Icky Fishy: Karen Silkwood

0:16 oh, hey, there, oh hey there. I'm kate, I'm bradley and this is history. Buffoons, huzzah, how are you? I am well, how are you? I'm doing pretty good. Excellent it's been kind of a weird week. Yeah, it's been felt like a long, long, long week. Yeah, well, he knows I do but my senior cat, Frankie, he was 14, he did pass away this last Sunday. Which is super sad. Yeah, we decided to take him in and do it on our terms. Well, he, just he wasn't doing well. Yeah. Losing a lot of weight and fur and he wasn't eating and everything.

0:59 So, yeah, it was really unfortunate, because he was such a good boy and he would be greatly missed, as anyone who knew him really liked him. He was a good, good boy he definitely liked you oh, he was my buddy. Yeah, I loved coming up here and uh recording because before you would even greet me, he would greet me so it was always really sweet that he would come up and he'd just squeak and he would not leave me alone, he would follow my feet everywhere, until I acknowledged and picked come up and he'd just squeak and he would not leave me alone. He would follow my feet everywhere until I acknowledged and picked him up and give him some pets and stuff so. I will definitely miss him very much because he was he was my little buddy, so um. So within about 30 minutes after my husband and I got home, uh, from the vet, we had four kitties show up at our back door, just four kitties.

1:45 Four kittens four kittens show up at our back door which is like what the hell? I I don't know whether to be happy, sad, grieve, joy. I don't. I don't know. I was having a weird mix of emotions yeah when that happened and I'm still kind of in shock well, yeah, because it's like well, where did these come from? And you know, I know you said nathan, put on the whatever facebook group for the area. If yeah, hey, anyone missing kittens and nothing's come with that. And yeah uh, so on so yeah, we got on a couple apps yeah um a facebook group discussion, and then the next door app, and yep, yep but uh, they were so clean and so sociable like they couldn't have been outside for more than like 12 hours or so it seems that way because they weren't dirty at all.

2:36 You said right no, they weren't dirty at all. Um, so they've been living in our basement and the four cats grown cats that I've still have um, they're very curious at what's happening downstairs but because they're not, I mean before they were even down there, they're not. They weren't allowed to go down there. No, but they know they hear something. They're, they're not dumb but, uh, they have a vet appointment. Uh, the kittens do, and we just want to make sure that, since they were outside, they aren't going to transfer something over to our indoor cats. So they have been kept separate. But we have two Calico females and a black and white male and a really blonde orange cat male, for sure.

3:19 And the black and white and the darker of the two, calicos, are going to Bradley and his family. My kids don't know yet. No, the good thing is they don't listen to this. Yeah, I'm so excited for them, to see them. They're about eight weeks old or so, and then the orange cat and the lighter of the calicos are going to our friend Tara and her two boys. And my son, xavier, has been wanting a cat for a while and he he took. Uh, when we had to put our dog down almost a year ago now, he took that kind of hard. And I mean Vesper misses him too, but he, he, he definitely misses that and he kind of wants his own little thing because you know, like wicket's, mine pickles and mo or basically sarah's, and he, I mean he's, doesn't really have his own.

4:11 yeah, so he's gonna be super excited yeah, so we'll fill you in on what their names are once they get to their forever homes, but exactly um. So bradley and I were invited to a birthday party of a mutual friend in Whitewater and she had this for me and I was like this, I really liked it, so I picked up some more of this. This is the Cerveza Pacifico Clara. It is brewed in Mexico, but it's similar to like a light Modelo. I guess it's part of the overall Corona Modelo family. It's an offshoot of it's all made the the overall Corona Modelo family. Okay, it's. It's an offshoot of it's all made by the same company. Yeah, and I really liked it, so that's what I'm having today.

4:51 I told you, you would too. I thought you wouldn't, and I'm surprised it took us this long to have you try it. But they were good and uh, that was a fun party. Got to see some people I haven't seen in a bit that I know out there and uh as well, and yeah it was, it was kind of fun. So, I have um hazy beer, hug uh uh from goose Island out of Illinois and um side note, I used to sell goose Island a long long time ago and I kind of grew up on their IPA.

5:40 My dad loved their IPA and, um, I drank quite a few of those back in the day and then Budweiser bought them out and I you know, but I'm giving them another go because I do like Goose Island. So this is a Hazy IPA, their Hazy Beer Hug line. I know they have. If I'm not mistaken, they have a couple within this line, but it's 6.8. So it's got some kick to it. Oh, I don't know what mine is. Yours is probably like a 4.2. 4.4. Okay, I would say 4.2 to 4.5 was my guess. but all right, cheers delicioso. Oh no, he's got three with him today. Folks, it's beer, oh dear okay let me.

6:26 Let me have a few more sips before I you come. Well, we'll bring it around. At the end it's got a weird. It's got a weird back end taste that I'm trying to wrap my head around okay, let's move on, because the story can get kind of long okay so this is about karen silkwood karen silkwood. Okay, um she was born in 1946 in longview, texas, and she was really into chemistry. Oh, she attended lamar college in beaumont, texas, on a scholarship, but she left within a year because she ended up marrying someone um a pipeline worker. They had three children and it was fairly common at the time for like women to kind of drop out of college to marry and have kids and well, yeah, especially that time, that time for you.

