Episode 105, January 4, 2025 - Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Part 1 - Airchecks

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to airchecks. This week and next week we will
be playing all of the episodes of Ripley's Believe It
or Not. Tales of the absurd and bizarre made their
way to the airwaves through this strange and eccentric old
time radio series. Ripley's Believe It or Not starred non
other than Robert Ripley himself, as he shared as out
of this world discoveries and experiences while traveling around the globe.
His standard practice was to take note of the unusual

(00:45):
sites and practices he came across during his travels and
chronicled them in his journal. It was not until nineteen
thirty that the program was made available to a public audience.
Whereas other old radio shows focused on a particular story
of a character or a theme, Ripley's Believe It or
Not took a more informative slant with each episode and
shared odd bits of trivia and weird facts with its listeners.
Throughout the years, The program constantly evolved and changed formats

(01:08):
several times to meet the public's demands. However, like all things,
the show ran its course and officially ended in nineteen
forty eight after an eight year run. Here is the
first part of Ripley's Believe it or Not?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Cruth is strange, Ripley, Believe it or not?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
There was a shoe worn by the ancient Egyptians with
the outline of an enemy on its soul, so that
the wearer could stamp on his enemy with each step
he took. Believe it or not. In a moment, I'll
tell you the story of a very remarkable man. Billy Marshall,
a tinker of Kirkudbright, Scotland, was truly a most remarkable man.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
In his earlier years.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
He enlisted in the army and the Navy ten times
each time, and he enlisted, he deserted without ever being caught.
He outlived seventeen wives, and he became the father of
four children after he was one hundred years of age.
He finally died in the year seventeen ninety two, at
the age of one hundred and twenty years.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
They leave it or not?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Truth is stranger lidiction, This truth, This is Ripley, Believe
it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Judge Abraham Fuller of Newton, Massachusetts was so fanatically opposed
to debts that, when a physician was called to write
out his death certificate, the doctor found his fee in
the dead man's clinched fist.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
In a moment, I'll tell you about an unusual railway.
Cable cars in San Francisco have added charm and transportation.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
For many years.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Equally unus usual is the Cliff Railway near Lynmouth, England.
It has nine hundred feet of rails bolted to the
solid rock of a cliff, and its two cars are
operated with water. Water flows into the tank of the
car at the top, and as it starts down, it
pulls up the other car, which has been lightened by
draining its water tank.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
They leave it or not.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Truth is stranger, and this is the truth. This is
Ripley's Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Colonel Peter Jefferson, who was the father of President Thomas Jefferson,
could simultaneously upend two hogsheads of tobacco, each weigh one
thousand pounds. They leave it or not. In a moment,
I'll tell you about one of the strangest robberies in
all history. In Lucerne, Switzerland, a grave robber in the

(03:58):
mausoleum of General lout Piper's wife got the scare of
his lifetime. The general's wife, who had been interred in
the mausoleum the night before, suddenly sat up in her
coffin and.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Screamed at him.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
The lady was still very much alive.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Madame Phiper, clad only in a shroud, walked all the
way home and lived another twenty years. But she never
smiled again. Be lave it or not.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
The truth is stranger than fiction. And this is the truth.
This is ripley. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
The death's head moth was first seen in Blnkenwood, England,
on January thirtieth, sixteen forty nine, on the very day
King Charles the First of England was beheaded. They leave
it or not. In a moment, I'll tell you the
unusual story of the only people who never get fat.

(05:00):
Here's a way to make sure you stay on your diet.
Take a lesson from the natives of the Nuba tribe
in Africa. They cut small portholes as the only entrance
to their huts. By doing this, they keep their families
very figure conscious. Any member of the family who does
not eat sparingly eventually will not fit through the small opening,

(05:20):
and therefore is automatically barred from the house.

Speaker 4 (05:24):

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Truth is stranger in fiction and this is the truth.
This is ripley, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
The steeple of the parish Church of Eccles, England was
buried under sand by a gale in sixteen five and
was exposed again by high winds two hundred and seventy
five years later.

Speaker 4 (05:54):

Speaker 3 (05:55):
In a moment, I'll tell you the strange story of
George Thompson. One of the most unusual expressions of sorrow
was shown by George Thompson of Pomfret, Connecticut, who literally
clothed himself in sadness. He did it as a morning
gesture for his fiancee, who died on the eve of

(06:16):
their marriage. As a constant reminder of his great loss,
he wore the clothing that he had planned to wear
on his wedding day for the remaining thirty years of
his life.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Truth is stranger the fiction, and this is the truth.
This is riples. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
A witch doctor in Angola, Africa who wants to resign
his profession must attain an entirely new identity by wearing
a mask day and night for a whole year.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
In a moment, I'll tell you the weird story of
a man who staged him his own execution.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
Some men have been known to do strange things in.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
The face of death, and Giuseppe Caracci certainly was one
of them. Giuseppe was an Italian sculptor who was sentenced
to death in Paris for attempting to murder Napoleon. He
persuaded authorities to permit him to travel to the guillotine
in the purple robes of a Roman emperor, and he
rode in a golden coach which he designed especially for

(07:27):
his own execution.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Truth is stranger than fiction, and this is the truth.
This is Ripley's Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Thomas Thompson of wolf Lee, Scotland, a professional chaser of ghosts,
stepped out of a house from which he claimed to
have driven a ghost and was struck dead by a
bolt of lightning.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
Believe it or not, In a moment, I'll.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Tell you the story of a man's loyalty and a
king's reward.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
Sir Edmund Wyndham.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Was convicted of disrespect to the king as a result
of striking a foe in the presence of King Henry
the Eighth, Sir Edmond was sentenced to have his right
arm chopped off. When the sentence was to be carried out,
Sir Edmond requested that his left arm be cut off
so that he could continue to use his right arm,
his sword arm, in the defense of his king. As
a result of his unselfish request, Sir Edmond was granted

(08:31):
a pardon.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Believe it or not, truth is stranger the fiction, and
this is the truth. This is riples. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
The parish clerks of Hungerford, England, for eight hundred years
have visited each household on the second Tuesday after Easter
to collect a penny from each man for church repairs
and a kiss from each woman. Believe it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you about the Iron Man.
Sir Thomas Overbury certainly deserves to be called a man

(09:14):
of iron. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London
and for three months and seventeen days was fed a
daily diet of hemlock, arsenic nitric acid, ground diamonds and mercury,
enough poison to have killed twenty men. But Sir Thomas
refused to die. Finally, an injection of a powerful corrosive
killed him. Later, the guards who'd been bribed to poison

(09:34):
him were executed.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Believe it or not, Truth is stranger the fiction. This
sister truth, This is ripley. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
A girl in the Eurrop tribe in Turkey can become
engaged only once in her lifetime. This rule holds even
if her fiance dies before the wedding.

Speaker 4 (10:03):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the statue that
was executed for murder. In the fifth century BC, a
statue erected to Theogenes of Tassos, Greece for winning thirteen
hundred Olympic awards, was flogged nightly by a jealous rival.
One night, while the jealous man was beating the statue,

(10:25):
it toppled over and crushed him to death. Because the
statue had killed a man, the act had to be punished. Therefore,
the marble figure was tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced
to be thrown into the sea, thus executing it for murder.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Truth is stranger the fiction. This is the truth, This
is riply believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Bono was a French dwarf. He was only eighteen inches
tall at the age of eleven. However, he ate forty
large cucumbers, thirty figs, and the whole watermelon.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
For dessert each day. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the guard who
was faithful even after death. Stefanos was a guard at
the monastery of Saint Catherine on biblical Mount Sinai. On
his deathbed in the year five eighty, he pleaded to
be permitted to continue his services. This unusual request was honored,
and so after his death, Stefanos was placed outside the

(11:32):
House of the Dead. There his fully clothed skeleton still
guards the entrance today, a macawb reminder of the loyalty
of a man many years after his death.

Speaker 4 (11:42):

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Truth is stranger than fiction, and this this is riples.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (12:01):
The most inhuman monarch in all history was King Deo Taras,
first of Galaha. On his deathbed, to make sure his
favorite son would succeed him, he imposed death sentences on
his six others. I'll tell you about the man who
was saved by a serpent. Count Sinzendorf was a Moravian
missionary to America. One night, he concentrated so intently on

(12:23):
his reading that he didn't notice a rattlesnake crawling over
his feet. A band of Indians had stalked the count
in his tent in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. They
were preparing to thlithering over his feet. When the snake
moved on without harming the Count. The Indians fled in
the head a charmed life. Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
This is riples, believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
The largest creature that ever walked the Earth was the stegosaurus.
It weighed approximately eighty thousand pounds, yet its brain weighed
only three can brain and its tail to control its
massive hind legs. They leave it or not. In a moment,
I'll tell you about the strange fate of Lord Brooke.
Lord Brooke bombarded the cathedral of Lichfield, England, to rubble.

(13:21):
He then assured his shocked troops that the act would
be acknowledged by a sign from heaven. If he was
expecting a sign, he certainly got much more than a
bargained building known as Saint Chad's Cathedral was destroyed on
Saint Chad's Day, and then a few moments later l
a bullet that pierced one of his eyes.

Speaker 4 (13:38):

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Truth is stranger in fiction, and this is the truth.
This is riples Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
George Washington, during his entire two terms as President of
the United States, refused to shake hands. He always bowed
in the belief that a handshake was beneath the dignity
of a president.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the most considerate uncle.
Richard Dawson of Bradley, England, was probably the most considerate
uncle in history. He was a very large man, so
on his deathbed he worried that his three hundred pound
body would be an inconvenience to his frail nephew after
he died, So to spare his nephew the trouble, Dawson

(14:32):
walked out to the garden where he dug his own grave.
After he had finished digging.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
He laid down in the grave and he died. Believe
it or.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Not, Truth is stranger the fiction. This is the truth.
This is Ripley's believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Maggie Bogie of Colinsburg, Scotland lived to the age of
one hundred years and four months, and she slept every
night of her life in the same bed. Believe it
or not, In a moment, I'll tell you about the
woman who was killed by bashfulness. In this era of
women who are anything but bashful around men, it would

(15:23):
be hard to convince anyone that there was once a
woman who died of bashfulness. From childhood, Teresa Saint Johan
of Rhode, France had become violently ill unless she turned
away whenever she was addressed. Her shyness was so severe
that she dropped dead when she found herself face to
face with a man for the first time in eighty years.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Truth is stranger the fiction. This is the truth of
this if ripleus, believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
In seventeen ninety eight, Sultan Selim the third of Turkey,
in the presence of British Ambassador Sir Robert Ainsley, shot
an arrow the incredible distance of two thousand, nine hundred
and sixteen feet. Believe it or not, In a moment,
I'll tell you the story of a remarkable woman Lucy

(16:24):
Page of Tamworth, New Hampshire, certainly exploded the theory that
women are the weaker sex.

Speaker 4 (16:29):
In addition to doing.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
All of her regular housework, she cared for two cows,
made all the clothing for her family, spawned two hundred
skins of wool yarn and forty five skeins of linen yarn.
Wove ninety yards of carpeting, made sixty nine yards of flannel,
and twenty one yards of toweling. And she did all
of this at the age of seventy three.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
Believe it or not, Truth.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Is stranger in fiction. This is the truth, this ripley.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
The first air conditioned house in the United States was Limeare,
built in Louray, Virginia by Colonel TC.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
Northcott. It was kept cool in.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Summer and warm in winter by air pipe from the
nearby Loay caverns.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
They live it or not.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a weaponless duel.
One of the strangest duels where no weapons were used
was between two sculptors. The Great Buddha, a statue in
the Diamond Mountains of Korea, was carved six hundred years
ago by a sculptor named King Do. It's there because
of an unusual duel in which King Doo and a

(17:41):
rival sculptor named Rau agreed that whichever created the poorer
statue would forfeit his life. King Doo won and Ryo
drowned himself.

Speaker 4 (17:50):

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Truth is stranger than the truth. Thist is rictly believe
it or not.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
Billy Dixon, a buffalo hunter defending Dodge City from an
attack by Kiowa Indians, killed Chief Minimic with a single
shot at a distance of one mile. The distance was
carefully measured after the battle.

Speaker 4 (18:20):

Speaker 3 (18:21):
In a moment, I'll tell you about an unusual active chivalry.
Some of the most unusual events have happened to people
during the heat of battle. During the siege of a castle,
a battle was interrupted for an active chivalry. William Grant,
a soldier, was trapped atop a flaming tower of Donzehead
Castle in Erie. He was saved by an enemy bowman

(18:43):
named John Butler, who attached a length of rope to
one of his arrows and shot it up to him.

Speaker 4 (18:48):
Grant tied the rope to.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
The tower and slid to safety inside the castle's walls
they leave.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
It or not.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Is stranger than fiction, and this sister true. This if
ripley believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
Olav Trigmason, who became King Olive the first of Norway,
avenged the murder of his foster father by slaying the
killer with a hatchet. Yet at the time he was
only nine years old.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
Believe it or not, In a.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Moment, I'll tell you about a prophecy of doom. There
is no logical explanation why many times dreams come true
with uncanny accuracy. On December third, eighteen seventy four, Missus
Albert Royce of Bowling Green, Ohio told her family that
she had dreamed she would get sick on November twenty seventh,
eighteen seventy seven, and that she would die on the

(19:47):
following December third.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
As it happened, she became.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Sick and died exactly as she had dreamed it three
years earlier.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Not, truth is stranger the fiction, and this is the proof.
This is riply believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Frankie Silvers up Tall River Valley, North Carolina, was sentenced
to death for killing her husband with an axe. She
mounted the gallows eating a piece of cake, and refused
to be hanged until she had enjoyed the last crumb.

Speaker 4 (20:27):

Speaker 3 (20:29):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a very unusual pony.
Here's the story of a pony that certainly was a
child's best friend. In Lerwick, which is in the Shetland Islands,
a pony saved the child from drowning. Seeing the youngster
in trouble, it dove into the sea from a high bank,
swam to the child's aid, and then scrambled ashore with

(20:52):
its teeth, holding the child by the clothing, all without
a human command.

Speaker 4 (20:57):

Speaker 2 (21:03):
Truth is stranger the fiction. This is the truth. This
is Ripley's Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
Pressure Mills of the New Forest, England caught three thousand,
one hundred and eighty six venomous snakes in fourteen years
with his bare hands. He was so skilled that he
was never bitten. They leave it or not. In a moment,
I'll tell you the story of the sad Chateau. The
Chateau of Montal in France was built as a surprise

(21:37):
for Robert de Balzac by his mother in the year
fifteen thirty four. However, it has inscribed on one wall
there is no hope left. The reason for this sad
inscription is that just as the castle was completed, Missus
Jean de Balzac received the tragic news that her son
had been slain in battle nine years earlier.

Speaker 4 (21:57):

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Truth is stranger than did and this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
The tombstone of Margaret Johnston and her six children in Trenett,
Scotland was erected over an empty grave. The family vanished
in the seventeenth century without a trace. They leave it
or not. In a moment, I'll tell you about the
man who paid for his own assassination. When a man
lends another man money, he certainly does not intend that

(22:39):
it should be used to pay for his own assassination.
But such was the case with William, the silent father
of Dutch independence, who advanced twelve crowns to a man
by the name of Balfazer Gerard. Gerard had requested an
audience with William, and the money was given to him
to pay for his transportation. But the money was used
by Gerard to buy a gun with which he shot
William dead.

Speaker 4 (23:00):

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Truth is stranger than did This is the proof. This

Speaker 3 (23:19):
When Kit Carson, the famous Scout, was a boy of
seventeen in Franklin, Missouri, he ran away from the saddle
maker to whom he was apprenticed, and the official reward
for his recapture was one cent.

Speaker 4 (23:30):

Speaker 3 (23:32):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the reward given
to a thrifty nephew. Thurston Manor and its vast estate
in Scotland was to be willed by missus Agnes Hunter,
a widow to one of her three nephews, who she
invited to come visit her. The first nephew arrived riding
in a coach, The second nephew came on horseback, but

(23:54):
Robert Hunter, the third nephew, showed up on foot.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
His thrifty aunt was.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
So impressed she bequeaths to him all of her property.

