Good Job, Brain! - 53: Take A Bite Outta Crime

Episode Date: March 11, 2013

Bada bing! Keep your eyes open as we head down the dark alley of crime. Learn about the history of the tommy gun, mafia lingo, and the fascinating start of early crime scene investigation. Test your crime IQ with our quizzes about notable real and fictional criminals, and play a round of "Stolen? Or Not Stolen?" about famous (and possibly purloined) prized possessions. ALSO: Listener's Choice Music Round, L&O:GJB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an airwave media podcast. In the good job brain system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups, the quizzers who pose questions, and the brave men and women who answer them. These are their stories. Hello, Domain of Brain. contains urbane swains and entertaining jane's welcome to good job brain your weekly quiz show and off-beat trivia podcast this is episode 53 and of course i'm your humble host karen and we are your barky arc of snarky marks and larks i'm colin i'm dana and i'm chris let's start the show off by

jumping into our quick general trivia segment pop quiz hot shot everybody get your barnyard buzzers Ready, and I have a random Trivial Pursuit card here. Blue Wedge for Geography. Ooh, which ocean is saltier? The Atlantic or the Pacific? 50. 50.

I want to guess Atlantic. Correct. It is Atlantic. Water from the Atlantic evaporates, is carried in the atmosphere, and rains into the Pacific. So it dilutes it. All right. Pink Wedge for pop culture. In the 70s TV show,

BJ and the bear, what kind of animal is bear? I never heard of the show. Oh, that was a classic 70s show. I believe bear was a chimpanzee? Yes, a chimp. Yeah, it was like a trucker and his chimp companion. That old trope. A trucker named BJ.

All right, Yellow Wedge. What are the British Sandwich Association's annual awards called? Dagwoods, Sammies, Toasties, or Witch Hunt? hunt. I'm going to go with the Sammies. Correct. All right. Sounds very British.

British Sandwich Association. Purple Wedge. What term describes two or more words that are spelled the same but have different meanings? Chris. Homonyms. Yes. Homonims. Green Wedge for science.

The name of what marine mammal means literally pig fish. Oh. Pig, not big. I've heard this with marine mammal. What is it? Swine trout. Swine shark. You know you were all thinking of something like that.

It's not manatee. It's not, I don't know. What? Porpoise. Oh, yes, porpoise. Yeah, like porcine marine mammal. Pork. Yeah.

Pork. Yeah. All right. Question. Orange Wedge. How many players can a team have on the field in a regulation ultimate game? As in Frisbee? Ultimate Frisbee? How many each team? Well, I don't know. God, does it come from soccer? I like how you're actually going by lodging. I'm trying to figure it out. Pull a number. I'm going to guess seven. Correct. Wow. This is why he is the sports guy.

Good job, Brains. So we are dedicating this week's episode to one of our Kickstarter backers and friend in real life, Justin Haywald from San Francisco, California. Justin was very generous and was one of our top back when we started our campaign on Kickstarter.com more than a year ago. Sorry, Justin for the delay. We appreciate it. And as his reward, he got to choose a topic for a show.

So this week, we're going to take a bite out of crime. You're okay You're okay And you've been hit by You've been struck by A smooth criminal I love the movies Like the godfather

And the good fellas And the television show The Sopranos You are a big mafia nut I don't know why I don't know why I enjoy Mafia movies and TV shows so much But I really do

And so So I started thinking okay well what can I what can I talk about with the mafia and I eventually hit on we should have a little discussion about mafia jargon. Oh yeah. Mafia lingo. Mafia slang. And the first thing that I hit on the phrase, Bada bing! As in it happens so quickly or something that happens suddenly. And also there's an element of inevitability to it. Right. You know, you do this and bada bing, bada boom. You're a made man. You know what I mean? So suddenly and inevitably. So Bada bing was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006.

Whoa. Is it because of the Sopranos? So it was added, yeah, it was added because it had entered into popular usage because in the Sopranos, the Gentleman's Club that the characters go to is called the Bada Binks. And so they do a lot of their meetings and such at the gentleman's establishment. Here's the crazy part. So the OED scholars decided to go track down the etymology, or at least, you know, pre-year. uses of the phrase Bada Binh.

And the first, the, the earliest, earliest use of Bada Bing that they could find in any sort of, you know, written down anywhere, it was uttered by James Kahn as Sonny Corleone and the Godfather when he's talking to Michael Corleone going, and Bada Bing, they're going to blow your brains out. That was the first time it was used in a book, recorded, that they could substantiate. Recorded that it was actually written down. So James Kahn got it from Carmine Persisco, an actual mobster, that he was hanging out with. A lot of the people who were in the Godfather movies, they actually, you know, paled up with actual mobsters and just to sort of learn their mannerisms and language.

