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♫ Don't cry for me Argentina
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♫ The truth is I never left you
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♫ All through my wild days
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- As a corpse.
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♫ My mad existence
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As a corpse.
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♫ I kept my promise,
don't keep your distance
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♫ Even though super embalmed body
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♫ Was used as a political
prop in this really sketch way
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On July 26th, 1952
newscasters in Argentina
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recorded that first lady Eva Peron
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had entered immortality
at 8:25 that evening.
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Movie theaters darkened, shops closed,
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restaurants showed their patrons out,
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millions of people went into mourning.
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Beloved for her ardent support of the poor
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and a woman's right to vote,
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Eva Peron was President
Juan Peron's secret weapon
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into the hearts of the people.
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A nation grieved for their Evita,
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but like so many powerful people
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Evita's corpse did not go
gently into the night at all.
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I mean it went into the night
and then back out of the night
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and then into a truck
and then into an attic
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and then back into a truck, you'll see.
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Preserved, hidden,
smuggled, lost and found,
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the curious case of Eva Peron's corpse
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is what scholars and historians
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have officially called bonkers.
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I promised that when we
reached 1,000 patrons,
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because of viewers like you,
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Team Death Video would
do an extra long video
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on iconic corpses.
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So without further ado I present
Eva Peron, Iconic Corpse.
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Before we talk about Eva Peron's corpse
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we should mention that
she had a really awful,
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miserable death.
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One that she never really had agency over.
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Eva Peron died of cervical cancer.
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Something that was hidden from her
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by her husband the president, Juan Peron.
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Not wanting Eva to appear weak
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because of how her popularity
influenced his popularity,
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all the reasons for these surgeries
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and treatments were kept from her.
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There's even evidence that
towards the end of her life
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Juan Peron had her lobotomized
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without her knowledge or consent.
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Of course when Eva died
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Juan Peron had plans
for her corpse as well.
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Even before she died he had been colluding
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with Dr. Pedro Ara, a Spanish
Argentinian pathologist
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and master embalmer about
preserving Eva's body.
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By the time Eva died Dr. Ara was ready
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to immediately begin preserving her.
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He began the first stage of
his secret embalming process
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within an hour of her death
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and by the next morning
said that she was now
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"completely and
definitively incorruptible."
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You see Dr. Ara was the kind of cocky
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that enjoyed whipping out the
embalmed head of a peasant
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that he carried around
with him in his bag.
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Huh I just have ChapStick in mine.
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Dr. Ara considered himself an artist
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and obsessed over Eva's corpse.
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Unlike conventional embalming
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Ara left all of Eva's organs intact
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and only made two tiny incisions,
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one at her neck and one on her foot
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using a secret process involving alcohol
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and glycerin to replace
the fluids in her body,
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Dr. Ara also injected the corpse
with wax and preservatives
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and covered the whole thing
with a thin film of plastic.
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The whole process took
one year, cost $100,000
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and resulted in a corpse
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that visitors said looked
wax-like and artificial.
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One visitor said, "when you
tapped it, it rang hollow
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"like a store window mannequin."
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Visitors also noticed
that Dr. Ara was never far
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from Evita's side, lovingly doting on her.
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"My precious."
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After Evita lay in state
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at the Ministry of Labor for 13 days
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she was transferred to the
General Confederation of Labor
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where her body would wait
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until her monument and
tomb were completed,
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but they never were.
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In 1955 President Juan Peron was deposed
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and forced to flee to Spain.
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Eva was left behind with
Dr. Ara in Buenos Aires
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where he spent his days trying
to perfect his masterpiece.
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Dr. Ara just let it go, let it go.
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However the new president, Pedro Aramburu,
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got wind that Eva's body
was still in Argentina
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and decided that she needed to be quickly
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and secretly buried.
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He worried that if the
Peronists figured out
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where their beloved Evita was interred
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it might inspire an uprising.
