Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: What's Up? It's me Zaren Burnett from Ridiculous Crime and
Speaker 2: the hit CBS series Chicago Code Enforcement. Elizabeth and I
Speaker 2: are away from headquarters and only able to record these
Speaker 2: brief intros Bolivian Internet. It can be spotty, especially in
Speaker 2: the Boron minds. We were on our way to complete
Speaker 2: our initial assignment when we received a telegram from Bette
Speaker 2: Midler asking for helps or seeing Boron for her neodymium
Speaker 2: magnet production facility. You can't turn down Bette Midler, So
Speaker 2: here we are. This though, is the third in our
Speaker 2: four part series of fan favorite Classics. Episode seventy three.
Speaker 2: What do you get when you combine twelve hundred college
Speaker 2: student cadets, football, epic training, truck and car chases, private investigators,
Speaker 2: and a two hundred pounds owl? You get the Texas
Speaker 2: A and m versus Rice College rivalry, also known as
Speaker 2: a snowballs chance. Enjoy No, Elizabeth Dunnan.
Speaker 3: I'm good.
Speaker 2: You know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: I do?
Speaker 2: Hell? Do you want to share it with me?
Speaker 3: Collective nouns?
Speaker 2: What do you mean?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, like groups of things like murder of crows, parliament,
Speaker 3: owls saren Have you ever done a deep dive on
Speaker 3: collective nouns? Oh? Completely, son, Oh yeah, I looked at him.
Speaker 2: I used to use those as a way to calm
Speaker 2: myself down in anxious moments.
Speaker 3: Okay, I don't want to know, but like you know,
Speaker 3: there's like a colony of bats. You know what jugglers is,
Speaker 3: a juggalo of jugglers, a never thing of of jugglers.
Speaker 3: Oh that's fine, which, like you know, you never see
Speaker 3: a group of jug well, I guess you do see
Speaker 3: a group of jugglers outside the Loser Convent.
Speaker 2: No kidding, collective noun for silences.
Speaker 3: There's a rumba of rattlesnakes, that's cool. And the kingdom
Speaker 3: of rats, which is kind of like a rat king,
Speaker 3: which don't google that people. My favorite a death row
Speaker 3: of turkeys.
Speaker 2: Oh that is good, right, And I mean.
Speaker 3: A lot of these are multiple collective nouns for these groups,
Speaker 3: but a death row of turkeys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's up there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is there a writing desk of ravens?
Speaker 3: Sure? Never more.
Speaker 2: Well, I've got something ridiculous for you.
Speaker 3: You got to it, probably way more ridiculous than that
Speaker 3: I have all the time in the world.
Speaker 2: Oh excellent, because this one, it's a wild one, and
Speaker 2: it'll take me a second to tell to you. Are
Speaker 2: you ready. Yes, it's about a Texas town. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I like Texas towns, and it is Texas
Speaker 2: town in particular. It gets taken over by twelve hundred
Speaker 2: college age military cadets who are eager to win a
Speaker 2: rivalry prank war that involves now take notes, Yes, two
Speaker 2: private detectives, multiple high speed car chases, a night raid
Speaker 2: on an armory and a depot, a town's telephone lines
Speaker 2: being seized, casual gunfire, mass arrest, wrongful imprisonment, and a
Speaker 2: two hundred pounds owl.
Speaker 4: Oh okay, this is ridiculous Crime.
Speaker 2: A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons.
Speaker 2: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and ridiculous. Elizabeth Sarah.
Speaker 2: Before we dive into the insanity of this story, I
Speaker 2: like to give you a little context.
Speaker 3: I love content, right, I figure you do.
Speaker 2: Now you also love Reddit, right I do. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't really check on anybody, but I know you
Speaker 3: like to lurker. Yeah, I don't post, I just.
Speaker 2: You just read until you lurk. Rather Well, there was
Speaker 2: a post a couple days ago. He might have seen it.
Speaker 2: I don't know. This guy put forward a theory that
Speaker 2: the University of Alabama doesn't exist.
Speaker 3: I missed that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And they say, he said, basically, well, I'll just
Speaker 2: quote it. He said, conspiracy theory. Quote Alabama is not
Speaker 2: an actual school. It is just a football team. And
Speaker 2: then he makes his case and I continue to quote.
Speaker 2: The title says it all. I don't think Alabama truly
Speaker 2: exists as a school. There are no classes. If you
Speaker 2: somehow break into one of the buildings on campus, you'll
Speaker 2: find dusty storage rooms with used jockstraps and satanic altars
Speaker 2: to bear Bryant's demon ghost. I have met so many
Speaker 2: damn many Alabama fans roll tad they say. If you
Speaker 2: ask them what year they graduated, they will usually hit
Speaker 2: you with, ah, I never been to college. Like that's
Speaker 2: the most ridiculous thing they've ever heard. I live and
Speaker 2: work in the South. I've interacted with fans of every
Speaker 2: other SEC team, and most of them have actually attended
Speaker 2: the university they root for. I have never not once
Speaker 2: met an Alabama fan that went to Alabama.
Speaker 3: That's incredible, right, I can get behind that kind of theory.
Speaker 3: Yes he does.
Speaker 2: As you know, he gets response on Reddit, and so
Speaker 2: far he had had to post an edit, and so
Speaker 2: I quote, there are some very humble gentlemen visiting me.
Speaker 2: Every word I've said is unjust. I now know. Maybe
Speaker 2: I've just been stressed lately and i wanted to be
Speaker 2: the center of attention. Hopefully my new friends can correct
Speaker 2: my ignorance on the beauty of an Alabama education. Nick
Speaker 2: Saban is handsome and intelligent and every man or woman's dream.
Speaker 2: I've shown my jealousy of their degree programs and anyone
Speaker 2: would be lucky to go to school in Tuscaloosa. May
Speaker 2: God have mercy on my soul, and may Elfan's trample
Speaker 2: me if I ever Transchrist again.
Speaker 3: He should have held fast on that one.
Speaker 2: I'm just glad he found the truth in the way
Speaker 2: of Alabama football because also, I'm legally required to say
Speaker 2: this because it'll be broadcast in Alabama.
Speaker 3: Role Tide.
Speaker 2: Yes, so you know, there you go. Bear Now you
Speaker 2: lived in South Carolina. We've talked about this, and they're
Speaker 2: an sec style like fanatics for football in that area.
Speaker 2: They got Clemson, you got the University of South Carolina
Speaker 2: game Cocks. Now is that told true? Like the Alabama
Speaker 2: fans where you'd meet people who like, they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I love Clemson and you're like, oh, well, yar'd you
Speaker 2: graduate and the like, oh I ain't never been to school.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent percent. Yeah. I mean when I moved
Speaker 3: down there, people would say, who do you root for?
Speaker 3: Clemson or USC? And of course, coming from California, I'm
Speaker 3: like you already Trojans? Are you kidding me? And uh
Speaker 3: so then I was educated on that that it's the
Speaker 3: Cox and uh so they everyone said I had to
Speaker 3: choose and I was like, like, you know Kelly on
Speaker 3: nine o two and oh, I choose me. So I
Speaker 3: wouldn't want to pick a side. But then I was
Speaker 3: you know, I'd ask people, oh, you went to Clemson,
Speaker 3: were you like, you know, an AG major of some sort?
Speaker 3: And no, they didn't go to Clemson. And same with
Speaker 3: the most almost every USC fan really yeah that most
Speaker 3: of them didn't go to those schools. They went to college,
Speaker 3: they just didn't.
Speaker 2: Went to smaller school. Yeah, and they wanted to support
Speaker 2: the big.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you the most maniacal fans are the
Speaker 3: Clemson fans who actually did go to Clemson.
Speaker 2: Why are they most maniacal?
Speaker 3: Like that's all they wear the clothes like they don't
Speaker 3: know any other clothes, all on and gear and they're
Speaker 3: super into it, which you know, hey, respect, you love
Speaker 3: your you love your alma mater.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fire up that tiger rag.
Speaker 3: Yeah. But you know what, I choose me.
Speaker 2: I'm so clod for that. You went to Davis for
Speaker 2: college and they have a football program. It's now an
Speaker 2: NCAA team. You did you go to games? Did you
Speaker 2: care about?
Speaker 3: Like once or twice they had? You know, I went
Speaker 3: to games?
Speaker 2: Did you no?
Speaker 5: Big?
