September 3, 2019 • 8 mins
Today we meet both halves of an incredible legal battle, and one half of a popular entertainer. We promise, it will all make sense by the end.
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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. Despite their intelligence and friendly nature,
(00:30):
rats are often hated by the public. Their role in
spreading the plague has been greatly exaggerated. It was the
fleas on the rats that actually carried the disease, and
they've been considered a nuisance for probably a lot longer
vermin to be exterminated with prejudice. But did you know
that rats can detect gunpowder residue. That's how they're used
(00:51):
in the Netherlands because they're cheaper and easier to train
than dogs. Even more amazing, the Gambian pouched rat of
Africa has been trained to detect landines and tuberculosis, all
thanks to their incredible sense of smell. Regardless of their
occupations or contributions to society, rats are still animals. They
have basic needs like all of us, like food and shelter.
(01:14):
In the wild, they scavenge for food wherever they can
find it, often going to places where they aren't welcome
in search of their next meal. But in fifteen hundreds
of France. Their disregard for farmers crops gave the people
of Auton so much trouble the town went to unbelievable
lengths to remove them. All manner of exterminations were exacted
(01:35):
on the rat population at the time, but no matter
what they did, they always kept coming back. They destroyed
plants and infested homes and businesses. It was an epidemic.
Even the Catholic Church got involved and decried them as
creatures of the devil. The Pope attempted to exercise them,
while a bishop officially excommunicated them out of the country,
(01:56):
but it didn't stick. The rats kept coming and the
crops continued to get eaten, so the town turned to
more medieval methods. Rats were subjected to all kinds of
torture and abuse simply for existing within the borders of
the city. But there was one method that people hadn't tried.
It didn't require burning or stretching them out on a rack,
(02:17):
or even drowning them. Instead, the town served the rats
with a summons to appear before the court their crime
destroying the local barley crops. Of course, the trial was
to be conducted within the cathedral, but for a proper
trial there needed to be two sides. The town would
be the plaintiffs, tired of fighting an unwinnable problem, while
(02:38):
the rats were the defendants, and any defendant, no matter
their crime, deserved proper representation. The town turned to a
local pro bono lawyer named Bartolomy the Cassineus to argue
on behalf of the rats. Yes, the rats were given
their own lawyer, and a particularly clever one too. Cassin
News had studied under the finest legal ds of the
(03:00):
day and perform work from major figures. At the time.
He had already served the Duchy of Milan and Pope
Julius the Second, and now he had been tasked with
representing the unrepresentable, a group of feral, disliked rodents, causing
havoc for farmers all over the town. Unsurprisingly, on the
day they were supposed to appear, the rats didn't show up.
(03:21):
Cassa News argued that the original summons couldn't be honored
because rats were not pack animals, they were solitary creatures,
and each rodent would need to be served individually. The
court actually complied and reissued one new summons per rat.
It didn't help, though, and they failed to appear on
the second scheduled day. Cassin News pointed out that the
(03:42):
roads leading to the courthouse were hazardous for rats, given
the presence of larger creatures like cats and dogs along
the route. Once again, the lawyer had made a valid
argument before the court. According to the law, if a
defendant could not travel to court with a guarantee of safety,
they were not obligated to attend the hearing and the
summons could be ignored. No one knows what the final
(04:03):
outcome of the trial was, but it's probably safe to
say that all charges against the rats were dropped. Bartolemey
Ducassa News had won his case and inadvertently became the
first ever legal defender of animals. Twins are special, identical
(04:34):
or fraternal. Their biology is unique, and they can be
emotionally closer to each other than any other kind of sibling.
Twins have been known to invent their own languages, a
phenomenon known as cryptophagia. They sometimes develop ways of walking
and sync with each other too. They're different people, but
often seem like they're living the same life. Twins Lazarus
(04:56):
and Johannes Baptista Colorado were like that lived in Italy
in the early sixteen hundreds and toward Europe, demonstrating their
unique talents. However, they weren't identical twins or even fraternal. No,
they were something entirely different. The pair were described by
Thomas Bartolinus, a Danish anatomist, as being vastly different in size.
(05:19):
Lazarus was twenty eight years old and a full grown man.
His younger brother, Johannes, however, was much smaller. His features
were underdeveloped, with many of them having not developed at all.
