This is an IHeart podcast.

Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

It was 9.40 a.m. on July 20th of 1945,

Betty Lou Oliver, a 20-year-old elevator operator, sat anxiously in her elevator car within the Empire State Building.

The day had only just started, but it couldn't go fast enough as far as she was concerned. She wanted this whole summer to disappear behind her. The war in Europe

was finally over, and her fiancé, Oscar, had called earlier that month to let her know that he was

coming home. Soon, Betty could leave the stuffy elevator behind, and she and Oscar could move back to

their hometown in Arkansas to enjoy their life together.

But everything was about to change.

Betty delivered some passengers to the 80th floor, and then sat and waited as the door closed.

She hummed a song to herself thinking about Oscar when she suddenly heard

a massive crashing sound above her. The whole elevator shook. Before Betty had time to think,

the top part of the cab burst open, the metal splitting like paper. Flames erupted all around her,

flash burning her skin before extinguishing, and then she was falling.

She cried out as the damaged elevator began hurtling toward the ground, quickly clearing floor

after floor. Her mind raced. She didn't understand what was happening. Why had the elevator

broken? Where did the flames come from? Was it some accident? Had the Germans or Japanese decided

to restart the war? Her eyes went wide and she screamed in terror as her body began to float up

off the floor. The cab was moving that fast. All she could think to do was grab the railing on the

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