August 19, 2025 • 9 mins
This tour through the cabinet involves a legal battle and a curse. Enjoy the ride!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 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.
(00:36):
In nineteen ninety nine, rapper Eminem burst into the spotlight
when he dropped his hugely successful album The Slim Shady LP.
Over twenty songs and skits, Eminem used clever lyrics and
tight rhythms to paint a picture of his alter ego,
Slim Shady, a cartoonishly violent degenerate who loved to cause chaos.
While slim Shady was a fictional character, Eminem used the
(00:58):
persona to rap about real problems he had seen growing
up in Detroit, from poverty to drug addiction. But one
song in particular crossed over into real life in a
way that Eminem never expected. The track Brain Damage followed
Slimshady in the ultimate revenge fantasy, beating up his middle
school bully. In the song, Eminem rapped about a kid
(01:19):
named DiAngelo Bailey attacking him in a school bathroom and
giving him, as the title suggested, brain damage. However, the
incident in the song not's entirely fictional. Marshall Mathers aka
Eminem really was bullied as a kid in Detroit, and yes,
there really was a DiAngelo Bailey. In nineteen eighty two,
(01:39):
Marshall's mother sued the school district for failing to protect
her son. She claimed that he had been beaten so
badly by a boy named DiAngelo Bailey that he suffered
a cerebral hemorrhage and was in and out of consciousness
for five days. At the time, the suit was thrown
out with a county ruling that schools were immune from lawsuits,
so young Eminem had to wait nearly twenty years to
(02:00):
get his revenge on DiAngelo in the form of a song.
When Brain Damage first hit the airwaves, Rolling Stone magazine
actually tracked down Eminem's old bully to ask him about it.
They found him still in Detroit, working as a janitor
with the wife and kids. In a nineteen ninety nine interview,
DiAngelo readily admitted to bullying the rapper. He claimed that
(02:20):
there was a whole group of kids that used to
do so, and he even remembered the incident that Eminem's
mother sued the school over, bragging that yes, he and
the others had knocked Eminem over at recess and told
the teachers that he had slipped on ice. Two years later, though,
after the Slim Shady LP had gone platinum, DiAngelo Bailey
changed his tune. He sued Eminem for defamation, claiming the
(02:42):
lyrics had harmed his reputation and made him a laughing stock.
He argued that the song had hurt his own attempt
at a rap career and that Eminem was only targeting
him to gain credibility for being tough among the hip
hop community. DiAngelo asked the court for a million dollars
in damages, argue that Eminem had made him sound like
a saddistic psychopath, which, to be fair, was how he
(03:05):
was portrayed in the song. In two thousand and three,
the case made it to a county circuit court in Michigan.
Lawyers for Eminem and DiAngelo Bailey laid out their cases,
and after hearing the evidence, Judge Deborah Cervito gave her ruling. Now,
it wasn't what was in the ruling that was remarkable.
Judge Servito ruled that the lyrics were clearly an exaggeration.
(03:25):
The rap was protected under the constitutional right to free speech,
and Eminem had the right to express himself, even if
he used real names and childhood events to do so.
Not only that, but DiAngelo Bailey had admitted in interviews
that he did bully Eminem, although he claimed that it
was just horseplay. The court wasn't convinced that the damage
to his reputation was worth a million dollar payout. All
(03:48):
of this, of course, was pretty standard for a court ruling.
What was in standard, though, was how it was delivered.
You see, in recognition of the defendant, Eminem, she wrote
a portion of her ruling a rap. It's a curious
end to a curious story, and I think it's fair
to say not only did Judge cerveto drop the case,
she also dropped the mic. Nothing quite ignites the imagination
(04:24):
like the promise of buried treasure. It has formed the
basis for pirate legends, adventure stories, and a series of
real life treasure hunters who go to the ends of
the earth to find rare objects that they can display
back home. One of the most popular tourist destinations. In
England is the Tower of London, where you can see
the Crown Jewels on display, each gem possessing a rich
(04:45):
backstory of its own. However, as pretty as these gems are,
treasure hunting stories often come with a warning. As beautiful
as they are to look at, precious stones may bring
more trouble than their worth. In the process of retrieving them,
you'll invite the greed of a their treasure hunters, or
even bring a curse upon yourself. Take, for example, the
(05:05):
Deli purple sapphire. It's an undeniably striking gem set in
a silver frame. Never mind that it's actually an amethyst,
so its title is a bit of a misnomer. It
has a second, probably more accurate name, though, the Gem
of Sorrow. According to the legend, it was once kept
in a temple of Indra in Canpoor, India. For those
who don't know, Indra is the Hindu god who represents
(05:26):
the weather, so things like lightning and storms, but also
war so in general, not the sort of god you
want to steal from, and this is exactly what happened.
