Futility Closet - 246-Gene Tierney's Secret Heartbreak

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Futility Closet podcast, forgotten stories from the pages of history. Visit us online to sample more than 10,000 quirky curiosities from wry indexes to informative faces. This is episode 246. I'm Greg Ross. And I'm Sharon Ross. At the height of her fame in 1943, movie star Jean Tierney contracted German measles during pregnancy and bore a daughter with severe birth defects. The strain ended her marriage to Ole Cassini

Starting point is 00:00:38 and sent her into a breakdown that lasted years. In today's show, we'll describe Tierney's years of heartbreak and the revelation that compounded them. We'll also visit some Japanese cats and puzzle over a disarranged corpse. In March 1943, the actress Jean Tierney got a phone call from a friend. Tierney was in Hollywood filming Heaven Can Wait, and the friend reminded her that she hadn't appeared recently at the Hollywood canteen to entertain the GIs. The canteen was a club that offered food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen. It was staffed entirely by volunteers from the entertainment

Starting point is 00:01:20 industry. A serviceman's uniform was his ticket for admission, and everything was free of charge. Tierney had no reason not to go, except for spells of fatigue. She was expecting a baby with her husband, the fashion designer Oleg Cassini. He was now serving in the army at Fort Riley in Kansas, and she was preparing to join him there. But with a war at its height, she wanted to do her part to support the troops, who were always excited to meet the stars. So she went to the club the following night. At that moment, she seemed to be at the apex of an almost perfect life. Born in 1920 to a wealthy businessman, she had been educated at private schools in Connecticut and Switzerland.

Starting point is 00:01:56 At age 17, she was already so beautiful that when she visited Hollywood with her family, the director Anatole Litvak told her she ought to be in pictures. Her father insisted she finish school, but immediately afterward she was snapped up by show business. She made her Broadway debut at age 18 carrying a bucket of water across the stage, and a reviewer for Variety wrote, Miss Tierney is certainly the most beautiful water carrier I've ever seen. Soon she went to Hollywood, where she dated Howard Hughes and was declared by some to be the most beautiful woman in movie history. In 1941, she eloped with Cassini, and he began to dress her for the screen. The credits read, Costumes for Miss Tierney, executed by Oleg Cassini.

Starting point is 00:02:35 But signs of trouble began to arise a few days after she visited the canteen. Her face was covered with red spots. The doctor diagnosed her condition as German measles, something he called rubella. He said it would last only a week. He suggested she postpone her trip a few days, but beyond that, he showed no real concern. And she herself didn't feel anything except for some disappointment at the delay in joining her husband. The spots cleared up quickly and she went to Fort Riley, a pregnant army wife joining in the spirit of the people around her. There, as everywhere, she was sometimes taken aback by her own growing fame. In the laundry room one day,

Starting point is 00:03:14 a woman at the next basin looked up and did a double take. She said, why, you're Jean Tierney, the actress, aren't you? Tierney admitted she was. She wrote from then on, wherever I went, even to take a bath, I had an audience. That October, Cassini was overseas on a military operation when he read in a newspaper that Tierney had given birth to a premature baby after an emergency operation. The baby, a girl, weighed just two and a half pounds. He got permission to hurry back home and found Tierney in a fragile state, but delighted that the baby would survive. She was a beautiful child, fair and blonde, and they were sure she would fill their lives. A worried-looking doctor took Cassini aside and said, You realize that your wife has had a very difficult childbirth.

Starting point is 00:03:50 I can assure you that she will be fine. Cassini said, But what is the matter? The doctor said, Your daughter. She's not in good shape. First, she's premature. And then there's an opacity. I don't think she'll ever see. I think she's blind.

Starting point is 00:04:02 There are cataracts in both eyes. The new parents felt some dismay at this, but Tierney hoped it might be corrected later. They named the new girl Daria and took her home. But as she began to care for her, Tierney began to see more troubling signs. And she read a newspaper article that said an epidemic of German measles in Australia had produced a generation of babies with birth disorders. She wrote later that she felt a chill as she read that. The article said this epidemic was the first hard evidence of a link between German measles and

Starting point is 00:04:29 birth defects. The virus is thought to be one of the few that the bloodstream would carry to the fetus. It said that exposure in the first trimester was most dangerous, and she had been exposed in the first trimester. This was the beginning of a maze of pain and sorrow for the new parents. They learned that Daria had severe brain damage, and after her first cold, she lost her hearing. The doctor tried to be kind. He said that in some ways Daria's condition might change and that new research was always being conducted. Tierney said later, I kept hoping and hoping that something could be done, that some miracle would make her whole. Cassini shared her pain. He wrote, My memory is not too good here. The world, our lives, proceeded in a blur for a time.

