Drinking The Cool Aid

Serial farter and the woman who birthed rabbits // 197

• Megan and Hanna Hawkins • Season 1 • Episode 197

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Snorting ashes 

In Miami, Florida, burglars snorted the cremated remains of a man and two dogs.  Why, you ask?  Because they believed they had stolen illegal drugs.  The ashes were stolen from a woman’s home in the central Florida town of Silver Springs Shores on December 15th.  The thieves took an urn containing the ashes of the woman’s father and another container with the ashes of her two Great Danes, along with some electronics and jewelry.  Investigators arrested 5 teens in connection with another burglary. 

 

The Sheriff’s report said, “The suspects mistook the ashes for either cocaine or heroin.  It was soon discovered that the suspects snorted some of the ashes believing they were snorting cocaine.” 

 

Once the teens realized they had snorted ashes, they threw the rest in a lake because they thought their fingerprints were on the containers.  The suspects were jailed on numerous burglary and other charges and police divers attempted to recover the ashes. 

 

Hidey Hole 

In Sarasota, Florida, jail deputies found something very troubling in a man’s booty hole.  33-year-old Neil Lansing was charged with drug possession and smuggling contraband in jail.  He had 30 items tucked inside his anus.  Inside were 17 blue pills, a cigarette, six matches, a flint, a syringe, lip balm, an unused condom and a CVS receipt. 

 

Serial Farter 

The article starts off with: West Village residents are kicking up a stink over a “serial farter” who’s polluting the neighborhood.  A blogger said, “It’s happened thrice, so it can’t be a coincidence: There’s some guy who I believe is playing a fart sound as he passes people as some sort of social experiment.  I think it’s always the same.....fart.”  Someone posted, “Every time while I was talking to a friend, we just got interrupted by this fart that leaves us silent and staring.  He plays it as he passes and never looks back, acts like nothing happened.  Guy is white, college age, very straight-laced looking.” 

The not-so-silent-but-deadly dude went quiet for a while, but someone said he and his wife were walking by Washington Square Park and the guy passed by and just ripped one and they both started laughing.  They listened to the blast and knew it couldn’t be human.  They believe the guy had a flatulence-simulating device in his backpack. 

 

Reptile in your pants 

A woman in Florida was pulled over for a traffic stop.  She had 42 striped mud turtles and one softshell turtle in her vehicle.  The officer asked her if she had anything else and she pulled a small alligator out of her pants.  She was cited for possession and bag limit violations for all three species.  The reptiles were seized and released. 

 

Trust me, he’s not here 

A Florida man, 41-year-old Johnny Yates was wanted by the Polk County Sherif’s Office on aggravated battery, false imprisonment and tampering charges.  Deputies received a tip that he was inside his house.  When they arrived, they saw a note written on a dry-erase board in front of a window that said, ‘Johnny Yates does NOT live here!”  A neighbor confirmed he was inside, so they released the smoke two times, hoping he’d come out, but it didn’t work.  Finally, they entered the home and found Johnny inside a modified chest of drawers, and he was arrested. 

 

Kidnapped to party 

Fats Waller, born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz musician. He began playing the piano when he was 6-years-old, and he learned how to play other instruments, including the string bass, reed organ, and the violin. His father was a clergyman and he wanted Fats to follow in his footsteps, but he wanted to be a musician. He dropped out of school in his teens and found a job as an organ player at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem. In 1926, when he was 21-years-old, he was touring in Chicago. He finished a performance at the Sherman Hotel and as he was leaving, a man approached him and forced him inside a limousine. He was held at gunpoint and brought to the Hawthorne Inn. Inside, he saw something that he never expected. It was a party. He had been abducted and was told to play the piano.  

 

The party turned out to be for 28-year-old mob boss, Al Capone. His men wanted to surprise him by having Fats Waller perform. They actually paid him $100 per song and the party lasted a few days. Fats stayed there and played the entire time, but occasionally took naps on the piano bench. 

 

Back from the dead? 

Sam Jordan tragically lost his wife, Jenny, in a horrible car accident.  Their daughter, Mia was only two years old when it happened.  Sam was obviously distraught, and it took him about 3 years before he was able to get back to what he felt was a ‘normal’ life, so he decided to take his daughter on vacation.  The two of them were going on a two-week getaway to California.  Sam booked a nice little B&B on Venice Beach, close to the ocean and he and Mia were enjoying the sightseeing.  One afternoon, something strange happened on their trip.  Sam and Mia stopped for ice cream and 5-year-old Mia yelled out, “Daddy, it’s MOMMY!” And she took off through the crowd on the boardwalk. 

