Speaker 1: Three teenage girls pulled their shawls over their heads as
Speaker 1: they scurried along the muddy village lane. Rain pelted down
Speaker 1: in angry bursts, and thunder crackled from the brooding sky above.
Speaker 1: The Normandy region of northern France where the girls lived,
Speaker 1: had been experiencing tempestuous weather for eight straight days, a
Speaker 1: series of intense, recurring storms of thunder and lightning that
Speaker 1: seemed like they would never end. Locals were later reported
Speaker 1: as saying that the atmosphere seemed to be continuously charged
Speaker 1: with electricity. It was the evening of January fifteenth, eighteen
Speaker 1: forty six, in Bouviny, a village in the former commune
Speaker 1: of La Perriere today part of Belfrais on Persche in
Speaker 1: northwest France. The three girls in shawls were on their
Speaker 1: way to the home of their fourteen year old friend, Angelique,
Speaker 1: who lived with her widowed aunt in a small cottage
Speaker 1: on the edge of the village. Angelique Couthin, like many
Speaker 1: older children in large families at that time, had been
Speaker 1: sent by her parents to live with a relative where
Speaker 1: she was expected to start earning her keep. Like most
Speaker 1: other teenage girls in the area, this involved several hours
Speaker 1: a day at a lace making loom, weaving lace for
Speaker 1: her aunt, Madame Loesna to sell. The loom was a
Speaker 1: large wooden structure that could hold over a hundred threads
Speaker 1: at a time, through which the weaver could then weave
Speaker 1: perpendicular threads in and out of. With the thunder of
Speaker 1: finally starting to subside on that peculiar January evening on,
Speaker 1: Jelique's three friends eventually arrived at Madame loes Nard's home
Speaker 1: to start their own shifts at the loom. Shaking the
Speaker 1: rain from their shawls and long skirts, they announced themselves
Speaker 1: at the door and went inside, where they found Angelique
Speaker 1: already sat at the heavy oak table on which the
Speaker 1: loom was mounted. It was a humble cottage with earthen
Speaker 1: floors and only the flicker of candle light to illuminate
Speaker 1: the space, made all the darker by those thick gray
Speaker 1: clouds outside. The three girls chattered as they set up
Speaker 1: a few more candles to light the place, then joined
Speaker 1: on Gelique at the loom and got to work making
Speaker 1: silk neck gloves. It was some time later, around eight
Speaker 1: p m. When one of the girls began to notice
Speaker 1: that the loom frame was shaking in a strange manner.
Speaker 1: It was barely perceptible at first, before it intensified violently.
Speaker 1: Seconds later, the girls screamed out as the whole structure
Speaker 1: fell off the table and crashed to the ground. Then
Speaker 1: all around them the light began to undulate as the
Speaker 1: candlesticks started to shake, until they too fell to the ground,
Speaker 1: plunging the girls into darkness. You're listening to Unexplained and
Speaker 1: I'm Richard McLean Smith. Having been alerted by the crash,
Speaker 1: Angelique's aunt demanded to know what was going on. Each
Speaker 1: convinced it was one of the others, the girls scolded
Speaker 1: each other as they groped around for the candlesticks and
Speaker 1: quickly ReLit them, With no one seemingly willing to admit it.
Speaker 1: The aunt had no choice but to help the girls
Speaker 1: place the loom back on the table and let them
Speaker 1: get back to work. But no sooner had she left
Speaker 1: the room, the loom began to tremble violently again before
Speaker 1: once more being flung back down to the floor, and
Speaker 1: just as before, the candles followed suit, plunging the girls
Speaker 1: into darkness for the second time that evening. Moments later,
Speaker 1: the girl's screams were heard by neighbors as they ran
Speaker 1: out of the cottage in terror at what they'd just witnessed.
Speaker 1: But when the neighbors rushed over to see what the
Speaker 1: commotion was about, they refused to believe any of it.
Speaker 1: The nervous teenagers were persuaded by Angelique's aunt to head
Speaker 1: back inside and return to work for a third time.
Speaker 1: This time, however, she stayed in the room to watch them.
