WEBVTT - Cut It Out 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:14.440 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.440 the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.159 of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:28.840 waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.239 Violets sat in the parlor of Welsh doctor Edward Hughes Jones. 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.199 He was twice her age, but she was professing her 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.400 love for him. He was so kind and so generous. 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.840 She was an heiress. Her first husband was a soldier 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:52.600 who died at sea, but his fortune wouldn't become hers 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:56.760 until her twenty fifth birthday, which was still years away. 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.240 In the meantime, doctor Jones was offering to support Violet financially. 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.120 They would become engaged and she would pay him back 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.720 tenfold in just a few years. She was so grateful 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:11.480 she burst into tears and embraced him. With the help 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.119 of doctor Jones and other generous locals, Violet was able 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:17.440 to live the life befitting an heiress. In the early 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.600 twentieth century, she stayed in a manor home in Wales 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.759 and wore fined for coats and expensive jewelry, when appraiser 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.800 remarked that she had the finest collection of diamonds he 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:32.120 had ever seen, more than anything. Violet loved fast cars, 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.520 and she acquired a collection of top of the line automobiles. 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.919 She raced them through the countryside, and her maintenance bills 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.080 grew to thousands of pounds each year, the equivalent to 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:46.720 hundreds of thousands of dollars today. But happiness is always fleeting, 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.360 isn't it ed In Violet's case, her lavish lifestyle was 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.240 destined to have an expiration date. On January tewod of 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.360 nineteen oh nine, Violet was driving one of her cars 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:00.960 on a narrow seaside road just above the wall. She 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:04.280 lost control and crashed, being thrown from the driver's seat 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.800 and into the ocean. All that was left of her 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.320 was her hat sitting on the road. She was just 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:14.919 shy of her twenty fifth birthday. Violet's mother was filled 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.360 with grief. She spread the news far and wide of 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:21.440 her daughter's death, except the police weren't quite as moved 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.000 as she was. There were a few things about the 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.520 car wreck that didn't add up. For one, there was 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:28.880 no damage to the car other than the driver's side 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:32.240 window being broken. That was supposedly where Violet had been 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.200 thrown from the car. But that was the other odd thing. 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.560 There was no blood anywhere. If Violet had really gone 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:42.200 through the window, there should have been blood everywhere. This 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:46.200 all led investigators to look deeper into Violet herself. They 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.440 found that she was seventeen thousand pounds in debt. That 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.240 amount was about a million dollars today, and there was 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.480 no record of her ever having a rich soldier husband 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:59.080 who died at sea. Violet Charlesworth, you see, was not 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.480 an heiress, but a prolific con artist who had scammed 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:04.880 dozens of people out of their money and then faked 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.160 her own death when it came time to pay up. 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.440 As investigators searched for her, she became a global folk hero. 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.160 Although she was a criminal, her ability to successfully pose 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.000 as a member of the upper class and then con 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.200 many of them out of their money was looked upon 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:25.080 with admiration. Violet was ironically known for wearing a red cloak. 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.800 Many women in the United Kingdom were wearing one in 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.520 her honor, although they stopped once police started to question them, 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.960 thinking that they were potentially Violet, but soon enough they 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.480 would get a much more promising lead. A woman who 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.800 looked like Violets and was going by the name Margaret 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.120 MacLeod was spotted in Scotland and she'd skipped out on 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:47.800 a hotel bill which definitely sounded like Violet. Reporters found 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.880 her first traveling south by train with a swarm of 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:53.880 press taking her picture. She had to admit that she was, 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.960 in fact Violet Charlesworth. Over the next several months, Violet's 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.960 celebrity only grew. She can now make her own money 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.080 honestly by giving interviews to the press. She wrote a 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:06.960 song about her life, she starred in a stage show. 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.520 Producers from Hollywood reached out about a silent film deal, 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:15.320 but by nineteen ten, investigators had completed their investigation and 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.680 charged both Violets and her mother with fraud. They were 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.200 found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. However, 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.320 they only served three of those years. Once free, Violet 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.720 is said to have moved to Scotland, and after that 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.839 she disappears from history. It's possible that she finally decided 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:35.520 to live a quiet life, or it's possible that she 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:38.479 took on a new identity and scammed her way into 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:43.200 another fabulous existence. Ultimately, though we will never know, The 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.599 press moved on pretty quickly with the sinking of the 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:49.080 Titanic in nineteen twelve, arguably the biggest news story of 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:51.960 all time up to that point. The Violet story has 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.880 survived to the modern day for those curious enough to 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:57.960 learn about it. Although she was a criminal, we can 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:02.000 all sympathize with her desire to live life among societies elites. 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.560 Her schemes were always creative, although if she could do 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.520 it all over again, maybe she would throw just a 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:25.919 little bit more creativity behind faking that car wreck. Perhaps 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.400 one of the most tense places on Earth is the 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.440 Demilitarized Zone or the DMZ, that separates North and South 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.680 Korea and acts as a buffer between the two countries. 