1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:04,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from housetof 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 3 00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:16,200 Speaker 1: to bling a Chok reboarding and I'm faired out and 4 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:19,000 Speaker 1: we just talked about the famous radio hoax on a 5 00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: recent podcast, the nineteen thirty eight War of the World's Broadcast. 6 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: But hoaxes in general were around long before that. A 7 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:30,280 Speaker 1: lot of experts believe that the seventeen hundreds, also known 8 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:33,080 Speaker 1: to some as the Age of Enlightenment, gave birth to them. 9 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,800 Speaker 1: Doesn't really make sense, doesn't No, it doesn't. I mean 10 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:37,920 Speaker 1: you would think that around that time it would be 11 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:42,760 Speaker 1: all about reason thinking really hard. Yeah. Absolutely, But I 12 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:45,239 Speaker 1: like the way that Alex Boza, who is the curator 13 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 1: of the online Museum of Hoaxes, he actually calls himself 14 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:52,240 Speaker 1: a hoax Burt, which I love a hoax. He put 15 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:55,080 Speaker 1: it this way in an interview with a history magazine 16 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: in two thousand nine. He said, quote, in order to 17 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: be able to perceive a hoax, one needs to see 18 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:03,840 Speaker 1: the world in terms of a contrast between reason and ignorance, 19 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:07,000 Speaker 1: fact and fiction, and that way of thinking only clearly 20 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: came into focus in the eighteenth century. So We're going 21 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:12,280 Speaker 1: to take a look at some hoaxes throughout history, not 22 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:15,399 Speaker 1: necessarily broadcast ones like the War of the Worlds, but 23 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:17,479 Speaker 1: ones that fooled a lot of folks just the same. 24 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:19,760 Speaker 1: And we promised we're not pulling any hoaxes on you. 25 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:24,679 Speaker 1: All of these are true historical hoaxes. Yes, not this time, 26 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:28,680 Speaker 1: not this time. So our first one is Cottingly Fairies, 27 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:32,039 Speaker 1: and it started with two little English girls named Frances 28 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: Griffith's and her cousin, Elsie Wright, And they were a 29 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,160 Speaker 1: couple of cousins and they were basically just trying to 30 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: put one over on their parents, as kids sometimes do. 31 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:44,120 Speaker 1: They were ten and sixteen years old at the time, respectively, 32 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:47,200 Speaker 1: and so in nineteen seventeen, the two of them used 33 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: to play at the Rights home and Cottingly, which was 34 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: in West Yorkshire, and Francis would often come back home 35 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 1: after a day of play soaking wet after falling into 36 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: the brook on the property, and the parents weren't really 37 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:04,200 Speaker 1: pleased with this. They'd grill the girls what happened? Why 38 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,559 Speaker 1: do you keep falling into the brook all the time? 39 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 1: And the girl's explanation was that they went down close 40 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:14,160 Speaker 1: to the water to hang out with the fairies that 41 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:18,200 Speaker 1: were there, naturally, right, naturally, so the parents also naturally 42 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: weren't buying this at all. So the girls asked to 43 00:02:20,919 --> 00:02:24,400 Speaker 1: borrow a camera, and they produced two photos kind of 44 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:28,360 Speaker 1: as proof of their adventures, one with Frances looking toward 45 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:31,200 Speaker 1: the camera and a little troop of fairies kind of 46 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: prancing around in front of her, and a second had 47 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: Elsie entertaining a gnome. So Arthur right after this pretty 48 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:39,800 Speaker 1: much he didn't believe them at all. He quit loaning 49 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: the girls his camera. So the incident was all but 50 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,799 Speaker 1: forgotten until the summer of nineteen nineteen, and that's when 51 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:49,520 Speaker 1: Arthur's wife, Polly Right she was pursuing an interest in 52 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:51,520 Speaker 1: the occult and a supernatural at the time, and she 53 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 1: attended a lecture hosted by the local Theosophical Society, which 54 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:57,440 Speaker 1: they come up from time to time in these podcasts. 55 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:00,799 Speaker 1: I've noticed, yeah, whenever we talk about spiritualists and so forth. 56 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:03,760 Speaker 1: But she mentioned the fairy photos when she was there, 57 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,200 Speaker 1: and among the people to show a special interest in 58 00:03:06,240 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 1: these photos was none other than Arthur Conan Doyle, our 59 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:12,919 Speaker 1: old friend, yes from the who was the real Sherlock 60 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 1: Holmes podcast Yeah. So Conan Doyle is of course most 61 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:18,960 Speaker 1: famous for for that Sherlock Holmes connection, but he was 62 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 1: also a famous spiritualist at the time too, and a 63 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:25,200 Speaker 1: believer in the supernatural. It was very important to him, 64 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:28,840 Speaker 1: and so he wanted to check out this whole fairy 65 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 1: photo thing because he was conveniently enough working on a 66 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,680 Speaker 1: piece about fairies for the Strand magazine. And I think 67 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 1: you mentioned it was a quite serious, scholarly piece. It 68 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:42,480 Speaker 1: wasn't a piece of Conan Doyle's typical fiction. No, it 69 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:44,840 Speaker 1: wasn't fiction at all, and that's why he wanted to 70 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: make sure he had proof before he wrote about this. 71 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 1: So he may have had a few doubts of his own. 72 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 1: So he personally visited the girls and Cottingly along with 73 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,240 Speaker 1: Edward Gardner, another leading spiritualist, and they brought their own 74 00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 1: cameras along, and they asked the girls to take a 75 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: couple more photos for them, just to be