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Top-3-Strange-But-True-HORRIFYING-Moments · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and today we're
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Speaker 1: going to look at three stories that demonstrate that. But
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Speaker 1: before we get into those stories, if you're a fan
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Speaker 1: of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
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Speaker 1: of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: One morning in early June of twenty eleven, in the
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Speaker 1: Russian city of Kazan, a forty nine year old Russian
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Speaker 1: woman named Pagiliu Mukamtsanov woke up feeling nauseous. Pagiliu had
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Speaker 1: recently had some health problems and her doctors had told
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Speaker 1: her that she really needed to take it easy, don't
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Speaker 1: do anything that really stressed her out or made her mad,
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Speaker 1: you know, basically, just relax and so on. That morning,
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Speaker 1: this is exactly what Fagiliu decided to do instead of
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Speaker 1: pushing through her nausea to go to work. Anyways, that day,
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Speaker 1: she decided she would call out from work and stay
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Speaker 1: home and have some tea and try to just feel better.
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Speaker 1: But a little while later, when Fagiliu was in the
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Speaker 1: kitchen making tea, her husband, Fajili, he came in and
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Speaker 1: asked her how she was doing, and she said, you
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Speaker 1: know what, I actually feel worse. You know, my nausea
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Speaker 1: has gotten worse. My chest hurts and I'm starting to sweat.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to go lie down in the bedroom. But
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Speaker 1: as Fagiliu walked across the kitchen to go lay down,
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Speaker 1: her chest suddenly tightened tenfold and she collapsed to the
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Speaker 1: ground unconscious. Fagili rushed over to her and tried to
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Speaker 1: wake her up, and when he couldn't, he rushed to
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Speaker 1: the phone and dialed one to one two, which is
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Speaker 1: Russia's emergency line, and he called for an ambulance. And
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Speaker 1: then when the ambulance arrived, Fagiliu was not breathing, and
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Speaker 1: by the time they got her to the hospital she
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Speaker 1: was declared dead. She had died from a heart attack. Fajili,
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Speaker 1: who had been married to Fagiliu, his wife for almost
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Speaker 1: thirty years, was absolutely heartbroken, but he and his wife's
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Speaker 1: religion encouraged people to have funerals within twenty four hours
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Speaker 1: of a loved one passing away, and so despite the
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Speaker 1: fact that Fajili was basically despondent from all his grief,
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Speaker 1: he pretty much immediately began calling relatives and friends and
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Speaker 1: making preparations for Fagiliu's funeral, which would take place the
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Speaker 1: next day. The next morning, Fagili woke up and put
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Speaker 1: on his best suit, and then he joined his and
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Speaker 1: his wife's family and friends at the funeral home for
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Speaker 1: Fagiliu's funeral. When Fagili walked inside of the funeral home,
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Speaker 1: he saw there were all these wooden chairs facing forward
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Speaker 1: towards the front of the room, and at the front
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Speaker 1: of the room, up on a table, was his wife's coffin,
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Speaker 1: which was open and surrounded by all the flowers that
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Speaker 1: Fajili had barely been able to buy with the little
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Speaker 1: bit of money that he and his wife had. Fajili
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Speaker 1: slowly made his way down the middle of the room
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Speaker 1: to his wife's coffin, and the other people that were
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Speaker 1: there saw him coming and got out of the way
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Speaker 1: in respect to the husband of the deceased, and so
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Speaker 1: Fajili he walks up and he looks down at his wife,
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Speaker 1: who again you know, it's open casket so we can
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Speaker 1: see her, and he was struck by her appearance. She
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Speaker 1: just did not look right. Now, Fajili did not have
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Speaker 1: enough money to embalm his wife, which means to preserve
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Speaker 1: a dead body and make it look like it's very lifelike,
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Speaker 1: and so instead the people who worked in this funeral
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Speaker 1: home had just applied heavy makeup to Fagilia's face to
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Speaker 1: try to make her appear more lifelike. But it really
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Speaker 1: hadn't worked. To Fajili, it didn't even look like his wife.
