All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s03e11 Spectacular Cons.eng

[Dan narrating]

[dynamic music]

- What if I told you there
was a so-called miracle cure

that took aim at
your sensitive parts?

- Brinkley is taking the
testicles from billy goats

and inserting them
into the scrotums

of his human patients.

- Men line up by the thousands,

even given the fact

that it sounds pretty sketchy.

- Or that a zoo in China

tried to pull a fast
one on tourists?

- Now, they have the
round pompom ears,

they even have the black
patches around their eyes.

- People are really
starting [laughing]

to ask questions, like,

"Is there something real
weird about these pandas?"

- How about enlisting an
unconventional super agent

to fake out the Nazis?

- What they're gonna do
is put false attack plans

on a corpse who will be dressed

as a fallen British officer.

- The thinking is that if they
can just get the right person

to pick up this corpse,

that eventually it
will get to Hitler.

- These are the cons so
spectacular, so daring,

they can only be
described as unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

You ever wonder why we
call a slick con artist

a snake oil salesman?

Well, saddle up,

because this is the wild story

behind the original.

[light music]
[birds singing]

- It's 1893,

the Wild Wild West.

Roping cattle, farming,

you're building railroads,

life is hard.

You've gotta work
yourself to the bone

to get anything done.

The town doctor, if your
town even has a doctor,

is probably spread pretty thin.

You need something pretty quick

to deal with all
your aches and pains.

- At the time,

it's popular to have
traveling medicine shows,

some smooth-talking
salesman comes in

and tells you he's gonna take
away all your aches and pains

'cause he's got a magical
ointment or an elixir,

- [Dan] But one showman
takes the spectacle

to a whole new level.

Clark Stanley draws a crowd

with a live sideshow

and a bold claim.

- He reaches down
into a writhing sack

and he pulls out a rattlesnake

and holds it out
for everyone to see.

- And he would claim that
the oil of this rattlesnake

will cure everything
from rheumatism

to partial paralysis.

- In the height
of theatricality,

he pulls out a giant knife

and he slits the
rattlesnake open

and he throws it in a
pot of boiling water.

- The snake fat
rises to the top,

and he scoops it
out with a ladle

and starts putting
it in liniment jars

with his own label attached,

reading, "Clark Stanley's
snake oil treatment."

[dramatic music]

- And he'll sell it to
you for 50 cents a bottle.

For $20 in today's money.

[dramatic music]

- The back of the label reads,
"Good for man and beast,

the most remarkable
curative discovery

ever made in any
age or country."

I mean, who wouldn't buy that?

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] To close the deal,

he hits the crowd with
a compelling backstory.

- He brings the
audience in close

and he goes on to tell 'em that,

"Listen, I learned the
secrets of snake oil

from a Hopi medicine man

deep in the deserts of Arizona.

A mysterious man,

he has all of these secrets
for health and vitality

and strength and youth."

But in reality, there
is no Hopi medicine man.

- He actually learns about
the healing properties

of snake oil from
Chinese laborers

who are building the
Transcontinental Railroad,

but it's the oil from
the Chinese watersnake,

not the American rattlesnake,

that they use on their muscles.

- [Dan] Since rattlesnakes
are much more abundant,

Stanley improvises,

and his miracle cure becomes
a showstopping success,

until the feds
take a closer look.

[suspenseful music]
[glass clinking]

- In 1917, a bunch
of federal regulators

get their hands on a batch
of Stanley's snake oil.

They decide to do a little
bit of analysis on it.

And they realize that there's
no snake anything in it.

It's cow fat,

mineral oil,

turpentine

and red pepper.

- Turpentine and
red pepper flakes

can make the skin tingle,

so Stanley's customers

felt like something
must be happening.

In fact, their
pain-relieving tendencies

are negligible at best.

- For his fraud,
Stanley's taken to court.

He's convicted and he's
made to pay a fine of $20,

about $400 in today's money.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Not surprisingly,

that little slap on the wrist

doesn't stop the self-proclaimed
Rattlesnake King.

- Stanley continues
his traveling show

by going from town to town

and selling his
miracle snake oil

to anybody that would be
interested in buying from him.

And by the time these
customers realize

that they've been had,

Stanley's already gotten
the hell out of Dodge.

[smoke puffing]
[rattlesnake rattling]

[dramatic music]

- It's one thing to scam people

into drinking a magic potion,

but it takes real cojones

to dupe people into
going under the knife.

- [Presenter] Ladies
and gentlemen,

this is Dr. JR Brinkley.

