MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Stranger Than Fiction Vol. IV

Episode Date: January 4, 2024

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. And today’s podcast features 3 stories that demonstrate that. The audio for all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "Crush Injury" -- 3 brothers discover a secret staircase in the woods (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/sx14YtiLFIM?feature=shared)#2 -- "Long Lost Daughter" -- An unbelievable coincidence in London (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/sj1nh-qnv0E?feature=shared)#1 -- "Sparks Fly" -- Even more bizarre than the event that nearly killed this man, is what happened afterwards (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/dIcBvNbHKTs?feature=shared)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and today's podcast will feature three stories that demonstrate that. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Crush Injury, and it's about three brothers who discover a secret staircase in the woods. The second story you'll hear is called Long Lost Daughter, and it's about an unbelievable coincidence in London. And the third and final story you'll hear is called

Sparks Fly, and even more bizarre than the event that nearly killed the man in the story is what happened afterwards. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So, if that's of interest to you, please ask the Amazon Music Follow button to be the back half of your two-person horse costume for Halloween, and then, after they agree to do it, spend the night before drinking Miller Lite and eating falafel.

Okay, let's get into our first story called Crush Injury. Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast, British Scandal. On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round-the-world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.

I'm Peter Frank-O'Pern. And I'm Afua Hirsch. And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time, somebody who's had a huge impact on me, who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message, it totally floored me. And the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle, that's all captured in unforgettable music that

has stood the test of time. Think that's fair, Peter? I mean, the way in which her music comes across is so powerful, no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. In October of 1994, a middle-aged man named Ivan, who lived in Estonia, which is a country in northern Europe, was walking in this forest looking for firewood. This forest butted up against the town he lived in, which was called Temiku, and so as a result of his proximity to it, he had spent a lot of time in these woods over the years. But in general, his exposure to this forest was just on the fringes. He would only look for firewood along the perimeter of the woods.

But for whatever reason, that day he was just really having a hard time finding good firewood. And so at some point, he decided to just walk deeper into the woods to see if he would have luck in there. And so he turns and starts walking into the forest. And very quickly, when the town has kind of disappeared from view behind him, he looked around and kind of liked being in the woods. He didn't go for walks in the woods. And suddenly he was on this nice nature walk. And so he decided, you know what, I can wait on the firewood. I'll just walk in the forest for a little while longer and enjoy myself and kind of meditate. So he just continued walking deeper and deeper into the woods. And after walking for nearly an hour, just kind of mindlessly walking about,

he sees up ahead there is very clearly a clearing. And then before the clearing is what looks like a chain link fence. Now, he's never been this deep into the woods before, so he has no idea what this is. But he's obviously curious, and so he decides he'll go see what it is. And so he continues walking closer and closer to what obviously is a chain link fence, and as he's getting closer to it, the trees around him are beginning to thin out. And suddenly, before he even reaches the fence, he gets a very clear view of what's on the other side. even reaches the fence, he gets a very clear view of what's on the other side. And it's this huge multi-story building that almost looks like a factory or some sort of government facility. And it's sitting maybe a couple hundred feet away from the fence, right in the middle of this

property. And there's really nothing around it. It's just this cleared out, big open area with this big building right in the middle. And there's a fence all the way around it. And so Ivan is totally intrigued by this, and so he walks right up to the fence, he grabs onto it, and he tries to look and figure out what this building is, but there's no clear signage on it, and there's no people anywhere. It's completely barren. There's nothing but this building. And then he notices there's obviously graffiti on the sides of this building, and the doors and windows appeared to be boarded up. And so this building, whatever it is, is clearly abandoned. And the first thought that goes through Ivan's head is scrap metal.

Times were tough for Ivan and his family, and so he and his two brothers, they all lived together, they would go out and they would steal scrap metal and sell it for a little bit of extra cash to make ends meet and provide for their big family. And so he's looking at this big building thinking, you know, if I can get in there, I guarantee you there is some metal that I can steal and I can sell. And so Ivan stayed at this fence just kind of staring at this building for a little while longer and continued to look around to make sure there weren't any people that he hadn't seen before. And after feeling satisfied

that this really was a totally abandoned building, he turned around and began hustling back towards town. And when he finally made it to town, making sure to grab some firewood along the way, he rounded up his two brothers and he told them about this find in the forest. And they all very excitedly agreed that that night they would go right back out there and they would go inside the building and see what they could find. And so around 9 p.m. that night, the brothers met up and they had flashlights and a set of bolt cutters. And they headed into the nearby forest and they marched their way all the way up to this fence that Ivan had found earlier in the day and they lifted their flashlights up and they scanned through the fence all over the property and when they didn't see anyone they put their flashlights down and one by one they climbed up and over this fence and then once they were all on the other side they began making their way up to this huge building sitting in the middle of the property

