Latest / Crime and Horror / DEADLY BROADCAST terrorized a whole city... - Mr Ballen

Transcript

DEADLY BROADCAST terrorized a whole city... - Mr Ballen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you two wild stories. The
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Speaker 1: first story is about a little-known invasion of a South
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Speaker 1: American country in 1949 that had absolutely insane unintended consequences.
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Speaker 1: And the second story is about this very strange ritual
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Speaker 1: that typically did not have horrible consequences. But one time
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Speaker 1: in 1851, it did. But before we get into today's stories...
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Speaker 1: If you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious
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Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our uploads. Okay, let's
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Speaker 1: get into today's stories. On February 12, 1949, a man
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Speaker 1: in his 30s named Leonardo Paez paced around a radio
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Speaker 1: station in a city called Quito, which is the capital
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Speaker 1: city of Ecuador. It was a Saturday night, and Leonardo
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Speaker 1: and all the people around him were working very hard
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Speaker 1: to get ready for an urgent broadcast. So Leonardo was
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Speaker 1: the director of Radio Quito, which was a highly respected
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Speaker 1: news station owned by a popular newspaper called El Comercio.
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Speaker 1: Most people in Ecuador basically got all their news either
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Speaker 1: from this news station or that newspaper or both. And
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Speaker 1: running a radio station with such a great reputation was
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Speaker 1: really a source of pride for Leonardo, who had grown
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Speaker 1: up in Quito. So he took his job very seriously,
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Speaker 1: which was why tonight was such a big deal for him.
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Speaker 1: He was about to deliver a potentially life-changing broadcast to
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Speaker 1: the entire city. And just thinking about the gravity of
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Speaker 1: this moment was making him feel sick and sweaty. In
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Speaker 1: the room with Leonardo was a team of producers and
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Speaker 1: sound technicians, as well as one of the station's top
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Speaker 1: news anchors. Most of the last minute work they were
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Speaker 1: all doing involved organizing stacks of paper that contained instructions
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Speaker 1: about what to say and what to do during this
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Speaker 1: pivotal broadcast. That's what the anchor was double checking right now.
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Speaker 1: He was the one who had written the broadcast script,
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Speaker 1: and he would be the one actually reading it on
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Speaker 1: the air. Leonardo looked anxiously over at the clock on
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Speaker 1: the wall. It was already a few minutes after 9pm
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Speaker 1: and they didn't have a lot of time left. But
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Speaker 1: even though Leonardo desperately wanted to get this broadcast started
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Speaker 1: as soon as possible, he knew he had to give
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Speaker 1: his anchor the space and time to make sure they
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Speaker 1: were 100% ready before they actually went on the air.
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Speaker 1: Because they really only had one chance to do this right.
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Speaker 1: So instead of telling the anchor to come on, hurry
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Speaker 1: it up, Leonardo instead bit his lip and just paced
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Speaker 1: around the station saying, trying to distract himself by listening
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Speaker 1: to the program that was currently being broadcast over the
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Speaker 1: radio station's airwaves. It was a live musical performance from
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Speaker 1: a duo of singers named Benitez and Valencia. These two
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Speaker 1: combined were really famous, sort of like the Taylor Swift
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Speaker 1: of 1940s Ecuador. And so when people in Quito knew
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Speaker 1: these particular singers were performing on the radio, basically everybody
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Speaker 1: stopped what they were doing and tuned in to listen.
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Speaker 1: So in Quito in the 1940s, Nobody had TV. And
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Speaker 1: so radios were like the ultimate form of not just
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Speaker 1: how to get your news, but also of entertainment. It's
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Speaker 1: really where everybody turned. But radios were also very expensive
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Speaker 1: and were sort of a luxury item. So not everybody
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Speaker 1: had one. The people who did have radios would often
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Speaker 1: bring theirs outside to the street so that other people
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Speaker 1: could also hear the programs and the music. And Leonardo
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Speaker 1: knew that all of this meant that at this very moment,
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Speaker 1: all across the city, Most of Quito's 250,000 residents were
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Speaker 1: gathered around a radio, and he needed to get his
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Speaker 1: broadcast on the air while he still had everybody's attention.
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Speaker 1: He turned and saw the anchor finally lean back in
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Speaker 1: his chair, indicating he was ready, and so Leonardo knew
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Speaker 1: it was time to go live. Leonardo turned and nodded
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Speaker 1: to his technicians, who were all sitting at a table
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Speaker 1: covered in broadcasting equipment. And one of them, after seeing
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Speaker 1: Leonardo's cue, leaned forward to adjust several knobs and then
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Speaker 1: hit a button on the control panel. And the instant
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Speaker 1: he did this, the voices of the singing duo cut
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Speaker 1: off and a large red sign that said on air
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Speaker 1: lit up on the wall right above the table. Basically,
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Speaker 1: they were going to cut off the performance to do
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Speaker 1: this broadcast and catch everybody in Quito off guard. And
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Speaker 1: then the anchor leaned into their microphone and in a
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Speaker 1: very urgent voice said that they were interrupting this musical
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Speaker 1: program because there was an alarming event happening that everybody
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Speaker 1: in Quito had to hear about. Then he explained the
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Speaker 1: reason for this broadcast. Ecuador was being invaded. About half
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Speaker 1: a mile away from the radio station, 17-year-old Jose Antonio
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Speaker 1: stood outside a restaurant with some of his friends. Jose
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Speaker 1: and his friends and all the diners, plus a bunch
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Speaker 1: of people out on the sidewalk, had been gathered around
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Speaker 1: the restaurant owner's radio, listening to Benitez and Valencia sing,
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Speaker 1: when suddenly the music had cut out and the anchor
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Speaker 1: had come on to say that their country was under attack.
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Speaker 1: And so as Jose and this group is sort of
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Speaker 1: caught off guard and listening to the sudden announcement, the
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Speaker 1: announcer got really emphatic and said, listen, the city of
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Speaker 1: Latacunga has been destroyed. And at that, Jose's mouth fell open.
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Speaker 1: and he felt this jolt of fear in his chest.
