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[Assistant] At the risk of mixing metaphors, the stories we share are a lot like pearls. They can be beautiful and attractive, but they are largely made up of the material designed to make that tiny grain of truth at the center more palatable and comforting.


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[Assistant] Stories can be entertaining and fun, or thrilling and intense, but it's always good to stop and ask, what bit of truth are they hiding?


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[Assistant] And Vancouver Island is home to many of those types of story. Whether or not the ghost of Doris Gravelin actually appears each April on that windswept golf course along the sea, the story does a fantastic job of preserving an actual event that would have otherwise been forgotten over time. Doris was real. And so was her murder.


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[Assistant] So when I read stories about mysterious sea creatures like Caddy, I have mixed feelings. Like you, I am thoroughly entertained by the notion that there are undiscovered animals out there, appearing just often enough to arouse suspicion and create rumors.


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[Assistant] But I'm also cautiously pessimistic. After all, tales of sea creatures sound a lot more like legend than fact.


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[Assistant] As I mentioned earlier, Caddy's heyday was the 1930s.


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[Assistant] While the mysterious carcass was discovered in 1937, sightings appeared in the local paper, the Victoria Daily Times, off and on for years before that. In fact, the very first time caddy is mentioned in print is in October of 1933, nearly four years prior to the discovery of those unusual remains.


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[Assistant] But if we dig deeper for the truth, there just might be something at the center of it all.


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[Assistant] You see, before Caddy got its name, and before the newspapers talked constantly about it, there was another article, published six months earlier, that may have started it all.


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[Assistant] That article wasn't published in the Victoria Daily Times, though. In fact, it wasn't even published in North America. But six months was more than enough time to allow it to find its way to the Pacific Northwest. And a community that was primed and ready by centuries of folklore.


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[Assistant] The newspaper article was written by a man named Alex Campbell for the May 2nd, 1933 issue of the Inverness Courier. It was about something weird and unusual that had been spotted in a local body of water there.


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[Assistant] A sighting that turned out to be the very first modern report of a creature that is universally known today.


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[Assistant] Vancouver Island might be one small slice of the world, but it's disproportionately filled with all sorts of amazing tales. From sea monsters and ghost towns to a whole collection of ladies in white, there are very few places one can go without bumping into stories from the past.


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[Assistant] And if you stick around after this brief sponsor break, I'll tell you about one more of my absolute favorites.


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[Assistant] He dug his fortune out of the earth. In a lot of ways, it was the same dream that had lured in so many gold prospectors to the hills of Vancouver Island. But Robert didn't dig for gold. He dug for coal.


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[Assistant] Robert Dunsmere was born in Scotland, way back in 1825. He started out his work life in coal mines operated by the Hudson Bay Company, following the work to Vancouver Island around 1851. As one mine would be exhausted, the team would pack up and move on to a new location. But life was hard, and the money wasn't good.


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[Assistant] When his contract with the company expired in 1854, he decided to stay on the island, but pursue coal mining on his own. He essentially made the leap into freelancing, and with it came all the feast and famine one might expect. But Robert stuck with it for years, hoping for the big break that would change his life.


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[Assistant] Robert had taken the day off to do some fishing, but his eyes were constantly examining his surroundings for signs of coal.


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[Assistant] And that's when he spotted it. A rich, abundant outcropping of black gold. He quickly went to the local authorities and staked his claim, taking control of a massive stretch of land. And then he got to work.


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[Assistant] Within four years, Robert's coal company represented 40% of Vancouver Island's entire industry. Two years after that, his output had tripled. A decade later, his annual profit was close to $12 million in American money. To put it simply, Robert was rich.


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[Assistant] In the late 1880s, he put some of that money to use in the construction of a new home for he and his wife Joan. His vision was to have his own Victorian mansion, the sort that Scottish nobility back home would have built, and no expense would be spared.


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[Assistant] When it was completed, the final bill was estimated to have been around half a million dollars, roughly 11 million today. It had 39 rooms, spread across 25,000 square feet of living space. Stain glass windows, ornate stonework, and an enormous oak staircase all added a level of opulence to the house that few could match.


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[Assistant] And it's absolutely stunning. Just do a search for Craigderot Castle and you'll see what I mean.


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[Assistant] But Robert never lived to see it. He passed away in April of 1889, about 17 months before construction was completed. So when his widow Joan moved in at the end of 1890, it must have been a bittersweet moment. All that beauty in space, but no Robert to share it with.


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[Assistant] But tragedy wasn't finished with the house, it seems. The architect responsible for the home, Warren Haywood Williams, also died before it was finished. And once the family moved in, that darkness came for them. Two of the couple's ten children, both daughters, passed away inside that house. And their wealth began to slowly fade away.


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[Assistant] After Joan passed away in 1908, the castle was sold to a developer who parceled off the 28 acres of land for new homes. One lucky builder won the mansion in a raffle of all things, but almost immediately lost his fortune in a bad business deal.


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[Assistant] And it was hard for the people of Victoria to watch a story like that play out and not imagine the place to be cursed.


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[Assistant] Today, Craig Dorot Castle is a museum, and thousands of visitors walk through its many rooms and climb those beautiful oak stairs every year. But if the rumors are true, tourists aren't the only thing roaming the halls there.


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[Assistant] Many visitors to the place have reported seeing the ghostly figure of a young woman in the basement of the mansion. They say she doesn't move or speak.


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[Assistant] But simply stands in a corner, eyes pointed at the cold stone floor.


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[Assistant] A few people have speculated that she is Agnes, Robert's daughter who passed away shortly after him. But Agnes died before the house was completed, so how her ghost made it into the basement, we'll probably never know.


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[Assistant] Upstairs, though, on that ornate oak staircase, some visitors have seen another spectral woman. They claim that she walks the stairs between the third and fourth floors, and is typically only noticed out of the corner of their eye. When people turn their heads to get a better look, a ghostly figure is said to vanish.


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[Assistant] And look, I know it's easy to want to fill historic homes like Craigderock Castle with all sorts of tales and legends. The cold opulence and tragic past of the place almost seems to invite those types of stories in.


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[Assistant] But whether or not those reports are accurate, or that the tales of haunted basements and staircases are actually true, they certainly help us remember the people who once lived there.


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[Assistant] This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with research by Megan de Roche, 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.


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


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


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[Assistant] And you can also follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Just search for LorePodcast, 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.


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[Assistant] Most historians agree that Richard was the last of his kind.


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[Assistant] When he passed away in 1906, he took a centuries-old tradition with him to the grave. And that's more than a little fitting, considering the fact that his trade was centered around death. Richard Munslow, you see, was a sin eater.


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[Assistant] Dating back to at least the middle ages, the sin eater was a spiritual solution to a spiritual problem.


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[Assistant] While some people had the time and forethought to see a priest before death and confess their sins, those who passed away unexpectedly did not. And sudden death was probably one of the most common ways to go back then.


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[Assistant] So the role of the sin eater entered the picture to help offer peace. They would arrive shortly after death and be ushered into a room alone with the body of the deceased.


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[Assistant] Hours before, someone would have placed a piece of bread on top of the body, and sometimes a nearby cup of wine. And it was the sin-eater's job to consume those items.


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[Assistant] The goal was simple. If the person had died without confession, the sin eater would take that sin upon themselves through the act of eating.


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[Assistant] But of course, there were consequences to a job like that. Most sin-eaters were social outcasts, and because that prevented other, more traditional employment, they were oftentimes very poor.


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[Assistant] Death and grief are guaranteed parts of our life.


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[Assistant] Like taxes, they are something we can count on experiencing more than once.


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[Assistant] But despite that element of dependability, we never seem to be ready for it, do we?


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[Assistant] More often than not, we're taken by surprise and left gasping for relief. So it's no wonder that cultures around the globe have put traditions and beliefs into practice that are meant to help.


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[Assistant] A balm for an aching soul, but also a grim reminder of the inevitable.


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[Assistant] For as long as humans have been around, we've been dying. I think it goes without saying that everyone, no matter how historically important or socially insignificant, will eventually pass away. Death, as so many people have said, is the great equalizer.


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[Assistant] But that doesn't make it easy for those who are left behind to grieve. Which is why funerary traditions are nearly as old as civilization.


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[Assistant] In fact, some paleoanthropologists believe that Neanderthals were the first culture to practice intentional burial, pushing the tradition back nearly half a million years.


