Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The Vietnam War lasted from nineteen fifty five to nine, and in its wake, almost four million souls were lost. A tragedy and one they'll write books and documentaries about until the end of time. But it wasn't the only war taking place during that period.
Neighboring countries waged their own campaigns alongside the turmoil going on inside Vietnam. One such country was Laos, which, beginning in nineteen fifty five, was the site of a massive civil war between the communist Pottit movement from North Vietnam and the Royal Laotian Government, the official governing body of South Vietnam. The CIA had dubbed it the Secret War because we had recruited and trained a Lowatian hill tribe called the Hamong to fight the North Vietnamese on our
behalf in order to stop the spread of communism. The United States feared that if Laos fell to communism, nearby countries would be next Laos had been designated a neutral territory, but by using the Hamoan to fight this war, they had turned them into targets for the pet Lao. After the Vietnam and Secret Wars ended, the padet Lao didn't
forget about what happened and who had been responsible. They began hunting down massive numbers of Hamong people in what is now known as the Hamong Genocide, some of which still goes on today. As a result, many Hamoan fled the mountains to avoid persecution, while a good number found their way to America. In that number had grown too, over thirty five thousand. But even though they managed to escape Laos, they couldn't escape the horrors that they had witnessed.
Their death would always follow them. No one here really knew how to help them. Almost none of the hamongk spoke in English, and their language was not well known outside their own country. It wasn't like you could go down to the local bookstore and buy a Hamong to English dictionary. So not only were they still suffering years after fleeing their homeland, but they were doing so all on their own. But this suffering didn't come in the form of internal bleeding or gunshots. There were no stab
wounds or broken bones. Their pain was on a different level, but still justice traumatizing, and it was beyond frightening to the others around them. One night, a refugee would go to sleep, and the next morning they wouldn't wake up. Eighteen among refugees, mostly men between the ages of nineteen and fifty seven, died unexpectedly in their sleep. Doctors at
the c d C were baffled. Autopsies revealed nothing except that the men had all been in good health, except there's one part of the human body that doctors can't autopsy. There's no way to cut into a person's brain and see their thoughts. The among people living in the United States had been burdened with some of the worst memories imaginable. These memories kept many of them awake, and the ones who did manage to sleep didn't do so for long.
They couldn't, not with the images of murdered friends and loved ones burned into their minds. After days without sleep, their hearts, already exhausted and broken, would simply give out in the night. Doctors called it sudden unexplained death syndrome or SuDS. In the Philippines. They gave it a name that essentially means nightmare. Around the time these reports of unexplained deaths hit the papers, former professor was looking to
make his mark on Hollywood. He'd already directed a small film about a family tormented by cannibals in the Nevada Desert, but this was the eighties and he felt America was ready for something truly frightening. That's when he came across an article about the Hmong refugees who were dying in their sleep, and their stories sparked a question in his mind,
can our nightmares really kill us? And if so, how, Whether or not he answered the question professionally, this professor did go on to give birth to one of the most frightening horror films of the nineteen eighties. Today, we might view his career with enthusiasm, but Wes Craven understands that his dark stories have even darker roots. And now you know how Nightmares landed on the big screen, all thanks to one monster. Freddy Krueger m Eugene was born
in Texas in the early nineteen twenties. His father was a police officer who moved the family to Los Angeles shortly after Eugene's birth. After high school, Eugene, eager to follow in his father's footsteps, was accepted to Los Angeles City College, where he planned to study police science. But plans have a habit of changing, especially when your window to the world is opened wider than you've ever seen before.
Eugene quickly abandoned the idea of wearing a badge when he discovered the science of aeronautical engineering, designing airplanes and flying them. That was a dream come true. Eugene joined the United States Army Air Corps in order to obtain his pilot's license and enlisted in December of nineteen forty one, eleven days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Desperately in need of reinforcements, he was sent to Oahu as part of the three Bomb Squadron, the same squadron responsible for
piloting the B seventeen flying Fortress. He'd been flying for a few years when his B seventeen, on its way out of Vanuatu, missed the runway and crashed into nearby trees. Two members of his team were killed, and Eugene, not wanting this to happen, to anyone else. Ever, again stopped flying planes and started investigating why they crashed. He earned medals for his work, but after he left the army, he found the courage to start flying again, this time
for Pan American Airways. He fought his days of crashes were over now that he no longer faced the threat of being shot out of the sky, but some people just can't escape their fate. On June eighteenth of ninety seven, pan AM Flight one one was scheduled to depart from Karachi, Pakistan, and delivered twenty six passengers and crew members, including third Officer Eugene, all the way to Istanbul. Everything seemed to be going fine for several hours until one of the
engines failed. Thankfully, the other engines compensated to keep the bird in the air, but that caused them to overheat. Eventually, one of those caught fire and then fell off the aircraft. With two engines down, the plane descended eventually crashed, landing in the Syrian desert. Fifteen people had died, while another
eleven passengers were in dire need of medical attention. Eugene suffered a few broken ribs, but that didn't stop him from assuming control of the situation and dragging passengers out from the burning wreckage and into safety. And that was the final straw for Eugene. Between the tragedies of his time in the military to his new civilian crash, he was ready to walk away from flying ships forever. He resigned from PanAm a short while later and began to
pursue that original dream of becoming a police officer. That dream brought him back to l A where his father's footsteps were waiting for him. He served for a time in the Traffic division, but was eventually moved to the Public Information division, where he developed the taste for writing, a taste that grew into an insatiable hunger. Suddenly, Eugene saw a way to put all of his expertise to better use. The nineteen fifties had arrived, and with them
came the dawn of a new age of entertainment. Motion pictures were expensive to make, and audiences didn't always want to go out to enjoy a few hours of distraction. But television was a different story, and thanks to his police knowledge, Eugene landed a job as an advisor on a new crime procedural. The show ran for just one year before being canceled. He went on to pitch a number of other TV shows, all with lawyers and cops, but none of them lasted beyond a handful of episodes.
To pay his bills, he wrote scripts for our he established shows. Life seemed to be one fiery wreck after another, both literal and metaphorical, but he understood that out of failure came new opportunities for success. If the networks didn't want shows centered around police officers and lawyers, then Eugene would look elsewhere for his inspiration. He looked up. Eugene had explored the sky and crashed earth. He was a survivor who had saved numerous lives, and a decorated pilot
with a brilliant mind. So rather than give Hollywood one more of the same old, he used his past to make something futuristic, and in nineteen sixty six it arrived a diverse new crew on a bold mission, and it's still with us today. Thanks to everything he experienced in his early years, Eugene Wesley Rowdenberry gifted us with one of the most beloved and influential science fiction world's ever created, Star Trek. 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.