Morbid｜The Rescue of Baby Jessica McClure

📖 Transcript

Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna.

I'm Ash.

And this is Morbid.

This is Morbid.

We are coming at you not live from our pod lab.

Yeah.

But you know where we could be coming to you live from?

Radio City Music Hall.

Bitch.

In New York City.

In New York City on June 27th.

Be there or be a big old lame-o.

Yeah.

Yeah, come on.

It'll be fun.

It's one night only.

Debbie is going to teach us how to do a tap.

Yeah.

How to tap.

We're going to do a kick line.

Yeah, we're going to do a kick line and we might even do a little tap, tap, tap.

And we got some fun shit planned.

We have some fun shit planned.

We're working on, you know, figuring a couple things out.

Some nifties.

We just figured a merch out and some of the merch is going to be sick and nasty.

Yeah.

It's going to be disgustingly great.

I'm really fucking stoked.

Get your tickets for that.

You don't have that much time left.

June 27th is going to be here before you know it.

Get those tickets.

Ticketmaster.

Only get them there, because that's the only place where we said hey, those prices sound good, yeah if it's elsewhere and it looks insane.

We had nothing to do with that period, promise.

So yeah, i got those tickets.

We want to see you there.

We want to hang.

We want to see your face.

I want to see.

The rest of your body i want to see, we want to see, from your head down to your legs.

Exactly all of the above, but not your feet.

Ew, go on wiki feet for that, if you want to see feet, if you want to see feet, if you want to see feet.

I saw this girl say that she paid for like a car with selling feet pics.

I've seen so many people say they paid for outrageous things.

I had a friend who sold feet pics.

That's wild.

And that's not like I'm saying, like, my friend.

You're like, no, seriously.

I legitimately had a friend.

My foot is too distinguishable because I have a tattoo on it.

Because you have a tattoo, yeah.

And, like, it has to do with my grandma, so I could never sell feet pics.

That would be so fucked up.

Yeah, that would be weird as hell.

Yeah, that would be real.

It'd be real bad.

That would be real weird.

Sorry if we sound congested.

Yeah.

We are in fact congested.

It's been kind of a sick ward over here.

I don't know if it's like, this happens sometimes.

I feel like the changeover from winter to spring.

Yeah.

Sometimes it's like the mix of allergies.

And then I think all the germs are like given it that that one last, like the winter germs are like given it a last go.

One more punch.

So everybody in my house got sick.

But what was fun about this one? was we all got sick with different things.

Yeah.

Which made it very interesting.

I wouldn't say fun.

It was interesting, though.

We had puking.

We had ear infections.

We had pneumonia.

We had weird colds.

Yeah.

We had random nausea.

Elena and I just have a sinus thing going on.

I swear I have a sinus infection.

I went to urgent care and they were like, you don't have a sinus infection.

I was like, cool.

Why does it hurt when you touch my face then?

What's this about?

She was like, ah, leave.

But I was like, okay.

Ah, leave.

Yeah, so I think we just, you know, I'm feeling better today.

I feel much better today.

But I apologize if I sound a little congested.

I know I might maybe I'm alone in this, but whenever I hear someone sound sick, sometimes it can make me feel weird.

It's so funny whenever we have to record and she's like, oh, I sound sick.

Like it's going to be awful.

I'm like, I don't really think about that.

Like I've definitely listened to pods where people don't sound a-okay.

I just always feel bad because I'm like, I don't want you to feel gross while listening.

Don't feel gross while listening to us.

So don't feel gross.

You're okay.

You know what makes me feel gross?

What?

The new fucking Siri.

Yeah.

I have a bone to pick with her.

Yeah, you really, I don't feel as strongly about this.

It actually shocks me that you don't feel as strongly about this, because the second I was I was by myself, which is actually weird, because I feel like I'm always driving with you.

Yeah, because it's in the car, that series.

Yeah, it's the car series.

The phone series, fine.

But she's a bitch.

She's a bitch.

She just doesn't give a fuck.

No.

She reads my text and she puts, first of all, weird emphasis on certain words.

She's putting the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable.

And then also, whenever she's like, hey, do you want to respond?

Nine out of ten times the answer is no, I don't want to respond.

Yeah.

She has a personal bone to pick with me about that.

She does.

She goes, okay.

That's... Okay.

Honestly, I think that's why...

I thought she was so funny.

You like her butchery?

No, it just because.

So it happened where I was like I was going to answer something and it was like do you want to respond?

And you said, absolutely not.

I said, no, thank you.

Because I'm always polite.

Oh, I always say no thank you.

Yeah, I always say yes please.

I always say no thank you.

When the rise of the robots comes up, I need them to know that I was polite.

Yeah, I don't want to be that asshole.

I mean, this won't age well for me.

But, you know, I want them to know that I said thank you.

Yeah.

So I said, no, thank you.

And she said, okay.

And it was so jarring and shocking that it made me laugh.

So I think I was just like, all right, girl, you made me laugh.

Like, that was funny.

I didn't see that coming.

It did not make me laugh.

I looked down at my radio like, who the fuck just spoke out of turn to me?

Which is so funny because you would think this would be completely reversed.

Completely opposite.

That I would be like, who the fuck are you talking to?

Literally.

For some reason, I was like, oh, okay, we have a thing, me and you, Siri.

Oh, no.

Where you pretend to be like, okay.

Oh, I don't feel like she's pretending.

I feel like she's... See, I feel like we have a thing.

No, you don't.

We have a funny joke between us.

No, stop it.

You don't.

No.

She's being rude to you.

In your own vehicle that you pay for.

See, I won't stand for that.

That's why it's a joke.

I can't stand for that either.

I'm trying to figure out how to change that bitch.

Yeah, I don't think you can.

I don't know.

I don't like it.

Okay.

How do you guys feel?

Okay.

How do you feel about your car, Siri?

Yeah, did your car, Siri, change and you had no sense?

That's the other thing I didn't like that I didn't have a say in it.

Yeah, I don't love it being, it's like that U2 album being dropped on everyone's phones.

Oh, I hated that.

Everybody was just really upset.

And remember, you couldn't get rid of it either.

You couldn't get rid of it.

That's the other thing.

Like my old Siri and I, she was like an older lady, i know it.

Like she had like older lady vibes.

This one does have younger vibes.

I get on so well with older ladies, like when i was at disney i made besties with like three different older ladies.

Drew was like what is happening.

Like i love older, i love old biddies.

I love old biddies and old biddies love me.

I love old biddies too.

I think me and old biddies like get each other.

Yeah, When I dressed up as an old bitty, when I dressed up as Miranda Priestly, I never felt more myself.

Yeah, and honestly, you never felt more yourself to everyone else.

Yeah.

I'm meant to be old, I think.

I think so.

I'm meant to be old.

I'm meant to be elderly.

That's what it is.

It is what it do be.

Okay.

Well, we're going to talk.

Oh, you know what?

Should we get more serious for a second?

Yeah, because before we get into this harrowing tale of survival.

Oh, we love survival.

I'll give you that right up front because it involves a bebe.

A bebe.

But survival.

Okay.

Some crazy true crime news happened that I just could not not mention.

They linked a new victim to Ted fucking Bundy.

That is shocking.

Shocking, but also not shocking because he was so active, it's just and think.