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[Assistant] But aside from all the burial traditions that were designed to help the deceased, there were other practices that focused more on the grieving.


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[Assistant] One of those is professional mourning, the act of hiring individuals to share in the loss of the family. The technical term for professional mourners is Moirologist, and it was their job to lament and wail and give eulogies for the benefit of the grief-stricken relatives at the funeral.


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[Assistant] Practice is an ancient one, with evidence found in the historical records of many ancient Near Eastern cultures.


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[Assistant] In ancient Egypt, the role of the professional mourner was to cry out and beat their chest. They arrived at the funeral procession dressed in filthy clothing, with dirt smeared on their skin and hair, and were meant to signify the lowest point of the grief process.


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[Assistant] Similar stories can be found all throughout the Mediterranean area, but also farther away, in China.


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[Assistant] In fact, China is one of the few cultures that have kept the practice alive, with professional mourners taking on a significant role in modern funerals.


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[Assistant] There's a lot of texture and detail to their role, but one key element is that upon arriving, they will crawl from the outside into the funeral location, all while wailing out the name of the deceased.


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[Assistant] A lot of that might be new to you, and that's okay. The world is a tapestry of tradition, and it's easy to miss out on certain parts. But there's one culture whose use of professional mourners is known to just about everyone. The Irish. And while you might not know the details of their role, you certainly know their name.


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[Assistant] It's an old practice known as keening, a term that comes from the Gaelic word for crying or weeping.


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[Assistant] There's evidence placing it back as far as the 16th century, but it could very well be older. The Irish Keening Woman was very similar to a bard. She was skilled in a vast collection of songs of lament and would be hired to sing them at funerals. But of course, there's a twist on the tradition. There always is, isn't there?


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[Assistant] You see, legends began to be spread about how the great old Gaelic families actually kept a Keening woman on permanent retainer, sometimes even living in their house. But not just any woman, mind you.


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[Assistant] No, these stories claimed that the Keening Woman were fairies. Fairies who were gifted enough to know when a person was about to die and to wail before it happened.


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[Assistant] And these fairy women are known to just about everyone in the western world. Only by a different name. Because the Gaelic words for woman and fairy combine into a name that has become rooted in popular American culture. The Banshee.


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[Assistant] Some stories portray the banshee as a beautiful young woman, while others say she's an old hag in a hooded burial shroud.


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[Assistant] And because folklore has a way of evolving over time, the stories that began with a banshee being able to predict a death have transformed into something darker, as one story from the middle of the 16th century demonstrates for us.


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[Assistant] Dunloose Castle is situated on the northern tip of Northern Ireland and it's a spectacular set of ancient ruins. It's the filming location for the Game of Thrones Castle Pike and was mentioned by C.S. Lewis as the inspiration for Carparavelle from his Narnia books. But there's more to Dunloose Castle than popular culture.


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[Assistant] In the middle of the 16th century, those ruins were a thriving, beautiful structure, inhabited by the McQuillin family.


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[Assistant] Legend tells us that Lord MacQuillen chose to marry off his daughter Maeve to a family member in order to secure ownership of the castle for future generations. But Maeve had already fallen in love with someone else.


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[Assistant] Maeve refused to go through with the arranged marriage, so as punishment, her father locked her in one of the castle towers hoping she would change her mind. Instead, Maeve's lover snuck in and freed her, and the couple escaped to a nearby sea cave where a small boat waited for them.


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[Assistant] Sadly, a storm blew in that night, dashing their boat against the rocks and sending both of them to a watery grave. And ever since, Maeve's ghost has been seen throughout the castle, wailing into the wind.


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[Assistant] She might not have been a fairy woman, but it's said that she appeared frequently, always before the death of prominent family members inside the castle.


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[Assistant] Whether the legend is true to its core or nothing more than a kernel of fact covered in a thick shell of embellishments, nothing changes the power of the tale.


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[Assistant] Loss and grief are never easy to handle. And so humans have created systems and beliefs to take the sting out of it. Story is an escape, after all. However real or made up it might be.


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[Assistant] And as the story spread, so too did the belief in the caning woman. Which is how, three centuries later and thousands of miles away, another community found themselves wrestling with that very same intersection of personal pain and belief in the supernatural. The Banshee, it seems, had come to America.


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[Assistant] Folklore is precious and personal, and because of that, it travels with us.


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[Assistant] When our ancestors moved from one country to another, they brought all of the essentials with them, like clothing and tools, food and medicine.


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[Assistant] But they also brought their stories. Because deep down, we all hinge a part of our identity on our folklore.


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[Assistant] The Gaelic people of Ireland and Scotland might have helped birth the idea of the Banshee hundreds of years ago, but over those centuries, their culture has done a lot of moving around.


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[Assistant] Now, we might think of a new world with new challenges and new dangers, but sort of wash away the old stories and replace them with something more relevant. But honestly, what could be more relevant than death and grief?


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[Assistant] One particular story from World War II illustrates this well. According to a researcher who gathered some of these Irish tales, there were two brothers who were separated by the Atlantic. One inherited the family farm in Ireland, while the other sought out a better life in America. And part of that life involved enlisting in the Air Force.


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[Assistant] The brother who stayed on the family farm claimed that he was pulled from his sleep one night by an otherworldly sound that reminded him of cats fighting outside.


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[Assistant] The following morning he approached his neighbor to ask about it. But the neighbor shook his head.


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[Assistant] He didn't own any cats and hadn't seen any in the area either.


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[Assistant] But an explanation arrived later that day in the form of a telegram. It was from Texas, where his brother had been stationed, and it was a heartbreaking message too.


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[Assistant] The night before, it seems, the farmer's brother had died in a tragic accident. Looking back through the lens of grief, those wailing sounds that had woken him up took on a whole new meaning.


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[Assistant] But there is another story worth sharing because it shows the transformation of the Banshee mythology over time, and it comes from one of the most unlikely places. West Virginia.


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[Assistant] That's where a Scottish immigrant named Thomas Marr arrived in the early part of the 1880s.


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[Assistant] According to the legend, Marr fell in love with a woman in town named Mary, but their marriage began on a sour note. Apparently, an autumn wedding was a bad omen, and while it didn't guarantee disaster, it did catch the attention of the folks around them.


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[Assistant] Over the next few years, Thomas and Mary had eight children, but six of those eight passed away in childhood.


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[Assistant] And a lot of the retellings of this story sort of jump from that fact to later events, but I think it's important to stop and soak that in. That's six small funerals, six graves, and six mortal wounds in their hearts. If there was anyone familiar with grief in its purest form, it was Thomas and Mary Mar.


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[Assistant] Not everything was rough for the couple though. Over the years their farm was successful and a community began to grow around them that eventually took on the name Marrtown.


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[Assistant] But peace is never guaranteed, and as the civil war ignited around them, it slowly crept into their little part of the world.


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[Assistant] Battles could be seen in the distance, and soon enough, soldiers from both sides were passing through, stealing supplies as they went.


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[Assistant] By the time the war was over, the Marr Farm was in trouble financially, so Thomas took a second job on the nearby river to help make ends meet. It was a job that pulled him away from the farm every evening, and it was on those dimly lit rides to and from the river that he began to encounter something unsettling.


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[Assistant] It was a robed figure on a white horse. The first few times Thomas saw it he brushed it off as a curiosity. He told Mary about it, but neither of them could decide who the person might be.


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[Assistant] Once, Thomas even tried to approach them, but the rider would simply turn their horse away and disappear into the evening mist.


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[Assistant] One evening in February of 1876, Thomas left for work as usual and Mary said goodbye. The next morning she awoke and began preparing a meal for his arrival. But that time came and went.


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[Assistant] Finally, the sound of a rider could be heard outside, and Mary joyfully opened the door to welcome her husband back home.


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[Assistant] Instead of Thomas, though, there was something else unexpected on her doorstep. A white horse with a dark rider.


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[Assistant] Up close, Mary could see more detail, and realized that the figure was a woman, and the woman spoke.


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[Assistant] I have come to tell you that your husband has died, the mysterious woman told her in a cold voice. Say your prayers lady. I bid you well.


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[Assistant] Mary spent the next few moments in shock and fear, praying that the messenger was wrong.


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[Assistant] But when a new rider was seen approaching, and it too wasn't Thomas, she gave up all hope.


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[Assistant] It's true, the new messenger told her. Thomas had passed away, having fallen and broken his neck.


