Hello.
Are we on?
Yep.
Does this need to come out or are we good?
I don't know.
Does it need to come out further?
Microphone.
Does it need to be out further?
I mean you guys all, you don't really talk.
If you think it's good.
Sometimes you just gotta do that.
Yes.
Okay.
I'm like, I clean my bathroom.
I don't know how clean my shower is, but what am I doing?
Dear listener, her house always looks nice and she's always so worried about it, but
it always looks nice.
Dear listener, I always...
That was a terrible laugh.
Frantically clean before people come over.
Dear listener.
Please don't sue me, Taylor Swift.
No.
Not because we dislike her, because we like her a lot.
And it's $1,200 to see her if you were in the worst spot of a stadium.
I know.
And sometimes I just feel like I need to sing one of her songs in the middle of a sentence,
like I just did.
Yeah.
Speaking of concerts.
Yes.
I'm seeing a concert this week.
Oh, I didn't realize that was this week.
It's this week.
That's exciting.
Friday.
It's two days from now.
We're recording it at a weird time.
We are.
I am seeing a K-pop band on Friday and it's very exciting and their name is Twice.
That is very exciting.
Yeah.
And I don't know what to expect.
I know.
You'll have to send me pictures.
I will send you a lot of pictures.
Yay.
Dear Olivia, dear listener.
Yes.
Expect some pictures.
That's good.
Also, by the way, I'm Olivia.
Yes you are.
And I'm Drew.
And we are oddly curious.
Oddly curious.
One of these days we'll get it.
But it shouldn't sound too rehearsed.
We can't sound like we have our stuff together too much.
Yeah.
We're like, we're actually just fooling you.
We just want to sound nonchalant, but we're actually very together.
We're actually really anxious.
Lee together.
Yes.
Oh yeah.
I was going to tell you the story on the podcast.
I think I told you a little bit about this the other day, but I was at work doing my
cleaning job and I'm usually not there by myself, but this particular day I was because
someone was sick and I work in an area where there's a lot of homeless people, which is
totally fine.
I've grown up around areas with homeless people, so it's fine.
But there is one person in particular that has been at my job a couple times and he looks
like he's on drugs and is usually yelling out loud to himself or to someone that I cannot
see.
So anyway, when I got there, like he wasn't there and I was trying to take out the trash
and I saw that he was kind of in the bushes by where I take out the trash and I was like,
I just don't feel safe doing that.
Just doing his own thing or he wasn't lying in wait for you.
Right.
And I'm like-
No, I mean he wasn't waiting.
Oh, I have no idea.
Oh, okay.
Oh.
I kind of just peeked my head out to look and then I saw him there and I was like, oh,
well, I would just feel uncomfortable if anyone was there that I didn't know.
Yeah.
And I was like, oh, okay.
I'm just going to go to the trash dry where I need to take out the trash and I have my
back to them.
And so I was waiting to see if he would go away.
I waited 10, 15 minutes.
He still didn't go away.
And so I was like, well, I'll just call the non-emergent line and we have this service
that will take people to shelters or help them out.
But they said it would be an hour.
Oh, because they have a long line.
Because they have a long line.
They only have like one vehicle out.
Oh my gosh.
So they're like, oh, we can just like send a couple officers and like escort him off
the property.
And I was like, well, I really need to like go to my next job.
So if you could do that.
And that took a long time as well.
And it was just like, it was like kind of like that anxiety when you're like nothing
like has happened.
But you're like, if I wasn't more aware, like something could have happened.
And I was like, I really, I need to get like a stun gun or something or pepper spray.
I know somebody who has a taser.
Is it someone that I know too?
Yes.
And it's really cute.
And it's in the shape of, no, it's not in the shape of a frog, but it looks like a frog.
I think I saw the company that she got it from.
And there's one that's shaped like a bat, a mushroom.
Oh, yes.
And I want to get a little mushroom one.
You should because she also got a bat on accident.
Maybe it was asking for something else from this company.
It's like an, like it's hooked to your keys and it jabs.
Oh, yeah.
It's a jabber, which would be dangerous for me because I trip.
I'd get my own jabber.
You would.
Easily.
But she ended up not getting that.
She got another taser.
So I think I'm just going to buy that from her.
Oh, nice.
It's in the shape of a, it's not in the shape of a bat.
Why do we keep saying that?
It's not bat shaped.
It's just bat like and it's cuteness.
Got you.
Cute bat.
Cute frog.
Deadly weapon.
It's like very.
Not deadly.
Cottagecore.
Cottagecore violence.
Yeah.
But we're not.
I keep laughing like a dork tonight.
What am I doing?
Like we're not violent.
We're just trying to protect ourselves.
I keep snort laughing.
Stop.
Be normal.
I know what I'm saying.
It's been a long, it has been a long day.
It's been a long couple of weeks.
I started to get a little bit of a headache.
I was like, I'm going to go to the bathroom.
I'm going to go to the bathroom.
Yeah it has been a long day.
I started this day driving to a ton an hour away from me to work for 8 hours in a medical
environment where we also had a homeless issue arise.
They weren't an issue it was just we were trying to find shelter for somebody who had
taken up residence.
And it's just, it makes you really sad, but it's also like, well, you know, we can't.
Oh, and somebody was trying to start a fire outside.
Oh no.
But it's also, we're in June.
Yeah.
So that fire could be everywhere's fire.
In an area that can create fire.
We're known for fires.
We are.
Yeah.
Speaking of fires, New York has a lot of smoke right now.
Oh my gosh, I know.
And the fact that they're freaking out and so sad, I am sad for them.
So when you come from a place that has smoke all the time and you see someone sad about
their air quality and you're like, oh, first time.
I know.
I'm like, we have had it for like quite a few years and then there's China that's like,
we've always had it.
Yeah.
China's like, shut your mouth.
Yeah.
I feel it's all bad.
It's like, there's no winning with bad air quality.
What am I saying?
It's not a competition.
No.
In fact, let's have less of that.
Let's win with good air quality.
Sorry to keep interrupting you.
The pictures of New York, it just like reminds me of dune.
It looks like it has the dune filter over it.
Very sepia.
Yeah.
But less.
I don't know.
I feel like it would probably be just as harsh.
Yeah.
Like less sand worms.
More.
I feel like a sand worm would be preferable.
Oh, yeah.
Just like a sand worm coming through.
Maybe it would help.
Sand worm subway.
Yeah.
We figured it out.
Because they've already made tunnels underground.
Oh my gosh.
Solving, I like it.
The world's problems with sidewalks.
Like, you're welcome, New York.
Just embrace your air and join dune.
I don't remember the name of the planet.
Arrakis.
Visit Arrakis.
Visit Arrakis in New York City.
I'm trying to think.
Oh, yeah.
I was going to tell you about this podcast I've been listening to.
It's called Scamanda.
Scam.
Her name is Amanda.
And it's really interesting.
This is like not spoilers at all because you figured this out pretty quickly that this
woman is like faking that she has cancer in order to-
That should be like a federal offense.
It should be a federal offense.
Like that just like says so much about you as a person.
Yes.
But like she's able to do it for like such a long period of time.
And she's like vlogging the whole time that she like quote unquote has cancer.
And just like all of these things-
This isn't bone cancer, is it?
She says like several different kinds of cancer.
I remember hearing a story about bone cancer, but maybe there's several cancer scammers
out there.
But this one, she like was successful for quite a long time.
