Sofa King Podcast

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we discuss a cult leader (or commune founder?) and spiritual love guru named Father Yod. Yod (pronounced like “load”) was originally named James Edward Baker. James Baker was a very interesting man, if you believe the tales about his past. He was a World War II Marine who allegedly won the Silver Star at the battle Guadalcanal. He killed a man, twice, after the war. He was friends with Jack Lalane and the guy who founded Dr. Brag’s amino acid and vinegar company. All this lead to him being one of the most influential people in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s and a cult called The Source Family. James Baker left his family to move to LA and become a stunt man. It didn’t work, and he found himself hanging out with hippies and beatniks. Allegedly, he robbed two banks and made the money to open a restaurant called The Source. The Source was the first vegetarian/health food restaurant to ever open in LA. It was a massive success ($10,000 a day) and attracted movie stars and film producers. Many say it set the course of LA cuisine and made it the healthy, kale loving city it is today. Baker had studied yoga under the famous Yogi Bhajan. He started to teach at his restaurant and attracted a following of his own. Next thing you know, he’s renamed Father Yod. He starts to recruit young girls, and he makes so much money in his restaurants that he buys a mansion and starts a love commune. Or a cult. Hard to say. A documentary of footage from their own cameras paints a picture of a commune that shares and doesn’t have the typical heavy-handed cult leader. But, the group had influence on the film, so it could just be propaganda? There was sex, multiple wives, crazy beliefs, indoctrination, underage brides, and all the stuff you expect from a cult, but it never got cult dark. Whatever this thing was, Father Yod left a major impression on LA, and to this day his people love him and keep their crazy cult names.   Visit Our Sources: https://filmdaily.co/obsessions/true-crime/the-source-family/ https://gizmodo.com/how-the-source-family-turned-sex-drugs-and-rock-n-ro-1563127606 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Yod https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_Family https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xd4wv7/source-family-rises-again https://www.ranker.com/list/source-family-cult-facts/drew-grant https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/wtf/the-truly-bizarre-story-of-father-yods-cult/news-story/95e5136dd4cd65b2417064a082987c39 https://laist.com/2019/11/29/source_family_restaurant_vegetarian_dinner_gratitude_kitchen_dec_5.php http://venetic.co/ImGonna.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8MsHfReCQc  

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time and look at a little known cult slash political revolt known as the Münster Rebellion. Back in Castle Times, the German city of Munster became home to a group of three men (Bernhard Rothman, Jan Matthys, and John of Leiden) who staged a coup against royalty and the Roman Catholic Church in 1535. They threw out the Bishop and the city council, and they replaced the town with their own communist, pacifists, polygamist sect known as the Anabaptists. This devolved quickly, and involved orgies, a brutal siege that lead to a siege, starvation, cannibalism, torture and beheadings. So many beheadings. The backdrop to this madness was a time in European history known as the Protestant Reformation. It was when the stranglehold of the Catholic church was broken by people like Henry VIII and Martin Luther. Once there were religious power vacuums, new ideas spread like wildfire. In fact, many historians liken the Anabaptist religion to a hydra with heads springing up everywhere. The first head belonged to a guy named Melchior Hoffmann, who advocated communal living (a huge no-no to the landed aristocracy) and religious freedom (a huge no-no to the Catholic Church). He was arrested for his crazy thoughts, but his ideas had already taken root in the fertile soil of chaos that was Europe. Cut to Münster. Here, the priest Bernhard Rothman basically took over the city by replacing everyone in power with a friendly Anabaptist. Even the Prince Bishop had to leave. In this power vacuum, a man named Jan Matthys took control. He moved to Münster because he had heard there were religious freedoms there. He quickly took over with his charisma. He banned private property, established a communal living situation, and wen tot war with the banished Bishop who put the city under siege. Now, Matthys had himself a vision that on Easter Sunday, his Lord God would make everything right, so he and a couple dozen men stormed the army waiting outside of town. They were captured, and he was beheaded and had his testicles nailed to the city gate. In this new power void a man named John of Leiden took over. He went buck wild. He forced all women to marry (which lead to polygamy since they outnumbered men three to one). He forced people to become Anabaptist or starve and get none of the communal pot. He cut heads off for laughing at him, not converting, and even killed one of his sixteen wives for telling him she didn’t want the stolen jewelry John gave her. The city starved while John and his boys partied, until eventually, the Bishop stormed the city and took it back. What horrible fate did John meet (trust me, it was worse than genitals nailed to a door)? How long did this siege last? How did the Bishop afford an army and a lengthy siege? What happened to the Anabaptists after this Munster Rebellion? Why to people compare the Muster Rebellion to formation of the Islamic State today? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.thelocal.de/20180503/muenster-theocracy-history-anabaptists https://www.thelocal.de/20140328/16th-century-mayhem-in-muenster-with-jan-van-leiden-expat-dispatches-the-local-germany https://www.danceshistoricalmiscellany.com/munster-rebellion-creation-16th-century-theocracy/ https://medium.com/interesting-histories/interesting-histories-munster-rebellion-8551376...

