Tom Slick: Mystery HunterAfter Tom Slick stares death in the eye and survives, he decides to chase his greatest dream: Finding the Yeti.
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“Tom Slick: Mystery Hunter” Stars Owen Wilson, Sissy Spacek and Schuyler Fisk
Written and Directed by Caroline Slaughter
Story Edited by Jeb Stuart
Produced and Assistant Directed by Emilia Brock
Original Score, Sound Design, Mixing and Mastering by Jesse Nighswonger
Executive Produced by Owen Wilson, Sissy Spacek, Schuyler Fisk, Jeb Stuart, Caroline Slaughter, Brian Lavin, L.C. Crowley, Brandon Barr and Virginia Prescott
Special thanks to historian Catherine Nixon Cooke whose expert advice on Tom Slick Jr. and book – “Tom Slick, Mystery Hunter!” – served as inspiration for the show.
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School of Humans.
This podcast is based on the true story of explorer, inventor, visionary, and science pioneer Tom Slick. Some of the story elements, names, and characters have been altered for dramatic purposes. Consider using headphones to enhance your listening experience. We've created an immersive soundscape to tell our story.
Oh we're gonna die.
We're gonna die.
Come on, you're an oss man. Dullas what you've never looked? Guests wearing the eye I try to avert my case, and you're lucky.
No, no, no, I don't believe in luck. I believe in survival.
Hey lang fella, Uh wake up?
Come on, man, I'm checking you right.
In the ribs.
Oh he's how cool?
God damn it, Slick.
Why'd you have to hit him?
Because I'm a Nazi hunter.
That's wine.
Mom, You expect me to listen to this without wine? Hurry? Shoot, this wants the screw cap. Did you see the wine opener?
Don't tell me.
It's in one of these boxes.
Oh, it's in one of these boxes.
Sorry. So if dad's flying the plant, well no, he doesn't know how to fly.
Oh right, but I mean, yeah, he is flying it.
And they're still headed for the Panama Canal. From what Granddad said, all they can see is water.
So I'm guessing they're somewhere over the.
Pacific with a ticking time bomb lane just set up and.
The flying torpedo doodle thing attached.
I don't know how they get out of this one. Okay, Mom, you don't have to listen to this if it's too much. These are my father's untold stories. I am listening, okay about nut I don't thank God?
Why not?
Its helps with the nerves.
Okay, I'm present play.
Yes, knew this.
Red button did something.
Well that will come right up.
There we go.
That dead Dodo got dump.
But we still have an issue.
Your chatty friend Lang, if you disarm this bomb, I will protect you. I can't protect you.
You're idiot.
You have killed Abatsi and Pedica.
Even if you lends this thing is stick me in some visits.
They will hand me down.
Then they will torture me, and they will watch as I suffer an excruciating death.
What is that to live for?
Listen to me.
The United States government will take care of you.
An Operation Pelican good name.
By the way, top top top you know when I was lying back there, right, Oh, come on.
Just run it by Rose. Well you guys are all friends.
Yeah, war criminals don't generally make a great impression.
Look, Lang has intel on the heavyweights behind this operation, and let's not forget.
That our lives are in his hands.
This is timmy No, give me your knife, dolls and take the wheel, the wheel.
No, look, just keep her steady. No, no, no, no, no no.
If you make any sudden movements, there's.
A chowder box here will detonate and we're fish food. God, this cloak and dagger.
Shit, why didn't I just become a congressman?
Hey, Lang, quick question, ayesholder.
What's your favorite color? If you look like a blue guy?
Exuse me?
No, no, wrong game. Let me explain the rules.
So we have a bomb here, and from what I see, there are about three, no four, different color wires making this thing tick. If I cut one of these wires, it could do nothing, or if we're really lucky, it'll.
Shut off the bomb.
Of lost pieces.
And that's how you play roulette.
