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He tried to outrun a 14,000 lb vehicle · Crime and Horror

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you four stories that each
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: appear to be headed toward disaster, but in each one
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: there will be a big final reveal that will completely
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: change what you thought that story was about. But before
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: you come to the right place, because that's all we do,
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• 0:26
  Speaker 1: make the like button a burrito for lunch, but don't
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: tell them it's made with cheese and.
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  Speaker 2: Soft cat food.
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• 0:38
  Speaker 1: let's get into today's stories. On the morning of May seventh,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one, a fifty year old man named Harland
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: wiped down the counters inside of the Shell gas station
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: that he managed in Corbin, Kentucky. He was feeling pretty
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: anxious because a supervisor and a district manager from Shell's
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: corporate headquarters were coming to inspect his station that day
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  Speaker 1: and he really needed this visit to go perfectly. So
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Harland had been running this Shell station for a few
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: months now, and he had big ambitions For one thing,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: he wanted to start selling food out of his station
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  Speaker 1: because truckers that stopped here were always asking him where
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  Speaker 1: they could get a meal, and he's thinking, why not
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  Speaker 1: just make their meals here, you know, like make some
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: more money they can buy their food from us. Plus,
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  Speaker 1: Harland actually was a cook himself, and he figured he
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: could make the food.
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  Speaker 2: And then another thing he wanted to do.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Was just improve the station's advertising to draw in more customers. Now,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the food idea was harmless enough, because really it was
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: just an idea. But as for the advertising ambition, you know,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to increase advertising for his station, Harland had already begun
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: doing that and it really hadn't gone well because he
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: had sort of stirred up a big fight with another
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: gas station owner, this guy named Matt Stewart. Matt said
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: that basically Harland was stealing all his business because Harland
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: had actually begun painting these signs advertising for his station,
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  Speaker 1: and he was putting them up all over town.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, Matt was basically.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Saying, that's driving me out of business. And so Matt
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: had begun painting over Harland's signs, so it was like
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: a feud between them. So today, during this big visit
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: from corporate, Harland was pretty desperate to show only the
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: good things that were going on and to keep his
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: feud with Matt Stewart under wraps so that his bosses
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: could see that he had everything under control.
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  Speaker 2: He had good ideas.
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  Speaker 1: He had big ambitions, and he was a guy worth
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  Speaker 1: keeping around. Just then, Harlan saw a car pull up
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: outside the station and two men in suits got out,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: so Harland ran out to greet them. He shook their hands,
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  Speaker 1: and he told them about how well his business was doing,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: and he was about to take them inside and show
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: them around when a boy suddenly came running into the
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  Speaker 1: parking lot with an urgent look on his face. The
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: boy came up to Harland and told him that he
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: had just seen Matt Stewart painting over one of his
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: signs again. And when Harland heard this, even though he
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: was doing his best to be very even keel, to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: show how responsible he was, you know, in front of
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: these executives, when he heard this, his temper boiled. It
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: was like the exact thing he hoped would not happen
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: today had happened immediately.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: And so now all.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Harland wanted to do was show his bosses, these two
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: guys in suits, one of which was his direct supervisor,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: that he was not someone to be pushed around. And
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: so Harland marched over to these these two guys in
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  Speaker 1: suits to their car. He gets in and he tells
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  Speaker 1: the two men in suits to get in the car
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  Speaker 1: and drive. Moments later, Harland was in the backseat of
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  Speaker 1: the car as it sped down the highway. His supervisor
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  Speaker 1: was driving, and the district manager was in the passenger seat,
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  Speaker 1: and Harland was sort of leaning forward with his head
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  Speaker 1: between the seats, squinting out the windshield. Now Harland knew
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: his bosses had no idea what was going on here,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and so as they just blindly drove down the road, Harland,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: you know, basically tried to summarize the situation as if
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  Speaker 1: it was just, you know, just no big deal, just
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  Speaker 1: a business dispute, and he was handling it. Then at
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  Speaker 1: some point Harland grabbed the supervisor and told him to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: stop because up ahead he saw there was this big barn,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: and in front of it was this big sign, and
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  Speaker 1: there was somebody with a ladder propped up against it.
