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- [00:00]
Genevieve Manion
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- [00:21]
Unknown
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- [00:23]
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- [00:53]
Genevieve Manion
Hello and welcome to My Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host Genevieve Manion, and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era. Because to me there's just something especially intriguing, creepy and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised. Hello friends and welcome to this, my 48th episode. I hope that you had a wonderful week. My week was simply glittering, thank you very much for asking. The weather in New York has been perfectly miserable for the last three months and I am trying to enjoy every last second of it before the gates of hell open up next week and we have a string of sunny 90 degree days which will bum me out entirely. I sat with Toby in soaking wet 63 degree grass today until I got a soggy bottom chill to file away in my memory for when I'm sweating my carcass off next week. I'd call this a life hack, but I feel like life hacks probably have to hack more lives than just your own to qualify as such. I don't know if you'd find this experience as useful as I do. I highly recommend it. Nevertheless, I am so happy to hear that you guys enjoyed last week's episode with Sightings. It was so much fun to create that episode with them. I've been making some pod friends lately, which I'm very excited about. Brandon Shecksnader from the awesome podcast Southern Gothic reached out recently to say hi and just give me some support and that was just so sweet. His show is incredible. Please check it out if you haven't already. I might talk a big game, but I'm still very much a podcast guppy. I'm still learning the ropes and it really means a lot to get advice from folks like him and to work with Brian and McLeod from Sightings. I am so grateful for all of the connections that I'm making doing this spooky stuff. And as always, so grateful for you guys. Thank you for your comments on Spotify and Apple podcasts which you know I love so dearly. Thank you for rating the show on those platforms. And thanks again to everyone who has expressed interest in the Fan Coven, which I am still cobbling together. It's going to take a couple of weeks to get that going. P.S. if you're good at Patreon, please email me. I can't figure out some things that I feel should be simple, but for the life of me, Patreon's instructions read like a sixth year neurosurgery textbook. I desperately need your help. You can email me@myvictorianightmaregmail.com and speaking of Patreon, if you would like to listen to the show ad free, you can find the link to my patreon@myvictorianightmare.com and don't worry if you sign up for the Patreon now and want to upgrade to the Fan coven later in a few weeks, which will be the show ad free plus some fabulous witchy content. I will ensure that that will be easy, but with the help of whichever darling responds to my plea for Patreon help, thank you kindly.
- [04:04]
Unknown
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- [04:33]
Genevieve Manion
Okay for you today, Dear listener, I have a family that is a complete disaster. The absurdities of hypnosis, a hatchet murder, a man who luckily couldn't quite properly operate a firearm, utter pandemonium at a spiritualist lecture, a corpse sent to a candy maker, a man frozen to a bo, yet another man killed by a coffin, and the single worst death that I have ever discussed on my show up until today. Hands down, nothing comes close. Consider yourselves warned. All courtesy of the Illustrated Police News, Law Courts and Record, our favorite despicable news source from the 1800s. I'm also going to discuss some really fun factoids in the episode. You're going to learn a whole lot of stuff that you can only share with certain people who already know you to be and accept you for being insane. It's going to be great. But before we dive face first into the mayhem, I have for you our weekly segment With Their Own Eyes where I share with you personal accounts of spectral Victorian visions to heeby your jeebies before I I'm serious. I'm going to scar you for life with this episode. With that one article, I surrounded it with some really great palette cleansers though, so you'll survive. I think this personal ghost encounter comes to you from the article called True Stories about Ghosts that I found within the Illustrated Bullies News, and it reads the first night I slept in the house, I was awakened in a remarkable manner and I saw a figure standing not far from the bed, looking very calm but sad. It distinctly looked at me and then vanished. I was too awed to awake my husband. This occurred over and over again. On going about the house and up and down the stairs, I have repeatedly passed the same figure. On coming down from my bedroom, I have seen the drawing room door open