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.400 It was created through the Armist Disagreement of nineteen fifty three, 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.719 ending the Bloody Korean War, which had caused the collective 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:47.480 death of nearly three million people. The agreement also created 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.839 a joint security area at panmud Jam, where North Korean 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.800 officials and the United Nations Command would meet to conduct diplomacy. 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:59.320 It was, however, an uneasy piece. Numerous clashes still took 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.400 place between North Korea and the UN Command throughout the 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:06.160 nineteen sixties and seventies, but these skirmishes were generally small 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.960 enough to keep tensions high, but not to inflame larger conflict. 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.880 That is, until the Poplar Tree. The tree had grown 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.960 too large for the UN Command's taste, as it blocked 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.560 the line of sight between a checkpoint and a nearby 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.480 observation post. It was decided that this was unacceptable, and 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.960 so a team of UNC and Korean Service Corps were 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.719 ordered to prune the tree to create a more direct 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.840 line of sight. It would take four attempts to complete. 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.640 The first attempt was halted when North Korea objected, stating 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.000 both sides would have to agree on whether or not 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:42.279 to cut back the tree. The second attempt was canceled 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.239 due to heavy rain, the third would be deadly. After 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:48.479 the first two failed attempts, it was decided that two 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:53.360 US Army officers, Captain Arthur Boniface and First Lieutenant Mark Barrett, 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.960 as well as a Korean Army Captain Kim, would escort 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:01.200 engineers to the tree in question as security. At first, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.600 North Korean soldiers merely observed the work, but at eight 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.400 thirty am, a mere fifteen minutes into the job. Opposing 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.960 soldiers approached the site demanding that the work stop, claiming 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.560 that the poplar had been planted by none other than 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.880 the leader of North Korea, Kim Il sung. But when 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.080 that work did not stop, North Korean soldiers seized the 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:25.120 axes from the workers. In the ensuing brawl, Boniface was 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.920 struck down with confiscated axe handles, and a wounded Barrett 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:32.200 managed to escape to hide in a nearby ditch. Neither 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.880 man would survive his injuries. Of the three security officers, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.840 only Captain Kim had survived. Things moved quickly in the 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.480 aftermath of what became known as the Korean axe murder incident. 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.720 American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger suggested bombing barracks on 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.840 the North Korean side, and President Gerald Ford called the 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.680 event a callous and unprovoked murder, but refused to order 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:58.560 an outright attack. After America's stinging recent loss in Vietnam, 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.640 there was little stomach in the administration for another war. 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.800 A different plan would have to be made. There had 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.000 to be a response that was both adequate for the 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.400 gravity of the moment, but that would stop short of 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:13.760 inciting violence, and so South Korean and American forces created 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.520 a plan prune the poplar tree in the center of 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.200 the conflict once in for all, using American and Korean 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.560 military assets in a show of force that would discourage 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:28.160 North Korean violence, and so Operation Paul Bunyan was launched. 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:31.760 The mission was to be non lethal unless North Korea 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.880 made it otherwise. Of course, that tree would be trimmed, 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.400 and so three days after the attack, a massive convoy 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:42.280 of South Korean and American trucks arrived at the JSA 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:46.160 as helicopters circled overhead. They were backed in turn by 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.920 gunships and an aircraft carrier battlegroup in the Sea of Japan. 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.880 Out of the military trucks came two security platoons, who 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:57.440 were there to guard teams of military engineers, each armed 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:01.000 with chainsaws, who immediately got to work trimming the poplar 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.960 at the center of everything. Although the North Korean military 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.480 deployed troops with machine guns, they did not act, likely 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:11.560 cowed by the massive show of force. When the engineers 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.840 were done trimming, they had trimmed away all of the 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.600 branches entirely, leaving a twenty foot tall stump as a 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.320 stark reminder. The event also ended a series of small 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:24.120 but deadly clashes that had dogged the JSA since the 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:28.240 nineteen fifty three Armistice. Occasional deaths would still occur, but 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.200 compared to the decades before the incident, they were few 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.120 and far between. A plaque was placed at the site 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:38.200 of Boniface and Barrett's murders to honor their sacrifice. In 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.000 the end, the poplar's removal was more than a simple 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.680 pruning job. By wielding chainsaws under the watchful eyes of 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.480 a formidable yet non lethal show of force, the Allies 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.720 sent a clear message aggression would be met with strength, 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.480 but not with renewed war. It was a measured display 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.920 of resolve that turned a flash point of bloodshed into 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:06.280 a lasting symbol of restraint. I hope you've enjoyed today's 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.920 guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:12.679 on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:17.760 visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.400 me Aaron Mankey in partnership with How Stuff Works. I 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:25.280 make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.360 book series, and television show and you can learn all 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:32.440 about it over at the worldoflore dot com. And until 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.200 next time, stay curious.