Stranger Than Fiction Vol. II

[0] Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad -free on Amazon Music.

[1] Download the Amazon Music app today.

[2] Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and today's podcast features three stories that demonstrate that.

[3] The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.

[4] The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

[5] The first story you'll hear is called Double Plot Twist, and as the first story you'll hear, is called the name suggests, there are two big plot twists in this story.

[6] And considering how insane these twists are, it's shocking how few people know about this story.

[7] The second story you'll hear is called The Lamp, and it's about one of the most fascinating Reddit submissions ever.

[8] And the third and final story you'll hear is called What's He Hiding?

[9] And it's about a genius who made a series of very bad decisions.

[10] But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[11] So if that's of interest to you, please replace the Amazon Music Follow Button's mouthwash with glass cleaner.

[12] Okay, let's get into our first story called Double Plot Twist.

[13] I'm Dan Tibersky.

[14] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York, a mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[15] What's the answer?

[16] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[17] Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[18] Binge all episodes of Hesterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[19] In the 1850s and 1860s, Edwin Booth was the man. He was this extremely famous American actor who basically anywhere he went in America, people would know who he was.

[20] He was extremely recognizable, a household name, an A -List celebrity through and through.

[21] But his acting prowess and his career and his fame, those are not the things we remember him for.

[22] In early 1865, when Edwin was 31 years old and was at the height of his acting fame, he walked into a New Jersey train station and walked through the building to the actual platform where the trains are.

[23] And as soon as he turned a corner and actually saw the train that he wanted to board, he very quickly realized that he probably was not going to get on that train.

[24] There was already this huge throng of people out on the platform pressed up against the side of this train, and they're all waving their arms around and yelling, and in the middle of this big group of people with his back pressed up against the train was the train's conductor, whose job was to sell tickets in addition to driving the train.

[25] But from Edwin's perspective, it seemed fairly obvious based on the conductor's body language and what some of the people in the crowd were yelling, that there just weren't enough tickets.

[26] That's why this big, unruly group had formed, because all these people were rushing forward trying to buy one of the last few tickets.

[27] Now, Edwin could have very easily just walked up and announced himself and shown his very famous face, and almost certainly he would have gotten a ticket.

[28] But to this point, Edwin had not been recognized in this train station, and so he wanted to keep a low profile, and so he decided against that idea.

[29] Instead, he decided he would just kind of join this big group and try to flag down the conductor and try to buy one of these tickets, and if he didn't, so be it.

[30] And so Edwin, instead of going to the back of this group, he went around to the right side, close up against the side of the train, and right as he got to the outside of the group and he turned in towards the group, he looked up at where the conductor was, and he saw the conductor turning around and walking back into the train.

[31] He'd clearly sold all of his tickets, and so anyone who had not purchased one yet, like Edwin, they were out of luck.

[32] They'd have to wait for the next train, when he noticed the crowd in front of him, they didn't disperse like he was doing.

[33] Instead, they all seemed to kind of surge forward towards the train, which was now moving, and as they pushed forward as if they were going to jump onto this train, even though they didn't have tickets, one man who was towards the front of this group right up against the train, he falls to the ground and gets trapped halfway under the train.

[34] His lower half was literally on the tracks under the train, and his upper half is now under this big crowd of people that are now trampling him.

[35] And so Edwin can see very clearly that if someone does not grab this guy and pull him out soon, he's going to get run over by the train.

[36] And so Edwin, without any hesitation, he jumps forward onto the ground, on the platform, and he reaches his hand out through the feet of all these people in this crowd, and he grabs the collar of the guy who had fallen, and he pulls him, and as he's pulling him, this guy who's on his back, he starts pushing with his legs and his feet.

[37] And within about a fraction of a second, they yank him out from under the train, and the guy who had fallen and Edwin are lying on their backs on the platform.

[38] and before they could even talk to each other, they sat up and watched as a big train wheel rolled over that piece of track where this guy had just been laying.

[39] Edwin had saved his life.

[40] The guy he had saved was a 21 -year -old named Robert, and so the two of them, they stand up and they face each other for the first time, and when Robert sees Edwin, he gasps.

[41] Because this is Edwin Booth, the mega celebrity.

[42] He could not believe that was the guy who had just saved him.

[43] And while Robert was very thankful, He also was just totally dumbfounded at the absurdity of the situation he was in.

