Disturbed Podcast Narrator
Appearances
Conspiracy Theories
"My Lady Jane" and the Real Conspiracy to Take the English Throne
True tales of horror, bizarre happenings, unexplainable events. On our podcast, Disturbed, terror takes center stage. Kidnappings, serial killers, hauntings, and the very essence of your worst nightmares coming to life on this weekly true horror show. Enter at your own risk.
Conspiracy Theories
Argentina's Death Flights
True tales of horror, bizarre happenings, unexplainable events. On our podcast, Disturbed, terror takes center stage. Kidnappings, serial killers, hauntings, and the very essence of your worst nightmares coming to life on this weekly true horror show. Enter at your own risk.
Conspiracy Theories
UFOS, Occultists, Murder Schemes: The Deaths of Miguel and Manuel
True tales of horror, bizarre happenings, unexplainable events. On our podcast, Disturbed, terror takes center stage. Kidnappings, serial killers, hauntings, and the very essence of your worst nightmares coming to life on this weekly true horror show. Enter at your own risk.
Conspiracy Theories
Buried Gold: How the FBI Got Involved In a Treasure Hunt
True tales of horror, bizarre happenings, unexplainable events. On our podcast, Disturbed, terror takes center stage. Kidnappings, serial killers, hauntings, and the very essence of your worst nightmares coming to life on this weekly true horror show. Enter at your own risk.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Enforcers hired by landlords don't just ask tenants to leave. They destroy their home and belongings and seize everything of value. Destitute and often starving families are left with no possessions and nowhere to go. Sometimes this results in counter-violence. Farmer mobs armed with pitchforks face off against police and military forces.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Disgruntled peasants brutally kill people who collect rent, lend money at obscene interest rates, or enforce evictions. Some landlords use another tactic to get rid of their tenants, encouraging them to emigrate to the United States. A number even offer to pay for their passage. This is more civilized than simply demolishing unwanted tenants' homes, but it's still self-serving.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
When tenants move to the States, their land reverts back to their landlord. Plus, Atlantic Passage is no cakewalk. Passengers spend the weeks-long journey crowded below decks on vessels designed to transport goods like wood or grain, not people. Anyone lucky enough to land on a ship retrofitted for human transport gets to share a bunk with three other people, at least.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Captains often oversell tickets, pocketing the extra cash. If those conditions don't sound horrendous enough, the ship crews often neglect to bring adequate food and water for everyone on board. On top of that, all those people packed into such a small space is a perfect breeding ground for disease.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Infections like typhus, typhoid, and cholera kill thousands of Irish people during the famine at home and on ships bound for the U.S., Recordkeeping is inconsistent, so it's impossible to know for sure, but research suggests that far more Irish people died from illnesses than directly from starvation.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Some of the most haunting reports from James Mahoney, the illustrator and reporter who relayed famine scenes back to England, are of the devastating effects of disease. Mahoney describes entire families dead in their homes, their bodies left to rot. A single survivor, so weak he's had to live among the corpses of his family, begs passersby for water or for fuel to start a fire.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
But concerned neighbors are forced to keep walking. They've already seen how anyone who tries to help ends up infected themselves. In 1844, Ireland had a population of just over 8 million. By 1855, roughly a third of the population died or fled. According to British leaders like Charles Trevelyan, the famine was the result of God's will, a natural disaster that couldn't be avoided.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
but Irish nationalist John Mitchell writes that the Almighty had brought the blight, but the English created the famine. Over a hundred years later, author Tim Pat Coogan takes Mitchell's accusation a step further, arguing in his book, The Famine Plot, that British actions during the famine weren't just about economics.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
They served a more sinister purpose, the systematic destruction of Irish people and culture. If that's the case, then perhaps the Irish potato famine isn't a famine at all. Maybe it's a genocide. Everyone can agree that the Irish potato famine was a tragedy. It's also not controversial to say that the British government could have done more to mitigate its effects.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
But do British actions, or lack thereof, during the crisis qualify as a genocide? First, let's define our terms. The word genocide didn't exist until nearly a century after the Blight destroyed every potato in Ireland. The term was coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 to describe the atrocities committed during the Holocaust.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In 1948, the United Nations codified the crime that 153 countries now recognize as international law. The convention defined genocide as any action committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Those actions include things like injuring, traumatizing, or killing members of the group, or creating a situation that forces the group to live in unhealthy and dangerous conditions. Let's break it down. It's fair to say that Ireland was not a safe place to live during the famine, but to what extent did the British government cause that situation?
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
The British did not create Phytophthora infestans, the mold that turned potatoes across Europe to mush. The acute cause of the food shortage was natural and can't be blamed on the Brits. But that doesn't mean they aren't responsible for the suffering that resulted from it. Indian economist and scholar Amartya Sen studied the interventions and outcomes of a variety of more modern famines.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
He found that famines were almost never the result of natural conditions, but the human response, or lack thereof, to them. In fact, some famines occurred even when there wasn't a decline in food availability. According to Sen's research, precise corrective intervention can mitigate the worst effects of famines. Some modern governments have pulled this off.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In the 1970s, a drought in Maharashtra, a state in India, reduced crop output and put about 20 million people at risk of starvation. The Indian government delivered food and created employment relief programs. As a result, there were no recorded deaths from starvation. Now, Sen's research is centered mainly on modern famines.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Perhaps the mid-19th century British government didn't have access to the same knowledge or resources as the Indian government did over a century later. But consider this. Other nations avoided famine caused by the same 1845 potato blight. Nova Scotia, another British colony much further from the motherland, was almost as dependent on the potato as Ireland.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
But their local government acted quickly to support the cultivation of different crops in the late 1840s, creating new food sources. If they could avoid famine on the frontier, it seems like Ireland could have at least fared better, considering the support they had from their economically advanced colonizer.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
So, let's look at what the British could have done differently, and what the outcome might have been. It's difficult to play the what-if game with accuracy. In terms of British strategies during the famine, let's consider the one that has the most data and relevant comparisons. The choice to keep Irish ports open for business.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
From 1845 to 1852, potatoes in Ireland suffered a series of blights or diseases that the country has yet to fully recover from to this day. Three million people either died or fled Ireland. And even more than 150 years later, historians are asking, how could this have happened? In order to really understand the potato famine, we have to understand the context in which it occurred.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Closing ports and therefore keeping food grown locally within the country was a tried and true strategy for overcoming crop failures in the 18th and 19th centuries. Ireland, Britain, and many other European countries had been using it for years because it worked. We don't necessarily have data to dig into exactly how effective it was, but it certainly helped.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
When the potato blight hit Europe in 1845 and 1846, many nations in the region stopped exporting food. But Britain chose to continue exporting food from Ireland, arguing that closing the ports would hurt the Irish economy. This decision was the main thrust behind John Mitchell's argument that the British caused the famine in Ireland.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
They not only took minimal steps to offset the loss of the potato harvest, they also removed other food from the island. But there is more nuance to consider. Some modern scholars have pointed out that simply holding on to other crops grown locally might not have prevented the famine. See, Ireland suffered from a major lack of infrastructure.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
