From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A production of iHeartRadio.
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my name is Nolan.
They called me Ben.
We're joined as always with our superproducer Alexis codename Doc Holliday Jackson. Most importantly, you are here. That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know. Congratulations fellow conspiracy realist. We have made it closer to the end of February and as a bit of a small celebration here we are sharing the stories of our fellow listeners. We are going to learn about one of our favorite things, uh, fast food conspiracies.
Uh.
We are going to dive into an incredibly troubling story about uh, about true crime that remains unanswered today. Before we do any of that, we're going to go to our voicemail banks with an excellent question about street lights.
Oh yeah, street what's the song with street lights people?
Okay, just to find em?
Is that what it is?
Yeah?
Well, street lights, guys, let's hear from Matt. Not this one of a different, Matt, traffic lights or street lights? Street lights? Baby, Okay, got it?
Okay, okay, all lights can be street lights. You know what I mean?
These are the lamps that illuminate streets and roads in your part of town.
Guaranteed.
Here we go.
Hi, my name's Matt, Matthew matthas all good. I was wondering if you can help me research the purples that are appearing.
Near like rest areas and main off ramps off of highways and interstates. I live up in Washington's Olympic Peninsula, and I've noticed there's lights close to the Walmart. I drove my son to Oregon and there's purple lights near the rest area. And be honest with you, they're quite helpful because if you know there's purple lights, you can pull over and hit the rest area. So I was wondering why nobody talks about it. I talked with my
thirteen year old son about it. You know, the entire drive, well not the entire drive, but nonetheless, can you help me figure out what's going on? Because I think it's a good idea, but some people may not like it. All right, guys, love your show, haven't missed them one trust me. It's part of my life that I can't get rid of, kind of like my finger. So uh, steph, you don't want to know you're my pinky finger, and I won't pitch you off ever. All right, love guys, bye.
Just just don't cross the y.
That's a very very interesting reference, Matt Matthias or Matthew.
Isn't it?
You know? I think the reason that I was confused or I was asking about traffic lights because in my mind, I'm like, what if there was a fourth color of traffic light it was purple and then and then they were just spontaneously doing that without being programmed.
Or having the right color lens to you, So, oh that will is wild. Why wouldn't this be happening? This is very interesting.
Also, to be clear, I could have totally been in one of these environments and had no idea.
Ah because of the color.
Yes, yeah, well purple would signify turn around, right, so it's like go slow down, stop turn around.
Purple might just be like vibe it, you know, vibe it out, feel, vibe it out, you know, situational awareness. See if the other countries are cool. But this is not what we're talking about. We're not talking about traffic lights, right, Matt, we're talking I'm gonna call you Matt Prime for this. We're talking about we're talking about just your conventional like in the West, you often see iodine sort of colored lights, right like.
Uh yeah, for a long time, there was a very specific kind of orange e glow that street lights had, and pretty much every city in at least the United States a lot of countries states have their own kind of thing because everybody's got their own little contracts, right with a company that provides specific bulbs for specific light fixtures that all get you know, they're all the same,
and they get set up along all the streets. Often it's even by a municipality sometimes like it's the local government. In this case, we are talking about LED lights, the new fangled LED lights that are coming out that everybody's seeing, buddy, which I love, by the way, I love the other day.
They don't get hot, they can be like every color. I'm a big fan of the Hue light system. I got them all over my house and they're really neat and very powerful.
And that's short for light emitting diode.
Yes, yeah, it's they're electric. I don't know they're electronic lights. Yeah, yeah, it's not burning anything, right, And even with an incandescent bulb, you're not like those. You're not burning a filament or a piece of metal or substance that's in there. It's just a diode that goes woo, there's light here when you shoot, Like.
Sorry, Cartel, your touch.
It's just so impressive because typically we think of light as being associated with heat, but not the case with these. I mean, you can leave the LEDs on indefinitely and they won't produce any heat at all.
Yes, well I think they have a heat sink, right, because they're semiconductors, I guess.
So all I know is that, you know, I can leave my hue stuff on and it's still remain They remain cool to the touch. So it's impressive technology, and it's you know, and they're being used more and more in film production and then like light shows, and they're better for the environment because they last a lot longer, you know, all of that kind of stuff.
But why are they purple?
Though? Yeah, good question?
