Episode 149 -They Are Manifesting

There are plenty of conspiracies out there about government coverups. But what happens when the coverup turns out to be real? In this episode of the BTC, Janelle, and Vicky look at two cases of government coverups and what happens when the lies run out.

You can check out Murder Road Trip here!

Research links here!:

UCLA Newsroom - "An Army base isn't as safe as you think"
Newsweek - "Details About Death of Three Children at Camp Lejeune Scarce"
Marine Corps Times - "9 North Carolina Marines convicted of drug-related crimes since November"
Military Times - "Marine who fled Camp Lejeune for alleged criminal activity has been apprehended"
WNEP - "Family of a couple brutally murdered speaks out after convicted man's parole hearing"
WHQR - "Misled and betrayed: Camp Lejeune contamination survivors have waited decades for justice"
NBC News - "Navy to deny all civil claims related to Camp Lejeune water contamination"
Huffpost - "Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Cover-Up Hinted In Navy Letter"
The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten Rolling Stone - "Karen Silkwood: the Case of the Activist's Death"

History - "Karen Silkwood dies in mysterious one-car crash"
PBS Frontline - "The Karen Silkwood Story"
Public Health and the Law - "The Case of Karen Silkwood"
Rolling Stone - "Karen Silkwood Was Right in Plutonium Scandal"
The New York Times - "Hearing on Plutonium Plant Is Told Of a Conflict Over Health Reports"
Texas State Historical Association - "Silkwood, Karen Gay"
Time - "The Nuclear-Safety Activist Whose Mysterious Death Inspired a Movie"
A True Measure of Exposure - "The Karen Silkwood Story"
United States General Accounting Office - "Federal Investigations Into Certain Health, Safety, Quality Control, And Criminal Allegations At Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation"

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
And why they discovered upon their arrivals. Are you just going more and more?
I'm not doing they did one boy, it's the living. You gotta
worry about something. If I couldn'tkeep them there with me whole, I

(00:29):
at least I felt that I couldkeep there's skeletons. Hello, Hello,
welcome. This is the Bad TasteCrime Podcast and I am Janelle. I'm
Vicky. How you doing? I'mdoing pretty good? How are you?
Um? This is the last dayI have before I come back from a
three week break, so I'm ina state of mourning. Oh no.

(00:54):
I did take the week between Christmasand New Year's off um from work,
my regular job, which was likebeautiful. I can't honestly remember the last
time I had that much time offin a row. It was amazing.
But yes, there is like amorning period before you have to go and
gone for like almost a whole fuckingmonth. I don't like, how do
I do my job again? Youdon't you just quit and never work?

(01:15):
Right. It's gonna be interesting.We'll see how tomorrow goes. Yeah,
definitely, coming off of the holidayhangover, I'm like got bills to pay,
right, you know, I feellike January is always the worst month
for bills and stuff. I know. I'm like, Christmas drained me out.
Yeah, also I drained myself out. I always have, Like you

(01:38):
know, my license plate goes upin January, like all these things that
are like once year up in January. I'm like, god, dude,
see mine happens in November, likeright before everything kicks off, which isn't
honestly like great either, because I'mlike, well, I gotta push everything
back like two weeks till I getmy next paycheck. Oh, old people

(02:00):
a corner with Yeah, we're youtalking about? Like, look at these
adult conversations we're having. I neverthought it would happen. And then here
we are. Here we are.If this is your first time listening especial,
hello to you. This is atrue crime podcast. I promise,
grab your tea and your cat andsettle in with a nice blanket and some
knitting to listen to these tales ofmurder and mayhem delicious. Yes, um,

(02:24):
we've got a great show coming up. I think so. Twenty twenty
three, New Year, Knew mewNew New podcasting even about crime anymore?
Now? Yeah, I've always beenthis is an inspirational podcast. We're here
to talk to you about Jesus.Total one for twenty twenty three. Just
choked it. Um. But firstlet's head over to the news room watching

(02:54):
the day we had fifty this week. Our story comes from Mesa, Arizona
Delicious. Stephen Joseph Anderson, thirtyfour, was charged, arrested and charged

(03:14):
with a felony count of disorderly conduct, felony count of mutilation of a body,
and a misdemeanor count of failure toreport a death. So do you
know what's going on here? Wasit? I defended myself and then covered
it up. Not quite usually notquite okay? So Anderson met a thirty
three year old woman named Rebecca LynnLambert at a park. They went back

(03:38):
to his place to allegedly take methallegedly okay. Anderson has allegedly told investigators
that he went to go take ashower after they took this meth, and
then they came back. Lambert wasdead, likely from an overdose, and
then he tried I to revive her, okay, by stabbing her in the

(04:03):
heart with a five inch knife,using like a ritual. Uh huh yeah,
um? If it was like asyringe. I could be like,
okay, yeah, adrenaline. Well, and admittedly I've been rewatching House so
I was like, is this somelike Houseyon type like raised anatomies, Like

(04:26):
yeah, yeah, No, he'snot trying to perform a trake in the
field. No, in the heartand wanted to perform a ritual to bring
it back to life. So heis arrested awaiting trial. He has been
booked into jail and then into amental health facility. That's where that lands.
But that's what methyl. That iswhat methyl do. Um And the

(04:47):
first thing I do after I smokea lot of meth is take a shower.
You know, you feel a littledirty, right, you are smoking
cleaner. So yes, we're movingon to Netflix and Kill, which this
week is an HBO and Kill becausewe're talking about call me Cleo, call

(05:08):
me miss Cleo. I saw that. I did watch it. I was
like, oh my gosh, BO, we have to watch this, which
is I will admit, like verylightly on the crime. It's kind of
like some light fraud, right yeah, And this was not like the documentary
I was expecting either, I'll behonest, like the kind of tone and
like sort of overall story theme wasless about like the fraudulent stuff and more

(05:36):
about Miss Cleo as a person.So, for those that don't know Miss
Cleo, dare you first? Ifyou were if you were alive in the
nineties and you saw an infomercial,you probably saw you here call me now,
call me now here in a Jamaicanaccent, no matter what. Yeah,
she was a TV infomercial psychic superbig in the nineties. Mysterious persons

(06:03):
always about somebody cheating, yes,and yeah, oh my gosh, yeah,
mysterious of her work life, mysteriousin her personal life. I mean
this the sort of background around MissLeo is very like, um, what
am I trying to say, unconfirmed? I mean a lot of facts about
her, her past life. Sheworked for this psychic network that got pulled

(06:30):
into a lawsuit. Eventually she wasnamed in the lawsuit at some point.
It's an interesting watch. Like Isaid, it's it's not so much about
the crime, the fraud, thefraudulence, but more about Miss Cleo as
a person, um, and kindof what she was like and what her
life was like, which the thingthat got me, I mean, I

(06:53):
get like having these friends, rightand people that knew you, knew you
as Miss Cleo, knew you asthis persona, and to have them say,
well, all of that stuff abouther life that we don't know,
it doesn't really matter. I disagree. I honestly think it does, especially
when you're talking about somebody putting ona different persona of like people remembering her

(07:15):
without the accent, without being thishuge Miss Cleo personality and as somebody with
a totally different name. Like,I don't know, there's something that kind
of rubbed me the wrong way aboutthat, because I'm like, it does
kind of matter. Well, we'retalking about somebody lying to a lot of
people. But isn't that every singleactor and actress's ever existed? Yes,

(07:36):
so yeah, but not every singleactor and actress is like hiding their past
and trying to not so much anymorebecause of that social media. But like
yeah, pre seventies, yeah,they would completely not talk about their families
or you know. So for me, I don't see anything because she is

(07:58):
a TV personality. Yeah yeah,so you're living your TV personality. I
guess. I don't know. There'ssomething about that that was kind of like,
what are your thoughts on this wholething? Um? I mean,
it was interesting to hear how peopleperceived her that were close to her or
the people that just worked with her. But it was also kind of interesting

(08:22):
to hear the stories about people callingin like ye, suicidal and like yeah,
and how basically it became more ofkind of like telephone therapy you have
now, yeah, but you knowusing too, Yeah, and even just
some of the like behind the scenesof the way these psychic networks worked.

