486 - Take These From Me

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Speaker 1 Reese plays Niall Jarvis, her new neighbor and possible murderer. But who's the monster and who's the bad neighbor? That's another story.

Speaker 1 It's a game of cat and mouse that sets them on a collision course with fatal consequences. The Beast and Me now playing only on Netflix.
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This podcast is sponsored by PayPal. Okay, let's talk holiday shopping.

Speaker 1 From now through December 8th, you can get 20% cash back when you pay in four with PayPal. No fees, no interest.

Speaker 1 This limited time offer is perfect for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals you've been eyeing. Save the offer in the app now.

Speaker 1 So whether you're buying tickets to an improv show or a whodunit board game, PayPal helps you make the most of your money this holiday. Expires December 8th.

Speaker 1 See PayPal.com/slash promo terms subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com/slash payin4, PayPal Inc., NMLS 910-457.
Goodbye. Goodbye.

Speaker 1 Hello,

Speaker 1 and welcome to my favorite murder. That's Georgia Hardstark.
That's Karen Kilgarif. We're going to do this thing.

Speaker 1 We're going to do this thing despite all the things. Despite all the reasons not to.
And there are now hundreds. Hundreds and hundreds.
I mean, it just keeps getting hundreder. We're doing it anyway.

Speaker 1 Yes. Keep thinking about

Speaker 1 a video I saw on TikTok. A woman was pulled over by four ICE agents, and we can go ahead and put that in quotes because now they've realized that a lot of them are not real ICE agents.

Speaker 1 There was four men standing around and a woman, and it's like in the parking lot of a car wash-looking thing. And this person in a white car just pulls in real quick.
The woman runs over.

Speaker 1 She jumps in the backseat and they drive away. And they basically

Speaker 1 save this woman from being kidnapped. And it is

Speaker 1 the kind of shit that these smaller communities and neighborhoods all around Los Angeles are starting to do. They are organized.
They're communicating. They're getting out to their people.

Speaker 1 It's really incredible. And it's so on my mind all the time.
I know. I'm so fucking proud of our city and like everyone showing up and giving.
And it's just

Speaker 1 like all you can do because you feel powerless. It's impossible not to feel powerless.

Speaker 1 I think the thing they underestimated is that basically everyone has a family member in some way, shape, or form, however you want to define that,

Speaker 1 that could be affected by

Speaker 1 random kidnappings of we decided you don't belong here because of how you look or what your last name might be. So you're going to go.
And the rest of Los Angeles is like, no, you're fucking not.

Speaker 1 Yeah. 100%.
No, you're not. What a time to live in.
Truly.

Speaker 1 On our social media, you can go and look and see we posted nonprofits to donate to, ways you can act, tips on if you see things happening, if you're living in this area, or if it's happening in your area, because now it's happening in lots of places.

Speaker 1 It definitely is.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 That's the vibe, but also how do you not talk about it? Yeah, for sure. We've gone past the pale once again.
How were we just living this? Didn't we do this in 2016 when we started this podcast? Yes.

Speaker 1 I can't believe, I wonder what we would have said if it's like, someone had told us like, it's going to be the same and worse.

Speaker 1 It's going to be the worst in the way that like the quote-unquote overreacting people said it was going to and everyone else is like right down you don't and that's a lot of that you know you get a lot of that internet troll bot bullshit where it's like that's not even how and it's like that's not how it is not happening to you and i don't want to be a martyr you and i are two white ladies with means and opportunity so it's not affecting us the way it is other people so i don't want to act like that but talking about it is not acting like that we're not saying it's happening

Speaker 1 pointing it out and we're aware of it and Fucking let's all do something.

Speaker 1 Let's all do individual galvanized community shit Yeah, so that we all stand up and say which is what everyone did at the No Kings protests totally

Speaker 1 I have a true crime related suggestion or what's it called when you suggest something recommendation. Thank you.
You're welcome. So it's a book.
It's a memoir that I love. It's so marterino.

Speaker 1 It's so good.

Speaker 1 However, halfway through over the weekend, I had to hand it to vince and say take this away from me like my anxiety is so it's like oh so i like i feel i want to recommend it because it's great with that caveat yes that that please remember that part of the quote unquote enjoyment when you are a consumer of true crime is that you're spiking your cortisol you're get you're getting your nervous system worked up for your own reasons.

Speaker 1 You get to do that if you want to. Totally.
And you also get to dip out of it when you want to. Dip out when you need to, have a hot dog and watch Detroiters.
Cause like. Oh my God.

Speaker 1 I just, there's a clip that's going around from Detroiters, one of my favorites, where Tim Robertson is yelling at the lady who she goes, hey, don't use that language.

Speaker 1 She says something because there's a little kid next to her and he goes, tell your husband to back off.

Speaker 1 And then he leans down and she's like, don't, dude, that's my son. And don't whatever.
And he leans down, starts yelling at him. And the kid just slaps him across the face.

Speaker 1 It's like one of the funniest. It's so absurd.

Speaker 1 It's so great. It's like it takes place in reality, except everything is absurd, which is just amazing.
Delightful, delightful. Okay, so the book is called Working Stiff,

Speaker 1 and it's a memoir of a medical examiner. Yeah.
Did you see it? I've heard of this book, but I've never had the guts to read it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so it's literally the guts, you need guts because they talk about guts. And it's by this amazing doctor, Judy Melanick,

Speaker 1 who worked as a medical examiner doing autopsies in NYC in Manhattan. And she started in like the year 2000.

Speaker 1 And so the first half of the book is just like the experience of autopsies and unexplained deaths and how it's just like really fascinating stuff that I think people like me are interested in.

Speaker 1 Like if you read Mary Roach's stiff,

Speaker 1 this is like that. But then the second half, it's the year 2000 or so in Manhattan.
Yeah. Guess what happens? And guess what she has to be the medical examiner for? For just

Speaker 1 9-11. So the tagline is two years, 262 bodies, and the making of a medical examiner.

Speaker 1 And, you know, it's this awesome woman, Judy Melanick. So I highly recommend it and I highly recommend a beta blocker.

Speaker 1 I mean, you truly have to just know what you're going into. And it's like the story around 9-11, people's individual stories.

Speaker 1 I mean, what's more fascinating, but also the most stressful. And then at a time like this where everybody feels very vulnerable, worried, constantly exposed.

Speaker 1 It's like, yeah, watch the content choices. Yeah, between the news and reading that, I was like, put it down for a minute.
Spend some time with Vince. Like, you got to be in the world.

Speaker 1 Yeah, be in the world. So I handed it to him and I'm like, I don't want you to never give this back to me, but please take it right now.

Speaker 1 It's like the same thing when you're eating like a box of Oreos. You're like, take these from me.
Yes. Because I can't control myself.

Speaker 1 And when I attack you like a rabbit raccoon to get them back, fight me. I'm just asking you to be in this relationship.
Yeah, like fight me to a point, you know?

Speaker 1 And then take me out to dinner. Right.

Speaker 1 I did that. I went into the real world and I went up for Nora's graduation party.
Oh my God. Yay.

Speaker 1 And it was lovely. And it was like, I got to see a bunch of my cousins and my family.
And it was just a hang at my Aunt Jean's house and it was really lovely. And it was real fast.

Speaker 1 I just had to go and come back kind of. In your Hyundai Ionic five? In my,

Speaker 1 that's how deep the advertising is going is we're just

Speaker 1 seating it. No, that was a freebie.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 I need to turn my air conditioning on. I'm having a hot flash.

Speaker 1 I was on my drive back positive that the seat heater was on in my car, checked it literally six times. And then I was like, no, holy

Speaker 1 middle-aged i mean someday i'll talk about my lose weight quick scam that i did last week i lost three pounds overnight by getting a simple hysterectomy oh boom

Speaker 1 oh my god stomach is flat you are true fit spo inspiration or what are they called finspo

Speaker 1 yeah follow me for more advice Georgia, how was it?

Speaker 1 Not bad. So I want to talk about it because it wasn't bad.
And I don't know. I know one person who's had it.
And

Speaker 1 I know a couple. Yeah.
So, I mean, it's interesting. It's really interesting.
Get thin quick. Lose three pounds in two days.
Overnight, man. Major surgery.