Why are they purple? There are a ton of conspiracy theories rolling around on ye old Internet about why these purple lights are occurring. On interstates and rest what do we call rest stations rest areas across the United States. They've been seen in Washington State, Greensboro, Alabama, Wichita, Kansas, Boston, Massachusetts, and yes, boys, Atlanta, Georgia. They've been seen pretty much
in every major city. And there's a reason for it, and it has to do with the way LEDs have evolved and the technology used to turn the the light that's coming out of the actual that's being emitted from the actual LED. How to turn that this pleasant kind of bluish white color that we're all kind of now used to, or even a slightly more orange white color. Okay, okay, so we know RGB. What's RGB, guys.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Roy J.
Bib besides red, black and green, which I think we all know is very important, but also there's sorry Ben shut out. But it is red, blue green, and that is the light spectrum, right, that's how we view light now.
It was discovered quite a while back that if you took a blue LED, right, an LED that is designed to give off blue light exclusively, then you put it in a bit of a vacuum, right, seal it up and inside that vacuum, you put some phosphor, this yellow phosphor, you can create this exact hue of white that you're looking for. And you only need one blue LED rather than a series of LEDs that would create white light when it shines through.
Right.
And the great thing is, guys, you could manufacture that white LED light a lot cheaper than if you put a more complicated series of LEDs into one bulb. Right, So you're gonna save a ton of money and be able to sell a cheaper bulb if you use this blue LED yellow phosphor combination. And that is a thing that a company figured out how to do this. It's an Acuity sub brand called American Electric Lighting. Acuity is like this huge company that controls a lot of the
LED game that's going on right now. It's huge. We need to actually look into them just a little bit, but it's a huge company. American Electric Lighting is their sub brand, and they created these LED bulbs, and these LED bulbs. Boys, the reason why it's purple, it's so simple,
and it's really kind of sad. The container that's on top of that blue LED is starting to fray and break away, so more and more blue light is escaping and it's creating this purple hue, so you're still getting some of the yellow coverage, which is it's just changing the basically the color temperature of the light.
So it's a design flaw essentially in the.
Case not planned ops lessons.
Well allegedly it's not planned ops lescence according to the major stories, and there's not a ton coming out of the company Aquit that owns the sub brand, but it is just a flaw in the manufacturing process. So they these things were supposed to last significantly longer, but they did not, And across not only the US, but in Vancouver, in parts of Canada and other places where these same
bulbs have been shipped, they're all experiencing it. So there's basically a great purpling that is occurring and will continue to occur until these led bulbs get replaced, which is happening, by the way, in across the United States.
I don't really fully understand the tech behind this, but I do know that you know Phillips another you know Lighting Mega Megalith that makes the hue bulbs. You can buy bulbs that only do white, and they're significantly cheaper than the ones that do like every color, which is, you know, the hue bulbs that I have in my system.
So I'm wondering if it's a similar deal with those where I guess the color changing ones have some sort of series of LED lights that can then combine in various mixes to create whatever color and blend that you're looking for.
There are a lot more components in a bulb like that, right, which means there are significantly more expensive to manufacture, which means the price point for the end user is quite a bit higher. Phillips bulbs, they're not as a big player in the game anymore because they make these what a lot of people consider higher quality bulbs because they're
more expensive because they're more components within them. These are like if you imagine if you've ever been to a home depot or or Lows are one of those places. And I just did this for my parents, like a couple of weekends ago. I bought like a sixteen pack of bulbs, you know, and you're going to replace all the bulbs in a house that's got old incandescent. Still, they're super cheap compared to like any of the other major LED bulbs.
Especially if you buy in bulk.
Right.
I did something recently. I was not caught up with light technology because I'm not a friend of the lights. But but I've found a it's a dumb story. I want to be too versatile here, but I'll show you guys a picture. I replaced a bunch of lights with LED ones, and I got the wrong wattage, and so now it looks like there's a dexter level like crime scene lit up whenever I turned on this thing in the kitchen. The idea though with color, it's not hurting anyone, right, Matt Prime, Then Matt Matthias.
Well, it's not hurting anyone. And as Matthias said, it actually was super helpful because I knew where the rest areas were because I could see them way down the highway. I mean, but again, it's kind of the point. The point is to be able to see the sign that says rest area and to be able to allegedly legibly read that and then get to where the rest area is. Sure,
but you know this is also happening in neighborhoods. So you guys, especially here in Atlanta, on some of the streets, if you're in I'm just trying to think of areas like East Atlanta when you're rolling through and there are purple lights, and it just looks eerie and strange, like it shouldn't be that.