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at Woodstock. Not only was it the most important music festival ever, it set the tone and soundtrack of an entire generation. It helped the nation stop thinking of hippies in so bad a light, and it created the careers of several of the largest musical acts of the era. What started as a music festival that was supposed to make people a lot of money and attract upwards of 50,000 people, became a free hippie love fest of a half a million people that bankrupted the concert planners. When four guys in the music industry decided to have a music festival in New York state, they named their new group after an area where musicians like Bob Dylan would play—an area known as Woodstock. They started looked for large areas of open land that could house their enormous dream, and they settled on Howard Mills Industrial Park in Wallkill, New York. The people of the town, however, voted against the dirty hippies and shut it down with only 6 weeks left to plan. The guys instead found a 600 acre dairy farm owned by Max Yasgur. The crew scrambled to get things ready. They decided they either had time to build a stage and a lighting tower or build a fence and ticket counters. They decided on the stage, which was a good thing. Soon, before the festival even stared, 50,000 people stormed the gates, and made Woodstock a free festival. Within days, a ten mile stretch of highway was filled with abandoned cars. The entire city nearby was shut down as half a million hippies flocked to the show. An estimated half a million more went the other way and headed back home when they encountered the traffic jam to beat all traffic jams. The acts had to be flown in by the national guard. Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Santana, The Grateful Dead, Credence Clearwater Revival, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker, and Jimi Hendrix just to name a few! But it wasn’t the dream concert some people make it out to be. Raw sewage merged with rain water and the floor around the stage was a dung filled mud pit. It took an hour to get to the bathroom. There was hardly any food because no regular food vender would work there, and two of the three original food stalls got burned to the ground in anger when they raised hot dog prices. Security was mostly comprised of a guy named Wavy Gravy and his workers from a hog farm co-op. They enforced the law by throwing pies at people and hitting them squirts of seltzer water. Like you do. Everything was laced with drugs, and people were roofied left and right. There was dope, sex, acid, music, sex, skinny dipping, more dope, more sex, music, and mud and sex and music. If you want to get nostalgic for the 60s, turn on, tune in, drop out, listen, laugh, and learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/08/woodstock-50-photos-1969/596107/ https://www.woodstock.com/ https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/woodstock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock https://www.aier.org/article/woodstock-occurred-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic/ https://allthatsinteresting.com/woodstock-festival-1969 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAGVGNWQ2Hc  

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we explore a little known mass hallucination event in a small town in France. It was August 15, 1951, in the small town of Pont-Saint-Esprit in southern France. Roughly 300 people fell ill, including 50 people sent to insane asylums and 7 deaths. Theories range from ergot poisoning to tainted bleached bread, but the best of all links it to the CIA’s MK Ultra mind control program and the use of LSD. So, what happened in Pont-Saint-Esprit? The morning of August 15, people started to fall ill, and the waiting rooms at all doctor offices were at capacity. At first, the symptoms were basic stuff like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Then the symptoms got strange—mass insomnia, and people started to smell like dead mice. Then? The whole village went plumb crazy. Journalists on the scene recorded a staggering amount of hallucinations. For example, one man shouted to his room-mates “I’m dead! My head is made of copper and I have snakes in my stomach!” A girl thought she was being attacked by tigers, and a man nearly died after jumping in a river to drown his belly full of snakes. Another guy was being chased by bandits with donkey ears. You get the picture. So, how did this happen? The French Government investigated and came up with a lot of theories such as poisoning by the ergot fungus (known in history to have caused mass hysteria such as the Salem Witch Trials). They also pointed to a chemical called Panogen used to clean wheat containers and even a tainted water supply. Interestingly, the government failed to consider the source of the grain itself, which is the first conspiracy. You see, the French government controlled the supply of grain, so they didn’t want to blame themselves. More recently, a scholar named Steven Kaplan wrote a book and