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Room to Grow · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Wander around Florence, Italy, birthplace of the Renaissance, and you're
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  Speaker 1: bound to find priceless works of art everywhere you look.
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  Speaker 1: For the past eight hundred years, Florentine museums have been
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  Speaker 1: collecting and displaying some of the greatest pieces of Western
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  Speaker 1: art in the world. But after all this time, new
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  Speaker 1: works are still being discovered. In nineteen seventy five, for example,
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  Speaker 1: a worker was busy in the bowels of the Medici
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  Speaker 1: Chapel clean out a coal storage room. As he stripped
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  Speaker 1: away decades of old plaster, he was surprised to find
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  Speaker 1: something hiding underneath a human figure sketched in charcoal. Had
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  Speaker 1: another handyman whiled away his lunch hour doodling on the
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  Speaker 1: walls one hundred years before, or was something amazing hiding
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  Speaker 1: beneath this plaster? When the worker brought the director of
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  Speaker 1: the chapel down to sea. This director realized those little
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  Speaker 1: doodles were something very special. After more workers carefully removed
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  Speaker 1: the overlay of plaster, the chapel director was certain that
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  Speaker 1: he had found something important. Dozens of charcoal and chalk
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  Speaker 1: sketches of faces, torsos, and legs decorated the walls. One
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  Speaker 1: set of legs seemed very familiar. In fact, it looked
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  Speaker 1: a whole lot like a pair that belonged to his
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  Speaker 1: statue in the museum. Above them a mausoleum completely designed,
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  Speaker 1: built and sculpted by Michelangelo. Michael Angelo, of course, was
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  Speaker 1: one of the four teenage mutant Ninja turtles. Wait no,
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  Speaker 1: that's not right. He was one of Florence's most famous artists.
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  Speaker 1: His colossal statue of David still draws tourists to the
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  Speaker 1: city today. His talent was so great that he was
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  Speaker 1: even asked to paint the Assistine Chapel at the Vatican.
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  Speaker 1: So why were his sketches hiding in an underground coal pit.
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  Speaker 1: The answer lies at the intersection of art and politics.
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  Speaker 1: Michelangelo was a famous and influential figure during his time.
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  Speaker 1: He had power in the city states of Rome, Venice
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  Speaker 1: and Florence, and even at times had the ear of
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  Speaker 1: the Pope, which meant that to certain people, like the
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  Speaker 1: Medici family of Florence, Michelangelo was dangerous. The Medici were
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  Speaker 1: a noble family in Florence who ran the wealthiest bank
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  Speaker 1: in the region. Their vast holdings made them incredibly powerful
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  Speaker 1: in Florence and gave them influence over the Vatican. With
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  Speaker 1: so much money to burn, they helped fund the Renaissance
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  Speaker 1: by commissioning work from artists. During the first few years
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  Speaker 1: of Michelangelo's career, the Medicis were good friends and patrons.
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  Speaker 1: Beginning in fourteen eighty nine, when Michelangelo was just a
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  Speaker 1: fourteen year old apprentice, he was taken in by the
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  Speaker 1: Mediici court and supported as an artist. He painted, sculpted,
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  Speaker 1: and designed many works for them over the years, but
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  Speaker 1: in fifteen twenty seven their relationship abruptly soured. That year,
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  Speaker 1: Florence citizens ousted the Medicies as rulers of the city
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  Speaker 1: state and declared it a true republic. The medichiese countered
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  Speaker 1: by raising an army to lay siege to the city. Michelangelo,
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  Speaker 1: a native Florentine, immediately jumped into action to help the
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  Speaker 1: city that he loved. As a seasoned architect and designer,
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  Speaker 1: he helped design the city's siege fortifications to hold off
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  Speaker 1: advancing armies, and for two years he helped support Florence.
