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[Assistant] Folklore is one of the things that humans do best. We love to answer mysteries with stories of our own invention. We love to explain the unexplainable with tales that delight and thrill. And when it comes to the monsters of North Carolina, they fit that trend perfectly.


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[Assistant] And of course, it wasn't uncommon for the newspapers at the time to fabricate sensational stories to boost their sales. Most of the reporting on the Santa was done by the Statesville landmark, so it was possible that they had invented the creature and the folklore had taken on a life of its own right after.


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[Assistant] But that doesn't explain how a similar creature wreaked very real havoc in North Carolina in the 1950s.


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[Assistant] It began in December of 1954 in the town of Bladenboro, about 40 miles south of Fayetteville. A string of animal killings had gripped the local residents with fear after a farmer had spotted a cat-like creature snatching his dog and dragging it into the underbrush.


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[Assistant] Pretty soon, other dogs went missing too. They were found later, dead, with all their blood drained and their heads crushed in.


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[Assistant] Who fetched his shotgun and ran outside. But by the time he got there, whatever it was, had disappeared.


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[Assistant] Hogs, cows, and goats started turning up dead shortly after that. And the common description given of the unholy beast that had done it? It had reddish brown fur and made a high-pitched whine like the cry of a human infant.


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[Assistant] A mob of 800 people formed a hunting party and went in search of the creature.


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[Assistant] All they managed to kill was a bobcat, though. But based on its size, they were not convinced it had committed those heinous acts on all those dogs and livestock.


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[Assistant] What it was, we'll never know. Because to this day, the beast of Bladenboro has never been found.


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[Assistant] North Carolina is a big state with even bigger legends, and we're not quite done telling you all about them. We followed the trail of one more creature from the Tar Heel State, and if you stick around through this brief sponsor break, I'll tell you all about it.


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[Assistant] The santa and the beast of Bladenboro aren't the only cat monsters stalking parts of North Carolina. Among the mountains and dense brush is another animal, one that has captivated an entire region for hundreds of years. Its name? The wampus cat.


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[Assistant] The wampus cat is actually one of the few cryptids that has been known to extend beyond the area of the country.


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[Assistant] The wampus cat is ubiquitous throughout the south in Appalachia, with multiple high schools using it as their mascot. It's also known as the galley wampus in Missouri and the whistling wampus in Arkansas, and simply the wampus in Appalachia.


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[Assistant] Its ferocity is specific to its location, too. Some places fear the wampus cat as they do the santa, while others treat it with a tongue-in-cheek playfulness.


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[Assistant] The North Carolina Wampus Cat, though, has been described as a half-cat, half-dog creature capable of running on all fours or upright on its hind two legs. It stalks its prey at night and lets out a terrifying howl.


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[Assistant] Its eyes have been known to either glow yellow or green, and their soul piercing gaze has driven people mad.


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[Assistant] Those who have encountered the wampus cats have usually done so by accident after wandering into a labyrinthian swamp on their way back to camp.


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[Assistant] The author went on to say that even a stuffed and mounted wampus cat was capable of tearing its owner apart. Okay, sure.


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[Assistant] It was believed that the Wampus Cat had derived from Cherokee legends, although some experts claim that the stories had not originated with the Cherokee people at all. Rather, they had been told by settlers about the Cherokee.


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[Assistant] In 1939, a version of the Wampus Cat appeared in a book by Henry H. Tryon.


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[Assistant] Fearsome critters. And rather than depict a feral, murderous, cat-like hell beast, Trion's idea was more whimsical and imaginative.


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[Assistant] He described the wampus cat as having tufted ears and a quilled hide that was


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[Assistant] And if Zeph that weren't a mental picture that was cute enough, Trion also peppered his lore with factoids like, if a wampus wades into a stream, the fish won't bite for seven days. And also, females may be killed only with a crosscut saw. The males, practically indestructible.


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[Assistant] He also wrote that their footprints can only be seen in solid rock.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, a white folktale told of an old man who stepped outside one day and saw a wampus cat sitting on his chimney top. He looked up and asked what its shiny eyes were for, and the wampus answered him, to look you through. The man then asked what its sharp claws were for. To scratch your grave, said the creature. And the long tail, the man asked? To sweep your grave, the wampus cat said. So the old man then asked one last question.


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[Assistant] What are those sharp teeth for? The wampus looked down at him.


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[Assistant] And just as with the santa, the wampus cat was said to have been killing livestock since the first half of the 19th century through to the present. Everyone from farmers to television hosts have reported seeing its glowing eyes and razor-like teeth.


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[Assistant] So, were those creatures really prowling the North Carolina wilderness and eating livestock with wild abandon?


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[Assistant] Or were they simply stories told to scare children and drive up newspaper sales?


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[Assistant] No one knows for sure, but clearly, North Carolina is the state where we might find the answers. But if you go looking, just be careful. You might not like what you find.


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[Assistant] As always folks, thanks so much for watching. Credits for today's episode are in the description below.


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[Assistant] Lore has been a podcast since 2015 with over 400 million downloads to date. You can learn more about this show plus the book series and television adaptation over at lorepodcast.com. And of course, be sure to click on the subscribe button and the bell icon so that you don't miss future episodes. Oh, and if you enjoyed this one, give it a thumbs up too.


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


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[Assistant] As the flames climbed higher and cremated his body, she stepped forward and threw herself onto him.


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[Assistant] Right there, in front of thousands who had gathered for the funeral, she was burned alive. And the people responded by building her a shrine.


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[Assistant] What she did, as horrible as it sounds to our modern sensibilities, was a tragic, yet common act in her culture. It's an ancient Hindu funeral rite, known as Sati, and by practicing it, this young widow became one more participant in a very old tradition.


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[Assistant] Sati as a practice dates back at least 2,000 years. It wasn't an obscure practice, either. In the last 15 years prior to its ban in 1829, it's estimated that over 8,000 women died as a result of Sati.


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[Assistant] It's a problematic tradition, most likely carried on to rob a woman of her right to inherit the property of her deceased husband. And although it's illegal today, it still occasionally happens in remote villages that have yet to leave the old ways behind.


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[Assistant] What an outsider sees, though, is a ritual that taps into a deep, ancient attraction we all seem to have toward fire.


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[Assistant] For a very long time, fire was a thing of power, a thing of mystery. The torches of our ancestors were used to frighten off predators and were then brought indoors to keep them warm on cold winter nights. While humans might not have always understood it, we quickly learned that fire was a tool that we could use.


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[Assistant] Ever since, fire has been something we've played with and harnessed. Like sati, humans have worked it into countless religious and civic practices over the centuries. Maybe that's why we tend to think that we're the boss, that we, and not the flames, are in control. It's just a tool, after all. We are the masters.


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[Assistant] Throughout the long, elaborate, complex history of humankind, there is a small handful of recurring themes. They're universal, crossing the borders of culture and chronology, and they never seem to go out of style.


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[Assistant] Power. Death. Love. Money. These are ever-present ideas that play out time and time again, like main characters in an epic novel. And with them, through it all, from the beginning of civilization up to the present, was fire.


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[Assistant] The ancient myths built stories to explain why we even had something as dangerous and helpful as fire.


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[Assistant] The Greek story of Prometheus tells of how he defied Zeus and stole fire from Mount Olympus, bringing it to humanity as a source of power and civilization. And that idea, the notion of a deity or a supernatural hero who steals fire from the realm of the gods, is present in dozens of cultures around the world.


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[Assistant] Across the Atlantic and centuries later, the Cherokee would speak of Grandmother Spider and how she entered the land of light and brought fire back in a clay pot.


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[Assistant] Hebrew mythology tells of a fallen angel named Azazel who brings knowledge of how to use fire and grants it to humanity. One of the Hindu sacred texts, known as the Rigveda, carries the same theme, with fire locked away from humanity until a brave hero retrieves it.


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[Assistant] In all of the stories, fire is a possession of the divine, and when humanity gets a hold of it, they grow and advance and change for the better.


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[Assistant] It's not difficult to see, then, how the idea of fire evolved over time to become a sort of symbol of the divine. Fire blesses us, in a sense. It makes life better.


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[Assistant] As a result, we've worked fire into every aspect of our lives. It's the cornerstone of technology and has enabled us to evolve from cave paintings to cell phones.


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[Assistant] Think about it. The earliest examples of writing were on clay tablets. If those clay tablets couldn't be fired, they would have fallen apart and vanished long ago.


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[Assistant] Fire in a literal sense made it possible to pass knowledge down to the next generation.


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[Assistant] Early on, we also discovered another place in our lives for fire.


