The Ancients Recommends: History Daily

Speaker 1 Hi, folks, it's Mark Bittman from the podcast Food with Mark Bittman.

Speaker 1 You know, whether you are doing traditional Thanksgiving, a friend's giving, or something in between, Whole Foods Market has great everyday prices on all the things you need for Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 No way antibiotics ever birds bring quality to your table at a great price. You can enjoy so many ways to save on your Thanksgiving spread at Whole Foods Market.

Speaker 1 And remember, Prime gives you shop online and delivery or pickup as you like.

Speaker 2 Stop! Before you drag yourself to that coffee pot tomorrow morning, try this instead. Tonight, fill a shaker with water.
Add one scoop of Early Bird and put it on your nightstand.

Speaker 2 When your alarm screams at 5 a.m., drink it first. What happens next will shock you.
Your brain doesn't gradually wake up, it switches on. The fog vanishes.
You're not surviving your morning.

Speaker 2 You're conquering it. This blood-orange mimosa ritual turned more than a thousand night owls into morning warriors this week alone.
Get yours at cluberlybird.com and use code NEVERSNOOSE for 20% off.

Speaker 3 This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash?

Speaker 3 Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at progressive.com.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Speaker 4 Potential savings will vary, not available in all states.

Speaker 5 Hey guys, I hope you're doing well and welcome to this special bonus episode where we are shining a light on another excellent history podcast.

Speaker 5 It's called History Daily and it's hosted by Lindsay Graham.

Speaker 5 Every weekday, History Daily releases 15-minute bite-sized episodes about an event from history.

Speaker 5 Now that could range from Scott and Amundsen's race to the South Pole in the early 20th century to the trial of Socrates almost 2,500 years ago. Today we're giving you a flavour of what they do.

Speaker 5 Now I've had a peruse through their library and selected two episodes that really intrigued me and hopefully will intrigue you too.

Speaker 5 They're not ancient topics, but give me a chance to explain why I found them so interesting. First off, we have an episode about the Loch Ness monster, Nessie.

Speaker 5 Now, anyone who knows me knows that I have a deep love of Scotland and its history. The Picts, the Antonine Wall, Iron Age Brocks, Orkney, you name it, I love it.

Speaker 5 But of course, one of the great myths of Scotland is the Loch Ness monster.

Speaker 5 There is that famous, or rather infamous photograph of Nessie from 1934, which you regularly see in articles about the Loch Ness Monster today.

Speaker 5 The photo was later proven to be a hoax, but at the time, the reaction was huge, convincing many that the Nessie rumor was true.

Speaker 5 So when I saw that History Daily had an episode all about this photograph and the international sensation that it caused, I was hooked. I wanted to learn more.

Speaker 5 The episode didn't disappoint, and I hope you enjoy.

Speaker 6 It's April 14th, 1933, in the Scottish Highlands near the town of Inverness. Audi Mackay sits in the passenger seat as her husband drives along a quiet country road.

Speaker 6 Audi rolls down the window to let in the afternoon breeze, poking her head out to look in the dark water of the lake next to them.

Speaker 6 She begins to turn her head back to the road, but something catches her eye, a mysterious movement on the lake. Audi looks across the water, which has been completely still until just seconds ago.

Speaker 6 Now she watches as it churns. She traces the waves back to their source and lets out a gasp.
Audi cries for her husband to stop the car.

Speaker 6 As the car screeches to a halt, Audi shouts for him to look at the lake, and with a shaking hand, she points to a shape rising out of the lake's depths.

Speaker 6 Audi's stomach sinks as she watches an enormous, black, whale-like creature emerging from the water and then crashing back down below.

Speaker 6 Audi watches as waves big enough to have been caused by a steamship reverberate through the lake before disappearing in a mass of foam.

Speaker 6 Audi and her husband stare in shock as the lake grows still once more. They wait on the roadside for half an hour, but the creature never reappears.

Speaker 6 Audi's account of these events will soon be published by the Inverness Courier.