Starting point is 00:05:09 I guess I was trying to forget. It proceeded logically, but in a spiritless, forced march from day to day. Jean and I were good soldiers. We did as we were told. But he could feel tyranny drifting away from him. He wrote, After Daria, there was a distance I never seemed able to bridge. I don't think she was ever truly happy again. She played at happiness, pretending to laugh when the occasion called for it, but it was a role she performed so as not to disappoint or alarm others. This distance was a wound that crippled our marriage. Tierney searched constantly for new specialists to examine Daria, clinging to the hope that a solution might be found. She needed to believe that her daughter would improve or that a cure would be discovered. Cassini wrote,

Starting point is 00:05:48 Jean was like the ancient mariner on our horizonless sea of pain, always hoping for some sort of redemption. This couldn't be happening to her, to us. There had to be an answer. Jean had been raised an optimist. The idea that there wasn't an answer and never would be was impossible for her to contemplate. But the reality of our situation was this. The child could not even recognize us. She had no real life, and her lifelessness was killing us, especially Jean, draining vitality and energy each day she existed. But he didn't have the heart to discourage her.

Starting point is 00:06:18 For the first year after Daria was born, they saw each other only intermittently, since Cassini was in the army. But after the war, the distance persisted. Cassini wrote, In retrospect, it seems we reacted in entirely different ways to the afflictions of Daria. My pessimism and her optimism. My effusions and her anguish. This was not so apparent at the time, just the escalated conflicts, the telltale signs of a marriage gone bad. Our love must have been strong, though, because we held on to each other and remained married for more than a decade, through scores of separations, short and long.

Starting point is 00:06:49 At one point, Howard Hughes called. He'd heard that their child was deaf, and he asked if he could bring his own doctor to examine her. The doctor was a national expert in children's diseases. For a single day's visit, he charged $15,000, which Hughes quietly paid, but he told them that Daria was incurable. A dozen other doctors had told them the same thing. There was nothing they could do. Daria would always need professional care. She would grow to a normal height, but her mind would remain that of a speechless little girl. It would be best to place her in an institution. At that, Tierney began to reconcile herself to the truth. She and Cassini had loved Daria dearly, but they'd struggled with her care,

Starting point is 00:07:27 and their marriage was sinking under their strain and exhaustion. They decided to seek a divorce. They sold their house in California, and Tierney went back east and found a home for Daria at the Langhorne School in Pennsylvania. She wrote, Nothing in my life so wrenched my heart as did the drive up to the white front doors of the school the day Daria was admitted. Daria was well cared for, but her condition never improved. In her 1979 autobiography, Tierney wrote, She has never talked or seen clearly and has heard few sounds.

Starting point is 00:07:54 We have never known the casual joy of sharing a letter or a mother-daughter phone call. But on my visits, she is always aware of my presence. She sniffs at my neck and hugs me. She wrote, Daria lives to this day mostly blind, deaf, severely retarded. It is not known whether she can distinguish one human being from another. After the shock of Daria's condition, Tierney descended into recurring bouts of mental illness. At one point she wrote, I can no longer doubt that the main cause of my difficulties stemmed from the tragedy of my daughter's unsound birth and my inability to face my feelings,

Starting point is 00:08:25 trying instead to bury them. Her divorce from Cassini was supposed to be finalized in March 1948. They reconciled before that and had a healthy daughter, Christina, that November. But they divorced for good in 1953. Tierney wrote, For many years I felt cheated, but I kept it to myself. I had a daughter, and yet I did not. In those days my friends kept telling me how brave I was. I had a daughter, and yet I did not. In those days, my friends kept telling me how brave I was. I held my head up and never wept. They were paying me a compliment, they thought, and I thought. But when my breakdown came, when my illness stripped me of my reserve, I cried all the time. I cried for Daria and for me, and I cried for hours until I often didn't

