 ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third-party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. 14-year-old Angelique Cotton's life was quiet, until it wasn't. At her home in rural France in 1846, things took a terrifying turn. While working on her family's silk-weaving business, Angelique experienced chairs sliding away from her on their own and furniture levitated in her presence. Not surprisingly, rumors of witchcraft and possessions spread through the village. Desperate for answers, her family sought the help of both priests and physicians who saw the manifestations themselves. Angelique's strange and unwanted abilities drew attention in Paris, leading to public demonstrations and speculation. Yet, as quickly as her powers emerged, they vanished, leaving behind nothing but unanswered questions and skepticism. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. This is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode. The Codex Gigas, a colossal manuscript steeped in mystery, not just in its pages but in its origin. Is it true that a monk penned the pages after striking a deal with the devil in order to complete it? When you think of people living in medieval times, what do you see? People with bad teeth and breath, witches being burned, women had no rights or jobs. People tossed their urine and feces in the street. They thought the earth was flat. Hold up. Are you sure about that last one? In 1941, in a quiet town of media Pennsylvania, a horrific crime shocked the community. Two elderly sisters, Elizabeth Watson and Bella Geary, were brutally attacked, leading to Elizabeth's death and Bella's prolonged suffering. As authorities honed in on a suspect, 14-year-old John Leeds emerged as the prime candidate. Despite his confession, his mother staunchly defended him, sparking a legal battle that gripped the nation. Are whales dangerous? Most would note that given from the danger associated with such a large animal, there is a certain risk in getting close to one, but most would also note that whales have a curious, gentle temperament and physical violence from one is very unlikely. Unless that is, you consider those times when they literally explode. But first, in 1846, a 14-year-old peasant girl from rural France caught the attention of the country and eventually the world because of a strange current of electricity running through her. Angelique Cotton, a girl of small stature, was suddenly and uncontrollably moving furniture weighing hundreds of pounds across the room. In the end, over 2,000 witnesses saw the unexplainable phenomenon. Of the few recorded cases of psychokinesis throughout history, even fewer are as bizarre as the story of Angelique Cotton, a.k.a. the poltergeist girl. We begin with her story. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise. To visit sponsors you hear about during the show, sign up for my newsletter and our contests. Connect with me on social media. Here are my other podcasts, including Church of the Undead and a sci-fi podcast called Auditory Anthology. Listen to free audiobooks I've narrated. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression, dark thoughts or addiction. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Angelique Cotton was born in 1832 in the rural village of Bouvenet near La Perrier, France. At the age of 14 she was already working for the family business, weaving silk into gloves. She was hard at work on an oak weaving frame at her aunt's cottage the evening of January 14, 1846, when she had her first experience. For over a week prior to the incident, Bouvenet had been experiencing bad weather with recurring thunderstorms striking the village. As she worked with three other girls, the oak frame began to tremble, knocking over the candlestick and cloaking them in darkness. The girls blamed each other for not keeping steady as they worked, lit the candle again, and got back to work. When Angelique touched the frame again, it was knocked completely to the ground. The girls ran from the cottage believing it to be the work of the devil. In rural parts of Europe, the fear of witchcraft was still alive and they wanted nothing to do with it. Their neighbors responded to their cries, examining the situation and wrote it off as the vivid imagination of young girls. With some persuading, they once again got back to work, but it wasn't long until the bizarre incident happened a third time. The four girls returned to work, although they were shaken by the unexplainable experience. But as soon as Angelique touched the yarn attached to the frame, the entire oak structure moved away from Angelique's hands as if it was recoiling from her. She seemed to be attached to the frame through some kind of magnetic field or current. A report of the incident in The Two Worlds, a journal devoted to spiritualism, occult science, ethics, religion, and reform, read, as soon as the girl, Cotton, imitating her companions, had touched her warp, the frame was agitated again, moved about, upset, and thrown violently back. The girl was drawn irresistibly after it, but as soon as she touched it, it moved still farther away. After that first fateful evening, things only progressed into stranger, more shocking events. Chairs would slide away from Angelique as she approached. Desks covered in papers and pens would be cleared in her presence, the papers flapping about as if struck by a sudden wind. At one point, the Cotton family reported seeing a table levitate when she was next to it. Not only was Angelique's family witnessing the unexplainable phenomenon surrounding their daughter, but neighbors watched as well. In a small village like Bouvignet, news traveled fast, and soon enough rumors that Angelique was possessed by the devil or was practicing witchcraft spread like wildfire. The four long priests got involved. Angelique's aunt was not immune to the fear of witchcraft herself, she immediately traveled to the parsonage of La Perrier to demand the best priest to perform anectrosism on her niece. The priests initially laughed at her account of what was happening, but Angelique had come prepared. She put on the glove she had been making when the first incident occurred, and immediately the chairs in the room responded like the oak frame did that first night. One priest was brave enough to sit down on a chair, and both he and the chair were immediately thrown on the ground. After that, the priests all agreed that what was happening to Angelique was out of their spiritual wheelhouse, and they referred her and her aunt to physicians for medical attention. After Angelique's visit to the priests in La Perrier, the phenomenon seemed to stop for three