Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
Speaker 2: my name is Noah.
Speaker 3: They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
Speaker 3: super producer Alexis code named Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly,
Speaker 3: you are here. That makes this the stuff they don't
Speaker 3: want you to know. It is Thursday, as the humans
Speaker 3: reckon their weeks, which means it is time for one
Speaker 3: of our most exciting evenings on the show. We get
Speaker 3: to join you, our fellow conspiracy realist, and share your
Speaker 3: stories with everyone else. We're going to get some insight
Speaker 3: from our friends down under. We're going to have some
Speaker 3: responses to an earlier question about local corruption. We're also
Speaker 3: going to have some letters from home, and a look
Speaker 3: at an ongoing disappearance which occurred quite recently. But before
Speaker 3: we do any of that, we talked about this off air.
Speaker 3: We thought we would start with the fun stuff because
Speaker 3: there is a letter that absolutely delighted all of us.
Speaker 4: I think, right, oh yeah, it's always nice to get
Speaker 4: correspondence from our pals down Under, especially when it comes
Speaker 4: to calling us on things that we perhaps didn't get
Speaker 4: quite right about their beautiful and dare I say dangerous homeland.
Speaker 4: We know it's Melbourne. I think we've we've checked that
Speaker 4: one off the list. And then here's the thing. These
Speaker 4: are always good natured. They're always if there's any ribbing,
Speaker 4: these Aussies, they tend to have a very good sense
Speaker 4: of humor. I really appreciate that about them, and this
Speaker 4: is no exception. We got quite a cavalcade of things
Speaker 4: to run through with this email from LJB starts like
Speaker 4: this high conspiracy team fascinated by your pot on the
Speaker 4: bun Yip and beyond. Thank you and thanks also for
Speaker 4: shining a light on our amazingly beautiful and unique land
Speaker 4: animals and biomes. For your listeners. You asked for opinions comments,
Speaker 4: So here you go. Jmho what is that one? Guys?
Speaker 3: Just by a humble opinion?
Speaker 4: Oh geez, so much cool than me. It took me
Speaker 4: a while to even figure out what TLDR meant. Jmahoe
Speaker 4: Outback Steakhouse. Sadly, even though I have made two brief
Speaker 4: visits to your lands some years ago. I never had
Speaker 4: the opportunity to visit, so can't comment. Apologies. I think
Speaker 4: we post the question of hey, are their outback steakhouses
Speaker 4: in Australia, to which we found there were a couple,
Speaker 4: and b do they get it right? I would pause
Speaker 4: it probably not Crocodile Dundee. Although a popular comedian actor
Speaker 4: in his day, Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee is pretty cringeworthy.
Speaker 4: Agreed his comedy was unsophisticated and left many of us
Speaker 4: in despair. I see, But at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: if people found it funny, why not be amused? That's
Speaker 4: that Ausie spirit. There are very auker Aussies. Yes, that
Speaker 4: ss says Z. But I don't know. Oker. Is it
Speaker 4: Ochre or Ocker? Oker? The colors of color? I'm gonna
Speaker 4: go with Oker for now. Who would identify and potentially
Speaker 4: sound like him? Irl? So that must be sort of
Speaker 4: like a I don't know. Maybe it reminds me of
Speaker 4: kind of Louisiana French culture, like Bayou folks. You know,
Speaker 4: maybe that's sort of an equivalent, but I can't be sure. Fosters,
Speaker 4: it's sparely not Australian. For beer. We do not drink Fosters. Ever,
Speaker 4: it has the rep as the worst ever brew. Guys,
Speaker 4: I have to take a quick pause here. Isn't it
Speaker 4: funny though? How people often identify America with things like
Speaker 4: bud Light, and we absolutely drink the hell out of
Speaker 4: bud Light. Does a country, you know? But then you
Speaker 4: know their individual results may vary, I wonder.
Speaker 2: Though, But it's a German beer basically, right, well, sure,
Speaker 2: fair enough.
Speaker 4: My point is though that it's it's gotten a reputation
Speaker 4: as being sort of this like the most basic of
Speaker 4: American beers, and it gets their reputation because it is
Speaker 4: incredibly popular, and there's a couple other ones you could
Speaker 4: add to that list. Foster's, however, being an Australian beer.
Speaker 4: I'm sure there are hundreds of other really good Australian beers.
Speaker 4: This is the one that just happens to hang their
Speaker 4: whole marketing on this overwrought Australian accents. And like, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't get regular TV anymore, so I don't know
Speaker 4: the commercials are like, but they really lean into that,
Speaker 4: and I'm sure they'd folks in their country cringe. And
Speaker 4: also of the beer's not very good. Have you guys
Speaker 4: ever had a Foster's I never even had one, Do
Speaker 4: you like.
Speaker 2: Get Maybe I'm misremembering this, but I want to say
Speaker 2: Foster's for a time had like this catter can or
Speaker 2: is a bigger something.
Speaker 3: It was supposed to look like a little barrel. Yeah,
Speaker 3: just just like the earlier or a small keg right,
Speaker 3: just so kawhi keg and uh to follow up. Aker
Speaker 3: or oker I think means someone with a strong accent.
Speaker 3: And the when we talked about outback, there is one.
Speaker 3: There's one outback. It's somewhere forgive me, folks. It's somewhere
Speaker 3: like the Sydney Airport, and people visit it as a novelty.
Speaker 3: I think the Foster's the idea is that if you
Speaker 3: call something Australian, you can easily sell it to Americans.
Speaker 3: Maybe we should come out with something and call it
Speaker 3: the Australian T shirt of stuff they don't want you to.
Speaker 4: Why not? Moving on to another person who could probably
Speaker 4: be accused of being an auker or oker. Steve Irwin,
Speaker 4: kind of the real life crocodile Dundee in some ways
Speaker 4: definitely had a similar accent, you know, wore the shorts
Speaker 4: kind of the Ranger Smith outfit, so cool, genuine genuine
Speaker 4: passion for the outback. And I'll if it's critters and
Speaker 4: as we know, and I think we've all remarked upon
Speaker 4: what a wild I think biome is exactly the term
Speaker 4: to use, just the the stuff that exists there. It
Speaker 4: looks like oftentimes stuff you think of as being from
Speaker 4: another planet that we just don't have any analog for
Speaker 4: a lot of their creatures over here. And Steve Irwin
Speaker 4: loved all of them, and in fact, unfortunately I believe
Speaker 4: his life was ended by one of them. I believe
Speaker 4: he was.
Speaker 2: Stunned in the heart by a stingray. Pretty wild, was it?
Speaker 2: Kat Williams. Cat Williams has been in the news a
Speaker 2: lot recently or social.
Speaker 3: He took some shots and some folks.
Speaker 2: I want to say it was him that he had
Speaker 2: a great bit about Steve Irwin, like with great respect
Speaker 2: to Steve Irwin, but that was the joke that he
Speaker 2: got stingray. But like he's over there just literally tackling
Speaker 2: crocodiles like it's nothing.
Speaker 3: I remember that, Matt. I also remember, so Steve when
Speaker 3: occupies for anybody not in the US, Steve Irwin occupies
Speaker 3: this amazing position in sort of the American pop culture pantheon.
Speaker 3: He's a real life Captain Planet. He has the ability
Speaker 3: like a D and D ranger to speak with animals,
Speaker 3: dungeons and dragons. Sorry, and I think his child is
Speaker 3: also following in his footsteps. He was brought down by
Speaker 3: Sting Gray, as we mentioned, but he did so much
Speaker 3: for environmental advocacy because he just seems like a really
Speaker 3: cool dude, a really good hang. And by the way,
Speaker 3: if you were into American hip hop, then you know
Speaker 3: that for a while, every every MC was rapping about Yeah,
Speaker 3: Steve Irwin, right, Steve Verwin to is Sting Gray a
Speaker 3: lighter to an upset Jean Gray shout out to Joe
Speaker 3: Budden's song on that Long Summer I think or short summer,
Speaker 3: and not a shout out to his podcast.
Speaker 4: Just to show up with what LJB said about Steve
Speaker 4: very much mirroring what we just we all just fan
Speaker 4: boyd out big time again. Quite broad and ocherish, Okay,
Speaker 4: there you go. But beloved for his love of and
Speaker 4: endless enthusiasm for our critters, particularly the dangerous ones, as
Speaker 4: we said, one that ultimately took his life, and I'm
Speaker 4: sure he wouldn't have had it in any other way.
Speaker 4: But who am I to say? I guess I can't
Speaker 4: be sure. His efforts, like you said, Ben, his efforts
Speaker 4: of environmental matters and wildlife conservation provided him with great
Speaker 4: respect and high regard. His loss is truly felt, but
Speaker 4: his legacy survives through his remaining family. Matt, did you
Speaker 4: have a Steve Irwin comment?
Speaker 2: It's fine, I've said it on the show before. I
Speaker 2: don't have to. I think it was my sixteenth or
Speaker 2: seventeenth birthday party. Just to give the little insight on me,
Speaker 2: it was a combination matrix Steve Irwin birthday party. You
Speaker 2: could dresss either or both.
Speaker 4: Okay, that's it.
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
Speaker 4: Next we've got Steve Rkle For some reason, LJB is
Speaker 4: not even sure why we have Steve Verkle. Apologies. I'm
Speaker 4: not sure of the reference here, but yes, Family Matters
Speaker 4: was shown on free to air television.
Speaker 3: I think I've mentioned this. This is a reaction, correct
Speaker 3: me here. This is a reaction to the classic episode
Speaker 3: we published on Cryptids of Australia, and I think as
Speaker 3: way leads on the way conversationally, we mentioned Steve Irwin,
Speaker 3: which probably led to us mentioning Steve Verkle. Sorry Australia,
Speaker 3: did we do that? Sure?
Speaker 4: Got any cheese? It turns out to a little white
Speaker 4: as a smoke show. By the way, you know when
Speaker 4: we knew that if we watched the show because he
Speaker 4: had an alter ego version of the Steve vercal character
Speaker 4: named Stefan. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Check out the Key and Peel family matters schedule that way.
Speaker 3: Can't leave it unsaid.
Speaker 4: So there's that mystery salid hopefully. Next, we've got prison
Speaker 4: colony talking about the history of Australia. No doubt it
Speaker 4: would be more accurate to say a convict colony was
Speaker 4: established here as convicted lawbreakers of even the most minor
Speaker 4: infractions thanks to their dire poverty. That's a really good point.
Speaker 4: These probably were a lot of people that did not
Speaker 4: deserve to be sent there. It gets a reputation as
Speaker 4: being this like hive of scum and villainy and all
Speaker 4: of that, and there are probably a lot of innocent
Speaker 4: folks that were thrown into forced labor on this colony.
Speaker 4: So just throwing that out there, Yeah, to their poverty,
Speaker 4: dire poverty. We're transported from Britain and Ireland. And yes,
Speaker 4: many are the descendants of convicts and claim to be
Speaker 4: quite proud to be so many residents that believe are
Speaker 4: referring to Next, we've got jungle. We don't have jungle
Speaker 4: per se. I'm assuming they're talking about the popular nineteen
Speaker 4: nineties dance music craze jungle. Now, anybody out there, rimshaw,
Speaker 4: It's so it's like, let's go to drum and bass.
Speaker 4: Jungle was a subset of Yeah, that is not what
Speaker 4: they're talking about. They're talking about literal jungle that they
Speaker 4: apparently don't have per se. Are heavily forested areas, and
Speaker 4: the subtropics and tropics are termed rainforests, similar.
Speaker 3: But not quite unique biome.
Speaker 4: And lastly, exactly, we've actually got two more quick ones,
Speaker 4: and well, I gotta so any good ones. Koala's koalas
Speaker 4: are not bear It's just marsupials c to look pretty
Speaker 4: dopey when sitting in their tree. Sleepy on eucalyptus leaves.
