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FULL MOVIES ENGLISH SUB (2026) - FULL | Reelshort
#drama #cdrama #romantic #love #movie #shortdrama #showhots #2026
FULL MOVIES ENGLISH SUB (2026) - FULL | Reelshort
#drama #cdrama #romantic #love #movie #shortdrama #showhots #2026
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Short filmTranscript
00:01What you're about to see could be disturbing to some viewers.
00:05Viewer discretion is advised.
00:14What if I told you there was a so-called miracle cure
00:17that took aim at your sensitive parts?
00:21Brinkley is taking the testicles from Billy Goats
00:25and inserting them into the scrotums of his human patients.
00:30Men line up by the thousands, even given the fact that it sounds pretty sketchy.
00:37Or that a zoo in China tried to pull a fast one on tourists.
00:41Now, they have the round pompomiers.
00:43They even have the black patches around their eyes.
00:45People are really starting to ask questions, like,
00:48is there something real weird about these pandas?
00:51How about enlisting an unconventional super agent to fake out the Nazis?
00:56What they're gonna do is put false attack plans on a corpse
01:00who will be dressed as a fallen British officer.
01:03The thinking is that if they can just get the right person to pick up this corpse,
01:08that eventually it will get to Hitler.
01:11These are the cons so spectacular, so daring, they can only be described as unbelievable.
01:30You ever wonder why we call a slick con artist a snake oil salesman?
01:35Well, saddle up, because this is the wild story behind the original.
01:42It's 1893, the wild, wild west.
01:46Roping cattle, farming, you're building railroads.
01:50Life is hard.
01:52You've gotta work yourself to the bone to get anything done.
01:55The town doctor, if your town even has a doctor, is probably spread pretty thin.
02:00You need something pretty quick to deal with all your aches and pains.
02:04At the time, it's popular to have traveling medicine shows.
02:07Some smooth-talking salesman comes in and tells you he's gonna take away all your aches and pains
02:13because he's got a magical ointment or an elixir.
02:17But one showman takes the spectacle to a whole new level.
02:21Clark Stanley draws a crowd with a live sideshow and a bold claim.
02:26He reaches down into a writhing sack and he pulls out a rattlesnake and holds it out for everyone to
02:33see.
02:33And he would claim that the oil of this rattlesnake will cure everything from rheumatism to partial paralysis.
02:40In the height of theatricality, he pulls out a giant knife and he slits the rattlesnake open
02:46and he throws it in a pot of boiling water.
02:51The snake fat rises to the top and he scoops it out with a ladle and starts putting it in
02:56liniment jars
02:57with his own label attached reading Clark Stanley's snake oil treatment.
03:04And he'll sell it to you for 50 cents a bottle for $20 in today's money.
03:10The back of the label reads,
03:12Good for man and beast, the most remarkable curative discovery ever made in any age or country.
03:18I mean, who wouldn't buy that?
03:21To close the deal, he hits the crowd with a compelling backstory.
03:26He brings the audience in close and he goes on to tell them that,
03:29Listen, I learned the secrets of snake oil from a Hopi medicine man deep in the deserts of Arizona.
03:36A mysterious man, he has all of these secrets for health and vitality and strength in youth.
03:43But in reality, there is no Hopi medicine man.
03:47He actually learns about the healing properties of snake oil from Chinese laborers
03:51who are building the transcontinental railroad.
03:53But it's the oil from the Chinese water snake, not the American rattlesnake, that they use on their muscles.
04:00Since rattlesnakes are much more abundant, Stanley improvises.
04:04And his miracle cure becomes a show-stopping success.
04:08Until the feds take a closer look.
04:12In 1917, a bunch of federal regulators get their hands on a batch of Stanley's snake oil.
04:18They decide to do a little bit of analysis on it.
04:20And they realize that there's no snake anything in it.
04:24It's cow fat, mineral oil, turpentine, and red pepper.
04:29Turpentine and red pepper flakes can make the skin tingle, so Stanley's customers felt like something must be happening.
04:36In fact, their pain relieving tendencies are negligible at best.
04:41First fraud, Stanley's taken to court.
04:44He's convicted, and he's made to pay a fine of $20, about $400 in today's money.
04:52Not surprisingly, that little slap on the wrist doesn't stop the self-proclaimed rattlesnake king.