Way, especially on a foggy night, which is.
Why there are conspiracy theories like, oh, they're marking. They're marking areas of like high vaccinations, or they're marking areas. It's everywhere. There's all kinds of theories out there about what these purple lights could mean. Some of them said, uh, what was one. Oh, if you've received the vaccine, you will glow underneath these purple lights, and that's how that and receive five G.
I like how straightforward that is, you know, it's very efficacious. Also, I think I know the part of East Atlanta that you're talking about, Matt and our Fair Metropolis. I thought the lights were blue because I had earlier, oh god, years back, I had you know, I couldn't tell if they were purple, but I had been in a blue street light situation. You guys know, I'm activitate quite often, and I've found like.
Those are red lights.
Men.
You would have to tell You would have to be there to tell me, because I wouldn't know. But I could see blue. Okay, Uh, there's the there's this thing that's been going for a number of years. There is a widespread belief that a couple of municipalities in the world, particularly in East Asia and uh, I want to say Western Europe, replace their typically yellow street lights with blue lights in an attempt to reduce crime and also suicide rates. Have you guys ever heard that?
No, I guess it reminds me of those lights that people buy and places where it stays dark for early long time to keep you from being depressed the sad.
Yeah, well, it does remind me of some of the psychologies, the psychological studies on color, like with restaurants and element.
Yellows and hungry.
It's interesting to me, like, I wonder how hard that science is, but but it is, you know, it seems like something to rock hard.
So it's like Tokyo, Tokyo and Glasgow in Scotland. Well, Tokyo and Japan, Glasgow in Scotland. Sorry, apologies if there's a town called Glasgow, Japan. You know, we all need to learn more about geography, I guess. But I read that this this delations purposeful installation of blue colored street
lights had reduced crime. And so when I first heard this idea you introduced this to Matt Prime and Matthias about purpling of lights, I wondered whether it was purpleseful give me that, give me that, uh, give me that.
I was going to ask too, I'm speaking of lighting conspiracies. Are are incandescent bulbs still being produced? And if so, yes, what is the reason for purchasing those? Ever over the much more cost effective and energy efficient LED.
Bulbs short form affordability? It just costs less that at the front it hazard.
Because you know, I mean, for a while, there was probably resistance uh not to make an electrical pun two LED bulbs, you know from more lets. I guacy manufacturers until they were able to get on the LED train themselves, and then you know, start pivoting their business model to those.
I'll just give you an example of my parents. Literally a couple of weekends ago, I went up there. I noticed that several of their bulbs were out up in their upstairs bedroom, and I was like, huh, that's weird. I'm gonna hey, mom, do you have any more lights?
Mom?
You got lights? She's like, oh, yeah, I got some bulbs. She brings to me a box of bulbs that I think she's had since nineteen ninety six or something, and they are all incandescent bulbs. And I go and I unscrew a couple in the bedroom. They're all incandescent bulbs. I'm just like, what is happening here?
Did you not get the memo?
And she had a box full of working incandescent bulbs that she just kept around that for one reason or another. I guess they just if you buy like a pack of four, but you only need two or three, the extra one goes in this box or something. I wonder how many people are still, you know, doing that.
Working through their giant bulk purchases these replacement balls.
Yeah, I don't know.
Surprising they lasted that long, though, Matt, Dude, you know, because they typically don't have that long of a life.
I'm being facetious when I say since ninety six.
I mean, it's really quite insane how much longer led bulbs last. I mean it's borderline like forever. It's kind of crazy how long those things last.
Yeah, yeah, I agreed. So really, guys, in conclusion, there's not much to this. I highly recommend everybody read The Great Purpling from Adam Rodgers, writing for Business Insider, was published on November twenty ninth, twenty twenty two. Fantastic read The Great Purpling, and according to that, reports of these purple street lights have been coming through since twenty twenty, roughly from everywhere, from Ireland, Florida, North Carolina, New Mexico.
Just everybody is getting these lights. So I don't think it's anything to worry about.
It really more speaks to the skin ale of the company that we're talking about, which is probably one reason why it's smart to be smart on our end to look into that. You know, when you have like a company like that that's just spreading their wares, you know, internationally like that and then has this inherent design flaw that starts to get people freaking out.
And I'm concused myself, but I think it's super cool.
You know.
Yeah, I was gonna say good.
If I can't see it, it sounds awesome.
Well, to Ben's point, like, should we have some cities that are this like black light kind of color or a city that's like got it's a laser tag, you know, yeah, like that's this is the hue of what Charleston South Carolina.
That's a really good idea interesting choice. It's like the choice of Christmas decorations in a downtown municipality.
Right, I don't know.
I think it would be cool identity. What would your cities color be? Let us know. We'll tell you how to contact us at the end of this. We'll be right now, sponsors.
And we've returned with another message from you. This message comes to us from k Night k and I ght.
I think that's a nickname. But this is a fun one. Here we go.
Hey, guys, love the podcast. I've got a funny one for you. I've worked jobs wherein my car was my desk. Driving around involved taking my lunches at various fast food joints to save time. During COVID years, I found myself noticing a weird trend. Mind you, this is purely anecdotal, but when I would order extra ranch at places like Burger King, I'd almost always have to go back inside after it was left out of my bag, or would just huff to myself a disappointment and drive away in
defeat with my sauceless fries. Supply chain shortages were and still are a thing, but I started to wonder do some restaurants do this on purpose? Do some big chains do this to make millions? Here's where it gets interesting. BK, that's Burger King charges anywhere from ten to twenty five cents per ranch pack. I imagine other drive through restaurants are comparable. Let's assume some math here, based on at least some realism. BK sells two point one billion whoppers
per year. Let's assume roughly half of them are meals with a medium fry. Let's then assume about a quarter of those are meals with an extra sauce, Because what monster eats fries without sauce. That's two hundred and sixty two million, five hundred thousand BK meals with sauce added on at for simple mathsake, an average of ten cents per ranch or buffalo, et cetera dipping sauce. That's a profit margin of twenty six million, two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars on sauce. And I imagine the sauce is peanuts on the margins to produce. Let's say for each ten cent ranch pack, a penny was needed to produce it. That still leaves us with an incredible net profit of over twenty million on sauce backs sold per year. If you're burger king in the midst of a supply chain shortage. However, would you really want to be making twenty million when you could recoup the lost funds by basically selling the
sauce and not giving it out. Let's imagine as a hypothetical that one out of every ten customers is accidentally robbed of their sauce due to a drive through worker honestly forgetting to add it. Let's be honest, they are doing intense work on their feet on the daily and genuinely forget about sauces at times. Let's also assume for
complicated orders, another sauce on average is lost. Then let's assume a manager, to make up lost revenue, encourages its staff to forget on purpose one sauce per ten customers. That brings us to seven sauces per ten ordered actually landing in the bag. That's thirty percent of the sauce profit million, eight hundred and seventy five thousand dollars being forgotten on purpose or with intention that that will be sold at that price without a need for profit loss
due to supply. In essence, BK makes more than the twenty six million on the sauce. They make the grand total of over thirty million as a result of leaving it out of thirty percent of orders. This is a certified lost in the sauce moment that I thought you might enjoy. Feel free to call me Kilo on the air. Okay, there we go, where Kylo is what we were calling our friend here And if you use this and feel free to include everything above and wordsmith its if you need to keep up the great work.
Figured this oddity of an idea would be.
A nice respite from some of the more serious stuff take care woo interesting stuff. I mean, yeah, when you think about the scale of these types of you know, restaurants, these international conglomerates, and I never really thought about how the sauce adds up. I certainly have been to places that don't, at least on paper, charge you for every sauce. But there are certainly places that do you ask for
extra sauce. And if you actually take the time to look at your itemized receipt, you'll see a couple of ten cent charges or whatever for the sauce.
And especially if you're.
At, like maybe a slightly more bespoke or upper end fast food place, they'll definitely charge you for the sauce, especially if they have like branded you know, you know, nice kind of proprietary sauces, like a Chick fil A or what have you. But what do you guys make of this idea of intentional leaving out of the sauce in order to recoup some of this stuff.
I don't know. I think it's a little bit of a stretch.
I think it's interesting to think about that.