sure before 76 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 1: he wrote this piece. And they had taken some measures 77 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: at this point to like marking the plates just so 78 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: things couldn't be tampered with. Yeah, they wanted to be 79 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: extra sure that what they were getting was authentic. But 80 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:16,560 Speaker 1: apparently the test wasn't too hard because the girls passed 81 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:20,479 Speaker 1: it pretty easily, and some people accepted the photos as genuine, 82 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:23,360 Speaker 1: just as conn and Doyle and Gardner did. Others, including 83 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:27,360 Speaker 1: Elsie's father, author Right, remained skeptical about it. One commentator 84 00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:29,839 Speaker 1: put it this way. He said, quote for a true 85 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,919 Speaker 1: explanation of these fairy photographs, what is wanted is not 86 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,320 Speaker 1: a knowledge of a cult phenomena, but a knowledge of children. 87 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: So we see that it didn't take much for a 88 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:40,440 Speaker 1: lot of people to get to the bottom of this, 89 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,279 Speaker 1: And some skeptics also pointed out how much the sprites 90 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:47,159 Speaker 1: looked like cut out illustrations from a nineteen fifteen children's books. 91 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:49,880 Speaker 1: So that's probably the first thing you'd think too, if 92 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:52,279 Speaker 1: you saw these pictures today, which you can by looking 93 00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:56,520 Speaker 1: for them online, they look like nice, little romantic illustrations 94 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:59,440 Speaker 1: of fairies. Yeah, And some people point out that what 95 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:02,040 Speaker 1: we see to day, if you do happen to google 96 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:04,560 Speaker 1: the photos or whatever, you'll notice that these are the 97 00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:07,920 Speaker 1: enhanced versions of the photos. So the original photos may 98 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: have been a little easier to believe, but probably not 99 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:14,600 Speaker 1: that much. But Connin Doyle did believe this, and in 100 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:19,039 Speaker 1: fact died believing this, and it wasn't until that the 101 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:21,800 Speaker 1: girls finally confessed that four out of five of the 102 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:25,000 Speaker 1: photos were fakes. According to a two thousand four piece 103 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:28,960 Speaker 1: in British Heritage, Francis said of the most famous photo quote, 104 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:31,720 Speaker 1: my heart always thinks when I look at it, when 105 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:34,200 Speaker 1: I think of how it's gone all around the world. 106 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 1: I don't see how people could believe they're real fairies. 107 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:39,799 Speaker 1: But there's one more thing to add to that quote. 108 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:42,600 Speaker 1: While the girls did admit that most of the photos 109 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:46,520 Speaker 1: were faked, they never admitted that the fairies were imaginary, 110 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 1: and to her dying day, Francis swore that the final 111 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 1: photo was real. So well, an interesting little twist for 112 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:57,080 Speaker 1: the end of this hook yeah maybe leaves us a 113 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:02,159 Speaker 1: little something to wonder about maybe maybe yeah, depending on 114 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:05,280 Speaker 1: how you look at it. So our next hoax involves 115 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 1: a historical animal, which I know is a favorite topic 116 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:11,479 Speaker 1: of many listeners, and this one, of course reminded me 117 00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:15,080 Speaker 1: of the Mr. Ed theme song too. I couldn't help 118 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:17,520 Speaker 1: but humming into my head or singing in my head 119 00:06:17,560 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: the whole time I was researching this. But around the 120 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 1: turn of the twentieth century, this truly remarkable horse caught 121 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: the world's attention, and his name was Clever Hans, and 122 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:32,560 Speaker 1: he was owned by a school teacher named Wilhelm von Austin. 123 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:35,799 Speaker 1: And this horse wasn't I mean, he really made Mr 124 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 1: Ed look pretty low key with all of the stuff 125 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:43,720 Speaker 1: he could do. He could do addition and subtraction, multiplication, division. 126 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: He could also select any color named to him from 127 00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:50,000 Speaker 1: choosing among a group of different colored cloths. And he 128 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: couldn't talk and sing like Mr. Ed could, but he 129 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,480 Speaker 1: could communicate by stamping his hoof on the ground. So 130 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:58,240 Speaker 1: if you said, for example, what is twelve divided by three? 131 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,279 Speaker 1: You would get four hoofs stamps. Yeah, and we're gonna 132 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: just twist things entirely here. Put it to a new level. 133 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:09,680 Speaker 1: Hans could even read minds. You didn't have to ask 134 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:12,240 Speaker 1: him a question out loud. You could put the question 135 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:14,720 Speaker 1: to him mentally and he would still get it right. 136 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:18,600 Speaker 1: And to to add even further to this, it didn't 137 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 1: have to be Von Austin who was asking the question. 138 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:24,520 Speaker 1: Anybody could do it and the horse would still get 139 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: the answers right. So it wasn't just a simple matter 140 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:31,560 Speaker 1: of a trainer who had secret cues with his animals. 