Speaker 6 Her story of a monster lurking in the depths of Loch Ness will send reporters and sightseers flocking to the lake in hopes of spotting the infamous Loch Ness monster for themselves.

Speaker 6 And as sightings continue, the legend of Loch Ness will continue to grow.

Speaker 6 But evidence of the creature's existence will be scarce, until the newspaper The Daily Mail sparks an international sensation when it publishes an alleged photo of the Loch Ness monster on April 21st, 1934.

Speaker 6 From Noiser and Airship, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is History Daily.

Speaker 6 History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.
Today is April 21st, 1934. The Loch Ness Photograph

Speaker 6 It's the afternoon of July 22, 1933, near Loch Ness, three months after Audi Mackay's alleged sighting of a monster in the lake.

Speaker 6 A gentleman named George Spicer hums a tune as he drives down a hill toward Loch Ness, his wife in the passenger seat next to him.

Speaker 6 George turns on the road that runs alongside the lake, ready to begin the long drive back to their home in London. Between the trees, George catches glimpses of the glistening surface of Loch Ness.

Speaker 6 Staring at the inky water, George briefly wonders if the rumors around town of a mysterious monster are true.

Speaker 6 Though Audi Mackay's account of a creature in the lake sent shockwaves through the community, she was not the first to allege that a monster lurked in Loch Ness.

Speaker 6 Stories of a mysterious aquatic animal in the loch are rooted in Scottish folklore, with accounts dating back over a thousand years. But Audi's story reignited local fascination with the lake.

Speaker 6 But today, mythical monsters feels like an outlandish notion to George. Loch Ness is just another beautiful Scottish lake to be enjoyed on a scenic drive during summer weather.

Speaker 6 But an exclamation from his wife interrupts his reverie. George, what on earth is that? George turns his eyes back to the road.

Speaker 6 In the distance, George can make out a large gray lump stretching across the entire width of the road.

Speaker 6 He squints harder, and as he gets closer to the mysterious object, he realizes it's not an object at all.

Speaker 6 George slams on the brakes, his eyes glued on an animal taking in its long, thin neck and enormous, limbless body.

Speaker 6 George watches as the creature jerks left and right, sliding across the road toward the lake.

Speaker 6 In a matter of seconds, the creature arrives at the water's edge, and George stares as the animal descends into the lake and out of sight.

Speaker 6 On August 4th, 1933, George Spicer's account will be published by the Inverness Courier and soon picked up by major papers throughout the country.

Speaker 6 Spicer's story of a prehistoric abomination with a three-arched neck and a body four feet high will spark a new level of public interest in the mysterious Loch Ness monster.

Speaker 6 London newspapers will send correspondence to the lake. Updates on the latest news from Loch Ness will frequently interrupt radio programs.

Speaker 6 And soon, boats will fill the lake with outdoorsmen and Boy Scouts scouring the depths. Deck chairs will adorn the lake shores as sightseers wait for the monster to reappear.

Speaker 6 Traffic jams will fill the roadways. A circus will even put up a reward for the beast's capture.
But all evidence of a monster will remain anecdotal.

Speaker 6 It's December 1933, four months after George Spicer's monster sighting.

Speaker 6 Marmaduke Wetherill paces the lake's rocky shore, intently looking out over the water and inspecting the ground beneath him for any evidence of the fabled Loch Ness monster.

Speaker 6 In recent weeks, excitement over the beast has reached a fever pitch.

Speaker 6 Eager to capitalize on the moment, the Daily Mail commissioned Wetherill, a well-known actor and big game hunter, to track down the creature.

Speaker 6 For the past several days, Wetherill has been at Loch Ness, hunting for any evidence of the beast's existence. So far, he's come up empty-handed, but today Wetherill hopes that will change.

Speaker 6 Wetherill ventures farther from the water's edge, walking toward the grassy banks. As he does, something catches his eye.

Speaker 6 Just a few yards from where he stands, Wetherill sees an indentation in the ground. Wetherill approaches the strange pattern, careful not to step on what looks like a series of animal prints.

