Relative Disasters

This week, it's a self-inflicted and completely unnecessary disaster - one that took fourteen lives over the course of nearly thirty years, and outlasted the American Civil War. We'll be covering the 1847 argument between two very rich and deeply unlikeable Louisiana planters, Charles Jones and St. John Richardson Liddell, that led to the feud, and digging into the unbelievable pettiness of the following bloodshed. Related sidebars include an overview of how the legal system treated the feud's murders and lynching, Jones and Liddell's involvement in the Civil War, and the surprising career of one of the feud's few survivors, Cuthbert Bulitt Jones. 

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Sources for this episode include:

"The Black River Tragedy", Ouachita Telegraph, March 5, 1870 (Louisiana Digital Library) (https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/state-lwp%3A2497)

"The Death of F. S. Jones", Tensas Gazette, May 13, 1921 (https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=13261394&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjIyMTMzNDk3MiwiaWF0IjoxNjE2MTc4NzE2LCJleHAiOjE2MTYyNjUxMTZ9.ct_eSKX1DhI5qlcANmT1ulwhBm77FJQluyN61MC_5Wg)

"The Jones-King Matter", Savannah Morning News, June 13, 1885 (https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015137/1885-06-13/ed-1/seq-2/)

"Liddell's Record", by St. John Richardson Liddell, LSU Press reprint, 1997

"Shiloh Veteran Murders former Confederate General in 1870", Geni entry for Col. CHarles Jones, CSA (https://www.geni.com/people/Col-CSA-Charles-Jones/6000000124769056821)

"Longtime Catahoula parish feud to reignite next weekend", by V. Hogan, Natchez Democrat, October 31, 2009 (https://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2009/10/31/longtime-catahoula-parish-feud-to-reignite-next-weekend/)

"The Last of Louisiana's Aristocratic Feudists Upsets Family Traditions By Dying A Natural Death", Washington Times, October 5, 1921 (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23063216/the-last-of-louisianas-aristocratic/)

This week, we're looking at the amazing life of Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. and his discovery of the Ark of the Covenant! This one's got it all - guerilla archaeology, Nazis, and a prize of biblical proportions. We'll talk about the history of the Ark, its disappearance from the historical record, and its re-emergence and re-discovery in the 1930s. Nearly everyone directly involved with the project died in a mysterious explosion which took place at the opening of the Ark in 1936; we'll discuss what little is known of that, and take a look at the amazing life of Dr. Jones. Additional sidebars include the federal gag order on the Ark project participants, the current whereabouts of the Ark itself, and a little background on the great 1981 documentary on the subject.

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Sources for this episode include:

Freedom of Information Act Request 34-6897B (filed in 2008, released in 2015)

"Document 9906753" by Top Men.

"Raiders of the Lost Ark", PBS documentary by S. Spielberg, 1981

Add some ice to your drink and travel with us to Antarctica! This week we're talking about the US Navy's 1946 Operation Highjump, which sought to map Antarctica under the command of Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. We'll discuss the mission, the technology, the major players, and the horrific crash of the George One, a seaplane caught in 'the worst weather on planet Earth'. Three of the crew died on impact; we'll deep-dive into the story of the six survivors, and how they were rescued after two well-below-freezing weeks on a remote glacier. 

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Sources!

Most of the research for this episode comes from: 

“Antarctic Mayday: The Crash of the George One” by J H Robbins, 1981 (https://www.south-pole.com/p0000153.htm)

“Where Hell Freezes Over”, by D Kearns, 2005

“The Secret Land” US Navy documentary directed by O O Dull, 1948 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9chz8COYVc)

Other sources include:

“A Very Able Mariner” by N Polmar, Naval History Magazine, 2007 (https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2007/december/historic-aircraft)

“1946 – Operation High Jump”, by staff writer, Coast Guard Aviation History website, retrieved 2021 (https://cgaviationhistory.org/1946-operation-high-jump)

“Operation Highjump”, by P Hoversten, Air & Space Magazine, 2007

(https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/operation-highjump-18223476/)

“Spell of the Yukon” by R W Service, from “The Best of Robert Service”, 1953 edition (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46643/the-spell-of-the-yukon)

A little something to tide you over while we prepare the next episode! Here's Greg's quick look at look at the early life of the walking disaster Sir Gregor MacGregor, creator of the Poyais Scheme and swindler of hundreds.

Intrigued? For a complete bibliography and the full disaster rundown, please see Episode 04 - The Poyais Scheme.

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Stroll with us down to Boston's North End and take a deep breath: do you smell something sweet? In Episode 12, we go over the 1919 industrial accident that resulted in a tsunami of molasses - over 2 million gallons - pouring down the street at 30 miles per hour, killing 21 Bostonians and a number of horses. We'll discuss what exactly happened, what was responsible (anarchists? capitalism? Prohibition? bad luck?), and why there was a huge, poorly-designed, poorly built storage vat of molasses sitting around in the North End in the first place. We'll also tackle the critical question of how the molasses got cleaned up, and if a popular local legend - that a molasses smell lingers in downtown Boston on a hot afternoon - holds up 102 years later.

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Sources for this episode include:

"Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919" by S. Puleo, 2019 

In this episode, we discuss the stories of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the ancient Roman cities buried by the CE 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Join us as we go over new research on the causes of death during the eruption; the geology that makes the area particularly unsafe; the last adventure of Pliny the Elder; and how a man's brain turned to glass after being exposed to the heat of a pyroclastic surge. We also take a look at how Pompeii has fared since being excavated, with a sidebar on Stray Dog Management. 

