My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 406 - My Husband's Lovely Wife

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

On today's episode, Georgia covers the disappearance of Bonnie Bickwit and Mitchel Weiser and Karen tells the story of Marina Raskova and the Night Witches.For our sources and show notes, visit www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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What a life these celebrities lead. Imagine walking the red carpet, the cameras in your face, the design clothes, the worst dress list, big house, the world constantly peering in, the bursting bank account, the people trying to get the grubby mitts on it. What's your all about? I'm just saying, being really, really famous. It's not always easy. I'm Emily Loitany, and I'm Anna Leongrofi,

and we're the hosts of Terribly Famous from Wondery, the podcast which tells the stories of our favorite celebrities from their perspective. Each season we show you what it's really like being famous by taking you inside the life of a British icon. We walk you through their glittering highs and eyebrow raising lows and ask, is fame and fortune really worth it? Follow terribly famous now wherever you get your podcasts or listen early and add freefree on Wondry Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app. Many put their hope in Dr. Serhat. His company was worth half a billion dollars. His research promised groundbreaking treatments for HIV and cancer. But the brilliant doctor was hiding a secret.

You can listen to Dr. Death, Bad Magic, exclusively an ad-free by subscribing to Wendry Plus in the Wendry app. My city love Hello! And welcome to my favorite murder. That's Georgia Hardstark. Hey, that's Karen Kylgara. And we're here to provide you with some true crime stories, the tough stuff, and then some observations that are neither professional nor very well informed. Are you into it?

Apparently you are, because you press play. Too late, you're already in. Yeah, you're a sister, press play, you're in the car, you're on a road trip, it's December now. You're in the car. You're on a road trip. It's December now. Your girlfriend forced play. Uh-oh. Sorry. Sorry.

Sorry. It's going to be like this from now on. It's December now. That's correct. Are you excited about the holidays? Yes, thank you for asking. I am up to my ears and catalogs that I can't stop lightly thumbing through.

And the rule now is, if I'm going to buy something for myself, I have to buy at least two other people in my family a gift. Oh, that's sweet. And right now I'm looking at, because in my office is my gift pile. Oh, I think I might have one quarter

of my Christmas shopping already done. You guys do hardcore presents, like everyone has to get everyone a gift. Oh yeah. That's a lot of pressure. It is. I don't do that, but my brother and his wife might do that, and then they come over and give me like a little land comb hand cream set. And I'm like, I thought we didn't do this every year, every year I have to apologize and said, I thought we didn't do this every year, every year after apologize and said, I thought we don't do this. That's because your husband's lovely wife, tell me your name again. My husband's lovely wife is Georgia.

No. Yeah. And she is lovely. And she is me. Yolanda. Asher's wife, your sister. Your sister. Your mom, Yolanda.

You know that your brother would be like, no problem, we won't do it next year. And then Yolanda is like absolutely not. Totally, totally. That's not what we're like. Yeah, she makes our family look good. And then we just pass by older nephew, a handy, a crisp handy dollar bill.

He must love you so much. I mean, we're the best. And then yeah, that's it. Well, we don't do that. I'm glad, I don't, yeah. It seems like. Well, we don't do that. I'm glad. I don't, yeah. It seems like a lot of pressure to get people stuff they might not want.

Oh, absolutely. That's why some families exchange gift lists beforehand. And you just, it's basically, for Christmas, you run errands for the other people and get them what they want. And they know they're getting it, and then they get it. That's not what my family does, either. You have to.

They don't make it easy. No. Before, during or after, you have to get them exactly what their heart's desire is. But they won't tell you what it is. They absolutely would never tell you. We don't know ourselves. I'll pray both parts here.

You don't know as the shopper. You have no ideas, the receiver. You just want someone to do it right for once. So it's cashmere, slippers. A lot of cashmere, a lot of slippers. And what about a magazine subscription for the year? That's a great suggestion. That's a really good idea. Plant club, plant at the month, and they send you a new plant every month.

I really love that one. Yes! Wait, did you get a holiday job suggesting present? I'm writing Vogue's 15 holiday presents for people you don't know what to get. That's not true. You turn it in and you're like plants and they're like, Georgia, we do need a little more specificity in this. Lance! They just start just claiming it.

Slippers, what do you mean specificity? I dare you to go over there with $50 and scratchers for each person. And that's fucking it that year for you. That's actually, I think that both my sister and my father would love that. Is now would my knees be allowed to play? What's the age limit on the lottery? It's gambling.

It's whatever gambling age is. 18, I guess. 21. What do you got this week? I guess my one thing is I want to my first Christmas party of the season. Oh, wow. Yeah, pretty early, really fun.

And also just like the first party I've been to and I don't know, four years or something, like a really long time. Did you socialize? I did. Did you get dressed up? Yeah, in the way that I do, where I kind of look like 60s and Margaret.

So it's kind of like a tighter pant with a V-neck sweater. It's like the fashion black clothes instead of the everyday black clothes. Exactly. I'm not pretending that I'm about to work out. I'm pretending that I'm, you know, somehow classy that you're leaving the house. Those are my two looks. I love it. That's perfect.

Always pretending. I'm nervous two looks. I love it. That's perfect. Always pretending. I'm nervous about our ERM holiday party. Yeah. Like, because we don't work in an office, so we don't do face-to-face stuff. We haven't met out of our many, many employees other than on Zoom. Right?

We've met them in person. And we have, like, it's like 35, 36 people now. Yep. So that's a lot. But the good news is your idea held over from, I think, the last Christmas party, which was we're using name tags again, so that you don't have to deal with the pressure of how dare you not remember. Thank God.

I have a quick book, Rick. It's a quick, like, who done it? Strong, female, detective lead. Yes. There's a lot of trigger warnings that I should say in it that you've got to look up yourself. However, it takes place in Northern California, some of it in Petaluma. No.

Because aside from the fictitious crime we're chasing, it's at the same time that polyclasses kidnapping is happening. Oh. So that gets mentioned and brought in. other real true crimes get brought in. Well, that's the story I told on this podcast. Remember I told you that there was the part where the kids at the junior high when they found out that she was missing. They picked up the missing posters and ran out into the street. Just ran out of the school and it was like downtown.

All of a sudden there was children everywhere putting posters everywhere. I remember that. That's in the book. Is it? Yeah. So someone on Instagram named Emily dried all, told me to read this book. It's called When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLean. And Paula McLean is like a great crime writer.

So it's a quickie. I got and do it and out of it real fast listening to it. If you're on a road trip or going to see your family or whatever I need something to listen to, it's a good one. I wonder if Paula McLean is from Sonoma County. It takes place in Mendocino and she mentions in the end that she lived there for a while in her 20s. Oh, okay.

Probably. Yeah. Wow. That sounds great. I'm reading a very scary book right now, but I'm, oh, wait till I'm done. That's my push to actually continue to read. Oh. Because you can't talk about it until you finish it, you phony, because you'll just talk about it and never look at the book again, but it's real good. You don't have to finish a book to like a book, right?