[44] And so eventually, Edwin just says, you know, hey, you know, I'm glad I was here to help you.

[45] You know, no big deal, next time be more careful.

[46] And then at some point the men just shook hands and parted ways.

[47] Edwin would eventually get on the next train and he would go wherever it was he needed to go.

[48] And before long, his very busy schedule kind of occupied his mind and he'd kind of forgotten about what happened on the train platform.

[49] But a few days later, Edwin got a letter in the mail from a very high -ranking government official.

[50] thanking him for saving Robert's life, because it would turn out, Robert Lincoln was the eldest son of the then -president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

[51] Now, to be clear, Edwin was extremely famous and had lots and lots of influence and knew lots of very important people, but he had never had any interaction with anyone in the Lincoln family before he met Robert on the train platform.

[52] So it was just a crazy coincidence that this mega -celebrity happened to save the life of the president's son.

[53] But this coincidence was nothing compared to the coincidence that occurred next.

[54] On the evening of April 14, 1865, so roughly three months after Edwin saved Robert, Robert's father, President Lincoln, sat down in a private seating area to watch a play at a Washington, D .C. theater.

[55] During the production at around 10 .15 p .m., a man snuck in to the private seating area and shot the president to death.

[56] The killer was Edwin's younger brother, John Wilkes Booth.

[57] This assassination had nothing to do with Edwin or his interaction with Robert on the train platform.

[58] This was an assassination that was formulated and carried out completely independently, meaning it was purely coincidence that just a few months after Edwin saved a Lincoln's life, his own brother took a Lincoln's life.

[59] Our next story is called The Lamp.

[60] In 2004, Mitch was in his final semester at a college in Louisiana when he met another senior, a wonderful young lady named Kayla.

[61] From the instant he saw her, he knew he was in love.

[62] She played hard to get at first, but after several months, he won her over.

[63] After graduation, the pair stayed in Louisiana and moved in together while they got their careers off the ground.

[64] Two years later, the pair got married and almost immediately Kayla got pregnant.

[65] At the time, Mitch's career was really starting to take off, which allowed Kayla to stay at home and take some time off.

[66] By the time their daughter was born, Mitch was making so much money that Kayla decided to just stay home and be a full -time mom.

[67] A couple years later, Kayla got pregnant again, and by the time their daughter was two years old, they had their son.

[68] Mitch adored his children.

[69] Every morning before he went to work, he would sneak into their room and he would watch them sleep, and then in the evenings, they would have these big family sit -down meals and then play games together until bedtime.

[70] Mitch's life was perfect.

[71] Shortly after his son's birth, Mitch was lounging on the couch in his TV room when he noticed out of the corner of his eye the red lamp in the corner of the room.

[72] It just looked funny.

[73] It was almost like the light itself was blurry, but when he looked a little bit closer at it, the entire lamp looked blurry.

[74] And so Mitch looked around the room and nothing else was blurry.

[75] He rubbed his eyes and looked back over at this lamp and it was still blurry.

[76] He turned the TV off and walked over to the lamp and even though he was right in front of it, the lamp was still blurry.

[77] And Mitch didn't have bad eyesight.

[78] And so he's thinking, is there something wrong with me?

[79] Am I having a stroke?

[80] Do I have an aneurysm?

[81] Is there some sort of illness here that's making me see this lamp blurry when it's really not?

[82] But Mitch told himself he was healthy and that whatever this was, it was an anomaly and nothing to worry about.

[83] And so he went back over to the couch, turn the TV back on, and tried to ignore the lamp.

[84] But as he was watching TV, out of his peripheral vision, he couldn't help but notice this weird, blurry lamp.

[85] And so finally, he turned the TV off again and he turned to look at this lamp.

[86] And now, in addition to being blurry, it appeared to be upside down.

[87] Now Mitch was genuinely concerned that there was something wrong with him because, again, nothing else in the entire room was blurry or upside down.

[88] It was just this lamp.

[89] And so a few minutes later, his wife and his kids came home, and Mitch decided he would not tell them about this lamp.

[90] He didn't want to alarm them.

[91] He figures he will get to the bottom of this blurry lamp, and then he will tell his wife and kids.

[92] And so that night, the family has a sit -down meal, and then afterwards they play some games together, and then everybody goes upstairs and goes to sleep.

