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- [00:00]
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- [00:20]
Carvana Representative
Thanks for selling your car to Carvana. Here's your check.
- [00:23]
Genevieve Manion
Whoa. When did I get here?
- [00:24]
Carvana Representative
What do you mean?
- [00:25]
Genevieve Manion
I swear it was just moments ago that I accepted a great offer from Carvana online. I must have time traveled to the future.
- [00:31]
Carvana Representative
It was just moments ago. We do same day pickup. Here's your check for that great offer.
- [00:35]
Genevieve Manion
It is the future. It's.
- [00:38]
Carvana Representative
It's the present and just the convenience of Carvana. Sorry to blow your mind.
- [00:42]
Genevieve Manion
It's all good. Happens all the time. Sell your car the convenient way to Carvana. Pick up. Times may vary and fees may apply. 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. Foreign hello friends, and welcome to this, my 50th episode. I can't believe I made it to 50. This is bananas. I hope that you had a wonderful week despite the hideousness of what is happening in Washington. I have been trying to keep my eyes off the news and do what I always do when I want to have a panic attack. I shove a handful of gummy bears in my mouth and I force myself to leave my apartment and meet up with a friend somewhere. That will bring me some joy. And that is exactly what I did this week. I went to have dinner with my friend Lauren at a flamenco restaurant last night and that is one of my very favorite things to do in the city. I flirt with the idea of learning how to flamenco dance, but a pasty Irish flamenco dancer with rhythm that does suit 80s synth pop but not Spanish syncopation so much by any means would be hilarious. Maybe I should do it, if only to bring some laughter into the world and make a lot of noise. I've always been a big fan of stomping my little feet to make an impression. Pasty Irish flamenco anecdotes aside, a little haunted housekeeping. Thank you as always for your ratings on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Thank you for your ratings. Please rate the show if you have not yet. They help my show to grow and I need to grow if I'm going to keep going. So thank you for those ratings. You can find me on Instagram, yvictorian Nightmare and on blueskyctorianightmare. And if you would like to support the show and listen ad free, you can do so by subscribing to my Patreon or the Fan Coven, which is about two weeks away from dropping. I am getting so excited about this. Don't worry, if you join the Patreon now, you can always upgrade to the Fan Coven later which is the show ad free plus some deliciously witchy extras. So never fear. I also want to say thank you for your comments. I know I say this every week, but I've gotta be honest. Seeing what our government is going to do to some of the most vulnerable people in our country, I myself will likely not be able to afford my health insurance. It's a scary time. I was kind of melting down a little bit before the Flamenco show and I decided to look at your comments to make me feel better. They always do and I came across one that I just want to share with you. This is from Zillennial Appalachian Grammy on Apple Podcasts. She writes I started listening to this podcast shortly after giving birth to my first child. I was tired, struggling with ppd, PPA and ppocd. It was hard to find something to motivate myself. I stumbled upon this podcast looking for a mix of history, storytelling and the cob and it checked all the boxes. This podcast helped me to find my creative spark again and has gotten me through many sleepless nights with the kiddo. Thanks Genevieve for your entertainment and reminders to be kind to myself. End quote. I can assure you, even though I am speaking to you now fairly coherently, I just edited out about five minutes of choking up. No matter how dark things seem sometimes, no matter how scared or sad I get about things, hearing that I am at least making someone else's day a little brighter or their darkness a little more comfortable, it means the world to me. So thank you honey. And thank you, all of you for the comments that you leave on my show. And I just want to say something for those of you who are also scared and sad either for what our government will be doing to you or to people that you love or to people in general. You don't have to be directly affected by this to be devastated. For the folks who have children in children's hospital, hospitals that will close, who have parents in assisted living homes that will close and on and on. Something that I have heard few folks mentioning. All of this can be undone. Just like they just undid the Affordable Care Act. We can undo what they've done and make a stronger healthcare system. They literally just created the vacuum that will all but ensure that that happens if this country is to survive all. And it will be, because we are going to put the people who intend to undo this in power. So do not allow yourself to get crushed under this. Keep your eyes on the future where this is undone, because we can and we will make it so and make something much, much better than what we've.
