DISAPPEARED: The Ghost Blimp Mystery

In 1942, a U. S. Navy blimp embarked on a routine patrol off the coast of San Francisco—but hours later the blimp came crashing down in nearby Daly City. Its radios were working, engines were running, and life jackets were still on board, but the crew had seemingly vanished without a trace. To this day, their whereabouts are still unknown.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Speaker 00

  All right, so a lot of you have been listening to this podcast long enough now to know that when a story starts with people looking up at the sky, it usually ends with some sort of wild UFO sighting. A silver craft hovering over a field, a cigar-shaped object darting through the clouds, a saucer spiraling without sound. And while you know I love a good UFO sighting, today's case might arguably be more mysterious than any of that. On a beautiful summer day in 1942, people in Daly City, California, looked up at the sky to see a blimp

• 0:44Speaker 00

  barreling towards a hill. The airship was owned by the Navy, so to see it come crashing down in a busy area was alarming enough. But even more surprising was when the rescue teams got there, there was no one inside. The two men operating the blimp were last heard calling in a report over the ocean. But after that, it's like they vanished into thin air. Stories of what happened to these two pilots have been debated ever since that day. Were they captured by Japanese forces? Killed by a spying stowaway?

• 1:27Speaker 00

  Did they get into a fight and push each other out of the blimp and into the ocean below? But since their bodies have never been found, I have to consider one other possibility, like the fact that their deaths might have been tied up in the supernatural. Welcome back. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is So Supernatural.

• 2:24Yvette Gentile?

  All right, y'all. I am so excited for this episode because it happened right here in my neck of the woods. It is a story that is so strange, so mysterious, so mind-blowing that it's gonna keep you guessing for days. I'm Yvette Gentile.

• 2:48Rasha Pecoraro?

  And I'm her sister, Rasha Pecoraro. Now, I know we've covered ghost ships in the past, crews who vanish off their decks while out at sea with little evidence to show where they went. But this might be the first and the last time we ever get to cover a case of a mysterious ghost blimp.

• 3:11Yvette Gentile?

  And I think it's safe to say that most of us don't see a whole lot of blimps in our day-to-day lives. I mean, I do know that I still get excited when I see one. And especially if you're a sports fan like I am, you might see them more often. I mean, it's not unusual to see a Goodyear blimp flying over Oracle Park in San Francisco during a Giants baseball game. But the interesting thing is, once upon a time, blimps, or as they were known in the early 1900s, airships, were a popular way for rich people to get around. Yes, I said it. They were first invented in 1895 when someone got the idea to attach an engine to a hot

• 3:56Yvette Gentile?

  air balloon. And for the next several decades, wealthy people regularly treated themselves to cruises in the sky. And there were even intercontinental flights. But blimps fell out of favor in 1937 after the Hindenburg disaster. That's when a German passenger airship burst into flames and crashed in New Jersey, killing 35 of the 97 people on board. That combined with the fact that airplanes were so much faster and more convenient caused the commercial airship industry to basically just die off.

• 4:35Yvette Gentile?

  However, in 1942, the US Navy saw a way to put those old airships to good use. So they decided that blimps were going to be a key part of the United States' defense strategy during World War II.

• 4:51Rasha Pecoraro?

  The Navy knew that Japanese submarines were coming into American waters. In February of 1942, an enemy sub even surfaced near a shoreline oil field in Santa Barbara, California, and it ended up opening fire and causing mass panic. Luckily, nobody was injured in the attack. It barely even did any property damage, but it still left Americans feeling rattled. It had only been two months since the events of Pearl Harbor, and the Japanese were clearly sending a message that they can get to the mainland whenever they want to.

• 5:34Yvette Gentile?

  So naturally, US military leaders began looking for some way to patrol American beaches and catch those submarines before they could ambush us again. But they didn't want to use planes for these patrols because they were using practically every single airplane they had available on the warfront. And not to mention, planes use a whole lot of fuel, which the Navy didn't have to spare. Plus, it took a lot of time to train pilots, and again, the officials wanted that investment to pay off in Europe or Asia, not on home territory. Blimps, however, didn't require a ton of fuel or even much training

• 6:18Yvette Gentile?

  because they were pretty simple to operate. Unlike airplanes, you don't need to worry about keeping them level. They actually stay up in the air all on their own. That is, until you steer the blimp in for a landing. And since they move slowly, you don't need to worry about drifting too far off course or getting lost either. Even better, blimps don't have noisy engines, so they can travel in virtual silence, which meant the sound of their approach wouldn't tip off the enemy. The blimps had a better chance of actually spotting submarines before they submerged.

• 7:00Yvette Gentile?

