1 00:00:15,450 --> 00:00:25,960 Speaker 1: Pushkin. In the town of Griswold, Connecticut, some children are 2 00:00:26,060 --> 00:00:32,050 Speaker 1: playing on an old gravel mine. It's spring 1990. Years 3 00:00:32,090 --> 00:00:35,970 Speaker 1: of excavation have carved this place into a series of steep, 4 00:00:36,310 --> 00:00:41,150 Speaker 1: grey banks. Abandoned now, it's become the neighbourhood toboggan run. 5 00:00:42,420 --> 00:00:46,860 Speaker 1: The children scramble up the slopes, boots sliding over loose stones, 6 00:00:47,180 --> 00:00:50,280 Speaker 1: and then careen toward the quarry floor, shrieking with laughter. 7 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:56,790 Speaker 1: Small rocks skitter after them. Then, on one run, the 8 00:00:56,900 --> 00:01:01,350 Speaker 1: earth gives up something larger than the average pebble, something 9 00:01:01,750 --> 00:01:07,030 Speaker 1: smooth and brown. It tumbles through the air and rolls 10 00:01:07,090 --> 00:01:12,220 Speaker 1: to a stop at the bottom. The children form a 11 00:01:12,340 --> 00:01:16,850 Speaker 1: curious circle around the object. It stares blindly up at them. 12 00:01:17,530 --> 00:01:22,930 Speaker 1: Two hollow sockets. A sunken nose. A gaping jaw packed 13 00:01:23,170 --> 00:01:31,040 Speaker 1: tight with dirt. Their laughter fades. This isn't a rock. Soon, 14 00:01:31,340 --> 00:01:36,720 Speaker 1: yellow crime scene tape cordons off this playground. In the 1980s, 15 00:01:37,060 --> 00:01:41,400 Speaker 1: a serial killer terrorised Connecticut... murdering at least eight women 16 00:01:41,460 --> 00:01:44,180 Speaker 1: and girls. The police think that the children might have 17 00:01:44,220 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 1: uncovered another of his victims. It's quickly apparent, however, that 18 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:55,260 Speaker 1: this skull is from another century. The state archaeologist, Nick Bellantoni, 19 00:01:55,590 --> 00:01:59,610 Speaker 1: is called in, and the investigation now shifts from crime 20 00:01:59,670 --> 00:02:04,730 Speaker 1: scene to historical dig. Bellantoni and his team set to 21 00:02:04,790 --> 00:02:09,690 Speaker 1: work shaving away the soil, first with flat-edged shovels, Then, 22 00:02:09,750 --> 00:02:15,710 Speaker 1: with delicate brushes and bamboo picks, coffin after coffin emerges 23 00:02:15,770 --> 00:02:19,510 Speaker 1: from the hillside. Some of the skeletons inside bear the 24 00:02:19,570 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 1: marks of violent injury. Others still have tufts of hair 25 00:02:24,900 --> 00:02:30,320 Speaker 1: clinging to their skulls. In one corner, seven much smaller 26 00:02:30,340 --> 00:02:36,620 Speaker 1: skeletons lie clustered together. Children. This isn't just a gravel pit. 27 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:44,180 Speaker 1: It's an unmarked cemetery. One grave stands apart, a stone 28 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:49,940 Speaker 1: crypt poking through the mine face. Bellantoni labels it burial 29 00:02:50,020 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: plot number four. He begins lifting away the flat, heavy 30 00:02:54,710 --> 00:02:59,810 Speaker 1: stones that form the crypt roof, then peers into the darkness. 31 00:03:01,310 --> 00:03:07,110 Speaker 1: Inside is a wooden coffin, painted red. The lid has 32 00:03:07,150 --> 00:03:15,340 Speaker 1: been smashed inward. revealing two skeletal feet. A man. Alan 33 00:03:15,380 --> 00:03:23,580 Speaker 1: Toney lifts away another stone... and freezes. Something was done 34 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:27,260 Speaker 1: to this body... and it wasn't the work of grave 35 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:33,220 Speaker 1: robbers or casual vandals... but someone with eerie patience and 36 00:03:33,270 --> 00:03:39,950 Speaker 1: a grim, singular purpose... The man's chest cavity was pried open, 37 00:03:40,490 --> 00:03:44,420 Speaker 1: his skull was severed from his spine, and his thigh 38 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: bones pulled from their sockets. Both were placed, carefully, deliberately, 39 00:03:51,620 --> 00:03:58,160 Speaker 1: on top of his ruined ribcage. Staring down into the coffin, 40 00:03:58,550 --> 00:04:02,770 Speaker 1: Bellantoni realises that he isn't looking at an ordinary burial 41 00:04:02,830 --> 00:04:07,550 Speaker 1: any more. but a crude skull and crossbones fashioned from 42 00:04:07,650 --> 00:04:16,270 Speaker 1: human remains. He's never seen anything like it. I'm Tim Harford, 43 00:04:17,030 --> 00:04:23,690 Speaker 1: and you're listening to Cautionary Tales. Cautionary Tales 1883, 20 44 00:04:47,220 --> 00:04:51,800 Speaker 1: miles from Griswold, another community was facing a mystery of 45 00:04:51,860 --> 00:04:56,270 Speaker 1: its own. It began with a woman named Mary Eliza Brown. 46 00:04:57,030 --> 00:04:59,870 Speaker 1: She lived with her husband George and their seven children 47 00:05:00,190 --> 00:05:03,130 Speaker 1: on the edge of the small farming settlement of Exeter, 48 00:05:03,510 --> 00:05:07,130 Speaker 1: Rhode Island. The Browns were an industrious family with a 49 00:05:07,210 --> 00:05:11,820 Speaker 1: small homestead of 30 or 40 acres. Their life followed 50 00:05:11,840 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: the seasons, planting in spring, paying in summer, harvest in autumn. 51 00:05:18,340 --> 00:05:22,920 Speaker 1: In winter, when the ground froze, they hauled timber, fed 52 00:05:22,970 --> 00:05:27,350 Speaker 1: and watered their animals, and waited for the thaw. The 53 00:05:27,410 --> 00:05:32,250 Speaker 1: soil in Exeter was thin, the ground stony and stubborn. 