Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: It's one of our greatest fears, waking up in a small,
Speaker 1: confined space under six feet of dirt. During the eighteenth
Speaker 1: and nineteen centuries, safety coffins were manufactured with bells attached
Speaker 1: to let passer buyers know if someone had been accidentally interred.
Speaker 1: Testing whether someone had passed on or not wasn't entirely scientific.
Speaker 1: It usually involved putting pepper and vinegar in the person's
Speaker 1: mouth or poking their feet with hot pokers. But no
Speaker 1: amount of testing was enough for Hannah Beswick, nor was
Speaker 1: a safety coffin. Beswick, like many folk living during the
Speaker 1: middle of the eighteenth century, had a pathological fear of
Speaker 1: accidentally being buried alive. It was kind of a problem too.
Speaker 1: Thousands of people were buried alive in England and Wales
Speaker 1: during the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. She didn't want to
Speaker 1: go through that in the event of her possible death,
Speaker 1: and with good reason. A number of years before she died,
Speaker 1: Hannah witnessed the loss of her brother, or so she thought. She,
Speaker 1: along with the other mourners, watched as the lid was
Speaker 1: lowered over his coffin until someone saw his eyelids flicker.
Speaker 1: The family physician, Charles White, stepped in and examined the
Speaker 1: man and determined that he was not, in fact dead.
Speaker 1: Hannah's brother awoke several days later, seemingly no worse for wear,
Speaker 1: but the young miss Beswick was certainly affected. She consulted
Speaker 1: with Dr White and asked him to make sure that
Speaker 1: she was never buried prematurely if she happened to pass
Speaker 1: away without warning. And this is where the details surrounding
Speaker 1: her will and testament get a bit vague. As far
Speaker 1: as we know, she didn't explicitly asked Dr White to
Speaker 1: do anything except keep her from going into the ground
Speaker 1: too soon, and so the good doctor took that to heart.
Speaker 1: When Hannah passed away in seventeen fifty eight, he made
Speaker 1: sure that her body was nowhere near a coffin or
Speaker 1: a grave site. Instead, he had her inbound a mixture
Speaker 1: of turpentine and vermilion were injected into her veins, while camphor,
Speaker 1: nitra and resin were put in place of her organs.
Speaker 1: Her body was then coated in fragrant oils and the
Speaker 1: box she was stored in was filled with plaster of
Speaker 1: Paris to preserve her. By this point, Hannah Beswick was dead,
Speaker 1: there was no doubt about that, but she couldn't be
Speaker 1: placed in the ground yet. Rather, her corpse was held
Speaker 1: at the home of a family member. Before Dr White
Speaker 1: took possession of her body, he put it on display
Speaker 1: in a clock case inside of his own house. She
Speaker 1: remained there until his death in eighteen thirteen, at which
Speaker 1: point the late Miss Beswick was transferred to another doctor
Speaker 1: by the name of Olier, who donated her in eighteen
Speaker 1: and the eight to the up and coming Museum of
Speaker 1: the Manchester Natural History Society. Placed right inside the museum's entrance,
Speaker 1: Hannah became known as the Manchester Mummy and was placed
Speaker 1: next to an Egyptian and a Peruvian mummy. She became
Speaker 1: a big hit with visitors and the press, as there
Speaker 1: were several articles written about her after she entered the museum.
Speaker 1: The facility was eventually taken over by Manchester University in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty seven, at which point it was decided that
Speaker 1: Hannah Beswick was officially dead. There was no chance of
Speaker 1: her coming alive anymore, and so it was time to
Speaker 1: lay her to rest. But it wasn't as simple as
Speaker 1: just placing her in a coffin and lowering her into
Speaker 1: the ground. According to an English law put in place
Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty seven, a medical examiner had to issue
Speaker 1: a certificate of death before a person could be buried.
Speaker 1: Since Hannah had died in seventeen fifty eight, a letter
Speaker 1: was sent to the Secretary of State asking for permission
Speaker 1: to enter her remains. Permission was swiftly granted, and on
Speaker 1: July twenty second of eighteen sixty eight, Hannah Beswick was
Speaker 1: buried in an unmarked grave in a Manchester cemetery. She
Speaker 1: was ten years old. Some claimed to see her ghost,
Speaker 1: clad in a black silk gown in a white cap,
Speaker 1: walking through the parlor of her old home. She was
Speaker 1: even spotted on the grounds after the house was torn
Speaker 1: down to make room for a factory. Hannah Beswick had
Speaker 1: a pathological fear of being buried alive, but her ghost
Speaker 1: never left. Maybe it wasn't about spending her final moments
Speaker 1: confined to a small box under six feet of dirt.
Speaker 1: Maybe she just had a really bad case a fomo.
