Silent Killer

on with the public. After all, if it worked for them, surely there are others out there who might benefit from its existence. The other goal is to scratch a particular itch. Maybe their invention was meant to lighten their load or save them time. For watchmaker Charles Vermont, it was to

keep time. Vermaux had worked for the Martel Watch Company, a Swiss chronograph supplier that was acquired in the nineteen fifties by one of its biggest customers, the Swiss based Zenith Watch Company, not to be confused with the American Zenith Electronics Corporation. Back in nineteen sixty two, Zeneth Watches started working on a new type of chronograph movement, one that was self winding and highly accurate. A chronograph watch was a time piece that combined a standard timetelling display

with a stop watch. Now, most chronographs today incorporate two or three subdials to measure things like distance or moon phases, but at its most basic level, a chronograph watch merely implies the existence of an embedded stop watch in the face of the watch. However, in order to bring an automatic chronograph to its watches, Zenneth couldn't just use off the shelf tools. The team behind the project had to

create all new equipment and processes. Vermeaux was part of this team, having joined Zenith when they acquired Martel, and he and his colleagues had spent seven years developed being what came to be known as the El Primero movement. Unveiled to the world in nineteen sixty nine, the El Primero was the first automatic chronograph which was integrated directly

into the watches main movement. Many chronographs at the time were simply added onto the existing watch as a separate component, but what set the El Primero apart was that it didn't need to be wound in order to work. It relied on the motion of the wearer's arm to keep the primary watch and the chronograph ticking onward. Unfortunately, the mechanical watch market started to take a tumble during the

nineteen seventies. Automatic pieces such as the El Primero involved a number of gears and springs which had to be manually assembled. This made them costly to produce and expensive for the general public to purchase. Meanwhile, the Japanese company Saco was working on an automatic watch that ran on a battery. Its new Courts movement was more accurate than those coming out of Switzerland. It was also less expensive to both produce and to buy. Sacho's watches were cheaper, sturdier,

and required less maintenance then their mechanical counterparts. Zennef had a choice to make. It could continue to sink money into the El Primiro, or it could get with the times and switched to Courts. Well. With its bottom line shrinking each year, the choice became clear. The l Primiro was out and Courts was in. The company was sold in n to Zenith Radio Corporation, the American company that

had previously been unrelated. The new owner put out the word to the whole watched division that all resources were to be moved away from mechanical movements and devoted only to courts movements instead. Vermat, however, was beside himself with grief. He and his team had toiled on the El Primiro for almost a decade. At that point it deserved to be saved. He wrote a letter to the head of the company in Chicago begging him to keep the automatic

chronograph in production. Sadly, his pleas went unanswered. The old Martel building he had developed the El Primiro in was closed down. All the tools inside were broken down or sold off. As the years passed, however, it is clear that Zenith's migration to courts movements had been a mistake. The existing tools and equipment hadn't been made for this type of work, and neither had the employees in night Zenith Radio Corporation sold its watch division back to the Swiss.

Four years later, another luxury watchmaker was looking to revamp one of its signature brands, the Rolex Daytona. The Daytona had been a chronograph meant for race car drivers. Actor Paul Newman, who had raced in the nineteen seventies, was often seen with a Daytona on his wrist, but Rolex wanted an automatic movement that could fit within its thin oyster style case. Zenith's El Primiro was the perfect fit, and Rolex was willing to give them the contract if

they would resume production of their chronograph once again. But all of the El Premiro tools had been destroyed or sold back in nineteen seventy one. Well, not exactly luckily for both Rolex and Zeneth. Charles Vermont hadn't listened to his superiors. While his colleagues had been tearing down all the tools inside the old Martel facility, Vermont had been squirreling away the equipment and plans needed to manufacture the El Premiro in the building's attic, and the rest is history.

Rolex signed a ten year contract with Zeneth for their movements, which were so beloved by watch owners and collectors that they were used in the Daytona from until two thousand and in the process, they became highly collectible. That Rolex Daytona model owned by Paul Newman that I mentioned a moment ago. It went up for auction back in two thousand seventeen and sold for nearly eighteen million dollars. Charles

Vermont knew a good thing. While he had it. All he had to do was wait for the right moment. His disregard for his boss's demands not only saved the Zenith Company from financial collapse, but also preserved the modern automatic chronograph from a horological tragedy being lost to time. If someone had killed over three people without leaving behind any evidence, they wouldn't just be feared. They would be

hunted by every crime busting agency in the world. The FBI, the CIA, and Inner Poll would be coordinating their efforts. There wouldn't be a bunker or shack anywhere in remote enough locations for such an individual to escape too. And yet, for over thirty years, one name has struck fear into the men, women and children of Central Africa. It is a name synonymous with death and the notion of not realizing someone is in danger until it's too late. That

name is Gustav. In the eastern center of the continent, between Rwanda and Tanzania sits the small, landlocked country of Burundi. Burundi's population is made up mostly of farmers, and its chief exports is coffee. The two primary people groups within Burundi are the Hutu and the Tutsi, the ladder of which controls the military and economy of the country. Despite being the minority. Both sides have been fighting since the early nineteen sixties, when Baroni fought for and won its

independence from Belgium. However, despite the Hutu and the Tutsi never seen eye to eye, both groups understand the mutual threat that they share. Gustav Au Gustav first started making waves in the late nineteen eighties when he struck the villages of Magara, Minago and Kanyosha. He was a patient killer, too, lying in wait for his moment to strike. Those who survived his attacks noticed that he was larger than average and had a scar across the top of his head. Unfortunately,

no one was able to stop him. When Gustav attacked, he would grab a victim and dragged them into the water, the last time they would ever fill their lungs with oxygen. Attempts to kill him proved fruitless. His body bore numerous scars from all sorts of weapons. Nothing could break through his tough skin, and few people ever got close enough to try in the first place. But one man certainly gave his best shot. His name was Patrese Faye, and he had been living in Burundi for some time when

Gustav's murder spree piqued his curiosity. Fay was originally from France and fancied himself something of a hunter. He believed that he could find Gustaf and bring him down for good. He was granted a hunting license for that purpose in the late nineties. But don't worry, it wasn't a license to hunt people. Gustaf wasn't even the killer's original name. Faye was the person who had given him this moniker,

because crocodiles aren't born with names. That's right. Gustaf was a twenty foot long, two thousand pound male nile crocodile terrorizing villages along the Rusizi River and Lake Tanganika. Fay soon found what he was looking for and met face too toothy faced with Gustaf and tried to take him down. All he did was add to the crocs menagerie of scars. Though after that failure, the would be hunter approached his prey from a new perspective. He wouldn't try to kill Gustaf.

He would try to track him, and as Fay continued to study him, Gustav's reputation grew as high as his body counts. He was as big as a great white shark and twice as mean, despite the fact that crocodiles weren't known to kill people or other animals for sports. According to Alison Leslie, a crocodile expert who was featured on a television program about Faye and Gustaf, crocodiles and a quote take food opportunistically, they attack if they are hungry,

but not Gustav. He seemed to go after anyone and everyone in his way. However, Faye had cataloged every death attributed to the killer croc According to him, Gustaf had only devoured about sixty people. We may never know the truth. Even the existence of Gustav today is up for debate. He was last spotted some time before two thousand nineteen, but in an article published in Travel Africa magazine that year,

it was reported that Gustav had finally been killed. Of course, no pictures were ever published, nor was the name of the killer ever mentioned. Until we have definitive proof, Chances are that Gustaf is still out there gliding just below the river's surface, waiting to grab a quick bite. 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.