Speaker 1 Get some great drugs, eat a lot of uncrustables. Like, boom.
Were you scared? Yes. I was terrified.
Yeah. Was it your first surgery? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it's also weird to be like, I turned 45 and then the same week. So it just like felt like an old lady thing.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And it's also weird to put a period at the end of, are you ever going to have a baby one day? And it's like, it's not your acute decision anymore. And you take a stance.
It's no. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So, or biologically at least, you know? Yes, completely. That's an adjustment.
Yeah. So it's interesting.
It's a big adjustment. Yeah.

Speaker 1 What if this whole time it was just your, you know, uterus that was, or whatever the actual part is that's causing all the problems and now you're just like...

Speaker 1 I mean, yeah, you can sleep. Well, we're going to talk about it in our next memoir.
so okay great

Speaker 1 called don't get murdered and stay sexy it's it's called

Speaker 1 hysterectomy time with karen in georgia hysterectomy hysterectomy you right right we'll pitch it out we'll figure it out before the book comes out guys we promise yeah um oh wait can i read you a fun email yeah the subject line is my grandma drove an ambulance in world war ii

Speaker 1 which is connected to the rocham bell story that i did which was the bonus yes again sorry but hyundai hyundai sponsored we get really excited when people like us.

Speaker 1 We like it when people believe in us. Who doesn't? Yeah.
So this email goes, Hi, friends.

Speaker 1 Let me preface this by saying that what my grandmother did is very different and far less dangerous than the Rochampilles.

Speaker 1 So I'm not trying to say it's the same thing, just trying to highlight the ways in which women's support is frequently unspoken.

Speaker 1 My grandmother was a teenager on Long Island, New York during World War II, but wanted to do her part.

Speaker 1 When planes carrying wounded soldiers from Europe arrived at the airfield on Long Island, my grandmother drove ambulances to take the soldiers from the airfield to the hospital. Wow.
As a teenager.

Speaker 1 As a teenager. And then they say not dangerous, but still an essential service.
My grandmother, Barbara, called Bobby by her friends, just turned 98 this month. And her memory is pretty bad.

Speaker 1 So is mine. Let's not be judgmental.
So this is my reminder to ask your grandparents for their stories. Totally.
Stay sexy and do what you can, Abby.

Speaker 1 Abby, what a perfect letter for this tough opening.

Speaker 1 I mean, right, to get us back up on the, on level ground. Bobby, well, we're not friends with her.
Barbara, happy birthday. Thank you for your service.
Thank you for your bravery.

Speaker 1 It is brave to give service in any way, shape, or form. So thank you for that.
Do what you can. I love it.
And sorry for all the swearing. I'm sure Bobby's pissed about it.

Speaker 1 I like those girls, but the swear word girls. And then she just pulls a Kleenex out of her sweater sleeve.

Speaker 1 All right, so should we do some exactly right corner stuff? Let's do it. We have a podcast network called Exactly Right, if you can believe it.
Here's some highlights.

Speaker 1 This week over on Buried Bones, Kate and Paul head to 1931, England, where a hayfield fire leads to the discovery of a young college student's body, and a legendary investigator steps in.

Speaker 1 Is it Sherlock Holmes? No, he's not real. Stop it.
And then over on Bananas, fucking Kristen Shawl. Love her.

Speaker 1 I mean, she joins Kurt and and Scotty to talk about how scientists taught monkeys to use money, and the monkeys immediately turn to lives of crime. So legendary.

Speaker 1 You can now watch this episode on our YouTube page at youtube.com slash exactly right media. It's the first bananas podcast video that they are doing.
Will there be more?

Speaker 1 Be nice to them and maybe they will make more. I'm so glad.
All of those faces are beautiful faces that you're going to want to see. Kristen Shawl is on every single TV show I watch.
I know.

Speaker 1 It's incredible. I just think about it all the time where I'm just like, she's just nailing it left, right, and center.
Totally.

Speaker 1 And on Dear Movies, I love you, Millie and Casey dive into the 90s, camp movies, and the 1995 classic, Heavyweights. A classic, truly.

Speaker 1 Also, we recently announced our new podcast, Trust Me, which is about cults, extreme belief, and the abuse of power, has officially joined us here at the Exactly Right Network.

Speaker 1 So to celebrate, we are going to re-release some fan favorite episodes of theirs every Wednesday leading up to their network premiere on July 30th. This is huge for us.
We're so excited about this.

Speaker 1 This week's favorite episode of Trust Me features Hoyt Richards, who's a former supermodel who was recruited into the eternal values cult and how Fabio was involved in his recovery. Yes, that Fabio.

Speaker 1 That's trust me. Bird in the face on a roller coaster Fabio.
That's Trust Me. Please follow wherever you listen to podcasts.
It's like really helpful to them and to us and we appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, support that new show. Also, speaking of cults, hey, you can join our fan cult.
We now offer ad-free episodes of this show, My Favorite Murder, and weekly bonus audio and video.

Speaker 1 Plus, you can get access to our Discord, which is what all the kids love to hang out on and talk.

Speaker 1 Check it out at fancult.supercast.com.

Speaker 1 Every family has so many amazing stories that no one has ever heard before. That's why Story Worth memoirs are perfect for your loved ones this holiday season.

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Speaker 1 Right now, save $15 or more during their holiday sale when you go to storyworth.com/slash MFM. That's storyworth.com/slash MFM to save $15 or more on your order.
Goodbye.

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This podcast is sponsored by PayPal. Okay, let's talk holiday shopping.

Speaker 1 From now through December 8th, you can get 20% cash back when you pay in four with PayPal. No fees, no interest.

Speaker 1 This limited time offer is perfect for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals you've been eyeing. Save the offer in the app now.

Speaker 1 So, whether you're buying tickets to an improv show or a whodunit board game, PayPal helps you make the most of your money this holiday. Expires December 8th.

Speaker 1 See PayPal.com/slash promo terms subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com/slash payin4, PayPal Inc., NMLS 910-457.
Goodbye. Goodbye.

Speaker 1 All right. Okay.
I go first this week or you? It's It's you. It's me.
I can tell now who goes first just based on what kind of story I have. You know? Yeah.
You're welcome.

Speaker 1 Thanks, Molly.

Speaker 1 Our producer, Molly Smith. I'm going to get comfy.
Okay, please do. You have heard me talk about this story before it was just long ago.

Speaker 1 The reason I know about it is from the television show I Survived. Yeah.
But a listener named Alana sent this story into us because it's her hometown.

Speaker 1 And so Maren did all her research and wrote this up for us. So I get to retell it to you now.
It begins on July 19th, 1989. And United Flight 232 out of Denver, Colorado is headed for Chicago.
Oh, no.

Speaker 1 Yep. Oh, you know what? Good point.
If you are about to fly. Are you on a plane?

Speaker 1 Listen to this on plane. If you're on the plane, please press stop.
If you are in the security line, go ahead and take those airbuds and go home. Well, you're fine because I talk about it.

Speaker 1 Marin does some nice research in the end about how rare anything like this is. Totally.

Speaker 1 But this is one of those stories that will bum you out eternally if you don't shepherd it into your brain correctly. It's like that book, Take a Beta Blocker.
That's right. Careful, careful, careful.

Speaker 1 So. There are 296 people on board this plane, including passengers and crew.
One of them is a 29-year-old man named Jerry Schummel.

Speaker 1 Jerry is a deputy commissioner of the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association, or the CBA, and he set it to Chicago for the leagues draft.

Speaker 1 Marin notes, the CBA was essentially the minor leagues for men's professional basketball in the U.S. Good to know.
So you can put that into your basketball scrapbook.

Speaker 1 Jerry was originally booked on an earlier flight. He got bumped off that flight, and he was rebooked on flight 232, which takes off around one o'clock local time.

Speaker 1 Do you do the thing where whenever you get bumped, it's like either the one I didn't take or the one I'm going take is the one that's gonna crash. I hope it's I don't hope it's the one I didn't take.

Speaker 1 I mean, you know what I mean? I think our brains are wired to do like sliding doors. Okay, what does this mean for my future blank lines?

Speaker 1 Make sense of things. Okay.
Yes. I also had a procedure done recently.
And right before I went under, I was kind of waiting out.

Speaker 1 outside, you know, I was just sitting there waiting for them to take me in. And someone opened a door and there was just this waft of like kind of summertime hay smell.

Speaker 1 And I was like, oh, I'm definitely going to die. I'm going to die on the table.
Why? Because there's hay in the surgery room?

