WEBVTT - #13 Kenny 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:09.520 I have a medical related question. You know my toe ring? 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:14.320 I think, I think maybe yes, I do have a 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:16.560 toe ring. You've never had a ring. When is the 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:17.960 last time you saw my bare feet? 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:19.439 Three years ago? 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.840 Since then, I've gotten a toe ring. Why I was drunk. 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:28.440 Some people get tattoos. I don't like pain. I can't 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:36.360 get it off my toe. And it really is did 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:44.680 you not take a hippocratic oath? Fine? I know, Bye? 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:51.519 I just hung up on myself or is it hanged 0:00:51.600 --> 0:01:00.960 up from gimblet media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:18.720 heavyweight today's episode Kenny. Like most, when I hear the 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.920 words tale of betrayal, I think of Judas narking on, Jesus, 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:29.440 Brutus icing Julius, Satan cucking the Lord. But recently I 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.640 heard a story of treachery that not only ranks among those, 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.920 it might surpass them. While those stories merely have devils, 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:44.440 this one has something far better. Dare devils. This story 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:48.120 of betrayal takes place in the nineteen seventies, a time 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.000 when brave men and women mounted motorcycles or got behind 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.880 the wheels of cars to jump anything in their field 0:01:54.880 --> 0:02:00.160 of vision. Barrels chuck wagons, cement mixers, Stegmayer beer, truck 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:04.280 pits of rattlesnakes, and dens of mountain lions. This was 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:07.960 a time when jumping a shark didn't mean jumping the shark. 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:10.760 It was a time when daredeviling was not only a 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.880 viable career path, it was something your parents could be 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:21.360 proud of. I grew up in the nineteen seventies in 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.880 a neighborhood fully infected with daredevil fever. The older kids 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.640 would lay us younger kids down on the sidewalk and 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.959 jump us with our bicycles, all of us, from the 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:34.960 older kids with bath towels tied to their necks like capes, 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.360 to us younger kids with tire tracks across our backs. 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.440 We all wanted to be daredevils, and the daredevil we 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:51.760 most wanted to be was Evil Knieval. We ate from 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:55.320 Evil Canevl lunch pails and played with Evil Canevl dolls. 0:02:55.760 --> 0:03:00.600 Evil Canievl was Elvis, Captain America and Liberachi all rolled 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:12.880 into one. It seemed like everyone in the world wanted 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.679 to be Evil Canieval, but there was one man who 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:20.600 wanted more than that. He wanted to surpass Evil canievel altogether. 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:26.920 That man's name was Ken Carter, aka the Mad Canadian. 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.000 Before he was the Mad Canadian, Ken was a grocery 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.720 boy with a grade school education. His dream to beat 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.760 evil Canevl at his own game is captured in a 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:42.320 nineteen seventies Canadian documentary called The Devil at Your Heels. 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.400 The movie opens at a local Halifax racetrack. The crowds 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.520 here to watch Ken Carter jump eighteen cars. It's nighttime, 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.280 and the crowd cheers wildly as Ken Carter barrels towards 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:07.680 a ramp in a souped up hardtop convertible. Ken doesn't 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.360 make it. Instead, he lands with a crash, flat on 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:16.599 top of the last car in line. A man runs 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:21.800 over to pool Ken from the car, I get an ambulance. 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.640 Crew arrives and while being carried out on a stretcher, 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:25.960 Ken waves to. 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.320 His fans, okay, take me over to the microphone please. 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:32.120 The paramedics carry the stretcher over to a microphone, and 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:38.200 while lying injured on his back, Ken makes an announcement, believe. 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.120 Me, We'll be back here to more light. 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.520 At eight o'clock sharp. We'll be back here to more light. 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:45.520 Thank you very much, thank you, thank you, thank you. 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:48.680 Rub on a little Ben Gay, soaked the tootsies and 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:52.120 Ebsen salts, and hit it again the next night, for 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:56.640 three nights every week. This is how Ken Carter makes 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.720 his living. But he has plans to change all that. 