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Data accurate as of 2020-26. Hello! Hello. And welcome to My Favorite Murder. That's Georgia Hardstar. That's Karen Kilgareth.
00:02:01
We're using our arms and hands to guide ourselves. That's right. You can't see it,
00:02:06
but trust us, it's happening. You can't see it, but you can feel that choreography
00:02:10
coming through verbally. That's right. Five, six, seven, eight. It's happening. That's our training. It's who we are. You're sipping your soda. I'm sipping my kava tea
00:02:21
to help me relax. Oh, kava, right? I've tried that before. Supposed to relax you, right?
00:02:28
Yeah, I've heard of it. Do you feel like it works? I don't know. I just took my first sip.
00:02:32
So ask me in 20 minutes. Oh my God, if you're asleep during your story, I'm going to get so mad.
00:02:38
Yeah, ask me in 20 and we'll see. And then if you start to feel like you're leaving your body in some way,
00:02:45
just put up a finger. Oh shit, is it magic? No, I don't think so. But I did, the first time I tried it, people brought it back on vacation from, I wish I could remember, they were in maybe Bali.
00:03:01
Ah, that tracks. Do you think that's it? I think that tracks. I'm sorry to generalize because I'm absolutely guessing.
00:03:07
But anyway, they were on a very fancy vacation and this was a thing. Drinking kava was like a community thing they did with people and they loved it.
00:03:15
So we all did it together and they presented it as like the way that people who taught them how you're properly supposed to drink it did it.
00:03:24
Wow, that's intense. Here's the thing. And it could be just my system. But I kept waiting for like some kind of thing that never truly happened.
00:03:33
But the same thing happened to me when I tried ecstasy. I was just like, my scalp tingled and I was irritated at everybody else.
00:03:42
Oh, what a bummer. I don't know if it was just the scenario I was in. Yeah. It can't override my control issues.
00:03:52
You're also on medication, right? So it could have interacted poorly with that. This was like 92.
00:03:58
Oh, maybe it was just 90s X is not as good as... It could have been like three Bayer aspirins that were sold.
00:04:06
It was schwag. It was garbage. It was schwag. Well, I hope that doesn't happen to me.
00:04:13
And it's just so mainstream now. There's a kava shop near my old house. Oh, cool.
00:04:19
Yeah, it's crazy. Well, and I do love the idea that things are turning a little bit away from the intense,
00:04:26
hardcore coffee kind of thing everybody was doing for so long. Yeah. Because I don't think that's overall ideal.
00:04:35
Yeah. You know what I actually learned recently? Thank you, TikTok. that if you drink coffee on an empty stomach in the morning,
00:04:43
you give yourself a cortisol spike. Oh, and that's bad. That is bad. Because that sounds great.
00:04:50
I want a cortisol spike. That's your stress hormone. Oh, I don't want that then.
00:04:55
No. And also cortisol is what ends up giving like middle-aged women a belly. Oh.
00:05:03
When you somehow are starting to feel like you have a belly that's like, what the hell is going on?
00:05:07
That's me. Sometimes that can be it. So all you have to do is just like have a yogurt
00:05:12
or something else, get something in your stomach before you drink coffee. Oh my God.
00:05:17
You've just solved three problems for me. I mean, I just want to pass on, I'm paying forward what I learned.
00:05:23
I was like, oh, so I've been cortisol spiking myself every morning for the past 25 years.
00:05:28
That's right. Oh my God. Oh my God. It sounds to me like a cortisol spike is like,
00:05:34
yeah, I'm ready to face the day. No, no. It's like I'm angry to face the day. I'm either angry or I'm being attacked on the
00:05:43
Serengeti. You know what I mean? By a lion. Got it. You're activating your lizard brain,
00:05:48
which probably for a lot of the jobs I had was very effective But in terms of how much cortisol I do not need in my system it a real problem All right I just like my life changing from here on out and I excited about it I going to be so fucking zen with my kava and my yogurt in the morning
00:06:08
This podcast is going to get canceled if we both go calm. It won't work. No one's here for calm.
00:06:16
Just the chemistry will be so off. Yeah. There's no way. Like we were hyperactive children. We're hyperactive children still.
00:06:24
What are you fucking, this is not a sleep podcast, I guess is what I'm saying. No, this is a, can I get rid of this feeling?
00:06:30
No, you can't get rid of the feeling, but you will be happy to learn that the rest of
00:06:35
us also have that feeling. It's a camaraderie panic. That's right. More than a, just a, you're not alone.
00:06:41
There's a camaraderie. Yeah, there's nothing in the several panic attacks I've had in my life.
00:06:46
There's nothing more isolating and there's nothing less, when you're panicking and you're
00:06:51
looking around, no one can help you. Yeah. It's a horrible fucking feeling. People try.
00:06:56
They want to. It is. It doesn't work. And so inside of that feeling, there is space.
00:07:03
And there is a community of people who make wonderful art and get cool tattoos. And you belong.
00:07:10
And I belong. And everyone belongs. They're called murderinos. Reach out. That's right.
00:07:16
Today. They're called murderinos and their eyes are darting around the room at all times.
00:07:22
Welcome. What's going on with you? After we have a 20-minute talk about Kava. Home Jim is here visiting.
00:07:31
And so we're watching, we just watched an amazing Mads Mikkelsen movie where he survives in the Arctic.
00:07:39
Mads Mikkelsen is such a dad actor. Right? Yeah. I got to introduce my dad to Mads Mikkelsen
00:07:45
through this film because he had never seen him before. And then I was like scouring my brain of like,
00:07:50
what else can we watch? Can we have a Mads Mikkelsen film festival? Yeah. And other than that, he just got here yesterday.
00:07:56
So other than that, it's just been, you know, a lot of relaxing. But then also explaining to him, right now I'm working.
00:08:03
Right. Yeah. Dads don't understand work these days. No. Retired dads, no. He's like, hey, let's go get breakfast.
00:08:14
I'm like, literally, I'm on a meeting right this second. I know it looks like I'm just gabbing with my friends,
00:08:19
but this is a Zoom call and it's a really important meeting to add. The beauty of the evolution of our careers
00:08:26
is the gabbing with friends is working. And that has been the goal and the goal has been achieved.
00:08:33
We don't have to go sit at a desk, which is great. I love that. No, we don't. I love that.
00:08:38
It's pretty nice. Yeah, I can have my cats. Cookie has figured out the sound of our mine and Vince's voice
00:08:45
when we're wrapping up a podcast or a Zoom call. and she comes in the room. She notes every time when I'm doing the,
00:08:53
hey, goodbye, like the high-pitched goodbye. And it's like, yay, it's time to play.
00:08:59
Like she knows when we're done. It's wild. Yeah, yeah. Agreed. It's crazy. I think the same thing of before I ever hit stop,
00:09:08
blossom from wherever she is. If she can stay in the room, she'll be asleep somewhere.
00:09:13
And then suddenly she's standing next to me like, yes, okay, let's go. Oh, let's do it.
00:09:19
Oh my God. These are such like such Gen Z dogs, you know? They're quarantine Gen Z dogs for sure.
00:09:26
They really are. Oh, I read a really good book. That's like a feel good book. So I wanted to pass that along.
00:09:32
Yes. Called Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. And it's essentially about an old lady, right?
00:09:39
Who they live in this small beach town. She is the night cleaner of the town's aquarium.
00:09:45
am. There's an octopus who lives there who's like super smart and remarkably bright creature and
00:09:52
they become friends. But there's also like a mystery. Her son went missing and all this shit
00:09:57
and the octopus knows what happened to her son and has to like figure out a way to octopus tell
00:10:02
her. Yeah. So it's like a mystery as well. And it's also like super heart-wrenching, but you know
00:10:07
it's going to turn out good in the end and it totally does. It's like a tearjerker.
00:10:12
And that is when that octopus truly became my octopus teacher. That's the last line of that book, right?
00:10:20
And that's the day. And then it's a link to the Netflix movie. That sounds great.
00:10:26
And also that author shares the last name of Lucy and Linus Van Pelt from the Peanuts cartoon.
00:10:32
Wow. It's the first thing I thought of. I didn't think of that. You think they're her cousins?
00:10:38
Yeah, I think she's related because they're, you know, they're from NorCal. Sure.