Starting point is 00:08:59 know where the tears came from or what had started them. When I gave up Daria, I was outwardly very strong about what had happened, but of course the wound went unattended. Daria's birth had been the beginning of a darkening time for me. I wondered why God had punished me by afflicting my child. I felt guilt I could not explain and self-pity that I could not throw off. A mental illness may be set in motion by a series of factors, one or all of which awaken the sleeping flaw. This setback was the breeding ground, I now believe, of the emotional problems soon to come. Over a period of six or seven years, she committed herself to a series of mental institutions and underwent electroshock treatment 32 times, a procedure she remembered as barbaric. It left her with no recollection

Starting point is 00:09:39 of many events of the late 1950s. She wrote, I had been invited in 1956 to the inauguration of President Eisenhower. That memory was just about the last I had until I woke up one day and wondered how it happened to be 1959. I didn't know who was running the government. I didn't know that Russia and the United States had fired rockets into space. I didn't know who Elvis Presley was or the names of any new books or songs or movies. But one day, watching television, she saw a little girl with curly blonde hair walking under an umbrella. She thought, that is Daria as she was meant to be. She wrote, and I made up my mind then not to suffer again over our loss. Ever since, whenever I see a golden-haired moppet of a girl, I say to myself, thank God that child is happy and healthy.

Starting point is 00:10:21 She said, when I was ill, I thought that my emotional life was over for good. That was not true. I'm well now with plenty of hope and plenty of chance to find happiness. In her autobiography, she wrote, I don't believe I ever really accepted the finality of Daria's condition until my grandchildren were born. They are adorable and Tina proved to be such a good little mother that at last I was able to tell myself and to know that life does go on. Perhaps the dark chapter in her life had been inevitable, but it had been compounded by learning what a vagary of fate had brought it about. A year after Daria was born, Tierney had attended a tennis party on a quiet Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles. A young woman approached her, smiled, and asked if she recognized her. She said she was in

Starting point is 00:11:01 the women's branch of the Marines and had met her at the Hollywood canteen. Tierney shook her head. The woman said, did you happen to catch the German measles after that night? Tierney looked at her, too stunned to speak. The woman said, you know, I probably shouldn't tell you this, but almost the whole camp was down with German measles. I broke quarantine to come to the canteen to meet the stars. Everyone told me I shouldn't, but I just had to go. She beamed and added, And you were my favorite. Rob Gillies wrote, Hello, Greg, Sharon, and Sasha, the foremost, finest, and furriest pod feline. I am an avid weekly listener and always guess along with both of you while you work on lateral thinking puzzles.

Starting point is 00:11:52 There have been many times when I am sure I have the right answer and scoff when it takes you a while to get to it. Most of the time I turn out to be wrong and I feel guilt over my cockiness. My kudos to the two of you for putting your brains on the line for our entertainment. We're humiliating ourselves. It does feel that way sometimes. Rob continued, you have shared many stories about royal mousers and other furry creatures keeping us bipeds safe from unwanted vermin and other pests. I thought I would share this story I found on Mental Floss about a dog who protects artwork. Keep up the great work on one of my favorite podcasts. And Rob sent a link to a story in the Boston Globe

Starting point is 00:12:30 from January 2018 about how the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston was getting Riley, a Weimaraner puppy, to be trained to sniff out insects and other pests that could damage the gallery's artwork. Unlike the library bats that I discussed in episode 225, Riley won't be responsible for getting rid of the pests himself, just to make them known to the humans who aren't capable of sniffing them out for themselves. Katie Goetzel, the deputy director of the museum, said that she wasn't aware of any other institution using a dog in this way, and that they were viewing this as kind of a pilot project. Apparently, Weimaraners are very intelligent and trainable, and have a particularly good sense of smell, all of which attributes the were viewing this as kind of a pilot project. Apparently, Weimaraners are very intelligent

Starting point is 00:13:05 and trainable and have a particularly good sense of smell, all of which attributes the museum was hoping to put to good use, not to mention the added benefit of having a short tail, a definite plus in a building full of delicate objects. And the museum thought that having an adorable doggy with big floppy ears and large droopy eyes might help with publicity for the museum to boot. with big floppy ears and large droopy eyes might help with publicity for the museum to boot. It's funny that they choose a species that doesn't normally actually hunt those creatures, you know what I mean? Instead of getting like a library bat or something, something that actually is sort of... Maybe library bats aren't as trainable? I guess not. You can't train, I don't know what eats insects, lizards? Yeah. Maybe they're not as trainable. Not as cute either.

