Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 93. Gland Larceny: The Testicle Thieves of Chicago

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93. Gland Larceny: The Testicle Thieves of Chicago · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hello delicious friends,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and welcome to Hood What Now the history podcast That's
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: not your History class? With me? Your host Katie Charlwood,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: History harlot and reader of books. It has been a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: busy week for me. You know how it is offending evangelicals.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Apparently it's very easy to do. All you have to
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: do is quote scripture. As it turns out, now, I'm
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: not even a big fan of the Bible. However, I'm
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: not gonna let all those years of Sunday school go
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to waste. No. I also didn't take theology for a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: little while for absolutely no reason. It is exactly for
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: arguments like this, but anyway, caused a bit of a
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: scene on the old Internet, especially on Instagram. People were
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: getting very well up on Instagram to the point where
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: they're making insane statements. And I say that as someone
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: who was not the most coherent person in the world
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: on occasion like it is beyond ridiculous. It's like the
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: circumvent of the world going up their own urses. I
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: just don't get them. It's fine. I when I do,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I understand why. It's because they're self righteous and self obsessed.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: But the point is caused a weep bit of a scene.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: So naturally, I decided I was going to talk about
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: something completely non controversial in this week's episode testicles, because
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: that's just how I wrote. I feel like, why not
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: discuss it. Also thought we needed a bit of a
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: pallet clenser after dealing with two weeks of you know,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a woman having to deal with shit. I thought, yeah,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: let's talk about this. But before I get into that,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: if you are in Dublin this weekend for the Bank
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Holly weekend for Saint Brigid, you know, come see me live.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I'm being opened. Wait, my show is being opened by
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Blind Burka. She's so funny and gorgeous and funny. And
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: I mentioned gorgeous because she's also gorgeous and funny. She's amazing.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: So she's going to be opening for me. And I'm
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: very excited because I had the fabulous Alio Rourke open
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: my first sort of Babies, first comedy gig or Baby's
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: first live show. I mean, I think I'm funny. It's okay,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: some other people thought I was funny. It was nice,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: it was a good time. But you should totally come
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: see because I am talking about a demon of a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: woman and I love her. I love her so much.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: So it's so good, so excited for this show, the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: live show, and I've actually put things on the Patreon again.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I need to figure out what I have done with
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: the merch for one of the one of the tears.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I've got to fix the merch because I only put
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: a mug on it, and I think I need to
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: put other things on it. I was working on different artwork,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: but I have made a new riding bike face merch
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and I don't know whether to get stuff done for
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the live shows and I want to get pinsed on
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: and there's a few things I want to do, but
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: like I don't know what you want, like stickers. I
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: love stickers, and I'd love to get some artists to
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: work in some prints. But I guess we'll see where
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: this goes. And I'd love to make it, but I
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: just need to figure out what I'm doing with that.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: But yeah, but I'm patreon back to patron is. I've
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: actually started, or it's starting this Thursday, the Who Done
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: It What Now? Series where I read you a chapter
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: a night for your bedtime story and so that starts Thursday,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: but yes, Saturday, third of February. I've got a live show,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: come see me, and other stuff's gonna start popping up.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: So just watch this space. But I know what you're thinking.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: You're thinking, Katie, just quit your jibber japa in fact me,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: in fact you I will. But first we've got to
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: get our source on. And our sources are and you're
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: going to be shocked at this because they're properly just
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: all the time sources. The Beckham County Democrat. These are
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: all old timing newspapers. By the way, you see the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: effort I go to. I read so many old timey
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: newspapers and that is not an easy font Like I
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: got it, I got a zoom in, and then the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: clarity gets weird. Say anyway. We also have The Independent,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the Texas Home of Times, the Selena Daily Union, the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Buffalo Morning Express, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Fort Worth Star Telegram,
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  Speaker 1: the American Journal of Medical Science, and Brunzegalde Selected contributions
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: of a nineteenth century neuroscientist by Michael j Amanov. Are
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: you sitting comfortably good, then let's begin. So let me
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: take you back, if you don't mind, to the nineteen twenties.
