The Bizarre Case of Mercy Brown – Vampire or Victim?

Tombstone of Mercy Brown in Exeter, RI, U.S.
Tombstone of Mercy Brown in Exeter, Rhode Island, U.S.

Just over a hundred years ago, residents of Exeter, Rhode Island became convinced that one of their own was returning from the grave to feed on the lives of their own relatives. In 1892, the family of Mercy Brown family started dying off from a terrible sickness, one by one.  The town blamed her – even though by then, she was one of the victims. 125 years later, her undead  vampire legend is still infamous in New England.

In the late 1800’s, rural Exeter was thinly populated, with just around 960 residents in 1890.  Tuberculosis was slowly taking those remaining lives.  “Consumption,” as it was known then, was the leading cause of death in the U.S. in the 19th century.  It was a very unpleasant way to go, often drawn out for a year or more. According to one description of a victim at the time: “the weak, emaciated figure, forehead drenched with sweat, face a livid crimson, eyes sunk, breath laborious, and with a cough so relentless the wretched sufferer barely had time to speak.”

The disease was easily passed between people living in close quarters, which is why it could sweep through entire families. Near the end, the patient would be persistently hacking up of a thick, bloody phlegm.  There was no treatment or cure for tuberculosis at the time. It wasn’t widely known what caused the disease or how it spread. All physicians could recommend was “rest, eating well, and outdoor exercise.”  In 1892, patients had only a 20% chance of survival.

The fear surrounding such a ghastly disease helps explain the terror that swept through Exeter, Rhode Island. The villagers were aware that the Browns, a farming family had a deadly problem. First, George Brown’s wife, Mary, succumbed to the illness. Six months later, his 20-year-old daughter, Mary Olive, also fell sick and died. Within the next several years, his 19-year-old daughter, Mercy Brown, was also dead.

George’s teenage son Edwin, known as Eddie, had been a healthy lad who worked as a store clerk at the Farmer’s Exchange & General Variety Store.  Exeter was shocked when he too became suddenly sick and frail. The county doctor told George Brown that consumption was taking his family, one by one. But the country folk of Exeter had another more sinister suspicion. Residents began to fear that one of the ‘undead’ was causing the Brown deaths. 

This undead “vampire” was believed to none other than the deceased Mercy Brown.

Mercy Lena Brown was born in Exeter in 1872.  Her family, friends and neighbors all called her Lena.  In 1882, her mother, Mary Eliza was the first to succumb to the disease. Mary was a strong woman, used to hard work on the farm with her husband. Despite her stamina, consumption took her in December, 1883.  As was the custom, the whole town turned out for the funeral.

By spring of next year, their oldest daughter, Mary Olive, a 20-year-old dressmaker, began to cough and fade as well. She complained of a crushing weight on her chest, which seemed to be drawing the life out of her as she slept.  She grew pale and gaunt, then too passed away in June, 1884. Tuberculosis commonly consumed entire families, and occasionally even small towns. No one understood that tuberculosis was a communicable disease caused by a deadly bacteria.   

Several years passed until 1889, when Edwin, George & Mary’s only son, began to cough up phlegm tainted with blood. He had terrible dreams of suffocation and drowning.  In the mornings, he said he felt as though the very blood had been drained from his body while he slept . Again, the county doctor had no remedy for what was turning Edwin from a hearty young boy into a pale, frail man.

For the better part of two years, he grew increasingly thin and weak. Friends advised him to travel to Colorado Springs, where a well-known spa-sanitarium would help him regain his vitality.  Edwin took the advice, and headed west with his new wife. It seemed to work a bit as the western climate at least slowed the disease’s progression.

Alleged vampire Mercy Brown at age 18 in 1891
Alleged vampire Mercy Brown at age 18 in 1891

Mercy Brown, who was just a child when her mother and sister died.  She didn’t fall ill until 1891, nearly a decade after they were buried. After a year of suffering, she too died, still unmarried, on January 17, 1892 at only 19.  Edwin came back to Rhode Island when he learned his sister Mercy was dying. On his return to Exeter, Edwin’s health again began to deteriorate rapidly. 

Any progress made while out west quickly disappeared.  During feverish dreams he would cry out that “She was here!” or “She haunts me!” George Brown and Edwin’s wife were distraught.  He’d lost three of his family and it looked like it would soon be four.  Dr. Harold Metcalf of Wickford likely took him aside and was quite blunt.  ‘There is nothing I or any other doctor can do about consumption.’

“He is in the Lord’s hands now.“

Rumors quickly spread through the town of what Edwin said and superstitions took over.  There were some who thought they knew the cause. Several townsfolk kept telling George Brown about an old New England folk tale. The superstition claims that “in some part of a deceased relative’s body, live flesh and blood might be found.  This was supposed to feed on the living relatives who are in feeble health.”  Basically, the myth claims that when members of a family wasted away, it was because one of the undead deceased was draining their life force. 

They’d come to the conclusion that one of the three deceased Brown’s was leaving their grave at night to drain the life out of its family relatives. Caught between heaven and hell, they were sucking the life out of Edwin from beyond the grave.  Only by identifying and ‘killing’ the undead, could young Edwin be saved. 

At first, George Brown did not put much credence in the old-time superstition.  That is, until he grew desperate over Edwin’s rapid deterioration. Citizens of Exeter, urged George for permission to dig up the bodies.  Then they could figure out which one was to blame, and rid Edwin of the evil spirit stealing his life. Out of pure desperation, he reluctantly allowed the bodies of the wife and two daughters to be exhumed.  An examination would be performed by a reluctant Dr. Metcalf.

On a chilly morning on March 17, 1892, a group of Exeter men marched into Chestnut Hill Cemetery behind the Baptist Church with shovels over their shoulders.  They dug down into the cold earth and exhumed the bodies of each family member, one at a time. Neither George Brown, who could not bear to witness it, nor Eddie, who was too ill, was present. In the grave of Brown’s wife Mary, they found a rotting skeleton. In the grave of Brown’s eldest daughter Mary Olive, they found a rotting corpse as well.

Chestnut Hill Baptist Cemetery, Exeter, RI, U.S.
Chestnut Hill Baptist Cemetery, Exeter, RI, U.S.

However, upon opening the wooden casket of Mercy Brown, they all stepped back in horror. The nine-week-old remains of looked startlingly normal and un-decayed. Mercy appeared supernaturally well preserved. Her face appeared flush.  It even seemed that her hair and nails had grown. And when one of the men cautiously prodded the corpse’s chest with a spade, he found liquid blood. This seemed to confirm the local’s fears. 

Mercy Brown must be some kind of undead vampire!

Dr. Metcalf knew why she had died and understood what they saw. ‘She was buried in the coldest months of winter, her remains were frozen when they entered the grave and would not begin to rot until the spring thaw.’  The townsfolk of Exeter were not convinced.  The undead must be killed by having its heart removed and burned to ashes.

They returned to George Brown and asked permission to do so.  You can only imagine the state the poor, desperate father was in.  In a weak voice, he gave his consent.  The townsfolk returned to the cemetery.  Mercy Brown’s dress was torn open and her heart and liver were cut out.  The men gathered firewood and kindled a bonfire on a nearby outcropping of bedrock. They burned the two organs to ashes. 

The story goes that they next decided that to complete the cure, they must feed the ashes of Mercy’s heart & liver to Edwin! Because her heart and liver had blood still in them, locals believed that only by performing this bizarre ritual could Eddie’s life be ultimately saved.

They returned to Edwin Brown’s house with the ashes of his dead sister’s heart.  Doc Metcalf likely counseled George Brown that this was ridiculous superstition and not going to do any good.  As he had said, the fate of Eddie was in the Lord’s hands now.   None of that likely mattered to George Brown.  He would do anything to save his son. George gave his blessing.  They mixed the ashes with water and Edwin’s wife helped him drink down the horrific concoction.

After digging up and tearing up Mercy Brown, the townspeople reburied her heartless body into the grave at Chestnut Hill Cemetery.  Under a weathered tombstone, she now rests in peace. As expected, the consumption continued to consume young Edwin. He died just two months later on May 2, 1892.

The bizarre story does not end there.

Consumption continued to take George Brown’s remaining children until there was only one left. Annie Brown died in August 1895 at the age of 25. Jennie Brown died in October, 1895 at just 18 years old. Myra Brown died a year later in 1899, also at 18 years old.   Only Hattie May Brown, George & Mary’s fifth child survived.  She married and had three daughters of her own. 

Ironically, German scientist Robert Koch had discovered the bacteria that caused tuberculosis in 1882.  However, the new “Germ Theory” of disease only began to take hold in the U.S. a decade late.  Too late to save the poor Brown family. Tuberculosis, while rarer today, is still a danger. Just watch any pharmaceutical TV advertisement and listen for the spokesperson whispering about the ‘risk of tuberculosis.’

This was not the first time such a macabre folk remedy had been tried in Rhode Island. There were 18 other documented instances of the exhumation of family members in suspected ‘vampire’ cases throughout New England in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Mercy Brown would be the last however.

But that did not keep Rhode Island from quickly becoming the “Vampire Capital of America.”  The county’s isolated villages became a hotbed of vampire-like rumors for the next 30 years.   An 1896 Boston Daily Globe article describes how oddly prevalent the fears about undead vampires had suddenly become in Rhode Island.

Mercy Brown is further rumored to be the inspiration for Lucy Westerna in Bram Stoker’s 1897 Dracula novel. When the author died, newspaper clippings of the “vampire” Mercy Brown were found in his office files.

While Mercy Lena Brown had a very short life, her legacy as the “Last New England Vampire” will live on forever. Today, her Exeter gravesite is popular with curious sightseers and more serious believers, who often leave gifts behind such as red roses, jewelry, and of course, plastic vampire teeth.

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The Conqueror – the Movie that Killed actor John Wayne

American actor John Wayne and an above ground atomic test in Nevada
American actor John Wayne and an above ground atomic test in Nevada

John Wayne’s movie career is filled with dozens of classic films from 1939 to 1976. John Wayne is of course famous for the great American Western.  There’s one movie from his very long career, The Conqueror, that’s believed to be the cause of his death from cancer.  At the height of the Cold War in 1956, The Conqueror was filmed at St. George in southwestern Utah.  It was just over 100 miles downwind from the Nevada Test Site where 11 atomic bombs were exploded the previous year.  The cast and crew were unknowingly exposed to radioactive fallout during their 3 months of shooting.  How could this have happened?

The U.S. military detonated approximately 100 nuclear bombs above ground at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 to 1963. In 1953 alone, they carried out 11 atmospheric nuclear tests as a part of Operation Upshot-Knothole.  The mushroom clouds were tens of thousands of feet high, and desert winds carried radioactive fallout across the Nevada and Utah desert. St. George is just 137 miles (220 km) from the Nevada Test Site. Western Shoshone lands and deep canyons around St. George were covered with layers of deadly nuclear dust. In the summer of 1954, filming began there on The Conqueror. 

The tests had deceptively innocent names like “Nancy, Dixie, and Encore.”  Two of Upshot–Knothole’s tests were particularly dangerous to the people of Utah and deposited long-lasting radiation downwind. The first was “Simon,” a massive 43 kiloton bomb exploded in April 1953.  The second was “Harry,” a 32 kiloton blast that went off a month later in May 1953.  By comparison, the famous first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was only 13 kilotons.

“Harry” was 20 kilotons greater than the advisable yield determined by the Atomic Energy Commission’s Chief Medical Officer. Following “Harry’s” detonation, unexpected strong, early-morning winds carried radiation directly east towards populated areas.  On Western Shoshone “Indian” land, they were used to the bright flashes and loud rumbles of atomic testing. 

Native Americans were never warned in advance by the government.  

In St. George, Geiger counters measured 350 milliroentgens that year.  In some cases, they went off the scale of handheld counters.  As the cloud of radioactive fallout blew over the city, school children were at morning recess and mothers hung laundry out to dry.  The people were advised by a radio broadcast to stay indoors for an hour.

