Solar-powered flight and the Crazy Horse Memorial

28:32I'm a neuropsychologist, a neuroscientist, and I want to know the brain-behaviour relationship. So I don't think that Juana just wake up in the morning and said, oh, I'm bored. What am I going to do today? And I'm going to just go and kill old ladies. This is a process that how she was raised. And there are many causes why you do violent behavior. You could have some brain abnormalities that if we find out that could help to treat her. Do you think you ever got to really know her doctor? No, I think I need to. I knew one important part of her and but I think that a lot of things I didn't find out.

29:23It was back in 2005 that Dr Ostrowski had first got a call from Mexico City's mayor. There'd been a series of murders of elderly women in the capital dating back seven years. All had been killed in a similar fashion in their homes. The mayor wanted to know if Dr Ostrowski thought that there might be a link between the cases. Could there be a serial killer at large? There was a pattern. They were old age. They live alone. They were choked with cords and they didn't find that the door was forced. So somebody let the person who was doing that in. The police were scrabbling for leads. One witness said they'd seen a large woman leaving one of the murder scenes.

30:09Another thought they'd spotted two people. It was all quite haphazard. What did you think, Doctor? Did you think they were going down the wrong road? Well, they were trying. You know, we were lost. They were trying. They were functioning according to the information that they have from witnesses. I was lost also.

30:34By late 2005, there were now more than a dozen unsold murders of elderly women in the capital and still no sign of an arrest. Then, in January 2006, the police got a lucky breakthrough. A suspect was caught fleeing the home of an 82-year-old woman who'd been strangled with a stethoscope. The suspect was identified as the former female wrestler, Juana Barraza, known in fighting circles as La Dama del Silencio, the Lady of Silence. Dr Ostrowski was out of town at a wedding. She rushed back to the capital and went straight to the jail. I said, well, you are here because they said that you killed somebody.

31:15And at that moment, she said, yes, yes, I killed that woman. And then I said, is it bad that what you did? And she said, oh, yes, yes, it's bad. And I said, why is it bad? She said, because nobody has a right to take the life of another one. What did that tell you about her? It's like what I knew about the mind of a psychopath. You know what's right or wrong, but that doesn't inform you emotionally. That doesn't guide your behaviour. That first day, the two women spent several hours together, during which time Barasa admitted to two other murders, though she later retracted the confession. From then on, Dr Ostrowski began visiting her every day, asking her questions about other murders, about her family, about her childhood.

32:07You know, she just like sort of smiled a little bit when she was telling me her family history. But there was not emotion. She was really detached and really cold. She once said, you know, I like you because you are really bossy and you are tough like me. So I like you. And I said, well, I like you also, Juana. So thank you. And did you like her, Doctor? I did. I did like her. And Barasa, for her part, seemed to trust Dr Ostrowski. She told the doctor how her alcoholic and abusive mother had given her away to a man in exchange for drink. The man got Barasa pregnant, although she was still only 13 years old.

32:52She was sent back to live with her mother and then had to look after her younger siblings, as well as her own baby. Did you ask her whether she hated her mother? Oh, yes. And what did she say? She said, yes, I hate her. She was terrible. The only good figure in my life was my stepfather. They spent almost two weeks together, Dr Ostrowski visiting her in jail most days. But the trust that she'd built up with Barasa suddenly disappeared. Dr Ostrowski had gone to see Barasa's half-sister and daughter without telling her. And when she saw her the next day, Barrasa was furious and told her never to come back.

33:33Two years later, in the spring of 2008, Juana Barrasa was found guilty on 11 separate counts of murder and sentenced to 759 years in jail. In her report, Dr. Ostrowski concluded that the abuse suffered by Juana Barrasa at the hands of her mother had most likely led her to commit the murders. Dr. Ostrowski also discovered that Borasa's brain had an overactive frontal lobe, another possible reason for her violent behaviour. So do you think it actually made any difference being able to say why she might have committed those murders? Well, it doesn't change anything, but it just helps to understand what is happening in the brain and in the behaviour of people who suffer abuse when they are small and how this genesis of killing arise, because that's what I'm doing now.

