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The-first-rule-of-Fight-Club · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Both of Today's stories are about just how hard it is.
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Speaker 2: To really know somebody.
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Speaker 1: Basically, everybody beneath their exterior is oftentimes not what you
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Speaker 1: think they are. But before we get into today's stories,
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Speaker 1: if you're a fan of the strange, dark and mysterious
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Speaker 1: delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place,
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Speaker 1: because that's all we do, and we upload two, three.
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Speaker 2: Even four times every week.
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Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into
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Speaker 1: the like Button's house and steal the glass tray inside.
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Speaker 2: Of their microwave.
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Speaker 1: Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all
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Speaker 1: notifications so you don't miss any of our weekly outloads. Okay,
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Speaker 1: let's get into today's stories. One afternoon in March of
1:03
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, a fifty three year old handyman
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Speaker 1: named Carl Fenwick sat on the floor of a vacant
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Speaker 1: studio apartment in the Rundown apartment building where he lived
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Speaker 1: and worked in northern England. The apartment building was called
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Speaker 1: the Cliff and it was across the street from the
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Speaker 1: ocean in the coastal town of Seaton Carew. Karl was
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Speaker 1: in the middle of painting the apartment and getting it
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Speaker 1: ready for a new tenant, but he had stopped eat
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Speaker 1: some lunch and to read a few chapters of one
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Speaker 1: of his favorite spine novels.
1:28
Speaker 2: Carl loved his spine.
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Speaker 1: Novels, and he had a few that he just read
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Speaker 1: over and over again. But as he turned the page,
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Speaker 1: something out the window caught his eye.
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Speaker 2: It was his landlady Anne.
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Speaker 1: Darwin, who lived in a big Victorian house right next door,
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Speaker 1: and at this moment she was standing in front of
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Speaker 1: her house with her two adult sons, Anthony and Mark,
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Speaker 1: and they were all dressed in black, and each were
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Speaker 1: holding a wreath.
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Speaker 2: Made of flowers.
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Speaker 1: And now Carl felt a little bit like a spy
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Speaker 1: himself as he secretly watched the family of three walk
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Speaker 1: across the street together to this grassy knoll that looked
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Speaker 1: out over the water. Anne and her sons bowed their
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Speaker 1: heads and Carl could tell they were very likely praying,
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Speaker 1: and then all three of them tossed their wreaths into
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Speaker 1: the ocean. Carl knew that Anne and her sons were
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Speaker 1: honoring Anne's husband, John Darwin, who had actually died in
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Speaker 1: a kayaking accident two years ago, basically in the water,
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Speaker 1: right out in front of their house. Carl could also
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Speaker 1: see that Anne was visibly shaking, so he knew she
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Speaker 1: must be crying, and when he saw that, Carl himself
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Speaker 1: started to feel sad. Because Carl cared deeply for Anne,
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Speaker 1: he was not just her handyman and tenant. They had
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Speaker 1: been secretly romantically involved ever since he had moved into
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Speaker 1: the cliff almost two years ago.
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Speaker 2: But Carl had actually.
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Speaker 1: Known Ann for most of his life and had been
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Speaker 1: in love with her for decades. So Carl and Anne
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Speaker 1: were both from a town that was near Seaton Carew
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Speaker 1: and Carl had first seen Anne on the school bus
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Speaker 1: in high school, but he hadn't worked up the courage
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Speaker 1: to say hello, and soon after that he left to
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Speaker 1: go to college, but he had never stopped thinking about her.
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Speaker 1: After college, Carl had started a family of his own
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Speaker 1: and became a school teacher, but he lost everything after
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Speaker 1: making some really bad real estate investments a few years ago,
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Speaker 1: and his financial troubles had led to legal trouble, and
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Speaker 1: finally he left his family and gone on the run
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Speaker 1: from the police, living in the woods outside of Seaton Garu.
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Speaker 2: That's when he and Anne.
