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Last Dance · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. When you think of
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  Speaker 1: movie stars, there are way too many to pick from
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  Speaker 1: these days, and each year it seems those names and
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  Speaker 1: faces get swapped out for a brand new crowd. But
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  Speaker 1: a century ago, the list was a lot smaller, and
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  Speaker 1: sitting right at the top of it all was Rudolph Valentino.
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  Speaker 1: He was the original pop culture icon. Born in Italy,
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  Speaker 1: he came to New York in nineteen twelve, where he
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  Speaker 1: worked odd jobs bussing tables and gardening. It wasn't until
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  Speaker 1: he was hired as a dancer when his luck started
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  Speaker 1: to change. He found work in a traveling musical that
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  Speaker 1: took him from New York all the way to California,
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  Speaker 1: where he went on to pursue a stage career, although
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  Speaker 1: he'd only ever performed in front of life audiences up
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  Speaker 1: to that point, another actor took one look at Valentino
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  Speaker 1: and suggested he try his hand at films. With his
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  Speaker 1: striking good looks and his knack for wooing the ladies.
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  Speaker 1: Rudolf Valentino became known around Hollywood as the Latin Lover,
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  Speaker 1: and eventually only by his last name Valentino. He came
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  Speaker 1: up in the era of silent movies, of which he
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  Speaker 1: performed in almost forty Unfortunately, like other notable film legends
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  Speaker 1: such as James Dean and Bruce Lee, Valentino's career was
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  Speaker 1: cut short. He died at the young age of just
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  Speaker 1: thirty one. Over one hundred thousand people line New York
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  Speaker 1: streets to pay their respects to him. There were reports
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  Speaker 1: of suicidence by mourning fans, as well as a public riot. However,
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  Speaker 1: as strange and unexpected as his passing us, the circumstances
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  Speaker 1: surrounding it were even stranger. In fact, Valentino's death may
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  Speaker 1: have been the first of several linked to one common culprit.
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  Speaker 1: A ring. That's right, a tiny piece of jewelry he
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  Speaker 1: wore on his pinkie. He bought it in San Francisco
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  Speaker 1: from a shopkeeper with a dire warning. The ring, a
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  Speaker 1: silver band with the stone in the middle, was cursed.
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  Speaker 1: Valentino didn't want to hear it. He was a success
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  Speaker 1: now and he wanted something to show how far he'd come.
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  Speaker 1: He purchased the ring despite the owner's cautionary tale, and
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  Speaker 1: it quickly became his signature. He wore it in publicity
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  Speaker 1: photos and even in his motion pictures, most notably Two
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  Speaker 1: is the Young Rajah. It was a commercial and critical flop,
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  Speaker 1: the first of several for the young actor. His next
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  Speaker 1: three films were all box office disappointments. Despite Valentino's immense
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  Speaker 1: talents and dashing good looks. It seemed like the shopkeeper
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  Speaker 1: had been right. The actor's signature ring had been holding
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  Speaker 1: him back. Unfortunately for Valentino, it was too late to
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  Speaker 1: do anything about it. While on tour to promote his
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  Speaker 1: last film, The Son of the Chic, Valentino came down
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  Speaker 1: with a case of bleeding ulcers and required surgery. At first,
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  Speaker 1: everything seemed to be okay, but doctors discovered he developed
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  Speaker 1: an infection known as peritonitis, an inflammation of lung tissue
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  Speaker 1: leading to fluid build up inside the lungs. Nothing could
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  Speaker 1: be done, His condition got worse, and by the end
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  Speaker 1: of August of NIX he was gone. The ring, however,
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  Speaker 1: did not go with him. Instead, it was passed down
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  Speaker 1: to his lover, another actor Poland Negri, but she immediately
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  Speaker 1: fell ill after taking possession of it, and her career suffered.
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  Speaker 1: She managed to survive, but passed the ring onto singer
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  Speaker 1: and actor Russ Colombo. Colombo had been described as a
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  Speaker 1: doppelganger of sorts to Valentino, and it turned out to
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  Speaker 1: be true in more ways than one. Days after he
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  Speaker 1: accepted Negri's gift, Colombo died after a bizarre shooting accident
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  Speaker 1: involving a friend. The ring then bounced to another of
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  Speaker 1: Columbo's acquaintances, a man named Joe Casino, who was so
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  Speaker 1: afraid of the curse he locked the ring away and
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  Speaker 1: refused to take it out for anyone. But the allure
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  Speaker 1: proved to be too great, and even Joe succumbed to
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  Speaker 1: its call. He'd only been wearing the ring a week
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  Speaker 1: when he was struck and killed by a truck. Casino's brother,
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  Speaker 1: Del was the next to claim the ring and decided
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  Speaker 1: to lend it to a Rudolph Valentino memorabilia collector. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: he hoped that the curse hadn't been a curse at all,
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  Speaker 1: Maybe the ring had just been an innocent part of
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of odd coincidences. Well, you might think that
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  Speaker 1: if the ring's journey ended there, but it didn't. One night,
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  Speaker 1: Dell came home to find his house had been robbed.
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  Speaker 1: Guess what had been taken. That's right, Valentino's ring. The
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  Speaker 1: thief was quickly caught by police, though, but didn't go quietly.
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  Speaker 1: An officer fired a warning shot that ended up killing
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  Speaker 1: him instead. Several years later, figure skater Jack Dunn slipped
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  Speaker 1: the ring onto his finger for a screen test the film,
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  Speaker 1: a biopic about the late Valentino. Ten days later, Done
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  Speaker 1: passed away from a rare blood disease. After that, the
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  Speaker 1: ring was locked away, never to be seen or worn again. Today,
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  Speaker 1: no one knows where it is, and Valentino's spirit is
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  Speaker 1: said to haunt many locations around Los Angeles searching for it.
