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Toxic · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky'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. First impressions are everything. What others think about
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  Speaker 1: us is usually cemented only after a few minutes. How
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  Speaker 1: we look, our mannerisms, the way we even talk, even
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  Speaker 1: what we smell like can have a lasting effect on
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  Speaker 1: how we are perceived from that point on. And in
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  Speaker 1: the case of Gloria Ramirez, she was a perfectly nice woman.
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  Speaker 1: She just made people stick to their stomachs. On the
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  Speaker 1: night of February night, Gloria was rushed to California's Riverside
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  Speaker 1: General Hospital emergency department. She was having trouble breathing and
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  Speaker 1: her heart was beating out of her chest. The doctors
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  Speaker 1: had rarely seen a woman as young as Gloria with
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  Speaker 1: such symptoms. She was only thirty one and suffered from
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  Speaker 1: late stage cervical cancer. The paramedics wheeled her into a
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  Speaker 1: small curtained room as the doctor swarmed around her. They
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  Speaker 1: asked her questions about what had happened and if she
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  Speaker 1: knew where she was. She tried to answer, muttering sounds
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  Speaker 1: no one could understand. Gloria was pumped with a cocktail
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  Speaker 1: of drugs to calm her heart and sedate her. A
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  Speaker 1: respiratory therapist named Maureen Welch clamped a self inflating resuscitator
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  Speaker 1: over her mouth and nose, squeezing the rubber bladder to
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  Speaker 1: fill her lungs with air, but Ramirez wasn't responding. Her
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  Speaker 1: vitals were fading fast. One doctor removed her shirt while
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  Speaker 1: someone else brought in a defibrillator. As they were sticking
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  Speaker 1: the electrodes to her chest, a few people noticed her
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  Speaker 1: skin glistening, as though it had been coated in a
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  Speaker 1: thin layer of Greece. When Welch pulled the resuscitated her
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  Speaker 1: away from Gloria's face, she smelled a strong garlic odor
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  Speaker 1: coming from her mouth. Another nurse, Susan Kane, tried to
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  Speaker 1: take a sample of Gloria's blood. She stuck the syringe
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  Speaker 1: into her arm, and as the blood drained into the tube,
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  Speaker 1: the smell of ammonia filled the room. She also saw
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  Speaker 1: a little beige flex floating in the red liquid. Within moments,
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  Speaker 1: the medical staff surrounding Gloria began to fall ill. Medical
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  Speaker 1: resident Julia Gorczynsky nearly fainted from nausea. A colleague asked
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  Speaker 1: her if she was okay, and then passed out themselves.
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  Speaker 1: Gortchynsky left the room to recover at a nurse's station
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  Speaker 1: far from the odor. Maureen Welch, the respiratory therapist, also fainted.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever had been plaguing Gloria had now contaminated the hospital's
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  Speaker 1: emergency department. Patients and staff were evacuated into the parking lot.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty three people needed medical attention after being in close
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  Speaker 1: proximity to Mr Ramirez. Five of them had to be hospitalized.
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  Speaker 1: A small team stayed behind to try and save Gloria,
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  Speaker 1: performing CPR and shocking her heart with the defibrillator for
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  Speaker 1: almost an hour, but nothing worked. At eight fift PM,
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  Speaker 1: Gloria Ramirez was pronounced dead because kidney failure. Investigators from
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  Speaker 1: the County Health Department interview the staff on duty that nights,
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  Speaker 1: including those who hadn't assisted with the Ramira's case. But
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  Speaker 1: we're still in the vicinity. Their findings determined that the
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  Speaker 1: people who had passed out or suffered from muscle spasms
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  Speaker 1: may have worked directly with her blood or ivy lines.