In eighteen fifty seven, the continent of India was thrown
into chaos when locals rebelled against the rule of the
British East India Company, and during that upheaval, a British
cavalryman entered the temple of Indra and took the beautiful
(05:48):
purple stone for himself. His name was Colonel W. Ferris,
and he traveled back to England with the Purple gem
as a keepsake of his time on the continent. Not
long after, his fortunes took a turn for the worse.
His family members started falling very badly ill. His finances soured,
and at first he thought that it was just bad
luck on his part, but then he loaned the stone
(06:09):
to a friend. That stone eventually came back after his
friend had taken his own life. At this point, Ferris
was convinced the stone itself was cursed. He must get
rid of it as soon as possible. What happened after
that has been lost to time. But by eighteen ninety
the stone had made its way into the hands of
a scientist and polymath named Edward Heron Allen, and it
(06:31):
was Allan who began the tales of this gem's legend.
He's the one who called it the Deli Sapphire and
the one who said that had brought nothing but misfortune.
Just like Ferris before him, he found that this curse
always shifted to the person who possessed the gem. He'd
once given it to a friend who was a professional singer,
and she subsequently lost her voice permanently and gave the
(06:52):
amethyst back. The dire game of hot potato would only
continue from there. Growing desperate, Haron Allen threw the stone
into a canal. Three months later, it was given back
to him because someone had dredged it up by accident,
and it made its way from hand to hand until
it was returned. Just like a bad penny, it kept
turning up a gem with the ability to ruin your life.
(07:14):
Reasoning that there was no proper way to dispose of it,
Haron Allen sealed the gem in a locked box and
put that box in a bank vault, and then he
gave instructions to his family to never open that box
until after he was dead. Edward Heron Allen passed away
in the nineteen forties, after which his daughter opened the
safe to find the amethyst still there, waiting for a
(07:35):
new owner to torment. Remembering her father's stories about this gem,
she immediately donated it to London's Natural History Museum. Now, allegedly,
as they transported the stone from the vault to the museum,
the truck carrying the gem was beset by a powerful storm,
as if Indra himself had come to remind them who
the rightful owner was. Eventually, though, it arrived and the
(07:58):
cursed amethyst has been on display in the Natural History
Museum ever since. So the next time you rea at
a museum and you see a beautiful gem from a
far off land, remember there is no knowing what spirits
it brought along for the ride. Everything in the museum
has a story of its own, some benign and some
like this stone, littered with tragedy. Cursed or not. Stealing
(08:20):
always does have a price. As Shakespeare once said, all
that glitters is not gold. Gilded tombs do worms infold.
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.
(08:43):
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 worldolore dot com. And until next time, I stay curious. Yeah,
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 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.
(00:36):
In nineteen ninety nine, rapper Eminem burst into the spotlight
when he dropped his hugely successful album The Slim Shady LP.
Over twenty songs and skits, Eminem used clever lyrics and
tight rhythms to paint a picture of his alter ego,
Slim Shady, a cartoonishly violent degenerate who loved to cause chaos.
While slim Shady was a fictional character, Eminem used the
(00:58):
persona to rap about real problems he had seen growing
up in Detroit, from poverty to drug addiction. But one
song in particular crossed over into real life in a
way that Eminem never expected. The track Brain Damage followed
Slimshady in the ultimate revenge fantasy, beating up his middle
school bully. In the song, Eminem rapped about a kid
(01:19):
named DiAngelo Bailey attacking him in a school bathroom and
giving him, as the title suggested, brain damage. However, the
incident in the song not's entirely fictional. Marshall Mathers aka
Eminem really was bullied as a kid in Detroit, and yes,
there really was a DiAngelo Bailey. In nineteen eighty two,
(01:39):
Marshall's mother sued the school district for failing to protect
her son. She claimed that he had been beaten so
badly by a boy named DiAngelo Bailey that he suffered
a cerebral hemorrhage and was in and out of consciousness
for five days. At the time, the suit was thrown
out with a county ruling that schools were immune from lawsuits,
so young Eminem had to wait nearly twenty years to
(02:00):
get his revenge on DiAngelo in the form of a song.
When Brain Damage first hit the airwaves, Rolling Stone magazine
actually tracked down Eminem's old bully to ask him about it.
They found him still in Detroit, working as a janitor
with the wife and kids. In a nineteen ninety nine interview,
DiAngelo readily admitted to bullying the rapper. He claimed that
(02:20):
there was a whole group of kids that used to
do so, and he even remembered the incident that Eminem's
mother sued the school over, bragging that yes, he and
the others had knocked Eminem over at recess and told
the teachers that he had slipped on ice. Two years later, though,
after the Slim Shady LP had gone platinum, DiAngelo Bailey
changed his tune. He sued Eminem for defamation, claiming the
(02:42):
lyrics had harmed his reputation and made him a laughing stock.
He argued that the song had hurt his own attempt
at a rap career and that Eminem was only targeting
him to gain credibility for being tough among the hip
hop community. DiAngelo asked the court for a million dollars
in damages, argue that Eminem had made him sound like
a saddistic psychopath, which, to be fair, was how he
(03:05):
was portrayed in the song. In two thousand and three,
the case made it to a county circuit court in Michigan.
