1 00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:07,720 Speaker 1: Hello listeners, and Happy Saturday. Today's archival episode is from 2 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:10,520 Speaker 1: and it was the work of prior hosts Sarah and Bablina. 3 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: It's a collection of historical hoaxes, from the Cardiff Giants 4 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,000 Speaker 1: to Mary toss claim that she was giving birth to bunnies. 5 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:25,360 Speaker 1: So enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class 6 00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to 7 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:38,159 Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Deblina chokerate Boarding and I'm Sarah and 8 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:40,960 Speaker 1: we just talked about a famous radio hoax on a 9 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 1: recent podcast, the nineteen thirty eight War of the World's Broadcast. 10 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: But hoaxes in general were around long before that. A 11 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:52,240 Speaker 1: lot of experts believe that the seventeen hundreds, also known 12 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,960 Speaker 1: to some as the Age of Enlightenment, gave birth to them. 13 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:57,720 Speaker 1: Doesn't really make sense, doesn't No, it doesn't. I mean 14 00:00:57,760 --> 00:00:59,800 Speaker 1: you would think that around that time it would be 15 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: all about reason thinking really hard. Yeah. Absolutely. But I 16 00:01:04,800 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 1: like the way that Alex Bruza, who is the curator 17 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: of the online Museum of Hoaxes, he actually calls himself 18 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: a hoax Burt, which I love a hoax. He put 19 00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:17,039 Speaker 1: it this way in an interview with a History magazine 20 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:19,640 Speaker 1: in two thousand nine. He said, quote, in order to 21 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,319 Speaker 1: be able to perceive a hoax, one needs to see 22 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,800 Speaker 1: the world in terms of a contrast between reason and ignorance, 23 00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:28,919 Speaker 1: fact and fiction, and that way of thinking only clearly 24 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: came into focus in the eighteenth century. So we're going 25 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:34,200 Speaker 1: to take a look at some hoaxes throughout history, not 26 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:37,360 Speaker 1: necessarily broadcast ones like the War of the World's, but 27 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:39,440 Speaker 1: ones that fooled a lot of folks just the same. 28 00:01:39,520 --> 00:01:41,720 Speaker 1: And we promised we're not pulling any hoaxes on you. 29 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:46,600 Speaker 1: All of these are true historical hoaxes, Yes, not this time, 30 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: not this time. So our first one is Coddingly Fairies, 31 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: And it started with two little English girls named Frances 32 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:57,480 Speaker 1: Griffith's and her cousin, Elsie Wright. And they were a 33 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:00,080 Speaker 1: couple of cousins and they were basically just trying to 34 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: put one over on their parents, as kids sometimes do. 35 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:06,080 Speaker 1: They were ten and sixteen years old at the time, respectively, 36 00:02:06,520 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: and so in nineteen seventeen the two of them used 37 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: to play at the Rights home and Coddingly, which was 38 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: in West Yorkshire, and Francis would often come back home 39 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:20,519 Speaker 1: after a day of play soaking wet after falling into 40 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,320 Speaker 1: the brook on the property, and the parents weren't really 41 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,080 Speaker 1: pleased with this. They'd grilled the girls what happened? Why 42 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: do you keep falling into the brook all the time? 43 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:32,799 Speaker 1: And the girl's explanation was that they went down close 44 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:36,079 Speaker 1: to the water to hang out with the fairies that 45 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,160 Speaker 1: were there naturally, right, naturally, So the parents also naturally 46 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:42,840 Speaker 1: weren't buying this at all. So the girls asked to 47 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,360 Speaker 1: borrow a camera, and they produced two photos kind of 48 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:50,320 Speaker 1: as proof of their adventures, one with Frances looking toward 49 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 1: the camera and a little troop of fairies kind of 50 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:55,560 Speaker 1: prancing around in front of her, and a second had 51 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: Elsie entertaining a gnome. So aren't the right? After this 52 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:01,399 Speaker 1: pretty much he didn't believe them at all, he quit 53 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:04,840 Speaker 1: learning the girls his camera, so the incident was all 54 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 1: but forgotten until the summer of nineteen nineteen, and that's 55 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:11,359 Speaker 1: when Arthur's wife, Pauli Wright, she was pursuing an interest 56 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:13,360 Speaker 1: in the occult and the supernatural at the time, and 57 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:17,000 Speaker 1: she attended a lecture hosted by the local Theosophical Society, 58 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:19,399 Speaker 1: which they come up from time to time in these podcasts, 59 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:22,760 Speaker 1: I've noticed yeah, whenever we talk about spiritualists and so forth. 