Ever wish some blunder, bad decision, or private shame would just be forgotten?
Welcome back to Bad Things in History, where we do our best to prevent just that.
History doesn t necessarily repeat itself.
But people from the past were not that different from their modern counterparts.
Bad luck and poor decisions have been killing people for untold centuries. And when something
happens it can have an impact lasting far beyond the excitement of the moment.
Events from nearly one hundred years ago continue to shape our world today.
And most of the chaos from that time is forgotten. In an effort to fix this, our series
examining the most horrible events of the 1920s continues with this episode on the year 1925.
Let s begin with a story about how the British bombed a village into submission.
Pink s War Airplanes were first used to kill people during
World War One. The British recognized the value of this new weapon. They created the Royal Air Force
in 1918 and ensured that aircraft would continue to eliminate enemies in future conflicts.
Usually when airplanes were used during a military operation, they supported ground troops.
Their mission was to help reduce resistance so that soldiers could occupy the area. Events in
India would eventually convince the British that airplanes alone could achieve military success.
The British continued to occupy India in the 1920s. Their northern bases,
in what is today Pakistan, were under constant attack from tribes in the area. In 1924 the
British launched an offensive operation that eliminated most of the tribal resistance.
But a few tribes continued to fight the occupying force.
In 1925 the commanding officer of the air force in India, Sir Edward Ellington, decided he didn
t need ground troops. His airplanes could drop bombs and use their guns to strafe the enemy.
The Royal Air Force would defeat these tribes without putting a single man on the ground.
Wing Commander Richard Pink was assigned to command this operation.
The attacks began on March 9th, 1925. The Royal Air Force flew airplanes day
and night doing everything they could to make life difficult for the tribes.
If pilots saw the rebels, they would shoot at them.
If there was a location where the aggressors were hiding the air force dropped bombs on it.
After more than fifty days of constant attacks the tribes finally surrendered on May 1st, 1925.
Tri-State Tornado Outbreak Natural disasters are an all-too-common
occurrence in North America. And as we discussed in a previous episode, Bad Things In 1920,
newspapers and radio stations in the United States were not allowed to warn people about tornadoes.
The government was concerned it would cause a panic. This did not change until the 1950s.
The unfortunate result of this policy is that people in the United States
were usually completely surprised when nature s wrath descended upon them.
On March 18th, 1925, the deadliest tornado outbreak in history began.
The conditions on that day created a perfect storm which unleashed at least twelve tornadoes. But
the deadliest among them was the Tri-State Tornado.
It killed people in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
A little after 12:40 pm the tornado hit the mining town of Annapolis, Missouri.
Within minutes ninety percent of the town was gone and two people were dead. The tornado grew
even larger and continued to move northeast. As it traveled it hit two schools and injured
thirty-two children. It also killed a farmer and his two children as well.
The tornado continued through Illinois and into Indiana before it finally dissipated. Hospitals in
larger cities were soon flooded with casualties. The cities of St. Louis, Missouri and Evansville,
Indiana had to deal with most of the injuries. At least 685 people died from the storm.
More than two thousand were seriously injured. And over fifteen thousand homes were destroyed.
Butcher Of Hanover Serial killers are a
familiar feature of the modern world. They were around in the 1920s too.
Fritz Harman was born in Hanover on October 25th, 1879. He was a very quiet and
strange child. He didn t have any interest in socializing with the other kids.
Fritz displayed his evil nature for the first time when he was sixteen years old.
He would lure young boys into the cellar. Then he would sexually assault them.
In 1897 he was arrested and sent to a mental institution.
Before the end of the year Fritz would escape and flee to Zurich,
Switzerland. He returned to Hanover in 1899. Fritz also had a young fianc e who was pregnant.
His attempt at a domestic life failed miserably. By 1904 he was alone. Fritz tried to earn a living
as a petty criminal. He wasn t a very good thief and was caught multiple times. Much of his time
between 1905 and 1912 was spent in prison. In 1918 Fritz began working as a police informant.
He would attempt to sell stolen goods, then would notify police about the transaction.
They would arrive and arrest everyone. Thanks to helping authorities arrest criminals they
didn t care when Fritz was found to be patrolling the police station.
He used his access to the police station to find victims.
Fritz would identify someone he wanted to murder. It was always a male between the ages of 10 and
22. He would use promises and threats to lure the victims to his apartment.
Once there, Fritz would give the person food and drink. Once the meal was finished,
he would begin strangling his target. During the process he would bite the victim s Adam apple.
When the deed was finished the body would be dismembered and thrown away.
Nobody is sure exactly how many people Fritz killed. It was at least twenty-seven.
He was caught because children playing near a river found human skulls. When police
investigated it didn t take long for them to realize that Fritz was their main suspect.