(08:43):
Yeah, was like kind of interesting. It's a call center to me,
Yeah, yeah, it's telemarketing basically. Yeah, I thought, I mean,
I think it's worth a watch.It's very short, it's like three
episodes, I think, yeah,not super time suck worth worth it.
Yeah, it's a little fun.Well yeah, but if you need a

(09:05):
little like nostalgia boost too, Like, it definitely hits that nostalgia piece of
my brain. Yes. Is thatpart of the show where you say content
might not be appropriate for all listeners. Yeah, I don't know. There
might be some inappropriate stuff in here. But what are we talking about today,
jel I think so I forgot youknow, so I thought we're coming

(09:31):
up and do an election cycle.I thought, let's let's snap ourselves back
to reality. And remember, thegovernment is the terrible most of the time.
So we're going to take a lookat government cover ups yay of my
favorites. And we're gonna put quoteson the cover up just so that we're

(09:54):
not held liable for anything. Yes, alleged cover ups a likely episode today.
And the one thing that kind ofcame to my mind when I was
thinking about government conspiracies and cover upsis military based ones, okay, which
there are plenty to choose from.There's a lot our military be creeping,

(10:18):
yes, yes, every branch ofit. So we will be taking a
look at actually a current kind ofhot button issue, okay, and we're
going to talk about Campbell June okay, so interesting. I will be honest,
I don't when it comes to likemodern day politics, military affairs is

(10:39):
not necessarily something I pay a tonof attention to, just because it's not
something I know a ton about.Yeah, you know it's not. I
guess I could learn about it,but it's got time, right, Um,
So this will be this will begood, This will be informative.
Yeah, it'll be sadly informative,right lovely. So if you have had

(11:01):
your head in the sand for along time. Me. Um. Yeah,
a lot of news has been comingout about violence and crime on military
basis, um, and a lotof that is covered up. And if
you're not aware, military bases arenot really safe. They're one of the

(11:24):
few places that you would think wouldbe safe, but they're not very contrary
to popular belief. There's lots ofcrimes. Um. We've seen a lot
of assault cases. Yeah, they'vehad like a reckoning in a way coming
more like more of a reckonming thanthey've had in the past of people coming

(11:45):
forward with claims of sexual assault.And I've heard that, I mean never
heard that from personal acquaintances on morethan one that have been in the military.
Like very fucked up. Yeah,it's really fucked up. Um.
Some bases see a lot more crimethan others, Like Fort for example,
is one of the worst ones.Um. I've actually been on military basis.
My sister is a military family.I visited her in Washington and Tennessee.

(12:11):
Um. Previous to that, shewas in Georgia. So she's been
on quite a few military bases.Um. It's like being on another fucking
planet. Um. So it's alittle bit strange. You come on into
the base and under heavy security,but once you're in there, it's like,
yeah, it's like a free fall. Um. And we're going to

(12:31):
talk about Campbell June and it's historyof being one of the worst marine bases,
um known to man. Okay,we're gonna look at a little bit
of history of crime on the baseso that you can better understand the actual
real case that I'm going to talkwhich is going to involve lawsuits and poison.

(12:54):
Oh my god. And even whenyou're talking about like military law,
it's like its own separate Okay,it's separate nonsense. Yes, yeah,
So CAMPBELLA. June was built innineteen forty one in North Carolina. It
is a Marine Corps base. Ifyou're not aware, there was a little

(13:16):
bit of a World War happening atthis time. Oh you don't say,
and they were packing the coasts withbases and military personnel to be on the
safe side. So this camp wasthrown together in hopes to keep all of
North Carolina, say, because itneeds it. I don't know, do
we need them though? Um?It was mostly an amphibious, amphibious unit

(13:41):
training facility because it's on the coast. Okay, so at the beginning,
it was a segregated training unit camp. So they did have Black Marines,
Hispanic brains like racially um white Marines, and also Indigenous people who served.

(14:01):
In fact, one of the MarineCorps women were reservist units of strictly just
indigenous women was serving out of thisparticular base. Really, so yeah,
it had a female Marine Indigenous Corps. So the units themselves were like all
so a Native American women. There'sthere's a really amazing history about that,

(14:24):
if you're interested in learning more aboutthat. Yeah, the camp has had
a ton of issues. The militarydesegregated in nineteen forty nine, so which
just after World War Two, butif you've been to the South, you
know even today still it is segregatedstill, and this base was one of

(14:45):
the worst ones. While they weretechnically desegregated, it wasn't the case.
And in nineteen sixty nine the campactually had a race riot shortly after MLK
was assassinated. It was the peakof the Vietnam War and tensions were boiling
over because of mismanagement by upper personnelof the Black Marines, and so they

(15:09):
literally had a riot on the base. Oh my gosh, so it's not
really known as a safe area.It's not really known for a personnel listening
to the issues and figuring stuff outbefore things happen. Of course, little
for shadowing there as well. Therace riot actually left fifteen Marines injured and

(15:35):
one man dead. Purple Edward E. Blankston died in the riot. So
it was bad. It was abig to do, and that really wasn't
very big news because they wanted tokeep it a little quiet. It was
in North Carolina, and then slowlypeople started to hear more about it,
but it was something that was tryingto be kept out of the papers.

(15:58):
Okay it was. This riot wassubsequently investigated by the military, and it
did eventually lead to widespread changes inmilitary race relation policy. But again,
we know the South. Yeah,I've been there a lot. My mother
wish I hate. My mother's southernside of the family lives in North Carolina

(16:21):
and Virginia, so I'm very familiar. So we're gonna just do like a
little timeline of some other issues onthe base before we dive into the poisoning.
In nineteen seventy nine, there wasa murder of North Carolina marine Leroy
Delaney which is actually a Hulu docuseriieswhat happened to Delaney, I believe is
what it's called. So that investigateshis disappearance from the base and ultimate murder.

(16:45):
Yeah. In nineteen eighty seven,the murder of Lieutenant James Lotts and
his wife Joan by one of hismen in his home on the base.
Oh, keep these years in mindas we're talking about um. In two
thousand and seven, Lance Kruple,Maria Francis Lauderbach was murdered as she was

(17:06):
going to report a sexual assault byofficer one. Yeah, I remember that.
One YEA. Twenty twenty Lance KrpleShaun M. Miller was charged with
arm robbery on the base, whichhe fled and was later apprehended. So
he was wrapping people on the base. In fall of twenty twenty four marines.
Now this is a big story thatcame out. Four Marines on the

(17:27):
base were charged with arms trafficking.Oh fuck okay. According to an indictment,
there was a video showing the fourparticipants outfitted in Adam Waffen masks giving
the Hile Hitler sign beneath the imageof a black son. So they were
Nazis. Oh, great. What'san Adam and Adam Waffen is an organization

(17:49):
that is kind of a militarized neoNazi Southern group that uses a lot of
Norse imagery and all the hits.You know, I know, I'm literally
like imagery probably right. Yeah,So the last train of the video shows

(18:15):
some texts saying come home, whiteman. Oh god. So it is
believed that the Marines were contracted torun arms. Since they are Marines,
they wouldn't be really asked any questions. Um. They also allegedly helped to
recruit more Marines into the guerrilla sideof their quote unquote death squad that they

(18:41):
were forming. And people wonder whywe are asking for oversight on extremism in
our It's in the military, militaryand police and people in authority. Like,
if you take a look at peoplewho are a bit at the Capitol
on January six, most of themare our former military and police officers were

(19:03):
current and active with ties to extremistgroups, particularly neo fucking Nazis. And
some congress people, yeah, stateand federal. Hey, I'm like,
I just don't all arify. I'mall for taken down government anarchy, but
I can't even get into this rightnow. But yes, that's but that

(19:27):
was not anarchy. That an insurrection. That was an insurrection. UM.
That's a different, different course ofa different color. Um. But this,
I think it was important to highlightthis because these are people who are
stealing guns from the military to sellto extremist groups who are Nazis. Didn't