All right, Lang, listen to me. I have a lot of power in my country. Shu, Yeah, I mean, people don't hail me or anything but sure. Yeah, look, your mission was subverted by US Americans. You're a trader now. But if you're dead, there's no one around to protect your family.
I have no wife, I have not too good.
That's kind of sad.
What about a mother.
You gotta have a mother, a sex.
I know sh'll be snatched. It just mutilated by the men you call comrades. Oh nine.
Now keep in mind those are the same men who killed your true love wilburt or hydri nine, Fritz nine.
That's why oss bitch, dominique, shit, shit shit, Dallas holder steady.
Uh, it's a great seconds of TV explodes, dulls.
What's your type?
Wonsreprenets Now, Dallas, listen to me, all right, all right?
Yellow wire or brown wire?
Well, I mean, I'm married to burnette, but I have a thing for red heads.
Red wire it is. Yeah, I prefer blondes too.
Bron roan.
God's the roan wire.
What if I told you I just cut the red one. I was telling the truth. Cut the brown one more?
Is he? Oh? No? My number one kid?
Uh?
See Dallas, Now this is a man staring death right in the eye.
Slick cut the brown wire.
Now, oh, God, you believe in luck now, dulles, No, You're just one lucky bastard.
Chapter three.
This is the mostly true tale of Tom Slick, mystery hunter.
God that a but blood pressure checked after that.
So if Granddad doesn't know how to fly, how do they land?
Google? Look up Slick Airways. Dad couldn't fly then, but he learned.
Slick Airways was established in nineteen forty six by Tom and.
Earl Slick, daddish brother. Yeah, I got that.
They used the surplus of Curtis C forty six airplanes from World War II, and by nineteen fifty one it was the largest all cargo airline in the United States.
So they started their airline five years after Granddad and Dallas took down that Nazi plane.
And they operated until nineteen sixty six. For a period of time Slick Airways was shut down. It is alleged that that time the planes were being used for covert missions organized by the US government.
So the CIA was her big client guest Dad and pressed dollars with his landing. I knew you knew more than you were letting on.
Okay, So what happened to the Nazi lang?
Now that I don't know.
I guess that's the point.
I mean, the CIA did hide Nazis post war and then use them as spies in the Cold War.
Right, let's blame dulls for that.
Okay, you pick one?
Oh got one?
Tom Slick August twenty sixth, nineteen fifty seven. I'm on a little stopover in London with my birthday gift here strapped to my back. I'll be recording everything.
WHOA, alright, you drive on the right side.
I won't have to.
These are the times I remember why tell us aptly nickname me Lucky Tom after our little rendezvous with death over the Pacific nearly what sixteen years ago? Yeah, but what he didn't know is that name belongs to my father, Tom Slick Senior. Just like the dream that now has me traveling to the other side of the world. But now I have to contend with uh, the insufferably civilized Brits.
There's none of that.
Whatever that is in the Getick Club.
That is the future. I'm recording this conversation as we speak, Sir, h members value of that privacy.
Hold on there, Johnson. This is my good friend Tom Slick.
He's here to see me.
Jimmy Stewart. It is good to have friends who are movies.
Mister Stewart's I was just tending the gentleman about the.
Rules, now, John Soon, No, Tom is no gentleman. He plays by his own set of rules.
Jimmy, come on, don't pretend you're not a savage.
Oh savage?
Wait?
Is that like Jimmy Stewart.
Jimmy Stewart, like the actor from the Christmas Movie is a wonderful lie.
Yeah, and rear Window and Harvey and Verdigo. And he was friends with Granddad. Oh, dad got around.
He got mixed up with the Hollywood crowd and was popular because he talked about his inventions.
His experiments, and his adventures, not studio gossip.
Yeah.
He and Howard Hughes really hit it off.
The guy Leonardo DiCaprio have played in The Aviator.
Jesus, if anyone ever makes a movie about that, I hope people don't define his life by the heck that plays him.
Oh gosh, well you here. Howard Hughes is at it again. He's a dreamer, tried to up end history by building a flying boat.
