Ep. 62 - The Philosophy of Spiritual Manifestations

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "My Victorian Nightmare" – Ep. 62: The Philosophy of Spiritual Manifestations (Sept. 29, 2025)

Overview

Host Genevieve Manion and her co-host delve into the eerie world of Victorian-era spiritualism, haunted accounts, and grisly stories from the 1800s, with a special focus on the philosophy behind spiritual manifestations. The episode intertwines unsettling true crime stories with introspective commentary on Victorian customs, mourning culture, and the societal response to mysterious and tragic events.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Haunted Housekeeping & Halloween Spirit

• Tone Setting: Lighthearted banter about solo Halloween festivities and the comfort found in embracing Victorian horror.
• Both hosts emphasize personal celebration:
  • “I don’t need other people to throw Halloween parties. My apartment is a Halloween party every single night full of terrors.” (Co-host, 02:12)
  • Suggestions for solo spooky snacks as a form of self-care.

2. Haunted Accounts – ‘With Their Own Eyes’

• [04:30–09:59]
  • Readings from Samuel Wesley’s 1716 diary recounting supernatural disturbances at Epworth, including unexplained knocks, crashes, and a terrified family mastiff.
  • Lively analysis:
    • “Again with the experience of hearing loud crashings of objects that have not been crashed. Like they’re totally fine.” (Co-host, 08:47)
    • Genevieve posits a metaphysical theory:
      • “What if their world is our world only all objects are the spirits of our three dimensional objects... Maybe on the other side they are broken.” (Genevieve, 09:26)
  • Audience invited to comment on their interpretations of spiritual phenomena.

3. Spiritualism & The Philosophy of Manifestation

• [11:01–14:07]
  • Genevieve reads from an 1800s Spiritualist newspaper, exploring beliefs that spirits return with messages of comfort and justice for the living.
  • Themes:
    • Spirits can perceive thoughts and possibly influence the physical world.
    • Spiritual contact serves as a counterbalance to materialism and suffering in Victorian society.
    • Notable quote:
      • “The eye of the human body can see only within a given distance and within a limited radius, whereas to the clairvoyant eye of the spirit, distance offers little obstruction…” (Spiritualist newspaper, read by Genevieve, 13:00)
    • Article digresses into eccentric spiritual hierarchies between animals, vegetables, and minerals.
  • Reflection on the Victorian urge to legitimize spiritual experiences through (pseudo)science and how fraud and genuine belief were often intermingled.

4. Victorian Tragedies from the Illustrated Police News

• [16:29–23:31]

  • Stories include:
    • A young bride-to-be who died due to her father’s miserliness ([16:29–20:31]), raising questions about societal shaming and the veracity of tabloid reporting.
      • Explores the ritual of burying women in wedding dresses: purity, spiritual marriage imagery, and the influence of Queen Victoria (esp. [20:31–22:16]).
      • “Black was a common color for wedding dresses until Queen Victoria, it was she who made the white wedding dress fashionable.” (Genevieve, 21:12)
    • Pop culture tie-in with the iconic wedding dress in Coppola’s Dracula ([22:16–22:54]).

• Trunk Murder in Marseilles ([23:37–27:18])

  • Grim account of a man murdered by supposed friends, dismembered, and hidden in a trunk.
  • Host contextualizes the narrative with insights on period-specific antisemitism and post-war scapegoating in France.

• Knife Attack over a Shawl ([27:18–28:59])

  • Violent quarrel between two women in New York; hosts highlight the sensationalist journalism and its take on “female progress.”
  • “Female progress, feminism can only lead to knife fights. I do believe Gloria Steinem said that.” (Co-host, 28:57)

• Brutal Mob Killing at a St. Louis Ball ([29:12–37:50])

  • A detailed, poetic report of John Kennan’s lynching for making a derogatory comment at a mainly German social function.
  • Genevieve presents extensive follow-up research, untangling misreported names and trial outcomes (the accused acquitted due to a hung jury).
    • “No one held responsible. And sounds.” (Genevieve, 37:50)
  • Notable moment:
    • “Above him, the stars glittered coldly. One glance around, one more cry for aid, and he sprang toward the door, thrust back against the rail of the balcony again pinned, helpless. In a second, he was lifted over the low balcony balustrade…” (Read by Genevieve, 33:50)

5. Comic Relief: The Laughing Gas Exhibition

• [38:24–42:36]
  • A humorous news item about a young woman’s public antics under nitrous oxide at a New York exhibition.
  • Exploration of historical “laughing gas parties” and their medical evolution:
    • “Nitrous oxide was first synthesized in 1772, and by the 1800s it was marketed as a recreational drug.” (Co-host, 40:14)
  • Quirky reactions from historical events, including a bishop “burst[ing] out in the most frantic fits of laughter” and another attendee, Dr. Bowring, undressing and bleating like a calf (41:43).

