
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Speaker 1: and drove her to their new home. He had to
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Speaker 1: fake a smile because he had recently discovered some news
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Speaker 1: that was going to throw their new life into jeopardy,
11:52
Speaker 1: and so he gave Anne a quick tour of the
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Speaker 1: penthouse apartment and then he asked her to take a
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Speaker 1: seat at the kitchen table. And immediately and since something
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Speaker 1: was off and looked very worried, Karl took a deep
12:02
Speaker 1: breath and then he told Anne that he was really
12:05
Speaker 1: excited to build their resort together, but there was one
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Speaker 1: last unexpected obstacle standing in the way of their dreams.
12:12
Speaker 1: He said he had only learned about this obstacle a
12:14
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, and he had been waiting for the
12:17
Speaker 1: right moment for them to talk about it. He had
12:19
Speaker 1: just found out that the Panamanian government had instituted new
12:23
Speaker 1: procedures for anyone moving to Panama from another country, and
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Speaker 1: now English citizens needed to present a certificate of good
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Speaker 1: conduct from the British police to prove they had no
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Speaker 1: criminal record. Now this was no problem for Anne, but
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Speaker 1: it was a huge problem for Karl because he was
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Speaker 1: living in Panama as John Jones. So if the police
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Speaker 1: looked into his identity. They would quickly learn that John
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Speaker 1: Jones was a fake identity. Anne put her head in
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Speaker 1: her hands and just said, what are we going to do?
12:57
Speaker 1: And Carl said he didn't have an answer yet, but
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Speaker 1: promised he would figure something out. The next morning, Carl
13:03
Speaker 1: walked with Anne as they window shopped on a busy
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Speaker 1: street in Panama City, and Carl thought about ways that
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Speaker 1: he could get around this awful new procedure. He didn't
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Speaker 1: want to live in this country illegally because he was
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Speaker 1: done hiding. I mean, the whole point of coming here
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Speaker 1: to Panama was so that he and Anne could live
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Speaker 1: together out in the open. He followed Anne into an
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Speaker 1: old vintage shop so that she could look at furniture,
13:23
Speaker 1: and as he wandered around the shop, he came across
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Speaker 1: a bookshelf full of old books, including a few spy novels. Now,
13:29
Speaker 1: all the books were in Spanish, so he couldn't understand
13:32
Speaker 1: any of them, but he still picked one up and
13:34
Speaker 1: began flipping through it, you know, hoping that maybe it
13:37
Speaker 1: would inspire him. And as he did this, he did
13:39
Speaker 1: feel inspired, but it was not by this book. He
13:42
Speaker 1: remembered the plot line of a different spy novel that
13:45
Speaker 1: he had read over a decade earlier. Even when he
13:48
Speaker 1: had been reading the novel at the time, he had
13:50
Speaker 1: thought that that plot line was too crazy to work
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Speaker 1: in real life. But as they walked around that afternoon,
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Speaker 1: Carl kept coming back to that idea, that plot line,
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Speaker 1: and started to see how he might be able to
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Speaker 1: make that work. Finally, at dinner that night, Carl told
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Speaker 1: Ann that he was pretty sure he knew how to
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Speaker 1: solve their visa problem once and for all. He warned
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Speaker 1: her that the idea was risky, but he was confident
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Speaker 1: that he could pull it off. Six weeks later, on
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Speaker 1: the afternoon of Sunday, December second, two thousand and seven,
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Speaker 1: Carl was back in the United Kingdom wandering around the.
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Speaker 2: West End of London.
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Speaker 1: He did his best to look very confused as he
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Speaker 1: walked through Christmas displays and waited until a store clerk
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Speaker 1: came over to ask if he was okay, and Carl
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Speaker 1: gave her a sort of shy smile and then asked,
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Speaker 1: why are all the Christmas decorations up? And when she
14:40
Speaker 1: said it was December, you know it's Christmas. That's why
14:44
Speaker 1: he pretended to be confused about what day it was
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Speaker 1: and where he was, and then he asked the clerk
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Speaker 1: for some help, and just like he had hoped, the
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Speaker 1: store clerk frowned with concern and then escorted him into
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Speaker 1: the nearest police station and she told the officer at
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Speaker 1: the front desk that something was.
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Speaker 2: Really wrong with this guy.
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Speaker 1: The officer smiled at Carl and asked what the problem was.
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Speaker 1: And now Carl knew that for his plan to work,
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Speaker 1: he was going to have to give an award winning
15:10
Speaker 1: acting performance here, so he kind of scratched at his.
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Speaker 2: Head and then.
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Speaker 1: Told the officer that he had lost his whole family.
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Speaker 1: The officer sat up and asked for his name, and
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Speaker 1: for the first time in two years, Carl didn't say
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Speaker 1: John Jones. Instead, he gave the officer his real name.
