Latest / Crime and Horror / One of these celebs used to work for the CIA - MrBallen

Transcript

One of these celebs used to work for the CIA - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to share three stories about ordinary people
0:04
Speaker 1: who at some point made a decision that not only
0:07
Speaker 1: completely changed their lives, but also impacted the lives of
0:12
Speaker 1: millions and millions.
0:13
Speaker 2: Of other people as well.
0:15
Speaker 1: But before we get into today's stories, if you're a
0:18
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in the
0:20
Speaker 1: story format, then you've come to the right place, because
0:23
Speaker 1: that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even
0:25
Speaker 1: four times every week. So if that's of interest to you,
0:29
Speaker 1: please rewire the light button's house so that every time
0:32
Speaker 1: they turn on their desk lamp, the stove turns on. Also,
0:36
Speaker 1: please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications
0:39
Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay,
0:42
Speaker 1: let's get into today's stories. One morning in the early
1:00
Speaker 1: spring of nineteen forty three, a twenty nine year old
1:03
Speaker 1: woman named Carolyn hunched over a sink basin that was
1:06
Speaker 1: inside of a laboratory in a US government building in Washington, DC.
1:09
Speaker 1: And this basin was full of this greenish blue liquid
1:13
Speaker 1: that smelled so bad it actually was making Carolyn nauseous.
1:16
Speaker 2: But she couldn't leave the room because this was her job.
1:19
Speaker 1: I mean, this was a highly classified and potentially life
1:23
Speaker 1: saving thing that she was doing.
1:26
Speaker 2: And so Carolyn checked the recipe.
1:27
Speaker 1: One more time on the clipboard right next to her,
1:30
Speaker 1: and then measured out one cup of the special type
1:33
Speaker 1: of acidic salt and she poured it into the liquid
1:36
Speaker 1: and she sort of plugged her nose as it began
1:38
Speaker 1: to bubble and more gross vapors.
1:40
Speaker 2: Began to come up into the air.
1:42
Speaker 1: So Carolyn worked for a government agency called the Office
1:45
Speaker 1: of Strategic Services or OSS, which was a precursor to
1:49
Speaker 1: the CIA. Carolyn had actually tried first to join the
1:53
Speaker 1: Navy and also the Army. She had applied to do
1:56
Speaker 1: administrative work because at the time women were not allowed
1:59
Speaker 1: to do anything in combat roles. However, both the Navy
2:03
Speaker 1: and the Army turned her down for a really weird reason.
2:07
Speaker 1: So at the time, you know, these two branches of
2:09
Speaker 1: the military were looking for people to fill their administrative roles. Namely,
2:14
Speaker 1: they were looking for secretaries, but specifically they were seeking
2:18
Speaker 1: secretaries who could take notes in meetings and go basically
2:22
Speaker 1: completely unnoticed. But Carolyn was sort of impossible to ignore.
2:28
Speaker 1: She was six foot two inches tall, and she had
2:31
Speaker 1: a booming voice and a huge personality. And so basically
2:35
Speaker 1: she drew a lot of attention, and the military had
2:38
Speaker 1: known that very likely her presence would be too distracting
2:42
Speaker 1: in these meetings, and so that's why they turned her down.
2:45
Speaker 1: So when she was rejected, Carolyn had gone on to
2:48
Speaker 1: apply for work at the OSS, hoping to maybe become
2:51
Speaker 1: a spy, but they.
2:53
Speaker 2: Also turned her down really for the same reason.
2:56
Speaker 1: You know, she was just too conspicuous to blend into
2:58
Speaker 1: a crowd, So how could she how could you possibly
3:01
Speaker 1: be a spy? Now, for Carolyn this had been sort
3:04
Speaker 1: of heartbreaking. I mean it was sort of like, you know,
3:06
Speaker 1: she thought she was going to be able to serve
3:08
Speaker 1: her country and now she's being told, you know, you
3:10
Speaker 1: basically can't. And so, feeling like, you know, she didn't
3:13
Speaker 1: have much to lose, she just went to the OSS
3:16
Speaker 1: and just said, look like, I know I can't be
3:17
Speaker 1: a spy, but do you have any other jobs available
3:21
Speaker 1: that I could do?