According to Celtic historian Mark McGowan, even if the ports closed... The food they held onto might not have been able to reach the people who needed it most. There's also the issue of cost. The potato blight would have driven up the price of grain and other unaffected crops. It would be hard for peasants, who normally barter or eat what they grow, to afford the expensive food.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Even though closing the ports might not have entirely prevented the disaster, some critics say that the British argument that maintaining trade was in Ireland's best economic interest is still pretty flimsy. Remember, the landlords making money from the exported food were mostly British, not Irish. Except it wasn't only the British making this argument.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Young Ireland, a movement of Irish nationalists who supported independence from Britain, also wanted to see Ireland open to free trade, just like the British government did. The group believed access to the free market was the best way to stabilize the Irish economy, which would allow for the repeal of the union with Britain.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Incredibly, John Mitchell, who wrote that Britain caused the famine by exporting food, was also a young Irelander and supported keeping Irish ports open. So the choice to keep Irish goods active on the international market is more complicated than it seems. But despite the obstacles, it appears closing the ports would have at least helped alleviate the effects of the famine.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Plus, the ports are just one of several ways the British failed to support Ireland. They could have done more to keep soup kitchens open, prevent evictions, support hospitals to care for sick people, and a myriad of other things.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
While historian Peter Gray questions framing the famine as a genocide, he does maintain that if the famine had been as severe in England as it was in Ireland, that the Home Office would have shelled out a lot more money on relief.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
If the choices of the British government contributed to famine conditions in Ireland that resulted in death and immigration, it could be argued that half the criteria for genocide is met. Let's consider the other half. Intent. Did the British government act with the intention of harming the people of Ireland? British prejudice against Irish people in this period is well documented.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
For the first 29 years of the union between the countries, Irish people weren't allowed to hold government positions or pursue occupations in fields that required certification, like medicine or the law. Though those limitations were abolished a few decades prior to the famine, their effects persisted.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Popular British newspapers created tropes out of perceived Irish flaws, including, but not limited to, laziness, brutality, stupidity and filth. Some Victorian thinkers considered the potato an unseemly food that degraded the character of anyone who consumed it. Perhaps that's why so many British folks were content to believe that the blight was a righteous punishment from God.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In 1801, Great Britain and Ireland merge under an agreement called the Act of Union. Don't let the paperwork fool you into thinking this is a partnership. At this time, Ireland is a British colony exploited for its farmland. By the 1840s, exported Irish grain feeds about 2 million Brits a year, a crop output Britain could never hope to produce itself.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Separating the Irish from their potatoes would only do them good. Even more disturbing, these opinions were shared by Sir Charles Trevelyan, who was responsible for administering aid in Ireland starting in 1846. At various points, he described Irish people as defective, selfish, perverse, and turbulent. From his writings, it sounds like he felt Ireland deserved whatever the famine delivered.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In his words, the judgment of God sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson. But Trevelyan didn't just want to sit back and watch Ireland suffer. He had a goal in mind. In a letter to another bureaucrat, he said he was glad that smaller farmers were abandoning their land. Hopefully, the land would finally end up in the hands of someone with the money to modernize.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
For all of Britain's generalized antipathy toward Ireland, it doesn't add up to a grand plan to annihilate it. Intent is consistently the hardest part of proving genocide. Based on what we know, Britain doesn't clear the bar. Sir Charles Trevelyan doesn't speak for the whole of the British government.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
But his brutally stated goal of modernized, consolidated farms does line up with his party's preference for a free market. As villainous as Trevelyan sounds, his glee over evicted farmers actually suggests that the famine wasn't genocide. The British goal wasn't killing Irish people. It was modernizing their agriculture and economy.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
If some Irish people died along the way, then, oh well, as far as they were concerned. The British may not have had an intention to destroy Irish people, but Trevelyan certainly lacked any intention to prevent their destruction. After the famine, Ireland was never the same. Even after the crisis abated, the population continued to decrease for the next hundred years.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Today, the population of the island is still far lower than it was before the blight struck. In 1997, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair delivered a formal apology to the people of Ireland. He admitted that the British government failed in their duty by allowing a crop failure to cause unthinkable suffering that they could have prevented.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
The British did not commit genocide, but all that really means is their actions don't meet the modern legal definition. Morality, though, doesn't have a label. Thank you for tuning in to Conspiracy Theories. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
If you're watching on Spotify, swipe up and give us your thoughts or email us at conspiracystoriesatspotify.com. Amongst the many sources we used, we found The Graves Are Walking by John Kelly and The Famine Plot Revisited, a reassessment of the Great Irish Famine as genocide by Mark G. McGowan, extremely helpful to our research.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story, and the official story isn't always the truth. Conspiracy Theories is a Spotify podcast. This episode was written and researched by Hannah McIntosh, edited by Chelsea Wood, fact-checked by Laurie Siegel, and video editing and sound design by Alex Button. I'm your host, Carter Roy.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
British landlords own virtually all of the productive Irish farmland. Many of them manage it remotely from England, leaving desperately poor native Irish laborers to work the land. In addition to working on their landlord's parcel, most of these Irish farmers also rent small plots, feeding their families with the crops they grow. With very few exceptions, they all grow one thing.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
The Irish lumper potato. The Irish lumper has a lot to offer the peasant farmer. One, it provides a high yield, even on a small square footage. See, the land available to farmers is limited to begin with. And as Irish families grow and pass down land to younger generations, those rental plots get divided up and become smaller and smaller.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
But luckily, even though the average Irish male eats about 12 pounds of potatoes a day, just one acre of potatoes can feed his family of six for a year. The other benefit of potatoes is their nutrition. In a book about the famine entitled Their Graves Are Walking, author John Kelly explains that potatoes provide two to four times more calories per acre than grain.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
That's why Irish farmers rely on it so heavily. They can feed their loved ones well. Potatoes are credited with allowing Irish families to grow and stay healthy. Irish folks aren't the only ones benefiting from the potato. Historians say the crop contributed to the population boom across all of Europe between 1750 and 1950.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
All that manpower allows many countries, including Great Britain, to industrialize. That means a more modern and international economy that trades in manufactured goods as well as raw materials and crops. But remember, Ireland is basically Great Britain's pantry.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In Skull, a village on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, Mahoney and his team come upon a huge crowd of women in the street, at least 300. They're all there for the same reason, to buy cornmeal for their starving families. One woman tells Mahoney that she's been there since dawn. The cornmeal everyone is waiting for arrives in the local port with a military escort.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
The folks who work in British factories making the goods that made England competitive on the international market, many of them eat imported Irish crops. Britain's industrialized economy is fueled by Irish food. But the British aren't exactly grateful. Instead, officials grumble about how Irish laziness results in a sluggish and primitive Irish economy.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
