Dark History - 112: Real Life Willy Wonka: Freak Candy Disaster that Killed Dozens

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

Welcome to the Dark History podcast. Remember Augustus Gloop, the kid from Willy Wonka who drowned in chocolate? It turns out that happens in real life, too. Yep, candy has been responsible for MANY deaths. Think poisoned candy, a flood of burning molasses, and a chocolate Easter bunny explosion. Turns out candy has a not-so-sweet side, too. Go to https://www.HelloFresh.com/darkhistoryfree and use code darkhistoryfree for FREE breakfast for life!  Go to https://www.Zocdoc.com/DARKHISTORY and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then find and book a top-rated doctor today. Check out https://www.Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to https://www.squarespace.com/DARKHISTORY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. To learn more about microdosing THC go to https://www.Microdose.com and use code Darkhistory to get free shipping and 30% your first order.

Willy Wonka is a serial killer. I mean, right? How many kids have to die at his slaughterhouse of sweets before someone launches an investigation? Think about it, Augustus. So sad, what happened to him, you know? I don't know, no one knows. He just like died, and it really got me thinking,

have there been any real life Augustuses out there? I mean, come on, really, as there? And guess what? Of course there are, because why wouldn't there be? It really didn't even take that long before I came across some wild stories about sweets killing people. A whole lot of people.

Yeah, now this may be a little surprise to your little brain out there, but since the 1800s, Candy has been at the center of a whole lot of destruction. Candy! I mean, I'm talking from arsenic in children's candies to a flood of deadly burning molasses. Yeah, to even like a chocolate Easter bunny explosion. Look, baby, buckle in because this is the dark history of killer candy. Wait a minute for me, Bailey. I'm sorry. Hey, how are you doing? Are you having a good date today?

Mm-hmm. Well, if you don't know, my name is Bailey Sarian, and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Also, if you're watching on YouTube, I'm wearing the new merch. Look, it's cute. It's available now.

Embroidered, love it. Just had to let you know, Bailey Sarian.com. If you're new here, we believe that history doesn't have to be boring. No, no, I mean, yeah, it might be tragic. It might sometimes rarely be happy, but either way, it's our dark history. So all you have to do is sit back relax

and just let me ramble because I got all the info. Okay. So if you don't know anything about me, I'm gonna tell you my deepest darkest secret. I am addicted to candy, sugar, all of it. It's really hard for me to explain how much I love candy. Like, no matter where I'm at, a sweet treat is always within reach.

See, right here. I love candy, I need a little. But there is this other side to candy, a dark, horrific side. You know, maybe you've heard of it. People always say during Halloween, like be careful of razor blades and needles in your canvas. And you're like,

shut up grandma, I'm gonna take that risk, okay? Or maybe you've been told, don't take candy from strangers, but that defeats the whole purpose of Halloween. But in reality, it's the people that we are close to that we're really need to just keep an eye on. In fact, that's the whole reason why the rumor of poison to Halloween candy even exists.

And it's all because of a man named Ronald Clark, O'Brien. And a fun fact, if you want more information on Ronald Clark, I did a murder mystery makeup on him. So I'll link it down below, check it out. But back in 1974, an eight-year-old's boy named Timmy, it's not funny, it's just a funny name. You don't hear that often. Timmy went trick or treating.

And he came home that night with a bunch of candy as one does and he says, like, yeah, you know. So he ends up eating a pixie stick, the little did poor Timmy know that it was laced the cyanide. Bitch, poor, it's frickin', this isn't true, so I had to cause poor Timmy didn't take long. Boom. Dead.

Of course, everyone blamed the Halloween candy, but in reality, he didn't get the laced candy from a random stranger. Get this. Apparently, Timmy's dad, Ronald's, well, he was 100K in debt, and his plan was to fix that problem, right? So what do you do?

Well, a dumbass guy like him, he takes out a life insurance policy on his kids, and he's like, I'm gonna collect the money. Once they die, because I'm gonna collect the money. The ones they died, because I'm gonna give them poison candy. Like, he really thought about this and he tried it. And it threw off investigators. Ronald slipped the poison candy

in the Halloween bags of other kids around town. So people wouldn't think like it was him. Vincfully, none of those kids liked pixie sticks, including his daughter, but sadly, we can't say the same for Portemi. Now this whole ordeal reignited a fear in Americans that candy can be deadly. And this isn't like a one-off example.

There have been several times throughout history where killer sweets have destroyed a lot of lives. So, let me tell you this first story, okay, because it's wild. It takes place in an English town called Bradford, and okay, listen, it's October of 1858. So try and imagine that in your brain. The industrial revolution is going off

and it's really changed everything. Businesses were just popping up everywhere and people were trying to take advantage of the holiday season and make some money, right? So they're just like, yeah, I shine shoes, you know, make a store out of it, just whatever. So on October 30th of 1858, it's like the day before Halloween, people are already celebrating, walking around in costumes, people are having wild parties, and just celebrating, you know? Everyone's probably smoked like shit

because there's no such thing as deodorant. Yeah, it was wild. Anyway, a local candy seller, his name was William Hardacker, was looking to offload some of his holiday candy, right? So he sets up shop at a local market and he's selling like a ton of this one striped peppermint flavored candy.

