A murderer whose crime was celebrated, astronauts up to no good, and a dog that came between
life and death.
These three stories may seem strange, but is it possible that their foundations are
rooted in truth?
Tonight, let's test your abilities to decide between fact.. or fiction.
The line that divides the factual from the unreal has long since blurred, the tales we
once thought fantastical now implanted as truth.
To decipher verity from the imagined, you must break from the ordinary and consider
a universe where the outlandish prevails.
Can you expand your mind to see beyond our perceived reality?
Can you decide what's fact or fiction?
Usually when a murder happens in a small town, locals are united in their hate for the perpetrator.
But in the case of Harrold Clifford, he found himself being celebrated as a local hero.
Story # 1: Three Cheers for Murder
Harrold didn’t mean to kill Maude Hargrove, but that’s exactly what he did in the winter
of 2002.
The small mid-west town of Bayfield, Wisconsin was a complete stranger to crime until that
fateful November day, and its tiny police department never had anything more to deal
with other than minor disturbance calls.
Maybe that’s why locals acted so strangely when 26-year-old Harrold took his neighbor’s
life and hid his heinous crime right under everyone’s noses for a full three months.
Maude wasn’t a popular character in Bayfield.
Well, that’s putting it lightly, she was hated.
She was known to be a complete battle ax who loved to get involved in other people’s
business.
Many of those minor disturbances reported to the police involved her, and she’d often
spark an argument with one of her long-suffering neighbors.
One day, Harrold had simply had enough.
His frustration boiled over when Maude walked into his backyard one snowy day to complain
that he hadn’t thought to clear her driveway.
With snow shovel in hand and without a second thought, he swung at his infuriating neighbor.
The single strike to her skull was enough to kill her, and in a panic, Harrold hid her
body in his freezer.
Either nobody noticed that Maude suddenly wasn’t around, or they just didn’t care,
because nobody reported her missing for those entire three months.
Eventually, the guilt got to Harrold and he went to the police to confess his violent
crime.
Everyone was shocked that the mild-mannered and well-liked young man had committed murder,
and locals actually fought to have Harrold released in turn for him having freed them
from the old woman’s torment.
They failed, and Harrold was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Maude
Hargrove.
Many of his former neighbors still campaign to this day for his release, regarding him
as a local hero.
Could an entire community support a murderer simply because the victim was annoying?
Did sweet and gentle Harrold really snap and lose his cool that winter evening?
Let us know what you think in the comment section below, and be sure to vote by using
the onscreen poll.
Our next story is much more light-hearted and shows that even the world’s top astronauts
know how to have fun – even if they might be putting their colleague’s lives in danger.
Story # 2: The Space Smuggler The Gemini program was extremely important
to America’s space race, and it saw many firsts - including the first American spacewalk
and the first sandwich in space.
Yes, you heard me right, a corned beef sandwich was smuggled into space by NASA wild-man Ed
White.
Ed smuggled the sandwich inside his spacesuit for the entire launch and only revealed his
snack once they were in orbit.
He shared it with his co-pilot and the two had a good laugh over the ridiculousness of
eating a contraband sandwich in space.
That is until the sandwich began breaking up in the zero-gravity environment, and what
was hilarious a second earlier quickly became dangerous.
Astronaut food has a special coating which stops this kind of thing from happening.
Crumbs can get behind electrical panels and cause serious issues with how the spaceship
functions, so NASA was furious to say the least.
NASA wasn’t the only irritated party, in fact – Congress was annoyed that the government
was spending millions of dollars to develop space-friendly food and astronauts were pulling
crazy pranks with sandwiches instead.
In a statement that NASA thought they’d never have to make, an administrator assured
Congress by saying that they had taken steps to prevent the recurrence of corned beef sandwiches
in future flights.
Ed the space cowboy didn’t only smuggle sandwiches into space, he also embarrassed
the entire space program when he accidentally left his mic on while doing a moonwalk and
told the world that he had gas.
Oops.
This story sounds like something straight out of a comedy movie.
Would professional astronauts really behave in such a dangerous way?
Can you imagine NASA having to make an announcement to promise that no more corned beef sandwiches
would end up in space?
Let us know what you think in our onscreen poll while we prepare to tell you our final
tale for the night.
Dogs are known for their intelligence and also for their sense of loyalty, but did you
know that they can sense when something is wrong?
Danielle didn’t either, that is until her German shepherd proved exactly how observant
he can be.
Story # 3: Doggo Saves the Day 45-year-old Danielle and her pet dog had been
best friends from the moment they met at the dog shelter.
She spotted Tommy immediately – the 10-week old pup was adorable and playful and Danielle
knew that she had to have him.
Two years later, Tommy had grown into a loyal, energetic and gentle dog, and was always by
his owner’s side.
One Friday morning, Danielle was working in her Birmingham, Alabama home while snacking
on an apple.
Even today Danielle can’t be sure how it happened, but all of a sudden she was choking
on a rogue apple slice.
She tried to stay calm to cough it up, but soon Danielle realized with horror that she
wasn’t able to.
She and Tommy lived alone and there was nobody around to help her, so she did the only other
thing she could think of and tried administering the Heimlich maneuver on herself.
Tommy was growing agitated at this point as if he could sense that something was seriously
wrong with his owner.
Danielle could feel herself growing faint from a lack of oxygen, and when Tommy leapt
at her chest and knocked her to the ground, she didn’t have any energy left to fight
him.
And perhaps that was for the best, because Tommy had a plan.
The German shepherd began leaping on his owner’s chest with impressive force, eventually dislodging
the apple slice from Danielle’s throat.
Tommy then set about licking Danielle’s face to keep her from passing out until she
caught her breath and recovered from her terrifying near-death experience.
We all know that dogs are man’s best friend, but are they really capable of reading a situation
as well as Tommy did on that fateful day?
Could it be that we’ve made up this harmonious tale of man and beast simply to warm your
heart?
Let us know what you think right now as we get ready for the moment we've all been waiting
for - the reveal.
Are you ready to find out if you can decipher between fact or fiction?
Let’s look back at tonight's three stories and find out which were born from reality
and which were fabrications of the imagination.
Let's first revisit Harrold Clifford and his status as an unlikely hero after his murder
of Maude Hargrove.
Did he really lose his cool over some snow and kill his neighbor?
No, no he didn't.
The story isn’t true and Harrold and Maude never existed - this one came straight from
our imaginations.
Next, we’re off to space to revisit the corned beef sandwich that caused so much trouble.
Do you think an astronaut actually snuck a sandwich into orbit inside his space suit?
Not only is this story true, but it's totally something I'd do myself.
The actual story was that of John Young.
He wasn’t fired, but he didn’t ever try anything like that again.
Oh, and he really did announce to the world that he had
the farts.
Finally, we’re back with Danielle and Tommy and the incredible canine rescue.
Did a dog really manage to save the life of its owner in such a heroic way?
We’re happy to tell you that yes, this absolutely did happen.
Debbie Parkhurst saw her life flash before her eyes before Toby the golden retriever
burst into action and brought her back to life.
How well did you do in tonight's video?
Did you look past the deception of our world and define the oft-blurred line that struggles
to separate lies from the truth?
Let us all know in the comment section below and should you find the urge to test your
perceptions again, be sure to subscribe and join us next time when we ask you to decide
what's fact... or fiction.