and when they got up to this building they confirmed it definitely looked like it was abandoned, except all of the doors and windows were sealed in such a way that even with bolt cutters, there was just no way to pry them open. They were not gonna get inside this building. And so after a little while of still trying to kind of smash their way into this building, the brothers all linked up and they decided,

you know what, we're not getting in and the longer we stay here, the better the chances are that we get caught. And so let's just head back. And so feeling totally dejected, they turn and they start walking back towards the fence they hopped in on. And as they're walking along,

they're kind of shining their lights left and right and looking around. And off to the far right side of the property, there is this small shack that they had not noticed on their way in. And so the brothers look at each other and they're like, hey, you know, we're already on this side of the fence. We might as well go check it out and see what's inside of it. Maybe there's scrap metal in there. And so the brothers turn and start making their way over to the shed. And when they get there, they discover it's only secured with a simple

padlock on a wooden door. And so they get their bolt cutters, they pop off the there, they discover it's only secured with a simple padlock on a wooden door. And so they get their bolt cutters, they pop off the lock, they open up the door, and there's initially nothing inside. At least that's what they think. But they move something on the ground, and it reveals this stairwell that leads into this underground bunker. And now it's the middle of the night on this abandoned property they've snuck into, and so there's some apprehension, but they shine their lights down the steps and they didn't see any immediate hazards. And they're thinking, you know what?

This is an adventure. Let's go down and see what's down there. And so they all went down the steps. And when they got down to the bottom, they turn the corner and they shine their light to see what's down here. And what was down there was this huge cellar that was full of scrap metal there was metal all over the ground and then there were also these shelves that went as far back as their lights could shine and on the lower shelves there were these weird square metal boxes that almost

looked like briefcases and then above those on the top shelf were 55-gallon aluminum drums. And in the brothers' experience, these drums were very, very valuable. Except they needed to make sure they weren't full of some liquid, because if they're full, they weigh like 500 pounds, and there's no way they'd be able to get them out. And then trying to open them up and spill whatever's inside of them is hazardous for a lot of reasons. And so they walked over to the first 55-gallon drum they saw, and they pushed it to see if it was empty. And the drum immediately rocked back and forth, echoing inside, indicating that it was empty. This was a huge, huge win.

And so the brothers are totally amazed. They grab this first drum, they pull it off the shelf, and they wheel it over to the base of the steps, and then they go back to get another drum off the shelf, and they reach up, they grab another empty drum, and as they're pulling it off, it dislodges another 55-gallon drum that was nearby that was full of some liquid, so it weighed 500 pounds, and it comes crashing off the shelf, and it lands on Ivan's leg, pinning him to the ground. And immediately, the two other brothers pulled the drum off of Ivan, but it was obvious there had been significant damage done to his leg. Ivan couldn't even stand up anymore. And so the brothers are looking around thinking, man, this is an amazing haul, but if Ivan can't even walk, I mean, it's going to be a nightmare trying to haul this metal back while also supporting Ivan.

even walk i mean it's going to be a nightmare trying to haul this metal back while also supporting ivan and so they decided they would leave now and they would wait for ivan to heal up and then they would come back and they would collect their amazing haul and so the brothers they reached down and they picked up whatever pieces of metal they could to just kind of stuff in their pockets and then the two brothers supported ivan and carried him up the stairs and then they very slowly walked their way over to the fence, and then somehow the three of them got up and over the fence, and then very slowly they made their way all the way through the forest back to Temiku, and when they got there, the two brothers helped Ivan get into his house, and they put him in his bed, and then Ivan went to sleep. The next morning when Ivan got up, he was expecting to feel better, but in fact his leg felt exponentially worse.

And then over the course of the next 72 hours, Ivan still believed if he just gutted it out and he waited, his leg would get better. But it just got worse and worse and worse. And so four days after this leg injury, Ivan was in so much pain, he couldn't do anything. And so he finally decided he had to go to the hospital. And so when he gets to the hospital, the doctor asks Ivan, you know, what happened to your leg? And Ivan would tell him that, oh, I was in the woods and a tree fell on my leg because he didn't want to admit to trying to steal scrap metal. And so the doctors, they accepted this. It seemed totally reasonable based on what his injury looked like. And so they admitted him to the hospital.

