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Transcript

They were awake the WHOLE TIME · Crime and Horror

0:00
Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to tell you two stories about people
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Speaker 1: who basically unknowingly risked everything just to travel to their
0:07
Speaker 1: dream locations, and they didn't realize they were in danger
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Speaker 1: until it was already too late. But before we get
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Speaker 1: into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark,
0:16
Speaker 1: and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to
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Speaker 1: any of our uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories.
1:00
Speaker 1: On the morning of Monday, January seventh, nineteen eighty five,
1:04
Speaker 1: a thirty one year old man arrived at an international
1:07
Speaker 1: airport in order to board his flight to the United States.
1:09
Speaker 1: The man was very nervous. His heart was beating fast
1:12
Speaker 1: and his palms were sweating so much that he could
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Speaker 1: barely hold the handles of his very heavy tan colored suitcase.
1:18
Speaker 1: And the reason he was so nervous is because he
1:20
Speaker 1: was feeling very conflicted about what he was about to do.
1:24
Speaker 1: On the one hand, this trip was something he'd been
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Speaker 1: dreaming of for months, and it was supposed to represent
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Speaker 1: the start of a great, brand new life. Now, this
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Speaker 1: man hadn't actually packed very many personal items to take
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Speaker 1: with him, but one thing he had brought was a
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Speaker 1: little bound book full of photographs which showed what mattered
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Speaker 1: the most to him, and what mattered the most was
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Speaker 1: waiting for him in America. But on the other hand,
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Speaker 1: the man was terrified because before he could begin this
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Speaker 1: brand new life, he had a huge problem he needed
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Speaker 1: to take care of. And that problem was why he
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Speaker 1: needed to drop off his very heavy suitcase without anybody
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Speaker 1: looking inside of it. And now inside the airport, the
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Speaker 1: very nervous man stopped and readjusted his grip on the
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Speaker 1: suitcase handles, and then made his way over to the
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Speaker 1: ticketing area, where he would check his bag for his
2:10
Speaker 1: almost eleven hour flight to California. And then, you know,
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Speaker 1: once he touched down and they landed in California, he
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Speaker 1: could get off the plane, go to the baggage carousel
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Speaker 1: and get his luggage and then everything would be fine. Now,
2:21
Speaker 1: of course, he knew this was a big gamble. If
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Speaker 1: it had been possible, he would have just brought this
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Speaker 1: bag with him on the plane to stow it in
2:29
Speaker 1: the overhead bin. But he just couldn't do it because
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Speaker 1: the bag was too big, too heavy, and so really
2:34
Speaker 1: his only other choice if he wanted the suitcase to
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Speaker 1: make it to California was to check it like he
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Speaker 1: was doing, because the alternative was leaving it behind, and
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Speaker 1: there was no way he was going to do that.
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Speaker 1: He cared far too much about what was inside of
2:47
Speaker 1: this luggage, and so by the time the man actually
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Speaker 1: got in line in the ticketing and baggage check area,
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Speaker 1: he was so stressed out that he was beginning to
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Speaker 1: feel physically ill. By the time he got to the
2:57
Speaker 1: front of the line, he still felt very sick, but
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Speaker 1: he composed himself enough that he walked up to the
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Speaker 1: counter of the airline he was traveling with, which was
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Speaker 1: Luftansa Airline, and the employee who was working behind the
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Speaker 1: counter was very cheerful and they greeted the man and
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Speaker 1: took his passport to verify his information. Then the employee
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Speaker 1: put down the passport and then reached out his hand
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Speaker 1: and gestured for the nervous man to give him his
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Speaker 1: very important suitcase. This was, of course, the moment the
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Speaker 1: man had feared the most, you know, when everything could
3:26
Speaker 1: really go astray. But as calm as he could, he
3:28
Speaker 1: lifted up the suitcase, and for a second he almost
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Speaker 1: panicked because it was just so obviously heavy. He realized
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Speaker 1: the employee might make him open it right there, because
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Speaker 1: it just seemed wrong that the suitcase was that heavy,
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Speaker 1: and he knew if that happened, he was done for.
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Speaker 1: He'd be arrested immediately. But instead, the employee just dragged
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Speaker 1: the heavy suitcase over to a conveyor belt behind the counter,
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Speaker 1: and the nervous man watched as the employee heaved the
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Speaker 1: suitcase onto the belt, and the man kept his eyes
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Speaker 1: locked on the suitcase as it rolled down the belt
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Speaker 1: and then disappeared through a pair of rubber flaps at
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Speaker 1: the end. He was so focused on the bag he
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Speaker 1: almost didn't notice the airline employee returning to try to
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Speaker 1: hand him his boarding pass for the plane. Finally, the
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Speaker 1: employee literally just waved the ticket in the man's face
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Speaker 1: to get his attention and kind of snapped him out
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Speaker 1: of it, and he took the boarding pass and as
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Speaker 1: calmly as he could, he thanked the employee and then
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Speaker 1: he turned and hurried off to catch his flight. About
4:22
Speaker 1: twelve hours later, on the other side of the world,
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Speaker 1: another employee of Lutanza Airlines walked around the baggage claim
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Speaker 1: area at Los Angeles International Airport, which is typically just
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Speaker 1: called LAX. It was about two pm Los Angeles time,
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Speaker 1: and the employee was working in the International terminal. It
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Speaker 1: was his job to monitor these circular carousels where passengers
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Speaker 1: picked up their luggage after their flights, and his job
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Speaker 1: was to make sure no bags were left behind. And
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Speaker 1: as he was making one of these loops, he noticed
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Speaker 1: there was a tan colored suitcase with soft sides sitting
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Speaker 1: all alone on one of the carousels. The employee stopped
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Speaker 1: and checked the monitor above the carousel to see the
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Speaker 1: last time this carrol had been used by an incoming plane,
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Speaker 1: and it was quite a while ago, and all the
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Speaker 1: passengers clearly had come through and picked up their luggage
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Speaker 1: except for this one loan bag. So based on the timing,
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Speaker 1: the employee figured that well, this bag must be unclaimed.
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Speaker 1: But this was not remotely concerning to him. I mean,
5:17
Speaker 1: luggage went unclaimed all the time, sometimes because bags were
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Speaker 1: sent to the wrong airport, or because the suitcase's owner
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Speaker 1: missed their flight, or even just forgot to get it.
