Preview: Seattle's Pitting Epidemic

0:00On the morning of April 15th, 1954, the people of Seattle, Washington woke up to discover that something was attacking their cars. Tiny craters, some the size of a pencil eraser, others as wide as a dime, had appeared in automobile windshields all across the city seemingly overnight. Parking lots, car dealerships, private driveways, even police cruisers parked in front of the precinct stations. None were spared. Motorists began flagging down patrol cars in the middle of the street to file reports. The phone lines at police stations were so overwhelmed that extra clerks had to be brought in just to keep up with the volume of incoming calls. Within 48 hours, close to 3,000 windshields had been reported as damaged. The city's police chief said it would take an army of 200 people to have caused that much destruction in a single night. The mayor of Seattle sent an urgent telegram to the president of the United States, begging for federal assistance. A committee of university scientists was assembled. The United States military even launched its

1:05own investigation. And then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. By April 17th, the reports simply ceased. The answer to what had happened, or more accurately, what had not happened, would become one of the most famous case studies in the history of social psychology. But the story of how an entire city gripped by cold war anxiety and nuclear dread convinced itself that an invisible enemy was destroying its windshields. Is a story that's still worth telling today? This is the story of the Seattle windshield pitting epidemic. This has been a preview of an unresolved bonus episode available to those who support the show on Patreon. If you would like to hear it, please head over to patreon.com slash unresolved pod, or click on the link below in the show notes to learn more. And as always, thanks for listening.

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