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Speaker 1: Latakunga was only about 60 miles south of Quito, so Jose,
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Speaker 1: along with everybody else around him, instinctively leaned into the
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Speaker 1: radio so they could hear more about what was happening
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Speaker 1: and why. But when they all did that, the broadcast
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Speaker 1: suddenly stopped just as abruptly as it had come on,
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Speaker 1: and the music program came back on. But the street
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Speaker 1: got really quiet as Jose and the crowd just kind
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Speaker 1: of stood there. waiting for something to happen. I mean, really,
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Speaker 1: nobody knew how to react to this. A few people
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Speaker 1: began looking up at the sky, thinking maybe warplanes might
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Speaker 1: be flying overhead. And actually, Jose began doing that too,
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Speaker 1: wondering if, you know, that's the next step. But there
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Speaker 1: were no planes and there were no signs of, you know,
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Speaker 1: anything that would indicate that war was happening nearby or,
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Speaker 1: you know, whatever destroyed Latakunga was approaching Quito. All Jose
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Speaker 1: could hear was the echo of other radios around the city,
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Speaker 1: now back to playing this musical program. But as the
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Speaker 1: seconds ticked by and the crowd gradually began talking again
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Speaker 1: and kind of going back to normal, some people began
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Speaker 1: making jokes and suggesting that this broadcast was literally a joke,
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Speaker 1: that that was meant to be a prank. Others just
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Speaker 1: kind of brushed the whole thing off and just went
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Speaker 1: about their evening as if it had never even happened. However,
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Speaker 1: Jose did notice that some of the people at the
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Speaker 1: tables outside the restaurant where he was were still just
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Speaker 1: kind of staring at the radio. shifting around like they
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Speaker 1: were restless or uncomfortable, like clearly that broadcast had struck
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Speaker 1: a nerve. Jose also kept fidgeting around and trading worried
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Speaker 1: looks with his friends and the other people around him
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Speaker 1: because he wasn't so sure this was a joke. And
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Speaker 1: the reason he wasn't sure was because a sudden invasion
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Speaker 1: of their country had actually happened before. Seven years earlier,
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Speaker 1: in 1941, when Jose was just a kid, the much
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Speaker 1: larger country of Peru had invaded Ecuador after an argument
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Speaker 1: over land along a shared border. Instead of settling the
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Speaker 1: argument diplomatically, the Peruvian army stormed into the disputed territory
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Speaker 1: in Ecuador and conquered it pretty easily. And the fighting
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Speaker 1: had only lasted for maybe about a month before Ecuador
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Speaker 1: accepted that they had lost and retreated, giving up the land.
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Speaker 1: But even though the fighting back then had never actually
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Speaker 1: reached Quito, it had been a terrifying experience for residents
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Speaker 1: of Quito because it made them realize they were not
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Speaker 1: able to defend themselves against a foreign invader. But just then,
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Speaker 1: As Jose and the others are sitting outside the restaurant,
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Speaker 1: kind of grappling with what could be going on here,
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Speaker 1: how real is this, you know, is this a prank?
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Speaker 1: Just then, the music that had come back on again
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Speaker 1: on the radio cut out, and once again, the broadcaster's
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Speaker 1: voice came on, and they said they had an update.
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Speaker 1: The enemy had landed their aircraft right on the outskirts
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Speaker 1: of Quito, in a northern area called Cotacoyao, which was
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Speaker 1: only eight miles from the center of Quito. And suddenly,
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Speaker 1: Jose and the others realized... that if the enemy had
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Speaker 1: destroyed Latakunga in the south and now landed in Kotokoyo
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Speaker 1: in the north, then the city of Quito was effectively surrounded.
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Speaker 1: But before Jose could even process this thought, another man's
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Speaker 1: voice came on the radio. And unlike the first voice,
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Speaker 1: which was emphatic but, you know, basically calm... This guy
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Speaker 1: was absolutely panicked. He said he was the chief of
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Speaker 1: Quito's newspaper. And then he basically screamed, the airbase has
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Speaker 1: been taken over by the enemy and destroyed. They're exterminating
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Speaker 1: everything and everyone. He continued to yell that the enemy
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Speaker 1: was using poisonous gas and they were using fire and
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Speaker 1: they were literally killing people and destroying homes and buildings.
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Speaker 1: And then he issued a simple and terrifying warning. They're coming.
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Speaker 1: Jose felt himself let out this yelp that he couldn't
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Speaker 1: even control. He was so suddenly terrified. But he didn't
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Speaker 1: even hear it, because all around him, everybody else seemed
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Speaker 1: to react basically the same way all at once. And
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Speaker 1: the streets erupted in screaming and praying and just absolute chaos.
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Speaker 1: Some people began pointing up to the sky, yelling that
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Speaker 1: they could see the enemy. More and more people suddenly
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Speaker 1: began flooding out onto the streets, crowding around the radios,
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Speaker 1: trying to hear more information. They're all terrified and they
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Speaker 1: don't know what's going on. Jose wanted to begin to
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Speaker 1: tell these new people who were coming outside sort of
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Speaker 1: what he and others had heard so far, but everybody
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Speaker 1: out on the street was sort of talking over each
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Speaker 1: other it was just complete madness and then literally on
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Speaker 1: the radio there's all these different voices coming over because
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Speaker 1: clearly the news station is panicked and they can't even
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Speaker 1: get a cohesive message out over this broadcast However, despite
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Speaker 1: this madness, the one word that kept coming through on
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Speaker 1: the radio that everybody heard was go hide, hide from
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Speaker 1: the enemy, hide. And Jose and some other people around
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Speaker 1: him were thinking about doing just that when finally a
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Speaker 1: new voice took over the broadcast. And this man was
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Speaker 1: louder and more authoritative than the others. And it sort
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Speaker 1: of immediately projected calm, not just clearly calm on the
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Speaker 1: other end on the broadcast side, but But it sort
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Speaker 1: of quelled the crowd for a second. This person sounded
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Speaker 1: like an authority figure. And this person introduced himself as
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Speaker 1: the mayor of Quito. And he said that, yes, there
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Speaker 1: are cities around Quito that are currently under attack. But
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Speaker 1: he said he had clear direction that he wanted everybody
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Speaker 1: in Quito to follow. But despite this instruction really being
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Speaker 1: the first kind of clear next steps for people to follow,
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Speaker 1: it didn't make Jose feel any better about this. Because
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Speaker 1: the mayor told the people of Quito... that the women
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Speaker 1: and children, they had to flee, go hide, go away,
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Speaker 1: go find somewhere safe. But the men had to stay
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Speaker 1: and fight. Jose felt this rush of adrenaline because he's thinking,
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Speaker 1: am I old enough to be considered, you know, one
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Speaker 1: of the men? Will I be expected to fight or
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Speaker 1: are they going to tell me to go flee with
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Speaker 1: the women and kids? Like he didn't really know, but
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Speaker 1: he had this calming thought. He's like, you know what?