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  Speaker 2: Smearing tar all over it.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: It was Matt Stewart and what he was smearing tar
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  Speaker 1: on was one of Harlan's many shell signs. And so
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  Speaker 1: now the cars stopped and Harland he rolls down one
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  Speaker 1: of the windows.
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  Speaker 2: And he yells at Matt, like, hey, what are you doing?
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  Speaker 1: And the supervisor and the district manager are like, what
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: is going on here? As soon as Harland began yelling
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: at Matt, it was like all hell broke loose because Matt,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: as soon as he saw Harland, he jumped off the
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  Speaker 1: ladder and began running towards the car. And at the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: same time, the district manager climbed out of the passenger
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  Speaker 1: seat with his hands up like he was, you know,
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  Speaker 1: gonna calm Matt.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Down, like hey, let's talk here.
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  Speaker 1: But Harland knew, you know, Matt obviously was not going
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  Speaker 1: to calm down because as Harland watched Matt as he's
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: charging in the direction of the district manager in the car,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: he's reaching into his jacket and he pulls out a gun.
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  Speaker 1: Harland shouted for the district manager to watch out, but
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  Speaker 1: he was too late. Matt aimed the gun and fired,
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  Speaker 1: and the district manager collapsed onto the ground, and so
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Harland he jumps out of the car and he runs
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: to his district manager. And at this point, Harland is
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  Speaker 1: operating on pure instinct at this point, and so you know,
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  Speaker 1: the manager he's profusely bleeding from his chest, and so
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  Speaker 1: Harlan drops down. He opens up the guy's jacket, try
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  Speaker 1: to find the gunshot wound to put some pressure on
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  Speaker 1: it to try to stop the bleeding.
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  Speaker 2: But when he opened up the jacket, not only was.
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  Speaker 1: The bleeding just immense, and there was just very little
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  Speaker 1: Harland knew he could do at this point, but he
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  Speaker 1: saw there was a gun like strapped inside of a
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  Speaker 1: holster on this manager's chest, which was not all that
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  Speaker 1: uncommon for people to have guns on them in rural
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  Speaker 1: Kentucky at this time. And so Matt, you know, the aggressor,
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  Speaker 1: he's running still towards the car, guns still drawn, and
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  Speaker 1: so Harland just forgets trying to stop the bleed because
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  Speaker 1: he knows there's like nothing he can do. He just
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: grabbed the gun, pulled it out, and he aimed it
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  Speaker 1: at Matt, who's still running towards him. And Matt he
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  Speaker 1: fires a shot that goes right past Harland's head and
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: then Harlan began returning fire. When the police showed up
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a few minutes later, the district manager was dead and
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  Speaker 1: Matt Stewart was lying on the ground as well, bleeding
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  Speaker 1: from the shoulder, but still alive, and so the officers,
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  Speaker 1: not knowing the whole story, just arrested Harland and all
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  Speaker 1: so the supervisor, even though they were both trying to say, like,
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  Speaker 1: this is not what happened. We were just defending ourselves,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: but they weren't hearing it, and they charged Harland with
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  Speaker 1: shooting with intent to kill. And so Harlan's visit from
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: corporate and his ongoing feud with Matt Stewart, the rival
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: gas station owner, appeared to basically have ruined everybody's lives.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: But within a few days everything changed again because the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: police realized that Matt was actually the aggressor, and so
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  Speaker 1: they dropped the charges against Harland and a supervisor. Then
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  Speaker 1: they charged Matt with murder of that manager, and he
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  Speaker 1: wound up being sentenced to eighteen years in prison. And
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: so with Harlan's only competition in town now out of
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the way in jail for murder, Harlan's shell station really flourished.
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  Speaker 1: He was getting more and more customers, and also he
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  Speaker 1: began doing the thing he had dreamed of, selling food
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  Speaker 1: to truckers, namely fried chicken. And in fact, his recipe
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  Speaker 1: for fried chicken was such a hit that a few
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  Speaker 1: years later, the governor actually honored Harland by commissioning him
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  Speaker 1: as a Kentucky Colonel. He was known from then on
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  Speaker 1: as Colonel Sanders, and over the next few decades his
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  Speaker 1: gas station restaurant expanded to an international franchise called Kentucky
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Fried Chicken. One afternoon in late nineteen forty three, a
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  Speaker 1: sixty six year old woman named Francis Glesner Lee hunched
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: over a desk in her workroom in Bethlehem, New Hampshire.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: She had a tiny porcelain doll in one hand and
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: a paintbrush in the other, and what she was doing
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: was painstakingly adding detail to the face of this doll.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: She put dark circles around the eyes, little gray wrinkle
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  Speaker 1: lines on the cheeks, and reddish brown smears that were
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  Speaker 1: dripping down grotesquely from the lips. Put the paintbrush down,
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  Speaker 1: and then she reached for a piece of string.