34:30I work on prevention programs. If you just put Juana in the jail or people like her, that's not the way that society will function. Dr Ostrowski never went to see Juana Barraza again, and she doubts she ever will. Mike Lanchin, with the strange and unsettling story of Mexico's most famous female serial killer. He was speaking to Dr. Fergie Ostrovsky in 2021. Juana Barasa remains in jail in Mexico. She's 68 and is likely to spend the rest of her life in prison. And that's the sort of story which could quite easily be turned into a film, but perhaps not one which would be to everyone's taste. However, our next item focuses on films that have enhanced the cultural life of an entire continent.

35:16For this, we're going back to the 1960s and the creation of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival. It's known as FISPACO and is sometimes referred to as the African Oscars. Jen Dale has been speaking to the president of the first organizing committee, beginning with some news coverage reflecting the importance of the event. Military rulers or crises may come and go in Burkina Faso, the FISPACO in Jews. Burkina Faso, West Africa. Although one of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina is acknowledged as the home of African cinema. An occasion for filmmakers from all over the continent and from the diaspora to discover what's on each other's minds, both on and off the screen.

35:58It was mainly about letting people know that African films exist, promoting African films and encouraging them to come and see them. We hoped that all of Africa would open its eyes to its directors, its producers, because they were everywhere. in the Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Mali. Alimata Salambere is a young woman in her 20s, living in Ouagadougou, the capital of the Republic of Upper Volta in West Africa, renamed in later years as Burkina Faso. When Alimata was growing up, African cinema started to develop as a wave of countries gained independence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. But even then, it was hard for her to watch films.

36:44Well, during my childhood, it was difficult because the traditions did not allow young girls to go to the movies. It was frowned upon. However, in high school, she managed to watch some documentaries and a love of motion pictures begins. By 1968, Ali Mata is in her 20s and working for the National Broadcaster. I was program manager, working with technicians, producers, directors, to put together the programs. At the time, the television was only broadcast from 7 to 10 in the evening. However, when it comes to a cinematic experience, films from the West still dominate in Upper Volta. There were only two movie theaters.

37:25We only showed movies from Europe. For example, westerns. We see mountains, horses, things that weren't part of our culture at all. We didn't have a movie industry in particular. We only had reports that were made by television. And there was also the information department that produced documentary films. That's all. Then, a twist of fate. A TV colleague asks Ali Mata to attend a meeting in her place. It's with a group of other film enthusiasts who want to introduce more African films to the local population. She ends up being elected as president of the committee. The task? To put on the first African film festival.

38:03But the team faces several challenges before this debut event can get off the ground.

38:12We did not have the resources, but the enthusiasm was there, the desire to help African filmmakers. Luckily, one of the driving forces behind the idea is Claude Prieur, who runs the local cultural centre. He knows the critically acclaimed Senegalese film director Ousmane Semben, who will later become known as the father of African cinema. Sen Ben uses his contacts and several other filmmakers agree to lend their films for the event. Ale Mata has to have blind faith it will all work out. It was very difficult, but generally at the very beginning the filmmakers would come with the movie boxes in their suitcases.

38:52It's very hard to organise the festival, of course, because normally you should see the movie before programming. Just communicating with the filmmakers and others takes time. It was only the telegram. There were no other quick options. For example, when you go to Setu Semben, can you come up with this or that movie? It's by telegram. So the director of the telecommunications post office is joining our group to facilitate all this, to be able to make exchanges without paying. Ali Mata relies heavily on people like this on her team. They're willing to help for free. So we had a representative from each sector in order to make things easier.

39:31The Air Africa representative saw that the trips are not expensive. So we'd get given tickets. We also asked the mayor to contribute. We brought together all the people who were close to the cultural scene to be able to organise. No one was paid. We were all just committed volunteers. Whilst committed to the project, organising the event is giving Ali Mata some sleepless nights. Obviously, I was stressed every day because I continued to do my job as program manager. And I also went to meetings to prepare for this African film event. So it was not easy at all. But it was so exciting. We were convinced and committed.