[93] But after everyone had gone to sleep, Mitch was just laying in bed thinking about this lamp.

[94] And so finally, he snuck out of his bed and went downstairs to the TV room, and he sat on the couch, and he just stared at this lamp.

[95] And for hours and hours, he just fixated himself on this lamp, watching it kind of morph around and turn upside down and get blurier and blurier by the second.

[96] The next day, Kayla found Mitch lying on the couch, passed out and she asked him if he was okay.

[97] And again, Mitch didn't tell her about this lamp that was still blurry.

[98] He just told her that he wasn't feeling well and he was not going to go to work that day.

[99] But Mitch didn't go to work for three more days.

[100] He just sat on the couch and stared at this lamp.

[101] And Kayla obviously picked up on this strange behavior and kept poking and prodding to get more information about what was going on, but Mitch never told her the truth about this lamp.

[102] He just kept telling her he felt sick.

[103] She urged him to go see a doctor.

[104] doctor, but Mitch told her it would be fine, he'd get better.

[105] And then over time, as this lamp continued to morph and get bigger and get stranger and stranger, Mitch suddenly was unable to respond to his wife.

[106] He became totally unresponsive.

[107] And so obviously, his wife became desperate and called the doctor.

[108] And as she's on the phone with the doctor trying to get advice about what to do, Mitch realizes the lamp is now growing in leaps and bounds.

[109] And before long, the lamp is the entire size of the room.

[110] And all he can see is the red color of the red color of this lamp.

[111] And then Mitch starts to hear these voices, these screams coming from somewhere in the distance, and then he feels this blinding pain in his head, and then he opens his eyes.

[112] And he looks up and he sees he's laying on the sidewalk next to one of the buildings at his college in Louisiana.

[113] And surrounding him is this crowd of people with wide eyes that are staring at him.

[114] Mitch had no idea what was going on, and so he naturally just began scanning the crowd, looking for Kayla and his kids to try to figure out, you know, how he got here.

[115] But before he could ask any questions and before he could find his wife and kids, a police officer ran through the crowd, picked him up and ran him over to his police car, put him in the back, and then began driving away.

[116] And so while Mitch is in the back of this police car, he turns to the officer and he says, what's going on?

[117] And the officer would tell him he was attacked by a huge college football player.

[118] He got hit in the head and he fell backwards and he hit his head again and he fell unconscious.

[119] Mitch asked the officer where his wife and kids were, and the cop said he had no idea.

[120] And that's when it clicked for Mitch.

[121] The lamp wasn't real.

[122] Neither was his wife, neither was his daughter, neither was his son, neither was his life.

[123] For the past 10 years, it was all a hallucination while he was unconscious after getting attacked.

[124] Mitch was brought to the hospital where he would make a full physical recovery, but after being released, he was horribly depressed, and he had to get intense therapy to basically grieve for the loss of his family that never existed.

[125] These days, Mitch says he can barely remember what his family even looked like, but periodically in his dreams, he will catch a glimpse of his son in his peripheral vision, and his son is perpetually five years old, and he's trying to talk to his father, but Mitch can never understand what he says.

[126] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[127] She had been under the influence and she left him there.

[128] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[129] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[130] What happens next?

[131] Depends on who you ask.

[132] Was it a crime of passion?

[133] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[134] This was clearly an intentional act.

[135] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[136] Or a corrupt police.

[137] cover -up.

[138] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[139] Everyone had an opinion.

[140] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[141] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[142] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[143] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[144] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

[145] I'm Dan Tversky.

[146] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[147] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[148] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[149] She's like, I can't.

[150] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[151] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls.

[152] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[153] Everybody thought I was holding something bad.

[154] Well, you were holding something back.

[155] intentionally.

[156] Yeah, yeah.

[157] Well, yeah.

[158] No, it's hysteria.

[159] It's all in your head.

[160] It's not physical.

[161] You're, oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[162] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Salem?

[163] Or is it something else entirely?

[164] Something's wrong here.

[165] Something's not right.

[166] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[167] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, hysterical.

[168] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[169] You can binge all episodes of Hibon.

[170] hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

[171] The next and final story of today's episode is called What's He Hiding?

[172] In 2017, Daniel Beckwitt was a 27 -year -old genius hacker and prolific Bitcoin Day trader.

