And hello, friends and enemies. We're back. It's Perhaps It's You, your absolute favorite Unsolved Mysteries rewatch podcast that's also unofficial. My name is Liz. My name is Samantha. We're your cool mystery aunts. No, we didn't bestow that title upon ourselves. It was graciously given to us. We would never give ourselves nicknames. No, that's gauche. I was trying to think of the word there. So gauche. But we're here to watch Unsolved Mysteries and then tell you about it in such detail that you don't need to watch it yourself.
I feel like something that holds people back from our amazing podcast is they're like, oh, well, I haven't watched that episode of Unsolved Mysteries. I got to watch it first. And then, of course, they don't have time. And it's like, no, we'll tell you all the deets. You're good. It's not necessary. There's no homework. We're going to tell you the whole mystery. Because honestly, even if you watched it last week, if your memory is like mine, you might not really remember. You're probably not going to remember. I feel like people are constantly referencing things we've said in the past or things in past episodes of Unsolved Mysteries. And I remember none of them. And you're just like, yeah, dude. Look, if I had watched this in 1996, I would remember it word for word. But I watched it a couple days ago, so I remember very little.
That's just the way that the mind works. It's mysterious in that way. If only I had watched it in 1996, it would be like it was yesterday, but instead it was yesterday. So it's a foggy mess. Well, okay. So we're doing remote recording. Things have gotten very COVID-y again, as I'm sure you're aware. So, well, maybe not. Maybe you live in a country that handles things and things are not that COVID-y by you. Bless you. Make the most of it. But if you were in the United States of America, where we decided just to throw up our hands and go, I don't know, let people die or whatever.
look we're just we're back to the stay home mode yeah we're recording remotely so we don't even know if this is gonna work that's usually how remote recording goes yeah yeah my uh so i'm in physical therapy and my physical therapist today was like oh so what are you doing this weekend i was like nothing We're back to that. What are you talking about? What am I doing this weekend? Nothing. I will be working on a puzzle in front of my TV. Fun stuff. But the good news is that now we're back. So while you possibly have nothing to do, we can keep you company. Yeah, we can entertain you with the seventh season of Unsolved Mysteries. What does Robert Stack have to say about these mysteries? Let's find out. What does he have to say? Okay, we were trying to figure something out last night, which is, are we officially halfway through?
all of the episodes of Unsolved Mysteries. How many seasons are there of this goddamn show? Okay, we're obviously not counting the Dennis Farina episodes. The original, Amazon has 12 seasons, but I'm seeing conflicting information as to whether or not those are, that's the number of seasons. Okay, okay. What's hilarious is that if you Google how many seasons of Unsolved Mysteries, there's different answers. This is why I don't know. And I think it's because what's on Amazon doesn't align with what originally aired, and then there are the Dennis Farina ones, which if anybody was like, Liz, just do the Dennis Farina ones, even though Dennis Farina sucks. Well...
The thing is those aren't new mysteries. They just like repackaged old mysteries with like bad Google Maps footage is my understanding. So maybe there's like a couple new ones. I don't even think there are. I think it's literally they did the same things again because it was just very cheap. So there's no point in us talking about it again because not only is there not Robert Stack, there's no new information.
So I guess we're going by the Amazon way, which I think lines up with also what's on YouTube and Tubi for free. So I guess there's 14 seasons. But you would think on the seventh season of our Unsolved Mysteries podcast, we would know how many seasons of Unsolved Mysteries there are. I have always just assumed that there were so many seasons that we would burn out long before we reached the end. But you know what? Now I kind of look back on the time and I'm like, six seasons flew. Okay, season six didn't really fly by, but...
We've gone through six in like four-ish years. Yeah. So I'd say we have another good four years at least ahead of us, right? I think so. Unless the world ends before then. Well, that's the thing. There's no real, I don't see much point in planning past that. So I feel like we're set for the immediate future and we'll just, you know, we'll just keep chugging along until there's no more track.
That's the plan. If you are listening to this, the other good news is that you can now order our second zine. The second Perhaps It's You zine is done. It is in full color. It's glorious. There's all sorts of things like craft projects and Mad Libs and an article about why Roswell is boring by Rob of Our Strange Skies. I mean, it has it all. So you can get that by PayPaling us $15. And that's perhapsitupodcast.gmail.com. All the details for that are on our website, perhapsitupodcast.com. You're going to want one of those zines. I've seen it. I love it. It's hard for me to...
I don't know if I could pick my favorite part of the zine, but I really love the data analysis. I wish I could shout out the listeners. Because it's amazing. And when I say I do not remember what we've talked about in the past, there are things mentioned in that data analysis where I was like, I don't remember saying that at all. I don't remember giving episode five out of five tears.
But apparently I did. It's so, so good. And I can't believe someone sat down and did that. Shout out to them. It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. If you've been wondering, like, do we give more thumbs up, thumbs down? What's the average star rating? You're going to have to get the zine because someone went through all the trouble to crunch all that data themselves. Bless you. Bless you. We're also going to do a deal. If you didn't get the first zine and you want that too, you can get both. $22. I know. It's amazing. So that will all be on our website.
That includes U.S. shipping, so if you're not in the U.S., you have to pay a little more. Also, if you're in Minnesota, you have to pay sales tax. Sorry about it. It's the law. Okay. I would like to dedicate this episode to our resident history nerd, Rochelle, who has been under the weather. Get well soon, Rochelle.
