Grapefruit!
I'm Drew and I'm Olivia and we are oddly curious.
So this is our second episode and I would just like to preface this episode with I'm really sorry about the first episode.
I realized that there's a lot of things I did not do what I want. What? There's a lot of things I didn't want to do the first episode with my first story which is Billy Goal.
And I'm going to tell you why because my brain was not in the right place and I thought it was nerves and anxiety which I mean like come on everyday life.
But no, I don't know if you can tell by my voice but I left Olivia's house, drove home an hour and came home with COVID.
Not from me.
I'm like if you listen to the first episode really closely you can probably hear me maybe slowly getting sicker and Olivia's immune system like just throwing hands.
I know which is weird because usually my immune system kind of sucks but it pulled through this time.
I'm actually really impressed. I'm like you're super lady? Super lady.
I realized when I got back to my house I was like I didn't even do my source material for Billy Goal. I just was like what was wrong with me?
Oh yeah, I caught the actual thing that started a pandemic.
Yeah and I didn't have any excuse other than it was our first time but I feel like I kind of blacked out while I was doing my...
Whatever you did really good.
That's good. I haven't listened to it yet. I'm afraid to know.
What have our producer do that?
I don't think I took a single breath the whole time. I think I just was like and here we go.
You were monologuing.
I was.
Yeah.
When monologuing and radiation become one it becomes Chernobyl reading.
I don't know.
Chernobyl happened because someone monologued for two.
Yeah.
I mean I will.
Yeah. But science. Anyway.
So I am so much better. I am not clearly I'm not contagious because I'm here.
Yeah.
We're together and I'm better.
I'm like it's literally been 10 days.
I'm like this. This COVID thing is not messing around.
It's not.
No. It means business.
It feels like it's actually been forever since you were here and it wasn't that long because time doesn't matter anymore.
It doesn't. No.
Does anything really matter anymore?
No.
Anyway.
So without further ado.
Olivia went first last time.
So I would like to go first this time.
Yay.
Are we ready to do this?
Is this ready?
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm ready.
Also how are you?
I'm good.
We got some coffee earlier and some pizza.
I mean not together.
I mean I guess you could.
A little bit.
There was a gap in between.
There was a little bit of a gap but I'm hyped up and now I'm going to bring myself down with a white claw.
Yeah.
Just doing all the things.
Right.
I think my order went coffee dayquil.
It did.
Yeah.
Pizza white claw.
The American dream.
Yep.
I don't think the American dream ever touched any of us.
Unless it was in pizza form.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I'm ready.
So my story for you today, Olivia and dear listener, hopefully listeners, I don't know,
is the lady of the lake.
I'm so excited.
Right?
It's, this is devastating.
And it's interesting, there's a lot of science involved, much like many true crime stories,
it's also very just disheartening.
So.
See, I know I've heard this story before, but for whatever reason, I don't remember any
of it.
So this will be brand new.
This will be brand new.
Yeah.
And the lady of the lake is a term that has been used many times throughout history.
It's an Arthurian legend.
She was like of Avalon and my Arthurian knowledge really comes from Monty Python.
So she like given Excalibur.
This story is not that.
Okay.
But she's still a beautiful lady who was in a beautiful lake.
Okay.
And there were no swords.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
So my source material comes from a history link.org article by Mavis Admanson.
An article from my Olympic park.com and a morbid ology.com article by Emily G. Thompson, which
shout out to morbid ology.
It's actually really good podcast.
I was hoping she had an episode on this, but she did not.
But I have found really amazing episodes from her.
She's very, very professional.
Cool.
So shout out to morbid ology.
So the story of the lady in the lake begins in the Olympic National Park, which is just stunning.
And it's in Lake Crescent.
That is our lake.
Olympic National Park is massive, but Lake Crescent itself is 17 miles west of Port Angeles in
Washington state.
Okay.
I thought it was Washington.
Yeah.
So Port Angeles is just the cutest town you get on a ferry to Victoria, British Columbia
from there.
And if you can just imagine that whole, I mean, everything beautiful, like literally there
are orcas in that water just waiting to the free willy.
That sounds magical.
I know.
It's just beautiful.
And so side note, I was actually in Port Angeles, not this last November, but the November
before we went to Lake Crescent actually.
This is where I learned about this story.
My cousins took my other cousin and my best friend up to Lake Crescent and we hiked around.
We went to the lodge.
The lodge was just stunning.
The lodge felt like if Teddy Roosevelt was a building, it would be this building.
There's a, I can picture it.
Right.
Roaring fire, a beautiful elk head, which I mean, like that's sad, but still a mustache.
Everyone has a mustache and glasses, but in their gift shop, they have an actual book
for this story.
And so I was reading about it and it was just, wow, this is good.
Good storytelling, but terrible story.
Why I'm like, it's like, why did this have to happen?
But at least they are giving her the anyway, I should get into it.
I'm really sorry.
Anyway, so we're going to start at Lake Crescent.
It's July 6th, 1940.
There are a lot of fishermen out this day.
It's a beautiful, clean, still water day.
Good for fishing.
Louis Rolf and his brother are out on their boat and they're just having a good time.
I mean, it's 1940.
They're fishing.
They don't have to worry about a lot of things.
Maybe Hitler, but that's part of like the 40s.
I think.
Yeah.
I was like, they don't have to worry about much, maybe a little bit.
Yeah.
But yeah.
So they're on their boat and they notice near the shoreline an object floating close.
Close to them in between them and the shore.
Naturally, they approach the object because I'm with them.
I'm so curious.
I will see anything.
And I'm like, what is it?
I know.
Me too.
Right.
So they are horrified to discover it is a body of a woman.
She's wearing a green dress and she's wrapped in two gray striped blankets tied together with heavy rope.
So at first appearance, it seems like, well, this body has not been in the water that long.
She's very well intact.
And a little side note about Lake Crescent.
It's the second deepest lake in Washington because it's been measured over 600 feet deep.
But some scientists say it could have areas over a thousand feet deep, which could make it possibly even the deepest lake in Washington.
But that's not fully recorded.
They're like, we're too scared to find out.
Which I mean, deep water and humans don't really go hand in hand.
No, we're not meant to be there.
No.
And this is a freshwater lake.
It's so blue because there is no algae in it because the water has no nitrogen, which helps algae form.
So this is like almost like Caribbean water is kind of like a light blue.
This is like a deep, cobalt blue, just gorgeous.
So this fully intact body is just going to stand out on the water.
Yeah.
So Lewis and his brother, clearly they don't know what to do.
They rush to the dock of the Washington State Trout Hatchery.
That's the closest place they can think of that could have someone of authority, which thankfully there is a superintendent on duty.
His name is A.D. Iman Roth.