04:59Stanley continues his traveling show by going from town to town and selling his miracle snake oil to anybody that
05:07would be interested in buying from him.
05:08And by the time these customers realize that they've been had, Stanley's already gotten the hell out of Dodge.
05:16It's one thing to scam people into drinking a magic potion, but it takes real cojones to dupe people into
05:22going under the knife.
05:24In the 1920s, it's the dawn of radio.
05:29Just about every American family has one, and they gather around it at night to listen.
05:33One of the most successful shows on the radio at the time is hosted by a Kansas-based doctor named
05:40John Romulus Brinkley.
05:43Twice daily, he plays country music, preaches the gospel, but most importantly, tells his audience how modern medicine is failing
05:52them.
05:53Brinkley ends up making a fortune. He's netting about $14,000 a week. That's about a quarter of a million
05:59dollars today just from prescribing these tonics and elixirs to these listeners for all sorts of ailments.
06:06But for all his so-called cures, one bizarre treatment grabs national attention and makes Brinkley a household name.
06:16Brinkley is taking the testicles from six-week-old billy goats and inserting them into the scrotums of his human
06:24patients just under the skin.
06:27Brinkley says he worked at a slaughterhouse when he was a young man, and he noticed the goats were virile
06:33and resistant to disease.
06:35They seem to have all this get-up-and-go.
06:38And this inspires his claim that transplanting goat gonads to human patients can give hired old men the energy and
06:48virility of a young goat.
06:50Men line up by the thousands to get this unvalidated treatment, even given the fact that it sounds pretty sketchy.
07:00This isn't just a medical hustle. It's a national phenomenon, led by a man with almost no real training.
07:07I think calling him a real medical doctor is a stretch too far.
07:11He claims he took these correspondence courses with Eclectic University, but that's kind of like getting a medical degree from
07:18watching YouTube videos.
07:20And although Brinkley claims to be doing a lot during this procedure, he's actually just making an incision in a
07:27scrotum, and he's stuffing this goat testicle in there.
07:30And he's not connecting any blood vessels. He's not connecting any sort of tubes that could transport the different hormones
07:36from the goat testicle.
07:39Brinkley performs this procedure upwards of 5,000 times, and unbelievably, a large portion of his patients say they've never
07:48felt better.
07:50Let's be clear on this. There is no biological basis for any of this. Most experts agree that it's the
07:58placebo effect, the power of suggestion.
08:01By the late 1920s, skepticism starts to rise, and one physician finally steps up to challenge Brinkley head on.
08:10In 1928, Brinkley actually gets called out by a more mainstream doctor named Morris Fishbein.
08:18He calls Dr. Brinkley a charlatan of the rankest sort and publishes a paper that gets the attention of the
08:26Kansas Medical Board.
08:28They revoked both his radio license and his specious medical license in the state of Kansas.
08:35Incredibly, this doesn't stop Brinkley. He moves to Texas where the laws are looser, and he cooks up his next
08:41big idea.
08:43He calls it Formula 1020. It's a distillation of goat glands, and it can cure everything from impotence to insanity.
08:53As Brinkley rakes in the dough and continues peddling his goat cures all over the southern U.S., there's someone
08:59else who rivals his persistence.
09:03Dr. Fishbein, he decides to write a new piece on charlatanism, and this time he gets it published in the
09:09prestigious journal of the American Medical Association in 1938.
09:14Brinkley is incensed that he gets mentioned in this article, so he decides to sue for a libel.
09:22But Dr. Brinkley shrivels on the stand.
09:26Under oath, Brinkley is forced to admit that he knew the goat gland surgeries he was performing could not possibly
09:34enhance a human male's virility, and he knew it all along.
09:42Brinkley ultimately loses and is forced to declare bankruptcy, leaving his family penniless, and the goats of America just a
09:50little bit safer.
09:53When it comes to scams, the bigger the lie, the bigger the payout.
09:57This next hustle is so large, it cost many their life savings, and bought us an iconic catchphrase for the
10:05unbelievably gullible.
10:08It's the late 1800s, and New York City is bursting at the seams with immigrants fresh off the boat.
10:15They're ready to work hard to create the American dream for themselves and their families.
10:20Men, women, and children.
10:21They see America as a place of tremendous opportunity, but it's also a place where, if you're willing to take
10:26a risk, you can get rich and get rich fast.
