In January of 1956, Morris K. Jessup opened his mailbox and froze. There inside lay another peculiar letter. He had received several already. He recognized the untidy scrawl with which his mailing address had been written. Carl Allen again, he thought, or, Carlos Allende. The name seemed to switch back and forth. He opened the envelope and slipped out the letter within. Reading it quickly, his roving eyes hungrily taking in each word, a story began to unfold. This time, Allen was relaying a peculiar incident he’d witnessed while stationed aboard the SS Andrew Furuseth in Philadelphia. Jessup read the letter several times before he started to make any sense of it. It seemed as though Allen was claiming to have seen an entire naval ship, the USS Eldridge, disappear, turn invisible before his very eyes at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Jessup read on, running his fingers through his hair. Next, according to Allen, the ship had teleported in minutes to another naval shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia some 300 miles away. But Allen didn’t stop there. He went on to detail the bizarre and horrifying effects suffered by crew members aboard the Eldridge, a top secret government experiment, and a cover up conspiracy. Who was this Carl Allen guy? Why was he writing to Jessup? And was any of this true? Let’s fix that. 

 

Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. I’m here to debunk another urban legend myth type story for you this week, a bit of a man from Taured situation again, I’m afraid. The Philadelphia Experiment has fascinated occultists, conspiracy theorists, and UFO enthusiasts since the 1950s. It has been denounced as a hoax, published as a factual scientific truth, and fictionalized into a sci-fi time travel film. But how can you be all three? It either happened or it didn’t happen. Today, we’re going to try to get to the bottom of that and explore how an urban legend of epic proportions like this is born. 

 

In the intro, I talked about a series of letters sent from a man named Carl Allen or Carlos Allende to another man named Morris K. Jessup. And you probably have no idea who those guys are and that’s fine. I wouldn’t expect you to. Let’s start with Jessup, the guy who received the strange letters. Morris Ketchum Jessup had a bit of a tragic life. He was born in Indiana in 1900 and, at first, it seemed like his life was going to take off in a really exciting and impressive way. Jessup was really into science, specifically astronomy. He liked outer space. He received a bachelors degree in astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1925 and then a masters degree in 1926. He then began working on earning his doctorate degree in astrophysics. Right, dude was an aspiring astrophysicist. Quite impressive. But then in 1931, he stopped working on his dissertation. We don’t know why. But for whatever reason he seems to have abandoned it and he never actually earned that Phd after having come so far and worked so hard. There are some unsubstantiated claims that he worked in archaeology for a time, conducting research in Mexico and Peru. There are more substantiated claims that he actually worked as a car parts salesman and photographer. But once an astronomer, always an astronomer and so Jessup developed an interest in UFO-ology, we’ll call it, extraterrestrials and the technology behind UFOs, unidentified flying objects. This was a blossoming field of pseudoscience starting in the 1950s and Jessup was really one of the pioneers of the movement. In 1955, he wrote a book called The Case for the UFO that set him apart as a sort of leader of this extraterrestrial flying saucer fringe theory that was emerging. In the book, he argued that UFOs needed to be studied harder, that we should be looking into this. He theorized that they were quote “exploratory craft of 'solid' and 'nebulous' character” and he puts forth some theories as to how they work, physics, propulsion stuff. He also drew a link between ancient monuments, this is where the archaeology comes in, and what he called quote “prehistoric superscience.” So this is the beginnings, really of the ancient aliens theory. So Jessup, I mean he’s pretty far out there, right? He wanted to be an astrophysicist and then at some point for some reason he pivoted and he started to explore much more fringe ideas. Quick side note, there are actually two Morris Ketchum Jessups. The other one was born 70 years before our Jessup and he only has one S in his last name, our guy has two. He was like a rich banker and philanthropist, President of the Museum of Natural History in New York City, founder of the New York branch of the YMCA, super successful guy, totally different guy. I don’t know if they were related. I dug and dug and could not find any link between them. I think it’s very bizarre that they were both named Morris Ketchum Jessup, try to say that without saying ketchup, because that is not a common name and it leads me to believe that the latter was named after the former but I can’t find any proof of that. If any genealogists are listening who can clear that up, that would be great. But, anyway, two Morris Ketchum Jessups. Ours is the one with two S’s, born 70 years later, the car parts salesman slash UFO scientist one. 

