Jeff is on Christmas break, so it’s time for another benign takeover. This week, Gordon and Nancy take a walk down movie-making memory lane, theirs and other peoples’. It’s mostly Gordon’s mishaps with horses and weapons of limited destruction, but then that’s just typical.

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Toys! Almost everyone loves toys. Toys can be fun, exciting, and even educational. Sometimes, however, manufacturers create toys that pose a risk to the kids they are intended for. Some of these toys can cause injury, others can result in death.

With the holiday season upon us, I present six toys that had issues when it comes to child safety on the 165th episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

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Imagine being born rich enough to spend your life fulfilling your passions … Now imagine your passion was practical jokes. There was a man in the early 20th century who only seemed to want to make people – including himself – laugh. He was a jester who delighted in poking fun of people who are full of themselves.

Today, I have the story of Horace de Vere Cole and the Dreadnought hoax on the 164th episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

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In Chicago of the early 20th century, there were all kinds of new wealth. Many people had large amounts of money; sometimes people who never had money before. Naturally, there were many ready to take advantage of them as well.

One such man is rumored to have made over eight million dollars in, well, … not-so-legitimate means. His most famous crime was made famous in a very successful film from the 1970s.

His name was Joseph “Yellow Kid” Weil and I have his story on the 163 episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

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Do you believe in ghosts? In this episode; I will tell you the story of a specter that roams the Hollywood Hills, a hotel that many flee in terror, and a mysterious woman who dances and disappears. It is three ghost stories that many say are real! All this, and more, on the 163rd episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

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Welcome to Jeff’s house of horror and coffee! This show contains a description of a murder that might not be suitable for young and more sensitive listeners. You have been warned! This is the tale of a couple of maids in 1833 that, well, went a little off the handle. It is one most famous cases of homicide in France for its bizarre and ghastly nature.

So prepare yourself for the take of the Papin Sisters on the 161st episode of Sunday Morning with Jeff.

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Chloroform is a colorless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid that is a powerful anesthetic, euphoriant, anxiolytic and sedative when inhaled or ingested. It can also be used to kill.

40-year-old Thomas Edwin Bartlett found that out in 1886, when he never woke to enjoy New Years Day! A lethal dose of Chloroform was found in his stomach and it was believed his young wife was responsible.

Today I tell the take of the Pimlico Mystery on the 160th episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

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She was barely an adult, had a unique hairstyle, waz a heavy drinker, diagnosed with a mental illness and – for a few years in the early 1940s – was a huge star in Hollywood. Within less than 10 years, even while starring in a few huge films, she disappeared from Hollywood. Years later, she would be discovered working as a waitress in a hotel in New York City.

Today, I tell the story of the actress Veronica Lake on the 159 episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff.

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Jeff is on vacation this week and made the brave decision to hand over his show to Gordon and Nancy from The History Files and Gordon’s Gun Closet. The result is a collection of stories from a character named “Chooch”, who actually has some pretty interesting tales to tell of days gone by.

Ever since the invention of money, there have always been people looking for ways to make it both quickly and easily. Promises of quick profits are often very temping to anyone dreaming of a better life – so imagine a chance to double your money in as little as three months?

That is what one man pledged in the early 20th century, getting thousands of people to give him his hard earned cash. Today I have the tale of Charles Ponzi and his Scheme.

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