This is why we always say, like a cold case is never cold, it's never frozen solid, because it's.

This was how this was from 1974, wow.

And they were able to link him to it with dna.

That's actually nuts.

It was 1974.

The victim is 17 year old laura and and amy.

She was from utah, 17.

17 years old.

Yeah, that's he was.

He was a lot more than a lot of people think.

Yeah uh, she went missing on halloween night.

She was leaving a party, i think she was just going to like a store.

She never made it there and um, they do think that he held her for some time alive, Because she wasn't found until about a month later.

She was found dumped on the side of the road.

She had been bound, beaten.

I mean, he's a horrific monster.

It's really sad.

Did he usually hold his victims for a period of time?

I feel like I don't remember that.

No, I think a lot of his were...

Like same... He abducted them and killed them the same night, right?

I think... I'm sure there were a couple.

I'm sure there were variations, yeah.

Yeah.

And I think we're going to hear... I wouldn't be surprised if we get more.

I think there was many more that he, He's wildly prolific.

Yeah, like wildly.

You wish there was like a different word, because prolific like i know what you're saying it makes it sound uh, prolific sounds like a good thing, but yeah, it sounds like an accomplishment, but it's no.

But there's no other way to say it.

Yeah, prolific, that just is what it means.

But I guess from what I could see, he did verbally acknowledge this...

This victim is being connected to him.

He did acknowledge it before his execution.

I'm not quite sure the details of it.

I'll go further into it for sure.

I want to take like a deep dive on this.

Yeah.

But obviously you need solid closure because him he's a lying sack of shit.

Of course.

So like him saying anything you're like take that with about a ton of salt.

Because their brains are so fucked up.

They want to take quote unquote credit for killing more people.

But now DNA has definitively linked him.

They were able to find one, basically one instance of male DNA that matched him.

Wow.

That was found on her body.

That's crazy.

It makes you like I hope the family feels some sense of.

I know closure is not really a real thing, but I hope they find something where at least they have answers now.

At least they have answers.

But then at the same time to find out that your loved one was killed by Ted Bundy.

I don't, I think that would send you for like a whole new loop.

Well, that's the thing.

I think they probably are going through a whole other grieving process now, because not only was she killed, which you knew she was, you didn't know who.

And now to find out that he's one of the most infamous serial killers ever in history and you know just how evil he is and you've heard all the stories about what he's done to other people and like that must be yeah, a whole different thing and honestly i hope they're they're able to stick together and get through it.

I know that's rough, that really is awful, but yeah, i just had to mention that because that was a really big deal.

That is absolutely

With that, we will get into our case for today, which is, it's harrowing.

But survivor story.

But it has a happy ending.

Okay, good.

And it really is a story about a community coming the fuck together.

I will tell you that.

I know what case you're telling me today.

I don't know anything about this.

Yeah.

Elena and Mikey.

Before your time.

Yes, it's before my time.

Elena and Mikey were talking about it and they were like you don't remember this?

And I was like no guys well, and I was like oh yeah, it was like, and it was honestly, it was 1987, so I was only a couple years old, Damn.

But you remember it like.

But I remember like the because they.

I'm sure they talked about this a lot in the years after that.

And like you would see the news coverage and all that stuff.

So I wasn't cognizant of it while it was happening.

But I remember seeing it afterwards and being like, oh, shit.

Yeah, I hadn't heard about this until you guys brought it up.

We're talking about the rescue of baby Jessica McClure.

A lot of people who were born in the 80s and 70s especially, are going to be like oh yep, baby Jessica.

Okay.

So I know this one.

But man, it's a harrowing story.

Yeah.

I actually just saw someone and I was like what a weird coincidence, because I decided to do this case.

And then I saw someone on TikTok this like mom who was just sitting there explaining the story to her daughter.

Oh, really?

And she was telling it in this like really great.

I was like damn, I'll listen to the whole story when you tell it.

A little cautionary tale.

And her daughter was like, this didn't happen.

Like, that's not real.

And she was like, no, it really happened.

Like, I'm telling you.

And it was so funny to hear somebody be like, what?

That didn't really happen.

It's like, no, it fucking happened.

She's like, no, it didn't.

That's also so weird when you decide to do a case and then it just like-

Even if you don't say it out loud, that often it comes on your timeline.

You're like, hello?

Because I wasn't really talking about this.

No, we didn't talk about it a ton at all.

So it's weird that it just came up.

It makes you feel like life is a simulation.

It really does.

It's very weird.

I don't like the outside of the simulation, but I like my homies.

You're like very insulated um simulation.

You like yeah, like i like, i like you, i like yeah, my husband and like i like my family, my most of my family.

My very micro simulation is nice.

Yeah, i don't know about all that.

All the rest of it.

I'm like damn, can you simulate something else?

Yeah, can we.

Can we aid in that simulation somehow?

If anybody, if my simulator is listening?

Yeah,

You know, I always like to say things to my FBI agent who tries to scroll away from a specific TikTok.

Does that happen to you?

Yeah.

You'll be watching something and then it's like, whoop, nope.

And you're like, oh, babe, sometimes I'm like, hey, no, I'm watching that.

That's happening a lot to me lately.

A lot lately.

And it's also like the most innocuous, innocuous videos.

I'm like let me watch this person organize their pantry.

It's watching a lady easter egg.

I was gonna say easter egg die.

Yeah, it was watching this lady die easter eggs with her kids and they were like nope, not for you, not for you.

It's like okay, i guess not.

Uh, all jokes, calm down.

Uh, somebody's gonna be like how dare you?

Whatever um, but let's begin with who um, who the family is, who jessica's parents?

Okay, okay.

So her parents were chip and reba mcclure.

Chip and reba and reba immediately saw for this story, say no more.

And you know, things had never been like super easy for Chip and Reba, but they hadn't been like awfully difficult.

They should be easy for Chip and Reba.

Those are wholesome ass names.

They have a very like relatable story, I feel like, for a lot of people.

Okay.

In 1987, they were new parents, but they were barely adults themselves.

They had both only recently turned 18 years old.

Okay.

They had met years earlier and started dating in high school.

Oh, high school sweethearts.

High school sweethearts.

And Reba had become pregnant in 1986 and they had both dropped out of school.

Chip found work doing manual labor around Midland Texas, but had been looking for something more reliable that would allow him to support his family independently.

Since they'd both left school, they'd received like a good amount of financial and emotional support from Chip's parents.

Nice who, like many people around town, had done well financially during Midland's oil boom in previous decades.

You know I love an oil boom.

Right?

So Chip later said, we didn't know we were poor.

We never felt it.

Yeah.

With his parents kind of helping out with his income.

Chip and Reba had been able to afford a small apartment and it helped pay the bills.

Nice.

He said money was never an issue.

So it seemed like they knew that, like they were kind of working hard for everything and that things weren't coming easy, but they were able to pay the bills, which is great.

Yeah, that's what more can you ask for?

Compared to other people in Midland which had fallen into a recession since the oil bust of the mid-1980s, they were doing pretty well, but they were still teenage parents.

Yeah, that's tough.

And that was never going to be easy for anyone.

Babies are fucking expensive.

Yeah.

Chip had always been a good student and he had a lot of promise.

He was very smart.

He said, by the time I got to high school I kind of found my groove and was a little less of a nerd.

And I kind of liked high school.

