Chambers of the Occult - EP# 19 Death Rides and Sanatorium Shadows: Action Park’s Chaos and the Paranormal Tales of Waverly Hills

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Buckle up, listeners, because this episode is taking you on a wild ride from reckless thrills to chilling encounters! First, Alexis takes us straight into the chaos of Action Park – the amusement park where the only thing scarier than the rides was the safety record. Brace yourself for stories of adrenaline, danger, and a park that pushed the limits of fun... and sanity.Next, Kai leads the way into the haunting halls of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, where spooks, specters, and spine-tingling tales await. The sanatorium’s eerie history and ghostly inhabitants have left their mark, and we're diving into the shadows to uncover the mysteries that linger in this infamous haunt.And to wrap things up, J takes the stage to explore one of the most daring art heists in U.S. history – a theft so mysterious, it’s left both investigators and art lovers scratching their heads to this day.With disembodied voices joining the fun, you won’t want to miss this episode filled with thrills, chills, and a touch of the otherworldly. Tune in, and hold on tight!Send us a text

Chambers of the Occult may contain content that might not be suitable for all listeners. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome back. Welcome back. Oh, I didn't even see it was recording. Welcome back Welcome back to the most professional podcast on the interwebs chambers of. Chambers of the occult. Chambers of the occult, as you can see. Anyway, hi, I'm Kai. Hi, I'm Jay. I'm Alexis. And this is-

I did like- I did finger guns when I said my name. Cool, see, don't you need like space guns? Gun sounds? When you do that? Yes! Okay, cool. So I'm not the only one that thinks it.

Okay. This is episode 19 Crazy. Yeah, yeah And as y'all can tell not the listeners, but as kinda like this can tell by our title like I have a surprise for y'all Yeah, like what are recording thing? It's episode 19 with a surprise Yeah, like when I record anything it's episode 19 with a surprise Emoji with sunglasses on it's yeah cool. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're the cool kids club. So yeah Whoa, someone's impatient I'm excited. Well, I mean I thought it would be about time because what am I saying? Whoa, okay.

Oh. What? Surprise. What? With surprise. Hi. Hello. Sabina? Yeah.

Milo, Sabina and Milo. I have this like crazy question. You sound like you're in my bathroom. I was in the shower right now. What happens? Why do I sound like I'm in the bathroom? You sound like you're in the shower. It's pouring rain. Oh no, something's wrong.

We're women. It's pouring rain. Oh, yeah. Something's wrong. Um... Anyway, Question? Uh... Hey, God, let me fix this. Let me fix this. It won't let me change my microphone. Once again, folks, listeners, the most professional podcast.

Yeah. What the? I meet up Milo for a minute so he can fix it. Okay We're back again, sorry folks We're amazing at this yeah, we are you guys should support us We have some guests with us that you have heard from before what they care to introduce themselves We have some guests with us that you have heard from before. Would they care to introduce themselves? Sabina goes first. Okay, I'm Sabina. Happy to be here. First time, no, third time.

Long time listener. Fuck yeah. And then we also have... Hello, hello, it's me, Milo. I'm the decorative mug that you are drinking out of that most likely has lead in it. And you should see a doctor. My god. That made zero sense.

I love it. I love Katya. Welcome back to Chambers of the Occult. Chambers of the Occult. Yeah. So Sabina and Milo are joining us as listeners. They will chime in every here and there. And we all have some type of alcoholic beverage.

So I would implore you listener to also get an alcoholic beverage if you are of age. Yes, only if you are of age. If you're not. Yes, only if you are of age. We do not support underage drinking. Yeah. Not at all. I realize that at least three out of the five of us have an alcoholic drink in our hands. We all do. Okay, cool.

Yeah. Should we share what we're drinking before we get into the stories? Yeah. Sure. Sure. Cool. I am drinking a mango flavored vodka. Nice. Yeah, it snaps all around. Is it like a good mango or is it like an artificial mango?

It's probably artificial. This bottle is like two years old, if not more. Never been opened. It was just in my closet for a day like this. I thought you were joking about it being in your closet. No, it was in there. I respect it. Well, I have a Cayman Jack margarita. Yum. Yeah.

It was not from my closet. It was from my fridge. Good. Wise choice. Yes. Thank you I've got some Some port wine that I'm drinking. It's very good very very nice wine Yeah I'm drinking my saliva Because Milo himself is intoxicating

Like ferment your own saliva, I don't think oh I was gonna say something gross, but I'm not gonna Say it anyway. Yeah, I mean fermenting saliva is already pretty gross So if it's too gross we'll cut it out but I'll probably be honest no we won't I don't remember what it's called but some people will ferment human shit and oh yeah it'll get I'm not cutting that out And lastly we have Alexa wait Milo, don't you don't you have like an angry orchard or some shit though It is purely for decorative love Purely for decoration of a good cider decoration. Yes Alexa sangria

Okay, and with that have we got some stories for you? I also have cookie clicker running in the background. I currently have 13,000 cookies and I'll let you guys know how many I have at the end of this episode. Yes we will need an update. Cool Alexis., ma'am. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. Did you know that you're going to start us off this week? Oh my god, I had no idea.

That's crazy. Yeah, I think I'm good actually. Okay, go. Okay. I have a question for you guys. No. I have an answer for you. Okay, answer it if you want. If you don't, that's okay. Have any of you been to an amusement park or a water park?

If so, which ones? No, I live under a rock. Yeah, we know that, Patrick. Rage and Waters. Great America. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Six Flags. Yeah.

Boardwalk. Which one though? Yeah. Which Six Flags? Yes. Yeah, there's Magic Mountain. Oh gosh. The one that's not like super down south. So the one that's up north?

I think so. Okay, cool. It was a long time ago. I'm with you on that one. I don't know where any of the. Yeah, they had rides. Yep. I know that much.

Mm-hmm, Tweety Bird was there. Okay. Have you ever been to Gilroy Gardens? Yes. I've lived here my entire life. I've never been to Gilroy Gardens. I went when it used to be called Bonfonte Gardens. What the fuck?

Like ancient times. Damn ancient times. Okay, well. Yeah, why are you asking? Because today, I'm talking about Action Park. Fuck yeah. Yeah. Have you gone Milo?

Oh God no. That he wasn't even born. Well actually, never mind. Let me get into your story. Yeah let me get into it. Let me get into it. All right so Action Park was pretty well known. As you can see Milo even knows about it. Let me get into it. All right. So Action Park was pretty well known. As you can see, Milo even knows about it. It says a lot about him, to be honest with you. But

you have no idea. I'm just wanted to warn you guys that I have like five pages worth of information and that's not even like half of it. So I am going to like go into more depth if you listeners want me to for another episode because I definitely could. But for now I'm just going to go over like the main focus I guess of what I want to discuss today. So Action Park was an amusement park slash water park in Vernon Township, New Jersey. New Jersey. New Jersey. Okay, so now you've offended the New Yorker.

I knew you were going to say that too. And that's exactly why I did it. Anyways. You know who she hasn't offended though? Californians. The Romanians. Floridians. I would never. And that's because you can't do a Romanian accent. That is very true. What kind of fan are you? A respectful one. Wow, okay. Carry on. So it was like any other amusement park really. A lot of people wanted to go there.

The only thing that kind of made it different from the others is not, they didn't go there for the fun. They went for the danger of it. So before I talk about the park itself, I do wanna talk about what led up to this point. So this kind of takes place in the 1970s. It's New York. And at the time, the one thing that was very popular was Wall Street.

No, listeners, if you don't know what Wall Street is Wall Street or any of you really? It's a street in lower, Manhattan In the financial district so a bunch of businessmen. Yes, I like how you're explaining it like it's no longer there Yes, it is still there. I know but like It is still there. Oh my gosh. Okay. Yeah, you're right. My bad. It is still there, by the way, guys. And a lot of businessmen and salesmen are there still currently. But one during that time that was pretty well known was a man named Gene Mulvihill. I love Gene, by the way, he kind of reminds me of somebody. So Jean, he owned a brokerage firm. It was called Mayflower Securities. And anytime he, like every sale that he would make, immediately he would crack open a champagne bottle and celebrate with his coworkers. And yeah, that was just kind of like the guy that he was.

And another thing that was pretty poppin' was penny stocks. So those of you who may not know what penny stocks are, it's basically just this scam where salesmen take worthless stocks and trick investors into buying them. And there was a penny stock king. Isn't that like the plot of the Wolf of Wall Street? Yes, that's exactly what it is. So is this what you're covering?

No! You want to go to Caprio? No, she won't cover him, but she will cover Josh Hutcherson. Oh, I love Josh Hutcherson. Thank you for mentioning him. Shout out, Josh. Just for the new short, Home He's Doing. Whatever it is. Anyway, there's another Five Nights at Freddy's coming out too.

And Howl's Moving Castle is in theaters right now. Josh Hutcherson voices in Howl's Moving Castle. Sick. Yeah, he does. Anyways, so the penny stock king during that time, he was a man named Robert Brennan. But he was also Gene's best friend. So Brennan actually started working for Gene in Mayflower Securities and within like a few years of working there by 1974, he became the president of the company.

And while this company was under the supervision of Gene and Brennan, it wasn't long after that the company was suspended by the SEC. And the New York Times actually wrote an article about it and said that the reason for the suspension was quote, selling its customers worthless securities in a bankrupt electronics company." End quote. Damn. After this, Gene Mulvihill was ultimately just kicked out of Wall Street and he as a result was like, all right, I'm gonna buy some ski resorts. So he did. He bought two ski resorts by the name of the Great Gorge and Vernon Valley. So they were about 45 miles away from the metropolitan area of New York City. So there

was a lot of traffic going to that area, but there was also a population of 20,000 people in Vernon Township. There was also a state park in Vernon. It was the way, I don't know how to say this, but I should have looked it up. The Wabayanda State Park. Boom. Sounds right to me. Yeah, sounds good enough, yeah. Yeah, so there was a lot of like the locals, residents and tourists that were making their way there. So basically those two ski resorts

would have a lot of people coming through. And in the seventies, a lot of people loved Vernon. It was a place where you could do pretty much anything. In the winter, you could ski. In the summer, you could hike. The terrains were so beautiful. The nature was so nice that a lot of people wanted to spend their time outside.

And plus it was just like a small, cute little town where everyone pretty much knew each other. It was kind of like that kind of town that you hear about in movies kind of thing. But, of like that that kind of town that you hear about in movies kind of thing. But but another thing at the time that kind of helped this idea was Hugh Hefner. Hugh Hefner. He decided to open up a Playboy club in Vernon. Fire. So everyone, there was a lot of people coming for the Playboy club, and there were celebrities coming pretty much every week

to come and sing. So a lot of people would come just to see those singers. It Vernon was slowly starting to become the Las Vegas of New Jersey. So, okay. That's cool. Actually, it's kind of crazy. And one thing Hugh Hefner knew was that gambling was taking over a lot of places during that time.