It's like something you would get at like a doctor's, not ideal, you know, but it was called humbugs. Like, bah humbug, they loved him back then because they didn't have taste yet. And William, he was actually known for his humbug candies and in town, he would like by the name Humbug Billy. So people would flock to him for this special treat. William was selling these humbugs at a huge discount.

Because the candy he was selling it kind of had a weird discoloration to them, so they're like, quote, quote, defective. So he's like, I should just sell them at half price and just kind of get them gone. And they must have tasted fine because he was gonna try and like sell this candy no matter what.

And of course, people love a sale and they bought a ton of them. By the end of the day, William had sold five pounds of the humbug candies. And then the next morning, it was Halloween, right? Woo! The big day is finally here. And the town of Bradford, normally, or the supposed to be going about their business

and celebrating as usual, but this time, the town was in a panic. Mm-hmm, go on, you say what? That very night, two young boys had died suddenly in their home. What? I know. Even though it wasn't uncommon for children

to suddenly die of disease back then, which is super sad, right? But these two were different, and people were still feeling uneasy about it. So the police, they get involved, and they originally thought the kids had died of cholera, which was everywhere at the time. But the boys who were only two and 11,

they at the time were perfectly healthy. So it was just super confusing and none of it made sense. The parents of the boys were scrambling for answers, right? They were remembering the day before with the boys, like, what had we done? What happened, you know? And they're thinking, they're thinking. And they realized like, oh my God, both of the boys ate that weird colored humbug candy, right?

And they're putting it together and they're like, oh my God, they did. So they're thinking. They're like, oh my God, it's gotta be this candy. That's the only thing that makes sense. But they needed to connect the candy to the kid's death, because it was just like a thought, you know? So the father and another young man in the house decided to test the candy for poison. But again, this was 1858, and it's not like they're chemists

or anything, you know? And the only way they could determine if the candy was poisoned or not was to eat it, bold. I know. So the father and his buddy popped the candy in their mouths and they're sucking on it, you know? And not long after both of them were bending over in pain. And they're like, oh my, right.

And then following that, they were struck by this intense diarrhea. Whoo, it was shooting out that ass, you know? Wow, they're just glued to that toilet. Well, word got out that these two men were sick from this candy. So people are they're starting to put it together and they're realizing, oh my god, like, my kid ate this candy. And then another person's like, my kid is candy. And actually, you know, tons of people are realizing that their kids and some adults had eaten the candy and many were getting sick. Oh shit.

So it turns out that this candy was actually poison. Are you hosting your family this holiday season? Well, first of all, good luck, right? We all know how that goes. Thankfully, hello fresh Market has literally exactly what you need to please everyone in the crowd with as little hassle as possible. I mean, even like the super picky ears

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Yeah, they're just like cake it. One breakfast item per box while your subscription is active. That's free breakfast for life at hellofresh.com slash dark history free with code dark history free. And that's hello fresh America's number one meal kit. What the hell, how bug bill was such a betrayal? The candy man is trying to kill us all? Well, with so many cases of candy poisoning popping up all over town. Again, the authorities, they got to get involved

on like a bigger scale. So they start tracking down the nausea, the pain and diarrhea symptoms of the survivors. Officers spend the whole next day and night rushing around town knocking on people's stores, warning them not to eat this candy. And it didn't take long for the police to kind of put two and two together and think poison. Apparently, along with diseases like cholera, poisoning was pretty common at the time. Remember Aqua Tafana? Yeah, it was common, okay? accidental and intentional poisonings usually happened so often because buying poison at the time was

Very easy. It was like as common as buying a carton of milk from the store So you're like, can't want to my husband today, just go get that poison. That easy. Now, one of the most common poison sold at the time was arsenic. Arsenic could be purchased from your local corner store without even a question followed.

Like, no one was keeping track of who bought it or looked at them sideways if they did buy it. I mean, think about it. If you do that today, you'd end up on someone on a list somewhere, you know? But not back then. I guess people all over Victorian England would use arsenic as rap poison. Oopsie. Arsenic is like a white powdery substance, and it really was the perfect poison if you were trying to kill something or someone.

Because arsenic, I guess it has like a slightly sweet, non-toxic taste sprinkled on top of like cereal, something, you know? It got me thinking it was like, oh, it's kind of like antsy freeze. I do a lot of murder mysteries, you guys. So it, I'm like, yeah, antsy freeze. I hear that's sweet, too. So if someone wanted to sprinkle a little bit in your food, you honestly probably would not notice. Many people during that time period would know for eating very heavy, rich sugary foods. So, shitting yourself was pretty common

and it was a regular thing. So the symptoms you would have right after eating the poison, to some were pretty standard for Victorian England the vomiting and diarrhea I just love that right vomiting and diarrhea being kind of norm Just funny, but what I'm getting at is that no one's mind would automatically think arsenic poisoning You know now on top of all that if you poison someone with arsenic It would be pretty difficult to trace it back to the person who sold it and when it was used.