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Speaker 1: Had found their way back to each other one night
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Speaker 1: in a parking lot near his campsite, Carl saw Anne
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Speaker 1: pull in in her car looking very upset, and this
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Speaker 1: time he did approach her. It turned out that Anne's
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Speaker 1: husband had only just had his kayaking accident a few
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Speaker 1: weeks earlier, and she was obviously in a very bad
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Speaker 1: place emotionally because of it. She was also desperate for
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Speaker 1: help around the properties that she and her husband had
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Speaker 1: owned together, so that same night she actually let Carl
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Speaker 1: move into the cliff, and once Carl moved in, he
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Speaker 1: and Ann began a somewhat unconventional romance. Carl would spend
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Speaker 1: his days working to fix up the apartments inside the cliff,
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Speaker 1: and then he would spend his nights with Anne in
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Speaker 1: her house. It was weird for both of them to
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Speaker 1: keep their relationship secret, but they both had their reasons.
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Speaker 1: For Carl, I mean, he was just afraid of being
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Speaker 1: arrested if anybody knew where he was.
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Speaker 2: I mean, he was on the run.
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Speaker 1: And for Anne, she felt like her family and friends
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Speaker 1: expected her to be a grieving widow basically forever, so
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Speaker 1: she didn't want to look like she basically immediately moved
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Speaker 1: on from her dead husband. Now, at some point the
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Speaker 1: two of them hoped that Anne could sell her properties
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Speaker 1: and that they could move far away together and start over,
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Speaker 1: but they both knew that was easier said than done,
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Speaker 1: because Carl would first have to figure out a way
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Speaker 1: to leave the country without getting arrested. Now, Carl watched
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Speaker 1: as Anne and her sons made their way back across
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Speaker 1: the street, and he went back to reading his spine novel,
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Speaker 1: and as he read the story, he made mental notes
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Speaker 1: about the plotline and the main character. Because Carl was
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Speaker 1: actually working on a plan that maybe would allow him
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Speaker 1: and Anne to start their new life together, he was
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Speaker 1: actually using all of these spine novels basically as inspiration
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Speaker 1: for this plan. He actually smiled to himself as he
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Speaker 1: thought about how brilliant he was being, and he pictured,
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Speaker 1: you know that someday in the future, an author would
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Speaker 1: likely write a spine novel about him. It would take
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Speaker 1: another two years for Karl to finally work out his plan,
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Speaker 1: but finally, one morning in July of two thousand and six,
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Speaker 1: he was ready to put it all into action. On
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Speaker 1: this morning, he walked through the airport in near seat
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Speaker 1: and crew, trying to act casual. As he approached the
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Speaker 1: ticketing counter, he handed his passport to the gate agent
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Speaker 1: and then glanced over his shoulder, looking back to where
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Speaker 1: Anne was. She was standing at the back of the line.
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Speaker 1: She met his eyes, but then quickly he sort of
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Speaker 1: looked away because they had agreed to pretend they didn't
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Speaker 1: know each other. When Carl turned back around, he saw
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Speaker 1: the ticketing agent was now staring intently at his passport,
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Speaker 1: and he felt his heart rate begin to pick up.
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Speaker 1: So this passport that Karl was using was a fake.
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Speaker 1: He had created a new identity for himself using the
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Speaker 1: birth and death records of a baby that had been
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Speaker 1: born in the same year as him, which was an
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Speaker 1: idea from the Spine novel The Day of the Jackal,
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Speaker 1: about an assassin who constantly changes identities, and if it worked,
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Speaker 1: he and Anne would be able to travel to Panama
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Speaker 1: in Central America. Carl's plan was he was going to
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Speaker 1: stay there permanently if he got to Panama, and he
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Speaker 1: hoped that Anne would love it enough.
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Speaker 2: That she would eventually move there too.
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Speaker 1: Carl had read a brochure on Panama that called it
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Speaker 1: a place for schemers, dreamers, and nutcases, which already made
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Speaker 1: him feel right at home. Plus the country was really
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Speaker 1: cheap compared to the UK and far away from anyone
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Speaker 1: who knew them, so he thought this was like the
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Speaker 1: perfect place for them to move to. But all of
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Speaker 1: that depended on this fake passport being convincing enough that
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Speaker 1: the ticketing agent didn't say anything, and finally, after what
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Speaker 1: felt like a very long time, the agent looked up
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Speaker 1: from the passport and smiled.
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Speaker 2: And handed it back to Carl, along with his ticket.
