The Backstory with Patty Steele

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?

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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