WEBVTT - Some Really Interesting Cases of Mass Hysteria 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:12.680 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.600 Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:20.119 over there. Stuff you should know. I'm just so sick 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.640 of my voice right now. I just looked over almost 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.320 a check to see if Jerry was there. Even though 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.960 this room is so small, She's always visible, right. I 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.920 don't know why I did that. How are you okay? 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.720 It's a dude, it's my voice. Man, it's driving me crazy. 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:40.720 So wound up and caffeinated, and we just talked about 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:44.199 dark money. Oh yeah, maybe we should have recorded that 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:47.960 last Maybe he could have just done power lifting for 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:52.840 the rest of the day. Jim, what do uh? So 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.760 we did an episode. I'm not done talking about power lifting. Okay, 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.360 go ahead, I'm just kidding. I don't want to interrupt you. Uh. 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.959 November we did an episode on collective hysteria? Yes, not 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.039 too long ago. What is collective hysteria? Yeah? And it 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:09.800 was a good one. Was that a shot at me 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.080 just now? Because I interrupt you a lot? Was what 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.720 a shot that? You don't want to interrupt me because 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.680 I interrupt you? It's part of the show. Okay, I 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.319 don't mean to, and I feel badly when I noticed it. 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:27.000 How do you notice it? I would say six tenths 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.400 of the time, So three fifths is another way to 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:32.120 put that. I can live with that. Um, it was 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.000 a good episode, but we did not cover There are 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:37.000 a lot of cases of mass hysteria, and we only 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.480 covered a small portion. Yeah, we're not gonna go in 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.320 depth about what mass hysteria is. If you want that, 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:44.560 go listen to that episode, which is a good one 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.080 if I remember correctly. Yeah, we should talk about it 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:49.120 a little bit, sure, because I think there's stuff in 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.000 here that we didn't even cover about the overall thing, 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.240 or at least it didn't seem familiar to me. So 0:01:55.320 --> 0:02:01.440 it's also called mass psychogenic illness, collective delusions, uh, conversion disorder. 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.040 What else? Um, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no no. 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.120 You need to duplicate that though with like tin Josh 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.360 is doing it at once. That's a good right there. 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.639 Maybe Jerry could do that, she says she can't. It's 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:17.840 a real thing, though, and basically it is when um, 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:24.639 people have physical symptoms of something without there being a 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.520 physical cause. Not only that, so that's a psychosomatic illness. 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:35.000 For a mass psychogenic illness, the psychosomatic illness is catching. Yes, 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:42.040 it's an epidemic, an infection of imagined illness, that's right, 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.520 which is pretty awesome. Oh, it's amazing. I mean not 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:47.760 when you're going through it and you're suffering, because the 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:51.440 people who are suffering are actually experiencing suffering. Yeah, like 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.360 there there. It might be made up, it might be 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.840 all in their heads, but to them it's quite real. Yeah, 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:03.560 but it is sociologically and psychoical, logically, psychicologically speaking, I'm sick, people, 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:10.360 so I apologize if I'm not talking good m uh. 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:15.960 Psychologically speaking and sociologically, it's just like utterly fascinating. Um. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.720 One thing that happens is is usually triggered by some 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.919 sort of stress, uh, some sort of emotional trigger. Yeah, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.239 and it usually happens in very close knit communities. Um, 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:31.240 often among young women. They're very susceptible to it, apparently, 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:35.680 perhaps isolated communities. Yeah, and then communities of people who 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.200 are fairly high on the totem pole and that they 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.440 don't have a lot of social status necessarily or a 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:47.000 lot of say in their own lives. Um. And they, Uh, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.640 this is a means of saying there's something very wrong 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.320 in my world. Yes, that's people who study these things. 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.720 That's what they've come up with. Like I've got no voice, 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:58.480 but I can break out in a rash. I can 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:03.760 bark like a dog and make you do it too, exactly. So, uh, 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.400 the outcome supposedly for this, for getting over this is 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.240 better in children than adults, even though more children are 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:12.440 stricken with it, it seems like than adults. But that 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:14.840 makes total sense, like a kid's more likely to follow 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:16.960 along with the crowd. But then also be like, what 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.520 were we just having a rash about? Let's go play Nintendo? 