60 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,679 Speaker 1: But she mentioned the fairy photos when she was there, 61 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: and among the people to show a special interest in 62 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,480 Speaker 1: these photos was none other than Arthur Conan Doyle, our 63 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:34,880 Speaker 1: old friend, yes, from the Who Was the Real Sherlock 64 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: Holmes podcast. Yeah, so Conan Doyle is of course most 65 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: famous for for that Sherlock Holmes connection, but he was 66 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:43,640 Speaker 1: also a famous spiritualist at the time too, and a 67 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: believer in the supernatural. It was very important to him, 68 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 1: and so he wanted to check out this whole fairy 69 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:54,800 Speaker 1: photo thing because he was conveniently enough working on a 70 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:57,680 Speaker 1: piece about fairies for the Strand magazine. And I think 71 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: you mentioned it was a quite serious, gallarly piece. It 72 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 1: wasn't a piece of Conon Doyle's typical fiction. No, it 73 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:06,760 Speaker 1: wasn't fiction at all, And that's why he wanted to 74 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,680 Speaker 1: make sure he had proof before he wrote about this. 75 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: So he may have had a few doubts of his own. 76 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 1: So he personally visited the girls and Cottingly along with 77 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: Edward Gardner, another leading spiritualist, and they brought their own 78 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:21,839 Speaker 1: cameras along and they asked the girls to take a 79 00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:24,679 Speaker 1: couple more photos for them just to be sure before 80 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:26,839 Speaker 1: he wrote this piece, and they had taken some measures 81 00:04:26,880 --> 00:04:29,680 Speaker 1: at this point to like marking the plates just so 82 00:04:29,839 --> 00:04:32,000 Speaker 1: things couldn't be tampered with. Yeah, they wanted to be 83 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:35,279 Speaker 1: extra sure that what they were getting was authentic. But 84 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:38,520 Speaker 1: apparently the test wasn't too hard because the girls passed 85 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:42,440 Speaker 1: it pretty easily. And some people accepted the photos as genuine, 86 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: just as Conan, Doyle and Gardner did. Others, including Elsie's father, 87 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:49,599 Speaker 1: author right, remained skeptical about it. One commentator put it 88 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:52,599 Speaker 1: this way, he said, quote for a true explanation of 89 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,440 Speaker 1: these very photographs, what is wanted is not a knowledge 90 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: of occult phenomena, but a knowledge of children. So we 91 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:01,120 Speaker 1: see that it and take much for a lot of 92 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:02,760 Speaker 1: people to get to the bottom of this. And some 93 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:05,720 Speaker 1: skeptics also pointed out how much the sprites looked like 94 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: cut out illustrations from a nineteen fifteen children's book. So 95 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:11,919 Speaker 1: that's probably the first thing you'd think too, if you 96 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 1: saw these pictures today, which you can by looking for 97 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:19,719 Speaker 1: them online, they look like nice, little romantic illustrations of fairies. Yeah, 98 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: and some people point out that what we see today 99 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 1: if you do happen to google the photos or whatever, 100 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: you'll notice that these are the enhanced versions of the photos. 101 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,320 Speaker 1: So the original photos may have been a little easier 102 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: to believe, but probably not that much. But Connon Doyle 103 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,920 Speaker 1: did believe this, and in fact died believing this, and 104 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 1: it wasn't until night three that the girls finally confessed 105 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:44,799 Speaker 1: that four out of five of the photos were fakes. 106 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: According to a two thousand four piece in British Heritage, 107 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:51,680 Speaker 1: Francis said of the most famous photo quote, my heart 108 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:54,039 Speaker 1: always thinks when I look at it, when I think 109 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: of how it's gone all around the world. I don't 110 00:05:56,920 --> 00:05:59,840 Speaker 1: see how people could believe they're real fairies. But there's 111 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:02,000 Speaker 1: one more thing to add to that quote. While the 112 00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:05,160 Speaker 1: girls did admit that most of the photos were faked, 113 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:08,800 Speaker 1: they never admitted that the fairies were imaginary, and to 114 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:13,799 Speaker 1: her dying day, Frances swore that the final photo was real. 115 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:17,479 Speaker 1: So well, an interesting little twist for the end of 116 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: this hoax. Yeah, maybe leaves us a little something to 117 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:24,359 Speaker 1: wonder about that baby. Maybe, yeah, depending on how you 118 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:28,800 Speaker 1: look at it. So our next hoax involves a historical animal, 119 00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:31,960 Speaker 1: which I know is a favorite topic of many listeners, 120 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:34,800 Speaker 1: and this one, of course, reminded me of the Mr. 121 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,720 Speaker 1: Ed theme song too. I couldn't help but humming it 122 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:39,560 Speaker 1: in my head the or singing in my head the 123 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:42,279 Speaker 1: whole time I was researching this. But around the turn 124 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,719 Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, this truly remarkable horse caught the 125 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:50,440 Speaker 1: world's attention. And his name was Clever Hans, and he 126 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:54,520 Speaker 1: was owned by a school teacher named Wilhelm von Austin. 127 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:57,720 Speaker 1: And this horse wasn't I mean, he really made Mr 128 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:00,839 Speaker 1: Ed look pretty low key with all of the stuff 129 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:05,680 Speaker 1: he could do. He could do addition and subtraction, multiplication, division. 130 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 1: He could also select any color named to him from 131 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:11,960 Speaker 1: choosing among a group of different colored cloths. And he 132 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 1: couldn't talk and sing like Mr. Ed could, but he 133 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:17,440 Speaker 1: could communicate by stamping his hoof on the ground. So 134 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,520 Speaker 1: if you said, for example, what is twelve divided by three? 