My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 436 - You, Me & American Geography

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

This week, Georgia tells the story of Sheriff Bufford Pusser and Karen covers the 1917 Halifax Explosion.  For our sources and show notes, visit www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Bacardi, do what moves you. Live passionately, drink responsibly. Copyright 2024. Bacardi, it's trade dress and the bat device are trademarks of Bacardi and Company Limited. Rum 40% alcohol by volume. ["My Favorite Rum"] My Favorite Murder Hey, real quick before we start, we have some very exciting news for you from the world of My Favorite Murder.

That's right. So now, in addition to our Monday minisodes and regular Thursday episodes, we are doing a new third weekly episode called Rewind with Karen and Georgia. That's right. Georgia and I do what we've never done before, and that is go back and re-listen to our earliest episodes of our own podcast, Nightmare. Yikes.

Then we share our favorite moments, talk about the lessons we've learned along the way, and give important case updates. So to repeat, this is a bonus weekly episode of My Favorite Murder. Whether you're a day one listener or you're a brand new murderino, please come and join us as we rewind to the very beginning. The first episode of Rewind is out now and episode two drops Wednesday, July 17th, wherever you get your podcasts. Goodbye. Hello. And welcome. To my favorite murder.

That's Georgia Hardstart. That's Karen Kilgarafe. We overlap perfectly like professionals now. Ever since we got back in the studio, the hello has been like, like eventually we're gonna fuck it up and say it at the wrong time, at like different times.

But so far. I don't think we are. That's fucking beautiful. We've had four years of at-home COVID training where we have made Zoom timing work. This is like, it's like we've been just doing really intense plank pushups. Some say that we are the synchronized swimming

of podcasting. Do you agree or disagree? I couldn't agree more. And I wanna tell you that I'm from a synchronized swimming of podcasting. Do you agree or disagree? I couldn't agree more. And I want to tell you that I'm from a synchronized swimming family. What? My cousins Mary Kate and Eileen were both on the San Francisco Marionettes. My sister and I used to go watch them rehearse

slash practice. And in the summertime when our city cousins, Mary Kate and Eileen, used to come and visit us, they would teach us how to do... So you know the one where like their legs are just floating on the water and then one goes up and then the drill goes down? We worked for an entire summer on that. Because you have to because that's how hard it is. Because it doesn't make sense and you're basically doing it like by pretending your hands are flippers. I've always loved synchronized swimming. I think that's amazing. I do think like it was a detriment to my childhood that there wasn't more synchronized swimming

in it. So congratulations. I hate to lord it over you, but at the same time, these privileges, they just feel so great. What I love is that when you are on a synchronized swimming team in San Francisco, California, it is so cold and overcast. And everyone's there with their nose clip on and going for it. But it's such a warm weather sport taking place in San Francisco.

Oh, will they ever learn? I mean, no. No. They don't have to. Because basically the marionettes were saying, the San Francisco marionette synchronized swimming team, they were saying, we're tougher than the rest. We can do this with chicken, what are they called? Chicken arms?

Chicken arms. When you're cold. Chicken skin. Chicken skin. Not chicken pox was where I was going when I was like, that can't be right. Please don't swim with chicken pox. If you have active diarrhea or you have chicken pox, you cannot go in the swimming pool. Also, no cutoffs, no running, no bottles. Well, I'm fucked.

You're fucked for summer. Can I tell you about the worst book I've ever read? Please. It's, like, horrifying. Would you read me the worst book you've ever read? That's our new podcast. I don't read it like that. It's great. But remember how I was like, I need suggestions

for like happy fun time books. This is not that. Then you went straight to Stephen King. So dark. It is kind of Stephen King-y. It's called Fantastic Land. And the premise is that there is a horrible hurricane like storm off the coast of Florida, and the people who work at this amusement park called Fantastic Land have to stay behind to protect the park. There's like 200 of them. There's enough food and water for everyone. But people go fucking mad. And each faction of the park, you know, like, band together and become basically like, it's like Lord of the Rings, but in a fucking amusement park.

Say the author. It's called Fantastic Land, and it's in a fucking amusement park. Say the author. It's called Fantastic Land and it's by Mike Bakovan. Bakovan? Bakovan. Bakovan. Spell it, spell it. B-O-C-K-O-V-E-N. Bakovan.

And it is like, it's told by interviews with people who are there. That's how this book is read, which I love that. World War Z did that really well, too. Almost like your reading and documentary? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And it's just the things that they end up doing is like, and it doesn't seem that far-fetched.

Right. But it's a good one. Oh, I got to read this. I highly recommend not listening right before bed. We say on our True Crime podcast, hey, where are you in your day? Head just hit the pillow? Hi. This is different. There's no limbs being amputated by pirates. Like, where are you in your day? Head just hit the pillow, hi. This is different. There's no limbs being amputated by pirates. Like it's not the same.

Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. I'm all pirates this episode, sorry. Yeah. I was gonna say, but I think this is too far in the future, but just two political, exciting, positive things that happened both in England. Oh yes.

For real, not in this country. But both in England, for real, not in this country, but both in England and in France, where it is just a thrilling thing to see people actively work against the negative influences and these bizarre movements of people who can't handle real life. Yeah can't handle diversity and kindness and Any kind of modern technology body autonomy like, you know any of the things can't Navigate the internet right to the point where they're not Influenced by like leads their life in a certain way and therefore thinks that everyone needs to be Christian as well That's what I'm trying to say.

She said it out loud. It's wild. It's very fantastic land out here. Oh my God, it is. It so is. It is. But here's what's great. We already have our group.

That's right. It's you and me and the people listening to this podcast. We're going to be over by the hot listening to this podcast. Oh my God. Oh my God. We're going to be over by the hot dog area of this fantastic land. Absolutely. We're going to be guarding the hot dogs with our lives. Oh, wait. That's a thing I'd like to recommend, even though it's a book I haven't read yet, but

I am so excited to read. So this is a creator on TikTok, named Hillary with one L. And Hillary is talking about a book that she read by friend of the network, Jamie Loftus. I'm pretty sure Jamie Loftus has been on, I said, No Gifts. I've known about her for a long time from Twitter and her being a writer and stuff. And she came out with a book called Raw Dog. And it's about hot dogs, but it's also about a bunch of other stuff. And the reason this-

It's like a novel or a memoir? No, it's a nonfiction. Nice. And the reason that this creator was making a TikTok is because Jamie Loftus tells the story about how Auntie Anne's pretzels was created. And it is very surprising and very empowering. And that's just one of the many stories in Jamie Loftus' book, Raw Dog. And so if there's a person

I don't know on TikTok telling me about the book written by a person I kind of have heard of, I'm going to get in the middle and try to get some credit there. It's your story now. Yeah. So read Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus. Yeah, let's all read it together. A lot of people wrote in, I did the maple syrup high story last week and we were talking about corn dogs and syrup and stuff and a lot of people wrote in to let us know that in Canada, a lot of places will boil the hot dogs in the maple syrup before turning them

into corn dogs. No, that's not true. That is, yes it is. My life has changed forever. So it's like a candy hot dog inside of a corn fritter wrapping? Yeah. That sounds incredible.

I know. People get so mad at me, but like I want to use ketchup still. Well, you got to do what you want to do. But would you take the first bite ketchup free just to see? Sure. Yes. That's what my mother would ask you to do. Please just try it.

And I'll do it when it's so hot that my mouth, I can't taste the same anymore after that first bite. Yeah, you need to blow out like your first four taste buds right on the end of your tongue. Wow, that sounds really good. Doesn't it? More things need to be boiled in fucking maple syrup. Eggs. Oh.

Eggs. So like soft boiledboiled eggs with kind of a... What if I made like a, yeah, an eggs benedict, soft-boiled egg in maple snout. She's shaking her head now. It's just a soft aspect. Eggs are a little bit on the mayonnaise side of things for me where... I don't know. It can go wrong. And it usually does. Most places don't do it right. Well, also because it's so specific, like that is actually a really good, I just popped in my head of like a first date question. Just simply how do you take your eggs? Yeah. How do you insist upon your eggs being made for you?