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  Speaker 1: The Roaring twenties, if you will, And we are in Chicago, Illinois,
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  Speaker 1: United States of America. I don't know why I felt
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the need to add the USA, as if you wouldn't
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: be aware we're in the USA, but that's where we're at.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: We're in the US, in Chicago and the Rowing twenties. Again.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Don't know why I repeat to that, but here we are.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: It's bye, sh It's okay. So, yes, we have gangsters.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: We've got al Capone, We've got the other ones. We've
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: got sex cells everywhere. We've got flappers showing up, women
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: are showing their knees. Oooh, shocking, bright young things are
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: in the UK. So I don't know why I felt
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the need to bring them up, but people are breaking
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: away from the sort of Victorian era, and you've got prohibition,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: you've got booze running, and you've just got a sort
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: of pressure cooker of criminality. But the crime we shall
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: be discussing this evening is not a bit legging or
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: gun running or shootouts or illegal burlesque shows. Oh no,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: something far more abhorrent. That's right. We are talking about
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  Speaker 1: gland larceny. Gland larceny, I hear you say, what is that, well,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: gland piracy. You may even call it. You may even
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: call it a family jee heist. I regret nothing, Okay,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: you'll know I'll of a heist. Yes, we are talking
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: about stealing testicles, testical theft, ball grabbing. I can't give
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: us ray pace. This is so funny. So that is
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: where we're at right now. That is it. We are
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: talking about barklaring bowls and grabbing gonads and so many
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: dirty puns. It's just nuts, that's all I'm saying. I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: can't help myself. I can't hurt myself. Okay, So let
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  Speaker 1: me take you back to the summer of nineteen twenty
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  Speaker 1: two when a man is found unresponsive in a doorway, effectively,
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  Speaker 1: a passer by, a good citizen, a good Samaritan if
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: you will, is going past and he notices that this
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  Speaker 1: man is just crumpled lying in this doorway in the
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: corner of I think it's Adam Street and Ranch Avenue.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: So the passerby he tries to awake him up, He
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: tries to you know, you know, bring him to the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: land of the living. And residents in the area like
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: they notice what's happening, and they try and wake him
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  Speaker 1: up too. But the dude is fully on unconscious and
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: it's clear that he is, you know, under the influence
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  Speaker 1: of something that he's at the very least doped up.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: You know, he's drugged up. If he smelt of booze like,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: that's something they would have noticed. I mean, you notice
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: now if someone's been on a bend and they haven't
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: had a wash, like you can smell it. And let's
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: face it, the alcohol they were consuming at this time period,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: they would have not been the cleanest of options. You're
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: talking bathtub gin and you know, illegal whiskeys and whatnot.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: You're not talking high class booze here, like even whiskey.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Like you drink whiskey, you're smelling that the next day
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: if you had enough of it, and if you're at
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  Speaker 1: the point where you're you know, unconsciously drunk, you're gonna
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: be just inhaling that it will burn the nostrils, you know,
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  Speaker 1: so clearly not drunk. And the residents they're like, okay,
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  Speaker 1: we need to get this man to a hospital, and
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: so they do. They take him out to the county
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  Speaker 1: hospital and these interns take a look at them and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: as they are going over his body, these surgical in
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  Speaker 1: turns swiftly, very swiftly, realize that the testes are missing,
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  Speaker 1: the gonads are gone, the scrotum is saggy. I mean
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: it's already saggy, it's a scrotum. But the scrutle sack
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  Speaker 1: is empty. So the testicle, well, test is one testicle,
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  Speaker 1: two testies. I'm fairly certain that's correct. So they have
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  Speaker 1: been removed from the scrutle sack and it was stitched
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  Speaker 1: up in an expert fashion. Because here's the thing. If
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  Speaker 1: you're removing somebody's gullies from the body and they are alive,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: what you have to do is you have to make
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: sure that you don't like slice up an artery, which
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: is very easy to do because you need to have
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  Speaker 1: a certain level of surgical skill in order to burgle
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  Speaker 1: the balls without severing the testicular artery, massive artery right
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  Speaker 1: in the ground. Don't want to be cutting into that.
