Who Killed Charles Francis Hall? The Polaris Expedition's Arctic Whodunnit (with Jad Abumrad)

Summary

SNAFU with Ed Helms

Episode: Jad Abumrad and the Charles Francis Hall Whodunnit
Date: April 8, 2026
Host: Ed Helms
Guest: Jad Abumrad

Episode Overview

This episode of SNAFU delves into the mysterious death of Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall and the infamous, chaos-riddled USS Polaris expedition. With acclaimed podcaster Jad Abumrad as guest, Ed Helms unpacks a classic 19th-century “whodunit” that blends history, science, Arctic ambition, and some petty personal drama. Along the way, the two reflect on the nature of exploration, storytelling, and scientific inquiry.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Personal Connection and Radiolab's Influence

• 00:38–07:42
  • Ed welcomes Jad, noting their long friendship dating back to Oberlin College.
  • Ed expresses admiration for Jad’s podcast innovations, particularly with Radiolab, which inspired SNAFU’s narrative style.
  • Jad describes the early inspirations for Radiolab—a blend of avant-garde music (like Stockhausen), This American Life, and experimental audio documentaries.
  • Quote:
    • “I think I was just trying to make conversations sound like music.” — Jad Abumrad (09:57)

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2. Meet Charles Francis Hall: Flawed Explorer

• 11:06–14:46
  • Hall’s background: born 1821 in Vermont, apprenticed as a blacksmith, became a Cincinnati publisher, then Arctic-obsessed explorer.
  • Personality: big, bear-like, dramatic, emotionally volatile, but determined and obsessed with the fate of the lost Franklin expedition.
  • Ed and Jad joke about his bear-like, Zach Galifianakis appearance.
  • Quote:
    • “His personality was anything but [bucolic]. He was emotionally volatile...His ego was definitely a bit inflated, if not delusional.” — Ed Helms (13:06)

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3. Why do Humans Risk So Much for Exploration?

• 14:46–16:36
  • Jad reflects on “adventurers” as the human version of curious baboons, compelled by nature to push boundaries for genetic diversity and discovery.
  • Quote:
    • "...that wanderlust, that desire to discover the world. It feels to me like it’s...one of the most beautiful parts of humans, but also sometimes one of the most toxic." — Jad Abumrad (16:22)

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4. The Franklin Expedition & Hall’s Obsession

• 16:36–18:47
  • Ed narrates the Franklin expedition’s tragic search for the Northwest Passage, which ended in ice, death, and cannibalism—deeply influencing Hall's ambitions.
  • Hall believes he could succeed where the mighty failed.

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5. Hall’s Early Arctic Endeavors & His Inuit Lifelines

• 18:47–22:11
  • Hall’s early expeditions: stranded, but uses time to learn survival from Inuit couple Ipirvik and Taklatuq, eventually becoming a skilled Arctic explorer.

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6. Leadership Failures—Hall’s Violent Past

• 26:29–27:20
  • Hall kills a crewman during a mutiny dispute; avoids prosecution due to jurisdictional chaos.
  • Despite this, he thrives as an Arctic researcher and is tapped to lead another major expedition.

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7. The Polaris Expedition: Drama at Sea

• 27:49–34:44
  • The USS Polaris sets out in 1871 with a chaotic, cliquish, internationally mixed crew—two captains, whalers, and government-mandated scientists (notably Emil Bessels).
  • Ed and Jad liken the dynamic to an Agatha Christie lineup:
  • Quote:
    • “There’s one tiny issue here...it’s not clear who’s captain.” — Ed Helms (29:35)

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8. Descent into Disaster & The Death of Hall

• 34:44–42:00
  • The crew soon suffers near-mutiny, cliquishness, and alcoholism.
  • In 1871, after a dog sled reconnaissance, Hall returns, drinks coffee, becomes violently ill, and dies after days of delirium. Official cause: “freak accident.”
  • The ship, without Hall, continues and splits: some crew is marooned on the ice (surviving six months adrift thanks to the Inuit), others eventually sail home.

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9. The Murder Mystery Unfolds

• 42:00–57:07
  • After the dramatic survival saga, suspicion grows around Hall’s death—he claimed poisoning in delirium.
  • Ed and Jad review suspects, personalities, and motives (including a love triangle with sculptor Vinnie Reams).
  • Focus turns to Dr. Emil Bessels, medical officer and science antagonist to Hall.

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10. The Scientific Whodunnit: Forensics & Bird Clues

• 47:57–55:59

  • In the 1960s, Professor Chauncey Loomis exhumes Hall’s frozen remains, finding “a shit ton of arsenic” in his hair and nails—a clear indicator of poisoning (49:02).

  • Recent Smithsonian research on sugar bunting specimens collected by Bessels from the expedition: the birds are loaded with arsenic—linking Bessels to having an onboard supply.

  • Circumstantial evidence mounts: Hall’s paranoia of poisoning, crew witness statements, and Bessels’ medical coverup all point to foul play.

  • Quote:

    • “A hot cup of coffee after 80 km in the Arctic tundra...are you kidding me?” — Ed Helms (49:40)
    • “You have a man who uses arsenic for his science. You have a lot of arsenic in the murder victim.” — Jad Abumrad (51:57)

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11. Motives & New Evidence

• 53:32–56:00
  • Unrequited love: both Hall and Bessels were obsessed with the same woman, Reams.
  • Bessels had both motive (professional rivalry, jealousy) and means (supply of arsenic).
  • Hall's paranoia and crew accounts are recounted for color.

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12. Science & Storytelling: Reflections

• 57:07–60:56

  • Ed and Jad discuss how scientific innovation both revealed the murder (forensics) and fueled the insecurities on the ship (gentleman scientist era).

  • Contrasts between 19th-century “gentleman science” and today’s specialized scientific rigor.

  • Quote:

    • "We can learn so much when science is applied in the right ways and with creativity." — Ed Helms (58:14)

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13. Jad’s New Projects & Closing Thoughts

• 60:56–63:12
  • Jad describes current work: researching how podcast storytelling could help hospital patients and a student project on audio obituaries.
  • The pair share mutual admiration and gratitude for the conversation.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Time | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------------|-------| | 09:57 | Jad Abumrad | “I think I was just trying to make conversations sound like music.”| | 13:06 | Ed Helms | “His personality was anything but [bucolic]. He was emotionally volatile...His ego was definitely a bit inflated, if not delusional.”| | 16:22 | Jad Abumrad | "...that wanderlust, that desire to discover the world. It feels to me like it’s...one of the most beautiful parts of humans, but also sometimes one of the most toxic."| | 29:35 | Ed Helms | “There’s one tiny issue here...it’s not clear who’s captain.”| | 49:40 | Ed Helms | “A hot cup of coffee after 80 km in the Arctic tundra...are you kidding me?”| | 51:57 | Jad Abumrad | “You have a man who uses arsenic for his science. You have a lot of arsenic in the murder victim.”| | 58:14 | Ed Helms | "We can learn so much when science is applied in the right ways and with creativity."|

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Memorable Segment Timestamps

• Personal history & Radiolab’s legacy: 03:38–07:42
• Charles Francis Hall’s early life and obsessions: 11:06–14:46
• Reflection on the urge to explore: 14:46–16:36
• Franklin Expedition, inspiration for Hall: 16:36–18:47
• Onboard drama: assembling the Polaris crew: 27:49–31:35
• Hall’s death and immediate aftermath: 35:00–42:00
• Survival on the ice floe: 39:49–42:00
• Forensic investigation by Loomis: 47:57–49:02
• Discovery of arsenic in birds: 50:28–51:29
• Discussion of science and storytelling: 57:07–60:56
• Jad’s new projects: 60:56–62:40

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Episode Highlights

• The USS Polaris expedition was doomed by poor leadership, clashing egos, international factions, and unclear command hierarchy.
• Charles Francis Hall was almost certainly poisoned with arsenic, likely by rival scientist Emil Bessels, but the case remains circumstantial.
• Period artifacts such as preserved birds from the Smithsonian provide contemporary forensic clues.
• The whodunit is more than history—it's a lesson on how science, rivalry, and human messiness shape legacy.