Yes. That's a great idea. Because if someone said like three minutes soft boiled, I'd be like, oh, excuse me, I must use the restroom for a moment and I would peel out so loud. Anything that involves a soft white or like a runny white what do you that's called that's called salmonella. That's not even it's dangerous. It's dangerous but people maybe that's it kind of hot though like you live on the edge a little bit. Blurr. You eat raw chicken. You just go for it in the kitchen trying to get diseases. Oh no. I think probably the most attractive egg that you could order would be sunny side up with

a hard yolk. I order mine over medium. Did you know that's a thing? Yes. I didn't know that until like 10 years ago that you can order it. It's like over easy, great. Over medium, it's just a little more. So it's almost like the center is gooey,

but the outside's starting to get hard of that yolk. Crispy, yeah. And not super gooey that it's like everywhere, but just like starting to snot be gooey anymore. Right. It's unfortunate that you accidentally just said the word snot, because that's the element of eggs that I do not want coming into the conversation.

Oh, I just snuck it in there. You know me, I love sneaking in a secret snot. It's kind of crispy, but it's snot. It's actually snot. Snot-based. Snot-based podcasting. Good morning. Are you eating your breakfast and listening to this podcast? Sorry. Again, we apologize. What are you even doing right now, eating your breakfast while you listen to this? Two things I told you, don't fall asleep to it and don't eat your breakfast to it.

And yet, that's all that's happening. Or you are. People are writing and it's like, what are you even doing? I'm doing everything you tell me not to do. You're so rebellious. Should we go to highlights of our podcast network? Let's do it. Okay, we have a podcast network.

It's called Exactly Right Media. Here are some highlights. This week on this podcast, We'll Kill You, Aaron and Aaron complete a three-part series on in vitro fertilization. These are two doctors, by the way. These are people who know what they're talking about. So they've already covered the root causes of infertility, the technology behind IVF.

And in the third episode, they're going to discuss the potential future of IVF. Unreal that we have them on our network. They're so smart. Yeah. And this week on Buried Bones, Kate Winkler-Dawson and Paul Holes head to 1841 New York City where a young woman never returns to her crowded boarding house and the number of suspects is staggering. Stay tuned next week for the second episode in this two-part series.

Oh, 1841. It's so long ago. It's so long ago. Also Kate Winkler-Dawson is back with a new episode of Wicked Words, her true crime talk show. And this week she is joined by legendary true crime author Patricia Cornwell. And exciting news for anyone who was unable to join Bridger in LA for his I Said No Gifts very first live show. You can listen to that episode with guests Blair Socky, Karl Tartt, and Rob Hubel this week. And you can hear Bridger's boyfriend Jimmy,

who is a legit Broadway star, singing the theme song, In Place of Amy Man, who could not be there that night. And so Jimmy sang it. It's so amazing. I saw it on Instagram. It's like the perfect thing. Speaking of Instagram, follow us. Every Saturday we're putting up a video. Karen's doing sinkhole reviews. I'm having cookie. My dog picked out my outfit. So follow us on Instagram and—

Tick-tock. What's the one you like? Tick-tock. I like Tick-tock. Yes. Where the children are. Oh, also, to combat the summer heat, we recommend that you stay inside and consider picking up a My Favorite Murder puzzle because it's the perfect indoor activity and it's the perfect outdoor activity too.

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you're gonna say yes, and you're gonna know more about it than I do, and I'm telling this story about it. How many anecdotes do I get to wedge into this? All of them. Okay. Yeah, because I don't even know. Because this is my era.

Ready? Yes. Today's story is about a famous folk hero of the South, a man who was immortalized in a biopic while he was still alive, which I think is like a big deal, right? That's pretty legendary. But he died under mysterious circumstances shortly after it was released. This is the story of Buford Pusser. I'm going to have to say that a lot.

That's his name. Pusser, Buford Pusser. It's just how it is. It's just what it is. Whose name is forever associated with the title of the movie and his own personal philosophy, Walking Tall. Hmm. Okay.

I first saw this story on this Instagram that I love called History Uncovered. And you can find them at Real History Uncovered on Instagram. And they also have a podcast called History Uncovered. And I've just found so many interesting stories from them. So check that out. Great. The main source they is for the story is a book called Walking On,

a Daughter's Journey with legendary sheriff, Buford Pusser, and it's by Buford's daughter, DeWanna Pusser. And the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. Okay. Okay, let me tell you about Buford Pusser. He's born in Adamsville, Tennessee in McNary County in 1937, so the fucking South in the 30s.

Like shit's rough. His father, Carl, is the Adamsville police chief. McNary County is in the southern part of Tennessee. So the county line is also the state line with the border with Mississippi. You knew that, because you... Sure. We both did.

You and me in American geography. The states. The state line area is like super notorious for being a hotbed of organized crime and corruption. Like this is the, what do they call it, the Dixie mafia? Oh. At the time, they're known as the state line mob. Oh, okay.

So there's particularly a lot of moonshining, which is still a big thing even though prohibition is over. You did that story on that moonshiner that which is still a big thing, even though prohibition is over. You did that story on that moonshiner that one time, remember? Yes, that's right. And there's illegal gambling, which is often rigged. There's drugs, there's sex work. I mean, there's just like ripping off tourists. It's just like a lot of organized crime going on.

Wasn't the guy that I talked about named Popcorn? Yes. Yeah. It's legendary. Yes. So the loosely organized group of criminals are called the state-line mob, and they run a muck in this region. named popcorn? Yes. Yeah. It's legendary. Yes. So the loosely organized group of criminals are called the state line mob and they run a muck in this region.

They pay off local officials to not get in trouble. So there's that, of course. And historically, Tennessee and Mississippi officials have avoided enforcing the law. So they kind of all ignore it and say it's the other state's problem because they're on the state line. It's kind of hard to delineate whose jurisdiction it is. And they kind of don't want to because these are, you know, these are not people they want to tussle with.

At the center of all this illegal activity at the state line is a place called the Shamrock Motel. And it looks exactly how you think it would look. It's all dusty and gorgeous and old timey, low to the ground. Very low to the ground. Yeah. Think no country for old men when they go to that motel to hide out.

Yep. It's like that. Okay. And the motel is run by a woman named Louise Hathcock. So Louise, okay, picture, it's Ma Barker, essentially. It's the head of this organized crime thing, but she's a little younger and a little... There's a photo of her that looks like it's straight from a... What were the ones that you took in the mall when you wanted a...

Oh, Glamour Shots? Like a Glamour Shot. It's like epic. Okay. So she is like the boss. She's known as being ruthless. She carries a hammer around with her when she weights tables in the Shamrock's restaurant. It's not for self-defense, it's for enforcement.

Like this, you do not mess with Louise Hathcock. Could I get a refill on my... Now! Smash. At the Shamrock, as well as other motels along the state line, it's not just a den of illegal gambling and moonshining. These places advertise themselves on billboards and people on their way home need to stop for the night.

They regularly pull into them thinking it's, you know, just a quick little motel sleepover, right? It's off of Route 45. And that's popular for people traveling to the Alabama or Florida coasts. So it is traveled a lot. And while they're staying in the motels, these unsuspecting travelers are often robbed

in their sleep. And anyone who like goes to the front desk and is like, yo, I've been robbed, they're like, okay, do you want something worse to happen to you? No, then keep moving. And that's kind of their racket. That's bad customer service. It is. And like the local officials don't care because they're either on the take or they're fucking

terrified of these people too. You know what I mean? And then some travelers are known to simply disappear somewhere along the Tennessee-Mississippi border. So not a great vacation destination. Just don't go down over there. Don't go by there. Don't do it. So we're back to Buford Pusser. Starting as a high schooler in Adamsville, he and his friends take trips down to the state line to peek at all the illegal activity

going on, of course. How fascinating for a teenager. Sure. Once when he's at the Shamrock when he's 17, Buford sees Louise beat a sailor to death with her hammer in the middle of the restaurant. Oh my God. Yeah, some of it's a tale, who knows. Then when he's 20 years old in 1957, Buford himself becomes the target of a similar beating. He goes to an illegal gambling outfit called the Plantation Club.