And when they tell Iman Roth what they found, he's skeptical.
He is actually quoted saying, must be a deer, Lewis.
What?
Which...
How do you confuse a lady and a deer?
He's like, hey, look, it's 1940.
We don't do everything right here.
You don't know much about women.
Which can you...
I'm sure Lewis was probably a much better person than I am because I can't imagine him being like, yeah, I don't know very many deer that wear dresses.
But I don't know.
Anyway, probably because you just don't want to find a body in the water and you're hoping it's something else.
So nevertheless, he follows them to the scene and he's horrified to learn that his skepticism is unfounded.
It is in fact a woman in the water.
So Iman Roth contacts the coroner and the sheriff and they arrived to the scene to retrieve the body.
When they bring this body in, she is noted to be as white as marble.
Her facial features are more or less not really distinguishable.
But she's estimated to be in her 30s.
She's also estimated to be 5'6", and roughly around 140 pounds at the time of her death because now she's much, much lighter.
And this is all due to her being so well preserved.
And this is because she is covered in a soap or a soap-like substance.
And this is what is interesting about, I was reading about why bodies float in water and why they decay.
Fresh water actually leads to bodies to decay faster.
Salt is a-
Because salt preserves.
Yes, salt preserves.
Fresh water, it's like, it's a breeding ground for either natural chemicals or natural bacteria that will interact with the bacteria already in a body.
Which this bacteria causes you to bloat and float.
So unfortunately the term for a floating body is called a bloater, which is just-
Yeah, that's not great.
No.
Like, hey, we all get bloated.
But please, not-
But after death, you're like, just give me some dignity.
Don't be mean.
Yeah.
However, so this body is covered in soap and the coroner noted, he said, quote, she could be scooped away like putty.
Oh.
Yeah.
This process is called saponification.
It means that extreme cold prevented decomposition and the salts and the calcium, which the salts there's not very much of in this water.
But it's like natural occurring salt with calcium and deep water and cold water help the tissue of a human to slowly convert into a material like soap.
What?
Yeah.
I thought someone did that to her.
Right.
Yeah.
Because they're thinking, why would they do this?
But it's actually her own-
Her own self did it to her.
That's so weird.
So this process of decaying matter being covered in soap is called adiposear.
In order for this to happen, a body must be deprived of oxygen, which unfortunately, if you're dead, that happens.
Plus she's in water.
There isn't very much oxygen.
And then it needs to be in an alkaline environment, which I mean, like, so this water is this pH balanced.
And then the second thing it needs, intestinal bacteria must be present, which unfortunately humans, we have a lot of that, whether good or bad.
And so this chemical reaction causes a waxy and casing to form around a body.
And this is this adiposear.
And in some instances, they have called them wax mummies.
But this adiposear is also called corpse wax.
Now, why do they have to make it?
I know.
Just call it a wax mummy.
I know.
And corpse wax, I mean, that actually sounds like a great name for a band, to be honest.
And also reminds me of House of Wax.
Yes, yeah.
Which I have never seen.
I don't know the story of that.
Does that have anything to do with it?
I don't know.
I just know Paris Hilton, wasn't it?
Yeah.
Shout out to Paris Hilton.
But one interesting factoid is so I looked up the history of this adiposear.
There's been many instances where it's been like basically they stumbled across it because
it's not really that common.
Because the circumstances have to be just right for it to happen.
Yeah.
So this is just a side note.
The history of what has been recorded for this in 1786 and 1787, the Paris's Cemetery
Innocence, which is the cemetery for dead children, which is very sad.
To Parisian scientists were supervising the exhumation of bodies, these children's bodies,
because they were moving them from the graveyard to the catacombs because they were running
out of room, which is fairly, really sad.
Children really just leave them.
Right.
Let the little babies be here.
Let them rest.
But the 1700s, they were a different time.
They're like, everyone's dying.
Everyone's dying.
So they found this gray waxy substance on some of the children's remains.
And it was actually kind of jarring because this waxy substance prevents decay.
It's like the preservation.
Oh, yeah.
Like you're putting that seal on that jar of jam or whatever, which I mean, humans aren't
jam.
I'm just saying.
But because they found this, I mean, they were curious about it.
And so they have learned that this is a body being exposed to bacteria that's anaerobic.
So it's bacteria that's oxygen deprived.
And then it's in a warm, damp alkaline environment.
So this is the first time it's been noted.
And there have been many since.
I think there's a couple, a soap man and a soap woman, they're on display in the Smithsonian,
I believe.
And they were found in Philadelphia and they were from around the same time.
And they don't really know how they happened.
And I think the last I read, they were going to DNA test this couple because they don't
know who they are.
See if there's any, right if there's any living relatives now, like you're related to the
soap man, at least give them a name.
You can go see them in the Smith's Eye.
Which is really sad.
They're like, oh, there's my great, great, great grandfather.
Just don't put them in water.
But anyway, so this is happening.
And this is very curious because this does not happen, especially from a standpoint where
this is the first time someone has been found floating in this lake.
Plus it's a unique circumstance.
So they're doing this autopsy on this body.
And one of the medical students helping the coroner, he said, quote, there was no smell
or decay.
So this dead body does not smell, which is that's good, which is good.
And she's intact.
However, unfortunately, they are able to conclude that she has been beaten or had been beaten
and she was strangled to death.
Following her death, she was hogtied with ropes, weighed down with rocks or bricks,
and thrown into this ice cold lake.
Thankfully, however, this rope rotted away due to the environment and her suponification
made her unusually light, which helped her float from the very deep depths of this lake
to the surface.
And the pathologist doing the autopsy estimated she has been in the lake for almost three years.
Oh my goodness.
Yes, and she's almost fully intact.
So three years.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
So like I said, this is the first body to be found floating in Lake Crescent.
The first?
Yes.
The first one recorded at least because I mean, I mean, who knows, right?
Right.
But because of this, she becomes sensationally known as the Lady of the Lake, which like I said,
that's kind of, it comes from Arthurian legend.
It's even referenced in like Anna Green Gables or she like, she's the lady of the lot.
Yes, exactly.
Like it has a real like romantic quality to it, which is sad because it's like, yes,
she's this woman that was found floating, but it's actually sad.
I mean, she was killed.
Please don't romanticize it.
Yeah.
I mean, but we know how the public is.
We, yeah.
And I think really they're not really romanticizing it in a way that is disrespectful.
I think they're like, hey, we want to help her find her name.
We want to find who did this to her.
And also probably they were just like so shocked that they didn't know something like that could happen.
That they're like, it must be something mystical because how could someone still look so preserved after three years?
Right.
Exactly.
And she, I mean, they can estimate her height and her weight.
She had Auburn hair.
It was still intact.
So it's just like, I'm like, shout out to the red heads.
