Join me from the comfort of my couch (and yours) for a little teaser of things to come in Season 2.

History Goon Ep. 30 - Dallas Stoudenmire

We are closing out Season 1 with some Cowboy stuff! And with a name like Dallas Stoudenmire you bet your boots he is gonna do some cowboy lawman stuff. Drunk fist fights. Drunk gunfights. Chasing bad guys… Drunk of course. He was one of the better lawmen that the city of El Paso had seen at the time and he didn’t take s**t from anyone. That is until the Manning Brothers (not those ones) show up and start causing trouble that he would fight for the rest of his life.  

This week we are talking about one of the most notorious and violent broad-daylight robberies in the history of the United States, The North Hollywood Shootout. 2 scumbags with a taste for automatic rifles and trying to cosplay Heat (which I got to watch for research purposes) started off robbing armored cars full of cash but would eventually step up to banks. What happens when 2 guys in homemade body armor and AKs walk into a bank at the EXACT SAME TIME that a police patrol drives by? Well, you get the most violent 44 minutes that North Hollywood, California has ever seen. 

History Goon Ep. 28 - The Bennington Triangle 

Back home. Vermont. This time we are going to visit one of the creepiest places in my little state; The Bennington Triangle. This place has it all: Murders, insanity, a failed town, monsters, man eating rocks, missing people and the formation of the Vermont State Police. Are those things related? You be the judge. Is it strange? Yeah, it absolutely is. 

History Goon Ep. 27 - Tanks for the Memories

This week, I'm bringing you some of the silliest, scariest and weirdest tanks ever designed. Some of them never saw combat (thankfully) and some did and had varying levels of success. Everything from the Kugelpanzer which was basically the Atlasphere from American Gladiators but with a machinegun, to the Russians being God's silliest gooses and trying to build a flying tank. Oh, and Germany's first entry into BattleBots, Russian anti-tank dogs and a crazy Commie that basically got into a fist fight with a tank. And there's witches in here somewhere too. Little. Bit. Of. Everything. 

We pick up from the last episode right after Cliff “Elvis” Walcott’s Blackhawk, Super 6-1 was shot down by an RPG. The guys on the ground have to scramble to get to the crash site before it’s too late but the militiamen have started blocking roads off and making life difficult for the Rangers and Delta. As they were fighting towards the crash site, Mike Durant in Super 6-4 was shot down. Things get really bad before Mike Durant gets captured and held hostage. The Rangers and Delta had to fight through the night, a mission that was supposed to take less than an hour is now stretching into a new day.  Thanks to the 10th Mountain Division and a Malaysian that wasn’t going to take no for an answer from the higher-up, help would be on the way…

History Goon Ep. 25 - Battle of Mogadishu Pt. 1 - Irene

This episode is part 1 of one of the most harrowing 24 hours in US Special Forces history. It all started as a UN Peacekeeping operation to try and feed the starving people of Somalia. Warlords had taken control of the country and started weaponizing hunger and food against their own people. After months of UN forces getting attacked and ambushed, they would have a helicopter shot down. The crew was killed and mutilated before being dragged through the streets, now it was time to try and stop the fighting. US Special Forces consisting of Army Rangers and Delta Operators would be sent into the city of Mogadishu to capture the warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid whose forces were responsible for hijacking UN food trucks and then killing people at the food handoff points. The Rangers and Delta teams got prepared, the word was given that the mission was a go. Irene. 

Back to WWII we go! Back to a familiar place (Operation Market Garden) with some people we’re familiar with (the British Paratroopers) but since we’re talking about the Brits during WWII YOU KNOW we’re in for a treat of just… Bonkers stories… Pat Glover is no exception to this rule. He may have been just a Quartermaster for his unit but, he was a badass also. Jumping into Holland for Market Garden, fighting Nazis, getting blown up, getting revenge for his beloved Para-Chicken Myrtle, being captured, being involved in one of the most famous rescues pulled off by Allied Forces during all of WWII. Ya know… Normal British stuff. Yeah, you read that right about the chicken too.          

