Places of Legend

The north side of Portland, Oregon, in the late 1800s was the scene of a violent, raucous waterfront, where illicit cargoes from Asia were offloaded, drunken sailors “shanghaied,” the brothels were always busy, and dark opium dens offered escape from the burdens of life. The profits from all these vices—including the smuggling of illegal immigrants from China—flowed to the elegant south side of town.

In this next episode we’ll travel to the docks, whiskey joints, opium dens, and boarding houses of the north side of Portland, Oregon in the late 1800s, a lawless district that contrasted sharply with the neat homes and neighborhoods of the city’s south side. We’ll tell a tale of how these two very different neighborhoods were brought together by a vast smuggling ring masterminded by some of the city’s business elite. The smugglers’ stock in trade were what we now call “undocumented immigrants” coming from China and willing to work in the mines, canneries, lumbering camps. But along with the human cargo, the smugglers’ profits were made from illicitly imported barrels of opium for distribution along the West Coast. Drugs and immigrants, then as now, were an explosive political issue. We’ll discover who were the victims of this smuggling ring and who got off scot free.

Music and FX Credits

* PortDover.mp3, by billcanada, Licensed under Creative Commons: Sampling+ license, https://freesound.org/people/billcanada/sounds/17362/

* The Steamship Princess Marguerite II ( Maggie ) Makes her Last Landing in Seattle, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzHtRgtupss

* Ishikari Lore Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

* 張連生　賽馬, TenmaErhuSchoo, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvv3gGuFST4

* Crowd of extras in a waiting room, by nebulousflynn, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, https://freesound.org/people/nebulousflynn/sounds/269060/

* “Comic Plodding” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

* 張連生　二泉映月, TenmaErhuSchoo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfPpqNxO9B8

* paper_mix_3.mp3, by zwei2stein Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, https://freesound.org/people/zwei2stein/sounds/176053/

* Pencil, Writing, Close, A.wav, by InspectorJ , Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/398271/

* Opium Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

* Splash, by daveincamas, Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, https://freesound.org/people/daveincamas/sounds/59104/

* “Waltz (Tschikovsky Op. 40)” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

* “Hyperfun” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Diamond necklaces, rings, and other expensive baubles were an irresistible attraction to the light-fingered burglars who preyed on the wealthy winter visitors to Miami Beach in its early days. One particularly light-fingered jewel thief became the arch-villain of this elegant resort scene. Even after his arrest and imprisonment, the enormous hauls of jewels lifted by this sly criminal kept his legend alive.

The stylish winter playground of Miami Beach in the Roaring Twenties and 1930s—a narrow strip of sandy beaches and luxurious Art Deco hotels—was a popular gathering place for Hollywood celebrities and the nation’s wealthiest elite. In this episode we’ll tell the story of one of the era’s most notorious jewel thieves: a shrewd New Yorker who went by dozens of aliases and mixed unnoticed among the crowds of tuxedoed and bejeweled winter visitors. His method of larceny involved no violence, no confrontation—just an intimate knowledge of Miami Beach’s social scene. He struck when he knew that his wealthy victims would be away from their hotel rooms. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and thick wads of banknotes were his spoils. We’ll hear about his daring heists, how the police tried to put an end to them, and how his legacy continues as Miami Beach lives on as a sun-drenched meeting place for the rich and famous—and for some of the world’s greatest grifters and light-fingered jewel thieves.

Music and FX Credits

* Door falls to floor.wav, CastIronCarousel, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/CastIronCarousel/sounds/216749/

* OurMusicBox (Jay Man) Track Name: “Detective” Music By: Jay Man @ https://ourmusicbox.com/ Official “OurMusicBox” YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/ourmusicbox License for commercial use: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/… Music promoted by NCM https://goo.gl/fh3rEJ

* Water_Miami_beach_Atlantic.aif, by Dynamicell, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/Dynamicell/sounds/17552/

* Money Monster Ragtime, by Giorgio di Campo – Freesound Music https://open.spotify.com/user/cabcana, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoV5ljd9JsM

* French Champagne.wav, by Puniho, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/Puniho/sounds/169193/

* Club chatter, London, by mlteenie, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/mlteenie/sounds/152874/

* “Dances and Dames” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

* Fast Talkin Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

* “Sweeter Vermouth” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

* In Your Arms Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License,

Who dreamt up the stunt of going over Niagara Falls in a barrel? Through the 1800s, countless daredevils and would-be heroes attempted all sorts of stunts at the Falls and in the rapids below. But the first to go over the Falls—and survive—did not fit the usual mold of a thrill-seeking daredevil. She was a 63-year-old music teacher named Annie Edson Taylor, who quickly became a national celebrity.