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Speaker 1: We're at war and I am going to fight. So
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Speaker 1: he signaled to his friends, sort of saying, all right,
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Speaker 1: let's go, let's get ready here. And the group came
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Speaker 1: together and they left the restaurant. And at that exact
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Speaker 1: same second, a car came flying past on the street,
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Speaker 1: narrowly missing Jose and his friends. And Jose saw it
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Speaker 1: screech around the corner and out of sight before he
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Speaker 1: heard this loud bang and the crunch of metal against stone. Immediately,
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Speaker 1: some men ran after this car because clearly it had
12:00
Speaker 1: gotten into an accident and they need to go if
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Speaker 1: they need help. But other people started running in the
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Speaker 1: opposite direction. And so for Jose and his friends, it's like,
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Speaker 1: what do we do? Do we go help with the
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Speaker 1: car crash or do we go, you know, head to
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Speaker 1: the front lines or something? At the same time, women
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Speaker 1: were running by clutching children and Jose saw a pregnant
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Speaker 1: woman stumble on past grimacing as she held her stomach.
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Speaker 1: Screams were echoing from all around him, along with the
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Speaker 1: rapid pounding of boots on cobblestones as people basically ran
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Speaker 1: in every direction. Jose was still trying to figure out
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Speaker 1: which way he should go and what he and his
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Speaker 1: friends should actually do here. when he heard a new
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Speaker 1: speaker's voice come on the radio, who announced himself as
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Speaker 1: the minister of government, which was basically like the person
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Speaker 1: who controls the security of the entire country of Ecuador.
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Speaker 1: And the minister of government said to forget about what
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Speaker 1: the mayor had told them about fighting the enemy, because
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Speaker 1: Ecuador's weapons were literally not powerful enough. There was nothing
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Speaker 1: that anyone in Ecuador could do. This is what the
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Speaker 1: minister said. He basically said, we're going to lose. Just then,
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Speaker 1: another new voice came on the radio. It was this
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Speaker 1: very fast-talking man who said he was actually reporting live
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Speaker 1: on the ground in Quito. And he screamed out over
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Speaker 1: the broadcast for everyone to run. And then his feed
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Speaker 1: abruptly cut out. And then the original announcer came back on.
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Speaker 1: And his voice shook as he said that reporter who
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Speaker 1: had just said for everybody to run had just been killed.
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Speaker 1: It was 9.21 p.m. 21 minutes had elapsed. since this
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Speaker 1: broadcast first went over the air, announcing this invasion of Ecuador.
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Speaker 1: And in that time, it was like the country had
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Speaker 1: spiraled into absolute madness. Now, remember, at this point, Jose
13:46
Speaker 1: is gathered with his friends. He's sort of begun to
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Speaker 1: leave the restaurant, but so many things have happened all
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Speaker 1: around him that he and his friends are just kind
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Speaker 1: of standing there near the restaurant, not really sure what
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Speaker 1: to do. And as they're standing there, Jose noticed that
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Speaker 1: all these people who previously had just remained seated or
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Speaker 1: remained near radios, it was like everybody all at once
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Speaker 1: just got up and began running in different directions, running
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Speaker 1: to the churches, running to their homes. It was like
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Speaker 1: the entire country truly was just in full-blown panic mode.
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Speaker 1: Jose also began to notice families come running out of
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Speaker 1: their homes, dragging suitcases and belongings with them, getting ready to,
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Speaker 1: you know, evacuate hopefully, but where could they even go?
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Speaker 1: They're surrounded. And just then, Jose heard the sound of
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Speaker 1: glass shattering. And he saw a few people over at
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Speaker 1: the restaurant's bar taking liquor from the shelves and pouring
14:35
Speaker 1: themselves drinks before tossing the bottles on the floor. Jose
14:39
Speaker 1: looked and realized his friends had already left him, so
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Speaker 1: he's just standing here all alone. And he knew by
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Speaker 1: this point, he can't just keep standing here thinking about
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Speaker 1: what he's going to do. He needs to do something.
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Speaker 1: He needs to act. But just then, the radio crackled
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Speaker 1: back to life. And once again, there was a voice
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Speaker 1: calling out one final update. But it was so crazy
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Speaker 1: all around him, Jose couldn't understand what this final update
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Speaker 1: actually was. He just didn't hear it. However, Jose could
15:06
Speaker 1: clearly see other people around him had heard this final
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Speaker 1: update and they were obviously reacting to it because they stopped.
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Speaker 1: Everybody stopped running around. They put down their suitcases and
15:16
Speaker 1: everyone just kind of stood there. And then people began
15:20
Speaker 1: going for their guns and knives and torches. And then
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Speaker 1: once this huge now armed crowd came together, they began
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Speaker 1: to move as one, all in the direction of the
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Speaker 1: city center. In the city center, in the Radio Quito station,
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Speaker 1: Leonardo watched as the anchor delivered that final update, the
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Speaker 1: one that Jose had not heard but others had and
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Speaker 1: clearly reacted to. A minute later, Leonardo heard glass shattering
15:48
Speaker 1: somewhere one floor below him, along with a loud crackling sound.
15:52
Speaker 1: Then he smelled smoke, and he noticed the air in
15:54
Speaker 1: front of him inside the studio was getting hazy. And
15:57
Speaker 1: then from outside the building, he heard somebody yelling, fire.