There were many actual mobsters in the movie. Oh, yeah. And many of the bit parts. Right. Yeah. And so that was actually where it was first used. And it was not in the script. It was improvised.

Wow. Yep. So a lot of mafia phrases have this entered our lingo, the words. Swag. No. Yeah. But they did not actually come from that. Swag as a word, meaning stolen goods, is popularly thought to be an acronym.

Everybody always thinks it's an acronym of stuff we all get or sealed with a gift. Also, a souvenirs, wearables, and gifts. None of these sound very convincing. Also, people try to insist that it came from stolen without a gun. But for some reason, the word swag, people think people always. think it's an acronym for something, but it's not. Like, so many words, it's very, very old. There's a old Nordic word svegja.

It means to swing or to sway. And this probably became in the 1500s in English, the word swag. It meant like some sort of ornamental festoon or something of that nature, some sort of decoration. By the 1800s, English criminals were using the word swag to mean stolen goods. It just sort of went from English criminals talking about swag and booty and whatnot. And the word swag. entered into the United States. Into our native criminal organizations.

Right. And you get rid of swag by giving it to a fence or a person who can buy and sell stolen goods. You know, you've heard Kosa Nostra, right? As a word meaning the mafia. Right. It's Italian for this thing of ours. It's an oblique way of referencing organized crime. If you are introducing someone to someone else and you say, this guy is a friend of mine,

that means he's outside of our group. He's not in the organized crime. but I believe he can be trusted. But if you say, oh, you know, this guy is a friend of ours, that means that he is in group. Part of it. Yep. Yep. This is really interesting.

The word compare, just meaning like pal, you know, companion, I guess. Because a lot of words got sort of mutated. Compare became gumba, word for like this guy. I think a lot of the hard C sounds can run it into G's and someone's like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, like the mushroom? Yeah. From Mario?

Yeah. Because, you know, it's been word meaning like, you know, ruffian or. or whatever. Comare, the female version of Compari, becomes Gumar. Mistress. Mistress. Exactly. Also, C's becoming G's Capicola.

Gaba Gula. Gapagool. Yeah. Capicola is a cut of deli meat, and it's from the capo and the colo, or the head and the neck. So, capicolo, head and neck. The word Fugazi, interestingly enough, means fake. It means a fake jewel or a fake item.

Yeah. Or Fagasy. People aren't sure. on the etymology of this one, but there is an Italian word Fugase, which is in the war, they would take a rock and hollow it out and put a mine inside of it and so that could be where it comes from like a

decoy, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely does not, is not also an acronym for effed up, got ambushed zipped in, as it zipped in a body bag. That is, that is, that is, well that's the thing, so soldiers started to use it in the war to mean

like Fubar, thinking that it meant everything is effed up, but actually it just means Fake. Bada bing. So I have kind of a related quiz. I am going to give you the nicknames of criminals. I want you to give me their real names. Oh.

Are these real criminals? Yeah. So there's some famous mobsters in there. There's maybe some serial killers. There's some other people. A grab bag. It's a grab bag. A pot.

I know. It's a lightful mixture. A zesty summer tonic of killers. All right. Number one. Scarface. Al Capone Al Capone

Yeah That's his nickname Tony Montana Yeah that's right That's my thing Bugsy Karen Oh

I know the last name What was Bugsy Malone Bill Ben Siegel Yes Benjamin Siegel Whoa

Uh oh Cullin might stomp All over this The Milwaukee Cannibal This is Jeffrey Dahmer Yes Okay

He's a lot of things Billy the Kid Is that William Bonnie? No Henry McCarty It's not even William The son of Sam David Berkowitz

Yes I don't know my criminals The Killer Clown That's John Wayne Gasey Yeah Oh Why is he called the killer clown He used to dress up as a clown at kids' parties.

This is dark. Don't read the Wikipedia page about him. It will not. Teflon Dawn. Teflon Dawn. That is John Gotti. Yes. Oh, of course.

Why is he called Teflon? Because nothing sucks. Yeah, nothing sticks. The Teflon Don. Also, like I have to say, he always looked very nice and shiny and smooth. He looked like he could actually be crafted out of taking. You could cook an odd on him in a stick. Blackbeard.

Oh Chris Oh, is this Edward Teach? Yes Okay, all right I couldn't remember if that was Blackbeard or Bluebeard

Edward Teach Dr. Death Oh This is Jack Kovarkian Yes Good job you guys It was creepy Finding movies

I know there's a lot There's a lot of backstory I'm being Simple little quiz I fell down a hole It was dark A dark hole All right, well, speaking of Al Capone there, you know, if you think of prohibition

Depressionary gangsters, like, what's the first thing you think of? Let's just do some free association here. Italian restaurants. Okay. Speakeasy. Okay. Hats. Hats.