And he suspected that it would slowly start to take over New Jersey as well. And at the time, Gene Mulvihill, he was attracting some investors, but since it was the winter, he decided to like take advantage of the fact that he has ski resorts. So he just kept on going with the winter and eventually even made it a artificial winter.

He decided to build the world's largest snowmaking machine out of a giant engine. Sick. Whoa. What? I was out of work. I know. I did too. What?

Yeah, I can send a picture of it if you guys want. Yeah, because we'll put it on the Instagram. Yeah, but can send a picture of it if you guys want. If, yeah, we'll put it on the Instagram. Yeah, but. But it is quite. I can't get behind that. Right? World's largest snowmaking machine, snow all day every day. That's kind of crazy. Okay.

I wonder if we could come back global warming with that. Oh, for sure. Add the glaciers back into the ocean. Yes. I like the way you think. We won't know till we try. Right? What are we? Let's give it a twi.

Let's give it a twi. Okay, I'll find the picture later and I'll send it to you guys. Yeah, yeah, no worries. Because it's taking forever to find it out. But so yeah, he made the world's largest snowmaking machine. He had really big plans for the new land that he bought, I guess, the new resorts that he bought. And he did want to do something different for the summer though.

He took advantage of the fact that summer came and he spent all that downtime building rinds. And he kind of had an idea for what he wanted to build for his amusement park where you get on your skis and you control how fast you're going and where you're going. So you can choose where to go in the amusement park. That's kind of cool. I like that idea. But it also says a lot about him, you know, what kind of guy he is, what kind of things he comes up with, you know. He also says a lot about him, you know, what kind of guy he is, what kind of things he comes up with, you know.

He did truly believe that New Jersey would become like the next theme park destination. He even told customers that they're going to be the next Disneyland. Ambitious. Oh, big, big aspirations. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. So in 1976, he, Gene had decided to turn one of the steep ski trails. This ski trail ran for 2700 feet. Holy wow.

Yeah. Yeah. And he turned it into what it was called as the Alpine Slide. See, that sounds cool, though. Yeah, it sounds fun. It sounds really fun, right? Oh, just wait. I've heard of this before. I like how Myla knows where this is going. And I'm just like, oh, I would go on that.

Yeah, I so far so good. So. And I'm just like, Oh, I would go on that. Yeah, I so far so good. So the the park Action Park, also known as like Vernon Valley Summer Park, it was officially opened in 1978. Now, when I did research, I did find two different dates. What? So there's May 26 and July 4. I believe that it was announced on May 26 and that they like actually opened on July 4. But oh wait, no, it opened on May 26, July 4. They had, I believe some promotion days is what it is. But they had yeah, they had two opening promotion days. And the

first day was a Dolly Parton lookalike contest. And the second day was just like you want our queen. Yeah. was Just like you want our queen yeah, where do we And then the second day it was a tobacco juice spit in cost contest Like how far you could spit your tobacco juice. Yeah, I'd win that too I have mouth cancer. I don't know if you should. I was going to say I don't know if you should.

So the park had three different sections. I'm going to name them all eventually, but I'm only going to name one right now. That's Waterworld. So Waterworld had a lot of water slides, of course. It had a small but deep swimming pool. It had a tennis court and a softball field. And then in 1980, Jean had carved out the Swamplands. It was just across the street from them basically so it went

over State Route 94 which takes you to New York New York New York New York see now you've offended the New York's New Yorks. I don't know what you call them. I think you've read of them by calling them the New Yorks rather than New Yorkers. Oh, New Yorkers, yeah. That's right. I like the New Yorks.

Yeah. My fault. Okay, go ahead. So the park combined stood on 250 acres. Wow. Yeah. It's pretty big. Pretty big.

It was also the, not only the countries, but the continent's earliest and largest modern water park, it had a total of 75 rides. Damn. Yeah. total of 75 rides. Damn. Holy shit. Yeah. That's a ton.

35 of them were motorized self-controlled rides and the other 40 were water slides. Okay. That's a shit ton of water slides. Mm-hmm. I can see why it was so popular. I didn't even design that many. Hmm.

Yeah. So, Gene did kind of want his park to be like no other park, of course. He really only came up with rides that were meant for thrill seekers. So I did mention that there were three sections of the park. So there was Alpine Center, that's where the Alpine slide is. Yeah. There's Waterworld, which I just briefly talked about. And then there's Motorworld. There was one ride. Yeah, there was one ride that was pretty infamous at the time you were pretty much met

with it as soon as you stepped in to the park and it was called the cannonball loop. That just sounds dangerous. Mm hmm. Yeah. So the cannonball loop is pretty much a slide. It's an enclosed tube, meaning it's hella dark. Oh, shit.

And you go through and at the end, you go into a loop. It's a vertical way straight up into that loop. I'd be so panicked. Now... Oh, and then like, yeah, I'm sure you're getting into it, but like getting stuck in there because you don't have the movement going or like, oh, okay. It's like one of my biggest fears, not gonna lie. Understandable, dude. That's scary.

Like, because what do you even do? You can't do anything. You're pretty much hopeless. I mean, I know modern water slides have like access points. Yes. Hatches. Yeah. But still like.

I'm going to send a picture to you guys of The cannonball loop really good really wait, there's water in the loop. Yes. Oh That's the only way you can get through that loop. Yeah, imagine the friction burn So the cannonball with this is pretty small I thought oh I think the fact that it's small makes it so much worse because there's so much more like inertia yeah like the force exactly why is it so tiny what the hell okay I mean I guess this was like they don't know what safety was back then That was safe back then yeah exactly So it was built in 1983 and

It was scary, you know, it's super dark. You're going really fast You don't exactly know where you're going when you're going and the tube itself was made with fiberglass. Oh fuck So the slide overall was just a really risky thing so risky that employees were offered $100 just to give it a test run Why the fuck did they make it an actual usable slide what? one of the shallow that pool looks Yeah, it's like a small drop too so you could just go in it's going hard against that water

Yeah, just hit the floor Yeah So one of the park employees at the time, his name was Tom Fergus, he took the offer and he stated, quote, $100 did not buy enough booze to drown out that memory, end quote. Oh my gosh. Poor guy.

Yeah, dude, these employees went through a lot. Yeah, I imagine him saying that while like smoking a cigarette. So you did say how did this go ahead? Go ahead. I was gonna say $100 could buy a lot of booze back in the 80s. Yeah, $100. Okay, let me see how much.

I'll do it. I'll do it. You keep going. Yeah, okay. Okay. So you did ask, how did why did they make this an actual ride? So the state advisory board on carnival amusement ride safety ordered that the slide be closed after being open for like one month. They did open it in 1985 and they closed it again a month later. And a lot of writers came out of the slides with like, bloody noses, back injuries,

lacerations on them. And at first, they were really confused because the park was just trying to understand why they had come out with lacerations and so many. So they did a further investigation. And at first, a lot of people thought it was the fiberglass, but they found teeth lodged inside the walls of the tube. Oh, wait, that means people were coming out without their teeth. Yeah, people like banging their heads into it. So all those lacerations were from being scrubbed against those teeth. Going so fast too.

Oh my gosh. So then Gene hired a Navy physician. And he wanted to find out the effects of the slide. Do you mean physicist? No, no, a physician. I think that's what you meant. A doctor to assess like damage.

That's what it said. That's what my research said. Okay. Unless it's a physicist. We'll say physicist. Physicianist. That is a physicist. Okay, we'll continue. Maybe extra context is what we need. A professional. Yes, a professional. To see, what they were trying to see is how fast, I guess, they were going.

Okay. And they had experienced nine G's of acceleration. That's the same as a supersonic airship called the F-14. Yeah. Yeah, don't you think it could pass out? Yeah. Near that or before that? Yeah, dude. That's easy did. This is money for this. Yeah.

Well, he was, I mean, he worked in Wall Street, so he must have made a lot of money. No, no, no, especially being the park. Oh, yeah, they wasted a lot of money going. But that was the point of going. That's what like that's what people went for, though. They went, I know that they went or but Cuz there's military pilots yeah like nine G's in like the craziest times You're looking at this picture like you're taking nine G's of force directly into the ground

Yes, like look at the angle of it where like he needs the floor to go to the loop. That's crazy It's like the start of that That lethal roller coaster the guy made yeah, yeah I was gonna bring that up earlier, but I'd go on it Okay, well they would have offered you $377 today. Yes I think I do it. Oh

Cuz it's I would I take $337,000. I mean, $337,000. I might go out with lesser rations. Okay, but imagine you get some like life-threatening like damage going down. That's okay. Yeah, I also assume that when they offered this money to the employees, the employees were not... Where like someone had to test it out and the employees were the first ones,

and they didn't know that this was gonna happen. That's what... That's the thing is I would do it if I didn't know. Yeah, if I was like one of the first people, sure. Okay. So there was actually a story being spread about this. That's why I'm cutting again. I'm sorry. I'm so excited to say this part. So there were test runs, of course, that were done before opening the slide up to the public. But there was a story that was told to the Weird NJ,

it's a newspaper, uh. Actually check it out though, Weird NJ has some sick stuff. But anyways, they had said that there were test dummies. So not real live people, test dummies that were going through the slide and they came out dismembered and decapitated. Oh my god. Decapitated?

Yes. And they said, yeah, that's fine. And it was, it was like, at first it was like just a story, but it was confirmed by Gene's son, Andy Melville. Oh my god. He confirmed it to the New York Times That's fucked. Mm-hmm He so yes, funny. I say that

Andy Melvin Hill was the first person to test out the slide as well and He wore ice hockey gear to protect himself Okay, the the fact that you even think you need that gear in the first place going down a slide is like, caught, it's like a red flag enough. Well, I was also going to ask if the hockey equipment helped him. And how old was the son? He's like six. It doesn't actually say how old he was at the time, but I'm pretty sure he was just a teenager.

And he said that it wasn't fun. He did not like it. He did not like it. Well, Andy, it didn't do your chores, so now you got to go down the slide. It was a punishment. Time to earn your keep. So another thing that you guys mentioned is getting stuck. So that did happen.

A lot of writers did get stuck in the tube if they were too big or too small. Oh my God. I have a panic attack. Yeah. Writers were weighed before they were hosed with cold water They were told to remove their jewelry and they were instructed instructed on how to position their body But still some people got stuck and so they added a hatch at the top of the loop so that they could take them out mmm, oh

People would get stuck at the top of the loop yeah Cuz like they would get sent up a little bit. I'm exactly yeah, you catch air a little bit And they just get stuck cuz the friction I assumed that the water is still running if you got stuck Yeah, the water is still running, but it's not gonna go through the loop. Couldn't you just like shimmy your way a little bit and then you would eventually just like fall back down the loop? I don't know if you would have room to shimmy.