Everything kind of depended on the memory of the arsenic sales person. Now all of this is just talking about the intentional arsenic poisoning. But at the time, there were about a million normal uses of arsenic that could lead to accidental death. I mean, it was everywhere. It was used in glass making, to close die, to wallpaper, you know, even doctors found it really useful. They would put small amounts of it in medicinal concoctions because it was said to help stimulate the blood. If we can giggle now, they were so silly, weren't they? So during the investigation, the authorities are trying to put like all these pieces together

and track down who the hell sold these humbugs. And eventually the trail leads to this man named William and his little candy stall. I mean, his nickname was Humbug Billy. But when authorities went to Williams' home to have a little talk with them, they found him absolutely sick to his stomach in bed. I guess he himself had a few of the weird colored candies

and was paying a hefty price. So the authorities, they knew it was the candies that made people sick, but they didn't believe William was like, you know, an evil child killer. So they decided to find out how the hell these candies were made. And sure as shit, they found our answer because the main culprit was sugar.

Oh no, I know. Sugar was outside your window right now waiting for you. If you listen to our episode about sugar, you might remember how expensive it was back in the day. And the breads, they just loved it. And they were even addicted to it. But the sugar making process was complicated and even expensive.

So many candy-many factors would mix real sugar with cheaper stuff in order to like have more of it. They essentially cut the sugar with other powdered material like limestone. I know, plaster of Paris, which I was like, what's that? It sounds so fancy. Or a soft mineral substance named gypsum.

Even though to us were like, you put tile in my sugar? Back then, it wasn't a huge deal. They were like, oh my God, I love limestone. They would even call these half-mystery powder mixtures, DAF. So in police were doing their investigation. They realized that the candies were produced using using death, the weird like sugar mixture. Humbug Willie had purchased the candies

from a wholesale candy seller, and his name was Joseph Neil. A couple of weeks before the sale, Joseph had sent his employee to purchase death from his local pharmacist. I know, I guess that's where they would get it. Now, unfortunately, the pharmacist, he was sick that day. So we had to have one of his newer, less experienced employees take over for the day

and handle this order. When Neil's employee came in asking for death, the apprentice, I guess he got like all sorts of confused as to what was in what bin. He's like, I know, Daph is like white powdery and yeah, I know that. So he knew he had to get him a white powdery substance. I mean, that's how that's Daph, right? So he measured out 12 pounds of white powder from an unlabeled bin nearby and handed it over to the employee for the humbugs, but the pharmacist. He didn't realize that he had just given this person

12 pounds of pure arsenic. Whoopsie, it kind of reminded me like when you are going for a job interview and you lie and you say you know how to use Excel, but really you don't. And then he showed up for the job and you're like yeah I totally know what I'm doing and you just start like guessing it's like that but not like that because it's obviously killed people I'm sure he couldn't use this job as a reference is what I'm saying so this guy he gets that death right well he thinks

this stuff but it's really arsenic. And that was then added to the candy mixture by William. And when they came out that weird color, William, he honestly didn't think much about it, you know, it's just kind of like it happens from time to time. And that's why he felt confident in selling them at a discount and even treating himself to a few. So by this point, authorities, they were trying to get the word out all over Bradford. They went door to door and posted written warnings in like public locations saying like, these can't use our boys and don't use that. I mean, they tried their best. But in the end, I told a little 20 people died from eating the poisoned humbugs. 20, sadly, 13 of them were children,

and seven were adults. The youngest victim was only 17 months old. Around 200 other people got seriously ill. And when a professional inspected the candy, they found out that each humbug contained more than enough arsenic to kill a grown man. Oh, shit. You know, so the 200 people who got seriously sick

from the candy but survived were considered very lucky. The authorities quickly pointed the finger at the new pharmacy employee who fucked up, you know? I mean, the guy had only been working for like three weeks, so whoopsie, but his careless mistake was what led to the deaths of 20 people. So the authorities they end up arresting this guy, the pharmacist, as well as Peter Neal, the candy maker for the crimes. Now listen, this trial was highly publicized and the whole debacle became known as the Bradford Sweets Poisoning of 1858. The prosecution was not able to show that a law was broken by any of these men. Yes, it was an unfortunate and preventable accident.

But it was not done with any intentions to harm any of the poor people who died. I mean, we're all thinking that I hope this all could have been prevented with a label. Maybe taking a marker and wrote on the bin like, hey, poison, you know? But nobody comes to me for these answers. So this meant that like nobody was ever held accountable for the poisoned humbugs. Which kind of had me confused,

cause I think I don't know. I wanna hear what you guys think, like if they should have been, should they be accountable for an accident, but an accident that killed 20 people? I don't, I don't know, like, some, right? I don't know. But there was a silver lining. I mean, 10 years after the poisoning, a law called the Pharmacy Act of 1868 was passed.