54 00:05:33,050 --> 00:05:35,210 Speaker 1: At the beginning of the century, two and a half 55 00:05:35,330 --> 00:05:38,770 Speaker 1: thousand people had lived here, but by the time Mary 56 00:05:38,870 --> 00:05:43,130 Speaker 1: Eliza was raising her family, fewer than a thousand remained. 57 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:48,020 Speaker 1: Many had been drawn west by the promise of better land, 58 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:54,860 Speaker 1: and now pine and oak crowded their abandoned homesteads, reclaiming 59 00:05:54,900 --> 00:05:58,860 Speaker 1: what they'd left behind. Those who stayed coaxed cabbage and 60 00:05:58,980 --> 00:06:02,620 Speaker 1: pumpkin from the soil, and grazed their livestock in rough, 61 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:09,070 Speaker 1: stone-walled pastures. Exeter was not an easy place to live, 62 00:06:09,730 --> 00:06:13,110 Speaker 1: but it was convivial. Neighbours met at the General's store 63 00:06:13,190 --> 00:06:16,360 Speaker 1: or the tavern, The local paper listed not only marriages 64 00:06:16,420 --> 00:06:22,280 Speaker 1: and deaths, but ordinary everyday events. Farming accidents, visitors to town, 65 00:06:22,900 --> 00:06:25,930 Speaker 1: and who was in bed with illness. At the white 66 00:06:26,130 --> 00:06:32,710 Speaker 1: clapboard church, women organised suppers and charitable gatherings. Everyone knew 67 00:06:32,930 --> 00:06:38,240 Speaker 1: everyone's business, because everyone's business mattered. And when trouble came 68 00:06:38,280 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: to a family, it didn't belong to that family alone. 69 00:06:44,140 --> 00:06:49,560 Speaker 1: In the early 1880s, Mary Eliza began to change. Ordinary 70 00:06:49,580 --> 00:06:53,500 Speaker 1: domestic tasks such as washing and cooking left her exhausted. 71 00:06:54,420 --> 00:06:57,660 Speaker 1: Soon her clothes hung loose about her frame, and in 72 00:06:57,700 --> 00:07:02,090 Speaker 1: the afternoons she grew feverish. The Browns did what families 73 00:07:02,170 --> 00:07:08,850 Speaker 1: do when someone sickens. They watched, nursed, waited. Eldest daughter Olive, 74 00:07:09,230 --> 00:07:14,010 Speaker 1: a dressmaker, cared for her mother devotedly. The doctors who 75 00:07:14,090 --> 00:07:18,130 Speaker 1: served Exeter had seen illness like this before. A common 76 00:07:18,170 --> 00:07:21,790 Speaker 1: response was to try to strengthen the body with nourishing food, 77 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:26,380 Speaker 1: cod liver oil, fresh air and rest. Others put their 78 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: faith in patent medicines such as soothing syrups and herbal extracts. 79 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: We don't know exactly what the Browns tried, but it 80 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:43,520 Speaker 1: didn't stop Mary Eliza wasting away. Then Olive began to flag. 81 00:07:44,300 --> 00:07:47,280 Speaker 1: That can't have been surprising at first. She had her 82 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:51,220 Speaker 1: dressmaking work, domestic duties, and she was nursing her mother. 83 00:07:52,180 --> 00:07:56,590 Speaker 1: But soon the family noticed other changes. She was gaunt 84 00:07:56,990 --> 00:08:01,850 Speaker 1: and pale. Her eyes appeared sunken. At night she complained 85 00:08:01,870 --> 00:08:07,210 Speaker 1: of a strange sensation, a heavy suffocating pressure on her chest. 86 00:08:08,910 --> 00:08:13,040 Speaker 1: And through it all, Mary Eliza was fading. Just before 87 00:08:13,140 --> 00:08:18,720 Speaker 1: Christmas 1883, she passed away, and her family buried her 88 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 1: in the graveyard next to the white clapboard church. But 89 00:08:26,980 --> 00:08:31,240 Speaker 1: whatever had drained Mary Eliza did not leave with her. 90 00:08:32,140 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: Olive developed a cough, a dry, persistent racking at first, 91 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: but soon her handkerchiefs came away spotted with blood, flecks 92 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:48,830 Speaker 1: of scarlet, then teaspoons. There was a name for this 93 00:08:48,890 --> 00:08:54,150 Speaker 1: kind of wasting illness, because it seemed to consume the sufferer. 94 00:08:54,810 --> 00:09:00,850 Speaker 1: It was called consumption. Consumption was familiar in Exeter. People 95 00:09:00,910 --> 00:09:04,430 Speaker 1: knew it could pass through families, but its causes were 96 00:09:04,630 --> 00:09:09,740 Speaker 1: less certain. Some said it was hereditary. Others blamed bad air. 97 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:17,400 Speaker 1: Others still reached for older, stranger notions. Perhaps something invisible 98 00:09:17,540 --> 00:09:21,140 Speaker 1: was feeding on the family, moving from victim to victim. 99 00:09:23,010 --> 00:09:26,750 Speaker 1: George Brown held no truck with such beliefs. But that 100 00:09:26,790 --> 00:09:30,350 Speaker 1: didn't make what was happening to his daughter any less frightening. 101 00:09:31,250 --> 00:09:34,870 Speaker 1: Six months after her mother's death, Olive was aware that 102 00:09:34,970 --> 00:09:39,860 Speaker 1: her body was failing her. In agony and struggling to breathe, 103 00:09:40,410 --> 00:09:47,210 Speaker 1: she chose a hymn for her funeral. When Olive died 104 00:09:47,290 --> 00:09:53,290 Speaker 1: in June 1884, aged 20, the whole town gathered at 105 00:09:53,310 --> 00:09:58,860 Speaker 1: the church. Together they stood to sing one sweetly solemn thought. 