158: The Disturbing Truth About Amelia Earhart’s Final Flight: The Mystery That Haunts History
54:09 Share

- Recently, I was having one of those nights where I wanted to go down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole. Not like the new conspiracy theories, but like the old ones. You know what I'm saying? Like the classics. I wanted a good cold case, you know? Redig into it. And I found the one I think you guys are really going to like.

She's a real person. Oh yeah, we all learned about in school who disappeared out of nowhere. Miss Amelia Earhart. I think it's safe to say that we all know who Amelia Earhart was. If you don't know, she was a really famous pilot who set a bunch of records and disappeared.

without a trace. Officially no one knows what happened to Amelia, her plane, or the man who was on board with her. But boy oh boy there are theories upon theories upon theories. And surprisingly a lot of these theories have research and evidence behind them. So it's like some of them even had me reaching for my tinfoil hat. But I'll let you guys make up your minds for yourself. So

So today we're going to be talking about Amelia Earhart and what in the world happened to her. ♪

Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Here we believe history doesn't have to be boring. It might be tragic. Sometimes it's happy, but either way, it's our dark history. Don't forget to like and subscribe. I'm always posting new content for you and I love hearing from you in the comment section down below. So now Bailey, shut up and let's get into it.

Okay, Amelia Earhart. Who was she? I don't know. So I had to learn a lot. I had to start from the beginning. Amelia Earhart was born on July 24th, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. Both Amelia and her sister were tomboys growing up and they loved playing sports, climbing trees, being outside, you know, all that stuff. Even though they were brought up in the early 1900s, their parents were totally fine with this. Them being like,

Little tomboys. You know, girls had to be girls, all that stuff. But Amelia's mom was pretty progressive for the time and encouraged her kids to do all those things that the boys love to do. But it wasn't until Amelia was 20 years old that she really started to get into planes. A friend of hers took her to a stunt flying exhibition. This was essentially pilots showing off stunt tricks in their little planes, you know, flipping upside down, doing twists and turns, divings. Vroom! Vroom!

Apparently, one of the pilots dove right at the audience in a red plane and it was like, it scared the bejesus out of everyone in the crowd. But Amelia, she was like, this is everything. This is legit. She was into it. After that, she became obsessed. She would later say, quote, I did not understand it at the time, but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by, end quote.

I wonder what the plane said to her. - Run away. Put stock in app. - The plane comes by. - You look like shit. - Did anyone else hear that? From that moment on, Amelia swore to herself that she would one day fly a plane, but she had no idea that this newfound passion would cost her her life. - I love winter. - Sorry, that was such an intro.

Ooh, I love winter. I love rising out of my bed. I'm being awoken by winter outside. But you know what nobody talks about? Is how the weather, especially the winter weather, what a toll it takes on your skin, huh? I'm rising out of my coffin and I'm over here dry as a dry, you know? Just give me all the moisturizers because my skin is just...

Rough. But friends, that's why I'm always excited to partner with Apostrophe.

Oh yes, you should know Apostrophe by now if you've been watching me. I freaking love Apostrophe. If you don't know, Apostrophe is an online platform that connects you with an expert dermatology team to get customized acne and dermatology treatment for your unique skin. So whether you're dealing with like breakouts or acne scarring, dark spots, fine lines, wrinkles, whatever you want to address, Apostrophe is there.

has got your back. Their whole mission is to help you feel confident and love the skin you're in. I personally love Apostrophe just because of how easy it is to use. Been using it for years now. I literally log onto the website and log into my account and then I update my dermatologist like how my skin's looking. And then you fill out like an online consultation about your skin goals and your medical

history and then your dermatology team will just create the perfect skincare plan for you with your goals in mind and then mail it to your house. You don't have to do anything. It's the best. I'm always dealing with hormonal breakouts. I don't know if you could see so much. It happens. It happens, you know, but with Apostrophe they help me keep it under control as much as possible which I love and it's easy. I don't have to go to the doctor's office because the doctor's office is never open.

Anyhow, right now we have a special deal for our audience. You can get your first visit for only $5 at apostrophe.com slash dark history when you use our code dark history. That's a savings of $15.

This code is only available to our listeners. And to get started, just go to apostrophe.com slash dark history and then click get started. Then use our code dark history at signup and you'll get your first visit for only $5. Yeah, but I just want to give a big thank you to Apostrophe for sponsoring today's episode and throughout the years, you guys have been great. Now let's get back to the story. ♪

At the age of 20, Amelia goes to a plane show and gets hooked on watching these stunts. She started going to a bunch of these air shows. In 1920, when she was 23 years old, her dad took her to a show out in California. He bought her a $10 ticket for a ride in one of those planes, which today it would be like $160, $60.

