Today, we talk about the incident before the horror in Amityville, Long Island. 23-year-old Ronnie DeFeo murdered his entire family, parents, and four siblings, at 3:15 in the morning. He shot them in their beds while they were sleeping, then he took a bath and went to work. Ronnie would later claim it was a demon, and the grifters who moved in later would say the house was haunted. Lots of great content ensued.

We'll talk about what happened to the DeFeo family, some conspiracies, the aftermath, and some dashed 'high hopes.'

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Consider, of course, the definition of 'doomed.' In 1846, several families left the Midwest in pursuit of the California Dream. Eventually, George Donner would be named their leader, and they would follow the Hastings Cutoff for a quick shortcut west. The rest is history.

Of the 87 travelers, 48 will survive, mostly women & children. All will encounter incredible hunger, fear, and destitution before they reach California. Join us as we tell the stories of these families who risked everything for a better life.

(There is also cannibalism, don't worry.) 

• The Indifferent Stars Above Daniel James Brown
  • https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-indifferent-stars-above-the-harrowing-saga-of-a-donner-party-bride_daniel-james-brown/352874/item/10276420/?
• Last Podcast on the Left
  • https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/episode-331-the-donner-party-part-i-salt-of-the-earth/id437299706?i=1000419328989
• petticoatsandpistols.com
• westfield-chorustrust.org
• donnerpartydiary.com

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Why not do a Friday Re-release!?! Let's take a break from the horrors IRL and talk about The Mary Celeste and the MV Joyita - two ships found drifting with no people... where did the people go??

Bonus bonus - you shoud watch the movie 'Ghost Ship' from 2002

Bonus bonus bonus - Gabriel Byrne played Professor Bhaer in 1994's "Little Women"????

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Grab your forks, friends - we're having cake! Today, we re-release Taylor's episode on our dear Marie Antoinette. Yes, we hold her dear - she was just a kid put in a ridiculous situation, YES, she cosplayed being poor, YES, she was addicted to gambling. BUT she was also a good mother.

Bonus - there's a time slip in this episode that we LOVE. In the Moberly–Jourdain incident, two teachers in 1911 saw Marie at her cottage, where she shouldn't have been (since it was 1911). 

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It's a re-release! Let's revisit Episode 45, where we talked about the financial crisis of 2008—what do you remember? Taylor worked at a hedge fund, and she remembers the yearly 'work trip' moving from the Bahamas to..... the Hamptons.

How did we get there, and what can we learn from the experience?

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Today Taylor tells the story of "The Professor and the Madman" - how the Oxford English Dictionary was created in the late 1800s. Professor James Murray took up the almost impossible task of cataloging the entire English Language, and asked for the public's help. One volunteer sent in over 10k definitions (which all include quotes and several references) - his return address was the Insane Asylum at Broadmore. Was he a Dr. or a patient?? 

Sources

The professsor and the madman - https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-professor-and-the-madman_simon-winchester/248697/item/5257676/? 

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Let's talk fast cars and family rivalries! Today, we talk through the Ferrari and Lamborghini families, and how their patriarchs worked to have the fastest engine available, and not necessarily the coolest looking car. I think that just happened to happen! 

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Join us for the sad tale of Air New Zealand's flight 901 that crashed in Antarctica in 1979. But first we need a little bit of context and we revisit several Doomed to Fail Episodes:

The Franklin Expedition Ep 58

Volcanoes - between 38 and 71

Antarctica - Ep 158

Mt. Everest - Ep 95

Then we get to the story of the trip, which sounds amazing until it isn't. 

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This is the incredible story of the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II! We'll talk a little about the history of the Navajo and how the United States really wanted them to forget their heritage, and especially their language. Navajo children were sent to boarding schools and forced to learn English, so much so that they were punished if they spoke any of their native language at school. Of course, they still spoke Navajo (an extremely complex language that you have to learn from birth or you have no chance) at home.  

Forward to WWII, the US needed a truly unbreakable code for its invasion of Japan. 29 Navajo men were recruited into the Marines to create the Navajo Code. They used their words (like potato for grenade), plus a Navajo word for every letter of the English alphabet—creating a 400+ word code that truly was never once cracked!

Learn more with us! 

Sources:

Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two - Joseph Bruchac - https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/code-talker-a-novel-about-the-navajo-marines-of-world-war-two_joseph-bruchac/246548/item/3819967/? 

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII - Chester Nez with Judith Schiess Avila - https://www.amazon.com/Code-Talker-Memoir-Original-Talkers/dp/0425247856/

Who Were the Navajo Code Talkers? - James Buckley, Jr, - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/537742/who-were-the-navajo-code-talkers-by-james-buckley-jr-illustrated-by-gregory-copeland/

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