16:02
Speaker 1: Behind Leonardo, the anchor grabbed the microphone and pleaded on
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Speaker 1: air to anybody who was listening that the radio station
16:08
Speaker 1: was in trouble and to please come help. But there
16:11
Speaker 1: really was no one left to help them. They were
16:13
Speaker 1: on their own. And when Leonardo and his team realized this,
16:17
Speaker 1: they knew they had to get out of this station
16:19
Speaker 1: by themselves. And so they ran together down the stairs
16:22
Speaker 1: to the exit. But before they even got to the
16:24
Speaker 1: bottom of the steps, the smoke from the fire became
16:27
Speaker 1: so thick they couldn't even breathe. Leonardo realized that the
16:31
Speaker 1: whole first floor must be engulfed in flames. And so
16:34
Speaker 1: the only way out was actually to go up, not down.
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Speaker 1: So Leonardo led the group back up the way they came,
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Speaker 1: running back through the second floor office building, the studio
16:43
Speaker 1: space where they had recorded the broadcast and headed up
16:46
Speaker 1: the stairs to the very top floor. And by the
16:49
Speaker 1: time Leonardo got to the top floor, he could hear
16:51
Speaker 1: screams coming from somewhere below him, and they sounded painful
16:55
Speaker 1: and horrible. He hoped his co-workers had been able to
16:58
Speaker 1: follow him up here, but by this point, there was
17:01
Speaker 1: so much smoke in the building, he really couldn't see,
17:03
Speaker 1: so he didn't know who was here with him and
17:05
Speaker 1: who had been left behind. And also, the roar of
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Speaker 1: the fire was getting louder by the minute, and it
17:11
Speaker 1: was so hot that sweat poured from Leonardo's face and
17:14
Speaker 1: it stung his eyes. And so Leonardo instinctively ran away
17:18
Speaker 1: from the smoke towards the windows... And because they're on
17:21
Speaker 1: the top floor, three floors up, you know, looking out,
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Speaker 1: he had a good view of the ground below. And
17:26
Speaker 1: he saw these huge crowds of people on the street.
17:29
Speaker 1: Most of them were holding torches and seemed to be
17:32
Speaker 1: running around in random patterns while big military tanks rolled
17:36
Speaker 1: in behind them, along with this hazy mist from some
17:39
Speaker 1: kind of gas kind of flowing across the entire crowd.
17:42
Speaker 1: Just then, Leonardo felt the floor under his feet begin
17:45
Speaker 1: to shake, and he frantically began to think, like, how
17:48
Speaker 1: am I going to get out of here? I need
17:49
Speaker 1: to escape. And that's when he saw the roof next door.
17:53
Speaker 1: So the radio station sat next door to a school,
17:56
Speaker 1: which was at this point not yet on fire. Now,
17:59
Speaker 1: the school building was not connected to the radio station,
18:02
Speaker 1: but it was close enough that Leonardo realized that he
18:06
Speaker 1: might be able to open up a window that is
18:08
Speaker 1: standing right near, get a running start and literally jump
18:12
Speaker 1: out the window and land on the school roof. Now, obviously,
18:16
Speaker 1: if he undershot this jump, he would fall to the
18:18
Speaker 1: street below and die. But the alternative was stay here
18:22
Speaker 1: and be burned alive. So Leonardo just opened up the window,
18:26
Speaker 1: he backed up, took a deep breath, got a running start,
18:29
Speaker 1: and jumped out the window. He flew into the air,
18:33
Speaker 1: arms flailing as he willed himself to land on the
18:36
Speaker 1: school roof, and after a millisecond in the air, he
18:39
Speaker 1: comes crashing down, slams onto the school building. He had
18:43
Speaker 1: made it. It was painful, but he had escaped. But
18:46
Speaker 1: Leonardo didn't have time to waste here, nor did he
18:48
Speaker 1: really have time to wait to see if others would
18:51
Speaker 1: also make this jump. I mean, he really felt like
18:53
Speaker 1: he's sort of on his own here. And so up
18:55
Speaker 1: he got, and despite the pain from impacting the roof,
18:58
Speaker 1: he was basically okay. And he walked across the school
19:01
Speaker 1: building until he went to the next roof. Basically, the
19:04
Speaker 1: next building butted up against the school building. So he
19:07
Speaker 1: climbs onto that roof, and he walks across that roof
19:10
Speaker 1: until he reaches the next building. Again, these buildings are
19:12
Speaker 1: all connected, so there's no more jumping from you know,
19:14
Speaker 1: one building to the next, but he is going roof
19:16
Speaker 1: to roof, basically high up above the streets of Quito.
19:20
Speaker 1: And down below he sees, you know, all this madness
19:22
Speaker 1: with the tanks and all these people with torches. He
19:25
Speaker 1: doesn't really know what's going on here. And eventually he
19:28
Speaker 1: reaches a roof, you know, as he makes his way
19:30
Speaker 1: that a family was sitting on. And the family, they
19:33
Speaker 1: were looking out at the city where the sky was
19:35
Speaker 1: still glowing from the light of the fire Leonardo had
19:37
Speaker 1: just escaped from. And when they saw Leonardo... They told
19:40
Speaker 1: him they had actually been down on the streets in
19:42
Speaker 1: that crowd. But when it became too dangerous, they had
19:45
Speaker 1: come up here to escape. And they asked Leonardo, had
19:48
Speaker 1: he done the same thing? Is that why he was here?