I don't know how fiberglass feels against water on skin. Not good. Oh my gosh. Why not have fiberglass? Yeah. Yeah. Probably not good. Oh my gosh. One of them. Yeah. Yeah. Not really not good. But anyways, um, yeah, I don't Yeah, carry on. So it was closed, like I said, but they did open it every now and then they opened it in the summer of 95 and 96. Like, uh, yeah, we can afford another lawsuit right now. And I'm sure that what every time they open it, there was a line of people waiting to go on

it. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, there definitely were. There was a video released in 2018 by a former writer. He basically just took a video, which is like the picture that I sent you, it's essentially like a clip of it, like a photo capture of that video. But Gene, Gene didn't necessarily design these rides at first.

He did kind of add his own twist to them. But people were essentially lining up, tracking him down just to show him ideas for essential rides like next rides and all of these people that were making their way to gene they didn't have any degrees or background in engineering at all why would they no why would they? Yeah, we'll get into that later, but yeah, go ahead. So like, they were just showing him, you know, designs and he was like, okay, cool. Yeah, let's do it. After a short break, we'll get back to you. Enjoying the episode so far? Well, check us out on all

of our social medias at Chambers of the Occult. You won't miss it. You won't regret it. And we're back. Welcome back. Yeah, and we're back. Anyways, so these guys giving him cool ideas. He's kind of just taking them. As soon as he would take these designs that the people were giving him, he'd just like make them his own. He would just erase some things. He'd be like, actually, I think I like this better. And he would make them more extreme. He'd make them more scarier. There was actually one idea that Gene had. He was in a restaurant and he drew a circle on a cocktail napkin. So we hired some local welders.

Red flag number one. And he put them together. The welders. Yep. And that's when human centipede and That's when the cannonball loop came to be Wow So that's when he created the road really grab the piece of a napkin. He was like guys guys. Let me cook

And motherfucker drew a circle Guys This is good enough. this is how we go big. I like it. I hate to say it, but you're not wrong. That is exactly how it went down. It is. It was all just really an experiment for Jane. And these experiments were often tested by his employees

Which mainly consisted of teenagers? Yeah, they were not paid enough. I'm sure No, not at all Vast the majority of his employees during that time were underage They were underage they were under train and they were under the influence of alcohol and weed. You name it. Yes. Okay. So that's why they work there. Yeah, pretty much. There was actually a shack on the top of the, like near the alpine slide that they would go. it was basically like their clock in station but

they treated it as not that at all. They would go there to smoke weed or do nefarious things. They'd smoke weed or do nefarious things, yes, with each other. But yeah. That teenagers should not do everything. No. And like, a lot of the supervisors and ride operators were teenagers too. To be a ride operator at that time, you had to be 16. A lot of them were 14. Oof. Yeah. That's fine labor laws can you guys just think about

yourselves at 14 and like imagine being in charge of dude I was wearing cat t-shirts and just trying to like get through like seventh grade science class like yeah, I wanted to work out Wendy's Okay, that's 14. Yeah, they were paying 16 an hour at the time Oh, I tried to become an emancipated minor at 14. I think Like 15. Oh my god. I tried to be because I was like I hate my parents You know want my own autonomy. I don't know any Encouraged it. I don't know any. Teenagers. My uncle's for some reason encouraged it. I like I don't. Anyway, yeah.

Memory on the way to New Jersey. I love it. No trailer. Nice. Let's go. Anyway, 14 year olds. Yeah. Your safety.

Yeah, 14 year olds. Jim DeSey. He was a worker during that time. I think. Jim De Say. I was. Thank you. I'll type it in the chat to Jim. De Say. So does he say?

I don't know. he say he worked there and what else Okay, so hey, I don't it doesn't say what age he started oh wait So 19 he started at 19. I just did the math He started at 19 and it doesn't say what he started as. I believe he was a cook though. And within two years, he worked his way up to security director of the park.

He was a cook? Oh wow. But then became security director? Yes. He said, let me cook. Is it Jim Desai or Jim Deslay? Jim Desai. Oh, that was Sabina. Okay, got it.. Is it Jim Dissay or Jim D'slay? Jim Dissay. Oh, that was Sabina.

Okay, got it. I thought it was Alexis again. I didn't even see that. Okay, go ahead. Continue. These kids didn't care. They were working in this park because they liked it and they thought it was cool. You know, they wanted money, but they didn't actually enforce any of They were working in this park because they liked it and they thought it was cool.

They wanted money, but they didn't actually enforce any of the rules and regulations of the park. A lot of the time, height and weight restrictions were ignored. Now, I do kind of want to take this time to talk about some notorious rides. So I did briefly mention the Alpine slide. So in order to get to the Alpine slide, you had to take a chairlift, basically like a like a gondola. Like skiing.

Like, yeah, skiing, exactly. And it would take you to the top of the slide. And below the path of the chairlift, below the path of the chairlift, there were the riders down below in the slide. And attached to the chairlift was the sleds that they would use on the slide and it literally took the slightest nudge with their elbow to cause them to fall and

They fall right on top of people. Oh Do you know how high up it was I believe it was a hundred feet. Oh shit I thought you were like the slide but I believe it was a hundred feet. Oh shit The slide but like how high was like the gondola is above the that's what I'm saying that we're a hundred feet up. Yeah So people will fall a hundred feet. No not people the no Oh, I was like, oh my gosh. No, no, no, no. So they were barely tethered on. Yeah, they were barely tethered on. So they would nudge them with their elbow and then they'd fall on top of people.

What were the sleds made out of? Metal? Plastic? I think they were also made with fiberglass. Pretty much everything in the park was made with fiberglass. Yeah, fiberglass was some type of carbonate. Still any object hitting you at a hundred feet. Yeah.

That's lethal. That's daughter. That is lethal. They'd also spit on the people below. Of course. And they'd say all kinds of nefarious things. But the sled also had like a stick. We see these kind of things now but they're not in water parks. But it's the stick that you use to control what's how fast you're

going where you're going like things like that. Yeah, exactly. Like a brake and accelerator. A lot of them were like self operated, right? Yes, they are self operated. So if it wasn't used correctly, the stick, sometimes you would lose control and you would fall out. But the but the Alpine slide wasn't necessarily But the Alpine slide wasn't necessarily built for people to stay on it. It was all sorts of crazy. So even if somebody could stay on it, that was like a huge accomplishment. A lot of people, even the workers during that time, claimed that the speed was so fast, they called it death awaits. that the speed was so fast they called it death awaits.

Oh, let me always call it that. It's not a good thing. Yeah, no. Yeah. Nice. The slide itself was made with concrete, fiberglass, and asbestos. Of course. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Was this the rainbow-colored slide?

Was this what? The rainbow-colored slide? I'm trying to remember. No, it's not a rainbow-colored slide. It's just like slate gray. Ah. Um, but the Alpine slide was also where the first death at Action Park occurred. So George Larson Jr. He was 19 at the time and he wanted to go to Action Park on July 8th, 1980. And he went on the Alpine Slide but he was thrown from the slide after his cart

jumped the track and he struck his head on a rock. He was then in a coma and he passed away on July 16th. Whoa. Damn. Do you know how long he was in a coma for? Yeah, from July 8th until July 16th. So eight days. Got it. Okay. I can't. Yeah, it's okay. It's okay. Eight days today. Gene Movahill, he did lie to the reporters. He said that Larsen Jr. was an employee at Action Park, which meant that his death didn't need to be reported to state regulators, because it wasn't a member of society. No way. I'm sure that's great to hear.

Because employees don't count as members. Yeah. Members of society. Employees don't have rights. Nah. Nah. We don't know that. No. Yeah. Employees don't have rights. Nah, nah, we don't know that. Yeah, unfortunately. We slave to the money. Anyways, so Larsen Jr. He did work as a ski loft operator, but he worked in the ski

loft. He didn't work in action park. But it was, it was owned by the same guy? Yes, owned by the same guy. So he's just... Yeah, yeah. He only worked a few days, so it wasn't long. Still, whether he worked in that ski loft or not, it was a ski loft. It wasn't action park. So the death did still need to be reported.

State regulators did tell Gene Mulvihill to remove the rocks that were there pretty early on. No, they actually told them way before. Oh, but he just didn't. He didn't. Okay. Oh. They actually told them way before but he just didn't he didn't okay And the state records Yeah

No, I'm just trying to figure out how people used to run businesses. No, seriously It's crazy. I mean, I don't know they just didn't care about anything. This was literally like I was watching a documentary about it this morning, because I watched it before, I watched it a couple of years ago, it's called Class Action Park. Yeah, there's so many names for this park. There was Class Action Park, there was Traction Park,

Accident Park, yeah. But this documentary, I do recommend watching it if you're interested. It's on Macs, I think, but I might be on other things too. But, so, the state records did show that between the year of 1984 and 1985, that there were 14 fractures and 26 head injuries that had gone in the Alpine Slime.

Just from the one ride? Just from the one ride. Oh my gosh. Do they know what kind of fractures? Well, their wrists were broken a lot of the time. Yeah. Their shoulders would be dislocated. Yeah.

But there was also the tidal wave pool. Someone's gonna drown. Okay, I think I've heard. Yeah, I think so. I mean, Great America also had a wave pool kind of like that. I think somebody died there too. Oh, yeah, I always loved the wave pools as a kid though. So fun.

Oh yeah, this way fools different Yes the thrill seeker it's not like the other girl I'm not like I'm not like other wave pools. I killed yeah Yes, here. I'm gonna send a picture on purpose Pretty people were pretty much like shoulder to shoulders sometimes when they were in the wave pool Yeah, it was pretty Yeah, it was packed. Yeah, I was pretty packed

Here I'm sending it right now. Okay, so the Tidal Wave Pool, it opened in 1891. But 18, or 1981. 1981. 1991. 1991 is great. 1991. Whoa.

1981. No wonder so many people were dying. Do you think Sarah went there? My fault. Anyone Favorite one that I thought it was that Favorite one. Yeah, it was her favorite one. Yeah, she didn't need a pool. She just went here What that's why she didn't have a pool on her property. Yeah But the lifeguards that worked and that pool, they didn't call it Tidal Wave Pool. They called it the Grave Pool. And then this one like what? 14 year old still?

Or how old were they? 14 to 19, 21. Of course, they're gonna give it the same. Oh yeah. The pool itself was 100 feet wide, 250 feet long. And for 20 minutes consistently, waves would be generated and they'd reach as high as 40 inches, which is like three feet.

Yeah, that would look cool until you're in it. Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of other people. Exactly. I do want to say I was watching the documentary and one thing that one of the former employees like quoted and said was that people expected to drown when they went to the wave pool. Oh, Like they didn't go. Oh, they saw this coming. Yeah, like, yeah, they knew.

They're like, if I die, I die. At least I'll die a hero. Literally the biggest fuck at Wee Ball. Yeah. Wee Ball. So, 20 minutes of consistent waves that are going as high as three feet with only 10 minutes worth of a break.

12 lifeguards were working at once for this one ride. That's a ton. Sorry, that's a dozen. That is a dozen. So each of those lifeguards, they saved around 20 to 30 people every hour. Every hour? Every hour. I feel like it would turn into a competition, and you would just start dragging random people out.