They put him in his hospital room. And right away, the doctors and nurses began administering all the treatments and things they would do for a crush injury. But it seemed like nothing was working. Over the course of the next several days, Ivan complained endlessly of the pain in his leg getting worse and worse and worse, and the swelling was going up, and overall Ivan's health just continued to deteriorate over his stay in the hospital.

And then, a week after being admitted to the hospital, so roughly 10 or 11 days after he was hurt, the doctors walked into his room and he was dead. His kidneys had just abruptly failed, and the doctors and nurses had absolutely no idea why. And so they told the family, we don't know what happened to him. And so the family just had to collect Ivan's body, and then they had a funeral for him. But they're all thinking to themselves, how could this have happened? He hurt his leg, and then his kidneys failed? It didn't make any sense. But before they could get any clarity on that, they were dealt another tragedy. The beloved family dog just kind of abruptly died. It was

young, it was healthy, and so just like Ivan, it was like this totally unexpected death. And so once again, the family's asking, what's going on here? And then just a couple of days after that, Ivan's stepson came downstairs one morning complaining of feeling sick. And when his family looked at his hands, they were blistered and covered in boils and looked like he had just reached his hands into a fire or something. But he would tell his family, I didn't do that. I don't know what's going on with my hands. I don't know why I feel so sick.

And so the family rushed the boy to the hospital. And naturally, the doctors asked him, you know, how did your hands get this way? What happened to you? And the boy to the hospital and naturally the doctors asked him you know how did your hands get this way what happened to you the boy would say i don't know but over the course of this initial discussion with doctors the boy would tell them that over the last couple of days he had been sifting through his stepfather ivan's possessions and he had actually been using some of ivan's tools from his toolbox now the doctors were already aware of the strangeness around Ivan's death, and they were aware of the sudden passing of the family dog, and now they're seeing this boy who is showing up with these strange symptoms for no particular reason.

And so the doctors knew something was off. And so on a hunch, they contacted the authorities, and they told them what they thought. And then later that day, the authorities showed up at Ivan's family's house. And when they got out of the car, they were covered head to toe in white hazardous material suits. And they told the family to evacuate the house for their safety. And then these people in suits got out these special wands and tools. And they marched into the family home. And immediately, all their equipment led them

to this one particular closet near the kitchen. And when they opened it up, in the closet was Ivan's toolbox, the same one the boy had been handling over the past couple of days. And when they opened that up, they found there were lots of normal tools you would expect inside of a toolbox, and they discovered one strange piece of scrap metal. It was the only piece of scrap metal that Ivan had grabbed off the floor of that cellar and tucked in his pocket before he and his brothers had left. And then after Ivan had passed away, his stepson had been going through his things, and he had discovered this piece of scrap metal, and for whatever reason, he had transferred it from the jacket to ivan's toolbox what ivan and his family didn't know was that that piece of metal was

extremely dangerous because it came not from some abandoned building on some abandoned property in the middle of the forest it came from an abandoned nuclear waste storage facility. That is what Ivan and his brothers had snuck onto. But because Ivan and his brothers had hopped over that side fence, they didn't see any of the warning signs that are posted on the front of the front gates telling people to stay back. Inside that cellar that the brothers were in, those small metal briefcase-looking things on the lower shelves were shields for radiation. Inside of each of them was radioactive metal. And when that full 55-gallon drum came crashing off the shelf and smashed into Ivan's leg,

his leg was not the only thing it smashed into. It smashed into one of those metal briefcases and broke it open, sending the radioactive metal inside of it flying out, and it landed right next to Ivan on the ground. And so when the brothers scrambled to pick up whatever loose scrap metal there was on the ground, Ivan unfortunately grabbed one piece, and it was the radioactive one. By the time Ivan finally got back to his house, he was actually already dead. He just didn't know it yet. That piece of metal had been inside of his jacket pocket,

and it had been pressed against his body long enough that he had been dealt a fatal dose of radiation. There was nothing anybody could have done, even if they knew what had happened to him. There was nothing anybody could have done, even if they knew what had happened to him. As for the dog, it used to sleep on Ivan's jacket, and it did so when this piece of scrap metal was inside of it, and so it too died of radiation poisoning. As for Ivan's stepson, the reason his hands had been so badly burned and why he'd become so sick, that was just from his brief exchange of touching the piece of scrap metal and then putting it in Ivan's toolbox. That alone had done that much damage to him. When the doctors considered the strangeness of Ivan's death, the dog's death, and now this boy's symptoms, they did suspect radiation poisoning, and so that was how the

authorities were able to get to their house and very quickly locate that toolbox amazingly Ivan's stepson and the rest of Ivan's family including his two brothers would make full recoveries however several months after this event and after authorities had come in and said their house was clear of radiation the grandmother would suddenly die totally unexpectedly. She was healthy, nothing was wrong with her. And so even though it was not officially cited as having been caused by radiation, many people believe it's from the exposure she had to this piece of scrap metal. Hello, I'm Emily and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities.

