This Paranormal Life - #180 Was The Car That Killed James Dean Cursed?

Episode Date: September 23, 2020

This week we investigate James Dean's famous car nicknamed 'Little Bastard'. How did the car come to injure so many people? Was it negligence? Stupidity? Both? Or was it something PARANORMAL?PatreonSupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityAdvertise on This Paranormal Life via Gumball.fmResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Louis BlatherwickIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you close the refrigerator door, does the light go off? Are we human or are we dancer? All of these questions you can find the answer to on This Paranormal Life! Hello everyone and welcome to This Paranormal Life, the comedy paranormal podcast where every week we investigate a brand new paranormal tale, case, claim, beast, weapon, monster, man case claim beast weapon monster man and come to a conclusion as to whether or not it he them they are paranormal or not my name is roy powers and across from me is sitting kit greer perched on his chair like batman i feel like uh we could have tightened up the intro a little bit you think so that was pretty much as fast as i can go and that was like pretty high energy as well yeah you're

probably right i think that's as good as we're gonna get i could do one more swing out if you want yeah okay let's go i don't think i said more energy tighter right that was like as high energy as i can go right but I didn't mention energy at all. You want higher than that? No, no. If any, please, for the love of God, do not go any higher. Oh my God. More? No.

I didn't say anything and you just said more. You're f***ing crazy if you think I can go higher than that, man. That was the sound of a bald eagle, I think. This is a comedy podcast hosted by myself and this guy here, Kit Gre i already did this actually we already did the explanation and then we did it three more times uh welcome to the show uh if you're listening to the show for the first time uh one thing about us is we don't like to piss about at the start of the show you guys came here to to hear about the paranormal and that's what we're gonna do today so let's just dive right into today's story because bloosh the year is 1955 and we're in hollywood california about time we don't spend

enough time on the the goddamn hollywood walk of fame we're usually in the swamps in a moon cave uh so it's nice to be in the you know the sunny heart of america the movie business in the 1950s is booming with endless celebrities walking the star-studded streets of the city movies that would go on to be regarded as all-time classics were just being released sunset boulevard a streetcar named desire vertigo some like it hot wow can you imagine being there that time? Oh my god. Soaking it up. But one movie and one actor was being praised more than any other. James Dean. Of course.

The GOAT. 1955. Had just seen the release of Rebel Without a Cause, in which Dean starred as the troubled teenager Jim Stark. Probably his most iconic role of his unfortunately short-lived career. Wait, what? Oh, don't you know?

But James Dean had two great passions in his life, acting and car racing. In fact, even while his acting career was blowing him up to stardom, his career as a racer was also doing well, having competed in both the Palm Springs Road Race and the Santa Barbara Road Race in between filming. Wow, I did not know that. Isn't that crazy?

That's already like... He's so iconic in the car, but I just thought he was like picking up babes around Hollywood. Yeah, it's pretty badass to be like one of the biggest actors emerging in Hollywood. You're a total heartthrob. At the same time, you're like, I also want to be like one of the biggest actors emerging in hollywood you're a total heartthrob at the same time you're like i also want to be a fireman and an astronaut and a race car driver i want to be like all the hottest things a guy can be yeah this is just my plan b yeah this whole movie shit he's like i want to be a hollywood heartthrob but i also want to be a paranormal podcaster all the most sought after

and sexiest professions it didn't exist at that time that profession but if it had i think james dean would have wanted to be me of course yeah not just anyone podcast yeah but that's right james had two loves in his life one of them acting and the other his porsche 550 spider that he nicknamed little bastard it's a good name it's a really good name for a car actually i really love it famously i my first car that i ever got from my dad we called thunder oh yeah because uh like the attack move in pokemon uh thunder would only work 60 of the time so it was kind of a dice roll whether the car would start up or not okay so i thought it was gonna be you know he got you like a chevrolet and this thing when it purred like rolling thunder but no this thing maybe didn't even start up yeah it borderline it was it was like a toyota uh

i don't even know if it had a name just toyota it was like what they just all the like parts from all the other cars they just stuffed together and they were like do you want this one if james dean's car was a porsche spider i had a toyota rat i had a little piece of junk, but I loved it. I did really love it. And you can see why anyone could become attached to a car. Dean had got the car while filming Rebel Without a Cause and immediately fell in love with it. He wanted to upgrade the car and make it truly unique. So he called a man named George Barris to customize the Porsche. After adding tartan seats, two red stripes, and the number 130 to the side and front of the car, it was almost ready.

