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Up in Smoke · 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: Humankind is an image driven species. We painted our stories
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  Speaker 1: on cave walls before the invention of the written word.
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  Speaker 1: Even podcast creators like myself have to admit the human
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  Speaker 1: urge to illustrate our imaginations is one of our oldest impulses.
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  Speaker 1: Flora shallcross Stone knew this better than most nineteenth century women.
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  Speaker 1: She was an avid patron of the arts, a woman
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  Speaker 1: who loved the theater, and in eighteen seventy one she
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  Speaker 1: married a photographer. It was an odd match from the start.
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  Speaker 1: Her new husband, Edward, was twenty years older and quite
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  Speaker 1: a workaholic. Although they would go on to have one
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  Speaker 1: son together, he rarely stayed in one place for very long,
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  Speaker 1: often abandoning his family for assignments photographing landscapes along the
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  Speaker 1: west coast of North America. So it's perhaps understandable that Flora,
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  Speaker 1: left alone with relatives in Calistoga, California, felt abandoned. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: who wouldn't right in her loneliness. She turned to a
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  Speaker 1: mutual friend of theirs, Harry Larkins, a reporter for the
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  Speaker 1: Evening Post. The two began an illicit affair, which they
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  Speaker 1: did their best to conceal from the ever absent Edward.
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  Speaker 1: He would find out about it, however, and could front
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  Speaker 1: Larkins repeatedly. The reporter did not seem intimidated, even when
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  Speaker 1: Edward visited him at the Evening Post offices and struck
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  Speaker 1: him across the face. The matter seemed settled when Edward
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  Speaker 1: left again for an assignment in Portland, but thanks to
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  Speaker 1: a mutual friend, he would learn that Flora Barah and
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  Speaker 1: Harry were still writing each other love letters. Enraged, he
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  Speaker 1: tracked Larkins down. On October seventeenth of eighteen seventy four, Larkins,
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  Speaker 1: staying at a hotel on a job for the Post,
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  Speaker 1: received a knock on his door. He answered it to
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  Speaker 1: see the outraged face of Edward. The photographer shot Larkins
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  Speaker 1: through the heart at point blank range, and Larkins died
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  Speaker 1: almost instantly. Edward turned himself into the local police and
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  Speaker 1: was promptly arrested for murder. Reporters across the country ate
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  Speaker 1: up this story. It was a lurid tale that had
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  Speaker 1: everything sex, violence, betrayal. By the time Edward went to
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  Speaker 1: trial in early eighteen seventy five, there was a wave
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  Speaker 1: of public sympathy on his side. He was seen as
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  Speaker 1: the injured party in this situation, and his willingness to
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  Speaker 1: surrender himself over to the police helped reinforce that story. Now,
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  Speaker 1: it's impossible to know how Flora was feeling at this time.
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  Speaker 1: Some sources say that she filed for divorce as early
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  Speaker 1: as December seventeenth, although her petition hung in limbo during
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  Speaker 1: her husband's trial. It's hard to imagine that she shared
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  Speaker 1: the sentiments of the press. One way or another. She
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  Speaker 1: had had enough of Edward. As for the trial, the
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  Speaker 1: judge's instructions to the jury were that there were four
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  Speaker 1: possible outcomes, guilty of murder in the first degree, guilty
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  Speaker 1: of a lesser sentence, not guilty by reason of insanity,
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  Speaker 1: or not guilty, and the not guilty verdict was seen
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  Speaker 1: as the least likely, given that Edward turned himself in
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  Speaker 1: a clear admission of guilt. The judge instructed the all
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  Speaker 1: male jury that even if the allegations of infidelity against
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  Speaker 1: Harry Larkin's were true, Edward did not have the right
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  Speaker 1: to take the law into his own hands. They should
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  Speaker 1: weigh the evidence without bias. However, when the verdict came down,
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  Speaker 1: the judge was in for a shock. The jury unanimously
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  Speaker 1: determined that Edward was not guilty. Even at that time,
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  Speaker 1: it was seen as a blatant defiance of the judge's instructions.
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  Speaker 1: The evidence was clear, and yet the justifiable homicide verdict
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  Speaker 1: stood and Edward was released from custody. Flora and Edward's
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  Speaker 1: marriage would not last. They divorced after the trial, and
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  Speaker 1: Flora passed away before the age of thirty. Edward would
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  Speaker 1: give up their son to an orphanage so that he
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  Speaker 1: could go back to photography as a career, free from
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  Speaker 1: both his family and the law. Edward would go on
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  Speaker 1: to fame and fortune. While he was briefly famous for
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  Speaker 1: shooting a man, he would later make his mark on
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  Speaker 1: history by shooting a horse many times. In fact, you see,
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  Speaker 1: he was the photographer behind a Horse in Motion, the
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  Speaker 1: series of twelve images showing a horse and jockey at
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  Speaker 1: full gallop would become known as the first piece of cinema.
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  Speaker 1: Images laid in sequence to create the impression of motion.
