Help Is Not On The Way

In 1859, in San Francisco, Joshua Abraham Norton, declared himself "Emperor of the United States", and eventually "Protector of Mexico". $1.6 million in rare photographs disappear. An owner of one of the oldest photographic galleries in the country is accused of defrauding artists, collectors, and friends in the case. Emperor Norton Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist says he was conned in deal...

John R. Brinkley dreamed of being a doctor. Unfortunately he couldn't achieve that goal. He could however say he was one, and became known for implanting goat gonads into patients. Brinkley was on the forefront of quack medicine, disinformation, and conspiracy theory radio.    Forrest Fenn, a wealthy art collector, decided to create a treasure hunt to get people outdoors. He filled a chest with tr...

In 2001, The Free State Project was founded with the intention of recruiting Libertarians to New Hampshire, in an attempt to create a sort of Libertarian utopia. Not too surprisingly, things didn't exactly go as planned. Salomon August Andrée was a Swedish engineer, physicist, aeronaut, and polar explorer lead an attempt to reach the North Pole by hydrogen balloon in 1897. Andrée had very little e...

The most devastating wildfire in U.S. history was not in the western states, or even a recent event. Instead it was in Wisconsin, on October 8th, 1871. The fire burned around 1.5 million acres, and claimed more than 1,500 lives. In the 1990s, a new genre of music emerged, know as Norwegian black metal. Some of the most influential members of extreme metal came from this period. Its members from we...

Jimmy Hoffa, former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters - a powerful union with ties to organized crime, disappears in 1975. Hoffa is eventually declared dead in 1982, though his body has never been found despite years of investigations, rumors, and leads. Brothers, Homer and Langley Collyer, became infamous for their hoarding and bizarre behavior. The brothers lived in seclusi...

In 857 A.D., in the Rhine Valley, an outbreak of a disease causing hallucinations, gangrene, and death occurred. Because the symptoms included a severe burning sensation, and it was believed to be a punishment from God, it came to be known as Holy Fire. Though a doctor in 1670 figured out the cause, outbreaks would occur for another 170 years before the cause of the disease was finally proven. How...

In 1980, while Texaco was drilling in Lake Peigneur, a sinkhole opened up and drained the lake, swallowing the drilling platform, and several boats and barges in the process. The 10 foot deep lake was popular for fishing, and was the backdrop for a botanical garden. On November 20th, approximately 2.5 billion gallons of water drained from the lake, along with the boats, several acres of land, and...

In 1985, Eastern Airlines Flight 980, crashed at 21,000 feet, on route to La Paz, Bolivia. Decades of searches turned up little, sparking a variety of conspiracy theories. Was it a disaster due to weather, a high altitude airport, a lack of experience, language barriers, and a lack of proper navigational equipment, or something more nefarious. In 2016, a trio from the U.S., decides to revisit the...

Warning : this episode covers cults. Cults often were bad, and the content can be upsetting. This material may not be appropriate for children. After a long break due to Covid, travel, and technical difficulties, Mark and Kevin return with an episode that covers cults, and a couple of entertaining stories of nautical failures. The episode starts with a discussion of cults, since Kevin had spend th...

Jean-Paul Marat was a French political theorist, physician and scientist, and, during the French Revolution, a journalist and politician. Initially an advocate of basic human rights for the poor, he became increasingly uncompromising in his stance against the new leaders of the revolution. He was assassinated by Charlotte Corday while taking a medicinal bath, as depicted in the painting The Death...

Starting in the late 19th century, Los Angeles was outgrowing it's water supply, and by the early 20th century, the fight for water, known as the California Water Wars had begun. On May 31st, 1889, the failure of the South Fork Dam sent 14.55 million cubic meters of water towards Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing 2,209 people. California Water Wars Chinatown William Mulholland Los Angeles Aqueduct...

Until the 1850s, the leading theory for disease was Miasma, or "bad air", was the cause of disease. Though basic germ theory was written about around 400 B.C., it wouldn't be until the 1800s, that the idea of germs as the cause of disease would be widely accepted. In 1789, in the South Pacific, crewman, led by Fletcher Christian, seized control of the Bounty from Captain William Bligh. While many...

When Germany invaded the Netherlands, the Dutch Resistance formed, and three women joined the Haarlem Council of Resistance. Freddie and Truus Oversteegen, 14 and 16 years old, joined in 1941, and Jannetje Johanna "Hannie" Schaft, 22, joined in 1943. Their jobs included transporting communications, weapons, and refugees, obtain false IDs, sabotage bridges and railways, and most notably luring and...

On January 15, 1919 a tank of Molasses collapsed in Boston, sending a 20 foot tall wave of molasses through town. The tank contained almost 2.5 million gallons of sticky Molasses. The ensuing disaster killed 21 and injured another 150. Bon Scott, the former lead singer of AC/DC was found dead in a Renault parked in South London. Scott had attended a session for songs that would eventually end up o...

Dean Cummings was a successful mogul skier on the U.S. ski team in the 80s, a World Champion freeskier in the 1995 World Extreme Ski Championship, and owner and operator of H2O Heli Ski, the premier heli ski company in Alaska. In February 2020 Cummings is charged with the murder of 47 year old Guillermo Arriola in New Mexico. In 1534 Anabaptists seize control of the city of Münster, Germany, in an...

When a Pan Am flight was hijacked by terrorists, Neerja Bhanot, heroically rose to the occasion and saved the lives of numerous passengers. Bravery and quick thinking by the Bhanot saves lives, but costs her own life. In 1974, an international group of climbers attempted Lenin Peak in the Pamir Mountains of Russia. During the worst storm in decades, eight Russian women were trapped near the summit...

Enigmatic Kaspar Hauser appears in the town square in Nuremberg, Germany on May 26th, 1828. Seemingly unable to speak more than a few words local officials are soon able to piece together his amazing tale. But how much, if any of it is really true?   Three friends from the small South Pacific Island of Atafu , in an effort to break the monotony of the “prison” of island life steal a small boat and...

Henry Johnson became one of the first Americans to be awarded France’s highest honor for battlefield valor, the Croix de Guerre avec Palme for his incredible bravery in single handedly repelling a German attack in WWI.   The search for a passage to the Northern Territories known as The Burke Wills Expedition departed Melbourne, Australia in 1860. The bravado and overconfidence of its leader, Rober...

In 1850, fourteen year old Olive Oatman was taken captive by Native Americans and spent 4 years with the Mohave. Her story after being repatriated into American society against her will would make her a national curiosity.    On Christmas Eve 1971 Julia Koepcke and her mother were traveling back to their home, a research station in the Amazon rainforest, when their plane was struck by lightning an...