135 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:24,240 Speaker 1: You would get four hoof stamps. Yeah, and we're gonna 136 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: just twist things entirely here. Put it to a new level. 137 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 1: Hans could even read minds. You didn't have to ask 138 00:07:31,720 --> 00:07:34,200 Speaker 1: him a question out loud. You could put the question 139 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:36,640 Speaker 1: to him mentally and he would still get it right. 140 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: And to to add even further to this, it didn't 141 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,640 Speaker 1: have to be von Austin who was asking the question. 142 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: Anybody could do it and the horse would still get 143 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,840 Speaker 1: the answers right. So it wasn't just a simple matter 144 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 1: of a trainer who had secret cues with his animals. 145 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:57,680 Speaker 1: So after initially causing this great sensation in Germany, which 146 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:01,720 Speaker 1: is where Hans lived, he started to get international coverage 147 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 1: when this team of experts they were called the Hans Commission, 148 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:09,720 Speaker 1: examined him to determine if von Austin was perpetuating some 149 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:12,600 Speaker 1: kind of fraud somehow or enough. Because people were suspicious 150 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:14,200 Speaker 1: of this, right, they thought it was a hoax. Yeah, 151 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:18,440 Speaker 1: people were very suspicious. This was not within the normal 152 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:22,880 Speaker 1: realm of horse abilities, and the experts were pretty prominent men. 153 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 1: There was a circus proprietor and army captain, the director 154 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:30,640 Speaker 1: of the Berlin Zoological Gardens, of veterinary surgeon, and other 155 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:33,400 Speaker 1: guys who were just really familiar with horses and with 156 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: horse training and would be able to presumably tell if 157 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 1: something fishy was going on. And after they did their 158 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:42,400 Speaker 1: work there was a headline printed in the New York 159 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:46,120 Speaker 1: Times on October twod nineteen o four, which read expert 160 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,720 Speaker 1: commission decides that the horse actually reasons, so it really 161 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:52,319 Speaker 1: was global news. Yeah. But even more than that, they 162 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: determined that the horse was not trained in the in 163 00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:58,400 Speaker 1: the traditional ways. Instead, Von Austin's techniques were more like 164 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:00,880 Speaker 1: those used to teach children, which makes sense since he 165 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:05,000 Speaker 1: is a school teacher. But some people still weren't convinced 166 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 1: by this, and one man, Oscar Funks, got von Austin's 167 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:12,280 Speaker 1: permission to come in and investigate the horse, and after 168 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: some pretty serious examinations, he learned two things. One, the 169 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 1: horse could only answer questions in which the answer was 170 00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:24,520 Speaker 1: already known to the questioner, so you can ask, what 171 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:27,800 Speaker 1: is twelve divided by three? But maybe not some more 172 00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:32,079 Speaker 1: outrageous piece of division. And he could also only answer 173 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:35,680 Speaker 1: unless he could see the questioner and so clever Hans 174 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:38,679 Speaker 1: was used to being questioned with somebody right in front 175 00:09:38,679 --> 00:09:40,880 Speaker 1: of him. If he stood by his side, he'd try 176 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:43,559 Speaker 1: to move his head so he would be looking at 177 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:46,720 Speaker 1: you face on, and if he had blinders on, he 178 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:49,480 Speaker 1: couldn't answer the question at all. So this gave Fooks 179 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:53,600 Speaker 1: some ideas about the limits of Hans's abilities, right Okay, 180 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:56,000 Speaker 1: so what did this mean? It suggested basically that there 181 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,240 Speaker 1: were some sort of unconscious movements coming from the question ner, 182 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:03,720 Speaker 1: and sure enough, when he looked more closely, he found 183 00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:07,160 Speaker 1: that nearly every test question or would ask a question 184 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:10,400 Speaker 1: and then bent his head forward, which made the horse 185 00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:13,720 Speaker 1: start tapping, and then as soon as the correct number 186 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:16,440 Speaker 1: of taps had occurred, the questioner would jerk up his 187 00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:19,440 Speaker 1: head and the horse would stop. So Folks found that 188 00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:22,840 Speaker 1: while almost everyone made these movements, hardly anyone was aware 189 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: of it. Yeah, so this makes it kind of a hoax, 190 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:27,439 Speaker 1: but kind of not in a way. People were suspicious 191 00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:29,840 Speaker 1: of it. That's very hoax like, but it seems like 192 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:33,720 Speaker 1: nobody was trying to perpetuate fraud, as we'll see in 193 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:37,440 Speaker 1: most of our other hoaxes. So Folks published a book 194 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:40,520 Speaker 1: on his findings in nineteen eleven, and it got a 195 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:42,839 Speaker 1: really glowing review from the New York Times. Although I 196 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: liked that, the article also noted quote it detracts nothing 197 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:50,679 Speaker 1: from the merit of his being clever, Hans achievements and 198 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:53,880 Speaker 1: leaves him as wonderful a horse as he was before. 199 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 1: I e. We still love, we still love Hans. We 200 00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:01,800 Speaker 1: still think he's great, and today you still see mentions 201 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:06,120 Speaker 1: of Clever Hans. When you're reading about animal psychology or 202 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: articles about animal intelligence research, you'll see something sometimes called 203 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:14,400 Speaker 1: the Clever Hans effect, and it's something that researchers have 204 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:17,520 Speaker 1: to be very careful of that they are not either 205 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:22,760 Speaker 1: willingly misleading the animal or giving some sort of subconscious cues, 206 00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:25,960 Speaker 1: or doing it without even being aware of it. So 207 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:28,360 Speaker 1: this actually led to something kind of useful. Yeah, it 208 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:32,480 Speaker 1: did lead to something useful, unlike our next entry, which 209 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:36,680 Speaker 1: just led to a very peculiar hoax craze for a 210 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:49,120 Speaker 1: few decades there. It started in eighteen sixty nine when 211 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:52,600 Speaker 1: a couple of well diggers in Cardiff, New York made 212 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:56,400 Speaker 1: this startling find while digging a well on the property 213 00:11:56,400 --> 00:12:01,360 Speaker 1: of William stub Newell. Yes, after hitting stone three ft 214 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 1: down and clearing off the top soil, one of them 215 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:08,800 Speaker 1: recognized a foot and he said, quote, I declare, some 216 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,640 Speaker 1: old Indian has been buried here. So there was an 217 00:12:12,679 --> 00:12:15,120 Speaker 1: ancient burial here, at least that's what it seemed. But 218 00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:18,640 Speaker 1: pretty soon they realized that it wasn't just the skeleton 219 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:22,079 Speaker 1: of a normal man. It was ten ft long and 220 00:12:22,559 --> 00:12:26,560 Speaker 1: clearly the remains of some sort of ancient giant. So 221 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 1: Newell got right to work marketing this fine try and 222 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:32,360 Speaker 1: make some money off of his farm. He set up 223 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:37,079 Speaker 1: a tent and charged admission for people to come and 224 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:39,800 Speaker 1: take a peek at the so called Cardiff Giant, and 225 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:42,680 Speaker 1: he bumped it up after attendance was so good, he 226 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: bumped it up to fifty cents, and people were coming 227 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:49,200 Speaker 1: from all over the area to gawk and marvel at 228 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:53,400 Speaker 1: this strange stone man. Yeah, here's how the first president 229 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:57,079 Speaker 1: of Cornell, Andrew White, described his own visit. He said, 230 00:12:57,280 --> 00:13:00,520 Speaker 1: quote lying in its grave, with a subdue light from 231 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 1: the roof of the tent falling upon it, and with 232 00:13:03,080 --> 00:13:05,840 Speaker 1: the limbs contorted as if in a death struggle, it 233 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:10,040 Speaker 1: produced a most weird effect. An air of great solemnity 234 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:15,240 Speaker 1: pervaded the place. Visitors hardly spoke above a whisper. Sounds 235 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:19,200 Speaker 1: pretty cool, doesn't, except that White even himself realized that 236 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:23,040 Speaker 1: the skeleton was clearly made from stone. He actually realized 237 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 1: it wasn't even a very good carving, and that the 238 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:28,920 Speaker 1: two well diggers had would have had no reason to 239 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:33,360 Speaker 1: dig in that very spot, suggesting some sort of planned fraud. 240 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:36,640 Speaker 1: Very suspicious. So we have to backtrack a little bit 241 00:13:36,679 --> 00:13:39,760 Speaker 1: to eighteen sixty six to figure out what happened. And 242 00:13:39,800 --> 00:13:42,760 Speaker 1: that's when a New York cigar maker named George hall 243 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,520 Speaker 1: or Hole got an idea. He was an Acti, Iowa, 244 00:13:46,559 --> 00:13:49,080 Speaker 1: investigating his brother in law for a late payment on 245 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 1: a large shipment of cigars, and while he was there, 246 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,640 Speaker 1: he got into an argument with the Methodist revivalist over giants, 247 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:58,800 Speaker 1: and he later spent the night quote wondering about why 248 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:02,480 Speaker 1: people would believe these remarkable stories in the Bible about giants. 249 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:05,520 Speaker 1: When suddenly I thought of making a stone giant and 250 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:08,480 Speaker 1: passing it off as a petrified man. Okay, so that's 251 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:11,360 Speaker 1: probably not where most people's train of thought would go 252 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,720 Speaker 1: after that argument, but he really runs with it once 253 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:17,760 Speaker 1: the once the thought strikes him. But he knows that 254 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:20,480 Speaker 1: he can't make the giant close to home because it's 255 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:24,720 Speaker 1: got to be secret. It's obviously a ten foot stone giant. 256 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:27,120 Speaker 1: I think it weighed about three thousand pounds all said 257 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:30,800 Speaker 1: and done, would cause quite a stir So in eighteen 258 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:34,040 Speaker 1: sixty eight, he hires some guys to quarry a block 259 00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:37,960 Speaker 1: of gypsum from Fort Dodge, Iowa, and just so they 260 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:40,400 Speaker 1: don't talk and so it stays secret. He tells them 261 00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:43,720 Speaker 1: that it's for some sort of new Lincoln monument that's 262 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:46,600 Speaker 1: going to be going up. And from there he has 263 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:50,920 Speaker 1: his giant block of gypsum shipped to Chicago and carved 264 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:54,240 Speaker 1: again in secret by a German stone cutter. I think 265 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:57,640 Speaker 1: he's he's paid money and sworn to secrecy. In fact, 266 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:02,320 Speaker 1: finally the finished statue was sent on a train to Cardiff, 267 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:05,320 Speaker 1: where Hole met up with his cousin Stubbed Newell, and 268 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:08,240 Speaker 