Radioactivity would also concentrate in “hot spots” like canyons due to wind patterns. In the weeks following “Simon” and “Harry,” the press began to express concerns.  So the Atomic Energy Commission created a publicity film to convince the public that they were safe, all was good. The AEC never advised those living downwind to avoid consuming vegetables and milk. Both absorbed the radioactive isotopes strontium 90 and cesium 137.  Those isotopes would not have diminished much a year later, when filming began. 

THE CONQUEROR

In one of the worst casting decisions ever made, American John Wayne was cast as the Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan.  He starred opposite Susan Hayward, who played Bortia, a captive princess and love interest for Genghis.  Dick Powell directed the film. Not only was the casting a bad idea, the Hollywood Studio, RKO, also decided that the movie should be filmed in remote St. George, Utah because its rustic scenery was thought to resemble Mongolia.

By the 1950s, it was well known that nuclear explosions produced massive amounts of highly radioactive and potentially lethal fallout. Still, the producers of the film decided to shoot the film near the test site in the remote Utah desert.  From June through August 1954, famous movie producer and aviator Howard Hughes assembled John Wayne, the rest of the cast and crew for his latest “epic” film. 

Much of The Conqueror was filmed in nearby Snow Canyon.

At the time filming took place, AEC authorities labeled the film site as perfectly safe from the harmful effects of radioactive fallout. This was even though abnormal levels of radiation were detected when the area was examined following “Harry.”  So the cast and crew poured into the small desert town, filling every motel and hotel for 3 months. They even cast local Shoshone Native Americans as Mongol warrior extras. They had no idea that Snow Canyon had become a radioactive hot spot.

At the end of the shoot, Hughes and Powell even had 60 tons of the radioactive Snow Canyon dirt shipped back to their studio in Culver City, California.  This was to make reshoots look realistic with the same color and consistency of dirt. Unbeknownst to RKO, radioactive desert sand sat on their back lot for decades, and is now an industrial complex.

Original 1956 movie poster for The Conqueror
Original 1956 movie poster for The Conqueror

The Conqueror depicted a turbulent love affair between the Mongol warrior chief and the beautiful daughter of his worst enemy.  Despite its high-profile cast, the film was a critical and box office bomb – no pun intended. No one bought cowboy John Wayne as a barbarian warlord, nor Hayward as his exotic lover.  The film has been listed as one of the 50 worst movies of all time.

Wayne and Hayward weren’t worried much by the harsh criticism. They were both popular actors and simply continued making movies. Unfortunately, with the dangerous filming location of The Conqueror, their health would never be the same.  John Wayne went on to star in famous Westerns like Rio Bravo, El Dorado, The Cowboys and his last film, The Shootist.  

He played Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, for which he won his only Academy Award for Best Actor.

However, within a few years of filming The Conqueror, unusual medical ailments started appearing in the cast and crew. In 1960, costar Pedro Armendáriz was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer.  After learning of his condition, he killed himself in 1963. That same year, the film’s director Dick Powell died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 53.

For Susan Hayward, her career abruptly ended 15 years later when she was diagnosed skin, breast and uterine cancer, before ultimately dying of brain cancer.  She died in 1975 at the age of only 56. That same year, costar Agnes Moorehead died of uterine cancer at the age of 74, likely from exposure to high levels of radiation during The Conqueror shoot. Costar Lee Van Cleef died of throat cancer in 1989.

Howard Hughes reportedly felt “guilty as hell” that his production company subjected all those innocent people to the toxic fallout in Utah.  He spent $12 million purchasing every copy of The Conqueror so it would never be seen again.  He supposedly watched it repeatedly in his final days before dying in 1976.

In addition to those working on the film itself, family members who came to visit also had cancer scares. Michael and Patrick Wayne visited their famous father on set.  Both would later have skin cancer and benign tumors removed. Susan Hayward’s son had a benign tumor removed from his mouth.  These could of course have come cigarette smoking which was still very common in the 1950s and 60s.

JOHN WAYNE

So what killed John Wayne?  Wayne spent years fighting lung cancer, first diagnosed in 1964.  He appeared to beat it when the diseased lung and two of his ribs were surgically removed.  Many of his friends tried to convince him that his condition resulted from exposure to fallout radiation during The Conqueror.  Wayne’s two sons visited the set in 1954 and played with Geiger counters around contaminated rocks. He however thought it was due to his two packs-a-day cigarette smoking habit.   

But cancer returned 14 years later when he went in for supposedly routine gall bladder surgery and learned he actually had Stage 4 stomach cancer.  Wayne passed away at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles in June 1979 at the age of 72. “THE DUKE” was actually born Marion Morrison in Winterset, Iowa.   We’ll perhaps never know for sure if filming The Conqueror resulted in the cancers that killed John Wayne and so many others.  But we do know that filming downwind of a nuclear testing site was certainly a questionable decision.

Map of the Nevada Test Site and Utah
Map of the Nevada Test Site and Utah

Testing has shown that the soil in some St. George canyons likely remained dangerously contaminated until 2007. During the 1970s, leukemia rates in the Western Shoshone Indians and residents of the St. George area were 5 times higher than the rest of the state.  Those affected with cancers came to be known as “Downwinders.” In an attempt to compensate them, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy sponsored a bill, The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) of 1979.  

However, the bill was never voted on in the U.S. Senate.

By 1990, it was determined that approximately 110 of the 220 people who had worked on The Conqueror had developed some form of cancer, and 49 had died. Given all this evidence, it still cannot be definitively proven that the cancers that killed the cast and crew of The Conqueror were linked to the radioactive fallout at the shooting location.

Doctors from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City believe the majority of the cancer deaths were directly tied to their radiation exposure.  However, the connection between radiation and cancer has been practically impossible to prove conclusively. In a group to 220, doctors would expect only 30 cancers to develop. With half afflicted, the connection to The Conqueror was now highly suspicious rather than merely coincidental.

In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed RECA into law. The act provided compensation in amounts between $50,000 and $100,000 to those suffering from leukemia, thyroid cancer, bone cancer, and any other cancer determined by the National Cancer Institute to develop after exposure to low-level radiation. The government expected only a few hundred would apply. Instead, as of 2018, 34,372 claims had been approved, totaling $2,243,205,380.  The amount paid out could have been much higher, since many Downwinders had already died.

In all, the U.S. military conducted 928 nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site between 1951 and 1992. One hundred of them were atmospheric tests, before they switched to underground testing. It is estimated that almost 150 million curies of radioactive fallout was released by the time atmospheric testing ending in 1963. This equates to about 20 times the amount of radiation released during the infamous Chernobyl, Ukraine nuclear explosion and meltdown.

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The Beast of Gevaudan – the Werewolf Origin Story

Statue of the Beast of Gevaudan in Auvers, France
Statue of the Beast of Gevaudan in Auvers, France

In the mid-1760’s, a mysterious wolf-like creature ravaged the countryside of Gévaudan, France. Over 100 men, women and children were savagely killed.  The so-called Bête du Gévaudan, or Beast of Gevaudan, tore out the throats of its victims and mutilated their organs. No one knew what it was — or how to stop it – not even the best hunters in the kingdom.

To this day, no one can agree on exactly what the Beast was.  Other than between 1764 and 1767, something truly viscous stalked humans in the quiet hills of Gévaudan. For three long years, the Beast terrified villagers of this southern region of France.  Many have suggested that the Beast may not have been a wolf at all, but something much worse.

Gévaudan was secluded in the mountains of Margeride in the south of France, largely cut off from the rest of Europe. Life there was quiet and peaceful — until 1764.  That year, a young woman watching her herd of cows claimed that something terrifying attacked her. She described the beast as “like a wolf, yet not a wolf.”  Her dogs fled in fear, but her panicked cattle scared it off.

Two months later, that summer, something attacked and killed a 14-year-old girl, Jeanne Boulet, while she too was watching over her family’s livestock. The villagers initially dismissed these incidents as normal — after all, sheepherding attracted predators. But in August, another girl was killed.  In her last breath, she described the animal as a “une bête horrible,” a horrible beast”

From that point, the Beast’s attacks began to occur regularly.

At the end of August, a young boy watching his sheep disappeared.  His body was found later, torn apart and partially eaten. Four more kills in September convinced the residents of Gévaudan that something was terribly amiss in their province.  An evil, blood-thirsty creature lurked in their midst.

There was no shortage of reports in the Paris press about the deadly encounters with some unknown animal. The bête féroce attacked and partially ate not only women and children, but lone adult men as well. There were so many attacks that some speculated there were in fact two or more beasts.

The creature seemed to target victims’ throats, but also hearts were torn out. Some were even decapitated! The crazed Beast seemed to kill for sport, leaving mutilated, half eaten corpses behind. Even more strangely, the Beast rarely killed livestock. It appeared to have a taste for human blood.

The terrified villagers of Gevaudan did not sit idly by.  Bounties were offered and hunters combed the countryside. Then in October, hours after a mauling, the Beast was seen near Chateau de la Baume, stalking a herdsman. Hunters followed it into the woods and flushed the animal into the fields. The men shot a round of musket fire into the creature.  But after it appeared to fall, the Beast rose and ran off into the woods.  Its hide appeared to be thick enough to repel musket balls!

18th century French depiction of the Beast of Gevaudan
18th century French depiction of the Beast of Gevaudan

The Beast of Gevaudan was described as anywhere between the size of a calf up to a horse. Its hide was thick, its fur a reddish-brown. Some described the beast with a stripe down its back and faint stripes down its sides. The Beast’s tail was said to be long and thick, with a tasseled end, like a lion. The head was described as overly large, with a massive mouth of fangs and a pig-like stoutness. It was an ambush predator that crawled silently on its belly before pouncing on victims.

Villagers superstitiously believed the Beast of Gevaudan was a supernaturally bulletproof loup-garou or werewolf. Another encounter with huntsmen described the beast being shot three times, falling each time, then getting back up. More extraordinary reports claimed the beast could walk on its hind legs and had glowing, fiery eyes!

The people of Gévaudan now prepared a massive response.

Jean-Baptiste Duhamel, the captain of the local infantry, and Étienne Lafont, a regional official, were joined by 300 volunteers to hunt it down.  They scoured the countryside, laid traps with poison bait, and even had some volunteers dress like women. There was now a 6,000-livre bounty on the creature’s head. The men were highly motivated, hungering for the reward money which was equal to an average year’s salary.

But although the group of hunters occasionally stumbled upon the Beast, it proved too smart and powerful to be subdued. A French paper wrote:

“Hunters have neither been able to stop it, because it is more agile than they, nor lure it into their traps, because it surpasses them in cunning. Its terrifying appearance weakens their courage, sets their hands shaking, and neutralizes their skill.”

Duhamel himself described the Beast as having a “chest as wide as a horse, a body as long as a leopard and reddish fur with a black stripe.” Even hunters who came from far and wide had no luck. A father-son team from Normandy, who claimed to have killed over 1,000 wolves, came to Gévaudan. But even they failed to kill it.

Eventually, Duhamel was ordered to give up. Two wolf hunters, Jean Charles d’Enneval and his son, Jean-Francois replaced him. Unlike Duhamel, who formed massive hunting parties, the d’Enneval’s believed in stealth. For the next four months, they slaughtered wolves en masse and made numerous false claims they had slain the beast.

Meanwhile, the Beast’s attacks continued.

A group of seven children in January 1765, led by 10-year-old Jacques Portefaix, were able drive off the Beast with long sticks. Young Portefaix was rewarded by Louis XV with an education paid by the crown. That summer, a young woman named Marie-Jeanne Valet claimed to have impaled the Beast with a bayonet.  It attacked her and her sister while crossing the River Desges. The creature got away, but woman became known as the “Maid of Gévaudan.”

The story of the Beast of Gevaudan, meanwhile, was spreading and covered in newspapers from Brussels to Boston to Bucharest.  The problem got so bad it even attracted the attention of the French king.  Louis XV, convinced the Beast of was too fierce for the locals, sent his personal gunbearer, François Antoine to Gévaudan.  