And this required that poisons be stored and sold in specific bottles made of colored glass. So that shop workers and customers would be sure They knew what they were getting, you know now some poisons also required specific labels Oh finally, what an idea and now when people purchased poison the shop workers also had to take no in case of any type of poison. I mean, people were still able to purchase their arsenic and use it, but at least this new law would help to avoid little accidents from happening again. So even though like no one served jail time for the 20 deaths that occurred in Bradford, this tragedy did help to make it more difficult to accidentally poison a bunch of children on Halloween for decades to come.

So it's a little bit of a win. I would say a big win because they started labeling shit like what an idea. But candy isn't just dangerous when it's potentially poisoned. It turns out it can be a lethal force of nature. Let me tell you this next story out when I heard about it. I was like, excuse me. Huh? Huh? What? This is not on my bingo card. Mm-hmm. And also, it created a new fear in me.

It left me with an irrational fear of molasses. Microdosing is just a word I keep hearing over and over again. I was like, when is that? Tell me more, Bailey. So I looked it up. Microdosing is the practice of taking very small amounts of a drug in order to benefit from its physical action while minimizing undesirable side effects.

Interesting, am I right? So, microdose makes these little gummies and they've got just a little bit of THC in them. And it's just enough to help with anxiety or sleep or, you know, all of that nonsense. All sorts of people have turned to microdose who you feel healthier and perform better at work and in life in general. And it also just makes you feel good. I'm really silenced to stress an anxiety, you know. When I'm pumping out episodes of dark history and murder mystery for you,

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It's like all your stress and anxiety, it's just kind of softened away. It's quite nice. And on top of that, at least when I take them, I don't feel lazy or like, you know, brain fog at all. To learn more about microdose and THC, go to microdose.com and use code dark history to get free shipping and 30% off your first order. Microdose.com and use code dark history for 30% off. Again, that's

microdose.com code dark history on January 15th, 1919. Boston was having a weirdly warm day. I mean, look, it was the dead of winter and it was 40 degrees. And you're like, oh my god, that's so cold. Because I was thinking that she was like, where are you degrees? That's freezing. I can't handle that. Just for comparison, the day before it had only been two degrees. So on this day, it was 40 degrees. How did that happen? You know, it was a really big shift. 1919 was a really weird year. If you've been paying attention

on dark history, it seems like all the weird shit happened in 1919. Point blank period, I just wanna say that. Let it be known. Thank you. Put it on record. Okay, back to the story. While the people of Boston were enjoying the nice weather because it's 40 degrees,

they had no idea that the sunny day was about to cost them their lives. And the North end of Boston, there was like this big factory called the Peerity Distilling Company. And I guess one of the things they were distilling there was molasses. Me personally, for the longest time,

I thought molasses was like grass, it's not grass. Molasses is this thick, black, almost glue-like substance and it stinks, but it can be made from sugar cane or sugar beads and it's usually used to sweeten and flavor foods. So, over at Purity Distilling, they had a massive tank of molasses. And when I say massive, I'm not kidding.

I mean, this bitch could hold over 2.5 million gallons of molasses. Now allegedly, this tank had been leaking for some time. Now, this was not ideal. And I guess purity distillery employees had pointed this out to the higher ups on multiple occasions because it was considered a hazard. So instead of like, I don't know, fixing the leak, the owners came up with a brilliant idea. They decided to just paint the tank,

the same color as the molasses leaking out of it. To camouflage it, no one can tell us leaking now because it's all the same color. We did it, you guys. Yeah, this is like when a landlord just paint so overall the mold you've been complaining about for weeks. And they're like what mold? We got rid of it. Anyway, the tank was painted, but the leak was never fixed. I mean, so much so to the point like where it became known that

local kids would come collect the free molasses from the edges of the tank, you know, fill her up. Oh, yeah. But on that day in January, you did not want to be licking that tank or be anywhere near it. A batch of hot molasses had recently been added to this big bin thing. And I guess the heat from this new batch plus the rapid change in the weather created a ton of pressure within the tank, okay? Pressure. And it's not good. Now because the little structure was already leaky, it just could not handle what was going on. Inside the tank, the pressure is building and building and building enough to cause an explosion.

At 12.30 pm, that's exactly what happened. The sound of the explosion was said to be deafening. So the metal from the tank and the rivets just exploded into thousands of pieces of steel. I just flew into the air like bullets had like an insane speed tearing straight through nearby buildings. One huge piece of the tank flying into the real road causing the tracks to collapse. One family, the Lentoska's, where Italian immigrants living on commercial street just down the road from purity to stilling. Just before the disaster, just step he was looking out of the second floor window while his son, Pasquale, who was 10 years old, he was outside collecting firewood

and he was doing so right next to the molasses tank. Well, I know. Now, it was hard to miss him because little boy, he was wearing like the super bright red sweater. And, you know, so it was easy to spot him. He stood out. And again, it was just like a normal day.