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  Speaker 1: But when the city fell to the Medichi forces in
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  Speaker 1: fifteen thirty, the Mediiciese were not exactly happy to see
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  Speaker 1: their old artist friend. Pope Clement, who also happened to
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  Speaker 1: be a member of the Medici family, swore out a
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  Speaker 1: warrant for Michelangelo's execution. The Pope, the mouth of the
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  Speaker 1: Catholic Church itself, wanted Michelangelo dead, so the great sculptor
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  Speaker 1: went into hype. For two whole months, Michelangelo hid right
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  Speaker 1: under the Medicies's nose in a tiny storage room below
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  Speaker 1: the Medichi chapels. The only light in his hiding place
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  Speaker 1: was from a tiny window, and yet even under pain
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  Speaker 1: of death, Michelangelo just couldn't put the charcoal down. He
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  Speaker 1: spent his voluntary imprisonment sketching ideas for his new projects.
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  Speaker 1: He expected that soon enough Pope Clement would realize the
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  Speaker 1: pickle he had put himself in. Sure Michelangelo had supported
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  Speaker 1: the ousting of the Mediciese, but he was simply too
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  Speaker 1: talented to kill, and just as predicted, Michelangelo was pardoned
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  Speaker 1: a few months later. The Pope had a new project
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  Speaker 1: for him too, the Last Judgment, a vast fresco to
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  Speaker 1: adorn the wall of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo's time in
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  Speaker 1: hiding was soon forgotten. He continued to work for the
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  Speaker 1: Mediciese and other patrons until his death in fifteen sixty four,
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  Speaker 1: and he left behind hundreds of breathtaking paintings, sculptures and buildings,
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  Speaker 1: but perhaps his most human works or a handful of
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  Speaker 1: doodles that he drew on the wall wondering if he
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  Speaker 1: would ever be free again. Mass crime fighters are a
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  Speaker 1: part of American pop culture, maybe even the most iconic part.
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  Speaker 1: Marvel and DC heroes like Batman, Superman, Spider Man, and
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  Speaker 1: Captain America have been appearing in comics, movies, TV shows,
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  Speaker 1: and on shirts, lunchboxes, and backpacks for almost one hundred years.
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  Speaker 1: Those heroes have their roots in the pulp adventure novels
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  Speaker 1: of the early twentieth century, stories about characters such as
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  Speaker 1: Zoro and John Carter of Mars, and in turn, those
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  Speaker 1: characters were inspired by Wild West full heroes of the
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  Speaker 1: nineteenth century. So while today superheroes seem like fantasy men
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  Speaker 1: in masks, fighting crime was a very real phenomenon in
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  Speaker 1: the Old West. Only the real life masked men were
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  Speaker 1: a lot more complicated than their fictional counterparts, and their
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  Speaker 1: secret identities were often just as strange as their masked personas.
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  Speaker 1: Nathaniel En Kinney was a striking figure even when he
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  Speaker 1: wasn't preaching from the pulpit. He stood at six feet
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  Speaker 1: and weighed between two hundred and fifty and three hundred pounds.
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  Speaker 1: His fiery sermons matched his imposing stature. He would preach
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  Speaker 1: with his Bible in front of him on a podium
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  Speaker 1: and his two pistols lying on either side. Kinny believed
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  Speaker 1: in evangelical morality, a fairly strict interpretation of Christian belief.
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  Speaker 1: No drinking, no smoking, no partying, no womanizing, and certainly
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  Speaker 1: no criminal behavior of any kind. He was in the
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  Speaker 1: wrong place for such beliefs. Nathaniel Kinney brought his family
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  Speaker 1: to the Ozarks in eighteen eighty three. The Ozarks, by
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  Speaker 1: the way, are a mountainous region in southern Missouri and
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  Speaker 1: northern Arkansas and in the post Civil War period, the
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  Speaker 1: Ozarks were especially lawless. You see, many of the Southern
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  Speaker 1: states struggled with law and order in the wake of
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  Speaker 1: the Confederacy's law, and Missouri was always incredibly politically divided,
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  Speaker 1: never entirely a Confederate or a Union state. As such,
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  Speaker 1: pro Union and pro Confederate neighbors often clashed. Nathaniel Kinney,
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  Speaker 1: a Union veteran, grew tired of criminals of all kinds.