Speaker 1 Just because it felt like very, oh, this is what my childhood smelled like out in the country in Petaluma, which is like, why am I smelling this right now?

Speaker 1 Memories are popping up and those neurons because they're dying. Well, because I'm being so vain by getting plastic surgery, essentially, where I'm like, I'm dying on this table today.

Speaker 1 I know what you mean. It's like, if I get, because I've had stuff done I've never put under, but like, yeah, you're like, no one's going to feel bad for me.

Speaker 1 There's no empathy for the lady who was like, can you tighten my neck, please?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's okay, sorry. Everybody, let's

Speaker 1 get the real, you're going to get the real info here on my favorite murder. Look,

Speaker 1 we got to say it. There's only one chance to say it, and it's right now.
That's how we've lived our lives.

Speaker 1 Okay, so Jerry Schummel takes his seat and he begins to unwind on this, what's supposed to be a very easy two-hour flight to Chicago.

Speaker 1 This is a DC-10 aircraft, which is sometimes called a tri-jet because it has three engines, two on either side of the plane under the wings, and then one in the back on the tail.

Speaker 1 DC-10s are no longer used in commercial flying. F-Y-I.

Speaker 1 So, this particular DC-10 has made nearly 17,000 successful flights over its 18-year lifetime.

Speaker 1 And the pilot that's flying it today is just as experienced. 57-year-old Captain Al Haynes has more than 30 years of flying under his belt.
Wow.

Speaker 1 So this is very just work a day, very normal. Here we go.
It's a commute, two-hour commute flight.

Speaker 1 About an hour into this flight, the plane's cruising along at 37,000 feet in the air over northwest Iowa.

Speaker 1 Jerry's just been served lunch, which is a basket of chicken fingers, coleslaw, and as you mentioned earlier, Oreo cookies. Oh my God, how classy.
1980 coming in hot. Right? The snack of the late 80s.

Speaker 1 But then Jerry and everyone else in the cabin hears a sudden, deafening boom rip through the DC-10.

Speaker 1 The plane and everyone on it starts violently shaking. This probably lasts around five to six seconds, but of course, to everyone on the plane, it feels like an eternity.

Speaker 1 And like everyone else on board, Jerry is immediately gripped by pure terror. He assumes it's a terrorist bomb that was hidden in the cargo hold.

Speaker 1 And he will later describe the chaotic scene around him, saying, quote, I heard a lot of screaming. There were plates and dishes and silverware being tossed around because of the drop.

Speaker 1 And people on their feet, including fight attendants, lost their balance. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 So it's not just shaking, but then the plane itself drops.

Speaker 1 Then Jerry realizes he might be about to die. Yeah.
Again. Stop this podcast right now if you're just chilling on a plane thinking that

Speaker 1 you're going to do it all. So these are the very first moments in what will soon be considered one of the worst air disasters in U.S.
history.

Speaker 1 And one of commercial aviation's most extraordinary stories of skill, teamwork, and heroism. This is the story of United Airlines Flight 232.
I don't know this one, but I'm assuming they survived.

Speaker 1 And huzzah, that's really great. So

Speaker 1 there was a special episode of I Survive that aired in 2009, which I was talking about earlier, and that's one of the sources Maren used.

Speaker 1 She also used a 2021 Medium article by Kira Dempsey entitled Fields of Fortune, The Crash of United Airlines Flight 232.

Speaker 1 And there was a 2017 popular mechanics article written by Lawrence Gonzalez entitled The Crash of United Airlines Flight 232. The rest of the sources are in our show notes.

Speaker 1 And that episode of I Survived, normally they do three different people, three different crimes. This is like a special episode.
episode where all the people on it are people who survived this crash.

Speaker 1 So we're mid-flight. We just heard this explosion and after five seconds, the plane finally stopped shaking.

Speaker 1 So there's eight flight attendants on this flight and the lead flight attendant is a woman named Jan Brown. And here's something Jan will later say about this moment of the explosion.

Speaker 1 Quote, all eyes are on flight attendants when something happens to see how we're reacting so the passengers know how to react themselves. Yes, I'm always doing that.
She seems cool. She cool?

Speaker 1 She's cool. Oh, they deal with this all the time.
Yeah. And that is kind of like, there are people in life like that too, where it's just like, the kind of people are just like, it's fine.

Speaker 1 That's completely my sister trend, Adrian. It's just like, you know, this is, they did, this happens sometimes when the blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 And it's like, just give me anything and I will be on that level. Totally.
But if so-and-so is freaking out, then there's a problem. If dad's freaking out, then

Speaker 1 it's impossible not to. Right.
Okay. So here's Jan's quote.
All eyes are on flight attendants when something happens to see how we are reacting so the passengers know how to react themselves.

Speaker 1 I always had a poker face like there's absolutely nothing wrong because priority is to maintain calm of the passengers. I just went back to picking up trays as if nothing happened.
Jan Brown. Okay.

Speaker 1 So meanwhile in the cockpit, Captain Al Haynes, his 48-year-old co-pilot Bill Records, and 51-year-old flight engineer Dudley Dvorak are still trying to process what just happened when they feel the DC-10 start to tip toward the right like it's about to roll over.

Speaker 1 If that happens, the plane will almost certainly spiral down to the earth and crash.

Speaker 1 You can't let a plane go any one direction too far.

Speaker 1 And I say that as an aeronautical engineer. So co-pilot, Bill Records, instinctively grabs the yoke, which is the plane's steering wheel.
So yoke is steering wheel and Throttle is gas pedal.

Speaker 1 Bill Records grabs the yoke and he pulls hard to the left to basically balance out that right tilt. At the same time, Captain Hayes is realizing what's going on.
It has nothing to do with the bomb.

Speaker 1 This is not an act of terrorism. Basically, there's been a major equipment malfunction and he can only guess what it could be.

Speaker 1 Much later, they'll learn that something called the fan blade, which does not seem like it should be on a plane. It seems like it should be on like the fan over your stove when the things are smoky.

Speaker 1 But they're on planes and this one broke off at the back of the plane.

Speaker 1 So what Captain Haynes does know now is that the engine in the tail of the plane has failed. So they're down one engine.

Speaker 1 Of course, that's not ideal, but the DC-10's two remaining engines are fully capable of picking up the slack.

Speaker 1 It's the issue with the yoke that is a real problem, obviously.

Speaker 1 So flight engineer Dudley radios to the nearest air traffic controller to let them know what's happened while Captain Haynes goes down his emergency checklist of what to do following sudden engine failure.

Speaker 1 And this is where a bad but manageable situation turns catastrophic. Because the DC-10 is uncontrollably banking to the right and threatening to roll over.
Suddenly the yoke stops working.

Speaker 1 So co-pilot records can't level out the plane.

Speaker 1 This is not something anyone's trained for, but instinctively, Records abandons the yoke and pushes the throttle for the left side engine.

Speaker 1 And this sudden boost of power on the left side counteracts the tilt to the right. So he can't steer it back.
So he basically gases it up over here. Double time on this side, yeah.
Right.

Speaker 1 Which is, he just did it like, okay, maybe this will work.

Speaker 1 So nothing is responding on the plane on any of the inputs or commands on Captain Haines' emergency checklist. Not good.

Speaker 1 Then, as Dudley watches the plane's gauges, he sees the ones that monitor the hydraulic system drop to zero. Just all of a sudden, all those needles go down.

Speaker 1 So as you can guess, the hydraulic system on a plane is extremely important.

Speaker 1 It powers a bunch of the controls that allow the pilot to adjust the plane's direction and altitude that lower the landing gear, operate the brakes, like all the vital things.

Speaker 1 So it turns out that that explosion that happened sent hot metal shards.

Speaker 1 So it's like the fan blade breaks, hot metal shards from the broken fan blade like are shot through the back of the plane and they rip through the aircraft's hydraulic lines so it takes about a minute or two for those the fluid to leak out of those hydraulic lines and once that happens the whole system goes down got it so the yoke doesn't work and all the gauges drop to zero and basically losing a plane's hydraulic system is beyond a worst case scenario.

Speaker 1 The cockpit crew who are very, very experienced pilots and crew members have never trained for it because no one has ever trained for it.

Speaker 1 Flying a DC-10 with no hydraulic system is not thought to be survivable. Holy shit.
Captain Haynes will later say, quote, if you do not have hydraulics, you absolutely have no control.

