WEBVTT - The Broken Column 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:14.440 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.440 the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.159 of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:28.880 waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.800 Lawrence stepped outside of his Philadelphia apartment one afternoon to 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.680 find a box of seemingly discarded objects. This was not 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.640 uncommon in his neighborhood, where people often left old furniture 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:51.000 or boxes of books out for passers by to pick through. 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.800 Lawrence took a look inside a couple of knickknacks, including 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.600 a bronze statue lay on top of something massive and sparkly. 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:02.240 He dug through the box, unearthing an enormous crystal ball. 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.319 To Lawrence, it looked like a prop from a movie 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.440 or a Halloween costume, the sort of fortune teller or 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:10.880 witch might use. He made him move the box to 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:13.240 his garage, but he found that it was so heavy 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.800 that he had no choice but to drag it. Lawrence 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.120 had no use for the knickknacks, but he knew someone 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.280 who would love the crystal ball. His friend Kim Beckles, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:24.640 cleaned Lawrence's house for him occasionally. Kim liked a joke 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:27.200 about being a witch and was all too happy when 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:29.520 he presented her with the crystal ball the next time 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:33.160 he saw her. Six months later, a man nicknamed Al 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:37.320 the trash Picker passed through Lawrence's neighborhood hunting for items 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.679 to pawn. Alan Lawrence weren't close friends, but he had 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.360 given Al a key to his garage and told him 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.040 to take anything that he wanted to sell. That day, 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.880 Al picked up the bronze statuette that Lawrence had found 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.440 next to the crystal ball. Al didn't have much use 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.600 for it either, but he knew that the old adage 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:57.480 was true. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Al 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.160 slipped the statue in with his other fines for the day, 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.320 and he made his way towards South Street garage and pawnshop. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.000 The shop bought from Al regularly, and that day they 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:10.320 offered him thirty dollars for the statue and a wooden 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.959 table he'd picked up elsewhere. Twelve days later, on October 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:18.079 twenty fourth of nineteen ninety one, Penn Museum employee, Jess Canby, 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.640 took advantage of a free afternoon to do some shopping. 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.359 As a self described thrift store junkie, Jess loved to 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.760 pick through piles of discarded treasures. She entered the South 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:31.560 Street Garage and pawnshop that afternoon with no idea what 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.760 she was about to find. A bronze statue out behind 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:37.639 the counter caught Jess's eye. She asked the clerk if 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.520 she could inspect it more closely. In her hands, the 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.480 metal was cold and heavy. It depicted Osiris, the Egyptian 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:47.880 god of the afterlife. Jess examined the statue, first in 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:52.600 fascination and then in disbelief. Without a word of explanation, 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.600 she'd dropped the statue onto the counter and raced out 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:58.960 the door. Less than an hour later, she returned, this 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:03.680 time with two En Museum directors and the police. You see. 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.880 Three years earlier, on November tenth of nineteen eighty eight, 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.400 the Penn Museum staff had conducted their morning checks and 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:14.119 found the unthinkable. In a room called the Harrison Rotunda, 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:18.200 where priceless artifacts from Japan and China were displayed, three 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.919 objects were missing. A silver Japanese sculpture resembling a crashing wave, 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.440 a bronze statue of the Egyptian god Osiris, and a 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.840 fifty five pound crystal ball that had once belonged to 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.440 the Dowager Empress of China. Together, they were valued at 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.960 over half a million dollars. Museum officials alerted the police 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.119 and raced to check their security footage. They were horrified 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.320 to discover that security had been undergoing repairs to their 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:48.840 camera system and no footage of that night existed. Word 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.280 of the heist traveled quickly, and the Japanese wave sculpture 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.320 was recovered the same day. It had been dumped outside 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.800 of a building on the UPenn campus without fingerprints or 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:03.120 forensic evidence. Police and FBI searched for the crystal ball 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.680 and the statue, but without any leads, the case went cold, 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:11.000 that is until Jess can be spotted and recognized the 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:15.360 stolen artifact. At the pawn shot that day. Investigators questioned 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:19.160 the pawnshop owners, who led officials to al the trash picker, 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:23.240 who led them to Lawrence Stemmtz. When questioned by the 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.240 FBI and museum officials, Lawrence told them how he had 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.160 found the statue in a box with other objects, including 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.480 the crystal ball that he had given to Kim Beckle's 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:34.640 Kim happily returned the crystal ball to the museum, where 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:38.200 it was identified as the stolen artifact. Kim, Al and 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.400 Lawrence were all questioned extensively by the police and FBI, 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.599 but cleared of any suspicion in the robbery. Today, the 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:46.839 crystal ball is back in pride of place at the 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.800 Penn Museum Harrison Rotunda, along with the Osiris statue and 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.880 Japanese sculpture. The story of their time away from the 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:58.479 museum is not widely known, and the heist itself remains unsolved, 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:00.599 and as far as the year or so that the 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.760 crystal ball spent in Kim Beckle's possession, she told investigators 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:21.599 that she had used the priceless antique as a hat rack. Today, 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.560 the Nachez Trace Parkway is a two lane road winding 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:29.080 through the tranquil forests of Tennessee. It's a favorite for hikers, bicyclists, 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.119 and tourists looking for a scenic drive. But two hundred 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.360 years ago, long before the road was paved, the Natchez 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.040 Trace was more than just a place for a quiet getaway. 