MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - The Entertainer

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

Today’s podcast features 3 unique stories that all involve stunts gone wrong. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "Sideways" -- A performer makes a mistake during a live show (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny_s07D-LT8)#2 -- "The Stunt" -- While deployed to the Middle East, one US military member makes a terrible mistake (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bvMIHUVkVE)#1 -- "Magic" -- A man attempts an impossible stunt (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWFUF3VIm-4)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. Today's podcast features three unique stories that all involve stunts gone wrong. The audio from all three of these stories have been pulled from our main YouTube channel and have 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 Sideways,

and it's about a performer who made a miscalculation during a live show. The second story you'll hear is called The Stunt, and it's about a deployed U.S. soldier who made a terrible mistake. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Magic, and it's about a magician who attempts an impossible stunt. But before we get into those 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 offer to make the Amazon

Music Follow button a nice oregano grilled cheese sandwich, but instead of oregano, use crushed up poison ivy. Okay, let's get into our first story called Sideways. I'm Peter Frankopan. 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 favorite 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. Do you 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. 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. In the late 1800s, a deadly phenomenon was occurring in America. Fire departments were beginning to use these large safety nets that resembled these huge circular stretches of canvas to try to save people that were stuck in burning buildings. During a multi-story fire, these firefighters would show up and they would get out this big net and they would all take up positions around it, holding on to the edges, and then they would move it directly underneath one of the windows of the the burning building and then they would call out to the people inside to jump out of the window onto the net and then when they jumped the firefighters would make sure to maneuver the net

to try to catch the person right in the middle breaking their fall and saving their lives however the deadly phenomenon was that these people who were stuck in these buildings were more afraid to make the jump onto the net than they were of the fire. And so despite the firefighters' constant urges to please just jump, they would stay put and they would die in the fire. And so fire departments all over America were desperately trying to find ways to educate the American public about the relative safety of these nets, that certainly making this jump is a better bet than staying in an actively burning building. But despite their efforts, Americans were still staying put in these buildings and dying unnecessarily. In 1883, which was around the time of this deadly phenomenon, a diving instructor working out of Washington, D.C. named Robert Odlum heard about this issue and he thought to himself, you know, if Americans just maybe saw someone make the jump successfully, they wouldn't be afraid anymore.

And since Robert was a diving instructor and so was very comfortable jumping from heights, he thought, well, who better to make these demonstrations than me? And so in collaboration with several Washington, D.C. fire departments, Robert began hosting these demonstrations where he would leap out of multi-story buildings onto the safety net. And very quickly, these demonstrations began attracting very big crowds, but not because they wanted the education of the event. They just wanted to see someone jump out of a building onto a net. It was like a circus act. And Robert, who was not expecting this to happen, found himself really enjoying the attention he was garnering. And so pretty quickly, he stopped doing demonstrations to show off fire net safety and instead began jumping off of huge bridges into bodies of water just because

people thought it was awesome. He was becoming this celebrity in Washington, D.C. And soon, Robert began taking his show all over the country, basically touring to all these bridges all over America, and he would put out these flyers all over the city encouraging people to show up to the bridge on the day of his jump, and then when he would get to the bridge, there'd be hundreds and hundreds of people cheering him on. But Robert's very unlikely and rapid rise to fame and fortune quickly spawned copycats. And in 1885, so two years after Robert had begun this jumping venture, his popularity was beginning to wane because he was no longer as unique. Before, it was really just him doing these jumps,ane because he was no longer as unique. Before it was really just him doing these jumps and now he was kind of a commodity.

And so feeling desperate to become relevant again, Robert thought to himself, you know, I got to do something that sets me apart from all the other bridge jumpers. I got to do something that nobody else has done. That way I can once again become the bridge jumper. And it just so happened there was a bridge that had recently been constructed in New York called the Brooklyn Bridge that was massive. It spanned 1,600 feet from Brooklyn across the East River to New York City, and at its highest point, it was a whopping 130 feet off of the water. And so if Robert made that jump, he would actually set the record for the highest bridge jump ever.