So, just I've been watching whatever, and then just out of nowhere, just that it kinda looks back at the window, and that's when he sees a huge tsunami wave of molasses coming at him. What? Yeah. I was thinking molasses wouldn't explode because it's so thick. Dense and glue-like, it's hard to imagine it exploding, but you have to believe me when I say the molasses literally turned into like a huge tsunami wave and was, oh no, it was

not good, okay? The molasses that exploded out of this tank created a tidal wave that was believed to have been 25 feet high and 165 feet wide. What? Huh? Yeah, that's big. That's real big. Since the molasses was warm and the pressure inside the tank was intense, it moved fast. The wave tore through the town, moving at 35 miles per hour. Like, frickin lava. Giuseppe saw the wave in golf his son, but it only took a couple of seconds before their wave reached the building that he was it. So a puk-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o And I'm like, good. Giuseppe and his son, like they weren't alone, the wave engulfed the north end of Boston. The local firehouse, which was like right next to the distilling plant, was ripped right off of its foundation.

And the whole building almost ended up in the nearby harbor. Other houses and buildings were destroyed, along with cars, wagons, and even freight cars. It tore down electrical wires and spilled into sellers, smothering any people that were inside. I'm telling you, this is a new nightmare that I did not need. I mean, molasses is so much heavier than water, so when it hit the town, it hit with an intense amount of force.

And unlike an ocean wave, it didn't move in one direction. Instead, when the tank exploded, it went in like every direction all at once. Oh no. Immediately buildings were destroyed. Nothing had a chance. And you might be thinking, well, I would float on the surface.

Ne, ne. Instead of floating to the surface or like being able to swim to safety, people were pulled under into the thick, hot, syrup. Once the initial impact had ended, there was molasses waste deep on the street, horses, and people both became trapped in this sticky substance,

sinking further into it the more they struggled. It was kind of acting like it was acting like quicksand. Yeah, so rescue workers are out there just quickly pulling everyone they could from the molasses. Local firefighters and police were helped by sailors from the USS Nantucket, which was like actually angered at the nearby pier when the flood had happened. So they set up ladders across the molasses. So rescuers could like climb above the spill and pull people out. Super smart, right?

When Giuseppe came to his wife and his daughter were with him. You know, I was like, oh my god, thank god. But his son, Pasquale, he was still missing. Giuseppe then sped the rest of his afternoon attempting to get past police barricades so he could just look and search for his son. He eventually returned home after being turned away from every entrance.

Across town, a firefighter named George Leahy had become trapped in the firehouse. He was stuck in an 18-inch crawl space where he struggled to keep his head above the molasses. Now, after he was trapped there for like four hours, and I was like, oh my god, was he saved? Tell me he was saved. He wasn't. He was trapped there for four hours and then later died. Hours later, just before dark, the rescue workers had found Pascuale. He had been thrown

by the wave and crushed by a railroad car. He was killed instantly. Giuseppe was able to positively identify the remains of his son because of the red sweater the boy was wearing and still wearing. The rescue efforts lasted for four days. In the end, 21 people were killed in the Boston molasses flood. The Squally's family was awarded $6,000 and George's family was given $7,000 for the pain and suffering he experienced before his death. I know. It's not funny, but I was like, he died, but he got 7,000. Well, his family did. It was like, you know,

and like 6,000 for Prasquale's family. Like, thanks. Obviously, it's not enough. You know what I'm saying? Well, the town, they needed the answers. They were like, what the fuck, right? Everyone wanted to know how in the hell did this happen?

But just like with the humbug poisoning, the culprit wasn't one specific person. Instead, it was a long list of incompetence. Hi, do you wanna know something funny or maybe even weird? It really depends how you look at it. When I was a kid, I had this ITF or a website where I would map all the locations

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Thanks Squarespace for partnering with me on today's episode. Now let's get back to today's story. They had realized the man who supervised the construction of the tank had completely lacked the necessary training for the job. No other engineers or experts had been hired to oversee the building of the tank. And the man they had, he didn't even know how to read blueprints. He's like, ah, that looks good. The owners of the Peerity Distilling Company quickly looked to shift the blame away from themselves

as companies too. They started by trying to minimize the suffering of all the people who had died as the result of a spill. They had these doctors, you know, come forward and testify during a trial and say that the people who were suffocated by molasses were killed so quickly they did not have a chance to suffer, which turns out it's not true. I don't think any of us need to be a doctor to know that suffocating in molasses. It's not really an ideal way to go. But the company didn't stop there, and they also tried to avoid blame for the death of Pascuala. Both he and another child, Maria de Stasio, had been collecting firewood near the tank when it exploded.

Sadly, both of them had died. And the company claimed that since they were collecting firewood, they were technically trespassing. Yeah. They were trespassing on the company's property. So, um, boo. And if the two children were trespassers, company was not under any obligation to keep them safe. So their families should not

receive any compensation for the death of their children. Hmm, yeah, they really thought they were on as something. They also claimed that the explosion had nothing to do with the piss-poor construction of the tank, and instead they blamed terrorists. Yeah, they basically said the tank was sabotaged, even mentioning a bomb threat against the tank. The trial proved that was as ridiculous as you think it is. I mean, yes. I guess there had been like other bombings in Boston that year, because again, 1919 was a fucking crazy year. But our terrorists really circling the molasses tanks as a high profile target.