days. The Cotton family was put in touch with Manchur de Fermat, a local medical professional. Once the activity started again, Fermat was called to the home to witness the phenomenon. He immediately saw the oak frame Angelique had been using getting thrown across the room and witnessed the strange magnetic connection she had to the object. He noted that her feet were not touching the frame, that the object seemed to be pushed by an unseen force. He could see that her powers were draining young Angelique, and he got to work immediately to help the girl find answers. From that moment on, the phenomenon only increased in intensity and duration. After Manchur de Fermat's visit, the phenomenon got increasingly worse for Angelique and her family. She couldn't sit in a chair or lay in a bed without it vibrating, levitating or crashing to the ground. At one point, three strong men attempted to hold on to a chair she was in, but still the chair flew from their grip and Angelique was once again thrown to the ground. Wood and earth materials seemed to be the most reactive to Angelique, which made her case even more unusual since electric currents are conducted by metal. Books, heavy furniture and even flaming logs from the furnace would fly uncontrollably in her presence, making her a danger to herself and her family. Angelique began to convulse when the phenomenon was happening. Often the girl would run, screaming, the electricity and power coursing through her and scaring her. It also drained her of energy, but she couldn't get any rest. When the electricity was working through her, her heart would race to alarming degrees. Her family and neighbors feared her death, and eventually Manchur de Fermat couldn't see her suffer any more and fashioned a special chair for Angelique where the wood was covered with glass so she could rest and eat without being thrown from her seat. The day after he visited her in her home, Manchur de Fermat took Angelique to a neighboring town to be observed by more doctors. There, the doctors set a 150-pound wooden block in the room where it was levitated four inches off the ground repeatedly. One of the witnesses was Manchur Kohu, a member of the medical community in Montmartre. He wrote in a letter to his colleague in Paris, Dr. Tachaud. It matters not what name we may give to this. The important point is to verify the reality of a repulsive agency and of one that is distinctly marked, the effects of it impossible to deny. The fact is material, visible, incontestable. Here in the province, sir, we are not very learned, but we are often very mistrustful. In the present case, we have examined, reexamined, taken every possible precaution against deception, and the more we have seen, the deeper has been our conviction of the reality of the phenomenon. Let the academy decide as it will. We have seen it. It has not seen. We are therefore in a condition to decide better than it can. I do not say what cause was operating, but what effects presented themselves under circumstances that remove even the shadow of a doubt. The day after Angelique was observed in Montmartre, one of the doctors who witnessed her abilities brought her into his home. Over the next two days, over 1,000 people came to see the strange phenomenon for themselves. It became clear that the repetition of her powers exhausted the girl who was unable to control the electric energy. One of the witnesses, Dr. Beaumont Chardon, wrote about the experience in a letter saying, In a general way, I think the effects were more marked with me than with others, because I never evenced suspicion and spared her all suffering, and I thought I could observe that, although her powers were not under the control of her will, yet they were greatest when her mind was at ease and she was in good spirits. After the news spread from the many observations of Angelique, the family went to Paris to visit a doctor who had been put in touch through a witness from Montmartre. Dr. Tanchot was amazed by some simple tests where the girl caused a cold wind to blow through the room and a heavy wooden table to move. When Angelique attempted to sit next to the doctor on a couch, it flew across the room and struck the wall with shocking force. Dr. Tanchot immediately called upon his colleague, astronomer and physicist Francois Aragault, to observe Angelique. The two were both so impressed by the phenomenon that they requested a formal committee of scientists and doctors to testify on proof of extraordinary powers from Angelique. It didn't take long for the committee to testify that the psychic phenomena was real and the report of their findings was published in the Genaudet Debord in February 1846. The constant tests and demonstrations Angelique endured exhausted her and constantly put her in danger. Doctors encouraged the Cotton family to do their best to quell the electric currents that seemed to be flowing out of their daughter so she could heal and rest. But despite the doctor's insistence, the Cotton family used Angelique's malady to make money. She stayed in Paris where her family opened an exhibition where people could watch Angelique perform her powers live. People traveled from all over to see her perform. The constant use of the electrical force was exhausting Angelique, but she had no respite. The people demanded to get what they paid for. By the end of the exhibition, Angelique was exhausted and her powers started to fade. A committee was formed to test Angelique's abilities. It included Arrego and Dr. Tanchot, along with a number of prominent scientists and doctors, including Henry Baquerelle, who studied radioactivity and went on to become a Nobel laureate, Isidore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, a zoologist and published author, physicist Jacques Babenet, physician Pierre François-Olive-Reyer, and a psychiatrist named Etienne Parissette. Their examination took place just a few days after the initial examination by Dr. Tanchot and François Arrego at the Musée de Histoire naturelle in Paris. The committee was not impressed by the powers displayed by Angelique. Her family and friends, as well as the previous doctors who witnessed shocking displays of her electric force, noted that the girl might be exhausted from the constant demonstrations. Angelique's abilities were likely drained by the hundreds of demonstrations she was forced to perform in front of an audience over the past few days at the urging of her family, who were hoping for financial gain. The committee wrote in their final report, upon serious suspicions arising as to the manner in which these movements occurred, the committee has decided that they shall be submitted to an