Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Mythology is full of tricksters. The Norse have Loki, the
Speaker 1: shape shifter god. In West African folklore, there is a Nansi,
Speaker 1: the god of stories, knowledge and trickery. And let's not
Speaker 1: forget the Greek Prometheus who stole fire from the Olympians
Speaker 1: to give to humanity. But of all these trickster myths,
Speaker 1: there's one that stands out the most during the Halloween season,
Speaker 1: the Irish legend of Stingy Jack. As his name suggests,
Speaker 1: Stingy Jack was a bit of a selfish guy. He
Speaker 1: was known for lying, stealing, and drinking. Rumors about his
Speaker 1: vile behavior made it all the way down to the underworld,
Speaker 1: and the devil himself became fascinated by his most evil
Speaker 1: of mortals. One night, Stingy Jack was taking a drunken
Speaker 1: strolled on a dark cobblestone path, and he stumbled upon
Speaker 1: what appeared to be a dead body. But Jack, a
Speaker 1: born trickster, could not be tricked. He immediately realized that
Speaker 1: the body was actually the Devil in disguise. Still, meeting
Speaker 1: Satan on a deserted street was never a good thing.
Speaker 1: Jack assumed the devil was there to collect his sinful
Speaker 1: soul and take it down to hell. Desperate to make
Speaker 1: it out alive, Jack decided to try one final trick.
Speaker 1: He asked Lucifer for a little favor, just one last
Speaker 1: pint of beer. Amused by Jack's insistance, Satan said sure,
Speaker 1: and the pair took off toward the nearest pub. After
Speaker 1: downing way more than a single pint, Jack revealed his secret.
Speaker 1: He didn't have a cent on him. He needed the
Speaker 1: devil to pay the tab. Now, being the ruler of
Speaker 1: the under the world, Lucifer didn't find it necessary to
Speaker 1: carry cash, but he agreed to transform himself into a
Speaker 1: coin only so Jack could pay the bill and then leave.
Speaker 1: As soon as Satan turned into a silver medallion, Jack
Speaker 1: grabbed the coin and stuck it in his pocket, where
Speaker 1: he also happened to be carrying a crucifix and that
Speaker 1: crucifix kept Satan trapped. In order to escape, he had
Speaker 1: to make a deal. In exchange for his freedom, Satan
Speaker 1: promised to spare Jack's soul for ten years. It was
Speaker 1: a good enough deal for Jack, so he pulled the
Speaker 1: silver coin out of his pocket and he and Lucifer
Speaker 1: went their separate ways. However, Jack had learned exactly zero
Speaker 1: lessons from his near death experience. Ten years later, he
Speaker 1: once again was out walking, drunk, stumbling down a cobblestone
Speaker 1: path when he happened upon Satan. The devil was there
Speaker 1: right on time, ready to cash in on their deal.
Speaker 1: Of course, stingy Jack had something of a contingency plan.
Speaker 1: He told Lucifer that he was just so hungry, couldn't
Speaker 1: Satan climb an apple tree and grab him a snack
Speaker 1: before carding him off to the under world, and the
Speaker 1: devil made the mistake of saying yes. He climbed in
Speaker 1: nearby tree, and as he plucked an apple from its branches,
Speaker 1: Jack placed a circle of crucifixes around the bottom. Again
Speaker 1: Satan was trapped, and this time Jack made an even
Speaker 1: bigger demand. If the devil wanted to get down, he
Speaker 1: had to promise he would never bring jack soul to Hell.
Speaker 1: Lucifer really didn't have a choice, he said fine. Jack
Speaker 1: moved the crucifixes and Satan he tailed it out of there,
Speaker 1: not wanting to get caught in any more bad deals
Speaker 1: with clever mortals. Some years later, Stingy Jack, who had
Speaker 1: lived a full life of thievery, cons and a whole
Speaker 1: lot of beer, finally died. When he knocked on the
Speaker 1: door of heaven, God refused to let him in. This
Speaker 1: must have been a shock to Jack, who thought that
Speaker 1: he had this whole afterlife thing planned out. With nowhere
Speaker 1: else to go, he trecked down to Hell and asked
Speaker 1: his old friend Lucifer to let him in, but Satan
Speaker 1: said no. They had a deal. After all, Stingy Jack's
Speaker 1: soul could not enter the underworld. All the devil could
Speaker 1: offer him was an ember, a tiny little piece of light.
Speaker 1: So Jack had made his bed, and now he had
Speaker 1: to lie in it. He took the ember and placed
Speaker 1: it inside a hollowed out turnip, which he carried with
Speaker 1: him as a lantern. It lit his way as his
Speaker 1: soul aimlessly wandered the earth, and this was what got
Speaker 1: him the new nickname Jack of the Lantern. Now, in
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, Ireland people carved faces into hollowed out turnips,
Speaker 1: Rudebega's beets and potatoes, and then they put candles inside.