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “There’s something strangely comforting about the heebie jeebies this era gives me.” (Genevieve, 00:50)
• On psychic phenomena: “In the spirit world, spirits aren’t the only things that are spirits… Maybe on the other side they are broken.” (Genevieve, 09:26)
• “Spirits have the power… of reading the thoughts of those in the same condition of life as themselves… thought reading rather than speech seems to be the ordinary method of conversation.” (Spiritualist newspaper, 13:00)
• “Black was a common color for wedding dresses until Queen Victoria, it was she who made the white wedding dress fashionable.” (Genevieve, 21:12)
• “Above him, the stars glittered coldly. One glance around, one more cry for aid…” (Read by Genevieve, 33:50)
• On laughing gas: “He then commenced to strip off his clothes and scratch himself violently from head to foot, as if he had got… the Egyptian leprosy.” (Co-host quoting article, 41:43)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamps | |-----------------------------------------|-------------------| | Opening banter & Halloween discussion | 00:50–04:09 | | ‘With Their Own Eyes’ – Haunted Diary | 04:30–09:59 | | Spiritualist Philosophy | 11:01–14:43 | | Victorian death/mourning customs | 16:29–23:31 | | Trunk murder & antisemitism context | 23:37–27:18 | | Shawl knife fight in NYC | 27:18–28:59 | | Mob killing at St. Louis ball | 29:12–37:50 | | Laughing Gas Exhibition & history | 38:24–42:36 |

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Final Thoughts & Tone

Genevieve blends darkly humorous anecdotes, investigative historicism, and a genuine affection for the Victorian macabre. She encourages active listener participation (“Let me know your thoughts in the comments”), offers pop-cultural connections, and regularly reminds listeners to be gentle with themselves while confronting the era’s psychological and physical horrors.

For fans of grim history softened by wit and empathy, this episode is a rich tapestry of Victorian spiritual and social anxieties, personal theories, and unforgettable, sometimes bizarre historical vignettes.

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Transcript

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[Genevieve Mannion]

Hello and welcome to My Victorian Nightmare. I'm your host Genevieve Mannion and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era.

[Co-host]

Because to me there's just something especially intriguing, creepy and oddly comforting about horror.

[Genevieve Mannion]

And mayhem from the 19th century. So listener discretion is advised. Hello friends and welcome to this, my 62nd episode. I hope that you had a lot of good sleep this week. Lovely cups of coffee, Poetic single tears running down your cheeks.

[Co-host]

Quality jump scares Brains I'm getting very excited about brain themed Halloween snacks that I'm going to make for myself.

[Genevieve Mannion]

I'm not throwing all Halloween party this year. I will be throwing a Samhain dinner party for my witches.

[Co-host]

But that's not really a time for like ooggity boogity appetizers per se.

[Genevieve Mannion]

So I will be treating myself to.

[Co-host]

A brain shaped mushroom pate, deviled eyeballs.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Skull shaped jello shots while I watch my spooky movies.

[Co-host]

I don't need other people to throw Halloween parties. My apartment is a Halloween party every single night full of terrors.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Very colorful snacks.

[Co-host]

Highly suggested. Throwing yourself a Halloween party on like a Wednesday by yourself. Take it from me, a cheese ball with black tortilla chips for bat wings can truly do wonders for your mental health. Okay, we will keep Haunted Housekeeping short.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Today because I have a lot of.

[Co-host]

Spooky and very upsetting ground to cover.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Thank you for rating the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Thank you everyone who has joined the fan [e-mail] who receive the show ad free a day early, who also receive witchy content as well as extras extra murdery 19th century stories every single week.

[Co-host]

You guys are directly supporting my work.

[Genevieve Mannion]

And ensuring that I can continue to do this.

[Co-host]

So my gratitude for you is immeasurable. Thank you all of you for your comments.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Oh, and thank you for all of your spooky podcast suggestions last week. I want want to again humbly ask for another recommendation. Have you heard a single episode of a podcast that told an immersive, spooky.

[Co-host]

Fictional story that just knocked your socks off? What was your single favorite episode of.

[Genevieve Mannion]

A spooky podcast that ticks all of.

[Co-host]

Those boxes and why? It could be part of a season that's totally fine, but it just stuck with you. This could be really helpful for me. I am cooking up something that's giving me spooky black butterflies and I just.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Need a little inspiration. Let me know in the comments for you today.

[Co-host]

Dear Listener, I have women buried in wedding dresses, dismembered bodies and trunks, shawl disputes leading to knife attacks, a death by kicking written in flabbergasting detail, and.

[Genevieve Mannion]

A lady blitzed out of her bloomers.

[Co-host]

On laughing gas, attempting all manner of gymnastics for an adoring crowd.

[Genevieve Mannion]

All courtesy of the Illustrated Police News, Law Courts and Record, our favorite disaster Mag from the 1800s. But first we will have our weekly segment With Their Own Eyes, where I discuss the personal haunting accounts of petrified Victorians. This one is ever so spooky today.

