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every time YouTube channel

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and it should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or

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myself. Stories and content

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in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for

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some listeners and is intended for mature

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audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.

1:26

Welcome Weirdos – I'm Darren Marlar and

1:28

this is Weird Darkness. Here

1:31

you'll find stories of the paranormal,

1:33

supernatural, legends, lore,

1:36

the strange and bizarre, crime,

1:39

conspiracy, mysterious, macabre,

1:42

unsolved and unexplained.

1:46

Coming up in this episode… Today,

1:48

the name Marquis de Sade

1:51

is immediately associated with immorality

1:53

and sadistic sexuality. But

1:55

does history bear out the disdain we have

1:57

for him? The

2:00

Converse wrote and performed trailblazing music in the

2:02

1950s, but one day, in 1974, she

2:07

drove off looking for a fresh start

2:10

and was never seen again. Jack

2:14

Pyle was a hermit and a recluse,

2:16

living in a tiny shack, selling

2:19

the fish he caught out of the river

2:21

to supplement his income. But that

2:23

doesn't mean he didn't have money, which

2:25

might have been the reason someone killed him.

2:29

Napoleon Bonaparte is known as one

2:31

of the greatest military commanders in

2:33

history, and his battles and

2:36

ambitions changed the shape of Western

2:38

Europe. But it seems

2:40

that the only foe that could

2:42

best this great man was small

2:44

and fluffy. For

2:47

centuries, bizarre physical conditions,

2:49

strange health-based occurrences and

2:51

questionable treatments have gained

2:53

widespread attention, only to

2:55

be exposed as frauds.

2:58

We'll look at some of the strangest. First

3:01

up, though, in 1896, 22-year-old schoolteacher Pearl Bryan was

3:06

found dead. But after

3:08

her killers were found, tried, and

3:10

hanged, her story continued to fascinate

3:13

the public, even to the point

3:15

of having folk songs sung about

3:17

her. But it wasn't

3:19

her beauty that inspired the songwriters so

3:21

much as it was that she was found

3:24

without her head. We begin

3:26

with that story. If

3:29

you're new here, welcome to the show! While

3:31

you're listening, be sure to check out

3:33

weirddarkness.com for merchandise, to visit sponsors you

3:35

hear about during the show, sign

3:38

up for my newsletter, connect with me on social

3:40

media, plus you can visit the

3:42

Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling

3:44

with depression or dark thoughts. You

3:47

can find all of that and more

3:49

at weirddarkness.com. Now.. bolt

3:51

your doors, lock your windows,

3:55

turn off your lights, and come

3:57

with me into the Weird

3:59

Darkness. On

4:03

January 28, 1896, Sunday school teacher Pearl

4:06

Bryan left her home in Greencastle,

4:23

Indiana to visit a friend in

4:25

Indianapolis, or so she said. At

4:28

the time, Bryan was 22 years

4:30

old and, unbeknownst to her parents, who

4:33

would never see her again, five

4:35

months pregnant. Less than

4:37

a week later, Bryan's headless body was

4:40

found more than 150 miles away

4:43

in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. Her

4:45

head, on the other hand, has

4:47

never been recovered. In

4:50

short order, two students at the Ohio

4:52

College of Dental Surgery in nearby Cincinnati

4:54

were arrested for the murder. Scott

4:57

Jackson, it turned out, had been engaged

4:59

in a secret romance with Bryan across

5:01

several months leading up to her death.

5:04

According to testimony offered during their trial,

5:06

he had convinced his roommate, Alonzo M.

5:08

Walling, to help him. The

5:11

two had slipped cocaine into Bryan's drink

5:13

while they were at a saloon, then

5:15

murdered her by cutting off her head.