From their perspective, the average farmer isn't helping his country move into the modern age. Most don't engage with currency. They eat what they grow and barter with whatever is left. British landlords want their Irish farmland to be more efficient and profitable. From their perspective, Irish farmers are holding them back as laborers and tenants.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Their manual farming could be performed faster and cheaper by machines. The land the farmers rent would be more lucrative growing food for trade. So landlords with an eye for profit want to evict their tenant farmers.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In early 1847, Irish illustrator James Mahoney is at work on a grim assignment. His country is in the throes of a devastating potato famine, and Mahoney is traveling through desperation and death to report on it for a London newspaper. Mahoney draws and writes about many ghastly scenes, but it's one of the less showy incidents that speaks the loudest about the British role in the catastrophe.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In a situation with a British occupation dressed up as a mutually beneficial union, a declining quality of life for an average Irishman, and now a threat of eviction from arguably stolen Irish land, you can imagine it creates some tension. Then things get worse.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
in the summer of 1845 all of western europe sustains heavy rains irish farmers are worried wet summers are never good for their crops their fears are confirmed when they wake up in the morning to a heavy rotten stink out in the field their nearly mature potato plants have white spots on their leaves Within a day, the spots are brown and rotten looking.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
By the third day, the entire stalks are black and drooping. By then, the precious edible root of the plant is dead. Sometimes the potato's growth would be stunted and it comes out of the ground the size of a walnut. Full-sized potatoes have a slimy film and patches of rotten flesh. Inside, it's full of rancid muck.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Once just one plant shows sign of the deadly mold, Phytophthora infestans, there's no chance of saving any of the others. Families work into the night until they can't see the plants in front of them, trimming off the diseased parts of the plants. Even potatoes that come out healthy can go bad in storage. Entire fields for miles are blackened. The rotten stench is inescapable.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Some farmers cry as they pull diseased potatoes from the ground. Others sprinkle holy water over their crops or bury them with religious talismans, hoping for divine protection. By late February 1846, areas most affected by the blight enter a state of chaos driven by desperate, hungry farmers and their families. Thieves forage in strangers' fields. People drink blood from live farm animals.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
They put seaweed and grass into their kettles. Parents worry if their sleeping children will ever wake. Peasants sell absolutely everything, the clothes off their back, in order to buy just a little food. But not all hope is lost. Not yet. No more than one third of Ireland's potato crop is affected.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
There had been crop failures of similar scale in the past, and farmers had always been able to scrape by until the following year's harvest came through. The British government ministry responsible for overseeing affairs in Ireland, the Home Office, also puts a few relief measures in place.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
They purchase American corn to help stabilize food prices and as a backup food source for Irish families facing a ruined potato crop. Remember the women who James Mahoney saw waiting to buy corn? Those small portions were probably government subsidized. The Home Office also implements a few direct relief services.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
They call for the formation of local committees to facilitate the delivery of supplemental food. They also organize public works projects that create opportunities for farmers to work for cash and therefore buy food to offset their crop losses. But the British government fails to take a common step to prevent famine. They decide that Ireland should continue exporting food.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Without the protection, desperate locals might have tried to steal the food. Now, a government official is meeting out small portions at exorbitant prices. But even with these tiny rations, some of these women will return to their hungry families empty-handed.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
During previous crop failures, Irish ports had been closed in order to make sure the island had enough food to keep everyone fed. When it comes to trade, British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel takes on a free market approach, meaning he wants commerce to proceed without any government intervention, even at the expense of humanitarian aid.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
So Ireland continues exporting food, even as some Irish farmers face entire fields of ruined crops, potentially a year's worth of sustenance. Now, this middle-of-the-road approach appears to work. There are no excess deaths in 1846, and things seem to be turning around. That summer's potato crop appears healthy.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In June, Prime Minister Peel seems to think the worst is over, shifting focus from iris suffering to, quote, "...the real question at issue is the improvement of the social and moral condition of the masses of the population." But then harvest time comes. Phytophthora infestans returns. This time, its rotten stench infiltrates all 32 Irish counties. There's nowhere.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In the fall of 1846, everyone in Ireland comes to grips with a horrifying reality. They are not recovering from last year's crop failure. Instead, they're facing an even worse one. The winter weather shapes up to be brutal, one of the worst anyone can remember. Daily life for the average Irishman becomes about survival.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
diversions like poetry dancing and music staples of irish culture become a distant memory as the number of people in need increases gaps in prime minister peel's relief efforts become obvious public works projects are supposed to allow starving peasants to earn enough money to buy food
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
In reality, families, even children already weak from starvation, struggle to complete heavy labor that's often pointless. They might spend the day splitting rocks to build roads that don't lead anywhere. The hard-earned wage for this futile work isn't enough to sustain an entire family. And that's only when they do get paid. Many of these projects are riddled with corruption.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
The more direct support, like soup kitchens and government-subsidized food distribution... also have major flaws. Prime Minister Robert Peel might have purchased some supplemental corn, but he intended for local authorities to handle the processing and distribution of that corn. Often, this means landlords.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
welcome to conspiracy theories a spotify podcast i'm carter roy new episodes come out every wednesday you can listen to the audio everywhere and watch the video only on spotify and be sure to check us out on instagram at the conspiracy pod we'd like to give a special thanks to listener cameron mcdonald for suggesting today's story stay with us
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Peel assumes that wealthy landlords will use their own money to support the working class because they depend on working class labor to maintain their own solvency. But landlords are in no financial position to help. A significant portion of their income relies on rent and countless tenants are in arrears. Then it gets worse. Again. A British election results in a power changeover.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
The new prime minister puts Charles Edward Trevelyan in charge of relief efforts in Ireland. Unfortunately for the starving Irish, Trevelyan leans even more heavily towards a free market approach than Peel's administration did. Like Peel, Trevelyan figures that pausing Irish food exports could make the Irish economy even less competitive on the international market.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
He's in favor of continuing the export of Irish crops unaffected by the blight, like grain, to whichever country can pay the highest price. That certainly isn't Ireland. So, merchants and landlords continue to make money on the exported crops that survive the blight... but the Irish laborers working their land are facing a worsening food shortage.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Even though the situation is increasingly dire, Trevelyan also chooses to cut down on more direct relief efforts like supplemental food and soup kitchens. He worries such quote unquote handouts could make Irish people dependent on government support. No one is coming to save Ireland. Famine and its consequences run rampant. The suffering over the next several years is tremendous.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
Lack of food probably seems like the biggest danger during a famine, but for Irish people hoping to survive, starvation is only one of the threats. Peasants also face eviction, rising crime and violence, and deadly disease. Let's start with evictions.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
We've already talked about the main incentive for landlords to force out tenant farmers, the ability to consolidate their land into a more modern and therefore profitable agricultural operation. Tevelian's relief policies reinforce those efforts. A landlord's legal obligation to support relief services is directly tied to how many tenants live on their land.