141 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:35,760 Speaker 1: So after initially causing this great sensation in Germany, which 142 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:39,760 Speaker 1: is where Hans lived, he started to get international coverage 143 00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:42,960 Speaker 1: when this team of experts they were called the Hans Commission, 144 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:47,800 Speaker 1: examined him to determine if von Austin was perpetuating some 145 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:50,640 Speaker 1: kind of fraud somehow or enough because people were suspicious 146 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:52,320 Speaker 1: of this, right, they thought it was a hoax. Yeah, 147 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:56,480 Speaker 1: people were very suspicious. This was not within the normal 148 00:07:56,520 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 1: realm of horse abilities, and the experts were pretty prominent men. 149 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:04,840 Speaker 1: There was a circus proprietor and army captain, the director 150 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: of the Berlin Zoological Gardens, the veterinary surgeon, and other 151 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: guys who were just really familiar with horses and with 152 00:08:11,520 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: horse training and would be able to presumably tell if 153 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:18,600 Speaker 1: something fishy was going on. And after they did their work, 154 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:20,800 Speaker 1: there was a headline printed in the New York Times 155 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,680 Speaker 1: on October twod nineteen o four, which read expert commission 156 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 1: decides that the horse actually reasons. So it really was 157 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:30,880 Speaker 1: global news. Yeah. But even more than that, they determined 158 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:32,960 Speaker 1: that the horse was not trained in the in the 159 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,720 Speaker 1: traditional ways. Instead, Von Austin's techniques were more like those 160 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,080 Speaker 1: used to teach children, which makes sense since he is 161 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:43,280 Speaker 1: a school teacher. But some people still weren't convinced by this, 162 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: and one man, Oscar Funkst, got Von Austin's permission to 163 00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:51,040 Speaker 1: come in and investigate the horse, and after some pretty 164 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: serious examinations, he learned two things. One, the horse could 165 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:00,160 Speaker 1: only answer questions in which the answer was our are 166 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:02,560 Speaker 1: you known to the questioner? So you can ask what 167 00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 1: is twelve divided by three? But maybe not some more 168 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:10,120 Speaker 1: outrageous piece of division. And he could also only answer 169 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: unless he could see the questioner. And so clever Hans 170 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:16,680 Speaker 1: was used to being questioned with somebody right in front 171 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:18,920 Speaker 1: of him. If he stood by his side, he'd try 172 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:21,560 Speaker 1: to move his head so he would be looking at 173 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:24,760 Speaker 1: you faith on, and if he had blinders on, he 174 00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:27,520 Speaker 1: couldn't answer the question at all. So this gave fools 175 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: some ideas about the limits of Hans's abilities, Right, okay, 176 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:34,040 Speaker 1: So what did this mean? It suggested, basically that there 177 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:38,200 Speaker 1: were some sort of unconscious movements coming from the questioner, 178 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:41,760 Speaker 1: and sure enough, when he looked more closely, he found 179 00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:45,800 Speaker 1: that nearly every test questioner would ask a question and 180 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:49,200 Speaker 1: then bent his head forward, which made the horse start tapping, 181 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:52,160 Speaker 1: and then as soon as the correct number of taps 182 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:54,920 Speaker 1: had occurred, the questioner would jerk up his head and 183 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:58,080 Speaker 1: the horse would stop. So Funks found that while almost 184 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:01,520 Speaker 1: everyone made these movements, hardly anyone was aware of it. Yeah, 185 00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: so this makes it kind of a hoax, but kind 186 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:05,720 Speaker 1: of not in a way. People were suspicious of it. 187 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:08,400 Speaker 1: That's very hoax like, but it seems like nobody was 188 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:12,120 Speaker 1: trying to perpetuate fraud, as we'll see in most of 189 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:15,920 Speaker 1: our other hoaxes. So Folks published a book on his 190 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,280 Speaker 1: findings in nineteen eleven, and it got a really glowing 191 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:21,640 Speaker 1: review from the New York Times. Although I liked that, 192 00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:24,960 Speaker 1: the article also noted quote it detracts nothing from the 193 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:29,320 Speaker 1: merit of his being clever Hans achievements and leaves him 194 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,599 Speaker 1: as wonderful a horse as he was before. I e. 195 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:35,400 Speaker 1: We still love you know, we still love Hans. We 196 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:39,320 Speaker 1: still think he's great. And today you might still see 197 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:43,920 Speaker 1: mentions of Clever Hans. When you're reading about animal psychology 198 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:49,239 Speaker 1: or articles about animal intelligence research, you'll see something sometimes 199 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,320 Speaker 1: called the Clever Hans effect. And it's something that researchers 200 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:54,480 Speaker 1: have to be very careful of that they are not 201 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 1: either willingly misleading the animal or giving some sort of 202 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:03,240 Speaker 1: SubCom just cues, or doing it without even being aware 203 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:06,320 Speaker 1: of it. So this actually led to something kind of useful. Yeah, 204 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:10,040 Speaker 1: it did lead to something useful, unlike our next entry, 205 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:14,560 Speaker 1: which just led to a very peculiar hoax craze for 206 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 1: a few decades there. It started in eighteen sixty nine 207 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,240 Speaker 1: when a couple of well diggers in Cardiff, New York 208 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:26,360 Speaker 1: made this startling find while digging a well on the 209 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:31,400 Speaker 1: property of William stub Newell. Yes, after hitting stone three 210 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:34,360 Speaker 1: ft down and clearing off the top soil, one of 211 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:38,559 Speaker 1: them recognized a foot and he said, quote, I didclare 212 00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: some old Indian has been buried here, So there was 213 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:45,440 Speaker 1: an ancient burial here, at least that's what it seemed. 214 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:48,480 Speaker 1: But pretty soon they realized that it wasn't just the 215 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:52,280 Speaker 1: skeleton of a normal man. It was ten ft long 216 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:56,760 Speaker 1: and clearly the remains of some sort of ancient giant. 