Astonishing Legends

Tonight we have a conversation with screenwriter and producer Richard Hatem, known for such Motion Picture and Television projects as The Mothman Prophecies, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Grimm, Damien, Supernatural, Witches of East End, The Gates and many, many others.  We discuss with Rich his approach to adapting John Keel's book, The Mothman Prophecies for the Big Screen, the larger concepts surrounding the events, his life-long interest in the paranormal and supernatural, as well as a lot of other cool stuff.  

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BACKGROUND:

The logging town of Pere Cheney, Michigan once showed a lot of promise as a place where hardworking men and women of the late 19th century could raise a family — that is until two epidemics of diphtheria and devastating fires reduced it to a ghost town. And if you believe the accounts of some visitors to the nearby cemetery, Pere Cheney's tragic fate doomed it to be an actual town of ghosts; the playful ghosts of the children who fell victim to the disease. But who's to blame for the sad ending of this once thriving village? Surely something, or someone, must be the cause of the town's bad luck, and if you believe the local legends, that someone was a witch who cursed it right before she was hanged and buried in that very cemetery. Or maybe she was burned? Or maybe it wasn't a witch at all, but a banished unwed mother who cursed the lot of it just the same? Whatever legend you choose to believe, whether the cemetery of Pere Cheney is a playground of the damned or no more spooky than your average graveyard, those that have felt its chill can tell you that it only takes a little bit of haunting to put the fear in you.

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The case of Henry Plummer represents the gray area between due process and necessary action, depending on whether you view a rise in criminal activity as a matter for the justice system no matter how lacking, or local imperium no matter how brutal.  In an interview with Frederick Allen, author of A Decent, Orderly Lynching: The Montana Vigilantes, we discuss his initial interest in the story, the motivations of the people involved, and the debate their actions spurred, then and now.

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The dual nature of Henry Plummer's character would leave us questioning his legacy and the legitimacy of his ending.  Was he simply an honest lawman reluctantly entangled in the rougher aspects of frontier justice or a downright robber and murderer with a badge?  There are authors who believe he was solely one or the other but there also seems to be ample circumstantial evidence that he was likely some combination of both.  The problem of determining his guilt or innocence, set against the backdrop of a nascent legal structure for the American West, would stir a debate that we continue to struggle with today.  When it comes to the protection of our families and communities, what measures are we willing to accept to ensure our safety?  When does crime prevention and the ad hoc adjudication of those in authority become a miscarriage of justice?  Where is the line between the precepts of our more mature legal system and common sense and what measurement should guide our conscience to determine when a line has been crossed?  We all want what's fair in light of our personal convictions, but like every condemned man, all Sheriff Henry Plummer wanted was a little more time.

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Henry Plummer was like so many young men who ventured into the frontier of mid-nineteenth century America; full of a spirit of adventure and eager to make their fortunes in the gold fields of the Old West.  Handsome, charismatic and ambitious, Plummer soon went from trying his hand at prospecting to a career in law enforcement and was even encouraged to enter California politics by his supporters.  Plummer's successes, however, were tainted by his foibles as it was noted that his evening activities sometimes put the wild in "Wild West."  A move to Bannack, Montana, and election as sheriff of the area promised to restore his career and reputation.  This fresh start at the bottom of Plummer's pan would prove to be just a flash, as the townsfolk would soon suspect his connection to the robberies and murders allegedly committed by a gang of Road Agents who came to be known as "The Innocents" and many speculated he might even have been the mastermind behind the purported crime wave.  But was Plummer actually guilty, or just guilty by association and a victim of circumstance and mob mentality?  Whatever the truth of the matter, Sheriff Henry Plummer eventually found himself at the end of his rope.

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Despite what you may see in today's eye-catching, "Clickbait" internet headlines, so few mysteries are ever really "Solved!"  But what if we could get an image, an impression, a hint of a location even, some kind of clue as to what happened with some of the great mysteries of our world?  There might be a way.  We were fortunate enough to interview Remote Viewing instructor Lori Williams and one of her most gifted Viewers, Jed Bendix, who had some interesting insights into the last moments and possible final destination of Flight 19.  Of course, there are those who may scoff at Remote Viewing, relegating it to the outbox of the impossible along with anything associated with ESP, but the CIA and US Military didn't, spending 20 million dollars over 20 years to research and develop the technique.  No one may fully know why Remote Viewing works, but it's hard not to be astounded with some of the methodology's results.  In the end, however, for some, it doesn't matter what results are obtained if one doesn't believe the method to obtain them is possible.

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The timeline of events leading up to the disappearance of Flight 19 suggest, as with so many tragedies, that it was not just one mistake responsible for the ultimate loss of 27 airmen, but a series of minor miscommunications and faltering.  This is perhaps due to the ordinary and routine nature of the training mission, one that was not far from home base and one that wasn't supposed to go so wrong.  But how could a seasoned flight instructor with combat experience and around 2500 hours of flying time to his credit become so disoriented, especially one who was familiar with the region?  Why couldn't a simple navigational error be corrected amongst the 5 pilots and crewmen?  Was there a general feeling of overconfidence in eventually correcting their course, or was there some unknown environmental force acting upon them, one that is suspected of the area?  We'll never know the answers to these questions, but what seems to be their most likely fate is that they finally ran out of fuel and ditched into the ocean.  However, we've discovered that the results of an imaging technique may provide a clue that this flight has a much more mysterious resting place than we can understand.

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BACKGROUND

At approximately 6:00 p.m. on 5 December 1945, an HF/DF signal fix was obtained for Flight 19, placing its location somewhere within a 100-mile radius off the east coast of Florida, but that would be the last trace of the squadron's existence.  It wouldn't be the last tragedy of this story.  Around 7:27 p.m., two Martin Mariner rescue planes were launched from NAS Banana River, FL to conduct a search.  Three minutes later, one of the planes, PBM-5 "Squadron Training No. 49" would send its "out report" over the radio, but it too would never be heard from again.  About 20 minutes later, a tanker cruising in the area, the SS Gaines Mills would report seeing an apparent explosion, with flames leaping 100 feet high and lasting for 10 minutes in the vicinity of where PBM-5 should have been.  The ship would search for survivors or floating wreckage but would find only a pool of oil and it is believed all 13 crew members aboard PBM-5 perished in that explosion.  At least with PBM-5, there is a likely explanation of their fate but with Flight 19, to this day there is none to be had.  The lingering question may sound simplistic, but it can be put before every speculative answer ranging from the commonplace to the paranormal -- "Where did they go?"

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Credits: Episode 66 - "Flight 19 (Part 2)" Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle and the astonishing League of Astonishing Researchers, a.k.a. The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2017 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

BACKGROUND

The fate of a US Naval training flight, designated as “Flight 19” remains one of the American military’s most enduring mysteries, but also one of the signature stories from the legendary region known as “The Bermuda Triangle.” On December 5, 1945, a squadron of five Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers departed Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida at 2:10 p.m. on what should have been a routine overwater navigation training exercise. After successfully completing their practice bombing runs and some course change maneuvers, the formation radioed that they were not sure of their location or heading. Several hours later it was clear that the squadron was lost and their situation was dire. Flight instructor Lt. Charles Taylor, USN would make his last transmission around this time and it would be the last he and his 13 airmen would ever be heard from again. A rescue operation was launched, but it too would suffer a terrible tragedy. Was this merely a series of unfortunate but explainable errors and Flight 19 simply fell victim to the natural danger of the sea, or would they be claimed by the purported treachery of the Bermuda Triangle?

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Credits:

Episode 65 - "Flight 19 (Part 1)" Produced by Scott Philbrook & Forrest Burgess; Audio Editing by Sarah Vorhees; Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle and the astonishing League of Astonishing Researchers, a.k.a. The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2017 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

BACKGROUND We know that Distance = Rate x Time but when one of the variables of that equation is altered beyond reason by some unimaginable force of nature, the result can challenge what we think we know about the natural world. This was the experience of pilot Bruce Gernon, who believes he encountered a rare, yet natural phenomenon during a routine flight from Andros Island in the Bahamas to Palm Beach, Florida. Minutes after taking off from Andros (which also happens to be located within the legendary “Bermuda Triangle”). Gernon, along with his father who was acting as co-pilot and navigator and another passenger who was their business partner, found themselves rapidly being enveloped in a strange and powerful storm. A bizarre tunnel of clouds chased and formed around them, and by all objective and rational observations, appears to have warped spacetime itself. Gernon would later write about his theory of the experience calling the phenomenon, “Electronic Fog.” Could a severe weather anomaly be the cause of the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle, or is there a greater supernatural force causing the extreme weather?

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Credits:

Episode 64 - "Electronic Fog" Produced by Scott Philbrook& Forrest Burgess; Edited by Sarah Vorhees, Ryan McCullough Sound Design; Research Assistance by Tess Pfeifle and the astonishing League of Astonishing Researchers, a,k.a. The Astonishing Research Corps, or "A.R.C." for short. Copyright 2017 Astonishing Legends Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.