March 7, 2019 • 9 mins
Death can be pretty eventful—either by the way it happens, or by what happens once it has arrived. We'll look at one of each on today's tour of the Cabinet.
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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. Ernest Hemingway described bull
(00:29):
fighting as the only art in which the artist is
in danger of death and in which the degree of
brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honor.
He loved it so much, in fact, it became part
of his debut novel, The Sun Also Rises. He eventually
devoted an entire nonfiction book to the sport. Bull Fighting
(00:50):
got its start way back in seven eleven a d
as part of a coronation ceremony for a king. And
if that performance space feels familiar, the and ring the
circular stadium, that's for a very good reason. Bullfighting sprung
out of Rome's gladiatorial games, back when the Roman Empire
still ruled over Spain. There are three phases or stages
(01:13):
of a traditional bullfight. In a cape stage, the matter
door holds his cape up to the bull, taunting him
and encouraging him to charge. This display is meant to
show off the bull strength. In the piccador stage, Picadores
on horseback poke and anger the bull with lances. Once
the bull has been properly amped up, Bandarierro's run on
(01:34):
foot and stick the bull with colored darts. The final
stages the killing stage. That's when the bull, weakened by
all the previous action, is forced into its final battle
with the matador. If the matter door does his job successfully,
it's over for the bull in a matter of moments,
and the ring is cleared for the next contender. All
(01:54):
in all, it's violent and cruel sport, but one deeply
rooted in Spanish history. Over the years, some bullfighters have
emerged as celebrities known all over the world. Manolette became
a household name thanks in parts of both Hemingway and
Orson Welles, the latter of whom befriended the young fighter
and spoke highly of his skills at Hollywood dinner parties.
(02:18):
After Manolette's death in nineteen forty seven, Louis Miguel Domin
England rose to become a champion unlike anyone the sport
had ever seen, often referred to as the best bullfighter
of the twentieth century, and men continued to dominate bullfighting.
Even today, though women have made it to the forefront
on occasion. Conchita Citdron born in n became one of
(02:40):
the most famous bullfighters in the world. However, it was
a female bullfighter known only as La Roverte who made
the biggest splash. At the turn of the century, she
had found only modest success in the ring as a novelty.
Women at the time weren't often welcomed in bullfighting circles,
as they were considered to be too delicate for such
a dangerous sport. However, La Riverte had no trouble keeping
(03:04):
up with the men. Audiences loved her. She became an
inspiration for little girls who wanted to chart different paths
than that had been planned for them, and unsurprisingly, some
men had a problem with that. If La Roverte wouldn't
leave bull fighting behind, then they would find a way
to take bull fighting away from her, and that's exactly
(03:25):
what they did. In night, seven years after her career
had taken off, the Spanish government passed a law banning
women from the sport. They cited the idea of women
fighting bulls as immoral. La Riverte didn't seem to mind,
though she had a backup plan and a secret one
that no one else knew. During her last fight, after
(03:48):
she had teased and pierced her final bull, La Raverte
shocked the crowd by ripping off her wig and fake assets,
revealing her true identity to be that of a man
named Austin Rodriguez. The audience went wild, and not in
a good way. Rather than embrace Augustine and root for him,
(04:08):
they turned on him the way they'd seen it. They
had been defrauded for seven years by a man pretending
to be a woman. His career never recovered, and Augustine
retired to Majorca, where he eventually died in obscurity. Fortunately,
the laws were reversed years later, and women eventually returned
to the ring. In the best part, none of them
(04:31):
had to wear a wig to get in. In the
mid eighteen hundreds, flecks of shiny metal found in a
water wheel led to hundreds of thousands of Americans migrating west.
(04:55):
Their goal was to strike it rich in what would
come to be known as the California Gold Rush. Half
a century later, Beaumont, Texas, became the site of another
kind of rush. This time, the bounty was oil and
The discovery ignited a fervor across the state. People came
in from all over, mostly by train, and all that
traffic meant wear and tear on the tracks. In fact,
(05:18):
it took an army of workers to keep the trains
running smoothly, and one such person was G. W. Davis,
a repairman who eventually found himself at the center of
a bizarre story if only he'd lived to tell about it.
You see, Davis had contracted an illness known as Bright's disease,
which caused inflammation and the kidneys. Not much was known
(05:39):
at the time about how to treat such a sickness,
which had already claimed the lives of a North Dakota
senator and poet, Emily Dickinson. Unfortunately, Davis's prognosis wasn't good.
