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The nursery rhyme ring around the Rosie doesn't lie when it says we all fall down, but why we fall down is what makes the difference between child's play and murder.

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Unfortunately, if you're on today's countdown, your fall wasn't a children's game. It was possibly much more sinister. We're counting down the most suspicious falls, whether they fell from the sky out of a window or just in their own home. The details of these stories will have you questioning everything.

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Hey, all you weirdos, welcome to Crime Countdown, a Spotify original friend podcast, I'm Ash and I'm every week will highlight 10 fascinating stories of history's most engaging and unsettling crimes, all picked by the carcass to research gods.

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In this episode, we're counting down the top ten suspicious falls. Oh, so I feel personally victimized by this episode.

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I'm feeling you. Yeah, I am so clumsy. As you know, Elena, my grandpa actually nicknamed me Crash because I have crashed his car many times, my car once or twice, maybe three times.

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And I also just walk into everything. So I kind of wonder if anyone would find a fall of mine like where I died suspicious because I think it might be kind of screwed. Yeah. You know what? To be honest, I think I think you might be. I didn't even think of that. Yeah. Because before this conversation, I would probably just be like, you know what?

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Yeah, Ash probably did just slip and fall off the Statue of Liberty or that what happened to me, the image that that just created in my mind, just sailing out. Yeah, but I'll give you, like, a little more credit than you gave yourself, because I think in reality, if something happened, you would get like your detective coton faster than Sherlock Holmes himself.

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No, I would. I joke. I joke. I joke.

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But I'm like suspicious as hell as we all know. And I don't I don't even trust my mailman. And I love my mailman. I love him.

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But for real. For real. I always want answers.

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I think anybody who's listened to morbid knows I like need answers. I rarely, rarely take things at face value.

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Yeah, well I think that this list will probably drive you a little nuts then come. Well some of these are just what they are suspicious and we don't necessarily have answers.

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Obviously, you know that only now you have five crimes and so do I, but neither of us knows which suspicious crime is coming next to. Let's start the countdown.

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Before you listen to the next podcast, how about a trip outside your comfort zone, base jumping, calendaring, mountain biking, or maybe just outside your house wherever you go?

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One fifty glasses full size pickups under eighty five hundred pounds. GBW are the owner's manual for important operating instructions. I'll start us off with number 10, the Russian coronavirus doctors at the end of April, beginning of May, twenty twenty three Russian doctors mysteriously, quote unquote, fell out of windows, killing two of them. Russian leaders blame this on stress, personal problems or lack of caution near the windows and not foul play. The three falls also happened just as the covid crisis was getting worse.

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In a country that loves to control the narrative, this seems completely legit. Yeah, totally. I see nothing suspicious. Let's get into it. Let's get on to the next one, because this isn't suspicious at all. On April 24th, twenty twenty, the chief of emergency medical services at a Russian astronaut training base who was infected with covid-19 fell out a window and died from the fall.

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Falling out of a window is always really suspicious to me because it's like that's a window.

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Yeah, you had to get lots of window. Yeah, yeah. Well, the hospital statement said she, quote, died tragically in a, quote, accident, but nothing more. OK, nothing to see here. Nothing more. Look away. Thank you. Just keep on moving. A week later, Doctor Number Two will call her was on a conference call with health officials and she disagreed with a plan related to covid-19. And then she also, quote unquote, fell out a window and died.

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Oh, so now we got two doctors just like oopsy going out the window. No, not good. We don't and we're not done yet because like I said, there's three oh. Doctor number three, who also had covid-19 said publicly that he'd been forced to work while sick, but then later recanted the statement like, were you threatened, buddy? You know what? I'm going to go out on a limb and say, maybe it's like, did something happen?

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What did they say to you? Perhaps, you know, I don't know. Well, the next day, May 2nd, so eight, just eight days after our first doctor fell, the outspoken third doctor wouldn't you know, it falls out a window and cracks his skull. But guess what? But he Gloria Gaynor's it and survive.