[173] He was living in his modest childhood home in Bethesda, Maryland, with a multi -million dollar fortune to his name.

[174] And he was hiding something major in his basement, that when it was discovered by authorities, he would be convicted of one of the rarest criminal charges in the American legal justice system.

[175] But to understand this story, we have to go back to the beginning.

[176] Daniel was born in 1991 to his eccentric and brilliant parents, Linda and David.

[177] He would be their only child.

[178] David was a PhD and an accomplished opera singer that had trained under a famous French composer, and he had also performed at the White House.

[179] Linda was a Columbia Law School trained lawyer who at one time had been a government attorney, but she gave it up because she described it as a school.

[180] and she became a vocalist like her husband.

[181] When Daniel was just a toddler, he learned how to read, so it was clear he had unusually high intellect, which Linda guarded fiercely.

[182] She decided that public schools were not capable of teaching her son, and so she decided she would homeschool him.

[183] By the time Daniel was just five years old, he was consuming entire novels, and shortly after that, he was able to break down and reprogram his PlayStation.

[184] But despite his incredible intelligence, Daniel had a really lonely childhood.

[185] He was rarely allowed to go outside and play with other kids, and on the rare chance that he was, his parents always hovered around him the entire time.

[186] And few playmates, or adults for that matter, ever came inside of Daniel's house because Daniel's parents were big -time hoarders.

[187] You couldn't take two steps into that house before knocking into a big stack of papers or books or old food containers.

[188] In 2000, when Daniel was nine years old, his father was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which left Linda, his mother, to take care of both of them.

[189] them.

[190] And in that time, Linda became obsessed with protecting their property.

[191] And so anytime anyone walked in front of their house, just near their property, she would run outside and yell at them until they ran away.

[192] But despite their eccentricities, it was clear to anybody that knew the Beckwith family that Linda and David just adored Daniel.

[193] They just could not give him any space.

[194] One neighbor recalled seeing the three Beckwits out trick -or -treating one year, all wearing the same matching hamster outfits.

[195] And this was well into Daniel's teenage years.

[196] Daniel loved his parents, but it was in those later teenage years, but he started to realize just how smothering they really were, and so he began looking for other places to connect with new people, and he found a new community on an online forum called Fortune.

[197] There, Daniel got to reinvent himself.

[198] He adopted this kind of tough guy, genius persona, where he bragged about finishing most of high school by the time he was 15, and that nowadays he just blows stuff up in his backyard to test his chemistry know -how.

[199] But over the years of posting on this channel, Daniel would occasionally let his guard down, and he would talk about something that was really close to him that pervaded his thoughts at all times and would ultimately be his downfall.

[200] And that was his extreme fear of death.

[201] Daniel's isolation looked like it might come to an end in 2010 when he enrolled at the University of Illinois to study computer science and electrical engineering.

[202] His parents dropped him off at the Amtrak train station with all of his stuff for college.

[203] They said their goodbyes.

[204] Daniel hopped on the train, and he went.

[205] waved to them as they disappeared, and he likened that experience to being set free.

[206] It was the first time he was going to be without his parents for any amount of time.

[207] But unfortunately, after only being at school for a couple of months, he had to go right back home again because his mother was diagnosed with cancer.

[208] And she had hit it from Daniel.

[209] In fact, she had hit it from everyone and not even seen a doctor.

[210] And so when Daniel got home, she was in really bad shape, and she passed away two weeks later.

[211] Including Daniel, only three people showed up for her funeral.

[212] And so Daniel, with his mismatched clothes and his pants that were too short, he gave his mother's eulogy.

[213] And in it, he just looked dazed.

[214] And he actually said, I feel lost.

[215] And then shortly after Daniel went back to school, his father began declining rapidly from Parkinson's disease.

[216] And so Daniel had to put him into assisted living.

[217] And so living by himself at his apartment in college, Daniel was overcome with grief.

[218] and now more than ever, he was just terrified of death because now he had seen it up close with his mother and he was watching his father wither away.

[219] And so he went back on 4chan and he began talking about taking a more defensive position against his own death.

[220] What that translated to is Daniel began researching what the most common killers were for people his age.

[221] And he discovered that car accidents were a big killer.

[222] And so he reinforced all the doors of his car with Kevlar plates and any time he drove it, he wore a Kevlar vest.

