1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,119 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:40,360 Speaker 1: History is full of stories about aviation. It seems there's 7 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 1: no industry that quite inspires the imagination like that of flight. 8 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,519 Speaker 1: More than ever since the days of commercial aviation in 9 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:51,040 Speaker 1: the early twentieth century, air travel has unlocked parts of 10 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: the world that would have seemed impossibly distant in the 11 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:56,880 Speaker 1: days of ships and trains. The average person was now 12 00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: a global citizen, rather than being trapped on their home 13 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:03,320 Speaker 1: come continent, which is one reason why airplanes are a marvel. 14 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,000 Speaker 1: But they can also be an escape. On July tenth 15 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:09,480 Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy seven, a plane took off from the 16 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,960 Speaker 1: city of Petrozovodsk, at the time part of the Soviet Union. 17 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 1: It was bound for Leningrad with around seventy passengers on board, 18 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:20,959 Speaker 1: a perfectly ordinary flight. However, two of the passengers aboard 19 00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 1: had other plans. Once the plane was in the air, 20 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:26,400 Speaker 1: they revealed themselves to be armed and took the entire 21 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:29,800 Speaker 1: plane hostage. They demanded that the plane take them to Stockholm, 22 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:33,200 Speaker 1: out of the Soviet territory. The pilots, concerned for the 23 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,320 Speaker 1: safety of themselves and the passengers, did what they could, 24 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: diverting the plane west on top of their guns. It 25 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:42,119 Speaker 1: seemed that the two young men also had a grenade, 26 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: which put everyone at serious risk even if they could 27 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,560 Speaker 1: overwhelm the hijackers. The two men responsible were named Alexander 28 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: and Ganadi. One was nineteen years old and the other 29 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: was twenty two. They were convinced that their plan was 30 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 1: going to go off without a hitch and no one 31 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:00,960 Speaker 1: was going to be hurt, that is until the pilots 32 00:02:00,960 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: informed them about the plane's fuel levels. It seems that 33 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:07,280 Speaker 1: the plane had been fueled for their original trip, but 34 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 1: the distance to Stockholm was much longer than the distance 35 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,839 Speaker 1: to their original destination. Their plane just didn't have enough 36 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: fuel to make the trip full stop, so the hijackers 37 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:23,359 Speaker 1: agreed to a compromise. The plane diverted to another Scandinavian airport, Helsinki, Finland. 38 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:27,639 Speaker 1: There they would refuel replace the Soviet crew and complete 39 00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:30,080 Speaker 1: the rest of the journey. They both assumed that they 40 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: would serve time for hijacking when they arrived in Sweden, 41 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:36,079 Speaker 1: but wouldn't be extradited, which was good enough for both 42 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: of them, a worthy price to pay for escaping the 43 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: Soviet Union. The plane landed and in a gesture of goodwill, 44 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:46,840 Speaker 1: Alexander and Gennady allowed almost all of the passengers to deplane, 45 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: holding back only a handful of people to serve as hostages. 46 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:53,920 Speaker 1: They issued their demands using the airplane's radio, and then 47 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:58,079 Speaker 1: they would wait, and wait and wait. Surely there were 48 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: conversations happening on the other end. The Finnish government must 49 00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: be preparing to negotiate or provide the hijackers what they wanted. 50 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: But in the cold confines of the plane, minutes stretched 51 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 1: into hours, and after hours of waiting, the two men 52 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:17,079 Speaker 1: fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. The hostages on board, realizing 53 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:21,160 Speaker 1: what had happened, quickly left. When Alexander and Gnnedy woke up, 54 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:23,640 Speaker 1: they realized that they had been left alone on an 55 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,880 Speaker 1: empty plane. Worse this, playing was trapped in a country 56 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:29,760 Speaker 1: that still had an extradition treaty with the Soviet Union. 57 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: Having no bargaining chips left, both men turned themselves in 58 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: and were subsequently sent back to Russia. Their plans for 59 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:39,960 Speaker 1: their grand escape all amounted to nothing, and both men 60 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:44,840 Speaker 1: were eventually given relatively brief prison sentences fifteen years for one, 61 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,360 Speaker 1: seven for the other. In the aftermath of the hijacking, 62 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:51,320 Speaker 1: the Finnish authorities realized that the two hijackers were not 63 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:53,920 Speaker 1: nearly as dangerous as they had made themselves out to be. 64 00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:57,760 Speaker 1: The grenade they had brandished was not even a real explosive, 65 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: but a dummy grenade bade for training purposes. But the 66 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:04,400 Speaker 1: cherry on top of this story is the global impact 67 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:08,280 Speaker 1: of the hijacking. There was none. Although it was a 68 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:11,600 Speaker 1: shocking and dramatic event in the lives of the airplane passengers, 69 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:15,240 Speaker 1: it barely warranted mention in the international news. There were 70 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:18,560 Speaker 1: two other plane hijackings that week, and this incident was 71 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:21,600 Speaker 1: the most benign of them all. Nobody was hurt, and 72 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: the hostages weren't trying to shock the world with a 73 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:27,279 Speaker 1: political message. They were just trying to relocate from one 74 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 1: country to another. And if they hadn't been so tired, 75 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:32,719 Speaker 1: maybe they could have done it. It just goes to 76 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,719 Speaker 1: show it's always possible to sleep on an airplane, even 77 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 1: in the most stressful of conditions. Unless you are one, 78 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 1: it can be difficult to wrap your head around the 79 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,400 Speaker 1: unique connection that twins share. After all, when you're literally 80 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 1: born as half of a set, it's almost inevitable that 81 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 1: that relationship will come to define who you are. That 82 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:10,120 Speaker 1: was definitely the case for the Colorado Brothers, a pair 83 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:14,720 Speaker 1: of seventeenth century twins whose unique bond saved both their lives. 