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He will survive. You will survive. He did survive. You did. Now, it's still a conspiracy theory to blame the state. But it is worth noting that adversaries of the Kremlin have been killed over the years in numerous ways.

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And here we are just being like we don't know where it is and I don't live there. How will we present you with these facts that seem to lead to one very obvious conclusion? Yes. Yeah, but you come up with the conclusion. Goodbye.

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Nine. Number nine on our countdown is the death of Leslie Neulander in Syracuse, New York, on September 17th, 2012, Leslie's daughter called nine one one. Her father told her to call because his wife had fallen in the shower. But when help arrived, Leslie wasn't in or even near the shower. She was in the bedroom and the bedroom was covered in blood. I know this one.

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I think I saw like a dateline or like a forty eight hours about this already.

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It's like, explain what exactly happened after you're going to have to connect these dots, Doctor said.

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Dr. Robert Newlander said he found wife Leslie in the bathroom and moved her to perform CPR, which immediately what Dr. moves a hurt victim? Yeah, that's like rule number one at doctor school. At that doctor school, you know, it'll all go to the one.

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Yes, that one. Doctor school. Don't move them. Also, the daughter witnessed him moving her. So this isn't just like, oh, no, I don't know what happened. She was like, no, I saw this. Yeah. And again, it doesn't make sense that a doctor would do that.

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So already it's like, ding, ding, ding. Well, the medical examiner ruled it an accident, and the report said that Leslie died from hitting her head on the shower bench, which already I'm like, OK, she could have. Yeah, I don't know if she did. And I'm just saying. So there was a suspicious piece of evidence in a it's a big suspicious piece of evidence.

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I will say the bedroom was covered in blood spatter and pools of blood.

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Yeah, because if you only moved her one time, why would there be pools of blood all over the bedroom?

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Because that's I'm wondering if he's like, OK, so when I picked her up, I then just, like, flung her around to see if that would wake her up. And I'm like, that's why all of that happened.

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Like what? How would that help to build the reasonable explanation?

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Like like a towel at a sporting event you, like, wave over your head.

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Is that what do you do with a hand motion that you're making? Doesn't make any sense. No, it doesn't. There's blood spatter. You can't explain that. You know, it does make sense. Feel as though he killed her in the bedroom. Perhaps so. And the daughter also can be heard on that 911 call commenting on all the blood before commenting on seeing her mother. So this points to the fact to me that she saw the bedroom covered in blood before her dad carried Leslie's body out of the bathroom.

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So it's like he killed her, then moved her to the bathroom. It was like she hit her head and that blood happened after. But that doesn't make any sense.

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Yeah. And then the doctor, the doctor, the doctor walks in and it's like, oh, my God, that's a lot of blood. And then he's like, oh, look, we'll get this. Yeah, we'll just go with it. Doesn't make sense, doc.

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Initially, the community prays to their marriage, but there were financial problems and Leslie was trying to leave him.

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Always the case. I was kind of the very familiar narrative that we've heard a million times over a year later.

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And after reinvestigating, Dr. Newlander was charged with the murder of his wife.

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That's good. At least still we have closure. Closure.

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Eight, number eight on our countdown of top ten suspicious falls is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

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Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off on March 8th, 2014, and disappeared during its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

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Debris found later confirmed a crash of some sort, but no other answers. Passengers or the plane itself have ever been found. This freaks me out. This one is banana.

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Hate this so much because Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 seems to have just fallen from the sky and vanished. You know what that means?

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Release the theories. Yes, bring them on. We've got about 400 men, not that many for today. One theory cites a cockpit fire that disoriented the pilots who succumbed to smoke inhalation. So like a nightmare.

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All right. That's terrifying. The plane flew in a circle for hours without the ability to radio for help and just crashed.

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OK, that's I'm not kidding you. My worst nightmare.

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Absolutely. Flying around in a circle for hours knowing that you're just that eventually you're just going to crash.