 

Sam dropped his ice cream and ran after her.  When he caught up with Mia, he told her, you know you can’t run away from me like that.  She said, but daddy, it’s mommy!  She pointed to a couple and Sam gently told her that mommy was in heaven.  The little girl had stared at her mother’s picture for so long, she was sure it was her.  Sam looked at the woman and the blood drained from his body.  Mia was right, she looked just like his wife that he had buried 3 years prior.  Mia ran to the woman and wrapped her arms around her waist, yelling, mommy! 

 

The woman looked at the little girl, very confused and Sam was rushing over to apologize, but he realized that the man standing next to her was his best friend Clive!  Sam hadn’t seen Clive since his wife’s funeral.  Clive looked nervously at Sam and gripped the woman’s arm and yelled that they needed to go.  She looked surprised and said, “Sam, what’s the matter?”  When she asked this, she wasn’t looking at Sam, she was looking at Clive.  She was calling Clive, Sam.   

 

Sam asked Clive what the hell was going on and who this woman was.  The woman smiled and said, I’m Sam’s wife, Jenny.  Mia was yelling, it IS mommy!   

Mommy?  Jenny asked, as she gently touched Mia’s face.  She said I wish I were, she explained that she always wanted a little girl and she wanted to call her Mia.   

I’m Mia!  The little girl said, and you’re my mommy and that is my daddy, she said as she pointed to Sam. 

At this point, Sam had grabbed Clive’s arm REAL tight and told him he better explain what was going on. 

Clive said, it’s not what you think, I didn’t plan it, it just happened.  He said that after the accident, the car burned, and they had a funeral.  Then one night he was watching a late-night missing persons show, and they showed a photo of a woman who had a brain injury, and he knew it was Jenny.  She didn’t remember who she was, but the doctors could tell from her injuries that she had been in a bad crash.  One night Jenny picked up a woman who needed a ride and the vehicle hydroplaned and crashed into a tree.  Both women were thrown from the car before it exploded, but it was the other woman that died. 

Sam was so angry.  Mia and I have been in so much pain, how could you do this?  Clive said that he had always been in love with Jenny.  He said, you knew it when you started dating her, you took her from me, so I took her back.   

 

Jenny was horrified.  Even though she had a traumatic brain injury, she knew something was off.  She had been having dreams about a baby girl, but Clive told her that was just a fantasy.  Clive had been telling her that his name was Sam, and they were married, but she said it never felt right, something was missing.  It took some time, but Sam and Jenny did get back together again, and Mia had her mommy back. 

 

Tiny doll family 

I’ll be providing photos of this story on the socials.  A Michigan man, 72-year-old Don Powell, was shocked to discover two dolls inside his mailbox, along with a note, ‘We’ve decided to make this our home’ and it was signed Mary and Shelley.  The two wooden dolls were sitting on a small couch, enjoying their new home.  Initially, Don and his wife believed that someone had accidentally put this in the wrong mailbox, maybe this was meant for someone else.  Don and Nancy had a unique mailbox, it was custom designed to replicate their old Detroit home. 

 

Don asked his neighbors, but none of them had received a doll in their mailboxes.  He was going to toss them, but he decided to hold onto them, just in case the owner wanted them back.  He saw it as someone just being funny and goofing around.  He got an idea though.  He decided to play along to see what might happen.  A few days later, Don opened the mailbox and saw a tiny end table, a throw rug, and a pillow inside.  Over the next several months, more items showed up, including holiday decorations, a four-poster bed, a painting, a wood-burning stove, and pets. 

 

Don realized that he liked watching the doll family grow and get new items.  During Halloween, the dolls, Mary and Shelley, were replaced by two skeletons and during Christmas, a tree and presents showed up.  They also moved their cousin Shirley in, and she brought her service dog, Maggie. 

 

Don wrote on Nextdoor, ‘A homeless couple has taken up residence inside our mailbox.  I have included photos of what it all looks like, so you don’t think I’m making any of this up.”  He was hoping to figure out who had planted the dolls there, but he didn’t get any leads.  Although, his sons began to wonder if he was the one that did it because he is a jokester, but his wife Nancy said they had nothing to do with it. 

 

Don told DailyMail.com, “I do not really have a favorite doll when it comes to Mary or Shelley.  My favorite, however, is the labradoodle service dog named Maggie.”  The mailbox is 26 inches long, 15 inches wide and 10 inches tall, so the doll family has a lot of room and the mail carrier has no problem with the dolls and enjoys the setup.  The mailbox has several windows and solar-powered ceiling lights to illuminate the box at night.  Don decided to join in on the fun and even added a doll sized letterbox to the front of his mailbox to hold tiny letters and packages. 

 

Many people that have read about the tiny dolls have provided suggestions about the living space.  They want Mary and Shelley to have a deck so they can sit outside in the summer.  Maybe they should get some electricity, so they don’t have to rely on the wood burning stove for heat?  Perhaps the mailbox needs an addition to accommodate all their furniture?  It is getting a little crowded in there and the couple also acquired a cat.  Don is planning to add a new roof to the mailbox because it occasionally leaks when it rains. 

 

He said, “I would want the person who did this to know they are responsible for bringing happiness, fun, and smiles to hundreds of thousands of people around the world.  We live in an unsettling time where there is so much discord and negativity in the news.  In a small way, the story of Mary and Shelley has provided a source of relief and comfort.” 

 

He said that many people have reached out and thanked him for sharing the story and lifting their spirits.  Don is a psychologist and President and CEO of the American Institue for Preventative Medicine, which provides wellness programs to companies and hospitals.  He said he has devoted his life to helping people and he feels like he can further accomplish that by sharing his mailbox story.  Although a person could be fined for putting items in someone else’s mailbox, Don said he couldn’t imagine alerting authorities or evicting the dolls.  He no longer wishes to know who placed the dolls in his mailbox and likes that it’s a mystery. 

 

Struck by a Meteorite 

In 1954, it was a clear afternoon in Sylacauga (Sill-a-cog-a), Alabama.  Ann Hodges was taking a nap on her couch, and she was covered in quilts, when a softball-size black rock flew through her ceiling, bounced off a radio, and hit her in the thigh, leaving a massive, pineapple-shaped bruise.  Meteorites typically hit the Earth or fall into the ocean, but this was the first time that a person had been struck.  Michael Reynolds, a Florida State College astronomer and author of the book Falling Stars: A Guide to Meteors and Meterorites, wrote, “Think of how many people have lived throughout human history.  You have a better chance of getting hit by a tornado and a bolt of lightning and a hurricane all at the same time.” 

 

Prior to Ann being struck by the meteorite, people in Alabama said they saw “a bright reddish light like a Roman candle trailing smoke,” according to a web publication called, “The Day the Meteorite Fell in Sylacuaga (Sill-a-cog-a).”  Other people reported that they saw a fireball, like a gigantic welding arc, then there were tremendous explosions of a brown cloud.  At first, many people believed a plane had crashed, but they couldn’t find any evidence of this.  The police sent the black rock to the Air Force, and they confirmed it was a meteorite, but they didn’t know what to do with it.  The public demanded that the space rock should be returned to Ann and she agreed.  She said, “I feel like the meteorite is mine.  I think God intended it for me.  After all, it hit me!” 

 

Ann and her husband Eugene didn’t own the home, they were only renters.  Their landlady, named Birdie Guy decided that she should get the meteorite.  She obtained a lawyer and sued, claiming the rock was hers since it had fallen on her property.  Technically, the law was in her favor, but the public opinion wasn’t.  Birdie settled out of court, giving up her claim to the meteorite in exchange for $500.  The Smithsonian offered some money for the meteorite, but the couple turned it down.  While the meteorite was at the Air Force Base, they got several offers and one was close to $5,500.  They were convinced that they could sell it for more, but they were wrong.  The excitement died down quickly and Anne ended up donating the meteorite to the natural history museum in 1956.  She received $25 and it’s still on display there. 

 

Ann suffered from a nervous breakdown in 1964 according to the article and she and Eugene separated.  She died in 1972 at 52-years-old from kidney failure and Euguene believes that the meteorite frenzy took a toll on her.  They had lived a very quiet life and after the meteorite strike, there were about 200 reporters outside of their home, Ann was invited to attend the game show called I’ve got a Secret and she received a lot of fan mail and questions, which she decided not to reply to.  Once the notoriety died down, Ann developed social anxiety and her health got worse.  

 

The meteorite that hit Ann was named the Hodges Fragment.  Another fragment from the original meteorite was later sold to the Smithsonian and the radio that the meteorite hit was later loaned to the American Museum of Natural History in 2005 by Euguene Hodges, that was 50 years after the event.   

 

Birthing a rabbit 

In September 27th, 1726, 24-year-old Mary Toft went into labor.  She worked in hop fields of rural England and called out to her neighbor, Mary Gill.  The neighbor rushed inside the house and saw Mary squirming in pain and she was hovering over a bucket.  Gill ran to find Mary’s sister-in-law because she was a midwife.  She told her that the baby looked like a rotten jumble of animal parts.  The family sent the remains to a local surgeon, John Howard.  He wrote back that it resembled “three legs of a cat of tabby color, and one leg of a rabbit, in them were three pieces of the back bone of an Eel” 

 

The doctor visited Mary, but he said she was too difficult to work with.  He wrote, “Mary is of a very stupid and sullen temper.”  But, then it happened before his eyes, Mary birthed a baby bunny.  Over the next month, Mary became a local celebrity and Howard witnessed her giving birth to eight more baby rabbits.  He preserved the bodies in alcohol and sent letters to prominent physicians all over England.  On November 9th he wrote, 

“I have taken or delivered the poor Woman of three more rabbits, all three-half grown, one of them a dunn rabbit, the last leaped 23 hours in the Uterus before it died.  As soon as the 11th rabbit was taken away, up leaped the 12th rabbit, which is now leaping.  If you have any curious person that is pleased to come post, may see another leap in her uterus, and shall take it from her if he pleases....I do not know how many rabbits may be behind.” 

 

A recipient of this letter was the surgeon to King George I and his name was Nathaniel St. Andre’.  The King was rather curious, so he allowed his surgeon to investigate.  When he arrived, he felt Mary’s belly and determined that the rabbits were forming in her right fallopian tube and he helped her deliver a rabbit’s head, which was her 15th. 

The news of Mary’s rabbits went national, and people were disgusted.  At the time, rabbit stew was a big thing in Britain and people stopped eating it.  Doctors began forming a theory that at the time, was called “Maternal Impression.”  They believed a mother’s emotions and imagination could cause birth defects and disorders.  A pregnant woman who was startled by a rabbit, could pollute the fetus with her thoughts, leading to her birthing baby rabbits. 

 

King George was very invested in this whole thing, so he sent another surgeon to check on Mary and he wasn’t as impressed as the first one.  He witnessed Mary giving birth to a few of them, by this time, she was up to 17, but he was skeptical. 

 

On November 29th, Mary was taken to London for a study, and this was against her will.  She was locked in a bathhouse while King George’s court watched her and suddenly.....she stopped birthing rabbits.  At the same time, all those rabbit parts that she had birthed were being dissected and it was discovered that they had been cleaved with a knife and one contained droppings full of corn and hay.  On December 4th, it was over.  A porter was caught sneaking a baby rabbit into Mary’s chamber.  When questioned, he said she bribed him.   

 

There was an investigation, and it was discovered that over the past few months, Mary’s husband had bought a suspiciously large number of rabbits from the town’s merchants.  On December 6th, the court told Mary they were going to perform a very painful and experimental pelvic surgery to see why she was birthing rabbits, but the very next day, she confessed that it was a hoax.  This was very bad news for St. Andre’ because days earlier, he had published a 40-page pamphlet called “A Short Narrative of The Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets.”  He bet his name on this being the real deal.  When Mary announced that this was fake, it ruined his reputation, and he lost his job. 

 

Would you like to know how Mary pulled the whole thing off? She had been pregnant earlier in the year, but she miscarried.  While her cervix was open, she had someone insert the body of a cat and the head of a rabbit, which her neighbor helped her deliver.  Then, to keep things doing, Mary sewed a special pocket in her skirt where she hid rabbit pieces and when the doctors would look away, she would tuck them inside herself and pretend she was in labor.   

 

She believed birthing rabbits was her ticket out of poverty.  At that time, human oddities were very popular, but it all backfired.  She didn’t make any money from this.  She went to jail for 5 months and when she died in 1763, the parish epitaph read: “Mary Toft, Widow, the Impostress Rabbitt.” 

 

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