[223] which he believed protected him from blunt force trauma in the event of a crash.

[224] Knowing that cancer was a big killer, he went out and removed every mole on his body as a preventative measure.

[225] But what Daniel viewed as the biggest threat to his life was not something that statisticians would tell you is something people his age or people in his country should be worried about, and that was a nuclear attack on the United States.

[226] Daniel believed it was imminent.

[227] Daniel believed the only way he could protect himself was to build a proper fallout shelter.

[228] And because his mother had left him a multi -million dollar trust fund, he had the means to construct one.

[229] And so he left college and went back to his home.

[230] He went down into the basement and he picked a spot right in the middle of the ground and he began digging.

[231] Over the next two years, Daniel spent part of his time living at college, being a really good student.

[232] And the other half of his time was spent living at his family home, hiring different contractors to come in and dig out this massive labyrinth of tunnels underneath his property.

[233] But in 2012, his schoolwork and his tunnel work had to come to a complete stop because he got in trouble with the law.

[234] Professors at Daniel's school began reporting that somebody was sneaking into their office, hacking into their computer, and then sending these really inappropriate and embarrassing emails to everybody in their contact list, which was primarily former and current students and faculty.

[235] And then whoever it was that was hacking their computer was then supergluing their door shut.

[236] After several months of investigating, the police finally got a suspect when students on campus said, yeah, Daniel Beckwith is actually a prolific hacker.

[237] And he just spoke at a hacker conference, so he seems like someone who would be capable of doing this.

[238] And so a detective went to Daniel's apartment to pay him a casual visit, but Daniel wasn't there or didn't come to the door, and the detective looked down and saw a package that was sitting there that was addressed to S. Loomis Detweiler.

[239] The detective believed this could be an alias for Daniel Beckwith, and so he went back and they ran that name, and sure enough, it was connected to an online persona that had recently been bragging about breaking into their professor's offices and hacking into their emails.

[240] So the police used this information to attain a search warrant.

[241] They went back to Daniel's apartment.

[242] He wasn't there.

[243] They used the key they had been given for the unit.

[244] They went inside and they're hit with just this ridiculous mess of an apartment.

[245] It looked exactly like Daniel's home growing up with stacks of papers and books and wires and computer equipment and trash and old food containers.

[246] And there was just this dirty mattress sitting right in the middle of the apartment with no sheets on it.

[247] And in the back, on top of a mini -fridge was Daniel's laptop.

[248] It was open and it was unsecured, so they logged into it, cloned his hard drive, and left.

[249] And using the information that was contained on this hard drive, detectives were able to, without a doubt, connect Daniel to the vandalism and hacking that have been taking place at his college.

[250] Daniel was arrested and charged with a number of serious felonies, but shortly before his trial, Daniel struck a plea deal and then immediately took to Reddit to tell the world that he fully expected the state governor to pardon him, he had made a number of significant contributions to his campaign.

[251] But that pardon never came.

[252] However, Daniel's sentence was remarkably light.

[253] He was ordered to pay $23 ,000 in restitution to the college and then was given two years of probation.

[254] Daniel was expelled from his school and so he moved back into his childhood home where he lived alone full time.

[255] Once home, Daniel focused his efforts on this bunker he was building in his basement, which by now was a fairly large series of tunnels that zigged and zagged in different directions well beyond his property lines.

[256] Once Daniel hired a couple good contractors to continue to expand this bunker, he turned his attention to a new activity, Bitcoin trading.

[257] And in relative short order, Daniel became extremely good at this and made millions of dollars.

[258] By 2015, Daniel was off probation.

[259] His bunker was almost completely built out, although he did have plans at some point to hire more people than continue to expand it.

[260] And in terms of Bitcoin day trading, he wasn't doing it as much because he had made so much money.

[261] Now he just spent his time sitting inside of his bunker, live streaming on this new website.

[262] called Blab about his investment prowess.

[263] And every time Daniel livestreamed, he was cautious to never reveal his identity.

[264] And so he used the username Three Alarm Lamp Scooter, and he wore a large fire protection hood over his face, and he used a voice changer.

[265] Within his small but avid following on Blab, there was one 19 -year -old named Askiya Koffra who completely idolized Daniel, even though he only knew him as Three Alarm.

