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Silent Killer · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeart
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  Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: An inventor doesn't know they're ahead of their time in
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  Speaker 1: the moment when they create something new, they hope to
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  Speaker 1: accomplish two goals. One is for their creation to catch
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  Speaker 1: on with the public. After all, if it worked for them,
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  Speaker 1: surely there are others out there who might benefit from
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  Speaker 1: its existence. The other goal is to scratch a particular itch.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe their invention was meant to lighten their load or
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  Speaker 1: save them time. For watchmaker Charles Vermont, it was to
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  Speaker 1: keep time. Vermaux had worked for the Martel Watch Company,
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  Speaker 1: a Swiss chronograph supplier that was acquired in the nineteen
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  Speaker 1: fifties by one of its biggest customers, the Swiss based
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  Speaker 1: Zenith Watch Company, not to be confused with the American
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  Speaker 1: Zenith Electronics Corporation. Back in nineteen sixty two, Zeneth Watches
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  Speaker 1: started working on a new type of chronograph movement, one
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  Speaker 1: that was self winding and highly accurate. A chronograph watch
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  Speaker 1: was a time piece that combined a standard timetelling display
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  Speaker 1: with a stop watch. Now, most chronographs today incorporate two
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  Speaker 1: or three subdials to measure things like distance or moon phases,
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  Speaker 1: but at its most basic level, a chronograph watch merely
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  Speaker 1: implies the existence of an embedded stop watch in the
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  Speaker 1: face of the watch. However, in order to bring an
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  Speaker 1: automatic chronograph to its watches, Zenneth couldn't just use off
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  Speaker 1: the shelf tools. The team behind the project had to
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  Speaker 1: create all new equipment and processes. Vermeaux was part of
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  Speaker 1: this team, having joined Zenith when they acquired Martel, and
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  Speaker 1: he and his colleagues had spent seven years developed being
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  Speaker 1: what came to be known as the El Primero movement.
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  Speaker 1: Unveiled to the world in nineteen sixty nine, the El
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  Speaker 1: Primero was the first automatic chronograph which was integrated directly
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  Speaker 1: into the watches main movement. Many chronographs at the time
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  Speaker 1: were simply added onto the existing watch as a separate component,
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  Speaker 1: but what set the El Primero apart was that it
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  Speaker 1: didn't need to be wound in order to work. It
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  Speaker 1: relied on the motion of the wearer's arm to keep
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  Speaker 1: the primary watch and the chronograph ticking onward. Unfortunately, the
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  Speaker 1: mechanical watch market started to take a tumble during the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. Automatic pieces such as the El Primero involved
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  Speaker 1: a number of gears and springs which had to be
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  Speaker 1: manually assembled. This made them costly to produce and expensive
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  Speaker 1: for the general public to purchase. Meanwhile, the Japanese company
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  Speaker 1: Saco was working on an automatic watch that ran on
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  Speaker 1: a battery. Its new Courts movement was more accurate than
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  Speaker 1: those coming out of Switzerland. It was also less expensive
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  Speaker 1: to both produce and to buy. Sacho's watches were cheaper, sturdier,
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  Speaker 1: and required less maintenance then their mechanical counterparts. Zennef had
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  Speaker 1: a choice to make. It could continue to sink money
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  Speaker 1: into the El Primiro, or it could get with the
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  Speaker 1: times and switched to Courts. Well. With its bottom line
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  Speaker 1: shrinking each year, the choice became clear. The l Primiro
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  Speaker 1: was out and Courts was in. The company was sold
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  Speaker 1: in n to Zenith Radio Corporation, the American company that
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  Speaker 1: had previously been unrelated. The new owner put out the
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  Speaker 1: word to the whole watched division that all resources were
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  Speaker 1: to be moved away from mechanical movements and devoted only
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  Speaker 1: to courts movements instead. Vermat, however, was beside himself with grief.
