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On a Short Lease · 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 are
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  Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. There are some pretty
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  Speaker 1: surprising superstitions people have about their houses. Victorian era homeowners
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  Speaker 1: used to cover all the mirrors after someone died to
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  Speaker 1: keep the spirit from getting trapped inside. The Irish believe
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  Speaker 1: that if you rocked an empty rocking chair, you were
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  Speaker 1: inviting something evil to come and sit in it, and
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  Speaker 1: a new home should always come stocked with a new broom,
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  Speaker 1: lest you want to risk accidentally sweeping out any good
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  Speaker 1: luck that may have been inside. Happy On Hall in
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  Speaker 1: Leicestershire came with its own superstition, one more sinister than
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  Speaker 1: simply rocking and empty chair. Whoever owned the home was
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  Speaker 1: not supposed to remove a pair of green shoes from
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  Speaker 1: the premises or else. The house was designed and built
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  Speaker 1: by David Pepion in sixteen twenty four. David was a
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  Speaker 1: French architect and military engineer. It was a strange building
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  Speaker 1: for its time, octagonal in shaped and raised above the landscape.
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  Speaker 1: Its roof formed across from overhead, and there was a moat,
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  Speaker 1: something meant more for middle aged castles than for seventeenth
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  Speaker 1: century manor houses. Over the years, the house was remodeled
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  Speaker 1: and there isn't a single photograph of it in its
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  Speaker 1: original state, but we know a lot about who owned it.
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  Speaker 1: It passed through the hands of numerous owners, included David
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  Speaker 1: Pepillon's great great grandson, who also happened to be named
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  Speaker 1: David Pepion. This younger David, also known as Pamp, wasn't
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  Speaker 1: well liked in his community. It was rumored that he
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  Speaker 1: had an evil eye that, when pointed at someone who
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  Speaker 1: had wronged him, would fix them for a small period
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  Speaker 1: of time. For example, he once fixed a few men
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  Speaker 1: who were plowing a field the reason he didn't like
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  Speaker 1: the way that they were doing it. For the remainder
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  Speaker 1: of the day, the men were frozen in place until
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  Speaker 1: Pamp chose to let them go. His evil nature was
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  Speaker 1: so reviled in the town that people would avoid him
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  Speaker 1: entirely or sign a cross over their chest at the
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  Speaker 1: mention of his name. Still, even a man has hated
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  Speaker 1: his Pamp needed companionship. He was known to have kept
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  Speaker 1: a mistress in the home very Little is known about
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  Speaker 1: the woman he was seeing, except that she was Spanish
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  Speaker 1: and she was not allowed to leave Pepillon Hall. His
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  Speaker 1: mistress was eccentric, sometimes spotted by neighbors as she strolled
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  Speaker 1: along the roof for exercise. In seventeen fifteen, two years
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  Speaker 1: before pamp would marry another woman, the mistress disappeared. She
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  Speaker 1: was presumed dead, but no grave had been erected near
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  Speaker 1: the hall. It wasn't until nineteen o three when her
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  Speaker 1: final resting place was finally found during a massive renovation.
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  Speaker 1: When workers tore down a brick wall in the attic,
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  Speaker 1: they discovered the woman's remain But the mistress might have
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  Speaker 1: known what was coming, considering the declaration she had been
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  Speaker 1: given before her death. She had cursed the home, claiming
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  Speaker 1: that if a pair of her green shoes ever left
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  Speaker 1: the property, serious misfortune would befall the new owners. During
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  Speaker 1: each sale, buyers were forced to sign contracts stating that
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  Speaker 1: the woman's shoes would remain in the hall. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: green shoes weren't everyone's taste, and despite the signed paperwork,
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  Speaker 1: they were quickly done away with the first owner. After
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  Speaker 1: the Papillons suddenly died one day, he left the shoes
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  Speaker 1: to his daughter in his will. The next owner, Lord Hopeton,
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  Speaker 1: purchased the house after the previous owner's death, but couldn't
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  Speaker 1: bear to stay in the house as each night he
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  Speaker 1: was disturbed by loud noises, crashes, and other strange sounds,
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  Speaker 1: signs that a spirit had been disturbed and would not
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  Speaker 1: rest until the shoes were returned. Hope in contact of
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  Speaker 1: the daughter of the previous owner and purchased the shoes
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  Speaker 1: back from her. Once he had placed them back in
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  Speaker 1: the home, the sounds never came back. Another owner had
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  Speaker 1: a similar experience years later when he loaned the shoes
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  Speaker 1: to a museum in Paris. His name was Thomas Halford,
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  Speaker 1: and because he had signed a contract promising the shoes
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  Speaker 1: to the museum for a whole year, the violent sounds
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  Speaker 1: continued to ring throughout the home until they were returned.