  This is really interesting to me because I'm thinking in my head, can't they see it from a submarine? Like, wouldn't they be able to see it? But I guess back then, they had limited vision of what they could see, right?

• 7:12Rasha Pecoraro?

  I feel like they had that one peephole, right? That they can like stick out and see. I mean, I've been on a submarine before, actually at Pearl Harbor, that's docked there. I can't remember the name of it, but there's like one little like viewpoint. So I don't think they had much vision above the water, for sure.

• 7:31Yvette Gentile?

  Right, well, obviously not, right? Obviously, back then anyways.

• 7:35Rasha Pecoraro?

  So, beginning in 1942, the Navy buys every blimp they can get their hands on and builds a bunch more, until they eventually have a fleet of more than 150. This includes one they call the L-8. It's actually a former Goodyear promo blimp. It's the kind we mentioned earlier. The L-8 used to fly around at events with the Goodyear logo on the side, trying to get people to buy Goodyear tires. It's just shy of 150 feet long, so about half the size of Big Ben or our very own Statue of Liberty.

• 8:15Rasha Pecoraro?

  And it travels at a maximum speed of about 61 miles per hour. The Navy paints over the Goodyear logo and they store it on a base in California called Treasure Island.

• 8:29Yvette Gentile?

  Yeah, that's right. Treasure Island is a manmade island right here in San Francisco. And it's actually three islands. It's Yerba Buena Island, Alameda Island, and Treasure Island. It was built to be a tourist destination during the 1939 to 1940 World's Fair, and it actually was called "The Magic City." But now, it's one of several departure points for the Navy's blimp program.

• 8:58Rasha Pecoraro?

  Have you been to Treasure Island, Yvette? I know I've seen the signs, but I don't remember ever going with you.

• 9:03Yvette Gentile?

  That's right. Yeah, whenever you go over the Bay Bridge, you always see the exit for Treasure Island. Yes, I have been, because I've gone for auditions. I've actually gone for a Pilates class as well, and I got lost, and Gino had to come rescue me. Which is, was a whole nother story. But they are opening a new, beautiful waterfront park that I believe took 10 years to actually come to fruition. So it's supposed to be pretty spectacular, with restaurants and views. So I can't wait to go back.

• 9:39Rasha Pecoraro?

  Well, you need to take me.

• 9:40Yvette Gentile?

  Well, of course.

• 9:43Rasha Pecoraro?

  Well, back to the story. So all throughout 1942, the L-8 goes on a number of important missions. It delivers spare parts to an aircraft carrier at sea and performs multiple beach patrols. But the incident we want to focus on begins on August 16th of 1942. That day, the L-8 is supposed to take off around 6:00 a.m. and spend four hours or so drifting up and down the coastline, looking for enemy subs. They want to cover 50 miles worth of beaches, and three men are assigned to ride in the blimp. Lieutenant Ernest Cody, who's in charge,

• 10:27Rasha Pecoraro?

  and two other men with lower ranks, Ensign Charles Adams and submate James Hill. It's a pretty typical foggy San Francisco morning, one of which I have experienced many, many times in all the years that my sister Yvette has lived there. And fun fact, the fog of San Francisco has a name.

• 10:50Yvette Gentile?

  Has a nickname.

• 10:52Rasha Pecoraro?

  Carl the Fog.

• 10:55Rasha Pecoraro?

  And I know that because Yvette bought my daughter Leilani a book all about it. Who loves the fog. Yes. My niece loves the fog. She loves the fog. She loves Carl the Fog. Well, this particular morning is definitely a Carl the Fog morning, meaning it's cool, overcast, and there's a lot of dew in the air. It's the sort of day where you can't even walk outside without getting a little damp because the mist is always in the air. Lieutenant Cody worries that when the blimp gets high enough in the air that day, the moisture will condense and make the blimp even heavier. He doesn't think it'll stay aloft with all that extra weight plus the three crew members.

• 11:38Rasha Pecoraro?

  So he tells Submate Hill to stay behind.

• 11:43Yvette Gentile?

  This is technically standard procedure. The blimp doesn't actually need three people on board because it only takes two people to pilot it. And anytime weather conditions are like this, the commanding officer has the option of leaving one of the crewmen behind.

• 12:00Rasha Pecoraro?

  Hill follows his orders, remaining on the ground and presumably picks up other duties elsewhere. But Cody and Adams take off and begin their patrol a little after 6 o'clock that morning. For the next hour or two, they drift up and down the shoreline looking for submarines. It's all pretty routine and nothing really interesting happens. At least not until 7:50 a.m. At this time, they're about 25 miles west of San Francisco, flying out over the Pacific Ocean. And they're at an altitude of about 300 feet above sea level.