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  Speaker 1: He and his team had toiled on the El Primiro
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  Speaker 1: for almost a decade. At that point it deserved to
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  Speaker 1: be saved. He wrote a letter to the head of
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  Speaker 1: the company in Chicago begging him to keep the automatic
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  Speaker 1: chronograph in production. Sadly, his pleas went unanswered. The old
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  Speaker 1: Martel building he had developed the El Primiro in was
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  Speaker 1: closed down. All the tools inside were broken down or
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  Speaker 1: sold off. As the years passed, however, it is clear
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  Speaker 1: that Zenith's migration to courts movements had been a mistake.
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  Speaker 1: The existing tools and equipment hadn't been made for this
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  Speaker 1: type of work, and neither had the employees in night
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  Speaker 1: Zenith Radio Corporation sold its watch division back to the Swiss.
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  Speaker 1: Four years later, another luxury watchmaker was looking to revamp
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  Speaker 1: one of its signature brands, the Rolex Daytona. The Daytona
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  Speaker 1: had been a chronograph meant for race car drivers. Actor
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  Speaker 1: Paul Newman, who had raced in the nineteen seventies, was
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  Speaker 1: often seen with a Daytona on his wrist, but Rolex
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  Speaker 1: wanted an automatic movement that could fit within its thin
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  Speaker 1: oyster style case. Zenith's El Primiro was the perfect fit,
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  Speaker 1: and Rolex was willing to give them the contract if
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  Speaker 1: they would resume production of their chronograph once again. But
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  Speaker 1: all of the El Premiro tools had been destroyed or
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  Speaker 1: sold back in nineteen seventy one. Well, not exactly luckily
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  Speaker 1: for both Rolex and Zeneth. Charles Vermont hadn't listened to
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  Speaker 1: his superiors. While his colleagues had been tearing down all
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  Speaker 1: the tools inside the old Martel facility, Vermont had been
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  Speaker 1: squirreling away the equipment and plans needed to manufacture the
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  Speaker 1: El Premiro in the building's attic, and the rest is history.
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  Speaker 1: Rolex signed a ten year contract with Zeneth for their movements,
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  Speaker 1: which were so beloved by watch owners and collectors that
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  Speaker 1: they were used in the Daytona from until two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and in the process, they became highly collectible. That Rolex
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  Speaker 1: Daytona model owned by Paul Newman that I mentioned a
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  Speaker 1: moment ago. It went up for auction back in two
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  Speaker 1: thousand seventeen and sold for nearly eighteen million dollars. Charles
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  Speaker 1: Vermont knew a good thing. While he had it. All
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  Speaker 1: he had to do was wait for the right moment.
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  Speaker 1: His disregard for his boss's demands not only saved the
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  Speaker 1: Zenith Company from financial collapse, but also preserved the modern
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  Speaker 1: automatic chronograph from a horological tragedy being lost to time.
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  Speaker 1: If someone had killed over three people without leaving behind
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  Speaker 1: any evidence, they wouldn't just be feared. They would be
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  Speaker 1: hunted by every crime busting agency in the world. The FBI,
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  Speaker 1: the CIA, and Inner Poll would be coordinating their efforts.
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  Speaker 1: There wouldn't be a bunker or shack anywhere in remote
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  Speaker 1: enough locations for such an individual to escape too. And yet,
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  Speaker 1: for over thirty years, one name has struck fear into
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  Speaker 1: the men, women and children of Central Africa. It is
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  Speaker 1: a name synonymous with death and the notion of not
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  Speaker 1: realizing someone is in danger until it's too late. That
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  Speaker 1: name is Gustav. In the eastern center of the continent,
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  Speaker 1: between Rwanda and Tanzania sits the small, landlocked country of Burundi.