He's playing craps. He's winning. And then he sees the dealer changing out the dice for other ones that are obviously, you know, plants. Buford calls him out and then four members of the club staff jump him, pistol whip him, and like stomp on his head. Like this is a real beating. He's dragged outside and left for dead, but somehow he's able to get himself up and drive himself to the hospital.

He needs 156 stitches. Jesus. up and drive himself to the hospital. He needs 156 stitches. Jesus. Like that's not a little bit in his head and chest, but he recovers and he never forgives the state line mob. Like at this point, he's got inventions out for them. OK. But Buford, at least at the age of 21,

isn't all about law and order at the time. He and two friends find one of the men who injured him, and they beat him up pretty seriously. And so, while Buford will eventually be regarded as a folk hero, he is far from perfect. He and those friends wind up facing assault charges but aren't convicted because they had clocked into their jobs at a nearby factory at the time of the assault. So, they clocked in later and beat the guy up and then came back. So they kind of had like a cover? So it was like unprovable or just that they were like... An alibi, I guess. Yeah. Okay. Buford moves to Chicago. He intends to go to mortuary school, but he winds up finding

a bit of success as a professional wrestler named Buford the Bull. Had Vince heard of him? He hadn't heard of him, but he knows like the outfit where he, like the Southern outfit where he wrestled. And there's that photo of him as in the wrestling, you know, in the underpants and stuff. Looking mean in his underpants. Oh, by the way, he's six, six. Oh, six foot six tall. This is a literal story of walking tall. Yes. So he is enormous. And so he becomes a wrestler and you know, he finds some success there. And there he meets his wife Pauline. She is divorced and has two kids, which is rare for the time, named Mike and Diane.

And after Pauline and Buford get married, they have their daughter named DeWanna in 1961. And Buford adopts both of her other children. So shortly after DeWanna is born, when Buford is still in his early 20s, his father, who was the chief of police in his hometown, is doing home repairs, falls through the floor to the level below, which is hilarious in movies, but fucking not good in real life. Very bad in real life. He seriously injures himself.

So Buford and his family move back to Adamsville to help, and Buford's dad ultimately convinces Buford to take over as chief of police in the town. He's like, I can't do this anymore because I fell through a fucking floor. Will you take over? Like, with no training. I mean, it's a little... It's almost like in the movie Tombstone where it's just like the old guy is like, I gotta go.

Nobody else can do it. You have to do it. Yes, exactly. So then in 1964, when he's only 26 years old, Buford is elected sheriff of McNary County at 26. So the incumbent had died before the election and he beat out three other candidates. So he went, like he won. He won fair and square.

Fair and square. As soon as Buford is elected sheriff, he makes it his mission to clean up McNary County. Sir. Sir. Take your stitches and come on. Right. And that means going after the state line mom.

He prints business cards that read, quote, I answer all calls, end quote. Because I think beforehand it was kind of like lawless a little bit, understandably. And now he's like, I'm up on this. It's happening. I mean, I hate to lecture you about the movie Roadhouse. But. The current one or the old one?

Both. Watch me as I weave both together. I wish you would. No, I was just going to say, I have learned from that movie that if the state-line mob is doing things and no one's going to do anything about that, that means the state-line mob is in charge of everything. And so local law basically has to become corrupt because they're not gonna fight them. So they either sit there and do nothing or just join them.

So like, it really is, I think that's why we all just love a story like this, because it's someone that's coming in and being like, no, I'll do it, I'll fight them. No, I'm six foot six and here we go. Yeah, I've already seen some shit. I'm ready to, I have a grudge, a very valid one. Yeah, I'm Buford the Bull.

I was a wrestler. He starts assisting the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation with raids on state line establishments, including the Shamrock and another one called White Iris. And the White Iris is also owned by Louise and her husband Jack. And it's the base of operations for the most notorious figure in the state line mob. He is a man named Carl Douglas White, but he goes by Towhead White. He's not blonde. I don't know.

LESLIE KENDRICK Just a nickname. Maybe he was when he was a child. AMT. SIEGEL Sure. Yeah. So, Towhead wants to be known as the Al Capone of the South. And in 1964, Louise shoots and kills her husband Jack at the White Iris and says it was self-defense, which is totally plausible because he has a violent history.

But most people don't believe it and think she and Towhead conspired to murder him because they hook up and possibly marry after this happens. So, they're like, let's join forces and kill my husband, maybe. After its raid, the sheriff department destroys any moonshine but is able to auction off the legal alcohol. And with the money this raises for the county, Buford is able to hire several sheriff deputies, which the small county had previously

been unable to afford, which makes total sense, where it's like there's two people on staff maybe. Pay them off or they're scared of us. But now he's getting people to join his ranks like he's putting together his own little outfit. Same in Roadhouse. But also I think that the idea, first of all, you didn't have to pour out that moonshine. And they didn't. You know they didn't. But also that idea of like, oh, we'll take all this stuff that used to be illegal that no one can get their hands on. And basically they're having like an alcohol bake sale for justice.

We're selling your shit to fucking get people to go against you. It's like the ultimate fuck you. It's pretty great. And actually one of the early hires is a man named Dave Lipford and he is the first black deputy in the history of McNary County. Wow. So Buford's crackdown on the state line makes him a widespread folk hero among many inside and outside McNair County.

But it also, of course, makes him many enemies. Very shortly into Buford's career, there are attempts on his life. And there are a couple different ones. I'm not going to get into all of them. But like he gets shot at pretty regularly and there's a lot more stitches that happen to him. Oh, wow. Yeah. He already has too many.

Yep, too many and he gets more. In February of 1966, Buford and several deputies respond to a call at Shamrock where Louise owns the place with her hammer. A couple from Illinois have been staying there overnight and they woke up super late and groggy. They'd eaten dinner in the restaurant and they woke up and they're like, something like we were drugged or something and all their money and some jewelry had been stolen. Like all their shit's gone. Jesus.

Uh-huh. So Buford, he doesn't always carry a gun on him when he responds to calls. Like the big stick is kind of part of his persona. But that day, one of his deputies suggests that he bring it along. And when Buford and the deputies arrive, Luis is still drunk from the night before, our girl Luis. Buford says he's going to have to go with them for questioning, and Duana, the daughter, writes that Luis, quote, "'Stood there a bit disheveled in her stretch pants

and sweater and barked, "'You punks, I'm not going anywhere.'" Damn. Yeah. So she convinces Buford to go in the other room and have a chat with her real quick, like one-on-one, in her office. And once she's inside it, she allegedly,

because it's just the two of them, so allegedly pulls out a gun and fires at him. She misses, but Buford falls over. And while she's standing over him, she tries to fire again. But the gun jams. And at the same time, Buford grabs his gun and shoots her and kills her. Oh, no witnesses. Yeah. He killed like the head of the mob.

But there were witnesses to her saying, let's go in here and talk about it. Yeah. I think it was like widely acknowledged that she was drunk and, you know, not well. And like, I don't know, there's people who dispute what happened, but very few. I couldn't really find a lot of naysayers. Right. Right. The medical examiner notes that while he is conducting the autopsy on her, he has to pry her.38 revolver from her hands. Like this chick is... Literally. Oh, no.

This is the very end. She did it first. Yeah, she did it first. Yeah, she did it first It reminds me of what's the actress from goonies that everyone loves the mother the one that was in throw mama from the train Yes with the little beret. Yes, I can't help but think of her even though she doesn't really look like her But I just she'd do great. Yeah that role got it, you know So in August of 1967 when Buford is about 30 years, the Pusser family is about to leave town for a vacation. They're going on a road trip to see Pauline's family

in Virginia, and in the early morning, the day the family's supposed to leave, Buford gets a call at home that wakes him up. It's a voice he doesn't recognize. They say that there's some criminal activity going down at the state line. This person won't say anything more over the phone. He's like, you gotta just come out here and I'll tell you more in person.