18th century French depiction of the Beast of Gevaudan
18th century French depiction of the Beast of Gevaudan

At first, the 71-year old Antoine seemed to have succeeded. Antoine brought 18 men in his hunting party and 5 wolfhounds from the Royal Pack. In September 1765, Antoine tracked a pack of wolves into the Pommier forest.  There they came upon a large male wolf near the Abbey of Chazes and killed it.  The wolf measured 6 feet long and 130 pounds.  A typical male wolf is 4 to 5 feet long and only 90 pounds.

They named it Le Loup de Chazes and became heroes to the people of France.  The wolf however, had no human body parts in its stomach.  They had it stuffed nevertheless, presented it to King Louis in Versailles, and collected the reward money.  The villagers were wary, and a few months later, the attacks began again.  In December, no more than two months later, two boys were attacked and killed.  The villages suffered 35 more killings and numerous non-lethal attacks.

The beast seemed fiercer and more fearless than ever.  

It attacked and killed dozens more, stirring up fear and panic in the countryside. The court at Versailles chose to ignore these new attacks, insisting that Antoine had killed the creature. The Beast’s reign of terror finally ended in June of 1767. 

A local nobleman, the Marquis d’Apcher organized yet another hunt. An unlikely hero emerged. A 60-year old local farmer named Jean Chastel shot and killed another huge wolf on the slopes of Mount Mouchet. Chastel, who had been praying the rosary, saw the beast, quickly took aim, and fired. The bullet stunned the beast and the hunting party dogs finally killed it off.

When villagers cut the wolf-like beast open, they found human remains inside. The Beast of Gevaudan seemed to have finally been killed at last. The attacks in fact stopped.  The animal killed was never identified—only described as having a large head, giant mouth, ears and feet, unlike that of a French wolf.  The killings ceased, and Chastel was celebrated as the real Hero of Gévaudan.

The mystery surrounding this macabre story has endured to this day.  Doubts remained that it was indeed a wolf at all, and that it was ever really killed but rather returned to the mountains. So what exactly was the Beast?  No one is entirely sure what terrorized the people of Gévaudan.

Several theories have of course been offered.

The most prominent theory is that the Beast was a large and aggressive Eurasian wolf. The animals are native to the region, and there were thousands of wolf attacks on record. But the witnesses never described just a wolf. A common gray wolf can be ruled out as the French people were familiar with local wolves. Even a rabid one would be easily recognized. And none of the victims that lived contracted rabies.

Other theories suggest the Beast of Gevaudan was an escaped exotic animal, like a hyena or a lion. Most commoners in France would have never seen such an animal, so it would appear like a mythical or even demonic beast. Duhamel even said, “You will undoubtedly think this is a monster, the father of which is a lion. What its mother was remains to be seen.”

So was it a lion, hyena, or tiger? The pig-like head, thick tail, ruddy fur, and black stripe sounds like a hyena, but even the biggest hyena is smaller than the average gray wolf. It is possible that it had been in a person’s private holding and escaped. However, striped hyenas are not known to attack humans.

A lion certainly matches the size of the Beast of Gevaudan and would exhibit the Beast’s predatory behaviors, including preying upon humans as food.   A young adult male does not have a fully mane and sometimes just a mohawk stripe of fur running down its back. However, given the volume of nobles that took part in hunts; at least one would’ve recognized an African lion. The French film, Brotherhood of the Wolf, exploits this particular theory.

Also unrealistic is the theory that the Beast was an extinct prehistoric predator such as a Bear-dog or Dire Wolf.  Bear-dogs, were prehistoric carnivores as large as 1700 pounds. They possessed terrifyingly large jaws, a wolf-like shape, and the heftiness of a bear. Of course these animals are extinct. The idea that such a large animal would evade detection for thousands of years is just too implausible.  Sorry, Bigfoot lovers.

A final theory suggests the Beast was in fact a disguised human.

Perhaps a serial killer terrorized Gévaudan, searching for unaccompanied women and young children.  Many of the victims were ‘ritualistically’ decapitated and organs removed.  Maybe killer roamed about wearing a beast-like costume. Some have speculated that it was an armored dog, which explains why it shrugged off musket shots.  However, in all encounters with the beast; nobody ever claimed they saw anything remotely human.

Statue of the Beast of Gevaudan in Auvers, France
Statue of the Beast of Gevaudan in Auvers, France

There’s no denying the Beast of Gévaudan as the origin of modern werewolf lore. The bullet used by Chastel was supposedly forged of a silver amulet depicting the Virgin Mary. A silver bullet!  This was the first recorded reference to silver bullets however, and the metal was chosen for its religious symbolism, rather than its deadly effect. Many of the French people’s superstitious fears nevertheless believed the Beast was a shape-shifting human, possessed by a demon. 19th century horror novels took this particular idea and ran with it.

The bronze statue in Auvers, France depicts a young Marie-Jeanne Valet, “The Maid of Gévaudan,” burying her spear in the Beast’s chest. It is depicted as a normal, yet massive wolf with a striped mane. Although there are many plausible theories about the true identity of the Beast, all admit that the truth will never be fully known. Without any genetic or forensic evidence, the Beast of Gévaudan is bound to forever remain a legendary mystery.

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The Macabre Corpse Trial of Pope Formosus

The Cadaver Synod (Corpse Trial) of Pope Formosus
The Cadaver Synod (Corpse Trial) of Pope Formosus

Yes, you read that right.  In 897, the new, Pope Stephen VI, held such hatred and animosity toward his predecessor, Pope Formosus, that he put him on trial in Rome.  One small detail, Pope Formosus had been dead for 7 months.  Undeterred, Pope Stephen ordered his body exhumed from St. Peters.  Then, Formosus’ decaying corpse was dressed it ecclesiastical robes, propped up on a throne, and put on trial nonetheless.   What on earth had Pope Formosus done that motivated Pope Stephen VI to go to such macabre lengths?

Formosus was born in 816 Italy.  When of age, he entered the seminary and became a priest. Pope Nicholas I appointed him bishop of Porto Santa Rufino in 864 at the age of 48.  Recognized for his administrative abilities, he was entrusted with this rather important Italian diocese. Two years later, the Pope appointed Formosus as Legate to Bulgaria as well. 

During this mission, Formosus demonstrated both religious and diplomatic skills, effectively representing the interests of the papacy. Boris I, ruler of Bulgaria, was so impressed he requested that Pope Nicholas I appoint Formosus as Archbishop of Bulgaria. Pope Nicholas had to deny the request, however, as bishops were forbidden from overseeing more than one diocese.

In 875, the Italian nobles elected Charles the Bald as the new Holy Roman Emperor. The current Pope, John VIII, formally invited Charles to Rome.  All bishops, including Formosus, came to witness the coronation of the new emperor. However, all was not settled with the vast empire.  Charles had a popular brother, now dead, whose widow opposed the coronation.  Many were on her side, and not happy with Charles the Bald, including … Bishop Formosus.

Fearing a political reckoning, Formosus and many others fled Rome.  

The next year, Pope John VIII called for an assembly of the clergy and ordered all papal officials to come to Rome. Formosus refused however, fearing a trap by Charles the Bald.  As punishment, the angry Pope excommunicated Formosus in 876.  The accusations were that had “deserted his diocese, conspired to attain the position of archbishop, and plotted to usurp the emperor.”  It seemed to all, Formosus’ promising career in the church was over. Ironically, prior to this, Formosus had actually been considered a candidate for the papacy.   

Following the death of Pope John VIII in 882, the ambitious Formosus, saw an opportunity to return to favor.  He began a correspondence with the new Pope.  John VIII’s successor, Marinus I, withdrew the excommunication sentence and restored Formosus former title. After six years in exile, he was a bishop again!

Marinus I was pope for one year, then was succeeded by Stephen V, who was pope for six years. During medieval times, there was often a revolving door of popes – whether through disease, expulsion or even murder. Then in 891, upon the death of Stephen V, the cardinals elected Formosus himself as pope. He had reached the top. An amazing feat for a once excommunicated bishop.

Almost immediately, Formosus found himself embroiled in political intrigue. 

Pope Formosus
Pope Formosus

The new Pope and the current emperor, Guy III, did not see eye to eye on much.  Guy forced the pope into crowning his young son Lambert “the co-emperor” in 892, ensuring his succession. Guys’ other actions, particularly his expulsion of the Byzantines from Italy, alarmed Formosus. He began to seek support amongst powerful families of the empire against the emperor.

Pope Formosus encouraged Arnulf of Carinthia (Austria) to attack Rome to “liberate Italy from Guy’s malignant control.” His reward would be the throne itself.  Then Guy died in 894. Lambert, who was still too young to rule, was left in the care of his mother, Agiltrude, now Regent.

Arnulf and his army crossed the Alps and invading Italy in 895, and successfully seized Rome. The day after Arnulf captured the city, Pope Formosus crowned him the new Holy Roman Emperor.   Lambert and his mother fled the city.  It was quite the successful coup.  Formosus had now achieved both religious and political success.

Then Pope Formosus died in 896 at the age of 80.  He was succeeded by Pope Boniface VI, who was the pope for only 15 days before he too died.  Boniface VI’s successor was the aforementioned Pope Stephen VI.  Stephen was still incensed over the election of Formosus, an excommunicated bishop, to the papacy even after six years.  His hatred for Formosus apparently knew no bounds. The new pope decided to be incredibly ruthless and petty.

First, Pope Stephen VI, publicly charged the dead Pope Formosus with his former excommunication charges: desertion, holding multiple bishoprics, and the illegal ascension to the papacy.  That not being enough, he then orchestrated a public trial.  Pope Stephen shocked Rome when he ordered Formosus’ corpse, now dead for 7 months, to be exhumed from the Vatican to stand trial in person. 

The “Cadaver Synod” was conducted in 897 in Rome’s Basilica di San Giovanni Lateran.

The rotting corpse of Pope Formosus was dressed in papal vestments and propped up on a throne on the altar to face the charges against him. Pope Stephen VI assigned a young deacon to act as Formosus’ attorney and speak for him. Pope Formosus grotesque corpse often had to be held upright by guards as Pope Stephen VI himself hurled accusations at the reeking body .

“When you were bishop of Porto, do you deny usurping the universal Roman See in such a spirit of ambition?” To which Pope Formosus of course could make no reply. While Stephen VI continued his rant, the corpses’ body, like a weak doll, would often nod, then fold over, while attendants rushed in to support it.

As one would expect, Formosus’ deacon had little to say, other than to agree with whatever Pope Stephen said. During the trial, a small earthquake was actually felt inside the basilica, causing minor damage.  It horrified the already repulsed attendants – clearly a sign from God!

Stephen VI paid no mind to the tremors. In the end, he found the dead Pope guilty of violating canon law and usurping the papacy. He did not stop there. Stephen VI declared all of Formosus’ acts as Pope null and void: all consecrations, all appointments, all ordinations, EVERYTHING.  He was to be removed from all official accounts, essentially written out of papal history. Still, even that was not enough for the insatiable Pope Stephen.

Formosus’ pathetic crumbling body was then stripped of its rich garments and dressed in peasant’s rags. Stephen ordered three of the fingers of his right hand cut off!  These were the fingers of the benediction, with which he had given blessings.  His body was then dumped into an unconsecrated graveyard for foreigners. However, Stephen VI later determined that burial was too light a treatment for Formosus.

He had poor Pope Formosus dug up a second time! 

Pope Stephen VI
Pope Stephen VI

This time, he ordered weights attached to the corpse and had it tossed into the Tiber River.  By throwing his enemy in the Tiber, Stephen VI was following an ancient Roman tradition. The Tiber was where the ancient Roman emperors disposed of their most infamous rivals. For thousands of years, the river was where you threw anyone you wanted to permanently exile from society, even from memory.

