Every part’s larger in Texas, particularly the personalities. Though San Antonian Tom Slick solely lived to see 46 earlier than dying in a airplane crash, he left a long-lasting legacy of daring adventures and scientific explorations in his wake — probably the most infamous of which concerned looking for a yeti within the Himalayas in 1958. That very mission is the topic of Tom Slick: Thriller Hunter, a star-studded new podcast that describes him as “probably the most fascinating man you have by no means heard of.”
Listeners stand up shut and private with well-known voice actors and Texans together with Dallas’ Owen Wilson starring as Tom Slick; Quitman’s Sissy Spacek as Tom’s daughter, Claire Slick; and Schuyler Fisk (Spacek’s real-life daughter) as Tom’s granddaughter, Liv Slick. The eight-episode podcast mashes up Slick’s real-life escapades with a fictional, scripted narrative following Tom’s forgotten tapes that Claire finds in her mom’s attic.
Tom Slick: Thriller Hunter cowl artwork.Picture courtesy of Tom Slick: Thriller Hunter
Even with out the chase for a legendary creature within the title of science, Slick’s life was one for the books — and podcasts. His grandfather, the oil tycoon Charles Urschel, was kidnapped at gunpoint by Machine Gun Kelly (the gangster, not the rocker) in 1933. Plus, Tom Slick himself was lengthy rumored to be an anti-Nazi spy primarily based in Chile throughout World Warfare II. This has neither been confirmed or denied, however Slick working with the CIA is a fictional storyline within the podcast.
“It is at all times been cocktail fodder for the household that he was a spy,” says author and director Caroline Slaughter, who beforehand wrote the podcast Astray, about individuals trying to find enlightenment and discovering darker fates. “It was additionally alleged that he helped get the Dalai Lama out of Tibet, as a result of it so occurred that one among his yeti expeditions was taking place on the identical time the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet to India. So I feel individuals prefer to play with the concept he was concerned, and he was doubtlessly a part of the Cranium and Bones [secret society at Yale], and perhaps he had a hand in it.”
Slick additionally collected many well-known buddies, together with Howard Hughes and Jimmy Stewart. In actual fact, Stewart was the one who smuggled again a “yeti” finger {that a} member of Slick’s expedition, well-known cryptozoologist Peter Byrne, stole from a Buddhist monastery in Nepal.
“Byrne really took the yeti thumb and changed it with a human thumb so the monks would not freak out about it,” Slaughter says. “He brings this yeti thumb to Kolkata and [hands] it off to Jimmy Stewart. Stewart finally ends up smuggling it to London via this movie casket. They find yourself getting it to the London Museum, the place this man, Dr. Osman Hill, finally ends up inspecting it.” (The bone was ultimately confirmed to be human.)
Tom Slick displaying off a forged of a “yeti footprint.”From Tom Slick: Thriller Hunter and In Search of Tom Slick; courtesy of the writer Catherine Nixon Cooke
Slick additionally had a long-lasting influence on the expansion of San Antonio’s medical group. He based 5 analysis institutes in Alamo Metropolis, three of that are nonetheless round immediately, together with the Texas Biomedical Analysis Institute, which lately helped develop Pfizer’s Covid vaccine.
Slick helped develop the Brangus cattle, a crossbreed of Brahman and Scottish Angus cattle, and was eager about exploring the hyperlink between people and primates to advance healthcare. On the identical time, he delved deep into cryptozoology, or investigating the doable existence of unsubstantiated animal species. This potent mixture of science and mythology ultimately led him to go on the lookout for a yeti — a number of instances.
“He thought the yeti was the lacking hyperlink between people and apes,” Slaughter says. “So he actually did go at it with this form of scientific bent. He did not wish to hunt it down; he wished to deliver it again to the Institute and examine it.”
Slick did make some fascinating discoveries through the 5 or so yeti-hunting expeditions he took. “He discovered a 13-inch yeti footprint,” Slaughter says. “He took a plaster forged of it, and he introduced it again dwelling.”
Slick’s fascination with mysticism and legendary creatures began early in life: He went to Scotland with some Yale buddies in 1937 to search for the Loch Ness monster, since there had been a current sighting. A nod to his far-flung explorations sits a lot nearer to dwelling at Tom Slick Park in San Antonio, which was constructed on land donated by the Southwest Analysis Institute: a silhouetted sculpture of Nessie rising from the pond.