Oh, thank you.
But I won't do this to you, Olivia.
I won't put you in any water.
I appreciate it.
Yeah.
You're like, I won't even take you to the ocean.
I know.
Which I mean, do you want to go there?
I just want to put you in the water.
Okay.
So because of this intrigue in her story, police had this daunting task of identifying her.
I mean, this is going to be hard.
This is well before DNA testing.
They can't, I mean, maybe her fingerprints could have been on file.
Who knows?
But this is also 1940.
Yeah.
And her fingerprints are gone.
I mean, she may have fingers, but she's not intact completely.
There was a hiker from Chicago at the time who had been vacationing in Olympic National
Park, who had last been seen falling to her death.
They had not found the body.
They thought perhaps this was her, but she had been alone.
And why would she be wrapped?
And why would she be wrapped in like, so for a moment they were like, maybe, but then
they're like, no.
Yeah.
Which I mean, that poor girl who I hope they found her body.
I know, seriously.
So yeah, so her, I mean, first her injuries are not matching.
She was strangled.
That means someone had to be at her death, be there with her.
Her body was taken to a popper's grave nearby because they had nowhere to put her.
But over the next few months, she was exhumed, you know, dug up and exhumed a few more times.
In fact, 14 months went by before her identity was known.
And they finally had this, the idea of, well, how else can we identify her?
Oh, her teeth.
Yes.
Dental records.
Dental records, which I mean, that is a thing.
So she had a unique sixth, sixth, sixth tooth bridge in her mouth, which I mean gold, especially
teeth.
It's really decay.
I mean, it's like bone.
But gold, gold is forever.
That's golden diamonds.
I know.
I'm like, Elizabeth Taylor is like, what have I been telling you?
So they took pictures of this bridge.
They circulated it around.
It was said they sent it to at least 5,000 dentists in the country.
That's really good.
Right?
Yeah.
And they didn't want to work because no dentist in Washington recognized it.
So they're like, okay, so she's not originally from here.
Interestingly, a dentist in South Dakota recognized his handiwork.
Wow.
Yeah.
She came quite a ways.
She really did.
And he identified this unknown woman, which she now is 38 years old and her name is Hallie
Wurth, which she was known as the waitress at the Lake Crescent Tavern.
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
And police were able to discover that Hallie was last seen on December 22nd, 1937, which
it's been, you know, almost three years, which the coroner was correct with that assumption.
Good job, coroner.
Good job.
So the public is captivated by this discovery.
They want to know who did this to Hallie.
So let's learn about Hallie.
Yes.
And Hallie is also, I mean, I feel like they say this about every victim, beautiful.
And I mean, really every victim in their own way is just because it's like, how dare you
die in such a terrible way?
Yeah.
I, yeah.
But also like, I don't know, I feel like it's annoying when people are like, oh, she
was so beautiful.
Like that makes it even sadder.
Yes.
She died like, oh, what?
People who aren't, you know, attractive to our society cannot be beautiful because, yeah,
anyone that dies in such a horrible manner, it's like you want to give them the respect,
not just because of their beauty, but.
And they're beautiful to someone.
Oh, yes, exactly.
Yeah.
And they're like, you know, that mean when they're like, if I die, please don't tell
them I lit up the room when I.
Yeah, like I was in the corner.
I was in the corner.
I did not have a smile that lit up the room.
I did not care about poetry or horses.
I don't know.
But actually, I mean, she was, I'll show you a picture.
So she was very pretty.
Plus she has red hair.
I mean, it was Auburn, but still.
It's a shade.
So not much is known about Halle's early life.
She was born on January 7th, 1901 to Finnis and Bunny Latham.
Oh, my gosh, right?
Bunny.
Right.
So cute.
So Finnis and Bunny were humble farmers in Greenville, Kentucky.
They tried to give their children the best life they could, but it was it was humble beginnings
for sure.
So Halle wanted to make a better life for herself.
So she continually moved west to basically find herself and find what she wanted to do
in life.
However, at age 35 in 1936, she had already had two failed marriages.
So she decided to up and move to Washington State to just start over.
She found work as a barmaid at the tavern on the edge of Lake Crescent.
And I can't even imagine.
I mean, Olympic National Park is beautiful now, but even more untouched, it's probably
just like this is just stunning beauty.
I'm sure she was probably really happy to be there.
She's like, this is where I want to be.
This is where I want to be.
And because just like any of us, she wants to give love another try.
So she married beer truck driver and unfortunate notorious ladies man, Monty Illingworth.
They married in Seattle of June the year she moved to Washington.
So this was a whirlwind romance.
She's like, I got a job.
I got a man.
I'm in a beautiful place.
I'm doing great.
However, Monty was not a good man.
They argued a lot.
This was mainly due to his extreme alcoholism.
He was a mean drunk.
That's not what you want in a beer truck.
No.
I'm like, are you drinking and driving?
Like please, Monty, get it together.
He had constant affairs, which it's just like, oh my gosh, really.
So Helly had every reason to be angry with him.
But these arguments would lead towards physical altercations.
And he did not bother hiding his beatings.
Yeah.
She would come to work with bruises, black eyes.
She once confided in a coworker that Monty had choked her to the point where she almost
blacked out.
Oh my gosh.
And he had broken her teeth.
So after just five months of marriage, it was, they could count on their fingers how
many times the police had been called to their house due to fights, which is just poor Helly.
So, on the morning of December 22, 1937, Helly goes missing.
She had gone home to her apartment after a long night at the tavern working to wait for
her husband to come home.
He was partying in Port Townsend, which Port Townsend is about an hour east of Port Angeles.
So I'm like, OK, so he's partying.
And then he's driving home.
Great.
So, again, Monty's reputation is preceding him.
So once they find out the day she disappeared and the fact that she was waiting for her
nasty drunk husband, investigators are like, OK, I'm putting the pieces together.
Yeah.
Too bad they didn't do that before she died.
Yeah.
I'm like, OK, well, who's, the problem is with when you're in that relationship, which
I guess I should have done a trigger warning ahead of time about domestic violence and
murder.
But when you're in love with somebody, you're probably constantly trying to look for the
good or you might have opportunities to walk away.
But it's just, it's really hard when you're like, well, I've made this decision.
Maybe we can work through this.
It's sad that this happens very often.
But it's no fault of her own.
No, I was just kidding.
No.
It's not the police.
Oh, the police.
Yeah.
It's just like, it's no fault of her own, but it's kind of like, be on the lookout for
people who might need help.
And police.
And that are showing up to work with black guys and like saying that they've been strangled.
Yeah.
Which unfortunately, if you, if you think about it a lot of times, OK, it's the late 30s,
someone might argue, well, it was a different time.
Well, that should be no, no time.