Why did Stephen VI go to such insane lengths to destroy an already dead enemy? The bones of a holy person could be transformed into a holy relic, a source of miracles. Every church, monastery, nobleman and king had holy relics. They were brought out during trials; they were carried by armies; they were paraded to encourage good harvests.

Through their relics, saints continued to be members of the church: hearing the pleas of petitioners and often responding with divine intercession. It was this future holy presence that the twisted Stephen VI sought to deny Pope Formosus. With his body lost at sea, no one would ever venerate his relics.

While Pope Stephen was now finally satiated, the Roman public began to turn against him. First a public outcry, then a clergy uprising occurred.  The vivid imagery of a deceased pope being put on trial caused widespread horror and indignation. The Vatican deposed of Pope Stephen VI and threw him in prison.

Pope Stephen VI was later found strangled to death in his cell.

His reign lasted a little over a year. As for Pope Formosus, his body was pulled from the Tiber by fishermen. It was carried to the Church of the Prince of the Apostles where it was kept safe by monks.

The new Pope, Theodore II, annulled the infamous and embarrassing Cadaver Synod.  This act was a step towards rehabilitating Formosus’ legacy and restoring his dignity and honor. He ordered that Formosus’ body be reburied in Saint Peter’s Basilica in papal vestments and full honors. Formosus is still buried in Saint Peter’s to this day.

The corpse trial of Pope Formosus remains one of the most infamous and sensational events in the history of the church. The Cadaver Synod had lasting implications for the governance of the church. It prompted a reexamination and reform of papal policies and procedures.

It also showed the human aspect of the papacy. It highlights how personal vendettas, political machinations, and theological disputes, fueled by one unhinged leader, could burst forward in a dramatic and disturbing way. Popes, despite their spiritual authority, were like any other powerful leader throughout the world. They were not immune to ruthless ambition, personal animosities, and a general lack of Christ-like forgiveness.

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The 1970 Kent State Mass Shooting of College Protestors

Kent State Shootings victim, May 4,1970
Kent State shootings victim, May 4,1970

It happened on May 4, 1970, during a student demonstration against the Vietnam War at Kent State University. Four students were killed and nine injured when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on the protestors.

The impact of the shootings triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities to close.  The shootings have come to symbolize what happens when a severely divided country leads to protests and ultimately violence.  Despite the fact that over 50+ years have passed, two key question hangs over the events of May 4th.  How could this have happened, and who was to blame?

Just the week before, President Richard Nixon expanded the Vietnam War into neighboring Cambodia. The decision sparked protests at college campuses nationwide, including Kent State in northeast Ohio.

The Vietnam War was a decade long civil war that pitted the communists of north Vietnam against democratic South Vietnam.  The United States supported the south with thousands of troops on the ground, ships, planes and weapons.  Communist China and the Soviet Union did the same with the north.  By 1970, a significant portion of Americans was against sending even more U.S. troops to Vietnam.

President Nixon had been elected in 1968 due in large part to his promise to END the Vietnam War.  However, on April 30, Nixon authorized U.S. troops to invade next door Cambodia. North Vietnamese troops were in Cambodia using it to launch attacks on the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese. It was the intense public backlash that led to the shootings at Kent State University.

At Kent State, protests began on Friday, May 1. 

Hundreds of students gathered on the Commons, a popular green space in the center of campus. Several student speakers gave angry speeches against both U.S. involvement in the war and President Nixon.  Student organizers called for another rally at Noon on Monday, May 4.

That night, there were violent clashes between student protestors and local police in downtown Kent. Police said their cars were hit with bottles, and that students were stopping traffic and lighting bonfires in the street.  Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom declared a state of emergency and ordered all the bars closed. The entire Kent police force was called into duty.

The mayor’s order to close the bars early on a Friday night only angered the students more, and increased the size of the crowds downtown. The mayor then called Ohio Governor James Rhodes.  Fearing a larger demonstration that might lead to violence, the mayor asked for state assistance. Police were able to disperse the crowd and force protesters back to campus. However, the stage was now set for more trouble to come.

The following day, Saturday, May 2, there were rumors that radical revolutionaries were present who made threats against the university and the town. Mayor Satrom met with representatives of the Ohio National Guard sent to Kent.  Satrom was worried that his local forces would be inadequate to challenge any greater disturbance if violent radicals were involved.  At 5:00 p.m. he called Governor Rhode’s office to make a request for Ohio National Guard troops.  Rhodes agreed.

By the time they arrived at Kent State that night, someone had already set fire to the school’s ROTC Building next to the Commons.  Scores of students cheered as it burned.  Some demonstrators clashed with firefighters attempting to put out the blaze.  The wooden ROTC building could not be saved and burnt to the ground before midnight.  By that time, over 1,000 demonstrators surrounded the blaze. The mayor asked the Guardsmen to intervene. Clashes between students and the guard ensued well into the night.

Tear gas was eventually deployed and dozens of arrests made.

The next day, Sunday, May 3, was thankfully a fairly calm one on campus. The weather was sunny and warm, and students were laying on the grassy Commons.  Some even chatted with the over 1000 armed Guardsmen patrolling the campus. Radical protestors were assumed to be responsible for setting fire to the smoldering ROTC building, but no one was arrested.

The University administration banned all further rallies in the interest of campus safety. University President Robert White had 12,000 leaflets printed and distributed on Monday morning. They indicated that all rallies were prohibited as long as the Guard was on campus.

Republican Governor Rhodes, who was running for the U.S. Senate, flew to Kent on Sunday morning. At a press conference, he provocatively called student protestors “The worst of America.”  Minor confrontations between protesters and guardsmen occurred Sunday evening, with rocks thrown, tear gas deployed, and arrests made.

Then came Monday, May 4th, 1970. 

Though prohibited from occurring, a major protest was nevertheless still scheduled for Noon in the Commons.  Crowds of students began to gather at about 11:00 am.  An estimated 3,000 protesters and spectators assembled by Noon. Stationed at the ruins of the ROTC building were about 100 Ohio National Guardsmen with M-1 military rifles.

Authorities have never agreed on who exactly organized the Kent State protests— university students or external anti-war radicals. But the protest on May 4th, was initially peaceful.

Ohio National Guardsmen advance on the Kent State student protestors
Ohio National Guardsmen advance on the Kent State student protestors, 1970

About 500 active demonstrators with signs and chants gathered around The Victory Bell at one end of the Commons.  Another 1,000 people were cheering them on.  An additional 1,500 people were spectators standing around the edge of the Commons.  The active demonstrators were shouting protests against both the war and the presence of the National Guard on campus.

Though peaceful, Ohio National Guard General Robert Canterbury ordered the protesters to disperse.  The announcement was made by a Kent State police officer using a bullhorn and driving across the Commons in the back of a Guard jeep. The protesters refused to disperse and began to shout and throw rocks at the Guardsmen.

“Disperse immediately! Go back to your classes! This demonstration is not permitted!“

General Canterbury ordered his men to fire tear gas into the crowd at the Victory Bell, and to lock and load their weapons.  The Guardsmen from the ROTC building then marched across the Commons.  They forced protesters to move up Blanket Hill, then down the other side towards the Prentice Hall parking lot and a football practice field. The football field was enclosed with fencing, so the Guardsmen soon got caught up inside the angry mob. 

Yelling and rock throwing reached a peak after about 10 minutes. The Guardsmen, realizing their mistake, began retracing their steps from the football practice field back up Blanket Hill. When they reached the top, witnesses say 28 of 70+ guardsmen suddenly turned and fired their M-1 rifles down into the crowd of college protestors.  Most guardsmen fired into the air or ground to try and scare the protestors. However, a smaller portion fired directly into the student crowd.

Over just 13 seconds, nearly 70 shots were fired.

Four Kent State students lay dead on the ground—Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder and Sandra Scheuer.  Nine others were seriously injured. Four had been shot in the back. The dead and injured were spread across either the parking lot or the slope of Blanket Hill.

The 70+ Guardsmen retreated back down into the Commons. There they faced a hostile crowd which realized that the Guardsmen had just shot their fellow students. Many angry demonstrators attacked the Guardsmen.  This time, perhaps shocked into reality of what they had done, no more shots were fired.

Kent State University faculty marshals, led by Professor Glenn Frank, pleaded with National Guard leaders to allow them to talk with the demonstrators and avoid further violence.  After about 20 minutes of emotional begging, the faculty marshals convinced the students to peacefully disperse and leave the Commons.

Kent State shooting victims are attended to.
Kent State shooting victims are attended to, May 4th, 1970.

Back at the site of the shootings, multiple wailing and flashing ambulances had arrived.  Emergency medical attention was given to the students who had not died immediately. The ambulances then formed a screaming procession as they rushed the victims to the local hospital.

President White immediately closed the University.

Three days after the shootings, a general student strike occurred across the country, with nearly 4 million students and professors walking out of class. Governor Rhodes compared protesters to Fascist Brownshirts and communist agitators. Classes did not resume for six weeks until the summer, when students held a Candlelight Vigil to remember the victims of May 4th. 

So why did members of the National Guard fire into a crowd of unarmed students? Either they: a) were ordered to, b) fired in self-defense, or c) were in no immediate danger, meaning the shootings were unjustified.  Guardsmen later testified in federal court that they fired because they were in fear of their lives. They felt the demonstrators were advancing on them and shot in self defense. Disagreements remain as to whether they were under sufficient threat to use deadly force.

One interpretation is that responsibility for the shootings lied with the Guardsmen. Experts from the 1970 Scranton Commission said: “The indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable.” Federal criminal and civil trials since, however, have accepted the guardsmen’ explanation.

The Kent State shootings changed American history. It reverberated throughout the final four years of the Vietnam War. Folk rockers Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young quickly released a song about the shootings.

The university built a gym on part of the parking lot where students were killed. The school even tried to rebrand itself as just plain “Kent University.” Since just saying the name “Kent State” immediately brought thoughts about the shootings.

For years, some believed the Kent State students got what they deserved.

Why would anyone want to venerate those victims?   There was the common opinion that everyone in college in the 1970’s were elite, rich kids. People would not accept the idea that American soldiers turned their guns on American citizens without just cause.

In a civil suit filed by the injured Kent State students, an out-of-court settlement was reached in 1979.  The Ohio National Guard agreed to pay, through the state of Ohio, those injured on May 4, 1970 a total of $675,000. In the settlement statement, signed by the Ohio National Guard members, they expressed regret, but not wrongdoing:

“In retrospect, the tragedy… should not have occurred. The students may have believed that they were right in continuing their mass protest in response to the Vietnam War … Some of the Guardsmen, fearful and anxious from prior events, may have believed that their lives were in danger. Hindsight suggests that another method would have resolved the confrontation…”

Student photographer John Filo won a Pulitzer Prize for his famous image of young Mary Vecchio screaming over Jeffrey Miller’s fallen body in the parking lot, just after the last shot was fired on May 4th.

Campus Memorial for the victims of the Kent State shootings
Campus Memorial for the victims of the Kent State shootings

In 1990, the university dedicated a small memorial was on campus and Ohio Governor Dick Celeste issued a formal apology. In the university’s mind, it was the end of the story.  Taylor Hall became home to the May 4 Visitors Center with photos, educational space and displays of artifacts related to the shootings.

“Hindsight suggests that another method would have better resolved the confrontation.” – Governor Celeste, 1990. Better ways must be found to deal with future polarized and armed confrontations in a deeply divided nation such as the U.S. is today.

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The Medieval Dancing Plague of St. Vitus Dance

The Dancing Plague of Strasbourg in 1518
The Dancing Plague of Strasbourg in 1518

Five hundred years ago, during a hot July summer in the French city of Strasbourg, a strange mania seized its people. Hundreds of citizens became compelled to dance uncontrollably in the streets – for no apparent reason.  This collective “dance fever” lasted for WEEKS.  That is, until they collapsed from exhaustion, unconsciousness or, in some cases, even death. Only carting the victims off to the nearby St. Vitus grotto shrine appears to have ultimately halted it.  This bizarre event came to be known as the Dancing Plague or St. Vitus Dance.  It remains a puzzling and mysterious episode in European history.  But what caused it?

It all started on the 14th of July in 1518.  Strasbourg, then a part of the Holy Roman Empire (today France), sits picturesquely on the River Rhine.  A woman named Frau Troffea left her home, went into the street, and suddenly began to dance.  This wasn’t a proper court dance or even an informal country dance.  She was spinning, twisting, and hopping, all without any music. Passersby thought it at first amusing or at least curious, with other shaking their heads in disapproval.  They summoned her husband, Herr Troffea, and even he cannot get her to stop.

Neighbors slowly came to realize this is a woman will not, or cannot, stop. She continued to dance all day, until she collapsed from exhaustion. But then, after resting for a short while on the warm cobblestones, she got up again and resumed her frenzied dance.  When asked why she dances, Frau Troffea makes no eye contact and does not respond.

By the third day a crowd of spectators had gathered — venders, porters, pilgrims, nuns, and children — were all watching the bizarre spectacle.  Her confused husband had to pour water down her dancing throat.  She dances for nearly a week on now swollen feet, pausing occasionally only due to exhaustion.  Six days later, Frau Troffea was still going strong! She hadn’t eaten and barely slept. 

Day or night, rain or shine, she couldn’t seem to stop dancing.

At this point, the suspicious priests in Strasbourg were convinced she was cursed. They sent her and her husband in a wagon 30 miles away into the mountains to Saverne. There they hoped she might be cured at the grotto shrine of Saint Vitus.  They believed it was he who had cursed her as St. Vitus was the patron saint of dancers.

But then … some of those who had watched her strange uncontrollable dance began to dance as well.  Like her, they cannot explain themselves. They dance as if compelled with limbs waving.  Within a week, 34 people in Strasbourg were afflicted and dancing in the streets.  The Dancing Plague had spread quickly throughout the city, affecting people from all walks of life. Men and women, young and old, rich and poor – all were seized by the uncontrollable urge to dance.

The exact symptoms of the Dancing Plague varied from person to person. Some dancers drooled, others screamed, while still others laughed uncontrollably.   Some danced alone, while others formed groups and danced in clusters. The dancers’ feet eventually bled from overuse.  Their shoes were worn to shreds.  The dancing was not limited to daylight, but continued into the night.

This is when shock and alarm began to spread through Strasbourg. 

Saint Vitus
Saint Vitus, patron of dancers

The more citizens that became afflicted, the more desperate the privy council became. The clergy insisted it had to be the work of a vengeful Saint Vitus.  The guild of physicians declared the dance to be a disease, caused by “overheated blood.” In the hopes of wearing the dancers out, the city council had a stage built in the town square and grain market, and hired musicians to play. Their theory was that the dancers could only be cured by dancing it out. So soon, the rhythm of lutes, fiddles, pipes, horns and drums filled the streets. 

It backfired horribly.  The music only induced more citizens to uncontrollably join the crazed dancers! Some of the onlookers must have saw something compelling in the frenzied dancing, something that lured them into a similar mania.

By the time August came, there were 400 dancers with no end in sight. As the hot summer sun beat down on their sweating faces, they continued to hop from leg to leg, spin in circles, flail their arms and whoop loudly. Their eyes are glassy and distant. Blood seeps from swollen feet into leather boots and shoes.

Dozens now began to drop like flies, overwhelmed by exhaustion. The lucky ones merely lost consciousness. Many literally danced themselves to death, dying of heart attacks. At its height, some sources claim the dancing was killing up to 15 people a day.

The privy council ordered the stages to be torn apart.  They then prohibited all dance and music in the city for the rest of the summer.  Finally, the council agreed with the clergy. They ordered those worst afflicted to be taken by wagons on the three-day ride to the grotto shrine of Saint Vitus. 

Frau Troffea was still at the shrine and had apparently been cured!

At the grotto, priests placed the trashing dancers before a wooden carving of St. Vitus. They put red shoes on their feet, sprinkled holy water on them, and painted their heads with crosses of consecrated oil.  The ritual, carried out in a darkened grotto, thick with incense and slow, droning Latin prayers, had the desired effect in stopping the dancing.

The grotto shrine of St. Vitus in Saverne.
The grotto shrine of St. Vitus in Saverne.

When word reached Strasbourg, more and more were sent to Saverne to be “forgiven” by St. Vitus. Within a week, the stream of suffering pilgrims was complete. The Dancing Plague had lasted for over a month, from mid-July to late August.

Once roused, some dancers claimed that they were cured by the chants, while others said it was St. Vitus curse. The Dancing Plague was not limited to Strasbourg, but spread to other cities, including Basel and Frankfurt. In some places, it lasted for several months, and in others, it died out quickly. Historians have estimated the total number of dancers to be in the thousands.  The final death toll was likely in the hundreds.

Strasbourg was not the first “Dancing Plague” to hit medieval Europe. More than ten such events had broken out along the Rhine River. In 1237, a group of children from Erfurt danced 20 km (12 mi) to the neighboring town before collapsing in exhaustion.  In 1374, thousands of villagers along the Rhine fell into a dancing mania, screaming in agony as the pain increased. Up until the 15th century, nuns from different convents would climb trees and meow like cats! As they were smaller in number than Strasbourg, they were interpreted in their day as either demonic possession or divine punishment.   

In the 500 years since, many theories have been offered as an explanation. 

Just 8 years later, the famous physician Paracelsus visited Strasbourg.  He investigated what he called the choreomania and wrote a treatise on ‘The Diseases That Deprive Man of His Reason.’ Best known for his pioneering work in medicinal chemistry, Paracelsus suggested that a person’s “laughing veins” could provoke an intense ticklish feeling. This would cloud judgment and provoke extreme motions, until the “frenzied blood” was finally calmed.   

The Strasbourg poor were perhaps primed for an epidemic of hysterical dancing. There had been a succession of poor harvests, resulting in high grain prices, political instability, not to mention epidemics of syphilis and leprosy. This stress could have manifested as hysterical dancing.  Why?  Because the citizens believed it could –  the power of compulsion. People were suggestible and a firm belief in the Saint Vitus Curse was enough to set them off.   

The Dancing Plague victims being lead off to St. Vitus shrine. 1518
The Dancing Plague victims being lead off to St. Vitus shrine, Strasbourg 1518.

In the popular Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Red Shoes. The cursed pair of beautiful, scarlet leather slippers condemn their owner into a dance as punishment for her vanity. It is so convoluted that she eventually finds an executioner to hack off her own feet!

Dancing due to tarantism was also common theory at the time, as it was believed to be caused by the bite of a large tarantula wolf spider. Its symptoms included convulsions, sweating, and a frenzied desire to move. The cure for tarantism was said to be … you guessed it – music and dancing.

Some modern theories …

Modern historians argued that the dancing plagues could have been caused by ergot, a mind-altering mold found on damp rye.  When inadvertently baked into bread and eaten, it can cause twitching, jerking, AND hallucinations similar to LSD. Ergotism was common in Europe in the 16th century. However, while ergot can cause convulsions, it also restricts blood flow to the extremities. Someone poisoned by it would most likely die and NOT be able to dance for days on end.

Some characterize choreomania as a “psychic epidemic” similar to others around the world involving involuntary laughing or fainting. Psychologists stated that it belongs to a class called mass psychogenic illnesses.  This mass hysteria is a condition in which a group of people share a common delusion or anxiety. It suggests that the dancers were caught up in a kind of trance.  And that their frenzied behavior was a result of their collective belief in the need to dance.

It’s then a type of psychic contagion, similar to the laughing epidemic that engulfed Tanzania as recently as 1963. When a couple of girls at a local mission school began to giggle, their friends followed suit until two-thirds of the pupils were laughing and crying uncontrollably.  Once home, the pupils “infected” their families and soon whole villages were consumed by hysterics. Doctors recorded several hundred cases, lasting a week on average. The epidemic lasted 18 months.

In ethnic cultures, people enter trances deliberately during various ceremonies. Once entranced, their perception of pain is known to be marginalized.  Of course, Dancing Plagues do have a modern parallel — Raves. Here, often with the help of alcohol and some colored pills, partygoers go on to dance for days with few breaks, food or sleep.

The Dancing Plague remains one of the most enigmatic episodes in European history. It continues to fascinate scientists and artists alike. The tale makes us pause – a lone figure who sparks a mass movement, in this case a dance, that is so consuming, it transcends both one’s will and physical abilities.

The trouble with mass psychogenic illness is that there’s no way to predict when it will happen. What causes them remains a mystery.  The Dancing Plague is a powerful example of how a people can become caught up in a shared delusion, anxiety or fear, and how such mass hysteria can lead to tragic consequences, even today.

There’s something intrinsically unsettling when the fabric of society suddenly breaks down, replaced with inexplicable communal behavior, leading ultimately to chaos. St. Vitus Dance reminds us of the fragility of our own society, and of the strength of shared delusions. One only has to think back to Nazi Germany or the Jonestown Massacre to realize the ominous power of mass hysteria.

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The Forgotten Freedom Riders of 1961

Freedom Riders say goodbye as they leave for Alabama in 1961
Freedom Riders say goodbye as they leave for Alabama in 1961

During the spring of 1961, both African American and white student activists launched the Freedom Rides.  Their goal was to challenge U.S. segregation on public transportation in the dangerous Deep South. Traveling on buses from Washington, D.C. to Jackson, MS, the Freedom Riders met violent racial opposition from white mobs in Alabama and Mississippi.  The brutality against the Freedom Riders gathered national attention, eventually forcing the Kennedy Administration to intervene. The 1961 Freedom Rides were able to harness American’s outrage to force a federal ban on segregation in interstate travel … but it came at a heavy human cost.

In 1960, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of interstate travelers, terminals, restaurants, and restrooms was unconstitutional. America’s Deep South blatantly ignored the ruling. In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) new national director, James Farmer, had the idea of a Freedom Ride to force desegregation on interstate buses.  He was inspired by the black college students who’d launched the nonviolent sit-ins at lunch counters in Greensboro, NC. Farmer decided to have an interracial group of Freedom Riders ride buses from Washington, DC to New Orleans.

College students saw CORE’s announcement recruiting volunteers to participate in the Freedom Rides.  Seminary student, and future Congressman, John Lewis joined 12 other civil rights activists to form an interracial, intersex group of Freedom Riders.  The 13 recruits underwent three days of intensive training in nonviolence – role playing the aggressive confrontations they would encounter. The black Riders would be traveling into the Jim Crow South—where segregation was enforced—and use “whites-only” restrooms, lunch counters and waiting rooms.

CORE sent letters to President John Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and the president of Greyhound, announcing their intentions, and hope for protection. CORE decided to move forward despite receiving no response from the federal government or the bus company.

On May 4, 1961 in Washington DC, six of the Riders boarded a Greyhound bus and seven took a Trailways bus, planning to ride to New Orleans. The Riders —seven African Americans and six whites—knew they’d face racial epithets, brutal violence, and possibly even death. They prayed together that they had the courage to face their trial nonviolently in the fight for equality. Their plan was to reach New Orleans (with stops along the way) on May 17. It would commemorate the 7th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.

Violence in South Carolina …

In Virginia and North Carolina, they faced only shouts and arrest threats from locals. It was not until the riders arrived in South Carolina, that they encountered violence. The first attack occurred on May 12th in Rock Hill, SC.  A group of angry white men attacked John Lewis; Albert Bigelow, an older white, World War II veteran; and Genevieve Hughes, a 28 year old white activist, as they attempted to enter a “whites-only” waiting area together.  Thankfully, a local black pastor rushed them to safety.  The police arrested two more of the black Riders for using a “whites-only” restroom, but later released them.

The beating, coupled with the arrests, began to attract media coverage. The next day, the group reached Atlanta, Georgia with the press now following them. The Freedom Riders successfully ate at desegregated lunch counters and sat in desegregated waiting rooms. The Riders also met with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) in Atlanta for dinner. King shared disturbing rumors about impending violence for the Riders in Alabama. King prophetically told Jet reporter Simeon Booker, who was following them:

“You’ll never make it through Alabama.”

– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Atlanta, GA, 1961

Unbeknownst to them, a Birmingham police sergeant, Tom Cook, and the Public Safety Commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Connor, were in league with the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan (KKK).  They planned a violent reception for the Freedom Riders.  Cook and Connor agreed that a mob of white men could beat them up for about 15 minutes.  Then they’d send in the police and make a show of restoring order to the “black riot.” The FBI had an informant in the KKK and alerted the Attorney General. But neither did anything to protect the Riders, or even give them a ‘heads up.’  

Ironically on May 6th, Attorney General Robert Kennedy delivered a major civil rights speech, He promised that the Kennedy administration would enforce civil rights laws. He stated that the Administration “will not stand by and be aloof.” The Freedom Riders presented an opportunity for the Attorney General to fulfill that promise.  Meanwhile, their two buses left Atlanta for Alabama.

Fire in Alabama …

On May 14, the Greyhound bus arrived in Anniston, Alabama. The police allowed the KKK to attack the Freedom Riders however they wished.  So an angry mob of over 100 white people armed with guns, bats, and brass knuckles surrounded the bus.  The Freedom Riders held hands inside, knowing this would be their first trial by fire.  Two undercover Alabama Highway Patrol officers on the bus immediately ordered the driver to lock the doors.  But the angry mob only started shouting and smashed its windows with their bats. The Anniston police finally arrived and temporarily restored order.  The police allowed the bus to leave – with a slashed tire. 

Unfortunately, it was trailed by 30 – 40 trucks and cars that surrounded it outside of town, and forced it to stop. The slashed tire finally blew out as it braked into the shoulder.  Suddenly, a member of the mob hurled a bundle of flaming rags into one of the smashed windows! It exploded into flames inside. The terrified Freedom Riders pushed to the door, but the mob blocked it. “WE’LL ROAST THEM ALIVE!” the Klan shouted. The Riders managed to escape by scrambling through windows, just as the interior of the bus burst into flames.  But the Freedom Riders were hardly out of danger. 

Freedom Riders Greyhound bus burning in Alabama, 1961
Freedom Riders’ Greyhound bus burning in Alabama, 1961

They were immediately swarmed upon by the mob and brutally beaten.  Hank Thomas, one of the young black riders (only 18), was hit on the skull by a man wielding a baseball bat.  Ed Blankenheim lost several teeth when he was hit in the face by a tire iron. The mob finally dispersed when one of the undercover officers fired his gun into the air and the bus fuel tank exploded. The Riders were taken to the local hospital, in the cars of fellow activists who’d been following them, where they were refused care. 

Beatings in Birmingham …

The second Trailways bus, traveled separately to Birmingham, Alabama. The Freedom Riders on that bus were terrorized by KKK members who’d quietly boarded in Atlanta. At first, the white men just taunted the riders with racial slurs and threats.  But when the black riders moved forward to sit in the empty white section of the bus, violence erupted. The KKK members punched two Riders in the face and pulled them to the floor, where they savagely beat and kicked them. Two other Riders, who tried to non-violently intervene, suffered the same beatings. The Klan members dragged them all to the back “colored section” of the bus.

When they arrived at Birmingham terminal, another angry white mob brandishing bats and pipes pulled the Riders from the bus and beat them again. Riders Ike Reynolds and Charles Person were thrown to the ground and bloodied by a series of vicious blows. Older white rider, Jim Peck, was struck in the head several times, later requiring 53 stitches.  Bull Connor’s police force finally showed up after the planned 15 minutes, but made no arrests. The Riders escaped and all met at a local Baptist church. Connors later proudly admitted that, he sent no police protection to the station … as it was Mother’s Day.

Photographs of the burning Greyhound bus and the bloodied Birmingham Riders appeared on the front pages of national newspapers around the world.  It drew international attention to the Freedom Riders and the state of Southern segregation in the U.S.  The violent attacks against both buses prompted CORE’s James Farmer to reluctantly end the Freedom Ride campaign.

The decision frustrated black student activist, Diane Nash, who argued with Farmer, “We can’t let them stop us with violence. If we do, the movement is dead.”  Under the new patronage and support of the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC), the Freedom Ride would continue. The SNCC organized a group of 10 college students from Nashville, Tennessee to replace the original 13 Riders. 

Civil Rights leaders were wary of this risky decision, including MLK, who had declined to join the rides. Farmer questioned whether continuing the trip was “suicide.” To make matters worse, after the violence, they could not find a Greyhound or Trailways bus drivers who’d agree to transport the integrated Freedom Riders.  Though faced again with the possible end of the Freedom Ride, they would still not admit defeat.  

On 17 May, seven men and three women from Nashville Fisk University came to Birmingham. Just before reaching the city though, police pulled their bus over and ordered it to the Birmingham police station.  There they arrested all the replacement Riders for defying Segregation Laws. The Riders went on a hunger strike in the jail.  Three days later, the police finally dumped them on the side of a road – 100 miles outside of town. Undeterred, they hitched back to Birmingham to board the bus for Montgomery. 

Behind the scenes, Attorney General Robert Kennedy called Greyhound and demanded that it find a replacement driver for the Freedom Riders. He sent John Seigenthaler, a Department of Justice agent, to meet with a reluctant Alabama Governor John Patterson. Seigenthaler’s negotiations resulted in the Freedom Riders bus departure for Montgomery on May 20th with a full state police escort.

Attacks in Montgomery …

National Guard protects the Freedom Ride bus in Alabama, 1961
National Guard protects the Freedom Ride bus in Alabama, 1961

At the Montgomery city line, the state troopers left the bus, as agreed, but the local police, ordered to meet the Freedom Riders, NEVER appeared. The bus pulled into the station ALONE. At the terminal, yet another angry white mob attacked the new Freedom Riders as they disembarked.  A crowd armed with bricks, pipes, bats, and sticks shouted slurs and death threats. Jim Zwerg, a young white Rider, stepped off the bus first. The mob dragged him to the ground and knocked him unconscious. Two female riders were pummeled, one by another woman repeatedly swinging a heavy purse at her head; the other by a man repeatedly punching her in the face.

Agent John Seigenthaler attempted to rescue the women by pulling them into his car, but he too was knocked unconscious and kicked in the ribs. William Barbee, a young black Rider, was beaten with a baseball bat and suffered permanent brain damage. A black bystander was set afire after having kerosene thrown on him. The havoc ended when a state police officer fired warning shots into the ceiling of the bus station. All the Riders needed medical attention and were rushed to a local hospital.  When the police finally arrived, they served them with an injunction barring them from continuing the Freedom Ride in Alabama.

The following night, Martin Luther King came to Montgomery and led a service at the First Baptist Church.  More than 1000 supporters of the Freedom Riders attended. He told the assembly, “Alabama will have to face the fact that we are determined to be free. Fear not, we’ve come too far to turn back. We are not afraid and we shall overcome.” King blamed Governor Patterson for “aiding and abetting the forces of violence,” declaring that “the federal government must not stand idly by while bloodthirsty mobs beat nonviolent students with impunity”

When a white mob arrived, a riot ensued in the street outside the church.  As the night progressed, it spread throughout the city.  From inside the church, a desperate King called Robert Kennedy to beg for federal protection.  The Attorney General agreed and mobilized 600 federal marshals to the city to quell the violence. Governor Patterson declared martial law and dispatched the National Guard to restore order. They were forced to use tear gas to disperse the mob.  The federal marshals then escorted the people out of the church at dawn.

Arrests in Mississippi …

A compromise was worked out two days later to get the riders out of Alabama and into Mississippi. On May 24th, 27 Freedom Riders boarded buses and departed for Jackson, Mississippi, accompanied by the Alabama National Guard.  In Jackson, several hundred black supporters greeted the Riders. However, police still arrested those who attempted to use the “whites-only” terminal facilities.  The charges were violating segregation statutes.  Instead of the city jail, police took them to the maximum-security penitentiary in Parchman under brutal conditions.

Some civil rights activists, began to criticize King for offering only moral support, and not his physical presence on the buses. In a telegram, the president of the NAACP branch in North Carolina, urged him to “Lead the way by example.… If you lack the courage, remove yourself from the vanguard.”   King replied that he was on probation and could not afford another arrest.  It was a response some of the Freedom Riders found unacceptable.

That same day, U.S. Attorney General Kennedy issued a statement urging a “Cooling-off Period” in the face of the growing violence:  “A very difficult condition exists … There many persons traveling and using the interstate buses.  In this confused situation, innocent persons may be injured. A mob asks no questions. A cooling off period is needed.”

During the Mississippi hearings, the judge turned and looked at the wall of the courtroom rather than listen to the Freedom Riders’ defense lawyer.  This had happened to the lunch counter sit-in participants who were arrested for protesting segregated lunch counters. He sentenced the Freedom Riders to 30 days in jail.  Attorneys from the NAACP appealed the convictions all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which eventually reversed them.

Second wave of new Freedom Riders in Mississippi.
Second wave of new Freedom Riders in Mississippi.

Though they never reached New Orleans, the white mob violence and national attention drew hundreds of NEW Freedom Riders to the cause. New Rides into southern states continued over the next several months.  Students from all over the country purchased bus tickets to the Deep South. They eventually crowded into jails, once arrested for violating state segregation laws.

In the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) finally issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals. King, Farmer, Nash and others civil rights leaders saw how provoking white southern violence through nonviolent confrontations could attract national attention and force federal action.

Over the next four years, civil rights activists directly confronted segregation through nonviolent tactics to arouse the national conscience and pressure the federal government.  The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.  John Lewis, one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986 as a Democrat.  Lewis continued to represent Georgia’s 5th District, which included Atlanta, until his death at age 80 in 2020.

11 of the 13 original Freedom Riders of 1961
11 of the 13 original Freedom Riders of 1961
The 13 original Freedom Riders were: Francis Bergman, Walter Bergman, Albert Bigelow, Ed Blankenheim, Rev. Elton Cox, Genevieve Hughes, John Lewis, Jimmy McDonald, James Peck, Joe Perkins, Charles Person, Ike Reynolds, and Hank Thomas. Only 2 are still alive today.
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The 1912 Race to Claim the South Pole

Captain Robert Scott's team on their trek to reach the South Pole first.
Captain Robert Scott’s team on their trek to reach the South Pole first, 1911

There was a time, over a century ago, when there were still amazing feats yet to be achieved on Earth.  Being first to reach the South Pole in Antarctica was one of those coveted prizes.  Those who were first would claim international fame and have their names etched into history books.  Those who failed, often lost their lives in the attempt. Despite the danger, the South Pole was still a tempting prize to achieve.  In 1911, the two biggest names in polar exploration, Robert Scott and Roald Amundsen, launched competing expeditions in a race to reach the South Pole first.

One would end in triumph, the other in tragedy.

British Royal Navy Officer Robert Scott had attempted to reach the South Pole in 1902 in the Discovery expedition.  But his party was forced to turn back due to sub-zero conditions and diminishing health. Britain still viewed his expedition as a success because of the discovery of the vast Polar Plateau. Robert Scott returned to England a hero for his attempt. But for Scott, it was a personal failure.  It was always his intention to return and try again. 

Then Ernest Shackleton, one of his former crew, tragically failed to reach the South Pole with own expedition.  Scott launched a renewed effort to reach and secure the Pole for the glory of the British Empire.  With the support of the British Admiralty, he secured a research grant of £20,000.   Now 41, Scott recruited men from his original Antarctic expedition and from Ernest Shackleton’s ship.  His ship, the Terra Nova, sailed from Cardiff in June 1910. He had married just the year before and left behind his wife Kathleen and 9-month son Peter.