Speaker 6 Wetherill's heart soars as he inspects them closer. To his experienced eye, the prints appear big enough to have come from a very powerful, soft-footed animal 20 feet long.

Speaker 6 Wetherall follows the prints that lead him right to the water. He smiles, knowing that this is the evidence he's been looking for.

Speaker 6 Wetherall rushes to find a phone and report his discovery to the Daily Mail, which publishes Wetherill's report with the headline reading, Monster of Loch Ness is not legend, but a fact.

Speaker 6 Wetherall claims the prints are foolproof evidence of the Loch Ness monster's existence.

Speaker 6 But at the Daily Mail's request, Wetherill agrees to send casts of the footprints to London's Natural History Museum for analysis.

Speaker 6 Wetherill waits in anticipation for the museum's conclusion, but when the results come in, Wetherill is devastated. The prints he so meticulously casted belonged to a hippopotamus.

Speaker 6 Obviously, Wetherill knows there's no hippo living in the lock.

Speaker 6 It's clear someone is pulling a prank, and indeed the prints were man-made, likely by a hippo foot converted into an umbrella stand or ashtray, a popular taxidermy choice of the day.

Speaker 6 Against Wetherill's wishes, the Daily Mail will publish the museum's findings, turning Wetherill into a subject of ridicule.

Speaker 6 And his misidentification will sully the investigation of the Loch Ness monster. Sightings will be viewed with skepticism and quickly dismissed as hoaxes or optical illusions.

Speaker 6 Before long, Wetherill will return to London in disgrace, and utterly humiliated, he will retreat from public view. But Wetherill won't give up his search for a Loch Ness monster.

Speaker 6 Instead, he will hatch a new plan and put into motion a plot to prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster once and for all.

Speaker 6 It's April 1934 in London, four months after the Daily Mail published the results of Wetherill's embarrassing mix-up.

Speaker 6 Inside his living room, Wetherill and his two sons huddle around a toy submarine, but they're not playing a game.

Speaker 6 They're plotting the best way to make this toy look like the Loch Ness monster in a staged photograph.

Speaker 6 Wetherill stares at the small toy and smiles, reveling in the absurdity of his plan and the thrill of possible revenge.

Speaker 6 The hippo-foot fiasco left an indelible stain upon Wetherill's reputation as a big game hunter.

Speaker 6 After the Daily Mail published his embarrassing mistake, Wetherill's resentment toward the publication grew into a thirst for revenge. Now the time has come for Wetherill to exact it.

Speaker 6 Wetherill watches as his son Ian begins layering wood over the toy submarine's tower. Slowly, Wetherill recognizes the shape of a neck beginning to take form.

Speaker 6 Wetherill nods approving approving before helping his stepson Christian attach strips of lead to the submarine's base.

Speaker 6 Wetherill finds a paintbrush and opens a can of gray paint, ready to put the finishing touches on their creation.

Speaker 6 Wetherill stands back to examine their handiwork and smiles at their 12-inch tall model of the fabled Loch Ness monster. Wetherill turns to his sons and sneers, they want a monster?

Speaker 6 We'll give them their monster.

Speaker 6 Soon, Wetherill returns to Loch Ness with his son Ian and their newly crafted creature.

Speaker 6 He finds a quiet bay and then lays the makeshift monster on its surface, making sure to include the scenery of Loch Ness in the background.

Speaker 6 Satisfied with its position, Wetherill sets up a camera and snaps a photo of the monster. Wetherill prepares to take another photo, but the sound of nearby footsteps deters him.

Speaker 6 Quickly, Wetherill sinks his model into the water and rushes back to his car.

Speaker 6 As he drives back to London, Wetherill ponders how to get his photo developed and out onto the front page of the Daily Mail. He knows he can't do it himself, not after the hippo foot fiasco.

Speaker 6 He needs someone else, someone respectable and credible.

Speaker 6 It's the morning of April 21st, 1934, at the Daily Mail's headquarters in London. At his desk, a reporter inspects the front page of the day's paper.