 

So he wrote a book about UFOs and theoretical UFO technology and that book became very well known. But not because it was like this amazing scientific breakthrough or anything. It became very well known because soon after it was published in 1955, a copy of it showed up at the US Office of Naval Research, the ONR, all packaged up with the message “Happy Easter” written on it. So the guys at the ONR, these Navy research guys open the package and inside is Jessup’s book, The Case for the UFO. But inside the book, someone has written all in the margins and just in every available space. They’ve annotated the book. And they’ve clearly used 3 different pens, 3 different shades of blue ink, to do this and it’s as if the words have been written by 3 different people, or beings rather. One of them is referred to as Jemi, another we’ll call Mr. A and the other Mr. B. And so these three different writers in their three different colors of blue ink are having a debate in the margins of Jessup’s book. They talk about Jessup’s ideas for the propulsion of flying saucers and worry that he’s getting too close to discovering their technology. They refer to each other as gypsies and they talk about two different types of beings living in outer space, different alien races. The capitalization and punctuation of the writing is all off and there’s even a brief mention of this naval ship experiment in Philadelphia. Okay, so this is clearly supposed to be like 3 extraterrestrials discussing Jessup’s book written in the margins of Jessup’s book, sent to the US Office of Naval Research for some reason, I suppose because of the Philadelphia naval shipyard ting. So the ONR guys get it and they’re like “what the heck is this.” 

 

Meanwhile, Jessup is receiving these mysterious letters in the mail, some 50 letters, from a guy whose name keeps switching from Carl Allen to Carlos Allende, some guy he’s never heard of. In the first letter, Allen warns Jessup to stop investigating the technology behind UFOS. He claims that the science is too dangerous and that it’s based on some unpublished theories of Albert Einstein. He also claims to have been personally instructed by Einstein. According to Shannon Corbeil writing for Miltary.com quote “Jessup apparently included text about unified field theory [in his book] because this is what Allende latched onto for his correspondences. In the 1950s, unified field theory, which has never been proven, attempted to merge Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity with electromagnetism. In fact, Allende claimed to have been taught by Einstein himself and could prove the unified field theory based on events he witnessed on Oct. 28, 1943,” end quote. And those are the events he outlined in his next letters, the events I talked about in the intro. So let’s get into that in a bit more detail. 

 

Allen claimed that he was working aboard the ship SS Andrew Furuseth in October of 1943, so that’s like 13 years before now, before 1956 when he’s writing these letters. He says he witnessed some strange happenings in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where he was stationed in 1943. He said that one day while he’s on his ship, he looks out across the shipyard, which is like a big harbor right where these huge navy ships are docked. He looks out and he sees another ship called the USS Eldridge. He says that suddenly a greenish-blue glow surrounded the hull of the ship and then it disappeared into thin air, just vanished. Then, according to reports that I guess he was privy to, the invisible Eldridge disappeared from Philadelphia altogether and reappeared in Norfolk, Virginia for a minute and then poofed back, teleported back to Philadelphia. But Allen has more juicy details. He also says that when the ship reappeared, teleported back and became visible again, the crew was in rough shape. They had suffered all sorts of strange effects from being aboard a ship that was defying space and time. According to Allen, some of them were disoriented, some went crazy, some suffered actual burns to their body, and some of them, and this is kind of a horrifying mental image, but a few of them reappeared with parts of their body like embedded in the metal ship. Like, they were still alive, but their hand or like leg or whatever was like fused to and sort of like sunk down into the ship. And he implies, in these letters, that this was a government experiment based on these unpublished theories of Albert Einstein that he himself had been privy to because he had been like a student of Einsteins or whatever. And then he says, you know, because it was a secret experiment and it obviously didn’t go well what with the people being burnt and fused to the ship and whatnot, he says that the government tried to cover it up and like brainwashed the witnesses and stuff, but I guess not him. 

 

So Jessup is getting these letters and, you know, he’s a little out there with his own theories, he’s not opposed to a good conspiracy theory, a fringe theory, so he writes back to Allen and he’s like, you know, “whoa, this is crazy. Tell me more. What kind of evidence is there outside of your account. Surely other people saw this, surely there’s some evidence, some proof.” And then Allen gets a little shady in his letters back. He’s like “um, I don’t remember much actually.” He told Jessup that his memory would need to be quote “recovered.” And he suggested Jessup read a particular Philadelphia newspaper article about the incident that doesn’t seem to have ever existed. So Jessup is getting frustrated with Allen, with the letters, with all of it. And he sort of just sets it down and moves on, writes it off as just some wacky weirdo messing with him. 

