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Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Menk's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio

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Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable,

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Speaker 1: and if history is an open book, all of these

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Speaker 1: amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for

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Speaker 1: us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. She

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Speaker 1: was built for luxury, stability, and speed. The Gilded Age

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Speaker 1: might have come crashing down by the nineteen tens, but

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Speaker 1: that didn't mean decadence was off the menu. It was

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Speaker 1: still very much encouraged for those who could afford it.

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Speaker 1: Of course, in the early twentieth century, many shipping companies

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Speaker 1: were competing for customers, especially among the leisure class. The

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Speaker 1: White Star Line was duking it out with the Cunard

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Speaker 1: to see which of their companies could create the most

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Speaker 1: luxurious ships, and largely they spared no expense. White Star

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Speaker 1: Lines knew Olympic class liners were a thing of beauty

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Speaker 1: and decorated to match the most opulent hotels in New

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Speaker 1: York and London, so the upper classes wouldn't feel out

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Speaker 1: of place. It was now faster than ever to cover

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Speaker 1: the distance between England and the United States, particularly New York,

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Speaker 1: so the well to do were making the trip more often. Families,

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Speaker 1: businessmen and young men heading off on a tour of

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Speaker 1: Europe before settling down. All wanted for nothing on these ships.

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Speaker 1: They were built to cater to the likes of the vanderbilts,

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Speaker 1: Asters and Rockefellers. From the bedrooms to the entertainment on

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Speaker 1: the menus, they would only get the best upper class

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Speaker 1: Passengers Stepping onto these ships could be greeted by a

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Speaker 1: glorious grand staircase beneath the chandelier, or in one case,

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Speaker 1: an enormous dome that was lit to give the illusion

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Speaker 1: of natural light at all hours. They could promenade, although

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Speaker 1: the outdoor temperatures weren't often hospitable for long walks, enjoy

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Speaker 1: a swimming pool, Turkish baths, squad courts, and a state

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Speaker 1: of the art jim. Crews were meant to stay away

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Speaker 1: from passengers unless they were working directly with them. They

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Speaker 1: would have enjoyed similar accommodations as steerage and were expected

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Speaker 1: to work every day of the week, so they wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have spent much time in their rooms. Instead, they were

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Speaker 1: at their posts all the time, but surprisingly that's not

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Speaker 1: where Charles Jackin was late in the evening on April

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Speaker 1: fourteenth when he got the news. Charles was born in

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Speaker 1: England in eighteen seventy eight, enjoying the Royal Navy at

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Speaker 1: the age of eleven, following family tradition. By nineteen twelve

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Speaker 1: he was an experienced sailor and had found a place

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Speaker 1: for himself in ship's kitchens as a baker. On this

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Speaker 1: particular voyage, he was in charge of a staff of thirteen,

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Speaker 1: which included ten bakers, two confectioners, and a vienna baker.

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Speaker 1: He had a wife, Louise, and two kids, a daughter,

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Speaker 1: Agnes aged four, and Roland aged two. Charles was due

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Speaker 1: to earn a monthly wage of about twelve pounds that

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Speaker 1: he could use to support his family. At almost a

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Speaker 1: thousand pounds, this was one of his highest salaries on board,

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Speaker 1: not surprisingly given his experience and responsibilities, which was probably

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Speaker 1: why when the Titanic hit that Iceberg that terrible April

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Speaker 1: night in nineteen twelve, Charles Jackin jumped into action. Charles

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Speaker 1: was in his bunk sleeping, but was woken by the

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Speaker 1: collision and ran into the hallway to see what had happened.

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Speaker 1: He was immediately confronted with chaos. While the crew tried

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Speaker 1: their best to help people who were panicking and terrified,

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Speaker 1: Charles sprang into action and began to take control where

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Speaker 1: he could. He ordered his bakers to start transporting fifty

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Speaker 1: loaves of bread that they already had to the top decks,

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Speaker 1: where they were launching the lifeboats. Charles wanted to be

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Speaker 1: sure the survivors would have enough food to last until

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Speaker 1: they were rescued. As they worked, icy water was streaming

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Speaker 1: into the ship, and she was sinking rapidly. Many of

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Speaker 1: the men in first class helped their families board the

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Speaker 1: lifeboats and then returned to their cabins to dress for

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Speaker 1: the occasion. Benjamin Guggenheim reportedly said, we've dressed up in

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Speaker 1: our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.

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Speaker 1: Having given up his seat on the lifeboat, Charles Jackin

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Speaker 1: returned to his cabin for a different purpose. He got drunk,

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Speaker 1: spectacularly drunk. He worked his way back to the upper

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Speaker 1: decks after that and began tossing deck chairs overboard, hoping

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Speaker 1: to give the survivors something to float on. Charles donned

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Speaker 1: a lifebelt and made his way down to the pantry

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Speaker 1: for a quick glass of water before he felt a

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Speaker 1: terrific crash. The Titanic had broken in two from the pressure.

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Speaker 1: Stumbling to the stern of the ship, he held onto

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Speaker 1: the railing and waited. At two twenty in the morning,

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Speaker 1: the remaining half of the ship went vertical and disappeared

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Speaker 1: into the Atlantic. Charles was probably one of the last

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Speaker 1: people still on board as he bobbed into the frigid waters.

