1
00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480
Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke'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
00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,480
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all

4
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,159
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just

5
00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:28,880
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

6
00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:40,040
Speaker 1: Tony Marino thought that he knew what frustration was. But

7
00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:43,040
Speaker 1: no matter how hard he worked or how carefully he schemed,

8
00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:46,199
Speaker 1: his plans just kept falling apart. It was supposed to

9
00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:48,159
Speaker 1: be simple, an easy way to get rid of a

10
00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:51,680
Speaker 1: nuisance and get rich in the process. But try as

11
00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:56,520
Speaker 1: Tony might, Michael Molloy simply would not die. The whole

12
00:00:56,520 --> 00:00:59,240
Speaker 1: thing started late one night in nineteen thirty three in

13
00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:03,200
Speaker 1: Tony Marine Knows Bronx Speakeasy. Tony was playing pe knuckle

14
00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:07,640
Speaker 1: with the boys. There was Red Murphy, Tony's bartender, Daniel Kriegsberg,

15
00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:11,759
Speaker 1: the fruit vendor, and Francis Pasqual the undertaker. As they

16
00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:16,480
Speaker 1: placed bets, they talked business, and business was bad. They

17
00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:18,600
Speaker 1: was the depths of the depression, and all of the

18
00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:21,960
Speaker 1: men were having trouble paying their bills. Wouldn't it be nice,

19
00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:24,560
Speaker 1: someone said, if they had a rich aunt or uncle

20
00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,040
Speaker 1: who died, or even a poor one with a big,

21
00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:29,960
Speaker 1: fat life insurance payout. Too bad. None of them had

22
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,800
Speaker 1: such luck. And that's when Tony Marino first broached the idea.

23
00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:37,560
Speaker 1: Maybe he said they could make their own luck. Pick

24
00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:41,440
Speaker 1: someone expendable, someone who lived on the margins, someone nobody

25
00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:45,680
Speaker 1: would miss, someone like Michael molloy. Michael was a regular

26
00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,760
Speaker 1: at the speakeasy. In another life, he'd been a fireman

27
00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:51,320
Speaker 1: in Ireland, but now he just stumbled through the bronx

28
00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:53,920
Speaker 1: looking for his next drink. The way they saw it,

29
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,240
Speaker 1: he was going to drink himself to death anyway, So

30
00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:58,800
Speaker 1: who would mind if Tony and the boys just sped

31
00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:02,560
Speaker 1: up the process. The gang quickly took an insurance policy

32
00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:05,720
Speaker 1: out on poor old Mike for eighteen hundred dollars, the

33
00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:09,240
Speaker 1: equivalent of nearly forty four thousand dollars today. They would

34
00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:11,639
Speaker 1: be plenty to settle their debts and help them through

35
00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:13,679
Speaker 1: the depression. All they had to do was make sure

36
00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,720
Speaker 1: that Mike died accidentally. The plan was simple. They would

37
00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:20,079
Speaker 1: tell old Mike that it was his lucky day. Tony

38
00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:22,760
Speaker 1: informed the man that he now had an unlimited tab.

39
00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,600
Speaker 1: He could drink as much liquor as his liver could handle,

40
00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:28,440
Speaker 1: and then some. Now all Tony had to do was

41
00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:32,679
Speaker 1: sit back, relax, and wait. But Tony quickly realized that

42
00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:35,480
Speaker 1: he would be waiting for a long time. Every night,

43
00:02:35,560 --> 00:02:38,240
Speaker 1: Michael drank himself into a stupor at the bar, and

44
00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:41,920
Speaker 1: every morning he would reappear ready for another drink. So

45
00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:45,120
Speaker 1: Tony and the gang decided to step it up. First,

46
00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,400
Speaker 1: they gave him bad alcohol. With prohibition in place, there

47
00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:51,720
Speaker 1: was plenty of dodgy spirits that Red couldn't serve the customers,

48
00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:55,680
Speaker 1: but Michael drank them like they were water. Next, Tony

49
00:02:55,760 --> 00:03:00,840
Speaker 1: tried anti freeze, then turpentine, rat poison, and finally ethanol,

50
00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:03,440
Speaker 1: the stuff that makes you go blind. The gang even

51
00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:07,919
Speaker 1: made Michael a special sandwich equal parts rotten sardines, poison,

52
00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:13,160
Speaker 1: and metal tax Michael's iron stomach prevailed. By this point,

53
00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:15,480
Speaker 1: they'd been trying to kill Michael for an entire month.