(19:53):
we fight against those guys? Yeah, yeah, yeah, But it's kind
of not all. This is adifferent, different flavor of Nazis. This
is like Nazi light. It's likeof like the regular Nazis. The last
one I'll highlight before we go intoour poisoning m was in twenty twenty one

(20:14):
nine members of the Camp La Junesecond Marine Division, where court martialed for
possession and intention distribute controlled substances.In particular, this was LSD. I
want to be tripping. I'm nottoo sure about this particular case. I
know there is a lot of peoplewho use LSD and mushrooms for mental health,

(20:41):
but likes, yeah, but thissounded more like drug run. Okay,
okay, this sounded more like theyhad gallops of LSD for their purpose.
Good lord, I'm all for usingthat sort of thing for you know,
there were a lot of like microdosing. Yeah, there's a lot of
really good research out um PTSC traumacare with specifically mushrooms but also lsd UM

(21:06):
ketamine Yeah, yeah, yeah,you only have a ketamine clinic out here.
We do. Yeah. I like, I got yeah, And I
was like, wait what anyway,total aside, but there's health. I
was like, oh, oh,look at Illinois, go look at us
UM SO there you could see those. That's just a short list of a

(21:27):
few highlights. Okay, that's thegreatest, the greatest hits. Um SO.
We see a lot of violence,a lot of drugs, gun trafficking,
extremism, all on this little basein North Carolina. But I want
to talk about the biggest case tocome out of the the camp, and

(21:48):
it's the contaminated water lawsuit. Okay, we're taking like a three sixty,
but I want you to keep inmind about the contaminants are talking about,
because prolonged exposure to certain chemicals canaffect people's personalities and also the behavior.
Yes, so I'm in a positivequestion at the end of this. Okay,

(22:11):
Now, remember the camp was builtin nineteen forty one. It is
estimated starting in nineteen fifty three,the water of Campell June was contaminated with
chemicals well beyond a reasonable level ofhuman consumption, which was extreme toxic levels.
Great In nineteen seventy nine, afuel spill occurred at had Not Point,

(22:32):
leaking thirty thousand gallons of fuel intothe aquifer. So that's the source
of water for the entire area,Okay. In nineteen eighty, the base
began testing the water for I'm goingto difficult time saying this. Try a
hall of methanes. Okay, sure, that's it, right, in response
to the new regulations from the EPA. Okay, was the like the aquifers

(22:56):
that they were getting the water from, did they only serve the base?
Was mostly the base community around itas well? Yeah, so it mostly
went to the base. But thereis community around okay, Okay, And
usually mostly what happens when you havea base is the community around it is
military still who just don't want tolive on the base, right Right.
That same year, a laboratory fromthe US Army Environmental Hygiene Agency began finding

(23:22):
halogenated hydrocarbons in the water as well. So the EPA in the eighties had
a big push to start testing waterand air, which is good, Which
is great, the whole reason wehave an EPA. Yeah, and they
were pushing army bases and military anymilitary base really in particular to test all
of their water to make sure itwas safe. In March of nineteen eighty

(23:45):
one, one of the lab's reportswas delivered to the US Marine officials on
Campbell June's base, and it statedthat the water was extremely contaminated. I
have a one of them that wasleft by this company. Okay, there
is a website called the Few,the Proud, the Forgotten, which has

(24:08):
all of the documents scanned for anyoneto you involved in this case. If
you'd like to see how many fuckingnotes all of these agencies who tested the
water gave to the space say goodgovernmental documents, Yeah, say hey hey
your water still contaminated. Hey,you still have toxic levels in your water.

(24:33):
This particular note says, in bold, in bold handwriting, you need
to analyze for chlorinated organics, likejust big letters on this note. They
must have missed it. They musthave just read right over. Yeah.
So it says the date that itwas a like they received information in January,
the date the information was analyzed inFebruary and they sent it to the

(24:57):
office like ten days later, sothey were really quick with their turnaround for
the analysis and they were ignored.Wow. The reports found that the water
supply had two hundred and forty tothirty four hundred times levels permitted by safety
standards of volatile organic compounds such asPC, which is paraclora ethylene which is

(25:22):
a dry cleaning solvent, oh godTC which is trichloroethylene which is a degreaser,
and approximately seventy other different chemicals.Wow. Wow, And that I
don't I don't want to say I'msurprised, because nothing our government does really
surprises me anymore. But you wouldthink that there is four hundred times the

(25:45):
level permitted. What as you arehaving this sort of shift in the way
people view the environment and the creationof the EPA and now its enforcement,
like you would want your own militarythat you know represents the federal government to
like be the example, be theexample you would example. But a lot

(26:11):
of people who serve in the militaryare poor. Yeah, are one fist
fight away from being in prison.Sure, But I mean, like just
like maintaining the basis to have fuckingclean water. My plan is they don't
give a shit about the people thatserves. Yeah, no, they don't.
They don't give a shit about thepeople that serve. Um the amount

(26:34):
of things that people who serve inthe military are forced to take without question,
Yeah, like pills and all kindsof things that they get shots into
their arm I know a lot morethan the average person because of the amount
of people I know in the military. Yes, but like they don't care
about you. Yeah, so justwhat happens when you retire? Yeah,

(26:56):
and the great use of all ofthat fucking money. Oh yeah, the
military. That's for the shiny toysfor the people. I digress, right,
Um, this is a tiny soapboxmoment. I know, because well,
my sister in law just became anurse at the VA and I'm like,
you're you thought working at the NIKUwas hard, right? Just you

(27:19):
wait us you'd be just as difficult, if not more, because you want
to help people and you fucking can't. Yeah. So, in nineteen eighty
two, a privately owned company,Granger Laboratories, was contracted by the Marine
Corps to test and report back onwater safety levels. So they got their

(27:41):
own people to start testing. Theydelivered a report showing that the well supplying
water for the base were contaminated exponentially, and filed a warning at the end
of the report that the water sourceneeded to be stopped use. The base
did not stop using the water,and the company continued to issue warnings to

(28:02):
the commanders on the base about thepoisoning water for months. In spring of
nineteen eighty three, a report tothe EPA Camp Lajune officials stated that there
were no environmental problems at the base. Okay, because you say something doesn't
make it true, right, they'remanifesting it, right, Yeah, but

(28:22):
it is manifest Our water is notcontaminated. Our water is no one's gonna
job. It's all good, right. All those chemicals make it taste better,
actually makes you healthier, right,I'm pretty sure it cleans out,
it degreases the inside of you.Detox right, it's detoxification. So in

(28:42):
June of nineteen eighty three, NorthCarolina's Water Supply Agency as LA June officials
for the Granger Lab reports on thewater testing, and the Marines declined to
provide the reports to the agency.They're like, oh, I don't think
we will no, no, no, it's okay. It's take my word.
I saw what the report said.It's good or golden clean, clean
bill of health. Oh god.In July of nineteen eighty four, one

(29:07):
year later, another private company wascontracted by the EPA to conduct water testing
at the site, and they foundanother chemical, benzene in the bass water,
along with the crazy levels of PCand TC. Marine officials shut down
one of the contaminated wells in Novemberof that year, and then a few

(29:29):
others earlier. In nineteen eighty five. The Marines notified it the North Carolina
State and they said that the contaminationwas caught and they were working on it
right making it, making it soundlike it just happened right in the meantime.
While they're like, oh yeah,yeah, we're we're doing that,

(29:52):
We're getting everything shut down. Theydid not notify the Marines on the base
right away. There's part of methat has this feeling like a total chemical
X moment where they're just like,let's add enough shit to the water and
maybe one of our marines will turninto a superhero, right, They'll turn
to the X Men, some mutantwith superpowers. Yeah, So they didn't

(30:15):
notify the Marines on the base rightaway. Eventually they did disclose it to
the people living on the base,but then they did not send anything out
to anyone who had previously lived onthe base. In nineteen eighty five,
a few newspapers started to cover theetamination, but since they did not have
a great deal of info on theextent of the contamination and how long it