Speaker 1: It was clear the girls were extremely nervous. They set
Speaker 1: about starting up another weave, unsure of just what might
Speaker 1: happen next. Then Angelique put her hand on the loom,
Speaker 1: and in an instant the frame began jiggling furiously before
Speaker 1: shooting suddenly away from her. The others gasped in shock,
Speaker 1: their eyes widening in utter disbelief, as Angelique then moved
Speaker 1: her hand toward it again, only for it to shoot
Speaker 1: back further across the table. Many people living in rural
Speaker 1: France at the time were deeply superstitious, and Angelique's aunt
Speaker 1: was no different. It had been over a hundred years
Speaker 1: since the last person in France had been put on
Speaker 1: trial for being a witch. Even so, tales of witchcraft
Speaker 1: and sorcery still loomed large in the imaginations of many.
Speaker 1: Telling the other girl quietly to go home, Madame Loisna
Speaker 1: instructed her niece to put on her shawl. Then she
Speaker 1: marched her through the village to the home of the
Speaker 1: local priest. Somewhat surprised to receive visitors so late on
Speaker 1: a winter evening, the priest invited the pair inside. After
Speaker 1: seating them in his kitchen, he listened incredulously as the
Speaker 1: aunt relayed the evening's events. When she finished, she demanded
Speaker 1: the priest to perform an exorcism on her niece immediately.
Speaker 1: The priest laughed heartily in response. It wasn't quite time
Speaker 1: for that, he said, trying to ease the tension. Then,
Speaker 1: without saying a word, on Jelique placed the last glove
Speaker 1: that she'd been weaving on a chair next to the priest,
Speaker 1: immediately shot away from her and fell over with a clatter.
Speaker 1: Stunned speechless, the priest picked up the chair, then sat
Speaker 1: down on it and asked Angelique to touch it again
Speaker 1: with her glove. No sooner than she did, it shot
Speaker 1: back once more with a screech, flinging the priest unceremoniously
Speaker 1: to the floor. Luckily for Angelique, the priest was a
Speaker 1: forgiving and unsuperstitious man. After brushing himself off, he gently
Speaker 1: reassured the pair that while he was happy to perform
Speaker 1: an exorcism, he didn't think it would solve the issue.
Speaker 1: Believing it was some kind of physical malady, he suggested
Speaker 1: they visit a doctor. The following day, Angelique's aunt took
Speaker 1: her to local physician, doctor de Pharamont, where once again
Speaker 1: she detailed everything that had been going on. But when
Speaker 1: the doctor asked Angelique to repeat her trick with the glove,
Speaker 1: her power seemed to have deserted her. It was three
Speaker 1: days later, around nine pm, when doctor de Pharamont received
Speaker 1: an urgent request to go to the aunt's cottage, and
Speaker 1: excited Madame Loisna greeted him at the door. It's happening again,
Speaker 1: she said, as she showed him inside, where he found
Speaker 1: the young Angelique patiently waiting for him at the loom table.
Speaker 1: The doctor looked on aghast as she proceeded to extend
Speaker 1: her hand toward the loom, and without touching it, seemed
Speaker 1: to be able to make it rock back and forth.