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  Speaker 1: In addition, it seemed that women had been affected more
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  Speaker 1: than men in the room. Every staff member had their
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  Speaker 1: blood tested afterward, though each one came back negative. The
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  Speaker 1: county Health department choked it up to mass hysteria, but
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  Speaker 1: medical resident Julie Gordzynsky and others disagreed. Her nausea that
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  Speaker 1: night turned into a major respiratory problem, forcing her into
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  Speaker 1: the ICU for two weeks. She was also diagnosed with
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  Speaker 1: hepatitis and suffered from a loss of blood supply to
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  Speaker 1: her knees, causing tissue death. Obviously, whatever had been wrong
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  Speaker 1: with Gloria Ramirez went beyond mass hysteria, so the coroner's
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  Speaker 1: office brought in experts from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory of
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  Speaker 1: Federal Research facility in California that specialized in nuclear weapons.
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  Speaker 1: They suggested Miss Ramirez had been medicating herself with dimethyl
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  Speaker 1: sulf oxide or d M s O. D M s
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  Speaker 1: O did have real medical applications. The FDA had approved
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  Speaker 1: it to treat certain bladder conditions. It was also used
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  Speaker 1: to heal wounds more quickly and decreased pain. Unfortunately, it
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  Speaker 1: was also peddled as an alternative treatment to cancer Miracle Cure.
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  Speaker 1: Except Ramirez hadn't gotten a hold of medical grade d MSO,
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  Speaker 1: she had most likely purchased tubes of it from her
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  Speaker 1: local hardware store. Apparently, d M s O was also
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  Speaker 1: an excellent decrease er. It had been known to have
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  Speaker 1: a garlicky taste, and her ingestion of it might have
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  Speaker 1: explained why her skin looks so oily. The lab determined
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  Speaker 1: that the oxygen given to her in the ambulance had
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  Speaker 1: bonded with the d MSO to form a new chemical
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  Speaker 1: that crystallized in her body, hence the yellowish particles in
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  Speaker 1: her blood. The fibrillators electrical shocks then converted it again
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  Speaker 1: into dimethyl sulfate, and the fumes from that were what
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  Speaker 1: most likely caused the nausea and loss of consciousness among
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  Speaker 1: the medical staff in shorts. Every time the doctors tried
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  Speaker 1: to save her life, they were unwittingly putting themselves in
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  Speaker 1: more danger. Gloria's body was stored in a facility for
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  Speaker 1: two months following the incident before it was released to
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  Speaker 1: the family. Another autopsy was conducted, but no official cause
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  Speaker 1: of death could be determined given the lack of evidence.
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  Speaker 1: She was finally laid to rest a few weeks later.
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  Speaker 1: No one knows for certain what caused the patience and
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  Speaker 1: staff at Riverside to fall ill, but many in the
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  Speaker 1: medical community concur with Livermore's theory. Of course, without definitive evidence,
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  Speaker 1: all they have our postulations. Gloria's case is still a
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  Speaker 1: mystery to this day, but one thing is clear. She
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  Speaker 1: never meant to hurt anybody. Like the rest of us.
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  Speaker 1: She was just trying to survive. The thing about violent
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  Speaker 1: criminals is that sooner or later they end up getting caught.
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  Speaker 1: They might get sloppy in their crimes, leaving evidence behind
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  Speaker 1: for the authorities, or they might even turn themselves in
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  Speaker 1: haunted by the ghosts of their past. For nineteen year
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  Speaker 1: old John Charles Cross, it was a little bit of both.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty four, a new hotel opened up in
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  Speaker 1: Miami Beach, Florida. It was called the Fountain Blue, and
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  Speaker 1: it became famous for appearing in such films as nineteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty three's Scarface and the nineteen sixty four James bond
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  Speaker 1: hit Goldfinger, but before Double O seven ever stepped foot
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  Speaker 1: in its lobby, The Fontain Blue was the site of
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  Speaker 1: a horrible crime. It was February of nineteen sixty one,
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  Speaker 1: and John Cross had been writing high for six days.
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  Speaker 1: The New Jersey native had been living in Miami under
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  Speaker 1: the name of doctor Herbert Waters using stolen credit cards.