217 00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:00,199 Speaker 1: So Newell got right to work marketing this fine try 218 00:12:00,200 --> 00:12:02,640 Speaker 1: and make some money off of his farm. He set 219 00:12:02,679 --> 00:12:07,360 Speaker 1: up a tent and charged admission for people to come 220 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:09,959 Speaker 1: and take a peek at the so called Cardiff Giant, 221 00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 1: and he bumped it up after attendance was so good 222 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:15,760 Speaker 1: he bumped it up to fifty cents, and people were 223 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:19,240 Speaker 1: coming from all over the area to gawk and marvel 224 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:23,880 Speaker 1: at this strange stone man. Here's how the first president 225 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:27,559 Speaker 1: of Cornell, Andrew White, described his own visit. He said, 226 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,959 Speaker 1: quote lying in its grave, with a subdued light from 227 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:33,480 Speaker 1: the roof of the tent falling upon it, and with 228 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:36,280 Speaker 1: the limbs contorted as if in a death struggle, it 229 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: produced a most weird effect. An air of great solemnity 230 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: pervaded the place. Visitors hardly spoke above a whisper. Sounds 231 00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:49,679 Speaker 1: pretty cool, doesn't, except that White even himself realized that 232 00:12:49,679 --> 00:12:53,520 Speaker 1: the skeleton was clearly made from stone. He actually realized 233 00:12:53,559 --> 00:12:56,240 Speaker 1: it wasn't even a very good carving, and that the 234 00:12:56,320 --> 00:12:59,360 Speaker 1: two well diggers had would have had no reason to 235 00:12:59,679 --> 00:13:03,800 Speaker 1: dig in that very spot, suggesting some sort of planned fraud. 236 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:07,080 Speaker 1: Very suspicious. So we have to backtrack a little bit 237 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:10,200 Speaker 1: to eighteen sixty six to figure out what happened. And 238 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:13,240 Speaker 1: that's when a New York's cigar maker named George hull 239 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:16,959 Speaker 1: or Hole got an idea he was an acqui Iowa 240 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:19,560 Speaker 1: investigating his brother in law for a late payment on 241 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:21,920 Speaker 1: a large shipment of cigars, and while he was there, 242 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:26,119 Speaker 1: he got into an argument with the Methodist revivalist over giants, 243 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:29,240 Speaker 1: and he later spent the night quote wondering about why 244 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:32,920 Speaker 1: people would believe these remarkable stories in the Bible about giants. 245 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:36,000 Speaker 1: When suddenly I thought of making a stone giant and 246 00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:38,920 Speaker 1: passing it off as a petrified man. Okay, so that's 247 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:41,839 Speaker 1: probably not where most people's train of thought would go 248 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:45,160 Speaker 1: after that argument, but he really runs with it once 249 00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:48,240 Speaker 1: the once the thought strikes him, but he knows that 250 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:50,920 Speaker 1: he can't make the giant close to home because it's 251 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:55,120 Speaker 1: got to be secret. It's obviously a ten foot stone giant. 252 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:57,600 Speaker 1: I think it weighed about three thousand pounds, all said 253 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:02,000 Speaker 1: and done, would cause quite a sturve. In eighteen sixty eight, 254 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:05,280 Speaker 1: he hires some guys to quarry a block of gypsum 255 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:09,000 Speaker 1: from Fort Dodge, Iowa, and just so they don't talk 256 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 1: and so it stays secret, he tells them that it's 257 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,360 Speaker 1: for some sort of new Lincoln monument that's going to 258 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:17,840 Speaker 1: be going up, and from there he has his giant 259 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:21,920 Speaker 1: block of gypsum shipped to Chicago and carved again in 260 00:14:22,040 --> 00:14:25,320 Speaker 1: secret by a German stone cutter. I think he's he's 261 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:29,320 Speaker 1: paid money and sworn to secrecy. In fact, finally, the 262 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:33,000 Speaker 1: finished statue was sent on a train to Cardiff, where 263 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,880 Speaker 1: Hole met up with his cousin Stubbed Newell, and the 264 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 1: men buried it on the farm. So they waited about 265 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:40,480 Speaker 1: a year I think to dig it up right, just 266 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:44,720 Speaker 1: so it could get some authentic dirt scenes around it 267 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:47,840 Speaker 1: and and look convincing enough. But there's a good plan. Yeah, 268 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:49,640 Speaker 1: if if you're going to go through all the trouble, 269 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:51,880 Speaker 1: you might as well put in that extra year to 270 00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:54,920 Speaker 1: make it work. But once the giant was on earth, though, 271 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,200 Speaker 1: the story didn't last that long. Newell even told some 272 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:00,080 Speaker 1: people that it was a hoax, which seems like a 273 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:02,560 Speaker 1: really bad idea if you're trying to make fifty cents 274 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:05,920 Speaker 1: ahead on your farm. But ho realized he would have 275 00:15:06,040 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 1: to lock somebody into buying this giant get a large 276 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:13,280 Speaker 1: amount of money up front before the story broke at 277 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:16,480 Speaker 1: the fraud, so he sold the giant to a businessman 278 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:21,040 Speaker 1: named David Hannum for twenty three thousand dollars, and Hannum 279 00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:23,640 Speaker 1: took it on the road as kind of a syndicate show. 280 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:27,640 Speaker 1: It caught the attention from there of P. T. Barnum, again, 281 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:30,160 Speaker 1: our old friend. He just pops up all the time. 282 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:33,760 Speaker 1: He offered to buy the giant for fifty thousand dollars 283 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:36,600 Speaker 1: and hand him refused. So Barnum, who isn't going to 284 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:41,600 Speaker 1: be thwarted by not possessing the quote authentic giant, decided 285 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:45,120 Speaker 1: to build his own replica and had an agent go 286 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:49,680 Speaker 1: to Handhum show make some covert wax models. And of 287 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:52,640 Speaker 1: course all the newspapers were running stories about the Cardiff Giants, 288 00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:54,720 Speaker 1: so we had all of the measurements ready to go, 289 00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:59,520 Speaker 1: and Um just started touring his own plastered giant. It 290 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:02,880 Speaker 1: did really well. To hand Hum, though, is pretty dismissive 291 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:06,440 Speaker 1: of this plastic copy of Barnum's and all of those 292 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:08,240 Speaker 1: who paid to go see it. And he