Speaker 1: When she moved her hand closer, grazing the frame with
Speaker 1: the faintest of touches, it flew back violently, as if
Speaker 1: moved by some invisible force. More than a little intrigued,
Speaker 1: the doctor pushed the loom back into place and ordered
Speaker 1: the girl to try it again. As he attempted to
Speaker 1: hold it in place slowly, Angelique held out her hand again,
Speaker 1: and the frame began to shake once more under the
Speaker 1: doctor's grip, and when she touched it, it shot back again,
Speaker 1: taking the doctor with it. Having seen enough with the loom,
Speaker 1: doctor de Paramont suggested Angelique try her strange trick on
Speaker 1: something a little heavier. In those instances, when the object
Speaker 1: was too heavy for anyone to move, when Angelique touched it,
Speaker 1: she would then seemingly be flung backwards instead. After observing
Speaker 1: Angelique for some time, the doctor noticed that the girl
Speaker 1: became progressively tired with each event, but he had no
Speaker 1: explanation for the strange phenomenon. He became even more confused
Speaker 1: a few days later when Angelique's abilities escalated. At first,
Speaker 1: the unusual force she seemed to exert affected only wooden objects,
Speaker 1: but now all sorts of household items were being moved,
Speaker 1: papers flew off tables. If she walked past, and heavy
Speaker 1: books fell off the shelves. Metal objects were also affected,
Speaker 1: although to a much weaker degree. Her seamstress's scissors once
Speaker 1: flew off the waistband of her apron across the room,
Speaker 1: as did metal tongs and shovels. Even burning logs started
Speaker 1: flying out of the hearth if she walked too close
Speaker 1: to it. By then, no longer able to work on
Speaker 1: the loom, Angelique had been sent back home to live
Speaker 1: with her parents, but things only got worse. Whenever the
Speaker 1: girl approached a chair to sit down, it would be
Speaker 1: seemingly flung away from her, and at night, when she
Speaker 1: got into her bed, it would shake so violently she'd
Speaker 1: be unable to sleep in it. One afternoon, while shelling
Speaker 1: peas into a basket, her mother watched with alarm when
Speaker 1: her daughter's dress brushed the basket, and in an instant
Speaker 1: it was propelled across the floor, scattering peas everywhere. Seeing
Speaker 1: the family's evident distress, who were also suffering financially. Since
Speaker 1: Angelique could no longer work, doctor de Faramont offered to
Speaker 1: take her to the neighboring town where she could be
Speaker 1: further assessed. On January twenty fourth, eighteen forty six, Angelique
Speaker 1: was led into a consulting room and placed in front
Speaker 1: of three other doctors as de Paramont had a ten
Speaker 1: stone wooden block placed on the floor next to him.
Speaker 1: Then he instruct did Angelique to approach it. When her
Speaker 1: dress brushed against it, the three other doctors gasped as
Speaker 1: the block then seemed to levitate four inches off the
Speaker 1: floor before bouncing up and down roughly forty times in
Speaker 1: a minute. Even when doctor Devaramont sat on the block,
Speaker 1: it continued to do the same, and when he invited
Speaker 1: the three other men to sit on it too, it
Speaker 1: proved no impediment to the extraordinary event they were witnessing.
Speaker 1: Becoming increasingly intrigued by the phenomenon, doctor de Faramont wondered
Speaker 1: if some kind of electromagnetic force was at play and
Speaker 1: decided to try and isolate Angelique from any possible electric
Speaker 1: current with a sheet of glass, a non conducting material,
Speaker 1: positioned on the floor at a chair on top of it,
Speaker 1: and asked Angelique to try and move it, which she
Speaker 1: was seemingly unable to do, suggesting to him that the
Speaker 1: phenomenon was electrical in nature. Meanwhile, news of Angelique's strange
Speaker 1: apparent powers were spreading around the region. About twenty days
Speaker 1: after the episode began, another physician, doctor Verger, arrived from
Speaker 1: the nearby town of Belem, and offered to take Angelique
Speaker 1: to his home to study her further. There he exhibited
Speaker 1: her on successive days to hundreds of people. By the
Speaker 1: sixth of February, she had been seen by more than
Speaker 1: two thousand onlookers, including distinguished physicians from Belem and nearby Mortaigne,
Speaker 1: as well as local magistrates, lawyers, and clerics. By the
Speaker 1: end of each exhibition, the girl appeared to be exhausted,
Speaker 1: at which times her powers would seem to fade, but
Speaker 1: by the next day, invariably her disturbing abilities would return.
Speaker 1: When some of the onlookers gave Angelique money. Seeing an opportunity,
Speaker 1: her father resolved to make the most of this strange
Speaker 1: occurrence and decided to take her to Paris, where he
Speaker 1: could try and exhibit her to the masses. Though doctors
Speaker 1: to Pharamond and Verge advised him against the idea, he
Speaker 1: would not be persuaded. It was not an enjoyable journey
Speaker 1: along the muddy roads of winter time rural France by then,
Speaker 1: reports of Angelique's sudden and unusual powers had spread far
Speaker 1: and wide, and the attention that some locals gave her
Speaker 1: as they passed from village to village was not always pleasant,
Speaker 1: with many believing her to be possessed by some malignant power.