Reba, on the other hand, was a little less enthusiastic about school, and being pregnant only made things much more difficult.

Yeah, I'm sure you're like very self-conscious.

Yeah.

Chip said being pregnant, she really was having a rough time, which I can imagine.

School is hard anyways.

I can't imagine having to get through it while pregnant.

No.

And girls are so mean to each other anyways.

I know.

Be nicer to each other, ladies.

Yeah, exactly.

So it was Reba who decided to drop out of school first to focus on the pregnancy and, you know, starting to raise a baby.

Yeah.

But it wasn't long before Chip himself was considering the same option.

He said, I took my GED without even studying and passed.

Holy shit.

Then I just went to work.

It was the right thing to do.

Okay, Chip.

Damn, Chip.

Once he found work and Jessica baby Jessica was born, things started to calm down and they settled into a routine.

I love what a 90s name Jessica is.

Oh, Jessica or Jennifer.

Yeah.

Or Ashley.

All the same name.

Yeah.

And Brittany.

Yep.

So thanks to Chip's father's share of oil royalties, Jessica never wanted for anything.

Oh, good.

And that generosity was frequently extended to Chip and Reba.

Nice.

Chip later said we weren't living paycheck to paycheck, which is again...

Huge.

What good parents to help their kids like that.

Their kids and their grandkids.

Not everybody goes through that same thing.

No.

When they find themselves young and pregnant.

Definitely not.

We've all seen the show in fact.

Exactly.

Then in 1987, tragedy struck when Chip's older brother Rod died of illness.

It was in May.

And around the same time, the daycare center where Reba was employed had to close down.

Oh, shit.

The closure meant that not only was Reba now out of a job, but the parents who were using that daycare they were out of childcare.

Yeah.

So Reba's sister, Jamie Moore, and Reba she had also worked at the daycare.

They both were like what can we do to help people?

Because all these people just lost their daycare.

Yeah, that's a big deal.

And they all have to work.

Right.

So they were like, what can we do to help with this?

So they agreed to have kind of like their own daycare at the house, but basically it was like they will just watch these kids, kind of like a makeshift.

These people like a makeshift, like the two of them, nice people could drop the kids off at jamie's house the sister and we'll just watch them until these parents can find a better solution.

Okay, which is like really selfless.

That's community, right there.

That's pretty rad.

So to make matters worse though, Chip was growing a little frustrated by the lack of consistency in his work as a day laborer.

And basically this guy was like, oh yeah, I have a job.

I'm going to hire you.

But he kept kind of like stringing them along.

And by October, the owner of that place was still dragging his feet.

So Chip just continued working as a day labor until more was coming through.

Oh, shit.

And it wasn't until two hours later, while Chip was eating his lunch back at the office of the painting company, that the wife of the company owner told him Chip, I don't know how to tell you this.

Your daughter fell into a well and a police officer is on the way to pick you up.

And he was like, I'm sorry, what?

That's my daughter, oh my god.

Yeah, also just think, like this is such a different time period, like his wife couldn't frantically call him exactly and poor Reba, like her daughter is in a well and she can't get in touch with their father like, oh my god, she can just call him on the cell phone or something.

Holy shit yeah, Horrifying.

Now for Reba.

The morning of October 14th had started like any other day too, since the daycare had shut down especially.

She arrived early at Jamie's house with Jessica and began greeting the other parents as they dropped off their children before heading to their jobs or whatever they needed to do.

Around 10am, Reba was outside in the backyard watching the children play when she heard the phone ring.

Since the yard was fenced in and she was still able to see the children from the kitchen window, she went inside and answered the phone.

When Reba came back a few minutes later, she saw several of the children near the back end of the yard standing around a well in Jamie's yard.

The well had been drilled in the yard about 15 years earlier, but as far as Jamie knew, it hadn't been used in at least 15 years.

And in the weeks and months after this whole thing, Jamie and her husband insisted that this well had been capped.

Oh.

But it became a little unclear whether it had been capped professionally, like a professional came in and actually capped it, or if it was just simply covered.

Okay.

Which is a little different.

Yeah.

But you know.

According to Lunsford and these are people that will obviously be linked in the show notes accounts vary on whether the well opening had been covered with a rock or a flower pot.

Oh, okay.

So it might not have been professionally capped, but... But it was still capped nonetheless.

I don't know that.

This is all just conjecture.

It remains unknown exactly what happened in the couple of minutes that Reba was in the house on the phone.

But in that time Jessica had wandered over to the well and fallen about 20 feet into the eight inch wide hole in the ground.

Eight inches.

Yeah.

At first, Reba called the kids away from the well, and then she realized she didn't see Jessica.

Oh, my God.

Her moment of sheer terror was only exacerbated seconds later when she heard little cries of mommy, mommy.

Oh.

From 20 feet down in the ground and realized jessica was trapped in the well.

And how old is she?

She's like 18 months old.

Oh my god.

Reba told a reporter later.

I didn't know what to do.

I just ran in and called the police.

They were there within three minute minutes, but it felt like a lifetime.

I'm sure this story gets harrowing.

I was gonna say it already is.

Finally I got a cry in response.

We didn't know how deep she was until we lowered a tape hooked to a flashlight into the hole.

Although it seemed impossible, it turned out that Jessica had somehow managed to fit into the 8-inch pipe and fallen exactly 22 feet down.

The pipe actually went down a lot further than that.

But Jessica had come to a stop in a crouching position into a section of the well that had been eroded from runoff to become between 11 and 14 inches.

Oh.

One leg was pinned above her forehead.

Oh.

So that's how she was stopped.

Below her, the pipe narrowed to six inches, so it would have been impossible for her to go further.

Yeah, but still she had made it down pretty fucking far.

She's really far down.

And her leg is stuck in that position.

Pitched above her head. which is not good for blood flow.

No.

Now, when Officer Hall realized how serious this situation was, he called the station and asked for a rescue team to be assembled and dispatched to the house.

A short time after that, the team, which had Midland police and fire officers as well as utility and state highway workers, arrived at the house, followed by a large uh, or actually at this point it was more like a medium number of local reporters and photographers.

Nice, they had all heard the news on the scanner.

Now, Chip McClure remembers arriving at the house a little after 1230 pm, still confused and pretty dazed by the news.

Yeah, he's probably in shock.

As far as he knew, his wife and daughter weren't even supposed to be at Jamie's house that day.

So he was like, this just felt like unfathomable that this was happening.

The fact they weren't even supposed to be there.

As soon as he got there, he felt a hand on his shoulder and heard the deep voice of Midland Police Chief Richard Check, who said don't worry son, we'll have her out of there before too long.

Aww.

Now.

By that time, rescue workers had lowered a light camera and microphone into the well, which gave them the ability to not only see and hear Jessica, but also to see the space where she was stuck.

Okay.

Unfortunately, a lot of the camera's view was obscured by a pile of bamboo leaves that the children had dropped down the well after she fell.

It was later explained that they were young children.

So it was later explained that they had been playing a game of throwing things into the well, and then Jessica fell in and they just continued to throw things in the well until they realized that like oh, she's not coming out.

Oh, no.

Like they were young.

Yeah, they're little.

Like they didn't understand like, oh, she's just going to come out.

Like the no.

Now, before they could attempt any kind of rescue, emergency workers had a lot of things to think about here.

