WEBVTT - S05 Episode 2: The Unceasing Cloud 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:05.199 Introducing The Fountain Road Files, a new horror fiction podcast 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:11.440 from Unexplained creator Richard McLane Smith. In March twenty twenty, 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:15.560 twenty seven year old cafe worker Ben Williams began recording 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:20.040 an audio diary of the coronavirus pandemic. Two months later, 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:23.599 he was found dead in the South London flat where 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:28.840 he was spending lockdown alone, or so he thought. Search 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.840 the Fountain Road Files wherever you get your podcasts, and 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:48.560 for more information go to the Fountain Road Files dot com. 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.200 In his famed and controversial seventeen ninety eight paper An 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:56.320 Essay on the Principle of Population, the Reverend Thomas Robert 0:00:56.320 --> 0:01:01.800 Malthus outlined the theory for which he has since been immortalized. Mauthusianism, 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.960 as it came to be known, broadly speaking, is the 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:09.000 belief that the global human population will increase inevitably to 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:11.319 the point where it could no longer be sustained by 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:14.760 the resources available to it unless it is curbed by 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:20.400 either natural disasters or state intervention. Without such checks, Malthus 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:24.120 believed many would be fated to a lifetime of financial 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.640 poverty and destitution, as more and more people would be 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:32.839 forced to scrap over ever diminishing proportions of food. Malthus's 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:37.240 theory was undermined emphatically in the next hundred years by 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:41.319 the sheer human capacity for ingenuity and its rapacious thirst 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:47.360 for commodities. Throughout the nineteenth century, although global population continued 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:49.840 to increase at a rapid rate, it was more than 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.160 compensated for by the equally rapid technological advances of the 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:58.760 Industrial Revolution. With new tools such as the threshing machine, 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.760 came the ability to farm far more intensively than ever before. 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:06.600 But just as crucial was the introduction to Europe and 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:11.280 the United States of an extremely unlikely nitrogen rich fertilizer. 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.160 It was back in eighteen o two that the brilliant 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:19.760 Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt first came across it while 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:24.480 trekking through Peru. Called guano by those local to the region, 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.760 otherwise known as guano, this natural fertilizer, comprised of bat 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:34.880 and bird excrement, had long been considered an extraordinarily effective fertilizer, 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:40.120 used even by the ancient Incas. Humboldt's introduction to guano 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.320 set in motion a chain of events that would not 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.040 only change the world as we knew it, but change 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.959 it in ways that we may struggle to ever recover from. 0:02:51.080 --> 0:03:02.680 You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McClane Smith. A 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.520 veritable polymath, Humboldt had spent much of his early years 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:11.799 studying a vast array of disciplines, including languages, geology, anatomy, 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:16.600 and astronomy, amongst many other things. He is credited with 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.760 reintroducing the word cosmos into popular usage, and is also 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:24.320 regarded as the first person to describe the phenomenon of 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:30.520 human induced climate change. By his forties, Humboldt was already 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.959 a well established member of the European science community when 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:36.360 he received the blessing of the King of Spain to 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:40.440 undertake an expedition to the America's Humboldt would spend the 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:45.760 next five years trekking extensively throughout the continent. After returning 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.480 to Europe, Humboldt wrote effusively about the merits of guano, 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.760 encouraging industrialists to look into the possibility of incorporating it 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:59.480 into Western agricultural practices. Within thirty years, as many began 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.440 to see the benefits of it for themselves, millions of 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:07.040 tons of guano, largely harvested by slaves from China, Africa, 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:11.600 the Polynesian Islands, and Hawaii, was being exported and traded 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:15.920 throughout Europe and the United States, as is often the 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:20.000 way of such things. Before long, with the unquenchable desire 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:23.560 for it, deposits of guano were all but exhausted. By 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:28.479 the eighteen seventies. This pitfall was swiftly overcome, however, with 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.599 the discovery of vast quantities of natural sodium nitrate found 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.880 