and the figure pass out and go down the stairs before me. Not only myself, but everyone in the house was cognizant of its presence. It was the cry of servant after servant, this house is haunted. There is someone walking down the stairs every evening. Not one of the children would sleep alone. Occasionally we heard slight noises, but in general it was a quiet passing in and out. At first we were frightened and slept one night at a hotel, but the latter part of the two years that we occupied the house, we became familiar familiar with it. At another house we saw it once, but for the last five years we have seen nothing at all of the apparition. Okay, this article inspired me to do a little digging into different theories about why ghosts predominantly come out at night, like why so many folks claim to see or experience them far more in the nighttime than the day. Of course there are scientific psychological theories as well as supernatural ones. Here are a few that collected this week. Let's start with a few scientific ones. There is of course sleep paralysis, something I myself experience, which is literally a living nightmare. As we move into the REM stage of sleep, our brains prevent our bodies from moving, and for some folks, we can wake up in this paralyzed twilight state. And it's also common to hallucinate other people or beings in the room when this happens. I once heard a fascinating theory that we can lose awareness of where our own body is in space in this sleep state, and some will perceive their own bodies as being next to them or even Further away from them. And since we're in a dreaming state, Our mind will just try to make sense of this by creating this shifted self perception as a whole other being. Which is especially fascinating to me because I absolutely experience this. I even hear voices, usually men's voices. I also experience people touching me. When I have sleep paralysis. I can like feel hands running up and down my legs. It's absolutely horrifying. But this only explains a certain kind of experience of what some may believe to be ghosts. What about folks like that lady in the article who say that they see apparitions floating around? There's a theory that mold in homes causes very specific kinds of hallucinations, Specifically dark shapes that float across people's vision, as well as sleep problems like coughing, insomnia. So you have something making you hallucinate that's also causing you to wake up in the middle of the night. Double whammy. Black mold also affects the parasympathetic nervous system, causing anxiety. So triple whammy. You're waking up scared and seeing dark figures floating around your room. An engineering professor at New York's Clarkson university actually set out to investigate mold in homes that were purported to be haunted to see if there was a correlation. And of the 27 locations that they checked, 13 of them had black mold. So that's interesting. There are obviously more simple explanations. At night, it's quieter, you have less distraction, Leading to an increased focus on internal thoughts and sensations. We're also more sensitive to sounds and visual anomalies. And our brains are really good at filling in blanks, Whether we're in sleep paralysis or not. And in the dark, where we can't see properly, Our minds will simply fill in the blanks with terrifying things. But like I mentioned, in past episodes, no amount of darkness or sleep paralysis could have made me see a man in a pinstriped suit singing to me for hours when I was a child. Which actually happened. Or maybe it did. I don't know. I guess I can't be sure. But I've heard plenty of folks experiences that really don't appear to be so easily explained away. So what are the supernatural theories for why hauntings take place more at night? There is a belief that at night, when there is less human energy swirling around, like less kinetic energy, that it easier for spirits to draw ambient energy from their surroundings to manifest. Some believe that sunlight is detrimental to spirits and entities and hinders their ability to manifest. Some believe that we are simply more open and sensitive to perceiving spirits that are there all the time at night, with less daily distractions, less sound, less visual distractions, etc. Some believe that because we are more naturally afraid at night, like afraid of the dark, that negative entities are drawn to our fear. In other words, our fear makes us more susceptible to attack from spirits who wish us harm. That theory alone will give me nightmares. This is obviously not an exhaustive list of reasons, but I thought they would be a little fun and a little spooky to share. Okay, our first article is very unfortunate and a little difficult to believe, but details that don't usually make their way into the Illustrated Police News, like names, locations, actually made it into this one, so it very well may be true. The article is called A Very Unfortunate Family, and it reads, living just off High street, says the