The Rundown

but she still remained undiscovered. It wasn't until a couple of days later, when her car was found that people really began to worry. The car had been abandoned, along with clothing and her i d on a small country road. Those with overactive imaginations began to suspect something more than a simple mistake or even a practical joke. They believed Mary had been kidnapped, possibly even killed, and they knew

just who had committed the crime. Mary's husband, you see, he was already in a bit of hot water, so to speak. A few months earlier, he had requested a divorce from Mary, and in the weeks since they had been fighting constantly. He had found another woman, and Mary was standing in the way of that happiness. If you'd asked, some of them might have even suggested that he was a bit resentful of that. It was easy to connect the dots and label him as a suspect, which is

what the police did. They questioned him and his mistress, but in the end they didn't think that he had committed the crime, and in the meantime, search parties were expanding their reach. At one point, at least a thousand law enforcement officials and fifteen thousand and civilian volunteers painstakingly examined the region Mary had disappeared from, all while being shadowed by a number of airplanes. Her disappearance was covered

by The New York Times. Celebrity mystery writers even got involved, spinning their own theories of what happened, and one man hired a medium to examine one of Mary's gloves in hopes that it would lead them in the right direction. But it didn't work. Don't worry, though, The story does have a happy ending, and that's because eleven days after she vanished, Mary was found over two hundred and thirty

miles to the north. She checked into a hotel under a different name and claimed she had no memory of the entire ordeal. Some people believed Mary was telling the truth, that yes, she had somehow lost touch with reality for a week and a half. Psychologists call it a fugue state, where a person going through a traumatic experience subconsciously creates an entirely new reality where the stress no longer exists.

But others thought there was something more going on. They believe Mary actually knew what she was doing, and that the purpose behind the whole ordeal was to have her husband charged with her murder. People who believe this theory claimed that once he had been executed for her murder, she would have strolled back out of the darkness and claimed amnesia. They believe, in a sense that Mary was a master of deception and planning, something pulled straight out

of the pages of a dime store novel. But like a lot of things in life, will never know for sure, because she never talked about it or explain herself ever. Again, it was all just one big mystery. Whatever the truth was, she recovered nicely enough. She went on to Mary an archaeologist, which I find rather ironic because archaeologists at the basic level, are really just people who dig around for clues that tell a story, and Mary's life was built around clues.

In fact, without her, popular literature wouldn't be what it is today. She's still the best selling author in history, ahead of J. K. Rowling, Stephen King, and even William Shakespeare, with over two billion books sold. Nearly everything she wrote has been adapted in some form or another. And you've heard about her your entire life, just not as Mary. That's because she has been, still is, and always will be the Queen of the mystery novel Agatha. Mary Christie

Peter Carpon was a spy. There was no question about it. He had been captured by the French as he was trying to slip into their country in nineteen fourteen, just as the First World War was big inning. Maybe his papers were clearly forged, or perhaps there was something about his accent or the way he shifted his eyes when they asked him questions. We don't know why he was captured, only that he was, which meant that the French had a problem on their hands. They could toss him in jail,

which they did right away. But then what alert the Germans that their spy had been captured. That was only going to force them to send another spy, or perhaps more than one. The French would have to be more diligent with their border patrols after that, and no one wanted to do that. There were too many other things that needed their time and resources. There was another option, though, but it was risky. Someone proposed actually keeping Peter Carpon's

capture a secret from the Germans. They could send fake intelligence reports back to the man's superiors in Berlin and try to fool them into believing that Carpon was doing his job. So that's what they did. For three years, they sent back reports, and for three years the Germans replied with more instructions and requests. Of course, the French were feeding the Germans one false report after another, but the Germans hadn't noticed. They were even making military decisions

based on those false reports. It was brilliant. It gets better, though, you see, Peter Carpin needed an income to survive in France, so the Germans were sending him money on a regular basis. Sometimes it was for his own personal expenses, while other times it was funding for the projects that they were tasking him with and every time Germany sent that money, the French were intercepting it and putting it into a

bank account. In nineteen seventeen, though, Peter Carpin escaped. I don't know how, but he managed to slip out of wherever they were holding him and vanish into the depths of France. More than likely he was going to head straight back to Germany, but without his money and papers. That was going to take some time. Oh and speaking of money, that was when the French decided to spend the cash they had been covertly stealing from the Germans. They bought a brand new car with it fancy right.

A few years later in France sent forces to an area of Germany that the Treaty of Versailles had declared to be a demilitarized zone. The Germans had failed to make all of the World War One reparation payments that they had agreed to, and had instead formed a sort of passive resistance that was creating tension. The French arrived as a sort of peace keeping measure. They brought the car with them, which was a bit poetic. I think a car purchased by the French with German funds and

now it was in Germany. Now, I don't know the exact circumstances, but at some point in the French occupation there in Ninete, that car was involved in an accident. Maybe it was used in crowd control, or perhaps it was just being driven through the streets like anyone today would enjoy. Whatever the reason, the car had from moving, it tragically struck a German citizen down, throwing him to

the ground like a rag doll. The French driver of the car quickly climbed out, panic and grief painted across his face, and approached the body of the man he'd hit. It was too late, though, the man was dead. Checking his papers for anything that would help them contact the man's relatives and inform them of the tragic accident, the

French soldiers discovered something amazing. This man they had hit, the one who now lay dead in the street after being struck by the German funded automobile, wasn't the random stranger they expected him to be. In fact, they knew him. It was the spy himself. Peter Carpon. 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 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 World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.