Thanks to the microphone, they were now able to know that Jessica could tell them herself that she was not harmed in any acutely dangerous way.

She's also like 18 months old.

Yeah, like she's saying like I'm not in pain, you know, like I'm not bleeding, like that kind of thing.

Yeah.

But the position she stuck, with one leg essentially raised above her head, could cause problems with blood flow, depending on how long she's in that.

Well,

Right.

The next important thing to consider was hypothermia.

Obviously, that's not something you really have to worry about in Texas very often, but the temperature in the well would have been a lot cooler than that at the surface.

Okay.

So there was a risk.

And in order to test that, Sergeant Andy and we're all going to have to get past this name because we're adults.

Are we?

Sergeant Andy Glasscock.

You're asking me to get past that?

I just need to get it out, everybody.

I'm going to give everybody listening right now a moment.

Just get it.

None of us are immune to a funny last name.

We're not.

Poor Andy.

That had to have been rough growing up.

None of us are immune to a funny last name.

And if you are, then you are better than I am and man, um.

But okay, so there it is.

You got your moment.

Okay, andy glasscock is here um, and he lowered a plastic thermometer down into the well and he got a temperature reading of 65 degrees.

Okay, So that temperature, it was not life-threatening.

Yeah, that's not so bad.

But it was going to get colder as the day went on, and especially after dark.

Yeah.

Nobody thought they would be there after dark, but they were like, you know what?

Which, again, this seemed like it was handled very well.

That's good.

They didn't hesitate on anything, which is really impressive at this time, too.

Especially, it doesn't always happen in cases like this.

No.

So they were like, you know what?

I don't think she's going to be in there after dark.

We want to get her the fuck out of there really fast.

But they were like, we need to do something to just have in place.

So someone placed a call to the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company office.

And a short time later a large truck arrived with fans that blew low currents of warm air down the well.

Oh, that was smart.

So it wasn't like hot air blasting at her.

It was just like...

Nice warm air.

Just warm air.

So she would not start shivering and like, you know.

And Andy said, I'm sorry, Andy.

Yeah, good idea.

Andy said, everything we asked for, we got in minutes.

Nice.

It really was the...

The super fast and prompt attention from the local community that turned this from a potential tragedy into a national moment of like straight up unity.

Hell yeah.

When you hear how everyone came together and who just volunteered to do things, it's like, damn.

Especially with the way the world is right now.

It had me almost in tears because I was like I just want life to be like that again.

I know.

Where people just help each other.

Which I know there are.

That's the thing.

I know there are.

If you look hard enough...

People are there for each other and people jump in for each other and people do this.

We're just in a time where more harrowing, terrible examples are being shared.

And I think like with social media, we're like so bombarded with the worst things. of people yeah like on a daily basis like like so much so that like we'll post this episode and I'm like I hope everyone's nice yeah because it's like you know what I mean like which you guys usually are you always get that like one asshole who pops in just to be a dick yeah but it's like that's what it's like this you can't you can't look around and not see negativity and nastiness.

You can't always depend on humanity.

So it's nice to see examples where they could depend on the humanity of everyone.

And I just want us to be there again where, like you're, where you're shocked by like negativity you know what I mean.

Like where you're just like what the fuck is this person doing?

Where now I feel like it's just, you're like oh well, we're gonna get some asshole who just has a bad day and wants to take it out on everybody.

It's the anonymity of everything, So it's like the social media.

I just feel like I'm hoping I keep seeing like that pendulum swinging the other way.

I know.

People are just not putting up with it anymore.

Yeah.

And seeing the dangers of it.

And I'm hoping that keeps swinging.

I hope so too.

Because you're all great.

We like you a lot.

But yeah, so I.

This really is one of those things though, that you're just like damn, I love a story like this.

Well, this will honestly it'll make you say I wish things were like this.

But then it will make you say but if I look hard enough, it is like this.

Yeah, like there are people like this.

So because none of the adults had seen Jessica fall into the well, they had no idea how she'd managed to get that far down in the first place.

But what they did know was that however she'd gotten in was definitely not the way they could get her out.

It was just too far down.

After about an hour, after BJ Hall had arrived at the scene, work crews had attempted to drill a wider hole in order to reach her.

But the vibrations from the drilling had caused her to slip a little further.

So, although the pipe beneath her, like we said before, was too narrow for her to really fall too much deeper, they were worried that, you know, any further drilling at the site might have collapsed the well entirely, and that would kill Jessica.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, based on their early experience with drilling, it became pretty clear to rescue workers that they were facing a situation way more complicated than what they had expected.

Basically, any attempt to drill down into the earth with standard construction tools could make the situation fatal.

To be honest,

The first problem was the way she was positioned.

It made it impossible to pull her directly up and out.

Because of her leg.

She was just wedged in a weird way.

And the more significant problem, though, was geology.

Yeah.

Essentially directly underneath the pretty soft sandy soil that was above the water table in the ground, there was a deep layer of limestone bedrock that had developed during an extremely dry period.

That was oh, I don't know roughly 100 million years earlier.

Yeah.

So that layer of rock had developed and compressed to the point over 100 million years, that it literally couldn't be penetrated by common drill bits.

That makes sense.

But they would cause small tremors in the ground and each one would destabilize an already really precarious situation in the well.

Yeah, that's not great.

I also just felt like I was in like geology class again.

Yeah, talking about bedrock and shit.

Now, as the day wore on and it became apparent that things were going to be longer than they originally thought, the rescue team now had new things to think about.

Using a 40-foot rigging drill, they determined they could dig a parallel shaft down into the earth right next to the well and then tunnel across and up to access Jessica from below.

Okay, even that is like wildly impressive.

That would be a difficult job under normal circumstances, but in this case they're going to have to move agonizingly slow.

To not disturb anything or vibrate in the earth.

Yeah.

So yeah, they couldn't make that happen.

So rescuers had to move incredibly slow, drilling about four inches per hour.

Oh my God.

And stopping every few minutes to make sure everything was stable and that Jessica was still doing okay.

Four inches per hour?

Yeah.

At that rate, it would take more than three days to reach her.

Assuming they worked around the clock.

How is that even doable?

Well, no one thought it was going to take that long, but it would take longer than expected.

They were like, no, we're going to make this happen faster than that.

Is she going to like be starving and like dehydrated?

Well, definitely dehydrated.

You can go that long without eating.

Won't feel good, but like...

Just such a little body.

She's a baby.

I know.

So they had solved the issue of hypothermia with the fans from Southwestern Bell.

But now that she was expected to be down in the well for at least a day or more.

Yeah.

There were more risks now.

Given the scope of what they were planning to undertake here.

It was no longer just a matter of Jessica's safety.

Although some of the men at the scene were experienced in mining or working in small spaces, working in such a small space meant that air was going to be limited, not just for Jessica, but for everybody else.

Oh, yeah.

I didn't even think of that.

Who would have thought of that?

So, to ensure the proper flow of oxygen, they lowered air hoses into the well and into the parallel shaft as well, which connected to a rescue vehicle on the surface that was providing oxygen.

Wow, that's fascinating.

Yeah.

By that afternoon several other experts had been called to the scene, including several mining experts flown to the scene from Carlsbad on a private jet paid for by Midland Oil.

Wow.

