The world is full of urban legends,
remarkable stories that spread like viruses around
the planet, mutating and evolving until no one can
remember which ones are true and which ones are
Urban Legends.
== sync, corrected by elderman ==
In this episode, called 'Close Calls',
we show you three stories all linked by near misses.
First up, UK police desperately try to save
face with a dangerous killer on the loose.
Next it's the story of a Croatian man with a habit
for near death experiences.
Is he amazingly cursed...
or incredibly lucky?
And finally, an unhappy Dutch couple finds a
surprising way to inject some vim back
into their marriage.
Original Air Date on June 3, 2011
Watch all three stories and decide which urban
legends are true and which ones are false.
Find out if you guessed right at the
end of the show.
First it's a story we like to call 'Faceless Woman?'
Detective Frank Andrews knows the importance
of not letting cases get to him.
But not even Frank could avoid becoming consumed by
one strange and violent crime spree.
Frank Andrews: I was so obsessed I had to
see it through.
Frank became involved with the case
back in 1992 in Reading, England, when a young
woman was brutally murdered.
Two wine glasses left on her table are the best
hope for evidence.
So we took those to check for uh,
saliva, glass is also a very good surface for
things like fingerprints.
There are no usable prints,
but one glass does yield a DNA sample.
Frank cross-references it and incredibly, it matches
DNA from 4 other unsolved crimes,
including another murder.
Even more shocking - the DNA profile
is that of a woman.
Serial killers are almost
exclusively male and in that respect this was a
very unusual case.
The police find it hard to believe, but
the same woman's DNA turns up at more crime scenes.
The media picks up the story and gives the
rampaging criminal a name...
She'd never been seen, that was the
reason that the phrase was coined
'The Faceless Woman'.
6 months after the first murder,
the pressure is mounting on Frank for results.
But, another murder 4 weeks later,
takes things to a new, disturbing level.
He was attacked and killed.
We found blood and skin fragments under his nails.
Not only did we find the DNA that
matched the Faceless Woman we also found uh DNA that
matched an unknown male.
This meant that she'd recruited an accomplice.
It's Frank's first solid break and he
jumps on it, determined to find out the identity of
the Faceless Woman from her new partner.
We did find the accomplice, we brought
him in and questioned him rigorously, he refused to
give up the identity of the faceless woman, in
fact he denied having an accomplice.
It's no use...
He was charged and sentenced but
in terms of the faceless woman we were back
at square one.
I was absolutely gutted I really
thought that this was it, we were actually going to
finally solve this case.
Only 10 days later the Faceless Woman
makes another appearance, this time
with a baffling twist.
We had an unidentified
male deceased.
Following normal procedure,
uh we took an oral swab.
Um, needless to say we were absolutely amazed to
find the faceless woman's DNA from a male corpse,
there's no way this could, could happen.
Frank doesn't know what to make of it.
Until, with a sinking sensation, it occurs to
him that he may have been overlooking the obvious.
Frank Andrews: The DNA kits that were being used
all came from a medical supply company
located in Birmingham .
Everything suggests someone has been
tampering with the DNA kits.
DNA samples from the medical supply company
turns up a match!
Frank has tracked down his long-time nemesis:
the Faceless Woman is, Mrs. Millie Harris,
a 59 year old lab worker.
Obviously no serial killer.
We observed her for a few
days to find out if this was malicious tampering
or accidental.
Finally Frank gets his answer.
This bizarre and complex mystery has a ridiculous
simple solution.
The DNA kits contained cotton
swabs which are used to gather evidence.
Most of the swabs were very uniform but
occasionally they would be a little bit ragged and
this one lady in order to keep them uniform,
would lick her fingers, and press them back into shape.
Thereby contaminating those samples with her DNA.
With the odd, well-meaning, lick, Millie
unwittingly had the police chasing their own tails...
It just goes to show you can never
be sure of anything that's in front of you.
A police force spends 9 months hunting a
serial killer only to discover the criminal
is an innocent woman.
But did it really happen?
You'll have to wait until the end of the
show to find out.
But before then, check out this mini myth!
Mini myth number 1422 That Coat's on me!
In a Columbus, Ohio coat store, Linda Brown shouted
Hey everyone, coats are on me,
I just won the lottery!
500 lucky people swarmed the racks, desperate to
get their share, as Linda left in her stretch limo
to go get the cash to pay.
But, lo and behold, much to the chagrin of the
waiting horde, it was a huge prank.
A riot broke out as people tried to steal the coats
they believed were they were due.
But Linda had beat a safe retreat.
But did it happen?
Discover the truth after the break.
Welcome back to Urban Legends.
Before the break we told you about the woman who
offered to buy coats for everyone in the store and
then took off without paying, causing a riot.
Was it true or wrapped in a cloak of lies?
It was...totally true!
The joke was on Linda when she got arrested for
causing the riot and not paying her $900 limo bill.
On Urban Legends, we show you three stories.
You have to decide which ones really happened and
which ones are merely legends.
So far you've seen the tale of a confounding
crime spree that turned out to be a case of
contaminated DNA swabs.
But is it true or false?
Find out at the end of the show.
Now it's time for our next story.
It's called Lucky Man.
Frano Selak loves to entertain.
But the biggest crowd pleaser isn't his music -
it's the incredible story of his life.