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Speaker 1: After all, Fagilly, you never even wore makeup, and so
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Speaker 1: to see her with heavy eyeliner and bright red lipstick
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Speaker 1: was just totally bizarre. Behind Phili was Fagilie's family and
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Speaker 1: Fagiliu's relatives all assembled in the first row, and they
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Speaker 1: were beginning their prayers for the dead, and so Fagilie
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Speaker 1: he took a few more looks at his wife and
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Speaker 1: then he stepped back and joined the first row. And
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Speaker 1: so as Fajelie was standing there holding his mother's and
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Speaker 1: brother's hand. He closed his eyes and did his best
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Speaker 1: to focus on the words of the prayer instead of
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Speaker 1: on the grief he was feeling for his wife. And
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Speaker 1: as he was doing that, his mother, who was on
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Speaker 1: his right side, suddenly broke from the words of the
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Speaker 1: prayer and let out this strange crying sound, and Fagilie
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Speaker 1: he opened his eyes and looked over at his mother,
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Speaker 1: expecting her to be collapsed on the ground from all
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Speaker 1: the grief she was experiencing, but instead he saw his
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Speaker 1: mother was trembling and looking straight ahead, and so Fajilie
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Speaker 1: followed her gaze, and what he saw at the front
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Speaker 1: of the room made fajili want to faint. His wife, Fagiliu,
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Speaker 1: was now sitting straight up in her coffin. She wasn't
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Speaker 1: making a sound, but she was looking out at the
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Speaker 1: crowd of people with her strange makeup on her face,
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Speaker 1: just staring at them with wide eyes. And for a second,
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Speaker 1: everybody in the funeral home noticed this and went totally quiet,
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Speaker 1: and both Fagiliu and the mourners just stared at each other.
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Speaker 1: And then Fagiliu began streaming, but at first it was
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Speaker 1: like she couldn't make any sound, and it was this raspy,
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Speaker 1: dry yell that was coming out of her mouth. But
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Speaker 1: then it built and built until it was sort of
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Speaker 1: like a bellow or a roar. And when this loud,
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Speaker 1: deep guttural sound began coming out of Bagiliu's mouth, the
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Speaker 1: mourners in the room began screaming too, and suddenly it
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Speaker 1: was absolute chaos inside of this building as funeral workers
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Speaker 1: rushed to call emergency services, not knowing what else to do. Fajili,
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Speaker 1: who also had been screaming, after seeing his wife arise
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Speaker 1: from the dead, he kind of snapped out of it
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Speaker 1: and ran to his wife and he embraced her, and
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Speaker 1: when he did, Fagiliu went from screaming to sight and
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Speaker 1: she looked up at her husband with wide, scared eyes
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Speaker 1: and began crying, and then she slumped forward into Fagili's arms.
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Speaker 1: At this point, Fagili's family and Fagiliu's family saw what
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Speaker 1: was happening, and they kind of snapped out of it too,
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Speaker 1: and they rushed forward and they helped Fajili lift Fuggiliu
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Speaker 1: out of her coffin and they laid her down on
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Speaker 1: the ground and even though she wasn't moving, her eyes
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Speaker 1: were open and she was looking up at her family,
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Speaker 1: just absolutely terrified, with all her makeup running from her tears.
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Speaker 1: And then twelve minutes later, when Fagiliu finally was rushed
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Speaker 1: to the hospital, she was declared dead again. It would
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Speaker 1: turn out that when Fagiliu collapsed on her kitchen floor,
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Speaker 1: she really did have a heart attack, but it didn't
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Speaker 1: kill her. She was just unconscious and her breathing was
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Speaker 1: very shallow, and she wasn't moving, and nobody noticed. And
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Speaker 1: so when Faggiliu kind of came to and woke up
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Speaker 1: inside of her coffin at her funeral, she likely was okay,
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Speaker 1: you know, all things considered, she was healthy enough to
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Speaker 1: be alive. But when she looked around the room and
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Speaker 1: saw she was at her own funeral and sitting in
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Speaker 1: her coffin the stress of that moment had given her
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Speaker 1: On October fifteenth, two thousand and three, a newlywed couple
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Speaker 1: named Tina and Gabe Watson arrived in Australia for their honeymoon.
