Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Fame is a strange creature.
Speaker 1: It is both elusive and lucrative, and some people seek
Speaker 1: it by any means necessary. Nowadays, there's no such thing
Speaker 1: as bad publicity if it means keeping your name in
Speaker 1: the news. But for Helen, fame came at a steep price.
Speaker 1: She was born in in central Scotland, and from a
Speaker 1: very young age, the people around Helen knew something was
Speaker 1: off about her. She often scared classmates with grim warnings
Speaker 1: of the future, and she convinced many of them that
Speaker 1: she could talk to the dead. As she got older,
Speaker 1: Helen's um gifts garnered her much acclaim and popularity among
Speaker 1: her neighbors. She often held seances in her home, where
Speaker 1: she would not only conjure spirits related to those in attendance,
Speaker 1: but she would also produce ectoplasm from her mouth, as
Speaker 1: though the dead were speaking through her. On rare occasions,
Speaker 1: phantoms would appear behind her, including some Helen referred to
Speaker 1: as her spirit guide to the other side. This spirit
Speaker 1: guide was a child named Peggy, who would float above
Speaker 1: the crowd, her spectral gown flowing overhead. Unfortunately, Helen and
Speaker 1: the spirit world shared a common enemy, flash photography. During
Speaker 1: one of her seances, while Helen was blindfolded, a photographer
Speaker 1: in attendance snap some pictures of the so called phantoms
Speaker 1: the host had managed to summon. They were moving around
Speaker 1: behind her, wearing long white robes and stiff, cherubic faces.
Speaker 1: It was hard to see in the dark, but once
Speaker 1: illuminated by the photographer's flash, it became clear exactly what
Speaker 1: the famous medium had actually managed to call forth masks
Speaker 1: on coat hangers, wrapped in long white nightgowns. Oh and
Speaker 1: that ectoplasm or spiritual energy that Helen would sometimes spit
Speaker 1: up that was nothing more than cheesecloth and egg whites.
Speaker 1: But Helen wasn't about to give up that easily. She
Speaker 1: honestly believed she had a talent, and during November of
Speaker 1: ninety she put that talent on full display. Helen and
Speaker 1: her husband had recently moved to Portsmouth, the home of
Speaker 1: the Royal Navy, and during one of her sessions, she
Speaker 1: managed to conjure a sailor from the battleship h M.
Speaker 1: S Barham. The sailor told the audience he had been
Speaker 1: killed in battle and gone down with the ship, a
Speaker 1: miraculous feat for anyone present, except for one problem. Nobody
Speaker 1: knew about that accident. Given her history, most people didn't
Speaker 1: put much faith in her powers. However, the Navy certainly did.
Speaker 1: As it turned out a German sub really had sunk
Speaker 1: the h M. S Barham months earlier and killed almost
Speaker 1: nine hundred of her crew. News of the sinking had
Speaker 1: been kept under wraps to fool the Nazis. The only
Speaker 1: people who knew were the relatives of the deceased, so
Speaker 1: there was no reason Helen would have known anything about
Speaker 1: what had transpired. Word about Helen's prediction spread, and a
Speaker 1: short while later, a Navy lieutenant attended a seance to
Speaker 1: get a look for himself at the wondrous Mrs Duncan
Speaker 1: and was shocked by what he found. She had manifested
Speaker 1: an apparition of his late aunt, as well as his sister,
Speaker 1: who had recently passed away. The lieutenant left angry and confused,
Speaker 1: and contacted a police officer soon after, and that's because
Speaker 1: he had no aunt nor a sister. The jig was up,
Speaker 1: as they say, and Helen found herself in a lot
Speaker 1: of trouble. You see, certain laws on the books hadn't
Speaker 1: been updated with the times. Mediums were popular in nineteen
Speaker 1: forties England, but many had been exposed as con artists
Speaker 1: and were often charged under antiquated edicts such as the
Speaker 1: Vagrancy Act of eighteen twenty four, as well as various
Speaker 1: conspiracy and larceny laws. After all, they were swindling well
Speaker 1: intentioned folks out of hard earned money. Helen's case, however,
Speaker 1: proved difficult. She protested aggressively on behalf of her innocence.
Speaker 1: She didn't see herself as a liar or a cheat.
Speaker 1: In her mind, she was the real deal, providing a
Speaker 1: much needed service and form of relief to mourning loved ones.
Speaker 1: So prosecutors found another way to get her. They convicted
Speaker 1: her under the Witchcraft Act of seventeen thirty five, and
Speaker 1: that earned her a jail sentence of nine months. Upon
Speaker 1: her release, she promised to not conduct another seance as
Speaker 1: long as she lived. She held on to that promise
Speaker 1: for fifteen years until nineteen fifty six, when she was
Speaker 1: arrested again after violating the Fraudulent Media Him's Act of
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one, the act that had replaced the Witchcraft Act.