- In the 1920s,

it's the dawn of radio,

just about every
American family has one,

and they gather around
it at night to listen.

- One of the most successful
shows on the radio at the time

is hosted by a
Kansas-based doctor

named John Romulus Brinkley.

Twice daily, he
plays country music,

preaches the gospel,

but most importantly,

tells his audience
how modern medicine

is failing them.

[Brinkley faintly speaking]

- Brinkley ends up
making a fortune.

He's netting about
$14,000 a week,

that's about a quarter of
a million dollars today,

just from prescribing
these tonics and elixirs

to these listeners

for all sorts of ailments.

- [Dan] But for all
his so-called cures,

one bizarre treatment
grabs national attention

and makes Brinkley
a household name.

[dramatic music]

- Brinkley is
taking the testicles

from six-week old billy goats

and inserting them into the
scrotums of his human patients,

just under the skin.

[dramatic music]
[goat bleating]

- Brinkley says he worked
at a slaughterhouse

when he was a young man

and he noticed the
goats were virile

and resistant to disease.

They seemed to have
all this get up and go.

- And this inspires his claim

that transplanting goat
gonads to human patients

can give tired old men

the energy and virility
of a young goat.

- Men line up by the thousands

to get this
un-validated treatment,

even given the fact that
it sounds pretty sketchy.

- [Dan] This isn't
just a medical hustle,

it's a national phenomenon,

led by a man with
almost no real training.

[dramatic music]

- I think calling him
a real medical doctor

is a stretch too far.

He claims he took these
correspondence courses

with Eclectic University

but that's kinda like
getting a medical degree

from watching YouTube videos.

- And although Brinkley
claims to be doing a lot

during this procedure,

he's actually just making
an incision in a scrotum

and he's stuffing this
goat testicle in there.

And he's not connecting
any blood vessels,

he's not connecting
any sort of tubes

that could transport
the different hormones

from the goat testicle.

[ominous music]

- [Dan] Brinkley
performs this procedure

upwards of 5,000 times.

And unbelievably, a large
portion of his patients

say they've never felt better.

[dramatic music]

- Let's be clear on this.

There is no biological
basis for any of this.

Most experts agree that
it's the placebo effect,

the power of suggestion.

- [Dan] By the late 1920s,
skepticism starts to rise,

and one physician
finally steps up

to challenge Brinkley head on.

[suspenseful music]
[traffic faintly whizzing]

- In 1928, Brinkley
actually gets called out

by a more mainstream doctor

named Morris Fishbein.

He calls Dr. Brinkley a
charlatan of the rankest sort,

and publishes a paper
that gets the attention

of the Kansas Medical Board.

- They revoke both
his radio license

and his specious medical license

in the state of Kansas.

- [Dan] Incredibly, this
doesn't stop Brinkley,

he moves to Texas where
the laws are looser,

and he cooks up
his next big idea.

- He calls it Formula 1020.

It's a distillation
of goat glands,

and that can cure everything,

from impotence to insanity.

- [Dan] As Brinkley
rakes in the dough

and continues pedaling
his goat cures

all over the Southern US,

there's someone else who
rivals his persistence.

[dramatic music]

- Dr. Fishbein, he
decides to write

a new piece on Charlatanism,

and this time, he
gets it published

in the prestigious

"Journal of the American
Medical Association" in 1938.

- Brinkley is incensed

that he gets mentioned
in this article,

so he decides to sue for libel.

- [Dan] But Dr. Brinkley
shrivels on the stand.

- Under oath, Brinkley
is forced to admit

that he knew the goat gland
surgeries he was performing

could not possibly enhance

a human male's virility,

and he knew it all along.

[gavel banging]

- Brinkley ultimately loses

and is forced to
declare bankruptcy,

leaving his family penniless

and the goats of America

just a little bit safer.

- When it comes to scams,

the bigger the lie,
the bigger the payout.

This next hustle is so large,

it cost many their life savings

and bought us an
iconic catchphrase

for the unbelievably gullible.

[machinery whirring]
[dramatic music]

- It's the late 1800s

and New York City is
bursting at the seams

with immigrants
fresh off the boat.

They're ready to work hard

to create the American Dream

for themselves and
their families.

- [Reporter] Men,
women and children.

- They see America as a place
of tremendous opportunity,

but it's also a place

where if you're
willing to take a risk,

you could get rich
and get rich fast.

- [Dan] Among those
chasing the American Dream

is a man who promises
to make others rich

by selling them a piece of it.

