Sofa King Podcast

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we sift through the ashes of a pretty wicked cult that most people have near heard of: The Order of the Solar Temple. The OTS was a group that was loosely based on the beliefs of the Knights Templar with a heavy dash of the Rosicrucians, but after it met with some financial success and had a good base of followers, it was all about brain washing, sex, extortion, and transitioning to the Dog Star Sirius to escape the upcoming apocalypse. Oh, and then there was the time all of the members killed each other and themselves. That’s how you get to Sirius after all… The whole thing started in 1976 when Jo Di Mambro launched the Centre for the Preparation of the New Age. It was a small affair, but soon he had small groups coming to live with him and give him their money. He started a second franchise in Geneva, and a few years later, he met Luc Jouret. Di Mambro recognized that Jouret was even more charismatic than he was, and they partnered up. Di Mambro would be the shot caller behind the scenes, and Jouret would become the face man of the group. Eventually, the groups they had started merged to become The Order of the Solar Temple. They recruited more and more people and accrued more and more wealth. Their beliefs also grew more and more crazy. Eventually, Di Mambro became the reincarnation of Christ, and they were both forcing women to have sex with them as part of their rituals to appease the Jesus sun god. Their con game got more elaborate as they installed projectors, special effects, and holograms into their lodges to help show their miracles to the members of the different “clubs” of their cult. This went south, however. The guy who installed the devices and Di Mambro’s son told the cult about the false miracles. A lot of them bailed, but many stayed behind and doubled down in their belief. And this was when The Transit was born. The Transit was how they would use flame to cleanse their bodies and push their spirits to new reincarnations on a planet orbiting Sirius. They would live in paradise and start a new human race. This, of course, didn’t go so well. So, how many people died in their murder/suicide Transition to Sirius? What was the method of death? What happened to the three month old baby who they said was the antichrist? How man Transits were there for the Order of the Solar Temple? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Solar_Temple https://torontosun.com/news/world/solar-temple-massacre-mystery-endures-25-years-later https://people.howstuffworks.com/10-infamous-cults6.htm https://infosect.freeshell.org/infocult/phenomene/English/HTML/doc0008.htm https://filmdaily.co/news/order-of-the-solar-temple/ https://www.ranker.com/list/order-of-the-solar-temple-cult/amandasedlakhevener https://www.voxspace.in/2018/09/12/order-of-the-solar-temple/  

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we explore the largest art heist in American history, the Gardner Museum Heist. In 1990, thirteen pieces of art were stolen from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The grade total? A whopping half $600 million dollars. Just one painting was worth half of that. The FBI thinks it was done by a group of local Irish mobsters, and though the statute of limitations is past, it is still an active case as the FBI hopes to retrieve the art back. The Gardner museum was troubled. The FBI discovered a plot for Whitey Bulger’s Irish mob to rob the place with a storm of smoke bombs. After this, the museum upgraded its security. However, the museum was on hard financial times, and they were limited by the wealthy (deceased) Gardner’s wishes. The museum had to stay as is, no renovations, no exceptions, so every upgrade of security was a breach of this agreement Eventually, some motion sensors and outdoor cameras were installed, but it wasn’t enough. Because on the night of March 18th, two robbers dressed as police men came to investigate “a disturbance” and handcuffed the two night guards to pipes in the basement with tape across their faces. The robbers took their time. They were in the museum for 81 minutes. They tripped motion sensors in two rooms, but somehow, they went back and forth without activating sensors. The FBI still can’t figure that one out. They stole painting from Rembrandt, Degas, and Vermeer. In fact, Vermeer’s painting, The Concert, is considered the most expensive single item ever stolen in the world. So, what happened when a reliable contact came forward wanting to give the paintings back to the Gardner Museum in 1994? How did the FBI learn the identities of the thieves, and why was there never an arrest? What is the connection to the Irish mob? What are the theories about where the art ended up? Why did the robbers take some stuff worth next to nothing but left the most expensive painting hanging up on the third floor? Why do people think the security guard named Rick Abath was involved? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://www.gardnermuseum.org/about/theft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum_theft https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gardner-heist-suspect-released-prison-1703613 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxZSdNej-I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyNdZmrqNFE&list=PLfJ_d5dtb0oG_u6AwgAL8px7X4_LQO_Az&index=39 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyNdZmrqNFE&list=PLfJ_d5dtb0oG_u6AwgAL8px7X4_LQO_Az&index=39 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noX0jW9E6NU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner https://news.artnet.com/art-world/isabella-stewart-gardner-heist-solved-283368  