Oh, yeah. Hats. And suspenders? Maybe in terms of weapons. Tommy gun. Yes. Dana, I was eventually got what I was fishing for. The Tommy gun, yeah.

I mean. You've had to push it pretty hard. Yeah. Yeah. Listeners that actually took 15 minutes of unedited audio. His shiny shoes. Bathroom gym. I love just so many things about the history of the Tommy Gun because, just because of the way it's portrayed in the media and the way that it took on a life of its own in the criminal underworld.

So in case you're not sure what we're talking about, when I talk about the Tommy Gun, this is just that classic, the two handles, the big round drum barrel in the front that you see in virtually every gangster movie from the 20s, 30s, 40s, and was used in a lot of real-life crime. crime sprees by Al Capone and a lot of other guys in that era. If you don't know anything about guns the way I don't, it looks like a machine gun. You could see a lot of the bullets quickly. Do you know where he even gets its name? Thomas Edison. There was a general John Thompson, who really in every way possible was the father of the Tommy gun. In the early mid-1900s, he really wanted to spearhead an effort to get better guns for U.S. soldiers.

And so keep in mind, this is like World War I. era, you know, trench warfare was dominating. You know, as gruesome as this sounds, he really wanted to get a weapon in soldiers' hands that could clear out trenches in a hurry. He founded a company called Auto-Ordinance Company to develop this weapon for the military. And it was called the Annihilator at first. And it could fire hundreds of rounds a minute. I mean, it's just very deadly device.

So he spent about four or five years developing this gun over the course of World War I. By the time they got the final design ready, the war was basically. over. You know, it was like when they finally got it working, they, as I say, they had called the device the annihilator. So they finally get the working annihilator ready to go, war is over. Well, what are we going to do? Well, we spent all this money developing this awesome weapon. We need to start selling it. Let's sell it to criminal. So let's, well, let's sell it to everybody. Let's sell it to whoever wants to buy it. So this is, you know, 19, 19, 1920, and they started selling the guns to the government, to

civilians, really, you know, to whoever wanted to buy them. Outside of the military, the U.S. Postal inspection service was the first federal agency to buy them, basically to prevent mail theft. They were having a rash of, you know, mail trucks being, you know, robbed and things like that. So mailmen would carry Tom. Well, no, not mailmen. These were like agents of the postal inspection service. So, you know, it's sort of like safeguarding the mails as they went across the country. In terms of civilian hands, now the thing to keep in mind, as I say, this was right around when Prohibition started in 1920. So they started selling the gun. They renamed it from the annihilator to just the Thompson sub-machine gun, you know, a little drier, but maybe a little more family-friendly,

I suppose. It's a family-friendly machine gun. Less suggestive of, like, what you should do with you. Yeah. The gangsters and the bootleggers really took off on these because they were having turf wars. So, you know, Prohibition basically created this huge expanse of money that could be made in criminal enterprises. And so just like today, with any other kind of drug or illicit good, they're fighting each other and they're killing each other, and they start an arms race. so as soon as one group of gangsters got the Tommy gun the other group's like all right well we got to get these things too

and it was it was a literal arms race these were really expensive guns so outside of federal agencies in the military a lot of police agencies around the country they were buying some but it wasn't something that they could afford to buy in bulk because it was a very pricey piece of machinery but as you can imagine if you're Al Capone or Bugs Moran or John Dillinger

or any of these guys you know price is not necessarily a limitation for you so as the media started covering these gruesome events in the newspapers, it's sort of fed back into a feedback loop, and the gangsters would see themselves covered as these Tommy gun toting gangsters, like, oh, well, we should be toting Tommy guns. And they would get more, and it would be covered more, and they would get more, and it would be covered more. Eventually, it got to the point where the police agencies had no choice.

They were literally outgunned. So the Chicago cops and the FBI, they had to start buying up larger and larger volumes of Tommy guns, basically to fight the gangsters and have shootouts, so they weren't getting slaughtered. this fact tickled me the most in the course of doing the research you guys know the image of in again movies or TVs or comic books of the the gangster carrying the machine gun in the violin case you know that was a real thing you can actually fit a disassembled Tommy gun in inside of a violin case and there were documented cases of guys walking around carrying them like this now the problem was why there's so many violins well exactly exactly as soon as the cops figured that was going on that stopped being a thing All right, well, continuing on with our theme of crime and crimes that have been committed or not been committed, I now present to you an exciting quiz titled Stolen or Not Stolen. Yeah.