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Sources for this episode include:

"Lethal Thermal Impact at Periphery of Pyroclastic Surges: Evidences at Pompeii" by G Mastrolorenzo, et al, PLoS One, 2010

"Pompeii Damaged by Volcaniclastic Debris Flows Triggered Centuries Prior to the 79 A.D. Vesuvius Eruption" by M. R. Senatore et al, Wiley Online Library, 2013

"Archaeological news: notes on recent excavations and discoveries", Harold N. Fowler, Editor, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol VI, 1902

"The Sites" pages, Pompeiisites.org

"Pompeii Reopens Its Museum With New Artifacts Decades After Closing Its Doors", J Poitevan, "Travel and Leisure", 2021

"The Destruction of Pompeii, 79 AD”, Eyewitness to History, 1999

"World Monuments Watch List - 100 Most Endangered Sites", World Monuments Fund, 1996

“Pompeiians Flash-Heated to Death – No Time For Suffocation”, by M Valsecci for National Geographic News, 2010

“Love Among Pompeii’s Ruins Extends to Dogs” by E Povoledo, New York Times, 2010

"Heat-Induced Brain Vitrification from the Vesuvius Eruption in c.e. 79" by P. Pucci et al, New England Journal of Medicine, 2020, https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc1909867

"Visiting Pompeii" by R Jones, Bradford University & Anglo-American Project in Pompeii, http://www.archaeology.co.uk/cwa-2/world-features/visiting-pompeii.htm

In Episode 10, we swan-dive into the most ambitious and expensive film ever abandoned by Walt Disney Studios. Join us as Greg dissects the creative and administrative failures of "Kingdom of the Sun". We also get into the creation (and suppression) of its' making-of documentary, "The Sweatbox", the wasted Sting songs, and the phoenix that rose from the ashes of "Kingdom" - everyone's favorite talking-llama buddy comedy, "The Emperor's New Groove". 

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Sources for this episode include:

The Sweatbox, directed by Trudie Styler and John-Paul Davidson, 2002, Walt Disney Picture/Xingu Films

The Long Story Behind The Emperor's New Groove by Jim Hill, http://www.laughingplace.com/News-PID115140-115142.asp

"We'll Never Make That Kind of Movie Again" by Bilge Ebiri, https://www.vulture.com/article/an-oral-history-of-disney-the-emperors-new-groove.html

Episode 9 is Ella's love letter to the Mona Lisa. Join us for highlights of the painting's 500-year history, including time spent in a royal bathroom and at Napoleon's bedside, and the 1911 theft that propelled it from 'relatively obscure example of Renaissance portraiture' to 'global media darling'. We'll get into the events of the theft, how the criminal was caught, and where she was concealed for two years (hint: under the thief's dirty socks).

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Sources for this episode include:

“The theft that made the ‘Mona Lisa’ a masterpiece” by All Things Considered staff, (NPR), 2011

“The travels and travails of the Mona Lisa” by G. Garcia-French, Artstor, 2014

“Vincenzo Perruggia, the man who stole the Mona Lisa out of the Louvre Museum and made it a masterpiece” Vintage Everyday, 2018

“Treasures of the World: Mona Lisa” by PBS staff, 2018

Wikipedia articles on: Louis XIV, Louis V, Leonardo DaVinci, Mona Lisa, Vincenzo Peruggia, Palace of Fontainbleau, Lisa Gherardini, Uffizi, Napoleon

In Episode 8, our disaster is a person: Lord Timothy Dexter, the most-disliked person in the history of Malden, Massachusetts. We discuss The Malden Informer of Deer's rags-to-riches social ascent, his uncanny (diabolical?) good luck in business, his eyesore of a house, his terrible marriage, his publishing venture ("A Pickle for the Knowing Ones") and his two funerals, only one of which was a practical joke on his neighbors. Tune in and hear how it all unfolded, with a little help from whales, mittens, stray cats, Bibles, and the basement mausoleum that haunts both our nightmares. 

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Sources for this episode include:

Life of Lord Timothy Dexter by Samuel Knapp

https://archive.org/details/lifeoflordtimoth00inknap

The Strange Life of 'Lord' Timothy Dexter by Zachary Crockett

https://priceonomics.com/the-strange-life-of-lord-timothy-dexter/

Historic Ipswitch.Org: Lord Timothy Dexter

https://historicipswich.org/2015/01/08/lord-timothy-dexter/

In Episode 7, we discuss the flight of Larry Walters, a California truck driver who decided, one pleasant Saturday in July 1982, to tie a few dozen weather balloons to a lawn chair and go for a quick float over the Mojave desert. The idea worked...but not quite as expected, sending Larry's airship, "Inspiration 1", into federally-controlled airspace over LAX before crashing into a quiet suburban neighborhood. We'll discuss cluster ballooning (both intentional and accidental), the design and current location of "Inspiration 1" , Larry's balloon obsession, and the amazing luck that led to his safe landing. It's our most uplifting episode yet! 

Enjoy the show? Support us on Patreon, at ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/RelativeDisastersPodcast⁠⁠.

Sources for this episode include:

“How the Balloon-Borne “Flying Lawn Chair” Got Into the Smithsonian” by R. Maksel, Air and Space Magazine, 2019

“The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair: Why did Larry Walters Decide to Soar to the Heavens in a Piece of Outdoor Furniture?” by G. Plimpton, The New Yorker, 1998

“Larry Walters; Soared to Fame on Lawn Chair”, by M. Oliver, Los Angeles Times, 1993

“The Strange, Sad Odyssey of “Lawn Chair Larry”” by D. M. Brumfield, Medium, 2019

“Great News Photos and the Stories Behind Them”, by J. Faber, 1978

“Interview with Larry Walters”, David Letterman Show, 1982

Wikipedia articles on:

Lawnchair Larry Flight

Weather balloons