Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the cabinet of curiosities. Look at the laws of
Speaker 1: any state in the US, and you'll find more than
Speaker 1: the usual ones geared towards punishing criminals. For example, in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: it's illegal to throw rocks at trains. In Vermont, in
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, the state banned the banning of clotheslines.
Speaker 1: You heard that right. You cannot stop someone from using
Speaker 1: a clothesline on their property there by law. And if
Speaker 1: you're a boxer in Utah, you can forget about biting
Speaker 1: your opponent unless you want a visit from the cops.
Speaker 1: But perhaps the strangest case of a broken law occurred
Speaker 1: in New York in nineteen a woman named Johanna Voch
Speaker 1: lived at one ten Magenta Street with her son Armando.
Speaker 1: Armando had a bad habit of running his mouth first
Speaker 1: thing in the morning, screaming things like go to Hell
Speaker 1: and scaring the neighborhood cats and dogs. Voches neighbors, Mrs
Speaker 1: Ormsby Gendro and her husband couldn't stand Armando's constant yelling,
Speaker 1: especially since Mr Jandro worked nights and slept in the
Speaker 1: mornings right when Armando was beginning his daily shouting sessions,
Speaker 1: and public obscenity was definitely not tolerated at the time.
Speaker 1: Mrs Voch tried, but she couldn't control Armando, and the
Speaker 1: Jandro's didn't care. Something had to be done, and so
Speaker 1: the angry neighbors took Mrs Voch and Armando to court.
Speaker 1: He sat in the back screaming go to hell to
Speaker 1: anyone and everyone he met, and when Mrs Jandro took
Speaker 1: the stand to testify, Armando made it impossible for her
Speaker 1: to speak, shouting his rude directions even were the sound
Speaker 1: of the judge's gavel. Mrs Voach pleaded with the judge,
Speaker 1: after all, it wasn't Armando's fault, as he had learned
Speaker 1: his horrible language from the janitor's boy next door. But
Speaker 1: Mrs Jendro had brought witnesses with her to refute Mrs
Speaker 1: Voce's claims. They'd never seen the janitor's boy, but they'd
Speaker 1: certainly heard Armando swearing at anyone with an earshot. At
Speaker 1: that point, the judge called Armando to the stand Missus
Speaker 1: Jendro explained how his outbursts triggered all the animals in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood to bark and miao, resulting in a cacophony
Speaker 1: of noise in the middle of the day when her
Speaker 1: husband was trying to get some rest. Sure enough, Armando
Speaker 1: turned towards Missus Jendro and yelled go to hell, go
Speaker 1: to hell, for everyone in the courtroom to hear. He
Speaker 1: also said things like turn out and up with your hammocks?
Speaker 1: What the l bill going to sleep all day? Strange utterances.
Speaker 1: To be sure, the judge instructed Armando to be escorted
Speaker 1: out of the room so they could carry on the
Speaker 1: proceedings in peace. Mrs Voach explained how Armando was smart,
Speaker 1: but he just had no control over what he heard.
Speaker 1: The police would often come to the home after receiving
Speaker 1: noise complaints from neighbors. If it was a married cop
Speaker 1: pain visit, Armando would yell in my harem at the
Speaker 1: top of his lungs, or he might ask a heavy
Speaker 1: set cop Bill, how are the chickens. Witnesses called Armando evil.
Speaker 1: He'd scream epitaphs and inappropriate phrases, even on Sunday mornings
Speaker 1: when people were walking to church. The judge, however, found
Speaker 1: himself unable to rule either way, so he postponed the
Speaker 1: case for one week, pending the results of an investigation
Speaker 1: into Armando's terrible habit. The next day, probation Officer Frank
Speaker 1: Cooley visited the janitor next door, then stopped by the
Speaker 1: home of Mrs Votch. Within moments of greeting her, Armando
Speaker 1: started telling the officer to go to Hell. Over and
Speaker 1: over he yelled vile things until the man finally left
Speaker 1: with the answers he'd come for. Cooley present to his
Speaker 1: findings to the judge, stating that after a brief yet
Speaker 1: fruitful investigation, he had no choice but to instruct Mrs
Speaker 1: Voach to sell Armando. Yes, I said sell, but don't worry.
Speaker 1: It's not like New York had laws stating that vulgar
Speaker 1: children must be sold if they didn't behave. Armando wasn't
Speaker 1: Mrs Voach's human son. He was for parrot. Boredom is
Speaker 1: in rare supply these days, given the ubiquity of personal
Speaker 1: tablets and smartphones to distract us. Some of our best
Speaker 1: ideas come from waiting in line for coffee. Or simply
Speaker 1: soaking in the shower without a screen to occupy our attentions.