• 12:40Rasha Pecoraro?

  Now, this is fairly low for the blimp, which typically stays at about 1,000 feet. But it makes sense that they would go lower, especially if they spotted something suspicious and wanted a closer look, like, say, a patch of oil floating on the water, which is exactly what happened.

• 13:00Yvette Gentile?

  Submarines from back in the day released oil that created miniature slicks exactly like this one. So even though the crew of the L-8 doesn't see an actual sub, they think that this is pretty strong evidence that a Japanese vessel might be submerged right beneath them.

• 13:19Rasha Pecoraro?

  I have to say, this reminds me of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona sub. Because even to this day, all these years later, you still see those oil slicks right above the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor.

• 13:35Yvette Gentile?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 13:37Rasha Pecoraro?

  You know, so I can see why they were thinking that this was suspicious. So they end up hopping on the radio and call headquarters to explain exactly what they've found. They also announce that they're going to hang around the area for a while to see if there are any other clues that they can find. Then they end the conversation by saying they'll check in with a new update in 10 minutes, which will be 8:00 a.m. on the dot.

• 14:05Yvette Gentile?

  Okay, it's very important to keep in mind that while the L-8 is making this call, it's being watched. And there are a bunch of fishing boats near the oil slick and patrol boats from the Navy and the Coast Guard. Obviously, the fishermen don't know exactly what the crew is up to, but still, it's public knowledge that blimps like these are looking for enemy subs. So as soon as they see the L-8 drift overhead and then hover over this oil spill, the fishermen decide that, okay, you know what? It's probably time to get the heck out of Dodge. Because the L-8 can actually drop underwater bombs known as depth charges

• 14:49Yvette Gentile?

  on the submarine if the military tells them to. And these guys want to be well outside of the blast zone. But instead of explosives, the blimp tosses out flares. And these are designed to float near the oil and create a ton of smoke. Basically, they don't want to attack. They just want to mark the spot so other naval vessels can come and investigate. And once these flares hit the water, L-8 circles once or twice, then it just continues on its way.

• 15:25Rasha Pecoraro?

  But here's where it gets really weird. By now, it's 8:00 a.m., time for the next check-in with headquarters. Only, the blimp doesn't call. And neither Adams nor Cody picks up when the naval officers try reaching them over the radio. At first, the officials on Treasure Island assume the radios went down due to some technical glitch, which actually happens pretty regularly, so it isn't cause for alarm, not yet. In fact, the naval officers don't even start to worry about it until an hour and a half later at 9:30 in the morning. By then, the blimp should be getting close to Treasure Island and preparing to land.

• 16:08Rasha Pecoraro?

  But, nobody sees any sign of it in the sky. So the naval officers try calling again, just in case the radios are back up and running. But still, they don't reach anyone. That's when they put out a public announcement. They're missing a blimp, and they do not know where it is. They ask all of the civilians in the San Francisco area, especially people in airplanes or on boats, to call in right away if they see anything resembling the L-8 blimp. And sure enough, right afterward, they start getting calls from different airplanes and control towers.

• 16:47Rasha Pecoraro?

  All of them say they've spotted L-8, and it's nowhere near the area it's supposed to be patrolling. It's way, way up in the air.

• 16:59Yvette Gentile?

  And like we mentioned, the L-8 usually flies at an altitude of 1,000 feet max. Other blimps can go much higher than that, up to 10,000 feet. But, the L-8 isn't designed for that. Except now, it's cruising at about 2,000 or 2,500 feet. So, it is twice as high as it's supposed to be, or even more. At this altitude, it's getting in the way of passing planes. Both a passenger jet and a naval plane spot the L-8 and feel obligated to notify officials.

• 17:37Yvette Gentile?

  It doesn't descend until about 11:00 a.m., which for context, is a full hour after its mission was supposed to end. And when the L-8 comes in for a landing, guess what? It's not headed toward Treasure Island. It's near the Golden Gate Bridge, and that is about five miles west of where it is supposed to be.

• 18:02Rasha Pecoraro?

  Obviously, it's a huge problem for a military blimp to descend in the middle of a crowded city like this. In fact, there's no good reason for it to follow this route at all. So this is when officials really start to worry. Because they still can't reach Cody and Adams, and the blimp is wildly off course. They're wondering, will it land safely somewhere? Or will this be a devastating crash? The pressure is on to try and save the blimp, its crew members, and the people of San Francisco. But officials have no idea how strange the whole situation is about to get.

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• 19:21Speaker 00

  Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers.

• 19:23Speaker 05

  And I'm Britt. And if you're on the edge of your seat listening to this show, Crime Junkie needs to be your next listen.