The final touch? The car was branded with the name Little Bastard on the front. Would you like to see a picture of the car? I would love to see a picture of the car. And James Dean looking like an absolute 10. Let's go. There we go. There's the Little the little bastard the car not james i'll tell you they do not make them like they used to folks it's pretty small it kind of looks like one of those cars that like rich white kids drive around

their estates what you know like the the like a little tiny car built for a child oh yeah i see like kim kardashian's kids would drive okay like a little electric thing yeah i mean there's there's actually in this photo there's actually some like i don't know what they are looks like kind of chevrolet trucks and you know kind of oldsmobile looking thing behind it this car is about half the height and probably like three quarters of length of regular cars very small and little i mean that windshield is like it's not doing much it ain't doing much you've got bugs in your eyes there's a reason james dean is famous for his literal cliff of a fringe yeah uh it's a beauty wow it is it's a gorgeous car now james dean loved the car but as

we all know what we love in life can hurt us the most on september 23rd 1955 seven days before the accident dean met with actor alec guinness who listeners may know as the actor who went on to play ben kenobi in the original Star Wars movies. No shit. Before they went inside a restaurant to eat, Dean wanted to show them his pride and joy. Before we go in, I must show you something. I've just got a new car. And there in the courtyard of this little restaurant was a, I don't know what the car was, some little silver, very smart thing, all done up in cellophane with a bunch of roses tied to its bonnet.

And I said, how fast can you drive in this? He said, oh, I can do 150 in it. And I said, have you driven it? He said, no, I've never been in it at all. and I said, have you driven it? He said, no, I've never been in it at all. And some strange thing came over me, some almost different voice and I said, look, I won't join your table unless you want me to but I must say something.

Please do not get into that car because if you do, and I looked at my watch and I said, if you get into that car at all, it's now Thursday, whatever the day it was, 10 o'clock at night and by 10 o'clock at night next Thursday you'll be dead if you get into that car. I thought nonsense. So I went and had dinner we had a charming dinner and he was dead the following Thursday afternoon in that car. That's pretty crazy, isn't it?

It's insane. To not only have the actual video of Alec Guinness saying this, but for then it to come true as well. It's just so fascinating. I think any of us can imagine being in Alec's situation, and we would never say that in a million years. Even if you were scared of speed or you know yeah like going in fast cars you would never say don't get in it you'll be dead within

a week to someone who just wanted to show you their favorite car like you would have to i can imagine he must have had the most overwhelming feeling out of nowhere it's like me showing up and like showing you a new skateboard I bought. And it's like, within seven days, you will fall and shatter your ass. Do not set foot on that board. I mean, like I said, his voice doesn't help. Do not stand on the board. You will fall in front of many people and shatter your ass.

Now, as we know, that day was the last time that he would ever see James Dean. Seven days later, news of the accident was all over the world. I won't go into the exact details of what happened that night in the crash because one, it is tragic and it's super sad what happened. But also, primarily, this story today isn't about the crash. In fact, it's not even about James Dean. This story is about Little Bastard. The Porsche 550 Spyder. Now, after James Dean passed away,

what was left of the car, and there wasn't a lot, it looked like a crushed soda can, it was bought by george barris the man who originally customized the car for dean which i thought was a nice touch you know just like hey i want to be the one to to have the car i was the one that made it for him i did read that he allegedly wanted to sell tickets for people to come and see it which is not that it wasn't nice no it's no it's not not that nice. So it wasn't nice. No. It's not that nice. It's not nice at all.

So George picked up the wrecked car and brought it back to his warehouse. But while he was loading it off the trailer, the car slipped, falling on a nearby mechanic and breaking his leg. Oh, shit. I know.

Now, as I said, the car itself looked like someone had curb stomped a can of tuna But certain parts of the car were salvageable For example the engine of the car and the drivetrain was sold to Troy McHenry and William Estrid Two racing fanatics who took those parts and actually built them into their own cars. I guess it's like a tribute and actually built them into their own cars, I guess as like a tribute to James Dean.

Yeah, that's kind of interesting because I would have thought this thing is intrinsically valuable, I guess, because it's a Porsche. But right, it seems as if it's more, it's more like James Dean made this thing invaluable. Yeah. Because surely most cars would just be, you know, thrown in the scrap heap

after a crash like that. Definitely, yeah. I think the fact that these guys are race car drivers this is more seen as like i want a piece of his car in my car i'll carry the spirit of uh the little bastard okay while i drive i get it however during a race against each other, Little Bastard would strike again. While racing, McHenry lost control of his car, spinning out wildly until colliding with a tree, killing him instantly. Holy moly. To make matters worse, Estrid's car suddenly locked up on a turn, rolling over and leaving him seriously injured. So you're saying two different drivers who took

two separate pieces of little bastard two different drivers who took two different pieces raced each other and both basically exploded wow yeah that's pretty fascinating i mean it's pretty brave uh to take parts of any crashed car and incorporate them into your pretty much perfect machine if you're racing it uh at that level i mean yeah the analogy kind of breaks down once you start applying it to like other objects like imagine there was a a terrible plane crash that your friend died in you were like you know what as tribute to him i'm gonna build a plane with the parts in that shitty plane that killed him it's like no something went drastically wrong forget it is what he would have wanted i'm gonna take that exploded engine number four and i'm