It didn't make sense. The court case, it went on for over five years, but thank God eventually proving the company was at fault. Thank you, hold them accountable, structural failure, cause the explosion, and the company was forced to pay restitution, which would equal about $15 million today. This case established that companies can be held accountable for disasters like this.

I'm rolling my eyes if you can't see me because it's like, it is a true. If you're trying to do that today, they always fucking get out of it, don't they? Right, I guess. New laws and regulations were introduced, meaning that a certified architect or engineer would be required to sign off on building plans. Whoa, what an idea. This began in Boston and eventually became a requirement across the

United States. So, yes, sweets can kill people in wild and unexpected ways, or at least they used to. The humbug poisoning took place in the 1850s, and the molasses spill was in 1919, both led to laws changing to help protect people, right? And you're like, well, yeah, I mean sadly, but like finally, yeah, overdone this should never happen again. And if it does, you kind of think it would be an old story. Pause your brain. Because no, this is not just something that happened in the 1900s or 1880, whatever the hell the dates were. Because today, disasters involving sweets

are still somehow just showing lives. And no, I'm not just talking about when they stopped making butter finger bebees, okay? Because what the fuck was that about? Whatever. But believe it or not, a company known for its iconic chocolate Easter bunnies has even taken part in the whole killer sweets saga. Wait, tell me, Bailey, a big chocolate bunny killed people? Callin' me Bailey, a big chocolate bunny killed people. Yeah, actually. Our final story comes to us from the great state of Pennsylvania.

I always imagine there's a lot of murderers out there. I don't know. Now I wanna tell this one for a couple of reasons because one, this actually took place. It happened in 2023. Huh? What? I don't remember hearing anything about it.

Did you maybe, I don't know. I think it flew under the radar because it happened right around the same time as that horrible train disaster in Ohio. And also because it involves a big time American candy company. So at the center of this story is the RM Palmer company. There are logo is like this cute little smiley bunny.

And it's cute. And their company motto is making candy fun, which okay, you know, all right, sure, I'll buy it. But our RM Palmer was founded in 1948 with just four employees and just four products. Three of them were versions or different versions of chocolate bunnies. And right out the gate, this company hitched their wagon to the Easter holiday.

Our impalmer began selling hollow chocolate Easter bunnies, and these things were like flying off the the shelves. I mean, it was an instant hit for Easter, right? It's that bunny you get when you're like, oh my god, a chocolate bunny. I can't wait to eat this. And then you bite into it and you're like, it's hollow, really grandma, you're that cheap. This is the company that makes those bunnies. And they also make those like mini chocolate Easter eggs, wrapped in that thin tin foil.

That takes like 19 years to unwrap because it sticks to the chocolate or sometimes you just eat the tin foil because you're like fluck it Well, whatever they make that too. So when these came out a popular chain of discount stores put in order right away That would be worth around like $255,000 today, which is huge Which is for come with four employees like hello major and after that the company just really never looks back Today they have around 850 employees

and they sell about 500 different products, making them one of America's largest candy companies. So you know they can afford rules and regulations. Okay, so listen, one of this happened really went. Let me tell you, March 24th, 2023, we're in West Reading, Pennsylvania, which is about 60 miles north of Philadelphia. And this town is the home to the headquarters of the R.M. Palmer company. Now, the company has two buildings involved in this story. There is the main corporate

office building for the candy company. And right next door is like where the magic would happen, you know, That's where they would use like giant vats of chocolate to produce their sweet treats, including all the hollow chocolate they gave us. Anyway, so okay, the time is 4.30 p.m. and there are about 35 office staff and 70 factory workers just grinding away at work between the two buildings. And then a funky stench starts hitin' the nostrils of some of the employees at R&Palmer. They're like,

you know, it's familiar. What is that? It's not a good sign, okay? The stench and the smell is making its way through both buildings one and two. And it's an undeniable scent of rotten eggs. To the workers at RM Palmer, this was alarming. Natural gas doesn't really have a smell to it,

which is why gas companies tend to add a sulfur scent to it. And that is for the purpose of people being able to know that there's like a gas leak happening. So it's supposed to smell like that. So you recognize it and know that there's a problem. Sulfur is that egg smell. I like it. I used to do a sulfur mask every night

because I have like, you know, acne-prone skin and it's really good for acne. So I kind of learned to really like that smell. No one needs to know that, but I'm just thought of it right now. So there's smelling eggs, rotten eggs. The RM Palmer employees knew that if they smelled this, they needed to report it because there's a leak. So they do, they do just that. One of the employees named Patricia Borges said that it was so strong that it

was nauseating. She and some co-workers went up to their supervisor, told them about the suspected leak, and said it's probably best if everyone evacuates the building because they are smart human beings using their fucking brain. But allegedly, apparently, the supervisor said that he couldn't make that call, you know, his boss or someone higher up on the food chain would have to make the decision to evacuate not him.

So in the meantime, he's like, everyone just needs to go back to work until I get some answers. So 27 minutes go by and people are breathing and then just bullshit. So the clock hits 4.57 p.m. And then in a matter of nanoseconds, tragedy strikes. Building two explodes into a million pieces like a bomb had gone off.