Providence Press, is a family named Bowen, consisting of six sons and two daughters, nearly all of whom, it appears within a short time have met with accidents. The boys are carpenters, and the husband of one of the daughters is also a carpenter. Some weeks ago, Horace Bowen had two fingers of his left hand severed by a circular saw, and a few days later his brother Henry chopped part of his left hand off. Vincent subsequently suffered the loss of one finger, and William cut three fingers off his hand while working with a hatchet. Leonard had his right hand very badly cut with an axe, and owing to improper treatment, he has lost the use of it while operating a circular saw. Last week. Lewis, the youngest brother, had his hand drawn in and terribly mangled. Ed Barber, the husband of. What? It just keeps going. I'm sorry, guys. Ed Barber, the husband of one of the Bowen girls, while absent from the city recently, his arms split open and his hand crushed. I'm such a terrible person. These poor people. I continue. This is a singular affair indeed. Not a single member of the male portion of the family escaping. End quote. For the love of God. It sounds like someone cursed the men of the Bowen family. Or that they simply need to stop operating what sounds like incredibly dangerous machinery. Every single male member of the family. I hope that they started like a yarn business or something together. After all that. Lord of mercy. Okay, this next one is fascinating. I will read it and then we will discuss. It is called One of the Absurdities of the Pretended Effects of Mesmerism as exhibited at Brackett Hall, Washington Street, Boston. And it reads, ever since the days of Mesmer In Vienna in 1776, a host of people have from time to time believed in his art of inducing an extraordinary or above abnormal state of the nervous system in which the actor claims to control the actions and communicate directly with the mind of the recipient. Certain effects have been produced by the mesmerists, who are calculated to fascinate weak minds, always looking into supernatural things and seeking for some power that exceeds the actual in nature. An offshoot of mesmerism is the humbug art of spiritualism. And while both mesmerists and spiritualists have produced manifestations that are marvelous and inexplicable, no real benefit has accrued to the world at large through their efforts. One of the most successful of the psychological mesmerists now on the stage seems to be Professor Cadwell, who is exhibiting at Bracket Hall, Boston. He makes an entertainment out of the subjects of his influence, like the following. Singing, dancing, stump speeches of the most grotesque character by subjects under mesmeric influence will make the old and young laugh for weeks to come. Riding the baby elephant reproduction of the Boston Peace jubilee by those under the influence who fancy themselves the best musicians on earth, hugging imaginary damsels, fishing in Indian war dances, and a host of other rib wrenching, laughter provoking experiments such as you will never see again, end quote. I put a fabulous illustration for this article along with all of the other illustrations for today on the Instagram and blue sky, by the way. Okay, let's talk a little bit about hypnosis in the 19th century. As this reporter here indicates, he thinks hypnosis is nothing but a quote unquote humbug art similar to summoning the dead through seances. It's an interesting correlation. Franz Mesmer. Franz. Franz. Franz Mesmer, the Austrian physician who developed the earliest techniques of mesmerism, otherwise known as hypnosis, believed that an invisible fluid ran between the subject of hypnosis and a mesmerist. This invisible fluid also ran between humans and animals. That was, as he described, a magnetizer that enabled the mesmerist to induce a trance in the subject. It's a pretty wild theory. And as such, those who learned this technique and used it on others were often ridiculed as being witch doctory carnival tricksters of sorts. Hypnosis was by no means considered a respectable psychological tool that could be used to gain a better understanding of of a patient's mind or as any kind of medical tool at all. In the early 1800s, it was pretty much just associated with quacks for the most part. It took almost the entire century to be understood as a useful psychological tool. And this only happened because of persistent individual physicians and researchers who essentially risked professional ostracism and ridicule to explore hypnotic techniques. Techniques Hypnosis was considered by many to be a strange spiritualistic performance. Again, the earliest theories for why some people were able to induce a trance in others was that there was an invisible fluid transmitting some kind of magnetism between people. And in its early days, it wasn't medical men who debated how it worked, it was religious men, priests. It was around the 1820s that medical men became interested in the technique in regard to how it may be used