And then it like goes into, I don't know how she like stole this woman's husband basically.
And like she used to babysit for her kids, like whose kid also had cancer.
And like that's even worse.
That is worse.
Faking it after that.
And then yeah, it's just crazy.
I'm like listened to it while I was cleaning the other day and I like binged all the episodes
that they already have.
I love that.
But yeah, I highly recommend listening to it.
And I didn't spoil anything.
It's like-
You basically just gave the trailer.
I would hope that you would be able to tell by the title that she doesn't have cancer.
Because her name isn't really Scamanda.
Yeah.
It's a scam spoiler alert.
Yeah.
Highly recommend.
That's good.
I wish I had something to recommend.
I am, I feel like I'm not doing anything new.
Doing the regular.
I mean, other-
Re-watching 30 Rocks still.
Nice.
I am watching Murder She Wrote.
Oh yeah, which is good.
We've talked about this because Murder She Wrote is, it's just a classic.
It's like the most relaxing and also I just love it, it's very so much.
So many interesting hairstyles and earrings.
The 80s really gave it their best.
I love that she wears a lot of sweatpants suits.
She's like jogging in every episode.
She's jogging.
She's riding her bike.
She is living the life that we want.
Yeah.
Living in like what?
Coastal Maine.
Writing, jogging.
Solving murders.
Not that we want murders, but it's like if it happened around us, we'd like the ability
to just be like, hey, I'm Angela Lansbury.
I can do anything.
Yeah.
I want to have the confidence and the observance skills of Angela Lansbury.
Actually I feel like watching the show, I feel like my grandma could be Jessica Fletcher.
Totally.
Like she could solve murders.
I have 100% faith in that.
Yeah.
Your grandma actually makes observations that I have never noticed before and that's fun.
And I'm like, how did you see like that tiny thing from across the street?
And she's like, don't ask.
Yeah.
I was about to say how old she is, but she'd probably hate me if I said that.
And her wonderful many years of existence, but not too many.
It's impressive at any age.
At any age.
Just regular years of existence.
Exactly.
Better than above standard.
I don't know what I'm saying.
I know what you're saying.
Yeah.
Okay.
Listeners, I hope you know what we're saying.
Yeah.
Listeners quietly shaking their head.
No.
I feel like this is the most tired I've been in a while while recording an episode, so this
should be interesting.
Oh yeah.
We are recording a little bit later, not time wise, just in the span of weeks time, weeks
time, because Olivia did have a family emergency.
Yes.
I think that's adding to our tired.
Not that I had a family emergency, but just life.
Life is tiring.
But yes, everything is fine with my family, but just we're trying to be consistent with
our episodes, but sometimes life just happens.
Yeah.
And we just gotta move on.
Keep moving forward.
As Walt Disney would say.
You would say keep moving forward and today you enter a land of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Nope, I just butchered that.
Yesterday fantasy and tomorrow.
He said, please take this churro.
He's like, please.
And make it the best day of your life.
Quote me accurately.
Please.
Yeah.
Anyway.
But otherwise, yeah, I think I'm doing okay.
Good.
I'm really excited because I have my cousins coming to visit.
I'm going to pick her up from the airport.
She's going to go with me to the K-pop concert.
Yay.
And it's going to be a good time.
It'll be a lot of fun girl times to be had.
Very nice.
My friend, my cousin and I.
I wish you were coming.
I appreciate that, but I'm also like excited that I have pretty much no plans this weekend
and I'm just going to be swimming at the pool at my apartment.
Oh my gosh.
Actually thrilled to do that.
That is probably on the same excitement level as what I'm going to do.
There's nothing like being relaxed in your own home, but somehow you have a pool magically.
I do not have a pool.
I know we talked about this.
You need to because I can have like, I think two guests.
Yes.
So I would like to be one.
Yes.
I will guest it up anytime.
Yay.
Anyway, that's all I have to add.
Oh, there was one thing I wanted to say.
Yes.
Nope.
I don't, I think I was going to say something about it last time and I was like, you know,
the time has really come and gone.
I was obsessed with this coffee cup that I saw that's super vintage.
It's from the seventies and it's like a kind of pottery that was made in England and I
really, really wanted it.
But then I think I was just really like obsessive for a day and then they moved on.
But I was going to show you.
Yeah, I want to see it.
And of course in the moment when I was looking it up, I was like, oh, I want to tell people
about this.
This is what I want.
Oh, can we see?
This I guess it's there's a part of England where this is it's made.
It's from the seventies and I just thought it was super rad.
It's probably really small because I feel like everything in the seventies, everything
back then was probably smaller.
They weren't as addicted to caffeine.
True.
But this dragon is so cool.
That is really cool.
Look how much it is on Etsy.
Oh my gosh.
Sixty three dollars.
That's a lot for what is probably a small cup.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I know what I was like, I was I was thinking I love a podcast cup where
I could be like, this is my podcast cup for coffee or tea when I record with Olivia.
And then I was like, well, I can just like it from afar.
You're like, this was my imaginary podcast.
Yeah.
To the Horn Sea pottery out there.
You're beautiful.
Do your thing.
I will like you from over here.
And maybe one will come into your life.
Who knows?
Yes.
I don't know.
That beautiful thing of mysteriously appearing.
I don't know.
But that's it.
That's all.
That's all for me.
That's all she wrote.
Mm hmm.
That is all she wrote.
That wasn't murder.
That is all.
What?
Yes, the Fletcher wrote.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
OK.
We're like rolling into.
Do you have anything else to add before we jump into?
I don't think so.
And if I think of anything else, I'll just pipe up at the end of the pod.
Yeah.
OK.
Sounds good.
I like that we have the ability to just pipe up whenever.
I tell me too.
I'm like, hey, you got something to pipe up about?
Pipe away.
So I think I'm first.
You're first this week.
Yes.
Because last week you sadly ended it with Marie Antoinette.
Yeah.
But I mean, there was no good way between the two of us to end.
No.
I feel like I could have ended it depressingly.
Sadly, sadly what?
No, sadly was it.
I can't talk.
That's the synonym.
Yeah.
Wow.
Oh, gosh.
We're doing it.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for putting up with us.
And remember how last week I said I was going to do a happy or silly one?
Yeah.
I lied.
I also said the same thing.
I also lied.
But I feel like there's different facets of what can be not happy and silly.
And I think sometimes it's more palatable.
Yours has some, I'm not going to spoil anything, but yours has some sad moments, but it also
just has some kind of wackadoo moments too.
This is wackadoo moments.
It's kind of bananas moments.
It is.
Yeah.
The next line that I will be doing today is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
This is going to be good.
I don't know very much about it.
Deepwater Horizon actually sounds like a scary movie with a shark.
Well, it actually, it was later turned into a movie, which I will talk about.
Oh, good.
Not a shark.
But yeah, I didn't know much about it either.
I just vaguely knew that it was a true story, but I learned a lot of new things when I was
researching, which is always fun.
So my main sources were of course Wikipedia, the Maritime Executive, and it didn't have
any author listed.
It was just the Maritime Executive, Unexplained Mysteries podcast, specifically Dark Green,
Earth Crimes and Conspiracies.
Ooh, that's a good title.
I know.
It's a very interesting series.
And then Encyclopedia Britannica.
Classic.
I know.
It actually has, I mean, of course it's like an encyclopedia.
You know what?
It actually has a lot of information.
Oh, God.
You're like, you know what I love about encyclopedias?
They just know so much.
They just have so much to say.