And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No? Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? Okay, last one.

It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's Stone Cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet, join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all, but behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out. Follow Terribly Famous

wherever you listen to your podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. And you'll always be the first one to catch our new episodes. But that's not all. You get access to other amazing shows like Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Morbid, 48 Hours, and 2020, all ad-free too. And you know what that means. Uninterrupted listening, so no more cliffhangers. Amazon Music is your home for all things true crime and offers the most ad-free top podcasts, so we definitely have something for you.

And it's already included in your Prime membership. To listen now, all you need to do is go to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash ballin, or download the free Amazon Music app. It's just that easy. Our next story is called Long Lost Daughter. In 2007, 60-year-old Michael Dick was living in Bow, East London with his wife and two daughters. While his life was not exactly exciting, it was good. He lived in a quiet and safe neighborhood, and Michael, who used to be a carpenter, was now semi-retired and got to spend the bulk of his time with his friends and family. But that year, something really started to bother him.

Ten years prior, Michael had split up with his first wife, and after their divorce was finalized, his ex-wife and the daughter they had together, her name was Lisa and she was 21 at the time, those two stayed in the family home in Sudbury, England, and Michael moved south about an hour and a half to Bow, East London. The divorce had been quite messy, and so Michael had not only lost touch with his ex-wife, he had also lost touch with Lisa. And so fast forward 10 years back to 2007, and Michael and Lisa had not spoken since the divorce, and Michael found himself suddenly feeling this unbelievable wave of grief over the loss of his relationship with his first child. And so after speaking with his current wife and his two other daughters, he decided that he had to go find Lisa.

He had to be reunited with her. The only problem was he didn't know where Lisa lived, he didn't have her contact information, and he didn't know where his ex-wife was, so he couldn't even ask her how to get in touch with Lisa. However he did have the street address of where they used to live in Sudbury, England and so he decided that would be his starting point. So in August of that year Michael and his two other younger daughters they hopped in the car and they left Bow East London and they headed up to Sudbury and when they got there Michael navigated to his old street which had brick houses lining each side of the road and he drove down until he spotted his old house and he parked right out front and then he alone hopped out of the car and he walked up

to the front door he took a deep breath and then he knocked on the door when the door opened it was not Lisa it was not his ex-wife it was some other family that he didn't know and they didn't know lisa or his ex-wife and so they said you know good luck finding your daughter but we don't have any information for you and so michael was crushed but he thanked them and he turned around and he went back to the car and he told his other daughters about what he had just learned and then from there the trio just kind of began driving around sudbury half looking for lisa out on the streets although none of them thought they would actually find her and then also kind of discussing what they were going to do next because now they had nothing and so as they're driving around the streets of sudbury they come to the

realization that their best bet at finding lisa is putting some sort of story in the local newspaper that hopefully she would see, and then she would contact Michael. And so they drove to the headquarters of the local paper, the Suffolk Free Press, and they went inside and they managed to speak to a reporter, and after telling the reporter Michael's story about how he's lost touch with Lisa, the reporter thought, you know what, this is actually a pretty interesting story and I'd be happy to do a small feature on you guys. will run in a couple of days, we'll run this picture along with a little write-up about how you're looking for Lisa, and we'll put your contact information in there, and hopefully she sees it, and she reaches out to you, and you can be reunited and live happily ever after. And so Michael thanked

the reporter and the photographer, and then he and his other two daughters hopped in the car and headed back to Bow, East London. In 2007, at the same time that Michael was beginning his search for Lisa, Lisa was actually beginning to think, you know what, I want to go find my dad. Lisa was now 31 years old. She had three kids of her own. She was married. She had moved out of Sudbury to a neighboring town. And she was thinking, you know, I really want to have a relationship with my dad again so that my kids can have a relationship with him. And so she began speaking with her mother and with friends about how she should go about finding her dad because like Michael, she didn't have his contact information, she didn't have a phone number, she didn't know anyone