in surgery. Other physicians were interested in how it may aid in treating nervous disorders. But some of these doctors would exploit people with medical conditions in their lectures to show others how they could, for example, take a nervous woman who suffers from hysteria and have her change personality at his command and dance and sing. A physician named John Elliotson did this with a pair of Irish sisters who likely suffered from anxiety related disorders. Many people saw these demonstrations as nothing but trickery, like regarding it the same way they regarded spiritualists who would make objects float or start spitting up ectoplasm. I talk all about the dawn of the age of spiritualism in episode seven. There are definitely some connections to the fluidists, those who believed in the ancient invisible fluid mesmerism theory, to the puking up of ectoplasm that mediums would do during seances. This theory in some ways inspired that aspect of mediumship. So that's one reason why the reporter of that last article is drawing connections between spiritualism and hypnosis. Not to mention hypnosis was often included in spiritualist events like public seances and lectures, like a sort of sideshow. By the 1840s, a number of surgeons were actually using hypnosis on patients successfully during amputations. But by 1846, medicinal anesthesia, morphine was favored, not only because hypnosis ran the risk of someone not staying in the trance. But not every surgeon was a hypnotist. In the later half of the 19th and 20th century, it was psychologists like Freud who found hypnosis to be a somewhat helpful tool in regard to psychoanalysis, not surgical use. And by this time, the very early 20th century opinions about hypnosis were fairly solidified into the opinions that we have today. It can be useful for some things in regard to psychology doesn't always work the way you want it to. It could help you quit smoking, stick to a workout routine, maybe help you sleep better, discover who you were in a past life, but. But that's about it. It's funny, my grandmother got hypnotized to stop smoking and it worked. She said she smoked her last cigarette in the parking lot and when she went into the waiting room, she saw a gnarly old cigarette butt in an ashtray and already wanted a cigarette so bad that she considered lighting it up and pretty much smoking the filter. When she walked out of that doctor's office, she looked at the cigarette butt that she luckily did not smoke and threw up in the office. She never smoked again. So puke aside, hypnosis certainly does have its benefits.
- [20:49]
Unknown
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- [21:20]
Genevieve Manion
Is Horrible Death Time. That is literally the name of the article A Horrible Death. Brace yourself and it reads the circumstances of the horrible death of a woman in Indianapolis have come to our knowledge and we print them to warn others from laying themselves liable to a similar suffering and probable fatal result. A few weeks since, the lady in question was taken ill and medical aid summoned. Despite all the physician's skill, the disease baffled him and he could afford his patient no relief. The nature of the disease was a mystery to the doctor and indeed to all who saw her, and for that reason a post mortem examination was determined upon. It was noticed that during her sickness the lady had torn all her hair out by the roots and after death the doctor raised the skin from the scalp and was horrified to find the head one mass of worms, a most sickening sight in lifetime. The woman had been accustomed to wearing jute sweet switches and the worms bred by them had eaten the skull, causing a loathsome disease and an ultimate death. This incident is true and can be substantiated. End quote. Okay, let's talk real quick about some hairpiece facts that will make us stop thinking about what I just read to you. A switch was a type of hairpiece, usually a long straight section of hair bundled like a ponytail with a loop for easy attachment, generally used for creating updos, its purpose was to add volume or intricate styles. That is all I have to say about that article. Let's together pretend that never happened. Okay, this one is terrifying and it's also very sad. It is called a Man frozen to the cross trees of a Chicago vessel. And it reads, a horrible story comes from Chicago. It appears a vessel left that port until December 2nd loaded with 26,000 bushels of corn. Toward night snow began to fall and at dark a fierce storm of sleet broke upon the vessel, covering every rope and sail with ice. With great difficulty the top rigging was secured and then attempts were made to take in the frozen canvas. One sailor ran promptly aloft, but in short time was frozen, frozen stiff and motionless to the cross tree. In lowering him to the deck, the mate and several men were badly frostbitten. The insensible man was revived a little by vigorous and long continued rubbing with snow, but his legs are so badly frozen