WEBVTT - Selects: Operation Mincemeat: How A Corpse Fooled the Nazis 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:03.920 Everybody. It's me Josh and for this week's s Y 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:08.200 s K Selex, I've chosen our episode on Operation Mincemeat 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:12.119 from February two thousand sixteen. It's a really great example 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.240 of English drollness pulling through for the rest of the 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.560 world is featuring Ian Fleming or Ian Fleming, depending on 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.360 your preference, and roll Dahl. It's just a Bonker's history 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:31.520 episode all around, so I hope you enjoy it. Welcome 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:40.840 to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.960 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.640 w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry Rowland. This is Stuff you 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.199 Should Know. Chuck, Yo, I'm thirty nine years old and 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:52.519 I still can't say my own name correctly because in 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:58.560 my stupid thick tongue. Oh you're gonna be forty crazy. Yeah, 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.600 he used to make fun of me, and now you're old. Well, 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:03.680 you're still older than me. I know what I can 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:08.560 do about that. It's cool though. Yeah, you're aging very well. Yeah, no, 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.040 you're aging really well. What you mean the teeth falling out, 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.440 the weight gain and the gray beard. I still say 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:18.720 you're aging very well. I appreciate it. But let's get 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.600 your take off your hat. I still got good hair booms. 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.600 Look at that got hat head now beautiful? Okayle think 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.000 I'm bald? Some people do, like you're always wearing that hat. 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:33.479 Why do you why? I don't know suspicious people. Yeah, 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:38.800 like the drummer for the Chili Peppers, Anthony Keytis Flee, Nope, 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.920 the guy from Jane's Addiction, Nope, I don't know them, 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.200 Not John for Shaunty, Chad Smith, the guy that looks 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:48.480 like Will Ferrell. He's always Ferrell. He's always got that 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:52.400 hat on backwards and um he's bald. Yeah, totally like 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:57.120 Brett Um. Michael's bald. Remember he always wears a do rag. 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.640 Super bald. So I get why people are suspicious. If 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:05.600 you're a public figure that has a patented hat piece, 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.040 then it's probably because you're bald, but not in my case. 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.280 What a weird way to start the show, especially this show, 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:18.920 Operation mincemeat Yep, which is a ghoulish gallows humor awesomely 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:23.960 World War two British name for this this operation. Yeah, 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.799 this will live alongside our our Nazi spies and Invading 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:31.720 Florida podcast and the history Girls covered this this very 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.200 topic as well. Yeah, man, there's nothing I love more 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:36.680 than little known history. This is this is it. But 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.160 this is great little known history. And this shouldn't be 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:44.240 middle known because it was after the Trojan War, maybe 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:49.240 the largest and most successful military deception plan in history. Well, 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.760 there was also have you seen that documentary Ghost Army 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.360 about Operation Fortitude. No, they used a bunch of blow 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.480 up tanks and planes, like inflatable tanks and planes to 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.880 make it look like there's a whole Allied division over here, 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.120 so that we could invade Normandy More He's it's like 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.600 a Looney Tunes cartoon. Awesome. But yes, this ranks up 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.040 there with literally with the Trojan Horses. It's that ingenious 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.160 and that wonderful. But so let's set the stage right. 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:22.360 So in early nine UM, the war was very much undecided. 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:27.080 It could have been anybody's like your. Europe was under 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.839 the control of Hitler, huge amounts of Europe. They called 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:34.160 it Fortress Europe because he the Nazis were just had 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:38.920 just overrun the place, right dug in and um, the 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.400 the Allies knew that they needed to get into Europe 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:43.360 to topple Hitler or else like they weren't going to 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:49.800 win the war, so um Churchill suggested attacking Europe's underbelly, 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:54.720 which is maybe Italy, Greece. He called it the underbelly, 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.560 not very flattering, but he called it Europe's underbelly. So everybody, 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:05.280 the Allies, the Greeks, the Nazis, the Japanese, um, the 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:11.800 people uh in Hawaii. Everybody knew, yeah, they weren't American 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:16.160 quite yet. Everybody knew that the Allies were gonna attack 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.840 somewhere in that area. Yeah, come up through the Mediterranean. 