 

Then Jessup is contacted by the US Office of Naval Research, the ONR, who had gotten that strange package, that copy of Jessup’s book with the alien conversation scrawled in the margins. They get there and they’re like, you know, “what the heck is this? Who sent us this? And there’s Jessup’s name on the front of the book, right, M. K. Jessup and so the ONR guys are like “well I guess we should as this guy.” So they get up with Jessup. They bring him to the office or whatever and they show him the book. They’re like “this your book?” Jessup’s like “yeah.” They’re like “well can you explain all this weird writing?” Jessup looks at it, flips through the pages, and he’s like “actually yeah, I think I can.” Because he realizes that the writing in the margins of his book is clearly in Carl Allen’s handwriting. He’s seen that handwriting over and over again, fifty letters. That’s Allen. And he tells them that and he shows them the letters and they all sort of realize together, “okay this weirdo is messing with us.” And they start trying to figure out, you know, who is the guy and what does he want. 

 

So let’s talk about Carl Meredith Allen AKA Carlos Miguel Allende AKA Dr. Karl Merditt Allenstein depending on who he was writing to, the man who claimed to have witnessed this government experiment in Philadelphia in 1943. And I’m like, the aliases are not a good look. That doesn’t lend much to his credibility. I feel like I already know exactly who this guy is. But, let me give you some back story. Carl Allen was born in Pennsylvania in 1925 which makes him 30ish years old when he writes those letters to Jessup. His family described him as a brilliant mind but he was also a quote “master leg puller.” They said that he never held any particular job for long and that he was kind of a drifter. We know that he joined the US Marine Corps in 1942 but was discharged less than a year later. I don’t know why but also I kind of get why without needing a reason. He’s just, he’s, yeah it’s just not gonna work. So then he joined the US Merchant Marine which is, in case you’ve always wondered, the Merchant Marine is a group of civilians, they aren’t part of the military, and they transport cargo and passengers and stuff, just like trade, commercial trade, during peacetimes. But, during wars, the US government can call on them and like use them and their ships for military purposes, transporting troops and supplies and stuff for the military. So it’s kind of weird. They’re just like a commercial shipping company that sidelines as a military agency. Like a superhero. Like Clark Kent transforming into superman in a phone booth. The president calls them up and is like “get in here, merchant marine, we need you” and poof now these random shipping guys are part of the military. 

 

Okay so this is 1943 when Carl was in the merchant marine so that’s World War II. The US was currently in the thick of the war and facing threats from U-boats, submarines off the coast. There were all sorts of sea threats in American waters at that time despite Europe being across the whole ocean, there was a German presence in America. I think people forget that. This episode is generating a lot of new topic ideas. I’ve already added Einstein to the list and also German U-boats during World War II. Maybe I’ll do a mini fix this week. So, anyway, I’m assuming this is one of those times where the US military was using the merchant marine. This was war time. Clark Kent is in superman mode and so Carl’s ship, the SS Andrew Furuseth wasn’t a military ship but it was acting as a military ship and it was hanging out with military ships like the USS Eldridge. But, that’s really all we know about Carl Allen. 

 

So Jessup is like “it’s this guy.” The ONR is like “who is this guy.” And then everybody’s like “I don’t know he’s kind of no one. He’s kind of just some random guy who may be a pathological liar.” And really, that should have been the end of it. No one should have even known about Carl Allen or the letters or the book or the Philadelphia Experiment. But they do, because of what happens next. For some reason, for some inexplicable reason, the ONR, the Office of Naval Research, decides to publish the book that Allen sent them with the notes in the margins. They sent it off to a Texas military contractor called Varo Manufacturing. They made stuff for the military, this company. And so the ONR hits them up and is like “hey guys, will you make exactly 127 copies of this book that’s full of complete BS written by some random guy we don’t know.” And Varo Manufacturing is like “aye aye captain.” And they do that. And we don’t know why. Why publish it? Why 127 copies? No one seems to know. Wikipedia says a guy at the ONR named George Hoover mentioned the book when he was talking to Austin Stanton from Varo Manufacturing about some contract work they were doing for the ONR and Stanton was like super intrigued and was like “let me make some copies of it?” I guess and Hoover was like “okay here you go.” Still doesn’t really make sense. But these 127 copies became known as the “Varo Edition.” And they were dispersed and passed around and read by people who are into reading that sort of thing and this Philadelphia experiment idea started to spread and grow and a theory was born. A conspiracy theory really, that the US government had conducted these top secret experiments that went badly and then tried to cover it up. 