I will name you the famous item, possibly a work of art, possibly jewelry or whatnot, and you will have to tell me if at some point in its life and its existence, was it ever stolen? Oh, interesting. Before we get into this, we have a lot of children who listen to this podcast, some of their parents. We understand you look to us for life advice. I really want to be clear. We may be glamorizing this,

but kids, don't steal famous works of art, okay? Because they are hard to sell. You cannot get rid of the... You don't go on pawn stars with like the Mona Lisa, right? Or eBay.

You have to set up a private buyer. Most art theft is people taking unknown or relatively less known works of art. Yeah, but anyway, okay. So thumbs up for stolen, thumbs down, for not stolen. Okay, so I already mentioned it, but, uh, so we'll make this the first one. The Mona Lisa.

Colin says stolen, Dana says stolen. Karen says stolen? Final answer? Yes, the Mona Lisa was stolen on August 21st, 1911. A Louvre employee named Vincenzo Perugia thought that Da Vinci's famous painting deserved to go back to Italy, so

he kept it in his apartment for two years. He walked out with it. Wow. That's not Italy. Two years, no, well, He thought that was enough time, so then he tried to sell it to an Italian museum, and they were like, this is the Mona Lisa. You jerk, and they rat it on them. Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Knight, stolen or not stolen? I know it's been duplicated, copied. Collins says not stolen, Karen says not stolen, days is stolen.

It was never stolen. However, many Van Gogh paintings have been stolen, and in fact, three are unaccounted for right now. Most recently, the painting Poppy Flowers was stolen from a Cairo Museum in 2010, and the same painting had actually been previously stolen in 1977. Wow. From the same museum, which did not do anything to up its security. The Crown Jewels of England, were they ever stolen, ever? Stolen as in, okay. And what I mean by the Crown Jewels of England is, the, the, the,

any jewels gold kept in the personal safe of the crown of the ruler of England. Karen says stolen, Collins is stolen, and Dana says stolen. They were stolen. You may have heard the story of Colonel Blood, actual name, who attempted to steal some of them from the Tower of London in the 1600s, but was apprehended and did not get away with it. The guy who actually did get away with stealing many of the crown jewels of England, his name was Richard Pudlacott in the 1300.

He took them from Westminster Abbey. He actually got in good with a lot of the monks in Westminster Abbey and then obtained access and then just started stealing the crown jewels from where they were kept in the abbey. After they caught him, basically, that is when they moved the jewels to the Tower of London, where they have been safe for the last seven centuries. It's harder to get to. Yep. You may be wondering what happened to lovable rake and all around scamp Richard Pudlicott

after bravely Robin Hooding the King's Jewels away from Westminster Abbey. He was flayed. Yeah. And they hung his skin up on the door to Westminster Abbey. Oh, you know. It's a warning. And it's still there today. It's nuts.

No. It'd be weird to be a monk there to work there and then see your friend's skin hanging on the door. But maybe, I mean, remnants of it probably like molecules still there. Isn't that where William and Kate got married? Yeah. Maybe they touched... They got slayed molecules. Oh, they touched the deck of my skin.

The scream. Stolen or not stolen? Oh, the Monk. The Monk. I was going to say Munch. Munch. Eddie Munch. Collins says stolen.

Danes is stolen. Karen says not stolen. It was stolen. It was stolen a lot. Actually, Munk created four versions of this work at the same time. I believe two were paintings and two were pastels. And all of them are kind of like on display. And two of those have been.

been stolen and found again. One in 1994 and once in 2004. Vermeer's girl with a pearl earring. Stolen or not stolen? Oh, I don't know. Dutch Masters. Collins says not stolen.

Danes is not stolen. Karen says stolen. It was not stolen. No funny story to this one. It was just never stolen. Bada Bing. Yeah, Bada Bing. Bada Bing.

Not stolen. The Hope diamond on display at the Spinsonian Museum Collins has stolen Dana says stolen Karen's stolen it was stolen It was stolen big time

It's easy to steal a gems and like a giant painting You just put in your pocket And also I would imagine a lot easier To get rid of on the black market too Well there's a story about that So originally or not originally originally But it was for a very long time

In possession of the Crown of France And the various Louis One of them wore it and sort of a pendant And one of them wore it in some sort of other thing and they'd, you know, sort of keep resetting it. They had cut it down because when it was originally discovered, the stone was over 120 carrots. It was just this massive, massive, massive diamond.

But it was cut at that time for maximum weight rather than brilliance. Apparently, it was France that cut it to make it, you know, to give it all the facets and make it amazing. And they had cut it down to significantly less than that. When Louis the 16th lost his head and also lost, control over France. That is when burglars broke in and took a whole bunch of stuff, including what was then known as the French blue.