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Final Reflections

Ed and Jad muse on storytelling’s power to reshape the understanding of both historical and scientific mysteries. In the end, the tale of Charles Francis Hall is not just a murder mystery, but also a microcosm of human ambition, scientific rivalry, and the importance of curiosity—even when it leads to disaster.

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For listeners who love true historical mysteries, science’s role in uncovering the past, and witty, warmhearted analysis, this episode is a killer (pun intended).

Transcript

[Jad Abumrad]

He's got like a. He's seen you in your underwear or something.

[Ed Helms]

He's got a piercing gaze.

[Jad Abumrad]

I don't know. I don't know what I was saying, but. Okay. This is obviously him pre murder.

[Ed Helms]

Yes. This is not a picture of his corpse. This is Charles Francis hall, pre murder. I should have said that. No, no, no.

[Jad Abumrad]

I was just. I'm just. I was just timestamping. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human peace to the planet.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Charlamagne Tha God here. And listen. We are back. The Black Effect Podcast Festival is back in Atlanta on April 25th at Pullman Yard. Yeah, and the full lineup is nuts. We got the Grits and Eggs podcast, Deontay Kyle and Big Ice Cup Cat. We got Club 520 with Jeff Teague and the gang. Don't call me White Girl. Mona will be there. Keep it positive, sweetie. With Crystal Rene. We got Reality with the King with Carlos King. And yes, drink champs will be in the building. Plus, you know, we gonna have a lot of guests, so you need to join us. And we got the Black Effect Marketplace, the picture podcast and everything you expect from the Black Effect Podcast Festival. Tickets are on sale right now. Go get [e-mail] podcast festival. Don't play yourself. Okay, Pull.

[Norah Jones]

Hey, it's Nora Jones and my podcast Playing along is back with more of my favorite musicians. Check out my newest episode with Josh Groban. You related to the Phantom at that point?

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, I was definitely the Phantom in that.

[Norah Jones]

That's so funny.

[Ed Helms]

Share each day with me, each night,

[Norah Jones]

each morning, listen to Norah Jones is playing along on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bob Pittman]

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Stories from the frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this season on Math and Magic, CEO of Liquid Death, Mike Cesario.

[Ed Helms]

People think that creative ideas are like these light bulb moments that happen when you're in the shower where it's really like a stone sculpture. You're constantly just chipping away and refining.

[Bob Pittman]

Take to interactive CEO Straus Zelnick and our own Chief Business Officer, Lisa Coffey. Listen to Math and magic on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Ed Helms]

Welcome to Snafu, the podcast about history's most epic failures, faceplants and fiascos and more importantly, what those blunders tell us about us as a species. I'm Ed Helms, and today I'm joined by a true goat podcaster. You might know him from the iconic show he started, Radiolab, or perhaps one of his many other audio accomplishments. More perfect Dolly Parton's America. Or his newest show for Audible, Fela Kuti Fear no Man, which covers the life, music, and activism of the Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti. He's an audio creator whose. Whose shows have been downloaded more than 1 billion times, which is making my head explode. He's won three B Body Awards, and he's also my good pal from way back when at Oberlin College. Welcome to snafu Jad Abumrad.

[Jad Abumrad]

Ed, so good to see you. Thank you for having me on. I'm excited to go on whatever journey you're about to take me on.

[Ed Helms]

I'm going to take you on a very wild and wacky journey. But, yeah, it is so good to see you. And I have to say, as someone who's known you for, gosh, like, 30 years, I am insanely proud of everything you've done and accomplished, and I just wanted to express that.

[Jad Abumrad]

Ed, that's so nice to hear from you. I mean, look, mutual admiration society, my friend.

[Ed Helms]

Let's get into it.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah, I was just at our alma mater, Oberlin College, and so crazily, my son, who is about to turn 16, he's really into Oberlin, and he might go to Oberlin. So we went there and they gave a presentation, and you were all over the presentation.

[Ed Helms]

What?

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah. You are a big selling point now of Oberlin College. Not just you doing movie things, but you appearing at various places in the campus playing banjo.

[Ed Helms]

Of course.

[Jad Abumrad]

It was really. I felt like I was hanging out with you as I was walking the land there.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, it's an extraordinary music conservatory, and yet somehow they let me play banjos there, which is. Which doesn't really go with the whole vibe, but. No, it's an incredible place and really informative place. I also remember moving from Oberlin after we graduated. There was just like a whole huge mass of students that moved straight to New York City, and you and I were among that mass migration. And I think you moved right to Brooklyn. And I was in the Lower east side for a year, but then I moved into this big loft apartment in Williamsburg that we rented from your then girlfriend's sister's boyfriend.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, my God. I completely forgot about that, Ed. Yeah, that whole, like, loft situation.

[Ed Helms]

The loft situation. Was unbelievable. It's one of the most magical places that I've ever lived in my life. And it was a like 4,000 square foot loft and we paid like $300 a month each. There were me and two roommates. And I remember right when we moved in, it was Thanksgiving and we had no furniture. We just had this giant, like, industrial space and with a, with a asphalt floor. And we built a dinner table out of a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood. Do you remember this? You and, and your girlfriend, who's now your. Your amazing wife and a bunch of our other friends all came over for Thanksgiving and we sat on the floor around this, this piece of plywood and had just one of the most memorable Thanksgivings ever.

[Jad Abumrad]

You know that it's all coming back to me. That's a. That was actually. That was a kind of a charmed moment, not just in our lives, because, yes, I do remember us having Thanksgiving together and we were all like babies. We were all like, not. We didn't start our lives yet, not at all moment.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah. I want to tell you that when we were starting Snafu and in season one in particular, we were still just trying to kind of find the sound and the voice. Radiolab for us was very much a North Star in terms of how you told a story, both in narration and with an interweaving interviews. And I think it's fair to say that so much of what became documentary audio storytelling was massively influenced by Radiolab. I'm curious, like, in the way that that was such an innovation at that time, which now is so ubiquitous and feels so prevalent. What were your inspirations in creating Radiolab? What was the. Not just the stories that of course were these beautiful just kind of exercises in curiosity, but the actual production, the way that you crafted the auditory experience of Radiolab.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah, I mean, it's funny to think back because it all feels so quaint and somewhat misguided. I mean, you know, at the, at the aforementioned Oberlin College, I studied music composition at the conservatory, and I studied it at a time when you had a lot of kind of, as I think of them, sort of leftover lefties who were teaching this like, really dissonant form of like Stockhausen and music Concrete and all of this stuff. And that's what I spent four years learning. So when I got out of school, I thought I was going to be a composer or a film person. That was what my sort of trajectory was, and that was what was in my ears. And then I tumbled sort of through the side door into journalism. And so when I finally started making a radio show, I had like only a few like templates or a few inspirations. One was this American Life, which had just sort of wandered into and changed culture in like five years prior to when Radiolab started. And then I had heard some like weird audio documentaries from like Australia because they have an amazing tradition. They do some very weird stuff there. And then I also then had Stockhausen in my years.