gonna put it on my plane yeah it's a terrible. Imagine if your friend broke their spine and you were like, as tribute, I will have their spine. It's like, no, you won't. It's a bad spine. It's not good. It's not going to attribute to anything. It's a terrible idea. I mean, there's also like it definitely reminds me of kind of other extreme sports. You know, I like watch this thing about like wingsuit divers

you know those guys who just fly like flying chipmunks at like 200 miles per hour and try and like it's insane fly through valleys it's the most if anyone hasn't seen it you got a youtube the kind of gopro footage of these guys when i become president my first official presidential decree will to be just arrest every uh wingsuit flyer in the country because for you to do that and have the desire to do that you are a psycho if you're not sonic the hedgehog and you just gotta go fast yeah you're you're a psychopath because how do you get to the point where you just feel comfortable jumping off a cliff edge? And this was the thing. Who was the first dude to just be like, f*** it, I'm a bird.

And just jump off with this like weird little bit of flappy plastic. And those friends were like, hey, Chris, we've all got parachutes. Where's yours, bud? And he's like, you see this tiny flap of paper? That's my parachute parachute i call it little bastard he backflips off a cliff the craziest thing is when you hear those guys talk they all have like five friends a year die doing it yeah but i did not know that yeah that's insane it's god ratio is too high uh but they're just like, bro, this is what we love.

He died doing what he loved. You know, life isn't worth living without flying like a f***ing chipmunk. It definitely tests your allegiance to your hobby or your passion. Because if I had five friends a year who died podcasting, I wouldn't be here. It would be, the odds would be way way way too dangerous yeah i'm not doing that i'll find a different job the accident raised a lot of eyebrows these were two competent drivers could this have something to do with the parts to james dean's car despite fears that the crash could have been something to do with the parts of little bastard george barris went on to sell two tires from the car which were untouched in dean's accident untouched in an

accident there's an oxymoron i think it's more still usable rather than untouched mint condition brand new out the box i mean to be fair he had only driven for like a couple days before the crash. Yes. He was like breaking in the car But not long after the new owner had them installed in the car the two wheels simultaneously exploded This thing made out of origami What is this car made of? Sending the vehicle spinning off the road that is is insane. Did the driver at least live?

I think this driver lived. There was no mention of death. And he said, you know what, as tribute to myself. If you take, if the only part of your car that came from James Dean's little bastard is two wheels that both simultaneously explode, you know what the problem is. Put the old wheels back on.

The old wheels were fine. It's kind of funny because we've covered on this podcast before, previously, the curse of King Boy Tutankhamun. A case where arguably there wasn't that much evidence for anything bad really happening in the wake of it. A lot of kind of um loosely connected illnesses and deaths over the years yeah um but it became such a famous curse whereas it seems like in this story everyone who came into contact died instantly in a fiery ball of flames but no one even thought

that there was any connection at all yeah this is the exact opposite. There is a very clear paper trail of what's going on right here. It was at this point that Barris realized the car was too dangerous to be sold off. So he kept what was left of it locked away in his workshop. But even that wouldn't stop Little Bastard from executing its wrath. Years later, two thieves broke into the workshop. Hey, keep it down, asshole. I'm just trying to get in the damn window. Help me shimmy down. All right, all right, all right, there it is. We gotta be fast, all right? I'll grab the steering wheel, you get the seats. The two men climbed up the trailer and began to scrap

the car. I can't get the damn steering wheel. As one thief tried to rip the wheel from the car, the man slipped, slicing his arm open. Jesus! No! The other thief apparently injured himself trying to remove the seats of the car, but there's no more details about that. So I assume he just kind of like threw his back out. A bit of carpet burn on the tartan cover of the seats. Even though the thieves deserved it, this was very much the final straw. Barris decided enough was enough. He was going to hide the car away somewhere no one could find it, Indiana Jones style.

You know, seal it up in a wooden crate, put it in a secret warehouse buried in the middle of nowhere. However, he was eventually convinced by the California Highway Patrol to let them borrow the wrecked car for a highway safety exhibit. George told them, wrecked car for a highway safety exhibit. George told them, look, highway safety is an important issue and I'm happy to lend you the car, but you have to understand this car is dangerous. You have to promise me that you'll be extra careful with it. The exhibit was unsuccessful when the garage that housed the car caught fire and burned to the ground. It's impossible. Also, why did they need his car? It's probably like almost like a scared straight thing where it's like,

Hey, kids, remember James Dean? He thought he was pretty cool. And look what happened when he drove too fast on the highways. Okay, but like get a replica or something. Yeah, you don't need to do it. You really don't need to do it. It's like I'm just imagining the policeman is like, remember James Dean? Here's his spine. Like, oh, it's like you don't need it to be that authentic.