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:26.760 So let's all go play Nintendo because it's I wish 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.400 I had an old any Yes, like the original one 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:32.000 and a copy of Mike Tysones Punch Out. That's all 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:37.240 you need. Yeah, I was into the whatever that first 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.160 Mario game was where it was the big world? Mario Brothers? 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:46.200 Was that a super Mario Brothers? And then Metroid? Did 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.160 you play Metroid? I don't think so. I didn't play 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:52.880 a ton of Yes, but I played what was the 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.680 first really? Not Sega? Was it the first PlayStation that 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:01.760 had Street Fighter? No, I think street Fighter. I can't 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:03.600 remember what it was. I'll remember is that there was 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.240 Genesis maybe head street Fighter. No, I wouldn't say of Genesis. 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.320 This dude I had new in college had a street 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:14.560 Fighter and uh, Mortal Kombat. Yeah, Mortal Kombat was definitely. 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:20.840 It might have been Super Nintendo or did you play 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.200 Golden Eye? Oh? Yeah, man, that was the first great 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.039 first person shooter. It was so well done. Yeah. But 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.359 I just remember listening to Dr Dre's The Chronic and 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.960 playing Street Fighter and that was Mortal Kombat for a 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:37.760 year solid. And I think I went to school and 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:41.960 made grades in the classes. In the classes, man, I 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:46.760 need a nap. You want to talk about semes hysterias? Yes, 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.039 Do you want to talk about nuns in the Middle Ages? Yeah? 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:58.000 So in in uh, the in medieval times, not the restaurant, no, 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:02.520 but maybe there too. Um, if you had a sister 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.560 or a niece or a an aunt or somebody who 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:11.080 was a rightful heir to the estate that you wanted. Oh, 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.120 there weren't mental asylums at the time, so you couldn't 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.320 commit them, but you could have them sent to a 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.640 convent or a nunnery. Wow. So like a brother could 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.560 do that to a sister. Oh, yes, yeah, so you 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.120 could take you could usurp that that inheritance that was 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.599 rightfully there's Or if you had a daughter who was um, 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:38.200 unattractive or possibly disfigured, Uh, you could say, I don't 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:40.240 want the world to see you, I'm gonna send you 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:42.520 a comment or a nunnery. And it sounds pretty bad, 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.359 and in a lot of cases it was. But it 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:47.880 also was a good deal for a lot of young 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:52.840 women because they would get a high quality education. They 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:57.000 could pursue creative interests like drawing and painting and sewing 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:01.279 or whatever floated their boat outfits. Shore were sure, Um, 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.000 so it wasn't it wasn't all bad. But I was like, 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.120 why did did anybody get sent to convents? And that 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:11.200 was why to either get rid of them or to 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:13.680 give them an education that they otherwise wouldn't have had. 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.160 But these these places were very strict and tight knit, 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.240 and so they were ripe for mass psychogenic illnesses. Yeah, 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:22.920 I bet if you like your daughter like kissed a 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.280 boy that you didn't like, you could you know, if 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:29.240 you're worried about that. After the convents, after the nunnery Uh, 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.000 so we're gonna talk about a couple of cases with nunneries. 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:36.080 But uh, in medieval times there were more than one 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.680 hundred cases of mass hysterias breaking out. It happened a 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.640 lot those one in Spain and the fifteen hundreds where 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.800 nuns bleeded like sheep and had convulsions, one in France, 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:52.120 and four one where they yelped like dogs. Okay, uh 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:55.800 and then this one in France where uh, all of 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.520 a sudden, one day a nun started me owing like 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:03.240 a cat. Yes, caught on, caught on like wildfire. Apparently 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.760 in this convent. By within a few days, all of 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.480 the nuns were mewing and it was loud, like the 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.960 neighbors could hear it. Yeah. And not only mewing, but 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:18.080 it became a mewt in Unison. It became structured with 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:20.280 