attentive examination. It frankly announces that the investigations tended to discover the fact that certain habitual maneuvers hidden in the feet and hands could have produced the observed fact. After the failed test in Paris, the Cotton family promised to be in touch with the committee in Paris to revisit Angelique. By April 10, 1846, her powers had ceased as quickly as they had appeared. The committee noted the lack of response in their report. Many days have passed since, they said, yet the committee has received no intelligence. We have learned, however, that Memoiselle Cotton is daily received in drawing rooms where she repeats her experiments. There are no official records of these drawing room viewings after leaving Paris, but many have hypothesized that Angelique's parents attempted to persuade her into faking her former abilities so they could continue to make money. Whatever was going on, those viewing didn't last long. Her parents eventually announced that her abilities had left the girl, and Angelique Cotton fell back into obscurity of being a peasant girl from a farm. Throughout history, people have attempted to explain what happened to Angelique or debate whether or not it was trickery. However, people who witnessed the phenomenon in the first few days when her powers were strongest insisted that what they saw was real. Some say that one of the scientists heavily involved in the case, François Aurego, spoke about the poltergeist girl for the rest of his life. When Weird Darkness returns, the Codex Gigas, a colossal manuscript steeped in mystery, not just in its pages but in its origin, is it true that a monk penned the pages after striking a deal with the devil in order to complete it? Plus, when you think of people living in medieval times, what do you see? People with bad teeth and breath, witches being burned. People tossed their urine and feces in the street. They thought the earth was flat. Hold up, are you sure about that last one? These stories and more on the way. Nothing goes better with chocolate than vanilla, and nothing goes better with the darkness than vampires. So we've combined all of them into a new blend of weird dark roast coffee called Very Vampilla. This bloody good blend combines a medium dark roast coffee with hints of chocolate, vanilla and just a tad bit of dried cherry too. So good, you'll want to sink your fangs into the fresh roasted bag itself. Weird dark roast Very Vampilla, the only thing at steak, sorry, not sorry, bad pun, is your dissatisfaction with your old coffee. Sip it while the sun is down if you're one of the undead, or when the sun is up if you just feel dead and need a bit of a boost. Get your Weird Dark Roast Very Vampilla at WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. The Codex Gigas, also known as the Devil's Bible, is a huge 800-year-old compilation of religious, medical, historical, and magic-related texts. It appears that a monk from the Potlesies Monastery in Bohemia, today's Czech Republic, copied the words in calligraphy and vividly illustrated the enormous pages during the 13th century. Once considered the eighth wonder of the world, the mysterious book is the most massive medieval manuscript in existence and draws international fame for a bizarre, full-page illustration of Satan. Experts believe the Potlesies Monastery was too poor and small to have produced the manuscript. Nonetheless, a note on the first page says that in 1295, the Potlesies monks pledged it to a monastery in Sedlik, Bohemia. That same year, the Benedictine Order of Brief No Monastery repurchased it. In the 16th century, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II became deeply enmeshed in the occult. He obsessed over the Codex Gigas, or giant book, and coveted the strange book for himself. Rudolf told the monastery that he'd like to read it and that he would return it. However, he never let it out of his possession in Prague. Later, during Europe's 30 years war from 1618 to 1648, Swedish forces confiscated the manuscript and took it to Sweden. On May 7, 1697, a fire erupted at the royal palace in Stockholm. As the fire spread to the library, someone threw the Codex Gigas and other precious books out of a window, saving them. Writing 50 years later, an eyewitness said the giant book injured an onlooker when it flew out the window. The Codex went to the new royal library of Stockholm in 1878, and later to the National Library of Sweden where it remains to this day. Weighing at 165 pounds, the big book contains 310 sheets of vellum made of calf or donkey skin. Its pages are so large measuring 36 inches tall by 20 inches wide by nearly 9 inches thick that one calf or one donkey would have supplied just two pages. A wooden cover overlaid with white leather binds protects the book. The manuscript had once been a bit bigger. However, someone trimmed off about one centimeter around the edges when it arrived in Sweden in the 17th century. Still, it is the most massive surviving medieval manuscript. Ornate metal decorations at all four corners on the front and back each display two griffins. From the metal plates protrude knobs on which the Codex rested while holes on the back may have looped a chain that connected the book to a table or desk. A great mystery surrounds the Codex. Nobody knows exactly who wrote it or how the scribe accomplished it so uniformly in one lifetime. Toward the back of the book, the name Eremont Inclusus appears posthumously. That name has become a part of the legends passed down throughout the years. Some scholars, however, have doubted that one person could write and illustrate such an immense book. It would have been rare for one monk to have tackled a job such as this alone, as scribes usually worked together to copy manuscripts. Research by paleographer Michael Gullick confirms that one hand created the entire book. The manuscript must have been a labor of love. Amazingly, it is precisely accurate and without errors. The incredible uniformity in the text and illustrations within the book's 620 pages might suggest that someone created the work rather quickly. However, according to Michael Gullick, one person could have created the book in five years only if he worked night and day non-stop. Therefore, the scholar suggests that it probably required 25 to 30 years. The combination of subjects within the Codex Gigas makes it highly unique and puzzling. The manuscript contains a 19-inch tall illustration on page 577 of a leering devil with a green face, red forked tongue, two horns and talons on his hands and feet. For this reason, the book is best known as The Devil's Bible. In the image, Satan is wearing an Hermine loincloth. Hermine fur was