10:29Among those chasing the American dream is a man who promises to make others rich by selling them a piece
10:35of it.
10:36George Parker is, by trade, a real estate agent, and he begins claiming that he holds the deed to the
10:44Brooklyn Bridge.
10:45The Brooklyn Bridge, at its time, was considered a marvel of modern engineering.
10:52It's the world's first steel wire suspension bridge.
10:56It's almost 1600 feet in span.
10:58The two towers of the bridge are the tallest man-made objects in North America.
11:03He tells them once they own the bridge, they own access to anyone wanting to cross the bridge.
11:08And they can charge a toll for the privilege.
11:11Then, Parker hits them with the price tag.
11:15$75 for a piece of the bridge, or $50,000 for the whole enchilada.
11:23But it'll pay for itself because you have thousands of people crossing the bridge every day.
11:30After reaching an agreement, Parker hands over an official-looking deed.
11:34Only for buyers to face a rude awakening when they try to cash in.
11:38When they attempt to put up toll booths, the police arrive and they shut it down.
11:42In fact, some of them end up in jail because what they're doing is illegal.
11:47You see, Parker does not own the Brooklyn Bridge.
11:50The city of New York owns it.
11:53These folks paid in cash.
11:54They're out all the money they gave to Parker.
11:57Ultimately, Parker sells the Brooklyn Bridge a whopping 4,160 times.
12:0520 years, $1 million and thousands of fake deeds later, police finally shut Parker down.
12:11But he's not done running his game just yet.
12:14Parker abandons the bridge scam and moves on to other New York City landmarks.
12:19And manages to sell Madison Square Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Statue of Liberty.
12:25He even sells the deed to Grant's tomb, posing as General Grant's grandson.
12:30Parker lives the con man's dream for decades more.
12:34But even he can't outrun justice forever.
12:37In 1928, the New York Times reports that a man named William McCloundy, also known as, I kid you not,
12:44IOU O'Brien, has been caught trying to sell 10 lots for $17,000.
12:50Over the years, Parker ends up taking a whole myriad of aliases.
12:55Mr. Taylor, Mr. Roberts, Captain Kennedy, selling fake properties and passing bad checks.
13:02They find him in Asbury Park, measuring a backyard, surprise, which he did not own.
13:07Parker is convicted and sentenced to serve in Sing Sing.
13:10He dies in prison eight years later, but at least it's said by the prison guards and fellow inmates, they
13:15never tired of his stories.
13:17Fool me once, shame on you.
13:19Fool me 4,160 times, and have I got a bridge to sell you.
13:24But this brand of bold-faced scamming is not just an American tradition.
13:31In 1925, sitting in a hotel room in Paris, there's a very dapper gentleman by the name of Victor Lustig.
13:37And he's reading the paper and he realizes that there's a big hubbub about the Eiffel Tower.
13:44This tower, which was constructed in 1889 for the Paris World's Fair, was only supposed to be up for about
13:5020 years.
13:51But it succeeded that time by an additional 15 years, and now it's started to fall into disrepair.
13:57The metal beams that make up the tower, because it's made out of iron, are constantly rusting.
14:02And in order to maintain upkeep, it's costing the taxpayers and friends boku bucks.
14:07Where others see challenges, Victor Lustig sees dollar signs.
14:14Lustig knows there's a lot of money to be made in scrap metal.
14:18And there's a lot of scrap metal in the Eiffel Tower.
14:21So he gets this idea.
14:23At 7,000 metric tons of iron, he thinks, what if I can sell the Eiffel Tower to some scrap
14:30metal dealers in Paris?
14:32What a brilliant idea.
14:34Lustig hires a professional counterfeiter to make very official-looking stationery with the city of Paris' seal on it.
14:41He also has business cards made up, calling himself a government official.
14:46Then Lustig invites the city's top scrap metal dealers to bid on the tower.
14:52He tells them that they are being given a secret opportunity to capitalize on this, but that their discretion is
14:58of the utmost importance.
15:00The tower is going down, but shh, the public does know about it yet, so that's why you got to
15:04keep this on the hush-hush for now.
15:07While there are a half-dozen men vying for the gig, Lustig has got his sights set on Andre Poisson,
15:14who is an up-and-comer in the scrap metal industry and wants to make a name for himself.