7:14 So you said she was born in 40, what seven, 46, 46, okay, so she would have been going to college roughly in 65, give or take. And by 1972, her marriage kind of fell apart and actually her ex-husband lived with the kids, the kids lived with them, and so she kind of went off on her own. Oh, not sure the circumstances it's not necessary in this story Sure, so in 1972, silkwood moved to Oklahoma and she was hired as a laboratory technician at Kerr-McGee-Simmerin Fuel Fabrication Site. That's a mouthful. Yeah, I hope you don't have to say that again, jeez.

7:57 It is near Crescent Oklahoma, so I think it's close to Tucson. Have you ever been to Oklahoma? Maybe driving through. I've never even driven through. I'm almost 100% sure I've never even driven through it. Kerr McGee is an energy company known mainly for oil and gas and at this time it had ventured into more of a nuclear fuel production and it was a fairly big player in oklahoma nuclear industry until the late 1980s. Wow, okay so karen silkwood's job was to help manufacture plutonium fuel pellets, okay, and rods for nuclear reactors, right.

8:43 So like these little pellets develop, not develop, but they like make out the fuel rods. Yeah. Which would be like wooden logs to a fireplace. The nuclear reactor. Have you ever? I know you've seen some of the Bond movies. Have you ever seen the World is Not Enough? Who's the Bond? That would be Pierce Brosnan. It's his last one. I might have then yes. And it's got um is that with Halle Berry? No, that's die another day. Um, the one world is not. The world is not enough. I'm drawing a blank on her, uh, on the girl on there, sophie Mars. No, that's not the right name. That's a different person, I think, or was it?

9:23 Shit Doesn't matter. Robert Carlyle, you watched Once Upon a Time that TV show. Yes, rumpelstiltskin, okay, yeah. That guy was in it. Yeah, he was the bad guy. And at the end of the movie they're in the submarine and they're trying to make it nuclear, basically, and he's putting these rods in there. So that's all I'm picturing, yeah, yeah. So maybe I'll have to put a picture in the video for this. Yeah for sure, or something. So, like I said, like the fuel rods were like the wood logs to the fireplace, which would be like the nuclear reactor. Yeah. And that fuel then turns into like atomic power. Sure, so sounds like a big deal.

10:06 I keep holding back burps already, that's all right. So what is plutonium? Real quick. Do you know what the elemental symbol is for? plutonium. I have no idea If you had to guess. P. P plus a second letter. T U P-U P-U. Why? Because, again, letter t u p u p? U. Why because again, um so the atomic number for plutonium is 94. It is mostly man-made, it doesn't occur in large amounts in nature and it's produced by, produced by they call it bombarding uranium. Okay.

10:47 So scientists fire neutrons into uranium atoms at very high speed, and when uranium absorbs these neutrons, its atoms can transfer into other elements like plutonium. It's way above my head, but for those science people out there who listen, hopefully I got that right yeah, and I am not one of those people same I like math, but science that's. That's above my pay grade so, basically, plutonium is made with neutrons and uranium. Okay, I guess. So there are several different types of plutonium, but the two that I'm going to briefly mention is is plutonium 238 and plutonium 239.

11:27 So 238 is used in space probes as a heat source okay and plutonium 239 is important for nuclear weapons and and reactor fuel oh okay, it is a silvery metal that tarnishes quickly. It's both radioactive and toxic sure, okay um, most of the nuclear bombs in world war ii or since world war ii, I guess um are made of plutonium, right um? The nagasaki fat man bomb, that's plutonium gotcha, okay? Um. So as far as like uses, it's really too dangerous to use in a commercial setting.

12:11 In a medical setting, that kind of thing. They don't really use it, right um? So, like I said, it is radioactive. It emits um particles that cannot penetrate the skin. Okay. But it is deadly if ingested or inhaled. I would imagine yeah, it's got to fuck your insides up real quick. Exactly so. Skin contact, like I said, it doesn't pass through skin, but if you have cuts on the skin, isn't that wild? Yeah, like my little bug bites that I keep scratching it. Yeah, you got a bunch of when we were at that party. There was, you know where it was outside in her backyard. So it's like getting eaten up. You definitely got some bug bites, but isn't it wild to think that this thing can't even pass through your?

12:54 Skin it's just, I don't know, that's just too big of a particle I guess I don't know again above my pay grade, but same I. I just find it funny that I can't. So, if you ingest it, some of these particles can pass through the gut, but a small amount can lodge into liver or bones and stay there for decades, irradiating the tissue, oh shit. Inhalation is the most dangerous route. Tiny particles can lodge deep into the lungs and create a high risk of cancer. Sure, okay, um. So decontamination is basically stripping. If you're decam, decaminate, decontaminated on the clothing, you have to strip and then, like, scour your skin with harsh soaps and you mean if you're contaminated?

13:47 yeah, then you have to decontaminate, that's kind of like when I was, when I was younger, I was like I gotta thaw. It's like no, you gotta defrost, defrost, not, you're gonna thaw, you're not going to dothaw. Exactly, exactly so. There's also a drug which binds to plutonium and can help the body excrete it through urine, so that would be like a medical treatment side of it. Wow Okay. So lots of organ dysfunction. Long term the cancers are typically long bone and liver. Okay.

14:28 So there really is no way to reverse this damage once it's lodged into the tissues and you kind of just have to try to limit further harm. So, karen, her typical work day and this is not directly from Karen, this is from worker accounts, reports and testimonies from the union. Okay, so her daily activity most likely looked like clocking in, undergoing a radiation survey before entering certain areas, so like handheld detectors to like for whole body testing to see if there's any radiation.