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That's terrifying. Wow. Like, add that to my list of fears and put it right up. And I hate that a lot. Two men on board were Iranian nationals who boarded the flight using forged passports. So at first they were like the investigators, initially suspected terrorism, but now they believe that they were asylum seekers.

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Oh, OK. You're a little too quick to assume quick on that.

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Another theory is that a hijacker came aboard, messed with the equipment onboard and falsified satellite information on behalf of a government.

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Wow. We love a government bureaucracy theory that runs deep. There's also ongoing speculation of terrorist hijacking, but no groups claimed responsibility and they haven't found enough evidence to suspect a specific group. Wow. I know, I.

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I haven't I can't even say it. I'm like, what happened? I have no idea, because all of these kind of makes sense. All of it could have happened. And you know what? Before we wrap this one up, Olina, let's have some paranormal fun. Oh, bring it. Because the supernatural theories are popular for this one.

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Theories from alien interference to black holes and other interruptions to time space travel have risen in popularity. The longer it remains missing. I mean, I, I don't I hate all of it because this is a terrible, terrible thing that happened.

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Absolutely. But I'd rather believe a supernatural thing happened.

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Maybe alien aliens were just like, you know what, come here. It'll be better. It'll be fine. Let's hope that's what I like. That one. I'm going with the ending. Wrap it up. Well.

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Seven. At number seven this week, we're headed back to Russia with Nikolai Gorshkov. In twenty seventeen, Russian lawyer Nikolai Gorshkov suspiciously fell from a fourth floor balcony right around the time he went public, about a 230 million dollar corruption scandal involving high ranking state officials. That is so suspicious. Wow. Nothing to see here. That's so tragic. And, you know, it couldn't have been avoided. That's just it. No way. Well, Nikolai represented a man who publicly filed complaints regarding an illegal 230 million dollar tax rebate scheme.

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So already it's like you're going in hot.

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Yeah, we're starting off this one really rough. We're really just jumping in with both feet.

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That man was jailed and beaten to death by prison guards in 2009. Oh, wow. In 2012, President Putin said that man died of a heart attack. Oh, OK. OK, sure, sure, sure. Sounds good. Sure, sure. Eight other people involved in the same case have also died in mysterious or violent events.

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If I was involved in that case, I would go into the witness protection program. I would just I'd jump into a wormhole and go to another time. Yeah, I'd be abducted by aliens, please. And thank you. I'd get their contact information and head to Area 51. Well, what's crazy about this is Nikolai survived the 50 foot drop, but fractured his skull and has no memory of the events.

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Oh, wow. Yes, he still feels duty bound to continue pursuing the case, despite what he believes was an assassination attempt because he wants to avenge an honest man that was killed in jail, which. Wow, Nikolai. Yeah, that's really I like I, I respect that. But also just stop. I was like stokeley.

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That was like a warning sign. Someone was telling you, yeah, you're great.

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Nikolai Blake, stop. You did your best to stop. Yeah. Six landing at No.6, the parachute murder plot on Easter Sunday, 2015, experienced and trained skydiver Victoria Cilliers parachute failed after she jumped from 4000 feet.

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Oh, imagine. No, she hit the ground at 60 miles per hour and miraculously lived. Oh, at what cost? I know, but suspicions about why her chute failed uncovered a murder plot by none other than her husband.

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The most unique and intricate wife murder plot.

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Seriously, I'm like, sir, what happened here involved? Like what? Why a sky sky diving? Like a parachute accident. That's a lot.

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He's like, I'm going to ruin what she loves and ruin her joy. So Victoria landed in a soft, newly tilled field and survived, but she had broken her spine, fractured her ribs and shattered her pelvis. I believe it. Much fun fact. My pelvis is the only bone I have ever broken. And it was the most painful thing that's ever happened to me. And imagine shattering it. No. And along with fracturing your ribs and breaking your spine.

