Iron Man

to them. It might be drawing, or playing a musical instrument, or picking up a new language, or how about walking out of prison not once, but four times? Now. That last talent belonged to Stephen J. Russell. Born in North Carolina in n and raised by a religious couple who had adopted him as a a by at the age of nine, he learned the truth, and he didn't take it well. His birth parents had had several other children and never attempted to make contact with their firstborn, which

sent him into a spiral. By the time he was twelve, he was setting fires and getting into fights. As he got older, he discovered some things about himself though. For one, he was very smart, very very smart. He knew how to read people and gain their confidence quite quickly. He also had a knack for mimicking people's voices, skills that would come in handy later in life. However, before he turned to a life of crime, he worked on the

opposite side of the law as a police officer. He even married the Chief Secretary in nineteen seventies six, but he was also gay, and admission that ended his nine year marriage in Russell lost his job as a result of that admission, and his attempt to get a new one proved difficult because he was fired from one job after another. His desperation eventually turned to poverty, and then Russell came up with a plan. He started selling fake

Rolex watches, eventually graduating to even bigger cons. He pulled off a slip and false scheme that earned him forty five dollars in payott. Unfortunately, once he got a taste for crime, he just couldn't help himself. Russell was arrested after applying for a fake passport, and while out on bail, he met someone special. His name was Jimmy Kempbell, and the two fell quickly in love. There was just a

little issue in Russell's six month prison sentence. The con man couldn't wait that long to see Kempell again, so as soon as he got inside, he just started looking for a way to get back out. He paid attention to the guards schedules, watching when they'd take their smoke breaks, so that he could wander off and look around. He stumbled on a room where female inmates were being stripped

of their regular clothes before receiving their prison uniforms. He swiped a pair of red sweatpants, a tie dyed shirt, and one of the guards walkie talkies. Wearing this ridiculous get up, Russell took an elevator to the first floor and walked out the front door, and nobody stopped him. And this was in nineteen He was arrested the following week at the airport before he and Kempbell could hop a flight to Mexico again. Russell was released on bail, and this time the two men managed to high tail

itself of the border. Sadly, Kempell was dying from AIDS and in need of better healthcare than what he was able to get in Mexico. Russell was picked up again after coming back to the US and pulling another insurance scam to pay off his boyfriend's medical bills, but Kempell passed away a few weeks later. But love would bloom again for Stephen J. Russell in the form of Philip Morris, an inmate with the charming Southern accent who Russell had

spotted in the prisons law library. The two men were parole the n and Russell took a job as CFO of a large company called North American Medical Management or NAM. The only problem he was completely unqualified. He'd pa did his resume without landish claims, and his references were all phone numbers belonging to him. He managed to embezzle almost eight hundred thousand dollars from the company before getting caught a kind of robin hood scheme he'd undertaken as payback

for how medical companies had treated his late boyfriend. Russell, as usual, was taken into custody. This time, his bail was set at nine hundred thousand dollars punishment for having made a fool of the justice system multiple times before, and an amount too high for him to pay himself. Not to worry, though, because he had a plan. Of course,

he had a plan. He called up the courthouse from jail and impersonated the judge's voice, telling the clerk to drop the bail to forty five THO dollars instead, and they did. Russell paid and went home. The following day, the authorities quickly realized what had happened and picked Russell up at Morris's home. Soon after the judge had stopped playing around, he sentenced the man who had strolled out of jail twice with a forty five year prison sentence.

Russell wouldn't be caged that easy, though. While incarcerated, he bought a bunch of green magic markers from the prison commissary and emptied them into the sink and his cell, which he had filled with water. He soaked his prison whites until they were dyed a pale shade of green to match the scrubs of the visiting doctors, and once again waltz right out of the prison through the front door.

He and Morris fled to Mississippi after that, but were soon found again, and Russell was sent right back to prison. Sometime after that. The press interviewed him about his numerous breakouts, but noticed that he wasn't his usual, happy, go lucky self anymore. He was sad despondent. Russell told them that he had been diagnosed with HIV and he was dying. He lost a lot of weight over the next year and was eventually moved to a secure nursing home to

live out his final days. During his stay, prison authorities received a call from Russell's doctor. Apparently, there was an experimental trial for a new HIV drug, and Russell had been ozen to participate, but he had to act fast. It wasn't fast enough. The doctor's phone the prison again a few weeks later to tell them that Russell had died. It wasn't until a man walked into a Dallas bank and applied for a seventy five tho dollar alone that they realized that the King of cons was still alive

and well and up to his old tricks. And how did he do it? He faked his medical records using a prison typewriter, then reduced his food intake, swallowing laxatives to move things along. By the end of ten months, he was half his old size. After all, he had watched a boyfriend succumb to the effects of AIDS and knew how to mimic the symptoms. Today, Stephen j. Russell sits in solitary confinements, the weight of a one forty

four year prison sentence heavy on his shoulders. His spine is compacted from a lack of movements, and he fights every day to maintain his sanity in a six by nine cell designed to break him mentally and physically, but he hangs on, buoyed by the support of his friends and family who visit it on the weekends. He also writes and gives interviews to the press on occasion. However, his habits of breaking out of prison, well, that seems to have run its course, although someone should probably check

and make sure. Most people hope to accomplish one great thing in their lifetime. It could be writing a novel, or learning the piano, or maybe just winning the lottery. A few of us will ever achieve such feats, and even fewer will go on to do more. One man, however, didn't learn to play an instrument, nor did he win the lottery, but he is remembered for his many great accomplishments. For example, he was the German robin Hood of his day. He was a poet, a warrior, and he was among

the first cyborgs. Goods von Berlichingen was born to German nobility in four eight. Raised in what is now modern day Bavaria. He joined the military at the age of seventeen to fight for the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian the First. He struck down enemies across Europe on behalf of the emperor for the next several years, but grew weary of fighting in service to a king. By he was on

his own working as a mercenary. It was during a siege in the small Bavarian town of land Shoot when Goat's right arm was blown off by an enemy cannon. Such an injury would have sidelined other soldiers, forcing them away from battle and back home to nurse their wounds, but not goods. He saw the expertise of local blacksmiths, who provided him with a replacement arm. They fashioned for him a rudimentary prosthetic made of metal and leather. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do much with it, so he

had a better, more advanced arm constructed instead. His new prosthetic limb had fingers that could bend at the joints. Berlick and Gen would use his left hand to operate the unique spring loaded rod system inside that was so precise he could curl the metal fingers around something as sturdy as his sword or as delicate as a quill pen. Once again able to wield the sword, he went back to work as a mercenary. He carried out vicious acts on behalf of those who hired him, as well as

people and even whole towns who had wronged him. In fifteen twelve, he let his beef with the city of Nuremberg get the better of him when he attacked several merchants returning home there after selling their wares in Leipzig. His former employer, Emperor Maximilian the First, got wind of the raid and issued an imperial ban, which meant that he lost all his rights and was free to be

killed by anyone else without consequence. He spent two years as an outlaw after that, before paying the steep fine of fourteen thousand golden for his freedom. He used his newfound freedom to continue his one man war against the people and places who had offended him. He traveled to hess, home of the Hessian people nineteen thousand of whom fought for the British during the Revolutionary War, and carried out

his next attack are. This time he kidnapped Philip, the fourth Count of Valdak, the head of states under Emperor Maximilian. His new crime earned him another price on his head and another banishment. He had no interest in sitting by while fight carried on without him, though he came to the aid of Uric, the first Duke of Wurtemburg in fifteen nineteen, when the duke's town of Mackmule was under

attacked by a peacekeeping outfit known as the Swabian League. Berlikingen, however, lacked these supplies needed to defend mack Mool properly, and was soon captured by the opposing army. It was too bad that he'd made so many enemies during Mercenary days, since he was given over to the town of Heilbron, which he had rated quite a few times in the past. But Berlickingen had also made some friends too, and two

of them fellow knights themselves, came to his defense. With their help, he was only forced to pay two thousand golden and he was free to go. Oh and he had to promise not to go after the Swabian League for revenge, which he didn't, but he did Yd a new cause to fight for after that, in fifteen twenty five, he and his metal arm fought alongside hundreds of thousands of poor German farmers in what came to be known

as the German Peasants War. They had risen up against the aristocracy for better land rights and more freedom, and Berlkingen himself, being a man of means and born to a wealthy family, had no problem joining their cause. His participation is what earned him the nickname the robin Hood of Germany. But he eventually deserted them once he saw that they were less invested in the challenge and merely

after blood goats. Van Berlikingen died in fifteen sixty at around eighty years old, leaving behind an impressive legacy as a one armed, iron fisted knight who fought for the poor and was hated by almost every town he met. All of this was discussed in his memoirs, which were

adapted into a popular play in seventeen seventy three. Today, both of his prosthetic arms, Mark one and Mark two, are on display in his birthplace of youngs thousand, German me The town even boasted depiction of his metal hand on their shield, making it a true coat of arms. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,