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.960 Even Hitler feared this the most, but was key right, 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.640 And and I mean everybody knew the Allies were coming, 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:28.080 and they were going to come there. But this, this 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.719 land mass, this area of land and see is large 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:33.880 enough that you can't just be like, oh, they're coming 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.159 down there. We got it covered, cover it all. You 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:38.359 need to know kind of specifically where they were covering. 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.360 And there were just a few places where they could 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.080 have come. One was Greece, that was where Hitler always suspected. 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:50.520 One was Sardinia, right, and then another was Sicily. And 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.599 in nine I think January, the Allied powers met in 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.920 French Morocco and held um a conference, the CASA Blanket Conference, 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.040 very sexy naming. Yeah, it really was. And um, they said, okay, 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.480 we're going to invade Sicily this July. We're gonna call 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.440 it Operation Husky. Now we have to do everything we 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.120 can to not let the Nazis know that that's where 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:21.080 we're going. And that actually hatched eventually what's called Operation Mincemeat. Yeah, 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.400 you know what. The studying this stuff and I'm not 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.680 a big war buff um, although I'm getting more so, 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.640 but reading up on this stuff, like the old wars 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.239 are so much like the board game risk that it's startling. Yeah. 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.520 It's literally when you look at the stuff, it's like 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.160 moving troops to where you think people are going to 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.440 attack you and rolling the dice a bit and if 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.880 you're right, then great, If not, you're screwed very much though, 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:48.960 which is why it's such a huge shift that we're 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:54.920 seeing now in moving to unconventional warfare, because that's scary stuff. Yeah. 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:58.320 I think pretty much all war is scary. Yeah. Well, 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.480 of course I'm not saying like Normandy was a gig 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.960 walk or anything, because they knew what there was going on. Man, 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.640 I watched Saving Private Ryan again the other day. God, 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.920 it's crazy. That thing's almost a snuff film. It's not 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.920 as bad as We Were Soldiers, which is a snuff film, 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.239 but it's I never saw that one gie, Yeah, dude, 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:22.159 it's it's the most graphically violent mainstream movie ever made. Yes, yeah, 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:26.880 Like there's a part where there's there they have a shot, 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.600 a camera shot over this guy's shoulder, right, so his 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.360 helmets in the in the near foreground, and that guy 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:37.240 takes a hit to the head and like blood spray 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.479 covers the camera lens for the next like a little 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:45.280 while his brains just cover the camera. It's disgusting. Did 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:47.320 you like Saving Private Ran again? Though? Yeah, it's a 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.120 great movie, but it is like really like violent. That's 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.680 another thing about getting older is that stuff affects you 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.279 more and more. The more you come to terms with 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.839 your own mortality, the more valuable life becomes. The more 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.520 valuable even a care after in a movie's life becomes 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.880 you know what I mean? That stuff gets to agreed, 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:08.200 It's called growing up, my friend, I'm becoming human, isn't 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:13.400 it grows? Alright? So on September twenty nine, ninety nine, Uh, 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.680 there was a director of British Naval Intelligence name Admiral 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:20.840 John Godfrey, and he distributed something called the Trout Memo, 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.920 and um, it was written by his assistant Lieutenant Commander 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:30.280 Ian Fleming. Familiar name, Yeah, creator of James Bond. That's right, 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.000 the guy. And uh, I think most people know that 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.000 he served at this point. Yeah, but um, if you didn't, 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:38.240 that's a nice little factoid for you. So he he 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:40.239 wrote the Trout Memo and they called it the Trout 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:43.640 memo memo because they pointed out in the intro that 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.280 this that the trout fisherman fishes very patiently, but he 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.440 changes venue frequently and he changes his bait very frequently too, 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.800 And so they wanted to they're charged with deception. They 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:57.840 wanted to come up with all these different ideas, all 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:01.120 this different bait and venue changes that they could come 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:03.000 up with. Yeah, and this was a time too. We 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.600 should point out that, UM, spying, spying is always vital, 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.320 but man, in World War