• 19:28Speaker 00

  Every Monday, I dive into a new true crime case that our reporting team has been on the ground looking into. From lesser-known disappearances to the most chilling cases hitting the headlines. And I'm gonna walk you through it the way I tell my best friend, because, well, that's what I'm doing.

• 19:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's me. And I'm right there with you as we listen together, react to every wild detail, and of course, I ask all the questions.

• 19:52Speaker 00

  And I'm gonna have the answers, because we have case files, we're talking to detectives and family members, and we're gonna stay focused on the facts.

• 19:59Speaker 05

  So if you're not already listening to Crime Junkie, what are you waiting for? There are over 300 episodes available right now.

• 20:05Speaker 00

  And you can listen to new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 20:16Yvette Gentile?

  On August 16th, 1942, a naval blimp called the L-8 goes AWOL from a patrol mission. It flies way too high, then drifts out over the Golden Gate Bridge. And this all happens more than an hour after it was supposed to land. But things just get weirder when the L-8 drifts down toward a beach near Fort Funston. And if you have ever visited the San Francisco Zoo, that is the beach that is right next door. And that day, like many days, it is full of people. And naturally, most of the civilians scatter when the blimp finally touches down on the ground.

• 20:59Yvette Gentile?

  One particular passerby sees the blimp crash on the beach and gives this statement. They say that they spot two men grabbing some ropes and tethers that are actually dangling from the L-8. They really seem to know what they're doing. So the witnesses assume the men are crew members who managed to get off the blimp while it was on the ground. So they try to secure it, but it doesn't work. Instead, the blimp takes off again and disappears into the sky. The witness calls the authorities and says the blimp is still in the air. But the two crewmen made it safely onto the ground, and they're fine.

• 21:43Yvette Gentile?

  And that message gets passed along to the naval officers at headquarters. And based on this report, they believe their men are safe. They hope Cody and Adams will get back to the base in the next couple of hours. Then they can explain exactly what happened and how they ended up crashing so far off course. In the meantime, the Navy still isn't making any real headway in recovering the blimp.

• 22:14Rasha Pecoraro?

  At least not until they get another tip. This time saying the blimp has been spotted floating over a local suburb called Daly City. About fifteen minutes have gone by since the incident at the beach. And the presumably empty blimp is about ten miles southwest of San Francisco. With each second, it's moving further away from Treasure Island. It's also very low to the ground, like it's almost about to land again. But Daly City is a densely populated neighborhood packed with houses, and it literally keeps bouncing off of people's rooftops.

• 22:56Rasha Pecoraro?

  Meanwhile, all of the air is leaking out of the blimp, so it's sort of collapsing in on itself. But finally, it crashes into a set of power lines and sparks go flying. Because it was filled with non-flammable helium and the engine fuel tanks remained intact, luckily, nothing catches fire.

• 23:21Rasha Pecoraro?

  Instead, it makes a very bumpy landing in the middle of the street. Police, firefighters, and pedestrians all gather around very quickly. Soon, there's literally 2,000 locals on the road to investigate. It's likely that none of them heard the report about the crew members jumping out on the beach, so some of these first responders are reasonably worried that there might still be injured people onboard. The cabin's door is propped wide open, so it's pretty easy to peer inside and check to see if anyone's hurt or trapped in a back corner. But the blimp is totally empty, which again, isn't a huge surprise

• 24:07Rasha Pecoraro?

  because the officers at headquarters heard that the two crew members jumped off the LA back on the beach. The problem is, those reports were wrong.

• 24:20Yvette Gentile?

  The real story was that two civilian fishermen saw the L8 coming toward the ground and they realized it wasn't a typical controlled landing. They figured the blimp was out of control and the crew had to be in danger. There were ropes and tethers actually dangling off the blimp. So the fishermen grabbed them and hung on for dear life, trying to keep the vessel grounded, not Cody and Adams. But while the fishermen were grappling with the craft, they got a good look inside the cabin, called the gondola. The space was pretty small, maybe 15 to 20 feet long, and just tall enough for an average

• 25:03Yvette Gentile?

  sized person to stand up straight. The gondola door was open and the fishermen couldn't see any crewmen on board. But the fishermen didn't get a chance to investigate further, because just as they tried to sneak a peek, a heavy, huge piece of equipment came tumbling out of the gondola door. And y'all, I am talking a 300 pound bomb. Luckily, the bomb didn't detonate. But as soon as it tumbled out, that made the blimp much lighter and it rose straight up out of the fishermen's hands. They let go of the ropes to avoid getting carried into the sky and off went the L8.

• 25:46Yvette Gentile?