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So the head of military intelligence,
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a man named Carlos Koenig
was charged with obtaining
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Eva's body from Dr. Ara
under the cover of night.
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After Koenig procured Eva's body
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he was supposed to load her on his truck
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and take her to Chacarita
Cemetery in Buenos Aires
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where she would be secretly
buried, but that didn't happen.
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This is where things get weird,
well it was already weird.
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This is where things get
a different kind of weird.
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Koenig parked the truck and
took a nap, like you do.
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When he woke up he found the
truck mysteriously surrounded
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by candles and flowers.
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Instead of taking Eva's
body to the cemetery
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he put her into another
truck, drove to another spot
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and spent another night.
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When he woke up again
the truck was surrounded
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by candles and flowers.
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Koenig fully freaked out
and stashed Evita's body
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in the attic above his office
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at Military Intelligence Headquarters.
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Eva's corpse stayed hidden
in Koenig's attic for a year.
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When Aramburu finally found out
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he had Koenig fired and said okay we need
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to transfer of Evita's corpse
somewhere out of the country.
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In a secret operation.
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Why are there so many secrets?
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Aramburu's people sent Evita
to Milan, in Italy, that's far.
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She was buried under the
name Maria Maggi Magistris
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in Musocco Cemetery.
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This story's not even close to over
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so let's just keep going.
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There she remained until 1971
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when President Aramburu was
murdered by Peronist guerrillas.
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So what he was worried
about happening happened.
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After Aramburu's death the
location of Evita's grave
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was revealed to the Argentine government
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and they sent a colonel
and a priest to Milan
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in order to retrieve her body
and return it to Juan Peron,
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who remember is still in exile.
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A colonel and a priest
walk into a graveyard.
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When they finally found Eva's corpse
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they put her in a bakery truck
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and sent her off to Juan
Peron in Madrid in Spain.
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Once in Madrid our old friend Dr. Ara
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was called out of retirement
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to tend to the recently exhumed Eva.
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"My precious."
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After Eva underwent some repairs
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she took up residence in
the Peron's dining room
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where Juan Peron's new wife Isabel
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combed and styled her hair every morning,
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because why not at that point?
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In 1973 Juan Peron was
elected president of Argentina
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for the third time and returned
to Buenos Aires with Isabel.
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He left Eva's corpse behind again.
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If I haven't lost you
yet just focus with me.
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In 1974 a year after Juan Peron died,
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Aramburu's corpse is
kidnapped and held for ransom
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by Peronist guerrillas until Isabel Peron,
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who is now president of
Argentina returns Evita's corpse
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from Spain to Argentina.
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Back in Argentina Eva's corpse
undergoes a final restoration
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this time by Domingo Tellechea.
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Though he noted that Eva
might have been squeezed
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into too small a coffin, her
feet weren't looking so good.
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Aside from some external
superficial damage,
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Ara's original preservation
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had held up pretty well for over 20 years.
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Eva's open coffin was briefly displayed
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next to Juan Peron's closed coffin
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with plans to put them both in a monument,
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much like the one
originally intended for Eva.
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However when Isabel
Peron was deposed in 1976
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Evita's body was returned to her family
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and finally buried in La Recoleta
Cemetery in Buenos Aires.
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Eva Peron is now buried
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in what is essentially a steel
bunker 20 feet underground.
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It's believed to be able to
withstand both nuclear attack
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and corpse robbers.
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Let us hope this is her
final resting place.
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And that deathlings is the bonkers story
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of Eva Peron's corpse.
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Pro tip, there's a lot of good information
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on other iconic corpses in Order member,
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Bess Lovejoy's Rest in Pieces.
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And tell us in the comments
your favorite iconic corpse.
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Eva Peron is the queen but
let's make this a series.
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Brought to you with support
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from People's Memorial Association
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and The Co-op Funeral Home,
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and donations from viewers like you.
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Like Alissa Rhonda, hey.
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Why are there so many secrets?