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[Assistant] Years later, according to the legend, Mary passed away at the ripe old age of 90. Some say when her children found her body, they also heard the sounds of wailing from somewhere deeper in the house.


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[Assistant] They described it as the sound made by wild cats, an anguished, high-pitched whale.


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[Assistant] The story of Thomas and Mary Marr is about a ghostly woman who warns of impending death, turning the wailing woman into a bad omen.


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[Assistant] But the tale takes on a darker twist south of the American border, where visions of weeping women are less a premonition and more a dark reminder of intense loss and grief. A grief that refuses to die. But they aren't known as banshees.


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[Assistant] The stories of La Llorona are a lot older than most people are aware. In fact, some historians believe we can follow the trail all the way back to the Aztecs. According to their mythology, one of the deities spoken of was a goddess known as Cuatlicay.


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[Assistant] She was primarily a mother, giving birth to the sun, moon, and stars, among other things. But she also served as the inspiration behind Siwa Titeo, the Divine Women.


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[Assistant] These were said to be the angry spirits of women who died in childbirth. Much like the Keening women of Ireland, they were said to have disheveled hair and a rough appearance. They were almost always depicted with their teeth bared in a fierce expression, and their hands resembled claws.


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[Assistant] It was a story about mourning and death, yes, but it also involved pregnancy and motherhood, two elements that modern versions of La Llorona still contain.


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[Assistant] And that's the closest we're going to get to an original source for the tale of La Llorona. Because she's taken countless forms over the centuries. Which means that no matter which of those stories I tell you today, someone will feel like their favorite tale has been left out.


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[Assistant] But rather than see that as a problem, I think that's one of the most powerful features of the legend.


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[Assistant] Why? Because the story of La Llorona has an almost chameleon-like nature. It has shown a tendency to shift and change depending on the socio-political climate of the day. Let me walk you through a few examples to show you what I mean.


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[Assistant] Some of the first tales of a weeping mother dressed in white date back to pre-Columbian times, before the arrival of Europeans.


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[Assistant] They are legends of a series of prophetic warnings sent by the gods to the Aztecs, hinting at catastrophic change. And of course, that change arrived in the form of Europeans, who began the process of conquering the people of Latin America.


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[Assistant] Some refer to those warnings as the Eight Omens of Montezuma, referring to the eight examples recorded by a Franciscan friar in the twelfth volume of a book known as the Florentine Codex.


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[Assistant] Stepping forward in time, the roots of the La Llorona legend adapted after the arrival of the Spanish.


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[Assistant] One of the most prominent retellings involves La Malinch, a Nahuatl woman who served as the interpreter and advisor to conquistador Hernan Cortes around 1519. According to the legends, La Malinch was also his mistress and she bore him a number of children.


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[Assistant] Sadly though, it's said that when La Malinche discovered that Cortez was planning to marry another woman, she drowned their children in a nearby river. She spent the rest of her life grieving their loss and searching for their bodies. At least, that's the legend. The truth is a bit less exciting.


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[Assistant] Yes, La Malinche was a real person. She was one of 20 Aztec women gifted to Cortes as slaves and did in fact give birth to his firstborn son, Martin, in 1523.


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[Assistant] True or not, the tale captured the imagination of a nation struggling to breathe under the oppressive boots of the Spanish, and so it's still whispered today.


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[Assistant] Since then, the story has evolved to reflect nearly every change in Latin American culture. It was there during the era of New Spain and then stayed behind as Mexico claimed their independence in 1821. It's been the subject of songs, plays, books, and films.


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[Assistant] And all of those original elements have been distilled down over the centuries and given more prominence.


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[Assistant] The grief of a mother who has lost her children. Her own murderous actions. The wailing and white garments of lament.


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[Assistant] All of it has remained, like a time capsule, preserved for hundreds of years so that we can peer back into history and connect with the past on an emotional level.


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[Assistant] Sadly though, there's no single historical person or event that we can definitively say is the root of the story. Or even a documented encounter that everything hinges upon.


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[Assistant] La Llorona, like so many of the wailing women tales around the world,


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[Assistant] And that's really what it's all about, isn't it? It's about common ground. It's about how the painful loss that death exposes us to is as ageless as humanity itself.


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[Assistant] But the way we respond to it has worn a thousand different faces. The infinitely adaptable legend of La Llorona, more than any other piece of folklore, shows us exactly that.


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[Assistant] Because no matter how much the world around us changes, or how vastly different our background might be from one another, there will always be something we all have in common. Grief.


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[Assistant] The stories we tend to cling to most tightly are the ones that bring us comfort. We can see evidence of that in the tale of Richard Munslow, the last known sin eater who passed away in 1906 that I mentioned at the beginning of today's story.


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[Assistant] In 2010, the people of the small village where he was buried decided that his ruined headstone deserved restoration. Over the course of just a few months, they managed to raise over a thousand pounds and used that money to repair his grave marker. And then a service was held by the parish church in his memory.


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[Assistant] Because for as unsavory as his job might have been.


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[Assistant] He helped people grieve and there was something noble in that.


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[Assistant] The legend of the Weeping Woman is almost as universal as humanity itself. We can find versions of the tale in the nation of Togo in West Africa, 14th century Spain, and in pre-modern Northern Europe. Some of them present the Weeping Woman as an angel of death, while others describe her as simply haunting.


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[Assistant] It's a bit like looking at a gemstone. If you hold it up to the light and slowly turn it, you'll see facet after facet, each one small part of a larger object. And the Weeping Woman is certainly quite the gem. Wherever we look, there's another version of the tale to study.


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[Assistant] Some of them hold warnings. For us or for our children. Or use her legend like a boogeyman. Others find solace from a painful world in her tale.


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[Assistant] And some versions even empower us, giving us strength to stand up to oppression or abuse. In many ways, the weeping woman is a symbol that can be an inspiration for just about anything. And that's not always a good thing.


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[Assistant] The Lammy Building in Santa Fe, New Mexico stands on the side of a much older building. But before that, at least according to the legends, there was a graveyard there.


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[Assistant] In 1859, the ground was leveled and a Catholic school, St. Michael's, was constructed beside the old Spanish mission there, making it one of the first formal schools in the area.


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[Assistant] The building has changed a bit over the years, but according to the old stories, there was at least one episode of tragedy in its past.


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[Assistant] Long ago, near the turn of the century, a wave of smallpox passed through the school population there. At least two of the students died as a result of the sickness, and the school made the unusual choice to bury them both in unmarked graves.


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[Assistant] When one of the mothers arrived days later to claim her son's body, school officials were unable to locate it. And obviously, this new loss devastated the mother. She had already lost a son, and now she couldn't even hold his body and mourn properly.


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[Assistant] She physically left the building that day, but there are many who believe that a part of her remained behind, hoping for the day when her son's remains might be found.


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[Assistant] Ever since, there have been stories whispered about the building, that the mother's spirit has never left, trapped forever in the place where her son passed away.


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[Assistant] Perhaps it's her grief that anchors her there, or maybe she just refuses to give up her search for her son. Either way, sightings of her have become a common experience.


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[Assistant] The most common description is that of a short female figure who has been seen wandering the halls, only to disappear around corners or through doors. They say her face is covered by a lace scarf and her body is draped in a white gown.


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[Assistant] The idea of a mournful spirit dressed in white and weeping for her children is one of the most common folk stories around the globe. But you would be surprised just how varied those tales can be.


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[Assistant] In fact, I've set aside another personal favorite that took place thousands of miles away from Latin America. And I think you're going to love it.


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[Assistant] Stick around after this short sponsor break to hear that tale.


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[Assistant] Everyone wants to climb out from beneath the oppressive expectations of their friends and family and become something special. Many people struggle with that and eventually give up. But some manage to break through. And I want to tell you about one of those people. Before I do, a confession.


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[Assistant] I'm really bad at pronouncing words and names from other languages. I blame my Midwestern tongue for that, but I honestly try my best. And because I'm about to tell you a story from half a world away from my home, I just want to warn you. I'm about to butcher some words, so please be patient with me.


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[Assistant] The hero of our tale was a man named Sarif Abdurahman Al-Kandri, who was born the son of a nobleman on the island of Borneo in the middle of the 18th century. But Abdurahman, just like a lot of us, wanted to make his own name for himself, rather than rest on the laurels of his father.