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Speaker 1: Because Carl had realized that the only way to truly
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Speaker 1: feel like his old self and Panama was to actually
15:36
Speaker 1: become his old self and reclaim the old identity that
15:40
Speaker 1: he had left behind. But to reclaim this identity without
15:45
Speaker 1: also reclaiming all his old dead and legal problems was
15:48
Speaker 1: going to require one.
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Speaker 2: More huge lie.
15:52
Speaker 1: So Carl explained to the police officer that he knew
15:55
Speaker 1: his name, but nothing else about himself because he said
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Speaker 1: he had amnesia. The officer just stared at Carl, obviously dumbfounded.
16:04
Speaker 1: Then he turned and called for a supervisor. From this
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Speaker 1: moment onward, things moved fast, but not in the direction
16:11
Speaker 1: that Carl or anyone else had expected. Carl had believed
16:15
Speaker 1: that if he just claimed he had amnesia, it'd be
16:18
Speaker 1: like wiping the slate clean in England. He could just
16:21
Speaker 1: resume his old name and his old life and make
16:23
Speaker 1: a plan to pay back his creditors now that he
16:25
Speaker 1: was in a better financial situation with the Eco Lodge,
16:28
Speaker 1: and he'd be able to get a real passport with
16:31
Speaker 1: his real name and live happily and truly openly in Panama.
16:35
Speaker 1: But this was not what happened, because almost immediately newspapers
16:39
Speaker 1: caught wind of Carl's story and it made the front page.
16:42
Speaker 1: Because to the rest of the world, Carl had this
16:45
Speaker 1: incredible story. He had supposedly spent years wandering around as
16:51
Speaker 1: a homeless person, never knowing his true identity, and so
16:55
Speaker 1: almost overnight, Carl became big time international news. The entire
17:01
Speaker 1: world wanted to know where had he been the past
17:05
Speaker 1: few years. Now, Carl had not expected any of this publicity,
17:10
Speaker 1: so he and Anne were both horrified when two days
17:14
Speaker 1: later a British newspaper published a photograph from an obscure
17:18
Speaker 1: real estate website. And in this picture Carl can be
17:22
Speaker 1: seen standing with Anne and their realtor and beaming with
17:26
Speaker 1: happiness after a day of viewing properties in Panama. And
17:31
Speaker 1: this photograph was very, very bad for Carl because it
17:34
Speaker 1: proved that he had not been wandering around homeless with
17:38
Speaker 1: amnesia in the UK like he had said to Polie.
17:41
Speaker 2: But this photo was really bad.
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Speaker 1: Really the worst for Anne because it proved something more
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Speaker 1: shocking and more terrible than regular old financial fraud. This
17:53
Speaker 1: photo revealed a story so outlandish that it sounds like
17:57
Speaker 1: it must have come directly out of a fixal spy novel,
18:01
Speaker 1: because it would turn out Anne was not the grieving
18:05
Speaker 1: widow she pretended to be, and her handyman boyfriend Carl
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Speaker 1: Fenwick was not Carl Fenwick. Carl's real name, the one
18:13
Speaker 1: he had given that police officer in the UK when
18:15
Speaker 1: he pretended to have amnesia, was John Darwin. He was
18:20
Speaker 1: Anne Darwin's dead husband. He and Anne had faked his
18:25
Speaker 1: death in that kayaking accident to escape his debt and
18:28
Speaker 1: so that he and Anne could claim life insurance money.
18:32
Speaker 1: Not even their own kids knew that their father was
18:35
Speaker 1: still alive. Only Anne and obviously John did. John and
18:40
Speaker 1: Anne were both soon arrested for fraud and wound up
18:42
Speaker 1: serving more than three years in prison. John's very unhappy
18:46
Speaker 1: ending does in some ways mirror the ending of the
18:49
Speaker 1: very book The Day of the Jackal, which he used
18:52
Speaker 1: for inspiration. In that book, the assassin does lots of
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Speaker 1: impressive things to change his identity, but in the end
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Speaker 1: he still gets caught. Today's second and final story is
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Speaker 1: about a man who makes an unforgivable mistake and pays
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Speaker 1: dearly for it. At around noon on October ninth, twenty eighteen,
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Speaker 1: a fifty two year old Russian engineer named Oleg Blogosov
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Speaker 1: sat in the common room of a tiny research station
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Speaker 1: on a remote island in Antarctica. The common room was
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Speaker 1: like the general hangout multipurpose area at the station, and
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Speaker 1: Oleg was in there watching TV while his coworker Sergei
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Speaker 1: sat in a chair nearby reading a book.
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Speaker 2: They were both drinking alcohol and had been for.
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Speaker 1: Some time because when they weren't working, there really was
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Speaker 1: not much else to do besides sit around and drink.