Speaker 2: Was it like a thing? Like? Because you know, I
Speaker 2: grew up in Davis's my hometown, so we rooted for
Speaker 2: UCD and I know that idea of being the touny rooting.
Speaker 2: And now obviously it wasn't like oh I was like eleven,
Speaker 2: So I was like, oh, you could go to school there.
Speaker 2: Nobody thought that. But we look, we see the players
Speaker 2: walking around town. They were huge to us. It might
Speaker 2: as well be like an NFL star, an NBA star.
Speaker 2: We loved the team, but we noticed the college kids.
Speaker 2: You guys didn't give it. You didn't know anything about
Speaker 2: the teams. You didn't know, like the game was on Saturday.
Speaker 3: I kind of stumbled into it a couple of times,
Speaker 3: and I was always distracted by the like associative activities,
Speaker 3: like the T shirt cannon. The T shirt you mean
Speaker 3: the game, that's a game campus we're in. The full
Speaker 3: back just fires a T shirt cannon at the other players. No,
Speaker 3: and then here's here's the thing. I seem to recall
Speaker 3: that they I think I made this up, and now
Speaker 3: I think it's real. Someone put a burrito in the
Speaker 3: T shirt cannon. I don't know if it really happened.
Speaker 3: I think I was imagining it that they would go
Speaker 3: burrito madness and like fire burritos that would explode and people.
Speaker 3: But like I guess, you know, if you asked me,
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, totally, I saw that. I don't think
Speaker 3: that actually happened. You know, it's all a blur burrito madness.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: Well that is so that's the extent of my football knowledge.
Speaker 3: I'm not a football person, no.
Speaker 2: I know this. I definitely know that it's the community
Speaker 2: aspect of football that I find really fascinating, especially college football,
Speaker 2: because people will, you know, find themselves in a team
Speaker 2: and they will go to war for their team. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: which brings to this story. So the story takes place
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventeen. Right now, that was the year that
Speaker 2: we would enter World War One. This is just before then.
Speaker 2: This is in January. We enter in April. This is
Speaker 2: in January.
Speaker 3: Is that the year football was invented?
Speaker 2: No, we can just say, yes, this is the year
Speaker 2: football was invented.
Speaker 3: It was cool.
Speaker 2: And so when they're inventing the game of football, it
Speaker 2: took place in Texas. They invented football in Texas, Texas
Speaker 2: A and M the Agricultural Mechanical School. Yes, they were
Speaker 2: playing Rice University. But in this instance, since it was January,
Speaker 2: which is after football season, they decided to play a
Speaker 2: football game on the basketball court. And they wore basketball
Speaker 2: uniforms and then they'd use a basketball.
Speaker 3: Oh in the world, and they used basketball.
Speaker 2: So they just played basketball. It was a basketball.
Speaker 3: They just really threw the basket.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying it's a basketball, Okay. I just didn't
Speaker 2: want you to get too jarred. Yeah, because I know
Speaker 2: you've just become a fan of football.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was just invented.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a brandow sport. You were there the basketball
Speaker 2: game that they played was Houston's Right University versus college
Speaker 2: stations Texas A and M. Right big rivalry. Basketball was
Speaker 2: a huge sport at the time. And although it was
Speaker 2: a really interesting game because when they won the game,
Speaker 2: the score was twenty one to thirteen. So Rice beats
Speaker 2: Texas A and M and embarrasses them twenty one.
Speaker 3: To thirteen football basketball.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you know that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I figured that one out.
Speaker 2: So this was also the Texas A and M's first
Speaker 2: victory over a Right sports team in three years. Right,
Speaker 2: they're just fired up about this. They go big, they're celebrate,
Speaker 2: and they're doing everything they can. They're getting drunk, they're yelling,
Speaker 2: they're screaming, the driver around and their Model T cars
Speaker 2: in the campus. Right, but it's not enough. They need
Speaker 2: something else, the symbolic expression of their victory, something they
Speaker 2: can hold on to, right, something to unite them and
Speaker 2: give them this moment. So what do they do. They're like,
Speaker 2: it's cast about and find something that we can always
Speaker 2: have this feeling right, And they find exactly what they need.
Speaker 2: The Texas A and M basketball players, some fans, some students,
Speaker 2: and some non student alumni. They all discover however that
Speaker 2: Rice has left their mascot behind and it's unprotected, right,
Speaker 2: And their mascot is an owl that is about the
Speaker 2: size of a man, about a six foot tall owl.
Speaker 2: It's not real. It's a statue. It's got a wooden understructure.
Speaker 2: It has a canvas skin stretched over it. It weighs
Speaker 2: two hundred pounds. It is a huge structure.
Speaker 3: Did a man climb up inside of it?
Speaker 2: No, it's just a statue that they carry around. They
Speaker 2: plopped out. It's more of, yes, an effigy. That's probably
Speaker 2: the better way of putting it. So this effigy, this
Speaker 2: canvas creation of theirs, it's you know, filled with sawdust
Speaker 2: and excelsior, which is stuffing material. Sounds right, and not
Speaker 2: a great word. Excelsior. It's always like that. Stanley's favorite
Speaker 2: word is also on the motto of the New York State.
Speaker 2: It just means like ever on. Yeah, it also means stuffing, yes,
Speaker 2: New York stuffing. So this, uh, this wool stuffing that's
Speaker 2: filled in this bird is what gives it its volume,
Speaker 2: its weight, its shape, and then obviously the wooden understructure. Right,
Speaker 2: So the thing two hundred pounds and it's six foot tall.
Speaker 2: It's basically like picking up a man, right, like a
Speaker 2: big football player size guy. Now, these guys they pick
Speaker 2: up this owl and they run off with it, and
Speaker 2: they manage to get away without any of the Rice
Speaker 2: students catching them, right. And then you have to keep
Speaker 2: in mind also that these Texas ANA and M students,
Speaker 2: they are corman, they are cadets because Texas A and
Speaker 2: M at this time was a military institute that required
Speaker 2: the students to be cadets.
Speaker 3: And oh, I didn't know that coming in.
Speaker 2: Just a few months, these kids are all about to
Speaker 2: go off. They all will be released to go join
Speaker 2: World War One. And at this time they're training for
Speaker 2: the war. So they're on war footing. They're like war craze.
Speaker 2: They are already in a military mind. So they start
Speaker 2: to act like this is an operation.
Speaker 3: Well, they're ready to get their faces shot off.
Speaker 2: So they and they grab this owl and they they
Speaker 2: you know, back all off with it into the dark.
Speaker 2: They loaded into a car, they drive to the train station.
Speaker 2: They load the owl onto the train station. They hand
Speaker 2: it over to the Wells Fargo agents. They go get
Speaker 2: this back to college station and don't tell anyone, you
Speaker 2: have it, and they're like, okay, are you going to
Speaker 2: pay for this?
Speaker 3: That's all?
Speaker 2: That's all, yeah exactly, So they do. They put it
Speaker 2: on the train, they load it up, and they take
Speaker 2: the owl back to Texas A and M.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: The Rice students they learn about this when they read
Speaker 2: it in the news. The Texas A and M. They
Speaker 2: put it in the news. It filters over to Houston
Speaker 2: and then they're like what so.
Speaker 3: Wait, they got all the way home and they didn't
Speaker 3: realize they forgot a two hundred pound owl.
Speaker 2: No, no, this was that the game was in Rice.
Speaker 2: So the Texas students go back. Texas students go back. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so the Rice students are just missing their They weren't
Speaker 2: they weren't thinking of it.
Speaker 3: It was in charge of cleaning the owl after the games.
Speaker 2: That's a really good question. I will put that to
Speaker 2: our researcher. And who's an owl cleaner here? So, Texas
Speaker 2: A and M. Right, they have the owl, they've managed
Speaker 2: to get it back, and the Rice students figured this out.
Speaker 2: So what are they going to do? They lie, They decide,
Speaker 2: you know what, we're gonna say they didn't steal the owl.
Speaker 2: So they build a new owl and they put that
Speaker 2: on campus and they insist that's the original owl.
Speaker 3: Like when a kid loses the stuff down, the parents
Speaker 3: get it one.
Speaker 2: So they try that, and now all thing that has
Speaker 2: to do is pretty much suffice for all of the
Speaker 2: students and the local population. They could show the newspaper,
Speaker 2: well see we still have our owl, but they know
Speaker 2: the truth. So like, we got to get our owl back. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So seventeen students get together a bunch of student athletes,
Speaker 2: members of the track team, football team, basketball team. They'd
Speaker 2: create the Owl Protective Association. So they decide, you know,
Speaker 2: two days after this owl is stolen, that they were
Speaker 2: going to get their owl back. And so then they
Speaker 2: hire a private detective. That's their first move. We need
Speaker 2: somebody to find out where the owl is.