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  Speaker 1: Frank Belville, the owner who had commissioned the renovations in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen o three, didn't listen to his predecessor and had
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  Speaker 1: the shoes sent away During construction, the spirit wasn't content
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  Speaker 1: simply making sounds throughout the hall. This time, workers started
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  Speaker 1: collecting injuries. One even died on the job. Bellville had
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  Speaker 1: the shoes brought back and stored on site until construction
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  Speaker 1: could be completed. Several years later, Bellville apparently hadn't learned
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  Speaker 1: his lesson and donated the shoes to another museum. This
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  Speaker 1: angered the woman's spirit so badly that she made his
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  Speaker 1: life a living hell. How so well, First Bellville was
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  Speaker 1: seriously injured in a hunting accident, then two servants died,
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  Speaker 1: the hall caught fire, and lightning strikes killed three polo
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  Speaker 1: horses on the grounds. Belleville had gotten the message. He
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  Speaker 1: took the shoes back and locked them away, literally throwing
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  Speaker 1: away the key so they couldn't be removed again. Then,
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  Speaker 1: during World War Two, while American soldiers were staying in
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  Speaker 1: the home, two soldiers broke into the cabinet where the
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  Speaker 1: shoes were being kept and took one each. Not long after,
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  Speaker 1: the men died, presumably in battle. Finally, in nineteen fifty,
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  Speaker 1: the shoes became the property of one of David Papillon's descendants,
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  Speaker 1: who successfully removed them from the home and had them
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  Speaker 1: put on display in a local museum. But that's not
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  Speaker 1: where the story ends. The shoes were only one cursed
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  Speaker 1: object in the entire house. The other came in the
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  Speaker 1: form of a portrait of Pamp himself. It had been
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  Speaker 1: painted in seventeen fifteen and was left behind after the
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  Speaker 1: house was sold in eighteen forty. Visitors to the hall
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  Speaker 1: would complain about the unsettling feelings they'd get from its presence.
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  Speaker 1: One woman even claimed to have woken up to find
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  Speaker 1: David Papillon at the foot of her bed, wearing the
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  Speaker 1: same outfit as he did in the painting. It was
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  Speaker 1: as if he'd stepped out of the frame just to
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  Speaker 1: meet her. Very superstitious. Indeed, some people think the whole
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  Speaker 1: world revolves around them, that they are the center of
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  Speaker 1: a very small universe where everyone else exists to serve
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  Speaker 1: only them. These individuals aren't very popular, after all, Who
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  Speaker 1: wants to be around someone with such delusions of grandeur.
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  Speaker 1: If you were Joanna Southcott in the early eight hundreds,
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  Speaker 1: you might be surprised. Joanna was born in Telford, England,
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  Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty. Her upbringing was modest. She often helped
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  Speaker 1: her father on his farm doing dairy work. After her
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  Speaker 1: mother died, she got a job working in a local
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  Speaker 1: shop before becoming a domestic servant and Exeter, one of
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  Speaker 1: the other employees at the home where she worked. Footman
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  Speaker 1: became interested in Joanna, but she rebuffed him. In retaliation,
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  Speaker 1: he spread a rumor about a non existent mental illness,
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  Speaker 1: which got her fired. It was a time of change
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  Speaker 1: for Joanna, as not only did she need to seek
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  Speaker 1: new employment, but she also left the Church of England,
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  Speaker 1: which she had belonged to since birth. Instead, she became
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  Speaker 1: a Wesleyan, a Christian denomination named for English priest John Wesley.