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  Speaker 2: This was the final touch, and.
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  Speaker 1: So slowly and carefully she tied the string into a
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  Speaker 1: noose and then pulled it tight around the doll's neck.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Francis then carefully picked the doll up and placed it
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  Speaker 1: in the center of this miniature wooden barn that was
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: about two feet tall, and she tied the end of
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  Speaker 1: the noose around a pipe on the barn ceiling, and
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: then let the doll dangle and sort of swing, with
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  Speaker 1: its feet hanging just a few inches off the straw
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  Speaker 1: covered floor. Once the doll was in place, Francis got
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  Speaker 1: up from her seat, stood back and admired her work.
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  Speaker 1: Behind the hanging doll inside of this barn was a
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  Speaker 1: tiny saddle hanging over the barn's back window, and then
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: a couple of inches behind that window, so if you
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: were looking through the barn sort of out the window,
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  Speaker 1: you could see what looked like this, this beautiful hilly
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: landscape right before dusk, and it was actually just a
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: painting she had positioned to make it appear like that
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: was the outside. Her tiny diorama looked exactly like the
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: real scene of the crime, and she almost felt like
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  Speaker 1: she was standing right there with the body. She wondered
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: what everybody would say when they saw it. She expected
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: them to be shocked, but she hoped they'd also be
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: impressed with her work. So Francis was obsessed with death.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: When she was younger, she had wanted to go to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: medical school to study the inside of the human body
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: up close, but the schools that she was interested in,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: specifically Harvard University, wouldn't let her in because she was
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: a woman. Now, she had been very frustrated by this,
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  Speaker 1: but she really hadn't seen a way around it, so
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: she had tried for a while to suppress this dark
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: interest she had, you know, death, and just follow the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: path that was sort of expected of her.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: She got married, she had kids.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: And basically spent her whole life at home, entertaining herself
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: with little.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Crafts and projects.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: But she had really never been happy, not as an adult,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and now that she was getting older and realizing she
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: actually didn't have a whole lot of time left on earth,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: she'd stopped caring about what.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: She was supposed to be doing, and.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: So now she was going to do whatever she wanted,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: and for her, that meant doing whatever it took to
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: show the folks at Harvard, the university she couldn't attend
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: because she was a woman, what she was really capable of,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and so now she carried her her beautiful finished diorama
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: over to a shelf on the side of the room,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and she set it down between two other murder scenes
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: she had built. There was a bedroom where a couple
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: was tangled up in bloody sheets, and there was a
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: living room where there was a woman lying at the
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: base of the stairs with an obviously broken neck.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: And Frances had plans for more.