On December 19th, 1924, Fritz Harman was sentenced to death.
On April 15th, 1925, the sentence was finally carried out.
Fritz was beheaded at Hanover prison.
Percy Fawcett Most of the planet
had been explored by the end of the 19th century. But some enterprising individuals
worked hard to fill in the remaining gaps. Percy Fawcett was born on August 18th, 1867.
He joined the Geographic Society in 1901 so that he could learn more about surveying and mapmaking.
Percy hoped to make new discoveries and document them.
In 1906 at the age of 39 Percy was sent to Brazil. He was supposed to map a section
of jungle near the border of Bolivia. It was the first of many trips he would make
to the area. By the 1920s Percy Fawcett made seven expeditions to South America.
He discovered the sources of many rivers and mapped previously unknown jungle terrain.
During his travels Percy started to believe that the Amazon jungle once
hosted an advanced civilization. He called this city Z, which was pronounced Zed .
Percy thought that the civilization existed in the jungles of Brazil and disappeared. But the
ruins of this lost city should be there waiting for Percy to discover them.
In 1924 Percy found someone to fund an expedition to find the lost city. He brought his eldest son,
Jack, and one of Jack s friends with him. On April 20th, 1925, they entered
the jungles of Brazil to search for Zed. On May 29th Percy was able to send one final
letter to his wife. He told her that he was about to go into an unexplored part of the jungle.
Percy, his son Jack, and Jack s friend entered the wilderness. Nobody ever saw them again.
Many theories have been proposed to explain what happened. Several explorers believe the group
simply died of starvation in the jungle. Others think that natives killed them. And one theory
claimed that a group of bandits killed them. The lost city of Zed has never been found.
USS Shenandoah During 1922 the United States Navy
began building rigid airships. These are lighter than air vehicles that travel through the sky.
Some of them used hydrogen to achieve flight. This was dangerous since hydrogen
is extremely flammable. The USS Shenandoah was the first
airship built by the United States. It was also the first to use helium.
Presumably this airship would be safer than the ones built by Germany and the UK.
Helium is also a difficult resource to acquire. In 1923 the Shenandoah
was launched for the first time. To do so it used most of the world s helium reserves.
In 1924 Rear Admiral William A. Moffett decided that using airships to explore the Arctic would
be a great idea. Before anybody could try it a storm ripped the tail fin off Shenandoah.
It was quickly repaired and returned to service.
On September 2nd, 1925, the airship was instructed to embark on a promotional flight
over the Midwest. The vehicle was supposed to fly over at least forty cities and would be
an attraction at several state fairs. Early on the morning of September 3rd the
Shenandoah was passing through Ohio. There were thunderstorms and a lot of turbulence.
An updraft lifted the airship and pushed it to an altitude beyond the limits of
what the inflated fabric could support. It was torn into pieces and fell from the sky.
Most of it landed near Caldwell, Ohio. Fourteen crew members died. Twenty-nine
rode sections of the airship all the way to the ground and somehow survived.
Before government officials could arrive at the site of the crash it had been looted by the
locals. Department of Justice operatives had to go door to door collecting items that were stolen.
An official inquiry found that the commander of USS Shenandoah had protested the fatal flight.
He warned superior officers that he was from Ohio and knew how bad the weather
could be. In response the Navy made structural improvements to its remaining airships.
Thompson Submachine Gun During World War One, Brigadier General
John T. Thompson had an idea. Most of the foot soldiers in the war still used bolt action rifles.
Thompson believed he could create a weapon that was the size of a
rifle but was also fully automatic. He began working on this project in 1915.
In 1918 he finally succeeded and was able to offer troops a fully automatic rifle.
Unfortunately, the war ended two days before he shipped the weapons.
Thompson s company began looking for new customers, and they found them.
The United States Postal service bought some to help protect the mail from robberies.
Warlords in China were happy to use them to keep the population under control.
The Irish Republican Army also used them. Gangsters in the United States also found the
Thompson submachine gun to be quite useful. As the 1920s began, the machine gun ensured
that violent people all over the world were well armed.
Civilians in the United States could also buy the weapons. But
they were too expensive for most people. In 1925 Thompson s company did their part to
make sure that Americans had the opportunity to own fully automatic weapons. The Sears,
Roebuck and Company Catalog began offering the weapon for sale.
People who could afford it would send in their payment and receive a machine gun in the mail.
--------------------------- Technological development in the
1920s moved at a rapid pace. The ability to save lives would be slow to emerge.
But taking life was an everyday occurrence. Whether it was delivered by serial killers,
tornadoes, bad luck, or conveniently ordered by catalog, death was always lurking.
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