[Ed Helms]

And Stockhausen for the listeners is just a very avant garde composer.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah, that. He was the guy who, who would take like car horns and use them as music, you know. Right. Which again, like that kind of way of working is so ubiquitous now, like using the sounds of our world to make music. But he was the first one to do it, literally. He would like record it on these giant reel to reels and like cut it up and then take tape pieces. And so like I had studied all that stuff. I had Aira in my ears, I had been listening around. And so Radiolab became a kind of fusion of all those things. And I didn't know any better at that point to like no, A, that I couldn't do it or B, that there like that this wouldn't be A, that this was allowed. You know, it was just like again, it was in that period right before the Internet became ubiquitous, where suddenly you could hear everything.

[Ed Helms]

Sure.

[Jad Abumrad]

Instantly it was like right before that. So yeah, it was like. I think I was just trying to make conversations sound like music.

[Ed Helms]

That's beautiful. There's. Yeah, there's a very playful quality to that. Its fandom is massive and for great reason. And. And I miss you on that show.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, thanks, man.

[Ed Helms]

Let's jump into today's snafu. Are you ready for this?

[Jad Abumrad]

Yes, I'm ready.

[Ed Helms]

Today's tale takes us north into the desolate, unforgiving expanses of the Arctic, where the success of a 19th century scientific expedition to reach the North Pole was tainted by murder and the subsequent head scratching. Whodunit.

[Jad Abumrad]

Ooh. Is this a mystery tale?

[Ed Helms]

Yes, it's an adventure. And. And it becomes a mystery.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay.

[Ed Helms]

One of the reasons I want to discuss this with you in particular is because there's a sort of fun radio laby science angle on this modern day scientific analysis has revealed a clue that might unveil the culprit of this murder.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, cool.

[Ed Helms]

The clue is actually a cute little birdie. Literally, it's a bird specimen brought back from the voyage. But we're gonna get to that all later for now. Okay, let's dive de deep into the fraught and dangerous expedition of the USS Polaris and the unexplained death of its captain, Charles Francis Hall. Let's start by getting to know our future murder victim, Mr. Charles Francis Hall. Born in New England in 1821, Hall's early life growing up in Vermont and New Hampshire was peaceful, like peak cottagecore vibes. He reportedly didn't get much of a formal education. He apprenticed as a blacksmith in his teens. Later moved to Cincinnati in our beloved Ohio, where he became a businessman and a newspaper publisher. Let's take a look at this guy as an adult. He was 5 foot 8, 200 pounds, and described as a bear like man.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yes.

[Ed Helms]

With a large, bushy beard.

[Jad Abumrad]

He has a little bit of a galifianafkus going on there.

[Ed Helms]

He does, you're right.

[Jay Shetty]

Wow.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay.

[Ed Helms]

I would describe him as Galifianakish.

[Jad Abumrad]

Exactly.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, you're very right. And I will say in this, we'll kind of learn that his personality is quite complicated, but he seems quite jovial and like teddy bearish here.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah. He seems like he knows something. He's seen you in your underwear or something. He's got.

[Ed Helms]

He's got a. He's got a piercing gaze that can see through your clothes, I guess.

[Jad Abumrad]

Is that. I don't know. I don't know what I was saying, but okay. Interesting.

[Ed Helms]

I don't disagree. I think it's.

[Jad Abumrad]

This is obviously him pre murder.

[Ed Helms]

Yes. This is not a picture of his corpse. This is Charles Francis hall, pre murder. I should have said that. I. No, no, no.

[Jad Abumrad]

I was just. I'm just. He just. I was just timestamping, you know?

[Ed Helms]

Yeah. Of course. If Hall's upbringing was bucolic and tranquil, his personality was anything but. He was emotionally volatile, capable of both passionate, grandiose expressions of hope and excitement. You can read his diary for proof of this. And also outbursts of extreme anger and even violence. His ego was definitely a bit inflated, if not delusional. Despite this, he was intelligent and studious, even if his interest could be a bit fanatical. I kind of feel like this describes a lot of people of this time period.

[Jad Abumrad]

Right? Yeah.

[Ed Helms]

Like, it just didn't. They just didn't have the tools, Jad. They didn't have the emotional tools to communicate and vent their feelings in a healthy way.

[Jad Abumrad]

No, I know.

[Ed Helms]

So we're about to trek into the great North. The north is unforgiving, and for centuries, explorers like Sir Francis Drake had traveled north to chart the Arctic's geography. A Lot of the time these explorers were seeking the Northwest Passage, of course, which is the, the, the at the time a hypothetical route that connected the Atlantic to the Pacific over the north of Canada. But every expedition to find this Northwest Passage had failed up to this point. And the passage wasn't successfully discovered until much later in 1905. The exploits of these explorers fascinated hall and he became particularly fixated on Sir John Franklin's doomed Arctic exp, which had occurred when hall was in his mid-20s. I am curious what you think, Jad. What is it in human nature that we are so continuously kind of beguiled by these grand bold adventurers and explorers? Like, what is that speaking to in us?

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah, you know, I think about this all the time. I recall in early radio lab we talked to Robert Sapolsky from, he was a primatologist and he told stories of watching baboon troops for months, years at a time. And he would notice this pattern where you'd have a very tight knit troop and then at some point that troop would be sort of in a neighboring area to another troop and they're leaving each other alone, they don't want anything to do with each other. And it's always this juvenile male baboon who's just like, what's going on over there? And just kind of starts creeping out to the edge. Hey, what's up? What's happening over there? And then inevitably his old troop leaves and then he joins a new one and that becomes this, you know, exchange. But it's always the young men and you don't want to get too deterministic about this, but it does seem to me like a way that nature has written in a mechanism by which to expand the gene pool and maybe in people like the fellow you're about to tell us about, that's just an instinct that got turned up too loud and it run amok or something. I don't mean in a sexual sense, but I mean in like that, that wanderlust, that desire to discover the world. It feels to me like it's something, it's kind of in a way one of the most beautiful parts of humans, but also sometimes one of the most toxic.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, no, you're right, it carries both.

[Jad Abumrad]

It carries both.

[Ed Helms]

Right. The human instinct to explore contains multitudes.

[Jad Abumrad]

Indeed, indeed.

[Ed Helms]

Let me give you a little background on this John Franklin expedition that became hall's obsession. In 1845, the British Royal Navy commissioned this Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest Passage aboard the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Unfortunately for Franklin, and his crew. The ships became trapped in the ice and contact was lost. Their fate remained unknown.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wait, was it. Sorry, I'm just processing this late. Was it called the HMS Terror?

[Ed Helms]

Yes.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow. Yeah. I don't know an auspicious name.

[Ed Helms]

If I'm like a steward, I don't want to get on that boat.

[Jad Abumrad]

No. Okay. And. And, and bad things befell the HSS Terror.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, they. They got trapped in the ice. Their fate was unknown for many, many years because they just never returned. And multiple search expeditions went out and continued well into the 21st century. We now know that all 129 crew members, including Franklin, died from exposure, scurvy, hypothermia, and apparently also even cannibalism. I'm not sure if they died of cannibalism or if they were cannibalized upon death. I would hope it's the latter. I hope they didn't get eaten to death. That would be awkward for everyone.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah. My God. Wow. Okay, so this is the fellow or the expedition of the fellow whom hall admired.