in Chile around the same time. But as many were 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:40.200 quick to recognize, sodium nitrate was also a finite resource, 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.400 and much like the wants bountiful supply of guano, it 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:50.040 too would someday run out. By the eighteen nineties, the world, 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:54.400 it seemed, was once again in a perilous position, with 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.800 global population now fifty percent larger than it had been 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.440 in Malthus's time, thanks in part art to dramatically increased 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.680 crop yields, Fears of a Mouthusian catastrophe were once again 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:11.160 being espoused. In eighteen ninety eight, Sir William Crooks, president 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.120 of the British Academy of Sciences, through attention to this 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.240 worrying predicament. It was his belief that unless a viable 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:22.000 alternative to the natural but finite fertilizers could be found, 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.799 soon food supplies would no longer be sufficient to sustain 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:30.880 the global population. There was one great hope, however, he added, 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:35.400 Since nitrogen made up seventy nine percent of the Earth's atmosphere, 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.400 there was certainly more than enough of it to go around. 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.839 All that was needed was for someone to find a 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.599 way to convert it into a compound that plants could 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:56.240 feed off. In nineteen o nine, chemist Fritz Harbor was 0:05:56.279 --> 0:06:00.600 working as an assistant and lecturer at Carlsborough University in Germany. 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.880 Though not especially well known at the time, Harbor had 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.200 been steadily making a name for himself, specializing in the 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:13.599 technology of dye for textiles and electrochemistry. That year, however, 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.919 working in their lab at Carl's Ruhre, Harbor and his 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:20.400 assistant Robert le Rosignon, would make one of the greatest 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:25.000 discoveries of modern science. Spurred on by the global hunt 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:29.000 for a synthetic fertilizer to match the nutrient rich nitrates 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.600 such as those from Chili, Harbor devised a process that 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:38.400 successfully combined nitrogen from the air with hydrogen to create ammonia, 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:44.719 a nitrogen rich compound capable of fertilizing plants. Harbor's process 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.320 was acquired by the German chemical company Baden Aneline and 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.159 Soda factory in July the same year, who in turn 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:56.120 assigned chemist Carl Bosch to scale it up for industrial use. 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.080 With the help of what would become known as the 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:05.080 Harbor Bosch BASF were producing industrial quantities of ammonia by 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:09.400 nineteen thirteen, which couldn't come soon enough for the German nation. 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:15.360 With the outbreak of war in July nineteen fourteen. Recognizing 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.520 that Chile's sodium nitrate deposits would not only be vital 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:22.560 for agriculture but also the production of explosives, the German 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:27.360 government attempted to secure access to it for themselves. However, 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.680 the German naval fleet that was sent to complete the 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:35.520 task was destroyed a few months later by the British Navy. 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.480 Left with no access to this vital resource, Carl Bosch 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:43.360 and his team at BASF duly stepped in to help, 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.680 turning their hands to generating vast quantities of ammonia at 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.560 the military's request to produce nitric acid for use and 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:56.480 explosives for its Harbor, who, thanks to the genius of 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.679 the harbor Bosch process, was well known to the German government, 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.120 was invited to take up a slightly different task and 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.440 turn his talent for chemistry to figuring out how it 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:11.080 might best be used in the field of war. Harbor 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.200 had little trouble excepting the task and quickly began experimenting 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:19.960 with tear gas. But Harbor would go much further than that. 