their mewing. So for a few hours a day they 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:25.400 would all get together and meow. That's right. Which imagine 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:29.440 just like stopping by on your travels because you you 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.280 heard this one convent has really good roasted turkey. Leg 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:37.400 you show up and you enter into a giant room 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.360 filled with nuns all me owing in Unison. Yeah, that 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:42.320 one might have been some guy's idea of a good time, 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.000 because you know, you just kind of make a face 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.199 and go help yourself to a turkey leg and kick 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.439 back and watch the weirdos meow. Well, here's one of 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.720 the problems though. In medieval times in France, cats were 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:56.760 not well regarded. They were thought to be of the 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.440 double uh, and so if you're meowing like a cat, 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.280 it's a nun It not good. They also believed in 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:05.520 demonic possession and um, so they brought in some soldiers 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:08.240 who said we're gonna whip you and beat you and 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:10.760 unless you stop me owing. And it worked and they 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:16.280 stopped me. Right. But that's that's a really important point 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:20.000 that there is a widespread belief that you could become possessed, 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:27.640 so in that it provides this platform that removes individual responsibility, 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.400 and that is the basis of this, for the person 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.640 to really experience it and take it away from an 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:36.960 act of their own will power and rather be a 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:41.080 sufferer of some weird illness. Is a belief that something 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.760 like this could possibly happen, and so they were possessed. 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:47.760 Rather than them just me owing and going along with 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.040 the crowd or whatever, they were instead possessed at the time, 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.480 and so their responsibility was removed and therefore they could 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.120 really give themselves over to it. Yeah. I think that's 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:00.880 the hallmark of mass psychogenic illness. Yeah. Absolute. It also 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:03.360 happened in Germany, not the me owing, but in the 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:07.560 fifteenth century, and none bit another, none in the convent, 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:10.600 and then I don't know if that none in turn 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.320 bit another, but they started biting one another a lot. 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.480 And that didn't just stick around that nunnery, It's spread 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.400 all over Germany. Well, they were worried that there was 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.400 like an actual infection going on. Yeah, that would cause 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:26.600 you to go crazy and bite people. And not only 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.040 did it spread to Germany, chuck, it also spread to Rome, 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.240 even all the way to Rome. Yeah. Um. And then 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.880 apparently they stopped biting when they got really tired. Yeah, 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:37.439 that was the end of that. That seems like a 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:42.200 very ham fisted follow up, wouldn't you be like that 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:46.600 was a weird week? Yeah, they probably did. But I mean, like, yeah, 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.560 it's very interesting that mass psychogenic illnesses in and of 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:52.240 themselves are very interesting. But I'm also interested in the 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:56.640 transition back to normalcy. How do you how do groups 0:10:56.720 --> 0:10:59.960 that go through that like work that out to get 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.679 there or do they just now I don't know, Like 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:04.520 you said, that'd be totally weird to be like, hey, 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.920 remember last week when we were all me owing. That 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.680 was so weird and we're all of our roasted turkey legs. 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.640 All right, maw, let's uh move on to the kissing 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:22.560 bug scare of eight. Uh try a toman bugs. Uh. 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:27.120 They looks sort of like stink bugs, but they carry 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:32.840 a parasite that can cause a disease called Chagas disease, 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.000 and Chagas disease wasn't described until nineteen o six or 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.360 o nine, and this kissing bug outbreak was eighteen ninety 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.520 nine in the United States. And a kissing bug is 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.440 called that because they bite you. They feast on your 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:51.440 blood through your lips, which has only three layers of skin, 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:53.840 whereas the rest of your face has about sixteen layers. 