Speaker 1 You might as well just take the control column and throw it out the window. A billion to one were the odds that this would happen.
Fuck.

Speaker 1 Okay, so here's what's weird or fateful. An off-duty United pilot named Captain Denny Fitch happens to also be a passenger on this flight.
Like everyone else on board, he knows something's up.

Speaker 1 So he basically goes up and asks if he can go into the cockpit. Because it turns out Captain Fitch is an expert on flying DC-10s.
He actually is a pilot who trains other pilots on how to fly a DC-10.

Speaker 1 So he goes up, he offers his help, and normally rank and title dominate the very regimented hierarchical field of aviation.

Speaker 1 Obviously, cockpits, they don't just take people who come up and are like, hey, how how about I get in here? And give you my two cents.

Speaker 1 But in this moment, Captain Haynes and his crew welcome the stranger's help without hesitation.

Speaker 1 They put their egos aside and they focus on the emergency at hand because, and they describe it in the I Survived episode, essentially, they wrapped a belt around the broken yoke so that they keep that tipping wing up and they're just doing it fully by physical force.

Speaker 1 And they're, however, probably 30,000 feet in the air.

Speaker 1 So now with the controls no longer an option to use, this crew decides their best chance of survival is the one thing they do still have, which is the plane's remaining engine power.

Speaker 1 So the throttles are being used to keep the plane level, and they're going to be used to maneuver the DC-10 as best they can.

Speaker 1 So this is the most simplistic explainer that Marin wrote for me, which is when the crew fires the throttles, the two engines that are left get a power boost, causing causing the front of the plane to lift slightly, right?

Speaker 1 So like you're taking off. When they let off the throttles, the plane's nose dips downward and then begins a descent.

Speaker 1 When they fire the throttle on one side engine, then it turns the plane in the opposite direction and vice versa.

Speaker 1 So basically, because the plane is still tilting to the right, if they want to go right, they just stop pulling it as much to the left.

Speaker 1 So they basically are using the gas pedal as a big steering wheel because there's no steering wheel.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 they just improvised this new way of steering. It's never been done before, as far as anyone knows.
It's extremely risky because not gassing the engines enough could result in a nosedive.

Speaker 1 And once they start to go down, the plane could flip over itself.

Speaker 1 So they're basically just doing everything they can to keep the nose level.

Speaker 1 Captain Fitch and co-pilot records are focusing on the throttles while Captain Haynes and Engineer Dudley are frantically making calls to get guidance from someone on the ground.

Speaker 1 But no one, not United's maintenance team, their emergency response center, or the plane's manufacturers know what to do or what to tell these men. Cool.

Speaker 1 The harsh reality is that this uncontrollable DC-10 is going to end up on the ground one way or the other.

Speaker 1 So Captain Haynes and his crew are fighting like hell to control that landing so that the hundreds of people on board have a chance of getting out alive.

Speaker 1 It's now four minutes after the blast, and the captain calls head flight attendant Jan Brown into the cockpit and he tells her to prepare the passengers for a crash landing.

Speaker 1 Jan will later say, quote, It was just hanging in the air that this was the worst possible crisis. I could feel it.
It just hit me full force when I opened the door.

Speaker 1 I remember distinctly thinking, we're at 37,000 feet and the possibility is we could go straight down. It was pure terror.
Yeah, like that's it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But Jan maintains her composure and her poker face as she exits the cockpit and she walks down the aisle to go inform her team that that's the situation they're in.

Speaker 1 And as she does this, Captain Haynes comes over the PA system and he tells all the passengers, quote, I'm not going to kid anybody. This is going to be bad.
We need to prepare for a crash landing. No.

Speaker 1 The fucking pilot says those words. They don't say that shit.
They don't do that.

Speaker 1 This is not

Speaker 1 an April Fool's joke that they pull every year.

Speaker 1 That's not their style. No.
They're very serious about this shit. I'm not going to kid anybody.
Actually, can you kid me, please? Could you? I'm fine with delusion. I'm fine with it.

Speaker 1 With that, Jan and the other flight attendants kick into gear.

Speaker 1 They go around and they urge every passenger to remain calm and they teach them all how to get into what they call a bracing position to get ready to do that when the pilot instructs instructs them to do so.

Speaker 1 And so a bracing position is you folding your upper body as far forward as you can. Like you're going to put your head between your knees, essentially, and you grab your ankles.

Speaker 1 And that's like your best survival position in this situation.

Speaker 1 So this is about as bad as it can be, but it does get worse because United has been running a promotion where kids' plane tickets cost a penny. No.

Speaker 1 So there's lots of children on this flight. Oh, fuck.

Speaker 1 Including four infants, what they call lap infants, which means they don't have assigned seats because their parents are holding them because they're so small. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 So as the safety protocol of that time dictates, Jan Brown must now instruct those parents to put their babies on the floor during this emergency landing. Holy shit.

Speaker 1 She later says, quote, I thought to myself, Jan, I can't believe you're telling parents to put their most prized possession on the floor. Yeah.

Speaker 1 When Jan talks about this moment in their episode of I Survived, Survived, it is the most heartbreaking thing. It is so scary.
And it is what protocol dictated at the time.

Speaker 1 It was just her job to tell them this is your best chance of having your baby survive. It's just impossible sounding.
Yeah. So meanwhile, up in the cockpit with all the DC-10's down controls and

Speaker 1 busted tail engine. I love when Maren uses a word like busted.
It's just fucking busted. Everything's still being controlled by the throttles.

Speaker 1 Captain Haynes, Captain Fitch, and the two other crew members are constantly communicating with each other and working together to keep the plane level and basically moving forward.

Speaker 1 At this point, Flight 232 is now somewhere in the sky over Sioux City, Iowa, and Captain Haynes is starting to feel hopeful that his crew can use the throttles to descend enough and make a landing.

Speaker 1 He knows it will be a Herculean task, but the Sioux City airport is not that far off of the plane's current flight path.

Speaker 1 Captain Haynes will later say, quote, we went to Sioux City because that's where the airplane went. We didn't have enough control to put it down in any place in particular.

Speaker 1 We just had to keep going until we got to the ground.

Speaker 1 The idea was to keep it in the air, hoping we could make it to the airport because there are facilities there, there are emergency vehicles there, and there's a hospital there.

Speaker 1 So now Captain Fitch takes over the throttles while the other three men try to prepare as best they can. They're coordinating with Sioux City controllers and emergency services.

Speaker 1 They start dumping fuel to lighten the aircraft and they manually open the landing gear's door, which you can do from the cockpit so that gravity basically pulls down the landing gear because hydraulics won't do it.

Speaker 1 Oh my God.

Speaker 1 Captain Haynes later says, quote, they say your life flashes before your eyes, but we never thought we were going to die. We didn't think we were going to crash.

Speaker 1 We thought if we can just get this to the ground, keep it flying, we'll be okay.

Speaker 1 We were so busy, you don't don't have time to think about anything else yeah it's like what else you're not gonna panic and give up you just do whatever you can probably yeah you keep on working toward a solution you just keep fighting

Speaker 1 and especially in that situation so in the main cabin of course there's this eerie feeling which passenger Jerry Schummel later speaks about he's the guy that got rebooked onto this flight

Speaker 1 and he describes it as quote a controlled panic you could hear people crying you could hear some people crying out loudly. But for the most part, people kept calm.

Speaker 1 I think we were all just trying to figure out how we were going to survive this thing.

Speaker 1 And then he adds: We were probably as ready as we could be for a crash landing, and we knew it was going to be that.

Speaker 1 Captain Haynes told us over and over, we're in trouble, or we don't have any control of this plane. You've got to be ready.
You've got to listen.

Speaker 1 Flight attendants, you've got to know what you're doing.

Speaker 1 Shit. I mean, that's so off script from anything you've ever heard a pilot say over the loudspeaker.
It's just must have been so horrifying. Sorry, we're still in the quote.

Speaker 1 We knew we were going to crash. I think by the end, it was like, let's get this thing over with.
Let's go.

Speaker 1 Because just the tension. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So now the runway at the Sioux City airport comes into view. Captain Fitch on the throttles easily sends the plane into a wide rightward turn.

Speaker 1 And then as it circles back around, Captain Haynes is hoping he can get the plane lined up as closely as possible to a runway.

Speaker 1 This is an extremely difficult task. They make several attempts.
They do three huge loops. It takes about 45 minutes of trying and looping back around and trying to get closer and closer.