In fact, Frano may be the luckiest man
who has ever lived.
Frano's story begins in Croatia in 1958.
He's a teacher on a school trip.
After dropping off the kids, Frano and
the driver head out for lunch.
Suddenly, the driver loses control.
The horrific crash would have
killed most people.
But somehow, Frano survives.
But god's plan for Frano is far stranger
than he could have ever imagined.
Three years later, his brush with death is a
distant memory.
Frano is on a long train ride.
The train derails and plunges into
the icy water.
The train cars sink.
Seventeen passengers die.
But just like his first crash, Frano escapes
without a scratch.
Frano won't have to wait long to find out.
A year later, Frano is avoiding busses and
trains, but he can't resist the latest
form of transportation.
It's his very first flight.
And he's determined to take advantage of
every last luxury.
Frano practices his Croatian charm on the
flight attendant.
Suddenly the unbelievable happens.
Before it crashes,
Frano is sucked from the plane.
Freefalling without a parachute, surely this is
the end for Frano.
But something amazing happens.
A haystack breaks his 2000 foot fall.
Once again, incredible luck has
saved Frano's life.
After escaping death for a third time
Frano thinks God must be done
playing games with him.
But he's wrong.
On the 5th of June, 2002 2 days after his 73rd
birthday, fate finally catches up with Frano.
A lifetime of near misses is about to change.
As Frano stops to check his lotto ticket,
he has no idea what is about to hit him.
Finally, Frano's luck has done more than
save him from death.
After bad luck with planes, trains and
buses there's only one form of transportation he
truly trusts.
A man survives 3 crazy accidents only to
win the lottery.
But is it true?
You'll have to wait til the end of the show to
find out.
But before then, check out this mini myth.
Mini myth number 5761 Lottery Ticket
Jim Morgans had cause for a celebratory drink when
he realized he'd bought the winning ticket!
His fellow bar patrons responded with disbelief,
forcing him to pass it around so they could see
for themselves.
The ticket went from hand to hand around the bar -
except when it arrived back to the Jim,
it was a completely different ticket.
One of the man's friends had swapped and swiped the
winning ticket, cashed it anonymously, and
disappeared with the winnings!
So, is it true?
We'll let you know after the break.
Welcome back to Urban Legends, before the
break we showed you the mini myth of the guy who
passed around his winning lotto ticket, only to lose
it, as fast as he won it.
So what do you think, is this
tale a winning ticket?
This story is, in fact, a fake - although one which
is particularly popular in China.
On Urban Legends,
Your mission is sort the totally true from the
fantastically false.
So far you've seen the tale of Frank Andrews who
spent 9 months hunting a hardened criminal only to
discover he was chasing contaminated DNA swabs.
And the story of lucky Frano Selak, who survived
three accidents against the odds,
then won the lottery.
But which ones are real and which ones are fake?
All will be revealed at the end of the show.
In the meantime, watch our final story.
We've named it 'Twisted Tryst'.
Gierta Van Dijk knows how quickly a relationship can
grow stale.
But she never imagined what would ultimately
happen to her marriage.
It would leave her changed forever.
Back in 1995, Jakob and Gierta Van Dijk had been
married for 12 years.
But things aren't what they once were.
To make matters worse the Van Dijk's
have financial issues:
Gierta assumes the worst.
But in reality, Jakob has taken to
spending all their money on something else....
Prostitutes.
Jakob is careful to conceal his secret from
his wife, but ignorance is far from bliss for Gierta.
Gierta decides it's time for a change.
She finds herself a part-time job
just outside of town.
Meanwhile, Jakob's addiction is
taking over his life.
The couple are drifting further and
further apart.
But all that's about to change.
One fateful evening, Jakob decides it's time to try a
new brothel.
But Gierta's new job is the oldest profession
in the world.
How will they get past this?
From that day, every week Jakob and
Gierta re-light their fire in the comfort
of a brothel.
It was not an outcome either of them
could have predicted.
Lying and cheating are two things
that normally destroy a relationship.
But for Gierta and Jacob, it's the ingredient that
saved their marriage.
But did it really happen?
We'll let you know after the break.
Welcome back to Urban Legends.
It's time to reveal the truth about our three
incredible stories.
First up, it's a story of Frank Andrews who was lead
on a wild police goose chase by some contaminated
DNA swabs.
But is it fact or fiction?
Frank Andrews: An incredible story, and
totally bogus.
I'm not a copper, I'm an actor.
A similar story happened in Europe over a
span of 15 years, but they never found out how the
swabs were contaminated.
Next it's the tale of Frano Selak, the luckiest
man in the world, who thwarted death three times
and then won the lottery.
But did it happen?
This story is totally true.
Which leaves the story of Gierta Van Dyke, and the
unbelievable coincidence of running into her
husband at the brothel where she secretly worked.
But is it true?
Prostitution is permitted
in Holland, and that's the only part of the story
which is true.
I'm a school teacher.
This story is fantastically fake but
versions of this have been circulating the internet
since 2001.
That's the end of our episode called
Close Calls.
Were you able to separate the righteously right from
the ridiculously wrong?
Don't worry if you couldn't.
You'll get another chance to separate fact from
fiction in the next installment of Urban Legends.
== sync, corrected by elderman ==