The Best of: Weird Crime, Volume 2

From ghost witnesses to attackers from the moon, five classic The History Guy Episodes about weird crimes and cases. Almost a full hour of The History Guy!
00:00 Prospectors, Investors and Colorado Diamonds
09:28 The "Racketeer Nickel"
21:11 The Fairy Trial of Bridget Cleary
33:10 The Greenbrier Ghost and West Virginia history
43:49 The 2007 Boston Mooninite Panic
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This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and disgust. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Non censuram.
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[@hurpdurpueruhur]

lmao never thought i'd heard thg say "Aqua teen hunger force" that made my day

[@ElementofKindness]

The moment it was said "a mix of sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and diamonds," I knew where this story was going.

[@brianbaker5671]

Me too those all form under different conditions

[@cynthiaslater7445]

Greed will override common sense every time.

[@machfiver753]

Re: the cautionary tale about the racketeer nickel. Here in Canada people would scrape the ink off the polymer $10 & $5 bills leaving the hologram intact and then would reprint them as $100 & $50 bills respectively. Our $10 bills now have a very different hologram compared to the $100 bill

[@thomasr9826]

Weird Crimes would make a good ongoing series.

[@pourlemerite]

Criminals robbing criminals 😂😂😂 love that first scam.

[@user-js7ek9oh3p]

I'm no gem expert, but I know that all those gemstones laying around on the ground sounds fishy to even me..?? Boy, these guys caught a very BIG Fish..!! Good History, Guy...

[@donbangert]

Definition of a mine is a hole in the ground with a liar standing in front of it.

[@thejudgmentalcat]

Bridget's story is just tragic...belief is a powerful drug

[@stevenhughes712]

so the scammers must have thought it was game over when they sent a sample of the gems to Tiffany for appraisal. Only for him to value them at about 75 times what they were worth. 🤣

[@SteveMoser]

"For heaven's sake, don't let her inside a Radio Shack!" 😄

[@TheEudaemonicPlague]

It's clear as day that you haven't a clue what he meant. He wasn't talking about the chain of electronics stores, numbnuts, he was talking about the room the electronics were kept. It used to be fairly common to keep radio electronics in a separate building--to avoid interference, among other things. These became known as radio shacks. The store name came long afterward...not that there's much point to them continuing to exist--they used to sell lots of parts for electronics hobbyists, but now mostly just sell badly designed/made toys.

[@feliciagaffney1998]

​@@TheEudaemonicPlague they had computer in the late 80's and the 90's. And they probably had handheld games like Gameboys. I think our first TV game came from there, early 80's. It was a hand set with Pong and a few others. I think 5 games total. 😄

[@SteveMoser]

@@TheEudaemonicPlague What a way to react to a simple post with meaningless pedantry.

[@DirtyyJerz]

@@TheEudaemonicPlague Hey! Nobody gives a shit!

[@elizamccroskey1708]

⁠@@TheEudaemonicPlagueI found your post edifying, and thank you for it. I’m surprised that people who obviously enjoy learning about history would object to someone sharing history.

[@georgewnewman3201]

Lesson from the Colorado Diamond Mine caper: "you can't cheat an honest man"

[@topherthe11th23]

The story about the nickels overlooks the years during which metals were so scarce that the nickels were minted out of wood. I once spent several thousand dollars buying up an old hoard of these. Wooden nickels are almost impossible to counterfeit since none were minted in the 20th or 21st centuries and so tree-ring analysis will disprove any modern fakes, UNLESS the counterfeiter had access to wood that was grown in the 19th century.

[@gregmcdonald7357]

I love history at least in part because of stories like this and the History Guys that tell them. Thanks.

[@avanellehansen4525]

Great storytelling. I appreciate no background music and good tempo. New subscriber.

[@swapsplat]

I remember the Boston scare. Those officials really went over the deep end.

[@huwhitecavebeast1972]

It's mind boggling how someone can be acquitted after admitting to murdering a 4 year old.

[@michaelf6232]

Tell that to Obama.

[@aowbsx]

I was a pretty big Aqua Teen fan and I remember laughing so hard hearing the Mooninites shut down Boston. “I hope he can see this, because I’m doing it as hard as I can” 🤣🤣

[@jacksemporiumofstuff]

I was a fan too, and I remember this well. I knew what the story was about after hearing about 5 seconds of it! I never found out what happened to the guy putting up the signs. 😂

[@mauricedavis2160]

Big Aqua Team fan#2, great minds huh👻!!!🙏✨👌🦉🐲❣️

[@josekelly3565]

Check it out y'all check ccheck it out, they make the homies say ho and the girlies wanna scream 😜🤣 Police are very easily fooled. Aqua teen hunger force forever ✊

[@marckyle5895]

When I saw the first report, I recognized the Mooninite and it was all made clear!