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Speaker 1: They were both twenty six years old and lived in Alabama,
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Speaker 1: and neither of them made very much money. Tina worked
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Speaker 1: in the kids department of a clothing store and Gabe
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Speaker 1: worked for his father at a packaging company. But Gabe's
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Speaker 1: family had gifted this honeymoon trip to Australia to Gabe
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Speaker 1: and Tina, and so the couple was so excited about it,
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Speaker 1: and they had taken actually a whole year to plan
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Speaker 1: this trip out. It was going to be the adventure
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Speaker 1: of their lives. Once in Australia, the couple spent the
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Speaker 1: first week in Sydney, which is one of the biggest
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Speaker 1: cities in the country. They went on a river cruise,
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Speaker 1: they visited the famous Sydney Opera House, and they went
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Speaker 1: to see the koalas at the zoo, something Tina was
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Speaker 1: very intent on doing because she loved animals. And then
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Speaker 1: on October twenty first, so six days into their big trip,
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Speaker 1: the couple headed north to the city of Townsville, which
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Speaker 1: is this beautiful beach town that's right near the Great
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Speaker 1: Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest
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Speaker 1: and most famous coral reef system. This was going to
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Speaker 1: be the real highlight of their trip. Gabe had grown
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Speaker 1: up loving the water, and now as an adult, his
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Speaker 1: passion was scuba diving. He was a trained rescue diver
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Speaker 1: and any chance he got back home in Alabama, he
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Speaker 1: would go diving. As for Tina, scuba diving kind of
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Speaker 1: scared her. She didn't like the idea of being underwater
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Speaker 1: for extended periods of time and breathing in underwater. It
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Speaker 1: just felt so foreign that she didn't like it. But
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Speaker 1: she knew Gabe really wanted her to go scuba diving
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Speaker 1: with him in Australia, and so ten months earlier, in
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Speaker 1: January of two thousand and three, Tina had begun taking
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Speaker 1: scuba diving lessons, and then right before they headed out
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Speaker 1: for this trip to Australia, Tina had gotten certified in
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Speaker 1: scuba diving. So after arriving in Townsville, Gabe and Tina
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Speaker 1: would spend the night in a hotel and then early
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Speaker 1: the next morning, the couple would get up and make
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Speaker 1: their way down to the dock where they would board
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Speaker 1: a diving boat. This boat was going to take them
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Speaker 1: out into the open water right over this famous shipwreck
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Speaker 1: called the Youngola where lots of people scuba dive, and
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Speaker 1: this Youngola wreck is right near the Great Barrier Reef,
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Speaker 1: so it's a truly amazing place to go scuba diving.