Dude, at that point... How many people out. Yeah dude, at that point. How many people are you saving today? At that point it's not how many you, you don't count how many you save, you count how many you lose. No seriously. So the reason why the wave pool was so dangerous was because it's not as buoyant as ocean water. It's freshwater. So it makes it harder, more difficult to swim through those waves. Unfortunately, on July 24 1982, a 15 year old by the name of George Lopez. He actually

drowned in the pool. Yeah. Yeah, he drowned in the pool and he passed away. He was again only 15. Yeah, wow. I can see why the like the lifeguards were like it's like we save a ton of them by every hour. Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot. It was really a lot. And there was a... Every single attraction, like I said, there's 75 rides. Every single one of them, someone got hurt.

It was never like, oh, this ride is safer than this ride. No. I could describe this ride as one of the worst rides and then I take a look at the next one and then I'm like Oh, nope, that one topped it. That's okay. They were all bad in certain way in different ways Yeah, everyone got injured Everyone got injured there. They This is another I'm not supposed to be mentioning this because I was gonna save it but I want to say it because I think it's kind of crazy. The park employees took a spray bottle like a Windex bottle

and they put alcohol and iodine in it. And so every person that got hurt would get sprayed with it. Oh, oh, there was like this bodybuilder guy that got like a scrape on his leg and his arm and he got sprayed with it and he was crying. That's like crying. It hurts so bad. I think that just comes to show you how common this was. Yeah. Yeah, that they had to have that like on the go. Yeah, they don't have any medical team nothing. They just have to

Just a Windex bottle No, I'm I cannot no, okay, go ahead So there was like all of these rides are that I'm mentioning right now our rides that are like still here They're just a lot more safer Yeah, you know, like, have you been? Yeah, like Great America, Great America has a wave pool. I thought you mean like Ashen Park still. No, sorry. Yeah, that's right. You're right. Some of the rides are

still there, though. Yeah, some of the rides are still there. But they're like more safer. I think the wave pool is there. But I think it's like a lot smaller. There's still lots of wave pools. I mean, that's what I mean. It's like a lot of the rides that were in Action Park are now in other parks today, is what I'm trying to say. Okay, so Action Park was basically just making, what do you call them?

Like the early models. Exactly. Testing them out. Exactly. And then, yeah, and then everyone else. They were one of the early, you know, out, hearing the failing. And then everyone else improved. They were one of the biggest, largest water parks in the continent. Not even in the country, in the continent.

And so the other park attractions, I have been in all of these in Great America, but I've never been on this one because I've always been so scared. This one in Action Park is called the kayak experience. So, you guys know those watersides where you're like in a kayak and you're going through rapids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's where this is. And underneath the water, I guess, kind of submerged in it really are electrical fans so that it could agitate the water.

And I assume those were hidden people. That sounds like final destination type. Oh, literally. Yeah. A, literally. A lot of the time the kayaks, they got tipped over and they were stuck a lot pretty frequently, especially because of the terrain. And on August 1st, 1982, Jeffrey Nathan, he was 27 at the time. He got out of his kayak because he was trying to correct it basically. And he stepped on a crate and that crate or that grate was like covering and touching exposed live wire from one of the electrical fans. Water. Mm hmm. And Nathan suffered a severe electrical shock that put him into cardiac arrest.

Oh, and the fact that it's still open at this point, it's. Yeah, that's insane he was taken to a hospital in Warwick, New York and He passed due to the shock-based cardiac arrest but The park denied that he died because of the electrical current because there were no burns on his body Mmm, but the coroner confirmed that water-based electrocutions don't necessarily have burns on his body. But the coroner confirmed that water-based electrocutions don't necessarily have burns on them.

Yeah. Boom, yeah. So. You know, what else just stopped his heart? Exactly. Don't listen to the expert. Wet away, wet away. So,

there was more people that of course passed in the action park. Total, including the ones that I just mentioned, six people. Now the others that I haven't mentioned yet was, there was there's actually one that doesn't disclose who the person is, nor what date it only mentions like the year. So I'm going to talk about that one first. They also suffered a heart attack though. And they were going on a ride called the Tarzan Swing.

Have any of you guys... That sounds fun. Yeah. I was gonna say that sounds cool, but based on all the stories you've been saying... Yeah. Have you guys seen grown-ups? Yes. Yeah. Do you know that one scene where Adam Sandler's son kind of tops the other kid in the water park and he goes down that zip line basically.

Yeah. So it's kind of like that, but instead of a zip line, you're just grabbing a metal rod and you're swinging and then you're catching the next one. And then you're swinging and then you're catching the next one. Oh no. So like you actually are throwing yourself off. Yes. They really said you're gonna be Tarzan. That is not. So like you actually are like throwing yourself yes like off yes

Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, it was also in spring-fed water So there was like a bunch of dead fish in the water the water was super cold Which yeah can cause shock to the body. If it's like a different temperature change from the ride that they went on before. So that's what happened. He got shocked because of the temperature difference from the ride that he had before compared to that one. I think he went on the cannonball ride, I believe and the difference, the Tarzan

swing the water in there is 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The one in the cannonball ride is 70 to 80. So it caused a big enough shock for him to experience a heart attack and he passed away due to it. Yeah, there was also so there was also August 27 1984. Donald DePass, he was a 20 year old, and he drowned in what was called the cliff dive pool. I'm pretty sure you guys can imagine like what that is. Yeah. Yeah.

I like the idea of that. Yeah. So it's like the thing with the cliff dive pool, again, you just jump off a cliff and go into the water. Clif diving is fun, but you gotta be careful. Yeah. The water was kind of murky. Oh. And the floor, pretty much all the floor in the amusement park was made with asphalt, which sucks. Okay. Yeah. because why would you put asphalt in

a water park why because it was probably cheap yeah it's hot as hell hot as hell but that meant it was really hard to see really anything in the water including his body in the water, including his body. Oh, no. It was 15 feet deep, the pool. And the murky water pretty much made it impossible to spot him. They later the lifeguards later found him underwater. And how much later? It doesn't say when it was not even an hour, though, I believe. Long enough to where he didn't end up surviving. They tried reviving him afterwards.

The EMTs came, but they couldn't help. How many lawsuits are happening at this time? A lot. Too many to count. Way too many. But Gene had like a gateway or like not a gateway, but like a loophole that he found. Yeah, when it came to the lawsuits, he just wouldn't settle. He'd go to trial and he wouldn't settle and he wouldn't settle and he wouldn't settle.

And the operation manager, he said that like they won 93% of the lawsuits. Yeah, because then the families that would try to sue them would eventually be like, I can't do this anymore. Exactly. I don't have the money to keep suing this man. Yeah. That's so fucked up. So these people lost their family and they're trying to get some sort of justice out of

it and still nothing. He won't give them nothing. So that is pretty much the end that makes all the people that passed away in the action park. I am going to repeat them really quickly. So again, July 16th, 19 year old George Larson Jr. August 1st, 1982, George Lopez, 15, 1984, unknown, August 27th, 1984, Donald DePasse, and July 19th, 1987, 18-year-old Gregory Grandchaps. So those are all the people that passed in It was, of course, closed. It was closed officially in, I believe, 1985 or 1996, actually. 96. Yeah. And it did get reopened in 2014. It was not by the same man.

No, it was someone else. Yeah, it was a different person and they called it Crystal Springs Resort and Mountain Creek Waterpark. Okay. Yeah. But it did close again in 2016 permanently. Got it. Crazy.

Good. Yeah, good. But that is the end for me. That was action park. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for listening. I don't know if I should thank you. Yeah, thank you for listening. I don't know if I should thank you. Like I said, it literally was not all of it. I have so much more that I could share. Yeah, I'm sure there's a ton of things, especially if you go into like the lawsuits and the way he was getting out of them. Exactly. I can even talk about

George Larson's mom and his brother too, because oh my God, I got so much on that. But yeah. Did the owner face any legal consequences? He did, but not for necessarily all the deaths. He got arrested for, I believe, insurance fraud because he didn't have a liability insurance on him. It's always something else that they get caught for. And then he did make a fake liability insurance company. Oh my god.

Which he used also for money laundering. Of course. Okay, so he was dabbing on everything. He was kind of scummy all around. Yes. He was. Employers were on briefer and alcohol. You know, he was money laundering, people were dying.

He was dabbing on everything. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for reminding me about this place because it's been a while. Dude, yeah, I watched the class action part documentary a couple years back and I was like, cause my brother showed me and I was like, oh my God, dude, that's freaking crazy. And then I was thinking about it today and I was like, oh,

oh, why not? Why not? That's a good case to cover. Yeah. Or yesterday. Yesterday, today, same thing. Yeah. Time's not real. Thanks. We should go on a trip. Same thing. Yeah I won't be lighting up anything I do have to go walk my dog

So I can join back later, yeah you guys keep going but I will be back Okay, cool. See you on the other side sounds good. My people call me I'm being sent to war you hear the barks I wish you you've got that dog good fortune soldier. I've got that dog in me He's taking that dog out Okay, I'm leaving Bye Okay, I'm leaving. I'll be right back. Bye. Bye. Bye. Yeah, so I don't think I'll be like, lightening up anything. Um... Okay. What do you have for us?

What are you taking us to? Um... You'll... You'll find out in a second. Alright. So, in the early 1900s, right? So we're going back. Yeah. Back around that time.

Yeah. And back then, tuberculosis was one of the leading causes of death. It was devastating. It was known as the white plague and it quickly spread and took the lives of so many people. Back Then it was the leading cause of death along with pneumonia. And so it spread. But unlike how quickly it spread, it unfortunately killed very slow. Which is terrible. You would get infected and you would spend months, you would spend years even with this disease just slowly eating away at your lungs and to whatever areas of your body that it

spread to, it was incurable for the longest time. So it spread a lot, but one area of the United States was hit particularly hard. It was Jefferson County, Kentucky. So this area of Kentucky was a breeding ground for the tuberculosis bacteria. The wetlands that traveled through that area and like the population of the cities, especially the city of Louisville, those there. So by 1910, you know, the cases of tuberculosis in Louisville were so severe that a hospital was created exclusively with tuberculosis patients.

And for them as well. Waverly Hills Sanatorium was created. Okay. So, Waverly Hills. I know at least one of you guys has heard of it. Cool. So, first I just, I kind of would say I've always actually loved the name Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Oh yeah. It's just really cool. I don't know. It sounds so cute and fun. And then you realize what the building actually was for and its history and the literal horrors that happened inside. And then you're like, oh shit, yeah, this place is like really bad.

It's bad news. Everything is not what it seems. Yeah, so you know, I'm sure you guys have heard of it. Wizards of Waverly Plays! I can't help, I think of Wizards of Waverly Place every time! I've been watching it! It's in the name! Yeah, I've been on a binge. Nice.