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  Speaker 1: Not long after that, though, Joanna came to a realization
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  Speaker 1: she was much more than a domestic servant or the
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  Speaker 1: daughter of a farmer. She was gifted she she thought,
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  Speaker 1: was a prophet. Joanna referred to herself as the woman
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  Speaker 1: clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her feet
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  Speaker 1: and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, as
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  Speaker 1: had been described in the Book of Revelation. From eighteen
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  Speaker 1: o two to eighteen fourteen, she published thousands of pages
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  Speaker 1: of her prophecies, many dictated in rhyme. Her teachings garnered
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  Speaker 1: the attention of others in the church who started following
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  Speaker 1: her instead. It was estimated that the South Kadian movement
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  Speaker 1: had collected as many as twenty thousand sealed. Members to
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  Speaker 1: be sealed meant official membership within her organization, which included
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  Speaker 1: a card Joanna created herself. It consisted of a hand
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  Speaker 1: drawn circle on a small slip of paper, which was
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  Speaker 1: signed by both Joanna and the follower before being folded
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  Speaker 1: in half and sealed in wax. Membership cost roughly fifteen shillings.
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  Speaker 1: Up until this time, Joanna had never married. By all accounts,
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  Speaker 1: she was still a virgin, so when she announced her
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  Speaker 1: pregnancy at the age of sixty four, it came as
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  Speaker 1: a shock to everyone. Not only that, but the baby
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  Speaker 1: she was carrying was none other than the messiah named Shiloh,
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  Speaker 1: whose birth would bring about an age of peace and love.
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  Speaker 1: Her followers hung on her every word, but the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the public didn't buy it. It ridiculed her in
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  Speaker 1: the press, writing satirical articles and drawing cartoons depicting her
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  Speaker 1: as a large, unstable woman. The child's birthday was prophesied
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  Speaker 1: to be October nineteenth, of eighteen fourteen. It's came and went.
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  Speaker 1: Shilo never appeared, but Joanna had an explanation. She always
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  Speaker 1: had an explanation. The reason Shilo was not born was
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  Speaker 1: because his mother had failed to find him a father.
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  Speaker 1: A month later, she married a believer named John Smith,
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  Speaker 1: who was only happy to play dad to the new Messiah. Still,
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  Speaker 1: Shilo was nowhere to be found. Another month passed and
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  Speaker 1: the unthinkable happen. Joanna Southcott died. Her followers thought that
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  Speaker 1: she had slipped into a coma or a trance, something
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  Speaker 1: she could be awakened from in order to deliver Shiloh
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  Speaker 1: as promised, but it was too late. An autopsy was
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  Speaker 1: performed and the results were published in the Stanford Mercury
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  Speaker 1: local paper. Joanna had never been pregnant. Her distended belly
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  Speaker 1: was the result of numerous gall stones in her gallbladder,
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  Speaker 1: as well as an ample accumulation of gas in her intestines.
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  Speaker 1: Her followers were heartbroken, but the rest of the public
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  Speaker 1: was angry at the woman's deception. They attack suspected believers,
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  Speaker 1: including one woman who had come to Joanna's home to
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  Speaker 1: ask about the baby. She had mud and other detritus
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  Speaker 1: thrown at her and was nearly killed. Joanna Southcott's body
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  Speaker 1: was buried in secret several days later, but her movement
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  Speaker 1: lived on. At the height of its popularity, a boasted
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  Speaker 1: as many as one hundred thousand followers, though the number
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  Speaker 1: had dwindled by the turn of the century. But Joanna
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  Speaker 1: had made plans for after her death, which added to
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  Speaker 1: the intrigue surrounding her prophecies. She had sealed them in
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  Speaker 1: a wooden box, only to be opened in the event
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  Speaker 1: of an emergency. All twenty four bishops of the Church
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  Speaker 1: of England were required to attend the opening. It seemed
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  Speaker 1: that there was no crisis large enough to warrant opening
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  Speaker 1: the box, though, as both the Crimean War and World
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  Speaker 1: War One couldn't get the bishops to break the seal.
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  Speaker 1: One man in said he'd come into possession of the
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  Speaker 1: box and was prepared to open it. Inside he found
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  Speaker 1: a few papers, a lottery tickets, and a pistol. South
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  Speaker 1: Cattian followers were not convinced. They said the box was
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  Speaker 1: a fake and that the real one was still out
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  Speaker 1: there somewhere. For decades, remaining believers took out ads and
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  Speaker 1: petitioned for the real box to be presented and opened,
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  Speaker 1: especially since the end of the world was quickly approaching.
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  Speaker 1: You see, Joanna had prophesied that the year two thousand
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  Speaker 1: four was when the day of Judgment would arrive. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: it's been fifteen years and we're all clearly still here.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe Joanna Southcott was wrong, or perhaps she truly was
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  Speaker 1: interested in the profits, just not the kind she led
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  Speaker 1: her followers to believe. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
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  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
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  Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
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  Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,