(30:36):
went back, it appeared to belike a minor story in the local papers.
By December nineteen eighty seven, allthe contaminated wells were finally closed.
Nineteen eighty seven when I was fuckingborn. And when did they start getting
Nineteen fifty three is when they saidthat they reported the first issue. My
god, nineteen fifty three to nineteeneighty seven. Wow. They had not

(31:00):
fuel farm on the base, however, continued to leak fuel, oh perfect.
Although it wasn't going into the aquifer, it was going into the ground
still, and it got listed onthe EPA Super Fun List site, which
means that it was going to beshut down and clean up. So anytime
you see ep Super Fun List,that means that they're closing that area and

(31:21):
going forth and putting money into itto clean it up. Okay, Now
we're going to go back a littlebit the camp history we've gone over,
but we're going to start to kindof talk about some of the documentation that
was actually sent out and reported thatwas covered up by government officials. Okay.
In nineteen ninety seven, the Agencyfor Toxic Substance and Disease Registry,

(31:47):
which is actually an organization that's affiliatedwith the government branch of Health and Human
Services. Okay, they investigated thewell water and concluded that cancer derived from
exposure to the water was unlikely.Now, according to investigators, this organization
did not test or even look atthe information regarding the benzene that was found

(32:09):
in the water. And this timeokay, Now, Benzene is a chemical
that is used to make other chemicalsthat create plastic resin nylon and synthetic fibers.
Oh gosh. Benzene is also usedto make certain types of lubricants,
rubbers, dyes, detergents, drugs, and pesticides, MS a multipurpose drug,

(32:32):
and benzene is a confirmed cancer causingchemical. Good, so is unlikely
just like less than fifty percent?Is that like the definition of the well
They didn't test for benzine, andthey didn't look at the reports that had
benzene contamination listed on it. Goodjob, guys, so out of sight,
out of mind, right, They'relike, oh, PC and TC

(32:54):
don't cause cancer, they cause otherthings like Parkinson's disease and liver face which
better, and birth defects. Yeahbetter. So benzing definitely one hundred percent
causes cancer. Yeah. They citedthat possible sources of the contamination were from

(33:14):
a dry cleaning company nearby. Theunit also had military equipment that was left
over from the Vietnam War that wassitting leaking toxic chemicals into the earth,
and leaks from the underground storage offuel tanks in that fuel field that was

(33:35):
leaking thirty thousand gallons of fuel.Oh, they figured out where all the
sources of the chemicals were coming from, but they kind of didn't do their
due diligence, didn't look at theprevious reports, and didn't test for benzinge
even though it was listed on otherreports. Okay, Now, in nineteen
ninety nine, the Marine Corps begannotifying former base residents that they might have

(33:58):
consumed contaminated water. So nineteen eightyseven is when everything was shut down,
and they started notifying people on base, And in nineteen ninety nine, over
ten years later, they decided tostart notifying people that previously served that they
might have consumed contaminated water. Wow. The notifications were directed by a federal

(34:22):
health study examining possible birth effects amongchildren born at the base during the contamination
years. So not even because theywanted to notify people of their contamination,
but because there was a study happeningto see if there was birth defects that
occurred during the contamination years. Yeah. So not even a roundabout way.

(34:43):
Yeah, that's wild. In twothousand and five, the US Department of
Justice and the EPA investigated the MarineCorps handling of the issue and reported that
they found no criminal conduct by MarineCorps officials. Sure sure, sure,
Sure, sure Sure. In twothousand and seven, hour were, one
of the EPA investigators, told Congressthat he had recommended obstruction of justice charges

(35:05):
against some of the Campela June officials, but it was overruled by the Justice
Department prosecutors. Okay, so peopleunderneath the head haunchos in charge said at
least obstruction of justice because they werenot reporting things right, away and holding
onto reports. Yeah, yeah,sounds fair. It was also around this

(35:25):
time that the organization The Few theProud That Forgotten was started, which I
had mentioned at the top of thisepisode. And this is a website that
was started by Marines who had livedat Campbela June previously, and they have
an excruciatingly detailed timeline of everything thathappened from nineteen fifty three until last year.

(35:49):
Yeah, good for that, untiltwenty fucking two. Yeah. They
have scanned in documents that were foundscanned in documents that were hidden on the
website, so you can actually lookat all of the reports and the notes
and everything that was being sent tothe Marine Corps officials on Camp La June's
base about all of the contamination.They also have a fourteen page registry of

(36:13):
previous Camp La June marines and familieswho go on there to report the illnesses
that they have contracted. So reallyit's sort of just like a grassroots like
trying to hold the accountability project.Yea, yeah. Yeah. They also
have a lot of information for peoplewho'd like to seek assistance with healthcare mental

(36:35):
health. They also have a lotof information on this next gentleman that I
will mention who was really a personwho fought so hard to get this recognized
by Congress, which led to somegovernment action. So in nineteen ninety seven,
Jerry and Sminger, who was aretired Marine Master sergeant, found out

(36:59):
that there are reports about contaminated wateron the base. This was really important
to him. In two thousand andseven he found a document dated nineteen eighty
one that described a radioactive dump sitenear a rifle range at the camp Okay,
and according to the report, thewaste was laced with stronium ninety,
which is an isotope to that causesleukemia and cancer. Good, so something

(37:23):
that was not even previously mentioned before. So we have the PCs, the
TCS, the benzine, but nowthey're saying that they were dumping radioactive waste
on the site Okay. According toCamp La June's Installation Restoration Program Manager,
base officials learned in two thousand andfour about the nineteen eighty one document.
Now this is really important to himbecause Ensminger was stationed on the base for

(37:46):
years, like a really fucking longtime. He's a career marine and his
daughter, Janey, was born innineteen eighty three on the base at the
age of six. On September eightyfive, Janey died from leukemia. Oh
my gosh. She was conceived andborn and raised on the base. Yeah.

(38:08):
Jerry Ensminger believes that his daughter diedfrom leukemia due to all of the
radioactive and water contamination that was onthe base. And Sminger continued to fight
to bring to light the absolute negligenceof the Marine Corps officers of the base

(38:29):
and the government. He was reallykey in the development of some acts that
occurred later. Yeah. In twothousand and eight, the Marine Corps began
a congressional congressionally required notification campaign tonotify former base residents of the issue.
So they were forced by the governmentto start notifying everybody, not just people
who had children on the base.Wow. An online health registry now contains

(38:52):
more than one hundred and thirty fivethousand names of people who served and the
time periods of the contamination. Iwanted to play a short clip of one
of the other officers talking about ActuallyI think the first clip is Jerry Esminger,
So let me pull that up.Okay, he told me they had

(39:16):
a truck that had a tank onthe back that they would duck partial containers
of solvents, DDT, you nameit. When it came into that lot.
They didn't want to put this stuffback in through the system. They
were told to duck it get ridof it. But perhaps most remarkable was

(39:39):
that when the military decided to buildanother well at the base in the nineteen
seventies, the site they chose wasan area adjacent to Lot two or three
the dumping ground. The well suppliedwater to a base housing complex called had
Not Point. Years later, ourtesting confirmed as slew of chemicals, but

(40:02):
primarily a chemical called TCE, asolvent used for cleaning metal parts and a
known carcinogen. In high concentrations,it's a thousand, four hundred parts pabellion
multiple documented rave that's almost three hundredtimes the recommended limit. TSEE and drinking

(40:25):
water has been linked to brain andspinal defects, cleft lip and palate,
and childhood leukemia. The area aroundthe dumping ground is fenced off with a
hazardous waist sign. Now, butlook how close the well was to that
site. The grassy area highlighted iswhere the well was drilled, just yards

(40:46):
from the contamination site. So itwas literally like a sidewalk, a strip
of grass. Contamination site. Yeah, and they knew the condamination site was
there before they drilled. Them knewwell, yep, that's not a good

(41:07):
look. Chemicals don't seep into thewater. What are you talking about.
So in two thousand and nine,that year, a lawsuit was filed against
those in charge regarding the contamination issue. That year, the Caring for Campbel
June Veterans Act of two thousand andnine was introduced and was to provide assistance
to possible victims of the le Junewater contamination. The proposed bill would authorize