concluded it was due to illegal chemical bleach poisoning by the baker who tried to make the flour as white as possible. However, the big doozy is from journalist Hank P. Albarelli Jr. He started to study the suicide of the CIA’s Doctor Frank Olson. This led him down a rabbit hole of MKULTRA and something called MKNAOMI, both of which involved the creators of LSD, a major chemical factory near the town, and typical CIA tomfoolery. If you like a good CIA cover up, this is the episode for you. Visit Our Sources: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-10996838 http://www.tootlafrance.ie/features/the-idyllic-french-village-that-went-insane https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/558020/pont-saint-esprit-france-1951-bread-poisoning-mass-hallucinations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951_Pont-Saint-Esprit_mass_poisoning https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/arts/24iht-blume.1.14718462.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKNAOMI https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qbw8vv/the-great-french-acid-trip-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Gottlieb  

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life, laughs, and legacy of one of the greatest comedians of all time—George Carlin. Carlin was made most famous for his “7 Dirty Words” set. It got him arrested and made him fight the FCC all the way to the supreme court. He took on the mantle of the vulgar prophet, a man who would cut society and humanity to the quick but do it with a laugh. From cocaine heart attacks to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, George Carlin had a hell of a run. He was born in New York to a mother who left his drunken father to raise two boys by herself. He did well in school due to his sharp intellect but was kicked out due his bad attitude, and eventually dropped out before he could graduate. After a stint in the Air Force (where he was courts-martialed three times!), he took to work at the local radio station. He teamed up with Jack Burns, and they started a funny radio hour which was successful enough for them to get picked up by a bigger station in LA. From there, they made an album together, and Carlin started to hone his stand-up routine. He played a more traditional role, wearing a suit and staying clean, until he was discovered by the first shock comedian, Lenny Bruce. Bruce helped mentor Carlin, and they even got arrested together for Bruce’s vulgarity on stage. Eventually, Carlin changed his act. Instead of a suit and standard material, he wore jeans and a tee shirt with a beard and long hair. This was the 60s after all. His manager warned that he’d lose 90% of his business, and he did, but eventually he rebounded even better as his true, cut throat self. He performed the epic “7 Dirty Words” bit that go him arrested. A radio station played the bit from his record, and they had to fight all the way to the supreme court as a result. In his comedy, George Carlin was known to be anti-government, anti-religion, anti-corporation, anti-humanity, pro critical thought, pro-independence, and pro cocaine. His bits are still some of the funniest, most shocking and honest assessments of all of the human condition, and if you haven’t listened to him much, you need to do so. Right after you download this episode and listen to it first, that is… Visit Our Sources: Your Rights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gkjWxCl6zE https://www.biography.com/performer/george-carlin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Carlin https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/george-carlins-shocking-prescience-on-the-nights-before-911 https://www.motherjones.com/media/1997/03/george-carlin/ https://georgecarlin.com/ https://www.npr.org/transcripts/120502583 https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Carlin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we take a look at a very unique crime lord, the so-called Queen Pin of crack cocaine, Jemeker Thompson. She was overlooked by the competition and the feds since women didn’t deal drugs on that scale, but she is said to have been in control of virtually all crack coming in to South Central LA in the 1980s during their crack epidemic. Jemeker was born to a poor, single mother in South Central. She had five siblings. One fateful day, they all came home to find they had been evicted from their apartment. She looked at all her worldly possession sitting on the lawn and had no place to live. This lack of money and control set her on a path of greed and cunning. By high school, she was a talented enough runner to be training for the 1984 Olympics. At her meets she met a low end pot dealer named Anthony "Daff" Mosley. They fell in love, and she started to sell his pot in her high school. Eventually, she got addicted to the money and thrill and told Duff they needed to switch to cocaine. He refused. She didn’t. And the Queen Pin was born. She eventually learned how to make crack cocaine and shifted their business to this