Public Spectacles of Death Pt. 1 (Episode 169)

🎇 In this episode covering Public Spectacles of Death, we dive into a sky-high trifecta of tragedy: a fireworks celebration for Marie Antoinette’s wedding that turned Paris into a flaming stampede, a Disney character performer in Maine who took flight... without wings, and WWII hero Richard Bong—who survived combat only to be done in by a peacetime jet test. From royal carnage to cartoonish freefall, we explore when the show really shouldn’t go on.

Join Kyle Ploof, Jerii Aquino and Ben Kissel every week on Death in Entertainment.

This week's story written by Brandon Preo.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Bodies lit by sparks. Crowds mesmerized, then
horrified. What begins in celebration
sometimes ends in chaos. In this episode, we turn our
gaze upward into the deadly beauty of the sky.
We explore the moments when spectacle becomes tragedy.
We'll take you from 18th centuryfireworks displays that ignited
royal crowds to 20th century airshows where pilots and

(00:21):
passengers were sacrificed for thrill, explosions, applause,
silence. This is Public Spectacles of
Death Part 1, and that's today on Death in Entertainment.
Live from Los Angeles. 911 What is your emergency?
Here in Hollywood now. Two counts of murder.

(00:42):
Injury and death, Oh my. God.
Shocking new details. That has stung the entertainment
world. This makes me a little nervous.
The hair stood up on my arms just like in the movies.
What do you call this thing anyway?
Death in. Entertainment.
Greetings Dead O Universe, How'severybody doing?
My name is Kyle Plouffe. And I'm Jerry Aquino.

(01:04):
And I am Ben Kissel, welcome to death and entertainment.
We have another fantastic episode for you today, Death.
Is it best to die alone or to die in front of a crowd?
We'll discuss death by public spectacle.
Yes, let's get this podcast shotout of a cannon.
Yeah, let's go. Do it.

(01:42):
Today's story written by BrandonRio.
So before we start, we'll start with the a dictionary definition
from Merriam Websters Dictionarydefines a public spectacle as
quote, something exhibited to view as unusual, notable, or
entertaining. I thought it was something my
wife did to end the marriage. Hey, hello.

(02:03):
Wow. You've never been married.
No, I haven't. They say it's especially an
eye-catching or dramatic public display, an object of curiosity
or contempt. So like everyone in New York
City at all times, Yeah. Basically.
Public spectacles come in all shapes and sizes.
Like us all. Many people want to perform for

(02:24):
crowds, others may want to impress their friends, and
others do it all for ego. Absolutely.
Or all of the above. Yeah, very true.
Public spectacles exist as everything from a grand display
of entertainment or power or pride.
Although always risky, spectacles are generally events
perfectly safe for the entire family.
But like everything else in the world, sometimes things will go

(02:46):
spectacularly wrong. The only ones that aren't safe
for the family are the spectacles that involve
testicles getting smashed by a sledgehammer.
Wow, that happens. Good.
Lord. When?
Oh, remember America's Funniest Home Videos, which were really
just bad, bad medical emergencies?
Yeah, So just what? You thought it was safe to go

(03:07):
out in public? Here are some of the wildest and
deadliest public spectacles in human history.
Nice. So let's talk about fireworks,
shall we? Let's do that.
Who doesn't like a fireworks display My?
Grandmother. Dogs, dogs.
Yeah, well, my grandmother and dogs.
Does she not like fireworks? Oh my God, I've told this story
before, but July 4th and StevensPoint, WI.
Every time a firework would go off, she would stand up, start

(03:29):
running, her pants would fall down and she would trip.
What? What in?
Just, I mean, it was literally every single time, so.
This wasn't like a drinking thing for grandma.
Grandma didn't drink, she got the guys drunk so she could do
God knows what. Oh man, I love grandma.
She was fun. She was fun.
If she's not your grandmother oryour mother, she.
Or if there are no fireworks. Yes, Yeah, exactly.

(03:51):
Yeah. So fireworks are one of the
oldest forms of public spectacles of all time,
originating in medieval China over 1000 years ago.
And they still work really well.They do.
People are just always going outside and be like, wow, like,
like it's a, it's a magical thing.
It really. Is they're starting to do like
almost fireworks displays, but it's all drones, which is

(04:13):
slightly terrifying. That's not as magical.
It's not as magical. It's not as like phenomenon Y.
Right, because there's less of achance of them exploding.
Or like the fireworks going on in all the wrong directions and
whole bunch of people dying. Plus, if you think of like like
Disney World, at the end of the night, they have a fireworks
show. If Disney works started doing
like a drone show at the end, wouldn't it feel like just kind

(04:33):
of a little more like authoritarian, yeah.
Authoritarian. There it is.
Yeah, I agree. And I do think that at this
point, Mickey might as well run the show, right?
Yeah, why not? And I don't understand how it's
just a little tube with like a bunch of, I mean, it's, I'm
going to say dirt for lack of a better term, but it's like
gunpowder. How do they pack smiley faces in
there? Well, they're very smart.

(04:54):
Yeah. That there's a whole science
behind fireworks. Smarter than Me brilliance so
fireworks can be viewed on a large scale, broadcast on
television or on a hot summer dry night, even on New Year's.
Especially on New Year's, yeah. That's such a dry night when I
come around, you know what I'm talking about.
Why? Because people get aroused,

(05:15):
women get aroused. Oh, I thought you were the one
that was moist. No, it's the women.
It's the women. That I make around when I come
around I'm. I'm very moist, yeah.
I am. Yeah, that's true.
On a small scale, fireworks can be enjoyed from the comfort of
your own front lawn or inside a public toilet.
Oh, you sure? Yeah.

(05:35):
What? Yeah, yeah, blow up a public
toilet. Why not?
Yeah, you throw the firecracker down and explodes.
Yeah, Poopy July 4th festival. I've never done that.
I haven't done that either. I've never wanted to see, like,
yeah, you can make things go like, boom, and that's fun, but
I've never wanted to, like, see what would happen if I destroyed
a plumbing system. No, yeah, I haven't either.
I'm not much of like a hangout and toilet for fun kind of guy.

(05:57):
Yeah, some people are fascinated.
Call me old fashioned, yeah, butwhat could possibly go wrong
when playing with fire, gunpowder, large crowds and the
fragile human body? A lot a.
Hell of a lot. In the evening hours of July
4th, 2015, New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre Paul
was celebrating Independence Dayin his hometown of Deerfield

(06:19):
Beach, FL, 40 miles north of Jerry's home of Miami.
Oh nice. One of Jerry's homes.
All right, parents. Live, yes, across from a
bustling cookout attended by more than 50 friends and
relatives. He stood on a patch of grass
next to a U-Haul loaded with roughly $1000 worth of fireworks
he had bought for the neighborhood to enjoy.
Wow. As the festivities wound down

(06:42):
near midnight, Pierre Paul noticed there were just a few
more fireworks left in the van. This is where they get you.
Yeah, it's right at the end. You're most intoxicated.
Yeah, so he decided, why not setthose off?
This is the equivalent of when you're at the bar and you yell
shots, let's just do shots, and then you're sick for five hours.
Yeah. Yeah, and you're like, man, if
it wasn't for that last shot. Shouldn't have done that.

(07:03):
Shirtless and determined, he made several attempts to light
the fused, struggling against a persistent wind that kept
extinguishing his lighter. On what he decided would be his
final try, the flame finally caught.
What followed was instantaneous,a sudden explosion in a burst of
green and white light that engulfed his entire 6 foot 5
frame. Holy shit.
It's kind of cool at first. Though turned into the Green

(07:24):
Lantern. Yeah, it's a vanished ball.
Boom, the Green Lantern. By the way, why can't they make
a good Green Lantern movie? What's wrong with it?
It's it's all DC, they fuck up every DC movie.
I don't know why. Just so strange.
You haven't seen like a solid Green Lantern.
Yeah, it's awful. It's a it's a ring.
Give somebody cool the ring. Yeah.
No ring. In the seconds that followed,
Pierre Paul heard nothing, felt nothing, saw nothing, And by

(07:47):
hearing nothing, he definitely just heard.
Oh right, the emergency alert ofthe brain.
Yeah. Then his reality slowly came
back to him. He looked down at his right
hand. Despite the violence of the
explosion, all of his fingers were still technically attached
to his hand. Hey, technically, yeah.
His index and middle finger by the bone, his thumb by only the

(08:08):
skin. The bone left, yeah.
The skin. Skin, I guess.
Tough skin, yeah. He said to himself.
Or was it out loud? Oh my gosh, what did I do?
So nice. Oh my gosh, you.
Blew your hand off buddy, I do. Well, I I know what well.
Just his hand. Just his hand, yeah.