And Dr. Chip Clunick, an emergency room doctor from nearby Midland Memorial Hospital.

Oh, shit.

While the mining experts were kind of helping to come up with the best strategy to dig the second shaft, the parallel one, the doctor was on hand to provide insight on how to make sure Jessica was going to be okay from the surface.

Right.

Obviously, the most pressing issues were related to, you know, oxygen.

We were talking about food and water.

The matter of oxygen was now settled and it was unlikely that Jessica was going to starve.

Yeah, it wasn't again.

Not great, but she wasn't going to starve to death.

So that left hydration.

Right.

Because that's the more pressing one.

At first, emergency workers planned to send a bottle of water down the shaft.

But that plan was called off when Dr Kalunick pointed out which was very smart of him to point out that they had no way of knowing whether she had suffered any internal injuries.

And that could be highly exacerbated by consuming food or drink.

Oh, shit.

Instead he suggested they hold off on sending anything else to Jessica, but added that they would need to reconsider if it went on for very much longer.

But he's trying to, he's like, I, this could make it so much worse.

That might not be a great idea.

And Midland Police.

I know Midland Police spokesman Jim White told reporters.

The emergency room doctor at the scene said the baby can last as long as 36 hours.

We hope it doesn't take that long.

Yeah.

Now they're on like a time clock.

Yeah.

Like big time.

By the next morning, Jamie Moore's backyard and front yard, along with the surrounding neighbors' yards, were just crawling with emergency workers reporters, onlookers.

There were three major networks ABC, CBS and NBC and their local affiliates, as well as the newly established cable news network CNN.

Newly established, wow.

Yeah, it had only been in operation for seven years at that point.

That's crazy.

And they had not found like a foothold really in the television market, which is wild to think of.

Yeah, that is.

Since the, you know, since television news had kind of happened like four, what?

Like four, decades before this.

Viewers had become accustomed to getting their morning news from the local papers okay, and the evening news came via the evening editions and the local and uh, national night nightly news.

So it's like you got a little, you got a little bloops of news you didn't get.

It wasn't around the clock news.

Maybe that was the secret.

I remember so vividly, like my parents, just watching the nightly news.

It was not on.

We did not have a news station on in our house all day because there wasn't one.

Like it just they sat down.

They got a little digest of what was going on in the world.

And then that was it.

You weren't bombarded with every single thing that is happening in the world.

That's like inconceivable to me, because like my whole life I just remember news was on in the morning, news was on in the afternoon, news was on at night.

It is, in my personal, it's just my opinion.

Yeah.

My opinion!

It's just my opinion.

I think it's so much better for your nervous system.

I think so too.

I don't think we're meant to know everything all the time.

I don't want to know.

No.

Everything that's going on.

I take news breaks.

I need to, it's...

If I go on vacation, I take a full break from the news.

You just got a little digestible, little appetizer, you know?

Yeah.

But yeah, it was rough.

So basically few people saw the need for around the clock news channel because they were like no, this is working pretty well.

We don't need to know.

Because, as far as most people were concerned at this point in time in the 80s, there couldn't possibly be that many news stories that required such a high level of ongoing coverage.

Wow.

They were like, why do I need that?

That's nuts.

What the channel needed was an opportunity to prove its value to viewers.

In the story of Baby Jessica, CNN president Ted Turner saw precisely that.

Yeah.

Who was it?

The reporter Mark Roan wrote in 2021...

The ongoing developments of a living, breathing baby trapped helplessly underground would help shape a 24 hour news cycle that people could connect with at any moment of the day.

While the story was certainly enough to capture the attention and obviously, the sympathies of the entire fucking nation, the fact remained that the rescue operation itself was so fucking slow that there wasn't even that many updates.

I was going to say.

We're still trying to get her out of the well.

We got four more inches into the ground.

Yep, we're getting there.

Instead, the press focused on the human story at the center of the event.

I'm sure, yeah.

They talked to family members, neighbors, members of the community who had pitched in to help.

Pat Brister, who was one of the neighbors, told a reporter you don't get tears as long as there's hope.

Yeah, that's nice.

Their comment underscores how invested everyone had come in this rescue effort.

Like another neighbor, Maxon Sprague, described for reporters how the whole thing had unfolded.

And they said, my God, Jessica's fallen into a well.

And he said that I can just remember Reba like my neighbor saying my baby has fallen into a well.

And he said she was hysterical.

She was yelling, but I would too.

That's her child.

When they ran out of neighbors and family members to talk to reporters, shifted to talking to the rescuers who were not actively trying to rescue Jessica at the moment.

Like the neighbors and onlookers, the rescuers also emphasized that there was this spirit of hope and community that they had never seen before and that reporters just couldn't get enough of.

Oscar Robinson, who was the owner of a local excavation company, told reporters how he'd volunteered his equipment as soon as he heard about the emergency.

Aww.

And that was like a big sacrifice for him, because he was losing thousands of dollars a day by not renting those machines.

But he didn't mind.

And when they asked him about it, he said, I have grandchildren of my own.

And I was like, he said, that's a baby in that well.

He said, that's my baby down there.

Now, those who didn't have any particular expertise to offer still gathered around the property to just stand vigil and show their support.

One supporter said, I've got a grandson here that's just about twice as old as that little girl.

I can feel for that mama.

Several people visited the site a bunch of times throughout the day, either to check on the progress or just to show support for the family.

Midland resident Hedy Bohannon said, I've just been praying, praying constantly.

She and a friend had stopped by the site twice on the 15th to be with their community.

And she said, I couldn't imagine it happening to me.

Now, it's not difficult to understand why this would capture people's attention.

It's the emergency rescue of a baby in distress.

But the response was a lot greater than anybody expected, to be honest.

Mark Bone said, for those miles and miles away from Midland, the real-time live images made them feel present, right there with that child and her parents in this horrific situation.

People felt that by watching they were helping, with some viewers even skipping work to watch TV until they knew she was rescued.

It was like a big like.

No one could take even a second out of their day to not.

They were like we need to not see the end of this, like I need to see her rescued before I can like, lay my head down.

No, while the crew of rescuer workers uh drilled down to reach Jessica Reba, Chip and countless others did their best to just keep her distracted and occupied, because you can just leave her in there like with no one talking.

No, When Jessica wasn't napping or crying, she could be heard singing verses of Winnie the Pooh to herself.

Shh.

Stop.

I'm going to cry.

Which makes me want to cry.

I just got like a lump in my throat.

Because she's just like self-soothing.

Or she was just talking to her mom.

Which I love Winnie the Pooh so much too.

Detective Bill Segoe told a reporter on the afternoon of October 15th.

She's done a little crying, a little singing.

I would say 80% of the time she was either crying or making some kind of noise we could hear.

And then our friend Andy there said, when we weren't calling words of encouragement we tell her to sing for us.

Which like...

Andy.

I'm dying.

In the early morning hours of October 16th, the slow, meticulous drilling finally paid off a little.

By sunrise, the rescue crew managed to dig about six feet lower than where Jessica was stuck.

Then they dug slightly up and across.

Drilling out an 18 inch hole into the old well.

The achievement came as a surprise to the worker operating the drill, who didn't expect success.

To be honest,

Spokesman Jim White said he was leaning against not particularly expecting to get through this time and all of a sudden it gave.

Nice.