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Speaker 1: But whatever the reason was, it was this employee's job
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Speaker 1: to simply start the process of identifying the owner of
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Speaker 1: the suitcase. So, like he always did, he walked over
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Speaker 1: to the carousel and grabbed the suitcase handle and went
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Speaker 1: to pick it up. But when he did, he let
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Speaker 1: out a sort of surprised grunt and stumbled because the
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Speaker 1: suitcase was so much heavier than he had expected. So
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Speaker 1: he went back and he grabbed the handle with a
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Speaker 1: better grip, this time with two hands, and braced himself
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Speaker 1: and yanked, and the suitcase kind of toppled over and
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Speaker 1: fell off the carousel onto the floor. And this was
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Speaker 1: also around the time that the employee noticed that this
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Speaker 1: really heavy suitcase had no tags on it. And so
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Speaker 1: now this bag did seem very unusual, the extreme weight
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Speaker 1: and no tags, like that's not normal. So he knelt
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Speaker 1: down and he began to unzip the suitcase to see
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Speaker 1: what was inside. He was legally allowed to do this
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Speaker 1: because unclaimed bags at airports are subject to search, but
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Speaker 1: he had only unzipped it a little bit before he froze,
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Speaker 1: and for a second he just stared in shock at
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Speaker 1: what was inside of the suitcase. But then he immediately
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Speaker 1: got to his feet, just left the bag there, and
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Speaker 1: ran to go find a phone to call the police.
6:34
Speaker 1: A little less than two hours later, around three forty
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Speaker 1: five pm, Detective Don Ravens of the Los Angeles Police
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Speaker 1: Department's Specific Division, stood in the baggage area of LAX's
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Speaker 1: International Terminal, looking down grimly into the tan suitcase that
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Speaker 1: was lying open on the floor. He was surrounded by
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Speaker 1: officials from the LAPD as well as the FBI, who
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Speaker 1: had all been called to the airport because of what
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Speaker 1: was found inside of the suitcase, the dead body of
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Speaker 1: a young woman. Detective Ravens was shocked. He guessed this
7:03
Speaker 1: woman was maybe less than thirty years old, and judging
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Speaker 1: by her features and dark hair, he thought she could
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Speaker 1: be from an Asian or Latin American country, but that
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Speaker 1: was about as far as he could get since she
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Speaker 1: didn't have any identification with her and there were no
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Speaker 1: tags on the bag. There were also no obvious wounds
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Speaker 1: on her body, so he couldn't immediately tell how she died.
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Speaker 1: Raven spent some time speaking to airline and airport employees,
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Speaker 1: including Customs, which is the government agency that's in charge
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Speaker 1: of inspecting bags that are coming in and out of
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Speaker 1: the country, and he was puzzled as to how a
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Speaker 1: suitcase with a body inside of it had somehow cleared Customs,
7:36
Speaker 1: But an agent explained that they didn't actually open up
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Speaker 1: all the suitcases, which meant whoever checked this bag through
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Speaker 1: Customs had taken a huge risk, because realistically they could
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Speaker 1: have been searched and then the body would have been found.
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Speaker 1: So this suggested a certain level of desperation. But apparently
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Speaker 1: this risk this person took to check the bag had
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Speaker 1: paid off because the bag had gone all the way
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Speaker 1: to California. But despite that, you know, Ravens didn't find
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Speaker 1: much to go on here at this moment. The victim
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Speaker 1: was a Jane Doe, which meant there was no identification
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Speaker 1: for her, and Ravens knew she could really be from
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Speaker 1: anywhere in the world, despite you know, his snap judgment
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Speaker 1: that perhaps she was from an Asian or Latin American country,
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Speaker 1: and because lax was an international airport, you know, whoever
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Speaker 1: checked this bag and potentially even put her into the
8:23
Speaker 1: suitcase could now be anywhere in the world too. Once
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Speaker 1: Detective Ravens and the other investigators had finished examining the
8:30
Speaker 1: body as it was found inside of the suitcase, they
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Speaker 1: didn't actually pull her body out. They sent the suitcase
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Speaker 1: and her body to the corner, hopefully an autopsy would
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Speaker 1: turn up evidence that could tell Ravens and the other
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Speaker 1: investigators who this Jaine Doe was and what happened to her.
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Speaker 1: The following day, on Tuesday, Ravens sat down at his
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Speaker 1: desk and he opened up a middlea folder he had
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Speaker 1: been given. Inside of it was his chain Indo's autopsy report,
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Speaker 1: and when the detective began reading it, he couldn't help
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Speaker 1: but feel sick because what he was reading told him
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Speaker 1: that this poor woman had died a horrible, tortuous death.
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Speaker 1: The report said the woman had bruises all over her body,
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Speaker 1: like the kind you would get from repeated heavy blows
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Speaker 1: delivered over a period of at least several hours while
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Speaker 1: she was still alive, and her actual eventual cause of
9:23
Speaker 1: death was ultimately suffocation, which meant she either was suffocated
9:27
Speaker 1: and then put into the suitcase, or was in the
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Speaker 1: suitcase trapped inside of there and suffocated. Ravens put down
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Speaker 1: the report and leaned back in his chair and just
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Speaker 1: sort of thought through what he had just learned. Based
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Speaker 1: on the autopsy, he now knew this poor woman had
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Speaker 1: died a brutal, awful death, but the corner had not
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Speaker 1: found any identifying information or anything on her that would
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Speaker 1: give away or help to give away who she actually
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Speaker 1: was or who did this to her, So really he
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Speaker 1: had very little here other than knowing this lady suffered.
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Speaker 1: Ravens had spent the last twenty four hours pouring over
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Speaker 1: all the surveillance footage from the airport's security cameras looking
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Speaker 1: for any suspicious passengers leaving without any luggage, but nothing
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Speaker 1: had jumped out at him. He had also interviewed a
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Speaker 1: bunch of airport employees who would have been in the
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Speaker 1: baggage claim area on the day the body was found,
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Speaker 1: but none of them had noticed anything strange either, And
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Speaker 1: so despite it only having been one day since this
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Speaker 1: woman was found, Ravens was already worried that this case
10:27
Speaker 1: was going to go cold. But what Ravens had not
10:30
Speaker 1: counted on was the huge amount of publicity his Jane
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Speaker 1: Doe would generate the TV news as well as the
10:36
Speaker 1: newspapers were reporting feverishly on the body that was found
10:39
Speaker 1: in the lax suitcase. And by Wednesday, so forty eight
10:43
Speaker 1: hours after the body was found, the reporting had made
10:46
Speaker 1: it all the way to Peru, where a man named
10:48
Speaker 1: Juan Espinoza contacted authorities to report that the body might
10:53
Speaker 1: actually belong to his wife. Officials in Peru called the
10:56
Speaker 1: LAPD and One's report ended up on Ravens. Ravens opened
11:01
Speaker 1: up that report and began reading. One and his wife
11:04
Speaker 1: lived in Peru's capital city of Lima, but his wife
11:08
Speaker 1: had been trying to leave Peru to escape poverty. She
11:10
Speaker 1: had left their home hoping to basically sneak into the
11:13
Speaker 1: United States so she could get a job there and
11:15
Speaker 1: then send money back to her family in Peru. She
11:18
Speaker 1: had promised Jan that she would contact him when she
11:20
Speaker 1: arrived in America, but after she left, One said he
11:24
Speaker 1: never heard from her. This report felt like a promising
11:27
Speaker 1: lead to Ravens. One and his wife checked a lot
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Speaker 1: of boxes, especially because you know Ravens, Jane Doe had
11:33
Speaker 1: features that indicated she could be from a South American
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Speaker 1: country like Peru, and so Ravens wondered if Juan's wife
11:39
Speaker 1: had tried to get into America by using a human smuggler,
11:43
Speaker 1: which is someone who transports immigrants across borders illegally. Human
11:47
Speaker 1: smuggling was obviously an unregulated industry, and Ravens knew smugglers
11:52
Speaker 1: could be very violent or reckless, and the people they
11:55
Speaker 1: were transporting often had no protection, meaning sometimes when people
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Speaker 1: go to these smugglers to try to get help to
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Speaker 1: go to these other countries, sometimes the smuggler wouldn't help them.
