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Chapter 1: What is the main mystery surrounding Charles Francis Hall?
He's got like a, he's seen you in your underwear or something. He's got a piercing gaze. I don't know. I don't know what I was saying, but okay. This is obviously him pre-murder. Yes, this is not a picture of his corpse. This is Charles Francis Hall pre-murder. I should have said that.
No, no, no.
I was just, I'm just, I was just time stamping, you know. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Ten, ten shots fired in City Hall building. How could this have happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me that. A shocking public murder.
This is one of the most dramatic events that really ever happened in New York City politics.
I screamed, get down, get down. Those are shots. A tragedy that's now forgotten. And a mystery that may or may not have been political, that may have been about sex. Listen to Rorschach, Murder at City Hall on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Laurie Siegel, and this is Mostly Human, a tech podcast through a human lens.
This week, an interview with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to the products we put out in the world. An in-depth conversation with a man who's shaping our future. My highest order bit is to not destroy the world with AI.
Listen to Mostly Human on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. My latest episode is with Noah Khan, the singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum global hit, Stick Season, and one of the biggest voices in music today.
Talking about the mental illness stuff, it used to be this thing that I was ashamed of. Getting to talk about this is not common for me. Right now, I need it more than ever.
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Chapter 2: How did Charles Francis Hall's early life shape his expeditions?
And you and I were among that mass migration. And I think you moved right to Brooklyn and I moved, I was in the Lower East Side for a year, but then I moved to,
into an uh this big loft apartment in williamsburg that we rented from your then girlfriend's sister's boyfriend oh my god i completely forgot about that ed yeah that whole like loft situation the loft situation was unbelievable it's one of the most magical places that i've ever lived in my life and it was a like 4 000 square foot loft And we paid like $300 a month each.
There were me and two roommates. And I remember right when we moved in, it was Thanksgiving. And we had no furniture. We just had this giant... like industrial space and with a asphalt floor. And we built a dinner table out of a four by eight sheet of plywood. Do you remember this?
You and your girlfriend, who's now your amazing wife and a bunch of our other friends all came over for Thanksgiving. And we sat on the floor around this piece of plywood and had just one of those memorable Thanksgivings ever. You know, it's all coming back to me. That was actually, that was a kind of a charmed moment, not just in our lives.
Because yes, I do remember us having Thanksgiving together. And we were all like babies. We were all like not, we didn't start our lives yet. Not at all. It was at that moment. Yeah. I want to tell you that when we were starting Snafu, and in season one in particular, we were still just trying to kind of find the sound and the voice.
Radiolab for us was very much a North Star in terms of how you told a story, both... And I think it's fair to say that that so much of what became documentary audio storytelling was massively influenced by Radiolab. I'm curious. curious, like in the way that that was such an innovation at that time, which now is so ubiquitous and feels so prevalent.
What were your inspirations in creating Radiolab? What was the not just the stories that, of course, were were these beautiful just kind of exercises and curiosity, but the actual production, the way that you crafted the auditory experience of Radiolab? Yeah, I mean, it's funny to think back because it all feels so quaint and somewhat misguided.
I mean, you know, at the aforementioned Oberlin College, I studied music composition at the conservatory. And I studied it at a time when you had a lot of kind of as I think of them, sort of leftover lefties who are teaching this like really dissonant form of like Stockhausen and music concrete and all of this stuff. And that's what I spent four years learning.
So when I got out of school, I thought I was gonna be a composer or a film person. That was what my sort of trajectory was. And that was what was in my ears. And then I tumbled sort of through the side door into journalism. And so when I finally started making a radio show, I had like only a few like templates or a few inspirations.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Hall face during his Arctic expeditions?
He apprenticed as a blacksmith in his teens, later moved to Cincinnati in our beloved Ohio, where he became a businessman and a newspaper publisher. Let's take a look at this guy. As an adult, he was 5'8", 200 pounds and described as a bear-like man. Yes. With a large bushy beard. He has a little bit of a Galifianakis going on there. He does, you're right. Wow, okay.