Now, the hole in the wall of the well gave them access to Jessica, but it still didn't get them enough room to get her out.

The second shaft was only about 14 inches wide and, given the position Jessica was stuck in, there wasn't a lot of room for the rescuer to reposition her.

So, as it was, there was only one man at the scene, who was paramedic Robert O'Donnell, who was slender enough to fit into the hole that led to Jessica.

Andy later said it's so damn frustrating when you can hear her down there and you can't do anything about it.

And he was the one that was trying to get her out of the well, Robert O'Donnell.

And he was able to get down there.

He just couldn't shimmy her out.

And that first failure to free Jessica from the well came as just a wild disappointment to everyone.

But Robert O'Donnell took it the hardest at that moment.

From the moment rescue workers arrived at the scene days earlier.

At this point, stress and pressure had been building, and everyone was just emotionally and physically exhausted.

They knew what it meant if they couldn't get Jessica out.

And for O'Donnell, their first failed attempt was just soul crushing.

He was sitting on the curb and he just broke down sobbing.

And he told his wife, she's right there.

I can't get to her.

I can't imagine that level of frustration.

Everyone's depending on me and I can't get her.

Yeah, that's a lot of pressure.

And it's like...

That just like shatters my soul for him.

It's like a baby is right there and she's in pain and her leg is stuck and she hasn't eaten.

Like poor little babe and the poor rescuers.

It's just... It's an impossible situation.

And for...

And it's like you can hear like our guy Andy being like, she's right there.

Right.

Like we can hear her, we can see her, and we just can't get her.

Right.

And then he's saying the same thing, Robert O'Donnell.

He's like, I can literally touch her.

Right.

And I can't get her out.

Right.

And if I don't get her out, she's going to die in a well.

Yeah.

And her parents are just going to deal with me.

And he feels like it's somehow like his responsibility, even though he's being very brave going down there in the first place.

Yeah.

Now.

At the time, several of the paramedics and doctors at the scene questioned whether it was wise for O'Donnell to get back in the shaft a second time because he had experienced such an emotional shift.

At that point, he was like inconsolable.

Yeah.

But no one was willing to hold him back either, and he wasn't having it.

According to Lance Lunford, those who knew O'Donnell best say this was the moment that changed his life.

He would never be the same person again.

Now, it wasn't just O'Donnell who first felt defeated.

Nearly everyone at the scene started to wonder whether hope and effort at this point had been for absolutely nothing.

CNN's Tony Clark said as the hours went on, you thought the chances of her surviving were less and less.

From the moment the rescue effort began, everyone seemed super confident that, despite the insanity of this situation and the significant obstacles, they were going to get Jessica out.

But by the third day confidence was starting to slip and people were beginning to accept that it was possible that she may die in that.

Well,

Oh, my God.

Now, on the evening of October 17th, Robert O'Donnell went back into the shaft and crawled through the hole that led to Jessica.

And this time he brought several jars of KY jelly with him, like Vaseline.

Okay.

And he reached in with his arms and he started slathering it all over the walls of the well.

Okay, hoping that it would free her from her position a little better and not have her like scratch against things right, but and this is just like for i'm i'm so glad that he's such like a good human, like he has such a good human heart because, like no, i wouldn't have thought of this either, he said.

When he pulled on her foot, her shoe came off in his hand and he heard jessica say no and And she began kicking her foot at him like no.

And it occurred to him she had no fucking clue what was happening at that moment.

Yeah she doesn't know who.

Oh my god and she probably thinks it's like a monster.

Yeah he's like she has no idea what is below her trying to grab her.

Yeah.

So he stopped his grabbing and he reached up to touch her face so she could feel his human hand.

Oh.

And he called out to her using the family nickname that they used for her, which was Juicy.

Juicy Jessica.

Isn't that adorable?

I'm obsessed.

She's so cute.

Oh, my God.

I have already looked at pictures of the cutest little babe.

So he was saying, like, using her nickname and, like, showing her that, like, he's a human being.

Yeah, trying to like, i'm trying to help you.

And finally, after pulling for a few minutes, jessica slipped through the hole in the side of the well and into robert o'donnell's hands.

What a good man it like gave me.

I was like.

What a good man.

Now, on the surface, there was a moment of panic as the microphone went dead and no one could hear Jessica anymore because she was just chattering away before.

Yeah.

And Andy remembers thinking in that moment, oh my God, she might be dead.

Right.

Then there was this huge surge of like, just triumph, when O'Donnell emerged from the shaft and handed Jessica off to a paramedic, steve forbes.

After 58 hours in a well, jessica mcclure was finally free.

58 hours, 58 hours that is beyond unthinkable.

A little baby girl, not even what is 18 months?

That's barely over a year.

I was going to say that's not.

Is that two?

Hello?

No, 24 is two.

Yeah.

Clearly I'm not a mother.

Yeah.

Then you'll start counting in months after that.

Exactly.

Now, when the moment finally came, this big cheer erupted from the hundreds of rescue workers and onlookers who had waited anxiously for this moment.

Jessica was carried to a nearby ambulance where Reba waited, and they were rushed to Midland Memorial Hospital and her father was close behind in a police car.

And although she had managed to survive, she was not without injury.

Yeah, her leg has been over her head that long.

Well, and she lost 15% of her body fluids, and she was seriously dehydrated.

Yeah, I knew that was going to be the case.

Her oxygen levels were low, despite what they were trying to do.

And, more importantly, because of the loss of circulation in her leg, she had developed gangrene in her foot.

Oh, shit.

And the emergency room doctors were concerned they would need to amputate her leg.

Oh, no.

Before any of that though, she was placed in a hyperbaric chamber where oxygen was forced into her lungs essentially,

And it would be several days before they knew whether or not they were going to be able to do surgery.

That must have been so scary for her, too, because now she's in another chamber.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Now, outside of Midland...

Aww.

And CBS's Bruce Hall said, it's events like this that restore your faith in humanity.

You can literally feel the love and prayers for this little girl.

Now in the hours after that, regular progress updates about Jessica's condition were announced as soon as they came in.

Dr Carolyn.

Carolyn Rhodes said in a press conference that evening considering everything Jessica's been through, she's a very spunky little girl and she's doing great.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah.

What a queen.

She also described the extent of Jessica's injuries.

She had dropped from 21 pounds to a little over 17.

Wow.

She had some scrapes and bruises and she said there is a danger that she could lose the right foot.

Okay.

Now it's just down to the foot.

Now it's down to the foot.

And she spent more than a month in the hospital where she was stabilized and received several skin grafts, after surgeons amputated just her little toe on her right foot.

Okay.

They were able to do that.

I don't even think we need a little toe.

They were able to, I mean, it's good to have for stabilization.

Yeah.

But who needs it?

They were able to save the rest of her leg, though.

Her leg was saved.

Her foot was saved.

That's huge.

Just the little toe, which I think she'll take at this point.

I also think you should get a discount on pedicures.

That's nine toes, not ten.

I hope she does.

Yeah, they should be giving her that.

You see that name on your pedicure thing?

Give her a discount.

Yeah, give Jessica a discount.

Now the story of baby Jessica is as much about the media and audiences as it is about this little baby girl trapped in a terrible situation.

In the wake of her rescue, Jessica became kind of a celebrity, appearing at local events and on news programs and even taking a trip to the White House to meet then President George W Bush in 1989.

