1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: Second chances are hard to come by in life. We 7 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:43,120 Speaker 1: don't usually get the opportunity to redo a terrible job interview, 8 00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:46,360 Speaker 1: or make things right when we've wronged a partner. Life 9 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,519 Speaker 1: is oftentimes a one way trip with no stops, and 10 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:52,800 Speaker 1: we're just along for the ride. But one man achieved 11 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:55,760 Speaker 1: the unimaginable. After being involved in one of the most 12 00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: tragic events in history. He persevered. He received the second 13 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:02,920 Speaker 1: chance of all second chances, and refused to let his 14 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:07,880 Speaker 1: circumstances sink him. His name was Richard Norris Williams the Second, 15 00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:11,200 Speaker 1: although he often went simply by Dick Williams. He was 16 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: born in Geneva, Switzerland, to American parents from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 17 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,960 Speaker 1: He could trace his lineage directly back to Benjamin Franklin. 18 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,520 Speaker 1: After years of private tutelage at a Swiss boarding school, 19 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: he decided to take up a new hobby, tennis. From 20 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: the age of twelve, Williams trained and honed his skills 21 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: on the court, leading to his victory at the Swiss 22 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:35,640 Speaker 1: Championship in nineteen eleven. The following year, he and his 23 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: father traveled to Cherbourg, France, where they boarded a ship 24 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,840 Speaker 1: bound for America. Norris had been accepted at Harvard and 25 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: planned to become a success both as a tennis star 26 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 1: and as a student. Their trip started out fine, with 27 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: nothing but blue skies above and a rich future ahead 28 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: of them. They even dined with a captain for dinner 29 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 1: one night, but then tragedy struck. Word quickly spread through 30 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:59,800 Speaker 1: the decks as guests panicked and filled the lifeboats. The 31 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: show ship was sinking. It had apparently struck an iceberg. 32 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: That's right, Richard Williams and his father were on board 33 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:11,160 Speaker 1: the Titanic, but the two men didn't abandon ship, at 34 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:14,680 Speaker 1: least not at first. Actually, they stayed back, helping others 35 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: to pile into the lifeboats. They even gave away their 36 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:19,960 Speaker 1: life jackets to those who they felt needed them more. 37 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:22,960 Speaker 1: Williams then discovered someone was trapped in a room while 38 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: the vessel was going under, so he ran back to 39 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 1: free them. By the time he returned, there was nowhere 40 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,080 Speaker 1: for him to go. In a last ditch effort to 41 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,679 Speaker 1: save himself, Williams leaped from the Titanic's main deck into 42 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,520 Speaker 1: the frigid waters of the Atlantic. The shock of the 43 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 1: cold nearly paralyzed him, but he fought to survive as 44 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 1: long as possible. His father, on the other hand, was 45 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,400 Speaker 1: not so lucky. Apparently, he'd been hit by one of 46 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: the ship's funnels as it fell into the water, killing 47 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,679 Speaker 1: him instantly. Meanwhile, Williams noticed that one of the collapsible 48 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 1: lifeboats had taken on water but was still afloat. Over 49 00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 1: two dozen passengers were holding onto it for support. He 50 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,399 Speaker 1: swam over and took hold, hanging on along with them 51 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: until help arride. Six hours later, he was one of 52 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,680 Speaker 1: thirteen surviving members of that group who'd been rescued and 53 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:15,120 Speaker 1: brought aboard the Carpathia for examination. Unfortunately, his time in 54 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,120 Speaker 1: the water had done extensive damage to his legs. They 55 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: were frostbitten, and there was no other choice than to 56 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:25,040 Speaker 1: amputate both of them. Williams pleaded for an alternative. I'm 57 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:27,680 Speaker 1: going to need those legs, he said, and got to 58 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:30,520 Speaker 1: his feet, pacing around the deck, hoping to bring them 59 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:34,000 Speaker 1: back to life. In William's mind, taking his limbs would 60 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:37,520 Speaker 1: be the end of everything, his future, his tennis career, 61 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: and maybe even his life, and so he walked. He 62 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: got up every few hours and walked around the deck 63 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:46,680 Speaker 1: of the Carpathia, hoping the exercise would restore the feeling 64 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: in his legs. Well. To his and everyone else's surprise, 65 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:53,880 Speaker 1: it worked mostly. Over the next three months, he did 66 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:57,560 Speaker 1: regain sensation in his legs, but not completely, and when 67 00:03:57,600 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: he was on them for too long they caused him 68 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:02,720 Speaker 1: a great deal of pain. But twelve weeks after the 69 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: Titanic sank and doctors told him he was going to 70 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 1: lose his limbs, Richard Williams got back on the court. 