40:10And the team's convinced this event should be for everyone to enjoy. No special invitations are sent out. The general public is welcome. They've been given permission to hold the event at the House of the People, a grand building normally used for political debate. It's circular, with a brown concrete facade and small pyramid-shaped ventilation ducts on the roof echo traditional Burkina Bay huts, allowing natural light into the auditorium below. It was a big, well-equipped building, perfect for presentations and cultural performances. Thanks to the ingenuity of the technicians, they made sure that we could install a projector in that building so we could show the films.

40:51Finally, the moment they've been building up to for almost a year arrives. The 1st of February, 1969. It's a hot and sunny day. Dust swirls around the streets due to the dry wind that blows in from the Sahara Desert at this time of year. The first African film festival of Ouagadougou opens with a ceremony including music and dance. Ali Mata addresses the crowd. Very anxious. I was stressed. It was the first time that I was going to speak in public. not only in public, but in front of a head of state and members of the government. When I finished giving my speech and it was good, that was a huge relief.

41:31Around 20 films are shown, including ones from Senegal, Niger, Ivory Coast, Tunisia and the Republic of the Congo. But this film event is not just about showing African films to an African audience. It's about inspiring the next generation. It was important to invite young people to this festival because they are especially the ones who go out at night to watch movies. Above all, it was also about inspiring vocational interest in young people. We invited young students to come and debate with the director of the film they had just seen. It's estimated around 10 ,000 people come along between the 1st and 15th of February and a closing ceremony rounds off the festival.

42:12It exceeds all expectations. In 1969, there were no prizes. So the closing was to take stock and thank the government and all the personalities, all the authorities and institutions that allowed us to carry out this event. The public was very enthusiastic. If the audience hadn't liked it, there wouldn't have been a Fespaco. If the heads of state had not liked it, there would not have been a Fespaco. They were all, every single one, won over to the cause of African cinema. In 1972, the event was made into an official institution by government decree and became known as the Pan-African Film Festival of Ouagadougou, or FESPACO for short.

42:57In 1979, it was made a biennial event held every two years. And in the 1980s, it grew to include television. It was a great source of pride because, to tell you the truth, when we started the festival in 1969, we didn't think it was going to be this big. Many people were surprised Burkina Faso, which is considered a small country, could successfully organise such an event. It was a source of pride as a woman. Let me remind you that at the time, there were not many women who were in the public domain. There are women who know more than me in life, but who maybe haven't had the chance simply to be at the origin of such events.

43:35Fespako is Africa's largest film festival and is internationally recognised. Ali Mata was guest of honour at the event's 50th anniversary in 2019. Looking back, I think we were very inspired because there are a lot of filmmakers who owe a lot to the Fespa Cool. Many filmmakers who have been discovered. Many filmmakers who've won awards thanks to the festival. I'm delighted to have been part of bringing this event to life, which has given me so much. Alimata Salambure was speaking to Jendale. Next up, this week's Sporting Witness. There are some games that come across as quintessentially American, certainly in the way they are marketed.

44:15And right at the top is American football. It's the most watched sport in the USA, and the professional league is called the National Football League or NFL. But back in the 1990s, the idea first emerged of bringing American football teams to Europe. Tim O 'Callaghan has been speaking to the former president of NFL Europe. The attempt to bring teams over to Europe began with the World League of American Football in 1991, a transatlantic competition featuring six new teams in the usa one team in canada and three teams in europe i was working as a lawyer and i got a call from a fellow that i knew at the national football league office in new york city in manhattan and said hey we're launching this league over in europe and we've got three teams we're planning to have in europe frankfurt london barcelona oliver we understand that you were born in germany and speak the language that's oliver luck.

45:08He played five seasons in the NFL as a quarterback for the Houston Oilers in the 1980s. He actually hadn't been born in Germany, but his mother was German and he did speak the language. So once all that had been cleared up, the executives at the NFL had a question for him. Oliver, would you be willing to go over and be the general manager slash president of this first team in Europe? And Oliver's answer was, yes. There'd be no sporting witness episode if he'd said no in fairness. A bit of background for you. In the 1980s, the NFL had become more popular in Europe and the league decided to hold some of its pre-season games in European cities to capitalise on this.