15:11 Okay, she would put on lab coats, gloves, shoe covers, masks. She wore a film badge or a dosimeter to track radiation dose. So basically, I've heard that word before. So basically it's like this little photographic film case that, um, if exposed to radiation, it actually turns dark. Oh yeah, so they like if they see that they're like shit. Yeah. Or like, if they develop the film and it's dark, you were exposed to radio or radiation. That would suck. Yeah, so it's dark, you were exposed to radiation. That would suck, yeah. So the radiation is absorbed into the film. The blacker it gets, the worse. It is Gotcha.

15:51 So Karen's main job was working with plutonium oxide powder. Oh, don't you dare yawn. I wasn't yawning, it was like a weird burp yawn. Sure, sure, sure sure it was a bond. Sure, okay, a burn, a weird burp yawn. Sure, sure, sure, sure there's a bond sure okay, a burn a yarp, she would work with plutonium oxide powder and remember inhalation is the worst is the worst, yeah, and powder is obviously going to get in there a lot easier than something else. Can we say radium girls radium girls yes, you can. Good job. So this, the powder, would be to manufacture these fuel pellets which would then be assembled into the nuclear reactor rods, exactly okay. And then there were these like sealed um workstations called glove boxes.

16:35 Um, if you've seen like any kind of medical show where there's like a big toxic contaminant and they have to like there's this big box and they have to put like their hands through gloves and the gloves don't get removed or anything that's like a glove box. It's like it's like a part of the wall, if you will that they reach in yes, exactly yeah, for sure so, um, she would work in this environment with the plutonium powder and pellets inside the box, gotcha okay? Now the problem with these boxes is the seals often leaked or tore. Well, that seems like a poor construction. So plutonium, dust sometimes escaped. Exactly, yeah, wow, she also inspected fuel rods for cracks using x-rays, and we'll talk a little bit more about those in the future here.

17:22 Okay, okay. We'll talk a little bit more about those in the future here. Okay, okay. So after her shift, before leaving the controlled area, workers were scanned with Geiger counters for plutonium contamination. Right. If hot spots were found, they'd be sent to scrub down with abrasive soap, sometimes multiple times, and Karen personally went through these humiliating decontamination several times. Okay, Well, I mean yeah, humiliatingontamination several times. Okay, well, I mean yeah, humiliating but you kind of have to do it because you're otherwise transferring and you're fucking up yourself plus other people potentially if you don't get scrubbed down. So many employees that they had here at Kern McGee were fresh out of high school.

18:03 Oh boy, they were trained on the job. Okay, and I keep burping, I'm sorry. It's okay. And they are unaware of plutonium's dangers. Like they aren't trained in the possible toxicity of getting this on your body or whatever. Sure the turnover 60% yearly. That's insane. Yes, wow, that's insane. Yes. Wow, that's a lot of turnover. So that meant Karen Silkwood often worked alongside really inexperienced young people. New people, all the time. Wow, that sucks. Yeah, so only within a few months of her working there, she started discovering some things that weren't quite right.

18:46 And do tell what those things are. She was alarmed at the lacks of safety and quality control at the plant. And this was mid-70s. Yes. Ish right. Yeah, early to mid-70s she started documenting numerous violations routine spills and leaks of radioactive material, shoddy cleanups, inadequate worker training and falsification of critical records. Oh God that seems like a bad fucking thing. Yeah because I mean All right, yeah, all right, yeah.

19:28 It's funny how I mean I know we have a lot more standards and practices these days, but even back then it was all just like ah, you're good yeah fuck it, just sweep it under that rug and let's just move on right, keep making money and or whatever. The fucking scenario is right, but that they just did not fucking care? No, especially because most of the people who made those decisions to sweep it under the rug, literally, literally, um, weren't, wouldn't be affected by it, because they weren't there. Yeah, they're like well, karen's got it, let her fucking figure it out yeah so it's just fucked up that they would allow that so workers were frequently being contaminated with plutonium, sometimes breathing it in and requiring urgent medical treatment to scrub it from their bodies, and there were inventory controls.

20:11 They were so poor that significant amounts of plutonium were unaccounted for. So would people just walk off with plutonium? It's unknown. Wow, I mean you would think that would be a very regulated portion of your business, because A that's what's well in essence, making you money, yeah Right and B it's very fucking volatile really. Yeah. And dangerous. So I don't know, maybe put a little more, put an extra padlock on that locker over there. I don't know, fuck. So within two years of Karen working there, about 40 pounds of plutonium had mysteriously gone missing from their inventory.

20:55 That is a lot of plutonium. It's enough material for several, sorry enough material to fuel several nuclear bombs. Do you think that's where doc Brown really got his plutonium for the? do you think he worked at the plutonium plant? Well, I mean he said he got it from the Libyans and he well. But maybe you know that was a cover, but they did try to attack him. So, I don't know, maybe Libyans worked at this plant who's the actor? christopher lloyd yeah, should we ask him? I mean I got him on speed dial. You really don't I know, because I had asked who it was. I know I couldn't remember his name okay so it wasn't just like trivial bookkeeping error, like it meant either leakage into the environment, inaccurate measuring or potential theft, exactly no shit.