[@lococomrade3488]

Same!!!

[@evolveausevolveaus]

I love the way you narrate so fast, the amount of information you can share in 59 minutes would take some KZbinrs 3 hours. Thanks History Guy 😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@Bigbro28]

Too fast for me. I played this at .75x speed.🇦🇺

[@evolveausevolveaus]

@@Bigbro28 lol

[@erolei1650]

To fast for me also.

[@adiuntesserande6893]

The nickel problem was utter non-cents….

[@johngregg5735]

In 1954, Francis Leroy Henning was arrested for counterfeiting nickels...

[@RetiredSailor60]

Good Wednesday morning History Guy and everyone watching

[@InfamousGUNN]

This is a great story ( the first one)so great in fact I think this would make a great movie seriously!

[@shelleymarquis2887]

For a medical/genetic link to the changeling myth Google Williams Syndrome. While working in MH as a children's psychiatric diagnostic observer I came into contact with a child of 7 (seemed smaller), who looked exactly like an elf. I had just run across Williams syndrome for the first time while researching another diagnosis the previous day. I called my supervisor, a child psychiatrist, and reviewed my diagnostic impression with him as the mother, a MSN (Masters degree in nursing) listened to our conversation. I had asked her how difficult her attempts to find the right help for her son had been and if she agreed with the MR/DD, (archaic label no offence) or not. She decidedly did not. This child's mother said there were two jobs he would be suited for... working for Santa or making cookies in a tree. Her joke, not mine. Just fyi, y'all.

[@Litauen-yg9ut]

Fact can sure be stranger than fiction sometimes....

[@topherthe11th23]

One thing that the narration leaves out is "Where was Shu when his wife died?". Her mother Mary Jane was involved in SOME way. Perhaps in conspiracy with her son-in-law, whose trial and conviction (and there is every possibility that he was guilty) she then engineered. It may have been the mother Mary Jane who broke the neck of the corpse. She had behaved strangely in not letting anyone else get too close to the coffin. Or Mary Jane may have been present when Shu com'mit'ted the mur'der, because otherwise how would Mary Jane have known all those details?

[@craigdutton6072]

lol 😂 I saw it coming , it’s the oldest confidence trick in the book 📕 it’s lesson 101 in greed 😂

[@mikebeartx]

I wish I could narrate like you. Great style and vocal characteristics.

[@mauricedavis2160]

Excellent as always THG&TEAM, you all always come through, keep em coming I'll be watching 👀!!!🙏✨👌👻🐲❣️

[@lindsayhaley903]

Can you do an episode on the blue aluminum pennies?

[@bryanestes8558]

Great to hear about rich, greedy businessmen getting ripped off..while usually most of us get ripped off every day by same men

[@ghowell13]

Oh, I love a weird crime story!!! Thanks for the video, The History Guy, I can't wait to get to view all of these!

[@pamelasmith7740]

That last bit was so hilarious I didn't mind revisiting ghost testimony. I don't know how on earth I missed Mooninites. Must have been during my Buggarville days of aluminum foil covered rabbit ears and speaker wire ran around the window frames. Three channel country. 😂

[@pamelasmith7740]

I'm still hoping you will bring the life of Civil war soldier William Newby to life with your voice. I think you will enjoy it as well.

[@charleswalters4390]

Love the material and the Coffee mugs are AWESOME

[@user-nt4zn3mz1g]

The history of currency is more interesting than one thinks it could be.

[@xvsj5833]

Great stories THG ❤Thxs

[@kevinvilmont6061]

Criminal charges? That’s ridiculous.

[@Rachniax]

The Diamond heist story was fun. Sounds like the current government.

[@user-yq8rw3zb6s]

The mooninites layers are deadly, and super fast moving.

[@grantovenden2646]

Another fantastic piece of work!

[@beeptone]

Love your stuff. Keep it up❤

[@chrispemberton7000]

Great history and thank you.

[@erolei1650]

Glad you have slowed down, still could be a fraction slower. Then would be perfect Thankyou😊😊

[@jerkfudgewater147]

22:40 they died of starvation because the rich kicked everyone off of their land because empty fields had become fashionable… whole families didn’t starve to death on the side of the road simply because 1 crop failed.

[@cherylschantz9893]

There were years of crop failures, I believe.

[@jerkfudgewater147]

@@cherylschantz9893 there are a couple episodes of Behind the Bastards on the potato famine… it was all caused by rich landlords murdering the poor and ya it took years to kill all of those people… but it was all done on purpose by the rich.

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

It is really both the loss of land and the crop failure. “Land reform” had pushed tenant-farmers to smaller and smaller plots, creating dependence on a monocrop and thus making them more vulnerable to the blight. In general fields were not “empty,” but had been turned to cash crops for export.

[@jerkfudgewater147]

@@TheHistoryGuyChannel wow you deleted my comment, cool. So you’re saying that whole families starved to death on the side of the road next to “cash crops” rather than eating them? What were these crops that inspired such law abiding behavior?

[@constipatedinsincity4424]

Back in the Saddle Again Naturally

[@JeffreyGlover65]

Change it up

[@cbroz7492]

..the good ol' 'Great American Con'..you shoukd do a spot in "Count' Victor Lustig...

[@zigmogcreator]

Thanks for the hard work and history lessons

[@DirtRider999]

ATHF was an awesome show. All hail the moonenites!!!!

[@scotttyson607]

"What this country really needs is a good five cent cigar"

[@Sibyle79]

I had to slow down the playback a little. Great video, as usual. ❤

[@AndreS-sz7dn]

Thanks!

[@jpotter2086]

Worth 50min to hear History Guy say "meatwad" :D

[@topherthe11th23]

The real reason we know that the Josh Tatum story is false is because in real life he would have been convicted. If it had happened to "Tatum" once or twice, his denial would be plausible. But once he made big money on the scheme it would be easy to establish criminal intent. Another proof of criminal intent would be the fact that he never bought more than one five-cent cigar on any occasion, and never returned to a cigar-ship from which he had already purchased one cigar.

[@emmanuelblake5403]

Now I know where 49er came from 🤔

[@goldenageofdinosaurs7192]

🤣

[@speedy692]

I thought during the Shoe case it would be revealed that the Mother & Daughter argued because the Mother didn't like Edward & the Mother killed Elizabeth. How else would she know how her daughter died?

[@jasonkeighin9401]

youtube has been pushing your thumbnails into oblivion for me. Glad to see you again on my laptop Doc.

[@benmclinjr9607]

So hilarious. ATHF was and is super funny and odd ASF. Carl the neighbor is hilarious

[@stevewheatley243]

Most history deserves to be remembered,but I think the Boston story is best forgot. Great video though.

[@bigsarge2085]

Interesting!

[@williscopeland7114]

I ask you, what history doesn’t deserve to be remembered?

[@greggbaker7120]

Say ...What About Civil War Tokens. " History that deserves to be Remembered "

[@geraldtrudeau3223]

Turner Broadcasting would never seek that kind of publicity.,... But I bet they would accept it as a gift. Any publicity is better than no publicity.

[@jennifergriffiths3941]

… regarding prospectors & experts & suckers … … Always TRUST the EXPERTS ??? LIke THAT did much good considering the last 4 years ….

[@topherthe11th23]

40:45 - The script should have been proofread by cold eyes. How is it possible that something IN a sheet could ooze out and dye the sheet red? If the source of the red pigmentation WAS the sheet, then the sheet must've already been dyed by the red pigment. But the script cannot be faulted for the fact that Mary Jane's testimony there casts suspicion on herself. The story of a blo'od-strained sheet from the coff'in wrapped around the cor'pse's neck, oo'zing blo'od when laundered, having become wadded in such a way that nobody noticed the blo'od, and then being removed in such a way that all the way to it being dunked into the laundry-vessel it never became unwadded in such manner as to expose the blo'od, is just not credible.

[@360Birdman]

Ok that whole aqua teen thing really threw me off. I was like WTF!? I have had that very Mooninite (Err) tattooed on my arm since the early 2000's. I knew nothing of this guerilla marketing scheme until now.

[@TheCosmicGuy0111]

Nice

[@toilaCarissa]

Are there records of children dying as a changling? I heard parents were allowed to unalive a changling (as they weren't their child/human); but did they report and record these deaths as such? Records as in death certificates

[@summerz8867]

Always interesting l😽🍃💫

[@PolizeiPaul]

I often wonder why at the end of The Civil War the Union didn't decide to unite States with South in the name into just 1, You would think after The South lost they would want to create just Dakota and Carolina and why didn't they decide to reunite unite Virgina back to 1. 🤔

[@canuck_gamer3359]

With all due respect, I am a long time fan and always will be. But am I the only one who thinks he's going a hundred miles an hour compared to his usual deliberate cadence? Decaf is commonly available and might be a good option :)

[@StrongbowTX]

"SCHNEIER on Security", not Schneider. (Yeah, I know, this is a "best of" and I missed it in the original video, but...)

[@DeanStephen]

The supposed “ancient Irish folk superstitions” sound an awful lot like pre-Enlightenment Catholicism. I wonder how the Irish could have been exposed to that?

[@markaoslo5653]

(feeding the algorithm 👍)

[@robertweldon7909]

I remember the incident in Boston. What a strange thing. The concern over weird packages is understandable. You would think that the people behind the "hokes" would have known better. ;-)

[@jennifergriffiths3941]

… so West Virginia seceded from Confederate Virginia to remain in the Union … … June 20th 1863 … welcome State No. 35 !!!