Speaker 3: Side one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so get get ourselves a private dick and we'll
Speaker 2: get him to go look for it. So the private detective,
Speaker 2: they're like, they go and they meet this guy and
Speaker 2: he's like a grizzled nineteen seventeen private detective probably you know,
Speaker 2: like I don't know, beat up railroad strikers for the Pankertons.
Speaker 3: I don't know this guy.
Speaker 2: He's a hard dude, right, So they pay him to
Speaker 2: travel to college station and hunt around for the owl.
Speaker 2: He does. He's like, okay, I'll go out to college
Speaker 2: station and i'll telegraph you guys when I find it. Right,
Speaker 2: So Private Dick takes the student's money goes off to
Speaker 2: college station. They don't hear from them. Maybe we made
Speaker 2: a mistake. So they decide, okay, we need to go
Speaker 2: over to college station to find out what's going on.
Speaker 2: So they have to sneak onto the campus. Remember, these
Speaker 2: are all cadets. So they go to the store like
Speaker 2: the Army Navy store and they get some army uniforms.
Speaker 3: Right, so theiform No, these the Rice students are just
Speaker 3: college students, are just like rich Texas A and M
Speaker 3: is the cadets.
Speaker 2: So the Rice students have to go get uniforms so
Speaker 2: they can sneak onto Texas campus. Right, So they managed
Speaker 2: to do this. Now have they have all the uniforms
Speaker 2: and they're gonna go. You have to understand Texas A
Speaker 2: and M As I told you military institute. So they
Speaker 2: have real military officers who were armed as sentries on
Speaker 2: the campus. They've got bull sergeants so as they call
Speaker 2: them who run around, who tell the students what to do.
Speaker 2: So they're sneaking onto essentially a military ye like a
Speaker 2: DeBie base in Texas. Right, So the right students, they
Speaker 2: got their work cut out for them. So when they
Speaker 2: get to town, turns out their detective was on the case.
Speaker 2: He didn't just take their money and steal away into
Speaker 2: the night. That's what I thought when I was reading this.
Speaker 2: It turns out he did, you know, find the guys
Speaker 2: who like may have stolen it. He's like, I couldn't
Speaker 2: find the owl. I hate to tell you guys. They're like, man,
Speaker 2: that sucks. That's terrible news. It's a dark night, it's raining.
Speaker 2: They're like, well, we already came all the way to
Speaker 2: College Station, which is about like a ninety mile one
Speaker 2: hundred mile trip. So they're like, I guess while we're here,
Speaker 2: we can hunt around. So they hunt around on the
Speaker 2: Texas A and M campus, pretending to be student or
Speaker 2: cadets rather. Yeah, and they have with them two transfer
Speaker 2: students who know the university. So they're like, okay, where
Speaker 2: where are It's like the dormitories, where's the where would
Speaker 2: they put this?
Speaker 3: Right turncoats?
Speaker 2: They had exactly turncoats. So the scouts they send out.
Speaker 2: They search all of the buildings except for the dormitories
Speaker 2: because there'll be too many people who may recognize them.
Speaker 2: But everything other than that, they're avoiding centuries, military guards,
Speaker 2: the whole bit. They can't find the owl. No luck, right,
Speaker 2: so the OPA their their scouts to go off. They
Speaker 2: return to Houston four more days past to start sweat.
Speaker 2: People are starting to question the owl they have in
Speaker 2: the campus.
Speaker 3: Because they look right.
Speaker 2: So they're like, okay, well this may be beyond us.
Speaker 2: We need to hire a new detective. So they're rich kids,
Speaker 2: they throw some money together and they hire a second detective.
Speaker 2: This dude's and hey, I swear to God is Snowball.
Speaker 3: That's the only thing he's referred to.
Speaker 2: It was a cat's snowball. Yeah, like he's a cat
Speaker 2: like snowball. The cat producer Dave spot On with the
Speaker 2: acknowledgment of the snowball is essentially like his code name.
Speaker 2: But it's the silliest damn code name he could come
Speaker 2: up with. And he's in Texas, right, So Snowball shows
Speaker 2: up on your heart bit detective, what do you guys need? Right,
Speaker 2: And they're like, I'll take the case.
Speaker 3: Snowball like the nose tutans, No, No.
Speaker 2: I think he's just a sweetheart.
Speaker 3: So is this a little powder problems.
Speaker 2: I'll find your two hundred pound owl mascot or whatever
Speaker 2: you got right, And so the snowball drives out to
Speaker 2: college station and he starts snooping around and he poses
Speaker 2: as a Houston area newspaper reporter. He's like, I heard
Speaker 2: about the owl nab and I want to get the story.
Speaker 2: And the kids are like, oh, it's great, yeah, because
Speaker 2: they want the story to go back to Houston and
Speaker 2: embarrass all the Rice students, so they never questioned the story.
Speaker 2: He manages to get in and meet the actual Texas
Speaker 2: A and M bird nappers. They show him the bird
Speaker 2: because he's like, I need pictures for the paper. They're like, okay,
Speaker 2: we'll take it this way. They take them up to
Speaker 2: the place where they're hiding the bird. He snaps his
Speaker 2: photos and he's like, okay, the bird's here, and he's
Speaker 2: like thank you guys, pretends to be a reporter and leaves.
Speaker 2: Then he goes out to the telegram office Telegram's Rice
Speaker 2: and he's like, you know, they've got the bird. He
Speaker 2: sends a coded message The bird's nickname is Sammy, That's
Speaker 2: what the Rice students call him. So he sends his
Speaker 2: coded message, Sammy is fairly well and would like to
Speaker 2: see his parents at eleven o'clock.
Speaker 3: Oh exactly.
Speaker 2: So, now the plot is completely in motion, and after
Speaker 2: this short break, I'll be right back to tell you
Speaker 2: the next installment in this insane.
Speaker 6: Two Nice.
Speaker 2: Okay, Elizabeth, you're ready for more of the Great Owl theft? Yes?
Speaker 3: Please?
Speaker 2: Okay. So the Rice students, right, they now know that
Speaker 2: the bird is still fine, it exists, and their detective
Speaker 2: Snowball has found it for them, So they need to
Speaker 2: get into action, right. The seventeen members of their OPA
Speaker 2: are called out on a raiding party and they're ready
Speaker 2: to roll. The Owl Protective Association. Yeah, sorry, I should
Speaker 2: keep you up with the acronyms. So they decided that
Speaker 2: Snowball's message and a quote was a signal that the
Speaker 2: owl had been located and that his capture was now
Speaker 2: a matter of daring. So daring is called for, and
Speaker 2: daring is what they're prepared.
Speaker 3: With a feat of daring do Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: So, the seventeen members of the OPA, the Owl Protective Association,
Speaker 2: the rock up in two old Fords and a Hudson
Speaker 2: Super six. They load up all seventeen people in these
Speaker 2: three cars. Right. The second car, the second car just mentioned,
Speaker 2: the Hudson Super six. Yeah, that was introduced in nineteen sixteen,
Speaker 2: much like professional football. So it was called the Super
Speaker 2: six because I had an inline six cylinder engine. It
Speaker 2: was the one of the fastest cars of his time.
Speaker 2: It was a high performance engine. Like I said, the
Speaker 2: Rice students, rich kids, right, So they've got this car
Speaker 2: has a distinctive seventy two horsepower, just blazing form nineteen seventeen.
Speaker 2: That's forty more horsepower than you get from a similar
Speaker 2: size Hudson the year prior. Right, So we're talking like
Speaker 2: real fast. Now, if you're wondering top speed, seventy five
Speaker 2: miles per hour pretty fast for our non American listeners,
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty kilometers.
Speaker 3: Excellent. Now.
Speaker 2: Fun fact, the Jode family when they went west in
Speaker 2: the Grapes of Wrath, what they were driving in was
Speaker 2: a Hudson Super six. Whoa, Now, this is what it
Speaker 2: looks like.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to show you a picture of that
Speaker 3: put on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Yes I will, man, it's the Hudson Super six is
Speaker 2: probably one of my favorite cars of era.
Speaker 3: It just looks really cool, right, how many you did it? Seat?
Speaker 2: I'd probably take, like, you know, standards five six.