Niagara Falls is many things: a heart-pounding source of power, an old-fashioned honeymoon destination, a tacky tourist mecca, and a seemingly magnetic attraction for daredevils of all kinds. The Canadian and American falls have seen their share of hoaxer, hucksters, and heroes—especially barrel riders, who attracted crowds as they bobbed down the roaring Niagara River and evoked oohs and ahs from the crowd on the shore as they were carried over the Falls. If they died, the crowds dispersed and the stunt became even more thrilling for the next attempt. If they survived, the barrel riders became immediate, national celebrities—at least for a while. In the next episode we will tell the bizarre tale of the first successful barrel jumper in history, a person who survived the vertical drop over the falls in 1901. Her name was Annie Edson Taylor, who at 63 years old resembled a stern schoolmarm because she was one. But that just one of many unexpected details in the story of her odyssey from the school house to an ingeniously padded barrel and into Niagara Falls immortality.

Music and FX Credits

* antique-sawmill-01, dcsimon, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/dcsimon/sounds/135839/

* Durand’s Valse no. 1, Op. 83, performed by Markus Staab, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://musopen.org/music/24948-valse-no-1-op-83/

* Die Walküre, WWV 86B – Fantasie, performed by the US Marine Band, Public domain

* Sukellus, hyppy veteen / Dive, jump to the water, by YleArkisto, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/YleArkisto/sounds/278223/

* Deep rapids/river flowing, by alanmckinney, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/alanmckinney/sounds/145229/

* Crowd Cheering, by SoundsExciting, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/SoundsExciting/sounds/365132/

* Chopin Scherzo no. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31. Performed by Alice Hwang, Public domain, https://musopen.org/music/139-scherzo-no-2-in-b-flat-minor-op-31/

* Gunshot, distant, A, by InspectorJ, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/417345/

* “Cat, Screaming, A.wav” by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/415209/

* The Crash, by sandyrb, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/sandyrb/sounds/95078/

* Joplin’s Kismet Rag, performed by Tony Wilkenson, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://musopen.org/music/43170-kismet-rag/

The great explorer Henry Hudson was determined to discover a Northwest Passage to the riches of Asia through the frigid bay in North America that still bears his name. Hudson’s voyages of exploration are viewed as pioneering triumphs. But in this episode, we’ll tell the tale of his last, fateful mission—a dangerous and obsessive expedition into uncharted waters that ended in terror, violence, and mutiny—and an enduring mystery.

In the Great Age of Discovery, the frigid waters of Hudson’s Bay in northern Canada were believed to lead directly to a sea route to the riches of the Spice Isles of Southeast Asia—and unparalleled commercial wealth for the first nation to discover and lay claim to it. The search for a shorter, northern route from Europe to the Pacific was Henry Hudson’s lifelong obsession. Though he is best known for his voyages along the east coast of North America and up the great river that now bears his name, Hudson’s arctic and sub-arctic voyages were far more courageous. They confronted him and his crewmen with more fearful terrors than those faced in usual transatlantic crossings. Icebergs and huge pods of whales that could easily smash a fragile wooden hull—and barren shores that yielded few provisions—led Hudson and his men to panic and on the brink of starvation. In this episode, we’ll explore an even more chilling aspect of his last, fateful mission: violent mutiny and Hudson’s mysterious disappearance.

Music and FX Credits

* on a wooden ship at sea 02.wav, by LXX.70, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/LXX.70/sounds/91072/

* Lachrimae, or Seven Tears – 1. Lachrimae Antiquae, performed by I Solipsisti, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://musopen.org/music/43281-lachrimae-or-seven-tears/

* Canadian loons, chancemedia, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/chancemedia/sounds/330792/

Canzona ‘La Fina’ (For 2 Trumpets and 2 Trombones – Rondeau), performed by Michel Rondeau, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://musopen.org/music/33103-canzona-la-fina/

* Pirate Crew, by Ross Bugden copyright 2014, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBgKCYrI-c

* North Sunderland, UK – arctic tern colony, by David m, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://archive.org/details/aporee_33163_38116

* Lachrimae, or Seven Tears – 11. The King of Denmark’s Galliard, performed by I Solipsisti, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://musopen.org/music/43281-lachrimae-or-seven-tears/

* Seven Bells,Ship Time.wav, by Benboncan, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/Benboncan/sounds/77696/

* Lachrimae, or Seven Tears – 12. The Earl of Essex Galliard, performed by I Solipsisti Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license, https://musopen.org/music/43281-lachrimae-or-seven-tears/

* Pirate Crew, by Ross Bugden copyright 2014, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBgKCYrI-c

* Lachrimae,

Were 70 jugs of dark liquid discovered in a storeroom of an abandoned Saint Paul hospital startling evidence of an ingenious Prohibition-era scheme? Clues lead to a small cosmetics company accused of bootlegging cheap alcohol-based fragrances into drinkable booze. Their guilt or innocence was never proven. Do the 70 jugs of cheap perfume offer a clue to a Prohibition-era mystery?