15:19Lustig takes Poisson aside in his confidence and says he'll give the bid to whomever makes it worth his while.
15:25Hint, hint.
15:27Now, the price tag that Lustig has set is steep. A million to take down the tower and to sell
15:33this 7,000-plus tons of scrap metal.
15:37But Poisson decides that it's worth it.
15:41After handing over the money, Poisson reaches out to Lustig for the contract and is met with radio silence.
15:49For days, Poisson tries to reach Lustig with no success. It's only when Poisson sees in the newspaper that the
15:55tower is staying put that he realizes he's been duped.
16:00But who's he going to tell? He's too embarrassed to go public and say, I just got all this money
16:05stolen from me in this ruse, because again, he's trying to make a name for himself. So he says nothing.
16:10As for Lustig, he gets greedy, gives the con another go.
16:15But this time when Lustig gathers up new scrap dealers and sets his eyes on his main mark and gives
16:19him the whole schtick, the guy gets suspicious.
16:22And instead of giving Lustig any cash, just goes straight to the police.
16:28Lustig's a smart guy, so he's already one step ahead.
16:33He's on a cruise ship headed for the United States.
16:37Lustig does not change his ways with a new venue, taking more and more risks.
16:43Amazingly, this guy bounces in and out of trouble. He's arrested 40 times and either escapes or doesn't get prosecuted.
16:51Until the FBI caught him for counterfeiting and sentenced him to 20 years in prison in Alcatraz.
16:57While serving his time, Lustig doesn't sit idle. He writes the Ten Commandments of Khan Artistry.
17:03Among his pearls of wisdom, always listen, never boast, and always look the part.
17:10Timeless advice, indeed.
17:14Today we often hear about Nepo babies.
17:17Children of celebrities who navigate the world with a little extra help from their famous parents.
17:22But this trend is not exactly new.
17:24In the late 1900s, being the child of the well-known and wealthy could open many a door.
17:30And quite a few wallets.
17:341897 in Cleveland, Ohio, it is really the Gilded Age. It is the time of the haves and the have
17:41-nots.
17:42One of the ultra-haves is railroad magnate Andrew Carnegie, who through his holdings in steel, oil, railroads, has amassed
17:53a fortune that makes him the richest man in the world.
17:58So when a demure but intense young woman walks into a Cleveland bank and hands the banker a promissory note
18:04from none other than Andrew Carnegie, he takes notice.
18:08The young woman says her name is Cassie Chadwick, and she claims to be the great philanthropist's illegitimate daughter.
18:17Now, this kind of made sense at the time because Andrew Carnegie didn't have a kid until he was 61.
18:22He married really late.
18:23So it's entirely possible that he could have fathered another child before that point.
18:28And also, who's going to fact check Andrew Carnegie on his illegitimate child?
18:33I mean, if you're the wrong person to do that, he could ruin you.
18:36Because she has this promissory note, banks, shopkeepers, wealthy and prominent individuals open up checkbooks and their homes and their
18:44shops to this person.
18:47Basically, the idea is that her dad's going to pay for it, so yeah, let her have whatever she wants.
18:52For years, Cassie juggles loans like a pro, robbing Peter to pay Paul, until she gets in a little too
18:59deep.
19:01It all comes to a head in late 1904 when Cassie is unable to repay a very large loan, $200
19:07,000.
19:09The loan was actually given to her by Herbie Newton, a Boston banker, and it actually came from his personal
19:15money, not the bank.
19:16So now he is really mad.
19:19He brings a suit against Cassie, which is going to bring her carefully constructed facade crumbling down.
19:28When the police go to Andrew Carnegie, he says, I've never heard of this person, and I haven't written a
19:32promissory note in 30 years.
19:34It turns out Cassie isn't who she says she is.
19:38Her real name is Elizabeth Betty Bigley.
19:41She's a grifter from Canada, and she has been conning people since she was 13 years old.
19:47She, at one point, runs a brothel. She later poses as a psychic to the rich.
19:52She marries six times to increasingly wealthy men.
19:55One of these marriages lasts only 12 days.
19:58Now, it's hard to know exactly how much money she stole in her endeavors, but most people think it's roughly
20:03$650,000, which, in today's money, is about $25 million.
20:11Cassie's arrested in 1905 and convicted on seven counts of conspiracy against the government.