Speaker 4: I'm assuming sleepy on eucalyptus leaves meaning they're like high
Speaker 4: off the eucalyptus leaves and sometimes can be strappy. What
Speaker 4: a stroppy does that mean like built, like fit.
Speaker 3: Strap be sassy. They get attitude. You know. If you
Speaker 3: ever want to bust the American myth about the Koala,
Speaker 3: go to YouTube, get thee to YouTube now and watch
Speaker 3: Koalas fighting. There you go also riddled with chlamydia.
Speaker 4: Jesus Christ just suck the joy right out of Koalas
Speaker 4: for us uh Ben and ljb Okay, So the Internet
Speaker 4: says strappy, you nail the ben attitude, but specifically kind
Speaker 4: of grumpy tendencies, you know, like you said fighting the
Speaker 4: fighting words. They are in dire need, of course, as
Speaker 4: we know as habitat destruction, accidental deaths thanks to humans
Speaker 4: and their pets, interactions, and diseases decimate their numbers. Finally,
Speaker 4: we're gonna get to the bun yip and the yowee.
Speaker 4: We definitely have talked about these at various times encryptid conversations.
Speaker 4: My belief is that these are animals of legend for
Speaker 4: the First Nations people and far from real, although with
Speaker 4: more interesting fossilized bones being recovered, it may well be
Speaker 4: that in time past there could be evidence of new
Speaker 4: unidentified creatures that provide a tiny glimpse of where the
Speaker 4: dreaming stories have been handed down from the Dreaming, referring
Speaker 4: to the dream time of belief, sort of a kind
Speaker 4: of an afterlife parallel dimension of the Aborigines. It's actually
Speaker 4: really heavily featured in the Sandman series, of course, dream
Speaker 4: being Morpheus the main character, the Lord of dream. There's
Speaker 4: a really interesting storyline that involves Aborigines and the idea
Speaker 4: of dream time and the dreaming in that intersection. Pretty
Speaker 4: cool stuff. But I will say, though, with all of
Speaker 4: the crazy stuff, a shout out to friend of the show, Peach,
Speaker 4: and we've become good Internet friends. Who lives in the
Speaker 4: deep the deepest of bush in Australia, in the Outpack,
Speaker 4: and the critters that I see her rescuing from the
Speaker 4: street and dealing with coming into her house through the
Speaker 4: light fixtures and all kinds of stuff, always with the
Speaker 4: cheerful attitude. She loves these creatures so much. Some of
Speaker 4: the things that I've seen in her photograph really defy imagination.
Speaker 4: So the idea that there could be an undiscovered critter
Speaker 4: in the outpack is not beyond the realm of possibility
Speaker 4: in my mind. I don't know what you guys think,
Speaker 4: because some of those creatures that we definitely know exist.
Speaker 4: They're pretty bun yippy or yowieyesh on their own because
Speaker 4: they don't really look like anything I've ever seen before.
Speaker 3: Get LJB. First off, thank you so much for putting
Speaker 3: up with our American accents and for giving us these reactions.
Speaker 3: Like you said, Noel, there's some there are some things
Speaker 3: that we sort of summarize here interesting stuff about cryptid,
Speaker 3: specifically the Tasmanian tiger, right, which is one of the
Speaker 3: most likely cryptids to exist still given the vast expanse
Speaker 3: of wilderness out there in Australia and in surrounding areas
Speaker 3: shout out Tasmania. The idea of the dreaming is it's fascinating,
Speaker 3: it's worth its own episode because it's a very different
Speaker 3: cultural framework for experiencing what we would call reality today.
Speaker 3: I love your point here, no All, the idea that
Speaker 3: there may well be undiscovered large fauta of some sort
Speaker 3: in the outback, because this is one of the most
Speaker 3: likely places where such animals could be discovered. And we
Speaker 3: also know that due to the long, slow unwinding and
Speaker 3: shifting of Pangaea, the continent of Australia is home to
Speaker 3: a abundance of unique life forms that do not occur
Speaker 3: anywhere else on the planet, and therefore the universe as
Speaker 3: humans know it can't wait to go. Got some got
Speaker 3: some things, got some things in the works. So shout
Speaker 3: out to other Australian friends, Shout out to Patrice, Shout
Speaker 3: out to a fellow ben down Under. Hope to see
Speaker 3: you soon. I'll tell you man, LJB. One of the
Speaker 3: wildest things you mentioned here is the Komodo dragon. So cool,
Speaker 3: so cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one thing I think they came up maybe in
Speaker 4: a conversation that we've had about the Komna dragon. I
Speaker 4: think there was sort of misreported that these things were venomous,
Speaker 4: that they had like you know, fang, you know, they
Speaker 4: could inject you with the poison. But I think what
Speaker 4: I had heard or read, and I can't remember exactly
Speaker 4: where was it. Their mouths are just so filthy and
Speaker 4: like you know, disease kind of in their Germany that
Speaker 4: if they bite you, you're just probably gonna get infected
Speaker 4: from that, and it could be a death sentence in it.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you survived the bite, if you survived.
Speaker 2: The first bring it on Komodo dragons. It's like that
Speaker 2: ghost under this guy.
Speaker 4: Stop badgering the Komodo dragon.
Speaker 3: Man, I get PvP one.
Speaker 4: I'm confident AnyWho. A couple other little things you couldn't
Speaker 4: get to from this amazing list, but we'll end with
Speaker 4: listening to you as endlessly fascinating as you do on
Speaker 4: the topics that aren't often discussed frankly and with humor.
Speaker 4: Thank you much appreciate it. We much appreciate you. L JB. PS.
Speaker 4: We don't say good day either to you and find
Speaker 4: sally ho to you all kind regards. That was not
Speaker 4: That was not l JB's sign off. That was kind regards.
Speaker 4: That's very proper, l JB. I like that we talked
Speaker 4: this through as as I read it instead of waiting
Speaker 4: until the end. There was no other way to do.