(08:29):
I kind of thought it said that the green light engulfed his
entire body. It did, but the explosion was
the only real. I wonder if the the energy came
through the hand popped it off. Energy, yeah.
He was in shock. Oh, I could definitely see that.
Immediately, he wrapped his handin a shirt and was soon rushed
to the hospital by ambulance. He recalled occasionally
unwrapping the shirt just to take a peek at his phalanges.

(08:52):
Oh my God. Still hanging on by a thread.
Why would he do that? That's such a bad idea.
It's a sick curiosity, yeah, andI think I would do it too when
my little dog Jerry, when his head was exposed, like he just
met Pinhead and Hellraiser. Cannot imagine what that would
have looked. Like it was so nasty there
wasn't a lot of blood because itcuts so deep.

(09:13):
That's like a Cenobite. Yeah, but you can't really look
away. Wow.
Wow, he said. You see all your ligaments, your
tendons, everything. I saw how the hand really is
without the skin on it. Oh my God.
Which is something I hope to never say in my life.
Yeah. Seriously, I don't need to see
my hand without the skin on it. Right.
We're so fragile. It's so weird because I feel so

(09:35):
strong. I know we're absolutely nothing,
yeah. It's crazy.
Pierre Paul was hurried into surgery where doctors rushed to
salvage what they could of his hand.
What could they salvage? He had a broken thumb.
The index finger required amputation, unfortunately.
Get rid of that one. It's the loser.
Yeah, the middle finger appearedto have melted into itself.
What? Well, bent, so he just was at a

(09:57):
constant like crip sign. Oh.
My God. Molded into Oh my God that's
awful. I would like to point out I am a
member of the Bloods guys, this was a firework accident.
I was just waving hello. His so he already has like a
really good like kind of shockersituation.
Yeah, in. His hand, but it's kind of just

(10:17):
for the stink, none for the pink.
Really got to find that because.He lost the index finger.
Yeah, thank God he's in Florida.And also, his charred palm
needed multiple skin grafts. Yet one year later, in an
interview with Sports Illustrated, Jason Pierre Paul
proudly exclaimed. I have no regrets at all.
None. I mean.

(10:39):
Come on. Yeah, not even that one last
trip to the truck. Right, the lie detector
determined that was a lie. Absolutely.
I would assume sobriety was not at play here.
I would have to guess definitely.
I would hope so. Oh, that.
This is one of the accidents where it's like, if you're
drunk, you almost are. Like, all right, at least he was
drunk. If he's sober, holy hell.
We got some problems. Others, like Jason Pierre Paul,

(11:01):
would never have the ability to contemplate their good
intentions and bad decisions, mostly because they wouldn't
have a head left to contemplate with.
So it gets worse than just losing the hand.
Yeah, so that was the death of, you know, his fingers.
Right. And then he still went on to
play football. Yeah, they gave him like he his
hand. They gave him a glove that
looked like the Hamburger Helper.
Yep. Yeah, yeah.

(11:22):
Shit they did. Yes, I'm looking it up right
now. This is absolutely insane.
He was still pretty productive on the field.
He was. Yep, he had a whole Mitt.
Yeah. He had, and they let him play
with the Mitt. Yeah, and he actually was still
a pretty good player. He was pretty good and also he
was able at halftime to take theto take the brownies out of the
oven and then feed the rest of the team.

(11:44):
Yeah. There is his.
Hand and he's a strong. Hand.
Yes, it is a hand. You could call it a hand.
It's something. I've I've just been sitting
here. I would be shocked and stunned
too. Yeah, it is an appendage.
An appendage consistent with theappearance of a hand.
Yeah, it kind of looks. Like a Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtle? Yeah.
Yes, that's pretty cool. Exactly what he looks like he.
And it doesn't help that his neck is so fat.

(12:05):
Yeah, yeah, that is true. Muscular so.
He's a. Thick neck.
We got bad news and good news. Bad news, you lost a lot of your
hand. Good news, we have your
Halloween costume for the rest of your life.
I hope you like Raphael. He I was a very cute face.
Oh, he's a cute guy. Very wealthy.
Very wealthy. On that very same 4th of July in
2015, 22 year old Devin Staples was celebrating the holiday with

(12:28):
family and friends in Maine. In fact, Devin was having a
summer to remember. He had recently gone viral after
several videos of him began popping up all over the
Internet, with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube.
He was, in fact, an actor, or rather, a cast member.
Staples worked at Disneyland in Orlando, FL, performing inside

(12:49):
the park dressed as the character Gaston, OH.
That's fun. Wow, and I do think Gaston out
of all the characters would be the most likely to light himself
on fire with a firework. Considering he's like, like
fire, yeah, he's a candle. No, no.
Gaston is the That's Gaston. Gaston is the jacked guy that's

(13:09):
trying to bang Bell all the time.
Right, that's right. That's the dude that technically
is the good guy of the film. Thank you.
Totally flip it on him and they make him look like a crazy
person. Thank you so much.
Also original beauty and the beast, she gets kidnapped by the
beast. She hates the beast because the
beast is really mean to her. Then she goes back to Gaston and
and he is really nice, but she goes back to the Beast because

(13:31):
she has Stockholm syndrome and the whole thing is much more
bizarre. What that like a book?
That's the OG story, yeah. Where?
Where is this OG story? The original 1 then they Disney
fight it and made the beast all nice to her but in reality the
beast is all mean to her and shestill sticks with him because
she's all fucked up in the head.Yeah, I know.
We all know. It's like a story of Stockholm
syndrome. Yes.

(13:52):
Definitely. And as I've always said, most
Princess have spina bifidis. So what if she kisses him and
then he's like, oh, thank you, Bill, you, me.
And she's like, oh, yuck, you'rea real Prince.
They're all inbred. Yeah, that's very true.
I mean, that's really, really gross that Disney just took that
story and then, like, gave it like a, like a cute little bow
at the end, like a happy ending.It's like, but don't worry.
Like if, if, if you like fall for the troll.

(14:14):
He turns into a really pretty man.
Yeah. Dance with them forever.
It's like that Elizabeth Smart story, but like totally
different. Yeah.
And she's all kidnapped. She's kind of like that, yeah.
Insane. So in these viral clips he can
be seen charming little princesses challenging the
manliest men to push up competitions and thwarting away
less desirable women fawning over him in the street.

(14:34):
Oh, he's wrong. Mean.
To the real assholes and all thefatties.
Away the less desirable women. That's not nice.
They've made a lot of money to live the fantasy that they were
a Princess. Yeah.
Wow. Really messed up.
It is, yeah. On this Saturday evening in
Maine, however, Devin Staples was only interested in
entertaining his friends. Everybody plays the fool from

(14:55):
time to time and Devin decided it would be funny to place a
mortar type explosive on his head and light it off.
God, Barry Gaston. Barry Gaston.
Yeah, he's going to end up like Garzon.
His friends tried to tell him that was a bad idea, so they
thought he would put the massivefirework down, comfortable in
knowing that Devin was not the kind of person who would do
something stupid. He was the kind of person who

(15:16):
would pretend to do something stupid to make people laugh.
He's an actor, yes. That's half the, half the.
Job right? In another instant there was an
explosion and when the smoke cleared, Devons head was gone.
Oh my God. No.
Shit, it was gas gone. Gas gone?
I believe it, yeah. That's insane.
His brother Cody remembers the moment painfully saying there

(15:38):
was no rushing him to the hospital.
There was no Devin left when I got there.
Holy shit. I hate it.
Yeah, that's not fun at all. That's not, that sounds like the
most brutal scene. It has to be like so surreal,
really. You think you're watching, it's
some kind of a horror film. You're like, no, that's
legitimately what's left of my brother.
Yeah, those horror movies are pretty accurate, and it's what
it looks like. Yeah, I was like, wow, that is

(15:59):
what it looks like. And Walt Disney?
They had to find themselves a new character actor, didn't
they? No, definitely.
That ain't easy. That ain't easy.
Yes, it is. No, don't.
Got a line waiting outside? No.
For for that. Role, We've got a line out the
door. Oh yeah, it's all of all of the
the very few straight dudes in every theater school all over

(16:19):
the country. You want to be gassed on.
All right, I don't believe you. Yeah, I mean, straight guys like
my, we're fighting for the roles, right?
No one's given us anything. No.
Were you fighting for guest? Did you want to be guest on?
No, We can get the costume. No.
Oh. My God.
I don't I would. I would like to be the beast or
the cupboard. We could all technically do like

(16:41):
a Beauty and the Beast fucking we.
Could do a Halloween thing the. Halloween thing, it's just, it's
just an it's just let's table that.
Let's table it. We'll table it.
No explosives. No explosives allowed, Yeah.
This would of course not be the last time someone lost their
head due to a fireworks disaster, nor had it been the
1st. And and all and and that that
was that was Disney World public.
So many kids around to see that one.

