1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,119 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,599 Speaker 1: Monsters are an interesting concept. They're supposed to be terrifying, 7 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 1: yet they can also be reductive. Humans love to put 8 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:47,720 Speaker 1: labels on things that scare us, and after thousands of years, 9 00:00:47,720 --> 00:00:52,720 Speaker 1: those labels have taxonomies as complex as any given mammal. Nowadays, 10 00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: it's easy to mock things like zombies, vampires, and werewolves 11 00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: because they become cliches devoid of mystery. But what was 12 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: our relationship with the dead like before those cliches, before 13 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: universal studios? Boris Karloff bel Lagosi, Well, I'll tell you 14 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,760 Speaker 1: it was no laughing matter. This story comes from a 15 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:17,800 Speaker 1: collection of Prussian folklore placed in the year fifteen ninety one, 16 00:01:18,200 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: the twentieth of September to be precise. It begins, as 17 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:24,920 Speaker 1: so many horror stories do, with death. A shoemaker from 18 00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: the city of Breslau in Celesia, Central Europe, cut his 19 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:30,720 Speaker 1: own throats and bled to death, to the shock and 20 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,640 Speaker 1: horror of his family. His wife, in particular, was devastated. 21 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:38,000 Speaker 1: At the time, it was considered a great shame to 22 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: take one's own life, so with the help of her sisters, 23 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: she concealed the act from their neighbors. Instead, the story 24 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:47,360 Speaker 1: she told was that a stroke had taken the shoemaker. 25 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:50,760 Speaker 1: His widow turned away mourners from their doors and hired 26 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: help to clean and dress the neck wound. The dead 27 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 1: man was promptly buried three days after he had taken 28 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:59,000 Speaker 1: his own life. No one but the family knew what 29 00:01:59,080 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 1: had befallen him, and yet these things rarely do stay quiet. 30 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:06,640 Speaker 1: Rumors began to circulate, perhaps due to the haste of 31 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: the burial, perhaps due to the widow refusing to show 32 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:13,440 Speaker 1: people her husband's corpse, and people whispered that the shoemaker 33 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: had died by his own hand. Eventually, the rumor became 34 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:20,840 Speaker 1: so prevalent that the Breslau City council questioned the widow 35 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:23,639 Speaker 1: about her husband's fate. She told them that he had 36 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: fallen and cut his throat on a sharp stone. She 37 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,200 Speaker 1: refused to let them dig up the body for evidence, 38 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: as it would be a further disgrace. It was during 39 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,919 Speaker 1: this investigation, though, that the haunting started. Locals in breslaus 40 00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 1: started seeing the shoemaker around town. He would wake people 41 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:43,960 Speaker 1: at night with startling noises, terrorizing them in their homes, 42 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:47,680 Speaker 1: sometimes even while the sun was still up. Laborers claimed 43 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:49,600 Speaker 1: that they would come home from a hard day's work 44 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 1: only to be awakened by a horrible form pressing down 45 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,240 Speaker 1: on them, a dead man trying to smother the life 46 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:00,079 Speaker 1: out of their bodies. They presented bruises and finger marks 47 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:03,639 Speaker 1: as evidence. The panic built to a fever pitch, some 48 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:05,560 Speaker 1: even saying that they ought to take this story to 49 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:08,720 Speaker 1: the Kaiser. Eventually, the town council ruled that the body 50 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:12,399 Speaker 1: would be exhumed, and on April eighteenth of fifteen ninety two, 51 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:15,520 Speaker 1: that was done. The body was dug back up, a 52 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:18,400 Speaker 1: body that had laid in the ground for eight months. 53 00:03:18,919 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: All of Breslau was there to witness the exhumation, and 54 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: to the horror of everyone, the body in the grave 55 00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:29,160 Speaker 1: was bloated, its limbs still flexible and free of rigor mortis. 56 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:33,359 Speaker 1: The dead skin had peeled away, revealing fresh new skin beneath. 