Both of his hands only had three fingers, and his
left foot hung down. His right foot seemed to have
disappeared entirely. On top of that, the younger man's underdeveloped
(05:40):
lungs made breathing difficult. He almost never opened his eyes,
which was hard to do given the abnormally large size
and shape of his head. But despite all of that,
he was pretty attached to his brother. I'm not saying
that they were close. I mean that Johannes was physically
attached to Lazarus. To spectators, it appeared as though he
was growing from his brother's chest. Though he lived and breathed,
(06:02):
he couldn't eat, he gained nourishment from the food inside
his older brother's stomach. The Colorado twins were parasitic twins,
also known as asymmetrical or unequal conjoined twins. It happens
when a fertilized egg doesn't fully split and one embryo
completely develops while the other does not. They may have
(06:23):
been among the first known cases of parasitic twins, but
they certainly weren't the last. During the eighteen hundreds, a
sideshow performer by the name of Laalu made his living
exhibiting his twin. His sibling had developed with both hands
and feet, even though he was sticking out of La
Lou's chest. Decades later, a woman named Betty Lou Williams
(06:43):
also made a career out of showing off her parasitic twin,
which had been born with both legs but only one
full arm. Betty Lou was the youngest of twelve children
and became a sideshow performer when she was still a toddler.
Her years of success allowed her to buy an enormous
ranch for her family and then send her eleven other
brothers and sisters to college. Doctors told her that her
(07:06):
siblings head had developed inside her own abdomen, which could
have pushed all her other organs out of place or
severely impeded her own growth. But they weren't concerned. They
told Betty lu she had a long, healthy life ahead
of her, with just a few extra appendages along for
the journey. Eventually, the child star grew into a young woman,
and she gained the admiration of several local suitors. One
(07:29):
man in particular captured her attention, and it wasn't long
before the two got engaged. However, when they should have
been planning for a wedding, he was planning for something else.
Soon enough, it became clear that her fiance had stolen
more than her heart. He'd taken most of her money too.
Betty lu couldn't believe that her true love would do
(07:49):
something like that. She was hurt and she was furious.
But worse than that, the anger and panic he caused
her had developed into an asthma attack so strong that
Betty Lou couldn't handle it. She died of asphyxiation in
her New Jersey home a short while later. She was
only twenty three years old. I hope you've enjoyed today's
(08:13):
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. I
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
(08:35):
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 right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Despite their intelligence and friendly nature,
(00:30):
rats are often hated by the public. Their role in
spreading the plague has been greatly exaggerated. It was the
fleas on the rats that actually carried the disease, and
they've been considered a nuisance for probably a lot longer
vermin to be exterminated with prejudice. But did you know
that rats can detect gunpowder residue. That's how they're used
(00:51):
in the Netherlands because they're cheaper and easier to train
than dogs. Even more amazing, the Gambian pouched rat of
Africa has been trained to detect landines and tuberculosis, all
thanks to their incredible sense of smell. Regardless of their
occupations or contributions to society, rats are still animals. They
have basic needs like all of us, like food and shelter.
(01:14):
In the wild, they scavenge for food wherever they can
find it, often going to places where they aren't welcome
in search of their next meal. But in fifteen hundreds
of France. Their disregard for farmers crops gave the people
of Auton so much trouble the town went to unbelievable
lengths to remove them. All manner of exterminations were exacted
(01:35):
on the rat population at the time, but no matter
what they did, they always kept coming back. They destroyed
plants and infested homes and businesses. It was an epidemic.
Even the Catholic Church got involved and decried them as
creatures of the devil. The Pope attempted to exercise them,
while a bishop officially excommunicated them out of the country,
(01:56):
but it didn't stick. The rats kept coming and the
crops continued to get eaten, so the town turned to
more medieval methods. Rats were subjected to all kinds of
torture and abuse simply for existing within the borders of
the city. But there was one method that people hadn't tried.
It didn't require burning or stretching them out on a rack,
(02:17):
or even drowning them. Instead, the town served the rats
with a summons to appear before the court their crime
destroying the local barley crops. Of course, the trial was
to be conducted within the cathedral, but for a proper
trial there needed to be two sides. The town would
be the plaintiffs, tired of fighting an unwinnable problem, while
(02:38):
the rats were the defendants, and any defendant, no matter
their crime, deserved proper representation. The town turned to a
local pro bono lawyer named Bartolomy the Cassineus to argue
on behalf of the rats. Yes, the rats were given
their own lawyer, and a particularly clever one too. Cassin
News had studied under the finest legal ds of the
(03:00):
day and perform work from major figures. At the time.