3:22
Speaker 2: Like, what do you got anything? I'm open to it.
3:25
Speaker 1: And it was through this approach that the OSS said, actually, yes,
3:29
Speaker 1: we do have something for you, and she would go
3:32
Speaker 1: on to become the executive assistant to one of the
3:34
Speaker 1: lead scientists for the OSS. And so now in that
3:38
Speaker 1: capacity she was working on a very important secret science
3:43
Speaker 1: project for the government. And so that day in the lab,
3:47
Speaker 1: after the mixture had stopped bubbling a little bit, Carolyn
3:51
Speaker 1: very carefully added some more ingredients. There was some copper
3:54
Speaker 1: acetate and black food dye, and then once they were
3:57
Speaker 1: in the wash basin as well, it was done. At
4:01
Speaker 1: this point, Carolyn very carefully scooped some of this mixture
4:04
Speaker 1: up in a ladle and she poured it into a
4:06
Speaker 1: glass speaker and then handed it off to a lab
4:08
Speaker 1: assistant and told him she had followed the recipe exactly.
4:12
Speaker 1: He took the mixture and thanked her and told her
4:14
Speaker 1: he was now going to dehydrate it into several solid cakes.
4:19
Speaker 2: And then they would test it.
4:20
Speaker 1: A few weeks later, Carolyn was back in the laboratory
4:23
Speaker 1: copying some notes from some of the more recent versions
4:26
Speaker 1: of the experiment she'd been working on, and she looked
4:29
Speaker 1: up when her boss, a scientist named Major Harold J.
4:32
Speaker 2: Coolidge, walked into the room.
4:34
Speaker 1: Major Coolidge was a scientist from Harvard University, and he
4:38
Speaker 1: was in charge of this whole secret project that Carolyn
4:41
Speaker 1: was working on. And he walked in and he had
4:43
Speaker 1: a big smile on his face, and he put a
4:45
Speaker 1: memo down on the table in front of Carolyn, and
4:47
Speaker 1: Carolyn grabbed it and she read it over, and as
4:50
Speaker 1: she did, her heart began to race. The memo said
4:53
Speaker 1: that the US Navy had taken different versions of the
4:57
Speaker 1: dehydrated cakes that they had been making out into the
5:00
Speaker 1: ocean to shark infested waters, and then attached these cakes
5:05
Speaker 1: to bags of raw fish meat and submerged them in
5:08
Speaker 1: the water, and a lot of curious sharks had come
5:12
Speaker 1: over to investigate the meat, but none of them had
5:15
Speaker 1: actually taken a bite. And this was exactly what Carolyn
5:20
Speaker 1: and her boss and her colleagues had all hoped for.
5:24
Speaker 1: So the government had basically hired the OSS to create
5:28
Speaker 1: a brand new life saving product, shark repellent, and soon
5:33
Speaker 1: this very same shark repellent that Carolyn worked on was
5:36
Speaker 1: actually issued to the entire US Navy. However, while this
5:40
Speaker 1: shark repellent was undoubtedly Carolyn's first big.
5:44
Speaker 2: Recipe, it would not be her last.
5:47
Speaker 1: After she left the OSS, she eventually moved to Paris, France,
5:51
Speaker 1: where her life would change forever because there Caroline fell
5:55
Speaker 1: in love with French cuisine. And even though she had
5:59
Speaker 1: literally zero culinary training aside from mixing up shark repellent recipes,
6:05
Speaker 1: she enrolled at a legendary culinary school called Les Courmbleau.
6:09
Speaker 1: Now she was the only woman in her class, and
6:12
Speaker 1: at first, because again she had no skills in cooking,
6:15
Speaker 1: she really struggled.
6:17
Speaker 2: To hang on to the curriculum.