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.800 Can't or your eyelids, sure, so it's easily penetrated, and 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.560 the bug will just sit there and suck on you 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.240 while you're sleeping. But it has a little parting gift 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.840 for you afterward. When it finishes feasting on your blood 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.480 through your lips, it turns around and poops on the 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:11.920 whole that it made on your mouth, and I knew 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.880 that was coming, and in doing so, it can infect 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.000 you with shagas disease. Yeah, no good. If you live 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.839 in the upper one third of the United States, you 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.800 don't have to sweat it. Basically, draw a line from 0:12:23.840 --> 0:12:26.920 the top of California all the way across the United States, 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.880 and anything below that, um, you might have kissing bugs. 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:35.120 So by this bug was well known to science already, 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:39.199 but it wasn't popularly known. So it's an exotic, weird species. 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:44.280 And a couple of cases of shagas disease did sprout up. 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.960 But what spread this thing and turn it into a 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:52.120 mass psychogenic illness was newspaper reporting. Yeah, and this was 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:55.160 This one's a little bit different. It seems like most 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:58.000 of these cases of mass hysteria were pretty confined, but 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.920 this one is a clear indication of people having uh, 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:04.520 maybe a mosquito bite or any a bed bug maybe 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:06.720 and itching at it and then seeing something on the 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.440 news and then saying, oh, no, I got bit by 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.360 the kissing bug, right, and and so part of it, 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:14.720 part of what it was attributed to. And actually the 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.840 guy who is the head of the entomology for the U. 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:19.960 S d A at the time said that this was 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:22.840 He called it a newspaper epidemic. And it was because 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:27.560 the newspaper reporting so clearly described the symptoms that a 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:32.679 person's imagination could create these symptoms in himself for herself. 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.320 And so they started collecting bugs. Like if somebody was 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:38.360 bit by a bug or even saw a bug in 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:40.319 their house, they'd be like, oh God, a kissing bug. 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:42.600 Catch it and send it off to like the U. 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.320 S d A for analysis. And the USDA got everything 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.240 from like houseflies to bumblebees, a lot of bugs from 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:50.480 people who were worried that they were Um they were 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.080 they'd broken out in this kissing disease. Yeah, And the 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:57.200 good news is, uh, it stopped when the newspaper stopped 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.960 writing about it. Everyone was like, oh, it's just a bump, 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.240 will be And it happened in the nineties and the 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:07.360 eighteen nineties were really really weird decade. Um, there was 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:10.840 a lot of death cults that sprang up around the 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:15.400 around the world. But um, there there was have you 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:19.680 ever read that book Wisconsin Death Trip? It is crazy, man. 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:26.640 It's basically this really artful collection of newspaper clippings from 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:31.760 Wisconsin in the eight nineties and assembled it. It paints 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:36.880 one of the grimmest, bleakest pictures of humanity ever, of 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.880 of civilized humanity. Just the worst stuff happened to these people. 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.920 They did the worst things to one another. They just 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.760 endured so much. And it was a really really good 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.680 example of what happened in the eight nineties. Something weird 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:53.480 happened that decade. You should check that book out. It's 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:58.640 neat to just look through yet. Uh tomorrow, man, So 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.960 don't tell me anything. So speaking of the which actually, Chuck, 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.000 I want to give a plug to Cinema Jaw. So 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.960 you were on Cinema jaw like a few months back. 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.800 It's a great movie podcast, it is, and Um, I 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.400 was on it recently and their episode that came out 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.360 on Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday, and we talked about missing 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:20.880 persons like we did tie into our episode. Um, what 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:26.120 movies did you talk about? We talked about The Lady Vanishes. No, 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.440 not that one because I haven't seen it. Um, have 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.920 you ever seen The Vanishing? The original one from the eighties, 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.800 the Franco Dutch production that the superior? Right, So I'd 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.640 only seen The Jeff Bridges Keeper Southerland, which I liked, 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:43.480 but then I started reading up on it and I 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.440 was like, oh, this sucks. Compared to the original Dutch 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.240 version of anything before then, it's probably better. It was 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.880 so good, dude. I was watching it via YouTube on 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.080 my TV, so it couldn't have been more grainy. It 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:02.359 was in spoken French with Dutch subtitles, with English subtitles 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:06.680 have has hazardusly slapped over the Dutch subtitles, and I 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.520 was still like, oh man, this is so good. Good movie. 