But by this point, bridge jumping had become popular enough that police had caught on to it and they had made it illegal, mostly to protect the bridge jumpers from themselves. And so any time police saw advertisements for an upcoming bridge jump, they would show up to the location on the day of the jump in force, and they would stop the jumper from jumping. And so Robert knew this, but he still needed to get the word out about this big Brooklyn Bridge jump. And so he created a very clever word-of-mouth campaign amongst people in New York, and he also began handing out these flyers that were fairly cryptic, but still told

people where to go and at what time for this big spectacle they were going to see. And on May 19th of that year, the day of the jump, Robert's underground advertising campaign had worked beautifully. By early that morning, the Brooklyn Bridge was covered with hundreds and hundreds of people, also down in the banks as well. There's all these people who are all waiting to see Robert make this record-setting jump. Robert had become a bit of a showman since he began doing these bridge jumps, and he had developed a sort of trademark entrance. He would arrive in a black horse and carriage, and then once it stopped on the bridge, he would leap out, and he'd be wearing this long coat, and he would take it off, revealing his swimsuit, and the crowd would cheer, and then he would wave to the crowd, and then he would just run off revealing his swimsuit and the crowd would cheer and then

he would wave to the crowd and then he would just run to the edge and leap off the bridge and so on may 19th all these people who are waiting for robert they're looking for this black horse and carriage and around noon time someone spotted it it was coming onto the bridge from the brooklyn side and then once it stopped on the bridge the door flung open and robert leapt out in his big coat he ripped his coat off revealing his swimsuit the crowd was going wild everyone was so pumped about this he's waving and getting ready and he starts running to the railing to make this jump and before he jumps the police swarm him and arrest him the police were not dumb they had caught on to this underground

advertising campaign. And so like everyone else, they were out in force on this bridge. There were all these officers everywhere. And so as soon as they saw this carriage, they immediately rushed over, intercepted it, and they stopped him. And so as they're arresting Robert, the crowd is starting to boo and they're chanting, let him jump, let him jump. And the police were all kind of gathered on the Brooklyn side of the bridge. They're telling people to start to disperse. And as they're doing this, something incredible happens. On the far other side of the bridge, on the New York side of the bridge, another black horse and carriage had just come to a stop on the bridge.

The doors had flung open and a man had jumped out wearing a long coat. He had ripped it off, revealing a swimsuit, and the crowd went wild. It was the real Robert Odlum. The man the police had arrested was actually an actor that Robert had paid to pretend to be him. Robert had told him to show up at a particular time and make the typical entrance that he would in order to suck all the police to that side of the bridge and then while that was happening Robert would show up and have enough time and space to make the jump and his plan had worked perfectly and so the police who are on the Brooklyn side they see this happening and they realize there's no way they can run all the way across the bridge and stop Robert before he makes

the jump and so like everyone else they just kind of walked to the railing and they watched and so the real Robert after revealing his swimsuit he waved to the crowd he's smiling everyone's going crazy and he runs over to the railing he climbs onto the other side and he's looking out over the water and he gives one more wave to everyone down below in boats and on the banks and on the sides of the bridge, and everyone's going crazy, and then he jumps. Onlookers would later say that at first his jump was perfect. As soon as he leapt off the bridge, like he always did, he put his right arm straight over his head and he tucked his left arm by his side. This allowed him to stay in an upright vertical position as he fell. But just a second into his fall, a strong gust of wind blew Robert off his axis, and suddenly he was falling on his side.