new drug. The first day, she sold half a key from her mother’s window. The next day, a full key. Within a week, she was selling multiple kilograms a day. They got rich fast. I’m talking, they moved into Michael Jackson’s neighborhood rich. (But only after Duff cheated on Jemeker, and she shot at him. It was an apology house.). It reached a point where everyone knew that they were the key to crack in LA and eventually most parts of the nation. Someone decided to shut them down by murdering Duff at a craps game. But he wasn’t in charge, and the empire just grew. What did Jemeker do to launder her money? How come her laundering business became successful enough for her to get out of the drug game (though she didn’t)? What happened with a courier was busted with 30 keys of coke on the way to Vegas? Did the CIA help her from getting arrested? What finally brought her down, and how did she go from the queen of crack and hair extensions to a minister? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/jemeker-thompson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemeker_Thompson https://www.sunsigns.org/famousbirthdays/d/profile/jemeker-thompson/ https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/126/1032/497938/ https://listverse.com/2014/09/12/10-of-the-richest-and-most-powerful-female-crime-lords-ever/

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we take a look at some true crime and investigate the disappearance of Madeline McCann. Madeline was a three year old British girl who was with her family on vacation in Portugal in 2007. While she slept alongside her two year old twin brother and sister, her parents ate tapas and partied at a restaurant on the other side of the pool. Several hours later, when the parents came to check on them, Madeline was famously missing. So, what happened? There is a lot of speculation about that. What is known is that the three children were asleep with the parents, Kate and Gerry McCann went to dinner and drinks. They checked on the sleeping kids from time to time. At one point, the father found them to be asleep but noticed their bedroom door wasn’t where it was when he last checked. At another point, a friend checked on them but didn’t bother going as far as the bedroom to actually look at the kids. Eventually, at 10:20 PM, Kate went in and found Madeline missing. She sounded the alarm, and the entire resort staff started searching and calling her name. The police came, and then some other ones came, and they did an investigation. But, the investigation was botched. The crime scene was left open and therefore corrupted, and basic things like locking down the town or doing a door to door search happened hours or days too late. There was a sighting called the Tanner Sighting which pointed police in a direction (which proved to be the wrong direction). What are the theories of missing Madeline? One biggie that the Portuguese police pursued was that the parents did it. They either gave Madeline a sedative to sleep through their party, and gave her too much, or they left her alone she met some accident in the apartment. They hid the body and covered it up. But then there are other disturbing theories—pedophiles took her and killed her; she was sold into slavery; or she woke up and wandered off and died. Either way, the family spent a ton of money keeping their daughter’s name and face in the press, and the investigation is still going. If you want to know what we think happened, you’ll have to download and dig it! Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Madeleine_McCann https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/madeleine-mccann-disappearance-latest-what-happened-scenarios-a8632886.html https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/madeleine-mccann https://allthatsinteresting.com/madeleine-mccann https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/madeleine-mccann-suspect-martin-ney-paedophile-police-investigation-a8900256.html  

  On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at a little known cult that started in the 1980s called The Buddhafield. The Buddhafield was a group of people initially from Southern California who found a new type of family with each other, under the guidance of “The Teacher.” The Teacher, also known as Michel, Andreas, or Jaime Gonzalez, led them into some LSD type hypno therapy god hunting body trips. They loved each other; they loved him; they found peace. Until they didn’t, and Michel started to have sex with male members of the group (often against their will) and do your typical cult control over all of them. The story is mostly known thanks to a man named Will Allen who made a documentary called Holy Hell. He is an ex-member of this group, and due to his background in film, he was considered the unofficial documentarian of the group. He filmed The Teacher, the students, the spiritual retreats, and the daily lives of the Buddhafield family. In fact, he was one of Michel’s closest allies in the group (and among other tasks, he was on call 24 hours a day to give him massages). Michel