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[Assistant] Evidence of cremation dates back at least 20,000 years, and although it was never the sole method of burial, it was vastly more common than it is today.


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[Assistant] The speed bump was Christianity. When belief in the resurrection of the body spread across Europe and the New World, a distaste for cremation came with it. In some places and times, it was even outlawed, carrying the death penalty.


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[Assistant] Cremation is a mixture of science and symbolism. In one sense, our bodies are just reduced to their basic elements, returning them to the Earth as part of a greater chemical cycle. And in another sense, the afterlife, in the form of fire, consumes us. Either way you view it, at the core of the act is that ever-present force. Fire.


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[Assistant] Cremation is a powerful process, too. Even at temperatures in excess of 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, it still takes the average human body almost three hours to burn completely. When it's over, though, all that remains is just a few pounds of bone fragments, which are then crushed and moved into an urn.


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[Assistant] True to much of human history though, cremation is something we've managed to twist and bend to our own nature. As far back as 4,000 years ago, the Babylonians used death by burning as a punishment for certain crimes. That practice was echoed in ancient Egypt and carried on later in the Roman Empire.


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[Assistant] By the 13th century, many European kingdoms had begun to make burning a legally required method of execution for certain crimes. Wielded by Christian emperors, that punishment quickly became focused on people accused of heresy, for straying from the accepted religious norms of the time.


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[Assistant] That's why by the early 1500s, witchcraft and burning at the stake had become synonymous as chocolate and peanut butter. Just, you know, a lot less enjoyable.


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[Assistant] If there's anything to learn here, it's that humans have a long history of burning each other. We burn our dead, and sometimes we even burn the living. A key to both scenarios, though, is that we're in control, and we know the reason why, whether they're honorable or horrific.


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[Assistant] And in every case, fire has been a tool in our hands.


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[Assistant] There have been rare and unexpected moments in history though, when that hasn't been the case. When someone has been consumed by fire, and despite all attempts to explain why, we're left with nothing but a mystery. And it's happened enough that we've even given it a name. Spontaneous Human Combustion.


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[Assistant] We didn't always have a name for it. The term spontaneous human combustion first appeared in print in 1746, but there were stories told long before that that fit the description. One of the first, as far as I can tell, was written down in 1641 by Danish physician Tomas Bartolin.


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[Assistant] According to him, there was an Italian knight in the 15th century named Polonus Vorstius. The story goes that the knight was at home in Milan in 1470, eating and drinking with friends and family, and he apparently had a great love of strong wine, which he drank a lot of that night.


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[Assistant] Bartolin describes how the knight, fully intoxicated and stinking of alcohol, belched fire, and probably surprised him as much as his parents, who were right there with him at the table. And then, without a source of ignition,


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[Assistant] He burst into flames and died before their eyes.


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[Assistant] More than a century later, a professor of philosophy named John Christopher Sturmius recorded a similar tale.


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[Assistant] In one of his books, he tells the story of three men who apparently liked to party. After encouraging each other to get absolutely blitzed on wine, two of the men died. The cause of death was that they had been, and I quote, scorched and suffocated by a flame forcing itself from the stomach.


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[Assistant] This idea that alcohol was to blame, and specifically the excessive ingestion of it, was one of the most common explanations tossed around in the early days of these tales.


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[Assistant] On one level, it was pretty logical. Alcohol is a flammable substance. So if someone was found mysteriously burned alive and they were a known alcoholic, well, the story sort of wrote itself.


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[Assistant] On the other hand though, there was little science to support these claims. Most of the stories about these events speak of the wrath of God, and how the sin of these alcoholics brought judgment by fire. It was a convenient theory, but it didn't hold water. Especially when you take the story of Contessa Cornelia di Bandi into consideration.


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[Assistant] Di Bandi was an Italian countess in the city of Cesena, back in the early part of the 18th century. In an account from 1731, her story was recorded in detail.


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[Assistant] According to the tale, at the age of 62, the Countess ended her evening one night with a long conversation with her maid and then retired to bed.


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[Assistant] The following morning, when the maid entered the Countess' bedroom, she discovered nothing more than two legs and a pile of ash. The legs, by the way, were still wearing stockings. And unlike other stories of spontaneous human combustion, this woman wasn't a heavy drinker. In fact, she was known to abstain from alcohol entirely.


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[Assistant] Most tales of events like this remain in the realm of speculation and whispered rumor, and rightly so.


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[Assistant] Every now and then though, our superstitions sneak into more formal locations, like the courtroom. That's what happened in 1725.


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[Assistant] Jean and Nicole Miais were innkeepers in France, and they had quite the reputation. Nicole, as the story goes, was almost always drunk, and she was verbally abusive and difficult to work with, and maybe that's why Jean was rumored to be sleeping with one of the young servants there at their inn.


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[Assistant] They were an imperfect couple with a lot of issues to work through, apparently.


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[Assistant] In late February of 1725, a surgeon named Claude Nicola Leca was passing through the area and booked a room at the inn. According to his account, the following morning, a small pile of human remains was found in the inn's kitchen, about two feet from the hearth.


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[Assistant] It was Nicole and all that remained of her were her unburned feet, her skull, and a few pieces of her spine.


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[Assistant] Almost immediately her husband Jean was arrested and charged with the murder by fire of his wife.


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[Assistant] Considering all the rumors about their unhappy marriage, the judge was slow to believe the innkeeper. It was too convenient, honestly, and they were ready to convict. And that's when the traveling surgeon, Lecah, stepped in.


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[Assistant] He spoke to the judge. He told him that there were many documented examples of unexplainable burnings like this, and that there were scientific logical causes behind them. As a medical expert, he supported the idea.


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[Assistant] Whatever the true cause of Nicole's death might have been, Leca told the court that her death seemed more like punishment from God for her heavy drinking and bitter attitude. And with no physical evidence to support the charge of murder, they should let her husband off the hook.


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[Assistant] And it worked. Jean-Mier was released. A free man thanks to a surgeon who was well-read and open-minded. Or thanks to a judge who was gullible. I will let you decide.


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[Assistant] That's a luxury that we have when we're talking about stories that are three centuries old, after all. That distance, that age, it gives us a bit of freedom in our interpretation.


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[Assistant] When the story is just a few decades old, from the age of photography, forensic science, and modern medicine, that's when it gets more tricky. Not because it's harder to believe, though.


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[Assistant] Mary had two visitors on July 1st of 1951. Her son, Dr. Richard Reesor, had been to her apartment that evening and they'd been joined by Mary's landlady, Mrs. Pansy Carpenter.


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[Assistant] Mary was 67 years old, and she lived alone there in her apartment in St. Petersburg, Florida, so it was probably a friendly social call.


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[Assistant] Mary's guests left at about 9pm that evening. She stayed in her recliner in the living room and they let themselves out. And that was that. Except for waking up at 5 in the morning to the smell of something burning, Mrs. Carpenter had a lovely night of sleep.


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[Assistant] There was a knock on the landlady's door at eight that morning, and she opened it to find a telegraph boy standing there. Remember, this was the early 1950s, well before cell phones or even personal computers, so this was basically the mid-century equivalent of a text message. Except this message was for Mary Reeser.


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[Assistant] The landlady signed for it and then walked up to Mary's room to deliver it personally.


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[Assistant] She knocked a few times and waited, but Mary was either asleep or already out. She figured that she would just set it on the kitchen table and remind her later, so she grabbed the doorknob and then pulled her hand away.


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[Assistant] The metal knob was hot to the touch. Not only did it hurt, but it set off an alarm in her head. What if there was a fire?


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[Assistant] So she dashed back downstairs where two house painters were at work in another of the apartment units and asked for their help. They followed her up and quickly forced the door open.


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[Assistant] A wave of heat rolled out through the door and the apartment inside showed signs of fire. Well sort of.


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[Assistant] Really, it was just a corner of the living room, centered around the recliner that Mary loved to sit in. But the chair wasn't there anymore. All of the wood and fabric had burned away, leaving just a few springs in a blackened pile on the floor. And Mary had been in the chair when it had burned.


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[Assistant] We know this because when the police and firemen arrived, they found her unburned foot lying nearby. Other than the burn marks around the ankle, the foot and the fabric of the slipper it was inside were both unharmed.


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[Assistant] They found a few other pieces of Mary in the pile of ash. Her liver was there, charred and fused to some vertebrae. And her skull was still intact. Or at least nearly intact. You see, it had somehow shrunk.


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[Assistant] Some anecdotal reports say that it was the size of a teacup, but the official medical examiner's report just says that it was much smaller than it should have been.