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we explore one of the greatest mysteries of the human mind—dreaming. We all dream. Whether we remember it or not, our mind makes us dream several times a night when we get normal sleep. The average person is said to have five years of dreaming in their lifetime. But what are they, where do they come from, and what do dreams mean? Those are hard questions to answer. Experts can’t locate a specific center of the brain that is doing the dreaming. For example, parts of the brain that control imagination are entirely shut down during the dream. Also, the brain does amazing feats of recovery, such as flushing plaque off of neurons and letting the emotional center run wild while the parts that cause stress shut off. The question really becomes why do we do it? One sleep expert named Matthew Walker from Cal Berkeley, says dreams serve two major purposes. One is to give our daily experiences a place in the framework of our lives. By dreaming, our new memories are merged with who we are. Second, dreams take the emotional edge off of bad emotions or tragic events. In the morning, we can often face things with a clear mind and apply logic where only emotion was present the night before. He even talks about Lucid Dreaming (which we covered in our Parasomnia episode) and shows that is 100% a scientifically proven thing. But what about those common dreams we all have? Do your teeth fall out in your dreams? Are you chased by an animal or a person? Are you falling or perhaps flying? What about being naked at work or being late for a test? These are very common to many of us, and we talk about what the experts think these dreams archetypes mean. From recurring dreams to lucid dreams, this one has it all!   Visit Our Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBby0RJw3Dc https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/dreaming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/dreaming-overview https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/55442/12-common-dreams-and-what-they-supposedly-mean https://www.verywellmind.com/understanding-your-dreams-2795935 https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/why-do-we-dream-matthew-walker-explores-the-theories-behind-nocturnal-fantasias-a3799396.html https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/selectively-remember-dreams https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/201807/why-children-have-nightmares

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we polish our tiaras and talk about child beauty pageants. They of course made national news with the tragic death of Jonbenet Ramsey in 1996. But after that, they stayed in the forefront of popular culture. HBO’s influential documentary called Living Dolls lead to the TV show Toddlers in Tiaras and the flaming turd filled train wreck that was Honey Boo Boo. Each year, over 250,000 children participate in America alone. From underage prostitutes to 8 year olds getting motel Botox, this one has it all. You would think that beauty pageants for children came from the sick minds of the current generation, but there is in fact a long history. P.T. Barnum organized a kid’s beauty pageant in 1855 called the National Baby Show, and it gained 143 contestants and an audience of over 60,000. This spread to other similar ideas, mostly judging naked babies like cattle. By the 1920s, however, the modern adult beauty pageants was born in New Jersey (of course it was…). From there, the idea of a Little Miss America was spawned, and it hasn’t stopped since. While Jonbenet’s death may have put these horror shows on the map, they had been there all along. There are different types of pageants; some are Natural, where rules are in place about amounts of makeup and outlandish outfits. Others are a Glitz, which are the ones you’re thinking about. Fake teeth, caked makeup, hair like a televangelist prostitute, horrible dances, all the worst of the worst. To get through a big pageant, it’s gonna cost a parent at least $5000, but some may spend as much as $70,000 by the time designer dresses, makeup, travel, and all the rest is calculate. But there are large purses to be won, so it keeps on keeping on. Some say the pageants are a good thing. They breed self confidence and sportsmanship. Others argue they sexualize children and create problems ranging from body dismorphia to eating disorders and big time trust issues when every friend is a competitor likely to throw you under the bus. So, how many pageants are there a year? What types of events do they perform in order to win? How are more recent online pageants judged? What happened to the mom who was self injecting Botox in her own 8 year old daughter in the lobby of a hotel? Listen, laugh, learn.       Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_beauty_pageant https://www.thelist.com/136545/the-untold-truth-of-childhood-beauty-pageants/ https://www.bustle.com/articles/183975-whats-the-history-of-child-pageants https://www.thecut.com/2012/11/child-pageant-star.html https://www.moms.com/pageant-child-reasons-should-against/ https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=8128371  