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Yikes. Any who. At first it was considered just like a crazy freak accident because it could happen. Yeah, but then things got suspicious and the head of the Army Parachute Association was not buying that her main and back up shoots with both fail because that's like one in a million chance. That's true. Probably one in like 80 million chances. So he investigated it and he called the police. So what happened, you ask? Well, Victoria's husband, Emile Cilliers, took her parachute into a bathroom the day before the jump in sabotage.

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Imagine what he just took it into the bathroom.

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It was like, I don't like snip, snip, snip. I guess I just reached in there with scissors and was like some more work in there. I don't even know how to sabotage a parachute, but he did. Turns out this was the second time that he had tried to kill his wife within one week. Now that's persistent, not even just in general within that same week while leading up to Easter, too. It's like really. Wow.

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Now, even after his trials, Victoria didn't believe he had done it. Like honey.

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Exactly. Exactly. Most Victoria's friends reported that the relationship was very toxic, obviously.

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Don't say it wasn't physically abusive, but it was for sure manipulative and unhealthy.

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I think unhealthy is a great way to describe that. I would call that the understatement of the century, very unhealthy. Now, the investigators said that email displayed psychopathic traits, was under a lot of financial stress and was motivated by life insurance fraud. Of course, always. That is, it's always the dollar signs with these like spouse murder.

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It always is.

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You know, where's the love? There's no love. Wow, that that last one just blew my brain apart, I know I had never heard of it before either, and I was like, what?

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Like you hear about like, you know, spouses like staging things for life insurance scams and all that. Right.

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But to make them fall out of the sky, to fall from the heavens, pretend it was an exercise goodbye by.

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That's a lot. It wasn't long then. Russia's just just really, really doing the damn thing on this list. Russia is us. I'm a little scared.

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Russia. Are you coming back?

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Let's stay on the list. Let's not talk to them any. I don't know. Maybe they won't come back on the list.

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I hope not. You discover their practices, seek their advice, and let yourself become more vulnerable than ever before, they have the ability to heal what the doctors can't or so they say. Hi listeners. It's Vanessa from the podcast series Cults. Be sure to check out our four part special on Myracle Healer's airing right now. Meet figures from around the world who claimed powers and pushed remedies. But Harbord, more sinister intentions. You don't want to miss it.

[00:20:05]

And if you're looking for more episodes on the most radical and deadly groups in history, tune into cults every Tuesday from Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple to Charles Manson and the Manson family. To Keith Ranieri and Nexium, you'll uncover the unscrupulous methods used to turn bright eyed recruits into diehard believers. Follow the Spotify original from podcast Cults Free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Now that you're firmly outside your emotional comfort zone, how about a trip outside base jumping, engineering, mountain biking or maybe just anywhere but home wherever you go?

[00:20:52]

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The second half of our list is the 2006 death of Ray Rivera in Baltimore, Maryland. Ray Rivera went missing on May 16th, 2006, after days of searching.

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His body was found in a ground floor building at the Belvedere Hotel directly under a hole in the roof.

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On the surface, it suggested suicide, but some of the details raised doubts. Don't.

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Don Ray's car was found near the hotel and co-workers explored the area and spotted the hole in the hotel's lower roof from on top of a neighboring parking garage. Oh, wow.

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So immediately they think he jumped from the top of the hotel, but his family says he was not suicidal and he didn't have any known mental illnesses.

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So already they're like, this isn't jiving. That's very bizarre.

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Now, the day he went missing, a guest in his house said Ray received a phone call and then left the house in a hurry.

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That is so spooky. I hate that.

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That's in a couple cases that we've covered that you're like who? You're always like, who is it? And why did they say, I need to know? You know, a lot of you never find out.

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I was just going to say, you can never find out, especially now with, like iPhones, because they're so like that. You just can't find out. You can never find out anything crazy.

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So his cell phone and glasses were found on the roof next to the hole, basically undamaged. But a detective who worked the case said they appeared staged for sure and engraved money clip. He always carried on him was never found.

