Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Ghost in the Machine

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Ghost in the Machine · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Photography during the late eighteen
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  Speaker 1: hundreds and the turn of the centuries saw a drastic
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  Speaker 1: leap in progress from the pinhole cameras and digara types
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  Speaker 1: of the past. Peter Houston invented the first role film camera,
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  Speaker 1: in which he then licensed to George Eastman of the
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  Speaker 1: Eastman Kodak Company. From then on, photographers of all kinds,
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  Speaker 1: from amateurs to professionals, were able to capture special events
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  Speaker 1: and daily life with the press of a button. However,
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  Speaker 1: speed wasn't everything. There was something about those old cameras,
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  Speaker 1: the way that they could capture the truth of a moment.
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  Speaker 1: One photographer used her camera to capture more than a moment,
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  Speaker 1: though she managed to snap a picture of something entirely unexpected.
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  Speaker 1: In eight Wellington Henry Stapleton Cotton, also known as Lord Combermere,
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  Speaker 1: was killed while visiting London. He had been injured in
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  Speaker 1: a horse drawn carriage accident, and weeks after the incident,
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  Speaker 1: a blood clot in his heart resulted in cardiac arrest.
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  Speaker 1: Four days later. He was laid to rest in the
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  Speaker 1: town of Wrenbury in Cheshire, County England. His wife's sister,
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  Speaker 1: Sybil Corbett, had been staying with them for a short
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  Speaker 1: time when he passed away. She joined Lady Combermere at
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  Speaker 1: the funeral, providing support for her grieving sister. However, before
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  Speaker 1: she left the house, she set up a camera in
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  Speaker 1: the abbey library. It was an older camera, unlike the
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  Speaker 1: small point and shoot camera's Eastman Kodak was producing back
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  Speaker 1: in the United States, it required any subjects sitting in
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  Speaker 1: front of it to remain completely still for the duration
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  Speaker 1: of the photograph. Miss Corbett decided to avoid the hassle
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  Speaker 1: of a fidgety subject and let the camera capture the
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  Speaker 1: empty library. Almost no one was in the house. Staff
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  Speaker 1: were either attending the funeral or relegated to their quarters
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  Speaker 1: until the family had returned from the cemetery. The cameras
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  Speaker 1: shutter remained open for an hour. When Miss Corbett returned
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  Speaker 1: to the abbey, she packed it up and stowed it
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  Speaker 1: until she was able to have the photographic clay inside developed.
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  Speaker 1: Eight months later, she got her chance, and upon examining
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  Speaker 1: the photos she had taken, noticed something odd about the
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  Speaker 1: picture of the library. For one, the light from the
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  Speaker 1: windows had blown out much of the left side of
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  Speaker 1: the shot, casting a blinding glow across the bookshelves and
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  Speaker 1: some of the furniture. And seated in the chair in
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  Speaker 1: the foreground was a person, well not a whole person.
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  Speaker 1: He was transparent, almost a blur. The visage wore a
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  Speaker 1: high collared shirt and black cloak. His hair was white,
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  Speaker 1: and he had a beard his Corbett showed the photo
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  Speaker 1: to her sister, who confirmed that it was, in fact
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  Speaker 1: the late Lord Combermere. Corbett couldn't believe it. She went
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  Speaker 1: back to check the date the photograph had been taken
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  Speaker 1: and was shocked to find that as the camera was
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  Speaker 1: capturing the ghostly image of Lord Combermere, everyone else was
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  Speaker 1: attending his funeral. Very few people within the family knew
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  Speaker 1: about the picture, and for several years things stayed that way.
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  Speaker 1: Then in a secret society of paranormal researchers known as
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  Speaker 1: the Society for Psychical Research published a journal detailing Ms.
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  Speaker 1: Corbett's fantastic photo. It turns out a friend of hers
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  Speaker 1: had contacted them about looking into whether Lady combamere sister
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  Speaker 1: had in fact captured a ghost on film. The plate
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  Speaker 1: she'd used to take the photo had been prepackaged and
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  Speaker 1: had not been exposed prior to the day's events. She
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  Speaker 1: had also only ever taken pictures of landscapes and buildings,
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  Speaker 1: both subjects devoid of people. The obvious answer, then, was
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  Speaker 1: that someone in the house had taken a brief rest
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  Speaker 1: in the chair before getting up again. However, the person
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  Speaker 1: sitting in the chair did not resemble any of the
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  Speaker 1: men who might have been in the house at the time.
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  Speaker 1: There was something else, though, too. While the top half
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  Speaker 1: of Lord Combermere's ghost was visible in the photograph, his
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  Speaker 1: legs were not. They weren't hidden behind anything. They simply
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  Speaker 1: weren't present, which made sense given his condition. Just before
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  Speaker 1: he died, the horse drawn carriage that had injured him
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  Speaker 1: had also crushed his legs. A relative who attended him
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  Speaker 1: before his death claimed to a reporter at the time
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  Speaker 1: that his legs had been so badly damaged he would
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  Speaker 1: never walk again. Perhaps that's why he needed to sit
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  Speaker 1: in the first place. Evil's origins are nebulous. The debates
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  Speaker 1: over nature versus nurture whether a person is made evil
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  Speaker 1: or born That way has raged on since the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of time. For some, their environment and youth shapes who
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  Speaker 1: they become as an adult, where others it's as though
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  Speaker 1: the darkness is a part of from birth. One man, however,
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  Speaker 1: was so terrible he was considered the first in a
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  Speaker 1: new breed of evil. His story had been told to
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  Speaker 1: William Danwberg by a local monk who had witnessed the
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  Speaker 1: event's firsthand. William was a medieval chronicler in England during
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  Speaker 1: the twelfth century, and the monk had lived near an
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  Speaker 1: antis castle where the events had taken place. A man
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  Speaker 1: who had performed terrible deeds in York had fled to
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  Speaker 1: the castle to hide. The lord of the castle welcomed
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  Speaker 1: him in, providing him shelter from the people chasing him.
