[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The biggest aid to that growth, however, just might be their people's almost supernatural ability to give birth to twins. While it's still a relatively low percentage, the Yoruba's ratio of one set of twins out of every 20 births puts them at the top of the list across the globe. And when those twins arrive, the people there practically worship them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They refer to them as spirit children, believing that their births hint at great power, either for good or for evil.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that reverence isn't anything new. For thousands of years, twins have been capturing the imagination of cultures all around the globe. In fact, we can see it in their foundation stories, like the Egyptian tales of Isis and Osiris, or the Greek mythology of Castor and Pollux.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Twins are also found in the ancient stories of the Norse, the Jewish, and the Chinese, among many others. And everywhere we find them, these stories highlight just how much twins were both feared and respected.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Greek mythology, for example, Artemis and Apollo were powerful twins, one being in charge of the sun and the other the moon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Roman mythology claims that it was a set of twins, Remus and Romulus, who founded Rome itself. So it should come as no surprise that when the pharaoh Cleopatra and her husband, the Roman general Mark Anthony, had twins roughly 2,000 years ago, they named them appropriately. Alexander Helios for the sun and Cleopatra Selene for the moon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that ancient fascination with twins has never really gone away. In fact as we've grown in our understanding of human biology, that obsession has only deepened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of that can be traced back to an English scientist named Francis Galton. He was the first to publish a paper back in 1875 on how physical traits were passed down from generation to generation. But it opened the door for more questions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the age-old debates in psychology has always been nature versus nurture. The question of what makes us who we are. Is it our biology and the traits we inherited genetically from our parents? Or is it more about the world we grew up in and the behavior and attitudes that were modeled for us?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Decades of research have given us a frustrating answer. According to one study that wrapped up in 2015, one that looked at nearly 18,000 traits, not just things like eye color and personality type, the line fell right down the middle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The answer to the question, nature vs. nurture, seemed to be both.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But whether it's ancient cultures treating twins as if they're powerful beings, or modern scientists looking for truth in the human genome, these quests can only take us so far.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As the centuries have gone by, twin studies have yielded us just as many questions as answers. And they've taught us something else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's easy to make assumptions. It's something humans have been very good at for a very long time. If a culture can assume that the sun went dark because a dragon ate it, then the birth of identical twins when only one child was expected must seem even more magical. And if they look the same, surely they must act the same.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, you and I know that every person is unique, no matter how much they look alike. I personally know twins and triplets, and even if they all dress the same, you would just need to spend about 30 seconds in their company to realize that they are each very unique individuals. But still, we allow appearances to fool us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, there are those who buck that trend. Take the Grimes brothers, for example. Ray and Roy were born in Ohio in 1893, and both of the men started careers as Major League Baseball players in 1920. Ray played for the Boston Red Sox, and Roy for the New York Giants, decades before that team moved to San Francisco.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Things weren't all the same for them though. Rey played six seasons in the major leagues, but his twin Roy only managed the one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there were the Cray Brothers. Ronnie and Reggie were born in October of 1933 in London's East End. But rather than excel at sports, these twins were good at something else. Organized crime. In fact, no gang in the 1950s or 60s was more powerful than their own, affectionately named The Firm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over the course of their career, these twins worked together to commit all sorts of crime. In the public eye, they were the rough owners of a London nightclub. A club that put them in contact with superstars like Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. But in the shadows, they were the puppeteers behind murder, assault, and armed robbery.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But few twins in history shared as much in common as one pair. And honestly, this is the stuff that science just can't explain. And it all started in Ohio in 1940.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was the year that an unknown mother gave birth to a set of twins, and then placed them both up for adoption. When a young couple named the Lewis's arrived at the hospital three weeks later, they said that they didn't want two infants to care for, so they only took one home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They named him James and raised him in the city of Lima, Ohio, in the northwestern corner of the state. James, who went by Jim, grew up with a dog named Toy and seems to have done alright in school. He hated spelling but he loved math and woodworking and it was a passion that he would carry with him into adulthood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the time Jim Lewis was discovered in the 1970s, he had a laundry list of quirks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He drove a Chevy to work every day where he was a deputy sheriff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He married a woman named Linda earlier in life, but they divorced years later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After that, Jim married Betty, and together they raised his son, James Allen. The family would even drive south to Florida each year and spend their vacation on the beach, which must have been a wonderful thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a normal life, and one that sounds like countless others. On the surface, at least.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But Jim Lewis's mother had occasionally mentioned that when he was adopted, there was a twin brother. And as Jim grew older, he started to wonder if that twin was out there somewhere, maybe even looking for him. So in 1979, at the age of 39, he called the courthouse that had his adoption records and asked for more information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What he learned was that a family named the Springers had taken his twin brother home that very same week. After digging around some more, he managed to find a phone number for that family. And I can't pretend to know what Jim Lewis was thinking or how he felt. He was about to make contact with a long-lost sibling and that had to have felt exciting and frightening all at the same time. But what he discovered was something more unbelievable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, the Springers had taken their infant boy home and named him James. And James, who also went by Jim, grew up with a dog named Toy. He hated spelling in school, but did alright with math and woodworking, a hobby that he still dabbled with in adulthood. And every day, he climbed behind the wheel of his Chevy and drove to work, where he served as a deputy sheriff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jim Springer married a woman named Linda, but they divorced after a number of years and he eventually remarried to a woman named Betty. Together they raised their son, James Allen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And took annual family vacation trips to a beach in Florida.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The very same beach, in fact, that the Lewis's visited each year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The same jobs, the same names for all their spouses and even their sons. The same car and cigarette brand and vacation spot on paper without their last names. Jim and Jim were essentially the same person.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But as difficult as it is to believe, the Jim Twins are not the oddest case of twins on record.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, that honor goes to an unusual pair of siblings who gave a whole new meaning to the phrase, nature versus nurture. And if the details of their story are completely true, they bring us face to face with a frightening realization. There are some bonds that even death can't break.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a parent's worst nightmare. John and Florence lived in the little town of Hexham in Northern England, where they ran a service delivering milk and other groceries to customers all over town. And their two daughters, Joanna and Jacqueline, spent their time either in school or in the care of their grandmother.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's when a tragic car accident took both of their children from them forever. It seems that a local woman had lost control of her vehicle at the very same moment that Joanna and Jacqueline were walking to church, and they were both struck and instantly killed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not going to pretend to understand what John and Florence went through as a result of their loss. As a parent myself, this is one of those topics that's difficult to comprehend and touches on very deep fears. But I think any parent would feel the same.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's essential to our story today to explain what they went through because it helps the road before them make more sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Clearly, this was the sort of trauma that puts a strain on a marriage, and John and Florence dealt with a lot over the coming months. From what I've been able to find, Florence understandably retreated deeper and deeper into depression, while John looked for peace through religion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they worked through it all as best they could. And in early 1958 they received happy news. They were pregnant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In October of that year, John and Florence went to the hospital expecting to deliver a healthy baby. The heartbeat had been strong all through the summer and they were both excited for a new beginning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there were surprises in store for them. Somehow the doctors had missed a second heartbeat and now suddenly they were the parents of twins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But not just twins, but twin girls. And for John, who had been looking for hope and some sort of sign that life could return to normal, this was it. His daughters had returned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lawrence, though, didn't share in her husband's belief. Either way, they had two brand new babies to take care of, and life very quickly became busy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shortly after the twins were born, the family moved out of Hexham to Whitley Bay, a coastal town about 50 miles to the east, and then life flew by. Before long, the twins were talking, and that's when the first mystery occurred. Even though the girls had never seen the old dolls that were in a box in the attic, Christmas gifts that had once belonged to the sisters they'd never met, they began to ask for those dolls by name.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So John and Florence brought the toys out of storage and gave them to the girls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Amazingly, within moments of the box being opened and dumped on the floor in front of them, the girls separated them into two groups. Groups that their parents recognized as the division between Joanna's toys and her sister Jacqueline's. And when one of the toddlers said the words, Santa's gifts, it sent a chill down their parents' spines.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the oddities continued from there. The twins, Jennifer and Jillian, apparently showed a dislike for the same foods that Joanna and Jacqueline had hated. They shared similar gestures and physical behavior with their older sisters, and as they grew older they even began to look like them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which was odd considering Jennifer and Jillian were identical twins, and yet Jillian grew tall and slender like Joanna, and Jennifer was more stout like Jacqueline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Perhaps most frightening of all for John and Florence was the innate fear both girls seemed to have for cars. The sound of an engine or a quickly moving vehicle were all it took to cause deep anxiety for the young girls, who would reach out for each other until the noise was gone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once, Florence overheard the girls discussing a car accident. She peered into the room to see Jennifer laying with her head in Jillian's lap, who was whispering, the blood, it's coming out of your eyes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there was simply no explanation for that behavior, considering Florence and John had never told the girls about that accident, let alone the specific details like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the twins were four, John and Florence decided to take a trip back to Hexham for the first time since their older daughters had been killed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when they arrived, Jillian and Jennifer made it clear that they knew their way around town.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were both able to name specific locations, like the school and shops in the downtown area.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They even told their parents they wanted to play at the park, and then began to lead them in the correct direction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Taken as a whole, the coincidences were more than eerie. It was beyond explanation, and yet John and Florence watched things like this happen every day. Eventually, the girls were taken to a child psychologist to see if there was something the parents were missing. But those sessions only revealed more unusual connections to the past.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For whatever reason though, as the girls grew older, those connections began to fade. By the time the twins were five years old, very little of those echoes of the past remained with them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe it was a result of their world getting bigger every day. Or the beginning of life at school and all the lessons that came with it. Or perhaps time had a way of putting more distance between them and the sisters they had never met.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the time the twins were in their twenties, all of those unusual memories were gone. The only time visions of the past returned to them were in occasional dreams. But even those grew less and less common over the years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what hasn't faded is the fascination surrounding their story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was it an eerie case of reincarnation as their child psychologist proposed in the years after their meetings? Or was it something in their genetic code? A memory of lost siblings and a deep awareness of their parents unspoken grief. They are challenging questions and ones we may never be able to answer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's clear though is a simple truth that most of us probably don't need pointed out to us. That we, as humans, are part of a larger community. One that extends outward around us, yes, but also backwards in time. We are a product of those who came before us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But our unique identity is also somehow communal. A reflection of our family, our clan, and our culture. And so it's one of the rare moments when our intuition matches perfectly with years of scientific study.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know it feels uncivilized to hear stories about ancient cultures dreaming up wild explanations for natural events that we've all grown used to. But those stories make a powerful point. The unexpected and unusual has always been attractive to us. And I think it always will.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know that we've conquered a lot of it over the centuries. Through science and exploration, we've put the Earth into a proper perspective. We've broadened our understanding of the universe, and we've gained a deeper appreciation for the world we live in. But no matter how far and wide we search, there will always be things that defy our assumptions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's what's so alluring about the story of the twin girls raised by John and Florence Pollock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Despite no prior knowledge of the sisters who lived and died before they were born, these twins seemed to break the mold. It wasn't so much about what they had in common with each other, as we might expect, but what they had in common with the past. And that commonality has caused researchers to scratch their heads for decades.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The center of much of that research was the child psychologist that the Pollux hired back in the early 60s.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dr. Ian Stevenson visited the family at home on numerous occasions and spent hundreds of hours with the girls in an attempt to find the logical explanations behind their eerie connection to the past. He even studied them later in life, after they'd grown into adulthood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over the course of his career, he would go on to study many more children who demonstrated similar characteristics. He dove deep into the world of reincarnation and published at least a dozen books on his research before his death in 2007. And to this day, the final chapter is still unwritten. The explanation he had searched for is still eluding us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But he did uncover one unique bit of information during his time with the Pollock twins. It seems that in the larger conversation about behavior and words and memories of places or toys the girls had never experienced before, Stevenson went looking for proof that was more tangible. And he found it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, for a long while, Jillian and Jennifer were thought to be physically identical. Same hair color, same eye color, same smile and laugh, and everything else you would expect from monozygotic twins. That is, twins born from the same egg. They were, as they should be, mirror images of each other. But not quite.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because Dr. Stevenson noticed something that John and Florence had failed to point out. A small birthmark just outside Jennifer's right eye. And another around her waist. They weren't visible on Jillian, but they did have a connection to another member of her family.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were the very same locations on the body where her sister Jacqueline received her mortal wounds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The world of Twins is a fascinating, mysterious place, and I hope you've enjoyed your brief tour through some of the more unexplainable parts of it. But we're not quite finished. There's one more tale of the intertwined that I think is a wonderful addition to our journey so far. And if you stick around after this brief sponsor break, I'll tell you all about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm going to be upfront with you. You've probably heard parts of this tale before. It's fascinating and unusual and the sort of story that kids love to read. But I promise you, there's more to it than you might expect. And I think a little journey is in order.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 1824, a British merchant named Robert Hunter was traveling in Thailand, although back then it was known as Siam. According to his retelling of the events, he was out near the water around sunset, watching the locals go about the last tasks of their day, when he noticed a group of children playing at the water's edge. And that's when he saw it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, it was the best he could do at the time. According to Robert Hunter, what he spotted from a distance looked like an unknown creature, at least to his untrained eyes. After he moved in for a closer look, he realized that he had been way off target. It wasn't a strange animal after all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, we have to be honest about what happened next. Hunter didn't see human beings so much as profit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He would later spin the story by telling people that the King of Siam had ordered the execution of these brothers, and that what he did next was an effort to save them. But all you really have to do is read about the years that would follow to understand Hunter's true purpose, whether or not the King had actually done that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hunter worked at it for five long years, but eventually managed to secure the brothers for a journey out of the country. Maybe he had to get their parents' permission, or perhaps he had to win the king over. But soon enough, the 17-year-old brothers, Chang and Eng, were on their way to America.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Upon arrival in Boston, the conjoined twins were presented to a collection of physicians who spent time examining them. Local newspapers published articles about them, and then, after putting plans together, Hunter took them on tour.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those tours worked as you might expect. The route would be planned out and then ads would be placed in newspapers of all the towns they planned to stop in. Then Chang and Eng would board a train and city by city they would get a small tour of America, while giving America a glimpse of themselves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hunter, of course, made money every step of the way. From what I can tell, tickets to see the brothers typically cost a quarter, equivalent to about $7 today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their shows made heavy use of Asian stereotypes in clothing and of course highlighted the physical uniqueness that the brothers shared. And for just about everyone, it was the first time in their lives they had ever witnessed conjoined twins firsthand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chang and Aang did alright for themselves too. They didn't earn as much as Hunter, of course, but they saved up. A decade after their tour began, they settled into the American dream. Well, the American dream of the South in the decades before the Civil War.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They bought neighboring farms in North Carolina, and while their bodies were permanently joined together, they managed to divide their time between the two homes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They also married. To a pair of sisters, in fact. Not twins, mind you, but honestly, that might have been a bit too on the nose. And between the two of them, they fathered 21 children. Which, of course, opens up a lot of questions, but I'll let you ponder those on your own.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 1860, the brothers signed a deal with legendary promoter P.T. Barnum. The tour he took them on was brief, though, because the rumblings of war were beginning to spread throughout the nation. Soon enough, the Civil War erupted, and when it was over, Chang and Eng's lives were in disarray.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Part of it was simply the economy. War had brought much of the country to a standstill for years. And it made it hard for farmers everywhere. But the bigger problem that the brothers faced was the same one that thousands of others did across the South as well. You see, they had operated their farms through slave labor. And when the war was over, that forced help was gone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Desperate to rebuild their fortunes, they went on tour again, and even traveled to Europe to see new audiences. But they were older by then, and the traveling life was a lot harder on their bodies, even more of a challenge because of their unique condition. So after about a decade of touring, they headed home to call it quits.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it was on that trip home from Europe that Chang suffered a stroke, and as a result, he found himself completely paralyzed. Which is a challenge for anyone, but when you're permanently joined to your brother's side, that's a bigger problem. And then problems began to compound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In January of 1874, he contracted bronchitis and was put on bed rest. But that meant that Aang was right there with him for it all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Still, they were brothers, and while they didn't always get along, they faced challenges together as a team. So Aang patiently waited for Chang to recover, spending most of that time at Chang's farmhouse.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On January 15th, feeling much improved, the brothers made the short trip to Aang's house and spent their first night there sitting upright in front of the fire. The following night, Aang convinced his brother to sleep in the bed, and the pair dozed off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when morning arrived, it was discovered that Chang had passed away in his sleep. He had been 62 years old.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Aang would hold on for a couple more hours, but soon passed away himself. It's said that upon learning of Chang's death, Aang sighed and declared, Well, then I am going too. And that he did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But even in death, the journey wasn't over for the brothers. It seems they had one last tour to take.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thanks to the freezing temperatures of January, their bodies remained intact long enough for the College of Physicians in Philadelphia to secure permission to conduct their autopsy. So they were placed on a train and sent north, arriving in the middle of February.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that autopsy answered many questions. It provided doctors with enough evidence to suggest that the brothers might have survived separation. Although in the 1870s, that surgery would still have been pretty risky. And they learned that it was a blood clot that had taken Chang's life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what they weren't able to learn was what ultimately killed Aang.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The brothers shared a liver and the prevailing theories centered around that and the risk of blood poisoning when a living person is connected to decaying tissue. But nothing definitive was ever nailed down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with research by Michelle Muto and music by Chad Lawson. Lore is much more than just a podcast. There is a book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more Lore in your life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also make two other podcasts, Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities and Unobscured, and I think you'd enjoy both. Each one explores other areas of our dark history ranging from bite-sized episodes to season-long dives into a single topic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can learn more about both of those shows and everything else going on over in one central place, theworldoflore.com slash now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can also follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. When you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not in the usual sense at least. No, Hugh Draper had been arrested. And during his weeks imprisoned inside those cold stone walls, he noticed the graffiti left behind by past inmates, carved into the rock with whatever crude implements they could find. So Hugh Draper began to add his own to the collection.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He carved two pieces of artwork, actually, both of which still survive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first is an astrological chart, a thick ring with 12 smaller circles forming points along its path, and a spider's web of criss-crossing lines that connected each one of those to the others. And around it is what looks like a stone spreadsheet, filled with numbers and symbols. And the second carving was of an astrological globe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are odd carvings for a number of reasons, not least of which because they were highly incriminating. You see, Hugh Draper had been arrested for sorcery, and although he denied the charges early on, it's clear from his carvings that he knew much more than he was letting on. In fact, it's hard to imagine how they could have helped his case.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the worlds of literature and pop culture, magicians have typically been the hero. From Merlin to Gandalf and everyone in between, so many of our stories have leaned on the powers of the Almighty Sorcerer. But that hasn't always been the case. In fact, for a very long time, those magicians were feared and hated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not because they were seen as charlatans, although that was sometimes true. And not because they were viewed as practitioners of some new and dangerous cult, since magicians had been around for thousands of years. No, they were feared for a much more simple reason.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because just about everyone was convinced that their powers were real.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where does magic come from? For some of us, it's not a question we've ever really stepped back and asked. For others, mostly fantasy authors, it's the question at the heart of the entire adventure. But in the general historical sense, the question, where does magic come from, has a surprising answer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first magicians that we know of, at least, came from the world of Zoroastrianism. That's the name of one of the most ancient and continuously practiced religions in the world, originating from the area now known as Iran.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While the religion itself dates back to at least 2000 BCE, it's named after the 6th century BCE prophet Zoroaster. But even if none of that sounds familiar to you, you would immediately recognize the word for their priests. The Magi.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Zoroastrianism involves a lot of familiar elements. Judgment after death, a heaven and a hell, and the concept of free will.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And right at the center of it all is the balance between good and evil, represented by two powerful figures, Ahura Mazda on the light side, and the desert demon Araman on the dark side. And this duality helped reinforce later ideas, like the Christian Devil, sometimes known as Mephistopheles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those magi spread their teachings. In the Greek world, they were known as magis. And I think it's pretty clear how those words have been passed down to us today as the word magic. But it was really in the medieval world that magicians truly flourished.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, it's important to keep in mind that for centuries, magic was everywhere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Midwives and monks, priests and physicians, scholars and scientists, any of these people could be, and often were, viewed as practitioners of magic. For a very long time, many medicinal practices involved natural magic, where herbal remedies were applied alongside incantations from sacred texts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And at the core of a lot of this was that idea of good and evil. Some of the magic was tolerated and even appreciated because of its helpful nature, while other branches of it were shunned or even outlawed. People acknowledged the ancient power these magicians possessed, but they were also anxious about the dangers it might invite.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In medieval Europe, there were officially seven types of magic that could be practiced, and their names mostly make sense to this day. Geomancy, Hydromancy, Aeromancy, and Pyromancy were concerned with earth, water, wind, and fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chiromancy and scapulomancy were fortune-telling methods that focused on the lines of the palm of the hand or the shape of a person's shoulder bones, respectively.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if you're counting, that's only six. The final one, it seems, was the most feared of the bunch. Black magic. This was often bundled under the umbrella of necromancy and usually involved communication with the dead and summoning spirits. It was dark magic because it involved an area of life that most people avoided.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Death, but also because it brushed up against the one thing that medieval Europeans feared above all else. The Devil.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And hovering outside this list of seven realms of magic was the equally ancient practice of alchemy. With some of its oldest roots found in China before spreading westward to places like Egypt, Greece, and Rome, alchemy was a world that was so mysterious and so secretive that it was often assumed to be equal parts magical and evil.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And look, I know that's a lot of information to have thrown at you. A lot of words and cultures and things you won't remember in a few minutes. And that's okay. But I'm telling you all of this for a larger reason. And here it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the oldest beliefs in the world is the idea that some people can wield supernatural powers to help or harm their communities. And at the same time, one of the oldest occupations in the world, aside from hunting and farming, was that of the magician.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But by the time the Renaissance began, right around the end of the 14th century, more and more of that magical world was becoming forbidden. After all, that's why Hugh Draper, our innkeeper from Bristol, found himself a prisoner in the Salt Tower in London.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More and more, magic was becoming evil, and society was punishing those who broke the rules.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that didn't stop people from doing it anyway. In fact, the pages of history are filled with stories of brave individuals who broke the mold and left their mark on the world through the forbidden practice of the magical arts. And their power, it seems, was frightening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone has heard of Merlin. Whether it's the traditional Arthurian legends or modern spins on it through television, film, and the printed page, he's one of the cornerstones of the entire concept of magicians. But he's also a work of fiction, which doesn't help us out that much, does it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the Merlin of Japan was a very real person. That's what historians call Abe no Seimei, a man who lived and worked in the latter half of the 10th century. He was what the Japanese called an Anmi-Oji, a wizard who served a number of Japan's emperors during his lifetime. And his powers were legendary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It said that Abe Noseme inherited his gifts from his mother, who was skilled at fortune telling and divination.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, maybe it was because of his lofty position in the government, or perhaps it was just the superstitious nature of the people around him, but it was believed that his mother was actually a type of spirit known as a kitsune. But what is clear is that he earned a massive amount of sway over the emperor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Legend says that Abe Noseme was killed by a powerful rival who stole his magical texts. Later, after he was resurrected, he hunted down the rival that had killed him and took back his book for himself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yes, stories of resurrecting wizards might smack a bit too much of fantasy, but his legacy was so powerful that within a century of his death, the Abe clan was in charge of the government's official wizard department, the Anmianyo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Across Europe, there were a number of magicians that I've mentioned here in the past. People like Paracelsus, the Swiss astrologer, botanist, and physician who dabbled in alchemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Paracelsus actually created an entire language known as the alphabet of the Magi, which he used to summon healing spirits. Whether or not it worked, his talents for curing sick patients was known all over Europe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In England, there was John Dee. Advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, Dee was obsessed with learning the secrets of the universe from angels in his dreams. And his apprentice and eventual rival, Edward Kelly, built his own reputation as a powerful sorcerer, even being knighted by the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, for his achievements in alchemy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But another of the lesser-known historical wizards was Rabbi Chaim Samuel Jacob Falk, who worked in London in the middle of the 1700s.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Famous for being a powerful practitioner of the Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah, Falk was said to be able to go long periods of time without food or water, and could use the names of God and the angels to perform amazing feats of magic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just like John Dee, Falk was obsessed with his own dreams, and he kept a journal of all the arcane knowledge that he learned from them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Countless legends surround his life, although it's difficult to separate out the truth from the fiction. Plus, there's a good amount of antisemitism in them, which casts them all in a suspicious light. Still, he made a powerful impact on the Jewish community in London.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then there was Alphonse-Louis Constant, a French magician who became famous for his theories of what he called transcendental magic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Working under the name Eliphas Levi, his ideas focused on our place in the universe and helping people to navigate it. And if you've ever used modern tarot cards, you have him to thank for making the modern design as popular as it is today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, it would be easy to think of historical sorcerers as individuals who lived hundreds of years ago. And in general, yes, that's correct. But one of the most infamous students of magic passed away as recently as 1947.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alastair Crowley, much like John Dee and Edward Kelly, was born in England. And while some of his interests seem very modern today, like his obsession with sex magic and secret societies, he never lost sight of his magical roots.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's said that he regularly communicated with spirits from Egypt and claimed that it was the Egyptian god Horus who gifted him with the title of prophet. In fact, scholars today view Crowley's approach to magic as something more akin to a religion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which sort of brings the journey full circle, echoing back to the Magi, those magician priests of ancient Zoroastrianism.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All of the people I've mentioned were influential. All of them were surrounded by legends of great power, and all of them are remembered by historians as famous wizards in their own right. But at the end of the day, there are few who can hold a candle to one individual.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Partly because of his reputation and the deeds that were attributed to him. And partly because of his impact on our views of what a sorcerer actually is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like most famous wizards, we don't know a lot about his early years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Johann Georg would later claim that he was born when the sun and Jupiter were conjunct in the sign of Taurus, which admittedly isn't very helpful to most of us. But looking at the years he was active and the astronomical data, he was most likely born in 1478. Where?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, that's another mystery. Some think his hometown was a German village outside Heidelberg called Heldstadt. Most, though, are convinced that it's a town 75 miles to the south called Nittlingen, and there's a museum there today in his honor. All we can say for sure is that Johann was born in Germany in the late 15th century, and that's about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 1506, he pops up on the historical record, where he's recorded performing magical feats and telling fortunes for those who request him. And then just a year later, he is mentioned in a letter by a prominent religious leader, Abbot Johannes Trithemius. His words aren't kind, but they give us a solid glimpse into the man Johann Georg had become.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At just 28 years old, Johan had already made waves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That man about whom you wrote to me, the cranky abbot wrote, who dares to call himself the Prince of Necromancers, is a wandering vagrant, a driveler, and a cheat, who deserves to be punished with a whip that he may not lightly dare to publicly profess that which is abominable against the Holy Church.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Clearly the old abbot wasn't interested in pulling punches, but the word to focus on in his critical review of the man was necromancy. It seems that after working his way through Germany performing small magic tricks and divination for a growing fanbase, Johann Georg had acquired a darker reputation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The unhappy Abbot Trithemius goes on to lay out his crimes in perfect detail.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It reads like some sort of fantasy version of a LinkedIn profile. Honestly, all it lacks is a photo of Yusid or the blue holding a birch staff and a sword. But even though Atrithymia seems to have hated the man, Johann managed to keep traveling and growing in power. Some of his early reputation was scholarly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Throughout the 1530s, professors and physicians praised Johann Geyer for his skill in the realms of astrology and medicine. But he was also becoming known for some less mundane accomplishments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For example, it's said that the man had traveled to Venice and attempted to fly from one of the tall church towers there. He didn't float off into the sky, but he also didn't die when he collided with the ground below, and that made him a hero to many.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To his critics though, it hinted at a darker power. But I'll get to that in a moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another of my favorite stories about him finds Johann in prison somewhere in Europe. Like many early 16th century jails, he had been denied just about everything other than stale bread and dirty water. But a conversation with the visiting chaplain offered him a tempting opportunity because the chaplain carried wine with him in case he needed to offer inmates the Eucharist.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Johan spoke up and made a deal with the chaplain. Give me the wine and I'll teach you how to shave your face without using a blade.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Curious, the chaplain agreed, handing over the wine in exchange for a small bottle containing a magic salve. After applying it to his face though, the chaplain screamed in horror and then fell to the ground and writhed in pain as the salve ate away at his flesh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One more example, mostly because I just can't get enough of this guy. It's said that he once stood before a crowd of people at a party and dazzled them with his magic. In the midst of the show, he conjured up actual grapevines loaded with heavy bunches of ripe fruit, and clearly each of the guests wanted to cut them off and start enjoying them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just before the people started cutting the grapes free of the vines, Johan waved his hand and the magical fruit disappeared in a puff of smoke.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Confused, the party-goers looked at their own hands. What they had been holding hadn't really been the grapes at all, but their own noses, and they had been moments away from slicing them off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Naturally, his reputation as a trickster who used magic to harm others only reinforced the stories about him. A lot of them centered on that term the old abbot had used to describe him. Johann Georg, they claimed, was a necromancer. And the thing about that word at the time was that it came with a very specific connotation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, theologians of Johann's day didn't actually believe that a necromancer could raise the dead. That was a power only God could wield. Instead, they believed that when those bodies stood back up and walked, they were being worn like costumes by demons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Put all the pieces together and a necromancer was nothing more than someone who worked in partnership with the devil. In fact, the rumors went deeper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems that sometime around 1514, Johann Georg had grown bored with his lot in life, and so he decided to summon the devil in order to ask for greater powers. Armed with a wand and a spell book, Johann retreated into the woods of Wittenberg and located a crossroad, a traditional location for interactions with the devil.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There he drew a magic circle and began his dark ceremony. It said that the air around him filled with a powerful storm. Strong winds, thunder, and flashes of lightning filled the night sky.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then, in an instant, everything went quiet, only to be replaced by the sound of music, as if a symphony were playing off in the distance. And that's when the devil appeared.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Johann referred to him as Mephistopheles, a common name for the devil in Germany at the time. And then they began to bargain. Johann wanted power unlike any other wizard of the age. He also wanted Mephistopheles to be at his side day and night, caring for his every need. And amazingly, the devil agreed to those terms.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But in exchange, Johan had to give up something incredibly valuable. His soul.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Actually, the devil requested both his soul and his body, insisting that they become his property at the moment of Johann's death. And despite the eternal implications, the man agreed. So all of those stories of his amazing powers and evil trickery, well, they start to make a lot more sense in the light of this dark deal, don't they?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Johann Georg died sometime around 1540. It's said that he had holed himself up in a hotel in Germany where he was working on an alchemy project. It was something he had done for decades and he was far from a novice at it. But that day, something went wrong. An explosion shook the hotel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the rubble was cleared away, they found the man's room utterly destroyed and scattered amongst the broken furniture and crumbled walls were small bloody pieces of the controversial figure who was believed by many to be the most powerful sorcerer in the world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's honestly difficult to imagine folklore without magic. Whether we're talking about people with mysterious powers that protect their community or otherworldly forces that fill people with dread, magic is one of the main tent poles of the world of folklore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Obviously, magic is there to fill in the blanks, to explain how mysterious things were able to happen, or to help shed light on the evil deeds of dangerous individuals. Magic ties so many of our beloved stories together with a shimmering thread that adds beauty and wonder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So naturally, there are tales about people who use magic for their own gain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the truth is, you don't have to believe in magic to see its value. It entertains us, delights us, and forces us to dream of a world where things that aren't possible suddenly are. And that's the sort of inspiration that drives humans to learn and grow and invent new things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fiction can be a seed that grows into something real. A quick glance at the sci-fi of the 1960s should be proof enough of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Johann Georg would be talked about for a very long time after his death, thanks to the attraction of all that magic. New books were attributed to him posthumously, and others wrote volumes about him. There were rumors about his corpse, legends about his exploits, and most importantly, constant retellings of his deal with the devil.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it would take over three centuries for German writer Johann Wolfgang van Goethe to write the definitive story about him. It was a fictional play, scripted in two parts, and is widely considered to be the most famous work in all of German literature.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And while the names and locations were changed when he wrote it, the main character used the last name of the man he was based on, Johann Georg Faust.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But Faust wasn't the only magician in history to leave us wondering where the line between fact and fiction really sits. In fact, another example is one we discussed at the beginning of our journey. The Bristol innkeeper who was thrown into a London prison. Hugh Draper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Draper, if you recall, had been arrested for sorcery, and that sort of thing doesn't happen without evidence. He was asked about his magical books, but Draper told the authorities that he had gotten rid of them long before. He was, after all, just an innkeeper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they didn't buy it, and tossed him into a cell in the salt tower to wait for whatever punishment was deemed appropriate. But that punishment never came.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's no record of his verdict or punishment, and not even a passing reference to his execution. Hugh Draper seems to have stepped into the Tower of London, and then vanished entirely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now sure, we could probably just blame poor record keeping. Maybe he was hauled out and hanged from the trader's gate. Or perhaps he was quietly executed in a less public location. The crown could do whatever it wanted, after all. But not writing it down feels very odd, doesn't it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or maybe Hugh Draper found a different way out. What if all his carvings and symbols were part of his plan to escape, drawing, so to speak, on all that arcane knowledge that he had locked away in his head? He was a sorcerer in the era of witch hunts, and his future certainly didn't look bright.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How he escaped his prison in the Tower of London we will never know for sure. But I desperately want to believe it had something to do with the very thing most of humanity has been obsessed with since the dawn of civilization. Magic


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's clear that people like Johann Georg Faust were cut from a different cloth, mixing chemicals in their study night after night, performing allusions for nobles and paying audiences, telling fortunes with the help of elaborate astrological charts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were the rock stars of their day, loved by the public, sneered at by respectable scholars, and always surrounded by controversy. But they also pushed science forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Stick around after this brief sponsor break, and I'll tell you about one more bizarre yet brilliant sorcerer that should never be forgotten.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He called himself a doctor, but that wasn't actually true. He had never received a degree from a university in any subject matter at all. And it wasn't even an honorary doctorate. It was just a title that he gave himself to garner respect from those around him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Still, Dr. Brand wasn't such a sludge. After working as a merchant, he transitioned to being a pharmacist. A job that required a sharp mind and a good memory. He might not have had a degree to point to on the wall, but he was certainly gifted and ambitious. And after getting married, he was suddenly wealthy too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His new bride had brought a substantial dowry with her into their marriage, and seeing his chance, he quit his day job to chase after his ultimate goal, to create the Philosopher's Stone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now most of us have heard plenty about it, so I won't go into detail. But suffice to say, a magical substance that could transform common elements into gold while also bestowing the gift of immortality? Well, it was hard to say no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The rest of Brand's life was one long chain of chemical experiments. He wasn't the only person looking for the fabled substance, but each new player brought their own unique spin on the search, and Brand was an observer. He noticed how many of the other alchemists were obsessed with water and the human body, and decided to combine them into one big solution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The answer to the secret of the philosopher's stone he believed was hidden right inside each of us. So he started collecting urine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, before you laugh, think about what it is. It flows and behaves just like water, which is its main component. And it usually looks golden. And gold, of course, is what they were all after. So Brand started gathering all the urine he could get his hands on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's no definitive proof of where he got it, but we do know he needed a lot of it. Some say he approached the German army with his unusual request, while others believe he hit up taverns all over the city, since beer drinkers produce the most golden urine he could find.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are even rumors that he simply asked his wife and her friends to pitch in. Honestly though, it was probably a mix of all of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He experimented with urine for a very long time, but eventually discovered something and then refined his method. It was a step-by-step chemical process that worked something like this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First, place all the urine out in the sun for several weeks, because the sun in alchemy is strongly associated with gold. Second, boil that urine down until it reduces to a thick syrup. After that, a red oil will form on the surface of the liquid, and that needs to be siphoned off and saved for later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Next, let the substance cool down, at which point it separates into two layers. A thick black porous part, and a salty lower part. And yes, in order for them to know that it was salty, they probably had to taste it. Which, yea, I know. Thankfully, that was the part that they tossed aside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Step five, that black spongy material was then mixed with the red oil that had been saved earlier, and then put back on the heat until it started smoking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When exposed to the air, it instantly caught on fire and burned bright and fast, but inside the jar it stayed intact and gave off a steady, never-ending pale green light. What he had discovered wasn't the philosopher's stone, but it was still significant. It was the element known today as phosphorus.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, Brand knew that he had found something magical, but he honestly didn't know what to do with it. He ended up just using a glass vial filled with the substance as a book light, reading and studying by its soft glow. But as time went on, his funds dried up, reduced to nothing but a mixture of frustration and failure. And desperate times called for desperate measures.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Enig Brand, the self-proclaimed doctor and failed pursuer of the philosopher's stone, was forced to sell his discovery to some of his more scholarly acquaintances.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At first, he simply sold the phosphorus itself, hoping that by keeping the recipe for it a secret, he might still turn his metaphorical lead into real spendable gold. But soon, even that wasn't enough. In the end, he sold the instructions and set his pale light free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ennigbrand died in obscurity, broke and broken. And while he is still known today as the first to discover phosphorus, it was the educated, degree-holding scholars who get much of the credit for refining and exploring its uses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with research by Ally Steed, and music by Chad Lawson. Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's a book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more Lore in your life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also make and executive produce a whole bunch of other podcasts, including Erin Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities and Strange Arrivals, all of which I think you'd enjoy. My production company, Grim and Mild, specializes in shows that sit at the intersection of the dark and historical.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can learn more about all of those shows and everything else going on over in one central place. GrimAndMild.com


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can also follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have you ever held something that's priceless? As in literally held an object between your fingers that you knew with absolute certainty was valuable beyond measure? I have, and I want to tell you about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now clearly there are a number of factors that can make something valuable. A great example would be the coin known as the 1913 Liberty Head Nickel. As far as experts know, only five were ever minted, making them incredibly rare. Which is why the last time one went up for auction, it sold for 4.5 million dollars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, most of the copies that people talk about were printed by a guy named John Dunlip. And they are the ones that people dream of finding behind framed photos or hidden away in an attic. To date, there are 26 known Dunlip broadsides. So, yea. Pretty rare.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But then there are the copies made by Boston printer Ezekiel Russell. His are all pretty much the same as the Dunlop broadsides, with the big heading followed by the smaller font of the main text. Except, there are fewer of his, making them harder to get.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that day in 2018, I got to hold an enigma. It's the only known Russell broadside, printed with two portraits at the top. Just to the left of the heading are two tall ovals, each containing a profile view of a man in a uniform and a wig.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One is Israel Putnam, a revolutionary war hero known for the Battle of Bunker Hill. And the other is a guy named George Washington. And if the date is accurate, it makes this the earliest known woodcut of Washington to appear in print. So like I said, priceless.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Humans are very good at assigning value to things. The more rare, the higher the significance. But truly valuable things have one other quality in common. A dash of the unexpected.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when it comes to history, those are the stories that deserve to be told. Because they take us off the beaten path, put us off balance, and give us a fresh view of something we thought we understood. And in the process, they offer a perspective that's more than a little disturbing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If there's one European power that's managed to walk a different path, it's Sweden. And that's not just because they managed to stay neutral through both world wars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Centuries ago, it was the Swedish Vikings who were responsible for a lot of early exploration by sea. A Swedish scientist named Alfred Nobel gave us dynamite, but also the Nobel Prize. And of course, we can't forget the 1970s pop sensation ABBA.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not that the country hasn't had the typical European experience. Like all the kingdoms around them, they too suffered through the Black Death in the mid-1300s. They battled with neighbors and ruled over some of them for a time. And then they did their fair share of invading as well. But not everything followed the European example.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everywhere you look throughout European history, you can see the scar tissue from witch trials. And I know I've covered many of those stories here from different angles. From the biggest in Scotland and England, to key players like Matthew Hopkins and John Kincaid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what's amazing is that despite centuries of panic and tragedy everywhere else, you can't find that's equal in Sweden.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The biggest reason probably had to do with the legal system there. For a very long time, witchcraft and sorcery weren't considered serious crimes. It wouldn't be until 1350 that it was added to the list of capital crimes, but even then the penalty was only enforced in cases where murder was involved. Two centuries later though, something changed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Swedish Reformation began around 1527, and with it came a newfound hatred toward anything related to witchcraft. But compared to the trials that took place in Scotland and England, the new wave of fanaticism still didn't move the needle much. During the 16th century, over 100 trials took place, but the total number of related deaths was just 10.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, even one death would have been too many. But ten was a rounding error compared to Scotland. The other outcome of this new surge in trials was adjustments to the Swedish laws concerning witchcraft. And by 1608, a new act was passed that applied the death penalty to all cases, not just the ones ending in murder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Religious fear laid the groundwork, like a summer drought turning all the grass to brittle kindling. So the arrival of more strict laws acted like a spark, and as you can imagine, it could only end badly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It all began with an event that took place in 1617 in the town of Finnspong, far to the north. There, the land was ruled over by John, Duke of Ostrogothia, and his wife, the Princess Maria Elizabeth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were a couple of their time, raised in a world with a little more fear and a little less patience. But it was really their private priest who was their darkest weapon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His name was Claudius Pritz, and from the moment he settled into his role working for the Duke and Princess, he flexed his ideological muscles. Early on he accused a woman of trying to enchant his employers, and to defend them, he had her tried, sentenced, and executed by burning her at the stake.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's said that as she waited for the flames to find their way from the kindling to her feet, she reached out and grabbed hold of the priest's robes and nearly pulled him into the fire with her. It was only thanks to the quick thinking of the executioner who reached out and grasped the priest by the arm that the man was saved.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it served as proof to Pritz that the witches were far too dangerous to turn a blind eye to, so he stepped up his efforts. Under his influence, the duke passed his own regional witchcraft law that superseded the kings, effectively entering cheat codes into the system to make it easier to hunt and kill them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the time the Finnspong witch trials came to an end, nine women had been killed, eight by execution, and one due to neglect while sitting in prison. According to the legends about the trials, that execution was unique among the countless stories I read over the years, and utterly terrifying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Each of the women were led into the forest, most likely in the dead of night, and roughly guided through the trees until they came to the edge of a cliff. Looking over the precipice at the ground far below, the flames of a great bonfire could be seen, like a pulsing burning eye. And then, one by one, they were pushed off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The rest, well, you don't need me to tell you how that would end for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One last legend about the trials though. It's said that some of the women managed to escape and ran off into the woods where they found shelter in a deep cavern that they turned into their new home. Over time, the cave became known as the Sorceress Tarn and it's been said that those who visit it can still hear the voices of the women crying out, I am innocent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bertrude could walk on water. At least that's what young Matz Nielsen claimed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It all started with an argument while the pair were out guarding a flock of sheep one day in 1668. Gertrude Sven's daughter, who was 12 years old at the time, apparently got in a fight over a piece of bread with Matz, who was a couple of years younger than her. She then hit him in the arm and ran off to tend to the sheep, leaping over a stream.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But from where Moth sat, that's not what it looked like. No, he was pretty sure that Gertrude walked on the water, and he told his father as much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a ridiculous story, but the young boy's conviction was so powerful that his father took him to see the local priest where they shared his encounter. And that was the beginning of everything to follow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Young Gertrude was quickly rounded up and brought in for questioning. I think we need to believe that the interrogation was a frightening experience though because almost instantly Gertrude passed the buck. The only reason she had been able to do it, she claimed, was because the maid who worked in her home had taught her how.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That made, a woman named Marit John's daughter denied the accusation, but the story was just too vivid to ignore. Gertrude claimed that six years earlier, in 1664, Marit had taken her to an island off the eastern coast, referred to by locals as Blokula.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there they participated in a witch's Sabbath and met the devil, who gave her a magic oil that could help her walk on water.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was all fantasy, of course. But in the 1660s, people weren't so quick to dismiss stories like this. There was the possibility, however slim, that it could be true. So they listened, and then another child came forward, boy named Eric Erickson, and he backed it all up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had seen Gruchud and Marat there at Blokula, along with other children who had been kidnapped. And that seemed to be enough for the authorities.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Marit was hauled into court where Gertrude and the other children lined up to give testimony. Even Marit's younger sister showed up to contribute. At one point in the trial, Marit, a grown woman, looked around the room and scolded the children, declaring them to be forsaken by God and headed down a dark road. When the children cried in response,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They earned the court's sympathy, and when they pointed to the audience and named other women who had joined Marit in her witchcraft, the court believed them. By the end of the day, ten new suspects from the town of Mora had been added to the list.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it spiraled out from there. By spring the following year there were 22 women and one man defending themselves against accusations of witchcraft. And all of them had been accused by children.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Soon after, 18 of them were sentenced to death, and despite the national court revoking 11 of those sentences, the remaining seven were executed on May 19th of 1669.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I really want to tell you that it was over. But I think you know that it's never that easy. Never that cut and dried. Social panic, conspiracy theories, and dangerous beliefs that fly in the face of common sense have never gone away, and they always seem to gain enough traction to keep going. And so did this mess.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, one of the things about the Mora witch trials that frustrated the authorities was how the king had stepped in and commuted a number of the sentences. They were afraid of the threat that witchcraft posed to their community, and it felt like the crown had ignored those fears.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the local government did something bold. They used their local powers to game the system, forming a witch commission that would oversee future trials in their area. And this commission gave them ultimate authority and absolute power. No more meddling by outsiders. Their word would be the final word from that point forward. And that wasn't the only change.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see, before, it was essential for the accused to confess to their crime in order for execution to even be an option. So, the Witchcraft Commission rewrote that law as well, making confession an optional part of future convictions. And because even that wasn't enough, they also lifted the rules that forbade torture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there it was. In a matter of just 50 years, Sweden went from a country seemingly immune to witchcraft panic to a place where the local authorities could send anyone to their death, whether they were accused by a handful of children or confessed themselves under the threat of torture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That panic burned through the countryside for eight years. What started out as a fabricated story by Gertrude Sven's daughter had quickly become a regional affair. But by 1674, much of the activity was centered in the area around the town of Torshokan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The priest there was a man named Laurentius Horneus, and he was an up-and-comer. Within just a few years he had gone from being a student at university to the top job in the region. By the time the witch panic rolled into town he was only 29 years old, full of a lot of idealism and enthusiasm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bad traits for someone about to oversee some witch trials.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Orneas viewed himself as part of a chosen army, tasked by God with fighting the devil. It wasn't a political view he picked from a list of possible options. This was his calling, and he was passionate about it. But that passion is also what made things so bad for everyone else. And that included the children.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One day in the fall of 1674, Horneas assigned two boys to stand outside the church doors with him as the parishioners entered for the morning service.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These were boys who claimed to be able to identify witches by invisible marks on their foreheads that only they could see. When they spotted one of these invisible marks, they would point the person out, and Horneas would add their name to his growing list of suspects.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That seemed to go smoothly enough for everyone until one of the women that the boys identified as a witch turned out to be Horneus's wife. According to the records, he slapped the boy who pointed her out, who promptly and conveniently changed his mind, claiming that the sun had blinded him for a moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wouldn't be the last time that the priest abused those children either. Many were beaten to extract confessions, while others were dipped in icy water. He even had some placed in an oven, like some sort of twisted reenactment of Hansel and Gretel, telling them that he would bake them unless they confessed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. Horneas was a monster. There's nothing I can offer that might change that. Just evil. Through and through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most of the confessions and accusations centered around that island I mentioned earlier, a place known by locals as Blokula. It was there where the devil himself was said to hold court, partly because it was so isolated that it required magical flight to reach the place. And once there, the mystery deepened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The island was covered with a massive meadow that no one was able to see the end of. But in the center of that meadow was a wall and a gate, and beyond them a smaller meadow. And at the center of that was a house which contained a long table for gatherings and meals, and a number of bedrooms for the devil and his servants.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So as the children of Torshokan accused more and more people of being witches, that island came up over and over again in their stories. By October of 1674, over 100 men and women were on the list, and the case officially moved into the courtroom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] His only proof that any of it was true were the accusations of the children and the confessions of the suspects, all given to him through torture.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a moment in time when paranoia led to the suspension of common sense. No physical evidence was necessary because one man's wild and fantastical stories were swallowed by his desperate followers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of the accused were acquitted, but it wasn't a large number. A few other women managed to slip through the executioner's grasp by pleading their bellies, in other words, claiming that they were pregnant. But that didn't always work. And a few most likely died in jail, waiting for their sentence and the date of their execution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Immediately, the sixty-five women and six men were marched outside. There, a group of men from town surrounded them with long pikes and herded them, like sheep, to a hill outside of town known as the Mountain of the Stake.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was where a massive bonfire waited for them. But before they were burned, each of the convicted were decapitated. Then their families were allowed to approach and remove their clothing and valuables, before the bodies and heads were tossed unceremoniously into the pile of wood and kindling. And then, the fire was lit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Common sense often feels a bit like an oxymoron, doesn't it? Because it's never as common as we might hope. There's the logical path, the one that we would assume everyone should take, and then there's the unexpected detour, a road that usually steers us into the arms of tragedy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In many ways, the witch trials from 17th century Sweden are just that, more witch trials. And I've already shared a number of similar cases with you over the years. But the Torsjöken witch trials are clearly different, and there's value in exploring why that is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because if we generalize and simply lump all witch trials into a single category, picking our favorite example as the only one we want to hear about, then we ignore each unique trial's contribution to the larger picture, we ignore the nuances that teach us more and more about human nature, and we ignore the many lives that were lost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The great noise would ravage on for a bit longer, but the tragedy of the Torsjöken witch trials left a massive wound in the heart of Sweden.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just two years after that horrifying execution, the king ordered every single priest in the country to stand up at the pulpits and thank God in front of all their parishioners that the witches had all been driven out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The message was pretty clear. You can stop accusing people of being witches now, because the church has said that they are all gone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a century since, the memory of the great noise has lived on through a unique celebration known as Gladpask. It's sort of a hybrid of Easter and the American idea of Halloween.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Each year in the spring, children dress up as Easter witches, wearing colorful scarves and red paint on their cheeks, and then go door to door and ask for candy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the end of the week of celebration, everything culminates at Valbora, a feast day that ends with a bonfire. And the goal? To frighten away the witches and send them off to the magical island of Blokula. But not all kids have had it easy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Remember the two boys who helped the priest by standing outside his church and identifying supposed witches by the invisible marks on their foreheads?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They may have operated under orders from Horneas, and even the threat of physical abuse, but in the eyes of their community, they played a key role in the deaths of their brothers and sisters, their mothers and fathers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They became a pariah, hated by almost everyone for what they did. And while there's no record of who was ultimately responsible, we know how their story ends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The role of children in The Great Noise is unique among stories of witch trials. In a day and age when adult males were often the only people with social standing, it's amazing to see just how many lives were lost on the word of minors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But before we call it a day, I want to highlight one specific boy. Because his story shows us a side of witch trials that most people have never seen. A side that's dark, and evil, and full of so much tragedy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jonathan Johan Gris was born in 1663, making him just five years old when the great noise began. Which means that by the time it was finished, he had lived two-thirds of his life under the power of witchcraft panic. And it made an impression on him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jonathan was the son of a shoemaker from the coastal city of Javle, about 100 miles north of Stockholm. Not much is known about his earliest years, but it's clear that the stories of the great noise made their way into his home, and something about them deeply connected with him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every child needs a hero, someone to look up to and emulate, and for Jonathan that hero was becoming more and more common as the great noise spread.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He became enamored with the boys who served the priests by pointing out witches that only they could see. Orneas used them, as we've already learned, but they could be found in many other communities as well. They were known as the Tail Boys and while their contributions to the witch panic harmed many people, it gave them something valuable. Fame.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And being an impressionable, naive child, Jonathan wanted the same thing, without ever considering the consequences.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When the great noise arrived in Yavle, he became the star witness, pointing his finger at a number of women who he claimed were witches, and his own mother was one of them. He accused her of abducting him and taking him to the witch's island where he met the devil and saw many local women taking part in the witch's Sabbath.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When that accusation led to his mother's execution, one would assume he recognized the mistake he made and changed his ways. But Jonathan wasn't that sort of boy. Instead, he was sent to live with extended family in Stockholm, where he picked right back up where he left off at home, pointing at random women and declaring them to be witches.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wasn't long before other children in town were following his example.