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Speaker 1: So Oleg had been at the station for about six
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Speaker 1: six months. He was part of a fourteen person crew
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Speaker 1: that was doing a year round research stint, observing the
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Speaker 1: island's ocean and weather patterns and collecting data for their
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Speaker 1: home country of Russia. Oleg was primarily in charge of
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Speaker 1: maintaining the station's machinery and equipment, which took up most
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Speaker 1: of his time, but there was still quite a bit
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Speaker 1: of downtime which Oleg spent inside because being outside in
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Speaker 1: Antarctica was generally pretty dangerous. There were hundreds of these
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Speaker 1: lethal deep ice carasses that you could barely see that
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Speaker 1: if you fell into, your dead, couldn't get out again,
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Speaker 1: or the fall alone would kill you. Obviously freezing temperatures,
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Speaker 1: there's lethal violent lizards. I mean, this is not a
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Speaker 1: place built for people. So Oleg and his coworkers really
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Speaker 1: only went outside when their work required it.
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Speaker 2: Otherwise they stayed put.
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Speaker 1: But inside any of the various buildings at the station,
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Speaker 1: their entertainment options were limited. I mean, there was just
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Speaker 1: this two channel TV set, There was a small gym,
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Speaker 1: there was.
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Speaker 2: A nearby church, and there was a.
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Speaker 1: Library and at this point, Oleg was pretty much sick
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Speaker 1: of everything. I mean, he was even tired of the library,
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Speaker 1: and he loved to read, but the library was really
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Speaker 1: small and he basically read pretty much all the books
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Speaker 1: that were in there. His colleague, serge, who was sitting
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Speaker 1: right next to him, he loved reading too, and books
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Speaker 1: were something they both spent a lot of time talking about.
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Speaker 1: So since Oleg wasn't finding anything good to watch on
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Speaker 1: TV and was feeling bored and kind of stir crazy,
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Speaker 1: he decided to see if serge wanted to get into
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Speaker 1: one of their deep literary conversations. And so Oleg turned
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Speaker 1: off the TV and tossed the remote into the chair
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Speaker 1: and took a swig of his drink, and then he
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Speaker 1: glanced over to the corner where Sergei was reading the
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Speaker 1: novel Fight Club.
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Speaker 2: Oleg had already read Fight Club.
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Speaker 1: It was about this depressed man with insomnia who meets
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Speaker 1: a charismatic stranger and starts the secret club where people
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Speaker 1: literally fight each other. Oleg thought the book was amazing,
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Speaker 1: mostly because it had an epic plot twist at the end,
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Speaker 1: and so Oleg walked over and asked, that's what Sergei
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Speaker 1: thought of the book? So far, but Sergai just kind
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Speaker 1: of ignored him. But o'legg wasn't surprised. He knew Sergei
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Speaker 1: really well since the two of them had worked very
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Speaker 1: closely together on various research projects over the years, so
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Speaker 1: he knew Sergei was generally a very quiet person and
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Speaker 1: not a big talker, whereas Olegg loved getting into big, long,
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Speaker 1: passionate discussions. Sometimes Olegg could get Sergei to open up
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Speaker 1: by asking questions and telling jokes, but today did not
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Speaker 1: seem to be one of those days. Now, this was
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Speaker 1: definitely frustrating for Olegg, but he could tell you know,
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Speaker 1: Sergei wanted to be left alone, so he stood up and.
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Speaker 2: Left to go find something else to do.
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Speaker 1: Oleg spent some time just kind of wandering around the station,
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Speaker 1: checking research logs and sip in his drink. He thought
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Speaker 1: about going outside just for a minute to get some
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Speaker 1: fresh air, but when he checked the temperature he saw
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Speaker 1: that it was blow freezing, so he decided against it,
22:52
Speaker 1: and so after three hours of trying to kill time,
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Speaker 1: Oleg finally just.
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Speaker 2: Headed to the cafeteria to get a bite top.
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Speaker 1: It was around three p when Oleg stepped into the
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Speaker 1: dining room, feeling a bit flushed from all the booze
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Speaker 1: he'd been drinking, and the first thing he saw when
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Speaker 1: he got inside of there was Sergei, and Sergey was
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Speaker 1: at a table still reading Fight Club, just like he'd
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Speaker 1: been doing earlier in the common room. So Oleg got
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Speaker 1: some food and went over to sit with Sergey and
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Speaker 1: see if now maybe he was more open to chatting,
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Speaker 1: and to his surprise, Sergei was. When Oleg sat down,
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Speaker 1: Sergei put his book down and looked up ready to talk,
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Speaker 1: possibly because he'd also had a lot to drink and
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Speaker 1: was feeling kind of chatty. And so the two men
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Speaker 1: began discussing the book Fight Club, and quickly their conversation
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Speaker 1: got really energetic because they were both drunk and.
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Speaker 2: Excited about what they were saying.