He had already served the Duchy of Milan and Pope
Julius the Second, and now he had been tasked with
representing the unrepresentable, a group of feral, disliked rodents, causing
havoc for farmers all over the town. Unsurprisingly, on the
day they were supposed to appear, the rats didn't show up.
(03:21):
Cassa News argued that the original summons couldn't be honored
because rats were not pack animals, they were solitary creatures,
and each rodent would need to be served individually. The
court actually complied and reissued one new summons per rat.
It didn't help, though, and they failed to appear on
the second scheduled day. Cassin News pointed out that the
(03:42):
roads leading to the courthouse were hazardous for rats, given
the presence of larger creatures like cats and dogs along
the route. Once again, the lawyer had made a valid
argument before the court. According to the law, if a
defendant could not travel to court with a guarantee of safety,
they were not obligated to attend the hearing and the
summons could be ignored. No one knows what the final
(04:03):
outcome of the trial was, but it's probably safe to
say that all charges against the rats were dropped. Bartolemey
Ducassa News had won his case and inadvertently became the
first ever legal defender of animals. Twins are special, identical
(04:34):
or fraternal. Their biology is unique, and they can be
emotionally closer to each other than any other kind of sibling.
Twins have been known to invent their own languages, a
phenomenon known as cryptophagia. They sometimes develop ways of walking
and sync with each other too. They're different people, but
often seem like they're living the same life. Twins Lazarus
(04:56):
and Johannes Baptista Colorado were like that lived in Italy
in the early sixteen hundreds and toward Europe, demonstrating their
unique talents. However, they weren't identical twins or even fraternal. No,
they were something entirely different. The pair were described by
Thomas Bartolinus, a Danish anatomist, as being vastly different in size.
(05:19):
Lazarus was twenty eight years old and a full grown man.
His younger brother, Johannes, however, was much smaller. His features
were underdeveloped, with many of them having not developed at all.
Both of his hands only had three fingers, and his
left foot hung down. His right foot seemed to have
disappeared entirely. On top of that, the younger man's underdeveloped
(05:40):
lungs made breathing difficult. He almost never opened his eyes,
which was hard to do given the abnormally large size
and shape of his head. But despite all of that,
he was pretty attached to his brother. I'm not saying
that they were close. I mean that Johannes was physically
attached to Lazarus. To spectators, it appeared as though he
was growing from his brother's chest. Though he lived and breathed,
(06:02):
he couldn't eat, he gained nourishment from the food inside
his older brother's stomach. The Colorado twins were parasitic twins,
also known as asymmetrical or unequal conjoined twins. It happens
when a fertilized egg doesn't fully split and one embryo
completely develops while the other does not. They may have
(06:23):
been among the first known cases of parasitic twins, but
they certainly weren't the last. During the eighteen hundreds, a
sideshow performer by the name of Laalu made his living
exhibiting his twin. His sibling had developed with both hands
and feet, even though he was sticking out of La
Lou's chest. Decades later, a woman named Betty Lou Williams
(06:43):
also made a career out of showing off her parasitic twin,
which had been born with both legs but only one
full arm. Betty Lou was the youngest of twelve children
and became a sideshow performer when she was still a toddler.
Her years of success allowed her to buy an enormous
ranch for her family and then send her eleven other
brothers and sisters to college. Doctors told her that her
(07:06):
siblings head had developed inside her own abdomen, which could
have pushed all her other organs out of place or
severely impeded her own growth. But they weren't concerned. They
told Betty lu she had a long, healthy life ahead
of her, with just a few extra appendages along for
the journey. Eventually, the child star grew into a young woman,
and she gained the admiration of several local suitors. One
(07:29):
man in particular captured her attention, and it wasn't long
before the two got engaged. However, when they should have
been planning for a wedding, he was planning for something else.
Soon enough, it became clear that her fiance had stolen
more than her heart. He'd taken most of her money too.
Betty lu couldn't believe that her true love would do
(07:49):
something like that. She was hurt and she was furious.
But worse than that, the anger and panic he caused
her had developed into an asthma attack so strong that
Betty Lou couldn't handle it. She died of asphyxiation in
her New Jersey home a short while later. She was
only twenty three years old. I hope you've enjoyed today's
(08:13):
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. I
make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
(08:35):
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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