who would, and then when she went on social media to look for him, he wasn't on there. And so she was kind of at a loss. Then one day in August, she was at her office and she was in the break room and she saw a copy of the Suffolk Free Press sitting out on the coffee table. So she picked it up and she began flipping through the pages. And then suddenly she stopped when she saw a picture of herself. She saw her and her mother walking along the streets of Sudbury. She had been in Sudbury just a couple of days ago to talk to her mom about finding her dad and kind of strategies for how to go about doing that. And then Lisa glanced at the caption for this photo and she nearly fell off of her chair. The man and the two girls who were the main focus of this photo that Lisa was in

were her father and her two stepsisters. She just didn't recognize them. She just saw herself in the back of this photo. So purely by chance, after being apart for over a decade, on the only day that Lisa happened to be in Sudbury talking to her mom about finding her father, she was literally 100 feet behind her father and her stepsisters as they were looking for her and putting out this ad in the paper to hopefully find her. And this one photo that the

photographer took captured all of them in the same frame Lisa would of course read the article and get her father's contact information she would reach out and initially Michael actually thought it was a scam and didn't believe this was actually Lisa calling to say I found myself in the picture of you in Sudbury but eventually he was convinced and he drove right out to Sudbury and he got a chance to meet his grandkids for the first time and today he and Lisa are still in touch. The next and final story of today's episode is called Sparks Fly. In July of 1848, a 25-year-old man named Phineas Gage got a job working construction on the Hudson River Railroad in New York. At this time in America, railroads were being laid all

over the country, and so lots of workers like Phineas were needed to blast rock out of the way to lay down these railroad tracks. And as it happened, Phineas was an expert in explosives. He had learned how to set controlled blasts growing up on his family's farm in New Hampshire, and then later in his life he had worked in a mine blasting through rock. And so in addition to just being the ideal railroad worker for this time in America, when Phineas actually started working in New York on this railroad, his co-workers immediately started looking up to him. Phineas was extremely smart and energetic, he was this incredible conversationalist, he was charismatic and funny, and a natural leader.

And so, just two months into starting this new job, it was no surprise to anyone who knew Phineas or worked with Phineas that he was promoted to blasting foreman, which meant Phineas would lead the explosives team. Phineas was so excited about this promotion that he went to a blacksmith and had a custom tamping iron made. A tamping iron is a long metal rod that's used to pack explosives. When railroad workers wanted to blast through, let's say, a big rock, they would start by drilling a deep but skinny hole in the rock. Then they would pour blasting powder inside. Then they'd put a fuse inside. And then using this tamping iron, they would push the blasting powder and the fuse deep into this hole inside of this rock or whatever it was they were blowing up.

And then once it was packed, they would ignite it. Usually, tamping irons were sort of rough tools that looked like crowbars, but Phineas really wanted something special to commemorate this promotion. And so Phineas had the blacksmith make this perfectly straight, smooth, four-foot-long metal tamping iron, and on one end was a pointed side, and on the other was a blunted side. And this rod, it weighed about 13 pounds, and it was about an inch and a quarter in diameter. And Phineas loved this tamping iron. He brought it with him not just to work, but basically anywhere he went. On September 3rd, 1848, so not long after Phineas's big promotion,

Phineas and his explosives team were blasting through some rock that ran through a forest. And Phineas, he was right up front over the blasting site helping them prep the explosive. His team had drilled that long, deep, skinny hole into the rock they were about to blow up, and then blasting powder was put inside, a fuse was put inside, and then Phineas took his tamping iron and began packing the powder and fuse deep into the rock. And the way he did this is he used the blunt end of his tamping iron to pack the explosives, which meant the pointed end was sticking out of the rock. And so as Phineas is doing this, someone behind him slipped on a rock, one of his men tripped

or something, and so Phineas, with his hands kind of on his tamping iron, turned to the right to look and see what was going on. And when he did this, somehow his tamping iron that was inside of this skinny hole must have nudged against the inside of the rock, created a spark, and ignited the explosive inside of the rock. Which meant the tamping iron was basically fired like a missile out of this hole into Phineas' head. to Phineas's head. It went in his cheek, up behind his left eye, up and out of his skull, and then shot 80 feet away, landing on the ground covered in Phineas's blood and brains. This happened so quickly that for a second after this thing has blown through Phineas's head, Phineas just stood there upright with his eyes wide, and then suddenly a geyser of blood began shooting out of the top of his head, and then Phineas fell backwards onto the ground.

