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. In nine, George Romero released his classic zombie
Speaker 1: film Dawn of the Dead. In one particular scene, a
Speaker 1: character utters the line, when there's no more room in hell,
Speaker 1: the dead shall walk the earth. An ominous statement, to
Speaker 1: be sure. But while there's no risk of zombies coming
Speaker 1: to eat our brains anytime soon, at least I hope not.
Speaker 1: There was one incident almost a hundred years ago when
Speaker 1: the dead did rise from the grave, and nobody had
Speaker 1: any idea what sort of event it would lead to today.
Speaker 1: Her name was Emma Crawford and she was born in
Speaker 1: Massachusetts on March eighteen sixty three. Emma had a passion
Speaker 1: for music, which her mother had fostered in her at
Speaker 1: a very early age. From the time she was three,
Speaker 1: Emma would sit at the piano and listen to her
Speaker 1: mother to play Beethoven, sonatas. Over time, she picked up
Speaker 1: a few things from her mother, leading to an almost
Speaker 1: prodigy like talent. By the time she was twelve, Emma
Speaker 1: started giving others piano lessons and performing recitals for her neighbors,
Speaker 1: impressing them with her masterful technique. Her skills even earned
Speaker 1: her an invitation to perform in Boston with other famous
Speaker 1: musicians of the time. Sadly, Emma was not well though.
Speaker 1: She'd been sick from the age of seven with tuberculosis,
Speaker 1: and her mother had tried everything to help her, so
Speaker 1: in eight nine, the two of them traveled to Manito Springs, Colorado,
Speaker 1: home of mineral springs that were thought to have healing
Speaker 1: qualities to cure her condition. They rented a house there
Speaker 1: and Emma fell in love with the area. Ah the mountain,
Speaker 1: air and the sunshine boosted her spirits, and she was
Speaker 1: often spotted climbing the nearby Red Mountain, and her spirits
Speaker 1: weren't the only thing that were boosted. The Crawfords believed
Speaker 1: that they were in tune with the ghosts and they
Speaker 1: were being protected by Native Americans from the other side
Speaker 1: in their day to day lives. On one of her
Speaker 1: excursions up the mountain, Emma felt summoned to the top
Speaker 1: by a Native American spirit. She told her mother of
Speaker 1: her intention to ascend the mountain and meet him, to
Speaker 1: which she was told no. Mrs Crawford felt it was
Speaker 1: too dangerous with her illness, but Emma refused to listen.
Speaker 1: One day, while her mother was given a piano lesson,
Speaker 1: Emma snuck out of the house and climbed Red Mountain
Speaker 1: all by herself, and she made it too, marking her
Speaker 1: success at the top by tying her scarf to a
Speaker 1: small pine tree at its peak. It was at that
Speaker 1: moment that she decided that she would be buried underneath
Speaker 1: that tree upon her death, and Emma passed away in
Speaker 1: two years after her move there to Colorado. Following a
Speaker 1: small funeral service at her home, as per her last request,
Speaker 1: her coffin was carried up Red Mountain to the tree
Speaker 1: where she had tied her scarf. She was buried beneath
Speaker 1: its branches, her grave side marked with rocks. Some years later,
Speaker 1: construction began a top Red Mountain and Emma's grave was
Speaker 1: moved to another location. It was placed within some loose
Speaker 1: gravel and a solid block of concrete was laid on top. Unfortunately, though,
Speaker 1: that wasn't enough to keep her remains in place. Two
Speaker 1: major storms swept through the area, unearthing her coffin, which
Speaker 1: slid down the mountain like an Olympic luge. In August
Speaker 1: of two small boys playing at the bottom of the
Speaker 1: mountain found her skull, the only part of her that
Speaker 1: was left. They took it to the police, along with
Speaker 1: the name plate from her coffin. Today, Emma Crawford now
Speaker 1: rests in an unmarked grave, but her memory lives on
Speaker 1: in a very unique way. You see in the Manitude
Speaker 1: Chamber of Commerce started what would become an annual Halloween
Speaker 1: tradition called the Emma Crawford Coffin Race to honor the