Hopefully this episode cures you. I assume that it will. Yeah. It has curative. Did you send Rochelle some Lord's water or did we drink at all? I do have some in reserve, so I could send her some. If she thinks that'll help, I will. Rochelle, get in touch. If you need some Lord's water, yeah. Or some mints. Do you think some Lord's mints would do the trick? I got some. Can't hurt, might help. I mean, eating a delicious mint, it really can't hurt. And it might cure you. So long as you're not saying Bernadette.
I can't. I'm sorry. I can't move on from that story. I cannot move on. The Holy Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette and said, people who use this water will be cured. And St. Bernadette said, it's great. I have a lot of health issues. And then the Virgin Mary went, oh, not you. Bitch, not you. We've just found out from the Pope that all of us who have chosen to have pets instead of children are doing humanity a great disservice. Yeah. Yeah. That's curious. How many children do you have, Pope?
Oh, oh, is that none? Huh. Huh. Well, sounds like someone's a little selfish. And their name is the Pope. Interesting. Because someone was like, who asked? And I was like, was it his children? Oh, wait. Oh, it wasn't. It wasn't. Couldn't have been. Interesting. That's fine. I can be selfish at home trying to get enough sleep. You know, teach their own. We pick our different paths in life. And I like children, but I also really like sleeping. So, you know.
You have to weigh the pros and cons. Exactly. They're very needy. Children, get it together. Throw the fuck up. What is wrong with you? You're so childish. It's like your whole deal. Throw up. Okay. I don't really think I have any updates beyond that. We've survived into 2022, a year that sounds like a future. It's pretty hellish. Don't recommend. I'm working on time travel so I can go back to 1988 and go to the mall and shop for CDs.
My experiments are not going very well so far, so don't hold out for that. I'm not aware of like any important Unsolved Mysteries news. Maybe something happened. Okay. So we don't have a date, but Unsolved Mysteries has said that we will be getting new reboot episodes this year. Now it's January. So I don't know what we're talking about. It could be, you know, the end of the year, but 2022 at some point, and we will of course be covering those episodes on our Patreon. So if you want to hear, we've so far talked about every episode. If you're new here, we talked about the reboot, but we did that on Patreon. It's going to cost you a dollar to hear our thoughts on the new episodes, but that's something to look forward to. We have so little to look forward to.
god damn i know right grasping at straws as everything gets canceled again uh but yeah supposedly new unsolved mysteries somewhere out there so mysterious it remains a mystery at this point when those will air but yeah they're really leaning into it i think it's kind of on brand for them they're like who knows i mean we're still not hosting so it's kind of yeah a little bit pointless there is no host which i'm insulted no host is better than us We are so cheap, too. Surely. We could probably have been bought with a couple of Casper mattresses, and yet no. Okay. So we're here today, this day, 2022, to talk about Season 7, Episode 1. And I feel like this is a pretty solid episode to start on. I wish we had four mysteries. We only have three.
That's kind of a personal pet peeve. Maybe if you're not making a podcast about a show, you wouldn't even notice something like that. But I really prefer four mysteries. Other than that, I think these are very strong. And we start off with something kind of kooky, a little bit weird. Yeah, local. Yes, which is always exciting. Did you know this podcast is made in the great state of Minnesota, where it's quite cold right now? Yes, extremely cold. Which this is appropriate. This is a very appropriate mystery. You're right. We're a fine Minnesota export, just like Lizzo or wild rice.
Or snow. I don't know. Whatever else you get from Minnesota. Chicago mixed popcorn, we recently learned. Okay, but that was invented in Chicago. It's just copyrighted by a company in Minnesota, which I'm sure makes Garrett's popcorn in Chicago mad every single day of their lives. I think there's a lawsuit. Yeah, yeah. But if you want to know the origins of the copyrighted term Chicago mixed popcorn, you have to come here to Keeney. Hilarious. Okay. But also we have this story. So this is an unexplained. It goes back to 1968 when promoter Frank Hansen...
We see him leading two scientists into an isolated barn in southeastern Minnesota. It was very dark and foggy and spooky. Is this a real field cryptozoologist? If I had been better at school, could I become a cryptozoologist? Is that a real thing? I don't know, but I think there's probably someone listening who's real angry that you asked that question. I'm sorry. How dare you insult the cryptozoologist? I don't know. I wasn't sure if that was more of an ancient aliens caliber type thing or real. You know what I mean?
is this just someone that goes on like a lot of um history channel documentaries or is this like an actual credible scientific field i'm really not sure anyway i love those two distinct things they are which we know they are they are those are two different things okay um so their names were ivan sanderson and dr bernard helvins or something and they arrived to examine the ice man which was kind of a badass name i know And if you Google this, if you're looking for more information, don't go be like me and just Google the Iceman, which is going to get you a lot of bullshit that has nothing to do with anything, including a serial killer. But you have to look for the Minnesota Iceman. Okay. Yes. So this was a specimen, supposedly a prehistoric human that's encased in a block of ice. And it was appearing to be half man, half ape. I don't know what this means. It's supposed to be like a missing link between evolutionary link between apes and humans. But I'm not sure if it's supposed to be like a Neanderthal or like some other type of early human ancestor or it's just like.
