WEBVTT - Operation Mincemeat: How A Corpse Fooled the Nazis 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.600 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.720 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, There's Jerry Rowland. This is 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:20.560 Stuff you Should Know. Chuck, I'm thirty nine years old 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:22.919 and I still can't say my own name correctly because 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:29.080 of my stupid thick tongue. You're gonna be forty crazy. Yeah. 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.040 I used to make fun of me, and now you're old. Well, 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:34.199 you're still older than me. I know nothing I can 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:39.040 do about that. That's cool though. Yeah you're aging very well. Yeah, no, 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.560 you're aging really well. But you mean the teeth falling out, 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.720 the weight gain, and they're the gray beard. I still 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.479 say you're aging very well. I appreciate it. Let's get here. 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:51.760 Take off your hat. I still got good hair. Boom, 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.880 look at that. We got hatead now beautiful. Okay, we'll 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.160 think I'm bald. Some people do, like you're always wearing 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:04.440 that hat. Why. I don't know suspicious people. Yeah, like 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:09.280 the drummer for the Chili Peppers, Anthony keytith Flee, Nope, 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.400 the guy from Jaan's Addiction, Nope, I don't know them. 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:14.680 Not John Percant chat Smith, the guy that looks like 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:19.160 Will Ferrell, He's always Ferrell. He's always got that hat 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:25.520 on backwards. And um he's baldly like Brett Um Michael's bald. 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.600 Remember he always wears a do Rag's super bald. So 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.199 I get why people are suspicious. If you're a public 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:38.279 figure that has a patented hat piece, then it's probably 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:40.959 because you're bald, but not in my case. What a 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:45.400 weird way to start the show, especially this show, Operation Mincemeat, 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:50.520 which is a ghoulish gallows humor awesomely World War two 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.960 British name for this, this operation. Yeah, this will live 0:01:55.000 --> 0:02:00.040 alongside our our Nazi spies and Invading Florida podcast and 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.400 the History Girls covered this this very topic as well. Yeah, man, 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.280 there's nothing I love more than little known history. This 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.880 is this is it. But this is great little known history. 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.360 And this shouldn't be middle known because it was after 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:17.840 the Trojan War, maybe the largest and most successful military 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.799 deception plan in history. Well, there's also have you seen 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:25.000 that documentary Ghost Army about Operation Fortitude. They used a 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:28.400 bunch of blow up tanks and planes, like inflatable tanks 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.840 and planes to make it look like there's a whole 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:35.520 Allied division over here, so that we could invade Normandy 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.320 more you it's like a Looney Tune cartoon. Awesome, But yes, 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.079 this ranks up there with literally with the Trojan Horses. 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.960 It's that ingenious and that wonderful. But so let's set 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.760 the stage right. So in early nineteen UM the war 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:55.679 was very much undecided. It could have been anybody's, like your, 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:00.720 Europe was under the control of Hitler, huge amounts of Europe. 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.079 They called it Fortress Europe because he the Nazis were 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:08.560 just had just overrun the place, right dug in and um, 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.560 the the Allies knew that they needed to get into 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:13.720 Europe to topple Hitler or else, like they weren't going 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:20.280 to win the war. So um Churchill suggested attacking Europe's underbelly, 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:25.200 which is maybe Italy, Greece, Sardinia. He called it the underbelly, 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:29.040 not very flattering, but he called it Europe's underbelly. So everybody, 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:35.760 the Allies, the Greeks, the Nazis, the Japanese, Um, the 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:42.280 people uh in Hawaii. Everybody knew, yeah, they weren't American 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.640 quite yet. Everybody knew that the Allies were gonna attack 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.320 somewhere in that area. Yeah, come up through the Mediterranean. 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:55.240 Even Hitler feared this the most. But right, and and 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:57.320 I mean everybody knew the Allies were coming and they 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:59.480 were gonna come there. But this, this land mass, this 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.360 area land and see is large enough that you can't 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.240 just be like, oh, they're coming down there, we got 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:08.240 it covered. You need to know kind of specifically where 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:10.280 they were covering. And there were just a few places 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.000 where they could have come. One was Greece, that was 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:18.520 where Hitler always suspected. One was Sardinia, right, and then 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:23.560 another was Sicily. And in ninety three, I think January, 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:27.800 the Allied powers met in French Morocco and held um 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:32.839 a conference, the Casablanca Conference. Yeah, it really was. And 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:37.000 um they said, okay, we're going to invade Sicily this July. 