Starting point is 00:13:47 lizards. Maybe they're not as trainable. Not as cute either. There were several articles written about Riley when he first came to the museum that mentioned the training he'd be going through for the next year or so, but I had some trouble finding much that was recent on him to say how he's really been doing with his pest detecting. I did find some small local stories that did suggest that he did successfully finish his training and is hard at work detecting insects and mice for the museum, being especially used to check incoming shipments. What I was mostly able to find in recent news on Riley were articles mentioning that he is now the star of a children's book that came out just this month titled The Adventures of Riley the Museum Dog, and it follows Riley as he tries to track Wiley the Moth across several museum

Starting point is 00:14:26 exhibits, and it's intended to be a fun way to introduce kids to some of the museum's works. So, however Riley is working out in the pest detection department, he seems to be doing at least pretty well in the publicity area for the museum. Eddie Perkins sent in a follow-up on Tiddles the Paddington Station Cat. I'm new to the podcast and am enjoying it quite a bit so far, and I'd like to thank you for making it. I'm midway through 238, working backward, and Tiddles the Cat was mentioned. I'd never heard of Tiddles, but a cat adopted by a train station reminded me of the cat Tama, a cat from Japan who became a train station master and the first cat to become an executive of a railroad company and more or less rescued the company in the process. She even had a train

Starting point is 00:15:09 completely decorated and themed around her. Sadly, Tama passed away a while back, but last I checked, the station has a new cat station master named Nitama. Tama was a kitty living with a group of stray cats near the Kishi station in Wakayama Prefecture. The cats were often fed by the railway passengers and by the acting station manager, who adopted Tama in 2004. The railway line was struggling financially, and the company was considering closing the station, as it didn't seem to be serving that many passengers. In January 2007, after all the human staff were removed from the station to save money, railway officials decided to make Tama the official station master, with her primary duty being to greet passengers.

Starting point is 00:15:52 Her compensation was to be plentiful cat food, a gold tag for her collar complete with her name and position, and a specially designed station master's hat. In July 2008, she was also issued a summer hat, appropriate for warmer weather. hat. In July 2008, she was also issued a summer hat, appropriate for warmer weather. Tama was considered to be quite a success for the struggling Kishi station and the whole local area, as visitors started coming specifically to see the feline stationmaster. One study credited Tama with bringing in 1.1 billion yen, or 9.2 million dollars, to the local economy in just her first year on the job. And her contributions did not go unrecognized. In December 2007, Tama was chosen as the grand prize winner

Starting point is 00:16:30 of the railway's Top Station Runner Award and was awarded a special cat toy and fed a celebratory slice of crab by the company president. The next month, she was promoted to Super Station Master in a ceremony attended by the company president, the mayor, and a few hundred spectators and was given an even fancier collar tag. With her promotion, she had become the only female in a managerial position in the whole company. But that wasn't the end of her accolades. In October of 2008, Tama was knighted by the

Starting point is 00:16:59 prefectural governor for her work in promoting local tourism. In 2009, the railway introduced a Tama train on the line, which was decorated inside and out with cartoon depictions of her. And in 2010, she was promoted to operating officer, becoming the world's first feline railroad corporation executive. In 2011, Tama was promoted to managing executive officer, making her third in line in the company's management. And in 2013, she was elevated to honorary president of the company for life. And after reading all that, I realized that we've been stinting Sasha quite a bit. I don't think she's had an official promotion in years, though I would say she really is the de facto managing executive officer for our household.