45:49The popularity of these games gave the NFL the idea of creating established teams outside of the US. Announcing the first professional sports league designed on a global scale. The World League presents the excitement of American football under 10 proud new banners. And one of these was to be in Frankfurt, Germany. I literally, with my wife, landed in Frankfurt January 1st of 1991. And we had our first game that March, right? So, you know, less than almost three months of preparation time. So we really had to scramble to hire staff to get a stadium lease done in Frankfurt to find housing for the athletes.

46:36I look back on it now and realize, my gosh, this was really before the Internet. This was before cell phones. This was in a different era. And in a sense, because it was this different era, we really had to make decisions on our own. We had to be very decisive in building the franchise and getting things launched. We had to deal with all sorts of oddball things like the American football goalposts. You just can't go to a store in Germany back in 1990 and buy those, right? They had to ship them over from the US and they had to get through customs. But despite the rocky start, Oliver and his team were ready to host the first game in Frankfurt in March 1991.

47:19The World League of American Football involving 10 teams from Europe and North America opens this weekend. Britain's representatives, the London Monarchs, are away to Frankfurt Galaxy on Saturday. Then next week on Easter Sunday, they play their first game at Wembley against the New York Knights. We had 23 ,000 fans attend the game. There had been a good sort of PR push behind it. And there were a lot of American troops as well who had for years, for decades, had been stationed in and around Frankfurt. It was the headquarters of, I think, the old seventh core of the U.S. Army. So Frankfurt, you know, was a sort of an Americanized town.

47:56So I think we benefited from sort of an openness and a friendliness towards American football. And where were you getting the players from? We had primarily American players who were just not quite good enough for the NFL. But we also supplemented that pool with what we called homegrown players. The kicker who kicks extra points and field goals and sometimes is also the punter in American football. We mandated that that be a local player. By local, Oliver means a European player. Kicking a rugby ball or a soccer ball is really not that much different than kicking an American football. We got a lot of traction by identifying a number of locals who became our kickers.

48:39The son-in-law of Johan Cruyff, the great soccer player, soccer coach, was our kicker in Barcelona. The first year of the league was considered a success, with the UK-based team, the London Monarchs, winning the championship in the World Bowl final in front of a crowd of more than 60 ,000 at Wendley Stadium. However, the transatlantic nature of the league did cause problems. We all racked up, and the players as well, lots of frequent flyer miles back in that era. And that was the era where people were still allowed to smoke on airplanes. You know, we had these very large men crammed into economy class on some of these flights so that it wasn't the best part of the experience of playing in Europe.

49:22Although the first two seasons went well, in 1992 they decided to see how they could make it better and the league took a break. I stayed in Frankfurt. We sort of scouted out all the other markets in Europe for a return of a European only league. So I spent a lot of time in Germany looking at Dusseldorf, looking at Berlin, looking at Hamburg. Then we decided on the teams that would make up the new NFL Europe League and then we were a European only league which was quite honestly a lot easier operationally because we weren't having to fly all these guys back and forth so many times. It relaunched in 1995 as NFL Europe with teams in Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, Oliver decided to use a bit of American sparkle to try and attract crowds in Germany to the games.

50:13And I realized that the perception that many Germans at least had of American football was what they saw every year with the Super Bowl, which was one of the few games that was broadcast, you know, in full length over in Germany. And so, you know, they saw elaborate pregame shows, elaborate halftime shows. They saw people tailgating before the game. It was an all-day event. Tailgating is the NFL tradition where fans gather in the car park of the stadium before the game to barbecue, drink, and socialize for around three to four hours. We set up a massive tailgate party with barbecues and music and things for kids to do and you name it, lots of entertainment.

50:55We hired the most popular DJ in Germany, a fellow named Werner So everything about the experience of the game was over the top in terms of what I would call American kitsch, which is a big part of sport in the United States with cheerleaders and music between the plays and the pregame presentation of the ball where we had if a circus was in town, you know, we had them bring their elephants out and they would march around the athletics track. Yep, you heard that one, right? Sometimes they used to get elephants involved in the pre-match entertainment. all sorts of what I would call cheesy entertainment, but the Germans loved it.

