Death In Disguise

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Three true stories reveal how deadly dangers often hide in plain sight—radioactive snow, a deceptive caregiver, and a lethal train journey d

Key takeaways

• The 'snow' in New Mexico was radioactive fallout from the first atomic bomb test, leading to cancer deaths among campers years later.

Main topics

• Hidden dangers in natural phenomena

Notable quotes

The snow that the girls played in was actually radioactive material from this nuclear fallout raining down from the sky.

Conclusion

These stories underscore how perilous life can be when danger is maske

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Today's podcast will feature three stories that all prove sometimes the deadliest threats are the hardest to recognize. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Hot Snow, and it's about a summer camp that experiences this weather phenomenon, but it's not quite what it seems. The second story you'll hear is called Extra Help. and it's about an elderly woman who falls in her bathroom. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Thump, Thump, Thump, and it's about a nightmare scenario that unfolds on a train during World War II. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So, if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Buttons house and superglue all their eggs into the carton. Okay, let's get into our first story called Hot Snow. Speaker 1 (1:25) At 5.30 a.m. on July 16th, 1945, a 13-year-old girl named Barbara Kent was sleeping inside of a cabin in Ruidoso, New Mexico, where she was staying for a sleepover summer dance camp. And as she slept, suddenly there was this loud booming sound that literally shook her awake and actually caused her to fall out of her bed onto the floor. Barbara sat up feeling totally confused and she looked around the cabin and she saw the nine other girls that were also here for the sleepover camp. They too were wide awake, and some of them also had fallen onto the floor. And so the girls, they're all freaking out, they're looking at each other like, what's going on here? What was that? And as this kind of pandemonium is ensuing, their lead dance instructor came running into the cabin and told the girls that she thought one of the cabin's heaters had exploded and that potentially there could be a fire somewhere on the camp. And so all the girls, they're already totally panicked. Now they're getting really scared. And the instructor is just like, all right, girls, go outside, stand by the river. I'm going to go find wherever this explosion happened and make sure everything is OK. And so the girls, they were let outside, totally a mess. And they went and stood by this river near the cabin and waited for their instructor to go look around. And so Barbara and the nine other girls, they're totally terrified. And they're standing by this riverbank and they're looking around the property, seeing if they can see smoke or fire, but they can't. And as they're standing there waiting for their instructor to come back. Barbara felt something hit the tip of her nose, and it was cold and soft. And she looked up, and she realized it was snowing. But it's July in New Mexico, it should not be snowing. But sure enough, snow was coming down from the sky. And as the snow came down on Barbara, she looked at the other girls, and they too were looking up and putting their hands up and letting the snow hit them in the face. They couldn't believe it. I mean, this was like a totally rare weather event. And so a minute later, their dance instructor came back and told the girls that, you know, she looked all over the camp and there did not appear to be a fire or an explosion of any kind, that everything seemed fine. You know, they didn't know what that loud sound was, but, you know, by all accounts, it seemed safe here. And so the girls were very relieved to hear this, but already their attention had completely shifted to the snow. I mean, again, it's July in New Mexico. There shouldn't be snow. And so the girls, they turned to their instructor and they're like, okay, well, you know, now that it's safe, would it be okay if we put on our bathing suits and just went swimming in the river while it snowed on us? I mean, this is incredible. And the instructor, who to this point had really been focused on finding the fire and the hazard or whatever, you know, now that she knew things were safe, she kind of took in the scene and also suddenly appreciated how unbelievable it was that there was snow coming down. And so she told the girls, yeah, get your bathing suits, go swimming, enjoy this. This is totally like a once in a lifetime moment here. And so very excitedly, Barbara and the other girls ran back into the cabin. They changed into their swimwear. And then a moment later, they were out frolicking in the river as the snow fell on top of them. And for hours, they just played in the river and enjoyed the snow. And the snow was kind of building up on the riverbanks. And so some of the girls went over and scooped it up and rubbed it on their faces and made snowballs. And they just had a great time. And at one point, the dance instructor came by and actually took a picture of Barbara, who was right in the middle of the river, enjoying this bizarre scene. But eventually, despite how fun the snow was, the novelty of it all sort of wore off and the girls got tired of swimming, so they changed into their regular clothes and went about their day. And over the course of the next few days, summer camp went as normal. The girls had a great time, and when summer camp ended, all the girls went home. Now, the girls never got an explanation for why it had snowed. They all just assumed it was some super rare weather event that they had been lucky enough to experience. Until 17 years later, when Barbara was 30 years old at this point. and she learned that all the other girls she had gone to the dance camp with had died. One by one, each of those girls were diagnosed with aggressive forms of cancer that killed them. Barbara was the only one who was spared, and she wouldn't get any clarification as to why that had happened until decades later in 2006 when Barbara was in her 70s when the government finally came out and admitted the truth. It would turn out Barba's dance instructor was correct in thinking there had been an explosion on July 16th, 1945. But of course it was not any of the cabin's heaters or anything local to the cabin or the camp. Instead, the explosion occurred 40 miles away at a U.S. government testing site in the middle of the New Mexico desert. And the explosion that literally caused the girls to be dumped out of their beds was from the world's first ever atomic bomb being dropped. It was the Manhattan Project's Trinity Test. a test that no civilians in the area had been warned about. And so after this bomb detonated, there was this nuclear fallout that rained from the sky on half a million people that lived within a 150 mile radius of the detonation site. And within those half a million people were those 10 innocent teenage girls at their dance camp. The snow that the girls played in was actually radioactive material from this nuclear fallout raining down from the sky that over the course