True, but like if we're gonna do book recommendations. Yeah. It's like, hey, I read the first seven pages. It's amazing. Like, I would absolutely do that if we could get away with it. But like, are you getting joy from the first half of it? That joy doesn't go away because it sucks at the end. True, but I do feel like especially authors

would feel like the entire experience is the crucial part of the recommendation. Like, do you know what you're talking about ultimately? Mm-hmm. That's just a restriction I'm keeping on myself. Okay, fair enough. Should we do a Spotify conversation? I mean, this is kind of like, we're about to do a thing that we've never really done before, which is like old school radio station shoutouts. Like, people are writing in, here's their

shoutouts, but it's basically, you guys have all of our listeners. Every year, send us their Spotify wrapped when their numbers for our podcast are really high to go, look what I'm doing for you people. Yeah. Can I have a little bit of credit for how much time I spend with you? Listening to you. That's right, and we really appreciate all the Spotify

wrapped 2023 posts that we got. So we thought we'd read a couple tweets from listeners in their number of minutes. Yes. It gives them the credit that they have earned. Okay. This my first one is bruised T-leaf at Juan A, W-A-H-H-N-A-Y. Listen to 15,958 minutes of my favorite murder. Wow. Can you believe it? I can. Although let's just do you one better. This is from at Liv Bordman, L-I-V-V Bordman, who says, at my favorite murder, I've spent the equivalent of 20 days straight listening this year. Still have one year's worth of episodes left till I'm up to date. Live, listen for 28,350 minutes. Oh my God.

And a top point 5% fan. Thank you. I mean, it is fun to know this stat. Oh yeah, I didn't see that. It is. Falcon at Falcon Lord Zero. The Falcon Lord listens. Falcon Lord zero. The Falcon Lord listens. The Falcon Lord listens.

They listen to 73,172 minutes of my favorite harder. That's amazing. Amazing. Thank you. Well, then, you know what? Now I realize that Aaron put these together almost in ascending order because this last one is from Vanessa at Cry Bixby in Junior. Vanessa says, the math is telling me this is equivalent to 1,689 hours listening to us. And then it just says, I just love you all so much. It says, you've

listened for 101,375 minutes. Oh my God. You must talk to yourself in our voices now. I feel like, because that's what I would do, like when I listen to something for a long time. Yeah. Like I narrate my life in the voices of whatever I'm listening to in this video. Just please be careful Vanessa. I don't, I've been having to listen to this voice for 50 plus years.

It's not great. It's going to turn on you at some point. Just get ready. Question the advice that your brain is giving you, because it might be our advice, and which, as we've said, multiple times, is not always sound. No, not certainly not professional. Right, not professional.

No, not learned, not any of it, but it's from the heart. It is, and we appreciate you. Should we switch right over to the year I'm in Highlights? Sure. Let's do it. Hey, we have a podcast now. We're called exactly right media. Here's some fun things from it.

Actor Lou Wilson, who's the announcer on the Jimmy Kimmel Live program, is Bridger's guest this week and I said no gifts. And also, Bridger had a Black Friday billboard in Times Square go to his Instagram. I said no gifts to see the picture of Bridger rewarding over Times Square the way he always was meant to. He was. That's family so happy. And then on that's messed up in SVU podcast Kara and Lisa discussed the SVU episode, a misunderstanding from 2016, season 17.

And they also have a couple more live tour dates before the end of the year. So if they're in your town, you would be very, very sad to miss them. Yes. I promise you. Great, wonderful performers. Also, if you like Nick Terry's MFM animated, he has a new one out called Cookie's Dog. It's an instant classic. He's really captured the conversation about Cookie cookies imaginary dog from episode 395 So you can go to youtube.com slash exactly right media and you can watch that Nictary video and then all the other MFM animators. They're all up there go take a look see. They're fun So funny, you know, it's so amazing about the cookies dog video is video is that Nick Terry can tell he's a true

artist because he went back and looked to see what color Cookies harness and leash were like in my Instagram and got it right. And they're both like how does he know purple? How does he know it's purple? It's like, oh wait, we've posted about her constantly. Oh wait, he's a professional. He understands details matter. And at this point, it's too late to order merchandise if you'd like to receive it in time for Christmas. However, the exactly right and my favorite murder store now has gift cards. Hey. Hey, it's the perfect last minute gift or stocking stuff

for your favorite podcast listener and they can use it for all the fun stuff in either the exactly right and the my favorite murder store. So go to exactlyrightstore.com to grab one. And enjoy all our new designs while you're there. There's some really cute ones. My sister went and bought a sweatshirt without telling me and Aaron, we were on a meeting together.

And she's like, your sister bought a sweatshirt. I watched her do it. Ha ha ha. Doesn't she know one of the many perks of being your sister is that she gets free my favorite murder and exactly right merch? That's not true though, because she doesn't listen to this podcast.

So she doesn't get anything for free. Fuck her, Laura. Fuck her. There's no denying that holiday shopping can be stressful, especially when you're looking for something meaningful or personal. Luckily, there's an easy and thoughtful solution with the Skylight Digital Picture Frame.

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Still, three years later, getting compliments from my mom about how much she loves it, because my brother and sister and I can constantly continue to upload photos to it. So it's almost like you're getting a whole new photo album. It is the gift that keeps on giving. It's a parent's dream, as a special limited time offer for our listeners' gift,

$30 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go to ca.skylightframe.com and enter promo code MFM. To get $30 off your purchase of a skylight frame, just go to ca.skylightframe.com promo code MFM. That's ca.sk.y. LiGHT. F-R-A-M-E.com code MFM. The Haldedays are always kind of a disaster for Noah. And it's not because his family celebrates a weird hodgepodge of Christmas and Hanukkah, it's that visiting them is half the problem.

His mom's always too busy, his sister only cares about work, and Noah never really got along with his older brother and sister-in-law. So where does that leave him during the most magical time of year? Looking for love in all the wrong places. Chris Mrs. Anica, Meet Cute's podcast available on Wondery Plus, starring Amy Sideris and Noah Galvin tells the story of how Noah, in his quest to fight loneliness during the holidays, meets super sexy Eric, his dream man. If only it were that simple, Eric's in an open relationship, and Noah's not sure how he feels about polyamory. But Eric's really great, so much so that it forces Noah to re-examine some strongly held

beliefs about what it means to love and to be loved. Because if he doesn't, this Christmas Susanneica is just to be the most solitary yet. Then, Christmas Susannica on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Christmas Susannica exclusively on Wondery Plus. What if your partner developed 21 new identities? Or you discovered that your friend who helped you through the darkest times was actually a conniving con artist. Or what if you began seeing demons everywhere, inhabiting people around you, including your son? What would you do? I'm Whit Missildine, the creator of this is actually happening.

A podcast that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events, told by the people who lived them. In our newest season, you'll hear even more intimate first-person accounts of how regular people have overcome remarkable circumstances, like the man who went to jail for 17 years for accidentally shooting the person who tried to save his life. To a close friend of the infamous scam artist, Amanda Riley. These haunting accounts sound like Hollywood movies, but I assure you this is actually happening. Follow this is actually happening on the Wondry app or ever you get your podcasts, and you can listen to this is actually happening ad-free on Wondry Plus.

All right, well, I'm first this week. Okay. I'm telling you, not asking you. Okay. I'm telling you, not asking you. I've decided it's okay that you go first this week. And then for the rest of the month after this normal episode, we're doing like quickies, but they're not quick. They're still like long episodes. They're still very long and normal.

Right, so we just don't have an opening and then one of us tells together a story each episode, but they're still great. We did some really great stories in their Harvey Melk. Yeah, I just do the 11 Worth Prison Break. I mean, look, we don't have to make excuses. There's some podcast that completely disappear for the two holiday months.