  That's around the time the eyewitnesses made the false report to Treasure Island, where they actually mistook the two fishermen for the two crewmen.

• 25:58Rasha Pecoraro?

  Once the blimp landed for good, the first responders searched the gondola to see if there were any clues about where Cody or Adams may have gone. And the interior was eerie, to say the least. Other than the bombs, literally everything is put away exactly where it's supposed to be, including the parachutes. Meaning Adams and Cody didn't voluntarily abandon the blimp while it was in flight, because they would have taken the lifesaving gear with them. The life jackets were also missing, but that didn't tell puzzled investigators much. Safety procedures said crewmen were to wear those whenever flying over the water.

• 26:41Rasha Pecoraro?

  Since Adams and Cody were missing, it wasn't surprising that the life jackets were missing too. There's also a briefcase full of paperwork. And we can't tell you what those documents say, because they are considered highly sensitive and very confidential. In fact, Adams and Cody are both under strict orders to never leave the briefcase unattended. They can't let it fall into enemy hands. If they ever leave the blimp, they are supposed to take that briefcase with them. And if there's an emergency situation where they can't carry the case along, say if the L-8 catches fire,

• 27:22Rasha Pecoraro?

  they're supposed to toss it into the ocean and let the saltwater destroy the paperwork inside of it. There is no scenario whatsoever where both men would deliberately leave this briefcase behind to be discovered by civilians or by enemy soldiers.

• 27:41Yvette Gentile?

  Still, the officials checked the L-8 over to see if there might have been some kind of mechanical issue. Maybe it would have made Adams and Cody think they had to abandon ship. Perhaps they panicked and forgot to grab their parachutes or the briefcase before jumping into the Pacific. But the thing is, Lieutenant Cody is an experienced pilot who had graduated from the Naval Academy four years earlier. Ensign Adams has 10 years of naval experience, including on airships. Adams even survived a previous blimp crash off the shore of California seven years earlier in 1935.

• 28:24Yvette Gentile?

  So, to say, these guys know what the heck they're doing. Plus, everything is working perfectly. There's absolutely no sign of a malfunction, a fire, bullet hole, or burn marks from an attack, or anything that could have gone wrong. Even the radio is operational, which makes the whole situation even stranger. Because why didn't Adams or Cody check in when they were supposed to at 8:00 a.m.? Or tell anyone what was going on before they actually vanished? It sounds like whatever happened to the two men,

• 29:06Yvette Gentile?

  it must have been in that narrow 10-minute span between 7:50, when they made their final report, and 8:00 a.m., when they stopped answering the radio.

• 29:19Rasha Pecoraro?

  This was all really mysterious, which was why the Navy launched a formal investigation to try and figure out what could have happened onboard the L-8. To explain the blimp's bizarre course, they speculate that somehow and for some reason, Adams and Cody abandoned ship while it was over the oil slick. Then, the L-8 ascended rapidly because it was much lighter without the two men onboard. It reached an altitude of somewhere between 2,000 to 2,500 feet, where chilly water vapor condensed the balloon and weighed it down again. Finally, it gets too heavy to stay in the air and crashes on the beach for a short while

• 30:04Rasha Pecoraro?

  before one of its heavy bombs falls out. It takes off again, then ultimately crashes on a street in Daly City after finally deflating.

• 30:14Yvette Gentile?

  Yeah, and as for how the crew got off the blimp, well, that's even harder to explain. The investigators explore every single possibility they can think of, including some that seem a little outlandish. So, okay, buckle up, y'all.

• 30:33Yvette Gentile?

  Just stick with me. Here's the first one. One early theory says that Cody and Adams might have been romantically interested in the same woman. So yes, a love triangle. The investigators don't have a specific lady in mind. They are just basically spitballing. Supposedly, while Cody and Adams were in the air, they realized they both had a crush on the same person. And I guess they got into a fight. It escalated to a point where one of the men murders the other. Then he pushes the gondola door open to dispose of the body, only to fall out in the process himself.

• 31:19Yvette Gentile?

  Okay, y'all, I know this is a very dramatic story. And I guess gotta say, there's zero evidence to back it up. In fact, it seems almost impossible. Because after the L8 crashes, the first responders note that the interior is pristine, meaning there are no signs of a struggle.

• 31:42Rasha Pecoraro?

  So this theory about romantic jealousy, it just doesn't pan out. And the investigators have to look at other possible explanations. Like whether an unusually big wave might have washed over the gondola or the main cabin and knocked both crew members off the vessel. Except, this swell would have had to have been 300 feet tall to even reach the blimp. And there's no evidence of a huge tsunami wave that happened that day. The investigators even wonder if Adams and Cody abandoned their posts and staged their disappearance so they could run away to a new life with their new identities.