held sessions with the group, such as The Shakti Retreat, in which he gave them parts of his own spiritual power. The biggie, though, was called The Knowing. It was a multiple day ceremony which was capped with him letting his followers fully, truly know god. The funny thing is, they actually believed all this stuff was true. So much so, that even when the abuse and cult weirdness started, many of them stayed because they didn’t want to have to quit the strange spiritual highs that Michel—and only Michel—was able to take them on. The Buddhafield group started as a reinvented family of people who just wanted to find meaning in life, and it turned, inevitably, to a cult. Michel started to charge them for therapy sessions, many of which ended in forced sex. He threatened that they’d die if they left and even asked members of the group to ruin the lives of defectors by getting the IRS to attack them. He forced abortions on the women if they wanted to stay, and he had many of the members living as his servants. Yet somehow, they all still loved the Buddhafield family enough to endure it. Finally, there was a breaking point, and a great defection of members, but it still exists, and the Teacher is still out there teaching. If you dig cults, this is the episode for you!       Visit Our Sources: Holy Hell Documentary: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80097438?source=35 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhafield_(cult) https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/interviews/a45261/holy-hell-buddhafield-documentary-will-allen-interview/ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/holy-hell-cult-documentary_n_5744c96ae4b055bb11708e51 https://psmag.com/news/how-to-escape-from-a-cult-in-the-21st-century https://www.npr.org/2016/05/26/479635824/cult-survivor-documents-2-decades-inside-holy-hell  

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time and look at a legend of the 1980s, John DeLorean. DeLorean was a very gifted engineer and marketer who invented the category of the muscle car with the creation of the GTO. His rise through the ranks of Detroit’s Big Auto made him the top rival of Ford, and a celebrity as well. He eventually built the iconic DMC-12 made immortal by the Back to the Future movies and then blew it all in an FBI arranged 220 pound cocaine deal. Like you do. John DeLorean was born where else, but Detroit Michigan. He was the son of two immigrants (and an abusive father), and he was smart. He went to the best schools due to his grades and intellect, and eventually got multiple degrees, even though he took a pause to go fight in WWII. When he returned, he took a few jobs and eventually got work at the Packard company. He thrilled his bosses there, and when Packard merged with another company, he left and joined General Motors. It was there that his star rose. He created the Pontiac GTO and in so doing, gave birth to the muscle car. GM leaders didn’t want this car, and DeLorean had to lie and fight to get it made, but it was wildly successful. He created other big car lines and jumped higher and higher up the corporate ladder. But his Hollywood life style, casual looks, big mouth, and defiance made him unpopular. Eventually, a speech he wanted to give leaked, and he parted ways just before he would have likely become president of GM. So, off he went to design his own car and create his own car company. It took a decade to go from concept to factory floor. He lined up investors (even famous ones like Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Junior), and he had to open a plant in Ireland due to tax breaks he was afforded there, but he finally produced the DMC-12. His goal was to make the best care possible: best for safety, best for speed, best for aesthetics, best for the environment. But he didn’t. It had a small motor that couldn’t push the weight of stainless steel frame. It was prohibitively expensive. The doors jammed, and it had a lot of problems. A friend of his had a solution to fix his financial mess. Join with him and buy 220 pounds of  cocaine and sell them to get liquid cash to save the company. So DeLorean joined forces with this guy, and it turned out to be an FBI sting. The star of Detroit was now a world-renowned drug dealer with a collapsed car company. So what happened to DeLorean once he was busted? What type of legal wrangling got him away from jail time? Why do some people think he conned everyone, including the FBI in this drug deal? What happened when he tried to create a new DMC years later? What happened to the company he started? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeLorean https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/delorean-john https://www.forbes.com/sites/chucktannert/2019/07/26/john-delorean-reinvented-the-dream-car-then-he-totaled-it/#76b287d514ef https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-z-delorean-is-arrested-in-24-million-cocaine-deal https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/john-delorean-dmc-facts/ https://www.mentalfloss.