a symbol of high royalty during the Middle Ages, and the illustrator possibly meant to convey that Satan is the Prince of Darkness. Another odd feature in the manuscript is demonic conjurations. Those were spells used in types of exorcisms. Did the author suffer from a guilty conscience, as National Geographic suggests? Or was he educating readers on how to rid the body of demons that cause physical and mental maladies? Despite the demonic themes, the Codex is not a satanic text. In fact, it includes several parts of the Bible and other religious writings. Therefore, most people consider it a holy book. On the opposite page from The Devil, there is an illustration of the heavenly city. It is possibly a representation of the New Jerusalem mentioned in the last book of the Bible, Revelation. Heaven and Satan lying side by side may represent the struggle of mankind's choice between salvation and damnation, the duality of good and evil. According to Codex Gigas legend, the monk who produced it was Hermon the Inclusus or Hermon the Recluse, as noted. When the holy man broke his sacred vows to the church, he was supposed to be walled up alive as punishment. The monk pleaded that in lieu of death he would make a book in one night that would contain all human knowledge and honor his monastery forever. In this way, Hermon thought that he would atone for his sins and avoid the punishment. By midnight, the monk realized it would be an impossible task to finish the manuscript overnight. He decided to call upon Satan for help, who was more than happy to enter into a pact. In exchange for the monk's soul and a large illustration of the Devil in the Codex, the Prince of Darkness would help him complete the manuscript by morning. Nobody knows what specific sins the writer supposedly committed. However, they were so heinous that the strict Benedictine monks kept it a secret. The Codex Gigas appears to include a confession of the scribe's sins and letters twice as large as the rest of the text. He admits to pride, envy, lust, gluttony, bestiality, and fornication. This list sits next to the illustration of the heavenly city. Perhaps the scribe attributed sins to himself that he did not commit as a warning to others. The list ends with a prayer for mercy and forgiveness. Beautiful, carefully handwritten calligraphy forms the entire text in Latin. The Vulgate Bible and the following works make up the manuscript. Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews and the War of the Jews. Isidore of Seville's Encyclopedia, titled Entomology, The Chronicle of Bohemia of Cosmos of Prague. A compilation of medical texts, called Ars Metakine, two books on medicine by Constantine the African. Common prayers and hymns, a list of the monks in the Pudlesius Monastery where the book resided for a time. Magic formulas and incantations. A calendar with a necrology or obituary of people who died within a specific time frame. Local historical records. And the Hebrew, Greek, and Slavic alphabets. In addition to the full-page devil and heaven illustrations, there are large, elaborate initials decorated with spirals, flowers, and animals. These types of designs begin the books of the Bible, including one each for the four Gospels. There are also less elaborate arabesque initials and pleuron or flower-type lettering at the beginning of other books. Another illustration in the manuscript portrays the creation story from the book of Genesis. A blue orb represents heaven, the stars, and the moon. Below it is a green orb depicting earth. Although we now know that one person created the entire Codex Gigas over his lifetime, there are still many mysteries about the text. Why did a monk create such an enormous book that would have taken the rest of his life to complete? Why did he incorporate dark features such as a vivid image of the devil, magic formulae, and demonic incantations? Where do the boundaries between fact and legend begin and end? Who was Hermon the Recluse? Did he commit a sin that led to a punishment of isolation and the creation of the book for the rest of his life? The general public knows bits about the medieval period. Unfortunately, the general public thinks they know a lot about the medieval period. Whilst we start learning about this time in our history as school, a lot of what people pick up comes from popular media, in particular films and television series, and even worse, from fantasy shows based on medieval society. The impression most people pick up, then, is that the medieval period was dark, dirty, without color, people had no hygiene, rotten teeth, never washed, and threw their toilet waste into the streets. Food was bland and brown, they had backwards ideas about science, and if you so much as breathed the wrong way, the church would burn you at the stake. Women were constantly attacked and were considered only to be good for childbearing, whilst big, important men made all the decisions, and everyone was white and Christian. These myths were so ingrained and so widespread that it is a constant battle for medievalists to fight them. Whilst some liberties in historical fiction are considered acceptable or a part of artistic flair, a lot of this image of the dark ages is really damaging to our past. One inexcusable assumption that people believed the world was flat. Humans have been doing astronomy for thousands of years. Even before we invented reading and writing, our ancient ancestors used the stars and celestial bodies to guide their days. They were aware of passing seasons and that on certain days every year the skies would align in the same position. You could see this at a multitude of ancient monolithic sites where the sun will align down the monument, often during the solstices. What example is the Gavronus Passage 2, where the sun shines down the entrance passage and hits the back wall during the winter solstice? However, exactly what our ancient forebears knew and believed about the sky and its movements largely remains a mystery. But the ancient Greeks is when we have a lot of evidence of people really taking time to study the heavens. The earliest concrete evidence we have of ancient people knowing the earth was round comes from them back in the 5th century BC, so around 2500 years ago. The idea spread across scholarly circles in the Greek sphere of influence and by around 240 BC this led to a Greek polymath named Aristophanes of Cyrene becoming the first person to calculate the circumference of the earth. Although we cannot fully gauge the accuracy of his estimate because he measured it in an ancient unit known as a stadia whose exact length is not agreed upon by historians ranging anywhere from 150 to 210 