Speaker 6 Taking up most of the page is an image of a long, serpent-like neck jutting out of the water of a lake, underneath a headline that screams, London surgeon's photo of the monster.

Speaker 6 The reporter smiles, knowing sales will be good today.

Speaker 6 The photo came to the Daily Mail from Dr. Robert Wilson, a highly respected London surgeon.

Speaker 6 Wilson claimed to have been driving along the northern shore of Loch Ness when he spotted something moving in the water.

Speaker 6 With a camera luckily on hand, Wilson stopped his car to snap a photo of the mysterious animal.

Speaker 6 The reporter picks up the paper again, closely inspecting the dark silhouette of the mysterious creature.

Speaker 6 He knows this photo corroborates the description of the monster given by the many alleged witnesses over over the years. But after the hippofoot incident, doubt still lingers in his head.

Speaker 6 Still, the reporter knows they did their due diligence early this time. The Daily Mail already had Scottish experts examine the photograph yesterday.

Speaker 6 None believed the creature to be any marine animal or fish known to inhabit British waters. In fact, they couldn't even hazard a guess as to what the animal could be.
Plus, Dr.

Speaker 6 Wilson, a respected surgeon, hardly seems like a man to be party to some elaborate hoax.

Speaker 6 Still, the reporter does not know the answer to the question in the story's subheading, does monster really exist?

Speaker 6 For many, the surgeon's photograph, as it will come to be known, is irrefutable evidence of the Loch Ness monster's existence.

Speaker 6 The photo will even launch the popular theory that the creature in Loch Ness is actually a plesiosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile that has been extinct for over 65 million years.

Speaker 6 And for decades, the photo will be considered the best evidence of the Loch Ness monster.

Speaker 6 But then, in 1994, 60 years after the photo's first publication, a man named Alistair Boyd will unveil the truth, revealing the photograph as nothing more than another hoax.

Speaker 6 It's 1993 in Essex County, almost 60 years after the Daily Mail first published the surgeon's photograph. On the couch in his living room, Aleister Boyd sits and examines an old newspaper clipping.

Speaker 6 Boyd begins to read the article, a little-known 1975 interview with Marmaduke Wetherill's son, Ian.

Speaker 6 Soon, Boyd pauses in disbelief as he reads Ian's claim that the iconic surgeon's photograph was simply part of an elaborate plot to dupe the Daily Mail.

Speaker 6 Boyd is a retired art teacher, but has researched Loch Ness ever since he spotted a large animal in the lake 15 years ago.

Speaker 6 For years, Boyd has sought evidence to corroborate what he thinks he saw that day.

Speaker 6 And for years, the surgeon's photograph was the most convincing evidence that Boyd and others were not just imagining things.

Speaker 6 Though Ian's interview, rebutting the validity of the photograph, was released almost two decades prior, the article never gained much traction.

Speaker 6 But as Boyd reads and rereads Ian Wetherill's claims, he's struck by the feeling that the media missed a major story, that the famous photograph may indeed be fraudulent.

Speaker 6 Boyd decides to investigate further. Ian Wetherill is deceased, so Boyd tracks down Ian's stepbrother, Christian Sperling, and drives down to the south of England to meet him.

Speaker 6 Now 93 years old and near death, Christian confesses his stepdad's elaborate ploy to get revenge on the Daily Mail.

Speaker 6 And during their interview, Boyd makes one more discovery, a suspicious Wetherill family heirloom, an ashtray with a stuffed hippo foot at its base.

Speaker 6 Whether Marmaduke Wetherill made the prince at Loch Ness himself is unclear, but a few months after meeting with Christian Sperling, Boyd will reveal to the media that the surgeon's photograph was a hoax.

Speaker 6 But far from becoming one of the legend's biggest detractors, Alistair Boyd will remain a stalwart supporter of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, and he will not be alone in his conviction.

Speaker 6 Marmaduke Wetherill's deception will not spell the end for the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

Speaker 6 The mythology of the monster, as well as the hunt for its existence, will endure, captivating audiences long after the Daily Mail first captured the world's attention with its infamous photograph published on April 21st, 1934.