19:51
Speaker 1: Leonardo said no. And then he told them who he
19:53
Speaker 1: was and how he actually arrived here and why. And
19:56
Speaker 1: then he asked them for help. And for a second,
19:59
Speaker 1: the family just stared at him in shock. Then they
20:02
Speaker 1: began to talk to each other. And from what Leonardo
20:04
Speaker 1: could hear, and also based on facial expressions, the family
20:08
Speaker 1: seemed mad. But finally, the father looked at Leonardo and said, yes,
20:14
Speaker 1: they would help him. However, there was a condition. He
20:17
Speaker 1: told Leonardo that under no circumstances could he, Leonardo, go
20:22
Speaker 1: down on the street with that crowd. The father said
20:25
Speaker 1: Leonardo would have to hide out in this family's house because,
20:29
Speaker 1: the father explained, that everybody in the city, including all
20:33
Speaker 1: those people down there, wanted Leonardo's head. It would turn
20:39
Speaker 1: out Leonardo's broadcast had actually been wildly successful. It had
20:44
Speaker 1: done exactly what he hoped it would do. It grabbed
20:47
Speaker 1: the attention of basically everybody in Quito. The whole city
20:51
Speaker 1: stopped in its tracks to listen to what the Not
20:59
Speaker 1: to mention in this broadcast until the very end, when
21:03
Speaker 1: in many ways it was already too late. This fact
21:06
Speaker 1: was the final update, the one Jose had not been
21:09
Speaker 1: able to hear, but that had caused everybody on the
21:11
Speaker 1: street who had heard it to stop running around, stop screaming,
21:16
Speaker 1: and just get their guns, knives, and torches and head
21:19
Speaker 1: towards the center of town. The fact that was held
21:22
Speaker 1: off until the very end was this whole broadcast was
21:25
Speaker 1: a farce. The invasion was not real. It was an act,
21:28
Speaker 1: a prank, a joke. The broadcast was like this play.
21:32
Speaker 1: It was an adaptation of a fiction novel called War
21:35
Speaker 1: of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, which is about an
21:38
Speaker 1: alien invasion. And so what Leonardo did is he orchestrated
21:42
Speaker 1: this broadcast to sound and feel like a real breaking
21:47
Speaker 1: news broadcast about an alien invasion. The exact same thing
21:51
Speaker 1: had actually been done in the United States a few
21:54
Speaker 1: years earlier in 1938. But in the American version, the
21:58
Speaker 1: listeners had been warned at the beginning of the broadcast
22:02
Speaker 1: that it was not real. And it still caused mass panic,
22:06
Speaker 1: even though they had been warned. And so during Leonardo's broadcast,
22:10
Speaker 1: when he finally revealed the truth at the very end,
22:13
Speaker 1: the listeners were not, you know, soothed. They were not like,
22:16
Speaker 1: oh boy, what a great prank. They were furious. So furious,
22:21
Speaker 1: in fact, that they went to the radio station in
22:24
Speaker 1: the city center where Leonardo and his broadcast crew were,
22:28
Speaker 1: and they lit it on fire. And so between the
22:31
Speaker 1: radio station fire and also between all the people who
22:35
Speaker 1: took their own lives preemptively, believing aliens were going to
22:38
Speaker 1: be here any minute to kill them, torture them, abduct them,
22:43
Speaker 1: the death toll from this night, from this farce, was
22:47
Speaker 1: between 6 and 20 people. And a whole lot more
22:50
Speaker 1: people were also injured in the chaos. As for 17-year-old
22:53
Speaker 1: Jose Antonio, he would survive. And later in life, he
22:57
Speaker 1: would actually give a tell-all interview about his experience during
23:01
Speaker 1: the so-called alien invasion. As for Leonardo, he didn't face
23:05
Speaker 1: any criminal charges, no jail time, nothing. But this whole
23:09
Speaker 1: incident really destroyed his credibility. And it made people not
23:12
Speaker 1: trust him in Ecuador. So it was basically impossible to
23:15
Speaker 1: get work. And so eventually, he had to move to Venezuela.
23:19
Speaker 1: And then as for Radio Quito, the at one point
23:22
Speaker 1: very influential, very important news broadcast, they wouldn't make another
23:26
Speaker 1: broadcast for two whole years after this incident. On the
23:43
Speaker 1: evening of Sunday, January 26th, 1851, A 23-year-old man named
23:48
Speaker 1: Bayleys Staples hurried up the walkway of a home in
23:51
Speaker 1: Fall River, Massachusetts. It was so cold that Bayleys could
23:54
Speaker 1: see his breath, but despite the weather, he could not
23:57
Speaker 1: stop smiling. And that was because he was about to
24:00
Speaker 1: do something that he loved to do that made him
24:03
Speaker 1: a lot of money, and it was actually the third
24:05
Speaker 1: time that day that he was even doing it. I mean,
24:08
Speaker 1: this was awesome. Bayleys was a psychic medium, and he
24:12
Speaker 1: was about to perform a seance. So at this point
24:15
Speaker 1: in America in 1851, there was this phenomenon going on
24:19
Speaker 1: called the spiritualist movement. Basically, huge numbers of people began
24:23
Speaker 1: to believe that the living and the dead could actually
24:26
Speaker 1: communicate with each other through mediums like Bailey's. And at
24:30
Speaker 1: this time, there was a very specific way that mediums
24:34
Speaker 1: like Bailey's conducted their seances. They would sit at a
24:37
Speaker 1: round table along with all their guests that were going
24:39
Speaker 1: to participate, and they would summon spirits. And what would
24:43
Speaker 1: happen is the participants in these seances could literally tell
24:47
Speaker 1: when it was that the spirit actually made contact with
24:51
Speaker 1: the medium. Because the round table they were all sitting
24:54
Speaker 1: at would shake or move, sometimes the table would thump
24:57
Speaker 1: so violently that one of the legs of the table
25:00
Speaker 1: would break off. And a broken table at a seance
25:03
Speaker 1: was considered a huge success. So seances were a craze
25:08
Speaker 1: all over the country, and many people did genuinely believe
25:12
Speaker 1: that that, you know, people like Bailey's mediums could talk
25:15
Speaker 1: to ghosts in these seances. But there were lots of
25:18
Speaker 1: people also who didn't believe any of it, thought it
25:21
Speaker 1: was completely made up, but they would still hire people
25:24
Speaker 1: like Bailey's to have these seances at parties and other
25:28
Speaker 1: functions as sort of a form of entertainment, kind of
25:31
Speaker 1: like how you might hire a band or a magician.