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Speaker 1: Carl had to physically stop himself from literally sighing with
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Speaker 1: relief when this happened, and instead he just, you know,
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Speaker 1: as casually as he could, thanked the agent, and as
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Speaker 1: he walked off, he turned and he sort of winked
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Speaker 1: at Anne, who was still in line. After decades of
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Speaker 1: reading about international spies, Carl kind of felt like one himself,
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Speaker 1: and he liked this feeling a lot, and soon he
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Speaker 1: would be living permanently as John Jones, an international man
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Speaker 1: of mystery. A few days later, Carl sat beside Anne
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Speaker 1: in the back of a jeep as a real estate
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Speaker 1: agent drove them through the Panamanian countryside. They sped along
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Speaker 1: the highway into the jungle, and as they did, Carl
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Speaker 1: felt more alive than he had in years, they came
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Speaker 1: around to bend in the road and suddenly they were
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Speaker 1: driving along a sandy beach and the realtor pulled over
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Speaker 1: and said to get out and take a look and
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Speaker 1: see if this plot of Ann felt like it could
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Speaker 1: be their new home. So Carl figured that once Anne
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Speaker 1: sold the cliff apartment building that she owned and combined
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Speaker 1: that money with the money Ann had inherited from her
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Speaker 1: husband's life insurance policies, they'd have her owned six hundred
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Speaker 1: thousand pounds in savings, which was around eight hundred thousand
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Speaker 1: American dollars. Now, that was more than enough money to
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Speaker 1: get set up, but they were going to need some
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Speaker 1: kind of income in Panama as well, and Carl wanted
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Speaker 1: to buy this land, in particular in the jungle and
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Speaker 1: use it to open up an eco lodge resort.
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Speaker 2: Eco lodges were.
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Speaker 1: Becoming really popular in Central America, and Taurus paid a
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Speaker 1: lot of money to stay in beachside cabins for a
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Speaker 1: week and go canoeing and horseback riding and jungle trekking
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Speaker 1: Carl also wanted to build a villa on the property
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Speaker 1: for just him and Ann, right there on the beach,
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Speaker 1: so he led Anne down to the edge of the
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Speaker 1: water and pointed to the tree line on the.
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Speaker 2: Other side of the bay, and he told her to
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Speaker 2: imagine a.
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Speaker 1: Row of cabins and a dock for a bunch of canoes,
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Speaker 1: and a path that led to a horse stable. And
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Speaker 1: then he pointed to the opposite side of the bay
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Speaker 1: and told her to imagine a beautiful seaside villa where
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Speaker 1: the two of them would live. Anne kicked off her
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Speaker 1: sandals and walked into the water, and Carl could tell
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Speaker 1: that she was picturing what their lives might look like here.
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Speaker 1: To Carl, it was like years of careful planning were
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Speaker 1: finally paying off. I mean, this had been like the
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Speaker 1: best week of his relationship with Anne ever. They had
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Speaker 1: finally been able to act like a normal couple for
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Speaker 1: the first time. They had gone out in public to
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Speaker 1: dinner every night together and walked down the street holding hands.
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Speaker 2: Carl loved living as John Jones.
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Speaker 1: He felt free and weirdly enough, despite the fact that
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Speaker 1: his identity was fake. He felt like his old self again,
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Speaker 1: the way he used to feel before he got.
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Speaker 2: Tangled up with all of his debt.
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Speaker 1: By the time they got back to the realtor's office,
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Speaker 1: that afternoon, Anne said that she was completely taken with
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Speaker 1: Panama and that yes, she did want to move here
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Speaker 1: with Carl, and that when she got back to England
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Speaker 1: she would get her affairs in order and get ready
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Speaker 1: for this big move. Carl beamed, and their realtor grabbed
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Speaker 1: a camera and took a picture of the three of
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Speaker 1: them to commemorate the moment that they had decided to
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Speaker 1: change their lives forever. Hey guys, I have some pretty
9:56
Speaker 1: big news. I know many of you are excited to hear.
10:00
Speaker 1: I am going to be doing another live storytelling tour
10:03
Speaker 1: this year. You can find me in a bunch of cities,
10:05
Speaker 1: including new ones on the West Coast and across the
10:08
Speaker 1: United States where I have never played before. Plus, I'm
10:12
Speaker 1: really excited to share that I will also be performing
10:15
Speaker 1: in an international city, since so many of you have
10:18
Speaker 1: been asking me to visit. We put together an absolutely
10:21
Speaker 1: amazing show with a whole bunch of awesome stories, including
10:25
Speaker 1: stories you will not hear anywhere else, new content you
10:28
Speaker 1: can only get if you come to this show and
10:31
Speaker 1: guess what. Tickets for this tour are available right now
10:34
Speaker 1: at tour dot balinstudios dot com. In terms of the
10:38
Speaker 1: types of tickets you can buy. They range from general
10:40
Speaker 1: admission to VIP again that's tour dot Ballinstudios dot com.