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  Speaker 1: Murders she was going to recreate, including a stabbing and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: an arson and a shooting, and just thinking about these
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: crimes made her heart race. This was like the most
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: alive she had ever felt. It was like she was
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: finally happy. A little over a year later, Francis carried
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: her miniature barn with its tiny swinging corpse down a hallway,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: but it was covered in a white sheet. Her heart
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: pounded as she pushed open a door and walked into
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: a library that was swarming with police officers, and instantly
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: those officers surrounded her because she was the reason they
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: were all there, because her little models of horrific crime
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: scenes were so good that when she showed those folks
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: at Harvard what they were missing out on, they were
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: like blown away. They were like, Yeah, this is incredible.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: This would be such an amazing tool for homicide investigators.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Will you please.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Teach us how you made these? Will you help us
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: create a course on this? And so suddenly, even though
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Francis was not admitted to Harvard as a student, she
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: began creating curriculum around what we call today forensic science.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Francis actually went on to officially found Harvard University's Department
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: of Legal Medicine, which became one of the very first
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: places in the entire United States that was just dedicated
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: to the burgeoning field of forensics. And so today Francis
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Glesner Lee is known as the mother of forensic science.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: A little after six am on New Year's Day twenty
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: twenty three, a twenty seven year old man named Alex
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Freeze walked out the door of his uncle's home outside
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: of Reno, Nevada. The sun was just starting to rise
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and there was a white blanket of snow covering everything
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: in sight except for a narrow path leading down the driveway.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: So this home that Alex's uncle owned was not a
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: regular home. It was like a huge mansion right.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Near Lake Tahoe.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: And family was really important to Alex's uncle, which is
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: why Alex and his whole extended family had been invited
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: to stay here for the holidays. And over the past
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: few days there had been this massive snowstorm that.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Buried the whole area under.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Five feet of snow, and so now Alex and his
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: uncle had to clear the snow from the half mile
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: long driveway, which was a huge undertaking. Alex heard an
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: engine rumbling somewhere off in the distance, and he looked
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: up to see a pair of headlights coming up the driveway.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: It was his uncle driving a snow cat, which is
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: basically a huge, fourteen thousand pounds industrial snowplow. It basically
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: looked like a cross between a truck and a tank,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: with a bright orange cab and galvanized steel tracks that
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: allowed it to drive over the snow. And so Alex's
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: uncle drove the snow cat right to the top of
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: the driveway, parked it, and he hopped out, and then
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: he told Alex that he was pretty sure he had
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: just cleared enough of a path on this driveway that
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: he could very likely get his pickup truck out like
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: out of the home, down to the main road.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: But he just wanted to actually try it.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: He wanted to literally drive his truck down the stretch
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: to see if it was wide enough. So Alex watched
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: as his uncle climbed into his pickup truck and.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Then slowly drove down the driveway. But as Alex watched.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: He could see towards the bottom of the driveway, you know,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: half a mile away, the truck began to slide, and
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: it slid straight into a snowbank and clearly got stuck.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: And so Alex he just looked over at the snow Cat,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: which was parked right next to him at the top
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: of the driveway. He saw there was a hitch on
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the back, and since Alex had driven it before, he
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: figured that's easily going to be powerful enough to pull
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: his uncle's truck out of the snowbank. So he just
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: climbed into the big orange cab, fired on the SnowCat,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and headed on down the driveway. And so Alex he
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: drives the SnowCat down the driveway and comes to a
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: stop right in front of the pickup and you can
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: see his uncle is standing outside of the pick cup
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: looking very frustrated and thankful that Alex has, you know,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: thought to do what he likely would have suggested, which is,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: you know, bring the SnowCat down here. And so Alex
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: he cuts the engine in the SnowCat, he climbs out.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: He goes over to his uncle and the two of
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: them worked together to attach the pickup to the snow
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: cat with a chain. And then once that was done,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Alex's uncle explained to him that he the uncle, was
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: now going to climb inside of the snow cat and
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: he was going to be the one who actually pulled
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the pickup out of the snow bank, and Alex just
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: had to stand by, out of the way and unlatch
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the pickup once they were done.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: So Alex was like all right, he stepped out of
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: the way, and.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Alex's uncle climbed up into the snow cat, turned it on,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: and began backing up. Sure enough, after just a couple
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: of moments, he had pulled the truck out of the snow.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Bank and back onto the road.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: It was his queue to you know, disconnect the two vehicles,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: and so Alex goes over. He begins, you know, taking
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: the chain off the hitch, but before he could, out
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: of the corner of his eye, he noticed the snow cat.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: The fourteen thousand pounds snow cat was very slowly sliding forward,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: and so he sees this is happening, and he certainly
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to get caught between the SnowCat and the truck,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: which was he'd get crushed. He instinctively jumps up and