00:10:43
She's got some cousins up in Northern California. You know it. We're also watching Devs for the first time,
00:10:49
which I know is like old news and like your favorite show. Oh, yes. You were right.
00:10:54
It's fucking, I was like, we watched 10 minutes of it once. And we're like, this is boring.
00:10:58
And then we watched it last night and we were like, we must not have watched this because this is not fucking boring.
00:11:03
No, it's not. But it is paced differently. It's a different pace than normal. And do you notice the thing that was making me crazy about it, which is, and this is like a thing I absolutely don't understand and don't have the words for, but it is, it's the, it's like, it's the DP.
00:11:22
It's the director of photography. It's the way they're choosing to light it, the way the set is decorated, the color scheme, where you're like, this is slightly in the future.
00:11:32
Things are absolutely recognizable, but there's also a strange gold tone on everything.
00:11:37
Yeah. It's definitely, they definitely did a great job with production. It speaks volumes, just the silent stuff.
00:11:44
Does that make sense? Yes. Yes. It's a joy to watch. Yeah. It's a visual experience.
00:11:49
Yeah. It's great. Everyone should watch it. And you can binge it. And speaking of which because if you want to go into our friend Nick Offerman shout out who just was in episode three of The Last of Us Did you watch it I meant to ask you Yes I love we love that show
00:12:06
It's so fucking good. It's so great. Unbelievable. It's so great. That episode is truly going to hopefully win every prize
00:12:13
because it's the most beautiful, shocking, blah, blah, blah thing. Like, you know, not to over talk it,
00:12:19
let people have their own The Last of Us experience. Episode three, yeah. Episode three, I was just, I had no idea.
00:12:25
I don't know that video game, so I didn't know what was coming. I didn't either.
00:12:29
I don't either. It was so great. So great. Turns out I'm not a gamer either. I know you thought I was and you wished I was, but.
00:12:35
Shoot, I was going to ask you about Fortnite. Is that the right name? I don't know.
00:12:40
I could literally not know less about video. It's like wild how far I have traveled
00:12:47
from that in my life, you know? I know. And it's probably age bracket, but also it's an area.
00:12:55
It's how a lot of people feel about podcasting. Where it's like, oh, that's the thing I never paid attention to.
00:13:00
And it's exploded in popularity. And now it has its own kind of space. And it's almost too late to jump on the bandwagon because where do you even start?
00:13:08
Yeah, that's how it feels to me. But you know, there's got to be some in of like, just play this one game and then you'll get it.
00:13:14
Yeah. The thing is, my big brother, I just watched him play so much Nintendo as a child.
00:13:19
against my will. Like, it was like watch nothing or watch Asher play Nintendo. Yep.
00:13:25
And it was like, because we had one TV and I don't want to go upstairs. I want to sit on the couch.
00:13:30
So I just watch and play Nintendo for hours. And I just didn't want that for my adult self.
00:13:37
I also feel like in the, for my experience, when Atari came out in the 80s, it was definitely, boys were like passionate.
00:13:47
my cousins would bring their Atari to the different family holiday parties. And it was like theirs to do.
00:13:53
And they would, sometimes an aunt, someone walking through the room would force them to let the girls play,
00:13:59
but you weren't good. So they had no patience and they were like, they weren't going to help you.
00:14:03
So it's like, okay, that's fine, except for we're all really good at this. So after a while, it's almost like
00:14:08
you just kind of get phased out. Yeah, exactly. So it's like, all right, we'll go be good at that.
00:14:13
And I'm going to do something else. We're going to do podcasts. and you're going to play games.
00:14:18
Which is, yeah, I'm going to talk to my friend conspiratorially in the corner, with a lot of cortisol coming through our veins,
00:14:28
pumping through our veins. Just spiking cortisol, freaking out at any chance, I guess.
00:14:35
It's going to be great. Let's see. We got a lot of responses about us asking if there were any fencing murderinos.
00:14:44
Oh, we did? Remember we just wildly speculated about fencing last time? Yes. Okay, well, we got like a ton of responses
00:14:53
and it turns out fencerinos is a fucking thing. Oh my God. I love it. Let me just read this really quick email we got from M.
00:15:04
She, her. It says, hi, in episode 363, you asked if you had any murderino fencers
00:15:09
and the answer is yes. Hi, it's me. As in any sport, we have our fair share of assholes, scandals,
00:15:15
and well-deserved bad press, but pop culture does our sport dirty. We are not all rich old white men with an attitude problem.
00:15:22
We don't challenge each other to duels like in Wednesday. And real fencing is way more authentic
00:15:27
than the weird crab walking you see on TV. Okay, so now for some murder. Fencing is actually a pretty safe sport.
00:15:35
Today, the equipment is made with Kevlar. There are strict rules to protect athletes from injury
00:15:40
and the blades aren't sharp unless they break. during a bout at the 1982 world championships
00:15:47
Mathisar Bayer's blade broke in the middle of his action creating a sharp point unfortunately no one noticed the break in time
00:15:55
to pause the bout Bayer continued his action piercing through his opponent Vladimir Smirnov's mask or helmet
00:16:02
through his eye and into his brain no he died nine days later fortunately Smirnov's death led to the improved safety of equipment
00:16:11
and gave fencing coaches everywhere a great story for scaring their students into following safety practices.
00:16:17
And then it says, stay sexy and don't touche if you meet someone who fences. It's not a thing.
00:16:22
Oh my God, what a horrible fluke accident. Terrible for everybody involved. But then also it's kind of like the origination,
00:16:32
is that even a word, of the sport. People used that, you know, that was a version of combat.
00:16:38
It's almost like they refined it over the years. Totally, yeah. be like, you're good at it.
00:16:42
Is that helping? Is that softening it up at all? Well, thank you, Em, for sending that in.
00:16:47
I'm very impressed that Em does fencing. Yeah, me too. It's another hobby to put on my list of things
00:16:54
I'll never get to, never get around to doing. You know, they train people in that in theater.
00:17:00
Yeah. Because there's a lot of it in, you know, Shakespeare and stuff like that.
00:17:04
So like, you know, Mandy Patinkin in Princess Bride and Carrie Elwes in Princess Bride.
00:17:10
Wow. Epic. All right, should we do some highlights? Let's do it. The first item of business is that Karen joined Michelle Buteau
00:17:16
and Jordan Carlos on adulting to answer some burning listener questions. Adulting comes out on Wednesdays
00:17:23
and is consistently absolutely hilarious. We are so proud to have that on our network.
00:17:28
Check it out. Michelle and Jordan are two of the best stand-up comics. They are so fun to talk to,
00:17:35
but they get, and I'm not talking about myself, but they get some of the best guests on that show.
00:17:41
If you're interested in comedy, you like comedy, or you're exploring new people, just listen to Adulting, because everyone they have on there will be your next new favorite comic.
00:17:49
Love it. Speaking of awesome guests Bridger over on I Said No Gifts has Chris Parnell of SNL fame this week Chris is currently the host of a podcast called This Job is History He interviews comedians who have held very weird jobs
00:18:05
So you have to listen to that. He brings Bridger a gift, I bet. Cool, I bet he does.
00:18:09
And in the MFM store at myfavoritemurder.com, we have a lot of merch designed by Nick Terry,
00:18:15
who does, of course, MFM animated. You should check out all of that in advance of the release of the movie Cocaine Bear,
00:18:21
the official live action movie based on our favorite drug bear. You can get merch sporting his face if you want.
00:18:29
Drug bear. Okay, so now we want to take a moment to spotlight a podcast on our network,
00:18:34
actually the very first podcast that ever joined Exactly Right Media. That's right.
00:18:39
We're talking about This Podcast Will Kill You. When we were putting this network together,
00:18:44
Georgia suggested her favorite podcast at the time was about infectious diseases.
00:18:48
Obviously, it turned out to be This Podcast Will Kill You. And that was somehow five freaking years ago.
00:18:54
I know, so weird. If you haven't heard it, Aaron Allman, Updike, and Aaron Welsh are PhDs and science explainers,
00:19:01
and they've just premiered their sixth season of just thoroughly researched, extremely pertinent disease-based topics just for you.
00:19:08
Yeah, not only did they give us quarantine-y recipes before we knew what quarantine was,
00:19:13
but they recorded COVID episodes during the lockdown that ended up being selected by the CDC Museum
00:19:20
for their archives. That's amazing. Yeah, they're good. And in season six, they'll cover everything you want to know
00:19:26
about things like RSV, epilepsy, vitamin D deficiencies. Oh my God, that's me. And more.