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[Assistant] He also built up a small fleet of ships and began to use them to attack the European ships that moved in and out of his territory. Whether the ships were Dutch, English, or French, it didn't matter to Abdurrahman. What was important was the success, and that was something he had in spades.


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[Assistant] A few years after his marriage, he left his wife's country behind and headed home. But because his father-in-law disapproved of his reckless behavior and pirate-like methods, he refused to let Abdurrahman take his wife and children with him. So, sometime around 1770, he took his fleet and left everything else behind.


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[Assistant] Upon arriving at the home of his family, he was met with two surprises. First, his father had passed away at some point during his time away, leaving him with little influence in his homeland. Second though, his blood family was in agreement that Abdurrahman's career choice felt a bit too unsavory, and they kicked him out. Which left him wondering where to go.


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[Assistant] Soon enough, though, he figured that out. On the southwestern coast of Borneo was a river that cut inland to the east, just north of the river Kapuas. And inside that river was an island. It would be the perfect place to build a new city, one that could be the centerpiece of his own brand new kingdom. But there was a problem. The island was said to be haunted.


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[Assistant] And not just haunted, this island was said to be the home of hundreds of vampiric ghosts known as Pontianak. These are said to be the evil spirits of women who tragically died while pregnant. And it might not surprise you to learn that their most common form is that of pale women in a white dress.


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[Assistant] The legends say that you can identify a Pontianak by the sounds it makes, usually described as the shrill cry of an infant, although sometimes the high-pitched whine of a dog.


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[Assistant] And they are not a friendly spirit either. Stories say that Pontianak are known to attack the living, preferring to kill them by cutting open their stomachs with their claw-like fingers before consuming the organs from within.


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[Assistant] And according to the legend of Abdurrahman, the island he set his eyes on was covered in these creatures. Which meant that unless he and his men wanted to die horrible deaths the moment they set foot on its shores, they were going to have to get creative. Thankfully, he still had his fleet.


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[Assistant] It said that he ordered all of his ships, each one armed with an array of cannons, to surround the island and open fire. At first, the shrill cry of the Pontianak could be heard over the ring of the cannons, but slowly, as the barrage continued, that sound began to fade away. When the bombardment was over, there was nothing but silence.


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[Assistant] Somehow, Abdurrahman had defeated the vengeful spirits with artillery.


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[Assistant] He went on to found the kingdom he dreamed of and the city that grew up around that original settlement bears the name of the creatures that once inhabited it. Pontianak.


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[Assistant] And whether or not the legends about those first experiences there are true, they certainly offer us a valuable lesson.


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[Assistant] This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with research by Marsette Crockett and music by Chad Lawson.


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[Assistant] Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's a book series available in bookstores and online and two fantastic seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more lore in your life.


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[Assistant] And I also make two other podcasts, Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities and Unobscured. And I think you'd enjoy both of them.


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[Assistant] Each one explores other areas of our dark history, ranging from bite-sized episodes to season-long dives into a single topic. And you can learn about both of those shows and everything else going on over in one central place, theworldoflore.com slash now.


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


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[Assistant] Philip Musgrave had survived the English Civil War, but not without suffering.


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[Assistant] A lifelong royalist, he had spent the better part of two decades under the watchful eye of the parliamentarians who had executed King Charles I and exiled his son Charles II. But after the younger Charles reclaimed the crown in 1661, Musgrave began to relax.


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[Assistant] In 1677, he sat down to put his will to paper, and in it he listed the many possessions that his son Richard would someday inherit.


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[Assistant] Among them was an item he'd kept secret and hidden away until that very moment. A decorative glass, about six inches tall, with a fluted top and sides that are covered in beautiful, colorful designs. And this cup, he said, was the source of his family's good fortune.


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[Assistant] The cup is known as the Luck of Edenhall, named after Musgraves' home, and it has the most curious origin story. It's said that centuries earlier, a butler working for the Musgraves had gone to the garden well for some water, only to discover a group of fairies dancing near it.


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[Assistant] In one version of the tale, the fairies leave in haste and abandon the glass cup they brought with them. But as the butler takes it, a curse fills the air around him.


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[Assistant] True or not though, the legends surrounding the glass cup illustrate just how attractive a good curse story can be. Good fortune was something that could be dashed to pieces by a careless person, shattering centuries of legacy with the hammer of bad luck.


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[Assistant] In the coming centuries, that idea would only grow more powerful. The details of the stories would change, of course, but the underlying theme would persist. And by the 19th century, England found itself wrestling with the newest iteration of that ancient tradition.


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[Assistant] Thomas Douglas Murray was a bit of a social gentleman. He was well known in various circles throughout London and well connected in some of the more distant colonial territories. And in 1868, he used some of those connections to travel to Egypt with a handful of friends.


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[Assistant] While they were there, they did the typical colonial tourist things. They hunted through the graves in the Valley of the Kings and pretended to be adventurers who were destined to discover great things. What they ended up finding, though, was a gift shop.


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[Assistant] The night before the hunt, Murray had a dream that he had been sentenced to be hanged in Turkey and told his guard that he would rather be shot. He awoke with a distant memory of the dream still lingering in his mind, but went on with the hunt as planned. He even decided to use the rifle that was labeled dangerous because of its tendency to go off unexpectedly. You can see where this is going, right?


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[Assistant] The photo seemed to show a human-shaped figure inside the coffin lid, but no one could explain how it got there. Shortly after that, the translator who was given the photo soon took his own life. A few weeks later, that man's assistant died of a mysterious fever. It was all enough to give birth to rumors of a curse.


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[Assistant] Part of that can be blamed on Egyptomania. That's what historians call the public obsession with all things Egypt that began decades earlier when a series of French books were published in English. They were the result of Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, and they ignited a fire in the imagination of everyone back in England.


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[Assistant] Everyone jumped on the bandwagon. England's great exhibition of 1851 was filled with replicas of ancient Egyptian jewelry, architecture, and clothing. And it seemed that there was something for everyone to take home and build off of.


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[Assistant] Wealthy explorers brought back enormous Egyptian obelisks to display in London, while everyday citizens could buy porcelain dishes covered in Egyptian patterns. But it got creepier.


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[Assistant] Some people managed to bring the ancient bodies of mummified dead back to their English manor houses. And then they hosted unwrapping parties.


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[Assistant] This was done before modern archaeological standards had been established, so there was more of a Wild West attitude about it. When the parties were shut down in the late 1930s, people switched gears and flooded the movie theaters to watch films about them instead.


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[Assistant] All of it created a sort of mystical aura around the subject of ancient Egypt. The spiritualists became involved, claiming to be able to speak with dead pharaohs. Others believed that true alchemy had its roots in Egypt, which was their way of explaining how such an ancient civilization could have preserved their dead so successfully.


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[Assistant] Clearly, there was a power at work there, and everyone wanted a piece of it.


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[Assistant] But if Egyptomania tilled the soil, then it was Thomas Murray's coffin lid that seeded it. Soon after, all of those amazing theories were growing right alongside another product of their obsession, the notion of the mummy's curse. Because how else could you explain all the things that happened to Arthur Wheeler after he brought it home?


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[Assistant] By the time Howard Carter opened King Tut's tomb in 1922, the world was ready to believe in the curse. In fact, they were expecting it. And when a number of people connected with his achievements died without warning, well, that was all the confirmation they needed.


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[Assistant] But the oldest tale of a mummy's curse wasn't Thomas Murray's. It took place two decades earlier, and although it's full of all the thrills and twists that you might expect, it also illustrates a darker truth.


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[Assistant] And then, of course, Egyptomania hit England, as we've already discussed. Egyptian-style decorations filled households all across the country, and a love affair began, however one-sided, between the two cultures. But there were darker aspects of that connection, and much of it falls to the idea of colonialism.


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[Assistant] England saw financial opportunities in Egypt and so investment after investment flooded in.


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[Assistant] In the 1860s, they helped fund the Suez Canal, and that deepened their financial ties. But some Egyptians didn't care for that. In 1881, rebellions started to break out, including farther south in Sudan. A year later, British troops marched into Cairo to bring peace and, of course, protect all those valuable investments.


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[Assistant] This was the climate that Walter Herbert Ingram encountered when he arrived in Cairo in 1885. He was the wealthy son of a newspaper tycoon who traveled with his own sketch artist to record his adventures, hoping they would land him in his father's paper back home.


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[Assistant] And when he arrived, he rented a steamship and headed up the Nile, south toward a military outpost.