That is what they called it. The Hope Diamond is a ginormous blue diamond. 20 years later, right after the Statue of Limitations was up, a diamond looking a lot like a giant blue diamond that was actually slightly recut to obscure its true appearance, then popped up in London. And it's now in the Smithsonian, and it's 44 carrots. So, well over, yeah, like around 70 to 80,

carrots of this original diamond are long gone. Shaved off, man. Yeah, I think I remember reading that about like some ring of international jewel thieves. And they said that one of their techniques was that if they got something that was really huge, they would just split it in two and sell it that way. Absolutely. At that point, it's not untraceable, but so much harder to trace. And finally, Pablo Picasso's Guernica, stolen or not stolen.

Isn't it huge? So big. It's still one with the... Karen's not stolen. Conlonus is not stolen. Danis is not stolen. Final answers? Everybody says not stolen.

It was never stolen. It was really hard. It's so huge. However, Picasso's Le Pigeon-O-Petit-Pois, the pigeon with green peas, was stolen in 2010 and found the next year. And I have no idea why somebody would steal that because it looks nothing like a pigeon. Or peas. Nothing. All right.

Let's take a quick break. A word from our sponsors. No frills. Delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door. from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca.

This is a true story. It happened right here in my town. One night, 17 kids woke up, got out of bed, walked into the dark, and they never came back. I'm the director of Barbarian. A lot of people die in a lot of weird ways. We're not going to find it in the news because the police covered everything

will love. On August days. This is where the story really starts. Weapons. And we're back. Welcome to Good Job Brain. And this week we're talking about crime. So when I was looking around for trivia about crime.

So when I was looking around for trivia about crime, I felt. found this awesome quiz that a guy named Hedgeman wrote on Sporkel about fictional criminals and their crimes. And it was so good. I was like, I just want to ask you guys because I think you're going to like this quiz. I'll tell you the crime. I'll read you the crime. And you tell me who the criminal is and what movie they came from. Oh, movie or book. Yeah. Movie or book. All fiction. All right. Okay. All right. Okay. Patricide, casting unforgivable curses, and flying without a broomstick. Yeah, this is Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter.

Yes. Tom Riddle. He killed his dad. Dog napping, witchcraft, trafficking and flying monkeys. That's the wicked witch of the east. No. No. West, West, West.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I know that, I know. From the Wizard of Oz. Close enough. He did a really good job putting this together. It's like a lot of flavor tax. Abduction, corrupting another with drugs, breaking ankles with a sledgehammer. Oh, it's, oh, man, well, it's Kathy Bates' character in misery, but what is, I don't know her name, I'm sorry.

Annie Wilkes. Oh, okay. Wow. Espionage Derelliction of Holy Duty Conspiracy to assassinate King Louis Oh

Classic literature It's car Well, Karen Not three amigos got one time Three musketeers Yes, yeah Three musketeers Is that it?

But the criminal is Cardinal Richelieu Cardinal Richelieu Who is a real person He's not fictional. Yes, he is not fictional. Cardinal Reichly was a real man, but he was written into a lot of interesting narratives. Yeah.

I love this one. Disruption of public telephone service, safe-cracking, Nakatomi terrorism. Hans Gruber. Yes, from... From Die Hard, Alan Rickman, of course. Electrocution, murder by laughter, dancing with the devil. This was Jack Nicholson's Joker in the Michael Keaton Batman. Yes.

Jack Napier. That's awesome. Oh, that's right. That is his name in the movie, Jack Napier. Jack Napier. There you go. Another one. Planet Side, carrying a concealed lightsaber, force choking.

Darth Vader. Anakin Skywalker. You're like, excuse me. Actually. His real name. Identity theft. tampering with evidence, misuse of a knife in a shower. The keeper of the Bates Motel.

What's his name? Norman Bates? Yeah. What's the movie? Psycho. Norman Something. The guy from the Bates Motel. Norman Motel.

Norman Motel. Boat vandalism, scuba tank theft, devouring of a sea captain. Jaws. Jaws. Jaws from the movie Jaws. Jaws. just a shark. I don't know if he's a criminal though. Oh, poor, for shark.

Attempted taxidermy, reckless operation of a Coop de Ville, menacing Dalmatians. Cuella DeVille. Yes, from 101 Dalmatians. Good job. Unauthorized lip reading, cutting off life

support, failing to follow programming. How? Oh. Yes. 2001 in Space Odyssey. Yeah. I love this quiz.

Good job, Hedgman. Good quiz. Oh, man. When I say the names, Paris and Ivanka, who do you think of? Harris Hilton and Ivanka Trump. Yeah. Yes, Paris Hilton, Ivanka Trump, a famous heiresses. And I'm going to talk about another heiress.