- [06:30]
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- [07:03]
Genevieve Manion
Do I have some terrible information to make us all feel so much better? I have a man mangled with a carving knife, the growing evil that is young women leaving their homes, going outside another skeleton where it does not belong. A rum crazed lunatic dentist, a man killed by a jar of peaches, and a couple of rats that exhibited an admirable commitment to teamwork. All this and very much more. But first we begin with our ever so spooky weekly segment with Their Own Eyes, where I share with you the personal accounts of spooky ghost sightings endured by petrified Victorians. And I came across another perfect gem of an article in the New York Times from June 24, 1881, where it just sounds like a complete nightmare unfolded every single day in this poor woman's boarding house. Today I am just going to read for you a few of the sightings listed in the article and read the others on episodes to come. They are practically endless and so creepy. This article is called Two Spectral Ghosts in a 14th Street Boarding House. Boarders frightened away and servants in terror. What person who have seen the phantoms say and it reads two alleged ghosts have been engaged in the unholy business of making day and night alike hideous for some time past in the house at number 131West 14th Street. The building is situated just west of the 22nd Regiment Armory, which it adjoins and is a brick, four stories and a basement. During the past year, the house has been occupied by Mrs. Mary Carr, a widow, as a boarding house, and at times it has been completely filled with as many as 30 persons lodging beneath the roof. The ghosts, however, have played havoc with Ms. Carr's business of late, and her boarders have been gradually leaving her as the fact dawned on their minds that the house was haunted. Those who have seen the unearthly visitors all agree in their description of the personal characteristics. So that it may be set down as certain that only two ghosts have taken up their abode up at this time in the 14th street house. They are a man and a woman. The man is described as tall and slightly stooping, with English side whiskers, mustache, and very large black eyes which strike terror into all upon whom they are turned. The woman is a maiden lady who seems to have just passed the age of 20, and her face, though beautiful, is disfigured by marks which would seem to indicate a life of dissipation. She has blonde hair and is fond of standing before the mirror in the front parlor and dressing it. She has been seen in this position very many times, Mrs. Carr says, by several of her servants and by at least one of her boarders, whose name she declined to reveal. Both the ghosts differ from those with which she has been familiar from childhood in that they seem to be restricted to no hours in the regulation of their appearances. They are apparently permitted to roam at will in the apartments of the house whenever it suits their convenience, whether it be at high noon or at the solemn hour of the midnight, the latter time being that usually affected by the ghost species. The man has been seen by a waiter sitting calmly at the window of the dining room, which is in the basement in the early afternoon, studying with a critical eye the fashions displayed by the ladies as they passed by the house. And while the waiter's hair has been rising on end, his ghost ship has melted away into thin air. The lady has a preference for making her toilet in the parlor during the morning. The two have never been seen together, and so far as is known, they hold no communication with each other. Mrs. Carr asserts that some of the more favored of her servants have been permitted to gaze upon both, but not at the same time. End quote. Ugh. This poor woman. Like I said, I will continue with the rest of the article and the terrifying encounters that her borders had had. I think it's wild that the woman who owned the place actually never saw a single ghost. Or maybe she was just like every typical New York landlord. I had a gigantic patch of mold growing on my wall. Like a couple of years ago, the landlord came in and was like, yeah, that's just dirt. It's dirty. I don't see no mold. Ghosts. I don't see no ghosts with spooky black eye sockets and English side whiskers. It's all in your head. Incidentally, 131 W. 14th St. Is currently a mixed use building. Retail space on the first floor and apartments above go between $11,000 a month and $35,000 a month. My God, I sure hope that Mrs. Carr's what would be biblically wealthy descendants never sold that building. Goodness gracious. I found an article on nyupress.org and a man named David Freeland says that he went to the building to see if it's still haunted. He spoke to the manager and asked if he'd ever experienced something and he said something kind of creepy. He said when he's leaving at night, he sometimes feels like someone is trying to keep him there. Like someone won't let him leave. The next time that I'm on 14th street and run into someone who looks like they pay $35,000 a month in rent, I will ask them if they have seen a woman ghost from the 1800s making her toilette anywhere in the building. I will get back to you. Okay, now I won't be doing this new segment every week, but would you please follow me into the seance room where I share with you goings on in the Spiritualist community of the 1800s. There are only so many articles to share from this fabulous the Spiritualist newspaper. My new obsession. I was going to share this one next week, but it is just simply