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: steps out of that space between the two vehicles, thinking
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: his uncle is going to see this happening, and you know,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: back up with the SnowCat, you know, use those threads
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: to back up out of the way to stop the slide.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: But to Alex's horror, he sees his uncle has not
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: realized the snow cat is starting to slide because he's
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: exited the cabin and he's.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Jumped down to the snow below.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: So nobody's driving the snow cat and it's starting to
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: slide faster and faster, and so Alex doesn't.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Know where to go. There's nowhere to go. He's basically trapped.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: There's a snow pile that's on one side, there's the
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: truck and the snow cat coming towards him, and as
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: it's getting closer and closer, he has no idea what
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: his uncle's doing, and so Alex just flings open the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: driver's side door of the pickup and he leaps inside
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: of the air because there's nowhere else to go.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: But like, as he turns, he sees the snow cat.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Getting faster and faster, sliding right towards him, and he
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: knows that snow cat is easily big enough to completely
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: flatten this pickup truck, and so he's doomed. And he
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: just praised that, you know, his death will be quick,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: and so he.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Closes his eyes.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: He's tucked down like he has no idea what's going
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: on with his uncle. He just knows his uncle's not
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: in control. And then Alex hears the awful sound of
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: just metal on metal as the SnowCat began to crush
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the truck. But moments later, everything just stopped. The metallic
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: grinding noise stopped, and it was just silent, and Alex,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: for a second, it's like I can't believe I'm even
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: still alive right now, Like, oh my goodness, his heart's
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: pounding in his chest. And he opened his eyes and
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: he looked around and he realized that the SnowCat had
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: done some damage to the truck, but it had wound
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: up just kind of pushing the truck through that snowbank
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: into a tree, and then both vehicles just kind of
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: slowed to a stop, so Alex was safe. Trapped but safe.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: So when Alex had dove inside of the vehicle, the
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: SnowCat had actually basically slammed the driver's side door shut
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: because it packed to the door first, and some of
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Alex's clothes were actually trapped in the doorway.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: So his clothes.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Are stuck in the door, and the snow cat is
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: pressed up against the outside of the door, so he
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: can't go out that way.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: He can't even move. But he realized if he wriggled his.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Way, he could actually climb out of his clothes and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: be free, at least from this side of the vehicle,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: And so he climbs out of his clothes until he's
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: just down to his long John's and he climbs out
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the passenger side of the truck into this big drift
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: of snow, and he climbs his way out of the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: snow until he's up on the surface like he's out.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: And that's when he realized he couldn't find his uncle,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: and so he starts shouting his uncle's name. There's no answer,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: there's no sign of him. He runs around to the
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: side of the snow cat and he looks up into
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the cab, thinking maybe his uncle's up there, but there's
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: no one up there, and so Alex starting to panic.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Now he begins running his way back up onto the
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: driveway just to get a better look of the area,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to try to figure out where his uncle went. But
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: when he got up there, he stopped because on the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: driveway was this huge pool of blood. It would turn out,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: after Alex's uncle had pulled his pickup truck out of
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the snow, and then when he jumped out of the
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: cab to go join his nephew in the snow, he
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: had forgot to set the parking brake. That's why seconds
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: later the snow cat began to shift and when it
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: began to slide on the snow. All Alex's uncle was
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: worried about because he couldn't really see his nephew, was
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: that if he doesn't do something, his nephew is going
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: to get crushed between the pickup truck and the snow cat.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: And so Alex's uncle leaps, because he's down on the snow,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: he leaps to try to get onto the snow cat
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to climb up to the cab up above, but when
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: he jumped, he didn't get high enough and he got
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: caught up in the tracks of the snow cat, fell
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to the ground, and the snow cat drove over him
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: all fourteen thousand pounds, and so Alex's own uncle was crushed,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: breaking thirty eight bones. By the time the paramedics arrived,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: he was literally moments away from death. Alex's uncle's actions,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: putting himself in grave danger to save someone he loved
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: was like something out of a superhero movie, which was
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: actually quite fitting because the uncle was Jeremy Renner, who
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: plays Hawkeye, a superhero and devoted family man in the
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Avengers movies. Against all odds, Jeremy Renner survived his accident
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: and made a full recovery, and in fact was back
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: on set just a year after this incident. Around nine
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: am on July eighteenth, two thousand and four, a twenty
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: nine year old race car driver started his Corvette in
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the pit lane at the Sonoma Raceway in California. His
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: racing partner was outside the car helping him put up
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the windownt which would stop debris from flying into.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: The car if there was a wreck.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: It was still a few hours before the big race,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: so cars were sort of speeding around the midway to
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: warm up, and there were TV cameras everywhere. Now, usually
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: this driver felt really confident on the track, but today
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: he was undeniably anxious. There had been some mechanical issues
