December 11, 2018 • 9 mins
Sometimes similarities run in the family, and other times a close group of people end up thinking alike. Either way, they make great tales for the Cabinet.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Coincidence has happened all
(00:29):
the time. If you've taken a tour through the Cabinet
of Curiosities before, I'm sure you've noticed a few tales
of unexpected meetings or people in the wrong place at
the wrong time. Sometimes those coincidences are just that, the
unintended consequences of a random choice mining up with a
specific moment, no premeditation, no effort. These things, as some
(00:53):
might say, just happen. And sometimes the coincidence we find
ourselves in is a little too perfect, almost as if
fate had been planning it all along. That's how seventeen
year old Erskine Evan might have described what happened to him.
Erskine was a teenager in ninety He went to school,
hung out with his friends, and he swam in Bermuda's
(01:16):
shimmering blue water every day. You know, usual teenager stuff. Okay,
maybe not exactly typical. Because Erskine lived in Bermuda, a
group of islands often thought of as paradise, white sandy beaches,
water so clear you can see straight to the bottom,
and more than three hundred shipwrecks lying beneath the waves. Yes,
(01:36):
Bermuda is also home to one of the most mysterious
and dangerous parts of the Eastern Seaboard, the Bermuda Triangle.
But to the locals and thousands of yearly tourists, Bermuda
is merely a beautiful collection of beaches and British history.
But it's definitely not like other places. Sure, people drive
cars to get from point A to point B, but
(01:58):
almost everyone trapped by bus, bicycle, taxi, or, in Erskine's case, moped,
a zippy little two wheeler that allows citizens and tourists
alike to navigate the island's narrow streets with ease. On
July twenty one, Erskine had been riding through the city
of Hamilton's British Territory, situated along one of Bermuda's main ports,
(02:20):
lined with colorful homes and shops along its wide roads.
Summer was a busy time to be out and about
on the island, and that meant that the roads were
crowded for a tourist, that can be a frustrating thing.
But Erskine was not a tourist. No, he was a local.
He'd lived there his whole life and knew what to
expect from the vehicles that whizzed by him each day. However,
(02:42):
on this day, Erskine ran into some unfortunate luck. To
be more specific, a bit of bad luck actually ran
into him in the form of a taxi cab. On
an island known for its high rate of traffic fatalities,
Erskine became one of the twenty six automotive deaths reported
in five We don't really know what caused the accident.
(03:04):
We don't know whose fault it was, or what sort
of mistake the driver has made. Maybe Erskine was in
the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe it
was the cab driver who slipped up. We don't have
answers to a lot of the questions we might want
to have answered. All we know is that Erskine collided
with the taxi cab as they both reached the intersection.
(03:24):
He was thrown from his scooter and died a short
while later from his injuries. Like I said, there are
a few details we don't know about this accident, but
there are other details that we do know, and they
are eye openers, to say the least, because this wasn't
the first time this taxi driver had been involved in
an accident. One year earlier, almost to the day. In fact,
(03:47):
the exact same taxi driver passed through the exact same intersection,
colliding with another vehicle. Even more bizarre, the CAB's passenger
in both accidents was the exact same person, which should
take the award for the most amazing coincidence ever, and
it would in any other story, but not this one,
(04:08):
because the victim in the earlier accident had also been
a young man writing the very same moped, not the
same model or color, the exact same moped. It was
all just too much of a coincidence to fathom. Yet
it happened nonetheless, which is why it's so memorable and
so fascinating. The same cab, the same passenger, the same
(04:31):
driver hitting two men writing the same mop head one
year apart. Some might call it a coincidence, but others
see it as something bigger. Some might even call it
a curse. Why because erskine Evan actually knew the first
man to die very well. In fact, you see his
name was Neville Eban Erskine Ebans brother. Variety maybe the
(05:10):
spice of life, but I like to think that there's
something comforting about routine. Routine is familiar, It keeps us
on track focused. Even routine can be the difference between
exercising daily or gaining ten pounds in a month. Routine
can also be the difference between life and death. For
the choir members of the West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska,
(05:33):
routine was key to their daily lives. Every Wednesday afternoon,
at four thirty PM, Reverend Walter Klemple would like the
furnace so the church would be warm enough when practice started.