It is perhaps conspiratorial, and Kylo, I really appreciate your time here. It is, however, quite plausible in that we remember the franchise model rules of today, such that a lot of fast food enterprises, though they may seem uniform, are little fiefdoms regionally of their own. And that's why you hear little taglines like with participating locations right for any kind of deal, because ultimately those franchisees can make
the decision over what gets charge. I also could argue like this is plausible due to the concept of shrink flation. You know, remember when nuggets went from x number to y number in some locations. That's because you know, increasingly As food cost skyrocket here in the US, people are going to fast food locations less often. It's kind of weird, you know, we see this trend that's been going on,
like definitely definitely escalating during the pandemic. So I would say, is Burger king overall, Like are they having boardroom meetings where they're like, we got to start screwing people over on the sauces? Probably probably not, but are franchisees maybe doing that to save cost? I think it's quite well because we talked about it in the past. The restaurant business is tough. It's cut through and those margins are pretty slim unless you get to like Michelin star level.
And Matt, I know you had a theory here or you were this was an incredulous I think maybe you were. You were a little skeptical. But I also want to point out that there are some overarching corporations that have a much stronger grasp over what their franchisees do and don't do. You know, where you really have to like fall in line and like do the things, do the promotions. And you're right, Ben, there are others where it is
participating locations et cetera. But then you have stuff like Chick fil A, where I mean the uniformity in those locations are pretty across the board, you know. But Matt, what are your thoughts here on? Well, what could possibly be going on? Is this good intentioned forgetfulness, you know, or is there something deeper at play?
I just would agree with what Ben was saying. I think you cannot account for the individual actions of someone who was working the line on burger king, you know, somebody who just may accidentally forget that one, but wouldn't forget the sauce every time, but once every twenty four forty orders forgets to put the sauce in the bag or something, right, I think that's what it is. That's what I've experienced. Sometimes I get a sauce, sometimes I don't.
I don't know. I don't feel like there's any big money grab here, because the money grab is charging ten to twenty five cents for a sauce packet like what Zaxby's does. Now that's another franchise, another brand.
Well, and that probably just largely offsets the sauces that they give away for free, you know what I mean, when they are able to recoup some of that by charging, because I've certainly been in situations where, again because of the individual choice or action of the employee, you aren't charged for the sauce, or perhaps you had to wait a little bit long, so they give you some sauces for free or whatever it might be, just to make
you happy. But I'm also I think what I'm most taken by with this email is just all of the sauce math. I guess I never really thought about how much the sauces add up in theory, if you're charging what they actually you know, are supposed to charge for them, and then what the margins are on those sauces, because you know, individual packaging, as we know, is a quite wasteful and b can add up as well.
But it's a little weird because the cost of producing that sauce per ounce or whatever is worked into I would say in this I'm spitballing here, but I would say, is worked into the cost of that meal that you're buying, or that's at those fries that you're ordering or whatever. And they're doing that on purpose, and they're probably slightly overestimating that would be the smart move, right because it's going to be negligible for the end user. You're gonna
pay like five cents twenty cents more. It's not even gonna be a full twenty cents more. It'll be like five cents more.
And we also know about how like you know, companies at this level of scale have things like breakage built in to their formulas about like things that don't get charged or they get stolen or whatever it might be. You know, like there's gonna be some stuff that's gonna fall off and that that's not going to ultimately be a source of revenue, you know, because of just the again the individual actions, and you're moving quickly. Like you said,
these folks are very busy. They're working really hard and doing a lot of manual labor on their feet, and sometimes they might forget to put the sauce in completely unintentionally. But again, sometimes I've gotten bags from fast few places where they give you way too much sauce, you know, like then catch up packets, and I'm not I'm ashamed to say it, but it's just true that end up
in the trash. And I almost wish they wouldn't give you that unless you requested it, because it feels wasteful on your part.
As a consumer.
I said, I've put those things in the fridge, but then I'm like, I'm not going to use these sauces that are in my fridge.
It's just not going to happen.
So I end up throwing them away when I'm clearing out my fridge later.
I wonder if anybody else out there is getting the I don't know what you call this. I'm feeling an aversion to the word sauce right now, and I don't know why, but every every time we're saying it now, my body is irking.
Sauce me up, baby. I don't know, is catch up a sauce? I guess technically, what does a sauce make a.
Sauce the same thing? I don't know.