57 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:36,240 Speaker 1: It was as if the dead man had new life 58 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 1: in his veins. The body was put on display, as 59 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:43,760 Speaker 1: was custom with suicides, but the hauntings continued. The sightings 60 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 1: of the dead shoemaker only grew more aggressive. They tried 61 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: reburying the corpse, but it didn't work. They tried placing 62 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: it beneath the gallows, and that didn't help either. In fact, 63 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:57,240 Speaker 1: the corpse seemed fresher and fresher by the day, and 64 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,920 Speaker 1: its spirits mocked them at night. Finally, the city council 65 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:03,880 Speaker 1: gave permission to the hangman to dispose of the body. 66 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:07,440 Speaker 1: He removed the head, the hands, and the feet, before 67 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 1: cutting open its back and taking out its heart. All 68 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: of these things were burned, and finally the shoemaker walked 69 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:18,000 Speaker 1: no more. The story retold so many times that it 70 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:21,760 Speaker 1: became as vague as folklore contains wisps of truth within it. 71 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,839 Speaker 1: Corpses often shed skin so that they appear fresher after death, 72 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:29,120 Speaker 1: which is also aided by post mortem swelling. To an 73 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 1: untrained eye, it looks as if the body is not 74 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: decomposing as normal. And like I said earlier, people like 75 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,279 Speaker 1: to put labels on things so the villagers of Breslau 76 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 1: referred to this being that haunted them as a guest 77 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,840 Speaker 1: penst or simply a ghost. But as you can tell, 78 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:48,920 Speaker 1: it doesn't square with our modern idea of ghosts. It's 79 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:52,840 Speaker 1: a corporeal, physical presence that assaults the people that it haunts. 80 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 1: It was probably called this because a better name for 81 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: this sort of undead creature didn't exist yet. You see, Eventually, 82 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,520 Speaker 1: these sorts of hauntings would gain another name, as army 83 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 1: doctors of the Habsburg Empire collected similar stories from Central 84 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: and Eastern Europe of dead men supposedly coming back from 85 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:13,359 Speaker 1: the grave. More than one hundred years after this shoemaker 86 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 1: supposedly died, his kind would finally become known as vampires. 87 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:37,840 Speaker 1: Everybody makes mistakes. It's inevitable, really, but for the most part, 88 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: calling your teacher mom or autopiloting to work on a 89 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,159 Speaker 1: weekend won't cost you much more than time and embarrassment. 90 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:47,680 Speaker 1: Back in nineteen forty three, however, the brand new crew 91 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:51,359 Speaker 1: of the USS William D Porter was making mistakes left 92 00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:54,600 Speaker 1: and right, and with one little slip up, the Willie D, 93 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:58,200 Speaker 1: as it was called, nearly changed the course of history. Forever. 94 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:02,159 Speaker 1: The Willi D was a huge naval destroyer built in 95 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: nineteen forty three. After several months of training, it was 96 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:09,360 Speaker 1: finally ready for its first ever mission, escorting a battleship 97 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:13,320 Speaker 1: called the USS Iowa to North Africa. The crew of 98 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: the Willy D was excited. They had a hugely important task. 99 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:21,159 Speaker 1: The President of the Free World himself, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, 100 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: was secretly traveling aboard the Iowa while two outsiders. This 101 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:28,400 Speaker 1: trip appeared to be a training exercise. Really, the fleet 102 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:32,320 Speaker 1: was bringing Roosevelt to meet with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. 103 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:35,640 Speaker 1: This mission would determine the entire course of World War II. 104 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: That was, if the Willy D didn't mess it up first. 105 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,000 Speaker 1: The first incident occurred before the ships even made it 106 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: out of the harbor. On November twelfth of nineteen forty three. 107 00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:49,480 Speaker 1: The ship was reversing in the Norfolk, Virginia Harbor when 108 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: it caught its anchor on the side of another destroyer. 109 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:56,599 Speaker 1: The Willie D scraped alongside it, taking railings, life rafts, 110 00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:00,000 Speaker 1: and valuable equipment with it. The battleship itself came away 111 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:03,200 Speaker 1: with just a scratched anchor the other ship and needed 112 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:06,760 Speaker 1: an entire facelift. And perhaps this should have been an 113 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:09,400 Speaker 1: omen for the trip to come. And yet the following day, 114 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: November thirteenth, the Willie D left Norfolk, along with the 115 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 1: Iowa and several other battleships. At this time, Nazi U 116 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:19,560 Speaker 1: boats were treating the Atlantic Ocean like their own private 117 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 1: hunting ground. The American fleet was under orders of strict 118 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:26,320 Speaker 1: radio silence. One errant broadcast and it could be picked 119 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:29,080 Speaker 1: up on sonar and they could be blown to smithereens. 