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Speaker 1: They would just rob them or in some cases rob
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Speaker 1: them and then kill them and dispose of their body.
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Speaker 1: And unfortunately, again because there's no regulation or oversight, a
12:16
Speaker 1: lot of times these horrible crimes would just go unnoticed.
12:19
Speaker 1: And so maybe if that's what had happened to Ravens
12:22
Speaker 1: Jane Do, it would explain why the tags were ripped
12:25
Speaker 1: off the suitcase. The smuggler who committed this crime would
12:28
Speaker 1: not have wanted to leave any id on or around
12:31
Speaker 1: the body that could be traced back to them, And
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Speaker 1: so Ravens picked up his phone to call the Lax
12:36
Speaker 1: Airport operations manager to see if he could get the
12:38
Speaker 1: logs for any flights coming from Peru to Lax on
12:42
Speaker 1: the day the body was found, and that was when
12:44
Speaker 1: he discovered there was a big problem with this theory
12:47
Speaker 1: because there were no flights from Peru. The only flights
12:50
Speaker 1: that day that used the luggage carousel where the body
12:53
Speaker 1: was found were from Korea, Japan, and Germany, and there
12:57
Speaker 1: weren't any flights that originated in Peru that had layover
13:00
Speaker 1: in those countries either, which meant it just wasn't possible
13:03
Speaker 1: that his Jane Doe was Jan's wife. And so now
13:07
Speaker 1: Ravens was stumped all over again. He had almost no
13:10
Speaker 1: evidence to go on. All he really had was the
13:12
Speaker 1: suitcase and the body, and the actual crime scene itself
13:15
Speaker 1: was maybe somewhere in Korea or Japan or Germany, and
13:19
Speaker 1: so Ravens really didn't have a good idea of where
13:21
Speaker 1: he should begin looking for more evidence. But then he
13:24
Speaker 1: got an idea. Detective Ravens got up from his desk
13:27
Speaker 1: and headed straight to the evidence room. He put on
13:29
Speaker 1: a pair of disposable gloves, and he found the box
13:31
Speaker 1: that contained evidence from Jane Doe's case and he opened
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Speaker 1: it up and there really wasn't much. All that was
13:37
Speaker 1: in there were, you know, pieces of jewelry and some
13:39
Speaker 1: clothing that were found on the woman's body, and all
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Speaker 1: of it had already been examined for trace evidence like
13:44
Speaker 1: blood or hair. However, blood and hair were not what
13:47
Speaker 1: Ravens was looking for. One at a time, he lifted
13:50
Speaker 1: out each of the sealed plastic bags that contained Jane
13:52
Speaker 1: Doe's belongings until he got to her blue sweater. He
13:56
Speaker 1: took the sweater out of the plastic and he turned
13:58
Speaker 1: it over in his hands and then checked inside the neckband,
14:02
Speaker 1: and there he found exactly what he was looking for. Immediately,
14:05
Speaker 1: he felt a rush of adrenaline. He was onto something here,
14:08
Speaker 1: and so he reached back into the box and he
14:10
Speaker 1: grabbed another plastic bag with a pair of gray pants
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Speaker 1: in it, and he did the same thing. He looked
14:15
Speaker 1: at the waistband. Then he opened the third bag and
14:17
Speaker 1: he checked inside of her blouse, and each time his
14:20
Speaker 1: hunch had been right. Jane Doe's clothing had labels sewn
14:23
Speaker 1: into them, and the labels were clearly written in some
14:27
Speaker 1: language that was not English. Ravens wasn't sure, but to
14:30
Speaker 1: him he thought maybe the letters looked Middle Eastern. It
14:33
Speaker 1: didn't take long for the FBI to help Ravens and
14:35
Speaker 1: the LAPD identify the origin of Jane Doe's clothing. All
14:39
Speaker 1: of it had been made in the Middle East, in Iran.
14:42
Speaker 1: This meant that finally Detective Ravens had a likely country
14:45
Speaker 1: of origin for his Jane Doe. But he also had
14:48
Speaker 1: another problem. Now. Really he had the same problem he'd
14:50
Speaker 1: had when he thought his victim was from Peru, and
14:52
Speaker 1: that was that there were only three international flights that
14:55
Speaker 1: as Jane Doe could have been on, and none of
14:57
Speaker 1: them originated in Iran. No connecting flights from Iran that day, either,
15:02
Speaker 1: and so Ravens needed the public's help. On Thursday, so,
15:05
Speaker 1: three days after the body was found, he and another
15:08
Speaker 1: detective sat down with a reporter from the city's newspaper,
15:11
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Times, a publication that's read all over
15:14
Speaker 1: the world. And raven and this other detective's goal was,
15:17
Speaker 1: you know, to give as many updates as they could
15:19
Speaker 1: about the case, you know, hoping that somebody somewhere would
15:22
Speaker 1: read the story, recognize a detail, and come forward. However,
15:26
Speaker 1: that's not really how the interview played out. By the
15:28
Speaker 1: end of it, Ravens was feeling pretty discouraged by all
15:31
Speaker 1: the questions. He and his partner just couldn't answer. In fact,
15:34
Speaker 1: the last thing he said to the reporter, which ended
15:36
Speaker 1: up getting printed as the sort of last line of
15:39
Speaker 1: the story, the lasting impression, if you will, was don't
15:42
Speaker 1: be too surprised if you never find out where she
15:45
Speaker 1: came from or who she is. The next morning, Detective
15:48
Speaker 1: Ravens got to his office and had barely taken off
15:51
Speaker 1: his coat when his phone rang. A police officer from Sacramento,
15:54
Speaker 1: California was on the other line, and he sounded all
15:57
Speaker 1: worked up. He told Ravens that he knew that, you know,
16:00
Speaker 1: the LA investigators had been working on the Airport Jane
16:02
Speaker 1: Doe case, and even though it wasn't going anywhere, he
16:05
Speaker 1: knew it was a big deal for them. But he
16:07
Speaker 1: told Ravens that he actually had this unbelievable development in
16:11
Speaker 1: northern California that was connected to the Airport Jane Doe case.