Speaker 4: This was just like an absolute uh wealth of information
Speaker 4: and commentary from various episodes. So I don't know, man,
Speaker 4: I don't you guys have anything to add? I think
Speaker 4: we could probably pop to a breaks. There's anything you
Speaker 4: got last thing? Good day, good day to user, I say,
Speaker 4: good day, sir. You get nothing except this delightful commercial
Speaker 4: break from our sponsor and then some more Listen tomail.
Speaker 2: And we've returned, and we are going to the email
Speaker 2: banks to hear from Mysteria, Mysteria MYSTERI, Yes, Mysterious. I'm
Speaker 2: just gonna read this first part of guys, and then
Speaker 2: there are links, and let's look at them together, and
Speaker 2: we'll just kind of be like, oh, well, what what's
Speaker 2: inside this link? It's it's gonna come up later though,
Speaker 2: but for now.
Speaker 4: I hear those voices.
Speaker 2: Okay, Mysterious says, Hey, if you guys really want to
Speaker 2: do a deeper dive on local corruption, just look at Illinois.
Speaker 2: The entire state is a hot mess. And then there's
Speaker 2: a link. This is our first link in the series.
Speaker 2: It appears to be a Wikipedia link, the title of
Speaker 2: which is simply corruption in Illinois. And guys, it's not
Speaker 2: a short Wikipedia, It's not.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: So there's okay, Well, let's do an overview. There's a
Speaker 2: fairly large section for federal corruption. There's a smaller state
Speaker 2: corruption like sub area, and for governors and state officials.
Speaker 2: Then it's got municipal corruption. And that's the largest section,
Speaker 2: I would say.
Speaker 3: And a special, a special shout out just to Aldermen
Speaker 3: of Chicago for anybody not in the US. Alderman is
Speaker 3: a member of the city council, basically with a fancy
Speaker 3: your name. But Chicago has or a very long time
Speaker 3: been infamous in US history as a text book case
Speaker 3: of like a quintessential hold this up to the class
Speaker 3: example of widespread intergenerational corruption and oh, nothing seems set
Speaker 3: to change.
Speaker 2: Well, let's let's read a sentence here from a Wikipedia
Speaker 2: Remember this is a Wikipedia page. It can be edited
Speaker 2: by anyone that can edit Wikipedia. But you know, for
Speaker 2: the most part these things are policed pretty well internally,
Speaker 2: right by just other people looking at it and changing it.
Speaker 2: And Alderman and Aldermen are always in there. But here's
Speaker 2: here's a sentence. It's like the third sentence at the
Speaker 2: top of the page. Illinois had the third most federal
Speaker 2: criminal convictions for public corruption between nineteen seventy six and
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, behind New York and California. Uh oh, those
Speaker 2: seem like the two biggest ones.
Speaker 3: I would have guessed, Watch out, guys, they're on your wake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh man for real. In the first sentence is
Speaker 2: corruption in Illinois has been a problem from the earliest
Speaker 2: history of the state, and it goes all the way
Speaker 2: back to eighteen eighteen and.
Speaker 3: It quotes the Economist too, yep, which is not exactly
Speaker 3: a left wing publication, Like if the economist to say,
Speaker 3: and you're financially crooked, might be time for some self inventory.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well, then let's jump to the next thing
Speaker 2: that mysterious says. Mysterious says the Rita Crundwell case is
Speaker 2: an especially wild ride. And then our second link appears.
Speaker 2: Oh and this is to the US Attorney's Office, Northern
Speaker 2: District of Illinois. Uh, here's the title Former Dixon Comptroller
Speaker 2: Rita Crowell sentence.
Speaker 3: Fly beat me here, doc. I knew it. I knew
Speaker 3: knowing what a comptroller is would matter at some point.
Speaker 4: I mean to get a parliamentarian and somewhere, go Gary.
Speaker 2: It's the numbers, gentlemen. Former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell sentenced
Speaker 2: to nearly twenty years in federal prison for fifty three
Speaker 2: point seven million dollar theft from the city.
Speaker 3: Can't be out trolling the comps man.
Speaker 2: WHOA, that's intense this story is from And that was
Speaker 2: so covert it took me a second.
Speaker 4: That was on a delayed reaction with that.
Speaker 2: Very well done, Very well done, Ben. By the way,
Speaker 2: this was posted on Valentine's Day twenty thirteen. You know
Speaker 2: who didn't have a great Valentine's Day? Rita Crundwell ooh jeez, Louise.
Speaker 3: I thought you were gonna save me, and I was like,
Speaker 3: all right, man, just keep the kid gloves on. We're
Speaker 3: on the air.
Speaker 2: I can barely remember last week. I have no idea
Speaker 2: what happened on.
Speaker 3: This is a this is a huge case, right, mat Like,
Speaker 3: this is as you said, this is a this is
Speaker 3: a multi million dollar, more than two decades plus level
Speaker 3: of crime.
Speaker 2: Yeah. She pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering
Speaker 2: of more than fifty three million dollars from the city
Speaker 2: since nineteen ninety.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 2: Oh dude. She used the proceeds to finance her quarter
Speaker 2: horse farming business.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, you mean like little horses.
Speaker 3: I know, just twenty percent of a horse.
Speaker 4: It's like quarter scale horse. No, quarter horses are those
Speaker 4: those little fellows.
Speaker 2: But she was farming them, so I guess just breeding.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a thing. It's a bit odd.
Speaker 3: I don't think they're tiny, though. I think it's it's
Speaker 3: a name for a horse. That's really I sound stupid.
Speaker 3: I'm not a Questionian equestrian.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right, they're very fast. Why do I think
Speaker 4: that they're tiny?
Speaker 3: Now now they're sprinters.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right. Huh. You know what, I learned something
Speaker 4: new today because in my head quarter, horses were always
Speaker 4: like the little baby horses that never grow up, like
Speaker 4: little Sebastian.
Speaker 3: Never forget, never forget that. Yeah, there's a little Sebastian.