10:45
Speaker 1: I'm also going to be giving away a trip to
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Speaker 1: meet me at one of my live shows, and so
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Speaker 1: if you want to enter for your chance to win that,
10:52
Speaker 1: all you have to do is donate to win at
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Speaker 1: FANDM dot com slash mister ballin again that's FA n
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Speaker 1: d i EM dot com slash mister bolland get your
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Speaker 1: tickets and enter the sweepstakes today.
11:06
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see you at the show.
11:08
Speaker 1: It took another full year for Anne to sell her
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Speaker 1: properties and seat in Carew and to tell her family
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Speaker 1: that she was moving to Panama, of all places. They
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Speaker 1: had all been shocked at first, but eventually they started
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Speaker 1: to understand that she really needed to get away from
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Speaker 1: England and all the unhappy memories.
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Speaker 2: Of her old life.
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Speaker 1: Shortly afterwards, Carl bought a condominium in Panama City so
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Speaker 1: that he and Anne would have a place to live
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Speaker 1: while they built their resort, and then finally, on October
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Speaker 1: twenty second, two thousand and seven, Ann moved to Panama permanently. However,
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Speaker 1: when Carl picked her up at the airport that night
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Speaker 1: and drove her to their new home. He had to
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Speaker 1: fake a smile because he had recently discovered some news
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Speaker 1: that was going to throw their new life into jeopardy,
11:52
Speaker 1: and so he gave Anne a quick tour of the
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Speaker 1: penthouse apartment and then he asked her to take a
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Speaker 1: seat at the kitchen table. And immediately and since something
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Speaker 1: was off and looked very worried, Karl took a deep
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Speaker 1: breath and then he told Anne that he was really
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Speaker 1: excited to build their resort together, but there was one
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Speaker 1: last unexpected obstacle standing in the way of their dreams.
12:12
Speaker 1: He said he had only learned about this obstacle a
12:14
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, and he had been waiting for the
12:17
Speaker 1: right moment for them to talk about it. He had
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Speaker 1: just found out that the Panamanian government had instituted new
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Speaker 1: procedures for anyone moving to Panama from another country, and
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Speaker 1: now English citizens needed to present a certificate of good
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Speaker 1: conduct from the British police to prove they had no
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Speaker 1: criminal record. Now this was no problem for Anne, but
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Speaker 1: it was a huge problem for Karl because he was
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Speaker 1: living in Panama as John Jones. So if the police
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Speaker 1: looked into his identity. They would quickly learn that John
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Speaker 1: Jones was a fake identity. Anne put her head in
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Speaker 1: her hands and just said, what are we going to do?
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Speaker 1: And Carl said he didn't have an answer yet, but
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Speaker 1: promised he would figure something out. The next morning, Carl
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Speaker 1: walked with Anne as they window shopped on a busy
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Speaker 1: street in Panama City, and Carl thought about ways that
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Speaker 1: he could get around this awful new procedure. He didn't
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Speaker 1: want to live in this country illegally because he was
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Speaker 1: done hiding. I mean, the whole point of coming here
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Speaker 1: to Panama was so that he and Anne could live
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Speaker 1: together out in the open. He followed Anne into an
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Speaker 1: old vintage shop so that she could look at furniture,
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Speaker 1: and as he wandered around the shop, he came across
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Speaker 1: a bookshelf full of old books, including a few spy novels. Now,
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Speaker 1: all the books were in Spanish, so he couldn't understand
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Speaker 1: any of them, but he still picked one up and
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Speaker 1: began flipping through it, you know, hoping that maybe it
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Speaker 1: would inspire him. And as he did this, he did
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Speaker 1: feel inspired, but it was not by this book. He
13:42
Speaker 1: remembered the plot line of a different spy novel that
13:45
Speaker 1: he had read over a decade earlier. Even when he
13:48
Speaker 1: had been reading the novel at the time, he had
13:50
Speaker 1: thought that that plot line was too crazy to work
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Speaker 1: in real life. But as they walked around that afternoon,
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Speaker 1: Carl kept coming back to that idea, that plot line,
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Speaker 1: and started to see how he might be able to
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Speaker 1: make that work. Finally, at dinner that night, Carl told
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Speaker 1: Ann that he was pretty sure he knew how to
14:07
Speaker 1: solve their visa problem once and for all. He warned
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Speaker 1: her that the idea was risky, but he was confident
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Speaker 1: that he could pull it off. Six weeks later, on
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Speaker 1: the afternoon of Sunday, December second, two thousand and seven,
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Speaker 1: Carl was back in the United Kingdom wandering around the
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Speaker 1: West End of London.