Speaker 4 (24:02):

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Truth is strangers in fiction, and this is the truth.
This is ritly Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Preston Hall in Scotland was built by Lord Adam Gordon,
who spent every working hour of thirty one years supervising
its construction. On the day it was completed, he lost
interest in the castle and sold it. They leave it
or not In a moment, I'll tell you about the
world's tallest bouquets. Whenever people want to say something on

(24:42):
a special occasion, many times they say it with flowers.
And although flowers come in many colors, shapes and sizes,
the tallest bouquets in the world are found in Austria.
The residents of the Lungaal district carry them in a
church parade each June twenty fourth, and the bouquets which
they carry comprise twenty five thousand flowers each. The bouquet

(25:03):
stands twenty six feet high. They leave it or not.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Truth is stranger than fiction. This is the truth. This
is riples. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (25:24):
Payaga, a Hindu fakir, buried himself in sand with only
his arms exposed to extend a begging bowl to people
passing by, six hours each day for twelve years.

Speaker 4 (25:35):

Speaker 3 (25:37):
In a moment, I'll tell you how dunder Rock got
its name. History tells of many great naval battles, but
one of the most unusual sea battles that never took
place happened in dunder Rock on Lake Champlain near Burlington, Vermont.
Dunder Rock so resembles the outline of a gunboat that
a Dutch captain mistook it for an enemy vessel and

(25:58):
fired a broadside at it. The stone got its name
from the captain's exclamation when he discovered his mistake, dunder
was a blunder.

Speaker 4 (26:07):

Speaker 2 (26:13):
is riplege. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
The casket of Queen Elizabeth the First, while on view
in Whitehall Palace, London, mysteriously exploded. The coffin was shattered,
yet the Queen's body was unharmed.

Speaker 4 (26:35):

Speaker 3 (26:37):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a fantastic pilgrimage.
The pilgrims to Mount Kylas in Tibet indulge in the
most fantastic pilgrimages in the world. They must circle the
twenty two thousand foot mountain on their stomachs. They complete
each circuit in the bitter cold, and this requires three weeks.

(26:58):
Yet many of the pilgrims circle the mountain in this
manner a dozen times, ultimately rising and prostrating themselves day
and night for nine months.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Believe it or not, Truth is stranger in fiction, and
this is the truth. This is with this, Believe it
or not.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Ludwig Weber, and in keeper of Brusha's Austria, was so
powerful that he could raise a one hundred pound cask
to his lips. At the age of eighty. He drank
a total of fifty thousand quarts of wine in his lifetime.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the church inspired
by a footstool. The architecture of Saint John's Church in London, England,
was inspired by a footstool. It was built by Thomas
Archer for Queen Anne, who, because she was preoccupied with
affairs of state, simply kicked over a wooden footstool and
told the architect, go bill me church like that. The

(28:01):
four towers of Saint John's Church were Archer's efforts to
create a structure like an overturned footstool.

Speaker 4 (28:07):

Speaker 2 (28:13):
This is rics. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
The seventh Earl of Crichton, while entertaining. King James First
of England guided the monarch to his bedchamber by igniting
a parchment recording a one million, five hundred thousand dollars
loan he had made to the King. They leave it
dancing Corpses. One of the strangest funeral rites in the

(28:48):
world is carried on by the Kopsiki tribe of Africa.
When a wealthy native of the tribe dies, he's prepared
after death for the gay life. A person of standing
is expected to lead when he goes on into the
next world. This is done by hoisting his corpse onto
the shoulders of the village blacksmith. The cadaver is then
given dancing lessons that last for hours. As a result,

(29:09):
they are known as the dancing Corpses.

Speaker 4 (29:11):

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Truth is stranguld and this is the truth. This is Ridley.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Duncan McIntyre, the greatest poet of the Scottish Highlands, whose
literary magnitude has been compared to Robert Burns, could neither.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
Read nor write. They leave it or not.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a strange fourteenth
century vigil. A bed has been kept ready for the
arrival of a guest for more.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
Than fourteen hundred years.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
A monk named poo Chi died in the year five
fourteen in the memorial temple of hang Chow, China. His
last words were, I shall return. Apparently poo Cheese fellow
monks took him at his word, because they've changed the
linen on poo Cheese bed more than fifty seven million
times over the last fourteen centuries.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
Truth is strangely the fiction, and this is the proof.
This is riles. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
There is a boulder in France so delicately balanced it
nods affirmatively if the weather's clear, and shakes from side
to side if a storm is brewing.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
They leave it or not. In a moment.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
I'll tell you about a most unique man of letters.
When Joseph Bernhard Dutchen said take a letter, miracles were
about to happen here. Dutchin, director of the National Library
in Munich, Germany, was able to dictate nine letters on
nine subjects to nine secretaries in nine languages simultaneously. He

(31:07):
also mastered the Bible so thoroughly he could repeat all
chapters in books from the Old and New Testaments faultlessly
from memory forward or backward.

Speaker 4 (31:16):

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Truth the stranger the fiction, and this is the proof.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Peter Minnowitt, who bought Manhattan Island for all of twenty
four dollars, was fired by the Dutch for extravagance.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the man who
knows precisely when he will die.

Speaker 4 (31:51):
The coronation of a.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
Newly elected Timney chief has a touch of the macabre
to it. During the coronation, the camabie or chief counselor
conducts the chief to the beach, which is strewn with
a variety of pebbles. The ruler, blindfolded, grabs as many
pebbles as he can hold in one fist. The pebbles
are carefully counted, and the ruler is allowed one year
of life for each pebble he was able to grab.

(32:13):
At the expiration of his allotted span, a new ruler
is chosen, the old ruler poisoned.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Believe it or not, Truth is stringuli. This is the truth.
This is riles. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Cornelius Denhartag of Oscaloosa, Iowa smoked the same cigar twice
in fifty years. He smoked half of it on his
wedding day and save the other half for his golden
wedding anniversary fifty years later.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the world's richest heiress.
You'd think a man with money would know something about arithmetic,
but not the husband of Countess Elizabeth Angeliq de Bauteville
of seventeenth century France. In his will, he left his
wife one gold piece worth five dollars for the first
year of her widowhood. This amount was to be doubled

(33:11):
each year as long as she remained unmarried. The countess
lived sixty nine years, and her legal claim amounted to
about seven hundred and thirty seven quentillion dollars.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Not, Truth is stranger than fiction. This is the truth.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
For sixty years, the price of cotton was reported daily
to the grave of Al McGhee of Glenville, Alabama, out
of respect for a dying wish. Believe it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you about the greatest lover
of them all. Harry Harah, second King of Vijayana Are India,

(34:00):
in thirteen ninety eight, had twelve thousand wives, but they
were not enough. The king fell in love with a
girl from a neighboring kingdom merely because he heard she
was beautiful. To force her in the marriage, he began
a war against her country, but his neighbor, Pharaoh Shah Tuglac,
proved far more powerful, and the marrying king lost his kingdom,
his fortune, his twelve thousand wives, and his life.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Not, truth is stranger than fiction, and this is the truth.
This if riple is. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
The Pond of the Apostles in Chipperfield, England, is circled
by eleven lime trees, each named for an apostle. A
twelfth tree, named Judas, was blown down by the wind.
Believe it or not, In a moment, I'll tell you
about a fantastic burglar alarm. The fabulous Moongate of the

(35:02):
Imperial Palace of Ofang near Baping was built twenty three
hundred years ago of solid lodestone.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
The magnetic iron ore as.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
A protection against assassins. The magnetic attraction of the moongate
would betray anyone attempting to enter the palace with a
concealed metal object. Thus o'fang's ingenious moongate anticipated by more
than twenty three centuries. The electronic eye. They leave it
or not.

Speaker 2 (35:32):
Truth is stranger the fiction. And this is the proof.
This is riples believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
In Cuba, in eighteen ninety eight, famed surgeon William C.
Gorgas performed surgery on a soldier by the light from
a jar of fireflies. They leave it or not. In
a moment, I'll tell you the story of the King
of Punishment. King Olav second haroldson of Norway, who reigned

(36:05):
during the tenth and eleventh centuries, took his religion strongly,
and he set a severe example for himself when absent
mindedly he desecrated the Sabbath. Olav was whittling wood when
a passing servant remarked, Sire, tomorrow will be Monday. The king,
whose shame was so great, picked up a pile of woodchips,
placed it on his palm, set fire to it, and
watched as the offending limb was entirely consumed.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Truth is stranger then, and this is the proof. This

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Hugos, the Count of Province, married first the mother, then
the daughter, and finally the widow of King Rodolpho's second
to become King of Italy.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a town clock
that hasn't told the right place time in seven hundred years.
In twelve fifty three, a band of conspirators in Gerlitz, Germany,
set out to kill the entire city council as they
emerged from their midday meal, but one of the plotters
warned the police the town clock was set seven minutes ahead,

(37:18):
and as the criminals converged on city hall seven minutes early,
they were disarmed. Later, the grateful council passed a law
requiring the city to keep the town clock eternally seven
minutes fast as a memorial of their deliverance.

Speaker 4 (37:31):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Truth is stranger the fiction, and this is the proof.
This is riley Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
The Cathedral of Shatre, ordered destroyed during the French Revolution,
was saved because no one in the town would permit
the debris to be dumped on his property.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a nineteenth century superman.
Arthur Macmurrall Cavanaugh of County Carlo and Erie was a
respected man in the community. His friends in constituents sent
him to Parliament for fourteen years. He was an enthusiastic hunter,
an avid yachtsman, a clever and keen fisherman, an expert horseman,

(38:22):
and a world traveler. He mastered the skills of drafting
and fainting. He married a beautiful young woman and fathered
seven handsome children. Yet Cavanaugh was born without arms and
without legs.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
Truth is stranger in fiction. Now this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (38:53):
In Billsdale, England, ye all Son Inn was rented by
the Ainslie family continuously for five hundred years. In nineteen
forty four, the Ainslays finally decided to buy it. Believe
it or not, In a moment, I'll tell you about
the man who changed our eating habits. A French king

(39:14):
helped revolutionize the fine art of dining. To avoid staining
his snow white lace collar when he was eating meat
with his fingers. King Henry the Third constructed a crude
device of tin and instructed the manager of a well
known Parisian restaurant to have coffees made. The King introduced
this new implement at a banquet in the restaurant in
fifteen eighty two. That restaurant, the birthplace of the fork,

(39:35):
is still in business today under the same name.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
They leave it or Not?

Speaker 2 (39:44):
Truth is strangely the fiction. This is the proof. This
is ripleas believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
George Bothwell of Clintonville, Wisconsin sold his car, and two
months later, as it was being tought away, it broke
loose kreen down the street and crashed into his store.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
They leave it or Not.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
In a moment, I'll tell you about an odd place
to live. Ukmann, a poor foundling of Lahore, Pakistan, lived
for sixty two years upon the marble steps of the
Mosque of Vizier Khan in Lahore. He was abandoned there
by his parents at age five, and from then on
the marble steps.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
Were the only home he knew.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
Supported by the charity of pious visitors, he lived ate
and slept there in all kinds of weather, never leaving
until he died at the age of sixty seven.

Speaker 4 (40:41):

Speaker 2 (40:47):
This is ripley. Believe it or not. Vicker, a city
in England.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
Was hit by twelve high explosive Nazi bombs in World
War II, and all of them were duds. Believe it
singing sailors. During World War II, a British submarine lay
disabled on the ocean floor. After two days of frantic efforts,

(41:24):
the British Admiralty gave up all hopes of raising her.
On orders of the captain, the crew began to sing
abide with me. Sedatives were distributed to all hands. One
seaman swooned and fell against some equipment. The impact set
in motion the jam surfacing apparatus. The boat rose to
the surface and made ports safely.

Speaker 4 (41:43):

Speaker 2 (41:50):
Truth is strangely the fiction, and this is the truth.
This if ripley believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
Thomas Brown, a British soldier, lost his nose in the
Battle of Dettingen in seventeen forty three. And had it
replaced by one of solid silver.

Speaker 4 (42:12):

Speaker 3 (42:14):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a faithful phone call.
In November nineteen forty four, a sailor on leave named
Robert Dwyer entered a service club in Washington at two am,
just in time to take part in a Bible reading contest.
He won first prize a long distance phone call to

(42:34):
his family in Louisiana.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
There was no answer.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
However, the operator kept ringing, and by so doing saved
the family from asphyxiation by a deadly gas escaping from
a defective heater.

Speaker 4 (42:46):

Speaker 2 (42:52):

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Sergeant Myron Cozier of San Diego, California, was shot in
the throat in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese bullets severed
his infected tonsils and left him otherwise unharmed and much relieved.

Speaker 4 (43:16):
Believe it or not. In a moment, I'll tell you
about a funny election.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
A cigar store Indian was elected Justice of the Peace
in Allentown, New Jersey, in eighteen eighty three. The statue
clothed with a fictitious name of Abner Robbins was duly
placed on the ballot and elected by a margin of
seven votes over the incumbent Sam Davis.

Speaker 4 (43:40):
Judge Davis, who'd held the.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Office for many years, resigned in a huff when he
learned that his successful opponent was a wooden Indian.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Not, truth is stranger, Then is the truth. This is
ripleys beleaded or not.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
In World War II, at the Battle of molkmeir Airdrom
on Biak Island, two artillery shells, one American and the
other Japanese fused together by a head.

Speaker 4 (44:15):
On impact in flight. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
In a moment, I'll tell you about an active courage.
Yuan Chang, a minister in the Chinese Foreign Office in
nineteen hundred, stopped to plan the slaughter thousands of foreigners
by changing one word of a telegram. Yuan substituted the
word Pao protect for the word shah kill in a

(44:40):
message sent by the Empress of China.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
The courageous foreign minister.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
Was himself beheaded for his active courage. Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
This is riple. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
Count nessel Road was Foreign Minister of Russia for forty years,
yet he never learned to speak Russian. Believe it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you about a floating Christmas present.
In December nineteen forty, missus A. E. Gatsby of Niagara Falls, Canada,

(45:27):
mailed a Christmas parcel to her daughter in Prestwick, Scotland.
The ship carrying the mails was torpedoed off the west
coast of Ireland, but a favorable tide floated the package
and unerringly cast it ashore on the beach of Prestwick.
The contents were soaked but perfectly usable. The address was
still legible, and the package was delivered two days after Christmas.

Speaker 4 (45:49):

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Truth is strangers in fiction desistant. This is le Believe
it or not.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
The faithful believe that Muhammad ibin Daoud, a dead Persian sultan,
will be resurrected, and a saddled horse has been held
in readiness before his tomb in Khorassan since ten seventy two.

Speaker 4 (46:20):

Speaker 3 (46:22):
In a moment, I'll tell you a fish story. The
fishermen of the seaport of San Malo, France, never retain
the first catch of the season. As soon as they
pull the first fish out of the water, they pour
half a bottle of wine down its throat and toss
it back into the sea. They believe that all the

(46:43):
other fish will crowd around the returnee, and getting a
whiff of the wine, will rush to the surface begging
to be caught.

Speaker 4 (46:51):

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Truth is strangers fiction. This is the truth. This is

Speaker 3 (47:10):
A five man bowling team sponsored by Roger Schmidts in
a league tournament scored one eighty seven, one eighty eight,
one eighty nine, one ninety and one ninety one.

Speaker 4 (47:21):

Speaker 3 (47:23):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a very choosy thief,
Jean puket On the Vutevier, France, sentenced to death as
a habitual thief, was told that he would be released
if a pure maiden were willing to marry him. A
homely orphan girl stepped forward willingly, but puke it On
took one look at her and said, no, I'd rather

(47:45):
marry the gallows. Hangman, do your duty. He was hanged
forthwith in the city of Reems in twelve thirty four.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
True is stranger in fiction, And this, sister, this is riclious.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
O'roarch's ford in County sligo Ere is never crossed by
any man named O'Rourke. An ancient curse against a pagan
prince named O'Rourke is never defied.

Speaker 4 (48:22):

Speaker 3 (48:23):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a very strange president.
President Ignacio Comonfort of Mexico headed a rebellion against himself.
The distinguished soldier and politician became president of Mexico in
December eighteen fifty five. Two years later, December nineteenth, eighteen

(48:46):
fifty seven.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
He became an active rebel.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Against himself and affected his own overthrow and exile February fifth,
eighteen fifty eight.

Speaker 4 (48:56):

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Truth is stranger the fiction, And this is the truth.
This is Riley's Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
Larry Lingle, aged seventeen months of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, swallowed a
nickel and coughed up a penny. Believe it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you about a strange death.
In eighteen ninety three, Henry Ziglund kilted his sweetheart, who
then killed herself.

Speaker 4 (49:35):
Her brother tried to avenge her.