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:40.240 It was one of the main routes for traders and 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:45.400 explorers crossing the American frontier. On a cool autumn evening 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:48.600 in eighteen oh nine, a lone traveler stopped at one 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.280 of the few inns along the remote trail, a log 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:55.279 cabin called Grinder's Stand. The innkeeper's wife noticed right away 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.599 that the man was behaving strangely. He kept pacing back 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.440 and forth talking to a and she gave him the 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.400 key to the main cabin and started preparing his bed, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.279 but he told her not to bother he preferred to 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.880 sleep on the floor. Late that night, around three o'clock 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.400 in the morning, the innkeeper's wife was startled by the 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.440 sound of gunshots from the main cabin. She woke up 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.920 the servants and hurried over for them to break open 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.920 the door. Inside, she saw her guest crawling on the 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:25.440 buffalo hide rug, bleeding from bullet wounds to his head 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.799 and chest. He begged them for a drink of water. 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.320 The servants poured him a glass and helped him sip, 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.360 but that was all they could do for him. There 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.600 were no doctors this far out in the wilderness. By sunrise, 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.440 he was dead. The man's servants were traveling a day 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.240 or two behind him, and they soon arrived at Grinder's 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:46.280 stand carried him along the trail. The man's friends all 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:50.120 assumed the death was a suicide. He had lifelong struggles 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:53.520 with depression, and he was dealing with money problems too. 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:55.960 He'd recently had to leave behind a job that he 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.120 absolutely loved for a desk job, and it was a 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.719 difficult adjust, even drinking heavily to get through the days. 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:05.880 He even tried unsuccessfully to take his own life just 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.000 a few weeks earlier. But there was something odd about 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.320 the situation. The man was a skilled gunman. He was 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:15.280 a former soldier and an expert hunter. How could he 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.040 have shot himself twice at point blank range and missed 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.840 badly enough that he survived for hours. Many people, though, 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.680 thought his death was actually a murder. It may have 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.840 been roving bandits searching the trail for someone to rob. 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:32.000 But another scandalous theory was that the innkeeper had caught 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.760 the man in bed with his wife, and some believe 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:37.960 that it was an assassination because this man wasn't just 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.920 any old lonesome traveler. He was one of the greatest 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:45.520 explorers in American history. Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:49.720 Clark Expedition. There's a conspiracy theory that Lewis was killed 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:53.360 by James Wilkinson, an army general who served as governor 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.240 of the Louisiana Territory. Wilkinson was secretly a spy for 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.000 the Spanish, and he was also involved in some corrupt 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.840 land deals that Lewis had information about. The idea was 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.320 that Wilkinson had killed Lewis to protect his secrets, and 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.200 while there's no hard evidence to support this theory, it 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:14.560 has stuck around. Almost forty years after Lewis's death. In 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.200 eighteen forty eight, a Tennessee State commission opened his grave 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.520 and examined his body. Their final report found that even 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.280 though the death was officially ruled a suicide, it was 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.520 and I quote more probable that he died by the 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:31.520 hands of an assassin. The commissioners erected a monument over 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.560 Lewis's grave, a broken column symbolizing a life cut short. 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.320 It's still standing there along the Natchez Trace, near a 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.280 replica of the original Grinder's stand. In recent decades, some 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.480 of Lewis's descendants have tried to convince the National Park 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.920 Service to exhume his body again for more forensic testing, 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.640 but the request has been repeatedly denied. Unless they changed 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.040 their minds, the truth about what happened to Meriwether Lewis 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.800 might never be known. He might have been a trail 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.200 blo who navigated a continent, but in the end he 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:10.480 became lost in the fog of a personal mystery. I 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.040 hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.480 Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:22.040 the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.520 was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.200 Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:33.080 which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.719 you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:40.320 dot com. And until next time, stay curious.