that his recovery is scarcely possible. The storm continued with unabated fury the ice clad vessel where the vessel now lies. All of the men are suffering intense pain, but with the exception of the one who was first frozen, are not fatally injured. Oh God, this is so terrible. I can't imagine anything can be colder than an 1800s ship on a frozen ocean in an ice storm. But I want to quickly discuss a detail that may have seemed strange to you. It definitely seemed strange to me that they rubbed snow on the man's frostbitten legs, which absolutely does not help frostbite. It never did and it never will. However, until the 1950s, it was believed by some that slowly warming a frostbitten area with cold substances, but not as cold as the frozen extremity, was a safer way way to get blood flow back into the extremity than exposing it to heat. As it was believed that exposing a frostbitten area to heat would cause more damage by too rapidly increasing blood flow. This was entirely the incorrect way to treat frostbite. Not only are you not supposed to rub frostbite at all, you do not want to keep exposing frostbite to gold. Apparently the right way is to start with lukewarm water soaking, the extreme remedy for at least 30 minutes. Then warm water, but never hot water to further prevent damage from frostbite. The more you know. Okay, this next one sounds terrible, but it has a happy enough ending to make you feel a little better. It's still awful though. But that's what we're all here for. It is called ineffectual attempt of a discarded lover to shoot himself in Chicago. And it reads, a love sick Youth named Frank McNally of number 115 Lincoln Avenue attempted to blow out his brains the other evening, but was unsuccessful for lack of practice with a gentle Revolver he is 19 years of age and, like most youths, has a penchant for lager, beer and adores women. One of the latter slighted him for some reason, and beer, being too frothy to drown his sorrow or afford him consolation, he concluded that death alone could ease his mind of the terrible affliction. Procuring a revolver, he went to his room and holding the weapon in his hand, soliloquied, Thou are an instrument of death, yet possess no terrors for me. For by thy aid I can obliterate all thought of her who spurned my love for another's. This appeared to satisfy him, and he pointed the Revolution revolver at his head. His hand trembled, but he did not falter. He pulled the trigger, and the ball went on its mission. His unsteadiness saved his life, for instead of entering his skull, the ball struck a rib near his breast and glanced on, producing a painful but not dangerous wound. A physician is attending him and, having been assured that he will recover, is anxious to see the woman who will impress him so favorably as to induce another attempt if she rejects him. End quote. I'm gonna go ahead and assume the guy did not recite a soliloquy before trying to shoot himself. And the reporter of this fairly tragic story thought that that little bit would add some levity to a story that didn't require it, nor is it at all appropriate. But Victorians sure loved making light of incredibly upsetting things. Incidentally, 115 Lincoln is a lovely residential home, a hop, skip and jump away from Kickapoo Creek County Park. Doesn't that sound nice? Okay, our next article is about a spiritualist lecture and demonstration gone terribly wrong. This is the kind of stuff where if I had a time machine, this would be the first thing I'd want to see. I had to edit a little bit of the article, though, because. Kind of like that, that soliloquy in the other article, there's a lot of dialogue that there's no way the reporter was taking down in real time. It's clearly just made up. I'm sticking to the meat of the article, which is called a row among the spiritualists at Cooper Institute, New York, January 22. An infuriated crowd attack the medium and tear down his cabinet. And it reads, at the Cooper Institute, New York City, on. On the evening of January 22nd, Dr. B.F. hatch gave what the Bills called a grand exposition of the principles involved in spiritual phenomena, employing in his aid the Thorpe brothers, who were tied in a dark box while the spirits played on a drum A tambourine and a hand organ. Etc. The audience was of a skeptical mind, evidently disposed to consider the progress. Progress of Spiritualism had been in near ratio with the improvement of the art of ledger domain. Real quick. The definition of ledger domain is skillful use of one's hands when performing or conjuring tricks. Okay, back to it. For they accused the doctor of trickery and finally tore down the doors of the mysterious box about the ears of the medium. In the first place, the Thorpe brothers gave an exhibition which was not satisfactory to the audience, notwithstanding one of the committee occupied the box with a medium during the demonstrations of the spirits. They clamored loudly for more, becoming satisfied only when the doctor promised a repetition