Speaker 1: late pianist and nature lover and her historic ride down
Speaker 1: Red Mountain. Folks gather in Manitou Springs in homemade coffins
Speaker 1: decorated based on the themes of their costumes. When the
Speaker 1: race begins, for runners push the coffin down the streets
Speaker 1: while another person, the Emma of the group, sits inside
Speaker 1: the first coffin over the finish line wins. It's a
Speaker 1: morbidly hilarious way to remember a woman who lived life
Speaker 1: to the fullest and didn't let anyone keep her down,
Speaker 1: not even her grave. Yoshi Shira Tory was born in
Speaker 1: Japan in h seven, and as an adult, he bounced
Speaker 1: from job to job until he realized that having a
Speaker 1: job wasn't really for him, even with a family to support. Instead,
Speaker 1: he began a new career as a professional gambler. But
Speaker 1: if you think that's the most interesting twist in his life,
Speaker 1: you'd be wrong. In the mid nineteen thirties, Shira Tory's
Speaker 1: life took a drastic turn when he robbed someone who
Speaker 1: accidentally died during the incident. He was convicted and sent
Speaker 1: to prison, where he spent three years. Now, he wasn't
Speaker 1: sentenced to only three years behind bars. That's just how
Speaker 1: long it took for him to break out. You see,
Speaker 1: Shira Tory was highly observant, watching the guards each day
Speaker 1: and memorizing their routines, and when the time was right,
Speaker 1: he placed a few pillows under his blanket to make
Speaker 1: the guards think he was asleep. Then he pried off
Speaker 1: a loose wire that him and wrapped around his bathing
Speaker 1: buckets and used it to pick the lock on his
Speaker 1: cell door. From there he was able to climb up
Speaker 1: and escape the prison through a broken skylight. He managed
Speaker 1: to evade the police for three whole days, but was
Speaker 1: eventually recaptured and sentenced to life in prison for his stunt.
Speaker 1: They transferred him to Akita Prison, which was better equipped
Speaker 1: to handle someone like him. There, he was placed in
Speaker 1: a specifically designed cell that was thought to be escaped proof.
Speaker 1: It was small, only big enough for one person and
Speaker 1: at a time, and had smooth copper walls that rose
Speaker 1: high above him. Embedded in the ceiling was a single,
Speaker 1: tiny skylight covered with bars to let in the fresh air.
Speaker 1: To make matters worse, Shiratry had no bed and no blanket,
Speaker 1: and the guards kept him handcuffed the entire time. Even
Speaker 1: when he was alone in his cell with six years
Speaker 1: to himself, though, he had a lot of time to
Speaker 1: think and observe, which is how he noticed that the
Speaker 1: frame around the bars over the skylight was made of wood.
Speaker 1: As before, Shiratory came into possession of some wire, which
Speaker 1: he used to unlock his handcuffs each night. Then, by
Speaker 1: stretching his arms out, he would climb the walls to
Speaker 1: the top of the cell, where he would pour miso
Speaker 1: soup his meal that day into the wooden frame, and
Speaker 1: he did this for over eight months, slowly warping the wood.
Speaker 1: Once the frame was loose enough, Shiratory waited for a
Speaker 1: night when the weather was stormy, allowing the thunder and
Speaker 1: lightning to hide the sounds of his movement, and just
Speaker 1: like that, he slipped out through the skylight and escaped
Speaker 1: once again. This time, he managed to stay away for
Speaker 1: three whole months, but something compelled him to come out
Speaker 1: of hiding. It was his treatment at Akata prison. The
Speaker 1: guards had abused him and tortured him daily. Only one person,
Speaker 1: the head guard, Kobayashi, had treated him kindly, So Shiratry
Speaker 1: went to Kobayashi's home and explained the whole situation. He
Speaker 1: would have stayed in prison had it not been for
Speaker 1: his poor treatment by the other guards, and he wanted
Speaker 1: to speak with someone about having those guards punished for
Speaker 1: their behavior. Unfortunately, he never got a chance. Kobayashi called
Speaker 1: the police after Shiratory excused himself to use the restroom.
