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Brothers Grim · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:03
  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. Coincidence has happened all
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the time. If you've taken a tour through the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities before, I'm sure you've noticed a few tales
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  Speaker 1: of unexpected meetings or people in the wrong place at
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  Speaker 1: the wrong time. Sometimes those coincidences are just that, the
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  Speaker 1: unintended consequences of a random choice mining up with a
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  Speaker 1: specific moment, no premeditation, no effort. These things, as some
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  Speaker 1: might say, just happen. And sometimes the coincidence we find
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  Speaker 1: ourselves in is a little too perfect, almost as if
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  Speaker 1: fate had been planning it all along. That's how seventeen
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  Speaker 1: year old Erskine Evan might have described what happened to him.
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  Speaker 1: Erskine was a teenager in ninety He went to school,
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  Speaker 1: hung out with his friends, and he swam in Bermuda's
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  Speaker 1: shimmering blue water every day. You know, usual teenager stuff. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: maybe not exactly typical. Because Erskine lived in Bermuda, a
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  Speaker 1: group of islands often thought of as paradise, white sandy beaches,
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  Speaker 1: water so clear you can see straight to the bottom,
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  Speaker 1: and more than three hundred shipwrecks lying beneath the waves. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: Bermuda is also home to one of the most mysterious
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  Speaker 1: and dangerous parts of the Eastern Seaboard, the Bermuda Triangle.
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  Speaker 1: But to the locals and thousands of yearly tourists, Bermuda
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  Speaker 1: is merely a beautiful collection of beaches and British history.
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  Speaker 1: But it's definitely not like other places. Sure, people drive
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  Speaker 1: cars to get from point A to point B, but
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  Speaker 1: almost everyone trapped by bus, bicycle, taxi, or, in Erskine's case, moped,
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  Speaker 1: a zippy little two wheeler that allows citizens and tourists
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  Speaker 1: alike to navigate the island's narrow streets with ease. On
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  Speaker 1: July twenty one, Erskine had been riding through the city
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  Speaker 1: of Hamilton's British Territory, situated along one of Bermuda's main ports,
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  Speaker 1: lined with colorful homes and shops along its wide roads.
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  Speaker 1: Summer was a busy time to be out and about
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  Speaker 1: on the island, and that meant that the roads were
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  Speaker 1: crowded for a tourist, that can be a frustrating thing.
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  Speaker 1: But Erskine was not a tourist. No, he was a local.
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  Speaker 1: He'd lived there his whole life and knew what to
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  Speaker 1: expect from the vehicles that whizzed by him each day. However,
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  Speaker 1: on this day, Erskine ran into some unfortunate luck. To
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  Speaker 1: be more specific, a bit of bad luck actually ran
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  Speaker 1: into him in the form of a taxi cab. On
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  Speaker 1: an island known for its high rate of traffic fatalities,
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  Speaker 1: Erskine became one of the twenty six automotive deaths reported
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  Speaker 1: in five We don't really know what caused the accident.
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  Speaker 1: We don't know whose fault it was, or what sort
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  Speaker 1: of mistake the driver has made. Maybe Erskine was in
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  Speaker 1: the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe it
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  Speaker 1: was the cab driver who slipped up. We don't have
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  Speaker 1: answers to a lot of the questions we might want
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  Speaker 1: to have answered. All we know is that Erskine collided
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  Speaker 1: with the taxi cab as they both reached the intersection.
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  Speaker 1: He was thrown from his scooter and died a short
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  Speaker 1: while later from his injuries. Like I said, there are
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  Speaker 1: a few details we don't know about this accident, but
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  Speaker 1: there are other details that we do know, and they
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  Speaker 1: are eye openers, to say the least, because this wasn't
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  Speaker 1: the first time this taxi driver had been involved in
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  Speaker 1: an accident. One year earlier, almost to the day. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: the exact same taxi driver passed through the exact same intersection,
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  Speaker 1: colliding with another vehicle. Even more bizarre, the CAB's passenger
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  Speaker 1: in both accidents was the exact same person, which should
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  Speaker 1: take the award for the most amazing coincidence ever, and
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  Speaker 1: it would in any other story, but not this one,
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  Speaker 1: because the victim in the earlier accident had also been
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  Speaker 1: a young man writing the very same moped, not the
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  Speaker 1: same model or color, the exact same moped. It was
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  Speaker 1: all just too much of a coincidence to fathom. Yet
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  Speaker 1: it happened nonetheless, which is why it's so memorable and
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  Speaker 1: so fascinating. The same cab, the same passenger, the same
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  Speaker 1: driver hitting two men writing the same mop head one
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  Speaker 1: year apart. Some might call it a coincidence, but others
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  Speaker 1: see it as something bigger. Some might even call it
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  Speaker 1: a curse. Why because erskine Evan actually knew the first
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  Speaker 1: man to die very well. In fact, you see his
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  Speaker 1: name was Neville Eban Erskine Ebans brother. Variety maybe the
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  Speaker 1: spice of life, but I like to think that there's
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  Speaker 1: something comforting about routine. Routine is familiar, It keeps us
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  Speaker 1: on track focused. Even routine can be the difference between
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  Speaker 1: exercising daily or gaining ten pounds in a month. Routine
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  Speaker 1: can also be the difference between life and death. For
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  Speaker 1: the choir members of the West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska,
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  Speaker 1: routine was key to their daily lives. Every Wednesday afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: at four thirty PM, Reverend Walter Klemple would like the
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  Speaker 1: furnace so the church would be warm enough when practice started.