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:11.160 It was very good. Well, I can't wait to hear 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.920 that episode. Good check it out and see The Witch tomorrow. Yeah, 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.920 yeah they did. They did a review of The Witch, 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.680 and I put the phone out and just went like 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:23.680 I could just barely hear that they were still talking, 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:25.600 and when they finished, I put the phone back up 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.560 for the interview. Yeah, it's good to see horror movies 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:29.960 and you don't even know if you want to call 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:32.320 it a horror movie, but movies like that coming back 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.760 with like The Babba Duck, and it follows like people 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.680 are making good quality movies. Now. I didn't like The 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.280 Bubba Duck. Oh man, I thought it was great. A 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:44.640 lot of people did. It's got high ratings on Netflix. 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.120 All right, well, let's take a break. Maybe we'll just 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:48.600 come back and talk about movies for the rest of 0:16:48.640 --> 0:17:07.159 the show. All Right, we're back. We're so back to 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:12.480 talk about the Halifax slasher of ninety eight. Halifax, England, 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.040 not Nova Scotia. That's what I thought at first, Nova Scotia. 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:20.080 I didn't know there's two Halifax's, didn't neither Um Halifax 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:25.639 in November nineteen Uh, there was a woman named Um. 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:30.080 Two women, two women, Gerty Watts and Mary Gledhill. We're 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.080 taking a little walk after work at their mill. I 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.200 guess they were walking home and they said a man 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:40.160 came out and slashed us with a knife. Yeah, we're bleeding, 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:45.280 for God's sake, look at me. Blood, there's blood. Uh, 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:48.639 go find this creep. Right, that's what they told the cops. 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:53.280 And the cops are like, wa wa wa wa slasher 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.080 all right. So they started looking for the guy and 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:58.520 never found any trace of them. And it was like 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:00.399 kind of a thing for a little a while, but 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.840 it really became a thing five days later when another 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.120 woman came to the police station and said, look at this. 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:11.160 Some guys just came by and slashed my wrist. Yes, 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:14.000 that was Mary Sutcliffe and she supposedly fought him off 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.840 even and gave a very clear description of what he 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:19.679 looked like. So the newspapers are like, I think there 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.200 might be a slasher at large. And within the next 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.680 five days, several more people came forward, uh and came 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.080 to the police station or came to the newspapers with 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.640 stories about how they've been slashed by some anonymous stranger. 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.719 And Halifax was f freaked out. They compared the same 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.960 fear and panic to what was experienced during the Jack 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.960 the Ripper era. Um. People were just nervous that that 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.360 somebody was going to slash them. Yeah, the soccer hooligan 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.080 started beating people up like that guy didn't look right. 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.280 He looks like a slasher to me, that's what soccer 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:55.320 hooligans or a West Ham fan. Let's go take him down, um, 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:57.840 And it became a real problem. There's a couple of 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:02.040 things though. One these lashes, he wasn't a very good slasher. 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:06.720 These were all very superficial cuts. Uh. No one was 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:11.240 severely wounded at all in any of the cases. So, 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:13.800 but it was still confounding and people are still scared. 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:18.119 He could be a bad slasher, still could improve, So 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.160 we better call Scotland Yard and they did, and Scotland 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.920 Yards sent two detectives and the detectives said, well, let 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.160 us start interviewing witnesses, and the moment they did, they 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.800 found that the witnesses stories just started crumbling. Well, first 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:35.040 of all, none of the descriptions matched, so they thought 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.600 at first, the dumb cops in Halifax thought, well, maybe 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.600 there's multiple slashers. Scotland Yard said, there's not multiple slashers. 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.840 There's not one slasher. They're like they would have known that. 