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Batter Up · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
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  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world
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  Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
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  Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
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  Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Professional athletes are known for performing
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  Speaker 1: incredible feats. Basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain holds a whopping seventy
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  Speaker 1: two records, sixty eight of which belonged to him alone.
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  Speaker 1: Serena Williams has won twenty three major singles titles over
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  Speaker 1: the course of her career, coming just one win shy
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  Speaker 1: of Margaret Court, who has twenty four. And then there's
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  Speaker 1: Alice Roth. Alice holds an important record too, but not
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  Speaker 1: one she ever wanted. Alice's husband was Earl Roth, the
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  Speaker 1: sports editor for the Philadelphia Bulletin newspaper in the nineteen fifties.
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  Speaker 1: On August sevent nineteen fifty seven, Earl brought Alice and
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  Speaker 1: their grandsons to a Phillies game against the New York Giants.
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  Speaker 1: The family got settled into the press box behind third
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  Speaker 1: base while seven thousand nine hundred fans cheered on the teams.
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  Speaker 1: One big highlight of Phillies games at that time was
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  Speaker 1: center fielder Richie Ashburn. Anytime he stepped up to the plate,
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  Speaker 1: people took notice. Ashburn hailed from Tilden, Nebraska, which had
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  Speaker 1: earned him the nickname the Tilden Flash. He wasn't much
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  Speaker 1: for home runs or Grand slams. He was a singles hitter,
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  Speaker 1: amassing over hits over his nearly fifteen year career. He
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  Speaker 1: was also notoriously picky about what he swung at. You see,
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  Speaker 1: Ashburn liked to take his time. Sometimes he'd foul ball
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  Speaker 1: after ball until the perfect pitch came his way. This
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  Speaker 1: drove pictures up the wall, and his reputation as a
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  Speaker 1: spray hitter didn't help things either. Ashburn never hit the
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  Speaker 1: ball to the same place twice, so players all over
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  Speaker 1: the field were on high alert whenever he stepped up
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  Speaker 1: to the plate. On this day, though they would have
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  Speaker 1: been safe taking a breather. It was Ashburn's turn a bat.
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  Speaker 1: He gripped it tightly and waited for the pitch. Earl
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  Speaker 1: Roth and the other fans watched with anticipation. The ball
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  Speaker 1: flew from the pitcher's finger tips towards home plate. Ashburn
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  Speaker 1: swung and the ball went foul. Spectators followed its trajectory
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  Speaker 1: as it flew outside third base into the stands. They lunched,
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  Speaker 1: but it was all for nothing. One person was going
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  Speaker 1: to catch that foul ball that day, and her name
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  Speaker 1: was Alice Roth. There was just one problem. She caught
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  Speaker 1: it with her face. It's hard to say whether her
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  Speaker 1: attention was on one of her grandsons or she just
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  Speaker 1: didn't get out of the way fast enough, but the
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  Speaker 1: impact of the ball broke the woman's nose, forcing the
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  Speaker 1: game to come to a stop. She collapsed, bleeding from
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  Speaker 1: her nostrils. As stadium medical staff rushed to her side,
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  Speaker 1: they loaded her onto a stretcher as people looked on, Well,
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  Speaker 1: I'll except her eight year old grandson, Preston. He was
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  Speaker 1: busy trying to get the ball back that had hit her.
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  Speaker 1: He asked the man who had taken it if he
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  Speaker 1: could have it, to which the man replied, go to hell, kid,
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  Speaker 1: So much for the City of Brotherly Love. As Mrs
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  Speaker 1: Roth was being wheeled away, the game continued. Richie Ashburn
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  Speaker 1: still had to finish his turn at bat. The next
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  Speaker 1: pitch came fast, but it wasn't right. Ashburn hit it
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  Speaker 1: to his left along a similar path behind third base
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  Speaker 1: like his last one, except this time the ball did
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  Speaker 1: it land in the same spot as before. Sadly, this
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  Speaker 1: foul ball also found its way to Mrs Roth, whacking
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  Speaker 1: her on the knee. Ashburn had now fouled two balls
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  Speaker 1: and broken two of poor Mrs Roth's bones. They rushed
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  Speaker 1: her out of the stands before he could do any
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  Speaker 1: further damage. It all worked out in the end, though
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  Speaker 1: the Phillies beat the Giants that day three to one.