(17:03):
Yeah, so many families. Well, that was in Maine, so
luckily it wasn't. At not at Disney, but it
probably reverberated through the park that they knew they
lost one of their own. Oh, in my head it was like right
in front of like Cinderella. Just at the gate, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's exactly where it's been
happening in my head for the last like 4 minutes.
I mean, if it was the original it probably would have because

(17:23):
in the original Cinderella the stepsisters cut off their
fucking toes. Yes, and try to fit into the
sneaker that way. That's fucked up.
Also they did read it is Air Force Ones now that she's trying
to wear in the new Cinderella. Oh my.
It is no, but that would be amazing.
So that would actually be like one of the changes of the.
Weekend. It really would be, yeah.
Cinderella's cool. Yeah.

(17:44):
Can you dunk? In fact, the deadliest fireworks
disaster in history can be traced all the way back to
France in 1770 during the wedding ceremony of the future
King Louis the 16th. OK, I I know letters.
Yeah, sure. Yeah, it's a lot of Louise.
Yeah. And then Amy want to pass on,
pass on and pass on. Little Louie.

(18:04):
Little Louie and his bride, Marie Antoinette.
Oh no shit. Both of whom would find their
heads detached from their bodiesin decades to come.
Yes, we just looked at the shoe that she was wearing before she
got decapitated. Oh, it was.
Quite a fancy little cloggy shoe.
It was. It was a cloggy fancy shoe.
Wow. The Ruggieri brothers, Antonio,

(18:24):
Francesco, Gaetano, Petronio andPietro are today considered the
founding fathers of modern fireworks.
So move over China. OK.
We got some Italians ready to take that over.
Why is that? Because they did, I guess.
They're Italian. Yeah, they're creative, but also
like, you know, I don't. They're creative with foods and

(18:46):
fire. Sure, they know about fire.
Yeah, they were born in Italy and emigrated to France around
1740. They would become the patriarchs
of a long family line of pyrotechnicians that brought the
techniques and features of the fireworks we enjoyed today.
Cool. And they brought that to the
kingdoms, the monarchs, the courts, the theaters, the lawns
and riverfronts all throughout Europe and the Middle East in

(19:09):
the 18th century. Well, that's fantastic, yeah.
The nice thing about Thanks for giving the Middle East
explosives. Yeah, seriously.
We gave them the explosives and they.
Also that. They don't need fireworks
because they have the real thing, which is bombs.
Yeah. And thank you.
So fun to see. Oil.
Yeah, that's my new favorite show.
Have you seen it? It's streaming right now, World

(19:30):
War 3. You seen it?
It's been. Yep, it's really fun.
Yeah, the Ruggieris invented multi colored fireworks, moving
fireworks and quick match which allowed pyrotechnicians to be
able to light several fuses at once.
So they're called the RE Jerrys like Jerry again.
Ruggieri yes, the the Ruggieris.RUGGIERI Each.

(19:51):
Clone Dumber than the last I'm. Gonna start a band called Jerry
and the RE Jerrys. I like that it's pretty.
Cool. Yeah, it'll be really fun.
They pioneered mounting displays, mobile displays,
waterborne displays and even artificial volcanoes.
Well that one is pretty easy. We all did that in like 6th
grade. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah. Little, yeah, little baking
soda. Vinegar.

(20:11):
The Ruggeris turned fireworks into a spectacle that was once
reserved for only the Royals andbrought it to the public space
on May Love that. Yeah, we.
Love that, bringing all the ritzy stuff to the the little
people. Yeah, give us fucking something,
yeah. We're going to kill each other.
On May 30th, 1770, in Paris, France, a wedding celebration
was held between Dolphin Louis of France and Archduchess Marie

(20:33):
Antoinette of Austria. The arranged marriage was a
means to unify the two monarchies and bring peace to
that western part of Europe thathas not seen it in decades.
This is when marriage really meant something.
Yeah, that's a lot of pressure. Yeah, it solves problems instead
of caused. Them right?
Well, that's true. That's crazy.
Yeah. Look what's happening with
Meghan Markle and her her husband.
Yeah, she's splitting up the whole monarchy.

(20:54):
She did it. Oh yeah, she technically did,
didn't she? Yeah.
I can't go, Meghan. I can't stop watching that
podcast she did with that woman.Yeah, she's like Meghan Markle.
She's like, my last name's not Markle.
I'm a Sussex. Yeah, but then she said the
word, the power of the word yet.And yet and yet.
And yet. Yeah.
Yeah, that that actually makes sense for her.
Yeah, I put a little comment that got a couple of likes on my

(21:16):
Instagram that says it makes me wish I was on Flight 93.
Oh, very nice. Kind of funny thing.
Think about 911. Yeah, yeah.
The culmination of festivities was to be the fireworks display
over the same river at the Placede la Concorde.
And of course, the brothers werehired to put on the show.
Let's go. This is before the same river

(21:36):
was so full of human shit. Yeah.
That they had to delay the Olympics.
They set up a construction site across from the Rue Royale,
which was a wide Blvd. that connected the city of Paris to
the Place de la Concorde. A first hand account by Louis
Sebastian Mercer, who attended the event, described the scene
as quote the square and surrounding streets were packed
tightly full of of hundreds of thousands of Parisians hoping to

(22:00):
get their first glimpse of the fireworks.
Oh my God, you can still smell it to this very dead.
That's a lot. Yeah, the fireworks were being
launched from the famous Temple of Hymen.
So you don't want to break that.Sure it is.
Yeah, it is. No, we're still a virgin.
The Temple of Hymen still stands.
Not for long, OK? A temporary wooden structure

(22:21):
built by the Rajeri brothers andresembling something more like a
stage set than a launchpad. Oh my God, why you got me
thinking of Launchpad now. Yeah, seriously, I'm just
thinking thinking about my ex. Always something brings you back
to your ex. I was thinking of the was it
Chippendales who has launchpad? Oh, Darkwing duck.

(22:42):
It was a pyramid structure featuring a platform, fountains
and rising mountain slopes on either side that led to a Greek
style temple at the very top. What began as a dazzling
fireworks display quickly turneddisastrous when the final
rockets of the night ignited thewooden launch platform itself.
Yeah, maybe wood wasn't the right thing to use.
Seriously, like what? Why don't we just put it all in
a little kindling, yeah? They're more, they're more fire

(23:04):
guys, not fire proofing got. You OK?
Very smart. At first, the crowd in Paris
mistook the flames for part of the entertainment, but as the
fire spread and the danger became clear, panic swept
through the massive gathering. That is the worst, Yeah.
When you're like, this show's incredible.
Oh shit. This isn't part of.
The show. These those flames are licking

(23:26):
that hymen. Oh my God.
Kind of like when Marilyn Mansonfell off that ladder that one
time. I don't remember.
He actually when he was on stage.
Yeah, yeah, he, he fell off. It was like a giant prop ladder
that had like 2 giant guns just like, Oh yeah, he climbed up to
the top and then it just fully like went down.
And at first everyone was like, yeah, but then no one saw him

(23:49):
come back up. You're like, oh, whoa, oh.
Yeah, there is something about agoth doing comical slapstick
humor that just you have to laugh.
We're all human, aren't we? It was so, yeah, it was.
And the audience was like, no, no, I hope he's okay.
And I was like, it's pretty funny, pretty good.
But as the fire spread and the danger became clear, panic swept

(24:09):
through the massive gathering. Chaos broke out as people surged
towards the Cramp Rue Royale, the same escape route being used
by the aristocrats and Royals and carriages, including the
newlywed Louis and Marie Antoinette.
Hmm, their wedding is ruined. Yeah, that's what happened at
the Station nightclub. They wouldn't allow people to
get out the door that the band just went through.
Oh my God. Wow, like that's what bands only
they just didn't get it. That's.

