October 2, 2018 • 10 mins
Pay attention during your tour of the Cabinet today, because things aren't always what they appear to be.
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Episode Transcript
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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. Cities are proof that
(00:28):
the sky is the limit. Soaring towers, crowded streets, people
shuffling from one thing to the next, and those miraculous
feats of engineering and artistry. Cities are organic and constantly changing,
and yet they're anchored in our minds and hearts by
their landmarks. Imagine New York without the Empire State Building,
or Paris without the Eiffel Tower. They wouldn't just look different,
(00:52):
it would look like they didn't exist at all. Now,
imagine a city rich in history and culture, home to
author politicians and titans of industry. This one, in particular,
is located in northwest Germany, a little over one hundred
miles from Dusseldorf. It was founded in the early twelve
hundreds and for a very long time was known as
(01:14):
the city of Linden. In fact, it once produced so
much of the fabric that in the nineteen twenties it
started issuing Linen currency as well as notes made of
velvet and silk. This, my friends, is Bilafeld. It's a
city much like any other. It boasts a university and
serves as headquarters for a number of companies, including food, plastics, textiles,
(01:37):
and home appliance manufacturers. Bethel Institution, a hospital for the
mentally ill, was built in eighteen sixty seven and protected
patients from Nazi forces during World War Two, a time
when Hitler had ordered the executions of all mentally ill
people across Europe. There's a local theater, several Gothic churches,
(01:57):
an art museum, a concert hall, of a anicle garden,
and even a football team. And if you've made it
this far, you'll notice something interesting about bi Lafeld. Nothing,
even though its citizens might think differently. There's nothing particularly
special about Bilafeld, at least when compared to other cities
just like it around the world, which is what makes
(02:19):
one particular claim so bizarre. You see in the dial
up days of the Internet, the mid nineties, online forums
where where people gathered to gossip, joke, and talk politics
before social media took over our lives. In one such forum,
German computer science student named Akim Held posited that Bila
Feld Gibt s Nickt. As with many languages, such a
(02:43):
sentiment has multiple meanings. It could mean Bila Feld is empty,
as in there's nothing to do or see. But it's
the other meaning that went viral. Long before the idea
of going viral was even a thing, Bila Felt they
say doesn't exist. According to Akam Held, the city's existence
(03:03):
was a hoax carried out by a clandestine organization known
as Them, and anyone who said otherwise was part of
the conspiracy. Of course, he knew his claim wasn't real.
It was an experiment, but as we've learned from stories
of undead monsters and multiple personalities, experiments can take on
a life of their own. From there, the joke spiraled
(03:24):
into full blown conspiracy theory, including references to the Illuminati.
One good example would be the focus on the number
twenty three. Bila Feld's city hall sits at twenty three
meter wall and its area code zero five seven zero
zero zero adds up to the number twenty three. As
(03:44):
the concepts of memes and online folk tales take off
in the mid two thousands, so two did this bizarre theory.
In two thousand and fourteen, Bila Feld Mayor Pitt Clausen
used the conspiracy as a way to increase tourism for
the city's eight versary. German Chancellor Angela Merkel once attended
a town hall meeting there, later adding as a joke
(04:06):
if it even exists. Bilafeld certainly does exist, but some
people still resist the idea. If you claim to have
been there or know someone who has, you might get
labeled as one of them. And while some may see
this tale as a harmless prank, it's also slightly disturbing.
One offhanded comment can wipe a city off the map
(04:29):
in our minds at least. It's crazy to think that
a joke like this could ever be taken seriously, but
it raced around the web for years. Finally, fed up
with all the lies and rumors, the city decided to
issue an official press release. In it, they assured everyone
that yes, the city does in fact exist. There was
(04:51):
just one small problem with their efforts to dispel the rumors.
The date they chose to publish their announcement just happened
to be the first April, otherwise known as April Fool's Day.
(05:17):
A lifeless body beside bloody knife, A woman in her
living room, dangling by her neck from a clothesline. A
man slumped over the door of his convertible in his garage.
At first glance, some of these deaths might seem like
suicides or accidents. Not so. There are three of twenty
unsolved murders, each with a different motive but connected by
(05:40):
one common thread. A woman named Fanny born in Chicago
in seventy eight. Fanny led a traditional, sheltered nineteenth century life.
Her father was a successful farm equipment manufacturer who expected
his family to adhere to the strict gender norms of
the time. Men, he said, should go to college and
(06:02):
then get jobs to support their wives, who were meant
to stay at home with the children. Fanny and her
brother were homeschooled and both dreamed of attending Harvard. However,
only her brother was allowed to go, which was disappointing
because Fanny had dreams of her own, the kinds of
dreams she couldn't share with anyone else, and no way
of fulfilling them while she still lived in her father's home.
(06:25):
Respecting his wishes, she instead got married at the age
of nineteen. The marriage was perfectly fine for a while.