51:34During this time, the league also served as a training ground for NFL teams in the US, with franchises over there able to send players to Europe to develop their careers. These were basically players the NFL club thought they had a good future, but they needed playing time. They needed to play. You don't get better as a football player when you're sort of sitting on the bench and maybe just get a little bit of practice time. So players like Kurt Warner were sent over from St. Louis, and he went on to become a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. Brad Johnson was playing for the London Monarchs. He won a Super Bowl as a quarterback with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

52:10Oliver became president of NFL Europe in 1996, a role he stayed in until 2000, when he decided to return to the US with his family. The league continued until 2007, when, amid reports of$30 million-a-year losses, it was cancelled. But Oliver believes the project showed that there was an audience for the sport in Europe and it paved the way for the series of NFL international games which sees regular season matches played outside of the US. I think ultimately that's the birth of the new era of American football on the continent and to a certain degree in the UK as well. I'm glad we had the chance to do it.

52:50I'm glad that the National Football League has said you know this is a part of the world where there's heightened interest in the game. Oliver Luck, the former president of NFL Europe, was speaking to Tim O 'Callaghan. Instead of the separate international league, the NFL now plays regular season games outside America to build up its global footprint. Finally this week, we're going back to the 1970s for a moment which changed the world of flamenco. It came about as a result of a gathering in Lima, the capital of Peru, and it involved the introduction of a fresh instrument into the sound of a dance tradition which stretches back over centuries.

53:26Here's Stefania Gozza. This was the sound of flamenco before 1977. Hand clapping or palms, footwork, castanets and of course the guitar.

53:42And although it was already lovely, that year a new instrument joined the ensemble. Do you know its name? It's the cajón, the drum box. It's a rectangular wooden box that you sit on and play with your hands. The front panel is thin and the back panel has a round hole in the middle to let the tone resonate.

54:10Today the cajón is seen as a staple in flamenco, but it's not originally from Spain. It's from Peru. So how did it cross the Atlantic and carve out a place for itself in such a traditional art form? We'll hear the story from a percussionist who was at the center of it. And to spice this up even more, he's not Peruvian nor Spanish.

54:39He's from Brazil. I'm Ruben Dantas. I'm a musician and I love music. Rubem grew up in Salvador da Bahia, a city in the northeast of Brazil that is a melting pot of cultures. Bahia is incredible. Bahia is incredible. In Bahia you have both Europe and Africa and that's an advantage. There's culture from everywhere. I played the Brazilian bass drum, the triangle, and I experimented with bird calls and dry flamboyant pods. Percussion allows you to do that, to make music out of plant leaves or even water. About 80 % of people in Salvador are of African descent, and their music dominated the scene in the 60s and 70s.

55:29It was a time when you could hear all sorts of music, but none of it was from Spain. Then one day, an Italian guy showed up. He was an incredible guitarist. One time, I heard him playing something that sounded so different. I asked, what's that? And he said, it's flamenco. I asked, what about the percussion? What do they use? And he told me there were only guitars, palmas, the dancer's footwork and the vocals. So I said, what? No percussion instruments? Well, I'll go to Spain one day and introduce percussion into flamenco. And so he did.

56:16I came to Madrid with one of the most impressive groups in Yoruba culture, one of the many African nations represented in Bahia. I decided to stay in Madrid. The day the group was flying back to Brazil, I went to say goodbye. I stopped at a bar in the airport to get some water, and there I met Paco de Lucia.

56:42I didn't know who he was. I only knew one song that the tour bus driver would play every once in a while, Entre Dos Aguas.

57:00Entre Dos Aguas by Paco de Lucia, a virtuoso flamenco guitarist. I loved it. I thought it was incredible. He wrote his phone number on a napkin, but he didn't write Paco de Lucia. He wrote Francisco Sanchez Gomez. Who's Francisco Sanchez Gomez? Rubem would end up playing with Paco, and in March 1977, they were on a tour across South America with other artists when they landed in Peru.