 

And this publishing of the annotated book had devastating consequences for poor Morris K. Jessup, the author of the book. Yes, he had written a book about aliens and proposed UFO propulsion technology, but he still fancied himself a serious scientist. He had multiple astronomy degrees and at least a fraction of an astrophysics degree. But the Varo edition pretty much  ruined his credibility and his career even though he wasn’t the nut job who scrawled all the craziness in the margins. The fact that he was associated with it, with the annotations, and Carl Allen, and the Philadelphia Experiment was enough for serious scientists to sort of oust Jessup from their little science club. Several additional books he wrote afterwards didn’t sell well and his publisher started rejecting additional manuscripts. He had plans to join an archaeological expedition to study meteorite craters in Mexico with the University of Michigan. But when the University found out that Jessup was planning to come along, they canceled the whole expedition and he was completely crushed. In 1958, so two years after receiving the letters from Allen, his wife left him. After that his friends described him as somewhat unstable and depressed, understandably. Then he was in a serious car accident which he took a while to recover from and that didn’t help his mental state. In April of 1959, the news broke that Morris K. Jessup had been found dead and the conspiracy theorists had a field day, writing books proposing that Jessup had been killed by the government and it was all a part of the big cover up, that sort of thing. In reality, Jessup had been found dead in his car of apparent carbon monoxide poisoning. Joe Nickell explains for Skeptical Inquirer quote “The evidence on site left little doubt as to what actually happened. Jessup’s station wagon had a hose connected to its exhaust pipe that then ran through a partially opened rear window. The car had been left running, allowing toxic fumes to collect inside. The death was officially ruled a suicide. The only detail that gives us pause is the fact of the car having been left where it could draw attention. That situation could suggest, rather than something nefarious, the possibility that Jessup secretly hoped someone might intervene, and that is indeed what happened—if tragically too late,” end quote. Nickell goes on quote “Some of Morris Jessup’s friends came to suggest that he may have been driven to suicide by his facing ridicule over the Philadelphia Experiment case. Jessup may have come to realize he had been made a fool of by “Carlos Allende” (a.k.a. Carl M. Allen) and his elaborate hoax tale. Moreover, Jessup “had discussed suicide with friends, for several months.” One such person, Sabina Sanderson, who saw one of Jessup’s letters written in his last days, stated that that [quote] ‘letter makes it clear that he chose suicide as the only possible alternative to an insupportable future and did so after careful consideration.’ She added, ‘Certainly the mysterious ‘they’ had nothing to do with it’” end quote. 

 

So yeah, pretty sad. Pretty sad end to the Morris K. Jessup story. His life just kind of fell apart all because of this Carl Allen Carlos Allende guy. So what was Allen up to? What was he after with this? Well a lot of people wanted to know that. A lot of people who read the Varo edition tried to contact Allen for more information but most couldn’t find him or, if they did make contact, he didn’t really tell them anything new. He was very evasive and vague. You know like he had told Jessup, his memory would need to be recovered. And even though all of this, the whole Philadelphia experiment story is just based on the margin scribbling of one random guy, some people decided to continue it by publishing their own books about as if it were fact. In 1965, Vincent Gaddis included the story in his book called Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea. True is in the title, implying that the Philadelphia Experiment claims were true. Let me remind you, here are no other witnesses. And there is no evidence. Just the deranged margin scrawling of Carl Allen. In 1979, Charles Berlitz who had written a best selling book about the Bermuda Triangle and William L. Moore, a UFO-ologist co-authored a book called The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility which was supposed to be a factual account. Once again, just solely based on those margin annotations and Allen’s letters to Jessup. And it blows my mind that these books are being written as like nonfiction books, as if they are true when there is no evidence at all that these things happened in Philadelphia in 1943. Actually there’s a ton of evidence that proves this couldn’t have happened. Military ships keep fairly detailed logs. We know everywhere the USS Eldridge went and everything it did and, according to those logs, it was never even in Philadelphia. Never. Never stationed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. But, but, you know, a believer is going to say, “well of course those logs were doctored, right, the government is trying to cover this up so they’re going to release fake records to throw off the scent.” But also, years later, 12 years later, Carl Allen admitted that he had written the annotations, right not aliens, and that he did all of it to quote “scare the hell out of Jessup.” Which like okay, um why? And also great job dude you didn’t just scare the hell out of him you actually killed him. 