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[Assistant] An FBI forensic team was called in. They took over and started to really examine the apartment. As a result, things became even more confusing and mysterious, if that's even possible. They determined that Mary had been smoking and that she'd been sedated with a sleeping pill, something her son confirmed was part of her evening routine.


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[Assistant] But they also determined that in order for her body to incinerate so completely, a fire of at least three thousand degrees would have had to burn for over three hours. And that's a lot of heat.


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[Assistant] So, you'd expect the apartment to show signs of a fire like that.


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[Assistant] There were some, but it was mostly heat related and all of the visible damage was located about four feet off the ground or higher. Above that invisible line, candles had melted into puddles of wax, a mirror had cracked from the heat, the plastic light switches had melted, and a greasy soot covered the walls. The grease, they said,


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[Assistant] Was from Mary's body. She had weighed about 170 pounds at the time of her death, and the idea was that perhaps a cigarette ignited her clothing or bathrobe. Then her body would have burned like a candle wick, using her fat as a fuel source. Some scientists think it's possible, but it would have produced an intense amount of heat, and that presented some problems for the investigators.


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[Assistant] Because yes, there was heat damage higher up the walls and that greasy residue. But right beside the spot where the recliner had once stood there was a pile of newspapers that remained untouched by the flames.


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[Assistant] The investigators were baffled. How could a human being burn so thoroughly that only a handful of bones remained and not ignite everything else in the apartment?


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[Assistant] Toward the end of the investigation, the police brought in a physical anthropologist named Dr. Wilton Krogman. Due to his research, he had a wealth of experience with the physical elements of events like Mary Reeser's death. He would later write that he could not,


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[Assistant] As for the skull, that too left Krogman utterly baffled. In a newspaper interview shortly after the investigation, he told a reporter,


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[Assistant] I have participated in the investigation of some 30 fire deaths in the past 20 years. Never have I seen a human skull shrink by intense heat. In fact, the opposite has always been true.


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[Assistant] Dr. Krogman later said that the case still haunted him, years later. It was the inexplicable nature of it all, the mystery, the clues and physics that just didn't seem to line up. He later wrote,


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[Assistant] The apartment and everything in it should have been consumed. I regard it as the most amazing thing I have ever seen. As I review it, the short hairs on my neck bristle with vague fear. Were I living in the middle ages, I'd mutter something about black magic.


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[Assistant] There's a dance that we do with topics like spontaneous human combustion. We want to unravel the truth, to untie the knot and make sense of it all. That's very human of us, very logical and rational. I fully support that kind of behavior.


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[Assistant] On the other hand though, we cling to mysteries like a beloved childhood toy. Don't kill the mood. Don't shatter the dream. Just let me revel for a little bit longer inside this warm, cozy blankets of unexplainable conundrum.


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[Assistant] If that's you, I'm right there with you. Trust me.


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[Assistant] We love knowing, and we hate knowing. And these stories of knights and countesses and widows and drunks who have all burst into flames and been reduced to a handful of ash, well they do something for us, don't they?


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[Assistant] That's why authors like Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens all used spontaneous human combustion to kill off characters in their novels.


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[Assistant] Maybe science will one day point to the true source of these events. Maybe someone in the lab somewhere will be able to reproduce the circumstances and results and brush every last bit of mystery off the box we use to store these tales. Or maybe not. Because sometimes we just never find the answers.


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[Assistant] These stories are full of the unexplainable though, and that pushes us toward wonder. Whether we tell ourselves that some natural external source caused the fire or that it came from within, we're still left with too many questions.


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[Assistant] Why these people? Why was there so little damage outside the location of the body? Why weren't the houses or apartments burnt down around them?


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[Assistant] And like all of the unexplainable tales that tickle at the back of our minds, we know we'll never get all the answers.


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[Assistant] Thankfully though, the world sometimes tosses new stories our way.


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[Assistant] To remind us that these things still happen, and that's, love it or hate it, we still don't know the answers.


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[Assistant] In 2011 in Ireland, the fire department entered the home of an elderly man named Michael Flaherty. They were responding to a smoke alarm there, and when they entered, they found a small pile of human ash on the floor.


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[Assistant] Other than some heat damage close to the ash and above it on the ceiling, there were no other signs of a fire. The coroner listed the cause of death as spontaneous human combustion.


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[Assistant] Back in 1966, another elderly man, Dr. John Bentley from Pennsylvania, suffered a similar fate in his bathroom. His cremated remains were found beside the toilet in his home. His walker had toppled into the fire, but the rubber grips were completely untouched.


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[Assistant] In 1986, Kendall Mott was worried about his retired father, George, who hadn't called him that day. So he went over to check on him. He arrived to find the doorknob hot to the touch and the windows coated in dark soot. So he let himself in.


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[Assistant] George had died in bed while watching television, but there wasn't much left to examine. The pile of ash was contained to the mattress and nowhere else. Forensic investigators determined that a fire of nearly 3,000 degrees had incinerated the man over the span of hours, which explains the ash, of course.


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[Assistant] But it doesn't explain the box of matches on the bedside table that were unburnt and perfectly intact. Or the fact that George Mott wasn't a smoker.


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[Assistant] Yes, the TV melted, but the rest of the house was untouched by the fire that had to have taken place.


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[Assistant] Fire has always been, if you'll pardon the pun, a hot topic. From its role in ancient mythologies and global religions to its practical uses in our growth as humans, the significance of fire can't be understated.


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[Assistant] Which is why stories of fire that come from mysterious places will always fascinate us. And because of that, we've tracked down one more amazing story to quench your burning curiosity. Stick around through this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.


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[Assistant] Spontaneous human combustion is a neat party trick, but sadly one that can only be done once. For encore performances, a person might want to try their hand, or maybe their mind, at Pyrokinesis.


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[Assistant] The term Pyrokinesis was coined by none other than horror legend Stephen King in his book Firestarter.


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[Assistant] It described the young female protagonist's ability to create and control powerful destructive fires with her mind.


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[Assistant] But although King may have invented the word, he certainly didn't invent the concept. Pyrokinesis has been a staple of magicians, mediums, and mystics throughout history.


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[Assistant] For example, monks and other religious practitioners were known to walk over hot coals without burning their feet.


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[Assistant] Although, with our modern eyes, it's easy to see that wetting the feet beforehand and moving quickly over the coals can reduce the chance of burns.


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[Assistant] Scottish medium Daniel Douglas Home was known during the mid-1800s for levitating and communicating with the dead, but he would also do things like handle a heated coal straight from the fire without burning his hands.


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[Assistant] And in 2011, a Filipino toddler became a local celebrity for her ability to predict and create fires. According to reports, she once said the words, fire pillow, and moments later, her pillow burst into flames.


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[Assistant] Other items around the house also started spontaneously igniting, and the parents were so distraught they attempted to exercise whatever demon they believed was inside of her.


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[Assistant] To this day, no one knows how or why the fires started.


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[Assistant] However, before the three-year-old fire starter made the news, there was A.W. Underwood of Paw Paw, Michigan. Underwood was a black man born in 1855 who was said to be able to manifest fires from a very young age.


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[Assistant] According to Underwood himself, he once held a perfumed handkerchief to his mouth, exhaled into it, and realized his breath made the handkerchief catch fire. He was only 12 years old at the time.


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[Assistant] As you'd imagine, Underwood gained a nickname for his talents. People called him the Blowtorch, and as he got older, his skills got more... potent. He had to be incredibly careful of his breath, lest he blow too hard and set something ablaze.


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[Assistant] Underwood soon realized that he could breathe fire at will, like a human dragon, but only a few times a day. After one blast, he would collapse in his chair, fatigued and in need of a recharge. An examiner once placed his hand against the man's head after one such fiery expulsion and found that his scalp twitched violently.


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[Assistant] But Underwood didn't suffer in vain. He put his talents to good use, earning friends and money by demonstrating those skills for people. One local resident recounted a time when Underwood accompanied him on a hunting party. The group needed to build a fire, but no one had brought any matches.


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[Assistant] Luckily, they didn't need any. Their guest picked up two handfuls of dry leaves, breathed on them for a while, and then set them aflame all on his own.


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[Assistant] When Underwood performed, he charged 25 cents a show, the equivalent of about $7 today. It might not seem like much now, but he was a black man in rural Michigan and had managed to make his own money on his own terms and gain the respect and attention of others in his community. That was a big deal.


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[Assistant] Of course, wherever someone claimed to have extraordinary gifts, often skeptics waited in the wings to knock that person down a peg. Dr. David Fisher, the school board clerk, didn't think Underwood was the real deal.


