Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky - Head of the CheKa, Architect of the Red Terror

Charles Floyd: America's Robin Hood, or Savage Criminal?

Charles Floyd: America's Robin Hood, or Ruthless Criminal? 21 Dec 2023 --- “If you'll gather round me, children, A story I will tell 'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw, Oklahoma knew him well. … Yes, he took to the trees and timber To live a life of shame; Every crime in Oklahoma Was added to his name. But many a starvin' farmer The same old story told How the outlaw paid their mortgage And saved their little homes. Others tell you 'bout a stranger That come to beg a meal, Underneath his napkin Left a thousand-dollar bill.” Those words come from “The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd,” a song by American folk icon Woody Guthrie. And it perfectly encapsulates the complex and controversial legacy left behind by one of America’s most notorious outlaws. Pretty Boy Floyd was a robber and a killer, no doubt about that. He became the country’s new “Public Enemy #1” after the death of John Dillinger. And yet, many people remember him as the so-called “Robin Hood of the Cookson Hills” for his generosity towards the needy and, most famously, for allegedly burning mortgage documents whenever he robbed a bank to get people out of debt. But was this reputation deserved or did Floyd simply benefit from good post-mortem PR? → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Love content? Check out our other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Karl's Socials: Fact Fiend: https://www.youtube.com/ @FactFiend Wiki Weekends: https://www.youtube.com/ @wikiweekends Untitled Side Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ @untitledsidechannel Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood Further Reading: Jeffery S. King - The Life and Death of Pretty Boy Floyd Crime Library https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/kansas-city-massacre-pretty-boy-floyd https://www.carnegie.lib.oh.us/Floyd https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pretty-boy-floyd-is-killed-by-the-fbi https://www.odmp.org/officer/2512-special-agent-curtis-c-burks https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29508242/ervin-andrew-kelley https://www.biography.com/crime/charles-pretty-boy-floyd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

The Dassler Brothers: The Family Conflict That Founded Adidas and Puma

The Dassler Bross: The Family Feud That Created Adidas and Puma 9 Nov 2023 --- “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” Anyone who’s ever had a difficult relationship with a sibling can attest to the truthfulness of this statement. Even the closest of brothers have moments that make them wish they’d been born an only child, after all. The Dassler Brothers were, to wit, NOT the closest of siblings. They hated each other so much that they refused to speak to each other. But what makes the feud between the Dassler brothers so unique was that it spilled over from their personal into their professional lives. They split the family shoe making business off into two separate companies that would come to dominate the athleticwear business in a way no one ever had before. The success of their respective companies can, at least in part, be credited to the rivalry between the two brothers, as they pushed their employees to outdo each other as a worldwide audience watched. The feud split apart not only the Dassler family, but their entire hometown as well, as every family was forced to pick a side. The two companies are still household names today, each earning billions annually in sales, still competing against each other for market share, forever locked together by the personal rivalry of their founders. Two men, two brothers who, though they were unable to choose their family, surely wished that they could have. → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Love content? Check out Simon's other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Karl's Socials: Fact Fiend: https://www.youtube.com/ @FactFiend Wiki Weekends: https://www.youtube.com/ @wikiweekends Untitled Side Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ @untitledsidechannel Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood Further Reading: Sneaker Wars by Barbara Smit, Harper-Collins 2009 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Elmer McCurdy: The Wild West Outlaw Who Became a Mummy

In the lead-up to the Christmas of 1976, the cast and crew of the hit television show The Six Million Dollar Man was in Long Beach, California, shooting an episode at The Pike amusement park. One scene involved a shootout in a funhouse between the bionic hero of the show and an evil German spy. The art director, wanting to create a spookier atmosphere for the shoot, started rearranging some of the props, including an old spray-painted dummy with a noose around its head. For the previous four years, the dummy had been hidden away in a dark corner, swinging from the gallows, barely noticed by the carts full of scared passengers that rushed past him. As the art director picked up the dummy, one of its arms snapped off. Not surprising, really. It was old and crummy and made of brittle wax…Except that it wasn’t. As the crewmember got a closer look at the fallen appendage, he noticed a real human bone surrounded by tissue poking out. The dummy wasn’t a dummy at all, but a mummified person. This might sound like an urban legend, but it is absolutely true. The police were called in and the discovery was initially treated as a possible prank. Things only got weirder as the corpse made its way to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. It had sustained numerous injuries and mistreatments over the years, unsurprisingly, and it had shriveled down to a lean fifty pounds. But the cause of death was likely the copper-jacket bullet still lodged in its chest, dating to the early 20th century. After about a week of unusual leads and bizarre questions, detectives uncovered the true identity of the body - he was Elmer McCurdy, a turn-of-the-century criminal who got killed in a shootout with the law after robbing a train in 1911. But that still begged the question - how exactly did a Wild West outlaw get mummified and end up as a prop in an amusement park funhouse? → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 [https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1] Love content? Check out our other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw] TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet [https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet] Karl's Socials: Fact Fiend: https://www.youtube.com/ [https://www.youtube.com/] @FactFiend Wiki Weekends: https://www.youtube.com/ [https://www.youtube.com/] @wikiweekends Untitled Side Channel: https://www.youtube.com/ [https://www.youtube.com/] @untitledsidechannel Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood [https://twitter.com/KarlSmallwood] Further Reading: https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/elmer-mccurdy/ [https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/elmer-mccurdy/] https://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/04/11/the_corpse_of_elmer_mccurdy_and_how_it_ended_up_in_a_long_beach_fun_park.html [https://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/04/11/the_corpse_of_elmer_mccurdy_and_how_it_ended_up_in_a_long_beach_fun_park.html] https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/unbelievable-true-story-of-elmer-mccurdy-16507858.php [https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/unbelievable-true-story-of-elmer-mccurdy-16507858.php] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/38/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/38/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/42/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/42/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/44/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/44/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/44/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/44/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/46/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/46/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/56/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/56/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/58/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/58/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/82/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/82/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/elmermccurdymisa0000sven/page/94/mode/2up?view=theater&q=chautauqua [https://archive.org/details/elmermccurdymisa0000sven/page/94/mode/2up?view=theater&q=chautauqua] https://archive.org/details/elmermccurdymisa0000sven/page/106/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/elmermccurdymisa0000sven/page/106/mode/2up?view=theater] https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/elmer-mccurdy/ [https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/elmer-mccurdy/] https://www.npr.org/2015/01/09/376097471/the-long-strange-60-year-trip-of-elmer-mccurdy [https://www.npr.org/2015/01/09/376097471/the-long-strange-60-year-trip-of-elmer-mccurdy] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/156/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/156/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/168/mode/2up?view=theater [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg/page/168/mode/2up?view=theater] https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg [https://archive.org/details/careerofelmermcc0000basg] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Frank Lucas - The True Story of the American Gangster

Frank Lucas - The True Story of the American Gangster 17 Nov 2022 --- Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring this video! Head to https://keeps.com/Biographics to get 50% off your first Keeps order. → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 This video is #sponsored by Keeps. Love content? Check out Simon's other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw Warographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9h8BDcXwkhZtnqoQJ7PggA MegaProjects: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0woBco6Dgcxt0h8SwyyOmw SideProjects: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Wn3dABlgESm8Bzn8Vamgg Into The Shadows: https://www.youtube.com/c/IntotheShadows TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Today I Found Out: https://www.youtube.com/user/TodayIFoundOut Highlight History: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnb-VTwBHEV3gtiB9di9DZQ Business Blaze: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYY5GWf7MHFJ6DZeHreoXgw Casual Criminalist: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCasualCriminalist Decoding the Unknown: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZdWrz8pF6B5Y_c6Zi6pmdQ Simon's Social Media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimonWhistler Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonwhistler/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Voltaire - The Best of All Possible Worlds

Voltaire - The Best of All Possible Worlds 6 Apr 2023 --- Discover the life of Voltaire, a man of extremes. From his sickly birth to his role in the Age of Enlightenment, his story is one of constant questioning and battling for free speech. → Subscribe for new videos at least twice a week! https://www.youtube.com/c/biographics?sub_confirmation=1 Love content? Check out Simon's other YouTube Channels: Geographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHKRfxkMTqiiv4pF99qGKIw Warographics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9h8BDcXwkhZtnqoQJ7PggA MegaProjects: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0woBco6Dgcxt0h8SwyyOmw SideProjects: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Wn3dABlgESm8Bzn8Vamgg Into The Shadows: https://www.youtube.com/c/IntotheShadows TopTenz: https://www.youtube.com/user/toptenznet Today I Found Out: https://www.youtube.com/user/TodayIFoundOut Highlight History: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnb-VTwBHEV3gtiB9di9DZQ Business Blaze: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYY5GWf7MHFJ6DZeHreoXgw Casual Criminalist: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCasualCriminalist Decoding the Unknown: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZdWrz8pF6B5Y_c6Zi6pmdQ Simon's Social Media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimonWhistler Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonwhistler/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]