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.000 We're gonna call it Operation Husky. Now we have to 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.520 do everything we can to not let the Nazis know 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:48.919 that that's where we're going. And that actually hatched eventually 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:53.200 what's called Operation Mincemeat. Yeah, you know what. Studying this 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.159 stuff and I'm not a big war buff um, although 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.120 I'm getting more so, but reading up on this stuff 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.680 like the old war are so much like the board 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:07.000 game risk that it's startling. Yeah, it's literally when you 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.640 look at the stuff, it's like moving troops to where 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.279 you think people are going to attack you and rolling 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.039 the dice a bit, and if you're right, then great, 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:17.880 If not, you're screwed very much though, which is why 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.760 it's such a huge shift that we're seeing now in 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:25.680 moving to unconventional warfare, because that's scary stuff. Yeah. I 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.920 think pretty much all war is scary. Yeah. Well, of 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.240 course I'm not saying like Normandy was a gig walk 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.440 or anything, because they knew what they was going on. Man, 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:36.120 I watched Saving Private Ryan again the other day. God, 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.400 it's crazy. That thing's almost a snuff film. It's not 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.400 as bad as We Were Soldiers, which is a snuff film, 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:46.719 but it's I never saw that one, the Mel Gibson where, Yeah, dude, 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:52.640 it's it's the most graphically violent mainstream movie ever made. Really. Yes, Yeah, 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.960 Like there's a part where there's there they have a 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.960 shot a camera shot over this guy's shoulder, right, so 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.480 his helmets in the in the near four ground and 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.440 that guy takes a hit to the head and like 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.560 blood spray covers the camera lens for the next like 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:14.440 a little while his brains just cover the camera. It's disgusting. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:17.839 Did you like Saving Private Again? Yeah, it's it's a 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.600 great movie, but it is like really like violent. That's 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.160 another thing about getting older is that stuff affects you 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.720 more and more. The more you come to terms with 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.280 your own mortality, the more valuable life becomes. The more 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.080 valuable even a character in a movie's life becomes, you 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:34.680 know what I mean? That stuff gets to agreed, It's 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.719 called growing up, my friend, I'm becoming human, isn't it 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:43.840 grows alright? So on September twenty nine, nine nine, Uh, 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.080 there was a director of British Naval Intelligence name Admiral 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:51.320 John Godfrey, and he distributed something called the Trout Memo 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:56.359 and um, it was written by his assistant, Lieutenant Commander 0:06:56.400 --> 0:07:00.160 Ian Fleming. Familiar name, yeah, creator of James ball Own. 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.239 That's right, the guy, And uh, I think most people 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.920 know that he served at this point. Yeah, but um, 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:07.920 if you didn't, that's a nice little factoroid for you. 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.240 So he he wrote the Trout Memo and they called 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.640 it the Trout Memo memo because they pointed out in 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:17.240 the intro that this that the trout fisherman fishes very patiently, 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.800 but he changes venue frequently, and he changes his bait 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:25.080 very frequently too, And so they wanted to they're charged 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.360 with deception. They wanted to come up with all these 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:31.040 different ideas, all this different bait and venue changes that 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:32.920 they could come up with. Yeah, and this was the 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:37.280 time too. We should point out that um spying, spying 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.680 is always vital, but man of World War two, it 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.000 was going on all over the place in a huge, 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.200 huge part of the war. So, um, we need to 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.120 do one on the Enigma machine. By the way, at 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.560 some point we do because that's one of the unsung 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.160 heroes in this operation. Absolutely. Um. Alright, So with the 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:58.800 trout memo. In Flaming wrote uh Well co authored fifty 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:03.920 one different operations suggestions, and number twenty eight was one 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:10.080 called a suggestion parentheses not a very nice one. The 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.160 following suggestion is used in a book by Basil Thompson. 