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[Assistant] So, one night, he traveled to the man's home and forced him to prove himself. He made Underwood get out of bed and wash his hands and arms, then took a swab from inside his mouth. Finally, Fisher told Underwood to drink a glass of water before demanding a private performance.


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[Assistant] Fisher handed Underwood a sheet of newspaper that he'd brought along and had him breathe onto it. Lo and behold, it ignited right before the school clerk's eyes. But proof was only part of the equation.


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[Assistant] People, including Underwood, wanted to know why he was able to light things on fire this way.


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[Assistant] Whether he had been hired to debunk the man's claims or hired by Underwood himself is unknown. But around 1822, Woodman published his findings in the Michigan Medical News and Scientific American. They were as clear as day. Underwood was the real deal, and Woodman had no idea why.


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[Assistant] But even a medical paper published by a licensed physician wasn't enough to satiate the most jaded skeptics.


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[Assistant] One year after the report was published, a man named Dr. R. Thomas of De Pere, Wisconsin came forward with his own theory on how Underwood was able to set objects on fire. He believed the enterprising young man had placed a small fragment of phosphorus in his mouth, which he would push onto the item with his tongue.


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[Assistant] Then, with the phosphorus clamped within a piece of paper or handkerchief, he could rub it vigorously, causing it to ignite.


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[Assistant] How did Thomas come to deconstruct Underwood's alleged ruse?


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[Assistant] Because he had pulled the exact same prank himself when he was a boy.


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[Assistant] It was a plausible theory, but that's all it was, a theory. Underwood was never actually caught in the act of committing a fraud. Eventually, like a small flame in the palm of one's hand, the performer and pyrokinetic seemingly fizzled out into obscurity.


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[Assistant] His name didn't appear in the history books, and the truth behind his talents was never fully explained.


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[Assistant] Could A.W. Underwood really breathe fire? Or had he simply mastered slight of mouth? Anything is possible, but it is worth noting the parallels between Underwood and the celebrity mediums of his day, many of whom had been found out as hoaxes.


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[Assistant] Almost always, they were people from low stations in life with lofty dreams of a way out.


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[Assistant] And through unexplainable powers, they rose above their stations like wild flames, becoming almost superhuman.


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[Assistant] In Underwood's case, that allowed him to live out his life in a blaze of glory.


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[Assistant] This episode of Lore was researched, written, and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with additional research from Jenna Rose Nethercott, and additional writing from Harry Marks, 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 seasons of a television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more lore in your life. You can find more information on all of those things over at lorepodcast.com.


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[Assistant] And you can also follow this show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Just search for Lore Podcast. All one word. 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] In September of 1952, something bright flashed across the dark West Virginia sky and came to rest on a nearby farm.


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[Assistant] A trio of local boys saw it happen with their own eyes, and ran home to report it. The mother of one of the boys agreed that it was worth looking into, so she gathered a group of older boys, and together they all walked over to find whatever it was that had fallen to the earth.


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[Assistant] When they arrived, they found what they described as a ball of fire, and the air was thick with a mist that burned their eyes and noses. When one of the boys noticed a pair of red lights in the shadows nearby, he turned his light on it. There, they say, stood a dark figure with bright eyes and a pointed head.


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[Assistant] They couldn't see arms, but when it saw the light, it glided toward them and hissed. Naturally, they all ran away.


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[Assistant] They claimed it was an extraterrestrial, protecting the ship that had just crash-landed. Keep in mind, this was 1952. The Roswell, New Mexico incident had taken place just five years before, and many people were expecting it to happen again. A real-life UFO crash.


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[Assistant] Later reports suggest something much less fantastical, though. On that very same night, a meteor had been sighted crossing the sky over Maryland, Pennsylvania, and, you guessed it, West Virginia. And that mysterious, armless, pointed head creature that flew toward them? Nothing more than a local owl.


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[Assistant] Our world is full of things that are hard to explain, things that frighten us and cause us to doubt our safety. It might happen less and less often in this connected modern culture of ours, but it's still part of our legacy. People have always seen things that are hard to believe.


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[Assistant] Sometimes though, people see what they want to see, rather than reality. The challenge lies in distinguishing between the two. Fact or fiction, truth or lie, figment of the imagination, or something more.


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[Assistant] For as long as we've been looking up, humans have been seeing things they can't explain. And for every time it's happened, those experiences get framed within whatever worldview or experience people had at the time. One of those common interpretations, for a very long time, was sky serpents.


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[Assistant] The English county of Devon has played host to at least two sightings of a mysterious event that was recorded as a twisting serpent in the sky. In both 1388 and 1762, something long and winding appeared in the English skies, remaining visible for over six minutes by multiple witnesses.


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[Assistant] In 1857, the crew of a steamboat on Nebraska's Missouri River saw something similar. Witnesses later described it as resembling, and I quote, a giant undulating serpent in and out of the lower clouds, breathing fire.


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[Assistant] Sixteen years later, a number of farmers in the Texas town of Bonham saw something in the sky that defied all explanation. They said it was twisting and writhing like a snake, butts enormous and yellow.


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[Assistant] Witnesses seem to come from all walks of life. In 1897, a Michigan paperboy named John Rosa stopped to chat with a local police officer while he was out on his 4am delivery route. Both Rosa and the officer looked up and saw an enormous silvery serpent fly across the sky.


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[Assistant] Similar events have been recorded in Brazil, South Carolina, Maryland, and Northern Europe, and those accounts span centuries. Clearly, something was going on.


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[Assistant] But most of those sightings are easy to explain away with a bit of knowledge about how meteorological events work, and with a bit of an open mind. Comets, meteors, northern lights, all of these natural, regularly occurring events could explain the odd sightings that people have claimed to be fiery snakes in the sky.


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[Assistant] As is so often the case when we see what we want to, it prevents us from seeing everything else.


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[Assistant] But other sightings are harder to explain. When they get closer to the Earth and even stand on solid ground, our ability to filter the truth from the fantasy starts to break down. The mysterious creature witnessed multiple times in Cornwall, England is a prime example of this, and to this day, that hasn't been easily explained away.


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[Assistant] In April of 1976, the Melling family from Lancaster was vacationing in Cornwall when something unusual took place. On the 12th of April, Don Melling's two daughters, 12-year-old June and 9-year-old Vicki, were exploring the woods near a church in Mornin.


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[Assistant] While they were there, they reported seeing a strange bird-like man in the air above the church. It frightened them so much that they convinced their parents to pack up and end their vacation early.


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[Assistant] Nearly three months later, in early July of that year, more sightings were reported near Mornin' Church. Again, two girls, this time Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry, reported a hissing sound in the night sky and looked up to see something unexplainable. They described it as a


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[Assistant] Red glowing eyes. It was sighted again the following day by three other travelers, and it's been seen off and on for years ever since.


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[Assistant] Back in the United States, similar creatures have been witnessed. In December of 1975, for example, two police officers in Texas saw something that they would never be able to forget.


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[Assistant] One morning, they were patrolling the city of Harlingen when something flew over their car. According to their report, that something was a giant bird with a wingspan that measured over 10 feet across.


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[Assistant] A few days later, a similar creature was sighted by two local teens. When they reported it to their parents, everyone headed out to have a look. All they found were a set of enormous tracks in the dirt. Tracks made by a large, three-toed foot.


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[Assistant] They made the evening news for that discovery, and then the community erupted in hysteria. Half a dozen more sightings were reported over the following month.


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[Assistant] The officers in Harlingen later admitted that whatever it was they'd seen could probably have been a Pelican.


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[Assistant] Maybe. They weren't really sure. But others absolutely insisted it was an enormous bird of mysterious origins. Heck, one man claimed that he was even attacked by it. That many sightings, well, it makes you wonder what was really going on.


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[Assistant] And that's the trouble with all of these stories, isn't it? There are always loose ends, bits and pieces that can't be explained away, no matter how expertly we apply logic to them. Which, of course, is why they're still told to this day. It seems that these stories always have two sides, don't they?


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[Assistant] The passionate eyewitness and the cold voice of reason. And that's pretty much par for the course for humans. We often refuse to believe the things that others claim to have seen just because those stories drift outside the realm of accepted reality. Most of the details, along with the mystery itself, can be explained away with reasonable logic.


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[Assistant] But sometimes there's more than one event, more than a handful of sightings, more detail or evidence than logic can explain away. Sometimes the reports are so strong that they become hard to ignore. And when the unexplainable becomes the believable, that's when things truly become horrifying.


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[Assistant] When World War II ended in 1945, a number of military-related factories around the US were closed up and either abandoned or converted into something more practical.