That should be any time where that's OK.
No.
OK, so investigators have a hint of a suspect in Monty Illingworth, but he's nowhere to be
found.
Hmm.
They finally find him living with another woman in Long Beach, California.
In fact, he was married, married, not married yet.
He was engaged to be married to this new woman.
Her name is Eleanor Pearson.
She was also from the Pacific Northwest.
So they probably met maybe even while he was married to Hallie.
Who knows?
And she was the daughter of a wealthy timber magnet and they ran off to California together.
So when investigators found Monty, he was like, oh, you know, the last time I saw her,
she had run off with a, he said two different stories, a sailor from Alaska or a naval captain.
OK.
Which I'm like, I guess naval captain and sailor could be the same thing, but yeah, I don't
know.
He's just like, I'm just throwing stuff out there.
He's like, I'm drunk.
I know.
Here's a sailor.
But what's funny Monty is how come she never contacted her friends or family?
And I guess she was very close to her siblings.
She had a lot of friends.
I mean, she was quick to make friends.
They had not heard from her.
That was very suspicious.
And incidentally, so Monty filed for divorce five months after she had last been seen,
but he didn't even file it under desertion.
He filed it under incompatibility.
So if he was saying that she was abandoning their marriage, you would think, oh, that's
the reason.
But he's like, ah, she's dead.
We're not compatible anymore.
I don't know.
But I mean, again, he's claiming he's innocent.
So.
But either way, either way.
Yeah.
So there is a picture of Monty on the internet that I think is very interesting.
It kind of shows his character.
He's in between two women on his left is Eleanor, his soon to be wife.
And on his right is his mother giving him a kiss on the cheek.
And Monty looks like, oh boy, women like who can know him?
Oh, God.
Yeah.
So this this is a good.
I should probably share this picture on our Instagram because when he is found in Long
Beach and arrested for the suspicion of her murder, he's waiting extradition in his jail
sale in California.
His mother is there with him, not listening to him.
And he said, mother, you know, I didn't do it.
Oh God.
And he, I know it was different linguistics back then, but anyone that says mother, mother,
I just think of Buster.
Oh, exactly.
Mother boy.
I was thinking of, which is this is also a bad example all around, but Norman Bates.
Oh, yeah.
Well, I mean, Buster kind of turned it.
Oh, yeah.
Pretty much.
Yeah.
So and his mother said, I know, son, which I'm like, no, I don't think she knows.
So in addition to all of this being fishy, they're able to trace down the rope found
around Halley.
So this particular rope was sold at Sears and Roebuck.
And through receipts, they're able to find that it's the tavern owner who bought this
rope.
So keep that in mind.
So they have this information in their back pocket.
And Monty is extradited from California.
He stands trial for Halley's murder.
He claims that body isn't Halley's because he's like, how can you tell?
Because of her face, which it's like, okay, well, her hair, dental records, which they
did have the dentist on the stand, which was like, okay, good.
So the dentist is testifying towards her identification.
The prosecutor brings up the topic of abuse during the trial.
And Monty did confess that it was the norm for him to get into a physical altercation.
But he said, quote, I struck Halley.
She also struck me.
However, I never beat her up and I did not kill Halley.
Oops.
Still not cool.
Which, I mean, she might have struck him because she might have just been defending herself.
And granted, if someone hits you first, it's, yeah, I mean, Monty are still not looking
good.
At one point, the prosecutor asked Monty why he hated Halley.
And he said he loved her.
And he said, the prosecution asked, then why did you beat her?
So Monty did not have an answer.
So their theory is that Monty had strangled his wife on December 22nd, sometime between
3am and 6am, and placed the body, her body in the trunk of his sedan, drove to Lake Crescent,
rode out into the middle of the lake, and then dropped her down, tied with rocks.
They think it's either rocks or bricks.
Either way, something heavy.
But the real nail in this coffin of Monty's is they were able to have, so they had the
tavern owner testify on the stand about that rope.
And he said, yes, Monty the beer truck driver borrowed that rope from me a hundred feet
of it to pull his truck out of the mud.
And he never returned it.
He probably couldn't return it because it was tied around his dead wife.
Which also, how tacky is it to not even get your own rope?
And he's so stupid.
I'm sure he thought no one was ever going to find her.
But why would you even involve someone else that's so tiny?
Well, I don't think Monty is the brightest.
He doesn't sound like it.
So on March 5th, 1942, Monty is found guilty of second degree murder, which is unfortunate
because it wasn't first degree.
They felt it was an act of passion.
It's not premeditated.
I would disagree with that only because he beat her so that I'm sure.
Yeah.
I feel like asking that guy, like the tavern owner for the rope that is premeditated.
It's not like all of a sudden he had the rope and was like, oh, I'm going to strangle
you.
Yes.
Yeah.
But you know, I don't know.
Who knows why they did that?
So he is sentenced to life in prison in prison in Washington state penitentiary.
So he was sentenced to life in prison.
He served nine years before being paroled.
He went back to California with Eleanor and he lived there peacefully until he died in
1975.
I'm upset.
I know.
I'm like the hashtag justice for howly.
So light crescent.
So this beautiful scenery.
Again, one of the deepest lakes in Washington state because of the uniqueness of this lake,
the chemicals, the circumstances surrounding her death.
The lake really did aid into helping her be found and having her, you know, murder
solved.
And because it's such a beautiful area, so many people flock to this place.
Millions of people have visited and they are not only enamored with the beauty of the area.
They fall in love with this story of Hallie being found and her, you know, murder being
put behind bars, even though it was a short time.
So really it's kind of like you become endeared to her.
You give her the respect she deserved.
She should have had more.
She should have had a whole life of it.
But while Monty will be forgotten and really go down in history as a beer truck driver
slash murder, Hallie Latham Illingworth will be ever known as the lady in the lake.
That was so sad, but so good.
And I feel like, like, obviously it's so sad that she died, but I think it's sort of
beautiful that like the lake helped in like aiding her murder to be found.
And it's like such a peaceful place, it's like sad that she died there, but it's like
a very peaceful way for her to be readjusted and get justice.
And I really like that, but that lodge, which I think might actually be the tavern she worked
at.
I think it was the tavern and it's now the lodge you can stay at.
But don't quote me on that.
I'm not sure.
I just I just know that building that because I went into that building and we just kind
of sat with the fireplace and it was so beautiful.
And they really lean into wanting her to be known.
Like this is a woman that is special to us.
Not her murderer, her murderer can just be forgotten.
But you know, people really, really like to hear about her and think about her.
And it's a really peaceful area, so it's just really nice all around.
And I was actually just thinking, so my current profile picture on Instagram is me at Lake
Crescent.
Oh, yeah.