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[Assistant] It was the romantic notion of cutting a path across the desert that pulled Ingram in, so he agreed. They sailed as far as the ships would take them, and along the way, acquired a reputation for how eagerly he killed the local Egyptians. When they arrived in Khartoum, though, the city had already fallen, so they simply turned back.


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[Assistant] That was 1886. Just a couple of years later, Walter Ingram met his own perfect match in a woman named Faye Heming. Like him, she enjoyed hunting and adventure. So after their wedding, Ingram proposed that he and Faye go to Egypt and bring Henry and Valerie Muse along for the ride. Everyone involved eagerly agreed.


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[Assistant] It was the sort of honeymoon that a young couple would most likely never forget. Traveling to a foreign land. Seeing things most people could only dream of or read about in books. Getting the chance to let loose, take risks, and collect experiences.


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[Assistant] It was the perfect beginning to a story that everyone knew would leave them happily ever after. And yet fate, it seems, had a different plan in mind.


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[Assistant] The couple headed east with Henry and Valerie Muse at their side, aiming their hunting party for Somalia. At some point in their journey, they spotted a herd of elephants in the distance and prepared their guns.


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[Assistant] Later reports claimed that rather than taking the large elephant gun, Walter Ingram instead picked up a small rifle. Some historians believe he intended to have a little fun, but fate had other ideas.


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[Assistant] According to Henry, Walter rode his horse closer and managed to shoot one of the females. But in her panic, the elephant collided with his horse and knocked Walter off the saddle.


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[Assistant] Chaos erupted, with frightened animals rushing in every direction. Before Henry could rescue him, his friend had been trampled to death.


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[Assistant] One writer would later describe the violence of his death in the most unusual way, stating that the elephants crushed him and, I quote, till he was black currant jam.


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[Assistant] A vivid picture of a gruesome end, if there ever was one. But apparently also very accurate.


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[Assistant] Henry and the others, including Walter's distraught widow, took the time to place what little remained of their friend in a shallow ditch and then continued on their way.


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[Assistant] They planned to collect those remains on their way back, but when they returned a few days later they discovered the grave had been dug up. All that remained of Walter Ingram was a sock and a piece of bone which they collected to bring back to England for burial.


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[Assistant] Ingram's gruesome demise made the front page of his father's newspaper, naturally, and then the rumor mill took over, spreading the story far and wide. Everyday people were sharing the tale over meals, while writers like Rudyard Kipling and H. Ryder Haggard were entertaining party guests with their own retellings. Soon enough, it was the stuff of legend.


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[Assistant] In 1896, ten years after Walter Ingram had traveled to Sudan with Lord Charles Bareford, the London magazine called The Strand published a feature on the man. And because the story mentioned Ingram, the magazine chose to include the most complete and mature version of Ingram's story to date.


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[Assistant] And featured prominently was an idea that had only been whispered about until then. Ingram had been killed by the mummy's curse.


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[Assistant] Whether they did or not, it's clear that the general public believed the stories, which quickly became accepted as the gospel truth.


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[Assistant] Four years after The Strand's article about Walter Ingram, Henry Mewes passed away unexpectedly. He and Valerie never had children, something many believers in the curse chalked up to the powers of the mummy. Because in a society built around hereditary wealth and titles, having no heirs might be seen as a failure.


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[Assistant] Around the same time, an article was published that claimed that the mummy's coffin had been inscribed with a powerful curse. The article even included the translated text as proof. And while the words were certainly frightening in context, most people were unaware that they had been fooled.


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[Assistant] The text, it seems, had been lifted from an older Babylonian inscription, entirely unrelated to the coffin owned by the Muse family.


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[Assistant] When Lady Valerie died in 1911, her collection of Egyptian antiquities were listed out in her will to be given to the British Museum. She had spent years gathering all of the items, devoting a significant portion of her fortune to the collection.


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[Assistant] But those years had also allowed the stories of the mummy's curse to take root and spread, tinting her bequest with more than a bit of darkness.


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[Assistant] Perhaps they had no use for her personal collection, or maybe they bought into the stories about ancient powers and evil forces. Whatever the reason truly was, when presented with the opportunity to take possession of Lady Valerie's collection, the British Museum politely declined. Looking back, they might not have fully believed in the curse, but one thing was certainly clear. There was no sense in taking chances.


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[Assistant] There are a lot of ancient beliefs and ideas that we still carry with us today. Sea monsters, tricksters, and angry spirits are all examples that can be traced back thousands of years. Whether or not we believe them, they create a legacy that connects us to our ancestors.


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[Assistant] But the mummy's curse isn't one of them. It's a modern invention that feels like an old one, which has helped it slip into the public consciousness and make itself at home. Yes, it borrows ancient things, like mummified corpses and exotic, beautifully decorated coffins, but the overall idea is relatively new.


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[Assistant] And like I said before, much of that can be traced back to colonialism. This idea that Europeans had some sort of divine mission to travel the world and lift other cultures up out of the dirt.


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[Assistant] But many historians today believe that while the public went along with those conquering ways, they felt a bit of guilt about it. Guilt that manifested in things like the mummy's curse.


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[Assistant] There are a few reasons why it's had such staying power. The stories of Thomas Douglas Murray's cursed coffin lid and the mummy purchased by Walter Ingram both come to mind. But there are many more. And a good example took place in 1912.


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[Assistant] That's the year the Titanic sank into the cold waters of the North Atlantic. Afterwards, thanks to a story told by one of the survivors, the rumor mill began to circulate that Thomas Murray's coffin lid had been on board. And that was the cause of the tragedy.


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[Assistant] A complete fabrication, of course, but it caught the attention of a woman named Margaret Murray. No relation to Thomas Murray, as far as I can tell.


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[Assistant] Margaret was a powerhouse. Aside from being an archaeologist who had worked in Egypt before returning to serve as the president of the Folklore Society in London, she was an early feminist who fought for women's rights to vote in England.


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[Assistant] She's also the scholar responsible for a witch cult hypothesis that helped give birth to the modern Wiccan movement. And in 1963, the year she turned 100 years old, she finally published her autobiography entitled, My First Hundred Years. Margaret Murray didn't mess around.


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[Assistant] And she was upset that stories about Egyptian artifacts were being used in such an unsavory way. So she created an experiment.


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[Assistant] She carefully crafted a rumor that claimed that Thomas Murray's very same coffin lid had also been on board the RMS Empress of Ireland, which sank two years later in 1914, and that it had been the only piece of wreckage found floating in the ocean.


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[Assistant] She even crafted a communication from the British Museum to the shipping company that basically said, there's no way we're taking that thing back.


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[Assistant] Her goal was to show how easily fictional stories can spread. And it worked. The public believed the rumors, helped along by their fascination with all things Egyptian and the curses they assumed came with them. But something else happened too.


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[Assistant] Because Margaret Murray's fictional story gave birth to rumor after rumor, and over the years it spread around the globe. Until finally it arrived in Hollywood, where it inspired one of the most influential monster movies of the past 80 years. And I'm sure you can guess what it is.


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[Assistant] I hope you've enjoyed today's exploration of the power of a good curse story. History is full of them, and the 19th century mummy's curse certainly lives up to the hype, even if most people believe it's all a work of fiction.


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[Assistant] But there are other stories that are a lot less simple. Ones that defy the logic and rationality that we love so much. And if you stick around after this short sponsor break, I want to share one of those with you.


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[Assistant] Sometimes a curse feels an awful lot like revenge, from a certain point of view.


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[Assistant] You see that a lot in curse stories, in fact. The big showy stuff is always how the curse plays out. But tucked away behind all of that are the reasons. The injustices or mistakes that tip the scales in their favor.


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[Assistant] Scales that the curse is meant to put back to normal. And when I think about unfortunate events that demand repayment, I can't help but think about the horseshoe brewery.


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[Assistant] To put things in perspective, during the build up to that massive VAT, they celebrated the completion of the second largest VAT in London by hosting a sit-down dinner party for 200 guests.


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[Assistant] As I said, bigger vats meant larger output. In the three years between 1809 and 1812, the company tripled their production, topping out at over 100,000 barrels of beer.


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[Assistant] But all that profit wasn't funding safety standards. In the late 1790s, three men climbed inside one of those big vats to clean it out after it had been emptied, but the fumes were still too strong, and they suffocated to death.