Now, it's important to understand bridge jumpers, when they jump from really high heights, they need to land feet first in a vertical position. This allows their feet to, quote, break the surface tension of the water before the rest of their body comes crashing down. And if they do it that way, the water functions much like the firefighter's safety net. It will break the jumper's fall and save their life. But if the jumper lands at basically any other angle, the water tension will not break fast enough before the rest of their body hits the surface of the water. And so the water, instead of functioning like a net that will save them,

will actually function like concrete. So after this gust of wind had blown Robert onto his side, he began flailing in midair to try to get himself back to his upright vertical position, but he couldn't do it in time, and so he slammed into the water directly on his right side. And when the crowd saw this, they figured something was wrong, but they didn't really know, and so everyone just kind of gasped and waited to see what would happen next. And they're looking, and then finally Robert emerges from the deep, except he's face down and he's motionless. And so some of Robert's friends who were on a boat below, they leapt into the water, they swam over of Robert's friends who were on a boat below, they leapt into

the water, they swam over to Robert, they pulled him back to the boat, they got him up on the deck, and when they looked at him, he looked awful. There was blood coming out of his mouth, he was barely conscious, and he would just say to them, did I make a good jump? And then he would die. An autopsy would reveal that Robert's impact with the surface of the water had basically obliterated all of his insides. Amongst other things, his liver, his spleen, and both his kidneys had ruptured, and all of the ribs on his right side were broken. A year later, another bridge jumper named Larry Donovan would make the jump off of the Brooklyn Bridge and survive, setting the record for the highest bridge jump at the time.

and survive, setting the record for the highest bridge jump at the time. 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. 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? 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. Our next story is called The Stunt. Brian Joplin was born in 1972 and was raised in this tiny town in Oklahoma called Hugo. He was a big guy, so growing up he was always encouraged to play football, and he did, but his real passion had always been working on cars. It was something he loved to do and he was extremely good at doing. After he graduated high school, he stuck around in Hugo doing some auto body work, but he got this feeling that he should do something bigger with his life. And so in 1992, he decided to enlist in the United States Navy. This was something his family was extremely proud of him for doing, especially his grandfather who had flown bomber

planes during World War II. Following Brian's initial military training, better known as boot camp, he was sent to Aviation Machinist Mate School, which is a military school for military members that teaches you how to be a mechanic for all things that fly. And so after Brian breezed through the school, because he was already a very skilled mechanic, and so it came to him naturally, he was sent to his first duty station out in California. And so he joins his California unit, and immediately he excels, and he becomes one of the very best mechanics at his unit, despite being one of the most junior. And while he was in California, he also met his wife, Belinda. And so over the next several years that he was in California,

and then he moved around to Texas and a couple other places, he just continued to shine at work. And at home, he and his wife began building a family. They had two daughters. And so by and large, everything in Brian's life was going exactly to plan. Until Brian made a terrible mistake. to plan, until Brian made a terrible mistake. Fast forward to October 4th, 2005, and Brian, who was 32 at the time, was deployed with his unit to Bahrain, which is a country in the Persian Gulf. That particular day, Brian, along with two other mechanics from his unit and two pilots from

his unit, had been tasked with flying from Bahrain north to Kuwait which is another country in the Persian Gulf this was a routine flight about an hour long it was one they had made several times during this deployment Brian was not really looking forward to doing it and neither were the other people that were on this particular flight but Brian decided the way he would make this trip less monotonous and boring is he would perform the stunt. So Brian and the other two mechanics, they load in the back of this helicopter in the cargo area, so the passenger area of this helo, and the two pilots they load into the cockpit and within a couple of minutes they were 125 feet off the ground careening forward out over the

Persian Gulf at over 120 miles an hour. Brian and the other two mechanics in the back of this craft had elected to keep the back loading ramp that folds up and down to allow people to come in and out of this helicopter. They had decided to keep it down for this flight. So basically, they had this huge opening that just looked straight down to the earth. But this is a very common thing in the military. Lots of helicopters, when they're flying around, have either a side door open or the back ramp down because it provides an incredible view. And more importantly, it provides this amazing breeze inside of the cabin. A few minutes later, when the helicopter is way out over the Persian Gulf, Brian decides now is a good time to do this stunt and so he looks across at the

other side of the helicopter and kind of signals at the other two mechanics it's super loud inside of the back of a helo and so there's no way they could have spoken to each other besides with a headset and they were not about to speak about the stunt over the headset because they didn't want the pilots to know and so brian signaled to the other two because they were totally in on his stunt he was about to do and so they grinned and one of them pulled out a camera to be ready for what he was going to do and then brian disconnected his helo lanyard so inside of a military helicopter you'll find all these metal eyelets these little rings all over the floor the walls the ceiling and these are there in order to attach cargo or strap things down or to attach yourself, a person, inside of the helicopter.