Speaker 1: Sometimes hundreds of people would wander out to see the
Speaker 1: oddity for themselves. Too scared to get close, they would
Speaker 1: follow her carriage from a distance, hooting and shouting abuse
Speaker 1: at the dangerous sorcerer. After arriving in Paris on the
Speaker 1: twelfth of February, Angelique was taken to visit distinguished Parisian physician,
Speaker 1: doctor Tonshon. He was quick to verify the girl's power
Speaker 1: for himself by firmly holding a chair with both hands
Speaker 1: and inviting the girl to sit on it. As soon
Speaker 1: as she did, both the doctor and the chair were
Speaker 1: pushed backwards forcibly. Then he invited the teenager to sit
Speaker 1: with him on a large sofa, and it too was
Speaker 1: pushed violently back against the wall as she moved to
Speaker 1: be seated. The doctor noticed that not only did Angelique's
Speaker 1: clothing seem to be attracted to, but also adhered to
Speaker 1: any furniture that was repulsed from her, suggesting to him
Speaker 1: that there was some kind of static electric charge involved.
Speaker 1: He also noted that the power appeared to be far
Speaker 1: greater from the left hand than the right, as well
Speaker 1: as curiously from the left side of her pelvis. He
Speaker 1: also observed that her left hand was warmer than her
Speaker 1: right one, and it often trembled or displayed irregular contractions
Speaker 1: during her paroxysms. If her left hand touched any object,
Speaker 1: she would throw it from her as if it were
Speaker 1: burning hot and prickly. At one point, the doctor accidentally
Speaker 1: touched the nape of her neck, which sent the girl
Speaker 1: running away, crying out in pain. It seemed the point
Speaker 1: where her neck muscles met her cranium was so acutely
Speaker 1: sensitive the child would not suffer even the lightest touch there,
Speaker 1: saying that it burned too intensely. On occasions when Angelique's
Speaker 1: powers appeared to be manifesting, doctor Tonschon took her pulse.
Speaker 1: He found her heartbeat to be irregular, varying from one
Speaker 1: hundred and five to one hundred and twenty beats a minute,
Speaker 1: and in those moments when she appeared to be causing
Speaker 1: the greatest effect on surrounding objects, he believed he could
Speaker 1: feel a motion in the air flowing from the girl
Speaker 1: onto his hand, as if it was being brushed by
Speaker 1: a cold gust of wind, as he put it, just
Speaker 1: like doctor de Pharamont, Doctor Tonshon also demonstrated that if
Speaker 1: the girl was cut off from contact with the ground,
Speaker 1: either by placing her feet on a non conductive material
Speaker 1: or merely by keeping her fe feet off the floor,
Speaker 1: her strange apparent power over objects ceased immediately. Ton Schan
Speaker 1: wrote up his findings and published them in a scientific pamphlet.
Speaker 1: He also brought the case to the attention of the
Speaker 1: French Academy of Sciences at their session on February sixteenth,
Speaker 1: eighteen forty six. Naturally, the learned members were skeptical. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: a committee of six agreed to conduct a study of
Speaker 1: the girl for themselves. On February seventeenth, just over a
Speaker 1: month since Angelique's apparent powers had first appeared, the team
Speaker 1: of six invited the girl to prove her powers once
Speaker 1: more at the Jardin de Plonte, a famous botanical garden
Speaker 1: in Paris. Once again, Angelique moved heavy pieces of furniture
Speaker 1: with only the slightest of touches. When a compass needle
Speaker 1: was brought close to her body, it resolutes swung round
Speaker 1: to point at her instead of north Anngelique also claimed
Speaker 1: that whenever she touched the north pole of a magnet,
Speaker 1: it gave her an electric shock, but the south pole
Speaker 1: had no effect on her at all. Impressed by what
Speaker 1: they'd seen so far, the six scientists then tried something else.
Speaker 1: Back in seventeen eighty six, while investigating the effects of
Speaker 1: electrical charge on frog's legs, an assistant to Italian scientist
Speaker 1: Luigi Galvani discovered by mistake that they convulsed when an
Speaker 1: electrically charged metal was applied to the sciatic nerve. Inspired
Speaker 1: by the revelation, Galvani became convinced that this was proof
Speaker 1: of what he called animal electricity, a supposed innate force
Speaker 1: in the body's nerves that controlled all living things. This,
Speaker 1: in turn led to the speculation that one had to
Speaker 1: only reignite this charge in a dead thing to potentially
Speaker 1: bring it back to life. When Galvani died in seventeen
Speaker 1: ninety eight, his nephew, Giovanni Aldini, took up his work.
