In April 2009, four Somali pirates boarded the MV Maersk Alabama in the Indian Ocean, taking Captain Richard Phillips hostage in a lifeboat standoff that gripped the world. In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes, Vanessa examines how a routine cargo run became one of the most dramatic maritime hostage crises in modern American history. Four tense days passed before Navy SEAL snipers ended the standoff, killing three pirates and freeing Phillips.

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