August 8, 2019 • 9 mins
As we pass through the Cabinet today, you'll bear witness to a man who had an incredible run of luck, and a monster that chilled an entire community. Enjoy the tour!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Charles was known for two things,
(00:29):
gambling and fraud, though that wasn't always the case. In
the mid nineteenth century, Charles worked on the docks as
an engineer and inventor. One of his inventions, a device
for regulating the speed of ship's propellers, sold for five
thousand francs. With his newfound fortune, Charles moved to Paris,
and that's where the trouble began. He left his old
(00:51):
life behind in favor of a new one, and along
the way he discovered gambling. He became addicted to the thrill,
and having a few extra francs in his pocket made
it year to get hooked. But for as much as
Charles loved to play the tables, he wasn't very good
at it. Eventually, the one time investor went broke, so
he turned to less than legal ways of feeding the
(01:11):
monkey on his back. He convinced investors to finance a
new railway he was building in berk sumer A commune
in the north of France. Well, the railway never materialized,
and when the courts demanded he answer for his deception,
neither did he. He fled Paris for England, where he
found new casinos to lose his money in. When it
was all gone, he started another con. This time he
(01:34):
had the public invest in original inventions of his own design,
promising huge payouts over time once they hit the market.
You can probably guess what happened next. That's right. The
profits that he promised never came. He led the investors
on for years, with one man losing about nineteen thousand
pounds in the deal. That's almost two point five million
(01:55):
dollars today, and the money all gone flushed away at
an number of casinos that he had been known to frequent,
But he wasn't through. There was always another mark one
with the money to give, money that he was only
happy to take off their hands and spend at the table.
Charles had been well known among the casinos in France
(02:16):
prior to his relocation. In his travels led him to Monaco,
home of the world famous Money Carlo Casino. This place
held one hundred thousand francs in its daily cash reserve,
also known as the bank. Anyone who happened to hit
a streak and win more than that amount triggered a
shutdown of all table play. Casino officials would drape a
(02:38):
black cloth over the winner's table and they draw money
out of the vault to cover the difference. This was
known as breaking the bank. Upon arriving, Charles pulled up
to the roulette table and placed to bet. The dealers
spun the wheel and the little white ball bounced from
space to space until finally landing on a number. Charles's number,
(02:58):
He'd one. He placed another bet, and that proved to
be a winner as well. For eleven hours straight, Charles
sat at that roulette table and placed bet after bet,
eventually accumulating a whopping one million francs and winnings. When
he was ready to cash out, the casino draped a
black cloth over the table and pulled out nine thousand
(03:19):
francs from its vault. Charles Wells had become only the
sixth person in history to break the bank at Monte Carlo.
A song was written about him shortly thereafter, titled The
Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, immortalizing the
famous fraud ster for all time. No one knows how
he did it either. Given his criminal past, everyone assumed
(03:39):
Wells had found a way to cheat. Perhaps the dealer
had been in on it, rigging the wheel to give
him the correct slot each time so that they could
split the winnings at the end. Or maybe Wells had
finally found a system that just worked. The most likely
explanation was that he just happened to get lucky for
the second time in his life. It didn't last long, though.
(04:00):
Eventually the authorities caught up with him and made him
answer for his crimes back in England, where he served
eight years in prison for fraud. When he got out,
he went right back to his old conniving ways and
back to the casinos, hoping to recapture some of that
glory he'd felt in Monte Carlo. But it never came.
Charles Wells died at the age of fifty one from
(04:23):
kidney failure without a single cent to his name. His
winning streak was finally over. Before the days of mechanical refrigerators,
(04:45):
we'd place a giant block of ice in a box
and then store our food there To keep it fresh.
Someone had to go and get that ice to deliver
it to the customers. They were called ice men, and
they were often farmers who worked during the winter harvesting
ice from frozen lakes and rivers. They'd walk out onto
a lake with at least a foot of ice on
the surface and use a large hand saw to cut
(05:06):
out the blocks. Those blocks were then stored in large
buildings during warmer months so that people could still refrigerate
their food in the summer. As you can imagine, it
was a dangerous job. One wrong step and an ice
man could be lost until spring. As a result, the
men who did the work tended to be pretty tough
to scare. However, in eight two midwestern iceman came face
(05:30):
two I with something that made their blood run cold.
It was early September and Marshall McIntyre and Bill Gray
of Crawfordsville, Indiana, we're getting ready to deliver ice into town.
As they were fastening harnesses around their horses, something appeared overhead.
It was several hundred feet in the air and swirling
(05:51):
above them a creature measured roughly eighteen feet long by
eight feet wide. It had been described by witnesses as
a great white shroud that seemed to move through the
air using large fins that ran along its sides. It
had no head, but looked down upon the men in
their barn with a large flaming eye in its center,
(06:11):
and it made an eerie noise as it got closer.
