So you're ready for a weird one? This is a truly weird one and I did not come up with this.

This is not a Rachel Maddo special.

This is reported in black and white in full detail in the New York Times, I am only the messenger.

All right, 1937, Amelia Earhart, pilot, first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

She holds tons of record.

She's a national hero.

She's an inspirational figure.

Amelia Earhart.

She sets off in 1937 to become the first woman to fly all the way around the world.

And it does not work.

Her flight disappears over the South Pacific.

She's never found, 1937. Fast forward 75 years, 2012. So in 2012, there's going to be on the 75th anniversary of her effort to fly around the world

whereupon she disappeared.

75th anniversary there's going to be a new excursion to try to find the wreckage of her plane to try to figure out what happened

to her.

And an eccentric gazillionaire writes to the expedition, writes to the guy who was leading this expedition to go look for Amelia Earhart.

And the gazillionaire guy says, effectively, hey, we've never met, you don't know anything about me,

but I really want to come along on this mission of yours and I will give you

a million dollars if you'll take me. So the guy leaving this expedition is like well

I don't know, but we really should, you know, could sure use a million of this guy's dollars.

This is an expensive thing. So sure, I guess you can come along.

So they bring them along.

...