Speaker 3 (49:37):
By shooting Zigland, but the bullet only grazed his face
and buried itself in a tree. The brother, thinking he'd
killed Zigland, committed suicide. Twenty years later, Zigland was cutting
down the tree with.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
A bullet in it.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
It was a tough job, so he used dynamite and
the explosion sent the old bullet through his head, killing him.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Believe it or or not, Truth is strangers. This is
the truth, viscous ripley. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
John Motley, English dramatist, was the author of Joe Miller's
Joke book. Joe Miller, a gloomy actor, could not read
or write, and never uttered a joke in his life.
about an unusual temple. The so called Snake Pagoda in

(50:38):
Arakan Burma is a striking forty five foot high structure
which has the outside shape of a great coil snake.
The interior is fully furnished as a Buddhist house of prayer.
People bitten by poisonous snakes are rushed here, often from
great distances, to pray for a miraculous salvation from death.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Believe it or not, Truth is stranger the fiction, and
this is the truth. This is Ripley's Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
The Golden Pagoda in Bangkok, Siam was erected by King
Chulalangorn at a cost of five hundred thousand dollars for
us Hit, his ten year old son, and never used again.
They leave it or not? You about an unusual purchase.
Thomas Handford of New Mills, Lancashire, England was a reformed

(51:40):
drunkard and poacher who served many a term in the
town jail. After ten years of torture from drink and
petty crime, he saved enough money to purchase his former
prison and live in it the remainder of his life,
all by himself.

Speaker 4 (51:55):

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Truth is strangeentden Is Riples Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Officers in the Turkish Navy once were required to wear
wooden replicas of their warships on their hats.

Speaker 4 (52:17):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
In a moment, I'll tell you an odd way to
live to a ripe old age Sir John Robertson, five
times Prime Minister of New South Wales Australia, had a
peculiar but for him successful way to enjoy a good
long life. Every morning for thirty five years, Sir John
bought three pints of rum. This shopping tour was invariably

(52:41):
accomplished on horseback. The Premier consumed one pint of rum
on the spot, gave another pint to his and them
to his riding boots as a preventative against rheumatism.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Believe it or not, truth is strange sho, this is
riply Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
For five hundred years, Japanese emperors signed every document with
the imprint of a palm dipped in human blood, a
signature that could never be eradicated. They leave it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you about a strange death wish.
He had thirteen thousand, one hundred and forty wives and

(53:31):
twenty eight hundred children. He lived in a palace of
ten thousand rooms, and for a period of twenty seven
years never slept in the same room twice. This was
Qin Shi huang Thai, the first Chinese emperor. He built
the Great Wall of China, and to make it strong,
he buried more than a million koolies in its walls.
This strange emperor ordered his entire family buried alive where

(53:53):
him at his death.

Speaker 4 (53:54):

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Truth is stranger the fiction. This truth. This is Ripley's
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (54:12):
The largest clan in Scotland isn't McDonald.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
It isn't Campbell either.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
According to statistics compiled by the Scottish Post Office, the
largest clan in Scotland is smith They leave it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you about the clock that
was repaired by a child. After ticking off time for
one hundred and ninety five years, the clock in the
tower of the Church of Penn stopped in nineteen ten.

(54:39):
For the next fifteen years, Europe's finest clockmakers tried in
vain to get the clock to run. Then one more
person asked permission to try. Patricia Cuthbert succeeded where master
clockmakers had failed.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
The clock has been running ever since.

Speaker 3 (54:52):
Repaired by a thirteen year old girl.

Speaker 4 (54:55):

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Truth is stranger than the sister. This is Ritles. Believe
it or not.

Speaker 3 (55:14):
One of the cleverest hunters in nature is the yellow
winged sparrow. When he goes after a grasshopper, he lures
it into the open by doing a perfect imitation of
the grasshopper's chirp.

Speaker 4 (55:24):

Speaker 3 (55:26):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a church disaster.
It happened February twenty third, eighteen eighty seven, in Dirsana Vecchia, Italy.
On that day, a furious earthquake rumbled through the town,
split open and crumbled the.

Speaker 4 (55:42):
Parish church, where a service was in progress.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
The ear shattering quake completely raised the church, caused the
deaths of every single member of the congregation, some three hundred.
Yet the clergyman presiding at the service escaped completely unharmed.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Not, truth is stranger the dish, This is the truth.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
Francis Isabella, wife of the fourth Maquis of Bath, insisted
all members of the household washed their money every day.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
In a moment, I'll tell you about an astonishing builder
of roads. One wonders whether the people of Ceylon pay
honor to a certain foreigner, A foreigner named Skinner. Skinner
was a road builder, an engineer who literally carved Ceylon
out of the darkness of jungles and swamps, with some

(56:46):
three thousand miles of highways built over a period of
fifty years. As awesome as these tasks must have been,
the most tremendous feat in his career was an eleven
mile stretch of road built when he was just sixteen
years old.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
Or not.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Truth is stranger the fiction. This is the proof. This
is ripleys. Believe it or not.

Speaker 4 (57:18):
The Duke of.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
Wharton was a member of the Irish House of Lords
for three years before he was old enough to vote
in a parliamentary election.

Speaker 4 (57:25):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a man who
overcame a fantastic physical handicap. Men have overcome enormous physical handicaps.
They're true stories of blind mountain climbers, deaf acoustical engineers.
And there was Hermann Unthan, a native of Prussia who
became a world famous violinist in the twentieth century. Unthan's

(57:49):
physical handicap was that he had no arms, Yet he
mastered the violin and thrilled audiences by playing the instrument
with his feet.

Speaker 4 (57:58):
He could even wind his own watch. They leave it
or not?

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Truth these stranger than fiction. This is the truth. This
is Ripley, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Broker's Tip, a racehorse owned by Colonel E. R. Bradley,
won only one race in his entire life. But that
race was the Kentucky Derby. They leave it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell a story about how nature
played a cruel trick on man. Among the rocky hazards
to sailors and ships in the seventeenth century were the

(58:41):
Skilly Islands of England. In order to keep ships away
from the treacherous rocks of Skilly, the lighthouse of Saint
Agnes was built in those days. Of course, the source
of light came from a fire, and ironically, the very
first boat to carry the fuel to light the fire
in the newly erected lighthouse never reached her destination. She
smashed into it in the dark and was wrecked. They

(59:02):
leave it or not?

Speaker 2 (59:09):
Truth is stranger the This is the truth. This is

Speaker 3 (59:21):
Dick Allen of Happy, Texas, born without ears or ear openings,
could hear distinctly through his mouth and became an excellent musician.

Speaker 4 (59:30):

Speaker 3 (59:31):
In a moment, I'll tell you a story about a
baby who commanded an army. Duke gode Art Godfrey the
third of Brabant Belgium succeeded his father as sovereign when
he was only three months old. As soon as he
was on the throne, war broke out, and it became
the baby's duty to lead the army into battle. He

(59:53):
was placed in a cradle in charge of a nurse
who strapped him between two trees right on the battlefield.

Speaker 4 (59:58):
The battle was won, and.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
The infant was credited with the victory, a commander in
chief in diapers, they live it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Truth is stranger than fiction. And this is the truth.
This is riples, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Among the stranger memorials left on earth is a chief's
grave in the Banza Sangabando tribe, marked by all the
gin bottles he emptied in his lifetime. Believe it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you about a potentate who
lived two lives. The Rajah of kulomfor certainly led a

(01:00:43):
double life. By day, he ruled an Indian state with
a population of over a million people. But when it
grew dark, the Rajah disguised himself as a robber. Then
leading a band of thieves, the Rajah plundered and robbed
not only the subjects of his own kingdom, but his
own treasury as well. He was even so bold as
to offer a reward for the capture of this gang.

Speaker 4 (01:01:04):
The gang he led himself. Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Truth, the stranger the lids, and this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (01:01:25):
One great quirk in marine biology is the purpose. They
have as many as ninety six teeth, yet they swallow
their food whole. Believe it or not. In a moment,
I'll tell you about a queen who was one of history's.

Speaker 4 (01:01:37):
Great kill joys.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
Theater gores and playwrights alike had a long, long wait
between seasons During part of the reign of Queen Marie
Anne of Spain, because she considered her son, the four
year old King Charles the Second, too young to understand
such things as theatrical drama, the queen closed every theater
in the country. Her reason was simple. If the King

(01:02:03):
of Spain couldn't go to the theater. Then the king's
subjects shouldn't go.

Speaker 4 (01:02:06):
To the theater. Either they leave it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Truth is stranger the fiction, And this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (01:02:26):
Ludwig Purtscheller, a gym teacher from Salzburg, Austria, climbed seven mountains,
each over nine thousand feet on a single day.

Speaker 4 (01:02:34):

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a misplaced building.
America's great historic debates and the passage of laws almost
didn't happen in Washington, d c. For the national Capital
was originally planned to be located in Alexandria, Virginia, not
the district of Columbia. The original site is now the

(01:02:56):
location of the George Washington Masonic Memorial Temple, a four
hundred foot high temple that cost five million dollars paid
for by no fewer than three million, two hundred thousand contributions.

Speaker 4 (01:03:09):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
Not, truth is stranger the fiction? How this is the truth?

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
Charles Galpin served Minnetonka, Minnesota as preacher, teacher, shipbuilder, tin smith, surveyor, mailman,
and dentist. Believe it or not, In a moment, I'll
tell you about a man of extraordinary talent. News didn't
travel very fast in seventeen seventy six, and there's no
question the creation of the United States was going to

(01:03:50):
be the new story of the century. What a potentially
complicated story it was, too, A new nation, a new
kind of government. How wise It was then that the
Continental Congress engaged one Reverend Peter Johannes Miller, who translated
the Declaration of Independence into Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese,
German and Russian.

Speaker 4 (01:04:09):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
Not, truth is strange, the liching, how this is the truth?
This is Riplease believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Wealthy natives in Angola, Africa are buried beneath their luggage
so they'll have their possessions for life in the next world.

Speaker 4 (01:04:34):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:04:36):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a dream that
came true. The dreams ever really come true? Or are
they merely a form of wishful thinking? For John Helder,
a farmer from Soham, England, a dream was something.

Speaker 4 (01:04:51):
More than mere fantasy. It was rooted in fact.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
So when Helder dreamed of falling in love with a
girl he saw in his dream. He began to search
for that girl from house to house for months, until
finally he actually found her. The girl from his dream
became his happily married.

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
Wife for forty years. They leave it or not?

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Truth is stranger than fiction, And this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (01:05:27):
King Henry the Second of England, in a campaign to
wife out Robert Barons, destroyed one thousand, one hundred and
fifteen castles.

Speaker 4 (01:05:36):

Speaker 3 (01:05:37):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a gruesome wedding ceremony.
If the wedding announcement appeared in the local newspapers, there's
no question it would be the new story of the day.
For Elizabeth Kelsey and Jonathan Titus were married in a graveyard.

Speaker 4 (01:05:54):
It seems.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
The day before the Salisbury, Vermont couple were to be wed,
the bride's brother died. It was decided, however, that the
late brother would attend the wedding anyway, so the couple
exchanged their wedding vows beside his open grave.

Speaker 4 (01:06:09):

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
Truth is stranger the fiction. Now this is the proof.

Speaker 3 (01:06:24):
Sultan Murad the fourth of Turkey hurled a four foot
palm staff a distance of over thirteen hundred feet while
riding his horse.

Speaker 4 (01:06:36):

Speaker 3 (01:06:38):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a place where
a criminal could remain free. In the movies, the criminal
being chased very often finds his sanctuary in a conveniently
located church. But in ancient China a place to find
sanctuary was a matter of fact. It was called the
Sanctuary of Chung King, and every criminal who climbed this

(01:06:59):
rock ahead one of his pursuers was assured safe refuge
just as long as he stayed inside the pagoda, which
was some one hundred and twenty feet high, actually a
prisoner of his own freedom.

Speaker 4 (01:07:11):

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Truth, the stranger the fiction, and this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (01:07:29):
The purest well water in the world comes from Saint
Anne's Weel in Malvern, England. The water is ninety nine
point nine nine nine two percent pure. They leave it
or not. In a moment, I'll tell you about a
church with hidden treasure somewhere in bots France, a treasure

(01:07:50):
of gold lies buried near the church of San Guinol. Unfortunately,
there's not even the crudest treasure map to follow, only
the dying words of the builder, who said he buried
the treasure in a spot touched by the shadow of
the church tower. Today, more than four hundred years later,
the treasure remains unfound.

Speaker 4 (01:08:12):

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):

Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
Manlius Aquilius, Roman, governor of Sicily, was punished for his
greed by being forced to swallow ten pounds of molten gold.

Speaker 4 (01:08:39):

Speaker 3 (01:08:41):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a king with
a one track mind. The temple built by King Lai
Tayton in Hanoi in ten forty nine was created because
of a strange and moving dream. In the dream, King
Lyai saw the vision of a one legged goddess, and
its affected him that he had one of his own

(01:09:01):
legs amputated, married a one legged queen, established a court
populated by one legged courtesans, and built a temple, a
temple that rises on only one leg.

Speaker 4 (01:09:12):

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
is Ripley's believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
Count Julius Litta of Russia was so fond of ice
cream that he ate five pints at dinner every day
for forty nine years.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):

Speaker 3 (01:09:40):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a strange fashion
in women's hats. Fashion may be fickle in most parts
of the world, but in olier On France, fashions at
least in women's hats haven't changed for centuries. For today,
the so called chaperone chaphau women of the town where
huge hats, designed originally in thirteen thirty nine to discourage

(01:10:04):
romantic attentions of English soldiers. The hat is called a quishinau,
a French adaptation of the expression kiss me not.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):

Speaker 3 (01:10:30):
Jeffrey Hudson served as a captain of cavalry in the
British Army on combat duty, yet he was only eighteen
inches tall. Believe it or not. In a moment, I'll
tell you about a church built because of spilled ink.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
No moment.

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
Perhaps it was one of the earliest ink blot tests,
but the results are startling. Indeed, for in Buell, France,
two identical churches were constructed side by side. It seems
a resident of the town, in his will, ordered that
his estate be used to build a church.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
But there was a splatter of ink on his.

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
Will, and this was interpreted as a request for not
one church to be built, but two.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
The truth is stranger the f this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (01:11:31):
Prince Pyotr Lapuchin of Russia was awarded his country's.

Speaker 4 (01:11:34):
Highest honor for humanism.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
Because he prohibited flogging of people.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
Over seventy years old. They leave it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a strange omen.
Sailors have always been superstitious, and perhaps one reason is
the story of the Paris s Brown. She was a
river boat flying the waters between Placamon and Cincinnati. While
tied up at Placamon in July eighteen eighty nine, two
rats were seen slithering down the lines off the boat.

(01:12:05):
Three crewmen who saw this, prompted by superstition, also walked off.
The only survivors of the Paris Sea Brown, which sailed
and vanished.

Speaker 4 (01:12:14):
Believe it or not, Truth.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Is stranger than fiction. And this is the truth. This

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
In a cow fighting contest in Naosta, Italy, the animals
fight more fiercely because they're forced to drink a mixture
of wine and gunpowder.

Speaker 4 (01:12:43):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a dog who
betrayed a king. A dog is man's best friend, not
as far as King Richard the Third was concerned. Mathey,
the pet greyhound of King Richard. On the day the
monarch was captured in the Castle of Flint, ran to
his master's bitterest rival, the Earl of Lancaster, and licked

(01:13:08):
the Earl's hand affectionately.

Speaker 4 (01:13:10):
The dog thus becoming.

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
The very first follower of King Richard to switch allegiance
away from his king.

Speaker 4 (01:13:16):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
The stentur, a water animal, has the most violent death
in nature. It ends its life by exploding into minute particles.

Speaker 4 (01:13:43):
They lave it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:13:45):
In a moment, I'll tell you about an unlikely death
or a mountain climber. For Sheer's strength and bravery, and
perhaps a touch of the theatrical, few could match Tita Pias. Pias,
the famed Alpine out and climber and guide who lived
in Cortina, Italy, climbed the forbidding Winkler Tower, nine thousand

(01:14:06):
feet of Sheer Rock, with his five year old son
strapped to his back. Pias, who had climbed the steep
forbidding Beaujolet Tower three hundred times without mishap, died in
a fall from a bicycle.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
They leave it or not. Cruth is stranger than fiction.
And this is the proof. This is Ripley's believe it
or not.