So like we're still here with you, given you fresh new content, you're going to love it. And they're slightly shorter, but then at the same time in a lot of ways not at all. Yeah. In other ways, you're still going to slog through them. We promise. Yeah.

Okay. I'm at the stage of my day where my story is printed on blue because I can't get the energy to change my printer ink. You know what I mean? Hell, yeah. You know, you're at this age of 2023 where you can't do that. That's how I feel. That's right. It's all blue. It's all lay down time from here on out.

Lay down time, I love it. Okay, so today I'm covering a story that I read in a recent Rolling Stone article that came out that was fascinating and I was like, I have to cover this. The article for Rolling Stone is titled Two Teens Hitch Tike to a Concert 50 years later, they haven't come home by Eric J. Greenberg. Wow. So this is a disappearance The article for Rolling Stone is titled Two Teens Hitchtike to a Concert 50 Years Later, They Hadn't Come Home by Eric J. Greenberg. Wow. So this is the disappearance of Bonnie Bickwick and Mitchell Weiser. Hmm.

So the other main source I use is MitchellandBonnie.com. It's a website that serves as a resource hub with photos, news clippings, and more detailing their disappearance. And the other sources are listed in our show notes. Okay, so here we are. It's the summer of 1973. The Vietnam War is still going on, but American support has dwindled. Richard Nixon is in his penultimate year. Thank you, Jay, for the research and using smart words. Do you know what year that is?

Penultimate is the year before, right? That's right. I didn't mean that to be so conceding. I thought that'd be a fun learning moment, but it wasn't offended. Okay, good. He's in the penultimate year of his presidency. And with the Watergate hearings in full swing, his approval rating has fallen to an all-time low. On top of all this, the Arab oil embargo is in full effect, causing nationwide fuel shortages and sending American citizens' ability to travel on the open roads, which is such a part of American life and a modern American experience. So just to give you an idea of what's going on, shit's not great. Got you. Not a great time to be alive. So this political and economic turmoil of the early 70s

sets the stage for a flourishing of a counter-culture movement that defines the era of the American hippie. Hippy used brother hair long and take to the streets to protest the Vietnam War, psychedelic drugs, spark controversy between boring people and people who think it's dangerous and shit. And rock and roll music takes off facilitating the gathering of all those who choose to revel in the peace, love, and anti-violence sentiments of the counter-culture revolution.

Like what a terrible time to be alive, what a great time to be alive, you know, contains multitudes. It does. It, as know, contains multitudes. It does. It as as it always does. It's like as bad as things get, then people actually start to take action, which is like we're seeing in 2023 as well, where it's like people start to realize, I have to do something. I can't wait for somebody else to do something. Yeah, the status quo won't do.

So among the iconic rock and roll bands of this time are the Almond Brothers, the band called the Band, which I watched the documentary about recently with the Vence. It was pretty cool. And the Grateful Dead, of course. So all of those are playing at a massive music festival at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Raceway in upstate New York on July 28, 1973. It's called Not Woodstock, the Summer Jam. So organized by concert promoter and business partners Jim Coppick and Shelley Finkle and assisted by legendary concert promoter Bill Graham,

Summer Jam is originally set to host 150,000 guests and they're all purchasing tickets at $10 a piece. The venue Watkins Glen, New York's grand pre-Raceway, had only ever held 100,000 people, so the extra 50,000 was already kind of pushing the limits of like what they could hold. But the draw of the Grateful Dead, the Almond Brothers and the Band, it can't be contained. In the days living up to the July 28th show, even though tickets had sold out thousands of people without tickets show up in droves,

as we've all seen in Woodstock documentaries, jamming the small country roads of the roughly 2700 person town. So small town, bunch of fucking hippies and rockin' rollers show up. Peace love. What's crazy is that it's like all those, I bet you many of those people were at Woodstock and none of them learned the lesson of remember how kind of awful that was and how fucked up it got. Like we're just showing up, but I guess that's a very hippie way of doing this.

It's like we're just gonna show up and see if we get a little, you know, good luck ticket, whatever we'll just see. Because you can still hear the music, you know, good luck ticket, whatever we'll just see. Yeah. Because you can still hear the music, you don't have to be standing inside the gate. Yeah, I think the idea is like, let's just see what happens. That should, couldn't have happened often. A lot of them are probably from small towns. And like, why not, right? It's summer.

Yeah. So of course, there's nowhere for the traffic to move. So everything gets jammed up. People start hopping out of their cars, leaving them there and hiking anywhere from five to eight miles to get to the venue. So you're just in a permanent like single line parking lot when you need to get back out. Yeah. No, thank you. No, thank you. No, thank you. Before we're the girls who would stay home at Woodstock, given the choice. For real.

We're the no thanks. I'll stay home and feed the dog. You know what, give me your purse, and I'm gonna walk back to our house and then lock the front door and stay there. Yeah, I'm good. I'll be here when I need to do summer school. You guys go. Tell me about it.

Just remember everything and tell me. I'm gonna love the story. Take mine pictures. Okay, Cole Pick and Finkle Consult with Bill Graham, and they decide to fuck it, allow everyone who shows up to attend the concert for free. They assume that's the only way to avoid the crowd backlash and help everyone have a safe fun time.

You know, not like putting up areas, everyone's gonna fucking trip their ass over them. It's just gonna be a riot. Fuck it, let everyone in, which is smart. In the end, an estimated 600,000 people attend summer jam. That's too many. Dwarfing wood stocks, 400,000 person crowds, just four years prior, and making the festival a long-running Guinness Book World Record holding event for greatest claimed attendance at a pop festival.

With no water. Oh my god. Or toilets. No. No. Classic needs covered at all. I have to ask this in every story we cover that's historic. What did women do with the period?

Like how did they handle their period? They walked over to the forest. I'll be like, I'll be back in two hours. Oh my god. I gotta go find some moss. But before the festival becomes a free for all, two lucky teens score those $10 tickets. Those two teens are high school juniors,

Larry Marion and Mitchell Weiser, who's their bill 16. When Larry's parents forbid him to go, however, he gives up his ticket to Mitchell's girlfriend, 15 year old Bonita Dicwitt, who goes by Bonnie. I'm going to call her Bonnie for now. Mitchell Weiser is 16, as I said. He's a Brooklyn native raised in a middle-class Jewish family, though their political beliefs

and opinions start to diverge as Mitchell becomes a teenager, as it always does seems to happen often. He's still close with his family. He has many good friends at school. He's a skinny kid with glasses and long hair that he pulls back into a ponytail, just like a sweet normal kid from the 70s in Brooklyn. He loves baseball, but he's also very interested in the arts

and he develops a love for photography and lands a coveted job as the photographer's assistant at a local Brooklyn studio that summer in 1973. So, normal, all American kid. He's bright and talented, and he attends a new experimental school for gifted students called John Dewey High School in Brooklyn. And it's there that he meets Bonnie Bickwitt.