1: the men buried it on the farm. So they waited 269 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:09,920 Speaker 1: about a year I think, to dig it up right, 270 00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:14,040 Speaker 1: just so it could get some authentic dirt scenes around 271 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:17,840 Speaker 1: it and look convincing enough. But the plan if you 272 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:19,280 Speaker 1: if you're going to go through all the trouble, you 273 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:21,600 Speaker 1: might as well put in that extra year to make 274 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:24,400 Speaker 1: it work. But once the giant was on earth, of 275 00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:27,760 Speaker 1: the story didn't last that long. Newell even told some 276 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:29,640 Speaker 1: people that it was a hoax, which seems like a 277 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:32,120 Speaker 1: really bad idea if you're trying to make fifty cents 278 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:35,480 Speaker 1: ahead on your farm. But Hole realized he would have 279 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:39,880 Speaker 1: to lock somebody into buying this giant get a large 280 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 1: amount of money up front before the story broke as 281 00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: a fraud, so he sold the Giant to a businessman 282 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:50,560 Speaker 1: named David Hannum for twenty three thousand dollars and Hannum 283 00:15:50,680 --> 00:15:53,200 Speaker 1: took it on the road as kind of a syndicate show. 284 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:57,200 Speaker 1: It caught the attention from there of P. T. Barnum again, 285 00:15:57,200 --> 00:15:59,680 Speaker 1: her old friend. He just pops up all the time. 286 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:03,320 Speaker 1: He offered to buy the Giant for fifty thou dollars 287 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:06,160 Speaker 1: and hand him refused. So Barnum, who isn't going to 288 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: be thwarted by not possessing the quote authentic giant, decided 289 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:14,680 Speaker 1: to build his own replica and had an agent go 290 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:18,840 Speaker 1: to hand hum show make some covert wax models. And 291 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: of course all the newspapers were running stories about the 292 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:24,000 Speaker 1: Cardiff Giants, so we had all of the measurements ready 293 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:28,640 Speaker 1: to go, and Um just started touring his own plastered giant. 294 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:31,640 Speaker 1: It did really well to hand him though, is pretty 295 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:35,760 Speaker 1: dismissive of this plastic copy of Barnum's and all of 296 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:37,480 Speaker 1: those who paid to go see it. And he even 297 00:16:37,520 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: said there's a sucker born every minute, which is obviously 298 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:46,560 Speaker 1: painfully ironic to hear that, but My favorite part of 299 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: this is that it started kind of a petrified man trend, right, 300 00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:52,440 Speaker 1: did well? I mean, it's easy to see how it 301 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:55,040 Speaker 1: would too if if you could make so much money 302 00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:58,400 Speaker 1: off of having a petrified man in your backyard. But 303 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:02,000 Speaker 1: for a few decades there there were lots of petrified 304 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:05,440 Speaker 1: men turning up giants or just normal size think Mark 305 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:09,840 Speaker 1: Twain even wrote a little newspaper article a spoof of 306 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:12,399 Speaker 1: finding a petrified man, and it got picked up by 307 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,800 Speaker 1: real outlet. So um. Yeah, for a for a few 308 00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 1: years there there was a rush and petrified men, and 309 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,320 Speaker 1: then they lost their cache, you know, yeah, you know, 310 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:23,600 Speaker 1: Well that's what happens when you find a hoax that works, 311 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:26,200 Speaker 1: you tend to see it kind of run into the ground. 312 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:28,159 Speaker 1: But I have to say this next one on our 313 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:30,480 Speaker 1: list is one Sarah that I'm really glad did not 314 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:34,320 Speaker 1: catch on. It is about a woman named Mary Toft, 315 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,200 Speaker 1: and it's a medical hoax that's been called the top 316 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:41,040 Speaker 1: fraud of the Enlightenment. It started when an englishwoman named 317 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:43,960 Speaker 1: Mary Toft, who was a mother of three already had 318 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:48,960 Speaker 1: a miscarriage around September of sev About a month after that, 319 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:52,320 Speaker 1: she and her husband Joshua Toft sent for the doctor, 320 00:17:52,359 --> 00:17:55,879 Speaker 1: who in this case was a male midwife named John Howard, 321 00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:59,680 Speaker 1: because she was having these full on labor pains, and 322 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:04,000 Speaker 1: after she called in John Howard, she gave birth to 323 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:09,600 Speaker 1: a dead skinned baby rabbit and then proceeded to continue 324 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:12,280 Speaker 1: giving birth to dead rabbits at the rate of about 325 00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:15,840 Speaker 1: one per day. And Howard claimed that he could even 326 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:20,040 Speaker 1: feel and see these baby bunnies jumping in the womb 327 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:22,679 Speaker 1: before they died. I know he could see. He claimed 328 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:25,160 Speaker 1: that you could see kind of the bedclothes move over 329 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:28,119 Speaker 1: her stomach and that it would shake the bed sometimes 330 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:31,480 Speaker 1: so this dead bunny would come out. Yeah, not pleasant 331 00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:34,480 Speaker 1: at all. So obviously people are skeptical of the story, 332 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:36,840 Speaker 1: and so people wouldn't think that he was lying. Howard 333 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:39,520 Speaker 1: put out an open invitation for other doctors to come 334 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:42,760 Speaker 1: check out the situation, maybe even deliver a rabbit for 335 00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:47,280 