106 00:10:05,100 --> 00:10:08,360 Speaker 1: For the next few years, the Brown family clung to 107 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:13,670 Speaker 1: familiar routines. The seasons turned as they always had, harvest 108 00:10:13,710 --> 00:10:18,410 Speaker 1: in autumn, planting in spring. George Brown traded in cattle, 109 00:10:18,870 --> 00:10:24,390 Speaker 1: and the farm grew. Daughter Mercy Lena, known as Lena, 110 00:10:25,010 --> 00:10:28,940 Speaker 1: learnt the work of the household, sewing, mending and making do. 111 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:32,800 Speaker 1: She also sang at the local Sunday school, along with 112 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:37,840 Speaker 1: her younger sisters, Hattie and Jenny. Son, Eddie Brown, grew 113 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:41,810 Speaker 1: into a tall, strong young man. He joined the local band, 114 00:10:42,110 --> 00:10:45,690 Speaker 1: whose marches and polkas were the soundtrack of social life 115 00:10:45,750 --> 00:10:50,370 Speaker 1: in Exeter, a favourite at fairs and lawn parties. He 116 00:10:50,410 --> 00:10:53,050 Speaker 1: helped his father in the fields, found work as a 117 00:10:53,130 --> 00:10:56,420 Speaker 1: clerk at the general store, and was well-liked in the community. 118 00:10:57,340 --> 00:11:00,110 Speaker 1: When Eddie was around 21... He got married at the 119 00:11:00,150 --> 00:11:03,350 Speaker 1: local church and moved with his bride Hortense to a 120 00:11:03,390 --> 00:11:07,240 Speaker 1: new house on the outskirts of town. Shortly after the wedding, 121 00:11:07,260 --> 00:11:11,840 Speaker 1: his band came to visit, filling their home with music. 122 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:20,930 Speaker 1: Then the music faded. Eddie Brown grew tired. Soon he 123 00:11:20,950 --> 00:11:38,120 Speaker 1: began to cough. Cautionary Tales will return. In 19th century 124 00:11:38,240 --> 00:11:43,070 Speaker 1: New England, consumption was the leading cause of death, claiming 125 00:11:43,310 --> 00:11:47,190 Speaker 1: one in four lives. To the people of Exeter, it 126 00:11:47,210 --> 00:11:52,490 Speaker 1: was terrifying and enigmatic. Yet while they debated bad air 127 00:11:52,550 --> 00:11:57,770 Speaker 1: versus bad bloodlines, science was closing in on the true culprit. 128 00:11:59,390 --> 00:12:05,920 Speaker 1: In the 1860s, French doctor Jean-Antoine Villemin proved that pulmonary tuberculosis, 129 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:11,440 Speaker 1: also known as consumption, was an infectious disease, the work 130 00:12:11,700 --> 00:12:17,460 Speaker 1: of an invading pathogen. Then in 1882, the year before 131 00:12:17,580 --> 00:12:21,960 Speaker 1: Mary Eliza died, a German doctor called Robert Koch peered 132 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:27,060 Speaker 1: through his microscope and saw slender rods stained blue against 133 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:32,280 Speaker 1: the glass coverslip. This was the tubercle bacillus. the organism 134 00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:36,610 Speaker 1: behind the disease. A monster had been feeding on the 135 00:12:36,650 --> 00:12:41,210 Speaker 1: brown family. It wasn't invisible, but it was very, very small, 136 00:12:41,970 --> 00:12:47,130 Speaker 1: and now it could be studied. Koch's discovery was a 137 00:12:47,250 --> 00:12:51,130 Speaker 1: major victory for germ theory, but his findings were still new, 138 00:12:51,570 --> 00:12:54,270 Speaker 1: and while they'd made their way to New England, they 139 00:12:54,310 --> 00:13:00,890 Speaker 1: hadn't yet filtered through every town, let alone every farmhouse. Still, 140 00:13:01,450 --> 00:13:05,070 Speaker 1: By the time Eddie Brown fell sick, doctors had a 141 00:13:05,150 --> 00:13:08,790 Speaker 1: better idea of what they were dealing with. Open windows, 142 00:13:09,150 --> 00:13:13,190 Speaker 1: rest and a warm climate had long been prescribed for consumption. 143 00:13:13,950 --> 00:13:18,250 Speaker 1: Now these remedies carried a new scientific logic. If something 144 00:13:18,430 --> 00:13:23,890 Speaker 1: infectious was passing between people, fresh, moving air might help 145 00:13:23,990 --> 00:13:27,930 Speaker 1: keep it at bay. Doctors advised their patients to go 146 00:13:27,990 --> 00:13:31,130 Speaker 1: to the mountains, where the air was clean and the 147 00:13:31,210 --> 00:13:35,850 Speaker 1: climate sunny and dry. Brochures invited the sick to the 148 00:13:35,930 --> 00:13:40,980 Speaker 1: land of new lungs, imploring them to come west and live. 149 00:13:41,900 --> 00:13:48,620 Speaker 1: In California and Colorado, cities filled with so-called lungers. In 150 00:13:48,660 --> 00:13:55,600 Speaker 1: the Adirondacks and other mountain resorts, specialised sanatoria were opened. Here, 151 00:13:55,760 --> 00:14:00,370 Speaker 1: patients spent as much time as possible outside, resting in 152 00:14:00,410 --> 00:14:04,130 Speaker 1: the open air. A number of them reported that their 153 00:14:04,210 --> 00:14:11,250 Speaker 1: symptoms eased. They seemed to get better. George Brown had 154 00:14:11,330 --> 00:14:16,810 Speaker 1: faced consumption twice before. First in his wife, then in 155 00:14:16,870 --> 00:14:21,800 Speaker 1: his eldest daughter. He'd buried them both. And now his 156 00:14:21,920 --> 00:14:27,030 Speaker 1: son was sick. Eddie was 22, married, and making his 157 00:14:27,130 --> 00:14:29,810 Speaker 1: own way in the world. A journey to the mountains 158 00:14:29,850 --> 00:14:32,690 Speaker 1: would mean leaving his loved ones, his work, and the 159 00:14:32,730 --> 00:14:36,430 Speaker 1: family farm. But in the end, the Browns decided it 160 00:14:36,470 --> 00:14:40,570 Speaker 1: was worth it. In the autumn of 1890, he set 161 00:14:40,690 --> 00:14:46,070 Speaker 1: out for Colorado Springs. Eddie probably travelled by train, watching 162 00:14:46,130 --> 00:14:49,540 Speaker 1: the green hills of New England give way to vast, 163 00:14:49,660 --> 00:14:54,100 Speaker 1: flat prairies. until the Rocky Mountains rose on the horizon. 