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Speaker 1: When the couple actually was out on the open water,
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Speaker 1: they looked around and just could not believe how stunning
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Speaker 1: everything really was. The beach town at a distance was unbelievable,
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Speaker 1: and the water was perfectly clear blue, where they could
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Speaker 1: see thousands of fish shimmering and swimming all around them. Finally,
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Speaker 1: the dive boat came to a stop over the area
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Speaker 1: where the Youngola wreck was, and Gabe and Tina began
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Speaker 1: putting on their dive gear, as did the other four
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Speaker 1: tourists who were also on this diving trip. Now, Gabe
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Speaker 1: and Tina were dive partners, which meant for this dive
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Speaker 1: they were instructed not to leave each other really at
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Speaker 1: any point until they're back on the surface. But initially,
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Speaker 1: once they and the other divers were put into the water,
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Speaker 1: the entire group swam down together one hundred feet to
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Speaker 1: the bottom of the ocean where this shipwreck was, and
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Speaker 1: at first everything was going great. The swim down was easy,
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Speaker 1: and then once they got down there, because the water
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Speaker 1: was so clear and sunlight could reach them, they were
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Speaker 1: able to look at each other and just really take
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Speaker 1: in how spectacular this really was. But unfortunately Gabe, he
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Speaker 1: looked at his wrist at some point and noticed his
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Speaker 1: dive computer, which tells you how much air you have
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Speaker 1: left and what depth you're at, was malfunctioning. And so
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Speaker 1: he signaled to Tina that he needed to go to
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Speaker 1: the surface and get his computer fixed, and so he
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Speaker 1: and Tina would swim away from the group back up
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Speaker 1: to the surface, and then once on the surface, Gabe
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Speaker 1: was able to talk to the dive leader on the
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Speaker 1: boat and he was able to get his dive computer fixed.
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Speaker 1: And then after only a couple of minutes of being
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Speaker 1: back on the surface, Gabe and Tina went back under
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Speaker 1: the water and began heading back down towards the rest
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Speaker 1: of the group. And as Gab and Tina approached the
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Speaker 1: rest of the group, they saw they were all kind
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Speaker 1: of swimming around in dive pairs around the Young Gola wreck,
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Speaker 1: and so Gab and Tina they got down there and
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Speaker 1: they joined the queue and began as well, moving as
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Speaker 1: a pair around the wreck. Back up on the surface,
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Speaker 1: the dive leader, who was up in the boat, was
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Speaker 1: just kind of sitting there waiting for the divers to
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Speaker 1: come back up, when all of a sudden he noticed
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Speaker 1: there was this sudden eruption of air bubbles coming up
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Speaker 1: to the surface, and so he peered over the side
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Speaker 1: of the boat to see what was going on, and Gabe,
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Speaker 1: who had only left the surface after fixing his dive
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Speaker 1: computer maybe five minutes earlier, came bombing up out of
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Speaker 1: the water, and when he did, the dive leader immediately
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Speaker 1: noticed that Tina was not with him. And before the
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Speaker 1: dive leader could even ask Gabe what was going on, Gabe,
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Speaker 1: who was obviously very panicked, he ripped off his mask
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Speaker 1: and he began trying to tell the dive leader that
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Speaker 1: something was wrong with his wife, that she had sunk
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Speaker 1: away from him and he couldn't get to her and
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Speaker 1: he needed help. And so the dive leader immediately put
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Speaker 1: on a scuba tank, he jumped in the water and
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Speaker 1: swam down as fast as he could to the wreck
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Speaker 1: down below. And when he got there, he immediately saw
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Speaker 1: Tina by herself, laying on the sand on the bottom
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Speaker 1: of the ocean, just totally motionless, on her back, and
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Speaker 1: so the dive leader he swam over to her. He
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Speaker 1: scooped her up, and he brought her all the way
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Speaker 1: back to the surface, and then once on the surface,
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Speaker 1: he put Tina into the boat, and then the dive
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Speaker 1: leader he climbed inside and immediately began doing CPR on Tina,
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Speaker 1: and for forty five minutes, the dive leader tried to
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Speaker 1: do CPR, tried everything he could to save Tina, but
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Speaker 1: unfortunately it was not enough, and Tina passed away, and
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Speaker 1: autopsy would later reveal that Tina had died from something
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Speaker 1: called an air embolism, which is when an air b
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Speaker 1: bubble gets trapped in a blood vessel and blocks it.