even said 293 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 1: there's a sucker born every minute, which is obviously painfully 294 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: ironic to hear that. But my favorite part of this 295 00:16:17,240 --> 00:16:20,280 Speaker 1: is that it started kind of a petrified man trend, right, 296 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 1: did well? I mean it's easy to see how it 297 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:25,480 Speaker 1: would too if if you could make so much money 298 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:28,880 Speaker 1: off of having a petrified man in your backyard. But 299 00:16:28,960 --> 00:16:32,400 Speaker 1: for a few decades there there were lots of petrified 300 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,920 Speaker 1: men turning up giants or just normal size think Mark 301 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,320 Speaker 1: Twain even wrote a little newspaper article, a spoof of 302 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:42,880 Speaker 1: finding a petrified man, and it got picked up by 303 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:46,280 Speaker 1: real outlet. So um, yeah, for a for a few 304 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 1: years there there was a rush and petrified men, and 305 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:52,000 Speaker 1: then they lost their cachet, you know, yeah, you know, Well, 306 00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:54,040 Speaker 1: that's what happens when you find a hoax that works, 307 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:56,160 Speaker 1: you tend to see it kind of over run into 308 00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:58,320 Speaker 1: the ground. But I have to say this next one 309 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:00,560 Speaker 1: on our list is one Sarah that I'm really glad 310 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 1: did not catch on. It is about a woman named 311 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: Mary Toft, and it's a medical hoax that's been called 312 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 1: the top fraud of the Enlightenment. It started when an 313 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:14,120 Speaker 1: englishwoman named Mary Toft, who was a mother of three already, 314 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:19,440 Speaker 1: had a miscarriage around September of About a month after that, 315 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:22,760 Speaker 1: she and her husband, Joshua Toft sent for the doctor, 316 00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:26,640 Speaker 1: who in this case was a male midwife named John Howard, 317 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:30,120 Speaker 1: because she was having these full on labor pains, and 318 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:34,439 Speaker 1: after she called in John Howard, she gave birth to 319 00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:40,040 Speaker 1: a dead skinned baby rabbit and then proceeded to continue 320 00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:42,680 Speaker 1: giving birth to dead rabbits at the rate of about 321 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:46,280 Speaker 1: one per day. And Howard claimed that he could even 322 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:50,479 Speaker 1: feel and see these baby bunnies jumping in the womb 323 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:53,119 Speaker 1: before they died. I know he could see. He claimed 324 00:17:53,119 --> 00:17:55,600 Speaker 1: that you could see kind of the bedclothes move over 325 00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:58,600 Speaker 1: her stomach and that it would shake the bed sometimes. 326 00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:01,920 Speaker 1: So this dead bunny would I'm out. Yeah, not pleasant 327 00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:04,960 Speaker 1: at all. So obviously people are skeptical of the story, 328 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:07,280 Speaker 1: and so people wouldn't think that he was lying. Howard 329 00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:09,960 Speaker 1: put out an open invitation for other doctors to come 330 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:13,840 Speaker 1: check out the situation, maybe even deliver a rabbit for themselves, 331 00:18:14,280 --> 00:18:18,159 Speaker 1: and see the truth in this pretty invasive Yeah it was. 332 00:18:18,240 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: But several people took him up on that, including Nathaniel 333 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:25,720 Speaker 1: st Andre, a surgeon from Switzerland and also the personal 334 00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:28,439 Speaker 1: surgeon of King George. The first we have to mention, 335 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:32,720 Speaker 1: though st Andre had an interesting resume before he got 336 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:35,200 Speaker 1: into the doctor in business, which maybe makes it though 337 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,560 Speaker 1: he wasn't the most qualified person to be the public 338 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:40,840 Speaker 1: face of this. He was originally a dancing and a 339 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:45,840 Speaker 1: fencing instructor. No kind of a strange backstory for him 340 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:49,480 Speaker 1: that is definitely on. But what's perhaps most surprising about 341 00:18:49,520 --> 00:18:52,120 Speaker 1: this whole story in general is that how many doctors 342 00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:54,040 Speaker 1: were convinced that the births were real. I mean, it 343 00:18:54,119 --> 00:18:56,479 Speaker 1: wasn't just St. Andre, right, it was some other people too, 344 00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: who really thought that this was happening. As a kind 345 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:04,199 Speaker 1: of proof of this phenomenon, St Andre didn't experiment in 346 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,760 Speaker 1: which he put the organs of the bunnies in water, 347 00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:11,760 Speaker 1: and it's unclear I guess as to why that actually 348 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:14,280 Speaker 1: provided any proof, but it was supposed to have been 349 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:20,720 Speaker 1: ury doctors. Some doctors were skeptical, though, including a Sir 350 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:24,320 Speaker 1: Richard Manningham, and to figure out what was going on 351 00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:26,440 Speaker 1: once and for all, Mary was brought to London and 352 00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:29,600 Speaker 1: put under a twenty four hour watch, which pretty soon 353 00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:33,360 Speaker 1: put a stop to these strange births. Then they discovered 354 00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:36,240 Speaker 1: a porter trying to smuggle a rabbit into Mary at 355 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:39,400 Speaker 1: her hotel. Her sister, who was kind of playing nurse 356 00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:42,080 Speaker 1: to her at the time. She also confessed to this, 357 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:44,640 Speaker 1: but claimed that they were bringing the rabbit into her 358 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:50,040 Speaker 1: for eating purposes only, not for birthing purposes, which sounds 359 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,840 Speaker 1: pretty fishy. Yeah, it didn't look good. To say the least. 360 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:56,160 Speaker 1: But Mary, if you were giving birth to rabbits, would 361 00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:59,440 Speaker 1: you really still be eating them? That is a very 362 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:01,159 Speaker 1: good point. I mean, if you're going to think this 363 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:03,080 Speaker 1: out a little bit, that's a good point. Sarah, I 364 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:04,919 Speaker 1: would think that you wouldn't want to eat meat in general. 