After his ship got stuck in the poplar pack ice for 20 days, they arrived late on Ross Island in Antarctica’s McMurdo Sound in February 1911. While his 34-man shore party conducted scientific research and collected rock and wildlife samples, Scott was laser focused on riding out the winter and launching his second run at the South Pole. His men began laying supply depots along his planned route, but due to unlucky blizzards, they dropped their final depot 30 miles short.

Scott and Amundsen, South Pole Competitors
Scott and Amundsen, South Pole Competitors

Norwegian Roald Amundsen was also a respected explorer determined to beat the British to the South Pole. Polar expeditions captivated Amundsen and he had signed up for the 1897 Belgian Antarctic Expedition as first mate. Although it ended in failure, Amundsen learned valuable lessons about polar exploration. In 1903, he successfully traversed Canada’s Northwest Passage. During the expedition, he learned from indigenous Inuits about the best techniques to survive in the Artic.  This including wearing animal skins rather than wool sweaters and using sled dog teams.

He’d originally planned to be first to the North Pole. But that honor was taken by American Robert Perry in 1909.  So the South Pole became the next obvious choice.  Now 38, he also left in June of 1910.  He was a lifelong bachelor by choice and left no family behind. Amundsen’s ship, the Fram, reached the Ross Ice Shelf before Scott on 14 January 1911.  He chose to land at the Bay of Whales. This gained his expedition a 60-mile advantage over Scott.  And unlike Scott, Amundsen was focused only on reaching the Pole. “The Science,” he admitted, “would have to look after itself.” 

The two groups were well aware of each other’s competing expeditions and behaved civilly. The captains of the Terra Nova and Fram even traded dinners with each other aboard their ships. Scott and Amundsen did not. The sun set over the Ross Ice Shelf in mid April, not to reappear for four, long winter months. The men hunkered down in their ships with only each other for company.

The Race to the Pole is On!

On 8 September 1911, Amundsen could wait no longer and his party set off. The very next day, after traveling only 4 miles, the temperatures plunged to −56 °C/−69 °F. Amundsen realized he had started too soon and turned back. On 18 October, after the Antarctic winter truly ended, the race began again. Roald Amundsen’s team of five men set out on its drive toward the Pole. Three weeks later, Captain Scott left his base camp for the Pole with his own team on 1 November 1911. 

Amundsen brought 52 sled dogs, along with ample seal meat. His team also wore water repellent animal skins, much better at keeping his men warm and dry than the wool that was favored by the British.  Soon after landing, Amundsen had organized depot-laying journeys across the Barrier. Hit team laid out supply depots using dog sleds at regular intervals along his route. This limited the amount of food and fuel his party had to carry. 

Scott, on the other hand, set out with far fewer dogs, 17 Siberian ponies, and 2 remaining motorized sledges. The gasoline motors proved useless in the harsh Antarctic conditions and stopped working after only 50 miles. The supplies they pulled then had to be man-hauled the rest of the way. His Siberian ponies proved not as resistant to the polar cold as the Canadian sled dogs.

Roald Amundsen and his men at the South Pole
Roald Amundsen and his men at the South Pole in 1911.

For Amundsen’s team, it was a harsh 800 mile trek, marred by extreme temperatures, glaciers, crevices, and the Transantarctic Mountains. Nevertheless, Roald Amundsen’s group arrived FIRST at the South Pole at 3PM on 14 December 1911.  They raised the flag of Norway, smoked cigars, and took celebratory photos. They also left a note there in a tent, declaring their achievement – just in case they failed to return home. Thanks to his dog teams, Amundsen’s party had raced to the Pole at over 20 miles per day.

Captain Scott’s trek was fraught with difficulties and misery.

Their tortuous, 862 mile return journey was faced with even more endurance challenges and ultimately tragedy. The British team had left for the pole later in the Antarctic summer, and temperatures were dropping rapidly as winter approached. Two of the men already suffered from severe frostbite. His ponies grew too weak to walk and regrettably had to be shot.  They would now have to pull their sleds completely by hand.  The men laid out the ponies as meat for the return trip. Scott choose 4 men to continue on to the pole. The rest were to return to the ship, then meet them at a supply depot.

Captain Scott (holding flag) and his team at the South Pole.
Captain Scott (holding flag) and his team at the South Pole, 1912.

Captain Robert Scott reached the South Pole 33 days after Amundsen, on 17 January 1912.  His team’s spirit was shattered upon seeing the Norwegian flag flying and realizing Amundsen had beaten them. “Great God!” Scott wrote in his diary. “This is an awful place, and terrible enough for us to have labored to it without reward.”

Amundsen and his team returned to their Ross base camp on 25 January 1912, just 99 days after their departure, more than a week early.  They had no loss of life – except for over half of the sled dogs, which they were forced to eat along the way and feed the remaining dogs.  14 of the 52 sled dogs made it back to the ship.

Captain Scott’s team would not be so lucky. 

Due to a combination of brutal weather, hunger, and exhaustion, Scott and his men began to slump less than halfway back. The five men were meant to be met by a support team, but due to injuries on that team’s return to the ship, the British support party never reached them.

On February 17, Edgar Evans became the first of the British party to collapse and die of exposure. A severely frostbitten Lawrence Oates followed him a month later. By now, the three remaining men, including Scott, were suffering from severe frostbite on their hands, feet and face. They were averaging less than 5 miles a day.

Scott, his close friend Dr. Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers bravely continued for another few days, but temperatures continued to plunge.  Then came a severe temperature drop and blizzard.  Trapped in their tent and only 12 miles from the next supply depot, Scott and his men wrote farewell letters. Running low on heating fuel, weak from starvation and exhaustion, Scott’s last diary entry was dated 29 March 1912.

“We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.” He died in his tent alongside his men a short time later.  Scott was just 43 years old, leaving behind his new wife and child in England.

Roald Amundsen’s celebrated his success worldwide.  He received personal telegrams of congratulations from U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and British King George V of England.  By the time the frozen bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers were found, 8 months later, Roald Amundsen had already embarked on a lecture tour.  The Terra Nova crew erected a rock cairn over the remains of the three men. 

Map of Scott's and Amundsen's race to the South Pole
Map of Scott’s and Amundsen’s race to the South Pole in 1912.

Amundsen continued his expeditions.  He explored the Arctic in a dirigible, reaching the North Pole in 1926.  He died two years later, at 55, in a plane crash while searching for a missing explorer in Norway’s Svalbard.  His body was never found.  Captain Robert Scott was recognized for his achievements and posthumously made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. Despite Scott’s poor preparation and ultimate tragedy, he and his men have been immortalized in legend for pursuing a noble cause with bravery and courage.

It was not until 1956 that an expedition of humans once again stood on our planet’s South Pole. Antarctica has been continuously inhabited ever since by international explorers.  Today, numerous adventure cruise ships visit the Ross Ice Shelf in summer, so tourists can walk where the famous explorers once did.  Its two earliest pioneers are now honored by Antarctica’s permanent research facility – the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

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The Tragic Story of the Radium Girls

A Radium Girl, hand painting clock faces in a New Jersey factory.
Radium Girls hand painting clock faces in a New Jersey factory.

Radium clocks and watches were all the rave during the Roaring Twenties. The watch faces glowed all the time and didn’t require charging in sunlight, like florescent paint. Everyone who was anyone had to have one. The Radium Girls were not rich debutants who flashed their wristwatches, but rather the simple factory women who hand-painted the radioactive radium onto the clock faces.

The new element Radium was discovered in Paris in 1898 by Nobel laureates Marie and Pierre Curie.  Radium was particularly intriguing because it glowed in the dark. Marie Curie herself noted, “These gleamings suspended the darkness, stirred ever-new emotion and enchantment”. 

Soon enough, radium became a veritable craze. After doctors learned that radium could treat some cancers, many thought it could also be used to treat virtually ALL diseases. Before long, radium was widely considered the long awaited “Miracle Cure,” or a least a very powerful health tonic. Bottles were sold in pharmacies for everything from arthritis to aging to impotence. Newspaper advertisements boldly claimed its use would “Add years to your life!”  

Radium gave the illusion of good health because it stimulated the production of red blood cells giving you a healthy blush. Companies sold radium toothpaste, radium cosmetics, and even radium water. People took this “Perpetual Sunshine” like we take vitamins and supplements today.  Radioactivity was after all … energy! So people didn’t see how adding some extra energy to their bodies could possibly be dangerous, right?

Far from being a cure-all, radium in fact released deadly levels radioactivity.

American inventor William Hammer went to Paris and obtained a sample of radium salt crystals from Marie Curie. Hammer discovered that by mixing the radium with zinc and glue, he could make a glow-in-the-dark paint. His discovery would be used by the new U.S. Radium Corporation to manufacture wristwatches with light-green glowing dials. Paint advertisements for UNDARK, boasted “The Magic of Radium!”   

Glow-in-the-dark radium watches were an instant hit. U.S. Radium Corp. also received lucrative government contracts during World War I to produce instrument dials for the army and navy.  One of the first factories to produce watches opened in Orange, New Jersey in 1916.  It hired about 70 women, the first of thousands to be employed across the U.S. Many of them were teenagers fresh out of high school, with small, petite hands, perfect for the tedious, artistic work.

A few of the Radium Girls of New Jersey
A few of the Radium Girls of Orange, New Jersey

Being a ‘Radium Girl’ was a well-paid, even glamorous job.  After all, it used one of the most expensive substances in the world. Adding to the allure, the girls were listed as ‘Artists’ in their town directories. Dial painting was an elite job for poor working girls and paid three times the salary of a grueling factory job.  It provided them financial freedom and even female empowerment. Word spread and ladies encouraged their sisters and girlfriends to join them. The Radium Girls believed the hype, that they were getting healthier as a fringe benefit.

At the USRC factory, NO safety precautions were taken to protect the young girls.  For the delicate task of applying the paint to the small dials, the women were trained to point their fine brush tips with their lips or tongue. The practice was called lip-pointing, or “Lip, Dip, Paint.” Unfortunately, the women were ingesting small quantities of radioactive radium with every lick and brushstroke.

By the end of the day, the women would actually glow!

It came from the radioactive paint on their clothes and skin. Dust swept from the workroom was all luminous in the dark. Their hair, faces, hands, arms, dresses, even their corsets were luminous.   At the time, the girls loved it. They wore their best dresses to the plant, so that when they would go to dance halls later that night, they’d be literally be glowing.  Female dial painters also became known as “The Ghost Girls” as they themselves now glowed in the dark.

The girls didn’t blindly embrace this brush wetting technique. They asked their foremen, Was the radium paint harmful?  But managers repeatedly said it was perfectly safe. The women were lied to. Marie Curie herself suffered radiation burns and warned the French public of its danger. Men at the radium manufacturing companies were given lead aprons and handled the radium with tongs. The Radium Girls weren’t given such protection, or even warned it might be necessary. 

Radiation poisoning isn’t immediate, so years went by before any of the women started developing symptoms. Within a few years though, dozens of the girls began showing serious signs of illness. The human body takes in radium much like calcium, incorporating it into your bones, then irradiating them from within. In the early 1920s, it began innocent enough, with some of the girls developing toothaches.

Then the first Radium Girl death occurred in 1922.

Poor 22-year-old Mollie Maggia died after living through a year of horrendous symptoms. Mollie had to quit working because of her illness. She didn’t know what was wrong with her.  It had started with aching teeth.  Her dentist pulled them. Then in the place of the missing teeth, painful red ulcers erupted.  They seeped pus constantly into her mouth. She then suffered aching limbs, so agonizing she was unable to walk or move her arms. The doctor thought she had rheumatism and prescribed her aspirin, the new painkiller.

Mollie became desperate.  She’d lost most of her teeth and the mysterious ulcers spread to her tongue and the roof of her mouth.  But then the worst consequence of all came.  Her dentist was able to remove her diseased lower jaw by simply lifting it out with his fingers.  By this time, other Radium Girls were having trouble with their teeth, jaw and joints as well.  Suddenly their once attractive glow at night brought new meaning to their nickname “The Ghost Girls.”