[266] Askiya was from a middle -class home, and he was the son of immigrants from Trinidad, He also lived only 15 minutes away from Daniel, but he didn't know that because Daniel never gave up where he lived because he was so obsessed with protecting himself against a potential nuclear attack.

[267] He just told people he lived in some underground bunker in the middle of Virginia somewhere.

[268] Askiah longed to be successful and rich, which is part of the reason he idolized Daniel so much.

[269] When he was 18 years old, he received a $100 ,000 settlement for a lead poisoning case, and he for a second got to live the life of someone rich and famous, and he blew it immediately.

[270] on expensive dinners and rented Mercedes and BMW cars.

[271] And once the money was all gone, he was certain he could get it all back.

[272] And his big plan is he was going to build an app called Equity Shark, which is basically crowdfunding that allowed people to invest small amounts of money into new promising startups.

[273] And he believed this app was going to be the way he made not millions, but billions of dollars.

[274] But he didn't have any real money to fund this app.

[275] And so he and his business partner applied for a $100 ,000 grant for young entrepreneurs, that have dropped out of college, something Askiah had just done, and they were certain they were going to get this grant.

[276] But despite Askiah's confidence, he was far from a sure bet for this money, because Askiah still had many of the blind spots of someone still learning how to become an adult, and one of his biggest blind spots was how quick he was to trust people.

[277] And so it was shortly after Askiah and his business partner had applied for this $100 ,000 grant, that Askea came across Daniel on Blab, and he was so taken with him, and he's got all this money, and he's so successful.

[278] And that's when Daniel told his followers that he was open to new investments.

[279] And so Askiah, who wanted to get closer to Daniel and figured he could use some additional money because even when they got this $100 ,000 grant, they would need more money to build the business.

[280] He decided he would ask Daniel if he and his business partner could pitch him on Equity Shark.

[281] And Daniel agreed.

[282] And so in June of 2016, Askiah and his business partner went to this hookabar.

[283] It was about 20 minutes away from Askiah's home.

[284] And there they sat, waiting for three alarm lamps.

[285] scooter to walk through the door.

[286] And they didn't know what he was going to look like, because whenever they saw him on his live streams, he had that big fire protection hood on.

[287] But as soon as Daniel walked through the door, they immediately knew it was him because he had this comically bulky shirt on where it was obvious he had a bulletproof vest on.

[288] And so this guy with the bulletproof vest walks over, introduces himself as Three Alarm, aka Daniel.

[289] And so by now, Askiah and his business partner are very accustomed to Three Alarm's eccentricities like his Bulletproof vest.

[290] They just kind of look at and begin pitching him on Equity Shark.

[291] And they tell him that the success of the company they believe is hinged on this $100 ,000 grant, that they explained they are certain to get, they meet all the parameters, they are exactly what they're looking for.

[292] And at the end of the conversation, Daniel was convinced that not only were they going to get this $100 ,000 grant, but that Equity Shark seemed like a great investment.

[293] And so after a number of follow -on meetings, Daniel ultimately committed $5 ,000 to Equity Shark, and he told Askiya that they would have to pay him back with the funds from the $100 ,000 grant, or if for some reason that didn't come through, ASCIA and his business partner would have to find another way to pay back Daniel.

[294] Askiah and his business partner were totally thrilled.

[295] They felt like that $100 ,000 grant is a done deal, so there's no risk to this investment by Daniel.

[296] And shortly after they secured the $5 ,000, the manager of the $100 ,000 grant program called Askiah and said, hey, you guys have made it to the second round of applicants.

[297] we need you to fly out to San Francisco and pitch your company to us.

[298] And so they're totally excited.

[299] They tell Daniel that everything's progressing exactly as they planned, and they fly out to the West Coast, but they book their flight to LAX, not to the airport in San Francisco.

[300] So they land 400 miles south of where they needed to be.

[301] And so they're cussing themselves for being so stupid about this, and they realize they can't even rent a car.

[302] They're not old enough to rent a car.

[303] But they were old enough to rent a U -Haul.

[304] So they rent this huge U -Haul, and they start bombing up the coast towards San Francisco to make this meeting in time, but they plugged the wrong address into their GPS and did not go to the right building.

[305] They went in the opposite direction.

[306] And so by the time they finally got all the way back to the meeting place in San Francisco, it was too late, and the manager that was waiting for them was clearly upset about it and said, just go home, we'll be in touch by phone.