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So now we have robbery. So now that in, that doesn't make any sense. Now we go to the physics.

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The distance between where he would have allegedly jumped from to where the hole was is over 40 feet horizontally. Oh, so he is now like a track star. Exactly.

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So it's like, wait, so he's Usain Bolt now and just going to say that he would have needed a big running start is in the pole vault.

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In the twist was he was wearing flip flops. No, no. Does anyone think that makes sense? Not me.

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Ray also left behind a note with references to Freemason's and Stanley Kubrick.

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It said, quote, I stand before you a man who understands the purpose and value of our secrets.

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See that to me kind of points to somebody else writing that, being like he knew something that he shouldn't have.

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Yeah, it's like now he understands the value of secrets, you know, that's what it says to me. And it gives me that feeling.

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Well, I know I have a blanket on right now and I'm happy I know what happened to Ray Ray. For. Landing at number four this week is the iconic unsolved mystery of D.B. Cooper, November 24th, 1971. A nondescript man hijacks a plane, gets his ransom and jumps out at 10000 feet, although literally he falls from the sky, never to be seen again. But intrigue and suspicion has led to so many theories and finger pointing about who this man was and why he did what he did.

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I also love that this began with landing at number four this week, but, um.

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But I love that. So this unknown man walked into the Portland airport, bought a one way ticket to Seattle with cash, all while wearing a full business suit. So dapper for the day. That's right. I also love the idea of a man like jumping out of a plane with a guy wearing this suit like he has his like suits briefcase, just like here we go.

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Let's get it. Let's do it. Well, on the flight, he flashed a flight attendant a bomb in his briefcase, though, or flight attendant and asked for two hundred thousand dollars in cash and four parachutes on every airplane. Obviously, like what the flight landed, he got his cash and parachutes and he let all the passengers off the plane. So he had a heart, I guess so nice. You know, he did keep the crew on board, though, and directed them to fly to Mexico City, OK?

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And wrote he jumped out into iffy weather to and a location with, like, super thick forestry. OK, so I feel like this was very, very clearly planned. Oh, yeah. Maybe he was trying to land on all those trees just like boop. Yeah. I just picture like Twilight for some reason, like Forks. Washington students I think is all the troops. Edward big like you think you can outrun me like you think you can out fly me.

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Oh jump me. Oh he was never to be allegedly seen again.

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Allegedly allegedly. Also over 800 people were considered suspects by the FBI, which is Bonanos. A lot of people. But you know, that number dwindled over the years to just a couple dozen. Wow. All right. Despite a search, though, nothing more about him was found. And now planes are fitted with, quote, Cooper veins that keep people from lowering air stairs mid-flight of a coup baboon's. So if something good came of it. Hey, there you go.

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A Cooper vein DB.

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Three number three on our countdown of suspicious falls is the 1920 death of Alfred Lowenstein. Alfred Lowenstein was a wealthy businessman who made his fortune off the back of others, not necessarily legally. On a flight from England to Brussels, Alfred is thought to have mistaken the airplane exit door for the bathroom door and fell to his death over the English Channel. OK, so I think I had a worst fear before this on the list. Now, this is taking that place like I feel like there's a lot of things that would make you stop for a second and be like, I think I might be walking out of the pool if you want to know something.

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I've gone on so many airplanes and I have never used an airplane bathroom.

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I, I've only used one once and it was because I had a child with me that makes sense. And I was like, damn it, I refuse. It's terrifying.

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So Alfred was a successful but shady businessman who defrauded investors and was involved in a drug deal to increase the heroin supply in the US.

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You know, just typical business just out here doing the Lord's work. Alfred, a small crew of a pilot, mechanic and some personal assistants accompanied him on the flight and their accounts of what happened before. Oh, OK. We're going to say, right. The emergency landed a nearby beach and it took the pilot a while before he admitted Alfred was even missing.