(24:30):
For the stupid. That is so stupid, yeah.
Eyewitnesses later described a scene of terror, with some
individuals being trampled underfoot while others were shoved
into the same river. And drown.
OK, so do you want so yeah, you get trampled, you drown or the
fire. How do you want to go out in
this scenario? Shit, I'll take drowning.

(24:52):
You're. Going to go drowning.
I can also swim. So you might live.
Yeah, I think I just want to boot.
Maybe just a really big boot to the head.
Yeah. Smash the brain.
But does it work like that or? Does it?
No. You know, it's gonna be like a
couple of really painful blows before things really start
breaking and that and then you'll knockout from pain.
Alright, give me the fire. I'll just take.
I'm gonna take a deep breath. Pass out, Yeah.

(25:14):
I'd either do that or I'd take the trampling.
I was almost trampled to death once at a Pennywise concert.
I was stuck in the front and everyone was pushing.
It was crowd crushed towards thestage and my stomach was on the
guardrail and I was getting pushed in.
I couldn't breathe. I completely passed out and one
of the guys, the security guards, pulled me over.
And. So it was pretty quick.
It hurt for a second. I think we've mentioned this

(25:34):
before, but apparently that Astro World documentary shows it
much more serious than we think it is.
Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, It looks.
I mean, it looked terrible at the time, but now it's.
Really bad. Oh man, I was gearing up to
watch that. Yeah, and then Travis Scott got
a McDonald's meal, like named after.
Him. That's nice.
It involves Sprite. Wow, yeah.
Louis Sebastian Mercier once again chronicled the scene he

(25:58):
witnessed, saying, I may say without exaggeration that in the
general panic and crush, more than 1200 unfortunate persons
lost their lives. Our entire family disappeared
and there was scarcely a household which had not to
lament the death of a relative or friend.
Wow, so everybody knew somebody that died?
Right. Later historians have more
accurately placed the final death toll at about 3000,

(26:19):
ensuring that it was the deadliest fireworks disaster of.
All time. Oh my God.
And that led them into a war for20 years in Afghanistan.
Exactly, Yeah. Louis and Marie Antoinette were
understandably horrified by the tragedy.
They donated their personal wealth to the victims and their
families, helping to bury the dead at the Cemetery of Laville

(26:40):
Lavac. Oh, that's that's one of the
better ones. Yeah.
That's a how did you get in there?
Wow, that's going to be a prettycool ghost.
Yeah, so it's very nice. Well, it's just nice of them to
have helped, you know? Bury all the dead.
Yep. Yeah, it's really nice.
Yeah. I mean, I think they hired the
group of morons in the first place.
But they also did, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
In the ultimate irony, 23 years later, they would both be buried

(27:03):
in that same cemetery, their torsos tossed in a heap, their
bodies left without their heads,much like Devon Staples.
Wow. All right, You wanna, you want
that? You're gonna want that.
Yeah, When it comes to your head.
Yeah, you're gonna, you're gonnawant that.
Yep, Yep. And they say the human mind
doesn't die right away. It takes about 30 seconds.

(27:25):
Oh. That's fun.
Absolutely insane. Right.
A little scary, that. Sounds like a nightmare of 30
seconds. It sounds interesting though,
like I wish there was a drug. Do any drugs simulate like your
heads chopped off? No, no.
DMT simulates what goes through your head when you die, so you
can get kind of close to that, but I don't know.
Head. Yeah, you're a pineal gland.

(27:46):
It just excretes DMT when you'redying.
That's why people see all crazy shit.
But then I heard sometimes what I heard was sometimes if you
actually do have a near death and you took too many drugs, you
don't get the Super tripping near death.
No, you wasted it all and I wantthat fucking near death shit.
Damn. That should be a bigger PSA.
Don't do drugs because if you die then you got you won't get
the light show. The ultimate high of death.

(28:07):
Mm Hmm. Wow, supposed to be pretty rad.
Damn downside of doing drugs, yeah.
Yeah, Just say no. Yeah.
Because you, you wanted. I don't know.
That's a horrible Yeah. I don't know if it's gonna work.
Yeah, yeah, it's a weird way to say don't.
Yeah, don't do drugs, because when you die, you're gonna want
to trip out a little bit, right?Like, the only bad thing, that's
the only downside of drugs, guys, yeah.

(28:29):
So yeah, that is fireworks. If you want to hear more about a
terrible fireworks incident, youcan go back to Death and
Entertainment. The story about the Station
nightclub fire, because that wasabsolutely insane.
It was the Great White. Yes, a band.
Of yes. Yes and yes.
Literally yes. Literally.
They're going to say the Great White of House club fires.

(28:50):
I mean, that's. Yes, it was a lot of Caucasian.
So now we move on to aerial displays.
Ohh. Yeah, like nipples.
Areolas. Aerials.
Ohh no, that got Janet Jackson banned still from the Super
Bowl. That's a shame.
That's so tough. It is insane.
It's a nice nipple. It was a beautiful ring.

(29:11):
Kiersten everything, yeah. Expensive ring.
How are we ever going to explainto our children what a female
nipple is? And now all these people have
gay kids and it's like, you should have let them look.
You should have let them fall inlove with the female nipple.
Yeah, very true. So the story of the Ruggeri's
does not end here. In fact, the family business is
still very much in operation in France to this day.

(29:32):
Claude Ruggieri was born in Paris in 1777, the son of the
4th Ruggieri brother Petronio Claude.
Always hammered. They call me Petronio.
It was. They said it was easier than
call me drunk. Fucking asshole.
Yeah, whatever you say, Petronio.
Claude, more so than his father and uncles, became obsessed with

(29:53):
balloons, rockets and parachutes.
Why not aerial stuff? Yeah.
Oh yeah, there it is. I don't want to see fire.
I want to see my my uncle up there.
Yeah, I could see that. This is pretty cool.
Yeah. You know.
Things in the sky. Things in the ski.
So Claude, along with his friendand inventor, balloonist friend
Andre Jacques Garnian. Which means he has a balloon
fetish. Yeah, Latex.

(30:14):
He he invented the balloon fetish.
Probably. That one is an odd one where
they like the popping. I just I don't fully get that
like. The pop they like the rubbing.
You're right. They like how it gets all big
and bold. They're like, yeah, put more air
in that bitch. Yeah, and then that sound, I
just that sound is like nails ona chalkboard, but they they're.
Like, yeah, I'm gonna put one and put one on my stomach and

(30:36):
then you put one on your stomachand then we'd like bump together
and then just like, rub them butdon't make them pop.
Don't make them. Yeah, not yet.
Not yet. Don't do it yet, I'll tell you
when. Just a lot of work.
That is a lot of work. Oh my God.
So these two guys, they just designed the first ever aerial
fireworks display on Bastille Day 18, O1 Ruggerian Garnian

(30:57):
successfully launched a balloon carrying fireworks into the air,
which ignited the Parisian skies.
OK. Cool so far.
Yeah, Next Claude became fascinated by rockets and
parachutes. He began experiments with
self-guided rockets and more specifically, the idea of using
them to carry passengers into the air.
Nope. Only the idea of rockets
carrying pass, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

(31:19):
Hard pass on that one. Yeah, so shoot you off into a
rocket and then he wanted to have his parachute bring them
down to Earth. And this was in the 1800s.
Yes. OK.
No, I'm not gonna. I don't.
Absolutely not. Don't really trust it now.
Yeah, yeah. So in 18 O 6, Ruggieri began
sending mice and rats up in rockets, recovered them through
the use of parachutes. So I wonder if it was like small

(31:40):
bottle rockets and like and thenit's just a tiny little.
Parachute. It's like it's got a little
mouse with its little hat on, a little air layer traffic
controller going up. That's about his hair's all
blown back. Yeah, that was a lot.
Oh my God, that was crazy. Send me back up.

(32:01):
You're just the mouse we want. I feel alive.
I feel alive. We do.
It again. He also once launched a sheep
roughly 600 feet into the air. Oh my, the sheep is not a air
animal. How did he?
Launch Ohh Porsche. Shot with the rocket and then
brought it back down unharmed, he claims with parachutes.
Deeply traumatized. Exactly.