W. Bush.

When Ronald Reagan reflected on the event, he said everybody in America became godmothers and godfathers of Jessica while this was going on.

Yeah.

While the story of baby Jessica had a happy ending, it wasn't always so positive.

Oh, some conservative politicians use this accident as an opportunity to attack working mothers.

Nice.

That's awesome.

Pretty, pretty great.

Love to see that.

Using Jessica's experience as an example of negligence and the many dangers of daycares.

Oh, fuck off.

Which is like, don't do that.

No.

Her mama was right there.

This kind of shit can happen in a blink.

Kids are wily.

Kids get into shit so easily.

You look away for one second, which is, everybody has had that.

Exactly.

Not this happened, obviously, but had something happen where you're like, fuck.

Yeah, it was a convergence of events that was just, you know, a tough situation.

Now back in Midland, resentment grew between some of the rescuers and the volunteers as well, basically arguing who had more of a Guys?

You worked together and you figured it out.

Pat yourselves on the back and go about life.

Yeah, like the two groups eventually formed their own associations and went on to have a pretty public fight over the television rights to the story.

What the fuck?

So like people are always going to be.

That's the thing.

I'm like, why can't you guys just appear together?

Robert O'Donnell told the New York Times, I hate to see it split the rescuers like this.

But our story is the real story.

We were the major players oh, okay.

So like he's saying like i think he's also saying like this sucks that it's being split, like yeah, i think he's also probably like hey, i went down in a hole and saved that child.

So like if i was robert o'donnell, i'd be like you guys can all shut up because it was me, because it was me.

But most tragic of all is O'Donnell himself, who was very quiet and very private before the incident.

His rescue of Jessica thrust him into the spotlight and made him an American hero.

Yeah, which is great.

In a blink.

To everyone's surprise, Robert embraced his new role as a recognizable hero and he was fine with the attention at first.

But as is generally the case, the spotlight eventually fades and people stopped recognizing him.

And to make matters worse, he was developing PTSD from the whole thing related to the rescue effort.

And he turned to some stuff to cope.

He just was struggling a little bit.

A few years later, he was fired from the Midland Fire Department for showing up to work under the influence.

So he was struggling.

That's sad.

He has a very tragic story.

In 1993, he moved in with his parents and tried to get sober and start a new life in Huntsville.

He found a job working with prisoners at Ellis Unit and things started going in the right direction.

He was really going like he was moving on up.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, though, on the night of April 23rd, 1993, which is not long after the incident.

No.

Uh-oh.

Which...

Probably some kind of PTSD.

Not great.

He used his father's shotgun to end his life, which is like really tragic.

Yeah, that's horrific.

His brother Ricky, said nobody really knew what he had done with the Jessica rescue down there in Huntsville and they didn't care.

And he didn't like just being a regular person again.

Well, because he's not just a regular person.

Which has to be really tough.

I mean, he went through all that emotional shit during the rescue.

Right.

Where it's like the failure and then the triumph and then you're thrust into the spotlight.

And everybody thrusts you into this.

You're a hero and you're this and you're that and then you're no one.

Yeah, that's a lot.

I don't know.

Like that must be a really tough emotional.

And you're dealing with PTSD from the whole thing.

Right.

Which is something that I'm sure a lot of people listening can relate to.

Yeah.

And it's like, that's a fucking demon that is really tough to overcome.

And then to get sober is such a feat.

And then have to see wall to wall coverage of this tragedy that's happening which again, I just don't think we're meant to see wall to wall news coverage.

I really don't think we are.

Well, I think it leaves a lot of people like I think, when you gain hope, it's such a, it's so precarious because you gain hope and you're like oh, I see, like all the good in the world.

And then one little thing can tear you down.

And that's why – and I'm not meaning for this to be like a PSA of wall-to-wall 24-hour news cycles.

No, but it's a theme in the story.

But I do think it's like it shows you that like we're not meant to see all the horrible shit that's happening in the world.

We're just not meant to absorb all of it all the time.

No, we're not.

And I know that – and I'm not trying to say like you need to turn a blind eye and you need to like, do all this, because that –.

Please know that that's not what I'm saying.

If that's what you take from this, you took that from this and you're wrong.

And that's I'm saying, like when it, like you just said, you get this like bit of hope, and then something will slide in, something even innocuous or something that could be seemingly innocuous to someone else, that'll just fucking destroy it all.

Right.

And it's like, that's tough.

We're only humans.

We only have the mind of human beings.

We only have the emotional capacity of human beings.

And it's okay if it's fucking hard to digest all the shit that's coming in all at once.

And it's okay to step back a little bit.

Yeah.

And I also, I do think that's why it's so important to have an outlet.

Yeah.

Like I right now.

I'm in such like I've been in such a rut and I'm really turning to like creative outlets to try to kind of get out of that rut.

And I really do think there's so much importance in that.

Like you do have to find something to let yourself go in.

Because shit is bleak right now, like that's why we're always talking about like romanticizing little things.

Yeah, like you know the the soft jazz in the morning, fucking like just pretending you're the main character while you're on a walk, like anything that just makes it a little better.

Yeah, I just got – I got some clay, so I want to start kind of like sculpting.

And that can take you into such a nice regulated place.

Little zen place.

Exactly.

And I love like – what do they say?

Like idle hands get you – The devil's play thing.

Oh, I don't really love that.

Yeah.

That don't have idle hands.

Yeah, I don't want to have idle hands.

No.

Something that can take your mind away and don't feel shame for needing to take it.

That's the other thing with social media.

People will make you feel like, if you're not fully absorbing everything 24 hours a day just being blasted at you like a fire hose, that you're some kind of shit person.

If you need a minute to just like, step back.

We're not meant to.

I don't think you are.

We're not meant to.

It's okay if you need a minute to sit there and do some clay and watch something silly or just listen to some nice music.

Get away from your phone for a little bit.

It's okay.

Yeah.

I just want you to know that, because I keep seeing people, like just you know, burning out and emotionally feeling and it's like You have to think there's never been a time where we've just been like we are truly glued to these devices.

Like they are like on our hands 24-7.

If they're not in our hands, they're in our car.

Like they're with us 24-7.

And you got to put that away for a little bit and like ground yourself.

Disconnecting is such a nice feeling.

Yeah, you just got to ground yourself every now and again.

Consider it your little moments of analog.

Yes.

Just have some analog moments.

Yeah, I love that.

Analog moments.

Just sit outside, sit in the quiet.

Yeah.

Just read a book, do a granny hobby, do a little creative thing.

I love a granny hobby, but make it analog.

Babe, take away, put your phone somewhere else exactly, just don't.

You don't have to have like technology going nope.

Or if you want a silly movie or TV show in the back, whatever.

But it's like, just have your analog moments and don't apologize for it.

Just vibe.

Have them.

I'm here to tell you right now, you deserve it.

You do.

You deserve it.

Everybody needs like 100% me time.

You deserve it.

You're only on this earth for so long.

You deserve your little moments of peace and don't let anyone tell you that you don't.

Exactly.

And if somebody is telling you you don't, fuck them.

That's what I have to say about that.

I was going to kick him in the chin.

I've been thinking about it a lot lately.

Me too.

No, I feel exactly the same.

It's really been getting to me.

That is really heartbreaking though.

