Speaker 1: Welcomed. Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Australia is a country full of wonder and awe.
Speaker 1: From the Great Barrier Reef to the Sydney Opera House
Speaker 1: to Blue Mountain National Park, there are countless sites that
Speaker 1: make ods the beautiful place that it is, and yet
Speaker 1: Australia is also home to dangerous and even deadly phenomena.
Speaker 1: It's become something of a running joke that everything in
Speaker 1: Australia is trying to kill. You be at land or
Speaker 1: see there's bound to be something venomous lurking us around
Speaker 1: the corner. For example, the blue ringed octopus contains a
Speaker 1: bite that doesn't hurt at first until ten minutes later
Speaker 1: when the victims suddenly can't breathe or swallow. And then
Speaker 1: there's the taipe in, one of at least a hundred
Speaker 1: venomous species of snakes in Australia. Its bite contains enough
Speaker 1: venom to kill over one people. Lucky for us, it
Speaker 1: lives in remote parts of the country and doesn't really
Speaker 1: interact with humans all that much. And yet the one
Speaker 1: place people don't tend to worry about the sky after all,
Speaker 1: what could be so harmful up there except maybe the
Speaker 1: UV index. Well, his name is Hector, and he likes
Speaker 1: to pay a visit to one particular part of Australia
Speaker 1: every afternoon. Hector was first spotted during World War Two.
Speaker 1: He moved like clockwork, showing up over the Tewee Islands
Speaker 1: off the Northern Australian coast. Pilots and sailors would track
Speaker 1: Hector's position in relation to their own, allowing them to
Speaker 1: know where they were at all times. Between the months
Speaker 1: of September and March. At around three o'clock in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: Hector arrives in grand fashion. He likes to roll in
Speaker 1: on the nice days when the sun is high and
Speaker 1: the sky is bright blue, bringing with him a bit
Speaker 1: of unpleasant weather as well. If you haven't guessed by now,
Speaker 1: Hector isn't a person or even an animal. He's a cloud, cumulonimbus,
Speaker 1: thunder cloud to be exact, and his constant appearances over
Speaker 1: the tee Wee Islands is something of a wonder Typically
Speaker 1: only powerful storms like hurricanes are given names. Hector is
Speaker 1: one of the only thunder storms in the world to
Speaker 1: have earned its own Moniker, and for one very good reason,
Speaker 1: because it's always around. So how does Hector manage to
Speaker 1: visit the same place at the same time each day?
Speaker 1: And that's because of the tea Wee Islands themselves. They're
Speaker 1: perfectly shaped and situated to allow for Hector's formation. As
Speaker 1: sea breezes blow in from all directions, those winds converge
Speaker 1: over the center of the islands and then travel upward.
Speaker 1: The moisture they carry from the ocean then turns into thick,
Speaker 1: rolling clouds above, capable of unleashing massive amounts of rain
Speaker 1: over the air area. As long as the temperatures are
Speaker 1: warm enough, then there's a chance that Hector will appear, unless,
Speaker 1: of course, there's a monsoon coming where strong winds prevent
Speaker 1: the moisture heavy breezes that form Hector from collecting over
Speaker 1: the islands. Hector has been known to grow as high
Speaker 1: as sixty six thousand feet, bolstered by the area's constant
Speaker 1: tropical atmosphere. When formed, its shape takes on that of
Speaker 1: a mushroom or anvil, and it's responsible for the majority
Speaker 1: of the area's annual rainfall. There are a few different
Speaker 1: forms of hector, depending on how the winds collide, but
Speaker 1: the one people are most familiar with, the one that's
Speaker 1: often caught on camera, is comprised of one large cell
Speaker 1: or storm cloud that ripples outward along the sides. It
Speaker 1: blankets the island, bringing not only heavy rains, but strong
Speaker 1: lightning and even tornadoes. It's not uncommon for island flora,
Speaker 1: such as trees, to be damaged by hector. Hector is
Speaker 1: something of a celebrity now, at least among meteorologists. It's
Speaker 1: consistent appearance and performance have helped scientists research the factors
Speaker 1: that contribute to how thunderstorms form. There are countless satellite
Speaker 1: images and videos of hector building over the Tewe Islands,
Speaker 1: and there exists entire bodies of research on it from
Speaker 1: prominent meteorological institutions. It's easy to simplify, but honestly, hector
Speaker 1: is more than a thunderstorm. It's a mascot and perhaps
Speaker 1: the only thunderstorm that people look forward to each day.
Speaker 1: It's so beloved. He was even given an adorable nickname,
Speaker 1: Hector the convictor three cheers for Hector, Long may he reign.
Speaker 1: It all started with a fishing trip just off the
Speaker 1: coast of Coogie Beach in Sydney. A fisherman named Albert
Speaker 1: Hobson was struggling with something on his line. He'd caught
Speaker 1: more than a fish, though, he had hooked a fourteen
Speaker 1: foot tiger shark, otherwise known as the garbage can of
Speaker 1: the sea due to its propensity for eating anything in
Speaker 1: its path. That scene in Jaws where Hooper cuts open
Speaker 1: the shark on the dock and pulls out a license
Speaker 1: plate that was a tiger shark. Hobson and his son
Speaker 1: took the shark back to shore with them and decided
Speaker 1: to gift it to Albert's brother, the proprietor of the
Speaker 1: local aquarium and swimming baths. The tiger shark was placed
Speaker 1: in the large tank on display for patrons to see,
Speaker 1: which would have been enthralling. After all, it wasn't every
Speaker 1: day that people got to see a tiger shark up
Speaker 1: close and lived to tell the tale. Except there was
Speaker 1: something wrong with it. It started swimming into the walls,
Speaker 1: bashing its head against them before sinking to the bottom
Speaker 1: of the tank. It looked like the shark might not survive,
Speaker 1: but finally it vomited up a disgusting array of objects
Speaker 1: and animal pieces. A rat, a bird, and a lot
Speaker 1: of bile all came out, and what had started as
Speaker 1: the death throws of a tortured creature looked nothing more
Speaker 1: than just a bit of indigestion until one final morsel
Speaker 1: found its way out of the shark's stomach, a human arm,
Speaker 1: a left hand and forearm to be precise, with a
Speaker 1: piece of rope tied to it, and it bore a
Speaker 1: distinctive tattoo of two boxers sparring. Unsurprisingly, it was first
Speaker 1: believed that the tiger shark had devoured an entire person,
Speaker 1: or at least most of one. Aside from great whites,
Speaker 1: tiger sharks are also known as man eaters and are
Speaker 1: known to attack swimmers. However, the police determined that the
Speaker 1: shark had not in fact bitten off the arm, it
Speaker 1: had merely eaten it. The limb had been hacked off
Speaker 1: with a knife and then tossed into the ocean. Officers
Speaker 1: ran its fingerprints and discovered the identity of its owner
Speaker 1: as one James Smith, which was confirmed later by Smith's
Speaker 1: brother Edward, who recognized the tattoo in a newspaper photo.
Speaker 1: James Smith had been an amateur boxer and a low
Speaker 1: level criminal who had disappeared a few weeks prior. He
Speaker 1: had also been a police informant. The ensuing investigation led
Speaker 1: police to Reginald Holmes, known in some circles for running
Speaker 1: con jobs and smuggling operations in New South Wales. Smith
Speaker 1: had worked for Holmes on several scams along with a
Speaker 1: forger named Patrick Brady. The trio had kicked off a
Speaker 1: check forging operation that eventually led to Smith blackmailing homes,
Speaker 1: a decision that most likely contributed to his downfall. On
Speaker 1: April seven, ninety the two men were at a hotel
Speaker 1: playing cards, and that was the last time anyone ever
Speaker 1: saw James Smith alive. Brady was arrested for the murder,
Speaker 1: while Holmes told police that he had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with it. A short time later, Holmes tried to shoot
Speaker 1: himself in his boat shed, only to knock himself out temporarily.
Speaker 1: He then got into his speedboats and kicked off a
Speaker 1: police chase in Sydney Harbor. Holmes was eventually captured and
Speaker 1: treated for his wounds. In June of that year, Holmes
Speaker 1: agreed to help the police in their investigation. He told
Speaker 1: them everything, how Brady had been the one to kill
Speaker 1: Smith and put his body, well most of it anyway,
Speaker 1: into a large trunk, which he then threw into the bay.
Speaker 1: Brady then went to Holmes and showed him the arm,
Speaker 1: telling him that if he didn't give him five pounds
Speaker 1: right then he would kill him too. Once that threat
Speaker 1: had been issued, Brady tossed smith severed arm into the ocean,
Speaker 1: where it was inevitably found by our shark. Holmes agreed
Speaker 1: to testify at the trial, but the night before he
Speaker 1: was set to do that, someone paid him a visit.
Speaker 1: He was found dead in his sedan the following morning.
Speaker 1: The scene had been made to look like a suicide,
Speaker 1: yet it was clear to the police that he had
Speaker 1: been silenced by someone else. Without a body to examine
Speaker 1: nor a witness to testify, Brady was acquitted. His freedom
Speaker 1: was short lived, though. The second he stepped out of
Speaker 1: the courthouse, the police slap cuffs on him again, this
Speaker 1: time for forgery. The murderer is still considered unsolved to
Speaker 1: this day, with Brady having proclaimed his innocence until his
Speaker 1: death in nineteen sixty. All we can do is speculate
Speaker 1: that it was committed by someone who was, by all accounts,
Speaker 1: armed and dangerous. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.