Sofa King Podcast

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we talk about an international terrorist conspiracy known as Operation Condor. This horrible operation was set up by eight South and Central American countries. It was responsible for the death, detention, assassination, murder, and disappearance of tens of thousands of people across multiple borders. People were even assassinated in Washington, D.C. And, of course, the CIA was involved. The whole thing was part of a strategy used by dictators such as Augusto Pinochet to keep power and destroy leftist thought. How much did the US know? How much was it involved? Which country had it worst? What was the Dirty War? How were most of the bodies disposed of? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://medium.com/exploring-history/operation-condor-u-s-and-latin-americas-dirty-war-d59a7cfff77c https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/03/operation-condor-the-illegal-state-network-that-terrorised-south-america http://www.cels.org.ar/especiales/plancondor/en/#una-asociacion-ilicita-para-reprimir-opositores http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/chile/operation-condor.htm

On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we take a look at the largest volcanic eruption in the modern history of the United States, the eruption of Mount St. Helens. This volcano started grumbling and causing a superstring of earthquakes in March of 1980, but on May 18, the volcano erupted. Two hundred and thirty square miles of forest were destroyed instantly as the equivalent of 1500 Hiroshima level nuclear bombs went off. Even though it was being watch closely by volcanologists, photographers, and the world, it’s violent explosion surprised almost everyone. Luckily a scientist who died in the eruption convinced the government to keep people away; this action is thought to have saved as many as a thousand lives. The destruction was inconceivable, but it may be in forms you weren’t expecting. For example, much of it was a tsunami like flow of water as called a Lahar that turned 46 billion gallons of glacial melt into several rivers of cement. The ash plume circled the globe and erased all geological features. People in the Pacific Northwest remember this very vividly. After all, Mount St. Helens was completely transformed by the explosion, and dozens died in this cataclysm. Visit Our Sources: https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount-st-helens/1980-cataclysmic-eruption?qt-science_support_page_related_con=2#qt-science_support_page_related_con https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/18/us/mount-st-helens-facts-eruption-trnd/index.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/103/ https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/stratoguide/helenfact.html https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/624139/mount-st-helens-facts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYla6q3is6w

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we crack wise about the greatest comedy trio to have ever been put on film—The Three Stooges. Their short films were so popular that they single handedly saved the genre from dying for years and years. They poked fun at Hitler in the 1940s, and were so good at it that they made his personal death list. Though they started as a small vaudeville act in New York, they became the biggest game in comedy for multiple studios and for several decades. The keystone of the Stooges was one family—the Horowitz brothers. Shemp, Moe, and Jerome (aka Curley) Horowitz were all high school drop outs who had a love of acting and theater and quit school to pursue it. Shemp and Moe did various small roles, worked at the theaters and movie companies, and paid their dues. Curley hung out where they did, learned the business back stage, and did his own thing as well, such as studying dance. Eventually, a childhood friend named Ted Healy created a successful vaudeville show, and he needed stooges. He would play the straight man and try to sing and talk to the audience, but three bumbling stooges would come out and interrupt him. Though, it was a rotating cast, Shemp and Moe were the best at it. They hired a violin player named Larry Fine, and the rest was history. As they became more and more popular on stage and some small film roles, Shemp quit because he hated Healy. They added Curley to the act, and they blew up. Their films became so successful, that the movie companies could force theaters to take on B movies and stinkers they made or hold back the latest Three Stooges films. When they were at their peak, however, Curley had a series of health problems and strokes (that some think came from the beatings he took on set). He had to quit, and Shemp came back from a very successful solo act. It was a wild time in Hollywood. Healey was found dead, likely beaten to death by one of Lucky Luciano’s men. Larry at one point had to get paid more for fear that someone would bomb their stage acts. And their horrible producer screwed them out of millions of dollars by permanently convincing them that their movies weren’t making any money. When Shemp suddenly died of a heart attack, they considered quitting, but their evil producer held them to the final four films they had to make. So, how did this lead to fake Shemp? What was Joe, and who was Curley Joe, and why weren’t they the same person? Why did Larry live in a hotel until middle age? What were our personal experiences watching them as we grew up? Listen, laugh, and learn. Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Stooges https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaudeville https://www.threestooges.com/ https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/three-stooges/ https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/curly-howard-grandson-three-stooges-tells-all https://www.mentalfloss.com/view?id=three-stooges-facts-mm&src=facebook https://screencrush.com/didnt-know-about-three-stooges/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moe_Howard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curly_Howard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shemp_Howard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Fine

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we dive into some True Crime, and we talk about the Golden State Killer. He was responsible for well over 100 burglaries, 50 rapes, and at least 13 murders. This guy went by a whole lotta names: The Original Night Stalker, The Visalia Ransacker, and the East Area Rapist. Until 2018 when they finally caught the guy, law enforcement wasn’t even sure these were all different people. Eventually, though, a DNA genealogy website linked them all together and pointed at one man-- Joseph DeAngelo. He started his sicko career as the Visalia Ransacker, where he stalked people, broke into their houses, took small trinkets of no value, and often made a mess and even ate their food. This escalated as he became the East Area Rapist. Here, he would do the same things, but it would culminate in raping the woman of the house. He often did the crime when the husband or boyfriend was home, and he had them bound in the other room with dishes on their chest. Like you do. But, DeAngelo eventually grew bored with just the rapes and break ins, and he shifted to murder. He started to bludgeon and knife his victims, only using a gun when it was going south, and someone got out of their bindings. Eventually, there were enough cases that they put together some pretty horrible composite drawings and a disturbing profile of the killer. They said he needed to dominate in the bedroom, even with his wife, and that he had an abnormally small penis. From the 70s through the 80s, The Golden State Killer ran through different cities in California, killing and raping. The truth about the man eventually came out once he was busted. The horrible fact is that he was a cop for several years, and he even was in charge of a burglary taskforce at one point! So, what exactly got him busted thirty years after his crime spree? How did a DNA match used in a common DNA website help to bust him? What did the community of true crime civilians do to get this perv busted? Why did he eventually get fired as a cop, and what did he do afterward? What was up with the special knot the Golden State Killer used with his victims? What did he say when he called his rape victims years later, and what’s up with his horrible poem? Listen, laugh, learn…

On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we step away from our usual show pattern and give you a good old fashioned bonus episode. If you want a regular episode, skip this one and go one episode ahead or back. There, you’ll hear us research and topic and spit facts at you as well as horrible off topic jokes and conversational cul-de-sacs. On this one, however, we give you a bonus episode. No research. No plan, just the fellas shooting it over some whiskey. What do we talk about? All sorts of stuff. Great stuff! Crazy stuff! Stuff that is sure to delight and offend! Stuff that I can't really remember because it's late, I haven't slept, and I'm tired! Oh, and if you love this Bonus Episode or our regular episodes, do us two favors. First, go and support us on Patreon!