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Speaker 1: In scuba divers, this can happen from holding your breath
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Speaker 1: for too long or trying to ascend too quickly. One
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Speaker 1: theory about how this could have happened to Tina was
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Speaker 1: based on what Gabe said happened when he and Tina
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Speaker 1: went back down to the wreck after he got his
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Speaker 1: dive computer fixed. He said, they got down there, everything
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Speaker 1: was fine. They were swimming around like the other dive
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Speaker 1: pairs taking pictures when Tina started to panic kind of randomly,
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Speaker 1: and she reached out for Gabe, and Gabe said she
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Speaker 1: knocked his oxygen mask off his face, and so Gabe
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Speaker 1: was kind of starting a panic and he got the
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Speaker 1: mask back on, at which point Tina was kind of
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Speaker 1: floating away from him, and so Gabe, not really knowing
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Speaker 1: what to do, said he went to the surface to
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Speaker 1: get help. And so in that timeframe, perhaps Tina tried
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Speaker 1: to rush to the surface on her own, giving herself
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Speaker 1: the air embolism, or maybe in her panic, she had
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Speaker 1: held her breath, giving herself the air embolism. But it
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Speaker 1: wasn't long after Tina's death was ruled an accident and
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Speaker 1: the case was closed that the other four people who
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Speaker 1: were on that dive with Gabe and Tina began reaching
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Speaker 1: out to Tina's family. These divers had seen something very
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Speaker 1: strange happen right around the time Tina died, and they
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Speaker 1: felt like they had to tell someone. One of these
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Speaker 1: four divers would tell Tina's family that as they were
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Speaker 1: swimming around the wreck, they saw Gabe and Tina come
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Speaker 1: back down after Gabe had fixed his dive computer, and
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Speaker 1: pretty quickly after they reached the bottom, Gabe seemed to
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Speaker 1: give Tina a hug, like a really strong bear hug. Now,
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Speaker 1: there's no reason any diver would hug another diver underwater,
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Speaker 1: certainly not that hard, unless it was some sort of
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Speaker 1: rescue attempt, And this diver who witnessed this told Tina's
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Speaker 1: family that this did not look like a rescue attempt.
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Speaker 1: It looked like Gabe was trying to restrain Tina and
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Speaker 1: Tina was trying to get away from Gabe. After a
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Speaker 1: few moments of watching this, the same diver would see
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Speaker 1: Gabe released Tina, and at that point, Tina would go
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Speaker 1: limp and float to the bottom, and Gabe would rush
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Speaker 1: to the surface, where he would tell the dive leader
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Speaker 1: that he had this emergency with his wife. This new
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Speaker 1: information led Australian authorities to charge Gabe with murder. They
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Speaker 1: alleged that Gabe intentionally turned off Tina's heir and then
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Speaker 1: put her in that bear hug to make sure she
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Speaker 1: couldn't turn it back on again. Gabe, however, has always
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Speaker 1: denied this, saying his wife really just panicked and he
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Speaker 1: was trying to help her but couldn't and then went
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Speaker 1: to the surface. Gabe ultimately pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter
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Speaker 1: in Australia and served eighteen months in prison. Prosecutors in
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Speaker 1: Alabama then also tried to charge Gabe with murder or
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Speaker 1: something else in connection to Tina's death, but ultimately a
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Speaker 1: judge dismissed the case. One final note about this story,
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Speaker 1: which also happens to be the reason most people know
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Speaker 1: about this story, is that two of the four divers
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Speaker 1: who were down there with Gabe and Tina were taking
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Speaker 1: underwater pictures at the time that Tina died. Here is
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Speaker 1: a photo they developed from this trip which clearly shows
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Speaker 1: Tina in the background just moments after Gabe had released
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Speaker 1: her and she sunk to the bottom and died. In
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Speaker 1: July of eighteen forty eight, a twenty five year old
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Speaker 1: man named Phineas Gage got a job working construction on
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Speaker 1: the Hudson River Railroad in New York. At this time
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Speaker 1: in America, railroads were being laid all over the country,
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Speaker 1: and so lots of workers like Phineas were needed to
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Speaker 1: blast rock out of the way to lay down these
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Speaker 1: railroad tracks. And as it happened, Phineas was an expert
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Speaker 1: in explosives. He had learned how to set controlled blasts
18:48
Speaker 1: growing up on his family's farm in New Hampshire, and
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Speaker 1: then later in his life he had worked in a
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Speaker 1: mine blasting through rock, and so, in addition to just
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Speaker 1: being the ideal railroad worker for this time in America,
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Speaker 1: when Phineas actually started working in New York on this railroad,
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Speaker 1: his co workers immediately started looking up to him. Phineas
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Speaker 1: was extremely smart and energetic. He was this incredible conversationalist.
