The Backstory with Patty Steele

Agatha Christie is the biggest selling novelist in world history. Well over 2 billion books sold in 103 languages. She is the forever queen of mystery. But her biggest mystery is her 1926 disappearance. It made headlines all over the world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You think sex in the 18th century was all about being shy and virtuous? Not so much. Wait until you hear about the percentage of women who were pregnant before their wedding day. The Revolutionary War . . was actually on the cusp of a sexual revolution!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before the world was industrialized less than 200 years ago . . it smelled really different! They didn’t have to deal with the smell of gasoline fumes, burning rubber or oil, or the output of giant smokey factories. But imagine 3 1/2 million pounds of manure dumped onto the streets of New York City every day! Were they nose blind?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stephen King had nothing when he was a kid . . no dad, no money . . but he did have a flashlight so he could read books under the covers. His passion turned into his own books and films like Carrie, The Shining, Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, It, and The Long Walk. So, what was his secret?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Communicating quickly with family, friends, and work colleagues, whether miles apart or rooms apart, has always been a challenge. It’s one human beings have been dealing with for thousands of years. We’ve used everything from smoke signals, to telegraph, to telephones, to weird devices like a tube you’d blow into to fetch an extra blanket.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you picture an art heist, like the one last month at the Louvre in Paris, you picture really cool looking international thieves. The guys nabbed in Paris however, were just regular small time crooks. But let’s go back to the most valuable museum heist in world history. It happened in Boston 35 years ago and was carried out by two guys wearing fake mustaches.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Monster stories are usually just fun thrillers told around a campfire. But what happened in a small Illinois town 50 years ago, has never been explained.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Halloween is really festive and a little spooky. But its origins and most of its traditions were both festive and spooky, on steroids! They originated in ancient Ireland, where the Celts held raging parties involving human sacrifice!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the 96th anniversary of Black Thursday . . the day the stock market crashed, kicking off the Great Depression. There were stories in the immediate aftermath of dozens of investors jumping from buildings on Wall Street. But what inspired those stories and what really happened?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we look at iconic movies, we can’t imagine them being different in any way from what we finally see on the screen. But making movies is an evolutionary process. Turns out Raiders of the Lost Ark almost didn’t get made and the role of Indiana Jones almost went to another very popular actor.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the Perfect Scenario for a Horror Movie. A Contractor Lures 33 Kids to His Normal Looking Home to Party and Talk About a Job . . and They’re Never Seen Again. But Did John Wayne Gacy, the So Called Killer Clown, Have Accomplices? He Maintained He Did Until His Execution. No One Was Ever Charged but There Is Some Evidence.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Salem witch trials took place 333 years ago. They left a lot of bad energy in that small New England town. But folks who’ve visited one house in particular have some pretty chilling stories to tell about being strangled, burned, and scratched by 300 year old ghosts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conspiracy theories are everywhere these days, but that’s nothing new. They just get more oxygen with social media. The 1960s saw the rise of conspiracy theories in the aftermath of the JFK assassination and the distrust of the government after the advent of the Vietnam War. So, it’s no surprise that some folks didn’t believe man ever landed on ther moon. But the percentage of doubters then . . and even now, is staggering! It even caused astronaut Buzz Aldrin to punch one doubter in the face!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The White House has long been described as one of the most haunted houses in America. But imagine there's a world famous politician, staying in the Lincoln Bedroom. Just out of the shower, he walks naked over to the fireplace in the bedroom . . only to see Abe Lincoln sitting there. And he actually spoke to him!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever thought about what surgery would have been like before the advent of anesthesia? Doctors did everything from amputations to mastectomies to tooth extraction with almost no pain relief for the patient. Their secret was speed, and their assistants were the original men in black.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Haunted houses usually have a story that’s been embellished over the years or even just made up. But a mansion in New Orleans’ French Quarter, once owned by Nicholas Cage, has a documented history that’s absolutely horrifying. And even he was terrified of the place!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Serial killers use all sorts of techniques to carry out their deranged fantasies. Robert Hansen, who owned a bakeshop in Anchorage, Alaska, was also a methodical hunter of women. He’d kidnap them, fly them in his small plane into the Alaskan wilderness, where he’d release them and then hunt them down.