(41:30):
treatment at a US Veteran Administration facilityat to any veteran or family member who
was based out of campel June duringthe time the water was contaminated, and
anyone who suffered from adverse health effects. The bill never made it to vote.
It died before it even got tothe floor. Wow. In January

(41:52):
of twenty eleven, retired Marine JoelP. Scherberger I think I said that
right, filed another lawsuit against theUS government, claiming that l June's contaminated
water caused his breast cancer. Breastcancer and men is extremely rare. Yeah,
Scherberger was stationed at le June fromSeptember nineteen fifty seven through April nineteen

(42:13):
fifty nine, at the very beginningof water contamination. Oh my goodness.
Right after this, ten lawsuits whostarted to pop up were consolidated together in
the US District Court in Northern Districtof Georgia to go after campe le June.
In October twenty fourteen, a federalappeals court rejected the North Carolina legislator
attempt to extend a time limit forfiling pollution related lawsuits, which directly affected

(42:39):
those ten consolidated lawsuits that were comingtogether. On October fourteenth of twenty fourteen,
the Eleventh US Circuit Court ruled thatCRCLA did not preempt North Carolina's statutory
limits. So what they're trying todo is to put a statute of limitation

(43:00):
and send some of these lawsuits,because they were from the nineteen fifties,
sixties, and seventies, to tryto curtail every fucking person who ever served
on that base suing the military.Yeah. Now it started to work a
little bit, but not quite Thatsame year that the first few successful lawsuits

(43:22):
started to happen. A documentary filmon the water contamination was produced and released,
and it was called Semperfy Always Faithful. The film was directed by Tony
Hardman and Rachel Libert. It madelike a bunch of appearances and won an
Award for a Feature Film. Soif you're interested in learning more and hearing

(43:42):
about the people who cut fucking cancerand died from this, go and watch
it. In April of twenty twelve, members of the US House Senate and
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee signed a letterto President Obama asking the healthcare for Camp
Lajune contamination victims to be expedited.On January eighteenth of twenty twelve or July

(44:05):
of eighteenth of twenty twelve, theUS Senate passed the Janey S. Sminger
Act, authorizing medical care to militaryand family members who had resided at the
base between nineteen fifty seven and nineteeneighty seven. And the measure applies to
seven hundred and fifty thousand people iswhat they estimated. Wow, that's children,

(44:28):
families, and people who served.The House approved the bill in July.
Later that month, President Obama signedit into law. In August of
twenty twelve, and the bill specificallycalled out fifteen different ailments believed to be
linked to the contamination. The Departmentof Veterans Affairs is assigned to provide the

(44:49):
medical care to people and to fundthe medical care. The bill extends higher
fees for VA homelan home loans toguarantee money for the first few years of
it now. In February of twentyfourteen, the Center for Disease Controls and
Prevention issued its report on the effectsof the water contamination so that people could

(45:10):
understand like the gravity of the situation, because people weren't understanding why there was
a bill, like people were tryingto get a bill passed, or like
this is just water contaminent, Likehow bad could it be? Yeah?
Well, the report stated that CampLejeune Marines had a thirty five percent higher
risk of kidney cancer, a fortytwo percent higher risk of liver cancer,

(45:31):
a forty seven percent higher risk ofHodgkins lymphoma, a sixty eight percent higher
risk of multiple melanomas, and adouble risk of als. Oh yeah,
those are no small numbers and thoseare some of the worst. Can't like
you The rate of surviving kidney andliver cancer is next to yeah yeah Wow.

(45:58):
In twenty twelve, the Campbell JuneJustice Act of twenty twenty two was
introduced. Twenty twelve twenty two werelooking towards the future, so I'm going
to play another clip. The USgovernment has acknowledged what happened there. For

(46:20):
nearly thirty five years until nineteen eightyseven, those who lived on the base
were potentially exposed to dangerous chemicals everysingle time they drank the water, swam
in the water, or bathed init. But our CBS News investigation found
that many families are still all theseyears later looking for justice. Katherine Harriage
has spoken to some of those families, and she joins us now from the
Pentagon. Catherine good Morning, Tonygood Morning, of a partisan group of

(46:45):
lawmakers has introduced legislation that would helpthousands of military families get accountability in the
courts for toxic exposure that goes backgenerations. This is what we call Baby
Heaven. Tucked away in a remotecorner of this North Carolina cemetery is row
after row of infant graves. Fourin October sixth died October seventh, retired

(47:08):
drill instructor Jerry Ensminger was among thefirst to call out the Marine Corps over
toxic drinking water at Camp Le June, which is just down the road from
the cemetery White killed all these children. It falls right within that period of
time when the water was contaminated fromnineteen fifty three to nineteen eighty seven.
Those serving at the sprawling marine basewere potentially exposed to contaminated water for years.

(47:34):
Toxic agents seeped into the soil andpoisoned the groundwater at fuel depots,
based junkyards, even a dry cleanersthat's since been demolished and designated a hazardous
site. In some areas, taintedwater was four hundred times what safety standards
allowed. When I first heard aboutthis, it was like God opened the

(47:54):
sky up and said, hey,Jerry, here's a possible answer to that
question that has nagged you for Bythat time, it was fourteen fifteen years.
In nineteen eighty two, Ensminger's sixyear old daughter, Janey was diagnosed
with leukemia. Was toxic water toblame? I blame it. Janey passed

(48:16):
in nineteen eighty five. She wasnine years old. She died on a
Tuesday. It was in the afternoon. You're a marine, was this the
hardest thing you've ever had to livethrough? Nothing comparis to watching one of
your kids suffer and go through hell. And I blame the Marine Corps in

(48:40):
department the Navy. So if youdidn't catch that, they were at a
baby graveyard, yeah, giving thisinterview. Yeah, And the children in
that graveyard mostly are from that militarybase in the years that the water contamination

(49:01):
was occurring. Interesting, and mostof those children didn't even make it to
a year old. So that interviewwas given right before they started to take
the Camp Lajune Justice Act to Congressto vote on it. Now, President

(49:22):
Biden signed it into law in Augustof twenty twenty two, and the act
allows military veterans to file civil lawsuitsagainst the US government for harm caused by
at least thirty days exposure, includingin utero exposure to water at the Marine

(49:43):
Corps base camp in Le June fromnineteen fifty three to nineteen eighty seven.
Good. So we will see inthe next few years all of the court
cases that follow this particular lawsuit.And it was really important that they passed
this because the lower courts were theones that were preventing these lawsuits to go

(50:06):
forward to protect themselves basically from gettingright government pushback. But this is still
an ongoing issue and it probably willbe for years to come. The United
States Marine Corps actively covered up thepoisoning of hundreds of thousands of men,

(50:32):
women, and children in Campbell June, North Carolina. But are we surprised.
No, no, not even inlight us. So if you served
Campbell June, North Carolina, youmay be entitled to compensation. Oh gosh,
but that is the government cover upof Campbell June and Joy. Okay,

(51:12):
so my story, I have afeeling that you will probably know this
not probably not good. Yeah,And honestly, it's one of these stories
that I feel like it's really popular. I personally am just like not Plumb
Island. Yes, no, no, I'm just gonna start naming government conspiracy.
So the government cover up portion ofthose story is actually kind of small.

(51:36):
Okay, although unless you consider policepart of the government than it is.
Is there a difference than militarized It'strue, But as you're talking about
government cover ups, you inevitably walkinto this world of conspiracy theories whistleblowers.
It makes it a little difficult becauseit sheds just enough doubt to make you

(51:59):
almost no believe it right, right, And the idea of whistleblowers is actually
one that I find really interesting andsuper important in holding you know, companies
and different organizations accountable to like theirmembers and their employees and their communities that
they serve like they are crucial.Whistle Blowers are like we need you.