This guy may be the most badass offering from Poland of all time. Jan Sobieski was born to a Noble family, he travelled Europe with his brother and learned like 75 languages then went home to fight. Not on foot, he’s a cavalry guy… He builds his own unit of Winged Hussars. Giant, metal, winged death machines. This was at a time where the Ottoman Empire was spreading through Europe, a very few would stand up to try and stop them. After the creation of the Holy League the Ottomans besieged the city of Vienna. One problem: Jan Sobieski is buddies with the Holy Roman Empire. Where Vienna just so happens to be… Spoiler Alert: They currently speak Polish in Poland

Baseball is my favorite sport. The Yankees are my LEAST favorite team. Billy Martin is my FAVORITE Yankee. It may be strange to have a favorite person on your least favorite team but, stick with me and you’ll see why I love this guy. He is an All American success story: He grew up poor, worked hard and earned an opportunity to fight other professional athletes in a non-combat sport. He played with and against a whos-who of would be and should be Hall of Famers on the diamond, he helped his team win championships and even led them there as a manager. He also beat the s**t out of everyone who he felt like mistreated him. Spiking him at second base? Beating. Talking to him during warmups? Beating. Driving a cab and liking football more than baseball? Beating. Selling marshmallows? Beating… Oh and let’s not forget his part in one of the most infamous moments in the ENTIRE HISTORY of baseball. There’s been a lot of crazy people in baseball but, there’s only ONE Billy Martin. 

Have you ever wanted to know what would happen to you in history if you did something silly like: say something about royalty, be a witch, be gay, have a miscarriage? Most of the time it’s horrible. Sometimes it's funny. It’s ALWAYS painful. Wanna hear about people getting tossed out windows? Skin peeled off? Squashed to death by the largest land mammal around? How bout mutilated limbs and eaten alive by bugs? If I can make ONE person uncomfortable with this episode I’ll consider it a win.

History Goon Ep. 20: Fred Burnaby

This week we are headed to a couple places we've visited before: England and Africa... Fred Burnaby was born into a family of note. His father was buddies with Dukes and Nobles and higher up in the local Church. Fred was lined up to follow in his fathers footsteps but decided he wanted to live a life of adventure. He would attend college, beat up the locals and eventually became a member of the Royal Cavalry. In his CRAZY AMOUNT OF FREE TIME he picked up some interesting hobbies: Fencing, Boxing, Bodybuilding, Writing and of all things Hot Air Ballooning... This guy is basically old timey Forrest Gump with some of the things and people he runs into in his daily life. Oh... He also eventually gets to go into combat. Even without that part, his life was WILD and deserved to have his story told! 

To piggyback off last week’s episode, on his death, Chief Cornstalk supposedly cursed the land he died on. That land was the spot of Point Pleasant, WV. 190 years later the steel beams of the Silver Bridge that connected Point Pleasant, WV and Gallipolis, OH would twist and break, sending cars plummeting into the icy water below. What’s strange is the events that lead up to this starting in 1967 with a fateful encounter on a dark section of highway. This story has it all; possible secret government organizations, strange communications, dogs, odd tracks, unbelievable sightings of an unknown creature, a curse playing out, tragic deaths. This one is a little out of the box from what you’d normally hear on the show but, I think it works.   

This week we are headed back to pre-Revolutionary War America for a lesser known war. Chief Cornstalk of the Shawnee was a man of peace. Until he was pushed to violence. The British Government in control of the Colonies had been signing treaties with tribes all over the area of what today is New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky. The problem began when a treaty was signed by a tribe that gave over land that didn’t belong to them… The Brits started moving in on Shawnee land and raiding their villages and towns, there’s only so far a peaceful man can be pushed until he has to fight back. Cornstalk would take the fight to the greatest military power on the planet at the time but, since Shawnee isn’t a language spoken in a large area of the country I’m sure you can figure out how that went. This story is a tragedy that leads to a possible curse as weird as that sounds. This isn’t a two part episode but this is the lead into far more strange and tragic things next time. Enjoy.   