19:12
Speaker 1: He was charismatic and funny and a natural leader. And
19:16
Speaker 1: so just two months into starting this new job, it
19:19
Speaker 1: was no surprise to anyone who knew Phineas or worked
19:22
Speaker 1: with Phineas that he was promoted to blasting foreman, which
19:25
Speaker 1: meant Phineas would lead the explosives team. Phineas was so
19:30
Speaker 1: excited about this promotion that he went to a blacksmith
19:33
Speaker 1: and had a custom tamping iron made. A tamping iron
19:37
Speaker 1: is a long metal rod that's used to pack explosives.
19:41
Speaker 1: When railroad workers wanted to blast through let's say a
19:44
Speaker 1: big rock, they would start by drilling a deep but
19:47
Speaker 1: skinny hole in the rock. Then they would pour blasting
19:50
Speaker 1: powder inside. Then they'd put a fuse inside, and then
19:53
Speaker 1: using this tamping iron, they would push the blasting powder
19:57
Speaker 1: and the fuse deep into this hole side of this
20:00
Speaker 1: rock or whatever it was they were blowing up, and
20:02
Speaker 1: then once it was packed, they would ignite it. Usually
20:05
Speaker 1: tamping irons were sort of rough tools that looked like crowbars,
20:09
Speaker 1: but Phineas really wanted something special to commemorate this promotion,
20:13
Speaker 1: and so Phineas had the blacksmith make this perfectly straight smooth,
20:18
Speaker 1: four foot long metal tamping iron, and on one end
20:21
Speaker 1: was a pointed side and on the other was a
20:24
Speaker 1: blunted side. And this rod it weighed about thirteen pounds
20:28
Speaker 1: and it was about an inch and a quarter in diameter.
20:30
Speaker 1: And Phineas loved this tamping iron. He brought it with
20:34
Speaker 1: him not just to work, but basically anywhere he went.
20:37
Speaker 1: On September third, eighteen forty eight, so not long after
20:41
Speaker 1: Phineas's big promotion, Phineas and his explosives team were blasting
20:46
Speaker 1: through some rock that ran through a forest. And Phineas
20:49
Speaker 1: he was right up front over the blasting site helping
20:52
Speaker 1: them prep the explosive. His team had drilled that long, deep,
20:56
Speaker 1: skinny hole into the rock they were about to blow up,
20:59
Speaker 1: and then blast powder was put inside, a fuse was
21:01
Speaker 1: put inside, and then Phineas took his tamping iron and
21:05
Speaker 1: began packing the powder and fuse deep into the rock.
21:09
Speaker 1: And the way he did this is he used the
21:11
Speaker 1: blunt end of his tamping iron to pack the explosives,
21:15
Speaker 1: which meant the pointed end was sticking out of the rock.
21:18
Speaker 1: And so as Phineas is doing this, someone behind him
21:22
Speaker 1: slipped on a rock one of his men tripped or something,
21:24
Speaker 1: and so Phineas, with his hands kind of on his
21:26
Speaker 1: tamping iron, turned to the right to look and see
21:29
Speaker 1: what was going on. And when he did this, somehow
21:33
Speaker 1: his tamping iron that was inside of this skinny hole
21:36
Speaker 1: must have nudged against the inside of the rock, created
21:38
Speaker 1: a spark and ignited the explosive inside of the rock,
21:43
Speaker 1: which meant the tamping iron was basically fired like a
21:47
Speaker 1: missile out of this hole into Phineas's head. It went
21:51
Speaker 1: in his cheek, up behind his left eye, up and
21:54
Speaker 1: out of his skull, and then shot eighty feet away,
21:58
Speaker 1: landing on the ground covered in Phineas's blood and brains.