(52:22):
I'm very I'm very pro whistleblower inmost cases, in these cases there's very
fewer. It's not been good,right, right, So today I wanted
to talk about Karen Silkwood, okay, and the kerb the ghee plutonium scandal.
This does sound slightly familiar, okay. So. Initially born in Longview,

(52:45):
Texas, Karen Silkwood was raised inNetherland, Texas with her two sisters,
Lyndon Rosemary. She went through schooland when she got old enough,
she attended Lamar University in Beaumont,Texas for a career in sciences, but
dropped out in nineteen sixty five whenshe married William Meadows. Now. Their
marriage only lasted for seven years.It was unable to weather the storm of

(53:07):
an extra marital affair and Meadows overspendingor things bigger in Texas. Oh my
god, ain't that's the truth,even the overspending. And so in nineteen
seventy two, Silkwood divorced Meadows andmoved to Oklahoma City, where she really
wanted to kind of start over,start a new life. What a place

(53:29):
to start up for Oklahoma City.So nothing bad ever happened there. Sorry,
I just rewatched something about Oklahoma Citybombing literally yesterday, so spresh in
my mind. Oh god, Ifeel like it says a lot when something
like that really tickles my funny bone, you know what I mean, Like,

(53:52):
I don't if you listen to themmcvaigh jokes. If you listened to
the podcast for a while, Idon't know if we actually made the time.
But last year, I don't knowif you remember, Tip got me
a mug that Jeffrey Daberado and saysyou were looking like a snack. And
I used that bug. Yesterday theyhad the coffee and I was working and
I looked over at the bug onmy coffee table and just started. We're

(54:15):
very into the maccab, you know. Anyway, So, yeah, Oklahoma
City, And so she worked asa hospital clerk for a little while,
but then she was hired by kerMcGhee. So let's talk about Kermaghee for
a second. The corporation had itsoil and nuclear complex in that the complex

(54:38):
headquarters was in Oklahoma City. Nowthis is from an article on Rolling Stone
Quote in nineteen fifty one, thecompany became the first oil producer to decide
that nuclear power could be a profitablesupplement to petroleum, and Kermigee soon ranked
as the country's largest uranium supplier,which is kind of interesting because everything about

(55:00):
where they're at that's oil country.Yeah, yeah, that's a bold statement.
That's a good point. I didn'tthink about that actually when I was
researching in the early seventies. Ithelped pioneer the move to plutonium, a
rare substance that is more dangerous andvaluable than uranium. The late Robert Kerr,
the company founder, was Governor ofOklahoma, ran for president as a

(55:22):
Democrat in nineteen fifty two, andin my mind right now at the time
of his death in nineteen sixty three, was one of the most powerful men
in the Senate. Dean McGhee,his protege and successor as head of the
corporation advised President Kennedy on defense policiesand President Ford on energy. Well,

(55:44):
so this is kind of like whereKermyghee is coming from. Super powerful energy
company with very powerful connections in government. Clearly like when you're advising the president.
This is also one of these thingsthat drives me crazy when you're advising
the president on energy as the headof an energy company. Although I don't

(56:06):
think he was the head of theenergy company at the time, but like,
y'all his last name was Mickey.Yeah, like almost, like that
should be illegal or something almost almost. So. In nineteen seventy two,
Silkwood is hired on by Kirmigee asa laboratory analyst and chemical technician in their
plutonium plan. But while she wasthere, she became a lot more knowledgeable

(56:31):
about plutonium and its dangers and becameincredibly disillusioned by management and soon after became
involved in the local Oil, Chemicaland Atomic Workers International Union. Okay,
this is your kind of lady,Yeah, socialist here. She went on

(56:51):
a strike with the union in nineteenseventy two, and shortly after that Silkwood
was elected to the steering committee MightyAD. She was the first female member
to do so, okay. Soonafter, she was tasked with tasked with
investigating the help and safety concerns atthe Kerr McGee plant. The investigation uncovered

(57:13):
what she believed to be numerous violationsof federal law, including faulty respiratory equipment,
workers regularly being exposed to contamination,improper storage of samples, and a
lack of sufficient shower facilities. Yeahyou have to shower after you. Yeah.
Yeah. Plutonium is like insanely dangerousyea, like on your body and

(57:35):
your clothes and everything. M so. In nineteen seventy four, Silkwood and
other union representatives were invited to Washingtonto speak with the Federal Atomic Energy Commission,
which isn't something that doesn't exist anymore. It's been like, well,
I'll get to it later, butit's been dissolved into other commissions, where
she testified that ker McGee was sloppy, dishonest, and unsafe. Sounds about

(57:59):
right. Shortly after the hearing,Silkwood was convinced by another union member,
Steve WOODCU, to begin spying onthe company from the inside and gather company
files to assist in corroborating the allegations. This is when the weird shit started
happening up until now. It's likepretty for a whistleblower story, pretty straightforward,

(58:24):
I would say. On November fifth, nineteen seventy four, Silkwood was
grinding and polishing plutonium samples in aglove box that would later be used in
fuel pins for reactor fuel. NowI say glove box, I'm not talking
about like your car glove box.It's like literally a box and enclosed box

(58:45):
that has gloves you put your handsin so that you can handle material within
a safe environment. Yeah, right, because like you would do for a
sandblaster, things like that. Yeah, it's all sealed off, there's no
you know, and especially because you'rerisking contamination. We're dealing with highly radioactive
material like this, that type ofthing. I know. I kept reading
glove box in my brain was likecar, car, car, but it's

(59:07):
not so. Before leaving the area, Silkwood performed a routine self check with
an alpha detector that was mounted tothe top of the box. The check
determined that her body contained four hundredtimes more than the legal limit for plutonium
contamination. What yeah, yeah,and they it mainly detected on her right

(59:31):
side. The plant doctors went througha decontamination process and sent her home with
a test kit to collect urine andfeces samples. Their policy was like that,
the three or four days following exposure, you have to collect basically every
waste sample in that time. Uponfurther investigation, it was determined that the

(59:54):
plutonium had come from the inside ofthe gloves, meaning the part where you
actually stick your hands in. Yeah, and that there were no holes or
any like break and seal or anythingon the gloves. It wasn't made out
of the proper material. Whale.They also suggests that the contamination had not

(01:00:17):
come from actually inside of the glovebox, but from somewhere else. And
when she put her hands into it, maybe they just marinated there and maybe
or somebody put plutonium in the glovesbefore she used it, or there's I
mean, there's a ton of possibilities. Yeah. The following morning, Silkwood

(01:00:37):
was headed for a union meeting whenshe again tested positive for plutonium. This
time, she had not come intocontact with any She'd only been in the
office working on paperwork before the meeting. And this office was behind like two
filtration systems, a legend filtration systemsright, yeah, in this office,

(01:01:00):
so there was no reason that sheshould have any like plutonium contamination. Again,
she went to the plant doctors,where she went through a more extensive
decontamination process. The next day,November seventh, Silkwood went directly to the
doctors. When she arrived at theplant. Now this is from public health
in the law quote. There shewas found to be contaminated in her nostrils

(01:01:23):
and on her hands, arms,chest, backneck, and right ear.
Four year in tests and one fecaltest showed extremely high levels of contamination.
Silkwood was once again decontaminated and wasaccompanied to her home by Kermaking say her
home must be irradiated then, yeah, I mean pretty much Kermygee health physicists

(01:01:46):
went to determine if any cross contaminationhad happened. It's also worth noting that
she shared her apartment with another plantworker named Sherry Ellis. Essentially, like
you said, the entire apartment hadbeen contaminated in pretty much in some way
or another. But they found thehighest levels in the bathroom and the kitchen,

(01:02:07):
including on the bologny and cheese inthe fridge. God damn it,
because you're probably both touching it.From This is from PBS frontline quote.
When asked how the alpha activity gotinto her apartment, Silkwood said that when
she produced a urine sample that morning, she had spilled some of the urine.