of the wonders after the delivery of his lecture. Even then the quiet was not perfect and the lecturer was frequently interrupted by cries of tricks and the box and no more lecture. The crowd demanded another exhibition of the Thorpe brothers. This was reluctantly consented to, and the two were tied in their chairs in the box, facing each other with their hands fast in stocks and glasses filled with water in their hands. The attendant then closed the doors, but fumbled about so that the crowd became greatly excited and offered to drag him away. He finally, however, shut up the machine and the spirits began to kick up. They stamped on the floor, played on the musical instruments and threw billets of wood out of the window. They seemed to run all over the roof of the box and dance on the sides, until at last the crowd made a rush and the doors were down in a twinkling. There sat the men, still bound, trembling with the glasses and shaking in their hands while the spirits rumbled away with a loud noise. End quote. Ugh. These poor guys. As mentioned, I discuss seances and spirit cabinets in detail in my dawn of the Age of Spiritualism episode. That's episode seven. I tried to research the Thorp brothers, but couldn't find anything specifically on them. But I wanted to talk briefly about what they were doing. They were doing a similar shtick to the Davenport brothers. These were two American magicians and mediums who were known for their spirit cabinet performances. These two gentlemen were no doubt inspired by these guys. A spirit cabinet was a large cabinet that a spiritualist medium would hop into and aid them in connecting with the dead. In the case of the Davenport brothers, they would be tied up inside a big box which contained like bells and musical instruments. Once the box was closed, the brothers would allegedly contact spirits of the dead who would then play the instruments. Then the box would be opened to show that the brothers were still tied up. These two gentlemen were exposed as frauds a number of times. A stage magician named John Neville Maskelyne recreated the spirit box and showed his audience how he could could get it to play when he was tied up. It was essentially just a matter of being really good at getting out of knots. The Davenport brothers would have an audience member tie them up to ensure that they could not play the instruments themselves. But they were just really good at slipping out of knots. Like Houdini. A gymnast named John Holly followed these guys around Brooklyn doing his best to be picked to tie them up because he knew how to tie a particular knot called a Tom Fool's knot, which is virtually impossible to escape. And they couldn't escape it. And just like those Thorpe brothers there, the audience became so enraged that they rioted, stormed the stage and smashed up their cabinet. The audience also got their money back. They were exposed quite a number of times more all over the world. Regardless, they made a pretty good living keeping up the grift, traveling from city to city. Speaking of Houdini, he said that the Davenport brothers told him themselves that they faked everything. He included this confession in his anti spiritualism book called A Magician Amongst the spirits, the number one selling product of its kind with over 20 years of research and innovation. Botox Cosmetic Adobotulinum Toxinae is a prescription medicine used to temporarily make moderate to severe frown lines, lines, crow's feet and forehead lines look better in adults.
- [33:23]
Unknown
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- [34:04]
Genevieve Manion
See for yourself at botoxcosmetic.com okay, this next one is quite sad. It is called Murder of a Wife and Child by a German woman in Ann Arbor, Michigan and it reads the people of Ann Arbor, Michigan are much excited over a cold blooded murder which was committed in the city on the 23rd. The murderer, whose name is E. Wagner, was married July 17th of the present year. About two weeks after they were married, they commenced having trouble. She threatened at one time to throw a lamp at him. He called her bad name veins and subjected her to ill treatment in various ways. He left her after the quarrel, but came back in about a week. He lived with her two or three weeks. Then they had another altercation. She threatened to strike him and he struck at her. She one time threatened to throw a kettle of water at him and he said if she did, he would kill her. The testimony before the coroner's inquest revealed the fact that he murdered both mother and her infant with a hatchet. He surrendered himself voluntarily and is now in jail. I sadly could not find more information about this one. There were too many Wagners in Ann arbor, Michigan in 1871 to find this particular person. Since he surrendered, I would imagine his case was swift. Although he likely did not get the death penalty. Like I said, this happened in 1871. The death penalty in Michigan was abolished for all crimes except treason in 