[307] Back home, Osce was totally embarrassed when he told Daniel about their botched trip, and he was convinced that they were not going to get the grant now because of how badly they had screwed up the meeting.

[308] And so Askiya began asking Daniel if he would give them more money, because maybe if they use that additional money to bolster the app and make it more appealing, they will have a better chance at getting that $100 ,000 grant.

[309] Daniel eventually said he would commit more money, but Askiah picked up that he was really hesitant and just seemed not to be very interested in Equity Shark anymore.

[310] And so Askiah, hoping to stay in Daniel's good graces and wanting to make sure he was confident in this investment, he said, hey, let me do something for you.

[311] I heard on one of the channels online that you're looking to expand some of the tunnels inside of your bunker.

[312] Let me do that for you.

[313] Daniel, who was looking to expand his bunker, was eager to hire Askiah.

[314] But he told him that if you're going to work for me, there's going to be heavy restrictions on how this goes.

[315] Because it's a very secret location.

[316] I don't want this to leak out where my bunker is because, as you know, there's going to be a nuclear attack on the United States any day.

[317] And my bunker is one of the only places that's going to be safe.

[318] Askiya said that was totally fine, he would do whatever Daniel needed.

[319] So on January 28th, 2017, just after 2 a .m., Askiya sat outside his house waiting for some car to come pick him up.

[320] And at some point, Daniel showed up in a minivan, and he walked up to Aska, he led him into the van, and then he put goggles that were blacked out on his head.

[321] And then Daniel drove around in loops up on the highway and background neighborhoods, giving the impression to Askiah that they were actually going somewhere far outside of Maryland, but really they were only going 15 minutes away to Daniel's actual house.

[322] And when they got to Daniel's house, Daniel made Askea keep the goggles on.

[323] Daniel got out and he led Askea by a string into the house.

[324] And once they got inside, Daniel had to carefully walk him around all the junk that was piled up all over the house.

[325] They made their way all the way to the back.

[326] They went down the stairs into the basement where Daniel had intentionally created this unbelievable maze all over the basement floor with chicken wire and stacks of bikes and books and more junk.

[327] there was designed so anybody who was working inside of the tunnels that even once they came out of the exit wouldn't even know how to get out of the basement.

[328] And finally, after bringing Oscea all the way through this maze, he stopped him right in front of this hole in the ground that was the entrance into the underground tunnels.

[329] And at that point, he told Oscea to remove his goggles.

[330] Daniel told him to hop down and take a look.

[331] So Aski'll hop down and he's looking around and he's seeing these massive tunnel systems pushing out in all directions and all of it is extremely well lit.

[332] And he couldn't believe what he was looking at.

[333] And he's looking at Daniel, like, how far does this go?

[334] And Daniel said, it's huge.

[335] It was at this point that Daniel handed down to Oskia a pickax, a shovel, and a hard hat.

[336] And he explained to him that any time you're in the tunnels, I'm going to have to cover over this hole.

[337] Because I can't even have you in the basement.

[338] It's too much of a security threat for me. And in fact, I'd prefer it if you worked multiple days in a row, because anytime you leave, we're going to have to do the whole blindfold thing.

[339] And so you should anticipate living in the tunnels for days at a stretch.

[340] But don't worry, there's a mattress down there, there's Wi -Fi.

[341] Everything's well lit up, and there's a five -gallon bucket if you need to go to the bathroom.

[342] And so Askiah, who trusted Daniel, didn't love this setup, but in a weird way, he was just kind of excited to be a part of this guy's life.

[343] This guy who he believed was just this really amazing person.

[344] And so over the following winter and spring, Askiah would make the blindfold commute all the way to Daniel's house 15 minutes away, and then he would spend multiple days down in the tunnel chiseling away into these different tunnels that Daniel wanted expanded.

[345] But as well as it was going, working for Daniel, Oscea was dealt some bad news at the end of the spring when it turned out Equity Shark was turned down for that $100 ,000 grant.

[346] Oscea was surprised, he was crushed, and he now knew he would have to pay back that $5 ,000 that Daniel had invested in Equity Shark because he wasn't getting it from the $100 ,000 anymore.

[347] And so he asked Daniel if he could increase his hours in the tunnel to try to pay back that debt.

