The Entertainer

[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] Today's podcast features three unique stories that all involve stunts gone wrong.

[3] The audio from all three of these stories have been pulled from our main YouTube channel and have 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 Sideways, and it's about a performer.

[6] who made a miscalculation during a live show.

[7] The second story you'll hear is called The Stunt, and it's about a deployed U .S. soldier who made a terrible mistake.

[8] And the third and final story you'll hear is called Magic, and it's about a magician who attempts an impossible stunt.

[9] But before we get into those stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[10] So, if that's of interest to you, please offer to make the Amazon Music Follow button a nice oregano grilled cheese sandwich, but instead of oregano, use crushed up poison ivy.

[11] Okay, let's get into our first story called Sideways.

[12] I'm Dan Tiberzky.

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

[14] What's the answer?

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

[16] Hysterical.

[17] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[18] Binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free on Wondry Plus.

[19] In the late 1800s, a deadly phenomenon was occurring in America.

[20] Fire departments were beginning to use these large safety nets that resembled these huge circular stretches of canvas to try to save people that were stuck in burning buildings.

[21] During a multi -story fire, these firefighters would show up and they would get out this big net and they take up positions around it holding onto the edges and then they would move it directly underneath one of the windows of the burning building and then they would call out to the people inside to jump out of the window onto the net and then when they jumped the firefighters would make sure to maneuver the net to try to catch the person right in the middle breaking their fall and saving their lives however the deadly phenomenon was that these people who were stuck in these buildings were more afraid to make the jump onto the net than they were of the fire.

[22] And so despite the firefighter's constant urges to please just jump, they would stay put and they would die in the fire.

[23] And so fire departments all over America were desperately trying to find ways to educate the American public about the relative safety of these nets, that certainly making this jump is a better bet than staying in an actively burning building.

[24] But despite their efforts, Americans were still staying put in these buildings and dying unnecessarily.

[25] In 1883, which was around the time of this deadly phenomenon, a diving instructor working out of Washington, D .C., named Robert Odlem, heard about this issue, and he thought to himself, you know, if Americans just maybe saw someone make the jump successfully, they wouldn't be afraid anymore.

[26] And since Robert was a diving instructor and so was very comfortable jumping from heights, he thought, well, who better to make these demonstrations than me?

[27] And so, in collaboration with several Washington, D .C. fire departments, Robert began hosting these demonstrations where he would leap out of multi -story buildings onto the safety net.

[28] And very quickly, these demonstrations began attracting very big crowds, but not because they wanted the education of the event.

[29] They just wanted to see someone jump out of a building onto a net.

[30] It was like a circus act.

[31] And Robert, who was not expecting this to happen, found himself really enjoying the attention he was.

[32] was garnering.

[33] And so pretty quickly, he stopped doing demonstrations to show off fire net safety and instead began jumping off of huge bridges into bodies of water just because people thought it was awesome.

[34] He was becoming this celebrity in Washington, D .C. And soon, Robert began taking his show all over the country, basically touring to all these bridges all over America.

[35] And he would put out these flyers all over the city, encouraging people to show up to the bridge on the day of his jump.

[36] And then when he would get to the bridge, there'd be hundreds and hundreds of people cheering him on.

[37] But Roberts, very unlikely and rapid rise to fame and fortune, quickly spawned copycats.

[38] And in 1885, so two years after Robert had begun this jumping venture, his popularity was beginning to wane because he was no longer as unique.

[39] Before, it was really just him doing these jumps, and now he was kind of a commodity.

[40] And so feeling desperate to become relevant again, Robert thought to himself, you know, I gotta do something that sets me apart from all the other bridge jumpers.

[41] I gotta do something that nobody else has done.

[42] That way I can once again become THE bridge jumper.

[43] And it just so happened, there was a bridge that had recently been constructed in New York, called the Brooklyn Bridge, that was massive.

[44] It spanned 1 ,600 feet from Brooklyn across the East River to New York City, and at its highest point, it was a whopping 130 feet off of the water.

[45] And so if Robert made that jump, he would actually set the record for the highest bridge jump ever.

[46] But by this point, bridge jumping had become popular enough that police had caught on to it and they had made it illegal, mostly to protect the bridge jumpers from themselves.

[47] And so any time police saw advertisements for an upcoming bridge jump, they would show up to the location on the day of the jump in force and they would stop the jumper from jumping.

