Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio, Elizabeth Dunton,
Speaker 1: How you be? I'm good? Do you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 1: I do you want to share it with me? Collective
Speaker 1: nouns what do you mean? Well, you know, like groups
Speaker 1: of things like murder of crows, but parliament of owls saren?
Speaker 1: Have you ever done a deep dive on collective nouns? Completely? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I looked at him. I used to use those as
Speaker 1: a way to call myself down in anxious moments. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't want to know, but like you know, there's
Speaker 1: like a colony of bats. Um you know what jugglers is? Um?
Speaker 1: A juggalo of jugglers and never thing of of jugglers.
Speaker 1: Oh that's fun, which, like you know, you never see
Speaker 1: a group of juggle I guess you do see a
Speaker 1: group of jugglers outside the Loser Convent And I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: Collective noun for silences. Uh, there's a rumba of rattle
Speaker 1: snakes and the Kingdom of rats, which is kind of
Speaker 1: like a rat king which don't google that people. My
Speaker 1: favorite a death row of turkeys. Oh that is good, right,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of these. There are multiple collective nouns,
Speaker 1: phrase groups. But a death row of turkeys. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's up there. Yeah. Is there a writing desk of ravens? Sure?
Speaker 1: Never more. Well, I've got something ridiculous for you. You've
Speaker 1: got it's probably way more ridiculous than that I have
Speaker 1: all the time in the world. Oh excellent, because this
Speaker 1: one so wild one it will take me a second
Speaker 1: to tell to you. You're ready. Yes, it's about a
Speaker 1: Texas town. I mean, you know, I like Texas towns,
Speaker 1: and it is Texas town in particular. It gets taken
Speaker 1: over by twelve hundred college age military cadets who are
Speaker 1: eager to win a rivalry prank war that involves now
Speaker 1: take notes to private detectives, multiple high speed car chases,
Speaker 1: a night raid on an armory and a depot, a town,
Speaker 1: telephone lines being seized, casual gunfire, mass arrest, wrongful imprisonment,
Speaker 1: and a two pound owl. Oh okay, this is ridiculous crime,
Speaker 1: but podcast about absurd and outrageous capers and cons. It's
Speaker 1: always murder free and ridiculous. Elizabeth. Before we dive into
Speaker 1: the insanity of this story, I'd like to give you
Speaker 1: a little context. I love contact, right, I figured you do.
Speaker 1: Now you also love Reddit, right, Like, I don't really
Speaker 1: check on anybody, but I know you're like the lurker. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't post. I just you just read lurk rather Well,
Speaker 1: there is a post a couple of days ago. He
Speaker 1: might have seen it. I don't know. This guy put
Speaker 1: forward a theory that the University of Alabama doesn't exists.
Speaker 1: That one, yeah, and they say, he said, basically, well,
Speaker 1: I'll just quote it. He said, conspiracy theory. Quote, Alabama
Speaker 1: is not an actual school. It is just a football team.
Speaker 1: And then he makes his case and I continue to quote.
Speaker 1: The title says it all. I don't think Alabama truly
Speaker 1: exists as a school. There are no classes. If you
Speaker 1: somehow break into one of the buildings on campus, you'll
Speaker 1: find dusty storage rooms with US jock straps and Satanic
Speaker 1: altars to bear Bryant's demon ghost. I have met so
Speaker 1: many damn many Alabama fans roll tad. They say, if
Speaker 1: you ask them what year they graduated, they will usually
Speaker 1: hit you with and never been to college, Like that's
Speaker 1: the most ridiculous thing they've ever heard. I live and
Speaker 1: work in the South. I've interacted with fans of every
Speaker 1: other SEC team, and most of them have actually attended
Speaker 1: the university they route for. I have never not once
Speaker 1: met an Alabama fan that went to Alabama. That's incredible, right,
Speaker 1: I can get behind that that kind of theory. So
Speaker 1: he does as you know, Uh, he gets a response
Speaker 1: on Reddit. He had had to post an edit, and
Speaker 1: so I quote, um, there are some very humble gentleman
Speaker 1: visiting me. Every word I've said is unjust. I now know.
Speaker 1: Maybe I've just been stressed lately and I wanted to
Speaker 1: be the center of attention. Hopefully my new friends can
Speaker 1: correct my ignorance on the beauty of an Alabama education.
Speaker 1: Nick Saban is handsome and intelligent and every man or
Speaker 1: woman's dream. I've shown my jealousy of their degree programs
Speaker 1: and anyone would be lucky to go to school and Tuscaloosa.
Speaker 1: May God have mercy on my soul, and mate Elephant's
Speaker 1: tramp will be if I ever transgressed again. He should
Speaker 1: have held fast on that one. I'm just glad he
Speaker 1: found the truth in the way of Alabama football because
Speaker 1: also I'm I'm legally required to say this because it
Speaker 1: will be broadcasting Alabama rural tides. So you know there
Speaker 1: you go. Bear. Now you lived in South Carolina. We've
Speaker 1: talked about this, and uh they're an SEC style like
Speaker 1: fanatics for football in that area that got Clemson, You've
Speaker 1: got the University South Carolina Gamecox. Now does that hold true?
Speaker 1: Like the Alabama fans where you'd meet people who are like,
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, yeah, I love Clemson and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: what you're to graduating? Yeah? Oh I ain't never been
Speaker 1: to school. Yeah. I mean when I moved down there,
Speaker 1: people would say who do you root for? Clemson or USC?
Speaker 1: And of course, coming from California, I'm like Trojans, are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? And so then I I was educated
Speaker 1: on that that it's the cos and uh so they
Speaker 1: everyone said I had to choose and I was like, like,
Speaker 1: you know Kelly on nine o two and no, I
Speaker 1: choose me. So I wouldn't want to pick a side.
Speaker 1: But then I was you know, I'd ask people, oh,
Speaker 1: you went to Clemson where you like, you know, an
Speaker 1: agg major of some sort, and no, they didn't go
Speaker 1: to Clemson. And same with the most almost every USC fan.
Speaker 1: Yeah that most of them didn't go to those schools.
Speaker 1: They went to college. They just didn't and they wanted
Speaker 1: to support the big But I'll tell you, the most
Speaker 1: maniacal fans are the Clemson fans who actually did go
Speaker 1: to Clemson. Why the most maniacal, Like that's all. They
Speaker 1: wear the clothes like they don't know any other clothes
Speaker 1: and gear and they're super into it, which you know, hey, respect,
Speaker 1: you love your you love your alma mater. Yeah, fire
Speaker 1: up that tiger rag. Yeah. But you know what, I
Speaker 1: choose me so for that that you went to Davis
Speaker 1: for college and they have a football program and to
Speaker 1: now an nt double a team. You did you go
Speaker 1: to games? Did you care about? Like once or twice
Speaker 1: they had? You know, I went to games? Did you?
Speaker 1: Nobody was it like a thing like because you know,
Speaker 1: I grew up in Davids' my hometown, so we rooted
Speaker 1: for U c D. And I know that idea of
Speaker 1: being the county rooting. And now obviously it wasn't like
Speaker 1: oh I was like eleven, so it was like you
Speaker 1: to go to school there. Nobody thought that, but we looked.
Speaker 1: We see the players walking around town. They were huge
Speaker 1: to us. It might as well be like an NFL
Speaker 1: star and NBA star. We loved the team, but we
Speaker 1: noticed the college kids. You guys didn't give it. You
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about the teams, didn't know like the
Speaker 1: game was on Saturday. I kind of stumbled into it
Speaker 1: a couple of times, and I was always distracted by
Speaker 1: the like associative activities like the T shirt canon. Oh
Speaker 1: you mean it's a game campus, we're in. The fullback
Speaker 1: just fires a shirt cannon at the other players know.
Speaker 1: And then here's here's the thing. I seem to recall
Speaker 1: that they I think I made this up, and now
Speaker 1: I think it's real. Someone put a burrito in the
Speaker 1: T shirt cannon. I don't know if it really happened.
