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Wildman Joe
Wildman Joe
Every now and then you run across a piece of local history that feels too wild to be real. In this episode, I look into the wild, unbelievable collision of two totally different lives right here in Evansville back in the late 1800s.
First, there's Jeremiah "Doc" Kohler, a former St. Louis saloon keeper with a criminal record who turned to the circus world. He became famous for running a trained flea circus where his performers pulled tiny gold chariots and juggled (he even got dragged into court over a star flea named Prince Henry).
Then there's Joe Rettig. Joe was born into…
The skinny
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