These are the important questions to keep us up at night here and stuff they don't want you to know. Well, Kilo, definitely some food and sauce for thought here. So we kinda let Matt cringe his way into this here break and then we're gonna come back with one more message from you.
And we have returned with a couple more messages. First, want to go to Curious in Seaattle. Curious in Seattle. You said, Hello, love your show. Have you ever done a deep dive into Thomas Wales, virual prosecutor was murdered in his Seattle home in two thousand and one, the case which remains unsolved to this day. Quick response, We have not Curious in Seattle, and thank you for bringing
this to our attention. Curious, you continue saying, it's been so hard to keep up with the theories and plot twist and speculation of FBI informants and cover ups over the years, wondering if you have any thoughts. Let's start there. Have you guys heard the story of Thomas Crane Wales.
No, but on a cursory Google it does seem that he was a big advocate for gun control, and I can only imagine that some of the conspiracy theories surrounding his demise might target folks that are not you know, about gun control, Matt.
Is this one familiar to you?
No, I'm checking it out the FBI website right now. Yeah, all about it.
Yeah, they have an open balance for information leading to leading to leaning to a conviction. The United States DOJ is offering a word up to two million dollars leading to the arrest and conviction of people responsible for the murder of this official. So let's go to the night of October eleventh, two thousand and one. It's a little
bit before eleven pm. Thomas Crane Wales is in the basement of his home in Seattle, Washington, where he is currently working as an assistant US attorney, and he's been in that job for almost two decades. He's mainly focused on white collar crime cases. He was shot several times through the window of his basement office as he was sitting by his desk writing on his computer. This doesn't immediately kill him. He expires at a hospital the next day. And to this year right now, in the beginning of
twenty twenty four, this has never been solved. As we pointed out earlier, he was involved in gun control. But I got to tell you, guys, this is ping in my spidy sense. For everything that I've read about the story, it feels like there's something fishy at play, because whoever
killed him was clearly executing a hit. It's fair to say like they knew enough about the layout of the house to avoid certain indicators they knew also, I don't know, but they also made dumb mistakes, like they left shell casings from the pistol behind.
Interesting make of pistol, right, a Makarov pistol that apparently had some sort of aftermarket barrel. And I believe this individual was a big proponent of things like trigger locks. It was behind a referendum that would have required owners to use trigger lock and he was president of an organization called Ceasefire. So it does feel like the type of stuff that this killer used indicates that they would have been someone who vehemently opposed everything that this individual stood for.
Well, politically, it would be a pretty smart thing to use as cover, right, someone to go killing look like a.
Gun nut, just angry and you know, yeah.
The FBI had a similar I don't want to say that was their conclusion yet, but they had a similar contemplation. I want to give a big thanks to the journalist over at the Seattle Times who you point out as well Curious in Seattle, especially Mike Carter, who had a piece that was originally published in twenty sixteen, and these pieces still remain relevant because there has been no results
in the investigation. There are a couple people that I should say law enforcement liked for this, including an airplane pilot who is living in Bellevue or Bellevue, and this guy was prosecuted by Wales before Wales was killed. It's going back and forth. But this is like an active mystery that has not been solved. Cartels have been accused. There have also been lots of allegations of conspiracy, and I'm pretty convinced at this point they'll still got some
strings out there. I'm pretty convinced that there is a group of people who knows the identity of the shooter, and I think the FBI might know who they are, but they can't move yet. Does that sound implausible?
Not implausible at all, No, quite the opposite. There's an interesting little tidbit too about an FBI informant but who said that like his cell mate of his copped to the murder, but then upon being on the receiving end of a lie detector test, that was believed to have been a fabricated story. But again, we also know light detective tests are kind of pseudos.
You're talking about Scott Lee Kimball.
Scott Lee Kimball who apparently was to be a serial killer and FBI and format.
That's a weird mix.
Yeah, but it's also not uncommon for somebody who's already incarcerated to cop to something.
They'll do it for a hot lunch.
Yeah, unfortunately, just to break the boredom.
And so the information that we have discussed so far is incredibly easy to find. It's like in the Wikipedia articles. You don't even have to go to the talk tab. But the one of the other issues here is the idea of tracing back the firearms. Right we talked about that replacement gun barrel. You know, one of the big parts of the investigation into this two thousand and one assassination has been tracking down over two thousand and five
hundred replacement gun barrels. And that's entirely because it may be it may be the break that investigators need in the case. And over the past fifteen years, FBI has been able to track down all of those gun barrels. There's like two thousand and six hundred to their very first buyer, who is either a gun dealer or purchaser.