And next month I will be house sitting for my cousins and I'm going to visit Lake Crescent
again just and then I will maybe post a couple of pictures of me there and I want to go to
Lake Crescent.
Yeah, we should do.
So remember, we have a our podcast road trip.
We'll start in Aberdeen.
And then Chernobyl or we can go.
So Aberdeen Olympic National Park, Seattle to get on a plane.
We're going to Ukraine now, maybe not right now.
Maybe we'll give that one.
We'll give that one some time and then but still, I mean, we could just add to this road
trip with wherever we're going with you.
Yes, we can, which is I'm so excited about this and we will find out after a short break.
Do you want me to say it?
Do you want to say it?
I say, okay, okay.
So we just wanted to say thank you to all of our listeners for all the kind words and
the support that you've shown us for our first episode.
So we just wanted to read some of the nice comments and reviews that we got.
So Drew, do you want to take turns reading some reviews?
Yes, I do.
The first one is from Lars Unders.
And Lars says, I love these girls' voices.
Oh, that's really nice.
Not everyone has a good podcast voice.
These stories are really good.
Can't wait for more.
And Digger and Laura said, this is going to be a fun podcast, very engaging stories.
Thank you, Digger and Laura.
This one, their name is How to Get Past Steps.
I don't know what that means, but I love it.
But they say, they said, a comfy listen about obscure topics coupled with two clean and humorous
hosts.
Aw, that's nice.
And Jima 1940 said, learned interesting facts that I hadn't thought about before.
Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks, Jima.
Oh, this one is from Kate the Kiesling.
She titled her review, Mothra.
Is that you?
Yeah, that's nice.
She said, really interesting and haunting stories told with great banter and humor.
I can't wait to hear your next episode.
Well, I hope she likes this one.
And then lastly, S10Banny said, awesome start, interesting topics and life lessons imparted.
What more could a listener ask for?
So thank you to everyone who listened and gave us a review.
So if you want to show more support, please leave a like and review and subscribe.
Yay.
Thank you.
Yay, thank you.
All right.
So for my story this week, we're kind of continuing from last week and we're going to stay in
the Soviet Union, but we're going to go further back in time, which it's funny that we both,
so I was Pacific Northwest back in time, Pacific Northwest closer to now, your Soviet, closer
to now Soviet now going back in time.
We are just fans of the PNW and the Soviet Union.
I am what's not to like.
It's so interesting to me learning about that time.
Me and Roman are both really interested in watching things about the Soviet Union.
You know what it is, the Soviet Union feels like a closely guarded secret.
It does.
Like because it is.
It is.
And it still is to this day.
It still is.
It's like, oh, you're not supposed to know about that.
Yeah.
So I am going to be talking about the Dyatlov Pass incident.
Oh, I cannot wait.
And I have been obsessed with this since Georgia covered it on my favorite murder.
And then I was like, I need to learn everything about this.
And now I talk about it so much that my mom's like, oh, yeah, you and your Dyatlov pass.
And you're like, yes.
Yes.
That is my personality.
Okay.
So we are going to start our journey on January 27th, 1959.
So nine Russian students embarked on a hike through the Yurol Mountains of Serbia.
All of them were students from the Yurol Polytechnical Institute and they were kind of on a roll.
On a break or like some of them were on a break and some of them had graduated.
And you know, you might not want like personally, if it was me, I would not want to go on a
break and go on a long hike through the Yurol Mountains.
But at the same time, they were not allowed to travel outside of the Soviet Union.
Oh, okay.
They were looking for what they could do.
Yeah.
Plus, you know, they liked hiking and being outdoors and stuff like that.
I can't relate.
They take what they can get.
And so the group was led by one of the students, Igor Dyatlov.
He was an experienced hiker and had done many difficult trails and led several other groups
throughout his life.
And he had been hiking these hard trails since he was a child.
So he was very used to this.
And pretty much all the other hikers were very experienced as well.
So they were all ready for this.
And the goal of their expedition was to reach Otortan Mountain.
And that route was ranked as a category three, which is the most difficult.
So they were like, we are going to do the hardest possible thing.
The most difficult as far as hiking trails.
Yeah, as far as hiking trails.
Okay.
Hikes.
And the other hikers, I'll name more of them later in the story, but one of them was Igor's
good friend, Zina, his friend, Georgie, who can also be pronounced as Yuri, but there's
also two other Uri's in this story.
Okay.
So I'm just going to go with Georgie.
Okay.
So Yuri suffered from chronic back pain and other illnesses.
And that kind of plays a part into his story and the story as a whole.
So keep that in mind.
So they set off on their journey by train.
And on the train, the group met up with another hiker who asked to join.
His name was Sasha.
Sasha was much older and a more experienced hiker than the others, which I mean, they
already have a lot of experience under their belt, but he was a bit older than the students.
So they arrived at Vizai, which is a logging village that was built by former inmates.
And most of them, most of the residents were inmates and loggers.
And these were inmates who had been imprisoned in the gulag.
So basically like the whole village was built by them and they were forced to do this hard
labor while they're in the gulag.
And all of the logging that they did supplied the Soviet Union with a lot of wood.
Oh, wow.
So they're basically like powering the whole Soviet Union.
Wow.
Okay.
So before starting the actual hike, Igor met with a forest officer to show him his proposed
route to have him look over it.
I'm not quite sure if that was something that was required or if he just wanted to get a
second opinion.
But the officer basically laughed in his face and said it was much too dangerous at that
time of year.
Time of year.
Or all these Russian names are going to get me confused.
The time of your is very bad.
Time of your, but Igor decided to continue anyway.
And I have a feeling since he was such a thrill seeker, he was probably kind of excited that
this man said that it was too dangerous.
He's like, well, I'll show you.
Igor is just throwing everyone's lives on the line.
And for reference Igor is 23.
So every 23 year old has done that.
We can do it.
You guys.
We can do it.
I don't know if I was ever like that.
No, I don't know.
So the group hitched a ride on a logging truck, which caused Yuri enormous pain from the rough
ride and he was dealing with sciatica.
So it was really making his sciatica act up.
There's nothing like sciatic pain.
I know.
I'm like, I, I commiserate with Yuri so much.
Like there's nothing like a rough ride and the cold winter weather to just completely
mess up your pain.
And knowing you have miles and miles of hiking ahead of you, I'd be like, just start around.
I know for real.
At this point, they met a former prisoner named Stanislav who offers to show them the route
that they're going to go on.
And while going to the route, he took them across the frozen river for 15 miles.
So they're walking across a frozen river, which is terrifying because what if it breaks
underneath you?
Like at that point, you kind of just have to turn around.
I'm like, hasn't anyone read little women?
They're like, no, we have no, we're in the Soviet Union.
We aren't allowed that.
