Expelled

Sometimes the consequences of our actions can lead to a dark destination, while other times it frees us up to transform into something bigger and better. Today's tour of the Cabinet will reveal one of each.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. On June, the authorities

(00:31):
showed up to arrest her. I realized that it might
have come as a shock to her, but for all
her neighbors and the community beyond them, it had only
been a matter of time. Justice would eventually win the day.
Her crime was murder. Just a little over two months prior,
on Easter Sunday, in fact, she had walked into the

(00:53):
home of her neighbors, the Lafontse, and found the place empty, well,
not entirely. There was a cradle off to one side
of the main room, and in it slept the family's
youngest son. I'm not sure I fully understand why she
did what she did next, but some people simply make
bad choices. She chose to harm the boy, as horrible

(01:17):
as that sounds, and as a result of his injuries,
the boy died. Whether or not that was her intent
is irrelevant. She was guilty of murder, and so they
came to arrest her. The trial was swift, so many
people came forward to testify against her that her guilt

(01:37):
was without question. Still, witnesses were examined and cross examined,
testimonies were heard. The judge deliberated and then returned to
the courtroom to declare his verdict. Guilty. Her sentence was execution,
specifically by hanging, so a gallows was hastily built nearby

(01:59):
and preparations were made. On the appointed day, she was
led to the wooden platform by strong men. Her hands
and feet were bound, and a noose was slowly fitted
around her neck, and then after a pronouncement by a priest,
the trap door was opened and she fell. I wish

(02:19):
I could offer a happy ending to this story. Then
at the last minute a witness came forward to reverse
the charges, or that the news snapped and the killer
was given a second chance. But this isn't one of
those stories. No, the killer was guilty and she hanged
for her crime the end. I suppose in that way,

(02:42):
this story isn't really anything special. Sadly, the pages of
history are filled with the names of killers, and most
of them met a similar fate. But this story has
one small difference that deserves to be pointed out, the
killer you see was special. No, she wasn't a queen

(03:03):
or a celebrity or even well off. She wasn't even human.
She was a pig. He was failing all of his classes,

(03:28):
and that meant his plan was working. Before long, he
would be expelled and everything would be okay. That probably
doesn't make a lot of sense right now, so perhaps
we need to take a step backwards. Ed didn't have
the best of luck no matter how he tried, and
it started young too. By the age of three, both
of his parents were gone, leaving him an orphan. Thankfully,

(03:51):
some friends of the family took ed in and raised
him as their own. Even that was riddled with trouble though.
As he grew older, Ed started to fall out with
his adoptive parents. They fought constantly, and not all of
it could be chalked up to the head butting between
strict parents and angst written teens. The fact was his

(04:11):
father was a bit of a jerk. The guy was rich,
you see, but he refused to share that wealth with
his family, which is why it was ironic when Ed's
father sent him to college to get him out of
the house and and the quarreling because he didn't send
the young man away with any cash. Ed was a
smart guy and he did well during his first term,

(04:33):
but those classes were expensive, and since he was broke,
the debt just sort of added up. When Ed asked
his father later for the money to pay off his school,
that's the man pulled him out of college instead. With
one door closed to him, the young man had to
find a different path. A few weeks later, he enlisted
in the army, which came with a little pay and

(04:55):
a lot of commitment, but nothing close to a college education.
He stuck with that for two years before begging his
father to help him go back to school, and it worked.
Ed's dad helped the man get into West Point, of
all places, and for a while it seemed that everything
was going to be all right. But again, he did
all of this without his father's money, so of course,

(05:18):
the debts returned. At one point, the school sent him
a letter asking for payment, and Ed replied that he
kept trying to ask his father for the cash, but
the man was drunk a bit too often, so West
Point did something sneaky. They forwarded Ed's letter to his father. Naturally,
the man was embarrassed and upset, but he also paid

(05:40):
the debt off. Oh and then he disowned Ed and
cut off all communication with him, which was unfortunate because
Ed needed his father's permission to withdraw his enrollment from
the school. So there you go. That's why Ed was
purposefully failing his classes at West Point. He didn't want
to stick around, In fact, he couldn't afford to, so

(06:03):
he needed to do everything in his power to make
his time there as short as possible. He stopped going
to classes, he stopped going to the required chapel gatherings,
even stopped eating. But after a while, this school caught
on and because West Point is a military college, they
arrested him and then dismissed him for negligence of duty.

(06:27):
Ed did all right, though life would continue to be
tough for him, but he poured that pain and suffering
into his true passion writing. Over the next eighteen years,
he would build a name for himself, and while he
would never again be on good terms with his father,
John Allen, he would carry the man's name with him
for the rest of his short life. Ed, you see,

(06:50):
was one of America's first literary celebrities, and we still
read his work today. So be thankful that his father
disowned him and that West Point kicked him out of college,
because without those failures, the world might never have met
Edgar Allan Poe. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour

(07:15):
of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
and television show, and you can learn all about it

(07:36):
over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.