So Buford wants to just deal with this before the family trip. So he tells Pauline he's gonna just go down and talk to the guy and then come right back. But Pauline says she wants to go with him, which is I thought was super weird. That's like early morning call, leave your kids at home, although one of the daughters was 17, so it's not that word, and go with him on this call. But then it says that she wanted him to buy her breakfast on the way back, which I'm like, well, that's fair. And if it's, yeah, for real, and if it's a small enough,

because you've got to get your soft-boiled eggs in somehow, but it is very small town to be like, can I go with you on your job and I'll just wait for you at the diner or whatever kind of thing. Right. Just run a couple errands while you do this thing. But is it a small town or am I just guessing that? I think it's a small town.

Okay. Yeah. And she also thought that he would come home quicker if she were with him. Like, there would be less dilly dallying if she were like, let's fucking go. So that I understand. Yeah. It's 430 in the morning when they leave and Buford and Pauline are chatting about the family trip and Pauline puts a country music tape

into the eight track player. And as they pass a church, Buford notices that a Cadillac has pulled out of the parking lot and is now following them. Buford clocks the Cadillac, he speeds up, but the Cadillac keeps pace behind him. Then the Cadillac swerves into the other lane and pulls up next to Buford and Pauline. And Buford can see that there are two men in the front

and one in the back, but he can't make out any faces before they start firing at them. Almost immediately, Pauline is shot in the head and she slumps down into Buford's lap. No. Yeah. So like if she hadn't come with him. Ugh. I know. The shots keep coming. One shatters the windshield, spraying glass into Buford's

face. He floors it and somehow he speeds away from the shooters and is unharmed. And then when he can't see the Cadillac in his rear view mirror anymore, he pulls over to try to tend to Pauline. They're both covered in blood. She's not breathing. He turns around in a seat to grab his radio to call for help, but the Cadillac is back and then then spray Buford's car with more bullets. Oh my God. Like they come back. This time they hit him and they blow off part of his lower left jaw.

Even more shots hit Pauline and now there's nothing that can be done to save her. She dies at the scene at the age of 33. Oh, that's so tragic. Yeah. Buford still manages to drive away again, and he somehow gets on the radio for help. It's his own father who now works a desk job

at the county jail who gets the call. Buford can't really talk because his jaw has been blown off, but his father recognizes his son's voice and he can make out the word help, 45 as in route 45, and state line. Like, he's somehow able to get this information across. And maybe if it wasn't his dad, he wouldn't have been able to. You know what I mean?

Yeah. That's insane. Yeah. That's horrifying. So when a state trooper and a police chief arrive on the scene, they can't get Buford out of the car. He desperately needs medical attention, but he refuses to let go of Pauline, who's still lying in his lap. They manage to pull Buford out of the car

and get him into an ambulance. It starts going to a big hospital in Memphis, like, 100 miles away, because they're like, his jaw is basically on his chest. And they're like, these injuries can't be treated here. And he makes it to the hospital and survives. I'm sorry, but all I can think of is Steve Buscemi in Fargo. He shot me in the fucking face.

It's just like the most horrifying injury. Yeah. I mean, most of them are. Gunshot injury is a nightmare. But getting shot in the face and just like now just power through it until he can get some drugs in you is awful. Yeah. From his hospital bed, barely able to speak,

Buford has to plan all the details of his wife's funeral. He has several blood transfusions, and a surgeon has to reconstruct his jaw. So the left side of his face will never look the same, but he does come out looking pretty good considering he's got like a clear scar and kind of a misaligned jaw, but it doesn't look as you think it would if you get your job loan off, you know? So the governor of Tennessee offers a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest

of the people who ambushed Buford and Pauline in today's money. $5,000 in the 60s in Tennessee. $100,000? $47,000. Dang. Yeah. So basically, people think that the killers had been from out of state and were hired Tennessee. 100,000? 47,000. Dang. Yeah. So basically, people think that the killers had been from out of state and were hired

assassins. And in the years that follow, the men that the FBI believe did it, all various mobsters are found dead. Wow. Yeah. Some people believe that Buford somehow enacted street justice in each of these deaths, but there's not much evidence to back that up. And all of the suspects are involved in organized crime, which as we know is a hazardous career.

Very dangerous. Yeah. And what a great thing to exploit in the meantime as you're getting your revenge. Right. So, Buford and his family believed Towhead White had ordered the hit. Towhead himself is killed two years later in 1969. Some people believe Buford killed him, but there's no evidence to support this. About all the vengeance theories, Buford's daughter, Doana, writes that she has no idea

if they're true or not, which I love that she's just not like categorically false. She's just like, I don't know. Right. Anything's possible. Anything. Anything. Yeah. So Buford was well known locally already, but this story about the ambush spreads far and wide

and Buford becomes a nationally known folk hero. In 1970, 60 Minutes interviews him. You know them. While that interview is airing, a Hollywood producer named Mort Briskin steps out of his bathroom and hears the second half of it, immediately gets on the phone to his secretary and he's like, find that man.

Like we need to make a movie for this guy. This is amazing. Brenda, bring me that man. I just saw the most amazing interview. Brenda, I know it's Sunday at 2 p.m. I don't care. Break up with your boyfriend and get this done. So Walking Tall, the heavily fictionalized biopic about Buford's life, begins production

on location in Western Tennessee in the early 70s. The whole Puzzer family gets to hang out on set a lot. It's a box office success when it's released in 1973. So that's... Yeah, I was too young. I was not in the mix in any meaningful way. Do you want me to tell you who... The stars are? Yeah. Who he... Please.

... plays him. It's fictionalized, so some of the characters aren't actually like the characters. Is it Hoyt Axton that stars in this? No, Joe Don Baker? Joe Don Baker? Yeah. He always plays a cop. He plays fucking Buford. Yeah?

Yeah, he's 88 years old, wow. Joe Don Baker, talk about growing up in the 70s. Like that guy was around me at all times. Wow. Like a guardian angel, but just on TV. Oh. Yeah. He's like your grandpa.

He was grampish. Grandpa-ish, but stern. He's stern and kind of maybe dangerous. Oh. Who knows? He was definitely going to let you know how it was though. I love that. A lot of speeches out of that guy's mouth about how it is.

Or just like, maybe that's why we're all so fucked up. Right. So perfect casting, it seems like. So it's a box office success. It catapults Buford to worldwide fame. He will say in interviews at the time that the movie's about 80% accurate, though Duana thinks he's probably inflated that to help promote the movie. Sure.

She's like, I don't know about that. But guess what? It's all movies. It's Hollywood. Like it all starts with a seed and then everyone's like, no, no, this is really how it was. So at this point, Buford is a bona fide celebrity. He's gifted a brand new Corvette convertible in exchange for doing promotional work for Chevrolet.

He's like, hey. That's Burt Reynolds is the one that organized that. Right. He gets to go to London to promote the movie. He's invited to a screening at Johnny Cash organized that. Right. He gets to go to London to promote the movie. He's invited to a screening at Johnny Cash's house. Yes. Tennessee Republicans try to convince him to run for governor, but he says, no. I think

Dolly Parton is involved somehow. Absolutely. I mean, it's Elvis Presley, too. Yeah. It's like he's beloved. Yeah. Those were all the famous people. That's the other thing that makes me think that I'm personally living in a simulation is because it's almost all the famous people. That's the other thing that makes me think that I'm personally living in a simulation is because it's almost all the same celebrities

and almost all the same songs on the radio. Where I'm like, how am I still looking at and talking about Dolly Parton? And I've lived this long. Yeah, it's been a long time that we've been talking about her. Well, she's killing it and has been for so long, but it is weird where it just kind of like,

it's surprising that Joe Don Baker's also not still heavily in the mix, because why not? So he's at the height of his career. It's August 20th, 1974. He's 36 years old and still six foot six. It's announced that he's going to play himself in the sequel to Walking Tall. But he and Joe Don Baker had become friends.