A human-ape hybrid. The illustration looks, I'm going to say it leans towards ape. Okay. But I'm going to fuck if I know. Also, I was reading some article recently about these very large prehistoric apes that used to be in North America that were much larger than any apes that are still alive today. Oh, yeah. I saw the illustration of that. They're huge. I forgot what they were called, but my new theory is that that is Bigfoot. The ghost of those prehistoric apes is what Bigfoot is, which maybe we've already said that before when we talked about Bigfoot being a ghost. We were aware that there were such big prehistoric apes. Yeah. Also, I didn't really read that article about Bigfoot being a ghost. I was just laughing at the hilariously jacked drawing of Bigfoot. So in this case, I have more to back it off, which is that they were these very large prehistoric apes.
And so my new Bigfoot theory is that he's a ghost of that. And if Arden has promised to ask her relative who's a Bigfoot enthusiast how he feels about this theory, if you are a Bigfoot enthusiast or know someone who is, check in. Are you a member of the Wood Ape Society? Please send us an email. I would be very flattered and intrigued if a member of the Wood Ape Society listened to this podcast. Please tell me what it was like to meet Rob Lowe. Okay. So back to the Iceman. The scientists left the barn convinced that the specimen had scientific value and was not a hoax.
However, a couple weeks later, it vanished without a trace. Okay. Convenient. Yeah. So now Robert Stack is in a different barn in a trench coat. And he says, this is what I find very funny for some reason. Who or what was the Iceman? He's just like, he's just so serious about it. I don't know. And this is literally like a freak show attraction. Okay. So the question is, was it an entertaining illusion created by a master showman or something real as the scientists suspect it?
So earlier in 1967, before this Iceman stuff, Frank Hansen was touring the state fair circuit with what he claimed to be the earliest gas-powered tractor. I'm not sure. They didn't say whether or not that was true. I kind of got the impression he was lying. So did I. So, which does make the Iceman thing more suspect. It's a little sus. That he was touring state fairs. I mean, the Minnesota State Fair is like a big event. So many people go.
So I'm picturing this guy having his, like, tent. You have to, like, pay it to enter. And then he's like, this is the earliest gas-powered tractor, which, oh, my God, I'd be pissed. That's what's in the tent? If you gave a nickel and that's what was in there? It wasn't a mummy. Give me my nickel back. I want to just throw it on the ground. Yeah, I don't want to see it. I mean, I realize it's a state fair, but even so, I don't want to see an old tractor. Who cares? Anyway, so while he was exhibiting that tractor, he says he was approached by a soft-smoking stranger who said that he had something worth exhibiting and that would be worth his while to give him a call. So later, he met up with that stranger at a refrigerated warehouse.
The stranger declined to say where he got the Iceman, but Frank agreed to take it on the road as an educational exhibit. It became a star attraction at state fairs throughout the Midwest. We hear from a zookeeper who says he saw the Iceman when he was 18 years old and he believes he was looking at something that was dead and not made. He says he doesn't think it was made out of like plastic or wax or whatever. We also hear from an environmentalist who tells us basically the same thing. The person we hear from more is Dr. Terry Cullen.
who was a zoologist who saw the ice man when he was 18 years old and when they show him as like a teenager he has this like amazing hair in the past reenactments i hope his hair is really like that so good okay so he says that the ice man was about a six foot male with visible hair follicles and that he had trauma to the left side of his face and it was quote made out of some sort of flesh so according to him if it was a hoax it was like somehow made out of like a human body or animal bodies or something it was not made out of like plastic that if it was not the real thing that it was probably like a dead dude with orangutan teeth because at one point he talks about visiting the exhibit several times okay another thing that makes this very sus is that this guy keeps he's so intrigued by this exhibit and whether or not it's real that he keeps going to it at the fair he keeps paying his nickel or whatever but that makes frank hansen agitated like he doesn't like that this guy keeps coming back which why Yeah, I think he's afraid he's going to look at it one too many times and notice the zipper in the back or whatever. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So at one point, Dr. Terry Cullen, as a teenager, he even snuck in a magnifying glass, which, like, why would you have to sneak that in, right? They should be offering this up for human sight. They should be thawing it out, first of all. Why are they keeping it in the ice? Because it's so legit, Samantha. It has to be kept nice and fresh. I'm sure there's a presentation you would do, but, like... It's like a fish. You don't want it all thawed out. It's going to spoil. It's like a fish. It's like a fine restaurant. It's like when you go ice fishing.
Yeah. What if that's how someone found the Iceman? They were going ice. They were ice. And they just pulled up a whole giant block of ice that had a man in it. I'm sure that would happen. That would be a weird day. Only in the great state of Minnesota. Okay. So he snuck in this magnifying glass so that he could observe the teeth. And this guy, who is a zoologist, said that they were much like an orangutan's teeth. And he is so obsessed with whether or not this is real that he starts contacting, as a teenager, is contacting actual scientists and begging them to come take a look at it, which he must have sounded like such a crackpot, like calling up.
I don't know, universities or museums or something and being like, please, please, you have to come see this Iceman. I need to know if he's real or not. They're like, yeah, OK, kid. But eventually he convinced an anthropologist from the University of Minnesota to take a look, which you should have been busier, but OK. And so he gets the guy to take a look. Then he comes out of the tent looking all dazed and he just says that it was amazing and like walks away. He doesn't give like any more information. And it was actually Terry who convinced the two scientists we already talked about to examine the Iceman. They published their findings in, quote, a tabloid magazine for science buffs.