George Parker is by trade
a real estate agent,

and he begins claiming

that he holds the deed

to the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge at its time

was considered a marvel
of modern engineering.

- It's the world's first
steel-wire suspension bridge.

It's almost 1,600 feet in span.

The two towers of the bridge

are the tallest manmade
objects in North America.

- He tells them, once
they own the bridge,

they own access to anyone
wanting to cross the bridge,

and they can charge a
toll for the privilege.

Then Parker hits them
with the price tag.

- $75 for a piece of the bridge

or $50,000 for the
whole enchilada.

But it'll pay for itself

because you have
thousands of people

crossing the bridge every day.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] After
reaching an agreement,

Parker hands over an
official-looking deed,

only for buyers to
face a rude awakening

when they try to cash in.

- When they attempt
to put up toll booths,

the police arrive and
they shut it down.

In fact, some of
them end up in jail

because what they're
doing is illegal.

[dramatic music]

You see, Parker does not
own the Brooklyn Bridge,

the city of New York owns it.

These folks paid in cash.

They're out all the money
they gave to Parker.

- Ultimately Parker
sells the Brooklyn Bridge

a [laughing]
whopping 4,160 times.

- [Dan] 20 years, $1 million

and thousands of
fake deeds later,

police finally shut Parker down,

but he's not done running
his game just yet.

[inquisitive music]
[film reel clacking]

- Parker abandons
the bridge scam

and moves on to other
New York City landmarks,

and manages to sell
Madison Square Garden,

the Metropolitan Museum of Art

and the Statue of Liberty.

- He even sells the
deed to Grant's Tomb,

posing as General
Grant's grandson.

- [Dan] Parker lives the
conman's dream for decades more,

but even he can't
outrun justice forever.

- In 1928, "The New York Times"

reports that a man
named William McCloundy,

also known as, I kid
you not, "IOU O'Brien",

has been caught trying to
sell 10 lots for $17,000.

- Over the years,

Parker ends up taking a
whole myriad of aliases.

Mr. Taylor, Mr. Roberts,

Captain Kennedy,

selling fake properties

and passing bad checks.

- They find him in Asbury Park

measuring a backyard,

surprise, which he did not own.

- Parker is convicted and
sentenced to serve in Sing Sing.

He dies in prison
eight years later,

but at least it's said

by the prison guards
and fellow inmates,

they never tired of his stories.

- Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me 4,160 times

and have I got a
bridge to sell you?

But this brand of
bold-faced scamming

is not just an
American tradition.

[dramatic music]

- In 1925, sitting in
a hotel room in Paris,

there's a very dapper gentleman

by the name of Victor Lustig.

And he's reading a paper

and he realizes that
there's a big hubbub

about the Eiffel Tower.

- This tower, which
was constructed in 1889

for the Paris World's Fair

was only supposed to be
up for about 20 years,

but it's exceeded that time

by an additional 15 years,

and now it's started
to fall into disrepair.

The metal beams that
make up the tower,

because it's made out of iron,

are constantly rusting,

and in order to maintain upkeep,

it's costing the taxpayers
in France beaucoup bucks.

- [Dan] Where others
see challenges,

Victor Lustig sees dollar signs.

[dramatic music]

- Lustig knows
there's a lot of money

to be made in scrap metal,

and there's a lot of scrap
metal in the Eiffel Tower.

- So he gets this idea,

at 7,000 metric tons of iron,

he thinks, "What if I
can sell the Eiffel Tower

to some scrap metal
dealers in Paris?"

What a brilliant idea.

- Lustig hires a
professional counterfeiter

to make very
official-looking stationary

with the city of
Paris's seal on it.

He also has business
cards made up

calling himself a
government official.

- [Dan] Then Lustig invites

the city's top
scrap metal dealers

to bid on the tower.

[glasses clinking]

- He tells him that
they are being given

a secret opportunity
to capitalize on this,

but that their discretion

is of the utmost importance,

"The tower is going down,

but, shh, the public
doesn't about it yet,

so that's why you gotta keep
this on the hush-hush for now."

[dramatic music]

- While there are half
dozen men vying for the gig,

Lustig has got his sights
set on Andre Poisson,

who is an up-and-comer in
the scrap metal industry

and wants to make
a name for himself.

- Lustig takes Poisson
aside in his confidence

and says he'll give the bid

to whomever makes
it worth his while.

Hint, hint.

- Now, the price tag that
Lustig has set is steep,

a million to take down the tower

and to sell this 7,000
plus tons of scrap metal.