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Imagine having to be like, yeah, so we lost someone. Like, how does that happen? Like, bummer, everybody. But we're down one, Alfred. All right, let's carry on. But let's just go back to our trip. The theory that he mistook the exit door for the bathroom is pretty straightforward, but it's really unlikely considering the force it took to open the door mid-flight. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Which I was when I first read this, I was like, wait, what?

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Like, wouldn't he like, I don't know, 10 seconds into that be like this is this might be out into the wild blue yonder.

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The only thing I can think of and this is just me being like hilarious is that he really had to go to the bathroom.

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So he was like. And then he was like, no.

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And then he really went he just took all his force. Really? Yeah, maybe. Oh, no, no, I don't know.

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Suicide is an option, considering possible pressure from investors in the shady dealings, but nothing concrete ever threatened to come to light.

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So I don't know. Yeah, it makes sense, but it also doesn't. What a way to go. I'm saying you just fly right out of a plane.

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Need to be a bit this. All right. Out there. The relationship between his wife was poor and some say that she could have been motivated to kill him for his money and the womanizing pilot could have been her inside man. That's true.

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Maybe they were all in on it. Give them some money. So, you know, we don't know. I wasn't there. I mean, I don't think you were there, but who knows? It was not. Well, his body was eventually found and his wife did not attend the funeral.

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See, if you don't want to look shady, you should go to the funeral. Yeah, most of the time. If, like, your husband dies and you don't want to be considered a suspect, it raises some flags. Get a dress and head out there. Yeah, everybody looks good in black. Yeah.

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Got a hat. I don't know what happened to Alfred. I know that his wife had something to do with it. I just don't tell you that much guy. And you know what? I was hoping to see D.B. Cooper out there. That was really fun. That's one interesting one I would love to do like a full dive into that.

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Oh, yeah, that's an amazing case, because it's just like what happened. There's so there's like a hundred different things. Right? You could go on forever. I'm excited to see who's next.

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I know I know one person and so do you. I want to know who your person is. I want to know who yours is. It's like, guess who, who.

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Let's get it. Let's do it. This episode is brought to you by instead, instead is a new alternative in lawncare that's natural. Instead, it isn't a flashy marketing ploy. Instead is a choice for a world filled with new choices, no harsh chemicals, just natural ingredients that work. It's not some trendy new natural lawncare. It's natural lawncare for how we live now. It's safer. Every member of the family when used as directed, it's delivered when you need it.

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[00:32:27]

To you, we're down to the final two spots on our countdown of suspicious falls. At number two is actress Natalie Wood.

[00:32:40]

Oh, you know, she had to be on here. Oh, yeah. In 1981, Natalie Wood's body was found in the waters off Catalina Island after she supposedly fell off a yacht and drowned. She had been sailing and partying with her husband, actor Robert Wagner and actor Christopher Walken at the time. Now, unlike the clear waters around Catalina, the details of this case are murky. PlayOn were very murky. Natalie and her husband invited friends on the boat trip, but most people declined because the water was going to be like unusually choppy that day.

[00:33:12]

And they were like, I'm good. I would have declined. I would have been like, I'm not really down for seasickness today. So I would be so into it because I love adventure.

[00:33:20]

Especially choppy waters are for me. I'm like, see you guys there. Also, I would want to hang out with Natalie Wood. Anyways, Robert Wagner told the investigators that Natalie went to bed around ten forty five that night. And it's been reported that the two also had an argument that night. Oh, isn't that always the case?

[00:33:38]

It is. Now, later he went to join her and discovered that not only was she missing, but also the dinghy that they used to go to shore was missing as well. That's not good. For some reason, though, he and his friends waited for four hours to call the Coast Guard. That sounds about right. Sounds real, says Mr. Mr. Robert. Yeah, no one can really defend you on that one. No, not at all.

[00:34:05]

Natalee's body was found the next morning. Unfortunately, her death was ruled an accidental drowning, most likely due to a drunken fall.