25:34
Speaker 1: And in Fall River, Massachusetts, there really was a big
25:38
Speaker 1: appetite for these seances, both you know, because people believed
25:42
Speaker 1: they were true and lots of people who thought they
25:44
Speaker 1: were fake. And it's in part because there were lots
25:46
Speaker 1: of homes in Fall River, Massachusetts at the time that
25:49
Speaker 1: sort of had some history about being haunted. And so
25:52
Speaker 1: there was sort of groundwork laid for both believers and
25:55
Speaker 1: non-believers to contract people like Bailey's. Now, to be clear,
25:59
Speaker 1: Bailey's whole seance act was a blatant fake. In fact,
26:04
Speaker 1: many of the people who hired Bailey's knew in advance
26:07
Speaker 1: that it was all an act, that Bailey's really was
26:09
Speaker 1: more of a performer than a psychic medium. But Bailey's
26:13
Speaker 1: was really good at faking it, and so he had
26:16
Speaker 1: become kind of like the go-to medium, certainly in Fall River,
26:21
Speaker 1: which meant for him to maintain this flow of business,
26:24
Speaker 1: he really had to put full energy into every performance
26:27
Speaker 1: to keep getting people to call on him. So on
26:30
Speaker 1: this day, as Bailey's is sitting there getting ready to
26:32
Speaker 1: start his third seance of the day, he was tired.
26:35
Speaker 1: I mean, it's pretty exhausting to do these performances, but
26:39
Speaker 1: he knew he just had to get that second wind
26:41
Speaker 1: and just push through and do as good of a
26:43
Speaker 1: job as he possibly could. And so as the homeowner
26:46
Speaker 1: of this third seance opened up the door and let
26:49
Speaker 1: him inside, Bailey's was sure this was going to be
26:52
Speaker 1: at least as good, if not better than the other
26:55
Speaker 1: performances of the day. Moments later, the homeowner, John Gardner,
27:00
Speaker 1: led Bailey's into the living room where several other guests
27:02
Speaker 1: were already gathered. Bailey's immediately snapped into character. He swooshed
27:06
Speaker 1: his cape as he walked in and he waved his
27:09
Speaker 1: hand around the room to command their attention. And when
27:12
Speaker 1: everyone turned to look at him, he said, I have
27:14
Speaker 1: broken two tables today and now I've come to break yours.
27:19
Speaker 1: The guests all cheered and clapped and Bailey's could tell
27:22
Speaker 1: they were going to be a very enthusiastic audience. which
27:25
Speaker 1: always made these seances much more fun. So into the
27:28
Speaker 1: parlor they all went, and they all took a seat
27:30
Speaker 1: around this big circular table in the middle of the room.
27:33
Speaker 1: And then Baileys dimmed the lights and walked around the
27:35
Speaker 1: table giving his instructions. He then told them to all
27:39
Speaker 1: hover their hands over the table with their palms down
27:42
Speaker 1: and their fingers spread, and that each of them would
27:45
Speaker 1: have to touch the hands of the person sitting next
27:47
Speaker 1: to them. He told them that once they were all touching...
27:50
Speaker 1: it would create a circuit that was more inviting to
27:52
Speaker 1: the spirits. And so once all of his guests got
27:55
Speaker 1: into position with their hands, Baileys took a seat and
27:58
Speaker 1: did the same thing with his own hands, creating a
28:00
Speaker 1: full circuit all the way around the table. And at
28:03
Speaker 1: that point, everybody was ready. And so he nodded, and
28:06
Speaker 1: in a commanding voice, he said that now he was
28:09
Speaker 1: going to speak to the spirits. And if the spirits
28:12
Speaker 1: in the room felt like answering, they would move this table.
28:17
Speaker 1: The room got deadly quiet. as everyone waited to see
28:20
Speaker 1: what Bailey's would do. But Bailey's just let the tension grow,
28:23
Speaker 1: because he knew that the longer he waited, the more
28:26
Speaker 1: anticipation would build. This was actually Bailey's favorite part of
28:29
Speaker 1: the performance, and he could feel his own heart begin
28:32
Speaker 1: to race. I mean, this really was exciting. But then finally,
28:34
Speaker 1: he broke the silence and called out to the spirits
28:37
Speaker 1: in the room and demanded that if there were a
28:39
Speaker 1: ghost here, to make itself known. And at this, everyone
28:43
Speaker 1: immediately began to look around excitedly, which created the quick
28:47
Speaker 1: distraction that Bailey's actually needed to perform his first trick.
28:51
Speaker 1: So mediums used a few different tools to help them
28:53
Speaker 1: fake communication from these ghosts. And one of those tools
28:57
Speaker 1: were these special hooks that they actually attached to their
28:59
Speaker 1: wrists and they hid them under their sleeves. And then
29:02
Speaker 1: when they put their hands, palm down, hovering over the table,
29:05
Speaker 1: like they told everybody else to do, those hooks would
29:08
Speaker 1: actually go below the table and grip on. So the
29:11
Speaker 1: medium could, without looking like they're actually touching the table,
29:15
Speaker 1: literally lift the table up and rattle it around, you know, again,
29:18
Speaker 1: without appearing to actually touch it. Now, it actually took
29:21
Speaker 1: a lot of strength to do this. I mean, imagine
29:23
Speaker 1: moving a huge table around, just like with your arms
29:25
Speaker 1: kind of hovering over the table. But Bailey's was getting
29:28
Speaker 1: really good at it. And so as his guests were
29:31
Speaker 1: all looking around, you know, looking out for ghosts, Baileys
29:34
Speaker 1: masterfully hooked his hooks right onto the table and began
29:38
Speaker 1: moving his wrists around, which caused the table to thump.
29:41
Speaker 1: And as soon as this happened, a woman on the
29:43
Speaker 1: other side of the table screamed and the other guests
29:45
Speaker 1: began laughing and getting really excited. But Baileys was only
29:49
Speaker 1: just getting started. He called out to the spirit again,
29:52
Speaker 1: much more forcefully this time. And as he did, He
29:55
Speaker 1: literally made the table rise off the floor as all
29:58
Speaker 1: the guests gasped. One man asked how Bailey's was even
30:01
Speaker 1: doing this. I mean, he knew this was fake, but like,
30:03
Speaker 1: how are you lifting the table up? Because his hands
30:06
Speaker 1: are over the table, remember. It's just these secret hooks underneath.
30:09
Speaker 1: But Bailey's just kind of ignored the man and smiled.
30:12
Speaker 1: And then he said to the spirit that, if you're
30:14
Speaker 1: willing to communicate with us, rap on this table one time.