Um... I don't know. Yeah, what do you guys think of the name? I think it's fun, but... No, I mean, it's on the name. It's the first thing I think of. Yeah. I mean, it's on the name. It's the first thing I think of. Yeah. Yeah. And so the, the people who named it that in the beginning agreed, you know, it

originally did start out as something pretty and cute and innocent. Yeah. Um, the land that the hospital stands on was purchased by, uh, major Thomas Hayes from Louisville in 1883 for his family home. H-A-Y-S? H-A-Y-S, yeah. Thomas Hayes. Ah, okay, okay, okay.

There wasn't a school close enough for his daughters though, so because he had a shit ton of money, he literally just opened up a new school right next to their home on the land that they purchased. Which was pretty sick. Yeah, I mean it was 1880s, you know what, like school board. That's what I was thinking. It was a different fact in the day. You could get away with a lot. You could. It was a one room schoolhouse. It didn't need to be big. And so Major Hayes, he hired Lizzie Lee Harris to be the teacher there. Mrs. Harris loved the Waverly novels that were written by Walter Scott.

So Major Hayes named the school the Waverly School. And he then just loved the name so much he named all the land they were living on Waverly Hill and so that's where the name came from The name was eventually kept later on when it was purchased and then turned into the sanatorium Cute so we love it It actually originally started out pretty small in 1910 when it was created, but the next couple years it expanded just a bit just to allow some more space, but then it wasn't until 1926 when it fully expanded and got big in order to accommodate the rising amount of patients.

The rising numbers, yeah. Because there was a lot of need for space there. That they didn't want to have to turn away all these patients because they were having to turn away all these patients. In 1943, streptomycin was introduced. It was an antibiotic medication that effectively became the treatment for tuberculosis. Because of that, cases gradually did decrease. And eventually Waverly Hills

Sanatorium would close in June of 1961. Oh, so they didn't stay open for too long. No, yeah, so roughly 1910 to 1961. So just about 50 or so years. Yeah. In the next like 30 or so years, there were lots of attempts to turn the building and land into a lot of different things like the year after 1962, they tried to open it to be a geriatric hospital, but that failed. They tried to turn it into a state prison to hold prisoners. They tried to do a bunch of stuff with it. But you know, all these plans all fell through either because of lack of staff, lack of planning, lack of funds, or just like lack of permission from the people.

One of the big reasons it didn't turn into a prison was because the people of Louisville like protested against it. Like they did not want this big thing to be turned into a prison. Which yeah, completely valid. But moving back into the fact that it was a sanatorium for tuberculosis. Tuberculosis, a disease that literally did not have a cure. There was no way to stop it. Go ahead, Alexis, I don't know if you want to...

No, no, no, no, you keep going, you keep going. So, yes, it was a hospital, but what could they actually do? It was just a place to keep them quarantined, really. It was never designed as a functional hospital, more like a last spot for them to rest. Yeah, last resort. Like, it kind of goes that once you got to the Waverly Sanatorium, you never left. And that wasn't just for the patients, that was for the staff, the nurses, the doctors that lived there.

It was contagious. Yes, because once you were on Waverly Hill, you could not leave. That's how bad tuberculosis was. They didn't want it to spread. Wake up to the dark dark California. Such a lovely place. The warm weather might help. Well, but that's what they thought.

Anyway, go ahead. Of course they tried treatments and they tried to create cures. But more often than not, you know, the treatments were just as bad as the actual disease itself. Completely barbaric things happened. They would... The doctors would literally like cut open their chest. They would expose the patient's lungs to UV light

to like try to kill the bacteria. They did a lot of crazy things. Oh, like, ready. They would build lots of sun rooms or sun porches that they would put patients in just to sit in the scalding sun because they would hopefully, you know, kill the bacteria. It would, you know, stuff like that. They would put them outside, literally on the balconies.

They would open up the roofs and just leave them outside because they thought fresh air was the best possible cure. No way. But since it was Kentucky back in the early 1900s, it was also very fucking cold. Oh no. And there's literally photographs out there that have like patients like lounging outside like in their beds or their chairs and they're just covered in snow.

What? Yeah. How is that better? I don't know. Because they were getting fresh air. Right, right. Oh. Another treatment they did was since it was mainly to do with the lungs, right? And the lungs not being able to pull in as much air, they were being deteriorated.

Yeah. There's one treatment they would do where they would surgically implant balloons into the patient's lungs. Oh, like, and then fill them with air to expand them. Oh, no. But, you know, they could break the ribs, it could pop it, it would be much bloodied and very bloody. Great. And I'm sure I don't know if there's a way to get the balloons to be sterile back in that time.

No, definitely not. They didn't even care about being sterile back then. It was, yeah. They would remove muscle, they would remove ribs to allow extra space for the lungs to expand. No. And a lot of these procedures people didn't survive and I mean they really were a last resort Yeah, you know nothing else could be done, but

but still there was a lot of terrible treatments a lot of death that came with it There aren't accurate reports of how many people died during those 50-ish years of operation. I've seen articles that say anywhere from 6,000 to 60,000 people died. That's a huge range. Holy crap, dude. Yeah, that's a huge range. Yeah, so it's hard because not a lot of the record was kept, but also one of the main,

one of the, I guess moving into more of the paranormal side of this now, because of how much death there was, of course there's gonna be lots of energies that are still reported. And particularly in what's known as the death hall or the body shoot there. What? What? Ah. Yeah, so in one area of the hospital, there's an enclosed tunnel that was mainly used for transportation sort of down to the railroad tracks

and sort of like the road at the bottom of the hill. Completely hidden tunnel enclosed, it was used for the staff, but because of how many desks there were, it pretty much exclusively turned into a shoot to dispose of the bodies that an ambulance could then gather or whatever, bring it back to the morgue. And, you know, there could have been tens of thousands of bodies that were just thrown

down there in order to be hidden because they didn't want the other patients to see how many people were actually dying inside of the hospital. And cause the panic, yeah. And cause panic, exactly. The doctors believe that their mental health was just as important as their physical health, which yes, I agree with, but also... That's not the way to cope with it.

It doesn't seem like they're doing much else. No, they're definitely not. So, that's one of the most investigated areas, I guess I would say, of the sanatorium. And like most paranormal cases, there's not super detailed recounts of what's been seen or things like that but of course commonly there's been seen you know lots of ghost orbs, lots of shadow figures that will move down in that hallway, people hearing you know names call and whispers as they walk through. Also, I forgot to mention this hall is close to 600 feet long. So it... Damn. So this is... Okay, go ahead. Yes. So they would carry these

through and this is a huge thing. It's like long dark alleyway. Steam alley bruh. Literally. Times ten. What do we? Yeah, and so the body shoots, you know, the death hall there at the sanatorium. That's not where things end. Because there's so many deaths on the property that there's so many little stories of spirits and ghosts that are there. Some of the most notable is going in there's supposedly a little boy named Timmy who's

at the moratorium. Timmy. Timmy. Timmy boy. Timmy, yeah. He plays catch with you. Oh, that's cute. Like you roll a ball and he'll throw it back. Timmy boy. Timmy, yeah. He plays catch with you.

Like you roll a ball and he'll throw it back. Which, surprisingly, is not that scary. No, but it's cute. Playful more than anything. Yeah, let's play. I don't think it would be scary until you heard a voice. I think it'd be fine just doing the ball but it's gonna be your voice.

I feel like if I heard a voice, I would be more content with that because then it looks like, then at least I'm talking to something, you know? Rather than just it looking like I'm schizophrenic or something. Because when you look around the corner, you realize there's no one there.

Or like that there's an actual person there. Yeah. I know Buzzfeed and Sarr, Ryan and Shane, they've gone a couple of times to the sanatorium. Is that the clip where he like rolls the ball and it goes to his name graffiti? His name, exactly, yeah. That's what I was thinking of. Yeah, that was in their video they did like seven, eight years ago, something like that.

Yeah, it was well. I remember that. I loved when they ran Buzzfeed Unsolved. Oh, I loved it. Yeah, so during Buzzfeed Unsolved, it was like a seven, eight year old video now. And yeah, there's like the one clip where like Ryan, he like rolls the ball down the hallway and like they hear it bounce around a bit and like it almost sounds like it gets like rolled a little bit further after it stopped from what I remember. And so they run down the hallway to go investigate and he like grabs a ball from the ground and

Ryan like looks up and on the wall directly above it it says Ryan Like his name on the wall Yeah, and like I don't know how much coincidence that is like I don't know how skeptical I am but like that's kind of crazy Actually have to happen Another ghost is supposedly there's a woman who's been seen, one of the nurses, and she'll be at the end of hallways and in doorways just watching over you really. She'll kind of disappear once you see her. So the story goes that there was a nurse who did hang herself inside of the building and now is still roaming those halls. Once again, you know, unfounded stories, but

paranormal sightings nonetheless. And that's just the many people of like the mysterious, And that's just the many people of like the mysterious Like humanoid figures the shout-out figures that will drift through the hallways And it's really unknown who a lot of these people are but people are seen I have seen them before Yeah, I was looking into more ghost stories specifically from like Like reddit of people who like live in Kentucky who live by Louisville, and I've taken trips there. Reddit always be coming through, honestly. So there's this one story of somebody went in March of 2024, they went on just a regular daytime tour because it is privately owned by like society and they do tours of the place. They also do nighttime

paranormal tours. We gotta go. We do gotta go. Yeah. So apparently they were on the second floor on the sun porch up there where a lot of the patients would be held. They were leaning on the wall and they said, they just suddenly felt something just punch them in the stomach like super hard. Oh, okay, not cute. Pull on play, fun. Yeah, not cute at all. You never know what you're gonna get.

Yeah. It's one of those mystery boxes. You either chill, either chill at the sun porch or you die at the sun porch. I don't know. They said that they felt as if they were blacking out and they slowly slid down the wall onto the floor and eventually just threw up. Oh, damn. Got food knocked out of them.

Yeah, they threw up. They had to be pretty much carried off of the tour because they were too weak to get up. But they said as soon... Or they said that they were like brought down to like... down to the first floor to an open spot, and they said they were feeling better, but they said that they felt... watched. Like they felt like they were being watched while they were down there. I think they took something. I don't know. Watched like they feel like they're being watched You took the cleanest. I was gonna say. Yes. Anyway, this person on Reddit said that as soon as they like left the building, though, they just felt so much relief, like they felt 100% better.

And apparently drove 200 miles back home after that completely fine. Damn. OK. Yeah. People have said, you know, taking night time tours, they feel like they sweat profusely, but also like freezing cold at the same time. I hate when that happens.

Seeing shadow people. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yes. Footsteps up and down the halls. Spooky. But there's this one post someone made of a few different trips that they are, two different trips that they actually had.

They went back? Yeah. Yeah. different trips that they are two different trips that they actually they went back yeah yeah not everyone gets punch in the gut so they said that they're on a tour the tour guide was taking them around and they got to a floor where there was a floor that quote they didn't allow you to have lights turned on but they said that they really started questioning it. So they said that this, for context, the dark floor has aggressive spirits that attack you if you provoke them. Oh, wait, what?