365 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:07,000 Speaker 1: But apparently she didn't have a problem with that while 366 00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 1: she was staying in London, but she did still claim 367 00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:13,040 Speaker 1: even after that incident, that she was telling the truth. Finally, 368 00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:15,640 Speaker 1: though they had to resort to threatening her. They said, 369 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: basically they would do a painful procedure operate on her 370 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:21,800 Speaker 1: the next time she was about to go into labor. 371 00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:24,720 Speaker 1: Instead of just letting the bunnies be born, they would 372 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:28,399 Speaker 1: they would do an operation and examine her uterus. And 373 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:30,960 Speaker 1: so at that point she finally confessed the whole thing 374 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:35,200 Speaker 1: was a scam to get a pension and and live 375 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:38,679 Speaker 1: easy for the rest of her life. Specifically, she said quote, 376 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,600 Speaker 1: her goal was to get so good a living that 377 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,840 Speaker 1: I should never want as long as I lived, Which 378 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:46,840 Speaker 1: is another strange thing to think about, that you would 379 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:50,240 Speaker 1: be pensioned for the very act of giving birth to 380 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 1: baby bunnies. Yeah, well, it's strange to plan that as 381 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:56,200 Speaker 1: a way I think to get your your fortune, look 382 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: in your future. But she didn't work alone, she said 383 00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:02,000 Speaker 1: an accomplice helped her get the animal parts in return 384 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,040 Speaker 1: for part of the potential profits. So someone else may 385 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:07,879 Speaker 1: have been involved here, or maybe multiple someone else's. Her 386 00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:11,240 Speaker 1: husband was probably part of it, at least a little bit. 387 00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:14,399 Speaker 1: He I think was implicated in getting it was found 388 00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:17,520 Speaker 1: that he had purchased first for rabbits. Yeah, so Mary 389 00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:20,280 Speaker 1: was charged as a quote to vile, cheat and imposter 390 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:23,199 Speaker 1: and thrown in jail, but she was later released and 391 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:25,480 Speaker 1: the doctors didn't come out of it very well. Many 392 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,679 Speaker 1: of their reputations were ruined, and a popular purchase in 393 00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:32,600 Speaker 1: the early eighteen hundreds in England was a book of 394 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:37,359 Speaker 1: writings about Toft, which was bound in of course rabbit 395 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:41,320 Speaker 1: skin and one more note about these bunnies. Even though 396 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:45,119 Speaker 1: Mary Toft apparently did not lose her appetite for rabbit 397 00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:49,159 Speaker 1: meat while perpetuating this fraud, a lot of people in 398 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:52,960 Speaker 1: England did, and rabbit stew took a little nose dive 399 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:56,439 Speaker 1: in popularity for for a short time after this fraud. 400 00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:59,920 Speaker 1: So it's clear that the people of England knew the 401 00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 1: the story of Mary Toft was definitely a hoax. But 402 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,679 Speaker 1: the last story on our list is one that is 403 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:09,080 Speaker 1: still sort of in question. People have called this a 404 00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:12,040 Speaker 1: hoax for years, and it's cited as a common example 405 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,600 Speaker 1: of a hoax, but there are still some people who 406 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:17,600 Speaker 1: think that it might be true. So here's the basic story. 407 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,720 Speaker 1: It all started in Newark, Ohio in eighteen sixty when 408 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:26,040 Speaker 1: a local county surveyor and amateur archaeologist named David Wyrick 409 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,240 Speaker 1: was excavating some of the huge earthen mounds in the 410 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 1: American Midwest. And you may recall us talking about this 411 00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:36,520 Speaker 1: these quite recently in the Cookio podcast, But most people 412 00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:39,840 Speaker 1: believe that these mounds were the work of pre Columbian 413 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:44,040 Speaker 1: native civilizations. However, a common belief during this time period 414 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:46,120 Speaker 1: that we're talking about right now was that the mounds 415 00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:48,960 Speaker 1: were built by the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. I 416 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:51,600 Speaker 1: think we we even mentioned that in the Cohokia we 417 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:54,520 Speaker 1: may have. They were believed to have vanished after being 418 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,639 Speaker 1: captured by the Assyrians. But Wyrick was a supporter of 419 00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,760 Speaker 1: this theory, and that's kind of what made what happened 420 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,880 Speaker 1: next very suspicious, all right. So Wyrick was digging near 421 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:09,640 Speaker 1: New York's fifty acre Octagon Mound in eighteen sixty when 422 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:13,000 Speaker 1: he discovered the keystone, which was the first of the 423 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:17,040 Speaker 1: holy stones in the Shallow Hole. And the keystone is 424 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:21,240 Speaker 1: basically a polished wedge shaped piece of sandstone, and it 425 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:25,159 Speaker 1: has Hebrew inscriptions on all four sides and they read 426 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,880 Speaker 1: the Laws of Jehovah, the Word of the Lord, King 427 00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,680 Speaker 1: of the Earth, and the Holy of Holy. So this 428 00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:35,840 Speaker 1: was really really big news because some people thought that 429 00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:40,840 Speaker 1: it finally confirmed the ten Lost Tribes theory. Other people thought, well, 430 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:45,960 Speaker 1: maybe it's not an ancient Hebrew text, maybe it's a 431 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,720 Speaker 1: Masonic keystone because of that shape and everything. It didn't 432 00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:52,040 Speaker 1: take long though for some people to just call it 433 00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:56,160 Speaker 1: out as an outright fake. Yes, Charles Whittlesey, for example, 434 00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:59,600 Speaker 1: a noteworthy ohio archaeologist, he thought that it was neither 435 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:03,359 Speaker 1: Masnic nor Jewish, but a relatively modern artifact. The Hebrew, 436 00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:06,280 Speaker 1: for