30:18
Speaker 1: And then Bailey's used the hook, you know, underneath the
30:21
Speaker 1: table to make a knocking sound. And as he did this,
30:24
Speaker 1: the woman who had first screamed on the other side
30:26
Speaker 1: of the table, she jumped. She was so scared. And
30:29
Speaker 1: it actually caused Bailey's to have this surge of adrenaline,
30:32
Speaker 1: like he was really doing a good job. And so
30:34
Speaker 1: Bailey's actually kind of leaned into this and rattled the
30:37
Speaker 1: table a bit more for dramatic effect. And in doing this,
30:39
Speaker 1: I mean, Bailey's was really exerting himself. He's trying not
30:42
Speaker 1: to give off the vibe that he's moving this table around,
30:45
Speaker 1: but he really is. And so he's like sweating bullets
30:48
Speaker 1: and he's also yelling out to the spirit, demanding them
30:51
Speaker 1: to come forward and talk to us. But then as
30:54
Speaker 1: Bayley's is doing this, this big act here that he
30:56
Speaker 1: in no way suspects is going to actually call spirits
31:00
Speaker 1: into the room, he suddenly felt the room turn icy
31:03
Speaker 1: cold and he had this weird tingling sensation flowing through him.
31:07
Speaker 1: He blinked and then his vision got hazy. This had
31:10
Speaker 1: never happened to him during any of his seances. And
31:12
Speaker 1: clearly it was having an effect on him because he
31:15
Speaker 1: no longer was trying to communicate with the dead. He
31:17
Speaker 1: was just kind of standing there, very uneasy, like the
31:20
Speaker 1: seance was actually doing something, that there really might be
31:23
Speaker 1: spirits in the room. Now, Bailey's can tell he's getting
31:26
Speaker 1: stared at, and he doesn't want to destroy his business here,
31:29
Speaker 1: like he needs to maintain the act. He can't just...
31:32
Speaker 1: spook himself out and stop the seance. But at the
31:35
Speaker 1: same time, he couldn't break out of this weird feeling
31:38
Speaker 1: he had. The room felt so cold. I mean, something
31:40
Speaker 1: was off here. And then he tried to move, and
31:43
Speaker 1: it was like he couldn't. He was frozen. Now, at
31:46
Speaker 1: the same time Bailey's is experiencing this, across the table,
31:50
Speaker 1: the homeowner and host, John Gardner, is just sitting there
31:53
Speaker 1: staring at Bailey's, trying to figure out what's actually happening here.
31:57
Speaker 1: And from his perspective... He watched as Bailey's went from
32:00
Speaker 1: sort of standing there awkwardly, unable to move, it looked like,
32:03
Speaker 1: to then sitting down in his chair and sort of
32:05
Speaker 1: lurching back in this awkward position. And then Bailey's eyes
32:09
Speaker 1: began darting all over the room. And also his breathing
32:12
Speaker 1: got really ragged and heavy. And John couldn't help but
32:15
Speaker 1: feel like it looks like Bailey's is possessed for real.
32:20
Speaker 1: And then Bailey's began to speak and his voice sort
32:22
Speaker 1: of cracked as he did. And he began mumbling something
32:25
Speaker 1: that John and the others couldn't understand. I mean, John,
32:29
Speaker 1: he really couldn't help it. He felt sort of spooked
32:31
Speaker 1: by this. I mean, this was really convincing. John actually
32:34
Speaker 1: wanted to applaud. I mean, Bailey's acting was so good here.
32:39
Speaker 1: But he also didn't want to destroy the act and
32:41
Speaker 1: sort of break his character. You know, like Bailey's, John
32:45
Speaker 1: and most of his guests did not believe seances were
32:48
Speaker 1: real at all. But, I mean, Bailey's performance was really
32:51
Speaker 1: turning out to be way better than any of them
32:53
Speaker 1: had expected. But just then, Bailey's shot up out of
32:57
Speaker 1: his chair and the whole table thumped again and shook.
33:00
Speaker 1: And then Bailey's let out this almost ghostly sounding moan.
33:04
Speaker 1: And then one of John's guests asked if the ghost
33:07
Speaker 1: was speaking through Bailey's. But instead of answering, Bailey's eyes
33:11
Speaker 1: rolled all the way back in his head. So only
33:13
Speaker 1: the whites were visible. John and the others were transfixed.
33:16
Speaker 1: I mean, this was just incredible, like really kind of
33:19
Speaker 1: scary stuff here. But then Bailey's let out another moan
33:23
Speaker 1: and then fell backwards hard onto the ground. And for
33:26
Speaker 1: a second, there was just confused silence. Because if this
33:30
Speaker 1: is an act, I mean, that was a violent fall.
33:33
Speaker 1: This looks really legitimate. How is Bailey's able to do
33:37
Speaker 1: this over and over again? This seems real. And it
33:40
Speaker 1: was in that moment of realizing that something is off
33:44
Speaker 1: here that some of the guests began to scream and
33:47
Speaker 1: they began to run out of the room. A few
33:50
Speaker 1: minutes later, a local physician named Dr. Hopper ran into
33:54
Speaker 1: the parlor of John Gardner's home. He'd been summoned by
33:57
Speaker 1: one of the guests who had panicked and actually ran
33:59
Speaker 1: out and gotten him. But that guest had been rambling
34:02
Speaker 1: about a ghost and a possession, so Dr. Hopper really
34:05
Speaker 1: wasn't sure what kind of problem he was actually responding to.
34:08
Speaker 1: But now he could see there was a group of
34:10
Speaker 1: people dressed for a party gathered around what appeared to
34:13
Speaker 1: be a seance table pointing to the floor, where there
34:16
Speaker 1: was this young man lying in a crumpled heap. Dr.
34:19
Speaker 1: Hopper went to the young man and reached out and
34:21
Speaker 1: felt the man's neck, but there was no pulse. And
34:25
Speaker 1: so the doctor turned and looked at the group and said,
34:28
Speaker 1: he's dead. And before the group could really even react,
34:31
Speaker 1: the doctor said, now hold on. Someone needs to slowly
34:35
Speaker 1: and clearly explain what happened here. John Gardner stepped forward
34:39
Speaker 1: and now in a very shaking voice explained that this
34:43
Speaker 1: young man was a medium whose name was Bailey Staples.