(32:23):
Unharmed is very subjective there.
How did he get the parachute to like go off from the top if if
he's from if he's at the bottom?That's I and isn't it?
Like a lever someone has to pull.
They're doing good. I they're real scientists.
I Yeah. Seen hundreds and they're
they're doing these successfully.
The The sheep is coming back down.
Yeah, I think most of the time we experiment with animals, they

(32:44):
don't. She would go.
I don't know, I. Fuck if I know that's.
Insane. The wrong crowd for does anyone
know? Anyone.
Pano might know. Yeah, OK Bud, [e-mail], let
us know. It's I want, I I want receipts
on this story. This is this is a wild fucking.
Story. It's true.
It is as a result Ruggieri is credited with being the first

(33:05):
person to ever successfully launch living animals into the
air using rocket technology. Good for him.
Technology. Good for him.
I still I'm imagining that it's like that sepia colored of the
1800s. Everything was sepia.
Colored, of course. Yeah, yeah.
And then he just has like a giant box with giant matches and
he picks one up and he like, like swipes it on the side.

(33:26):
Oh yes. And then he sends it off.
Yeah, it's fun. This all came 150 years before
the Soviets and Americans began the space race, and we were
sending dogs and monkeys and everybody.
Wants like a bunch of shit, yeah.
Then they say people, but I don't believe it.
We did, we did. We have sent people.

(33:46):
To the moon. Probably.
Probably that's not 100%. We're not getting into this.
No, that's a whole another episode, Kyle.
For his next feat in 1830, Ruggieri announced that he would
use a cluster of rockets to liftan even heavier animal into the
air. Better leave my big creatures
alone. This time a RAM, however, an 11

(34:07):
year old boy stood up and offered to replace the RAM as a
passenger on the test flight. And how do you do?
Plans were made for the young man to ascend to the heavens.
Jesus Christ it is. Of course, his parents weren't
around anywhere. No, probably.
Yeah. He's just an orphan in France.
Just just, you know, like this is like even before latchkey

(34:27):
kids were a thing. Right.
You know. Like it's way before.
So the kid, they were just like,hey, maybe come back.
I don't know. Yeah, I mean, honestly, if he
was cute like the fat kid from UP and I'd be like, all right,
you get an Oriental meatball, get on up there.
French authorities, however, intervened and canceled the
flight, apparently due to the volunteers young age.
So they were like, it's OK if they're a little bit older.

(34:50):
Yeah, come on, French losers like. 13 Come on.
I see. Let him up there.
Yeah, why not? Yet the French obsession with
flight would not end there. By the dawn of the 20th century,
a new inventor, Franz Reichfeldt, would take center
stage. Reichfeldt was known by the
epithet The Flying Tailor. Cool.

(35:15):
Name's Franz. You might know me as the Flying
Tailor. Nope, never heard of it.
Some people call me. They call me that, yeah.
Is that because your fly is down?
Again born in Austria but livingin France, France was in fact a
tailor by trade as well as an inventor and pioneer of the
development of wearable, wearable parachutes.

(35:38):
Wearable. Just in case.
Just in case you got up onto a platform high enough.
Right. And if you want to look like a
fruit bat all the time. You never know when you're going
to parish it. Yeah, right.
Yeah, he just has it out and it's just dragging trash behind.
You right. For real.
Pretty cool. How?
Yeah, the flying tailor. Bronze began his experiments
with the use of crash test dummies, his own version.

(36:00):
Nice. His own version of crash test.
Were they people or? Animals, right?
Like what are? What is his version of a crash
test? Like a mannequin because he was
a tailor so he mannequins to throw around.
Because I remember when they were really pushing crash test
dummies. Y'all are too young to remember
that cartoon. Oh, I.
Don't remember that. There was a cartoon.
Yeah, another. Guy's name was Axel.
Funny. Crash and Axel.
Yeah, that's pretty funny. Yeah, so it was propaganda like

(36:24):
for for for safety and driving, driving safety.
It's just like, give me going onCaptain Planet.
Oh that is insane propaganda. Oh yeah.
Thank you. You're.
You're welcome. Well.
So he found early success by equipping the dummies with
foldable silk wings OK, droppingthem from the heights of 50 to

(36:44):
75 feet. All right.
They touched down lightly in hisdescription.
Great. Lightly.
They were probably like Bam, Yeah, right it.
Was pretty light. But applying these prototypes
towards human use proved very difficult.
Why? Because we weigh so much more.
Yeah, we weigh more. We're moving around.
But don't. But don't sheep weigh a lot?
Yeah, probably as much as a dummy.

(37:05):
I they they can't weigh as much as we do.
I think a sheep would be more than a dummy.
Well I will do some searching some.
Research. Thank you.
In 1911, Colonel Lalance of the Aero Club de France offered a
10,000 franc, which is 12,000 USreward for the development of a
reliable parachute for aviators.OK.

(37:26):
And. That was a lot of money back
then. Yeah, they had strict criteria.
1, the parachute had to weigh nomore than 55 lbs.
And two, the contest would be open to contenders over a span
of three years. So they're giving them some
time. OK.
OK so I searched average weight of a French sheep.
They say they can be 250 to 300 lbs Whoa.

(37:48):
So, yeah, and apparently, and that one landed super safely and
lightly, yeah. So I don't know.
Wow wow, I didn't know they werethat fucking huge.
Scary. I can't picture how he's
strapping these things to a rocket.
Right, right. Well, Franz responded to the
challenge by continually modifying his design, managing
to lighten the apparatus while expanding its fabric to a

(38:09):
surface area of about 130 squarefeet.
I feel like the French were really big on this stuff because
you remember the first guy that was like, oh, I created a suit,
like a body suit where I can fly.
And then he jumped off the what's the name of that place?
Not the Empire State Building, the big old thing in France.
Statue of Liberty. No, in the Eiffel Tower.
Yeah. And then he just fell right

(38:30):
down. Yes.
And they were like, it didn't work at all because he died.
Holy shit that's fucking. Crazy Eiffel towering has a
different meaning now. From all the way from the top.
Yeah, it was all the way from the top and he just straight up,
he just like fell right down. Oh my God, There's footage of
it. There is, yeah.
I just started on Instagram. Now now Eiffel towering involves
a sexual. Act OH.

(38:53):
Right. It makes you create life instead
of take it away. It could, yeah, Despite these
efforts. Mom, how was I born?
Well, it was very French. Yes, it was me, your dad, your
dad's friend, Uncle Greg. Uncle Greg.
So despite these efforts, his trials using dummies, they
consistently ended in failure, with the test objects crashing

(39:14):
to the ground in the courtyard of his housing complex.
Which had to be so fucking annoying.
You think? Your neighbor is bad, yeah.
Seriously. Just constantly crashing test
dummies into the the the porch. There it was.
Kind of fun though, yeah, You know.
And that's just Peter. Don't worry, you get used to it.
Can't even have a cookout out here.

(39:35):
Undeterred, Franz attempted a personal test jump in 1911 from
a height of approximately 33 feet.
Although the parachute did not function properly, a
strategically placed straw heap prevented serious harm.
Very good. Good old straw heap.
Good old straw. Heap, where were you on 9/11?
I don't know why I'm thinking ofnine. 11 So I don't know why are
you bringing it. Up.

(39:56):
I don't know why I'm bringing it.
Up if they do it through a giantstraw heap in front of the
towers, it. Would have stopped, yeah, but
that probably wouldn't have worked.
Flammable and everything was. It was horrible.
It was a bad day. Yeah, I was not I'm.
Still working through the trauma.
Yeah, Well, never forget. Thank you.
You're. Welcome.
This did not deter Franz. He attempted again, where a fall
from 26 feet left him with a broken leg.
Oh. Geez, you should be so lucky.

(40:17):
Yeah, the straw heap didn't really work too well.
Yeah, a little bit. And I'm guessing they didn't,
they didn't invent all of the, you know, plushy like things
that we have now for no stunt people.
I think they would sleep on straw beds with straw
pillowcases and stuff and straw pillows.
Sounds itchy. Yeah, I think.
That sounds uncomfortable. Really uncomfortable.
Believing the suit needed more height and time to deploy

(40:39):
successfully, Franz began petitioning the Paris
authorities to allow him to use the newly built Eiffel Tower to
further test his experiments. Finally, in early February of
1912, he announced to the media that he had finally received
permission and would shortly conduct an experiment from the
Eiffel Tower to prove the value of his invention.
Oh my goodness, we've discussed.We have Early on the morning of

(41:02):
Sunday, February 4th, at 7:00 AM, Franz Reichfeldt arrived at
the Eiffel Tower, accompanied bytwo friends.
So that's fun. You bring two of your buddies
with you. Like you gonna fucking really do
this thing? Yeah, two really not good
friends, Yeah. No, dude, dude, dude, he's
really gonna do it. You're gonna owe me fucking so
much money. This is awesome.
You bet. Right over under.
Like, yeah, he's going under. He was already dressed in the

(41:22):
the experimental parachute, and newsreel footage actually
captured him showcasing the outfit in its compact form.
Local newspapers reported it as barely bulkier than normal
clothing, which is probably not good.
No. When worn with the parachute
folded, it allowed for full freedom of movement.
Deploying the parachute was intended to be straightforward.
All one had to do was simply extend the arms outward to form

(41:44):
a cross shape with the body. He had automatic releases on
this thing. That's insane.
Yeah, When open, the suit took on the appearance of a large
silk cloak with an oversized hood and a canopy of 16 feet.
Really stupid Batman, yeah. Basically.
It's the flying Taylor. Taylor.
Whoa. The suit's weight was about £20.