No, absolutely not. Just tell the story. Whether brave or very foolish, they pushed forward and did a second exhibition at a local high school this is a terrible idea this car is is a way is gonna hurt someone you know it is it just caught fire in a barn better move it to the high school this is like someone putting on like an anti-terrorist demonstration at a high school and it's like we're gonna need a bomb we're gonna need a real bomb that just didn't detonate let's just get a member of al-qaeda in to talk about their methods but we have to be extra careful

with them uh you're just you're asking for trouble it's something that's obviously going to go wrong this is insane it's like hosting a seminar uh against animal cruelty and as part of the exhibition you have a abused malnourished donkey going buck wild and you just set him free to be like look what it does to the beast it's hoofing you've introduced the thing you're warning against. You've introduced the problem. It's a safety demonstration against the risk of wildfires. You start by setting fire to the building. Is this f***ing funny to you children?

The car allegedly fell off the display and smashed into a nearby student. Who suffered a broken hip uh i mean at this point it's just like a kid walked by the car and the engine said something racist it's like yeah whatever it can do it's an evil car we've got that we've established that it is to the fullest extent a little bastard we couldn't have been more accurate wow yeah it's it's insane we've we investigated before on this case i believe it was the golden eagle which was referred to as the most haunted car in america but all it would do was just randomly open the doors while the people were driving it's pretty bad that's pretty bad it's not crashing on a child or yes or exploding in a barn for no apparent reason i mean it's kind

of terrifying in a different way the idea of a car that just simply doesn't want you in it yeah rather than a car that's like just hell-bent on destruction yeah all kinds the golden eagle just felt like it didn't want to be drived yeah driven uh this car wants to kill it is blood it's an agent of chaos it is the joker yeah if it if it had a horn it would be like a little a horn that's also a wispy laugh so it would like fall on the kid and be like james dean wouldn't have wouldn't have driven if that was the horn that was the horn whizzing down the highway he's like hey move it asshole oh my god it's the worst car ever As if all of this wasn't enough, while being transported on the highway,

the truck carrying the car lost control. It caused the driver to fall out and somehow get crushed by the little bastard after it fell off the trailer. I don't believe this. You're reading a blank piece of... Ladies and gentlemen, he's reading a blank piece of paper. He's making it up as he goes along.

This allegedly happened. You can read about it. This all happened while the car was in transport. Jet engines came out of the back of little bastard. And he flew thousands of miles to Korea where he exploded into a shopping mall. This is the one that really tests the believability of this story okay the driver of the truck should in no way be at risk of being crushed by the little bastard we're gonna need to run this one back get a play-by-play he fell out of his own truck as i say it's so mad it sounds like it sounds like he

tried to steal little bastard and was crushed by it and this is him uh giving the police a rundown of what happened so my seat belt malfunctioned catapulting me from the car where i was thrown behind the vehicle and in a grasp of despair i accidentally hooked the latch that sealed the car to the trailer crushing myself some toothpicks in my pocket accidentally hot wired little bastard the car fell off two more transport trucks before the california highway patrol gave up what does gave up mean they just left it in the road it's it's causing more accidents the california highway patrol should be causing we've said it before there are some times in this life the only answer is to drop this to the bottom of the mariana trench like megatron yeah like a samabin latin sink it down there just get rid of it hope hopefully a fish cannot start the engine

because something terrible will happen yeah if you're an organization that is using this vehicle to raise awareness of highway safety and in the process you have caused several pileups. A man was crushed by the car. You're not doing the right thing. This is a this is a fireman driving to the site of a fire, flicking matches behind the car. It's not what you should be doing. Do you think this could happen today? Do you think that a cursed enough vehicle could overwhelm, I don't know, a modern highway patrol and all of these people? Does this seem like a problem for the 50s and 60s?

I think this could definitely happen i think i think i think an organization could be this dumb to keep pushing on with something going this badly this was the fire fest of the 1950s they should have not should not have kept doing this yeah there would be baseball caps today they'll be like i survived little bastard but i think there's there's something weird with like cars of famous people because i'm pretty sure there's something with like hitler's car as well okay like parts of it or in a museum or it's famous for some reason i'll have to look into that it's kind of i mean it it's kind of fascinating that it says so much about like humans relationship with cars that they kind of people feel like they take on some of their personality like no one says that shit about like hitler's toothbrush or like james dean's comb that

he combed his hair with yeah for some reason the car it like it's a part of them it's weird isn't it like what's the r equivalent of that like when i die someone's gonna be like i want a part of them. It's weird, isn't it? Like, what's the R equivalent of that? Like, when I die, someone's going to be like, I want a piece of his iPod. I know, yeah, because millennials don't have cars. They don't drive cars. I want the login to his Google Drive. I really would appreciate it. Well, that's just identity theft. I want his passport, his social security number.

The police are like, who are you? I want it all, chop yeah i don't know i feel like maybe if this was because like news spreads faster nowadays so i think after the first child was crushed in a school this would have been shut down pretty fast i don't think it ever would have made it as far as a school yeah that's a good point yeah yeah. While returning the vehicle to Barris, the car mysteriously vanished and has not been seen since. Wow, interdimensional car. We say that, but I'm going to go ahead and assume it fell off the trailer. I don't think whoever's job it was to securely strap this thing onto a trailer did it ever.

