August 7, 2018 • 9 mins
Today's tour explores the mysterious beginnings of a criminal mastermind, and then shifts gears to a spy thriller with an ending that will strike you as more than a little eerie.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. On a cold December night,
(00:29):
Mary vanished. She had left to note describing a last
minute trip north, and then seemed to have fallen off
the edge of the world. Mary's friends and family began
asking around, but no one had seen any sign of her.
Her own husband, retired colonel, tried pulling a few strings,
but she still remained undiscovered. It wasn't until a couple
(00:50):
of days later, when her car was found that people
really began to worry. The car had been abandoned, along
with clothing and her i d on a small country road.
Those with overactive imaginations began to suspect something more than
a simple mistake or even a practical joke. They believed
Mary had been kidnapped, possibly even killed, and they knew
(01:14):
just who had committed the crime. Mary's husband, you see,
he was already in a bit of hot water, so
to speak. A few months earlier, he had requested a
divorce from Mary, and in the weeks since they had
been fighting constantly. He had found another woman, and Mary
was standing in the way of that happiness. If you'd asked,
(01:34):
some of them might have even suggested that he was
a bit resentful of that. It was easy to connect
the dots and label him as a suspect, which is
what the police did. They questioned him and his mistress,
but in the end they didn't think that he had
committed the crime, and in the meantime, search parties were
expanding their reach. At one point, at least a thousand
(01:57):
law enforcement officials and fifteen thousand and civilian volunteers painstakingly
examined the region Mary had disappeared from, all while being
shadowed by a number of airplanes. Her disappearance was covered
by The New York Times. Celebrity mystery writers even got involved,
spinning their own theories of what happened, and one man
(02:19):
hired a medium to examine one of Mary's gloves in
hopes that it would lead them in the right direction.
But it didn't work. Don't worry, though, The story does
have a happy ending, and that's because eleven days after
she vanished, Mary was found over two hundred and thirty
miles to the north. She checked into a hotel under
(02:40):
a different name and claimed she had no memory of
the entire ordeal. Some people believed Mary was telling the truth,
that yes, she had somehow lost touch with reality for
a week and a half. Psychologists call it a fugue state,
where a person going through a traumatic experience subconsciously creates
an entirely new reality where the stress no longer exists.
(03:04):
But others thought there was something more going on. They
believe Mary actually knew what she was doing, and that
the purpose behind the whole ordeal was to have her
husband charged with her murder. People who believe this theory
claimed that once he had been executed for her murder,
she would have strolled back out of the darkness and
claimed amnesia. They believe, in a sense that Mary was
(03:26):
a master of deception and planning, something pulled straight out
of the pages of a dime store novel. But like
a lot of things in life, will never know for sure,
because she never talked about it or explain herself ever. Again,
it was all just one big mystery. Whatever the truth was,
she recovered nicely enough. She went on to Mary an archaeologist,
(03:49):
which I find rather ironic because archaeologists at the basic level,
are really just people who dig around for clues that
tell a story, and Mary's life was built around clues.
In fact, without her, popular literature wouldn't be what it
is today. She's still the best selling author in history,
ahead of J. K. Rowling, Stephen King, and even William Shakespeare,
(04:11):
with over two billion books sold. Nearly everything she wrote
has been adapted in some form or another. And you've
heard about her your entire life, just not as Mary.
That's because she has been, still is, and always will
be the Queen of the mystery novel Agatha. Mary Christie
(04:48):
Peter Carpon was a spy. There was no question about it.
He had been captured by the French as he was
trying to slip into their country in nineteen fourteen, just
as the First World War was big inning. Maybe his
papers were clearly forged, or perhaps there was something about
his accent or the way he shifted his eyes when
they asked him questions. We don't know why he was captured,
(05:11):
only that he was, which meant that the French had
a problem on their hands. They could toss him in jail,
which they did right away. But then what alert the
Germans that their spy had been captured. That was only
going to force them to send another spy, or perhaps
more than one. The French would have to be more
(05:31):
diligent with their border patrols after that, and no one
wanted to do that. There were too many other things
that needed their time and resources. There was another option, though,
but it was risky. Someone proposed actually keeping Peter Carpon's
capture a secret from the Germans. They could send fake
intelligence reports back to the man's superiors in Berlin and
(05:55):
try to fool them into believing that Carpon was doing
his job. So that's what they did. For three years,
they sent back reports, and for three years the Germans
replied with more instructions and requests. Of course, the French
were feeding the Germans one false report after another, but
the Germans hadn't noticed. They were even making military decisions
(06:17):
based on those false reports. It was brilliant. It gets better, though,
you see, Peter Carpin needed an income to survive in France,
so the Germans were sending him money on a regular basis.