Speaker 6 Next, on History Daily, April 22nd, 1993, while waiting for a bus, 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack that changes Britain forever.

Speaker 6 From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily. Hosted, edited, and executive-produced by me, Lindsey Graham.
Audio editing and sound design by Molly Bond. Music by Lindsey Graham.

Speaker 6 This episode is written and researched by Alexandra Curry Buckner. Executive producers are Stephen Walters for Airship and Pascal Hughes from Noiser.

Speaker 2 Stop! Before you drag yourself to that coffee pot tomorrow morning, try this instead. Tonight, fill a shaker with water.
Add one scoop of Early Bird and put it on your nightstand.

Speaker 2 When your alarm screams at 5 a.m., drink it first. What happens next will shock you.
Your brain doesn't gradually wake up, it switches on.

Speaker 2 The fog vanishes, you're not surviving your morning, you're conquering it. This blood-orange mimosa ritual turned more than a thousand night owls into morning warriors this week alone.

Speaker 2 Get yours at clubberlybird.com and use code never snooze for 20% off.

Speaker 1 Hi folks, it's Mark Bittman from the podcast Food with Mark Bittman.

Speaker 1 You know, whether you are doing traditional Thanksgiving, a friend's giving, or something in between, Whole Foods Market has great everyday prices on all the things you need for Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 No way antibiotics ever birds bring quality to your table at a great price. You can enjoy so many ways to save on your Thanksgiving spread at Whole Foods Market.

Speaker 1 And remember, Prime gives you shop online and delivery or pickup as you like.

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Speaker 3 This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash?

Speaker 3 Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at progressive.com.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Speaker 4 Potential savings will vary, not available in all states.

Speaker 5 So there was History Daily's episode on the Loch Ness Monster photograph. I hope you found it as interesting as I did.
Now the second episode that I've chosen for you is slightly different.

Speaker 5 It's about meteorites. The first meteorite to ever strike a person in fact.
Now, that happened in Alabama in the United States in 1954.

Speaker 5 Normally, when I think of meteorites, I do think of the extinction of the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago.

Speaker 5 So, this very human, very poignant story was very different, but also very interesting. Now, I've definitely said the word very more than enough there.
Let's get into the episode.

Speaker 6 It's 12:46 p.m. on November 30th, 1954, in Sylacauga, Alabama.
Ida Franklin is washing dishes in the kitchen of her 34-year-old daughter's home, trying to stack the plates quietly on the drying rack.

Speaker 6 Earlier that morning, Ida's daughter, Anne Hodges, said she was coming down with a cold. After they finished lunch, Ida told Anne to take a nap on the couch and covered her with two heavy quilts.

Speaker 6 Now, Ida's is trying to help by getting on with the housework while Anne rests. But the peaceful afternoon is disturbed by an almighty crash.

Speaker 6 Ida hears shouting from the room where Anne was napping and in a panic, she rushes from the kitchen, opens the door, and is engulfed by a cloud of dust.

Speaker 6 Ida waves her hands to clear the air and spots Anne writhing in pain on the couch. Ida drops to her knees at her daughter's side and asks what happened, but Anne doesn't know.

Speaker 6 Both the women look around the room in confusion. Sunlight is streaming through a gaping hole in the roof near the fireplace.

Speaker 6 Ida thinks the chimney must have collapsed, but as she stands to get a closer look, she trips over a grapefruit-sized rock in the middle of the floor.

Speaker 6 Ida curses and limps from the room, telling Anne she's going to call for help.

Speaker 6 By the time the Sylacauga Police Department makes it to the Hodges house, the dust has cleared to reveal that the chimney is intact.

Speaker 6 The puzzled police officers conclude that the hole in the roof must have been caused by the strange shiny black rock that Ida stumbled over.

Speaker 6 And while Anne is checked by a physician, the police chief takes the nine-pound rock away for testing.

Speaker 6 Within a few hours, a local geologist will reveal that the object that crashed through Anne Hodge's roof is a meteorite.