You're like, you know what I like about Merriam-Webster?
It has a lot of words.
I love those words, definitions.
Oh, man.
I always thought Merriam-Webster was a woman.
Is it like two last names?
I have no idea.
Maybe we should find out.
I know.
I'm like, Merriam-Webster, would she like to know it all in class?
I think it is hyphenated.
It is.
Yeah.
Anyway.
Is it one of those double last name people?
Oh, they're so fancy.
They are fancy.
But yeah, you're right.
I love the encyclopedias.
You're on to it.
So much knowledge.
Okay.
So getting into our topic.
So deep water was an ultra deep water semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by TransOcean
and operated by BP.
And so I'm going to do a little summary before I kind of get into the main topic.
Okay.
On April 20th, 2010, while drilling on Macondo off the coast of Louisiana, a blowout caused
an explosion on the rig that killed 11 crewmen and the fireball was visible from 40 miles
away.
Oh my.
I know.
The fire was unable to be extinguished and two days later, the horizon sank, continuing
to gush oil and causing the largest marine oil spill in history.
So a little backstory and who knew that an oil rig could have backstory, but apparently
it does.
That's nice.
I'm like, it has its own little origin story.
That's actually really cute.
It is kind of cute.
It's not its fault.
Deep water was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea.
I was going to say, wait, that's South Korea, right?
Construction began in 1998 and was delivered in 2001.
Deep water had successfully worked in oil fields for BHP and Exxon in the past.
And it was at times called a lucky rig and was very celebrated.
So it had a good track record up until this point.
Oh, it had many Korean awards.
I know.
I'm like, oh, I just, I want to know like the little backstory of Korea building it.
That's actually really nice.
It's kind of cute.
It has great bands and great oil rigs.
Yeah, just like great industry.
Industry.
Solid Korean industry.
And so oil rigs are subject to safety inspections by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
And after the incident, an investigation was done by Associated Press and it revealed that
safety documentation and emergency procedure information were missing for the rig, including
on the day of the incident.
And there isn't a specific number listed of how often it was supposed to be inspected.
It appears that it would change from time to time, like standards would change in the
industry of how often it should be inspected.
But for the first 40 months, all safety procedures were done.
And then after that, about 25% of the procedures were omitted.
So it sounds like they're starting to like cut corners on safety procedures.
Never good.
No, it's never good.
But why cut corners when it's dealing with a flammable part of the earth?
These are all such good questions that I think have very obvious answers, but apparently
people in the industry don't.
A few rich people are like, you know what, let's put a pin in that.
Let's table back.
I don't know what they say.
They're like, let's circle back to that after there's a horrific incident.
Let's get into our round table and circle back.
So during its time, the rig received a total of five safety violations, which to me sounds
really bad.
And I think to most people sounds bad.
But according to their records that the rig actually has strong safety practices and they
were never on any sort of watch list.
So I'm gathering that it's kind of common for the industry and like five flags aren't
necessarily like a warning sign, which is concerning.
That is concerning.
So back to the day of the incident.
At 7 45 p.m. on April 20th, 2010, during the final phases of drilling on the Gulf of Mexico,
a geyser of seawater erupted from the marine riser onto the rig, shooting 70 meters in
the air.
And then that was followed by an eruption of drilling mud, methane gas and water.
And the mixture of those three things quickly transformed into a gaseous state and ignited
into a series of explosions and then a firestorm.
An attempt was made to activate the blowout preventer, but that failed.
And then another attempt was made to plug the well, but that also failed.
Marine workers were presumed killed in the initial explosion.
And then there were survivors of the blast that got into lifeboats and went out to sea.
However, there were some left behind because, I mean, I feel like this always happens in
a disaster.
There's not enough lifeboats.
And so they had to inflate a life raft and they were barely able to escape in time before
the explosion.
Before I think it was after the explosion.
But it was more like before the fire could overtake them.
So one of the crane operators, Dale, took extra time to dock his machine properly to
make sure that there was no additional risks to his fellow crew members.
But unfortunately, this decision cost him his life and he was overtaken by the fire,
making him the 11th victim.
For the other workers, it was hard to determine their cause of death just due to the nature
of the accident.
And some of them are still missing and they haven't recovered their bodies.
Oh no.
I know.
It's so sad.
And then the rig ultimately sank on April 22nd, which ironically is Earth Day.
Oh no.
I know.
That's really sad.
I'm like, it's always sad, but it's just like, oh man, that just, like the irony of it.
The coffin.
Yeah.
And then in the 87 days that followed, the ruptured well spilled an estimated 210 million
gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil slicks from the blowout spread to cover nearly 60,000 square miles of ocean and also
washed up along 4,500 miles of shoreline.
They were unable to seal the spill right away, partly because the pressure buildup from sealing
the spill could actually cause another blowout.
So they tried a method called top kill, which involves pouring heavy drilling mud down the
well in hopes that the pressure would stop the crude from rising.
But ultimately it wasn't heavy or dense enough to stop it.
And then they tried throwing golf balls and rubber balls to try and stop the flow, which
that didn't work either, which to me that just does not sound like it's going to work.
No, I don't know the logic behind that.
I don't know.
I guess maybe they thought they could throw enough down that it would stop it.
But I'm like, I don't know.
That's bad.
Yeah.
I feel like that would just make the golf balls come out.
Yeah.
Now those are the ocean.
Like I don't feel well.
Yeah.
And then it's like throwing up golf balls.
Yeah.
So on July 12th, they put a cap on the well and monitored pressure levels closely.
And when it seemed like the capping stack, which is what the method is called, was working,
they shut off the flow of oil.
And it looked like they had avoided another blowout.
But unfortunately that was because so much oil had already seeped into the ocean.
So it was more due to the fact that there wasn't as much pressure building up because
so much of the oil had already gone into the ocean.
Oh no.
I know.
I mean, like it's good that they were able to like put a stop to some of it, but it's
like the damage had already been done.
And the oil impeded marine life's ability to swim and fly.
And this is when it gets really sad.
An estimated 14,000 turtles died as a direct result of the disaster.
Oh, I know.
Sweet little baby turtles.
And coral reefs that were centuries old were significantly damaged and still haven't recovered
from the oil spill.
An estimated 800,000 birds died as a result of the spill.
And they were-
Think of all those Dawn commercials that needed to happen.
And they were so heavily affected because birds rely on the water for food and it helps
them to cool down too.
So like they a lot of times will land on the water.
But yeah, poor birds.
And then dolphins were among the hardest hit due to oil poisoning and not only were they
poisoned, but their birth rates have also plummeted in the Gulf and their survival rate
like past birth or like past pregnancy is still very difficult.
Like to this day.
To this day.
And then there's so many less dolphins and I think there's one called the speckled nose
dolphin that they said it was so common in the area that it was almost like rats.
Like they're like so common, but now they can't even hear them on the sonar anymore.
Oh no.
It makes me so sad.
And then as far as-
Justice to the speckled nose dolphin.
Yes, and all the birds and turtles.
And as far as the food supply goes, fish that have been exposed to oil contains a high amount
of mercury and then due to the chemicals that they use to try and disperse the oil, the
fish also contains carcinogens from the chemicals.
And then after the spill, fishing was not only- no, it was restricted in only parts
of the Gulf, but it still affected a large amount of the sale and purchasing and some
of the supply chain was shut down in the US due to lack of access.
To try and contain the damage, BP hired thousands of local fishermen and residents to help with
skimming and shoreline cleanup.