[Co-host]

And it includes my favorite kind of.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Haunting manifestation, the most intriguing one to me.

[Co-host]

It is part of a journal that.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Was actually written in 1716 that was recounted in a paper from 1869, and it is called Spirit Wrapping in John Wesley's Family, and it reads. The first document which we reprint about the physical manifestations which took place in John Wesley's family is the diary written by his eldest brother, Mr. Samuel Wesley. The disturbances took place in his house at Epworth, Lincolnshire, in December and January 1716. The following are his from the 1st of December my children and servants heard many strange noises, groans, knockings, etc. In every story and most all of the rooms in my house. My daughters Susanna and Anne were below stairs in the dining room room and heard first at the doors, then over their heads, and the night after a knocking under their feet, though nobody was in the chambers or below them. The maid servant heard groans as of a dying man. My daughter Amelia, coming downstairs to draw up the clock and lock the doors at 10 at night as usual, heard under the staircase a sound among some bottles there, as if they had all been dashed to pieces but when she looked, all were safe. Something like the steps of a man were heard going up and down stairs at all hours of the night, and vast rumblings below the stairs and in the garrets. My man who lay in the garret heard someone come barging through the garret to his chamber, rattling by his side as if against his shoes, though he had none there. At other times, when walking up and downstairs, when all the house were in.

[Co-host]

Bed and gobbling like a turkey cock, noises were heard in the nursery and.

[Genevieve Mannion]

All the other chambers, knocking first at the feet of the bed and behind it, and sound like that of dancing in a matted chamber next to the nursery when the door was locked and nobody in it. That night I was awaked a little before nine by distinct very loud knocks which seemed to be in the room next to ours, with a sort of pause at every third stroke. I thought it might be some one outside the house, and having got a.

[Co-host]

Stout mastiff, hoped he would soon rid.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Me of it by the noises which were so violent it was in vain to think of sleep. While they continued, I rose and my wife would rise with me. We went into every chamber and downstairs, and generally as we went into one room, we heard it behind us, though all the family had been in bed several hours. When we were going downstairs, we heard, as Emily had done before, a clashing among the bottles as if they had all been broken to pieces, and another sound distinct from it, as if a peck of money had been thrown down before us, the same three of my daughters heard at another time. We went through the hall into the kitchen where our mastf came whining to us as he did always after the.

[Co-host]

First night of its coming, for then.

[Genevieve Mannion]

He barked violently at it and was.

[Co-host]

Silent afterwards and seemed more afraid than any of the children.

[Genevieve Mannion]

One night when the noise was great in the kitchen, the latch whereof was often lifted up. My daughter Amelia went and held it fast on the inside, but it was still lifted up and the door pushed violently against her, though nothing was to be seen on the outside. End quote.

[Co-host]

Oh, that poor dog. My friend Kate had a gigantic mastiff named Maude. I love old timey names for dogs. Okay, again with the experience of hearing.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Loud crashings of objects that have not been crashed. Like they're totally fine.

[Co-host]

Like the girls were hearing glass bottles.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Smashing, but they were still all unbroken.

[Co-host]

Again, I've mentioned my mom would hear.

[Genevieve Mannion]

The sound of our heavy dining room.

[Co-host]

Furniture smashing to the ground, but everything would be fine.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Guys, I have a theory. I wonder if in the spirit world.

[Co-host]

Spirits aren't the only things that are spirits. In other words, what if their world is our world only all objects are the spirits of our three dimensional objects.

[Genevieve Mannion]

And their spirit hands can smash the.

[Co-host]

Spirit bottles and just as we may.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Hear their spirit voices, we can hear.

[Co-host]

The spirit bottles smash. Maybe on the other side they are broken. I would love to know your thoughts on this.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Let me know in the comments. Fall is finally here and I'm going to be happily spending more time in the kitchen.

[Co-host]

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[Genevieve Mannion]

And the Lovely folks at HelloFresh have sent me some incredibly tasty meals to kick off the season. Now, apart from my little dog Toby, it's just me.

[Co-host]

I'm not cooking for anybody else, so.

[Genevieve Mannion]

I love that HelloFresh gives me just the amount that I need. 2 servings.

[Co-host]

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[Genevieve Mannion]

And a few tasty bites for Toby. Or you can choose enough servings for the whole family. HelloFresh is America's number one choice for home cooking. You can choose from 100 options each week, including seasonal recipes from around the world and healthier options high protein veggie packed recipes.

[Co-host]

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[Genevieve Mannion]

Salmon and kale salad was very appreciated. And even though I love cooking, I do also very much appreciate that they have quick and easy options for when.

[Co-host]

I'm in the mood for something healthy.

[Genevieve Mannion]

But do not want to spend more than 20 minutes cooking up dinner. Oh, and even though steak and fish.