They had three children and Fanny seemed satisfied, but deep
down she never forgot about her dreams. Eventually, they proved
too powerful to hold back, driving her to divorce her
husband in order to make them all come true, something
(06:46):
that was unheard of at the time. Fanny, now in
her forties, used the inheritance from her late father and
her recently deceased brother to pursue a passion that she'd
repressed for far too long murder, specifically the homicide cases
described to her by one of her brother's college classmates.
With his help and her new found wealth, she created
(07:09):
a new department at Harvard, the Department of Legal Medicine.
She also helped set up a library named in his honor,
as well as a curriculum known today as the Harvard
Seminars in Homicide Investigation. Of course, Fanny did all of
this in the nineteen forties, so it should come as
no surprise that she was often discouraged from visiting crime scenes. Instead,
(07:30):
she decided to create her own. It was the perfect cover,
really inserting herself into the growing world of murder investigation
to better understand how to study and teach it. Throughout
the second half of her life, Fanny went from housewife
to homicidal architect. She carried out elaborate murders, mostly of
women who had strayed from the safety of their domestic lives.
(07:54):
She then used her crimes to educate others on best
practices in analyzing crime scenes. Her technique required the students
to employ a geometric search pattern, such as a clockwise
spiral when examining the crime scene. Scanning from one side
of the room to the next, in a three hundred
sixty degree fashion, students would get an idea of how
(08:14):
her murders had been committed. Despite her grisly actions, Fanny's
work earned her numerous accolades, and she was even made
an honorary captain in the New Hampshire State Police, making
her the first female police captain in the United States.
As I said at the beginning, her crimes remain unsolved.
You might be asking yourself, if we know who Fanny
(08:36):
was and what she did, why would her murders still
be unsolved today. The answer is a lot more simple
than you'd imagine. They never happened. You see, while her
crimes were based on real cases, they were actually completed
as highly detailed dioramas. Today they're known as the Nutshell
Studies of Unexplained Death. Each scene is like a room
(08:58):
from a grotesque dollhouse, articulously researched and recreated in order
to teach detectives how to look for clues. And Fanny,
known throughout law enforcement as Francis Glesner Lee, is the
pioneer who made it all possible. In fact, eighteen of
the twenty that she created are still in use today
by Maryland's Medical Examiner's Office, who also keep their solutions
(09:22):
hidden from the public. The old cliche reminds us that
the best way to learn is to do. Let's all
be grateful that Fanny didn't take that piece of advice
too far. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
(09:44):
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 and show, and you can learn all about
it over at the World of Lore dot com. And
(10:05):
until next time, stay curious. H
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. Cities are proof that
(00:28):
the sky is the limit. Soaring towers, crowded streets, people
shuffling from one thing to the next, and those miraculous
feats of engineering and artistry. Cities are organic and constantly changing,
and yet they're anchored in our minds and hearts by
their landmarks. Imagine New York without the Empire State Building,
or Paris without the Eiffel Tower. They wouldn't just look different,
(00:52):
it would look like they didn't exist at all. Now,
imagine a city rich in history and culture, home to
author politicians and titans of industry. This one, in particular,
is located in northwest Germany, a little over one hundred
miles from Dusseldorf. It was founded in the early twelve
hundreds and for a very long time was known as
(01:14):
the city of Linden. In fact, it once produced so
much of the fabric that in the nineteen twenties it
started issuing Linen currency as well as notes made of
velvet and silk. This, my friends, is Bilafeld. It's a
city much like any other. It boasts a university and
serves as headquarters for a number of companies, including food, plastics, textiles,
(01:37):
and home appliance manufacturers. Bethel Institution, a hospital for the
mentally ill, was built in eighteen sixty seven and protected
patients from Nazi forces during World War Two, a time
when Hitler had ordered the executions of all mentally ill
people across Europe. There's a local theater, several Gothic churches,
(01:57):
an art museum, a concert hall, of a anicle garden,
and even a football team. And if you've made it
this far, you'll notice something interesting about bi Lafeld. Nothing,
even though its citizens might think differently. There's nothing particularly
special about Bilafeld, at least when compared to other cities
just like it around the world, which is what makes
(02:19):
one particular claim so bizarre. You see in the dial
up days of the Internet, the mid nineties, online forums
where where people gathered to gossip, joke, and talk politics
before social media took over our lives. In one such forum,
German computer science student named Akim Held posited that Bila
Feld Gibt s Nickt. As with many languages, such a
(02:43):
sentiment has multiple meanings. It could mean Bila Feld is empty,
as in there's nothing to do or see. But it's
the other meaning that went viral. Long before the idea
of going viral was even a thing, Bila Felt they
say doesn't exist. According to Akam Held, the city's existence
(03:03):
was a hoax carried out by a clandestine organization known
as Them, and anyone who said otherwise was part of
the conspiracy. Of course, he knew his claim wasn't real.
It was an experiment, but as we've learned from stories
of undead monsters and multiple personalities, experiments can take on
a life of their own. From there, the joke spiraled
(03:24):
into full blown conspiracy theory, including references to the Illuminati.