The Gulf fishing industry lost an estimated $1 billion in revenue and POC fishermen were
heavily affected because a lot of them in the area rely on fishing for revenue and it
also affected their food source and was closer to the neighborhoods that they lived in.
And just touching the oil or breathing in the fumes can cause long-term health effects.
Cleanup workers-
They're a dolphin?
Yes.
But even if you are someone who just helps with the cleanup, there was one woman who
she just cleaned her husband's clothes that had been helping with the cleanup and she
got ill from, I think it was like the carcinogens and the oil.
And cleanup workers say that exposure to the oil and chemicals have affected their health
and they're still seeking financial compensation from BP.
So as far as-
They're still seeking compensation?
Yeah.
BP has not paid them.
So they were paid for the initial task of cleanup, but not for the medical effects.
Oh no.
Which I'm like, BP can afford it.
Yeah, they can.
But I guess it's just trying to get a class action lawsuit together and everything.
And as far as the criminal investigation went, a formal civil and criminal investigation
into this bill was initiated in June 2010 by the US Department of Justice.
And the DOJ sued BP, TransOcean, and Anadarko, a minority owner of the well.
And in New Orleans, the civil court in December 2010 for violating the Clean Water Act and
the Oil Pollution Act.
In early March 2012, BP agreed to settle claims made by the plaintiffs and the victims of
the spill for at least 7.8 billion.
And I knew that- oh my gosh, I can't talk.
And in November 2012, BP reached an agreement with the DOJ to plead guilty to 14 criminal
charges among them, the 11 courts, the 11 counts of felony manslaughter, and violations
of the Clean Water and Migratory Bird Treaty Acts.
Do you have a question?
So were these acts before the accident or have they started because of it?
I think they were before the accident.
Okay.
So were they ever existing, I don't know if it would be a specific organization or a bill?
Yeah.
Good question.
Don't ask me about legal stuff.
Do you like that I said good question to me?
You're like, you know what, that was a good question.
Good question, self.
Yeah I don't know anything about legal stuff either.
No, I was like, please don't want to ask about legal things.
I'm like, you did.
Now about those manslaughter counts.
I'm like, look, this is just what the very knowledgeable encyclopedia Britannica told
me.
Right.
And as far as the environment goes, some researchers- I truly am struggling today.
You're doing good.
As far as the environment goes, some researchers believe that the environmental impact on Louisiana's
coastal wetlands are still persisting as recently as 2018.
Areas oiled by the spill appeared to have less root mass and reduced soil strength,
potentially accelerating the region's problems with coastal erosion.
And then in April of 2023, BP made its return to the Gulf.
No it didn't.
It's first new offshore operated platform since the spill.
And-
They're like, we're back and we're better than ever.
I'm like, well, I hope you're better.
Better be better.
Seriously.
And then I was like, we have no golf balls.
We're doing great.
I'm like, and also do all your safety checks.
Yeah.
No, they didn't.
I asked.
They didn't.
Yeah.
I'm like, you know what?
I'll be doing good.
I don't have any faith in BP.
No, no.
Please don't sue us BP.
I don't care.
Well, then send them a really sad bird.
I know.
And then in 2016, there was a movie released with the title Deepwater Horizon starring
Mark Wahlberg based off-
Marky Mark.
Yes.
Which is, I hadn't seen it because I was like, I'm not a huge fan of Mark Wahlberg, but after
researching this story, I kind of want to watch it.
But it was based off the New York Times article, Deepwater Horizon's Final Hours.
And it includes the initial accident and then the spill as well.
So I think that'll be interesting.
I hope they don't dramatize it too much just because people are so affected by it.
That's true.
Yeah.
You don't want to be.
Like the Hollywood dramatics.
How strong is his Boston accent in New Orleans is what I want to know.
To be fair, a lot of the oil rig workers were from different states.
Oh, OK.
OK.
Hey, oil rig, say hello to your mother for me.
Oh, I can't.
No.
But yeah, a lot of the, I think that's just like common for oil rig workers is that-
That's true.
It's like something that they can do for like months at a time and they can be paid really
well because it's such hard and such dangerous work.
If I've learned anything from the movie Armageddon, you can be on an oil rig.
But also be employed for working in space.
Yeah, which had other Bostonian been athletic.
I feel like people from Boston are so tough.
They're like, you can put us anywhere and we will not only be good at it, but we'll
also yell at you.
They're like, you know what?
We're going to thrive on this oil rig.
We're going to drink bad coffee.
Sorry, Dunkin Donuts, you know.
Oh my gosh.
Don't even get us started.
I'm like quick aside.
Do you think people are going to hate us for that?
I don't care.
I have to say when I went to Alabama, we were getting coffee one day and I was like, oh,
I'm going to try Dunkin Donuts because like I-
Because America runs on Dunkin, it says.
America runs on Dunkin.
Like I hear so much hype about it.
I don't know if it was just like the one I went to, but I'm a very pale person and the
coffee was like paler than my skin.
It looked like it was just milk.
Dear listener, I put Olivia's hand next to my iPad screen and that's pretty bad.
Yeah, it is pretty bad.
I'm like, it's probably closer to your iPad screen, but seriously-
Oh, that's not good.
I was so tired and I needed coffee so badly and I couldn't even finish it because it was
so gross.
That's not good.
But anyway-
It was pretty awful.
Yeah.
That was the disembodied voice.
I'm like, Alabama, you know what you did.
Alabama's like, if that's all you think I've done, that's it.
Sorry, Alabama listeners.
I actually feel like there's a lot of the South that I will absolutely love and I actually
can't wait.
I know.
I loved everyone we met in Alabama.
They were super nice.
I just didn't like Dunkin.
But I just don't like Dunkin.
I think I've been to Dunkin once.
We actually live in a place that doesn't really have one anywhere near us.
We couldn't even just drive to one.
I don't think I even got Dunkin when I went to New York.
I didn't either because we are trained to not get it.
I was like, I want to try the local coffee shop.
Real quick-
But going back to an oil rig, I'm really sorry.
That's okay.
I just wanted to, before I close this out, I wanted to mention the victims of the accident.
The tiniest victims, the tiniest turtles.
What if you named all of them?
What if you just had a name for 500,000 birds and you're like, all right, starting with
A, there's Albert, Alan, Albert again?
Albert.
Oh my gosh.
No.
The human victims.
They're actually the most important, but still.
They are.
But are they the cutest victims?
I don't know.
I haven't seen them.
No.
But it is so sad.
The youngest victim was 22 years old.
Oh no, that's too sad.
I know.
He was probably so happy to have that job because he's like, I'm 22 and I'm living my
best life.
I mean, honestly, they were all pretty young.
The oldest was 56.
It's such hard work, right?
You have to be pretty strong.
You have to be in good shape.
So the victims are Jason Anderson, Donald Clark, Stephen Ray Curtis, Gordon Jones, Roy
Wyatt Kemp, Carl Kleppinger Jr., Keith Blair Manuel, Dewey Rivette, Shane Roshto, Adam
Wise, and Aaron Dale Burkean.
And I just feel so sorry for them and their families.
Me too.
It's so preventable.
So many safety checks that were not done.
I know.
Yeah.
Anyway, that is Deepwater Horizon.
Oh, that was heavy.
Thank you for doing that though.
I've always wondered what it was.
I actually did not know what it was about.
Yeah, I truly like, I just remember the trailers for the movie with Marky Mark.