It's just a prototype.
Well he's calling it the Hercules.
Well, He's nothing if not subtle.
Right, you know Howard and I are.
You know, we're pals obviously, but he tries so hard to shock people.
I think he just wants to change the world. Yeah, in his own unique way.
And what if you were to change the world in some way but no one knew it was you, would that make it any less significant?
Oh?
No, Tom, I'm a movie star with the mercy of public consumption.
And I like it.
Your second Scotch, Yeah, I always got free drinks. Yeah, So tell me what brings you to London.
I am on my way to India.
What a country? Well, Glory and I tagged along on a tiger hunting expedition over there.
It's kind of a shame to take down a tiger, isn't it?
Oh, your old sap. I'm America's sweetheart. I don't kill anything unless I play to eat it with big game.
How do you catch the animal without harming it?
Well, you stun it. Our guide told us about a tranquilizer gun that was used on a behemoth lion in Africa that the Bronx Zoo had its eye on. Uh huh, Now, potent sedative was used. The lion was knocked out the entire journey back. Now it's like me up for public consumption.
Yeah, where's that gun now?
Most likely New York. Now it's got to cost a pretty penny.
Why asking, Well, I'm preparing for a hunt in India. What are you tracking the yetti?
Oh?
Tom, Now, don't you go trying to beat Hughes's bizarre pursuits. You're a scientist and he's arguably insane.
Look, thank you, but everything's under control at home, and my institutes are prepared to live without me for at least a year.
So I have this time where.
I come on, Tom, the Yetti. This whole cryptozoology thing is a fad, bordering on a joke.
In nineteen ten, there was the Komodo dragon. In nineteen thirty four, the giant panda. These hidden creatures were considered mysts, but one person believed in them. That belief led to discovery. That discovery established the creature's place in zoology.
That's no punchline, Jimmy, that is science.
Oh, there's no yetti. There's been a handful of expeditions in the Himalayas that have come up with nothing.
It weren't led by me.
Johnson, sir, we're gonna need a couple more drinks. Yeah, make mine a double.
Yes, indeed, sir, nothing for me, Thanks.
Fine, Tom, Let's say this YETI is real. What are you gonna do when you spend a million dollars on this thing?
You got?
You got frozen toes. You're out in the in the middle of the Himalayas by yourself with a tracker, and like everyone else, you don't find it.
I'll keep looking.
Uh huh oh, I don't think it's a good idea.
Well I didn't think it's a wonderful life was a good idea, and look how that turned out.
Uh touchet.
Oh it's Blair again.
I have to get this. I'm exhausted. Anyway, I'm gonna head up.
Be sure you don't want to get through the tape of me tonight.
You'll fill me in tomorrow. But if you're staying up, I can put the kettle on.
Okay, good night, Blair.
I know, I know. I don't do calls. So yes, the news is big. Who died, but hopefully it won't involve death unless after hearing this you want.
To kill me.
What did you do, Blair?
What happened.
I kind of sort of released a statement that the exhibit would feature your granddad's yettie hunt, and we share details at the event tomorrow.
But there's just one tape.
You said you found more. Have you listened to them all?
No?
No, I mean the one I just listened to.
Granddad mentions the YETI.
But don't you think if you'd found something on that expedition it would be in history books.
You still have a whole box of tapes to listen to. So what's the harmun finding out?
Baiting the press with fake news live?
This could be big okay donor money, big Texas monthly than New York Times, a freaking podcast. They're all coming.
How many people did you reach out to?
TikTok oh?
My?
Take everything about the YETI off social media and just give me a minute.
You have twenty hours until your speech at an event dedicated to your legendary grandfather, which opens an exhibit that will hopefully fund another year of science. So basically, you're saving lives, no pressure. Thanks, text me when you figured it out. I have hives from this column.
Uh well, fuck.
Tom Slick September seventh, nineteen fifty seven. I made it to India. Good god, it's a feast of sound culture people and the stink of sacred.
