In August 1951, residents of the small French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit suddenly started having terrifying hallucinations. Some people imagined lions and tigers were coming to eat them, a man jumped out of a window thinking he was a dragonfly. At least seven people died, over 50 people were taken to the local asylum in straitjackets and hundreds were affected. What caused this mysterious case of mass insanity?

THEORIES: The CIA spiked bread with LSD as part of a mind control experiment, ergot poisoning from contaminated rye crops, mercury poisoning from fungicides used to treat grains, werewolves. 

ALSO: Ali’s dad told her a story about moldy bread curing pneumonia. Maria thinks Jeremy Piven is an excellent businessman.

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