The creature circled above the farmhouse and the barn. Bill
and Marshall had no idea what it was or what
it wanted, but they didn't want to risk being devoured
by it. They fled to the barn and waited until
it disappeared, which it eventually did. It flew toward the
center of town before turning back to the farm. Bill
(06:33):
and Marshall watched as it floated overhead for another hour
until they decided enough was enough. The men darted for
the ice house, mounted their horses, and departed for town.
When they returned to the farm later that day, the
creature was gone. The ice men give an interview to
the local paper all about their bizarre encounter, telling the
(06:54):
reporter that they'd be carrying a rifle on their deliveries
from now on in the event that the creature ever returned.
The story was published later that day in the Daily
Journal of Crawfordsville. A few days later, another article was
published in the Journal, this time featuring eyewitness testimony from
townsfolk who also saw the enormous white thing squirming in
(07:14):
the air. It's mournful screech continued, and some Crawfordsville citizens
even reported feeling the creature's hot breath as it passed overhead.
The story soon spread to the Indianapolis Journal, a much
larger paper, before making its way across the country to
outlets like the Brooklyn Eagle all the way in New
York City. But even though the story captured the imaginations
(07:37):
of people from coast to coast, the Crawfordsville Monster had
solidified itself as a local legend. In the ensuing weeks,
the Crawfordsville Postmaster received numerous letters about the creature. It
seemed the whole town had monster fever. That is until
two other men, John Hornbeck and Abe Hearnley, encountered the white,
(07:58):
wheezing shroud error arising the town. They followed it for
several miles before discovering the truth about its origin. It
wasn't a shapeless otherworldly mass, after all, It was made
up of birds, kill, deer, to be exact, A gathering
of birds had likely grown confused by the town's electric lights,
which had recently been installed, compounded by the damp, foggy air,
(08:22):
reducing visibility. Marshall McIntyre and Bill Gray and all the
other Crawfordsville locals simply hadn't realized what they were looking at.
Whoever thought up the old cliche had it right when
they said seeing is believing, But that doesn't mean we
have to believe everything we read. The only thing more
frightening than the Crawfordsville Monster was how quickly everyone bought
(08:44):
into the story without doing a bit of critical thinking.
Even though ice houses have faded into the past, our
gullibility is as strong as ever, which might be the
most chilling part of the entire story. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
(09:06):
for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
created by me Aaron Mankey 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 over at the World of Lore
(09:27):
dot com, and until next time, stay curious.
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Charles was known for two things,
(00:29):
gambling and fraud, though that wasn't always the case. In
the mid nineteenth century, Charles worked on the docks as
an engineer and inventor. One of his inventions, a device
for regulating the speed of ship's propellers, sold for five
thousand francs. With his newfound fortune, Charles moved to Paris,
and that's where the trouble began. He left his old
(00:51):
life behind in favor of a new one, and along
the way he discovered gambling. He became addicted to the thrill,
and having a few extra francs in his pocket made
it year to get hooked. But for as much as
Charles loved to play the tables, he wasn't very good
at it. Eventually, the one time investor went broke, so
he turned to less than legal ways of feeding the
(01:11):
monkey on his back. He convinced investors to finance a
new railway he was building in berk sumer A commune
in the north of France. Well, the railway never materialized,
and when the courts demanded he answer for his deception,
neither did he. He fled Paris for England, where he
found new casinos to lose his money in. When it
was all gone, he started another con. This time he
(01:34):
had the public invest in original inventions of his own design,
promising huge payouts over time once they hit the market.
You can probably guess what happened next. That's right. The
profits that he promised never came. He led the investors
on for years, with one man losing about nineteen thousand
pounds in the deal. That's almost two point five million
(01:55):
dollars today, and the money all gone flushed away at
an number of casinos that he had been known to frequent,
But he wasn't through. There was always another mark one
with the money to give, money that he was only
happy to take off their hands and spend at the table.
Charles had been well known among the casinos in France
(02:16):
prior to his relocation. In his travels led him to Monaco,
home of the world famous Money Carlo Casino. This place
held one hundred thousand francs in its daily cash reserve,
also known as the bank. Anyone who happened to hit
a streak and win more than that amount triggered a
shutdown of all table play. Casino officials would drape a
(02:38):
black cloth over the winner's table and they draw money
out of the vault to cover the difference. This was
known as breaking the bank. Upon arriving, Charles pulled up
to the roulette table and placed to bet. The dealers
spun the wheel and the little white ball bounced from
space to space until finally landing on a number. Charles's number,
(02:58):
He'd one. He placed another bet, and that proved to
be a winner as well. For eleven hours straight, Charles
sat at that roulette table and placed bet after bet,
eventually accumulating a whopping one million francs and winnings. When
he was ready to cash out, the casino draped a
black cloth over the table and pulled out nine thousand
(03:19):
francs from its vault. Charles Wells had become only the
sixth person in history to break the bank at Monte Carlo.