54
00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:18,320
Speaker 1: The next payment on the insurance policy was coming up,

55
00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:21,240
Speaker 1: and if they didn't kill him soon, the policy might lapse,

56
00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:25,240
Speaker 1: so they needed to try something completely different. The next

57
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,200
Speaker 1: cold night, Tony waited until Michael drank himself unconscious. He

58
00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:31,880
Speaker 1: and the gang dragged Michael out to the park, stripped

59
00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:34,840
Speaker 1: him naked, and dumped him in a pile of fresh snow.

60
00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:37,480
Speaker 1: They poured water on him and left him to freeze

61
00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:39,840
Speaker 1: to death. Of course, Michael was back again in the

62
00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:43,600
Speaker 1: morning without even a shiver. A few days later, they

63
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,360
Speaker 1: tried yet again. This time they enlisted the help of

64
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:49,400
Speaker 1: a cab driver named Harry Green. They lured Michael out

65
00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:52,320
Speaker 1: into the street and had Harry run him down at

66
00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:55,880
Speaker 1: forty five miles an hour. Imagine their disappointment when Michael

67
00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,280
Speaker 1: showed up three weeks later with a couple of broken

68
00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:02,960
Speaker 1: bones and demand for more whiskey. Finally, Tony had had enough.

69
00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:04,880
Speaker 1: If they were going to kill Michael, they needed to

70
00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:08,240
Speaker 1: kill him right. So on February twenty second of nineteen

71
00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:11,440
Speaker 1: thirty three, they waited for Michael to drink himself silly.

72
00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:14,000
Speaker 1: Once he was out for the night, they brought him

73
00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,080
Speaker 1: upstairs to Red Murphy's room. They placed a hose in

74
00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:20,520
Speaker 1: his mouth, connected it to a gas jet, and turned

75
00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:24,080
Speaker 1: it on. An hour later, Michael Malloy was finally truly

76
00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:28,599
Speaker 1: and completely dead. Carbon monoxide had finally been the thing

77
00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:31,680
Speaker 1: to do him in. With all the attempts on Mike's life,

78
00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:35,320
Speaker 1: rumors of an unkillable Irishman were swirling around the Bronx,

79
00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:39,000
Speaker 1: so when he was finally declared dead, the police quickly

80
00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:42,279
Speaker 1: grew suspicious. Once they exhumed the body, it was easy

81
00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,680
Speaker 1: enough to spot evidence of foul play, and the culprits

82
00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,120
Speaker 1: were well known to the citizens of the Bronx with

83
00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:50,680
Speaker 1: how often they had tried to kill Mike. All five

84
00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:53,359
Speaker 1: were arrested for murder. The cab driver was given a

85
00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:57,560
Speaker 1: prison sentence, while Red, Daniel, Francis, and Tony were all

86
00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:01,240
Speaker 1: executed for their crimes. Tony and the boys probably thought

87
00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,320
Speaker 1: that Michael Molloy would be easy money. It turns out

88
00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:22,159
Speaker 1: killing Mike was a grave mistake. Sports are an incredibly

89
00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:26,000
Speaker 1: popular form of entertainment all around the world. As a result,

90
00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:29,160
Speaker 1: sports injuries are just a fact of life. Whether it's

91
00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:32,599
Speaker 1: Little league or the major leagues, athletes risk serious harm

92
00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:36,000
Speaker 1: to play the games they love. When it comes to baseball,

93
00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:38,920
Speaker 1: it's the fans who are the highest risk of injury.

94
00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:42,320
Speaker 1: Baseball stands seem like a safe place. The hot dogs,

95
00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,400
Speaker 1: the drinks, the cheering. Sure people get hurt by a

96
00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:47,599
Speaker 1: stray ball from time to time, but no one ever

97
00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:50,719
Speaker 1: dies right. Well, a look back at a very unique

98
00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:53,719
Speaker 1: baseball game from the early twentieth century might have you

99
00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:57,880
Speaker 1: reconsidering your season tickets. The game in question took place

100
00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:02,120
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh two in Morristown. Nineteen year old Stanton

101
00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:05,279
Speaker 1: Walker was a big baseball fan. There was a baseball

102
00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:09,280
Speaker 1: field directly behind his family home. A young sports enthusiast

103
00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:12,200
Speaker 1: couldn't ask for a better setup. He and his friends

104
00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:15,520
Speaker 1: Frank and Leroy would sit on a fence outside the diamond,

105
00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:18,520
Speaker 1: watching the local teams play. Once they were old enough,

106
00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:22,360
Speaker 1: they became the official scorekeepers, and with no physical scoreboard,

107
00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:25,120
Speaker 1: it fell to the three friends to track every inning.