I was so far away mentally from what it could even be that I actually had no idea that it
was even a real life event.
I thought it could have been sci-fi.
It could have been anything.
I thought it was either a shark, maybe an abyss type thing.
Have you seen Abyss?
I think so.
That is a James Cameron movie.
That's amazing.
That's right.
Yeah.
I sort of remember the story when it first broke, but it was in 2010.
So I was in high school.
I wasn't super aware of current events as much.
I was not in high school.
I was in my 20s, but I don't remember anything from a certain time.
I think 2010 was not a great year mentally.
Yeah.
I mean, it wasn't for me either.
I probably wasn't going to... I probably wasn't paying attention to sad news on purpose
because I couldn't handle it.
I'm like, please stop showing me pictures of the sad birds.
Right.
I'm like, now I'm doing much better.
Now it's like, all right, I'll handle it.
Now I'm like, let me do a report on it.
Not only can I handle it, let me tell you about it.
Yeah.
This is just a testament to many years of therapy.
It works everyone.
It works.
I don't have many years of therapy, but I am in therapy and I've gotten better at compartmentalizing,
whether that's good or bad.
Yeah, we don't know.
We don't know.
Hey, if it's good for you.
It's true.
You keep doing... You keep doing, you girl.
If it keeps you sane.
If it keeps you Jessica Fletcher-ing, you go down that road.
I... That's all I want.
Yeah.
I'm like, I'm not anywhere near her age, but I want to be Jessica Fletcher.
Oh, me too.
No, actually, I remember telling two of the people I live with, two of my roommates, because
I started watching it on my own, choosing that over anything else.
I was like, this is what I'm going to watch.
I remember watching the very first episode and I was like, oh, this is it.
This is what I want it to be.
This is it.
Yeah.
I want to be a widowed 50 something living in Maine and solving murders.
I don't want to be widowed.
No.
But everything else about Jessica Fletcher, I want to be that.
Right.
I'm not even married, but I'm like, but I can be widowed.
You don't know.
You're like, I am saying I'm widowed even though I am not married.
Yeah.
We don't want you to be widowed because-
You're like, I'm just going to add an air of mystery.
Yeah.
Who knows?
Oh, hi baby.
We have a podcast kitty joining us.
Okay.
Should we take a little breaky break?
That sounds good.
A breaky break from Marky Mark and then we'll come right back to what horrors remain for
the rest of this podcast.
Sounds good.
Okay.
So Olivia, I am going to tell you a story about a con man.
There is a little bit of murder involved.
Not good, but this is primarily a con man story.
His name is not Clark Rockefeller, but that's what we're going to start with and what we
know about him.
I'm so excited.
Yeah.
So here we go.
So around 1995, Sandra Boss was getting her MBA in Harvard or at Harvard.
I don't know if the correct way of, are you inside Harvard?
You're at Harvard.
You're around Harvard.
Yeah.
And her sister introduced her to a man named Clark Rockefeller, his full name being James
Frederick Mills Clark Rockefeller.
I believe the selling point is when you have a hundred names, the more names you have,
the more money you have, the fancier you are.
So he was introduced as a descendant of the famous business family and he certainly looked
the part.
He wore custom made designer clothing.
He collected expensive art and he had an upscale New York apartment.
So Sandra was instantly charmed by him and the two married shortly thereafter in 1996.
So Sandra and Clark spent the next 11 years together.
They enjoyed a stable life thanks in large part to Sandra's job as a consultant.
She was quite the savvy business woman.
It was said that her salary at the time in 1996 was 2 million a year.
Right.
And in addition to that, she had her own personal wealth just from coming from a wealthy family.
Wow.
Right.
But Sandra said over time her husband became emotionally abusive.
And despite Sandra being the main source of household income, he was in complete control
of the family's finances and every aspect of her day to day life.
Yeah, not good.
Despite this in 2001, the couple have a daughter.
Her name is Ray.
Oh, so cute.
So cute.
It's R E I G H.
Oh, yeah.
Ray Storo Mills Rockefeller, lovingly referred to as Snooks.
Oh, which is really cute.
So Clark lives with his wife and daughter in Cornish, New Hampshire.
And this is where he used his family ties to the Rockefeller family to bolster his reputation.
He would tell people he was a Yale graduate and that he owned a business in Canada.
I feel like that's vague enough for people to not ask.
It could be any business in Canada, but you just say that and it's good enough.
I don't know.
Personally, me, if someone mentions business, my mind just immediately glazes over.
So I'm like, yeah, no follow up questions.
Right.
Kind of like any kind of law questions.
We're like, what?
Yeah.
Bird acts?
I don't know.
I definitely am not in the same circles he's trying to be.
No, not only are our circles different.
My brain doesn't even like finance business.
Hey, good for you, friend.
I'm like, I just got a dollar off coupon to not dunk in donuts.
I'll tell you that much.
All right.
Clark used his family name to get a lot of, I guess, free stuff around town or just to
get his name out there.
He was a member of many elite clubs, including, I looked up one, Boston's Algonquin Club.
It's also shortened to the Quinn Club, is a members only club that used to be so elite.
And now since, you know, times have changed, they have opened it to literally anyone can
join, but it was for rich white men for the longest time.
But also they're like, yeah, it's open to everyone.
Wink.
I know.
But they're like, but I'm sorry you've been denied.
And it was said that for a while he was even a club director at the Algonquin Club.
I wonder what that would entail.
I don't know.
Throwing a lot of parties.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Makes you wonder.
Maybe buying a lot of ice.
So despite having a daughter, Clark and Sandra's marriage really began to fall apart.
And it was largely due to his antics.
In 2006, Sandra hired a private investigator and she discovered that Clark was not who
he claimed to be.
What a surprise.
Shock.
Shocker.
Although she did not learn his real name, she was able to at least finally serve him
with divorce papers because she accused him of lying about his relation to the Rockefeller
family.
In fact, some members of the family came forward to deny any relation to Clark.
They're like, I don't know her.
I know.
I'm like, how embarrassing.
She would later testify at their divorce trial that he agreed to give her sole custody, which
included three supervised visits a year, but he said it could only happen if he was given
an $800,000 settlement, two cars, the engagement ring he gave her, and a dress that he gave
her.
Just one dress.
The audacity.
But you know, she has enough money and she's probably like, okay, fine, please leave.
So it's also just like so annoying though.
You're like, give me the ring back.
And she's like, well, I was going to throw it into the river.
So you saved me a step.
So after the divorce, she legally changed her daughter's name and the two moved to London
together probably just to be like, goodbye.
We're leaving forever.
That actually does sound nice.
I too would like to move to London.
Yeah.
In 2008, Clark was with his daughter during one of the three yearly visits and his ex-wife
was waiting in a Boston hotel room nearby.
And while Clark and his daughter and a social worker were walking through the Boston Common,
he suddenly pushed down the social worker, accompanying them, grabbed his daughter and
threw her into a waiting SUV, subsequently kidnapping his daughter.
Yes.
As investigators attempted to track down Clark Rockefeller, they found more questions than
answers.
Not only did he not have a social security number, he did not have a driver's license
or a credit card in his own name.
When his picture was shown on the news asking for leads, several callers gave at least four
different identities to go with the man shown on screen.
So investigators were truly confused.
Finally, a friend came forward with what would be the most crucial evidence.
Clark Rockefeller had been at this man's house the night before and the glass of wine he
had had had not been washed.