And so, like, he's like, I'm going to play myself. Don't do it. I know. That night, at around 9 p.m., he drives to the McNary County Fair to meet DeWanna and her friend, who are both 13 at the time. They walk around the fair till about 11 p.m. And the friend's mom comes to take the girls back to her house for a sleepover. So Buford gets in his Corvette convertible that he had gotten and he's known to drive

pretty fast. He passes Tina's mom on the road back toward where both the families live, goes around them. A few minutes later as the mom drives down the hill they can see ahead that a car is swerved off the road and crashed into an embankment. The daughter is behind them. Right. As they get closer, Duana recognizes her father's 1974 Corvette. Buford is out of the car and lying face down behind it. I think he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and flew out of it. The front of the car is on fire. Duana, who's 13, carries her six foot six father, who must weigh over 200 pounds at least, right?

Easily. Carries him 50 feet away from the burning car before the ammunition in the car starts exploding. Holy shit. So she just had a full adrenaline rush. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Unfortunately, Buford dies on the scene and the cause of death is determined to be a broken neck from being ejected from a convertible. And authorities say that Buford had been driving too fast, had a lot of alcohol in his system, didn't have a seatbelt on. But some people, including Duana, believe that there was either another car involved who ran her father off the road, or that Buford's car had been tampered with, or both. And they've kind of never let go of that theory. Tributes, wreaths, and flowers come in

from celebrities and fans from all over the world, and Buford's funeral attracts hundreds and hundreds of mourners. There's too many to fit in a 300-seat church, and they sit up in the trees to listen to the service amplified outside with speakers. So he was beloved. Buford Puster remains a famous folk hero, and his house became a museum about his life that people still visit today. In 2004, this is your favorite movie, a remake of Walking Tall comes out starring... The Rock? Yes! Holy shit!

Well, I will tell you that in looking at Joe Dom Baker's IMDB page, one of the pictures that comes up, and I'm like, that's connected for some reason. I'm like, the Rock wasn't in Roadhouse, was it? No. Oh my God. It's a totally different story. There's no real connection. I'm positive I've seen it. I bet you have.

You see everything. Yeah, I really enjoy film. And then recently the murder of Pauline Pusser had been reopened. The case had been reopened. Like people, I think there had been some rumors, I don't know, you know, on the internet, there's theories about everything, that maybe he was involved, but it's like his jaw... Like, he almost died. He almost died.

I don't think you could inflict those wounds on yourself. And he seemed genuinely heartbroken about the death of his wife. Like, I don't buy it. It's almost like on TikTok now, no matter who... If somebody is making a TikTok and it's, I was be making a TikTok, or it'd be like, me and Georgia did blah, blah, blah. And then it would say Georgia hard start at the bottom.

And most of the time it says controversy. And then, so like when you're watching a TikTok, you're like, oh, is there controversy? And you click on it and it doesn't bring you to anything, but that's what people look for. So they see that and they get, yeah. And they just get stuck on there. Or they just, I think it's just, we have to admit that is the conversation the internet demands, which is, oh, are you going to talk about a hero? I'm here to tell you that he's not a hero.

Totally. Are you going to tell me something that happened in the 70s? I'm going to tell you it wouldn't fly today. And it's like, right, we know. Yes. However, the moon landing was definitely fake. Yes or no? Based on what? I'm definitely fake. Yes or no? Based on what?

I'm just kidding. Yes or no? Throwing a, like making a statement that you kind of believe, but then throwing in a yes or no. Yeah. And like with no conversation, like I don't want to hear the maybe. Just you have two options. The moon is empty.

Yes or no? It was empty. So Pauline's case has been reopened. Just this past February, her body was exhumed to look for more evidence that could be used to determine who killed her and who attempted to kill Buford. We don't know much about the evidence they're looking for, but we know that the authorities were prompted to re-examine the case because they received a tip. So, I mean, something's up and hopefully we'll find out more. If it's not solved, keep working. If it's not solved, keep working. Buford and Pauline are buried together in his hometown of Adamsville, Tennessee.

They share a headstone that reads, quote, he walked tall, end quote. And that is the story of Sheriff Buford Pusser. Well, now I have to see the 1974 movie. Definitely. Because I'm positive I haven't. But that's incredible. Yeah. I don't know.

It's just like this folk hero. And there's songs about him that are written, you know, Johnny Cash style songs. Yeah. Well, also standing up against inset corruption and basically risking your life. I mean, the idea that he was killed when he was 36. Yeah.

And your wife gets murdered on top of all of that. He did say at one point, someone asked him if he had to do it over, would he still choose to be the sheriff after what happened to his wife? And he said, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't. When I think of what I lost, Pauline, her death, it just wasn't worth it. No, I wouldn't do it over again. No. It's just so sad.

It's the ultimate sacrifice. It's like you basically one by one give up your family. Yeah. Horrible. Yeah. Well, that's incredible. I didn't know anything about any of that. Me neither.

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Goodbye. All right, do you want to take a left turn? I would love nothing more. Okay. So my story today, actually a bunch of people have suggested this after different stories that we do. We kind of get a wave of suggesting this and every time I've seen people suggest it, I want to write back to them and be like, it's on the list. The list is long, but it's on there. And so I don't want to read this whole email because there's a lot of spoilers in it.

But we did get this email from someone just simply with the initial F and the pronouns he, him, saying, Hi team, saving any and all fun things I could say here at the top for potential future hometown stories. And then in parentheses it says, man trapped in a college dorm wall, babies in a Super 8 motel, serial high school arsonist. I don't know, you pick." And then close parentheses. Hey, guess what? We want all of those, please. That's all we want. The person goes on to explain that they just saw an Oscar-nominated short called The Flying Sailor. I won't describe what happens in it, as they are spoilers. And

then the person said, it said it was based on a true story, so I looked it up and found this incredible article about the situation, and it turns out that in 1917, the Halifax explosion was the largest man-made explosion ever. And then they give us a link to that and then basically says, I won't do any more reading on it because I'm sure y'all's skimming will be better than mine. That was a huge mistake, and you are highly incorrect. Everyone that works at this company can tell you. Me and my email skimming is brought down a lot.

Legendary. And then basically, F signs it mysteriously, F he him. So, F, thank you for that suggestion. And it's a story I've wanted to do for a long time. It begins in December of 1917, while World War I is raging through Europe, and had been for three years. America just joined the fight, but Canada, because the world next door,

I actually wrote that into the document. The world next door. Remember those commercials? No. A year too young. It used to be like in between cartoons, there would be like beauty shots of like loons flying over a lake and maple trees, whatever. And then it'd be like, the world next door. Canada, the world next door. That's a good catch line. Yeah, they nailed that

catch line. So Canada was still a British dominion in 1917. So they had been in the war since Britain was in it, which was from the start, since 1914. So it turns out one of the most crucial Canadian cities during World War I is Halifax, Nova Scotia. You know the province well. So I won't tell you about Nova Scotia. I don't have to. Halifax, it's a port city on Canada's east coast, and it has a strong military presence. In 1917, it had a population of around 50,000 people, and military supplies and humanitarian aid are constantly moving through Halifax on ships that are headed over to Europe. And as these ships begin their crossing of the Atlantic, the Royal Canadian Navy patrols the coastal waters, searching for German U-boats that are out there waiting to attack these vessels. So it's all kind of happening in and then, that's the final point.