But Poisson decides
that it's worth it.

- [Dan] After handing
over the money,

Poisson reaches out to
Lustig for the contract

and is met with radio silence.

- For days, Poisson
tries to reach Lustig

with no success.

It's only when Poisson
sees in the newspaper

that the tower is staying put,

that he realizes
he's been duped.

- But who's he gonna tell?

He's too embarrassed
to go public

and say, "I just
got all this money

stolen from me in this ruse,"

'cause, again, he's trying
to make a name for himself,

so he says nothing.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] As for Lustig,
he gets greedy,

gives the con another go.

- But this time, when Lustig
gathers up new scrap dealers

and sets his eyes
on his main mark

and gives 'em the whole shtick,

the guy gets suspicious,

and instead of giving
Lustig any cash,

just goes straight
to the police.

- Lustig's a smart guy,

so he's already one step ahead.

He's on a cruise ship

headed for the United States.

[horn blowing]

- Lustig does not change
his ways with a new venue,

taking more and more risks.

- Amazingly, this guy bounces
in and out of trouble.

He's arrested 40 times,

and either escapes or
doesn't get prosecuted,

until the FBI caught
him for counterfeiting

and sentenced him to 20
years in prison in Alcatraz.

- While serving his time,

Lustig doesn't sit idle.

He writes "The 10
Commandments of Con Artistry."

Among his pearls of wisdom,

always listen, never boast,

and always look the part.

Timeless advice indeed.

- Today, we often hear
about nepo babies,

children of celebrities

who navigate the world

with a little extra help
from their famous parents.

But this trend is
not exactly new.

In the late 1900s,

being the child of the
well-known and wealthy

could open many a door

and quite a few wallets.

[film reel clacking]
[upbeat music]

- 1897 in Cleveland, Ohio,

it is really the gilded age.

It is the time of the
haves and the have-nots.

- One of the ultra haves

is railroad magnate
Andrew Carnegie,

who, through his holdings
in steel, oil, railroads,

has amassed a fortune

that makes him the
richest man in the world.

- So when a demure but
intense young woman

walks into a Cleveland bank

and hands the banker
a promissory note

from none other than
Andrew Carnegie,

he takes notice.

- [Dan] The young woman says
her name is Cassie Chadwick,

and she claims to be

the great philanthropist's
illegitimate daughter.

[dramatic music]

- Now, this kind of
made sense at the time

because Andrew Carnegie
didn't have a kid

until he was 61.

He married really late,

so it's entirely possible

that he could've fathered
another child before that point.

And also, who's gonna
fact-check Andrew Carnegie

on his illegitimate child?

I mean, if you're the
wrong person to do that,

he could ruin you.

- Because she has
this promissory note,

banks, shopkeepers,

wealthy and
prominent individuals

open up checkbooks
and their homes

and their shops to this person.

Basically the idea is that,
"Her dad's gonna pay for it,

so yeah, let her have
whatever she wants."

- [Dan] For years, Cassie
juggles loans like a pro,

robbing Peter to pay Paul,

until she gets in
a little too deep.

[dramatic music]

- It all comes to
a head in late 1904

when Cassie is unable to repay

a very large loan,

$200,000.

- The loan was actually given
to her by Herbie Newton,

a Boston banker,

and it actually came
from his personal money,

not the bank.

So now he is really mad.

- He brings a suit
against Cassie,

which is gonna bring her
carefully constructed facade

crumbling down.

[dramatic music]

When the police go
to Andrew Carnegie,

he says, "I've never
heard of this person,

and I haven't written a
promissory note in 30 years."

- [Dan] It turns out Cassie
isn't who she says she is.

- Her real name is
Elizabeth Betty Bigley.

She's a grifter from Canada,

and she has been conning people

since she was 13 years old.

[dramatic music]

- She, at one point,
runs a brothel,

she later poses as a
psychic to the rich.

She marries six times

to increasingly wealthy men.

One of these marriages
lasts only 12 days.

Now, it's hard to know
exactly how much money

she stole in her endeavors,

but most people think
it's roughly $650,000,

which in today's money

is about $25 million.

- [Dan] Cassie's
arrested in 1905

and convicted on seven
counts of conspiracy

against the government.

Her trial becomes a
national sensation.

Andrew Carnegie himself
even attends in person.

- Once she's found guilty,

the sentiment was
not of negativity.

Oh, no, she was really
like the people's champ.

Someone started
manufacturing Cassie Tonic,

which was supposed to
boost your confidence.