21:43 Yes, so Karen found evidence that quality control reports on fuel, not production, were being doctored. Sorry, fuel rod production were being doctored. Oh, so basically they're like we don't know where the shit is, but we made it kind of thing. Well, there is one infamous thing. So a technician literally used a felt tip pen like a sharpie, yeah, to color in cracks visible on an x-ray image of these plutonium fuel rods. Oh my god, they allowed that to happen. That's what he chose to do what a dumbass, because that okay jesus fuck.

22:26 So these inspection records meant potentially defective fuel rods were approved for use right, posing risk not just to plant workers but to any reactor and community where that fuel might have been shipped. Did they ship it to Chernobyl? I don't know. So Kerr-McGee's management appeared either negligent or willfully blind to these problems. I'm going to go willfully blind, honestly. Yeah, because training for handling these radioactive materials were really minimal and many hires were these young people straight out of high school. Yeah, like you said, they had 60% turnover. So I mean these new kids cause again just out of high school.

23:09 They don't. They don't know what the fuck they're doing. And if you're not going? to train them properly. Yeah, there's going to be some shit happening here man. It said that there was an average of 90 to 150 workers quit each year. God damn, that's how many new people would like come in to replace them every year. Well right, that's just wild. So, rather than address the safety issues, bosses often downplayed the dangers. Well, of course, because that will cost them money if they have to shut shit down or whatever investigation, so on, whatever. So time is money, Exactly so one one plant designer reassured employees that plutonium wasn't causing cancer and that, from human experience to date, we have nothing to worry about.

23:56 This is like the new age radium girls. It really is, because that's pretty pretty much what they said. It's like yeah, it's not. What was that? The twenties? I think yeah, yeah, yeah. It was in the twenties and they're like no, it's not causing, even though their jaws are falling off Right Right. Fucking idiots. So, shortly after starting at Kerr McGee, um Karen joined the oil, chemical and atomic workers union, the OCAW. So she joined this while she was still there. Yes, okay. So, like fairly early on in her employment, she was there for about two years. Okay, so this was the labor union representing the plant's employees, sure, so in the fall of 1972, she took part in a nine-week OCAW strike protesting the poor working conditions and safety standards.

24:42 Now she started in 1972 and that fall, yeah, she had already started noticing all these things and she joined the strike. That's crazy, yeah. All right. So Kurt McGee broke the strike by bringing in replacement workers and imitating current employees. They brought in the scrubs? They did Fuck yeah, and they imitated current employees. Intimidatedrobes they did fuck yeah, and they imitated current employees. Intimidated, oh intimidate, I'm sorry intimidate. Maybe I misspoke, that's okay, yeah or I misheard, because I'm hearing shit, but uh, so they intimidated them by bringing in like you're gonna lose your job. Here's the replacement. Replacement, wow, yeah.

25:22 So afterward the company actively pushed to decertify the union. Okay, the campaign that left the union with only about 20 loyal members out of 150 workers by mid 1974. So they bailed because they didn't want to lose their job. Fuck, that sucks. Because I mean I get it, People got to work. Yep, I mean I get it, People got to work. I mean I don't want to work but I have to work and if you know, hey, you're going to lose your job if you don't basically leave this union. Yeah, A lot of people couldn't afford to do that. Yep. So, despite pressure on workers to abandon the union, karen actually became more involved good for her so in august 1974 she was elected to the plans bargaining committee, the first woman ever at the role at kermagee.

26:13 Her main assignment was work safety and health, an area in which she was already gathering a bunch of evidence against the company for sure. So it was a critical time. There was a decertification vote okay looming in the fall of 1974. That would determine the union's fate right so karen and two fellow union activists traveled to washington dc and met with oCAW's leadership to plan a strategy. Okay, there was also a legendary union safety advocate there named Tony Mazzucci Mazzucci, I don't know, but I really like that name.

26:56 What's up, Tony Mazzucci Mazzucci? Hey, I haven't seen you forever. So while she was in DC she learned even more about the risks of working with plutonium and became furious that Kern McGee had not warned or protected its workers. No, because again they didn't care. So Karen and OCAW made workplace safety kind of the rallying cry to back the people at the plant. So this is how we're going to save the union. Gotcha Okay. When the decertification election was held in October 1974, employees voted 80 to 61 to keep the union. Wow, so many who hadn't cared about the union were swayed by revelations that, hey, your lives might be at stake.

27:42 Yeah, it's like hey, this is a good thing for you. Yeah, because a lot of people could die from this Exactly Mainly. So, and by standing up about radiation dangers, Karen helped turn the tide, essentially. Yeah. One union leader noted later. Her experience was not unique. Many workers faced retaliation for raising safety issues, except that she ultimately died for her cause. Karen did Karen. How did she die for her cause? I will tell you. I mean, I expected that. But first you have to listen through in order to figure out how she died. Okay, so in early November. Her liver.

28:23 In early November 1974, karen became contaminated with plutonium under strained circumstances. What strained circumstances were they? Routine testing showed astronomically high levels of plutonium in her body, up to 400 times the legal limit there's a legal limit for plutonium in your body. I think it should be zero. What? The 400 times zero so that do you know what that equals? yeah, zero, zero okay four hundred thousand four hundred times one okay, there we go.

29:10 So now I lost my question because of that math hey god, let me continue. Karen was working in a glove box on day one yeah handling plutonium pellets when an instrument that she was wearing detective radioactivity, radioactive material on her hands. So she discovered so the gloves weren't sealed, she discovered a rip in one of the gloves and the plutonium had leaked out. Oh boy, she underwent a strenuous decontamination scrub, yeah, and went home thinking that the problem was was contained, it was done, okay.

