Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / The Coin Flip

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The Coin Flip · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. No one could agree on
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: what to do. The three travelers had just finished up
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: an appointment in Indianapolis on January. They planned to board
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: a train the next morning and begin the long journey
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: back to California. It was really Jane Peter's trip, but
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: she was traveling with her mother, Bess, along with a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: mutual friend. Jane was the one calling the shots, but
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  Speaker 1: had been happy to ride the train home until she
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: received a message from her husband, who was eager to
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  Speaker 1: see her. To be honest, she was just as eager
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to get home and be with him too, so when
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: he suggested they skip out on their train tickets and
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  Speaker 1: catch a commercial airliner home, Jane lit up with joy.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: The conflict arose when Jane's friends shook their heads and refused.
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  Speaker 1: They both hated the thought of flying and would rather
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  Speaker 1: take the slower but safer route home by train. In
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  Speaker 1: the end, they did what any group of indecisive travelers
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  Speaker 1: might do. They flipped a coin heads, they would follow
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  Speaker 1: Jane onto the airplane and get home faster tails they
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  Speaker 1: would take the train as planned. Everyone agreed to let
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the coin decide for them, and so they pulled out
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  Speaker 1: a coin and gave it a toss. The winner was
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  Speaker 1: the airplane. They boarded t w A flight number three
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  Speaker 1: at four a m. On January and began the westward
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  Speaker 1: flight home. Today, that airplane would have made it all
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  Speaker 1: the way to California without a problem, but in one
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  Speaker 1: there were less flights, so they needed to pick up
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  Speaker 1: a few people along. The St. Louis was their first stop,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and then on to Albuquerque. After that, they headed to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Las Vegas to refuel before heading west to California. The
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: plane took off from Las Vegas around six fifty five
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: am with twenty two people on board. Thirteen minutes later, however,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the captain made a navigational error and somehow flew the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: plane into the side of Potosi Mountain. Everyone on board
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  Speaker 1: the plane died instantly, including Jane. Jane Peter's husband, Clark,
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  Speaker 1: was heartbroken. He flew to Las Vegas to claim his
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: wife's body, along with his mother in law and the
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  Speaker 1: family friend. Actually the family friend was Clark's press agent.
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  Speaker 1: Clark you see, was a well known film star named
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  Speaker 1: Clark Gable and Jane Well. She was buried in Forest
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  Speaker 1: Lawn Memorial Park outside of Burbank, near Hollywood, where she
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  Speaker 1: spent most of her life. Jane you see was one
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  Speaker 1: of the most important Hollywood stars of the nineteen thirties
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  Speaker 1: and had just finished raising the modern equivalent of thirty
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  Speaker 1: three million dollars for the war efforts. She was adored
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  Speaker 1: and would be sorely missed. Most people don't know her
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  Speaker 1: as Jane Peters, though, because that was her birth name. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, along with
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the credits of all her films, bear her stage name
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Carol Lombard. She accomplished so much in her short life,
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  Speaker 1: but if it wasn't for the flip of a coin,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: who knows what else she might have done. Sadly we
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: never will. Harry arrived at the old English mansion with
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: work on his mind, but he left with something else Entirely.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: He had been called upon to take care of a
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  Speaker 1: fairly simple task, much like the mansion itself. There in York.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: The pipes in the basement were really old, and a
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  Speaker 1: few of them needed replaced. As a plumber's apprentice, this
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  Speaker 1: was the sort of task he could handle on his own,
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  Speaker 1: so he was sent out to get the job done.
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  Speaker 1: As he worked at the top of a ladder, his
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  Speaker 1: neck bent to study the pipe above him, he was
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  Speaker 1: startled by a sudden noise. He later told others that
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  Speaker 1: it sounded like a trumpet with one long, steady blast.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed to come out of nowhere and took him
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  Speaker 1: by such surprise that he actually fell off the ladder
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  Speaker 1: to the stone floor below. As he was returning to
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  Speaker 1: his feet, the sound stopped and something entered the basement
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  Speaker 1: through a far wall. Well entered is a misleading term.