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:17.080 I'm so pleased that you said Basil instead of Basil. Uh. 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:21.240 In fact, that was the novel The Milliner's Hat Mystery. 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.040 And he was actually a World War One spy. Oh really, yea, 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:30.160 So he was it a spy writer that Ian Fleming, 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:34.400 the creator James Bond, Doug Crazy, So that's where this originally, 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.160 so uh here I'm getting that's right. The following suggestion 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:40.680 is used in a book by Basil Thompson Colin. A 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.960 corpse dressed as an airman with dispatches in his pockets 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.200 could be dropped on the coast, supposedly from a parachute 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.960 that had failed. I understand there is no difficulty in 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:54.000 obtaining corpses at the Naval hospital, but of course it 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.800 would have to be a fresh one. So the idea is, 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.480 let's get a dead person, let's dress him up like 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:07.559 a soldier, given some sensitive documents that leak this invasion fraudulent, fraudulent, 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:11.280 very important, that leak the invasion of Greece, which is 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.160 not really happening, and they're gonna mount up troops there 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.000 and we'll actually go in Sicily. They're gonna find this body. 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:21.240 They're gonna think they've stumbled upon this great happy accident 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.320 and we're going to fool him. So yeah, that was 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.600 the That was the whole idea, That was the general 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:30.599 basis of it. And Churchill loved the idea because apparently 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.920 He liked what he called corkscrew thinkers because he knew 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.400 Hitler thought in a straight line. Yes, and by corkscrew thinkers, 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.960 I think that would be our equivalent of outside the box. Yeah. Yeah. 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.360 Churchill was like, this is great. I love church Let's 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:49.480 drink some scotch and do it. Yeah, let's look like 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:55.240 a bulldog. So um they the well. That idea was 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:58.440 roughly outlined by Ian Fleming, and then the the Churchill's 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:02.320 Court screw Thinkers, the exc committee led by Um you 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:09.160 and Montague and um Chumley. Yeah, which is his name 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:14.360 is not spelled Chumley? How's it spelled? Are you ready 0:10:14.360 --> 0:10:19.120 for this? Charles c h O l m O n 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:23.400 d e l e y pronounced Chumley. Yeah, And apparently 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:27.120 when he met people he would say, uh, Lieutenant Charles 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.200 Chumley c h O l m O n d e 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.720 l e y. He would spell it out, Yeah, Are 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:34.840 you making fun of me? Or is there for no? No No? No. 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:36.599 He was a very quirky guy, and that's how he 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:40.199 described himself as toothpaste, as if it had been squeezed 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.520 from the tube. Like he self described. He would go 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.960 hunting with a revolver like bird hunting is a weird guy. 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:50.920 I actually watched a quickie BuzzFeed video on this and 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:56.800 they've pronounced it Charles cholmondel Did they really? Yeah, I'm 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.000 glad we did our research exactly shout out with the BuzzFeed. 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:04.040 So you and Montague right, yeah, the other guy. He 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.200 is noteworthy in a number of ways to apparently it's 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:11.920 just the greatest guy ever, most interesting man on the planet. Um. 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.160 And he actually wrote the book, the first book on 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.640 Operation mince Meat, because he was one of the people 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:18.800 who came up with this and implemented it. The man 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:24.960 who was never there, the man who never was so too. Yeah, 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.199 of the same name starring Montgomery Cliff, I believe, no, 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:35.280 starring Cliff Clay Web. Cliff Claven Cliff Web, but not 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:41.080 Montgomery Clift. Those two are virtually interchangeable there, So um 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:45.440 what you and Montague was already notable because at school 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.040 he and his brother had created the rules for um 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:52.280 ping pong I know that, among other things, and his 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:57.920 brother equally interesting equally um rambunctious went on to become 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.480 a spy for the Soviets. Wow. Yeah, so he turned 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:08.240 yes against England, Yes against everybody? Except for the Soviets. Well, 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.160 Montague was, uh, he was formerly a barrister, an attorney, 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.360 and um, this is why he actually did not go 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.880 serve on a ship. Um. And the other guy, Chumley, 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.080 never flew a plane. One was air Force, one was 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:27.120 a navy. Uh. And apparently Montague was as an attorney, 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.120 was very good at just seeing all the angles. So 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.480 they said, you, sir, are perfect for this job. And 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.120 they picked wisely because these guys really pulled it off. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.000 So we'll dive into this much more in depth right 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:58.800 after this, all right, Chucky, So we have the rough 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:02.079 outline that Ian Fleming came up with the XX Committee, 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:06.360 led by you and Montague and Charles Chumley, the part 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.120 of m I five, I believe. Um said we're gonna 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.559 take this particular idea and really run with it. Um. 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:15.640 And like you said, they were going to, Well, the 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.760 first thing they did was start setting about creating a backstory. Well, 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:20.600 they had three months, so that the clock is ticking 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:22.760 at this point. Yeah, because here's the thing. They set 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.520 the invasion right in January, and they set the invasion 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:30.480 for July. Now you needed enough time to um plant 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:35.880 this this corpse, this fake dead courier um that had 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.720 ended Nazi hands and give the with enough time so 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.760 that the Nazis could digest it, analyze it, decided it 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.800 was truthful, and then react the way you wanted them to, 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:51.720 which meant that they had no later than May or 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.280 else this plan was out the window. Yeah, you wanted them. 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.120 The ultimate goal was to have the Nazis put their 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.760 troops in the wrong place, and that takes time, so 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.440 they they looked around and they decided that the best 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.280 place to carry out this operation was Spain. And Spain 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:10.640 during World War Two was allegedly ostensibly neutral, but they 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.600 had a lot of acts as sympathies, a lot of 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:19.400 connections to Nazi Germany. And there was a particular Nazi agent, 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:25.280 a spy working in a port called Um Whoell Whoeverla 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:31.640 Whoeverla right Um, and his name was Adolf Klaus. And 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:35.320 Adolf Klaus was known to be very methodical, pretty brutal, 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.800 brutal and ruthless, extremely gullible. Yeah, he was a straight 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.320 line thinker. He was hitler. He wasn't one that could 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:44.320 think outside the box and think, maybe this is an 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.520 elaborate hoax that that guy didn't even own. A real corkscrew, 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.040 you know, like they cut the top to off of 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.800 wine bottles. Yeah, they specifically targeted, which is amazing. So 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:58.080 they wanted this guy who was fairly gullible but also 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:02.360 known as like a very respected Nazi agent in Spain 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.920 um to be the one who came up with this 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.400 corpse and could ever so before they ever had any 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.440 corps or could have or anything like that, Montague and 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:16.720 um and Chumley start setting about creating a backstory, and 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:24.400 they created this guy named Major Um Martin, William Martin, 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.160 that's right. And they created Major William Martin, and they 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.840 created this whole persona and this wasn't the first time 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.160 they've done it, that they had actually they had um 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.640 chops with this kind of stuff. So they had created 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:40.960 a fake spy network that made Nazi Germany think that 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:45.720 they had a whole double double agent network in the UK. 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.680 And all of them were fictitious, not real people that 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:54.200 you and Montague and Charles Chumley had created these fake 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:58.360 personas and had fed the Nazis misinformation through these people 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.440 that didn't really exist. So they that that understanding and 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:03.600 that thinking of what it takes to create a fake persona, 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.880 and they said about creating one for Major William Martin. Yeah, 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.560 and um, if you there's a great BBC documentary on this, 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.320 and they interview a lot of the players, um, including 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.160 a lot of the women who worked at m I 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.000 five in the office, and they were all just so 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.960 delighted that they all described this as like the most 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.280 exciting adventure they'd ever had. It was like something out 0:16:23.320 --> 0:16:25.240 of a spine novel and they were living it. And 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.760 so they all had great fun creating these characters that 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.120 these made up people. Um. They wanted to give him 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:35.800 a fiance because the idea is that they find this 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:40.040 body with what not only these documents in a briefcase, 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.080 the important documents, but to make it