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  Speaker 1: The following day, and embarrassed, Ashburn paid a visit to
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  Speaker 1: the hospital where Mrs Roth was being treated. She assured
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  Speaker 1: him there were no hard feelings. It probably helped that
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  Speaker 1: she and her family were treated to free tickets, assigned
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  Speaker 1: ball by the players, and a trip to the team's clubhouse.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, once the grandkids got used to the start treatment,
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  Speaker 1: they couldn't go back to watching the game like everyone else.
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  Speaker 1: One of Mrs Roth's grandsons asked her if they could
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  Speaker 1: go to an Eagles game next. I suppose he just
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  Speaker 1: wanted to see what would happen if she got hit
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  Speaker 1: in the face with a football. It's probably safe to
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  Speaker 1: say that most people care about how they will be
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  Speaker 1: remembered after they're gone. Will they be missed? Did they
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  Speaker 1: help the less fortunate and set a good example for
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  Speaker 1: the next generation. Did they put others needs before their own?
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  Speaker 1: Ambrose Small never asked those questions of himself. By all accounts,
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  Speaker 1: he didn't care much for the opinions of others. Born
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  Speaker 1: in Newmarkets, Ontario, Canada, in eighteen sixties, six, Small head
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  Speaker 1: well small beginnings. His father, Daniel, had been an innkeeper
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  Speaker 1: for many years before taking a job managing a luxury
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  Speaker 1: hotel in Toronto. Daniel moved the family south for his
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  Speaker 1: new job. That was where Ambrose found his calling at
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  Speaker 1: the Grand Opera House next door. When Ambrose was around
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  Speaker 1: twenty years old, he took a position at the Opera
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  Speaker 1: House as an usher, a position that he held for
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  Speaker 1: several years. Unfortunately, Ambrose and his manager had a falling out,
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  Speaker 1: which prompted the young Mr. Small to seek employment at
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  Speaker 1: a rival venue, the Toronto Opera House. He became a
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  Speaker 1: fixture there, earning promotion after promotion until he eventually became
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  Speaker 1: the manager. By this time, Ambrose was earning a considerable
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  Speaker 1: amount of money so much, in fact, that he stepped
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  Speaker 1: in to help the Grand Opera House after it fell
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  Speaker 1: on hard times. He started to pay its mortgage, which
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  Speaker 1: gave him the authority of fire his old boss. The
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  Speaker 1: icing on a deliciously vengeful cake. For the budding businessman,
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  Speaker 1: Ambrose parlayed his ownership of one theater and management of
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  Speaker 1: another into a small empire. He partnered with Clark Whitney,
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  Speaker 1: the owner of several theaters in Detroit, to bring in
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  Speaker 1: more money. Then he invested those earnings into theaters in
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  Speaker 1: both Canada and America. Ambrose small was living large, with
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  Speaker 1: more than thirty theaters to his name. It probably helped
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  Speaker 1: that his wife, Teresa, had helped fund his rise up
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  Speaker 1: the ladder of success with family money of her own.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, as always, success brought its own complications. For one,
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  Speaker 1: Ambrose was a notorious gambler and philanderer. He'd often leave
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  Speaker 1: his wife at home for weeks while away on business.
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  Speaker 1: Much of that business consisted of betting on horse races
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  Speaker 1: and enjoying the company of other women. He also treated
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  Speaker 1: Teresa horribly, ignoring her needs in favor of his own.
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  Speaker 1: Despite how much she had helped him, Ambrose didn't give
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  Speaker 1: money to the poor either. Though he had come from
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  Speaker 1: a humble, hard working family, he treated those with less
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  Speaker 1: than him as if they didn't exist. He was not
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  Speaker 1: a man with many friends to say the least. Still,
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  Speaker 1: things were going great for him until nineteen nineteen, when
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  Speaker 1: he did the unthinkable. He gave it all up well
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  Speaker 1: for a price. See, Ambrose had made a deal to
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  Speaker 1: sell his theatrical holdings to Trans Canada Theaters Limited for
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  Speaker 1: a whopping one point seven million dollars. He signed everything
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  Speaker 1: over to them on December one. The following day, he
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  Speaker 1: met with his wife and lawyer at the place where
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  Speaker 1: his story had begun, a grand opera house, to finish
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  Speaker 1: their deal. That afternoon, Ambrose dropped his wife off at
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  Speaker 1: a local orphanage where she had been volunteering, and then
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  Speaker 1: he went back to wrap up the last of the
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  Speaker 1: paperwork with his lawyer. By five thirty that afternoon, the
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  Speaker 1: deal was done and Ambrows Small was one point seven
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  Speaker 1: million dollars richer. No one saw him after that. Now,
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  Speaker 1: given his history of impre onto business trips, he wasn't
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  Speaker 1: officially considered missing for two weeks. Mrs Small announced a
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  Speaker 1: reward of fifty dollars for anyone with information leading to
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  Speaker 1: the discovery of her husband. People came forward, hoping to
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  Speaker 1: claim the money, but none of their leads ever panned out.