Conspiracy Theories
The Great Hunger of Ireland: Natural Disaster or Man-Made Genocide?
If a landlord evicts those tenants, then they don't have to chip in to support them. On the flip side, farmers can only access the majority of relief resources if they rent less than a quarter acre of land. Anyone with a larger property has to abandon it if they want government support. When tenants are evicted, it's often sudden and violent.
Conspiracy Theories
The Short Reign and Mysterious Death of Pope John Paul I
True tales of horror, bizarre happenings, unexplainable events. On our podcast, Disturbed, terror takes center stage. Kidnappings, serial killers, hauntings, and the very essence of your worst nightmares coming to life on this weekly true horror show. Enter at your own risk.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
Due to the nature of today's episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of graphic body horror and death. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. It's 1973, a hotel in Mendoza, Argentina. energy is high. Eight Americans are staying there, but just for the night.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
The rope between them snaps. They drop for what feels like a long time. When Zeller gets his bearings, he can hardly believe that nothing's broken, except his sunglasses. He can see camp about a quarter mile below. He looks around for Johnson. But first he sees someone else, Cooper. He's crouched on his haunches in the snow, head in his hands. Zeller checks for a pulse. Cooper's ice cold.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
The soldier McMillan thought he saw in the snow earlier. It was actually his companion, John Cooper. He's dead. To Zeller, it looks like Cooper paused to rest and fell asleep. There aren't any cuts on his body or tears on his clothes. It doesn't look like he fell. Maybe he froze to death. Zeller turns away from his fallen companion. He has to find Janet Johnson. She's not far.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
Like Zeller, the fall left her surprisingly unscathed. No broken bones, and she's able to speak coherently. The two sit and talk for a while, regaining their bearings. They can see camp below, the equivalent of a few blocks away, but it looks deserted. All the tents are blown over. Zeller offers to head down and set up a tent. Johnson agrees.
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Death on Aconcagua
She'll follow him down as soon as she catches her breath. Zeller makes it down to camp and finds McMillan already asleep in one of the collapsed tents. He climbs into a sleeping bag beside him and passes out. It's their first proper rest in three days. Zeller and McMillan sleep until the next morning. They emerge from the tent but can't find any sign of Johnson.
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Death on Aconcagua
Zeller and McMillan check the landscape outside, but it's hard to see. The sun glares off the ice, and Zeller doesn't have his sunglasses, having broken them in the fall. Everything is blurry and too bright. Zeller's worried. He doesn't think Johnson could have survived another night out in the elements.
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Death on Aconcagua
It'll be convenient to have current photos on file. If anyone doesn't make it off the mountain. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. You can find us here every Wednesday. Today, we're covering two mysterious deaths near the summit of Aconcagua. Officially, they were accidents.
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Death on Aconcagua
The men decide the best thing to do is to descend farther and see if they can find others to help search for Johnson. Down at base camp, the other members of the party have been watching the climbers through binoculars. Worry spread through camp when they could only spot three of the four hikers, and then only two.
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Death on Aconcagua
When it was clear the climbers were descending from high camp, Alfonso, the guide, and the youngest member of the group, John Shelton, hurry up the mountain to meet Zeller and McMillan. Shelton feels grim as he confirms it with his own eyes. Only two of his four companions are here. Zeller and McMillan spend two days recovering in sleeping bags at base camp,
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Death on Aconcagua
In addition to exhaustion and altitude-related symptoms, McMillan has a black eye from his fall. Zeller looks grotesque. His forehead is black from exposure and blood vessels are ruptured in his eyes. Alfonso heads all the way down the mountain for more help. Word of Cooper's death and Johnson's disappearance spreads quickly.
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Death on Aconcagua
It's a sensational story and the media jumps on it before an investigation can get underway. So initial news coverage is heavy on speculation. A paper in Cooper's hometown publishes that he's presumably dead after falling off the top of the mountain during a snowstorm and landing in a crevasse.
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Death on Aconcagua
As soon as the seven survivors reach the foot of the mountain, Argentine investigators intercept them for questioning. They're all essential witnesses in a potential manslaughter case. Some journalists find the climbers' accounts hazy and inconsistent. the US State Department has a similar experience.
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Death on Aconcagua
In the New York Times extensive reporting on the 50th anniversary of the climb, they noted plenty of inconsistencies in public interviews and coverage at the time. Some are small. For example, when Zeller and McMillan found Johnson lying off trail near the summit, Zeller says that he used rope to help her off the ground, and McMillan says that Zeller grabbed her arm.
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Death on Aconcagua
but some discrepancies seem more significant. Zeller thinks they all camped together after the failed summit attempt, but McMillan says he spent the night alone. This inconsistency on a really basic fact exposes just how muddled Zeller and McMillan's memories are.
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Death on Aconcagua
That kind of detail might seem hard to misremember, but then again, Zeller was hearing the voices of rescuers who weren't there, and McMillan saw a whole phantom army. Things get really sticky when their conflicting stories confuse the circumstances around Johnson's disappearance. Some reports say that Johnson asked the men to leave her behind at the summit.
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Death on Aconcagua
Others say that Johnson said this just to Zeller during their descent before they fell. Then there's the order of events after the fall. Some reports say Zeller found Cooper and then Johnson, but another says it happened the other way around. Zeller also seems a little unsure about his last interaction with Johnson. Initially, Zeller said they both decided he should go first and get a tent ready.
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Death on Aconcagua
Later, it's reported that it was Johnson's idea for Zeller to head down without her. All these details are crucial to understanding how Johnson could have ended up dead when Zeller left her only about 10 minutes away from camp and safety. But considering the circumstances, poor recall should be expected.
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Death on Aconcagua
Carmi Defoe, the climber who organized the expedition, and a lawyer, tells the State Department that they shouldn't put much stock in any of the survivors' statements. The altitude made them all hallucinate. It gave the whole expedition a dreamlike quality. The Argentine police officer running the investigation comes to a similar conclusion.
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Death on Aconcagua
But ever since the bodies were recovered, theories have flown about murder on the mountaintop. Be sure to check us out on Instagram, at The Conspiracy Pod, and we would love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Stay with us.
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Death on Aconcagua
So in his mind, the answer to this case can't come from witness statements. It has to come from hard evidence, the victim's bodies. At this point, it seems most everyone assumes Johnson died somewhere on the mountain too. The medical examiners aren't exactly prepared to summit Aconcagua, and retrieving the remains of John Cooper and Janet Johnson is not a straightforward task.
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Death on Aconcagua
Authorities have no idea where Johnson's body might be, and only a vague sense of Cooper's location. Even once they are located, it will be another big feat to bring the remains down the mountain. Remember, experienced hikers fell climbing down, and they weren't hauling extra weight. On top of all that, conditions are not favorable for a retrieval mission right now.
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Death on Aconcagua
Aconcagua is in Argentina, so December to February is the warm season. They'll have to wait until the end of the year to make another attempt. Back in the States, Janet Johnson and John Cooper's families process their loss. Cooper's family holds a memorial and anxiously awaits his remains. And his father learns Spanish so that he can better follow updates from Argentina.
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Death on Aconcagua
Johnson's family relays her wish to Argentine authorities that she be buried near the mountain. Her mother reads every news report she can and carefully fixes each misspelling of her daughter's name by hand. When she comes across a quote from her daughter asking to die, she crosses it out.
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Death on Aconcagua
Before 1973 comes to an end, a team heads up Aconcagua with the equipment they'll need to bring down a human body. Miguel Alfonso, the guide on the ill-fated expedition, goes along. They find Cooper on a flat surface, legs straight. His hands are bare, laid on his belly. He's missing a crampon and his ice axe. Alfonso was surprised to find Cooper stretched out.
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Death on Aconcagua
He remembered that Zeller said Cooper was frozen into a crouched position. The team carefully photographs everything before excavating the body onto a sled. They also search for Johnson. But they can't find her. A medical examiner performs Cooper's autopsy down in Mendoza. His face is beat up and frozen in an expression of terror.
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Death on Aconcagua
Once his arms thaw out, the medical examiner moves them and finds another wound in Cooper's abdomen, under where his hands had been. It's a deep, round hole that penetrates all the way to Cooper's spine. It was actively bleeding when he died. When the autopsy is complete, the judge opts to keep its contents under wraps. He only releases two things. The cause of death and a short statement.
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Death on Aconcagua
Cooper's official cause of death? Cranial contusions. Cooper did not freeze to death. He didn't bleed to death. Something hit him on the head hard enough to kill him. As for what? Well, the judge makes a statement. He can't make any determination in the case until he has Janet Johnson's body.
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Death on Aconcagua
For the next three climbing seasons, everyone who scales Aconcagua is on the lookout for Johnson's remains. But no one sees them. That is until February 1975, two years after her disappearance. A father, his 17-year-old son, and another climber are on their way to the summit.
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Death on Aconcagua
While they're waiting out a storm, the 17-year-old spots something red within a patch of penitentes, those tall, striking ice formations that plagued the 1973 climbing team. When the trio dig out the red object, they expect to find a discarded backpack or tent. Climbers are always leaving behind things they don't need, but then they see a face horribly blackened by exposure.
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Death on Aconcagua
One of the climbers recognizes her. He met Janet Johnson in Mendoza before she ascended in 1973. I want to pause here and warn you that what you're about to hear might be upsetting. If you'd rather not hear details about the state of Janet Johnson's body, now is the time to skip ahead about 40 seconds.
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Death on Aconcagua
Despite the time that has passed, the climbers can see three places where Janet's face sustained some kind of heavy blows. Bone sticks out of her nose, forehead, and chin. Her nose was clearly broken and a flap of skin was ripped off below her mouth. There's blood all over her face and jacket. Like Cooper, one of her crampons and her ice ax are missing. Her hands are bare.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
She's also tangled in a mess of ropes. And strangely, There's a rock sitting on top of Johnson's face. There are no other rocks in sight. The climbers all find the scene disturbing. The two older men can't see how these injuries possibly could have been the result of a fall on the glacier. They're positive Johnson was killed.
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Death on Aconcagua
They don't have the equipment they need to get Johnson's remains off the mountain, It's another year before a team of police officers can make it all the way up to the foot of the Polish glacier to retrieve her. She's so melded into the ice, one of the officers compares freeing her body to removing part of the glacier.
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Death on Aconcagua
Johnson's autopsy confirms the major head trauma the climbers noticed when they found her. The team also notes that her boot was sliced open in a few places. like someone went after it with an ax. Ultimately, the medical examiner issues Johnson the same cause of death as Cooper, head trauma. Now it's up to the judge to issue a final ruling. But for the medical examination team, it seems obvious.
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Death on Aconcagua
Because this looks intentional. It looks like murder. In early 1976, three years after John Cooper and Janet Johnson died under mysterious circumstances, autopsies are finally complete. Their families, the media, and the public are anxious to hear the judge's final ruling on what happened on Aconcagua.
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Death on Aconcagua
But in March, about a month after Johnson's body was recovered, the Argentine military seizes control of the government in a coup. Needless to say, bureaucratic priorities shift. The judge never gets to issue an official determination. All that leaves us with are theories. Journalist John Branch and his team from the New York Times covered the case extensively in 2023.
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Death on Aconcagua
They conducted interviews and research and presented essentially two ways John Cooper and Janet Johnson could have died, either because of an accident or because of foul play. First, let's look at the most probable option, an accident. Everyone on the expedition who has offered a theory thinks both deaths were some kind of accident.
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Death on Aconcagua
One caused by a combination of altitude-induced confusion and dangerous conditions. John Shelton, one of the first to see Zeller and McMillan after they descended alone, says foul play never crossed his mind. Shelton also said something about Johnson that may offer a clue. Apparently, he got the impression that Johnson was totally devastated when she realized she wouldn't make it to the summit.
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Death on Aconcagua
Johnson was an accomplished mountaineer, arguably the most experienced in the group. She was the 82nd person and one of the first 20 women to become a Colorado 14er, a climbing title for someone who has summited all 50 peaks higher than 14,000 feet in Colorado. She had made it to the top of Kilimanjaro.
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Death on Aconcagua
Maybe she wasn't ready to give up on Aconcagua and tried to ascend again after Zeller left her. If so, she could have suffered another fall. There's a fall theory for Cooper, too. Alfonso the Guide and another member of the team who retrieved Cooper's remains, Lauren McIntyre, both think that Cooper's injuries can be easily explained.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
Cooper could have fallen onto the handle of his ice axe, which caused the deep wound in his abdomen. Then he could have fallen again and hit his head. Zeller told reporters that maybe Johnson and Cooper were experiencing the same kind of hallucinations he was, that could have made them do something irrational, like wander off the trail or descend at a dangerous pace.
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Death on Aconcagua
But there have been years of speculation about foul play for a reason. Lots of details just don't line up with falling accidents. We're going to focus on mountain conditions and the state of the bodies. According to a climber familiar with Aconcagua, photos of the expedition showed that the snow was soft, not slippery.
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Death on Aconcagua
Plus, the area where Cooper and Johnson were found was relatively flat, not steep. He thinks a fall in that area, especially a fatal one, is unlikely, if not impossible. Now, you could argue that conditions are irrelevant when we're talking about people who might be uncoordinated and dizzy from exhaustion and the altitude, but Cooper and Johnson's bodies don't look like they sustain falls.
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Death on Aconcagua
Aconcagua has a reputation as an easy mountain, because compared to some other mountains that reach record-breaking heights, the trek doesn't require a lot of technical expertise. But that's not to say that climbing Aconcagua is actually easy. The landscape might be stunning, but it's also brutal. Windswept, blinding, and dotted with penitentes.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
There's the state of their clothes, Cooper's in particular. Zeller remembered that nothing Cooper was wearing was roughed up. It didn't look like it had been dragged down a mountain. That's why he assumed Cooper froze to death. The weathering on Johnson's clothes is less definitive since those spent three years in the elements before investigators got a look at them.
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Death on Aconcagua
But remember, Johnson did have that rock on her face. It's hard to explain how it could have ended up there naturally when there are no other rocks in the area. Plus, one of her boots was sliced open. And as best we can tell, those cuts didn't seem like ragged rips from dragging over a sharp rock, but more like the clean cuts from an axe.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
There's also the specific trauma to Johnson and Cooper's faces and heads. Many experienced climbers familiar with the results of tumbling down a mountain just don't think that's what caused the injuries Cooper and Johnson suffered. Typically, there are broken bones and scrapes, bumps and bruises all over the body. Cooper and Johnson just had head injuries, no other abrasions.
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Death on Aconcagua
Cooper also had that abdominal wound, a small hole reaching nearly to his spine, not your standard fall injury. Daniel Araujo, who assisted in both Johnson and Cooper's autopsies, doesn't think the wound in Cooper's abdomen could have been formed by an ax. He remembers that the hole was remarkably deep, round, and symmetrical. According to Araujo, an ax handle would leave a square mark.
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Death on Aconcagua
Araujo's theory is that Cooper had an ice screw driven into him. He thinks this long, sharp tool used to climb the ice more closely resembles the wound. The medical examiner and their team, including Araujo, believe that Cooper and Johnson's head injuries were the result of blunt force trauma. They were killed. So let's take a closer look at that idea.
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Death on Aconcagua
Who could have done that to Cooper and Johnson and why? There are some theories reported by the New York Times about an unknown outsider stalking and killing the two climbers. Witnesses remember that Cooper was in charge of handling money for the whole group. Reportedly, he carried a backpack full of cash that has never been recovered.
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Death on Aconcagua
Maybe a greedy and very dedicated thief followed the party up the mountain to rob Cooper. Another rumor circulated that there was some kind of romance between Cooper and Johnson. Maybe they fought and killed each other, or some jealous third party intervened. But this theory doesn't square up with what we know about Johnson's sexual and romantic preferences or Cooper's opinion of Johnson.
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Death on Aconcagua
Shortly after meeting her, Cooper wrote in his journal, quote, Janet sure is weird. It's impossible to completely dismiss the possibility of a third party, but it feels pretty far-fetched. We know from the survivors' accounts and from plenty of other climbers that conditions on Aconcagua are treacherous. It's an incredible feat to climb the mountain. To do it stealthily and off the trail?
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Death on Aconcagua
It's hard to imagine anyone pulling that off. It would have been a lot easier for someone who was already with the group. Zeller and McMillan aren't clear-cut suspects. There's really not a viable motive for them to kill Cooper or Johnson, but their explanation of what happened doesn't totally add up. There are many inconsistencies in their stories.
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Death on Aconcagua
They're like stalagmites rising from the floor of a cave, but made out of ice. Climbers have to navigate through fields of these otherworldly formations, some as tall as six feet. And getting up the mountain is not always a linear trip.
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Death on Aconcagua
When exactly did they separate and come back together? When did each of them come across Cooper's body and what state was it in? And how exactly did Zeller leave things with Johnson? Like I said before, some of this can definitely be chalked up to the mind scrambling effects of high altitude. But there are a few hints that Zeller and McMillan might have known more than they shared publicly.
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Death on Aconcagua
You'll remember that Carmi Defoe, the man who organized the trip, downplayed the group's recollections to the U.S. State Department. But then after Defoe returned to the States, he helped organize a secret meeting of his climbing club and summoned McMillan and Zeller to it. The goal of the gathering was to, quote, learn the straight of things.
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Death on Aconcagua
The meeting resulted in a timeline that went into the climbing club records and seems to have informed Zeller and McMillan's later interviews. It ends with the conclusion that Cooper and Johnson probably died from complications from altitude sickness, which we now know they did not.
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Death on Aconcagua
There was also a curious letter from Lauren McIntyre, one of the people who recovered Cooper's remains to Cooper's widow. He encouraged her to get in touch with Zeller and McMillan because he suspected that the men may have adjusted the truth to make it easier for their consciences to deal with. Then there's the physical evidence on the two survivors.
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Death on Aconcagua
Both Zeller and McMillan reported falling during their descent, but neither man had the broken bones, scrapes, or bruises experts expect to see from a fall. McMillan only received a black eye, and Zeller cut up his face and broke his sunglasses. Naturally, that's led to speculation about Zeller and McMillan's actions on the mountain. Why they survived and Cooper and Johnson did not.
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Death on Aconcagua
To be clear, they were never suspected killers. But let's talk about how whatever might have happened between the climbers could still fall under the umbrella of accidental deaths. It's not clear if McMillan was feeling the physical effects of the altitude, but Zeller, Cooper, and Johnson all had bodily symptoms at some point during their summit attempt.
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Death on Aconcagua
In 1973, the American climbers needed more supplies than they could carry at once, so their ascent was actually a maddening logistical nightmare of shuttling equipment up the mountain, then turning around to go down for the next load, for days on end. And then there's the elevation. Aconcagua is the highest mountain outside of Asia. Base camp is at roughly 13,500 feet.
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Death on Aconcagua
In addition to all those symptoms, advanced altitude sickness can also cause unpredictable changes in mental status. We also know that Zeller and McMillan experienced psychological symptoms, visual and auditory hallucinations. Back in the 70s, experts attributed these wild psychological experiences to altitude sickness.
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Death on Aconcagua
But in recent years, some scientists isolated them into a separate potential diagnosis. high altitude psychosis. Psychosis isn't just hallucinations, it's also delusions, believing something that isn't true. The new diagnosis came about in part because a researcher experienced it himself while at roughly 26,000 feet. He was exhausted after a nighttime summit and desperate for a place to rest.
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Death on Aconcagua
A few guides he ran into on the mountain advised him to jump off a nearby cliff. He got close to the edge before realizing the strangers telling him to jump weren't real. So to recap, Cooper, Johnson, Zeller, and McMillan were working at their physical limits in a dangerous environment.
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Death on Aconcagua
They were practically strangers to each other, and they were all at risk of uncharacteristic mental shifts and disconnection from reality. Roberto Bustos is a Mendoza local who was managing Aconcagua Base Camp during the ill-fated 1973 expedition. Bustos says that high altitude creates a different world. People do things at 20,000 feet that would seem unthinkable to them at 5,000 feet.
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Death on Aconcagua
In his opinion, even if Zeller and McMillan delivered the head trauma that killed Cooper and Johnson, the two survivors can't be held personally responsible. As he told the New York Times, what happened was an accident. There will never be a formal trial on this case. McMillan and Zeller are deceased, and so is everyone else who was on the expedition.
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Death on Aconcagua
But if there was a trial, the law might agree with Bustos. High altitude psychosis is a new diagnosis, but the phenomenon is well documented. As long as Macmillan and Zeller could prove they suffered from it, and we know that they did, they couldn't be held accountable for their actions. After the 1976 coup in Argentina shut down the investigation, it seemed like the case would be cold forever.
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Death on Aconcagua
In the morning, they'll start a trek all the way to the summit of Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. That's the plan, anyway. A local reporter, Rafael Moran, is there documenting the group alongside a photographer. When the New York Times interviewed Moran 50 years later, he told them he didn't cover every bunch of foreigners that showed up to conquer the mountain.
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Death on Aconcagua
But in 2020, the melting Polish glacier reveals a new lead, Janet Johnson's camera and her missing backpack, which contains a roll of film. Turns out a glacier isn't a bad place to store your film. The developed images are surprisingly intact. The photos mostly show landscapes well-composed, but there are plenty of images showing Johnson's fellow climbers too. Most of them are action shots.
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Death on Aconcagua
It doesn't seem like Johnson bothered to warn people she was taking their photographs. First, there are images of the four climbers who attempted the summit. The shadows confirm the timeline Zeller and McMillan described. Then there are more photos of just Zeller and McMillan, presumably after Cooper departed to descend on his own. The last photo of a person is one of Johnson herself.
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Death on Aconcagua
She's headed up the summit ridge, less than a thousand feet from the top. She's tethered around the waist, the other end reaching out of frame, likely tying her to the photographer. Despite the hopes of Johnson's family, journalists, and curious rubberneckers, The photos don't contain any revelations about Johnson or Cooper's deaths.
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Death on Aconcagua
They mostly confirm the story Zeller and McMillan and the other climbers told. Except for one thing. Zeller and McMillan said Johnson lagged behind on the way to the summit. In that last photo, it looks like Johnson is in the lead. According to her sister, Johnson climbed mountains to prove that she could Perhaps that means Johnson captured the images most important to her.
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Death on Aconcagua
That's just a thousand feet shy of the highest point in the continental United States. And this is the starting point for the Polish route. From there, it's another 8,000 feet up to the summit at around 22,800 feet, over four miles above sea level. The physical effort of getting to that elevation is no joke, but that's not why it's hard.
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Not how she died, but proof that she did climb Aconcagua. Thank you for listening to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. We're here with a new episode every Wednesday. Be sure to check us out on Instagram at The Conspiracy Pod. If you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Or email us at conspiracystories at spotify.com.
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Death on Aconcagua
Amongst the many sources we used, we found reporting by the New York Times extremely helpful to our research. They published a comprehensive report in 2023 led by John Branch, with additional reporting by Pablo Betancourt and Nicolas Garcia. Until next time, remember, the truth isn't always the best story. And the official story isn't always the truth.
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Death on Aconcagua
This episode was written and researched by Hannah McIntosh, edited by Mickey Taylor and Maggie Admire, fact-checked by Laurie Siegel, and sound designed by Kelly Geary. Our head of programming is Julian Boisreau. Our head of production is Nick Johnson, and Spencer Howard is our post-production supervisor. I'm your host, Carter Roy.
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Death on Aconcagua
Add to this the fact that the human body doesn't function well at high altitudes because the air doesn't have as much oxygen. And the higher you go, the less oxygen there is. Take it from me, I went to Everest Base Camp, climbed Kalapatar. At 16,000 feet, every breath feels like a hammer in your head. It is hard. That low oxygen forces climbers to breathe deeper and faster.
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Death on Aconcagua
The body wants to protect the brain so blood vessels in the head dilate. That keeps everything firing up there, but the expanded vessels increase pressure. That means headaches. Severe ones, as I said. And those are just the basic symptoms of high altitude, called altitude sickness, that pretty much everyone experiences. it can get a lot worse.
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Death on Aconcagua
Fatigue, dizziness, sleep issues, vomiting, loss of coordination, mental fog, heart palpitations, and all that is considered mild. When altitude sickness is severe, fluid can accumulate around the lungs or lead to swelling of the brain. At that point, you better get to a lower altitude fast or you're dead. So climbing Aconcagua is not a walk in the park.
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Death on Aconcagua
Today, climbers mitigate the risks by ascending with GPS trackers and radios. Some bring supplemental oxygen or take altitude sickness medication. And there are helicopter evacuations and rangers on standby for rescue efforts. But in 1973, mountaineers had none of those safety nets. If you needed help, it had to come from the people climbing beside you.
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Death on Aconcagua
By the time the group reaches their highest and final camp at 19,400 feet, they're well acquainted with the risks of their climb. Altitude sickness has already forced three of the eight American climbers back down to lower elevations.
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Death on Aconcagua
The remaining climbers are John Cooper, the NASA engineer, Janet Johnson, a teacher and the only woman in the group, Bill Zeller, a police officer, Arnold McMillan, a farmer, and Jim Petroski, a psychiatrist. They're accompanied by Miguel Alfonso, their guide. It's been a hard journey to get this far, and it does not seem like the hardship fostered any team spirit. Alfonso is highly experienced.