On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we travel back to castle times and look at one of the worst crimes the Catholic Church ever committed: The Inquisition. While the Spanish Inquisition is the most famous, there were inquisitions in Rome, Portugal, The New World and tons of colonies in Central and South America. The Inquisition was based on a series of edicts passed by the Catholic church and enforced by local kings and queens. The purpose? To eradicate heretics, supposedly. And who were heretics? Well, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Protestants, those who committed sodomy, families that couldn’t produce children, and many more. In some areas of the world, the Inquisition was pretty mild. The point of the Inquisition was to get heretics to confess, and a few lashes later they were free to go on about their business (as long as the converted to Catholicism or got the hell out of town). But in other areas such as Spain, it got medieval. People were tortured on The Rack, The Catherine Wheel, and the Strappado. They were burned and water boarded. They were imprisoned for years with no real trial, and they were often burned at the stake. Historians vary wildly from this being a pandemic of murder to being a mild case of murder, but death was the result. (Estimates we read were between 1250 and 300,000 deaths…) Spain had it the worst. For one thing, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella just ended a civil war and needed a legal way to get rid of their enemies. Heretics! Second, they needed money to fight a crusade where they would make more money. Heretics! The Inquisition is seen by many as a power grab and last gasp of the old monarchy and papal structure trying to hold on to power. As the world changed, fear of torture and death kept everyone avoiding the change. And for the record, I’m not going to make a “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition” joke here.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.history.com/topics/religion/inquisition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/spanish-inquisition.htm https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-inquisition https://www.historyrevealed.com/eras/medieval/in-a-nutshell-spanish-inquisition/ https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/the-inquisition/the-truth-about-the-spanish-inquisition.html https://historycollection.co/snap-crackle-pop-torture-methods-of-the-spanish-inquisition/  

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the stunts, injuries, films, practical jokes, and television shows of the one and only Johnny Knoxville. Knoxville was inspired as a child by Evil Knievel, Jack Kerouac, and Hunter S. Thompson, and he went on to live a life they all would have been proud of. He was the a producer and main performer in the wildly successful Jackass television show, which went on to spawn several films (with yet more in pre-production all the time). He’s been nominated for an academy award and has injured just about every part of his body that exists. Born Philip John Clapp in Knoxville, Tennessee, he was a very smart and sickly child. At one time he had the flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia all at once; on top of his asthma, it literally almost killed him. He got straight A’s in high school and earned a free ride to a drama school, but dropped out to do his own thing. He wanted to be an actor and stunt man, so he found a way. He started by writing articles for Big Brother, a skating magazine. One day, he wanted to write an article about him testing police devices such as pepper spray and tasers. His editor at the time was Jeff Tremaine (later a producer on Jackass). He told him if he was going to write the article, he may as well film it. The rest was history. With a cadre of skateboarders who were all friends, they launched Jackass. Once the pilot was filmed (where Knoxville broke his ankle), they turned to a friend named Spike Jonze (the academy award winning director) to sell the idea. He got them a deal on MTV. After three seasons, they did several movies, each one more dangerous and ludicrous than the last one. Half of the cast became household names, from Steve-O to Pontius and Wee Man to Bam Margera. They stuff cars up their butts, almost died with crazy explosive rockets, and did things nobody could believe. And then they’d come back for more. And more. And more. Eventually, Johnny Knoxville went on to star in regular movies like Walking Tall with The Rock and Men In Black II. He kept going as the head of his own production company, writes books, and is still doing stunts and getting hurt. What was his favorite prank of them all? What was his worst injury? How did he almost with an Oscar for Bad Grandpa? Who died and made the entire stunt crew slow down? Will there be a Jackass 4? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Knoxville https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/viral-celebrity-why-we-dont-see-much-of-johnny-knoxville-nowadays-20170310 https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/actors/johnny-knoxville-net-worth/#:~:text=Johnny%20Knoxville%20Net%20Worth%3A%20Johnny,net%20worth%20of%20%2475%20million. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsKXq8AQTZE https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a31114432/jackass-bam-margera-johnny-knoxville-steve-o/ https://www.thetalko.