[00:34:13]

Then imagine that being your legacy is probably not what happened, especially when it's not like confirmed. We don't know. Right, exactly. We do know that she was drunk and the dinghy was slippery, which did lend support to the theory because still the post-mortem report gave more information, though, saying that Wood had bruises on her body and arms, as well as a facial abrasion on her left cheek. That could go both ways. That could cause, like, weird stuff happens in the water.

[00:34:41]

So you never know.

[00:34:42]

And especially if it was choppy water, you getting banged around on the right, maybe you hit the boat or something. You don't know. While decades later, the captain revealed that he originally lied to the police and that Wagner was involved in her death. Well, there you have it. Hello, there it is. The L.A. Sheriff's Department changed her cause of death to, quote, drowning and other undetermined factors because a re-examination of the bruises determined that some could have actually been sustained before the fall.

[00:35:10]

I was wondering if they could tell that.

[00:35:12]

So I was like, maybe it happened when she was in the water and they were like, maybe not. And they were like, no, ash, you're wrong.

[00:35:18]

You're wrong. Let me tell you, in twenty eighteen, Robert Wagner became a person of interest after witnesses in surrounding boats at the time recalled a woman calling out in distress that night. And new witness testimonials have built a whole new timeline. I got to ask those people on those boats. Yeah, what are you doing? Why didn't you say that when you saw it? And like her, like when you see a woman in distress, I don't know, maybe tell the police that call someone, especially when there's an investigation, anyone.

[00:35:49]

And it's like, were you just floating down the the water just like enjoying your cocktail? And you're like, oh, that sounds like a woman in distress. I shouldn't do anything about it. All right. So the bystander effect spane keep talking about stocks. It's crazy. Like what? One. And that brings us to number one on our countdown of the top ten suspicious falls, the death of biological warfare scientist Frank Rudolf Olssen. Frank Olson died when he fell, jumped or was thrown from a window at the Statler Hotel in Manhattan in nineteen fifty three.

[00:36:43]

His suspicious death revealed a dark and twisted CIA secret. That is terrifying. I am so excited.

[00:36:51]

Are you ready for this? You only answer. You are not. I am not.

[00:36:56]

No one is.

[00:36:58]

Frank Olson was one of the first scientists assigned to a secret biological warfare division during World War Two by the US government.

[00:37:06]

Oh, it's already you know, we're just jumping in. It was written at the stars.

[00:37:10]

Four years later, he joined the CIA to work on the MK Ultra project, a top secret effort to develop mind control methods using techniques that just like mentally break down test subjects.

[00:37:24]

Well, that's awful and terrifying, but it's so interesting. Look it up.

[00:37:30]

MK Ultra oversaw the torture and brutal interrogating of quote unquote, Expendables, or people the CIA deemed just could die in pursuit of finding a way to blast away consciousness will and self determination for total control of a person like guys. Why did we need this? Why did the CIA wake up one day and choose violence in there? Like, you know what?

[00:37:53]

These people can be our test subjects. Like what was the purpose? Real live lab mice.

[00:38:00]

It's so scary. Wow. So they did this partly by drugging test subjects with enormous amounts of LSD. That's a bad trip.

[00:38:09]

That's the worst trip. That's not even a trip at this point. It's I don't even that's final destination.

[00:38:15]

Your Matlow will be so harsh.

[00:38:17]

Yeah. By this, it's going to be real harsh.

[00:38:21]

At one point, Olsen and other scientists were unknowingly dosed with LSD by their boss to test them out.

[00:38:29]

It's not just in this was to see if they'd reveal details of their secret work. So they're trying to see, like, are you going to hold on to all these secrets?

[00:38:36]

So we're just going to dose you with LSD.

[00:38:39]

Yikes. I can't. That's a bad boss I like. Well, the office is looking different today. No.

[00:38:45]

Unfortunately, days after being drugged, Olsen was still really noticeably disoriented and colleagues believed he was now a security risk. He was spiraling.

[00:38:56]

Oh, now the scientist he roomed with in the hotel suggested Olsen check into a hospital.