5:18

The coroner's report corroborated that Bryan's

5:20

stomach contained cocaine and that she

5:22

had been decapitated while she was

5:24

still alive. As

5:26

for what the two murderers had done with the

5:28

missing head, no one could

5:30

say. The suspects gave conflicting statements, claiming

5:32

the head was buried in a Kentucky

5:35

sandbar or at the bottom of the

5:37

Ohio River. Some of the

5:39

authorities investigating the case believed the pair

5:41

had burned her head in the furnace at

5:43

the dental college. Though

5:46

many nearby waterways were drained, dragged

5:49

or otherwise searched, Bryan's head

5:51

was never found and remains missing

5:53

to this day. The

5:56

gruesome nature of the crime attracted

5:58

considerable media attention. never

8:00

confessed to what they had done with the

8:02

head of Pearl Bryan. Perhaps

8:05

unsurprising for so grisly and mysterious

8:08

a crime, the story of Pearl

8:10

Bryan and her missing head did

8:12

not end there. Within

8:14

a couple of decades of the

8:16

crime itself, popular folk songs began

8:18

to appear detailing it, or embellishing

8:20

it, with the earliest recordings dating

8:22

to 1926 and 27. New

8:26

songs dealing with Bryan's death have appeared as

8:28

recently as the 2000s. Among

8:31

these is the claim that the

8:33

possibly still headless ghost of Pearl

8:35

Bryan haunts the establishment, which is

8:37

also said to be one of

8:39

several gateways to hell. The

8:42

tenuous connection between Bryan and the hockey

8:44

talk in question is that her body

8:46

was found just over two miles from

8:48

the nightclub's current location. Stories

8:51

that have sprung up over the years

8:54

suggest that Bryan's killers might have been

8:56

Satanists who cursed the ground on which

8:58

the nightclub stands, vowing to

9:00

haunt those involved in the case. Unlikely,

9:03

but perhaps not unreasonable given that

9:05

the locale of their execution was

9:07

also just a few miles from the

9:09

Roadhouse. In fact,

9:11

the legends around Bobby Mackey's music

9:14

world tend to be heavily inflected

9:16

with satanic themes, probably

9:18

due to the fact that most of the stories

9:20

developed during the satanic panic of the 70s and

9:22

80s. Like most of

9:26

the stories surrounding Bobby Mackey's music

9:28

world, however, there is precious little

9:30

to corroborate these tales. Nothing

9:33

in the trials of either Jackson

9:35

or Walling suggests occult or ritualistic

9:37

motivations behind their actions. Pearl

9:41

Bryan's pregnancy was the far more likely

9:43

motive. According to that

9:45

same report in the Dayton Daily News,

9:47

Walling testified that Jackson told him of

9:50

Pearl Bryan's condition and asked him to

9:52

relieve her by a criminal operation. From

9:56

there, the plan seems to have gone

9:58

through several mutations. representatives,

22:00

and Parliamentarian A. E. Green quipped

22:02

that medals should be given to

22:04

the Emus, who had won every

22:06

round so far. Despite

22:09

all of this, farmers continued to ask

22:11

for support, as a drought had brought

22:13

even more Emus onto farmland in search

22:15

for water.

22:17

On 12 November, approval was once again

22:20

granted for a military campaign. By

22:22

December, the troops seemed to have come up

22:24

with a better system for culling the birds,

22:27

for on the 10th of the month, Meredith

22:29

claimed he had killed nearly a thousand birds

22:31

with just under 10,000 rounds.

22:34

Despite this, the operation was officially ended

22:36

and was not taken up again despite

22:38

farmers continuing to ask for military assistance

22:41

in the next few years. The

22:44

Australian government ended up setting up

22:46

a bounty on Emus, which led

22:48

to over 280,000 Emus being killed

22:50

in Western Australia between 1945

22:53

and 1960. This, coupled with

22:56

barrier fences being erected, eventually

22:58

controlled the problem of Emus

23:00

destroying crops. Although the

23:02

Emus won the war, Australia seems to

23:05

have forgiven them, as an Emu still

23:07

features on the Australian coat of arms

23:09

to this day. When

23:12

looking at history, it seems that great

23:14

military men losing fights against animals is

23:17

not so unique. And this

23:19

brings us to Napoleon. The

23:22

story of Napoleon's most humiliating defeat

23:24

is one that has circulated the

23:26

internet for years. According

23:29

to legend, in July 1807,

23:31

Napoleon's chief of staff, Alexander

23:33

Berthier, organized a rabbit hunt

23:36

for his esteemed master. He

23:38

invited Napoleon and his honours to a

23:41

park that he owned within Paris and

23:43

was ecstatic when the emperor accepted. He

23:46

made sure to do everything he could

23:48

to make the hunt as pleasing for

23:50

Napoleon as possible, and the day started

23:52

with a splendid breakfast. The

23:55

only thing that Berthier had not been

23:57

able to organize from within his property

23:59

were the rabbit. rabbits himself. Rabbits

24:01

were at the time the most common game

24:03

eaten in France, and so sourcing them could

24:06

be difficult. He therefore arranged

24:08

for a thousand rabbits to be brought

24:10

to the park, especially for the Emperor.