164 00:14:57,540 --> 00:15:01,320 Speaker 1: When he arrived, it wasn't into untouched wilderness, but a 165 00:15:01,340 --> 00:15:05,100 Speaker 1: young city, crawling with people who were all there for 166 00:15:05,140 --> 00:15:09,690 Speaker 1: the same reason, to get well. Many of them stayed 167 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:13,720 Speaker 1: in boarding houses with special porches for consumptives to sleep in. 168 00:15:14,630 --> 00:15:19,370 Speaker 1: Others stayed outside in canvas tents. Eddie settled among them. 169 00:15:20,070 --> 00:15:24,290 Speaker 1: A few months later, his wife Hortense followed him, chaperoned 170 00:15:24,350 --> 00:15:29,620 Speaker 1: by his trusty former employer. Together, Hortense's care and the 171 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:34,700 Speaker 1: Colorado climate seemed to work their magic. The color returned 172 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:39,040 Speaker 1: to Eddie's cheeks, and his frail frame gradually filled out again. 173 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,940 Speaker 1: His cough persisted, but he was well enough to take 174 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:47,620 Speaker 1: up work as a conductor on the city's streetcars. News 175 00:15:47,700 --> 00:15:52,180 Speaker 1: of Eddie's happy improvement reached Exeter. For the Browns and 176 00:15:52,220 --> 00:15:57,820 Speaker 1: their friends, it was something to celebrate. But their joy 177 00:15:58,220 --> 00:16:07,860 Speaker 1: was tempered. Eddie's sister, Lena, was fading fast. Lena's health 178 00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:12,520 Speaker 1: troubles had started in the summer of 1890, just before 179 00:16:12,810 --> 00:16:16,710 Speaker 1: Eddie left home. It's unclear why she didn't go with 180 00:16:16,750 --> 00:16:20,030 Speaker 1: her brother to Colorado. There may only have been enough 181 00:16:20,090 --> 00:16:22,530 Speaker 1: money for one of the Browns to make the long journey, 182 00:16:23,190 --> 00:16:25,630 Speaker 1: or she may have been deemed too weak to travel. 183 00:16:26,590 --> 00:16:31,130 Speaker 1: In any case, Lena stayed in Exeter, and by November 1891, 184 00:16:31,110 --> 00:16:37,610 Speaker 1: the local illness log described her condition as very critical. 185 00:16:40,770 --> 00:16:44,890 Speaker 1: George Brown called in a local physician, Dr Harold Metcalf, 186 00:16:45,570 --> 00:16:48,970 Speaker 1: widely regarded as one of the best doctors in the area. 187 00:16:50,010 --> 00:16:53,270 Speaker 1: He'd worked for some years at New York City's Bellevue Hospital, 188 00:16:53,790 --> 00:16:58,110 Speaker 1: attending patients on the horse-drawn aid wagons that raced through 189 00:16:58,130 --> 00:17:03,240 Speaker 1: the streets each day. He was experienced and pragmatic, but 190 00:17:03,260 --> 00:17:06,760 Speaker 1: the doctor examined Lena and told her father George that 191 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:10,860 Speaker 1: there was nothing he could do to save her. He 192 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:15,500 Speaker 1: could make her comfortable. Doctors used morphine and opium to 193 00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:20,680 Speaker 1: quiet coughing and soothe pain. But by this stage, Lena's 194 00:17:20,740 --> 00:17:27,820 Speaker 1: lungs were badly damaged. She was 19 years old. On 195 00:17:27,870 --> 00:17:32,450 Speaker 1: a bitter midwinter day, George Brown laid a second daughter 196 00:17:32,490 --> 00:17:38,290 Speaker 1: to rest beside his wife. The ground outside was frozen hard. 197 00:17:39,430 --> 00:17:43,450 Speaker 1: Lena was placed in a crypt in the churchyard, where 198 00:17:43,490 --> 00:17:50,960 Speaker 1: she would remain until the spring thaw. A month after 199 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:56,240 Speaker 1: Lena was buried, Eddie and Hortense returned to Exeter, not 200 00:17:56,360 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 1: because Eddie had been restored to full health, but because 201 00:18:00,020 --> 00:18:03,940 Speaker 1: he'd taken a turn for the worse. The Colorado climate 202 00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:08,610 Speaker 1: no longer seemed able to help him. He managed the 203 00:18:08,650 --> 00:18:13,980 Speaker 1: long journey, but arrived in Rhode Island exhausted. Eddie was 204 00:18:14,180 --> 00:18:18,920 Speaker 1: genuinely beloved in his hometown, and the local paper reflected 205 00:18:18,980 --> 00:18:22,740 Speaker 1: that affection. If the good wishes and prayers of his 206 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: many friends could be realised, friend Eddie would be speedily 207 00:18:27,340 --> 00:18:33,210 Speaker 1: restored to perfect health. Some of Eddie's neighbours thought they 208 00:18:33,310 --> 00:18:37,430 Speaker 1: knew how to make those prayers come true. There was 209 00:18:37,490 --> 00:18:43,580 Speaker 1: an old supernatural remedy, something George Brown hadn't tried yet, 210 