Speaker 3: The stuff Little Sebastian doesn't want you to know.
Speaker 4: The horses built for speed. He nailed it, Ben.
Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing. It sounds like, sounds like the
Speaker 3: long arm of the law nailed our friend Grundwell. And
Speaker 3: this is Chicago is again a place with some problems.
Speaker 3: It is one of the most American of American cities.
Speaker 5: But Matt, yes, I see from I see from the
Speaker 5: press release that got shared with us that this is
Speaker 5: one of the largest thefts or the largest theft of
Speaker 5: state fu I.
Speaker 2: Believe the judge said it was, or yeah, it was
Speaker 2: the largest theft in state history. And as we've learned,
Speaker 2: corruption in Illinois runs rampant and long.
Speaker 4: I was about to say, I mean, Chicago's is a
Speaker 4: notoriously corrupt city and that's where the like political boss
Speaker 4: kind of systems you know, came up.
Speaker 2: It's pretty normally by the way, it's the city involved, right,
Speaker 2: so she's a city comptroller. It was public funds stolen
Speaker 2: from the city of Dixon, dixo n. So she's having
Speaker 2: to pay back the city of Dixon that only has
Speaker 2: a population less than sixteen thousand people, about one hundred
Speaker 2: miles southwest of Chicago.
Speaker 4: Guys, I don't I don't know if you've thought about this,
Speaker 4: but given how much tax we all pay, and I
Speaker 4: know i've I've griped about this many times, and I like,
Speaker 4: show me the money, show me what you're doing with it,
Speaker 4: whether it be local or federal. I just think fraud
Speaker 4: like this happens a lot more than we think. I
Speaker 4: really do. I think somebody's pocketing my check. I really truly,
Speaker 4: because I don't see any any benefit from it. And
Speaker 4: maybe that's that's naive to say this because I'm not
Speaker 4: seeing it directly that somebody's stealing it. But I'd do
Speaker 4: not have confidence in state or federal government to now
Speaker 4: I'm sounding like I want to start my own secede
Speaker 4: from the union or something.
Speaker 2: But I think about this. These are local taxes, so
Speaker 2: like city taxes, so with Atlanta.
Speaker 4: You know, we don't pay as much city as we
Speaker 4: use federal. But dark streets are riddled with potholes, dangerous stuff.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Well, see, now, I this is weird. I've never paid
Speaker 2: city taxes like a local tax, state and federal. In
Speaker 2: this case, it's like sales tax, right, I have stuff
Speaker 2: bought in the city and other things like that when
Speaker 2: you stay at a hotel. Right, you've got like different taxes
Speaker 2: that are levied depending on the city you're in. I
Speaker 2: don't know so, but that that seems like a lot
Speaker 2: of money in a local city taxes that sixteen thousand people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of money laundering too, and money laundering
Speaker 3: it looks like over okay, money laundering is one of
Speaker 3: those things that used to be a good living back
Speaker 3: in the day, but it's increasingly difficult to clean the money. Right.
Speaker 3: So if anything, one of the questions that I have
Speaker 3: for you met is could she have gotten away with it?
Speaker 3: If she just cut and run like ten years in,
Speaker 3: twelve years in? Could she have just retired, you know,
Speaker 3: have the fanfare or whatever is appropriate for a comptroller
Speaker 3: when they're out of the game, and then just move
Speaker 3: to a non extradition country because the IRS is not
Speaker 3: going to chase you to Panama. They're not going to
Speaker 3: chase you if your white collar crimes are below a
Speaker 3: certain threshold such that it would cost them more to
Speaker 3: come hunt you.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, maybe we should read a little bit more of this.
Speaker 2: I know we kind of got stuck mysteria on this one.
Speaker 2: You've sent us so many other links, but I think
Speaker 2: this is this is really interesting to me. Let's continue
Speaker 2: reading here from the Justice DoD of link. Here it says,
Speaker 2: so she started this scheme in nineteen ninety. She opened
Speaker 2: a secret bank account which she was the only one
Speaker 2: that could access it, right, But she's also got control
Speaker 2: of all the city's funds. The name of the account
Speaker 2: was RSCDA Reserve Fund or the RSCDA account. The initials
Speaker 2: stood for Reserve Sewer Capital Development Account, although no such
Speaker 2: account actually existed for the city, and she did not
Speaker 2: disclose the existence of the secret account. So I guess
Speaker 2: she just Oh, it says Crundwell stole at least twenty
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars from a separate Dixon Bank account for
Speaker 2: its sister city program between eighty eight and ninety before
Speaker 2: she started this big plan. So she stole twenty five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. She got away with it, and she was
Speaker 2: like she had a reserve fund.
Speaker 4: She needed more. She's got her. Right.
Speaker 2: It reminds me of True Detective season two. A lot
Speaker 2: of that with like the secret funding and owing to
Speaker 2: other things.
Speaker 4: Right, that was that was the boring season.
Speaker 2: Hey, there were some cool stuff in there too, Vince Vaughan,
Speaker 2: let's go.
Speaker 4: He was fine. The masks, the crow mask was very cool.
Speaker 4: But overall I thought it was you guys watched the
Speaker 4: new episode.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I'm into it.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 3: I think it's weird how the internet hates women. Uh,
Speaker 3: the criticism, I think it's great.
Speaker 4: I think people are you know, well, then Nick puts
Speaker 4: a lot of fellow h has always been a bit
Speaker 4: of a man's man, so I think a lot of
Speaker 4: his fans are those types. So maybe they're mad that
Speaker 4: he's not involved, but I'm excited about it.
Speaker 3: It's school six episodes contained.
Speaker 4: Love it an anthology series anyway, Really quickly, guys, small horses,
Speaker 4: there's called miniature horses just for the please carry the
Speaker 4: confused with pies. No different.
Speaker 2: So a quarter horse is actually a quarter of a horse, and.
Speaker 4: The left that's it's like one of those pieces.