So they were able to pull prints off the glass and they finally got a match to one Christian
Karl Gerhard Streiter, a German immigrant who had come to the United States 30 years
earlier.
Dun dun dun.
That is a dun dun dun if there's ever one.
All right.
So who is Christian?
Christian Gerhard Streiter.
He was born in 1961 in West Germany and was raised in a middle class family.
He was intelligent, didn't have a whole lot of friends, and he was often dreaming of going
off and becoming rich and famous, which I actually feel like is probably a lot of us.
And as an awkward teenager, he was obsessed with making it big in America.
When he was just 17, he met an American couple who asked for directions and he immediately
got their names, which he used later on papers when coming into the U.S. saying they were
the ones who invited him to the United States.
Oh my gosh.
I feel like he's like Michael Scott when someone is like, oh, you should come over sometime.
And then he's like, I'm coming over right now.
No, he this is exactly it because he also met a young man backpacking through Europe
who said politely, I'm sure if you're ever in Connecticut, sometimes stop by and maybe
you can spend the night with us.
Then the Michael Scott of Germany, a few weeks later, arrived at the house and ended up staying
there for months.
No, the worst red flags.
This is why you shouldn't say things you don't.
Yeah.
And you know what?
Most polite company, they get that because you tell people that and usually, I mean,
you do mean it, but you don't think someone's going to actually do it.
And you kind of hope they do.
But you're also kind of like, well, you know, we'll see.
This is not the person you want to come.
And but they end up doing it.
Maybe I mean, maybe originally they're like, oh, this is a nice guy.
And they're like, oh, my gosh, never mind.
You're walking away and they're like, I got weird vibes.
Yeah.
So Christian now was saying he was a German exchange student and that he needed a place
to stay because he was going to be going to high school in America.
And while he was there, he became so engrossed and absorbed in this new country he was living
in that he completely it's like he just kind of changed his persona.
He lost his accent.
He's now like I am now a new person.
He became obsessed with Gilligan's Island and he learned to talk like Thurston Howell,
the third.
And I don't know if you're familiar with Gilligan's Island.
We were not around for it, but we've seen reruns.
And it's adorable.
I had to Google what Thurston sounds like, and I do recognize the voice, but it's very
much like this kind of like wrenching like I'm from Germany.
Nope, that sounds too British, but you know what I'm talking about.
Yeah.
It's like kind of that old Continental.
Yeah.
Very.
I was doing it earlier and I think it's because now I'm like microphone shy and it's going
to go Thurston to like Sean Connery for some reason.
It was kind of like Sean Connery.
I'm like, I'm sorry.
Suddenly it's SNL celebrity jeopardy.
Okay, but you get the idea.
It's just very over the top.
It's rich.
I'm like Thurston is supposed to be like in Gilligan's Island world.
He's like one of the richest men in the world.
And he just sounds like old money.
And it's like Christopher Christian or whatever Clark, he's like, this is how I need to sound.
Yeah, that's my voice now.
He's like the original like person trying to pretend to be old money.
Yes, like that's the trend now.
But also Jay Gatsby.
Like this guy was living his Fitzgerald life, but in a really bad way.
He wasn't as good at it.
No, no.
So eventually Christian decided to become an actor naturally because that's what you
do.
And he headed out west to LA.
He made it as far as Wisconsin.
And while there he realized he needed to get a green card.
Otherwise he was going to quickly get escorted out of the country.
He found a woman willing to marry him and he told her that he would be forced to go
back to Germany to serve in the cold war.
Which were like, poor girl, she doesn't realize that that's like a figurative war.
But he was like, oh, she believed me.
Right.
So they did get married.
He left the day after he got married to go to California.
Oh my gosh, what a jerk.
And I looked it up and this woman did not file for divorce until 1992.
They got married in like 1985.
Oh my gosh.
I don't know, like what if she actually loved him?
Which would be sad.
That would be sad.
I don't know if she would if you met someone that soon, but it's like, maybe she was just
like, I don't know.
I feel like I can procrastinate things a lot.
Maybe she's a procrastinator.
She kept being like, what was I supposed to do today?
Oh yeah.
File for divorce from that crazy guy.
She's like, well, you know, I got stuff to do.
I got to get to the post office.
Girl, I feel you.
I will also put stuff off.
Let's see.
So anyway, moving on.
So Christian moves to LA with his new green card and he settles in the suburb of San
Marino and San Marino is, I mean, there's many suburbs of LA, but this is one of the
wealthiest, like Beverly Hills wealthy.
And it's like, he knew how to pick them.
I mean, cause like not only is Connecticut one of the wealthiest states, like this guy
with his Thurston Howell confidence, he's just moving on up in the world.
When he arrives, he has changed his name to Christopher Mountbatten Chichester.
Oh, that's right.
Chichester, which he pronounces Chi-chesta because you know, now he's British.
He claims to be Lord Mountbatten's nephew, which if you know Lord Mountbatten, that is
William and Harry's grandfather.
So he's royalty, but you know, just distant enough that you're not going to ask questions
because you're like, Oh, you're not on the Windsor side.
Who cares?
Yeah.
But you're, I mean, you're going to believe him because he's white and he has money supposedly.
And you're like, why would someone know that weird random part of the family?
Right.
And this is the eighties.
No one's looking this up.
You're like, all right, I believe you.
So many people in the area are instantly intrigued because I mean, there's now an eccentric royal
living amongst them.
This opens the door for him.
And so he now looks down to the part, you have money, you're in.
And so he moves into a guest house of a woman named Ruth Deedee Sohus.
But here is the clincher.
Soon after Christopher slash Christian moves into Deedee's home, Deedee's son, John and
John's wife, Linda disappear forever.
Yeah.
So let's talk about John and Linda.
So they were by all accounts considered adorable.
They were married in 1983.
So by the time they meet Christopher, they're still fairly newlyweds.
John was a sci fi nerd and tech geek and Linda was six feet tall, outgoing and a redhead.
Oh, yeah.
And she was a burgeoning artist.
And by all accounts, most people would peg them as, you know, very much opposite to track.
But they just they felt like they were soulmates and they loved cats.
They had six cats.
Oh my gosh.
They sound like they're adorable.
Good people.
Yeah, like just good people.
But they lived with Deedee.
They didn't love this because they were married.
They wanted to be independent.
Deedee, even though she did love her son, she could be problematic as she was often
drunk and unpredictable.
But they couldn't live in the guest house because a paying renter was there.
And this was Christopher.
So John and Linda tried to focus on their careers and save money to move out of the
home.
And one day they bought a new truck and they were going to use this truck to road trip
to a sci fi convention with a friend, their friend Sue.
However, Linda called Sue shortly after making their plans to let them know that the plans
have changed and they were going to New York because John suddenly had an interview for
a high profile but secret government job, which I mean, that sounds very suspicious.
But Linda promised they would be back in two weeks.
I just realized I did not do my sources.
That was like, I was like, don't forget.
I'll remind you then.
I will do it at the end.
Okay, dear listener.
Okay.
So despite this, Sue never heard from Linda again.
Yeah.
Prior to the trip, Linda boarded the six cats in a local kennel and paid in advance for
two weeks.
So I believe it was like maybe six to eight weeks of stay.
But by the end of eight weeks, the kennel owner had not heard from Linda.
So they tracked down Linda's sister, Kathy.
And Kathy was like, my sister would never forget her cats.
Like this is impossible.
So Kathy calls Dee Dee several times.
