1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:29,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Henry had made fools 5 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:32,760 Speaker 1: of all of them. As he stood there in the 6 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:34,960 Speaker 1: middle of the crowd of people who had come for 7 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: the museum's new gallery opening, he couldn't help it smile 8 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: my how far he had come. Decades earlier, he'd been 9 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: a brilliant young artist. His paintings were spectacular and eye catching, 10 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:52,280 Speaker 1: and he had a promising career ahead of him. And 11 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: yet well, he was just a bit too honest. When 12 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: an art critic offered to print a favorable review of 13 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: his work for hefty price, Henry refused. The resulting review 14 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:08,600 Speaker 1: destroyed his career before it and even begun. But standing 15 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:11,959 Speaker 1: here in the middle of the exhibit crowd, while hundreds 16 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:15,360 Speaker 1: of people filed past his work, all of the suffering 17 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:18,240 Speaker 1: seemed worth it. Along the way, of course, he had 18 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:22,240 Speaker 1: picked up new skills and transformed himself into an entirely 19 00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: new artist. That's how you learn and grow, after all. 20 00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:30,319 Speaker 1: But Henry took it one step further. The exhibit you 21 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:34,319 Speaker 1: see was for a newly discovered Vermeer painting. There weren't 22 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:37,880 Speaker 1: many of the seventeenth century Dutch masters paintings in existence, 23 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:40,840 Speaker 1: so finding a new one was guaranteed to draw a crowd. 24 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: What none of them knew, though, is that Henry, and 25 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:48,280 Speaker 1: not Vermir, had been the man to paint it. It 26 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:52,040 Speaker 1: was his sweet moment of revenge. All of those critics 27 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: and peers that had doubted him and pushed him down 28 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: were now nothing more than fools, tricked into believing that 29 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: a painting Henry had created was actually the work of 30 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: a Dutch master. It was validating that was. Over the 31 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 1: next few years, Henry tried his hand at more forgeries. 32 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: He managed to sell another fake Fremier to the infamous 33 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: Nazi Herman Guring, one of the most powerful figures in 34 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 1: Hitler's Germany. Guring had been gathering stolen artwork all across Europe, 35 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: but occasionally purchased pieces he loved. A newly discovered Vermier 36 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,880 Speaker 1: was just too tempting to pass up, and Henry walked 37 00:02:31,880 --> 00:02:35,800 Speaker 1: away with half a million dollars. When the war ended 38 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:39,240 Speaker 1: and Guring's horde of treasure was recovered, experts began to 39 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:42,360 Speaker 1: look through the collection and attempt to identify which Peace 40 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:46,320 Speaker 1: came from where the new vermir though proved tricky. After 41 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: months of chasing leeds, the authorities managed to arrive at 42 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:54,840 Speaker 1: henry store step. At first, they arrested him for collaborating 43 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,920 Speaker 1: with the Nazi forces, believing he had stolen the painting 44 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 1: and given it to Guring personally. Henry insisted, though, that 45 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 1: the painting was a fake and that he had actually 46 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,399 Speaker 1: fooled going into buying it for a long time, though 47 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:11,080 Speaker 1: no one would believe him. After all, how could this man, 48 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: this unknown, washed up artist, ever managed to create paintings 49 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: that might be confused with the work of the legendary Vermier. 50 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: So Henry proved it. Under the supervision of the authorities, 51 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: Henry gathered the tools, chemicals, and paints necessary to complete 52 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: another of his knockoff masterpieces, and then got to work. 53 00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:35,160 Speaker 1: As the story goes, he wasn't even finished with the 54 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 1: painting before the experts caved in and accepted defeat. Henry 55 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,480 Speaker 1: really was that good. In the end, the court convicted 56 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:46,880 Speaker 1: him of forging signatures and delivered a short one year 57 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: jail sentence. Henry, however, had a heart attack a few 58 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: days after the trial and passed away before he could 59 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:58,920 Speaker 1: serve his time. Oh and the one last thing. After 60 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:03,040 Speaker 1: going through everything recovered from Henry's home, the authorities found 61 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: the bag of cash that Goring had used to purchase 62 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: the fake former Henry had barely touched it, already wealthy 63 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: from the sale of other fakes to a handful of 64 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:18,600 Speaker 1: European museums. That's when they discovered something absolutely amazing. The 65 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:24,559 Speaker 1: cash was fake. The unlikely fraud, it seems, had become 66 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: the victim of his own game. Thomas was a plantation 67 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:46,120 Speaker 1: owner in Colonial Barbados, an island in the Caribbean. He 68 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:48,919 Speaker 1: lived there with his entire family and preferred it to 69 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,040 Speaker 1: life back in England. But when you live someplace, there's 70 00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: always the risk of dying there as well. In eighteen 71 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: oh seven, Thomas purchased a large family vault in the 72 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,720 Speaker 1: local cemetery in Anti, a patient of just that sort 73 00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 1: of eventuality. That same year, the family suffered through the 74 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: loss of Thomas's aunt, and she became the first to 75 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:13,039 Speaker 1: occupy the tomb. The following year, Thomas and his wife 76 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: lost a daughter, Mary Anna, and in July eight twelve, 77 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:20,360 Speaker 1: another of their children passed away. It was a lot 78 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: to work through, for sure, Losing a child is never 79 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:26,559 Speaker 1: an easy thing, but each of them had a home 80 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: in the family tomb. Later that same year, Thomas himself 81 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: passed away. When they opened the vault, though they were 82 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:38,240 Speaker 1: met with a surprise. All three of the coffins inside 83 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:41,120 Speaker 1: were no longer where they had left them, neatly arranged 84 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: in a row on the stone floor. Instead, they seemed 85 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 1: to have been tossed against the wall, and some of 86 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:52,279 Speaker 1: them had even been opened. The family suspected grave robbers, 87 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:55,360 Speaker 1: but there didn't appear to be anything missing. In the end, 88 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 1: they simply replaced all the coffins and added Thomas's to 89 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:00,960 Speaker 1: the room, and then made sure to lock up and 90 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:06,839 Speaker 1: seal the vault, and then life moved on. In eighteen sixteen, 91 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:10,560 Speaker 1: another of the children passed away, and after a somber funeral, 92 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,279 Speaker 1: the family took the small casket to the family tomb 93 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:17,560 Speaker 1: and unlocked the door inside. Though chaos had visited the 94 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: original coffins once again, they were beginning to think that 95 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:24,479 Speaker 1: something darker was going on, that an unseen force might 96 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:28,320 Speaker 1: be at work. Just two months later, the family lost 97 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,040 Speaker 1: another of their own, and they returned to that all 98 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:35,040 Speaker 1: too familiar vault. Again, the door was still locked, and 99 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:38,520 Speaker 1: again the coffins inside had been tossed against the walls 100 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:42,800 Speaker 1: and into general disarray. They straightened up things like before, 101 00:06:43,279 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: but word began to spread around the island about what 102 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,440 Speaker 1: was going on in their tomb. When another of the 103 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:53,200 Speaker 1: family passed away in eighteen nineteen, news spread fast enough 104 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: that the Governor of Barbados himself, Field Marshal Stapleton Cotton, 105 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,599 Speaker 1: traveled to the cemetery on the southwest corner of the 106 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:04,480 Speaker 1: island to watch the burial with his own eyes. Inside 107 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: they found the same scene of disarray, and the governor 108 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: personally inspected it before helping with sealing the tomb. This 109 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 1: time at his request, they covered the floor of the 110 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:18,480 Speaker 1: tomb with a layer of sand, hoping it would reveal 111 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 1: footprints if it were ever to happen again. Then they 112 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 1: locked the door, sealed it, and even placed secret marks 113 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:27,240 Speaker 1: on the door frame to help them know if the 114 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: vault had been tampered with. It was less than a 115 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: year before the authorities were made aware of reports of 116 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: noises from inside the tomb. Governor Cotton made the journey 117 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:40,239 Speaker 1: back to the tomb, and the community and family gathered 118 00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:44,600 Speaker 1: around to watch him. Inspected, he reportedly found the seal intact, 119 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:47,320 Speaker 1: but when he unlocked the door and pushed it inward, 120 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,600 Speaker 1: it resisted suspiciously. With help, he was able to open 121 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:54,120 Speaker 1: it wide enough to look in, which is when he 122 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:59,120 Speaker 1: discovered two very different clues. First, the coffins had all 123 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:02,080 Speaker 1: been tossed again the wall, which explained why the door 124 00:08:02,200 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 1: was difficult to move. Some had tipped over and others 125 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:08,880 Speaker 1: were standing on end. But to make matters more confusing, 126 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:11,960 Speaker 1: the sand on the floor was as smooth as it 127 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,560 Speaker 1: had been in eighteen nineteen. Not a single footprint could 128 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:19,040 Speaker 1: be seen, which, of course reinforced the local belief that 129 00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:21,800 Speaker 1: the tomb was home to more than just wooden coffins. 130 00:08:22,320 --> 00:08:25,040 Speaker 1: There was a spirit in there as well, and it 131 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:30,480 Speaker 1: wasn't happy. This was apparently the final straw. In April 132 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:32,880 Speaker 1: of that year, the family pulled all of the coffins 133 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 1: back out and transported them to new underground graves, and 134 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,679 Speaker 1: left the old family vault empty and unused. The spirit 135 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 1: never gave them trouble again. Over the years, people have 136 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:48,800 Speaker 1: offered up their own theories about why the coffins kept moving. 137 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:52,559 Speaker 1: Some blame earthquakes, while others think of cemetery has been 138 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:56,920 Speaker 1: plagued by flooding from underground sources. To be honest, no 139 00:08:56,960 --> 00:08:59,680 Speaker 1: one really knows for sure, leaving this story in the 140 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:04,160 Speaker 1: realm of myth rather than fact. When it's all said 141 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:07,440 Speaker 1: and done, I suppose there really is only one truth 142 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 1: we can glean from this tale. Let's all hope our 143 00:09:11,360 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: final resting place is exactly that RESTful. I hope you've 144 00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe 145 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:26,560 Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the 146 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:31,360 Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was 147 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:35,280 Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. 148 00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:38,840 Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is 149 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,320 Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can 150 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:44,760 Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore 151 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:48,720 Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.