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:49,620 Speaker 1: and they believed it might save his son. Local law 211 00:18:49,740 --> 00:18:54,110 Speaker 1: held that when consumption swept through a family, it wasn't 212 00:18:54,310 --> 00:18:59,170 Speaker 1: just an illness, it was the dead reaching back from 213 00:18:59,230 --> 00:19:03,760 Speaker 1: beyond the grave to drain the living. If this was 214 00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:06,700 Speaker 1: what was happening to Eddie, then there was only one 215 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:11,540 Speaker 1: way to stop the feeding. Go to the churchyard, open 216 00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:16,890 Speaker 1: the graves of Mary Eliza, Olive and Lena, and destroy 217 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:24,990 Speaker 1: the source. The neighbours approached George and asked for permission 218 00:19:25,050 --> 00:19:29,610 Speaker 1: to take the necessary steps. He must have understood their desperation. 219 00:19:30,630 --> 00:19:45,610 Speaker 1: but he could not grant their terrible request. Griswold, Connecticut, 1991. 220 00:19:45,610 --> 00:19:49,340 Speaker 1: After a year of excavation, Nick Bellantoni and his team 221 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:54,200 Speaker 1: had found the remains of 29 people. The burial ground 222 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:58,840 Speaker 1: had been a small farm cemetery where generations of families 223 00:19:58,860 --> 00:20:03,190 Speaker 1: had been laid to rest side by side The skeleton 224 00:20:03,250 --> 00:20:06,790 Speaker 1: from the crypt the one that had been carefully arranged 225 00:20:06,870 --> 00:20:10,410 Speaker 1: into a skull and crossbones came to be known as 226 00:20:10,670 --> 00:20:17,510 Speaker 1: JB because JB55 had been spelled out in brass tacks 227 00:20:17,630 --> 00:20:22,470 Speaker 1: on his coffin lid Bellantoni sent JB to the National 228 00:20:22,530 --> 00:20:27,460 Speaker 1: Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington DC, where investigations revealed 229 00:20:27,500 --> 00:20:33,140 Speaker 1: that he'd died in the early 19th century, aged around 55. 230 00:20:33,140 --> 00:20:38,660 Speaker 1: He'd suffered from arthritis and something else too. All over 231 00:20:38,740 --> 00:20:43,860 Speaker 1: his ribs were pale, pitted lesions, evidence of a chronic 232 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:49,810 Speaker 1: pulmonary infection that likely caused chest pain and coughing. JB 233 00:20:49,850 --> 00:20:56,900 Speaker 1: had almost certainly died of tuberculosis. What's more, forensic examination 234 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:01,620 Speaker 1: showed that when JB was rearranged, there'd been no flesh 235 00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:06,530 Speaker 1: left on his bones. His body was already fully decomposed. 236 00:21:07,550 --> 00:21:11,930 Speaker 1: Whatever the skull and crossbones ritual was, it hadn't taken 237 00:21:12,030 --> 00:21:15,440 Speaker 1: place around the time of his death. Instead, it had 238 00:21:15,470 --> 00:21:21,320 Speaker 1: been performed at least five years later. Bellantoni knew that 239 00:21:21,370 --> 00:21:24,070 Speaker 1: he was looking at some kind of ritual and to 240 00:21:24,130 --> 00:21:26,910 Speaker 1: help him decipher what it meant, he reached out to 241 00:21:26,990 --> 00:21:35,090 Speaker 1: folklorist Michael Bell. Bell had spent years researching strange disturbances 242 00:21:35,130 --> 00:21:38,650 Speaker 1: to burial grounds all over New England in the 18th 243 00:21:38,690 --> 00:21:42,570 Speaker 1: and 19th centuries and he told Bellantoni that he'd observed 244 00:21:42,610 --> 00:21:48,570 Speaker 1: a distinct pattern. When consumption decimated a family, people sometimes 245 00:21:48,700 --> 00:21:54,300 Speaker 1: returned to the dead and opened their graves. They weren't 246 00:21:54,450 --> 00:22:04,930 Speaker 1: looking for loot. They were looking for something else. In Exeter, 1892, 247 00:22:04,930 --> 00:22:11,070 Speaker 1: Eddie Brown grew ever weaker. He and his family knew 248 00:22:11,130 --> 00:22:15,250 Speaker 1: the disease was doing its final work. In the morning, 249 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:20,000 Speaker 1: he woke drenched from night sweats. Every cough tore at 250 00:22:20,060 --> 00:22:24,480 Speaker 1: his chest and as his lungs filled with blood and pus, 251 00:22:24,910 --> 00:22:28,710 Speaker 1: even the simple act of drawing breath was a struggle. 252 00:22:29,630 --> 00:22:34,530 Speaker 1: The people of Exeter came to George again and repeated 253 00:22:34,610 --> 00:22:39,770 Speaker 1: their request. This time George spoke with his son Eddie. 254 00:22:40,670 --> 00:22:44,270 Speaker 1: Then he went back to his neighbours and gave his consent. 255 00:22:45,940 --> 00:22:49,860 Speaker 1: A group of men gathered at the graves of Mary Eliza, 256 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:57,440 Speaker 1: Olive and Lena, shovels in hand. Cautionary Tales will be 257 00:22:57,460 --> 00:23:14,980 Speaker 1: back shortly. In March 1892... Dr Harold Metcalf opened his 258 00:23:15,060 --> 00:23:19,580 Speaker 1: door to an agitated young man. Eddie Brown was in 259 00:23:19,620 --> 00:23:23,840 Speaker 1: a dying condition, he said, and a number of Exeter 260 00:23:23,900 --> 00:23:28,300 Speaker 1: townsmen had exhumed the body of Mary Eliza Brown in 261 00:23:28,340 --> 00:23:31,540 Speaker 1: order to save him. He wanted Metcalf to come and 262 00:23:31,580 --> 00:23:36,400 Speaker 1: examine her remains. Then he muttered something else, something about 263 00:23:36,740 --> 00:23:42,930 Speaker 1: blood and dead family members returning to feed on the living. Absurd, 264 00:23:43,590 --> 00:23:46,660 Speaker 1: said the doctor. He was a man of science, and 265 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,340 Speaker 1: though he hadn't treated Eddie Brown, he knew that Eddie's 266 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:54,840 Speaker 1: sister Lena had died of pulmonary tuberculosis. There was no 267 00:23:54,940 --> 00:23:57,610 Speaker 1: mystery to be found in any of the Brown graves. 