She's an equally bright, yet far more outspoken, 15-year-old, she's always been a high achiever academically. So when she hears about the school, John Dewey, for like, gifted kids, she writes an impassioned letter to the principal asking to be admitted. The principal is so blown away by the letter that he admits Bonnie into the school

and even frames the letter and hangs it on his office wall. Oh, so she is awesome. Like Mitchell Bonnie also comes from a middle-class Jewish family, with whom she's quite close. She, like many other Jewish kids in her community, spends her summers at Camp Wellmet, a popular Jewish summer camp in the Catskills. Once she reaches her teen years and grows up at the camper age, she gets a job at Wellmet as a mother's helper. Bonnie and Mitchell are an inseparable couple who all their friends love and envy. Their love is so strong that earlier that summer of 1973, the two secretly exchanged quote, wedding rings. Obviously, they're not legally

married, but that's kind of a, what is it called? Gesture. Teenage thing, teenage gesture. Both kids have big hearts and take an interest and causes like environmental preservation and indigenous people's rights. Bonnie is described as free spirited, Mitchell as fearless. They dated for about a year and a half,

sharing their love of art and music. Bonnie's favorite band is The Almond Brothers and Mitchell's is the Great Full Dead. So when the opportunity to see both of their favorite bands at the same show comes up, there's obviously nothing that could stop them from going. So they get these two tickets. So the plan is for Mitchell to meet up with Bonnie at the camp well met in Nero'sburg, New York, and then she was going to take off from the camp and they were going to hitchhike together from the camp to the concert. So Mitchell takes all the cash she has, 25 bucks, and uses it for a bus ticket into Nero's

burg and a camp ride to camp well met. So though Bonnie spent many great summers at camp well met by the summer of 1973, it seems like she's kind of over it. And a letter to Stewart Carton, Mitchell's best friend, who is also friends with Bonnie. She describes being lonely and bored at the camp. She's tells Stewart she's thinking about quitting her job and even asked him if the camp he goes to his hiring

so she can work there instead. So, like, she's kind of over it. So, when Mitchell arrives and on the morning of Friday, July 27, 1973, Bonnie's request for time off is denied. And she's like, screw it, I quit and leaves with Mitchell, leaving behind her thing. She says, I'll come get them next week. Oh, yeah, she's like, I'll come get my stuff

and my last paycheck next week. So they're like, nothing stopping them from going to this concert. Yeah. So what can's Glenn where the concert is is about 155 miles northwest of Narrowsburg where the camp is. So they have to hitchhike 155 miles. That's a lot, right?

That's like what from here to like, it's halfway to San Francisco or like a little less, but I mean, it's way up. Three hours. Yeah. Then in nearest highway, state route 97 runs right through the camp. So Mitchell and Bonnie walk over and wait by the side of the road with a cardboard sign reading Watkins Glen

waiting to hitch a ride, which at the time, of course, don't ever hitch hike now. At the time, it was a totally normal thing. I mean, it was more than normal. It was like how some people got around, right? Right. Yes. To me, in my opinion, that kind of culture in the early 70s had that kind of like, it was counterculture. So you're hitchhiking, you're, you're conserving, you don't have a car. Someone else is going to be cool and it's love. And it was like in the spirit of the day, which we now have done enough stories we're looking back.

It's like the spirit of the day may have reigned and that was like what everybody wanted to be happening, peace, love, et cetera. Right. But that isn't always the way. Yeah, it's always evil lurking. You know what? I just thought of this,

if everyone's home for the holidays, ask your parents or your grandparents if they have any hitchhiking stories, send them for our hometowns at my favorite murder at GMO. Please. Good one, right? But you know, ask the question, see what you can get going at the dinner table.

Yeah. And then if that is fruitful, hitchhiking, then you get them. Now I know you did drugs, and then you just get confrontational. Yeah. I guarantee your great aunt, who never had kids, has a hitchhiking story.

Promise, right? Easily. Okay, so they're waiting to hitch a ride. They kids are wearing jeans and a t-shirt. They have sleeping bags under their arms. Mitchell is also carrying a gray and olive green plaid flannel shirt and his fancy camera. It isn't long before passing truck driver pulls over to pick them up. He takes them as far down the highway as he

can then drops them off. But this is the last time anyone would see or hear from Mitchell and Bonnie. No one's even sure if they made it to the concert or not. So, fast forward to that Monday, July 30th, 1973, the concert happened, and Bonnie doesn't show back up at Camp Well Met to get her stuff. So Camp staff calls Bonnie's mom, Ray Bickwitt, and tells her that Bonnie's missing. At the same time, Mitchell's family, having not heard from him start to worry as well,

Mitchell's dad and sister, Sydney and Susan respectively hop in the car and make the five-hour drive from Brooklyn to Watkins Glen. And they meet with police there, but when they try to report the kids missing and ask the police to launch an investigation into their disappearance, the local police, which is Skylar County, police chuck the whole thing up to a runaway teen situation and dismiss the families, please for help. Certain the kids would not just run away and determine to find them.

Sydney leaves photos of Mitchell and Bonnie with the police anyway. He ensues and then drive around the county, including the Watkins Glen Gorge and search for the kids themselves. They spend hours calling out their names but don't have any luck finding them. It's such a nightmare like there was the most gigantic music festival in the area and then you're

they're asking police for this very specific and very important help. Yeah. And they're probably already, they have been overwhelmed for so long. Like this, I'm sure this imagine all the crazy shit that people got up to during this festival. And now they're like, oh, but hold on, there might be some missing hitchhikers. And it's like, you can just hear the police being like, we don't have time for that.

And there might, it's like two teens who are hungover still and like they'll make it, it's like Monday, it's not even like a week later. But I think that's how weird this is for those kids is the fact, it's not even like a week later. But I think that's how weird this is for those kids is the fact that it wasn't even like a week later. It was Monday that the parents were like, something's fucking wrong. So like that in itself, you should listen to.

Absolutely, these are kids that go to super smart school. Right. These are people that do their homework that whose parents are in it with them. Yeah, you can count on them. Yeah. So looking to cast a wider net, Bonnie's mom Ray drives out to Monticello, New York to report the kids missing with the Sullivan County Sheriff's

Department, which is another police jurisdiction in the surrounding area. And that was the last place Bonnie and Mitchell were seen when the truck driver dropped them off. They too blow it off, believe the kids are runaways, because both kids are Brooklyn residents, the NYPD are technically supposed to aid in the investigation too, but they never got involved. Without much help from police, Bonnie and Mitchell's families do everything they can to try and track the kids down on their own. They post ads and as many newspapers across New York as they can't, as they can afford to buy space in, they mail at least 500 letters and circulars to Native American

reservations and mission schools because Bonnie and Mitchell are both big advocates for Indigenous people's rights. So they thought me if they, if they had run away, maybe they went there. Oh, okay. You know, just in their minds. Just trying to follow any logic of what could be happening. Exactly. And they follow up on every tiny lead that comes in no matter how obscure, their friends from school, their super smart friends, raised $675 to $8 in the cost of the search. Ray even consults with a psychic. And the psychic says she sees the kids, quote, lying in a gravel pit, but never provides a location. So awful. And Mitchell's sister Susan even goes so far to infiltrate local cults,

like the Unification Church, which is the moonies, right? And the children of God to see if maybe the kids had gotten lured in somehow. I mean, what, that's incredible at a sister would do such a thing. It's just heartbreaking. It's so sad, like the desperation, yeah, totally. But none of their efforts lead to finding Bonnie and Mitchell. Mitchell and Bonnie's family friends keep their search up for the next 10 years. But eventually, their funds dry up and media coverage fades because it's the 70s, tools like Namus and the National Center for Missing and Exploded Children

haven't been created yet. And nobody took Missing Children, especially teenagers seriously back then, it was just all runaways in their minds. So the family's kind of have no choice but to cut back on their search efforts and the case runs cold. In 1984, the Wizer family moves to Arizona to help with Mitchell's dad's asthma, but they

pay the New York phone company every month to keep their new Arizona phone number in the New York phone books in case Mitchell ever returns to the city and tries to look them up. How heartbreaking is that? So, Zan, that's so sad. Okay, so 25 years later, in 1998, New York based investigative reporter who I mentioned in the beginning, Eric J. Greenberg is looking for a story when he decides to dig back into the case. When he finds, on top of the NYPDs and Sullivan and Skylar County's negligence is a flat out mishandling of any paper trail of the case at all.