• 32:25Rasha Pecoraro?

  But again, there's no solid evidence to support this. They can't even come up with a motive for why the crewmen would want to fake their own deaths. Ultimately, the investigation wraps up after just one week. And its findings are disappointing.

• 32:45Rasha Pecoraro?

  The Navy says there just aren't enough clues to say, one way or another, what happened to Cody or Adams. And if the officials can't explain what happened, that opens doors to all kinds of wild explanations, including a possible alien abduction.

• 33:12Speaker 00

  Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers.

• 33:14Speaker 05

  And I'm Britt. And if you're on the edge of your seat, listening to this show, Crime Junkie needs to be your next listen.

• 33:20Speaker 00

  Every Monday, I dive into a new true crime case that our reporting team has been on the ground looking into. From lesser-known disappearances to the most chilling cases hitting the headlines. And I'm gonna walk you through it the way I tell my best friend, because, well, that's what I'm doing.

• 33:35Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's me. And I'm right there with you as we listen together, react to every wild detail, and of course, I ask all the questions.

• 33:43Speaker 00

  And I'm gonna have the answers, because we have case files. We're talking to detectives and family members, and we're gonna stay focused on the facts.

• 33:50Speaker 05

  So if you're not already listening to Crime Junkie, what are you waiting for? There are over 300 episodes available right now.

• 33:57Speaker 00

  And you can listen to new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 34:08Rasha Pecoraro?

  On August 16th, 1942, a naval blimp called the L-8 flew wildly off course before crash-landing in Daly City, California. The crew were missing from the ship, so the Navy launched an investigation into the crash. But ultimately, the officials concluded that they didn't know what happened to the missing men. However, the Navy did offer a new theory. And while they freely admitted they couldn't prove it, they thought it made more sense than any other explanation. They suggested that perhaps when Cody and Adams first saw that oil slick,

• 34:53Rasha Pecoraro?

  they wanted to get a better look at it and investigate the area, just like they mentioned over the radio. The problem was that the L8's windows were too small to see through. We have to remember it was originally designed for promotions, not for military purposes. And when the Navy got the blimp, they repainted it, but didn't make any major design changes. So it's possible Adams and Cody couldn't see very well. Now, the theory goes that Ensign Adams made a reckless choice at this point. He opened the door of the gondola and leaned out to look at the water. Then, he lost his balance and tumbled out of the blimp.

• 35:36Rasha Pecoraro?

  Adams could have died in a 300-foot fall. At the very least, he would have been badly hurt and maybe knocked unconscious when he hit the water. The good news is that there are procedures in place for when a man goes overboard. Lieutenant Cody should have gotten on the radio, explained what had happened, and let the nearby ships find Adams and pull him out of the Pacific Ocean. He wasn't supposed to risk his own life, or the L8, by attempting a rescue mission himself. But, maybe Adams didn't fall into the water. Maybe after he fell off the L8, he managed to grab onto one of the ropes that were hanging off of the blimp.

• 36:20Rasha Pecoraro?

  And he suddenly found himself dangling 300 feet above the water. In that kind of situation, the nearby ships can't do anything to help. And Cody isn't going to tell him to let go and risk a very bad fall. He's going to rush to the door and try to pull Adams up himself. And he'll do it as quickly as he can, even before he gets a chance to radio for help. Maybe, while Cody was trying to rescue his crewmate, he also lost his balance. As he was falling, he knocked Adams off the ropes and they both crashed down into the water.

• 37:01Rasha Pecoraro?

  The Navy said Cody and Adams may have been alive when they hit the surface, but they were too injured to swim. And since nobody else was on board the blimp to radio for help, that means no rescue teams were able to come and get them, or even realize what had happened. So sadly, they drowned.

• 37:23Rasha Pecoraro?

  And that's the official story, that Adams and Cody made bad but understandable choices, died in the ocean, and as a result, the L8 drifted off on its own.

• 37:36Yvette Gentile?

  Except, there is some evidence that just doesn't match this story. The big one being that, to this day, Adams and Cody's remains have never been found. For weeks after the disappearance, the patrol boat searched the ocean in hopes of recovering the bodies for burial. But no one ever found their bodies, or even scraps of their clothes, or any evidence that Adams or Cody were actually in the water. I mean, yes, it is the San Francisco Bay, and there are great white sharks there, so there is that possibility, right? That they could have been eaten by a shark.

• 38:16Yvette Gentile?

