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Crossed Signals · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grim & Mild.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: It was 11.20 p.m. on November 22nd of 1987, and
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  Speaker 1: all was quiet in the headquarters of the Chicago TV
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  Speaker 1: station WTTW. Air Director Paul Rizzo was one of only
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  Speaker 1: a few people pulling the graveyard shift at the studio,
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  Speaker 1: and his job at night was easy. He just had
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  Speaker 1: to make sure that the late-night reruns of Doctor Who
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  Speaker 1: kept playing. Paul kicked his feet up on the desk
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  Speaker 1: in the control room and asked the engineer, Ed, to
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  Speaker 1: if he had any Thanksgiving plans. But as they chatted,
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  Speaker 1: a flash on the screen behind Ed's seat caught Paul's attention.
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  Speaker 1: He got up and took a closer look at the screen,
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  Speaker 1: and as he processed what he was seeing on the
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  Speaker 1: station's live feed, he realized that this was not Doctor Who.
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  Speaker 1: It was a distorted signal of a man in a
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  Speaker 1: plastic mask, resembling the British TV character Max Headroom. He
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  Speaker 1: was dancing in front of a black and white background,
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  Speaker 1: rambling incoherently. Paul asked Ed if he knew what was happening,
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  Speaker 1: and Ed shook his head. He pressed a button on
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  Speaker 1: the control panel, then another, and another. But the broadcast
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't go back to normal. Ed shouted into the intercom
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  Speaker 1: and asked if anyone in the tape room knew what
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  Speaker 1: was playing, but they were just as confused as he was.
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  Speaker 1: They were still rolling on Doctor Who. Ed frantically pounded
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  Speaker 1: on the control panel, unable to stop the broadcast as
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  Speaker 1: it got weirder and weirder. The man in the mask
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  Speaker 1: hummed songs made of seen gestures and insulted.
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  Speaker 2: A local sportscaster.
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  Speaker 1: Paul was about to call the broadcast tower to see
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  Speaker 1: if they could shut down the signal entirely, but as
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  Speaker 1: he picked up the phone, he remembered there was no
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  Speaker 1: one on duty at this hour. Whatever was going on,
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  Speaker 1: they were completely powerless to stop it. The Mac's headroom
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  Speaker 1: impersonator kept shouting, rambling, and laughing for a full 90 seconds,
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  Speaker 1: and then, to Paul's relief, it faded to static. Doctor
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  Speaker 1: Who returned, and the incident was over. The WTTW staff
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  Speaker 1: spent the rest of the night feeding calls from confused
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  Speaker 1: and outraged viewers who had witnessed the interruption. And the
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  Speaker 1: next morning, the FCC launched an investigation into what happened.
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  Speaker 1: It appeared the station's broadcast had been hijacked by another
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  Speaker 1: signal coming from somewhere else in the city. And WTTW
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  Speaker 1: wasn't the only target. The same hijackers had also taken
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  Speaker 1: over another local station that night, but the engineers there
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  Speaker 1: had regained control after just 17 seconds. Interfering with broadcast
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  Speaker 1: signals was a serious crime, with a penalty of up
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  Speaker 1: to a year in jail. The FCC exhausted their resources
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  Speaker 1: to track down the perpetrators, who should have been easy
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  Speaker 1: to locate. A prank like this had to have been
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  Speaker 1: done by someone in the Chicago area with advanced technical
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  Speaker 1: knowledge and broadcast engineering experience. And that left a relatively
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  Speaker 1: small pool of suspects. But after interrogating every single person
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  Speaker 1: who could have had the skills to pull this off,
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  Speaker 1: the FCC was unable to pin down who did it.
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  Speaker 1: Almost four decades later, the Max Headroom hijackers have never
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  Speaker 1: been caught. The Max Headroom Hijackers In September of 2007,
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  Speaker 1: a single pair of sandals arrived at Harrods, the legendary
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  Speaker 1: luxury department store in London's Nightbridge. The store is world-famous
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  Speaker 1: for its expensive fashions and gourmet food, and millions visit
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  Speaker 1: each year to witness the extravagance of it all. But
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  Speaker 1: these sandals, well, they were something else. They were made
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  Speaker 1: by Rene Calvilla, who was a designer of evening footwear,
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  Speaker 1: the sort of thing that you would find on the
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  Speaker 1: feet of Hollywood stars. Cavilla had been designing shoes in
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  Speaker 1: Venice since the 1960s, and his designs were renowned for
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  Speaker 1: the old-world techniques that went into making them. Buyers of
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  Speaker 1: his work didn't expect just glamorous footwear. They wanted wearable
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  Speaker 1: art and were more than willing to pay top dollar
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  Speaker 1: for it. But even his incredible reputation and long list
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  Speaker 1: of famous clients couldn't prepare the public for this pair
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  Speaker 1: of sandals that arrived at Harrods that autumn day. They
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  Speaker 1: were encrusted with jewels. rubies, diamonds, and sapphires that glimmered
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  Speaker 1: in their delicate, precious metal frames. In fact, these gemstones
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  Speaker 1: had been chosen specifically for their ability to refract the light,
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  Speaker 1: elevating the shoes to something ethereal. Their price tag reflected
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  Speaker 1: that otherworldliness, too. Even their cheapest designs cost a pretty penny.
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  Speaker 1: You'd be hard-pressed to find a pair for under $ 1, 000.
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  Speaker 1: These shoes, though, fit for the angels themselves ran a
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  Speaker 1: whopping 62,000 pounds. And let me spare you the process
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  Speaker 1: of conversion, that's around $ 120, 000. That's more than most luxury cars.
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  Speaker 1: The reasons behind this whopping price had much to do
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  Speaker 1: with the price of its gemstones. On their own, rubies
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  Speaker 1: commanded incredibly steep prices, peaking in recent years to over
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  Speaker 1: $ 100, 000 per carat. Cool blue sapphires run around a quarter
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  Speaker 1: of that, and the gems were only a portion of
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  Speaker 1: the cost. Each stone had to be meticulously cut by
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  Speaker 1: master jewelers, working side by side with the greatest shoemakers
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  Speaker 1: in the world, spending collectively hundreds of hours of focused
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  Speaker 1: labor to make an object part fashion, part art. Needless
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  Speaker 1: to say, it was clear that this went far beyond
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  Speaker 1: typical craftsmanship, and Herods knew that they had something spectacular
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  Speaker 1: on their hands. The kind of spectacular that would need
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  Speaker 1: a little heightened security. This couldn't just be placed behind glass.
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  Speaker 1: They could have gone with a 24-hour-a-day security guard, but
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  Speaker 1: a piece this lavish required a little more theater. Beyond
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  Speaker 1: the opulence of the sandals, they wished to add a
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  Speaker 1: little whiff of danger. People love the idea of a
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  Speaker 1: jewel heist, right? We love to read about them and
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  Speaker 1: flock to news stories, novels, and films that depict them.
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  Speaker 1: Take the Great Pearl Robbery from 1913, when a string
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  Speaker 1: of flawless pearls worth tens of millions of dollars and
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  Speaker 1: called the Mona Lisa of pearl necklaces was stolen. the
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  Speaker 1: public breathlessly followed that story in the paper for months. Or,
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  Speaker 1: closer to home there for Harrods, in Knightsbridge, the Marlboro
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  Speaker 1: diamond robbery of 1980, when two Chicago mobsters walked into
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  Speaker 1: Graff's jewelry store and then walked right back out with
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  Speaker 1: millions of dollars worth of jewels and getting as far
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  Speaker 1: as Chicago's O'Hare airport before authorities caught up with them.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's, of course, the Hope diamond, a 45-carat
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  Speaker 1: diamond that was stolen numerous times, believed to be cursed,
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  Speaker 1: There's an air of intrigue to all of these stories,
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  Speaker 1: and Harrods believed that a little bit of that intrigue
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  Speaker 1: could go a long way. So they decided not to
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  Speaker 1: go with a locked case or simple armed guard. They
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  Speaker 1: took it one step further. Their final decision caused quite
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  Speaker 1: a stir, too. It was, after all, absolutely audacious and
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  Speaker 1: lent the sandals more than just a simple flare of theatrical.
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  Speaker 1: You see, no other department store had ever done this before.
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  Speaker 1: The decision raised eyebrows in retail stores across the world.
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  Speaker 1: Pundits and security experts debated the merits and its effectiveness,
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  Speaker 1: but even they had to admit it was a heck
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  Speaker 1: of a way to protect a pair of shoes. When
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  Speaker 1: the doors opened on September 10th of 2007 to launch
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  Speaker 1: the Calvilla collection, visitors stood gobsmacked to discover that, in
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  Speaker 1: the case beside the candles, sat its guard. Coiled there
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  Speaker 1: to watch over the shimmering bejeweled footwear, hood flared, staring unblinking.
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  Speaker 2: At its audience.
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  Speaker 1: It was a live Egyptian cobra. And it should be
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  Speaker 1: noted that those shoes, yeah, they were never stolen. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: This show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim &
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  Speaker 1: Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show and the people who make it over at
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  Speaker 1: grimandmild.com slash curiosities. You'll also find a link to the
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: official Cabinet of Curiosities hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
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  Speaker 1: as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: for an ad-free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the same stories, but without the interruption for a small
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at patreon.com
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: slash grimandmild. And until next time.
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  Speaker 2: Stay curious.