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We've all heard the expression "fake it till you make it", right? Well, Jean-Claude Romand did just that for 18 years, but never truly made it. Instead, he chose to murder his entire family rather than face his own shame and lies head on.

Sources:

1) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48790276
2) https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2001/jan/13/weekend7.weekend1
3) https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=honorscollege_cj
4) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2072025/
5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Romand

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It was November 1961. The waters in the Bahamas were as blue and beautiful as ever. But for Nicolaos Spachidakis, a second officer on a Greek freighter called Captain Theo, something seemed off. As he looked into the distance, he could make out a tiny white speck, bobbing alongside the waves. It was too large to be trash, but much too small to be a boat.
As they pulled alongside the speck, everyone gasped. Because that speck was a float - barely what you could consider a raft. And sitting on top of it was a blonde-haired, eleven-year-old girl. She looked skeletal and her skin was severely burned from the sun. Her name was Terry Jo Duperrault, and she had been drifting in the Atlantic for 84 hours before this crew had found her...

Sources:

1) https://allthatsinteresting.com/terry-jo-duperrault
2) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/book-em-alone-orphaned-on-the-ocean/
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebelle_(ship)
4) https://time.com/archive/6871882/the-sea-the-bluebelles-last-voyage/
5) https://www.rd.com/article/orphaned-on-the-ocean-the-unbelievable-story-of-terry-jo-duperrault/

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Today we are talking about Virginia Hall, an American Spy who was able to completely evade the Gestapo during WWII. The Gestapo labeled her as “The enemy’s most dangerous spy.” During WWII, Virginia organized agent networks, helped those who managed to escape being prisoners of war, and recruited both French men and women to run safe houses.

Sources:

1) https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/virginia-hall-the-courage-and-daring-of-the-limping-lady/
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Hall
3) https://www.npr.org/2019/04/18/711356336/a-woman-of-no-importance-finally-gets-her-due
4) https://historyguild.org/virginia-hall-soe-agent-to-cia-pioneer/?srsltid=AfmBOoqNl5rwJORK0t8v2tHAhkVXwnwfb_em0lW0ZYyypAVDHqX9q9Bx

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Today we’re talking about Josephine Baker, the remarkable entertainer who took France by storm and used her unsuspecting identity for subterfuge in World War II - truly a badass woman!

Sources:

1) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/josephine-baker-was-the-star-france-wanted-and-the-spy-it-needed-damien-lewis-agent-josephine
2) https://nmaahc.si.edu/josephine-baker
3) https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/josephine-baker
4) https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/siren-resistance-artistry-and-espionage-josephine-baker
5) https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/josephine-baker-from-poverty-to-stardom-to-espionage/
6) https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=15408
7) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker

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In honor of Women's History Month, this week we are talking about Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a woman who turned her love for decrypting Shakespeare’s plays into cracking codes and ciphers during major moments in American history, all while using only pencil and paper. Elizebeth set the standard for modern codebreaking - and then watched as powerful men took all the credit. Ahh, a tale as old as time...

Sources:

1) https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/elizebeth-smith-friedman
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Fabyan
3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizebeth_Smith_Friedman
4) https://www.mycg.uscg.mil/News/Article/2466899/watch-pbss-the-codebreaker-premiers-monday-jan-11/
5) https://www.nsa.gov/History/Cryptologic-History/Historical-Figures/Historical-Figures-View/Article/1623028/elizebeth-s-friedman/

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In 1992, a Wyoming man opened a padlocked military footlocker left in his shed by a neighbor six years earlier. Inside, he found the skeletal remains of a man shot in the head, wrapped in a grocery bag. It would take decades to pass and a DNA breakthrough to reveal that the 'man in the box' was Joseph Mulvaney—a father who had been murdered.

Sources:

1) https://www.kulr8.com/news/55-year-old-cold-case-murder-solved-in-wyoming/article_583c0f3f-1ca9-5dc8-b905-1f35d93d3f3c.html
2) https://fox2now.com/news/true-crime/bones-in-a-box-mystery-of-missing-illinois-veteran-solved/
3) https://www.wyomilitary.wyo.gov/19_088/
4) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194722282/joseph_junior-mulvaney
5) https://unsolved.com/gallery/skeleton-in-a-box/
6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermopolis,_Wyoming

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In 1999, Paul Warner Powell, a 20-year-old white supremacist, murdered 16-year-old Stacie Reed and brutally assaulted her 14-year-old sister, Kristie, in a racially motivated attack after learning Stacie had a Black boyfriend.
After his initial death sentence was vacated due to a legal technicality regarding capital murder requirements, Powell taunted prosecutors in a letter, believing he was protected by double jeopardy. But Powell was not as smart as he thought he was...

Sources:

1) https://www.vacourts.gov/static/opinions/opnscvwp/1031421.pdf 2)https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1999/04/23/a-grim-account-of-attack-on-2-sisters/9a4c2427-ba7b-48f0-96c2-acf72d3a577f/
3) https://www.pomc.org/murder-wall/murder-wall-stories/stacie-lynn-reed-16-years-old/
4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
5) https://fija.org/library-and-resources/library/jury-nullification-faq/what-is-double-jeopardy.html
6)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_murder#:~:text=Capital%20murder%20refers%20to%20a,others%20such%20as%20the%20media.
7) https://vocal.media/criminal/the-most-remorseless-killer-who-bragged
8) https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/01/14/letter-boasting-of-slaying-rape-returns-man-to-va-courtroom/e2363704-1fee-4c5b-851b-0e34f7723e69/
9) https://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/18/virginia.killer.letter/index.html
10) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7790959/stacie_lynn-reed

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On the morning of March 26, 1997, Deborah was at home, getting ready for school. Her eleven-year-old cousin stopped by to walk her to class, but she wasn’t quite ready yet.
The last words ever known to be spoken by Deborah were: “I’ll be right there. Go on ahead”. She never made it to school that day, and for the next twenty-nine years, her small hometown has been haunted by the question: Who took Deborah Palmer?

Sources:

1) https://www.fox13seattle.com/washingtons-most-wanted/little-girl-doesnt-show-up-for-school-but-shows-up-days-later-dead-on-a-beach
2) https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/oak-harbor-police-renew-search-for-deborah-palmers-killer/
3) https://www.timesargus.com/news/fears-grow-that-sex-offender-had-other-victims/article_9a271d2a-4aba-5c80-b7e4-5d1e8f61c5aa.html
4) https://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/sunday-marks-20-year-anniversary-of-murdered-girls-disappearance/
5) https://www.seattlepi.com/local/sound/article/Mother-of-Deborah-Palmer-holds-out-hope-that-892534.php
6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Harbor,_Washington

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