Saint Paul, Minnesota, was a notorious haven for gangsters and bootleggers, thanks to a corrupt arrangement with the municipal police force. Throughout the Prohibition-era, the city was filled with speakeasies and alcohol flowed freely. A bizarre relic from that time was unexpectedly discovered in an abandoned storeroom of Saint Paul’s Ancker Hospital: a stash of 70 large jugs of dark, colored liquid labeled as perfume. Was it possible for skilled bootleggers to distill cheap perfume into 100 proof booze? In this episode, we’ll follow the clues that lead to a small St. Paul cosmetics company accused by the federal authorities of participating in a vast national conspiracy to smuggle alcohol. That accusation ruined lives and drove the company out of business. Yet the guilt or innocence of the company’s owner remains uncertain. In proposing a solution to this intriguing Prohibition mystery, we’ll also uncover the wider effects of the federal government’s ambitious attempt to regulate public “vice.”  

Music and FX Credits

* Work indoor demolition:destruction impact cement:concrete, 1m perspective, falling remains of wall, Hammer, stereo XY.wav, by gaby7129 copyright 2014, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, https://freesound.org/people/gaby7129/sounds/238764/

* String Quartet No. 2 in D Major, Borodin, public domain, in https://musopen.org/music/690-string-quartet-no-2-in-d-major/

* ALOUETTE – Guitar Solo, Arr. Thanh Nha, by guitarthanhnha copyright 2014, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlX1Rtzap0c

* Barringer, J. M, Robert Saladini, Carol Guglielm, and Phillip Desellem. Little Bessie. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C, monographic, 1998. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/sm1876.7606110/.

* Cowell, Sidney Robertson, Collector. Goodbye, Booze. 1939. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017701780/.

* Epic and Dark Electronic Music ♪♬ – Welcome to Chaos, by Ross Bugden (2014), licensed under a ‘Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5w5VX4tAD4

* Bird Traditional Jazz Band hd, Tradicional Jazz Band, Argentina, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9eR2dYX6DU

* Cash register, by kiddpark 2013, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, https://freesound.org/people/kiddpark/sounds/201159/

* Nov 10, 2007 Veteran’s Day Parade » WW2AirplaneFlyover.wav, by daveincamas, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, https://freesound.org/people/daveincamas/sounds/43807/

* Sissle, Noble, Eubie Blake, and Frank And His Rainbo Orchestra Westphal. Serenade Blues. [Columbia, 1922] Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, .

* What’s Up Big Band ” Jealousy “, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license,

The series of violent events that erupted in southern Appalachia in the 1870s and 80s, known as the “Hatfield-McCoy Feud,” evokes stereotypes of backwoods blood feuds and caricatured “hillbillies” with loaded shotguns. This episode will offer a very different version of the Hatfield-McCoy story that uncovers clues to the real reason for the feud and how the caricatured image of the hillbilly was born.

The rugged borderland between West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky are famous for its rich veins of anthracite coal, which have profoundly shaped its national image and regional landscape. But our story will take place in the era just before the coming of the mines and the company towns; it will describe the series of violent events that erupted in this region in the 1870s and 80s that have come to be known as the “Hatfield-McCoy Feud.” The mention of that feud evokes stereotypes of Appalachian blood feuds and caricatured “hillbillies” with loaded shotguns, but we’ll tell a very different version of the Hatfield-McCoy story that uncovers some clues to the real reason for the feud and how the caricatured image of the hillbilly was born.

Music and FX Credits

* Richard Hood : two-finger fretless banjo : Needlecase, copyright 2010, courtesy of Richard Hood, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyFYakZPd-o

* Nature Streamside, mvines, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/mvines/sounds/250743/

* Jabbour, Alan, Alan Jabbour, and Henry Reed. Little Stream of Whisky. Reed family home, Glen Lyn, Giles County, Virginia, 1966. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/afcreed000126/

* Richard Hood, 2-finger banjo, Catlettsburg, copyright 2016, courtesy of Richard Hood, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYexOLR-6NY

* Thing For Itself by unreal_dm (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/unreal_dm/34278 Ft: Pitx

* Dueling Banjos, Dave Banjoseed, copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLXQXy2NAK4

* Richard Hood – two-finger banjo – Bull at the Wagon, copyright 2015, courtesy of Richard Hood, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__QyKiPO-wQ

* “What Wondrous Love” (Mountain Dulcimer), by kellydiver, copyright 2016, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NczVYjWb5J8&t=27s

* Jabbour, Alan, Alan Jabbour, and Henry Reed. Frosty Morning. Reed family home, Glen Lyn, Giles County, Virginia, 1966. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/afcreed000115/.