16:15
Speaker 1: He said, authorities in Northern California had just found another body.
16:20
Speaker 1: But when Ravens heard this, his first reaction was not
16:23
Speaker 1: excitement that there was new evidence or something. It was confusion.
16:27
Speaker 1: He didn't need another body. He needed to find his
16:29
Speaker 1: Jane Doe's name, and so he asked the Sacramento officer.
16:33
Speaker 1: You know what he meant, had they found another woman
16:35
Speaker 1: in another suitcase or something? But the Sacramento officer said no,
16:38
Speaker 1: the body belonged to a man, and this guy's name
16:41
Speaker 1: had never even been on police radar. He had died
16:43
Speaker 1: from a gunshot wound, you know, four hundred miles away
16:46
Speaker 1: from Ravens Jane Doe. But the officer said that the
16:50
Speaker 1: story they had uncovered behind this new body would likely
16:55
Speaker 1: solve Raven's Jane Doe case. This is the story that
16:59
Speaker 1: the Sacramento Office Sir told Ravens. On the evening of Monday,
17:03
Speaker 1: January seventh, just a few hours after Jane Doe's body
17:06
Speaker 1: had been found at Lax, a man named Hadi had
17:09
Speaker 1: picked up his friend and roommate, a thirty one year
17:12
Speaker 1: old man named Mahmoud Ayazi, at the Sacramento Airport, which
17:16
Speaker 1: is about four hundred miles north of Lax. Hadi was
17:19
Speaker 1: excited to see Mahmoud, who had been away for a
17:21
Speaker 1: few weeks. They were good friends and Mahmoud was always
17:24
Speaker 1: very optimistic and fun to be around. But on this day,
17:27
Speaker 1: when Mahmoud got in his car, Haidi immediately noticed that
17:31
Speaker 1: his friends seemed sullen and quiet and just very clearly
17:34
Speaker 1: upset about something, and so Hadi asked him what was wrong,
17:38
Speaker 1: and Mahmud just said, oh, I'm sick with the flu.
17:41
Speaker 1: But to Hadi, Mahmoud did not look very sick. He
17:45
Speaker 1: looked worried and kind of jittery and nervous, and as
17:48
Speaker 1: they started to drive, he kept looking out the windows
17:51
Speaker 1: and out the back of the car, like he was
17:53
Speaker 1: nervous about somebody following them or something. And when they
17:55
Speaker 1: got back to their apartment, Mahmoud went straight to bed,
17:58
Speaker 1: and for the next two days, mah Mood continued acting
18:01
Speaker 1: increasingly weird and paranoid. He asked Hadi to disconnect the
18:05
Speaker 1: phone in their apartment and said he didn't want to
18:07
Speaker 1: see any of their mutual friends. He also kept looking
18:09
Speaker 1: out the windows of their apartment, but whenever Hati asked
18:13
Speaker 1: what was wrong, Mahmoud refused to explain. Then, sometime before
18:16
Speaker 1: six am on Thursday morning, so now three days after
18:19
Speaker 1: Hadi picked Mahmoud up from the airport, Hati woke up
18:22
Speaker 1: to the sound of the front door of his apartment
18:24
Speaker 1: opening and then shutting, so it felt way too early
18:27
Speaker 1: for Hadi or Mahmoud to be up, and they also
18:29
Speaker 1: lived in a city where break ins were, unfortunately not uncommon,
18:33
Speaker 1: so the sound of the door opening was enough for
18:35
Speaker 1: Hadi to get out of bed and go make sure
18:38
Speaker 1: everything was okay. But when he got to the door,
18:40
Speaker 1: he did not find an intruder or something. He found
18:43
Speaker 1: Mahmod in the process of leaving the apartment. Hadi asked
18:46
Speaker 1: his friend, you know where you're going, but Mahmoud just
18:49
Speaker 1: shook his head and said he was simply going out,
18:52
Speaker 1: and so there was really nothing hat he could do.
18:53
Speaker 1: I mean, he couldn't stop Mahmood from going out. So
18:57
Speaker 1: he watched his friend leave and then Hadi went back
18:59
Speaker 1: to bed, But as he was in bed, he had
19:02
Speaker 1: this sick feeling in his stomach that something bad was
19:05
Speaker 1: about to happen. About two hours later, somebody called the
19:09
Speaker 1: Sacramento Police Department to report finding a dead body in
19:13
Speaker 1: the driver's seat of a car in a parking lot.
19:15
Speaker 1: The dead man had clearly died from a self inflicted
19:18
Speaker 1: gunshot wound, and on the passenger seat next to the
19:20
Speaker 1: body were two Iranian passports and one Luftanza Airlines plane ticket.