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  Speaker 1: This figure seemed to step out of the wall itself,
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  Speaker 1: as if the stone there was nothing more than a mirage.
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  Speaker 1: At the sight of this figure, Harry lost his cool
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  Speaker 1: and rushed into a dark corner to watch it from
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  Speaker 1: a distance. He claimed it was the figure of a
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  Speaker 1: Roman soldier, complete with weapons, armor and a plumed helmet.
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  Speaker 1: After the soldier had passed all the way through the
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  Speaker 1: basement wall, it was followed by more. They walked in
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  Speaker 1: pairs side by side, in front of horses that were
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  Speaker 1: pulling carts. Harry was terrified, but he watched it all. Nonetheless,
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  Speaker 1: each of the soldiers, he claimed were wearing short swords
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  Speaker 1: on their right hip and carrying round metal and wood shields.
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  Speaker 1: Beneath their armor, Harry could see green tunics, and their
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  Speaker 1: feet were clad in leather sandals with straps that wound
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  Speaker 1: all the way up to their knees. He watched this
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  Speaker 1: ghostly parade for a few moments, as they exited the
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  Speaker 1: wall on one side of the basement and then vanished
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  Speaker 1: in the same manner on the opposite side. And then
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  Speaker 1: they were gone. Harry, though, had a choice keep working
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  Speaker 1: or run out of the basement as quickly as he could.
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  Speaker 1: I can't find a record of which option he picked.
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  Speaker 1: What I do know, though, is that he told others
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  Speaker 1: about what he saw. It was a fantastic story, full
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  Speaker 1: of suspense and drama, but it earned him a lot
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  Speaker 1: of criticism. It was all fantasy. Some said the Roman
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  Speaker 1: soldiers in his vision weren't historically accurate, because Romans wore red,
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  Speaker 1: not green, and they carried rectangular shields, not round, with
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  Speaker 1: their swords on their left hip not their right. Every
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: historian in nineteen fifty three was absolutely certain of this.
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  Speaker 1: It turns out, Harry wasn't the only person to have
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  Speaker 1: seen the ghostly soldiers. Decades before, a guest of the
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  Speaker 1: previous owner of the mansion claimed to have seen them
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  Speaker 1: as well, but just like Harry, he was laughed at
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  Speaker 1: and ridiculed. Not that Frank Green, the man who owned
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  Speaker 1: the place, ever, doubted a Roman connection to the mansion.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, quite the opposite. Green knew for a fact
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  Speaker 1: that his mansion had been built right on top of
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  Speaker 1: an ancient Roman road. He had even uncovered a number
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  Speaker 1: of Roman columns on the property and placed one of
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  Speaker 1: them upstairs in the main house. The Romans were real,
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  Speaker 1: as everyone knew, but the ghosts, well, that was just fantasy.
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  Speaker 1: All of that changed years later archaeologists digging near the
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  Speaker 1: mansion discovered the graves of Roman soldiers that dated to
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  Speaker 1: a period after the Romans had left England and gone
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  Speaker 1: back to Rome. They were, in fact Roman trained reserve
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  Speaker 1: soldiers given the task of watching over Rome's investment in
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  Speaker 1: the area, and there was something unexpected about them. Each
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: skeleton had a sword beside it, located not on the
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  Speaker 1: left hip, as expected, but on the right. The shields
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  Speaker 1: and the grave sites were also unusual since they were
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  Speaker 1: round and not the typical rectangular shape. But the biggest
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  Speaker 1: shock of all was the discovery of small scraps of
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: fabric which hinted at the true color of their tunics.
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  Speaker 1: You can probably guess what color they were too. That's right,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: they were green. Our old plumber friend, Harry took a
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  Speaker 1: lot of flak for his bizarre encounter that day in
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  Speaker 1: the basement of the mansion. He was mocked and shamed
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  Speaker 1: and told he was wrong. But over the years he
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: stuck to his story and never wavered. And I think
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  Speaker 1: it's safe to say that that was a good thing,
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  Speaker 1: because time and a bit of digging eventually approved him. Right.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
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  Speaker 1: Two