Halifax is like the final point at the stage of World War I. So on December 6, 1917, a Norwegian vessel called the IMO, I-M-O, is about to leave harbor in Halifax. It's been docked there for a couple of days. It's headed down to New York to pick up relief supplies for Belgian troops. In the eight o'clock hour, the IMO makes its way through very narrow straight. It's this part of Halifax called the Narrows, and basically you're up in the harbor and then you have to go down through the Narrows to get out to sea. And at the time, it was a very busy area because there were so many boats

going in and out of this Halifax Harbor. So on this day, there's tons of traffic in the Narrows, and a lot of the ships sailing through there ignore the speed limits. There's lots of protocol about what shipping lanes they can be in and where they should not be. And actually, the captain of the IMO was trying to make up for lost time so he's traveling slightly over the harbor speed limit. It's wartime. No one's there like hey I got this is important I got to go do it. Suddenly the captain realizes there's

another vessel headed straight for them in their same shipping lane and he's basically forced into the wrong shipping lane. The ship is very long, obviously very unwieldy. Now it's in oncoming traffic. So a much shorter French freighter called the Mont Blanc, which is White Mountain in front. At first guess. Yeah, it is actually like the pen. Same brand. So that ship coming up into the harbor at the appropriate speed in the correct lane, basically they're now in head-on and they're playing a game of chicken. Both captains try to turn really hard. They can't avoid what's coming. The Emo crashes into the side of the Mont Blanc right there in Halifax's harbor, the collision is bad

enough, right? Because the shipping lanes, there's obviously crew on board both ships. But there's a much bigger problem that no one is actually aware of. The Mont Blanc is secretly packed to the gills with 3,000 tons of explosives. Why? And this is the beginning of the historic wartime tragedy known as the Halifax Explosion. Shit. Yes. So, the main sources for this story I'm about to tell you are a 2016 Globe and Mail article

entitled The Girl Who Lived by a writer named Stephen McGillivray. There's a 2014 write-up on NASA's website entitled, Kill a Ton Killer by writers Terry Wilcutt and Tom Whitmire, and then a 2017 article in Legion Magazine by Sharon Adams entitled, The Halifax Explosion. And I believe Sharon Adams Legion Magazine article is what sent us a link to. And the rest of the sources are in our show notes. Of course, this day begins like any other day. And a woman named Kay McCloud remembers it well, even though she was only five years old. Her family lived in Halifax's North End neighborhood, and she will later say, quote, as young as I was, I can see everything. I can even tell what we were dressed in. I had a little white outfit on, a tiny white dress, and white stockings." So she is fully aware and remembers this completely. So at 9 a.m. Kay and her mother Alice, who's three months pregnant, are waving goodbye to Kay's father Thomas as he's leaving for his job. He's the laundry cart driver. And then soon after, they say goodbye to Kay's four older siblings,

who are all leaving the house to go walk to school. It's a short distance, they're all running late. So once everyone leaves, Kay is left to entertain herself as her mom is cooking. It's her sister Mildred's birthday that day. So her mom is trying to get that party ready. Kay goes to play pretend. She wants to pretend she's teaching Sunday school. So she looks for a little hymn book and her Bible so that she can set up her Sunday school. Alice is in the kitchen. She is tending to a huge batch of baked beans. That's what she's cooking for Mildred's birthday,

which is the most 1917 birthday plan you've ever heard. It's like, guess what? We're having a fucking shit ton of baked beans. It's your 13th birthday, isn't it? Yeah. Well, then of course you're having all the baked beans you could fucking dream of. It's a birthday dinner miracle. So Kay and Alice have no idea that just two miles away in the harbor, the Imo and the

Mont Blanc have collided. But at the fire station nearby, they just got that call. The firefighters race down to the waterway and all they know is that two ships have crashed in the narrows and one, the Mont Blanc, is on fire. And that fire is getting bigger by the second, and the whole thing is floating toward the harbor. So they crash, the Mont Blanc catches on fire and is kind of out of control. The crew of the Mont Blanc jump off and into the water and basically swim toward land.

Do they all know about the explosives or no? I believe they do. But that's a guess. Yeah. But I'm pretty sure they do. Yeah, they probably would have stayed to like put out the fire. Yeah, I think it was so unexpected and such a crazy emergency that they were like, well, we're not going to stay here to fix it. Right, right.

The EMO, after the crash, was able to like basically drive away and get away from the area. So essentially, these firemen know that they basically, it's just an unmoored ship that has to get stopped before it hits land on fire and creates more tragedy. The firefighter driving the truck that day is 37-year-old Billy Wells. There's seven other firemen on board as they go down. These eight men are the first responders to this accident. The truck they're on is nicknamed Patricia. Patricia is a very special truck because it's the first motorized fire truck in Canada equipped with a pump and the only one in Halifax at the time.

The rest of the city's fire trucks are still horse-drawn carts. Wow. Yeah. So when Billy Wells and the other firemen approached the harbor, they're stunned. Billy's quote on it is, quote, I'll tell you, it was some blaze. I guess it was going up five or 600 feet in the air. And just for perspective, 600 feet in the air is roughly the height of the Space Needle. Oh my God.

So this thing is crazy gigantic. Such a spectacle that a crowd has gathered to gawk at it from the shore. So they are dangerously close considering the secret explosives that are on board that no one knows about. And normally ships carrying that type of cargo have to fly red flags so everyone does know about them. But the Mont Blanc isn't flying them because they don't want to make themselves a target for those German U-boats.

So it's basically a secret floating bomb and the fire is getting larger by the second. There's a huge amount of pressure that's building up in the cargo hold. It's just basically a lit fuse, but no one knows. So Billy and his fellow firemen arrive at the harbor, they locate a fire hydrant and Billy reverses the truck to align with the hydrant and his colleagues jump off. They start unrolling the fire hose, and that's when the explosion takes place. Oh my God, it happens? Yeah.

So, before Billy can figure out what's going on, he is blasted out of the fire truck and onto the ground. It's 9.04 in the morning. I guess that's why it's called the Halifax Explosion and not the Halifax Near Explosion. Yeah. I should have guessed that. Not the wow, that was so close. It happened. It wasn't just the boats crashing. And yet I was shocked.

Right. Well, and you'll be more shocked when you hear this is what witnesses and survivors reported seeing. The ship, the Mont Blanc, is blown nearly, now remember Space Needle 600 feet. It's blown a thousand feet in the air and then it looks like it disappears because it just explodes in a million pieces. But once it's up there. So like that visual, I'm sure the witnesses were like no one's gonna believe me but this is actually what I saw. So it just looks like it blew up and vanished. So journalist Sharon Adams reports this in her article for Legion magazine, quote, much of Mont Blanc became shrapnel. The shank of the anchor, weighing more than 1,100 pounds, flew over two miles.

Oh my God. Smaller fragments fell in a deadly iron rain. So the explosion happens a thousand000 miles in the air, and so the range of what exploded. A thousand feet, a thousand miles. Yep, a thousand feet. I was like, that's crazy. 5,000 lifeboats on the Titanic.

Yeah. These are the small mistakes that build the rich tapestry of our careers. Thank you. A thousand feet in the air. So it's up and then blown out. Crazy. So the other ship, the IMO, got away, I told you that. It survives this entire accident and explosion. And it did survive until 1921 when a drunk captain ran into some rocks off the Falkland Islands. Jerry!

Come on, dude. Okay, so this explosion was so massive that according to NASA, the blast has the equivalent force of nearly 3,000 tons of TNT. The blast temperature reaches around 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun's surface temperature is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course, there's a shockwave that follows that explosion, the fragmented Mont Blanc, moving at 3,300 miles per second. And this explosion creates the largest mass blinding in Canadian history. With the CBC reporting, quote, shattered glass and flying debris stole sight from more than

a thousand residents. —Permanently? —Permanently. —Oh my God. —It's shrapnel flying into your eyes. —Awful. —One in 50 people in Halifax were blinded or suffered serious eye damage. Holy shit.

It's the largest explosion ever recorded at the time until the US will drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. So just unimaginable. Yeah. 1600 people die instantaneously. Sharon Adams reports that people are thrown, quote, like ragdolls against brick and stone walls, fences and trees, or mortally wounded with flying shards of glass, wood, and metal. Buildings and houses were blown apart. Whole families were killed as their houses collapsed one story onto another. People were crushed and battered and slashed on the street

in schools and factories, foundries, breweries, rail yards, and dockyards. 1600 people immediately is like unfathomable. I know, it's wild. So two miles away at the McLeod house, five-year-old Kay is tossed into the air. She lands hard on the ground. She starts crying for her mother.