Speaker 1: I think I was imagining it that they would go
Speaker 1: burrito madness and like fire burritos that would explode and people.
Speaker 1: But like I guess, you know, if you ask me,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, totally, I saw that. I don't think
Speaker 1: that actually happened. You know, it's all a blur colleges
Speaker 1: barrito madness. I love that. Well that is so that's
Speaker 1: about the extent of my football knowledge. I'm not a
Speaker 1: football person. I know this, I definitely know this. It's
Speaker 1: the community aspect of football that I find really fascinating,
Speaker 1: especially college football, because people will, you know, find themselves
Speaker 1: in a team and they will go to war for
Speaker 1: their team. Oh yeah, which brings us to this story.
Speaker 1: So this story takes place in nineteen seventeen. Right now,
Speaker 1: that was the year that we would enter World War One.
Speaker 1: This is just before then. This is in January. We
Speaker 1: enter in April. This is in January. Is that the
Speaker 1: year football was invented? No, we can just say yes,
Speaker 1: if that helps you. This is the year of football
Speaker 1: was invented. And so when they're inventing the game of football,
Speaker 1: it took place in Texas. They invented football in Texas,
Speaker 1: Texas A and M, the Agricultural Mechanical School. Yes, they
Speaker 1: were playing Rice University, but in this instant, since it
Speaker 1: was January, which is after football season, they decided to
Speaker 1: play a football game on the basketball court. And they
Speaker 1: wore basketball uniforms. And then they'd used a basket in
Speaker 1: the world, so they used basketball. So they just played basketball.
Speaker 1: It was a basket. They just really through the basket.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it's a basketball, Okay. I just didn't
Speaker 1: want you to get too jarred because I know you've
Speaker 1: just become a fan of football. Yeah, it was just invented. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a brand new sport. You were there. The basketball
Speaker 1: game that they played was Houston's Rice University. His college
Speaker 1: stations Texas A and M. Right, big rivalry. Basketball was
Speaker 1: a huge sport at the time. And although it was
Speaker 1: a really interesting game because when they won the game,
Speaker 1: the score was thirteen. So Rice beats Texas A and
Speaker 1: M and embarrasses them. I'm glad you know that. So
Speaker 1: this was also the Texas A and M's first victory
Speaker 1: over a right sports team in three years. Right, they're
Speaker 1: just fired up about this. They go big, they're celebrating,
Speaker 1: they're doing everything they can. They're getting drunk, they're yelling,
Speaker 1: they're screaming the drive around and their Model T cars
Speaker 1: and the campus. Right, but there's not enough. They need
Speaker 1: something else, a symbolic expression of their victory, something they
Speaker 1: can hold on to, right, something to unite them and
Speaker 1: give them this moment. So what do they do. They're like,
Speaker 1: let's cast about and find something that will we can
Speaker 1: always have this feeling, right, And they find exactly what
Speaker 1: they need. The Texas A and M basketball players, some fans,
Speaker 1: some students, and some non student alumni. They all discover
Speaker 1: that rice is left their mascot behind and it's unprotected, right,
Speaker 1: And their mascot is an owl that is about the
Speaker 1: size of a man, about a six ft tall owl.
Speaker 1: It's not real. It's a statue where it's got a
Speaker 1: wooden understructure, has like canvas skin stretched over it. It
Speaker 1: weighs two hundred pounds. It is a huge structure. Did
Speaker 1: a man climb up inside of it? No, it's just
Speaker 1: a statue that they carry around. It's more of yes
Speaker 1: and effigy. That's probably the better way of putting it.
Speaker 1: So this effigy, this canvas creation of their's, it's filled
Speaker 1: with sawdust and excelsior, which is a stuffing material. So, right,
Speaker 1: isn't that a great word, excelsior. It's always like that
Speaker 1: on Stanley's favorite words. Also on the motto of the
Speaker 1: New York State. It just means like ever also means stuffing,
Speaker 1: New York stuffing. So this, uh, this wolf stuffing that's
Speaker 1: filled in this bird is what gives it its volume,
Speaker 1: it's weight, it's shape, and then obviously the wooden understructure. Right,
Speaker 1: So the thing weighs too, hundred pounds and it's six
Speaker 1: ft tall. It's basically like picking up a man, right,
Speaker 1: like a big football player sized guy. Now, these guys
Speaker 1: they pick up this owl and they run off with it.
Speaker 1: And they managed to like get away without any of
Speaker 1: the Rice students catching them, right. And then you have
Speaker 1: to keep in mind also that these Texas A and
Speaker 1: I'M students, they are Corman, they are cadets because Texas
Speaker 1: A and M at this time was a military institute
Speaker 1: that required to students to be cadets. And coming in
Speaker 1: just a few months, these kids are all about to
Speaker 1: go off. They all will be released to go join
Speaker 1: World War One. And at this time they're training for
Speaker 1: the war. So they're on war footing. They're like war craze.
Speaker 1: They are already in a military mind. So they start
Speaker 1: to act like this is an operation. They're ready to
Speaker 1: get their faces shot up. So they go and they
Speaker 1: grabbed this owl and they they you know, back all
Speaker 1: off with it into the dark. They loaded into a car.
Speaker 1: They drive to the train station. They load the owl
Speaker 1: onto the train station. They handed over to the Wells
Speaker 1: Fargo agents. They go get this back to college station
Speaker 1: and don't tell anyone you have it. And then They're like, okay,
Speaker 1: you're gonna pay for the rights, that's all. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: So they do. They put it on the train, they
Speaker 1: loaded up, and they take the owl back to Texas
Speaker 1: A and M Right. The Rice students they learn about
Speaker 1: this when they read it in the news. The Texas
Speaker 1: A and M. They put it in the news. It
Speaker 1: filters over to Houston and then they're like what so wait,
Speaker 1: they got all the way home and they didn't realize
Speaker 1: they forgot a twod o. No, no, this was that
Speaker 1: the game was in in Rice. So Texas didn't go
Speaker 1: back and the Texas A and M s didn't go back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the Right students are just missing there checking it.
Speaker 1: They weren't. They weren't thinking it was in charge of
Speaker 1: cleaning the owl after the games. That's a really good question.
Speaker 1: I will put that to our researcher and get back
Speaker 1: to you on who's an owl cleaner here? So, Texas
Speaker 1: A and M Right they have the owl, they've managed
Speaker 1: to get it back, and the Right students figure this out.
Speaker 1: So what are they gonna do? They lie? They decide,
Speaker 1: you know what, we're gonna say they didn't steal the owl.
Speaker 1: So they build a new owl, and they put that
Speaker 1: on campus and they insist that's the original owl. Like
Speaker 1: when a kid loses the stuff, the parents get an
Speaker 1: identical one. So they try that and that all the
Speaker 1: thing that has to do is pretty much suffice for
Speaker 1: all of the students and the local population. They can
Speaker 1: show the newspaper, we'll see we still have our owl.
Speaker 1: But they know the truth. So like, we got to
Speaker 1: get our owl back. So seventeen students get together, a
Speaker 1: bunch of student athletes, members of the track team, football team,
Speaker 1: basketball team. They'd create the Owl Protective Association. So they decide,
Speaker 1: you know, two days after this owl of stolen, that
Speaker 1: they were going to get their owl back. And so
Speaker 1: then they hire a private detective. That's their first move, Like,
Speaker 1: we need somebody to find out where the owl is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so get get ourselves a private dick, and we'll get
Speaker 1: him to go looking for it. So the private detective,
Speaker 1: they're like, they go and they meet this guy and
Speaker 1: he's like a grizzled nineteen seventeen private detective probably you know,
Speaker 1: like I don't know, beat up railroad strikers for the Pinkertons.