Speaker 1: They were already there by the time he emerged. Shiratry
Speaker 1: was given another three years for escaping and transferred to
Speaker 1: yet another facility. Aba Shiri Prison. Now this one was
Speaker 1: considered inescapable. No one had ever pulled it off. It
Speaker 1: was located in the far north among the mountains and
Speaker 1: heavily guarded, and just like at Akata Prison, Shira Torri
Speaker 1: was tormented there. He was cuffed around his ankles and
Speaker 1: wrists at all times with his hands behind his back.
Speaker 1: The cuffs couldn't be taken off by anyone except two
Speaker 1: skilled blacksmiths, a process that took at least two hours
Speaker 1: to complete. But despite his limitations, the ingenious escape artist
Speaker 1: quickly got to work on getting out. Shira Tory was
Speaker 1: served miso soup each day through an opening in his
Speaker 1: cell door. He would squirt the soup onto the joints
Speaker 1: of his cuffs, as well as around the metal meal slot.
Speaker 1: After a year, his shackles had weakened enough for the
Speaker 1: salt content to eat away at the metal and he
Speaker 1: was finally able to get his hands and legs free.
Speaker 1: Then he dislocated his shoulders and squeezed through the meal
Speaker 1: window before fleeing to the roof and away from the prison.
Speaker 1: The guards didn't spend much time looking for him either,
Speaker 1: since the temperatures were frigid and he was alone in
Speaker 1: the wilderness. They just assumed that he would get eaten
Speaker 1: by something bigger than him pretty soon, but as always,
Speaker 1: shia Tori survived. He lived in a cave for two years,
Speaker 1: subsisting on whatever vegetation and small animals he could find.
Speaker 1: By the time he left that cave in nineteen forty five,
Speaker 1: everyone had forgotten about his escape and Japan had surrendered
Speaker 1: to the Allies. World War two was over, and shira
Speaker 1: Tori headed home to find his family. Hungry and desperate,
Speaker 1: he wandered onto a farm and he stole a tomato.
Speaker 1: The farm's owner caught him and attacked him with his plow,
Speaker 1: which shira Toriy wrestled away and used against the farmer,
Speaker 1: killing him. Shiratry plained self defense, but he was sent
Speaker 1: to jail for a fourth time, given the death penalty,
Speaker 1: and assigned to a cell watched over by a team
Speaker 1: of six guards at all times. And just as before,
Speaker 1: the cell walls were smooth and the ceiling was too
Speaker 1: high to reach. In addition, the windows and the meal
Speaker 1: slot were too small for him to squeeze through. The
Speaker 1: only thing he was given was a mattress to sleep on,
Speaker 1: since he was being watched seven. The guards didn't bother
Speaker 1: leaving cuffs on him when he was in his cell,
Speaker 1: but perhaps they should have. One night, they peeked in
Speaker 1: on Shira Toriri only to find his cell empty, but
Speaker 1: he hadn't gone through the windows or the skylight. The
Speaker 1: guards lifted up his mattress to find that their prisoner
Speaker 1: had dug a tunnel beneath it using the bowls that
Speaker 1: they had served his soup in Shiratory. Disappeared for a
Speaker 1: year until one fateful day when a police officer sat
Speaker 1: down next to him in a park and offered him
Speaker 1: a cigarette. Shia Torri wanted to believe that not all
Speaker 1: police officers were cruel, and so he turned himself in
Speaker 1: yet again, claiming that he didn't hate prison, he just
Speaker 1: hated the abuse that he suffered while inside. The officer
Speaker 1: arrested him and presented him to the court, which took
Speaker 1: his death sentence away. He was transferred to Tokyo Prison,
Speaker 1: where he spent the next sixteen years confined without incident,
Speaker 1: and after he was released in nineteen sixty one, Shiratry
Speaker 1: reconnected with his family and he never went back to jail.
Speaker 1: It's curious I think that the man who was so
Speaker 1: good at escaping finally found a way to stay right
Speaker 1: where he was. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of cur Piosities. Subscribe for free on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,