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  Speaker 1: Burundi's population is made up mostly of farmers, and its
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  Speaker 1: chief exports is coffee. The two primary people groups within
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  Speaker 1: Burundi are the Hutu and the Tutsi, the ladder of
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  Speaker 1: which controls the military and economy of the country. Despite
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  Speaker 1: being the minority. Both sides have been fighting since the
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  Speaker 1: early nineteen sixties, when Baroni fought for and won its
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  Speaker 1: independence from Belgium. However, despite the Hutu and the Tutsi
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  Speaker 1: never seen eye to eye, both groups understand the mutual
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  Speaker 1: threat that they share. Gustav Au Gustav first started making
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  Speaker 1: waves in the late nineteen eighties when he struck the
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  Speaker 1: villages of Magara, Minago and Kanyosha. He was a patient killer, too,
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  Speaker 1: lying in wait for his moment to strike. Those who
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  Speaker 1: survived his attacks noticed that he was larger than average
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  Speaker 1: and had a scar across the top of his head. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: no one was able to stop him. When Gustav attacked,
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  Speaker 1: he would grab a victim and dragged them into the water,
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  Speaker 1: the last time they would ever fill their lungs with oxygen.
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  Speaker 1: Attempts to kill him proved fruitless. His body bore numerous
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  Speaker 1: scars from all sorts of weapons. Nothing could break through
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  Speaker 1: his tough skin, and few people ever got close enough
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  Speaker 1: to try in the first place. But one man certainly
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  Speaker 1: gave his best shot. His name was Patrese Faye, and
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  Speaker 1: he had been living in Burundi for some time when
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  Speaker 1: Gustav's murder spree piqued his curiosity. Fay was originally from
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  Speaker 1: France and fancied himself something of a hunter. He believed
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  Speaker 1: that he could find Gustaf and bring him down for good.
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  Speaker 1: He was granted a hunting license for that purpose in
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  Speaker 1: the late nineties. But don't worry, it wasn't a license
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  Speaker 1: to hunt people. Gustaf wasn't even the killer's original name.
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  Speaker 1: Faye was the person who had given him this moniker,
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  Speaker 1: because crocodiles aren't born with names. That's right. Gustaf was
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  Speaker 1: a twenty foot long, two thousand pound male nile crocodile
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  Speaker 1: terrorizing villages along the Rusizi River and Lake Tanganika. Fay
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  Speaker 1: soon found what he was looking for and met face
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  Speaker 1: too toothy faced with Gustaf and tried to take him down.
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  Speaker 1: All he did was add to the crocs menagerie of scars.
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  Speaker 1: Though after that failure, the would be hunter approached his
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  Speaker 1: prey from a new perspective. He wouldn't try to kill Gustaf.
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  Speaker 1: He would try to track him, and as Fay continued
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  Speaker 1: to study him, Gustav's reputation grew as high as his
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  Speaker 1: body counts. He was as big as a great white
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  Speaker 1: shark and twice as mean, despite the fact that crocodiles
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  Speaker 1: weren't known to kill people or other animals for sports.
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  Speaker 1: According to Alison Leslie, a crocodile expert who was featured
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  Speaker 1: on a television program about Faye and Gustaf, crocodiles and
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  Speaker 1: a quote take food opportunistically, they attack if they are hungry,
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  Speaker 1: but not Gustav. He seemed to go after anyone and
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  Speaker 1: everyone in his way. However, Faye had cataloged every death
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  Speaker 1: attributed to the killer croc According to him, Gustaf had
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  Speaker 1: only devoured about sixty people. We may never know the truth.
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  Speaker 1: Even the existence of Gustav today is up for debate.
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  Speaker 1: He was last spotted some time before two thousand nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: but in an article published in Travel Africa magazine that year,
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  Speaker 1: it was reported that Gustav had finally been killed. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: no pictures were ever published, nor was the name of
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  Speaker 1: the killer ever mentioned. Until we have definitive proof, Chances
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  Speaker 1: are that Gustaf is still out there gliding just below
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  Speaker 1: the river's surface, waiting to grab a quick bite. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.