In July 1970, one of the messiest homicides in history took place on a military base way up inside the Arctic Circle.

The cause? A jug of raisin wine.

Mario Escamia, a 33-year-old electronics expert, had made the raisin hooch.

And he was looking forward to getting loaded with it but before he could

an alcoholic technician named Donald Levitt stole his jug so Escamia appealed to the only real authority there was on base and went after him.

Within a few hours there would be a dead man bleeding out on the ice.

But what makes this killing so remarkable isn't too dyed or how, but where?

You see, Escamilla's base wasn't on land.

It wasn't at sea either either or even on a ship. The killing took

place on a drifting ice island, a place where no nation's laws applied. As a result

there were serious questions about whether the killer would ever be brought to justice.

And the consequences of this killing extend far beyond one Arctic no man's land.

G-min's land. G-min's land. T-man's

T-mines, guidance is internal.

In fact, the consequences extend farther than human beings have ever traveled.

12, 11, 10.

That's because this case is the closest analogy we have.

6, 5, 4, to what humankind will face

after the first murder in outer space.

Lift-off. We have a lift-off. 32 minutes past the hour. Looked off on Apollo 11. Hi, I'm Sam Keene, and you're listening to the disappearing spoon, a topsy-turvy

sciencey history podcast, where footnotes become the real story. The idea for occupying Ice Island started with Winston Churchill, who suggested using them as

uninkable aircraft carriers during World War II.

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