Speaker 3: Also, Matt, there's something really interesting that we see here
Speaker 3: in mysterious, mysterious mysterious letter, which is the small town corruption. Right,
Speaker 3: can we mention what is it? The townships is a
Speaker 3: township like a county.
Speaker 4: I think that's right. They haven't. They haven't been like
Speaker 4: you know, Jerry, York State and Massachusetts. There's sort of
Speaker 4: an old New England y thing ish kind of.
Speaker 2: I think, yes. And this is our third link, thank
Speaker 2: you so much mysteria. And this appears to be your
Speaker 2: home county mysteria.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the McHenry County State's attorney office back in twenty
Speaker 3: eighteen started investigating several townships. So townships must just be
Speaker 3: communities within a county for again illegally using taxpayer money.
Speaker 3: And apparently this is these are only two of like
Speaker 3: at least three places, three townships in this one county
Speaker 3: that are super crooked. I don't know, man, When we
Speaker 3: say it's cold up in Illinois, it feels like it's
Speaker 3: cold on a number of levels. Because you have to
Speaker 3: be pretty ruthless to be elected to public office and
Speaker 3: just violate trust like that.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what the actual
Speaker 2: corruption here is or like what's being investigated. It looks like, well,
Speaker 2: let me read this none to. Township also hired two
Speaker 2: of Miller's sons, who somebody who's working directly with the township,
Speaker 2: to full time positions, adding to its highway departments more
Speaker 2: than two million dollars payroll, with hundreds of thousands more
Speaker 2: in pensions and other benefits.
Speaker 3: So this looks like nepotism maybe and patting the patting
Speaker 3: the books kind of like when organized crime will come
Speaker 3: into a construction project.
Speaker 4: And yeah, yeah, let me talk about that. Everything I
Speaker 4: learned about crime I learned from the Godfather movies and
Speaker 4: the Sopranos. And sopranos they're always working on this esplanade
Speaker 4: that's never finished. This never gets finished, and they're doing
Speaker 4: they call them like no show jobs where you get paid,
Speaker 4: you don't have to come. That's like, you know, that's
Speaker 4: like a way you can kind of grease some palms.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna give you like five no jobs this month.
Speaker 4: And then also like by itemizing things that were never
Speaker 4: actually purchased and billing for them and things like that
Speaker 4: good way to hide money, guys.
Speaker 2: According to Illinois policy dot org, which is where this
Speaker 2: link took us, there's also really a major problem with
Speaker 2: like voter intimidation when there's a referendum coming up to
Speaker 2: change you know, the ways of the local government, and
Speaker 2: it looks like it's happening in a lot of townships there. Well,
Speaker 2: let's just mention the other things that are in here.
Speaker 2: We won't go over the link. So the last couple
Speaker 2: of things you mentioned here mysteria. You said, finally, this
Speaker 2: is probably more a case of incompetence than corruption. But
Speaker 2: check out the police department's handling of the Ridder murder
Speaker 2: back in nineteen eighty eight. So I don't know anything
Speaker 2: about the Ridder murder. You've got a link to us
Speaker 2: here to the Chicago Tribune about a man named Richard
Speaker 2: Church who was wanted for the nineteen eighty eight murders
Speaker 2: of Raymond Ritter and his wife, Ruth Ann. We're not
Speaker 2: going to talk about it in detail at all right now,
Speaker 2: but if you want to look it up you can.
Speaker 2: We're going to check it out for you know, the
Speaker 2: potentiality of a longer episode. I like that word. It's
Speaker 2: not a word, but then it's a word.
Speaker 3: Oh it is.
Speaker 4: I didn't think it was.
Speaker 2: You said other things here told us more about that murder,
Speaker 2: but we're gonna hold it for later. So thank you
Speaker 2: so much, Mysterio letting us know about just how bad
Speaker 2: Illinois could potentially be. But we're not passing judgment because
Speaker 2: state corruption exists everywhere, not just in the US, not
Speaker 2: just in Illinois.
Speaker 3: It's deeper than the pizza, right.
Speaker 2: It's I was gonna do deeper than hip hop thing,
Speaker 2: but I can't so all right than it is, but
Speaker 2: it's also deeper. So so thank you so much, Mysterious
Speaker 2: for writing in. We'll be right back with more messages
Speaker 2: from you.
Speaker 3: And we have returned for one more piece of listener
Speaker 3: mail and something we like to call letters from home.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: This final piece of correspondence comes to us from someone
Speaker 3: we're gonna call CJ because we did not get full
Speaker 3: permission to use their name. This is kind of the
Speaker 3: beginning of a rabbit hole. CJ sends us a message
Speaker 3: about someone named Donna I and says, the timeline and
Speaker 3: events leading up to this poor woman's disappearance are into
Speaker 3: lining up. You all should look into it and do
Speaker 3: an episode. I agree, CJ. This is also an unfolding event.
Speaker 3: If you choose to do so, please let me know.
Speaker 3: I'd love to hear it. If you don't trust links,
Speaker 3: I understand, says CJ, and sends us a couple of
Speaker 3: different links here and tells us a little bit about
Speaker 3: the case. Her name, says CJ, was Donna. I e ye,
Speaker 3: this happened very recently in Washington County, Missouri. I saw
Speaker 3: her name because she was dumped off in the middle
Speaker 3: of Mark Twain National Forest in the middle of the
Speaker 3: night by a police officer in subfreezing temperatures with no
Speaker 3: phone and has not been heard from since. This is
Speaker 3: the first I have heard of this story. Have you
Speaker 3: heard about this?