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[Assistant] In 1812, a visitor to the brewery reported that the place was filthy inside. Just about every surface was covered in rust or smoke residue, or both, and some of the copper hoops that held the large vats together had a tendency to fall off and need to be put back in place. And two years later, that turned to tragedy.


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[Assistant] The brewery had cut corners, and the resulting tragedy had taken eight innocent lives. It gets worse though.


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[Assistant] Of course, Horseshoe Brewery recovered from the mess and went on to rebuild their fortune. Over the coming decades, the owner would become incredibly wealthy and eventually pass his fortune on to his only son.


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[Assistant] I also make two other podcasts, Aaron Manke's Cabinets of Curiosities and Unobscured, and I think you'd enjoy both.


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[Assistant] Each one explores other areas of our dark history, ranging from bite-sized episodes to season-long dives into a single topic. You can learn more about both of those shows and everything else going on over in one central place, theworldoflore.com slash now.


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[Assistant] The moment the police arrived, they were confused. The body of Thomas Hickman lay on the rough desert grass, his hands tied and his mouth covered with tape. But it wasn't helpless exposure to the New Mexico sun that had killed him. No, it was the bullet wound in his forehead.


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[Assistant] The trouble was, there was no gun near the body. So the police began to assume Hickman had been murdered. And yet the crime scene showed no evidence that anyone else had been there. Just Hickman, his car, his tracks, and the vast expanse of desert.


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[Assistant] At some point, you see, one of the officers noticed something white flapping around off in the distance, caught around a bit of undergrowth. When they investigated it, they discovered it was a small gathering of balloons, each one filled with helium, that had been tied to the most unexpected object, a pistol.


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[Assistant] And the moment they realized it, the pieces fell into place. Hickman hadn't been murdered after all.


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[Assistant] History is full of mistakes made by people who have looked at all the facts that they have and then just assumed.


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[Assistant] In 1899, the Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, a man named Charles Duell, assumed that everything that could be invented already had.


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[Assistant] In 1927, Harry Warner, one of the Warner Brothers the movie studio is named after, assumed no one would ever want to hear actors actually talk.


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[Assistant] An Orson Welles 1938 audio drama adaptation of The War of the Worlds tricked thousands of people into assuming the planet was being invaded by Martians.


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[Assistant] But some assumptions can create a bigger mess. When we assume we write off all other possibilities and throw ourselves completely behind an idea that we believe to be the full and complete truth. But assumption can lead us toward tragedy and the sooner we catch it, the sooner the real truth can be pursued.


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[Assistant] When we think of Salem, Massachusetts, we tend to think of one of the most prominent events in our nation's history, the Salem witch trials. But closing the book on Salem that early means we miss out on so much more that took place there. Because even though the witch trials ended in 1693, Salem's prominence had only just begun.


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[Assistant] Within a century, Salem had grown to be the sixth largest city in the newborn nation of the United States. And more importantly, it was the wealthiest of them all, beating out even Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City.


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[Assistant] And all of that wealth was a result of the importance and power of the shipping industry. Something Salem had deep roots in.


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[Assistant] And that wealth found an outlet in a new style of architecture known as the federal style.


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[Assistant] From about 1730 to 1830, buildings all over early America were constructed with an eye toward the ancient Greek and Roman cultures, places where many saw the roots of democracy. And in Salem in particular, that style was reflected in a number of large homes and public buildings.


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[Assistant] We owe a lot of that thanks to a Salem architect and builder named Samuel McIntyre. The mark he left on the city can still be seen today. In fact, if you ever get the chance to visit Salem, take a walk down Chestnut Street, where many of his homes are still standing, and you will be able to bask in the glow of his simple genius.


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[Assistant] But today, I want to tell you about one house in particular.


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[Assistant] It was built by McIntyre in 1804 for a very wealthy client named John Gardner.


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[Assistant] Gardiner had made his fortune in the same way so many others had in Salem, by importing and exporting goods on his own fleet of ships. And this beautiful red brick mansion, complete with its black shutters and white Corinthian columns, was meant to be a way to show off that wealth. But then, war began to brew.


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[Assistant] As a result, Gardener's shipping empire began to run at a loss. To cover their debts, he and his wife Sarah sold the house just a few years after moving in.


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[Assistant] Then in 1814, just a decade after it had been built, it sold yet again, this time to another wealthy shipmaster and trader named Captain Joseph White.


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[Assistant] White was an interesting fellow. And there's a lot of complexity I need to expose you to before we can move on with the story. You need to understand the players before we hear the tale, I suppose. So let me get those details out of the way.


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[Assistant] White was a retired old widower with no children of his own, but he was also insanely wealthy. In modern currency, he was probably worth five million dollars, which was a lot of money to hang in the balance when there was no obvious heir to inherit it. But he did have family around him.


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[Assistant] At first, there was his niece, an older woman named Mrs. Beckford. I can't find a record of when exactly she moved in with him, but my guess is it was shortly after his wife passed away.


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[Assistant] Stephen was a success story in the making, and old Captain White probably felt the closest he was ever going to get to parental pride in regards to Stephen.


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[Assistant] He was a Massachusetts state senator with a promising career ahead of him, and his connections to people like the legendary statesman Daniel Webster and Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story certainly didn't hurt.


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[Assistant] There were a couple of others in and around the house too. Benjamin White was a distant relative who worked on the property as a sort of handyman and gardener. While local woman Lydia Kimball rounded out the household staff as a maid under Mrs. Beckford's guidance.


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[Assistant] Everyone assumed that when old Captain White passed away, most of that immense fortune of his would be passed on to Steven, with a smaller share for Mrs. Beckford.


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[Assistant] But by 1830, life was a bit more complex than that. Captain White was an 82 year old by then. And while the town gossip constantly pondered how it would all play out, he was still as healthy as ever.


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[Assistant] And he was cranky too, often times using the threat of inclusion or exclusion from his will as leverage over his relatives.


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[Assistant] On the night of April 6th of 1830, Captain White went to bed slightly later than normal, perhaps around half past nine that evening. When handyman Benjamin White arrived in the morning to take care of his daily work, he noticed a couple of unusual things.


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[Assistant] First, there was a window on the first floor of the house that was open. Nearby, a plank leaned against the side of the house, as if someone had used it to climb inside, and a number of footprints dotted the soil around them.


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[Assistant] Worried that a thief might have broken in to steal any number of the valuable items that the captain kept in his mansion, Benjamin entered the house and approached Lydia, the young maid. Then, together, they cautiously walked through the house looking for missing objects, but found none.


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[Assistant] What they did find, though, was that Captain White's bedroom door was ajar.


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[Assistant] I don't know if they knocked and called out for the old man or if they slowly nudged the door open while holding their breath, but somehow they found themselves standing in his bedroom looking down on the bed with their hands held to their mouths. The old captain was there.


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[Assistant] He wasn't just dead. White had been brutally murdered.


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[Assistant] Blood covered his clothing and the bedsheets, having poured out of the thirteen stab wounds that were dotted across his torso. And, as if that weren't enough, his head had been smashed with a blunt object. There was no blood on his face, but it was clear that his skull had been badly fractured.


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[Assistant] Benjamin and Lydia immediately sent word to Stephen White about the murder, and he arrived as quickly as he could manage.


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[Assistant] Once there, he called upon two men to help him with the situation.


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[Assistant] One was William Ward, who worked for Captain White as a clerk and a business manager. The other was Samuel Johnson, quite possibly the most prominent physician in all of Salem.


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[Assistant] Ward did a lot of things that, looking back nearly two centuries later, would feel at home in an episode of CSI.


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[Assistant] He found those footprints in the dirt outside the downstairs window and because the light rain was beginning to fall, he covered them with a large pan. He would later compare those footprints to those of Benjamin and Lydia, ruling them out as suspects.


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[Assistant] And Dr. Johnson did what he did best and took care of the body of the old man.


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[Assistant] After an initial examination right there where he had been found, Captain White's body was taken away for an official autopsy. But the results were less than helpful. It wasn't clear whether it was the multiple stab wounds that killed him or the blow to the head.


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[Assistant] A later second autopsy was more accurate, determining that Captain White had been bludgeoned after he died from the fractured skull.


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[Assistant] But it also conclusively proved something else. There had been more than one killer. Which naturally set the public on edge.


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[Assistant] It was one thing to know that one coal-blooded murderer was loose on the streets, but two? Everyone began to assume that they would be the next victim. New locks were installed, windows and doors were shut tight at night, and the demand for daggers and pistols became so great that special shipments were brought up from Boston.