(01:02:28):
She wiped off the container and thebathroom floor with tissue and disposed of
the tissue in the commode. Further, she had taken a package of bologny
into the bathroom and laid it onthe closed toilet seat lid. She remembered
that she had part of her lunchfrom November fifth in the refrigerator at work
and decided not to make the sandwichto She returned the blogny to the fridge,
which to me sounded like a verylike ADHD moment of like, oh

(01:02:52):
I'm doing this thing. Oh it'sgoing to make this sandwich. Oh here,
let me set it down. Where'dshe put the bloody the art So
the article said that she had putit on the closed toilet seat, like
brought it into the bathroom. WhyI don't know, why are you bringing
bologny into the bathroom? This iswhy it feels like a very ADHD moment
of like doing one thing, goinginto the kitchen, starting to make this

(01:03:15):
let me, let me start asandwich. Oops, I have to do
a pea sample. Oops, Iskilled the pea. Oh, I'll go
back to the kitchen. Oh yeah, it's making a sandwich. Oh wait,
I left the pa in the bath. I don't even what Yeah,
the the on the toilet. Ithought you meant like a slice At first.
I think it's like the package ofmy brain. I just efficient her

(01:03:38):
just like laying a slice to gofor your sandwich and adds flavor. How
we clean Now, obviously there's somequestion as to how she became contaminated.
Of course, Silkwood believed and itsort of makes sense that she would have
been contaminated at the plant. Washer roommate working in the plant, like

(01:04:02):
more inside of the plant. No, she did the same thing. She
was also a laboratoryean. It wouldmake sense if one of them was like
in the plant and then they wouldjust keep cross contamining each other. Yeah.
So she pretty much was like,I know, this has to have
come from work. I would agree. Meanwhile, Kermighee took the position that
Silkwood had purposely exposed herself to plutoniumto sort of be this like murtyr for

(01:04:25):
the cause. Oh, yeah,because, Yeah, radiation is awesome.
Yes, this efic way to getmy point across. Just look at how
Marie Curie died. Yeah, andyou'll see how awesome radiation is. On
November thirteenth, nineteen seventy four,Silkwood, who had also she'd been like
gathering evidence on the company and puttingan all into a Manila fuler and very

(01:04:48):
I mean I fully irradiated middle Soshe had been gathering all this evidence,
put it all together and went toan evening me in meeting. Now from
there she was actually heading for aholiday inn where she was meeting Steve Vodka,
her boyfriend at the time, DrewStevens, and a New York Times

(01:05:11):
reporter, David Burnham. So shehas all this evidence, she's going to
talk to the paper. She wasdefinitely preparing to blow the whistle on Kirmagee
and it's unsafe practices. However,she would never make it to that meeting.
Oklahoma Police, thank you, thankyou for the Yeah, I appreciate

(01:05:31):
The Oklahoma Police were called to anaccident on highway State Highway seventy four.
By the time they arrived, theyfound Karen Silkwood dead in her Honda Civic
that had somehow crashed into a concreteculvert, not the Civic Civic. Now
this is again from the Rolling Stone. The highway patrolman who helped recover Silkwood's

(01:05:55):
body from a Highway seventy four culverta short distance from the plant says he
noticed several documents scattered in the mudand tossed them in the back of her
wreckt Honda. But by the timeVodkas, Stevens and Burnham retrieved the car
from garage the next day, theManila folder and documents were gone. Oh
my god, has bonage. Itis alleged that not only did silk would

(01:06:18):
have documents supporting her claims of healthand safety violations, but that she may
have unwittingly obtained documents that proved aplutonium smuggling ring. Oh my god,
was operating from within them. Notwhat I expected. And this all again
seemed pretty straightforward for like a whistleblowerkind of conspiracy story. And then they

(01:06:40):
were like plutonium ring and I waslike, is it going to Russia?
Oh God, to Russia. No, But I can give you another three
guesses and you'd probably get it.It's like peak cold War Times. It's
true. It's yeah, that's true. Autopsies Forth Korea, that's my second
guest. No, damnit, notNorth Korean. No, not North Korea.
Autopsies following the crash revealed traces ofalcohol in a sedative in Silkwood's bloodstream,

(01:07:06):
and suspicious. Authorities decided that shehad likely fallen asleep and drifted off
the road on purpose. The Unionwas suspicious, Yeah, they fucking were
because they I got the impression thatshe probably told them at that meeting that
night, like, Hey, I'vegot this minilla folder. I'm going to
talk to this new trains. There'sprobably a mole in the Union. Oh

(01:07:28):
god, that's true. I didn'twant to think about that, but it's
probably right. I watched too manyTV shows to be at TV shows.
So the Union was super suspicious,and they decided to hire auto accidents specialist
Ao Pipkin to do the name todo his own investigation of the crash.

(01:07:50):
A few days later, Pipkin announcedthat he had found a fresh dent in
the Honda's bumper, which most ofthe damage was front end, because she
crashed in this culvert, so whywould there be a rear endent? He
also found inconsistencies in the highways contourand the skin marks at the scene,

(01:08:12):
indicating that Silkwood had actually been forcedoff of the road by a second car.
That makes sense. The same day, Kermigie opened its own investigation into
Pipkin to try and dig up somedirt on this guy that wasn't investigating this
crash of their former employee, whichis not suspicious at all. No,

(01:08:35):
they just want to make sure he'sdoing a good job. They cared a
lot about their employee. All theywere able to find with some unsubstantiated claims
of like IRS troubles Literally is thatIRS troubles in like the fifties? Yeah,
And it was like that's it,So good job Kermagie. Following the
accident, both the State Medical Examinerand the Atomic Energy Commission requested that her

(01:08:59):
body and organs be analyzed by theLos Alamos tissue Analysis program. There they
took samples of her liver, lung, stomach, gastrointestional gastrointestinal tract, and
bone to analyze the concentration of plutoniumconfirmed that she had ingested plutonium before her
death. The tissue analysis also aidedin confirming whether or not the testing procedures

(01:09:27):
that had been developed for plutonium thusfar we're actually accurate or not, because
it's so rare to have somebody thathas so recently been exposed to plutonium die
suddenly. I mean, it's notlike that's something that happens every day that
they really took advantage of, Like, and they did. They had permission

(01:09:47):
from the family. I think legallythey didn't need it, but they did
get permission from her father to testher tissues and stuff. So it actually
was super helpful for a huge scientificadvancement in plutonium testing. Not something that
I encounter every day, but like, I'm sure somebody has. The AEC
opened an investigation into the company,but pretty much disregarded any kind of idea

(01:10:14):
of scandal at the company or likethe GAO would later publish a report called
Federal Investigations into certain Health safety,quality, control, and criminal Allegations at
Kirmigie Nuclear Corporation. If you're intothat sort of thing, like reading government
documents, it's pretty it's pretty interestingread. It's sad thing you're into it.

(01:10:38):
It is a pretty interesting read.It'll be in the show notes,
says me, who also yeah,through it and there's it's it's interesting.
But the report was together in conjunctionwith the FBI, AEC, Energy Research
and Development Administration, and the NuclearRegulatory Commission. The report found that twenty

(01:11:02):
of the thirty nine allegations regarding radiologicalworking conditions were substantiated, and various other
allegations about records keeping and quality controlwere actually true. Who would have thought
Karen Silkwood was right the whole time? Of course she was. Just a

(01:11:23):
year after the crash. Kermigie closedtheir Oklahoma City plant. It appears to
me like doing large part to thecontroversy. There was all of these problems
that the plant coming out. Afew years later in nineteen seventy nine,
a couple X employees, Jim Smithand Jerry Cooper, did an interview with

(01:11:43):
Rolling Stone basically saying Silkwood was rightthe whole time. They claimed Kermigie was
sloppy, completely disregarded the AEC's guidelines. They had leaking pipes and effective equipment
the company would refuse to fix untilslack production periods. Oh, that's sounds
so familiar, right of the jobsI've had. Right, It's like this

(01:12:04):
is a problem for when we're slower, except we weren't being exposed to fucking
radioactive material. That's a good point. I'm going to choose to believe that
I was not exposed to plutonium.You know, there could be some Benzie,
there should be tcs, PCs.We don't know. They also claimed

(01:12:26):
that the plutonium was shipped in unsafeleaking containers. Likely they have to be
in fucking lad I think so.But I'm so poisoned, right, and
it's kind of pointless if the wholecontainer is fucking leaking. Yeah, this
likely resulted in contamination in the areaof Kentucky where the waste itself was buried,