20:16Her trial becomes a national sensation.
20:19Andrew Carnegie himself even attends in person.
20:22Once she's found guilty, the sentiment was not of negativity.
20:26Oh, no, she was really, like, the people's champ.
20:29Someone started manufacturing Cassie tonic, which was supposed to boost your confidence.
20:35Oddly enough, Cassie is allowed to bring some of her ill-gotten gains to prison with her. Coats, jewelry, furniture.
20:44She's seen as a kind of Robin Hood figure.
20:47As a footnote to this story, Carnegie actually pays the debts of some of the people defrauded in Cleveland, which
20:52has led people to speculate that there may have been more of a connection between Carnegie and Cassie than we
20:56were led to believe.
20:58All that pretending has to be exhausting.
21:01Luckily, our next con artist is able to pull a fast one, barely breaking a sweat.
21:07Arguably, one of the most famous road races in the entire United States is the Boston Marathon, and Bostonians love
21:14their marathon.
21:17Now, while there's tons of civilian competitors, it's usually pretty seasoned professional runners who ultimately win these races.
21:27Then in 1980, one unexpected runner changes the game, and suddenly a newcomer is making history.
21:34Rosie Ruiz from New York City, heading down Parapet Street for what appears to be a new American record time.
21:45A young Cuban woman stuns the world when she becomes the first woman to cross the finish line in that
21:51year's race.
21:51Her time is the third fastest recorded for a marathon by a woman in human history.
21:59And she's a complete unknown.
22:01Rosie is given the traditional wreath of laurels and a gold medal complete with a large diamond stud.
22:07She calls it the best day of her life.
22:09This appears to be one heck of a case of beginner's luck.
22:14Or is it?
22:15People start getting suspicious almost immediately.
22:19The marathon places spotters along the route and none of them remember seeing her at the checkpoints along the way.
22:24We missed her at all our checkpoints.
22:26Then things get really suspicious when commentator Katherine Switzer, who is an actual marathon hero, starts asking Rosie questions about
22:36her finish.
22:37Is someone coaching you or advising you?
22:39No, I advise myself.
22:42Rosie tells her that it's only the second marathon she's ever run.
22:46That the first was the New York marathon and that she finished that one in two hours and 56 minutes.
22:52And Switzer is baffled. She said, how did you manage between New York and Boston to shave 25 minutes off
22:57of your time?
22:58That's an incredible feat. How'd you do that?
23:00And Ruiz says, I just trained myself.
23:02Have you been doing a lot of heavy intervals?
23:04Um, someone else asked me that and I'm not sure what intervals are.
23:09What are they?
23:13Other things aren't adding up.
23:15It's a hot day in Boston and she's run 26.2 miles and even her hair isn't sweaty.
23:23Still, nobody can imagine Rosie or really anyone cheating the marathon.
23:27That is until witnesses begin to emerge, including one woman who starts putting two and two together.
23:34She saw Rosie during the marathon, but not on the street.
23:38She saw her on the T, which is the subway system in Boston.
23:42Rosie told her that she had hurt her ankle at about the 10 mile mark and she had dropped out
23:49of the race.
23:50Other people say they saw Rosie re-enter the race at the Kenmore Square stop,
23:56which is about a mile away from the finish line.
24:00The testimony of all of these people and all these eyewitnesses confirmed that Rosie Ruiz was a con artist
24:07and unbelievably lied about winning the Boston Marathon.
24:11Although her victory is officially taken away, she holds on to something else.
24:16Rosie refuses to give up her medal and claims she wanted fair and square.
24:22I ran the whole race.
24:23And she has kind of cemented her legacy as making her name synonymous with cheating.
24:28But I hope it's all cleared up very soon.
24:31Rosie Ruiz keeps her gold medal for another 39 years until the day she dies.
24:40Death is supposed to be the final chapter, but for one con man, it's the perfect cover story.
24:49In 2005, Michael Gordon, who's on vacation in New Zealand, hiking on Mount Manganui.
24:56Suddenly, he stops dead in his tracks when he sees a couple that are walking right in front of him.
25:02The man looks like his brother Harry, who he hasn't seen in five years.
25:08The only difference is, this man has blue eyes.
25:11And the woman who he is with is definitely not his wife.
25:16And he asks him, Harry, is that you?