I don't really know what that means, but it does make me miss print media quite a bit. Okay. This brought new attention to Frank and Iceman. This is when the police became involved because, first of all, taking a body like over state lines is not super legal. But also if it is human, like how did it die? And how long ago? Like it suddenly becomes a matter. It's like, oh, that's real. We thought you were just like frauding everyone. But if that's actually like a human corpse that you're just like carrying around in a truck, we kind of need to know a little bit more about it.
And so the night after the police stopped by to be like, yeah, we're going to need to examine that Iceman. So Frank left town, taking the Iceman with him. Imagine that. As soon as people start asking questions. This is just mentioned in passing and I found very confusing. He later began to exhibit a replica. This part, it lost me a little bit at this point. And so the question is, is it real? Is it fake? Or is it a dead guy who unfortunately ended up as a sideshow attraction?
I don't know. Okay, so there is a little bit more to it. I'm saying, I don't know. Look, it's fake. He left town as soon as the police were going to get involved. I'm also pretty sure the replica he started exhibiting is the same thing. He just stopped claiming it was a dead body because I was going to get him in legal trouble. Right, suddenly it's a replica. I mean, it's a replica of the guy I used to have, but also don't ask me any questions about that.
Okay, so according to Unsull Mysteries Wiki, in 2013, the carcass allegedly resurfaced. It was auctioned on eBay and purchased by the owner of the Museum of Weird. The new owner claimed to have purchased it from the man who purchased it from Frank Hansen's family after his death in 2003. However, it is suspected that the, quote, carcass that resurfaced is actually the replica, not the original. I think it's the same thing.
apparently this was also on shipping wars so i'm gonna need to watch that asap and yeah if you're interested it's on season four episode six of shipping wars it was also on mysteries at the museum but i don't know oh season 12 episode 26 um yeah this is there's been various specials about this over the years um uh you can find out a little bit more information about it i think it's pretty clearly fake but it is interesting that it was like such a good fake i guess it's interesting yeah it seems to have fooled some people um Other mystery, why was Shipping Wars a show? There were at least four seasons. I mean, I've watched it, so I guess I answered my own question. I did look up cryptozoology, and Wikipedia says that it's a pseudoscience. It's neither a branch of zoology nor folklore studies. So I'll take that for... Alright, that sort of aligns with what I was thinking. I still probably should have become a cryptozoologist, maybe. Noted parallels include ghost hunting and oofology.
Okay. Sure. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it. Got it. All right. Are we ready for a last love? I love this last love. So yes. This last love was great. We're looking for the friend of Tom Vaughn, which sometimes when I hear Tom Vaughn, I think it rhymes. And sometimes I think it doesn't. It's playing tricks with my mind. So if I stumble over Tom Vaughn or his friend, who's also named Vaughn for some reason, forgive me. Tom Vaughn. Tom Vaughn. Tom Vaughn. It sounds like yawning a little bit. A little bit. Tom Vaughn. So in 1956, 10 year old Tom Vaughn was placed in the...
The Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Home for Children. Sorry, I was struggling to read my notes. First episode. A New York City orphanage after his mother Jean and his father went through a very bitter divorce. And it was extremely bitter. I forgot how Robert Stack describes it. I think he says that Tom's journey to get to the orphanage was a saga in and of itself, which it definitely was. By 1954, Jean was hiding Tom and his younger brother Dick from their father. She was taking them around to different friends and families and keeping them there and not telling their father where they were. Sounds very traumatic for a child. Sounds horrible.
Over the course of two years, she had them in nine different rooming houses and foster homes. Finally, they ended up living in the basement of an apartment complex in the Bronx. They were normally left alone. However, the landlord and his wife did watch over them and were actually considering adopting them and trying to become their legal guardians when Catholic Charities stepped in for some reason and decided to take them away and separate them. So that's cool. Why couldn't the landlord, who I know this is surprising for a landlord, but seemed like a nice dude. Why wasn't he allowed to adopt them?
I don't know. Him and his wife seemed like they were taking care of them and the kids were happy there and they wanted to become their guardians. But for some reason, Catholic Charity stepped in and ruled that Jean was an unfit mother. And then they pressured her to send Tom and Dick to an orphanage in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx. So that's great. When it was time for them to say goodbye to their mother, Tom says he was paralyzed with fear and unable to speak. It's so sad. They were able to see her on the weekends, but they were forced to live in separate parts of the orphanage. So even in the orphanage, they couldn't be with each other.
I don't know. I assume because they were different ages. It's really, really. Who cares? That's so weird. I don't know. I don't know. Tom became more and more upset by this. He was not having a good time in the orphanage when he met another boy who was actually, who'd actually become his roommate. His name was Brendan Vaughn and they are not related. They just happen to have the same last name. Brendan was the first person to talk to him at the orphanage. And in fact, he refused to let Tom kind of just like stay in the corner and be sullen and quiet and like, you know, not participate in games and things like that. He would go over and he would encourage him to join in and he befriended him.