1870. But even up until then, the last execution to be performed in Michigan was in 1837. It's unclear exactly what inspired the 1870 law allowing treason to be punishable by death. Regardless. No one was ever tried or executed for treason in that state. In 1960, the death penalty was banned in all instances, including treason, and has remained banned ever since. Okay, this next one is a situation that I touched on in episode 34 about body snatchers. And it is called A Corpse Sent to a Cincinnati Candy Maker. And it reads, day before yesterday, the steamer General Little received from the Louisville and Nashville Railroad an ordinary wooden box of the kind used by manufacturers for packing bolts and shoes bearing the marks. John W. Courier, Cincinnati, Ohio. The box was strapped and 50 pounds it was brought up by the Little and the clerks, mistaking the address, sent it to Mr. Kern, the candy manufacturer of this city. While the bill was being examined, an attempt was made to pry open one end of the box with the view of obtaining a knowledge of of its contents. When the nostrils of those standing around were greeted by an offensive stench, and looking through the small opening made discovered the feet of a negro. The proprietors of the establishment were immediately informed of the character of the contents, and the box was returned to the steamer. The box is 2ft 5 inches long, 16 inches wide and 20 inches deep. The coroner took charge of it yesterday, and on opening it at the office of the of Mr. Swords, the undertaker found the space between the body and the sides of the box filled with charcoal. The corpse was that of a 30 year old man. The legs were severed at the hips, but there was no other peculiarity about it. Dr. Underhill is of the opinion that it was sent to some one of the medical colleges here for anatomical purposes. End quote. I discussed in episode 34 how bodies, specifically those of black people were often dug up and sold to surgeons in an illegal trade. Bodies of all races were subject to theft by the body snatchers looking to make money selling them to surgeons who couldn't easily come by fresh corpses for their studies. But your class and race determined how easily your body could be stolen. The upper classes could afford to have their coffins dug extra deep. They could have cages literally installed around their coffins. I discussed how they sometimes would be booby trapped with guns and explosives. But poor white folks and black folks didn't have the means to protect their dead as well as the rich. And so they were easier for the body snatchers to procure. I was aware bodies were often smuggled to surgical schools and whiskey barrels. But I hadn't heard of boxes full of charcoal. I guess they had to use what they had. So awful. Okay, our two final articles are. They're fantastic. Sad and chaotic, but also fantastic. This one is called Edmund Sweeney falls dead while lifting the coffin lid from the body of his father. And it reads, at Hoxton, England, a week or two since, a man by the name of Edmund Sweeney was lifting the coffin lid from the body of his father father to show to a friend when he fell backwards insensible. Dr. Griffiths was in attendance in the course of 10 minutes. But he then pronounced life to be extinct. The cause of death was fatty degeneration of the heart and a verdict to that effect was recorded. I never thought that I would find another article where a man was killed by a coffin. I. One of the very most famous illustrated police news articles of all is called Killed by a Coffin and I read it on episode 19. It has the most iconic illustration of a man being killed by a coffin. Oh, poor Edmund and his poor family. God. Imagine your husband dies and then your son dies at his funeral. Yeah. I don't mean to make any light of this because I can only imagine how tragic this be. Might must have been for the poor Sweeney family. Heavens. Okay, our final article is a bit of a nail biter, but it has a happy ending. I think it's called a chambermaid turns an involuntary somersault out of a second story window. @ Bangor and it reads, A chambermaid in Bangor, while shaking a rug out of a second story window, lost her balance and turned a complete somersault and came down to the ground with a rush, astonishing all who witnessed the fall. She jumped up, ran into the house and resumed her work as if nothing had happened. The working girls of the Dirigo state are as plucky as they are handsome and the one who met with this little adventure is a fair sample of her class. End quote. Okay, those handsome main girls can sure sure fall out of windows and walk off a concussion like nothing happened. I'm glad she was okay. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more pretty please rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Please leave me comments because I love them so much and join the Patreon if you'd like to listen to the show ad free. Be kind kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares.