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Aaron Manke
Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild. 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. Humankind is an image driven species. We painted our stories on cave walls before the invention of the written word. Even podcast creators like myself have to admit the human urge to illustrate our imaginations is one of our oldest impulses. Flora Shallcross Stone knew this better than most 19th century women. She was an avid patron of the arts, a woman who loved the theater, and in 1871, she married a photographer. It was an odd match from the start. Her new husband, Edward, was 20 years older and quite a workaholic. Although they would go on to have one son together, he rarely stayed in one place for very long, often abandoning his family for assignments photographing landscapes along the west coast of North America. So it's perhaps understandable that Flora, left alone with relatives in Calistoga, California, felt abandoned. I mean, who wouldn't, right? In her loneliness, she turned to a mutual friend of theirs, Harry Larkins, a reporter for the Evening Post. The two began an illicit affair, which they did their best to conceal from the ever absent Edward. He would find out about it, however, and confront Larkins repeatedly. The reporter did not seem intimidated, even when Edward visited him at the Evening Post offices and struck him across the face. The matter seemed settled when Edward left again for an assignment in Portland, but thanks to a mutual friend, he would learn that Flora and Harry were still writing each other love letters. Enraged, he tracked Larkins down. On October 17th of 1874, Larkins, staying at a hotel on a job for the Post, received a knock on his door. He answered it to see the outraged face of Edward. The photographer shot Larkins through the heart at point blank range, and Larkins died almost instantly. Edward turned himself in to the local police and was promptly arrested for murder. Reporters across the country ate up this story. It was a lurid tale that had everything. Sex, violence, betrayal. By the time Edward went to trial in early 1875, there was a wave of public sympathy on his side. He was seen as the injured party in this situation, and his willingness to surrender himself over to the police helped reinforce that story. Now it's impossible to know how Flora was feeling at this time. Some sources say that she filed for divorce as early as December 17, although her petition hung in limbo during her husband's trial. It's hard to imagine that she shared the sentiments of the press. One way or another, she had had enough of Edward. As for the trial, the judge's instructions to the jury were that there were four possible outcomes. K, Guilty of murder in the first degree, guilty of a lesser sentence, not guilty by reason of insanity or not guilty. And the not guilty verdict was seen as the least likely given that Edward turned himself in a clear admission of guilt. The judge instructed the all male jury that even if the allegations of infidelity against Harry Larkins were true, Edward did not have the right to take the law into his own hands. They should weigh the evidence without bias. However, when the verdict came down, the judge was in for a shock. The jury unanimously determined that Edward was not guilty. Even at that time, it was seen as a blatant defiance of the judge's instructions. The evidence was clear and yet the justifiable homicide verdict stood and Edward was released from custody. Flora and Edward's marriage would not last. They divorced after the trial and Flora passed away before the age of 30. Edward would give up their son to an orphanage so that he could go back to photography as a career. Free from both his family and the law. Edward would go on to fame and fortune. While he was briefly famous for shooting a man, he would later make his mark on history by shooting a horse. Many times, in fact. You see, he was the photographer behind A Horse in Motion. The series of 12 images showing a horse and jockey at full gallop would become known as the first piece of cinema images laid in sequence to create the impression of motion. He would conduct many similar experiments throughout his career to capture human and animal motion decades before the first motion pictures became popular in France. So the next time you pull out your phone to take a video of your pet, pause for a moment to remember the murderer who made this technology possible. Planning the heist was easy. It was what came after that was the hard part. Radu Dogaru had performed the same routine for days. He would take a stroll through the Museum park at the heart of Rotterdam. He'd pause at the Kunstal Gallery, peering through the broad windows at the Dutch masters displayed inside. To the security guards stationed in the museum, he seemed like a curious art lover. After all, dozens of people looked through the windows at the art every day. But Radu wasn't studying brushstrokes. He was studying exit routes. 28 year old Radu had been making a living in the Netherlands as a petty criminal, robbing houses with a crew of friends from the same Romanian village. But he'd gotten sick of the small scores and he wanted something bigger. He had heard that there was money in art and that the Kunsthal was putting together a new exhibit. Radu had taken his friends to see that exhibit, bringing along their girlfriends so as not to look suspicious. He had noticed three very important things. The first was that in one hall there were seven medium sized paintings, just the right size to carry. The second was that the fire exit seemed very easy to force open. And the third, there were no guards on sight after dark. It was perfect. So at just after 3 in the morning on October 16 of 2012, Radu and his three friends burst through the fire door and into the gallery. Two minutes and 48 seconds later, they were gone, with millions of euros of artwork in hand. When authorities and museum officials arrived at the scene just a few minutes later, it was carnage. In one fell swoop, the museum had lost priceless works by Matisse, Picasso and Monet. And there was no telling whether they'd ever be seen again. It's not uncommon for art thieves to remain anonymous. For years. The thieves who ransacked the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, one of the biggest museum heists in American history, still haven't been identified. But that wasn't the case with this story. Just three months after Radu and his accomplices broke into the Kunsthal, they were in police custody, still missing though the art. Now, at first, authorities worried the paintings could be miles away by now. They might be hidden in a safe house or maybe even already sold to a buyer and lost forever. However, this was assuming Radu and his accomplices were experienced art thieves. The truth was this was their first foray into the world of fine art. While famous paintings have eye dropping price tags, actually seeing that money as a thief is incredibly difficult. The second a famous painting goes missing from a museum, there's a target on it. You can't just hawk a Matisse at a pawn shop the way that you might a stolen watch. And any reputable art broker would immediately flag the authorities if they found a missing Picasso. Because of this, most art thieves have to go to private buyers who are already lined up. If they don't, the stolen art may be left to molder in storage for years. It's like having millions in a bank account, but. But you can't withdraw a penny of it. And as you might have guessed, Radu and his friends did not have a buyer ready to go. So they ended up giving the paintings to Radu's mother in Romania for safekeeping. When authorities finally caught up with her, Radu's mother, Olga, confessed that she had buried the paintings and this was good news. All the authorities needed her to do was lead them to the artworks and the museum would have its priceless collection returned. Olga balked. It wasn't that simple, she explained. As the authorities were closing in, she panicked. So she dug up the paintings, stacked them in her oven, and turned on the broiler. Nails and pigments found in her oven corresponded to several of the missing works, confirming Olga was telling the truth. Great art is supposed to inspire passion, but be careful to not let that passion run too hot or you might find yourself, like Olga and Radu, with millions of dollars of priceless art all gone up in smoke. 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 curiositiespodcast.com the show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with How Stuff Works. I 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.com and until next time, stay curious.