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the ultimate merger of science and magic, the ancient art of Alchemy. Everyone knows that Alchemy was an attempt to turn lead into gold using something called the Philosopher’s Stone. But it was much more than that. At the heart of Alchemy was a philosophy or religion about how the world works and how it ties to the nature of mankind. For centuries, they were considered valid scientists, but eventually, a bunch of Alchemical conmen and religious fervor persecuted them. At this point, they went underground and hid their chemical experiments in symbols and crazy works of art that are just being understood by scholars today. Alchemy is an ancient pseudo-science that dates back thousands of years. It was everywhere from India to China to the Middle East and Europe. Some of the greatest minds in science such as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle were convinced that much of Alchemy was accurate. And it was. For centuries, some of the greatest minds dedicated themselves to chemical experimentation. And yes, they wanted to create gold, but not to get rich. Their philosophy which guided their science was that everything in nature went from an infant or impure state to a more mature or enlightened state. This was the way with holy men, and it was also the way with gold. If they could figure out how to remove impurities and mature a low down metal such as lead, they’d end up with gold. This was spiritual. Because if they could transmute bland metal into gold, they could transmute their soul from sinner to divine. All of the world worked like this to the Alchemist. But, the problem was, it didn’t work like this. Lead isn’t an immature or corrupt version of gold, so their chemical experiments could only get them so far. After a while, everyone believed in it, though, and Alchemists started to promise gold to patrons. They’d get paid, skip town, and do it again. This gave them a bad name, and when real science hit the scene with advances in chemistry, the underlying philosophy of Alchemy was proven incorrect. But, there is a professor named Lawrence Principe who is doing Alchemy today. He has been translate to use old, obscure pictures of dragons eating roosters into chemical formulas. He’s made rocks glow and made golden trees sprout from the sand using these ancient recipes and old materials. So is there something to alchemy, or is it just a failed Neanderthal cousin to modern chemistry? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/alchemy-may-not-been-pseudoscience-we-thought-it-was-180949430/ https://www.livescience.com/39314-alchemy.html https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/alchemy/what-is-alchemy https://library.brown.edu/exhibit/exhibits/show/evolution-of-chemistry/the-language-of-chemistry/alchemical-symbols-as-secret-c https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/01/30/this-chemist-is-unlocking-the-secrets-of-alchemy/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher%27s_stone

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the First Family of Wrestling, the Hart Family. Even if you’re not a fan of the WWE, this one has it all. Shocking in-ring death during a pay per view, a massive corporate screw over at a pay per view, a family of amazing wrestlers for several generations, and training in a horrible place called "The Dungeon." We focus mostly on Stu, Brett, and Owen Hart out of this crazy legacy of amazing superstars, but we touch on plenty of other wrestlers as well. The Hart legacy started with Stu Hart. He was born to humble beginnings but soon became a wrestling phenomenon. He performed for various territories until he got tired of bad writing that never saw him going anywhere. Eventually, he got married and took his own wresting territory called Stampede Wrestling, which controlled Western Canada and Montana. Stu Hart made enough money there to buy an infamous mansion. In the basement of the mansion was The Dungeon, one of the most world famous wresting gyms in the world. He trained Chris Jericho, Edge, Christian, Mark Henry, Chris Benoit, Junkyard Dog, British Bulldog, Roddy Piper, Nikolai Volkov, Gorilla Monsoon, and his own sons and daughters. His training philosophy? Pure pain. From that upbringing came Brett “The Hitman” Hart. He rose to fame in the WWF and became the biggest superstar in the world of professional wrestling. He was known as the “Best there is, best there was, and best there ever will be.” Most pro-wrestlers put him in the top three best wrestlers of all time due to his skills and ability to work the crowd. At the peak of his fame, however, WWF was being beaten in the ratings, and they could no longer afford his expensive contract. Vince McMahon convinced him to get a better deal at rival WCW, and he did. On his last night with the WWF, he experience the Montreal Screwjob which resulted in Brett Hart losing his title without his knowledge, him wrecking the joint in a rage, and him knocking Vince out in the locker room. This wasn’t the only horrible thing that happened to a Hart at pay per view. In fact, we’ll get into the tragic story of Owen Hart, Brett’s youngest brother. He had ups and downs in the ring and went through a couple of different territories, but eventually, he found a place in the WWF. When he was flying in on a stunt cable for a pay per view entrance, however, something went horribly wrong. He fell nearly 80 feet and landed in the ring. He was rushed to the hospital and declared dead within a few hours. This was met with lawsuits and controversy. Why did the stunt rigging fail? Why did WWF hire riggers who wouldn’t follow safety protocols? How much did Owen’s widow sue them for, and was she successful? Why did Vince decide to let the pay per view continue, even though it was technically a crime scene? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources https://talksport.com/sport/wrestling/699850/bret-hart-vince-mcmahon-wwe-wcw-montreal-screwjob-shawn-michaels/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Hart https://www.brethart.com/bio/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stu_Hart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_wrestling_family https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Hart https://www.essentiallysports.

