Seemingly Innocuous

A late night short-haul flight from JFK to MIA on December 29, 1972 started off smooth with no expectations that when it touched the ground not only would it NOT be at the Miami International Airport, but it also wouldn’t be in any place where a commercial jumbo jet should be landing at any point.  Take off and the entire duration of the flight all the way to Florida ended up being completely unev...

Welcome to another Side SIP!  This week we’re diving into the greatest natural disaster that San Francisco and the Bay Area has experienced in modern times.  The night was calm and uneventful until Mother Nature decided to quite literally shake things up! San Francisco and all its residents were jolted awake in the wee hours of the morning with a major earthquake but what would take place over the...

Sh*tbag Spring on SIP continues (and hopefully concludes) today!  Rebecca (Becca) Aylward had big dreams and ambitions even at the young age of 15.  She desperately wanted to dowell in school so she could eventually go on to study law and someday hoped to become a barrister in the UK.  She wasthe oldest of 3 kids and had an exceptionally close relationship with her mother, who felt like Becca was...

Myra Thompson had meticulously planned her bible study lesson as this was going to be the first of many that she would be leading at the Mother Emmanuel church in Charleston after being ordained as a minister earlier in the afternoon.  She wanted this evening to be perfect, just the way she liked everything else to be in her life whenever she was in control.  Unfortunately, her path that evening w...

Side SIPisode!! August of 1971, Dr. Philip Zimbardo kicked off his study looking at how  social situations and institutional environments can influence human behavior in drastic ways. He posted a simple, short ad in the local papers looking for young male candidates to take part in his study. Zimbardo hoped to learn the impact that a group in power could have on a group stripped of all freedoms. ...

It was a Wednesday evening on June 17, 2015, when 14 parishioners gathered for bible study at the Mother Emmanuel historic church in Charleston, South Carolina.  As good Christians, none of them questioned when a newcomer showed up that evening, saying he wanted to join them.  They welcomed him with open arms, not knowing that his presence would forever change their and their families’ lives.  In...

Welcome to Part 2 of Tyler Hadley’s SlaughterHouse Party where Tyler’s mental state unravels just as quickly as the party itself.   Hav and Suzie conclude the case in this week’s episode, picking up from last week just as Mary Jo and Blake were starting to think Tyler’s treatment was finally paying off.  Tyler was acting more like his old self with each passing day but little did his parents know...

Blake and Mary Jo Hadley had been married for 25 years and had the idyllic American Dream life up until this point.  Both had stable careers they really enjoyed, a nice house in quiet Port St. Lucie, Florida, and 2 sons they loved immensely.  Although their youngest son, Tyler (17), had struggled during his teen years, neither Blake nor Mary Jo had any idea how dark the thoughts were brewing in hi...

On a hot summer day, 7000 people gathered at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s traveling circus in Hartford, Connecticut, for what was sure to be a spectacle.  Little did any of the patrons know just how memorable that day was going to be and how absolutely tragic!  Join Hav this week as he covers this disastrous event and discusses many attendees who were forced to make split decisions...

At the top of this week’s episode, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin was likely thrilled from beyond the grave about what the future of the Zeppelin name was likely to become.  After all, rigid airships were looking like they might be the chosen form of air travel, especially for transcontinental flights.  The Hindenburg had a highly successful first season and with expansion of passenger capacity duri...

Months after the turn of the 20th century, a visionary was determined to make history with the creation of his design, albeit possibly borrowed, of a massive ship that he felt would change the travel and shipping industries forever. In this episode of Seemingly Innocuous, Hav a co-host talk about the rise (pun intended) of rigid airships designed and built by a German inventor whose name Zeppelin...

In this episode, we conclude the case of Charles "Charlie" Whitman and discuss how his vile actions on August 1, 1966 ended several lives and forever altered the life of Claire Wilson and numerous others! We also discuss the heroic actions of not only law enforcement but also fellow bystanders and how Charlie was finally able to be taken down from his perch on the UT Texas Tower. Written...

On August 1, 1966, students and faculty were going about their typical routines on the University of Texas campus in Austin. Little did anyone know that Charles "Charlie" Whitman had been planning for weeks to carry out one of the most widely known early instances of a mass shooting in the U.S. In this very first episode of Seemingly Innocuous, a true crime and disaster podcast that exam...