Speaker 1: Perhaps Helen Duncan was a fraud, or maybe she was
Speaker 1: the real deal. No one has been able to prove
Speaker 1: how she obtained her knowledge of the h. M. S.
Speaker 1: Bar Um, but one thing is for sure. According to
Speaker 1: English history, she was the last witch whoever have her
Speaker 1: day in court. Like most of us, Annie had big
Speaker 1: plans for her life. But plans don't always work out,
Speaker 1: do they? An upstate New York in the eighteen fifties,
Speaker 1: and thee's prospects were slim. She came from a big
Speaker 1: family with big needs, and after her father's death in
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty, Annie struck out on her own. She sought
Speaker 1: an education to become a school teacher. It was during
Speaker 1: this time when she met David. The two fell in
Speaker 1: love and eventually married, But like I said before, plans
Speaker 1: don't always work out. The couple had a child who
Speaker 1: didn't survive past infancy. David died a short time later,
Speaker 1: and poor Annie spent the next several decades floating from
Speaker 1: one odd job to the next. She opened her own
Speaker 1: dance studio in Michigan, then left to teach music up north,
Speaker 1: eventually making her way to San Antonio, Texas, and Mexico
Speaker 1: City before finally settling back in Michigan. Times were changing,
Speaker 1: America had entered the twentieth century, and Annie was getting older.
Speaker 1: She had no long term financial solution to fall back on,
Speaker 1: and retirement was out of the question. Most women at
Speaker 1: the time would have looked for simple ways of keeping
Speaker 1: their situation, but not Annie. She needed to make a
Speaker 1: splash to stay afloat. Literally. Her idea was simple. On
Speaker 1: October nineteen o one, her sixty third birthday. In fact,
Speaker 1: she would pack herself into an oak pickle barrel and
Speaker 1: launched herself over Niagara Falls. Like I said before, simple
Speaker 1: right now. Understandably, she had trouble finding people to help her.
Speaker 1: Few wanted to be responsible for a woman killing herself
Speaker 1: in the most ostentatious way possible. Yet she continued with
Speaker 1: her plan and even did a test run a few
Speaker 1: days before the main event. Not with herself, mind, you know,
Speaker 1: she used a cat, and don't worry, the cats survived,
Speaker 1: and forty eight hours after it emerged from the barrel,
Speaker 1: Annie stepped inside her own. It was lined with a
Speaker 1: mattress to absorb some of the impact, and a rescue
Speaker 1: team was established at the base of the falls to
Speaker 1: retrieve her. Once the barrel reached the bottom. She planned
Speaker 1: for everything, it seems. Annie and the barrel rode out
Speaker 1: toward Goat Island, situated at the top of the falls,
Speaker 1: along with some of her friends. She tossed the barrel
Speaker 1: overboard and climbed inside while her associates screwed the lid
Speaker 1: down tight. Then they used a by bicicle pump to
Speaker 1: compress the air inside the barrel, which they then sealed
Speaker 1: off with a cork. And that was it. The time
Speaker 1: had come for Annie to make good on her promise
Speaker 1: and hopefully make a little money at the same time.
Speaker 1: The current carried the barrel down the river and over
Speaker 1: the falls, where it plummeted to the waters below. The
Speaker 1: team of rescuers found her, and, fearing the worst, pride
Speaker 1: the barrel open. They peered inside. There was Annie, her
Speaker 1: head smeared with blood, a little worse for wear, but
Speaker 1: she was still alive. She'd done it. Annie Edson Taylor
Speaker 1: had become the first woman to go over Niagara Falls
Speaker 1: in a barrel and live to tell the tale, which
Speaker 1: she did often, of course. Not long after her stunt,
Speaker 1: Annie went on a brief speaking to her When asked
Speaker 1: whether she'd ever try it again, she was quoted as saying,
Speaker 1: I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a
Speaker 1: cannon knowing it was going to blow me to pieces
Speaker 1: than another trip over the falls. Still, her speaking engagements
Speaker 1: didn't garner her the financial security that she hoped for.
Speaker 1: She took the posing for pictures with tourists and planned
Speaker 1: on doing another plunge several years later, but nothing ever
Speaker 1: came of it. She spent her final years once again
Speaker 1: bouncing around from job to job, at one time finding
Speaker 1: herself conducting seances as a medium, before passing away in
Speaker 1: in relative obscurity. Since her stint, Annie's life and experiences
Speaker 1: have inspired numerous stories, television specials, and even a stage musical. However,
Speaker 1: it has inspired rumors as well. One such rumor involved
Speaker 1: a stowaway inside her barrel. According to reports at the time,
Speaker 1: the cat that went over the falls days before Annie
Speaker 1: stunt hadn't been the only feeline involved. Apparently, a black
Speaker 1: cat had been placed beside Annie before she was sealed
Speaker 1: inside her barrel. And when that barrel was recovered and opened,
Speaker 1: they say the cat emerged unharmed, except for one small change.
Speaker 1: All it's black fur it turned white. I hope you've
Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.