29:50 Day two she was assigned paperwork away from the plutonium lab. So working with just paperwork, and all of sudden she tested, even higher than the day before, how, even more bizarrely, monitors found plutonium on the exterior of her gloves with no punctures or tears in the material on this particular day. I feel like this is a setup. The contamination appeared as if it had been placed there yeah so karen began suspecting something rather icky fishy, icky fishy.

30:31 Either the equipment was tainted or someone was deliberately contaminating her to me it sounds like someone's fucking framing her here yes or not. Maybe not framing isn't the right word, but setting her up. Setting her up. Because there's no fucking way, especially, yeah, if there's a rip which sounds convenient but there's a rip and then the next day. I mean it's even higher, seems a little weird Day three. So November 7th 7th she was again found contaminated, despite not handling plutonium at all that day, bioassay tests which I'll explain what that is I hope so tests plutonium levels in the body by urine sample and it was indicated that plutonium had made its way inside her lungs at this point, oh fuck, so obviously raise a red flag.

31:24 She somehow inhaled plutonium recently. Yeah, she's like I was at. I was doing paperwork, I wasn't even in the lab maybe the pencil shavings were. I don't know. That's fucking. See, to me I'm I'm leaning towards and I mean I don't know if you have this. Hopefully you do. I'm leaning towards this and I mean, I don't know if you have this hopefully you do I'm leaning towards. This is a setup to try and take Karen out. Yeah, so the cumulative dose she'd received was extremely dangerous. Okay, los Alamos scientist which is where she went after her testing she went there on, like November 11thth later confirmed she had a significant internal dose of plutonium in her lungs.

32:07 Wow, okay, the situation escalated from the plant to karen's home so they even sabotaged her home potentially holy shit that's a dick move man exactly after the work incidents, her apartment was checked and found to be highly contaminated with plutonium in several spots. Do they have specific spots or no? Her refrigerator. Well, where she gets food, yeah. A package of bologna and cheese was laced with plutonium. Did it have a first name? What. What, anyways what? Bologna has a first name. That's O-S-C-A-R. Yep, okay, cool, cool, cool.

32:47 So they also found Bologna and cheese. Her bologna and cheese sandwich was laced. Oh my fucking God, I don't ever think I can eat bologna and cheese anymore. They also found plutonium traces on her bathroom toilet seat and several surfaces. Okay, so the bathroom toilet seat and several surfaces. Okay, so the contamination was so extensive. It was a rental house and it was later stripped and essentially destroyed because, as a radiation hazard so okay, go on. I'm just I'm curious to see where this plays out so I can ask some questions karen, along with her boyfriend at the time, drew stevens and their roommate sherry ellis, both had to well. They all three of them had to undergo medical checks at los alamos because all of them showed signs of exposure so okay, if this, if this is a plant like they're trying to take karen out and those other fucking people got, that is fucking diabolical, because you know Karen's bringing up these problems, you want to take her out, just fucking shoot her at this point.

33:52 Don't fucking bring in other people. Yeah, if you're going to be that much of an asshole, yeah again. I don't know if that's where this goes. I am leaning to that side of it, but, um, continue the. The rash of contamination right when um karen was gathering evidence was deeply suspicious exactly like I just said to the least to the least she believed kirk mcgee executives had deliberately contaminated her at work or by burying into her home to immediately silence her I mean I I don't know if I'd go with immediately. It's taking a bit. Like I said, get a gun then if you want to immediately do it. So not only was the timing convenient for the company, but analysis showed that the plutonium found in her apartment came from a batch she did not even work with.

34:41 Oh, they can trace that Mm-hmm. Oh wow. Remember I said there were a couple different isotopes. I just highlighted two. Oh, so one was 238, one was 239, kind of thing. There's multiple isotopes. I just mentioned two, so it was just another isotope that she did not work with. That's my point. So she was working with 238. This could have been 207, as far as we fucking know. Whatever number you want to give it to, which suggested it was planted. Interesting. Company officials, however, were like no, no, no, no that wasn't us, we would never do that Safety. Employee safety is paramount here. In fact, they flipped the narrative Of course they did. They accused Karen of contaminating herself to fabricate a crisis to make her McGee look bad.

35:29 Wow, talk about dumb fucking people. I'm sorry she's trying to make things better. Do you think she would contaminate herself, knowing what this could fucking do? Because she probably knew what this could do at this point you know, just to prove a point. I'm sorry, but I I believe in things, but I'm not gonna fucking kill myself for those things, fuck that, that is asinine. And if anyone bought that fucking uh, flip the script as you say. They're fucking ridiculous so the executives theorize without proof by the way, of course why would they? Have proof that she might have sneaked out a bit of plutonium and accidentally spilled it at home while trying to like stage evidence of unsafe conditions or whatever so she accidentally spilled it on her bologna and cheese right and her toilet seat.

36:24 Was she making a fucking sandwich in the bathroom? I mean, what the fuck gross? Well, but you know what I'm saying. There's no way that was accidentally dropped, yeah, in these specific fucking locations. Yeah, somehow it ended up in my coca-cola bottle it's like no, yeah fucking idiots so an atomic energy commission report noted that karen's urine samples taken at the plant were normal, while those she took at home were much more radioactive. Okay, so this fueled speculation that she could have spiked her own samples off site sure, and I don't get me wrong, I'm not saying karen couldn't have done this, it's just I don't know.