Speaker 1: themselves and see the truth in this pretty invasive yeah 336 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:49,520 Speaker 1: it was. But several people took him up on that, 337 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:54,639 Speaker 1: including Nathaniel st Andre, a surgeon from Switzerland and also 338 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:57,480 Speaker 1: the personal surgeon of King George. The first we have 339 00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:01,879 Speaker 1: to mention though st Andre had a interesting resume before 340 00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:04,560 Speaker 1: he got into the doctoring business, which maybe makes it 341 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,680 Speaker 1: so he wasn't the most qualified person to be the 342 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 1: public face of this. He was originally a dancing and 343 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:15,080 Speaker 1: a fencing instructor. H kind of a strange backstory for 344 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: him that is definitely odd. But what's perhaps most surprising 345 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:21,200 Speaker 1: about this whole story in general is that how many 346 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:23,479 Speaker 1: doctors were convinced that the births were real. I mean, 347 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:25,480 Speaker 1: it wasn't just St. Andre, right, it was some other 348 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:29,280 Speaker 1: people too, who really thought that this was happening. As 349 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 1: a kind of proof of this phenomenon, St Andre didn't 350 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,440 Speaker 1: experiment in which he put the organs of the bunnies 351 00:19:36,640 --> 00:19:40,680 Speaker 1: in water, and it's unclear I guess as to why 352 00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:43,480 Speaker 1: that actually provided any proof, but it was supposed to 353 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:49,240 Speaker 1: have been good enough eight century doctors. Some doctors were skeptical, though, 354 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,399 Speaker 1: including a Sir Richard Manningham, and to figure out what 355 00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:55,359 Speaker 1: was going on once and for all, Mary was brought 356 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:57,760 Speaker 1: to London and put under a twenty four hour watch, 357 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:01,160 Speaker 1: which pretty soon put a stop to these strange births. 358 00:20:01,760 --> 00:20:04,840 Speaker 1: Then they discovered a porter trying to smuggle a rabbit 359 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:08,200 Speaker 1: into Mary at her hotel. Her sister, who was kind 360 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:10,800 Speaker 1: of playing nurse to her at the time. She also 361 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 1: confessed to this, but claimed that they were bringing the 362 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:18,399 Speaker 1: rabbit into her for eating purposes only, not for birthing purposes, 363 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:21,720 Speaker 1: which sounds pretty fishy. Yeah, it didn't look good to 364 00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,639 Speaker 1: say the least. But may just if you were giving 365 00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:28,120 Speaker 1: birth to rabbits, would you really still be eating them? 366 00:20:28,160 --> 00:20:30,120 Speaker 1: That is a very good point. I mean, if you're 367 00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:31,879 Speaker 1: going to think this out a little bit, that's a 368 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:33,600 Speaker 1: good point, Sarah, I would think that you wouldn't want 369 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:35,520 Speaker 1: to eat meat in general. But apparently she didn't have 370 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:37,719 Speaker 1: a problem with that while she was staying in London, 371 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:40,439 Speaker 1: but she did still claim even after that instant that 372 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,200 Speaker 1: she was telling the truth. Finally, though, they had to 373 00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:46,119 Speaker 1: resort to threatening her. They said, basically they would do 374 00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:49,720 Speaker 1: a painful procedure operate on her the next time she 375 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:52,600 Speaker 1: was about to go into labor. Instead of just letting 376 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,440 Speaker 1: the bunnies be born, they would they would do an 377 00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:58,680 Speaker 1: operation and examine her uterus. And so at that point 378 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:02,560 Speaker 1: she finally confessed the whole thing was a scam to 379 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,040 Speaker 1: get a pension and and live easy for the rest 380 00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:09,280 Speaker 1: of her life. Specifically, she said quote her goal was 381 00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:11,880 Speaker 1: to get so good a living that I should never 382 00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:15,199 Speaker 1: want as long as I lived, which is another strange 383 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:17,320 Speaker 1: thing to think about, that you would be pensioned for 384 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:21,600 Speaker 1: the very act of giving birth to baby bunnies. Yeah, well, 385 00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:23,800 Speaker 1: it's strange to plan that as a way I think 386 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:26,840 Speaker 1: to get your your fortune in your future. But she 387 00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:29,600 Speaker 1: didn't work alone, she said, an accomplice helped her get 388 00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:33,600 Speaker 1: the animal parts in return for part of the potential profits. 389 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:36,120 Speaker 1: So someone else may have been involved here, maybe multiple 390 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:39,760 Speaker 1: someone else's. Her husband was probably part of it, at 391 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:42,520 Speaker 1: least a little bit. He I think was implicated in 392 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:46,040 Speaker 1: getting it was found that he had purchased for rabbits. Yeah. 393 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:49,160 Speaker 1: So Mary was charged as a quote to vile, cheat 394 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:51,800 Speaker 1: and imposter and thrown in jail, but she was later 395 00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:54,760 Speaker 1: released and the doctors didn't come out of it very well. 396 00:21:54,840 --> 00:21:58,920 Speaker 1: Many of their reputations were ruined, and a popular purchase 397 00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,040 Speaker 1: in the early eight hundreds in England was a book 398 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:05,800 Speaker 1: of writings about Toft, which was bound in of course, 399 00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:10,600 Speaker 1: rabbit skin and one more note about these bunnies. Even 400 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:14,199 Speaker 1: though Mary Toft apparently did not lose her appetite for 401 00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:18,639 Speaker 1: rabbit meat while perpetuating this fraud, a lot of people 402 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:22,119 Speaker 1: in England did, and Rabbit stew took a little nose 403 00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:26,040 Speaker 1: dive in popularity for for a short time after this fraud. 