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[Assistant] With the question of how out of the way, and everyone unanimously agreeing that the why was money, the next mystery to be solved was who.


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[Assistant] It sounded simple enough, but there were honestly just too many people to consider. And while I know it might not be the most suspenseful thing to do, I need to walk you through a small handful of them so that the rest of this story can make sense.


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[Assistant] First up would be Captain White's nephew, Steven. He was the one that almost everyone in town assumed would inherit White's fortune, but he also had a solid alibi, having been seen by multiple witnesses in Boston at the time of the murder.


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[Assistant] His cousin, Mrs. Beckford, who worked as the housekeeper for Captain White, was also a suspect, but not for the reasons you might think. It had to do with her daughter, Mary. And it's complicated.


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[Assistant] You see, Mary and Captain White had originally been close.


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[Assistant] Close enough for rumors of an incestuous affair and a larger than normal inheritance. But Mary fell in love with a young captain named Joseph Knapp Jr. who worked on one of Captain White's ships.


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[Assistant] White disapproved of their relationship for whatever reason and gave them an ultimatum. Stay together and lose everything, the inheritance and the employment or split up and stay secure. Mary and Joseph chose to stay together.


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[Assistant] So here they were. A young married couple living on Mrs. Beckford's farm in Wenham because they had lost everything thanks to Captain White. Who better to pin the murder on, right? Well, it wasn't as easy as that. Much like Steven White, the entire Knapp family was very well respected.


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[Assistant] Sure, they hadn't been as successful as Captain White, having lost one of their ships to pirates. But Joseph Jr., along with his brothers Frank and Fippen, and their father Joseph Sr., were all respected members of the community.


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[Assistant] So without a strong suspect, the town put together a vigilance committee of 27 members who were tasked with solving the crime.


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[Assistant] They were instructed to go door to door and search every single home in Salem looking for anything that might help solve the murder.


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[Assistant] In the end though, the lead they were looking for came not from one of the many beautiful homes there, but from a nearby jail.


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[Assistant] Without spending too much time on the little details, it was the confession of a local prisoner that pointed the vigilance committee in the direction of two suspects, a pair of brothers named Richard and George Crownenshield.


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[Assistant] Richard was a gambler, and George was a bit of a ladies man, and together they operated a machine shop as a front to more criminal activities. As suspects, they made sense.


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[Assistant] Throw in a mysterious letter from another ex-con in Belfast, Maine that hinted at a hidden crime, and soon a story began to unfold.


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[Assistant] The Crown and Shield brothers had been hired by two local men to kill Captain White and steal his will, hoping that that would prevent his fortune from being passed exclusively to his nephew, Steven. And the identity of those men would rock the community. It had been two of the Knapp brothers, Joseph and Frank.


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[Assistant] It was almost as if their reputation evaporated overnight. As soon as their names were made public, the two Knapp brothers, along with Richard and George Crownenshield, were rounded up and arrested. And I have to believe that Salem and the surrounding area exhaled a collective sigh of relief.


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[Assistant] The killers had been captured, and now they were safe.


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[Assistant] But of course, it wouldn't be that simple, would it? That's not how real life works. It's more nuanced and complex, with shades of grey mixed in with the black and white. Even though the four men were in custody, none of them would talk.


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[Assistant] That is, until a local minister named Reverend Henry Coleman stepped in to try and help.


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[Assistant] It turns out Coleman was the minister of the Independent Congregational Church, where Joseph and Mary Knapp were members, alongside Stephen White when he wasn't in Boston for work. So maybe it was a desire to preserve his flock, or perhaps he just loved to meddle. We'll never be entirely sure.


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[Assistant] Coleman arrived at the jail with an offer. If Joseph Jr. would confess in writing, perhaps he could secure immunity for the young man. Joseph's brother Frank, who was also in jail, protested the idea. So did their father, Captain Knapp.


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[Assistant] But it didn't matter, because the young man sat down shortly after and wrote out a full confession.


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[Assistant] And while he did that, Coleman traveled to Boston, somehow managed to pull the Attorney General out of his bed in the dead of night and get him to agree to this bargain. In exchange for a full confession, Joseph Knapp Jr. was going to be immune from all charges and that seemed like the sort of hope he was looking for. His story was compelling to say the least.


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[Assistant] According to Joseph, it was Frank who approached the Crown and Shield brothers about killing Captain White. The reason was exactly what everyone had suspected. With the old man dead and his last will and testimony stolen, his estate would have to be divided equally among his relatives, which meant Joseph and Mary would receive a larger chunk of change.


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[Assistant] Four days before the murder took place, Joseph managed to steal the will from an iron chest in Captain White's house. Then, on April 6th, he visited the house again and secretly unlocked a window in the parlor, making it possible for Richard Crownenshield to enter later that night and do the deed.


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[Assistant] The story also confirmed the medical exams on Captain White's body. Richard had crept into the old man's bedroom without making a sound and found the room to be flooded with brilliant moonlight. Standing over the captain, the killer brought his weapon down hard on the old man's skull, killing him instantly.


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[Assistant] Just to be sure though, he peeled back the covers and plunged a dagger into the captain's chest. Over and over again. And then he slipped back out into the night.


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[Assistant] Joseph's confession was clear about all of the roles. Joseph was the inside man, Frank hired the killer, and Richard did the dirty work.


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[Assistant] They were a team, yes, but the blood was really only on one man's hands, Richard Crowninshield. And because the confession actually led the authorities to the location of the murder weapon, a beastly two foot long lead weighted club, it seemed like an open and shut case. But Richard had a different idea.


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[Assistant] Learning about the confession and the version of the story painted by Joseph Knapp, he used two silk handkerchiefs to make a noose, and hanged himself in his jail cell.


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[Assistant] Which was obviously tragic, yes. But it also complicated things a bit. Because while the killer was now dead, no one had formally convicted him of a crime. And that was a problem.


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[Assistant] That's because Massachusetts state law at the time was clear about when accessories to murder could be tried for their role in the crime. It had to be after the primary suspect had been convicted. And because that had never happened, and could never happen thanks to Richard Crown and Shield suicide,


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[Assistant] They were all technically off the hook and free to go.


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[Assistant] Yes, it had been Frank Knapp who had paid Richard Cronenshield the modern equivalent of about $25,000. And yes, Joseph had made it all possible by unlocking the window and stealing the will. But they hadn't wielded the weapons and therefore would never be convicted for the murder of Captain Joseph White.


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[Assistant] At least that's what everyone assumed. An assumption can be a lot like a locked house in the dead of night. It can give us comfort and help us feel safe and lull us into a false sense of security. So much so that we drop our guard and become vulnerable. Assumption is natural, but it's also dangerous because sometimes people make mistakes.


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[Assistant] Look, I get it. On the surface, there's nothing particularly special about the murder of Captain Joseph White. It's one of countless murders that have taken place in America since the founding of the nation. However sad that might be to say out loud. Humans are very good at killing each other, and this story is just one more example of that.


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[Assistant] There is a deeper current flowing beneath the surface of this story that we need to take note of.


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[Assistant] This wasn't a straightforward murder case. It was riddled with holes and mistakes on both sides of the courtroom.


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[Assistant] And all of those flaws guided it toward an awkward and uncertain finale. In a lot of ways, it was this trial that set the tone for so many other impossible murder tales. The ones where the simplest answer is the farthest from the truth.


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[Assistant] And we can blame all of it on assumption. The community assumed that they knew what the motive was. Others assumed they knew who the killer was. And the killers, if that's who the arrested men really were, even assumed they had succeeded.


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[Assistant] At the end of the day it's possible that all of them were wrong. All because they assumed.


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[Assistant] Now, that last part might have been a bit confusing, and I want to explain it for you. But, not just yet. First, I want to tell you the rest of the story. Because while George Crown and Shield did manage to slip away to freedom, Frank and Joseph Jr. weren't so lucky. And that's because of a man named Daniel Webster.


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[Assistant] Webster was a powerful statesman. Over his career, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for both New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and later as a U.S. Senator. He was the Secretary of State for three different presidents. And above all of that, he was a talented attorney.


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[Assistant] And a good friend of Stephen White. And Stephen White had recently come into some money, remember?


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[Assistant] So, for a handsome sum, Stephen White hired Daniel Webster to get involved in the case. And as a result, Joseph and Frank Knapp were pulled back into the legal workings of the court system.