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[Assistant] The Gopher Ordinance Works in Rosemount, Minnesota, for example, is now a concrete skeleton of what it once was. The Dodge Chicago plant was first transitioned into a shopping mall, and now they use a portion of it to manufacture candy.


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[Assistant] And about six miles north of the West Virginia town of Point Pleasant, they built a TNT plant and storage facility, but shut its doors after the war ended. They built it on property that had originally been a game preserve.


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[Assistant] But rather than transition it back when they were done, the manufacturing facilities were simply left to rot, including the dozens of concrete igloos that had been used for storage.


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[Assistant] Today it's used as a wildlife preserve, and homes have been built nearby. But it's still probably safe to say that ever since the war ended, the old TNT factory property hasn't seen much action. Not until the mid-60s at least, because that's when something unusual began to take place.


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[Assistant] On the night of November 15th of 1966, a car entered the abandoned property. Inside were two young couples, Steve and Mary Mallette, and Roger and Linda Scarberry. They were just out looking for some innocent fun, and that search had led them onto one of the dirt roads that cut through the old factory grounds.


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[Assistant] Their car was full of laughter, conversation, and the beats of the radio. But all of that came to an end when the very edge of their headlights illuminated something odd.


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[Assistant] Linda Scarberry later described it as an unnaturally large man-shaped figure. Most frightening, though, were the eyes, which glowed in the darkness with a red light.


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[Assistant] Whatever they'd seen, the thing didn't appear to see them. At least it didn't react to their presence. I have a hard time understanding how the bright headlights of a car could fail to catch the attention of anything close to a sentient being in the middle of a dark wildlife preserve.


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[Assistant] But according to all four witnesses, it just sort of waddled off away from the road at a slow, rambling pace.


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[Assistant] The two couples didn't spend any time debating what they'd all seen. They didn't stop and get out to investigate. They were too afraid to do anything other than turn their car around and head back toward the exit of the preserve as quickly as they could. All they wanted to do was get away. But that wasn't going to be as easy as they thought.


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[Assistant] A minute or two later, as they were winding their way back through the dirt roads that led to the exit, they saw it again.


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[Assistant] This time the figure was more clear, and the four witnesses were able to get a better look at it. They described the same tall, human-like shape with red eyes, but said this time they were able to see something else.


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[Assistant] It was something that seemed like a cross between a giant bird and an enormous man. Which of course was impossible. But that didn't mean that it wasn't frightening. And when the creature spread its wings and flew after them, they were downright horrified. So they sped up.


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[Assistant] Roger Scarberry later told the police that he managed to coax his old Chevy up to a hundred miles an hour. But when they glanced behind the car, the flying thing was still there, still chasing them. And over the roar of the engine, they could all hear a sound. A sort of high-pitched squeaking noise.


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[Assistant] But all of it, the sight of the creature, the eerie noise, and the fast pursuit, it gave them all the incentive they needed to head back to town as quickly as they could.


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[Assistant] And it was only after the car had entered the city limits of Point Pleasant and was bathed in the bright electric light that the bird or creature, whatever it had really been, finally gave up and turned around. It quickly vanished into the night.


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[Assistant] The two young couples were understandably terrified by what they'd seen, but they were also unanimous on the details. Something large, something that could fly and scream at them, had chased them all the way from the wildlife preserve into town. So they decided to tell the police.


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[Assistant] Roger turned the car toward the Mason County Courthouse, and before long they were reporting the event to an officer inside. The deputy sheriff agreed to send a handful of officers out to the preserve immediately, and the young couples bravely went with them. Unfortunately, they found nothing definitive that proved the couple's story, but there were still some tense moments.


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[Assistant] While searching the general area of the sighting, sounds could be heard in the darkness outside the glow of their flashlights. One of the officers even claimed that he saw movement and a cloud of dust that could have been made by someone walking down a path. But whatever caused it remained hidden from view.


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[Assistant] Most chilling of all, though, was when one of the other officers saw what he described as a shadow in the night sky overhead. It seemed to be circling above one of the abandoned buildings, slow and deliberate, like a large bird. Everyone got back in their car and they left as fast as they could.


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[Assistant] Oddly enough, the events of November 15th weren't the first of their kind in the area. They were just the first to be given anything close to a reasonable amount of attention by the authorities and the press. Sightings of something large and unusual had actually been happening in the area for years.


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[Assistant] According to historian and professor James Gay Jones, the first local sighting might have actually occurred during the early 1900s.


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[Assistant] According to the tale, multiple families in the area witnessed a creature that they described as man-sized, with a wingspan of over 12 feet. They claimed that this man-bird had no discernible head, something that sounds oddly similar to the thing that the two couples witnessed in 1966.


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[Assistant] Five years earlier, in 1961, two people from Point Pleasant were driving south of town along the Ohio River, when they saw something step out into the road in front of them.


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[Assistant] They described it as a large man, but covered in gray fur or maybe feathers and protruding from its back were wings. A moment later, it launched itself into the air and flew away.


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[Assistant] On November 1st of 1966, just two weeks before the frightening car chase and the police investigation, a number of National Guardsmen were outside at the Armory, a military facility east of town, when they saw something in the nearby trees.


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[Assistant] It was perched on a branch of a tree in the distance, but all of the men agreed that it was too large to be a bird. It was man-sized, they said, maybe larger. This time though, it was brown.


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[Assistant] Then, just three days before the two young couples had their experience in Point Pleasant, five men saw something in Klindenen, a town about 80 miles to the southeast.


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[Assistant] Ken Duncan and his coworkers were digging a grave in the local cemetery, getting it ready for a burial later that day, when a large bird took off from one of the trees at the edge of the property.


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[Assistant] As it flew closer though, each of the men became convinced that it wasn't a bird at all. It was as large as a man, but with wings.


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[Assistant] After the events of November 15th, though, all of those disconnected, unreported sightings started to get pulled into the larger story. The local newspaper, the Point Pleasant Register, ran a headline the next day that declared,


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[Assistant] It was an odd story for sure. The paper just didn't know what to do with it. And honestly, I don't blame them.


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[Assistant] The following evening, Raymond Wamsley drove north toward the wildlife preserve on his way to see a friend who lived in one of the homes built near the property there. With him in the car were his wife and another friend, Marcella Bennett. When they arrived at their friend's house, they parked in a shadowy dirt lot across the road, and then got out and approached the front door.


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[Assistant] Unfortunately, their friend wasn't home, so they turned around and returned to their car. It was on their way back that they saw something none of them would forget. Just a few feet from the car, farther back from the road in the darkness, something large seemed to rise up from the ground.


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[Assistant] It happened suddenly, and the sight of it horrified each of them. Bennett later described it as an enormous figure, roughly the shape of a human, but with glowing red eyes. They stood beside the car, paralyzed with fear, while they watched a pair of wings unfold from the back of the creature. Then it was gone.


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[Assistant] They weren't the last in town to see something that fit such an unusual, almost unbelievable description.


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[Assistant] On the morning of November 25th, Tom Urie was driving to work just a couple of miles north of the Wildlife Preserve when he saw something on the side of the road. Maybe he thought it was a hitchhiker or a local out for a walk. Whatever he might have assumed, the closer he got, the less it made sense.


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[Assistant] It was an enormous man-shaped figure, and as he passed it the creature spread huge wings and took flight.


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[Assistant] Tom sped away, horrified by what he had seen, but the thing, whatever it was, followed him.


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[Assistant] Even when Tom reached 75 miles per hour, it kept up, even circling his car. When it finally did disappear, Tom went home. He said he was just too frightened to work after that.


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[Assistant] There were others too. Connie Jo Carpenter saw something large on the 27th that flew toward her car. On the 28th, Richard West called the police in a panic. There was something on his neighbor's roof he told them. It was a man.


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[Assistant] With wings. And later an elderly man from Point Pleasant claimed that he looked out his window and saw a winged man with gray fur and bright red eyes just, well, standing there in his yard.


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[Assistant] The sightings continued for months, sometimes in the area of Point Pleasant and sometimes farther away. The Ohio River Valley seemed to be the focal point for many of the reported encounters with the creature, but the descriptions varied just enough to make that assumption far from definitive. And then, of course, there were the dreams.


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[Assistant] A year after the 1966 sightings, multiple people claimed that they were having nightmares about death, and they blamed them on the mysterious creature. One woman said that her dreams involved Christmas presents and people drowning. Another woman dreamt of people dying in the nearby Ohio River.


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[Assistant] And each of them believed that the birdman creature's appearance had something to do with it. But of course, these were just dreams. And as we all know, dreams don't come true. Or do they?