404 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:37,160 Speaker 1: So it's clear that the people of England knew that 405 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:40,439 Speaker 1: the story of Mary Toft was definitely a hoax. But 406 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,760 Speaker 1: the last story on our list is one that is 407 00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:46,159 Speaker 1: still sort of in question. People have called this a 408 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,119 Speaker 1: hoax for years and it's cited as a common example 409 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:51,680 Speaker 1: of a hoax, but there are still some people who 410 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:54,679 Speaker 1: think that it might be true. So here's the basic story. 411 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,840 Speaker 1: It all started in Newark, Ohio in eighteen sixty when 412 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:02,639 Speaker 1: a local county serve they're an amateur archaeologist named David 413 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,200 Speaker 1: Wyrick was excavating some of the huge earthen mounds in 414 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,240 Speaker 1: the American Midwest. And you may recall us talking about 415 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:13,280 Speaker 1: this these quite recently in the Cookia podcast. But most 416 00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:16,240 Speaker 1: people believe that these mounds were the work of pre 417 00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:20,720 Speaker 1: Columbian native civilizations. However, a common belief during this time 418 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:22,800 Speaker 1: period that we're talking about right now was that the 419 00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:25,800 Speaker 1: mounds were built by the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. 420 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:28,399 Speaker 1: I think we we even mentioned that in the Cohokia. 421 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 1: We may have they were believed to have vanished after 422 00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:34,600 Speaker 1: being captured by the Assyrians. But Wyrick was a supporter 423 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,240 Speaker 1: of this theory, and that's kind of what made what 424 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:41,400 Speaker 1: happened next very suspicious. All Right. So Wyrick was digging 425 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:46,160 Speaker 1: near New York's fifty acre Octagon Mound in eighteen sixty 426 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,960 Speaker 1: when he discovered the keystone, which was the first of 427 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:54,000 Speaker 1: the holy stones in the Shallow Hole. And the keystone 428 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:58,199 Speaker 1: is basically a polished wedge shaped piece of sandstone, and 429 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,880 Speaker 1: it has Hebrew inscriptions on all four sides and they 430 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:05,320 Speaker 1: read the Laws of Jehovah, the Word of the Lord, 431 00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:09,280 Speaker 1: King of the Earth, and the Holy of Holies. So 432 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,840 Speaker 1: this was really really big news because some people thought 433 00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:16,760 Speaker 1: that it finally confirmed the ten Lost Tribes theory. Other 434 00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:21,480 Speaker 1: people thought, well, maybe it's not an ancient Hebrew text, 435 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:26,120 Speaker 1: maybe it's a Masonic keystone because of that shape and everything. 436 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:28,639 Speaker 1: It didn't take long though, for some people to just 437 00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:32,600 Speaker 1: call it out as an outright fake. Yes, Charles Whittlesey, 438 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:36,040 Speaker 1: for example, a noteworthy ohio archaeologist, he thought that it 439 00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:39,880 Speaker 1: was neither Masonic nor Jewish, but a relatively modern artifact. 440 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,880 Speaker 1: The Hebrew for example, was thought to be too modern 441 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,320 Speaker 1: to be authentic, to be from that previous time period 442 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,960 Speaker 1: when the Lost Tribes would have been around. So that 443 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,639 Speaker 1: November Wyrick gets a little bit more evidence. Maybe he 444 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:56,200 Speaker 1: discovers another stone, the Decalogue Stone and the Jackson Town 445 00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,119 Speaker 1: Stone Mound, which is a few miles southeast of Newark, 446 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:02,800 Speaker 1: and it's found encased in a custom made stone box. 447 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,720 Speaker 1: Sounds pretty cool, yeah, And it's shaped like a tombstone 448 00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:09,920 Speaker 1: that's intricately carved all over with Hebrew letters that convey 449 00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:14,359 Speaker 1: an abbreviated form of the Ten Commandments, so completely different 450 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,520 Speaker 1: from the keystone. On the front side, the inscription lines 451 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,680 Speaker 1: an arch that frames the image of a man named Moses, 452 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:24,640 Speaker 1: and the style of Hebrew was some unique archaic style. 453 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,320 Speaker 1: They couldn't quite place it. It wasn't the modern style 454 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:29,639 Speaker 1: that they found on the keystone, but it wasn't also 455 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,560 Speaker 1: ancient Hebrew, right It wasn't what they knew to be 456 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,520 Speaker 1: an ancient Hebrew style that was recognizable. So many people 457 00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:38,720 Speaker 1: thought this was a fraud right away too. It had 458 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:41,800 Speaker 1: too many scriptural mistakes and a lack of patina that 459 00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,399 Speaker 1: made people very suspicious. Should have left it in the 460 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:47,960 Speaker 1: ground for longer like the Cardiff Giant, but it is 461 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:53,840 Speaker 1: book fantastic. Archaeology Steven Williams says that the stones feel 462 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:58,480 Speaker 1: every possible archaeological task. Their inscriptions are the only ones 463 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:01,439 Speaker 1: of their kind known and are not correct for the 464 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:06,400 