Now That's Just Odd: Stories Too Weird To Be True

In 2005, nine ordinary British citizens were selected for a project called Thrill Seekers. After months of auditions and testing, they finally learned what they had been chosen to do: train for a chance to become some of Britain’s first civilian space tourists.

For a handful of them, the journey would end with five extraordinary days orbiting hundreds of miles above the Earth.

But first, they had to make the cut.

In this episode of NOW THAT’S JUST ODD! — Stories Too Weird to Be True, we examine the incredible true story of Thrill Seekers, an adventure that became far stranger than anyone involved could have imagined.

In February 1978, Hope College student Steven Kubacki went cross-country skiing near Lake Michigan and vanished. His skis, poles, and backpack were found neatly arranged in the snow, while his footprints appeared to lead onto the frozen lake and suddenly stop.

Search teams found nothing.

For decades, his disappearance fueled theories involving amnesia, UFOs, portals, and the infamous Lake Michigan Triangle.

In this episode of NOW THAT’S JUST ODD! — Stories Too Weird to Be True, we examine the unbelievable true story of one of Lake Michigan’s strangest disappearances.

In 1992, prominent Key West attorney Fred Butner fell to his death from the La Concha Hotel. Then police began examining what he left behind.

Cash. A threatening note. And a tape recorder.

What began as a straightforward death investigation suddenly looked like murder, and the evidence appeared to point police directly toward one person.

In this episode of NOW THAT’S JUST ODD! — Stories Too Weird to Be True, we examine the bizarre true story of Fred Butner, the La Concha Hotel, and one of the most unusual death investigations ever to unfold in Key West, Florida.

What happens when a Hollywood family decides to make a movie surrounded by real, untrained lions and tigers?

In this episode of NOW THAT’S JUST ODD! — Stories Too Weird to Be True, we tell the unbelievable true story of Roar, the notorious 1981 film starring Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith, and Noel Marshall.

What began as an ambitious wildlife conservation project became one of the most dangerous movie productions ever attempted.

In this episode of NOW THAT’S JUST ODD! — Stories Too Weird to Be True, we travel back to the 1910s and 1920s, when George Polley, better known as “The Human Fly,” captivated thousands of spectators with his death-defying climbs up towering buildings, using nothing but his bare hands and feet.

He climbed skyscrapers without ropes, hung from ledges by his fingertips, stood on his head high above crowds, and even tried to conquer New York’s Woolworth Building.

But behind the stunts was an even stranger life filled with huge crowds, arrests, close calls, rival daredevils, vaudeville, and one final chapter nobody watching him climb could have predicted.

In this episode of NOW THAT’S JUST ODD: Stories Too Weird to Be True, we arrive in December 1968, when a six-man Marine reconnaissance team completes its mission near Fire Support Base Alpine in the mountains of South Vietnam.

Bad weather delayed their helicopter extraction, forcing the men to spend the night in the field. Then, while most of the patrol slept, something entered their position without warning.

What happened next became one of the strangest true stories from the Vietnam War.

In December 1969, the SS Badger State left Washington carrying thousands of bombs bound for Vietnam. Then a violent North Pacific storm began tearing the cargo loose.

What followed was a bizarre and terrifying chain of events involving rolling ammunition, a burning freighter, a desperate abandon-ship attempt, and one of the strangest maritime disasters ever recorded.

In this episode of NOW THAT’S JUST ODD: Stories Too Weird to Be True, we follow the true story of the SS Badger State, and it is almost too unbelievable to be real.