At this point, poor Yuri's backs and legs are in excruciating pain.
And like you said, he realizes that he can't make this trip.
So he turns around and makes his way back to the village.
And this would be the last time that Yuri would see his friends alive.
Yuri making the first of many great decisions in his life.
I know.
I looked and it seemed like Yuri had a nice long life.
So despite his chronic pain, it seemed like you had a good decision making skill.
Playing it safe.
Yeah.
I'm like, it's okay, buddy.
You know, that's not for all of us.
So on January 29th, for some reason, Igor decides to follow a path that has recently
been made by the local manzi people, which is a group that is indigenous to this area.
Instead of the path that he had originally planned, maybe assuming that it would be an
easier route since the manzi know the terrain better.
No one really knows why Igor decided to go this way.
At this point, the group is lost.
And so they decide to pitch their tent at Kalut Sakal, which in manzi means dead mountain.
Oh, which does not bode well.
I'm looking for healthy hiker mountain.
Why do you call it that?
Do they say why they call it that?
Or it's just, it's just ominous.
I mean, it could mean lots of other things, but I don't know.
It's just probably not the best feeling knowing that it's called that.
Back at the hiking club where their journey had started, they hadn't received any word
from any of the students, and before the trip started, Igor had said that he would contact
them when they made it to their destination.
So people were starting to get worried.
You know, at first they're like, well, it might take a couple extra days.
And Yuri actually arrived back at the starting point, and he was kind of worried when he
didn't see his friends too.
But then he was like, well, Igor said it might take a little bit longer than he thought.
So he brushed it off.
But then more and more time keeps going by, and students are getting worried, and parents
are starting to say, hey, we need to go look for our children.
So students, parents, law enforcement decide to go and search for the missing group.
They also enlist manzi hunters and experienced hikers to help them look for the students
since they were much more familiar with the terrain.
The search party then comes across a tent, and the tent is partially buried in the snow,
and there is none of the hikers to be seen in or around the tent.
When they uncover the tent, they see slash marks through the fabric, and on the inside,
the students fur coats, hats, and boots are left behind, which means that they're out
in the elements with none of their gear.
The searchers then come across footprints, and those footprints lead them to the first
body.
So the first body that they found was Georgie.
I have a question.
Yes.
Slash marks.
Slash marks going in, slash marks going out.
It was from the inside of the tent.
Which is the weird thing, because first of all, why would you not just unzip the tent?
Right.
Was it frozen shut, or were they just so frantic about something that they slashed the tent
on their easiest way out?
Right, no one knows.
But that would be a terrifying thing to see.
That's like a cat in a bag.
I know.
I don't know if that's worse than slashes from the inside or the outside.
Neither is great.
Neither is good.
No.
I would like no slashes, please.
That's just a good life motto.
Yes.
So the first body was Georgie, and then next to him laying face down is Yuri Doroshenko.
Both of the corpses have no shoes and next to no clothes on, which for them, you know,
they just have their underwear and some shorts and like a light thermal layer, which for
Serbia is next to nothing.
Oh my goodness.
And 300 yards away from those two, they find Igor partially covered in snow and clinging
onto a tree.
And he has, he is no longer alive.
He is no longer alive.
Because, oh no.
Which that is so terrifying.
The visual.
The visual of just like a dead person clinging onto a tree.
And nearby they also find Zina not far from Igor.
So investigator Lev Ivanov is charged with finding out the cause of death of the students.
Igor had defensive wounds on his hand and Georgie had a foamy gray discharge around
his mouth.
Georgie and Yuri both had burns on their hands and feet, which doesn't really make sense
because they would have had to have actually held them in the fire a bit to get those burns.
And I don't know, I mean, I've never had hypothermia.
Right.
I can't say.
But I just imagine that even if you had hypothermia at a certain point, your brain would snap
out of it and say, hey, remove your hands from your fire.
Get your hands out of the fire.
They also tested some of the clothes of the hikers because they found a kind of purple
residue on the clothes.
And Lev Ivanov thought it might be radiation.
And it turns out he was right.
Oh no.
Wow.
So you had Soviet radiation.
Right?
That is your middle name now.
Olivia Soviet radiation.
I love it.
But yes, they were radioactive, but none of the people's bodies were radioactive.
So that was the weird thing.
That is weird.
So it was like they wore them just long enough, but they didn't get any radiation.
I'm not quite sure how that works.
Some people thought that maybe the clothing that they had bought had been manufactured
next to like radiation plant or they got them secondhand and they had radiation, but none
of it makes a whole lot of sense.
And then on March 5th, they found Rustam, who also has defensive wounds, and they found
Kolia, Ludmila, and Alexander.
They all had serious internal injuries, but worst of all, Ludmila's eyes and tongue were
missing and her ribs were crushed.
Oh my goodness, I forgot about that.
I know, I forgot about it too.
Okay, did it look like it had been bitten?
Her tongue had been bitten off or cut out, do we know?
They didn't say.
And any of the things I researched, I couldn't see if it was cut or if it had bitten.
Some people thought it might be scavengers, but then my thought is why when anyone else
have been distracted, especially since she was so close to Kolia and Alexander.
And then some people thought that she might have been alive when her tongue was taken
out because she had blood pooling in her stomach, but it also might have been from her other
internal injuries.
And you said her ribs were crushed.
Oh, sorry.
Her ribs were crushed.
But there were no rocks nearby that could have fallen on them because that was an initial
thought that maybe some rocks could have crushed them, but there was none nearby.
And there was nothing near them that suggested that there had been blunt force trauma, but
clearly there was.
And she was the only one with rib injury.
She was the only one with rib injury.
A couple others had head injuries and the last four all had internal injuries of some
sort.
So that's another weird thing.
It's like each grouping of people had different injuries and causes of death, seemingly.
So what is the cause of all these strange deaths?
The official story from the investigation was due to high winds and hypothermia, but
many people have other theories that could be plausible.
So I'm going to go through some of the most popular theories and then breeze by some of
the other ones because there's just so many or so many.
So one of the possibilities is murder.
I like that.
That's number one.
Number one, murder.
Oh, yes.
Actually, that could be a very, very real.
But the question is who murdered them.
Right.
So, Yuri appeared to have been moved post-mortem because he had blood pooling in his, I forget
if it was like his back, but he was laying face down.
Oh.
Like someone had turned him over.
Right.
So he had been moved post-mortem.
So he had passed rigor.
Okay.
But I was wondering, maybe one of his friends had moved him post-mortem if they weren't
dead yet, but some people believe that the whole scene was staged, the question is by
who?
Answers vary between the Manzi, the CIA, and the KGB.
I don't trust the KGB.
I mean, I don't trust the CIA.
I was like, wait a minute, the Manzi, they seem cool.
I don't know them very well.