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[Assistant] Webster gave dramatic speeches and entertaining retellings of the murder of old Captain White. And he fought against the legal precedents that had so far protected the two brothers from conviction. And it worked.


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[Assistant] On August 21st of 1830, Frank Knapp was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, an execution that took place one month later on September 28th. And his brother Joseph, the one who had stolen the will and masterminded the entire murder, was convicted a short while later. He was hanged on December 31st. And yet the story doesn't end there.


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[Assistant] I mentioned a moment ago that the killers assumed they had succeeded. Yes, Captain White was really dead, so that part of their plan worked out. The main goal had been to steal and destroy the old man's will, thereby guaranteeing themselves a larger piece of his fortune. And with that, they failed.


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[Assistant] They failed because Captain White wasn't a stupid man. Yes, he kept a copy of his will in a locked iron chest in his house, but that was because it was an older copy. The most recent version of his will, the one that would be legally binding and clearly instruct the distribution of his estate, was safely in the hands of his attorney, exactly where it should have been all along. Joseph Knapp made an assumption


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[Assistant] The story of the murder of Captain Joseph White is more than just a legendary tale that still haunts Salem, Massachusetts almost two centuries later. It's a tale of assumption and failure, of greed and death.


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[Assistant] And its influence has reached farther than you might believe.


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[Assistant] Stick around after this brief sponsor break to learn all about that.


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[Assistant] The addition of Daniel Webster to the trial of Joseph and Frank Knapp added a new level of experience and skill to the story.


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[Assistant] Webster was one of the most talented lawyers of his day, but there was something else about him that he's remembered for, and it's an old word we don't often see anymore. He was an orator.


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[Assistant] Specifically, Daniel Webster was really good at public speaking. He was compelling, enthralling, and downright entertaining. When he spoke in the courtroom, there was never a drooping eyelid or a snoring member of the jury. He had a way with words that pulled you in and refused to let you go.


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[Assistant] And everyone who had a chance to hear him thoroughly enjoyed the ride.


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[Assistant] So it probably won't surprise you to learn that his words were often recorded and even redistributed to the wider public. People wanted to read the things he said, and rightly so. Let me read to you a passage from one of his many statements in the trial of Joseph and Frank Knapp.


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[Assistant] Deep sleep had fallen on the destined victim, and all beneath the roof, a healthy old man to whom sleep was sweet, the first sound slumbers of the night held him in their soft but strong embrace. The assassin enters, through the window already prepared, into an unoccupied apartment.


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[Assistant] The face of the innocent sleeper was turned from the murderer and the beams of the moon resting on the grey locks of his aged temple showed him where to strike.


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[Assistant] The fatal blow was given and the victim passes without a struggle or emotion from the repose of sleep to the repose of death.


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[Assistant] Now I'll be honest, there are a lot of writers and speakers from the 19th century that I would have a hard time staying awake for. But this glorious retelling of the murder of Captain White by Daniel Webster breaks the mold. It seems to step across the threshold that separates boring legal defense from a work of Victorian horror. And I'm not the only one who thinks so.


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[Assistant] In fact, this retelling of the death of Captain White went on to inspire a particular writer to spin his own tale of murder, guilt, and our inability to hide from our own shame. Listen to this passage pulled from his story.


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[Assistant] Very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little, a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it. You cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily, until at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye.


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[Assistant] With a loud yell I threw open the lantern and leapt into the room. He shrieked once, only once. In an instant I dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily to find the deed so far done.


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[Assistant] Thanks to the captivating words of Daniel Webster, another man found inspiration to put a tale of suspense and horror onto the page.


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[Assistant] His story, like that of Daniel Webster's, reveals the deeds of a killer who enters a quiet bedroom in the dead of night and wrestles with the guilt of his actions and that dreadful, dreadful eye.


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[Assistant] And even if you've never read it, you'll recognize it by its name.


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[Assistant] This episode of Lore was written and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with research by Taylor Haggardorn and music by Chad Lawson.


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[Assistant] Lore is much more than just a podcast. There's the book series available in bookstores and online. And two amazing seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more lore in your life.


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


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[Assistant] And you can learn about both of those shows and everything else going on all over in one central place.


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


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[Assistant] Somewhere inside the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, France is a set of curious boxes. They're not necessarily off limits, but you do have to sign a waiver if you want to see what they contain. Oh, and you'll need to put on some protective clothing, too.


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[Assistant] Each box contains a notebook used by the legendary Nobel Prize winning scientist Marie Curie. Her research saw the discovery of two new radioactive elements, but also most likely caused her untimely death.


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[Assistant] So radioactive are her notebooks that they need to be stored in lead-lined boxes and will for another 1500 years.


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[Assistant] They are a testament to the danger of scientific work, but also a priceless treasure that records the work of a woman hailed by many as the mother of modern physics. And their own complex history hides a more simple lesson. Scientists love to write things down.


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[Assistant] There are other notebooks like them, of course. One of the oldest and most famous is probably the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. But museums and archives have also preserved the documents of Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and Lewis and Clark. If it was significant or useful for reference later, they would write it down.


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[Assistant] An act that preserved it for the ages and opened a window into the past that we can still look through today.


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[Assistant] From the mundane to the groundbreaking, scientific notebooks have been used throughout history to keep a record of events and knowledge learned so that future generations might look back at them and remember.


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[Assistant] But for a period of time in the 17th century, that process was used in an unlikely field. Witchcraft.


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[Assistant] And while it's easy to assume that that combination found at the intersection of witches and science might not be the most logical, you'd be surprised to learn that more than a few professional skeptics tried to use rationale to test superstition. And what they discovered was beyond frightening.


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[Assistant] Not all scientific debates look entirely scientific in retrospect. Sometimes the deeply held convictions of the past have been shown to be more a matter of belief than fact, and it's easy to look back on those with a bit of embarrassment.


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[Assistant] A great example would be the folk belief in something called sympathetic magic, which proposed that if an object looked like another object, it must also share the same characteristics. But today, we know better. Just because a flower is shaped like the human heart, doesn't mean those flowers are literally the best medicine for heart trouble.


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[Assistant] In the late 1600s, one of the scientific debates that seemed just as common was whether or not the supernatural world was real. And great minds fell on both sides of the issue, although not for the reasons we might think. And on one side was a man named John Webster, an English physician and chemist.


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[Assistant] Webster wanted to prove that there was no such thing as witchcraft. He had been born into a world that had been wrapped up in witchcraft trials for close to 200 years, and he felt that it was his calling to apply science to the matter and disprove the superstitions that caused so many people to fear their neighbors.


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[Assistant] The technical term for this debate was Sadduicism. The active quest to prove claims of the supernatural were false, and John Webster was one of the biggest voices. But every debate has two sides, and there were others who spoke out against him.


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[Assistant] To them, the supernatural world, one full of witches that threaten the safety and security of every community, was real and valid. And one of the most prominent of those voices was George Sinclair.


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[Assistant] Sinclair was part of a group of thinkers who believed that the supernatural world was real, that spirits existed, and that witchcraft was a real and powerful threat. But he and his fellow believers weren't part of the non-scientific community. In fact, it was quite the opposite of what we might expect.


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[Assistant] George Sinclair was a professor of mathematics at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He'd also served time as a geologist doing mineral surveys and as an engineer. In fact, in 1655, he crafted a diving bell so that he could explore the wreck of a Spanish ship off the coast of the Isle of Mull.


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[Assistant] He was also part of the engineering team that was hired to use pipes to transport fresh drinking water into Edinburgh. Something that cities take for granted today. I guess my point is that George Sinclair possessed a smart, scientific, analytical mind. Which makes it a bit of a conundrum that he used that mind to debunk belief in the supernatural.


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[Assistant] It was honestly a very bizarre and backwards debate. On one side there was John Webster, who was not just a chemist, but also a priest, arguing that the supernatural world of spirits and witches was nothing but fiction.


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[Assistant] And then on the other, you have people like George Sinclair, scientist and engineer par excellence, claiming science could prove that all of it was in fact true. And they did this primarily through observation. Observation and notebooks.


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[Assistant] So when reports of witchcraft activity would pop up, Sinclair and others like him would interview witnesses, record evidence, and build a document with all of the facts. They believed deep down in their bones that if they studied these mysterious events with a true scientific mind, they would establish proof of things like ghosts and witches.