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  Speaker 1: And Henry Johnson is informed of this when he wakes up,
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  Speaker 1: and he's also questioned because you know, somebody shows up with,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: you know, body parts missing, Generally questions are asked. So
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the last thing that Johnson, again no pun intended. The
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: last thing he remembers was going out drinking with a
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  Speaker 1: friend during prohibitions. He had a we snuffed, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and he gets on a street car and then everything
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  Speaker 1: goes black. Next thing he knows, he's awake in the hospital.
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  Speaker 1: So this happens, and well, Henry Johnson, he ends up,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: you know, making sure that he's all healed. And after
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: this he goes back to living with his sister. So
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: he lives with his sister Beryl, which is the name
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I love so much because it's just I mean, it's
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: from the comic Barrel the Peril, which is one thing
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: from the Beano? Was it Beano or was it the Dandy?
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Many of the minks barrel the Pearl from one of them. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: he lives with his sister Beryl, and basically has to
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: go back to her with no I don't know why
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  Speaker 1: that's relevant, whether his sister knows he has nuts or not. Maybe,
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  Speaker 1: but yeah, leaves go home and does nothing, no report.
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  Speaker 1: He was too embarrassed about it to tell the police.
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  Speaker 1: And I can understand that. I feel like having your
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  Speaker 1: testicles cut out your body. One of the main things
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  Speaker 1: which is stated as manhood, you know, hey, I got castrated,
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  Speaker 1: is not a fun thing to go and tell the cops,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I don't think. And so yeah, he's embarrassed. He doesn't
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  Speaker 1: tell anybody, doesn't report the incident. He just goes back
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to work and back to life with his sister Beryl,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: until an article hits the paper four months later, an
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  Speaker 1: article that stayed in a warning for men, gland pirates
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  Speaker 1: are after your gullies. In October nineteen twenty two, a
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  Speaker 1: man wakes up in a vacant lot. This man is
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: thirty four year old Polish ex beat laborer Joseph Vosniak.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Now I read pieces here and there that we're calling
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: him a beat farmer, but no, he was a beat
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: laborer and he'd only recently moved to Chicago. So he
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: wakes up in this empty plot and he has a
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: weird taste in his mouth. Now he thinks it's either
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: chloroform or ether, because he has clearly before somehow consumed
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: chloroform or ether. Now I feel like this is after
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the period where this was common, you know, because it
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: was very big in the Victorian era. But you know,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: he's kind of coming out that side of it. I
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: say Victorian. I know that relates to the UK I'm aware,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I know, but he's I mean, he was Polish. He
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: was Polish. See here's the thing. It does not state
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: whether he was Polish and then emigrated to the States
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: or whether he lived in the States and then just
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: moved to Chicago. Like that specific information isn't there. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Joseph Wozniak, he wakes up again in this empty space
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  Speaker 1: and has a weird taste in his mouth, a weird
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: chemical taste. And not only that, he has a pounding headache,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: like his head is aching, like he's had the worst
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: hangover in his life, and he is kind of out
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  Speaker 1: of it. He's disorientated. The term he uses specifically is befuddled.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: He's been fuddled. And so what he does is he
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: manages somehow to sort of stumble stagger home and he
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  Speaker 1: gets there, but he is not doing well. The pain
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: in his head is subsiding, but the pain and is growing,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: is increasing exponentially throughout the day. Now. I know people
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: say that the you know, reasonable level of pain someone
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: should have is zero is someone with chronic pain. I
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: don't know if that is correct, because there's there's a
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: level of pain one can manage, like generally that they
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: are accustomed to on a daily basis. M hm no, okay, then,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: but yeah, he is getting pain down in his crucial
