Episode 126: A New Kind of Life

Criminal

Vox Media Podcast Network

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.7 • 38.4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2019

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1930, a Cuban woman named Elena de Hoyos went to the hospital in Key West, Florida. She had a bad cough, and her family was afraid she had Tuberculosis. She met a German x-ray technician named Carl Von Cosel who claimed he could save her, using unusual methods he’d invented himself. But on October 25, 1931, Elena de Hoyos died. “Count Von Cosel,” as he called himself, wrote that a strange new kind of life began for him. For more, check out Ben Harrison’s book, Undying Love. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts: iTunes.com/CriminalShow. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	In 1930, a Cuban woman named Elena de Hoyos walked into Q.S. Marine Hospital with a bad
0:10.1	cough.
0:11.5	Criminal co-creator, Lauren Spore.
0:14.5	She was 20 years old and her family was terrified that she had tuberculosis.
0:19.1	Tuberculosis was a number one killer at the time.
0:21.5	It was called hasty consumption.
0:24.4	And it was very deadly.
0:26.3	It didn't take long.
0:28.3	Only three to four weeks, generally.
0:31.5	And there was no cure.
0:33.7	And everyone was just frightened to death of it.
0:36.5	The doctor at the hospital ordered a blood test on a chest X-ray.
0:40.8	The X-ray technician was a 53-year-old German man named Carl von Kossel.
0:46.6	He's ecstatic to take her X-ray.
0:53.2	And then he's horrified when he sees the results because he wants her to live.
1:00.2	He wants to be her suitor.
1:02.6	After that first meeting, Carl von Kossel wrote that he didn't know what to do with
1:06.5	himself.
1:07.5	He couldn't believe that this woman was real.
1:10.1	She was perfect.
1:11.7	And the X-rays did show that she had tuberculosis.
1:15.2	He decides right then and there that he is going to be the one who's going to make medical
	...

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