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Speaker 2: He did his.
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Speaker 1: Best to look very confused as he walked through Christmas
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Speaker 1: displays and waited until a store clerk came over to
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Speaker 1: ask if he was okay, and Carl gave her a
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Speaker 1: sort of shy smile and then asked, why are all
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Speaker 1: the Christmas decorations up? And when she said it was December,
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Speaker 1: you know it's Christmas. That's why he pretended to be
14:45
Speaker 1: confused about what day it was and where he was,
14:47
Speaker 1: and then he asked the clerk for some help, and
14:49
Speaker 1: just like he had hoped, the store clerk frowned with
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Speaker 1: concern and then escorted him into the nearest police station
14:56
Speaker 1: and she told the officer at the front desk that
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Speaker 1: something was really wrong along with this guy. The officer
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Speaker 1: smiled at Carl and asked what the problem was. And
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Speaker 1: now Carl knew that for his plan to work, he
15:08
Speaker 1: was going to have to give an award winning acting
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Speaker 1: performance here, so he kind of scratched at his head
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Speaker 1: and then told the officer that he had lost his
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Speaker 1: whole family. The officer sat up and asked for his name,
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Speaker 1: and for the first time in two years, Carl didn't
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Speaker 1: say John Jones. Instead, he gave the officer his real name.
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Speaker 1: Because Carl had realized that the only way to truly
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Speaker 1: feel like his old self in Panama was to actually
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Speaker 1: become his old self and reclaim the old identity that
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Speaker 1: he had left behind. But to reclaim this identity without
15:45
Speaker 1: also reclaiming all his old dead and legal problems was
15:48
Speaker 1: going to require one more huge lie. So Carl explained
15:53
Speaker 1: to the police officer that he knew his name but
15:56
Speaker 1: nothing else about himself. Because he said he had amnesia.
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Speaker 1: The officer just stared at Carl, obviously dumbfounded. Then he
16:04
Speaker 1: turned and called for his supervisor. From this moment onward,
16:08
Speaker 1: things moved fast, but not in the direction that Carl
16:12
Speaker 1: or anyone else had expected. Carl had believed that if
16:15
Speaker 1: he just claimed he had amnesia, it'd be like wiping
16:18
Speaker 1: the slate clean in England.
16:20
Speaker 2: He could just resume his.
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Speaker 1: Old name and his old life and make a plan
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Speaker 1: to pay back his creditors now that he was in
16:26
Speaker 1: a better financial situation with the Eco Lodge, and he'd
16:29
Speaker 1: be able to get a real passport with his real
16:31
Speaker 1: name and live happily and truly openly in Panama. But
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Speaker 1: this was not what happened, because almost immediately newspapers caught
16:39
Speaker 1: wind of Carl's story and it made.
16:41
Speaker 2: The front page.
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Speaker 1: Because to the rest of the world, Carl had this
16:45
Speaker 1: incredible story. He had supposedly spent years wandering around as
16:51
Speaker 1: a homeless person, never knowing his true identity, and so
16:55
Speaker 1: almost overnight, Carl became big time international news. The entire
17:01
Speaker 1: world wanted to know where had he been the past
17:05
Speaker 1: few years. Now, Carl had not expected any of this publicity.
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Speaker 1: So he and Anne were both horrified when two days
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Speaker 1: later a British newspaper published a photograph from an obscure
17:18
Speaker 1: real estate website. And in this picture Carl can be
17:22
Speaker 1: seen standing with Anne and their realtor and beaming with
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Speaker 1: happiness after a day of viewing properties in Panama.