[48] And so Robert knew this, but he still needed to get the word.

[49] out about this big Brooklyn Bridge jump.

[50] And so he created a very clever word of mouth campaign amongst people in New York.

[51] And he also began handing out these flyers that were fairly cryptic, but still told people where to go and at what time for this big spectacle they were going to see.

[52] And on May 19th of that year, the day of the jump, Robert's underground advertising campaign had worked beautifully.

[53] By early that morning, the Brooklyn Bridge was covered with hundreds and hundreds of people.

[54] Also down in the banks as well, there's all these people who were all waiting to see Robert make this record -setting jump.

[55] Robert had become a bit of a showman since he began doing these bridge jumps, and he had developed a sort of trademark entrance.

[56] He would arrive in a black horse and carriage, and then once it stopped on the bridge, he would leap out and he'd be wearing this long coat and he would take it off, revealing his swimsuit, and the crowd would cheer, and then he would wave to the crowd, and then he would just run to the edge and leap off the bridge.

[57] And so on May 19th, all these people who were waiting for Robert, they're looking for this black horse and carriage, and around noontime, someone spotted it.

[58] It was coming onto the bridge from the Brooklyn side, and then once it stopped on the bridge, the door flung open, and Robert leapt out in his big coat, he ripped his coat off, revealing his swimsuit.

[59] The crowd was going wild.

[60] Everyone was so pumped about this.

[61] He's waving and getting ready, and he starts running to the railing to make this jump.

[62] And before he jumps, the police swarm him and arrest him.

[63] The police were not dumb.

[64] They had caught on to this underground advertising campaign, and so like everyone else, they were out in force on this bridge.

[65] There were all these officers everywhere, and so as soon as they saw this carriage, they immediately rushed over, intercepted it, and they stopped him.

[66] And so as they're arresting Robert, the crowd is starting to boo, and they're chanting, let him jump, let him jump.

[67] And the police who were all kind of gathered on the Brooklyn side of the bridge, they're telling people to start to disperse.

[68] And as they're doing this, something incredible happens.

[69] On the far other side of the bridge, on the New York side of the bridge, another black horse and carriage had just come to a stop on the bridge.

[70] The doors had flung open and a man had jumped out wearing a long coat.

[71] He had ripped it off, revealing a swimsuit, and the crowd went wild.

[72] It was the real Robert Odlellum.

[73] The man the police had arrested was actually an actor that Robert had paid to pretend to be him.

[74] Robert had told him to show up at a particular time and make the typical entrance that he would in order to suck all the police to that side of the bridge, and then while that was happening, Robert would show up and have enough time and space to make the jump, and his plan had worked perfectly.

[75] And so the police who are on the Brooklyn side, they see this happening, and they realize there's no way they can run all the way across the bridge and stop Robert before he makes the jump.

[76] And so, like everyone else, they just kind of walk to the railing and they watched.

[77] And so the real Robert, after revealing his swimsuit, he waved to the crowd, he's smiling, everyone's going crazy, and he runs over to the railing, he climbs onto the other side, and he's looking out over the water, and he gives one more wave to everyone down below in boats and on the banks and on the sides of the bridge and everyone's going crazy, and then he jumps.

[78] Onlookers would later say that at first his jump was perfect.

[79] As soon as he leapt off the bridge, like he always did, he put his right arm straight over his head and he tucked his left arm by his side.

[80] This allowed him to stay in an upright vertical position as he fell.

[81] But just a second into his fall, a strong gust of wind blew Robert off his access and suddenly he was falling on his side.

[82] Now, it's important to understand bridge jumpers when they jump from really high heights, they need to land feet first in a vertical position.

[83] This allows their feet to, quote, break the surface tension of the water before the rest of their body comes crashing down.

[84] And if they do it that way, the water functions much like the firefighter's safety net.

[85] It will break the jumpers fall and save their life.

[86] But if the jumper lands at basically any other angle, the water tension will not break fast enough before the rest of their body hits the surface of the water.

[87] And so the water, instead of functioning like a net that will save them, will actually function like concrete.

[88] So after this gust of wind had blown Robert onto his He began flailing in mid -air to try to get himself back to his upright vertical position, but he couldn't do it in time.

[89] And so he slammed into the water directly on his right side.

[90] And when the crowd saw this, they figured something was wrong, but they didn't really know.

