Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Its legacy is as
Speaker 1: American as baseball and apple pie. It's writers were fast, famous,
Speaker 1: and fearless. It has been the subject of over a
Speaker 1: dozen films and television shows, and it became the foundation
Speaker 1: of one of the largest banks in the world. When
Speaker 1: it came to speed and reliability in the eighteen sixties,
Speaker 1: you couldn't beat the Pony Express. As California began to
Speaker 1: boom from the Gold Rush, business owners and settlers needed
Speaker 1: a faster way to communicate with folks farther east. At
Speaker 1: the time, letters and packages took roughly twenty five days
Speaker 1: to travel by stagecoach, even longer if going by ship.
Speaker 1: The Pony Express more than half that time, with an
Speaker 1: average delivery window of about ten days. Not everyone used
Speaker 1: the Pony Express, though it was really expensive for the
Speaker 1: average person to send a letter at five dollars per
Speaker 1: half ounces of mail. The service was primarily used as
Speaker 1: a delivery method for newspapers, business correspondents, and government bulletins.
Speaker 1: Gold Rush hopeful's just couldn't afford the speedy service, and
Speaker 1: speedy it was. Ten days may have been the average
Speaker 1: time it took to deliver a letter, but it certainly
Speaker 1: wasn't the fastest. That record belonged to Robert Haslam. He
Speaker 1: earned the nickname Pony Bob for a very good reason.
Speaker 1: He was responsible for the fastest delivery in Pony Express history.
Speaker 1: Bob had come to the United States from England as
Speaker 1: a teenage major, just as the Pony Express was getting
Speaker 1: up and running. He had gotten his start by building
Speaker 1: depot stations, but was soon given a route of his own,
Speaker 1: from Lake Tahoe to Buckland Station, a seventy five mile
Speaker 1: stretch of Nevada Territory all his own. In May of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty, with his deliveries in tow, Bob traveled on
Speaker 1: horseback from San Francisco to Buckland Station, where he got
Speaker 1: a taste of a growing war. Not the Civil War,
Speaker 1: mind you, but one that must have seemed equally as terrifying.
Speaker 1: The Pyramid Lake Indian War had found its way to
Speaker 1: Buckland's Station in a bad way. The relief rider, who
Speaker 1: was supposed to carry Bob's mail east to Smith's Creek
Speaker 1: was too scared to ride due to the growing Native
Speaker 1: American threat. Bob couldn't let the letters he had been
Speaker 1: carrying go undelivered. He had a decision to make and quick,
Speaker 1: or his trip would have been for nothing. So he
Speaker 1: mounted up and kept going one hundred and ninety miles
Speaker 1: on horseback and just under nine hours without rest, and
Speaker 1: he made it. Bob slept all night before traveling back
Speaker 1: to Buckland Station the next day. Once he reached the
Speaker 1: depot at Cold Springs, he noticed the war had finally arrived.
Speaker 1: The station keeper had been killed and everything inside had
Speaker 1: been taken. There was no time to stop. The longer
Speaker 1: he lingered, the more danger he was putting himself in,
Speaker 1: so he just kept going. Three hundred and eighty miles later,
Speaker 1: Pony Bob had done it. He'd completed the longest round
Speaker 1: trip on record for the Pony Express in less than
Speaker 1: two days. Bob Hasslum rode for the Pony Express for
Speaker 1: months following his record breaking journey, but the most important
Speaker 1: ride of his life was still yet to come. In
Speaker 1: April of eighteen sixty one, a very special delivery had
Speaker 1: to get from Fort Kearney in the Nebraska territory, all
Speaker 1: the way to Placerville, California. If it didn't make it,
Speaker 1: the fate of the entire country might be at risk.
Speaker 1: Only one rider was fit to carry such precious cargo,
Speaker 1: pony Bob himself. He picked up the bundle, tucked it
Speaker 1: into his saddle bag, and rode for one hundred twenty miles.
Speaker 1: His route took him through Piute, Indian Territory, and as
Speaker 1: he traveled, he encountered a handful of braves who didn't
Speaker 1: take kindly to him trespassing on their land. One of
Speaker 1: their arrows found its way into his arm, while another
Speaker 1: flew straight into his jaw, knocking out several of his teeth.
Speaker 1: The attack didn't deter him, though, and his horse galloped
Speaker 1: faster until they were out of danger. He made it
Speaker 1: to California in just eight hours and twenty minutes and
Speaker 1: then delivered his package. You see, that precious cargo he'd
Speaker 1: been carrying had been Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address, which was
Speaker 1: to be telegraphed to Sacramento for publication up and down
Speaker 1: the West coast. And if Bob hadn't made it in time,
Speaker 1: California might have chosen to side with a Confederacy at
Speaker 1: the start of the Civil War. What's most interesting about
Speaker 1: the Pony Express isn't the roster of riders like Pony
Speaker 1: Bob Hasslum or Buffalo Bill Cody, nor the blistering speed
Speaker 1: with which mail was delivered across the country. It wasn't
Speaker 1: even the dangerous conditions it's rider's face, like mounting threats
Speaker 1: from the Native Americans or the harsh weather. No, it's
Speaker 1: that this company, which has such an enduring legacy as
Speaker 1: an icon of American industry, only lasted for eighteen months.