The one thing it does repeatedly is fall off of a trailer so to show up at barris's house and to be like here you go it's just what she's gone it's like how slippery is the wax coating on this car uh it fell off a trailer it obviously did or it was stolen i don't i don't know it's it's a weird story for sure i mean it feels like a euphemism at this point it's like yeah rather than being like scrapped or like you know compacted into a little cube it's like it finally fell off the trailer for the last time yeah i think that's probably the safest way for it to go is to just disappear i mean for it to have fallen off a trailer and no one to have found it uh i would

think presumably it was stolen uh by presumably someone who had it in transport but then what do you do with it because you can't really you can't tell anyone you have it i mean it's it's kind of a ingenious way of getting rid of it. Like, it's a bit like some kind of cursed item in a movie. It's like you trick someone into wanting it and then they take it and you're like, ha ha, the curse is now yours. Yeah. I'm free.

But then it's kind of weird if you're trying to get rid of it, even though you're the one that stole it. Right. I do think that a lot with like you know when something gets stolen like let's say i went to the british museum hypothetically of course went to the egyptian exhibit smashed a couple glass planes and took a mummy skull now i have a mummy skull in my flat in east london obviously the thing to do is to sell the mummy skull on the you know the international black market at one of those meetings where they have like auctions above a casino or something like

all villains are lined up but how do you how do you get to that point right are you like if you've got no connections yeah are you just calling up guys be like i have a um mummy skull you're striking off phone numbers from from yellow pages he's calling random dudes are you wealthy would you be interested in the skull of a pharaoh uh yeah it's got to be hard to like i wouldn't know where to start well that's what they say about like the uh like art fraud world is that if if someone steals a priceless painting it weirdly narrows down the amount of people who could have done that because you would have to be so well connected to launder a priceless painting that everyone knows is stolen that is priceless there is like five people on earth who could pay you enough money for that thing yeah um they have to be already

deeply established and if you called up a billionaire and you were like you're gonna want this dude it's actually pretty famous yeah he's like it was him whoa what i thought you were cool man like you why would they ever want to just buy this famous piece of artwork that then they can never show anyone yeah it's a very weird world isn't it there is there is an odd threshold you cross where you steal something too valuable 100 it is it is the word priceless it's like not sellable look we don't need to dance around it i took the mummy skull and i can't move i can't shift it for love or money so if anyone's listening to this podcast yeah that's this is honestly museum directors this whole thing the james dean thing it really i don't even care for it at all it was really just a way to get to the

mummy skull um because it's taken up room. It's taken up room and it's annoying. And I'm actually starting to hate it a little bit. And if I can't sell it, I'll smash it. So if anyone wants a mummy skull, I'll do like 20 bucks for the thing. And it's like a couple thousand years old. There's no...

It's like a priceless... I think there's actually a jewel in the forehead. You could... How did you get in? They have a pretty sophisticated security system one word nighttime i waited two words i think i waited till nighttime right and i smashed a window at the right time i waited till the right time at nighttime and i put up a fight time because immediately the alarms went off sure yeah that's what i was trying to trying to get to also i don't think smashing one window gets you from outside the british museum to holding a mummy's skull it it

worked out kind of well because i was trying to just smash a window to get in i did not realize that there was a security guard on the other side of the window so with one punch i both broke in and had his keys uh i knocked him out cold it was very much a truck driver falling out of his own truck and uh falling under the wheels of little bastard moment and of course now it's pitch black all arms blaring i've got a bloody fist that's um ooze and pints by the second i can barely see you're starting to look like the mummy i actually went in there to gank a samurai sword i didn't even want the mummy skull but i was searching forever i couldn't find the france part of the museum to find the sword

it's not gonna be in the french part of the museum well i searched everywhere else germany spain england i didn't realize the british museum just said i had the germany section and the french section yeah i i was doing laps around you didn't think to go to the ancient japanese section they have that they have samurai swords for days long story short i end up with this mummy skull just imagining you with blood in your eyes you're wiping it away running past reams of samurai outfits samurai armor swords shuriken i don't see anything i'm so woozy from punching through the window i'm like there it is the sword i put my fist through another glass pane grab a mummy's face pull it out more glass stuck in your hand're like, this sword is sharp as shit. And then I slunked away in a very oversized security guard uniform into the night.

It's insane that you're still alive. Yeah. And now I have the skull. And you want 20 pounds, you said? That won't be it. Maybe a little more because I won't be enough to cover the medical bills um from having my my hands both hands shattered right you've got luke skywalker robotic wrists yeah i i kind of belong in a museum myself now as a human anomaly uh which is pretty

amazing so if anyone wants the skull, that would be pretty great. It's actually, I brought it with me here. It's pretty big. It's pretty cool. Oh, I crushed it. I crushed it with my robot hand. It's dust. I don't know how to use it yet.