Yeah. So they said they saw shadow figures there, human-shaped figures walking across the halls, and... I'm gonna be real. I'm the kind of idiot that would like go through that floor. 100%, yeah. I mean, there's nothing wrong going through it until you turn the lights on and you start like mocking them. No, I wouldn't do all that. This person says that like the tour guide will even offer you to walk down the hall alone Oh, that's sick. The other people like watch okay. I just go down. Yeah, I would do that

But yeah, so they said this happened during their first trip and so they were a little bit skeptical so eventually they came back and that's when they said they were a little bit skeptical so eventually they came back. And that's when they said they saw a full body apparition, like just completely there. They said they were walking back up again to that dark floor. But this time instead of being at the front of their group, they stayed at the back of the group near their tour guide. Maggars. Just to keep distance from the others. And they said that while they were talking to the tour guide,

they were standing at the bottom of the stairs. And before they made their way up the stairs, they noticed just a person who is just in their peripheral vision, who is just standing in a doorway behind the tour guide. They said they tried to make eye contact with that person, but their eyes just couldn't focus on it. Why are they always behind the tour guides? Like it was just going through.

Yeah, right. Right? They're always behind the tour guide. Like, why can't I be the one to see it? Like, why do they get the cool experiences? I worked here for fuck's sake. Like, I don't know. The ghosts support capitalism. They're giving them what they paid for. Yeah, you don't buy a ticket. You don't see anything. them the the ghost support capitalism yeah hey the ghosts are just acting their wage yeah yeah they show up at odd hours only work when they want to yeah how do I get a gig like that? Catch tuberculosis? So this person, yeah, catch tuberculosis, go to the sanatorium.

Oh my god. Gotcha. So they said this person appeared to be shorter, blonde, and in a hospital gown. So, um, a patient, something like that. Oh, she was lost. And they said, they said it just walked behind the door and then out of view. And it was blurry the entire time it was walking. But yeah, they said they also on that trip what they a third thing they encountered

is something that the workers there called the creeper. Oh man. Yeah, so apparently whatever it is is known for climbing on the walls and jumping on to people. No. Easy. Wait, what'd you say climbs on the walls and then what? And jumping on to people. Oh no. Yeah, no, what'd you say? It climbs on the walls and then what? And jumping onto people. Oh.

No. Yeah, no, that's scary as fuck. Um. Like, what if that happened to you? What would you do? Mm-mm. What's your first inst- What's your first inst-

I'm fast away. What's your first inst- Dead. I'd run the fuck out of there. Dead. Dive headfirst through a window. Um. What if there's no window?

Dive- Whoa. Create one. It's Minecraft. I've had first a window What's there's no window dive create one My ground That goth home that gothic home are gonna be run down. Yeah, what do we my hard head will break through it? It's when you get out yeah So they said while they were on the first floor, and it was actually still daylight out, they were walking in the back of the group when suddenly they felt something really cold rush up onto their shoulder.

And they said the tour guide walking next to them jumped away in fear. Oh, that's good. And then when the poster turned their head towards the like cool air They just found themselves face to face with a black mass looming over their shoulder just inches away from their face Oh, that's great. It's never good when the Torgite that your whistle also gets startled. Yeah, when the professional is scared Yeah, obviously

The Redditor says, quote, the Redditor, yeah, they said, quote, I could make out one of the most sinister smiles and a pair of eye sockets with no eyeballs and then walk onto me. This was the first time I vocalized my fear wall on one of these tours. I gave out a loud shriek as a grown man. You brave grown man. As you should've. Yeah. Yeah.

And so yeah, they said that the thing just darted away, but apparently other people in their group did confirm what they saw. Like this black mass So like wasn't something one. Yeah, yeah See, but does that make you feel better or does that make it worse? It makes me feel better. They said they they said it made them feel better. So And I didn't even experience that You're not alone Me in the mirror.

It's a safe space. What the? Focus, Kat. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Jesus Christ. You're heading the game. I'm just, you know, the creeper, he's right here. And... Oh man.

He's been kind of cute. My sleep paralysis demon. You did it all day. But yeah, there's been lots of like, you know, paranormal investigations, uh, YouTube, TV shows, and lots of people have gone here. And from what I've seen, this def- the sanatorium definitely seems like one of the most active haunted places.

Um, like lots of experiences. And so I think it would be kind of fun to go. We should go! Definitely. We should plan it. But I don't want to get get I don't want to like bring an evil spirit home You know what I mean? Okay? Well don't there but I think This type of activity would just be fun to go into I also don't know if I want to go to Kentucky Yeah, it's a one day

We can go We can go in the fall, winter, because I don't know how hot Kentucky gets. Did you not hear about how the winters would be cold with the people covered with snow during... Yeah, I'm okay with that. So I'm not sweating balls. That's pretty cool. I have some cool pictures. I also have like the original blueprints for the sanatorium. Like pictures of those, which is really cool. How big is the building itself? Um... Like big.

Yes. So that kind of big. Yes. That kind of big. Yes, that kind of big. It's 180,000 square feet. Holy crap. It's 180,000 square foot facility. I believe it's five stories tall from what I was reading. My goodness gracious.

I mean it was designed to hold people with tuberculosis during the peak of the freaking... Yeah, it was able to It was able to hold like 400 patients. I believe Wow Wow Okay my goodness, yeah, so definitely definitely yeah That's pretty much it I mean I believe it was purchased In That's pretty much it. I mean, I believe it was purchased in... I don't know. It's privately managed right now. Yeah, so it was purchased in 2001 to Athena and Charlie Mattingly.

And I believe they're still the owners today. So that, you know know they help maintain the property do the tours they actually do like a Halloween haunt as well I believe oh that's cute yeah I mean it's such a haunted place you just have to mm-hmm yeah what a way gotta turn a haunted house into a haunted house true gotta get that money that mula anyway that's the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Thank you very much. That's freaky.

Yeah, what are we? So scary. I'm really fucking scared right now. I'm actually bubbling my pants right now. Actually? When are we bubbling my pants? When are we having a panic attack? Right now. What? When are we boobin' my pants? When are we having a panic attack?

Right now. That's what that is. Where are we going? It's happening right now. Right now. When are we as we speak? Okay, where are we Jay? Who's next?

Take the wheels. Who's next? I'm Nix. Here's who's take the wheels. The doctors when tuberculosis hit They're like You're in the Lord's hands now Yeah

No And like they would like cuz eventually the disease could like spread to like their brain and cause mental issues. And of course they do like electroshock therapy and like probably like, you know, stuff like that. So it. Yeah. Yeah.

The whole shebang. Yep. Shebita barba. Shebang, shebang. Yeah. Wow. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you very much That was better than I would say Alexis's case with all the people dying. Oh, okay

No, no, no Like death wise it's lighter, I mean I mean there was a little boy who placed countenance. A lot of people died because of tuberculosis. I'm sure more people died there than, you know, the park. But I mean, either way, people died. It wasn't as gruesome. And, you know, people were not expected to have fun in there.

No, no, no, no. But I want to see that little boy. I want to play catch with Timmy. See, but what if. But I want to see that little boy. I want to play catch with Timmy. See, but what if he doesn't want to see you and he just wants to play ball and like he just he's just like in a dark corner. Well, he just needs a friend. Sounds so wholesome kind of. Just a little kid ghost in the corner of a sanatorium Trying to okay well for my case. Yeah, where do you have Jay?

Too far. Yeah. Yeah, what do I have I have? The bonus story So I'm gonna be taking us to a different location not too far from where Kai covered his story Okay, but not necessarily back to California. I'm taking us to Boston, Massachusetts Boston Yeah, I think that's a lot of people. The lost of them. I figured, why not just piss off more people? Hey, everyone deserves to be pissed off.

Yeah, I already did one. Everyone deserves to have an end in a well. It's kinda hard to do another. Cool. So, for my case, do you guys like, we already talked about amusement parks, but what about museums? Yeah, we love museums. Well, I think I like work in a museum or something. But like, do you like, you know, like modern art, like contemporary, like do you have a preference, you know, like, or you just like going to museums in general?

I like museums in general. I Like just abstract art. I like like science museums. I love History, I saw a pair of like or like Roman jewelry Sat in front of it for so long like it was a pair of earrings that like I would wear today And it was like did you take a picture of them? If so, can you send them? I'll send them. I'll send them.

Okay. I love old jewelry. Because me too. Well, the reason I'm bringing this up is because we're going to be talking about a museum. No way. No way. Obviously. No, I'm going to be talking about science. No.

Um, I'm talking about a museum and it's in Boston, Massachusetts. And the museum is named the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Um, but I want to give you a little history about the museum and why is there a museum named after a woman? Who was Isabella? Why would they do that? Yeah, who is she? Yeah, who is she?

What? Giving credit to women? What? That's crazy. What? Why is it named after her? Bibbidi-bobbidi. Women are deserving of recognition.

Isabella, the woman that was the museum named after. She was born in 1840. And I'm going to be telling this story, and you just tell me if the story sounds similar. Or like there's some points that you can connect to like someone else in your head. You know, just think about it. Just think about this story. Yeah, yeah. So Isabella was born in the 1840s into a wealthy family in New York. She was the daughter of David Stewart, who made his fortune importing linen.

Now she was raised in a world of privilege, and Isabella was given every opportunity to cultivate her interest in arts, literature, culture. This young lady, she had a taste for adventure. And she also had a rebellious spirit because who doesn't? What young person doesn't? At the age of 20, she married John Jack Lowell Gardner Jr. And he was a member of one of Boston's most prominent families.

And that's when she relocated to Boston, Massachusetts. How did they meet? I don't know. But now let me take a look at those earrings because Sabina just- Yes. Okay. Cool. But now let me take a look at those earrings because Sabina just... Okay.

This is at the Legion of Art, I think it's called in San Francisco. The what? I think it's the Legion of Art. Okay. Faberge jewelry. Okay. Okay. Fawber J Jewelry. Okay. Okay. Anyway, um, back to Isabelle. Right.

What is about? Back to Milo. Just in time. Just literally getting into my story. Oh my gosh. Oh, it's the. Yeah. so you get to hear the bonus story. And we're now located in Boston, Massachusetts. We're talking about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

And I'm giving you a history of why was the museum named after this lady? Yeah. Well, long story short, she was born in the 1840s. She married a wealthy New York family. She was the daughter of a man who made his fortune importing linen. She was raised in a world of privilege and she was given every opportunity to cultivate her interest, arts, literature, and culture. And she was young and rebellious, but she married at 20 years old to John Jack Lyle Garner Jr. That's literally all you missed. Okay.

Cool. I respect her already. How did they meet? I generally don't know. I kind of just did not even think of that until now. At a coffee shop. It was a meet-cute. They met on Tinder. You know, she was courted by him probably. The couple faced a tragedy, however, on 1865.