He was there for him during difficult times. In one of the classes that they showed in a reenactment of, the nun was like yelling at Tom because he couldn't remember something. And then when she turned around to like go get a stick, presumably like beat him because he doesn't know the right answer. Brendan ran over and whispered the correct answer in Tom's ear. And then when the nun turned back around, he was able to give the correct answer and avoid punishment, I guess. Seems like a great time. Okay. The kid that they get to do.
they get to play brendan it's supposed to be irish like an irish immigrant i i'm not sure if on some mysteries is aware there's a whole country of ireland surely they have some children that could have maybe been in this segment but instead this kid just like talks with the most hilarious disjointed weird accent you've ever heard it is really funny there's a moment where he's describing the blurney stone and it's i think i just left that out they didn't have an irish kid to play this part No, I'm glad they left it in. It's real jumbled and messy and pretty funny. And actually just kind of adorable. I mean, they're kids, so it's really cute.
So a year and a half after Brendan and Tom met, Brendan unfortunately left the orphanage and Tom was again petrified with fear and unable to say goodbye. And he never saw Brendan again. Eventually he and Dick were sent to live with their father in Montana. Sadly, Jean's problems never improved and she died in 1985. Tom is now a banker in Colorado. He's happily married and has a daughter and he credits Brendan with changing his outlook on life and he has never forgotten him and wants to find him.
And luckily we get a reunion, which is, which if we had not got in a reunion, I would have been pissed. Me too. It would have. Yeah. We got to have that reunion with the last love. It's really like icing on the cake. So within minutes of the broadcast, Brendan called the telecenter from his home in New York. He and Tom were immediately put in touch. And finally, Tom had his chance to thank Brendan. A few weeks later on March 6th, 1994, Tom and Brendan were reunited in Manhattan. Brendan also met Tom's wife and daughter. He also brought his sister Noreen, who was also at the orphanage with them.
And it was really sweet. Brendan said that, did he say he was divorced or something? Yeah. He had had three wives or something and was single now. And so it was almost like he found a family. I think Robert Stack said that. I don't know if Brendan agreed. And it was like, look, this guy's alone. He's an absolute loser. He needs this. I was like, you don't know that Robert Stack. Did you happen to notice what time they met? I was wondering if you arranged this meeting. They met at 830 in the morning.
8.30 sharp. Because I'm such a morning person that did not even raise any like bells for me. I was like, who meets at 8.30 in the morning? It was very early. Okay. My other notes on this. So is that Tom has a mustache. He does. It's kind of a straight squiggle. So I gave it two names. It's either the ventriloquist dummy because he's wearing a bow tie and kind of looks like a ventriloquist dummy or the prickle bush. Take your pick.
like the prickle bush it's a little bit of a standard looking mustache i'm not getting prickle bush vibes but he does kind of with his bow tie you're right he looks a little ventriloquist on me i didn't say that but uh i don't know where you got that idea samantha so rude okay um oh i wrote down saved by a blabber mouth which is you know always good and it's just a good phrase say once again someone was saved by a blabber mouth and an example of brendan uh his sense of humor is that the two of them were lying in bed and he said tom tell me when you fall asleep oh yeah i was like what and he was like yeah tell me when you fall asleep i don't know it's very funny to me okay super adorable story loved it um now we have kind of a famous case this is an unexplained death we go back to the early morning of november 28th 1953 a crowd is gathered outside of new york's hotel scatler where a man has jumped or fallen from a 13-story window it was scientist frank olsen he left behind a wife and three small children his children now grown and extremely smart and articulate by the way
Oh my goodness. Um, are trying to figure out what really happened to their father who died at the heart of cold war tensions. So we do hear from his children quite a bit in the segment or at least two of them, maybe not all three of them. And, um, they're just so calm and put together and have put this like so much thought into this. I don't know. I was very impressed by them, but Robert Stack wants to remind us that the USSR was a very real threat at this time. So real. I was like, okay, whatever. Frank Olsen was in charge of a weapons project at the time of his death.
He worked at Fort Dietrich in Maryland in the Biological Warfare Research Department, which he was an expert in aerobiology to deliver of deadly viruses via sprays and aerosol cans. Oh, my God. What a nightmare. His work was highly top secret. One of his sons, Niles Olsen, has a mustache that has two very separate sides. So that's called part the Red Sea. I thought you might call it the double prickle bush. You're like, please never say the prickle bush again. I don't know. I don't know. Look, the mustaches speak through me. I'm just a conduit.
The universe tells me what their name is and I just let it flow onto the paper without thought. And sometimes I look down and it says the prickle bush. This is going to be featured in the next reboot episode of Unsolved Mysteries. It's going to be a miracle segment. They're bringing back the miracle segment. This woman names mustaches that she sees on Unsolved Mysteries via a divine spirit. It just comes to me. It's almost like a vision. I'm imagining you sitting there and you have gold leaf glued to your face. And the clear squares that comes out of the package.
Frickle bush just came to me. And I have to wear like a bunch of scarves and like way too much jewelry. Like every sort of, every sort of spiritual swindler does. Yeah. I'm wearing like 10 rings on each finger. And I just knew, and you just hear the clanking of my jewelry and you just, I just knew that the name was part of the Red Sea.
