Killer Shipwrecks: Recent Episodes
Brainstorm
On November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald vanished in a matter of minutes. She was the largest ship on the Great Lakes. No mayday. No distress call. Just a captain's last words: "We are holding our own." The wreck inspired Gordon Lightfoot's famous song, but the real story is stranger than the lyrics. Fifty years later, nobody agrees on exactly what caused the ship to go down, and the lake has never given up a single body. Plus, a recent legal saga involving a police department, a relic from the ship, and a $600,000 settlement continues to keep the story alive.
Listen to the first four seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know. Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions, and Season 4 offers impossible to believe tales of true crime!
Harrison Okene, a crew member on the Jascon-4 tugboat, was using the bathroom in the middle of the night when the boat -- and his whole life -- turned upside down. A rogue wave flipped the Jascon-4 and sent it to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, 20 miles off the coast of Nigeria. All crew members except the 29-year-old Okene died. How he managed to survive for the next three days is one of the most amazing maritime survival tales of all time.
Listen to the first four seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know. Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions, and Season 4 offers impossible to believe tales of true crime!
In 1900, a Greek sponge diver surfaced in a panic, describing rotting bodies and horses on the seafloor. His captain thought he was hallucinating, so he went down himself. He came back up holding a 2,000-year-old bronze arm.
The Antikythera wreck holds the world's oldest known computer, a weapon pulled straight from ancient mythology, and a statue engineered to move on its own. What this single ship was carrying remains one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in history. And the excavation continues to this day.
Listen to the first four seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know. Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions, and Season 4 offers impossible to believe tales of true crime!
The Spanish Armada of 1588 was supposed to be invincible. But its ships fared poorly in battles in the English Channel and then began to suffer catastrophic losses while attempting a dangerous escape north around Scotland and Ireland. Among the 28 ships lost by Spain was the mighty Girona, with 1,300 men aboard and a small fortune in gold and silver. Where did it sink? An Irish chieftain in a clifftop castle knew the answer, but he kept it secret for years in hopes of one day salvaging the treasure for himself and his clan. For the thrilling conclusion to this historical mystery, listen to the latest episode of Killer Means Awesome, a Brainstorm podcast.
Listen to the first four seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know. Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions, and Season 4 offers impossible to believe tales of true crime!
In 1622, a Spanish galleon loaded with half a billion dollars in gold, silver, and Colombian emeralds sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys, taking 260 lives with it. Spain spent 60 years searching for the valuable wreck and never found it. More than three centuries later, a treasure hunter named Mel Fisher picked up the search. Every morning he told his crew: "Today's the day." It took him 16 years, a Supreme Court battle, and unthinkable personal loss to finally be right.
Listen to the first four seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know. Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions, and Season 4 offers impossible to believe tales of true crime!
Few 18th century pirates had more success than Sam Bellamy. In one remarkable year, he seized or looted no fewer than 53 ships in the Atlantic Ocean. But then in 1717 Bellamy and his crew died in a nighttime shipwreck off the coast of Cape Cod, spilling a massive haul of treasure into the ocean and beyond the reach of salvagers for more than 260 years. Only in 1984, thanks to the dogged efforts of Massachusetts native Barry Clifford, did Bellamy's treasure begin to see the light of day once more.
Listen to the first four seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know. Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions, and Season 4 offers impossible to believe tales of true crime!
In 1120, a drunken midnight party aboard a brand-new luxury ship killed nearly 300 of England's young nobility, including the only legitimate male heir to the throne. What followed was two decades of brutal civil war, the rise of an entirely new dynasty, and a lesson in how one submerged rock can reshape the course of a nation for centuries.
Listen to the first four seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know. Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions, and Season 4 offers impossible to believe tales of true crime!
It was one of the worst maritime disasters in US military history, and naval historians would spend decades studying what went wrong. But the sinking of the USS Indianapolis also led to acts of extraordinary courage and selflessness. In 2017 -- 62 years after it sank -- the crumpled remains of the warship were finally located 18,000 feet deep in the Pacific Ocean.