120 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:32,960 Speaker 1: So when an explosion ripped through the fleet, everyone's first 121 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:35,400 Speaker 1: thought was that the Nazis had found them. But when 122 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:38,960 Speaker 1: no further blast sounded, the sailors were confused, why weren't 123 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 1: they attacking. It was then that the radios crackled to life. 124 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:45,720 Speaker 1: The captain of the Willi D broke radio silence to 125 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:48,840 Speaker 1: sheepishly admit that he was the cause of the explosion. 126 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,160 Speaker 1: A depth charge had fallen off the ship and exploded. 127 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:55,320 Speaker 1: There were no Nazis, it was just the Willi D. 128 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: Yet another opportunity to maybe send the Willy D packing, 129 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:01,960 Speaker 1: But the fleet had a guest to impress, and he 130 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:04,360 Speaker 1: wanted to see what the Navy's brand new ships could do. 131 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 1: On President Roosevelt's orders, the uss Iowa launched weather balloons 132 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:10,840 Speaker 1: so the ships in the fleet could fire at them 133 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:13,920 Speaker 1: with their anti aircraft guns. At the same time, each 134 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:17,160 Speaker 1: ship ran through their battle procedures. Over on the Willid, 135 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: the torpedo crew were acting out a mock firing exercise. 136 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 1: They loaded three torpedoes, and on the Chief Engineer's order, 137 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: they fired. Now for a practice run. Standard procedure was 138 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:31,040 Speaker 1: to remove the primer from the torpedo chamber. The primer 139 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:34,720 Speaker 1: was the explosive device that launched the torpedo into the water, 140 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:37,920 Speaker 1: so when the crew fired a torpedo with no primer, 141 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 1: nothing would actually happen. It was a test run, after all, 142 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:44,240 Speaker 1: at least that's the way it was supposed to go. 143 00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:47,480 Speaker 1: But when the order was called, a loud whooshing noise 144 00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 1: came from torpedo tube number three. Someone had left the 145 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,079 Speaker 1: primer in the shoot, and a fully armed torpedo had 146 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:57,240 Speaker 1: been launched from the Willid and was heading straight toward 147 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:01,480 Speaker 1: President Roosevelt. Chaos reigned on the willi D. At first, 148 00:09:01,559 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 1: the captain tried to signal the uss Iowa with lights 149 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:07,600 Speaker 1: as He had already been chastised for breaking radio silence, 150 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 1: but instead of broadcasting a warning, he accidentally signaled that 151 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:14,640 Speaker 1: his ship was backing up. Realizing his mistake, the captain 152 00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: finally broke radio silence again to call the uss Iowa 153 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:20,960 Speaker 1: and tell them that he had fired a torpedo at 154 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 1: the President. Reportedly, President Roosevelt, excited by the whole thing, 155 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:27,560 Speaker 1: asked for his wheelchair to be brought to the railing 156 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:30,160 Speaker 1: so that he could see the torpedo speeding towards them. 157 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 1: Luckily for him, the uss Iowa was able to move 158 00:09:33,559 --> 00:09:36,880 Speaker 1: in time. The torpedo hit the Iowa's wake and exploded 159 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:40,520 Speaker 1: safely away from the leader of the Free world. After 160 00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:43,280 Speaker 1: determining the crew of the Willi D were not assassins, 161 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:47,640 Speaker 1: just deeply incompetent, the fleet arrested the entire crew. Thanks 162 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:50,640 Speaker 1: to Roosevelt's intervention, the captain and crew were let go 163 00:09:50,679 --> 00:09:53,720 Speaker 1: without jail time, but were exiled to Alaska for the 164 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:56,079 Speaker 1: bulk of the war. The crew of the Willie D 165 00:09:56,600 --> 00:10:00,000 Speaker 1: always wanted to make a splash, but in hindsight, perhaps 166 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:07,679 Speaker 1: plaps They should have avoided the explosives. I hope you've 167 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:11,720 Speaker 1: enjoyed Today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe 168 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:14,360 Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the 169 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:19,160 Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was 170 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:23,080 Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. 171 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:26,640 Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is 172 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:30,120 Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can 173 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:34,080 Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. 174 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.