Speaker 3: People and this we had seventeen boys. And this is
Speaker 3: like in the.
Speaker 2: Era wh people would try to see how many people
Speaker 2: they could fit in a telephone booth, you know, like
Speaker 2: they were really into.
Speaker 3: Like squeezing before that.
Speaker 2: There, it's likely, yeah, that's more the twenties. But I'm
Speaker 2: saying leading up to this, this is the college era
Speaker 2: of raccoon hats and big fur jackets and like, let's
Speaker 2: see how many people we can get in this seat,
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, wacky. So they're doing all of that,
Speaker 2: and there's a Texas kids, so they go big with
Speaker 2: it there seventeen. So the other two cars, those are
Speaker 2: the two old Fords. When I say old Fords, everybody
Speaker 2: back then they just refer to the When I read
Speaker 2: the newspaper accounts, they just said old Fords because there
Speaker 2: was the only the Model T. They have a bunch
Speaker 2: of Fords. It's like previous Model A, but now we're
Speaker 2: to the Model T. The old Tin Lizzy right, top
Speaker 2: speed forty two miles per hour, blazy, yeah, and for
Speaker 2: the non American listeners, that's sixty eight kilometers per hour.
Speaker 2: So these are, by the way, this is what the
Speaker 2: Tin Lizzy looks like in case you'd like just a
Speaker 2: quick recollection.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's the classic car that you think of,
Speaker 2: like the buggy if you will.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So we have seventeen ten as the horn that goes oh,
Speaker 2: exactly exactly. So we have seventeen young men loaded in
Speaker 2: these two open air cars with thin tires, overloaded with
Speaker 2: a bunch of football players, and they're headed out into
Speaker 2: essentially dirt roads for one hundred miles to get to
Speaker 2: College Station, Texas from Houston. There mandates is not as
Speaker 2: bad as West Texas, but it's basically central Texas. So
Speaker 2: they're going through like some mountainous not quite mountainous region,
Speaker 2: but you know the Texas hills country, Yeah, the hill
Speaker 2: country and then lots of wooded areas. And they are
Speaker 2: not going through easy these you are not like you know,
Speaker 2: paved roads. User cars are designed for driving on basically
Speaker 2: a wagon road.
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, and it's.
Speaker 2: Texas, so they got plenty of wagon roads. So these
Speaker 2: seventeen men at eleven thirty at night, they reach College station,
Speaker 2: and that's when they meet up with their private Dick Snowball, right,
Speaker 2: and Snowball's got some bad news for the boys right now.
Speaker 2: There was a contemporaneous account of all that's published in
Speaker 2: the Rice University student newspaper called The Thresher and the Thresher,
Speaker 2: and it's Thursday, February the fifteenth, nineteen seventeen edition if
Speaker 2: you want to look this up on newspapers dot com. Yes,
Speaker 2: they had a first hand account written by members of
Speaker 2: the OPA, so we have their actual account. And I
Speaker 2: quote the detective was of the opinion that would be
Speaker 2: impossible to get the bird, and it was as it
Speaker 2: was on the third floor of the US Armory, the
Speaker 2: strongest room at A and M. But he stated there
Speaker 2: was a sporting chance to win out.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 2: So he's like, look, they got it in the basically
Speaker 2: the fort on campus and on the third floor, so
Speaker 2: you have to fight your way in. And they're military,
Speaker 2: so god speak, you Gause are college athletes, so give
Speaker 2: it as sporting chance. Right, four men decide, okay, we
Speaker 2: need to go see what the lay of the land
Speaker 2: is and they go out on a scouting mission.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: Their names are for the sake of this story, Full Whiler,
Speaker 2: billups Moore, and the leader Jimmy Waters Gas four will
Speaker 2: be the only ones whose names I will be telling
Speaker 2: you because they will come up over and over again.
Speaker 2: They are essentially the leaders of this racial party.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: So full Whiler, billups More and Waters they hit the
Speaker 2: track running they go, and they sneak onto campus and
Speaker 2: they are after their two hundred pound owl mascot. Right.
Speaker 2: So the four men they elude sentries and these bull
Speaker 2: sergeants and all the campus cadets, and they entered the
Speaker 2: US Armory on the ground floor. They make it into
Speaker 2: the building, all right, So now they have to ascend
Speaker 2: three flights of stairs. They managed to do that without
Speaker 2: catching any of the watchmen who are circling through the building.
Speaker 2: They're also you know, students who are on guard because
Speaker 2: they know they have the stolen owl and they know
Speaker 2: it's in that building, so any weird sounds or anything
Speaker 2: will immediately alert suspicions. They decide, okay, we need to
Speaker 2: do this quietly, so they take out big knives and
Speaker 2: they try to carve their way through a heavy wooden
Speaker 2: armory door. What so imagine like one of those mission
Speaker 2: style California doors. We're like, the boards are like nine
Speaker 2: inches solid woods. They're going to carve through.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: So this noise draws the attention of a watchman. They're
Speaker 2: just slamming away into the woods.
Speaker 3: All these guys need to start going to class.
Speaker 2: Oh just wait. So Jimmy Water squad leader, he as
Speaker 2: he just says, here's the watchman coming up the stairs,
Speaker 2: Like we needed to distraction. So he's like, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: do something insane. So he runs towards the third story window,
Speaker 2: climbs out, and then it gets the watchman's attention before
Speaker 2: he does this. Climbs out of the window and he
Speaker 2: manages to walk down the side of the building for
Speaker 2: the third story, but climbing like with his hands and
Speaker 2: his feet. Basically, he like Spider Man, climbs down the
Speaker 2: side of the building. So the Watchman's like, what the hell,
Speaker 2: So he runs down to the ground floor to be
Speaker 2: there when he gets done with this three like three
Speaker 2: story climb. Right, So the watchman is there when Jimmy
Speaker 2: Waters hits the ground. But Jimmy Waters is a track star,
Speaker 2: so he hits the ground starts running immediately, right, He
Speaker 2: doesn't even like have any hesitation. The watchman chases after him,
Speaker 2: a perfect distraction, right. So the rest inside they're like, okay,
Speaker 2: we can get to it, but they hear more watchmans
Speaker 2: are like dah. So now they're hiding in pools of
Speaker 2: darkness and shadow and they wait for twenty thirty minutes.
Speaker 2: They don't know what to do, so they're like, ah,
Speaker 2: Now Jimmy's outside just running around for this whole time,
Speaker 2: trying to evade sentries and students and guards, and he's
Speaker 2: doing it for the most part. So another one of
Speaker 2: the three who are now inside, they decide, Okay, I
Speaker 2: need to go out and see what's going on. Maybe
Speaker 2: I can help Jimmy and distract more people. You guys
Speaker 2: can get in. So he runs out there, and as
Speaker 2: soon as he gets out, there's kid full Whiler. He's like,
Speaker 2: trying to make his distraction. He runs right into Jimmy
Speaker 2: Waters and a bull sergeant who's grabbed him and is
Speaker 2: questioning him. He's out there, Jimmy Waters is nervous, he's
Speaker 2: telling his family name, his family's history. He's doing everything
Speaker 2: he can to do. It's okay, it's okay. So what
Speaker 2: does full Whyler do he just runs right up into him,
Speaker 2: knocks down the bull sergeant Jimmy Waters, and he's scamper off, right.
Speaker 2: So now the two of them start leading the bull
Speaker 2: sergeants on this mad chase. The two of them split up,
Speaker 2: so everybody's running around. Kids cadets are starting to get
Speaker 2: involved and now they know what's going on. Meanwhile, the
Speaker 2: other fourteen members of the seventeen year are watching. They're like,
Speaker 2: you know, what's time to blitz the armory. We can't
Speaker 2: do this, like you know, skullduggery stuff. So their new
Speaker 2: plan is charge, right, so they just run onto campus
Speaker 2: and so now we have all seventeen members of the
Speaker 2: OPA running around, some big ass football players, gangly basketball players,
Speaker 2: track star and a bunch of cadets and they're all
Speaker 2: chasing each other all around in the nighttime and the
Speaker 2: January air because remember this is also wintertime, so it's cold.
Speaker 2: So now to protect their flanks these other members of
Speaker 2: the OPA, they secure the entrances of the US Armory.
