Nodding Off

More than ever since the days of commercial aviation in the early twentieth century, air travel has unlocked parts of the world that would have seemed impossibly distant in the days of ships and trains. The average person was now a global citizen, rather than being trapped on their home come continent, which is one reason why airplanes are a marvel.

But they can also be an escape. On July tenth of nineteen seventy seven, a plane took off from the city of Petrozovodsk, at the time part of the Soviet Union. It was bound for Leningrad with around seventy passengers on board, a perfectly ordinary flight. However, two of the passengers aboard had other plans. Once the plane was in the air, they revealed themselves to be armed and took the entire plane hostage. They demanded that the plane take them to Stockholm,

out of the Soviet territory. The pilots, concerned for the safety of themselves and the passengers, did what they could, diverting the plane west on top of their guns. It seemed that the two young men also had a grenade, which put everyone at serious risk even if they could overwhelm the hijackers. The two men responsible were named Alexander and Ganadi. One was nineteen years old and the other

was twenty two. They were convinced that their plan was going to go off without a hitch and no one was going to be hurt, that is until the pilots informed them about the plane's fuel levels. It seems that the plane had been fueled for their original trip, but the distance to Stockholm was much longer than the distance to their original destination. Their plane just didn't have enough fuel to make the trip full stop, so the hijackers

agreed to a compromise. The plane diverted to another Scandinavian airport, Helsinki, Finland. There they would refuel replace the Soviet crew and complete the rest of the journey. They both assumed that they would serve time for hijacking when they arrived in Sweden, but wouldn't be extradited, which was good enough for both of them, a worthy price to pay for escaping the

Soviet Union. The plane landed and in a gesture of goodwill, Alexander and Gennady allowed almost all of the passengers to deplane, holding back only a handful of people to serve as hostages. They issued their demands using the airplane's radio, and then they would wait, and wait and wait. Surely there were conversations happening on the other end. The Finnish government must be preparing to negotiate or provide the hijackers what they wanted.

But in the cold confines of the plane, minutes stretched into hours, and after hours of waiting, the two men fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. The hostages on board, realizing what had happened, quickly left. When Alexander and Gnnedy woke up, they realized that they had been left alone on an empty plane. Worse this, playing was trapped in a country that still had an extradition treaty with the Soviet Union. Having no bargaining chips left, both men turned themselves in

and were subsequently sent back to Russia. Their plans for their grand escape all amounted to nothing, and both men were eventually given relatively brief prison sentences fifteen years for one, seven for the other. In the aftermath of the hijacking, the Finnish authorities realized that the two hijackers were not nearly as dangerous as they had made themselves out to be. The grenade they had brandished was not even a real explosive,

but a dummy grenade bade for training purposes. But the cherry on top of this story is the global impact of the hijacking. There was none. Although it was a shocking and dramatic event in the lives of the airplane passengers, it barely warranted mention in the international news. There were two other plane hijackings that week, and this incident was the most benign of them all. Nobody was hurt, and the hostages weren't trying to shock the world with a

political message. They were just trying to relocate from one country to another. And if they hadn't been so tired, maybe they could have done it. It just goes to show it's always possible to sleep on an airplane, even in the most stressful of conditions. Unless you are one, it can be difficult to wrap your head around the unique connection that twins share. After all, when you're literally born as half of a set, it's almost inevitable that

that relationship will come to define who you are. That was definitely the case for the Colorado Brothers, a pair of seventeenth century twins whose unique bond saved both their lives. Their names were Lazarus and John Baptista, and they were born in Genoa, Italy, in sixteen seventeen. From the moment they took their first breaths, the pair were inseparable. Unfortunately, while Lazarus was healthy, John Baptista suffered from medical complications

from birth. His body never fully developed and his head grew to an abnormally large size due to a condition that prevented his skull from draining cerebral spinal fluid. He also struggled to open his eyes or eat without assistance, making it impossible for John Baptista to live on his own. The good news was he had Lazarus, the healthier twin, was always by his side. Caring for him, feeding him,

and cleaning his little brother. By working together, they managed to live a mostly normal life, although John Baptista's condition brought on a mountain of medical bills. Eventually money became so tight the brothers had to get creative. While they were in their early twenties, the pair embarked on a tour of Europe and Turkey. They traveled from town to town, supporting themselves by performing as a sort of circus act. Lazarus was the showman and John Baptista was the show Now.

As you would probably expect, this career choice forced the brothers to swallow a lot of pride. Their advertisements depicted John Baptista as a malformed monster, playing up the visual contrast between the two twins. They even leaned into this by having John Baptiste to grow a haggard, grizzly beard. Lazarus, on the other hand, appeared as a well dressed gentleman. The show kept them afloat for several years, while the constant travel brought opportunities for John Baptista to see medical

experts from all across Europe. In sixteen thirty eight, they were making their way through France when their trip was brought to an abrupt halt. One night after the show, the brothers were drinking at a local tavern when a barfly noticed John Baptista. The drunk man laughed at his unusual appearance and began to taunt him with crude insults. Lazarus flew to his brother's aid, hurling insults of his own.

The situation escalated rapidly, and a brawl broke out. In the chaos, Lazarus grabbed a bottle of wine from behind the counter and brought it crashing down on the other man's head. The bottle shattered, and the drunk collapsed, with blood seeping from the gash in his skull. He was immediately rushed to the hospital, but soon died. After arriving, Lazarus was arrested, charged with murder, and hauled before the local judge. Realizing that he would face the death penalty,

Lazarus made a desperate plea. He begged the judge not to separate him from his twin brother, explaining just how much John Baptista depended on him. They had been together since birth and separating them would be more than simply cruel, it would be a death sentence not just for him, but for his brother, who relied on him for virtually everything. He insisted that executing him would also be a death sentence for his brother, and this was literally true, since

the twins shared several vital organs. The Colorados you see weren't just brothers. They were conjoined twins, with John's lower body attached to Lazarus's torso. The state of medicine during the seventeenth century meant that surgically separating the twins had never been a realistic option, and while that fact made life in pre enlightenment Europe extremely difficult, it now became

their saving grace. The judge relented and ordered their release, since there was no way to punish Lazarus without also harming his brother. Lazarus walked out of the courtroom a free man, and as always, his brother, John Baptista was right at his side. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabin 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 Mankey 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 Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.