The original case files held by Sullivan County Sheriff's Department, which contained things like a potential witness list, and the kids' dental records to help ID if any remains were found, have since gone completely missing. So like an initial witness list. That could be gold of you know, of like the people who are still around from the concert milling about.

Did you see these kids? Any of that shit. So the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had been established in 1984 and they generate age progression photos of Bonnie and Mitchell and Sullivan County's detective Lieutenant Anthony Suarez is put in charge of reinvestigating in 1994. Unfortunately, facing an uphill battle without those case files that are missing, Suarez drops the ball entirely. He doesn't even try to track down witnesses nor does he contact the investigator originally assigned to the case.

Greenberg publishes his article detailing all of these missteps in 1998. It generates a lot of outrage from loved ones and strangers alike. I'll take it back by the fact that the police could hear a report of missing children and completely neglected. So looking back now, members of each county's police departments and the NYPD admit that they screwed up and they say they carry a lot of shame for it. As maddening as the report of police not giving a shit is, it prompts Bonnie and Mitchell's loved ones to publicly call the New York governor and attorney general to reopen the case. So it gives

it some much needed attention. Finally, in June of 2000, Governor George Pataki appoints Sullivan County resident and state police investigator Roy Streever, along with Detective William Killgallon. I got brought on stage one time as Lori Killgallon. Lori? In the first name. Lori Killgallon. Because there's the comic Lori Kill Martin, who's a headliner. Oh, okay.

So the host was just kind of combining all the girls and throwing it out there. Oh my God. So they're called on to reinvestigate the disappearance of Bonnie and Mitchell, so that's in 2000. At the same time, MSNBC runs an episode of it's then new series missing persons that details the case.

And so in October of 2000, Striever gets a call from a 51-year-old man named Alan Smith. This is chilling. He saw the episode of missing persons and claimed that he met Mitchell and Bonnie on the road all those years back in 1973. According to Alan, they had all tried to get to Summer Jam but couldn't get anywhere because of the crazy traffic. So giving up, they turned back and hitch-tiked together, landing a ride with a random driver in an orange VW bus with Pennsylvania license plates, so I'll very specific. Along the way, he says that the force stopped by the Suscohanna River to take a dip and cool off. But when Bonnie jumped in, he says,

the current swept her away. Mitchell dove in after her, but he vanished too. That's what he says. Like he saw that whole thing happen. Okay. Alan and the driver, figuring there wasn't much they could do. They can't jump in as well, agreed to leave. With the driver promising he'd stop at a pay phone and report the incident. So Alan got dropped off before they reached a phone and he just says that he assumed the driver must have made the call, but he has no way of knowing. That is his story of how they disappeared. It's like, it's creepy, right? Yes, it is. It could be real. It absolutely could be real. But I just, as we always do on the show, I just kind of put myself in that position. And if you think you just witnessed two drownings, you drive away going,

hey, you're going to take care of it, right? Like, I don't, I can't relate to that. I personally can't relate to that. I understand they would have had to get to a phone. There's a lot of things involved because it was 1973 or whatever it was, but I just don't like treating it like it was an errand that you're going to kind of shift off of yourself and onto a different person seems cold at best. Yeah. For sure. So, Striever and Kill Galallen, they meet up with this guy, Alan, and they drive him up and down the section of the Susquehanna area that he says it happened, but Alan says nothing looks familiar to him. You know, it's been so long. Yeah. On top of that, there are never any bodies found in that region that matched Bonnie and Mitchell's descriptions. While Streever and Killgallon do find Allen to be a quote, credible witness, there's no

real way to confirm his story. So lacking any heart evidence, though, Mitchell and Bonnie's families do find it hard to have any closure with this theory. And of course, doubts remain in their mind. Like, it's a convenient story, but there's no proof of it whatsoever. Yeah, and I mean, it's completely understandable that the family's not satisfied by that. And it's purely speculation of what else could be going on.

But after all that time being told that, where it's like, oh, there's some people who witnessed them drown and just didn't let anybody know. But now we're going to let you know, because 30 or 40 years have passed. It just doesn't really track. Yeah. Well, he says it's because he saw the missing person's episode and realizes that, you know, I guess like there wouldn't have been a lot of ways for him to look it up on the internet and see what the outcome had been.

True. And also, you know, that person did reach out when they did. Like, I don't mean to. Right. Be judgmental of that person. I just, it all is like very odd. Yeah. I don't think if I had been a family member, would have been, like, satisfied and able to move on from that description alone. Unfortunately, the next year, September 11th happens. A terrorist attacks on the twin towers, of course, it occupies all of the NYPD's personnel and resources. And so once again,

Mitchell's and Bonnie's case is left by the wayside. It is an intel 2011 that a new detective, detective Cyrus Barnes of Sullivan County is handed the case. He looks into the drowning story, but unlike Strever and Kill Galen, he finds Alan's story to be full of holes during the time in which he supposedly watched Bonnie and Mitchell drown. Alan was actually in the Navy. I don't know if that means he was overseas or what, but he was in the Navy,

and he says, quote, it just made no sense. Then Detective Barnes gets a random call from a woman in Florida in 2013 who grew up in Wayne, New York. She believes her father may have killed Bonnie and Mitchell. She says her father was a serial predator who assaulted her and then used her to lure in other kids for him to assault.

Oh. And her story's plausible enough for Detective Barnes to look into. They go to Wayne, New York, which is actually interesting because another psychic had called in and said they need like the name Wayne that maybe the perpetrator was named Wayne had come into their mind and it's Wayne County. So it's kind of interesting or a coincidence. This woman points police to two possible burial sites in Wayne.

They excavate both areas. No remains are found in either place. And so the case has handed off once again to a different cell of encounter detective in late 2021, early 2022. So recently, that's Jack Harb. So Harb has refused to discuss the case publicly or share any reports because according to

Mitchell's sister Susan, Harb, quote, believes publicity could prompt responses from new sources that he would have to track down and investigate. So he's not publicizing it because he thinks it would create new leads that he has to then. Like, what the fuck? That's police work. That's exactly what police work is. Well, but is he trying to say he's going to go track down the sources

that he already has and then he doesn't want? New ones? I don't know. But what could be new at this point? You know how it is people like, you know, a wife of the time who covered for her husband, who was a monster is now free to say what she wants to say. My question is, why is he talking about it at all then if he doesn't want to talk about it?