Speaker 1 The captain finally feels ready to make an attempt to land on the tarmac. And this is when Captain Fitch tells Captain Haynes, quote, I'll tell you what, we'll have a beer when all this is done.

Speaker 1 And Captain Haynes responds, quote well i don't drink but i'll sure as hell have one

Speaker 1 so they begin their descent when the dc-10 is about a hundred feet off the ground captain fitch is thinking this quote your attitude is i will do this i will do it i will not accept failure i will not accept anything less than the best even if i die that's the way i'm going to die right that makes sense So as hard as they try, the crew simply cannot slow this plane down enough because they can be lined up, they can, you know, all those things can be, come together, but they are going 270 miles an hour and it's that's twice as fast as any plane normally landing would be going.

Speaker 1 Jesus, okay. So they're not slowed down, right? They have no controls.
So they overshoot the airport.

Speaker 1 And then as they're coming down, they're so close to the ground, out of nowhere, the right wing drops out and the DC-10 nosedives and the plane smashes into, they're now over a cornfield.

Speaker 1 They've overshot the airport. They're over a cornfield and they just smash straight into the cornfield.
Oh my God. Passenger Jerry Schemmel, who is in the bracing position, will later say,

Speaker 1 It wasn't a crash landing. It was us dropping out of the sky and slamming into the earth.
Dude, for all the thoughts I had about what it was going to be like, I wasn't ready for that. Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 I thought, all right, a crash landing is a crash, but it's a landing. Ours felt like we just dropped out of the sky.
Yeah, Jesus.

Speaker 1 So immediately after initial impact, Jerry feels the DC-10 bounce a few times.

Speaker 1 It almost seems like the plane is about to take back off again, but instead the nose turns downward, the tail comes up, and the plane begins flipping forward over and over.

Speaker 1 So it basically is in this like these forward cartwheel kind of moves. Holy shit.
Can you imagine seeing that? Just standing there seeing a fucking jet plane cartwheeling.

Speaker 1 You know who did did was the local news who had heard that it was this emergency landing was happening and they were posted up. You can watch it yourself.
Oh my god, I don't want to. There's footage.

Speaker 1 I wouldn't. I wouldn't at all.
But if that's something that is what you need, you can watch it and it's very, very upsetting.

Speaker 1 So this airplane smashes into five pieces and the pieces scatter and they are buried into the ground among seven foot tall stalks of corn, which is very surreal.

Speaker 1 Some of the pieces skid for nearly a mile before they erupt into flames.

Speaker 1 Air traffic controllers, who had just been speaking with the cockpit crew, turn away from the site because they believe they've just witnessed the deaths of everyone on board.

Speaker 1 And as I say, local news crews capture the disaster on film in real time.

Speaker 1 Jerry Schummel and the head flight attendant Jan Brown are in the middle section of the plane, which, when it flips over, drills down so deeply into the cornfield that no daylight is visible outside of the windows.

Speaker 1 So it kind of goes down into the ground almost like a pencil. Yeah.
And that's the front in the middle. They, I believe, are in the middle.
Okay.

Speaker 1 They're basically in the first half of the main cabin, and in front of them was first class. And then the cockpit passed that.
Okay, got it.

Speaker 1 So now everyone in this part of the plane is hanging upside down in their seats. The only thing providing any light is fire.
Jesus.

Speaker 1 Jerry describes this hellish scene saying, quote, people were thrown all about the cabin, some still strapped in their chairs, some thrown from their chairs.

Speaker 1 They were out of their seats, whether their seatbelts had given out or the rivets in the chairs had given, then the debris and the smoke and the fire at the same time.

Speaker 1 Jan Brown blacks out and when she comes to, she doesn't know she's alive or dead. Oh my God.
But she will later say, quote, I realized, oh my God, I'm still thinking.

Speaker 1 And then I thought, if I'm thinking, I'm still alive. The job just kicked in right after that.
I heard someone behind me say, there's an opening.

Speaker 1 Sure enough, there's a big open hole where the first class galley had been. Jesus.
So Jan and her colleagues immediately start getting passengers to safety.

Speaker 1 And she says, quote, I was focused on getting these people out. I was holding this debris back and they were walking by me.

Speaker 1 And it felt like I could have been saying, thank you for flying with us today. It was so calm, I guess, because we were all in shock.
I mean, what an incredible thing.

Speaker 1 She did what she was trained to do.

Speaker 1 She didn't freak out, which is just so incredible. You know, it's like flight attendants are people.
They're just people. But they're badasses.

Speaker 1 They're like nurses where it's like, I have a job to do now. Yes.
When this situation, it is like their first responders.

Speaker 1 They have to have nerves of steel like that. They have to be the leaders.

Speaker 1 She definitely was a leader, but that idea of like they're getting people out of the hole basically in the front of a broken piece of plane.

Speaker 1 And that means there's people walking by you that just survived a plane crash. Like, what the fuck?

Speaker 1 Right. And then there's people who haven't.

Speaker 1 So, despite being in the same section of the plane, Jerry and Jan are actually separated by a thick wall of smoke.

Speaker 1 But Jerry's found an exit point on his side of that smoke wall that leads out to the cornfield. So now he starts helping people get out.

Speaker 1 But pretty soon he realizes it's becoming too dangerous to stay inside the wreckage. Jan Brown says, Quote, the smoke was coming toward my position.
I've never seen anything so dark and so lethal.

Speaker 1 This dark gray, like you would see in a tornado, except it was coming from what was now the ceiling. It had been the floor, just reeling toward my position.

Speaker 1 In the back of my mind, I thought this could blow up any minute. We're trained that when fire is too hot, the water is too deep, and the smoke is too thick, that's when you leave.
So I left. Wow.

Speaker 1 So basically, almost everyone gets out before her, but then she just has to get out.

Speaker 1 Because also, it's that thing of like staying inside to help people while you're overcome with smoke, you'll just end up dying inside. You're not helping at that point.
You're wondering.

Speaker 1 So while she is navigating tall stalks of corn, Jan bumps into the passenger that had been holding her 22-month-old baby boy, his name was Evan, on her lap during the flight.

Speaker 1 And she's now trying to get back inside the wreckage to go look for her baby who was thrown from her during the crash.

Speaker 1 Now Jan blocks her way, trying to tell her you need to wait for the rescue workers.

Speaker 1 It's not safe, you know, like trying to protect this woman. And Jan remembers the woman looking her in the eye and saying, quote, you told me to put my baby on the floor and I did.
And he's gone.

Speaker 1 This is what makes that fucking show, I survived, so just incredible. It's because like these stories of survival,

Speaker 1 the reason it's so compelling is because people die. And so it's like the people who don't die get to tell the story.
But that in and of itself is this burden.

Speaker 1 It is simultaneously, oh my God, thank God. And what a miracle.

Speaker 1 And also this burden and this, you know, it isn't like, especially in her situation where she was representing the known policy of the time.

Speaker 1 And this woman's like, now I don't have my baby and it's because of you.

Speaker 1 Horrible.

Speaker 1 So she adds, after she says that part, she says, I will live with that for the rest of my life.

Speaker 1 Baby Evan does not survive this plane crash. Man, I was hoping you were going to.

Speaker 1 I know, but I will a little bit right now because Jerry Schummel, who is the passenger who was helping people off the plane, is now also realizing he needs to get to safety.

Speaker 1 Everybody has the same thing. It's just like, it's time to run.
He says, quote, I thought the wreckage might explode. It always does on TV.
I thought about sprinting away.

Speaker 1 And at about that time, I thought thought I heard crying back inside. I didn't think about it.
I didn't weigh the risks. I didn't think if I go back into the plane, I might not get back out.

Speaker 1 I just heard it, reacted, and the next thing I knew, I'm back in the plane.

Speaker 1 So through this smoke, Jerry follows the sound. of crying to a closed overhead bin, which is now on the ground because the plane is upside down, right? The cabin is upside down.

Speaker 1 And when he unlatches it and reaches inside, he pulls out a baby girl.

Speaker 1 what the fuck he says quote i scooped her out with one arm and as soon as i touched her and put her in my arms she stopped crying i held her out in front of me she had a little scrape on her face a cut below her left eye i wiped the blood away with my sleeve and that was it that was the extent of her injuries we were later told she'd been thrown 20 rows through the plane into that overhead bin and came out with just a scrape on her face oh my god That baby's name is Sabrina Michelson, and she is just about a week shy of her first birthday.