00:19:32
And this year, their bonus episodes will feature interviews with popular science writers.
00:19:37
It's like they started a book club for the podcast, combining their interest in medical history
00:19:41
with their love of reading. And they're going to be talking to authors who write everything
00:19:45
from the history of food safety to the persistence of scientific racism. And on a personal note, you should know that because of your support of the show,
00:19:53
Erin Welsh now gets to focus full time on hosting and producing this podcast will kill you,
00:19:58
which is so awesome. Yeah, that's very cool. And Erin Allman-Updyke is in the final stretch of her family medicine residency program.
00:20:05
So she's becoming a doctor, plus she's a mom, plus she's a podcast host. These women do it all.
00:20:10
Okay, so please go follow This Podcast Will Kill You on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
00:20:16
This has been an Exactly Right Podcast Spotlight moment. Yay. Hey, everyone. It's Cal Penn.
00:20:24
I'm the host of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast, I am sitting down with Ray Porter,
00:20:33
the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook Project Hail Mary, massive sci-fi adventure about survival and science,
00:20:42
and what happens when you wake up alone very far from Earth. I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections.
00:20:53
And it's like, OK, yo, yo, yo, is this indulgent? And I really thought about it.
00:20:56
I was like, no, at this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it.
00:21:06
But there's places in this book that deeply emotionally affected me. And I left it on the mic.
00:21:12
That's great. Because it served the story. People will say like, oh my God, I cried at the end.
00:21:17
It's like, yeah, dude, me too. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club
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Data accurate as of 2020-26. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. The message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.
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See full terms at mintmobile.com. So today I'm going to tell you about a group of sisters whose dedication to freeing their
00:23:04
country from the grasp of a cruel and power-hungry dictator cost them their lives, but ultimately
00:23:11
saved their nation. Whoa. This is the story of the Mirabal sisters. I just wanted to also give a trigger warning.
00:23:19
There's references to gendered violence, racial violence, sexual violence, and rape in this
00:23:24
story. I don't go into detail at all, but I just wanted to give a warning. The main sources used in today's episode are an episode of the podcast Stuff You Missed
00:23:31
in History class, an episode of the podcast Criminal Broads. That's pretty good, right?
00:23:37
I'm writing that one down. I have to listen to it. Criminal Broads. A History.com article by Sarah Pruitt, a New York Times obituary by Gavin Edwards, and the rest are listed in our show notes if you want to check those out.
00:23:48
So, Mirabal sisters, here we go. But before I tell you about these remarkable women, we need to set the stage for why they are so important.
00:23:59
So here's a history lesson. And Karen, are you ready for a Dominican Republic history lesson?
00:24:04
Please. I know almost nothing about the Dominican Republic, except for some people call it the DR.
00:24:09
That's right. I'm going to refer to it as that sometimes because I can't say the whole word.
00:24:12
A little background. All right. So this island nation has rich indigenous roots, as well as a more recent, often violent history
00:24:19
of being colonized by Europeans. Tale as old as time. Yeah. But our story begins just after World War I, when the United States ended up occupying
00:24:27
the Dominican Republic from 1916 to 1924. Occupation doesn't go well. There's lots of
00:24:34
violence, racism, political unrest, and eventually the U.S. withdraws troops from the DR in 1924,
00:24:41
and the Dominican Republic holds its first presidential election without direct American
00:24:46
influence. Great. Okay. But the aftermath of the American occupation of the Dominican Republic has
00:24:51
a massive influence on politics for years to come. In 1930, the first democratically elected
00:24:58
president of the Dominican Republic is dramatically overthrown by a group of rebels. A man named
00:25:04
Rafael Trujillo, who's a terrible person, boo, the country's commander in chief of the army,
00:25:10
plays a big part of this overthrow. Trujillo has been a part of the Dominican military for decades
00:25:16
at this point and was actually trained by the U.S. Marines. So he has a lot of American support as
00:25:21
well, because even though we withdraw, it doesn't mean we're still not got our hands in the pot.
00:25:26
You know what I mean? Oh, we got our hands in the pot everywhere around this globe. Nasty,
00:25:30
dirty hands. Trujillo takes advantage of this moment and runs for president. But at the same
00:25:37
time, he creates a secret police force to intimidate and assassinate all of his political
00:25:42
rivals and their supporters, of course. He wins the election by a landslide. And this is the start
00:25:48
of one of the cruelest dictatorships in history. Wow. It'll last for over 30 years.
00:25:54
Oh, God. Trujillo, who becomes known as El Jefe, which means the boss, or El Chivo, which means the goat,
00:26:02
quickly takes over almost every element of Dominican life. He plunders the economy,
00:26:07
places the Dominican Republic under martial law, renames the capital after himself.
00:26:12
He eliminates any political competition, intimidating or arresting anyone who publicly disagrees with him,
00:26:18
using his secret police. So it's a full dictatorship. Trujillo is obsessed with power, control,
00:26:25
spectacle, and excess. He owns 500 pairs of shoes, 2,000 suits, and 10,000 neckties.
00:26:33
You could never use all that. You couldn't, unless you wear like three ties at once,
00:26:37
maybe every day. Okay. Over the course of his reign, Trujillo calls for the murder of tens of thousands of people,
00:26:44
including the 1937 racially motivated Parsley Massacre of about 20,000 Haitians living near the border between Haiti and the Dominican
00:26:54
Republic. 20,000. Wow. He even instructs his soldiers to use machetes to carry out these
00:27:00
murders so it will look like the military wasn't involved. This is a tactic he uses all the time.
00:27:06
He's also known to be a serial rapist. He has so-called beauty scouts that he sends into the
00:27:13
Dominican countryside to kidnap attractive women, often young girls, to be brought back to his home.
00:27:20
Families learn to hide their women and children when Trujillo is traveling to their town and he
00:27:25
controls the life and death and livelihood in the Dominican Republic and it's a terrifying time.
00:27:31
Okay, so now we arrive at the Mirabal family. Don Enrique Mirabal Fernandez and his wife Mercedes,
00:27:38
who goes by Shea. They live on a farm outside the village of Odiawa in the northern part of the Dominican Republic.
00:27:46
And the family is part of the social elite of the region. They run several popular, thriving businesses.
00:27:53
On February 27th, 1924, their first child, Petria, is born. Their second daughter, Dede,
00:27:59
is born on March 1st, 1925. Then they have a third daughter, Minerva, born on March 12th, 1926.
00:28:06
And then the youngest of the family, Maria Teresa, born on October 15th, 1937. So they have four daughters. The sisters and their parents
00:28:15
are a super close family. Their mother, Shea, is strict but kind, encourages them to take care of
00:28:21
themselves and each other. Their father, Don Enrique, is playful and very involved in the
00:28:26
girl's upbringing. And all four of the girls are remembered as being highly creative. They all paint
00:28:32
and draw and make things together. The Mirabals are relatively well off and they value education.
00:28:39
So they send their daughters to a Catholic boarding school in a nearby town. As the girls grow up,
00:28:45
they either pursue higher education or also get married and start families. Patria gets married first, followed by Dede.
00:28:52
Minerva, who is the most political sister at first, wants to go to law school, which, I mean, it's unheard of.
00:29:00
She eventually does, even though her parents push back on the idea because they're afraid it might be unsafe for her.
00:29:07
Maria Teresa, who is the youngest, is obsessed with her sister Minerva and follows her path to higher education
00:29:14
and she studies mathematics, which is amazing. Eventually, all four Mirabel sisters become wives and mothers.
00:29:22
The sisters love their country. Patria is actually born on Dominican Independence Day
00:29:27
and is named Homeland in honor of that. And that being said, the Mirabal family is total anti-Trujillo from the start.
00:29:36
But they don't publicly take a stand against him at first. But after 1949, their lives change forever.
00:29:42
So that year, Trujillo takes an interest in the Mirabal families, especially the sisters, of course.
00:29:49
They're a well-known family in the area, and he invites them to a party at his estate.
00:29:54
He often throws parties like this to get to know the social elite But this is not the type of invitation you just turned down Everyone reluctantly agrees to go Only Patria is married at this point
00:30:06
so the sisters are looking out for each other. They all know Trujillo is a sexual predator.