Speaker 6 It struck Anne while she slept, but the quilts her mother wrapped her in dulled the worst of the impact.

Speaker 6 And although Anne escapes her extraterrestrial encounter without serious injury, intense media attention means her life will never be the same after she's identified as the first person to be struck by a meteorite on November 30th, 1954.

Speaker 6 From Noiser and Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

Speaker 6 History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.
Today is November 30th, 1954. The first meteorite to strike a person.

Speaker 6 It's November 30th, 1954, at a roadside in Alabama, a few moments before a meteorite will crash through the ceiling of Ann Hodges' home.

Speaker 6 Eugene Hodges climbs a ladder that leans against a tree and pulls a sharp saw from his work belt.

Speaker 6 Eugene is a tree surgeon for the local telephone company, and it's his job to keep branches away from the phone lines to ensure communication isn't cut during a storm.

Speaker 6 Right now, he's 40 miles from his home in Sylacauga and already looking forward to the dinner his wife Ann will have ready for him after he's finished for the day.

Speaker 6 But as Eugene hacks at an overhanging branch, a bright red light travels across the sky, trailing smoke behind it.

Speaker 6 The fireball arcs across the horizon, dropping lower and lower until it disappears from view.

Speaker 6 Eugene stares at the spot where the fireball disappeared, waiting for a distant explosion or a plume of smoke. He thinks he just witnessed the last moments of an airplane as it dropped to Earth.

Speaker 6 But when Eugene hears no sound and sees no smoke, he gets back to work and soon forgets all about the strange sight.

Speaker 6 Five hours later, Eugene is driving through the streets of Silicauga on the last stretch of his journey home when a neighbor flags him down.

Speaker 6 Eugene winds down his window and the neighbor excitedly tells him that there's been an incident at his house, it was struck by a meteorite and his wife Anne was hit.

Speaker 6 Although the neighbor reassures Eugene that Anne isn't seriously hurt, Eugene speeds home. What he sees there shocks him.

Speaker 6 Parked cars block the street, a crowd stands outside his one-story home, and some of the onlookers carry the kind of cameras used by press photographers.

Speaker 6 As Eugene pushes his way to the front door, several people complain that he's skipping the line. One man tries to block Eugene's way, telling him to wait his turn to see where the meteorite hit.

Speaker 6 But Eugene is tall, and years of wielding a saw have given him muscular arms. So he grabs the onlooker by the shirt and carries him off the porch.

Speaker 6 Then Eugene announces that he's the man who lives here and tells the gawkers to go home. Meanwhile, photographers lift their cameras and begin clicking away.

Speaker 6 Eugene enters the house and slams the door shut, hoping to find a reprieve from the chaos, but inside isn't much quieter.

Speaker 6 Police officers mill around in the hallway, talking amongst themselves but not doing much else to help. Eugene asks the officers where his wife is, and they point to the bedroom.

Speaker 6 Eugene finds Anne in bed, and she greets him with a tired smile, announcing, we had a little excitement here today.

Speaker 6 When Eugene asks to see the meteorite that crashed into their house, he's told that the chief of police took it away.

Speaker 6 Eugene spends the next few minutes trying to shoo the authorities out of his home and kicking the bystanders off his porch.

Speaker 6 And after the house is finally free of uninvited guests, Eugene tries to settle Anne, but she has a restless night. The next day, Anne feels dreadful.

Speaker 6 Eugene takes her to the hospital, and the doctors there assure them that Anne has suffered nothing more than a nasty bruise.

Speaker 6 But even being in a hospital bed doesn't shield Anne from unwanted attention.

Speaker 6 When a photographer finds his way into the hospital, a doctor lifts Anne's bed cover so he can take a picture of the enormous bruise across Anne's hip and thigh, a great photo to accompany a sensational story, and the photographer is sure it'll be a good payday for him.

Speaker 6 But the press aren't the only ones looking to cash in on the event.

Speaker 6 Driving his horse and cart along a dirt road on the outskirts of Sylacauga, local woodcutter Julius McKinney stops near a dense patch of undergrowth and pulls the thick grass aside.