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we researched some true crime for you. We hit you with the case of Richard Chase—the Vampire of Sacramento. I know that title sounds lame, but this guy was as twisted as it gets. We’re talking making smoothies out of neighbor’s pets in a bloody blender. Injecting himself with rabbit’s blood. Obsession over Nazi UFOs. Several murders, cannibalism, and even drinking a baby’s own blood through a straw made of his own penis. Yeah. That kind of twisted. So, everyone says that Richard Chase was the picture perfect pre-serial killer. He checked all the boxes on a thing called the Macdonald Triad, which supposedly predicts your penchant to be a serial killer. He was an arsonist, he wet his bed late, he tortured and killed animals. He was also abused in a financially troubled household. He was very ill, mentally. As early as 18, his therapists said there was something deeply wrong with him. He would do things such as drop a dead cat at his mom’s feet and disembowel it to start drinking the blood. She, as you do, would just walk away. There was so much writing on so many walls. He was arrested for being naked and covered in blood and carrying organs. He told a neighbor he killed his pet and ate it. The guy was sick. Then, his murders started once pets weren’t big enough. He used a .22 for most of his victims, and would shoot them only to mangle them with knives and have sex with the corpses. He’d also take organs and blood back home to eat and drink and make smoothies with. After a horrible mass killing a mother, her son, her nephew, and a baby she was baby sitting, the manhunt was on. The FBI did a crazy accurate profile of him, and a former high school acquaintance gave a tip that finally got him arrested. His house, like his crime scenes, was a thing of pure horror. I’m not going to type it all here, so if you want more, give us a download and then listen, laugh, learn (and be repulsed…). Warning: This is a bad one.   Visit Our Sources: https://murderpedia.org/male.C/c/chase-richard.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Chase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macdonald_triad https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/richard-trenton-chase/ https://allthatsinteresting.com/richard-chase http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Chase,%20Richard%20-%20fall,%202005.pdf

On this episode of the World Famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life, music, antics, and tv shows of the epic Ozzy Osbourne. Whether it be through his early time in the legendary Black Sabbath, through his amazing solo career, biting heads off bats (or doves), or his show The Osbournes, most people know the name Ozzy. His work in Black Sabbath created an entirely new type of metal rock and roll, and they crafted some of the greatest rock hits ever. Ozzy continued with hit after hit and drug after drug in his own solo career and lived a life worthy of discussion. He was born to a working class family in Birmingham. His birth name was John Michael Osbourne, but he took the nickname Ozzy as a child. He battled with learning disabilities and dyslexia, and he was sexually abused by other kids as a child, and this led him to hate school, rebel, and start doing drugs. After hearing the Beatles for the first time, he knew his path was going to be that of a musician. But he started in a short career in crime, getting busted for burglary and doing a brief stint in jail. When he got out, he met the other musicians that would set his destiny. He joined a band formed by bass player Terence “Geezer” Butler, guitarist Tony Iommi, and drummer Bill Ward. They called themselves Earth, but had to change the name. They settled, thankfully, on Black Sabbath. This group of musicians changed the face of rock and created the type of metal that ushered in everyone from Metallica to Guns N’ Roses. With hits like Paranoid, Iron Man, and War Pigs, they climbed the charts. And did so many drugs. Eventually, Ozzy was fired for being too wild and had to fly solo. Unlike many front men now without an act, Ozzy excelled. He kept churning out classics and hits. In this period he met Sharon and had his second batch of kids (he had a first wife and first set of kids but wasn’t ever there for them). They, of course, were chronicled in the TV show, The Osbournes. It was the highest rated show on MTV, back when MTV had high ratings. It won an Emmy, and it made a whole different generations and types of people come to love Ozzy. In fact, the show is sometimes credited for giving his darker music a more global audience since they were able to finally see him for the genius that he was after the show humanized him. So what type of drugs did Ozzie do? How many times did he quit music, and why did he always go back? How times did he quit drugs, and why did he always go back? What happened the time he tried to strangle Sharon? Did he really bite the head off a bat and a dove? What is the Ozzy Stare?Did he really dip his balls in a music executive’s champaigne glass? When was he diagnosted with Parkinsons? Is he still recording music? Listen, laugh, and learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/musician/ozzy-osbourne https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-02-12/ozzy-osbourne-parkinsons-disease-post-malone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzy_Osbourne https://www.festivalsherpa.com/10-facts-ozzy-osbourne-will-make-jaws-drop/ https://www.factinate.com/people/42-wild-facts-ozzy-osbourne/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Osbournes https://www.pensandpatron.cm/lifestyle/osbourne-family/