He'd go home enjoy dinner with his family, and then he,
his wife, and his daughter would go back to the
church at seven fift PM for choir rehearsal. And every
(05:55):
Wednesday at pm, Mrs fe Paul, the director of the
West Side Baptist Choir, would begin practice for the fourteen
other members who had arrived at seven twenty. This had
been their routine every single week for years until the
Wednesday of March one, nineteen fifty. That is, on that day,
(06:16):
Reverend Clemple lit the furnace, just as he had done
every Wednesday afternoon prior. Furnaces don't always stay on, however,
They run for a time and fill the space with
heat until the desired temperature is reached. Then they shut
off and wait for the chill to return and begin
the process all over again. But when Reverend Clemple turned
on the furnace that afternoon, he was not aware of
(06:38):
the broken gas pipe behind the church. He had no
idea that when he turned on the furnace he was
filling the church with natural gas rather than heat. The
reverend went home as usual. He relaxed for a little
while before he, his wife, and his daughter enjoyed their
supper together. Afterward, his daughter changed out of her school
clothes and into address her mother had ironed earlier, and
(07:00):
all three Clemples bundled up against the chilly pre spring
air for a walk to their weekly choir practice. PM,
the furnace started up once more. The gas had been
building up inside for hours, working its way into every
nook and cranny of the modest church. The gas ignited
in a fiery blast that shattered every window in the
(07:22):
building and sent the walls flying outward. The roof collapsed
straight down over where the choir stood during practice. The
explosion even took out a local radio station. Firefighters quickly
arrived to put out the blaze, and once the fire
had been extinguished, there was the task of recovering remains,
except there weren't any. Reverend Clemple's daughter had spilled something
(07:46):
on her dress that evening. Her mother ironed a new
one for her to wear, which kept the family home
much later than anticipated. They were still at home when
the church exploded. Choir member La Donna Vandergrift always arrived
practice early, but on that night, the high school sophomore
had been stuck on a particularly tricky math problem as
(08:06):
part of her homework. Rather than give up and head
to rehearsal, she decided to stay home and finish the
problem first. Acquires pianist Marylyn Paul was supposed to be
at the church by sixty five PM, but she'd fallen
asleep after dinner. Her mother, also acquire member, woke her
up at seven fifteen, and the two of them never
(08:27):
made it to practice. Every member of the West Side
Baptist Church choir had a reason for being late that night,
from car troubles to feeling under the weather. Not a
single one was in the church when the explosion happened.
A choir had never experienced such a night. I don't
mean the explosion, which was definitely a first, but an
(08:49):
evening when each person had been running late once in
a lifetime occurrence, definitely a break in the routine. Call
it a miracle or vine intervention, or even the luckiest
of coincidences, but you have to admit this may be
the only occasion of Acquire performing at its best, because
(09:10):
it couldn't keep proper time. I hope you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
(09:32):
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Coincidence has happened all
(00:29):
the time. If you've taken a tour through the Cabinet
of Curiosities before, I'm sure you've noticed a few tales
of unexpected meetings or people in the wrong place at
the wrong time. Sometimes those coincidences are just that, the
unintended consequences of a random choice mining up with a
specific moment, no premeditation, no effort. These things, as some
(00:53):
might say, just happen. And sometimes the coincidence we find
ourselves in is a little too perfect, almost as if
fate had been planning it all along. That's how seventeen
year old Erskine Evan might have described what happened to him.
Erskine was a teenager in ninety He went to school,
hung out with his friends, and he swam in Bermuda's
(01:16):
shimmering blue water every day. You know, usual teenager stuff. Okay,
maybe not exactly typical. Because Erskine lived in Bermuda, a
group of islands often thought of as paradise, white sandy beaches,
water so clear you can see straight to the bottom,
and more than three hundred shipwrecks lying beneath the waves. Yes,
(01:36):
Bermuda is also home to one of the most mysterious
and dangerous parts of the Eastern Seaboard, the Bermuda Triangle.
But to the locals and thousands of yearly tourists, Bermuda
is merely a beautiful collection of beaches and British history.
But it's definitely not like other places. Sure, people drive
cars to get from point A to point B, but
(01:58):
almost everyone trapped by bus, bicycle, taxi, or, in Erskine's case, moped,
a zippy little two wheeler that allows citizens and tourists
alike to navigate the island's narrow streets with ease. On
July twenty one, Erskine had been riding through the city
of Hamilton's British Territory, situated along one of Bermuda's main ports,
(02:20):
lined with colorful homes and shops along its wide roads.
Summer was a busy time to be out and about
on the island, and that meant that the roads were
crowded for a tourist, that can be a frustrating thing.
But Erskine was not a tourist. No, he was a local.
He'd lived there his whole life and knew what to
expect from the vehicles that whizzed by him each day. However,
(02:42):
on this day, Erskine ran into some unfortunate luck. To
be more specific, a bit of bad luck actually ran
into him in the form of a taxi cab. On
an island known for its high rate of traffic fatalities,
Erskine became one of the twenty six automotive deaths reported
in five We don't really know what caused the accident.
