These articles and episodes are ©2019-2024 by their respective authors, and published by the Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope. They are licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. All rights reserved, all wrongs reversed.
Designed by #13 at Lodge #777.
The weed of crime bears bitter fruit, or so we’ve heard. It certainly didn’t pay for any of the people featured in these episodes.
Helen Duncan was the last person persecuted in Britain for being a witch. Except she wasn't the last, she wasn't a witch, and she wasn't exactly persecuted either...
Categories: Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 14
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In August 2023, my cousin Tim and his fiancee Bonnie were getting married in Lancaster. As #7 and I made our travel plans, we realized that even though she has spent a large chunk of her adult life in Pennsylvania she had never visited many of its most famous historic sites. We decided to make […]
Categories: Arts & Culture, Feats of Building & Engineering, Series 14
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They were driven from their homes, forced to live in houseboats, and persecuted... and all they really wanted was freedom to worship as they pleased.
Categories: Eccentrics & Prophecies, People & Places, Series 14
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A grab bag of Confederate plots: Fake peace conferences! Robbing banks! Burning down cities! Kidnapping the vice president!
Categories: History, Series 14
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The Countess di Frasso was the most famous hostess in the world, who threw parties for kings; actors, athletes and aviators; Nazis and mobsters.
Categories: Arts & Culture, Biography, Eccentrics & Prophecies, Entertainment & Media, People & Places
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For seven years he lived in hell, tormented nightly by a demon cat and the spectre of death. Finally, an angel told him what he had to do to end it all...
Categories: Footsteps into the Unknown, People & Places, Series 13
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In 1862, William H. Mumler took the first known photograph of a ghost. Maybe. What unfolded next was an epic story of fraud and self-deception...
Categories: Biography, Footsteps into the Unknown, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, People & Places, Series 13
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In August 1834 Bostonians burned down a convent full of nuns, thanks to religious prejudice and the suspicious testimony of a lazy teenager with a grudge.
Categories: History, Series 13
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The strange transformation of a Qu'ran study group into a UFO doomsday cult with a quick break in the middle for disco fever.
Categories: Eccentrics & Prophecies, People & Places, Series 13
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Joseph Raber was "too lazy to live and too lazy to work" -- the perfect victim for six conspirators who insured him to the gills and murdered him.
Categories: People & Places, Series 13
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In 1809 Benjamin Bathurst vanished into thin air and was never seen again. We're still debating what happened to him some 213 years later.
Categories: Intriguing & Unsolved Mysteries, People & Places, Series 13
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William F. Miller promised a 520% return on your investment... and for many it was too good an offer to pass up. Too bad it was all a scam.
Categories: History, Hoaxes, Frauds & Forgeries, Series 12
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