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Gone in 60 Seconds · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Economics is a vast area of study, with
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  Speaker 1: numerous ideologies, models, and theories that explain how and why
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  Speaker 1: economies run the way they do. From Kensian is m
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  Speaker 1: to the Freedman theory to the Fisher effect, economists have
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  Speaker 1: worked for years to describe the relationships between supply and demand,
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  Speaker 1: interest rates and inflation, and a lot more. One man, however,
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  Speaker 1: traveled the holy different path. His name was Henry George,
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  Speaker 1: and during the nineteenth century his beliefs flew in the
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  Speaker 1: face of the prevailing theories of the time. Even today,
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  Speaker 1: Georgeism stands out as the antithesis of modern capitalism. In
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  Speaker 1: georgis Um, it was believed that the value produced by
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  Speaker 1: the people should be owned by the people, and a
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  Speaker 1: single land tax would be far more beneficial to society
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  Speaker 1: as a whole, rather than a series of taxes. Affecting
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  Speaker 1: the poor and the working class. Georgis um counted a
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  Speaker 1: monet supporters a young woman named Elizabeth. Elizabeth was born
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen sixties six and moved to Washington, d c.
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  Speaker 1: In the eighteen eighties to build a new life for herself.
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  Speaker 1: She stood as a proud feminist, getting a job as
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  Speaker 1: a stenographer and writing fiction on the side. She also
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  Speaker 1: performed for the stage and worked as an engineer, earning
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  Speaker 1: a patent for improving the paper feeding system of the typewriter.
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  Speaker 1: Her father, an abolitionist, had instilled a certain set of
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  Speaker 1: values in her value she carried with her all her life.
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  Speaker 1: They were reflected in her option of Georgism and her
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  Speaker 1: advocacy of a universal land tax. The amounts of the
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  Speaker 1: tax would depend on the size, location, and viability of
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  Speaker 1: the land in question, and once the government had taken
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  Speaker 1: a portion of the funds, the rest would be given
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  Speaker 1: back to the people. Elizabeth was of the people and
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  Speaker 1: fought on their behalf, but had trouble teaching the problems
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  Speaker 1: of land grabbing. She wanted others to understand that the
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  Speaker 1: current model of landlords wielding all the power while tenants
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  Speaker 1: languished in poverty, could not last any longer, so she
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  Speaker 1: found a solution. In fact, she made one a game.
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  Speaker 1: She called it The Landlord's Game, filing a patent for
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  Speaker 1: it in nineteen o three. The premise of the game
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  Speaker 1: centered around hoarding money, but evolved over the next several
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  Speaker 1: years into different versions where the objectives grew beyond simple
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  Speaker 1: wealth building. In one iteration, the player who owned the
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  Speaker 1: most industries on the board won the game. The other version,
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  Speaker 1: called Prosperity, took an opposite approach and forced players to
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  Speaker 1: make goods, coordinating their movements with all the other players.
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  Speaker 1: Elizabeth's success as a game creator helped her launch her
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  Speaker 1: own company with the Georgists, which she called The Economic
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  Speaker 1: Game Company. The Landlord's Game continued to be published well
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  Speaker 1: into the nineteen twenties, where it found a particularly interested
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  Speaker 1: audience in a man named Charles Darrow. Darrow had lost
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  Speaker 1: his job after the stock market crash of but found
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  Speaker 1: solace in Elizabeth's game. Everyone seemed to be playing it,
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  Speaker 1: and not just playing it, but changing it. As was
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  Speaker 1: customary at the time, games were not merely bought and
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  Speaker 1: played with friends and family. Players often modified them to
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  Speaker 1: increase or decrease the difficulty levels, sometimes changing them so
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  Speaker 1: much they became entirely different games. And that's what Darrow
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  Speaker 1: did with the Landlords game. He learned how to play
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  Speaker 1: it with the help of Charles Todd of Atlantic City,
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  Speaker 1: New Jersey. Todd had switched the street names on Elizabeth's
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  Speaker 1: original board with the names of streets in Atlantic City,
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  Speaker 1: and Darrow appreciated that change. He carried it over to
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  Speaker 1: his version, adding colors to each of the property spaces,
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  Speaker 1: as well as cards for the players to draw when
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  Speaker 1: they landed on specific areas of the board. He started
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  Speaker 1: selling his version of the game and department stores in
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  Speaker 1: the early nineteen thirties, where it became quite popular. In
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  Speaker 1: After Darrow had acquired a patent for his unique revamp
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  Speaker 1: of Elizabeth Maggie's original work, one company took interest. They
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  Speaker 1: saw something special in what Darrow had done and bought
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  Speaker 1: the patent for it. After one year, they had turned
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  Speaker 1: his modestly popular game into a smash hit and their
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  Speaker 1: company name Parker Brothers. Darrow's fortunes had turned around. He
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  Speaker 1: had gone from a down on his luck salesman to
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  Speaker 1: a millionaire overnight. And as for the board game that
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  Speaker 1: had tried to educate players about the dangers of land grabbing. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it ended up teaching generations of players how to be
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  Speaker 1: ruthless property owners. Instead, you might say it cornered the
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  Speaker 1: market on capitalism based games. Hence it's simple yet clever
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  Speaker 1: name monopoly. In times of trouble, it's not often that
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  Speaker 1: someone steps into help those in need. Should our car
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  Speaker 1: break down in the middle of nowhere and we can't
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  Speaker 1: call for help, it's likely that most people passing by
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  Speaker 1: won't stop to lend a hand. Horror movies and sensationalist
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  Speaker 1: news stories have conditioned us not to trust strangers, and
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  Speaker 1: with good reason. It was morning on December tenth of
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  Speaker 1: nine and four employees of the Nihan Shintaku Bank in
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  Speaker 1: Tokyo were on the move. In their possession was two
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  Speaker 1: nine four million yen or about ten million U S
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  Speaker 1: dollars today. They were on their way to the Toshiba
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  Speaker 1: factory in Fuchu to deliver yearly bonuses to the employees there.