The building was made of bricks. So heavy bricks were literally like they flew up in the air and then were raining down in like a nearby community Is a lot. The eruption was so large that it damaged the structure of building one and it sent clouds of smoke Hundreds of feet into the air and even shook houses nearby. And caught in the middle of all this chaos was Patricia, the one who tried to, I don't know, warn people. Just before the explosion, she was on a ladder cleaning a machine. Seconds after the explosion, Patricia was thrown on the ground

and she heard screaming and chaos just everywhere. One of those screams came from a man named Mark Baxter, and he was in the factory's loading dock, dropping off a delivery of melted chocolate just before the explosion. He suffered hearing loss, and second and third degree burns on about 20% of his body. Speaking of burns, that's exactly when Patricia

saw that her own arms on fire. When she saw herself burning alive, she asked God why he was giving her such a horrible death. But she didn't want to die in the fire. So she got up and trying to run out of the building, dude, is wild. Because just then as she's trying to make her way out of that building, the floor underneath Patricia

cades in collapse. Patricia said that she felt herself falling the floor underneath Patricia Cazin collapsed. Patricia said that she felt herself falling and falling and just like, it just felt never ending. And after she fell through the floor, she landed in a vat of liquid chocolate. And honestly, I mean, thank God she did because like the liquid detrocklet, it had put out the fire on her body.

And not only that, but the chocolate also like broke her fall. Unfortunately, a whole new set of more dire problems cropped up. She just broke her collarbone and both of her feet. So she was barely able to stand in that liquid chocolate that was up to her chest. So she stuck in this chocolate, she just fell through some floors.

Now she's stuck in the basement of this building. And she was down there for hours, screaming. Screaming out for help as firefighters were outside like fighting the blades. And there were helicopters like circling above the scene. She's just hoping somebody's gonna notice her and then somehow things got worse. Finding a doctor, specialist, whatever is really hard isn't it? Uh yeah, for step one, you gotta find them, right? How? I don't know. Step two,

do they take your insurance? Uh, I don't know, what is my insurance? Whenever they ask you for like a member number and I'm like, I don't know. I just need to see a doctor. Well, let me tell you, life doesn't have to be like this. Okay, it doesn't. Finding a doctor or specialist should be easy. And you know who figured it out, zock-dock.

I freaking love zock-dock. If you don't know, Doc Doc is a free app where you can find amazing doctors and even book appointments with them all in one place. I'm talking about booking appointments with thousands of top rated patient review doctors and specialists. You can filter specifically for ones who take your insurance

or are even located close by. And also doctors that treat any type of condition that you're looking for. The average weight time to see a doctor booked on ZockDock is between just 24 to 48 hours. Yeah, I know you don't have to weigh like six months. Oh my God. I personally, and I've mentioned this before

in my previous ads for ZockDock, that I've used ZockDock for literally everything. I, I, Dr. my primary, Dr. my LWG, ULN, all in ZockDock. And I love it. Because you easily find them in the app, and then you book the appointment in the app, and you don't have to talk to nobody. You just show up. Go to ZockDock.com, slash dark history, and then download the ZockDock app for free. Okay. Then you can easily find and book a top rated doctor two day. That's zonkDoc, z-o-c-d-o-c. dot com slash dark history. ZonkDoc dot com slash dark history.

So patrises inside that chocolate mat. And as time is going on, it starts filling with water from the fire fighter's hoses. Yeah. So she's like, oh shit, like it's filling and filling and filling. And as the water reached her neckline, she realized she had better move, or else she was going to drown. So she's able to get out of the vet and into a pool of water that was on the basement floor. She was able to hold on to some plastic tubing in order to keep herself above the water. And for the next nine hours, Patricia waited and waited. She yelled, help, help, please help like over and over and over again, but nobody was hearing her.

Nobody was able to hear her. Now, after some time goes by, there's freezing cold of water was now pouring into the basement, and Patricia's pain was only getting worse. But there must have been a guardian angel looking out for Patricia, because in the middle of the night, she's a light, and she starts screaming for help again.

On the surface, some rescue dogs alerted the first responders that someone might be alive in the rubble. The rescuers had followed the sound of Patricia's screams, and after some digging, they were able to pull her out to safety. An emergency responder stated that when she emerged from the chaos, Patricia was banged up and experiencing hypothermia and was completely confused.

Patricia's survival gave first responders some hope that there may be other survivors, so they would spend the next two days searching the rubble for any signs of life. Well, when all was said and done, the RM Palmer Candy Factory explosion killed seven people, including Patricia's best friend Judy. So in the weeks after this tragedy, a federal agency called the National Transportation Safety Board, aka the NTSB, well they got involved and launched an investigation. If you're like me, you're probably wondering what does this have to do with transportation. Because I was like, not the answer is nothing. But the NTSB also investigates accidents involving pipelines. Yeah, the more you know,

in May of 2023, the NTSB issued their preliminary report and girl listen to what they revealed. Okay. They found that natural gas was leaking from two service lines in the building. More specifically, the leak was coming from something called a service T, which connects like multiple pipes together in a T shape formation. And guess who made this service T? shape formation. And guess who made this service T? Do pot circling all the way back to our very first art history episode do pot. Of course they did. Are you freaking kidding me? Why are they always nearby when the worst shit happens? Huh? They're going to kill me one day of watch.