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jonathan was earning fame and recognition for his deceitful work, and others wanted a piece of the pie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If Stockholm was unsettled before his arrival, it was soon in chaos. No one was safe, and if you happened to cross Jonathan in the wrong way, you too might find yourself on his list.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But as we've already discussed, the great noise began to die off with the execution of 71 innocent lives in Torshokan. There were a handful of other smaller trials, but it was one final trial that brought it all to an end. A trial right there in Jonathan's city of Stockholm. And it involved a woman named Malin Matt's daughter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Malon had the disadvantage of being an outsider. She was actually of Finnish descent and spoke that language better than Swedish. But she had married a Swedish man and they had two children, Anna and Maria. The trouble was, their daughters seemed to have just as much prejudice against her as her neighbors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In July of 1676, the girls accused their mother of taking them to Witch's Sabbaths, where they were forced to meet the devil.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Malon was brought in for questioning and told to confess, but she refused. In an attempt to save herself from being seen as a witch, she tried to recite the Apostles' Creed, but her poor Swedish tripped her up. To those observing, the truth was clear. She was too evil to speak those holy words.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And look, I could give you the blow-by-blow of her interrogation and trial. I could list off all the things that people claimed she had done. But those are things you've heard before. Malin's situation was just as frustrating and maddening as countless others before and after her. But the one way it differed was the involvement of children. And specifically, Jonathan Grease. He was there to make his claims.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even then, after all those years of the tail boys, few were questioning the truth about their accusations. All Jonathan had to do was nod his head and tell the court that he could see the mark of the devil on her forehead. And that was good enough for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On July 16th of 1676, Malon was found guilty and sentenced to death. After debating the method of execution they felt she deserved, should they start with torture before decapitating her and then burning her body, or should they just skip the torture altogether, they settled on a much more cruel option. Burning her alive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Malon, Matt's daughter, was the only person burned alive during the Great Noise. But she died with as much dignity as she could manage. She never confessed. She never bowed to the authorities. And according to those who were there, even when the flames had reached her body, she never screamed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Jonathan Greece? Well, in the aftermath of the panic, it became clear just how much of the blame fell on the shoulders of boys like him. It was their false accusations that emboldened communities to execute innocent people. And among that horrible, manipulative group, Jonathan was king.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the authorities did the only thing they could think of to send a message to the people that his behavior should never be copied. In November of 1676, Jonathan Greece was executed for his parts in the great noise. He was hanged, not burned.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with research by Ali Steed and music by Chad Lawson. Lore is much more than just a podcast, though. There's a book series available in bookstores and online, and two seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more Lore in your life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also make and executive produce a whole bunch of other podcasts, all of which I think you'd enjoy. My production company Grim and Mild specializes in shows that sit at the intersection of the dark and the historical.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can learn more about all of those shows and everything else going on over in one central place, GrimAndMild.com. And you can also follow this show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Just search for Lore Podcast, all one word, and then click that follow button. And when you do, say hi. I like it when people say hi. And as always, thanks for listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The story is practically legendary. It's the sort of tale that draws you in with its own special blend of intense narrative and complete horror. And once they've read it from start to finish, most people have a difficult time forgetting it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's said that a group of scientists in Russia ran an experiment in the late 1940s on a handful of political prisoners. The goal was to test the limits of the human body when faced with a lack of sleep. And to help them in that quest, these scientists used an experimental drug.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The five prisoners were locked in an airtight chamber, and then a prototype gas was added to the ventilation system. And it seemed to work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Five days into the experiment, all of the prisoners were still awake and alert. But something was different. Their minds were beginning to crack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Without exploring the horrific and gory details, everything came to an end over two weeks later when the prisoners were discovered to have lost all touch with reality.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their madness even drove them to engage in cannibalism on themselves. And when the researchers intervened, they found that their subjects wanted nothing more than to remain awake forever. Attempting to chemically induce sleep only succeeded in killing them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like I said before, this story is one of those perfect blends of history and horror. But there's a problem. None of it is true.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It turns out the tale is nothing more than an urban legend, born not inside a Russian research facility in the 1940s, but as a story published in 2010 on the website known as Creepypasta, which is equal parts disappointing and a relief.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The stories we tell have a way of sticking around, regardless of whether they're true or not. They pass from one listener to the next, sort of like a virus, until an entire community seems to be infected.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And no matter where you grew up or what sort of culture you feel at home within, there's a good chance you've heard a few of those tales yourself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most of the time, we're safe to ignore them, or at least enjoy them for the entertainment they provide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's story and nothing more and that's okay. We need story. As a community we depend on it to teach us and bind us together. Story is good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to dismiss every single local legend as a fabrication would be like assuming every single lottery ticket is only going to earn you disappointment. Because there is always a chance, however slim, that you'll strike it rich.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Call it the birthplace of a legend or simply the setting to which many of the details are tied. A location has a way of grounding a tale and making it feel more alive, more present. And there are few places that fit that bill more than the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center outside of Washington DC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are two ways we can view the 6600 acres of land that make up the Research Center's property.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On one level, it's nothing more than a Department of Agriculture facility that was created to help advance the science of farming and livestock management. It's been doing that for over a century too, having been set up in 1910.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The land contains pastures, forests, fields, and home for farm animals and is dotted with 800 individual structures. But there's more to it than that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The property that's owned and operated by BARC, the acronym by which most people know the research facility today, is off limits to the general public. Those who have been there claim that many of the hundreds of buildings scattered around the mass of woodland are ancient, dilapidated farmhouses, giving the entire place a bit of a creepy vibe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But anytime the public is locked out of a space, it tends to invite rumors, much the same way Area 51 has over the years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For bark, those rumors date back to the early days, when the original name for the facility was the experiment farm of the dairy and animal husbandry divisions. In other words, the breeding of livestock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if the stories are true, the researchers there explored more than farm animals. And it all started with a local doctor named Stephen Fletcher.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The early stories suggest that Fletcher was a researcher at Barke in the early 1950s. He'd actually been raised in the area and married his childhood sweetheart, Jenny. But it was a marriage that wasn't fated to last too long.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 1952, Fletcher's wife suddenly became ill, and before anyone could discover what was plaguing her, she fell into a coma.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The local hospital was unable to find a solution, and neither were Dr. Fletcher's contacts at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Desperate for a cure, it's said that he turned to his own work at Bark to find an answer. And to do that, he enlisted the help of an assistant named William Lotsford.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now this is where the story takes a left turn, so I want to warn you that odd things are about to happen. Because for some reason, Fletcher's research involved combining the DNA of a goat with that of a human.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I realize that's not the most normal thing you're going to hear today, and for the life of me, I can't figure out how that was supposed to help his comatose wife, but if we're going to follow along with the legend, this is the road we need to take.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of course, just like any good horror film or science fiction novel, the product of that research eventually managed to escape.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some versions of the story say that Lotsford became something less than human and fled the facility out of some sort of animal urge. Others claim it was a brand new creation that slipped out of the grasp of both researchers. Either way, it vanished into the larger bark property. And that's when the sightings began to be reported.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All gathered together, most of them center around Prince George's County. Like a lot of local legends, the stories seem to find roots in specific roads too, such as Fletchertown Road, Tucker Road, Lotsford Road, and many others. But to be honest, the locations are a lot less interesting than the things that have been sited near them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What exactly have people seen over the years? Well, it's been described as a human-like creature that stands on two legs and walks like a man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reports of the creature's height vary wildly, sometimes as short as four and a half feet, while other times close to eight feet tall.