37:07 It's just the evidence I've been given so far is not leading me that way. Yeah, so it's a. Basically he said, she said and it's never been conclusively resolved, right, okay. So on november 11th 1974, silkwood, her roommate and her boyfriend are flown to Los Alamos National Laboratory for in-depth examination. Experts reported that Karen's exposure levels, while elevated, were within quote-unquote acceptable limits for immediate health. Perhaps to calm public fear. We don't know, of course, yeah. At Los Alamos they also began treatments to reduce her body's plutonium burden using that medication I told you about.

37:49 That came out through the urine. Yep. In other words, by the second week of November, karen knew for sure that her body had been compromised by plutonium and that someone possibly herself, because we don't know. Possibly her employer, because we don't know was responsible yeah, possibly herself, because we don't know. Possibly her employer, because we don't know was responsible yeah, karen was scared angry and motivated more than ever to blow the whistle on kermagee. Oh for sure, yes, despite the trauma. Yeah, of the contamination incidents. Silkwood did not back down jesus. She collected documentation to support her allegations of safety negligence at kermagee. Okay, this reportedly included handwritten notes, internal memos, qa reports, sample test records basically a paper paper trail of the malfeasance right, right, so key among these documents showing inspection record tampering like those X-rays and evidence of the unexplained plutonium losses.

38:51 She kept these papers in a manila folder or a large binder and it never left her side for several days. Okay. Okay. So between like the 11th, which is their testing date, through like the 13th or so, so only a couple of days, she's got that by her side, okay. So between like the 11th, which is their testing date, through like the 13th or so, so only a couple of days, she's got that by her side, right? Coworkers even recall her thick notebook of notes on everything, sure, so lots of witnesses. Karen decided to go public with her evidence. Okay, public with her evidence. Okay, ocaw, the union arranged for her to meet david burnham, a journalist from the new york times, on november 13th 1974 in oklahoma city okay also present would be an ocaw union official from washington, steve wodka gotcha and he had been coordinated with karen on this campaign.

39:46 Okay, so plan was simple over dinner she would hand over the documents, tell her story, ensuring that that the nation's biggest newspaper would expose kermickey's practices. Right, okay, it was basically like the 1970s edition of Erin Brockovich. Okay, have you seen Erin Brockovich? Julia Roberts no, I have not. It's actually a really great well-done movie. Didn't they win awards? I believe so. Maybe I believe so, I don't know. I just I never Erin. She was holding the baby on the cover or something. I was like I'm good. So in the days leading up to this meeting, tensions were really high. Karen confided to friends that she felt she was being watched.

40:26 Sure, it later emerged that Kerr-McGee had agents keep constant surveillance on her and her roommates. Weird. So, whether out of paranoia or precaution, karen made copies of some of these documents and even stashed them with union colleagues, just in case. Okay, on November 13th she did attend a union meeting after work, then set off alone in a small white Honda towards Oklahoma City for the meeting with the New York Times Right. So the evidence she carried could not only embarrass Kerr-McGee but potentially shut down its multimillion dollar operation. Karen Silkwood never made it to the meeting.

41:09 Yeah, so I don't know if this is the same thing or if it's very just similar. I've heard something like this, so I don't know if it's this particular story, but yeah, and then, like, the paperwork was never found right Weird, but uh yeah. And then, like the paperwork was never found, right weird. At around 8 pm on november 13th 1974, karen's car was discovered wrecked in a ditch off state highway 74, about 30 miles from her destination. The car had smashed into a concrete culvert or abutment. It's um, like a square underpass where the the, the banks are like angled this way sure so it's like wider on the bottom and narrower on top with the bridge anyway, I'll post a picture, um, but uh, it was noted that it was like considerable force into this culvert.

42:01 Oh, I bet karen was deceased, slumped over the steering wheel which had impaled her. The steering wheel did Mm-hmm. That's how violent like this crash was. Fuck, guess how old she was 29 28, god damn it. I second guessed the her birth year 28 years old fucking hell. It was a single car accident, no other vehicles at the scene, quiet, two-lane stretch of road at night you know damn well it wasn't caused by herself.

42:41 The Oklahoma Highway Patrol investigated and initially concluded that Karen had fallen asleep at the wheel and simply drifted off the road. The theory was supported by an autopsy and toxicology report. Karen's blood contained 0.35 milligrams of Quaalude per 100 milliliters, and that's acceptable. It was a hefty dose of sedative. Oh, it is a hefty dose. And she had a small amount of alcohol in her system. She just had dinner with her union friends. Oh, so she's on her way back. She had a union meeting, oh, oh. She was on her way to Oklahoma City to meet.

43:22 I mixed that up. Yeah, that's okay, gotcha. So she had Quaaludes, the sedative, in her system and a little bit of alcohol. Does it sound like someone might have put that in? there? We don't know. She had the equivalent of almost twice the normal prescription dose for Quaaludes in her blood system system, enough to cause drowsiness or impairment now, additionally, another 45 milligrams of undissolved quaaludes were found in her stomach, indicating she had taken a pill not long before the crash that hadn't fully absorbed yet interesting given this, the medical examiner concluded she was likely under the influence at the time of the accident, like the sedative influence okay no skid marks were initially noted on the road, reinforcing the idea that she simply nodded off and drifted into the culvert.