Speaker 1 She then is reunited with her family,

Speaker 1 also all miraculously survived.

Speaker 1 Can you imagine?

Speaker 1 Okay, so it takes the first responders about half an hour to find the cockpit, which has been flung far away from the rest of the wreckage and is buried in the corn stalks.

Speaker 1 Cranes have to be brought in to save the four crew members inside, who all have life-threatening injuries. But they all survive.
All four of those men.

Speaker 1 Including the guy that did not have to go up there

Speaker 1 and just was like, hey, let me help out. Damn.

Speaker 1 So, of the 297 people who walked onto Flight 232 that day, 112 of them died in this crash. Oh, my God.
Making it one of the worst air disasters in U.S. history.
Holy shit.

Speaker 1 But at the same time, against all odds, 184 people survived this unsurvivable event, including three of the four infants that Jan Brent had to tell the parents to put on the ground.

Speaker 1 I mean, what a miracle that anyone survived, let alone that many people. Completely.
It's almost like if it had been anyone else in the cockpit, they weren't supposed to.

Speaker 1 Anyone was supposed to survive that. Right, right.
And just the idea of like... a plane cartwheeling and breaking into five pieces,

Speaker 1 like the idea that anyone could. What was the area that had the most survivors? And yes, I always want to know that

Speaker 1 it's not first class. I think it's mid.
I don't think it's ever first class.

Speaker 1 I think it's the back of the plane. I think it's mid or back.
Yeah. But I do think it's probably, I mean, we should have a name for this, like as opposed to corrections corner.
It's like hypotheses.

Speaker 1 That's definitely wrong corner. But this is my thing: if the explosion was in the back of the plane, it might change the

Speaker 1 odds, right? Because

Speaker 1 it's not like a normal plane crash. You guys know what to do.
Tell us statistics. Tell us stuff that you also don't know about, but look up for one second on Google and act like an expert.

Speaker 1 Anyway, and email us. And email us.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 The survival of these people is a testament to the quick thinking and the teamwork demonstrated by Captain Al Haynes, Captain Denny Fitch, Bill Records, Dudley Dvorak, and the calm leadership of lead flight attendant Jan Brown and her crew, and the courage of the regular regular people on board who became incredible heroes, like Jerry Schummel.

Speaker 1 The crew of Flight 232 become national heroes overnight. They are recognized by the U.S.
government with Polaris Awards, which honors exceptional and courageous airmanship.

Speaker 1 They're celebrated in a ceremony at the White House, and to this day, they're remembered for pulling off what many call an impossible landing.

Speaker 1 In the months after the crash, I actually, that reminds me, I just, remember that one, and it was at the Burbank airport, and it was a jet blue flight, and they had no, their front landing

Speaker 1 gear was turned to the side.

Speaker 1 So he had to come down and land on the back landing gear, and then as slowly as possible, slow the plane down without putting the front landing gear down.

Speaker 1 And then once he started to, it started sparking and catching fire.

Speaker 1 But then it just. that went out.
I watched it live on the news. And you like lived by there at the time.
Yes. That's crazy.
Yes.

Speaker 1 Sorry, I just interrupted this plane crash story to tell you another plane crash story.

Speaker 1 In the months after the crash, UPI reports that United's best pilots attempt to replicate Captain Haynes' landing and the survival rate in flight simulators. No one could do it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's almost like when they did land on accident, it wasn't supposed to happen, but maybe they wouldn't have survived. They did it the best they could have.

Speaker 1 They literally figured out the best survival rate in a situation where it was hopeless. Still, Captain Haynes, like his colleagues, struggled with PTSD and survivor's guilt for years.

Speaker 1 And Captain Haynes humbly says, quote, we were just doing our job, but we did it together and we gave those people a chance. Wow.

Speaker 1 Incredibly, most of this cockpit crew returns to flying within a year of this crap.

Speaker 1 I mean, imagine. Yes.
Yeah. They're like, we're really good at this.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But oh my God. Yes and no.
Oh my God. Captain Denny Fitch, who nearly dies from his injuries, is the one exception.
He's told he'll never fly again. He's back in the cockpit within two years.

Speaker 1 So he just takes an extra year

Speaker 1 to beat the odds. Damn.

Speaker 1 To take some deep breaths and be like, it's fine. I'm fine.

Speaker 1 A few years later, in 1991, in tribute to the skill and leadership demonstrated on that tragic July afternoon, United arranges a ceremonial flight from Denver to Chicago, the same route route Flight 232 was meant to complete, and they invite the surviving crew members on board.

Speaker 1 This will be Captain Haynes' last flight as a United pilot before he retires. Wow.
Captain Haynes passes away several years later in August of 2019, just shy of his 88th birthday.

Speaker 1 Captain Denny Fitch becomes a motivational speaker, and sadly, he dies of brain cancer in 2012 when he is 69 years old.

Speaker 1 Jerry Schummel, meanwhile, struggles emotionally following this disaster, and he credits his faith and his passion for bicycling with uplifting him from his trauma. And listen to this, so good.

Speaker 1 Every year for the last decade, Jerry Schummel makes a 112-mile cycling trip to honor the 112 victims of Flight 232.

Speaker 1 And in 2019, He tells the New York Times, quote, I just want to make sure their families know they're not forgotten. Oh, my god.

Speaker 1 And then there's lead flight attendant Jan Brown, who becomes a fierce lobbyist for increased child safety on airplanes. Yes.

Speaker 1 For more than two decades, she's devoted her life to banning the practice of babies sitting on their parents' laps during flights.

Speaker 1 This move is widely supported by pediatricians as well as the largest union of flight attendants in the United States who consider car seats to be the safest option for a small child while flying.

Speaker 1 Jan Brown dreams of getting a law passed in baby Evan's name. And she has said, quote, that's what I can do for Evan to make sure he's not forgotten.
I'll be doing this for the rest of my life.

Speaker 1 Oh, damn, that hits you.

Speaker 1 Also, it's like the burden she is taking when it's like, this was your job. Totally.
Told you this was the way you had to do your job.

Speaker 1 Anyone would have to do it. You did everything, right? It doesn't matter.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's that's incredible.

Speaker 1 Since this disaster, improvements have been made to airplane design and infrastructure that aim to prevent anything like this from happening again.

Speaker 1 And even though it's too late, just to reassure you, if you have a flight coming up in three months, flying today is very, very safe.

Speaker 1 The most recent safety report from the trade group International Air Transport Association found a very low accident rate of 1.13 per million flights, which means that there's roughly one safety incident for every 880,000 flights,

Speaker 1 making them extremely rare per the association standards.

Speaker 1 And that is the story of the impossible landing of United Flight 232. Holy shit, I never heard that.
Incredible. I could have sworn I told the whole thing.

Speaker 1 I could have sworn I was like, I think I did this already. And it's like, no, you just watch that TV show.

Speaker 1 That's incredible, especially on the heels of that tragic crash in India. I mean,

Speaker 1 oops, I watched the video. Don't do that.
No, don't do that. It's horrible.

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Speaker 1 great job oh thank you what a story yeah my story is lighter perfect what if you're like i also have a plane crash story it's not a plane crash story but it does kind of go with the letter that you read about World War II because it's it's a World War II story.

Speaker 1 Nice. Yeah.

Speaker 1 But it's a heroic story that you're going to love. It's a story of courage and heart and a very unlikely World War II hero.
She wasn't a soldier, of course.

Speaker 1 She didn't carry a weapon, but she did help save lives. She even went on to have a post-war television career.
She's just, she's admirable.

Speaker 1 Amid the chaos of the Pacific Theater, this tiny figure, no bigger than a loaf of bread, proved that bravery comes in all sizes.

Speaker 1 Today, I'm going to tell you the story of a fearless heroine named Smokey, a teacup Yorkshire Terrier, who not only helped construct vital communication lines under enemy fire, but is also widely celebrated as the world's first therapy dog.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 I love this. This has been on my future story list for so long.
I've been waiting for the day to tell it. You're telling it to the right person, too.
I don't know why.

Speaker 1 I think it's that thing where, like, why people like the pets they like or the animals they like, or whatever. I have a real terrier thing.

Speaker 1 I love, you know, that's a kind of dog blossom is that kind of like a little ratter, a little kind of like total, yeah, ratter, yeah. The little wire hair, kind of like they're up for it.