So it was pricey to get on this plane. She said, "By the time I had got two or 300 feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly." Oh, I love that. And she was like very serious about it. Just a month after that show, she started taking flying lessons at Kenner Field in California. At just six months after that, she bought her first plane.

I know, wow, what'd she do for a living? I don't know. Oh, well, the plane was secondhand. It was a secondhand Kenner brand Airstir, which was a two-seater plane painted bright yellow. She named it the Canary. Ah, that's very special. And to Amelia, it was like the perfect starter plane. I guess the Canary was pretty rickety and old-fashioned at that point. So many of her pilot friends actually told her,

"Do not buy this." Amelia's flying instructor even told her, "Look, I'm not flying in this, okay? Nope." Eventually, Amelia sold her starter plane and upgraded to a larger plane that she could take on longer flights. In 1922, with the shaky old Canary, she even set a woman's altitude record by flying all the way up to 14,000 feet.

You go, girl. In 1928, she set another record when she became the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic in a plane. Breaking news. It made headlines everywhere. But Amelia honestly had some mixed feelings about it. Obviously, she was like, this is exciting. She was in the paper. She was a pioneer of aviation. She was really making a name for herself. But

She'd only been a passenger on that flight across the Atlantic. You know, it was still flown and operated by a man and he was getting all the credit. She was just...

the passenger. She called herself, quote, just baggage, like a sack of potatoes. I do feel like that, that ad times too, girl. I do feel like that. Amelia wanted to start setting her own records as a pilot, not just as a passenger potato sack. So she started entering competitive races. This got the attention of a publicist named George Putnam. Now, I guess George had already like knew about Amelia because he was the publicist for the famous 1928 Atlantic festival,

flight. He liked Amelia and he saw her potential. He allegedly told her he believed that one day Amelia Earhart could be a household name. As George and Amelia worked together, the relationship

got sexual. Good for her and him, I guess. I don't know. But George actually proposed to her six times. Amelia always saying no. Not because he was like a bad guy or anything, but because Amelia didn't love the idea of becoming like a traditional wife. And that's what it was at the time, you know? She didn't want to put her career on hold when she had

so much going for her. One thing I did not know was that Amelia, she was a pilot, yes, but she also worked as a social worker.

Apparently, she was even planning on writing a book about social work before leaving for her infamous flight around the world. She was a lecturer and counselor of aviation at Purdue University. She was the first celebrity clothing designer. She had a luggage line and was truly a household name. So then in 1931, George proposed again. And Amelia finally said yes.

Okay, fine, I'll do it. When they did eventually get married, Amelia wrote her own vows. And I just want to read them to you because they really capture who she was as a person. Quote,

So romantic, yeah.

That's so special. Feel free to use for your wedding vows. So yeah, Amelia's wedding vows, you know, she's literally saying like, I'm not sure about this. We're going to sleep in separate rooms. Is that cool?

As it turned out, Amelia wasn't wrong about what marriage would do to her career. Newsreels at the time started calling her Miss George Putnam, even though she hadn't taken his last name. I'm not going to spend too much time talking about her marriage, but just know that her relationship with George was just as much professional as it was romantic. It turns out being married to your publicist had...

some major perks. So by now, not only does Amelia have a really good publicist as a husband, but she's breaking records left and right. In 1932, she became the first woman to make a nonstop solo transatlantic flight. What does that even mean? Transatlantic. She did that.

She set another altitude record, became the first person to fly from Hawaii to California, the first person to fly from Hawaii to California, and became the first person to fly solo from Mexico to New Jersey.

That's very impressive. She was fearless. The president at the time, President Hoover, even awarded her a gold medal from the National Geographic Society. She was the first woman to earn the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was a big deal because this was a military medal only given to men who had done, quote, "acts of heroism," end quote. Amelia would often return from flights to giant parades in her honor.

And by 1935, Amelia Earhart was one of the most well-known names in the entire world. Not only was she known for like flying, right? But she was kind of an it girl in pop culture. She was a great speaker and she told really interesting and fun stories about her flights.

After she was forced into an emergency landing on another voyage, she said, quote, "After scaring most of the cows in the neighborhood, I pulled up in a farmer's backyard."

End quote. Emergency landings and crashes, very common at this time. Apparently, Amelia survived tons of minor crashes throughout her career. But even after all her achievements, there were still doubts about her ability to fly planes. I mean, she is a woman. You know, what if she has her period in the air? What will happen? I mean, pfft.

Couldn't be trusted. What if she got like cramps or something in the air? What if she had like a mood swing in the air? I don't know. You know? People wondered if she was actually skilled or just like having a moment in the spotlight, which is so dumb. It's like she flew an airplane to Hawaii and back and stuff. Like, what do you mean if she's skilled? You do it then.