44:14 The cause of death was listed as a one-car accident. And for oklahoma authorities, that's, and for Oklahoma authorities that was it Case closed. They were good. Despite the official ruling, many found the crash highly suspicious. I wonder why None of the documents Karen had were found at the car or the crash site. See and that's what instantly is like eh, yep, okay, her folder papers notebook. Everything was gone. And her union members at the dinner were like no, she had them. Yeah, because she carried them with her. She's literally going from this meeting to Oklahoma.

44:56 City. She's eating her dinner Exactly With dinner. So this immediately fueled theories that someone had intercepted the papers either before she left or right after the crash I'm guessing right after the crash yes, moreover, physical evidence on the car did not completely jibe with a simple doze off and drift scenario. Weird. So investigators later high, later hired by the union, noticed dent damage on the rear bumper. Yeah, because she was pushed that wasn't obviously explained by the culvert crash. Right, they did find skid marks, whereas the state, when they investigated, did not find skid marks well, that's weird.

45:39 This was on the road that might indicate that she braked suddenly or swerved. Sure, okay. A private accident reconstruction expert concluded that Karen was, quote unquote, spooked or startled by something, possibly another vehicle, hitting her from behind, causing her to lose control and run off the road. Yeah, not an accident. No. In the years since fierce debate over this, many of Karen's allies, her family, union colleagues, investigative journalists, believe that she was killed because of what she knew.

46:20 Of course that someone perhaps Kermagee contractors or goons, hired hands, whatever followed her and forced her off the road, taking the documents to hide the proof A hundred percent. So this theory is bolstered by the fact that Silkwood had received threats and was under surveillance, as I said before Yep, and by the undeniable convenience of the most incriminating papers disappearing, yes. On the other hand, skeptics point out the lack of direct evidence of a second vehicle no paint scratches from another car on her bumper, no eyewitnesses on the dark road. Yeah, but that's, that's okay. And no one was charged with foul play well, yeah, because there was no eyewitnesses to see anyone else but explain the dents on the back of her exactly exactly that seems weird so new york times reporter that she was supposed to meet david burnham.

47:14 Um, he later expressed doubt that kermagee's top brass would orchestrate a clumsy murder plot, okay. Or that they could ensure collision would kill her without fail Okay. He noted the difficulty of arranging a crash. So, precisely the FBI and justice department investigations at the time could conclude that there was no proof of homicide. Sure, like, that would be a pretty, like, picture, perfect. Quote-unquote stage crash okay, yeah, we'll continue it is possible that karen already stressed, took a took a quaalude to calm her nerves and simply nodded off I mean, that's very obviously possible.

48:00 But the suspicion on Kerr-McGee never faded. Sure, aside from drugs, karen's autopsy had one more surprise. Remember how Los Alamos said that she was kind of quote unquote. Fine Revealed that she had the highest levels of plutonium ever seen in a human at that time In her lungs and in her gut Right. She had indeed absorbed a dangerous dose of radiation in the days before she died. Sure, if she had lived she would have faced radiation poisoning or cancer.

48:41 Yeah. It also raised the question if someone did want to silence her, could they not have simply let the plutonium play out? But they were on a time crunch, I'm just saying. Well, she had. She had meetings and you know she's being followed, and so they knew this and they're like no, we can't let her talk to this person. So no, that that's not feasible, that they would just let it play out. Yeah. Honestly. But so, with Karen gone and her evidence missing, there was an immediate public outcry. The story made national news. Young nuclear worker dies under strained circumstances and route to meet a reporter to highlight the malfeasance of a plutonium plant.

49:22 The oklahoma police stood by their accident report, but others launched deeper probes. The atomic energy commission, the aec, sent investigators to kerr mcgee plant to verify her claims. They did confirm serious safety issues, including the inventory discrepancy of approximately 40 pounds of plutonium missing, which is a lot of plutonium the fbi. I don't know how much plutonium is worth in weight I no idea yeah, that would be interesting. Yeah, no idea the fbi opened an inquiry into whether any federal laws, like civil rights or like crime statutes, were violated in connection with her death.

50:08 In 1975, members of congress held hearings of to grill officials about karen's charges and the crash. However, these official investigations ultimately fizzled out because they couldn't. They had no proof in any of this yeah, they just they had no more evidence to like back what they're looking at. So it's like, well, this is what it is, because we don't, we got nothing. So in the aftermath, karen mcgee and even some government officials tried to discredit Karen. Company smokesmen imply that she was unstable drug user troublemaker who would just? Sabotage her own workstation.

50:49 That's why she kept coming to work for two years. Yeah, because she was a drug user. I mean, what hey, do you want any more of those plutonium cigarettes man? I'm jonesing for one. Not anymore of those plutonium cigarettes, man, I'm jonesing for one. They highlighted her alleged pill use, pointing out that her doctor had reprimanded her for overusing sedatives. As the autopsy was to confirm, the AEC and FBI publicly concluded that there was no foul play, and obviously that put a lot of doubt on Karen's whistleblowing. Yeah. Essentially the narrative from Kerr McGMcGee was there was no conspiracy. She did this to herself. She sadly died in a drug induced accident.

