Today's True Weird Stuff - Hammersmith Ghost (Airdate 11/15/2024)



In 1803, residents of the Hammersmith district of London reported being terrorized by a ghost. The hysteria was so intense that a man named Francis Smith did the unthinkable: he shot and killed a man wearing white clothing, having mistaken the man for the Hammersmith Ghost. Can a man be found guilty of trying to kill a ghost? It's a decision that would take English courts 180 years to figure out.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Hammersmith Ghost (Airdate 11/15/2024)
 
In 1803, residents of the Hammersmith district of London reported being terrorized by a ghost. The hysteria was so intense that a man named Francis Smith did the unthinkable: he shot and killed a man wearing white clothing, having mistaken the man for the Hammersmith Ghost. Can a man be found guilty of trying to kill a ghost? It's a decision that would take English courts 180 years to figure out.

True Weird Stuff is the award-winning podcast hosted by Sheri Lynch.  Surprising, odd, bizarre - and sometimes insane. Always true. Let us tell you a story…

True Weird Stuff is the award-winning podcast hosted by Sheri Lynch.  Surprising, odd, bizarre - and sometimes insane. Always true. Let us tell you a story…

True Weird Stuff

Hammersmith Ghost

Today's True Weird Stuff - Once Upon A Shroom

 

R. Gordon Wasson was an author, and worked in banking for J.P. Morgan. He was also responsible for popularizing shrooms in America...you know, the ones with psychedelic properties. Even the CIA got in on the action, covertly funding Wasson's expedition to study and collect hallucinogenic species of mushrooms for MK-Ultra's subproject 58.

 

Today's True Weird Stuff - Once Upon A Shroom
&nbsp;
R. Gordon Wasson was an author, and worked in banking&nbsp;for J.P. Morgan. He was also responsible for popularizing shrooms in America...you know, the ones with psychedelic properties. Even the CIA got in on the action, covertly funding Wasson's expedition to study and collect&nbsp;hallucinogenic species of mushrooms for&nbsp;MK-Ultra's subproject 58.
&nbsp;

Once Upon A Shroom

Today's True Weird Stuff - Asylum Ladies



In the 1800s, women could be placed in mental institutions simply for not behaving the way society believed they should. Mental diagnoses at the time were simple: you were either deemed a lunatic, a moron, an imbecile, or feeble-minded. Like many others, a woman named Josephine Shaw Lowell believed poor women who lived in almshouses were promiscuous and prone to having illegitimate children. That's why in 1878 she created a place to house those women called the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Asylum Ladies
 
In the 1800s, women could be placed in mental institutions simply for not behaving the way society believed they should. Mental diagnoses at the time were simple: you were either deemed a lunatic, a moron, an imbecile, or feeble-minded. Like many others, a woman named Josephine Shaw Lowell believed poor women who lived in almshouses were promiscuous and prone to having illegitimate children. That's why in 1878 she created a place to house those women called the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women.

Asylum Ladies

Today's True Weird Stuff - Forbidden Island



In the early 1900s, a woman known as Typhoid Mary was identified as patient zero for a series of typhoid outbreaks in New York. As a result, she was forced into quarantine on North Brother Island and lived the rest of her life in exile. Not only was the island a quarantine zone, it was the location of the General Slocum steamboat disaster, the deadliest event to happen in New York before 9/11. Today, North Brother Island has been abandoned for over 60 years, and travel to the island is strictly forbidden.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Forbidden Island
 
In the early 1900s, a woman known as Typhoid Mary was identified as patient zero for a series of typhoid outbreaks in New York. As a result, she was forced into quarantine on North Brother Island and lived the rest of her life in exile. Not only was the island a quarantine zone, it was the location of the General Slocum steamboat disaster, the deadliest event to happen in New York before 9/11. Today, North Brother Island has been abandoned for over 60 years, and travel to the island is strictly forbidden.

Hammersmith Ghost

In 1 playlist(s)

True Weird Stuff

Social links

Follow podcast

Recent clips