But Amelia was determined to prove herself. So in 1937, just three weeks away from her 40th birthday, she decided to go for a big record. One that would make everyone really appreciate her. Amelia wanted to be the first woman to fly around the world. I'm taking your phone away. Yes, I am.

I know, Joan. I know. You're just trying to escape the real world. But watching depressing videos online is not going to help. It's only going to make it worse. Look, baby girl, listen. Joan, come real close. It's time you lost yourself in a juicy story instead of doom scrolling on Dipsy.

Gotcha. You know Dipsy. I know Dipsy. But let me tell you about Dipsy because Dipsy is the female founded app for spicy audiobooks and more. Their app has over 1,000 audiobooks all crafted by a team of professional writers and top tier narrators.

Their bite-sized stories gets you right to the good part so you can escape into like a captivating romance whenever you need a break. Look, they say you can listen while like commuting, relaxing, or if you're just like unwinding, maybe doing chores, but you're gonna get pretty wet and pretty wild. I don't know if you wanna be commuting. You wanna be somewhere, nevermind.

So Dipsy has a bunch of fantasy stories and they got all types of fantasies available to your listening ears. They've got like the professor student fantasy. They got like this Scottish sailor who is some kind of like god of the underworlds. I was like, I'm in.

And I mean, again, there's just like something, something for everyone on Dipsy, whatever your little wet and wild fantasy is. Let me tell you, Dipsy's got you covered. Their app is so easy to navigate. You can search for your favorite romance genres, like historical, Western, like,

Romanticy. Whatever floats your boat, really. And the best part, new chapters are released every week, so you'll always have something to look forward to. Look forward to listening to, I should say. Dipsy is the perfect escape from life. Touch my body, Dipsy, touch me. Touch me.

For listeners of the show, Dipsy is offering an extended 30-day free trial when you go to dipsystories.com slash darkhistory. That's 30 days of full access for free when you go to dipsy, D-I-P-S-T-A, stories.com slash darkhistory. Ah.

DipsyStories.com slash Dark History. So Amelia is determined to prove, you know, the haters wrong. She wanted to prove once and for all that she was worth the name that she had built for herself. But she knew it was not going to be easy. I mean, flying around the world is a wild idea. For this flight, it would just be Amelia, the plane, and one other person on the journey with her, a navigator.

Amelia was working with a navigator named Fred Noonan. They ran in the same circles in Los Angeles, and Fred had a lot of experience working at Pan Am, and he was considered the best of the best. Fred was what's called a celestial navigator. I didn't know this was a thing. That's why I love learning here on Dark History. So a celestial navigator is...

is someone who like relies heavily on the stars to tell them like where they're going. Pretty cool.

On June 29th, 1937, Amelia and Fred began their journey from a place called Ley in New Guinea. The plane Fred and Amelia were taking was a Lockheed Model 10E Electra. Maybe you know what that looks like. Apparently, Purdue University sponsored the purchase of this plane. The idea was that Amelia would come home and continue in her position as an aviation lecturer there.

which would motivate more girls to come to Purdue and study STEM. Now this plane, the Electra, was 38 feet long, about 10 feet high, and had a 55 foot wingspan. Even though that may sound big to us, it wasn't even big enough for Amelia or Fred to stand up in. Doesn't matter though, they just need to fly. During flight, Amelia was the only one in the cockpit.

Fred would sit near the back and they communicated with what was basically cups on a string. Now, one major question many of us had was how did they go to the bathroom? Because there was no toilet on the plane and there was no autopilot. So I'm thinking a good old Gatorade jar situation. It's probably diapers maybe.

On top of that, what about staying awake? You know, they're going around the world. Well, apparently Amelia didn't like tea or coffee. So she would use the next best thing, smelling salts. Does smelling salt really wake you up? I'm gonna go home and sniff some salt. I'll let you know. I'll report back. They did bring canned food to eat. So at least they had that. And yeah, so go team.

So a month in, the trip is going pretty well. The most challenging part of the journey is the fact that Amelia and Fred have to stop and refuel the plane every 24 hours. That was to be expected. Plus, I bet it was nice to like get out, stretch, move the body.

Maybe take a dump if you've been holding it for a while, you know? Amelia and Fred were bracing themselves for the most challenging part of the journey, landing on Howland Island. Now, this was a teeny tiny chunk of land in the Pacific Ocean, and they needed to land on it in order to get more fuel. Now, when I say teeny tiny, I mean this island was about half a mile wide and less than a mile and a half long.

So if you need a better visual, it's a little bit bigger than three football fields. Now, if you look at a map of the area, you might actually notice that there are a lot of other islands in the same vicinity and a lot of them were bigger and probably easier to land on. So why didn't they choose a different island? Well, at this time in the late 1930s, tensions were really high between the US and Japan.