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: with this car the night before, and the crew had
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: been working on it all night. Now it did seem
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: like all the issues had been resolved by this point,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: but this driver came from a big family of other
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: NASCAR racers, and in fact, his father had actually died
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: in a crash during a race just three years earlier.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: So ever since then, this driver had been really nervous
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: about the same thing happening to him. So to have
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: these issues with this car, even though they were resolved,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: it just was making him really stressed. When the windownet
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: was all fastened, his racing partner gave him the okay
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: and the driver buckled himself in and then he took
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: a d steadying breath, and like he had done many
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: times before, he began to make his way out onto
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the track to do a few warm up laps.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: As soon as he was out there, the driver.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Hit the gas and began slowly ramping up the speed
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: and as he did, you know, other cars are zooming
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: past him pretty much going at full speed.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: But this is normal.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: He's just making his way up to their speed and
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: he's gonna, you know, do some laps. And right as
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: he was reaching the end of the track where he
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: needed to make a turn, he tightened his grip on
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the steering wheel and he rounded the corner. But then
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, his car began to spin out
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and he just lost control. Instinctively, he jammed on the brakes,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: but it didn't do anything, and he was just helpless
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: as his car kreemed across the track, narrowly missing other
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: drivers passing by, smashes into the barrier and when he
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: hit the barrier, he lurched forward and he hears this loud,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: metallic crunching noise. But the driver, you know, he was conscious.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: He was dazed, but he was conscious, and he took
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: a breath and he realized, like this was bad, but
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: he wasn't hurt. Now, he just needs to get out
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: of his vehicle. And so after doing a quick look
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: around the interior of his car, he could tell that
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: his car was wrecked. Serious damage had been done, but
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: he couldn't worry about that for now. He reached down
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: and he tried to undo his seat belt so we
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: could get out. But before he could even find the latch,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: he heard this deafening blast from somewhere in his vehicle,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and within a split second, his entire car was engulfed
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: in flames. Suddenly, it was like the driver couldn't even breathe.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: He was literally on fire. He couldn't do anything, he
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: couldn't get his seat belt off, he couldn't see anything
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: but just flames everywhere, and he knew if he didn't
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: get out.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Soon, he was dead.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: But he was in so much pain from literally being
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: on fire, he could not thinks trade It was like
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: he was in full panic mode and just didn't know
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: what to do.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: He did, at some point somehow.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Get a seat belt off, but it was like all
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: his energy was being sapped up by the flames.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: He couldn't do anything, he couldn't think, and he just knew.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: His one thought is I'm dying.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: But right as he was basically burning to death, he
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: felt two hands grab him under his armpits and pull
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: him out of the car. The next thing the driver knew,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: he opened his eyes and he was no longer on fire,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: He was not in his vehicle. He was in a cool,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: quiet room. He heard the beep of medical equipment nearby,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and when he looked down he saw that he was
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: obviously in a hospital bed with an IV in his
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: arm and bandages all over his body. He was drowsy
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: and confused, but everything slowly began to come back to him,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: about the race.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: The warm up, laps, the crash.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: He looked up and he saw his PR manager was
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: standing right over him, and before they could say anything
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: to him, the driver right away asked who had pulled
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: him out of the car and were they okay? But
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the PR manager just sort of looked confused and then
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: just stared at the driver not say anything, like he
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: didn't even know what to say, And so the driver
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: started getting annoyed that they weren't giving him an answer,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: and so he asked again, like, who was it who
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: pulled me out of the car, And finally the PR
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: manager answered, they just said, no one, No one pulled
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: you out of the car.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: You were alone.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: The driver, when he heard this, was so taken aback
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: that he demanded to see the video of the crash,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: which we will play for you right now. This is
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: a clip from the TV broadcast, and as you can see,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: there is no one near the driver's car when it crashes.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: The flames suddenly spring up and engulfed the car, and
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: then moments later the driver opens the door and pulls
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: himself out. And when the driver actually saw this exact clip,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: he knew what happened. His late father had saved him.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: The driver who crashed and who was now sitting in
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the hospital bed was Dale Earnhardt Junior, and he believes
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: that his father, the racing legend Dale Earnhart, was looking
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: out for him that day. And whether it was literally
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: his late father somehow actually lifting Dale Junior out of
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the car, or if he was just giving his son
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the strength to do it himself, Junior doesn't really know,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: but one way or another, he knows his father saved him.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: But if you're looking for a recommendation for me of
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: that one video that's worth your time, well it's this
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: one right here, So give it a watch, all right,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Until next time, see y