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine endless money and the life it offers you. But then . . imagine the downside. Countess Almina Rothschild was the wife of the Earl of Carnarvon. Marrying her gave him millions . . but that money made him a victim of the curse of King Tut’s tomb.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all know about Steve Jobs and Apple. But how did he and his much quieter partner Steve Wozniak create this massive business that, like it or not, now controls our lives? What role did they each play in making it into the world’s first trillion-dollar company? And why did Steve Jobs get most of the money and fame?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who’s the all-time G.O.A.T. in the world of sports? There are a handful of obvious choices… but perhaps the G.O.A.T. of all G.O.A.T.s is a guy who, over a hundred years ago, won Olympic gold and then dominated three professional sports: baseball, football, and basketball. Sadly, Jim Thorpe died broke. But why is a town he never visited named after him? How’d all that happen?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Violence in the world of politics seems to be getting worse as time goes by… including the recent assassination of a right-wing political influencer. But taking a look back, violence stemming from differences in political ideology is nothing new.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1836 and 8 year old Cynthia Ann Parker is kidnapped by Comanche warriors in Texas. But as time goes by she has so totally assimilated into the tribal life, that she has no interest in returning home. Then after 24 years . . she’s kidnapped again!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

These days a lot of folks complain that sports has become simply a money game. But that trend actually began over a century ago with the wild antics and baseball genius of Babe Ruth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dogs give us puppy eyes . . cats grace us with their presence. But we love them both . . or at least a lot of us do. But why are the two most popular pets so very different? It all boils down to genetics and history.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hard to imagine but fad diets go back as much as 5000 years. It was took the Victorians to make it a massive business. These days we all want the new and very expensive weight loss injections, but they used everything from arsenic, to tapeworms, to rubber underwear to get that svelte shape.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A 15 year old kid walks into the woods to ask some questions about the meaning of life. Nothing unusual there. However, this kid, Joseph Smith, walks out of the woods and starts a movement in the 1820s that leads to spiritual enlightenment for millions... but to violence, murder, and what some consider sexual deviance for others.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine being swept up in a flood of sticky molasses headed to a distillery… or a 25-foot tsunami of beer… or a torrent of hundreds of thousands of gallons of red hot. All true… and deadly stories.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine forcing your daughter into a loveless marriage to an English duke. Why? Because you want a divorce, money from the divorce, and the ability to hang on to your social standing. That was life among the rich in the Gilded Age and Alva Vanderbilt figured out a way to get what she wanted with her daughter as the pawn.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The key to making your dreams become reality, is not accepting limitations. We're revisiting the first female powerhouse in the Madmen era of Madison Avenue, Mary Wells Lawrence. She rose from a working class life in Ohio to creating iconic ads for TWA, Pan Am, Hertz, IBM, Proctor and Gamble . .  as well as the “I Love New York“ campaign. And she was still living the dream well into her 90s!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hollywood is a tough business. Stars take roles in movies they come to hate . . but equally as frustrating are the roles they take a pass on . . that make somebody else rich and famous. This is all about stars who turned down roles in movies like Titanic, Forrest Gump, The Godfather, Silence of the Lambs, and more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marilyn Monroe . . Dead at 36 . . Allegedly by Suicide. But Was That Really the Case? Coroner to the Stars, Thomas Noguchi Did Her Autopsy . . And He Says It Left Him With More Questions Than Answers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The father of U.S. space exploration, Wernher von Braun, started out as a Nazi collaborator and a member of the Nazi SS. Why did the U.S. ignore his Nazi involvement and how do we reconcile his remarkable achievements with his dark past?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This summer is the 40th anniversary of the blockbuster "Back to the Future". But it originally starred an actor who hated the whole story line! He was replaced by Michael J. Fox . . and the rest is history. But there are a boatload of movies, with huge stars who hated the final product!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s amazing how we beg for the heat of summer when we’re freezing in the dead of winter. And then the heatwaves hit. Once again this summer, we’re all sweltering from the heat… air so thick and hot you can feel it go down your throat as you breathe. But heatwaves are nothing new. They killed thousands in 1898 and thousands more in the early 1900s. But the one that hit London 167 years ago changed the city forever. It’s time to revisit “The Great Stink of 1858.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Idaho killer was sentenced this week to life in prison for stabbing to death 4 college students. But 60 years ago, another mass murderer stabbed and strangled 8 nursing students in Chicago. As in the Idaho case, he made one crucial mistake that got him caught.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeffrey Epstein, millionaire sex offender and friend to presidents and royalty, is back in the news. It seems his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, holds the key to what went on at Epstein’s private retreats with his powerful friends. Attorney Alan Dershowitz calls her the Epstein Rosetta Stone. But her backstory is just as fascinating. Her father, Robert Maxwell, was cut of the same cloth as Epstein. Ambitious and wildly successful . . until they weren’t. Ghislaine’s father and her lover, both died under mysterious circumstances as their lives were collapsing around them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nothing like a swim in the ocean on a hot summer day. But the movie Jaws, out 50 years ago this summer, took away some of our innocence. It still makes us all a little nervous about what’s beneath us as we paddle around. The inspiration for Jaws came from some horrifying shark attacks, including several along the Jersey Shore in July of 1916 that left 4 dead, as well as the shark attacks on as many as 150 sailors from the torpedoed USS Indianapolis in World War Two.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Queen Victoria, who ran the British Empire for 63 years, defined the buttoned-up, conservative era named for her… the Victorian Era. But it turns out… her many pleasures included opium, cocaine, and sex!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During the Prohibition era of the 1920s and early 1930s, speakeasies and gin joints were the place to be to get ahold of “evil booze.” How did the government try to control access? They purposely poisoned industrial alcohol that was being repurposed for cocktails. It wound up killing and maiming tens of thousands of would-be partiers!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No Time Like the Present to Revisit an Eye-Catching Topic! Sex Has Been... Complicated... Throughout History. At Times Celebrated as a Life Force... and at Other Times Vilified. But Get This!! Some of the Items Invented to Discourage Sex Included the Pricking Ring... and Believe It or Not... Corn Flakes!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the 4th of July . . a perfect time to revisit an unsung hero during the Revolutionary War! We all know about the midnight ride of Paul Revere at the onset of the Revolution. But what about Sybil Ludington . . the female Paul Revere. She was just 16 years old when she made her little known 40 mile ride to warn about approaching British troops in Connecticut.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Connection is as strong a need as air. For folks that can’t find it, there have been plenty of cults that offer community, acceptance, and love. But it all comes at a price.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maybe you’ve seen death masks of famous people like King Tut or Napoleon. But the 1888 death mask of a completely unknown teenager in Paris was used to create Resusci-Annie . . the CPR doll. And that inspired one of Michael Jackson’s biggest hits!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The FBI has had some pretty astounding moments of transformation in its 117-year history. But the bloodiest shootout in its history changed the way they do their job forever. It took place less than 40 years ago.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Got a co-worker who likes to monkey around at work? Don’t be so quick to give them the thumbs down. There are lots of actual animals that are amazing at jobs most humans can’t do. But this is a story of an official railroad worker who was a real baboon . . literally.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As hard as it is to believe . . we just lost a guy who’s own grandfather was born in the 1700s and was president 185 years ago! It seems like the math doesn’t work . . but we’ll explain the life story of Harrison Tyler and his grandpa . . President John Tyler.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Usually when an alarm goes off . . we take a minute to consider the possibilities so we don’t over react. But what if it comes on the heels on a world altering disaster? Can an entire city have PTSD? That’s what L.A. faced just 2 months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Wild West as Hollywood Tells the Story, Was Nothing but Gun Battles and Saloon Girls. But the True Story Is Way More Complex and Fascinating, Although It’s Got Its Share of Gun Battles! Overall, It Was a 30-Year Period That in Many Ways Defines Who We Are in America. But Then . . . How Did Barbed Wire Play a Huge Role in Ending the Wild West?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Her family is murdered while on the adventure of a lifetime and the 11 year old survivor is lost at sea for days. As it turns out, the murderer is someone they all trusted with their dreams . . and their lives.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gianni Versace was one of the world’s hottest designers. In 1997 he had a net worth of almost a billion dollars and some of the most exquisite mansions in the world. He had it all. And that was the problem. His success and possible connection to sex for hire circles, led spree killer Andrew Cunanan . . right to Versace’s front door one beautiful summer morning.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.