I would describe him as Galifianak-ish. Exactly. Yeah, you're very right. And I will say in this, we'll kind of learn that his personality is quite complicated, but he seems quite jovial and like teddy bear-ish here. Yeah, he seems like he knows something. Yeah, he also looks- He's got a piercing gaze that can see through your clothes, I guess. I don't know. I don't know what I was saying.
But okay, interesting. I don't disagree. This is obviously him pre-murder. Yes, this is not a picture of his corpse. This is Charles Francis Hall, pre-murder. I should have said that.
No, no, no.
I was just, I'm just, I was just time stamping, you know. Yeah, of course. If Hall's upbringing was bucolic and tranquil, his personality was anything but. He was emotionally volatile, capable of both passionate, grandiose expressions of hope and excitement. Uh, You can read his diary for proof of this. And also outbursts of extreme anger and even violence.
His ego was definitely a bit inflated, if not delusional. Despite this, he was intelligent and studious, even if his interests could be a bit fanatical. I kind of feel like this describes a lot of people of this time period, right? Yeah. They didn't have the tools, Jad. They didn't have the emotional tools. to communicate and vent their feelings in a healthy way. No, I know.
So we're about to trek into the great north. The north is unforgiving. And for centuries, explorers like Sir Francis Drake had traveled north to chart the Arctic's geography. A lot of the time, these explorers were seeking the Northwest Passage, of course, which is the, at the time, a hypothetical route that connected the Atlantic to the Pacific over the north of of Canada.
But every expedition to find this Northwest Passage had failed up to this point. And the passage wasn't successfully discovered until much later in 1905. The exploits of these explorers fascinated Hall, and he became particularly fixated on Sir John Franklin's doomed Arctic expedition, which had occurred when Hall was in his mid-20s.
I am curious what you think, Jad, what is it in human nature that we are so continuously kind of beguiled by these grand, bold adventurers and explorers. Like, what is that speaking to in us? Yeah, you know, I think about this all the time. I recall in an early radio lab, we talked to Robert Sapolsky, who's a primatologist, and he told stories of watching baboon troops
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Chapter 4: What led to the mysterious death of Charles Francis Hall?
No, you're right. It carries both. It carries both, right? The human instinct to explore contains multitudes. Yeah. Indeed. Indeed. Let me give you a little background on this John Franklin expedition that became Hall's obsession. In 1845, the British Royal Navy commissioned this Sir John Franklin to find the Northwest Passage aboard the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.
Unfortunately for Franklin and his crew, the ships became trapped in the ice and contact was lost. Their fate remained unknown. Wait, was it? Sorry, I'm just processing this late. Was it called the HMS Terror? Yes. Wow. Yeah. I don't know. That is not an auspicious name. If I'm like a steward, I don't want to get on that boat. Okay. And bad things befell the HSS Terror.
Yeah, they got trapped in the ice. Their fate was unknown for many, many years because they just never returned. And multiple search expeditions went out and continued well into the 21st century. We now know that all 129 crew members, including Franklin, died from exposure, scurvy, hypothermia, and apparently also even cannibalism. Wow.
I'm not sure if they died of cannibalism or if they were cannibalized upon death. I would hope it's the latter. I hope they didn't get eaten to death.
Chapter 5: What were the circumstances of Hall's burial?
That would be awkward for everyone. Yeah. My God. Wow. Okay. So this is the, this is the, this is the fellow or the expedition of the fellow who, whom Hall admired. Yes. And was it like a, like I, that guy failed, but I will, I will succeed where he failed. Kind of.
There certainly was that because the Northwest Passage had not been discovered and the North Pole had not been had not seen human at all. But also there was this obsession with the that Franklin expedition itself. No one knew what happened to them. And by 1860, most organized search efforts had fizzled out. Hall, however, was obsessed.