00:30:11
They figure he's likely interested in one, if not many, of the sisters. And sure enough, Minerva becomes the target of Trujillo's advances.
00:30:21
Hmm. She's considered to be the most extroverted of the Mirabal sisters. It's not clear exactly what happened,
00:30:28
but it seems like he asked her to dance. She said, yes, because you have to. And while dancing, they begin arguing.
00:30:36
And it's even rumored that Minerva slaps Trujillo in the face. Oof. So, you know, she's political
00:30:42
and she's not afraid to show it. Yeah, and he's a monster and she's right next to him.
00:30:48
I bet it was hard not to do that. Yeah, absolutely. Regardless of exactly what happened,
00:30:53
this public display of rejection begins Trujillo's years-long revenge campaign against the Mirabal sisters, especially Minerva.
00:31:03
The father tries to write an apology letter on Minerva's behalf, but he's arrested and put in prison
00:31:08
for the crime of leaving the party early, which because protocol demanded that no one ever leave an event before Trujillo does.
00:31:15
Nightmare. Minerva and her mother are held under house arrest in a hotel until Minerva agrees to meet with Trujillo.
00:31:23
When she does, he proposes that she have sex with him in exchange for her father's release from prison.
00:31:29
She refuses, though Don Enrique is ultimately released from prison. He dies not long after.
00:31:36
The Mirabals are, of course, heartbroken. On top of grieving, they're now also dealing with Trujillo's rage.
00:31:43
He basically tries to ruin the family. No one will do business with them anymore.
00:31:47
So their modest wealth begins to dry up. The sisters are under constant surveillance
00:31:52
by the secret police, and people around them are encouraged to report any tips of the Mirabal sisters'
00:31:58
so-called misbehavior. Ooh. So it's a campaign of torment. Just a suffocating culture, like, yeah.
00:32:06
That's so scary. Mm-hmm. Minerva is especially outspoken about her disrespect and hatred towards the dictator, despite all of this.
00:32:14
And she is reported on constantly. She's reported for refusing to toast Trujillo's health at a dinner party.
00:32:22
When she tells a car salesman she would never buy the type of car Trujillo drives, she's reported.
00:32:27
Even though she knows she's being watched, she persists and becomes more and more involved in resistance efforts against Trujillo.
00:32:34
And all the sisters are monitored closely for years. Ultimately, Minerva goes to law school in the mid-1950s and becomes the first woman to graduate from law school in the Dominican Republic.
00:32:45
and she graduates at the top of her class. I can't believe they let her go to school.
00:32:51
Yeah. Like they let her in even. Yeah. Or they didn't make her life hell and like make her drop out.
00:32:58
That's amazing. Yeah, it's incredible. Wow. And then she was the number one student.
00:33:02
Yeah. However, of course, Trujillo bans her from practicing law. At this point, Patria and Maria Teresa
00:33:10
are also much more involved in the resistance movement. The sisters also recruit their husbands.
00:33:16
The whole family is now painstakingly organizing to bring down the Trojillo regime
00:33:21
while simultaneously being personal targets of it, which is so brave. Yeah. Minerva and Petria and Maria Teresa
00:33:30
are now mothers, wives, and resistance fighters. Dede is very close with her sisters.
00:33:37
She stays on the sidelines of the activism. She often watches her nieces and nephews
00:33:42
when her sisters are attending secret and dangerous political meetings. By some accounts, the reason Dede didn't get involved
00:33:50
is because she had a controlling husband, but it's not clear. In January 1960, the Mirabal sisters helped form
00:33:57
what's called the 14th of June Movement, which is named for the date of a failed uprising against Trujillo in 1959.
00:34:05
The Mirabal sisters and other members of the anti-Trujillo movement make and distribute pamphlets.
00:34:10
They stockpile weapons and even sit around Patria's kitchen table making makeshift bombs together.
00:34:17
Whoa. So this is a real resistance. They're doing it. Yes. That's amazing. That's crazy.
00:34:24
The movement is working on a plan to kill Trujillo using an explosive at a cattle fair they know he's planning on attending.
00:34:31
And then it's during this time in the movement that they get their codename, Las Mariposas, which is also the butterflies.
00:34:40
Oh. Unfortunately, the day before their plan is supposed to go into action, they're discovered.
00:34:45
Most everyone involved is arrested, including Minerva, Maria Teresa, and their husbands.
00:34:50
Patria isn't arrested, but her home is burned to the ground. Jesus. However, at this time, Trujillo's regime is finally starting to crack a little.
00:35:00
Because around the time of the mass arrest, Trujillo is globally condemned for trying to assassinate the president of Venezuela, meanwhile.
00:35:08
Up until this point, the U.S. had stayed neutral about his dictatorship. Even with the Dominican Republic institutions and individuals that had previously stayed quiet regarding Trujillo's evils, they're all now speaking up.
00:35:21
So he's starting to decline in popularity. The dictator ends up releasing the sisters that he's arrested as a gesture of goodwill, hoping to win back some of his supporters.
00:35:32
The Marabal sisters are free, but their husbands remain in prison. Trojillo purposely transfers the husbands
00:35:39
to a faraway prison, so it's difficult for the sisters to visit them. On November 2nd, 1960, Trojillo remarks that he,
00:35:47
quote, has only two problems left, the Catholic Church and the Mirabal sisters, end quote.
00:35:54
Like he was fucking serious about this Yeah they must been quite something Yeah Right Like the level that they were actually working at was incredible considering how few the resistance was
00:36:07
About three weeks later, on November 25th, Patria Minerva and Maria Teresa, they decide to go visit their husbands in prison.
00:36:16
The drive is long and extremely dangerous. And not only do they have to cross an isolated mountain pass to get to prison,
00:36:22
and they also need state permission to take the drive. So, of course, no one wants to risk their life
00:36:29
by driving them there because they need a ride. But this courageous guy named Rufino de la Cruz
00:36:36
agrees to drive the sisters to the prison and back. So from the moment the sisters start on their trip,
00:36:42
they know that they're being watched. They also know it's possible that Trojillo
00:36:46
has set a trap for them. They go to the prison, they see their husbands. While returning from the prison that evening,
00:36:52
the Mirabal Jeep is ambushed by secret police. In the struggle, Patria gets free from her captors
00:36:59
and manages to flag down a passing car and tells the driver what's happening and begs him to let the rest of the family know what's going on.
00:37:09
The driver speeds off though, even though he sees what's going on after a member of the secret police that's there
00:37:14
threatens to kill him if he doesn't keep quiet about what he's seen. Right. So Patria is recaptured.
00:37:21
The driver, Rufino, is killed first. The sisters are kidnapped, put in a different car,
00:37:27
taken to a sugar cane grove, and they're separated. It's said that the sisters called out to each other
00:37:33
throughout this ordeal, checking in on each other and trying to reassure each other.
00:37:39
Petria and Minerva and Maria Teresa are all strangled and beaten to death. Oh my God.
00:37:45
Yeah. Their bodies, along with Rufino's, are returned to the Jeep, which they then roll off a cliff
00:37:51
with all of them in it in an attempt to make the murders look like a traffic accident.
00:37:57
But the car is discovered. No one's buying it. It's clear that the Mirabals and their driver were the targets
00:38:03
of a state-sanctioned assassination by Trujillo, like everyone knows. When their bodies are recovered from the wreck,
00:38:11
there are clear marks on their bodies that prove they've been murdered. And at their funeral,
00:38:15
the last remaining sister, Dede, has to be dragged away from the cemetery. Ugh. Yeah.
00:38:21
So the murder of the Mirabal sisters attracts attention in a way that Trujillo's other killings never had.
00:38:28
These were young and vibrant young women with children. Patria was 36, Minerva was 34,
00:38:35
and Maria Teresa was only 24 years old. Wow. Something about this crime like hits an immediate nerve
00:38:42
with the people of the Dominican Republic. And resistance to the Trujillo regime
00:38:47
starts to become way more out in the open. He's losing support of the army and other political figures who used to back him.
00:38:55
On May 30th, 1931, just six months after the assassination of the Mirabal sisters,
00:39:01
Trojillo's limousine is ambushed by army officials and former supporters, and he's killed.
00:39:07
Wow. Yeah. They turned. Yeah, they definitely turned. So this era is finally over.
00:39:15
the Dominican Republic continues to see civil unrest until the mid-1990s. No individual leader is ever as violent and cruel, though.
00:39:24
In 1962, the men who killed the Mirabal sisters are finally arrested and convicted of the murders.
00:39:31
However, they escape from prison in 1965 and they're never caught. After her sister's death,
00:39:38
Dede Mirabal makes it her life's work to keep her sister's memories alive and tell their story.
00:39:44
She raises her sister's six children as her own with the help of her mother. In addition to raising her own sons, which is amazing,
00:39:52
she establishes both the Mirabal Sisters Foundation and a museum in honor of her sisters in the early 1990s
00:39:59
and writes a book called Alive in Their Garden about them and their work. Other books are written,
00:40:04
including the famous novel In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, which is later turned into a movie starring Selma Hayek.
00:40:13
Oh. In 1990, the UN General Assembly honors the Mirabal sisters by designating the date of their death, November 25th, as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
00:40:25
Descendants of the Mirabal family later become part of the Dominican Republic's democratic government.
00:40:30
Mino Tavares Mirabal grows up to become a congressional representative and vice foreign minister.
00:40:37
Wow. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. One of Dede's sons, Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal, is vice president of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 2000.
00:40:47
Oh, so they just become a gigantic political body, basically, as a family. Totally.
00:40:54
Wow. Regarding her part of the Mirabal sisters' legacy, Dede says, quote, I can say I have done my duty for the homeland.
00:41:02
I can say I have raised an honest family. She dies in 2014 at 88 of natural causes.
00:41:10
So when talking about the dangers of resisting the Trojillo regime, Minerva once said, quote,
00:41:15
if they kill me, I shall reach my arms out of the grave and I shall be stronger.
00:41:20
And she was right. The courageous activism and horrible murders of the Mirabal sisters started a chain reaction
00:41:27
that brought down one of the most brutal dictatorships in the history of Latin America.
00:41:32
Holy shit. And that is the story of the Mirabal sisters, heroes of the Dominican Republic.
00:41:39
That ruled. Wild. I went from knowing almost nothing about a country to being like, now I want to know every single thing
00:41:47
about these people, this country. That's so amazing. It's like something as impenetrable
00:41:54
as a 30 dictatorship where it like everyone was reporting on everybody Everyone is you locked into this like violent you know there nowhere to go kind of thing
00:42:05
And it's like, there is though. It's just that kind of resistance. It can be done.
00:42:10
It's so cool. I love the stories of that. It's so incredible that these people, like despite there only being a few of them, are like, we have to do something.
00:42:18
Yeah. You know, it's incredibly brave. And that quote is incredible. I'll reach my arms out of the ground.
00:42:24
and be stronger. And she did. Yes. Amazing. Great job. Thank you. Hey, everyone.
00:42:33
It's Cal Penn. I'm the host of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart audiobook club. This week on the podcast,
00:42:40
I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook Project Hail Mary,
00:42:47
massive sci-fi adventure about survival and science and what happens when you wake up alone
00:42:53
very far from earth. I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat
00:42:59
and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections. And it's like, okay, yo, yo, yo, is this indulgent?
00:43:05
And I really thought about it. I was like, no, at this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the
00:43:12
listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that deeply emotionally affected me.
00:43:20
And I left it on the mic. That's great. because it served the story. People will say like, oh my God, I cried at the end.
00:43:26
It's like, yeah, dude, me too. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club
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Taxes and fees extra. Default terms at MintMobile.com. Well, Georgia, you know how much I love TikTok.
00:45:10
Of course. And one of the main reasons I love TikTok is because it either educates me about things
00:45:15
I absolutely knew nothing about, like you just did, or it reminds me of things I adore.
00:45:20
So that's what happened when I was scrolling through TikTok. I saw a video by an account called atthefeedski, F-E-E-D-S-K-I.
00:45:32
And they reminded me of a story that I long ago heard on the dollop about the legendary 1974 Cleveland Tencent Beer Night.
00:45:46
Remember this? No, but it sounds like a mistake. Right? From Jump. Oh my God. Yeah.
00:45:53
If you want to do the three minute version of the story, you can go on TikTok, follow the feed skeet.
00:45:57
They will tell you about it. Okay. But you can also listen to the 2014 episode of The Dollop.
00:46:03
It was the 15th episode of that podcast. Yeah. Early, early days of The Dollop. Yeah.
00:46:08
But I will tell you about it now. You can also, of course, you can go on YouTube and watch footage from the game.
00:46:16
Oh no. About what I'm about to tell you about, which is kind of amazing. Why am I picturing it in like the 1920s?
00:46:23
It's not, right? It's not. 74. Oh, 74. Okay. That's a cozy place. I can meet you there.
00:46:30
You should meet me there because you'll be happy you did. But compared to 2023, which every once in a while
00:46:35
that number gets into my head and I'm like, wow. Because I started in the 70s. So 74 is like so much more familiar to me
00:46:45
than where we are now. Yeah. Yeah. And all of the things in this are, it's just the delight of the way things used to be.
00:46:53
Yeah. Which at this point, sometimes when you talk about it, feels like you're lying or like it's a movie you watched. Right.
00:46:59
So here's a little slice of the 70s that really will drive it home. And it's the 70s in Cleveland,
00:47:05
Ohio. Wow. Which is a very specific vibe. Yes, it is. So the main sources for this story today
00:47:13
are a 2008 ESPN article by a writer named Paul Jackson, a 1974 Associated Press article by the writer Richard Belotti,
00:47:23
and the book Crazy with the Papers to Prove It by sports writer Dan Coughlin. And the rest of the sources are in our show notes.
00:47:31
So what I'm about to regale you with is considered one of, arguably one of the most chaotic nights in sports history.
00:47:39
June 4th, 1974. takes place in Cleveland, Ohio in the 70s. I think it is safe to say that at this time,
00:47:49
Cleveland was not flourishing. They had several large problems. One is the pollution.
00:47:56
They're so polluted there, in fact, that just five years earlier, Earlier in 1969, the Cuyahoga River caught on fire.
00:48:04
Oh, that's right. Oh, God. And as alarming as that sounds, that actually eventually led the way for the government
00:48:15
to start the Environmental Protections Agency. Right. Because pollution had just gotten so bad.
00:48:23
It was so bad, you guys. Not just like littering and stuff, but industrial pollution
00:48:28
where like companies that were making, you know, glue were just dumping everything into the nearby river.
00:48:34
And that's what was happening. And the car fumes and the gasoline we used was like toxic.
00:48:40
Like there were days when the weather would be, don't leave the house because the air is toxic.
00:48:46
Right. I mean, I wasn't there, but my mom told me that. No, it's true. So there's the pollution issue.
00:48:52
The city is also dealing with serious economic downturn over the past decade in the area,
00:48:59
there's been a mass exodus of factories and industrial plants, meaning total loss of jobs
00:49:05
and also loss of population. Between 1970 and 1980, Cleveland will lose nearly 200,000 residents
00:49:13
because of like job loss and everything kind of. So in 1974, leaders in Cleveland are worried
00:49:22
that the city is about to go bankrupt. And on top of all that, Cleveland's Major League Baseball team is not doing well.
00:49:31
So at the time of the story in 1974, they were the Cleveland Indians. Indigenous groups have worked for years and years,
00:49:40
decades to get this name changed. They just in 22 changed the name to the Cleveland Guardians.
00:49:46
But for the sake of simplicity in talking about the story, I'm just going to call them Cleveland.
00:49:50
So that, you know, so we can talk about it. Good idea. So a year before the story takes place, Cleveland's baseball team has the lowest game day turnout of any team in the league.
00:50:01
They basically are at about 15% capacity at every game in their stadium. It's rough.
00:50:08
They're reporting losses of around $1.4 million, which is $7 million in today's money.
00:50:14
So the situation is dire. And management knows they need to do something to stay out of the red and to get butts in seats.
00:50:22
They know the easiest way to boost attendance at games. So they basically suggest an idea
00:50:28
that has worked well for them in the past. Journalist Paul Jackson, writing for ESPN,
00:50:33
says it like this, quote, considering the state of the city in 1974, the team decided that Cleveland probably could use a drink.
00:50:41
And this is the origin story for Cleveland's infamous 1974 10-cent beer night. So the real story actually starts the week before
00:50:50
at Arlington Stadium in Texas. It's late May 1974. The Texas Rangers are playing Cleveland in Texas.
00:50:58
It's a shit show. So there's a lot of like, and I think things were a little, obviously,
00:51:04
a little less regulated, a little less official, a little less like branded. Yeah, right.
00:51:10
Slightly more bad news bears, I would say, as everything was back then. A person that is a baseball aficionado
00:51:18
is not going to love my recap here, but I'm just doing it for simplicity to give you the sense.
00:51:23
Look, video games, sports, we don't know anything. Salami, taking out the garbage, it's all boy stuff.
00:51:31
So, but here's the basic recap for us, for the purposes of me telling you this. So in the fourth inning of this game,
00:51:39
Texas Rangers are at bat. There's two men on and whoever it is at bat hits. and the guy on first base is a Rangers player named Lenny Randall.
00:51:49
So essentially there's a guy on first and second. And so somebody getting a single moves them both ahead.
00:51:55
Got it. But the ball goes to Cleveland's third baseman. So he hits third base. He tags third base, gets that guy out
00:52:03
and then throws it over to second base. It should have been a double play, which they needed
00:52:08
because Cleveland didn't have any, hadn't gotten any runs so far. So essentially, the third baseman catches the ball that gets hit,
00:52:18
tags third base, that guy's out, throws it over to second, should be an easy double play.
00:52:23
But Lanny Randall slides into second base, and he hits the second baseman. So I guess he's safe, and everyone gets super pissed off.
00:52:32
He does a hard slide, and basically, in a way that they normally kind of aren't supposed to do, I think.
00:52:38
He got kind of physical and made it so that it was not a double play. Okay. Cleveland, the team and the fans are pissed. In the eighth inning, Lenny Randall is up again.
00:52:49
The pitcher, Milt Wilcox, memorize all these names. Beautiful name. Milt Wilcox throws the ball behind him, which is, you know, it's kind of threatening. It's basically
00:53:00
like, I'm going to hit you with this. Yeah. Lenny Randall ends up bunting and running to first base.
00:53:05
So the pitcher, Bill Wilcox, picks it up and tags him. And as he does, Lenny Randall kind of hits him with his forearm, right?
00:53:15
Cleveland's first baseman, John Ellis, steps up and punches Lenny Randall. Oh, shit.
00:53:20
And so the bench is clear. And here they go. And now everyone's fighting on the field.
00:53:25
Right? All the boys run out to the field. Dozens of men throw punches at each other
00:53:29
in front of a stadium full of spectators while the broadcasters call it live. Holy shit.
00:53:34
It happens. it's not like rare in baseball. Yeah. Wow. But essentially the fight's broken up.
00:53:40
Everyone goes back to their dugouts. The Texas fans are pissed. They start booing,
00:53:45
pouring beer on nearby players, throwing food, and then to add insult to injury,
00:53:51
Cleveland loses three to zero. Ouch. Now the drama seems guaranteed because the two teams have to meet up again six days later in Cleveland select to finish the series right When a reporter from the Cleveland Press newspaper asks the Rangers manager Billy Martin
00:54:07
if he's going to, quote, take his armor to Cleveland, Billy Martin simply replies, quote,
00:54:13
nah, they won't have enough fans there to worry about. Ouch. Boom. So that's going to start some shit.
00:54:20
That's going to piss some people off. That's basically like salt in the wound. As journalist Paul Jackson puts it, quote,
00:54:26
the 74 Indians were a smorgasbord of mediocre and forgettable talent playing in an open air mausoleum.
00:54:34
Oh, Jesus. End quote, end lives. Like, rough times. The team's not good. You know, the stadium barely has anyone in it.
00:54:44
You can't say even half full. Like, all of it is rough. Yeah. So now, all of that is bad enough.
00:54:52
But now this rematch, right, in Cleveland is also on the same night as the big brainchild idea, 10-cent beer night.
00:55:03
Everything's coming together in a bad way. So on 10-cent beer night, the 12-ounce pour of Genesee beer, have you heard of Genesee beer?
00:55:13
It must be regional. My dad hadn't heard of it either. So that beer normally costs 65 cents.
00:55:20
Tonight's going to cost a dime. Oh, fuck. That's like getting a $4 beer for 60 cents.
00:55:26
Wow. Thank you. That's good. A $4 beer for 60 cents. For 60 cents. In hindsight, yes, this sounds like a horrible idea.
00:55:34
But amazingly, Cleveland had already hosted, they hosted a nickel beer night in 1971 that went great and with no incidents.
00:55:43
So they were like, this will work. This will be great. Okay. So no one's really worried about 10 cent beer night
00:55:50
coinciding with the rematch game. The only precaution Cleveland really takes in preparing for this is doubling security.
00:55:58
Normally they have 25 security guards. Now they have 50. That was actually a smart move.
00:56:03
Since the brawl in Texas, the Cleveland like journalists, radio hosts, anybody that was like publicly talking about this game
00:56:10
is talking about it like revenge, rematch. Like they're talking about it, hyping it up.
00:56:17
There's bitterness, there's vengeance. Cleveland sports fans are out for blood. They want a rematch.
00:56:23
So when the day arrives, it's warm and humid in Cleveland. Temperatures are around 85 degrees,
00:56:28
which is great weather for a night game at a stadium. Over 25,000 people show up to watch the game,
00:56:35
which is almost double the normal attendance. And the crowd also is decidedly young
00:56:42
because in the 70s, the national drinking age was 18. Oh my God. So essentially,
00:56:54
people in their late teens and early 20s pack the stands, aside from it being like, you know,
00:56:59
a hyped up rematch, you know, whatever. A lot of people are out of work. A lot of people don't have too much money.
00:57:06
They can't afford not to go to 10 cent beer night because for a dollar, you can get a ticket to get in,
00:57:13
get a seat in the bleachers and get five beers for $1. Each one a bigger mistake than the last.
00:57:23
As expected, they open the doors. Everyone makes a beeline for the cheap beer the second they enter the stadium.
00:57:29
There is a rule set for 10 cent beer night. People are supposed to be capped at six beers per transaction.
00:57:36
But as soon as the stadium opens, it's clear that there is a massive staffing shortage
00:57:41
for this promotion because the cheap beer isn't at each hot dog stand around the stadium.
00:57:48
It's one table with two teenage girls. No. Yep. At the 10 cent beer table. Oh no.
00:57:57
And these girls are supposed to be keeping track of how many beers people get per,
00:58:02
with no system. There's no way to do that. They're just supposed to kind of be managing
00:58:08
what is an absolutely unmanageable situation. Just so hilarious and so typical. So they're in charge of monitoring purchases,
00:58:18
taking money, pouring beer for thousands of increasingly and very quickly drunk customers.
00:58:24
They're immediately overwhelmed. And before long, they realize their job is impossible.
00:58:29
And also they can't handle these drunk customers who are rude, they're belligerent,
00:58:35
They're berating them for having to wait in such a long line. Like, it's bullshit.
00:58:39
So eventually, thank God, the girls just say, screw it, and fucking abandon shit.
00:58:44
They're like, bye. Which is the very least that they should have done. So someone from Cleveland's promotions team decides they're going to solve that problem
00:58:54
by driving a beer truck with taps, industrial taps on it, inside the stadium, and then just allowing the fans to go up and pour their own beers for themselves unchecked.
00:59:08
And I think it would seem like unpaying for the rest of the night. So I don't know if that was the best call.
00:59:18
No one's exactly sure when that truck was brought in, but it's pretty early in the game within the first few innings.
00:59:25
And this game is not going well. In the first inning, Ranger Tom Greave hits a home run.
00:59:32
And Cleveland fans are already drunk, basically, by this time. You know what I mean?
00:59:36
They're just like, they're pre-gaming, pre-partying, they're getting it all done.
00:59:40
They immediately start throwing things at Texas first baseman Mike Hargrove, who would later go on to say, quote,
00:59:47
I must have had 15 or 20 pounds of hot dogs thrown at me. Oh, my God. In the second inning a middle woman runs onto the field and flashes the crowd and then tries to kiss the head umpire Nestor Shilak
01:00:06
Of course, this is a major league baseball game. Oh, my God. So, Shilak's furious at this interruption, but the crowd goes crazy.
01:00:16
They, of course, love it. This woman, there's pictures. She looks like a diner waitress.
01:00:24
She has kind of like, she has big kind of bouffant-y, done up hair. She's definitely on the older side.
01:00:31
She does not look like the kind of woman that's just going to show you her tits.
01:00:36
She just doesn't. And she has this huge smile on her face. Like she looks like it's just like, well, I'm finally living.
01:00:44
All I can think about is her the next morning, asking your friend what you did last night.
01:00:51
Did I do anything embarrassing last night? I have a bad feeling, but I don't know why.
01:00:56
Something went wrong. And then it suddenly starts coming back in little individual slides
01:01:01
of like seeing Nestor Shilak yelling in her face. Like, why would there be the home plate umpire
01:01:08
screaming in my face? Oh my God. Why would he be mad at me? Nestor's furious. The crowd loves it.
01:01:15
When security finally removes this woman from the field, the stadium goes crazy cheering for her.
01:01:22
They're thrilled. Before long, streakers start running across the field during play.
01:01:27
This was a big trend in the early 70s. It was. People love to get in it because it was like kind of right after, you know,
01:01:34
the hippie era had kind of come and gone. But that kind of crunchy granola nudity vibe was still there.
01:01:41
Yeah. And streaking was a thing. There was a ton at Tencent Beer Night. But perhaps the most iconic, Maren writes,
01:01:49
but perhaps the most iconic is the man who in the fourth inning, fully naked aside from a pair of black socks,
01:01:56
so you know he's a businessman, dramatically slides into second base at the exact moment that Texas' Tom Greave
01:02:04
hits his second homer of the night. So the game is continuing on. A naked slide.
01:02:13
Yes. That's painful, it sounds. Yes, it sounds. It sounds horrible. But also imagine that today where it's like,
01:02:23
you can't use an image of Major League Baseball without getting the shit suit out of you.
01:02:29
Sometimes a cat runs across and they stop everything. And like, you know, also there's a picture of him running
01:02:34
and he's smiling. He kind of looks like Robert Plant. He has an amazing body. You're like, I get why you're doing this.
01:02:40
Yeah. He's feeling it. Okay, so now the score is 2-0. Texas is leading. The beer-drenched stadium seems to care more about the streakers than the score.
01:02:51
So his six security guards try to catch the black-socked legend. He gets up from second base.
01:02:57
He runs, basically climbs over the back fence. And like Cinderella and her glass slipper,
01:03:04
he leaves a single black sock behind on the field. But now he's in public. I don't understand.
01:03:12
Now he just has to walk home. Now he's stuck under the bleachers, kind of lost and shit-faced.
01:03:18
Right. He's dealt with worse, I'm sure. I'm sure. So now it's the fifth inning. The score is five to one Rangers.
01:03:25
The cheap beer continues to flow on monitor from that beer truck, much like the streakers and the flashers who continue to flow onto the field,
01:03:34
including a father-son duo who run onto the field and moon the fans. Mooning was another big thing.
01:03:41
Mooning was very popular back then. And it's a partial streak. It's just a peep.
01:03:46
Yeah. Of course, the stadium goes crazy. The crowd is really drunk. It looks like the team is losing.
01:03:52
So now they're just kind of into the display of whatever other people feel like doing.
01:03:58
So up until this point, the trashed and largely teenage crowd has been rowdy, but they're harmless.
01:04:04
Everyone seems happy. They're laughing. They're being silly. They're just kind of like enjoying this goofy night.
01:04:10
It's how it always starts. Yep. My next line is, but as all of us true alcoholics know, that is about to change.
01:04:19
The goofy party atmosphere devolves into the realm of pure belligerence. So at one point, the Rangers manager, Billy Martin, disputes a call by the umpire, a common
01:04:29
thing that happens, not that big of a deal. Like a mean drunk dad at Christmas, the crowd decides it's deeply offended by this and cups
01:04:37
of beer are sent flying onto the field in Billy Martin's direction. He responds by blowing them a kiss from the dugout.
01:04:45
So drunk fans start throwing any and everything that they can onto the field. And on top of that, because it is the 70s,
01:04:52
multiple people have brought fireworks to the game. What? Yeah. What? Okay. Yeah.
01:05:00
Fireworks was a pastime, like a hobby in the 70s. It was something people did. You keep heightening this story and it's going well.
01:05:07
I don't. It's going well. History does. The people of Cleveland did. Full credit to them.
01:05:17
So groups of drunk teens are now shooting off fireworks from their seats. And at this point, anyone who showed up for an above board normal baseball game is long gone.
01:05:30
And what's left is an entirely wasted and increasingly chaotic crowd in a stadium that's starting to feel like a war zone.
01:05:37
So now it's the sixth inning And in an exciting turn of events Cleveland starts to rally
01:05:43
They score two runs And then in the seventh inning They score yet another So now it's 5-4 Rangers
01:05:49
And then Cleveland ties the score And now it's 5-5 Oh shit So the crowd starts to focus on the game again They remember oh that right We at a Major League Baseball game And this is actually the point of all this Their focus of course since they so drunk doesn really last
01:06:06
And what they end up doing is the kids with the fireworks start trying to shoot the fireworks into Texas's bullpen
01:06:14
where the other pitchers are warming up. And then, inexplicably, they shoot them towards Cleveland's bullpen.
01:06:24
All right. Everyone gets them. So this forces the very fed up umpire Nestor Shilak
01:06:30
to direct both teams to move their athletes out of the line of fire. But the game continues on.
01:06:36
Like this doesn't stop the game. So they're just kind of managing the bad behavior at this point.
01:06:42
Yeah. Now we're in the ninth inning, right? This is it. It's the last inning. Things are looking great for Cleveland.
01:06:49
The score's 5-5. Cleveland's at bat and the bases are loaded. This should have been the positive turning point.
01:06:55
Yeah. The world is full of potential. Anything can happen right now. It could be something magic.
01:07:01
Yeah. But another fan runs onto the field at this point. Uh-uh. This guy's fully dressed,
01:07:06
but the difference here is up until this point, it's been fun times, it's streakers,
01:07:12
people running by, they're playing to the crowd and running away before security can catch them.
01:07:16
This time, this fully dressed man runs towards a Rangers outfielder named Jeff Burroughs.
01:07:23
He flicks Burroughs' hat off his head and then tries to grab his glove. But because he's drunk, he falls down in the process of trying to do this, of course.
01:07:33
Oh, Jesus. So Burroughs, who of course never didn't expect that and like wasn't, didn't know,
01:07:39
he's visibly rattled by being bum rushed by this drunk stranger. So the man's down, he goes over and kicks him in the thigh.
01:07:47
And then in doing that, he ends up falling over himself. Oh, no. Burroughs would later tell the Associated Press that, quote,
01:07:56
I tried to call time, but no one heard me. Oh, my God. I mean, they're far away.
01:08:01
They're still playing? They're still playing, and the outfielders are really far away from each other.
01:08:06
Each other and everybody in the infield. Okay. He said, I was getting scared because I felt the riot psychology.
01:08:15
Of all the crazy shit those baseball players are probably used to with crowds, I don't think they'd probably seen this level.
01:08:22
No, you get one or two drunk people. It's standard. And usually it's like, it all takes place in the stands.
01:08:29
Nothing is spilling out onto the field, I would imagine. So the Rangers manager, Billy Martin,
01:08:34
has been watching this game get repeatedly interrupted. He's had countless beer cups thrown at him.
01:08:39
Now he's just had enough, seeing this. He sees Burroughs fall over. And because it all happened so fast,
01:08:46
he assumes Burrow's been attacked by this drunk fan. That's why he fell over. So he turns to all the rest of the players in the dugout
01:08:54
and he says, let's go get them, boys. Oh, shit. And so the Rangers pull their bats off the bat racks
01:09:00
and march out onto the field. Oh, my God. Martin will later say, quote, I knew it was silly for us to do that,
01:09:08
but Jeff was out there all by himself. We couldn't just let our teammate get beat up.
01:09:13
But as the Rangers move with their bats, More people from the stands start pouring onto the field, basically in response.
01:09:20
And these are no longer the happy-go-lucky streakers of previous innings. This is now a drunken mob.
01:09:26
Some of them are even carrying weapons. According to the journalist Paul Jackson, quote,
01:09:32
Billy Martin spotted people wielding chains, knives, and clubs fashioned from pieces of stadium seats.
01:09:39
Oh, no. The 25 Texas players quickly found themselves surrounded by 200 angry drunks
01:09:46
and more were tumbling over the wall onto the field. End quote. It's like a fucking zombie movie.
01:09:53
I was just thinking that. It's a zombie nightmare. Oh my God. It's one of those fast zombie movies, but with more burping.
01:10:00
So over in the Cleveland dugout, manager Ken Aspermonte is seething. He is so close to getting this legendary win, right?
01:10:10
How insane would that make you of all the work that you've done up until this point?
01:10:14
You're actually making a comeback like you're supposed to do. His team, his Bad News Bears team is on the verge of winning basically.
01:10:23
And drunk fans are screwing it up for them. And he's also watching the Rangers become vastly outnumbered as more and more people
01:10:30
come down from the stands to like basically fight. He's legitimately worried that he's about to witness a bloodbath for these Ranger players.
01:10:39
And so in a moment of solidarity with the team that seconds ago was Cleveland's bitter rival,
01:10:45
Asper Monte orders his players to grab any and all available bats and go help the Rangers.
01:10:52
Oh, let's add some fuel to this fire. Yes, exactly. So now a full on war has broken out between a couple dozen professional athletes with bats
01:11:01
and hundreds of belligerent, mostly teenage fans with chains and armrest clubs. who are fucked up.
01:11:12
Yeah, they are. It's gnarly. The Cleveland catcher pushes a man down and kicks him in the face.
01:11:17
A ranger tackles a guy that's trying to take down his teammate. A Cleveland fan, a drunken Cleveland fan,
01:11:24
hits Cleveland's pitcher over the head with a chair. Oh, no. It's mayhem. Nestor Shilak, the head umpire,
01:11:33
also gets hit over the head with a chair. Ooh. After that, he stands up and sees a hunting knife
01:11:39
land at his feet. And he knows he has to call the game now. But first they have to get to safety.
01:11:45
So Shylock will later tell AP that, quote, we were so scared out there. It was 500 to one odds
01:11:52
and we could have gotten killed very easily. I'm sure the only other place you would see
01:11:57
something like this happen would be in a zoo. end quote. Oh my God. They get both teams, stadium staff, the umpires, and a couple reporters,
01:12:08
they're all able to fight their way back to the dugouts. And then from there, they go into the
01:12:13
tunnels that lead, you know, back to the locker rooms, like safely inside the stadium. They bolt
01:12:18
the doors behind them. They're all soaked with beer, blood, sweat, and spit. And they're trying
01:12:27
to process what's just happened. One of Cleveland's announcers who's broadcasting live from the press
01:12:32
box captures the atmosphere well. He says, quote, I've been in this business for over 20 years and
01:12:38
I have never seen anything as disgusting as this. This is tragic. So now that the athletes and their
01:12:45
staff are safely off the field, Nestor Shilak calls the game. He calls it a forfeit due to
01:12:50
the crowd's bad behavior, which means the Rangers win. But out on the field, the news incites a new
01:12:58
wave of violence from the drunken fans because there's still hundreds of people swarming the
01:13:05
field. Now they just go crazy. They start stealing anything that isn't nailed down. They're taking
01:13:10
the bases. They're pulling up grass. They even rip down pieces of the stadium's padded wall.
01:13:17
A writer named Dan Coughlin is one of the unlucky journalists who didn't escape into the clubhouse with the teams.
01:13:23
When the game is forfeited, he's out in the stands trying to interview fans. This would be an expected thing for any sports journalist to do.
01:13:32
But as Coughlin approaches spectators asking for their point of view, he gets punched in the face, not once, but twice.
01:13:41
Oh, my God. It's just like out of control. And meanwhile, sorry to laugh at you, Dan Coughlin.
01:13:47
It's not funny that you got punched, but it is all of a sudden just all of society breaks down
01:13:53
in a stadium in Cleveland one night in 1974. Mob mentality, right? Yes. And meanwhile, this is Maren's writing,
01:14:04
in a legendary failure to read the room, Cleveland's organist starts playing take me out to the ball game over the loudspeaker So it just I mean like that organist is pretty hilarious Yeah The Cleveland police arrive to clear the stadium
01:14:21
and here's how they do it. They turn off the lights and throw tear gas onto the field.
01:14:26
Yeah, that's a great idea. Right? So that's finally the way they get everyone. People bolt,
01:14:31
except for a dozen defiant teenagers standing on top of the Rangers' dugout, calling for the Texas players
01:14:38
to come back out and fight them. Yeah, that's definitely going to happen. That vibe, though, is so familiar to me.
01:14:48
It's so like, as I read that sentence the first time, I was just like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:14:53
But you're also like, I know him. I know him. I've met that guy before. I've met that guy.
01:14:59
I've loved that guy. I've been that guy. All in all, nine people are arrested on Tencent Beer Night, and seven are sent to nearby hospitals
01:15:08
where they're treated from minor injuries and released. Amazingly, no one is seriously injured at Tencent Beer Night.
01:15:15
All right. It's a miracle, but the athletes and the stadium crew are shaken up by this experience, understandably.
01:15:23
Billy Martin tells the Associated Press that, quote, it's the closest I've ever seen anybody come to getting killed
01:15:29
in my more than 25 years in baseball. And Nestor Shilak is said to have been so heated
01:15:35
after his narrow escape from the field that he, when he got down into the locker room area,
01:15:42
or that, you know, those hallways in the stadium, he smashed every light bulb in sight.
01:15:48
What the fuck? Nestor was pissed. But I mean, like, you can imagine, it's just that's the adrenaline,
01:15:54
the survival adrenaline. Yeah. I mean, that must have been so scary and crazy. And you know he was upset
01:16:00
because with a compress held to his injured head, he tells reporters, quote, fucking animals. You just can't pull back a pack of animals. When uncontrolled beasts are out there,
01:16:11
you got to do something. I saw two guys with knives and I got hit by a chair. If the fucking
01:16:16
war is on tomorrow, I'm going to join the other side to get a shot at them. Wow. End quote. He was
01:16:22
pissed He was pissed So really besides the arrests and the stolen property and the general mayhem the most interesting part about Tencent Beer Night is that strange moment of unity between the Cleveland and the Texas players against the drunken mob
01:16:39
Texas Ranger Rich Billings would go on to tell the press, I really don't know what would have happened
01:16:45
if the Indians hadn't come out. They were the real peacemakers in the deal. So essentially, if those players
01:16:52
hadn't started defending people, it would have been an attack. Totally. And despite the league's absolute fury at everything that went down that night,
01:17:01
Cleveland would go on to throw another 10-cent beer night just a few weeks later.
01:17:08
No! Have we learned nothing? Oh, my God. No, but they did learn. So this time, they have a strict two-beer-per-person limit,
01:17:18
and they use tickets to track the purchases, and they have four times the usual security staff.
01:17:24
Okay. And here's the good news. The evening goes off without a hitch. And that is the story of Cleveland's infamous 1974 Tencent Beer Night.
01:17:34
Oh, my God. Mayhem. Mayhem. Mayhem. Also, who brought a hunting knife to a baseball game?
01:17:43
Truly. Truly. Yeah. What were you doing? You're not checking who I... I don't know.
01:17:50
Bear Grylls? Thank you. I was like, I had so many names suddenly flooding my head and I couldn't pick one.
01:18:00
He's the best one. He loves a knife. Yeah. Wow. Great job. Great story. Thank you.
01:18:06
Thank you. Yeah, I like that one. I've been waiting to do that one for a little while.
01:18:11
Yeah. The world contains multitudes. That's right. From the sisters who essentially saved the Dominican Republic
01:18:18
to the Cleveland fans who ruined baseball for one night on purpose for fun. And we're here to deliver all of it to you.
01:18:28
We want you to know about all of it. Our valued listeners. We love you. We do. Stay sexy.
01:18:35
And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an Exactly Right production Our senior producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton Our producer is Alejandra Keck
01:18:55
This episode was engineered and mixed by Stephen Ray Morris. Our researchers are Maren McClashen and Sarah Blair Jenkins
01:19:01
with additional research from Demma Harris. Email your hometowns and fucking hoorays to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com.
01:19:08
Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and Twitter at My Fave Murder.
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