meters, his results were incredibly accurate. Accounting for discrepancies in our understanding of the length of a stadia, he estimated the circumference to be within negative 2.4% to positive 0.8% of the real value as we know it today with all of our modern technology, hardly a backwards society. But that is the ancient Greeks. Everybody knows they were clever and ahead of their time just like the Romans, but after the fall of the Roman Empire the dark ages arrived and everybody in Europe forgot everything they knew, right? Well, not quite. Although elements of knowledge from the ancient world did fade over time to be rediscovered independently or through the finding of ancient texts during the Renaissance, the evidence does not point to the suggestion that the knowledge of a spherical earth did fade. Whilst we cannot account for what the everyday person knew or believed, we have countless pieces of evidence that certainly the educated classes of Europe and Asia both believed in a spherical earth and continued to be aware of its approximate circumference. So where did the idea that medieval people believed in a flat earth come from? Part of this error likely comes from depictions of the earth in medieval art and maps. Some pieces of art did show a flat or disc-shaped earth and the 2D nature of maps also lent itself to artistic interpretation. Maps in the medieval period were often not intended to be strict scientific and mathematical instruments in the way that we consider them today and they were often, instead, intended to portray a concept of the world. Religious sites such as the Garden of Eden often appeared on them with ghoulish monsters shown on the extremities of the known world. This imagery can encourage us to see the map as the 2D object it is and thus think that the medieval people imagined the world ending at the edges of the map. We know that the ancient Greeks made globes, but only their celestial ones, marking stars, survive, none of their globes depicting the earth. It seems that during the medieval period there was little interest in Europe in creating globes, although some Islamic countries made them, but the earliest surviving terrestrial globe in the world does not come, just about depending on your definition, from the medieval period. The Eredfel or the Nuremberg terrestrial globe was made by a German man called Martin Beheim, sometime between 1490 and 1492. Beheim's globe is fascinating for the period it was made, for it was completed just before the return of Columbus's voyage, and so the Americas are not shown on the globe because knowledge of their existence had not yet reached Europe. Beheim made the globe for the imperial city of Nuremberg, at the time an independent city within the Holy Empire. But the point about the exclusion of the Americas brings us to another piece of evidence that people by this time believed the world was round, for that was the basis for Columbus's journey. The reason the West Indies are called that is because, knowing the world was round, Columbus was attempting to sail the ocean westward bound in order to reach China and India. For centuries the Silk Road had been used as an overland trading connection between Europe and parts of Asia, but by the mid-15th century the Ottoman Empire had taken control of Constantinople, a key point on the route. Christian Europe needed another way to reach the East, and one way was by sea. The biggest opposition Columbus faced to gaining funding for his voyage was his contemporaries at court arguing that the journey was, rightly, far too long to make with enough provisions. So if we have so much evidence that people throughout the medieval ages knew the earth was round, why do we think contrary today? In the 17th and 18th centuries, several pieces of literature seemed to have used people believing the earth was flat as a comedic device or a way to discredit one's opponents by pointing out how unintelligent they were. This, though, was still very much bringing the audience into knowing the joke. It was not necessarily targeted specifically at medieval people. Instead, as with many other things, we can trace the myth back to the 19th century. One of the most important pieces of literature which spread the idea amongst the general public that medieval people thought the world was flat was published in 1828 by Washington Irving. He wrote a biography on Christopher Columbus, the guy we just discussed knew very well the world was round, along with all of his opponents, where he created a scene wherein Columbus's opponents used the Bible to contradict his idea that the world was round. Irving's idea that the strong Christian religion of medieval Europe was a barrier to scientific ideas was picked up by several scientists within years of publishing. Any example they could find of early figures disputing a round earth were used as evidence, and there were very few, whilst ignoring the fact that these few writers were mocked at the time and later in the medieval period for trying to claim a flat earth. But the hook had developed, and writer after writer picked up the myth and rolled with it. Though in the 20th century writers and historians fought back against the myth and tried to explain that medieval people never really believed in a flat earth, the image had captured the public imagination. It continued to be portrayed in popular media, and even in school books, which were much more readily available to the public than academic texts, and thus the myth took hold. Even today many people continue to think that it was true, drawn both by the idea that people in the past must not have been as clever as us, and for many finding appeal in the idea of an evil backwards religion that was intent to destroy progress and dissenters to their ideas. Part of what spurred these myths may have been that in the early modern period, from the early 17th century, the Catholic Church did have problems with people like Galileo claiming that the sun was the center of the universe rather than the earth. This, they claimed, did go against the teachings of the Bible, and they strongly fought against the idea. However, this was during a time of huge religious change, after decades of dissent from the Church through the creation of Protestantism and other Christian denominations. The Church was desperate to keep control over their authority and teachings and were much less open to new ideas, and it was most definitely not at all the medieval period. So for over 2,000 years, most people in Europe and beyond have known that the world is indeed ground. The country was not filled with ignorant peasants and an overbearing church and state who would squash any