The elegant entrance to Delmonico’s restaurant in Lower Manhattan still welcomes billionaires, politicians, and visiting VIPs. It was here in the early 1800s that the upscale American restaurant was born. But the telltale clues contained in an early printed menu reveal how the name “Delmonico’s” also became a familiar brand name for eat-and-run lunchrooms for New York’s working poor.

Just a few blocks away from the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, the frenetic hub of the economic life of the nation, the imposing colonnaded entrance of Delmonico’s Restaurant still represents an oasis of calm and elegance for the great city’s rich and powerful. It was there in the late 1800s, at lavish banquets in Delmonico’s elegant, wood-paneled dining rooms that Charles Dickens, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, and the cream of New York high society praised the elegant cuisine.

But an early menu bearing the name “Delmonico’s,” long considered the first restaurant bill of fare ever printed in America, offers cheap and simple food. Was the story of Delmonico’s one of increasing culinary sophistication that began with pigs’ feet and hamburger steak and only gradually developed its offering of expensive gourmet cuisine? Or have some telltale clues contained in the early printed menu been overlooked by generations of food historians? In this episode we’ll take a cook’s tour of early Manhattan eating places and uncover a strange story about food and its mysteriously changing relationship to social status and economic success in the heart of America’s financial capital.

On an isolated farm just outside LaPorte, Indiana, some unspeakable acts took place in the early 1900s. They remained deep and deadly secrets until a package of love letters was discovered in an immigrant’s cabin in South Dakota—letters that revealed the shockingly murderous intent of a widowed farm wife named Belle Gunness.

Local rumors had it that the Gunness farm, in rural northern Indiana, had a macabre history of misfortune, tragedy, and suicide. But no one expected that all the previous calamities that befell this property would be far overshadowed by the serial murders that took place there at the turn of the twentieth century. The tale of the killings on the Gunness farm is a detective story with many clues and lingering mysteries. It is a story of the loneliness of immigrants to a new country, the lure of riches at a time of agricultural decline, and the deceptiveness of our deepest preconceptions about the capacity of men and of women to commit horrific crimes.

Many mysteries remain in the case of Belle Gunness. In this episode we will follow a trail of clues to discover a series of increasingly disturbing revelations. Who were the immigrant men who eagerly answered lonleyhearts ads in foreign language newspapers only to meet a grim fate instead of a happily married life? Did the gruesome killings on the Gunness farm go unpunished? We’ll unravel a story of evil acts and restless spirits that still cast a shadow on the residents of a small Midwestern farming community.

Music and FX Credits

* New Polska efter Båtsman Däck – nyckelharpa, by Emilie Waldken, copyright 2017 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYqbZslIXPZoaz3KA4fwH3Q

* Ardennermenuetten on 5-strings fiddle, by Emilie Waldken, copyright 2017 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJuryYRt5IY

* Lyric Pieces, Op. 71 – II. Summer’s Eve, performed by Glen Hoban, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license, https://musopen.org/music/42892-lyric-pieces-book-10-op-71/

* Swedish vals – nyckelharpa & octave fiddle, Emilie Waldken, copyright 2017 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaMgN5teqFI

* “We’re doomed” cinematic transition sound, by copyc4t, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/231320/

* Big Crash, by PatrickLieberkind, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/PatrickLieberkind/sounds/243613/

* Haunting Suspenseful Fearful Ambience ~ Long, by dudeawesome, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/DudeAwesome/sounds/386010/

* Sen John Kerry beating his gavel to call a hearing to order. By zerolagtime and CSPAN, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/zerolagtime/sounds/70071/

* Punchbag Halling – KNEP, by by Emilie Waldken, copyright 2017 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJiqarwYpt4

Britt is a mecca for hobos — wanderers and boxcar riders with names like “Railroad Randy” and “50-Tooth Slim.” Every August they gather and swap stories about their rambling lives that ironically reflect changing American visions of home.

The National Hobo Convention convenes in Britt, Iowa the second week every August, bringing together a colorful assembly of hitchhikers, rail riders, ramblers, and roamers from all over the United States. Since the late 1800s, the figure of the hobo—with baggy pants, battered hat, and meager possessions wrapped up in a cloth bindle on a stick resting on the shoulder—has become a familiar figure in American popular culture. From Charlie Chaplin to Woody Guthrie to Boxcar Willie, the hobo or tramp has become a familiar and romantic character, embodying the joys and heartbreak of life on the road.