Speaker 2: So the guys upstairs, because everybody knows where they are,
Speaker 2: they're still trying to get inside, so they block the
Speaker 2: doors on the ground floor so that way all these
Speaker 2: bull sergeants and students can't get in, and then a
Speaker 2: couple of big college football players rush up to go
Speaker 2: help the guys knock down the door. So they're armed
Speaker 2: with crowbars and fire extinguishers that they've pulled off of
Speaker 2: the walls. God, so they run up and they decide, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're all big guys, we'll just knock down this door.
Speaker 2: So they try using their shoulders. First, one guy runs
Speaker 2: and he gets bounced off, lands on the tile floor.
Speaker 2: Now that guy does it. This isn't working. So then
Speaker 2: they decide we'll go in tandem. So two guys hold hands,
Speaker 2: two big football players hold hands, and they run at
Speaker 2: the door, and that doesn't work, and then two more
Speaker 2: do it. Boom, oh, it cracks open. The door knocks down.
Speaker 2: So it turns out they didn't need all the crowbars
Speaker 2: and fire extend They just needed a couple of big
Speaker 2: football players to throw themselves right. So when the door
Speaker 2: springs open, what did they find?
Speaker 3: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: The owl is sitting there.
Speaker 3: In bed with the general. No, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Smoking of cigars like that was nice.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know what people nineteen seventeen, you know, nobody
Speaker 2: knows right exactly. According to the contemporaneous accounts in the Thresher,
Speaker 2: the quote, the owl was concealed under some canvas at
Speaker 2: the rear of the armory. The six men seize the
Speaker 2: old birds, soust them in gasoline, and rushed down three
Speaker 2: flights of stairs to the ground floor, where the night
Speaker 2: watchmen wasn't counting. You're like, wait, gasoline, why did you
Speaker 2: hear there?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: Good ears, So they were confronted by this night watchman, right,
Speaker 2: and so they tell them, oh, you know, we're students
Speaker 2: from Texas A and M. We're trying to protect it.
Speaker 2: They got these you know, troublemakers run around on campus.
Speaker 2: We're gonna go hide the bird. And the what I
Speaker 2: watch them's like, where are you taking? He's like right
Speaker 2: over there, and then they just run in the other direction.
Speaker 2: Night Watchman's like, wait, what are you doing. They run
Speaker 2: it over to a car. They throw it in the
Speaker 2: Hudson Super six and that car takes off. This bull
Speaker 2: sergeant night watchman, he gets pissed. He pulls out his
Speaker 2: forty four and starts firing. Oh yes, what so now
Speaker 2: the two so the students have to run. They topping
Speaker 2: the tin lizzies. They hopping the sets in Super six
Speaker 2: and they're tearing around, but they're not done. They don't
Speaker 2: want to just get away. They decide, let's, you know,
Speaker 2: let's car some donuts in the grass. So they start
Speaker 2: doing circles into and donuts and they're getting fired at,
Speaker 2: mind you. So the OPA is pretty stoked. They got
Speaker 2: back there out right. So and meanwhile there's a couple
Speaker 2: others who have not quite made it to the car.
Speaker 2: They decide to grab some paint that they found and
Speaker 2: they paint the score of the last football game that
Speaker 2: they won twenty to zero on the side of the
Speaker 2: building in giant numbers. Right, this is more warning. Shots
Speaker 2: are firing out, Bugles are being blown, students are yelling,
Speaker 2: and at this point the OPA is like, look repressing luck.
Speaker 2: So they decide to floor it and tear ass out
Speaker 2: of there. And they managed to escape the campus. Right now,
Speaker 2: they've got to drive from College Station back to Houston.
Speaker 2: It's about one hundred mile trip. As I told you,
Speaker 2: she'd take about an hour and a half two hours,
Speaker 2: but if you're going forty two miles and I'll solid
Speaker 2: two hours. This is if they can make it there,
Speaker 2: because remember now they got hundreds of college cadets who
Speaker 2: are about to give chase. Yeah, Elizabeth, I'd like you
Speaker 2: to close your eyes and picture it.
Speaker 3: My eye is a closed Okay.
Speaker 2: It's the dark of night. It's January in Texas. The
Speaker 2: air is cold, the wind is howling as it blows.
Speaker 2: And there you are with the OPA riding shotgun in
Speaker 2: the tiled four to ten Lizzie. Ahead of you is
Speaker 2: another ten Lizzy, and and ahead of that is the
Speaker 2: year old Hudson Super six. The roads are bad and
Speaker 2: you're getting jumped and bumped around in your seat as
Speaker 2: your guys are rocking and rolling down this dirt road
Speaker 2: car loaded down with other students members of the OPA.
Speaker 2: You're all racing back to Houston. You're all fired up,
Speaker 2: you're excited, you're yelling, but you have this tiny fear
Speaker 2: inside of you because you're like, this doesn't seem like
Speaker 2: we've gotten away with it. I don't know.
Speaker 3: Why, right, that's that would be me.
Speaker 2: Your fears are confirmed when the first forward in the
Speaker 2: caravan its headlights go out. Oh hits, A bump light
Speaker 2: goes out. You're like, that's that's no good. So now
Speaker 2: you guys are in the middle of Texas. Nowhere you
Speaker 2: got no electric lights. There's no it's just endless darkness. Right,
Speaker 2: So yeah, these headlights, so you're likest forget that car. Well, no,
Speaker 2: we need it. So there's too many of us. Okay,
Speaker 2: you've been in back and we'll keep going. So now
Speaker 2: they put the car with no headlights in the in
Speaker 2: the back. Keep running. Right. So now you're in the
Speaker 2: lead car of the caravan and uh, you're bouncing a roll,
Speaker 2: rolling along. Still another miles passes. Now your lights are out.
Speaker 2: You guys hit a bump your lights? Get is going
Speaker 2: on with these Fords? What can I tell you?
Speaker 3: This is you close your mouth.
Speaker 2: So now that the lights are cut out, both bards
Speaker 2: are running blind. Right, So the Hudson super six takes
Speaker 2: over his swords.
Speaker 3: Maybe the Fords were doing it just because they knew
Speaker 3: they had to be secrets. Well, they do this purpose sentiences.
Speaker 2: They're doing really well the back of the line. So
Speaker 2: let's just take it from there. About since super six
Speaker 2: is leading this caravan, the Fords are trying to keep
Speaker 2: up doing their forty two miles an hour in the dark.
Speaker 2: Now before you can curse her, but I could curse
Speaker 2: Henry Ford's a good name. There's another big run in
Speaker 2: the road and it passes the Ford in front of you.
Speaker 2: If they're breaks after they land and you slam your
Speaker 2: Ford slams into them, boom, you basically destroy the front
Speaker 2: end of your car. Now your Ford doesn't even operate,
Speaker 2: So now give one less car. So everyone's like, oh
Speaker 2: suppose this is no good? Is the car shuddering to
Speaker 2: a stop? You're like, everybody get in the other cars.
Speaker 2: So now they they got running boards, they got laps,
Speaker 2: clinging just like laying on other people. People are clinging
Speaker 2: to on the running.
Speaker 3: On the can't feel their leg not exactly, not at all.
Speaker 2: But now you and the one operable Ford and the
Speaker 2: Hudson Super six, you're tearing away, all seventeen of you
Speaker 2: in there, and you and your night raid is really
Speaker 2: not going too well so far.
Speaker 3: But well, I mean we got the owl so far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like, you know, you're overcome most obstacles
Speaker 2: except for you notice there's a new obstacle emerging from
Speaker 2: the darkness. It's this bright light and then you have
Speaker 2: you hear the train whistle and you're like, oh no,
Speaker 2: Because the whole plan was to get to College station
Speaker 2: and there will you guys would do your raid after
Speaker 2: the last train had left, So that way they couldn't
Speaker 2: the cadets couldn't take a train and just get back
Speaker 2: to Houston. But you decided to rush it. Remember you
Speaker 2: got the charge, messed up your timing, and now the
Speaker 2: train is rushing along and you look over and you spy,
Speaker 2: Oh how hundreds of students cadets ring out of every
Speaker 2: window of the limited that's running to Houston. They're screaming
Speaker 2: and shouting because they can see you, guys, and you
Speaker 2: can see them. You're not that far away. You on
Speaker 2: the dirt road, them on the tracks, and they are
Speaker 2: clipping along. It looks like they're gonna get back to
Speaker 2: Houston before y'all. Oh no, So what do you do, Elizabeth? Like,
Speaker 2: what's the move? You're still in shotgun? What's your call?
Speaker 3: I would I would stop and wait till morning, let
Speaker 3: them go and like you know, cooler jets in Houston,
Speaker 3: and wait and wait and wait mm hmm. And then
Speaker 3: meanwhile I can wait. I've like hi out and roasting
Speaker 3: it up. And yeah, then I go to Austin. It's
Speaker 3: called a little tour. But when it's light out, then
Speaker 3: you don't need your headlights.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good point. Well, they they listen to most of
Speaker 2: your plan except for they go, you know what, we
Speaker 2: should go one further than that, Elizabeth, stopping isn't enough,
Speaker 2: So you know, let's just go with the thresher's account,
Speaker 2: because I want you to hear it in their words quote,
Speaker 2: it was impossible to make any speed on the road.
Speaker 2: So the party turned around and started back towards College Station.
Speaker 2: They turned up the first lane they found in a
Speaker 2: wild ride of five miles through the woods. Ensued. They
Speaker 2: decide let's head back towards College Station, and they started
Speaker 2: that's not a good idea, make a right, So then
Speaker 2: they start heading north, heading North and Texas into the
Speaker 2: darken woods and they wrap it off into the woods,
Speaker 2: trying to make a run for it. Do you think
Speaker 2: they're gonna get away with it? No, after a quick break.
Speaker 2: I'll be back with the end of this insane tale.
Speaker 2: I love it, okay, Elizabeth. So where were we?
Speaker 3: Uh? Car chase? Poor decisions on the part of.
Speaker 2: The Paw Protective Association. Yeah, so we're headed into North Texas,
Speaker 2: North Dallas forty will come Okay. The OPA is on
Speaker 2: the run from hundreds of Texas A and M military cadets.
Speaker 2: You've got one hundred miles to get back to Houston,
Speaker 2: and however many miles to get back to College station.
Speaker 2: One of your ten Lizzie is not working. The other
Speaker 2: one is limping after the Hudson Super six. No lights right,
Speaker 2: hit it cars. Things aren't going well, and you now
Speaker 2: then break down again one mile down the country road
Speaker 2: that you guys have just gone, and I reached turn
Speaker 2: to the thresher's coverage. The remaining Ford soon gave up
Speaker 2: on the struggle and was left with five men to
Speaker 2: guard it and to draw a pursuit away from the
Speaker 2: big car containing the owl. So the rating part and
Speaker 2: I was all in the Hudson Super six whatever, however
Speaker 2: many people they can load in.
Speaker 3: Their car left five. There's twelve people in this car.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's twelve people loaded up in this Hudson Super
Speaker 2: six and a two hundred pound owl. Yeah, so that's
Speaker 2: six feet tall. So after oh yeah.
Speaker 3: That's after four, they're thirteen in this car.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So after four more miles, the super six runs
Speaker 2: out of gas because they've.
Speaker 3: Not even drive it all night.
Speaker 2: No worse than that, they've knocked a hole in the
Speaker 2: gas ty gone over all these rocks and ruts and roads. Right.
Speaker 2: So now the OPA is like, Okay, we got no cars.
Speaker 2: We're in the middle of Texas and we have a
Speaker 2: six foot tall, two hundred pound owl. We've got to
Speaker 2: carry eighty ninety miles.
Speaker 3: And isn't the owl covered in gasoline?
Speaker 2: Yes, it's covered in gasoline. So hours have passed. Now
Speaker 2: the night is being ginning to give way to on.
Speaker 2: So the Purple hour is approaching and Snowball, the private detective,
Speaker 2: he's with them, he's with the raiding party.
Speaker 3: Oh so they are now fourteen Actually.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he decided it was quote a sporting proposition
Speaker 2: to go along with the guys if he could rescue.
Speaker 3: The owl to regain his youth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he goes off and they break up into two parties.
Speaker 2: One of the parties will go into the closest town
Speaker 2: and see if they get gas as soon as like
Speaker 2: the sun comes up, and then come back to the
Speaker 2: two cars that they are going to park and hide
Speaker 2: in some woods. That's their plan.
Speaker 3: They like shirts and skins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the skins will hang out with the owl and
Speaker 2: then hide in the woods. Right, that's the plan, and
Speaker 2: hopefully they can get maybe a friendly mechanic to come
Speaker 2: and either come back with them and fix the cars,
Speaker 2: or they can load the cars up a gasoline, drive
Speaker 2: to town and get the cars fixed there. That's the plan. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: back at the ranch, the Texas A and M cadets, Right,
Speaker 2: what are they doing in all of this? Remember he's
Speaker 2: racing on the train. That was only some of them.
Speaker 2: There's twelve hundred students who will be involved.
Speaker 3: In this chase. Wait, so how many were on the train.
Speaker 2: A couple hundred.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're now just sitting.
Speaker 2: There on the right hands and they're waiting in Houston
Speaker 2: just be in trouble making.
Speaker 3: And then you got like a thousand of them coming up. Yes,
Speaker 3: that's about they need to go back to.
Speaker 2: We have an account from the thresher that can give
Speaker 2: you some exact numbers.
Speaker 3: I want to give the thresher a hand, but not
Speaker 3: as a farm X. Every time you say thresher, all
Speaker 3: I think is like you.
Speaker 2: You immediately got there. I like that about you. So
Speaker 2: I quote from the hand taking thresher. Yes, the AMM
Speaker 2: cadets had been busy organizing their pursuit. Everything that had
Speaker 2: four wheels had been requisitioned and pressed into service. Eight
Speaker 2: hundred cadets were brought up to the firing line and automobiles, motorcycles, wagons, buggies,
Speaker 2: and of course the train.
Speaker 3: This is like mad Max. Yes, So it doesn't.
Speaker 2: Take long for these eight hundred cadets going off in
Speaker 2: every direction to find that the raiding party that's out
Speaker 2: in the woods dis down on a road.
Speaker 3: Right now, hold on, when they find this little raiding party,
Speaker 3: what are they going to do to them? Just tear
Speaker 3: them limb from lim They just wait, wait, this is
Speaker 3: this is this isn't.
Speaker 2: No, there's no no murder in this one. But there's
Speaker 2: some sociliarities coming up, so you ready. I returned to
Speaker 2: the thresher. A detachment of cadets raided Millican and found
Speaker 2: all of Rice's means of locomotion in the garage. So
Speaker 2: the guys who had gone off to the town of
Speaker 2: Milliican with their car, they get discovered, and I continue
Speaker 2: the quote. The immediately took charge of the cars. Nine
Speaker 2: Rice men, who had been left to delay pursued as
Speaker 2: long as possible, were captured with the cars. One of
Speaker 2: the people captured, Snowball, the private Detective Snowball. So the
Speaker 2: other half of the raiding party, they get a messenger
Speaker 2: back from Milligan. He runs out of town and makes
Speaker 2: it back to where they are hiding the cars in
Speaker 2: the woods and tells them, you guys need to run
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 3: They're on to us.
Speaker 2: We don't have a car. So they're like, okay, so
Speaker 2: what do they do? They decide we're going to just
Speaker 2: run for it. So they decided to take this two
Speaker 2: hundred pound owl and run back to Houston. So they
Speaker 2: start running across the tall grass to save themselves.
Speaker 3: So no, and I quote didn't happen.
Speaker 2: Running with a two hundred pound owl was a larger
Speaker 2: contract than the exhausted men could fill, and all hopes
Speaker 2: of taking the bird wholesale were abandoned. The A and
Speaker 2: M searchers were hot on the trail, so the eight
Speaker 2: men hid themselves in a thicket and skinned the cover
Speaker 2: off the owl and the hide given to four men
Speaker 2: with instructions to take it to Houston and stuffing. Was
Speaker 2: then set on fire as it had been discovered that
Speaker 2: the party was completely surrounded by cadets, so they burned
Speaker 2: the owl. Now the thing is is the gasoline makes
Speaker 2: it so there's not much smoke, so they almost get
Speaker 2: away with it, but this is one of the cadets
Speaker 2: notices the flame and then they go rushing over to
Speaker 2: where they're hiding in the thickets. So now four of
Speaker 2: the guys the leaders of the OPA, so this is
Speaker 2: full while or Drummond uh and my boy More and
Speaker 2: Jimmy Waters yea yeah, they take the owl skin and
Speaker 2: they make a break for it. The skin others try
Speaker 2: to distract, so Sam the owls handed over to the
Speaker 2: floor fastest. They're all members of the track team.
Speaker 3: They're disgusting run for it.
Speaker 2: So they and the other ones, the other four, they
Speaker 2: lead the aggie search party that's surrounding them in the
Speaker 2: wrong direction. Right, They're like, yeah, making a lot of noise,
Speaker 2: run for you guys, trying to get their attention. Jimmy
Speaker 2: Waters is leader of what we now call the Elusive Four.
Speaker 2: The Elusive four are going to be officially a dude
Speaker 2: named Dane, a dude named Payne, a dude named Waters,
Speaker 2: and Drummond.
Speaker 3: So we got a weird old time nursery run day,
Speaker 3: Potters and trumm and getting the owl and off they
Speaker 3: went together.
Speaker 2: So and I quote they entered some thick woods and
Speaker 2: had over fifty men on their coat tails in no
Speaker 2: time at all. The four men had been well chosen, however,
Speaker 2: and the pursuers were soon distanced. Remember track Stars, So
Speaker 2: the squad runs two miles with the with the owl
Speaker 2: skin hidden on them, and they get to a major road, right,
Speaker 2: so they start waiting for a car to pass, hoping
Speaker 2: somebody will be there. It's now morning time, right, and
Speaker 2: I quote it's now ten am Wednesday, and the party
Speaker 2: had been without food and water since noon on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: A well was found soon found in a small clearing,
Speaker 2: and the four men quench their thirst. So now there's there,
Speaker 2: like finally getting some nourishment to keep their bodies.
Speaker 3: Going die of exposure in this stupid crank exactly.
Speaker 2: So a bunch of cadets spot them and they come
Speaker 2: running across a cotton field after them. They're like, oh,
Speaker 2: they're coming for us, right, they start running The original
Speaker 2: fifty cadets who were just seeing them at the thicket
Speaker 2: of woods they come from the other direction, so they
Speaker 2: now run another two miles under full chase. Right. The
Speaker 2: track stars are so exhausted at this point Jimmy Waters
Speaker 2: can't run over a one foot fence. He trips over
Speaker 2: a one foot fence. Dane gets tangled up in grapevines
Speaker 2: over and over again. Then there's this dude pain He
Speaker 2: tries to jump a four foot creek and he lands
Speaker 2: in the middle.
Speaker 3: He goes two feet. These are all track Stars. They're
Speaker 3: so exhausted.
Speaker 2: Their bodies are like pulling a full zola. Butd they're
Speaker 2: pretty much going to just collapse. Right. So at this point, right,
Speaker 2: we're getting into the afternoon hours, right, and I quote,
Speaker 2: the pursuers were finally ditched and the refuge was taken
Speaker 2: in a thick bunch of overgrowth, where the parties slept
Speaker 2: until three thirty pm, keeping one hour watches each. So
Speaker 2: now they've gone full military and they're doing one hour
Speaker 2: watches trying to get away from these cadets. So at
Speaker 2: three point thirty they're awoken by the sound of a
Speaker 2: group of cadets who've discovered their hiding place. Right, So
Speaker 2: the four Trackstars are like, we're gonna have to split up, guys,
Speaker 2: we need someone to run distraction. So now they take
Speaker 2: the owl skin, they tear it in half, they wrap
Speaker 2: it around their bodies. Two of them got to get
Speaker 2: this owl home. So the other two run off in
Speaker 2: the other direction, making a lot of noise. Well, the
Speaker 2: two guys who have the owl wrapped around their bodies
Speaker 2: run off, and they're doing it like you know, I
Speaker 2: don't even know they did. They have like this vim
Speaker 2: and vigor and the zeal of like the French resistance,
Speaker 2: like they are willing to do whatever to beat these military. Right,
Speaker 2: so the four crawl on their bellies through the tall
Speaker 2: grass to escape. They make it out of the thicket
Speaker 2: in two different directions, right, and now the elusive four
Speaker 2: reunite and they get to another road and they find
Speaker 2: that the road is blocked because not because of cadets
Speaker 2: for once this time, is just because there's basically river
Speaker 2: water stormwater rushing past. The little bridge is blocked, right,
Speaker 2: So they're like, okay, what are we gonna do. That's
Speaker 2: when they hear a car approach. They're like, oh no, right,
Speaker 2: there's nowhere for them to hide. There's nowhere to go.
Speaker 2: They can't cross the river. They're up against the wall,
Speaker 2: and they quote a car was heard crashing through the
Speaker 2: brush and it was coming directly towards them. So the
Speaker 2: men had to interrupt their planning and hit out for
Speaker 2: cover two with the owl skin remained in hiding while
Speaker 2: the two went forward to investigate. The car was occupied
Speaker 2: by hunters and the first question was to ask the
Speaker 2: best way to get across the river? Who got the owl?
Speaker 2: Was the reply, what owl?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: Tell us we can help you out. So this is
Speaker 2: a group of Texas duck hunters, men, full grown ass men.
Speaker 2: They come across these kids and like, we heard all
Speaker 2: about this good thing.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like a good man that's hard to find scenario.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, definitely not. They had These hunters had been
Speaker 2: stopped on their way to go duck hunting, and their
Speaker 2: vehicle had been searched, so.
Speaker 3: They were well aware cadets.
Speaker 2: By the cadets, they're doing in the full lockdown.
Speaker 3: Now right down, it's not even there.
Speaker 2: So these hunters are tickled pink by these twelve hundred
Speaker 2: cadets trying to find the elusive force. So they're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll help you guys out. This is great, right. So
Speaker 2: the hunter's like, you just said, we're gonna keep shooting
Speaker 2: some ducks. So they make them wait for three more hours. Well,
Speaker 2: they get their fill of ducks right once the duck
Speaker 2: hunters are done. They're like, okay, boys, seven PM, let's
Speaker 2: go back to town. So they tell them, they're like, okay, well,
Speaker 2: we can take a couple of you. A couple of
Speaker 2: you should probably stay here because you know they're gonna
Speaker 2: stop us again. So one of the duck hunters he
Speaker 2: changed his clothes with the dude named Dane, and then
Speaker 2: he hides in the back with the dude named Drummond.
Speaker 2: They hide in like a toolbox in the back of
Speaker 2: the truck.
Speaker 3: Right, So the hunter and drum hunter, one of the hunters.
Speaker 2: And Drummond are in the back, and then Dane is
Speaker 2: up front with the other hunter and they take off
Speaker 2: in the truck. Right. The truck does get stopped by
Speaker 2: cadets at the first bridge that they reach. Right, he
Speaker 2: gets closely examined. They managed to pass the inspection. But
Speaker 2: then right before they're about to leave, one of the
Speaker 2: cadets is like, oh, I'm gonna go right back into
Speaker 2: town with you, like slaps the back of the truck.
Speaker 2: He climbs in back and he sits on the toolbox.
Speaker 3: No, no, I would not stop for these guys. If
Speaker 3: they were like hold, I'd look out of them and armed.
Speaker 3: I don't care no military.
Speaker 2: These are armed cadets in their uniform.
Speaker 3: Gotten my book, temple faced, I'd be like, no, try
Speaker 3: again and just keep driving. He gets on the car,
Speaker 3: I slam on the brakes and he slides down on
Speaker 3: the hood and then I run him over.
Speaker 2: In like five months time, these are all going to
Speaker 2: be kids on the front. Well, they're like full on soldiers.
Speaker 2: Like then, they're acting like it, and I'm just telling you,
Speaker 2: pemble faced or not. They got guns and they're like, look,
Speaker 2: this truck ain't going anywhere. So Payne and Jimmy Waters
Speaker 2: right there with the guy who's got the car right,
Speaker 2: and he gets them back to town. They get out
Speaker 2: before they get to town. He's like, you know, you
Speaker 2: guys can walk the rest of the way in.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And they made that choice, and it was a good
Speaker 2: choice to make because the driver when he gets to town,
Speaker 2: he gets stopped and he gets arrested and taken in under.
Speaker 3: Customer tested by the cadets.
Speaker 2: Yes, there are three hundred cadets in this tiny Texas
Speaker 2: town and they have taken over and I quote took
Speaker 2: over the town, and I quote from the thresher You ready,
Speaker 2: the cadets to complete control of all telephone and telegraph lines,
Speaker 2: had all roads blocked and were searching all trains that passed,
Speaker 2: so all means of communication and transportation were under vigilants.
Speaker 3: So they like declared martial law.
Speaker 2: In this area to dip this owl back.
Speaker 3: Is there any like, is there any authority figure over
Speaker 3: these guys the military? Well no, I mean they's just
Speaker 3: a bunch of cadets, Like who's there, who's their boss guy?
Speaker 3: It's going to be like.