Starting point is 00:17:41 Yeah, right. There's nowhere to promote her to. officer for our household. Yeah, right. There's nowhere to promote her to. Tama died in June 2015 of apparent heart failure at age 16. She was given a Shinto-style funeral at the station where thousands came to pay their respects. After her death, she was elevated to a goddess, and her final official company title was Honorable Eternal Station Master. The president of the Wakayama Electric Railway and other executives selected stones for Tama's memorial from near her birthplace, and there's now a plaque and a bronze statue of Tama in a small Shinto shrine next to the Kishi station. During the traditional 50-day mourning period following her death, there was apparently a fair amount of

Starting point is 00:18:22 suspense as to who would replace Tama, until it was revealed that Nitama, who had been brought on as Tama's apprentice in 2012, would be promoted to the position. It was said that Nitama, whose name actually means Second Tama, had graduated from Cat Station Master Training School, where the requirements are apparently that the cat must demonstrate a pretty relaxed attitude towards people and a willingness to wear a hat. I thought Sasha would flunk both of those requirements for sure. That's an odd list of requirements. Nitama's first official duty was to pay her respects at her predecessor's shrine,

Starting point is 00:18:57 which she continues to do every year on the anniversary of Tama's death, along with Yuntama, Nitama's new apprentice, whose name means fourth Tama. Third Tama didn't work out, as the person who'd been caring for her was unwilling to part with her in the end. Cats are fairly popular in many countries. I'm always hearing jokes about how one of the main uses of the internet is to enable the watching of cat videos. But in doing the research for this story, it was hard to avoid seeing how very popular cats seem to be in Japan, where cats are a symbol of good luck, and their images are used to sell all sorts of things, from various food items to entertainments to clothes and accessories.

Starting point is 00:19:35 I watched the host of Animal Planet's Must Love Cats ride to Kishi Station in a cab that contained 888 cat figurines and stickers, and then ride the Tama-decorated train to the cat-face-shaped Kishi station, with its cat-themed cafe that even serves cat-shaped cakes, and its souvenir shop with its numerous cat-themed products, from sweets and jams to staplers and keychains. But apparently this sort of thing is common enough in Japan that Kasuhiro Miyamoto, a professor at Kansai University, coined the term Nekonomics, or the economy of cats, from Neko, the Japanese word for cat. This is the idea that cat-related spending has been a significant part of the Japanese economy in the last few years, and not just spending on goods and services for cats themselves, goods and services for cats themselves, which Miyamoto estimated equaled 1.1 trillion yen, or almost $10 billion in 2015, but also on cat-themed products, which was estimated at generating about $27 million annually, and cat tourism, of which Kishi Station is a good example,

Starting point is 00:20:38 but which also includes several other feline-themed destinations in Japan, and which was estimated at generating about $36 million annually. Those are high numbers. I wonder, though, what they are in other countries, though. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure if anybody's actually studied. I don't know if other countries have cat tourism enough or cat-themed products enough that you could sort of compare.

Starting point is 00:21:00 Yeah. I mean, it sounds like a distinct cultural characteristic in Japan, but it's, you know, a lot of other countries love cats, too. I mean, it sounds like a distinct cultural characteristic in Japan, but it's, you know, a lot of other countries love cats too. I don't know. On the topic of a somewhat less cuddly animal, David Carter sent a follow-up to our mention of using a flashlight to find spiders at night. David wrote, I'm currently making my way through your backlog. I'm only at 99, so have a ways to go. You mentioned in that episode that you can find spiders by looking down your flashlight. I have a story. Last year, my wife and I went on a four-day hiking trip through

Starting point is 00:21:30 the jungle in central Vietnam. The first night we were behind schedule, and it grew dark before we made camp, so we used our headlamps to light the trail. I noticed that the ground all around us seemed to be glistening, as if dotted with thousands of diamonds. Upon closer inspection, I realized that every shining point was a spider eye. Spiders everywhere. Needless to say, we picked up the pace. Thanks for the great show. So I don't know if spider tourism might ever be a thing like cat tourism, but if it does catch on, it seems that Vietnam might be already well set up for it. And those are just the spiders who were looking back at him. be already well set up for it. And those are just the spiders who were looking back at him.

Starting point is 00:22:10 Thanks so much to everyone who writes in to us. We really appreciate hearing what you have to say. So if you have any updates or comments, please send them to us or to Sasha, the foremost, finest, and furriest pod feline at podcast at futilitycloset.com. It's Greg's turn to try to solve a lateral thinking puzzle. I'm going to give him a strange sounding situation and he's going to try to work out what's going on asking yes or no questions. This puzzle comes from Christopher McDonough. While conducting an autopsy of a body recovered from a disaster, the examiner notices that all the corpse's organs have been disconnected from their blood vessels and are grouped together in the torso. What happened? first left turn. So coroner's looking at a body that died for some unrelated reason? Yes. Okay. And this dead body is sent to the coroner?