Every time she talks to Dee Dee, Dee Dee is drunk and tells Kathy that John and Linda
are not in New York.
They're in Paris, France on a secret mission.
And Dee Dee, not winning mother of the year, also told the police the same thing.
She refused to identify who told her this too.
She insists they're in Europe and that there's nothing wrong.
And so there's no evidence of foul play.
The police are powerless to investigate further.
Finally, a full three months after John and Linda left for quote unquote New York, Sue
receives a postcard from France that says, Dear Sue, kinda missed New York.
Oops.
But this can be lived with John and Linda.
The most impersonal.
I mean, postcards are already like, there's nothing you can write.
And it's like, hey, goodbye.
There's nothing to it.
Seriously, even like my most reserved friends would not write a weird postcard like that.
No.
There's no point in sending that.
There's no emotion in this.
Clearly.
And then Sue gets it and she's like, this is not Linda.
No duh.
No, yeah, exactly.
It might as well have said, Dear Sue, this is not Linda signed John and Linda.
So three months after refusing to help the police, Dee Dee finally had a change of heart.
She too filed a missing persons report on John and Linda.
And then she revealed the source of who's telling her this about them being in Europe.
Guess what?
She was the tenant of her guest house, a man who was named Christopher Chichester or Chi
Chesta.
Chichester.
Chichesta.
But he just moved out and he left no forwarding address.
He lived there for two years.
As soon as she squealed on him, he was out.
She also reported that her son's pickup truck, the new one that he bought was now missing
and she had no idea how it disappeared.
But there was still no proof that a crime had had been committed.
So the investigation stalled again.
Soon after filing her missing persons report, after Christopher left town, Dee Dee sold
her house and moved to a trailer park as almost all of her money had been mysteriously gone
away.
Poor Dee Dee.
Exactly.
She had been Chichestered.
Yeah.
That's probably, I mean, she's old and, you know, it was like drunk most of the time.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
She was probably pretty easy to fool.
She died just two years later and the fate of her son was still a mystery.
Yeah.
The case spring up again nine months after Dee Dee died as John's truck turned up 3000
miles away in Greenwich, Connecticut.
A man calling himself Christopher Crowe had tried to sell the pickup truck to a son of
a local minister without title papers.
Rather than buy the truck, the minister's son reported it to the police and Christopher
took off, but then was later pulled over and this caused him to abandon the vehicle.
A sergeant of the Greenwich Police Department did some digging and learned that this Christopher
Crowe and this Christopher Chichester were actually the same individuals and Chichester
had been the ex-tenant of someone who might be able to shed light on a mysterious disappearance,
but he was gone.
Yeah.
So because of this, they could not track him down.
The search stalled again until May 1994 while digging a swimming pool at Dee Dee Sohus'
former home, a workman made a grim discovery.
Three plastic bags and a fiberglass box full of dismembered sections of a human skeleton
were found.
According to a detective of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, the bones probably
belonged to one or both of the former residents.
And then a forensic anthropologist examined the remains and determined that it's probably
just one body and it does fit the physical descriptions of John Sohus, but the lack of
dental records prevented conclusive identification.
And it was also determined that John had been, what's the word, adopted by Dee Dee.
So there wasn't any way to even do familial DNA, which is sad.
Something that perhaps the tenant of the guest house would know, we could at least look through
the guest house.
And so they used luminol, which we know luminol helps discover organic material.
And so they applied it all over the cement floors and sure enough, the floor glowed showing
there had been quite a bit of blood at one point.
So it's obviously a crime scene.
But had it just been John, we don't know.
There was only one body.
We never found another body and the case grew cold and it wasn't until 2010 that the bones
were finally determined to be John's and Linda to this day still has not been found.
Poor Linda.
I know it's very, very sad.
Okay, so back to Christopher, who's now Christopher Crowe, who also has claimed to be a relative
of Cameron Crowe.
Of course he has.
He has now settled in Greenwich, Connecticut.
He also has claimed to be a television producer from Los Angeles who's working on the revival
of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV show.
I can't think of anyone I would want to do that with.
Right, exactly.
But what's creepy is that he picked it because there was an actual producer of this show,
Cameron C. Crowe.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
And I mean, like back in the 80s, no one's going to be able to have the internet to like
look it up and verify it.
The real Christopher Crowe was like, what?
You did what?
Yeah.
So because he seems so impressive, he's immediately hired by a brokerage firm, but was fired because
they discovered that his social security number was not his, but in fact it belonged to serial
killer David Berkowitz, which was the son of Sam's serial killer from the 70s.
Did he pick that on purpose?
I think he did.
I think it's kind of like a, ha ha, you got me.
That's stupid and annoying.
Yeah.
Like, he's like, not only am I the smartest person in the room, but I'm the most annoying
person in the room.
I just wanted to keep that, you know, if you're wondering.
So he, from there, he was hired and fired from a few other jobs.
And then another one, the very last one, as Christopher Crowe, he quit because where he
was working, they found out that this person was also in connection with the disappearances
of two people from San Marino, California.
So he was like, gotta go.
Goodbye.
And now we have circled back.
We are now back to Clark Rockefeller.
So this new name, it's very flashy.
It's almost too big of a name that it can't be legitimate, but it's like, who's going
to pretend to be a Rockefeller?
It's kind of like a go big or go home.
So Clark reimagined himself as being a direct descendant of Percy Rockefeller, who was the
nephew of the great John D Rockefeller.
So it's just subtle enough to fly under the radar.
Like, who's really going to look into Percy Rockefeller's family line, I guess.
And it's like, I mean, they're not like John D Rockefeller rich, but they're still Rockefeller
rich, if you know what I mean.
But he was thinking, you know, this is it, I've made it.
But as we know, it went too far.
And he went too big, and he has got to go home.
And by home, I mean to the Boston Police Department.
Christian Christopher Clark is now wanted for kidnapping his own daughter.
So as we talked about, he has kidnapped his seven year old daughter, and after a five
day manhunt for him, Clark Rockefeller became Chip Smith.
He became a cop from Beauty and the Beast.
He's like, I'm gonna go plain Jane now.
Yeah, but he was, you know, Charles Chip Smith.
Charles Chip Smith, captain and catamaran designer.
I'm not making that up.
I know.
I'm just looking at you like this because I'm annoyed.
You're like, did you just say catamaran?
I'm gonna punch you in the face.
I want to punch him in the face.
Yeah.
So this happened on August 2nd, 2008.
He was found in Baltimore, Maryland, a Charles Chip Smith.
FBI agents zeroed in on him and were able to lure him out of his apartment with a telephone
call because they wanted to talk to him about a catamaran he was taking out on the water.
He's like, did you say catamaran?
Well, that is exactly what I'm about.
You know what?
I'm an expert in that.
I'm going to design it for you.
Let me come out and get better reception.
So he was immediately arrested as soon as he left his apartment and he was charged with
kidnapping and assault charges because if we remember, the social worker is like, I
am not living that down, buddy.
And they found his daughter unharmed inside his apartment.
So Christian, formerly known as Chip Smith, was taken to Boston Police Department.
During his trial, he tried to plead insanity because his defense team told jurors that
Christian believed his daughter had communicated with him telepathically from London where
she and her mother had moved and she was begging him to rescue her.
Like, you did not think that.
I do not think Thurston Howell III would think that.