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.360 And Nova Scotia. The final lady Beatrice Sorrel, said, uh, 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:50.080 they finally, I guess they put the bright light in 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:52.600 her eyes. And she said I did it myself after 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:56.199 having a row with my boy, after she discovered she 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.960 was pregnant. She had bought a new razor blade and said, 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:01.240 I held hold of the blade in my right hand 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.800 and slashed down my left arm, making a long cut, 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.080 and my Macintosh coat and cardigan. And I know what 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.000 you're thinking, it's a waste of a good cardigan and 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.800 Macintosh whatever that is. I think it's a raincoat. Is it? 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:21.760 That sounds about right? Yeah, I think so, Mac the Mac. No, 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:23.840 I think a mac is a raincoat because the Beatles 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.800 song eleanor Rigby the Mac he never wears a mac 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:32.399 and the pouring rain very strange. Man, I never realized that. 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:37.160 All right, so Macintosh coat. I hope it's a raincoat. Uh, 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.200 then she said. I then put the blade back into 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:41.680 the cut and scratched down my arm twice and put 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:43.920 my fingers through the cut in the cloth. I saw 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:45.439 that they were covered in blood. The reason why I 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:47.520 cut my arm was because I was in a temper 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:50.480 and had been reading in the papers about girls being slashed. 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:54.600 So she, I guess was in a temper and it 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:59.000 wasn't just her. Like nine of the twelve victims eventually 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:04.760 confessed to doing it themselves. Um, and this this, this 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:08.160 is a weird mass psychogenic illness, you know what I mean? 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.640 Because these people are slashing themselves. They're not like catching 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:15.240 something they think is is making them dizzy or whatever. 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:17.919 They're cutting themselves and then going to the police and 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.439 saying a slasher did it. I guess for attention. Maybe, 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.320 well they did get attention. They got attention in jail 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.800 four weeks. Still, if you're like a normal, ordinary citizen 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:34.160 who slashes herself for himself, um, just for attention, four 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:36.800 weeks in jail, it's going to be a problem. I 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:40.080 wouldn't want to do four weeks in jail. Um. The 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.199 thing is, Chuck is I could not find whether the 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:47.800 first two victims were actually slashed at They didn't show 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:50.399 up in as far as I know, they weren't once 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:54.080 that confessed, and I didn't see that they got any 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:58.199 jail time. So did somebody initially get attacked and it 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:00.520 led to the slash or scare, or did they do 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:04.199 it themselves or to each other? That's I don't know. 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:08.880 The Halifax carrier on December two said, carry on, Halifax. 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.399 The slashing scare is over. The theory that a half graze, 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:15.680 wild eyed man has been wandering around attacking helpless women 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:21.160 in dark streets is exploded. Waca waka And I wish 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:24.000 I people talked so much better back then. Um, I 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:29.439 was in a temper Macintosh man. Uh. This is not 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:35.400 the only slasher mass hysteria epidemic. There's one in Taipei, 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:40.000 Taiwan in the fifties where there's this basically this idea 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.600 that there was a slasher walking around, and this one 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:45.359 was more akin to the kissing bug thing where people 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:47.840 who had cuts on them says, you know, you'll get 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:49.399 a cut every once in a while and be like, 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:53.240 where did I get that cut on my thumb? Right now? Okay, 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:57.879 if you had been susceptible to this Taipei Taiwan slasher scare, 0:22:58.160 --> 0:22:59.960 you may have gone to the police have been like, 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.399 I was slashed because and this one was a little 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:07.800 more legitimate to me. The the idea behind the slasher 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:10.439 was he would brush past you in the crowd and 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:13.840 you wouldn't even notice you've been slashed until later. So 0:23:13.920 --> 0:23:16.840 that that was yeah, it was that. That's the better 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:21.119 of the slasher mass psychogenic illnesses between that and Halifax. 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:24.600 If you asked me, I wonder if Tina fe was 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:26.479 a part of that. You know, that's how she got 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:30.600 that scar. Which scar she has a scar on her face, 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:33.560 and uh, she was slashed when she was a kid 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:36.440 playing in her front yard. She by some random crazy 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:38.639 I didn't know that, and that's kind of all the 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:42.440 information that's out there. She think admitted that in an interview, 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:46.080