22:02
Speaker 1: This happened so quickly that for a second, after this
22:05
Speaker 1: thing has blown through Phineas's head, Phineas just stood there
22:09
Speaker 1: upright with his eyes wide And then suddenly a geyser
22:12
Speaker 1: of blood began shooting out of the top of his head,
22:15
Speaker 1: and then Phineas fell backwards onto the ground. When Phineas's
22:18
Speaker 1: body hit the ground, he began having a seizure, at
22:21
Speaker 1: which point his coworkers, who were still kind of shaken
22:24
Speaker 1: up from this sudden blast, they rushed over and tried
22:27
Speaker 1: to kind of position him in a way that he
22:29
Speaker 1: wouldn't hurt himself. But I mean, they're looking at him
22:31
Speaker 1: and he's literally missing half of his head. He's covered
22:34
Speaker 1: in blood, and they're thinking, you know, there's nothing we
22:36
Speaker 1: could do for him but basically wait for him to die.
22:38
Speaker 1: And so all of Phineas's coworkers, who adored Phineas, just
22:42
Speaker 1: stood there, very somber, watching their boss die. But eventually
22:47
Speaker 1: Phineas stopped having a seizure, and then he opened his
22:50
Speaker 1: eyes and he looked up at his crew, and he
22:52
Speaker 1: sat up and he said, what happened? Now? Remember, half
22:56
Speaker 1: of his head has been blown out by a thirteen pound,
22:59
Speaker 1: four foot long metal rod that has shot through his head.
23:03
Speaker 1: And his coworkers when they heard how clearly he was
23:06
Speaker 1: speaking and how focused his eyes were, I mean, they
23:09
Speaker 1: couldn't believe it. How in the world is this guy alive,
23:13
Speaker 1: let alone having a coherent conversation with them, And so
23:16
Speaker 1: the coworkers told Phineas, please lie down, we'll get your help.
23:19
Speaker 1: Lie down, relax. But Phineas, who still had blood also
23:23
Speaker 1: shooting out of his head, just kind of stood up
23:25
Speaker 1: casually and walked over to the railroad cart and signaled
23:29
Speaker 1: for his crew to take him back into town. And
23:31
Speaker 1: so the crew they're looking over at Phineas, who now
23:34
Speaker 1: is literally head to toe just red from blood, still bleeding,
23:37
Speaker 1: but less so, and he's just sitting on the railroad
23:39
Speaker 1: cart waiting for them, And so they walk over to
23:42
Speaker 1: him and they start the slow one mile journey into
23:45
Speaker 1: town on this railroad cart, and the whole time they're
23:48
Speaker 1: all kind of looking at Phineas, expecting him to die
23:50
Speaker 1: any second, but instead Phineas is just kind of looking
23:53
Speaker 1: around with half of his head, and at some point
23:55
Speaker 1: he pulled out his log book and carefully wrote down
23:58
Speaker 1: what time they were leaving their work site to make
24:01
Speaker 1: sure his crew was accurately paid. And then finally they
24:04
Speaker 1: reached town and Phineas was still very much alive and
24:07
Speaker 1: looking around, acting like nothing had happened to him, and
24:10
Speaker 1: the coworkers helped him to his hotel, and Phineas just
24:14
Speaker 1: sat outside on a chair in front of his hotel,
24:17
Speaker 1: just people watching while his crew went and got a doctor.
24:20
Speaker 1: A doctor soon arrived, and he too was completely shocked
24:24
Speaker 1: at Phineas's appearance, but even more so was Phineas's eyes.
24:28
Speaker 1: He looked at the doctor, and his eyes were totally
24:31
Speaker 1: focused like he was all there, totally lucid, looking at
24:34
Speaker 1: the doctor, waiting for him to come over and help
24:36
Speaker 1: him out with his little injury. And when the doctor
24:39
Speaker 1: kind of timidly approached Phineas, Phineas very famously said as
24:42
Speaker 1: he sat on his chair, doctor, here's business enough for you.
24:46
Speaker 1: Like everyone else, the doctor fully assumed that, despite Phineas's
24:50
Speaker 1: miraculous recovery from this injury, that he would soon die
24:55
Speaker 1: from this horrific wound in his head. And so the
24:58
Speaker 1: doctor moved Phineas up into the hotel, put him in
25:01
Speaker 1: a bed, and then basically made him comfortable. Now, the
25:04
Speaker 1: doctor at this point was not trying to save Phineas.
25:07
Speaker 1: He felt like there was nothing he could do to
25:09
Speaker 1: save Phineas. At this point, it was like, mercy, let's
25:13
Speaker 1: make this as pain free as possible for Phineas as
25:16
Speaker 1: he inevitably dies from this injury. But Phineas didn't die.
25:20
Speaker 1: He would break out of it and basically be okay again. However,
25:25
Speaker 1: his personality at first after he came out of this
25:28
Speaker 1: state of delirium was not really the same. No longer
25:31
Speaker 1: was he this funny, smart, charming, confident leader. Instead, he
25:35
Speaker 1: was this guy who seemed to have lost all of
25:38
Speaker 1: his inhibitions and was kind of childlike. He swore all
25:42
Speaker 1: the time. He would tell people he had these crazy
25:44
Speaker 1: plans he was going to go do, but he would
25:46
Speaker 1: never follow through with them, and he would tell his
25:49
Speaker 1: nieces and nephews these wild stories about himself that were
25:53
Speaker 1: obviously made up and not even close to reality. But
25:56
Speaker 1: overall he was okay, even though you could see his
26:00
Speaker 1: brain pulsing underneath his skin on the side of his
26:03
Speaker 1: head that had been blown off, And within a couple
26:05
Speaker 1: of years of this injury, those changes to Phineas's personality
26:10
Speaker 1: kind of faded, and he really did become old Phineas. However,
26:14
Speaker 1: there was one unique quirk to Phineas post injury that
26:19
Speaker 1: never went away, and that was Phineas's kind of unhealthy
26:23
Speaker 1: love for the tamping iron that had blown through his head.
26:27
Speaker 1: After his injury, Phineas kind of stopped making friends, and
26:31
Speaker 1: any friends he did have, he really didn't try to
26:33
Speaker 1: keep those relationships up. He didn't get married, he didn't
26:36
Speaker 1: have kids. Instead, the tamping iron became sort of like
26:41
Speaker 1: his best friend. He took it everywhere with him even
26:44
Speaker 1: posing at one point with the tamping iron the way
26:47
Speaker 1: you would expect a couple to pose for a photo.
26:50
Speaker 1: Twelve years after his horrific injury, Phineas would develop seizures,
26:55
Speaker 1: likely from the injury, and then he would die with
26:58
Speaker 1: his beloved tamping roe right by his side. His case
27:02
Speaker 1: changed neuroscience forever by showing that an injury to the
27:06
Speaker 1: brain could affect specific personality traits. Today, Phineas's skull and
27:11
Speaker 1: his tamping rod are on display at Harvard Medical School.
27:19
Speaker 1: So that's going to do it. If you enjoyed today's story,
27:22
Speaker 1: be sure to check out our podcast called The Mister
27:25
Speaker 1: Ballin Podcast. We have over one hundred episodes, many of
27:29
Speaker 1: which are brand new and exclusive to the podcast, which
27:32
Speaker 1: means you cannot get them on YouTube, So go check
27:35
Speaker 1: it out. It's called The Mister Ballin Podcast and it's
27:38
Speaker 1: available exclusively on Amazon Music.