Well, the investigation revealed that in 2021, a utility company did some necessary maintenance on the gas lines and the gas meter. But that Dupont service T, which was like installed all the way back in 1982, was still connected and pressurized at full capacity. In other words, it shouldn't have been. The NTSB released images of this DuPont service T in its report, and there is a giant fracture that is very clear on the pipe, and it shouldn't have been there, right?

It's fractured. Now to be fair, so DuPont doesn't kill me, the source of the explosion hasn't been identified yet. We'll see. In the final report from the NTSB, we'll probably take a couple more years to finish, depending on how much DuPont wants to pay to make it, you know, cover it up, but we'll see. So we don't know who really is that fault here. Maybe it was a chocolate bunny. I don't know. But here's what we know for sure. Seven workers died because R&P Palmer didn't evacuate the building after employees reported they're being a freaking gas leak.

Because of that, Judy's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming that R&P Palmer was negligent as we've learned here. Almost too many times at this point that it seems to never be good when Duke Pont is involved. Even though that liquid chocolate may be saved Patricia's life, she faces a very long road ahead to recovery. Her family even started to go fund me to assist with Patricia's mountain of medical bills and rehabilitation. Now here's the crappy part of all three of these stories. Now all these companies make products that we love, right? And they create jobs for people in the community, but it doesn't seem like they are going about it the right way, huh? Wait, yeah, I'm sure you're on board with that one. It takes me right back to the infrastructure episode and do part episode, actually every episode. It just seems like we just build stuff

and then we don't really give a crap until it's too late. You know, like, we need to update the pipes. And a lot of people like to complain that the government regulates too many businesses. Well, if companies stopped cutting corners, there wouldn't need to be a regulation. And are they really regulating because bad things still keep happening, huh?

You know, and here we are, once again, literally this year, like, what the fuck? It's just sad that there has to be such a sour truth behind these sweet disasters. I think the moral of the story is, you know, accidents happen, but sometimes they're preventable accidents, aren't they? And maybe if these companies roots,

would stop being such shit heads and just fix their shit and handle things correctly. Oh, oh my God, it probably could save so many lives, huh? I don't know what the takeaway is other than company's fucking suck. Oh, next week. Sorry, I don't know how that ended on a positive if there even is one. But listen, next week we're gonna dig into another huge part of American life, something that millions of us participate in, and even fantasize about every single day.

So I mean consider it an American tradition, and that's because without it, honestly, America would not exist. Look, it's exciting, it's sad, it's weird, your uncle is obsessed with it. Next week, we'll be talking about the dark history of the lottery. I know. I know. I was like, let's find out about the fucking lottery. Let's do it. So we're doing it. So hope to see you next week. Okay? You can also join me over on my YouTube,

where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And then see you next week, okay? You can also join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And then while you're there, you can also catch my murder, mystery, and makeup. I did that candy story, remember? So go check that out. I'll link it down below. I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story.

So over on social media, make sure to use the hashtag dark history so I can like find you and see what you're saying. Alright? Now, let's read a couple of comments that you guys left me. Nancy Votis says, quote, love Monday and Thursday uploads. Even my very country husband looks forward to your videos. End quote, hot. Oh my god, Nancy, please tell you your very country husband. I said hello, but also,

hi to you, girl. Also, I would love to know, or maybe get a definition on, like, what does very country mean? Like, what's that? He listens to country music. Does he have a farm, pigs, animals? What's going on?

I have questions. Let me know. Zav nails left a comment on our Raspute episode saying, quote, we love your dad. I mentioned my dad. Thank you, Zav. I love my dad too. He's pretty cool.

Hey, dad, he doesn't watch my videos. He doesn't even, he does not understand what I do on the internet. He's like, I was not an internet thing going. Haha. Uh, maybe I said that. I don't know whatever. Hey, Dad. Never gonna say this, but everyone loves ya.

Here's a comment I got from Ka-Milli. Ka said, Bailey, please do a dark history on capitalism. Um, hello Ka. Why didn't I think about that? Hell yeah. Da. That makes so much sense. Why haven't I done an episode on? Oh my God.

You're brilliant, Ka. You're brilliant. I am excited to see what we uncover. Ha. Dark History is an audio boom of original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Junia McNally from Free Arts, Kevin Grush, and Matt N. Lowe from Made in Network.

Writers, Joey Skaluso, Katie Burris, Allison Pillobos, and me, Bailey Sarian, production lead, Brian Jaggers, research provided by Zander Elmore, Rodney Smith, and Colleen Smith. I want to say a big thank you to our expert, Paul Crystal, a confectionery historian, and author of this book called The History of Switz.

Highly recommend you can get his book at bookstores everywhere and even online. And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. I hope you have a good rest of your week. You make good choices. Please be safe out there. And I will see you guys later. Goodbye! you