And the problem is they still didn't get an answer from it, so they don't know, Like it gets to a point where you don't know where else to look, which is why the reward for information keeps raising and raising.
What would be the reason for replacing a barrel to increase the range or something like that, or would it be to obfuscate, you know, the original purchase so that you would because of the as we know, like barrels have different striations on bullets, and if you have an aftermarket barrel, then it would no longer be associated with whatever the original like logged purchase might be. Is that sort of the idea or maybe there's ucasion of the two.
You can replace it to improve accuracy. People have to replace it to improve safety because you know, a firearm and get a lot of wear. We're talking cracks, bulges, erosion. We're not firearm.
Experts, but there are absolutely legitimate reasons to replace a barrel. And it's strange because I'm looking through this case curious in Seattle, and what I'm finding is that the FBI never really gave up on it, even when the leads were increasingly sparse or increasingly dead ends. They do think right now, or at least as sorry several years ago now.
But as of twenty eighteen, the FBI concluded that there was a contract killer, There was an active operative, a professional hit man or a hit person who did the deed here.
Is that what would put this in the jurisdiction of the FBI, the idea that it was a contract killer hired to assassinate a public official.
I think it's more so that he was an assistant US attorney. I think this would be the only assassination of someone in that position in the history of the United States.
Is it weird that it's exactly one month to the day September eleven attacks.
I think that's I'm glad you bring that up, Matt, because there's also there's also the question of noise, like why don't more people know about this investigation. There are a lot of things that happened around two thousand.
Don't know, that's weird to me. Okay, everything's fine.
Everything's five.
Is this an episode, guys? This is interesting.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying at the top. I do believe this is an episode. We know that right now there are there are still active questions to be answered. There was there was something that really stood out to me. There was an FBI official who didn't give their name, they were reported as an official quote familiar with the investigation, who said there is a very small group of people who knows what happened, and they never talk about it.
So it sounds like it sounds like that pilot that I mentioned earlier, who was a strong suspect, sounds like he hasn't been really named in a lot of public reporting because he wasn't officially charged. So it's something where again, if you're one of the good guys, you have to fight by good guy rules.
Did you mention Ben?
In two thousand and seven, the FBI slashed the staff assigned to this case down to just two.
I alluded to that earlier with the way they trimmed down stuff as the.
Is that an indications you know what's going on or that it's no longer a priority?
That was my wondering.
It's indicative of the battle over resources, Like how how many hours of professional work can we put into something? Is the question they have to ask, and unfortunately the question they have to answer at every annual review. I don't know. This really caught me curious because I had not heard of this, and it sounds like none of us had. It does very much feel like an episode in the future, unless unless we can solve it right now. Can anybody anybody solve it?
We need no probably not work shopping on this one.
Guys, do you ever just sit in your house with a light on when it's super dark outside, just to like be a tempt the hit man outside? Come on, let's let's go.
I sit in the dark inner room next to a room with the light on.
Smart decoy. I late prone typically. Yeah, you guys, watch Mister and Missus Smith. By the way, the new uh Donald Glover reimagining of that movie with Brad Pitt and what's her face?
Angelina Jolie.
It's really good.
And there's a whole episode with Ron Pearlman where.
There's like they're protecting him and they're in this house and there's a potential of assassins, you know, shooting through windows and they have to be really thoughtful about the lights and all of that stuff. But I think it's really good, you guys, I highly recommend checking it out.
And with the case of whales here, we know that there are I didn't understand this either. There are more investigative files and documents about this than there are over the n Ron case. WHOA do you remember the n Run case? You guys?
Of course?
Yeah, in a movie about that, right.
Well, save it, Let's do an entire thing. This is a massive discussion.
Yes, I think so too. Yeah, we got the micro version out of the way. Let's go for the macro version and a podcast platform near you very soon.
Yeah, we'll cut it off here. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We can't wait to hear from you. We'd love to share your stories with your fellow conspiracy realist. Thank you to Kylo, Thank you to Matthias, Thank you to Curious in Seattle. If you would like to join the show, we can't wait to have you. We try to be easy to find online, boy do we ever.
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