Like, why would that even be a story or be a thing? I just think that also what we found is publicity on a case never hurts. If it's done the right way for the right reasons. Well, it seems like a that's a broad generalization of never hurts, right? It's publicity. If way for the right reasons. Well, seems like a, that's a broad generalization of never hurts. Right. It's publicity. If it does the right thing. It can do a lot of things. Yeah. That's true. Publicity is publicity.

But, but I hear what you're saying is that he's almost trying to prevent a thing that he can't control anyway. And then while preventing what he thinks could be potential problems, he's preventing potential solutions. Exactly. The wiser's and bickwits feel like it's a dismissal. So after all this time, authorities do not appear to be any closer to solving the mystery of what happened to Bonnie, Bickwit, and Mitchell Weiser.

50 years later, and with the coming of the 50th anniversary of Summer Jam, their high school friends are hoping internet chatter might draw more eyes into the case once again and prompt a new lead. Bonnie and Mitchell's parents are long since deceased as are many of the potential witnesses who could have pointed authorities in the right direction, but their high school friends still want closure.

When John Dewey's graduating class of 1975, which would have been Mitchell's class, they had their 25 year reunion in 2000 John Dewey's graduating class of 1975, which would have been Mitchell's class. They had their 25-year reunion in 2000, and they planted a Norwegian red crimson maple tree in honor of their missing friends. The plaque beneath the tree reads, Mitch Weiser, Bonnie Bickwitt, we still miss you, classes of 74 and 75. Another 25 years later, the sentiment still remains.

It's all still there. The summer of 1973 is etched into their hearts and minds, as the summer all of their lives changed. Mitchell's old best friend, Stuart Carton, still operates a website. It's Mitchell and Bonnie.com, and it's MITCHEL and Bonnie, B-O-N-N-I-E, to keep their story alive and hopes that someone might

come forward with new information. When he reflects on his decades-long search for answers, he says he keeps up hope, quote, because if the tables were turned, that's what Mitchell would do. And quote, and that is the story of the disappearance of Bonnie, Bickwit, and Mitchell, Weiser. Man. Yeah, go read that Rolling Stone article. It's really detailed and fascinating. Also, just like that theory, the woman coming forward and talking about her father at the time,

and then it's in time and place is accurate. That idea of like if somebody who's already not okay, so like that woman was claiming her father was like a serial abuser, whatever. And then there's all these people jamming the streets of their town or county and that they're not used to being around. And it's like that people are getting fired up and getting pissed off. And we can't get out of our driveway because these people, these people, I mean, that piece is so much more realistically kind of trackable. Yeah.

Then that other one. Yeah. I mean, people were just so much more trusting back then, like you'd go into someone's car hitchhiking or you'd spend the night at someone's house. It was a stranger that let you because you were in town for this concert. You know, it could be anything. But I think the craziest part is like, they don't even know if they made it to that concert. So the area that they have to look of where they went missing is so large. Yeah. It's just, it sounds overwhelming

and just awful. Yeah. It really does. And so tragic because clearly, they're just two very special teenagers, like mature, intelligent, caring, all those things. Yeah, who knows what they could have done with their lives, would have lost. Yeah, total. Well, great job. Thank you. Although frustrating.

I just like, those ones are awful. The cold ones that you know I love, yeah. I mean, but are important like you say. It's like I do think that is the huge benefit of the true crime wave is that it has enabled citizens loose to take things into their own hands. And if in a case like this where the police are either saying they're not working on it or they're going to work on it to their own taste, and nobody else gets to be involved or hear about it,

then it would be very helpful for people to maybe people who are locals, people who grew up there, people who know anything, like to be assembling some sort of investigation. Well, it happens with these citizens loose, where they're obsessed with the case and they're able to match up remains that were found 30 years ago with missing people that are still being looked for. And once you're able to do that, you're able to try to solve the case somehow. Once you have any answers, like where do they end up, what part of the town or what part of the county were they in, that sort of how they die, then you can kind of start to put the pieces together, but not when you have nothing.

Yeah. Well, good job. Thank you. Are you making a left turn? You know I'm going to left turn. Thank you. Today, I'm going to tell you, and you may have heard about these gals already. But I'm going to tell you about the Soviet Union's

all-female bomber regiment that fought off the Nazis during World War II. They flew under the dark of night so that the German soldiers couldn't see them coming. They cut their engines on their approach so that the only sound that would give them away was the whoosh of the wind as their planes coasted into bombing position. Likeening the sound to a witches broom, the Nazis gave these women the foreboding nickname Knock Texan, which translates to The Night Witches. This is the story of Marina Reskova and The Night Witches. Yeah, no, I don't know this at all.

This is a goodie. So the sources that were used for today's story are a Vanity Fair article from 2015 called The Little Known Story of the Night Witches, An All Female Force in World War Two, written by Eric Grundhouser, an article on GrayDynamics.com from 2022 entitled Marina Ruskova and the Night Witches by Rochelle Momi, and an article from the collector entitled Night Witches, the female Russian combat unions of the sky written in 2023 by Jesse Lee Smith and the rest are in our show notes. I've also seen this mention, there's those kinds of social media feeds where it's like mysterious history or like fascinating history. Yeah.

I've seen that mention there where I was immediately like, what is this? So if you've heard of the night which is, but you don't know the details, I'm going to give it to you now. So this story, as well as World War II, begins in 1939 with Germany's invasion of Poland. The Soviet Union had already entered a non-aggression pact with Germany called the Molotov Ribentrop pact, wherein both countries agreed not to attack each other while they secretly split up the European countries that were lying between them, granting each other influential dominion over an equal share of countries. I had no idea about that. Or many things

from history. But that is very fascinating to me because that explains a lot from the beginning of World War II. But just two years later on June 22nd, 1941, as Hitler and Axis planned to rid the world of, quote, Jewish and Slavic races races and quote, Germany breaks their pact and launches an invasion of the Soviet Union with a mission dubbed Operation Barbarossa. And that operation involves around 10 million combatants and it will prove to be the largest land offensive ever waged. And it isn't long before Germany occupies part of Russia and Stalin is forced to beef up his military might and actually really fight back with force and brute. A lot of people think that if Hitler hadn't done that he would have won. So are you not I mean like you can't double cross Russia. No, especially when

Russia is literally like what 100 times bigger in their country like yeah. Okay, so while Stalin forms and expands tactical groups of the Red Army like tank regiments and naval infantry and artillery regiments and aviation squads, women are almost entirely barred from combat, especially when it comes to the Air Force. Absolutely no women are allowed to serve in the Russian Air Force. Some are able to fight on land, several even joining sniper teams, many others, of course, aid in unofficial guerrilla capacities like digging tank ditch traps and creating other obstacles for Germans to contend with. And of course, they're all allowed to do the very difficult work of nursing the injured, cooking everyone meals, sowing the uniforms, all of that. But these women

have lost husbands, brothers, fathers, their homes, their cities, their overall safety to these Nazis and this Nazi invasion. So the women of Russia want to fight back literally, especially the female pilots that are in Russia. There are many Russian women who can fly. And so these women begin to reach out to the one woman who they know can help a decorated flyer and national hero with a direct connection to Joseph Stalin, a woman named Colonel Marina Reskova.

So we'll talk about her for a second. She was born on March 28th, 1912 in Moscow, as Marina, Malanina, and young Marina dreams of following in her father's footsteps of becoming an opera singer. But in 1919, she's just seven years old and her father is hit by a motorcycle and the infection that sets in from those injuries ultimately kills him. So over the next couple years, the family's money dwindles and Marina, of course, wants to help her mother financially. So she changes her focus and she starts studying engineering and chemistry.