84 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,440 Speaker 1: Their names were Lazarus and John Baptista, and they were 85 00:05:18,480 --> 00:05:22,159 Speaker 1: born in Genoa, Italy, in sixteen seventeen. From the moment 86 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 1: they took their first breaths, the pair were inseparable. Unfortunately, 87 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:30,720 Speaker 1: while Lazarus was healthy, John Baptista suffered from medical complications 88 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,839 Speaker 1: from birth. His body never fully developed and his head 89 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,000 Speaker 1: grew to an abnormally large size due to a condition 90 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:41,000 Speaker 1: that prevented his skull from draining cerebral spinal fluid. He 91 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:44,240 Speaker 1: also struggled to open his eyes or eat without assistance, 92 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,960 Speaker 1: making it impossible for John Baptista to live on his own. 93 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: The good news was he had Lazarus, the healthier twin, 94 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:55,000 Speaker 1: was always by his side. Caring for him, feeding him, 95 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:58,920 Speaker 1: and cleaning his little brother. By working together, they managed 96 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:02,360 Speaker 1: to live a mostly normal life, although John Baptista's condition 97 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:06,719 Speaker 1: brought on a mountain of medical bills. Eventually money became 98 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,960 Speaker 1: so tight the brothers had to get creative. While they 99 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,240 Speaker 1: were in their early twenties, the pair embarked on a 100 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:15,480 Speaker 1: tour of Europe and Turkey. They traveled from town to town, 101 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:19,039 Speaker 1: supporting themselves by performing as a sort of circus act. 102 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:23,919 Speaker 1: Lazarus was the showman and John Baptista was the show Now. 103 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 1: As you would probably expect, this career choice forced the 104 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:31,080 Speaker 1: brothers to swallow a lot of pride. Their advertisements depicted 105 00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:35,320 Speaker 1: John Baptista as a malformed monster, playing up the visual 106 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:38,720 Speaker 1: contrast between the two twins. They even leaned into this 107 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:43,479 Speaker 1: by having John Baptiste to grow a haggard, grizzly beard. Lazarus, 108 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 1: on the other hand, appeared as a well dressed gentleman. 109 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:49,880 Speaker 1: The show kept them afloat for several years, while the 110 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:53,679 Speaker 1: constant travel brought opportunities for John Baptista to see medical 111 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:57,600 Speaker 1: experts from all across Europe. In sixteen thirty eight, they 112 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:00,080 Speaker 1: were making their way through France when their trip was 113 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:03,360 Speaker 1: brought to an abrupt halt. One night after the show, 114 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,279 Speaker 1: the brothers were drinking at a local tavern when a 115 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:10,160 Speaker 1: barfly noticed John Baptista. The drunk man laughed at his 116 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 1: unusual appearance and began to taunt him with crude insults. 117 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,960 Speaker 1: Lazarus flew to his brother's aid, hurling insults of his own. 118 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: The situation escalated rapidly, and a brawl broke out. In 119 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: the chaos, Lazarus grabbed a bottle of wine from behind 120 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:27,480 Speaker 1: the counter and brought it crashing down on the other 121 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:31,120 Speaker 1: man's head. The bottle shattered, and the drunk collapsed, with 122 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 1: blood seeping from the gash in his skull. He was 123 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:37,880 Speaker 1: immediately rushed to the hospital, but soon died. After arriving, 124 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: Lazarus was arrested, charged with murder, and hauled before the 125 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:45,840 Speaker 1: local judge. Realizing that he would face the death penalty, 126 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 1: Lazarus made a desperate plea. He begged the judge not 127 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:52,680 Speaker 1: to separate him from his twin brother, explaining just how 128 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:56,200 Speaker 1: much John Baptista depended on him. They had been together 129 00:07:56,360 --> 00:07:59,640 Speaker 1: since birth and separating them would be more than simply cruel, 130 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,320 Speaker 1: it would be a death sentence not just for him, 131 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:06,040 Speaker 1: but for his brother, who relied on him for virtually everything. 132 00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:09,440 Speaker 1: He insisted that executing him would also be a death 133 00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:13,760 Speaker 1: sentence for his brother, and this was literally true, since 134 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: the twins shared several vital organs. The Colorados you see 135 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:21,680 Speaker 1: weren't just brothers. They were conjoined twins, with John's lower 136 00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:25,360 Speaker 1: body attached to Lazarus's torso. The state of medicine during 137 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:28,880 Speaker 1: the seventeenth century meant that surgically separating the twins had 138 00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 1: never been a realistic option, and while that fact made 139 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:36,240 Speaker 1: life in pre enlightenment Europe extremely difficult, it now became 140 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 1: their saving grace. The judge relented and ordered their release, 141 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 1: since there was no way to punish Lazarus without also 142 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:47,400 Speaker 1: harming his brother. Lazarus walked out of the courtroom a 143 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:52,160 Speaker 1: free man, and as always, his brother, John Baptista was 144 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:59,120 Speaker 1: right at his side. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided 145 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:02,600 Speaker 1: tour of the Cabin of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on 146 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:05,560 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting 147 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:10,360 Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me 148 00:09:10,559 --> 00:09:14,200 Speaker 1: Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make 149 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:17,800 Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, 150 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:20,840 Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all 151 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:24,920 Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until 152 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:28,600 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.