[Ed Helms]

Yes.

[Jad Abumrad]

And was it like that guy failed, but I will succeed where he failed?

[Ed Helms]

Kind of. There certainly was that. Because the Northwest Passage had not been discovered and the North Pole had not been. Had not seen human at all. But also there was this obsession with that Franklin expedition itself. No one knew what happened to them. And by 1860, most organized search efforts had fizzled out. Hall, however, was obsessed. He felt certain that he could uncover what happened, even though the entire fricking British Royal Navy was unable to do so. Remember what I said about Hall's ego being a bit inflated?

[Jad Abumrad]

Right, Right.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah. So in 1860, at the age of 39, hall joined a whaling ship going north. His intention was to hitch a ride to Baffin island, located in present day Nunavut, Canada, and from there continue westward in a much tinier craft to investigate Franklin's fate. Of course, because this is snafu his plan went to. And this isn't even the main story. I'm. This is all still. We're still in the preamble, but.

[Jad Abumrad]

So I assume the clue that you have, you have not yet dropped the clue.

[Ed Helms]

No, but I'm so glad you're paying close attention. I have not yet dropped the clue. Yeah. So a storm destroys his boat and illness kills his guide, and hall was stranded for the winter on Baffin Island. Ever the optimist, he decided to be productive and use this time to learn from the local Inuit culture and their incredible ability to survive and even thrive in this unbelievably harsh landscape which he came to love. He befriended an Inuit couple, Ipirvik and Takalatuq, and wound up staying on Baffin island for two whole years, immersing himself in the culture and learning their language. By 1862, he was truly an Arctic badass, well trained in the sort of trades of living in that climate. And he even discovered artifacts belonging to explorer Martin Frobisher, another seeker of the Northwest US Passage. Yeah, he was there for a full two years.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow.

[Ed Helms]

And then finally returned to the United States in 1862. And now he's just hooked on exploration. In 1864, he launched a second expedition reaching King William island, where Franklin's crew had been lost, and recovered bones and small artifacts belonging to the crew from this site. And this expedition lasted for five years. And his passion for this region only deepened. He wrote, quote, the Arctic is my home. I love it dearly. Its storms, its winds, its glaciers, its icebergs. And when I'm there among them, I seem as if I were in an earthly heaven or a heavenly earth.

[Jad Abumrad]

Interesting. This guy's. Yeah, he has all the things, you know, the good and the bad, all rolled in.

[Ed Helms]

I mean, it is. It's truly unbelievable what some of these explorers in the 19th century put themselves through again and again. Like Ernest Shackleton, you know, went on. On multiple expeditions, and it's just. It's really incredible.

[Jad Abumrad]

You're just so soft compared to what they went through back in the day.

[Ed Helms]

I don't know. I feel like I could have done it.

[Jad Abumrad]

You probably could have.

[Ed Helms]

I mean, I don't know. I don't know why you had to say we, but speaking personally, I wouldn't

[Jad Abumrad]

have lasted five minutes.

[Ed Helms]

How would you do up there?

[Jad Abumrad]

I would be terrible. I mean, you know, Carla, as you know, is a Texan. We vacation over there, we go to visit her family there. And every time I go to Texas, it's 85, 90 degrees hot, but not obscene. I mean, I'm from the Arab world. I should be able to handle heat, but I get heat stroke every single time.

[Ed Helms]

No.

[Jad Abumrad]

And, yeah. And I end up having to lie in a dark room. And she'll always be like, oh, my little orchid, you need just the right environment to thrive. So all of which is to say, I don't think I would have lasted long in the Arctic.

[Ed Helms]

The orchid, Jad, would have withered in an Arctic climate. Support is available 24.

[Jad Abumrad]

7 with VRBO care.

[Norah Jones]

We're here day or night, ready whenever you need help, because a great trip

[Jad Abumrad]

starts with the right support.

[Ed Helms]

10, 10 shots.

[Jad Abumrad]

5.

[Ed Helms]

City hall building. A silver.40 caliber handgun was recovered at the scene.

[Narrator from Rorschach]

From iHeart podcasts and Best Case Studios. This is Rorschach murder at City Hall.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

How could this have happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me that.

[Jad Abumrad]

Jeffrey.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Who did it?

[Narrator from Rorschach]

July 2003. Councilman James E. Davis arrives at New York City hall with a guest. Both men are carrying concealed weapons, and in less than 30 minutes, both of them will be dead.

[Ed Helms]

Everybody in the chambers docked.

[Narrator from Rorschach]

A shocking public murder.

[Ed Helms]

I scream, get down. Get down.

[Noah Khan]

Those are shots.

[Jad Abumrad]

Those are shots.

[Ed Helms]

Get down.

[Narrator from Rorschach]

A charismatic politician.

[Ed Helms]

You know, he just bent the rules all the time, man. I still have a weapon and I could shoot you.

[Narrator from Rorschach]

And an outsider with a secret.

[Ed Helms]

He alleged he was evicted to flat down.

[Jad Abumrad]

That may or may not have been political. That may have been about sex.

[Narrator from Rorschach]

Listen to Rorschach murder at City hall on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jay Shetty]

Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. My latest episode is with Noah Khan, the singer songwriter behind the multi platinum global hit Stick season and one of the biggest voices in music today. Noah opens up about the pressure that followed his rapid success, his struggles with mental health and body image, and the fear of starting again after such a defining moment in his career.

[Noah Khan]

It's easy to look at somebody and be like, you, life must be so sick, man. You have no clue. Talking about the mental illness stuff, it used to be this thing that I was ashamed of. I'm just now trying to unwind this idea that I have to be unhealthy physically or in pain in some emotional way in my life to create good music. If someone says that I did a good job, I'm like, yeah, I'm good. Someone says that I suck, I'm like, I suck. Getting to talk about this is not common for me right now.

[Ed Helms]

I need it more than ever.

[Jay Shetty]

Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Norah Jones]

Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and I love playing music with people so much that my podcast called Playing along is Back. I sit down with musicians from all musical styles to play songs together in an intimate setting. Every episode's a little different, but it all involves music and conversation with some of my favorite musicians. Over the past two seasons, I've had special guests like Dave Grohl, Levy, Mavis Staples, Remy Wolf, Jeff Tweedy. Really too many to name. And this season, I've sat Down with Alessia Cara, Sarah McLachlan, John Legend, and more. Check out my new episode with Josh Gross. You related to the Phantom at that point?

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, I was definitely the Phantom in that.

[Norah Jones]

That's so funny. Share each day with me, each night, each morning. Say you love me.

[Jad Abumrad]

You know.

[Norah Jones]

So come hang out with us in the studio and listen to playing along on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Yes.

[Ed Helms]

All right, back to Hall. It wasn't always heavenly for him in the Arctic. He did learn the hard way that leadership is an innate quality that few harness with grace, especially in desolate lands where temperatures average minus 33 degrees Celsius or minus 22 Fahrenheit.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow.

[Ed Helms]

Man. I remember getting off the plane in Cleveland one one year.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yes. I was just going to say, like, in Oberlin, it sometimes touched those icy depths, and it was actually kind of, like, amazing from a physics perspective just to, like, snot would come out of your nose and then freeze instantly.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yes. Carry on with hall.

[Ed Helms]

We're in 1868, and it's the tail end of this second trip. And one of his crew members, Patrick Coleman, allegedly called for a mutiny, or that's what hall claimed. Coleman was never actually able to kind of of make his case because hall shot him with a gun and just killed him.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow.

[Ed Helms]

Which is not my go to conflict resolution strategy. So you think murdering. Murdering someone would. Would come with some kind of consequences? But hall just got away scot free on this. Because the incident occurred beyond Canadian territorial boundaries, British authorities who governed Canada at the time, declined to pursue the matter and instead deferred it to the United States. The U.S. was like, we don't really give a shit. And it just went completely unprosecuted. And Coleman's murder never besmirched Hall's record in any way.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow. Okay.

[Ed Helms]

So hall was celebrated for his research and on this second expedition, having documented more about Inuit culture, oral histories, and Arctic survival skills than any previous traveler. And he soon found himself hobnobbing with the elite. And he earned himself a very cushy gig leaving leading a third expedition. Actually, I would not describe it as cushy a gig leading a third expedition. This one was major. And it was also where our snafu story really kicks into gear.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay.

[Ed Helms]

Backed by $50,000 from the US Navy, which is about 1.3 million today, he set sail from New London, Connecticut, on July 3, 1871, aboard the USS Polaris, aiming to be the first. First to reach the North Pole?

[Jad Abumrad]

Why Connecticut? But you know what? That's probably a detail that we shouldn't dwell on. Okay, so he's on his way to the north. Yes. This is my problem is I will ask you a series of questions which will digress us and. No, I'm in now, so.

[Ed Helms]

I love it though, Jad. Honestly, like, your curiosity is my fuel. And I can answer your question. You're saying why Connecticut? It's because so much of the maritime world was rooted in the whaling industry, which is all up and down the Connecticut coast. And of course, Massachusetts and Long Island. I don't know why this particular expedition left from New London, but I do know that so much of shipping and whaling and all maritime activity was. Was rooted in the area.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah. Don't you think when someone options the story you're telling, if they haven't already, they should. This scene of him leaving and the gathering of the crew, the motley crew that's going to be aboard the vessel that launches to the North Pole, that feels to me like an instant scene in a movie.

[Ed Helms]

Oh, we're about to get there. I'm so glad you said that.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, that's the perfect setup.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah.

[Ed Helms]

Cause this trip is about to go real sideways. But before we get into the timeline of Hall's third expedition, let's lay out our rogues gallery of potential suspects. Very Agatha Christie style here. The crew was made up of 25 people. Americans, Germans, a Dane Swede, and two Inuit families, including the MVP duo Ipirvik and Taklatuk, who we previously met.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, gotcha. Okay.

[Ed Helms]

Plus their son.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah.

[Ed Helms]

So now, technically, hall was the captain of this expedition. In practice, he really had no sailing experience. He wasn't so much of a great boat guy. So a man by the name of Sidney Buddington was brought in as the actual steady maritime adult in the room. He and hall were friends from Hall's first whaling voyage. This was bound to go off without a hitch, Right? Sort of like it's not clear who's captain. Then there's George Tyson, the assistant navigator. Fun fact. He was originally offered the captain gig before Buddington, but had to decline because of another job he'd already booked. When that fell through. Hall brought him on as second in command. So, yeah, now there's a third guy who's like captain level, but not actually in the captain role.

[Jad Abumrad]

See, this is role clarity. Always a good thing to have on a ship.

[Ed Helms]

You gotta lay it down, of course. All right, over in the German corner we have Emil Bessels, chief science and Medical officer, plus his assistant, Frederick Meyer. Hall did not want Bessels on board, but American authorities insisted, which is, you know, always comforting when your boss says, I didn't hire this guy, but we're stuck with him.

[Jad Abumrad]

It's like they insisted. Is there a story behind why? Maybe it's not important. But why'd they insist?

[Ed Helms]

I think he was a very prominent researcher and scientist, and for whatever reason, those funding the expedition were like, this is the guy we want for research purposes.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay.

[Ed Helms]

The US Government also intentionally stocked the crew with primarily whalers instead of polished naval officers, figuring these men were used to. To the brutal northern waters and they could handle the Arctic a lot better, which makes a lot of sense if you're going somewhere so aggressively frozen. You want people who kind of think of frostbite as just like. Just like Tuesday, a mild fever, but at the same time, like, they're not rooted in the same sort of disciplinary hierarchy of a naval command.

[Jad Abumrad]

What a motley crue.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, it's quite an odd assortment of folks, and it's. And there's one tiny issue here.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wait, did you tell me about the Dane? Was there a Dane? Did you introduce me to the Dane, or did I miss that?

[Ed Helms]

I did say a dayne, and I love that you're asking me about that, and I don't have more information on him.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay. Yeah, okay. We can cross off the Dane as. As the. As one of the.

[Ed Helms]

Like, you're too good. You were. You already eliminated someone anyhow.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay. All right. So.

[Ed Helms]

So obviously, we have a sort of disparate international contingent here. And. And so it's no surprise that cliques formed very quickly along national lines. Tyson reported insolence and disaffection, which is a 19th century term for these guys are super toxic. Some of the crew stole alcohol from storage. One of the thieves stealing shots like a frat boy was Captain Buddington, who was also talking a lot of about Charles Francis hall behind his back. It's a mess. And the German contingent, which is led by Emil Bessels, the. The researcher, he did not jive with hall at all. They. They thought he wasn't up to snuff. As the expedition leader, Buddington and Tyson were constantly butting heads because nothing says harmony like two men with captain experience, one technically in charge and the other technically not in charge. Just arguing all the time way into the Arctic. Knights.

[Jad Abumrad]

This sounds like a whole soup of trouble.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Yeah.

[Ed Helms]

And we have.

[Jad Abumrad]

This is like.

[Ed Helms]

This is just like the status. This has nothing to do with the hardship of the Coming expedition. This is just sort of like baseline, which is kind of foreboding.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay.

[Ed Helms]

Now, at least Charles Francis hall had Ipirvik and Taklatuk. They were his ride or dies. So despite all of this sort of internal conflict, hall led the polaris to about 82 degrees north latitude. Now, this was farther north than any non Inuit crew had ever reached at this time. Then things really started to deteriorate. In October as the sun set for winter. It doesn't just set at night in October, it just sets for the season.

[Jad Abumrad]

It's like in Game of Thrones, you know, winter is coming. Winter is coming. Oh, yeah, there it is.

[Ed Helms]

It's getting dark for a long, long time. And this is when the Polaris gets trapped in an ice floe.

[Jad Abumrad]

That crew, that crew that you just introduced me to is not going to do well in this situation.

[Ed Helms]

You're very intuitive, dad.

[Jad Abumrad]

Just followed some big fat breadcrumbs you laid out for me. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So they're stuck. And it's dark.

[Ed Helms]

So it's the October freeze. Hall, they're just stuck in the ice. And hall and a subsection of the crew took off dog sledding towards the North Pole, mainly on a reconnaissance mission, maybe looking for kind of like openings in the ice or just other possibilities or more just sort of data about where they are. Hall wanted to get as far north as he could. But after two weeks and 80 kilometers, which is insane, they traveled 80 kilometers by dog sled just on this ice in October, and they're forced to turn around, possibly due to weather concerns. And despite this setback, hall returned in very good spirits. He shook off the icicles on his eyelids and sipped on a nice fresh hot cup of warm brewed coffee. And he did his best to settle back into the rhythms of the ship until he became violently ill. Delirium set in and he vomited all over the place.

[Jad Abumrad]

Whoa.

[Ed Helms]

The chief medical officer tended to him as best he could. He treated hall with a syringe of quinine, which I guess is typically used for malaria. I don't think malaria was a concern in the Arctic. But anyway, a few days later, November 8, Charles Francis hall is dead.

[Jad Abumrad]

Whoa.

[Ed Helms]

So what do they do now? Well, the crew buries hall in the frosted tundra of northwest Greenland, a place literally called thank God Harbor.

[Jad Abumrad]

Is it really?

[Ed Helms]

It's a good final resting spot, I guess.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah.

[Ed Helms]

Now, According to an 1877 article in the journal Nature, Hall's death was considered a freak accident.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah.

[Ed Helms]

Okay. Nature. Totally not suspicious at all. Don't worry, we're gonna circle back anyway. Now, Captain Buddington was totally in charge because someone had to keep this Arctic train wreck going. They still had an expedition to complete and they were hell bent on doing it. What do you think? If you're Captain Buddington in this moment, who, by the way, had been relentlessly raiding the liquor storage and was reportedly drunk a lot of the time.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah.

[Ed Helms]

How do you bring your crew back around in this moment?

[Jad Abumrad]

It's a little bit like when you have a plumber come over and he's like. And he looks at the plumbing that the last guy did and he was like, this guy. Like, that guy was terrible. I will take care of him. I don't know what that guy was doing. So I would imagine Buddington just was like, thank God that that's over. Now the real captain is here. And maybe the crew, they're so starved for a sense of purpose and direction and clarity. It sounds like they had no clarity. Maybe they went along. I mean, what are they going to do at that point? They're all probably delirious, you know.

[Ed Helms]

Well, thanks to the pack ice, the crew was forced to hunker down there in Greenland in what would eventually become named Polaris Bay. And they were. They had to just hunker down until the following year. Sometime between spring and fall, they set sail again. But by the fall of 1872, gale force winds sent the Polaris crashing into an iceberg, badly damaging the ship. Now, keep in mind, the Arctic sun had set once again, not to rise again until spring, leaving them in pitch black darkness.

[Jad Abumrad]

So they have been out there for now well over a year. Yeah. Stuck in ice, freezing. And they've gone through a long dark winter, a brief summer, and then are now in a second long, dark winter. Yeah.

[Ed Helms]

And. And now they've crashed into an iceberg. So naturally, Buddington is freaking out. He orders everyone off the ship. They shoved food, supplies and dogs onto the ice flow. This seemed like a good idea, but it turns out the Polaris wasn't sinking, she was just damaged. And after 19 crew members had off boarded, including Tyson and the Inuit families, the Polaris got caught up in high winds again. And a strong current broke it free from the ice floe and it just disappeared.

[Jad Abumrad]

The boat just left them behind.

[Ed Helms]

It just drifted off into the dark disaster. But there are a lot, Captain Buddington and a lot of the crew are still on board. But 19 people, including Tyson and Ipirvik and Taklatuk, are stuck on the ice.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, man.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah. What are you thinking?

[Jad Abumrad]

If you're one of those guys, it's funny. It was sort of comedic, imagining the boat on its own leaving. But now you have a crew that's been divided, which makes me just, like, sad for everyone at that point. The people on the ice are just like, fuck. At that point, you know you're gonna die. And then it's just a question of when and how. And then the people on the boat are you. I don't even know what they're thinking.

[Ed Helms]

They're probably just like, peace, peace out, guys. Sorry, but we're free now.

[Jad Abumrad]

I mean, I guess we're out of here, so.

[Ed Helms]

All right.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah, you know, I. Gosh. What. What a what if. That's brutal.

[Ed Helms]

Okay, so here's the insane thing. The Inuit family, Ipirvik and Taglatuq, they were part of the stranded group of people, and they had the skills. They became literal godsends. They built igloos. They hunted seals. Now they're just on floating ice. They're not on land, but they live on this floating ice.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow.

[Ed Helms]

For a very long time. And they burned one of their boats for firewood, which turned out to be a very bad decision. But they did not die in this moment.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow.

[Ed Helms]

Meanwhile, Buddington was able to halt the Polaris Drift by running it aground somewhere near Greenland. I guess it was. It just was not navigable. The boat, it's sort of drifting. But he was able to run it aground. And the captain and the remaining crew hunkered down until the. The summer again.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay.

[Ed Helms]

At which point they were able to use smaller boats to sail south and eventually reach New York. And they were. They survived and they were. Okay. Now back to this. These 19 people stuck on the dwindling ice flow. Okay, so on April 30, 1873, a sealer vessel called the Tigris. This is like, you know, just a guy who hunts seals. Erupted from a thick fog appearing in the nick of time. After six months.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, my God.

[Ed Helms]

And over 1800 miles of drifting. And six months later, they were saved. And in the end, they all survived.

[Jad Abumrad]

They just happened to be like. They happened to come on the one little patch of ice where these. These people were marooned.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, this. This sealing vessel just came right up on them and found them.

[Jad Abumrad]

That is a freakish coincidence. That's amazing. Yeah, okay.

[Ed Helms]

It is amazing. It's totally incredible.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay.

[Ed Helms]

They all survived, of course. So it turns out everyone in the entire expedition survived, except, of course, for Charles Francis Hall. And the expedition became a media sensation in the US Some of the Rescued crew questioned the circumstances of Hall's death, recalling that in his delirium, hall claimed that someone had poisoned him.

[Jad Abumrad]

But who?

[Ed Helms]

I'll point back to something way back in the very beginning, if you'll remember, a little bird that had been preserved for research purposes was a clue.

[Jad Abumrad]

Was a clue. Okay. Who would be handling the bird? Okay. So the most salient characters in the tale that you've just told me are Buddington. Cause he's a. And hall, of course. But he's the unfortunate subject of the murder. Buddington is the sort of disgruntled number two who's now in charge. So clearly he has a motive. The Inuits seem delightful, but they also seem like you're. Like maybe because it is always the case that the least. The least likely ends up being the culprit. So there's a part of me that thinks could the Inuits. The two Inuits. And I forget their names. Tuklatuq and Ipirvuk. Iyrvuk.

[Ed Helms]

Ipirvik.

[Jad Abumrad]

Ipirvik, yes. And I don't know why. There's nothing that you've told me that would lead me to think that they were the culprits.

[Ed Helms]

I will tell you. It isn't the Inuit people.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wait a second. Could it be the German scientist Hessen? Hessen Bessels?

[Ed Helms]

Emil Bessels.

[Jad Abumrad]

Emil Bessels.

[Ed Helms]

Hold that thought.

[Jad Abumrad]

Okay. Okay. Because somehow, Science Bird, maybe. I don't know. I don't know the connection exactly.

[Ed Helms]

All right. But you're on the right track. Despite a rather tragic voyage, in lots of ways, the Polaris was actually considered a successful expedition. They returned with tons of scientific and navigational and meteorological data to satisfy the Navy and the broader American scientific community. Several of the scientific specimens collected during the expedition were even kept and studied at the Smithsonian. The man who collected some of those specimens, however, is our person of interest. And that is the expedition's chief medical and science officer, Emil Bessels. Let's take a look at Bessels. Here's an 1880 photo of Mill.

[Jad Abumrad]

Whoa. This could have been taken that.

[Ed Helms]

Wow.

[Jad Abumrad]

I just need to stare at that picture for a while.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, he looks like an REI model.

[Jad Abumrad]

I was going to say this could have been taken any time in the last two centuries. Like this. Wow.

[Ed Helms]

He might have had a pretty cool fur parka, but he sure as hell didn't get along with the gruff and bear like Charles Francis Hall. This was something that had come up in the very beginning. Hall didn't even want him on the expedition, but he Was sort of forced to have him along. Several crew members spilled tea after the fact. Hall and Bessels were always at each other's throats, with Bessels running point as the main villain in the sort of German clique on the boat. And remember that store of liquor on board, the one that Buddington and the rest of the crew were stealing from? Well, Bessel was the one who insisted that. That even be on board in the first place for scientific purposes, or so he said. Hall never wanted it there. Hall was furious that there was liquor on the ship at all, or alcohol of any kind. And I imagine he resented vessels for how much trouble the alcohol was causing once the expedition got underway. Like I said before, Hall's death wasn't considered suspicious at the time at all. But here's the catch. The guy who gave the cause of death as, quote, natural causes was none other than Emil Bessels, which is awfully convenient. Medical professionals in the States agreed with him. And this is, of course, because they didn't have a body to examine at all. They just kind of took his word for it. And Bessels lived the rest of his life under no suspicion. He was honored as a top scholar. He was even bequeathed a room in the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C. to conduct more research on his Polaris findings. Bessel's claim of natural causes, however, would not last forever. Okay, so now cut to much later. Now, in 1968, Arctic historian and Dartmouth professor of English and American literature, Chauncey Loomis, questioned the circumstances around Hall's death while doing research for a biography on Charles Francis Hall. According to a newspaper article in the New York Herald, dated September 21, 1873. So back closer to the time of the expedition, the royal Inspector of North Greenland, H. Crarup Smith, was quoted as saying, the jealousy of some of Hall's subordinates, taken in connection with the whole affair, leads me to the. To the conclusion that there was foul play. I think the body of Captain hall, which I have no doubt is still in a state of preservation, should be sought after and exhumed.

[Jad Abumrad]

Whoa. That's why. Okay, sorry. I'm not. I'm. I keep wanting to jump ahead, but this is fascinating.

[Ed Helms]

Well, no. So now let's do jump back ahead to. Back to Loomis.

[Jad Abumrad]

Loomis is our Dartmouth guy, right?

[Ed Helms]

Yes. So now we're back in 19. In the 1960s with Loomis. Loomis and his team did just that. They traveled to Hall's resting place in Greenland. They pulled samples of his hair and fingernails which were still very much intact and like frozen. Like he was very well preserved, which is a little creepy. And they had these hair and fingernail samples analyzed, and guess what they found? A shit ton of arsenic. So all of the vomiting and delirious visions that had been reported around Hall's death. Modern medicine nose. These are textbook examples of arsenic poisoning. It's obviously hard to accidentally drink arsenic, right? So someone very likely bessels, must have slipped it in. Going back, is there any particular moment in this story where it might have been convenient to dose hall with arsenic?

[Jad Abumrad]

Well, given the way that the tale unfurled, I would say it was the moment after the 80 kilometer and then back bobsled ride back to the. Back to the boat where he finally got that steaming cup of coffee.

[Ed Helms]

Yes, a nice yummy cup of coffee. Which hall noticed was a little sweet. And apparently arsenic has a sweet taste to it.

[Jad Abumrad]

Cause at that point, I mean, if you've been on the ice for that long, I mean, your faculties, your skepticism is out the window. You're like, oh my God, just give me anything warm at that point.

[Ed Helms]

A hot cup of coffee after 80 km in the Arctic tundra. Are you kidding me?

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Wow.

[Jad Abumrad]

You're just gonna.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah. You're gonna guzzle that down?

[Jad Abumrad]

Absolutely. Okay.

[Ed Helms]

That is a theory that hall died from arsenic poisoning and it technically remains unproven. But let's run with it for a minute. So this is where our little bird friend comes in. Remember him from the beginning? So recently a member of the bird division at the Smithsonian. Yes, The Smithsonian has a bird division was cataloging several of Bessel's specimens from the expedition. Now, some of them were little birds called the Plectrophenax nivalis, or more colloquially known as the snow bunting. They're very cute little creatures. Let's take a look.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow. What does that say? 1872. Whoa. And these are little Arctic birds.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, that just live up there. They found these bessel samples in the Smithsonian collection. And she realized that the palm sized bird specimens also contained a lot of arsenic. Now, the same kind that had been found in Hall's system. According to the researcher, arsenic was a major component of taxidermy during the late 19th and 20th century, since it helped to prevent decay on long voyages. So it doesn't take a genius to deduce that bessels almost definitely had a stash of arsenic on board the polaris. Thank you, Mr. Snow Bunting, for that extra bit of confirmation. Large amounts of arsenic in Hall's remains suggest he May have been poisoned gradually, not just by that single cup of coffee.

[Jad Abumrad]

Ah.

[Ed Helms]

Loomis analysis indicates two weeks worth had entered his system before he died.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, interesting. Coffee was just the first dose, and then there was a lot of subsequent doses.

[Ed Helms]

Yeah. What I don't know is how long that that dog sled expedition was. So if that was fairly short, I mean, dog sleds are fast, so they could cover a lot of ground. So if that was just like a couple of days. He may have been getting poisoned for a while.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah. Wow. Okay.

[Ed Helms]

Where do things stand for you right now? Do you think Bessels did it? Are you still feeling skeptical?

[Jad Abumrad]

I mean, you have a man who uses arsenic for his science. You have a lot of arsenic in the murder victim. I believe that's still circumstantial evidence. Right. It isn't like a direct link, but of anything else that you've. I think this puts him ahead of. And also, there was motive, clearly. Yeah. I would have to say I'm interested in a potential twist that you may be about to reveal, but at this point, I think it's gotta be him.

[Ed Helms]

You're right that it's not. This is not something that would hold up in a court of law. But. But there is a lot of evidence kind of pointing in the right direction. There's another interesting detail that I learned, which is that both Ipirvik and Taklatuq were on the record saying that Hull was very afraid that he would be poisoned and that they had spoken up about that upon the return. That wasn't taken seriously.

[Jad Abumrad]

I feel bad for even just entertaining the thought that they may have been involved, but unless you're not. Dare you? How dare I?

[Ed Helms]

So we're adding to the drama. There is more. Ship navigator George Tyson recalled overhearing hall four days before he died, warning that Bessels might be trying to kill him. Hall got so paranoid that he even had other crew members taste his food and drink first. Okay, so now we've got the arsenic, and we've got crew members on record saying that hall was frightened of Bessel's poisoning him. But do we have a motive apart from them just, like, not liking each other?

[Jad Abumrad]

Right.

[Ed Helms]

Is there any. Is there anything like a juicy motive here? What kind of beef did they really have? Well, it turns out there was a lady involved, so that romance might have been at play here in 2016. A mere 10 years ago, archival research revealed that hall and Bessels had both been vying for the attention of Venny Reams. Now, Venny Reames is a well known New York sculptor and something of a socialite. She's famous for the Lincoln bust in the Capitol rotunda. She is the sculptor who made that.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah. Okay.

[Ed Helms]

Bessels recorded his admiration for her in his journals and hall wrote letters to her from the Polaris, displaying her gifts in his quarters.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, interesting. She was of course back in New York.

[Ed Helms]

Yes, she was back in New York. Just sculpting away.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah, I could see that that would be a thing that would simmer for a long time during the voyage. And then hall gets on his bobsled and, and takes off and Bessels has left to his own thoughts and is stewing jealousy and. Cause it sounds like hall had an actual relationship. Bessels did not. Right, so now you do have a specific. I'm jumping to conclusions that maybe I shouldn't. But now you have a specific motive.

[Ed Helms]

It does appear that love was in the mix and you are correct. Bessels and Reams never united post voyage. Bessels continued to claim his innocence, asserting in 1873 that hall could have died simply from apoplexy. He also started to refer to the voyage as the Hall Bessel Expedition. So a lot of ego going into this, this whole thing as well. So we may never have a concrete conclusion to the mystery behind Hall's death. Even though in my opinion, the discovery of Arsenic and the Bird is pretty damning. Bessel' himself passed away not long after from a stroke or potentially heart failure or potentially just karma came back and just whacked him, you know.

[Jad Abumrad]

Wow.

[Ed Helms]

But he was only 40 years old in 1888 when he died and only one of his volumes about the expedition was ever published, even though he had planned three. Meanwhile, hall, bless his icy little heart, went down in history alongside the Arctic legends who had inspired him. Wow, Jad, that is the full saga. Ambition, ice, murder and unrequited love. Poetic, cold and a little bit absurd.

[Jad Abumrad]

That story has all the things Ed like, that's just. That is something I liked how you kind of right at the Connecticut moment, you sort of, you spun it into a sort of clue, knives out, whodunit kind of situation. They lived large back then, you know, they explored large, they poisoned large, they beefed pretty large. It's a. I feel like our lives are soft and small by comparison. Although maybe we're better for it, you know. That's quite a tale.

[Ed Helms]

What I love about this story and what I loved about it for you in particular was how science is part of the murder Mystery. And I, I always loved how, you know, Radiolab episodes would unpack a narrative, whether it was a mystery, whether it was even a science based narrative. Very often science was part of the, if not the sort of mechanism of discovery in Radiolab episodes.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah.

[Ed Helms]

It speaks to the power of science both from just a, a research standpoint. I mean, here's a guy at Dartmouth, this Loomis professor, he's just writing a biography and, and, and turns out, oh, I've got reason to suspect he was murdered. We're going to go dig him up and run these tests on him and, and lo and behold, all this new evidence emerges and there's just no end to what we can learn when science is applied in the right ways and with creativity.

[Jad Abumrad]

Yeah. What I was thinking about as you were talking was the way science has changed over the years. Right. There was a period in the 19th century and really in the precise moment that this story is unfolding where, what it meant to be a scientist, it was this kind of like the era of the gentleman scientist where they would get on a boat and sail to a new land and they would collect species and then they would create these cabinets of curiosities of butterflies and birds and, you know, all kinds of marsupials. And there's something sort of imperial about it. There's such an abundance and they're grabbing from the land and really collecting and trying to outdo each other. But on the other hand, there is just this kind of wonderful sense of openness and discovery, of like, the world is full of things that might seem magical, but we, through inquiry and a method will demystify them. And there's a sense of like a naive sense that we can know everything. And it's interesting to juxtapose that in a split screen in your mind to where we are now, where there's science has never been more robust. And there's so much, I mean, my mother, just as a personal example, has been studying one protein for 40 something years at this point.

[Ed Helms]

In what capacity?

[Jad Abumrad]

As a, as a biologist, she discovered, or not discovered, I mean, it was there, but she kind of came to know this protein, brought it to the world's attention and has been studying it every day for 40 years. And like that's what science is now. It's just like unbelievable rigor and dedication and discipline. And yet you're in this like, Maha moment in which science kind of hold on the truth has been a bit marginalized. But you know, I say to myself, I know I'm spinning myself into A cul de sac here. I say to myself, you know, science was always one way of knowing the world, and it's not the only way. And now all the different ways have to compete, and maybe that's where we are.

[Ed Helms]

Very well said. I think. Yeah, the sort of magic of science is getting confused with the magic of wellness. Stories that make you feel good, wellness narratives that grossly oversimplify and just kind of give us that endorphin rush. But good science, hard science, disciplined science, also provides that. It's just a lot harder, and it's a lot harder to consume. Well, Jad, is there anything that you're up to in this moment that you want to share with us or coming up to know about?

[Jad Abumrad]

Ever since I began my podcast voyage, I have been asking, sort of, you know, going through all these different sort of phases of it. I'm at a place now where I was like, you know, what else can. These stories that we tell, what can they do? And I've begun to think about how storytelling can help in, like, say, a hospital environment. So I'm doing some research at Vanderbilt to create a closed podcast storytelling network in hospital waiting rooms to see what would it be like if the patients who are sitting in the seats, the caregivers who are moving through the spaces, if they could all tell stories to each other and like, say you sit in a seat, you're waiting for a scan, like in a cancer center. What if you could hear the story of the last person who sat in the seat and then tell a story to the next person who's going to sit in that seat? So creating ways to share stories across time and space. So I'm doing some research at Vanderbilt to see if something like that could work. I mean, we'll see if it turns into something, but that's. It's been like. It's like a cool offshoot of the kind of work I've been doing for 20 something years. And then I have a project that's coming, what I'm doing with a dear friend who. Who teaches journalism in Montana. We've been teaching this class of students to do audio obituaries of people. Like, obituaries, this form that barely exists anymore. And we're trying to re, like, Frankenstein it back into existence, but in audio. And so that project's coming out in a couple of weeks and, you know, otherwise making some music, trying to keep busy, you know, like all of us.

[Ed Helms]

Oh, that's very, very cool, Jad. I'm excited to hear about both of those things.

[Jad Abumrad]

Thanks, my friend. And I just, I'm so excited to see you. Popped up into my, into my feeds. There you were playing banjo with Rhiannon Giddens and I was like, fucking hell. Ed Helms, Living the dream. It's amazing, just amazing to see all the things that you've been doing and it's. Yeah, man, that's just really cool.

[Ed Helms]

Thanks, buddy. Well, it's so, so damn fun to just hang out with you a little bit and walk you through this Snafu. And thanks so much for being on.

[Jad Abumrad]

Oh, man, this was a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[Ed Helms]

Snafu is a production of iHeart podcasts and snafu Media, a partnership between Film Nation Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company. Post production and creative support from Good Egg Audio. Our executive executive producers are me, Ed Helms, Mike Falbo, Glenn Basner, Andy Kim and Dylan Fagan. This episode was produced by Alyssa Martino and Tori Smith. Our managing producer is Carl Nellis. Our video editor is Jared Smith. Technical direction and engineering from Nick Dooley. Additional story editing from Carl Nellis. Our creative executive is Brett Harris. Logo and branding by Matt Gossen and the collected world legal review from Dan Welch, Megan Halson and Caroline Johnson. Special thanks to Isaac Dunham, Adam Horne, Lane Klein and everyone at iHeart podcasts, but especially Will Pearson, Kerry Lieberman and Nikki Ator. While I have you, don't forget to pick up a copy of my book, snafu the Definitive Guide to History's Greatest Screw Ups. It's available now from any book retailer. Just go. Go to snafu-book.com thanks for listening and see you next week.

[Jad Abumrad]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.