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  Speaker 1: The money had been dashed away safely in metal boxes,
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  Speaker 1: which were then placed in the trunk of the car.
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  Speaker 1: A short time into their trip, a uniform police officer
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  Speaker 1: from the Motorcycle Division pulled them over he was panicked.
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  Speaker 1: Apparently someone had just blown up their branch manager's home
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  Speaker 1: and he needed to get them to safety. Someone either
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  Speaker 1: had a vendetta against the bank or they were looking
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  Speaker 1: for a quick score. Because their next targets were sitting
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  Speaker 1: right in front of them, the officer told the men
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  Speaker 1: to exit the car slowly. The bomber had planted dynamite
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  Speaker 1: somewhere on the vehicle, which could explode at any time.
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  Speaker 1: The bank employees had no reason to not believe him,
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  Speaker 1: after all, he was wearing a uniform and their boss
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  Speaker 1: had already received several menacine letters in the mail. Once
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  Speaker 1: the bankers were far enough away, the officer then got
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  Speaker 1: on his hands and knees to investigate the underside of
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  Speaker 1: the car. Without warning, a blast of heat erupted, followed
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  Speaker 1: by plumes of smoke. The officer jumped to his feet.
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  Speaker 1: He screamed at the four employees to run for cover.
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  Speaker 1: The car was about to explode, and they did as
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  Speaker 1: they were told, hiding from the blast at a safe distance.
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  Speaker 1: Except that blast never came, and when they looked at
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  Speaker 1: the spot where the car had been, it had disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: Investigators arrived at the scene shortly after to gather as
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  Speaker 1: statements from the bank employees. They had no idea why
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  Speaker 1: the police officer had stolen their car. That was probably
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  Speaker 1: because he wasn't a police officer. He was a thief,
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  Speaker 1: and he just made off with three hundred million yen.
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  Speaker 1: The flash of heat and smoke had been caused by
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  Speaker 1: a flare left behind by the suspect. When the real
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  Speaker 1: cops finally tracked down the stolen vehicle, it was found
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  Speaker 1: empty and the boxes with the money inside had been
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  Speaker 1: moved to another stolen car he'd had waiting for him
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  Speaker 1: all along. The employees gave the police as much information
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  Speaker 1: as they could remember, and described his appearance to a
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  Speaker 1: sketch artist. The drawing was then released to the media,
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  Speaker 1: who referred to the case as the three hundred million
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  Speaker 1: yen robbery. It had become a major story and a
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  Speaker 1: stain on the Tokyo Police Department. Investigators believed whoever had
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  Speaker 1: fooled the bank employees had either been a part of
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  Speaker 1: the police force or related to someone who was. Their
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  Speaker 1: uniform and demeanor had been too convincing to be fake,
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  Speaker 1: yet what they'd left behind had confounded the real officers.
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  Speaker 1: Over one item's retreat from the scene were entered into evidence,
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  Speaker 1: including the motorcycle the thief had been driving. It was
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  Speaker 1: a regular motorcycle painted white to look like an official
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  Speaker 1: police vehicle. The nineteen year old son of a local
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  Speaker 1: officer was brought in for questioning as a potential suspect.
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  Speaker 1: He had the means to commit the crime and no alibi,
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  Speaker 1: but before the questioning could go further, the young man
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  Speaker 1: took his life, leaving the officers at a loss. The
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  Speaker 1: investigation grew into the largest ever undertaken by Japanese police,
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  Speaker 1: with one seventy thousand officers getting involved. They worked for
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  Speaker 1: seven years trying to track down the elusive faker who
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  Speaker 1: had fooled four hapless bank employees into handing over three
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  Speaker 1: hundred million yen, but he was never found. Even after
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  Speaker 1: the statute of limitations expired in the mid seventies, the
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  Speaker 1: culprit refused to come forward. To this day, no one
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  Speaker 1: knows what happened to the money or the identity of
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  Speaker 1: the person who had committed the perfect crime. Instead, it
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  Speaker 1: seems he had done what Hollywood has taught us to expect.
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  Speaker 1: He'd driven off into the sunset, never to be seen again.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities, subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
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  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
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  Speaker 1: show and you can learn all about it over at
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  Speaker 1: the World of Lore dot com. And until next time,
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  Speaker 1: stay curious. Yeah,