25:19The man quickly responds, of course.
25:22But look, it's not convenient to talk now.
25:26As Michael watches this man and woman walk away down the trail, he still can't be certain if this is
25:31real.
25:32Because his brother Harry died five years ago.
25:39It's the year 2000.
25:40Harry Gordon is a 51-year-old millionaire businessman who runs an engineering firm.
25:46He's married to his lifelong sweetheart, Sheila.
25:49But then he gets involved in a get-rich-quick scheme with the Ukrainian mafia.
25:54And it goes south.
25:58Drowning in debt, Harry decides the best course of action is to fake his own death.
26:05One night, Harry takes out a speedboat on the Karua River estuary.
26:09He scuttles it on the beach.
26:12He leaves his wallet, his cell phone, and there's two empty bottles of champagne.
26:16Then he smashes one of the windows.
26:18And he hops in a van, which has in it $100,000 of cash.
26:23The police find his wallet, his ID, his cell phone, the empty bottles of champagne, and the busted window.
26:31Investigators conclude that he likely had a collision with a navigation marker and drowned.
26:37With investigators convinced he's gone for good, Harry makes his next move.
26:43Harry spends $25,000 to get a new passport and changes his name to Rob Motzel.
26:49He also buys a pair of blue contact lenses.
26:53He then spends the next many months hopping from Spain to England before finally settling in Auckland, New Zealand.
27:00For the next five years, he lives under his false identity, working in construction.
27:05He eventually marries in 2005 as Rob Motzel, telling her nothing about his real identity.
27:12Life as Rob Motzel seems to be working out, until a chance encounter threatens to unravel it all.
27:19After Harry's brother Michael spots him on that New Zealand trail, the first thing Michael does is call Harry's real
27:26wife, Sheila, and rats him out.
27:30Sheila calls the authorities and lets him know her husband's alive and living in New Zealand.
27:37An international manhunt ensues and Harry decides to return to Sydney to face the music.
27:43Police immediately nab him and soon realize he's not the only Gordon with a knack for deception.
27:50Investigators determined that there was a lucrative life insurance policy that his wife, Sheila, attempted to cash in on only
27:58a short time after his death.
27:59The insurance claim is for $3.5 million.
28:03After this discovery, police raid Sheila's home and they uncover paperwork calculating the compound interest on $3.5 million.
28:13It's just one catch. They wouldn't pay out the full cash value without a body.
28:19And all she got was $25,000.
28:22And they also find a card in Harry's handwriting written to his wife that says,
28:27Our goals this year, stay out of jail and get the money.
28:32Sheila serves five months of house arrest, while Harry is sent to actual prison for 15 months, charged with false
28:39representation.
28:41Apparently, it's kind of illegal to fake your death and disappear for five years.
28:46Who knew?
28:49If faking your own death sounds like a bold move, wait until you see the lengths one woman goes to
28:55just for a signature.
28:57In April of 2024, a young woman, Erica Nunez, shows up at a bank in Bangu, Brazil.
29:05And she is wheeling a man into the bank in a wheelchair.
29:10Erica claims that the man in the wheelchair is her uncle Paolo, who is there to co-sign a loan
29:18for her.
29:19She's looking to get about 17,000 rials, which is about $3,400. And she takes out his ID.
29:26But to put it mildly, from the beginning, this man is obviously not well.
29:33As he's there in the chair, Uncle Paolo's head keeps rocking back and going in all different directions.
29:39She tries to put a pen in his hand and clearly he can't get a grip on it, so she
29:43pretty much grabs his hand in an attempt to sign for him.
29:48The teller gets suspicious and starts questioning Erica.
29:52Erica assures the teller that he's always like this. He doesn't speak very much.
29:56She even asks him, do you want to go back to the hospital? He doesn't answer.
30:01That's because Uncle Paolo is dead.
30:06The concerned bank staff immediately call the authorities, who of course come to the bank and arrest Erica.
30:13Erica's defense is that Uncle Paolo was alive when they entered the bank, but no one is spying that.
30:19When the body gets to the coroner, he determines that Uncle Paolo had actually died hours before earlier that day.
30:27In Brazil, it turns out, the weekend at Bernie's defense does not hold water.
30:34It may not have worked for Erica, but sometimes the right corpse in the right hands can change history.