believable, he had 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.480 to have believable what they called pocket litter or wallet litter, 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.160 which is if you find any person on the street, 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:51.400 ask them to open their wallet, you're gonna be able 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.600 to tell a lot about them. So just stuff to 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:55.800 legitimize it. So they said, let's give him a fiance, 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.400 and all the women in the office wanted to be 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:02.560 the fiance, so they all submitted photographs. They picked this one, 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:06.520 Lady Jean Leslie, uh secretary Okay, that's the lady on 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:08.720 the beach. Yes, picked her of her in a bathing 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:10.840 suit on the beach, so this was going to be 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.280 planted on his body. Uh. They all wanted to write 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.080 the love letters back and forth, but they picked a 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.680 woman named Hester Leggert, the head secretary of m I five, 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.040 and she wrote even though she was a spinster, she 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.000 wrote all these like heartfelt love letters. The first couple 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.240 of drafts were really dirty, and they were like, you 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:30.719 gott to tone this down a little, like, is that 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.720 what you think happens in a relationship? No, not me. 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.679 So everyone's really excited in the office. Um Chumley is 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.320 wearing what would eventually be the uniform of Martin every 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:48.720 day to give it that worn in look. Monta Hue 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:53.040 actually ended up having an affair with the secretary who 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:55.480 gave him the photo as the fiance. They had a 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:59.320 real life affair as Bill and Pam. Pam is the 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.159 made up fian say, got they got a little weird 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:04.040 that it is a little weird, Like they wrote each 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.920 other love letters, had a real life affair calling each 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:10.080 other Bill and Pam. So there was some like strange 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:13.359 role playing going on. I'm sure, he was married at 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.760 the time. His family had been shipped to America, so 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.240 he was not doing the right thing there he was 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.879 he was allows in that department. Well you know also 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:24.960 um Roll Dahl, the guy who wrote James and Giant 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:29.000 Peach and Charlietor he was a spy for the British. 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.520 He was in the British military and his whole job 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:37.440 was to basically bed um the wives of American officials 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.560 here in Washington. Really yeah, did he do so? Oh? Yeah? Wow? 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:43.959 Oh he made his way through Washington society apparently with 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:48.640 great zeal. Alright, so they're cooking up this backstory. Uh, 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.840 they get other great things for the wallet litter, like, uh, 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.840 theater ticket stubs and an overdraft letter from his bank 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.040 and just these things that make it seem like super realistic. 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.240 And what else they I think they gave him a 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.000 st Christopher Metal. Maybe they wanted to strongly imply that 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.000 he was Roman Catholic and that will come up, uh 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.040 very it will become very important in a minute. Right, 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.200 So they've got this backstory and apparently like this, they 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:19.320 were working feverishly on this stuff, having the weirdo affair 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.399 wearing the uniform all that stuff before they'd even gotten 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.400 final approval, just because they didn't want to stop work 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:28.359 and then had to pick it up feverishly. They wanted 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:31.040 this to to keep going. So they finally got final 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.720 approval from Admiral Godfrey um to carry out this thing 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:39.040 for real. And when they got final approval, they said, okay, 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:43.080 we need a body, and they figured no problem they 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:47.480 were looking at first. They needed somebody who um, who 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.280 had relatives that didn't care what happened to the body 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.600 after death and could keep their mouth shut. Um. They 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:58.159 needed a body that was of military age, didn't have 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:06.600 any signs of visible trauma um right um, and that 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.040 that preferably they would have died of pneumonia. And the 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.000 reason that they wanted him to die of pneumonia is 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.320 because they were going to make it look like this 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:17.359 guy had been in a plane crash, um, but it 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:19.960 survived the plane crash, but it drowned at sea. And 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.240 if he had pneumonia, then his fluids would be filled 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:25.440 with long so that when the Spanish conducted in autopsy 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:31.080 on them. Yeah, so that when the Spanish conducted their autopsy, 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:33.520 they'd be like, that's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:37.000 I've never seen fluid filled with lungs, but that's how 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:40.280 much fluid there is. The problem is is they didn't 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.760 get their hands on a guy with pneumonia, and they 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.720 didn't even know exactly where to get a person at first. 