Yeah, the Manzi, the theory about them is that when they were on Kholip Sakaal, that
the dead mountain, that that was supposedly sacred to the Manzi, but a lot of people said,
no, that's actually not true.
It's not sacred to the Manzi.
But then others said, actually, yes, it is part of their sacred place.
So it was kind of conflicting narratives of whether or not it was sacred to the Manzi.
But either way, I don't know how you feel, but I personally don't think they would have
just killed that whole group of people.
And then why would they have helped look for them?
Yeah.
And I don't think, I mean, so many times the narrative is, oh, let's blame the indigenous
people, which is not cool.
But why would they want to murder young people?
It doesn't make any sense.
And especially since they helped them several times.
And then the CIA and the KGB.
So there was speculation that one of the hikers was either a KGB spy that had been murdered
by the CIA or conversely, a defector that had been caught by the KGB and that the rest
of the students were just collateral, which I can see to some extent, especially with
the political tensions going on at the time, but I just think it's a weird timing.
They're like, you know what, we're going to get this guy, let's do it while he's hiking
with his friends.
Yeah.
It's just like, I feel like they have their resources and they could just get him at any
time.
While he's at home or he's sleeping or yeah, or her.
Yeah.
They're like, you know what?
Now's the time.
A dead mountain.
And one of the other theories, which I actually think this seems somewhat plausible.
So Soviet nuclear testing hikers injuries could be explained by some sort of explosive
blast.
It could also explain the radiation on their clothing.
A picture that one of the hikers took on their camera before they died shows a bright
glowing light in the sky and pilots later confirmed that they were practicing parachute
mine drops around this time, although officials later denied it.
Oh, well, which I'm like, well, of course they would deny that.
But I mean, it does seem plausible.
You know, it's a remote location.
It sounds like not a lot of people were hiking around that area other than the manzi people
because people are not going to be insane hikers like these.
And let's be honest, they probably aren't overly worried about the indigenous people.
And they're like, sure, we'll just practice our mine dropping right over this mountain.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's so true.
Yeah.
But I think with some of the injuries, it does make sense.
But I'm still not entirely convinced.
Right.
And another one.
This one is very interesting to me.
A Karaman vortex street and infrasound.
So a Karaman vortex is a pattern of swirling vortices known as vortex shedding.
This can also lead to infrasound, which is a frequency solo that it can't be heard by
humans, but they can be felt and can cause fear and anxiety.
I've heard of this before.
Right.
I think it's so fascinating.
It's fascinating.
It's like a sound that makes you sick.
Yeah.
It kind of makes you crazy.
Yeah.
Which I think would explain some of the weird behavior that they were exhibiting.
Like if you just get this weird kind of paranoid feeling, maybe you slash open your tent and
run outside with not enough clothes on.
If you're feeling paranoid, check yourself.
Are you okay?
Right.
But that still doesn't really convince me with the burns on two of the hikers and then
the blunt force trauma.
I guess if you were feeling unwell and you were losing your like any kind of like, I
don't know, sanity that you had due to a sound, I guess, I mean, people's brains react differently
to certain things.
Maybe a couple of them are like my hands in the fire and the other ones like biting my
tongue, which just sounds terrible, but then there would be part for tongue left.
That's true unless maybe a little scavenger like me would have been a squirrel came along.
No.
I don't know.
It's like, I'm a squirrel.
Man, no, that is really crazy to think about.
And that's actually really creepy.
I know.
I actually want to do more research about infrasound.
Yes.
Very much so.
And then some of the other theories are UFOs.
Naturally.
I mean, there's always going to be UFOs.
Part of it was because of like that picture of the ball of light, which could be interpreted
as many different things.
But a couple of the searchers that were at the base camp when they were looking for the
hikers, one of them reported also seeing a ball of light in the sky.
And at first he thought it was the moon, but then it gradually started getting closer and
it appeared to be blinking.
He's like, and when it hits your eye, like a big, he's like, is that a moray?
He's like, no, it's actually a UFO.
He's like, I'm actually Italian.
I'm not a Soviet.
Oh my goodness.
But so scary.
I guess the Soviet Union had had other UFO sightings, but I feel like that's really any
place you're going to have UFO sightings.
And when they reported it, they classified it and closed it.
But again, the Soviet Union, I feel like they're going to classify anything.
They classify and close everything.
They don't want people to know anything else.
And then of course we have the Yeti or Bigfoot.
Oh, that's my favorite theory so far.
I like to think of the Yeti as Bigfoot's like fun, loving cousin.
I just feel like he is his cozy cousin.
Yeah.
Like he likes doing cozy winter cabin things.
And then Bigfoot is like, I just want to live in the woods.
Like just let me live.
I guess probably like probably our Yeti visions are aided by the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland
and Monsters and Monsters Inc.
Yeah.
And it's just beautiful and white and running free.
I love the thought of any Yeti involvement, but I don't like to think of the Yeti as a
violent creature.
I like to think of him as coming across the scene and being like, how do I help them?
But then he hears humans coming and he's like, I must flee.
Or he like tries to help them and he's just really bad at it.
Like any help I do.
Is this helping?
You're like, oh no, I got your tongue.
I got your tongue.
Oh no.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
Okay.
So, however, after many years, the mystery might finally be solved, which I was disappointed
and excited at the same time when I was doing my research because you and I, we just, we
love a mystery, but also I want to know what happened to them.
And I like when things are also easily explained by science.
I think it's really cool.
So at first, I was unsure when I saw that the official story was about being like an avalanche
or intense wins or something like that.
But in 2015, the committee of the Russian Federation started to research this mystery
again and they determined that it was an avalanche.
But some people were still skeptical about it.
And one of my resources, naturejournal.com actually kind of did their own experiment,
but with models and with formulas and computer programming and all sorts of stuff.
I don't understand that.
But I think they sum up pretty perfectly how this could create the worst perfect circumstances
for an avalanche.
So one, the location of the tent under a shoulder in a steep slope to protect them from the
wind.
So where they had pitched their tent was kind of in this sloped area, which was initially
to protect them from the, the elements.
Icy cold, right?
Okay, that makes sense.
And that is one of the things that leads to this going wrong.
But just you describing that alone, it sounds like that sounds like a prime location for
just the worst.
You're in a hole, things are going to fall on you.
Things are going to fall on you or you're going to be trapped there.
Yes.
Yeah.
The second thing, a buried week snow layer parallel to the steep terrain, which resulted
in a upward thinning snow slab.
So it took me a few times to understand this when I was reading it.
Is it like a snow slab?
Is that kind of like a, like a base layer of snow?
Yeah.
Okay.
So basically they were on this area, which had become weakened by them being there.
And then the snow slab is basically the piece of snow that would be a part of the avalanche.