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Death on Aconcagua
He's summited via this difficult Polish route before, but the group doesn't defer to him as the leader. It seems like they treat him more like the hired help, there to give advice or keep his mouth shut when needed. There's grumbling among the ranks too. Hooper complains in his journal that Johnson isn't pulling her weight.
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Death on Aconcagua
To him, it seems like she's there just to get to the summit, and she's happy to let everyone else do the work. But he also cops to carrying less weight than Zeller. The altitude makes everything more difficult. That reporter back in Mendoza wasn't the only one who thought these climbers were only looking out for themselves.
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Death on Aconcagua
Despite the dysfunction, the remaining group is now just a one-day climb from the summit, conditions look perfect. Everyone is ready to make a final push up the steep glacier to the top. But as everyone gets suited up, Petroski suddenly can't figure out his crampons, his specialized ice shoes. He's disoriented.
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Death on Aconcagua
They all agree that he's showing symptoms of altitude sickness, perhaps even that deadly version that causes the brain to swell. He needs to get to a lower elevation pronto, and he can't do it alone. Alfonso, the guide, accompanies him down the mountain. The remaining four climbers have a decision to make. Are they going to continue climbing without a guide?
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Death on Aconcagua
But at the time, this one feels special. There's a NASA engineer, a police officer, a doctor, a lawyer, and even a woman, which is remarkable for the time period. plus the parties attempting the difficult Polish route, which requires them to scale 2,000 nearly vertical feet up a massive glacier to reach the summit. Only four other groups have managed it since 1934.
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Death on Aconcagua
Cooper, McMillan, Zeller, and Johnson don't know each other well, and none of them has ever been at this elevation before. The smart choice is probably to descend. That's certainly safer. But they've come all the way around the world and toughed it out on an unforgiving mountain for eight days. Now the sun is shining. They are so close. They all agree. There's no turning back now.
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Death on Aconcagua
It's important to note that from here on out, our story comes entirely from the memories of the survivors. Their version of the story is the only one we have. The group decides to lighten their loads to hopefully accelerate their progress. They leave their packs behind, carrying just their ice axes and a few essentials. For Johnson, that includes her camera. She takes photos as they climb.
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Death on Aconcagua
But a few hours later, it's starting to get dark. They'd hoped to scale the glacier in one day, but they have roughly another thousand feet to climb with none of their gear. They're forced to dig an ice cave to sleep in. It's claustrophobic. After a few hours, Johnson and Zeller can't stand it. They give up on sleep and wait out the night at the mouth of the ice cave.
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Death on Aconcagua
Powder blowing down from overhead almost seals the cave's entrance. Johnson digs Cooper and McMillan out at first light. Cooper spent most of the night with his legs buried in the snow. He's had it. He tells the group he's returning to camp. As best anyone can tell, Cooper is of sound mind and capable of getting down on his own. It's about a 1,000-foot descent, which is significant.
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Death on Aconcagua
But to the climbers who had been going up and down that distance every day, it didn't seem far at all. With Cooper gone, only Zeller, McMillan, and Johnson remain, and they all agree, get to the top. So they continue, without gear, and at this point, without any food. They start off optimistic. The weather is clear, but they begin to sink into the fine powder on the glacier.
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Death on Aconcagua
Soon, they're waist deep in the snow. Zeller and McMillan take turns plowing the trail, 25 steps at a time. Johnson trails behind them. They're on a ridge, and it looks like the top is in sight. Although the climb is grueling, it seems straightforward. But nothing is straightforward at 20,000 feet. The summit becomes a cruel mirage.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
Multiple times they're sure it's just a few steps away, only for them to see another ridge above them. Their bodies are working at the absolute limit. This time, when the sun goes down, they just keep climbing. They're all exhausted by the time the true summit finally comes into view. They're having to rest after each step. Just another 200 feet now, and they'll reach the top.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
But at the rate they're going, that distance will take hours. During this process, everyone starts seeing strange things. Zeller notices a construction truck parked on the mountain. Must be here to do some work, he thinks, before realizing that is positively ludicrous. There is no construction truck. He's hallucinating.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
That realization brings Zeller back to Earth, and just about the only thing he knows is real, his companions. Macmillan is right beside him, but it's just the two of them. Johnson is gone. Argentina, 1973. Three mountain climbers are near the top of the tallest peak in the western and southern hemispheres in the middle of the night. One of them is missing.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
As Moran interviews everyone, something feels off. These people should feel like a team. They're about to embark on a difficult, dangerous journey, but there's no sense of solidarity. In fact, many of them hardly know each other. They're from different cities and some are just meeting for the first time. Moran pulls the photographer aside and instructs him to get individual shots of everyone.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
The two men, Zeller and McMillan, turn on a flashlight. It's almost out of battery. They call out for Johnson, but their voices probably don't reach any farther than the flashlight's weak beam. They're surrounded by vast, dark wilderness. They descend, retracing the trail they plowed through the snow. Finally, they hear a soft voice responding to their calls.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
They find Johnson lying on the snow about a hundred feet off the trail. She's not in her right mind. She begs the men, quote, just let me lay here and die. but they pull her to her feet instead. The trio trudges down the mountain. Despite all their efforts, none of them make it all the way to the top. There are different versions of what happened next.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
According to one survivor, they all sleep exposed on the glacier, too exhausted to dig an ice cave. The other says he leaves the other two and sleeps alone. As he drifts off to sleep, Zeller hears voices. Perhaps he assumes their rescuers can't be too far away. It wasn't until Zeller got off the mountain that he learned help was never coming. These voices were more hallucinations.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
Regardless of what really happened overnight, everyone reconvenes the next morning. Johnson is in bad shape. Her hands are swollen and discolored. She refuses to stand. But again, the men rouse her and tie her between them so they can help her stay upright. Eventually, they get down to the ice cave where they separated from Cooper.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
Some of their abandoned equipment is still there, including a flare gun. McMillan fires it. No one below sees it or hears it. For lack of a better alternative, the group decides that McMillan should go down to get help. They're about 2,000 feet above camp, which means food, tents, and sleeping bags, and hopefully someone else who can help them get off this mountain. McMillan departs, alone.
Conspiracy Theories
Death on Aconcagua
Johnson and Zeller continue on behind him, roped together and moving at a slower pace. It's a terrible trip for all of them. At one point, Macmillan falls. He sees dead pack mules and what he thinks is a dead soldier lying in the snow. He watches as the Argentine military comes to his rescue, but they're just more hallucinations. Most of them, anyway. Johnson and Zeller suffer a fall, too.