Speaker 1 They're barky and yappy, but they also are smart and they

Speaker 1 like to pick up one paw when they're like listening. They pick a paw.
Yeah. Cookie does that.
My favorite. I know.
They're the cutest. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So so the main sources i use for the story are an article in the manfield news journal by tim clark and a book called yorkie doodle dandy which is a memoir by bill wynn the veteran who raised her and the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes so it's february of 1944 and we're on the island of new guinea It's an island just north of Australia.

Speaker 1 And in 1942, Japan invades the island and New Guinea becomes one of the most miserable battlegrounds in the Pacific.

Speaker 1 There's dense jungle and intense heat and several infectious diseases, making this place an incredibly dangerous and grueling place to be for everyone.

Speaker 1 That said, it's worth mentioning that the people who probably suffer the most, I will say, of course, is the island's indigenous population who are caught in the middle and they do suffer horrific abuses.

Speaker 1 So you've got to say that too. So in 1943, an American soldier is in New Guinea and he's fixing a broken down jeep when he hears a whimpering noise coming from the tall grass.

Speaker 1 When he goes to investigate, he finds an abandoned foxhole. And in it, inexplicably, is a tiny four-pound adult Yorkie.

Speaker 1 And this is so weird because it's not like a mix. It's not like a super mutt.
Yeah, some stray dog from the local village or something. Right.

Speaker 1 It's like a Yorkie, which is actually like kind of a beautiful dog, right?

Speaker 1 And I actually don't sure. I don't know.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's a beautiful dog. I don't know any personally.
So I went online to make sure that anyone who wants to look them up can.

Speaker 1 You wanted to make sure those were available online? Well, my favorite online. Yeah, totally.
And I didn't really know anything about Yorkies. So I looked it up.

Speaker 1 It's a British breed of toy dog, terrier type. It's among the smallest of the terriers and all breeds, really.
It weighs no more than seven pounds.

Speaker 1 And it originated in the 19th century in the English county of Yorkshire, of course.

Speaker 1 And they're introduced in North America in 1872.

Speaker 1 And they're described as having the confidence of a lion in a teacup body, just like you like.

Speaker 1 And petmd.com says they are affectionate, playful, and sometimes bossy little dogs that have a lot of energy and need to be mentally stimulated. Yes.

Speaker 1 Very true. And so if you want to go on Instagram and look up a couple Instagram famous Yorkies, so you can picture one.

Speaker 1 There's Ducky the Yorkie, Peanut the Yorkie, and my absolute favorite, Eddie on Wheels, this senior citizen, Yorkie, who is such a grump.

Speaker 1 The videos are just his owner trying to get him out of bed in the morning. Oh, I've seen that one he grumps.

Speaker 1 I just watched that on TikTok the other day. It's hilarious.
Just such a, yeah, so great. So that's, that's what we're dealing with here.
Love it.

Speaker 1 So the soldier who finds this dog sells it to a friend. He's like, I don't want a dog, but this this dude named Bill Wynn is really excited.
He's about 19 or 20 years old. He's in the Air Force.

Speaker 1 And, you know, he's pretty miserable at the moment on New Guinea. And having this dog just immediately lifts his spirits.
Yeah. Because Bill has always loved dogs.

Speaker 1 As a kid in Ohio, he would form deep relationships with the neighborhood strays and on several occasions adopted and trained them.

Speaker 1 He writes, quote, I know what kind of family lives in a house by observing its dog.

Speaker 1 And this is really offensive. If the dog is calm, slow-paced, its people are quiet and serene.
A charging, excitable dog probably lives with children.

Speaker 1 Yeah, them fighting words. Or people with childlike spirits.

Speaker 1 Exactly.

Speaker 1 Bill had wanted to join the military after high school, but his fiancé, a woman named Margaret, had convinced him not to, but it doesn't matter because about a year later, he gets drafted and winds up in the Air Force.

Speaker 1 In New Guinea, Bill pays two Australian pounds for the little Yorkie, which do you even want to try? Two Australian pounds in. So the Australian pounds are worth at the time like $6.44.

Speaker 1 Oh, if you can do that. So it's the 40s, but

Speaker 1 it's an Australian pound, but American dollar in the 40s.

Speaker 1 I'm just going to go ahead and throw it out there. It's like around 40 bucks.
So it should be. It's not.

Speaker 1 It seems like the soldier who was selling it knew he had a mark on his hand. I mean, this guy really wanted this dog.
So he ends up paying in today's money $119 for the sock. Sure.

Speaker 1 It's like kind of expensive. Expensive, especially when you're a GI over in like fighting World War II.
Yeah, I don't think Bill played it cool when he was like, do you want the dog?

Speaker 1 I guess I'll take the dog. Yeah.
And he like pisses his face. He was like crying and like, please, it means the world to me.
I'll pay anything. Yeah.
You guys, you got to play it cool. Come on.

Speaker 1 So he says, quote, I could hardly wait until quitting time to claim the weird little creature and give some serious attention to her physical condition, end quote.

Speaker 1 The soldier who found the dog uses that money to buy his way back into a poker game. So everyone's happy.
We all have our vices. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Bill names the dog Smokey. So Bill and Smokey instantly have a special bond.
Bill is an aerial photographer, which is so cool. So his main responsibility is to take reconnaissance photos.

Speaker 1 And he takes Smokey along with him on his flights over the Pacific on many missions in the cockpit with him, a tiny Yorkie. In his little front pocket.

Speaker 1 Yeah, you could tuck him in your shirt. There were about 500,000 other war dogs that did bravely serve in World War II, which is so interesting.

Speaker 1 But these were official service animals that had been trained by the military. They're not four-pound Yorkies.
Found in a hole. Right.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 They had their own rations and dedicated medical care, but Smokey has access to none of these things. So Bill shares his rations with her.
She's particularly fond of scrambled eggs.

Speaker 1 Are those powdered scrambled eggs?

Speaker 1 You know they are. Oh, God.
Whenever he can find one, Bill gives Smokey an extra can of spam, which is like bigger than she is.

Speaker 1 Smokey sleeps in Bill's cot in a little blanket made from the felt from a pool table.

Speaker 1 I know.

Speaker 1 To give Smokey a bath, Bill Furz dunks her in a helmet full of soapy water and then a helmet full of clean water.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm just picturing war. It's so awful.
Like, service animal, you need an animal. Like, like, you see the cats standing on the shoulders of servicemen and women, and you're like, Yeah.

Speaker 1 I would freak out. I'd be so happy.
It would make you so happy.

Speaker 1 And also, there is all that science about, like, there's that kind of animal pheromone, animal-human pheromone that when it's shared, it's like mutually beneficial to both. That's

Speaker 1 why we all like each other. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Despite the limited resources and complete lack of formal military training, Smokey is whip smart and learns commands from Bill very quickly. She turns out to be tough as nails as well.

Speaker 1 While many of the other war dogs in the Pacific theater develop paw injuries from running on coal-strewn beaches, Smokey has no issues, perhaps because she's so little and light on her feet.

Speaker 1 Bill teaches Smokey to sing along while he plays the harmonica, and she spends her evenings entertaining the troops.

Speaker 1 Can you imagine on the little stage? Can you imagine that? They were hurting for entertainment. They're just like, Bill's dog is going to howl along as he plays the harmonica.

Speaker 1 Great.

Speaker 1 This is the best show I've ever seen in my life.

Speaker 1 Be quiet. Be quiet.
Smokey's singing. Bill says, quote, guys were arguing over who would get Smokey if I got knocked off.

Speaker 1 Which is why he said he started taking her on flights, too. He's like, I don't want anyone else to get her.

Speaker 1 Bill winds up coming down with dengue fever, which is a tropical mosquito borne illness and he winds up in the hospital for five days and Smokey goes along with him and while she's there she makes the rounds visiting all the other sick and wounded soldiers and cheering them up

Speaker 1 Bill credits her demonstrating the helpfulness of dogs in hospital settings as paving the way for the common use of therapy dogs

Speaker 1 Because it wasn't a thing yet. And like our friend Jocelyn Hughes, her beautiful, sweet dog nugget, is one of those hospital visit dogs.

Speaker 1 And I'm so impressed because Cookie could never, she's scared of children. It's a very specific personality.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Frank would just walk in and pee on the hospital bed leg or something. Like he just can't be trusted.
No.