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  Speaker 1: His disappearance was only part of the mystery, though. He
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  Speaker 1: had just come into possession of almost two million dollars,
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  Speaker 1: yet he hadn't taken any of it with him. There
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  Speaker 1: had been no sign of a struggle, no note left
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  Speaker 1: behind by kidnappers or even Ambrose himself. Still, given his
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  Speaker 1: history as a gambler and overall awful person, the idea
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  Speaker 1: that someone might have taken him or harmed him wasn't
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  Speaker 1: out of the question. One New York store owner received
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  Speaker 1: a note from an anonymous person named s H which read,
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  Speaker 1: holds Small until tomorrow morning. Don't let him go under
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  Speaker 1: any circumstances. Police searched high and low. They tore apart
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  Speaker 1: Small's home and dredge the Toronto Bay for clues, but
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  Speaker 1: came up empty. They even looked for leads in the
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  Speaker 1: plays being staged at his theaters, but didn't find anything.
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  Speaker 1: The authorities started building a list of suspects. At the
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  Speaker 1: top of that list was Teresa, who knew all about
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  Speaker 1: her husband's infidelity. She had a motive for sure, but
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  Speaker 1: the evidence wasn't there. There was also Ambrose's old boss
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  Speaker 1: from the Grand Opera House, plus all the people he'd
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  Speaker 1: stepped on to get where he was, and finally, his
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  Speaker 1: personal secretary, John Dowdy. Joudy had been known to bad
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  Speaker 1: mouth Mr Small for not paying him enough. Coincidentally, he
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  Speaker 1: had also gone missing around the same time. In Dowdy's
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  Speaker 1: possession was over one hundred thousand dollars in bonds stolen
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  Speaker 1: from Ambrose is Safe. Months later, he was found in
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  Speaker 1: the United States and sent back to Canada to answer
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  Speaker 1: for his crimes. Dowdy was not convicted for the disappearance
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  Speaker 1: of Ambrose Small, only for stealing the bonds. He claimed
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  Speaker 1: he was doing what his boss had asked him to
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  Speaker 1: do and only ran after Ambrose had disappeared. He served
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  Speaker 1: six years for his theft. Oka pas of the missing
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  Speaker 1: tycoon became well known all over the world, with police
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  Speaker 1: departments in Canada and the United States all taking part
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  Speaker 1: in their own investigations. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was consulted,
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  Speaker 1: but the Sherlock Holmes creator chose to abstain from conducting
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  Speaker 1: his own search for the missing man. Although Ambrose Small
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  Speaker 1: was officially declared dead in nineteen four, people never really
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  Speaker 1: stopped looking for him. Almost two decades since his first appearance,
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  Speaker 1: Police and amateur detectives kept their eyes open for any
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  Speaker 1: sign of the elusive millionaire. Theresa Small passed away in
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  Speaker 1: October of ninety. One year later, Ambrose's sister, Florence, came
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  Speaker 1: forward with a letter written by someone named Reuter. It
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  Speaker 1: was a confession to the murder of Ambrose Small, detailing
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  Speaker 1: how his body had been disposed of. Reuter himself never
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  Speaker 1: came forward and was never found either. Ambrose Small was successful, powerful,
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  Speaker 1: and hated by almost everyone who knew him, a man
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  Speaker 1: who thrived on drama, both personally and professionally, and who
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  Speaker 1: understood the true meaning of the phrase you can't take
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  Speaker 1: it with you. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
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  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the World of lore dot com, and until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,