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Operation Fraud · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm 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: On a cold afternoon in February of eighteen seventy two,
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  Speaker 1: a middle aged woman walked into a photographer's studio in Boston.
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  Speaker 1: She was wearing the traditional morning clothes of a widow,
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  Speaker 1: a black dress and bonnet and a black veil over
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  Speaker 1: her face. Even though it had been almost seven years
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  Speaker 1: since her husband passed away, the woman had experienced a
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  Speaker 1: shocking amount of grief in the past couple decades. Along
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  Speaker 1: with her husband, she had lost three sons and three
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  Speaker 1: of her brothers. But in her darkest days, she found
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  Speaker 1: comfort in the belief that the dead aren't really gone,
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  Speaker 1: They're just in a different place, and that was why
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  Speaker 1: she had traveled all the way to Boston to visit
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  Speaker 1: this particular photo studio. The shop's owner, William Mumler, had
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  Speaker 1: made a name for himself as a spirit photographer, someone
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  Speaker 1: who could capture apparitions of the dead with his camera.
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  Speaker 1: He had discovered his talent a decade prior when he
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  Speaker 1: took a self portrait and once it had developed, saw
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  Speaker 1: the ghostly figure of his late cousin in the back
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  Speaker 1: of the frame, standing right behind him. Mumler had opened
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  Speaker 1: a photography business to share his spiritual gift with other
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  Speaker 1: grieving families, or to take advantage of them, depending on
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  Speaker 1: who you asked. Plenty of people at the time were
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  Speaker 1: convinced that Mumler was a fraud and the supposed ghosts
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  Speaker 1: in the photos were fake. The woman who walked into
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  Speaker 1: his shop that afternoon was a true believer. She'd been
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  Speaker 1: going to seances for years, and she was convinced that
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  Speaker 1: she'd spoken to the dead, so why couldn't she see
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  Speaker 1: them as well. The woman shook Mumler's hand and introduced
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  Speaker 1: herself as Missus Tyndall. She sat down in the chair
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  Speaker 1: in front of the camera and waited while he set
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  Speaker 1: up his equipment. When the camera was ready, Missus Tyndall
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  Speaker 1: lifted her veil and sat perfectly still. When Mummler snapped
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  Speaker 1: the shutter, nothing unusual seemed to happen. She didn't feel
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  Speaker 1: any sort of supernatural presence or see any flashes of
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  Speaker 1: lights in the corner of her eye. As she left
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  Speaker 1: the studio, she couldn't be sure that it had worked
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  Speaker 1: at all, but a few days later she came back
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  Speaker 1: to pick up the photoprint, hoping for the best. Bumbler
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  Speaker 1: sorted through a pile of envelopes until he found the
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  Speaker 1: one that had her name on it, and when she
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  Speaker 1: opened it and pulled out the photo inside, she gasped.
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  Speaker 1: In the photo, there was a pale figure standing behind
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  Speaker 1: Missus Tyndall, hands on her shoulders. It was faint, but
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  Speaker 1: if she looked closely, she could make out the angular
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  Speaker 1: nose and close cropped beard of her husband. Another customer
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  Speaker 1: who was in the shop at the time, leaned over
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  Speaker 1: Missus Tyndall's shoulder to take a peek at the photo.
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  Speaker 1: She remarked that the figure standing behind her looked just
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  Speaker 1: like Abraham Lincoln. Missus Tyndall replied that it did because
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  Speaker 1: it was Abraham Lincoln. The truth was, the woman's name
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  Speaker 1: wasn't actually Missus Tyndall. She was Mary Todd Lincoln, the
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  Speaker 1: former first Lady of the United States. She had given
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  Speaker 1: the photographer a fake name to protect her privacy, and
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  Speaker 1: even though Mumbler hadn't figured out her real identity, the
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  Speaker 1: apparition in the photo came out looking exactly like her
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  Speaker 1: famous husband, who had been assassinated at Ford's Theater seven
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  Speaker 1: years earlier. To some, including Missus Lincoln, this was proof
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  Speaker 1: that Mummler was no fraud and his photos really did
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  Speaker 1: capture the spirits of the dead. Of course, many skeptics
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  Speaker 1: still agree, but more than one one hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: years later, while experts believe that his photos were manipulated,
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  Speaker 1: there is still no consensus on how he created them
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  Speaker 1: in the first place, and unless Mummler's ghost reappears to
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  Speaker 1: explain his bag of tricks, will likely never know the truth.
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  Speaker 1: The Crusades have undergone a bit of a pr crisis
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  Speaker 1: in recent years. Whereas they used to be looked upon
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  Speaker 1: as a series of heroic quests undertaken by brave knights,
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  Speaker 1: in the modern day, they are seen as violent wars
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  Speaker 1: over a religion that preaches peace. There were eight Crusades
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  Speaker 1: in total, and most of them were less than successful,
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  Speaker 1: But of all of them, the Fourth Crusade was by
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  Speaker 1: far the biggest disaster. It began in the year eleven
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  Speaker 1: ninety eight, when Pope Innocent the Third called for a
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  Speaker 1: new crusade on Jerusalem. The previous crusade, which was the
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  Speaker 1: most famous one with Richard the Lionheart, had ended with
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  Speaker 1: many Christian territorial conquests, including Cyprus and much of the
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  Speaker 1: Israeli coast, but the Muslims still controlled the all important
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  Speaker 1: city of Jerusalem, where Christians believe Jesus died and was
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  Speaker 1: resurrected enter Enrico Dandolo, the ruler of Venice. Paintings of
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  Speaker 1: Enrico show him with an angry expression on his face,
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  Speaker 1: a sharp beak like nose, and a strange, pointed red hat.