(42:04):
OK. The weather that morning was
bitterly cold with sub zero temperatures and a brisk wind
sweeping over the Chomp Tamar. And all the way up there,
probably even colder. Oh, he was cold.
Yeah, I don't like that one bit.So he took to it and ascended
the Eiffel Tower. His friends urged him to
reconsider, suggesting he use a dummy for the demonstration
instead. They really.

(42:25):
It's nice of the friends anyway.Yeah, all these friends are
trying to talk people out of doing dumb shit.
It's. Good.
I did the little ascent up the Eiffel Tower.
I've done that before. It's fine.
It's a little overrated. Yeah.
You think it's overrated? It's stairs.
It's. I mean I know it's stairs and in
elevators and stuff, but at the same time like as someone that's
afraid of heights, like I couldn't make it past the first

(42:46):
level. It's scary like that.
The first level was why? I was like, this is enough.
And I looked up and I was like, oh, there's like two more
levels. You absolutely not right?
And we get about it. When you get to the top it like
sways a little bit. Absolutely.
At some point it is gonna fall so.
Yeah, yeah. Nope, Nope.
Miss me with that. Well, his friends reassured him
that there would be future opportunities for him to test

(43:06):
the parachute himself. Yeah, gravity isn't going
anywhere, bro. He's going to be here for a
while. For real.
When that failed to sway him, they pointed to the strong wind
as a serious safety concern and advised him to postpone the jump
until conditions improved. Despite their efforts, he
remained unwavering. Wow, this is his life calling

(43:27):
dude. This is the plan.
He couldn't stop if he wanted to.
He needs to jump. He needs it, you know.
Undiscouraged by his earlier failures, he told reporters that
he had complete faith in his invention and was confident it
would perform as intended. Even though it had never worked
before. No, with one day I'll be
reincarnated in a Stockton rush.Oh God, and I will find the

(43:47):
Titanic. When asked if he planned to take
any safety measures, such as securing himself with a rope, he
firmly declined, insisting that he was prepared to entrust his
life entirely to his own device.My God.
He did it. He definitely did that.
Come on dude, like just they're giving you all of these options.

(44:07):
Like. Just do it with these safety
measurements and you can still test out your own device.
You still have a fail safe to survive.
Right. Also, like, if it did work,
what's the like? Right.
Whoa, You. Oh, you didn't fall.
You fell slow. Yeah.
You fell all different and slow.Yeah.
Yeah, this is all all like a more polite way of saying I

(44:28):
ain't no pussy. Basically.
Yeah, he's getting up there. So he quoted, he was quoted in
the newspapers as saying, I wantto try the experiment myself,
and without trickery, as I intend to prove the worth of my
invention, you're gonna see how my 159 lbs and my parachute will
give your arguments the most decisive of denials.
Oh, he thought, 'cause he was all skinny and brittle and shit,
he would be able to do it. He's like, I'm half bird, my

(44:49):
bones are hollow. He.
Literally, he's so prepared to be like, you guys are gonna see,
watch, just watch. You'll all see.
Yeah, and if it did work again, maybe 2 days in the press, maybe
he gets the front page. Well, I mean, this is, this
would be huge. It would be gigantic that
someone jumped off the Eiffel Tower and survived.

(45:10):
And you could too. Keep in mind fireworks were
crazy at this time. That's true.
Again, fireworks are still. Crazy.
Yeah, they've stood the test of time.
At 8:22 AM, observed by a crowd of about 30 journalists and
curious onlookers. Oh no.
Franz readied themselves standing on a stool placed

(45:30):
against the guardrail of the Eiffel Tower's first deck.
We all would have been there, but because we didn't sleep the
night before, we'd be like, whatthe fuck's going on up there?
Yeah. Is that guy gonna jump?
No. You're tripping, dude.
Think he's gonna jump? Yeah, dude, you're so fucked up
from last night. This is last night.
It was 187 feet above the ground, which didn't mean much
of the time, but that's now the police code for murder.

(45:53):
Does it tie? Does it tie 1870?
Got. It it's a 187 on an undercover
cop. Oh, I thought it was a
motherfucking cop. Well, they say both.
Oh. Interesting, I did the radio
safe version. Oh, after adjusting his
apparatus with the assistance ofhis friends and checking the
wind direction by throwing a piece of paper taken from a
small book. But hopefully it wasn't a Bible

(46:14):
verse. Yep.
That's about right. That is yeah, that's that's
going to help. Saying his last.
Thing. His last words he let out a very
cheery See you soon. Oh.
My. God.
As he placed one foot on the guardrail, hesitated for about
40 seconds and then left outwards.

(46:34):
Holy shit. Fucking flat.
Oh my God, that reminds me one of Prince.
Was it Prince Charles's or one of the Prince's friends just
swallowed a bee while playing polo?
Oh yeah, the billionaire. Yeah.
Yeah, his last words were I think I've swallowed something.
Right. You sure did, pal.
See you soon. 40 seconds. He in those 40 seconds, he was

(46:55):
like, man, I could take this, but I'm already here.
Fucking fucking fucking. Yeah, when you're doing
something that intense, 40 seconds must seem like so long.
Yeah, just staring down to your own death.
I would be so nervous. Just yeah.
I hate heights so much, yeah. And it was the first deck of the
Eiffel Tower it. Was just the first.
Yeah, the same place. That I didn't make it past.

(47:18):
Wow, honestly if he would have gone up higher maybe it would
have been better. I mean, that's what my friends
are pilots. They say if there is anything
that goes wrong with a plane, the higher up you are, the
better you are. It's counterintuitive, but you
have more time to correct it. Does Well, that's great.
Yeah, I love that. Hopefully.
More time to correct. Yeah, if we ever go on a tour or
when we go on tour, it's gonna be called driving.
We're gonna drive nice. Ten hour, 10 hour radius.

(47:41):
That's I. Love that.
Drive. Don't worry about it.
I know. I know your car's so
comfortable. It is unless I try to park.
I'm gonna drive and then Jerry Park.
Park and then I'll park. Yeah, because I don't know
spaces very well, yeah. Well, this guy didn't know
distances either. His parachute, which only seemed
to be half open. His entire parachute folded

(48:01):
around him almost immediately, and he fell for a few seconds
before striking the frozen soil at the foot of the tower.
Wow. It's also, yeah, it's nice that
it was frozen too. Makes it you know it was.
Pretty immediate, yeah. Yeah.
Reporters and onlookers rushed to his body.
His right leg and arm were crushed.
His skull and spine were broken.Oh my God.

(48:22):
He was bleeding from his mouth, nose and ears.
Oh my God. Which that tell.
Me guys this doesn't work. Did I do good?
He. Was gonna take.
Yeah, buddy, you did. Great.
You did great. Buddy, am I, am I still still
flying? Yeah, yeah.
Man, yeah, just. Go.
Wait till I get a load of meat. Right.

(48:44):
Oh my God. Go, go.
Newspapers noted that his eyes were wide open and dilated, so
he hit the ground was like. Oh my God.
Shit. Oh.
Holy. I mean, yeah, it must be a crazy
realization. And it's not even enough time to
even realize that. It's like, oh, I'm not slowing
down, I'm fully falling. Yep.

(49:04):
That's the thing, I know, Jerry,you said you've gone skydiving
as well, but that was my first thought when I was after I
jumped out. It was pure terror.
And then it was complete bliss. And then it was holy fuck the
parachute needs to open 'cause we're flying at the ground at
like 100 some miles an hour. Oh, it sounds awful.
I'm not doing it. Yeah, no, I don't know.
When I free fell, I kind of loved it.
Yeah, I like the free because, Imean, the falling out of the
plane, like really, really sucked.