And now let it be so. Okay. Anyway, we're talking about the death of a man who had children and his name was Frank Olson. And he did some work for the CIA, which is, yeah, don't do that. That's my, if you want to live a long, happy life, don't work for the CIA. That's my advice. So at one point he attended a three-day conference with colleagues and he came home a changed man. After that, he was severely depressed and he referenced having, quote, done something wrong, but he couldn't say what. So it was kind of clear to his family that he hadn't like, I don't know, like leaked a secret or something. Like they had asked him like, oh no, did you like accidentally, like, I don't know.
tell russia how we're gonna beat them he was like no i'd never do that but like something had clearly happened that he was extremely worried about and it changed his whole personality his boss indicated that he thought frank was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and took him to new york for treatment While he was there, he shared a hotel room with Dr. Lashbrook, a CIA scientist. No, that's not how you treat people that you're worried about. But anyway, a week passed without his family hearing from him at all. Then one night he called to say hi, and he did seem at that time less on edge. Him and Dr. Lashbrook went to bed around 11. Lashbrook says he was awakened by the sound of broken glass, which would have been Frank falling to his death. The authorities said Frank either jumped or fell, but they didn't know which. However.
The night manager who worked at that hotel that evening found the death suspicious. He ran out to find Frank on the sidewalk before he passed away, desperately trying to tell him something, but his injuries prevented him from speaking. But it was kind of like he was like, hey, this is who killed me. But he like can't get the words out, right? Well, the night manager looked up. He saw that the window shade of the broken window was still down and partially pulled through the window. So say I have decided I'm going to jump to my death and I'm on the 13th story of a building. I would imagine.
that I would open the window before jumping out of it. Seems likely. And also that I would pull up the shade. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm unaware of a type of suicide from jumping off buildings. It involves like a running start and then crashing through a window and the blind, which seems to be what's being suggested here.
Okay, so fast forward to 1975. So yeah, that's like suspicious and weird, but they don't really know what to do with it. Also, I'm guessing the police aren't in a real big hurry to go, oh, it was the CIA. Yeah. Nah. Just a thought. Oh my God, please do not come for me, CIA. I'm so scared of you. This is allegedly, it's so allegedly. This case to me is a lot like the octopus. Like, we're going to talk about it. We are going to figure nothing out. And I am not going to dive any deeper. They are not going to catch me finding out.
Truth. Not me having opinions on those. I have no opinions. I have discovered nothing. And I know I would be very clear that I know even less than you think I do. OK, so fast forward to 1975. A government commission was formed to investigate past abuses by the CIA, of which there were allegedly many. The report mentioned a scientist jumping to his death 10 days after being dosed with LSD. It turned out that scientist was Frank Olson. At this time, Frank's family received a formal apology from then President Ford and compensation of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They also met with the head of the CIA at that time, William Colby.
who gave them a supposedly complete set of documents relating the last days of Frankelson's life. It detailed that the CIA, okay, so he goes to that conference, right? And he comes back and he's like super different. So what these documents that the CIA gave his family showed was that at that conference, which was a bunch of scientists, if they're reenactments at all, right? Like at a fishing cabin or something? Anyway. I think it was a cabin. Okay. So it's just a bunch of scientists hanging out. They're supposed to be like talking about the latest and I don't know how to kill people research. Super weird. And some CIA people are there and they were like, you know, it would be great if we did an experiment now where we dosed all these scientists with LSD and then just like saw what happened.
So they supposedly slipped LSD into an after-dinner liqueur, and this was done by either famous Sidney Gottlieb or his deputy, Dr. Lashbrook, which is the person he was staying with at the hotel. This was supposedly to test what would happen if LSD was used on captured spies and if they would be, like, more likely to spill secrets or whatever. There was a really hilarious reenactment at this point of a bunch of middle-aged men high in a fishing cabin. Check it out. Okay. Then one of the agents informed the scientists that the drink has been spiked, and Frank was understandably very angry.
did not appreciate being used as a guinea pig. In New York, Frank was taken to see a Dr. Harold Emerson, an LSD expert, which, okay, high school guidance counselors, there's a lot of jobs that you did not tell me were available, and one of them is LSD expert, okay? Just so you know. You might want to throw that out there as a possibility. Cryptozoologist, right? Ghost hunter, I don't know. His visits were also attended by his boss, as most therapy should be, and Dr. Lashbrook.
The documents don't show any kind of treatment for him supposedly having a nervous breakdown or whatever. It was more of an assessment to see whether or not he was a threat to the CIA. Obviously. One question was why Dr. Lashbrook never called for help after Frank went through the window.
It's a good question. It's a fair question. Yeah. But on the other hand, the hotel operator did hear him call someone. So this is from a time where there was a switchboard, right? Like you would call down to the hotel operator and the operator had to like physically connect to the line. And the operator did stay on the line to make sure that you were connected. And also it's probably like great gossip. So the hotel operator heard Dr. Glassbrook call someone and say, this was the whole conversation. Well, he's gone. To which someone replied, well, that's too bad. And then they both hung up. I would like to say that that's not suspicious at all. And the CIA has my full respect. Okay.