Cow manure makes you feel alive.
Who careful? That nearly ended me? Maybe I am one lucky Tom. You have a beautiful day too, sir.
Lovely people the assault with a smile.
It's nice, mister Thomas Snick, Good day, sir.
You ever call here, may assist you in holding the receiver.
It no, thank you, I'll take it from here.
Oh night, mister slick.
Mabel, Mabel is that you?
You know me always bumped you on, mister Slick, So you made it okay?
You spoke to Betty the kids. You know Claire lost a tooth last week.
Oh, you're taking the vitamins out, putting your suit case right, and you're not drinking the water.
Please tell me you are not drinking that water.
All of the above, Mabel. Good and thanks for the update on Claire.
Okay, so couverle updates. I got my hands on that tranquil as a gun. Here's a beast.
It's being shipped to Texas and your brother will stick it on the cargo plane with the dogs.
The bloodhounds.
Yes they are huge, mister slick and the poops.
Well, come Christmas time, I hope my bonus looks as big as they are.
Oh, they can't with snow booties. No frumps, wait, footie.
Yes, it's all falling into place. Mabel, whoa what now?
I've been going over the numbers with the accounting.
Yeah, you have fifteen thousand in your personal account to put towards this expedition.
That sounds reasonable.
You won't have a team, poor dogs, or any chance of survival for even a month in those mountains without an addition of fifteen thousand.
So this whole thing is gonna cost me thirty thousand.
Yes, sir, I don't want to take any money out of my institutes.
Well that's the thing.
Uh huh.
A check came in the mail, now, thought brother?
I thought, hello, Maybel you there, Maybel, I can't hear you.
Can you hear me, Mabel? What did you say about a check.
Halfway around the world. Of course you can't hear me.
I can hear you. Now, what were you saying?
I said, you do have thirty thousand to put towards this thing.
It's just not all yours.
I'm not following. You're being mysterious Mabel.
Oh God. A check came in the mail three days ago.
Now there was a note that said something like, I know what you're up to, I know where to find you.
Here is what you'll need to complete what you've started. And there was a check for fifteen thousand for twenty.
So now you have thirty five thousand to put towards this thing.
Whoa brilliant hurt?
What? No, no, butts?
The check isn't exactly made out to you?
Well, who's it made out to?
Look at Tom shit? Yes, yes he did, right on my shoe, Right on my shoe. Bad boy, bad boy.
Dollars?
What are you playing at?
Tom Slick? Mystery Hunter is a production of Fool of Humans and iHeart Podcasts, starring Owen Wilson as Tom Slick, Cissy Spasick as Claire Slick, Skyler Fiske as Livslick. Written and directed by Caroline Slaughter, story editor Jeb Stewart. Executive produced by Owen Wilson, Sissy Spasick, Skyler Fiske, Jeb Stewart, Caroline Slaughter, Brian Lavin, L. C. Crowley, Brandon Barr, and Virginia Prescott. Produced and assistant directed by Amelia Brock. Original score, sound design, mixing and mastering by Jesse Niswanger. Casting by Daisy Church and Caroline Slaughter. Sag coordination by Daisy Church and Julia Christgau. Promo and trailers by Carl Catle. Special thanks to Catherine Nixon Cook. Recording engineers are Tyler Klang and Casey Pegram. For iHeartMedia.
Episode three cast, Dave Willis as Alan, Ava Davis as Blair, Michael Mao as Jimmy Stewart, David Devrees as Hines Lang and Johnson the Butler, Jenny Fleming as Mabel, Neil Ready as Biddy and the Indian Taxi Driver, Tim Heller as the London Cappy, Julia Christgau as the Google Voice Assistant, Mike Shots as the Voice of God, and the introductory voiceover with additional roles voiced by David Devrees, Michael Mao and Phil Clark. Executive producer for iHeartMedia is Maya Howard Special thanks to Lucas Riley.
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