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about one of the ultimate sex symbols and icons of popular culture—Marilyn Monroe. She came from a horrible upbringing and through sheer force of will (and marketing savvy) rose to become of one of the greatest movie starts of all time. She married Joe DiMaggio and legendary playwright Arthur Miller, sometimes slept her way to the top, and allegedly had an affair with both John F Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. Love her or hate her, she was pure force of will in Hollywood and totally changed the way the town, and actresses, worked. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in a hospital in LA. She never knew who her father was, and her mother was in and out of mental institutions her entire childhood. This left young Normal Jean at the hands of the foster system. She was raped at age 11 and had a horrible upbringing with no stability or love. At the age of 16, she married a merchant marine just to be able to get out of the foster system. When he was off serving in WWII, she worked a munitions plant. One day, a photographer came by to take pictures of women in factories making a difference for the war. Her career as a model began like a rocket. Within a few years, she was on dozens of magazine covers and was allegedly having an affair with an executive at 20th Century Fox. She got a contract with them to make some movies, but she was off to a slow start. She was always late to the set, and she was too shy to really shine and impress any directors. But she had work (and divorced her husband) and kept manipulating the system PR in interesting ways to rise to the top. And rise to the top she did. Her movies made hundreds of millions, and she slowly became the face of her generation. She married sports legends and intellectuals and had sexual affairs with people in the industry who could (and did) advance her career. But she was not without controversy. She had trouble when old nude photos appeared on the scene (trouble which she turned in her favor). Eventually, she started getting more serious roles and winning awards for them. She started to shed the image of the ditzy blonde bombshell and become a legit actress. But by then, her depression had gotten bad, and she’d grown addicted to barbiturates and sleeping pills. She allegedly had affairs with one (or two) of the Kennedy brothers, and she was found dead in her room of an apparent overdose at the age of 36. Or was she? Conspiracy theories abound. Did the mob kill her for some reason? Did the Kennedy’s have her killed to keep their affairs a secret? Did she die on the way to a hospital with Robert Kennedy, who then had her body placed back in her house until he could leave town? Is there any truth to the fact that she might have had sex with Albert Einstein? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/actor/marilyn-monroe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marilyn-monroe-is-found-dead https://www.notablebiographies.com/Mo-Ni/Monroe-Marilyn.html https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/19268/14-breathless-facts-about-marilyn-monroe https://medium.com/the-nonfiction-zone/18-fascinating-facts-about-marilyn-monroe-f074cc...

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the notorious Killdozer. This homemade battle tank was created a man named Marvin Heemeyer in 2002. He used it in Granby, Colorado and went on a rampage of revenge against the big wigs in city hall and the owner of a cement factory that he tried to stop from being built. Some people celebrate June 4 as Killdozer day—the day a little guy got revenge against government can factories. Others think he was a nut job who was told by God to run rampant through town and put a lot of folks in danger. Marv was ex Air force, and he settled in Granby after he got out of the service. He found a home he loved and moved in and started work in a muffler shop. In no time, he owned his own muffler shop, and was an ideal citizen. He snowmobiled, did work for the police, and was the best welder in town. He bought some property, and in doing so, outbid a man named Cody Docheff, and this is where the trouble started. Docheff wanted to build a concrete factory right next to Marv’s property. To make things worse, city hall seemed to be overtly on Docheff’s side. They rezoned Marv’s property and forced him to connect to a sewer line. However, the sewer line was hundreds of feet away and would have cost about $80,000 to get it set up. Oh, and he would have to get permission to build under Docheff’s property, which he was denied. So as a result, the city fined him $100 a day and at one point even refused to take his check. Marv fought back legally, starting a lawsuit, and even having the fine points of the concrete plant gone over by a lawyer. Nothing he could do would stop the people who ran the town from siding with Docheff, and eventually, Marv bought a giant bulldozer from California and turned it into a bullet-proof tank. Like you do. At points, its armor was a foot thick. It had video cameras, fresh air circulation, and gun ports for things as large as his .50 caliber rifle. He went on a rampage through town, which was caught on pretty amazing video. So, how many people died at the hands of the Killdozer? Was the city really so complicit in supporting the concrete factory? How did the Killdozer finally get stopped? What happened when Marv targeted industrial sized propane tanks with his sniper rifle? Why did he think God was telling him to do all this? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbG9i1oGPA https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/06/09/killdozer-day-marvin-heemeyer/ https://www.damninteresting.com/the-wrath-of-the-killdozer/ https://sofrep.com/news/folk-hero-or-real-villain-the-complex-tale-of-colorados-killdozer/ Tread: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5807330/  