And so the way you do that is by using your helo lanyard. It's this belt you wear that has this special strap that comes off the front of it and at the end of this one or two foot long strap is a carabiner, a clip, and you clip that onto any of those eyelets. And so that keeps you from flying out of the helicopter if the pilots need to maneuver suddenly or if you lose altitude anything can happen inside and so brian removes his helo lanyard and then grabs this stretch of nylon rope it was like a crudely built safety harness that kind of functioned like a helo lanyard in the sense that there was a carabiner on one end and on the other there was a way to attach it to yourself but unlike it being

this belt and kind of high-tech system that attached to him it was really just kind of a slipknot on one end of this 10 foot long line and so brian most likely had built this 10 foot long safety harness for this particular stunt or someone else had but either way he picks this up after detaching his helo lanyard and he puts the loop end of this 10-foot line the slipknot end over his head down to his waist and then cinched it tight and then he very carefully stood up and walked towards the back of the helo and then he clipped the end of this 10-foot line with the carabiner into one of the eyelets on the ground right where the back ramp begins to go down and so once that was in place, he turned and looked

at the other two mechanics and gave them one more thumbs up. And then he got down on his hands and knees and he begins crawling backwards down the ramp. And so once he gets to the very edge of this ramp, so literally right behind him is just the open air. At that point, he grabs with his left hand one of those metal rings that are on the actual ramp itself. He gets a firm grip with one hand and then with his right hand he grabs the side of the ramp or some metal framing there and so once he had a good grip and he felt confident in it he kind of slowly lowered his lower half until it slipped off of the ramp and as soon as it did the winds outside the helicopter the 120 mile an hour plus winds, they immediately swept his

legs up and kind of held them in the air horizontal like he was flying. And so he's holding on to the back of the ramp, but his arms are kind of tucked up near his chest. But once he feels his legs up in the air, he slowly extends himself. And finally, when they were fully extended, he was officially doing the Superman stunt. This was called Superman-ing, what he was doing. And as soon as he was in this position, the other crew members inside of the helicopter, they knew this was it. Let's take some pictures.

And so one of them got their camera out and took some pictures of him. And Brian knows he's getting pictures taken. He's holding on as tight as he can. And then after the pictures were taken and Brian looked up and kind of got the thumbs up that he was good he began trying to pull himself back into the helicopter but he lost his grip and as soon as he lost his grip those 120 mile an hour plus winds they whipped him backwards and the safety harness that he had strapped around his waist that's the only thing that caught him from flying away from the helicopter and so brian attempts to try to grab the ramp but it's too far away and as he's getting pulled by the wind away

from the helicopter that harness that was around his waist it rides up until it stops right around his chest and so at that point he keeps his arms pinned by his side because he doesn't want the harness to slip up over his shoulders because then he will fall to his death. But because this harness was self-tightening, as he was whipping in the winds, the wind was pulling him so hard away from the helicopter that it was tightening that loop around his chest. And so his chest got so tightly squeezed that it caused him to pass out. And as soon as that happened, his arms that were holding that harness in place, well, his arms went limp and then the wind whipped his arms over his head and the harness immediately slipped up over his shoulders, off his head, off his arms, and he

went flying 125 feet all the way down to the water below where he died. There were at least eight people that were punished for this incident, including the two crew members in the back of the helicopter taking pictures because they were totally in on this, but the details of the punishments were never made public. The next and final story of today's episode is called Magic. On January 27th, 1908, a 34-year-old handcuffed man walked out from behind the curtain to a cheering crowd inside of a theater in St. Louis, Missouri. This was going to be this man's first ever live performance, but he did not seem nervous. Next to this man on stage was this comically