- Oddly enough,
Cassie is allowed

to bring some of her ill-gotten
gains to prison with her.

Coats, jewelry, furniture.

She's seen as a kind
of Robinhood figure.

- As a footnote to this story,

Carnegie actually pays the debts

of some of the people
defrauded in Cleveland,

which has led
people to speculate

that there may have been
more of a connection

between Carnegie and Cassie

than we were led to believe.

- All that pretending
has to be exhausting.

Luckily, our next con artist

is able to pull a fast one

barely breaking a sweat.

[dramatic music]

- Arguably, one of the
most famous road races

in the entire United States

is the Boston Marathon.

And Bostonians love
their marathon.

[starter gun firing]
[audience cheering]

Now, while there's tons
of civilian competitors,

it's usually pretty seasoned
professional runners

who ultimately win these races.

- [Dan] Then in 1980,

one unexpected runner
changes the game,

and suddenly a newcomer
is making history.

[audience cheering]
- Rosie Ruiz

from New York City

heading down Parapet Street

for what appears to be a
new American record time.

A young Cuban woman
stuns the world

when she becomes the first woman

to cross the finish line
in that year's race.

Her time is the third-fastest
recorded for a marathon

by a woman in human history.

[audience cheering and clapping]

And she's a complete unknown.

- Rosie is given the
traditional wreath of laurels

and a gold medal, complete
with a large diamond stud.

She calls it the
best day of her life.

- [Dan] This appears to
be one heck of a case

of beginner's luck,

or is it?

- People start getting
suspicious almost immediately.

The marathon places
spotters along the route

and none of them
remember seeing her

at the checkpoints
along the way.

We missed her at
all our checkpoints.

- Then things get
really suspicious

when commentator
Kathrine Switzer,

who is an actual marathon hero,

starts asking Rosie
questions about her finish.

- Is someone coaching
you or advising you?

- No, I advise
myself. [laughing]

[dramatic music]

- Rosie tells her that it's
only the second marathon

she's ever run,

that the first was
the New York Marathon

and that she finished that one

in two hours and 56 minutes.

- And Switzer is baffled.

She's like, "How did you manage

between New York and Boston

to shave 25 minutes
off of your time?

That's an incredible
feat, how'd you do that?"

And Ruiz says, "I
just trained myself."

- [Kathrine] Have you been
doing a lot of heavy intervals?

- Someone else asked me that.

I'm not sure what
intervals are. [laughing]

What are they?

- Other things
aren't adding up.

It's a hot day in Boston

and she's run 26.2 miles,

and even her hair isn't sweaty.

- [Dan] Still nobody
can imagine Rosie

or really anyone
cheating the marathon.

That is until witnesses
begin to emerge,

including one woman

who starts putting
two and two together.

- She saw Rosie
during the marathon,

but not on the street.

- She saw her on the T,

which is the [laughing]
subway system in Boston.

Rosie told her that
she had hurt her ankle

at about the 10-mile mark

and she had dropped
out of the race.

- Other people
say they saw Rosie

reenter the race at the
Kenmore Square stop,

which is about a mile
away from the finish line.

- The testimony of
all of these people

and all these eyewitnesses

confirmed that Rosie
Ruiz was a con artist

and unbelievably lied

about winning the
Boston Marathon.

- [Dan] Although her victory
is officially taken away,

she holds on to something else.

- Rosie refuses to
give up her medal

and claims she won it
fair and square.

- I ran the whole race.

- And she has kind of
cemented her legacy

as making her name
synonymous with cheating.

- But I hope it's all
cleared up very soon.

- Rosie Ruiz keeps her gold
medal for another 39 years,

until the day she dies.

- Death is supposed to
be the final chapter,

but for one con man,

it's the perfect cover story.

[birds singing]
[dynamic music]

- In 2005, Michael Gordon,

who's on vacation
in New Zealand,

hiking on Mount Maunganui.

Suddenly, he stops
dead in his tracks

when he sees the couple

that are walking
right in front of him.

[dramatic music]

The man looks like
his brother, Harry,

who he hasn't seen
in five years.

- The only difference is
this man has blue eyes,

and the woman who he is with

is definitely not his wife.

And he asks him,
"Harry, is that you?"

The man quickly
responds, "Of course,

but look, it's not
convenient to talk now."

- [Dan] As Michael
watches this man and woman

walk away down the trail,

he still can't be
certain if this is real,

because his brother,
Harry, died five years ago.