A song was written about him shortly thereafter, titled The
Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, immortalizing the
famous fraud ster for all time. No one knows how
he did it either. Given his criminal past, everyone assumed
(03:39):
Wells had found a way to cheat. Perhaps the dealer
had been in on it, rigging the wheel to give
him the correct slot each time so that they could
split the winnings at the end. Or maybe Wells had
finally found a system that just worked. The most likely
explanation was that he just happened to get lucky for
the second time in his life. It didn't last long, though.
(04:00):
Eventually the authorities caught up with him and made him
answer for his crimes back in England, where he served
eight years in prison for fraud. When he got out,
he went right back to his old conniving ways and
back to the casinos, hoping to recapture some of that
glory he'd felt in Monte Carlo. But it never came.
Charles Wells died at the age of fifty one from
(04:23):
kidney failure without a single cent to his name. His
winning streak was finally over. Before the days of mechanical refrigerators,
(04:45):
we'd place a giant block of ice in a box
and then store our food there To keep it fresh.
Someone had to go and get that ice to deliver
it to the customers. They were called ice men, and
they were often farmers who worked during the winter harvesting
ice from frozen lakes and rivers. They'd walk out onto
a lake with at least a foot of ice on
the surface and use a large hand saw to cut
(05:06):
out the blocks. Those blocks were then stored in large
buildings during warmer months so that people could still refrigerate
their food in the summer. As you can imagine, it
was a dangerous job. One wrong step and an ice
man could be lost until spring. As a result, the
men who did the work tended to be pretty tough
to scare. However, in eight two midwestern iceman came face
(05:30):
two I with something that made their blood run cold.
It was early September and Marshall McIntyre and Bill Gray
of Crawfordsville, Indiana, we're getting ready to deliver ice into town.
As they were fastening harnesses around their horses, something appeared overhead.
It was several hundred feet in the air and swirling
(05:51):
above them a creature measured roughly eighteen feet long by
eight feet wide. It had been described by witnesses as
a great white shroud that seemed to move through the
air using large fins that ran along its sides. It
had no head, but looked down upon the men in
their barn with a large flaming eye in its center,
(06:11):
and it made an eerie noise as it got closer.
The creature circled above the farmhouse and the barn. Bill
and Marshall had no idea what it was or what
it wanted, but they didn't want to risk being devoured
by it. They fled to the barn and waited until
it disappeared, which it eventually did. It flew toward the
center of town before turning back to the farm. Bill
(06:33):
and Marshall watched as it floated overhead for another hour
until they decided enough was enough. The men darted for
the ice house, mounted their horses, and departed for town.
When they returned to the farm later that day, the
creature was gone. The ice men give an interview to
the local paper all about their bizarre encounter, telling the
(06:54):
reporter that they'd be carrying a rifle on their deliveries
from now on in the event that the creature ever returned.
The story was published later that day in the Daily
Journal of Crawfordsville. A few days later, another article was
published in the Journal, this time featuring eyewitness testimony from
townsfolk who also saw the enormous white thing squirming in
(07:14):
the air. It's mournful screech continued, and some Crawfordsville citizens
even reported feeling the creature's hot breath as it passed overhead.
The story soon spread to the Indianapolis Journal, a much
larger paper, before making its way across the country to
outlets like the Brooklyn Eagle all the way in New
York City. But even though the story captured the imaginations
(07:37):
of people from coast to coast, the Crawfordsville Monster had
solidified itself as a local legend. In the ensuing weeks,
the Crawfordsville Postmaster received numerous letters about the creature. It
seemed the whole town had monster fever. That is until
two other men, John Hornbeck and Abe Hearnley, encountered the white,
(07:58):
wheezing shroud error arising the town. They followed it for
several miles before discovering the truth about its origin. It
wasn't a shapeless otherworldly mass, after all, It was made
up of birds, kill, deer, to be exact, A gathering
of birds had likely grown confused by the town's electric lights,
which had recently been installed, compounded by the damp, foggy air,
(08:22):
reducing visibility. Marshall McIntyre and Bill Gray and all the
other Crawfordsville locals simply hadn't realized what they were looking at.
Whoever thought up the old cliche had it right when
they said seeing is believing, But that doesn't mean we
have to believe everything we read. The only thing more
frightening than the Crawfordsville Monster was how quickly everyone bought
(08:44):
into the story without doing a bit of critical thinking.
Even though ice houses have faded into the past, our
gullibility is as strong as ever, which might be the
most chilling part of the entire story. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
(09:06):
for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
created by me Aaron Mankey 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 over at the World of Lore
(09:27):
dot com, and until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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