Speaker 1: I don't know this guy. He's a hard dude, right,
Speaker 1: So they pay him to travel to college station and
Speaker 1: hunt around for the owl. He does, He's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll go out to college station and i'll telegraph you
Speaker 1: guys when I find it. Right, So the private dick
Speaker 1: takes the students money, goes off to college station. They
Speaker 1: don't hear from him. Maybe we made a mistake. So
Speaker 1: they decide, okay, we need to go over to college
Speaker 1: station to find out what's going on. So they have
Speaker 1: to sneak onto the campus. Remember these are all cadets.
Speaker 1: So they go to the store like the Army Navy store,
Speaker 1: and they get some army uniforms. Right, but they didn't
Speaker 1: already have uniforms. No, these are the Rice students are
Speaker 1: just college students, are just like rich Texas A and
Speaker 1: M is So the Rice students have to go get
Speaker 1: uniforms so they can sneak onto Texas campus. Right. So
Speaker 1: they managed to do this. Now they have they have
Speaker 1: other uniforms and they're gonna go. You have to understand
Speaker 1: Texas A and M As they told you military institute.
Speaker 1: So they have real military officers who were armed as
Speaker 1: centuries on the campus. They've got bull sergeants, so as
Speaker 1: they call them who run around, who tell the students
Speaker 1: what to do. So they're sneaking onto essentially a military
Speaker 1: like in Texas, right, So the right students, they got
Speaker 1: their work cut out for them. So when they get
Speaker 1: to town, turns out their detective was on the case.
Speaker 1: He didn't just take their money and deal away into
Speaker 1: the night. That's what I thought when I was reading this,
Speaker 1: certain that he did, you know, find the guys who
Speaker 1: like may have stolen it. He's like, I couldn't find
Speaker 1: the owl, right, I hate to tell you guys. They're like, man,
Speaker 1: that sucks. That's terrible news. To dark night. It's raining.
Speaker 1: They're like, well, we already came all the way to
Speaker 1: College Station, which is about like a ninety mile trip.
Speaker 1: So they're like, I guess while we're here, we can
Speaker 1: hunt around. So they hunt around on the Texas A
Speaker 1: and M campus, pretending to be student or cadets rather,
Speaker 1: and they have with them to transfer students who know
Speaker 1: the university. So they're like, okay, where's where It's like
Speaker 1: the dormitories, where is the where would they put this?
Speaker 1: Right turn coats? So the scouts they send out, they
Speaker 1: search all of the buildings except for the dormitories because
Speaker 1: there'll be too many people who may recognize them. But
Speaker 1: everything other than that, they're avoiding centuries, military guards, the
Speaker 1: whole bit. They can't find the awl. No luck, right,
Speaker 1: So the O p A. The their their scouts to
Speaker 1: go off. They return to Houston four more days past
Speaker 1: the starting to sweat people to question the owl they
Speaker 1: have in the campus because they quite look right. So
Speaker 1: they're like, okay, well this maybe beyond us. We need
Speaker 1: to hire a new detective. So they're rich kids, they
Speaker 1: throw some money together and they hire a second detective.
Speaker 1: This dude's in him, I swear to God, is snowball
Speaker 1: the only thing he's referred to a cat? Snowball? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like he's a cat like snowball the cat producer Dave
Speaker 1: spot On with the with the acknowledgement of the snowball
Speaker 1: is essentially like his code name. But it's the silliest
Speaker 1: damn code name he could come up with in Texas. Right,
Speaker 1: So Snowball shows up on your heart, bitt and detective,
Speaker 1: what do you guys need? Right, And they're like, Snowball
Speaker 1: like the nose two no, no, no, I think he's
Speaker 1: just a sweetheart. So he's just a little powder problem.
Speaker 1: So I'll find your two hundred pound owl mascot or
Speaker 1: whatever I got right, And so Snowball drives out to
Speaker 1: college station and he starts snooping around and he poses
Speaker 1: as a Houston area newspaper reporter. He's like, I heard
Speaker 1: about the owl nab and I want to get the story.
Speaker 1: And kids are like, oh, that's great, yeah, because they
Speaker 1: want the story to go back to Houston and embarrass
Speaker 1: all the right students, so they never questioned the story.
Speaker 1: He manages to get in and meet the actual Texas
Speaker 1: A and M bird nappers to show him the bird
Speaker 1: because he's like, I need pictures for the paper. They're like, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll take it this way. They take him up to
Speaker 1: the place where they're hiding the bird. He snaps his
Speaker 1: photos and he's like, okay, the bird's here, and he's like,
Speaker 1: thank you guys, pretends to be a reporter and leaves,
Speaker 1: and then he goes out to the telegram office telegrams
Speaker 1: Rice and he's like, you know, they they've got the bird.
Speaker 1: He sends a coded message. The bird's nickname is Sammy.
Speaker 1: That's what the Rice students call him. So he sends
Speaker 1: his coded message, Sammy is fairly well and would like
Speaker 1: to see his parents at eleven o'clock. Exactly. So, now
Speaker 1: the plot is completely in motion, and after this short break,
Speaker 1: I will be right back to tell you the next
Speaker 1: installment in this insane too. Okay, Elizabeth, you're ready for
Speaker 1: more of the great Owl theft? Yes? Please? Okay? So
Speaker 1: the Rice students, right, They now know that the bird
Speaker 1: is still fine, it exists, and their detective Snowball has
Speaker 1: found it for them, So they need to get into action, right.
Speaker 1: The seventeen members of their O p A are called
Speaker 1: out on a raiding party and they're ready to roll
Speaker 1: the Owl Protective Association. Sorry, I should keep you up
Speaker 1: with the acronyms. So they decided that Snowball's message and
Speaker 1: a quote was a signal that the owl had been located,
Speaker 1: and then his capture was now a matter of daring.
Speaker 1: So daring is called for, and daring is what they're
Speaker 1: prepared with a feat Exactly, So, the seventeen members of
Speaker 1: the O p A, the Owl Protective Association the rock
Speaker 1: up in two old Fords and a Hudson Super six.
Speaker 1: Load up all seventeen people in these three cars right.
Speaker 1: The second car, the second card just mentioned the Hudson
Speaker 1: Super six that was introduced in nineteen sixteen, much like
Speaker 1: professional football. So it was called the Super six because
Speaker 1: at an in line six cylinder engine, it was the
Speaker 1: one of the fastest cars of his time. It was
Speaker 1: a high performance engine. Like I said, the Rice students,
Speaker 1: rich kids, right, so they've got this card has a
Speaker 1: distinctive seventy two horsepower just blazing. That's forty more horsepower
Speaker 1: than you get from a similar size Hudson the year prior. Right,
Speaker 1: So we're talking like real fast. Now, if you're wondering
Speaker 1: top speed, seventy five miles per hour for our non
Speaker 1: American listeners are twenty kilometers now. Fun fact, the Jode
Speaker 1: family when they went west in the Grapes of Wrath,
Speaker 1: what they were driving in was a Hudson Super six. Now, uh,
Speaker 1: this is what it looks like. I'm just gonna show
Speaker 1: you a picture on Instagram, as I will, and it's
Speaker 1: the Hudson Super six is probably one of my favorite
Speaker 1: cars of this area. Just looks really cool. Right, how
Speaker 1: many did that seat? I'd probably take, like you know,
Speaker 1: standards five six people and this we had seventeen boys,
Speaker 1: and this is like in the arrow and people would
Speaker 1: try to see how many people they could fit in
Speaker 1: a telephone booth, you know, like they were really into
Speaker 1: like squeezing. It was likely that's more the twenties, but
Speaker 1: I'm saying the leading up to this is at the
Speaker 1: college era of raccoon hats and big fur jackets and like,
Speaker 1: let's see how many people we can get in this,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, So they're doing all of that, and
Speaker 1: there's a Texas kids, so they go big with it.
Speaker 1: So the other two cars, those are the two old Forts.