 

So why were people so keen to latch on to this fantastical story of an invisible teleporting ship even with no legit evidence or credible witness accounts? How did this ever get so big? Well there are a few elements at play here that set it up for urban legend fame. First of all, the time period in which this was supposed to have happened, 1943, crazy times, okay. I mean think about it, World War II, that’s terrifying all on its own. World War I was horrific with unfathomable loss of life and now here we go again just 20 some years later. And people who served in World War I are sending their sons off to serve in World War II and that’s some serious trauma. And so, you know, these are just scary times. And, they’re times of pretty wild technological advancement, out of necessity, right, out of needing to survive this war, needing to best the axis powers. This is when we see the emergence of antibiotics, that’s episode 62, one of the most important weapons in that war as far as saving lives goes. Radar technology came about during World War II, the ability to stealthily detect enemy aircraft and ships. And of course the atomic bomb, which was just, like, yeah, scary stuff. Scary, alien-like, futuristic new technologies were emerging. And they’re messing with physics, they’re splitting atoms. And so a ship that can turn invisible or teleport 300 miles away isn’t that far outside of the realm of possibility. They were experimenting with making ships invisible to radar and successfully developed a new technology called degaussing that allowed ships to scramble their magnetic signature making them undetectable to U-boats that used magnetic torpedoes. So they aren’t actually invisible. You can still see the ships, but the torpedoes can’t use magnetism to find them. And then there’s the whole teleporting to Norfolk in one day thing. It would take a typical ship a few days to get from Philadelphia to Norfolk but Navy ships had access to their own private canals which meant they could make the trip in just 6 hours. And then there’s the greenish glow that was reported. And when I say was reported I mean by Carl Allen. Just by Carl Allen. It’s been proposed that that could have been an electric storm or St. Elmos Fire. So St. Elmo’s Fire is a weather phenomenon that happens where luminous plasma is created by something like the mast of a ship. It has to do with the electric field around the object ionizing the air molecules. It usually happens during thunderstorms or right before lightning strikes. So maybe it was that, maybe it was St. Elmo’s Fire. But also maybe it was just completely made up. I don’t think we really need to search for explanations for the blue-green glow if literally only one guy saw it and he already admitted that he had made it up. But we do have these new technologies, the degaussing of ships, and people don’t know. The layman doesn’t know what the military can do. Invisible ships? Sure? Why not? And then you have the name drop of a very prominent and impressive scientist like Albert Einstein. Einstein was so far ahead of everyone, so groundbreaking with his theory of relativity, one of the most influential scientists of all time. And it’s such complex stuff that he was doing, most people don’t understand it. Who knows what Einstein figured out, I don’t get any of it anyway. Maybe he really did figure out how to teleport an invisible ship. That checks out. Then you have really haunting visceral imagery, this mental image of the guys aboard the Eldridge with like body parts fused to the deck of the ship. And that image really captured people after a movie based on the Philadelphia Experiment story was released in 1984 called The Philadelphia Experiment. It’s not like an award winning film by any means but it has this one scene in it that really stuck with viewers. Dave Roos explains writing for How Stuff Works quote “One particularly graphic scene near the end of the film depicts a badly burned crewmember writhing on the deck of the Eldridge with half of his body swallowed up in steel,” end quote. And that really is a requirement of a successful urban legend. It has to have something really haunting in it. Something people can’t get out of their heads. 

 

So let’s just rehash real quick, what is the actual evidence that something like this happened. For 30 years it was just, just the annotated book and the letters written by Carl Allen which he later admitted to writing to quote “scare the hell out of Jessup.” And yet they were still republished and dispersed. And yet multiple people decided to write nonfiction books about the Philadelphia Experiment as though it had really happened. And yet Stewart Raffill decided to base a movie on it in 1984. Then after that, after watching the movie, another guy actually did come forward. A guy named Al Bielek claimed to have personally taken part in the experiment. He said that he was brainwashed and only remembered it after watching the movie. Still no proof or evidence of any kind. In 1994, a scientist and UFO-ologist named Jacques F. Vallee wrote an article for the Journal of Scientific Exploration called "Anatomy of a Hoax: The Philadelphia Experiment Fifty Years Later." He had searched far and wide for more witnesses, anyone who knew anything about the proposed Philadelphia Experiment. Crickets. Except he did get a letter from a guy named Edward Dudgeon who served in the Navy from 1942 to 1945. Dudgeon is the one who first mentioned the degaussing technology. He was an electrician in the Navy stationed on a ship called the USS Engstrom which was dry docked at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1943 when the Philadelphia Experiment was supposed to have gone down. Roos writes quote “Dudgeon was familiar with the wild rumors about disappearing ships and mangled crewmen, but credited the fabrications to loose sailor talk about "invisibility" to torpedoes and the peculiarity of the degaussing process,” end quote. But one weird thing about Dudgeon's account is that he says the Eldridge was stationed in Philadelphia at the same time as his ship, the Engstrom. Except we know it wasn’t, according to the logs. It was never in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on a 1999 reunion of sailors who served on the Eldridge in Atlantic City. Roos writes quote “The sailors said the ship never docked in Philadelphia. Indeed, it was in Brooklyn on its supposed date of disappearance. The ship's log confirmed this. Further, the captain said no experiments were ever conducted on the vessel,” end quote. 

 

Carl Allen died in 1994 seeming to have successfully evaded seriously answering most questions about his bizarre behavior back in the 1950s. And despite the lack of any credible evidence, the Philadelphia Experiment, which should have disappeared in a filing cabinet drawer at the US Office of Naval Research in 1955, went down in history as something that may have actually happened, a conspiracy theory that many people genuinely believe happened. And that’s the thing with conspiracy theories isn’t it? A lack of evidence doesn’t disprove a conspiracy theory. Because conspiracies inevitably involve cover ups, in this case a government cover up. Of course they’re going to make it look like the Eldridge was never in Philadelphia. Of course they’re going to brainwash every single person who witnessed the event. Of course they have that power. They can defy physics. They can make a ship invisible, teleport it 300 miles, brainwash hundreds of people. Look what they did in Japan. Who knew they were working on that bomb? Who knew that was even possible? What else can they do that we don’t know about? And the more they assert that it didn’t happen, the stronger the conspiracy theory becomes. It’s like this vicious cycle. You can’t disprove it without proving it. 

 

So, I don’t know. You guys will have to make up your own minds on this one I guess. But I think you have to consider reason here. Like, okay, is it more likely that the US Navy conducted a secret experiment where they made a ship invisible and teleported it 300 miles away and then it went badly and people were hurt so they covered it up by doctoring the ships logs and brainwashing hundreds of people, everyone stationed in both the Philadelphia and Norfolk Naval Shipyards including the families of the injured sailors? Or is it more likely that an known quote “master leg puller” made it all up and it Chicken Littled its way into history? I think the answer there is obvious. And yet I’ve read modern articles and listened to current podcasts suggesting that the Philadelphia experiment really happened. It’s fun. It’s a fun story and it’s fun to talk about and fun to think about but how damaging is that to continue to tell this story as though it’s a historical fact? This is how history becomes confused and mangled and meshed with legends. How much of what we believe to be true about our past was actually made up by one random guy. You can’t believe everything you read or hear. You have to think critically, what’s the evidence, what’s the proof, what’s the likelihood that this actually happened? And if you can’t say for certain that it’s true then it should stop right there. We have a misinformation problem this day in age. And there’s a big difference between a funny ha ha prank like on April Fools’ Day and a serious hoax like this one that threatens our understanding of science, our trust in the government, and honestly, it ruined a man’s life I mean, let’s not forget about Morris K Jessup, who took his own life after this hoax pretty much destroyed his career, ruined his marriage, and made a laughing stock out of him. I think about that package Carl Allen sent the ONR. I’m picturing like a brown paper wrapped package with happy Easter written on it. I guess he sent it around Easter time like right now. And I just think you know, what was, what was the point of that? Why would he send this really confusing and nonsensical thing that he created with with happy Easter this weird kind of patronizing message on it and I just really think Carl Allen was like this unhinged kind of deranged mentally ill person seeking something I don’t know seeking attention or just trying to mess with people. And it just seems so scary honestly it’s it’s honestly kind of scary that he was able to impact us so deeply. That he was able to leave this lasting mark. That we would allow this unhinged unstable person to infiltrate our society, our collective understanding of ourselves and of our history, that we would allow him that power. That’s the scariest thing about the Philadelphia Experiment, not the mangled charred bodies fused to the deck of a ship, disoriented, yelling out in pain and confusion. No. The scariest thing about the Philadelphia Experiment is that we’re even still talking about it today. 

 

Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix. 

 

Information used in this episode was sourced from Naval History and Heritage Command, military.com, USSSlater.org, How Stuff Works, Wikipedia, Skeptical Inquirer, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.