Two, it was going on 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.200 all over the place in a huge, huge part of 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.080 the war. So, um, we need to do one on 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.520 the Enigma machine. By the way, at some point we do, 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:23.400 because that's one of the unsung heroes in this operation. Absolutely. Um, alright, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:27.240 so with the trout memo, Ian Fleming wrote, uh well, 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:31.600 co authored fifty one different operations suggestions, and number twenty 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:37.520 eight was one called a suggestion parentheses not a very 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:41.520 nice one. The following suggestion is used in a book 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.800 by Basil Thompson. I'm so pleased that you said, Basil 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:49.080 in staid a Basil Uh In fact, that was seven novel, 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.280 The mill Milliner's Hat Mystery. And he was actually a 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:56.840 World War One spy. Oh really yeah? So he was 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.280 it a spy writer that Ian Fleming the reader of 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.960 James Bond Doug Crazy. So that's where this originate. So uh, 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.080 here's here, that's right. The following suggestion is used in 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.160 a book by Basil Thompson Colin a corpse dressed as 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:15.520 an airman with dispatches in his pockets could be dropped 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.360 on the coast, supposedly from a parachute that had failed. 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.760 I understand there is no difficulty in obtaining corpses at 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.000 the Naval hospital, but of course it would have to 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.360 be a fresh one. So the idea is, let's get 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.600 a dead person, let's dress him up like a soldier, 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:37.079 give him some sensitive documents that leak this invasion fraudulent, fraudulent, 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.800 very important, that leak the invasion of Greece, which is 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.680 not really happening, and they're gonna mount up troops there 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.480 and we'll actually go in secily. They're gonna find this body. 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:50.760 They're gonna think they've stumbled upon this great happy accident 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.880 and we're going to fool him. So yeah, that was 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.160 the That was the whole idea. That was the general 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.920 basis of it. And Churchill loved the idea because apparent 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:04.440 he liked what he called corkscrew thinkers, because he knew 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.920 Hitler thought in a straight line. Yes, and by corkscrew thinkers, 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.560 I think that would be our equivalent of outside the box. Yeah. Yeah. 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.880 Churchill was like, this is great. I love Churchill. Let's 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:19.000 drink some scotch and do it. Yeah, let's look like 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:24.160 a bulldog. So um, the the the well. The idea 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.319 was roughly outlined by Ian Fleming and then the the 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:31.840 Churchill's corkscrew thinkers, the XX Committee, led by um you 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:38.680 and Montague and um Chumley. Yeah, which is his name 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:43.600 is not spelled chumbley? No, how's it spelled? Are you 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:48.280 ready for this? Charles C. H O l m O 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.439 n d e l e y pronounced Chumley. Yeah. And 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.360 apparently when he met people he would say, uh, Lieutenant 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:58.560 Charles Chumley c h O l m O n d 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:00.680 e l e y. He would spell it out, what 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.080 do you really? Yeah? Are you making fun of me? 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:04.640 Or is there for real? No? No, no. He was 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.360 a very quirky guy, and that's how he described himself 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.280 as toothpaste, as if it had been squeezed from the tube, 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:13.680 like he self described. He would go hunting with a 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.520 revolver like bird hunting. Is a weird guy. I actually 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:21.960 watched a quickie BuzzFeed video on this and they pronounced 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.720 it Charles Charlomondley. Did they really? Yeah, I'm glad we 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.280 did our research exactly, shout out with the BuzzFeed. So 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.160 you and Montague right, Yeah, the other guy. He is 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:36.880 noteworthy in a number of ways to apparently it's just 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.760 the greatest guy ever, most interesting man on the planet. 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:43.600 Um And he actually wrote the book, the first book 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.160 on Operation Mincemeat, because he was one of the people 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.360 who came up with this and implemented it. The man 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.040 who was never there, the man who never was got 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.280 right so became a movie too, Yeah, of the same name, 0:11:55.520 --> 0:12:01.480 starring Montgomery Cliff, I believe, no starring Cliff with Cliff 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:07.120 Cliff web but not Montgomery Cliff. Those two are virtually 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:13.640 interchangeable there. So, um what you and Montague was already 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.400 notable because at school he and his brother had created 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:20.199 the rules for um ping pong. No way, I did 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.559 not know that, among other things. And his brother equally interesting, 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:28.280 equally um rambunctious went on to become a spy for 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:34.400 the Soviets. Yes, so he turned yes against England, Yes 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:39.160 against everybody except for the Soviets. Well, Montague was uh, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:43.120 he was formerly a barrister, an attorney, and um, this 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.960 is why he actually did not go serve on a ship. Um. 