Once again, Milo, try to connect these dots to someone's other story that you know, because it's very similar. In 1865, Isabella gave birth to a son who died before the age of two. Now, the loss devastated her and Isabella fell into a deep depression. So to help her cope, her husband Jack suggested to Isabella, hey, why don't you travel to Europe? Okay. So she went on a trip and she became a transformative,

it was a transformative experience for Isabella. And it sparked a passion for travel, culture, and most notably art collecting. Okay. Now, the idea for her museum was born from her travels. Where she was inspired by the grand European galleries and collections throughout her life. She traveled to Italy, Egypt, Asia, and beyond. What's beyond? I don't know. She went to the other side. She just immersed herself in this culture since she was building relationships with artists, dealers, collectors.

Once again, she was from a wealthy family. And along the way, she began to, she began amassing an impressive art collection, which would become one of the most important collections in the U.S. Now, the driving force behind this museum's actual construction, the museum started under construction in 1891. And the reason that it started was because Jack Gardner, her husband, suddenly passed away from a stroke. And it was after his death that Isabella, she was now a widow, and she decided to channel her grief into a lifelong project, building a museum to house her ever growing collection and to honor her late husband. That's really cute actually.

Yeah, you know, she had the money for it, go for it. She had a passion. So she had a vision and her vision was to recreate a Venetian palace in the heart of Boston. Okay. That's cool. So she purchased a plot of marshy land in the Fenway Kenmore neighborhood of Boston. It was a largely underdeveloped area at the time. And working with architect Willard T. Sears, Isabella personally oversaw every aspect of

the museum, from the design to the layout to the construction. And she drew inspiration from the Gran Palazzo, which I had to look up what that was in Italian, it's just palaces, that she had seen in Venice. She just wanted to ensure that her museum would feel both intimate but also enchanting at the same time. So the construction was called, the construction started on what at the time was called Fenway Court, began in 1899, and it was completed in 1901. Just two years. The building itself was described as a marble. It was a three-story structure,

and it was arranged around a breathtaking courtyard filled with plants, sculptures, and mosaics. It's not around anymore? Oh, it's still around. I will send you a picture right now. Okay, okay. Thanks. And whatever you're picturing right now, I want you to multiply it by three.

Oh, damn. Okay. Okay. Yes, okay. Yeah. No, the reason I'm saying it, it's because I pictured something gorgeous, but it just blew me out of the water. Extravagant.

It was extravagant. It's just very Italian found in the US, in Boston. Love it. OK, so here goes the picture. I'm sending it to the group chat. Feel free to check it out. And this is just the inside of it. And this is what it looks like nowadays. So, and we'll get back into,

we'll get into why it looks like this nowadays. How it can look like this nowadays after so many years. Oh, wait. Nevermind. Ooh, that's pretty. Oh my God, that's gorgeous. That's very gorgeous. So this is what Isabella wanted to build.

Winchester wishes. Oh well. Literally, this is what Isabella wanted to build. She wanted to build a great Venetian palace in the heart of Boston. That's her husband, indeed. Yeah. Yeah.

So, visitors would be able to wander from room to room, and each design was designed to feel like a separate ornate gallery. Because rather than a typical museum and arranging the artwork like chronologically or by style, Gardiner, it was her museum, so she chose a more personal approach. She was, you know, pieces were arranged according to her own aesthetic taste, just mixing paintings, sculptures, textiles, and like furniture, just to invoke different emotions and themes. Isabella's collection was both expansive and diverse. Just over her life, she acquired more than 2,500 pieces. Dang.

And this included paintings, sculptures, tappers, trees, rare books, photographs, and decorative art. Her collection spanned from cultures to eras, from the Renaissance masterpieces to Asian pottery, illuminated manuscripts, letters from historical figures like Napoleon and Marie Antoinette. That's crazy. She had a little bit of everything from everywhere. I love that. She also had artworks from Michelangelo, Titan, Vermeer, Raphael, Rimbard, and DeGast, among many others. So she, when her husband said, go to Europe, she said, I'm going to Europe and Asia and more. Yeah. So, it would be in January 1903 when Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her museum to the public with a grand celebration that featured an orchestra performance in the central courtyard,

so where the picture is sent you. Now Gardner wanted the museum to be a source of education and enrichment, just accessible to everyone. And she made sure that the entry fees were affordable. At the time in 1903, a ticket, like an entry ticket was 25 cents. Nowadays that would be around $8.94. Oh my gosh. Nowadays, like if you go on their website, they're around like 20 bucks to entry.

So it's still like very affordable museum. So Isabella would host events, concerts, she would have readings at the museum, bringing together artists, intellectuals, musicians, and just cultural influencers of the day. Isabella herself was known for her unconventional fashion sense and bold personality. She really just wore whatever she felt like wearing at the time. She would appear at social gatherings wearing everything from a red socks uniform.

Okay. Yeah. I love her. To an elaborate silk gown from Asia. You know? So one day you could see her wearing that red socks uniform and the next day she was covered in silk from head to toe. Which I love. Diverse queen.

Gotta respect that. Isabella unfortunately passed away in 1924. No! Sorry to disappoint you, Sabina. She's not alive nowadays. It's not true. Take it back. She passed away in 1924, but before leaving, you know, the world of the living, before she died, she left behind strict instructions for her museum and her collection were to be preserved.

Good. Good for her. Her will specified that nothing in the museum, nothing was to be altered or added after her death. Good. Or added. Or added. So that's why when you go visit it, the galleries were, you know, to remain frozen in time as she left them. It's what Minnie would call like a do not touch policy, which meant that the museum was preserved as a kind of living legacy to the vision of her taste. That's so cool.

It really is. Is this the place? I wish Sarah would have done that. Right. Go ahead. Is this the place where people named Isabella get in for free? I don't think so. I actually don't know to be honest. That's so cool if it is. I'm pretty sure my name is Isabella. It might be another museum but I think I think it's the name Isabelle. I would have to take a look at that but I don't know from the top of my head. Can there be a museum where people named Milo can get in quickly? The Milo Museum.

The Milo Museum. Probably, you can just look it up. There's probably a museum out there named the Milo Museum. Yeah. Anyway, now let's jump 66 years into the future. Okay. So, 66 years after she passed away, the day was March 18th, 1990, and the museum still looked the same as when Isabella passed away. And March 18th of 1990, early in the morning, right after St. Patrick's Day celebrations, when the streets of Boston were finally winding down from the day festivities,

the museum watchman was on duty. His name was Rick Abbath. He was a 23-year-old Berkeley College music dropout and an aspiring musician. He had long hair, a laid-back attitude, and a history for being pretty relaxed around his duties. Some would say a little too relaxed for someone guarding, you know, priceless art collection. Yeah. And maybe, yeah. Yeah. And at exactly 1 24 AM, two Boston police officers pulled up to the museum

side entrance. They rang the bus, you know, they just gave a bus to the intercom. And they stated that they were responding to a disturbance call. So, Rick let them in. But what he didn't realize is that this meant weren't actually officers. They were thieves. Oh my gosh. So, these people were thieves and they were about to commit one of the most daring art heists in history.

I remember this. That's sick. At 1.35am, the men entered the museum and they instructed Abath and his fellow guard, Ranzee, to step away from the security desk. And before they knew it, the guards were handcuffed, and the thieves told them, gentlemen, this is a robbery, and they led them into the basement. He was like, politely, I'm robbing you. So, you know. It's an art heist. You've got to have some manners when you're doing an art heist.

Put the money in the bag, kindly. Thank you. Please. Yes. So, they were escorted down to the basement. They were duct taped to pipes and chairs, and they were left there blindfolded and helpless. Damn. Now I am sending you right now here on this thing here. Take a look at the picture of what they look like when they found them.

Because they were so ducky. Oh shit. Yep. They're like suffocating over there. Oh man, those poor guys. Oh, and imagine ripping that off. Am I the last person to get this? It's gonna be, it's in the chat.

It's got like hands tied, duct tape around their face. Oh wow. Yeah, he's got long, long hair. He does. Mm-hmm. So, after the guards were tied up, the thieves were free to roam the museum. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Because an art heist, how long do you think an art heist takes? 20 minutes.

Like half an hour. I was going to say like half an hour to an hour. OK, you guys are around the same like range. OK, cool. The thieves spent about, you know, they spent exactly 81 minutes. Oh, that's a long time. Damn. They were in no rush.

They were still in a total of 13 works from art, works of art from multiple rooms. Now, I have a list here of all the art pieces that they sold. And every room was named differently. Every room had a different theme. From the Dutch room, they stole four works of art. Three of them were from Rimbart. And they were all from the three of them were from the 1633 and one was from 1638. 1633 and one was from 1638. Damn.

They also stole one painting from the Blue Room from 1877 by Manette. And then from the Short Gallery, they stole six different works of art. They stole, different works of art. Uh, they stole. What was this? Uh, painting, painting a lot of paintings, but they also ended up stealing. Uh, they ended up stealing a wine beaker from the Dutch room. From the Dutch room, they took two things.

They took an oil canvas. They took a wine beaker from the 12th century BCE. Damn. Yep. They also took, where is it? Oh, they also took a bronze statue from 1814. They took, it's almost like they were just window shopping until they knew what they wanted, and then they took that.

Yeah. Yeah. It seems that they really weren't in a hurry because they ended up making two separate trips to their car. Damn. They were taking their time. They were.

Yeah. 81 minutes. By the way, their car was a red Dodge Daytona. My dad had a... Okay. It was him. It was. Anyway, the thieves departed from the museum at 2.45 a.m.

And it wasn't until 8.15 a.m., the morning after, you know, the morning when the staff arrived. It was five hours and a half after the thieves had driven away with all the art. And the morning staff discovered the guards tied up. And they also found the frames hanging in the museum galleries. They didn't take the paintings with the frames. They just cut the painting out of the frame. What I feel like usually the frame is part? Like what? Most likely they just... The thing is you can roll up a painting. How are you gonna roll up a frame?

That's true. That's what I was gonna say as well. If you're gonna dodge, how much room do you have? I mean, but if I'm gonna steal something, I'm gonna go big or go home. Take the frame. Well, they did go big. Minus the frame. With how long it took them.

Yeah. Like they were like, uh... They were like, eh, okay, this one. I guess I'll grab this one. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, the police were called. Right off the bat, the FBI was notified and an investigation begins. Um, and with that, the greatest art heist in American history is underway. But what comes next is one of the most frustrating investigations for law enforcement. And it's just one of the most like, I don't know, like, juicy mysteries for like amateur detectives and art lovers.

And I'll get into that in a minute. but like the FBI showed up at the scene, but they quickly found themselves stumped, because let's start just with the guards. Rick becomes an early person of interest, the one that got duct taped. Why? Well, because there was some security footage from that night that showed him opening the doors, the museum's side door around midnight. But about half, that was about half an hour before the thieves arrived. opening the doors, the museum site door around midnight. But about half, that was about half an hour before the thieves arrived. When they interviewed Rick, he just said that he was simply testing the door to ensure that it was secure.

But of course, no, no, he was just, he just opened it around that time. Are you sure his name is Rick? And not Patrick? He's lying. Anyway, and then there's also he's Demeter during the whole, you know, heist. He was pretty calm, perhaps a little too much too calm for someone who was supposed to be protecting like the priceless masterpieces But unfortunately or fortunately for him, there was just no concrete evidence linking him to the crime And after many many interviews, he's eventually cleared Okay now there's also that's the believe it. Yeah, there's also the possibility that this was an inside job.