6:19
Speaker 1: But she would figure it out and eventually she would
6:22
Speaker 1: not just graduate, she would go on to become an
6:24
Speaker 1: exceptionally talented chef. She went on to co author a
6:29
Speaker 1: cookbook that sold more than three and a half million copies,
6:33
Speaker 1: and then after that she landed a deal for a
6:35
Speaker 1: cooking show on TV, and viewers all over the world
6:38
Speaker 1: not only loved her cooking, but they really just fell
6:41
Speaker 1: in love with her, like her personality, and so she
6:44
Speaker 1: would go on to become one of the most beloved
6:46
Speaker 1: and influential chefs in history, credited with bringing French cooking
6:51
Speaker 1: into American homes. Before there was Gordon Ramsay or Barefoot Kntessa,
6:56
Speaker 1: there was Carolyn, a six foot two celebrity ship with
7:00
Speaker 1: a booming voice and a magnetic personality who used to
7:03
Speaker 1: make shark repellent, the very traits that initially kept her
7:07
Speaker 1: from serving her country, made her unforgettable in every kitchen
7:11
Speaker 1: in America. Her middle name was Carolyn, but you know
7:15
Speaker 1: her as Julia Child. Minimum payments are not designed to
7:25
Speaker 1: get people out of debt.
7:27
Speaker 2: They're designed to keep them stuck.
7:30
Speaker 1: That's why so many people are turning to PDS debt
7:32
Speaker 1: for a real solution. PDS debt can reduce up to
7:35
Speaker 1: half of what's owed on credit cards, personal loans, and
7:38
Speaker 1: even medical bills. The process starts with a free thirty
7:41
Speaker 1: second assessment at pdsdebt dot com slash mister ballin. PDS
7:46
Speaker 1: uses AI and data to go beyond the numbers and
7:49
Speaker 1: personalize saving solutions for each person's situation. Instead of juggling
7:54
Speaker 1: multiple payments every month, PDS debt can help combine them
7:57
Speaker 1: into one lower monthly payment with Z zero credit impact,
8:01
Speaker 1: and savings can start the same day the thirty second
8:04
Speaker 1: assessment is completed. If there's a balance sitting on credit
8:07
Speaker 1: cards right now, interest charges are adding up every single day,
8:11
Speaker 1: pdsdbt offers a way to finally take control, and there's
8:14
Speaker 1: no minimum credit score required.
8:16
Speaker 2: PDS debt is one of the top.
8:18
Speaker 1: Rated companies in the industry, with thousands of five star
8:20
Speaker 1: reviews and an A plus rating from the.
8:23
Speaker 2: Better Business Bureau.
8:24
Speaker 1: Yet you are free thirty second personalized assessment today at
8:28
Speaker 1: PDSDBT dot.
8:29
Speaker 2: Com slash mister Ballin.
8:40
Speaker 1: On the afternoon of June twelfth, nineteen sixty two, an
8:43
Speaker 1: eighteen year old boy named George Junior drove through his
8:45
Speaker 1: hometown of Modesto, California on his way home for dinner.
8:50
Speaker 1: But as he was driving, George Junior could not help
8:53
Speaker 1: but feel like he was really, really dreading actually getting there.
8:57
Speaker 1: So he and his father had been fighting a lot
8:59
Speaker 1: lately ever since he had told his dad that he
9:02
Speaker 1: did not want to go to college and instead he
9:05
Speaker 1: wanted to become a race car driver, and his dad
9:08
Speaker 1: thought this was a ridiculous idea and that George Junior
9:11
Speaker 1: was wasting his potential. So George Junior was a very
9:15
Speaker 1: smart kid. In particular, he was very good at art
9:19
Speaker 1: and photography, but he also got distracted really easily, and
9:23
Speaker 1: because of that, he really had not pursued anything all
9:26
Speaker 1: that seriously at any point in his.
9:28
Speaker 2: Life, that is, except for cars.
9:31
Speaker 1: A few years back, George Junior had begun hanging around
9:34
Speaker 1: mechanic shops and sort of fell in love with cars.
9:37
Speaker 1: He thought they were fascinating, and at that point his
9:40
Speaker 1: father actually bought him a small Italian car called a Fiat,
9:44
Speaker 1: and George Junior, after getting this car, sort of became
9:48
Speaker 1: obsessed with it, and he wound up souping up the
9:50
Speaker 1: engine and basically turned this little car into sort of
9:53
Speaker 1: a race car. And he'd actually begun entering his little
9:57
Speaker 1: car into local car races, and he'd actually even.
9:59
Speaker 2: Won a few of these races.