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:48.159 It wasn't until they turned the guy who ran the 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.879 more g at St. Pancras Hospital, which is the worst 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:57.160 hospital name of all time. Um, they turned him and 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.639 got him to assist them that they finally got their 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:02.480 hands on body. Yeah. His name was sir uh, Sir 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:06.199 Bentley Purchase, which is a great name, and uh it was. 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.320 He was a corner of the largest mortuary at Sat. Pancras, 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.000 terrible and he had apparently a wicked sense of humor. 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:15.600 It was pretty complicated to give directions to his office. 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.119 So when he gave Montyue the directions, he said, or 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.240 he could just get run over by a bus. Nice man. 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.320 The British during wartime where they're having their sense of 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.440 humor was wonderful. So they got Bentley Purchased and he said, 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:33.840 I've got a dude. Um, his name is Glendor Michael. 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:37.480 Yeah that is not how that's spelled either, No, it 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:42.320 is g l Y n d w R Super Welsh. Yeah, 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.480 he was a Welshman born in nineteen o nine. He 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:47.560 was the son of a coal miner. His father killed 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:51.920 himself by stabbing himself in the throat. I hadn't read 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:56.480 that and it didn't say like slit your throat, said 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:00.200 he stabbed himself in the throat, which is weird and at. 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:02.840 So his dad died when he was a teenager. Mother 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:06.960 died when he was thirty. Uh, alcoholic, had a rough 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:10.400 go because of the depression and was basically basically killed 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:13.920 himself by ingesting rat poison. So that is not necessarily 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.760 resolved whether it was suicide. Yeah, so they they the 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:22.280 Bentley purchased wrote down that he um he killed himself. 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:25.840 It was ruled a suicide, okay. But the way that 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:28.240 he ate the rat poison, it was on a crust 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:31.960 of bread. He was hungry, they wondered. So he he 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:34.240 may have been so destitute that he ate a crust 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:36.439 of bread that he found in an abandoned warehouse and 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:38.399 it was smeared with rat poison and that's what he 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:41.679 died of. But they found him in this cold January 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.960 night in nineteen forty three. Um, in this abandoned warehouse 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:49.719 in London, and um, he had just eaten some rat poison. 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:53.360 But he survived for two more days. And so Bentley 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:56.360 purchased guy, his hands on him and said I think 0:22:56.440 --> 0:23:01.640 I found your guy. Dudes, Yeah, and they did. Um. 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:03.719 There were some issues, of one of which is they 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:05.800 needed a photo of the guy for an I d 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:09.800 He didn't have any photos. And every time they took 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:12.560 a picture of the dead guy's face, they were like, 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:15.560 he looks like a dead guy. Yeah, really, So they scoured. 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:18.359 You can see your fingers holding his eyes up. So 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:20.680 they scoured London looking for a look alike and eventually 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:23.400 found a guy at a fellow intelligence officer who looked 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:27.240 just like him. Aweso, they used his face. Aw it's 0:23:27.280 --> 0:23:29.960 all coming together, Yes it is. I'm sure they were like, Wow, 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:32.400 Providence is really smiling on this. Yeah. And if you're 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.600 feeling bad for Glenn, do or just hang tight? Yeah, 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:38.240 I still think you can feel bad for Glenn or 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:42.720 talk about a rough life. Jeez, do you remember that 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:46.120 one Sara atte Live where Robert Duval was like super 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:49.000 special guest. He wasn't even hosting or mentioned, He just 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:52.119 showed up on this game show called Who's More Grizzled? 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:56.280 And he talks about like it was him and Garth Brooks. 0:23:56.560 --> 0:23:58.640 How do I miss that? And um he talks about 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:02.119 how one one cold her his wife died and he 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:04.840 had to keep her out in the barn until the 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:09.320 ground thaws so we can bury her out back. What. Yeah, 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:11.600 it was just weird like that. It wasn't even really funny. 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:13.960