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[Assistant] On the evening of December 15th in 1967, the nearby Silver Bridge, which connected Point Pleasant with Ohio to the west, collapsed into the river. When it did, it took 46 lives with it. Cars full of people driving home from work, families returning from after-school programs, folks coming back from their holiday shopping. And floating in the water, they said, among the wreckage of cars and metal support beams, were tiny pops of color.


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[Assistant] There's a lot to be said for seeing what we want to see. And when a whole community gets caught up in something as sensational as a man-sized bird thing, well, it's easy to see how things can get out of control. And fast.


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[Assistant] In the years since, there have even been stories in Point Pleasant of UFOs, of government cover-ups, and aliens. And the creature has been given a sensational, mysterious name. The Mothman.


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[Assistant] Others, though, take the more logical approach. No one saw anything unusual at all. In every instance, they say it was just a large bird. Nothing more than shadows and hysteria convincing people that they were seeing something otherworldly.


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[Assistant] Biologists have suggested that it was just a Sandhill Crane, or much like the events from 1952, it was just an owl, enlarged by adrenaline and an overactive imagination.


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[Assistant] We see what we want to, whether we're a skeptic or a believer. We wear our own pair of colored lenses, and they tint the world that we see. Sometimes that causes us to dismiss things that we should give more attention to. Other times, it convinces us that the unexplainable is undeniable.


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[Assistant] None of this of course sheds light on the odd connection between the sightings of these creatures and the tragedies that followed them.


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[Assistant] The first recorded appearance of the Point Pleasant creature way back in the early 1900s was said to have occurred just prior to a tragic event. And the collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1967 certainly deepened that possible connection. Unlike the creature itself though, those are harder to explain away with simple wildlife biology.


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[Assistant] Meanwhile, large man-bird creatures are still occasionally sighted, and oftentimes very far from point pleasant.


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[Assistant] Creatures matching the Mothman description have been sighted in Singapore, Argentina, England, Mexico and Brazil, among many others. Most witnesses describe the same glowing red eyes, human-like body, and enormous wings.


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[Assistant] In April of 1986, there were similar sightings in a small Russian town located in a river valley just north of a wildlife preserve. Witnesses claimed to see a large creature they described as a tall, headless man with enormous wings and eyes that glowed with a bright red light.


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[Assistant] All of those details, from the location to the physical description, sound eerily familiar to the Point Pleasant incident.


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[Assistant] These sightings in the Russian town went on for over two weeks, and locals began to refer to it by a name. They called it the Black Bird. And just as odd as the sightings themselves, are the reports of eyewitnesses having nightmares later on. What those dreams entailed, no one really knows.


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[Assistant] We don't know because there's no one left in town to ask about those dreams, or the sightings of the blackbird creature. You see, all 14,000 residents were relocated about 30 years ago, shortly after a reactor at their nuclear power plant tragically failed. The city, you see, was Chernobyl.


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[Assistant] In the world of cryptids, few have soared to the heights of popularity like the Mothman. When this episode first aired back in 2016, I unknowingly published it in the very same week as the 50th anniversary of Mothman's first sighting in 1966.


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[Assistant] Math isn't my strong suit, but apparently the episode was meant to be. Thankfully, nothing bad happened as a result.


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[Assistant] But Mothman isn't the only winged omen of dark days. In fact, all the way around the globe, there's another example that needs to be mentioned. And if you stick around through this brief sponsor break, I'll tell you all about it.


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[Assistant] The idea of confronting giant winged creatures in the night is terrifying. With their glowing red eyes and enormous wings that seem to swallow light, it's hard to imagine their intentions as anything less than sinister. Maybe it's our intense distrust of the unknown, or maybe we just watch too many scary movies.


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[Assistant] Whatever the case, these beasts are seen as harbingers of a terrible fate to those who have witnessed them. However, there is something else out there that's known to prophesy ruin. But don't worry, it comes as a friend.


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[Assistant] From 1858 to 1860, a cholera epidemic ravaged Japan. It steamrolled across the country, first in Nagasaki, before moving through Edo, the Kai province, and beyond. Looking back, it's easy to draw parallels between Japan's cholera outbreak and the viruses that plague us today.


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[Assistant] For example, the expedited trade routes of old meant the disease was able to spread more swiftly than before, resulting in a higher number of casualties. The faster that people were able to cross the land and the sea, the wider the outbreak.


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[Assistant] By the time it was over, an estimated 200,000 people in Japan had died from cholera, with Nagasaki having the highest mortality rate. It lost 8.3% of its population.


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[Assistant] Edo, otherwise known as modern day Tokyo, had a larger population and thus lost a greater number of people.


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[Assistant] The rapid spread of the disease and the climbing death rates meant crematoriums and coffin makers just couldn't keep up with demand. It got so bad at one point that carpenters had to be pulled from their daily construction work to build more coffins.


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[Assistant] Coopers were also enlisted to use their skills making casks and barrels to build coffins for the dead. Even the casks themselves were sometimes used if necessary.


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[Assistant] As for the crematoriums, bodies were stacked for weeks waiting to be burned. The stench of decaying flesh got so bad that districts far and wide could smell it, carried on the wind, like a terrible perfume.


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[Assistant] The names and the totals of the dead were published in tabloid broadsheets called disaster collages. They detailed many of the statistics surrounding the epidemic and reprinted the government's bulletins for convenience.


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[Assistant] Doctors hoping to control the spread did everything they could to advise the public and keep them safe. But much of their information was lacking due to their own inexperience with the disease.


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[Assistant] For example, they published lists of foods to avoid, including cucumbers, melons, tuna, and shrimp. Unfortunately, this information wasn't based on the food's likelihood to transmit cholera, but rather their chances of causing food poisoning.


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[Assistant] People were also advised to keep their temperatures even. Not too hot, not too cold. And for those who did contract the virus, mustard paste slathered on the hands, feet, and stomach were prescribed, as were beverages high in ginger, cardamom, and laurel.


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[Assistant] And as if the parallels between then and now weren't enough, foreigners were even blamed for bringing the disease to Japan in the first place, which led to a rise of anti-foreign sentiments. As French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Carr once said, the more things change, the more they stay the same.


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[Assistant] But the truth was that no one really knew what was causing the outbreak, nor how to stop it. As information and misinformation continued to spread, so did a rumor. It was a rumor of a creature whose presence could either foretell devastation or bring hope. The people of Japan clung to the latter.


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[Assistant] It was called the Yogan Notori. In English, that translates to prophecy bird, a two-headed crow where one head is white and the other is black. According to the legend, the Yogan Notori were sent from the gods to warn those on Earth of impending doom.


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[Assistant] They were said to be so sacred and powerful that even looking at pictures of one could help protect someone from tragedy. One government official named Kazemon wrote a journal entry about a Yogan notori that had appeared in Kaga province the December before the cholera epidemic swept through Japan.


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[Assistant] The bird said the following, a tragedy will befall your people of whom nine in ten will die in August and September next year. Those of you who pray to us morning and night and truly believe shall be spared from this disaster.


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[Assistant] An ominous message, to say the least, but also one of promise. So had a two-headed crow really flown to Kaga province and deliver a terrible prophecy, or had the Japanese people been so devastated by the cholera outbreak that they were desperate for some semblance of hope and control?


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[Assistant] When all seems lost, we tend to grab whatever we can and hold on.


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[Assistant] It's hard to know the truth for sure, as stories about the Yogan Notori faded away after the outbreak subsided. Nobody really brought them up again for over 160 years.


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[Assistant] Like all of us, the Japanese once again needed something to help them get through their days of isolation and anxiety.


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[Assistant] That's when a curator at the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum tweeted a photo of Kezaman's journal, highlighting the prophetic quotes about the unearthly bird. It earned over 10,000 likes in just one week.


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[Assistant] It wasn't long before businesses and shrines all over Japan started asking for permission to use the Yogen Notori's image on all sorts of products, like rice crackers and temple charms. People wanted to keep an image of the creature with them at all times to protect themselves from the virus. And it's hard to blame them.


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[Assistant] It doesn't matter how old we get or how far science and technology progress. We as humans will often seek a higher power to help us in our time of need. For the people of Japan, that higher power came in the form of a two-headed prophetic crow. Exactly what the doctor ordered.


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[Assistant] This episode of Lore was researched, written, and produced by me, Aaron Manke, with additional research from Jenna Rose Nethercott, and writing by Harry Marks, 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 seasons of the television show on Amazon Prime Video. Check them both out if you want more lore in your life. Information about all of that and more is available over at lorepodcast.com.