So that is the question if Frank was considered a security risk. Apparently, on one of the last nights of his life, he was hearing voices, and those voices told him to dispose of his money and ID, which he put into a trash can. There's also the question if they thought he was suicidal, why was he staying in a room with a window 13 stories high? Why wasn't he? Yeah, that's a pretty good question. After his widow died in 1993, the sons had Frank's body moved to rest beside her. But first, they decided they wanted an autopsy. Despite it being 41 years later, there wasn't an autopsy performed at the time.
it was found that despite the death report there were no lacerations to his face or neck so they're wondering how he made it through the window there was also major fractures in the lower part of his body but like different parts of his body that weren't really consistent with the fall like if you fall maybe you hit like part of the building on the way down but you don't hit like several parts like it should only be in like one or two places on your body it shouldn't be in a bunch of places on your body so that's weird um Then some sort of expert tells us that it's unlikely the CIA would have killed a colleague. Okay. And I literally wrote down, and now we all laugh and laugh. That's like, literally you have an expert that was like, I just can't believe the CIA would kill a colleague. And you're like, yeah, right. The CIA's duty is not to like truth. The CIA's duty is to like preserve the institution of the CIA.
but whatever but whatever that's fine i'm sure they are very truthful at all times that sounds like what a covert government i'm done okay um the update is after a year after years of investigation his family remains convinced that frank olsen was murdered by agents of the u.s government due to his criticism of illegal top secret protocols i mean it's weird to me okay so the cia's official story is that no we didn't push him through a window we just drugged him against his will and that led him to jumping through a window i was like well that's pretty bad But they're like, but we did not, certainly we didn't push him through a closed window. Obviously, he took a running jump through it in the middle of the night. But the thing is, I'm not going to look into it. And I suggest you don't look into it either. That would be my recommendation, honestly. Don't, don't. His family, honestly, is very brave to do so because they've kind of already seen what can happen if you ask too many questions. So if I were them, I might stop asking any questions. I'm really sorry. This is more than a tragedy, but don't be the next one.
yeah yikes did you like that book that you read that kind of um talked about this i did yeah last year i read um a book called poisoner in chief sydney gottlieb and the cia's search for mind control i think um and it was really good it's a very uh popular book um that book it focuses on sydney gottlieb um and the various uh well you could call them experiments other people might call them torture i'm just throwing words out there now but um what are words they have no meaning what are words but this death features prominently in the story because the party that they all went to where they were dosed with lsd against their will um was obviously a big deal and then subsequently led to this man's death so if you are interested in in learning more about it's it's completely wild the fact that they thought that the russians were uh discovering and developing mind control and that we said we've somehow needed to to get mind control too it's it's bonkers it's bananas uh it's it's crazy that that sydney got leave never really faced any consequences and got to just like retire to the mountains and raise goats it's there's a lot um but i did really really like it um
So maybe read that book if you want to know more. I know nothing. I thought that was not something that would be of interest to me, but actually maybe it is. You know, I thought it wouldn't be of interest to me either. But after, you know, once I got into it, it's completely, I mean, it will infuriate you, the things that the U.S. government did. But I mean, that's not anything new at this point. But it's wild. It's hard to believe, actually, and I'm not really surprised by anything anymore, that the events in the book are true.
I would recommend it. Yeah. Well, surprisingly, that brings us to the end of our episode because the last mystery is an update of a thing we already talked about. Though there is additional footage of him being arrested and not wearing pants. Yeah, he goes on a Porky Pig style fleeing from the police. Okay, he is. He's wearing underwear. Yeah, yeah. He's not flopping around, but it's still odd. And it's in like a swamp or something. Yeah, I'm not really sure what circumstances that led up to that. But yeah, basically on some mysteries, once you know that he's been apprehended and we get footage of him.
being apprehended he's not coming for you in the night yeah that's the i wish i could remember names but i have a horrible memory um it's the case of um i'm not sure if it was her boyfriend or husband but he came back from deployment he was in the military and um he killed his partner and also their neighbors i think it was a couple of them that were friends that she was friends with um it's really did one of them survive i can't or did they all did all three die i can't remember but anyway the police got captured him he was arrested and he was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death wow All right. Dark ending. Let's rate this episode. The first episode of season seven. Yes. So we've got our categories. The first of which is mysteriousness. Okay. This is not highly mysterious, actually. I wish it was a little more mysterious. I am hard pressed to think the Iceman thing is real. I wish I could suspend my disbelief. It's weird, but I don't know if it's mysterious. Yeah.
supposedly so my mom's family has a long line of masons in it uh stone carvers and supposedly someone back in the family tree uh was one of the carvers that worked on the cardiff giant which was a sideshow attraction that was a hoax that was supposedly the body of a giant that was like frozen but really it was just a big carving out of stone this seems kind of like a similar thing um i'm not really sure that's real okay last love thankfully not mysterious they get reunited they're good friends again everything's great and the cia thing i mean who's to say it's allegedly not mysterious That phrase allegedly not mysterious before, and I think it applies here. Yeah, this is allegedly not mysterious. Who knows? Who knows? Were you ever told that if you did drugs, you would jump off a building?
and like in like dare or something i absolutely was i mean i don't know what i was told i would jump off a building but we got the same like dare propaganda i recently saw a meme that was those those commercials where it was like this is your brain on drugs with the egg i somehow forgot the one that was like the floppy girl she's like oh yeah it showed up on someone's instagram story this meme and it just said i watched this and still smoked weed uh i absolutely was told Maybe specifically about LSD, but I can't remember that if I did drugs, I would jump off a building. And I think it's because of this story. I think it also ended up in an episode of Dragnet. I think a lot of boomers saw that and were like, well, if you do drugs, you're going to jump off a building. Or, allegedly, the CIA might come for you. And they're the ones that gave you drugs. Yeah, he didn't want to do drugs. Somehow that got twisted into this morality tale of like, you'll think you can fly. That's what we were told. If you did drugs, you would think you would fly. You would end up jumping off a building.