268 00:23:58,370 --> 00:24:03,690 Speaker 1: He turned the messenger away. Before long, the young man 269 00:24:03,750 --> 00:24:07,820 Speaker 1: was back, and this time he carried word from George Brown. 270 00:24:08,810 --> 00:24:11,170 Speaker 1: The farmer was clear that he didn't believe in any 271 00:24:11,290 --> 00:24:15,670 Speaker 1: superstition himself, but he wanted Metcalfe to dissect the bodies 272 00:24:15,730 --> 00:24:20,840 Speaker 1: of his dead wife and daughters all the same. Metcalfe 273 00:24:21,020 --> 00:24:25,540 Speaker 1: was baffled, but he agreed. He gathered his instruments and 274 00:24:25,660 --> 00:24:31,740 Speaker 1: set out. At the churchyard, a group of men were 275 00:24:31,780 --> 00:24:36,730 Speaker 1: waiting beside an open grave. Metcalfe saw that Mary Eliza 276 00:24:36,810 --> 00:24:40,650 Speaker 1: had already been dug up. Her remains were withered and 277 00:24:40,790 --> 00:24:45,820 Speaker 1: shrunken by years underground. George and Eddie were nowhere to 278 00:24:45,860 --> 00:24:49,860 Speaker 1: be seen. But among the men present was a journalist 279 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:55,380 Speaker 1: from the Providence Journal. Later, he described Mary Eliza's body 280 00:24:55,520 --> 00:25:00,720 Speaker 1: as mummified. Then men had summoned Metcalfe to look for 281 00:25:00,780 --> 00:25:05,730 Speaker 1: liquid blood, the supposed link between the dead and the living. 282 00:25:07,380 --> 00:25:10,600 Speaker 1: He watched as they set their shovels to a second grave, 283 00:25:11,300 --> 00:25:15,440 Speaker 1: olive brown. But when the coffin lid was pried open, 284 00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:19,610 Speaker 1: there was nothing left to examine, only dry bones and 285 00:25:19,650 --> 00:25:26,350 Speaker 1: a lingering shock of hair. That left Lina. Unlike her 286 00:25:26,410 --> 00:25:31,190 Speaker 1: mother and sister, Lina had not been interred in the ground. Instead, 287 00:25:31,450 --> 00:25:35,100 Speaker 1: she'd been placed in a cold stone crypt to wait 288 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:39,990 Speaker 1: out the winter. The men now opened it and were 289 00:25:40,210 --> 00:25:45,290 Speaker 1: astonished by what they saw. Two months after her death, 290 00:25:45,670 --> 00:25:50,090 Speaker 1: Lina had changed remarkably little. Her skin and flesh were 291 00:25:50,170 --> 00:25:56,560 Speaker 1: still intact. Metcalfe followed his instructions. He stepped forward with 292 00:25:56,620 --> 00:26:01,680 Speaker 1: his scalpel, made a careful incision into Lina's torso and 293 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:07,150 Speaker 1: removed her heart. He laid the organ out, and sliced 294 00:26:07,590 --> 00:26:12,640 Speaker 1: into the muscle. And then they saw it. A chilling 295 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:23,350 Speaker 1: streak of red. Liquid blood. Metcalfe knew that there was 296 00:26:23,650 --> 00:26:27,110 Speaker 1: nothing supernatural about this, and he tried to explain that 297 00:26:27,130 --> 00:26:30,910 Speaker 1: the lack of decomposition to Lena's body was normal. She'd 298 00:26:30,950 --> 00:26:33,050 Speaker 1: only been dead for two months, and she'd been kept 299 00:26:33,090 --> 00:26:36,680 Speaker 1: in the cold. He also pointed to her lungs, which 300 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:41,440 Speaker 1: were riddled with scar tissue. But the townsmen had found 301 00:26:41,500 --> 00:26:44,700 Speaker 1: what they were looking for, blood in the heart of 302 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:48,700 Speaker 1: a woman who died of consumption. To them, this was 303 00:26:48,940 --> 00:26:53,630 Speaker 1: evidence that some part of Lena Brown was undead and 304 00:26:53,790 --> 00:26:58,670 Speaker 1: leeching life from her brother. There was an obvious problem 305 00:26:58,690 --> 00:27:02,750 Speaker 1: with this story. Mary, Eliza and Olive had died long 306 00:27:02,790 --> 00:27:06,430 Speaker 1: before Lena had even fallen ill. She couldn't have been 307 00:27:06,570 --> 00:27:10,970 Speaker 1: feeding on them. But perhaps that mattered less than the 308 00:27:11,010 --> 00:27:15,380 Speaker 1: fact that Eddie was still alive and wasting away, and 309 00:27:15,550 --> 00:27:19,760 Speaker 1: now there was something they could do about it. The 310 00:27:19,820 --> 00:27:22,820 Speaker 1: old belief held that as long as blood remained in 311 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,400 Speaker 1: the heart of the dead person, their family members would 312 00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:31,510 Speaker 1: continue to die. And so... There in the churchyard, the 313 00:27:31,530 --> 00:27:36,620 Speaker 1: men kindled a fire, cast Lena's heart into the flames 314 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:43,360 Speaker 1: and watched it burn to ash. According to the ritual, 315 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:48,080 Speaker 1: Eddie Brown was supposed to drink those ashes mixed into 316 00:27:48,120 --> 00:27:53,700 Speaker 1: a tonic. We don't know if he ever did. In 2019... 