[91] And so everyone just kind of gasped and waited to see what would happen next.

[92] And they're looking and then finally Robert emerges from the deep, except he's face down and he's motionless.

[93] And so some of Robert's friends who were on a boat below, they leapt into the water, or they swam over to Robert, they pulled him back to the boat, they got him up on the deck, and when they looked at him, he looked awful.

[94] There was blood coming out of his mouth, he was barely conscious, and he would just say to them, did I make a good jump?

[95] And then he would die.

[96] An autopsy would reveal that Robert's impact with the surface of the water had basically obliterated all of his insides.

[97] Amongst other things, his liver, his spleen, and both his kidneys had ruptured, and all of the ribs on his right side were broken.

[98] A year later, another bridge jumper named Larry Donovan would make the jump off of the Brooklyn Bridge and survive, setting the record for the highest bridge jump at the time.

[99] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good, you are a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[100] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[101] We just launched a brand new Strange Dark and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[102] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been.

[103] asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome.

[104] In this free, weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[105] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[106] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[107] I'm Dan Tiberski.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[115] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[116] Well, you were holding something back.

[117] Intentionally.

[118] Yeah, yeah.

[119] Well, yeah.

[120] No, it's hysteria.

[121] It's all in your head.

[122] It's not physical.

[123] Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

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

[125] Or is it something else entirely?

[126] Something's wrong here.

[127] Something's not right.

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

[129] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[130] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.

[131] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus.

[132] Our next story is called The Stunt.

[133] Brian Joplin was born in 1972 and was raised in this tiny town in Oklahoma called Hugo.

[134] He was a big guy, so growing up, he was always encouraged to play football, and he did, but his real passion had always been working on cars.

[135] It was something he loved to do, and he was extremely good at doing.

[136] After he graduated high school, he stuck around in Hugo doing some auto body work, but he got this feeling that he should do something bigger with his life.

[137] And so in 1992, he decided to enlist in the United States Navy.

[138] This was something his family was extremely proud of him for doing, especially his grandfather who had flown bomber planes during World War II.

[139] Following Brian's initial military training, better known as boot camp, he was sent to aviation machinist mate school, which is a military school for military members, that teaches you how to be a mechanic for all things that fly.

[140] And so after Brian breezed through the school, because he was already a very skilled mechanic, and so it came to him naturally, he was sent to his first duty station out in California.

[141] And so he joins his California unit, and immediately he excels.

[142] And he becomes one of the very best mechanics at his unit, despite being one of the most junior.

[143] And while he was in California, he also met his wife, Belinda.

[144] And so over the next several years that he was in California and then he moved around to Texas and a couple other places, he just continued to shine at work.

[145] and at home, he and his wife began building a family.

[146] They had two daughters.

[147] And so by and large, everything in Brian's life was going exactly to plan, until Brian made a terrible mistake.

[148] Fast forward to October 4, 2005, and Brian, who was 32 at the time, was deployed with his unit to Bahrain, which is a country in the Persian Gulf.

[149] That particular day, Brian, along with two other mechanics from his unit and two pilots from his unit, had been tapped.

[150] with flying from Bahrain north to Kuwait, which is another country in the Persian Gulf.

[151] This was a routine flight about an hour long.

[152] It was one they had made several times during this deployment.

[153] Brian was not really looking forward to doing it, and neither were the other people that were on this particular flight.

[154] But Brian decided the way he would make this trip less monotonous and boring is he would perform the stunt.

[155] So Brian and the other two mechanics, they load in the back of this helicopter in the cargo area, so the passenger area of this helo and the two pilots they load into the cockpit.

[156] And within a couple of minutes, they were 125 feet off the ground, careening forward out over the Persian Gulf at over 120 miles an hour.

[157] Brian and the other two mechanics in the back of this craft had elected to keep the back loading ramp that folds up and down to allow people to come in and out of this helicopter.

[158] They had decided to keep it down for this flight.

[159] So basically, they had this huge opening that just looked straight down to the earth.

[160] But this is a very common thing in the military.

[161] Lots of helicopters when they're flying around have either a side door open or the back ramp down because it provides an incredible view and, more importantly, it provides this amazing breeze inside of the cabin.

[162] A few minutes later, when the helicopter is way out over the Persian Gulf, Brian decides now is a good time to do this stunt.

[163] And so he looks across at the other side of the helicopter and kind of signals at the other two mechanics.