24:12

Hirthye had just gained the title of

24:15

Prince of Neuchatel thanks to Napoleon, so

24:17

perhaps this was his way of thanking

24:19

him. Breakfast finished, the

24:21

rabbits were released in the park. The

24:24

huge hoard started to bolt and split

24:26

in different directions in an attempt to

24:28

avoid the attacks that Napoleon and his

24:30

companions were firing at them. Then

24:33

the strangest thing happened.

24:36

The herd of rabbits converged into

24:39

one large mass, turned

24:41

around and swarmed towards

24:44

Napoleon. Shock hit

24:46

the party, and the angry Hirthye immediately

24:48

organized the coachmen into a battalion armed

24:50

with their long riding whips to knock

24:52

them back. Initially this

24:55

organization worked, and the rabbits started to

24:57

flee again. The party considered

24:59

it a bizarre delay, but were preparing

25:02

to resume their hunt. When

25:04

once again the rabbits turned on

25:06

them. The rabbits turned around

25:08

and flanked the party on the left

25:10

and right. They attacked Napoleon

25:12

with an unspeakable frenzy, climbing up

25:15

his legs and swarming him so

25:17

much that he stumbled. Realizing

25:20

this was not a fight he could

25:22

win, Napoleon fled to his carriage, but

25:24

the rabbits followed him and climbed upon

25:26

it. Eventually the party was

25:28

able to escape. With

25:30

the Emperor of France safe, investigations

25:32

began as to what exactly happened

25:35

in this strange incident. As

25:37

it turned out, the man with whom

25:39

Hirthye had entrusted the task of procurement

25:41

did not realize that there could be

25:44

any difference between a rabbit and a

25:46

rabbit, and as such

25:48

had bought tame hutch rabbits instead

25:50

of wild rabbits which were usually

25:52

used for hunts. These

25:54

rabbits were less wary of humans and had

25:57

not eaten since the day before, thus

25:59

when they were released, they ran towards

26:01

the group looking eagerly for food, instead

26:04

of running in fear as a wild

26:06

rabbit would. The story

26:08

is certainly fantastic, but is

26:10

it true? Most

26:12

of the more popular results on

26:14

Google recount the story in very

26:16

similar words, and many of them

26:18

consistently quote historian David Chandler with

26:21

the exact same quote from him

26:23

each time. This made

26:25

me suspicious that the story could be a

26:27

case of internet telephone, and so I decided

26:29

to try and go back to some sources.

26:32

I found that David Chandler in question, and

26:34

sure enough, Google Books threw up a source.

26:37

The Campaigns of Napoleon by David G.

26:39

Chandler, originally published in 1966, when there

26:41

on page 593 was the tale of Napoleon

26:43

fighting the

26:47

rabbits. But frustratingly, Chandler

26:49

did not provide a source for

26:51

the story. This is

26:53

not so unusual for older history

26:55

books, but maddening nonetheless. So

26:58

back to Google. After

27:00

some deeper digging, I came across a

27:02

Tumblr page called, And Other Lies, run

27:05

by a French woman who describes herself

27:07

as an amateur historian. Back

27:09

in August 2019, someone had

27:11

asked the question that I wanted answered

27:13

– was the Napoleon story true? Luckily

27:16

for us there was finally a source. A

27:19

user called NapoleonDidThat cited a

27:22

French text published in the

27:24

1890s called Memoirs du Generale

27:26

Bonne Theobolt. The book

27:29

is digitized by the Bibliothèque Nationale

27:31

de France and is listed as

27:33

being written by Paul Theobolt, the

27:35

eponymous general. Theobolt was

27:37

a general who fought in Napoleon's army

27:39

and thus would have been on first

27:42

hand to know such

27:44

a story. However, Theobolt died in 1846

27:46

and many of his stories and memoirs

27:48

were published after his death. In

27:50

this case, the book entry tells us

27:53

that this version was published by his

27:55

daughter from the original manuscript by someone

27:57

called Fernand Camardus. So

27:59

why not? Whilst the story does come from

28:01

someone who knew Napoleon and was a general

28:03

in his army, it was published almost

28:05

90 years after the alleged

28:08

incident by the general's daughter. This

28:11

means we have to have some

28:13

skepticism, especially as Napoleon did that,

28:15

highlights that Theobolt had a long-standing

28:18

grudge against Berthier, the unfortunate host

28:20

whose park was home to the

28:22

whole incident. So, did

28:24

this happen at all? Or was it

28:27

something that Theobolt made up despite his

28:29

enemies who died 30 years before him?

28:32

Maybe some historians with far more knowledge and

28:34

expertise than me in this area will dig

28:37

through papers and archives and one day be

28:39

able to corroborate the story further. Perhaps

28:41

they already have, and the answer is

28:43

to be found in history books I have not read yet.

28:46

But in the meantime, we can smile

28:48

at the story and the image of

28:51

one of Europe's greatest military commanders cowering

28:53

in terror at

28:55

a ridiculously large amount of

28:57

rabbits. In

29:16

1908, Jack Pyle, 56, lived

29:19

in Holt County, Missouri. A

29:21

widower, his only living relatives were a

29:24

brother and a daughter who resided in

29:26

Kansas. Pyle rented a

29:28

shack and five acres from Emmett Haier

29:30

about three miles outside the village of

29:32

Craig. The courting mirror

29:35

reported that he raised chickens and pigs

29:37

and worked by day for nearby neighbors.

29:40

Living within yards of the Missouri River,

29:42

Pyle often sold fish to augment his

29:44

income. The mirror stated that,

29:46

on Saturday morning, August 23 at 11.30 o'clock, Jack

29:48

Pyle was found dead

29:52

on his kitchen floor in the Lake Shore District.

29:55

On Monday and Tuesday, the 17th and

29:57

18th, he had been helping Jim Allen make

29:59

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Alphonse Francois Marquis de Sade was

36:51

one of the highest ranked and

36:53

powerful French noblemen of the 18th

36:55

and 19th centuries. Yet

36:58

he is remembered today for his depraved

37:00

reputation and cruelty to others, apparently

37:03

in pursuit of self-exploration and

37:05

discovery. Despite all

37:07

the advantages of rank, position, and

37:09

wealth, the Marquis would end his

37:11

life in a mental asylum, dying

37:13

wretchedly and shunned by his peers.

37:16

But does the man who coined

37:18

the word sadism to describe his

37:20

wanton cruelties deserve his fate? Certainly,

37:24

the evidence is damning. The

37:26

Marquis wrote many scandalous, sexually

37:29

explicit and sadistic literary works.

37:32

But already there is a contradiction in the

37:34

response of his readership. On

37:36

one side, he was a best-selling author of his

37:38

day, gaining quite a bit of fame. On

37:41

the other side, his works were

37:43

often banned from public circulation, some

37:45

as late as the 1950s. Modern

37:48

appreciation has been a long time coming,

37:50

but it is firmly in support of

37:53

the Marquis today. In

37:55

2017, the modern-day French government announced

37:57

that Marquis de Sade's works greed

42:00

of the physical kind. Although

42:02

the written accounts only point to the

42:04

beating of a maid, Marquis

42:07

de Sade was also accused of

42:09

rape, sodomy, and torture. He

42:11

was even accused of keeping six children as

42:13

prisoners in his palace. He

42:15

is also believed to have fed

42:17

his many prostitutes with the aphrodisiac

42:19

known as Spanish fly, extracted

42:22

from beetles, a dangerous substance which

42:24

could even kill. It

42:26

seems that Marquis was seeking to explore the

42:29

sensations he discussed in his works, either

42:31

himself or through proxies that he

42:33

summoned to his castle. But

42:36

in the details of these acts, it

42:38

seems he was not deliberately cruel so

42:40

much as careless with the lives of

42:42

people from a lesser station. Nevertheless,

42:45

his actions did get him into trouble. In

42:48

the year 1763, the infamous Marquis

42:50

de Sade was imprisoned in the Prison

42:52

of Incenis for committing blasphemy and ruining

42:55

an image of Christ. He

42:57

reportedly stomped over a crucifix while

42:59

screaming profanities to a hired prostitute

43:01

in a locked room. Once

43:04

this episode was over, he ordered the

43:07

prostitute to whip him with a cat

43:09

of nine tails, a particularly brutal form

43:11

of punishment. Because of his

43:13

works and his sexual reputation, he was

43:15

put under arrest and surveillance many other

43:17

times in his life as well. In

43:21

the year 1768, some years after his first imprisonment

43:25

for sexual crimes and blasphemy, he was

43:27

also accused of keeping a woman captive

43:29

after giving her a job as a

43:31

housemaid in his residence. He

43:33

picked up this German widow and took

43:35

her to his country residence with the

43:37

excuse of needing house cleaning services. He

43:40

then held her at knife point and assaulted

43:42

her for two days. He even

43:44

raped her, tortured her with hot wax and

43:46

whipped her. After two days

43:48

of torture and sexual assault, the poor woman

43:51

was able to escape from the residence through

43:53

a small window. The Marquis

43:55

de Sade was then again arrested on charges of

43:57

rape and torture. However, the

43:59

widow was not arrested Converse

48:00

took up drinking and smoking,

48:02

reveling in her independence and

48:04

self-reinvention. While

48:06

in New York, Converse spent her time

48:08

writing poetry, drawing, painting, and learning to

48:11

play the guitar. She began

48:13

publishing essays with the Far Eastern Survey

48:15

and worked at a printing house in

48:17

the Flatiron district. She had

48:20

an apartment in Greenwich Village and it was there

48:22

that she wrote her music and performed it for

48:24

her friends. As chronicled

48:26

in The New Yorker, Philip Converse

48:28

did not follow his sister to New

48:30

York. Instead, he moved to the Midwest

48:32

and the two kept in touch by

48:35

exchanging letters. In one

48:37

of these letters she wrote to him, "...being

48:39

a complex and inward personality, I've always

48:41

found it difficult to make myself known.

48:44

I generally conceal my own problems and

48:46

listen attentively to those of others." Converse's

48:50

introspection reads like an unfortunate

48:52

contradiction. For one reason or

48:55

another, she could never make herself known and

48:57

her recognition only came many years

49:00

after she vanished. When

49:02

Connie Converse arrived at Jean Dyche's apartment in 1954 to

49:05

record her music, the animator

49:08

and audio enthusiast nearly didn't

49:10

record the standoffish plain woman.

49:14

Converse was a friend of a friend,

49:16

an atypical woman of the time who,

49:18

one attendee said, looked like she'd just

49:20

come in from milking the cows. But

49:23

when she performed her intimate songs in Dyche's

49:25

kitchen that day before a small audience, she

49:28

stunned everyone in the room. Her

49:30

music was personal, eerie, folksy

49:33

and metaphorical in a way that

49:35

had never been done before, though

49:38

the echoes of it can now be

49:40

heard in the music of modern singer-songwriters.

49:42

The more I thought about it, the songs

49:44

were all about herself, Dyche later told the

49:46

BBC. I think that's what

49:48

makes the songs interesting. No matter

49:51

what she was singing, it all had to

49:53

do with sexual frustration and loneliness. There's

49:55

something about those songs that was extremely

49:57

personal. In those days, this was some

52:00

That same year, one week after

52:02

her 50th birthday, she wrote a

52:05

series of letters to her family and close

52:07

friends saying she needed to make a fresh

52:09

start somewhere else. She loaded

52:11

her things into the boot of her Volkswagen

52:13

Beetle and left Ann Arbor. No

52:16

one ever heard from her again. In 2014, five

52:20

years after the release of How Sad,

52:24

How Lovely, filmmaker Andrea

52:26

Kanz released We Lived Alone,

52:28

the Connie Converse documentary, which

52:31

explored Converse's life and music

52:33

through Converse's own home recordings,

52:35

letters, and journals. It's

52:38

almost like she wanted it to be found

52:40

and looked through, Kanz told the BBC. What

52:43

I found most fascinating was how funny she was

52:45

in her writing. Here was a

52:47

person who struggled through her whole life to

52:49

feel successful. And you can tell there's

52:51

a great sadness with a lot of the things she

52:53

did and the way she lived her life, but

52:56

she was also incredibly funny. But

52:59

there was still this wall between her and

53:01

other people, she added, where it didn't seem

53:03

like she 100% connected with anybody. Perhaps

53:08

the clearest insight into Converse's mind, however, comes

53:10

in the form of a letter, she wrote,

53:12

to her brother Philip. I've

53:14

watched the elegant, energetic people of Ann

53:16

Arbor, those I know and those I

53:19

don't, knowing about their daily business on

53:21

the streets and in the buildings, and

53:23

I felt a detached admiration for their

53:26

energy and elegance. If I

53:28

ever was a member of this species, perhaps

53:30

it was a social accident that has now

53:32

been cancelled. Let me go. Let

53:35

me be if I can. Let me not

53:37

be if I can't, she wrote in another letter.

53:40

And while the truth of what happened to Converse

53:43

is still a mystery, Philip Converse

53:45

came to believe that his sister died

53:47

by suicide, her dreams

53:49

forever unfulfilled. Today

53:52

though, Converse's legacy lives

53:54

on in her music, and

53:56

many credit her as history's

53:59

first modern scene. singer-songwriter. Here's

54:05

one of Connie's songs called The Witch

54:07

and the Wizard, and it

54:09

does in fact involve a witch and a

54:11

wizard and a little elf,

54:14

but hidden in there is a pretty

54:17

vivid description of a marriage

54:19

made in hell. A witch

54:22

there was and a wizard

54:24

as well, moved

54:26

into our rose-covered cottage

54:28

in hell, our

54:30

rose-covered cottage in hell. The

54:39

wizard, in spite of his

54:41

wizardly eyes, didn't know he

54:43

had married a witch in

54:46

disguise. He

54:48

thought her a very

54:50

respectable maid, and hoped

54:52

she would never discover

54:54

his trade. The

55:00

witch was not wanting

55:02

in womanly while she

55:04

covered her bridegroom with

55:06

waffles and smiles. She

55:09

only went witching on Saturday

55:11

night, and hoped in between

55:14

times it all would go

55:16

right. Next

55:22

day the witch bore the

55:24

wizard an elf, so

55:27

handsome he looked like the devil

55:29

himself, and he

55:31

was the devil himself. The

55:40

wizard looked down at his

55:42

son's surprise, saying, None

55:45

of my family has labbled

55:47

their eyes. I

55:49

think for my honor there's

55:51

only one course I'll ask

55:53

you to grant me an

55:55

instant divorce. hoaxer

1:04:00

Alan Abel to protest what Abel thought was

1:04:02

the poor quality of TV at the time.

1:04:05

Boy, wouldn't he love what's on TV

1:04:07

today! The

1:04:10

term, cello scrotum, sounds

1:04:12

like a joke, doesn't it? Which is exactly what it turned

1:04:14

out to be. However, 35 years went by before

1:04:17

the two people who mischievously coined the phrase

1:04:19

admitted they were only kidding about it. The

1:04:23

prank was in response to a letter

1:04:25

from Dr. P. Curtis that appeared in

1:04:27

the British Medical Journal, reporting three cases

1:04:29

of a malady the doctor described as

1:04:31

guitar nipple. Assuming the

1:04:33

letter was a hoax, married couple John

1:04:36

Murphy and Dr. Elaine Murphy were inspired

1:04:38

to write a reply. The

1:04:40

letter, published in a 1974 issue of the journal, was signed

1:04:42

by John

1:04:44

but written by Elaine. It

1:04:46

said in part, "...though I have not

1:04:49

come across guitar nipple as reported by

1:04:51

Dr. P. Curtis, I did once come

1:04:53

across a case of cello scrotum caused

1:04:55

by irritation from the body of the

1:04:57

cello." When the

1:04:59

Murphys finally announced that cello scrotum was

1:05:01

just a spoof, they argued that it

1:05:03

would be obvious to anyone who had

1:05:05

watched the cello being played that such

1:05:08

a condition was impossible. Here

1:05:11

is a good one. In medieval times,

1:05:13

astrology was often used to guide

1:05:15

medical practitioners and researchers. In

1:05:18

the late 16th century, a medical

1:05:20

professor at Julius University in Helmstedt

1:05:23

named Jacob Horst decided to investigate

1:05:25

reports of Christoph Mueller, a young

1:05:27

boy in Salasia, said to have

1:05:30

grown a golden tooth. When

1:05:32

tests confirmed that Mueller had a real

1:05:34

gold tooth, Horst wrote a treatise in

1:05:37

which he laid out a theory based

1:05:39

on astrology. He speculated that

1:05:41

the bone in Mueller's jaw had

1:05:43

turned to gold because he was

1:05:45

born when the planets were in

1:05:47

an unusual alignment, which Horst believed

1:05:49

had caused heat from the sun's

1:05:51

rays to intensify. When the impact

1:05:53

of chewing food and multiple tests

1:05:55

caused deterioration of what turned out

1:05:57

to 1839-1801

1:10:01

demonstrated that any pain relief was

1:10:04

just a placebo effect. Have

1:10:08

you heard about the celestial

1:10:10

bed? The legendary 18th century

1:10:12

British quack James Graham had

1:10:14

a whole temple full of

1:10:16

hoaxes. Graham, who had

1:10:18

passed himself off as a physician even

1:10:20

though he never completed his medical schooling,

1:10:23

was best known for what he called

1:10:25

electrical medicine. The harnessing of

1:10:27

electricity was still a new science during

1:10:29

this time, and Graham was inspired by

1:10:32

the experiments of Benjamin Franklin, who he

1:10:34

actually met while in America. Graham's

1:10:37

Temple of Health was frequented

1:10:39

by aristocrats and other celebrities.

1:10:42

One of his most interesting devices

1:10:44

was a fertility contraption called a

1:10:46

celestial bed, which he

1:10:48

claimed could cure sterility and impotence.

1:10:51

This love nest was available for couples

1:10:53

to rent per night. It

1:10:55

could be tilted to different angles

1:10:58

and contained a mattress full of

1:11:00

sweet new wheat or oat straw,

1:11:02

lavender flowers, rose leaves, balm, and

1:11:04

horsetail hairs. There was

1:11:07

also costly perfumes and oils underneath the

1:11:09

bed. According to the

1:11:11

self-styled doctor, static electricity that

1:11:13

moved through copper coils around

1:11:15

the bed produced a magnetic

1:11:17

fluid surrounding the lovers, which

1:11:19

helped boost their strength and

1:11:21

increase the woman's fertility. The

1:11:24

couple was treated to gentle music, and

1:11:26

above the bed there was a mirror

1:11:29

decorated with lush flowers and erotic illustrations.

1:11:32

Graham asserted that anyone who spent an evening

1:11:34

there would conceive a child. And

1:11:37

I saved the best for last. People

1:11:40

have often been fascinated by the

1:11:42

idea of crossbreeding between different species,

1:11:44

especially the possibility of humans breeding

1:11:46

with other types of animals, such

1:11:49

as the human-dog hybrid hoax mentioned

1:11:51

earlier. There have been

1:11:53

a number of women over the centuries

1:11:55

who claimed to have given birth to

1:11:57

creatures belonging to a different species. However,

1:12:00

the most famous such story is

1:12:02

that of an 18th-century English servant

1:12:04

woman, Mary Toft, who managed to

1:12:07

convince physicians and others that she

1:12:09

had given birth to rabbits. There

1:12:12

were thought to be multiple litters, totaling

1:12:14

15 bunnies, all dead

1:12:16

at birth. To answer

1:12:18

an obvious question, how were the rabbits

1:12:20

conceived, Toft said that she

1:12:22

had been startled by a rabbit in

1:12:25

a field, an explanation which fit in

1:12:27

with old myth of maternal impression. Following

1:12:30

the incident, Toft supposedly dreamt

1:12:32

about rabbits and experienced an

1:12:34

intense appetite for rabbits as

1:12:36

food. Obstetrician John

1:12:38

Howard was sure enough that Toft really

1:12:40

had birthed rabbits. He spread the word

1:12:43

to prominent British doctors, as well as

1:12:45

King George I, who had his doctor

1:12:47

look into the matter. Although

1:12:50

this physician was fooled as well, an

1:12:52

investigation by a surgeon dispatched from the

1:12:54

royal household found evidence of a hoax.

1:12:57

While examining some of the rabbits,

1:12:59

he discovered that dung inside one

1:13:01

of them contained corn, proving

1:13:04

it could not have developed inside Mrs.

1:13:06

Toft's womb. Toft kept

1:13:08

up the ruse, though, producing various animal

1:13:10

parts like a hog's bladder and a

1:13:12

kitten's legs. So, when a

1:13:14

man was caught sneaking a rabbit into her room,

1:13:17

she finally confessed to placing the rabbits

1:13:19

in her vagina, allowing them to be

1:13:22

delivered, hoping the stunt would result in

1:13:24

a pension from the crown. But

1:13:27

instead, she got a few months in

1:13:29

prison. Thanks

1:13:42

for listening. If you like the show,

1:13:45

please share it with someone you know who loves

1:13:47

the paranormal or strange stories, true

1:13:49

crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like

1:13:51

you do! You can email

1:13:53

me anytime with your questions or comments

1:13:55

at darren at weirddarkness.com. Darren

1:13:58

is D-A-R-R-E-N. weirddarkness.com

1:14:00

is also where you can find information on

1:14:03

any of the sponsors you heard about during

1:14:05

the show, find all of my social media,

1:14:07

listen to audiobooks I've narrated, sign

1:14:09

up for the email newsletter, find other podcasts

1:14:12

that I host, visit the store

1:14:14

for Weird Darkness merchandise, and more. weirddarkness.com

1:14:17

is also where you can find the

1:14:19

Hope In The Darkness page if you

1:14:21

or someone you know is struggling with

1:14:23

depression or dark thoughts. Also

1:14:25

on the website, if you have a true,

1:14:27

paranormal, or creepy tale to tell you can

1:14:29

click on Tell Your Story. You

1:14:32

can find all of that and more

1:14:34

at weirddarkness.com. All

1:14:36

stories on Weird Darkness are purported to be

1:14:38

true, unless stated otherwise, and you can find

1:14:40

links to the stories or the authors in

1:14:43

the show notes. Pearl

1:14:45

Bryan and Her Missing Head was written by

1:14:47

Orin Gray for The Lineup. Death

1:14:49

of a Miser is by Robert A. Waters

1:14:51

for Kidnapping, Murder, and Mayhem. Does

1:14:54

the Marquis de Sade Deserve the Hate?

1:14:56

was written by Bipin Dimri for Historic

1:14:58

Mysteries. A Strange Disappearance

1:15:00

of singer-songwriter Connie Converse is by

1:15:02

Austin Harvey for All That's Interesting.

1:15:05

Napoleon vs. the Bunnies was written

1:15:07

by Gemma Holman for Just History

1:15:10

Posts. And Medical Hoaxes

1:15:12

was by Jennifer Lafferty for Listverse.

1:15:15

WeirdDarkness™ is a registered trademark. Copyright

1:15:17

©Weird Darkness. Now

1:15:20

that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave

1:15:22

you with a little light… Matthew

1:15:24

6 verses 31-33. Jesus

1:15:27

emphasized the following truth to his

1:15:29

disciples. Don't worry about

1:15:31

these things, saying, What will we eat? What

1:15:34

will we drink? What will we wear? These

1:15:37

things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but

1:15:39

your heavenly Father already knows all your

1:15:41

needs. Seek the kingdom of

1:15:44

God above all else, and live righteously,

1:15:46

and He will give you everything you need.

1:15:50

And a final thought... Good luck

1:15:53

is when opportunity meets preparation,

1:15:55

while bad luck is when

1:15:57

lack of preparation meets reality.

1:16:04

I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining

1:16:06

me in the Weird Darkness. The

1:16:19

memoirs to General Ben de Generale

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Bonne Thiebaud. The book

1:16:25

is digitized by the Bibliothèque

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Nationale and

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is listed as being written

1:16:35

by Paul Theobald. The eponymous

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included a description of

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a very strange formula in Herp…

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Hermipus Red… Formula

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in Hermipus Redivivus… Formula

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in Herpipus Redivivus… Hermipus

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Revodita… Hermipus Redivivus…

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Red… uh… yeah. It

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