108
00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:29,000
Speaker 1: Now they used old fashioned pencil and paper to accomplish

109
00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:32,520
Speaker 1: this task. The only problem was that occasionally that pencil

110
00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,720
Speaker 1: needed to be sharpened well. On October twenty fifth of

111
00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,120
Speaker 1: nineteen oh two, Stanton, Leroy, and Frank were all watching

112
00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:42,200
Speaker 1: a game from the fence. As usual, Stanton sat in

113
00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:45,320
Speaker 1: between Leroy and Frank, and for this game, Frank was

114
00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:48,440
Speaker 1: keeping score. When his pencil ran low, he asked lee

115
00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:50,920
Speaker 1: Roy if he could borrow his knife to sharpen it.

116
00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:54,760
Speaker 1: Leroy obliged, producing his knife and handing it to Stanton

117
00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:57,960
Speaker 1: to hand to Frank. Stanton took the knife, gripping the

118
00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:00,840
Speaker 1: handle so that the blade was pointed to his body.

119
00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:04,360
Speaker 1: Not the safest choice, and at that very moment they

120
00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:06,400
Speaker 1: heard the crack of a ball being hit by a

121
00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:09,279
Speaker 1: bat and looked up to see a ball flying right

122
00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:13,000
Speaker 1: at them. Before they could react, it hit Stanton in

123
00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:16,640
Speaker 1: the hand and drove the knife right into his chest.

124
00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:21,040
Speaker 1: The blade entered between his ribs, severing an artery below

125
00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:24,200
Speaker 1: his heart. He fell from the fence into the grass.

126
00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:27,120
Speaker 1: Frank and Leroy jumped down next to him, asking if

127
00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:29,720
Speaker 1: he was hurt, but by then it was too late.

128
00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:34,160
Speaker 1: He was already dead. Now, some listeners might hear this

129
00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:37,600
Speaker 1: tale of a foul ball and suspect foul play, but

130
00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:40,640
Speaker 1: Frank and Leroy had at least two full baseball teams

131
00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:43,440
Speaker 1: worth of witnesses to back up their story. Each and

132
00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:46,240
Speaker 1: every person on that field had their eye on the

133
00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:48,840
Speaker 1: ball as it sailed through the air and made fatal

134
00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:51,920
Speaker 1: contact with Stanton Walker's hand. It seems that in the

135
00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:56,400
Speaker 1: end he was just really unlucky, but luck aside death

136
00:07:56,440 --> 00:07:59,200
Speaker 1: in the stands around a baseball diamond are more common

137
00:07:59,240 --> 00:08:02,240
Speaker 1: than you might think. A September nineteen twenty eight game

138
00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,720
Speaker 1: in Ifaca, New York, saw another tragic death when a

139
00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:08,600
Speaker 1: player named Carlton Berger hit a foul ball. It went

140
00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:12,440
Speaker 1: directly into the stands, where it struck and killed his father.

141
00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:15,840
Speaker 1: But if these old school examples just seem like a

142
00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:19,160
Speaker 1: case of low safety standards, consider that games have only

143
00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:22,720
Speaker 1: gotten more dangerous since the nineteen seventies. This was when

144
00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:25,640
Speaker 1: many major league teams in the US began constructing the

145
00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:29,280
Speaker 1: massive stadiums that we're familiar with today, with some rising

146
00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:32,080
Speaker 1: as high as thirty feet into the air. Several fans

147
00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:35,199
Speaker 1: have taken fatal plunges when trying to catch a home run,

148
00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:39,160
Speaker 1: soaring above their heads. But even if you survive the fall,

149
00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:42,200
Speaker 1: don't look for anyone to pay your medical bills. Many

150
00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:45,080
Speaker 1: teams have what's now known in legal circles as the

151
00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:47,880
Speaker 1: Baseball Rule. It's printed on the back of your ticket

152
00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:50,600
Speaker 1: and it says that the park is not responsible for

153
00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:54,200
Speaker 1: any injury sustained from loose balls or bats. And look,

154
00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:56,560
Speaker 1: I know that the old song says, take me out

155
00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,480
Speaker 1: to the ballgame, but it seems like if we're not careful.

156
00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:02,480
Speaker 1: We might just get taken out at the ballgame. And

157
00:09:02,559 --> 00:09:06,880
Speaker 1: if that happens, I think we can call that curious.

158
00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,400
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet

159
00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:17,320
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

160
00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:21,920
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

161
00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,520
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership

162
00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:28,840
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show

163
00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:33,040
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,

164
00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:35,120
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the

165
00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:41,839
Speaker 1: Worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.