Listen to the first four seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know. Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions, and Season 4 offers impossible to believe tales of true crime!
In 1911, a handyman hid in a Louvre closet overnight, then simply walked out the next morning with the Mona Lisa under his apron—pulling off the most famous art theft in history. Before this audacious crime, Leonardo's masterpiece was just another Renaissance painting; it returned as the world's most iconic artwork.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
As horrifying as the crash of Air India flight 171 was, investigators soon shocked the world again. They said the plane was likely intentionally crashed by a suicidal pilot, killing 260 people. How could this be? How could a pilot entrusted with hundreds of lives have evaded mental health screening meant to prevent such tragedies? In Episode 11 we look at the troubling history of intentional crashes by suicidal airline pilots. Such crashes are more numerous than we -- or the airlines -- would like to admit.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
In the late 1860s, George Leslie walked among New York's elite as a respected architect, all while planning the most audacious bank robberies in American history. Using revolutionary techniques and meticulous planning, he became the criminal mastermind behind 80% of all bank heists nationwide—until jealousy, murder, and betrayal brought down the King of Bank Robbers.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
An avid surfer and fisherman, San Diego native Garret Rodriguez dreamed of building a home for himself on a small piece of land which his father had bought for him along the coast of Mexico. But first Garret needed to make money -- serious money. So the 27-year-old headed north to the Emerald Triangle, a remote, heavily forested area in Northern California where up to 50% of all cannabis grown in the U.S. is cultivated. He made friends, he learned the business, he was doing well until one day ... he wasn't.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
In 1969, twenty-year-old Ted Conrad walked out of a bank in Ohio with the equivalent of two million dollars and vanished completely—cutting off all contact with family and friends. It wasn't until fifty-two years later that the incredible mystery of what happened to Ted Conrad was finally revealed.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
Just days after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, people in Florida, New York, and Washington D.C. began to receive letters containing deadly spores of the bacteria which causes anthrax. These letters killed five people, sickened 17 others, and added new layers of fear and uncertainty in the wake of the deadly plane hijackings. Post Offices were closed down for decontamination. Work in Congress ground to a halt. A tidal shift toward the use of email began. And despite the FBI committing massive resources to the anthrax investigation, including an estimated $3 billion in funding, the agency ultimately needed seven long years to track down the culprit, whose identity shocked the nation.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
The United California Bank burglary took place on March 24th, 1972, in Laguna Niguel, California, The ingenuity employed by criminal mastermind Amil Dinsio and his crew is matched only by the crime's incredible backstory, which has ties to President Richard Nixon and the notorious Jimmy Hoffa.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
When it occurred in 1979, the mass shooting at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego appeared to be a bizarre anomaly, a horrible act of violence with no obvious motive. But ensuing decades have revealed it to be the first in a long line of school shootings. No other nation comes close to the U.S. in the frequency and severity of this particularly terrifying, particularly American type of crime.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
The life and crimes of Albert Johnson Walker span two continents and include a virtual laundry list of offenses: financial fraud, money laundering, embezzlement, stolen identity, incest, and murder. Despite years of being one of the world's most wanted criminals, the unassuming, church-going Walker might never have been caught if not for a bad day of fishing and a particular Rolex watch.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
Ten years after the death of Lauren Taylor Agee, her family is still no closer to finding out how she died. In this episode, we revisit the mysterious case and explore how the investigation went off track and what could still be done to accomplish some measure of closure and justice.
Check out Kit's blog about Lauren Agee.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
The 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, known as the "heist of the century," is considered one of the largest robberies in history with more than $100 million worth of diamonds and other jewels stolen. The true story of how a small group of colorful characters managed to circumvent the 10 layers of security of the diamond vault located in the heavily guarded Antwerp diamond district is astounding. The story of how they got caught is equally shocking!
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
Only one hijacking in the history of commercial aviation remains unsolved to this day -- the mysterious case of D.B. Cooper. After hijacking a commuter flight in the Pacific Northwest on the night before Thanksgiving in 1971, the polite, unassuming man strapped on his parachute and leapt into the cold nighttime darkness above the Columbia River in Washington state. Despite decades of investigation by the FBI, neither Cooper nor the $200,000 he stole was ever found.
Listen to the first three seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear incredible true stories. Season 1 features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks, while Season 2 highlights biographies of people you really should know, and Season 3 tells incredible stories of real inventions!
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As the foundation for everything from bulletproof vests to bridge cables, Kevlar is a miracle fiber that has saved lives and transformed entire industries since its invention in the 1960s. Yet, without the wild hunch and strong will of Stephanie Kwolek—a brilliant chemist born in Pittsburgh in 1923—the world might never have been introduced to this remarkable material.
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
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The last six years have seen a dramatic surge in cold cases being solved by law enforcement agencies around the U.S. One after another, police departments are resolving cases which had bedeviled detectives for decades. In Episode 11 of Killer Inventions, we examine what exactly lies behind the increase and where the field seems headed next. Some of the answers may surprise you!
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
Tell us what's on your mind.
While you may know the board game Monopoly, you probably don't know the incredible story of the game's invention. This week's episode reveals the true story of the person responsible for inventing the game, and Parker Brothers' purposeful deceit in perpetuating the myth behind the game's origin. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200...go directly to episode 10 of Killer Inventions!
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
Tell us what's on your mind.
Some inventions don’t look particularly clever or useful in hindsight. The ‘baby cage’ may be one of those inventions! Developed in the early 20th century in response to diseases like tuberculosis and the Spanish Flu, the baby cage was not for the faint of heart. Nor for those scared of heights. Improbably enough, the contraption continued to be used as late as the 1950s.
Tune into Episode 9 for the full story on this odd chapter in American tinkering.
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
Some say youth is wasted on the young, however, that is definitely not the case with the three inventors featured in this episode, each of whom was under the age of 16 when they made history. Check out these three incredible inventors and their killer inventions in Episode 8 of Killer Means Awesome!Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
The invention of dynamite in 1867 transformed industry, mining, railroad building, and modern warfare. It also led to the creation of the Nobel Prizes. For the full story of the brilliant, moody Swede who invented both dynamite and the Nobel Prizes, check out Episode 7 of Killer Means Awesome!Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
For thousands of years people all over the world have chewed gum or gum-like substances. Still, the invention of the modern chewing gum industry took place in the United States in the 1800s, and while you may be familiar with names like William Wrigley, Jr., an exiled Mexican General was also responsible for the gum you enjoy today. Hear the incredible true story of how chewing gum evolved from the naturally occurring flavorless birch bark tar to the chemically crafted Lebron James’ Lightning Lemonade Bubblicious Bubble Gum.
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
The magical sound of slide guitar is a modern invention. Though long associated with American blues music, the location of its earliest pioneers may surprise you! Tune into Killer Means Awesome to find out who invented the musical technique, who set the standard for playing, and why you should never, ever let guitarist Ry Cooder drive you through the mountains.
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales of recently discovered shipwrecks and season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
Diminutive in stature but a giant in the world of inventions, the brilliant Grace Hopper talked her way into the Navy after Pearl Harbor and went on to become arguably the most pivotal innovator at the dawn of the information age.
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
From its earliest, primitive versions in the 1940s to the powerful, high-tech devices of today, the fabled 'black box' on airplanes has captured both the public imagination and the careful attention of engineers and investigators. Perhaps no other device does more to unravel the mystery of a plane crash than the flight recorder, which is built to withstand explosions, fires, water exposure, and intense deep-sea pressure. For the full history of this fascinating device -- including the incredible lengths which investigators go to in order to recover it after a crash -- check out the latest episode of Killer Means Awesome!Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales of recently discovered shipwrecks and season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
In 1856 William Henry Perkin was an 18 year old college student on spring break when he accidentally invented a method for creating synthetic purple dye, a storied color which also happened to be the most coveted in all of Europe. Still, no one could have imagined William’s home experiment would inadvertently usher in the first science-based industry, making William rich and famous, bringing color to the masses, and ultimately changing the world.