Starting point is 00:23:20 No. I didn't say it was a coroner say it again while conducting an autopsy of a body recovered from a disaster the examiner notices that all the corpse's organs have been disconnected from their blood vessels and are grouped together in the torso what happened all right examiner is it a medical examiner yes okay is the body human yes um okay so all the all the organs are disconnected for the um okay so then i don't need to pursue what what the disaster was sounds like that's not important right yeah so something happened between the disaster so the the organs weren't all detached before the disaster happened is that true correct okay so the disaster kills this person the person died in the disaster yeah okay and then sometime afterwards something happened that caused the organs to do this.

Starting point is 00:24:09 Does that have to do with, um, good heavens. Would it help me to know where the disaster happened? Was it like under the sea or up in the space or something? It did happen in a particular location. Is the altitude important? Like, was it? I'm not aware that the altitude is important. So it's not that it was under the ocean or up in space.

Starting point is 00:24:31 Okay, so... Where do you go with this? Did it happen in some noteworthy location? Whatever it was. The person didn't just have a heart attack on the street. Right. So that's important. Yes.

Starting point is 00:24:44 Is the person's occupation important? The occupation they were pursuing, yes, at the time of the disaster, yes. I'm still stuck on, like, pressure somehow. What would cause your organs to do that? Okay. Okay. Okay, so was the body transported from the location of the disaster to wherever the examiner is? No. Oh, wow.

Starting point is 00:25:16 This is getting weirder and weirder. So a person dies. Yes, I'll agree to that. A person dies and their organs are pretty much where a normal person's organs are and hooked up correctly. Yes. And then some time passes, I guess. I'd say a small amount of time, maybe. Not a lot.

Starting point is 00:25:35 Okay. And then the examiner opens the body up. Oh, then some. Yes. Okay. Sorry. Yes. So I'm saying between the time of the death.

Starting point is 00:25:42 I didn't let you finish the question and I should have. Sorry. I'm just trying to figure out. Yeah, yeah didn't let you finish the question and I should have. Sorry. I'm just trying to figure out... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ask the full question and I'll shut up until you ask it. So the person dies and is pretty much just a normal dead person. Yes. And then I'm just imagining some amount of time passes during which the organs get sort

Starting point is 00:25:58 of balled up in the torso. Is that right? And then the examiner opens the body and discovers that. Yes. Was the examiner surprised the body and discovers that. Yes. Was the examiner surprised to find that that's what had happened? In other words? The examiner was surprised when they first discovered that the organs were all grouped together in the torso.

Starting point is 00:26:16 Because if the examiner's on the spot where this happened, and the local conditions presumably caused it to happen, the examiner... No. No. The local conditions did not cause it to happen. So why? So you're just saying somebody just died and their organs just fall down. I wouldn't say they just did it.

Starting point is 00:26:32 But that's what we're saying. Something caused it to do that. They didn't do it on their own. Okay. Would you say this was caused by, gosh, how do you even ask this? A biological cause? No. So something physical, like again, going back to some change in pressure, I don't know quite how this would work.

Starting point is 00:26:58 Something detached the organs from their blood vessels. Yes. Something that was inside the body before death? No. I don't even know what that would be. Space aliens. And you say it's not related to the cause of death. Right. The cause of death did not cause this to happen.

Starting point is 00:27:16 And they weren't high and they weren't low, but the circumstances... Did you say the circumstances did cause this? What do you mean by circumstances? Well, I'm picturing them being like in a submarine or a space capsule or something. And that's what... No. No. No. That's what I keep coming back to.

Starting point is 00:27:36 So what would cause that to happen if it's not a biological agent and it's not something physical? Well, I guess you would say something physical, but it's not something about their Well, I guess you would say something physical, but it's not something about their surroundings that caused this to happen. So it was something inside the body.

Starting point is 00:27:51 No, no, no, no. You asked that. No, it's not. And it's not something... Something outside the body. It is something outside the body? Yes. But not just present in the circumstances.