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
Colonel Henry Melish of blythe Hall, England lost four hundred
and eighty five thousand dollars in a single game of cards.

Speaker 4 (01:14:45):

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the brilliant sleepy head.
There are sleepwalkers, and in Canada there was once a
sleep thinker. He was doctor Newton Wolverton, distinguished Canadian minister.
While attending Toronto University, Wolverton fell asleep after spending thirty
six hours trying to solve a mathematical problem, and.

Speaker 4 (01:15:09):
When he woke up twelve hours later.

Speaker 3 (01:15:11):
He found the correct solution to the problem, worked out
in fifty pages of calculations, all in his own handwriting.

Speaker 4 (01:15:19):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:15:25):
The stranger in fiction, and this is the truth. This
is riples, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
The key to the French Bastille, seized in the French Revolution,
was presented by Lafayette to George Washington and has remained
at Mount Vernon ever since. Believe it or not. In
a moment, I'll tell you about the passionate pastor. Throughout history,
gigantic acts of wisdom and revolution have been born in

(01:15:59):
the church pulpit. Preachers, pastors and saints have stirred millions.
But what about the pastor who stirred himself. He was
the Reverend John Otterson of Mutton, Scotland, who preached a
sermon every Sunday for fifteen years, but would become so
overcome by his own eloquence he would faint before he
could complete it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:19):

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):

Speaker 3 (01:16:38):
Duke Albert was so Puny as an infant that doctors
prescribed a daily dose of wine, a prescription he followed
for eighty four years. They leave it or not In
a moment, I'll tell you about the church that had
a coincidental beginning. Man leaves the monument of his lifetime.
In many ways, a church, for example, is not uncommon,

(01:17:00):
but for George Meyer, his monument had a touch of
the ironic and bizarre.

Speaker 4 (01:17:04):
Meyer was responsible for the.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
Building of the Church of Eustad in Schwarzwald, Germany, spending
twenty years of his life raising the money to build it. Finally,
on June twenty ninth, eighteen eighty eight, the church was completed,
just in time for George Meyer's funeral services.

Speaker 4 (01:17:20):

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
This is ridleys. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
Marshall Suvarov, one of Russia's most celebrated military leaders, personally
awakened his soldiers by crowing like a rooster.

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a Canadian joan
of arc. Heroics in the time of the early wars
with the Indians were as commonplace as the wars themselves.
But one instance of supreme heroism belongs to Madeleine de Verachet,
who successfully defended Fort Dangerous near Montreal against a fierce
attack by fifty Iroquois Indians. Aided only by her two

(01:18:12):
younger brothers, an old man, and two soldiers, she held
out for eight days until reinforcements arrived. Madelaine was a
mere fourteen years old. They leave it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
This is ripleus believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:18:39):
Henry Temple was appointed Chief Clerk of the Treasury of Ireland,
a ten thousand dollars a year job, when he was
seven years old.

Speaker 4 (01:18:47):

Speaker 3 (01:18:48):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a trick pulled
on Napoleon. The life of a double agent, particularly today,
has been made as glamorous as it is daring. But
imagine playing double agent in Napoleon's time. The Count de
Blacist did. His assignment was to spy on the exiled
King Louis the eighteenth, but instead of spying, he shared

(01:19:11):
his spy's salary of forty thousand dollars a year with
the king. Later, he was made a duke by the
King as a reward for his honesty.

Speaker 4 (01:19:20):

Speaker 2 (01:19:26):
This is Ripley. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:19:38):
Reuben Smith of Amesbury, Massachusetts is buried sitting upright in
a chair in his tomb with his favorite pipe and checkerboard.

Speaker 4 (01:19:46):

Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the greatest literary
award in history. At a time when Portugal was a
world power, it was common for kings to give land
to loyal adventurers and talented artists. However, King Jahawel the
third of Portugal believed in the big giveaway. The King
was so enthusiastic about a history of Portuguese Asia written

(01:20:11):
by Jahao de Barros that he gave the author the
whole state of Mario in Brazil, a piece of real
estate three times the size of New York State.

Speaker 4 (01:20:21):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:20:27):
Truth is stranger the fiction. This is the proof. This

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
William Lilly, celebrated English astrologer, served as official fortune teller
in the British Army to improve morale by predicting victories.

Speaker 4 (01:20:48):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the prophecy that
became history. Was it prophetic or was it mere coincidence?
Did George Washington have that undefinable look of greatness in
the making?

Speaker 4 (01:21:04):
Consider the facts. Then, some fourteen years.

Speaker 3 (01:21:07):
Before Washington was elected President of the United States, a
special residence was provided for him by the Provincial Congress
of Massachusetts Bay on July second, seventeen seventy five. It
was a mansion in Watertown, Massachusetts, known as the President's Mansion.

Speaker 4 (01:21:22):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (01:21:23):
Not, Truth is stranger than did and this is the truth.

Speaker 4 (01:21:40):
Robert J.

Speaker 3 (01:21:41):
Ingersoll, famed nineteenth century attorney, charged as his fee for
appearing in court one thousand dollars an hour.

Speaker 4 (01:21:48):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:21:50):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a siege that
ended in Romance. In the long and exciting history of
England's Oliver Cromwell, there is an episode of love and
military strategy. Marie O'Brien, the beautiful redhead whose husband was
killed fighting Cromwell, agreed to surrender her castle of Lemonoff,

(01:22:10):
Ireland to Cromwell's besieging Armies on one condition that Cromwell
order one of his officers to marry her. A Colonel
John Cooper volunteered and they lived happily ever after.

Speaker 4 (01:22:22):

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
Truth is stranger in fiction. This is the proof. This

Speaker 3 (01:22:41):
Doctor John ka master of Christ College in Cambridge, could
identify each letter of the alphabet at the age of
six months.

Speaker 4 (01:22:49):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:22:51):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a castle with
a strange reason for being danger keep off the grounds,
warning children at play. Familiar signs in the twentieth century,
but one of the more curious signposts to be seen
in England is a castle. It's the Castle of Saint Briabel's,
constructed on the border of England and Wales to prevent

(01:23:13):
accidental crossings by Welshman into England. A good idea because
an accidental crossing in those days was punished by cutting
off the right hand of the trespasser.

Speaker 4 (01:23:23):

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):

Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
There was a survivor from Custer's last stand, the horse Comanche,
wounded seven times still lived to be twenty eight years old.
They leave it or not. In a moment, I'll tell
you about an odd way to dress a harem. In
sixteen eleven, Sultan Ahmed First of Turkey found himself in

(01:24:04):
a somewhat embarrassing position as far as his three thousand
wives were concerned. It seems the Sultan simply couldn't afford
gifts for the entire harem. How did the Sultan solve
his gift getting problem? He merely declared war on Persia
for the sole purpose of getting hold of the gifts
that he couldn't afford. One million pounds of Persian silk.

(01:24:25):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:24:31):
Truth, the stranger, the dh This is the truth. This
is ripleous. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:24:44):
A law passed in Shaftesbury, Vermont, in eighteen o three
banned the teaching of grammar in its public schools as
a useless subject.

Speaker 4 (01:24:53):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:24:54):
In a moment, I'll tell you how an ancient tribe
anticipated modern warfare. The theory behind the guided missile turns
out to be not so modern as one might imagine.
The theory, of course, is the missile is intended to
hit a specific target, which is precisely the idea that
ancient Britain's had. These early warriors would rub the stones

(01:25:17):
they fired from their slings in the brains of slain enemies,
in the belief the missiles would have sufficient.

Speaker 4 (01:25:24):
Brains power to fly right to the target. They live
it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:25:34):
is ripley. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:25:46):
A well located in Great Valley, New York actually Inhales
and Exhales because of variations in barometric pressure.

Speaker 4 (01:25:54):

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a person.

Speaker 4 (01:25:58):
Who cheated death.

Speaker 3 (01:26:03):
Most of the great memorials built around the world are
in memory of the dead. But there's a memorial in Edinburgh,
Scotland that was built for the opposite reason. It's in
honor of someone who escaped death. It's carved in the
stones of a house that had collapsed, trapping a young
man under piles of stone and timber.

Speaker 4 (01:26:20):
On the memorial there's a portrait of.

Speaker 3 (01:26:22):
The boy and the words with which he greeted his
rescuers heave away champs.

Speaker 4 (01:26:26):
I'm not dead yet. They leave it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:26:34):
Truth is stranger the fiction. And this is the proof.

Speaker 3 (01:26:46):
The first official act of King Henry the sixth was
to approve a decree stating he could be spanked by
his royal nurse.

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):

Speaker 3 (01:26:55):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a patriot who
lived in exile. He taught music for years in Buffalo,
New York in the late eighteen hundreds and early in
the twentieth century, but his hearts and his talent were
really in Mexico. He was Jamie Nuno, who was forced
to leave Mexico in eighteen fifty four and spend the

(01:27:18):
remainder of his life unknown to his countrymen, a particularly
cruel fate since Nuno was the composer of the Mexican
national anthem.

Speaker 4 (01:27:28):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:27:35):

Speaker 3 (01:27:47):
A tombstone in Vermont reads I put my wife beneath.

Speaker 4 (01:27:51):
This stone for her repose and for my own. Believe
it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:27:56):
never seemed to grow up. Francisco Siicadi Hungo of Venice
was the most incurable juvenal the world has ever seen.
He survived five marriages, never suffered a day's illness. His
eyesight and hearing were phenomenal to the last. His hair
turned black at age one hundred. He received a government

(01:28:19):
appointment at one hundred and fifteen, grew new teeth at
one hundred and sixteen, and until the end, this venerable
venet never lacked the companionship of a young lady.

Speaker 4 (01:28:29):

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
Truth is stranger in fiction. This is the truth. This
is ripleus believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:28:48):
Wickham Mill in England was built from the timbers of
the American warship Chesapeake, captured in the War of eighteen twelve.

Speaker 4 (01:28:55):

Speaker 3 (01:28:57):
In a moment, I'll tell you about doctors whom the moonlighted.
Physicians have been responsible for many great inventions that had
nothing to do with medicine. A doctor Timothy Bright invented shorthand,
Doctor Nicholas Barrebn invented fire insurance. Doctor James sim of
Scotland invented waterproofing, doctor John Gory conceived modern refrigeration. Doctor

(01:29:22):
Richard Gatling invented the rapid fire machine gun, and doctor
William Francis Channing of Boston invented the fire alarm.

Speaker 4 (01:29:30):
They leave it or Not?

Speaker 2 (01:29:37):
Truth the stranger the fiction, This is the cool, This
is Ripley's Believe it or not?

Speaker 4 (01:29:49):
My John.

Speaker 3 (01:29:49):
The most popular game in China was invented by Joseph P.

Speaker 4 (01:29:53):
Babcock, an American. They leave it or Not.

Speaker 3 (01:29:57):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a soldier who
worked to win a kingdom. A humble French lieutenant colonel
won an empire fourteen times as large as France, and
not a drop of blood was shed in the process.
This charmer of conquerors was Charles Parpei Montille, who plunged
into Equatorial Africa armed with a mere twelve Senegalese soldiers,

(01:30:21):
sixteen thousand dollars in cash, and twenty four empty treaty blanks.
Twenty seven months later, this daring Frenchman emerged, the money
all spent, but with treaties that gave France an empire.

Speaker 4 (01:30:32):

Speaker 2 (01:30:39):
Truth is stranger than did and this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (01:30:51):
Benjamin Franklin did not originate the idea of the lightning rod.
It was discovered a thousand years earlier.

Speaker 4 (01:30:57):

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the greatest one
man job in history. He was probably years ahead of
his time, and that's why Pierre Paul de Riquay, Baron
de Bonrepaul, took on the construction of a canal linking
the Mediterranean and the Atlantic at his own expense. Local authorities,

(01:31:19):
unconvinced of the feasibility of the project, refused to share
in the cost. So Riquet built the one hundred and
fifty eight mild Canal and paid sixty eight million dollars
in gold for it himself, and it's still in use today.

Speaker 2 (01:31:40):
This is ripleous, believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:31:52):
The official flower on Father's Day is the dandelion, because
the more it's trampled on, the better it grows.

Speaker 4 (01:31:58):

Speaker 3 (01:32:00):
Moment, I'll tell you about an incredibly loyal soldier. Records
of man's ability to live out his life over one
or two centuries are actually commonplace, but the story of
Jean Terrelle of de Jon, France is spectacular in its longevity.
Terrell served in the French army over three consecutive centuries.

(01:32:22):
He joined a regiment in sixteen ninety nine, fought and
served through the seventeen hundreds, and was still serving France
in eighteen to two when he was given a pension
by Napoleon. Service that totaled one hundred and three years.

Speaker 2 (01:32:40):
Truth is stranger the diction, and this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (01:32:52):
The famous one hundred Years' War actually lasted one hundred
and fourteen years.

Speaker 4 (01:32:58):

Speaker 3 (01:32:59):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a sight to
send terror into those who saw it. Riding riding, riding
the great warrior astride his horse returning from battle in Jajar,
India to his home in Bahu, riding hard for twenty
six miles. And what a sight it must have been
to for the rider, Shahgazi Kamal was headless. An enemy

(01:33:23):
sword stroke had cleanly severed the head, but his seat
in the saddle was so secure he remained on his mount,
who returned home carrying the original headless horseman.

Speaker 4 (01:33:34):

Speaker 2 (01:33:40):
This is ripleous. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:33:53):
A mule named Boston Curtis was elected Republican Committeeman from Milton,
Washington in nineteen thirty eight. Believe it or not, In
a moment, I'll tell you about the never Never Gate.
The gate of Trackware Castle in Scotland was slammed shut
in seventeen forty five and has never been opened since.

(01:34:16):
Its owner, an ardent believer in the cause of Bonnie,
Prince Charlie of the Stuarts, ordered the gates closed, through
the keys into the nearby Tweed River and bowed the
gate would only be opened when a Stuart ruled Great Britain.
But the Stuarts lost, and the gates remain closed, a
symbol of a lost cause.

Speaker 4 (01:34:35):

Speaker 2 (01:34:41):

Speaker 3 (01:34:53):
Marie Augustine, the Marquis de Pallier of Brittany, spent fifty
years in prison charged with whistling at ree Antoinette.

Speaker 4 (01:35:01):

Speaker 3 (01:35:02):
In a moment, I'll tell you about some facts that
are really unfacts. A silk worm is not a worm.
It's a caterpillar. A Mexican jumping bean is not a bean.
It's a hollow shell containing worms. School chalk is not chalk,
it's plaster of Paris. A caraway seed is not a seed.
It's a dried fruit. A firefly is not a fly.

Speaker 4 (01:35:25):
A glow worm is not a worm.

Speaker 3 (01:35:26):
They're both beetles. A mosquito bite is not a bite,
it's a puncture. And the French phone is not French.
It was invented by Robert Brown, an American.

Speaker 4 (01:35:35):
They live it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:36):
Are not truth, these strangers. This is the truth. This
is riples, believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:35:53):
Natives of the island of Iran off Ireland fish from
a spot that's three hundred feet above the sea.

Speaker 4 (01:36:00):

Speaker 3 (01:36:01):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a grateful company
of soldiers who saved a comrade.

Speaker 4 (01:36:09):
In Sacket's Harbor, New York.

Speaker 3 (01:36:10):
There's a structure that recalls a curious episode in the
War of eighteen twelve against the British. It concerns an
American soldier, not a lofty monument to his bravery, but
rather evidence of the fact he was a deserter. The
soldier facing execution for desertion was pardoned only because he
single handedly constructed a drinking well right on the battlefield

(01:36:31):
so that his thirstay comrades and arms would have fresh water.

Speaker 4 (01:36:34):

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
Truth is stranger, the fiction, and this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (01:36:52):
Alexander Drummond offered to join the seventy ninth Cameron Highlanders
if he didn't have to start at the bottom, so
he enlisted.

Speaker 4 (01:36:59):
As a sergeant. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:37:02):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a courageous queen.
Perhaps it was because she was a perfectionist in all things,
or one of history's most tragic theatrical hands. She was
Queen Catherine Howard, the fifth, wife of King Henry the eighth.
While the Queen was imprisoned, she was told that the

(01:37:23):
following day she would be executed, and in order to
perform the function of being beheaded properly, the queen asked
for and received the block and axe in her cell
so she could rehearse her own execution.

Speaker 4 (01:37:36):
Believe it or not, Truth is stranger?