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  Speaker 1: He'd go home enjoy dinner with his family, and then he,
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  Speaker 1: his wife, and his daughter would go back to the
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  Speaker 1: church at seven fift PM for choir rehearsal. And every
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  Speaker 1: Wednesday at pm, Mrs fe Paul, the director of the
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  Speaker 1: West Side Baptist Choir, would begin practice for the fourteen
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  Speaker 1: other members who had arrived at seven twenty. This had
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  Speaker 1: been their routine every single week for years until the
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  Speaker 1: Wednesday of March one, nineteen fifty. That is, on that day,
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  Speaker 1: Reverend Clemple lit the furnace, just as he had done
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  Speaker 1: every Wednesday afternoon prior. Furnaces don't always stay on, however,
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  Speaker 1: They run for a time and fill the space with
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  Speaker 1: heat until the desired temperature is reached. Then they shut
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  Speaker 1: off and wait for the chill to return and begin
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  Speaker 1: the process all over again. But when Reverend Clemple turned
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  Speaker 1: on the furnace that afternoon, he was not aware of
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  Speaker 1: the broken gas pipe behind the church. He had no
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  Speaker 1: idea that when he turned on the furnace he was
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  Speaker 1: filling the church with natural gas rather than heat. The
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  Speaker 1: reverend went home as usual. He relaxed for a little
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  Speaker 1: while before he, his wife, and his daughter enjoyed their
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  Speaker 1: supper together. Afterward, his daughter changed out of her school
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  Speaker 1: clothes and into address her mother had ironed earlier, and
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  Speaker 1: all three Clemples bundled up against the chilly pre spring
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  Speaker 1: air for a walk to their weekly choir practice. PM,
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  Speaker 1: the furnace started up once more. The gas had been
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  Speaker 1: building up inside for hours, working its way into every
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  Speaker 1: nook and cranny of the modest church. The gas ignited
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  Speaker 1: in a fiery blast that shattered every window in the
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  Speaker 1: building and sent the walls flying outward. The roof collapsed
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  Speaker 1: straight down over where the choir stood during practice. The
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  Speaker 1: explosion even took out a local radio station. Firefighters quickly
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  Speaker 1: arrived to put out the blaze, and once the fire
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  Speaker 1: had been extinguished, there was the task of recovering remains,
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  Speaker 1: except there weren't any. Reverend Clemple's daughter had spilled something
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  Speaker 1: on her dress that evening. Her mother ironed a new
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  Speaker 1: one for her to wear, which kept the family home
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  Speaker 1: much later than anticipated. They were still at home when
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  Speaker 1: the church exploded. Choir member La Donna Vandergrift always arrived
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: practice early, but on that night, the high school sophomore
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  Speaker 1: had been stuck on a particularly tricky math problem as
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  Speaker 1: part of her homework. Rather than give up and head
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  Speaker 1: to rehearsal, she decided to stay home and finish the
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  Speaker 1: problem first. Acquires pianist Marylyn Paul was supposed to be
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  Speaker 1: at the church by sixty five PM, but she'd fallen
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  Speaker 1: asleep after dinner. Her mother, also acquire member, woke her
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  Speaker 1: up at seven fifteen, and the two of them never
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  Speaker 1: made it to practice. Every member of the West Side
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  Speaker 1: Baptist Church choir had a reason for being late that night,
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  Speaker 1: from car troubles to feeling under the weather. Not a
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  Speaker 1: single one was in the church when the explosion happened.
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  Speaker 1: A choir had never experienced such a night. I don't
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  Speaker 1: mean the explosion, which was definitely a first, but an
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  Speaker 1: evening when each person had been running late once in
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  Speaker 1: a lifetime occurrence, definitely a break in the routine. Call
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  Speaker 1: it a miracle or vine intervention, or even the luckiest
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  Speaker 1: of coincidences, but you have to admit this may be
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  Speaker 1: the only occasion of Acquire performing at its best, because
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  Speaker 1: it couldn't keep proper time. I hope you've enjoyed today's
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
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  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.