Starting point is 00:28:02 So that like anybody who died in this situation... Would have had this happen. Right, that is correct. That would not happen to just anybody who died in the same exact, you know, physical situation. Well, that ought to be helpful. Ought it not? Okay, so something happens to this person.

Starting point is 00:28:19 So the person, is the person's age important? No. Gender? No. Did they have some predisposing condition? No. No, he said it wasn't biological. I did say the location was important.

Starting point is 00:28:35 Something about the location, but it has nothing to do with altitude or pressure. But what other factors can there be in locations that might be germane? I also jumped the gun and answered a yes to a question that turned out to be no uh which you could have picked up as a hint because i thought you were going to ask did this happen about the the organs all being grouped together right very soon after death that would have been a yes but then you you what you were trying to ask was did the examiner discover this very soon after it happened? And my answer to that would be no. So you're saying that the organs reached those positions quite quickly after death?

Starting point is 00:29:14 Probably relatively quickly. Would you call it a violent death? Like some great shock or crash or something? No. That would have... No, I don't think so. Just physically? I don't actually know what the person died of. Poisoning of some kind?

Starting point is 00:29:31 I don't actually know what the person died of. You don't know at all? I don't know at all, but I don't believe it was violent. But all... Nobody actually knows

Starting point is 00:29:39 for sure what the person died of. But all the organs... You say the organs were all sort of disconnected from the blood vessels and balled up in the torso. Yes. And that probably would have occurred soon after the person died.

Starting point is 00:29:53 Does that have to do with temperature? Yes. Like the person freeze to death? No, the person probably didn't freeze to death, but temperature is important. Cold temperature. Cold temperature. This happened in the Arctic. So the person died somehow.

Starting point is 00:30:05 Yes. And then the body spent. This happened in the Arctic. So the person died somehow. Yes. And then the body spent some time in very cold conditions. And does that just happen in cold? No, no, no, no, no, no. But that accounts for there being a period of time between what happened and then it being examined. Okay. Because the body was preserved by the Arctic. Oh, so this is quite an old body.

Starting point is 00:30:24 Yes. So what happened? So it's just the passage of a large amount of time? No, the body was very well preserved. And you said this happened, the organ business happened quite soon after death. Yes. So what could cause that? Soon after somebody dies, and nobody's sure what the person died of.

Starting point is 00:30:44 So what might have happened right what the person died of. So what might have happened right after the person died? Another examination? Yes, they were given an autopsy. So Christopher said he got the idea while reading Frozen in Time, an account of Sir John Franklin's doomed Arctic expedition of 1845. Christopher said the entire expedition died and was lost, and various attempts were made to find the bodies.

Starting point is 00:31:12 One such attempt revealed a member of the expedition who'd already been autopsied by the expedition's doctor more than 100 years before, and the body was preserved by Arctic conditions. And I looked into this a little and found that there had been ongoing attempts to figure out what the different members of the expedition died from, and this incident that Christopher refers to happened in 1986, when initially they x-rayed the closed corpse and were rather confused by what they were seeing on the x-rays after they stripped off the clothing and saw the incision of the previous autopsy. There was kind of an, oh, when they finally understood what was going on. That's a good puzzle. Thanks to Christopher for that puzzle in which several people were already dead,

Starting point is 00:31:48 so nobody died in the making of the puzzle. If anyone else has a puzzle they'd like to have us try, please send it to us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. Futility Closet is supported entirely by our awesome listeners. If you would like to help support our celebration of the quirky and the curious, you can find a donate button in the support a section of the website at futilitycloset.com. Or you can join our Patreon campaign, where you'll also get outtakes, more discussions on some of the stories,

Starting point is 00:32:19 extralateral thinking puzzles, and updates on Sasha, our feline managing executive officer. You can find our Patreon page at patreon.com slash futility closet, or see our website for the link. At our website, you'll also find over 10,000 compendious amusements, the Futility Closet store, information about the Futility Closet books, and the show notes for the podcast with the links and references for the topics we've covered. If you have any questions or comments for us, please email us at podcast at futilitycloset.com. Our music was all written and performed

Starting point is 00:32:52 by Greg's amazing brother, Doug Ross. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

Futility Closet - 246-Gene Tierney's Secret Heartbreak

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