And those islands surrounding Howland, called the Mandates, were owned by the Japanese government. So the islands themselves were a big part of why tensions were so high in the frickin' first place. I guess the Imperial Japanese Navy had banned Americans from visiting the Mandates way back in 1920. So Amelia knew that they weren't welcome, which made Howland pretty much their only option. It was their only option. But that wasn't the only challenge.

Maps at the time weren't totally accurate, which made navigating to Howland even harder. Basically, Amelia and Fred would need to fly more than 2,500 miles from Ley to the island,

and then land a whole freaking airplane on what was basically a few football fields. And then hope it was the right island, okay? So they removed everything they possibly could from the plane. Only the absolute essentials were going to fly. They were trying to get the weight down as much as possible, which would give Amelia about 274 extra miles. And those extra miles could be the difference between life and death.

They had a boat from the US Coast Guard called Itasca, which was waiting for them on the island. Plus they had two other US ships along the route turn on every light they had so that the team could see them from the air. Now communications between Amelia's plane and the Itasca weren't great from the start. It seemed like the staff on the Itasca could hear her fine, but they slowly realized that Amelia

couldn't hear them. Not ideal because this was a very dangerous situation. You know, communication is key. So on July 2nd at 10:00 AM local time, Amelia and Fred take off from Lay. Weather reports told them that they were in for like an easy ride.

But early on in the flight, there were cloudy skies and some rain showers. Now, this made it even harder for Fred to navigate. As they're flying along, Amelia calls the Itasca to report, quote, cloudy weather. Cloudy.

That's what she said. She asked them to take bearings on her or calculate her location. So they did. The Itasca sent her a bunch of transmissions, but she still could not hear them. But Amelia is telling herself everything's gonna be okay. You know, she's in control. She's Amelia Earhart. Everything is gonna be fine. She's like, "I'm fucking Amelia Earhart, okay?"

Nothing's gonna stop me. All she has to do is find the island. After 20 hours in the air, Amelia and Fred reached the location where they expected to see Howland Island. So they're looking and looking, but it wasn't there.

and neither was the Itasca. At 6:14 a.m., the Itasca gets a message from Amelia that they're within 200 miles. Now, I imagine everyone is like sighing with relief. Amelia is okay and communications seem to be working again. Great. Then at 7:10 a.m., things start to go

Not great. Okay. The Itasca record states, quote, At 728 a.m., 18 minutes later, the signal strength is good and Amelia is close to the island. This was around the time Itasca had expected the plane to arrive. So they're looking, they're looking, they're looking.

but it hasn't landed. So Amelia tells Itasca, quote, we are circling, but cannot hear you. Now, original radio transcripts from this exchange have the word circling typed over a different word, drifting. So some people think the radio operators misheard Amelia and corrected drifting to circling. They think she might've actually said

"We're listening, but cannot hear you." They can't really make out what anyone's saying, okay. But that last part makes sense because it seemed that Itasca was receiving Amelia's messages, but she wasn't getting theirs. At 7:42 a.m., the Itasca gets the message, "We must be on you, but we cannot see you. Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet."

At 7:58 AM, Amelia still can't hear Itasca. She asked them to send the loudest signals they can so she could get an accurate location. And according to the Itasca reports, they did. They sent out their loudest signal, even using Morse code. Now Amelia acknowledged that she got the signals, but couldn't tell where they were coming from.

Nightmare, right? So defeating the whole purpose. She's like, "I hear it, but I don't see it. Where am I?" Like, ugh, the stress. At 8:45 a.m., Amelia says, "We are running north and south." And baby girl, that was the last transmission from the Electra. And then it disappeared without a trace.

Rescue efforts started pretty much as soon as the Electra went missing. In fact, the search that followed Amelia and Fred's disappearance was the most extensive air and sea search in history. The U.S. government spent $4 million on this search and covered 250,000 square miles of ocean, searching for literally any sign of

Amelia, Fred, or the plane. Now it's said over and over again that they tried. They tried really hard. But after just two weeks, they pretty much run through all possibilities. But...

the Navy didn't search the mandates, those Japanese islands that Amelia would not be allowed to land on. Amelia's husband/publicist, George Putnam, did his own digging too. George hired local authorities on nearby islands to do like some private investigations. He even hired his own private boats to search the area. His search actually brought up some new information.

he discovered that on July 5th, 1937 at 5:00 AM, three long dashes had been received on a radio transmission on Amelia's wavelength. Apparently the Pan Am station in Hawaii had previously sent Amelia instructions to quote, "Send three long dashes if on land." So the thinking was Amelia and Fred were alive somewhere.

and they were trying to communicate. But if she landed, where was she? You know what my love language is? When someone helps me save money. Oh, if you tell me about a sale, or if you're like, oh my God, actually, we can get this cheaper at blah, blah, blah. I'm gonna be like, what? Let's go. Like, that is my love language. Or if you show up and you're like, I got this coat for $1.75 at the thrift store. I'm gonna be like, what? I'm marrying you.