Sometimes it was for his own personal expenses, while other
times it was funding for the projects that they were
tasking him with and every time Germany sent that money,
(06:39):
the French were intercepting it and putting it into a
bank account. In nineteen seventeen, though, Peter Carpin escaped. I
don't know how, but he managed to slip out of
wherever they were holding him and vanish into the depths
of France. More than likely he was going to head
straight back to Germany, but without his money and papers.
(07:00):
That was going to take some time. Oh and speaking
of money, that was when the French decided to spend
the cash they had been covertly stealing from the Germans.
They bought a brand new car with it fancy right.
A few years later in France sent forces to an
area of Germany that the Treaty of Versailles had declared
(07:21):
to be a demilitarized zone. The Germans had failed to
make all of the World War One reparation payments that
they had agreed to, and had instead formed a sort
of passive resistance that was creating tension. The French arrived
as a sort of peace keeping measure. They brought the
car with them, which was a bit poetic. I think
a car purchased by the French with German funds and
(07:43):
now it was in Germany. Now, I don't know the
exact circumstances, but at some point in the French occupation
there in Ninete, that car was involved in an accident.
Maybe it was used in crowd control, or perhaps it
was just being driven through the streets like anyone today
would enjoy. Whatever the reason, the car had from moving,
(08:05):
it tragically struck a German citizen down, throwing him to
the ground like a rag doll. The French driver of
the car quickly climbed out, panic and grief painted across
his face, and approached the body of the man he'd hit.
It was too late, though, the man was dead. Checking
his papers for anything that would help them contact the
(08:26):
man's relatives and inform them of the tragic accident, the
French soldiers discovered something amazing. This man they had hit,
the one who now lay dead in the street after
being struck by the German funded automobile, wasn't the random
stranger they expected him to be. In fact, they knew him.
(08:47):
It was the spy himself. Peter Carpon. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
(09:11):
I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
learn all about it over at the World of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. On a cold December night,
(00:29):
Mary vanished. She had left to note describing a last
minute trip north, and then seemed to have fallen off
the edge of the world. Mary's friends and family began
asking around, but no one had seen any sign of her.
Her own husband, retired colonel, tried pulling a few strings,
but she still remained undiscovered. It wasn't until a couple
(00:50):
of days later, when her car was found that people
really began to worry. The car had been abandoned, along
with clothing and her i d on a small country road.
Those with overactive imaginations began to suspect something more than
a simple mistake or even a practical joke. They believed
Mary had been kidnapped, possibly even killed, and they knew
(01:14):
just who had committed the crime. Mary's husband, you see,
he was already in a bit of hot water, so
to speak. A few months earlier, he had requested a
divorce from Mary, and in the weeks since they had
been fighting constantly. He had found another woman, and Mary
was standing in the way of that happiness. If you'd asked,
(01:34):
some of them might have even suggested that he was
a bit resentful of that. It was easy to connect
the dots and label him as a suspect, which is
what the police did. They questioned him and his mistress,
but in the end they didn't think that he had
committed the crime, and in the meantime, search parties were
expanding their reach. At one point, at least a thousand
(01:57):
law enforcement officials and fifteen thousand and civilian volunteers painstakingly
examined the region Mary had disappeared from, all while being
shadowed by a number of airplanes. Her disappearance was covered
by The New York Times. Celebrity mystery writers even got involved,
spinning their own theories of what happened, and one man
(02:19):
hired a medium to examine one of Mary's gloves in
hopes that it would lead them in the right direction.
But it didn't work. Don't worry, though, The story does
have a happy ending, and that's because eleven days after
she vanished, Mary was found over two hundred and thirty
miles to the north. She checked into a hotel under
(02:40):
a different name and claimed she had no memory of
the entire ordeal. Some people believed Mary was telling the truth,
that yes, she had somehow lost touch with reality for
a week and a half. Psychologists call it a fugue state,
where a person going through a traumatic experience subconsciously creates
an entirely new reality where the stress no longer exists.