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: area and it is getting worse. So eventually the pain
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: is excruciating to the point that he simply cannot handle anymore.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: And he does what men never do, which is takes
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: himself to a doctor. I'd joke to choke chill out.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: So yeah, he goes to doctor sample and Skate at
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: a hospital and doctor Sampleinsk is yeah, taking a look over,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: obviously looking at the affected area, and again quite apparent
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: his testicles are gone. Vosniaks testicles, not doctor Sample and Skate.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: It was then the doctor that reported this case to
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: the police before Voznak himself is questioned and then ends
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: up giving an interview to the press. So what, Joseph
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Vosniak says, the ex beat farmer Lettuce Turnip the beat
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: this so bad? So the ex beat Pharma And he
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: tries to recollect his memories from the day before, and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: he remembers that he had gone out drinking with his
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: friend Kuchiniski. They'd gone out for a few babies down
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Milwaukee Avenue, just a wait table during prohibition pop by
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: a we speak hazy, and it goes for a couple
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: of drinks and then he decides he's had enough, he's
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: being sensible. He needs to go home, and so he
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: leaves his pal and off he goes to hail a cab.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: And as he's walking along the street trying to find
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: a taxi to flag down an automobile a vehicle a
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: car pulls up beside him and four men leap out.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: They chuck a bag over his head and they drag
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: him into the car. So they pull him into the vehicle.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: It is at this point that he loses consciousness, and
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: this is where they believe that he got chloroformed right,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: And the next thing he knows, he's waking up in
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: this fucking vacant law. Naturally, people have theories about this,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: and by theories, I mean big weird ideas. So they
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: go over him and again there's no like lacerations in
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the testicular artery, like this is surgical skill. This is
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: somebody who clearly knows what they're doing. And the newspapers
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and the cops they're like, this is clearly some old
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: RICHI dude, this pale and stale male who's harvesting testies,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: ah craving the testicles to add to his own saggyballsack
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: so that he can then become more virile woo. And
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: so the newspapers are just like gland larceny, gland pirates,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: you know, richured men are trying to steal your bones,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: so on and so forth, And they were just sort
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: of pushing the idea that this was going to lead
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: to like a spate of just testical theft of goolli
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: grabbin and that no one was safe, no one, and
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: so like all of these people are running with it.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: It's like it's snowballing, and they're like, yeah, that's the
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: gangs that are doing it. This is you know, a weird,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: you know, secret cult run by the elite, so on
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: and so forth. So this story is everywhere, it is
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: big news. And so when Henry Johnson sees this, he
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: then comes forward and reports the crime to the police.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: So he comes forward, tells them about it, and it
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: becomes clear to you know, reporters and cops alike that
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: not only are these two cases linked, but they are
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: so specific and so similar that they are probably done
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: by the same surgeon. Because in order to have that
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: particular level of skill, like to have more than one
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: person in that area do that exact same thing doesn't
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: really seem that likely. So when news hits that Johnson
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: was also a victim of this particular type of assault,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: another person comes forward. Now, unlike Vasniak and Johnson, this
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: fella does not want his name out there, But another
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: report similar incident out drinking wakes up Bowlless. Just it
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: was getting to the point that it wasn't even just
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: in like Chicago newspapers anymore. It was out in Texa Coma.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: It was out in North Carolina, and they were just
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: warning people that this crime could spread across America. They're
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: warning people against testical thieves. People were panicking people apart
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: from Bosniak's wife. Oh my god, I forgot to mention
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: that Foisniak was also like a World War One vet,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: like he was a veteran of the First World War,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: and then he was a beat laborer or was he a
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: beat laborer? And then either way did that, moved to
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Chicago and currently was not in gainful employment. He was
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: unemployed actually is the Yeah, didn't have a job, and
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: so his wife's like, I very just sold his go
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: nuts for a quick buck. They needed the money, Like initially,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that's what she's saying, and then when these other two
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: fellows come forward, she's like, oh maybe maybe maybe not
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Clearly things were not going well, and you know the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: marriage household of the Vosniaks, things were not tipped top
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: by us. Some flowers, man, be nice. Maybe maybe she
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: was just blaming him for being assaulted, which is a
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: thing that a lot of people do to victims actually
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: and not cool. But yeah, she is just kind of
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: at least at the beginning. And then but you know what,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: you know, who's not chill with the situation. The entire
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Chicago medical community, like they are pest. You know, they're like,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: one of us is doing this, one of us, one
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: of us wawvas, like one surgeon, one of our esteemed
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: colleagues is out there trafficking organs like that's a thing.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, no, no, fuck that for a
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: game of soldiers. And so they vow to seek out
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: and stop whomever is out here. Pension privates. So the
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Chicago Medical Society, they're working with police and doctor Hugh mckenschney,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: he's chatting away to one of the captains who's like, yeah,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: what we're gonna do is if we find a surgeon
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and we end up, we'll charge any surgeon and parties
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: affiliated with them who are committing gland banditry, they will
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: be charged with mayhem, you know, which would mean being
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: in prison for fourteen years. But it doesn't stop there.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: So there's this politician, representative Thomas O'Grady, and so he
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: comes forward and he's like, Illinois, here's what I'm going
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: to do. I propose that you know, anyone out there
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Nick and nuts they should uh yeah. He wants to
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: make gland larceny a capital crime. Anyone convicted of Nick
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: of the nuts, burglar and the balls. Oh god, there
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: isn't a theifory Worth begins with g grabbing the gonads.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: It's all love goal, it's all of goal. Okay, So
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: anybody who is you know, convicted of that, it's a
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: capital crime. And the punishment for a capital crime is
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: you know, death to the electric share with you have
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: they passed hanging at that point? I don't remember, but yeah,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: to and that's what happens. That's what doesn't happen. But
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: that's proposed because of course it is because men in
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Chicago are starting to panic. Unsurprisingly, things seem to calm
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: down for a while and we don't really hear much
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: of anything until November the following year. So it is
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty three and Charles Reem a taxi driver. He's
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: just going about his day, just chilling out, and then
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: he is grabbed by a couple of men on the streets.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: So he's just walking down the street. He's grabbed by
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: men and pulled into a car. He is then chloroformed,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: and he wakes up at a deserted prairie near ninety
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: second Street, so again like a vacant lot, and it's
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: here where this sort of operation is performed. Now less
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: than twenty four hours later, another man, John Powell, is attacked.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Now his attacks a little bit different because he basically
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: fights them off, and so he fights them off and
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: things get a bit wild, and he ends up just mutilated.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Like they don't manage to actually abscorned with the test
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: is like he's still got it all going down there.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: They're just just not as esthetically pleasing as they once were.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: So naturally, police are confused and they are looking for
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: answers like why would someone steal testicles? What is the purpose?
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Why would you nick the nuts? Like, what is the
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: point of it? And well, basically there's this whole thing
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: old well tisticular rejuvenation. Right, But first let us go
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: slightly further into the past to Charles Edoid Brune Sigad,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: who I'm just gonna call Brune Sigad for the rest
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: of this. So he is a French physiologist. I'm an
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: you're link in French with an accent. Kay, listen, it's
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: been a long day. He believed that semen, that sperm
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: was the key to the Lazarus pit, right, that he
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: thought sperm was the goo inside the Lazarus pit, you
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, and that it was the key
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: ingredient of the recipe that brought you the fountain of youth. So,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: based on this, Brune Cicad believed that doctors could add
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: semen to a man's body in order to reverse aging.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: And so he has this theory and what he starts
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: doing is he starts injecting sperm into himself like it's
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: this mixture of sperm, blood and quote. I want you
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: to know this is a direct quote just extracted from
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: the testicles of dogs and guinea pigs. Now I should
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: wonder that Plunzgald was seventy two at this point, and
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: he's telling everybody that I am a new man, I
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: am a new man or a better than that, because
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: probably in French suit home nouveau novel, novel omnvo what neh. Anyway,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: so he ends up getting this or published, has experiments.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: They're published in the lin Set, which is a British
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: medical journal, and it is the shit, like it is legit,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the shit, you know, it's the place where you want
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: to have your articles published, like this is a very
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: serious medical journal, Like they don't just publish anything in
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the land Set, Like it's a pretty big deal to
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: be in it. And so this gets published, and so
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: all these other sort of doctors start injecting themselves with
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: weird semen concoctions and just what is that I'm just
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: injecting myself with the baby grave what I mean, I'm
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: sure this seems like very violid signs at the time,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: but ill the technical term is oo. So it's then
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: a Russian doctor Selge Ronoff, who's at the College de France.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: He ends up taking this research and really starts leaning
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: into testa is based rejuvenation in order to create this
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Lazarus pit juice. Right. So, but instead of taking you know,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the sperm of guinea pigs and dogs, like instead of
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: taking mammal bulgice, I'm just gonna take chimpanzee gullies monkey
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: nuts if you will. I know chimpanzees are not monkeys.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I am aware that they are, you know, closer to
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the Epeh family. I don't care. It's a joke. In
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: case someone wants to correct me, I don't care. I
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: really appreciate making a monkey nut joke, and this because
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I love monkey nuts, like the actual food, like the
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: ones you get in Bercino Vasso, which was which was
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: its main export for many years. I don't know if
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: it's still us, but it was. It's the only fact
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: I know that Bercino Vasso, except for the fact that
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: it's suffering like a mass desertification. Like that's stuck my
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: head forever forever. So yeah, Serge Veranov, he is cutting
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: out chimpanzee gonads and then sowing them into his own body.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Because the Russians never do anything by haves, do they No.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: By the time nineteen fourteen year olds around, we have
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: doctor Frank Ludston, who just has to up the ant
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: he doesn't he he does, and instead of using chimpanzees
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: or dogs or whatever, he finds a kidaver. So he
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: gets a dead body and he takes the human balls.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Like I don't know how else to put it. He
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: takes the human scrot him, cuts it open, takes the
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: testes out of the deceased, removes the deceased man's balls,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: and then cuts himself open and sows those balls in.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: It's like he adds them to his ball. He is
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: double stuff in this oreo is what he's doing. And yeah, yeah,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: now Lidston, he doesn't turn out too will with this
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: because a lot of the time, the test days, the testicles,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: they have to be removed due to infection. Has it
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: one test days and two testicles? God, I don't remember.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: Someone's gonna have to clarify that for me. So yeah,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: eight days after his own operation, Ludston, doctor Ludston, the urologist,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: he realizes that he's any fuck ton of pain. So yeah,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: he is suddenly very aware that he has a foreign
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: body in his body and he now has seeming afarious tubules,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and so he decides he has to remove the extra ball, right,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: he doesn't manage to get all of it out right.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: There is self transplant, but he can't do his self removal.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: He only gets about half of one, so basically ends
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: up having what's it now a smaller size. Initially he
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: said it was the size of an almond, and then
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: the size of a hazel. Not now when Liston like
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: adds the ball, it's so weird to say, I'm sorry
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: it is though, So once he has that inside himself,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: he is just written and raving about how he has
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: improved reflex erections. Now it's it's unlikely that this itself
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: has caused you know, the erection is more like he
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: manifested it. It's just I think therefore I am positive
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: thinking mind over matter scenario. But yeah, not a huge
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: load of improvement. So after this we have Johan Brinkley,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: who are ends up being known as the goat gland
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: doctor because he would just be sewing just like Billy
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: goat balls into people and being like, yeah, nay, your
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: dick works. So there was a doctor like this in
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Chicago at the time, doctor lesbian Us, doctor lisbon Us,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: who in a crazy random happenstance always seemed to be
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: having testical surgery just around about the time these men
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: were attacked, which is one of the reasons by the
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: story of like rich men are out seeking your balls,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: and I think there was one story that one hundred
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars, Like one hundred thousand dollars and then money
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: that's crazy money. Now like they are paying one hundred
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars, whist, I want to steal your balls, like mmm.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: But yeah, they think Lesbianas is just the man behind
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: the surgeries. But let'sbian asks. He is not having it.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: He is just adamantly stating that men per men, impoverrich men,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: men in need of cash, are lining up outside of
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: surgery to sell, you know, the contents of their scrotum
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: to him in exchange for a quick buck, because you know,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: people power shit, and you know, Marin are very willing
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: to sell that. Now here's the thing. You can convince
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: me of a lot of things, because people do a
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: lot of weird shit, especially in the past. Like as
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: a general rule, weird stuff happens. But if you're trying
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: to tell me that manly men men of Chicago just
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: blue collar dudes, you're trying to tell me that they
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: are willingly giving up part of their sex organs, Like
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: willingly you think that's a thing. You think that's a
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: situation that's going to be occurring to the point that
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: they're lining up. Nope, no, ask me nowadays if they'll
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: do it. Most of them will say no, Like, no
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: one's willing to just lose their testicles, Like that's not
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: a general consideration for probably about ninety eight percent of
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: the population. So to assume that there's rows of people,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: just like people are waiting for a ride at Disneyland,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Take my scrutum juice, take my bulls, give you my goollies. No, no,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: that's not happening. But the police, the Chicago Pad, they
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: really really like lesbian As for this, and they even
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: question lesbian AS's last patient, Henry Barrector, so p Parrector.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: He is a candy baron, Yes, Willie Wonka with extra
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: nuts or lack of nuts, as the case may be.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: So yeah, Henry Burchter. He's forty eight years old and
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: he is the president of the Park Avenue Confectionery Company
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: of Saint Louis, And so he had gone for a
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: rejuvenation operation the day after Charles Reem had been attacked,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: so worked he gets questioned, but luckily they prove that
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: he's got nothing to do with it. He had been
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: marred and divorced about like four years previous, and he
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: was looking to, you know, just work his way up
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: and get his way through the ladies, you know, just
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: love that life. So he was under advisement for a
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: gland operation because something's not working down there effectively, and
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: he's just basically good. I don't know where the ball
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: came from. The gland was put inside me, I don't
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: know its origin, nothing to do with me. I paid
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: my four hundred dollars to have this operation. Everything's fine.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: So in today's money, that's like seven thousand for the
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: up which you know, inflation wise, that's not actually that
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: bad when you think about it. But yeah, and of
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: course you've got him going, I don't know where it
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: came from, and lesbian as is like cus of men
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: are outside the hospital. I could purchase their glands for
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: five dollars five bucks, like four if he's negotiating properly,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: if he's haggling. But yeah, that's that's him and Charles Reem,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: the man who was attacked he is clearly suffering that
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: he's suffering trauma from this whole situation. And he shows
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: up in the Crime of this Century and I know
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: you're thinking, what crime of the centric is? There seems
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: to be a couple of these, You're not wrong. So
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty four, a case comes to court in
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Chicago and it is of two rich as fuck students
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: from University of Chicago. And these are Richard Loeb and
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Nathan Leopold Junior, otherwise known as Leopold and Lobe. And
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: what they had done was effectively, long story short, kidnapped
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: and murdered a young boy. Right, they kill a kid,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: And so Charles realm he is convinced that Leopold and
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: Loebe are two of the men that attacked him and
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: stole the contents of his scroum. Right, so he's out
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: telling like newspapers and radio. And he shows up at
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: the court so like they're having a big court case
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: for you know, murder, and he stands up and points
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: over to Leopold or Lope leebeled that's it labeled, and
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: he points at him and he's like, that's him. You know,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: he's the same like height, he's the same width, he
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: has the same cut of clothes, so rich. He's an
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: average sized rich dude, and he has the same eyes,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: and the court are like no, no, Like he ends
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: up being how do I put it, not in contempt
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: of court, but it is warned, right, So Leopold and
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Lobe they're tried and connected for murdering Bobby Franks is fourteen,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: but they don't get brought into sort of the gland
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: larceny situation, probably because it's unlikely that they were involved
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: in this specific issue. But they were charged for murderers.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: We can at least appreciate that, so back to doctors
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: were performing them in presence at least one that there
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: are records of. Otherwise it's kind of washy washy, but
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: chances are if they're doing it in one, they're doing
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: it in more than one. So in Sing Sing, there's
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: a prisoner and they remove his gillies and they put them,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: they perform an operation and insert them into the scruttle
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: sack of another inmate who just so happens to be
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: a dirty cop. Like it was a way of them
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: like getting around medical stuff at the time, because it
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: was kind of like a not done thing yeah, and
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: then after this people were just putting goat testicles in.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: It became like a really big thing goat testicles, and
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: they're like it did things it did not. But this
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: is kind of like the last time we really hear
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: about sort ofistically rejuvenation and other things. It just kind
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: of starts fading into obscurity, and you've got like other
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: stuff has happened in Chicago because it's like the big
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: crime scene. You've got like mobsters and gangsters and you know,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: moles and just rowing twenties Shenanigan's happening. Like it's a
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: bustling city and things are going on and they are
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: overtaking the newspapers and stories like this just fight away.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: But it's one of those things that you don't really
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: see men focus on, like anti aging stuff, except when
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: it's relation to their virility, when it's about their going
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: at their penis, Like when it's about that, and that's
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: when they seem to care. Like I don't, I don't
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: know any men that are worried about anti aging wrinkles
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: and moisturizer. I mean, I guess some are now, but
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: you know not is it a thing or men like
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: really worried about wrinkles. Are men getting botox? Maybe men
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: are getting botox, I'm not sure. Anyway, we don't know
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: who was out nick and testicles. We don't know what
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: happened to some of them, and chances are probably not
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: the best idea I think as well. The plan, as
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: far as end of knowlogists go, was that the balls
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: I keep going to go on the scrotum, but like
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: the balls would be absorbed into the body, like the
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: hormones would be absorbed into the body. And though for
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: make them more viterrial, you know, I think because Asian
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: doctors had been doing sort of gland transplants when it
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: came to the thyroid, and it was working like pretty well,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: and so Giltor saw this and ran with it instead
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: of paying attention to what was actually happening. But yeah,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: the Chicago Testical Thieves doesn't have a nice tied up
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: bow ending. But I thought this was something you needed
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: to know. Imagine though, Imagine being part of a gang
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: and their whole thing is okay, So you're gonna go
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: steal this guy. We're gonna shake him down, we're gonna
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: rob We're gonna put him in a ditch. No, you're
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: gonna drug him so I can steal his testicles. I'm sorry,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: what boss, we need his nuts? Okay, gotta grab his goolies,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: all right, go nads will be gone, his cohony's will go.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: I don't. I don't have anything for that. I'm done.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I can't aloney. His cohoney's will be a looney.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: That's it. That's that's the best I've got today. I'm sorry, lads,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Clearly my voice is starting to go.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: But that is everything for today. That is the story
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: of the Chicago test Go Thieves, the Gland Pirates. And yeah,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: if you want to rate interview five stars, that'd be amazing.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: Patrion's got some more stuff on it and I yeah,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: come see my show and double oh. Recommendation time. Okay,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: for watching, I'm gonna go with Agatha Raisin and The
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: Keishe of Death. It's a cozy mystery, it's comforting and
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I love it. I'm going to suggest you listen to
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: the audiobook of The Woman in Me because Michelle Williams
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: absolute perfection. And for reading, Okay, let's go for another woman.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: Shall we hold? Feminism? By Nicki Kendall, go forth and
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: have fun, and with that I shall bid you good night.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Arios au revoir Aloe is my friends, Bye bye.