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


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[Assistant] Some fears are obvious and visible. A dark cobweb covered basement. An old axe propped up in the corner of the garage with something red along its edge. Maybe rust. Or maybe something else.


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[Assistant] Some fears are like the wind. The only proof it exists is in the way it affects other things. That cool feeling on your skin. The way the leaves and the trees sway back and forth. And just like the wind, there are fears that we can only point out, thanks to their effects.


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[Assistant] One of the best places to feel that breeze, so to speak, is Hollywood.


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[Assistant] The stories that entertain us the most seem to tap into the deep unseen fears that we all struggle with. It's like touching the tip of your tongue to a 9-volt battery. You hate the sensation, but there's something disturbingly attractive about it as well.


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[Assistant] One of the biggest themes to come out of Hollywood over the past few decades, by far, has been one of isolation, loss and disaster.


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[Assistant] Films like I Am Legend and Alien dip into this pool, as do small screen shows like The Walking Dead and Battlestar Galactica. We're obsessed with the idea. We fear it, but we also love it, because the questions feel important.


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[Assistant] What would happen if humanity were reduced to a tiny population, left on the brink of extinction and fighting for survival? In what ways would our civilization hold strong, and where would it crack?


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[Assistant] Could we rediscover order, or would chaos consume us all?


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[Assistant] You would think that this would be an impossible concept to understand first hand. That human dignity and ethics would prevent us from testing it out to find the true answers. Then again, real life is rarely ethical, and thanks to the events that took place on a small island in the Pacific just a century ago, we have answers. The odds are though, you aren't going to like them.


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[Assistant] Roughly 1,000 miles due south of Cabo San Lucas in the Pacific waters off the coast of Mexico and Central America is an island.


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[Assistant] When I say island, your mind probably conjures an image of a large green mountain protruding from the water with sandy beaches and luxury resorts along the coastline. But that would be wrong.


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[Assistant] This island is small. Really small, in fact. It's perhaps two miles long, but from the air it's almost non-existent. It's more of a coral ring than anything else, with very little vegetation.


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[Assistant] If you can picture a coffee stain, like a dark ring on a white napkin, that's what I'm talking about. Outside the ring, the waves of the Pacific crash against the shore. Inside, though, is the freshwater lagoon. It's not deep, but it is drinkable.


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[Assistant] The first European to stumble upon it, as far as historians can tell, was a man named John Clipperton.


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[Assistant] In the first two decades of the 1700s, he operated as a privateer, a pirate for hire, serving the British crown in its effort to hinder Spanish expansion into Central America and Mexico. Due to the tiny island's proximity to the western coast of Guatemala and Mexico, Clipperton set up a base there.


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[Assistant] But for as tiny as the island is, it offered a surprising amount of space for Clipperton. The highest point is a mere 95 feet above the ocean waves, but he found a number of serviceable caves, which he had his men expand for storage and defense. But his time there was short-lived.


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[Assistant] Clipperton Island, as it became known, had another feature that attracted attention.


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[Assistant] Guano. The island was actually one of many that were mined to support a growing need for the chemical elements found in the manure of birds, bats, and seals. This guano would primarily be used to manufacture gunpowder and fertilizer. Two products that growing nations lusted after.


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[Assistant] Because of this, the island exchanged hands a number of times through the middle of the 19th century. For a while, Mexico claimed ownership.


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[Assistant] But in 1856, the American government passed the Guano Islands Act, making it legal for U.S. citizens to claim Guano rich islands no matter where they were located, as long as they were uninhabited and unclaimed by another country.


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[Assistant] By the late 1800s, Napoleon sent French troops to annex the island. They found a small group of American guano miners there, and forced them out. Mexico wasn't too happy about the French claim though, and they argued about it for years. While they did, in 1899, a group of industrious British men landed and got to work.


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[Assistant] And not only did they start mining, but they built houses and created garden areas. They even planted more palm trees. These guys were serious about colonizing the island and wanted to do it right. But the island was more harsh than they realized, and by 1909, they had given up. All but one of the Englishmen abandoned the island and headed home.


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[Assistant] And that's when Mexico got serious. In 1910, President Diaz put 13 soldiers on a ship and transported them to Clipperton, where they would do their part in maintaining Mexican rule over the valuable resources there.


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[Assistant] Thankfully, when they arrived, they found the homes and buildings that the British had constructed, empty and waiting for them. There was even a recently built lighthouse, complete with its own keeper. But it wasn't just 13 men with guns who made the trip.


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[Assistant] And sure, it was expensive and difficult to transport supplies to them, but they were determined


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[Assistant] By 1910, nearly 100 people had begun to call the island their home, and even more would be born there in the years to come. What none of them could foresee, though, was just how many would die there as well.


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[Assistant] One of those thirteen soldiers was a man named Ramon Arnoux. He was a thirty-three year old military officer with a checkered past. Within months of his enlistment years before he deserted his post, it resulted in him spending over five months in a military prison, and then a series of unappealing command assignments.


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[Assistant] Clipperton Island was, to him, just one more piece of that punishment, whether or not it came with the title of governor.


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[Assistant] Children were born in those first few years. Governor Arnaud and his wife Alicia welcomed their first child, Ramon Jr., in 1910, and two more followed over the next three years. During that time, life was a dull rhythm of island life and the occasional resupply ship. But that was all about to change.


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[Assistant] Sometime in 1914, the supply ships from Acapulco stopped coming. With a frequency of every two months, it was probably hard to tell if the ship was just late or if plans had changed. I imagine everyone on the island watched the horizon daily for a sign of help.


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[Assistant] Without that ship, they were essentially stranded and every day that ticked by was another attack against their dwindling supply of hope.


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[Assistant] In late summer of 1914, a ship did show up, but this one was American. It brought supplies, but its real mission was to pick up the last remaining member of the British mining crew, who had stayed behind five years earlier. While there, the ship's captain informed Governor Arnaud of the situation back home.


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[Assistant] Not only had Mexico erupted into revolution, but the world was now at war following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. They'd seen nothing like it, and he had no idea if or when it would stop. Perhaps, he suggested, Arnaud and his community would like to come home, just to be safe.


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[Assistant] But Arnaud declined, and the community soon watched the Americans vanish over the horizon.


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[Assistant] By 1915 though, that decision was beginning to feel flawed.


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[Assistant] The vegetable garden that the British had installed had started to fall apart. The only naturally occurring food on the island was a small supply of coconuts and whatever fish and birds they could hunt. But what those foods lacked was vitamin C, and so by late 1915 many on the island had scurvy.


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[Assistant] We tend to treat scurvy lightly, making pirate jokes about it when we're out with friends, but the reality of the disease is more horrible.


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[Assistant] The symptoms begin with bleeding gums and sore spots, and eventually grow into depression, immobility, and open wounds. In the end, someone suffering from scurvy simply bleeds to death, and without vitamin C, those around them can only helplessly watch it all end.


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[Assistant] The people died off one or two at a time. The disease seemed to favor adult men, and as the population dropped like a lead weight, the survivors struggled to bury their dead deep enough to keep them out of reach of the island's crabs.


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[Assistant] By 1916, nearly all of the men were dead, and many of the women and children as well. All told, there were perhaps two dozen survivors by this point. Arnaud was motivated. His wife Alicia was pregnant with their fourth child, and if his family was going to survive, they needed to find help.


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[Assistant] It was probably while they were all studying the dark storm clouds on the horizon that they spotted the ship. They tried jumping and waving their arms, but there was no sign that the vessel saw them. It was just too far away, and the approaching storm probably made it too dark to see them anyway. Hope was slipping right past them, and they were helpless. Almost.


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[Assistant] Out of desperation, Arnaud made the decision to gather the last of the men into the only boat on the island and row after the passing ship, hoping to catch its attention.


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[Assistant] Their lives depended on it. It was probably their last chance after all, and so they rode hard and fast into the rough waters.


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[Assistant] Historians aren't sure exactly what happened next. There might have been a struggle in the boats, according to some witnesses, or the small boat might have started to take on water. What we do know is that the men stood up and seemed to grapple with each other, only to capsize the boat and toss them all into the sea. And there, within sight of their families, all of the men drowned.


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[Assistant] But Alicia Arnaud didn't have time for heartache. The storm that had been on the horizon was upon them within just two hours of the tragedy. The three remaining women, along with perhaps half a dozen children, all gathered in the basement of the Arnaud's home to take shelter. And that's when Alicia went into labor.


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[Assistant] She named her new son Angel, and he was the last good news they would experience for years.


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[Assistant] When the women stepped out of the basement the following morning, the rest of the house was gone. The storm had destroyed everything, it seems. All of the homes, the remnants of the garden, even some of the palm trees were gone.