too fantastic. I gotta share today, much like tabloids like to publish feuds between famous so and so's today, the Spiritualist would at times publish feuds between psychic mediums and the beef was sizzling. This article is called Charge of Imposture and it reads a Mr. Addison has been writing to the Standard alleging that he, in the presence of some of his friends, had detected Mrs. Mary Marshall doing spirit writing under the table with a pencil held between her toes and that he then seized hold of her naked foot. His letters were very rough in their style and contained insulting remarks about the personal appearance of Mrs. Marshall's mother in law. Mrs. Marshall wrote that his tale was wholly untrue and narrated instances of his misconduct. Mr. Addison then called two of his friends to support his assertions, which they did not do. But they went halfway and said they saw Ms. Marshall writing with her foot one of these witnesses was a comic actor who spent most of his time at the seance by rolling around on the floor pretending to be in a fit and frightening Mrs. Marshall considerably. The other witness spent some of his time drawing an unflattering caricature of the elder Mrs. Marshall in opposition to the testimony of these quote unquote highly respectable gentlemen. Attention may be called to the evidence given before the Dialectical Society and printed in Another column wherein Mr. El Blanchard, the author, testifies that his his body has been uplifted and held in the air by the spirits at Mrs. Marshall's seances. Mr. Hayne Friswell, author testifies that table manifestations have taken place in Mrs. Marshall's presence in his own house and were obtained after she had been searched, as well as among his own relatives after she had left the premises. The evidence given by Signor Damani should also be read. Mr. Epps Sargent, in his book the Planchette, narrates that Baron Reichenbach attended a circle in London, London in 1861, at the house of Mr. Cowper, son in law of Lord Palmerston. The Media present were Mrs. Marshall and her mother. Violent physical manifestations were observed which the Baron was convinced were not caused by imposture. The correspondence in the Standard ended with a letter from a philosophical instrument maker named Faulkner, who wrote that he was a manufacturer of goods for spirit rapping people, he having fitted up their houses with wires and conditions concealed electro magnets to make raps. Mr. Faulkner has since been asked for references to those whose houses he has so fitted up, and the only references he gives is to Mr. Addison. Genuine spiritual phenomena go on in any house which the medium has never entered till the time of the seance. And Mrs. Mary Marshall has for years been in the habit of accepting such outdoor engagements. Charges of the kind mentioned in this paragraph more or less beset every paid medium and are among the disagreeable things they have to endure even when the manifestations are genuine. It appears the spiritualist newspaper is taking sides there with Ms. Marshall. I've talked about spiritualist mediums quite a lot on this show, but for those who are unfamiliar with a few, the details in that article, spirit writing was, and for some mediums still is, a technique where often they begin writing, sometimes first in scratches or circles, and as they make a connection with a spirit, the medium writes what the spirit is telling them while in a trance. Some say that the spirit takes full control of their hand and it is the spirit itself that writes. Some say they are merely taking dictation from what is being said to them in voices so quiet only they can hear. And this technique, though popular with mediums in the 1800s, also has a long tradition in China known as Fuji. And several Chinese salvationist religions were actually founded based off of spirit writings. And Japanese Zen Obaku monks also practiced spirit writing. They believed that they could use the practice to commit communicate with one of the ancient Taoist sages credited with creating kung fu. And in terms of Europe, the practice didn't begin in the 1800s, although it was certainly its heyday. It began as far back as the 16th century. An English mathematician, astrologer and occultist named John Dee and Edward Kelly, another occultist and scryer, believed that they could use spirit writing to communicate communicate with angels. This was an integral part of their practice of Enochian magic. This was a system of Renaissance magic developed by these two men. Now, it's a little unclear to me why these men would accuse Mrs. Marshall of doing spirit writing with her toes under the table. Maybe her kind of spirit writing was writings mysteriously and magnificently appearing on pages that she, she didn't even write on before the guests at seances. Maybe they're implying that she uses her toes to write on pages and then with like a bait and switch, swaps out empty pages on the table with ones covered in writing. I also love the scandalous detail that the man accusing Mrs. Marshall of being a fraud has had his own home wired up with electromagnets to make rapping and tapping sounds to trick people into thinking ghosts were banging around his place. Seances and mediumship in the 1800s was big business. And I've mentioned before, I actually do believe that some folks are sensitive to spiritual energies and can communicate with the dead. But most of the professionals in this era were indeed frauds who used all manner of trickery in their careers. It's funny to hear that specific accusation though. Faking spirit writings with your toes. Marvelous.