Speaker 1: Running a marathon is no small feet. It takes months
Speaker 1: of practice, running almost every day and building up stamina
Speaker 1: until you're able to endure a full twenty six point
Speaker 1: two mile journey from start to finish. The average time
Speaker 1: it takes to complete a marathon is anywhere from four
Speaker 1: to five hours. Fastest time ever taken to complete one
Speaker 1: was back in two thousand eighteen when Eliud kup Jogi
Speaker 1: from Kenya won the Berlin Marathon in just two hours,
Speaker 1: one minute and thirty nine seconds. But what about the
Speaker 1: slowest marathon? I mean sure, someone out there must hold
Speaker 1: the world record for the longest time ever taken to
Speaker 1: reach the finish line. Right For that, we need to
Speaker 1: look no further than Jizo can occurry. Jizo was born
Speaker 1: in Nagomi, Kumamoto, Japan, in eighteen ninety one. He started
Speaker 1: setting records when he was only twenty years old, most
Speaker 1: notably at the domestic qualifying trials for the nineteen twelve
Speaker 1: Stockholm Olympics. Jesu finished to twenty five mile marathon in
Speaker 1: just two hours, thirty two minutes and forty five seconds.
Speaker 1: Because of his performance, he became the first Japanese athlete
Speaker 1: to ever qualify for the Olympics. His fellow college classmates
Speaker 1: held a fundraiser to help him pay for his travel
Speaker 1: expenses to Sweden, and he did get there eventually. It
Speaker 1: took eighteen days, first by ship and then by Trans
Speaker 1: Siberian railway. It was an immense journey, one that required
Speaker 1: almost a week to recover, but on the day of
Speaker 1: the event, Jesu was ready. He held the weight and
Speaker 1: expectations of an entire nation on his shoulders, a pressure
Speaker 1: only exacerbated by the seventy seven degree Swedish heat. Between
Speaker 1: the travel and the weather changes, most of the runners
Speaker 1: came down with hypothermia, even Canna. Curry's own coach was
Speaker 1: beset with tuberculosis, so he wasn't able to train properly
Speaker 1: before the race. Regardless of his setbacks, though, Jisu was
Speaker 1: at the starting line on race day and he took
Speaker 1: off running. He had the opportunity to not only set
Speaker 1: a new world record by winning this event, but also
Speaker 1: be the first Japanese competitor to win a gold medal
Speaker 1: at the Olympics. Hours after the race began, though, the
Speaker 1: first runners started to cross the finish line and Canna
Speaker 1: Curry was nowhere to be found. He had simply vanished.
Speaker 1: Race officials tried looking him up, as did his coach
Speaker 1: and teammate, but he was just gone. So what happened
Speaker 1: to the mirrorical runner who was supposed to carry his
Speaker 1: country to Olympic victory. According to some reports, the intense
Speaker 1: heat caused him to pass out in a nearby garden.
Speaker 1: Others claimed that he decided to pay a visit to
Speaker 1: an outdoor party that was going on. Regardless of the reason,
Speaker 1: can Of Curry was taken in by a kind Swedish
Speaker 1: family who fed him, gave him a change of clothes
Speaker 1: and a place to sleep for the night. He was
Speaker 1: despondent over failing his team and his homeland, believing he
Speaker 1: had disappointed everybody and brought shame to them. He went
Speaker 1: back to Japan without telling anyone. He didn't even notify
Speaker 1: the race officials that he had returned. The Swedes started
Speaker 1: telling stories about the lost runner, how he was like
Speaker 1: a ghost looking for the finished line that would never come,
Speaker 1: and in a way that was true Jesu can occur.
Speaker 1: It was so distraught over not finishing the Olympic race
Speaker 1: that he never stopped running. He made it his life's
Speaker 1: mission to restore honor to both himself and Japan by
Speaker 1: doing what he did best, and that meant teaching, founding
Speaker 1: other long distance races, and building up an national interest
Speaker 1: in the sport. He also got women involved as well,
Speaker 1: and made an effort to train blind students by letting
Speaker 1: them guide themselves using a string tied from the starting
Speaker 1: line to the finish Canna Curry was all about inclusion,
Speaker 1: but sadly, he never finished the race that had given
Speaker 1: him his start in the first place. And then, in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, Schizo got a call from a Swedish journalist.
Speaker 1: He invited the seventies six year old athlete to finish
Speaker 1: what he had started all those years ago. Kenna Curry
Speaker 1: went back to Stockholm's Olympic Stadium, where eighteen thousands screaming
Speaker 1: fans and handfuls of journalists from all over the world
Speaker 1: watched as he finally crossed the finish line of a
Speaker 1: race that had started fifty four years, eight months, six days,
Speaker 1: five hours, thirty two minutes and twenty point three seconds earlier,
Speaker 1: he was awarded the Guinness World Record for longest time
Speaker 1: to complete a marathon, after which Canna Curry took a
Speaker 1: brief detour to visit the home of the family that
Speaker 1: had taken him in during the original race. The couple,
Speaker 1: of course, was long gone, but their son now lived there,
Speaker 1: and he served Kenna Curry a glass of orange juice.
Speaker 1: When asked for a comment on finally completing his race,
Speaker 1: Kenna Curry didn't give an impassion speech about finishing what
Speaker 1: you've started or seeing things through to the end. He
Speaker 1: simply told the truth. It has been a long race,
Speaker 1: but then I got myself a wife, six children, and
Speaker 1: ten grandchildren during it, and that takes time, you know.
Speaker 1: Curious to say the least, I hope you've enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com,
Speaker 1: and until next time, stay curious.