Speaker 4: No, I haven't heard of it either. Let's see, I'm
Speaker 4: following the link now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, according to this, so this is happening now. There
Speaker 3: was a story posted on Fox to Now Missouri affiliate
Speaker 3: Just Yes yesterday, as we record, on January sixteenth, and
Speaker 3: it seems that a Washington County sheriff named Zach Jacobson
Speaker 3: had activated something called the Mineral Area Major Case Squad
Speaker 3: to investigate what happened with this disappearance. A deputy allegedly
Speaker 3: dropped Donna I off around eleven pm in the middle
Speaker 3: of nowhere look up the Mark Twain National Forest. It
Speaker 3: is not like a pedestrian walking space. And she has
Speaker 3: not been seen since.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And there's a quote from her brother, I believe
Speaker 4: just just speaking to her mental state of the time,
Speaker 4: saying that she wasn't in any condition to make a
Speaker 4: decision for herself. They informed me while we were standing
Speaker 4: right where we are right now, she had been picked
Speaker 4: up at the hospital by a Washington County female sheriff's deputy.
Speaker 3: And according to the reporting that we have seen, we
Speaker 3: have a rough timeline of events. Donna I, at the
Speaker 3: age of forty four years old, is a mother. When
Speaker 3: she went missing, she left a hospital against her family's
Speaker 3: wishes on Monday, the eighth of January. According to the family,
Speaker 3: she has a medical condition that can affect her mobility
Speaker 3: and mental health. They were informed by the sheriff's deputy
Speaker 3: that she had been picked up from the hospital by
Speaker 3: the sheriff. Apparently she was dropped off in the middle
Speaker 3: of the forest. Apparently it's because they thought they were
Speaker 3: dropping her off at the correct place. But there's so
Speaker 3: many questions going on here. Even as we're recording right now,
Speaker 3: Donna I's daughter in law, Leahne Miller, has organized a
Speaker 3: civilian search party to try to find this missing person.
Speaker 3: And this reminds me of the conversations we've had over
Speaker 3: a series of years about one of the strangest, most
Speaker 3: egregious things in the US, which is that we have
Speaker 3: a lot of national parks, we have a lot of wilderness,
Speaker 3: and as we record, there is no government agency that
Speaker 3: keeps track of how many people go missing in parks
Speaker 3: each year. Shout out to us missing for one one.
Speaker 4: Right, I'm a little confused. Was she discharged from the
Speaker 4: hospital after Was this like a psychiatric hospital or was
Speaker 4: this just like she was injured and she was discharged
Speaker 4: And what led to the police being her only ride?
Speaker 3: It's still unclear. We know that we know that the
Speaker 3: family wanted her to stay under care. We don't know
Speaker 3: each of the steps that led to this disappearance yet,
Speaker 3: which is why we're putting this out here now. Hopefully
Speaker 3: by the time this her mail hits the air waves,
Speaker 3: hopefully we'll be able to update with some sort of
Speaker 3: good news. Hopefully she has been found. But it's stunning
Speaker 3: just how easy it is to disappear in the US.
Speaker 4: Did you mention the bag that they found.
Speaker 3: Yeah, tell us about that. That's one of the primary
Speaker 3: clues or at least bread problems.
Speaker 4: Oh, only to say that they did find it close
Speaker 4: to her brother's house. So you gotta wonder, like, did
Speaker 4: they drop her off so far that she had to
Speaker 4: like trudge her way back? But if she did, why
Speaker 4: was the bag there? And she didn't Like you would
Speaker 4: think if she was dropped off in this remote middle
Speaker 4: of nowhere that she would just have been lost. But
Speaker 4: the connection with a piece of personal property of hers
Speaker 4: to be so close to where she was trying to
Speaker 4: get to, that's really interesting and head scratchy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, especially considering how brutal winter storms have been across
Speaker 3: the US right now. You can make an argument that
Speaker 3: there is no way to drop someone off in the
Speaker 3: wild and reasonably expect that they will be able to survive.
Speaker 3: It's a I saw a I saw some scuttle butts
Speaker 3: and comments on various news forums, and one comment or
Speaker 3: on the Saint Louis Reddit implies, and this is just
Speaker 3: a person on the Internet implies that this drop off
Speaker 3: was on purpose, meaning that whomever dropped her off there
Speaker 3: meant for something bad to happen to her, assumed that
Speaker 3: she would not survive the incredibly dangerous weather. Now again
Speaker 3: we can't say any of that with any sort of certitude,
Speaker 3: but of course, in the absence of transparency, speculation only
Speaker 3: thrives totally.
Speaker 4: Yeah, now there's there's there's something what's the word something
Speaker 4: is rotten then, so wherever this is, yeah, no, there's
Speaker 4: definitely seems to be some details that are missing. And
Speaker 4: of course our hope is with this individual being found
Speaker 4: unscathed and perhaps they'll be an update soon and CJ.
Speaker 3: We're keeping this short because again hopefully we can return
Speaker 3: with good news. We also, at least I want to
Speaker 3: give everybody again the notice that misinformation and speculation thrives
Speaker 3: so easily on weaponize social media. If you do have
Speaker 3: any knowledge of Donna I's whereabouts, please do as Fox
Speaker 3: News mentions, please do contact the authorities. Call nine to
Speaker 3: one one if you know of anybody who's called missing
Speaker 3: in a national park. The scary thing about the United
Speaker 3: States is the onus is on you. It's on us
Speaker 3: as members of the public to report this stuff because
Speaker 3: otherwise people can simply go missing. So hopefully again we'll
Speaker 3: come back. We'll come back with updates. As I said
Speaker 3: at the top, this is a live story. I think
Speaker 3: it'd be great for us to end today's show with
Speaker 3: a little bit of a positive note while we're waiting
Speaker 3: to hear the news on Donna I have. I love
Speaker 3: doing this letters from home thing shared a shared a
Speaker 3: thing recently from our pals over on Here's where it
Speaker 3: gets crazy from a graphic novel artist named Ryan van
Speaker 3: osdahal or astaal apologies, serf, we're mispronouncing your name. Ryan
Speaker 3: put us in his graphic novel and it was so kind,
Speaker 3: it was so neat. We have a couple panels of it, Nol.
Speaker 3: Do you want to describe those panels?
Speaker 4: Oh? I mean yeah, it's just like a I guess
Speaker 4: it's sort of like a D and D party type
Speaker 4: situation where the three of us are I believe, halflings
Speaker 4: that are on a wilderness journey of some kind. And
Speaker 4: you'd be better at describing the content of the conversation,
Speaker 4: but we were all personified delightfully.