A Radium Girl afflicted with "Radium Jaw"
A Radium Girl afflicted with “Radium Jaw”

Within months, Mollie’s strange infection spread down to her throat.  She subsisted on a liquid diet and no longer went out in public. Then her jugular vein hemorrhaged. Her mouth flooded with blood and she died of asphyxiation and blood loss. She was only 24.  Her baffled doctor listed the cause of her death on the death certificate as “Syphilis.”  Like clockwork thereafter, Mollie’s friends and colleagues followed her to the grave, one by one by one.

For 2 years, USRC denied any responsibility for the Radium Girls’ deaths. 

Attempts by employees to receive compensation from USRC were all futile. Medical and legal costs were enormous for a young, unmarried girl. And U.S. Radium held a prominent position as an important government contractor.   Sales began to suffer though due to the inevitable public gossip. So USRC commissioned an independent expert to look into the so-called “rumors.” 

In 1924, their expert confirmed the link between the radium and the women’s illnesses.  USRC’s President was livid and continued to deny the link.  He paid for new studies by other “experts” that published the opposite conclusion. He publicly denounced the women as trying to blame their illnesses on USRC in an attempt to get their medical bills paid for.

Then in 1925, Grace Fryer, one of the workers from the New Jersey plant, decided to sue.  Eight years earlier, at just 18, she started work as a dial painter at USRC.  With two enlisted brothers in World War I, Grace wanted to do her part for the war effort. She led the legal fight for the Radium Girls. Grace was determined to find a lawyer after countless turned her down, either from disbelief or fear of the powerful USRC.  The challenge was proving the link between their mysterious disease and radium paint.

Grace Fryer was the daughter of a union delegate, and would NOT give up the fight.

They had to fight the widespread belief that radium was still safe and in fact healthy.   In 1925, Dr. Harrison Martland devised a medical test proving that radium had poisoned the women.  Dr. Martland also was able to explain what was happening inside the girls’ bodies.  He realized the poisoning was fatal AND there was no way of removing the radium from the poor girls’ bones.

The women continued to have their teeth fall out, bones break, and spines collapse. By 1927, more than 50 had died.  Then finally, a young lawyer named Raymond Berry accepted their case.   Grace finally filed her suit in 1927 along with 4 fellow workers for damages of $250,000.  It made front-page news around the world. The radium industry banded together and attempted to discredit Dr. Martland while dealing with the tenacity of the radium girls.  Their story became a national sensation

“It is not for just myself that I care, but for the hundreds of girls to whom this may serve as an example.”

Grace Fryer, 1927

But time was running out: Their doctors had given the five women just four months to live. By then, Grace Fryer’s own spine was crumbling and she had to wear a steel back brace.  With the clock ticking, they would eventually settle a year later for just $10,000 each and a $600 annual payment. None of them would live longer than two years after the historic settlement.

There were other small victories.  Death certificates would now start reporting the correct cause of death – Radium Poisoning. They had successfully raised the warning flag.  The Food and Drug Administration eventually banned the deceptive packaging of radium-based products as good for your health.

The Radium Girls’ case became a milestone of occupational hazard and safety law. The dangers of radium were now in full view to the world. The lip-pointing technique was stopped in all factories and the workers were being given protective gear to wear.

A second, more-decisive trial occurred in 1938. 

Radium Girl Catherine Wolfe Donohue vs. the Illinois Radium Dial Company.  It ended in victory after an ugly decade-long cover up.  Catherine had also watched her friends die, lost her teeth and developed a large cancerous tumor on her hip.  She gave evidence to the judge from her deathbed.  With the help of a brave, pro bono lawyer, Leonard Grossman, she finally won justice not only for herself, but for all the Radium Girls.

In 1939, the Supreme Court rejected the radium companies’ last appeal.  In 1949, the United States Congress passed a historic workplace safety law which gave workers the right to receive compensation for occupational illnesses. That case led to life-saving regulations and, ultimately the creation of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1970.

While the use of UNDARK paint for decades was a catastrophe, it nevertheless disclosed the dangers of radiation exposure. Robert Oppenheimer and scientific teams researching the properties of plutonium for the Manhattan Project wrote regulations and took appropriate safety precautions.  Safety regulations based on the Radium Girls experience.

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission noted, “If it hadn’t been for those female dial-painters, thousands of workers on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos would have been in great danger.” A great deal that we know about the effect of radiation in the human body, we owe to them. A movie about their struggles, Radium Girls, was released in 2018, starring the actress Joey King.

Watches and clocks would continue to be manufactured safely with radium paint until 1968, when the practice was discontinued.  Look at any antique from your grandparents and you’ll likely find its softly glowing green dial.

The exact number of women who became ill is not known, but the number is in the thousands. Radium has a half-life of 1,600 years, so once inside those women’s bones, it is there for centuries. So The Ghost Girls will in fact be glowing in their graves for a very long time.

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Watergate – the Scandal that took down a President

U.S. President Richard Nixon at a Watergate press conference, 1973
U.S. President Richard M. Nixon at a Watergate press conference, 1973

The Watergate Scandal may seem tepid compared to recent presidential escapades, but in 1973, it shocked America to its core. One of the most disturbing episodes of abuse of power occurred on the evening of October 20th, 1973. The press would dub it The Saturday Night Massacre. It would lead to the resignation of a U.S. President.

President Richard Nixon ordered his Attorney General to fire the Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.  Cox was investigating Nixon and the White House’s role in the Watergate cover-up. The Special Prosecutor was demanding the release of Nixon’s Oval Office tapes. The AG, Elliot Richardson, and Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus both refused to comply with the President’s order, and instead both resigned. The Solicitor General ultimately fired Cox.

By 1973, Richard Nixon’s presidency was a slowly sinking ocean liner. The Watergate Scandal would be his legacy. At the time however, his Republican base, still considered it all a Democrat conspiracy, inflamed by the liberal press. They firmly stood by their man, Nixon. Democrats controlled Congress and his base saw the Senate Watergate Hearings as a partisan Witch Hunt out to get their president.

For those too young to know about the Watergate Scandal …

It began in June 17, 1972, when 5 burglars broke into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC. They were trying to wiretap it on orders from the “White House plumbers,” a team put together to stop leaks. The men were caught by a night guard and arrested by police. As part of the cover-up, the White House worked to hide the fact that the men were paid by the Republican Committee to Re-Elect the President (CRP). Nixon conspired with his Chief of Staff and top White House aides to impede the FBI investigation in order to safeguard his victory in the 1972 re-election.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, 2 young Washington Post reporters, were assigned to the story and began to investigate. That summer and fall, they reported on the break-in and its shady connections to the White House. They had a government informant/whistleblower, memorably code-named ‘Deep Throat,’ who they met in a parking garage at night.  The burglars were convicted and, facing stiff prison sentences, began to tell the truth about who paid them. Nixon easily won a second term that November, but not without storm clouds brewing on the horizon. 

In February 1973, the U.S. Senate voted to establish a select committee to investigate Watergate, with Senator Sam Ervin as chairman. In April, Nixon fired or forced the resignation of 4 top White house aides instrumental in the Watergate Scandal. This included Nixon’s Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldemen, and close political aide John Ehrlichman. Nixon was trying to distance himself from his own men. The Attorney General then appointed a Watergate Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox, to investigate the break-in and cover-up. 

U.S. President Richard Nixon at a Watergate press conference, 1974
U.S. President Richard M. Nixon at a Watergate press conference, 1974

Richard Nixon repeatedly lied and denied any involvement in the scandal. At Senate Watergate Committee hearings in the summer of 1973, fired White House counsel John Dean testified against the president on national TV. He said Nixon was involved in the cover-up from the start. At the very least, the President was guilty of obstruction of justice. It was Dean’s word against the President though. That is, until the Senate Committee learned that Nixon had tape recorded all his meetings in the Oval Office! Cox knew those tapes were the evidence he needed to prove the President of the United States was a criminal.

An angry Richard Nixon cited Executive Privilege and refused to hand over the audio tapes.

On October 12th, a federal appeals court ruled the White House must surrender 10 key hours of Oval Office tapes. Nixon was cornered and appealed to the Supreme Court seeking Presidential immunity. He knew he was guilty and the tapes would prove it.  Then the president panicked. When the Special Prosecutor refused to drop the investigation, Nixon ordered his Attorney General to fire Cox.

Thus began the Saturday Night Massacre of Oct. 20th, 1973. Nixon ordered his Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, to fire Archibald Cox. Richardson refused and resigned on the spot. When the deputy AG, William Ruckelshaus, also refused, Nixon fired him that same night. The Solicitor General, Robert Bork, reluctantly complied with the President’s orders and fired Cox.

The White House Press Secretary issued a statement at 8:25 PM saying the President had ordered the Office of the Watergate Special Prosecutor abolished and its investigation turned over to the Justice Dept. The President discharged Cox because: “He refused to comply with direct orders of the President of the United States.”

The Justice Dept. ordered FBI agents to seal off the Special Prosecutor’s office.

News bulletins interrupted primetime TV. NBC’s anchor John Chancellor told viewers, “Our country tonight is in the midst of a Constitutional Crisis.” There were comparisons made to Third World dictator coups d’état.

“Whether ours shall continue to be a government of the rule of law and not of a single powerful man, is now for Congress and the American people to decide.”

Archibald Cox statement to the press, after his firing by President Nixon

The new White House Chief of Staff, Alexander Haig, rightly predicted an impeachment stampede would begin in Congress. He was right. Newspaper editors across the country called for President Nixon to resign. 100,000 citizens sent angry messages to Washington. 21 members of Congress introduced resolutions for Nixon’s impeachment.

President Nixon had seriously miscalculated the American public’s outrage.

They looked at the Watergate Scandal and the Saturday Night Massacre and saw the actions of a guilty president using his power to fire those investigating him.  The president’s motives were obvious.  He had committed a crime with Watergate, attempted to cover it up, and was now out to save his own skin at any cost.

“People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”

President Richard Nixon – November 1973 press conference

In the March 1974, a grand jury indicted Nixon’s Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldemen, political aide John Ehrlichman, and Chairman of Nixon’s Re-election Campaign, John Mitchell. In the weeks to come, a corned Nixon stated that some of the tapes Cox sought were “missing,” and that one in particular had a suspicious 18 minute gap.  Nixon retreated from his attacks on the investigation. Under pressure from his fellow Republicans in Congress, he agreed to appoint a 2nd Special Prosecutor, Leon Jaworski.

In July 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously agreed Executive Privilege did not apply and the President must turn over the White House tapes. One tape in particular showed the president had colluded in the cover-up since the day of the burglars’ arrest. The House of Representatives voted to impeach the President for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and criminal cover-up.

Headlines from President Nixon’s Resignation, August 1974

With the Smoking Gun tape in the hands of an impeachment-hungry Congress, the President had few options remaining. Richard M. Nixon went on national television and shocked the nation by resigning as President on August 8, 1974. He flew to California the next very day to retire there in disgrace. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court swore in Vice President Gerald Ford as President the same day.  In September, Ford would issue a hugely unpopular full and unconditional pardon of Nixon.

America was stunned because, well … these things happened when dictators are overthrown in Third World countries, NEVER in America!

In the end, the American people, Republicans and Democrats alike, put their faith in the U.S. Constitution, the American Justice System, and the Free Press – NOT the President and the White House. In the end, i was not a political witch-hunt or a deep-state conspiracy. America was a country where the Rule of Law prevailed. They trusted the facts and truth in the end, and ultimately, justice had prevailed … this time. 

Today, the Watergate Scandal may give you an unsettling sense of deja vu. America has had more political scandals per president than they can count. That’s not surprising, as leaders and government generally do not learn from history. It has a sad tendency to repeat itself all too soon. The danger arises when there are so many scandals, trials, hearings, and impeachments that it becomes the norm. The public then grows numb to their seriousness, allowing those in power to behave above the law without repercussion … yet again.

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