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Speaker 1: And then Oleg made what he thought was a fantastic
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Speaker 1: point about the book and what it all meant. To Oleg,
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Speaker 1: it seemed like everything was going great, but all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden, after making this point, Oleg noticed that serge
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Speaker 1: had had gone really quiet, and Oleg, who could read
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Speaker 1: Sergei well by this point, knew what this meant. Sergei
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Speaker 1: was done talking and wanted some space, so Oleg looked
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Speaker 1: down at his watch. He actually did need to get
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Speaker 1: some more work done before the day was over, and
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Speaker 1: he was about to look up and tell Sergei that
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Speaker 1: he was going to go leave and check one of
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Speaker 1: their weather instruments.
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Speaker 2: But when he looked up from.
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Speaker 1: His watch, Sergei was gone, and at that same exact moment,
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Speaker 1: a wild scream cut through the air right behind Oleg.
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Speaker 1: A few minutes later, in another building, the research station's
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Speaker 1: manager was in his office going through some paperwork when
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Speaker 1: his door suddenly flew open, and when the manager looked up,
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Speaker 1: he saw that one of his employees was standing in
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Speaker 1: the doorway, looking completely panicked. The employee's eyes were wide
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Speaker 1: and his breath was ragged, like he was in shock.
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Speaker 1: And when the employee explained why he was so upset,
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Speaker 1: the manager shot to his feet and told the employee
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Speaker 1: not to move. He then grabbed his coat and flew
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Speaker 1: out the door into the freezing cold. The manager pulled
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Speaker 1: on his coat as he ran across the ice packed
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Speaker 1: ground to the building where the cafeteria was, and the
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Speaker 1: whole way he just felt his panic growing and growing
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Speaker 1: because what that employee had just said had never ever
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Speaker 1: happened at their research station before. He wasn't even sure
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Speaker 1: if it had happened in the entire continent of Antarctica before.
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Speaker 1: When the manager finally got to the cafeteria, he flung
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Speaker 1: the door open and looked inside, and immediately he felt
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Speaker 1: sick to his stomach. It would turn out Oleg and
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Speaker 1: Sergei had been coworkers for a long long time, and
25:38
Speaker 1: they did know each other really well. And what that
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Speaker 1: meant was they knew each other so well that Oleg
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Speaker 1: had sort of learned what specifically really annoyed, and Oleg
25:52
Speaker 1: used this knowledge whenever he got bored and wanted to
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Speaker 1: find a way to entertain himself. The way Oleg would
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Speaker 1: intentionally upset Sgi was by violating a serious rule that
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Speaker 1: virtually every human being knows not to violate, even if
26:08
Speaker 1: even if you've never heard the rule explicitly.
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Speaker 2: You know you don't do this.
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Speaker 1: Every time Sergei would start a new book, Oleg would
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Speaker 1: wait until he got about halfway through and then tell
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Speaker 1: him the ending.
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Speaker 2: This was not just a one time thing.
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Speaker 1: Whenever they talked about books, Oleg repeatedly ruined them.
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Speaker 2: For Sergi, which always made.
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Speaker 1: Sgi really really mad, and that day in the cafeteria,
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Speaker 1: when Oleg sat down with Sergei, he didn't just make
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Speaker 1: a great point about Fight Club. He told Sgi how
26:39
Speaker 1: it ended, and don't worry if you haven't read it
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Speaker 1: or you haven't seen the movie, we are not going
26:43
Speaker 1: to ruin the twist for you, because it is amazing.
26:46
Speaker 2: You should check it out.
26:47
Speaker 1: But Oleg did and Sgai was very drunk, and like Oleg,
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Speaker 1: he had also been very restless and tense from having
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Speaker 1: been cooped up in this isolated station for months on end,
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Speaker 1: and so this time and Oleg told him the ending,
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Speaker 1: Sergei completely snapped. He grabbed the knife from the kitchen,
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Speaker 1: walked behind Oleg and began repeatedly stabbing him in the chest,
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Speaker 1: while allegedly screaming didn't see that coming, did you. Oncegi
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Speaker 1: calmed down, he was so shocked by what he'd done
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Speaker 1: that he immediately turned himself into the station's manager. He
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Speaker 1: was then transported back to Russia and rested, but he
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Speaker 1: was eventually acquitted since he had no previous record. Oleg's
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Speaker 1: heart was damaged in the attack, but amazingly, he would
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Speaker 1: survive after being transported to a hospital.
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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching today's episode. Let me
27:44
Speaker 2: know what you thought of it in the comments below,
27:46
Speaker 2: and remember, we
27:47
Speaker 1: Have a whole playlist of places you Can't go episodes
27:51
Speaker 1: ready for you to binge right now, So go ahead
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Speaker 1: and click here and give them a watch, all right,
27:56
Speaker 1: until next time see it.