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  Speaker 1: That bus boy from Italy certainly made a name for
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  Speaker 1: himself in his short time on Earth. While his career
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  Speaker 1: had not been as prolific as some of his peers,
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  Speaker 1: he still remembered and watched to this day, and the
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  Speaker 1: name Valentino has become synonymous with the notion of the
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  Speaker 1: Hollywood heartthrob. After all, it does have a nice ring
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  Speaker 1: to it, doesn't it. We're taught from a very young
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  Speaker 1: age that lightning never strikes in the same place twice.
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  Speaker 1: But lightning is unpredictable and controllable, and it lacks an agenda.
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  Speaker 1: You might say that lightning is definitely not a serial killer.
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  Speaker 1: Because serial killers do have an agenda. They can and
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  Speaker 1: do hunt the same areas for new victims. They often
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  Speaker 1: have a particular victim type or compulsion for what they
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  Speaker 1: do or who they do it too. That was the
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  Speaker 1: case in Birmingham, England. Her name was Mary Ashford and
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  Speaker 1: she had plans to go dancing with her friend Hannah Cox.
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  Speaker 1: One Monday evening. She walked from her home in Langley
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  Speaker 1: Heath to Hannah's house and dropped off her party dress
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  Speaker 1: for that night. After work, she came by to change,
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  Speaker 1: and then the two of them headed out to the
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  Speaker 1: party together. Mary and Hannah had danced with several men
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  Speaker 1: throughout the night, but two had entirely captured their attentions,
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  Speaker 1: Benjamin Carter and Abraham Thornton. The two couples departed the
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  Speaker 1: dance around midnight, but after walking Hannah to her door,
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  Speaker 1: Benjamin headed back to the dance. Mr. Thornton and Mary, however,
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  Speaker 1: had other plans They walked the route to Mary's grandfather's house,
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  Speaker 1: talking until about four in the morning, when Mary went
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  Speaker 1: back to Hannah's to pick up her work clothes from
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  Speaker 1: the night before. That was the last time anyone saw
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  Speaker 1: her alive. Early the next morning, a man walking through
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  Speaker 1: pipe Hayes Park came across a pile of women's clothing
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  Speaker 1: next to a large pit filled with water. He told
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  Speaker 1: the locals what he'd found, and, filled with a growing
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  Speaker 1: sense of dread, they knew what had to be done.
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  Speaker 1: They dredged the pit and came up with the body
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  Speaker 1: a woman who, according to the police, had been drowned.
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  Speaker 1: She had bruises up and down her arms, clear signs
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  Speaker 1: of a struggle just before her murder. Beside the pit,
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  Speaker 1: authorities also found two sets of footprints in the mud.
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  Speaker 1: One had been Mary Ashford's, another set belonged to Abraham Thornton.
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  Speaker 1: He admitted to spending the evening with the late miss Ashford,
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  Speaker 1: but swore up and down that he didn't kill her.
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  Speaker 1: The police didn't see it that way, and despite having
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  Speaker 1: no evidence beyond his muddy footprints, Thornton went on trial
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  Speaker 1: for her murder. He was their only suspect and his
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  Speaker 1: odds of beating the rap were slim. Everyone, especially the public,
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  Speaker 1: thought that he was guilty, but public opinion was not
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  Speaker 1: enough to build a case upon the police just didn't
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  Speaker 1: have the evidence to convict him, and Thornton was acquitted
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  Speaker 1: of the charges. Even after numerous petitions for retrials by
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  Speaker 1: Mary's family, it could never be proven that he killed her.
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  Speaker 1: When one of Mary's brothers attempted to ask the judge
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  Speaker 1: for a retrial, Thornton defended himself by dredging up a
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  Speaker 1: piece of medieval law that allowed him to challenge Mary's
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  Speaker 1: brother to a trial by battle. If he won, he
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  Speaker 1: would be acquitted. If he lost, then he would be hanged.
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  Speaker 1: Mary's brother refused the challenge and Abraham Thornton was once
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  Speaker 1: again a freeman. Then another body turned up. She was
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  Speaker 1: found in the same place, pipe Hayes Park, under the
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  Speaker 1: same circumstances. Her name was Barbara Forrest and she worked
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  Speaker 1: as a nurse at a children's hospital. She too had
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  Speaker 1: been assaulted and strangled after a night of dancing and
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  Speaker 1: guess where the police began their questioning. That's right, with
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  Speaker 1: a man named Thornton. As it turned out, he'd been
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  Speaker 1: her co worker at the children's home, and there was
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  Speaker 1: blood on his pants. Unfortunately, DNA testing still had years
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  Speaker 1: to go before it would be used in police investigations.
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  Speaker 1: It just wasn't enough evidence to convict him, and Thornton
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  Speaker 1: walked away without ever seeing the inside of a cell.
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  Speaker 1: People close to the victims remember both women feeling uneasy
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  Speaker 1: about their lives just before they were taken. Mary had
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  Speaker 1: told Hannah's mother she had bad feelings about the week
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  Speaker 1: to come. Barbara Forrest had told a coworker a little
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  Speaker 1: over a week before her murder, this is going to
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  Speaker 1: be my unlucky month. I just know it. Both murders
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  Speaker 1: had been committed in the same place, using the same method,
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  Speaker 1: under similar circumstances, all by a man named Thornton. But
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't the work of a serial killer. And we
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  Speaker 1: know that to be true. Why because Mary Ashford was
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  Speaker 1: murdered in eighteen seventeen, while Barbara forrest death occurred much later,
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  Speaker 1: one fifty seven years later, to be precise. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
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  Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
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  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
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  Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
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  Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
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  Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.