30:43Deception is typically the tool of swindlers and schemers, used to line pockets and cover tracks.
30:48But every now and then, a con is pulled not for profit, but for the greater good.
30:57It's the spring of 1943. World War II is raging.
31:04The Germans are gaining momentum, and the Allies realize that they need a foothold in Southern Europe.
31:12The Allies are planning to invade Sicily, but they're going to need the element of surprise to pull this off.
31:19British intelligence come up with an idea to create the greatest military con since the Trojan horse.
31:28The plan is to leak false information to the Nazis that the Allies plan to invade Greece and Sardinia.
31:34So while Hitler diverts military resources towards Greece and Sardinia, the Allies will attack through Sicily.
31:43It's a pretty brilliant fake-out because the Nazis will assume that the real invasion is just the decoy.
31:51Just how are the British going to get news of this bogus attack into the hands of the Third Reich?
31:56With a little help from a 35-year-old Navy intelligence officer you may have heard of.
32:02Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming, who will later write the great James Bond novels,
32:07he comes up with an idea from a spy novel that he's just read called The Milliner's Hat by Basil
32:11Thompson.
32:12There's a plot device in that book where misinformation is planted on a corpse.
32:18So Fleming thinks, hey, we could borrow this idea.
32:24What they're going to do is put false attack plans on a corpse who will be dressed as a fallen
32:30British officer.
32:31British intelligence are going to float the corpse off the coast of Spain so that Nazi sympathizers will pick it
32:36up and find the information.
32:39Spain at this point is fascist and the thinking is that if they can just get the right person to
32:44pick up this corpse,
32:46that eventually it will get to Hitler.
32:48They decide to call this mission of deception Operation Mincemeat.
32:55First things first, get a hold of arguably the most important part of the plan.
33:01From a morgue, they secure a body of a Welsh transient who apparently has no next of kin.
33:08They give him a good shave and a good military haircut.
33:11And then they put a uniform on him that has wear and tear as if he was flying and got
33:17ejected into the water.
33:20Every detail matters, so they need to make him of a sufficient rank that he would have access to these
33:25kinds of secret plans.
33:27Because he's fictitious, he needs a common enough name that it would be almost impossible for the Germans to trace
33:32him.
33:32So they name him Major William Martin of the Royal Marines.
33:38To really bring this all home, they flesh out this entire fictitious backstory.
33:42And they even plant on him the photograph of a really lovely young woman who is his imaginary fiancée.
33:52They are so thorough with this, they plant love letters.
33:57He has receipts for their wedding rings.
33:59They also try to take pictures for his ID badge, but they can't take a picture of the corpse because
34:05he's, you know, dead.
34:06So they find another officer who looks similar enough and take photographs of him and use that to make the
34:14ID.
34:15The last thing that they do is they plant the plan for the invasion in a briefcase which is then
34:20handcuffed to the corpse's wrist.
34:22Because if you handcuff a briefcase to someone's wrist, you know there is something important in that briefcase.
34:31With every little detail of the charade in place, on April 30th, it's time to send Major Martin behind enemy
34:38lines.
34:41And the body is now floating in the ocean just off the coast of Spain with the hopes that it
34:47will be discovered and the plan will be set in motion.
34:51He is in the water so there are a lot of potential problems that could arise.
34:55What if the plans that are in the briefcase get obliterated by the water and the ink all smears?
35:02What if the body just gets eaten by some sea creature?
35:10The Spanish authorities end up picking up the body from the water and the secret documents that are attached to
35:17it as well.
35:19The documents are opened up covertly, photographed and sent off to the Germans in Spain.
35:25This intel makes it all the way up the chain of command, ultimately to the Third Reich.
35:31The Germans gobble up Operation Mitzmeat like it's dinner.
35:36Hitler buys it and he starts diverting his troops to Greece and Sardinia.
35:40He actually doubles the number of troops in Sardinia.
35:43And this leaves Sicily wide open.
35:47The Allied forces bombard the Nazis, completely win the day, take over Sicily and finally have that firm stronghold in
35:55Southern Europe as they had planned to have the entire time.
36:01Operation Mitzmeat is considered one of the greatest and most successful deceptions of World War II.
36:05It turns the tides in the Allies' favor and delivers a humiliating blow to Hitler.