[Co-host]

Tend to be a bit pricier at.

[Genevieve Mannion]

The grocery store, there's no added cost with HelloFresh for these meals. The best way to cook just got better. Go to hellofresh.com victorian10fm now to get 10 free meals plus a free item for life, one per box with active subscription free meals applied at discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That's hellofresh.com victorian10fm to get 10 free meals plus a free item for life okay, won't you follow me into the seance room where I share with you the goings on in the spiritualist society of the 1800s. Today's article from the spiritualist newspaper is.

[Co-host]

All about spiritualist philosophy.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Lets get a few things straight about the beliefs of spiritualists of the day. This article is called the Philosophy of Spiritual Manifestations and it reads the higher spirits, as well as many of those of a more imperfect order, come back to earth, bearing messages of affection and love to the friends and relatives left behind. These visitants from the higher spheres also often alleviate sickness and pain and with kind words, comfort those who are afflicted by many sorrows. Their teachings demonstrate also beyond all doubt that according to the good or evil done by dwellers in this world, so shall they reap happiness or misery in the next. Such lessons as these, coming from those who have passed the boundary of the grave and sealed with the seal of indisputable authority, are exactly fitted to do good in these hard, unfeeling, money worshipping times, when high and low alike are so greedily absorbed in the love of self, that the happiness of the great bulk of the nation is crucified. And the United kingdom, with its 30 million inhabitants, contain a million paupers and five or six millions of other persons living in constant fear of the loss of the bare minimum means of subsistence. One great established fact is that spirits have the power, to a very great extent, of reading the thoughts of those in the same condition of life as themselves and among the higher spirits especially, thought reading rather than speech seems to be the ordinary method of conversation. The eye of the human body can see only within a given distance and within a limited radius, whereas to the clairvoyant eye of the spirit, distance offers little obstruction, nor does the intervention of common matter intercept vision in many other respects. Also, spirits have powers or senses of a superior nature to those appertaining to the human body. So much higher indeed that observers are as much perplexed upon witnessing such great and unexpected powers as a caterpillar would be were a butterfly to settle on the leaf before it and say, as I am, so you shall be.

[Co-host]

End quote. Okay, from here the article just kind of goes to space and starts talking about cabbages, perceiving horses as other cabbages with like their roots inside their bodies, and listing spiritual hierarchies between animals, vegetables and minerals, and my brain just started melting out of my ears. I learn new things about spiritualists and mediums of the time all the time, and frankly I have a lot of shared beliefs with them. I just think there was a lot of desire to use the limited science.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Of the day to prove the existence of their spiritual beliefs and experiences, that.

[Co-host]

You just start seeing some very dubious evidence of what they were trying to define as irrefutable facts when they were simply just their experiences, some of which may have just been spiritual that our scientific tools can't prove either way, some of which were just magic tricks executed by frauds. I love when folks talk about near death experiences. I heard one recently of a woman who was in a car accident and the way she described her experience it was very similar in a sense to something that was said in that article. Like the spirits have a way of.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Seeing into the past and the future and can read minds.

[Co-host]

This woman said that she felt herself pop out of her body and she.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Could still see everything and everyone. But when she looked at them, she specifically said, I looked at the bus driver and I could see that he.

[Co-host]

Was cheating on his wife. She saw his entire life story and everything that he was going to experience until he died all at once. Then she was brought back through cpr. I love that. I really wonder if it's true. I wonder if dead people could see that time I unhinged my jaw and ate an entire subway sandwich like a boa constrictor in like one bite.

[Genevieve Mannion]

I hope so.

[Co-host]

I really hope I'm making someone's afterlife entertaining. I think about that all the time when I do something stupid all by myself. I always hope at least a ghost's getting a good chuckle out of my trials and tribulations.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Okay, our first Illustrated Police News article is quite sad, but I have some interesting facts for you at its conclusion. It is called A Father's, a young girl's, a lover's Generosity, and it reads, An Albany paper of the morning of the 15th tells the following There died in this city last week a girl whose wedding was to have been to day. There is nothing singular in that, for.

[Co-host]

Girls have died just before their weddings.

[Genevieve Mannion]

And been buried in their bride's clothes. But the circumstances attending the demise of this unfortunate young lady were very sad indeed. A short time since she was taken sick, her general system being prostrated, though she was not dangerously ill. And now comes the unnatural, the brutal part of this story. Her father is a man common rumor names as possessing $100,000, and yet he refused his daughter medical service. He is notorious as one of the meanest misers in the city, carrying his avarice to such an extent that it is alleged he buys impure meat and fish for his family to eat, because he can get it a few cents cheaper than pure flesh. As the daughter continued to get worse simply because she was neglected and had not the advice and assistance that can only be given by physicians, the father became alarmed. But the love of his dollars being greater than his affection for his daughter, he contented himself himself by calling in the doctors who happened to pass by his house to ask their opinion on the case. Of course, they told him the only thing she needed was care and medicine and she would soon be well again. But medicine costs money, and care takes up time, and the poor girl left alone or in the insufficient assistance given by a younger sister and the occasional looking in of the mother, who, it is said, is as bad as the father, continued to sink. At last the case became alarming, and the girl's betrothed brought in a doctor. But it was too late, and death rapidly came on. To the astonishment of the neighbors who knew all these things, the funeral was very fine. An elegant coffin, a modern hearse, and six or eight carriages made it up, and it passed off in a manner surprising to those who knew the old villains idiosyncrasies. Who paid for it was the question that exercised them. And at last they concluded that the young man bore the expense. Thus ultimately died a young maiden, when everything in life was brightest, when her dearest hopes were about to be realized, when a longer existence was most to be prayed for, died because her father, who possesses thousands of dollars and houses and land, would not open his pocket to rescue her from a spirit. Sad fate. This story may appear overdrawn, but still the readers of the Knickerbocker this morning will say we have not half told it. We do not suppress the name of this unnatural person because we have any charity for him. But it is to keep the name of the young man who has been so mournfully connected with it out of a scandal which would at this time be shocking to him.

[Co-host]

Okay, as noted, there are no names in that article, so I wasn't able.

[Genevieve Mannion]

To dig deeper into this particular sad story.

[Co-host]

It may have frankly been made up. As we know, the Illustrated Police News was wont to do such a thing, make things up. But it may be true. To me, this actually sounds like a kind of hit piece. Articles like this that serve to do nothing more than shame a member of society were sometimes personally motivated. Perhaps that young man paid a reporter to write this article. No one can say.

[Genevieve Mannion]

But I did want to talk a bit about women being buried in wedding dresses in the Victorian era.

[Co-host]

Queen Victoria. Although it is often said that she.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Was buried in her wedding dress, this is not true. But she was buried with her wedding veil. This was to symbolize the end of.

[Co-host]

Her long period of widowhood and grief. She wore black her entire life after.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Her husband died in mourning for his death. The white veil was to represent her return to the happiest time of her life when she was with him, returning to him in death. Incidentally, black was a common color for wedding dresses until Queen Victoria, it was.

[Co-host]

She who made the white wedding dress fashionable.

[Genevieve Mannion]

But there were other reasons why girls who weren't just engaged to be married like the girl in that article, were buried in wedding dresses.

[Co-host]

By the mid-1800s, white was associated with innocence, chastity, virtue.

[Genevieve Mannion]

If a woman died young, a family may have wished to dress their young.

[Co-host]

Girl in a wedding dress to preserve the idealized image of her as pure.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Or untouched, sinless, so to speak. For very devout Victorians, death was often described in religious terms as like a union with God. Unmarried women who died young were ideally really envisioned as entering heaven as brides of Christ.

[Co-host]

So dressing them in this way was spiritual marriage imagery.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Sometimes it was as simple as a wedding dress being the most beautiful garment.

[Co-host]

That a woman would have.

[Genevieve Mannion]

It wasn't only young women that were.

[Co-host]

Buried in wedding dresses.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Women would simply be dressed in their wedding dresses because they were the prettiest piece of clothing.

[Co-host]

Man. I think Lucy Westerna in her wedding dress in Coppola's Dracula is like, that's like my Roman Empire I think of every day.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. Oh.

[Co-host]

Want to know something awesome about the inspiration for that wedding dress? Eiko Ishioka designed the dress to resemble.

[Genevieve Mannion]

The Australian frilled neck lizard and Elizabethan era ruffles.

[Co-host]

The wide collar of the dress was to resemble the lizard's neck that unfurls.

[Genevieve Mannion]

When it's threatened it. It symbolized Lucy's transformation into the vampire.

[Co-host]

The costumes in that movie were characters in themselves. They may be my very favorite in all film history.

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[Genevieve Mannion]

Learn [e-mail] okay, this next one is quite awful.

[Co-host]

My apologies in advance for likely not pronouncing some of the French words properly.

[Genevieve Mannion]

I will do my best.

[Co-host]

It is called a trunk horror in France.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Frightful murder in Marseilles.

[Co-host]

A man chopped up by his best friends.

[Genevieve Mannion]

And it reads, a season of terror has succeeded.

[Co-host]

A season of horror.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Off to the races. The victim is a merchant of Tunis, or rather the confidential agent of a mercantile house in that city. About 10 days ago, this person, whose name was Grego, was invited by a couple of intimate friends to visit them in a store they had just hired. No sooner had the victim reached the middle of the store than a man nisdom Struck him down with a loaded cane. A man named Sidebon immediately strangled him. The third party, Tolundano, a young man of 21 and who now appears in the character of informer, says he did nothing. The three murderers proceeded to the victim's lodgings at 4 Rue Mont grand, where they found, the informer says, from 50 to 60,000 francs, which then they carried off and divided among them. At Sidebon's lodgings in the rue Fontgate, the next move was to dispose of the body. For this purpose they bought a saw.

[Co-host]

And an axe, chopped and sawed the.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Body up, procured a trunk and packed up the pieces. Sidebon and Tuludano then went on board a Tunisian vessel in the port, asked the captain to take a trunk to Tunis and send a boat for it to the foot of the Cannabier. The boat was sent in charge of a boy who was sent off by them to get cigars, and they then rowed the boat containing the trunk outside the docks. When they thought themselves at a safe distance, they threw the thing overboard, but not being heavy enough to sink, it floated. They left it to float away, but it did not go far, for next morning a fisherman found it stranded at a chateau. This man reported to Landano, who was soon found. Upon his testimony, Nisdom was immediately arrested, but Saidbon has yet to be found. End quote. Okay, I tried digging deeper into this story. I found some articles that described these men as communist ruffians. There was also a fair amount of.

[Co-host]

Anti Semitism in other articles making sure.

[Genevieve Mannion]

To define these men as Jewish. This article did not have those details.

[Co-host]

At this time in France.

[Genevieve Mannion]

This article was written in 1872.

[Co-host]

Antisemitism wasn't a full blown culturally permeating.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Ideology, but foundations for widespread antisemitism in the later half of the century were just starting to blossom due to the lingering trauma of the Franco Prussian War.

[Co-host]

France was huge, humiliatingly defeated in that.

[Genevieve Mannion]

War between 1870 and 1871, which led.

[Co-host]

To like a climate of national soul searching and as often happens after humiliation of a nation, scapegoating, specifically conservatives and monarchists blaming liberals, socialists and communists, of.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Which many Jewish people were at the time.

[Co-host]

So the specific language, the little details.

[Genevieve Mannion]

And a number of the other articles.

[Co-host]

That I read about this horrifying situation.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Led me to believe, believe that there was a bit of that involved in the storytelling.

[Co-host]

Not to say that these men weren't guilty of doing this, but unfortunately I.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Didn'T see any articles about their trials or if that ringleader was ever caught.

[Co-host]

Okay, this next one is a lot. It is called a Woman's arm cut to the bone in a quarrel about.

[Genevieve Mannion]

A Shawl in New York City.

[Co-host]

And it reads, the rough element of.

[Genevieve Mannion]

New York is not confined to the sterner sex.

[Co-host]

Many a female in that promising hotbed of crime knows how to handle a knife or a revolver with masculine skill. A few days since, Mary A. Kelly.

[Genevieve Mannion]

And Maria Neal quarreled about a shawl which each claimed. Maria picked up a table knife and told Mary that she would cut her.

[Co-host]

Arm if she did not lose her hold.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Mary persisted in her claim and Maria attempted to to execute her threat.

[Co-host]

Mary's left arm was badly gashed and the flesh nearly cut to the bone. Maria was locked up. This playful little episode is but one of many which meet our eye whenever we pick up a Metropolitan paper. The present is truly the age of female progress. End quote. It's always about the little details in these stories. Female progress, feminism can only lead to knife fights. I do believe Gloria Steinem said that. I don't have any other details here. I did look. I wanted to see if I could find any info about a trial, but I couldn't find any. I hope Mary was taken care of after that, though. God, that one's gonna stick with me. Okay, this next one starts fairly tame and then rolls and rolls and keeps rolling through some simply brutal, though at.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Times rather poetic imagery.

[Co-host]

This article has an illustration on the Instagram, by the way. So did the last one. I put a link to that in the show Notes with a bunch of other fantastic illustrations from this month's volume.

[Genevieve Mannion]

This next one is called John Cannon.

[Co-host]

A railroad Engineer pounded and kicked to death by a party of Germans in St. Louis. And it reads, The Carondelet Hotel.

[Genevieve Mannion]

St. Louis was on Sunday, February 11, the scene of one of the most brutal and cowardly murders it has ever been the duty of the press to record. The Working Men's Society is an association whose members, principally German, represent most all the trades. Its headquarters are the caron de lette.

[Co-host]

And it is the custom of its.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Members to expend their surplus vitality two or three times a year in picnics, balls and parties at which strong manifestation of a free and independent spirit are.

[Co-host]

Not so uncommon as they are detrimental to the peace and comfort of the community by which they are harassed.

[Genevieve Mannion]

The attendance at the ball was principally members of the society and their wives, daughters, and female acquaintances. But there was a small sprinkling of outsiders attracted through some curiosity, and among them was John Cannon, a railroad engineer. Cannon had Been drinking. Drinking some during the day, and was, while at the ball, somewhat under the influence of liquor. He is represented to have been a.

[Co-host]

Quiet, inoffensive man, even when in his cups. I've never heard that term before.

[Genevieve Mannion]

And it is said that he was the last man under any circumstances to provoke a fight. At about 10 o' clock he was, to use the expression of a man.

[Co-host]

Who noticed him about half shot.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Observing that there was silence in the ballroom, he entered and discovered that it was occasioned by the attention which was paid to a man who was delivering a speech. The speech was in German, and Cannon.

[Co-host]

Turned away laughingly, remarking, I can't understand that trash. Why don't he talk English? End quote. In an instant he was attacked by.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Half a dozen excited Germans, conspicuous among whom was a tall, powerful man. Canon was hastily driven from the room into the hallway, and there an effort was made to throw him down the stairs. He fought well and threw his antagonists right and left, but they were rapidly reinforced, and it is estimated by a bystander that at least 45 men sprang upon him. Seeing that he had no chance against against such an infuriated mob, the doomed man turned to seek safety in flight. In a moment he was caught up and partially pushed and partially drawn half way down the stairs. Here he recovered himself for a moment and endeavored to defend himself from his enemies. The struggle was terrible. A large, strong man fighting with all his power against an angry throng. Those above kicked him until they forced him down the stairs. When he fell and was thrown to the bottom. He was now on the third floor fighting those in front of him and closely pursued by the crowd behind. In a moment more he was pinned against the wall, while blows were rained upon his unprotected head and face from muscular arms. It seems that at this point he foresaw his fate, for he suddenly assailed his foes with an energy they did not believe was left in him, and at the same time he cried murder. But his efforts were of little avail. Again he was forced back to the wall, which was soon spattered and stained with his blood. Cruel fists were dashed into his face, and cruel feet kicked and lamed him. His struggles became weaker, and the mob closed in and seized him. Him. And as if the murderous design had entered into all their minds at once hurried him toward the door opening upon a balcony. He offered but little resistance now, but his cries for help were piteous. In an instant the door was torn open and he stood upon the balcony. Around him surged and swayed a half Crazed crowd of his fellow creatures bent upon drowning, moaning their hate for him in his blood. Below him in the street were a few men, paralyzed by the spectacle and unable to raise a hand to help him. Above him, the stars glittered coldly. One glance around, one more cry for aid, and he sprang toward the door, thrust back against the rail of the balcony again pinned, helpless. In a second, he was lifted over the low balcony balustrade. With the last despairing effort, he grasped a portion of it and hung suspended over the street. Kicks and blows fell like a hailstorm on his head, shoulders and hands. But he still clung to the frail balustrade, still shrieking for help and moaning with pain. There was no hope for him. His life was not worth the dust that fell upon him from the feet that crowded so thickly over him. He had no mercy to look for in his murderers, for they had not one spark of pity in their lives. At last the rail broke. And with one last grasp at it, he fell. Turning in his fall, he approached the ground, head downward. With a crash, he struck the iron grating below and lay without a movement or a gasp. Charles Decker was the first to reach him. Him. But he was dead. Two bars of the grating had penetrated his skull. His neck and both shoulders were broken and his breastbone was crushed in. There he lay for nearly an hour. When he was carried to the police station. In the meantime, the alarm had summoned the police and officers. Harkness and Rochow hastened to the theater of the tragedy. In the ballroom, all was tranquil. The fearful scenes of a few moments before were apparently forgotten. And the dancing was fast and furious. The officers, from information obtained from some source, sought Jacob Schlegel and Frederick Klinkman. They were quietly arrested and hurried to the station house where they were locked up and await the inquest.

[Co-host]

How they were able to pick just two guys out of what sounded like.

[Genevieve Mannion]

A mobile to pin it all on was very strange and suspicious to me. So I definitely dug deeper into this. And I found an article in the St. Louis Republic that had some eyewitness details and quotes. One man who provided a sworn testimony to the coroner's jury. And, oh, by the way, something worth noting.

[Co-host]

They got a number of the names wrong.

[Genevieve Mannion]

The murdered man was not John Cannon. It was John Kennan. And the accessory was Frederick Klinkman, not Fritz. This eyewitness said a crowd made a rush for him and the men. Klinkmann and Schlegel were in front of the crowd. When the party had got Kennan out into the hall, and very near the head of the stairs, Schlegel kicked Kennan, and he fell down the steps with his head under his left arm. He goes on to say, I heard the iron balustrade crack like a cartridge. And someone said, there must be. Must be a shooting going on. I did not see Klinkman strike him, but did see Schlegel kick and strike him. I saw the two of them push him out onto the veranda. Schlegel seemed to be in front all the time, end quote. So, at least according to an eyewitness, these guys were the ringleaders. As a matter of fact, that article had quite a number of eyewitnesses saying just about the same thing about the these two men.

[Co-host]

But get this.

[Genevieve Mannion]

It appears that the cases of these two men were dismissed, which was a shocking verdict at the time.

[Co-host]

It was very much expected by the.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Public that they would both be found guilty and sentenced to hang. But the jury couldn't unanimously come to the conclusion that they were only to blame. Their cases resulted in a hung jury. So both of their cases were essentially dismissed.

[Co-host]

That verdict was not easy to find. Their names were incorrect, correctly spelled in so many newspapers everywhere. And Jacob Schlegel was also the name.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Of a manufacturer of fine harnesses, saddles.

[Co-host]

And bridles who had advertisements in every damn newspaper in Illinois. So I had to weed through mountains of ads to get any info on these guys. God, what a horrible article. That poor man. And no justice.

[Genevieve Mannion]

No one held responsible. And sounds.

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[Co-host]

Ugh. Okay, let's have one more. That, after all of that horror, should make you smile. And it has a particularly fabulous illustration on the Instagram. It is called, a highly exhilarated young lady under the influence of laughing gas.

[Genevieve Mannion]

At Cooper Institute, New York.

[Co-host]

And it reads, the freaks and vagaries.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Into which the most dignified and sedate.

[Co-host]

Are led while under the influence of laughing gas are amusing and occasionally extremely ludicrous. One evening last week, at a public.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Exhibition given at Cooper Institute, New York, gas was administered to a young lady.

[Co-host]

Who at once commenced cutting up the most extraordinary antics. She at first attempted to stand upon her head.

[Genevieve Mannion]

But as that was prevented by the.

[Co-host]

High daily moral professor who engineered the show, she attempted another gymnastic feat that of climbing one of the posts at the front of the stage.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Before she had made much progress, the.

[Co-host]

Power of the gas subsided and she slid to the floor. End quote. Okay, I had to do some digging into what on earth this exhibition could have been about. This was literally a laughing gas exhibition at an event held solely for the purpose of getting people high, having people watch them and laugh at them. Nitrous oxide was first synthesized in 1772, and by the 1800s it was marketed as a recreational drug. People wouldn't just have exhibitions showing off the powers of laughing gas, they would have laughing gas parties. British chemist Sir Humphry Davy described the administration of laughing gas at parties as such. Quote, it involved nothing more than having.

[Genevieve Mannion]

It pressed out of a gasometer into.

[Co-host]

A bladder provided with a pipe and cough, from which the person inhaled it. Sir Davy also noted that when he tried it, he, quote, closed his nostrils.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Exhausted his lungs, and breathed four quarts of gas from a silk bag. He described it as very pleasurable. It was also called intoxicating gas or gas of paradise.

[Co-host]

At a laughing gas Exhibition in 1838, for example, three different doctors, one of whom was also a bishop, volunteered to try laughing gas for the audience. Their reaction was described as they then.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Looked at each other with great earnestness, then grinned with satanic feeling and ultimately burst out in the most frantic fits of laughter.

[Co-host]

The bishop then crossed himself in Catholic fashion, fell down upon his knees and.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Muttered out several parts of Pope Gregory's.

[Co-host]

Famous declarations to respect apostolic authority.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Dr. Pusey, while crying fire, ran up and down the room room. Then he unexpectedly sat down as if.

[Co-host]

Quite exhausted, and counted his beads with great coolness and unconcern. The third man, a Dr. Bowring, who was dressed prim and proper with his collar buttoned up to his neck, did an about face whence he inhaled the gas. He then began laughing very loudly, after which he commenced to strip off his clothes and scratch himself violently from head.

[Genevieve Mannion]

To foot, as if he had got.

[Co-host]

The itch or the Egyptian leprosy.

[Genevieve Mannion]

He then put on a red nightcap.

[Co-host]

And ran around the room bleating like a great overgrown calf, which frightened all the ladies and offered no amusement to the male part of the audience. It was not until 1844 when a dentist realized that this stuff could probably be helpful for more than just making people moo like baby cows.

[Genevieve Mannion]

He used it on himself when extracting.

[Co-host]

His own tooth, and this was replicated with such success that it is still used today. Although the use of laughing gas in.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Dentistry is diminishing due to advancements in.

[Co-host]

Sedation methods that offer more control and fewer side effects. Just a little more background and depth to that wild little article.

[Genevieve Mannion]

If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to hear more, please rate the show on Spotify and Apple Podcast casts. Leave me comments because you know I love them so much and join the fan coven to directly support my show. Listen ad free and for even more creepy and witchy content. Until next time, be kind to yourselves and I will see you in your nightmares.

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[Genevieve Mannion]

Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[Liberty Mutual Announcer]

Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings very unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts. It's okay not to be perfect with finances. Experian is your big financial friend and here to help. Did you know you can get matched with credit cards on the app? Some cards are labeled no Ding Decline, which means if you're not approved, they won't hurt your credit scores. Download the Experian app for free today. Applying for no Ding Decline cards won't hurt your credit scores if you aren't initially approved. Approved Initial approval will result in a hard inquiry which may impact your credit scores.

[Genevieve Mannion]

Experian.