19:26
Speaker 1: When the Sacramento police officer finished telling Detective Ravens the story,
19:30
Speaker 1: he said he believed that one of the passports that
19:33
Speaker 1: were found in the car with the body belonged to
19:35
Speaker 1: ravens Jane Doe. He said he would send it over
19:38
Speaker 1: that afternoon by courier so Ravens could make a positive ID,
19:41
Speaker 1: and when the passport did arrive, Ravens was able to
19:44
Speaker 1: finally give his Jane Doe her name back. She was
19:47
Speaker 1: a twenty year old Iranian woman named Katan Safawi, and
19:52
Speaker 1: after investigators searched Muffmood's apartment, they would find another piece
19:57
Speaker 1: of evidence that would actually explain why Katan Safawi had
20:01
Speaker 1: ended up beaten and pummeled and asphyxiated to death in
20:04
Speaker 1: an abandoned Tan suitcase in Lax. The evidence was a
20:08
Speaker 1: little bound book and it was full of photographs. Back
20:12
Speaker 1: on January seventh, nineteen eighty five, Mahmoud very nervously dropped
20:16
Speaker 1: off the Tan suitcase that contained Katan at the International
20:20
Speaker 1: airport and then boarded a Luftanza flight to Lax. He
20:24
Speaker 1: was traveling from Frankfurt, Germany, one of the three cities
20:27
Speaker 1: that had flights into Lax that day that specifically used
20:31
Speaker 1: the carousel where the body was found. But Mahmoud's trip
20:34
Speaker 1: had not started in Frankfurt. It had started in a run,
20:37
Speaker 1: but his travel plans had gotten all messed up and
20:40
Speaker 1: he'd gotten stuck in Germany for several days, and so
20:42
Speaker 1: this was him finally getting out. But he was insanely
20:46
Speaker 1: nervous about this leg of the trip because of what
20:49
Speaker 1: was in his suitcase. He had expected to feel much
20:52
Speaker 1: less worried once he had successfully checked the suitcase and
20:55
Speaker 1: got his ticket and boarded his flight, But when he
20:58
Speaker 1: did all that, and when his plane took off, Mahmud
21:01
Speaker 1: only got more and more anxious. Every time the plane
21:04
Speaker 1: had even the tiniest amount of turbulence, he wanted to
21:07
Speaker 1: scream from the anxiety. But finally the flight landed at Lax,
21:12
Speaker 1: and as soon as it touched down, Mahmoud got off
21:14
Speaker 1: as fast as he could and practically sprinted to the
21:17
Speaker 1: baggage carousel where he would pick up his suitcase and
21:20
Speaker 1: then board another flight to Sacramento. But when he got
21:23
Speaker 1: to baggage claim and he picked up his suitcase, he
21:27
Speaker 1: knew immediately something was wrong with a shaking hand, he
21:30
Speaker 1: unzipped the suitcase, and when he looked inside, he felt
21:34
Speaker 1: a wave of grief and horror that was so powerful
21:38
Speaker 1: he almost fainted right there. Because the trip that Mahmoud
21:41
Speaker 1: had been dreaming of for months that he was returning
21:43
Speaker 1: home from now was a journey to his home country
21:47
Speaker 1: of Iran to get married to the woman he loved, Katan.
21:52
Speaker 1: And now inside the suitcase was the dead body of
21:56
Speaker 1: his new wife, Katan, whom Mahmud had been trying to
21:58
Speaker 1: smuggle into a marria to start their new life together.
22:01
Speaker 1: Katan had run into issues with her visa and Frankfurt
22:05
Speaker 1: and officials wouldn't let her board the plane to America,
22:07
Speaker 1: and so Katan and Mahmud tried for days to fix
22:10
Speaker 1: this problem, but it became clear that only Mahmud would
22:14
Speaker 1: be able to actually enter the United States, not Katan,
22:17
Speaker 1: and so ultimately Katan willingly got into that suitcase. Mahmoud
22:23
Speaker 1: had not murdered her, or at least not intentionally, so
22:26
Speaker 1: she hadn't been trafficked or anything. She chose to get
22:29
Speaker 1: in that suitcase together, they decided that they would smuggle
22:33
Speaker 1: her in the cargo hold of the plane, and that's
22:37
Speaker 1: how they would get her to the United States. But
22:40
Speaker 1: during the flight, when she had boarded, she had been
22:42
Speaker 1: totally alive. But when she was in the cargo hold,
22:45
Speaker 1: other luggage had fallen and piled on top of her
22:49
Speaker 1: and slowly crushed her to death. And so when Mahmud
22:52
Speaker 1: got to Lax and opened up the suitcase and saw
22:55
Speaker 1: what had happened, he panicked. He pulled the tags off
22:59
Speaker 1: the suitcase and left the suitcase and just got on
23:01
Speaker 1: his flight to Sacramento. And then once he landed there,
23:04
Speaker 1: he was so overcome with guilt and grief that three
23:08
Speaker 1: days later he took his own life. When police searched
23:13
Speaker 1: Mahmud's room, they found the little bound book full of
23:16
Speaker 1: photographs that he had so carefully packed for his trip
23:19
Speaker 1: to America, and those photos were of his and Katan's wedding.
23:23
Speaker 1: The following week, Mahmud and Katan's bodies were sent back
23:26
Speaker 1: to Iran via the same route they had taken to
23:28
Speaker 1: get to Los Angeles, but this time they traveled together.
23:51
Speaker 1: On the morning of December eleventh, nineteen sixty, a twenty
23:54
Speaker 1: seven year old man named Leonid Ragasov stood on the
23:57
Speaker 1: deck of a Soviet ship that was sailing across a
24:00
Speaker 1: freezing ocean at the very bottom of the world. Up ahead,
24:03
Speaker 1: finally he could see the enormous, desolate white land mass
24:08
Speaker 1: of Antarctica, a continent that was too brutally cold for
24:12
Speaker 1: human civilization to last at scale. Basically nobody lived there
24:16
Speaker 1: except for like a handful of scientists and other people
24:20
Speaker 1: who were researching the area like Leonid. Antarctica was about
24:25
Speaker 1: to be Leonid's home for the next year and a half.
24:28
Speaker 1: And Leonette looked around him on the deck of the
24:30
Speaker 1: ship at the other eleven men who made up his team,
24:34
Speaker 1: and he smiled. They were all part of what was
24:36
Speaker 1: called the sixth Soviet Antarctic Expedition, and they'd been sailing
24:40
Speaker 1: for thirty six days all the way from Leningrad, Russia
24:43
Speaker 1: to get here. Their job was to get to Antarctica, disembark,
24:47
Speaker 1: and then travel nearly fifty miles inland over brutal terrain,
24:52
Speaker 1: where they would eventually build a brand new scientific research
24:55
Speaker 1: facility from the ground up, and then they would stay
24:58
Speaker 1: there and begin studying the local climate. Leonid and the
25:00
Speaker 1: rest of the men had been chosen for this expedition
25:03
Speaker 1: because they all had specific skills that the team needed.
25:07
Speaker 1: Leonid was a meteorologist and also knew how to drive
25:10
Speaker 1: this special alterrain vehicle that they'd brought on the ship.
25:13
Speaker 1: There were a few other meteorologists on the team, as
25:15
Speaker 1: well as several engineers and other scientists, and also one
25:18
Speaker 1: of the men was a doctor. Their work was part
25:21
Speaker 1: of a larger Cold War era effort by the Soviet
25:23
Speaker 1: government to expand scientific research and knowledge. So Leonid saw
25:28
Speaker 1: this job both as a way of having this big
25:30
Speaker 1: adventure and also as a way of serving his country,
25:34
Speaker 1: and so he ultimately felt proud to be here. But
25:37
Speaker 1: as he was actually looking at the vast emptiness of
25:40
Speaker 1: Antarctica right in front of him for the first time,
25:43
Speaker 1: the reality of the situation they were in began to
25:46
Speaker 1: dawn on him, and he began to feel a jolt
25:49
Speaker 1: of fear. Everything on this expedition had to go exactly
25:53
Speaker 1: right or he and the other men's lives would be
25:56
Speaker 1: in danger. I mean, this is not a safe place
25:58
Speaker 1: for people diving in a place with literally zero infrastructure,
26:02
Speaker 1: And they only had about two months before the polar
26:06
Speaker 1: winter was going to hit Antarctica, which meant they had
26:09
Speaker 1: to construct the entire research facility and make sure it
26:13
Speaker 1: was polar winter proof in those first two months, because
26:17
Speaker 1: that was their shelter, and just to make the stakes clear,
26:20
Speaker 1: if they didn't get it done in time, or if
26:22
Speaker 1: the structure was flawed in some way, they would almost
26:25
Speaker 1: certainly die. When the polar winter came, temperatures would drop
26:28
Speaker 1: as low as negative one hundred and forty degrees fahrenheit
26:33
Speaker 1: and the ocean would literally freeze solid. The closest help
26:36
Speaker 1: would be about one thousand miles away and could take
26:38
Speaker 1: weeks or even months to arrive, and their only way
26:41
Speaker 1: to contact the outside world was with this long range
26:45
Speaker 1: radio that was not always reliable. So essentially, Leonid and
26:49
Speaker 1: these eleven other men that made up this expedition they
26:52
Speaker 1: were going to be completely isolated, with nobody to rely
26:56
Speaker 1: on except each other until their scheduled pickup, which was
26:59
Speaker 1: in April of nineteen sixty two, again a year and
27:02
Speaker 1: a half later. So now, when their ship docked on
27:05
Speaker 1: the coast of Antarctica and the captain called out for
27:08
Speaker 1: everyone to start unloading the ship, Leonid hesitated, and so
27:12
Speaker 1: did some other men. I mean, this was it, This
27:14
Speaker 1: was the real start. But one at a time they
27:16
Speaker 1: began grabbing their supplies and climbing down a ramp on
27:19
Speaker 1: the side of the ship. Leonid watched his fellow scientists
27:22
Speaker 1: step onto the snow, and as he did, he sort
27:25
Speaker 1: of shook off his own fear as a moment of weakness.
27:27
Speaker 1: Right now he needed to be strong and ultimately, I mean,
27:30
Speaker 1: Leonid was a very strong willed person. He had been
27:34
Speaker 1: born in a remote village in eastern Siberia, so he
27:37
Speaker 1: knew he could handle the isolation and the extreme cold.
27:39
Speaker 1: He had already done that before. He was also the
27:41
Speaker 1: son of a World War Two veteran who had died
27:43
Speaker 1: in combat, and his father had taught him to soldier
27:46
Speaker 1: on at all costs, even under the toughest circumstances. So
27:50
Speaker 1: right now, that's what Leonid did. He soldiered on. He
27:53
Speaker 1: took a deep breath of the ice cold air, then
27:55
Speaker 1: grabbed his things, walked down the ramp and stepped onto
27:58
Speaker 1: the snow with the others. And then once they had
28:00
Speaker 1: everything they had packed for the next sixteen months off
28:03
Speaker 1: the ship, the crew on board the ship still wished
28:06
Speaker 1: all the men good luck, and then they lifted up
28:08
Speaker 1: the ramp and then Leonid and the rest of the
28:10
Speaker 1: team watched as that ship began sailing away, leaving them
28:14
Speaker 1: all alone for the first time. At first, things at
28:19
Speaker 1: the new Antarctic Research Center went pretty well. Leonid and
28:22
Speaker 1: the team successfully built the entire research building in time
28:26
Speaker 1: before the polar winter, so when the worst weather came,
28:29
Speaker 1: they were able to hunker down inside and be safe.
28:32
Speaker 1: They'd also set up a whole bunch of atmospheric measurement
28:35
Speaker 1: tools that allowed them to study the Antarctic climate exactly
28:38
Speaker 1: as they wanted to. So by April, so four months
28:41
Speaker 1: after getting dropped off by that ship, and now only
28:44
Speaker 1: about a month or so into the six month long
28:47
Speaker 1: polar winter, the men for the most part, were really
28:49
Speaker 1: just trying to stay warm, conserve their supplies, and gather data. However,
28:54
Speaker 1: they hit their first real snag on the morning of
28:57
Speaker 1: April twenty ninth. Leonid woke up in his bunk that
28:59
Speaker 1: day with a stomach ache. When Leonid woke up, he
29:02
Speaker 1: had that pain in his stomach, but he also he
29:05
Speaker 1: felt nauseous and so weak that he could barely roll
29:08
Speaker 1: over inside of his bed. And this really concerned Leonid
29:12
Speaker 1: because getting a stomach ache back at home was one thing,
29:15
Speaker 1: but getting a stomach ache in Antarctica was totally different.
29:19
Speaker 1: For one, there was a huge blizzard going on outside
29:22
Speaker 1: that was making both land and air travel literally impossible,
29:26
Speaker 1: which meant that even if Leonid radioed for help, nobody
29:30
Speaker 1: would be able to get to him for a very
29:32
Speaker 1: long time. And to make matters even worse, at their
29:35
Speaker 1: research station, they didn't have access to most of the
29:38
Speaker 1: regular medical treatments that would have been available back at home. Basically,
29:42
Speaker 1: if this stomach ache was anything serious, Leonid could die.
29:46
Speaker 1: As a result, Leonid would basically not allow himself to
29:50
Speaker 1: even consider the possibility that this stomach ache was serious. Instead,
29:55
Speaker 1: he told himself that, you know, he must have just
29:57
Speaker 1: eaten something weird. They were all living off a rations
30:00
Speaker 1: of preserved food, and so he figured he must have
30:03
Speaker 1: gotten a bad batch of something and maybe he just
30:05
Speaker 1: had a mild case of food poisoning. So he dragged
30:08
Speaker 1: himself out of bed and he went to the kitchen
30:10
Speaker 1: for a glass of water to hopefully settle his stomach.
30:13
Speaker 1: But when he got there, he saw two other men,
30:16
Speaker 1: another meteorologist and an engineer, who were sitting at a
30:19
Speaker 1: nearby table having breakfast, and they took one look at
30:22
Speaker 1: Leonid and immediately asked him like, hey, are you okay,
30:25
Speaker 1: And Leonid didn't want to worry them because again, like
30:28
Speaker 1: any medical emergency, is a huge deal here for everybody,
30:32
Speaker 1: so he quickly forced a smile and said, oh, yeah,
30:34
Speaker 1: everything's fine. Then Leonid quickly grabbed his glass of water,
30:37
Speaker 1: chugged it down, and made his way back to his bunk.
30:40
Speaker 1: And when he got there, he didn't just climb back
30:42
Speaker 1: in bed. Instead, he grabbed some clean clothes and a
30:45
Speaker 1: towel and then walked down the hallway to the shower
30:47
Speaker 1: stalls and he turned one on as hot as it
30:49
Speaker 1: would go, and then got inside. However, before he could
30:53
Speaker 1: even wash his hair, his vision began to go blurry
30:56
Speaker 1: around the edges and his ears began to ring. He
30:59
Speaker 1: felt like he was about to faint, and he quickly
31:01
Speaker 1: sat down on the floor of the shower so he
31:03
Speaker 1: wouldn't fall and hurt himself. And as he was sitting
31:05
Speaker 1: there with his head spinning and the hot water raining
31:08
Speaker 1: down on him, the dull aching pain in his stomach
31:12
Speaker 1: suddenly sharpened. It was like a horrible stabbing pain ripping
31:17
Speaker 1: through his stomach. Now Leonid barely had time to wrap
31:20
Speaker 1: a towel around his waist and rush to a toilet
31:23
Speaker 1: before he began to vomit. A few minutes later, Leonid
31:25
Speaker 1: stumbled into a small storage closet where the research team
31:29
Speaker 1: kept a reserve of basic medications like pain relievers and antibiotics.
31:33
Speaker 1: Leonid took some antibiotics and tried to power through the day,
31:38
Speaker 1: but that pain in his abdomen just got more and
31:41
Speaker 1: more intense. Eventually, he told the other men on his
31:44
Speaker 1: team that he really had to stop, lie down and rest,
31:47
Speaker 1: that something was wrong here, but maybe if he just
31:49
Speaker 1: lays down long enough, it'll go away. Leonid would spend
31:52
Speaker 1: the entire evening going back and forth from his bed
31:55
Speaker 1: to the toilet because he kept vomiting, and he didn't
31:57
Speaker 1: sleep at all that night, and by the next morning,
32:00
Speaker 1: April thirtieth, Leonid was in so much pain that he
32:03
Speaker 1: really couldn't even try to hide it anymore. He was
32:05
Speaker 1: still vomiting, he was still very dizzy, to the point
32:07
Speaker 1: where he could barely stand up, and he could tell
32:10
Speaker 1: he was also running a very high fever. However, what
32:12
Speaker 1: really scared Leonid the most was what his belly actually
32:16
Speaker 1: looked like. He had not been able to keep any
32:18
Speaker 1: food down for the last twenty four hours, so he
32:21
Speaker 1: knew his stomach was completely empty, and yet he was
32:24
Speaker 1: so bloated that his belly was sticking out like a balloon.
32:28
Speaker 1: And so lying in bed feeling feverish, nauseous, and dizzy
32:32
Speaker 1: and looking down at his grotesquely swollen abdomen, Leonid had
32:36
Speaker 1: to admit to himself that this was definitely more than
32:40
Speaker 1: just food poisoning. Something was very wrong and he needed help.
32:44
Speaker 1: The scientific research team's doctor took stock of all of
32:47
Speaker 1: Leonid's symptoms and he immediately came up with a diagnosis.
32:51
Speaker 1: And the diagnosis was simple, but the treatment was not.
32:54
Speaker 1: Leonid definitely did not have food poisoning. He was in
32:58
Speaker 1: a life or death situation. This was a very serious thing.
33:02
Speaker 1: But to save him, the doctor was going to have
33:04
Speaker 1: to perform a surgery that had only ever been done
33:07
Speaker 1: successfully two times in all of history, and that was
33:10
Speaker 1: because this surgery required a very risky technique that most
33:15
Speaker 1: doctors refused to even try because it was so dangerous
33:19
Speaker 1: both to the patient and also to the doctor. Basically,
33:22
Speaker 1: Leonid was likely going to die if the doctor attempted
33:26
Speaker 1: the surgery. But Leonid was definitely going to die if
33:30
Speaker 1: he didn't, and so ultimately a decision was made that
33:34
Speaker 1: the doctor would give it his best try. At least
33:36
Speaker 1: that way, they were trying to save Leonid's life even
33:39
Speaker 1: if they were unsuccessful. At two am that night, so
33:49
Speaker 1: technically early morning on May first, the doctor took a
33:53
Speaker 1: deep breath and mentally prepared themselves for the surgery. Leonid
33:57
Speaker 1: was lying on a makeshift operating table inside the research set.
34:00
Speaker 1: He was wearing a surgical gown, and despite the fact
34:03
Speaker 1: he was about to undergo real surgery here, he was
34:07
Speaker 1: wide awake because he had to be. Due to the
34:11
Speaker 1: nature of this incredibly risky and rare surgery. The doctor
34:15
Speaker 1: couldn't actually give Leonid any real anesthesia to knock him out.
34:19
Speaker 1: Leonid had to be wide awake and fully aware for
34:22
Speaker 1: this entire procedure, which meant all he could get were
34:25
Speaker 1: some local anesthetics which sort of dulled the pain, but
34:28
Speaker 1: did not get rid of it. The doctor looked over
34:30
Speaker 1: at the four other research team members who were in
34:32
Speaker 1: the operating room. There was a driver, a meteorologist, and
34:36
Speaker 1: two aerologists, which are scientists who study the Earth's atmosphere. Now,
34:40
Speaker 1: none of these four had any real medical training, but
34:43
Speaker 1: the doctor needed assistance to do this operation, so he'd
34:47
Speaker 1: recruited them to help him out. Leonid had his head
34:49
Speaker 1: propped up with pillows and his knees were turned to
34:52
Speaker 1: the left, so he was twisted into a position where
34:55
Speaker 1: the lower right side of his abdomen was facing up
34:57
Speaker 1: towards the ceiling. The doctor had already cut a hole
35:00
Speaker 1: in his hospital gown, so Leonid's swollen stomach was visible,
35:03
Speaker 1: and now through that hole, the doctor injected novacane, which
35:07
Speaker 1: is a type of local anesthetic, right into Leonid's abdomen,
35:10
Speaker 1: and then once the novacane took effect, the doctor used
35:14
Speaker 1: a scalpel to carefully make a four inch long incision
35:18
Speaker 1: into Leonid's lower abdomen. Leonid took in a sharp breath,
35:21
Speaker 1: but he did his best to stay perfectly still. The
35:23
Speaker 1: incision began to bleed heavily, and one of the assistants
35:27
Speaker 1: came over and used a pair of metal tongs to
35:30
Speaker 1: spread open Leonid's skin and muscles and fat, revealing Leonid's
35:35
Speaker 1: internal organs. At this point, the doctor was so nervous
35:38
Speaker 1: that his hands began to shake, but he took a
35:40
Speaker 1: deep breath and slowly cut his way with the scalpel
35:44
Speaker 1: through the protective membrane that surrounded Leonid's organs, but as
35:48
Speaker 1: he did, he accidentally poked a hole in Leonid's large intestine,
35:53
Speaker 1: and Leonid noticed right away because he began gushing blood.