Anyways, that's my love language. But that's also why I'm always happy to have Rocket Money. Rocket Money is that person who helps me out and helps me save money, really. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings.

You can see all of your subscriptions in one place so you know exactly what you're paying for. And you also will know exactly where your money is going. And if you want to like cancel one of them, Rocket Money can help you do that. So if you're looking to kickstart the new year with like a new budget, you can easily create a personalized budget to help keep your spending on track. Plus their new goals feature automatically saves money for you so you don't even have to think about it.

I personally love the alerts that Rocket Money can send you. Like if you input your bills, you can get an alert if...

one of your bills like increases in price or if there's unusual spending or if you're like getting close to going over your budget that you set. So it's nice, like keeps you in check, you know? Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of 500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals fast.

with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash darkhistory. Today, go today. That's rocketmoney.com slash darkhistory. rocketmoney.com slash darkhistory.

So Amelia and Fred's plane seemed to have vanished. Fred was declared officially dead on June 20th, 1938. And Amelia was declared officially dead on January 5th, 1939. Most people believe that they ran out of fuel, crash landed into the ocean, and...

died. This is the theory supported by the U.S. government as well as the Smithsonian Museum and most people, honestly. But there is some interesting evidence that something else may have happened.

There are a few people and organizations who have basically dedicated their lives and careers to figuring out what happened to Amelia. And honestly, they like, they put in the work. There's an insane amount of research out there to support a lot of like theories, okay? Even though they are unofficial and most experts have their doubts, we've heard...

We've heard crazier things on this show. Okay, let people like try and figure it out. Okay, but the two biggest theories are one, Amelia and Fred were captured by the Japanese or two, Amelia and Fred landed on a nearby island and survived for a little while before dying there.

Let's start with the Japanese capture story. At the time Amelia went missing, World War II was about to start. Japan and America were beefing over military expansion. Japan was invading China, which had a direct effect on America's economy. It's really complicated, okay, but essentially World War II was ruined.

The theory goes that the Japanese captured Amelia and Fred and kept them in captivity until they died. Which, sure, that might have happened. But it really doesn't make a lot of sense to kidnap America's sweetheart and like not brag about it or like use it as a bargaining chip. Or maybe they did and it backfired. I mean, I don't know. You just think that they would use them as a pawn. You would think, I don't know.

I'm just a girl on the internet. I don't know. For a long time, this was the big conspiracy theory. I mean, authorities hadn't been able to search those Japanese islands because Americans were banned. And again, tensions were very high. A year before Amelia and her plane disappeared, the U.S. Navy had proposed to Japan that we should be allowed to visit the islands if, in exchange, Japan would be allowed to inspect U.S. islands off the Alaskan coast.

So Japan thinks about it and they're like, "No, no offense, but like Alaska? That's what you're gonna give us, Alaska? No, it's okay. We're good, thank you." Here's the other side of it. Take Amelia and Fred out of the equation. The truth is the Japanese Navy could totally have benefited from getting their hands on the Electra, the airplane. Maybe that's what they wanted.

That plane had a whole bunch of bells and whistles on board, including some new inventions that were being tested for U.S. warplanes, which means Japan would get their hands on like insight knowledge on American military technology. And like, who wouldn't want that at this time? Around this time, the FBI and the U.S.

U.S. Navy knew that the Japanese spies were trying to get information from the Lockheed plant. In other words, the manufacturer of the Electra plane. Even some people in the Earhart family believe this theory. Amelia's cousin, Wally Earhart, is convinced that she and her plane were captured by the Japanese. Wally believes that the U.S. government is part of what he calls a massive coverup. He thinks it's pretty simple.

Amelia and Fred died in Japanese captivity on an island called Saipan, located in the northern Marianas. Another version of the Japanese theory is that the Electra did crash in the Pacific, but that Amelia and Fred survived the crash. Then the pair were rescued by a Japanese fishing boat, which hauled in the wreckage of the plane with a big net. Either

Either way, both versions of the Japanese theory agree that Amelia and Fred ended up on Saipan where the rest of the plane was cut up for scrap. Amelia eventually died of dysentery, aka a parasite. Some even say that Fred was beheaded. And again, this is all just a theory. We don't know. According to Wally, there are two reasons that the government has covered this up. First, they're embarrassed. Okay?