example, was thought to be too modern to be 437 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:09,480 Speaker 1: authentic to be from that previous time period when the 438 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:13,000 Speaker 1: Lost Tribes would have been around. So that November Wyrick 439 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,439 Speaker 1: gets a little bit more evidence. Maybe he discovers another 440 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:19,879 Speaker 1: stone the Decalogue Stone and the Jackson Town Stone Mound, 441 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:23,200 Speaker 1: which is a few miles southeast of Newark, and it's 442 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:27,000 Speaker 1: found encased in a custom made stone box. Sounds pretty cool, yeah, 443 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,600 Speaker 1: And it's shaped like a tombstone that's intricately carved all 444 00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,199 Speaker 1: over with Hebrew letters that convey an abbreviated form of 445 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:38,639 Speaker 1: the Ten Commandments, so completely different from the keystone. On 446 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:41,920 Speaker 1: the front side, the inscription lines an arch that frames 447 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: the image of a man named Moses, and the style 448 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:48,280 Speaker 1: of Hebrew was some unique archaic style. They couldn't quite 449 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:50,800 Speaker 1: place that. It wasn't the modern style that they found 450 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 1: on the keystone, but it wasn't also ancient Hebrew, right 451 00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:56,639 Speaker 1: It wasn't what they knew to be an ancient Hebrew 452 00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:00,119 Speaker 1: style that was recognizable. So many people thought this was 453 00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,679 Speaker 1: a fraud right away too. It had too many scriptural 454 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:05,560 Speaker 1: mistakes and a lack of patina that made people very 455 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,240 Speaker 1: suspicious should have left it in the ground for longer, 456 00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:13,840 Speaker 1: like the Cardiff Giant that In his book Fantastic Archaeology, 457 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:19,000 Speaker 1: Stephen Williams says that the stones feel every possible archaeological task. 458 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:22,760 Speaker 1: Their inscriptions are the only ones of their kind known 459 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:26,280 Speaker 1: and are not correct for the time period. Others, though, 460 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:31,560 Speaker 1: we're wondering if ancient Hebrews were present in America's why 461 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:34,399 Speaker 1: can't we find evidence of their settlements? So not just 462 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:38,360 Speaker 1: like why can't we find their their stones and their inscriptions, 463 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 1: but why can't we find anything from their settlements. It's 464 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:44,400 Speaker 1: a good question. One problem with this doubt about the stones, though, 465 00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:46,800 Speaker 1: is trying to figure out, Okay, if they're not real, 466 00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:49,960 Speaker 1: who made them. Of course, some people thought it could 467 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,520 Speaker 1: be Wyrick. I read that before Wyric's death he actually 468 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:57,240 Speaker 1: wondered himself if somebody had fooled him. So it seems 469 00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:59,600 Speaker 1: unlikely that he would bring that up if he didn't 470 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:03,280 Speaker 1: want to put suspicion on himself. So archaeologist Brad Lepper 471 00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,119 Speaker 1: believes that it was actually a man named Reverend John W. 472 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:10,000 Speaker 1: McCarty who translated the text on the keystone for Wyrick overnight. 473 00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 1: So it just seemed too fast for him to be 474 00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:14,560 Speaker 1: able to be too familiar with it exactly. And the 475 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: theory is that McCarty hoped the stones would prove that 476 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,240 Speaker 1: Adam and Eve were mother and father to all races, 477 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:24,680 Speaker 1: a good argument against slavery. Yeah, so in eighteen sixty four, 478 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:30,000 Speaker 1: two additional Hebrew inscribed stones, which are now unfortunately lost, 479 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:33,040 Speaker 1: were found during the excavation of a mound on the 480 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:36,880 Speaker 1: George A Wilson farm, which is east of Newark, and 481 00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,680 Speaker 1: people again got really excited. But soon a local dentist 482 00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:45,400 Speaker 1: named John H. Nickel claimed that he himself carved the stones, 483 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:50,280 Speaker 1: introduced them into the excavation with the intention of discrediting 484 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:55,320 Speaker 1: the two earlier find from Wyrick. Of course, and these 485 00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,760 Speaker 1: inscriptions actually just spelled out his name, So the plan 486 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 1: did pretty much where these new stones, which are so 487 00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:07,720 Speaker 1: obviously frauds, kind of made the earlier fines again. It 488 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:10,360 Speaker 1: kind of like the card off effect. All the all 489 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,159 Speaker 1: the petrified men sort of make the original one not 490 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:16,120 Speaker 1: seemed so great. Hence why for years this has been 491 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,560 Speaker 1: believed to be a hoax. But then attention came back 492 00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:22,119 Speaker 1: to the story around the nineteen eighties or so, and 493 00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,320 Speaker 1: there are some now who believe that the stones are authentic. 494 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,480 Speaker 1: They say they're just too detailed and thought out to 495 00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:31,760 Speaker 1: be hoaxes, and the fact that they're so different from 496 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:34,800 Speaker 1: each other, they're so unique and distinct. Um, Yeah, I 497 00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:37,159 Speaker 1: think it was maybe the decologue you were describing to 498 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,120 Speaker 1: me earlier. You said that it was just perfectly laid out. 499 00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,560 Speaker 1: You know, there were no there were no places where 500 00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:46,159 Speaker 1: the words were crammed in. Everything was planned. Yeah, it 501 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,840 Speaker 1: didn't look like you were just trying to quickly put 502 00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:51,119 Speaker 1: this together to pull off some kind of hoax. It 503 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:55,040 Speaker 1: looked like something that had been meticulously done. But today 504 00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:57,439 Speaker 1: you can decide for yourself. The visitors can view the 505 00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,600 Speaker 1: Holy Stones at the Johnston homework House Museum in Ohio. 506 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:04,040 