Okay.
The third thing, the cut in the snow slab made by the group to install the tent.
So this snow slab, they're disrupting the structure of this, which I'm sure they didn't
know that it could lead to anything bad, but it sounds like a bad idea when you say it
out loud.
But I mean, I wouldn't know if I was out there, I'd be like, this is a great place for a tent.
And the fourth thing, oh my gosh, I can't talk today.
The fourth thing, the fourth thing, a strong, catabotic winds, which are hurricane force
winds that led to progressive accumulation.
Research simulations done by this journal have shown that even a small snow slab could
result in thorax and skull injuries, which is what some of the students had.
So maybe the mystery is solved after all this time.
I don't know.
What do you think?
They were like, we think it's an avalanche and everyone's like, nice try KGB.
And they're like, actually no, it was an avalanche.
And then scientists are like, actually we did some tests and that might actually be the
first thing.
And the KGB is like, oh wow, we guessed it.
They were like, oh, good job guy that wrote that report, that guessed avalanche.
I'm still curious though, because I mean, I guess most of them were buried underneath
the snow and it would explain like white Igor was clutching onto the tree.
Yeah.
And I guess probably the force of the snow could cause Lumila to bite down on her tongue.
Yeah.
I still don't really understand how the eyeballs were.
But maybe that was a scavenger.
Yeah, that's true.
Oh, that, yeah, the idea of that is not good.
It's not.
No, but I guess when you think about hurricane force winds mixing with ice, I mean, that's
just shards of glass coming at you.
That's true.
And there's branches around.
Brand, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh my goodness.
I mean, we've been in a snowstorm.
We live in the Pacific Northwest.
We know what cold, windy ice feels like.
And I couldn't even imagine if it was like a hundred miles an hour.
I've also had shards of glass coming at me.
And it is not pleasant.
And that was not a hundred miles an hour.
Like shout out to my car accident.
Wow.
Yeah.
This one has always fascinated me.
It can go in so many different directions.
I mean, we love a little yeti action.
We do.
We love him as being fun, loving and sweet.
I know.
I want my yeti to be a Disney yeti.
I want my yeti to be a good yeti.
Yes.
That could be a book.
Yeah.
A good yeti.
The good yeti.
That was really good.
That every time I hear about it, the more I'm like, yes, this story is just stories like
this are what make mystery lovers just like, yes, I want to hear about this.
But I want to know the answer so bad.
Yeah.
Also, I realized I forgot to do my sources at the top.
So I love to do that now.
Oh, that's okay.
I'm not even sure.
So as our second episode, the first one we did, you did see, I forgot last time with
COVID brain, should we do them at the beginning or the end?
Either way.
Either way, it's fine.
It's fine as long as we're putting them out there because I did not come up with any
of my information on my own.
Neither.
So my sources, of course, Wikipedia, our best friend, which honestly was mostly for
me trying to figure out what everyone's names were, which was really helpful.
Also we should give money to Wikipedia.
We should.
They have helped us so much.
We're going to be using them a lot.
Yes.
dyatlovpass.com, history.co.uk, naturejournal.com, which I would go and look at their article
about them possibly solving the Dyatlov Pass because they have a lot of really interesting
graphs and formulas and simulations that explain in way better detail than I could.
And it was a really interesting read.
So I would look at that.
That was naturejournal.com.
Yes.
Okay.
And then lastly, this is going to sound weird, but conspiracy theories podcast by Parkast.
And I really like their podcast because they talk about mysterious events like this.
They talk about the facts about what happened and then what the possible conspiracies around
it are, but then they kind of rank the likelihood.
I like that.
Yeah.
So shout out to conspiracy theories because I love that podcast.
Shout out to them.
Yeah.
I love a good podcast that gives multiple answers because it's probably any of those
or maybe none of those, but probably one of those.
And I am also someone who enjoys thinking about conspiracy theories, but then I'm like,
we need to think about the most logical explanation.
Yeah.
If anyone hears something in the background, my husband is also talking right now.
That is Roman Olivia's husband slash podcast producer slash editor.
He has a free pass to do whatever he wants because he's our superhero for this podcast.
It's true.
Yeah.
Also, this is his house too.
Yeah.
I'm a guest here.
I have like some really random hyper fixations.
So the other day I decided that what I would really like is to have, you know how everyone's
grandma kind of always had those like glass candy dishes.
Yes.
I've decided that I want to have a glass candy dish.
Please.
When people come over and I am fully going to have like the grandma hard candy too.
Good.
Because everyone wants, everyone feels a little bit comforted by a grandma hard candy.
It's true.
And so I've been looking for stuff like that on Etsy and I've just been looking for more
unique pieces to have in my house because I kind of have my baseline decoration and
now I want to add like a little bit of flair.
Yes.
And I have become so obsessed with depression era glassware.
Oh.
Because there's this so many beautiful like blush pink glassware.
Oh, that sounds nice.
And then milk glass, which is like, it just literally looks like a creamy glass of milk.
Like that's beautiful.
But I just want all of the.
And depression era, meaning that it's glassware that knows how to turn few ingredients into
a cake.
Yeah, exactly.
It's take, take this can of Coke and this can of whatever.
I'm like, you know what?
We are basically going into another great depression.
Oh yeah.
And I'm going to try as well, get in it with the great depression vibe.
Get in with the vibe.
I'm going to start making flower sack dresses.
You know what?
They know what they were doing.
I remember reading about flower sack dresses and the fact that flower sack company, flower
sack companies, flower companies, what started making cute flower sacks because they knew
that moms were using the material for dresses for little girls.
And I'm like, you know, it's little stories like that where you're like that.
There is some good in the world.
I'm like, more of that company is like, try being nice again.
Unlike flower sacks now where it's like, it's paper and it's like, lol.
If you even try to move me, I'm covering everything with flower.
I know.
You know what?
I feel like the next thing to do is those giant rice bags.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe.
Rice bag dresses.
Yes.
You heard it here first.
I'll make a rice bag dress for Henry.
Please do.
Yeah.
I that's my cat.
That's my yeah.
And I have a cat named Greg and he would punch me in the face for making him a rice bag
dress.
Yeah.
Henry would just like squirm until he got out.
Greg and Henry being the podcast mascots, they could not be more different in their
personalities, but they are both really good boys.
They are good boys.
And we'll have to also post pictures of them sometime.
Yeah.
When, when Henry's less shy, he'll probably come out and meow at the microphone.
I hope so.
Yeah.
Well, until next time, we should be curious and be odd.
And just remember that we're your two little crow friends bringing you little treasures.
Be wary of avalanches and be wary of beer truck drivers that probably drink and drive.
And be wary of the Soviet Union.
Always.
Never trust the KGB.
Good night.