When Phineas's body hit the ground, he began having a seizure, at which point his co-workers, who were still kind of shaken up from this sudden blast, they rushed over and tried to kind of position him in a way that he wouldn't hurt himself. But I mean, they're looking at him and he's literally missing half of his head. He's covered in blood. And they're thinking, you know, there's nothing we can do for him, but basically wait for him to die. And so all of Phineas's co-workers, who adored Phineas, just stood there very somber watching their boss die. But eventually, Phineas stopped having a seizure, and then he opened his eyes, and he looked up at his crew, and he sat up, and he said, what happened? Now remember, half of his head has been blown out by a 13-pound,

4-foot-long metal rod that has shot through his head. And his co-workers, when they heard how clearly he was speaking, and how focused his eyes were, I mean, they couldn't believe it. How in the world is this guy alive, let alone having a coherent conversation with them? And so the co-workers told Phineas, please lie down, we'll get you help, lie down, relax. But Phineas, who still had blood also shooting out of his head, just kind of stood up casually and walked over to the railroad cart and signaled for his crew to take him back into town. And so the crew, they're looking over at Phineas, who now is literally head to toe,

just red from blood, still bleeding, but less so. And he's just sitting on the railroad cart waiting for them. And so they walk over to him and they start the slow one-mile journey into town on this railroad cart, and the whole time they're all kind of looking at Phineas, expecting him to die any second. But instead Phineas is just kind of looking around with half of his head, and at some point he pulled out his logbook and carefully wrote down what time they were leaving their work site to make sure his crew was accurately paid. And then finally they reached town, and Phineas was still very much alive and looking around, acting like nothing had happened to him, and the co-workers helped him to his hotel, and Phineas just sat outside on a chair in front of his hotel,

just people watching, while his crew went and got a doctor. A doctor soon arrived, and he too was completely shocked at Phineas's appearance, but even more so was Phineas's eyes. He looked at the doctor, and his eyes were totally focused, like he was all there, totally lucid, looking at the doctor, waiting for him to come over and help him out with his little injury. And when the doctor kind of timidly approached Phineas, Phineas very famously said as he sat on his chair, Doctor, here's business enough for you. Like everyone else, the doctor fully assumed that despite Phineas' miraculous recovery from this injury, that he would soon die from this horrific wound in his head.

And so the doctor moved Phineas up into the hotel, put him in a bed, and then basically made him comfortable. Now, the doctor at this point was not trying to save Phineas. He felt like there was nothing he could do to save Phineas. At this point, it was like mercy. Let's make this as pain-free as possible for Phineas, as he inevitably dies from this injury. for Phineas, as he inevitably dies from this injury. But Phineas didn't die. He would break out of it and basically be okay again. However, his personality at first after he came out of this state of delirium was not really the same. No longer was he this funny, smart, charming, confident leader. Instead, he was this guy who seemed to have lost all of his inhibitions and was kind of childlike. He swore all the time. He would tell people he had these

crazy plans he was going to go do, but he would never follow through with them. And he would tell his nieces and nephews these wild stories about himself that were obviously made up and not even close to reality. But overall, he was okay, even though you could see his brain pulsing underneath his skin on the side of his head that had been blown off. And within a couple of years of this injury, those changes to Phineas' personality kind of faded, and he really did become old Phineas. However, there was one unique quirk to Phineas post-injury that never went away, and that was Phineas's kind of unhealthy love for the tamping iron that had blown through his head. After his injury, Phineas kind of stopped making friends, and any friends he did have, he really didn't try to keep those relationships up.

He didn't get married, he didn't have kids. Instead, the tamping iron became sort of like his best friend. He took it everywhere with him, even posing at one point with the tamping iron the way you would expect a couple to pose for a photo. the tamping iron the way you would expect a couple to pose for a photo. Twelve years after his horrific injury, Phineas would develop seizures likely from the injury, and then he would die with his beloved tamping rod right by his side. His case changed neuroscience forever by showing that an injury to the brain could affect specific personality traits. Today, Phineas' skull and his tamping rod are on display at Harvard Medical School.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our other studios' podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, and Run Full. Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to watch hundreds more stories like the ones you heard today, head to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate to go. on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about

yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and he seemed really unwell. So she wound up taking him to the hospital right away so he could get treatment. While Dorothy's friend waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit. But she would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder decades later what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott. From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and so many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin

sit down to discuss a new case covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try and discover what really happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.