suggestion that the world was not flat, and for much of that time our ancestors even knew with a fair degree of accuracy the circumference of our planet. Maybe we can finally lay this myth to rest. Coming up, in 1941, in the quiet town of media Pennsylvania, a horrific crime shocked the community. Two elderly sisters, Elizabeth Watson and Bella Geary, were brutally attacked, leading to Elizabeth's death and Bella's prolonged suffering. As authorities honed in on a suspect, 14-year-old John Leeds emerged as the prime candidate. Despite his confession, his mother staunchly defended him, sparking a legal battle that gripped the nation. And, are whales dangerous? Most would note that given from the danger associated with such a large animal, there is a certain risk in getting close to one, but most would also note that whales have a curious gentle temperament and physical violence from one is very unlikely. Unless that is, you consider those times when they literally explode. These stories, when Weird Darkness returns. There are very few among those with a love for the supernatural who don't also have a passion for Edgar Allan Poe. Poe wasn't simply a melancholy author who wrote about premature burials, sinister black cats, and talking ravens. He was much more. If you've ever read a modern mystery or horror novel, you can thank Poe. Poe invented the modern mystery story, mostly invented science fiction, and was the first writer to take the horror stories of the Gothic era and set them in modern times, starting a trend that continues today. With a lifelong interest in Poe, Troy Taylor decided to take his own look at the mysterious and macabre writer, his tragic life, unexplained death, and lingering hauntings. He invites listeners along to delve into the strange and bizarre world of Edgar Allan Poe, from his early life to his tragic marriage, his insane grief, his dramatically failed career, his links to an unsolved murder and the mystery of what happened to the writer in the five days before his unexplained death. Even more than a century and a half later, no one knows what happened to Poe before he was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, or what killed him. Why did he disappear and then show up in an incoherent state, wearing another man's clothes? Where did he go when he vanished and who was the mysterious Reynolds that Poe whispered about in his dying breath? And perhaps strangest of all, does he haunt the mysterious graveyard where his body is buried? Nevermore, the Haunted Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, written by Troy Taylor, narrated by Darren Marlar. Find a link to the book on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. On October 20, 1941, in media Pennsylvania, two elderly women suffered a brutal attack that would ultimately kill them. In late afternoon, Elizabeth Watson, 83, and her sister Bella, Gary, 80, walked toward home after dining at a local restaurant. Elizabeth had long been widowed and Bella never married. As they made their way through a secluded alley toward their residence, the sisters realized someone was following them. Suddenly, the stalker blitzed the women. Using a rock, he beat Elizabeth to the ground, then pummeled Bella. As the octogenarians lay bleeding, the assailant flung the stone at Bella's head, knocking her cold. Then he fled. He took nothing. Someone heard screams and called police. Elizabeth suffered a skull fracture while Bella's lacerated face and head bled profusely. An ambulance crew raced them to Chester Hospital. Three days later, Elizabeth died. Bella lingered for nearly four months before she passed away. The coroner said her death was a direct result of the assault. Investigators quickly identified a suspect, 14-year-old John Jackie Leeds. On the day of the murder, he'd escaped from Glenn Mills Reformatory, a nearby reform school for juvenile delinquents. Another inmate, who had also escaped that day, ratted him out to authorities. A Republican and Harold quoted District Attorney William B. MacLennican, Leeds has made a complete confession and admitted the murder of Mrs. Watson and severely beating her sister. He told us he did the job by himself. In fact, he wrote out one confession and signed two others written by officers. In addition, the other teenager who fled the Reformatory at the same time as Leeds told detectives his friend had bragged about killing Elizabeth and showed off a roll of bills. The next day, investigators took Leeds from the jail intending to participate in a reenactment of the crime. However, before he could lead them to the crime scene, cops ended the walkthrough after local media descended en masse. Prosecutors thought they had a slam dunk case and held Jackie Leeds without bond on a first-degree murder charge. In fact, the District Attorney was so confident in his case he went on vacation. But the local justice system had never reckoned with a mom like Margaret Leeds-Brayden. Immediately after her son's arrest, she spoke with reporters, sobbing. She said, He didn't do it. I know he didn't do it. And with those words hanging in the air, she hired E. Lee Roy Van Roden, one of the finest attorneys in Pennsylvania. Before leaving for vacation, McClannock and released one of Jackie Leeds' confessions to reporters. It read, I was broke and hungry and I saw one of the sisters carrying a pocketbook. I grabbed at it and the ladies resisted. One of them hit at me with her cane. I got mad and hit her with my fist. Then I picked up a rock and beat the one lady, Elizabeth Watson, over the head until she fell down. Then I threw the rock at the other one and hit her in the head. Then I kept on beating them. It was horrible the way I beat them. They were both unconscious. I got frightened and ran away. Jackie's mother responded, If they got a confession from Johnny, they beat it out of him. They beat him at Glenn Mills, although he's just a boy. After he left Glenn Mills, he walked all the way to the home of my brother a few blocks from ours and slept in my brother's car. We found him there. He still had on the uniform that he had on when he left school. There was not a scratch on him, except the black and blue spots from the beating school attendants gave him that caused him to leave. A persistent truant, Leeds had been examined by psychiatrists at Allentown State Hospital, referred to in the media as an insane asylum. Over the years, he'd been arrested numerous times for truancy, loitering, theft, and trespassing. Try as she might, John's mother could not control his rebellious behavior. As a last resort, on the recommendation of psychiatrists at Allentown State, she admitted Jackie to Glenn Mills' reformatory. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Mrs. Brayden sent her intelligent but outward son to Glenn Mills in an effort to rehabilitate him. She later said she thought it was a school. On January 19, 1942, just three months after the crimes, Leeds stood trial for the murder of Elizabeth Watson. The prosecution relied heavily on his written confessions as well as the testimony of Charles Mitchell, the boy who escaped the same day John did. Mitchell told the court he saw John at Broad Street Railroad Station in Philadelphia and John had flashed a wad of cash. After allegedly revealing to Mitchell that he had killed an old broad, John supposedly gave his friend one dollar. The defense tackled the written confessions first. John took the stand and said he did indeed write the confessions but only because interrogating detectives threatened to arrest his mother if he didn't confess. He said they told him his mother was already in custody and could be given life in prison or even the death penalty. John, who did not look like a hardened criminal, made a good impression on the jurors. Cops, suddenly placed on the defensive, denied they had coerced the teenager. The second strategy for the defense was to show that John was nowhere near the location where the octogenarians were attacked. The Republican in Herald reported John's mother denied that he was in the media area at the time. She contended that he had walked 20 miles from the reformatory to the home of her brother in Germantown. Her brother, a respected businessman, told the court he found John sleeping in his car the following morning. In addition, John Dickinson, a truck driver, testified he gave leads a ride from Westtown 16 miles from media to Philadelphia the night of the slayings. On January 26, the jury acquitted leads. The decision stunned Judge Albert Dutton McDade. The Delaware County Daily Times reported that Dutton denounced the verdict from the bench and told the jurors they were guilty of a miscarriage of justice. He said he had heard that leads had molested a nurse at Glenmills Reformatory and was a danger to the community. On the same day he was found not guilty of Elizabeth Watson's murder, Miss Bellagiri died. The coroner told reporters her death was a direct result of the beating. In June 1942, the court committed John to Fairview State Hospital where he was diagnosed as mentally ill with criminal tendencies. The hospital released him a few months later. Immediately after leaving the hospital, prosecutors ordered leads to stand trial for the murder of Bellagiri. This time the prosecution's case was even weaker than before. Charles Mitchell, the reformator in May who claimed leads confessed to him, could not testify since he was fighting with the United States Marines in the South Pacific. And this time the defense's case was stronger than at the first trial. The lawyers had located additional witnesses who claimed to have seen leads in Philadelphia at the time of the attack. Once again, the bad boy was acquitted. His mother celebrated with her son telling the press, I told you so. John Jackie Leeds had accomplished something few people have. He had been acquitted of two murders in separate trials. Now all he had to do was live a clean life. Alas, he seemed to not be able to do that. After his acquittal, leads joined the United States Army. On December 4, 1945, Mrs. Anna E. Ryker had just returned to her home in Germantown. Her husband was overseas in the military. The Delaware County Daily Times reported John J. Jackie Leeds, now in Army uniform, who was acquitted of a charge of murdering the aged Geary sisters and media four years ago, was arrested in Germantown Monday on charges of attacking a soldier's wife. The victims told investigators that before she removed her coat, she heard a knock on the door. As I opened the door, she said, a man in uniform grabbed me neck and threw me to the floor. I struggled and he broke my glasses and I started to scream. She told investigators the stranger punched her in the face several times, then attempted to pull her to him and kiss her. Fortunately for Mrs. Ryker, her two sisters were visiting and ran to her aide. When he saw them, Leeds fled as one of her sisters called police. As responding officers spoke to Mrs. Ryker, Leeds arrived back at the house. He said he wanted to apologize to his victim. Cops, noticing Mrs. Ryker's bruised and battered face, quickly arrested Leeds and charged him with aggravated assault and battery and attempt to ravish. On December 12, 1945, Leeds went on trial. Although he was acquitted of attempt to ravish, the jury convicted him of aggravated assault and battery. The judge sentenced Leeds to three years in prison. On November 26, 1947, the Philadelphia Times Tribune reported the following. John Jackie Leeds, 22, who as a teenager was acquitted in the slayings of two media sisters, was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to burglary charges. Burglaries of a private house, two churches at a parked car, netted $4.35 in cash and a chalice. A lunacy commission which examined the youth said he was not insane but had a psychic illness. At this point, John Leeds disappeared from history. Whales, for the most part, are pretty mild and gentle creatures. But there is a hidden danger coming from whales which perhaps many do not suspect. Rarely and only under a particular set of circumstances, a whale can become very dangerous indeed. For, you see, a whale can explode. When a whale, gigantic in form and huge to look at, washes up on a seashore, it obviously attracts a lot of attention from people. People from nearby areas and neighborhoods rush to the beach to see the huge animal. Sometimes a whale is lucky if it is alive and the people are able to save it by getting it back into the water. However, most times the washed up whale is dead. These dead whales have a huge body that starts to decompose. Every animal's body is the home of many bacteria and fungi. When an animal dies, the bacteria inside the body start decaying the internal muscles and organs of that body. This decaying process of a whale's body can lead to a build-up of gas inside the internal cavities of the dead animal, which often pushes the whale's body to the brink of explosion. When the bacteria and fungi start consuming the muscles of the whale, there is a build-up of gas that makes the body swell and eventually explode from the internal pressure. And this has happened on several occasions. For example, there was one famous incident of a whale exploding on January 29, 2004. However, there was another incident in 1970, which will sound highly bizarre as compared to the former incident. While