- [20:01]
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- [20:29]
Genevieve Manion
Okay, this next article, courtesy of the Illustrated Police News, is a bit intense. It is called John Costello, encounters Jack Glass and mangles him with a carving knife in a saloon on Nassau Street, New York. And it reads, on Sunday night week, shortly before midnight, John Glass went into the eating house on Fenton C. McElroy at 100 Nassau St. And walking through the restaurant went into the kitchen to warm his hands. John Costello, who acts for McElroy was behind the counter and called to Glass telling him that the kitchen was no place for him and that he must come out. Glass got angry and said, costello, you are a damn thief and I can prove it. Costello said in reply, you must come out. I don't want any words about it. Glass then replied, I can remember when you slept in the newsboys home. End quote. Glass then came out of the kitchen and advancing to where Costello was standing, used the most opprobrious epithets. Costello. What? This became wild with fury and seizing a large carving knife assaulted Glass, cutting and hacking him in a terrible manner. Glass received not less than 20 wounds, seven of which were in the head. His skull was fractured in two places. He was stabbed twice in the abdomen. One stab severed the bones of the elbow of his left arm. Glass, to defend himself, himself threw up his arm and his hand was nearly severed from the arm. An alarm conveyed to the park hospital and the attending surgeons pronounced his injuries fatal. Glass is a desperate character and has served a term in Sing Sing for murder committed about 10 years ago in Elm Street. As Glass was laying in the operating room in the hospital and Dr. Hardy was sewing up the his wounds, he said, I forgive him and I hope that God will too. It was cruel, cruel, cruel. I said nothing to him and I swear that I didn't lay a hand on him, God bless him. It was cruel. I don't think I shall ever get over this. I wish I could see my wife and take her by the hand. End quote. Ugh, God. Okay, first I checked to see if Mr. Costello recovered from his injuries and it appears that he may have. Only because I didn't find any other articles stating that he died. I looked for an obituary, I couldn't find it. However, it was next to impossible to confirm outright because in 1872 the John Costello's of the world were on a freaking rampage. I imagine that must have been a popular name. And quite a number of John Costello's who were not related, at least in terms of being in close proximity wreaked havoc left and right. One John Costello beat the daylights out of a man in his backyard with a large club, literally killing a man. Another John Costello was arrested for burglary, breaking and entering. One John Costello was charged with being drunk and riotous. He assaulted a police officer. One John didn't kill anyone. Luckily he just himself almost was killed by falling through a hole in the street. I just had to stop searching because I didn't want to hear any more about the life and times of these John Costellos. So sadly, I don't know for 100% certain if poor Mr. Glass survived. But I did check the newspapers in the area two to three months out to see if he was mentioned and he was not. So hopefully no news was good news. Okay, something to cheer us up a bit. Oh, this one is a little spicy. It is called Whose Girls Are they? Dangerous pastimes. A growing evil cannot its insidious progress be stayed. Whose girls are they? The many frequenting the streets after night fall. We do not allude to those whose evil occupations are notorious, but that yet possible to be saved. Class of young girls who make it a nightly habit to walk out in couples and alone, as if the charms of the street were more enticing than the pleasures of home. Every now and then is recorded in the daily papers some startling incident of crime and shame such as our German journal has chronicled and which is the sure, certain and inevitable result of street frequenting and daily dalliances with dangers that ever dog the steps of the young and may be unsuspicious. Quick side note. Who is it exactly that's perpetrating those startling incidents of crime and shame, do you think? Is it women? You know, it's the damnedest thing. Through this article I just keep waiting for him to mention that the only people causing any real trouble are men and maybe they should stay indoors. But alas, he never quite gets around to it. I continue the numbers of those yet pure and void of offense who habitually wander out through the business streets after dark, frequenting the congregation of men who crowd about the post office. The post office, Post office party and other public places is far more numerous than is imagined. They seem legion. The number increases rather