He felt certain that he could uncover what happened, even though the entire frickin British Royal Navy was unable to do so. Remember what I said about Hall's ego being a bit inflated? Right, right. Yeah, so in 1860, at the age of 39, Hall joined a whaling ship going north.
His intention was to hitch a ride to Baffin Island, located in present-day Nunavut, Canada, and from there continue westward in a much tinier craft to investigate Franklin's fate. Of course, because this is snafu, his plan went to shit. And this isn't even the main story. This is all still... We're still in the preamble, but... So I assume the clue that you have...
You have not yet dropped the clue. No, but I'm so glad you're paying close attention. I have not yet dropped the clue. Yeah. So a storm destroys his boat and illness kills his guide. And Hall was stranded for the winter on Baffin Island.
Ever the optimist, he decided to be productive and use this time to learn from the local Inuit culture and their incredible ability to survive and even thrive in this unbelievably harsh landscape, which he came to love. He befriended an Inuit couple, Ipirvik and Takulatuk, and wound up staying on Baffin Island for two whole years, immersing himself in the culture and learning their language.
By 1862, he was truly a... An Arctic badass, well-trained in the sort of trades of living in that climate. And he even discovered artifacts belonging to explorer Martin Frobisher, another seeker of the Northwest Passage. Yeah, he was there for a full two years. And then finally returned to the United States in 1862. And now he's just hooked on exploration.
In 1864, he launched a second expedition reaching King William Island, where Franklin's crew had been lost and recovered bones and small artifacts belonging to the crew from this site. And this expedition lasted for five years. And his passion for this region only deepened. He wrote, quote, The Arctic is is my home. I love it dearly. It's storms, it's winds, it's glaciers, it's icebergs.
And when I'm there among them, I seem as if I were in an earthly heaven or a heavenly earth. Interesting. This guy's, yeah, he has all the things, the good and the bad all rolled in. I mean, it's truly unbelievable what some of these explorers in the 19th century put themselves through again and again. Like Ernest Shackleton, you know, went on multiple expeditions.
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Chapter 6: How did modern science uncover clues about Hall's death?
what they went through back in the day? I don't know. I feel like I could have done it. You probably could have. I mean, I don't know why you had to say we, but... Speaking personally, I wouldn't have lasted five minutes. How would you do up there? I would be terrible. I mean, you know, Carla, as you know, is a Texan. We vacation over there. We go to visit her family there.
And every time I go to Texas, it's 85, 90 degrees. Hot, but not obscene. I mean, I'm from the Arab world. I should be able to handle heat. But I get heat stroke every single time. No. And, yeah, and I end up having to lie in a dark room. And she'll always be like, oh, my little orchid. Yeah. You need just the right environment to thrive.
All of which is to say, I don't think I would have lasted long in the Arctic. The orchid jad would have withered in an Arctic climate.
Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. My latest episode is with Noah Kahn, the singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum global hit, Stick Season, and one of the biggest voices in music today. Noah opens up about the pressure that followed his rapid success, his struggles with mental health and body image, and the fear of starting again after such a defining moment in his career.
It's easy to look at somebody and be like, your life must be so sick. Man, you have no clue. Talking about the mental illness stuff, it used to be this thing that I was ashamed of. I'm just now trying to unwind this idea that I have to be unhealthy physically or in pain in some emotional way in my life to create good music. If someone says that I did a good job, I'm like, yeah, I'm good.
If someone says that I suck, I'm like, I suck. Getting to talk about this is not common for me. Right now I need it more than ever.
Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Laurie Siegel, and on Mostly Human, I go beyond the headlines with the people building our future. This week, an interview with one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. I think society is going to decide that creators of AI products bear a tremendous amount of responsibility to products we put out in the world. From power to parenthood.
Kids, teenagers, I think they will need a lot of guardrails around AI. This is such a powerful and such a new thing.
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Chapter 7: What role did jealousy and rivalry play in Hall's story?
In 2023, former Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd found himself at the center of a paternity scandal. The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case.