oversized milk can that was filled to the brim with water. Once the audience had stopped clapping and had calmed down and taken their seats, this man on stage turned to face this milk can and then climbed up this small ladder and then lowered himself feet first into this can and as he did his body displaced water from the can causing it to spill over onto the stage and then once almost all of his lower half was submerged in water and the audience could only see his face this man looked over at his assistants in the wings of this theater and kind of gestured to them that he was ready to start and so the assistants come running out into the middle of the stage and they immediately close the lid of this milk can over this guy pushing his head down into the water and

so as the audience is gasping and collectively holding their breath the assistants proceed to lock this lid with six different locks around the top, and then they wheeled over this cabinet that kind of collapsed around the can, so it was totally out of view of the audience. Now, for this audience, they had never seen anything like this before, and so immediately they all began murmuring and whispering to each other, wondering how this guy is going to survive what he's doing. But two minutes after that lid had been sealed, that 34-year-old man emerged from behind the cabinet with his hands open wide so he wasn't handcuffed, totally unharmed. And then the cabinet was moved aside and the audience could see the lid of this milk can was still locked.

During his lifetime, nobody could ever figure out how the great magician Harry Houdini had escaped that milk can. These dangerous stunts made Harry extremely famous, and it's why we still know him today, nearly 100 years after his death. But it wasn't just that he was able to successfully perform these stunts, it was his attitude while he performed these stunts that made him so notable. He really just came off as being totally fearless, that he was willing to do just about any stunt. But that wasn't actually true. There was one stunt that Harry was absolutely terrified of. Now, he would eventually work up the courage to attempt this particular stunt, but while he was doing it, he panicked and he had to be rescued by his assistants. And after that, he never tried it again. And for decades, nobody else tried it either.

Because, I mean, if Harry Houdini can't perform this stunt, then certainly no one else can either. But in 1990, a daring 32-year-old man named Joe Burris decided he would be the person who would finally conquer this infamous stunt. Joe was a small-time children's magician in Fresno, California, but deep down, he had always believed that someday he would be the next Harry Houdini. In fact, he would actually tell his family that not only would he be the next Harry Houdini, but he would be even better than Harry Houdini.

And so that year, he decided it was finally time to make that dream a reality and so he saw performing this infamous stunt as a way to make that happen so on Halloween night of that year so October 31st Joe adorned in his white tuxedo along with his two young sons and his parents they arrive at Blackbeard's Family Fun Center, which was an amusement park in Fresno, California. The family hopped out of the white limousine that Joe had arranged to bring them there, and they began walking across the parking lot to this big crowd of people. And when this big crowd of people saw Joe walking towards them, they all began to cheer. Joe's stunt that he was about to perform that night had been very heavily advertised mostly by Joe and so it had become this spectacle in Fresno. It was going to be aired live on TV while he was doing it and

it was going to be broadcast on a radio station. So after Joe and his family make it over to this big crowd Joe walks to the front and he climbs up on this impromptu stage and he gives this impassioned speech to his audience about how he's going to be the one who takes on this stunt and becomes the next Harry Houdini and then afterwards he looks over at his assistants all these guys that are around him and he gestures to them that he's ready to begin and so with all these tv cameras rolling the assistants walk up to Joe and they begin shackling his wrists and they put these chains around his body and then they lifted him up and put him inside of the see-through plastic coffin. And then this coffin was lowered into the seven foot pre-dug hole that was right nearby. Once Joe gave the signal that he was ready to go,

they would fill this hole in, and the stunt that he would perform would be to escape being buried alive. Houdini had attempted this by being buried under six feet of dirt, and he had managed to get out of his coffin, but then he just could not get through the dirt and began to panic, and had it not been for his assistants literally reaching into the dirt and pulling him out, Houdini would have died. Joe, apparently a year earlier had attempted some sort of practice run of this stunt it was not the full amount of dirt it was some smaller amount of dirt and he had managed to get out and so he was really confident in himself and so for this big televised event he had decided to really up the ante and make sure it was clear he was not only as good as Houdini, but better than Houdini. And so he was going to