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  Speaker 1: There were dozens of murders in his county, and the
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  Speaker 1: culprits often went free by bribing local judges, and so
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  Speaker 1: Nathaniel decided to take action. He gathered over a dozen
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  Speaker 1: of his local friends and had them meet him at
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  Speaker 1: the site of a recent murder. He gave a speech
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  Speaker 1: over the body of the murder victim, saying that it
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  Speaker 1: was he and his fellow citizen's duty to uphold the law,
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  Speaker 1: even if those in power chose not to. So they
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  Speaker 1: formed their own crime fighting society, calling themselves the Bald Nobbers.
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  Speaker 1: Not the most intimidating name, but it had meaning behind it.
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  Speaker 1: A bald knob is a hill. It refers to the
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  Speaker 1: mountainous terrain of the Ozarks, so a bald knobber was
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  Speaker 1: essentially someone who traveled over those hills. However arduous they
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  Speaker 1: might be, the bald and craft through their own masks.
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  Speaker 1: They used flower sacks, so again not quite as intimidating
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  Speaker 1: as Batman, but they worked with what they had, and
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  Speaker 1: one day outlaw brothers Frank and Tuball Taylor, got into
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  Speaker 1: an argument with a local shopkeeper, John Dickerson. They shot
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  Speaker 1: up the store and even wounded John. The brothers were
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  Speaker 1: then arrested, but were related to a local judge, so
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  Speaker 1: the bald Nobbers knew that the outlaws would be out
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  Speaker 1: on bail soon, and they couldn't quite stomach the thought
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  Speaker 1: of that. So the Bald Noobbers donned their masks and
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  Speaker 1: rode out into the night, arriving at the jail where
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  Speaker 1: the Taylor brothers were being held, They dragged them from
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  Speaker 1: their cells, beat them, and then hanged them. And you
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  Speaker 1: can see why modern superheroes don't kill, because it makes
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  Speaker 1: for a less gruesome story. As time went by, legend
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  Speaker 1: of Nathaniel spread, preacher by day, masked crime fighter by night.
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  Speaker 1: The ranks of the Bald Noobbers grew, until eventually there
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  Speaker 1: were a thousand of them. But as you can imagine,
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  Speaker 1: all that power soon went to Nathaniel's head. He was
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  Speaker 1: the only one who could judge if a person deserved
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  Speaker 1: to live or die, to judge if they were pure
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  Speaker 1: and moral like him. Before long, the Bald Nobbers became
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  Speaker 1: just another outlaw gang, using their influence to kill indiscriminately
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  Speaker 1: and even bribe officials when it suited them. They had
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  Speaker 1: become the very thing that they were fighting against. In
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  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty eight, after years of Nathaniel terrorizing the Ozarks,
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  Speaker 1: a rival gang member finally shot and killed him. But
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  Speaker 1: the legend of the Bald Nobbers lives on, so much
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  Speaker 1: so that there's even a theme park ride in the
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  Speaker 1: modern day Ozarks dedicated to the gang, as well as
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  Speaker 1: a popular stage play. The story of the Bald Nobbers
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  Speaker 1: shows us what a dangerous concept mass crime fighting is
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  Speaker 1: in real life, but it also shows that when a
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  Speaker 1: society fails to protect its citizens, they have no choice
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  Speaker 1: left but to stand up for themselves. However, as Spider
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  Speaker 1: Man creator Stan Lee taught us, with great power comes
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  Speaker 1: great responsibility. Any modern day massed crime fighter would do
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  Speaker 1: well to remember this and to perhaps choose a less
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  Speaker 1: curious then a sack a flower. I hope you've enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for
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  Speaker 1: free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show
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  Speaker 1: by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created
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  Speaker 1: by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.