Speaker 1: It was Aldini who, with much fanfare and not a
Speaker 1: little theater tried to use his uncle's theory to resurrect
Speaker 1: a newly hanged man. The extent to which the gentlemen
Speaker 1: of the French Academy of Sciences were influenced by Galvani's theory,
Speaker 1: or the novel Frankenstein, for that matter, which was partly
Speaker 1: inspired by the idea and not known. Nonetheless, in a
Speaker 1: certain nod to it, they decided to see what effect
Speaker 1: on Jelique might have on the nervous system of a
Speaker 1: dead frog. Using a voltic pile, a precursor of the
Speaker 1: modern day battery, they instructed on Jelique to stand close
Speaker 1: to it, while on her forearm they placed a skinned
Speaker 1: and partially dissected frog so that its spinal column and
Speaker 1: nervous system could clearly be seen. When they asked her
Speaker 1: to then touch the battery with her free hand, the
Speaker 1: frog's dissected corpse began suddenly to twitch and jump, terrifying
Speaker 1: the young girl out of her wits. In truth, the
Speaker 1: scientists would have likely got the same result from the
Speaker 1: frog with anyone, not just the so called electric girl,
Speaker 1: since any human body will conduct electricity, But the experiment
Speaker 1: left on Jelique so traumatized that She endured nightmares about
Speaker 1: it for several months afterwards, and over the course of
Speaker 1: the next few weeks, as if they'd been scared right
Speaker 1: out of her, Angelique's strange apparent powers began to steadily diminish.
Speaker 1: All this time, Angelique had been giving daily public performances
Speaker 1: for money, but by April tenth, her supposed powers had
Speaker 1: all but evaporated. Soon it became clear that her father
Speaker 1: was deliberately moving the furniture around her in an effort
Speaker 1: to keep up the mystery. Due to a public outcry, however,
Speaker 1: he eventually gave up the charade. By the end of April,
Speaker 1: Angelique's apparent gift had ceased completely, never to return. It
Speaker 1: was at this point that the Committee of Eminent Scientists
Speaker 1: started to backtrack. Despite carrying out what by today's standards
Speaker 1: would be seen as a shameless exploitation of the girl
Speaker 1: for their own ends, some committee members suggested that she'd
Speaker 1: been a fraud all along. When their final scientific report
Speaker 1: was published, it remained inconclusive, giving no indication as to
Speaker 1: the court or cessation of the girl's apparent powers. In response,
Speaker 1: some of the doctors who'd claimed to have witness the
Speaker 1: strange phenomena, when at the height of its power, compelled
Speaker 1: the Committee to think again, writing, it matters not what
Speaker 1: name we may give to this the effects it is
Speaker 1: impossible to deny. The more we have seen, the deeper
Speaker 1: our conviction of the phenomenon, we have examined and re examined,
Speaker 1: and taken every precaution against deception. I do not say
Speaker 1: what cause was operating, but what effects presented themselves removed
Speaker 1: even the shadow of a doubt. It is perhaps a
Speaker 1: testament to those times that we have no record of
Speaker 1: Angelique Kutar's own thoughts on her remarkable experiences, or what
Speaker 1: effect the events of early eighteen forty six had on
Speaker 1: her afterwards. All that we do know is that she
Speaker 1: is said to have simply gone back to living a
Speaker 1: normal life. Her case remains to this day Unexplained. This
Speaker 1: episode was written by Diane Hope. Unexplained is an Avy
Speaker 1: Club Productions podcast created by Richard McLain Smith. All other
Speaker 1: elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced
Speaker 1: by Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, featuring
Speaker 1: stories that have never before been featured on the show,
Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes,
Speaker 1: and Noble Waterstones, among other bookstores. Please subscribe and rate
Speaker 1: the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free
Speaker 1: to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding
Speaker 1: the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have
Speaker 1: an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You
Speaker 1: can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or
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