51:29 Wow, karen's father, bill, and her family were not satisfied. Of course they weren't because they knew better In 1976, they filed a civil lawsuit against Kerr-McGee, accusing the company of gross negligence and allowing Karen and her home to be contaminated with plutonium. Yeah. The suit sidesteps the car crash, sure, and basically went after the company for the malfeasance. Okay Okay. The trial took place in 1979 and became a media sensation at the time. That's a good year. It was one of the first times a major corporation was held to.

52:10 Oh, you were born that year I just got that yeah, it was it was one of the first times a major corporation was held to account um in court by the family of a whistleblower. Okay. So evidence presented showed the mean safety lapses at the plant. Yeah. And the jury was sympathetic to Karen's situation Sure estate, $505,000 in actual damages for personal energy, uh injury and property damage to her contaminated belongings, and $10 million in punitive damages.

52:51 Oh shit, that's a significant chunk of change. So the $10.5 million judgment um basically sent sent shockwaves throughout the nuclear um industry. Right, it signaled that a company could be publicly um punished, essentially for endangering endangering its workers in the public, publicly liable for stupidity kermagee, unsurprisingly, appealed the verdict and, of course, for years it passed through appellate courts. Of course, at one point, in 1982, an appeals court overturned the 10 million punitive award, reducing the total judgment to just five thousand dollars.

53:36 What? that is insane difference but karen's family persisted and the court went all the way to the US Supreme Court. Good In 1984, the Supreme Court Silkwood v Kerr-McGee Corporation ruled that awarding punitive damages under state law was valid even for a nuclear incident. Sure, a huge precedent, since Kerr-McGee had argued that federal nuclear safety laws preempted any such state tort claims. Okay. So Kerr-McGee opted to settle Of course they did rather than face a retrial on damages Yep. In 1986, the company agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $1.38 million to Karen's estate without admitting liability.

54:25 Of course, that's usually what they do. The family accepted the settlement. Well, yeah, because they got paid. Twelve full years after Karen's death. That's crazy. So the Kerr-McGee Corporation never admitted any wrongdoing? Of course not. Why would they? Obviously it left a permanent black mark on their reputation. Of course, the plutonium plant was shut down in 1975, just months after Karen's death. Oh, wow, really. The official reason was a downturn in orders. We're not selling enough plutonium here. Guys, We've got to shut her down. Yeah, by 1983, kerr-mcgee had exited the nuclear fuel business entirely and they ceased nuclear operations by 87-88.

55:09 The company did continue in oil and gas for a time but it never shook that association. Never recovered, yeah. In later years, Kern-McGee faced other lawsuits, including environmental claims, and eventually ceased to exist as an independent entity. It was bought and absorbed by other corporations in the 2000s. Sure. Oh, wow. Even that long, let's see. Even before the final ruling of the $1.38 million to Karen's estate, a 1983 movie was made. Yes, it is called Silkwood.

55:49 Yeah, and it stars Meryl Streep. Meryl Streep, kurt Douglas I like Kurt Douglas and Cher Cher Mm-hmm. Streep was actually nominated for an Academy award. When is she in hot, though? But to this day, decades later, no one knows exactly what happened to Karen Silkwood. Well, how would they? mean and no one's ever going to know honestly except for the guy that pushed her into the. I'm just kidding. I have no proof, it just it leans in my brain. It leans that way. Yeah. I understand. Well, there's no skid marks or second car Like yeah, well, you know, things can be done.

56:30 Yeah, but okay. Did you have all three of your beers Maybe? So I have half of one. I think what the issue was is I had recently brushed my teeth, oh, and that gave a weird mixture on the back end. Sure, it definitely got better by the third one I'm glad. Yeah, I'm glad, perfect. So for a hazy bear hug, hazy IPA from Goose Island, I will give it. All right, I like my Pacifico Clara, yeah it's, it's a good beer. Um, my dad liked that one. Definitely, um it again. It's part of the corona family and it's it's definitely darker than a medello and or corona, but it's not like dark that's a terrible word to use for it, because it's not a dark beer, but, um, it's really good, I like it I rather enjoy it.

57:25 So yeah, so that's the story of karen silkwood. How'd you like it? that was interesting because and I'm I don't know if it's just got some similarities to this other thing where this person all their uh, information, documents, documents, evidence, maybe that's a better word uh just disappeared, like I'm sorry she gets into this accident. No one else is there, but none of her shit's there. Doesn't that seem fucking fishy? That alone is like okay, could she have just crashed on her own, sure we? but why is her stuff gone? We desperately need deathbed confessions.

58:06 We need whatever goon did this on his deathbed to say I did this. Here's the documents. Well, she took copies and gave it to other people. But yeah, but I want a deathbed confession. Can you stop hitting. Sorry, jesus I want a deathbed confession. There it is I just keep hearing the ringing of the the table desk and in the, in the microphone. Um no, I yeah, that would be great, but it just it's, it's fishy. Yeah, it's icky fishy, it's icky fishy. Yeah. I mean, unless it went to Doc Brown, I don't care.

58:49 I guess Back to the Future is awesome. I want to go play with the kitties. Well, I suppose. All right, buffoons. That's it for today's episode. Buckle up, because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you. Next time Feeling hungry for more buffoonery, or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore. Hit us up on social media. We're History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube X, instagram and Facebook. You can also email us at historybuffoonspodcast at gmailcom. We are Bradley and Kate. Music by Corey Akers. Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and turn those notifications on to stay in the loop.

59:31 Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us. Remember the buffoonery never stops. Love it, love it, Love it.