(49:26):
Oh my God, it, yeah, it just, itjust made my whole body, like,
melt. Yeah, but the second, like the
wind, like catches up with you and then it feels like you're
racing. Yeah, you're like floating
almost. It feels like, yeah, it feels
like I'm, I was going fast and just not just like falling, like
I felt like I was falling forward kind of.
Thing. Yeah, so crazy.
But then I felt it when the parachute opened and I was like,
Oh my God, I'm in the middle of the sky.

(49:47):
Yeah, then you felt. That's when I freaked out.
Then you felt a little poke comethrough because the guy was all
aroused. The dude was yeah, because the
dude ended up freaking just cat calling me from behind.
Oh my God. In the middle of the air.
Yeah, well, he was already dead by the time anyone reached him.
Yeah, yeah. Way dead.
Way dead. He was 33 years old.

(50:09):
You packed a lot into. That it's the same age as Jesus.
And me. Yeah, and Larry Birds number.
Wow, look at that. A lot of things have 33, yeah,
30 threes. But all of those people.
Chris Farley. John Belushi.
Wow, look at that. Yeah.
Geez. I always thought I was going to
die at 33, but then you don't die at 33.
And then it's like, OK, and now I'm almost 44, and that's when

(50:31):
John Candy died. So now I realize I'm just going
to have to live until like, I think I'm going to die at 88.
There you go. Double it, OK.
Yeah, I don't know why I must feel like 88 I.
Think I'm probably going to go around 123.
I could see that you're going tolive a long time.
Yeah, that's too compact. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I knew all of my great grandmothers, like we all I
there. There's technically a long
lifespan. I love that.

(50:51):
Family. I love that.
Footage of the incident shared with the public showed Franz and
his final moments before the fatal jump film of the attempt,
including the actual footage of him slamming off the ground and
being hastily removed from the scene, and onlookers measuring
the depth of the crater left behind by his body can still be
seen today. It can, yeah.
So that's what me and Ben were talking about right before this

(51:13):
story. We're actually pre empting this.
We've seen the footage of it. Yeah, it's fucking disgusting.
Unfortunately, I want to see thefootage.
I don't want to, but I do. Yeah.
I mean, you do. It's interesting.
Yeah, it is very interesting. And also while he was going up
the Eiffel Tower, how come people didn't just like secretly
set up some kind of a cushion right while he was going up?

(51:34):
And they were like, yeah, buddy,no, yeah, we'll let you for sure
jump off. And then once he like gets onto
the stairs, they're just like, all right, start setting up the
hay sack or something. I.
Don't want to like shame the dead, but he sounds like really
obnoxious. Yeah.
Sounds like a total prick who isjust like, he has a lot of
hubris. Hubris.
Literally just like, I'm gonna do it.
I'm gonna just like, OK buddy, do it then.

(51:55):
Exactly. Oh, you did it.
Yeah, you did it anytime. And he did it right, like
Stockton Rush, right? Did we learn anything from it?
No. OK.
Like there was no like math or like no formula.
We learned from it. Nah, just like don't do.
It Well, yeah, terminal velocity.
Yeah, nudes travelled slow at the time.
And in fact, on February 2nd, 1912, just two days prior to his

(52:15):
fatal jump, an American maintenance worker named
Frederick R Law sounds like a lawyer.
It's very creative. Freddie law.
Freddie Law. He had successfully parachuted
from the viewing platform of thetorch of the Statue of Liberty.
That's fucked up. That's hilarious.
And that came from the French. Yeah, Isn't that nice?
Yeah, and he successfully did it.

(52:35):
That's. Cool, but then he must have hit
the water, right? But they said, well, no, they
they just, he just. There's a little bit of land.
Around there's a Oh yeah, of course.
OK, land around. It OK, so he he jumped 151 feet
from the base of the statue. Wow, seemingly on a whim.
So he just was like, I'm gonna go, you know, start BASE
jumping. Now let's go.
Yeah. Well, maybe he was better with

(52:56):
the winds because and his friends say that the wind
velocity was dangerous for the French guy.
Yes, so and and as soon as he fell, like the parachute
immediately like folded over andwrapped around him.
So I think the winds did have a lot to do with it.
May. Have don't forget, this is all a
part of that competition, too. So he was trying to win $12,000.
So that's why in that time, that's just an insane amount of
money. Yeah.

(53:16):
Yeah. And this guy, Frederick our law,
who jumped off the Statue of Liberty, he already won the
prize because he successfully did it.
This guy, this guy who jumped off the Eiffel Tower, didn't
know that the prize was already won.
This is a global prize. Yes.
I blame all of us then. Yeah, that's ridiculous.
Yeah, we're all complicit in this.
Parachute. Wait for the Raven to get to

(53:36):
your city to let you know what'swhat the update is.
On the game, it's. Got to communicate with the
little dog and then the dog's got to go talk to a child and
got to not believe the child andthe.
Yeah, as the 20th century moved along, more Americans were
beginning to steal the proverbial torch from the French
in the world of aerial feats andaccomplishments.
Take that, French. Yeah, Jerry sent me an Instagram

(53:57):
clip. Apparently in 2012 they tried to
bring bring back horse jumping or horse.
Diving. Horse diving.
They were. Yeah, they were horrible.
They were taking horses on really large, on really high
platforms. Yeah.
And literally diving straight into water.
What? And then a little research and
apparently the horses didn't like it and they had massive
PTSD. Yeah.

(54:17):
And then once they could no longer jump, they would be
killed. Oh my holy.
Yeah, they're like that. He got scared.
That made them walk the plank, yeah.
Wow, yeah, many horses broke their neck 'cause, you know,
it's all stupid. Yeah, till horse dive.
The hell is that? I think that humans have a
fascination with jumping off things.
We really do. It's another thing that's like,
it's a simple but still some kind of a magical phenomenon to

(54:39):
us, like fireworks. Well, there's a lot of cultures
where you become a man when you jump off like a big old Cliff or
something. Exactly like why are we?
I don't want to be a man. It always translates like more
as you get older. You're you're younger and you're
like me. You see that rock?
I'm like, jump off that shit. And yeah, but then you get
older, that part doesn't go away.
And you're like, see that EiffelTower?
I'm I'm going to jump off of it.And it's like, why?

(55:02):
Why dude? 'Cause I can.
It's cool. So during World War One, and
even more so in World War 2, combat pilots known as Flying
Aces became the stars of newspapers and movie theater
newsreels around the world with names like the Red Baron, Eddie
Rickenbacker and Chuck Yeager. OK, well, one's a liquor, one's
a pizza, and then the other one didn't really do anything.

(55:24):
Huh? The.
Other one had rickets. Yeah, these pilots were real
life superheroes, and if they were lucky enough to see life
after the war, they became A list celebrities.
Cool. Yeah, no flying ace during the
time received more success or fame than the American Richard
Bong. Oh, let's go.
Born on September 20. Hey, let's go.

(55:45):
Born on September 24th in 1920 in Superior, WI.
Oh. Wow, very nice.
A beautiful place. Beautiful Bong became obsessed
with airplanes at a young age. President Calvin Coolidge had a
summer home in Superior, and a young Bong remembers the Daily
Mail planes. The Daily Mail planes fly to and
from the summer White House, sending and delivering all the

(56:08):
important news and correspondences of the time.
Wow, different time. Bong's at the White House.
Yeah, Fun fun. Era At the age of 18 in 1938,
Richard enrolled in the CivilianPilot Training program and began
taking private flying lessons. On May 29th, 1941, still over
six months before Pearl Harbor, Bong enlisted in the Army Air

(56:29):
Corps Aviation Cadet Program. No way we'll lose that war.
No, we didn't. That was the one we won.
Yeah. One of his flight instructors at
the time was Captain Barry. Goldwater.
Oh my goodness. Later AUS Senator from Arizona
and candidate for president in 1964.
Sounds like an awesome powers villain.
Yeah, he was kind of. I read his book.
It was interesting. He began a different kind of

(56:52):
conservative movement, yes, but I believe he lost to a Lyndon
Johnson. Big Dick Linden Bong's
accomplishments and feats of bravery and war have been
recorded in great detail throughout the decades since
World War 2, so for the sake of the podcast, we'll keep it
brief. Bong was sent to the Pacific
Theater in the war, flying in battles such as Bunagona and the

(57:14):
Philippines Campaign. He flew for the United States
Army Air Forces and achieved a rank of Major.
Major Dick Bong. Major Dick Bong Hot hot box in
his plane. What do you call that cockpit?
Nice. There's a bong and a cockpit
and. It's Dick.
Yeah, he was ultimately awarded the Air Medal 15 times,

(57:36):
Distinguished Flying Cross 7 times, Silver Star twice, and
the Distinguished Service Cross and the highest possible
military decoration of the Mall,the Medal of Honor by General
Douglas MacArthur. And a golden bong.
Golden Dick. Oh, gold Dick bong.
Oh, like that? Yeah, the Bulls or the bubbler?