[348] Daniel agreed, and so on September 10th, Oscea was back at Daniel's house, and he was down inside the tunnels in one of the lowest sections that required squeezing through a very narrow section that Askiah had actually texted his friends about and said that section made him really claustrophobic, but he had to do it.

[349] He needed to pay back the debt.

[350] And so later that day at 4 p .m., when Oscea was down in that lower section, the power in the tunnel suddenly went completely out.

[351] So it's pitch black.

[352] And so Daniel, who was upstairs, recognized it happened.

[353] And so he navigated to throw the junk upstairs, came downstairs, navigated the maze, all the way to the circuit breaker in the basement and he flipped the switch and the power went on but Daniel heard a loud buzzing sound coming from upstairs in the kitchen and so worried that could be an electrical fire he turned back off the circuit breaker putting Askiah back in total darkness down deep inside of this tunnel and Daniel went back through this really epic maze in the basement, went up the stairs into the kitchen to investigate the buzzing sound and as soon as he left the basement he could smell smoke and he turned around and looked down into the basement and he could clearly see smoke was filling the basement.

[354] And so Daniel ran downstairs and he yelled out for Askiah.

[355] And somewhere way down in the tunnels, he heard Askiah yell out, hey, dude, what's going on?

[356] And Daniel's like, come on, you got to get out of there.

[357] But he was totally overcome with smoke.

[358] And Daniel had to run back upstairs, ran outside.

[359] He caught his breath.

[360] And then he charged back into the house, down into the basement.

[361] But as soon as he got to the bottom of the stairs, he didn't see Askia, but he saw flames leaping out of the entrance into the tunnels.

[362] And he knew Askia was down there.

[363] he's screaming for Oskia to get out, get out.

[364] But he didn't hear from him.

[365] And at some point, Daniel just had to turn around and leave because he was totally overcome with the heat and the smoke.

[366] A neighbor saw Daniel come running out.

[367] They saw the smoke coming out of his house, and so they called 911.

[368] And so while Daniel paced outside screaming for Oskia, Askea is down in total darkness.

[369] There's smoke filling up the tunnels, and he began making his way across that very tight section.

[370] But once he got out of there, he had no idea where to go, because this tunnel system was huge and all the power was out so it's pitch black and there's smoke inside of the tunnel and so he desperately starts crawling all over the tunnel he's hit in dead ends and finally miraculously he makes it to the exit of the tunnels everything around him is on fire he leaps out but now he's in a basement that's covered in smoke and every time he had been led to that point in the basement he had been blindfolded he didn't know how to navigate the maze so he's looking out and it's all smoky and all he can see is there's one window on far side that he might be able to get to and so he starts leaping over the chicken wire and the bikes and he sneaks past a furnace and it's just flames and smoke all around him and he gets to this little shimmer of light which is the window except he realizes there have been metal bars placed in front of it there's no way to get through it but in his desperation he grabbed a roly chair and he put it in front he climbed on top and he managed to break the glass but that he couldn't get through the bars and eventually after a number of agonizing minutes he fell backwards and was consumed by the flames.

[371] After the fire was finally put out and Askiah's body was finally found inside of the basement underneath that window, investigators didn't understand how Askiah couldn't have gotten out of the basement and Daniel tried to lie about it and say, oh, well, he might have been asleep, you know, that's his bachelor pad down there.

[372] But eventually, as investigators were looking for the cause of the fire, they uncovered the entrance to this massive tunnel system.

[373] And that's when they realized Daniel had put Oscea effectively into a death trap.

[374] When the fire started, Askiah was at the bottom of this tunnel system, and so he had to navigate all the way back up to the top, killing all this precious time as the fire grows, and then he finally got into the basement.

[375] And there's flames everywhere, but he has no idea how to navigate the maze Daniel had made down there.

[376] And so he managed to get to the window because it was the only thing he could see, but of course Daniel had put bars in front of it, and so Askiah had nowhere else to go, and he just died.

[377] The investigators would point out that where he died, he was only two steps away from almost certain safety.

[378] He just didn't know it.

[379] After an eight -month investigation, prosecutors charged Daniel with involuntary manslaughter, as well as one of the rarest charges in the American justice system.

[380] It's called second -degree depraved heart murder, where Daniel's disregard for human life was so extreme, it amounted to willful killing.

[381] And so he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

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