71 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:11,280 Speaker 1: In fact, he didn't just play. He played against a 72 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 1: fellow Titanic survivor named Carl Howell. Bar Williams won the 73 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: first two sets of their match, but Bear managed to 74 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:21,320 Speaker 1: outplay him in the end. Still, Richard kept going, and 75 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:24,120 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty four he took home the gold at 76 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:27,359 Speaker 1: the Paris Olympics, winning in mixed doubles with his partner 77 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 1: Hazel Hotchkiss Whiteman. Even though Richard Williams didn't take home 78 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:35,239 Speaker 1: the trophy against Bear, he arguably earned an even greater victory, 79 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,680 Speaker 1: an Olympic gold medal for one, but he also survived 80 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 1: the sinking of the Titanic. He beat frostbite, and he 81 00:04:41,839 --> 00:04:44,240 Speaker 1: managed to return to the game he loved when the 82 00:04:44,279 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: odds were stacked against him, Game, Set, and match. George 83 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:06,720 Speaker 1: Wheeland carefully wiped the dirt from the strange little hunk 84 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 1: of rock he had freed from the dusty ground. He'd 85 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:12,039 Speaker 1: been digging in the Black Hills of South Dakota for 86 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:15,280 Speaker 1: a few years now, and he'd found plenty of fossilized treasures, 87 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:19,520 Speaker 1: from tiny dinosaur bones to massive tortoises shells, but he'd 88 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:22,960 Speaker 1: never seen anything quite like this. As he used a 89 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:27,040 Speaker 1: small soft brush to carefully remove the dirt from its crevices, 90 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: a pattern started to emerge. The rock was round, with 91 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:34,480 Speaker 1: regular divots that suggested a rough texture like a pineapple, 92 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,920 Speaker 1: but this plant had died millions of years before pineapples 93 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: had ever existed. What George held in his hand was 94 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:44,719 Speaker 1: a psycatoid, an ancient plant that had once covered the 95 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:47,120 Speaker 1: Black Hills. But it was so much more than a 96 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,120 Speaker 1: simple plant. The fossil George held in his hand would 97 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 1: become an all consuming obsession that would take over the 98 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:57,040 Speaker 1: rest of his life. Although George wasn't born until eighteen 99 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:00,920 Speaker 1: sixty five, this story starts much earlier. It began seventy 100 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,240 Speaker 1: million years ago, in the Cretaceous period, the time when 101 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 1: triceratops and t rex's roamed what would be the United States, 102 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: and the time when, one day, in that same area 103 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:13,960 Speaker 1: in South Dakota that he found himself in later, a 104 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: landslide buried hundreds of psychatoids. They remained hidden for millions 105 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:22,400 Speaker 1: of years, the pressure and heat slowly turning their organic 106 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: matter to hard rock. They would have stayed there too, 107 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:28,919 Speaker 1: if it wasn't for America's agricultural expansion. In the early 108 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: eighteen nineties, ranchers that had settled in the area started 109 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:36,120 Speaker 1: to report what they called petrified pineapples. They began selling 110 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:39,279 Speaker 1: them as souvenirs, which eventually sparked the interest of the 111 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:43,280 Speaker 1: nation's early paleontologists, and so Yale sent a young grad 112 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: student named George Wheeland to investigate in eighteen ninety eight, 113 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: and well, you know, the rest. Beyond studying the psycatoids, 114 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:54,320 Speaker 1: George believed the first order of business was protecting them. 115 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: The first fossil had been discovered in the area six 116 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:59,960 Speaker 1: years earlier, and already many of the specimens were gone, 117 00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:04,880 Speaker 1: sold by ranchers, taken by collectors, and requisitioned by researchers. 