Speaker 2 (01:37:44):
Then did she? This is the truth, This is ripleus,
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
The Samuel Carr house in Jamestown, Rhode Island, a stone
on one side, wood on the other, and nobody knows
why they leave it or not. In a moment, I'll
tell you about the shyest women in the world.

Speaker 4 (01:38:09):
The familiar veils of.

Speaker 3 (01:38:10):
The women of North Africa are nothing compared to the
modesty portrayed by the women of the Comoro Islands near Africa.
These shy females leave their homes only completely cloaked in
a tent like covering, an almost ghostlike cloth that doesn't
have any openings, not even slits for their eyes, so
they must grope blindly or be guided wherever they go,

(01:38:33):
never to be seen by anyone outside the family.

Speaker 4 (01:38:36):

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
Truth is stranger than fits. This is the truth. This
is ritle, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:38:54):
The Merry Go Round tree of Mumbai in Central Africa
pivots itself during storms to withstand the force of the winds.

Speaker 4 (01:39:01):

Speaker 3 (01:39:02):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a place that
remembers a horrible past. One of the most grisly and
terrifying periods of English history was the reign of Henry
the Eighth. Symbolic of this time was the dreaded London Tower,
where princes and queens, dukes and barons were executed or
left to die in chains. Even today there is strange

(01:39:24):
evidence of the madness of the early times.

Speaker 4 (01:39:27):
For the Tower green where three.

Speaker 3 (01:39:28):
Queens were executed, is now covered with paving stones because
grass simply refuses to grow on the tortured spot.

Speaker 4 (01:39:36):

Speaker 2 (01:39:42):

Speaker 3 (01:39:54):
Johann George Crunitz wrote a two hundred and forty two
volume encyclopedia in Longhand they live it or not. In
a moment, I'll tell you about a way that a
man chose a woman for marriage, regardless of beauty. Medieval
English churches were usually equipped with a heavy parish chest,

(01:40:14):
which determined whether a wedding would or would not take place.
It was used as a pre marital aptitude test by
prospective young brides. To pass, a candidate for marriage had
to lift the thirty pound lid with one hand. If
she flunked, the girl was considered too weak to cope
with the arduous tasks of a housewife, and the.

Speaker 4 (01:40:32):
Groom could call the whole thing off. They live it
or not.

Speaker 2 (01:40:41):

Speaker 3 (01:40:52):
Bedrooms in the cantons of Greissan's, Switzerland have tiny windows
opened when the occupant is dying so his soul can escape.

Speaker 4 (01:41:00):
Leave it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
In a moment, I'll tell you about cows who grow
their own gold teeth. Not to be confused with the
goose who laid the golden eggs with the cows in
the state of Washington who actually grew gold teeth. Amazing,
but a matter of fact. These bovines grazed in the
Alder Creek basin near a famous gold mine, and as

(01:41:22):
they chewed, they picked up gold dust embedded in the ground.

Speaker 4 (01:41:25):
The chemical combination of lime.

Speaker 3 (01:41:27):
In the cow's teeth and the gold dust created a
perfect and permanent and valuable gold dental crown.

Speaker 4 (01:41:33):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:41:39):
Truth is stranger than viction. This is the truth. This riptly.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:41:51):
These in the state of Goyas, Brazil cannot sting. They
also produce sour honey. They lave it or not. In
a moment, I'll tell you about a tennis star who
made his point in more ways than one, it seems.
Charles de la Haye, the famous French tennis star, was
not satisfied to prove his skills on the tennis court

(01:42:12):
by winning scores alone. He once stepped onto the court
dressed in the full uniform of the French National Guard,
carrying a full field pack musket with fixed bayonet, sine arms,
plumed helmet, all the ceremonial regalia, and played four sets
of tennis this way, beating his opponent, who was in
conventional tennis calls, by a score of three sets to one.

Speaker 4 (01:42:33):

Speaker 2 (01:42:39):
Truth is stranger than this is the truth. This is riples,
believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:42:51):
At the Amarillo tri State Fair, a racehorse named seventeen
sixty won its race and paid seventeen sixty They leave.

Speaker 4 (01:42:59):
It or not.

Speaker 3 (01:43:00):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a curious sort
of home, sweet home. The people who live in Saikra,
a small village on the island of Crete, never spent
Christmas at home, or the New Year or any other
day in the winter because it's impossible. The town literally
disappears in the winter, covered by an on rush of
water which buries the homes and shops of these island people. However,

(01:43:24):
come the first signs of spring, and the waters received
then disappear, and the villagers return set up housekeeping again
until the next flood.

Speaker 4 (01:43:32):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:43:39):
Truth is stranger the viction. This is the truth. This

Speaker 3 (01:43:50):
Lincoln is the only president of the United States whose
last military rank before becoming chief executive was private.

Speaker 4 (01:43:58):

Speaker 3 (01:43:59):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the craziest military
drill in all history. Zia Nicholas, the first of Russia,
devised one of the craziest and in assense cruelest military
drills ever known. It was called the water drill and
was designed to perfect a crisp marching style. The drill
consisted of a soldier who practiced goose stepping while carrying

(01:44:21):
a glass of water on top of his military hat.

Speaker 4 (01:44:24):
If the Russian soldier.

Speaker 3 (01:44:26):
Spilled as much as a single drop, he was obliged
to serve an additional.

Speaker 4 (01:44:30):
Year for every drop of water he spilled.

Speaker 2 (01:44:32):
They leave it or not, Truth is stranger the vics.
This is the truth, This is ripley. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:44:51):
For King Henry the second of England. It was always
good to be on your toes. Maybe that's why he
always ate his meals standing up. They leave it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you how a gesture of
good manners helped the lady become a queen. The ways
of emperors in choosing their wives have intrigued historians for centuries.

(01:45:13):
Leo the sixth of the East made his choice a
genuine competition among the ladies. Each candidate was obliged to
sit barefooted on the floor, and at a signal each
a rose donned her slippers and executed a curtsey. The
winner of this curious contest, Theofano, became empress for twenty
five years, all because she could curtsey better than anyone else.

Speaker 4 (01:45:34):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (01:45:35):
Not, truth is stranger than this is the truth. This
is ricles, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:45:52):
The Dassi of Africa, an animals smaller than a rabbit,
is the nearest living relative to the elephant.

Speaker 4 (01:45:58):

Speaker 3 (01:46:00):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the man who
had a strange hatred of money. Joseph Hating Barcossi of
Hungary was one of the earliest cases of a man
desiring to become a woman. He wanted to become a
woman legally because he hated money. It seems the law
required a family fortune to pass on to the male

(01:46:21):
member of the remaining line, but Barcos he wasn't interested.
He had the courts declare him a woman, and the
fortune was passed on. He did, however, change his name
from Joseph to Josephina.

Speaker 4 (01:46:33):

Speaker 2 (01:46:39):
Truth is strangers in fiction, and this is the proof.

Speaker 3 (01:46:51):
Perhaps one reason why the elephant has been employed by
man in heavy duty construction work is that the elephant
is the only animal with four knees.

Speaker 4 (01:47:00):

Speaker 3 (01:47:01):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a man possessed
by his name. Baron Herman van mcnoightight, prime Minister of
the State of Wurtemberg, was certainly preoccupied with his own name.
Midknock is an adaptation of the German word from midnight,
and midnight became the ruling force in his life. He
was married at midnight, He ate his main meal at midnight.

(01:47:24):
He signed all official documents at midnight. Named his dog Midnight,
hired servants named Midnight, and among many other things.

Speaker 2 (01:47:36):
Truth is stranger than this is rickles, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:47:48):
Marie Antoinette never really said let them eat cake. The
actual words in translation were let them eat rose.

Speaker 4 (01:47:55):

Speaker 3 (01:47:56):
In a moment, I'll tell you a story about a
toothache that led to a massacre. A toothache that affected
Queen Namasol of Uganda, Africa also affected the entire population
of a neighboring province called Uma. The queen, in her
anguish of pain, consulted some tribal witches who said the
queen's toothache would be cured if she put the entire

(01:48:20):
population of Uma to death. The witch's weird cure was tried.
Twenty five thousand people were driven into Lake Victoria and drowned,
but mass murder didn't cure the toothache.

Speaker 4 (01:48:31):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:48:38):
Truth is stranger, This is the truth, This is rily,
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:48:50):
Danny London was hit with a lucky punch. Born deaf
and dumb, he was hit during a boxing match and
the punch gave.

Speaker 4 (01:48:56):
Him his hearing and his speech. Believe it or not?

Speaker 3 (01:49:00):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the church that's
always up to date. Salisbury Cathedral bears the curious creative.

Speaker 4 (01:49:09):
Talents of her builders in.

Speaker 3 (01:49:10):
The form of features related to the calendar. It has
as many doors as there are months in the year,
as many windows as there are days, as many pillars
as there are hours, as many sculptures as there are
minutes in an hour, as many consecration crosses as there are.

Speaker 4 (01:49:25):
Seconds in a minute.

Speaker 3 (01:49:26):
However, the architects neglected one detail. The tower leans twenty
two and a half inches off center.

Speaker 2 (01:49:33):
They leave it or not. Truth is stranger the fiction.
This is the truth. This is riply believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:49:51):
Long before there were any of today's methods of measuring,
people in India measured distances by the sound.

Speaker 4 (01:49:57):
Of a cow's move They leave it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:50:00):
In a moment, I'll tell you the blood curdling story
of a doomed man's last reward. One of the great
injustices in the bloody French Revolution was the execution of
Anquan Laurent Lavasier, the founder of modern chemistry.

Speaker 4 (01:50:17):
He was arrested on.

Speaker 3 (01:50:18):
Totally trumped up charges and sentenced to the guillotine, but
France's great scientist was not to die without recognition of
his contribution to learning, So Lavasier was awarded France's highest
scientific award, the Wreath of Everlasting Flowers. The next day
they cut off his head. Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:50:42):
Truth is stranger the diction. This truth, This is riplious.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:50:54):
The first holiday greeting card ever sent in America was
sent by none other than Pistol packing.

Speaker 4 (01:50:59):
Any They live it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:51:02):
In a moment, I'll tell you the incredible story of
the greatest clothes horse in history. Prince Bensil von Kanita
Reichberg and Austrian Chancellor was the most close conscious man
who ever lived. For fifty seven years, he changed clothes
completely thirty times a day. Assuming he slept eight hours

(01:51:23):
a day, this meant a change every thirty two minutes.
And this wasn't merely jacket and trousers. It involved laces, decorations,
countless effects. Yet in spite of his preoccupation, he was
the leading figure in European politics for forty two years.

Speaker 4 (01:51:37):
They live it or not?

Speaker 2 (01:51:43):

Speaker 3 (01:51:55):
One of the great geographical oddities in the world is
the harbor of foio In in the Isle of Issia, Italy.
The water in the harbor is so hot you can
boil an egg in it.

Speaker 4 (01:52:05):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:52:06):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a strange way
to die. In February nineteen eight, Baron von Kirstin led
a caravan of forty men in an attempt to conquer
Mount Karasimbi in Central Africa. At twelve thousand feet, A
furious gale began howling through the mountains. The mountain climbers
were gradually being frozen by the frigid winds of these

(01:52:29):
high altitudes, in spite of the fact they were directly
on the equator. The grim tole reached twenty dead, frozen
to death under a tropic sun.

Speaker 4 (01:52:38):
Theylieve it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:52:44):
Truth is stranger than fiction. This is to prove this,
if it is Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:52:56):
A colorful touch to the court of King abbad El
motadid of s were the flower pots. They were made
from the skulls of enemies killed by the king in battle.
about a living library. Anawa Hookichi of Japan became blind
at the age of seven and devoted the rest of

(01:53:18):
his life to teaching.

Speaker 4 (01:53:20):
His memory was so vast he was.

Speaker 3 (01:53:21):
Able to store the contents of some four hundred thousand manuscripts,
which he compiled into the gun Show Luiju, a work
of almost three thousand volumes and still considered a priceless
reference work by students in Japan. A library created by
a blind man. Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:53:44):
This is ripleys.

Speaker 3 (01:53:50):
Believe it or not, It must be quite a crazy
sight to the visitors. But beggars who go out on
the Yang Sea River to meet foreign steamships paddle out
in wooden bathtubs.

Speaker 4 (01:54:05):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:54:07):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the useless military guard.
The fantastic reputation as warrior and conqueror belongs almost exclusively
to Napoleon. In fact, only recently has the fear of
Napoleon been finally dispelled. It happened when a man named
Chummy Barton died in nineteen forty four. He was the

(01:54:28):
last of a long line of armed sentries maintained for
the English to watch for the return of Napoleon over
the Strait of Dover, even though Napoleon had been dead
for over a century.

Speaker 4 (01:54:39):

Speaker 2 (01:54:46):
Truth is stranger the legs, and this is the truth.
This is Riples. Believe it or not.

Speaker 4 (01:54:58):
The Russians don't really have an H bomb. How could they.
There's no letter H in the Russian alphabet. They leave
it or not. In a moment, I'll tell you the.

Speaker 3 (01:55:07):
Extraordinary story of a tree that became the costliest tree
in history. The Tree of Obedience, located in a barren
desert in Egypt, is some sixteen hundred years old. The
legend is that a saintly hermit took a dry stick,
stuck it in the ground, and told a disciple to
water the stick until it bore fruit. It took the

(01:55:29):
entire night to complete the trip to water and back,
and he watered the tree every day for three years
until it sprouted fruit. Altogether half a million man hours
have kept the Tree of Obedience alive.

Speaker 4 (01:55:41):

Speaker 2 (01:55:47):

Speaker 4 (01:56:00):
Of a musical instrument. Try the kissar.

Speaker 3 (01:56:02):
This African instrument is made of a human skull and
the horns of a gazelle.

Speaker 4 (01:56:07):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:56:09):
In a moment, I'll tell you the amusing story of
a princess who kept.

Speaker 4 (01:56:12):
A dark secret.

Speaker 3 (01:56:17):
The first equestrianne to ride side saddle was Anne of Bohemia,
daughter of the German Emperor Charles the fourth. She was
born with one leg shorter than the other and was
unable to ride a horse in the normal fashion. A
special saddle was designed for her so that she could
ride with both legs on the same side. Her vanity
kept her from revealing the secret of her deformed legs,

(01:56:37):
so that the saddle was termed a fashion innovation rather
than a horse mounted wheelchair.

Speaker 4 (01:56:43):
Be Leave it or not.

Speaker 2 (01:56:49):
Truth is stranger than fiction. This sis the truth. This

Speaker 3 (01:57:01):
A tooth of the famed physicist Sir Isaac Newton was
purchased for seven hundred thirty pounds over three thousand dollars they.

Speaker 4 (01:57:09):
Leave it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:57:11):
inherited his own fortune. He lived to tell about it.
How he inherited his own fortune. He was Felix Siem,
the noted French painter. After earning a fortune as a
painter of Venetian landscapes, Ziem retired to such utter obscurity
he was presumed dead. Just before his fortune was to

(01:57:33):
pass to his relatives. He reappeared, but because the red
tape of proving himself alive was so vast, he rewrote
his own will, leaving his fortune to himself.

Speaker 4 (01:57:44):

Speaker 2 (01:57:50):
Truth is stranger than fiction and desisted truth. This is ripleous,
believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:58:02):
As a form of punishment, King Einstein Ilrad of Norway
made a greyhound dog the ruler of one.

Speaker 4 (01:58:08):
Of his districts. They leave it or not.

Speaker 3 (01:58:11):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the opera singer
who was almost killed by her voice. Elizabeth Billington, the
great English opera singer, was undoubtedly conscious of musical criticism,
but only up to a point. She was the victim
of the strangest criticism an audience ever tendered a perform her.
It happened in Naples in May seventeen ninety four. In

(01:58:33):
Inas di Castro. She sang with such beauty and power
neopolitans accused her of causing volcanic Mount Vesuvius to erupt
a month after her performance.

Speaker 4 (01:58:43):

Speaker 2 (01:58:50):
Truth is stranger the truth, This is ripleus. Believe it
or not.

Speaker 3 (01:59:02):
A camp was born on the Stetta Ranch in Nebraska,
with the cattle brand clearly visible on its side. They
leave it or not in a moment. I'll tell you
about a governor who had nothing to govern. John Whittaker
held one of the most curious jobs.

Speaker 4 (01:59:20):
In the history of American government.