Speaker 1: But before technology took over our lives, people found other
Speaker 1: ways to alleviate boredom. They went outside, went on long
Speaker 1: walks to enjoy nature, or and started hobbies. Imagine that
Speaker 1: in the late nineteenth century in Australia, boredom was not
Speaker 1: so easily cured, at least not until a new form
Speaker 1: of entertainment swept the country, giving young people with nothing
Speaker 1: but time a startling way to spend it. The state
Speaker 1: of Victoria was under attack. Someone named the Wizard Bombardier
Speaker 1: was running around in white robes and a tall round
Speaker 1: hat called a sugar loaf, scaring people. He would scream
Speaker 1: in their faces before throwing rocks at them, then he
Speaker 1: would dash off into the night. It had been a ghost,
Speaker 1: some of the victims thought at first, After all, who
Speaker 1: would do such a thing to a random stranger. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: at the time, Australia was still getting over its rule
Speaker 1: as a penal colony for Irish and British convicts. Victoria,
Speaker 1: while a free colony, did not have a formal police
Speaker 1: force like it does today, and citizens had gotten used
Speaker 1: to free reign of the region. With little to do
Speaker 1: and no regard for other well being, some Victorians took
Speaker 1: up ghost hoaxing. They used the modern technology of the
Speaker 1: time to amplify their spookiness of their costumes, including glow
Speaker 1: in the dark paint. One hoaxer even used it to
Speaker 1: write prepared to meet Thy Doom on a suit of
Speaker 1: armor he wore as he chased people through the streets.
Speaker 1: One news article from described a hoaxer who wore a
Speaker 1: white sheet painted red and ran through the town of Connington,
Speaker 1: near Perth. His antics didn't last long, however, as residents
Speaker 1: eventually cornered him and held him at gunpoints until he surrendered. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: such harmless fun inevitably turned into something more sinister. Tired
Speaker 1: of scaring Australians using sheets and glowing paint, young people
Speaker 1: donned their ghostly costumes to rob people and businesses, or
Speaker 1: commit even worse crimes. Without a formal police presence to
Speaker 1: quell the mischief, locals took it upon themselves to bring
Speaker 1: order and peace back to their communities. A blast of
Speaker 1: buckshot was enough in most cases to send the youth's
Speaker 1: back into their homes and out of the streets, but
Speaker 1: those were most cases, some folks were having too much
Speaker 1: fun to be stopped. Herbert Patrick McLennon was a man
Speaker 1: who would wear a painted top hat and coat, calling
Speaker 1: himself the ghost and swinging a cat of nine tales
Speaker 1: at women he met. When authorities tried to intervene, he
Speaker 1: threatened to shoot them. Oddly enough, McLennan wasn't some teenager
Speaker 1: looking for fun, though. The police who eventually arrested him
Speaker 1: discovered that he was a well known public speaker. That
Speaker 1: was the strange thing about ghost hoaxers. While they may
Speaker 1: have started out as kids looking for a fun time,
Speaker 1: the adults in the community, teachers, clerks, and even women
Speaker 1: of means, had taken up hoaxing, hoping to bring a
Speaker 1: little bit of spontaneity to their lives, and because they
Speaker 1: had money, they had ways of improving upon their costumes
Speaker 1: with props and other special effects. Some tied coffins to
Speaker 1: their backs so they looked like they had just risen
Speaker 1: from the grave. Others incorporated live music while haunting, and
Speaker 1: many tended to lurk in places known for death and
Speaker 1: supernatural activity. Cemeteries were popular, and if an area wasn't
Speaker 1: scary enough, a hoaxer might paint a glowing skull on
Speaker 1: a wall somewhere to mark their territory for anyone walking
Speaker 1: past it. After years of being terrorized, assaulted, and robbed,
Speaker 1: the Australian people had had enough. The police weren't helping,
Speaker 1: and everyone was tired of avoiding certain parts of their
Speaker 1: towns under threat of being haunted. Dogs became instrumental in
Speaker 1: stopping hoaxers from hurting each other. One man, Charles Horman,
Speaker 1: had served in the military and took it upon himself
Speaker 1: to wage his own war on the hoaxers. He armed
Speaker 1: himself with a shotgun and a cane, once spending off
Speaker 1: two men simultaneously who had been caught committing multiple crimes.
Speaker 1: By the time World War One started, the idea of
Speaker 1: terrorizing other people as ghosts, had lost its flavor. No
Speaker 1: one wanted to pretend to be the dead when thousands
Speaker 1: of Australians were giving their lives overseas, and even after
Speaker 1: the war ended, ghost hoaxing never picked back up again.
Speaker 1: Perhaps everyone finally realized that the dead should probably stay
Speaker 1: away from the living. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities, subscribe for free on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
Speaker 1: 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. Ye