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.440 Ken had been watching Evil Canevel on TV for years 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.960 and he wanted what Canieval had, adulation, respect, and a 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:17.120 lot more money. Up until this point, Canevel's biggest stunt 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.080 was over the Snake River Canyon, a distance of one 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.880 quarter mile. Ken Carter's plan was to jump the Saint 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:28.040 Lawrence River, a distance four times that length a full mile, 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:39.120 by applying a little Canadian elbow grease. Ken Carter was 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.960 going to drive a rocket powered Lincoln Continental offer ramp 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:47.400 in Canada and land in the United States, watching the 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.200 movie as a Canadian. The idea of flying through the 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.480 air in a Lincoln Continental while listening to Gordon Lightfoot 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.760 on the eight track player for one mile and landing 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.440 in America without so much as a Canadian passport written 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.640 attestation as to whether my rocket car contains fruits or 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:10.200 vegetables felt noble. This is my dream. I don't care 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:11.200 if I ever jump again. 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:12.720 But this I'm going to do. 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.640 This is my dream. Nobody ever jumped a car a mile. 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:17.919 That's what I'm going to do. 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.760 But right from the jump there are problems. Over and over. 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.640 A date for the super jump is set, and over 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.240 and over things go wrong. The crew building the ten 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:32.480 story ramp miscalculates the measurements. 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:34.919 No Ken is deeply disappointed. 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.320 He was dialed into, as he says, he was dialed 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.000 in to do it. There's an unexpected rain that turns 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.760 the ramp to mud. The crew tries to dry it 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.039 off using a helicopter. You know, I'm just coming to 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:49.120 the end of my rope. On another occasion, an hour 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.760 before the jump, the crew decides to strike, demanding twenty 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.919 seven thousand dollars in cash before going back to work. 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:01.600 I gotta budget here. Fuel tanks explode repeatedly. 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:03.200 Holy christ Man, what are we doing? 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:10.080 This goes on for five years, again and again and again. 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.119 The jump is canceled. Over a million Canadian dollars are spent, 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.800 Investors back out and new investors are found. Countless problems 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:23.040 are allayed, doubts are assuaged, gotays are grown, and goatease 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:40.720 are shaved. But then Ken's luck turns, ABC's Wide World 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.520 of Sports wants to air Ken's super Jump on live 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.760 television for its millions of viewers. Before making the deal official, 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.520 the network needs to send an inspector over to the 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.440 jump site to report back on the stunt's viability, and 0:07:54.520 --> 0:08:03.360 the inspector they send is none other than Evil Canievil. 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.880 Once Evil Knievel gives it the go ahead, ABC will 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.400 air the jump, and once ABC airs the Jump, Ken 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.840 will become an international star and kids will play with 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.760 mad Canadian action figures and carry Mad Canadian lunchboxes. 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:19.720 And it reminds me of the Canyon. 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:24.400 How much hires this ram another thirty. It should be 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:28.080 noted that while Evil Knevels sports the sideburns of an outlaw, 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.520 Ken Carter sports the goatee of an assistant professor. And 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.000 while Evil Knievel looks like a rough and tumble movie 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.480 matinee idol, Ken Carter at the moment, wearing a leather 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.079 jacket and a gold chain around this turtleneck neck, looks 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.240 like your best friend's weird uncle in a turtleneck. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.760 This looks like a dangerous jump to me, boy, you 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:52.120 got no elevation, You got no. 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:52.679 Room for air. 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:58.720 Later, ABC airs Knievel's verdict. He delivers it while seated 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.960 atop a bulldozer at the jump site. 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:03.600 I don't think i'd attempt to try this stunt. I 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:05.800 think that the time and preparation that's been put into 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:10.480 it is much too little. This is maybe a daredevil 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:15.199 stunt that might end all their devil stunts. 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.080 Evil Caneval is essentially saying that if Ken goes through 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.959 with this super jump, he'll end up killing himself live 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:30.240 on national television and in doing so, completely ruined the 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:35.200 daredeviling industry for everyone. Ken, sitting on his living room couch, 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:38.520 watches as Evil Canevel tears up his dream on TV. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.160 I've been saying it for years. I still believe that 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.240 Evil Knievel's the second best dear devil in the world. 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.040 And I say that because I feel it. 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:46.679 I'm number one. 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:49.120 So I also feel that if you don't think in 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:49.920 terms of win. 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:50.600 You do not win. 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.720 ABC was out This was a blow, but not a betrayal. 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:07.640 The actual betrayal was yet to come. Without the promise 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:12.280 of a live televised event, Ken's investors drop out. Desperate, 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.720 Ken turns to a group of Hollywood producers who offered 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:19.760 a fund his super jump with a stipulation, a safety net, 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.640 if you will, they would distribute it as a pre 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.720 recorded special. In this way, the whole huge event would 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:31.440 take place without an audience, a traumatizable, blood splashable, we 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:36.120 want our money backable audience, which meant Ken's dream of 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.920 grandstands filled with cheering crowds and tables selling Ken Carter 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.480 Onesie's beer, cozies and go take homes would not come true. 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.600 All there'd be was a lonely ramp, a small crew, 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:54.480 some cameras, and Ken. Months of delays follow, and finally 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.760 a new date for the super jump is set and 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.960 once again it rains. But the new investors don't care 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.240 about safety. They have limited funds and just want the 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.760 jump to happen. The scene opens on the jump site. 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.960 We see the ramp, a group of journalists, a man 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.480 holding out a boom mic, and then the camera moves 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.160 in on a man wearing a yellow jumpsuit and a 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:19.040 cowboy hat. 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.440 All right, the lights are green, and let's get ready 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:22.760 and go. 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:24.040 I want to go. 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.480 The man in the yellow jumpsuit is not Ken Carter, 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:30.520 but he poses on the ramp and gives quotes to 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.240 reporters about the jump he's about to make. 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:35.760 I always like to stay to New York, so I'm 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:37.319 sure I hope they like me when I get there. 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.640 The man has the same goatee as ken Carter, the 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:44.840 same style of hair, but he's shorter, younger, and brasher. 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:47.640 All right, guys, my advice to get off the ramp. 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:49.040 You don't want no tar tracks on you. 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.200 As I watch it all unfold, I grow increasingly confused. 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:57.560 Where's ken Carter? Had I missed something? Was some key 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:03.160 scene accidentally cut? Finally, the voice over informs us that 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:07.000 this yellow suited man is ken Carter's long time understudy, 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:18.120 Kenny Powers. It turns out the investors had begun to 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.360 suspect that ken Carter had lost his nerve, that some 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.160 excuse was always going to pop up and he would 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:26.520 never make the jump. So they came up with a 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:31.440 scheme simply put ditch ken Carter and place Kenny Powers 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.480 behind the wheel of the rocket car have him do 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:38.640 the jump instead. But first they had to get Ken 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.040 out of the way, so they invited him to a 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.640 fake business meeting at a hotel an hour from the 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.240 jump site. With Ken Carter out of the picture, Kenny 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.040 Powers steps up, and Kenny Powers really seems to be 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.680 enjoying the attention. The countdown was too long. I think 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.920 it was too long. Ten second countdown, that's all I need. 0:12:58.400 --> 0:12:59.800 I'm not ready in ten seconds. 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:00.600 I'll never be. 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.079 Ready, and I'm gonna give it heil. Kenny warns the 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:07.760 people of America to get ready. Staring into the camera, 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.199 he instructs them to clear off their breakfast tables because 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.160 when he crashes down on their roofs, it might rattle 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:19.120 the dishes. Kenny Powers gets behind the wheel of the 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.760 rocket car, the name Ken Carter emblazoned along its side, 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:31.840 and then the car blasts off, races up the ramp, 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:37.559 and is airborne. Let's press pause here to consider what's happening. 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.240 The idea of jumping a mile in a rocket car 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.600 is completely insane, But as the car soars into the air, 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:49.600 so soars my heart. It might only attest to what 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.440 hopeful creatures we humans are. But in this moment, as 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:57.040 the car reaches top velocity, it seems that Kenny Powers 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:08.720 that humanity might maybe, somehow possibly make it across. But 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:12.959 of course this isn't to be Almost immediately after leaving 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.720 the ramp, the car plummets into the river. Debris flies, 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:25.520 parachutes open, someone screams. During his nine second flight, Kenny 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.480 Powers made it a total distance of five hundred and 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:33.000 six feet. For our Canadian listeners, that's a lot less 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:45.200 than a mile, Jim Jam. Because the car was built 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.440 specifically for Ken Carter, Kenny Powers was too short to 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.280 reach the gas pedal, so we never gained enough speed. 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.280 Before leaving the ramp, several members of the crew trudged 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.400 through the water and pull Kenny Powers from the driver's seat. 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.560 As though the spinal injury has yet to be invented, 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:04.920 they carry him from the river atop their shoulders bar 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:14.240 Mitzvah boy style. How Kenny Power says, ow ow later 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.080 he'll learn he's broken eight vertebrae, cracked three ribs and 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:33.080 fractured his wrist after the jump. As Kenny Powers lay 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.600 bandaged up in a hospital bed, the film's director showed 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.840 up outside Ken Carter's hotel room door to tell him 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:40.520 what happened. 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:43.080 Can what the hell you want? 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.280 But Ken already knows I don't want to talk to you. 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:47.400 Get out of here. 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:52.880 Eventually, Ken pulls him into the room. Why the camera 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.320 crew remains in the hallway recording audio through the hotel door. 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:58.520 Did you know about this fortune? 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:03.880 Look at him. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:07.040 About we fade to black. Then a title card appears 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:11.840 on screen. It reads one year later, Ken is shown 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:14.720 sitting at the base of the ramp. He promises he'll 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:19.080 make the jump someday, and that's it. The credits role. 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.440 Some song about the power of a man in his 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:25.160 dream starts to play, and the movie ends without ever 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:30.160 addressing the craziest detail in this whole crazy story. As 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:33.920 it turns out, Kenny Powers, the man who hijack Ken's 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.120 car and his lifelong dream, wasn't just Ken Carter's understudy. 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:47.480 Kenny Powers was Ken's best friend. Ken Carter and Kenny 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.800 Powers have both since died, So I called Bob Fortier, 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.920 the film's director, to see if I could find out more. 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.360 When I ask Bob why Kenny would betray his friend, 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.640 would ruin the dream Ken had spent so many years chasing. 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.399 Bob mentions a drinking problem and rumors that Kenny had 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.200 gotten himself into some sort of trouble down in Florida 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:09.639 and was desperate for a way to pay his legal 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.360 fees for Bob. The reason for this betrayal is as 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.720 classic as they come. Money. The backers offered Kenny a 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.919 lot of money to betray his friend, and Kenny took it. 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.119 That's just the kind of guy he was, Bob says, 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.119 someone who'd betray the guy who'd been supporting him for 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.840 ten years. Right at the last moment. After the movie wrapped, 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.760 Bob never spoke to Kenny Powers again. Kenny Powers, he says, 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:38.119 isn't the kind of guy you want to keep in 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:43.280 touch with. After the Jump, Kenny Powers was effectively run 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.880 out of Canada. One stuntman website even refers to him 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:51.200 as quote Judas in a cowboy hat, and Ken Carter 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.760 he went back to his old life of racetrack jumps. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.280 About a year after the Saint Lawrence River Jump, Ken 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:02.880 Carter died attempts to jump a pond. He never achieved 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:06.120 the legacy he'd hungered, after all, because of his supposed 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:14.800 friend Kenny Powers. I watched the failed super Jump over 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:20.280 and over and I'm not the only one to be 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:24.200 transfixed by it. On YouTube. That one scene from the movie, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:28.320 which has been retitled destroyed in seconds Jet Car Daredevil 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:32.119 has over a million hits. Before that, the jump was 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.840 immortalized in The Gruesome Faces of Death Too, a movie 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:40.440 composed of boxing, ring deaths and failed stunts. Ken Carter 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.400 had spent years training for his stunt, meticulously planning out 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:49.040 every last detail. As a professional stunt man, Kenny Powers 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.639 had to have known the risk of just jumping behind 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.080 the wheel like he was dipping out for drive through 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.399 chicken nuggets, even for all the money in the world. 0:18:57.760 --> 0:18:59.720 He had to have known that trying to fly a 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:03.280 rock car across a mile wide river with absolutely no 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:13.160 training was a death mission. In a bid to better 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:17.159 understand the Daredevil psyche, I bravely jump down a rabbit 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:21.800 hole of Daredevil's subculture. I watched stunt video after stunt video, 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.120 and even learned the distinction between daredeviling, stunt manning and 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:30.960 thrill mastering. I read about important industry figures like Spanky 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:36.160 Spangler and Spanky Junior, Lucky Teeter, Calvin Scarecrow, Shirk, big 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:40.800 Ed Beckley, Jim crash Moreau, Stony Roberts, Daredevil, Doug Klang, 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:45.640 Doctor Danger, Mister Dizzy, Cory the Headache Cowl, Froggy Jasper, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.560 the Clown, Walt King, Kovaz Bumps, Willard Risky, Rick Cruz, 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.840 Doug Danger, Earl, the Squirrel, Nicky Mighty, Aphrodite mc Burnett, 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:58.800 Don Snake, Prudome Levi, the Kamikaze Kid, Troutman, and Snooks Wenzel. 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.680 It's while watching my stunt videos that CEO and Gimblet 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:07.840 Media founder Alex Bloomberg sneaks up behind my desk and 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:12.560 asks what I'm doing research, I say, pausing a video 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.679 of a flaming station wagon falling from a drawbridge. I 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.320 close the browser window and open up a ted talk 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:24.800 on how to do business, and Alex smiles approvingly. I know, folks, 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.280 you're wondering, why do you allow Alex to walk all 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.840 over you like this? But I've got a wife and 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:34.320 child now, and podcasting into a chicken drumstick on a 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:41.320 Canadian breadline is the last thing I need at home 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.199 that night, a one room, cold water flat with a 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:48.639 screaming baby and a secondhand bassinette. I continue my research, 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.879 and somewhere around three am, I stumble upon a video 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.960 that defies explanation to. 0:20:55.960 --> 0:21:00.199 Auto thrill seekers across North America, The Mad Canadian and 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:00.920 Your Madness. 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:02.119 I guess that's the way to call you. 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:03.119 Well, I'll tell you what you know. 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:05.960 The video was shot just a few months after the 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.040 failed super jump, and Ken Carter is back to working 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:12.560 race tracks. Here he is being interviewed before his stunt. 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.080 There's a lot of kids out there watching. Who look 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:15.840 at evil Knieval? 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:18.359 Look at guys you're like yourself as heroes. 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.879 This is where I spot something unbelievable. Strolling in the 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:27.440 background right behind Ken Carter is the man who betrayed him, 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:35.040 Kenny Powers. Kenny stops, turns to Ken and just watches him, smiling, 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:45.360 and then he walks out of frame and is gone. 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:48.560 I rewind the moment several times. 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:51.040 Who look at evil Knieval, look at guys who look 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:53.160 at evil Knieval, look at guys who look at evil, 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:54.040 look at guys. 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:57.919 And there Kenny is, as clear as day, a warm 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:03.120 smile on his face, watching Ken Carter admiringly. By all measures, 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:05.919 Ken Carter should have hated Kenny Powers, should have been 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:08.520 trying to hunt him down and beat him up. But 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:12.359 there they were, happily spending a day together at the speedway, 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:15.399 A betrayal as grand as the one we see at 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:18.080 the end of the documentary isn't the kind of thing 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:22.080 you get over, especially not after a couple months, And 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.080 so I hop down a new rabbit hole and search 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:32.120 for whatever information I can find about Kenny Powers. According 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.560 to the Internet, Ken and Kenny remain friends after the jump. 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:39.760 Not only that, but to quote the Internet, Kenny Powers 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:43.080 carried around an eight x ten photograph of Ken Carter, 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:46.640 taking it everywhere he went, right up until the very 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:50.359 end of his life. Why would Kenny Powers carry around 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:56.040 a photograph of Ken Carter, the man he betrayed. I 0:22:56.160 --> 0:23:00.360 promise to answer this question and possibly other questions, if 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:14.280 you promise to patiently sit through these messages from our sponsors. 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:19.960 Steve Yeah. 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:23.520 To help make sense of Ken and Kenny's relationship, I 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:27.000 reach out to Steve Beelock. Steve knew Ken Carter and 0:23:27.080 --> 0:23:30.560 Kenny Powers from the very beginning. For years, he spent 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:33.520 countless hours with them on the road. You're in your 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:34.280 car right now. 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:36.800 It's all hands free, so I'm good. 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:40.800 Steve also toured in the Mad Canadian Stunt Show as 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:45.120 a mechanic. Back then, he went by the nickname Super Wrench, 0:23:45.720 --> 0:23:49.440 named after I assume the tool that professional mechanics use 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:52.560 and not the feeling of sadness caused by a painful 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:55.880 parting because I had limited time for our phone call 0:23:56.119 --> 0:23:58.800 and wasn't looking for drama at first. 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.040 It was just me and Cat for the first two years, 0:24:02.119 --> 0:24:07.680 going around the country jumping rapped the ramp, and he 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:12.280 was stubborn. He was fair, but he was stubborn. 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:16.119 Steve proceeds to pull back the curtain on the version 0:24:16.280 --> 0:24:19.600 of Ken Carter we see in the movie. According to Steve, 0:24:19.840 --> 0:24:22.280 he put a lot of pressure on his crew, often 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:25.080 requiring everyone to sleep in the same school bus as 0:24:25.119 --> 0:24:29.399 they jumped over. He aggressively booked shows miles apart, and 0:24:29.480 --> 0:24:31.919 while his team was forced to drive for days on end, 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:35.919 Ken would fly ahead, arriving at the events in a helicopter. 0:24:36.800 --> 0:24:39.080 But in spite of the cushy travel arrangements and his 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:42.680 mister Macho man image, things were getting tougher for Ken. 0:24:43.320 --> 0:24:46.399 He was only in his late thirties, but in daredevil years, 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:50.560 Ken was old, his bones more brittle. With each passing year. 0:24:51.119 --> 0:24:55.119 Ken fractured his ankles several several times. That's why I 0:24:55.240 --> 0:25:02.600 walk funny. One jump in Tulsa, he landed past the 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:08.640 ramp and split a sternament too when he gets a column, 0:25:11.600 --> 0:25:15.040 and when Ken was really hurt, it was when Kenny 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:16.040 Powers would step in. 0:25:19.160 --> 0:25:21.480 When Kenny Powers joined the show, he was a young 0:25:21.520 --> 0:25:24.119 guy in his twenties, so as Ken spent more and 0:25:24.200 --> 0:25:27.159 more time laid up with injuries, Kenny would step in 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:29.600 to perform for him, to the point where he was 0:25:29.600 --> 0:25:32.359 doing more jumps than Ken, but still getting none of 0:25:32.359 --> 0:25:35.440 the credit. I wondered if on the day that Kenny 0:25:35.480 --> 0:25:37.960 got behind the wheel of that rocket car, he saw 0:25:38.000 --> 0:25:40.600 it as a chance to emerge from Ken's shadow and 0:25:40.680 --> 0:25:43.800 show the world that he was the better stuntman, because 0:25:43.800 --> 0:25:47.040 Steve says, even when Ken was in top form for 0:25:47.119 --> 0:25:49.760 a stuntman, he was surprisingly cowardly. 0:25:50.640 --> 0:25:55.600 Ken Carter was never really into speed. Okay, he did 0:25:55.640 --> 0:25:56.960 not like going fast. 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:00.399 Yeah, you know, there's a scene in the in the 0:26:00.480 --> 0:26:04.720 documentary where he's taken into that rocket car for the 0:26:04.720 --> 0:26:08.080 first time, and when he steps out of the car, 0:26:08.160 --> 0:26:10.960 you could see that he kind of has his his 0:26:11.520 --> 0:26:15.560 stomach is just in his throat. 0:26:15.760 --> 0:26:19.480 He probably had to change his underwear. I don't know 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:23.040 if you can say that on radio, but lucky. 0:26:22.720 --> 0:26:26.080 For us, we're not on the radio. We're on a podcast, 0:26:26.520 --> 0:26:28.560 and so we could do all the cussing and the 0:26:28.600 --> 0:26:33.520 fuss and we like butter tart, liking sugarcrotch, kicking spam, 0:26:33.600 --> 0:26:37.120 dagger dorkin squacker, poo poo platter with a henous that's right, 0:26:37.680 --> 0:26:41.560 rhymes with anus case of the trots. That's just a 0:26:41.600 --> 0:26:44.879 few of the things I can say here at Gimlet Media. 0:26:44.920 --> 0:26:48.119 He probably should his pants tell you the truth. He 0:26:49.200 --> 0:26:52.400 was scared. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind. 0:26:52.560 --> 0:26:54.960 Even when we were in the ramp truck together, he 0:26:55.040 --> 0:26:57.720 did not want me driving all over the speed linder whatsoever. 0:26:59.480 --> 0:27:01.400 He just not like to go fast. 0:27:04.280 --> 0:27:07.679 You'd think that a need for only the legally acceptable 0:27:07.680 --> 0:27:10.879