(01:12:48):
of course, and plutonium possibly beingdiverted from the plant and never recovered.
Yeah, which is like missing plutoniumis kind of a big fucking deal
because it overseas. You know whatthey use plutonium for, bombs, nuclears,
big fucking moms. The list goeson. I mean that if you

(01:13:14):
look at any of the articles inthe show notes, the two from Rolling
Stone are really interesting, and theyjust like go through all these fucking allegations
that are like yo. The FBIeventually closed the investigation into Silkwood's death and
this definitely left like a ton ofunanswered questions. They were looking at reopening
the case, and then a KerrMcGee executive intervened and they were like no,

(01:13:39):
no, no, no, thankyou. They I'm assuming using his
congressional connections, like somehow it wasable to get the FBI to drop this
investigation, but it was largely helpedby the DOJ who was also like,
we're going to make sure you don'topen this investigation. Yep, sounds about

(01:13:59):
right. Are they from Oklahoma?I don't know actually, but that would
be interesting. In nineteen seventy nine, Silkwood's family filed a lawsuit against Kermigie
for negligence on behalf of her estate. She had kids, like she was
survived by kids too, so itwas her father and her children in total.
The child would last ten months.The Silkwood family, of course,

(01:14:23):
claimed she had been contaminated at theplant. Kermighee maintained that the amount of
plutonium found in her body was wellwithin the legal levels. They also,
as you might expect, really triedto paint Silkwood as this troublemaker and alleged
that she poisoned herself on purpose tohelp her cause. Ultimately, the jury

(01:14:45):
awarded five hundred and five thousand dollarsin damages and ten million dollars in punitive
damages. Upon appeal, it wasreduced to five thousand dollars total. What
for the cost of lost property inSilkwood's home, because after all this has
happened, they basically had to destroyall of her property. Yeah, because
it was all radioactive. So they'relike, we're just gonna give you the

(01:15:09):
money for the stuff we destroyed,and that's it. It is bullshit.
In nineteen eighty four, it wentall the way up to the US Supreme
Court well, who then restored theoriginal verdict. Good. Yeah. Kermagie
tried to appeal on other grounds,but ultimately settled the case out of court
for one point three eight million dollarsbut admitted zero liability. Yeah, we

(01:15:40):
recognize that you have enough evidence tofind us guilty, but we're not admitting
guilt. In two thousand, authorRichard L. Rashki released a book called
The Killing of Karen Silkwood, wherehe claims the people investigating everything were receiving
death threat Yeah. Um, andeverywhere, from like the police, the

(01:16:02):
FBI to like the commission agents.They're gonna come fucking drop some plutonium on
their asses. You better knock itoff, or there's gonna be plutonium found
on your front stop. You willbe able to eat boloney ever. Okay
uh. He also talks about themissing plutonium and like this plutonium smuggling ring

(01:16:26):
and the various high level governments thatwere involved in this, including here we
go the CIA. Of course,am I five. I was gonna say,
is it related to the guy whogot some plutonium sprinkled into his tea?
Oh? I don't remember that guy. That guy who died. Yeah,
Um, the Israeli Massad okay,yep, that was my third guess,

(01:16:48):
and a group of Iranians yep.See, I told you I could
give you three um. And thatSilkwood's death was heard by the US government.
Um. It's called The Caring ofthe Killing of Karen Silkwood by Richard
L. Rashki if you want tocheck it out and find some more information.

(01:17:09):
But that's kind of where our storyends. I mean, it's a
lot of loose ends. It's alot of plutonium floating out there in the
world. Yeah, there were,and there was also that makes me not
want to go to Kentucky because that'snot the first time I've heard that Kentucky
is a radioactive dumpsite. Oh yeah, as well as West Virginia. It
was you know, it was reallyinteresting because as I'm researching Kermaghee and kind

(01:17:31):
of I mean, this is hugecorporation that because of the business they are
in in nuclear power, they definitelyhave their fair share of like controversy.
Right, there was a huge lawsuitin Illinois actually because they were looking they
essentially were negligent at a fucking dumpsitein Chicago, like y'all. So yeah,

(01:17:55):
that's that's pretty common. I justit's sad that it's pretty Yeah.
The thing that I find interesting andI remember as I was researching, I
should have put this figure in heresomewhere, but it was like the amount
of plutonium that was missing was enoughfor like forty atomic bombs, and I'm

(01:18:15):
like, that's really fucked up.They're saving it for a rainy day.
That is actually a really good wayto handle plutonium is in water, Okay.
Kwood Also, there was a moviecalled Silkwood that came out in like
the eighties or nineties, starring MerylStreep as Karen Silkwood and that's how I

(01:18:40):
know the strold. My mom waslike, oh, that was like I
thinking about that because yeah, yeah, so I think I got everything.
It's it's pretty wild to think thatsomebody would purposely poison themselves with plutonium,
even as an activist. That islike strongling into your cause. Like that's
fucking nuts. Yeah, because theamount of plutonium that she she didn't have

(01:19:02):
to poison her right right, andthe amount of plutonium nose in her system.
There was a doctor that testified atthe trial later that said, yeah,
she's pretty much guaranteed to have cancer. Oh yeah, with that amount
of plutonium in her in her body. So yeah, now, and every
time you said Kermigie, it mademe think that that was like a Kermit

(01:19:24):
and Piggy mashup name. So theywere the villains in the story in my
head. Oh my god. So, before you blow the whistle on a
government cover up, whistle noise here, but why don't you check out this
podcast Actually maybe blow the whistle firstand then listen to this podcast, because

(01:19:45):
God knows, let's probably try tomurder you. Yeah yeah. Murder road
Trip as a true crime podcast whereI your host Hailey discussed murder cases in
my car. Take it the mobileBeats Lab. Join me and my partner
in crime, hh Gnomes on theroad. There will be games, mixtapes

(01:20:08):
and snacks as I make the researchjourney to murder scenes around the world.
Make sure to check your back seatand I'll see you about the next rest
stop. Well, that has beenour show. Big Downer comes to the
event. Everyone's getting poisoned. Youget poisoned? Din't you get poisoned?

(01:20:30):
Joel? Do we have anything comingup? Oh? Yeah, we can
talk about I think we do.Okay, So we will be back at
Side Street Studio Arts for Dark Mattersnumber two coming March, Yes, and
think about that. The events happeningMarch fourth and fifth. We don't have
the date yet of when we willbe performing, but there will be a

(01:20:53):
variety of different podcasts. Actually,a couple of our friends will be there
Ghostly podcast and and maybe it's spiritualare they yeah? Sighting? Um,
so we'll have some some friends atthe festival. Dark Matters is really fun
if you're into like this spooky shit. It's a lot of paranormally kind of
stuff. Definitely heavy on paranormal andthe time. Um, last time they

(01:21:18):
had some tarot card readers. Thistime they're going to have a lot more
vendors, So there's gonna be alittle bit of like oddities and things nice.
So it's a nice weekend of darkness. So when we have the information
about when we're going to be there, we'll post that. Um, there'll
be tickets you purchase for the wholeweekend. Um, it's good. Yeah,

(01:21:41):
just stay tuned here or if you'refollowing Side Street Studio Arts, they'll
announced stuff there as well. Yeah. Is that it? That's it?
Okay, one whole event. Itstill early right here. If you enjoyed
this episode, you can find morejust like this at Bad Taste podcast dot
com, where you can also findlinks to our Patreon page and to our

(01:22:03):
merch if you feel like getting at shirt. I don't even know if
it's been updated yet. We gota lot to do this year. Yeah,
we did update some of them,but we haven't changed anything. Like
it's still the same stuff. Yeah, people add some new products, yes,
um, but that's all we got. Our sound and editing is by

(01:22:24):
Tiff Fulman. Our music is byJason Zashevsky. The Enigma. This has
been the Bad Taste Crime Podcast.We will see you in two weeks.
Good bye. I lost my plutoniumiumand I'll leave it in the Civic's.

(01:22:45):
You got your blogni in my plutoni, You at your plutonium in my malooney.
Oh my god. But people washedover mittern wehlgether line. How to
see weeheart all people wearing in someform or another