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we take a look back in time and explore the life, crimes, and assassination of Old West Outlaw, Jesse James. He was forged in the middle of the Civil War, and at the young age of 16, a brutal attack on his family farm made him join a confederate guerilla army along with his brother Frank. While there, they scalped, murdered, and mutilated the Northern forces. This gave them a very particular set of skills, skills which they turned to a life of crime. They joined or formed several of the most notorious gangs of the time, robbing banks, trains, and stagecoaches, murdering, warring with the Pinkertons, and living on the wrong side of the law. Jesse James was born to a wealthy preacher and plantation owner along with his brother Frank and a sister. They lived in a part of the border between North and South that was critical in the Civil War. Their county was rich with slaves, and when the war officially started, both sides committed horrible acts of savagery in this part of the nation. It was here that Frank and Jesse learned to shoot, ride, and be otherwise badass. When the days of the militia and the war wound down, they did not. They started to rob and kill everyone who was associated with the North. Northern trains and banks owned by the “enemy” were the targets. This and a very successful public relations campaign with the newspaper editor named John Newman Edwards gave Jesse James a massive reputation. He was seen by his community to be not a murderer and outlaw but a Robin Hood who was righting the wrongs of the war. But in spite of this public opinion, he did murder. He admitted to killing a little girl and shot people in the head or the back while robbing banks. Eventually, he married his cousin Zee and kept the crime train rolling. Eventually, Jesse and Frank formed the James-Younger Gang, and they became a national sensation. They became so famous that the founder of the Pinkerton Agency came after them directly. Eventually, they tried to retire, but Jesse kept going back to crime. Eventually, he formed a small gang with Charlie and Robert Ford. The Fords were offered a major bribe by the Governor to capture of kill Jesse James, and one day, Robert Ford shot Jesse in the back of the head, assassination style. So, what became of the Ford Brothers after this killing? How much money were they offered? Did Jesse know this was coming? What came of Frank James? How does the modern day car guy tie in to the Jesse James lineage? How did a bomb blow off Jesse James’s mother’s arm? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/jesse-james https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_James https://www.wbur.org/npr/212374395/what-drove-wild-wests-jesse-james-to-become-an-outlaw https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/james-jesse/ https://www.whizzpast.com/25-little-known-facts-about-the-outlaw-jesse-james/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_James_(customizer) https://en.wikipedia.