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we explore a mysterious being that has been seen all around the world, but most prominently in England—The Black Dog. The Black Dog (commonly called the Black Shuck) is said to be a massive creature the size of a calf. It is seen at crossroads, typically with glowing red eyes. And while some people say they show up to guide people lost on sacred roads, others say that to hear their horrible howl and meet their fiery gaze is a portent. You will be dead within the year. So, where is the Black Dog myth found? Well, everywhere. But it most common in the UK and even in the Americas. It was first noted back in 1577 where it road into a church on a lightning bolt and killed several parishioners. Now that’s an entrance! After that, it has persisted enough in local legends that it is considered a mythical motif by professors of folklore. So, is this thing a pure myth that ties into some human unconscious, or is it an actual cryptid animal that has yet to be discovered? In American, a variation called the Fencerail Dog is thought to be a real creature and isn’t tied into the idea of being a ghost. In fact, many scholars think it is a hyena like cryptid called the Shunka Warak’in that is known to have killed cattle in various states. The Black Dog is allegedly something that struck terror in the heart in a way that a normal dog does not. One look at the being makes most observers say it was not a mere dog. One scholar discovered a massive seven boxes of written encounters in one area of England alone. It is a popular being, but is it a folklore or a cryptid? A ghost or a demon? If you want to find out, listen, laugh, and learn. Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_(ghost) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Shuck https://modernfarmer.com/2014/06/black-shuck/ https://pinebarrensinstitute.com/cryptids/2018/11/13/cryptid-profile-the-fence-rail-dog https://pinebarrensinstitute.com/cryptids/tag/black+dog https://thoughtcatalog.com/james-b-barnes/2014/10/5-terrifying-stories-and-lore-about-the-legendary-black-dogs-to-haunt-your-walks-home/ https://truehorrorstoriesoftexas.com/category/cadejo-black-dog/ https://allthatsinteresting.com/black-shuck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif-Index_of_Folk-Literature

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we discuss one of the all-time legends of comedy, Jim Carrey. From a homeless childhood to eventually becoming the highest paid actors in Hollywood, his life has been quite a journey. He’s made some of the greatest comedic movies of all time, and his new life in Television and as a painter meet with critical acclaim as well. From his politics to his stance on vaccines, he’s always controversial. Jim Carrey was born in a suburb of Toronto to a lower middle class family. His father a was a sax player who eventually had to give it up to work and support his family. Work was tough, however, and at one point the family found themselves living in the back of a VW van. He and his brother worked as night janitors to helps support the family, but at 15, he discovered comedy, and his father supported him by taking him to different comedy clubs. The day he turned 16 and could legally drop out of school he did—school, after all, was only getting in the way of the funny. He grew in notoriety as a unique stand up talent, who could riff off to top of his head and rely on his prodigious impersonation skills instead of a polished set. He impressed Rodney Dangerfield enough that he was hired to be the legend’s opening act in Vegas. Soon after, Carrey moved to the LA and started auditioning and living the life. He auditioned for Saturday Night Live, which didn’t work out, but eventually landed a role on In Living Color. From there, he made movie hit after movie hit. Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, The Mask, The Truman Show, and Cable Guy (for which earned $20 million!). He went on to star in dramas such as Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind and The Man in the Moon, and his prowess as an actor spread along with a couple of Golden Globe wins. He also grew a reputation for being a hardcore method actor who would lose himself in roles and be very difficult to work with. Eventually, Hollywood took its toll, and he backed out of the limelight. He spent his time on spiritual pursuits and self-exploration. He has had some success as a painter, doing interesting and often controversial political paintings. So, which Hollywood starlets has he had relationships with? What’s up with him and the anti-vaccine movement? Why did he get heat for a bucket list comment while doing press for Sonic the Hedgehog? Did he really write himself a $10 million dollar check when he was twenty that he was able to cash years later? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/actor/jim-carrey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Carrey https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/jim-carreys-reluctant-return-hollywood-1134623 https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/fans-are-not-pleased-with-jim-carreys-predatorial-joke-against-female-journalist.html/ https://www.uselessdaily.com/news/25-amazing-facts-about-jim-carrey-list/ I Need Color: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21CEOlBq2YI Conan Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCB_gau9tIk Bucket List Comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK_xK5QMRqo  