Okay, they were just embarrassed. They were banned at their job and despite spending so much money and time and resources on the search, they never found anything. And that must be embarrassing. So to him, it's possible that they're covering it up so they don't look stupid. The second reason, according to Wally, is that Amelia's flying around the world story was just a cover up.

According to Wally, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had specifically asked Amelia to scout out, quote, Japanese military installations in the Pacific during her journey. Now, to be fair, Amelia and the Roosevelts, I guess they were very close. But there doesn't seem to be much evidence for this statement. It's really just hearsay.

Yeah. Many experts disregard the Japan theory. They say it's unlikely that Amelia had enough fuel to make it to those islands in the first place. But then there's another theory with even more research to back it up. This episode is wild, right Joan?

Look, I mean, Joan and Paul have become a little obsessed with Amelia Earhart. I can't get Paul to take off the pilot hat. Paul? Paul? This is a family show, Paul. Look, I'm getting frustrated. They have fallen way down the Amelia Earhart rabbit hole. And in fact, they have like some kind of new idea for a website, I guess. Do you want to say it or should I? Fine, I'll do it. They want to start a website dedicated to Amelia Earhart conspiracies.

To be fair, I would click. I would click you guys. I think you got some good ones. Thankfully, they're not getting help from me, but from Squarespace, the sponsor of this episode. Yeah, I can't help you guys here. But listen, Squarespace can because Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online.

So whether you're just starting out like Joan and Paul or growing your brand, Squarespace makes it easy to create a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything from products to content to time all in one place. Squarespace stands out to me because of all of their features. I mean, they have something called Design Intelligence, which uses AI technology to help you build a personalized website that reflects you personally.

and your business. Squarespace also has a feature that helps you manage your payments all in one place. So like all you have to do is go through their fast onboarding process and after just a few clicks you're able to start receiving payments right away. My personal favorite feature is the analytics tool that shows you data about your website as well as like seller analytics. So that way you can get like insight on your website traffic, understand how your website's

reach is growing and pinpoint where to focus new engagement. So Joan and Paul will definitely be using Squarespace to help them with their Amelia Earhart conspiracy website, even though I'm sorry you guys, but it's kind of been done a hundred times at this point. Like you're, you don't have any new conspiracies like, but fine.

Do it, you guys. Happy for you. Well, check out squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, head to squarespace.com slash dark history to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

So for our next theory about where the hell Amelia Earhart and her plane actually went, we have Gardener Island. Nowadays, this island is called Nicamaroro Island. I'm sorry, I'm really struggling with Nicamaroro Island. But at the time of the story, it was called Gardener Island. And I'm gonna say that, I'm sorry.

Now, this is the theory that has the most research behind it. In fact, there's an entire nonprofit foundation with an initiative called the Earhart Project, which is dedicated to researching this theory. And eventually, they hope, finding out what actually happened. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery said,

has been studying the Earhart disappearance for decades and has conducted or sourced a lot of the research that people use to support the Gardner Island theory. Their story is that Amelia and Fred landed successfully on Gardner Island.

High tide swept the Electra into the ocean and Amelia and Fred lived as castaways there until they eventually died from the elements. Now, according to this theory, the wreckage of the Electra is in the deep water off the west end of Gardner Island.

Now this organization says that after failing to reach Howland, Amelia and Fred continued along their original route until they reached Gardiner where they landed. Now they're going off of Amelia's last transmission where she said we're running north and south, which would work with their theory. Amelia had said that they were quote on the line 157-337.

which in airplane speak describes a geographic position that passes over Howland Island. Flying along this line to try and find the island makes sense. And Gardiner Island also happens to be at the 157-337 line. So this organization believes that it's totally possible Amelia could have made it there. Plus Gardiner has a couple of flat, smooth areas that would be easy to land on. So they believe that

They had made a water landing on the reef near the island and the radio could only work and send distress calls during low tide when it was not waterlogged. During and after the first search, radio operators around the Pacific and in the United States had reported hearing distress calls. Some of these turned out to be hoaxes, which sucks because it, you know, but the organization believes that some people

Plus, one of those verified distress calls had apparently mentioned rising water, which fits with the theory that they were on Gardner Island and that the plane was eventually swallowed up by the tide. In fact, photos of the area from a British expedition three months after Amelia's disappearance shows an unidentified object on the reef edge.

Gasparrella. Organization researchers say that ships in the area were also picking up new signals on Amelia's frequency. So could it be that the plane had actually landed safely and that Amelia and Fred were alive trying to get help? I don't know.

but it gets crazier. Apparently, the U.S. Navy saw signs of people living on Gardiner Island, which they wrote off as island locals. Now, the organization reports that archaeology done on the island showed that

that anyone who may have been living there had access to airplane wreckage, which they used for, quote, local purposes, which I can assume here. I'm assuming. Here I go. Maybe it's to make tools, shelter. I don't know. You know, they had to get crafty. This is real life castaway. I guess some of the aluminum and plexiglass that they got off of the island is consistent with the materials that were on Amelia's plane.