10:01
Speaker 1: But his father, you know, despite being the one who
10:03
Speaker 1: literally gave him the Fiat, he just didn't get his
10:07
Speaker 1: son's obsession with cars, Like, why aren't you able to,
10:10
Speaker 1: you know, take that focus and apply it to other things,
10:13
Speaker 1: you know that will get you a real job and
10:15
Speaker 1: give you a real future. And so basically every dinner
10:18
Speaker 1: these days, it became this huge argument between father and son.
10:22
Speaker 1: But you know, George Junior, as frustrated as he was
10:25
Speaker 1: with the whole situation, couldn't really change it, at least
10:28
Speaker 1: not for now, because he still lived with his parents,
10:30
Speaker 1: and so he just had to accept that if they
10:33
Speaker 1: were going to fight, they were going to fight. And
10:35
Speaker 1: so George he came to this intersection where it was
10:37
Speaker 1: right near his home. He just needed to make a
10:40
Speaker 1: left and you know, pull over, and he was home.
10:43
Speaker 1: He comes to a stop, he puts on his blinker
10:45
Speaker 1: and he begins making the turn when he hears this
10:48
Speaker 1: really loud screeching sound and then feels his own car
10:52
Speaker 1: jolt forward and then everything went black. Two weeks later,
10:56
Speaker 1: George Junior was laying in a hospital bed in the
10:59
Speaker 1: intensive care unit at the local hospital, watching daytime reruns
11:03
Speaker 1: on the TV in his room. He was in so
11:05
Speaker 1: much pain that he could barely move, so all he
11:07
Speaker 1: did was just watch TV.
11:09
Speaker 2: So two weeks earlier, when George was making that turn
11:12
Speaker 2: and then something happened.
11:14
Speaker 1: Well, what it was is another car came speeding down
11:17
Speaker 1: the road and smashed into George's car so hard that
11:21
Speaker 1: it sent his car, as little Fiat flying and it
11:24
Speaker 1: flipped three times. And while it was flipping, George Junior
11:29
Speaker 1: was ejected.
11:30
Speaker 2: From the car.
11:31
Speaker 1: And actually it saved his life because the moment he
11:33
Speaker 1: was ejected, his car smashed into a tree and sort
11:37
Speaker 1: of wrapped around it. I mean, George was very badly hurt.
11:40
Speaker 1: He had multiple bone fractures. Bruce Lungs, I mean, he
11:43
Speaker 1: was really beaten up.
11:45
Speaker 2: But he had survived.
11:46
Speaker 1: However, the doctors told him that because of how extensive
11:50
Speaker 1: his injuries were, he would basically be recovering in bed.
11:53
Speaker 2: In the hospital for months.
11:56
Speaker 1: But again, George Junior just felt lucky to be alive
11:58
Speaker 1: at this point, and really, as he laid in bed,
12:01
Speaker 1: you know, watching TV and just sort of stuck there,
12:04
Speaker 1: he began to think that, you know what, maybe this
12:06
Speaker 1: is my wake up call.
12:07
Speaker 2: Maybe I do need to make some changes in my life.
12:10
Speaker 1: Two years later, George Junior, who by this point was
12:13
Speaker 1: fully recovered from his injuries, stood at the finish line
12:16
Speaker 1: at a racetrack and raised his camera and the race
12:19
Speaker 1: cars came whipping toward him on their last lap.
12:22
Speaker 2: And he snapped the photo finish.