This week we take to the skies to follow the life of a boy fascinated by planes that just so happened to become the most lethal pilot in US history. Dick Bong was born in a small Wisconsin town but would join the Army Air Corp right out of college and take the fight to the Imperial Japanese Army behind the sticks of one of the most interesting planes of WWII, the P-38 Lighting. This quiet, shy, reserved midwestern boy would cost the Japanese Air Force so many planes you can't count them on all your fingers and toes. What a wild ride we're in for with this one!

This week we are headed to London. The culture. The history. The scenery. The Iranian Embassy being stormed by a bunch of poorly trained Iranian separatists. These guys have the perfect plan; take hostages and hold them until a bunch of political prisoners are released. Let's start taking some bets. Who would win? 6 poorly armed guys trying to make a political stand or a dozen of the most highly decorated and well armed men in the British Isles? There's only one way to find out...

Danny Greene was born into misfortune. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Mom died right after he was born due to complications of his delivery, Dad was a raging drunk. He would end up bouncing around from living with Dad and Grandpa, to an Orphanage, back to Dad and Step-mom and then back to Grandpa’s. Believe it or not, he was getting into trouble THE ENTIRE TIME this was going on. He did a short stint in the Marine Corp and then got into Union work. He worked his way up from a loader/unloader on the docks all the way up to the head of the ILA Union in Cleveland. 

He of course abused this power like ALL Union guys seem too but, he also started rubbing people the wrong way when he got hooked into the underworld of Cleveland. Yeah sure, he’s working with the Mafia but why would that stop him from being abrasive and making the wrong enemies? Join me as we tell this wild story and get into all the times Danny Greene proved the “Luck of the Irish” was a real thing for him…

This should be a refreshing change from the last couple episodes. We’re off the the Peghamagabow was nobody, well less than nobody to the Canadian Government. He was a First Nations member of the Ojibwe Tribe that decided to volunteer to fight for a country that didn’t like him. He fought through the trenches, survived gas attacks and pulled some real life Metal Gear Solid stuff in No-Mans-Land. He was pretty fond of sneaking into enemy trenches and stealing or moving random things just to annoy the Germans. When the war ended he returned home from Europe as the most prolific sniper on EITHER SIDE of WWI. But just because he was home that didn’t mean he was done fighting, not by a long shot. I’m so glad that I found this guys name and had the opportunity to dig into his story.

This time, we finish up the incredible, horrible tale of the goings on in Leopold’s Congo from last time. We start off with someone calling him out for the terrible things going on, and it is completely ignored. Then other people come forward with news of people being mutilated, and it being completely ignored. Then, some Irish guy creates tires out of rubber, and things get even worse for the Congolese people. Finally, after years of mass killings and kidnappings, an unassuming worker for a shipping company notices some weird shipments coming and going and decides to do something about it. We finally have a hero in this story. We also had the World’s Fair in Belgium, and Leopold wanted to show off what he had in the Congo… Then, some dude years later made some candies. This part of the story is even worse than the first, but it kinda sorta ends well. As well as it can, I guess.

Boy oh boy… If you don’t know who this guy is, first off, lucky you. Second, I’m sorry that I’m about to change that. He was a simple man; all he really wanted was to take over the throne of Belgium from his father and own a colony somewhere that would help his country build its economy. After trying and failing for years to talk Parliament into building a colony somewhere he decided “F**k it. I’ll do it myself” and he BOUGHT THE CONGO. That means that any money that came from exporting any kind of natural resources would go to him and him alone. He even hired a pet explorer who would go there and “convince” the locals to sell the land they had been on for generations. After the construction was complete, the fun began… Harvesting natural resources, mostly ivory to start with. When the ivory trade started drying up, the beatings began… Did I mention this guy was a complete turd? This is only the beginning, though. Part 2 is going to be horrendous… Get episodes a week early, ad-free episodes, and content on Patreon: https://patreon.com/1159media