17:30
Speaker 2: And this photograph was very.
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Speaker 1: Very bad for Carl because it proved that he had
17:36
Speaker 1: not been wandering around homeless with amnesia in the UK
17:40
Speaker 1: like he had said to Polie.
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Speaker 2: But this photo was really bad, really.
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Speaker 1: The worst for Anne because it proved something more shocking
17:49
Speaker 1: and more terrible than regular old financial fraud. This photo
17:54
Speaker 1: revealed a story so outlandish that it sounds like it
17:57
Speaker 1: must have come directly out of a firectional spy novel,
18:01
Speaker 1: because it would turn out Anne was not the grieving
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Speaker 1: widow she pretended to be, and her handyman boyfriend Carl
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Speaker 1: Fenwick was not Carl Fenwick. Carl's real name, the one
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Speaker 1: he had given that police officer in the UK when
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Speaker 1: he pretended to have amnesia, was John Darwin. He was
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Speaker 1: Anne Darwin's dead husband. He and Anne had faked his
18:25
Speaker 1: death in that kayaking accident to escape his debt and
18:28
Speaker 1: so that he and Anne could claim life insurance money.
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Speaker 1: Not even their own kids knew that their father was
18:36
Speaker 1: still alive. Only Anne and obviously John did. John and
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Speaker 1: Anne were both soon arrested for fraud and wound up
18:43
Speaker 1: serving more than three years in prison. John's very unhappy
18:46
Speaker 1: ending does in some ways mirror the ending of the
18:49
Speaker 1: very book The Day of the Jackal, which he used
18:53
Speaker 1: for inspiration. In that book, the assassin does lots of
18:57
Speaker 1: impressive things to change his identity, but in the end
19:01
Speaker 1: he still gets caught. Today's second and final story is
19:20
Speaker 1: about a man who makes an unforgivable mistake and pays
19:24
Speaker 1: dearly for it. At around noon on October ninth, twenty eighteen,
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Speaker 1: a fifty two year old Russian engineer named Oleg Blogosov
19:32
Speaker 1: sat in the common room of a tiny research station
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Speaker 1: on a remote island in Antarctica. The common room was
19:38
Speaker 1: like the general hangout multipurpose area at the station, and
19:42
Speaker 1: Oleg was in there watching TV while his coworker Sergei
19:46
Speaker 1: sat in a chair nearby reading a book. They were
19:49
Speaker 1: both drinking alcohol and had been for some time, because
19:52
Speaker 1: when they weren't working, there really was not much else
19:55
Speaker 1: to do besides sit around and drink. So Oleg had
19:58
Speaker 1: been at the station for about six six months. He
20:01
Speaker 1: was part of a fourteen person crew that was doing
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Speaker 1: a year round research stint, observing the island's ocean and
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Speaker 1: weather patterns and collecting data for their home country of Russia.
20:10
Speaker 1: Oleg was primarily in charge of maintaining the station's machinery
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Speaker 1: and equipment, which took up most of his time, but
20:17
Speaker 1: there was still quite a bit of downtime which Oleg
20:20
Speaker 1: spent inside because being outside in Antarctica was generally pretty dangerous.
20:26
Speaker 1: There were hundreds of these lethal deep ice crasses that
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Speaker 1: you could barely see that if you fell into, you're dead.
20:32
Speaker 1: Couldn't get out again, or the fall alone would kill you. Obviously,
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Speaker 1: freezing temperatures, there's lethal, violent blizzards. I mean, this is
20:40
Speaker 1: not a place built for people. So Oleg and his
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Speaker 1: coworkers really only went outside when their work required it.
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Speaker 2: Otherwise they stayed put.
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Speaker 1: But inside any of the various buildings at the station,
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Speaker 1: their entertainment options were limited. I mean there was just
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Speaker 1: this two channel TV set, There was a small gym,
20:58
Speaker 1: there was a nearby church, and there was a library,
21:02
Speaker 1: and at this point Oleg was pretty much sick of everything.
21:05
Speaker 1: I mean, he was even tired of the library. And
21:08
Speaker 1: he loved to read, but the library was really small
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Speaker 1: and he basically read pretty much all the books that
21:14
Speaker 1: were in there. His colleague, Sergei, who was sitting right
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Speaker 1: next to him, he loved reading too, and books were
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Speaker 1: something they both spent a lot of time talking about.
21:21
Speaker 1: So since Oleg wasn't finding anything good to watch on
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Speaker 1: TV and was feeling bored and kind of stir crazy,
21:27
Speaker 1: he decided to see if serge wanted to get into
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Speaker 1: one of their deep literary conversations. And so Oleg turned
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Speaker 1: off the TV and tossed the remote into the chair
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Speaker 1: and took a swig of his drink, and then he
21:38
Speaker 1: glanced over to the corner where Sergei was reading the
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Speaker 1: novel Fight Club. Oleg had already read Fight Club. It
21:44
Speaker 1: was about this depressed man with insomnia who meets a
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Speaker 1: charismatic stranger and starts the secret club where people literally
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Speaker 1: fight each other. Oleg thought the book was amazing, mostly
21:54
Speaker 1: because it had an epic plot twist at the end,
21:57
Speaker 1: and so Oleg walked over and asked, that's what Sergei
22:00
Speaker 1: thought of the book so far, but Sergai just kind
22:03
Speaker 1: of ignored him.
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Speaker 2: But Oleg wasn't surprised.
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Speaker 1: He knew Sergei really well since the two of them
22:08
Speaker 1: had worked very closely together on various research projects over
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Speaker 1: the years, so he knew Sergei was generally a very
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Speaker 1: quiet person and not a big talker, whereas Olegg loved
22:18
Speaker 1: getting into big, long, passionate discussions. Sometimes Olegg could get
22:23
Speaker 1: Sergei to open up by asking questions and telling jokes,
22:27
Speaker 1: but today did not.
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Speaker 2: Seem to be one of those days.
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Speaker 1: Now, this was definitely frustrating for Olegg, but he could tell,
22:33
Speaker 1: you know, Sergei wanted to be left alone, so he
22:35
Speaker 1: stood up and.
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Speaker 2: Left to go find something else to do.
22:37
Speaker 1: Olegg spent some time just kind of wandering around the station,
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Speaker 1: checking research logs and sip in his drink. He thought
22:44
Speaker 1: about going outside just for a minute to get some
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Speaker 1: fresh air, but when he checked the temperature he saw
22:50
Speaker 1: that it was blow freezing, so he decided against it,
22:52
Speaker 1: and so after three hours of trying to kill time,
22:55
Speaker 1: o'leg finally just headed to the cafeteria to get a
22:58
Speaker 1: bite deep. It was around three p when Oleg stepped
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Speaker 1: into the dining room feeling a bit flushed from all
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Speaker 1: the booze he'd been drinking, and the first thing he
23:06
Speaker 1: saw when he got inside of there was serge and
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Speaker 1: Sergey was at a table still reading Fight Club, just
23:12
Speaker 1: like he'd been doing earlier in the common room.
23:14
Speaker 2: So Oleg got some food and went.
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Speaker 1: Over to sit with Sergey and see if now maybe
23:19
Speaker 1: he was more open to chatting, and to his surprise,
23:22
Speaker 1: Sergei was. When Oleg sat down, Sergei put his book
23:26
Speaker 1: down and looked up ready to talk, possibly because he'd
23:30
Speaker 1: also had a lot to drink and was feeling kind
23:32
Speaker 1: of chatty. And so the two men began discussing the
23:34
Speaker 1: book Fight Club, and quickly their conversation got really energetic
23:39
Speaker 1: because they were both drunk and excited about what they
23:42
Speaker 1: were saying. And then Olegg made what he thought was
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Speaker 1: a fantastic point about the book and what it all meant.
23:50
Speaker 1: To Oleg, it seemed like everything was going great, but
23:54
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, after making this point, Oleg noticed
23:59
Speaker 1: that serge had had gone really quiet, and Oleg, who
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Speaker 1: could read Sergei well by this point, knew what this meant.
24:06
Speaker 1: Sergei was done talking and wanted some space, so Oleg
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Speaker 1: looked down at his watch.
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Speaker 2: He actually did need to get.