I'm not aware of that ever happening ever, by the way. I mean, maybe this one. Maybe. Okay, so I guess mysteriousness in conclusion is sideways or down? Maybe down? I'm honestly going to say down. It's allegedly thumbs down. No, you're right. It's allegedly thumbs down. It's allegedly really not very mysterious at all. Next category. Fashion. Okay, not great. All I can think of is that reenactment guy's hair seen in the Iceman, but that is not enough to carry the episode. Nothing else stood out to me. Thumbs down. The mustaches were okay, but honestly, we're in season seven. We need people to bring their mustache game.
These are not going to do it. These were prairie standard mustaches. Yeah. Even if they did end up named the Pricklebush. It's true. So it's like, oh my God, stop saying that.
I mean, that might be the title of this episode at this point. What are other... Mysteriousness, fashion... Reenactments. Reenactments. Okay, I think the reenactments were better, actually. The Iceman ones were charming, kind of funny. The Lost Love ones were very charming, even if the accent was really bad. The only one that was, like, super goofy was the scientist getting high, but I'm not sure you could film that in and not look goofy. So, I'm going to say thumbs up. It does get a thumbs up for reenactments. I agree. Okay, this brings us to our Roberts Tech scale.
Well, okay. How do you feel about stack himself though? Oh, you know, I thought he was pretty good. He had some interesting lines. He was also in like an old state fair, I guess, like a creepy carnival at the beginning. He wasn't there that much though. No, he really wasn't. I'm going to say sideways. So yeah, I think sideways for stack. Again, you got to bring your game. We're on season seven. Okay. So what on the scale? So talk about the scale, Samantha. Okay. So we can, our rubber stack scale is usually zero to five rubber stacks. I guess we could also rate in tears, but I don't think this episode warrants that. No, no.
I thought this was solid. I liked it. It was weird. I didn't see this Iceman thing coming. I really appreciate that. I think this has got great variety. This has got some surprises, some funny moments, some serious moments. At least a four for me. Yeah, I think it's a four episode for me too. I think it's a great one to come back on. I enjoyed watching it. It starts the season strong, which I appreciate. I think it's quality. I think maybe Stack did fun in a little bit. These three stories are good stories. They've got to meet them.
So I'm glad we're here. I'm glad we took a little break and I can be enthusiastic about this episode instead of being like, oh my God, who cares? This is slowly killing me, which is how I felt by the end of season six. like unsolved mysteries will be the death of me yeah that's really true should we end with some recommendations i think we should it has been a while i assume that our dear devoted five listeners have been they haven't known what to do with themselves these past couple months without any recommendations without me recommending an animal i follow on instagram yeah yeah they've been so bored without that kind of a plus content that we provide for free here at perhaps with you whatever random shit i bought on amazon lately yeah I'm an influencer, basically. They need those cloud slides, Samantha. I mean, you do need those cloud slides. Those are great. The other day, I paint sometimes, and I was like, I should really do more painting standing up. And then I was like, maybe I need to get the cloud slides. Huh, maybe it's time to get the cloud slides. Anyway, it's been so long that I had not yet had a chance to recommend the show Midnight Mass, which is on Netflix. And I love it so much, I've watched it twice by this point. It is a Mike Flanagan show. He did The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor.
if you enjoyed those shows it's similar but not exactly the same it's a story about a like um fishing community on a very isolated island and the main character riley has just gotten out of prison for a um drunk driving incident to kill someone so it's him like coming back to his hometown after this like horrible shameful thing and things are getting kind of weird and also at that same time their like town priest has fallen ill so there's like a new priest is standing in for him and it's the story of this community on the island and like how weird things get and i don't want to say too much about it because i think not knowing is definitely a huge asset and watching episodes but the acting is so good and the like spooky moody creepiness of it i just love it's a slow burn like at first you're like what is happening what is this thing and then it just like slowly drags you along and unfolds and i think it's a really cool story and very very well done so highly recommend that i feel like netflix 2021 they really made sure they were worth your 13 or whatever sometimes i've been like i've been like what is the why am i still on this there's nothing i want to watch but they brought some good stuff in 2021 and i think that was like the pinnacle example of very cool things to watch so if you have not seen that yet
I feel like that would be a great spooky wintertime, like light some candles, get under your comforter. You know, I don't, I almost feel like don't binge it, like draw it out a little bit, but you know, up to you. Hi friends and enemies. Unfortunately, we had a lot of technical issues at the end of our remote recording session and my recommendation is basically unlistenable, but it's really fine. I'm not some kind of influencer and Netflix isn't paying me to recommend the latest obscure documentary I watched recently. So fuck them. Here's the end of the episode. Love you. Anyway, the stupid Zencaster keeps stopping the recording. We've tried this like eight times, honestly.
I'm done. Okay, that's great. So, social media, Patreon, perhapsit2.com, get our theme now. Thanks for listening. We love you. You're the best. Bye. Bye.