That's very interesting. Now, personally, I think the most interesting evidence for this theory is what was discovered on the island three years after Amelia disappeared. So when the British were colonizing Gardiner Island, they noticed...

some pretty intriguing stuff. They found the bones of a castaway along with a campsite, parts of a woman's shoe, a man's shoe, and a box for a sextant, which is a flight navigation tool. There you go, case closed. What do you guys think?

I know, that's gotta be it. Listen, these shoes were similar to the shoes Amelia had worn. The sextant thing was the same kind that Fred used for backup. And according to the International Group of Historic Aircraft Recovery, their analysis, the bones belong to a white woman about the same height as Amelia.

So Tighar, the international group of aircraft recovery investigated Gardiner Island. And they say that they found a spot that matched the description of where the skeleton was found in 1940. They say that excavations in 2001, 2007, and 2010 found evidence of a woman living there in the thirties

including, quote, several artifacts of the same type as items known to have been carried by Earhart, end quote. Did we just solve the mystery? And their research shows that the serial number reported to have been on the sextant box matched the one that would have been on Fred's sextant. And honestly, that's a smoking gun, right? Doesn't that feel like that's it? We solved the mystery? It's closed? They were on an island? When?

When's the movie come out? That all seems pretty convincing. I am convinced. At least I was pretty convinced after reading all this research. I mean, we've got bones, shoes, artifacts, serial numbers. I mean, people seem to be building something out of like a aircraft. I don't know. It has to be them, right? So why has the Gardener Island theory not been accepted as the official conclusion? Well, Bailey, listen, I hate to be a buzzkill, but experts say the theory is impossible.

All those experts say that Amelia wouldn't have even had enough fuel to get to Gardner Island in the first place. But we don't know that. Shut up. Official analysis of the measurements of the bones found on Gardner also showed that they belonged to a short, stocky guy. So.

Not Amelia. And Fred, her navigator, was said to be tall and skinny, so it couldn't have been him either. Maybe there was another guy, I don't know. It seems like a pretty solid theory. But here's where I put my tinfoil hat on. Because the official explanation says that the bones belong to a short, stocky man, not Amelia.

But the investigations never examined the bones themselves. They were going off like old, old recorded measurements. So there's a chance as time and science and doctors and people and everything has gotten a little bit better and smarter, there's a chance like maybe it wasn't accurate. Maybe we should circle back. Maybe we shouldn't.

I don't know. Maybe we don't wanna know the answer. Well, I think the worst part is that the evidence of the bones no longer exist. They got rid of it. So great, cool, awesome. But you know the shoes that they found? They were the right size for Amelia.

Our expert for this episode actually said that the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum has a pair of Amelia's shoes in their collection and they are a size nine. Same as the ones that were found. But maybe a lot of people were wearing those shoes. But like what who's wearing those shoes out there on that island? Who else is wearing those shoes on that island? Maybe it washed up

There's just so many things, you know? And listen, just because this happened decades ago doesn't mean people have stopped looking. Oh, people are passionate about solving this. In 1999, Dana Timmer, a sailor and pilot, led a million dollar search for the Electra after he thought he had seen

He had seen the plane in like some sonar images, which are essentially x-ray images under the sea. So he had some money to spend. He's like, sure, fuck it. And after sinking a million bucks into the search, he could not find Amelia's plane. In 2002, 2005, and 2017, an ocean exploration firm called Nauticos did a bunch of their own searches, but...

All they found was shipping trash after millions of dollars, searching hundreds of thousands of square miles. Many, many decades, many theories, many, many thoughts. Okay, nobody knows for sure what happened to Amelia and Fred. For years after she disappeared, people still accused Amelia of doing this whole flight thing just for fame. Oh God, so what?

Even if she did want it just for fame, so what? She was doing more than you lame-os back then. You know? Shoot. And look, she did it. She's famous forever. Everyone knows her name now, huh? So, poo-poo on you, okay? Some people thought she was just trying to prove something to herself. That this whole thing was just a vanity project. Again, who cares? She's doing... She's breaking world records. People hate...

seeing women do shit and be good at it. But plenty of people see it as a huge step forward for women and aviation in general. Honestly, it was kind of bad PR. They're like, see what happens when a woman flies? She gets missing. Never see. It's like, damn, Amelia. You just look bad.