Well, keep that thing away from me, man. Well, that just wraps up today's story about little bastard James Dean's cursed car that went on to inflict a lot of damage in its lifetime. Well done. I'm glad this is a great investigation. I'm glad to hear about, you know, such a golden time of American history. But, you know, they say Hollywood's a sunny place for shady people. But, you know, they say Hollywood's a sunny place for shady people. And this is one of those like dark undercurrent stories that's just, there's so much evidence to it.

Yeah. Yeah. It's so recent. I'm glad it worked out because I was worried that one was a bit like very heavy. It's basically just reading off a list of events that happened. It's basically a list of cars falling off of trucks. Yeah. With a lot of cool sound effects and jokes to really jazz it up but uh at its core it's a car that uh fell off a trailer a lot of times um let's not dilly dally here kit what are your thoughts around the little bastard is this is this something that is truly cursed or are we looking at years of negligence and

improperly trafficked vehicles? Listen, there's something very compelling about the sheer number of casualties inflicted by just one car. Normally a car takes out one owner, if at all. Yeah. It rarely gets to claim more lives. all yeah it rarely gets to claim more lives um but i think the the thing that i can't shake from this is as alec illustrated in his recollection of talking to james dean james had never driven this thing prior to the week he died yeah which maybe leads me to think that the theory that all

of these components were somehow damaged in some certain way that maybe this thing wasn't cursed but there was just like you say negligence that every bit of this car was falling apart that seems way too possible to ignore here yeah definitely i think it's better well in the terms of uh the crash that happened with James Dean, I've never seen a car crash evaluated so many times. I watched a YouTube video where scientists had recreated it in a simulation where they could crash the two cars. And they ran that simulation enough times that after the crash, both cars ended up in the exact same place as they did in real life. Wow. So based on that, they could judge like the angle, the speed, everything, which was crazy. And I think in terms of that crash, it was just a car crash. It was just an unfortunate thing that

happened. I will say that moving forward from that point, when we hear about the racers that both crashed their cars you know it is a big coincidence to say they added these parts to their cars and then crashed obviously being a race car driver is a very high risk sport you know it wasn't like a lawyer who took the airbags james dean's pan and then he died yeah he his head exploded the next day uh these are very at risk activities that already um already offer up a lot of danger accidents can and probably will happen so i don't think that's too strange when we get to the point where it's like basically it can't stay still that's a little weird but there's a

reason why those stories are harder to verify than the original stories okay it quickly becomes a legend yeah it's like oh did you hear they actually tried to do this and then it fell off a bunch of times i heard it killed a kid i heard it it hold it held an old woman up at knife point you know it's just snowballs basically and that's kind of what happens um what are you thinking are we looking at something paranormal here or is this just a dangerous car can you imagine the policeman going to the family's house and being like i'm so sorry um i have news about your son jimmy and like oh my god what happened he's like you're never gonna believe this but james dean's car fell off a truck and onto your son there's like wasn't he at school

yes he was he was minding his own business the car is a freaking mind of its own we can't stop it there's so many things to unpack in that sentence james dean's car it's like the actor who died yep we have his car yeah yeah was james dean in it no it's wild i don't think there's enough here to say that this is truly paranormal. I think you're quite right. We've got either plain old happenstance mixed with some amount of faulty goddamn mechanics mixed with the active imagination of a world of James Dean fans that created a pretty neat but pretty probably not true paranormal legend. Yeah. So I think this week it's going to be a double no

the little bastard is not paranormal it's just a dangerous car surrounded by unfortunate circumstances uh but thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of this paranormal life i hope you enjoyed it if you have your own stories you would like us to investigate you can send it in to this paranormal life podcast atifepodcast at gmail.com. We do have a lot to get through, but we always love getting submissions, whether it's something you want us to look into or whether it's a paranormal story of your own. We definitely appreciate you sending those in.

Hell yeah. If you liked that episode and you want to see a little bit more of this paranormal life, maybe the audio is not enough, you want to see a little bit more of this paranormal life maybe the audio is not enough you want to see some visuals uh you can head on over to youtube where we have our very own youtube channel that posts some of the highlights and video clips from every episode if you want to check that out the link is right here it's right on your phone it's underneath the little notes bit on your podcast this is your phone speaking open me up asshole um you can check that out it's underneath the little notes bit on your podcast this is your phone speaking open me up asshole um you can check that out it's got lots of very funny clips and if you want to support the show even further you can head on over to patreon.com we don't talk a lot about uh the behind

the scenes of this podcast a lot but um you know the show the show's been growing it's been growing every day every month uh with a ton of new listeners none of it would be possible we wouldn't still be going uh if it wasn't for the support of people on patreon.com because uh you know there's a lot of podcasts out there that are with huge teams, researchers in studios. We are two boys. We are children. We have pretty deep voices, but I'm actually six. I'm weirdly older. I'm Rory's big brother.