34:46
Speaker 1: And he had been doing a seance and he had
34:49
Speaker 1: demanded a ghost talk to the group. And then a
34:52
Speaker 1: moment later, he was thrashing around, apparently possessed by this ghost,
34:56
Speaker 1: and then he fell to the ground, dead. John said
34:59
Speaker 1: they had all thought this seance was a fake. I mean,
35:01
Speaker 1: when they hired Bailey's, they literally thought this was just
35:04
Speaker 1: going to be a performance, nothing real. But now, I mean,
35:08
Speaker 1: they didn't know what to think. This looked very real. Dr.
35:11
Speaker 1: Hopper shook his head, not really sure what to make
35:12
Speaker 1: of this explanation. He certainly did not believe in ghosts.
35:16
Speaker 1: But after a quick examination of Bailey's, he really couldn't
35:20
Speaker 1: see any obvious cause for the medium's death. So Dr.
35:24
Speaker 1: Hopper got to his feet and told the dinner guests that,
35:26
Speaker 1: you know, whatever killed Bailey Staples was not a ghost,
35:30
Speaker 1: but he didn't know what it was yet. However, he
35:32
Speaker 1: would get to the bottom of it. However, by the
35:35
Speaker 1: next morning, news of Bailey's death had spread all over
35:39
Speaker 1: Fall River and beyond, and it made the immediate autopsy
35:43
Speaker 1: that Dr. Hopper wanted to do to figure out what
35:45
Speaker 1: happened to him basically impossible. Now, the reason it was
35:49
Speaker 1: impossible is because some people were claiming that this was
35:53
Speaker 1: a ghost that possessed Bayley's, but it didn't actually kill him.
35:58
Speaker 1: The ghost must have put Bayley's into a trance where
36:02
Speaker 1: he appears dead, but is not actually dead. But if Dr.
36:09
Speaker 1: The autopsy will kill Bailey's. So you can't do that.
36:12
Speaker 1: And so pretty quickly, you have all these people that
36:15
Speaker 1: are showing up at Dr. Hopper's clinic and the local
36:17
Speaker 1: police station demanding authorities give them Bailey's body to prevent
36:23
Speaker 1: the doctor from killing him by doing an autopsy on him.
36:26
Speaker 1: And so it's this whole scene. And at the same time,
36:29
Speaker 1: keep in mind, you know, the country as a whole
36:32
Speaker 1: has been taken with seances. That was already something that
36:35
Speaker 1: was sort of happening everywhere. But this story, which sort
36:39
Speaker 1: of legitimized the idea that ghosts could be real and
36:42
Speaker 1: ghosts can also be dangerous, given what happened to Bailey's,
36:46
Speaker 1: this story is spreading like wildfire all over the country.
36:50
Speaker 1: And so at a time where people in America were
36:52
Speaker 1: already big on seances, this pretty much dumped gasoline on that.
36:57
Speaker 1: And seances became even more popular, but now because they
37:01
Speaker 1: felt real, not because they were entertainment. On January 28th,
37:06
Speaker 1: So two days after Bailey's was pronounced dead, Dr. Hopper
37:10
Speaker 1: stood in the basement of the local morgue holding a scalpel.
37:13
Speaker 1: He had finally gotten the approval to go ahead and
37:16
Speaker 1: conduct his autopsy, but he knew that a lot of
37:18
Speaker 1: people were not happy about it. And now he was
37:21
Speaker 1: looking down at Bailey's body, realizing that to his own surprise,
37:25
Speaker 1: he was sort of nervous about this. Like the idea that,
37:28
Speaker 1: what if this guy's actually still alive and I'm about
37:31
Speaker 1: to kill him with this autopsy? Now, logically, the doctor
37:34
Speaker 1: did not think Bailey's was in a trance, but it
37:37
Speaker 1: was unsettling how physically healthy Bailey's body looked. He was
37:41
Speaker 1: young and strong with no history of illness, and there
37:44
Speaker 1: wasn't a mark on his body anywhere to explain why
37:47
Speaker 1: he was dead. The only blemishes on his skin were
37:50
Speaker 1: these slight bruises around his wrists, which Dr. Hopper understood
37:54
Speaker 1: were from the special hooks he had been wearing when
37:56
Speaker 1: he died to lift up the table. But Dr. Hopper
37:59
Speaker 1: shook off the nerves and moved his scalpel towards the
38:02
Speaker 1: skin of Bailey's chest and made his first incision, opening
38:05
Speaker 1: up the chest cavity. And that was when Dr. Hopper
38:09
Speaker 1: saw it. It would turn out, on the day Bailey's
38:13
Speaker 1: staples died, he was at his absolute performative peak as
38:17
Speaker 1: he lifted John Gardner's table up off the ground and
38:20
Speaker 1: made the seance guests scream and laugh. But what Bailey's
38:23
Speaker 1: didn't know, and what Dr. Hopper found when he performed
38:26
Speaker 1: the autopsy, was that Bailey's had a pre-existing heart condition,
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Speaker 1: and his passionate performance, coupled with the physical exertion it
38:34
Speaker 1: took to lift up that heavy parlor table with just
38:37
Speaker 1: his wrists, and the fact that Bailey's had also already
38:40
Speaker 1: given two other similar performances that day, caused his weak
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Speaker 1: heart to swell and develop an aneurysm, which ruptured and
38:49
Speaker 1: caused fatal internal bleeding. Bailey Staples had basically put on
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Speaker 1: the absolute best seance performance of his life. It was
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Speaker 1: so good, in fact, that it killed him and also
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Speaker 1: accidentally convinced an entire house full of dinner guests and
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Speaker 1: many people all across the country that ghosts were real.
39:12
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching today's episode. Let me
39:15
Speaker 1: know what you thought of it in the comments below.
39:17
Speaker 1: And remember, we have a whole playlist of Places You
39:20
Speaker 1: Can't Go episodes ready for you to binge right now.
39:24
Speaker 1: So go ahead and click here and give them a watch.
39:27
Speaker 1: All right, until next time, see ya.