Her name is Francis Glezner, and she was born in Chicago in 1878. Her father struck it rich by. establishing International Harvester, which was an old-timey agricultural machinery company. And Francis was very, very smart. She excelled at her studies and was particularly interested in medicine and science. And because of her wealthy family, she had a lot of access to books and resources, and she was one of the biggest Sherlock Holmes fan girl. Really, really love Sherlock Holmes.

And a voracious reader, just a really smart lady. And in addition to getting the same education as her brother, Frances also had to participate in more domestic training, like home economics, lots of sewing and painting and crafty stuff like knitting. And she was very, very awesome at that too. So awesome lady all over. But as progressive as her family was in terms of providing top-notch education, her family really didn't see her having a profession.

They wanted her to marry a wealthy man and be comfortable, which she did, but that didn't necessarily stop her interests. And so Francis's brother went on to attending Harvard. Through that, Francis met one of his friends, and his name is George McGrath. And they really hit it off. George studied medicine with a concentration of using medicine to help solve crimes. And keep in mind, this is a relatively new field back then, the field of. legal medicine. Forensic medicine. Of course, this all hit Francis's buttons, you know, human anatomy, medicine, and Sherlock Holmes crimes. Like, wow. By leveraging her wealthy status as an

heiress, Francis had access to specialized books and crime scene reports, and she even attended autopsies, and she loved it. And she eventually became a self-taught expert at crime scene investigation and was revered for her observation and opinion because she was so good. And this is without any formal training. Eventually, she became a big financial supporter of Harvard and Harvard's newish field in legal medicine. And it's as if all the stars kind of fell into alignment. Francis did something that is so cool and so weird and so revolutionary. I've mentioned before she was really talented in crafts and her knowledge of medicine

and her access to police reports. Francis started a weird hobby. She started building mini dioramas of violent crime scenes. She would build little sets and she would make little dolls and would craft these elaborate

kind of extremely detailed mini-scale models of crime scenes based on different reports. Is this for investigative purposes or just for her fascination. For her fascination, but also to be an educational tool. These dolls, I mean, when you think of like dollhouses, you think of like pristine little dolls and in their little dresses. These dolls show level of decomposition. They're bruised. They're slashed at the throat or they're hung

and there's blood splatter. Just really crazy stuff in a small little scale. These were called nutshell studies of unexplained death. The really impressive thing is that Frank would consider every detail that was recorded from various reports. So from the location of bruises on bodies to something like the towel in the kitchen sink is like a little bit askew or the color of the victim's socks. Like everything was considered and she would make these by hand. She made 18 of these dioramas in the 1940s and these were used as official police training tools to teach forensics, observation, and deduction. and she would host lectures and seminars showing these nutshell studies and would invite like the country's top crime scene investigators.

And this is a time before DNA sampling or high-tech chemical analysis machinery or whatever was available. One of the diorama's, I think it's her first one, it's called Kitchen. It's a perfect replica of like a housewife's kitchen. And you see a dead body on the grounds of doll. And then there's things like the refrigerator is open at, this certain angle and their ice cube trays and and there's like a pie in the oven and there's a rolling pin like everything is so detailed and part of the study is there would be a witness statement it's like a Sherlock Holmes mystery but presented in a dollhouse and you get to figure out

like what happened Francis Glesner Lee and her 18 diorama nutshell studies really help revolutionize crime scene investigation are the do any of them still exist are they in a museum somewhere? Well, they're not open to the public. They're only open to tiny little members of the public. Right now they're in Maryland, but they're photographs. Francis Glesner Lee and her nutshell studies are the subjects of documentary film called of Dolls and Murder.

Oh, I'm going to check that out. Narrated by John Waters. Oh, perfect. So extra creepy. And it's been said that Francis Glezner Lee is reputedly the inspiration for the character of Jessica Fletcher When I was a kid I was very into the macabre murder scene things And I had a book called a series of books They're called You're the Detective

Oh yeah The presentation of the books was single panel Line drawings of a crime scene And it was basically the game was Can you deduce what the crime was Based on little short bit of evidence and all the visual clues And there's an answer Oh, and there is an answer

Yeah they're not real These were all like written just as like little brain teasers But I loved them And this is kind of that thing but in real life Those were fun. Yeah. Well, I have a quiz for you guys here, which is a grab bag of knowledge about crime and also maybe some common misconceptions about the world of crime and detective works.

So get your buzzers ready, and we will kick it off. When we talk about Grand Theft Auto, not the video game, the crime. When we talk about Grand Theft Auto, what is the grand? What do we mean grand theft? Chris. It is above a certain dollar amount. That is right. Oh, not to austere.