the 2004 incident happened because of natural gas build-up, the 1970 incident was a man-made process in which explosives were used. So what was the circumstances of the two incidents and how were they different? On the morning of January 29, 2004, a 17-meter, that's 56-foot, sperm whale washed up on the coast of Tynan City, Taiwan. The animal was dead, and the local authorities lifted it onto a trailer to be transported to the Satsau Wildlife Reservation Area for study. However, as the huge whale was being transported through the streets of Tynan City, it suddenly exploded in the center of a busy street. The explosion was unexpected and left the people on the street splayed with blood, whale blubber, and internal organs. Clearly, the jostling of the carcass as it moved caused it to rupture, but nobody was prepared for the force of the explosion. It was clear in the aftermath that the whale's body could contain extraordinary pressures and that when they were released, the result could be catastrophic. But this was not the first time that a whale had exploded, nor the only way this could be brought about. It seems that the risk of the build-up of gases was well known, and indeed in an earlier incident in Florence, on Oregon's west coast in the United States, the explosion was induced by the hand of man. On November 12, 1970, a whale that had washed up to the shores of Florence exploded after three days lying on the beach. The 14-meter, or 46-foot-long sperm whale carcass weighed a whopping seven tons, far too big to be easily moved. While the corpse of the majestic animal attracted pee from Trenaris, its body smelled only worsening. Soon, the smell became quite a problem for the onlookers and the local authorities, who urgently wanted to do something to get rid of the huge carcass before it created more problems. For example, the local authorities thought that the carcass might engulf people in case anyone thought of climbing the huge body. The person falling into the interior of the body of the whale could die quickly because of the poisonous fumes released inside its body. When everyone was estimating the scale of the problem that the sperm whale could be, Assistant District Highway Engineer George Thornton was looking at the solution. The solution for him was clear, blow up the whale like a huge piece of rock. This incident happened years ago, and many people believed that the incident was only a publicity stunt. Although there is video footage of the incident, many people believed that the whole incident was a scripted one. However, reporters were there to record the whole incident, and people who watched this bizarre thing happen knew that it was true. According to reports, the local authorities had weighed other alternatives to exploding a whale. However, they did not find any other feasible way of dealing with the stinking carcass. For example, burying the whale's body was overruled because people thought that even after burial, the animal's body would continue to stink. Moreover, the local authorities would need a huge pit to bury the body. It was very difficult to dig such a large pit to bury the animal. Another way to get rid of the body was to get rid of methane gas inside with incisions on the body. After this, the body could have been cut into pieces so that scavenging animals could eat the pieces up. However, no one was up for this task of manually cutting up the whale, a distasteful task and one that exposed whoever performed it to the horrible stench coming from the body. When all other ways were dismissed, Assistant District Highway Engineer George Thornton proposed that the whale should be blown up with half a ton of dynamite. The idea was not mad and his research into the type of explosives needed gave it a chance of success. The engineer made sure to take the advice of explosive experts from the U.S. Navy before forming a plan. Oregon beaches were under the Department of Transportation's jurisdiction, so Thornton was allowed to take the final decision on disposing of the whale body. The engineer made sure that precautions were taken to protect bystanders from any harm from the explosives. The explosives were planted by the land part of the whale's carcass so that the explosion carries the pieces of the carcass towards the sea and drops them on the waves. It was planned that some pieces would go into the sea washed away by waves. The remaining pieces would then be eaten by sea birds and scavenging animals. The engineer also made sure that the people present on the scene were at least a quarter a mile away from the spot of the explosion. However, something, somewhere, went wrong. It turned out that half a ton of dynamite combined with the pre-existing build-up of gases in the whale's internal cavities was more than sufficient. The explosion was far larger than anticipated, raining whale flesh and chunks of carcass down onto onlookers, their cars and the surrounding film crew there to capture the moment. A useful lesson to learn, then, when deliberately blowing up a whale, less can often be more. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me and follow me on social media through the Weird Darkness website. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find information on sponsors you heard about during the show, listen to free audiobooks I've narrated, get the email newsletter, and my other podcasts, including Church of the Undead and a sci-fi podcast, Auditory Anthology. Also on the site, you can visit the store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, smugs, and other merchandise. Plus, it's where you can find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression, addiction, or thoughts of harming yourself or others. And if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell of your own, you can click on Tell Your Story. You can find all that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories on Weird Darkness are reported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes. The Poltergeist Girl is by Liv Pascarelli for Graveyard Shift. Codex Gigas, the Devil's Bible, is by Mark Miller for HistoricMysteries.com. The Dark Ages and the Flat Earth is by Gemma Holman for JustHistoryPosts.com. The Octogenarian Murders is by Robert A. Waters for Kidnapping Murder in Mayhem. And Exploding Whales was written by Bippin Demi for HistoricMysteries.com. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Job 37, verse 5. God's voice thunders in marvelous ways. He does great things beyond our understanding. And a final thought. Live in such a way that if anyone were to speak bad of you, no one would believe it. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.