Speaker 3 (01:59:22):
It was actually no job at all, but he was
committed to it by the will of the people. He
was elected governor of the state of Oregon before it
was a state. People who lived in the Oregon Territory
were pretty sure of being admitted to statehood, so they
held their local elections anyway. But Governor Whittaker was unable
to govern until Congress made Oregon a state.

Speaker 4 (01:59:44):

Speaker 2 (01:59:50):

Speaker 3 (02:00:02):
Mosquitoes prefer blondes, but they're female mosquitos, the only ones
who bite, and they consider the skin of a blonde
less resistant. Believe it or not in a moment, I'll
tell you about the man who couldn't sleep. Armand Jacques
Lebett of Paris suffered a terrible affliction.

Speaker 4 (02:00:23):
He couldn't sleep as a child.

Speaker 3 (02:00:25):
During the French Revolution, Lerbette had an accident an observation
stand collapsed, damaging his brain. Rushed to the hospital, he
ultimately recovered, but couldn't close his eyes. His condition lasted
all through life, seventy one years. Yet he became a
great lawyer, widely known as the legal light that is
never extinguished.

Speaker 4 (02:00:45):

Speaker 2 (02:00:51):

Speaker 3 (02:01:03):
The United States has observed only one national holiday in
its history, the one hundredth anniversary of Washington's inauguration.

Speaker 4 (02:01:11):

Speaker 3 (02:01:13):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the oldest language
in the world. The oldest language in the world isn't
spoken between one man and another. It's spoken between man
and the elephant. It's the language of the Indian Mahout,
the professional elephant driver. In addressing the elephant. The Mahut
uses neither Hindi, nor Arabic nor Persian. Three of the

(02:01:36):
oldest still spoken languages rather, he speaks to his elephant
in the language of the cave man with which the
first elephant was trained fifty thousand years ago.

Speaker 4 (02:01:46):

Speaker 2 (02:01:52):

Speaker 3 (02:02:05):
On the same day the United States, but off the
gold standard, a man reported his goldfish turned silver.

Speaker 4 (02:02:12):

Speaker 3 (02:02:13):
In a moment, I'll tell you about an act of
patriotism with a twist to missus AA Vile of South Africa.
A once in a lifetime coincidence happened during World War II.
Missus Vile baked one hundred and fifty cakes for a
detachment of troops stationed in Europe. After she'd finished her baking,
she noticed that her wedding ring was missing and concluded

(02:02:36):
it was lost in one of her just baked cakes.
Missus Viyell sent the cakes off with a note in
each asking for her ring if it were found. The
ring was found by Sergeant Ronnie Viel, her own son.

Speaker 4 (02:02:48):

Speaker 2 (02:02:56):
Truth is stranger than this is Ripleys be leave it
or not.

Speaker 3 (02:03:08):
You can tell how fast you're traveling on a train
by listening to the number of rail clicks.

Speaker 4 (02:03:13):

Speaker 3 (02:03:15):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the king who
condemned the river to death.

Speaker 4 (02:03:22):
The Gidness River, now known as the.

Speaker 3 (02:03:24):
Dala in Iraq, is the only river that was sentenced
to death and executed. The prosecutor in the case was
King Cyrus of Persia. While crossing the river, he lost
one of his sacred white horses in.

Speaker 4 (02:03:35):
A drowning accident.

Speaker 3 (02:03:36):
The king was so incensed he ordered channel's doug to
divert the waters of the river, and the river did
die for one thousand years, until the sands dried up
the channels and the river flowed once again.

Speaker 4 (02:03:48):
Over its original course. They leave it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:03:56):
Truth is stranger the true This if riples believe it
or not.

Speaker 3 (02:04:09):
Aristophone, an ancient Athenian legislator, was impeached a total of
seventy five times, but never once convicted. Believed or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you about a game of
chess that drove a man crazy. The game of chess
figured in a strange medical experiment. Count Et van Zechenyi,

(02:04:31):
a famous Hungarian scientist in the eighteen hundreds, went insane
and the game of chess was prescribed as a possible cure,
the idea being that concentration would help the brain.

Speaker 4 (02:04:42):
A young student was hired.

Speaker 3 (02:04:43):
To play chess with the mad count, and they played
for six long years.

Speaker 4 (02:04:48):
The count was cured, but the student went out of
his mind. Believed or not.

Speaker 2 (02:04:59):
True, stranger, the liction distru This is riples, believe it
or not.

Speaker 3 (02:05:11):
John Coleridge Patterson, Bishop of Melanesia, compiled twenty five dictionaries,
each in the language he had just learned. They leave
it or not. In a moment, I'll tell you about
a marriage fourteenth century style. The court of King Pedro
the First of Castile was apparently in need of a

(02:05:32):
marriage counselor. For this king was involved in a marriage
with a curious twist. It took place in thirteen fifty
four at Quaar, Spain.

Speaker 4 (02:05:40):
The bride was Juan of the Castro.

Speaker 3 (02:05:42):
No one really knows what happened, but the following day
the king had the marriage annulled and left without ever
seeing the lady again.

Speaker 4 (02:05:50):
Thus she became history's only queen for a day. They
leave it or not?

Speaker 2 (02:06:01):
Truth, the stranger the fiction, and this is the truth
us ripleys be leave it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:06:13):
The Dome palm tree of Egypt is the only palm
tree with branches and bears fruit that tastes like gingerbread.

Speaker 4 (02:06:20):

Speaker 3 (02:06:22):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a king who
couldn't say no.

Speaker 4 (02:06:28):
Dulu Mured Khan, ruler.

Speaker 3 (02:06:30):
Of Rawalpindi, India, was known as the cruel philanthropist. In
a time when the death sentence was administered for the
act of begging, Dulu Khan was frequently accosted and asked
for money. He would either give the beggar a lock
of rupees worth forty eight five hundred dollars or have
the beggar killed. The death sentence was administered when the

(02:06:51):
Dulu Khan was momentarily short of cash, because he couldn't
bear to say no.

Speaker 4 (02:06:56):

Speaker 2 (02:07:03):

Speaker 3 (02:07:15):
A second hand statue of Lord Byron was purchased in
London and directed in Ecuador, honoring a different poet named
Old Meadow, because to build an original would have cost
too much. Believe it or not, In a moment, I'll
tell you about a bloody oath. Ling Wen called his
Chinese emperor Young Lo a traitor to his face, and

(02:07:38):
was sentenced to have his head cut off. But people
counsel the accused to beg mercy of the emperor so
that he might live. However, ling Wen refused, saying he'd
call the emperor a traitor even after he died, which
is exactly what happened. For as the blood dripped on
the sand from the severed neck of ling Wen, it
formed the Chinese character for the word traitor.

Speaker 4 (02:07:59):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (02:08:00):
Not, truth the stranger the diction, and this is the proof.
This is ripley's believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:08:17):
In a war during the reign of Empress Anna Ivanovna
of Russia, cannons and cannon balls were made from blocks
of ice.

Speaker 4 (02:08:25):
Believed or not.

Speaker 3 (02:08:26):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a terrifying day
when a missionary's prayers were answered in flame.

Speaker 4 (02:08:35):
Miracles do happen?

Speaker 3 (02:08:37):
What happened in the Kiq territory in Africa, where mister
and Missus Stuart Watts and their four children had a mission.
Bloodthirsty Kq's had besieged the Watts mission, declining an offer
of military help. The family prayed for a miracle and
got one. A blinding light in the sky scared off
the savages, caused by a flaming meteor, the first to

(02:08:57):
ever fall in that part of Africa. Believe it or not,
Truth is stranger.

Speaker 2 (02:09:07):
The fictionlicious truth. This is Ripley's Believe it or Not?

Speaker 3 (02:09:18):
A playing card decorated with an original miniature painted by
the artist Hans Holbein, was sold at a London auction
for more than thirteen thousand dollars.

Speaker 4 (02:09:27):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:09:29):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a fabulous talent.
Sir Walter Parratt, the organ virtuoso, made his debut at
the age of seven and was the organist of Saint
George's Chapel in Windsor, England for forty two years. He
was a musician of tremendous concentration. In eighteen sixty two,
for example, when he was just twenty one years old,

(02:09:51):
he gave a concert of the Masters blindfolded and at
the same time played two games of chess behind his
back and won both games.

Speaker 4 (02:10:00):
Eames. Believe it or not, The.

Speaker 2 (02:10:07):

Speaker 3 (02:10:19):
Wakanda Springs in Kansas has salt water, a tide that
rises and falls, yet it's six hundred miles from the sea.

Speaker 4 (02:10:27):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:10:29):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the strangest criminal cold.

Speaker 4 (02:10:32):
In the world.

Speaker 3 (02:10:37):
Ancient and primitive societies have always dealt strongly with their womenfolk.
Either they were bailed or silent, or belittled in one
way or another. But these family rules are nothing compared
to the laws in Pontianak, an island off the west
coast of Borneo. In this delightful community, it's a capital
crime to save a woman from drowning. It's the way
they express their pride that their women are the best

(02:11:00):
swimmers in the world.

Speaker 4 (02:11:01):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (02:11:02):
Not, truth is stranger the fiction. This is the truth.

Speaker 3 (02:11:12):
This isth riples. Believe it or not. To cure double kins.
In early England, beauty parlors would haul a woman into
the air by a strap beneath her jaw. Believe it
or not. In a moment, I'll tell you about a
man who made a strange decision. Roger Atkinson, prior of Petersburg, Virginia,

(02:11:40):
was made an offer that few men would have had
the courage to refuse. He was offered an appointment as
a brigadier general in the Confederate Army by General Joseph E. Johnston,
but he politely yet firmly refused, stating that the army
had too many generals as it is, its real need
is more private soldiers served as a buck private throughout

(02:12:02):
the Civil War.

Speaker 4 (02:12:03):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (02:12:04):
Not, truth is strangely the lad This is the truth.

Speaker 3 (02:12:21):
Benjamin Mylem noted Texas hero was the only person to
own a United States river. Congress gave him the Colorado
River in eighteen thirty five. Believe it or not, in
a moment, I'll tell you about a prince's cruelty. It
probably didn't matter whether the old fellow was a good

(02:12:42):
ruler or not. The issue was that he seemed to
be on the verge of ruling forever. He was King
along Situ of ancient Burma, who ruled from ten hundred
and seventy five to eleven sixty, a remarkably long reign
of eighty five years. King along Situ would have ruled
even longer, but he was murdered by his own Naratu,
who was afraid his father would rule forever.

Speaker 2 (02:13:04):
They leave it or not, truth is stranger. This is riles.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 4 (02:13:22):
William D.

Speaker 3 (02:13:23):
Graham sat in the same chair on his golden wedding
anniversary that his father and grandfather sat in on bare
golden wedding anniversaries.

Speaker 4 (02:13:31):

Speaker 3 (02:13:33):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a labor of love.
The town of Bunslau in Silicia, Germany, which specializes in pottery,
is still proud of a gigantic piece of crockery fashioned
by a lovelorn potter's assistant in seventeen fifty three. To
gain the hand of his master's daughter. The young assistant

(02:13:54):
created a huge pot which so impressed the citizens of
the town that they talked to father into letting his
daughter marry the young man. The plot was even adopted
as the city emblem Beylive it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:14:11):
Truth is strangers in fiction. This is the truth. This

Speaker 3 (02:14:24):
Whether he was history's greatest mercenary or just like to
fight in wars, Nicholas Franz Bachmann is unique. He was
a general in the armies of five different countries, France, Sardinia, Austria,
England and Switzerland.

Speaker 4 (02:14:36):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:14:38):
In a moment, I'll tell you a tale of espionage.
Prince von Connot's, Chancellor of Austria in the eighteenth century,
was a man whose life was wrecked with fears and suspicions.
His informers told him a spy, identity unknown, had been
planted among a.

Speaker 4 (02:14:54):
Group of government officials. The informers knew he.

Speaker 3 (02:14:57):
Was one of four men who enjoyed rowing together on
Sundays on the Danube. The Prince ordered all four men drowned,
knowing that as he killed the spy, he also killed
three innocent men.

Speaker 2 (02:15:07):
Believe it or not, Truth is stranger deliction truth. I
believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:15:26):
The crypt holding the ashes of John A. Bresher, the
famous maker of lenses and the ashes of his wife,
is located under the telescope of the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
They leave it or not In a moment, I'll tell
you the story of a man whose life ended with
incredible fate. Antonio Biancani in eighteenth century, banker of Milan,

(02:15:48):
Italy was born in a cell in the state prison
where both his parents had been imprisoned in sixteen ninety nine.

Speaker 4 (02:15:55):
Later, after his.

Speaker 3 (02:15:56):
Release, he rose to high rank in the banking profession
and became.

Speaker 4 (02:15:59):
Involved in Paulas.

Speaker 3 (02:16:00):
Accused by the courts on a charge of treason, the
unconny was sent to jail and incredibly went to his
death from.

Speaker 4 (02:16:07):
The same cell where he was born. They leave it
or not.

Speaker 2 (02:16:16):
Truth is stranger than fiction. This system too. This is
Ripley's believe.

Speaker 3 (02:16:22):
It or not? Missus Charlotte, Wisconsin van cleeve By, being
born in what then was an early US territory in
eighteen nineteen, was actually born in four of the United States, Iowa, Wisconsin, South.

Speaker 4 (02:16:38):
Dakota, and Wyoming. They leave it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:16:41):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the most trustworthy
man in history. The khalifh Wallid ruled in Syria in
the eighth century. Most rulers in that time were cruel
and cunning, but the Khliph was trustworthy and fair. When
it was time to pay for the construction of the
twenty nine million dollar Omyad in Damascus, the Kuhlieph refused

(02:17:02):
to believe anyone would be dishonest in building a temple
to God. He paid the bills and ordered them burned
without looking at them.

Speaker 4 (02:17:10):

Speaker 2 (02:17:16):
Truth is stranger than fiction. This is the proof. This

Speaker 3 (02:17:28):
The Spobodniki, a Russian sect of British Columbia, eat no meat, eggs,
fowl or dairy products. They don't use leather or wool
and do all their work by hand. It's against the
religion to make use of any animal's labor or product.

Speaker 4 (02:17:41):

Speaker 3 (02:17:42):
In a moment, I'll tell you a tragic love story.
Mary Pugsley of Bristol, England spent a lifetime in mourning
her husband, who has called a battle in the Siege
of Bristol in sixteen forty five, was killed the afternoon
of the day they were married. Mary spent the rest
of her life as a widow. Her sorrow never left

(02:18:03):
her for On her deathbed sixty years later, Mary made
a strange request. She asked that she'd be buried in
the dress she wore at her wedding.

Speaker 4 (02:18:12):
Believe it or.

Speaker 2 (02:18:13):
Not, truth is stranger in fiction. This is the proof.
This is Risley Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:18:30):
William Billinge was born in a cornfield in Longner, England,
lived a very full life and died one hundred and
twelve years later in the same cornfield. Believe it or
not In a moment, I'll tell you the touching story
of an American patriot with a strange deathbed wish.

Speaker 4 (02:18:49):
Robert E.

Speaker 3 (02:18:50):
Kreduck was a patriot to the core and proved it
up to his dying day. Credic, a Revolutionary War veteran
of Warren County, Kentucky, was about to die in eighteen
thirty seven when they made the following preparations. He got
out of his deathbed, donned his revolutionary war uniform, asked
for a piper and a drummer to march around his
house playing military airs, so that the last sounds on

(02:19:11):
earth Kraduk would hear were his beloved regimental marches.

Speaker 4 (02:19:14):

Speaker 2 (02:19:20):
Truth is stringent in thinking. This is the truth of
this If riple is believe it or not?

Speaker 4 (02:19:33):
Take me.

Speaker 3 (02:19:33):
Brides in the African Mountains of the Moon add another
oddity to the many tribal rights involving marriage. These ladies
on their wedding day paint a replica of high buttoned
shoes on their legs. They leave it or not In
a moment, I'll tell you the story of a queen
with a very short memory. A lady who looked lightly
on love was Catherine Tudor of sixteenth century Whales. This

(02:19:56):
cold blooded woman accepted proposals of marriage from two voters
during the funeral of her first husband. Not only that,
when her second husband died, she married Sir Richard Cluff,
having assured him at the grave of her first husband
that she'd marry him. At the death of her second
Catherine also buried Sir Richard without mourning and married a
fourth time.