[@paulmcmanus6222]

There was even a time when you could get a good cigar for a nickel.

[@muddyshoals2710]

In the 1896 story about Edward and Zona Shue, is that a TV antenna on top of the house at 36:50, 41:00, and more.?

[@TheHistoryGuyChannel]

It is. That is the same house, only decades later.

[@dale6613]

I'm doing this as hard as I can.

[@MrMatteNWk]

54:53 I've listened to so many O&A clips that all I can think of is them goofing on Boffeston Mayor Mumbles Menino wanting a cable channel to lose their broadcasting license (which they wouldn't have)

[@terryvuylsteke2434]

I love the history Guy, but is it just me or is the audio a bit fast? Hoping i'm wrong but judging by some comments Im not alone on this thought,

[@HBrooks]

Using a key to gouge expletives on another's vehicle is a sign of trust and friendship. ~ Ignignokt

[@pamelasmith7740]

The man who placed the Mooninites was an artist, not a terrorist. He placed a lighted flashing sign. The worst he's guilty of is not getting a permit. That's why he was only ordered to perform community service. Had the parent company chose to fight, they most likely would have prevailed. There's no malicious intent in placing cheap flashing signs. They should have acquired a permit. Is a flash mob considered a mob action? Blink blink.

[@HBrooks]

@@pamelasmith7740 as a mooninite, i must concur vehemently

[@DEATHBYFLYINGCDS]

The lesson is successful people, are rarely intelligent

[@robertspearko8809]

Not even 1 minute in. What was in the bag was the question? Not - why the f are two guys asking me in the middle of the night to store something in a safe???? If the queen of England landed a hot air balloon in my front yard and asked me to hold her glass- I don't think my first question would be "what are you drinking?"....

[@Scott-pn3np]

AQUA TEEN FOREVER!

[@jeffbangkok]

Good tales with breakfast

[@FlipzRugz420]

I love these stories! Invest in a mic for your suit! Clearer audio will sound better and better for us to listen to at night and in cars!

[@johnhenderson131]

2:09 Almost seems too good to be true! I know very little about precious gems but I thought stones like diamonds, rubes and emeralds were discovered under specific geological conditions unique to each precious gem. In other words the gems 💎 would never be located in the same area? And if it seems too good to be true there’s a reason….! 7:01 I know it’s a crime but the con is too clever not to admire their plan and understanding of human psychology, in this case “Greed”!

[@mauricedavis2160]

Wait for it, wait for it...🍭🍭🍭!!!🙏✨👌🤔🐲❣️

[@shaindaman13]

The Bridget Cleary story is just awful. That’s history that deserves to be very forgotten.

[@kathleenmcconaha5608]

greedy guts

[@johnfun3394]

Batteries, why is it always about batteries? Thanks

[@mhick3333]

Shades of brex

[@ashergoney]

Have To Take Matters Up For Much More Scrutiny On Topics Instead Of Burning, still Ongoing In Every Corner.. Atleast R.I.P. For Failure To Fight The Good Fight At Holy Wars.. Death' From Above, .. Strikes HELL From The Grave Also..

[@therakshasan8547]

Crime does pay . You only have to look at Corporate Economics for the proof [ E.M. comes to mind as the current king of con ].

[@tracylynn1461]

Sounds like the husband of the fairy ring lady had cap gras syndrome.. He may have been the one bewitched... I did love the gem stone hoax geniuses story best tho... 😂

[@matthewharper7333]

Everyone knows the best way to rid yourself of a Changling is to get them to expose they are an old fairy instead of a child. You do that by cracking off color jokes a child wouldn't understand, when the Changling laughs, he then knows the game is up and departs.

[@robertturner6651]

What is the story of the cat like pic behind you?

[@DPoner]

Who clipped the coins????

[@jennifergriffiths3941]

A nickel spent is … … $4.95 earned ??? Aaaw … just Joshin’ ya …

[@kiwiprouddavids724]

You often give us different ways of looking at things or you make us think.....the story of the fairy wife kinda made me think it's amazing how one crazy person plus a uneducated public or like public ferver can cause incredibly evil things to happen and they can justify all of it unless their is a higher power to hold them accountable sort of thing. In this case it should have been the Corts and in my opinion they didn't really respond in the most appropriate way .....I almost think he should have been sent to a home for the unwell until proven to be a sain person or not and if not sent directly to jail.....he probably went to Canada and then got locked up like that after attacking someone else and that's why there's no more record of him..... anyway just thinking out loud

[@jamieswift4572]

Interesting pal. But you need to slow down a bit. It's like your on speed or something.