Yeah. We shouldn't legally be able to take any of your money, but through a weird loophole that we found, this is actually our own country, this studio. And through the support that you give us on Patreon, we can keep this show going. So definitely head on over to Patreon and look at the different ways that you can support the show

because you also get a ton of cool rewards like free bonus episodes every month, merchandise, and a lot of other cool things. So you should check it out. So if you have supported us on Patreon, what we like to do is give you a very special little shout out right here on the podcast. Special thank you to John Bush.

John Bush is always in a rush. He gets up for 6 a.m., slaps his hand on the alarm clock, piece of toast in his mouth. Whoa. Putting on trousers with one hand and brushing his teeth, still toast in there

with the other hand it's terrible he's hailing a slow down a cab they won't pick him up because he looks disgusting and his ass is hanging out because he hasn't got his trousers on yet listen john you need to slow down slow down slow judge there's no need to ruse that much john be like the bush slow down stationary thank you to hollow hollow is the number one writer for uh emo music because they are empty inside so all their songs are like i'm so hollow i got nothing inside of me like that for darkness they might actually be a cryptid now i think think about it. Because that's a pretty weird. They talk about their horns a lot.

It's not really a song either. It's a bit more like a satanic chant. Yeah. We might have to look into that. Thank you to Caitlin Ward. Caitlin, congratulations on your award. For the number one Patreon for the podcast. That is right. For the two mil that you give us monthly. for the number one Patreon for the podcast.

That is right. For the two mil that you give us monthly, you are being rewarded with this ceremonial. It does look like gold. It is not. It's just plastic, really. We couldn't afford any better one. So we have a plastic golden. It's actually not even plastic.

It's actually a type of mud. A shiny mud. So if you would like this shiny mud, we don't actually have um like a ribbon or anything so we're just gonna throw it at you um we're gonna throw mud at you we're gonna throw mud at you thank you for the money though thank you to kyle farrell kyle likes to go farrell mostly at the weekends love it brother he just uh clocks off on a Friday at 5 p.m. Everyone says, hey, you coming for a beer at the pub, Kyle? And he says,

at this point, he's already ripped off his clothes. He really should have waited to leave the office first. He took a bite out of a can of White Claw. That's how much he's going to rage. He's going to go wild like a beast. I love it, Kyle. Thank you to Steven Fake Knee. Steven has a fake knee.

That's right. It looks like a knee. It even feels like a knee. But behind the skin, it's a white claw. What? That's right. The alcoholic beverage White Claw has actually replaced his kneecap so he can get a buzz on anytime anywhere

is it a one-time thing or is this thing like refillable you can refill it oh well but uh anytime any of his friends are thirsty he just says i've got exactly what you need and then he just knees him in the side of the head with the white claw the thing explodes they barely get a drink in their mouth obviously because it's more of an imagining a kind of popeye situation where anytime he needs to party he just like pops the claw pops it and it goes in a big cartoon kind of fountain into his yeah pipe one gulp and he's trash and he's arguing with a bouncer outside a club at 1am. Thank you to Beckett Goodman. You know what they say about Beckett? Always a goodman, never a good man.

Oh. He's a bad person. Oh no. Have they done crime? Or just mean? He just does kind of weird, mean things. Like, you know, around Christmas time, he'll go around to kind of toy shops

and he'll buy up all the most popular toys so that no kids can have them. Oh, that is real. Yeah, that's super mean. Not a crime, but very mean. Weird time to be mean as well, Christmas. He's the Grinch. Did I mention he's the Grinch?

Thank you to Hannah Hannah I'm in need of a katana and I've searched everywhere in the British History Museum so if you do have one

you might be able to skip Hannah's recommendation have you tried the Japanese exhibit it's on the list but first I'm gonna

swing by Italy South America North America, and Canada. Because it sounds a bit like Katana. I raise my sword to thee. I believe it's their national anthem. So, yeah, they probably have a f***ing sword in there somewhere.

Okay. Good luck with that. Thank you to Jumpmaster. Jumpmaster was actually the early japanese working title for super mario before they they thought they'd turn it into something a little bit more you know full of character jump master has a bit more of an intense vibe i'm into it i'd like to play the original jump master game you would think but the plot did revolve around he wasn't a good guy. There was a lot of like Stumping is weird man stomping on children's presents. Oh on Christmas time. He was a real kind of little It sounds like another person. Yeah. Yeah fault that supports the podcast. Thank you to Andrew Michael

Andrew Mike's Hill That wasn't a sentence you just said words weird and there was a great illustrator and her and her best friend mike uh lived on a living hill nearby and she made a really good picture andrew mike hill you're really reaching with this and. Mike's hill. So Mike has a hill and Andrew it. Did I stutter? I think so. I did, actually.

A couple times, yeah. Thank you to Beth Marcus. Beth Marcus runs a meth circus. Oh. This is where you see the most acrobatic Methods doing the most death defying stunts all while smoking that sweet crystal You got to be pretty cranked up to attempt the sort of things they're doing We're talking about tightrope walking where there is not only no safety net. There's no rope. They just jump off the top It's a freakish Athletic stunt you ever seen an elephant do blow through its trunk?