118 00:07:05,160 --> 00:07:08,719 Speaker 1: The rich trove of fossils was already being depleted, so 119 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 1: George began a campaign to get the region protected. In 120 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,360 Speaker 1: nineteen oh six, when Teddy Roosevelt passed a law allowing 121 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: the federal government to take over land regarded as a 122 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:21,960 Speaker 1: national monument, George knew that this was his chance. He 123 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:25,720 Speaker 1: wrote hundreds of letters petitioning that the cycadoid fields should 124 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:29,239 Speaker 1: be designated as a national monument. Despite his best efforts, 125 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:32,840 Speaker 1: though the government refused, so George would have to get creative. 126 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty he acquired one hundred and sixty acres 127 00:07:36,400 --> 00:07:40,200 Speaker 1: of land in the Black Hills, including that sycatoid site. 128 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:42,480 Speaker 1: Then he told the federal government that he would donate 129 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 1: the land to them if and only if they made 130 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:48,720 Speaker 1: it into a national monument. They agreed, and in nineteen 131 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: twenty two, President Warren G. Harding declared the area the 132 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:56,679 Speaker 1: Fossil Cycad National Monument. For the next decade, that National 133 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: Monument had a quiet existence. It was established when the 134 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,120 Speaker 1: government was running into budget constraints, so it was never 135 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:07,600 Speaker 1: assigned a superintendent or staff like other national parks. Instead, 136 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:10,560 Speaker 1: it just got a small wooden sign and was monitored 137 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:13,480 Speaker 1: by local ranchers, the same ones who used to sell 138 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:17,160 Speaker 1: the fossils to tourists. So perhaps it wasn't a surprise 139 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 1: when in nineteen thirty three the park was found to 140 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,880 Speaker 1: be almost completely empty. That year, a group of researchers 141 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:27,080 Speaker 1: headed to the National monument to collect fossils to display 142 00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:29,880 Speaker 1: at the Chicago World's Fair. They weren't even able to 143 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: find the site at first, and when they got there, 144 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 1: there were no visible psychatoids anywhere. The wealth of the 145 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:39,720 Speaker 1: specimens had been stolen, and the biggest shock was who 146 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:43,000 Speaker 1: did the stealing. For years, George had been instrumental in 147 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,959 Speaker 1: protecting the psychatoids from tourists and resellers, but perhaps he 148 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:50,240 Speaker 1: should have been protecting the park from himself, because while 149 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,120 Speaker 1: visitors took occasional souvenirs, it was George who stole several 150 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:57,880 Speaker 1: thousand pounds of fossils from the national monuments he helped create. 151 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,600 Speaker 1: Ever since he started digging in a night, George had 152 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:04,720 Speaker 1: been taking samples back to Yale. Many were cataloged in 153 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:08,240 Speaker 1: the university, but some were just taken to decorate George's home. 154 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:12,160 Speaker 1: His obsession with the psychatioids led him to take cartfuls 155 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:15,800 Speaker 1: of the fossils away from their natural resting ground. Sadly, 156 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:18,800 Speaker 1: with all of George's efforts to preserve the National Monument, 157 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:22,959 Speaker 1: he was the author of its demise. Fossil Psycad National 158 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:26,000 Speaker 1: Monument never opened to the public. It never built a 159 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:30,280 Speaker 1: visitor center or established a museum, and in nineteen fifty seven, 160 00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:33,480 Speaker 1: just four years after George's death, it became one of 161 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:37,840 Speaker 1: the few national monuments to lose its protected status. Today, 162 00:09:37,920 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: you can still drive by the site to see what 163 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: little is left. Beyond the old sign, you'll find the 164 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:47,240 Speaker 1: evidence of one man's a cover up that required a 165 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:55,440 Speaker 1: whole lot of digging. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided 166 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:58,880 Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on 167 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:01,920 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting 168 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:06,680 Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me 169 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:10,480 Speaker 1: Aaron Manke in partnership with how Stuff Works, I make 170 00:10:10,559 --> 00:10:14,079 Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 171 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all 172 00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:21,240 Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until 173 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:23,559 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.