Of course, the house around her is suddenly in chaos. Plasters falling from the walls, wires are hissing on the floor. And then Kay hears her mother screaming from the kitchen, wherever you are, stay and don't move. So, Alice, again, is pregnant. She's pinned under a heavy piece of furniture. So she finally manages to free herself. She's able to crawl through this house that's just a disaster and find her five-year-old. And Kay would later say, quote, we just sat there and held each other for a long time before we moved because we didn't know what to do.

Which is, yeah. So back near the harbor, firefighter Billy Wells has been rocketed out of his fire engine. He lands several yards away. And just like Kay and Alice, he survived the initial blast, but he has no idea what's going on. And now, as we know and stuff like this happens, a 20-foot tidal wave rises up out of the harbor, flipping ships as it goes before the wave hits land, of course moving with incredible speed, picking up debris and people both dead and alive, sweeping them away. Holy shit. So it's almost like it is nuclear bomb style where it goes up and down and then the water is affected.

I can't even think about that. Yeah. Yeah. So Billy gets swept up in this tidal wave. It carries him all the way up a nearby hill. And then as the water is sucked back down into the harbor, as we know how tidal waves work, Billy's then pulled all the way back down the hill. Miraculously, he is left basically where he started at the bottom of that hill. And he definitely misses near certain death of being sucked back out to sea.

He's covered and tangled up in telephone wire. When he comes to a few moments later, he is still holding the Patricia steering wheel. Oh my God. So at first when I was trying to imagine this, I was like trying to text Marin where I was like, so he was he blown out of the truck or not? Because you made a really big deal about him getting blown out of the truck. And I'm like, no, no, he's just holding the steering wheel. The steering wheel is not in the truck anymore. So Billy Wells is in rough shape. He will later tell the CBC quote, the force of the explosion had blown off all my clothes, as well as the

muscles from my right arm. Yes. And quote, so Billy Wells is half-naked. He is seriously injured. He has no idea what's going on. The world around him changed, of course, in a heartbeat. Chaos. Moments ago, he was cruising through Halifax. Now he does not recognize the world around him. His seven coworkers are nowhere to be found, and he will later learn that all of those men were killed in that blast. Holy shit. But he doesn't know any of that yet.

He doesn't even know what happened. And like every other person in Halifax that morning, he didn't know there was an explosion. And he begins to believe, as many people do, and then what becomes the rumor is that Germans bombed Halifax. For the moment, Billy's just in survival mode. He knows his injuries are very severe and that he has to stay focused if he's going to survive. So he manages to pick himself up off the ground

and then starts navigating through the rubble. He's looking for someone who can treat his wounds. And as he takes in the horrors around him, he will later say, quote, "'The site was awful, with people hanging out of windows dead, with some of their heads off, and some thrown onto the overhead telegraph wires.'" Oh my God.

So just like, you would think you went crazy if you saw that. It just like, how is this the world? Like one second later, it's just destruction. Yeah. So back at the McCloud house, Kay and Alice managed to crawl to the front door and push it open. And now they're looking at the street outside.

Kay will say, quote, the neighbors all came screaming out of their houses. We had to stand where we were because if we went outside, we would have died because everything was electrified. All you saw was people bleeding here, bleeding there, or somebody holding somebody. went outside, we would have died because everything was electrified. All you saw was people bleeding here, bleeding there, or somebody holding somebody. You know, things that were horrible. You saw that everywhere you looked.

Oh my God. Yeah. So as their neighbors gather together and they try to make sense of what happened, that's when the murmurings of a German attack basically grow. And they're afraid more German bombs could drop at any moment. On top of it, the gas supply has been cut for the north end of town, where the MacLeods live.

It's, of course, to prevent more fires and explosions. But that means across a big part of the city, the lights are out. Telephones aren't working. It's December in Nova Scotia. They live right by the water, windchill. So of course people are left to navigate their wrecked homes in the dark. They're unable to use phones to call for help. They can't confirm to anybody that they're okay if they are. Basically Alice and Kay and everybody else in Halifax who survived is now just desperately trying to find

their loved ones. Obviously not a simple task. Glass is everywhere. Just buildings are collapsed everywhere. It's dangerous and difficult just to walk down the street. And not only that, but the explosion happened around 9 a.m. during rush hour. So many people had left their homes for the day, adults were heading to work, children were heading to school. So there's a lot of obviously lost life, but then just no one's sitting in their classroom sitting at work yet. Right. Everyone's on their way. So as the wounded are pulled from the rubble, emergency responders kick into overdrive, doctors and nurses are tending to gruesome injuries with person after person that come in. It becomes clear Halifax needs more hands, more medics, more help, and so people pour

in from nearby towns. And it's all hands on deck at the fire department, firemen putting out blazes across the city. It's called Outside. There's a historian named Don Snyder who told the CBC in 2017, quote, all the houses were burning coal and wood as they exploded, furnaces ignited. It was just fire after fire after fire. And fireman Billy Wells is continuing to try to find help for himself. He's half naked, severe injuries to his body, still holding Patricia's steering wheel.

Just, it's gripped in his hand. And that's actually, if I can find that letter again, that's actually the short film that the mysterious F saw. Basically it was like, this is based on a true story and it was somebody that had been in an explosion and like Ended up with like this injury and half their clothes blown off And so they were just basically trying to check it and be like this was based on true story and it was based on Billy Wells experience in that explosion. Oh my god. So

According to the Halifax City News website Quote the badly hurt Wells helped a couple of young children crying in the street before collapsing. So he, Fireham ended up right until the end. Luckily there were people nearby who could help Billy. He's rushed to the closest hospital and there are so many injured people there that he isn't seen for days. Holy shit. Because basically his injury is like not life threatening comparatively. Sure.

And all the people that are blinded. Oh my God, the blinded people. So Billy thinking back on this years later only feels gratitude. He says, quote, I laid on the floor for two days waiting for a bed. And then without a lick of irony, he adds, quote, the doctors and nurses gave me great service. Wow. So he's just like, yeah, it's... Yeah, they did what they had to do.

And everyone did. So back to Alice McCloud, the pregnant mother who's only got her five-year-old and all of the rest of her kids are out in the world, as is her husband, the fear must have consumed her. Fortunately, though, all of the McLeod children are found safe yet shell-shocked, is the quote. Holy shit. Yes. And the same day, which is amazing. And so what happens, and this is Kay's theory about what happened to her brothers and sisters,

she thinks they owe their lives to the fact that they were running late for school. Because at the time of the explosion, they were underneath a large veranda, and it shielded them from the explosion. If they were in the school building, it might have been different because the school building suffered extensive damage, which is kind of just that like finding the silver lining where like thank God that whole family survived. Later the day, one of the McCloud boys, Lloyd, finds his father, quote, unharmed and holding back two horses attempting to bolt.

So, it just kind of finds him out in the world. I mean, just wild. The McClouds have extended family members, of course, aunts and uncles and grandparents that they also need to locate. The afternoon of the explosion, Kay and her sister, the birthday girl Mildred, are sent to their grandmother's house,

which is not far from their home. Fortunately, grandma's safe, but the journey getting there is etched into Kay's memory. Years later, she'll say, quote, we remember seeing all these people blown up in wagons making for the hospital. And of course, a lot of them never got there. Oh, it was terrible. Oh, my God.

I can't even imagine, like, having to walk through the chaos. Five years old. Five. It gets worse. Hours after the explosion, a blizzard rolls into Halifax. Come on. Yeah. And it blankets the city with deep snow, hampering immediate rescue and recovery efforts,

and putting the remaining survivors at risk. Yeah. Civilian volunteers and military personnel are pouring into a snowy freezing cold Halifax. While that's happening, Canadian authorities launch an investigation into the disaster. Right off the bat, they're looking at the IMO and the Mont Blanc crews and their actions on the morning of December 6th. Amazingly, many crew members from both ships survived. And the weird thing is, nearly everyone aboard the Mont Blanc jumped ship during the fire

and found cover on the shore. So they knew something was happening. I mean, that's that's my guess based on everything because someone had to load that ship with all that TNT. So they must have known. It would have been insane to not tell the crew. So the second there's like any kind of a problem, it's like, we got to get off this thing, which is great because that means more survivors.