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we cover the unique and horrible tale of the Tsavo Man-Eaters. They were a pair of lions who plagued the construction of a railroad in 1898 and killed perhaps as many as 135 human beings in one year. A British military man was put in charge of the railroad, and he went on an epic hunt to stop these animals from killing even more people. The lions were far more aggressive than normal, had a taste for human flesh, and were abnormally large. In 1898, the Kenya-Uganda Railway was trying to build a bridge across the Tsavo River. The railroad officials probably should have to consulted the locals because Tsavo meant “place of slaughter” in the local dialect. (Big oopsie...) Once the camps were set up, and thousands of workers moved in to build this bridge, Lt Colonel John Henry Patterson arrived to handle the work crews. Also, within a few days of his arrival, the Lions of Tsavo started to eat people. A lot. Lions were always a threat, obviously, but it got to the point where every night, two lions would creep into the work camps and each would take a different worker. The camps would have to listen to the screams in the darkness as the lions licked the skin off the victims and pinned them down with their claws. The next morning, parts—or none—of the dead remained. Eventually, the workers quit construction. Then, they started to mutiny. They blamed Patterson since the attacks started when he got there. The lions were evil spirits summoned by the white man, they said. So, Patterson, in part to keep his railroad masters happy, and in part to keep himself from being murdered due to bad mojo, set out to hunt the lions. The first one went down somewhat easily, once he used similar techniques to how he had hunted tigers in India years before. But the second lion took three weeks. It never fell for the same trick twice. It outsmarted Patterson, and it was shot several times, always escaping, and always coming back. Eventually, they were both put down. They were discovered to be nine feet long (abnormally large for this type of lion in this region), and they were both—oddly—males who didn’t live within a typical lion pride structure. So how many people did the lions actually kill? What did Patterson do with their bodies? How did that help us perhaps unravel the mystery of why these lions killed? What does modern science think? Was it a drought or a disease or a really bad tooth ache? Listen, laugh, learn.     Visit Our Sources: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/man-eaters-of-tsavo-11614317/ https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/animal-behaviour/new-evidence-in-the-long-standing-mystery-of-the-tsavo-man-eater-lions/ https://www.livescience.com/58735-man-eating-lions-analyzed.html https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/how-many-people-did-the-man-eating-lions-of-tsavo-actually-eat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Patterson_(author)#East_African_adventures

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life of a soldier, patriot, murderer, and traitor, Scotland’s own William Wallace. During the war for Scottish independence, Wallace grew to meteoric importance and was a cunning strategist and sometimes cruel warlord. He would fight for freedom wherever there’s trouble (or was that GI Joe?), and ultimately become the highest rank of knight possible in Scotland, while simultaneously becoming the worst villain England had ever known. Not much is known about William Wallace’s childhood. Historians claim he was born around 1270, and he was born to lesser nobility. Many think (based on accounts of him in battle and his personal crest) that was an archer in a mercenary army as a young man. Either way, he settled down and married Marion Braidfute. Now during all of this, Scotland was in strife. Its king died falling from a horse (like you do), and the country was on the verge of civil war trying to determine who would take the throne. Eventually, King Edward of England decided he would, and he invaded Scotland, where many historians say he ruled with draconian methods. Wallace’s father died fighting off this invasion, and his wife was killed by a British sheriff. So Wallace said, enough! He went and burned down the sheriff’s town of Lanark with a band of 30 men. The rebellion was born, and a price was put on Wallace’s head. But, he’s William Wallace. So, instead of hiding out, he went town to town and gathered more men to fight with. Eventually, he gathered an army and scored an astounding victory at the Battle of Sterling Bridge. He was woefully outnumbered by seasoned British troops, but he out-played them and slaughtered them. This made the new king of Scotland, John Balliol, declare him a knight of the realm. William Wallace freed towns and captured castles. He motivated all of Scotland to want freedom, and he also made a belt for his sword out of the skin of an Englishman. After suffering a defeat at the Battle of Fallkirk, he left military life and tried his hand at diplomacy. He recruited the aid of France (though they later backed out of the deal) and was said to even visit the Pope to try and get help. Eventually, he returned to Scotland and returned to fighting. He tried to get another Scottish rebel named Robert the Bruce to join the fight again, and when he was going to meet up, he was double crossed and captured. So, who set the trap and why would another good Scot capture William Wallace? How was he killed? Was it as bad as it looked in the movie Braveheart, or was it worse? What were his last word’s alleged to be? Listen, laugh, learn.   Visit Our Sources: https://www.biography.com/military-figure/william-wallace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wallace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wallace_(poem) https://www.nationalwallacemonument.com/sir-william-wallace/ https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/William-Wallace-Robert-The-Bruce/ https://historycollection.co/excruciating-death-braveheart-execution-revealed-account-william-wallaces-final-days/ https://learnodo-newtonic.com/william-wallace-interesting-facts