Speaker 1: So I think it's only fitting that we leave off 507 00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:06,320 Speaker 1: with one that's still kind of hanging in the balancer 508 00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 1: in question, because we love to leave you guys with 509 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:11,240 Speaker 1: a question to answer. Um. Even though, as Sarah said 510 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:14,720 Speaker 1: when we started this, these are all true hoaxes we did. 511 00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:18,280 Speaker 1: This is not a hoax in itself. That would have 512 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,360 Speaker 1: been pretty clever. Maybe we'll do that some other time. 513 00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:29,919 Speaker 1: Our first piece of mail was from Catherine, and she wrote, Hello, 514 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,600 Speaker 1: Sara Dublina. I'm a big fan of her podcast and 515 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:36,160 Speaker 1: would love to hear you talk about Bonnie Prince, Charlie 516 00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,240 Speaker 1: or Flora McDonald, the woman who helped him escape. She 517 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:43,680 Speaker 1: even has a Highland dance named after her Flora McDonald's fancy. 518 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,880 Speaker 1: I'm enclosing some rulers quote rulers for you to pass 519 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:50,440 Speaker 1: around at work. Maybe you'll find a future podcast topic 520 00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:51,960 Speaker 1: on one of them. I just wanted to say thank 521 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:56,600 Speaker 1: you to Catherine for sending us about five or six rulers. Yeah, 522 00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:58,960 Speaker 1: they're awesome, and I think they do have some podcast 523 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,560 Speaker 1: ideas on them. Almost wanted to take more than one 524 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:04,200 Speaker 1: or keep them all, but I just took one, just 525 00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,880 Speaker 1: to give you guys examples. It was like patriots, and 526 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:10,520 Speaker 1: then it would be a big list starting with Ben 527 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:12,480 Speaker 1: Franklin a picture of him, and then a big list 528 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:17,040 Speaker 1: of worldwide patriots. I think we had women and art, scientists, 529 00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:21,000 Speaker 1: all sorts of cool things. So thank you Catherine for those. 530 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:26,080 Speaker 1: I also wanted to read an email from Lori Leadfoot 531 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:27,800 Speaker 1: and I just I mean, I kind of picked it 532 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:31,160 Speaker 1: because of her nickname, but Lori wrote just wanted to 533 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,080 Speaker 1: drop a quick note to say hi and to thank you. 534 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,000 Speaker 1: And then over the road truck driver. And finally bought 535 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,280 Speaker 1: my first iPod about six months ago. While browsing the 536 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,080 Speaker 1: podcast in search of something to listen to, I came 537 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,920 Speaker 1: across stuff you missed in history class. Being a fan 538 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,480 Speaker 1: of History, I decided to check it out. I finally 539 00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:49,479 Speaker 1: caught up with past shows and wanted to let you 540 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:51,760 Speaker 1: know I think you're doing a great job and say 541 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:55,960 Speaker 1: thank you. So I thought i'd read Lorie Leadfoot's email 542 00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,000 Speaker 1: sort of in a tribute to all of the long 543 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,880 Speaker 1: haul drivers we have as listeners. Um, we get a 544 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:05,480 Speaker 1: lot of listeners from folks who are driving trucks, which 545 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:07,680 Speaker 1: I think is so cool. I when I was younger, 546 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:10,280 Speaker 1: I was kind of obsessed with the idea of being 547 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:12,960 Speaker 1: a truck driver. I think it sounds so adventurous to 548 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:15,920 Speaker 1: be driving across country. So I was like the kid 549 00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:18,480 Speaker 1: trying to make them honk their horns too. I did 550 00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:20,200 Speaker 1: that as well. So we're glad to hear that we 551 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:23,040 Speaker 1: have so many listeners who are doing the long haul 552 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,280 Speaker 1: and learning about history while they're at it. So if 553 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:30,800 Speaker 1: you have any comments, any postcards you want to send us, 554 00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,080 Speaker 1: go ahead. You can also send us more hoax suggestions. 555 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:37,920 Speaker 1: This was pretty fun. I definitely enjoyed this episode. We're 556 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,240 Speaker 1: at History podcast at half stuff works dot com. I've 557 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:44,240 Speaker 1: noticed lately a lot of people have been confused about 558 00:30:44,280 --> 00:30:47,720 Speaker 1: how to contact us. We've gotten things on Twitter. That 559 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,040 Speaker 1: is the only email address, so if you want to 560 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:52,680 Speaker 1: send us an email, that's the place to go. History 561 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,160 Speaker 1: podcast at half stuff works dot com. But you should 562 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,560 Speaker 1: also like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, 563 00:30:58,680 --> 00:31:01,080 Speaker 1: and it's in history yep. And if you want to 564 00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:03,880 Speaker 1: learn a little bit more about how maybe you could 565 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,440 Speaker 1: pull off your own hoax, not that we encourage that 566 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:09,160 Speaker 1: at all, but we do have an interesting article on 567 00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:12,480 Speaker 1: our website called how Lying Works, and it talks about 568 00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:15,480 Speaker 1: how you can lie, how you can learn how to lie, 569 00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:17,720 Speaker 1: and also how you can learn to spot a lie, 570 00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:21,560 Speaker 1: which may be the more valuable skill. Pitch that part. Yes, 571 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:23,480 Speaker 1: we will pitch that part of it because we do 572 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,239 Speaker 1: not can go online, but you can find that on 573 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:30,360 Speaker 1: our website by searching on our homepage at www dot 574 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:36,479 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out 575 00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:39,680 Speaker 1: our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how 576 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,240 Speaker 1: Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and 577 00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:46,760 Speaker 1: perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The House doff works iPhone app 578 00:31:46,760 --> 00:32:01,360 Speaker 1: has a ride. Download it today on iTunes. The tak