Speaker 3: Nolan, the most talented weapons smith in the Seven Valleys,
Speaker 3: Matthias proprietor, the best in on the Western Continent and
Speaker 3: then they just call me Benjamin and I'm a halfling
Speaker 3: and say some catchphrases at some point. Yeah, I agree
Speaker 3: with you. It's got a Lord of the Rings meets
Speaker 3: Lone Gunman and we're just very grateful again every time,
Speaker 3: folks that you see fit to include us in your stories,
Speaker 3: your creative acts. We receive a lot of amazing music
Speaker 3: inspired by episodes, and I'm not blowing smoke a lot.
Speaker 3: It's really good, like super impressive. So we just wanted
Speaker 3: to shout this out. I reached out to the author
Speaker 3: of this graphic novel and hopefully we'll be returning with
Speaker 3: some information about how we can support this independent artist.
Speaker 3: We love to see it. We'd also love to hear
Speaker 3: from you with any other creative works that were in
Speaker 3: some way inspired by this show, or maybe this is
Speaker 3: what you listen to while you're painting, while you're working
Speaker 3: on other things. We have your back, and it turns
Speaker 3: out that a lot of our fellow conspiracy realists had
Speaker 3: our back when we asked folks to check out our
Speaker 3: sketch comedy on Instagram.
Speaker 4: Yeah you can call it that, because you can. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we did it as it was a fun goofy silly
Speaker 4: year in predictions or not year in predictions and predictions
Speaker 4: for the new year of conspiracies that will definitely come
Speaker 4: to fruish, come to pass, or be exposed. So do
Speaker 4: check that out. You can, you can't do that. You
Speaker 4: can be part of this fella conspiracy realists.
Speaker 3: Yeah, be the sketch comedy change you wish to see
Speaker 3: in the world. I'm pretty sure famous person said that,
Speaker 3: Edward James almost probably. Let's end this way. We're gonna
Speaker 3: give a really quick cavalcade of names of people who
Speaker 3: chimed in on our Mandela Effect video and said, hey,
Speaker 3: strange news brought me here. So before we end the show,
Speaker 3: let's give you that list of names.
Speaker 4: Here we go.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Jamie Kristen, Howard, Dan Bush, one oh one, Rocket,
Speaker 3: Queen sixty eight, Classic Chaos Events, Sailor, Bright Beef Unit,
Speaker 3: Economic Ziggie Less, VM Sprang, who says the overacting is superb,
Speaker 3: Prince of Eco Park, c Bull nine. Alisa in her
Speaker 3: thirties wrote me the Queen, Odinfelhammer, Vivick Rose, vivickz Rose,
Speaker 3: Saturday Morning Cartoons, Penny Takes Pictures, Jay Font five eighty two,
Speaker 3: Shawmas Campbell, Heinke, Johnny on the Rocks, Holly Quinn seventy seven,
Speaker 3: Refreshing Art Studio, Dreesy Blaze, Joe's Misk No. One in particular,
Speaker 3: that's a nice pun. Colin Ray ninety six, Style Masters, Blessed,
Speaker 3: dim Fingers, Gerro's Space, d Doctor, Rusty Shack, Hollan Reed
Speaker 3: ninety six for Shore Pizza, Chris sweety What eight four
Speaker 3: eight eight see Bob ten Shadow, The Maximum, Cranberry for
Speaker 3: twenty six oh three, d Cammi Kat and Noldre many
Speaker 3: many others. But that's a long list of names. And
Speaker 3: we promised, we promised to thank you for doing so,
Speaker 3: but we we appreciate, We love the comments. We've got
Speaker 3: more videos on the way. We would love to offer
Speaker 3: you a meme in these trying times. And No, I
Speaker 3: have to ask, since our pal Matt had to scoot
Speaker 3: for some martial arts related adventures, what are some things
Speaker 3: you're excited about with our social media and where can
Speaker 3: people check it out?
Speaker 4: Oh boy, oh boy, I'm glad you asked, Ben. I'm
Speaker 4: definitely excited about doing more silly, goofy videos in the
Speaker 4: coming year. You can find those on the Internet, specifically
Speaker 4: on our YouTube channel where they appear often as YouTube shorts.
Speaker 4: You can also find us on Facebook where we have
Speaker 4: a Facebook group. Here's where It's Crazy, which I believe
Speaker 4: is where you might have been able to experience the
Speaker 4: comic that we described firsthand. Isn't that right? Was that posted?
Speaker 4: There was that sense you?
Speaker 3: Yes, that's great.
Speaker 4: There you go, so you can you can be a
Speaker 4: part of that too, and also the red Headed StepShot
Speaker 4: of the bunch x FK Twitter. We are conspiracy stuff
Speaker 4: on all three of those. On Instagram and TikTok, where
Speaker 4: you'll also find some content, we are conspiracy Stuff show.
Speaker 3: And if you don't sit the social meds, if your
Speaker 3: dry January means no social media, we have your back.
Speaker 3: You can call us directly on a telephonic device of
Speaker 3: your choosing. All you have to do is cast the
Speaker 3: following spell. Look at the numbers hit one eight, three
Speaker 3: three STDWYTK. You will summon three minutes into the void
Speaker 3: and be careful, folks. Sometimes the void answers back. All
Speaker 3: we ask that you do. Tell us what's on your mind,
Speaker 3: give yourself a cool nickname. Let us know if we
Speaker 3: can use your name and or message on the air.
Speaker 3: Most importantly, do not censor yourself. If you have more
Speaker 3: to say than we'll fit in three minutes. If you
Speaker 3: have links, if you have leads, if you have photos,
Speaker 3: if you have sounds that you want to convey to us,
Speaker 3: directly drop us a line. We read every single email
Speaker 3: we get at our good old fashioned address where we.
Speaker 4: Are conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2: Stuff they don't want you to know is a production
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.