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  Speaker 1: He would conduct many similar experiments throughout his career to
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  Speaker 1: capture human and animal motion, decades before the first motion
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  Speaker 1: pictures became popular in France. So the next time you
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  Speaker 1: pull out your phone to take a video of your pet,
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  Speaker 1: pause for a moment to remember the murderer who made
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  Speaker 1: this technology possible. Planning the heist was easy, it was
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  Speaker 1: what came after that was the hard part. Radu Dogaru
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  Speaker 1: had performed the same routine for days. He would take
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  Speaker 1: a stroll through the museum park at the heart of Rotterdam.
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  Speaker 1: He'd pause at the Kunstall Gallery, peering through the broad
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  Speaker 1: windows at the Dutch Master's displayed inside. To the security
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  Speaker 1: guard stationed in the museum, he seemed like a curious
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  Speaker 1: art lover. After all, dozens of people looked through the
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  Speaker 1: windows at the arts every day. But Radhu wasn't studying brushstrokes.
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  Speaker 1: He was studying exit routes. Twenty eight year old Radu
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  Speaker 1: had been making a living in the Netherlands as a
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  Speaker 1: petty criminal, robbing houses with a crew of friends from
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  Speaker 1: the same Romanian village, but he'd gotten sick of the
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  Speaker 1: small scores and he wanted something bigger. He had heard
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  Speaker 1: that there was much in art and that the Konstal
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  Speaker 1: was putting together a new exhibit. Radu had taken his
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  Speaker 1: friends to see that exhibit, bringing along their girlfriends so
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  Speaker 1: as not to look suspicious. He had noticed three very
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  Speaker 1: important things. The first was that in one hall there
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  Speaker 1: were seven medium sized paintings, just the right size to carry.
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  Speaker 1: The second was that the fire exit seemed very easy
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  Speaker 1: to force open, and the third there were no guards
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  Speaker 1: on sites after dark. It was perfect. So at just
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  Speaker 1: after three in the morning on October sixteenth of twenty twelve,
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  Speaker 1: Radu and his three friends burst through the fire door
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  Speaker 1: and into the gallery. Two minutes and forty eight seconds later,
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  Speaker 1: they were gone, with millions of euros of artwork in hand.
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  Speaker 1: When authorities and museum officials arrived at the scene just
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  Speaker 1: a few minutes later, it was carnage. Then one fell swoop.
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  Speaker 1: The museum had lost priceless works by Matisse, Picasso, and Monet,
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  Speaker 1: and there was no telling whether they'd ever be seen again.
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  Speaker 1: It's not uncommon for art thieves to rem anonymous, For years,
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  Speaker 1: the thieves who ransacked the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, one of the biggest museum heist in American history,
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  Speaker 1: still haven't been identified. But that wasn't the case with
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  Speaker 1: this story. Just three months after Radu and his accomplices
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  Speaker 1: broke into the constall they were in police custody, still
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  Speaker 1: missing though the art now. At first, authorities worried the
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  Speaker 1: paintings could be miles away. By now, they might be
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  Speaker 1: hidden in a safe house, or maybe even already sold
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  Speaker 1: to a buyer and lost forever. However, this was assuming
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  Speaker 1: Radu and his accomplices were experienced art thieves. The truth
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  Speaker 1: was this was their first foray into the world of
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  Speaker 1: fine art. While famous paintings have eye dropping price tags,
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  Speaker 1: actually seeing that money as a thief is incredibly difficult.
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  Speaker 1: The second a famous painting goes missing from a museum,
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  Speaker 1: there's a target on it. You can't just hawk a
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  Speaker 1: Matisse at a pawn shop the way that you might
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  Speaker 1: a stolen watch, and any reputable art broker would immediately
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  Speaker 1: flag the authorities if they found a missas Picasso. Because
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  Speaker 1: of this, most art thieves have to go to private
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  Speaker 1: buyers who are already lined up. If they don't, the
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  Speaker 1: stolen art may be left to molder in storage for years.
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  Speaker 1: It's like having millions in a bank account, but you
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  Speaker 1: can't withdraw a penny of it. And as you might
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  Speaker 1: have guessed, Radu and his friends did not have a
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  Speaker 1: buyer ready to go, so they ended up giving the
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  Speaker 1: paintings to Radu's mother in Romania for safe keeping. When
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  Speaker 1: authorities finally caught up with her, Radu's mother Olga confessed
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  Speaker 1: that she had buried the paintings and this was good news.
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  Speaker 1: All the authorities needed her to do was lead them
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  Speaker 1: to the artworks and the museum would have its priceless
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  Speaker 1: collection returned. Olga balked. It wasn't that simple, she explained.
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  Speaker 1: As the authorities were closing in, she panicked, so she
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  Speaker 1: dug up the paintings, stacked them in her oven, and
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  Speaker 1: turned on the broiler. Nails and pigments found in her
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  Speaker 1: oven correspondent to several of the missing works, confirming Olga
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  Speaker 1: was telling the truth. Great art is supposed to inspire passion.
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  Speaker 1: Careful to not let that passion run too hot, or
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  Speaker 1: you might find yourself like Olga and Radu, with millions
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  Speaker 1: of dollars of priceless art, all gone up in smoke.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.