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Speaker 1: Three teenage girls pulled their shawls over their heads as

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Speaker 1: they scurried along the muddy village lane. Rain pelted down

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Speaker 1: in angry bursts, and thunder crackled from the brooding sky above.

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Speaker 1: The Normandy region of northern France where the girls lived,

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Speaker 1: had been experiencing tempestuous weather for eight straight days, a

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Speaker 1: series of intense, recurring storms of thunder and lightning that

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Speaker 1: seemed like they would never end. Locals were later reported

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Speaker 1: as saying that the atmosphere seemed to be continuously charged

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Speaker 1: with electricity. It was the evening of January fifteenth, eighteen

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Speaker 1: forty six, in Bouviny, a village in the former commune

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Speaker 1: of La Perriere today part of Belfrais on Persche in

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Speaker 1: northwest France. The three girls in shawls were on their

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Speaker 1: way to the home of their fourteen year old friend, Angelique,

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Speaker 1: who lived with her widowed aunt in a small cottage

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Speaker 1: on the edge of the village. Angelique Couthin, like many

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Speaker 1: older children in large families at that time, had been

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Speaker 1: sent by her parents to live with a relative where

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Speaker 1: she was expected to start earning her keep. Like most

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Speaker 1: other teenage girls in the area, this involved several hours

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Speaker 1: a day at a lace making loom, weaving lace for

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Speaker 1: her aunt, Madame Loesna to sell. The loom was a

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Speaker 1: large wooden structure that could hold over a hundred threads

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Speaker 1: at a time, through which the weaver could then weave

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Speaker 1: perpendicular threads in and out of. With the thunder of

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Speaker 1: finally starting to subside on that peculiar January evening on,

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Speaker 1: Jelique's three friends eventually arrived at Madame loes Nard's home

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Speaker 1: to start their own shifts at the loom. Shaking the

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Speaker 1: rain from their shawls and long skirts, they announced themselves

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Speaker 1: at the door and went inside, where they found Angelique

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Speaker 1: already sat at the heavy oak table on which the

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Speaker 1: loom was mounted. It was a humble cottage with earthen

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Speaker 1: floors and only the flicker of candle light to illuminate

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Speaker 1: the space, made all the darker by those thick gray

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Speaker 1: clouds outside. The three girls chattered as they set up

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Speaker 1: a few more candles to light the place, then joined

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Speaker 1: on Gelique at the loom and got to work making

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Speaker 1: silk neck gloves. It was some time later, around eight

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Speaker 1: p m. When one of the girls began to notice

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Speaker 1: that the loom frame was shaking in a strange manner.

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Speaker 1: It was barely perceptible at first, before it intensified violently.

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Speaker 1: Seconds later, the girls screamed out as the whole structure

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Speaker 1: fell off the table and crashed to the ground. Then

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Speaker 1: all around them the light began to undulate as the

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Speaker 1: candlesticks started to shake, until they too fell to the ground,

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Speaker 1: plunging the girls into darkness. You're listening to Unexplained and

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Speaker 1: I'm Richard McLean Smith. Having been alerted by the crash,

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Speaker 1: Angelique's aunt demanded to know what was going on. Each

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Speaker 1: convinced it was one of the others, the girls scolded

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Speaker 1: each other as they groped around for the candlesticks and

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Speaker 1: quickly ReLit them, With no one seemingly willing to admit it.

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Speaker 1: The aunt had no choice but to help the girls

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Speaker 1: place the loom back on the table and let them

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Speaker 1: get back to work. But no sooner had she left

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Speaker 1: the room, the loom began to tremble violently again before

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Speaker 1: once more being flung back down to the floor, and

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Speaker 1: just as before, the candles followed suit, plunging the girls

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Speaker 1: into darkness for the second time that evening. Moments later,

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Speaker 1: the girl's screams were heard by neighbors as they ran

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Speaker 1: out of the cottage in terror at what they'd just witnessed.

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Speaker 1: But when the neighbors rushed over to see what the

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Speaker 1: commotion was about, they refused to believe any of it.

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Speaker 1: The nervous teenagers were persuaded by Angelique's aunt to head

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Speaker 1: back inside and return to work for a third time.

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Speaker 1: This time, however, she stayed in the room to watch them.

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Speaker 1: It was clear the girls were extremely nervous. They set

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Speaker 1: about starting up another weave, unsure of just what might

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Speaker 1: happen next. Then Angelique put her hand on the loom,

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Speaker 1: and in an instant the frame began jiggling furiously before

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Speaker 1: shooting suddenly away from her. The others gasped in shock,

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Speaker 1: their eyes widening in utter disbelief, as Angelique then moved

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Speaker 1: her hand toward it again, only for it to shoot

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Speaker 1: back further across the table. Many people living in rural

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Speaker 1: France at the time were deeply superstitious, and Angelique's aunt

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Speaker 1: was no different. It had been over a hundred years

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Speaker 1: since the last person in France had been put on

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Speaker 1: trial for being a witch. Even so, tales of witchcraft

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Speaker 1: and sorcery still loomed large in the imaginations of many.

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Speaker 1: Telling the other girl quietly to go home, Madame Loisna

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Speaker 1: instructed her niece to put on her shawl. Then she

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Speaker 1: marched her through the village to the home of the

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Speaker 1: local priest. Somewhat surprised to receive visitors so late on

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Speaker 1: a winter evening, the priest invited the pair inside. After

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Speaker 1: seating them in his kitchen, he listened incredulously as the

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Speaker 1: aunt relayed the evening's events. When she finished, she demanded

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Speaker 1: the priest to perform an exorcism on her niece immediately.

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Speaker 1: The priest laughed heartily in response. It wasn't quite time

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Speaker 1: for that, he said, trying to ease the tension. Then,

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Speaker 1: without saying a word, on Jelique placed the last glove

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Speaker 1: that she'd been weaving on a chair next to the priest,

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Speaker 1: immediately shot away from her and fell over with a clatter.

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Speaker 1: Stunned speechless, the priest picked up the chair, then sat

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Speaker 1: down on it and asked Angelique to touch it again

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Speaker 1: with her glove. No sooner than she did, it shot

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Speaker 1: back once more with a screech, flinging the priest unceremoniously

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Speaker 1: to the floor. Luckily for Angelique, the priest was a

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Speaker 1: forgiving and unsuperstitious man. After brushing himself off, he gently

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Speaker 1: reassured the pair that while he was happy to perform

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Speaker 1: an exorcism, he didn't think it would solve the issue.

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Speaker 1: Believing it was some kind of physical malady, he suggested

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Speaker 1: they visit a doctor. The following day, Angelique's aunt took

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Speaker 1: her to local physician, doctor de Pharamont, where once again

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Speaker 1: she detailed everything that had been going on. But when

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Speaker 1: the doctor asked Angelique to repeat her trick with the glove,

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Speaker 1: her power seemed to have deserted her. It was three

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Speaker 1: days later, around nine pm, when doctor de Pharamont received

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Speaker 1: an urgent request to go to the aunt's cottage, and

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Speaker 1: excited Madame Loisna greeted him at the door. It's happening again,

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Speaker 1: she said, as she showed him inside, where he found

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Speaker 1: the young Angelique patiently waiting for him at the loom table.

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Speaker 1: The doctor looked on aghast as she proceeded to extend

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Speaker 1: her hand toward the loom, and without touching it, seemed

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Speaker 1: to be able to make it rock back and forth.

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Speaker 1: When she moved her hand closer, grazing the frame with

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Speaker 1: the faintest of touches, it flew back violently, as if

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Speaker 1: moved by some invisible force. More than a little intrigued,

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Speaker 1: the doctor pushed the loom back into place and ordered

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Speaker 1: the girl to try it again. As he attempted to

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Speaker 1: hold it in place slowly, Angelique held out her hand again,

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Speaker 1: and the frame began to shake once more under the

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Speaker 1: doctor's grip, and when she touched it, it shot back again,

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Speaker 1: taking the doctor with it. Having seen enough with the loom,

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Speaker 1: doctor de Paramont suggested Angelique try her strange trick on

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Speaker 1: something a little heavier. In those instances, when the object

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Speaker 1: was too heavy for anyone to move, when Angelique touched it,

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Speaker 1: she would then seemingly be flung backwards instead. After observing

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Speaker 1: Angelique for some time, the doctor noticed that the girl

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Speaker 1: became progressively tired with each event, but he had no

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Speaker 1: explanation for the strange phenomenon. He became even more confused

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Speaker 1: a few days later when Angelique's abilities escalated. At first,

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Speaker 1: the unusual force she seemed to exert affected only wooden objects,

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Speaker 1: but now all sorts of household items were being moved,

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Speaker 1: papers flew off tables. If she walked past, and heavy

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Speaker 1: books fell off the shelves. Metal objects were also affected,

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Speaker 1: although to a much weaker degree. Her seamstress's scissors once

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Speaker 1: flew off the waistband of her apron across the room,

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Speaker 1: as did metal tongs and shovels. Even burning logs started

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Speaker 1: flying out of the hearth if she walked too close

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Speaker 1: to it. By then, no longer able to work on

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Speaker 1: the loom, Angelique had been sent back home to live

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Speaker 1: with her parents, but things only got worse. Whenever the

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Speaker 1: girl approached a chair to sit down, it would be

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Speaker 1: seemingly flung away from her, and at night, when she

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Speaker 1: got into her bed, it would shake so violently she'd

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Speaker 1: be unable to sleep in it. One afternoon, while shelling

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Speaker 1: peas into a basket, her mother watched with alarm when

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Speaker 1: her daughter's dress brushed the basket, and in an instant

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Speaker 1: it was propelled across the floor, scattering peas everywhere. Seeing

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Speaker 1: the family's evident distress, who were also suffering financially. Since

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Speaker 1: Angelique could no longer work, doctor de Faramont offered to

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Speaker 1: take her to the neighboring town where she could be

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Speaker 1: further assessed. On January twenty fourth, eighteen forty six, Angelique

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Speaker 1: was led into a consulting room and placed in front

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Speaker 1: of three other doctors as de Paramont had a ten

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Speaker 1: stone wooden block placed on the floor next to him.

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Speaker 1: Then he instruct did Angelique to approach it. When her

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Speaker 1: dress brushed against it, the three other doctors gasped as

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Speaker 1: the block then seemed to levitate four inches off the

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Speaker 1: floor before bouncing up and down roughly forty times in

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Speaker 1: a minute. Even when doctor Devaramont sat on the block,

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Speaker 1: it continued to do the same, and when he invited

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Speaker 1: the three other men to sit on it too, it

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Speaker 1: proved no impediment to the extraordinary event they were witnessing.

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Speaker 1: Becoming increasingly intrigued by the phenomenon, doctor de Faramont wondered

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Speaker 1: if some kind of electromagnetic force was at play and

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Speaker 1: decided to try and isolate Angelique from any possible electric

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Speaker 1: current with a sheet of glass, a non conducting material,

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Speaker 1: positioned on the floor at a chair on top of it,

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Speaker 1: and asked Angelique to try and move it, which she

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Speaker 1: was seemingly unable to do, suggesting to him that the

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Speaker 1: phenomenon was electrical in nature. Meanwhile, news of Angelique's strange

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Speaker 1: apparent powers were spreading around the region. About twenty days

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Speaker 1: after the episode began, another physician, doctor Verger, arrived from

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Speaker 1: the nearby town of Belem, and offered to take Angelique

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Speaker 1: to his home to study her further. There he exhibited

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Speaker 1: her on successive days to hundreds of people. By the

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Speaker 1: sixth of February, she had been seen by more than

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Speaker 1: two thousand onlookers, including distinguished physicians from Belem and nearby Mortaigne,

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Speaker 1: as well as local magistrates, lawyers, and clerics. By the

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Speaker 1: end of each exhibition, the girl appeared to be exhausted,

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Speaker 1: at which times her powers would seem to fade, but

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Speaker 1: by the next day, invariably her disturbing abilities would return.

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Speaker 1: When some of the onlookers gave Angelique money. Seeing an opportunity,

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Speaker 1: her father resolved to make the most of this strange

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Speaker 1: occurrence and decided to take her to Paris, where he

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Speaker 1: could try and exhibit her to the masses. Though doctors

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Speaker 1: to Pharamond and Verge advised him against the idea, he

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Speaker 1: would not be persuaded. It was not an enjoyable journey

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Speaker 1: along the muddy roads of winter time rural France by then,

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Speaker 1: reports of Angelique's sudden and unusual powers had spread far

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Speaker 1: and wide, and the attention that some locals gave her

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Speaker 1: as they passed from village to village was not always pleasant,

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Speaker 1: with many believing her to be possessed by some malignant power.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes hundreds of people would wander out to see the

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Speaker 1: oddity for themselves. Too scared to get close, they would

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Speaker 1: follow her carriage from a distance, hooting and shouting abuse

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Speaker 1: at the dangerous sorcerer. After arriving in Paris on the

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Speaker 1: twelfth of February, Angelique was taken to visit distinguished Parisian physician,

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Speaker 1: doctor Tonshon. He was quick to verify the girl's power

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Speaker 1: for himself by firmly holding a chair with both hands

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Speaker 1: and inviting the girl to sit on it. As soon

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Speaker 1: as she did, both the doctor and the chair were

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Speaker 1: pushed backwards forcibly. Then he invited the teenager to sit

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Speaker 1: with him on a large sofa, and it too was

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Speaker 1: pushed violently back against the wall as she moved to

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Speaker 1: be seated. The doctor noticed that not only did Angelique's

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Speaker 1: clothing seem to be attracted to, but also adhered to

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Speaker 1: any furniture that was repulsed from her, suggesting to him

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Speaker 1: that there was some kind of static electric charge involved.

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Speaker 1: He also noted that the power appeared to be far

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Speaker 1: greater from the left hand than the right, as well

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Speaker 1: as curiously from the left side of her pelvis. He

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Speaker 1: also observed that her left hand was warmer than her

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Speaker 1: right one, and it often trembled or displayed irregular contractions

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Speaker 1: during her paroxysms. If her left hand touched any object,

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Speaker 1: she would throw it from her as if it were

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Speaker 1: burning hot and prickly. At one point, the doctor accidentally

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Speaker 1: touched the nape of her neck, which sent the girl

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Speaker 1: running away, crying out in pain. It seemed the point

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Speaker 1: where her neck muscles met her cranium was so acutely

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Speaker 1: sensitive the child would not suffer even the lightest touch there,

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Speaker 1: saying that it burned too intensely. On occasions when Angelique's

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Speaker 1: powers appeared to be manifesting, doctor Tonschon took her pulse.

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Speaker 1: He found her heartbeat to be irregular, varying from one

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Speaker 1: hundred and five to one hundred and twenty beats a minute,

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Speaker 1: and in those moments when she appeared to be causing

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Speaker 1: the greatest effect on surrounding objects, he believed he could

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Speaker 1: feel a motion in the air flowing from the girl

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Speaker 1: onto his hand, as if it was being brushed by

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Speaker 1: a cold gust of wind, as he put it, just

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Speaker 1: like doctor de Pharamont, Doctor Tonshon also demonstrated that if

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Speaker 1: the girl was cut off from contact with the ground,

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Speaker 1: either by placing her feet on a non conductive material

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Speaker 1: or merely by keeping her fe feet off the floor,

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Speaker 1: her strange apparent power over objects ceased immediately. Ton Schan

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Speaker 1: wrote up his findings and published them in a scientific pamphlet.

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Speaker 1: He also brought the case to the attention of the

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Speaker 1: French Academy of Sciences at their session on February sixteenth,

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Speaker 1: eighteen forty six. Naturally, the learned members were skeptical. Nonetheless,

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Speaker 1: a committee of six agreed to conduct a study of

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Speaker 1: the girl for themselves. On February seventeenth, just over a

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Speaker 1: month since Angelique's apparent powers had first appeared, the team

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Speaker 1: of six invited the girl to prove her powers once

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Speaker 1: more at the Jardin de Plonte, a famous botanical garden

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Speaker 1: in Paris. Once again, Angelique moved heavy pieces of furniture

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Speaker 1: with only the slightest of touches. When a compass needle

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Speaker 1: was brought close to her body, it resolutes swung round

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Speaker 1: to point at her instead of north Anngelique also claimed

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Speaker 1: that whenever she touched the north pole of a magnet,

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Speaker 1: it gave her an electric shock, but the south pole

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Speaker 1: had no effect on her at all. Impressed by what

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Speaker 1: they'd seen so far, the six scientists then tried something else.

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Speaker 1: Back in seventeen eighty six, while investigating the effects of

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Speaker 1: electrical charge on frog's legs, an assistant to Italian scientist

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Speaker 1: Luigi Galvani discovered by mistake that they convulsed when an

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Speaker 1: electrically charged metal was applied to the sciatic nerve. Inspired

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Speaker 1: by the revelation, Galvani became convinced that this was proof

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Speaker 1: of what he called animal electricity, a supposed innate force

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Speaker 1: in the body's nerves that controlled all living things. This,

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Speaker 1: in turn led to the speculation that one had to

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Speaker 1: only reignite this charge in a dead thing to potentially

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Speaker 1: bring it back to life. When Galvani died in seventeen

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Speaker 1: ninety eight, his nephew, Giovanni Aldini, took up his work.

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Speaker 1: It was Aldini who, with much fanfare and not a

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Speaker 1: little theater tried to use his uncle's theory to resurrect

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Speaker 1: a newly hanged man. The extent to which the gentlemen

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Speaker 1: of the French Academy of Sciences were influenced by Galvani's theory,

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Speaker 1: or the novel Frankenstein, for that matter, which was partly

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Speaker 1: inspired by the idea and not known. Nonetheless, in a

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Speaker 1: certain nod to it, they decided to see what effect

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Speaker 1: on Jelique might have on the nervous system of a

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Speaker 1: dead frog. Using a voltic pile, a precursor of the

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Speaker 1: modern day battery, they instructed on Jelique to stand close

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Speaker 1: to it, while on her forearm they placed a skinned

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Speaker 1: and partially dissected frog so that its spinal column and

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Speaker 1: nervous system could clearly be seen. When they asked her

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Speaker 1: to then touch the battery with her free hand, the

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Speaker 1: frog's dissected corpse began suddenly to twitch and jump, terrifying

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Speaker 1: the young girl out of her wits. In truth, the

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Speaker 1: scientists would have likely got the same result from the

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Speaker 1: frog with anyone, not just the so called electric girl,

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Speaker 1: since any human body will conduct electricity, But the experiment

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Speaker 1: left on Jelique so traumatized that She endured nightmares about

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Speaker 1: it for several months afterwards, and over the course of

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Speaker 1: the next few weeks, as if they'd been scared right

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Speaker 1: out of her, Angelique's strange apparent powers began to steadily diminish.

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Speaker 1: All this time, Angelique had been giving daily public performances

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Speaker 1: for money, but by April tenth, her supposed powers had

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Speaker 1: all but evaporated. Soon it became clear that her father

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Speaker 1: was deliberately moving the furniture around her in an effort

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Speaker 1: to keep up the mystery. Due to a public outcry, however,

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Speaker 1: he eventually gave up the charade. By the end of April,

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Speaker 1: Angelique's apparent gift had ceased completely, never to return. It

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Speaker 1: was at this point that the Committee of Eminent Scientists

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Speaker 1: started to backtrack. Despite carrying out what by today's standards

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Speaker 1: would be seen as a shameless exploitation of the girl

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Speaker 1: for their own ends, some committee members suggested that she'd

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Speaker 1: been a fraud all along. When their final scientific report

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Speaker 1: was published, it remained inconclusive, giving no indication as to

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Speaker 1: the court or cessation of the girl's apparent powers. In response,

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Speaker 1: some of the doctors who'd claimed to have witness the

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Speaker 1: strange phenomena, when at the height of its power, compelled

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Speaker 1: the Committee to think again, writing, it matters not what

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Speaker 1: name we may give to this the effects it is

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Speaker 1: impossible to deny. The more we have seen, the deeper

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Speaker 1: our conviction of the phenomenon, we have examined and re examined,

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Speaker 1: and taken every precaution against deception. I do not say

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Speaker 1: what cause was operating, but what effects presented themselves removed

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Speaker 1: even the shadow of a doubt. It is perhaps a

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Speaker 1: testament to those times that we have no record of

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Speaker 1: Angelique Kutar's own thoughts on her remarkable experiences, or what

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Speaker 1: effect the events of early eighteen forty six had on

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Speaker 1: her afterwards. All that we do know is that she

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Speaker 1: is said to have simply gone back to living a

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Speaker 1: normal life. Her case remains to this day Unexplained. This

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Speaker 1: episode was written by Diane Hope. Unexplained is an Avy

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Speaker 1: Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other

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Speaker 1: elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced

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Speaker 1: by Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, featuring

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Speaker 1: stories that have never before been featured on the show,

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Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes,

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Speaker 1: and Noble Waterstones, among other bookstores. Please subscribe and rate

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Speaker 1: the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free

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Speaker 1: the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have

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Speaker 1: an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You

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