have three feet of dirt put on his coffin first, and then four feet of wet cement put in on top of that. Many people, when they heard this plan, both the TV personalities, the radio personalities, onlookers, they said this was a terrible idea and you shouldn't do it. But Joe was extremely confident and brushed them off and said i know what i'm doing once joe was in his coffin at the bottom of the seven foot hole he looked up at his assistants standing over the grave waiting for a signal and he gave it to them and kind of shouted up to them that he was ready and so his team very excitedly began shoveling dirt into the hole but after only a couple of minutes when less than a

couple of feet had been put in the hole they heard Joe yelling out from inside of the coffin and so everything stopped the staff jumped in and they pulled the dirt out until they could finally get the lid of the coffin off and they found Joe he was alive but he was very shaken up and he kind of sat up and said yeah the chain around my neck is too tight you got to readjust the chain now all these onlookers at this event they heard joe say this and they saw him and their read on this situation was not that his neck chain was too tight but rather it looks like joe might have bitten off more than he can chew that this stunt is way more dangerous and maybe he's realizing that and he's looking for excuses to not do the stunt and so the onlookers they didn't try to egg him on to do it anyways they started feeling apprehension too and so everybody

who was there began telling joe hey man get out don't do this now this is a really bad idea it's not worth it the chain's too tight that's a sign don't do it don't get back in but joe after kind of collecting himself told the group that he was totally fine that it was really just the neck chain that was the only issue and he demanded his staff put that chain back around his neck after they loosen it up, and then put him back in the coffin and fill it in. And so eventually, his staff, taking cues from him, said, okay, and they got his neck chain readjusted, and they put him back in the coffin, they chained him back up again, they closed the lid, and once again, he gave the signal that he was ready to start. And so a very apprehensive crowd watched as the dirt went back in, and after three

feet of dirt were in the hole, the cement truck came over and poured four feet of wet cement on top of the dirt. And then after this hole had been completely filled in, the onlookers, which included Joe's two young sons and his parents, they kind of moved in and got right up against this grave and were looking straight down at the top waiting for Joe to come out again. But as they're watching this hole and as they're filming this hole, all of the cement in the hole suddenly drops about a foot. What had happened was the nearly 15,000 pounds of dirt and wet cement sitting on top of this coffin had finally caused the lid to break and in an instant all of the dirt and cement poured into the coffins surrounding Joe completely. He was truly buried alive. Onlookers immediately jumped into action and did their best

to try to dig Joe out but it took them 30 minutes to finally reach him, and when they did, he was already dead. Joe had ironically died on the exact 64th anniversary of Houdini's death. After an investigation, it was determined that Joe had not tested the strength of his plastic coffin against the weight of the wet cement. He'd only tested it against dirt because that was the one he had done the year earlier. He had done it under dirt and it worked. Joe had also not taken into account that cement dries from the bottom up. So even if Joe had managed to get out of the coffin and make his way through the first three feet of dirt that was right on top of the coffin, he most likely would have been trapped under the hardened cement layer. This was a doomed mission from the start, but because Joe was so

confident in himself and his ability to do this stunt, no one stopped him. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you got something out of this episode and you haven't done this already, please offer to make the Amazon music follow button, a nice oregano grilled cheese sandwich, but instead of oregano use crushed up poison Ivy. This podcast airs every Monday and Thursday morning, but in the meantime, you can always watch one of the hundreds of stories we have posted on our main

YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. We have a registered 501c3 charitable organization called the Mr. Ballin Foundation that honors and supports victims of violent crime as well as their families. Monthly donors to the Mr. Ballin Foundation Honor Them Society will receive free gifts and exclusive invites to special live events. Go to mrballin.foundation and click Get Involved to join the Honor Them Society today. If you want to get in touch with me, please follow me on any major social media platform

and then send me a direct message. My username is just at Mr. Ballin and I really do read the majority of my DMs. Lastly, we have some really cool merchandise, so head on over to shopmrballin.com to have a look. So, that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya.

I'm going to go. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. Hey, Mr. Ballin fans. Did you know you can listen to episodes of this very show ad-free and one month early on Amazon Music with your Prime membership? That's right. All your favorite Mr. Ballin episodes can be heard on Amazon Music ad-free, 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.