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  Speaker 1: He had checked into the massive font and Blue as
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  Speaker 1: part of his spree, occupying a room that cost forty
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  Speaker 1: one at night. Today, that same room would run you
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  Speaker 1: over three fifty dollars. Cross had been suspected in several
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  Speaker 1: states of stealing cars and passing bad checks. On February eleven,
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  Speaker 1: hotel management presented him with a bill for his room,
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  Speaker 1: as well as the food that he had ordered during
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  Speaker 1: his stay, all of which total nearly four hundred dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Cross told them that it wouldn't be a problem. All
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  Speaker 1: he had to do was run down to the hotel's
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  Speaker 1: credit manager to cash a check, and then he'd be
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  Speaker 1: able to pay the bill. He stepped into the office
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  Speaker 1: of A. H. Jordian, hotel's credit manager with his bill
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  Speaker 1: in hand. Jordian informed him that he would need to
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  Speaker 1: settle it up right then. And there to avoid any
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  Speaker 1: further issues. Cross had no problem with that. He presented
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  Speaker 1: a check for the credit manager to cash, which would
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  Speaker 1: cover his debt. Jordian examined the check and then asked
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  Speaker 1: Dr Waters for identification. You won't be surprised to hear
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  Speaker 1: that he didn't have any. Jordian got on the phone
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  Speaker 1: with the hotel's detectives, separate from hotel security, who wore
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  Speaker 1: distinct uniforms to alert guests of their presence. Hotel detectives
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  Speaker 1: walked around and playing clothes to better blend in with
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  Speaker 1: the clientele. They hung out in common areas and kept
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  Speaker 1: eyes on comings and goings, leaving the enforcement to the
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  Speaker 1: uniform guards. Moments after Jordian called the police, a detective
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  Speaker 1: arrived to escort Cross away. The police would deal with
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  Speaker 1: him now, except Cross wasn't about to let some hotel
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  Speaker 1: cops stop his spending spree. He drew a pistol and
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  Speaker 1: shot the man five times before escaping out into the lobby.
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  Speaker 1: And that's where another detective, fifty three year old Louis
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  Speaker 1: Joseph Barns, was waiting for him. Cross aimed the gun
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  Speaker 1: at him, but quickly decided Barrens would be a better
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  Speaker 1: hostage than a victim. Cross fled to the parking lot
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  Speaker 1: with the detective in tow, pulling on the handles of
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  Speaker 1: parked cars as he passed them, looking for an open one.
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  Speaker 1: On a second try, a door opened, and to his
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  Speaker 1: good fortune, someone had left the keys inside. Cross didn't
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  Speaker 1: get too far, however, as the police were already in
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  Speaker 1: pursuit and stopped him in front of a neighboring hotel.
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  Speaker 1: A standoff ensued shortly after. One officer shot at Cross
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  Speaker 1: and missed twice. Barrens took the opportunity to try and
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  Speaker 1: wrestle the gun out of the young man's hand, but
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  Speaker 1: accidentally set it off and shot himself in the knee.
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  Speaker 1: Cross bolted from the car on foot, but he didn't
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  Speaker 1: make it far. Another officer gave chase and tackled him.
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  Speaker 1: A short while later. John Charles Cross was arrested and
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  Speaker 1: charged with the murder of the hotel detective. Jury summons
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  Speaker 1: were issued all around the county, including to a former
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  Speaker 1: firefighter named William j. Alsop. He and his wife were
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  Speaker 1: newcomers to Miami, having moved there from New York City
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  Speaker 1: a few years before. Sadly, Mrs Alsop was forced to
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  Speaker 1: return her husband's jury summons to the court. Her husband,
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  Speaker 1: you see, couldn't serve on the jury of the John
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  Speaker 1: Cross trial because he had died a few months earlier
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  Speaker 1: while on duty at his new job working as a
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  Speaker 1: hotel detective at the Fountain Blue. He'd been shot five
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  Speaker 1: times by John Cross himself. I hope you've enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
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  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
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  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
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  Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
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  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,