He was watched around the clock by a team of
doctors who did all that they could, but were ultimately
unable to save him. On February seven, one month after
(05:59):
being died nosed, he passed away, and the care he
had received in that time left his family destitute the
cemetery where they planned on burying. Davis took pity on
the family and offered to house his body temporarily. Once
they had obtained the funds for a proper burial, he'd
be moved to a permanent plot. Weeks passed by as
(06:21):
Davis's family scrimped and saved, and when they were finally ready,
they asked the cemetery to move the corpse. A family
friend went out to oversee that move. He watched them excavate,
heaving shovel fulls of dirt away as they dug six
feet down, but something wasn't right. As they reached the coffin,
they noticed a strange sight. Apparently, the grave had filled
(06:43):
with almost two ft of this colored water, covering the
coffin entirely. The grave diggers brought in a pump to
siphon out the liquid before attempting to lift the coffin,
and then ran into another problem. The coffin wouldn't budge.
They thought that perhaps the often had also filled with water,
rendering it too heavy to move, but when they opened
(07:04):
it up, they realized that something else had happened. Entirely
Davis's body was still inside, however, it had transformed. Rather
than decomposed like a normal corpse, it had turned to
solid stone. A news article at the time described Davis's
body as having been chiseled from marble by an expert sculptor.
His hands were still folded across his chest, and except
(07:27):
for the hair and clothes, everything was perfectly preserved. More
workers were called in to hoist the casket out, and
while efforts were made to keep the particular circumstances from
Davis's family, the rumors surrounding his condition spread and they
eventually found out. What followed was a battle to keep
their beloved relative out of the hands of greedy collectors,
(07:49):
people who would have paid top dollar to own the
morbid artifact for their own collections or to add it
to a traveling side show. The family asked to have
the body transferred to a secret location known only to
them and the family friend who had watched over the
initial burial. Upon reaching his resting place of the last
few months, they found the ground to have been disturbed, and,
(08:11):
fearing the worst, they dug it up. They were right.
G W. Davis's stone form had disappeared from its grave.
Everyone was considered a suspect, from the random strangers who
had offered money for the body, to the family and
friends who had participated in his burial, and yet no
charges were brought against a single person. No clues had
(08:33):
been left behind follow the perpetrator. Several local papers covered
the discovery, but nothing ever turned up The thieves identities
are still unknown to this day, as is the location
of the body, if it still exists at all. We're
all we know. Davis is still out there somewhere, waiting
(08:53):
to be rediscovered. Stone dead, of course. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour 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.
(09:17):
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
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 are
right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Ernest Hemingway described bull
(00:29):
fighting as the only art in which the artist is
in danger of death and in which the degree of
brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter's honor.
He loved it so much, in fact, it became part
of his debut novel, The Sun Also Rises. He eventually
devoted an entire nonfiction book to the sport. Bull Fighting
(00:50):
got its start way back in seven eleven a d
as part of a coronation ceremony for a king. And
if that performance space feels familiar, the and ring the
circular stadium, that's for a very good reason. Bullfighting sprung
out of Rome's gladiatorial games, back when the Roman Empire
still ruled over Spain. There are three phases or stages
(01:13):
of a traditional bullfight. In a cape stage, the matter
door holds his cape up to the bull, taunting him
and encouraging him to charge. This display is meant to
show off the bull strength. In the piccador stage, Picadores
on horseback poke and anger the bull with lances. Once
the bull has been properly amped up, Bandarierro's run on
(01:34):
foot and stick the bull with colored darts. The final
stages the killing stage. That's when the bull, weakened by
all the previous action, is forced into its final battle
with the matador. If the matter door does his job successfully,
it's over for the bull in a matter of moments,
and the ring is cleared for the next contender. All
(01:54):
in all, it's violent and cruel sport, but one deeply
rooted in Spanish history. Over the years, some bullfighters have
emerged as celebrities known all over the world. Manolette became
a household name thanks in parts of both Hemingway and
Orson Welles, the latter of whom befriended the young fighter
and spoke highly of his skills at Hollywood dinner parties.
(02:18):
After Manolette's death in nineteen forty seven, Louis Miguel Domin
England rose to become a champion unlike anyone the sport
had ever seen, often referred to as the best bullfighter
of the twentieth century, and men continued to dominate bullfighting.
Even today, though women have made it to the forefront
on occasion. Conchita Citdron born in n became one of
(02:40):
the most famous bullfighters in the world. However, it was
a female bullfighter known only as La Roverte who made
the biggest splash. At the turn of the century, she
had found only modest success in the ring as a novelty.