So investigators also find speed limits, lane assignments, flag protocol are not were not followed the morning of the explosion, not only by the Emo and by the Mont Blanc, but several other ships in the harbor. It goes all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court, which eventually just decides both the Imo and the Mont Blanc are equally at fault, but none of the survivors are ever charged with a crime. Ultimately, no one is convicted for any wrongdoing related to this disaster. What about the boat that was going in the wrong, going too fast towards the email? I mean, I feel like at the end of the day, what are you going to do? What are you going to say now go to jail?

It's like, if you know that your actions caused this insane disaster and tragedy, they probably were just like, yeah, there's a lot of people at fault. Right. Nobody was following protocol to begin with. Right. Overall, this event, of course, is devastating. Nearly 2,000 people die. Holy shit.

Around 1,600 in the initial blast and then another 400 in the following days, dying from their injuries. It's 4% of Halifax's population. Wow. Yeah. 9,000 people are wounded or blinded. 12,000 buildings are leveled.

In a city of 500,000, 12,000 buildings are leveled, entire neighborhoods and their histories and the people that lived in them lost in a flash. Many survivors are displaced from their homes and suddenly destitute. I just got a flash of Maui and the people in that fire. The McClouds are one of those families. They return to a damaged house that has no heat or electricity. Like many other people, they're forced to leave that home behind and move in with family members. And then they have to rely on emergency relief efforts for food and supplies until they get back on their feet. Seven months after the

explosion, Alice McCloud gives birth to a daughter named Pearl. Oh my God. Sadly, a decade after that, she dies at just 45 years old from abdominal cancer. And Kay is left to help her father raise Pearl. Later, Kay, of course, gets married, has two children of her own, but she carries the memories of the Halifax explosion with her. And over the years, she has repeatedly shared her story with Canadian newspapers. Wow. Kama Cloud Chapman, which is her married name, passes away in 2017 at 105 years old. Holy shit.

And she is the last known living witness to the Halifax explosion. Yeah. 105. That's incredible. It's so great. As for Billy Wells, after the blast, he actually ends up spending months in the hospital. Even though his arms have extensive and permanent muscle and tissue damage, he makes a strong recovery.

He'll later become a crossing guard at an intersection not far from the spot where he lost his fellow seven firefighters in the explosion. According to a write-up by the Halifax Fire Historical Society, quote, he was known and well loved by the many children who made their way to and from school every day, most never knowing of Billy's incredible story of survival. Oh my God. That's the thing that kind of gets me every time we tell stories like this. There are people all around us that have stories like this. There are people all around us that if you stopped and went,

hey, where'd you get that scar on your arm? Billy Wells would be like, pull the whole thing up and be like, let me tell you a little story of how I not only was in an explosion, but also a tidal wave. Yeah. And help some children out and survive. Wow. Billy was known to be very modest about this whole experience. He actually said once, quote, it blew all the toes off me, but I wasn't so badly hurt. Only it took a hunk out of my arm, that's all. I guess there wasn't room in hell for me.

Oh my God. Billy Wales. That is the attitude we need. For real. Right now. Yes, we've got to pull our collective proverbial injured arms together. Amen.

Billy Wells passes away in 1971 when he's in his early 90s. At the time of his death, among his possessions was the steering wheel to the Patricia. His old fire truck steering wheel that he held onto. Holy shit. He still had it to the very end. Today in Halifax, there's a street named after Billy Wells and a monument honoring all the

firefighters who courageously sacrificed their own lives to save others that day. The Halifax explosion is now remembered as the largest loss of life for firefighters in Canadian history. But if there's a bright spot to this story, it comes in the advancements in the fields that were forced to respond to such a huge traumatic deadly event. NASA notes that emergency medicine, psychology and psychiatry, ophthalmology, anesthesia, reconstructive surgery, and prosthetics all improved following the Halifax explosion. Wow. And as for the city of Halifax itself, Sharon Adams writes, quote, the scars remain to this

day in monuments to victims peppering the city and the sorry harvest of metal and glass from gardens and construction sites. And that is the story of the 1917 Halifax explosion. Oh my God. How have I never heard that? I remember Alejandra and Hannah and Marin pitching this story. And I was like, it's just, I thought I knew what it was. I thought I knew what it was. Or it's like, right. A maritime disaster.

Right. Kind of whatever. And they're like, could you just read it so you know what what you're judging? And then it's just like, oh, my God, a ship was blown all the way into the air. And then smithereens. I mean, yeah. Insane. Insane. Great job.

Thank you. Unbelievable. Should we find out what everyone's even doing right now? Yeah, I think it's really important. Okay, this is where you guys tell us, hashtag, what are you even doing right now while you listen to our podcast? Because we like to know what you do while you listen. Yeah, we always guess.

We like, we want to know the facts. Turns out. This one's from our Gmail. I'm making breakfast while listening to Georgia and Karen talk about the strategy of knowing when is the right time to eat an avocado. I'm in the middle of my yes, yes, definitely been there thought when I glanced to my fruit bowl

and oh look, I have an avocado. Oh, and it's perfect. I obviously can't let it go to waste as Georgia pointed out. So now I'm having avocado toast. And because it's one of my specialties, here's my recipe for what I call my loaded avocado toast. You're welcome. Nice. Bread, wheat or sourdough, ripe avocado, drizzle of olive oil,

everything but the bagel seasoning, crumbled feta, diced Kalamata olives, fried egg topped with a drizzle of sriracha. Whoa. I know. Stay sexy and don't waste your avos. Katie Rose. Katie Rose just gave everybody their 30 grams of protein for breakfast. Definitely. That we're all trying to get. Some nice fiber going on there, some macros. I don't know if that's right. Some good fats. Good fats.

Good job, Katie Rose. This one is the flip of the coin. This subject line, this is also from Gmail, says, what a transgender cowboy is even doing right now. I just got back from trailing 600 Wiley yearling steers in the mountains in Montana where it alternated between hail and sleet and 80 degrees sunshine. I'm currently rubbing CBD balm on my knee I busted when I had to bail from my horse when he tripped in the boggy rocky willows. My boot almost got caught in the stirrup but I made it home alive to listen to YouTube bullshitters.

Also no one here knows I'm a trans man. Every month is Pride Month. XO, your favorite cowboy. Oh my god. Come on. I didn't know badasses listen to us. Like that's a surprise. I know.

You know? Right? A lot of badasses listen to us. Yeah. Are you a badass? What are you even doing right now? I mean, and also that kind of, I don't know, that wasn't just a email of like, what are you doing? That was like a very small, almost like we turned our heads

and looked into a movie and then turned back. A quick little picture into someone's life, unreal. So cool. Please let us know what you're even doing right now. Please, if you have a moment, rate, review and subscribe. If you could hit that subscribe button, that would really be cool. Yeah, the way it works on Apple Podcasts

is like interacting, saying you like something, giving it a certain amount of stars, and even rating or writing a review. It just gets you out there. And, you know, we've been so spoiled for so long where we never even had to say anything about it, but it actually is very good for the podcast and it's good for all the other podcasts too.

Yeah so any of those exactly right podcasts you listen to please give them a subscribe. I actually had the realization when I was listening to a podcast I looked down and I was like oh I can press these five stars. I can do it it's right here. Even podcasters can rate, review and subscribe. You don't have to be a cowboy in Montana to review and subscribe. But we appreciate you guys so fucking much. Thank you so much for listening. Yes. We're so glad you're here with us every week.

And, you know, have a good one. Stay strong. Keep it medium well. What's your egg order? Keep it over medium. Keep it scrambled. Stay sexy. Don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis do you want a cookie? This has been an Exactly Right production. Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck. Our managing producer is Hannah Kyle Creighton. Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck.

Our managing producer is Hannah Kyle Creighton. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squillace. Our researchers are Maren McClashen and Ali Elkin. Email your hometowns to MyFavoriteMurder at gmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at MyFavoriteMurder and Twitter at MyFaveMurder. Goodbye!