317 00:27:58,590 --> 00:28:03,910 Speaker 1: Nearly 30 years after Nick Bellantoni unearthed JB, researchers were 318 00:28:04,030 --> 00:28:07,090 Speaker 1: finally able to narrow down who he might have been. 319 00:28:08,270 --> 00:28:12,740 Speaker 1: Using DNA profiling and genealogical records, they concluded that he'd 320 00:28:12,860 --> 00:28:17,260 Speaker 1: probably been a farmer named John Barber, who'd lived in 321 00:28:17,300 --> 00:28:21,930 Speaker 1: the area in the 1800s. Close to JB, the team 322 00:28:21,970 --> 00:28:31,040 Speaker 1: had found another, smaller coffin marked NB13. almost certainly Barber's son, Nathan, 323 00:28:31,630 --> 00:28:36,730 Speaker 1: who had died as a young teenager. Ballantoni theorised that 324 00:28:36,770 --> 00:28:41,730 Speaker 1: the skull and crossbones ritual was an apotropaic remedy, that is, 325 00:28:42,130 --> 00:28:46,560 Speaker 1: a kind of magic intended to ward off evil. Similar 326 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:51,700 Speaker 1: practices have been observed in Europe. Across the Atlantic, corpses 327 00:28:51,740 --> 00:28:56,340 Speaker 1: were sometimes found bloated, with their hair and fingernails apparently 328 00:28:56,420 --> 00:28:59,850 Speaker 1: still growing, and blood in the heart and chest cavity. 329 00:29:00,570 --> 00:29:04,690 Speaker 1: All these things had natural explanations, but to people who 330 00:29:04,750 --> 00:29:09,260 Speaker 1: didn't understand the processes of decomposition, they could look like 331 00:29:09,340 --> 00:29:14,460 Speaker 1: signs that the dead were not quite finished with the living. 332 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,930 Speaker 1: By the time someone came for John Barber, there was 333 00:29:23,970 --> 00:29:28,100 Speaker 1: no heart left to examine. His soft tissue had disappeared. 334 00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:32,950 Speaker 1: And so whoever returned to his grave chose another old 335 00:29:33,060 --> 00:29:37,870 Speaker 1: practice intended to stop the dead returning. They separated his 336 00:29:37,950 --> 00:29:50,530 Speaker 1: skull and his legs from his body. Years later, in 1896, 1892, 337 00:29:50,530 --> 00:29:54,330 Speaker 1: Lena Brown became the focus of the same desperate hope. 338 00:29:55,290 --> 00:29:59,450 Speaker 1: The story was eerily captivating, so much so that it 339 00:29:59,670 --> 00:30:05,600 Speaker 1: even crossed the Atlantic. In 1912, a newspaper clipping detailing 340 00:30:05,700 --> 00:30:10,700 Speaker 1: Lena's exhumation was found tucked away among the posthumous personal 341 00:30:10,780 --> 00:30:19,170 Speaker 1: papers of the author of Dracula, one Bram Stoker. The 342 00:30:19,220 --> 00:30:25,330 Speaker 1: Providence Journal covered the exhumation ritual with a sneer, sensationalising 343 00:30:25,370 --> 00:30:30,070 Speaker 1: it as a lurid vampire panic. It's not clear that 344 00:30:30,230 --> 00:30:34,900 Speaker 1: anyone in Exeter actually used the word vampire or believed 345 00:30:34,940 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: that this is what they were dealing with. All the same, 346 00:30:38,620 --> 00:30:42,460 Speaker 1: the newspaper used gothic tropes to mock the townsfolk as 347 00:30:42,740 --> 00:30:52,170 Speaker 1: ignorant bumpkins who preferred superstition to science. I think the 348 00:30:52,210 --> 00:30:56,950 Speaker 1: picture is far messier and far more human. True, the 349 00:30:56,970 --> 00:31:01,180 Speaker 1: people who opened Lena's grave didn't understand tuberculosis as their 350 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:06,540 Speaker 1: doctors did. True, their explanation was magical. But that doesn't 351 00:31:06,580 --> 00:31:11,220 Speaker 1: mean their decision was a simple contest between science and superstition. 352 00:31:11,980 --> 00:31:15,640 Speaker 1: Koch had found the bacillus, that was one thing. But 353 00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:20,150 Speaker 1: learning how to diagnose tuberculosis, prevent its spread, treat it, 354 00:31:20,540 --> 00:31:24,590 Speaker 1: and eventually cure it, would take decades, and far more 355 00:31:24,630 --> 00:31:30,900 Speaker 1: than scientific discovery. It demanded public health systems, better housing, sanitation, 356 00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:35,770 Speaker 1: new nursing practices, education and millions of tiny changes in 357 00:31:36,030 --> 00:31:41,030 Speaker 1: everyday behaviour. The Brown family lived in the long gap 358 00:31:41,390 --> 00:31:46,340 Speaker 1: between science understanding what was killing people and science knowing 359 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:54,350 Speaker 1: how to stop it. On paper, George Brown's decision to 360 00:31:54,390 --> 00:31:58,230 Speaker 1: allow the exhumation to go ahead looks like a contradiction. 