Yeah, that makes sense. There was a lot of suspicions focusing on the museum staff and local criminals. The FBI was investigating whether the heist was orchestrated by someone familiar with the museum security system or the layout. And quickly, a theory started to gain traction that it, you know, that it was organized crime. Because after all, this is Boston in the early 1990s. So this is just, you know, city of Boston, 1990s. The underworld had deep roots. So investigators took a look whether the art thief might have been connected to the Irish mob or the Italian mafia. Okay.

Damn. How'd they get involved? So one name that repeatedly comes up is James Whitey Bulger. He is a notorious Boston crime boss who ruled the streets with fear and violence. Bulger's gang, the Winter Hill Gang, had a reputation for smuggling drugs and a range of other illicit activities. So the theory goes that Bulger might have orchestrated the heist to trade the artwork as bargaining chips. If authorities ever caught him, he's like,

hey, you're going to take me in. I got some artworks right here for you. That was really good. However, there was one glaring problem. There was just no evidence that ever ended up linking Bulger to the heist or any of the other connections. It was just all speculation. Now another mob connected, named on the FBI radar was Carmine Romano, also known as the shark.

He was a Philadelphia gangster. And it's theorized that the art might have been passed through, that the art might have passed through his hands as part of the underworld network. But again, this is all a theory. There's no evidence to support any of this. There's also another mobster that they had suspicions of. Bobby Donati. He was known as an art thief with connections to both the Italian and Irish mob.

Donati is an intriguing figure in this case because just as a member of the mafia, he was familiar with high value art and antiques. And what's interesting is that Donati allegedly told multiple people in Boston's underworld that he could get his hands on valuable art. Okay, well that's... But he never specifies. Yeah, I was going to be like, I think any mobster can say that and no one would think about it twice. Yeah, just big talk.

Especially when you don't specify what art. Yeah. But it would be in 1991, just a year after the heist, that Donati was found murdered with his body showing signs of torture. Just a clear message to the mob. Some say that maybe he orchestrated the heist or that he knew who was behind it. But his death just leaves a lot of the investigations into a dead end with like nothing else to connect him to the missing art. So the FBI keeps investigating for the next decade.

They chase multiple leads around the world, including tips and suggestions that the art may have been hidden in Ireland, smuggled to Japan, or just kept in private collections across Europe. Unfortunately, none of these leads ever pan out. But they add to just the, you know, mystery and the speculation. The hype of it, yeah. Exactly. You know, one of the more compelling theories suggests that the heist was carried out by a professional crew hired by a wealthy collector. The so-called Dr. No theory, according to his theory, some unknown, highly wealthy individual commissioned for the theft for his own private collection, and that he was willing to pay any price for the thrill of possessing like forbidden treasures. You know, this theory, however, it's just like a romantic way to look at the art

heist, it's purely speculative, there's no solid evidence to support it. And as you know, in essence, the Gardner Museum had a very big flaw when it came to an investigation. And we talked about that earlier. The flaw, like a blessing and a curse, is the can't touch policy. Because on one hand, it did help preserve Isabella's vision for decades, allowing the public to see the art exactly as she had intended to. But on the other hand, it left the museum vulnerable, just unable to adapt and prepare.

Not just because of that, but because they were not able to update the security system either. Oh. Yeah, because they weren't allowed to add anything. They were not allowed to remove or add anything. Everything had to like stay the same. So whatever security she had in 1924, that's the security system that they had in the late 1990s. So they were doomed. I mean, just imagine if the museum had to free them to change things up, like bulletproof glass, or could have protected the masterpieces,

or just simply having more guards to patrol the galleries and the security cameras. Maybe they could have covered every blind spot, but because they had to honor gardeners' wishes, the museum was just locked as a time capsule which left it unprepared for like a modern crime of this scale. Honestly it's just like tragic irony it was a place to build it was a place built to preserve art and it was unable to protect itself when it mattered the most.

And it was unable to protect itself when it mattered the most Yeah, but I mean also it's like it's like who would have ever expected this museum of all places to get stolen from like relatively small little museum Like there's there's like bigger places to steal from yeah I think when it comes to like silly, it's not necessarily the museum that you go after, but the works of art that you're going after. They're worth a lot of money. Yeah.

Um, but once again, like this is just another layer of the museum's vulnerability. It was outdated technology. In the 1990s, the Gardner Museum security was just way too far from being called sophisticated. The security cameras did record footage, but they recorded into VHS tapes, which would be overwritten every day. So, unfortunately, if anything suspicious happened earlier that day or just in the earlier that week, it would be erased by the time that the footage would be needed for, you know, evidence or to investigate. The cameras weren't even actively being monitored. There was just two guards and they would simply review the tapes.

If an incident occurred, it was just a huge blind spot and the thieves were aware of it. And they exploded that. Now, they did also have motion sensor alarms, but they only notified the guards. It never went to the cops. What the hell? That's good. So I'm sending with you, I'm sending to you right now a picture of what that, what that looked like. Okay. Because it's very straightforward. You know, yeah. March 18th at 1.54, alarm, Dutch room. Someone in the Dutch room investigated immediately.

Immediately! I like the, it was going to be immediately. I know! Exclamation, exclamation, exclamation. Yeah. You know, and it says status, alarm, status, normal, alarm, normal, alarm, normal, alarm, normal. It just repeats itself over and over again, which no one would have seen. Yeah, and no one would have seen because the guards were duct taped in the basement.

That's weird. Now, there is something that it's kind of endearing, it's kind of cool. I mean, take it as you will, let me know what you think of it. But if you are to visit the museum nowadays, I'm gonna send you a picture of what you would see in some rooms, specifically the rooms that the art was stolen from. You would end up walking into those rooms and you would end up seeing the frames. Empty frames. See, I take those frames. But not if you don't have them in your car.

If you had a small car, yeah, you could have the space for that. So, the frames just remain as like a placeholder for the missing works of art as a symbol, hoping that they would be removed. But also they can't remove anything, right? So that probably also means they can't remove the frames. They also can't remove the frames. It's kind of cool.

It is actually. Now from their official website, there is a little section that talks about the investigation and I'll read that to you. I'm also gonna send you the link to it so you can check it out for yourself. And it just says, the return of Gardner's works remain a top priority.

The museum, the FBI, and the US attorney's office are still seeking viable leads that could result in the safe return of the art. The museum is offering a $10 million reward for information leading directly to the safe return of the stolen works. A share of the reward would be given in exchange for information leading to the restitution of any portion of the Nepo-

Nepo- Nepo- Napoleon- Nepo- Napoleonic. That's the word. Napoleonic? I think so.

Eagle. Finale- Finale. Oh, I think it's in Italian. That's why. You can type it in the chat too. It's okay, I'll send you the link. Anyone with information about the stolen artwork should contact the director of security,

should contact director of security authority Amor at 617-278-5114 or reward at GartnerMuseum.org. Confidentiality is assured. Is this still up? It's still up. I'm sending you the link right now. This is still, you know, it's a link to the website that talks about that. Wow, they're still looking.

You can see the pictures. You can see another picture with, you know, two empty frames in there. Yeah. Never gave up. I'll put this on the website. If you also scroll down to the bottom you can see the 13 stolen works of art that were taken. So you can see exactly what works of art were taken and then you can click on each of them individually. I would love to go. Yeah, they kind of, I wouldn't say embrace, but they don't try to hide that their museum was broken into and stolen from. But also like the empty frames and stuff are like, it is a newly created piece of art in and of itself.

I was going to say that is like art. It really is. Wow. Also I checked, you can get in for free if your name is Isabella. I'm pretty sick. Do they check your ID or do you just? They probably do. I think so. Yeah, like any form of identification and you're good. That's most likely how it works. My name is Isabella. That's most likely how it works. My name is Isabella. Is it Isabelle?

We do. But once again, tickets are $22. Is it Isabella? I feel like they might bend it. For Milo. Yeah. I think it depends. You know, if you catch them in a good mood.

But yeah, tickets are $22. If you're in the area, I encourage you to check it out. Check out their website. It has a lot of information. It really has like three different links talking about the heist in different ways. They have a little like recording of like what you would hear if you walk into those rooms. I think it's just really cool.

That is cool. We should go. I would totally go there. cool. That is cool. We should go. I would totally go there. That'd be fun. Yeah. Haunted road trip. Yes, ma'am. Go to the sanatorium and then to the museum.

Yeah, I would do the museum after. Add more things on the way there and after, you know? Whoa. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed Isabella Gardner Museum heist. Well, thank you. You're welcome. I am glad I did not pick murder. Yeah, dude. Yeah, that's a good thing to end on.

Yeah. This was a roller coaster. Seriously. Of an episode or a waterslide are you saying it because of the roller coaster Actually they were waterslides, yeah, they were water slides. I just said that right now They still do programs and things like that I really looked into the website I'm like what else do they offer and things like that. I really looked into the website. I'm like, what else do they offer? But yeah, I think, you know, Isabella would be sad that her works of art got stolen, but I think overall she'd still be happy with the preservation of her building.

The fact that they're still respecting her wishes, you know? Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah. I do think she'd appreciate that they're not trying to like replace those things. No, and I do think, like you said, Kai, the frame itself, it's just like a new work of art. You know, might be a tragic work of art, but it's still a work of art. Very like thought-provoking.

No, seriously. I don't know. I recently realized that like so much can just be considered art because like what even is art anyway? Yeah. It's all subjective. It's all subjective. It's evoking emotion. And out of the 13 works of art that were stolen, if I'm correct, 11 of them were works of art like on frames. So there's 11 frames in this museum

That are just just blank blank. You know just they were cut out They you we gotta take a look I know we do yeah That'd be sick All right, well Kai Huh care to give us a cookie clicker update. Oh, yeah. Oh shit 646,000 cookies we went from 13,000 rising. It's almost at 30,000 to 650 30 thirty thousand. Okay, cool

He's a businessman a lot of cookies. Yeah Thanks guys, thanks for being here thanks for the Yeah, we didn't I mean we didn't know. Thank you for coming. Alexis and I didn't know. Yes, it was like, do not say anything. Don't open the link until I talk to you. Why was this a surprise? Like, why?

Like, love it, but why? I don't know. It was literally a last minute thing. I think it was just impulsive. Thank you. Well, it was really cute. Yeah, thanks for being here, guys. Yeah.

It was fun. Sabina knew you. It's really cute. Yeah, thanks for being here, guys. Yeah. Sabina knew like a couple of days in advance. Milo knew today. So this was as much of a surprise for Milo as it was to you. Okay. Well, everyone, thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next week with Old News Nonsense. If you were drinking alcohol with us, hydrate now.

Yes, please. Drink just as much water. If not more. If not more. Stay hydrated, folks. Straighten your back out. Yeah. Fix your posture.

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