I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. Sunlight's the greatest disinfectant. they would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Gillespie and Michael Marangini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trap. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.
Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news out of Maricopa County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges.
This isn't over until justice is served in Arizona. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, back to Hall. It wasn't always heavenly for him in the Arctic.
He did learn the hard way that leadership is an innate quality that few harness with grace, especially in desolate lands where temperatures average minus 33 degrees Celsius or minus 22 Fahrenheit. Wow. Man, I remember getting off the plane in Cleveland one year. Yes. I was just going to say like in Oberlin, it sometimes touched those icy, icy depths.
And it was actually kind of like amazing from a physics perspective. Just to like snot would come out of your nose and then freeze instantly. Yeah. Yes. Carry on with with Hall. We're in 1868 and it's the tail end of this second trip. And one of his crew members, Patrick Coleman, allegedly called for a mutiny or that's what Hall claimed.
Coleman was never actually able to kind of make his case because Hall shot him with a gun and just killed him. Wow. Which is not my go-to conflict resolution strategy. So you'd think murdering someone would come with some kind of consequences. But Hall just got away scot-free on this because the incident occurred beyond Canadian territorial boundaries.
British authorities who governed Canada at the time declined to pursue the matter and instead deferred it to the United States.
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Chapter 8: Who are the key suspects in the potential murder of Hall?
The U.S. was like, OK. We don't really give a shit. And it just went completely unprosecuted. And Coleman's murder never besmirched Hall's record in any way. Wow. Okay. So Hall was celebrated for his research and on the second expedition, having documented more about Inuit culture, oral histories, and Arctic survival skills than any previous traveler.
And he soon found himself hobnobbing with the elite, and he earned himself a very cushy gig leading a... third expedition. Actually, I would not describe it as cushy. A gig leading a third expedition. This one was major. And it was also where our snafu story really kicks into gear. Backed by $50,000 from the U.S.
Navy, which is about $1.3 million today, he set sail from New London, Connecticut on July 3rd, 1871, aboard the USS Polaris, aiming to be the first to reach The North Pole. Why Connecticut? But you know what? That's probably a detail that we shouldn't dwell on. Okay, so he's on his way to the North. Yes. This is my problem is I will ask you a series of questions which will digress us.
And no, I'm in now, so... I love it though, Jad. Honestly, like your curiosity is my fuel. And I can answer your question. You're saying why Connecticut? It's because so much of the maritime world was rooted in the whaling industry, which is all up and down the Connecticut coast. And of course, Massachusetts and Long Island.
I don't know why this particular expedition left from New London, but I do know that so much of Connecticut Shipping and whaling and all maritime activity was was rooted in the area. Yeah. Don't you think when someone options the story you're telling, if they haven't already, they should.
This scene of him leaving and like the gathering of the crew, the motley crew that's going to be aboard the vessel that launches to the North Pole. That feels to me like a like an instant scene in a movie. Oh, we're about to get there. I'm so glad you said that. Okay. Yeah. That's the perfect setup. Yeah. Because this trip is about to go real sideways.
But before we get into the timeline of Hall's third expedition, let's lay out our rogues gallery of potential suspects. Very Agatha Christie style here. The crew was made up of 25 people, Americans, Germans, a Dane, a Swede, and two Inuit families, including the MVP duo, Ipirvik and Taklatuk, who we previously met. Oh, gotcha. Plus their son. Yeah.
So now technically, Hall was the captain of this expedition. In practice, he really had no sailing experience. He wasn't so much of a great boat guy. So a man by the name of Sidney Buddington was brought in as the actual steady maritime adult in the room. He and Hall were friends from Hall's first whaling voyage. This was bound to go off without a hitch, right? Sort of like...
It's not clear who's captain. Then there's George Tyson, the assistant navigator. Fun fact, he was originally offered the captain gig before Buddington, but had to decline because of another job he'd already booked. When that fell through, Hall brought him on as second in command. So, yeah, now there's a third guy who's like captain level, but not actually in the captain role.
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