[00:39:02]

They were like, bro, you got to get out of here, should go see a doctor. So that became the plan. Olsen seemed more settled and relaxed, but then allegedly just jumped out the window.

[00:39:12]

No way. I don't believe it.

[00:39:14]

No, the manager at the hotel said, quote, I never encountered a case where someone got up in the middle of the night, ran across a dark room in his underwear, avoiding two beds and drove through a closed window with the shades and curtains. Wrong. Why? To which I say, like, yeah, me. I believe that they've never come across that before.

[00:39:37]

Well, after decades of reinvestigation in 2002, Franks son Eric told reporters the death of Frank Olson on November 28th, 1953, was a murder, not a suicide.

[00:39:50]

Frank Olson did not die because he was an experimental guinea pig who experienced, quote, a bad trip.

[00:39:56]

Like we said, he died because of a concern that he would divulge information concerning a highly classified CIA interrogation program in the early 1950s and concerning the use of biological weapons by the United States in the Korean War. This poor family, horrifying. That is insane. Like trying to put it. So it's just like, oh, you know, LSD and we'll make you jump out the window is a real bummer.

[00:40:22]

And even that you're like, yeah, you secretly dosed him to, like, still your fault, right? No matter what you're responsible for. Definitely not just it. Yeah. They were definitely scared he was going to talk. Oh, 100 percent. Poor Frank. That is really scary, huh? So that was definitely number one first. I don't know where else that would have been or what else would have replaced, but I mean, I know a lot of you, like everybody knows the Natalie Wood tale, Sasha, that was like, oh, yeah, of course, Natalie is going to be on there.

[00:41:03]

But while Frank took the cake, oh, 100 percent. Frank took the LSD. Yeah, I love Natalie in that case, but. Yeah, but wow.

[00:41:10]

The Frank one, just like you and all these like falling from planes. I'm like, stop everybody.

[00:41:15]

Way too many planes involved in this way. Too many planes. I do not love it. I have a couple honorable mentions to give it to me. So we covered the Phoebe Hansgrohe case. That's a big one in Australia.

[00:41:27]

Huge people think that she fell down a laundry shoe or a garbage garbage chute. Yeah, it's like that didn't happen. No Supersaurus. Berry and I found another one about it was like that Tinder date and the guy wouldn't let her leave, apparently. Oh, yeah. And then they got in a fight on the balcony and she quote unquote jumped off the balcony.

[00:41:47]

He said, but it's like I don't think so.

[00:41:49]

And her name was Warry in it, right? Oh, yeah. I forgot about that one. Yeah. Just like popped into my head. There's definitely been a couple to where, like, couples were like hiking. I mean, somebody falls off a cliff and dies. But like this, there's actually so many of them that I think we could do like six more series. Yeah, I think we literally do a series on these because there's so many serious.

[00:42:13]

But these ones were like, wow, these were primo. Wow. Once you fall from a plane, you don't go back. Well, thanks for listening.

[00:42:21]

We'll be back next week with another great episode. Remember to follow Crime Countdown on Spotify to get a brand new episode delivered.

[00:42:28]

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[00:42:43]

And if he can't get enough of these creepy crimes, check out our After Crime Countdown podcast playlist on Spotify, where we've handpicked even more episodes about this week's stories that we really think you'll enjoy. And if you like this show, follow app podcast on Facebook and Instagram and app podcast network on Twitter.

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[00:43:07]

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[00:43:15]

And we hope you keep it weird until next Monday and watch your step. Be careful out there by crime. Count down as a Spotify original from podcast. It is executive produced by Max Cuddler Sound Design by Kristen Acevedo with Associate Sound Design by Anthony Vasic.

[00:43:34]

Produced by Jon Cohen, an associate produced by Jonathan Rateliff. Fact Checking by Cara Marklin, research by Ambika Chautara, Jay Caillaux and Mikki Taylor. Crime Countdown Stars Ashkali and Lena Urca.