Speaker 1 Like you can pet me if you want to, but I'm also going to eat the crackers out of your purse or whatever is happening.

Speaker 1 I'm going to chew on a wire that is essential to your. being alive.
It's like an airplane. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Phil says, quote, she was the first therapy dog. All the lines of therapy go back to Smokey.
She was a real spirit lifter, end quote.

Speaker 1 I mean, you would think if you were laying in bed injured from a war, a battle injury, and a teacup Yorkie walked by, you'd be like, oh, I'm hallucinating. This is crazy.
Totally.

Speaker 1 And that's like, no, she's real. Pet her.
And you can pet her and she'll sing for you.

Speaker 1 So Smokey's best remembered for one particular important act of heroism that I'm going to tell you about. So it's 1945.

Speaker 1 It's towards the end of the war, and Bill becomes involved in what's to be known as the Luzone Campaign, which is a battle on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

Speaker 1 At the beginning of this campaign, the army needed to construct an airfield, and to do this, they needed to create some communication infrastructure.

Speaker 1 And this would mean about three days of digging to lay a telephone line.

Speaker 1 And doing that digging, those three days of digging, would expose those soldiers who are digging to enemy fire because they're just right there in the open.

Speaker 1 And then also, it would endanger at least 40 pilots who would have to try to protect them from above. So just a really dangerous mission.
But the U.S.

Speaker 1 has one crucial weapon, Smokey, the four-pound Yorkie.

Speaker 1 So right near the area where the Army had intended to dig a ditch for the communications cable is a pre-existing culvert with a small pipe in it, about eight inches wide, running about 70 feet, the length of what will be the Army's new runway.

Speaker 1 So it's far too small for a person to go through or one of the trained military dogs because they're dog, they're big, but it's plenty big for Smokey.

Speaker 1 So Bill ties a piece of kite string to her collar and that kite string is then tied to the communications cable. Bill goes to one end of the pipe, puts Smokey at the other, and then calls her over.

Speaker 1 Bill says, quote, she made a few steps in and then ran back. Come, Smokey, I said sharply, and she started through again.
And with some coaxing, she actually makes it through.

Speaker 1 So after her successful mission, the soldiers want to reward Smokey with a big steak.

Speaker 1 And Bill writes, quote, a big steak for a four-pound dog is about the size size of a mini burger, but she earned her reward. When the war ends, Bill has to smuggle Smokey back to the U.S.

Speaker 1 in a flight oxygen mask case.

Speaker 1 Back home, which is so like, Cookie wouldn't go in first class. She'd be like, go fuck yourself.
And this sweet dog is like. It's not for everybody.
Smokey was perfectly designed for this job.

Speaker 1 Cookie has her own dog seat belt and dog car bed. I mean,

Speaker 1 back home, Bill and Margaret get married and Smokey begins appearing with Bill on television shows telling her story because everyone hears about it and they are like so excited.

Speaker 1 She does tricks and sings along with the harmonica on these shows. In fact, during this period, Bill and his wife actually live in LA and Bill starts working as a dog trainer for movies.
Nice.

Speaker 1 Which is so rad. Bill then works as a photographer for NASA for seven years, and then they move back to Cleveland, Ohio, where they're both originally from.

Speaker 1 And Bill becomes a photojournalist for the Cleveland plane dealer and has a decades-long career there. So Smokey dies in 1957 at the age of about 14, which is really old for a dog, right?

Speaker 1 She's buried in Cleveland in an ammunition box.

Speaker 1 After Smokey dies, Bill publishes an obituary about her, and this actually leads him to her original owner, which is Bananas.

Speaker 1 A veteran who had also been stationed in New Guinea, gets in touch with Bill and says that he had found a Yorkshire Terrier while he was stationed there, but she had gotten lost. What?

Speaker 1 So we don't really know her actual origins, but someone else had found her and she'd gotten lost.

Speaker 1 And what's really weird is that Bill had always noticed that when anyone said the word Christmas, Smokey would freak out and get all excited. Turns out the guy's like, I had named her Christmas.

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 I know. Wait a second, though.
So was that dog native to the island and the original guy found her? Or was like, was there a third person who smuggled her in?

Speaker 1 I feel feel like there's got to be a smuggled in at story somewhere. I mean, you know, or is this where we find out Yorkies are actually native to New Guinea? No.

Speaker 1 Who knows? So now there's a memorial to Smokey where she's buried in Cleveland. It's a statue of a little Yorkie happily smiling from inside a military helmet.

Speaker 1 And there are 10 other monuments to her around the world. My God.

Speaker 1 I know. She's famous.
Before the post-war era, Yorkies were obscure and kind of not in favor, and their registration fell to an all-time low of 18%.

Speaker 1 So they were on the way out. They weren't fashionable anymore.

Speaker 1 But Smokey, when Smokey comes out, guns blazing, she's actually credited with a renewed interest in the breed.

Speaker 1 And in 2012 and 2013, the American Kennel Club ranked the Yorkshire Terrier as the sixth most popular purebred in the United States. Wow.
And you can definitely trace that back to Smokey.

Speaker 1 It's all Smokey. Totally.
She did it all. Bill passes away in 2021 at the age of 99.
Wow. He spent his final years with his beloved dog, another Yorkie, whom he named Smokey 2.

Speaker 1 And that's the story of Smokey, the World War II, hero dog. We love a hero dog here.
I'm my favorite mom. We love a hero dog.
We love a dog owner that's also a hero by adopting a dog mid-goddamn war.

Speaker 1 Totally.

Speaker 1 That was a good one. That was nice.
Yeah, thank you. Just that idea of Smokey having that piece of rope in her mouth trying to run through that pipe, like how scary that would be for her.

Speaker 1 Run, run, run, and like a little

Speaker 1 bit of a trip. If Smokey can do it, you can do it.
Put a piece of string or rope in your mouth and get going.

Speaker 1 If a four-pound Yorkie can thrive, not survive, thrive during wartime on an island, you've got this. You're going to be okay.

Speaker 1 You're going to be okay. You're basically like 20 four pound Yorkies in one

Speaker 1 person.

Speaker 1 What? As you're as many four pound Yorkies as

Speaker 1 your generational

Speaker 1 inheritance. It's right.
It's up to you.

Speaker 1 The more, the better. Be the four pound Yorkie you want to see in your life.

Speaker 1 And adopt. Make sure you go adopt.
Don't shop. God damn, don't shop.
Go to your local shelter and find the love of your life that changes the trajectory of your life completely.

Speaker 1 At Nora's graduation party, Frank and Blossom were there the whole time and everybody's like, they're such good dogs. Where I'm like, what do you mean?

Speaker 1 They're just standing around to try to get cheese and salami that falls. It's like a charcuterie board, but okay.
I mean, I just love this story because it changed Bill's life in an incredible way.

Speaker 1 And I feel like if I hadn't had Elvis, I wouldn't be here right now.

Speaker 1 He like inspired me to try harder and to get people to pay attention to him because I wanted to I wanted everyone to see how incredible he was. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, like, I think this is what everyone's, this is like, what the internet has really given us is truly understanding that the way we value our animals is the way how everybody feels about their animals.

Speaker 1 Your dog and your cat, like it means the world's people and they are like their own little people. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's just lovely. I love that story.
Thank you. Yeah, I do too.
Nice one. Well, thanks, you guys.
Are we ending it? I think we should end this. Yeah, this should be the last episode.
Goodbye.

Speaker 1 What about

Speaker 1 it? And with that, guys, bye.

Speaker 1 Guys, thank you for everything.

Speaker 1 Bye. Bye.
It's summertime. I think we all got the summer wrap-it-ups all the time.
So let's just say we love doing this episode for you as we always do. Thank you so much for listening.

Speaker 1 Yes, thank you for everything you've given us. You are our four-pound Yorkie.
Stay sexy and don't get murdered.

Speaker 1 Goodbye.

Speaker 1 Elvis, do you want a cookie?

Speaker 1 This has been an exactly right production. Our senior producers are Alejandra Keck and Molly Smith.
Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squalachi.

Speaker 1 Our researchers are Maren McGlashen and Allie Elkin. Email your hometowns to myfavorite murder at gmail.com.
Follow the show on Instagram at myfavorite murder.

Speaker 1 Listen to to my favorite murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And now you can watch us on Exactly Right's YouTube page.

Speaker 1 While you're there, please like and subscribe. Goodbye.

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