Speaker 1: Around All Hallows Eve, when the veil between the living
Speaker 1: and the dead was thinnest, they placed the lanterns on
Speaker 1: their porches, hoping to scare away Jack of the Lantern's
Speaker 1: wayward soul. As people immigrated from Ireland to America, All
Speaker 1: Hallows Eve became Halloween, and they found a plant that
Speaker 1: was larger, easier to carve, and made a much better
Speaker 1: lantern pumpkins, And just like that, the Jack O' lantern
Speaker 1: as we know it was born. So if you're carving
Speaker 1: pumpkins this year, take a moment to remember the curious
Speaker 1: tale of Stingy Jack and keep your candles lit just
Speaker 1: in case his spirit comes knocking. If someone asked you
Speaker 1: to draw a ghost right now, you would probably sketch
Speaker 1: what's known as a bedsheet ghost, You know, the one,
Speaker 1: the round top, squiggly bottom, couple of dots for eyes.
Speaker 1: The image is frightfully ubiquitous. It appears in everything from
Speaker 1: movies to art. In the Halloween decor isle at targets.
Speaker 1: That's even a bedsheet ghost emoji, which got me wondering
Speaker 1: where did the idea that ghosts wear sheets even come from. Well,
Speaker 1: it turns out the image can be traced back at
Speaker 1: least seven centuries. In the thirteen hundreds, ghosts were often
Speaker 1: depicted in art as skeletons wrapped in burial shrouds. For
Speaker 1: most of human history, people weren't buried in caskets or coffins.
Speaker 1: They were simply wrapped in sheets. If the dearly departed
Speaker 1: came from an upper class family, they might be buried
Speaker 1: in in that was made and decorated specifically for the funeral,
Speaker 1: and if they were from a lower class background, they'd
Speaker 1: likely be buried in sheets pulled right off their deathbed. Still,
Speaker 1: it took a while for the shrouded skeleton to evolve
Speaker 1: into the bedsheet ghost we know and love today, and
Speaker 1: there were other versions in between. For example, in the
Speaker 1: fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, ghosts were frequently featured as characters
Speaker 1: in plays. In the original production of Hamlet, the ghost
Speaker 1: of Hamlet's father wore metal armor. This created a trend
Speaker 1: in armor clad specters in the theater, but a few
Speaker 1: centuries later a haunting in London seemed to cement the
Speaker 1: bedsheet ghost as the most accurate portrayal. In November of
Speaker 1: eighteen oh three, people in the western London neighborhood of
Speaker 1: Hammersmith reported seeing a ghostly figure prowling around town. The
Speaker 1: figure was tall, slender, and clad in a white sheet.
Speaker 1: It was ostensibly the spirit of a man who had
Speaker 1: died in Hammersmith the previous year, and locals kept seeing
Speaker 1: him around town for months and it was starting to
Speaker 1: freak them out. So they did what seemed most logical.
Speaker 1: They organized a ghost hunting team. In January of eighteen
Speaker 1: oh four. The group set off into the night, intending
Speaker 1: to take care of the haunting once and for all.
Speaker 1: One of these ghost hunters was a twenty nine year
Speaker 1: old man named Francis Smith. As he and the rest
Speaker 1: of the group searched for the spirit, Francis saw someone
Speaker 1: round the street corner in front of them. It was
Speaker 1: a tall, thin man dressed all in white. Certain he
Speaker 1: had found the phantom, Francis raised his gun and fired,
Speaker 1: and the specter crumpled to the ground. Because it wasn't
Speaker 1: a ghost at all. It was Thomas Millwood, a bricklayer
Speaker 1: who had been walking home from his work in his
Speaker 1: all white uniform, and sadly he died from that gunshot.
Speaker 1: It later came out that the entire Hammersmith hunting had
Speaker 1: just been a hoax, but since Thomas Millwood really had
Speaker 1: lost his life, a new legend emerged. It was said
Speaker 1: that Thomas's spirit then stalked Hammersmith, and soon after this,
Speaker 1: an image of Thomas's ghost clad in billowing white sheets
Speaker 1: was installed in a local museum. This helped popularize the
Speaker 1: image of the bedsheet ghost in the English speaking world.
Speaker 1: A few decades later, over in the United States, a
Speaker 1: Missouri newspaper conducted a poll asking readers if they believed
Speaker 1: in ghosts. One respondent wrote in, and I quote, ghosts
Speaker 1: are nearly always white, although some of the authorities admit
Speaker 1: there are dark ones. I should say, however, that the
Speaker 1: genuine ghost is always white, that always makes its first
Speaker 1: appearance at the haunted spot at precisely twelve o'clock midnight.
Speaker 1: Based on this quote, it seems that there were still
Speaker 1: some dissenting opinions on what spirits looked like, but white
Speaker 1: was a safe bet, and maybe that's why. In nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty nine, animators chosen all white designed for one of
Speaker 1: the most famous phantoms in history, Casper, the friendly Ghost.
Speaker 1: It was really Hollywood and the budding film industry that
Speaker 1: turned the once terrifying image of the bedsheet ghost into
Speaker 1: something we now consider cute and fun. Throughout the fifties
Speaker 1: and sixties, animated bedsheet ghosts appeared in cartoons like Popeye
Speaker 1: and Scooby Doo. Thus it became the go to design
Speaker 1: for goules than pop culture, but some people thought it
Speaker 1: was just a fad. In nineteen sixty four, a North
Speaker 1: Carolina newspaper reported, and I quote styles in ghosting are changing,
Speaker 1: dwindling in obscurity are the old fashioned groaning, flapping bedsheets
Speaker 1: and the simple white objects which jump out of dark
Speaker 1: places and say boo. And to that, I have one
Speaker 1: thing to say, the ghost emoji begs to differ. I
Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the worldoflore
Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.