[164] It's super loud inside of the back of a helo.

[165] and so there's no way they could have spoken to each other besides with a headset, and they were not about to speak about the stunt over the headset because they didn't want the pilots to know.

[166] And so Brian signaled to the other two because they were totally in on his stunt he was about to do.

[167] And so they grinned and one of them pulled out a camera to be ready for what he was going to do.

[168] And then Brian disconnected his helo lanyard.

[169] So inside of a military helicopter, you'll find all these metal islets, these little rings all over the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and these are there in order to attach cargo or strap things down or to attach yourself, a person, inside of the helicopter.

[170] And so the way you do that is by using your helo lanyard.

[171] It's this belt you wear that has this special strap that comes off the front of it, and at the end of this one or two foot long strap is a carabiner, a clip, and you clip that onto any of those islets.

[172] And so that keeps you from flying out of the helicopter if the pilots need to maneuver suddenly or if you lose altitude, anything can happen inside.

[173] And so Brian removes his helo lanyard and then grabs this stretch of nylon rope.

[174] It was like a crudely built safety harness that kind of functioned like a helo lanyard in the sense that there was a carabiner on one end and on the other there was a way to attach it to yourself.

[175] But unlike it being this belt and kind of high -tech system that attached to him, it was really just kind of a slip knot on one end of this 10 -foot -long line.

[176] And so Brian most likely had built this 10 -foot -long safety harness for this particular stunt or someone else had.

[177] But either way, he picks this up after detaching his helo lanyard, and he puts the loop end of this 10 -foot line, the slip -knot end, over his head down to his waist and then cinched it tight.

[178] And then he very carefully stood up and walked towards the back of the helo, and then he clipped the end of this 10 -foot line with the carabiner into one of the islets on the ground, right where the back ramp begins to go down.

[179] And so once that was in place, he turned and looked at the other two mechanics and gave them one more thumbs up, and then he got down on his hands and knees, and he begins crawling backwards down the ramp.

[180] And so once he gets to the very edge of this ramp, so literally right behind him is just the open air, at that point he grabs with his left hand one of those metal rings that are on the actual ramp itself.

[181] He gets a firm grip with one hand, and then with his right hand, he grabs the side of the ramp or some metal framing there.

[182] And so once he had a good grip and he felt confident in it, he kind of slowly lowered his lower hand.

[183] half until it slipped off of the ramp and as soon as it did the winds outside the helicopter the 120 mile an hour plus winds they immediately swept his legs up and kind of held them in the air horizontal like he was flying and so he's holding on to the back of the ramp but his arms are kind of tucked up near his chest but once he feels his legs up in the air he slowly extends himself and finally when they were fully extended he was officially doing the superman stunt this was called Supermaning what he was doing.

[184] And as soon as he was in this position, the other crew members inside of the helicopter, they knew this was it.

[185] Let's take some pictures.

[186] And so one of them got their camera out and took some pictures of him.

[187] And Brian knows he's getting pictures taken.

[188] He's holding on as tight as he can.

[189] And then after the pictures were taken and Brian looked up and kind of got the thumbs up that he was good, he began trying to pull himself back into the helicopter, but he lost his grip.

[190] And as soon as he lost his grip, those 120 mile an hour plus wins, they whipped him backwards, and the safety harness that he had strapped around his waist, that's the only thing that caught him from flying away from the helicopter.

[191] And so Brian attempts to try to grab the ramp, but it's too far away, and as he's getting pulled by the wind away from the helicopter, that harness that was around his waist, it rides up until it stops right around his chest.

[192] And so at that point, he keeps his arms pinned by his side because he doesn't want the harness to slip up over his shoulders, because then he will fall to his death.

[193] But because this harness was self -tightening, as he was whipping in the winds, the wind was pulling him so hard away from the helicopter that it was tightening that loop around his chest.

[194] And so his chest got so tightly squeezed that it caused him to pass out.

[195] And as soon as that happened, his arms that were holding that harness in place, well, his arms went limp, and then the wind whipped his arms over his head, and the harness immediately slipped up over his shoulders, off his head, off his arms, and he went flying, 125 feet all the way down to the water below where he died.

[196] There were at least eight people that were punished for this incident, including the two crew members in the back of the helicopter taking pictures because they were totally in on this, but the details of the punishments were never made public.

[197] The next and final story of today's episode is called Magic.

