History of the Mausoleum

In 353 BCE, construction began on an elaborate structure meant to be the final resting place of Mausolus, a member of Persian royalty who ruled the small kingdom of Caria. The immense temple-like tomb was built on a hill overlooking the city of Halicrnassus.

While earthquakes would later destroy this grand monument in the 12th and 15th centuries, it earned the distinction of being considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Today, Mausolus’ name endures as the eponym for the tombs we now refer to as mausoleums.

This minisode is a companion to the episode, Little Nina’s Bleeding Mausoleum.

The Notorious Storyville of New Orleans

Let the Good Times Roll

In the early twentieth century, New Orleans Alderman Sidney Story promoted an ordinance to create a 38-block vice district that allowed legal sex work. Known by most as Storyville, this notorious red-light district not only helped give New Orleans its reputation as a city of sin but also became an integral part of early Jazz.

This minisode is a companion to the episode, The Fiery Tomb of Josie Arlington.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• Listen to some of the music to come out of Storyville on our Spotify Playlist - Southern Gothic: Storyville, New Orleans

• “A Visit to Storyville, New Orleans’ Most Famous Red Light District.”

Sources:

Arceneaux, Pamela. Guidebooks to Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville, New Orleans. New Orleans: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1982. 

Asher, Sally. “The Last Days of Storyville.” My New Orleans. September 29, 2017. https://www.myneworleans.com/last-days-of-storyville/. 

Historic New Orleans Collection. “Storyville: Madames and Music.” The Historic New Orleans Collection. Accessed December 12, 2022. https://www.hnoc.org/virtual/storyville. 

Long, Alecia P. “Josie Arlington.” 64 Parishes, updated May 13, 2019. https://64parishes.org/entry/josie-arlington. 

Rose, Al. Storyville, New Orleans. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1974.

John Murrell’s Mystic Clan

The Great Western Land-Pirate

Legend says John Murrell’s father was a preacher and his mother took pride in teaching him how to steal, but that is just the first of many claims made about this infamous highwaymen who was once accused of being the mastermind of a criminal organization known as the Mystic Clan.

This minisode is a companion to the episode, McRaven House’s Haunted History.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• Purchase the Feminine Macabre, Vol. 3.

Sources:

Phillips, Betsy. “The Strange Story Behind the State’s Thumb.” Nashville Scene. October 28, 2015. https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind. 

“A History of the Detection, Conviction, Life and Designs of John A. Murel, The Great Western Land Pirate.” Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University. 2020. https://library.mtsu.edu/specialcollections/spotlight/2020murrell. 

“John Andrews Murrell (1806-1844).” Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Updated September 29, 2021. https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/john-andrews-murrell-3566/. 

Penick, James Lal. “John A. Murrell: A Legend of the Old Southwest.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 48, no. 3 (1989): 174–83. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42626808.

The Rum Keg Girl

“Little Girl Buried in Rum Keg”

One of the most well-known graves at the Old Burying Grounds in Beaufort, North Carolina is that of a young girl who purportedly died at sea and was buried there in a keg of rum. Who the girl is we will never know, but her legend lives on and her spirit purportedly haunts the three-century-old cemetery to this very day.

This minisode is a companion to the episode, The Hammock House.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• Purchase the Feminine Macabre, Vol. 3.

Sources:

Brown, Nic. “North Carolina’s Old Burying Ground.” Garden & Gun. April/May 2015. https://gardenandgun.com/articles/our-kind-of-place-north-carolinas-old-burying-ground/. 

“Old Burying Ground.” Beaufort Historic Site. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://beauforthistoricsite.org/old-burying-ground/. 

WNCT-TV 9 On Your Side. “People and Places with Pierce: The Rum Keg Girl.” YouTube Video, 2:39. November 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMfHjC-QC1w.

The Bayou Hippo

“This animal, homely as a steamroller, is the embodiment of salvation. Peace, plenty and contentment lie before us, and a new life with new experiences, new opportunities, new [vigour], new romance, folded in that golden future, when the meadows and the bayous of our southern lands shall swarm with herds of hippopotami.””

— "Lippincott's Monthly Magazine," 1910

H.R. 23621 - The Hippo Bill

Now, this particular tale starts with an aquatic plant known as the water hyacinth. It’s native of the Amazon Basin, and if you’ve ever been down to the bayou you’ve seen these things floating across flat water on thick mats of dark green leaves with beautiful blue and purple petals. The hyacinth was introduced to American waterways in the late 19th century, and can now be found all over the warmer regions of the south, from Texas to Florida and beyond, but that is not a good thing, this plant is an invasive species that will dominate and destroy habitats where it resides.

Over the years there have been a number of different ways that water management and environmental organizations have attempted to control this invasive plant, but back in the early twentieth century there was one that today just seems crazy, and it involved the hippopotamus.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• The Homespun Haints Podcast - The Alleged Voodoo Curse of Julia Brown

• Purchase the Feminine Macabre, Vol. 3.

Sources:

“The 1884 Cotton Expo and New Orleans’ first case of World’s Fair fever.” NOLA.com. May 17, 2017. https://www.nola.com/300/. 

“December 16, 1884 American Hippo.” Today In History (blog.) December 16, 2017. https://todayinhistory.blog/tag/american-hippo/. 

Howard, Clifford. “When the Cow Jumps Over the Moon.” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, 86. (July-December 1910): 253-255. GoogleBooks.

Miller, Greg. “The Crazy, Ingenious Plan to Bring Hippopotamus Ranching to America.” Wired. December 20, 2013. https://www.wired.com/2013/12/hippopotamus-ranching/. 