It's a fantastic theft. Not like a Lincoln Continental. Right. And grand theft or grand larceny in contrast to petty larceny. Yes. And these going back actually have very specific legal meanings. And as you say, Chris, that's right. It's just anything that's grand larceny is above a certain dollar amount.

Is it a thousand? Well, you know, it is in some places, actually. It varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. I mean, it can be as low as a few hundred dollars in some places. But they'll have degrees, like first degree, second degree, third degree. This goes way back, as many things on the show we talk about, to English laws. Back to the 13th century, they had the first distinction between grand larceny and petty larceny. Patty larceny was aware of the world of the San Diego character. Where they set the

dividing line, uh, is great, is they set the dividing line between petty larceny and grand larceny at about the value of a sheep. So if you stole a sheep or better, you were, you were in hot water, right. Grand theft sheep. And the punishments, petty larceny would pay your fine and just, you know, your garden variety lashing with the whip. Grand larceny would be a death. So don't steal sheep, kids. So you're talking about forensics, Karen. Fingerprinting, obviously, is a huge development in terms of crime fighting.

True or false? Fingerprints are so distinctive an individual that not even identical twins have identical fingerprints. Chris. True. That is true. Even identical twins do not have matching things. Whoa. So they're not really identical. That's right. They can be similar. They say they can be similar. But it's really crazy. Yeah. Fingerprints, they develop when you're in the womb based on an amazing variety of factors. Like how much you're moving around. Like what is the fetus grabbing onto? And yeah, the ridges are really informed by the environment while you're gestating. It's nuts.

Though they're primarily known today for their role protecting the president and his family. What was the original mission of the U.S. Secret Service? And I believe we've had this in public quiz before, Chris. Is this to stop counterfeiting? It was. It was to stop counterfeiting. That's right. President Abraham Lincoln actually created the Secret Service. Apparently, counterfeiting was just rampant after the Civil War. I've read some estimates that anywhere from 25 to 35% of U.S. currency at the time, and so it was fake.

Right. Well, because a dollar at that point was just pretty much a piece of paper with the word dollar written. So it wasn't really that hard to do. The Secret Service was created to fight counterfeiting, primarily in financial crimes, it wasn't until after McKinley was assassinated in 1901 that Congress finally is like, you know what, maybe we should have a dedicated government service to protecting our presidents. Yeah.

Abraham Lincoln started the Secret Service and the Vampire Hunter's Guild. America. Yeah, he got up to a lot. The story goes that the legislation authorizing creation of the Secret Service was on Lincoln's desk the night that he was shot to add a little bit of a somber note to that. Not that it would have helped. Yes, exactly. He wasn't stabbed with a counterfeit dollar bill.

That hurts, by the way. Yeah. It's not even real money. According to the National Center for Insurance Statistics, what was the most frequently stolen car in the United States in 2012 for the fourth year in a row? Whoa. You guys all jumped in. And I don't even, I'll be more impressed if you can give me make, model, and year.

But I won't ask for a year. You'll make a model. Yeah, go ahead. I think that was Chris I Okay I believe it's the Honda Civic You're close Is it

Toyota Camry No Dana you want to take a bite It's the SCV is it the Explorer It is the Accord In 1994 Honda Accord

Yes the Civic I believe is number two On last year's list Yeah the 1994 Honda Accord For four years in a row The Most Stolen car There's only a few Key types right It was before

I guess they had instituted like some anti-theft devices but also that that particular year the parts are so easily interchangeable with many other Honda's that if you're stealing a car you can be guaranteed that you're going to sell off the parts so if you own a 1994 Honda Accord

you better lock that thing up at night on September 10th 1897 George Smith of London England became the first person to record what dubious distinction and I'll give you a little clue By trade he was a cab driver

Karen Is this a Sherlock Holmes thing? I don't think so I know the luck I hear of it I think it's a real person Study in Scarlet Oh He was a cab driver in the 1800s

1897 in London It was the first person to record What dubious He was projection Oh, could that be it? George Smith was the first person ever arrested for drunk driving. Oh!

He got... And he drove other people. And he drove a cab. Apparently he was, yeah, nobody was killed, nobody was hurt. He got drunk and crashed his cab into a building. The fine was 25 shillings. I did the math on some inflation calculators. That's about 150 bucks, a little bit over.