[rewind whirring]

[dramatic music]

- It's the year 2000,

Harry Gordon is a 51-year-old
millionaire businessman

who runs an engineering firm.

He's married to his
lifelong sweetheart, Sheila,

but then he gets involved

in a get-rich-quick scheme

with the Ukrainian mafia,

and it goes south.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Drowning in debt,

Harry decides the
best course of action

is to fake his own death.

[boat engine roaring]

- One night, Harry
takes out his speedboat

on the Carua River estuary.

He scuttles it on the beach.

[boat crashing]

- He leaves his
wallet, his cellphone,

and there's two empty
bottles of champagne.

Then he smashes
one of the windows.

And he hops in a van,

which has in it
$100,000 of cash.

- The police find
his wallet, his ID,

his cellphone, the empty
bottles of champagne,

and the busted window.

Investigators conclude that
he likely had a collision

with a navigation
marker and drowned.

- [Dan] With investigators
convinced he's gone for good,

Harry makes his next move.

[dramatic music]

- Harry spends 25 grand

to get a new passport

and changes his
name to Rob Motzel.

He also buys a pair of
blue contact lenses.

- He then spends
the next many months

hopping from Spain to England,

before finally settling
in Auckland, New Zealand.

For the next five years,

he lives under
his false identity

working in construction.

- He eventually marries in 2005,

as Rob Motzel,

telling her nothing
about his real identity.

- [Dan] Life as Rob Motzel
seems to be working out,

until a chance encounter

threatens to unravel it all.

- After Harry's
brother, Michael,

spots him on that
New Zealand trail,

the first thing Michael does

is call Harry's
real wife, Sheila,

and rats him out.

[phone ringing]

- Sheila calls the authorities

and lets 'em know
her husband's alive

and living in New Zealand.

[dramatic music]
[sirens blaring]

- [Dan] An international
manhunt ensues

and Harry decides to return
to Sydney to face the music.

Police immediately nab him,

and soon realize he's
not the only Gordon

with a knack for deception.

- Investigators determine

that there was a lucrative
life insurance policy

that his wife, Sheila,
attempted to cash in on

only a short time
after his death.

The insurance claim
is for $3.5 million.

- After this discovery,

police raid Sheila's home,

and they uncover paperwork

calculating the
compound interest

on 3 1/2 million dollars.

- There's just one catch,

they wouldn't pay out the full
cash value without a body,

and all she got was 25 grand.

- And they also find a
card in Harry's handwriting

written to his wife that says,

"Our goals this year,

stay out of jail

and get the money."

[gavel banging]

- [Dan] Sheila serves five
months of house arrest,

while Harry is sent to
actual prison for 15 months,

charged with false
representation.

- Apparently it's kind of
illegal to fake your death

and disappear for five years.

Who knew?

- If faking your own death
sounds like a bold move,

wait until you see the
lengths one woman goes to

just for a signature.

- In April of 2024, a
young woman, Erica Nunez,

shows up at a bank
in Bangu, Brazil.

And she is wheeling a man

into the bank in a wheelchair.

- Erica claims that the
man in the wheelchair

is her Uncle Paolo,

who is there to
co-sign a loan for her.

- She's looking to get
about 17,000 reals,

which is about $3,400.

And she takes out his ID.

But to put it mildly,
from the beginning,

this man is obviously not well.

[dramatic music]

- As he's there in the chair,

Uncle Paolo's head
keeps rocking back

and going in all
different directions.

She tries to put
a pen in his hand

and clearly he can't
get a grip on it,

so she pretty much
grabs his hand

in an attempt to sign for him.

- [Dan] The teller
gets suspicious

and starts questioning Erica.

- Erica assures the teller

that he's always like this.

He doesn't speak very much.

She even asks him, "Do you
wanna go back to the hospital?"

He doesn't answer.

- [Dan] That's because
Uncle Paolo is dead.

- The concerned bank staff

immediately call
the authorities,

who of course come to the bank

and arrest Erica.

- Erica's defense
is that Uncle Paolo

was alive when they
entered the bank,

but no one is buying that.

- When the body
gets to the coroner,

he determines that Uncle Paolo

had actually died hours
before, earlier that day.

- In Brazil, it turns out the
"Weekend at Bernie's" defense

does not hold water.

- It may not have
worked for Erica,

but sometimes the right
corpse in the right hands

can change history.

- Deception is typically the
tool of swindlers and schemers,

used to line pockets
and cover tracks.

But every now and then,

a con is pulled not for profit,

but for the greater good.