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:49.800 And the other guy, Chumley, never flew a plane. One 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.239 was air Force, one was a navy. Uh. And apparently 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.960 Montague was as an attorney, was very good at just 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:01.040 seeing all the angles. So they say, you, sir, are 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:25.400 perfect for this job. Ask all right, Chuck. So we 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:27.640 have the rough outline that Ian Fleming came up with 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.880 the XX committee led by you and Montague and Charles Chumley. 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.120 The part of m I five, I believe. Okay, Um 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:38.760 said we're going to take this particular idea and really 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.679 run with it, Um, And like you said, they were 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:43.760 going to, Well, the first thing they did was start 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.640 setting about creating a backstory. Yeah. Well they had three months, 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:48.600 so that the clock is chicking at this point. Yeah, 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.520 because here's the thing. They set the invasion right in January, 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.440 and they set the invasion for July. Now, you needed 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:59.880 enough time to um plant this, this corpse, this fake 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:06.400 dead courier um in the Nazi hands and give the 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:10.120 with enough time so that the Nazis could digest it, 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.880 analyze it, decided it was truthful, and then react the 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.360 way you wanted them to, which meant that they had 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.800 no later than May or else this plan was out 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.800 the window. Yeah, you wanted them. The ultimate goal was 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.480 to have the Nazis put their troops in the wrong place, 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.400 and that takes time, right, So they looked around and 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:30.520 they decided that the best place to carry out this 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.800 operation was Spain, and Spain during World War Two was 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:39.920 allegedly ostensibly neutral, but they had a lot of access, sympathies, 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.760 a lot of connections to Nazi Germany, and there was 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:48.920 a particular Nazi agent, a spy working in a port 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:55.760 called Um Whoever, Whoever, La Whoever La right, Um, And 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:59.840 his name was Adolf Klass. And Adolph Klaus was known 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:06.200 to be very methodical, pretty brutal, brutal and ruthless, extremely gullible. Yeah, 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:08.480 he was a straight line thinker. He was hitler. He 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:10.720 wasn't one that could think outside the box and think, 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.000 maybe this is an elaborate hoax that that guy didn't 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.760 even own a real corkscrew, you know, like they targeted 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.480 this guy cut the top off of wine bottles. Yeah, 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.240 they specifically targeted, which is amazing. So they wanted this guy, 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:25.960 who was fairly gullible but also known as like a 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:31.360 very respected Nazi agent in Spain, um to be the 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.280 one who came up with this corpse and could ever 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.160 so before they ever had any corps or could have 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:41.880 or anything like that, Montague and Um and Chumbley start 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.120 setting about creating a backstory, and they created this guy 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:52.440 named Major Um Martin, William Martin, that's right. And they 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:56.760 created Major William Martin, and they created this whole persona. 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:58.560 And this wasn't the first time they've done it, that 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:01.880 they had actually they had um chops with this kind 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.960 of stuff. So they had created a fake spine network 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:08.760 that made Nazi Germany think that they had a whole 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:14.000 double double agent network in the UK. And all of 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:18.360 them were fictitious, not real people that you and Montague 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:22.800 and Charles Chumley had created these fake personas and it 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:26.360 fed the Nazis misinformation through these people that didn't really exist. 