Not too bad, actually. Yeah, no. For the world's first DUI. Nice. Wow. That's great. That's just great. Just let us feel good stories

True or false We call policemen Cops Because many early cops Used to wear Copper badges Oh True

True, true, true It is false Oh no It wanted to be true so much I really wanted to trick you guys Because you're like hey coppers are here I have you know The guy with a Tommy gun

Fire and I'll never take me alive Copper It's like bouncing off the copper badge So here's what comes from they could they could trace us back to at least the 1700s that cop was really like meant to to catch or to seize like to sort of

seize upon somebody like to cop a feel or like to cop to something that's exactly right that's exactly right right there like yeah he he copped to the he copped to doing it or he copped a feel as you might say Karen so they went from there to the coppers the ones doing the copying they copped him and then from copper back to cop so it is it is it is copy feel They're not exactly sure.

They think it may have either come from Latin cap hair, like capable, same route, or it may have come from a Dutch word cop-in. But they both meant to take. So either way. All right, well, pretty good. You guys definitely know a lot about crime. I'm actually a little suspicious of you guys. But you guys up.

She's at the conference. Grab the microphones. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs, a $10, one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday anywhere along the go network. And the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five. Buy your online go pass ahead of the show at go-transit.com slash tickets. All right. And we have our final quiz here.

And it's a music round. And this music round is special because I actually get a lot of suggestions from listeners about themes or things that I can ask for music round, but Bianca from Boston made one and it's so good that I had to share with you guys. It's themed and it's very clever. So music round is when I play short clips of songs and you guys have to identify the artist. There is a theme so maybe the artist's name or the title of the song might clue into the theme. Here we go. Thank you, Bianca. Let's see if we can stump these. people. Here we go. All right, next one.

Up in the morning and out to school. The teacher is teaching the golden rule. American history and practical man. You study him hard and hoping to pass. Working your fingers right down to the bone. And the guy behind you won't leave you alone. Ring, ring. Chris.

Is this Chuck Barry? Yes, Chuck Barry. Is this Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll? What is the title of the song? No particular place to go. This is no particular place to go, I think, right? It is school days. School days.

Ring, ring goes the bell. Ring ring goes the bell. That's tough. Is there parentheses? Yes, parentheses. School days, parentheses, ring wing goes the bell. Got it. Here's another song with parentheses in it.

Oh. We want to find us and return us now the out. Colin. Well, I mean, it's any one of the many George Clinton band variations. So I'll go with Parliament? Yes. Okay, all right. Very good.

We want the funk. The full title of the song is, Give Up the Funk, Parentheses, tear the roof off the sucker. That's right. And parentheses. All right. Next song. And they finally made her. They saw Earth marks all over her body.

She couldn't quite explain that they are just to be. There Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Oh, beautiful Dana It's a crash test dummies

Yes Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Mm-hmm Oh, I only said three By crash test dummies

Yes All right, here's the next one See if you can identify the artist from the auto-tune Okay Until you get so Smack that hot

Oh Oh Yeah All on the floor Is it Acon It is Acon Is that the only auto tune? You had me an auto too

Yeah Yeah It's not T-Pain It's not Cher It's A-Con. A-Con, smack that. I thought it was smack dat. Yeah.

All right. Last clip. Can you identify the television show? Oh. I think Dana first. Is it murder she wrote? It is murder she wrote. It's like a picture the opening.

I haven't watched that show since the 80s, but it came right back to me. It's very jaunty. You picture her like going fishing or walking in her little town. And then she's typing at her typewriter. So that's the music round. Good job. You guys all identified the song. Crash test dummies.

White stripes. The nation army Acon Smack that Crash test dummies Chuck Berry School days I thought it was like

governmental agencies at first like nation I mean army school Crest test dummies Not exactly but but that's a good clue

All right I'll give you I'll give you guys The pieces of information That does matter Okay all right Okay sure So crash test dummies Parliament

Smack that School days Murder she wrote, Seven Nation Army. Army, murder. And this is called... Yes. Animal plurals.

Wow. Animal collectives. Wow. Wow. Very good job. Good job. Thank you, Bianca. Wow, Bianca. Cool.

Crash is a crash of rhinos for elephants. A parliament of owls. Yes, I love that one. Smack of jellyfish from a previous show. Right, right. school of fish, a murder of crows, and army of ants. Wow. Very good.

Tricky. Very tricky. Yeah, it was great. And that's our show. Thank you guys for joining me. Thank you guys, listeners, for listening in. Hope you learn a lot about ba-da-bing, fake criminals, real criminals, and other stuff. You can find us on iTunes, on Stitcher, on SoundCloud, on our website, good jobbrain.com.

And don't forget to check out our sponsors at Bonobody. dot com and we'll see you guys next week bye hello this is Matt from the Explorers podcast. I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Vigelin, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history. Go to Explorespodcast.com or just look us up on your podcast app. That's the Explorers podcast.