Lawyers for Eminem and DiAngelo Bailey laid out their cases,
and after hearing the evidence, Judge Deborah Cervito gave her ruling. Now,
it wasn't what was in the ruling that was remarkable.
Judge Servito ruled that the lyrics were clearly an exaggeration.
(03:25):
The rap was protected under the constitutional right to free speech,
and Eminem had the right to express himself, even if
he used real names and childhood events to do so.
Not only that, but DiAngelo Bailey had admitted in interviews
that he did bully Eminem, although he claimed that it
was just horseplay. The court wasn't convinced that the damage
to his reputation was worth a million dollar payout. All
(03:48):
of this, of course, was pretty standard for a court ruling.
What was in standard, though, was how it was delivered.
You see, in recognition of the defendant, Eminem, she wrote
a portion of her ruling a rap. It's a curious
end to a curious story, and I think it's fair
to say not only did Judge cerveto drop the case,
she also dropped the mic. Nothing quite ignites the imagination
(04:24):
like the promise of buried treasure. It has formed the
basis for pirate legends, adventure stories, and a series of
real life treasure hunters who go to the ends of
the earth to find rare objects that they can display
back home. One of the most popular tourist destinations. In
England is the Tower of London, where you can see
the Crown Jewels on display, each gem possessing a rich
(04:45):
backstory of its own. However, as pretty as these gems are,
treasure hunting stories often come with a warning. As beautiful
as they are to look at, precious stones may bring
more trouble than their worth. In the process of retrieving them,
you'll invite the greed of a their treasure hunters, or
even bring a curse upon yourself. Take, for example, the
(05:05):
Deli purple sapphire. It's an undeniably striking gem set in
a silver frame. Never mind that it's actually an amethyst,
so its title is a bit of a misnomer. It
has a second, probably more accurate name, though, the Gem
of Sorrow. According to the legend, it was once kept
in a temple of Indra in Canpoor, India. For those
who don't know, Indra is the Hindu god who represents
(05:26):
the weather, so things like lightning and storms, but also
war so in general, not the sort of god you
want to steal from, and this is exactly what happened.
In eighteen fifty seven, the continent of India was thrown
into chaos when locals rebelled against the rule of the
British East India Company, and during that upheaval, a British
cavalryman entered the temple of Indra and took the beautiful
(05:48):
purple stone for himself. His name was Colonel W. Ferris,
and he traveled back to England with the Purple gem
as a keepsake of his time on the continent. Not
long after, his fortunes took a turn for the worse.
His family members started falling very badly ill. His finances soured,
and at first he thought that it was just bad
luck on his part, but then he loaned the stone
(06:09):
to a friend. That stone eventually came back after his
friend had taken his own life. At this point, Ferris
was convinced the stone itself was cursed. He must get
rid of it as soon as possible. What happened after
that has been lost to time. But by eighteen ninety
the stone had made its way into the hands of
a scientist and polymath named Edward Heron Allen, and it
(06:31):
was Allan who began the tales of this gem's legend.
He's the one who called it the Deli Sapphire and
the one who said that had brought nothing but misfortune.
Just like Ferris before him, he found that this curse
always shifted to the person who possessed the gem. He'd
once given it to a friend who was a professional singer,
and she subsequently lost her voice permanently and gave the
(06:52):
amethyst back. The dire game of hot potato would only
continue from there. Growing desperate, Haron Allen threw the stone
into a canal. Three months later, it was given back
to him because someone had dredged it up by accident,
and it made its way from hand to hand until
it was returned. Just like a bad penny, it kept
turning up a gem with the ability to ruin your life.
(07:14):
Reasoning that there was no proper way to dispose of it,
Haron Allen sealed the gem in a locked box and
put that box in a bank vault, and then he
gave instructions to his family to never open that box
until after he was dead. Edward Heron Allen passed away
in the nineteen forties, after which his daughter opened the
safe to find the amethyst still there, waiting for a
(07:35):
new owner to torment. Remembering her father's stories about this gem,
she immediately donated it to London's Natural History Museum. Now, allegedly,
as they transported the stone from the vault to the museum,
the truck carrying the gem was beset by a powerful storm,
as if Indra himself had come to remind them who
the rightful owner was. Eventually, though, it arrived and the
(07:58):
cursed amethyst has been on display in the Natural History
Museum ever since. So the next time you rea at
a museum and you see a beautiful gem from a
far off land, remember there is no knowing what spirits
it brought along for the ride. Everything in the museum
has a story of its own, some benign and some
like this stone, littered with tragedy. Cursed or not. Stealing
(08:20):
always does have a price. As Shakespeare once said, all
that glitters is not gold. Gilded tombs do worms infold.
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.
(08:43):
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 worldolore dot com. And until next time, I stay curious. Yeah,
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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