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  Speaker 1: When the heat died down, the man ventured into town,
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  Speaker 1: eventually finding a woman with whom he could settle down
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  Speaker 1: and start a new life. But there was trouble in paradise.
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  Speaker 1: Rumors had begun to circulate about the wife that she'd
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  Speaker 1: been seeing another man behind her husband's back. Determined to
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  Speaker 1: get to the bottom of things, the man told his
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  Speaker 1: wife that he'd be leaving for a trip and would
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  Speaker 1: be gone for several days. Once he was gone, however,
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  Speaker 1: the truth about his wife was finally revealed. As she
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  Speaker 1: welcomed her lover into their home. Her husband saw the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing. He'd snuck back into the house and hid
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  Speaker 1: among the rafters in the bedroom waiting. He was furious
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  Speaker 1: about the revelation, and in his rage, he lost his
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  Speaker 1: footing he fell off a beam and landed hard beside
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  Speaker 1: the bed. His wife's lover ran out while she hurried
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  Speaker 1: to her husband's aid, telling him he must have bumped
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  Speaker 1: his head rather hard as there had been no one
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  Speaker 1: else in the house. Whatever he thought he'd seen must
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  Speaker 1: have been a hallucination from the fall. But the man
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  Speaker 1: actually had hurt himself quite badly, and he was ordered
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  Speaker 1: to strict bed rest until he was healed. The monk
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  Speaker 1: went to visit him. He had heard the stories of
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  Speaker 1: what the man had done in his previous life. He
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  Speaker 1: urged him to confess his sins and take holy communions
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  Speaker 1: so that he would be free of spiritual burden if
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  Speaker 1: his condition took a turn for the worse. The man, though,
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  Speaker 1: couldn't be bothered with the monk's request. He knew what
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  Speaker 1: he had seen, and no amount of misdirection could make
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  Speaker 1: him forget his wife had been with another man in
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  Speaker 1: their bed, and he couldn't rest until he had gotten justice.
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  Speaker 1: He told the monk he'd consider his request the following day,
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  Speaker 1: but as the old saying goes, don't put off till
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  Speaker 1: tomorrow what you can do today. The man's condition did,
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  Speaker 1: in fact worsen, and during the nights he passed away.
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  Speaker 1: Despite not confessing his sins or taking the Eucharist, the
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  Speaker 1: man was given a Christian burial, and perhaps that's where
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  Speaker 1: the monk's plan had gone wrong. A man with as
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  Speaker 1: much unquenched evil coursing through his veins could not be
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  Speaker 1: stopped by such a ceremonial end. The nights after his
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  Speaker 1: burial he rose from the dead. He wandered all over
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  Speaker 1: town with a pack of barking dogs in tow, exacting
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  Speaker 1: vengeance on anyone in his path. Villagers refused to go
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  Speaker 1: out at night for fear of being attacked. Everyone locked
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  Speaker 1: their doors at night. Each evening he emerged, his rotting
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  Speaker 1: corpse growing worse. Its stench caried with it a cloud
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  Speaker 1: of death and decay that killed those who got too close.
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  Speaker 1: Many who survived moved far away, leaving those who chose
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  Speaker 1: to stay to deal with the undead monster tormenting their town.
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  Speaker 1: The monk held gathering of other religious men from all
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  Speaker 1: over Europe to help him deal with it. However, some
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  Speaker 1: in the town couldn't wait any longer. The problem had
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  Speaker 1: to be dealt with immediately, so while the religious men
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  Speaker 1: ate and brainstormed, two brothers took matters into their own hands.
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  Speaker 1: Their father had died after coming in contact with the
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  Speaker 1: walking corpse, and they didn't want anyone else meeting a
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  Speaker 1: similar fate. Shovels in hand, they went to the cemetery
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  Speaker 1: where the man had been buried. It didn't take them
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  Speaker 1: long to dig him up. He hadn't been buried as
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  Speaker 1: deeply as they had expected, and he didn't look the
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  Speaker 1: way a dead body was supposed to look. Rather than
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  Speaker 1: a rotting husk of dried skin and bones, he was
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  Speaker 1: instead filled with blood. The shroud he had been buried
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  Speaker 1: with was ripped up as well. Something was odd about
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  Speaker 1: the ave. It had been disturbed from the inside. The
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  Speaker 1: brothers stabbed the corpse, the blood inside oozed all over.
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  Speaker 1: They hauled the body out of the grave and took
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  Speaker 1: it just outside of town, where they built a funeral
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  Speaker 1: pyre To finish it off once and for all. The
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  Speaker 1: brothers beat the body repeatedly with the shovel, before ripping
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  Speaker 1: its heart out and tossing the body and the hearts
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  Speaker 1: on the fire. Once the corps had been reduced to ash,
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  Speaker 1: the two men told the monk and his companions at
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  Speaker 1: the church of what they had done. The monster was gone.
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  Speaker 1: No one else died from the evil man's poisonous clouds
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  Speaker 1: after that, but something else had emerged that night. It
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't be given a name for another five hundred years
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  Speaker 1: or so, but the Monk's story had given birth to
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  Speaker 1: a legend as immortal as the man it was based on.
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  Speaker 1: The monk and the townsfolk had faced off against what
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  Speaker 1: is widely considered to be the first known vampire. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you've been joined today's guided tour of the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
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  Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast book series and television show,
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  Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
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  Speaker 1: World of lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,