It is.

That's the thing.

And that's why I feel so horrible for Robert O'Donnell because he was a hero.

He was.

And I think it just, it spiraled out of control and I feel really bad.

But as for Jessica...

She has literally zero memory.

Oh, that's so good.

Of the event that shaped and profoundly affected her entire life.

Yeah, that's so good though.

She later said I learned about it when I was four and watched it on Rescue 911 at my stepmother's house.

Awesome.

And she said it was overwhelming.

I remember crying.

Yeah.

And she said, I guess her stepmother was like, you do realize that's about you.

Yeah.

Like that's your story.

That's you, your baby Jessica.

Right.

And her dad said we were waiting until she was a little bit older to tell her.

Yeah.

And she has since then read a great deal about the rescue operation.

That must be such a mind fuck because you don't remember that, but you're like, oh, I'm watching me.

And she said it still feels remote.

I'm sure.

It doesn't feel like it's her.

And she said it didn't affect me the way it affected other people.

I lived it, but I didn't watch it.

That's got to be wild.

Which is so weird.

And after the incident, a trust fund was established in the amount of 12 million from donations made by people all around the world.

Nice.

As she grew older, she was, which, get it together, people.

She was occasionally picked on by her classmates.

For what if you're picking on somebody for falling into a well when they were 18 and then being rescued?

How do you even like what's the material?

That's what I'd be like.

Oh my God.

You fell into a well.

Oh, just, just got well fallers.

Didn't die.

Like what, what are you making fun of her for?

She's a fucking... I just, I don't get that.

She's a national treasure at this point.

Like, baby Jessica, don't... If you're making fun of baby Jessica, get out of here.

Be like, fuck you, I united Texas.

But she has a pretty positive outlook on the whole thing.

She graduated from high school in 2004, which I said, yay.

You said same girl?

I said, yeah, girl.

And the following year, she married Danny Morales, whom she met through her sister.

I love love.

He was 13 years old in 1987 and remembered watching the coverage on television.

And he said they stopped the whole game to say baby Jessica had been rescued.

It was pretty cool.

Oh my god today, little did he know that was his wife and today they have two children who are now old enough to learn about the incident in school.

When she was asked what lessons she hopes her kids take away from the story, she said to always be humble and to remember that if you look hard enough, there are so many good people in the world.

Oh, and i think that is such a good, Perfect place to end.

That's a good like way to look at that because, like we were talking about, it's so easy to see the bad.

Yeah.

So easy.

But I like if you look hard enough.

The bad is being launched at you.

Like from a cannon 24-7.

And I know that's overwhelming.

It is.

Because I feel it.

It is.

But if you look hard enough and only tunnel vision your way into some good, you will see it.

You will.

It's everywhere.

Do you know what else is good?

What?

I remembered the fun fact this time.

Oh!

Because, yeah.

Okay.

So sorry.

I think we've missed the fun fact the last couple times.

It's because this is new, and sometimes we're just dinguses.

I think we just forgot that we were doing it.

Because of the war zone of viral plague that has been happening in my house and around us lately.

I think we just got a little like overwhelmed and

It just did not occur to me that we forgot to do them.

So thank you for reminding us.

And I promise we will not forget again.

I'm bad.

Well, I'm not going to promise that because we might forget again, but we'll do our best.

I'm going to put like a little thing up that tells us.

Oh, wow.

She's holding true to this.

Listen to this bitch.

I'm not going to let you down again.

Wow.

Listeners.

Such a Capricorn.

I'm like, we might let you down again.

Like we won't.

This is the best fun fact.

So I don't even know if we need like, we might just read this fun fact to you forever.

Just over and over.

The oldest living land animal on Earth is a 192-year-old tortoise named Jonathan jonathan.

It's the jonathan.

It's the jonathan, a 192 year old turtle named jonathan.

And he just said i am jonathan.

So wait, when was he born?

1026 minus 192.

1834 this fucker was birthed.

Holy shit.

And he's just still roaming?

What's his secret?

Being a turtle?

Jonathan, if you're listening, tell us your secret.

Wait, literally, like, why do turtles live so long?

I'm going to Google that real quick.

I would really like to know that because I'm like, why are we not taking advantage of this?

Yeah.

We take advantage of everything else as humans.

Why are we not doing that?

Oh, because they're low stress.

This is from Google.

It says, Oh.

They quickly repair DNA, resist cancer and protect themselves with hard shells, so it allows them to live for over 100 years, with some species showing very few signs of aging.

Wow.

Very interesting.

I love really cool.

Stress is a part of that, because i feel like that goes, that was our message, this message so well, because stress will fucking kill you.

Your hobby, your granny hobby, can be your hard shell.

It really should be your hard shell.

I'm hard shelling right now.

Yeah, i'm analoguing.

I'm hard shelling.

I'm tortoising right now.

Please leave me alone.

This is really cool.

Research indicates that they quickly kill off damaged cells.

Interesting.

So that's why they don't really end up getting cancer very often.

You wonder what the evolutionary process is there.

The process is called apoptosis.

Oh, yeah.

So they just resist it.

But it's like, why do they?

I don't know.

Damn.

That's interesting.

That is a fun fact.

They also take many years to reach sexual maturity and that's why they live longer.

Good for them.

They're just vibing for a little while.

So they're just kids for longer.

They're just kids.

They get a long childhood.

Maybe that's it.

Honestly, I'm 40 and I'm still a kid.

So I really, I subscribe to that.

I subscribe to it too.

I subscribe to being youthful as long as humanly possible.

I love turtles.

I love them so much.

At the Boston Aquarium, myrtle the turtle.

Oh, Myrtle for life.

Love Myrtle.

I wonder how old she is.

She's a queen.

Not as old as Jonathan.

Yeah, not as old as Jonathan.

Wow, what a fun story.

Well, not a fun story.

A happy story.

I like how it ended happy.

That was the fun part.

Yeah, we needed it.

I can't believe that people made fun of her in school.

For falling down a well when she was a baby?

People can make fun of anybody for anything.

It's insane.

That's what I mean.

Get it together, people who do that.

I just think sometimes when I have kids, if I ever find out that they've made fun of somebody...

Yeah, you're going to want to fight a kid.

Yeah, I'm going to be upset and disappointed in myself.

No, I would never fight a kid.

Jesus Christ, get a grip.

Yeah, like I know we're just saying it because I don't want to be.

New threat unlocked.

I should only fight kids.

We fight kids.

I'm sure that's already been said.

Nah, we don't.

We just love turtles.

No, we don't.

No, we don't fight kids.

We just love turtles and we love being grannies.

Yeah.

We're like Rita and...

Rita and Janet.

The grannies.

All right, guys.

Well, we hope that you keep listening.

And we hope you keep it weird.

But not so weird that you don't age like a turtle.

Yeah, get analog with it.

Yeah.

Have your moments.

You deserve it.

Hell yeah.

Bye, dolls.

Unless you're a bitch.

Unless you're a bitch, then fuck you. then you don't deserve it.

But if you're listening right now, she's about to turn off the recorder.

So I'm going to keep talking.

If you're listening right now, you're beautiful and lovely because you stuck it out.

Love you.

Thank you.

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[]-[The Rescue of Baby Jessica McClure]

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[]-[The Rescue of Baby Jessica McClure]

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