We're talking juggling machetes where the knives have no handles. It's all knife. Thank you to Ifrail Perez. Ifrail, I've been to Paris, to Berlin, and every exhibit I've been in, my heart is looking for swords. To Berlin and every exhibit I've been in my heart is looking for swords You so I'm sorry you flew to Berlin and Paris you didn't think to go to Tokyo I went to Tokyo It was my connecting flight to Africa Kidding me. I ain't gotta be Katan an authentic Samurai sword so you know the word samurai you've got to know that's the Japanese language buds samurai katana an authentic samurai sword. So you know the word samurai. You've got to know that's a Japanese language, bud.

Samurai, katana. An authentic Nihongo sword. So you know the word for Japanese. So I went to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia for some sushi to really get in the spirit of this hunt. I arrived in Istanbul and I said, Katana wa doko desu ka? And sure it was a Japanese guy I spoke to and he said you're way out of your depth.

Thank you to Kirby Bondi. Kirby Bondi's got a Furby body. Oh no, that's not good. Some kind of god-awful human experiment where the head and limbs of a human but the torso of a furby oh so human legs but a furby middle but then a human head it's truly as terrifying and horrible as it sounds i'm sorry to say kirby um take the batteries out take the batteries out let it die thank you to sam sam just did a pretty cool thing actually uh by not

providing a second name he just gave a shout out to every sam that listens to this podcast wow that's kind of a goat move yeah so because you didn't mention who you specifically are shout out to all the sams out there uh who listen to the show thank you for your support sams thank you to lady dylan hoffman i didn't realize you could actually just give yourself the title lady um i don't think you can i don't know i thought you had to earn the title but uh i'm gonna start going forward gentleman kit oh are you sure lady isn't being used in this context is like the equivalent to lord to be a lord or to be a lady you know so you have to have some did you have to own land is that it lady we've got enough royalty in the commune you do not need any more ladies we do not

that was poorly worded because there's a lot of men in the commune and we're trying to even out the numbers we want more of like a 50 50 split well we sure we need more women but we don't need more royalty royalty that's the best way to word it thank you to dan waterfield dan has a field of water and ask me what he grows what fish i don't think you grow them and he harvests them too whenever you say field of water do you mean like a lake yeah if you want to get technical it's a lake and he farms every single day with a rod and a hook and some strength fisher he's a yeah well sure yeah he harvests the ocean, the fish from the ocean, yeah. This is like a thousand years ago, the first fisherman.

Like a farmer trying to tell his friends about him. I met this guy. He's a pretty weird guy. So instead of sowing seeds, he puts a string in the water. Stay with me here. His vegetables have eyes and they try and get away from them. It's pretty f***ing weird. One of those water potatoes actually bit me on the finger.

Thank you to Jacob Alexander. Jacob Alexander, that is the kind of name that lets me know that you absolutely work in a museum. So, Jacob Alexander, you know what I need. And you know where I can get it. I need a ancient Japanese samurai katana. And I don't have the faintest clue for where to start. So, I'm going to need you to point me in the right direction. I said ancient Japanese, so surely.

It's like a phrase. Surely. It's just like something to throw away Like an American sports car But I don't even know where to go to get one of those Germany Japan Thank you to Daniel Parkins Come on down to Daniel's theme parkins Where every ride is your last

come on in children no kids stay back stay back we're going to ask daniel a few more questions it will be why the most exciting time of your life your short life oh there's one ride. It is incomplete. Okay. What kind of ride is it? Is it a roller coaster? A fast one. Tea pots. It's a fast one. I swing a hammer

in your direction. Make sure you're strapped in. Woof. Woof. Thank you to Steve Vogelpole. Steve has a Pogo pole. That's right, because he is the original protagonist of the game Jumpmaster. That's right, it was... Before Mario, there was Steve Pogo pole.

And he was trying to bounce to the moon to, I think, beat the Americans. And his famous catchphrase, It, it's a me, Steven. Even in the game, he didn't beat the Americans. That was a confusing bit. It was kind of a weird machine where it was mostly just to suck up quarters. It was like, you gotta beat those Americans if you want to get to the moon. Every pogo, you didn't even get close. And this thing didn't sell well in America.

Absolutely not. And lastly, but not leastly, thank you so much to James Williams. James Williams kills yams. He'll buy them from a store, unpackage them, and smash them with a hammer. Interesting. I don't know why he hates them so much. It's another bad theme park yeah that's that's the one of the many many rides in the uh the theme park is the yam smasher yeah and we're kids it's kind of like whack-a-mole but the moles don't move and the

moles are gams and that ladies and gentlemen might be our dumbest shout out yet thank you so much to everyone who supported the show. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. As always, we will be back next Tuesday with a brand new paranormal tale. And until then, always remember, folks, to live fast, investigate, and die young, baby! Yee-haw!