Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast. I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world. These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Vigelin, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark, and so many other famous and not so famous adventures from throughout history.

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That's the Explorers Podcast.

During the summer of 1930, the city of New York was undergoing an extreme heat wave.

Temperatures routinely hovered in the mid-upper 90s each day.

On August 6th, law clerk Joe Morrow was sweating inside his stifling office

inside the New York County Courthouse when the door swung open. He was surprised to see that it was his boss.

New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater. Mara was confused. He thought Crater was supposed to be on

vacation with his wife in Maine all summer while court was in recess. Crater didn't acknowledge him as he breezed

past into the office. A few moments later, Mara's curiosity got the best of him, and he poked his head

inside Crater's office. The judge was frantically rifling through some filing cabinets,

pulling out stacks of folders and tossing them onto his desk.

Mara cleared his throat and Crater whipped around, clearly startled.

When he realized he was just as clerk standing there, he relaxed and chuckled.

He apologized to Mara for his odd behavior.

Then he asked Mara to do him a favor.

He handed him a pair of checks and asked him to cash them and bring him back the money.

Mara was dumbfounded when he actually examined those checks.

Both of them totaled $5,100.

That's equivalent to about $96,000 in today's money.

But Mara was loyal to his boss and he didn't ask any questions.

Little did he know that today would be the last time he or practically anyone else would see Judge Crater.

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