Speaker 1: Selling a house can be a real pain between fixing
Speaker 1: it up and staging everything just right. Hooking a potential
Speaker 1: buyer takes a delicate mixture of truth with a little
Speaker 1: bit of fiction. Sometimes the seller needs to drum up
Speaker 1: interest by any means necessary. But not Helen Actley. She
Speaker 1: didn't have this problem. Her house had been the talk
Speaker 1: of the town for quite some time. Helen moved into
Speaker 1: her home in Nyack, New York, in the late nineteen sixties.
Speaker 1: She had been warned of what awaited her. That the
Speaker 1: home came with three other tenants who showed no signs
Speaker 1: of wanting to move out any time soon. She her husband,
Speaker 1: and their four children, George, Kara, William, and Cynthia didn't
Speaker 1: have a problem with that, though, and they lived there
Speaker 1: for years, getting along just fine with their de facto roommates.
Speaker 1: Sometimes one of them would shake Cynthia's bed in the
Speaker 1: morning to rouse her from sleep. Others would give the
Speaker 1: athlete children coins or trinkets that would vanish later, never
Speaker 1: to be seen again. Helen spoke to her neighbors about
Speaker 1: doors slamming and loud footsteps of conversations that carried on
Speaker 1: into the night, keeping them all awake. However, despite these disruptions,
Speaker 1: the family never tried to have their fellow home dwell
Speaker 1: or is evicted. One day, as Helen was painting the
Speaker 1: living room ceiling, one of the older housemates just sat
Speaker 1: and watched her, never saying a word. On a particularly
Speaker 1: eerie night, her son awoke to find another of the
Speaker 1: residents pressed their face right up against his own. Of course,
Speaker 1: people change, they grow, just like the children did before
Speaker 1: moving out into homes of their own, one they didn't
Speaker 1: have to share with three inconsiderate other people, and their
Speaker 1: parents will they grew tired of their current arrangement and
Speaker 1: decided to sell the house in They reached out to
Speaker 1: a local realtor to facilitate the sale. Explaining the odd
Speaker 1: situation regarding the house. People from all over heard about
Speaker 1: the accles and the people who lived with them. Everyone
Speaker 1: knew what buying that home meant for their dreams of
Speaker 1: peace and quiet. Well, everyone except Jeffrey Stambowski. Jeffrey toured
Speaker 1: the home quickly, deciding it would be a good fit.
Speaker 1: He made a down payment and went into contract on
Speaker 1: the house completely unaware of the three other tenants living inside.
Speaker 1: Neither Helen nor the realtor told him about them. By
Speaker 1: the time he learned about their presence, it was too late.
Speaker 1: He tried to rescind the contract and ended up losing
Speaker 1: his down payment. As a result, Mr Strombowski filed a
Speaker 1: lawsuit against Helen Ackley for fraud. In fact, the case
Speaker 1: went all the way to the New York Supreme Court.
Speaker 1: That's because this wasn't just any fraud case, and the
Speaker 1: other tenants weren't your average renters. Mr Strombowski alleged that
Speaker 1: Helen Ackley neglected to disclose the presence of poltergeists in
Speaker 1: her home, which would have lowered its value. They were
Speaker 1: Sir George and his wife, Lady Margaret, who had lived
Speaker 1: in Nyack in the seventeen hundreds, as well as a
Speaker 1: Navy lieutenant who served during the American Revolution. They were
Speaker 1: not the malevolent ghosts of films and television. But Mr
Speaker 1: Strombowski didn't care. He had been made to look like
Speaker 1: a fool, and the court surprisingly agreed with him. It
Speaker 1: didn't matter that the Actlee ghosts were the subject of
Speaker 1: numerous articles in national magazines. It didn't matter that everyone
Speaker 1: in town knew all about the haunted house on Love
Speaker 1: at a Place. According to the New York Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: Mr Strombowski should have been told about the three spirits
Speaker 1: residing in the home. The ruling, officially titled Strembovski versus Actley,
Speaker 1: is now commonly known as the ghostbuster ruling. It states
Speaker 1: that if a home was ever advertised to the public
Speaker 1: as haunted by ghosts, but a potential buyer was unaware
Speaker 1: of it, the contract can be rescinded. Today, the ruling
Speaker 1: is taught in law schools and often printed on contracts
Speaker 1: for new homes in the state of New York. No
Speaker 1: one else has reported any paranormal activity since the Accles
Speaker 1: moved out, Mediums who have made contact with the spirits
Speaker 1: have said that they're none too happy with the new
Speaker 1: homeowners and maybe they grew tired of waiting for another
Speaker 1: family like the Accles, or maybe they decided to haunt
Speaker 1: a warmer climate. I say that because after the ruling
Speaker 1: against her, Helen Accley was reported to have said she
Speaker 1: was moving to Florida and taking her ghostly roommates with her.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.