12:24
Speaker 1: So, since his near death experience, George Junior had made
12:27
Speaker 1: some big decisions in the hospital after his accident, he
12:31
Speaker 1: had realized that really his dad had been kind of right,
12:34
Speaker 1: that in some ways he was wasting his potential. So
12:37
Speaker 1: after getting out of the hospital, George Junior had enrolled
12:40
Speaker 1: in community college and he really applied himself to his
12:44
Speaker 1: schoolwork to the point where his father was really impressed. Also,
12:48
Speaker 1: George Junior had decided that he really didn't want to
12:51
Speaker 1: race cars anymore. You know, he loved cars still, but
12:54
Speaker 1: it just felt like it was sort of reckless and
12:56
Speaker 1: not so much as thing anymore. Instead, he had a
12:59
Speaker 1: law with, you know, focusing on his school work, he
13:02
Speaker 1: had also picked up his camera and really gotten back
13:05
Speaker 1: into his old hobby of photography. In fact, George Junior
13:08
Speaker 1: had grown to love photography so much that after community college,
13:13
Speaker 1: he had applied to the prestigious cinematography program at the
13:17
Speaker 1: University of Southern California. But after sending off his application,
13:21
Speaker 1: you know, he was pretty sure he would not get
13:23
Speaker 1: in because despite his efforts with his schoolwork at community college,
13:27
Speaker 1: he still knew his grades likely were not up to snuff. Now,
13:31
Speaker 1: George Junior walked over to the podium to take some
13:33
Speaker 1: photos of the winning driver, But as he walked over there,
13:36
Speaker 1: this middle aged man came up beside him and just
13:39
Speaker 1: asked George Junior about his photography. They spoke for a
13:42
Speaker 1: few minutes, and then at some point the man actually
13:45
Speaker 1: formally introduced himself as Haskell Wexler, and he said that
13:49
Speaker 1: he was actually a cinematographer in Hollywood, and George Junior
13:53
Speaker 1: when he heard this, he sort of felt starstruck, and
13:55
Speaker 1: he told Haskell about how he had recently applied to
13:59
Speaker 1: USC to try to get into their cinematography program, but
14:02
Speaker 1: you know, he felt like it was kind of a
14:03
Speaker 1: long shot. And when Haskell heard this, he said, George,
14:06
Speaker 1: I know people at USC. Let me make some calls.
14:09
Speaker 1: I'll get you in. And sure enough, not long after
14:12
Speaker 1: this fateful meeting, George Junior would receive an acceptance letter
14:16
Speaker 1: from USC's Film school. But this moment in George Junior's life,
14:20
Speaker 1: you know, receiving this unbelievable acceptance letter did not just
14:24
Speaker 1: alter George's life forever, it also would go on to
14:28
Speaker 1: completely alter cinema in general forever, because about thirteen years later,
14:35
Speaker 1: George Junior would go on to create one of the
14:38
Speaker 1: most groundbreaking films in history. His movie revolutionized sound design
14:43
Speaker 1: and visual effects, and it would go on to become
14:46
Speaker 1: part of the most successful movie franchise of all time.
14:51
Speaker 1: George Junior is better known today as George Lucas and
14:54
Speaker 1: his film franchise was Star Wars. On a Sunday evening
15:09
Speaker 1: in the spring of nineteen thirty eight, eight year old
15:12
Speaker 1: Carolyn Jones hurried after her mother as they both carried
15:15
Speaker 1: platters of food down a street in Amarillo, Texas. It
15:19
Speaker 1: was Easter Sunday, and Carolyn and her mother were going
15:22
Speaker 1: to their neighbor's house to celebrate the holiday.
15:24
Speaker 2: Carolyn's dad was not in the picture, so.
15:27
Speaker 1: When they had moved into this neighborhood a few years ago,
15:29
Speaker 1: Carolyn's mom had made a big effort to get to
15:32
Speaker 1: know their neighbors to make sure that they had a
15:34
Speaker 1: lot of friends and community and support around them, and
15:37
Speaker 1: so as a result, Carolyn's mom had actually really bonded
15:40
Speaker 1: with a specific middle aged couple whose name was Mister
15:43
Speaker 1: and Missus Franklin that lived right down the street, and
15:46
Speaker 1: that's whose house they were going to right now, And
15:48
Speaker 1: Carolyn was really excited because the Franklins had always been
15:51
Speaker 1: so nice to her and this holiday dinner usually meant
15:55
Speaker 1: sweets and some fun.
15:57
Speaker 2: Easter games like decorating eggs.
15:59
Speaker 1: Less than an hour later, Carolyn, her mother, and the
16:01
Speaker 1: Franklins were all sitting around.
16:03
Speaker 2: The table eating some food.
16:04
Speaker 1: The grown ups were having a very animated discussion about
16:07
Speaker 1: something very boring, and Carolyn was feeling just completely antsy,
16:12
Speaker 1: you know, she just wanted this very boring adult part
16:14
Speaker 1: of the evening to end so she could have some
16:17
Speaker 1: candy and go play. And so while she's feeling this way,
16:20
Speaker 1: the phone rang in the Franklin's house, and since the
16:23
Speaker 1: grown ups were very busy talking, Missus Franklin asked Carolyn
16:27
Speaker 1: if she wouldn't mind going and answering the phone and
16:29
Speaker 1: seeing who it was. So Carolyn, who was excited to
16:32
Speaker 1: have really anything to do at this point, she jumped
16:35
Speaker 1: up and she grabbed the phone and said hello, and
16:37
Speaker 1: on the other end was an operator who said this
16:40
Speaker 1: was a collect call coming in from somebody named Joyce.
16:44
Speaker 1: Carolyn knew that Joyce was the Franklin's adult daughter, and
16:48
Speaker 1: also Carolyn knew from her own mother that Joyce had
16:51
Speaker 1: moved away a few years.
16:52
Speaker 2: Ago to go to school in Missouri.
16:54
Speaker 1: So when Carolyn heard this, she called over to the
16:57
Speaker 1: table and said, there was a collect.
16:58
Speaker 2: Call coming in from Joyce.
17:00
Speaker 1: But when she did this, the room, which just a
17:03
Speaker 1: second ago had been, you know, sort of noisy as
17:05
Speaker 1: the adults were chatting the whole time, the room went
17:08
Speaker 1: completely silent. Mister and Missus Franklin just stared at Carolyn,
17:13
Speaker 1: and to Carolyn's.
17:14
Speaker 2: Surprise, they sort of looked mad.
17:16
Speaker 1: Then mister Franklin got up, and he walked over to
17:19
Speaker 1: Carolyn and sort of aggressively took the phone out of
17:22
Speaker 1: Carolyn's hand, and then to the operator he said, put
17:25
Speaker 1: the call through. Carolyn felt like she'd done something wrong,
17:28
Speaker 1: but she had no idea what so she was just
17:31
Speaker 1: feeling totally shocked and embarrassed and just kind of stepped
17:34
Speaker 1: aside to watch mister Franklin as he listened to the
17:37
Speaker 1: caller speak. It would turn out that in past years
17:40
Speaker 1: at Easter dinners before this one, the Franklin's daughter, Joyce
17:44
Speaker 1: would always make the drive home from her school in
17:46
Speaker 1: Missouri to be with her parents in Texas, and in
17:49
Speaker 1: years past when she couldn't make the trip, she had
17:52
Speaker 1: always been really good about calling her parents and letting
17:56
Speaker 1: them know. And that was what Joyce had been calling
17:58
Speaker 1: about that night. When her father answered the phone and
18:02
Speaker 1: Joyce was put through, she said, Daddy, I can't get home.
18:06
Speaker 1: But this year Joyce's call was not routine. In fact,
18:09
Speaker 1: it was like the single most shocking thing that could
18:12
Speaker 1: have happened because a year earlier, during last Easter, when
18:17
Speaker 1: Joyce had been literally on her way home from school
18:20
Speaker 1: to see her parents, she'd gotten in a car accident
18:23
Speaker 1: and died. No one was ever able to explain that
18:26
Speaker 1: phone call, but the experience of being the one who
18:30
Speaker 1: actually answered the phone and being there when mister Franklin's
18:33
Speaker 1: face went white and he fainted like that experience for
18:36
Speaker 1: eight year old Carolyn was incredibly formative. In fact, in
18:40
Speaker 1: many ways, it's like her life changed in that exact moment,
18:44
Speaker 1: and from that point forward, Carolyn really went on to
18:48
Speaker 1: fully embrace the macabre in her life, and through that
18:52
Speaker 1: she ultimately became a very famous actress and scream queen,
18:57
Speaker 1: appearing in dozens of thrillers and horror films. Her most
19:01
Speaker 1: iconic macabre role was being Mortitia Adams in the original
19:05
Speaker 1: Adams Family TV series.
19:13
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching.
19:14
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of today's episode in
19:16
Speaker 1: the comments, And remember, we have hundreds of videos for
19:20
Speaker 1: you to binge right now. But if you're looking for
19:22
Speaker 1: a recommendation for me of that one video that's worth
19:26
Speaker 1: your time, well it's this one right here, So give
19:29
Speaker 1: it a watch, all right, until next time, see ya,