Speaker 4 (02:20:16):

Speaker 2 (02:20:22):

Speaker 3 (02:20:34):
Colonel Harry Smith, who has a city named after him
in South Africa, once saved a town under siege by
fifteen thousand bloodthirsty natives by riding horseback.

Speaker 4 (02:20:43):
One hundred miles a day for six days.

Speaker 3 (02:20:46):
They leave it or not in a moment, I'll tell
you the story of a ruler who spent most of
his life in jail. In the rocky political history of Turkey,
there is no stranger story than the one about Sultan
Mohammed sixth. He was placed under strict detention at the
age of four months. While the political scenes shifted outside,

(02:21:06):
Mohammad remained a prisoner inside. In nineteen eighteen, after Mohammad
had been a prisoner for fifty seven years, he finally
became Sultan, the last Sultan of Turkey.

Speaker 4 (02:21:17):

Speaker 2 (02:21:24):

Speaker 3 (02:21:36):
Alexander Grant, the celebrated Scottish point, was seven feet tall
and was so unbelievably strong he could crush in his
fist a handful of the practically unbreakable shells of sea snails.

Speaker 4 (02:21:47):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:21:48):
In a moment, I'll tell you the story of the
ruler whose debt was paid with beautiful girls. In the Tanzo, Spain,
there's a small bridge built in twelve hundred eight. It
seems the King of Castile, because of an obligation imposed
upon him by the Caliph of Cordoba, was forced to
furnish one hundred female slaves each year to the caliph.

(02:22:10):
Tiring of this waste in womanhood, the king built the bridge,
which signaled the end of his obligation. Even today, the
bridge is still called the Bridge of the Young Ladies.

Speaker 4 (02:22:19):

Speaker 2 (02:22:25):
is riples, believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:22:37):
Of all the animals hunted for food, one of the
most versatile is the twin horned gemsbock. This animal is
sought not only for meat, but for water. The games
box stores a supply of pure drinking water inside his body.

Speaker 4 (02:22:49):

Speaker 3 (02:22:50):
In a moment, I'll tell you the story of a
man with colossal nerve. Sir John Price, it seems, was
so grief stricken by the death of his first wife
he kept her embalmed body in the bedroom for eleven years,
even after he'd taken one Mary Morris as his second wife.
After the death of Mary, he had her embalmd body installed.

Speaker 4 (02:23:11):
In the same bedroom.

Speaker 3 (02:23:13):
But soon Sir John was convinced that dead wives in
the bedroom wasn't the best way to show one's grief.
Who changed his mind? Wife number three? Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:23:27):
if riles believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:23:39):
Leonard Rosie A Parisian playboy proved he was a man
without nerves. He proved it by shooting a bull's eye
with his pistol while inside a cage of ferocious lions.
the story of a man's experience in death. David Owen,
the celebrated eighteenth century harpist, was on his deathbed and

(02:24:01):
had sunk into a deep coma. His family thought he
was dead, but Owen awoke and asked for his harp.
He said he'd heard a heavenly tune and wanted to
play it before he died. His mother copied the music
as he played, and as the last note died away,
so did Owen. Thus, this gifted harpist became the only
musician in history who composed his own dirge on his deathbed.

Speaker 4 (02:24:21):

Speaker 2 (02:24:27):
Truth is stranger the ICs, and this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (02:24:40):
The Chapel of Saint Nicholas on the island of Santaurin
is the only ancient temple in all of Greece that's
been preserved intact. This perfect building, a former pagan sanctuary,
is two thousand, three hundred years old.

Speaker 4 (02:24:51):

Speaker 3 (02:24:53):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the prophetic stonecutter.
Robert Russell, stonecutter who lived in New Tennards, Ireland, kipped
and hammered at the epiitaph. It was on a pillar
in the local abbey. Russell was twenty seven years old,
and the epithaph he was cutting was his own, probably
because he had time on his hands, because at the

(02:25:14):
time he was in perfect health. Yet a few days
after the young stonecutter finished his own epithaph, he died.

Speaker 4 (02:25:21):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:25:28):
This if riples believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:25:40):
Sir Nicholas the First of Russia was so moved by
a poem read to him by its author Alexander Polejiev
he began to cry. But in the next moment the
tsar coldly sentenced the point to life imprisonment on a
charge of treason. Believe it or not. In a moment,
I'll tell you about the ritual of pain. A cabinet

(02:26:01):
meeting among the Tabori tribe in the African territory of
Chad is anything but quiet and dignified, particularly when it's
time to inaugurate a new chieftain. At this important and
ceremonial event, the cabinet officers gather around the chief elect
and beat the man with clubs for a solid hour.
If he endures the savage clubbing in stoic silence, he's
considered by the cabinet to be worthy of the office.

Speaker 4 (02:26:24):

Speaker 2 (02:26:30):
Truth is stranger than fiction, and this is the proof.

Speaker 3 (02:26:42):
Girls in neat Valld in Switzerland don't waste any time
in making all their marriageable. The girls wear a single
pin in their hair that shaped exactly like a cupid's arrow.

Speaker 4 (02:26:52):

Speaker 3 (02:26:54):
bar bill that led to a fiery disaster. The castle
of Runkelstein, Italy, suffered an extraordinary fate. A friend of
its owner, Duke Frederick of Tyrol, had run up a
bar bill of twenty dollars and found himself unable to pay.
He sent a messenger to Runkelstein Castle, asking his friend

(02:27:15):
for a loan. He said he'd give the money only
if the Duke appeared in person. The Duke never forgave
his friend for this insult, and he later attacked the
castle with an army and destroyed it.

Speaker 4 (02:27:26):

Speaker 2 (02:27:32):
Truth is stranger in fiction. Now this is the truth.

Speaker 3 (02:27:44):
Designing clothes for a fisherman from the Csari Portugal can't
be too much of a problem as far as pockets
are concerned. These people only have one pocket, and that
one is in their hat.

Speaker 4 (02:27:54):

Speaker 3 (02:27:55):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a ship that
was destined for disaster.

Speaker 4 (02:28:03):
The schooner George F.

Speaker 3 (02:28:04):
Whitney, commanded by Captain Carpenter, was a doom ship from
the time she was built. On her first voyage, she
was wrecked on Sugar Island in the Great Lakes. On
her second trip, she was shattered at Vermilion, Ohio. Her
luck continued bad, and on her third voyage, the George F.
Whitney vanished during a storm on Lake Michigan with all
hands and was never heard from again.

Speaker 4 (02:28:26):

Speaker 2 (02:28:33):

Speaker 3 (02:28:45):
The official staff of the mayor of a village in
Czechoslovakia is carved in the shape of a human arm
with the index finger and thumb curved in the characteristic
American sign for okay, they leave it or not. In
a moment, I'll tell you the story of a man
who never his brush with death. Robert Quirk, an English shipowner,

(02:29:07):
was caught in a storm riddled voyage on the Bay
of Biscay. His ship was being battered to pieces, and
he vowed that if he and his ship ever survived,
he would show his thanksgiving in an everlasting way.

Speaker 4 (02:29:18):
And he did.

Speaker 3 (02:29:19):
Returning to Minehead, England safely, Quirk dismantled his boat and
used its lumber to build eleven poorhouses, which still stand
today three centuries later.

Speaker 4 (02:29:28):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:29:35):
Truth is stranger deliction, This is the truth, This is

Speaker 3 (02:29:47):
The post offices in rural Celebes, Indonesia have a simple
yet unique way of identifying the mail. A special delivery letter,
for example, always has a rooster's feather attached to it.

Speaker 4 (02:29:57):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:29:59):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a man's glimpse
of life. Denis o'hempsey lives as a legend in Ireland
for two reasons. First, he was a talented and beloved harpist. Second,
Ohempsey had lost his eyesight at the age of three.
For one hundred nine years he was unable to open
his eyes. But in the last moments of life, while

(02:30:21):
playing his harp, his eyes suddenly fluttered open, and then Ohempsey,
the blind harpist, died with his eyes wide open.

Speaker 4 (02:30:28):

Speaker 2 (02:30:35):
Truth is strange in fiction, and this is the truth.
This is rily Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:30:47):
Is it possible to bowl two hundred ninety nine and
a half?

Speaker 4 (02:30:50):
James T.

Speaker 3 (02:30:50):
Blackstone did on his last roll one pin split and
half of it remains standing, score two hundred ninety nine
and a half.

Speaker 4 (02:30:58):

Speaker 3 (02:31:00):
man with a curious.

Speaker 4 (02:31:02):
Attitude about clothes.

Speaker 3 (02:31:07):
Doctor John Blackwood of Mount Holly, New Jersey, was a
successful physician, judge and postmaster. He left over thirty thousand
dollars to his heirs. Yet the good doctor had a
curious attitude about how money should be spent on clothes.
For example, Doctor Blackwood was particularly frugal in his entire lifetime,
he never owned more than one shirt, and while this

(02:31:27):
was being laundered, he remained in bed.

Speaker 4 (02:31:30):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:31:36):

Speaker 3 (02:31:48):
A house in Saint Nicholas, Wales, in which famed Oliver
Cromwell spent one night, was so respected by the family
of a neighboring castle that for three hundred years, each
member of the family tipped his hat when passing this structure.

Speaker 4 (02:32:00):

Speaker 3 (02:32:02):
In a moment, I'll tell you about one of the
strangest armies of all time. When Lieutenant Jean Perrier of
Estevayer Loloch, Switzerland retired from military service, he took up
a strange hobby. The officer was a brilliant tactician and
master of military drill. In retirement, Perrier organized a drill
team that performed a manual of arms to perfection and

(02:32:25):
crisp close order drill. His drill team, however, wasn't composed
of men. It was a regiment of frogs. They leave
it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:32:38):

Speaker 3 (02:32:50):
A king of the Bamlik tribe in Africa is always
buried with a bamboo tube in his mouth so his
thirsty spirit can be refreshed with wine once a week.

Speaker 4 (02:32:58):

Speaker 3 (02:33:00):
In a moment, I'll tell you the fascinating story of
a group of people who you wouldn't care to have
as friends. Among the many strange religious sects of India
are the holy men of the Jaina sect. They never
wear shoes, nor do they eat between sunset and sunrise.
They can only shape their hair and beards by plucking
the hair out by the roots. And strangest of all

(02:33:23):
is their concern about insects. They'll never light a fire
if it endangers insects, and actually bandage their mouths to
prevent them from inhaling and harming germs and flies.

Speaker 4 (02:33:32):

Speaker 2 (02:33:38):
Truth is stranger the fiction. I This is the truth.

Speaker 3 (02:33:50):
The famous author Jonathan Swift, who is remembered for his
satirical novel Gulliver's Travels, left his entire fortune to be
used to build an insane asylum.

Speaker 4 (02:34:00):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:34:01):
king who wanted to become a dancer. During a battle
against a Christian army at Varna, Bulgaria, I'm your at
the second Sultan of Turkey made a vow that if
he were victorious, he would abdicate his throne and become
a whirling dervish. After his victory, he did indeed turn
over the crown to his son and become a dancer.

(02:34:23):
Two years later, he was recalled to the throne and
ruled another six years. But he always maintained he was
happier as a whirling dervish than he was as a
Turkish king.

Speaker 4 (02:34:32):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:34:38):
Truth is stranger the viction. This is the truth. This

Speaker 3 (02:34:47):
There was no mistaking the iron hand of badouin the
first the Duke of Flanders. Once, when he was attacked
by a powerful bear, he strangled the beast with his
bare hands.

Speaker 4 (02:34:59):
Believe it or.

Speaker 3 (02:35:00):
Not, In a moment, I'll tell you the story of
a family's way of mourning. One of the truly touching
examples of the love found in a family is to
be found among the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria.

Speaker 4 (02:35:13):
In Africa.

Speaker 3 (02:35:14):
If a member of the tribe has twins and one
of the twins dies while it's still an infant, the
surviving twin carries a wooden statue of the dead twin
around on its back. The dead twin's likeness is dressed
like the living twin, and every day this doll like
statue is given the same food and drink.

Speaker 4 (02:35:31):

Speaker 2 (02:35:37):

Speaker 3 (02:35:49):
A whale harpooned off the coast of Australia in eighteen
eighty six was landed on the whaler John and Winthrop
only after the monster had bitten two whale boats in half.

Speaker 4 (02:35:59):

Speaker 3 (02:36:00):
tortured act of faith to atone for an act of
disrespect shown to his teacher. An Indian named Andrana traveled
from the Dura to the holy town of Badrinath on
the Tibetan border, a distance of sixteen hundred miles in
four years. Instead of walking, he would fall continuously on

(02:36:23):
the ground, rise and fall again for the entire journey.
On the return trip, he neither sat or lay down,
but slept tied to a post.

Speaker 4 (02:36:32):

Speaker 2 (02:36:38):
This is rickles, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:36:50):
A three hundred pound tuna fish tagged in the Bahamas
was caught some four months later near the port city
of Bergen, Norway, a distance of forty five hundred miles.

Speaker 4 (02:36:59):

Speaker 3 (02:37:00):
overcame the most unbelievable handicap. Carl Dewey Myers, who died
in nineteen fifty one, was the Point Laureate of West
Virginia for ten years. He committed to memory the Declaration
of Independence, Constitution, the Mayflower Compact, and the Magna Carta.

(02:37:21):
Not bad for a normal fellow, but Carl Myers was
born a cripple, a dwarf who never weighed more than
sixty pounds, and never had a day's schooling in his life.

Speaker 4 (02:37:31):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:37:37):

Speaker 3 (02:37:49):
The grave of Lawrence Stern, one of England's most famous authors,
does not contain his bones. The corpse was stolen by
robbers two days after he was buried. Believe it or Not.
In a moment, I'll tell you about a real vote getter.
When the headlines blair about the smooth and shrewd doings
of political leaders, it's interesting to remember one William fitz Harding,

(02:38:13):
who lived in nineteenth century England. Fitz Harding was a
real vote getter, handsome, sure of himself, and natural for
the game of politics. In fact, fitz Harding was so
good his efforts were rewarded by an earldom who made
him an earl, his four brothers, whom he got elected
to parliament, all in the same year.

Speaker 4 (02:38:31):
They Leave It or Not?

Speaker 2 (02:38:37):
Truth is stranger than fiction, and this is the proof.
This is Ripley's Believe It or Not.

Speaker 3 (02:38:49):
One of the most successful authors in history was Reverend
Charles H.

Speaker 4 (02:38:53):
Spurgeon of London, England.

Speaker 3 (02:38:55):
He sold more than fifty million copies of his termans
They Leave It or Not. In a moment, I'll tell
you about the way a woman in Africa shows off.

Speaker 4 (02:39:03):
Her new husband.

Speaker 3 (02:39:07):
The stories of the Amazons, the tough, strong and formidable
women of the Jungles, are rarely love stories, but there
is love among the Amazons in spite of a slight
difference in style. The Amazons, for example, who guarded the
kings of the Homie in West Africa, could marry only
with their monarch's permission. But the strangest part of the
love story is how the husband is shown off to
the tribe, seated in a basket that the bride carries

(02:39:29):
around on her head.

Speaker 4 (02:39:31):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:39:37):

Speaker 3 (02:39:48):
The tombstone on the grave of Thomas Weir in Belfast,
Ireland is something of a landmark. At his own request,
Weir's tombstone is the marble fireplace from his home. Believe
it or not. In a moment, I'll tell you the
story of a village that murdered itself. Three hundred years ago.
The small village of Kutzenbungen in the Alsatian region of

(02:40:10):
France was a gay and thriving community. However, a strange
and deathly epidemic struck Kutzenbungen, killing in days every man,
woman and child in the town. Yet the cause of
the epidemic, the poisonous village water well, is still standing.
Monument to a city's doom.

Speaker 4 (02:40:28):
Believe it or.

Speaker 5 (02:40:30):
Not true you strangely believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:40:48):
If you were to subtracted forty from the number of
cricket churb to minute and divide the result by four,
then add fifty to that result, you would be able
to tell the temperature without a thermometer.

Speaker 4 (02:41:00):
It or not.

Speaker 3 (02:41:01):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the strange heritage
of our railroads. Practically the entire civilized world now uses
the standard railroad gauge of four feet eight and a
half inches. This width was used by the Roman chariots
with which Julius Caesar's army and dated Britain in.

Speaker 2 (02:41:20):
Fifty five BC.

Speaker 3 (02:41:21):
They were copied by the native Celts, with the results
of deep ruts of that width were worn on English
roads in the course of centuries. Today, more than two
thousand years after Caesar's invasion, modern vehicles roll on these
indelible chariot tracks.

