Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Harold Holt: The Prime Minister Who Disappeared

Episode Date: July 27, 2020

What would happen if a world leader were to totally disappear? As in, the leader of a major country was to just vanish into thin air, without a trace? Such a thing actually happened 50 years ago when a nation’s prime minister disappeared and his body was never found. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would happen if a world leader were to totally disappear? As in, the leader of a major country was to just vanish into thin air without a trace. Such a thing actually happened 50 years ago when a nation's prime minister disappeared and his body was never found. Learn more about how a world leader could just disappear in the fallout from the disappearance on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR.

This episode of Everything Everywhere Daily is sponsored by listeners like you. Creating a daily show like this isn't easy. Researching, writing, and recording a daily show takes quite a bit of time. and you have to do it every single day. Over on patreon.com, there is a small but growing community of listeners who support the show with their donations. In addition to showing your support for the show, you can also get some extra benefits as well. Depending on your level of sponsorship, you can be listed as an associate or executive producer of the show. There's monthly original wallpapers for your desktop and smartphone, as well as merchandise like stickers, t-shirts, and hoodies.

Depending on your sponsorship level, you can also submit ideas directly to me, because this is a daily show. show and I need a lot of show ideas. Next month, patrons will also be able to get monthly e-books of the episode transcripts as part of their support. As new projects, products, and events roll out over the next several months, patrons will have first dibs on everything. If you'd like to be a sponsor, go to patreon.com slash everything everywhere or click on the link in the show notes. Harold Holt was the 17th Prime Minister of Australia. He served for almost two years from early 1966 to late 1967. As Australian prime ministers go, he isn't really ranked very high. Most historical rankings I've seen have him ranked near the bottom, but not quite at the bottom. He was the leader

of the Liberal Party, and he was elected in a landslide in January 1966. Under his administration, he ushered in several significant changes to Australia. He took the country off the Australian pound and onto the decimalized Australian dollar. The other big thing he was known for was escalating Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War on the side of the Americans. During a visit to the United States, he said he was all the way with LBJ, which didn't play very well with the audience back home. This is not about the highlights of the Harold Holt government, however. This is about what happened on December 17, 1967. Holt was a regular and strong swimmer who frequently went swimming in the ocean and would go spearfishing. He had an ability to hold his breath for long periods of

time, which you would often practice doing during boring speeches in Parliament. When he became Prime Minister, his closest aides expressed concern about his hobby. His press secretary, Tony Eggleton, was very worried about the dangers of him swimming in the ocean, to which Holt replied, look, Tony, what are the odds of a prime minister being drowned or taken by a shark? On December 16th, he flew from Canberra to Melbourne to do some constituent business, and to take some time off. He met with friends, attended a dinner, and a cocktail party, and by all accounts had a very normal day. On December 17th, he had an early breakfast and then met some friends at 1115

and sat out to drive to his beach house in Portsea on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne. Along the way at 1215 p.m., he suggested to the group that they stop and take a swim at Chavois beach, a place he had been swimming many times. Only one other person other than Holt entered the water because conditions were too rough. Holt swam out to deeper water and was never seen again. At 1.30, Victoria Police had begun searching for Holt, and it began one of the largest search and rescue operations in Australia's history. There were at least 50 divers searching in the area where he had been last seen, but their efforts were thwarted by the conditions. Search operations were finally suspended on January 5th, and his body was never found. The Prime Minister of Australia

simply vanished beneath the waves and was never seen again. Of course, when anyone noteworthy dies unexpectedly, conspiracy theories will always follow, and the disappearance of her old Holt was no exception. Perhaps the grandest conspiracy theory was that Holt was a sleeper agent for the Chinese communists. On the day in question, he was actually picked up by a Chinese submarine and was taken to China where he lived the rest of his life in Beijing. This is a pretty low probability conspiracy, considering that he was trying to stop the spread of communism in Asia through the Vietnam War and personally didn't like Chinese food. Also, a study showed that there was no way a submarine could have actually parked anywhere close to that beach given how shallow it was.

Another conspiracy said that he actually committed suicide because he was about to be blackmailed or because he was tired of the job. However, his children vehemently deny it as he simply could have resigned from his position and had planned a full day of activities and swimming with friends at a beach that you regularly visit is an odd way to kill yourself. Another theory says that the woman he was with that day, Marjorie Gillespie, was actually his lover and they were having an affair. The plan was to fake his death so the two could run off to live in France. Yet another theory blames the CIA because you can't have a conspiracy theory without the CIA. This one says that the CIA killed him because he was going to pull Australian troops out of Vietnam

and or because he was going to kick the United States out of military bases in the country. A final conspiracy says he was murdered by the North Vietnamese who had agents who poisoned him with nerve gas, which caused him to drown. What all of these theories have in common is a lack of evidence. Since the disappearance of Harold Holt, it's become a topic for black humor in Australia. The writer Bill Bryson called it the swim that didn't require a towel. One Australian rugby league commentator said of the perpetually losing Cronulla Sutherland Sharks that waiting for Cronulla to win a grand final is like leaving a porch light on for Harold Holt. After that statement, opposing fans would bring pitchers of Holt to games to taunt the team.

The case file on the disappearance of Harold Holt was eventually closed in 2005, with the local coroner reporting the following. Mr. Holt took an unnecessary wrist and drowned in rough water off of Chiavoix. There is nothing of significance in any of the material gathered that would indicate anything other than a drowning occurred. Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James Mackala. Special thanks to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Please remember to leave a review over on Apple Podcasts. Even a simple review can really help the show get discovered in the sea of other podcasts that are out there.