than diminishes. The habit is pernicious and dangerous. Its progress in some way should be checked. Mothers and fathers are mainly answerable for this state of affairs. The absence of from home of girls after a reasonable hour should be prevented. Their presence in the evening should be sternly demanded and required. Unless this is done, shame, sorrow and heart breakings will certainly be the reaping when the cultivation of good habits and lives have been so wickedly, even criminally neglected. My dude still hasn't given a single example of a wicked or criminal offense a single woman has committed. Here. I keep your girls at home. Fathers, mothers. Do not let them, as you value their pure name and future happiness, be on the street after dark. Evil will certainly grow from neglect to do so. Temptations are on every side. The pastime is dangerous. Evil results will surely follow. Whose those girls are they, we repeat, the many still unstained who are walking towards ways which are far from stainless. Let this appeal be heeded and good will come to those in peril. If not, the consequences will be fearful indeed. End quote. Because of who, brother? Who is it that is staining these women? Exactly. Also, fuck this guy. Sounds to me like somebody's not getting invited to the post office raves by the hot and sexy post office babes. And he's got a dirty diaper about it, let's be honest. Incidentally, we have these young women to thank for challenging the men like this guy of their day to assert that their streets were their streets. They didn't require the permission of men to live out in the world and they weren't going to be locked up in their homes. They popped their deadline deadly hairpins in their hats and took back the night. And you know, they were all literally just like chilling with their girls and probably some cool dudes down at the post office at like 8pm and this guy is making it sound like they were shooting heroin. Cry harder, guy. Okay, this next one is one of my very favorite topics and it is called Discovery of a Skeleton at Oxford. And it reads, in an open space, formerly a garden, in Adelaide's Street, St. Giles, the property of St John's College, Oxford. On Monday last, a workman named Carpenter was working at the grave which here lies at about a yard from the surface, when his pickaxe struck into what turned out to be a human skull. He worked as gently as he could and presently exhumed a complete skeleton. The body had been placed, placed in a sitting position. The bones, however, were fragile. They apparently belonged to a full grown man and probably dated back to the time of the Civil War. On two former occasions, skeletons of men have been found in St. Giles, interred in the gravel and evidently two or three centuries old. Okay. For those of us in the States who may not be familiar, the Civil War that was referenced was not our Civil War, which would have happened about 10 years before this article was written. It was regarding the English Civil War of 1642. I have to embarrassingly admit I didn't know that England had a civil war. It was fought between King Charles I and the English Parliament. It was part of a wider conflict involving Wales, Scotland and Ireland, known as the wars of three kingdoms. It lasted 11 years. Up to 200,000 people were killed in these wars. That's 4.5% of the population, making the death toll proportionally as high as the First World War. The causes for the war were complex, but like many wars of the time, boiled down primarily to religion and discontent with a king's use of power as well as his his economic policies. King Charles was actually executed by the parliamentarians. He did not win that war. Again, very embarrassingly, I was unaware of these specific wars. I'm glad I was able to do a little research here. Okay, our next one is a bit of black humor. Very black, and it is called Effect of David Dickey's Victory Eating for a Wager. The coroner's name was Smith and it reads David R. Dickey of Randolph, Tennessee won a bet last week that he could eat four bottles of brandy peaches and drink all the liquor together with two tumblers of raw whiskey. The effect of Dickey's victory was slightly marred, however, by his dropping dead while holding the last peach in his mouth. The coroner's name was Smith. End quote. Found a little more detail here. It's unclear how much that wager was for, but it was given to his widow. I found that in the St. Johnsbury Weekly Times. So that's a little silver lining there. Poor David Dicke of Randolph, Tennessee, for a time that was so filled with reverence for the dead, it is wild to me just how little reverence they had in a great many number of cases. I do have to say though, that article did really make me want to make a jar of brandy peaches, though. That does sound delicious.
- [31:51]
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- [32:13]
Genevieve Manion
Upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to 15 per month required new customer offer for first 3 months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of networks busy. Taxes and fees extra. C mintmobile.com okay. Oh God. Okay, this one's terrible. Terrible. It is called A Baby boiled by an insane Mother and it reads On Saturday afternoon the 28th, the wife of Charles Coates of Marblehead, Massachusetts, while left alone with her two children for a few moments, took the youngest child, about 7 months old, and plunged it into a kettle of boiling water which stood on the stove, causing the death of the child in all but 15 minutes. The mother has been insane for the past six months and at other times before during her marriage. End quote. Oh, God. Okay, the only good news here is that I couldn't find a single other article about this situation. And when that happens, it's usually a sign that it was fabricated. Especially an article as horrific as this. If this actually happened, this absolutely would have appeared in more newspapers than just the Illustrated Police News. However, while searching, I found just a few months earlier, A woman, a Mrs. Charles Coates, the same name as the woman in that article. And in Massachusetts a woman with this name died of starvation. And the article says that she became insane about two months ago and refused to eat anything, believing that her food was poisoned. The article says all efforts to induce her to take nourishment since that time have been almost fruitless. And she died on Sunday of last week from actual starvation. Mrs. Coates had had a great deal of trouble, having lost three children who had nearly reached reached maturity. And the article continues to say that she also lost her brother and his wife to drowning two years before. Oh, honey. The details of this article make me think of a few details in that other article. The last one, the children, insanity, drowning in water, the same exact name. Obviously I cannot know and I could be completely wrong. But it makes me wonder if an Illustrated Police News reporter took details from this story and added a few more horrific elements as if it needed any. That article, the one about the poor woman starving to death. I was actually able to find that story in a number of other respectable sources, so that one is very likely true. Oh, how simply awful. Okay, to a rum crazed lunatic dentist we go. This one is pretty traumatizing. And it is called, A rum crazed dentist shoots four of his neighbors, A little son made to assist him in his murderous work. The lunatic at last overpowered and taken to an insane asylum. And it reads, Middleboro, Massachusetts, January 20. The usual quiet town of Lakeville was the theater of intense excitement yesterday and today caused by the doings of of one of its citizens who turned his residence into a fort from which he dealt out destruction to all who approached. Dr. Charles W. Leech is a well known dentist residing at the Four Corners, Lakeville. And although he is a bright and shining light in the Baptist church and among the sons of temperance. He has recently been drinking a rum mixed with liquors, promising his his destruction. For several weeks he has been imbibing quite freely in alcohol and cider. Until at last he became a raving maniac. And is now an inmate of the Taunton Insane Asylum. It appears that Friday afternoon Dr. Leech told his family to go away into a room by themselves and stay. For either the Lord or the Devil was coming to see him. He then took his eldest boy, a bright little fellow about 8 years old, into the front room where he had a double barreled shotgun and a stock of ammunition. The doctor then stationed himself by an open window where he laid in wait for victims. About dusk, Thomas Bump, who lived in the same house, came home from work. And while entering the gate he received a load of shot and in his breast and neck. John Cabless, a neighbor, was next to approach the home. And he received a double dose. Over 40 shots taking effect in his neck and chin. By this time the neighbors were aroused. And one of them, William Coombs, started to capture the doctor. Although warned to be careful, he did not heed the warning. And received a charge of shot in his forearm and another in the elbow. Next came Daniel Swift, who received several shots in his shoulder and arm. Mrs. Coombs, shift bump and Andrew M. Shockley then made a rush for the doctor. Who went for them with the butt end of the gun. But they overpowered him, Bump snatching the gun out of his hands and breaking it into splinters. During all this time, the doctor's little boy was forced to hand the powder and shot to his father. Who threatened to. Threatened to kill him if he did not do it. And once when the little fellow handed him the shot first, he started for him with an oath. But had his attention attracted elsewhere before he could injure him. After being captured, he was placed in charge of four men who guarded him all night. Saturday morning he was taken to Middleborough, about two miles distant. Where Judge of Probate M.H. wood ordered his commitment to the Taunton Insane Hospital, Comstock and Drake, signing a certificate that he was insane through the use of liquor. The wounded men are doing well, although