[cannon firing]
[dramatic music]

[explosion booming]

[missiles whooshing]

- It's the spring of 1943,

World War II is raging.

[gun firing]

The Germans are
gaining momentum,

and the Allies realize
that they need a foothold

in southern Europe.

- The Allies are planning
to invade Sicily,

but they're gonna need
the element of surprise

to pull this off.

- [Dan] British intelligence
come up with an idea

to create the
greatest military con

since the Trojan Horse.

[dramatic music]

- The plan is to leak false
information to the Nazis

that the Allies plan to
invade Greece and Sardinia.

So while Hitler diverts
military resources

towards Greece and Sardinia,

the Allies will
attack through Sicily.

- It's a pretty
brilliant fake out,

because the Nazis will assume

that the real invasion

is just the decoy.

- [Dan] Just how are the
British going to get news

of this bogus attack

into the hands of
the Third Reich?

With a little help

from a 35-year-old Navy
intelligence officer,

you may have heard of.

- Lieutenant
Commander Ian Fleming,

who will later write the
great "James Bond" novels,

he comes up with an idea

from a spy novel
that he's just read

called "The Milliner's
Hat" by Basil Thomson.

- There's a plot
device in that book

where misinformation
is planted on a corpse.

So Fleming thinks, "Hey,
we could borrow this idea."

- What they're gonna do
is put false attack plans

on a corpse

who will be dressed as a
fallen British officer.

- British intelligence are
going to float the corpse

off the coast of Spain

so that Nazi sympathizers
will pick it up

and find the information.

- Spain at this
point is fascist,

and the thinking is that,

if they can just
get the right person

to pick up this corpse,

that eventually it
will get to Hitler.

- They decide to call
this mission of deception

Operation Mincemeat.

- [Dan] First things first,

get ahold of arguably the most
important part of the plan.

- From a morgue,

they secure a body
of a Welsh transient,

who apparently has
no next of kin.

They give him a good shave

and a good military haircut,

and then they put
a uniform on him

that has wear and tear

as if he was flying and
got ejected into the water.

- Every detail matters,

so they need to make
him of a sufficient rank

that he would have access

to these kinds of secret plans.

Because he's fictitious, he
needs a common-enough name

that it will be
almost impossible

for the Germans to trace him.

- So they name him
Major William Martin

of the Royal Marines.

- To really bring this all home,

they flesh out this entire
fictitious backstory,

and they even plant
on him the photograph

of a really lovely young woman

who is his imaginary fiance.

- They are so
thorough with this.

They plant love letters.

[pages rustling]

He has receipts for
their wedding rings.

They also try to take
pictures for his ID badge,

but they can't take a
picture of the corpse

because he's, you know, dead.

- So they find another officer

who looks similar enough

and take photographs of him

and use that to make the ID.

- The last thing that they do

is they plant the plan for
the invasion in a briefcase,

which is then handcuffed
to the corpse's wrist,

because if you handcuff a
briefcase to someone's wrist,

you know [laughing] there
is something important

in that briefcase.

[handcuffs clacking]

[boat engines roaring]

- [Dan] With every little
detail of the charade in place,

on April 30th, it's time
to send Major Martin

behind enemy lines.

[suspenseful music]

- And the body is now
floating in the ocean

just off the coast of Spain,

with the hopes that
it will be discovered

and the plan will
be set in motion.

[water flowing]

- He is in the water,

so there are a lot of potential
problems that could arise.

What if the plans that
are in the briefcase

get obliterated by the water

and the ink all smears?

What if the body just gets
eaten by some sea creature?

[pensive music]
[waves crashing]

- The Spanish authorities
end up picking up the body

from the water

and the secret documents

that are attached to it as well.

- The documents are opened
up covertly, photographed,

and sent off to the
Germans in Spain.

This intel makes it all the
way up the chain of command,

ultimately to the Third Reich.

[dramatic music]

- The Germans gobble
up Operation Mincemeat

like it's dinner.

Hitler buys it and he
starts diverting his troops

to Greece and Sardinia.

He actually doubles the
number of troops in Sardinia,

and this leaves
Sicily wide open.

- The Allied forces
bombard the Nazis,

completely win the day,

take over Sicily,

and finally have that firm
stronghold in Southern Europe

as they had planned to
have the entire time.

- Operation Mincemeat
is considered

one of the greatest and
most successful deceptions

of World War II.

It turns the tides
in the Allies' favor

and delivers a humiliating
blow to Hitler.

- Trickery and scams aren't
exclusive to mankind,

the animal kingdom is
rife with creatures

that just can't be trusted.

[upbeat music]

- Becoming a butterfly
is dangerous business.

They begin life as
vulnerable caterpillars.

And they're even more fragile

when they're inside
their chrysalids.

They liquefy their tissues

and reform them into the
shape of an adult butterfly.

- There's nothing it can
do to protect itself.

So it's very important

that this caterpillar chooses

just the correct spot

to perform this transition.

- [Dan] To most red ants,

caterpillars are lunch.

But not the blue
butterfly caterpillar.

This one flips the script.

- After a few days
of feeding on leaves,

this caterpillar drops from
its host plant to the ground,

hoping that a red
ant will stroll by.

- [Dan] Then the
caterpillar pulls off

one heck of a costume change.

- First off, she takes
in a bunch of air

and she inflates herself,

so she then resembles
the queen red ant.

And she can create a sound

that resembles a distress call,

so all the ants are attracted

to come to her defense.

- [Dan] Ever the rescuers,

the worker ants pick
up the fake queen

and bring her into the colony.

- The caterpillar
continues to chirp out

the queen's distress call,

hoping that the
rest of the colony

will be drawn to her

and accept her as the queen.

This is a pretty
nervy thing to do

because these red ants
could just kill and eat her.

- So long as the caterpillar

continues emitting
the right sounds,

it has free reign
to wreak havoc.

[ominous music]

- Most caterpillars
are herbivores,

but this one is a carnivore.

So she begins eating
the ant larvae

and whatever ants
get in her way.

- By the time she's pretty
much eaten the entire colony,

within about six months,

she will reach a hundred
times her original size.

At this point, she
begins to pupate

and becomes a chrysalis.

- And now she's safe,

because pretty much anything
that could've eaten her,

she's already eaten them.

- [Dan] Nearly a year
later, in the springtime,

the caterpillar
performs her final act.

- All she has to do now

is find her way out
of the ant nest,

spread her wings and
take to the skies.

[dramatic music]

- Next up,

a bait and switch
that proves even zoos

have a few tricks
up their sleeves.

[upbeat music]

- Of all the animals you
would see at the zoo,

giant pandas are the
number-one attraction.

They're extremely rare.

The Chinese government
is very restrictive

of what zoos around the world

can actually have
a panda on exhibit.

So to see one in captivity

is really a
once-in-a-lifetime experience.

- [Dan] That's
why a zoo in China

does the unbelievable

in an attempt to give the
public what they want.

- It's May, 2024,

and the very proud folks at
Taizhou Zoo in Jiangsu Province

announce that they have
the great good fortune

of having two new
baby panda pups.

- [Dan] Hordes of panda fans

crowd around the enclosure

for a glimpse at the
zoo's star attractions.

- From a distance, they
look, well, like pandas.

They're playful, they're chunky,

they're adorable.

- Now, they have the
round pompom ears,

they even have the black
patches around their eyes,

but if you really look,

something is off.

- People are really [laughing]
starting to ask questions,

like, "Is there something real
weird about these pandas?"

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] That's when
the zoo fesses up.

Real pandas are expensive,

and come with a
mountain of red tape,

so they get a little creative.

- They got these Chow Chow dogs.

Now, this is a breed
from Northern China

that has puffy fur,

they have this kind
of lion-like mane,

this pushed-in face.

- They give 'em a little haircut

and they [laughing]
do a little dye job,

and voila, they come
out looking like pandas.

- The public is up in arms.

I mean, it's consumer fraud.

- And there are questions
from animal rights groups

about whether or not
this is animal abuse.

- So the zoo defended
itself by saying,

"Listen, dogs are
groomed all the time.

It's safe dye.

So everyone just calm down."

- In fact, instead of
shrinking from the deception,

the zoo doubles down.

They embrace the lie.

- [Dan] Local officials rule

that as long as the zoo

posts a clear sign stating
these aren't pandas,

they're not guilty
of false advertising.

[bright music]

- A number of those
attending the zoo

say they appreciate the hustle,

saying the zoo saw a
need and got creative.

[dogs barking]

- Representatives from the zoo

actually said that they
got this whole idea

to dye these puppies
from the internet.

And everybody's
pretty interested

and a whole lot of people
have looked at those puppies.

So mission accomplished.

[dramatic music]

- From snake oil to
massive bridges for sale,

enlisting the dead
or faking your dead,

these are the cons
so spectacular

they can only be
called unbelievable.

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