35:56
Speaker 1: And when the doctor realized what he'd done, he sort
35:58
Speaker 1: of began to panic, and he began yelling for the
36:01
Speaker 1: assistance to hand him as surgical sewing kit, and when
36:04
Speaker 1: they did, he kind of clumsily began trying to to
36:07
Speaker 1: sow the whole shut. But by the time the doctor
36:10
Speaker 1: had finally closed up the wound, Leonid had already lost
36:14
Speaker 1: a lot of blood. And the real problem, the reason
36:17
Speaker 1: the doctor was doing the surgery in the first place,
36:20
Speaker 1: still had not been solved. Like the surgery had not
36:22
Speaker 1: really even happened. We just had this incision, that's it.
36:25
Speaker 1: And so the doctor knew he really had to hurry
36:27
Speaker 1: before Leonid bled out, and so he threw his standard
36:30
Speaker 1: operating procedures out the window. He just had to go
36:33
Speaker 1: for it here. So he just took one of his
36:34
Speaker 1: hands and reached inside of Leonid's abdominal cavity and started
36:39
Speaker 1: literally feeling around trying to find the source of Leonid's illness.
36:44
Speaker 1: But as he did, it was like all the blood
36:46
Speaker 1: drained out of Leonid's face. I mean, he's feeling this.
36:49
Speaker 1: This must have been horrific. His body went limp and
36:52
Speaker 1: his head kind of rolled back on his pillow. And
36:54
Speaker 1: this was actually the exact moment that this surgery truly
36:57
Speaker 1: became its most dangerous, not just for Leonid, but for
37:01
Speaker 1: the doctor too. Right as Leonid's head rolled backwards, the
37:05
Speaker 1: doctor felt himself go weak and suddenly he was seeing stars.
37:08
Speaker 1: And this was because Leonid and the doctor were actually
37:13
Speaker 1: the same person. In addition to being a meteorologist and
37:16
Speaker 1: a driver of that special vehicle, Leonid was also a
37:19
Speaker 1: recent medical school graduate and he was the one doctor
37:22
Speaker 1: at this research station. So Leonid was performing surgery on himself.
37:27
Speaker 1: He had given himself that novacane shot and then forced
37:31
Speaker 1: himself to stay still as he carved a four inch
37:33
Speaker 1: long incision into his own abdomen, accidentally slicing into his
37:38
Speaker 1: intestines that he had the wherewithal to then stitch up
37:41
Speaker 1: as he's bleeding to death. And then he shoved his
37:44
Speaker 1: own hand into his abdominal cavity. But it was at
37:48
Speaker 1: that point that Leonid actually looked like he might die
37:51
Speaker 1: because he began to show signs like he was going
37:53
Speaker 1: to pass out, likely from blood loss or just shock.
37:56
Speaker 1: But he'd given his assistance specific instruction on what to
38:00
Speaker 1: do if he passed out during the procedure. They were
38:03
Speaker 1: supposed to inject him with a specific drug mixture and
38:06
Speaker 1: then give him CPR until he woke up. But just
38:09
Speaker 1: as one of the assistants readied the needle to inject
38:12
Speaker 1: into Leonid because it did appear like he was about
38:14
Speaker 1: to pass out, Leonid suddenly sucked in a huge breath
38:17
Speaker 1: and his head snapped back up. Leonid, with his hands
38:20
Speaker 1: still inside of his abdomen, told his assistance that he
38:23
Speaker 1: was okay. Then he looked over at the mirror that
38:26
Speaker 1: one of his assistants had been holding up this whole
38:28
Speaker 1: time so that he could see what he was doing
38:31
Speaker 1: during the surgery, and with a combination of the mirror
38:34
Speaker 1: and just sort of feeling around inside of his own body,
38:37
Speaker 1: which must have been horrifically painful, Leonid finally found the
38:41
Speaker 1: thing that was making him so sick. It was his appendix.
38:44
Speaker 1: This entire time, Leonid had been suffering from acute appendicitis.
38:49
Speaker 1: Then he cleaned out his abdominal cavity with antibiotics, and
38:53
Speaker 1: then sutured up the entire incision. When he was finally
38:56
Speaker 1: all done, Leonid examined his appendix that he had cut
38:59
Speaker 1: out of himself, and he saw there was this dark,
39:01
Speaker 1: diseased looking spot right on the bottom of it. Leonid
39:04
Speaker 1: estimated that if he had not removed this thing, it
39:08
Speaker 1: very likely would have burst in less than twenty four hours,
39:11
Speaker 1: and that definitely would have killed him. Within just two weeks,
39:16
Speaker 1: Leonid was back up on his feet and helping out
39:18
Speaker 1: at the research center like normal. And when the whole
39:20
Speaker 1: team went back home to the Soviet Union in April
39:23
Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty two, so about a year after Leonid's
39:26
Speaker 1: self surgery, he was greeted like a hero. The government
39:29
Speaker 1: actually gave him a medal called the Order of the
39:31
Speaker 1: Red Banner of Labor, which was for extraordinary contributions to
39:35
Speaker 1: Soviet society. And he would go down in history as
39:38
Speaker 1: the third person to ever perform a successful auto appendectomy,
39:43
Speaker 1: and he did it outside of a real hospital, with
39:46
Speaker 1: no other trained medical professionals anywhere nearby. And that's actually
39:50
Speaker 1: not the only way that Leonid's legacy lived on today.
39:53
Speaker 1: Some countries actually require doctors who are stationed in Antarctica
39:57
Speaker 1: to undergo preventative a to mees just so that they
40:01
Speaker 1: will never be in a situation like Leonid, Because it
40:05
Speaker 1: turns out the one thing you really can't bring to
40:07
Speaker 1: Antarctica is your appendix. Thank you so much for watching
40:15
Speaker 1: today's episode. Let me know what you thought of it
40:17
Speaker 1: in the comments below, And remember, we have a whole
40:20
Speaker 1: playlist of places you Can't go episodes ready for you
40:23
Speaker 1: to binge right now, So go ahead and click here
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Speaker 1: and give them a watch. All right, until next time,
40:29
Speaker 1: see ya,