361 00:31:59,330 --> 00:32:02,790 Speaker 1: He was a pragmatic farmer who sought out modern doctors, 362 00:32:03,030 --> 00:32:06,210 Speaker 1: sent his son west, and insisted that he had no 363 00:32:06,370 --> 00:32:10,310 Speaker 1: faith in the old folk beliefs. Yet, he gave his 364 00:32:10,370 --> 00:32:16,740 Speaker 1: consent anyway. Exeter was a small, tightly connected place, and 365 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:20,390 Speaker 1: that probably played a role in his decisions. Neighbours read 366 00:32:20,410 --> 00:32:23,290 Speaker 1: about the bed bound in the local paper and watched 367 00:32:23,550 --> 00:32:27,900 Speaker 1: over the sick. They helped with farm work, celebrated marriages, 368 00:32:28,540 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: and gathered for funerals. George might have found some of 369 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:36,520 Speaker 1: their beliefs strange, but these were people he knew, people 370 00:32:36,740 --> 00:32:40,210 Speaker 1: he relied on, and people he would have to live 371 00:32:40,410 --> 00:32:48,490 Speaker 1: alongside after Eddie was gone, if Eddie was gone. but 372 00:32:48,550 --> 00:32:51,110 Speaker 1: I wonder if something else was at work here too. 373 00:32:52,530 --> 00:32:57,140 Speaker 1: Medical sociologists sometimes talk about a form of action bias 374 00:32:57,420 --> 00:33:02,580 Speaker 1: called the treatment imperative. This is the pressure to keep 375 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:06,580 Speaker 1: treating a patient who's dying, even when the intervention carries 376 00:33:06,620 --> 00:33:10,020 Speaker 1: a high burden of distress, and even when the chance 377 00:33:10,060 --> 00:33:15,440 Speaker 1: of success is vanishingly small. Doctors can feel it, patients 378 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:19,130 Speaker 1: can feel it, and families can feel it too, The 379 00:33:19,150 --> 00:33:23,310 Speaker 1: very existence of an intervention can create the powerful sense 380 00:33:23,510 --> 00:33:27,650 Speaker 1: that it ought to be tried. This idea is usually 381 00:33:27,710 --> 00:33:32,860 Speaker 1: associated with modern medicine and its technological advances. George Brown 382 00:33:32,900 --> 00:33:36,060 Speaker 1: didn't have an intensive care unit full of machines or 383 00:33:36,100 --> 00:33:39,040 Speaker 1: an arsenal of drugs. All the same, I think the 384 00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:44,510 Speaker 1: treatment imperative can help illuminate the dilemma he faced. To George, 385 00:33:44,830 --> 00:33:48,220 Speaker 1: doing nothing may have felt less like the simple absence 386 00:33:48,260 --> 00:33:52,140 Speaker 1: of action and more like a deliberate choice to let 387 00:33:52,260 --> 00:33:56,980 Speaker 1: his son die. The ritual offered him what medicine could not, 388 00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:02,020 Speaker 1: something he could do. Perhaps the question was no longer, 389 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:06,960 Speaker 1: do I believe this will work? And instead became, can 390 00:34:07,020 --> 00:34:16,170 Speaker 1: I live with myself if I don't try? In May 1892, 391 00:34:16,170 --> 00:34:21,760 Speaker 1: two months after the exhumation, George Brown buried his son. 392 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:27,980 Speaker 1: Eddie was 24 years old. His obituary described him as 393 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:32,720 Speaker 1: a young man of sterling integrity and someone that any 394 00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:37,620 Speaker 1: community could ill afford to lose, with a white clapboard 395 00:34:37,770 --> 00:34:42,690 Speaker 1: church filled for his funeral. A local weaving shop sent 396 00:34:42,810 --> 00:34:49,130 Speaker 1: cushions bearing the words... husband and shopmate. The casket was 397 00:34:49,350 --> 00:34:52,930 Speaker 1: covered in flowers, including a wreath from his old employer 398 00:34:53,430 --> 00:34:58,410 Speaker 1: with the inscription, Loved Ones Parted, and a choir sang 399 00:34:58,430 --> 00:35:04,300 Speaker 1: the hymn, Some Sweet Day. George Brown had lost his 400 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:09,080 Speaker 1: wife and three children. He would go on to bury 401 00:35:09,340 --> 00:35:16,910 Speaker 1: three more daughters, Annie, Jenny and Myra, Only Hattie survived him. 402 00:35:18,410 --> 00:35:22,780 Speaker 1: He lived in Exeter for another 30 years, side by 403 00:35:22,860 --> 00:35:26,460 Speaker 1: side with the same neighbours who'd opened the graves of 404 00:35:26,500 --> 00:35:29,500 Speaker 1: his wife and daughters to try and save his son. 405 00:35:30,860 --> 00:35:36,020 Speaker 1: In that time, the world transformed. The X-ray opened a 406 00:35:36,060 --> 00:35:40,120 Speaker 1: window into the human body and scientists developed the first 407 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:47,220 Speaker 1: tuberculosis vaccine. But in May 1892... None of that existed yet. 408 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:52,320 Speaker 1: At Eddie's funeral, the choir sang of a different kind 409 00:35:52,340 --> 00:35:58,160 Speaker 1: of hope. By and by, some sweet day, we shall 410 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:04,210 Speaker 1: meet our loved ones gone. Some sweet day, by and by. 411 00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,370 Speaker 1: For a full list of our sources, see the show 412 00:36:19,430 --> 00:36:29,610 Speaker 1: notes at timharford.com. Cautionary Tales is written by me, Tim Harford, 413 00:36:29,890 --> 00:36:34,070 Speaker 1: with Andrew Wright, Alice Fiennes and Ryan Dilley. It's produced 414 00:36:34,130 --> 00:36:37,950 Speaker 1: by Georgia Mills and Marilyn Rust. The sound design and 415 00:36:37,990 --> 00:36:42,510 Speaker 1: original music are the work of Pascal Wise. Ben-Nadav Hafri 416 00:36:42,790 --> 00:36:46,280 Speaker 1: edited the scripts. The show also wouldn't have been possible 417 00:36:46,300 --> 00:36:50,730 Speaker 1: without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Greta Cohen, Corinne Gileard-Fisher, 418 00:36:51,290 --> 00:36:57,390 Speaker 1: Eric Sandler, Christina Sullivan, Kira Posey, and Owen Miller. 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