However, the psychiatrist for the prosecution argued that while he has been diagnosed with
delusional disorder, a grandiose type, and narcissistic personality disorder, he has
greatly exaggerated his symptoms and he is quite intelligent and is capable of knowing
the difference between right and wrong.
By the end of the trial in mid-2009, the jury convicted Christian Clark Christopher of kidnapping
of his daughter as well as one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
And this is because he yelled at the getaway driver that he threw her into the car to pull
away even while the daughter's social worker was trying to hang onto the vehicle to save
her.
Good job social worker.
I know they need, let's pay social workers more.
They are like today's heroes.
So he was convicted, put into prison, but in 2011 more light was shed on the Sohus murder
and Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Christian with the murder of John Sohus.
The murder trial was held in March and April of 2013 and ended with Christian being convicted
of first degree murder on April 10th, 2013.
The verdict included an enhancement for use of a deadly weapon to bludgeon Sohus to death
because among those bone fragments they found that he had been stabbed but he had been ultimately
killed by many blows to his skull.
So he was given the maximum sentence of 27 years to life with credit for one year served
while being sentenced in Massachusetts.
So they're like, good job.
You got one down.
You got life to go.
Yeah.
Good job dummy.
He is currently serving in San Quentin and he's eligible for parole in 2029.
So over the years he was a British aristocrat, a cardiologist.
I did not even touch that.
That's way, like I can't, this guy has already gone on too long.
A Hollywood producer, a bond broker, a member of the Rockefeller family.
And now he's just an inmate.
And that is the story of Christian Christopher Clark Chip Gerhard Strider of Bavaria, West
Germany.
Good job.
Oh my gosh, that guy.
Oh, you were going to do your...
All my sources.
Of course.
Yes, because I did not come up with any of that just off the top of my head.
I wouldn't even have known where to start.
You're like, you know what?
I made the story.
I'm like, how did you think of my screenplay?
So my sources are NPR, which there was no writer.
It was just NPR writers.
A Vanity Fair article by Mark Seal, an unsolved mysteries episode, season seven, episode 11
with our good friend, Robert Stackhouse.
Isn't it just Robert Stack?
Robert Stack?
Who's Stackhouse?
I don't know.
By our good friend, Suki Waterhouse.
I'm just kidding.
Robert Stackhouse.
Where did that come from?
I have no idea.
You're like, I'm so used to long names after this story.
I'm like, our good friend, Robert Stack, Gerhard Streiter.
Man, that show is so good.
And then the Netflix documentary called My Friend Rockefeller, which that documentary
actually interviews Christian.
Yeah, so he talks like this.
I can't do the voice.
I wish I could.
If anyone is nearer YouTube at the moment, just Google...
What?
Just YouTube, Thurston Howell III to see how he sounds.
Also, this is probably the story, the only story you've told that I know really well.
And I would highly recommend watching the episode of Dateline, Phony Rockefeller.
Yes, that was one that came up that I didn't get to watch and I'm like, I have got to do
it.
It's so weird because it's not one of the regular Dateline hosts, but it's a really...
Was it Lester Holt?
It wasn't Lester.
It was someone I don't even recognize.
But it was really good.
But they interview him and he is the most irritating person.
Was he doing the voice?
He was doing the voice and he had his creepy 70s serial killer sunglasses.
I mean, regular glasses, not sunglasses.
And then...
Yeah, every picture you see him in, he actually looks like...
What is that villain that wears orange and has the bald haircut?
Is that from...
From Despicable Me?
Despicable Me?
That is literally who...
I don't know that character's name, but that is who he looks like to me.
I don't want to be like, oh, this person wouldn't fool me.
But I feel like if he told me, I'm a Rockefeller, I'd be like, no, you're not.
And I don't even know what a Rockefeller...
I don't even know how to say it right.
A rockerfeller?
I'm like, I know in my bones that you are not.
Oh yeah, Date with Dateline did an episode about it.
Which is an amazing podcast.
Amazing podcast, highly recommend.
I feel like if you like us, you'll like Date with Dateline.
They're very family friendly.
They're a couple of friends that are very silly.
And also, thank you for liking us.
Yes.
I'm like, I assume if you're listening, you probably like us.
If you want to tell us, you can.
I guess if you want to hate listen, I guess you're still downloading.
Oh yeah, please don't.
Please hate listen, but don't yell at us in a comment.
So I don't think we've gotten any comments like that so far.
No, I'm actually surprised, which is sad.
I'm like, oh, we're doing okay, I guess.
I'm just bracing myself for the day someone tells me my voice is annoying.
I wish I was also bracing myself for that.
I'm like, that happened to be a long time ago.
I just mean like a stranger.
I, a stranger.
Yeah.
But so far you've only had compliments on your voice, which is nice.
I know.
I'm like, wow, you guys are nice.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
And if you feel like telling us, please rate, review, and subscribe on any of your podcast
platforms.
And please tell a friend, tell a stranger, tell an enemy.
Phone a friend.
Tell anyone.
Call your mom.
Tell a con man.
Don't, but don't tell them too much.
Just tell them what podcasts you like.
Yeah.
Just don't tell them anything about yourself.
Because identity theft is not a joke.
It's not a joke.
That's like the second office reference.
I feel like you're doing okay in life if you made at least two office references in your,
in a 24 hour period.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't have anything else.
Do you have anything to add before next time?
I don't know.
We've already talked about our merch.
Oh, we do have merch.
It's on Redbubble.
I'm not sure if that's the best platform for merch, but it's, it's where we are stepping
our foot into the merch world.
I think soon we'll probably move it to a different website.
But we will let you know when that happens.
But for the time being, it is on Redbubble.
Yeah.
It's under Oddly Curious Pod, just like our Insta handle, Oddly Curious Pod.
And I'm also waiting for the sticker that I bought from myself.
I know.
I'm like, I am going to buy a sticker too.
I'm really excited about it.
Me too.
But yeah, that's all I have.
Yeah, me too.
Well, until next time.
Be curious.
And be odd.
Don't trust people with weirdly long names.
My last name's pretty long, but.
But it's like, it's not multiple smooshed together.
Oh yeah.
And chachester.
Chachester.
Yeah, don't trust anyone with really, really anything.
I don't know.
Just don't trust.
No, wait, you should trust some people.
Yeah, it's OK.
Just be wary.
Be careful with people.
Don't trust oil companies.
Definitely don't trust oil companies.
But always trust turtles.
Always trust turtles.
Yeah.
And if anyone says something about if some turtles, I don't
know, you shouldn't trust, I'm just going to ignore that,
because I'm going to trust all the turtles.
I kind of feel like some dolphins might not
be able to be trusted.
But I trust all speckled nose dolphins.
I don't trust dolphins, but I respect them.
Yeah.
Because I feel like they could also have still your identity.
I think so, yeah.
And yeah.
I mean, we have to have gas, because it fills up our cars,
and we have to drive with it.
But I don't like the means and how
it's removed from the earth.
I don't like that I have to have it.
I don't like it at all.
In fact, I would like to have it not at all.
And that's how I feel about that.
I don't want gasoline in anything.
I don't want everything to be electric.
And I don't want con men to do anything bad.
If I lived in an area that was more conducive to it,
I would just walk and take public transport all over.
Oh my gosh.
That's the dream.
We're in a place that doesn't work.
Anyway.
Anyway, we're not just rambling.
We're like, and gas prices don't even get started.
Anyway, but in the meantime, take care of yourself.
Take care of your friends.
Go easy on yourself, and we love you.
And we love you.
And good night.
Good night.