(03:04):
We don't know whose fault it was, or what sort
of mistake the driver has made. Maybe Erskine was in
the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe it
was the cab driver who slipped up. We don't have
answers to a lot of the questions we might want
to have answered. All we know is that Erskine collided
with the taxi cab as they both reached the intersection.
(03:24):
He was thrown from his scooter and died a short
while later from his injuries. Like I said, there are
a few details we don't know about this accident, but
there are other details that we do know, and they
are eye openers, to say the least, because this wasn't
the first time this taxi driver had been involved in
an accident. One year earlier, almost to the day. In fact,
(03:47):
the exact same taxi driver passed through the exact same intersection,
colliding with another vehicle. Even more bizarre, the CAB's passenger
in both accidents was the exact same person, which should
take the award for the most amazing coincidence ever, and
it would in any other story, but not this one,
(04:08):
because the victim in the earlier accident had also been
a young man writing the very same moped, not the
same model or color, the exact same moped. It was
all just too much of a coincidence to fathom. Yet
it happened nonetheless, which is why it's so memorable and
so fascinating. The same cab, the same passenger, the same
(04:31):
driver hitting two men writing the same mop head one
year apart. Some might call it a coincidence, but others
see it as something bigger. Some might even call it
a curse. Why because erskine Evan actually knew the first
man to die very well. In fact, you see his
name was Neville Eban Erskine Ebans brother. Variety maybe the
(05:10):
spice of life, but I like to think that there's
something comforting about routine. Routine is familiar, It keeps us
on track focused. Even routine can be the difference between
exercising daily or gaining ten pounds in a month. Routine
can also be the difference between life and death. For
the choir members of the West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska,
(05:33):
routine was key to their daily lives. Every Wednesday afternoon,
at four thirty PM, Reverend Walter Klemple would like the
furnace so the church would be warm enough when practice started.
He'd go home enjoy dinner with his family, and then he,
his wife, and his daughter would go back to the
church at seven fift PM for choir rehearsal. And every
(05:55):
Wednesday at pm, Mrs fe Paul, the director of the
West Side Baptist Choir, would begin practice for the fourteen
other members who had arrived at seven twenty. This had
been their routine every single week for years until the
Wednesday of March one, nineteen fifty. That is, on that day,
(06:16):
Reverend Clemple lit the furnace, just as he had done
every Wednesday afternoon prior. Furnaces don't always stay on, however,
They run for a time and fill the space with
heat until the desired temperature is reached. Then they shut
off and wait for the chill to return and begin
the process all over again. But when Reverend Clemple turned
on the furnace that afternoon, he was not aware of
(06:38):
the broken gas pipe behind the church. He had no
idea that when he turned on the furnace he was
filling the church with natural gas rather than heat. The
reverend went home as usual. He relaxed for a little
while before he, his wife, and his daughter enjoyed their
supper together. Afterward, his daughter changed out of her school
clothes and into address her mother had ironed earlier, and
(07:00):
all three Clemples bundled up against the chilly pre spring
air for a walk to their weekly choir practice. PM,
the furnace started up once more. The gas had been
building up inside for hours, working its way into every
nook and cranny of the modest church. The gas ignited
in a fiery blast that shattered every window in the
(07:22):
building and sent the walls flying outward. The roof collapsed
straight down over where the choir stood during practice. The
explosion even took out a local radio station. Firefighters quickly
arrived to put out the blaze, and once the fire
had been extinguished, there was the task of recovering remains,
except there weren't any. Reverend Clemple's daughter had spilled something
(07:46):
on her dress that evening. Her mother ironed a new
one for her to wear, which kept the family home
much later than anticipated. They were still at home when
the church exploded. Choir member La Donna Vandergrift always arrived
practice early, but on that night, the high school sophomore
had been stuck on a particularly tricky math problem as
(08:06):
part of her homework. Rather than give up and head
to rehearsal, she decided to stay home and finish the
problem first. Acquires pianist Marylyn Paul was supposed to be
at the church by sixty five PM, but she'd fallen
asleep after dinner. Her mother, also acquire member, woke her
up at seven fifteen, and the two of them never
(08:27):
made it to practice. Every member of the West Side
Baptist Church choir had a reason for being late that night,
from car troubles to feeling under the weather. Not a
single one was in the church when the explosion happened.
A choir had never experienced such a night. I don't
mean the explosion, which was definitely a first, but an
(08:49):
evening when each person had been running late once in
a lifetime occurrence, definitely a break in the routine. Call
it a miracle or vine intervention, or even the luckiest
of coincidences, but you have to admit this may be
the only occasion of Acquire performing at its best, because
(09:10):
it couldn't keep proper time. I hope you've enjoyed today's
guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
(09:32):
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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