Speaker 1: And when I say old Forts, everybody back then they
Speaker 1: just referred to They only read the newspaper accounts. They
Speaker 1: just said old Forts because there was the only the
Speaker 1: Model T. They didn't have a bunch of Forts. There
Speaker 1: was like previous Model A. But now we're to the
Speaker 1: Model T. The old Tin Lizzy right, top speed forty
Speaker 1: two miles per hour. Yeah, and for the non American listeners,
Speaker 1: that's sixty kilometers per hour. So these are, by the way,
Speaker 1: this is what the Tin Lizzie looks like in case
Speaker 1: you'd like just a quick recollection. So it's the classic
Speaker 1: car that you think of, like the buggy if you will.
Speaker 1: So we have seven exactly exactly. So we have seventeen
Speaker 1: young men loaded in these two open air cars with
Speaker 1: thin tires, overloaded with a bunch of football players, and
Speaker 1: they're headed out into essentially dirt roads for a hundred
Speaker 1: miles to get to College Station, Texas from Houston. There,
Speaker 1: man dates is not as bad as West Texas, but
Speaker 1: it's basically central Texas. So they're going through like some
Speaker 1: mountainous not quite mountainous region, but you know the Texas
Speaker 1: hills country, Yeah, the hill country, and then lots of
Speaker 1: wooded areas, and they are not going through easy. They're
Speaker 1: not like you know, paved roads us. Your cars are
Speaker 1: designed for driving on basically a wagon road. And it's Texas,
Speaker 1: so they got plenty of wagon roads. So these these
Speaker 1: seventeen men, at eleven thirty at night, they reach College
Speaker 1: Station and that's when they meet up with their private dick, Snowball, right,
Speaker 1: and Snowball has got some bad news for the boys
Speaker 1: right now. There was a contemporaneous account of all this
Speaker 1: published in the Rice University student newspaper called The thresh
Speaker 1: and the Thresher, And it's Thursday, February nineteen seventeen edition.
Speaker 1: If you want to look this up on newspapers dot com.
Speaker 1: They had a firsthand account written by members of the
Speaker 1: O p A. So we have their actual account, and
Speaker 1: I quote the detective was of the opinion that would
Speaker 1: be impossible to get the bird, and it was as
Speaker 1: it was on the third floor of the US Armory,
Speaker 1: the strongest room at A and M. But he stated
Speaker 1: there was a sporting chance to win out. So he's like, look,
Speaker 1: they got it in the like basically the fot on
Speaker 1: campus and on the third floor, so you have to
Speaker 1: fight your way in, and their military so are college athletes.
Speaker 1: So give it a sporting chance. Right, four men decide, okay,
Speaker 1: we need to go see what the lay of the
Speaker 1: land is, and they go out on a scouting mission. Right.
Speaker 1: Their names are for the sake of the story, Full Whiler,
Speaker 1: Billops More and the leader Jimmy Waters. These four will
Speaker 1: be the only ones whose names I will be telling
Speaker 1: you because they will come up over and over again.
Speaker 1: They are essentially the leaders of this racing party. Right,
Speaker 1: So full Whiler, billops More and Waters. They hit the
Speaker 1: track running, they go and they sneak onto campus and
Speaker 1: they are after their two h pound owl mascot. Right,
Speaker 1: So the four men they elude sentries and these bull
Speaker 1: sergeants and all the campus cadets, and they entered the
Speaker 1: US Armory on the ground floor. They make it into
Speaker 1: the building, right, So now they have to ascend three
Speaker 1: flights of stairs. They managed to do that without catching
Speaker 1: any of the watchmen who are circling through the building.
Speaker 1: They're also you know, students who are on guard because
Speaker 1: they know they have the stolen owl and they know
Speaker 1: it's in that building, so any weird sounds or anything
Speaker 1: will immediately alert suspicions. They decide, okay, we need to
Speaker 1: do this quietly, So they take out big knives and
Speaker 1: they try to carve their way through a heavy wooden
Speaker 1: armory door. What so imagine like one of those mission
Speaker 1: style California doors were like the boards are like nine
Speaker 1: inches to carve through. Kidding, So this noise draws the
Speaker 1: attention of a watchman. They're just slamming away into the woods.
Speaker 1: All these guys you just start going to class. Oh
Speaker 1: just wait. So jimmy water squad leader, he uh as,
Speaker 1: he just says he here's the watchman coming up to stairs,
Speaker 1: Like we need a distraction. So he's like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do something insane. So he runs towards the third story window,
Speaker 1: climbs out, and then it gets the Watchman's attention before
Speaker 1: he does this, climbs out of the window and he
Speaker 1: manages to walk down the side of the building for
Speaker 1: the third story like climbing, like with his hands and
Speaker 1: his feet. Basically, he like Spiderman, climbs down the side
Speaker 1: of the building. So the Watchman's like, what the hell,
Speaker 1: So he so he runs down to the ground floor
Speaker 1: to be there when he gets done with his three
Speaker 1: like three story climb, right, So the Watchman is there
Speaker 1: when Jimmy Waters hits the ground, But Jimmy Waters is
Speaker 1: a track star, so he hits the ground, starts running
Speaker 1: immediately right, doesn't even like have any hesitation. The watchman
Speaker 1: chases after him, a perfect distraction, right, So the rest
Speaker 1: inside they're like, okay, we can get to it, but
Speaker 1: they hear more watchmans like, so now they're hiding in
Speaker 1: pools of darkness and shadow and they wait for twenty
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. They don't know what to do. They're like,
Speaker 1: now Jimmy's outside just running around for this whole time,
Speaker 1: trying to evade centries and students and guards, and he's
Speaker 1: doing it for the most part. So another one of
Speaker 1: the the three who are now inside, they decide, Okay,
Speaker 1: I need to go out and see what's going on.
Speaker 1: Maybe I can help Jimmy and distract more people and
Speaker 1: you guys can get in. So he runs out there,
Speaker 1: and as soon as he gets out, there's this kid,
Speaker 1: Full Whiler. He's like trying to make his distraction. He
Speaker 1: runs right into Jimmy Waters and a bull sergeant who's
Speaker 1: grabbed him and his questioning him. He's out there, Jimmy
Speaker 1: Waters is nervous, he's telling his family name, his family's history,
Speaker 1: he's doing everything he can to do. It's okay, it's okay.
Speaker 1: So what does full Whiler do. He just runs right
Speaker 1: up into him, knocks down the bull star Jimmy Waters,
Speaker 1: and he's scamper off right. So now the two of
Speaker 1: them start leading the bull sargeants on this mad chase.
Speaker 1: The two of them split up, so everybody's running around.
Speaker 1: Kids cadets are starting to get involved in now they
Speaker 1: know what's going on. Meanwhile, the other fourteen members of
Speaker 1: the seventeen are watching. They're like, you know what's time
Speaker 1: to blitz the armory. We can't do this like you know,
Speaker 1: skull duggery stuff. So their new plan is charge right,
Speaker 1: so they just run onto campus. And so now we
Speaker 1: have all seven team members the O p A running around,
Speaker 1: some biggest football players, gangly basketball players, track stars, and
Speaker 1: a bunch of adets and they're all chasing each other
Speaker 1: all around in the nighttime and the january air because
Speaker 1: remember this is also wintertime, so it's cold. So down
Speaker 1: to protect their flanks, these other members of the O
Speaker 1: p A. They secure the entrances of the US Armory.
Speaker 1: So the guys upstairs, because everybody knows where they are,
Speaker 1: they're they're still trying to get inside, so they blocked
Speaker 1: the doors on the ground floor so that way all
Speaker 1: these bull sergeants and students can't get in. And then
Speaker 1: a couple of big college football players rush up to
Speaker 1: go help the guys knock down the door. So they're
Speaker 1: armed with crowbars and fire extinguishers that they've pulled off
Speaker 1: of the walls. So they run up and they decide, okay,
Speaker 1: we're all big guys, we'll just knock down this door.
Speaker 1: So they try using their shoulders first. One guy runs
Speaker 1: and he gets bounced off, lands on the tile floor.
Speaker 1: Now that guy does it. Now it's not This isn't working.
Speaker 1: So then they decide we'll go in tandem. So two
Speaker 1: guys hold hands, two big football players hold hands, and
Speaker 1: they run at the door, and that doesn't work, and
Speaker 1: then two more do it. Boom, Oh, it cracks open.
Speaker 1: The door knocks down. So it turns out they didn't
Speaker 1: need all the crowbars and fire extonishers. They doesn't need
Speaker 1: a couple of big football players and throw themselves. Right.
Speaker 1: So when the door springs open, what did they find?
Speaker 1: I have no idea. The owl is sitting there in
Speaker 1: bed with the general. No, I don't know, smoking of
Speaker 1: cigars like that was nice. I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: know what. Nobody knows, right exactly, according to the contemporaneous
Speaker 1: accounts in the Thresher, the quote the owl was concealed
Speaker 1: under some canvas at the rear of the armory. The
Speaker 1: six men seize the old birds, soust them in gasoline,
Speaker 1: and rushed down three flights of stairs to the ground floor,
Speaker 1: where the night watchman was encountered. Yeah, you're like, wait, gasoline,
Speaker 1: why didn't he in there? Right? Good ears? So they
Speaker 1: were confronted by this night watchman, right, and so they
Speaker 1: tell them, oh, you know, we're students from Texas A
Speaker 1: and M. We're trying to protect it. They got these
Speaker 1: you know, bulmakers run around on campus. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: hide the bird. And what I watched him like, we
Speaker 1: are you taking? He's like right over there, and then
Speaker 1: they just run in the other direction. Night watching was like, wait,
Speaker 1: what are you doing. They run it over to a car.
Speaker 1: They throw it in the Hudson's Super six and that
Speaker 1: car takes off. This bull sergeant night watchman, he gets piste.
Speaker 1: He pulls out his forty four and starts firing. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so now the two so the students have to run.
Speaker 1: They top in the tin Lizzie's the Hoppen, the sets
Speaker 1: in super six and they're tearing around. But they're not done.
Speaker 1: They don't want to just get away. They decide, let's,
Speaker 1: you know, let's car some donuts in the grass. So
Speaker 1: they start doing circles and twoing donuts and they're getting
Speaker 1: fired at mind you. So the opiates pretty stoked. They
Speaker 1: got back there at right. So, and meanwhile there's a
Speaker 1: couple of others who have not quite made it to
Speaker 1: the car. They decided to grab some paint that they
Speaker 1: found and they paint the score of the last football
Speaker 1: game that they won zero on the side of the
Speaker 1: building in giant numbers. Right the more warning shots are
Speaker 1: firing out, Bugles are being blown, students are yelling, and
Speaker 1: at this point the OPA is like, look repressing our luck.
Speaker 1: So they decide to floor it and tear us out
Speaker 1: of there, and they managed to escape the campus. Right now,
Speaker 1: they've got to drive from College Station back to Houston.
Speaker 1: It's about a hundred mile trip. As I told you,
Speaker 1: we should should take about an hour and have two hours,
Speaker 1: but if you're going forty two miles and then I'll
Speaker 1: take more like solid two hours. This is if they
Speaker 1: can make it there, because remember now they got hundreds
Speaker 1: of college cadets who are about to give chase Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: I'd like you to close your eyes and picture it. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's the dark of night. It's January in Texas. The
Speaker 1: air is cold, the wind is howling as it blows,
Speaker 1: and there you are with the O P a riding
Speaker 1: shotgun in the tiled four tin Lizzie. Ahead of you
Speaker 1: was another tin Lizzy, and and ahead of that is
Speaker 1: the year old Hudson's Super six. The roads are bad
Speaker 1: and you're getting jumped and bumped around and your seat
Speaker 1: as your guys are rocking and rolling down this dark
Speaker 1: road car loaded down with other students members of the
Speaker 1: O p A. You're all racing back to Houston. You're
Speaker 1: all fired up, you're excited, you're yelling, but you have
Speaker 1: this tiny fear inside of you because you're like, this
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like we've gotten away with that. I don't
Speaker 1: know why, right, that's that would be me. Your fears
Speaker 1: are confirmed when the first forward in the caravan, its
Speaker 1: headlights go out. HiT's a bump light goes out. You're like,
Speaker 1: that's that's no good. So now you guys are in
Speaker 1: the middle of Texas, nowhere you've got no electric lights.
Speaker 1: There's no it's just endless darkness, right, So these headlights.
Speaker 1: So you're like, let's forget that car. Well, no, we
Speaker 1: need it. So there's too many of us. Okay, you've
Speaker 1: been in back and we'll keep going. So now they
Speaker 1: put the car with no headlights in the in the
Speaker 1: back and keep running. Right. So, now you're in the
Speaker 1: lead car of the caravan, and uh, you're bouncing a
Speaker 1: roll rolling along still, another miles passes blond. Now your
Speaker 1: lights are out. You guys had a bump your lights.
Speaker 1: Getting is going on with you? Forards? What can I
Speaker 1: tell you a little of it? You close your mouth.
Speaker 1: So now that the lights are cut up, both boards
Speaker 1: are running blind. Right, So the Hudson supersticks takes overwards.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Fords were doing it just because they knew
Speaker 1: they had to be secret. Well they do. There's purposeful
Speaker 1: these sence. They're doing really well on the back of
Speaker 1: the line. So let's just take it from there. Since
Speaker 1: Super six is laiding this caravan, the Fords are trying
Speaker 1: to keep up, doing their forty two miles an hour
Speaker 1: in the dark. Now before you can curse, or but
Speaker 1: I could curse, Hanry Ford's a good name. And there's
Speaker 1: another big run in the road and it tosses the
Speaker 1: Ford in front of you, hits their breaks after they land,
Speaker 1: and you slam your Ford slams into them. Boom. You
Speaker 1: basically destroy the front end of your car. Now FOURD
Speaker 1: doesn't even operate, so now you give one less car.
Speaker 1: So everyone's like this, there's no good. As the car
Speaker 1: shuttering to a stop, you're like everybody get in the
Speaker 1: other cars. So now they got running boards, they got laps.
Speaker 1: People are just like laying on other people. People are
Speaker 1: clinging to the on the running car the back can't
Speaker 1: feel their legs. Not exactly, not at all. But now
Speaker 1: you in the one operable Ford and the Hudson Super six.
Speaker 1: You're tearing away, all seventeen of you in there, and
Speaker 1: you and your night raid is really not going too
Speaker 1: well so far. But well, I mean, we got the
Speaker 1: elm so far. Yeah, it looks like, you know, you're
Speaker 1: overcoming most obstacle, except for you notice there's a new
Speaker 1: obstacle emerging from the darkness. It's this bright light. And
Speaker 1: then you have you hear the train whistle and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh no, because the whole plan was to get to
Speaker 1: College Station, and there were you guys would do your
Speaker 1: raid after the last train had left, so that way
Speaker 1: there they couldn't the cadets couldn't take a train and
Speaker 1: get back to Houston. But you decided to rush it.
Speaker 1: Remember you charge that messed up your timing. And now
Speaker 1: the train is rushing along and you look over and
Speaker 1: you spy, oh, how hundreds of students cadets laying out
Speaker 1: of every window of the limited that's running to Houston.
Speaker 1: They're screaming and shouting because they can see you, guys,
Speaker 1: and you can see them. You're not that far away.
Speaker 1: You on the dirt road, them on the tracks, and
Speaker 1: they are clipping along. It looks like they're gonna get
Speaker 1: back to Houston before y'all. So what do you do, Elizabeth? Like,
Speaker 1: what's the move? You're still in shotgun? What's your call?
Speaker 1: I would I would stop and wait till more, ing
Speaker 1: let them go and like, you know, cool their jets
Speaker 1: in Houston and wait and wait and wait, and then meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I like roasting it up. And yeah, then I go
Speaker 1: to Austin at least call a little tour. But when
Speaker 1: it's light out then you don't need your headlights. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Good point. Well, they listened to most of your plan
Speaker 1: except for they go, you know what, we should go
Speaker 1: one further than that, Elizabeth, Stopping isn't enough. Uh So
Speaker 1: you know, let's just go with the thresher's account, because
Speaker 1: I want you to hear it in their words quote,
Speaker 1: it was impossible to make any speed on the road.
Speaker 1: So the party turned around and started back towards College Station.
Speaker 1: They turned up the first lane they found in a
Speaker 1: wild ride of five miles through the woods. Ensued, they
Speaker 1: decide let's head back towards College Station, and then that's
Speaker 1: not a good idea, make a right, So then they
Speaker 1: start heading north, heading north in Texas into the darkened woods,
Speaker 1: and they wrap it off into the woods, trying to
Speaker 1: make a run for it. Do you think they're going
Speaker 1: to get away with it after a quick break. I'll
Speaker 1: be back with the end of the insane too, okay, Elizabeth?
Speaker 1: So where were we car chase? Poor decisions on the
Speaker 1: part of the association. So we're headed into north Texas,
Speaker 1: north north Dallas. Forty will come the OPA is on
Speaker 1: the run from hundreds of Texas A and M military cadets.
Speaker 1: You got a hundred miles to get back to Houston, man,
Speaker 1: however many miles to get back to College Station. One
Speaker 1: of your tin Lizzy is not working. The other one
Speaker 1: is limping after the Hudson Super six. No lights right,
Speaker 1: hit it cars. Things aren't going well, and you now
Speaker 1: then break down again one mile down the country road
Speaker 1: that you guys have just gone, and I returned to
Speaker 1: the thresh. There's coverage the remaining forward soon gave up
Speaker 1: on the struggle and was left with five men to
Speaker 1: guard it and to draw a pursuit away from the
Speaker 1: big car containing the owl. So the rating part I
Speaker 1: was all in the Hudson Super six whatever, how many
Speaker 1: people they can load left five, there's twelve people in
Speaker 1: this car. And yeah, there's twelve people loaded up in
Speaker 1: the Hudson Super six and a two pound owl. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that six ft tall. So after after four so
Speaker 1: after four more miles, the Super six runs out of
Speaker 1: gas because they've not even driven all night. No worse
Speaker 1: than that, they've knocked a hole in the gas over
Speaker 1: all these rocks and ruts and roads. Right, So now
Speaker 1: the op A is like, Okay, we got no cars,
Speaker 1: we're in the middle of Texas, and we have a
Speaker 1: six ft tall, two pound owl we've got to carry.
Speaker 1: And isn't the owl covered in gasoline? It's covered in gasoline.
Speaker 1: So hours have passed now the night is being getting
Speaker 1: to give way to dawn. So the Purple hours approaching
Speaker 1: and Snowball the private detective he's with them. He's with
Speaker 1: the raiding party actually, because he decided it was quite
Speaker 1: a sporting proposition to go along with the guys to
Speaker 1: see if he could rescue the owl to his youth.
Speaker 1: He goes off and they break up into two parties.
Speaker 1: One of the parties will go into the closest town
Speaker 1: and see if they get gas as soon as the
Speaker 1: sun comes up, and then come back to the two
Speaker 1: cars that they're going to park and hide in some woods.
Speaker 1: That's their plans to Skins will hang out with the
Speaker 1: owl and then hide in the woods. Right, that's the plan,
Speaker 1: and hopefully they can get maybe a friendly mechanic to
Speaker 1: come and either come back with them and fix the cars,
Speaker 1: or they can load the cars up at gasoline, drive
Speaker 1: to town and get the cars fixed there. That's the plan. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: back at the ranch, the Texas A and M cadets, Right,
Speaker 1: what are they doing in all of this? They were
Speaker 1: racing on the train. That was only some of them.
Speaker 1: There's twelve hundred students who will be involved in this chase.
Speaker 1: So how many were on the train there just sitting
Speaker 1: there on the right hands and they're waiting in Houston
Speaker 1: just be in troublemaker and then you've got like a
Speaker 1: thousand of them coming up. They need they need to
Speaker 1: go back to We have an account from the thresher
Speaker 1: that we can give you some exact numbers. I want
Speaker 1: to give the thresher a hand, but that every time
Speaker 1: he's a thresher, all I think is like you immediately
Speaker 1: go there like that. So I quote from the hand
Speaker 1: taking thresher. The A M. M. Cadets have been busy
Speaker 1: organizing their pursuit. Everything that had four wheels had been
Speaker 1: requisitioned and pressed into service. Eight cadets were brought up
Speaker 1: to the firing line in automobiles, motorcycles, wagons, buggies, and
Speaker 1: of course the train. This is like mad mag yes,
Speaker 1: So it doesn't take long for these eight hundred cadets,
Speaker 1: going off in every direction to find the raiding party
Speaker 1: that's out in the woods, just down on a road
Speaker 1: right now. Hold on, when they find this little rate,
Speaker 1: the raiding party, what are they going to do to them?
Speaker 1: Just tear them limb from limy. Just wait, this is
Speaker 1: this is this is no, there's no no murdering this one.
Speaker 1: But there's some species coming up. So I returned to
Speaker 1: the thresher a detachment of cadets rated Milliican and found
Speaker 1: all of Rice's means of locomotion in the garage. So
Speaker 1: the guys who had gone off to the town of
Speaker 1: Milliican with their car. They get discovered and I continue
Speaker 1: the quote immediately took charge of the cars. Nine rice men,
Speaker 1: who had been left to delay pursued as long as possible,
Speaker 1: were captured with the cars. One of the people captured Snowball,
Speaker 1: the private detective, Snowball kitty detective. So the other half
Speaker 1: of the raiding party, they get a messenger back from Millikan.
Speaker 1: He runs out of town and makes it back to
Speaker 1: where they are hiding the cars in the woods and
Speaker 1: tells them, you guys need to run for it. They're
Speaker 1: onto us. We don't have a car, so they're like, okay,
Speaker 1: so what do they do? They decide we're going to
Speaker 1: just run for it. So they decided to take this
Speaker 1: two pound owl and run back to Houston. So they
Speaker 1: start running across the tall grass to save themselves. So
Speaker 1: and I quote didn't happen. Running with the two pound
Speaker 1: owl was a larger contract than the exhausted men could fill,
Speaker 1: and all hopes of taking the bird wholesale were abandoned.
Speaker 1: The A and M searchers were hot on the trail,
Speaker 1: so the eight men hid themselves in a thicket and
Speaker 1: skinned the cover off the owl and the hide given
Speaker 1: to four men with instructions to take it to Houston.
Speaker 1: Stuffing was then set on fire as it had been
Speaker 1: discovered that the party was completely surrounded by cadets, so
Speaker 1: they burned the owl. Now the thing is is the
Speaker 1: gasoline makes it so there's not much smoke, so they
Speaker 1: were they almost get away with it, but this is
Speaker 1: one of the cadets notices the flame and then they
Speaker 1: go rushing over to where they're hiding in the thickets.
Speaker 1: So now for the guys, the leaders of the O
Speaker 1: p A. So this is full while or Drummond Uh
Speaker 1: and my boy More and Jimmy Waters, they take the
Speaker 1: owl skin and they make a break for it. The
Speaker 1: skin others tried to distract, so Sam of the owls
Speaker 1: handed over to the fourth fastest. They're all members of
Speaker 1: the track team. They're like disgusting run for it. So
Speaker 1: they and the other ones, the other four, they lead
Speaker 1: the aggy search party that's surrounding them in the wrong direction.
Speaker 1: Right there. Again, I'm making a lot of noise. Run
Speaker 1: for it, guys, trying to get their attention. Jimmy Waters
Speaker 1: is leader of what we now call the Elusive four.
Speaker 1: The elusive four are going to be officially a dude
Speaker 1: named Dane, a dude named Paine, a dude named Waters,
Speaker 1: and Drummond. So like old time nursery run Potters and
Speaker 1: trum getting the owl, and off they went together. So
Speaker 1: and I quote, they injured some thick woods and had
Speaker 1: over fifty men on their coat tails and no time
Speaker 1: at all. The four men had been well chosen, however,
Speaker 1: and the pursuers were soon distanced. Remember track stars. So
Speaker 1: the squad runs two miles with with the owl skin
Speaker 1: hidden on them, and they get to a major road, right,
Speaker 1: so they start waiting for a car to pass, hoping
Speaker 1: somebody will be there. It's now morning time, right, and
Speaker 1: I quote it's now ten a m. Wednesday, and the
Speaker 1: party had been without food and water since noon on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: A well was found soon found in a small clearing,
Speaker 1: and the four men quench their thirst. So now they're
Speaker 1: sitting there like finally getting some nourishment to keep their
Speaker 1: bodies going diet exposure exactly. So the bunch of cadets
Speaker 1: spot them and they come running across a cotton field
Speaker 1: after them to the like, oh, they're coming for us, right,
Speaker 1: They start running the original fifty cadets who were just
Speaker 1: seeing them at the thicket of woods. They come from
Speaker 1: the other direction, so they now run another two miles
Speaker 1: under full chase. Right, the track stars are so exhausted
Speaker 1: at this point. Jimmy Waters can't run over a one
Speaker 1: foot fence. He trips over a one ft fence. Dane
Speaker 1: gets tangled up in grape vines over and over again.
Speaker 1: Then there's his dude pain. He tries to jump a
Speaker 1: four foot creek and he lands in the middle. He
Speaker 1: goes two feet. These are all track stars. They're so exhausted.
Speaker 1: Their bodies are like pulling a full zola. But they're
Speaker 1: pretty much going to just collapse. Right. So at this point, right,
Speaker 1: we're getting into the afternoon hours, right, and I quote
Speaker 1: the pursuers were finally ditched and the refuge was taken
Speaker 1: in a thick bunch of overgrowth, where the party slept
Speaker 1: until three thirty pm, keeping one hour watches each. So
Speaker 1: now they've gone full military and they're doing one hour
Speaker 1: watches trying to get away from these cadets. So at
Speaker 1: three thirty they are awoken by the sound of a
Speaker 1: group of cadets who discovered their hiding place. Right, So
Speaker 1: the four track stars like, we're gonna have to split up, guys,
Speaker 1: we need someone to run distractions. So now they take
Speaker 1: the owl skin, they tear it in half, they wrap
Speaker 1: it around their bodies. They've got to get out to
Speaker 1: get this owl home. So the other two run off
Speaker 1: in the other direction, making a lot of noise. Well,
Speaker 1: the two guys who have the owl wrapped around their
Speaker 1: bodies run off, and they're doing it like you know,
Speaker 1: I don't even know they did. They have like this
Speaker 1: vim and vigor and the zeal of the French resistance,
Speaker 1: like they are willing to do do whatever to beat
Speaker 1: these military Right, so the four crawl on their bellies
Speaker 1: through the tall grass to escape. They make it out
Speaker 1: of the thicket in two different directions, right, and now
Speaker 1: the elusive for reunite. Uh. And they get to another
Speaker 1: road and they find that the road is blocked because
Speaker 1: not because of of cadets for once this time, it's
Speaker 1: just because there's basically river water stormwater rushing past. The
Speaker 1: little bridge is blocked. Right, So they're like, okay, what
Speaker 1: are we gonna do. That's when they hear a car approach, like,
Speaker 1: oh no, right, there's nowhere for them to hide. There's
Speaker 1: nowhere to go. They can't cross the river. They're up
Speaker 1: against the wall. And I quote a car was heard
Speaker 1: crashing through the brush and it was coming directly towards them,
Speaker 1: So the men had to interrupt their planning and hit
Speaker 1: out for cover too with the owl skin remained in
Speaker 1: hiding while the two went forward to investigate. The car
Speaker 1: was occupied by hunters and the first question was to
Speaker 1: ask the best way to get across the river? Who
Speaker 1: got the owl? Was the reply, what owl? You know?
Speaker 1: Tell us we can help you out. So this is
Speaker 1: a group of Texas duck hunters, men, full grown ass men.
Speaker 1: They come across these kids and like we heard all
Speaker 1: about this good thing. It wasn't like a good man
Speaker 1: is hard to find scenario. Yeah, no, definitely they had.
Speaker 1: These hunters had been stopped on their way to go
Speaker 1: duck hunting, and their vehicle had been searched, so they
Speaker 1: were well aware by the cadets there in the full lockdown.
Speaker 1: Now right down, it's not even there. So these hunters
Speaker 1: are tickled pink by the cadets trying to find the
Speaker 1: elusive force, and they're like, yeah, that we'll help you
Speaker 1: guys out. This is great, right, So the hunters like
Speaker 1: that just said, we're gonna keep shooting some ducks. So
Speaker 1: they make them wait for three more hours. Well, they
Speaker 1: get their fill of ducks. Right, once the duck hunters
Speaker 1: are done, they're like, okay, boys, seven PM, let's go
Speaker 1: back to town. So they tell them, they're like, okay,
Speaker 1: well we can take a couple of you. Couple of
Speaker 1: you should probably stay here because you know they're gonna
Speaker 1: stop us again. So one of the duck hunters he
Speaker 1: changed his clothes with the dude named Dane, and then
Speaker 1: he hides in the back with the dude named Drummond.
Speaker 1: They hide in like a toolbox in the back of
Speaker 1: the truck, right and hunter one of the hunters and
Speaker 1: Drummond are in the back, and then Dane is upfront
Speaker 1: with the other hunter, and they take off in the truck. Right.
Speaker 1: The truck does get stopped by cadets at the first
Speaker 1: bridge that they reach, right, it gets close examined. They
Speaker 1: managed to pass the inspection, but then right before they're
Speaker 1: about to leave, one of the cadets is like, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go right back into town with you, like slaps
Speaker 1: the back of the truck. He climbs in back and
Speaker 1: he sits on the toolbox. No, no, I would not
Speaker 1: stop for these guys. If they were like hold, I'd
Speaker 1: look out of the military. These are armed cadets, uniforms,
Speaker 1: pimple faced. I'd be like, now try again and just
Speaker 1: keep driving. He gets on the car, I slam on
Speaker 1: the brakes and he slides down on the hood. Then
Speaker 1: I run them over and like five months time, these
Speaker 1: are all going to be kids on the front. Well,
Speaker 1: they're like full on soldiers. Like then, they're acting like it,
Speaker 1: and I'm just telling you, fad or not. They got
Speaker 1: guns and they're like, look, this truck ain't going anywhere.
Speaker 1: So Payne and Jimmy waters right there with the guy
Speaker 1: who's got the car right, and he gets them back
Speaker 1: to town. They get out before they get to town.
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, you guys can walk the rest
Speaker 1: of the way in. And they made that choice, and
Speaker 1: it was a good choice to make because the driver
Speaker 1: when he gets to town, he gets stopped and he
Speaker 1: gets arrested and taken and undercust by the cadets. Yes,
Speaker 1: there are three cadets in this tiny Texas town and
Speaker 1: they have taken over and I took over the town
Speaker 1: and I quote from the thresher, you're ready. The cadets
Speaker 1: to complete control of all telephone and telegraph lines, had
Speaker 1: all roads blocked, and we're searching all trains that passed.
Speaker 1: So all means of communication and transportation were under vigilists.