Since that tragic final flight, Amelia's husband, George, and her sister have collaborated on some biographies to keep Amelia's memory alive. But Amelia's family has publicly said that they wish that people would stop spending money, time, and resources on trying to find her.

Amelia's niece said in a recent documentary saying, quote, it's money that could be much better spent. Nothing is being gained by this, end quote. I get what she's saying. Yeah, for sure. Like spend your millions on something that will actually like change the world or whatever. But people have hobbies and fascinations and you can't stop them, you know? I'm sorry. I think people are fascinated by the story of Amelia because not only was she amazing, but her disappearance has left us with so many questions.

I mean, listen, I don't know about you, but I can speak for me here. Anytime there's a disappearance, I'm involved always. A weird, odd disappear, strange disappearance. If that's a YouTube video, I'm like, yep.

What happened? Like I wanted like disappearance. I don't know what it is, but it gets me. You just vanish one day, you're gone. It's weird. Let me know what you guys think in the comment section down below. I know you have some good conspiracy theories. I'm always seeing someone. There's always someone in the comment section who was like, my uncle's uncle's best friend was best friends with Amelia Earhart and they hung out and she's living in Cabo right now. And I'm like, what?

Like. So let me know. I read them. I read your comments. I do. Thanks. Okay. It's about to be Valentine's Day. Yes. This is the time of year where everyone is laying on the romance extra thick.

Oh yeah, especially when it comes to setting the mood. People are eating foods like oysters and chocolate covered strawberries all because they heard these foods are something called aphrodisiacs. Now I've heard of this for many, many years and it's like, is there science behind foods that are supposed to make us humans horny?

Or are these just weird, I don't know, myths that are convincing us to buy more stuff? Well, join us on our next episode as we dive into the dark history of aphrodisiacs. By the way, we're dark next week, so there won't be an upload, but we will be right back on February 12th.

Well, thank you for hanging out with me today. Did you know you actually can watch these episodes on my YouTube? Oh yeah, the podcast goes up Wednesday and then you can watch on Thursday on YouTube. And then while you're there, you can also watch my murder mystery and makeup. That's on Mondays though. And then also subscribe, okay? Listen, I'm fun. I'd love to hear your guys' reactions to today's story. So make sure to leave a comment down below and maybe I'll read a comment in a future episode.

episode, but now let's read some comments you guys left me. I love it.

Gbez, G-B-E-Z, left a comment on our Ancient Torture Part 2 episode saying, "The torture museum in Amsterdam is wild. Do a segment on the mouth pair." Gbez, J-B-E-Z, sorry, I don't know how to say your name, in our Medieval Torture Techniques Part 1, we did do a little drive-by of the mouth pair situation and let me tell you, look,

Drop everything. Okay, this whole show could just be about medieval torture techniques and I would be here for it all day because they were crafty, they were weird, and they were wild. And when you look up the mouth pair, it looks like a cooking tool, like something you would whisk with or something, right? It's awful. We need ancient torture part three. Okay, let me know. Actually a passion project. Just let me do it. More...

But thank you for the recommendation. If you're at home, Google mouth pair and you'll be like, what? Yeah. Deezy236 said, I like listening to your podcast while drinking coffee and sit cozily on my couch. Aw, Deezy, thank you so much. Thank you for listening. It really means a lot to me.

That's nice. I hope you learn something new every day. Do you use a lot of creamer? How much creamer? Are you a creamer person? What's your creamer ratio? Let me know. What's your favorite creamer? Right now I'm into pumpkin spice, even though it's spring now. I'm still in pumpkin spice season. Let me live. Camille Faulkner 3267 had an episode request. In all caps too, so you know it's serious. Do a Bailey history, please.

You mentioned your strict upbringing, but who is Bailey and how did she get here? Camille.

I don't think you want to go there, do you? I don't think you're ready for the trip. No, um, I love that idea. I think that's so funny. Ha ha ha, I'm dying. LOL. Um, look, I was thinking about this the other day, because I was like, do I want to write a book? But if I write a book, I have to wait until, like, everyone dies. And, like, I can't write a memoir right now, because it's like, I'm not even, I'm not dead. I haven't even done that much. But I have so much to say. Let me tell you, I have so much to say. I'm...

Yeah, so if we did the dark history of Bailey Sarian, it would just be more sad.

Camille, I'm gonna write a book one day and I'll send it to you, okay? Thank you for recommending something. I hope we have a good day. Thank you guys for commenting. I appreciate you. I hope you have a good rest of your day. I've said it a million times, but you make good choices. And hey, if you don't know, Dark History is an Audioboom original. I wanna give a big special thank you to our expert, the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum. Do I get free tickets? Can I come?

And I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. Hope you have a good day. You make good choices. And I'll be talking to you later. Goodbye.