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.080 So they took that that understanding and that thinking of 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.160 what it takes to create a fake persona, and they 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.440 said about creating one for Major William Martin. Yeah, and um, 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.800 if you there's a great BBC documentary on this, and 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.560 they interview a lot of the players, um, including a 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.560 lot of the women who worked at m I five 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.720 in the office, and they were all just so delighted 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.560 that they all described this as like the most exciting 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.240 adventure they'd ever had. I'm sure it was like something 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:52.080 out of a spine novel and they were living it right, 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.720 And so they all had great fun creating these characters, 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.960 that these made up people. Um, they wanted to give 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.760 him a fiance because the idea is that they find 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:07.159 this body with what not only these documents in a briefcase, 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.200 the important documents. But to make it believable, he had 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.600 to have believable what they called pocket litter or wallet litter, 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.240 which is if you find any person on the street 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:18.479 asked him to open their wallet, you're gonna be able 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:20.680 to tell a lot about them. So just stuff to 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:22.919 legitimize it. So they said, let's give him a fiance, 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:25.480 and all the women in the office wanted to be 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:29.680 the fiance, so they all submitted photographs. They picked this one, 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.639 lady Jean Leslie. Uh, secretary, Okay, that's the lady on 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.040 the beach. Yes, pickture of her in a bathing suit 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.359 on the beach. So this was going to be planted 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.439 on his body. Uh. They all wanted to write the 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.480 love letters back and forth, but they picked a woman 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.800 named Hester Leggert, the head secretary of m I five, 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.159 and she wrote even though she was a spinster, she 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.120 wrote all these like heartfelt love letters. The first couple 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.320 of drafts were really dirty, and they were like, you 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.800 gott to tone this down a little, like is that 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:02.760 what you think happens in a relationships? Like, no, not me, lady. 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.760 So everyone's really excited in the office. Um Chumley is 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.400 wearing what would eventually be the uniform of Martin every 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:15.840 Day to give it that worn in look. Monte Hue 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:20.160 actually ended up having an affair with the secretary who 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:22.560 gave him the photo as the fiance. They had a 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.439 real life affair as Bill and Pam. Pam is the 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.639 made up fiance. It got a little weird that it 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.040 is a little weird, like they wrote each other love letters, 0:18:32.520 --> 0:18:35.600 had a real life affair calling each other Bill and Pam. 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:38.520 So there was some like strange role playing going on. 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.480 I'm sure he was married at the time. His family 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.600 had been shipped to America, so he was not doing 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.359 the right thing there he was he was allows in 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.840 that department. Well you know also um Roll Dahl, the 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.520 guy who wrote James and the Giant Peach and Charlie Factory. 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.639 He was a spy for the British. He was in 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.480 the British military and his whole job was to basically 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:05.280 bed um the wives of American officials here in Washington. 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:07.720 Really yeah, did he do so? Oh? Yeah? Oh wow? 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.040 Oh he made his way through Washington society apparently with 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:15.720 great zeal. Alright, so they're cooking up this backstory. Uh, 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.920 they get other great things for the wallet litter like uh, 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:22.960 theater ticket stubs and an overdraft letter from his bank 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.119 and just these things that make it seem like super realistic. 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.320 And what else they I think they gave him a 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.119 st Christopher Metal. Maybe they wanted to strongly imply that 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.119 he was Roman Catholic and that will come up, uh 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.119 very it will become very important in a minute, right, 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:42.040 very much. So they've got this backstory and apparently like this. 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:46.400 They were working feverishly on this stuff, having the weirdo affair, 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.480 wearing the uniform, all that stuff before they'd even gotten 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:53.480 final approval, just because they didn't want to stop work 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:55.440 and then have to pick it up feverishly. They wanted 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.119 this to to keep going. So they finally got final 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.560 approval from Admiral God for um to carry out this 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:06.160 thing for real. And when they got final approval, they said, okay, 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.200 we need a body and they figured no problem they 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:14.560 were looking at first they needed somebody who um, who 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:17.399 had relatives that didn't care what happened to the body 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.680 after death and could keep their mouth shut. Um. They 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:25.280 