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we explore some true crime and hit you with the astounding tale of the Sun Gym Gang. This was a gang of bumbling criminals who did some awful stuff to people. It was made into a Michael Bay movie called Pain and Gain starring The Rock, but it was far more dark than that comedy seemed to make it all play out. This one involves a gang of people who met in a gym and their career of kidnapping, torture, drugging their hostages, murder, Medicare fraud, and dressing as ninjas. Yes. Ninjas. So where did it all start? In Florida. A man named John Meese owned the Sun Gym, a place for serious body builders. It was losing money, so he hired a conman named Daniel Lugo who immediately convinced Meese that he should be head manager. While there, Lugo looked for victims and found others who he’d trust to help with his upcoming crimes. People such as Noel Doorbal and Jorge Delgado. They eventually struck gold once they met Marc Shiller. Delgado had bought a scam Medicare billing business off of him and claimed he was owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, the gang decided to posse up and kidnapped Shiller. Over the course of several weeks, they tortured Schiller (in his own home) until they got him to sign over a one million dollar offshore account as well as other assets. They took his cars, furniture, computers, and brought them all home to use them. Once they were done with him, they got him drunk and put him at the wheel of a car, figuring he’d wreck and die. He wrecked. He didn’t die. So, like you do, they lit him on fire with gasoline to kill him. He didn’t die and got away. Next crime. Through a stripper contact, they found a guy named Frank Griga and his girlfriend Krisztina Furton. He was wort millions through phone sex. So they abducted both of them and planned to do the same thing. But it got violent, and Griga was killed in a struggle. Furton didn’t fare much better. She was given enough of a horse tranquilizer to kill several horses in an attempt to get her to tell them the security codes of the house. She died before she would. Meanwhile, Schiller recovered, and his story was so crazy that the cops didn’t believe him. He even hired a private eye, but it came to nothing since the cops didn’t help. But, once Griga went missing, and is Lamborghini was found, they took it seriously. The names of Lugo and Doorbal came up in this investigation, and it tied to the Schiller case, and then it all fell apart for the Sun Gym Gang. What evidence did the cops find at the gang member’s houses while putting together the case? How long did they live in house of their first victim? What type of sentences did they all get? How accurate is the movie to the real situation? Why did the first victim end up doing jail time after the trial of his kidnappers? What happened when they tried to decapitate Griga’s corpse with a chainsaw? Will Home Depot take a bloody murder chainsaw back if you have a receipt? Listen, laugh, learn   Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Gym_gang https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/pain-and-gain-where-the-real-life-sun-gym-gang-characters-are-now-6391577 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pain-and-gain-the-real-life-story-behind-miamis-murderous-sun-gym-gang/ https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/pain-and-gain.php

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the wealthiest man on earth, Jeff Bezos. Originally, a seller of books, Bezos has become our overlord. Most people in America rely on him for everything from groceries and clothing to furniture and even television shows. He runs one of the largest space exploration companies on earth, Blue Origin, and the Amazon servers are one of the largest hosting backbones on earth (even serving the CIA). From the birth of the Internet to controversy about how his workers are treated, this one has it all. Bezos was born to parents who divorced right away, and he was raised by his step father, an immigrant named Bezos. He was a smart child and did very well at school, graduating with top honors from both his high school and Princeton. When he was a teen-ager, he even started a group that was dedicated to space exploration, something he’s still focusing on to this day. He started working for various startups and landed a great job at a financial firm in New York, but in a very ballsy move, he quit and headed to Seattle to start an online bookstore. He figured that the stock market would always be there, but the start of the internet would only happen once. So, he launched out of his garage, showing the website to a group of friends for support. His parents invested a few hundred thousand dollars, and he was off and running. Within three years, Amazon went public, and it slowly grew into the juggernaut it is today. He eventually branched out from selling books to selling CDs and movies, and then went on to streaming to take Netflix on. Eventually, Amazon started to sell almost everything, and by 2018, he had over 100,000,000 Prime members paying their annual dues for free two day shipping and any number of digital services. He started to spend hundreds of millions of his earnings from Amazon (eventually a billion a year) on Blue Origin, a project designed to keep humanity alive and get them to colonize other planets. Eventually, he bought the Washington Post newspaper. Many people think it was to help control his image because at the same time, he quit driving and old car and dressing casually and started to look like a James Bond villain instead. So what is his management style like? What do people say about his personality? Why do some people think he’ll become the first trillionaire? What are the controversies around how he treats his workers? What’s up with his fashion transformation, and how much will it cost for him to send you to space? Listen, laugh, learn   Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/business-figure/jeff-bezos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/#728b5bf1b238 https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/05/14/jeff-bezos-worlds-first-trillionaire-sparks-heated-debate/5189161002/ https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/jeffrey-p-bezos/ https://qz.com/1799608/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-finds-new-ways-to-spend-money/ https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/333159 https://www.workandmoney.com/s/jeff-bezos-wealth-facts-1be9a1efeb8b467a