[198] On January 27th, 1908, a 34 -year -old handcuffed man walked out from behind the curtain to a cheering crowd inside of a theater in St. Louis, Missouri.

[199] This was going to be this man's first ever live performance, but he did not seem nervous.

[200] Next to this man on stage was this comically oversized milk can that was filled to the brim with water.

[201] Once the audience had stopped clapping and had calmed down and taking their seats.

[202] This man on stage turned to face this milk can and then climbed up this small ladder and then lowered himself feet first into this can and as he did his body displaced water from the can causing it to spill over onto the stage.

[203] And then once almost all of his lower half was submerged in water and the audience could only see his face, this man looked over at his assistants in the wings of this theater and kind of to them that he was ready to start.

[204] And so the assistants come running out into the middle of the stage, and they immediately close the lid of this milk can over this guy, pushing his head down into the water.

[205] And so as the audience is gasping and collectively holding their breath, the assistants proceed to lock this lid with six different locks around the top, and then they wheeled over this cabinet that kind of collapsed around the can, so it was totally out of view of the audience.

[206] Now, for this audience, they had never seen anything like this person, before, and so immediately they all began murmuring and whispering to each other wondering how this guy is going to survive what he's doing.

[207] But two minutes after that lid had been sealed, that 34 -year -old man emerged from behind the cabinet with his hands open wide so he wasn't handcuffed, totally unharmed.

[208] And then the cabinet was moved aside, and the audience could see the lid of this milk can was still locked.

[209] During his lifetime, nobody could ever figure out how the great magician Harry Houdini had escaped that milk can.

[210] These dangerous stunts made Harry extremely famous, and it's why we still know him today nearly 100 years after his death.

[211] But it wasn't just that he was able to successfully perform these stunts, it was his attitude while he performed these stunts that made him so notable.

[212] He really just came off as being totally fearless that he was willing to do just about any stunt.

[213] But that wasn't actually true.

[214] There was one stunt that Harry was absolutely terrified of.

[215] Now, he would eventually work up the courage to attempt this particular stunt, but while he was doing it, he panicked and he had to be rescued by his assistance.

[216] And after that, he never tried it again.

[217] And for decades, nobody else tried it either.

[218] Because, I mean, if Harry Houdini can't perform this stunt, then certainly no one else can either.

[219] But in 1990, a daring 32 -year -old man, named Joe Burris, decided he would be the person who would finally conquer this infamous stunt.

[220] Joe was a small -time children's magician in Fresno, California, but deep down, he had always believed that someday he would be the next Harry Houdini.

[221] In fact, he would actually tell his family that not only would he be the next Harry Houdini, but he would be even better than Harry Houdini.

[222] And so that year, he decided it was finally time to make that dream a reality.

[223] And so he saw performing this infamous stunt as a way to make that happen.

[224] So on Halloween night of that year, so October 31st, Joe adorned in his white tuxedo, along with his two young sons and his parents, they arrive at Blackbeard's Family Fun Center, which was an amusement park in Fresno, California.

[225] The family hopped out of the white limousine that Joe had arranged to bring them there, and they began walking across the parking lot to this big crowd of people.

[226] And when this big crowd of people saw Joe walking towards them, they all began to cheer.

[227] Joe's stunt that he was about to perform that night had been very heavily advertised, mostly by Joe, and so it had become this spectacle in Fresno.

[228] It was going to be aired live on TV while he was doing it, and it was going to be broadcast on a radio station.

[229] So after Joe and his family make it over to this big crowd, Joe walks to the front and he climbs up on this impromptu stage, and he gives this impassioned speech to his audience, about how he's going to be the one who takes on this stunt and becomes the next Harry Houdini, and then afterwards he looks over at his assistants, all these guys that are around him, and he gestures to them that he's ready to begin.

[230] And so with all these TV cameras rolling, the assistants walk up to Joe, and they begin shackling his wrists, and they put these chains around his body, and then they lifted him up and put him inside of the see -through plastic coffin.

[231] And then this coffin was lowered into the seven -foot pre -dug hole that was right nearby.

[232] Once Joe gave the signal that he was ready to go, they would fill this hole in, and the stunt that he would perform would be to escape being buried alive.

[233] Houdini had attempted this by being buried under six feet of dirt, and he had managed to get out of his coffin, but then he just could not get through the dirt and began to panic, and had it not been for his assistance literally reaching into the dirt and pulling him out, Houdini would have died.

[234] Joe, apparently, a year earlier, had attempted some sort of practice run of this stunt.

[235] It was not the full amount of dirt.

[236] It was some smaller amount of dirt, and he had managed to get out.

[237] And so he was really confident in himself.

[238] And so for this big televised event, he had decided to really up the ante and make sure it was clear he was not only as good as Houdini, but better than Houdini.

[239] And so he was going to have three feet of dirt put on his coffin first, and then four feet.

[240] of wet cement put in on top of that.

[241] Many people, when they heard this plan, both the TV personalities, the radio personalities, onlookers, they said this was a terrible idea and you shouldn't do it.

[242] But Joe was extremely confident and brushed them off and said, I know what I'm doing.

[243] Once Joe was in his coffin at the bottom of the seven -foot hole, he looked up at his assistant standing over the grave waiting for his signal, and he gave it to them and kind of shouted up to them that he was ready.

[244] And so his team very excitedly, began shoveling dirt into the hole.

[245] But after only a couple of minutes when less than a couple of feet had been put in the hole, they heard Joe yelling out from inside of the coffin.

[246] And so everything stopped.

[247] The staff jumped in and they pulled the dirt out until they could finally get the lid of the coffin off.

[248] And they found Joe, he was alive, but he was very shaken up.

[249] And he kind of sat up and said, yeah, the chain around my neck is too tight.

[250] You got to readjust the chain.

[251] Now all these onlookers at this event, they heard Joe say this and they saw him and their read on this was not that his neck chain was too tight, but rather, it looks like Joe might have bitten off more than he can chew, that this stunt is way more dangerous, and maybe he's realizing that and he's looking for excuses to not do the stunt.

[252] And so the onlookers, they didn't try to egg him on to do it anyways.

[253] They started feeling apprehension too, and so everybody who was there began telling Joe, hey man, get out, don't do this now.

[254] This is a really bad idea.

[255] It's not worth it.

[256] The chain's too tight.

[257] That's a sign.

[258] Don't do it.

[259] Don't get back in.

[260] But Joe, after of collecting himself told the group that he was totally fine that it was really just the neck chain that was the only issue and he demanded his staff put that chain back around his neck after they loosen it up and then put him back in the coffin and fill it in and so eventually his staff taking cues from him said okay and they got his neck chain readjusted and they put him back in the coffin they chained him back up again they closed the lid and once again he gave the signal that he was ready to start and so a very apprehensive crowd watched as the dirt went back in and after three feet of dirt were in the hole, the cement truck came over and poured four feet of wet cement on top of the dirt.

[261] And then after this hole had been completely filled in, the onlookers, which included Joe's two young sons and his parents, they kind of moved in and got right up against this grave and were looking straight down at the top, waiting for Joe to come out again.

[262] But as they're watching this hole and as they're filming this hole, all of the cement in the hole suddenly drops about a foot.

[263] What had happened was the nearly 15thes.

[264] thousand pounds of dirt and wet cement sitting on top of this coffin had finally caused the lid to break and in an instant all of the dirt and cement poured into the coffins surrounding joe completely he was truly buried alive onlookers immediately jumped into action and did their best to try to dig joe out but it took them 30 minutes to finally reach him and when they did he was already dead Joe had ironically died on the exact 64th anniversary of Houdini's death.

[265] After an investigation, it was determined that Joe had not tested the strength of his plastic coffin against the weight of the wet cement.

[266] He'd only tested it against dirt because that was the one he had done the year earlier.

[267] He had done it under dirt, and it worked.

[268] Joe had also not taken into account that cement dries from the bottom up.

[269] So even if Joe had managed to get out of the coffin and make his way through the first three feet of dirt that was right on top of the coffin, he most likely would have been trapped under the hardened cement layer.

[270] This was a doomed mission from the start, but because Joe was so confident in himself and his ability to do this stunt, no one stopped him.

[271] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

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[273] grilled cheese sandwich, but instead of oregano, use crushed -up poison ivy.

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[282] So that's going to do it.

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[289] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

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

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

[292] 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.

[293] What happens next?

[294] Depends on who you ask.

[295] Was it a crime of passion?

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

[297] This was clearly an intentional act.

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

[299] or a corrupt police cover -up.

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

[301] Everyone had an opinion.

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

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

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

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

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