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.680 Though many on both sides of the war had predicted 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:33.640 a swift and early resolution to hostilities, by April nineteen 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:37.920 fifteen a very different picture was beginning to emerge, with 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:41.360 both sides now thoroughly locked in a seemingly endless war 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:46.160 of attrition. Fighting by this point was largely confined to 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.720 the Western Front, a vast line of trenches and fiercely 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.240 contested territory stretching south from the coast line of the 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:57.280 North Sea through Belgium, France and Germany all the way 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.120 to Switzerland. Located at the northern end of the front 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.720 was the Epre Salient, a ten mile stretch of the 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.600 line just to the east of the Belgium city of 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:11.360 Epra as one of the few sections of the front 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.400 at the time where the British, Canadian and French armies 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.679 had succeeded in pushing back into German occupied territory. The 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:23.839 Epres salient was a vital, strategic and symbolic landmark. So 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:28.520 heavily was this section contested, the German military became convinced 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:30.920 that if they could just break through it, it would 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:33.839 be such a blow to the opposition's morale that their 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:39.600 victory would be all but guaranteed. By April twenty second, 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.360 the surrounding area had been obliterated by artillery shells from 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:48.000 both sides, transforming the once rich and verdant farmland into 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:52.520 hellish stretches of mud and twisted wire, pockmarked by vast 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:55.880 yawning craters, and all of it strewn with the rotting 0:09:55.880 --> 0:10:01.840 corpses of fallen soldiers. The trenches not much better. Bogged 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.719 down with water due to the low water table, they 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:09.280 offered little respite from the elements. They too, were littered 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:13.480 with the bodies of the dead. After days of intense 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.560 fighting around a nearby hill, the morning of the twenty 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.959 second had begun with another period of heavy shelling as 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.240 the German army once again did their best to disrupt 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:28.440 the line. By early afternoon, however, the guns had fallen silent. 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.040 At the northern section of the salient. French Algerian troops 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:39.040 waited nervously for whatever might come next. At just after 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.800 five pm, with the light beginning to fade, the aerial 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:47.360 bombardment began afresh, the shells pummeling down into the mud, 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.960 becoming louder and louder with each passing minute. When suddenly 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.720 one of the lookouts observed something unusual in the distance, 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:01.000 a thick cloud of smoke slowly billowing towards across no 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:09.920 man's land. Is there something interfering with your happiness or 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.360 preventing you from achieving your goals? Better Help will assess 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.559 your needs and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.640 Sign up today and start communicating in less than forty 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.200 eight hours. You'll get timely and thoughtful responses. Plus, you 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.040 can schedule weekly video or phone sessions so you won't 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.800 ever have to sit in an uncomfortable waiting room. 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Visit betterhelp dot com 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:56.720 forward slash reviews to read the many glowing testimonials posted 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.520 every day from grateful clients, and if you're interested in 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.239 signing up, go to betterhelp dot com forward slash unexplained 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.319 one zero and get ten percent off your first month. 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:12.160 That's better help dot com forward slash unexplained one zero 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:14.920 and join the over one million people taking charge of 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.800 their mental health with the help of an experienced professional. 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:24.160 Better Help wants you to start living a happier life today. 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:29.680 Thinking the smoke was cover for an imminent attack, officers 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.720 across the line screamed at their men to get ready, 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.600 ordering their troops to stand too and mount the first 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:41.880 step in preparation for a defensive charge. Gathering weapons, helmets 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.520 and AMMO. The men threw themselves dutifully against the side 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:49.160 of the trenches, hearts thumping in their chests as they 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:54.440 awaited the next order. Up above, officers gripped tighter on 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.280 their revolvers as they braced themselves for the sudden onrush 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:05.040 of German soldiers. But the soldiers never came. The officers 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:09.040 could only look on with bemused stairs as that peculiar smoke, 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:14.000 seeming a little thicker, now continued to draw nearer and nearer. 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.480 It was almost beautiful the way it shimmered, a peculiar 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.439 shade of yellow and green in the light. And then 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:27.319 the smell hit them, an acrid whiff of bleach that 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.200 scraped at the back of the throat. Then the men 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.200 began to cough and pull back, clawing at their necks. 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.600 While some cried out for water, others were already on 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:43.120 the ground, screaming in agony as they writhed about in 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:46.840 the mud, frothing at the mouth and gasping for breath. 