57:36When we arrived, we went to the hotel, and there were musicians playing. The guitarist was sitting on an instrument. I had never seen that instrument before. I was moved. Because the first time I saw the cajon, I was taken back to my childhood. Because when my father died, I moved in with my grandmother. She had an impressive table that my grandfather had built for her. And most of the time, you'd find me tapping on it. My uncle would act as a DJ. He would put a record on and say, play to this tune, and I would. That table had the quality of an instrument. It was incredible. So when I discovered the cajon, I was almost scared by how exciting it felt.

58:21The cajon is thought to have developed in the 17th century, when Peru was a Spanish colony and slaved Africans worked the coastal plantations. Out of this mix emerged música criolla, or Creole music. Peruvian musician Luis Torres explains a bit more.

58:41There are many theories about the cajón's origins. One is that Afro-descendants began playing the wooden boxes used to transport goods on ships. And that's what Jobe heard during his visit in Lima, first at the hotel and later... There was a party in the Spanish embassy and everyone was there. Here's what Paco de Lucia told the Spanish public network, Radio Televisión Española, about that night. Chabuca Granda, a very famous Peruvian singer, came with a black man who played the cajón, Caetro. I grabbed the guitar and played with him, and I immediately saw that the cajon was the percussion for flamenco.

59:28It had the high sound of a dancer's hill and the low sound of the soul. He told me I needed to play the cajon right away, and I said, I'm already playing it, Paco. Here's the taste of what Paco and Jovem could have heard that night. It's Peruvian musician Caetro Soto playing and singing Toromata.

1:00:00He was impressive, a master in his genre, a composer, and he had such a voice. Both Rubem and Paco claim it was their idea to buy Caetro's cajón that night, but they do agree that it was Paco who ended up paying. I said, I'm playing that tomorrow. They said, what? And I was like, yes, yes, but I have no money with me now. So, after a negotiation, Paco paid him 12 ,000 pesetas. I played the cajon on our following concert. We next played in Chile, and people there already thought that cajon was part of flamenco. It spread like wildfire. Six months later, every flamenco house in Spain has a cajon.

1:00:57Since then, the cajon has travelled across the world, being introduced in different genres like jazz and blues. Along the way, it has been modified. Flamenco percussionists, for instance, have introduced snare wires in sight. They call it cajon flamenco to differentiate it from the original. But Rubem is not very happy with this. It doesn't belong to flamenco, festejo, jazz, nor samba. It's just the cajon. I would love to end with that cajon flamenco. A cajon is a cajon. Leave it alone. And what happened to Caetro's cajon? It's right here in front of me. But it's at its limit now. I'm waiting for some technology that can fix it, because I can't sit on it.

1:01:48The legendary percussionist Rubem Dantes was speaking to Stefania Gotzer. What a performer. I saw him with Paco de Lucia at London's Royal Festival Hall in the 1990s, and flamenco with a cajon now at its heart has gone from strength to strength. That's it from this edition of the History Hour. Join us again next week for more personal insights into moments which have shaped our world. But until then, this is Max Pearson from all of us here. Thanks for listening. Goodbye. Sporting Witness takes you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. We weren't going to ask permission, we were just going to do it.

1:02:23It was such an amazing feeling, it was incredible. He started to write a story about how he came up with the idea for the red and yellow cars. I got to go. We cried a bit, we laughed a bit. It was wonderful. There's a magic during those moments that carries your soul. We were truly blessed to be a part of history. Sporting Witness. Subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

1:03:11That's with Kyle Smith-Bino joining us. And then we'll be learning about Francis Galton and the racist, discredited pseudoscience of eugenics with Desiree Birch. We'll meet many medieval saints in their bone boxes with Rachel Parrott. So if that sounds like your sort of thing, listen to You're Dead to Me wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Bye. I'm Simon Jack. I'm Zing Zing. And on Good Bad Billionaire, we're exploring the life and fortune of music megastar Sir Paul McCartney. As one of the primary songwriters in The Beatles and with an extensive solo career, his work generates vast and continuous royalty streams.

1:03:49But were song royalties alone enough to break the billion? And earn him the title of the first British billionaire rock star? Find out in Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now, search for Good Bad Billionaire wherever you get your BBC podcasts.