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  Speaker 1: The guy looked just like a villain, and he was
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  Speaker 1: prepared to act like one as well. As crusaders gathered
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  Speaker 1: and prepared for the journey to the Holy Land, he
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  Speaker 1: offered to finance their journey with a fleet of warships,
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  Speaker 1: but they had to do something for him first. He
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  Speaker 1: wanted them to sail across the Adriatic Sea to the
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  Speaker 1: city of Zara, which was directly east from Venice in
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  Speaker 1: modern day Croatia. The city had recently allied itself with
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  Speaker 1: Hungary and Enrico wanted the Crusaders to conquer it and
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  Speaker 1: bring it under Veneti rule. Pope Innocent was completely against this,
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  Speaker 1: as this was a Christian city. He threatened to excommunicate
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  Speaker 1: Venice and the Crusaders if they went through with this plan.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the Crusaders abandoned their mission, but enough, we're
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  Speaker 1: willing to go through with the attack. Enrico's money and
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  Speaker 1: ships were just too tempting to pass up. When they arrived,
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  Speaker 1: they sacked the city and Venice was excommunicated, but the
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  Speaker 1: Pope eventually forgave the Crusaders because you know, he needed
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  Speaker 1: to keep them crusading. They traveled around Greece headed for Jerusalem,
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  Speaker 1: but once again Enrico proved to have ulterior motives. Years before,
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  Speaker 1: he had been ousted from an advisory position in the
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  Speaker 1: Byzantine courts at Constantinople. This was a massive, well fortified
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  Speaker 1: city that today we call Istanbul. It's strategically important too,
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  Speaker 1: as it serves as a gateway between the Black Sea
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  Speaker 1: and the Mediterranean. Enrico wanted the Crusaders to attack Constantinople
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  Speaker 1: and place a new emperor on its throne, giving him
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  Speaker 1: control of the Byzantine Empire. The empire spanned all of
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  Speaker 1: Greece and Turkey, and this time he claimed that it
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  Speaker 1: was for religious reasons, maybe with giant air quotes there.
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  Speaker 1: The Byzantines had split from the Catholic Church years prior,
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  Speaker 1: forming their own Eastern Orthodox Church in an event known
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  Speaker 1: as the Great Schism, and Rico's argument was that they
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  Speaker 1: could bring the Byzantines back into the Catholic fold and
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  Speaker 1: save them from heresy, and a plan started out okay
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  Speaker 1: for him. When the Crusaders first surrounded the city, they
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  Speaker 1: were able to force the surrender of the current emperor
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  Speaker 1: and put in Rico's puppet on the throne. But as
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  Speaker 1: you can imagine, this didn't go over very well with
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  Speaker 1: the locals. In their mind, an army from a foreign
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  Speaker 1: land two peninsulas over had arrived and forced a new
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  Speaker 1: leader and a new church on them, and they were
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  Speaker 1: not having it. And so the people rebelled under the
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  Speaker 1: leadership and quickly executed in Rico's puppet emperor. But the
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  Speaker 1: Crusaders simply couldn't admit their mistakes and head for Jurierusalem.
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  Speaker 1: One of the major issues with any crusade was that
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  Speaker 1: it was difficult to keep such a large army well
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  Speaker 1: supplied in a foreign land. The Crusaders were now almost
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  Speaker 1: out of food, and their ships needed repairs before sailing again,
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  Speaker 1: and so they made the most Unchristian decision possible. They
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  Speaker 1: decided to attack. On the morning of April ninth, in
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  Speaker 1: the year twelve oh four, tens of thousands of Crusaders
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  Speaker 1: climbed over the walls and battered down the gates of Constantinople.
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  Speaker 1: Once inside, they murdered and assaulted the citizens they stole
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  Speaker 1: from businesses and churches alike. It was a crusade that
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  Speaker 1: had led to Christians killing Christians. But of course Enrico
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  Speaker 1: now had what he wanted. Venice controlled trade from Italy
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  Speaker 1: to Turkey, and a new emperor was installed on the throne,
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  Speaker 1: and the Crusaders split up the lands amongst themselves. However,
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  Speaker 1: the fractured nature of this arrangement meant that the Byzantines
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  Speaker 1: were still able to regroup and retake Constantinople a few
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  Speaker 1: decades later, in twelve sixty one. Not that's en Rico
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  Speaker 1: live to see it, mind you, he died just a
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  Speaker 1: year after the crusade in twelve oh five. It's a
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  Speaker 1: tale as old as time. A rich guy with a
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  Speaker 1: bit of power, one who only cares about himself, mind you,
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  Speaker 1: puts on the costume of religion as a tool to
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  Speaker 1: fool the masses and then steals whatever he wants, and ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: like so many other dictators throughout history, all of Enrico's
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  Speaker 1: works were eventually undone. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
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  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
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  Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
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  Speaker 1: 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 Worldolore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Two