On this episode of the world Famous Sofa King Podcast, we do a dive into the history of the video game and look at the rise and fall of Atari. The world of video games would not exist without the innovation of Atari. They started the video arcade with the invention of the coin operated video game, and just when that changed all of entertainment for millions of kids in the 70s and 80s, they created the at home video game console. Then there was the time they made the ET video game, considered by many to be the worst there ever was. It was so bad, they buried the unsold copies in a land fill instead of try to sell them. From rock star nerds at the birth of silicon valley to corporate sellouts, Atari had it all. The company was started by two visionaries named Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. They were computer engineers who would visit campuses like the University of Utah and MIT just to play the video games that only computer engineers could play on the only five computers in America that could run them. Eventually, they realized that making video games end up like pinball machines, where you play for a quarter, they started their quest. Their first game was developed for a company called Nutting Associates. It was a confusing thing called Computer Space. It didn’t sell well and was hard to play. Within a few years, they developed and programmed Pong, and it was a wild hit. It spread through bars and pizza parlors and arcades and made Atari some real money. As processors got cheaper, they made arcade games like Asteroids, Tempest, Missile Command, Centipede, and Paper Boy. But as they drove around collected quarters (yes, they got 50% of the take, so they had to collect in the early days), there were other computer innovations that made home computing cheap enough to afford. Thus, they created the Atari 2600. This console is still considered the most successful gaming console ever. It sold the Atari games, but more importantly, it licensed home version of games made by other companies, like the epic Space Invaders. In fact, Taito’s Space Invaders made Atari sell more sets than any of their own games The other great thing about Atari was that it revenge of the nerds. The engineers and computer programmers in the early days partied like rock stars. There was booze on site, a brigade that voted on marijuana quality, hot tub parties, women coming and going, and even Steven Spielberg wanted them. This was what led to the disaster that was ET, right during the first video game winter. Atari crashed and burned once they were purchased by Warner, but they struggled to stay relevant. Though they still exist, they are shadow of their previous greatness. If you are over 40, you remember them fondly, and if you aren’t, you should do some retro gaming and learn yourself something, young’un!   Visit Our Sources: https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/20/ign-presents-the-history-of-atari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/04/pong-atari-and-the-origins-of-the-home-video-game.html https://www.npr.org/2017/05/31/530235165/total-failure-the-worlds-worst-video-game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16/185 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari,_Inc. https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-atari-1991225 https://backtothegaming.com/2018/05/11/the-history-of-atari/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqMicrUywSY

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at one of the greatest military leaders in human history, Alexander the Great. Alexander was born in the Greek kingdom of Macedonia in 356 B.C. He was the son of a powerful king and queen, and after Game of Thrones type ups and downs, he took Macedonia as king after his father was assassinated. From there, Alexander conquered Greece and moved to India, Egypt, and even Persia (the Middle East). By the time he was 32, he was considered "King of Babylon, King of Asia, King of the Four Quarters of the World." Alexander was born to King Philip II and Queen Olympia. While he was a boy, his father had him trained in everything from music to military, swordsmanship to horsemanship, and even philosophy (at the hands of the one and only Aristotle). By the time he was 16, he formed a cavalry and defeated an until then undefeatable group called the Sacred Band of Thebes. At the age of 19, his father was murdered by his own body guard, and after a brief struggle for power, Alexander was declared king of Macedonia. However, his father’s biggest legacy was a body of joined states called the Corinthian League, and they didn’t bow down to Alexander. Until he made them. One by one, the Greek states fell to Alexander’s army, and even the mighty Spartans joined this new League with Alexander as its head. Once Greece was his, Alexander set his sights at the biggest military target there was—Persia. It was said to be impossible to defeat their massive army, but in just a few years, Alexander had their king Darius III on the run. He next took Egypt and India, and all of Persia, becoming the king of the known world. He established over 70 cities named Alexandria (some of which still exist today with the same name). After his 13 year run of zero defeats in battle, what finally made his army say enough and want to head back? What was his reaction when is enemy Darius III was killed by his own army? What was the story with his mighty horse Bucephalus? Was Alexander the Great truly bisexual? Was he truly a drunk? How did he undo the famed Gordian Knot? Did he conquer more than Genghis Khan did? Listen, laugh, learn.     Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/political-figure/alexander-the-great https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/alexander-the-great https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-alexander-the-great/ https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/greek-history/top-10-amazing-facts-about-alexander-the-great/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Corinth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_period