Speaker 4 (02:41:35):
Believe it or.

Speaker 1 (02:41:36):
Not, The.

Speaker 2 (02:41:41):
Truth is strangely deliction truth. This is sickly be need
it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:41:54):
When you hear the expression packed in like sardines, here's
something to think about. The more sardine packed in a
can the greater the prophet. Olive oil is more expensive
than the fish. Believe it or not. In a moment,
I'll tell you how a white house got its name.

(02:42:16):
When George Washington met in Wood Martha Custis, she owned
a plantation on the Pamunkey River in Virginia which she
inherited from her first husband. The manor was known as
the White House. It was in this White House that
the father of our country found his greatest domestic happiness.
Many years later, when the Executive Mansion was built, Washington
suggested that it be called the White House to commemorate

(02:42:38):
a romantic and sentimental notion.

Speaker 4 (02:42:41):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:42:47):
True, the stranger the truth, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:43:00):
Joe Mendy and Orangutang at the Detroit Zoo filed a
federal income tax report for nineteen thirty three. His gross
income was thirty eight hundred dollars. He claims an exemption
of two thousand dollars, listing his manager as a dependent.
about the king who rides piggyback.

Speaker 2 (02:43:21):
The King of the.

Speaker 3 (02:43:22):
Inkundo in the Belgian Congo is so sacrosanct that he
is forbidden to stand, walk, sit on a chair, or
squat on the ground. It's believed that if he did
any of these things, the world would come to an end.
So while he's king, he always rides piggyback on the
shoulders of a special royal carrier, a man assigned to
him for life. He is the king's throne, his transportation,

(02:43:42):
and his couch. If he dies, the king's reign ends.

Speaker 4 (02:43:46):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:43:52):
Truth is string to depiction. This is he needed or not.

Speaker 3 (02:44:05):
We can't tell you which came first the chicken of
the egg, but it is possible to ascertain whether an
egg will produce a hen or a rooster. Hen eggs
are round it. Rooster eggs are pointed. Believe it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you the very unusual story
of a general's secret.

Speaker 5 (02:44:25):
Doctor.

Speaker 3 (02:44:25):
James Barry of Edinburgh was the granddaughter of a Scottish earl.
As the result of an unfortunate love affair, she decided
to pose as a man. She entered the army in
eighteen thirteen and rose to the rank of general in
the Army Medical Corps. She served in the British army
for fifty two years.

Speaker 4 (02:44:41):
And died in London.

Speaker 3 (02:44:42):
Not until after her death was the secret of her
sex discovered. She even fooled a servant who'd been close
to her for fifty years.

Speaker 4 (02:44:50):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:44:56):
Truth is strangely bea to this bear swiftly, believe it
or not.

Speaker 3 (02:45:08):
The first air express delivery was made nine hundred and
fifty five years ago. The Caliph Disies of Cairo sent
a rush order for cherries to the town of Balbeck.
Six hundred pigeons made the delivery. Believe it or not.
In a moment, I'll tell you the unusual story of
a caliph who counted the days he was happy. The

(02:45:29):
Caliph Abdurahman third ruled the most powerful empire in the
world for forty nine years. He had an annual income
of three hundred thirty six million dollars. He had six
three hundred twenty one wives, the most beautiful.

Speaker 4 (02:45:41):
Woman of his empire. He was wise and led a.

Speaker 3 (02:45:43):
Life of fibulous magnificence. Yet in his will he wrote,
all during my long and glorious reign, I have counted
the days when I enjoyed complete happiness, and found them
to have numbered only one hundred forty one.

Speaker 4 (02:45:55):
Believe it or not?

Speaker 2 (02:46:00):
Who is this is the truth? This is Ripley. Believe
it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:46:13):
Belle Rhymes of Savannah. Georgia suffered from asthma for one
hundred and one years. Then she was cured and lived
to the age of one hundred and twenty three years.
She outlived her asthma. Believe it or not. In a moment,
I'll tell you about a boy who received the kingdom
for his table manners. In eighteen seventy five, the throne

(02:46:35):
of the Indian state of Baroda was vacant. The British
authorized the wife of the last Maharajah to select a
new ruler from among the young villagers of Kavlana. The
Maharani decided to subject the boys to a test of
table manners. A twelve year old urchin was as crude
as the rest, but smart enough to watch the Maharani
and imitate her. She awarded the throne to him, and
he ruled for sixty four years as Kae Kwar Saya

(02:46:57):
Jarraal third.

Speaker 4 (02:46:58):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:47:05):
Truth is strangers and this is the proof.

Speaker 3 (02:47:09):
This rip Believe it or not. In Bacconeer India. The
priest ties the marital knot by handcuffing the bride's hand
to a cow's tale. When the cow says move or
it's Hindu equivalent, the marriage is concluded. Believe it or not.

(02:47:31):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the deadly effect
of a typographical error. Carlo Alessandro Gidi, Italian lyric poet
and dramatist, translated The Book of Homilies, the sixteenth century
English work, into immaculate Latin. As the first copy rolled
off the presses, he hastened to the Vatican to present
it the Pope Clement the eleventh. On the way, he

(02:47:52):
glanced to the page and was so mortified to find
that the word sini, which means without, was spell sin
that he went home and died of shock, victim of
a typographical error.

Speaker 4 (02:48:03):

Speaker 2 (02:48:09):
Truth is strange adiction, This sister truth, this is ripley.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:48:22):
Arthur b Lester of Chicago was taken prisoner in North
Africa in nineteen forty two by a German who took
his wristwatch. Two years later, Arthur's brother captured the same
German in normandy and recovered the watch. They leave it
or not in a moment, I'll tell you about a
woman who had lived a lifetime.

Speaker 4 (02:48:38):
At twenty.

Speaker 3 (02:48:43):
Isabelle of France probably crowded more events within her brief
life span than any other woman in history. At the
age of two, she was engaged to marry John, Count
of Alancolm. Instead of marrying her fiancee, she married King
Richard the second of England when she was only seven.
She became a widow at the age of aven and
married again at sixteen. Her second husband was Charles of Angolaime.

(02:49:05):
She died in trial birth at the age of twenty.
Beylieve it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:49:14):
Truth is stranger the diction, and this is the truth.
This is rily Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:49:27):
There is a tribe in Formosa where the marriage ceremony
consists of a well aimed kick in the shins, administered
by the bridegroom. As soon as he connects they are
man and wife. They leave it or not In a moment,
I'll tell you about a most prolific poet. Rudaki of
Persia wrote a poem one hundred volumes long, on the

(02:49:50):
delights of wine. It contained one million, three hundred thousand
verses and was dedicated to Shan Nazir second, whose obsession
with the subject gave the.

Speaker 4 (02:49:58):
Poet his cue.

Speaker 3 (02:49:59):
However, if Rudaghi had not written his prodigious poem, he
would still rite a place in history.

Speaker 4 (02:50:04):
On the same day he became.

Speaker 3 (02:50:06):
Father of quadruplets, grandfather of triplets, and great grandfather of twins.
Believe it or not, Truth is stranger dediction, This is
the truth.

Speaker 2 (02:50:21):

Speaker 3 (02:50:30):
Bobby Leech, who had over Niagara Falls and a barrel
in nineteen eleven, died from injuries received when he slipped
on a banana peel while walking quietly along the street
in christ Church, New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (02:50:41):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:50:43):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the island made
of soap. The soil of Argentaria, an island of the
Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea, consists of a greasy
soap like substance which the natives have used as soap
from time immory. They wash in it, and they use
it to launder their clothes. When it rains, the island

(02:51:04):
is covered with soap SuDS to a depth of several feet.
It has the appearance of a huge bubble bath, with
young and old wading through the SuDS and getting a scrubbing.

Speaker 2 (02:51:13):
They leave it or not. Truth is stranger the niction,
and this is the truth. This is ripley. Believe it
or not.

Speaker 3 (02:51:32):
Mother Goose was a real character and not an imaginary
person as many folks suppose. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Foster,
and she was born in Boston. In sixteen ninety three,
she married Isaac Goose.

Speaker 4 (02:51:44):
They leave it or not. In a moment, I'll tell
you about a man who shook hands with his foot.

Speaker 3 (02:51:52):
Charles Pelleau of Belgium, born without arms, was famous as
one of the merriest and most talented artists of the
nineteenth century. He painted many masterpieces and signed them all
Pete pinks it painted with the foot. He was proud
of the fact that his foot was shaken by many
royal hands. King Leopold the Second of Belgium used to
say that this was the coolest and most pleasant handshake

(02:52:13):
in his experience.

Speaker 4 (02:52:15):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:52:21):
Truth is stranger the lech and this is the truth.
This is with this, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:52:34):
When the day that was predicted to be his day
to die came around and the prediction did not seem
to materialize. Calcas the Greek died from laughter, thus making
his last laugh his last laugh.

Speaker 4 (02:52:46):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:52:47):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the curious life
of handkerchief Moody. Unrequited love causes some people to do
odd things. For example, the Reverend Joseph Moody of York Mainz,
suffered a grievous disappointment at the age of twenty the
girl he loved, his cousin, Mary Hurst, refused to marry him.
He became a victim of melancholia, and although he followed

(02:53:08):
the vocation of a preacher for the next thirty two years,
out of a curious reluctance to expose his face in public,
he always wore a black silk handkerchief over his face.

Speaker 4 (02:53:18):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:53:23):
Truth is stranger in fiction. This is the truth. This
is riple. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:53:36):
Francesca nor Diega, famous reformer of Diez, left her fortune
to her niece with the provisal that, for the sake
of decency, she keep her goldfish always clothed in tights.

Speaker 4 (02:53:47):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:53:49):
In a moment, I'll tell you about an unwritten book
which can be read. There is a history of the
Indies which was neither written nor printed. Instead, each letter
was cut by hand into a page of the finest parchment.
The pages are interlined in blue silk, and the incised
text is easily read.

Speaker 4 (02:54:07):
There are one.

Speaker 3 (02:54:08):
Million, two hundred thousand letters in its three hundred pages,
each letter carved by hand. In sixteen forty the German
Emperor root Out the Second offered to buy it for
one million, one hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 4 (02:54:20):
It was not for sale. Beylieve it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:54:27):
Truth is strangely deliction, and this is the truth. This

Speaker 3 (02:54:40):
Alexander Richter placed a wreath on his own grave every week.

Speaker 4 (02:54:43):
For sixty years.

Speaker 3 (02:54:44):
He disappeared, and when he returned he found that the
body of a drowned man had been buried under his name.
about the church that were sentenced to eternal silence. In
seventeen forty five, when the deposed Stuarts made an attempt
to regain the throne of Great Britain, Bonnie Prince Charlie,

(02:55:05):
the Pretender entered Carlisle, England, at the head of his
Highland troops. The cathedral bells rang and greeting to the Pretender.
That was regarded as an act of treason. Not until
nineteen twenty five were the bells heard again. The cathedral
was punished by one hundred and eighty years of silence.
Believe it or not, truth is stranger in fiction.

Speaker 2 (02:55:31):
This is the truth. This is ripleous. Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:55:41):
Surely there never lived a more frustrated flin than great
Oldmire of Frankfurt, Germany. Through a peculiar mistake of nature,
she was born with two tongues, but could not speak
a word.

Speaker 4 (02:55:52):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:55:54):
In a moment, I'll tell you about the most ponderous
book in the world. A book that weighs seven hundred
twenty eight tons and is more than a mile long,
stands on the rogue to Mandelay. Its title is qut
o' daw the Marble Scriptures. It contains seven hundred twenty
eight pages, each page a one ton slab of stone

(02:56:14):
closely covered with carved text from top to bottom. It's
the authentic edition of the Burmese Bible. A scholar reading
the book from cover to cover would require five years
and sturdy legs.

Speaker 4 (02:56:25):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:56:30):
Truth is stranger the liction. This is the truth Thiscus

Speaker 3 (02:56:43):
Sultan Murad fourth inherited two hundred and forty wives when
he assumed the throne of Turkey. He decided to dispense
with them by putting me each wife in a sack
and passing them one by one into the bosporus.

Speaker 4 (02:56:54):
Beylieve it or not. In a moment, I'll tell you
about a man who walked to Russia.

Speaker 3 (02:57:03):
Colonel Russell Farnham of New Hampshire walked from Saint Louis, Missouri,
to Saint Petersburg now Leningrad, Russia, in eighteen twelve and thirteen.
Carrying a twenty pound pack and gun. He followed the
Missouri River to the waters of the Columbia River, then
up the Pacific coast to Alaska. He crossed the frozen
Bearing Strait to Siberia and on to the Russian capital.
He won wide acclaim in Czar Alexander first named him

(02:57:25):
the long Conqueror of two Continents.

Speaker 4 (02:57:27):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:57:33):
Truth is stranger the did and this is the truth.
This is rickly, Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:57:46):
The eligest salary ever received by any one man was
drawn by Franz Joseph, first Emperor of Austria. It amounted
to four million, four hundred and twelve thousand dollars annually,
and it was strictly a salary.

Speaker 4 (02:57:58):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:58:00):
In a moment, I'll tell you about a most distinguished doctor.
Doctor Stephen Smith born in Onondega County, New York, was
a sickly child. Unable to retain his food. He was
placed on an exclusive diet of bread and milk. For
the first seventy years of his life. He took no
other food. He was a surgeon in Bellevue Hospital, New

(02:58:21):
York for a full sixty years, and was long the
oldest and most distinguished doctor in the country. He lived
to be ninety nine and one half years old. Believe
it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:58:36):

Speaker 3 (02:58:49):
On December twod nineteen twenty seven, little Marie Finster jumped
from the roof of a building in Vienna. She was
saved from death when she fell into the arms of
her mother, who just happened to be passing build at
that moment. Believe it or not, in a moment. The
story about a very unusual help wanted ad. The second

(02:59:10):
Secretary of the United States Navy obtained his position by
answering a help wanted advertisement. After Benjamin Stoddard, secretary of
the Navy from seventeen ninety eight to eighteen one, resigned,
President Jefferson was forced to advertise in the newspapers for
a man to take the job. Robert Smith answered the
ad and was appointed Secretary of the Navy. Of course,
at that time, the entire US Navy consisted of only

(02:59:31):
three ships.

Speaker 4 (02:59:32):
Believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:59:39):
Truth is strangely the fiction, this system truth, This is ripley.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:59:51):
The Countess Elizabeth Bathory, known as the famous Hungarian Tigris,
actually killed six hundred and fifty servant girls in six years,
but being a noble woman, she was immune from punishment.
Believe it or not, in a moment. The story of
an unusual holy beach with multicolored sand. Kumari Beach in Travancore,

(03:00:12):
India is covered with sand in seven different colors. The
spot is one of the holiest in all India. For here,
according to tradition, the Lord Siva and the goddess Kumari
were married an eternity of goal. The gods showered down
seven different varieties.

Speaker 4 (03:00:26):
Of rice upon them.

Speaker 3 (03:00:27):
In accordance with the age old Hindu custom, the seven
colors were indelibly imparted to the sands of the Holy Beach.
Believe it or not, truth.

Speaker 2 (03:00:41):
Is stranger the fiction. This is the truth. This is riple.
Believe it or not.

Speaker 4 (03:00:53):
The Shaka, ruler of.

Speaker 3 (03:00:54):
The Zulus, once ordered one of his finest regiments to
march into the sea without protest or has cidency. Two
thousand brave warriors marched into the sea and drowned. Believe
it or not. In a moment, I'll tell you about
the most expensive dress of all time. Marie de Medici,
Queen of France fifteen seventy three to sixteen forty two,

(03:01:16):
wore the most expensive and heaviest dress of all time.
It was embroidered with thirty nine thousand oriental pearls, three
thousand diamonds, and weighed fifty pounds. Each of the lilies
on the dress was a large pear shaped pearl. The
dress cost nineteen million dollars and she wore it only
once on September fourteenth, sixteen six at the baptism of
her son Believe.

Speaker 2 (03:01:38):
It or Not.

Speaker 1 (03:01:43):
That was the first part of Ripley's Believe It or Not.
Tune in next week for the second half on Airchecks.
Airchecks is a three hour podcast uploaded every Saturday and
can be heard on the k TI Radio network every Sunday.
See you on the same time and same channel.

Speaker 4 (03:02:12):
Th

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Episode 105, January 4, 2025 - Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Part 1

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 105, January 4, 2025 - Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Part 1