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Speaker 1: The shock had caused many people to seize up and

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Speaker 1: drown as soon as they entered. However, Charles was a

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Speaker 1: strong swimmer and began to tread water. He kept going

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Speaker 1: for two and a half hours in the darkness. When

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Speaker 1: the sun began to rise, he finally found a lifeboat

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Speaker 1: and was pulled aboard. Shortly afterwards, the RMS Carpathia arrived

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Speaker 1: and rescued the survivors, including and increasingly sober Charles. Thanks

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Speaker 1: to the incredible amount of whiskey he imbibed and his

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Speaker 1: implacable calm, Charles Jackins survived the sinking of a Titanic

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Speaker 1: and lived to serve in the Great War and died

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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty six at the age of seventy eight.

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Speaker 1: We've all seen the part of the cop show where

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Speaker 1: the suspect is locked in a small room with the

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Speaker 1: detectives snickering, thinking he's going to get away with his crime,

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Speaker 1: and then before he knows that he's in handcuffs after

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Speaker 1: having spilled all of the sort of details to them.

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Speaker 1: Television shows and movies don't show how excruciating the confession

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Speaker 1: process can be, both for the detectives and the suspects.

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Speaker 1: It can require hours of questioning, with tempers and temperatures

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Speaker 1: rising for everyone involved. But one woman had an idea

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Speaker 1: to not only make it easier to get a confession

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Speaker 1: out of someone, but to make it stick, no bones

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Speaker 1: about it. Her name was Helene Adelaide Shelby, and on

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Speaker 1: August sixteenth of nineteen twenty seven, she filed the patent

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Speaker 1: for an apparatus for obtaining criminal confessions and photographically recording them.

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Speaker 1: This was a tall order in the days before a

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Speaker 1: closed circuit cameras and listening devices were installed in police

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Speaker 1: interrogation rooms everywhere, but it turned out to be the

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Speaker 1: perfect time to revolutionize the justice system. Big trials like

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Speaker 1: the Scopes monkey Trial, which debated the teaching of human

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Speaker 1: evolution in Tennessee public schools, as well as the Saco

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Speaker 1: Vanzetti murder trial had turned the courtroom into a spectacle,

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Speaker 1: and those trials were often disrupted by the suspects themselves,

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Speaker 1: who would recant their confessions, later claiming that they were

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Speaker 1: taken under durests or intimidation. But Shelby's new invention would

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Speaker 1: prevent that, how by altering their state of mind with fear.

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Speaker 1: In order for the effect of work, the suspect would

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Speaker 1: be locked in a small, dimly lit room by themselves,

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Speaker 1: or so they thought. Meanwhile, the detective or examiner would

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Speaker 1: sit in an adjacent room out of view of the

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Speaker 1: person being questioned. Then they would ask their questions through

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Speaker 1: a megaphone in the wall. But this alone wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: enough to elicit a confession. For that, Shelby proposed the

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Speaker 1: use of a special tool. The examiner would press a

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Speaker 1: button on a switchboard, and in the suspect's dark little

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Speaker 1: closet chamber, a curtain would rise, revealing a skeleton. This

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Speaker 1: skeleton would be lit by electric lights from underneath and above,

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Speaker 1: while being draped in delicate, translucent fabric. It was meant

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Speaker 1: to give it a ghostly appearance. Thus terrifying the person

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Speaker 1: in the room enough to confess their crimes. But what

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Speaker 1: really sold the performance were the skeleton's eyes, which were

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Speaker 1: made of red light bulbs. They would glow from behind

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Speaker 1: the veil, here seeing the soul of the suspect across

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Speaker 1: from them, as the examiner continued to ask them questions

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Speaker 1: through the speaker embedded in the skeleton's mouth. And to

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Speaker 1: top it all off, a film camera would be stalled

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Speaker 1: in its skull to capture the picture and audio of

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Speaker 1: the confession, preventing the suspect from recanting in the future.

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Speaker 1: Shelby believed that if the confession was caught on film,

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Speaker 1: it would be easy to go back and look at

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Speaker 1: the suspects facial expressions and body language to confirm whether

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Speaker 1: or not they were telling the truth. It was a

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Speaker 1: revolutionary idea at the time, if not a bit absurd,

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Speaker 1: But then again, the CIA tried the same thing in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties. Instead of a skeleton, they attempted to

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Speaker 1: trick the Cubans into overthrowing Fidel Castro by telling them

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Speaker 1: the second coming of Jesus Christ was imminent and that

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Speaker 1: Christ hated the dictator. Fear is and has always been

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Speaker 1: a powerful motivator, but unfortunately it isn't the best choice

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Speaker 1: when dealing with matters of the law. Her ghastly creation

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Speaker 1: was not adopted by the police, and it probably wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have lasted long anyway. Over thirty years later, coerced confessions

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Speaker 1: were deemed inadmissible as evidence by the United States Supreme Court.

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Speaker 1: Pauline Shelby did not invent anything else during her lifetime.

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Speaker 1: She dabbled in real estate, got married, then even played

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Speaker 1: the ponies to some success. But she'll forever be remembered

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Speaker 1: as the woman who believed that she could trick the

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Speaker 1: average criminal into confessing their deepest, darkest secrets, all with

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Speaker 1: the help of some elaborate Halloween decorations. I hope you've

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Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe

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Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the

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Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was

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Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mank in partnership with how Stuff Works.

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Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is

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Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can

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Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore

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Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious,