Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the cabinet of curiosities and war. Each side will
Speaker 1: look for any opportunity to gain an advantage over the other.
Speaker 1: Hitler notoriously studied the occult for supernatural assistance in defeating
Speaker 1: the Allies. In fact, it's been theorized by some that
Speaker 1: the Nazi movement originated from occult teachings. As time pressed on, however,
Speaker 1: spell books and pentagrams took a backseat to good old
Speaker 1: reliable firepower and spies. Spies played an integral part in
Speaker 1: dismantling regimes and changing the geopolitical landscape. Nikolai cole Cloth
Speaker 1: had been a KGB agent during the nineteen fifties, getting
Speaker 1: his start as a member of the People's Commissari Yot
Speaker 1: for Internal Affairs a decade earlier as a member of
Speaker 1: the n k v D. Koklof had gone undercover as
Speaker 1: a Nazi officer in Belarus and participated in several assassination missions.
Speaker 1: Now an agent with a KGB, he'd been tasked with
Speaker 1: assassinating the leader of an anti communist group in Frankfurt. However,
Speaker 1: rather than use a standard pistol or poison to take
Speaker 1: out his target, he opted for something a bit more theatrical,
Speaker 1: a cigarette pack that fired hollow nose bullets coated in
Speaker 1: potassium cyanide. But by this time Koklof had grown tired
Speaker 1: of his trade. Instead of killing the man, he instead
Speaker 1: warned him that Russia had put a hit out on him.
Speaker 1: After that, the former assassin had no choice but to
Speaker 1: abandon his old life. He left his family behind and
Speaker 1: fled to America, where he spoke to newspapers and television
Speaker 1: reporters about his work with the KGB. He spilled all
Speaker 1: sorts of details about the work they were doing, an
Speaker 1: active treason that almost resulted in his own murder, but
Speaker 1: Koklov survived and decided to use his second chance to
Speaker 1: go back to school. He registered at Duke University, where
Speaker 1: he majored in psychology. It was a whole new world
Speaker 1: for him, sort of. A professor at the school, Joseph
Speaker 1: Banks Ryan, had been studying the far reaches of the
Speaker 1: psychological profession, namely e sp clairvoyance, and telepathy. Koklov had
Speaker 1: some experience with these subjects. Back in Russia, the Soviets
Speaker 1: had also turned to the paranormal to assist in their agenda,
Speaker 1: successfully enabling a subject of view something happening elsewhere on
Speaker 1: the planet using only their mind. Ryan and Koklov parted
Speaker 1: ways after the former KGB agent graduated. He soon moved
Speaker 1: to the West Coast to teach psychology at California State University,
Speaker 1: where he continued studying Paris psychology, publishing papers on the subject,
Speaker 1: and giving interviews to various media outlets. Eventually, though, Kolklav's
Speaker 1: former life caught up with him, but not in the
Speaker 1: way he'd expected. The KGB didn't come calling, but the
Speaker 1: CIA did. Around nineteen seventy two, he was asked to
Speaker 1: help the United States government with the new program they
Speaker 1: were starting up, one in which US soldiers would undergo
Speaker 1: various mind bending experiments. It was called the Black Project.
Speaker 1: The goal was simple, exposed soldiers to substances such as cannabis, oil,
Speaker 1: and L S D as a way to facilitate remote viewing,
Speaker 1: the same method of long distance site the Soviets had
Speaker 1: allegedly perfected years earlier. It sounds silly that Congress would
Speaker 1: approve and fund an operation in which the American government
Speaker 1: would drug its own military personnel to trigger telepathic powers,
Speaker 1: but the reports being sent to Washington. We're promising over
Speaker 1: twenty years of study, about twenty five people were a
Speaker 1: part of the Black Project. Their focus had been on
Speaker 1: spine on the Soviets from miles away. For example, if
Speaker 1: there was a site occupied by Russian forces but no
Speaker 1: clear way for the Americans to get inside, the Black
Speaker 1: Project team was brought in to offer assistance. A remote
Speaker 1: viewer might get a vague picture of what would be
Speaker 1: on the other side, such as large containers filled with
Speaker 1: an unknown substance, which could prove the presence of biological weapons.
Speaker 1: One subject had repeated success with remote viewing. Joe mcgonagal
Speaker 1: predicted the construction of a new class of Soviet submarine,
Speaker 1: long before anyone outside the project knew about it. Of course,
Speaker 1: the government experiments didn't stop only at enhancing the mind.
Speaker 1: There was also an emphasis on honing the body's capabilities.
Speaker 1: Scientists broke down prisoners of war until they were willing
Speaker 1: to cooperate, training them to focus their energy into something
Speaker 1: called the death touch. The idea was to do an
Speaker 1: incredible amount of damage to an enemy with very little effort.
Speaker 1: There was no record of the touch being used on
Speaker 1: human subjects, but a goat during those tests had been
Speaker 1: reportedly killed by something akin to a bullet traveling through
Speaker 1: the animals ubcage. No entrance or exit wound was detected.
Speaker 1: Did the death touch really work We may never know,
Speaker 1: but it's clear the government will go to great lengths
Speaker 1: to protect itself from an ever evolving enemy. And one
Speaker 1: thing is certainly true. When the CIA comes calling, no
Speaker 1: goat is safe. The call of fame and fortune is
Speaker 1: attempting one. We see it every day in viral online
Speaker 1: videos and talent competitions on TV. Everyone believes they could
Speaker 1: be a household name, if only someone would give their
Speaker 1: dreams a chance. Unfortunately, not everyone is welcomed in the spotlight.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they fall into obscurity and go back into their
Speaker 1: daily lives. Other times they persist, grabbing a hold of
Speaker 1: anything they can to pull themselves up to the top.
Speaker 1: For the Cherry sisters, stardom came at a cost, one
Speaker 1: they seemed only too happy to pay. Elizabeth Jesse, Addie, Effie,
Speaker 1: and Ella Cherry were born to Laura and Thomas Cherry
Speaker 1: in the mid nineteenth century. Iowa. Their parents died in
Speaker 1: the eighteen nineties, and their brother Nathan disappeared around the
Speaker 1: same time. This left the remaining sisters with few options,
Speaker 1: but rather than get jobs to pay the bills, they
Speaker 1: took a more creative route. They formed a group an
Speaker 1: act meant to entertain and inspire. Calling themselves the aptly
Speaker 1: named Cherry Sisters, they started putting on performances for their neighbors.
Speaker 1: They wrote parodies of popular songs at the time, as
Speaker 1: well as original songs of their own, with Elizabeth and
Speaker 1: Jesse accompanying the others on piano and bass drum. They
Speaker 1: wrote skits about religion and politics, and read essays to
Speaker 1: the crowd they'd written themselves. Their neighbors were supportive of them,
Speaker 1: although they had to be they lived close by. When
Speaker 1: the sisters auditioned for an agent in Chicago, he brought
Speaker 1: them on almost immediately. But it wasn't because they were
Speaker 1: talented now. It was because they were so very, very
Speaker 1: bad and they had to be seen by others. The
Speaker 1: agent booked the Cherry Sisters on a tour of the Midwest,
Speaker 1: where crowds didn't clap politely or provide constructive feedback. No
Speaker 1: They heckled them, they booed, They lobbed tomatoes and rotten
Speaker 1: vegetables at them as they performed. One time, an audience
Speaker 1: member climbed on stage with a fire extinguisher and sprayed
Speaker 1: it directly in their faces. Soon enough, the Cherry Sisters
Speaker 1: had to perform behind wire mesh to keep from getting attacked.
Speaker 1: You might think that that was the end of their
Speaker 1: roller coaster career, but the Sisters were resilient. They pressed
Speaker 1: on performing for people who didn't just dislike the act.
Speaker 1: They seemed to resent the Sisters themselves, well, everyone except
Speaker 1: one person. Willie Hammerstein, new York theater owner, was struggling
Speaker 1: to keep his new olymp A music hall afloat. He
Speaker 1: tried all kinds of acts to fill the seats, but
Speaker 1: nothing seemed to work. No matter how big a star
Speaker 1: he found, the crowds wouldn't show up. Then he found
Speaker 1: the Cherry Sisters. He brought their show to the East Coast, and,
Speaker 1: despite the New York Times calling them four freaks from Iowa,
Speaker 1: Willie's plan worked. He saved his theater with an act
Speaker 1: too bad to be true. The Sisters, though, didn't care
Speaker 1: much for New York. They wouldn't attend any party they
Speaker 1: were invited to, and refused to visit Coney Island so
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have to see women in bathing suits. Their
Speaker 1: self righteous moralism wasn't just an act either, They practiced
Speaker 1: what they preached as they toward the country. Reviewers from
Speaker 1: local newspapers continued to write incendiary things about the sisters.
Speaker 1: One newspaper in Iowa wrote a particularly scathing review that
Speaker 1: described their singing as and I quote, the wailing of
Speaker 1: damned souls, and their appearance as that of three creatures
Speaker 1: surpassing the witches in Macbeth. In general hideousness, unkind, to
Speaker 1: say the least. Another paper, the des Moines Leader, reprinted
Speaker 1: that article. The Jerry sisters could handle Heckler's and the
Speaker 1: occasional head of lettuce thrown towards them, but they felt
Speaker 1: what the papers had said was beyond the pale. They
Speaker 1: sued both papers for libel for a total of fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in damages. The sisters fought the papers in court,
Speaker 1: even going so far as to perform in the middle
Speaker 1: of the courtroom as evidence that what had been printed
Speaker 1: was false. The judges did not agree. Instead, he ruled
Speaker 1: that a newspaper editor had the rights and the duty
Speaker 1: to report the truth, no matter how harsh it might be.
Speaker 1: The sisters courtroom performances didn't seem to help their case. However,
Speaker 1: the sisters did leave a mark on the world, even
Speaker 1: if their act had faded into obscurity. Jerry v. Des
Speaker 1: Moines Leader is still used today as a precedent where
Speaker 1: the press is sued for printing honest criticism. No matter
Speaker 1: how offensive a review. Maybe it cannot be considered bible
Speaker 1: if the claims can be backed up. Their legacy is
Speaker 1: bitter sweet, an act so terrible everyone tried to forget it,
Speaker 1: and a landmark court case that has helped protect the
Speaker 1: First Amendment for generations. It's just like the name they
Speaker 1: came up with for their act, Something Good, Something Sad.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: world of lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious,
Speaker 1: ye