Mooallem, Jon. “American Hippopotamus: A bracing and eccentric of espionage and hippos.” Atavast, 32. Accessed July 15, 2022. https://magazine.atavist.com/american-hippopotamus/. 

The St. Landry Clarion (Opelousas, La.) “To Stock Louisiana With African Animals.” April 2, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Lafourche Comet (Thibodaux, La.) “Congressman Broussard has introduced a resolution.” April 7, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, La.) “Hippos for the State.” March 31,1910. Newspapers.com

The Times-Democrat (New Orleans, La.) “Bill to Protect Dik Dik.” April 2,1910. Newspapers.com

The Town Talk (Alexandria, La.) “Broussard’s Unique Bill.” March 25, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Town Talk (Alexandria, La.) “New York Sun Don’t Agree.” April 1, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Weekly Caucasion (Shreveport, La.) “Could You Eat a Hippo?” September 8, 1910. Newspapers.com

The Great Leech of Tlanusi’yĭ

“The Leech Place…”

According to Cherokee folklore, a deadly creature lives at the confluence of Valley and Hiwasee Rivers in Murphy, North Carolina. It is known simply as the Great Leech of Tlanusi’yĭ.

This minisode is a companion to The Legend of the Moon-Eyed People.

Additional Links From This Episode:

• Be sure to get your tickets today over at Franklin Walking Tours by booking their August 30th Grim & Ghostly Tour!

• Purchase the Feminine Macabre, Vol. 3.

Sources:

Bluewaters. “Cherokee Legend of the Moon-Eyed People.” October 5, 2018. Blue Waters Mountain Lodge. https://bluewatersmtnl.com/cherokee-legend-of-the-moon-eyed-people/. 

Cherokee Videos. “Cherokee History & Stories - What Happened Here: The Leech Place.” YouTube video, 5:03. June 14, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WODyfMglc8. 

Mooney, Jame. Myths of the Cherokee. Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office, 1900. Reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 2012.

Bayou St. John Submarine

A Submarine of Unknown Origins

In 1878, a dredge crew working near the mouth of Bayou St. John in New Orleans uncovered a twenty-foot-long iron submarine.  For years people thought the sub was the CSS Pioneer, the first of three submarines built by Horace Hunley, but in reality, the ship’s origin is still unknown to this day. Join us as we explore some of the theories and facts behind this Civil War mystery.

This minisode is a companion to The Mystery of the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley.

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ADDITIONAL LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• View images of the Bayou St. John Submarine on the Louisiana State Museum’s Online Exhibit: Civil War Era Submarine.

• Check out the history behind the Old Spanish Fort in New Orleans in the video Lost Amusement Parks.

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Sources:

Haines, Matt. “Today a picturesque waterway, Bayou St. John once harbored a Civil War Submarine.” The Advocate (New Orleans, La), May 14, 2019. https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/article_3f3c6e2b-e7d1-588c-bf35-237196179342.html. 

Lambousy, Greg. Monster of the Deep: The Louisiana State Museum’s Civil War Era Submarine. Lafayette, LA: Center for Louisiana Studies, 2006.

“Civil War Era Submarine.” Copyright 2018. Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism. https://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-museum/online-exhibits/civil-war-era-submarine/.

Frank the Library Ghost

Now Entering Frank’s Study

Although the Red Lady may be Huntingdon College’s most well known ghost, she is certainly not the only one!

It’s believed the Huntingdon College's Houghton Memorial Library is home to a mysterious, and mischievous spirit named Frank. Perhaps most unsurprising for a library ghost, is Frank’s has a particular fondness for playing with books.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts!

Sources:

Brown, Alan. Haunted Alabama. Haunted America. New Orleans, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2021.

Huntingdon College. Library: Ghosts. Houghton Memorial Library. Accessed January 14, 2022. https://libguides.huntingdon.edu/website/ghosts 

Mitchell Bennett Houghton (1844-1925). Find a Grave. Accessed January 14, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65121276/mitchell-bennett-houghton 

Rankin, M. (2020, October 30). Hauntings at Huntingdon: Frank, the Library Ghost. CBS 42 Birmingham. Accessed January 14, 2022. https://www.cbs42.com/news/hauntings-at-huntingdon-frank-the-library-ghost/ 

Serafin, Faith. Haunted Montgomery, Alabama. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013.

Swancer, Brent. “The Mysterious Lady in Red and Other Hauntings at Huntingdon College.” Journal Online, March 22, 2021. https://journal.com.ph/the-mysterious-lady-in-red-and-other-hauntings-at-huntingdon-college/.

Walking tour. Huntingdon College. Accessed January 14, 2022. https://www.huntingdon.edu/admission-aid/learn-more/walking-tour/

The Peyton Randolph House Hauntings

The Most Haunted Building in Williamsburg?

In our first minisode we travel back to historic WIlliamsburg, Viriginia…

The home, first constructed in 1721, is today one of the most original surviving structures in Williamsburg; the buildings longevity is believed by many to be the reason why many believe it to be so paranormally active.

In it’s 300 year history the Peyton Randolph house served as a meeting place for American Revolutionaries, and a hospital during the Civil War. With the numerous individuals who lived and died within its walls, its perhaps unsurprising that the accounts of strange occurrences of disembodied noises are said to date back to the late 1700s.

It’s even said that Revolutionary War hero and French General Marquis de Lafayette, experienced something he couldn’t explain when staying at the house in 1824. He was one of many to have an encounter in the Peyton Randolph House.