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[Assistant] But something new was there as well. Someone, actually. The reclusive lighthouse keeper. Victoriano Alvarez. They knew that he had been there of course, but he had been seen so infrequently that most of them had forgotten about him.


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[Assistant] He's described by historians as mentally unstable, and a lack of social skills had driven him to hide in the lighthouse from the others for years. How he got supplies though, I have no clue.


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[Assistant] And Alvarez was giant. Tall, powerful, and menacing. He must have been a shocking sight to the surviving women as they pushed their way free from the wreckage of their home. But there he was. And he had a mission.


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[Assistant] He wandered the ruined settlement and gathered all of their weapons together. Some reports say that he tossed most of them into the deeper part of the lagoon, while others say that he took them all back to the lighthouse. Whatever he did with them, the message was the same. I am the law now, he was telling them. I am your only hope.


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[Assistant] Alvarez set himself up as king over the island, with no other men to challenge him and only three young women who were doing their best to keep the children alive. But it wasn't a glorious reign. No, Alvarez quickly became a nightmare for everyone there.


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[Assistant] The three women were helpless to stop him. For the next years, Alvarez would rape, abuse, threaten, and beat the women like some sort of primitive clan elder. He would often choose one of them to return to the lighthouse with him, only to send her back to the others when he grew tired of her company.


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[Assistant] And none of the women angered Alvarez more than 20-year-old Tirza Randon. Maybe it was her youthful rebelliousness or her sheer will to live, but Randon constantly made life difficult for the lighthouse keeper.


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[Assistant] When she was with him, she was quick to voice her hatred of him and when she was back in the settlement, she was a loud voice of dissent.


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[Assistant] They needed to find a way to escape, but without a visiting ship, that seemed hopeless. Alvarez, though, was a monster, and something needed to be done. And he had made a mistake. You see, he thought of his captives as just women.


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[Assistant] Yes, he was physically stronger. Yes, he was armed. And yes, he seemed to be in control. But Alicia and the others weren't just women.


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[Assistant] No, they were survivors. They were human beings fighting for their dignity and safety, and they were powerful in their own ways. So when Alvarez walked into their collection of primitive shelters in July of 1917 and demanded that Alicia Arnoux be the next to report to his lighthouse, they saw their chance.


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[Assistant] Arnaud and Randon both walked up to the lighthouse the next morning, with Ramon Jr., now 7, following close behind. When they arrived, Alvarez was outside cooking a bird he had managed to capture. It must have been a rare catch, as the women later described how he was smiling, but that smile melted away as he saw Randon approaching.


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[Assistant] There was an argument. Alvarez wanted to know why Alicia had brought the other woman. And while the giant of a man was busy shouting about it at Arno, the other woman slipped silently into the lighthouse. When Randon stepped back out through the doorway, Alicia gave her a tiny nod. Alvarez saw this though and turned to see what was behind him, but it was too late.


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[Assistant] Later, all three women were standing in their settlement on top of a small hill that was crisscrossed by the overgrown paths used by the mining companies years before. And it was at that moment that they saw the rowboat. It was a whaler, launched from an American gunship called the Yorktown, anchored farther out at sea.


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[Assistant] It was a Lieutenant Kerr who landed on the beach and after speaking with the women, he brought all of the survivors back to the ship with him.


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[Assistant] There they were presented to the commander of the gunship, a man named H. P. Perl, who listened to their story with deep interest. They told him of their ordeal during the past three years, and of the maniacal lighthouse keeper who had held them captive through force and violence.


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[Assistant] Where is he now? Commander Peril asked. Dead, Alicia told him, and then added as if it helped to clarify the matter. From Scurvy.


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[Assistant] Some people view humanity as just one more member of the animal kingdom. And much like a dog left alone in the house for hours, it's in our nature to create chaos and destruction when we're left to our own devices. We need rules and boundaries, these people would say, if we are to have any hope of maintaining order and civilization.


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[Assistant] Others, though, disagree. They would say that our tendency towards society and structure is innate, that it's written in our DNA right alongside things like the blueprints of our circulatory system and our eye color. We're hardwired to build community, and it's merely the trials of life that push us off course from time to time.


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[Assistant] But both can be equally true, I suppose. What if humanity is more of a creature in the balance? The events that played out on Clipperton a century ago certainly show us both sides of that coin. Some leaned toward order and peace, while others became animals.


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[Assistant] Lieutenant Kerr witnessed this firsthand. After delivering the survivors to the Yorktown, he and Commander Perl returned to the island later that day. They wanted to see for themselves who this monster was that had terrorized the women for so long, dead or alive.


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[Assistant] Both of them had seen scurvy kill men before, so they weren't afraid of what they would find.


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[Assistant] After walking the path from the beach and up the hill to the lighthouse, the men found the door wide open, so they stepped inside.


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[Assistant] It was eerily quiet inside the dimly lit room, but it didn't take them long to figure out why.


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[Assistant] Stretched out on the floor was the largest man either of them had ever seen.


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[Assistant] Blood had pooled around the body, filling in low spots in the stone floor. But their eyes were drawn away, toward an area of the floor beyond the man's shoulders.


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[Assistant] Both were small, easy weapons for a malnourished woman to hold and swing, and both were covered in blood.


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[Assistant] The two Americans looked at each other from across the body of the king of Clipperton Island, but neither of them said a word.


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[Assistant] They knew what had happened, what had really brought an end to the man on the floor, but neither wanted to remark upon it. With a nod, they turned and left the building. The survivors were safe, and that was all that mattered to them. The island could keep its king.


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[Assistant] Alicia Arnault would tell us that some people truly are monsters deep in their core. Alvarez certainly was one. But she also advocated a very risky balance, a wagering of her soul in the pursuit of freedom.


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[Assistant] Strength and perseverance in the face of dwindling odds is part of who we are as humans. If history has proven anything, it's that we're survivors. And I hope the chilling events of Clipperton Island stand as proof that hope is always just beyond the horizon.


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[Assistant] But that story isn't the only tale of isolation that we've encountered. And if you stick around through this brief sponsor break, I'll tell you about one more example.


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[Assistant] Alicia Arnaud and her compatriots fought for their survival tooth and nail against a dwindling food supply, harsh elements, and an even harsher lighthouse keeper. But they weren't the first to survive on an island. Because over 360 years before them, there was Marguerite de la Roque.


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[Assistant] Marguerite had been born to French nobility in 1515 and grew up without a care in the world. What she did have, though, was a large amount of land in southern France, as well as several parcels that she owned with her cousin, Jean-Francois Dura-Brvel.


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[Assistant] RubberVell was an opportunist, working his way up among the creme of French society.


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[Assistant] He had even been childhood friends with King Francis I, who appointed him Lieutenant General of New France on the other side of the Atlantic. If you used modern boundaries as a starting point, New France was a large swath of North America under French control that stretched all the way from the top of Canada down to the state of Louisiana.


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[Assistant] And with his new designation as Lieutenant General, Robertval set sail for New France with a fleet of three ships carrying supplies, livestock, and hundreds of colonists. He himself was on board a ship called the Valentine, and his cousin Marguerite had hitched along for the ride with her maidservant Damien.


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[Assistant] What possessed Marguerite to leave her posh life back home? Perhaps she was running away from something. Or maybe she was looking to start a new chapter where nobody knew her. Or maybe there was someone in her life she didn't want anyone knowing about.


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[Assistant] Some stories say that Marguerite smuggled a secret lover onto the ship under her cousin's nose. Others claim that he'd been on board already and that she had fallen for him during the trip.


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[Assistant] How appropriate they had been sailing aboard the Valentine when their love happened.


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[Assistant] But ships, no matter how big they are, are still small enough for secrets to spread. And it was only a matter of time before Robert Vell discovered that his cousin had taken a lover out of wedlock. Angry at her disobedience of his strict Calvinist values, he chose to finish the journey without them.


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[Assistant] His decision was also held by the fact that he would have full access to the lands that she partially owned and the money that would flow into his pockets with her out of the picture.


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[Assistant] Raberval abandoned Marguerite, her lover, and Damien on a small deserted island near Canada. At least, that's one version of what transpired. Another suggests that her lover was placed in chains and kept on board, awaiting punishment in New France, while only Marguerite and Damien were kicked off the ship.


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[Assistant] The lover, not wanting to be without her, nor face what awaited him in the new land, broke free and jumped overboard as the valentine was sailing away.


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[Assistant] Whatever the case, the three of them were left to spend the rest of their days on a little corner of the sea known as the Isle of Demons.