needed a body that was of military age, didn't have 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:34.040 any signs of visible trauma um right um, and that 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.159 that preferably they would have died of pneumonia. And the 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.080 reason that they wanted him to die of pneumonia is 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.399 because they were going to make it look like this 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.480 guy had been in a plane crash. Um, but it 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.080 survived the plane crash, but it drowned at sea. And 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.320 if he had pneumonia, then his fluids would be filled 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.560 with long so that when the Spanish conducted an autopsy 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:58.160 on them. Yeah, so that when the Spanish conducted their autopsy, 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:00.280 they'd be like, this is the most amazing thing I've 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.679 ever seen. I've never seen fluid filled with lungs, but 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.840 that's how much fluid there is. The problem is is 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:09.040 they didn't get their hands on a guy with pneumonia, 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:11.920 and they didn't even know exactly where to get a 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.720 person at first. It wasn't until they turned the guy 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:18.320 who ran the more g at St. Pancras Hospital, which 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:23.280 is the worst hospital name of all time. Um, they 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:26.040 turned him and got him to assist them that they 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.320 finally got their hands on a body. Yeah. His name 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:32.320 was sir uh, Sir Bentley Purchase, which is a great name, 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:34.600 and uh it was. He was a corner of the 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:39.119 largest mortuary at St. Pancras terrible and he had apparently 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.480 a wicked sense of humor. It was pretty complicated to 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:44.280 give directions to his office. So when he gave Montyue 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:46.000 the directions, he said, or he could just get run 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.800 over by a bus. Nice man. The British during wartime 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.359 where they're having a sense of humor was wonderful. So 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.399 they got Bentley purchased and he said, I've got a dude. 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:02.159 Um his name is h Glenn Door Michael. Yeah, that 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.000 is not how that's spelled either. No, it is g 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:09.560 l y n d w r super Welsh. Yeah, he 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.760 was a Welshman born in nineteen o nine. He was 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:15.200 the son of a coal miner. His father killed himself 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:19.240 by stabbing himself in the throat. I hadn't read that 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:23.679 and it didn't say like slit your throat, said he 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:27.280 stabbed himself in the throat, which is weird and sad. 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:29.960 So his dad died when he was a teenager. Mother 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:34.040 died when he was thirty. Uh, alcoholic had a rough 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:37.520 go because of the depression and was basically basically killed 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:41.720 himself by ingesting rat poison. So that is not necessarily resolved. 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.919 What whether it was suicide yeah, so they they they 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:49.680 Bentley Purchased wrote down that he, um, he killed himself. Yeah, 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.960 it was ruled a suicide. Okay, But the way that 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:55.320 he ate the rat poison, it was on a crust 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:58.960 of bread, so he was hungry, they wondered, So he 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:00.639 he may have been so death. The touoth that he 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:02.280 ate a crust of bread that he found in an 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.080 abandoned warehouse, and it was smeared with rat poison, and 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:07.520 that's what he died of. But they found him in 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:11.840 this cold January night in nineteen forty three, Um, in 0:23:11.920 --> 0:23:15.720 this abandoned warehouse in London, and um, he had just 0:23:15.760 --> 0:23:18.639 eaten some rat poison. But he survived for two more days. 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:22.320 And so Bentley Purchased got his hands on him and said, 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:28.760 I think I found your guy. Dudes, Yeah, and they did. Um. 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:30.840 There were some issues, of one of which is they 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:32.920 needed a photo of the guy for an I d 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.680 He didn't have any photos. Oh, and every time they 0:23:36.680 --> 0:23:39.639 took a picture of the dead guy's face, they were like, 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:42.239 he looks like a dead guy. Yeah really, So they 0:23:42.280 --> 0:23:44.600 scoured You can see your fingers holding his eyes up. 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:47.280 So they scoured London looking for a look alike and 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:50.280 eventually found a guy at a fellow intelligence officer who 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:54.360 looked just like him. They used his face. Aw, it's 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:57.040 all coming together, Yes it is. I'm sure they were like, Wow, 0:23:57.119 --> 0:23:59.800 Providence is really smiling on this. And if you're feeling 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:03.240 bad for glennd Or just hang tight. Yeah, I still 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:06.080 think you can feel bad for Glenn do or talk 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.840 about a rough life man? Sheez? Do you remember that 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:13.199