(57:58):
Smoke it out of the table. Oh yes.
On April 12th, 1944, Bong shot down his 26th and 27th Japanese
aircraft. Dang, this is surpassing Eddie
Rickenbacker's American record of 26 during World War One.
Let's just stop you from just lying.
Let's just make it up. Bong later explained his
personal fighting and flying style in simple terms quote he

(58:19):
considered his gunnery accuracy to be poor, so he compensated by
getting as close to his targets as possible to make sure he hit
them. In some cases he flew through
the debris of exploding enemy aircraft and on one occasion he
collided with his target. To him.
So yeah, he was just getting right up close, just actually
putting it to the side of their head and bang.
Holy hell. In midair, that's crazy.
Wait, wait. Colliding into his target was

(58:40):
not the death of him. I guess not.
What the fuck? Just nicked him, I guess.
Yeah, I don't know. Nobody kills the bong.
That was just people, men, men being men, you know, back in the
day. Yeah, yeah.
Aerial locker room talk, Yeah. Grab him by the bong.
Over a year before the war was over, Richard Bong had

(59:00):
established himself as the most effective pilot in U.S. military
history. Nice, with a verifiable 440
enemy plane shot down and another 11 receiving substantial
damage. Wow.
So if there's two, if are there two people per plane?
Is it just 40 people or did he kill 80 people?
No, it's no with the with these like jets.
Yeah, isn't it one person? Just one person possible there

(59:21):
might have been more people on board but it's 40 enemy planes.
OK. Yeah, we'll give him 40.
Then he got 40. He got 40 kills.
Yeah, with another 11 that, you know, were knocked around enough
to be substantially damaged. OK.
Yeah, he was so popular back home that he was given a
promotion and given leave from combat.
So they're like, you've done so well, you can go home.
Honorable discharge. Yeah, yeah.

(59:42):
From thick bong, that's what conceived us all.
Honorable. Discharge.
Yes indeed. I'll never forget when my father
saluted. Nice, He must have had massive
PTSD though so it'd be interesting getting all the
awards and him just shaking and kind of dying inside.
Yeah, seriously, it's just everyone is like fantastic job
and he's yeah, I'm a murderer. Yeah, it's kind of sticking with

(01:00:04):
me. The war is kind of staying with
me. Yeah, the military felt that the
death of Bong would be so detrimental to American morale
that it was better he not continue fighting at all.
Wow. That's interesting.
He's worth more alive than dead.That's pretty, you know.
OK, Crazy. That's good.
In the final year of the war, Bong toured the United States as
a celebrity, promoting war bondsat various PR events.

(01:00:25):
Oh, they got him into crypto. Yeah, crypto over the time.
Yeah, just buy this ticket and don't lose it.
By August of 1945, he became a test pilot.
He flew some of the most technologically advanced planes
of the time, jet planes that would later define the Cold War
era, working for Lockheed Martinat their plant in Burbank, CA
Oh. Right.
Oh, we're right here. Bong flew the futuristic P80

(01:00:48):
shooting star jet fighter over 12 test flights.
He had logged a total of 4 hoursand 15 minutes of flight time.
Well, that's not that much, yeah.
OK, his 13th and final time cameon August 6th, 1945.
During takeoff, the main fuel pump on Bong's aircraft failed.
Uh oh, that's not good. For reasons unknown, he did not
engage the backup pump. What?

(01:01:10):
Dick's got a pump. You want to engage the backup
pump. Yeah, you want to engage the
backup. Come on.
He attempted to eject, but the altitude was too low for his
parachute to deploy properly. Wow, that seems like the name of
the game this episode. Yep, the Dick needed to
ejaculate, but he wasn't able to.
Higher. Wasn't erect enough it.
Needs to be higher. Yeah, maybe he was smoking too

(01:01:31):
much out of that bong and his Ding Dong didn't work, No.
More. Oh damn, yeah.
The plane and Bong's life went down in a small field near the
intersection of Oxnard and Satsuma in North Hollywood.
Holy. That's right.
That is right fucking there. We're horrifying.
Isn't there like a Taco Bell there or something?
Yeah, maybe it's a monument for Bong.

(01:01:52):
For Bong. Yeah.
He was 24 years old. Wow.
Oh, my God. He did all of that at 24.
Yeah, well, we live longer now, so it's normal to have a longer
time before you succeed at anything.
You know, Morgan Freeman was 50 before he got his major first
roles. That's great.
Yeah. We're fine.
We're doing. Fine, keep telling myself that.
Yeah, yeah. And then the other French guy

(01:02:13):
was like, he was 33. And then his whole life he was
just like shooting up animals into the sky.
Right, right. Yep.
And I'm like, I haven't shot anything up with rock.
I've done, yeah. No, no, jumped off anything.
I don't want to jump. I jumped off a plane.
What did Meghan Markle say yet? Yet we haven't exploded
ourselves. Yet yet the death of Richard

(01:02:34):
Bong became immediate national news.
But August 6th, 1945 was also the day the US dropped its
firmest first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Right. Good.
Flew a little under the radar then.
Yeah, I thought that date sounded a little familiar.
Right. Kind of overshadowed the death
of Bong, yeah. The Los Angeles Times headline
on that day read Quote Atomic bomb hits Japan slash jet plane

(01:02:56):
explosion kills Major Bong. Ground control to major bomb.
Despite the American public's morale, Bong had died
technically during the war. But in less than a month, the
war would be over. Right.
And he wasn't. He didn't die fighting in the
war. Right.
He was doing test flights in Burbank.

(01:03:17):
That's so much sadder. Crashing in our backyard.
It's actually ironic because they really ruined a good story
of a martyr. They really did.
Bong's body was returned to Wisconsin for burial.
In the 1950s, construction beganon the Richard Bong Air Force
Base in southeastern Wisconsin. That's.
Cool. Is it there?
However, by 1959 the plan was abandoned and the land is now

(01:03:39):
the Richard Bong State Recreation Area.
Oh, that's sweet. Let's go.
Recreational marijuana, perhaps?Yes.
Today, a bridge in Superior, WI is named after him, the Bong
Memorial Bridge. People be smoking on that, all
them cool kids be smoking on there.
It's a beautiful, winding, curving piece of art and
engineering unlike any bridge you will ever see.

(01:04:02):
It was completed in 1984 and spans over 11,800 feet of the
Saint Louis Bay on Lake Superior.
Dang, alright, alright. And just like that story, this
episode has now come to a close.Bone.
But we have plenty more where that came from.
Next week for Part 2 of Death byPublic Spectacle.

(01:04:22):
There's a part. Two, there's a Part 2 and by the
time that comes out, the episodeafter that, we'll have full
strength. We'll have full video here of
the new studio that's currently under construction.
And yeah, yeah, we will be goinghard.
Oh, we're gonna go real hard, yeah.
So, so hard. Dick Hard, Yeah.
Bong hard. Yeah.
So if you have any episodes you want us to do, e-mail us at

(01:04:44):
death and [e-mail] and
yeah, go to patreon.com/die bud 2 podcasts 1 Patreon and we got
much, much content coming your. Way I have an episode I want us
to Do you want a Barraza? Oh.
This is this chick. She was a she was a Juana Juana.
She was a Mexican serial killer slash professional slash

(01:05:07):
professional wrestler. Oh.
I've heard of her. Yeah, she killed, like, a lot of
people. Yeah.
Yeah. Wow.
She was, Yeah. Anyway, I would love to do that.
Episode. That would be incredible.
Because I'm big into lucha rightnow.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's the best. Hell yeah.
All right, everyone, thank you all so much for listening.
Hail yourself. Until next week.
Don't go dying on us. Bye, bye.

(01:05:29):
You've just heard a. True Hollywood murder mystery.
I have never seen anything like this before.
The movies, Broadway, music, television, all of it.
A place that manufacturers nightmares.
OK, everybody, that's a wrap. Goodnight.
Please drive home carefully and come back again soon.