  But you would still think that some, you know, remains of their life vests would show up somewhere. But anyway, at 8:00 a.m. on August 16th, the tide was coming in toward the shore. So if Adams and Cody fell into the ocean, their bodies may have washed up on the beach rather than get swept off to sea. Unless, they didn't really land in the Pacific. Like, what if? Just hear me out. What if something intercepted them after the fall? Some people think the two crewmen might have been captured by Japanese soldiers. Especially if they fell into the ocean near the oil slick that we talked about earlier.

• 39:01Yvette Gentile?

  And, it really had been left by, suppose, a Japanese submarine. Except, to this day, the Japanese government hasn't given any indication that they captured them in. And nobody else saw an actual submarine that day. They just saw the patch of oil. Plus, remember what we said earlier about how there were a bunch of fishing and military boats near the oil slick? They were watching the L8 very carefully because they thought a bomb was about to fall from it and they wanted to be prepared. The naval investigators questioned every one of those fishermen and sailors, and they all said the same thing. They didn't spot a submarine.

• 39:46Yvette Gentile?

  They also didn't see anyone fall out of the blimp or anything else that seemed alarming that day. You also have to remember that several airplanes passed the L8 while it was traveling at very high altitudes. And this was around 11:00 a.m. And the blimp had been empty for roughly three hours at that point, since 8:00 a.m., if you believe the official story. I just have to say that I was doing a deep dive on my research here, and around the time the blimp was supposedly between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Farallon Islands. The nickname for this island is called Devil's Teeth because actually, if you look at it

• 40:31Yvette Gentile?

  from above, it looks like jagged teeth. And allegedly, there have been a lot of supernatural occurrences that have happened around the Farallon Islands. So, Rasha, maybe that's a whole nother episode. I'm just saying. We'll talk to Ashley about it, for sure. Except some pilots said that they could see through the gondola's windows, and they saw crewmen onboard at this time. Meaning, Adams and Cody had to be onboard the L8 after 8:00 a.m. And they didn't fall off when they were over the oil slick.

• 41:11Yvette Gentile?

  And sure, the pilots could have been mistaken, maybe they only thought they saw the crew. Except you also have testimony from eyewitnesses on the ground. And this includes people in San Francisco, Daly City, Ocean Beach, and all of the other little suburbs in between. Lots of them came forward to say that they spotted the L8 before it crashed. Some people were even watching it through binoculars. There was also a guy by the name of Mr. Capovia, who was swimming, and he saw the blimp coming towards the shore.

• 41:48Yvette Gentile?

  And other people say they saw either two or even three men on board.

• 41:55Rasha Pecoraro?

  Now, I think it's safe to say that at least some of those eyewitnesses were mistaken. I mean, it's not like that third man would have been able to board a blimp while it was midair. But some people think it could have been a stowaway. Maybe at some point during the journey, this person jumped out of his hiding place and attacked Cody and Adams. He might have been trying to seize control of the blimp or even steal their classified documents in that briefcase. And in the fight that followed, the LA could have blown off course and all three men might have fallen out. Problem is, again, there's no hard evidence to support this idea.

• 42:39Rasha Pecoraro?

  And if there was a third man while the blimp was over Daly City, what happened to him or the crew? If they fell to the ground, someone would have found them. It just seems a lot more likely that the bystanders made a mistake and misreported what they saw.

• 42:58Yvette Gentile?

  Except some of those witnesses say they actually got photographs of the blimp with the men on board. Unfortunately, those pictures aren't available to the public today. Surprise, surprise. Yeah, surprise, surprise, hello. But assuming the film really does show two or three men on the blimp, well, I gotta say, it's pretty hard to mistake something like that. In fact, during the Navy's investigation, these civilian photographers approached the officers and told them, basically, "Y'all, here's some important evidence you might want to look at." And you know why those pictures aren't available now? Because each time the officers learned about a photo, guess what they did?

• 43:41Yvette Gentile?

  They immediately confiscated it. Which strikes some people as, yeah, weird, right? After all, it's not a secret that the Navy is using blimps or that one crashed in a public street in the middle of the day. So why seize the evidence? Why tell a story about people falling out of the gondola when none of the eyewitnesses saw anything like that? There's only one possible explanation.

• 44:12Yvette Gentile?

  And what could that be? The Navy doesn't want anyone to know the truth about the fate of those men. And that's why they're putting out cover stories and confiscating the photographic evidence. Perhaps because Cody and Adams didn't die in an accident. And their real cause of death is way too explosive for the public to handle.

• 44:38Rasha Pecoraro?

  Of course. Anytime the government hides evidence after a strange event, especially involving flying vessels, people, including myself and my sister, jump to one conclusion: that aliens were involved. And this case is no different. However, I can see how people got there. If you're a longtime listener, you probably know that during a lot of UFO sightings, technology tends to malfunction. Cars stop working, phones and cameras shut off, radios go haywire. This is a very common element in stories about alien encounters.