Speaker 6 Yesterday, Julius spotted a smooth black rock on this dirt road and kicked it into the grass.

Speaker 6 This morning, he saw a story in the newspaper about the meteorite that struck Anne's house, and when he read a description of the space rock, he realized what he kicked into the grass must be another fragment of the meteorite.

Speaker 6 After a quick search, Julius spots the rock he's looking for, places it on his cart, and returns home. He's hopeful someone will pay a pretty penny for the extraterrestrial object.

Speaker 6 But as a black man in rural Alabama, Julius knows he has to tread carefully. The authorities will confiscate the meteorite if they find out he's got it.

Speaker 6 Julius will eventually find an intermediary intermediary to sell the meteorite on his behalf, and he will be stunned by the amount of money he's offered.

Speaker 6 The windfall will be enough to pay for a house and a car, but while his space rock will be a bonanza for the lucky woodcutter, the woman who was actually hit by the meteorite will struggle.

Speaker 6 It's December 9th, 1954, at the office of Alabama Congressman Kenneth A. Roberts in Washington, D.C., nine days after a meteorite struck Sylacauga.

Speaker 6 Huel Love smiles at the camera as Congressman Roberts hands him the fragment of meteorite that hit Ann Hodges. As Sylacauga's best lawyer, Huel understands the value of good publicity.

Speaker 6 And right now, there's no bigger story in the country than the Sylacauga meteorite, and Huell has just succeeded in retrieving the space rock for Anne and Eugene Hodges.

Speaker 6 Huwell was hired by Eugene the day after the meteorite struck. By then, the Hodges had already received a phone call from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Speaker 6 The museum's bosses had heard about the meteorite and wanted to purchase it for their collection, suggesting a price of $5,000, over $50,000 today.

Speaker 6 Eugene was eager to sell, but there was a problem. He didn't know where the meteorite was.

Speaker 6 The police chief who took it from the Hodges' house gave it to a geologist, but then it was seized by the U.S. Air Force.

Speaker 6 So Huell got to work and insisted that the Air Force had no right to commandeer his client's private property.

Speaker 6 After days of badgering, the Air Force backed down and today Huell is enjoying the publicity that followed the successful conclusion of his mission.

Speaker 6 Huel boards an airplane to Alabama and ensures that more photographers are on the scene to capture his arrival.

Speaker 6 He hands over the meteorite to Anne and Eugene with great ceremony, a broad grin placard on his face. But Anne does not seem thrilled at the return of the space rock.

Speaker 6 Ever since the meteorite crashed through her roof, Anne has struggled to sleep.

Speaker 6 More than a week later, she's still experiencing flashbacks and displays many of the symptoms now known as indicators of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Speaker 6 Though Anne and Eugene have the meteorite back in their hands, it won't solve any of their problems.

Speaker 6 While Eugene negotiates with the Smithsonian, he and Anne are notified that they're being sued by their landlord, Bertie Guy.

Speaker 6 Bertie claims that since she owns the house, the meteorite that struck it belongs to her. And the Smithsonian deal is put on hold until the courts decide who is the rightful owner of the meteorite.

Speaker 6 On the advice of their lawyer, Anne courts the media to keep the case in the news. She gives newspaper and magazine interviews.

Speaker 6 She even appears on national television show I've Got a Secret, in which celebrity guests have to guess what Anne is famous for. Oh, I have it.

Speaker 6 I think you're not the lady that the media all fell on, are you?

Speaker 6 But unlike the celebrities who guess her secret, Anne is quiet, shy, and hates being in the limelight.

Speaker 6 The constant media scrutiny puts more strain on Anne's mental health, but still she does her best in the hope that she and Eugene can turn a profit out of their troubles.

Speaker 6 Eventually, months after the meteorite hit, the dispute between the Hodges and Birdie Guy is resolved just before it goes to court.

Speaker 6 Anne and Eugene agree to pay Bertie $500 out of whatever they make from the sale of the meteorite. Birdie is satisfied with the arrangement.

Speaker 6 It more than covers the cost of repairing the hole in the roof. Eugene is pleased too, because he expects to make much more than $500 from his side of the deal.

Speaker 6 He contacts the Smithsonian to reopen negotiations, reminding them that they previously offered $5,000. But Eugene is stunned when the Smithsonian replies they're no longer interested.

Speaker 6 After the deal with Eugene was put on hold, they purchased a different piece of the Sylacauga meteorite, the fragment found by woodcutter Julius McKinney.

Speaker 6 Eugene then discovers that no one else wants to buy his fragment of the meteorite. During the months that the court case dragged on, public interest in the whole event dwindled.

Speaker 6 Anne stops receiving requests for interviews and television appearances, and people forget all about what happened in Sylaca.

Speaker 6 As Anne and Eugene are left to use the rock as a doorstop, hoping that a new bidder might emerge, Huell Love pressures the couple to settle their legal bill.

Speaker 6 Eugene grudgingly accepts a lowball offer for the meteorite from the Alabama Museum of Natural History. And after Eugene and Anne pay what they owe to Bertie and Huell, they have only $25 left.

Speaker 6 But then, even once they're rid of the meteorite, Anne continues to experience mental health problems and will do so for the rest of her life.

Speaker 6 Ten years later, Anne and Eugene's marriage will end in divorce. And eight years after that, Anne will die in a nursing home from kidney failure at the age of just 52.

Speaker 6 Eugene will survive her by 40 years, and he will always claim that Anne never recovered from the emotional trauma she suffered in the aftermath of the meteorite crash.

Speaker 6 But Anne won't be the last woman whose sleep is disturbed by the sudden arrival of an extraterrestrial rock.

Speaker 6 It's the early hours of the morning of October 4th, 2021, in Golden, a small town in British Columbia, Canada, 67 years after a meteorite hit Ann Hodges.

Speaker 6 66-year-old Ruth Hamilton suddenly wakes to the sound of a loud crash. She leaps out of bed as dust and debris shower her face.
Ruth turns on the lights and dials 911 in a panic.

Speaker 6 Only when she flops back onto bed bed as she talks to the operator does she realize that there's a large hole in her roof and a melon-sized rock on her pillow.

Speaker 6 Investigators initially presumed that the rock came from a nearby construction site, but the workers there assured detectives that there was no overnight blasting, though they did see a bright fireball fly overhead.

Speaker 6 Hearing this, the Canadian police send the rock from Ruth's pillow to experts at Western University in London, Ontario.

Speaker 6 There, academics confirmed that it was a meteorite that crashed into Ruth's Ruth's bedroom. Media reports quickly draw parallels with the Silicaga meteorite that rudely awakened Anne Hodges in 1954.

Speaker 6 But unlike in Silicaga, the story of the golden meteorite has a happier ending. Geologists tell Ruth that the rock has been on a collision course with Earth for over the last 470 million years.

Speaker 6 And thankfully for Ruth, the meteorite's final destination was a few inches to the side of her sleeping head. In contrast, the Silicaga meteorite came came to rest on Ann Hodges' leg.

Speaker 6 The damage it did was far greater than a bruise.

Speaker 6 The intense media scrutiny and legal drama that followed caused lasting mental anguish, and Ann Hodges never truly recovered once she earned the dubious honor of being the first verified person to be hit by a meteorite on November 30th, 1954.

Speaker 6 Next, on History Daily, December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Speaker 6 From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive-produced by me, Lindsey Graham. Audio editing by Mohamed Shazid.
Sound design by Katrina Zemrek. Music by Lindsey Graham.

Speaker 6 This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves. Executive producers are Alexandra Curry Buckner for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.

Speaker 5 Well there you go. There was this special extra episode today giving you an insight into the world of history daily and what they do.
I hope you found it interesting.

Speaker 5 We will be back to our regular schedule this week. We've got two exciting episodes coming up that we cannot wait to share with you.
Stay tuned for those very soon.

Speaker 5 In the meantime, I wish you a very wonderful week and I'll see you in the next episode.

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