Speaker 1: So they declared martial laws in this area. Is there
Speaker 1: any like, is there any authority figure over these guys military? Well, no,
Speaker 1: I mean there's just a bunch of cadets, Like who's there,
Speaker 1: who's their boss? Guys, who's going to be like Texas
Speaker 1: College Sports. I don't know what to tell you. This
Speaker 1: is the authority so crazy. So these grown ass men,
Speaker 1: the duck Hunters, they're willing to join the resistance with
Speaker 1: the elusive four so that they then call in another
Speaker 1: friend once they get back to town, who was a doctor,
Speaker 1: and they're like, okay, now the phone lines are Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: we're all being tapped in monitors, so they have to
Speaker 1: use a code language. So they tell the doctor that
Speaker 1: they need some capsules, and they've got some other capsules
Speaker 1: and could you bring them to the house and I'll
Speaker 1: come by. So but so the doctor knows this code
Speaker 1: like they pre established it or is he like, oh,
Speaker 1: I guess he needs He's uh, he's friendly with the hunters.
Speaker 1: This may not be the first time they've had to, like,
Speaker 1: you know, do stuff like this. So he quickly catches
Speaker 1: up with them. Right, yes, now we have pain and waters.
Speaker 1: They go out and they climb into this car because
Speaker 1: they're going to be they were they'd waited outside of town.
Speaker 1: So the guy gets out and drives out of town.
Speaker 1: The doctor picks them up, and the car was run
Speaker 1: at high speed and all challenges ignored. They said, have
Speaker 1: they put it right? And at one point, the doctor's
Speaker 1: car with waters and pain in it, it approaches a
Speaker 1: blocked bridge right and the cadets are lining the road
Speaker 1: and the doctors like, what do you guys want me
Speaker 1: to do? The roads blocked and he's like, they're like,
Speaker 1: is there any way out? He's like, I think I
Speaker 1: c o A. So this is a checkpoint like a warfare. Also, beanwhile,
Speaker 1: they're thirteen of their comrades who have been captured and
Speaker 1: they're being held at this bridge by the cadets. So
Speaker 1: there's hundreds of cadets and their their own comrades, if
Speaker 1: you will are standing there. Then the Doctors starts reving.
Speaker 1: His engine is like bull was hang on, so he
Speaker 1: then floors it in his like whatever nineteen sixteen car.
Speaker 1: He drives down the ditch, punches it. He gets up
Speaker 1: to about fifty miles an hour and then rides up
Speaker 1: the other side of the ditch and jumps like the
Speaker 1: general lee from Duke's hazard. They break free from gravity
Speaker 1: for a little bit. He learned making this. No, this
Speaker 1: is a burrito cannon. This doesn't really happened. The captured
Speaker 1: member of the O p A. They go nuts. They're
Speaker 1: cheering as his car is in the air. Right. The
Speaker 1: car eventually lands with a huge crash back on earth
Speaker 1: and then roars away at full speed. You know, old
Speaker 1: car immediately give chase. They run and get in their
Speaker 1: cards and they tear after the Doctor's car. And the
Speaker 1: doctor he's a holacious driver. This ain't his first rodeo,
Speaker 1: so he's tearing through Texas. He's enjoying the chase. Right.
Speaker 1: He manages to get painted waters over to the other house.
Speaker 1: They reunite with Dane and Drummond, who are still in
Speaker 1: hiding at this time. Now all of there together and
Speaker 1: the five of them make a break or and race
Speaker 1: back to Houston. So the doctors like, let's go and
Speaker 1: run back to Houston. Isn't now the moment before dawn
Speaker 1: on another day, once inking we've reached the purple hour.
Speaker 1: And these four men make it back to the Rice
Speaker 1: campus at seven thirty a m. On Thursday morning, and
Speaker 1: they still had the skin of their six foot tall
Speaker 1: pounds three pieces of it. Elizabeth, you may be wondering
Speaker 1: at right now what happened to the thirteen dudes who
Speaker 1: were captured, who were cheering at the side of the bridge. Question.
Speaker 1: But they were taken prisoner and they were held at
Speaker 1: Texas A and M in the military prison or the
Speaker 1: brig or whatever it was, right, And the president of
Speaker 1: Rice University had to negotiate with the president of Texas
Speaker 1: A and M to get the safe return of the
Speaker 1: thirteen captured members of the op A Night Rate. So
Speaker 1: he negotiates with terrorists apparently apparently see I've heard the
Speaker 1: Texans don't do that. Now you may also be wondering,
Speaker 1: and I know you were, what happened to Snowball? I
Speaker 1: guess I am. Now it's the best part and I
Speaker 1: from the thresher. Snowball gets paraded around campus, given a
Speaker 1: regulation army haircut, turned over to the freshman for a
Speaker 1: few days. He was eventually taken to the station late
Speaker 1: at night, minus his clothes, and told to catch the train.
Speaker 1: He was said he wasted no time getting a board. Wait,
Speaker 1: what does it mean? Turned over to the freshman for
Speaker 1: a few days and he comes home? Yes, they I
Speaker 1: think you can just let your imagination wander on that one.
Speaker 1: So the freshman turn him out and then he he's
Speaker 1: taken train station that afterwards? Did he change his name
Speaker 1: to Snowball because he didn't want anyone to know who
Speaker 1: he wanted? Do you imagine being a private detective and
Speaker 1: having to go home? How was your weekend? Okay? Could
Speaker 1: you imagine being a private detective a named Snowball B
Speaker 1: who gets hired to find like a mascot and gets
Speaker 1: into this absolute boards that you're making up in Why
Speaker 1: why Snowball? Texas College Sports? That's my answer? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I want to hear from the descendants of Snowball. We
Speaker 1: shouldn't see if we can find them. If you are
Speaker 1: a descendant of Snowball, reach out. We want to hear
Speaker 1: the real story. We would like to know how what
Speaker 1: became of snowball after that. We want to honor his memory. So, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: what's your ridiculously My ridiculous takeaway is? I'm having a
Speaker 1: lot of heart trouble process right now, pretty much broken.
Speaker 1: Your brain can't speak. I don't know the year. Try
Speaker 1: try this. You say these two words, roll tad that
Speaker 1: roll tide. But help? Did it totally helped? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Bear Bryan be so happy. Hook them horns another one,
Speaker 1: see if that one works. Sorry, that's Texas hook horns.
Speaker 1: Everything feels so good at SEC football, baby, right there,
Speaker 1: CC football, everything feels so good for the losing Well.
Speaker 1: My ridiculous takeaway, thank you for asking is I grew
Speaker 1: up in the South and I still can't believe this
Speaker 1: happened like this is one of my favorite stories of
Speaker 1: Southern sports ever. It's incredible, ulous ulous, so ridiculous. But
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. I'm Zaron Burnett. That over
Speaker 1: there is and I'll name this Elizabeth Dutton. Do you
Speaker 1: find us online? A ridiculous crime on both Twitter and
Speaker 1: the Graham Twitter is the four the one for the
Speaker 1: discourse that's repost stuff, that's about the cases and instagrams
Speaker 1: where we put up the photos reach episode. They will
Speaker 1: reveal to you what these people look like, what the
Speaker 1: cars look like, and so forth. The stories are posted
Speaker 1: for Giggles. Also, you can get sneak peaks for upcoming
Speaker 1: episodes emails if you want at Ridiculous Crime at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks for listening, Thank you. Ridiculous Crime is
Speaker 1: hosted by Elizabeth Unton and Zaron Burnette, produced and edited
Speaker 1: by Dave Rhyme with Houston Couston Research is by the
Speaker 1: President of the Rice Historical Prank Society, Marissa Brown. Our
Speaker 1: theme song is by Thomas Payne and Dane Lee and
Speaker 1: Travis super Six Dotton executive producers are Bent where the
Speaker 1: leaders of the Owl Resistance Bowland and Noel pay don't
Speaker 1: tell anyone Brown were disquiet. Say it one more time
Speaker 1: We dequeous Crew. Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: Four more podcasts to my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart
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