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Speaker 1: Some more work done before the day was over, and
24:14
Speaker 1: he was about to look up and tell Sergei that
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Speaker 1: he was going to go leave and check one of
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Speaker 1: their weather instruments. But when he looked up from his watch,
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Speaker 1: Sergei was gone, and at that same exact moment, a
24:27
Speaker 1: wild scream cut through the air right behind Oleg. A
24:32
Speaker 1: few minutes later, in another building, the research station's manager
24:36
Speaker 1: was in his office going through some paperwork when his
24:39
Speaker 1: door suddenly flew open, and when the manager looked up,
24:42
Speaker 1: he saw that one of his employees was standing in
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Speaker 1: the doorway, looking completely panicked. The employee's eyes were wide
24:48
Speaker 1: and his breath was ragged, like he was in shock.
24:51
Speaker 1: And when the employee explained why he was so upset,
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Speaker 1: the manager shot to his feet and told the employee
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Speaker 1: not to move. He then grabbed his coat and flew
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Speaker 1: out the door into the freezing cold. The manager pulled
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Speaker 1: on his coat as he ran across the ice packed
25:06
Speaker 1: ground to the building where the cafeteria was, and the
25:09
Speaker 1: whole way he just felt his panic growing and growing
25:12
Speaker 1: because what that employee had just said had never ever
25:16
Speaker 1: happened at their research station before. He wasn't even sure
25:19
Speaker 1: if it had happened in the entire continent of Antarctica before.
25:23
Speaker 1: When the manager finally got to the cafeteria, he flung
25:26
Speaker 1: the door open and looked inside, and immediately he felt
25:30
Speaker 1: sick to his stomach. It would turn out Oleg and
25:33
Speaker 1: Sergei had been coworkers for a long long time, and
25:38
Speaker 1: they did know each other really well. And what that
25:41
Speaker 1: meant was they knew each other so well that Oleg
25:45
Speaker 1: had sort of learned what specifically really annoyed, and Oleg
25:52
Speaker 1: used this knowledge whenever he got bored.
25:55
Speaker 2: And wanted to find a way to entertain himself.
25:57
Speaker 1: The way Oleg would intentionally upset Sergei was by violating
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Speaker 1: a serious rule that virtually every human being knows not
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Speaker 1: to violate, even if, even if you've never heard the
26:09
Speaker 1: rule explicitly, you know you don't do this. Every time
26:13
Speaker 1: Sergei would start a new book, Oleg would wait until
26:17
Speaker 1: he got about halfway through and then tell him the ending.
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Speaker 2: This was not just a one time thing.
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Speaker 1: Whenever they talked about books, Oleg repeatedly ruined them for Sergei,
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Speaker 1: which always made Sgai really really mad. And that day
26:32
Speaker 1: in the cafeteria when Oleg sat down with Sergei, he
26:35
Speaker 1: didn't just make a great point about Fight Club. He
26:38
Speaker 1: told Sgi how it ended, and don't worry if you
26:41
Speaker 1: haven't read it or you haven't seen the movie, we
26:43
Speaker 1: are not going to ruin the twist for you, because
26:45
Speaker 1: it is amazing.
26:46
Speaker 2: You should check it out.
26:47
Speaker 1: But Oleg did, and Sergei was very drunk, and like Oleg,
26:52
Speaker 1: he had also been very restless and tense from having
26:54
Speaker 1: been cooped up in this isolated station for months on end,
26:58
Speaker 1: and so this time, when Oleg told him the ending,
27:02
Speaker 1: Sergei completely snapped. He grabbed a knife from the kitchen,
27:07
Speaker 1: walked behind Oleg and began repeatedly stabbing him in the chest,
27:12
Speaker 1: while allegedly screaming didn't see that coming, did you. Oncega
27:17
Speaker 1: calmed down, he was so shocked by what he'd done
27:20
Speaker 1: that he immediately.
27:21
Speaker 2: Turned himself into the station's manager.
27:24
Speaker 1: He was then transported back to Russia and rested, but
27:27
Speaker 1: he was eventually acquitted since he had no previous record.
27:30
Speaker 1: Oleg's heart was damaged in the attack, but amazingly, he
27:34
Speaker 1: would survive after being transported.
27:36
Speaker 2: To a hospital.
27:42
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching today's episode. Let me
27:44
Speaker 1: know what you thought of it in the comments below,
27:46
Speaker 1: and remember, we have a whole playlist of places you
27:49
Speaker 1: can't go episodes ready for you to binge right now,
27:53
Speaker 1: So go ahead and click here and give them a watch.
27:56
Speaker 2: All right, until next time see it.