One good example would be the focus on the number
twenty three. Bila Feld's city hall sits at twenty three
meter wall and its area code zero five seven zero
zero zero adds up to the number twenty three. As
(03:44):
the concepts of memes and online folk tales take off
in the mid two thousands, so two did this bizarre theory.
In two thousand and fourteen, Bila Feld Mayor Pitt Clausen
used the conspiracy as a way to increase tourism for
the city's eight versary. German Chancellor Angela Merkel once attended
a town hall meeting there, later adding as a joke
(04:06):
if it even exists. Bilafeld certainly does exist, but some
people still resist the idea. If you claim to have
been there or know someone who has, you might get
labeled as one of them. And while some may see
this tale as a harmless prank, it's also slightly disturbing.
One offhanded comment can wipe a city off the map
(04:29):
in our minds at least. It's crazy to think that
a joke like this could ever be taken seriously, but
it raced around the web for years. Finally, fed up
with all the lies and rumors, the city decided to
issue an official press release. In it, they assured everyone
that yes, the city does in fact exist. There was
(04:51):
just one small problem with their efforts to dispel the rumors.
The date they chose to publish their announcement just happened
to be the first April, otherwise known as April Fool's Day.
(05:17):
A lifeless body beside bloody knife, A woman in her
living room, dangling by her neck from a clothesline. A
man slumped over the door of his convertible in his garage.
At first glance, some of these deaths might seem like
suicides or accidents. Not so. There are three of twenty
unsolved murders, each with a different motive but connected by
(05:40):
one common thread. A woman named Fanny born in Chicago
in seventy eight. Fanny led a traditional, sheltered nineteenth century life.
Her father was a successful farm equipment manufacturer who expected
his family to adhere to the strict gender norms of
the time. Men, he said, should go to college and
(06:02):
then get jobs to support their wives, who were meant
to stay at home with the children. Fanny and her
brother were homeschooled and both dreamed of attending Harvard. However,
only her brother was allowed to go, which was disappointing
because Fanny had dreams of her own, the kinds of
dreams she couldn't share with anyone else, and no way
of fulfilling them while she still lived in her father's home.
(06:25):
Respecting his wishes, she instead got married at the age
of nineteen. The marriage was perfectly fine for a while.
They had three children and Fanny seemed satisfied, but deep
down she never forgot about her dreams. Eventually, they proved
too powerful to hold back, driving her to divorce her
husband in order to make them all come true, something
(06:46):
that was unheard of at the time. Fanny, now in
her forties, used the inheritance from her late father and
her recently deceased brother to pursue a passion that she'd
repressed for far too long murder, specifically the homicide cases
described to her by one of her brother's college classmates.
With his help and her new found wealth, she created
(07:09):
a new department at Harvard, the Department of Legal Medicine.
She also helped set up a library named in his honor,
as well as a curriculum known today as the Harvard
Seminars in Homicide Investigation. Of course, Fanny did all of
this in the nineteen forties, so it should come as
no surprise that she was often discouraged from visiting crime scenes. Instead,
(07:30):
she decided to create her own. It was the perfect cover,
really inserting herself into the growing world of murder investigation
to better understand how to study and teach it. Throughout
the second half of her life, Fanny went from housewife
to homicidal architect. She carried out elaborate murders, mostly of
women who had strayed from the safety of their domestic lives.
(07:54):
She then used her crimes to educate others on best
practices in analyzing crime scenes. Her technique required the students
to employ a geometric search pattern, such as a clockwise
spiral when examining the crime scene. Scanning from one side
of the room to the next, in a three hundred
sixty degree fashion, students would get an idea of how
(08:14):
her murders had been committed. Despite her grisly actions, Fanny's
work earned her numerous accolades, and she was even made
an honorary captain in the New Hampshire State Police, making
her the first female police captain in the United States.
As I said at the beginning, her crimes remain unsolved.
You might be asking yourself, if we know who Fanny
(08:36):
was and what she did, why would her murders still
be unsolved today. The answer is a lot more simple
than you'd imagine. They never happened. You see, while her
crimes were based on real cases, they were actually completed
as highly detailed dioramas. Today they're known as the Nutshell
Studies of Unexplained Death. Each scene is like a room
(08:58):
from a grotesque dollhouse, articulously researched and recreated in order
to teach detectives how to look for clues. And Fanny,
known throughout law enforcement as Francis Glesner Lee, is the
pioneer who made it all possible. In fact, eighteen of
the twenty that she created are still in use today
by Maryland's Medical Examiner's Office, who also keep their solutions
(09:22):
hidden from the public. The old cliche reminds us that
the best way to learn is to do. Let's all
be grateful that Fanny didn't take that piece of advice
too far. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
(09:44):
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 and show, and you can learn all about
it over at the World of Lore dot com. And
(10:05):
until next time, stay curious. H
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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