And she graduates from high school in 1929 and promptly goes to work a chemist job at a die factory. The same year she marries her coworker, a man named Sergei Raskoff, and the after that, in 1930 they have a daughter named Tanya. So shortly after her daughter's birth, Marina gets accepted to the Zukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, which is a sanctioned school of the Soviet Air Force. And she trains to be a drafts woman, who's the person who draws up technical plans

for aircraft. And she quickly excels. So she falls in love with aviation, she's very good at it. After just one year of schooling, she becomes an instructor. And during this time, she's learning how to fly a plane herself. By 1933, she becomes the first Soviet woman to graduate as an aviator navigator, and a year later in 1934, she becomes the first Soviet woman to become a pilot instructor. So she learns and then starts teaching immediately. Yeah, wow. She's smart. Marina is sent to the Central Flying Club in Toshino and she officially earns her pilot's

license in August of 1935. This is also the year she gets divorced, which allows her to fully focus on her career. So this woman is a trailblazer in pretty much any possible way that she can be, it seems. She's got her pilot's license in hand, she racks up hours, a flight experience, she's constantly challenging herself to push it to the limit, and it's not long before she starts setting international flight records. On October 24th, 1937, she sets the female world record for a non-stop, longistance flight of roughly 898 miles, which she earned alongside fellow female pilot Valentina Greza de Bova.

The next year in 1938, Marina beats her own record from the previous year, including a September 24 to 25th flight from Moscow to Kumsolsk that spans over 4,000 miles. This flight was taken again with Valentina Grease Odebova and a third female pilot named Polina Osepenko. So Marina's achievements earn her the Order of Lennon Award and the Hero of the Soviet Union Award. A Gold Star medal seen as the highest distinction in the Soviet Union at the time. She's dubbed the Soviet Amelia Earhart. So kind of explaining all those things, it's like the way they're suddenly were allowing her to do these things and get these flight. Amelia Earhart had been making news. And so she becomes the Soviet Amelia Earhart, and her achievements grant her the opportunity to meet Stalin.

And he shows great admiration for Marina. She's even recognized with a commemorative stamp that was issued in 1939. The Soviet Union has a lot of pride in Marina, and she has a lot of pride in her country. And just in time too, because 1939 is the right one. She and her skills and her expertise are needed. So, cut to 1941, Marina answers the call of her fellow Soviet women and she starts to lobby to allow women to join the war effort. She speaks directly with Stalin and because he has so much respect for her,

she convinces him to allow women to be eligible for the draft. And then on October 8th, 1941, Stalin goes a step further and lets Marina form three all-female aviation squadrons with her Marina at the helm. Wow. So now thousands of Soviet women

from the ages of 17 to 26 enlist only roughly a thousand are chosen to serve. And those chosen are sent to Ingles, which is a small town in Saratov Oblast for training. And they learn how to fly or to improve on their existing flight knowledge. And they're also trained in plane maintenance and in navigation. Now ordinarily, this kind of training would take 18 months, but given the urgent need, the program is accelerated and these women finish in just six months.

Wow. Once their training is complete, Marina separates the newly minted pilots into three different all-female regiments. The best pilots are assigned to the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment. The second best ones are assigned to the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment. The second best ones are assigned to the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment. And the third best are assigned to the 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. So the 586th Regiment is led by Commander Tamara Kazerinova.

But when enemy fire takes out a large number of the pilots in that regiment, another commander by the name of Alexander Grindev Stepsin, Marina commands the 587th regiment herself, and a major Yavdoja Bershonkaya leads the 588th night to regiment. As the war rages on, the 588th becomes a standout regiment. They're the only one to remain all female, everyone from the pilots to the navigators to the commanders to the mechanics. Wow. All women.

And now this part's going to shock you, Georgia, just because these women are granted unprecedented access in the Soviet Air Force, it doesn't mean that they are respected by their male peers or the senior staff. Come on, you're surprised and you're hurt, and I'm sorry. Shocked. They aren't given new uniforms,

they have to wear the men's hand me downs. And of course, they don't fit. Kind of impedes a soldier, if you're wearing really oversized clothes. In some cases, smaller women are forced to rip up their own bed sheets and stuff them into their boots to keep them from falling off. That's how bad it is.

Oh my God. Also, the equipment for the 588th night bomber regiment is especially bad, because they're the least experienced group. The squad's 260 pilots are stuck flying, polycarpov or PO2 biplanes. These planes are usually used as training aircraft for new pilots or for crop testing. They are definitely not meant for combat.

So Jay included a picture of one for me. It literally looks like one of those biplanes that like you would see old newsreel footage of people going standing out on the side of like trick planes. Like it's charming. It's very charming looking. It's not, you don't think send that to World War II. Also, the technology in these planes is outdated.

They move very slowly. They're dangerously lightweight. The seats for the pilot and the navigator are completely uncovered, so there's no protection whatsoever when they're in them. On top of that, these planes can't fly very high, so they have to execute their combat missions flying very low and close to the enemy. Basically being an air woman with the 588th is about as dangerous as it could possibly

be, and here's the kicker. These planes are made of wood and canvas. What? That's not real. That's a toy. Isn't that insane? So basically, they're insanely flammable. One spark could basically set the whole plane on fire.

They're flying them through action. So bullets and bombs are lighting up the sky around them. So them catching on fire is highly likely. Still, the women of the 588th regimen do what most women do, which is they make the best of what they've been given. So here's how the night which is operate. One starkness falls. Three PO2 planes take off together

in formation. And as they approach their enemy target, the two outer planes peel off in opposite directions and they act as decoys, drawing the attention of the Nazi search lights and ground guns below. When the moment is right, the navigator in the third remaining plane taps the pilot shoulder and the pilot cuts the engine.

And then that allows them to glide over the target unseen and unheard, but nothing but the whoosh in the wings of the plane to betray their presence. At this point, it's already too late because that plane is dropping bombs on unsuspecting Nazis below. So they're truly just coming out of nowhere. Like there's no way the ground force is looking up can see what's happening.

In one night, they will repeat this process three times with each plane taking a turn in the center position to drop the bombs. Then all three planes return to base to be loaded up again for another outing. And because these planes are so light, each one can only hold two bombs at a time, so in order to cover as much ground as possible, the pilots have to fly anywhere from eight to 18 air raids in one night. On top of that, the planes exposed the women pilots to bitter cold during the hours and hours of flight every night. Many of the pilots and the navigators suffer from frostbite over the course of the war.

Plus, these planes are so outdated, they don't have proper navigational equipment, so these navigators are forced to rely on compasses and maps as they're flying in this plane bombing the enemy. Here's my least favorite detail. The strict weight limits of these planes mean the pilots cannot carry parachute aboard. So if they're hit and they need to bail, they can't. Later days. Bye. But Pio 2 planes do have some advantages. They're lightweight, so they're easier to maneuver. They're fairly quiet, and they can safely drift with the engine off, which allows for their trademark stealthy approach. Right, I bet if they had more modern in the time,

planes they couldn't pull the shit off, right? No, these things are like, it's like a box kite coming in and bombing your shit. Yeah. The design of these planes also allows them to take off and land basically anywhere and they make emergency landings easier. And the wood and the canvas construction while dangerous, while in combat also make it so that German radar cannot detect them. Right.