Speaker 1: time period. Others, though, we're wondering if ancient Hebrews were 465 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,239 Speaker 1: present in the America's why can't we find evidence of 466 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,480 Speaker 1: their settlements? So not just like why can't we find 467 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,080 Speaker 1: their their stones in their inscriptions, but why can't we 468 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,640 Speaker 1: find anything from their settlement? It's a good question. One 469 00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:21,840 Speaker 1: problem with the stout about the stones, though, is trying 470 00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:25,680 Speaker 1: to figure out, Okay, if they're not real, who made them. 471 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:28,199 Speaker 1: Of course, some people thought it could be Wyrick. I 472 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,800 Speaker 1: read that before Wyric's death he actually wondered himself if 473 00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,240 Speaker 1: somebody had fooled him. So it seems unlikely that he 474 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:37,080 Speaker 1: would bring that up if he didn't want to put 475 00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:40,960 Speaker 1: suspicion on himself. So archaeologist Brad Leper believes that it 476 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:44,120 Speaker 1: was actually a man named Reverend John W. McCarty who 477 00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:47,199 Speaker 1: translated the text on the keystone for Wyrick overnight, so 478 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,120 Speaker 1: it just seemed too fast for him to be able 479 00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:51,920 Speaker 1: to do too familiar with it exactly, and the theory 480 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,680 Speaker 1: is that McCarty hoped the stones would prove that Adam 481 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,760 Speaker 1: and Eve were mother and father to all races, a 482 00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,800 Speaker 1: good argument against slavery. Yeah. So, in eighteen sixty four, 483 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:07,080 Speaker 1: two additional Hebrew inscribed stones, which are now unfortunately lost, 484 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:10,119 Speaker 1: were found during the excavation of a mound on the 485 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:13,920 Speaker 1: George A Wilson farm which is east of Newark, and 486 00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:17,760 Speaker 1: people again got really excited. But soon a local dentist 487 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:22,040 Speaker 1: named John H. Nickel claimed that he himself carved the 488 00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:26,440 Speaker 1: stones introduced them into the excavation with the intention of 489 00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:31,720 Speaker 1: discrediting the two earlier fines from Wyrick, of course, and 490 00:27:32,119 --> 00:27:35,480 Speaker 1: these inscriptions actually just spelled out his name, so the 491 00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:38,920 Speaker 1: plan did pretty much work. There's these new stones, which 492 00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:44,720 Speaker 1: are so obviously frauds kind of made the earlier fines again, 493 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:47,440 Speaker 1: kind of like the card off effect. All the all 494 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:50,240 Speaker 1: the petrified men sort of make the original one not 495 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:53,200 Speaker 1: seems so great. Hence why for years this has been 496 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,640 Speaker 1: believed to be a hoax. But then attention came back 497 00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:59,199 Speaker 1: to the story around the nineteen eighties or so, and 498 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,399 Speaker 1: there are some now who believe that the stones are authentic. 499 00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,560 Speaker 1: They say they're just too detailed and thought out to 500 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:08,840 Speaker 1: be hoaxes. And the fact that they're so different from 501 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,879 Speaker 1: each other, they're so unique and distinct. Um. Yeah, I 502 00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:14,240 Speaker 1: think it was maybe the decologue you were describing to 503 00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,200 Speaker 1: me earlier. You said that it was just perfectly laid out. 504 00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,640 Speaker 1: You know, there were no there are no places where 505 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,240 Speaker 1: the words were crammed in. Everything was planned. Yeah, it 506 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:25,920 Speaker 1: didn't look like you were just trying to quickly put 507 00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:28,199 Speaker 1: this together to pull off some kind of hoax. It 508 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:32,120 Speaker 1: looked like something that had been meticulously done. But today 509 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:34,800 Speaker 1: you can decide for yourself. Visitors can view the Holy 510 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,239 Speaker 1: Stones at the Johnston homework House Museum in Ohio. So 511 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:41,240 Speaker 1: I think it's only fitting that we leave off with 512 00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:43,400 Speaker 1: one that's still kind of hanging in the balance or 513 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:45,320 Speaker 1: in question, because we love to leave you guys with 514 00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:48,320 Speaker 1: a question to answer. Um. Even though, as Sarah said 515 00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:51,880 Speaker 1: when we started this, these are all true hoaxes we did, 516 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:55,040 Speaker 1: this is not a hoax in itself. We don't. That 517 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:56,880 Speaker 1: would have been pretty clever. Maybe we'll do that some 518 00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:02,680 Speaker 1: other time. Thank you so much for joining us for 519 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:05,880 Speaker 1: this Saturday Classic. Since this is out of the archive. 520 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,480 Speaker 1: If you heard an email address or a Facebook U 521 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,280 Speaker 1: r L or something similar during the course of the show, 522 00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:14,120 Speaker 1: that may be obsolete now so here is our current 523 00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,720 Speaker 1: contact information. We are at history podcast at how stuff 524 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: works dot com, and then we're at missed in the History. 525 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:25,480 Speaker 1: All over social media, that is our name on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Pinterest, 526 00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:31,480 Speaker 1: and Instagram. Thanks again for listening. For more on this 527 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:41,080 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how staff works dot com.