But what is the difference between hoboes and the homeless? What are the forces that have driven generations of men and women to leave home and family and strike out on their own? In this episode we’ll tell the story of the annual Hobo Convention, which has been the meeting place of the fraternity of the footloose since 1900. Britt, Iowa is itself a product of the railroad, established as a depot of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. It’s a perfect place to tell the story of hobo culture and reveal the hidden customs and bizarre happenings that take place, even today, at the nation’s hobo camps.

Music and FX Credits

* Steam Engine-w-Whistle – multiple passes, by Davestalker, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/DAVESTALKER/sounds/400549/

* Noel Westbrook performs The Highway Hobo, 1940, Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin migrant workers collection (AFC 1985/001), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000071/

* Fire wood bonfire high eq, by honejrande, 2006, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/homejrande/sounds/17374/

* Symphony no. 9 in E minor, ‘From the New World’ Op. 95, II. Largo, performed by Symphony Orchestra, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://musopen.org/music/4942-symphony-no-9-in-e-minor-from-the-new-world-op-95/

* “Hobo” Jack Turner performs The Bum’s Rush, 1928, public domain

* Train, performed by Ace Johnson, 1939. John and Ruby Lomax 1939 southern states recording trip (AFC 1939/001), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

* Freight Fast Horn – mixdown, by davethetech, 2016, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/davethetech/sounds/357900/

* Palmer Mason performs Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, 1938. Alan Lomax collection of Michigan and Wisconsin recordings (AFC 1939/007), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

* Dear Present & Departed (ft. NiGiD) by robwalkerpoet (c) copyright 2017 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license, http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/robwalkerpoet/55776 Ft: NiGiD

* Fred Perry and Glenn Carver perform Lost Train Blues, 1939. John and Ruby Lomax 1939 southern states recording trip (AFC 1939/001), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

* Gloomy Sunday, by Paul Whiteman and Johnny Hauser, 1936, public domain

* Stephen Griffith performs Big Rock Candy Mountains,

Did vampires roam the swamps and forests of early New England? A grotesquely vandalized grave discovered in the small town of Griswold, Connecticut, revealed a ghoulish secret that had been concealed for almost 200 years. 

The small town of Griswold, Connecticut, settled in the late 1690s by farmers from Massachusetts and Rhode Island seeking a life free from strict Puritan religious restraints, conceals a gruesome secret. The sudden unexpected discovery of human remains in a sand and gravel pit led to the discovery of an early American “vampire” whose grave was intentionally opened and whose mortal remains were intentionally vandalized so that he could not prey on the living ever again. In this episode we will tell the story of a unique archaeological discovery that revealed the first material evidence of a dark and frightening aspect of colonial New England folklore: the belief in the threatening existence of demonic spirits, undead bodies, and soul suckers that wandered among them, posing a constant danger to the lives and well-being of the colonial farmers and their families in this remote rural borderland between Rhode Island and Connecticut. That belief gave rise to what has been called the “New England Vampire Panic” of the 1800s that only ended when medical science discovered what really caused so many New Englanders to fall ill and inexplicably “waste away.”

Photograph of the excavation of Burial 4 Courtesy of the Connecticut Office of State Archaeology.

Dig Deeper

* Walton Family Cemetery with images of the excavation of Burial 4 

* Episode transcript

* Food for the Dead: on the Trail of New England’s Vampires (Amazon affiliate link)

* A History of Vampires in New England (Amazon affiliate link)

Music and FX Credits

* Flowing Sand, by Steve Meli, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/SteveMeli/sounds/215006/

* AfternoonAtDismembermentGorge » WoohooOoohhhh.wav, by Daveincamas, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/daveincamas/sounds/45916/

* Child frightened, by Hoerspielwerkstatt_HEF, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://freesound.org/people/Hoerspielwerkstatt_HEF/sounds/273154/

* “Something Wicked”, by Ross Bugden, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuw_O5MU5CE&t=0s&list=PLMFmJLFhkDPG6le5JoCJbWK8pQM6tU_TB&index=3

* Hey Ho My Honey, from the Playford ‘s English Dancing Master of 1697, arranged and performed by Toby Darling, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqH4-UYJBfY&list=PLY6dfvc2sgI2D8vBqWA3vULGg7aHe8Pz7&index=4

* Shape Note Singing with Dara Weiss, Home Routes House Concerts, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAtNrIKTyZQ

* My Dark Passenger, by Darren Curtis, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) license,