• 45:22Rasha Pecoraro?

  And if extraterrestrials were interfering with the L-8, that would explain why Adams and Cody failed to answer the radio, and also why the blimp moved so erratically even while the eyewitnesses said they were still on board. Maybe an alien encounter had something to do with it. That could also explain why so many people said there were three men on board the gondola and not just two. Now, this is a total stretch, but what if a visitor from outer space somehow boarded the craft to interact with the crew members before abducting them?

• 46:03Yvette Gentile?

  Okay, you know, you know I love an alien theory as much as the next person. But this one is even a stretch for me. Especially because there's zero evidence. Not even as much as strange light seen in the area around the time, right? I mean, all the things that we're accustomed to seeing with aliens and a spacecraft. None of that is happening. This may be why a lot of people think Cody and Adams didn't fall victim to aliens, but something much darker. See, in the 2010s, a historian and researcher named Otto Gross heard the story of the Ghost

• 46:46Yvette Gentile?

  Blimp, and Otto became obsessed. He wanted nothing more than to solve the mystery of what happened to Cody and Adams. So Otto poured himself into his research, trying to uncover any old clues that might have been missed in the past 70 years. He even created a website dedicated to the case. And eventually, he posted that somehow, although he didn't say exactly how, he got his hands on a classified Department of Defense file. It says Cody and Adams weren't only doing routine anti-submarine patrols in the summer of 1942.

• 47:30Yvette Gentile?

  They were also testing top-secret technology for the military. Now, information on the weapon is sparse, but apparently it involves experimental radar that transmits microwaves. And that's, that's about all we know for sure. The Department of Defense document says Cody and Adams were supposed to fly way out over the ocean, far from the city, so they could try out the weapon without endangering civilians. But during their experiment on August 16, 1942, the day of the disappearance, things went horribly wrong.

• 48:13Yvette Gentile?

  The weapon either knocked the crewmen over or disoriented them. Again, the details are very vague, so it's hard to say for sure. The point is, whatever happened, it made Cody and Adams fall out of the gondola into the ocean. And from there, Otto's theory lines up pretty well with the official story. Cody and Adams were too badly hurt to swim, so they drowned. The L-8 drifted away on its own and eventually crashed while it was unmanned.

• 48:53Rasha Pecoraro?

  Okay, there's just a couple of problems with that explanation, though. The biggest one being that Otto has never shown the alleged Department of Defense document to anyone else. It's impossible to say if it's real or if it actually says what he claims it does. And without the document, there's no other hard evidence that Cody or Adams were testing weapons on the L-8. The Navy, of course, denies this version of events, and lots of experts think Otto's story just doesn't add up. So if these men didn't disappear in a typical accident, and it wasn't aliens, and it wasn't

• 49:34Rasha Pecoraro?

  a top-secret government experiment, well, I don't know what else could have happened.

• 49:40Yvette Gentile?

  Ultimately, that's why the Ghost Blimp mystery is so frickin' baffling, because it flat-out defies any explanation. I mean, people aren't supposed to vanish into thin air or disappear without a trace. But as far as anyone can tell, that's exactly what happened to Lieutenant Ernest Cody and Ensign Charles Adams. And what's most heartbreaking about this is that their story often gets clouded in the conspiracy behind it, completely lost in the mystery. Meanwhile, there are two families that never got to say goodbye to their loved ones, that

• 50:21Yvette Gentile?

  never got to have a proper funeral, that will probably be left forever wondering what happened to their partners, their brothers, their fathers, in the moments before their death.

• 50:35Yvette Gentile?

  You guys, that's why stories like these really stick with us. Because at the heart of this case are just two people who showed up to work that day, ready for business as usual.

• 50:48Yvette Gentile?

  People that had plans for the future, who were likely just thinking about what time they'll get to leave for work that night, and when they'll get to go home and kiss their loved ones, what they'll have for dinner later. Instead, they were met with a fate so shocking and so perplexing. And so here we are, 80 years later, still trying to solve the mystery.

• 51:26Rasha Pecoraro?

  This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original, produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at SoSupernaturalPod and visit our website at sosupernaturalpodcast.com. Joining that and me next Friday for an all-new episode.

• 51:47Rasha Pecoraro?

  I think Chuck would approve.

• 51:52Speaker 06

  When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir, and that can only mean one thing: Full Body Chills is back. This season, step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful. You never know what might follow you home. So gather round, listen close, and stream Full Body Chills wherever you get your podcasts.