36:13Trickery and scams aren't exclusive to mankind.
36:16The animal kingdom is rife with creatures that just can't be trusted.
36:22Becoming a butterfly is dangerous business.
36:25They begin life as vulnerable caterpillars.
36:29And they're even more fragile when they're inside their chrysalids.
36:34They liquefy their tissues and reform them into the shape of an adult butterfly.
36:40There is nothing it can do to protect itself, so it's very important that this caterpillar chooses just the correct
36:47spot to perform this transition.
36:49To most red ants, caterpillars are lunch.
36:53But not the blue butterfly caterpillar.
36:55This one flips the script.
36:57After a few days of feeding on leaves, this caterpillar drops from its host plant to the ground, hoping that
37:04a red ant will stroll by.
37:06Then the caterpillar pulls off one heck of a costume change.
37:11First off, she takes in a bunch of air, and she inflates herself, so she then resembles the queen red
37:17ant.
37:17And she can create a sound that resembles a distress call, so all the ants are attracted to come to
37:24her defense.
37:26Ever the rescuers, the worker ants pick up the fake queen and bring her into the colony.
37:32The caterpillar continues to chirp out the queen's distress call, hoping that the rest of the colony will be drawn
37:39to her and accept her as the queen.
37:41This is a pretty nervy thing to do, because these red ants could just kill and eat her.
37:46So long as the caterpillar continues emitting the right sounds, it has free reign to wreak havoc.
37:55Most caterpillars are herbivores, but this one is a carnivore.
37:59So she begins eating the ant larvae and whatever ants get in her way.
38:04By the time she's pretty much eaten the entire colony, within about six months, she will reach a hundred times
38:10her original size.
38:12At this point, she begins to pupate and becomes a chrysalis.
38:16And now she's safe, because pretty much anything that could have eaten her, she's already eaten them.
38:23Nearly a year later, in the springtime, the caterpillar performs her final act.
38:30All she has to do now is find her way out of the ant nest, spread her wings and take
38:35to the skies.
38:39Next up, a bait and switch that proves even zoos have a few tricks up their sleeves.
38:47Of all the animals you would see at the zoo, giant pandas are the number one attraction.
38:52They're extremely rare.
38:54The Chinese government is very restrictive of what zoos around the world can actually have a panda on exhibit.
39:00So to see one in captivity is really a once in a lifetime experience.
39:06That's why a zoo in China does the unbelievable in an attempt to give the public what they want.
39:13It's May 2024, and the very proud folks at Taizhou Zoo in Jiangsu province announced that they have the great
39:21good fortune of having two new baby panda pups.
39:26Hordes of panda fans crowd around the enclosure for a glimpse at the zoo's star attractions.
39:34From a distance, they look, well, like pandas. They're playful, they're chunky, they're adorable.
39:40Now they have the round pom-pom ears, they even have the black patches around their eyes.
39:44But if you really look, something is off.
39:48People are really starting to ask questions like, is there something real weird about these pandas?
39:56That's when the zoo fesses up.
39:58Real pandas are expensive.
40:01And come with a mountain of red tape.
40:03So they get a little creative.
40:06They got these chow chow dogs.
40:09Now this is a breed from northern China that has puffy fur.
40:13They have this kind of lion-like mane, this pushed in face.
40:17They give them a little haircut, and they do a little dye job, and voila!
40:22They come out looking like pandas.
40:25The public is up in arms. I mean, it's consumer fraud.
40:30And there are questions from animal rights groups about whether or not this is animal abuse.
40:36So the zoo defended itself by saying, listen, dogs are groomed all the time.
40:41It's safe dye, so everyone just calm down.
40:45In fact, instead of shrinking from the deception, the zoo doubles down.
40:49They embrace the lie.
40:51Local officials rule that as long as the zoo posts a clear sign stating these aren't pandas,
40:56they're not guilty of false advertising.
41:01A number of those attending the zoo say they appreciate the hustle,
41:04saying the zoo saw a need and got creative.
41:07Representatives from the zoo actually said that they got this whole idea to dye these puppies from the internet.
41:14And everybody's pretty interested.
41:16And a whole lot of people have looked at those puppies, so mission accomplished.
41:22From snake oil to massive bridges for sale, enlisting the dead or faking your dead,
41:27these are the cons so spectacular they can only be called unbelievable.
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