So it's kind of ideal in those ways. So the silent attacks with basically only a wishing sound warning the enemy is what earns these pilots the nickname the night witches. But cutting the engine isn't their only stealth tactic. These bomber pilots don't use any lights on their aircraft at all. They use the light of the moon and the stars to guide them. Yeah, that's romantic. So there are astrology gurlies or, sorry, astronomy gurlies. A rumor starts that they're using some sort of chemical in their eyes or a pill that gives them cat-like night vision. But that, of course, none of that is true. It's just the hours of intense training at night that has enabled their eyes to adjust

to this darkness and take care of the job at hand. The night which has become so deadly and so deeply feared by the Germans that shooting down a night which is plain will instantly earn a Nazi soldier an iron cross medal, which is one of Germany's highest military honors. So they were known, they were feared, and they were like, it's like you have to get them at any cost. Yeah. But many of the male soldiers from the other regiments in the Soviet army can't seem

to take the female pilots seriously, even though the danger they're facing in the battle as they serve their country is equal to that of their male counterparts. If not riskier because they have big oversized clothes, no parachutes, like no cover. So many obstacles. Yes. They're basically dancing backward in high heels,

but okay fine. You can just make jokes and be a dick about it. It doesn't really matter though, because whatever anyone wants to say about the 588th to sue their own ego, these women's bravery and tenacity is unmatched. So here's an example. One night in December of 1942, a pilot named Nina Raspopova is in the midst of an air raid when an anti-aircraft ground missile hits her plane and rips the entire floor of her cockpit away.

It's like Flunstown's car. Exactly. So it says, now with her legs dangling out of the bottom of the plane, while blood is dripping out of her shrapnel wound, Nina does her best to regain orientation, but the German searchlight finds her in the night sky, and it blinds her momentarily.

Shit. If she doesn't regain control fast, of course her plane will crash, But the German searchlight finds her in the night sky and it blinds her momentarily. If she doesn't regain control fast, of course her plane will crash. And if she's lucky enough to survive a crash landing, she's going to be an enemy territory and she will become a Nazi prisoner of war, which is worst case scenario, knowing that how much they hate and fear the night, which is because you know if this is them off, if they have in any way found out that these planes that are so scary that are killing them are women. You know it's over.

With all these possibilities looming over Nina, she suddenly gets a glimpse of her own regiments runway flood light. She's able to write the damaged plane, she points herself in the direction of home base, and she's somehow able to land in neutral territory. The landings rough, she and her navigator both survive, they both make it back to camp, where Nina is rushed into surgery.

It does take her a few months to fully recover from her injuries, but then she goes right back to her plane to fly more missions. So while Marina Ruskova, who I was talking about in the beginning, is credited for establishing all three female aviation regiments, the night witches of the 588th ultimately fall under the command of major, Yavdochia, Bershenko, Bershenkoia. You got this. You got your Russian. I speak Russian. I mean, I've very clear

phonetic spelling in front of me and it's still hard to pronounce. That's crazy. You're aira, she don't need to. With years of flying experience prior to World War Two, including fighting in the Spanish Civil War, Major Berksian Skaya is one of the only female officers and one of the only female pilots who actually has combat experience. When she's put in charge of the 588th, she implements a strict kind of a tough love leadership style. And I mean, what else was there in the Soviet Union? I don't.

Was there a Montessori style that That was the union in the war. It's like, you're not getting coddled. That's not a thing. Don't come here for love. We don't have it to give. Under her guidance, what was considered the least skilled regimen becomes the most feared regimen. And one of the many star pupils of that monumental forest

is a woman named Nadechtia Popova. So Nadechtia loses her brother in the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941, and then her home is commandeered by the Gestapo, so she becomes hell-bent on fighting the Nazis herself. She's one of the first women to voluntarily enlist in the Soviet Air Force, and when she's accepted into the 58 women to voluntarily enlist in the Soviet Air Force, and when she's accepted into the 588th, she's thrilled. On her first mission, however, a plane in her outfit goes down, and two of her close friends are killed.

But Nadecia still completes that mission, dropping bombs that destroy their Nazi targets. So she watches her friends die, she still gets the job done. And from that day on, flying these combat missions become a welcome distraction from her grief. Nadecia Popova becomes one of the most prolific flyers for the night, which is completing a total of 852 missions over the course of the war. And she holds the regiment's record for the most bomb raids in one night. 18. Wow, like I can't function without a nap during the day. I was gonna say, one's the last time you did

something 18 times ever. No. In one night. It was like, if you left a bar to go to 711 and get chips, like I would be like, I'm not doing that more than three times. Now I'm pissed. Now Deshit is shot down several times over the course of her career. She survives every time. She eventually works her way up to Regiment Deputy Commander. She survives the war. She goes on

to live a long and storied life until her passing in 2013 at age 91. Wow. Yeah. So after World War II is over, Major Berschen Skaya, who is the one who had her tough love style, she was the one that was training the night witches. She continues her military career. She eventually earns the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Then she retires from the Soviet Air Force in 1959.

She passes away from a heart attack in 1982 at the age of 69, but without her guidance, the night witches would never have become the monumental force that they became in World War Two. The night witches operations last from June of 1942 until October of 1945, by war's end, these female pilots of the 588th Regiment alone logged a total of 2,672 combat missions. Holy shit. They dropped over 3,000 tons of bombs and 26,000 incendiary shells, successfully destroying 17 river crossings nine railways two rail railway stations 26 warehouses 12 fuel depots 176 armored cars 86 prepared

firing positions 11 searchlights all of which the Nazis relied on during their occupation of the Soviet Union so they just they just got rid of it but also the night which is did drops where they supplied food and ammunition to their fellow Soviet soldiers on the ground and they did that 155 different times. Sadly, the founder of the night which is and of all of these female flying regiments, Marina Ruskova was not as lucky to live a long life as her colleagues were on January 4, 1943, while she's leading two squadrons on a mission, a severe snowstorm kicks up, and she is forced to make an emergency landing near the Volga River. But

as she does, she crashes into the river's high West Bank wall, and she's killed, and she's only 31 years old. Only 31. She's only 31. But the good news is her bravery, her vision, her leadership is fully recognized by the Soviet Union. She will be the first member of the Soviet military to receive a Soviet state funeral from World War II and her ashes are buried in the necropolis of the

Moscow-Cremlin wall in Red Square. In addition to all the military honors that she received during her life, she's posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War I class for her heroics. And Marina Raskova is still remembered today as a legendary pilot, the Soviet Amelia Earhart, and the mother of the Night Witches. And that's the story of a Marine at Rascova and the Night Witches. Damn. Good night bitches.

Good night bitches. It's the Night Witches. It's the Night Witches. Oh, wow. Right? Powerful. Powerful. Yeah. Well, great job. Thank you.

Fascinating story. I'd never heard of that one before. Thank you guys for listening and being with us and hanging out and we hope you have a great break. We'll still be with you. Yeah, that's right. Stay night, witchy. Stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Good night!

Elvis, do you want a cookie? Ah! This has been an exactly right production. Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck. Our managing producer is Hanukau Critan. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squilaccio. Our researchers are Marin McClauchin and Ali Elkin.

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