(03:04):
But others thought there was something more going on. They
believe Mary actually knew what she was doing, and that
the purpose behind the whole ordeal was to have her
husband charged with her murder. People who believe this theory
claimed that once he had been executed for her murder,
she would have strolled back out of the darkness and
claimed amnesia. They believe, in a sense that Mary was
(03:26):
a master of deception and planning, something pulled straight out
of the pages of a dime store novel. But like
a lot of things in life, will never know for sure,
because she never talked about it or explain herself ever. Again,
it was all just one big mystery. Whatever the truth was,
she recovered nicely enough. She went on to Mary an archaeologist,
(03:49):
which I find rather ironic because archaeologists at the basic level,
are really just people who dig around for clues that
tell a story, and Mary's life was built around clues.
In fact, without her, popular literature wouldn't be what it
is today. She's still the best selling author in history,
ahead of J. K. Rowling, Stephen King, and even William Shakespeare,
(04:11):
with over two billion books sold. Nearly everything she wrote
has been adapted in some form or another. And you've
heard about her your entire life, just not as Mary.
That's because she has been, still is, and always will
be the Queen of the mystery novel Agatha. Mary Christie
(04:48):
Peter Carpon was a spy. There was no question about it.
He had been captured by the French as he was
trying to slip into their country in nineteen fourteen, just
as the First World War was big inning. Maybe his
papers were clearly forged, or perhaps there was something about
his accent or the way he shifted his eyes when
they asked him questions. We don't know why he was captured,
(05:11):
only that he was, which meant that the French had
a problem on their hands. They could toss him in jail,
which they did right away. But then what alert the
Germans that their spy had been captured. That was only
going to force them to send another spy, or perhaps
more than one. The French would have to be more
(05:31):
diligent with their border patrols after that, and no one
wanted to do that. There were too many other things
that needed their time and resources. There was another option, though,
but it was risky. Someone proposed actually keeping Peter Carpon's
capture a secret from the Germans. They could send fake
intelligence reports back to the man's superiors in Berlin and
(05:55):
try to fool them into believing that Carpon was doing
his job. So that's what they did. For three years,
they sent back reports, and for three years the Germans
replied with more instructions and requests. Of course, the French
were feeding the Germans one false report after another, but
the Germans hadn't noticed. They were even making military decisions
(06:17):
based on those false reports. It was brilliant. It gets better, though,
you see, Peter Carpin needed an income to survive in France,
so the Germans were sending him money on a regular basis.
Sometimes it was for his own personal expenses, while other
times it was funding for the projects that they were
tasking him with and every time Germany sent that money,
(06:39):
the French were intercepting it and putting it into a
bank account. In nineteen seventeen, though, Peter Carpin escaped. I
don't know how, but he managed to slip out of
wherever they were holding him and vanish into the depths
of France. More than likely he was going to head
straight back to Germany, but without his money and papers.
(07:00):
That was going to take some time. Oh and speaking
of money, that was when the French decided to spend
the cash they had been covertly stealing from the Germans.
They bought a brand new car with it fancy right.
A few years later in France sent forces to an
area of Germany that the Treaty of Versailles had declared
(07:21):
to be a demilitarized zone. The Germans had failed to
make all of the World War One reparation payments that
they had agreed to, and had instead formed a sort
of passive resistance that was creating tension. The French arrived
as a sort of peace keeping measure. They brought the
car with them, which was a bit poetic. I think
a car purchased by the French with German funds and
(07:43):
now it was in Germany. Now, I don't know the
exact circumstances, but at some point in the French occupation
there in Ninete, that car was involved in an accident.
Maybe it was used in crowd control, or perhaps it
was just being driven through the streets like anyone today
would enjoy. Whatever the reason, the car had from moving,
(08:05):
it tragically struck a German citizen down, throwing him to
the ground like a rag doll. The French driver of
the car quickly climbed out, panic and grief painted across
his face, and approached the body of the man he'd hit.
It was too late, though, the man was dead. Checking
his papers for anything that would help them contact the
(08:26):
man's relatives and inform them of the tragic accident, the
French soldiers discovered something amazing. This man they had hit,
the one who now lay dead in the street after
being struck by the German funded automobile, wasn't the random
stranger they expected him to be. In fact, they knew him.
(08:47):
It was the spy himself. Peter Carpon. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works.
(09:11):
I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
learn all about it over at the World of Lore
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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