Speaker 2: Texas College Sports. I don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 2: This is the authority house.
Speaker 3: It's so crazy.
Speaker 2: So these grown ass men, the duck Hunters, they're willing
Speaker 2: to join the resistance with the looser four so that
Speaker 2: that they then call in another friend once they get
Speaker 2: back to town, who was a doctor, and they're like, okay,
Speaker 2: now the phone lines a Meanwhile, they are all being
Speaker 2: tapped and monitors, so they have to use a code language.
Speaker 2: So they tell the doctor that they need some capsules
Speaker 2: and they've got some other capsules and could you bring
Speaker 2: him to the house, and he's like, I'll come by.
Speaker 3: So but so the doctor knows this code like that
Speaker 3: they pre established it or is he like oh, I
Speaker 3: guess he needs capsule.
Speaker 2: He's he's friendly with the hundreds. This may not be
Speaker 2: the first time they've had to, like, you know, do
Speaker 2: stuff like this, so he very quickly catches up with them. Right, yes,
Speaker 2: now we have pain in waters. They go out and
Speaker 2: they climb into this car because they're going to be
Speaker 2: they were they'd waited outside of town. So the guy
Speaker 2: gets out and drives out of town. The doctor picks
Speaker 2: them up, and the car was run at high speed
Speaker 2: and all challenges ignored is how they put it right.
Speaker 2: And at one point, the doctor's car with waters and
Speaker 2: pain in it, it approaches a blocked bridge right and
Speaker 2: the cadets are lining the road and the Doctor's like,
Speaker 2: what do you guys want me to do? The road's
Speaker 2: blocked and he's like, they're like, is there any way out?
Speaker 2: He's like, I think I see away. So this is
Speaker 2: a checkpoint like a war film.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also, beanwhild there are thirteen of their comrades who've been
Speaker 2: captured and they're being held at this bridge by the cadets.
Speaker 2: So there's hundreds of cadets and they're their own comrades.
Speaker 2: If you will are standing there, then the doctors starts
Speaker 2: revenue engine. He's like boys hang on, so he then
Speaker 2: floors it in his like whatever nineteen sixteen car.
Speaker 3: He drives down the ditch, punches it.
Speaker 2: He gets up to about fifty miles an hour and
Speaker 2: then rides up the other side of the ditch and
Speaker 2: jumps like the general lee from Duke's hazards. They break
Speaker 2: free from gravity for a little bit.
Speaker 3: Aren't making this though? I swear this is all really
Speaker 3: this is a burrito cannon. This really happened.
Speaker 2: The captured member of the OPA. They go nuts. They're
Speaker 2: cheering as his car is in the air.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 2: The car eventually lands with a huge crash back on
Speaker 2: earth and then roars away at full speed. You know,
Speaker 2: old cars, what you need to do. The cadets immediately
Speaker 2: give chase. They run and get in their cars and
Speaker 2: they tear after the doctor's car. And the doctor he's
Speaker 2: a hallacious driver. This ain't his first rodeo, so he's
Speaker 2: tearing through Texas. He's enjoying the chase. Right. He manages
Speaker 2: to get Pain and Waters over to the other house.
Speaker 2: They reunite with Dane and Drummond, who are still in
Speaker 2: hiding at this time. Now all of they're together, and
Speaker 2: the five the make a break for it and race
Speaker 2: back to Houston. So the doctors like, let's go and
Speaker 2: run back to Houston. Is now the moment before dawn
Speaker 2: on another day on thinking we've reached the purple hour,
Speaker 2: and these four men make it back to the Rice
Speaker 2: campus at seven thirty am on Thursday morning, and they
Speaker 2: still had the skin of their six foot tallund.
Speaker 3: Owl, three pieces of it.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth, you may be wondering at a lot right now
Speaker 2: what happened to the thirteen dudes who were captured who
Speaker 2: were cheering at the side of the bridge. Great question,
Speaker 2: But they were taken prisoner and they were held at
Speaker 2: Texas A and M in the military prison or the
Speaker 2: brig or whatever it was, right, and the president of
Speaker 2: Rice University had to negotiate with the president of Texas
Speaker 2: A and M to get the safe return of the
Speaker 2: thirteen captured members of the Opaight Night Rate.
Speaker 3: So he negotiates with terrorists.
Speaker 2: Apparently, see I've heard that Texans don't do that.
Speaker 3: I get right now.
Speaker 2: You may also be wondering, and I know you were.
Speaker 2: What happened to Snowball.
Speaker 3: I guess I am watching that now.
Speaker 2: It's the best part, and I quote from the Thresher,
Speaker 2: Snowball gets paraded around campus, given a regulation army haircut,
Speaker 2: turned over to the freshman for a few days. He
Speaker 2: was eventually taken to the station late at night, minus
Speaker 2: his clothes and told to catch the train. He was
Speaker 2: said he wasted no time getting aboard.
Speaker 3: Wait, what does it mean? Turned over to the freshman
Speaker 3: for a few days and he comes home?
Speaker 2: Yes, they I think you can just let your imagination
Speaker 2: wander on that one. So then the freshman turn him
Speaker 2: out and then.
Speaker 3: He caught he's taking over the train station afterwards? Did
Speaker 3: he change his name to Snowball because he didn't want
Speaker 3: anyone to know who he went?
Speaker 2: Do you imagine being a private detective and having to
Speaker 2: go home? How was your weekend?
Speaker 3: Okay? Could you imagine being a private detective a named
Speaker 3: Snowball B who gets hired to find like a mascot
Speaker 3: and gets into this absolutely turn one of the board
Speaker 3: that you're making up in twenty twenty twenty twenty twenty twenty,
Speaker 3: Why why Snowball.
Speaker 2: Texas College exports? That's my answer?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I want to hear from the descendants
Speaker 3: of Snowball.
Speaker 2: We should see if we can find them.
Speaker 3: If you are a descendant of Snowball, reach out. We
Speaker 3: want to hear the real story.
Speaker 2: We would like to know how what became of Snowball
Speaker 2: after this.
Speaker 3: We want to honor his memory.
Speaker 2: So, Elizabeth, what's your ridiculous take away?
Speaker 3: My ridiculous takeaway is, I'm having a lot of heart
Speaker 3: troubled processing right now.
Speaker 2: Pretty much broke in your brain.
Speaker 3: I can't speak, I don't know the year.
Speaker 2: Try try this. Just say these two words. Roll tide
Speaker 2: that may pull it back.
Speaker 3: Deep breath, roll tide that helped. I did okay, oddly enough,
Speaker 3: it totally helped.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, bear brand be so happy. Yeah, hook him
Speaker 2: horn totally the other one. See if that one works away,
Speaker 2: that's textic.
Speaker 3: Hook them horns. Everything feels so good.
Speaker 2: You see football, baby, right there? It is football, there
Speaker 2: is Everything feels okay except for the losing.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: My ridiculous takeaway, thank you for asking now, is I
Speaker 2: grew up in the South and I still can't believe
Speaker 2: this happened like this is one of my favorite stories
Speaker 2: of Southern sports ever.
Speaker 3: It's incredible. You know what it is? Ridiculous, ridiculous, It's
Speaker 3: so ridiculous.
Speaker 2: But thank you for joining us. I'm Zaron Burnett.
Speaker 3: That over there is an owl.
Speaker 2: An owl name Miss Elizabeth Dutton. You can find us
Speaker 2: online a Ridiculous Crime on both Twitter and the gram.
Speaker 2: Twitter is the fourth, the one for the discourse that's
Speaker 2: where you post stuff that's about the cases. And Instagrams
Speaker 2: where we put up the photos for each episode. They
Speaker 2: will reveal to you what these people look like, what
Speaker 2: the cars look like, and so forth. The stories are
Speaker 2: posted for giggles. Also, you can get sneak peaks for
Speaker 2: upcoming episodes emails if you want, at Ridiculous Crime at
Speaker 2: gmail dot com. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett,
Speaker 2: produced and edited by It rhymes with Houston Coustin. Research
Speaker 2: is by the president of the Rice Historical Prank Society,
Speaker 2: Marissa Brown. Our theme song is by Thomas Payne and
Speaker 2: Dane Lee and Travis super six Dunty. Executive producers are
Speaker 2: Ben were the leaders of the Owl Resistance Bowlin and
Speaker 2: Noel pay Don't tell Anyone.
Speaker 5: Brown, Redicus Crime, Say It One More Time, Geequus Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts
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