Women at the time weren't often welcomed in bullfighting circles,
as they were considered to be too delicate for such
a dangerous sport. However, La Riverte had no trouble keeping
(03:04):
up with the men. Audiences loved her. She became an
inspiration for little girls who wanted to chart different paths
than that had been planned for them, and unsurprisingly, some
men had a problem with that. If La Roverte wouldn't
leave bull fighting behind, then they would find a way
to take bull fighting away from her, and that's exactly
(03:25):
what they did. In night, seven years after her career
had taken off, the Spanish government passed a law banning
women from the sport. They cited the idea of women
fighting bulls as immoral. La Riverte didn't seem to mind,
though she had a backup plan and a secret one
that no one else knew. During her last fight, after
(03:48):
she had teased and pierced her final bull, La Raverte
shocked the crowd by ripping off her wig and fake assets,
revealing her true identity to be that of a man
named Austin Rodriguez. The audience went wild, and not in
a good way. Rather than embrace Augustine and root for him,
(04:08):
they turned on him the way they'd seen it. They
had been defrauded for seven years by a man pretending
to be a woman. His career never recovered, and Augustine
retired to Majorca, where he eventually died in obscurity. Fortunately,
the laws were reversed years later, and women eventually returned
to the ring. In the best part, none of them
(04:31):
had to wear a wig to get in. In the
mid eighteen hundreds, flecks of shiny metal found in a
water wheel led to hundreds of thousands of Americans migrating west.
(04:55):
Their goal was to strike it rich in what would
come to be known as the California Gold Rush. Half
a century later, Beaumont, Texas, became the site of another
kind of rush. This time, the bounty was oil and
The discovery ignited a fervor across the state. People came
in from all over, mostly by train, and all that
traffic meant wear and tear on the tracks. In fact,
(05:18):
it took an army of workers to keep the trains
running smoothly, and one such person was G. W. Davis,
a repairman who eventually found himself at the center of
a bizarre story if only he'd lived to tell about it.
You see, Davis had contracted an illness known as Bright's disease,
which caused inflammation and the kidneys. Not much was known
(05:39):
at the time about how to treat such a sickness,
which had already claimed the lives of a North Dakota
senator and poet, Emily Dickinson. Unfortunately, Davis's prognosis wasn't good.
He was watched around the clock by a team of
doctors who did all that they could, but were ultimately
unable to save him. On February seven, one month after
(05:59):
being died nosed, he passed away, and the care he
had received in that time left his family destitute the
cemetery where they planned on burying. Davis took pity on
the family and offered to house his body temporarily. Once
they had obtained the funds for a proper burial, he'd
be moved to a permanent plot. Weeks passed by as
(06:21):
Davis's family scrimped and saved, and when they were finally ready,
they asked the cemetery to move the corpse. A family
friend went out to oversee that move. He watched them excavate,
heaving shovel fulls of dirt away as they dug six
feet down, but something wasn't right. As they reached the coffin,
they noticed a strange sight. Apparently, the grave had filled
(06:43):
with almost two ft of this colored water, covering the
coffin entirely. The grave diggers brought in a pump to
siphon out the liquid before attempting to lift the coffin,
and then ran into another problem. The coffin wouldn't budge.
They thought that perhaps the often had also filled with water,
rendering it too heavy to move, but when they opened
(07:04):
it up, they realized that something else had happened. Entirely
Davis's body was still inside, however, it had transformed. Rather
than decomposed like a normal corpse, it had turned to
solid stone. A news article at the time described Davis's
body as having been chiseled from marble by an expert sculptor.
His hands were still folded across his chest, and except
(07:27):
for the hair and clothes, everything was perfectly preserved. More
workers were called in to hoist the casket out, and
while efforts were made to keep the particular circumstances from
Davis's family, the rumors surrounding his condition spread and they
eventually found out. What followed was a battle to keep
their beloved relative out of the hands of greedy collectors,
(07:49):
people who would have paid top dollar to own the
morbid artifact for their own collections or to add it
to a traveling side show. The family asked to have
the body transferred to a secret location known only to
them and the family friend who had watched over the
initial burial. Upon reaching his resting place of the last
few months, they found the ground to have been disturbed, and,
(08:11):
fearing the worst, they dug it up. They were right.
G W. Davis's stone form had disappeared from its grave.
Everyone was considered a suspect, from the random strangers who
had offered money for the body, to the family and
friends who had participated in his burial, and yet no
charges were brought against a single person. No clues had
(08:33):
been left behind follow the perpetrator. Several local papers covered
the discovery, but nothing ever turned up The thieves identities
are still unknown to this day, as is the location
of the body, if it still exists at all. We're
all we know. Davis is still out there somewhere, waiting
(08:53):
to be rediscovered. Stone dead, of course. I hope you've
enjoyed today's guided tour 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.
(09:17):
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
dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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