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
The Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann was the first person to synthesize LSD in 1938. From an accidental LSD trip to today’s worldwide renaissance in government-sanctioned research, perhaps no psychedelic has triggered more controversy and headlines than LSD. What started as the brainchild of the young chemist looking for new medicines, LSD has been used in psychiatry, religious ceremonies, the creative arts, and even CIA spy-craft!
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
Introducing the newly branded Killer Means Awesome podcast and Season #3: Killer Inventions!
Listen to the first two seasons of Killer Means Awesome to hear more incredible true stories. Season one features amazing tales about recently discovered shipwrecks and Season two highlights biographies of people you really should know!
As an expert draftsman, inventor, and scientist, Lewis Howard Latimer helped Alexander Graham Bell patent the telephone and became Thomas Edison’s most trusted partner. Credited with inventing carbon filaments for light bulbs, the first air conditioner, and improvements for elevators and railroad car toilets, Latimer also found time to learn French, write poetry, play multiple instruments, and publish the first book ever written on electrical lighting. That he was the son of slaves, had no formal education, and joined the Navy at 16 in order to fight in the Civil War makes his life story that much more impressive!Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous invention
Get out of the way, it’s Fighting Shirley Chisholm coming through! Chisholm was ‘unbought and unbossed’ — from childhood poverty and time split between Barbados and Brooklyn to a pioneering career in U.S. politics and a historic run for President in 1972 … this is the story of the first black woman elected to Congress.
Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous invention
The original work hard, play hard executive, Cleopatra is known for high profile liaisons with Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. Ruling over a vast Egyptian empire for more than two decades, she is arguably the most powerful woman in human history. Her incredible story, complete with forced exile, murder, incest, and a secret drinking club is even more dramatic than the Shakespearean play about her life!If you are a fan of Killer Biographies check out the Killer Shipwrecks episodes from Season 1!
Before there was Alexander the Great, there was Cyrus the Great. Through military conquests, strategic alliances, and centralized administration, he established the first Persian empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas. He also freed the Jews from Babylon and got a shout-out in the Old Testament.
Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous inventions!
Fasten your seatbelts for the incredible story of Arthur Whitten Brown and John Alcock, two young aviators who attempted the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic ocean in 1919, eight years before Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris.
Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous invention
He lived on the street, heckled Plato, and loved dogs. Today Diogenes is considered one of the preeminent philosophers of Ancient Greece.
Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous invention
Margaret Rudkin was worried about her son’s asthma. In an effort to help him, she wound up starting one of the most iconic brands in the world and a company which today generates billions in annual sales.
Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous invention
Deities! Snakes! Hidden vaults of ancient treasure!
In the last years of his life, the Indian lawyer and holy man T.P. Sundararajan took up a new cause - finding out just what was stored in the mysterious vaults beneath the Sri Padmanaabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. Prepare to be amazed!
Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous invention
Forget what you think you know about Pocahontas and hear the incredible true story of her amazing life.
Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous invention
The killing of Mississippi native Medgar Evers marked the end of a remarkable life, and helped pave the way for a tidal shift in race relations and civil rights.
Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous invention
William Hutchinson Norris and the Southerners who became known as Confederados.
Killer Biographies is now season two of the Killer Means Awesome podcast. Check out season one to hear amazing true tales of recently discovered shipwrecks. Season three features stories behind famous invention
Viking ship from the 9th century has it all — elaborate wood carvings, a magic wand, cannabis seeds, horses, dogs, sleighs, carts, and — possibly — the remains of Queen Asa!’
Viking ship from the 9th century has it all — elaborate wood carvings, a magic wand, cannabis seeds, horses, dogs, sleighs, carts, and — possibly — the remains of Queen Asa!’
An incredibly ornate early 17th century Swedish warship makes a splash on her maiden voyage!
A 17th century Danish warship and a record setting underwater tunnel in the Baltic Sea!
Wine, almonds, skindivers, and an incredible discovery off the coast of Cyprus from the time of Alexander the Great!