Bump is in critical condition, caused in great measure by his excitement. When he got into the room with the doctor. It was almost impossible to restrain him from killing the doctor on the spot. And his watchers were obligated to assure him that the doctor was not in the house. To prevent him from going for him in the the night. The affair has caused a great deal of excitement in Middleborough, where all the parties are well known. The doctor is about 40 years old and although a good dentist, he is said to be a man of considerable temper mixed with not a little cruelty. And tough stories are told of his treatment of his family. Perhaps he would have continued to be regarded as a respectable member of the society. But dark hints are thrown out that the doctor had been concerned in other evil deeds. And there are some who do not scruple to declare a belief that he had a hand in the recent robbery of the town's clerk's safe when nearly $20,000 in bonds and cash were stolen. Still, all is rumor, nothing substantial in regard to his connection with the affair being known. The wounded men are not, it is hoped, fatally injured. Bump is seriously shot through the windpipe, capeless from the hand upward on the arm. All but four of the shot have been extracted. Coombs and Swift are not much injured. End quote. Okay. It appears that none of the men died in this incident. I think I checked a few papers further in the future and there were no articles mentioning that they died. I did find an interesting little blurb that Thomas Bump, one of the men who was shot, actually bought the entire property six months later. He must have bought it from Mrs. Leech while her husband was in the asylum. I was able to find a little bit more info on what happened to Mr. Leech after all of this happened. The asylum that he was sent to, Taunton Lunatic Asylum, was known for overcrowding and and deplorable conditions. It appears that Dr. Leech settled into a seemingly catatonic state when he arrived. He didn't leave his room or read any newspapers. In 1873, Leech actually came close to being released from the asylum, but he became violent and so was held for another two years. There is little information about what became of his family. However, it appears that he took up dentistry again and was practicing in 1900. By that time his wife had died and he was living with his sister and brother in law. Oh, his poor, poor son. At this time in 1872, child psychology was in its infancy. I did a little research on this history of child psychology and apart from Sigmund Freud, who pioneered its early development in the 1800s. Charles Darwin detailed observations of his own child in 1840, recording data that is considered foundational even now in regard to observational techniques. G. Stanley hall published in 1882 the contents of Children's Minds, which laid groundwork for systematic study of children's minds. Child psychology blossomed in the early 20th century. Jean Piaget, considered one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century, developed the stage theory of cognitive development in children which revolutionized our views of childhood learning and thinking. But it wasn't until the second half of the 20th century that psychology in regard to how trauma affects a child became a formal study. This is what I was really interested in. Not until 1987 in the DSM III did child specific diagnostic formulations in regard to treatment of childhood trauma emerge. Specifically, an understanding that children's reactions to trauma could differ from those of adults. Ugh. I'm going to be thinking about that little boy. I try to search for an obituary for Charles Leech. Sometimes they mention the names of their children, but I sadly couldn't find it. I truly hope that that boy was able to do some healing. Okay, finally we have a Pulitzer Prize worthy article entitled How a Kalamazoo Grocer Lost His Eggs and Where They Went and it reads it is a remarkable fact that nearly all the preternaturally intelligent animals in America spring from Kalamazoo. Cats, witchcraft can do everything but talk, and dogs with more than human abilities, five legged sheep and two headed calves are the natural products of the soil. The last Munchausen story, which comes from that fruitful neighborhood, is told by a grocer who swears by all the sand in his sugar and the marble dust in his flower that he has seen a rat lie down on his back with an egg in his paws, wiggle his tail as a sign that he was ready, and submit to being drawn up the stairs by the tail by two other rats. We firmly believe in the Darwinian theory and put implicit faith in Gulliver's Travels, but we must confess that we doubt the truth of this inventive grocer's assertion. I don't know. I have seen some rats do some pretty assertive, astounding things in New York. If Kalamazoo rats are anything like their New York City counterparts who drag pizza slices entirely through Times Square with ease, I trust they could probably carry another egg holding rat up a couple of stairs. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please rate it on Spot, Spotify and Apple podcasts. Please leave me comments because I love them so much and if you would like to listen to the show ad free, you can join my Patreon. Be kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares.
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