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.760 And still the cloud of smoke kept coming until the 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:57.320 entire trench had been engulfed. But it wasn't smoke at all. 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:03.480 It was chlorine gas. Just a kilometer away to the north, 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.959 at the German line, the bald, bespectacled figure of Fritz 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:11.720 Harbor watched with satisfaction as the gas he had so 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:17.160 meticulously helped to manufacture continued on its southerly direction across 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:27.240 the rest of the opposition's line. Harbor later said that 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:29.840 his intention had been merely to use the gas to 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:34.080 cause mass disruption, leaving the opposition forces a frayed and 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.200 shaken but able to retreat to safety if need be. 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.080 It was, he claimed, merely a tactical attempt to bring 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.000 a quick end to the war that would ultimately save 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:48.640 lives in the long run. Harbor's technique was to place 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.120 six thousand metal canisters containing one hundred and sixty eight 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.480 tons of liquid chlorine along a six kilometer stretch of 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:59.560 the German army's line. After waiting all day for the 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.600 wind to change direction, the canisters were finally prized open, 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:09.400 turning the liquid chlorine instantly to gas. Up to one thousand, 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.280 four hundred soldiers a thought to have died in the attack, 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:16.200 and over two thousand were injured, the chlorine being so 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:20.400 potent it corroded the soldier's silver buckles and badges to 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:25.120 a greenish black. Harbor's hope that the gas attack would 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.960 result in a fast resolution to the conflict did not 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:31.520 come to pass. Not only did the German army fail 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.760 to capitalize on the initial attack, it simply opened the 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:39.760 door to the development of even more devastating weapons. When 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:42.960 an effective solution was found to combat the chlorine gas. 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:48.800 For example, Harbor simply developed something even more lethal. Where 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:53.200 chlorine gas had to be inhaled, nitrogen mustard needed only 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.480 to settle on exposed skin to do lasting damage to 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.440 the body. Symptoms of a mustard gas attack, as it 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:05.040 would be called, ranged from extensive blistering to weeks spent 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:10.840 coughing and choking on blood until you died. Though many 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.880 were quick to condemn the German high command, even some 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:17.600 within the German military itself, for permitting such a heinous act, 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:22.680 the other nations were equally quick to follow suit. Despite 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.880 the British senior officer Sir John French being amongst the 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.520 most vociferous of critics, describing the use of the gas 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.160 as of barbarous disregard of the well known usages of 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:37.400 civilized war, whatever that is, the British Army would launch 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:41.480 their own gas attack only five months later. By the 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.640 end of the war, the British, French and Belgian forces 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.840 had used more tons of gas than the German army. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:51.360 Out of the forty million or so casualties of the 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:54.200 First World War, A hundred thousand are thought to have 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:57.320 been killed by gas, with one million believed to have 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:01.440 been wounded. Only ten years before, at the nineteen o 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:05.440 seven Hague Convention, most nations involved in the war had 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:12.120 signed an agreement forbidding the use of poison or poisoned weapons. Nonetheless, 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.959 the Harbor Bosch process would earn Fritz Harbor a Nobel 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.600 Prize in nineteen eighteen, and the ammonia it's used to 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:24.560 create today forms the basis of all manufactured nitrogen fertilizer, 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.119 a method that is credited with feeding roughly a third 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:33.240 of the global population and saving billions from starvation. There 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:38.199 is perhaps a no more polarizing figure in science, and 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.400 with the release of that gas in nineteen fifteen, there 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.600 was no putting it back in the canister. As reports 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.600 of the attacks and those haunting images of soldiers in 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.400 bug eyed gas masks drifted back from the front, few 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.800 could fail to be disturbed by it. It had changed 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.480 our concept of warfare indelibly, and as it would turn out, 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:04.280 the specter of those thick, yellow tinged toxic clouds would 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:08.720 disperse far wider and linger far longer than Harbor had 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:19.160 perhaps ever intended them to. On the evening of Friday, 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:23.240 December twenty second, nineteen thirty three, out in the snow 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.960 covered fields of Buddataut County in Virginia in the US, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.600 local farmer Clarence cal Huffman and his wife Mattie were 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:35.600 preparing for bed when Mattie became aware of an unusual 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:41.040 acrid odor in the air. Feeling suddenly overcome with nausea, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.919 she laid herself down and waited for it to pass. 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.480 With Mattie finally drifting off to sleep, Cow was just 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.760 about to join her when he too caught a whiff 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:56.440 of the unusual odor. Being a farmer, Cow was all 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.679 too aware that it wasn't uncommon around those parts for 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.439 thieves to use gas to knock out livestock before stealing it. 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:09.080 In recent years, some enterprising burglars had even utilized gas 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:14.320 to knock out guard docks before ransacking people's homes. Hurriedly 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:18.200 lighting a lantern, Cow grabbed his gun and quickly made 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.240 his way to the back door. Pulling it open, he 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.359 held up the lamp and stared out into the chill 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.720 of the night, seeing little but empty fields and the 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.640 usual trees standing bare and skeletal in the dark. He 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.080 felt suddenly all too aware of just how isolated he 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.000 and his family were. With his wife and children to 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.520 think about, he decided it best to call in the police. 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.520 Special officer Oscar Lemon arrived thirty minutes later to find 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:53.760 Cow waiting for him on his porch, shotgun in hand. 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.440 His wife and children roused from bed by the excitement, 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:04.399 waited expectantly side. After he explained the situation to Lemon, 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.840 Cow joined him in making a quick circuit of the property. 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:12.639 Their home, a large stone building known locally as the 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.320 Brian McDonald Junior House, was one of the more recognizable 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:21.120 properties in the county, a likely target, perhaps for unwanted attention. 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:26.560 As the officer flicked his flashlight about looking for anything unusual, 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.240 Lemon noticed one of the windows to the enclosed front 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:35.119 porch was slightly open. Shining the light underneath it, He 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.560 spotted the print of a small, high heeled shoe in 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:43.919 the dirt, unlike anything anyone in the family owned, and 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:48.680 neither did anyone remember leaving the window open. As unlikely 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:51.840 as it sounded to offers a Lemon, it seemed that 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:55.240 someone might have tried to poison the family with gas, 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.520 with the possibility that used the porch window to pipe 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:09.640 it into the property. After checking in on Mattie, who 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.080 was by then feeling better, Officer Lemon suggested that the 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:15.919 family tried to get some rest and call back if 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:19.720 anything else strange occurred, with Lemon then leaving the property 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.840 around one am. It was a few hours later when 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:25.719 Cal and Mattie were awoken by the sound of coughing 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:30.520 and spluttering coming from their children's bedrooms. Lighting the lamp again, 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.680 the couple rushed through to the hallway just in time 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.639 to see their twenty year old daughter, Alice, stumble from 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.760 her bedroom, seemingly unable to breathe, before collapsing on the floor, 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.760 yelling that they were under attack again. Ashby Henderson, a 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:47.840 neighbor who was staying with the family at the time, 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.000 thought he saw a movement outside a window and dashed 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.600 out of the house to investigate. Cal joined a moment later, 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:58.159 but after a few minutes scanning the area, they saw nothing. 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:04.159 Local doctor, the twenty eight year old Samuel Driver, arrived 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:08.440 on the scene shortly after, only to find Alice completely unresponsive. 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:13.040 Turning her on to her front, he attempted resuscitation, splaying 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.880 her arms out to the side like wings and carefully 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:18.440 pushing down on her back as he lifted her arms 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:22.359 up by the side. After a minute or so, the 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.600 family were much relieved to see the young woman finally 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:30.879 coming round, no longer smelling the gas. It seemed this 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:35.600 second apparent attack was over. With not much else to 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.640 be done, the family thanked the doctor and made their 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:47.280 way back to bed. Green Chef is a USDIER certified 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:51.040 organic company that makes eating well easy and affordable with 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:54.160 plans to fit every kind of lifestyle. With Green Chef, 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:57.120 it's easy to eat well and discovering new recipes every 0:22:57.119 --> 0:22:59.359 week that you'll love to cook with meal plans that 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:03.399 include pay Alio, plant powered keto, and balanced living. 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To get eighty dollars off 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:40.399 your first month plus free shipping on your first box, 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:44.200 go to greenchef dot com. Forward slash unexplained eight zero 0:23:44.359 --> 0:23:48.160 to redeem and for more details. Once again, that's unexplained 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:50.800 eight zero. To get eighty dollars off your first month 0:23:50.840 --> 0:23:53.880 plus free shipping on your first box, go to greenchef 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:57.439 dot com. Forward slash unexplained eight zero to redeem and 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:06.840 for more details. A few days later, over in Cloverdale, 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:10.080 just three miles south of the Huffman Home, Clarence and 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:13.440 Lucy Hall were attending a Christmas church service with their 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:17.800 three children. Returning to their house at nine pm, the 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:23.520 couple noticed a sickly acrid smell in the air. Within moments, 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:27.359 their eyes were beginning to sting. Telling the others to 0:24:27.400 --> 0:24:31.560 wait outside, Clarence moved in further to investigate, only to 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:34.400 stop suddenly looking as though he might keel over at 0:24:34.440 --> 0:24:38.800 any moment. Watching on in horror, Lucy dashed in to 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:44.480 grab her husband and pulled him back outside. Doctor William Breckenridge, 0:24:44.520 --> 0:24:47.919 who attended the scene shortly after, suggested that what happened 0:24:47.920 --> 0:24:51.080 to Clarence was consistent with the effects of inhaling some 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:55.680 kind of gas. The following night, with the Halls staying 0:24:55.720 --> 0:24:59.680 at Lucy's parents home for safety, Lucy's sister Ada was 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:02.679 having past the Hall's home with her husband when they 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:05.399 saw a figure in the dark poking about with a 0:25:05.440 --> 0:25:09.119 flashlight near a window of the house. When they pulled 0:25:09.160 --> 0:25:12.600 in for a closer look, the figure drove off swiftly 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:17.840 into the night. The following day, the news hit the 0:25:17.880 --> 0:25:22.600 papers that a mysterious assailant nicknamed the Phantom Gasser, was 0:25:22.680 --> 0:25:25.600 on the loose in Badatak County that appeared to be 0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:31.680 releasing a poisonous gas into people's homes. Having at first 0:25:31.720 --> 0:25:34.280 assumed it to be little more than kids messing about. 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:39.040 After a third apparent attack on local welder Albert Kelly 0:25:39.160 --> 0:25:42.600 offered Sir Lemon stepped up his efforts to catch the perpetrator, 0:25:44.000 --> 0:25:47.760 with the community, like much of America, only just getting 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:50.760 back to its feet. After the ravages of the Great Depression, 0:25:51.240 --> 0:25:53.760 this was the last thing they needed on their hands. 0:25:55.119 --> 0:25:58.040 On the twenty eighth of December, Offer, Sir Lemon, received 0:25:58.080 --> 0:26:01.439 word that an unknown man and woman were seen passing 0:26:01.520 --> 0:26:04.680 Kelly's home around the time he claimed to have been attacked. 0:26:05.520 --> 0:26:07.760 The couple had driven back and forth a number of 0:26:07.760 --> 0:26:12.120 times in a nineteen thirty two Chevrolet. However, a check 0:26:12.119 --> 0:26:15.200 on the vehicle's license plate failed to identify the owner. 0:26:16.760 --> 0:26:19.800 A few weeks later, several miles away, in an area 0:26:19.920 --> 0:26:23.879 known as Howl's Mill, Missus Moore, a woman staying at 0:26:23.880 --> 0:26:26.840 the home of Gertrude and Homer Hilton with her baby, 0:26:27.320 --> 0:26:30.480 was alerted to the sound of muffled voices coming from 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:33.960 somewhere in the yard. Keeping her eye on her baby, 0:26:34.160 --> 0:26:37.400 who was fast asleep in its cot, she listened quietly 0:26:37.720 --> 0:26:41.200 as she heard the sound of rustling footsteps drawing closer 0:26:41.240 --> 0:26:47.320 to the window. Moments later, missus Moore smelled gas. It 0:26:47.359 --> 0:26:50.439 was followed by a sudden, numbing sensation that seemed to 0:26:50.480 --> 0:26:55.200 be spreading slowly into her limbs. Hearing her cries for help, 0:26:55.520 --> 0:26:59.600 the Howls dashed downstairs to find her. Outside shivering on 0:26:59.640 --> 0:27:02.639 the front step with her baby, but no sign of 0:27:02.680 --> 0:27:07.919 anyone else around Homer. Hilton gathered up his shotgun and 0:27:08.000 --> 0:27:10.520 took a seat in the front room, vowing to keep 0:27:10.560 --> 0:27:22.720 watch or night, but nobody came. The following day, Homer 0:27:22.800 --> 0:27:26.320 spread news of the attack to his neighbors Sally and Tom, 0:27:26.400 --> 0:27:30.280 who in turn passed it on to their children. Before long, 0:27:30.760 --> 0:27:34.080 their son Roy was sharing it with their neighbors Laura 0:27:34.160 --> 0:27:38.080 and Emmett Lee, who, like an invisible virus, brought the 0:27:38.160 --> 0:27:41.560 news into their home, sharing it with each of their 0:27:41.600 --> 0:27:46.520 ten children. As a panic spread among them, the Lees 0:27:46.600 --> 0:27:48.800 spent the rest of the day plugging up holes in 0:27:48.840 --> 0:27:53.000 their property, using tin to patch up their windows, terrified 0:27:53.040 --> 0:27:56.160 that any gaps might provide an opportunity for the phantom 0:27:56.200 --> 0:27:59.919