September 25, 2025 • 44 mins
Welcome To The Oddity Shop, Where The Bizarre is Always on Sale. This week, your Curator Zach brings you the Story of Mary Toft.
We delve into the bizarre 1726 case of Mary Toft, a poor English woman who convinced doctors and even King George I that she was giving birth to rabbits.
• Mary Toft, a poor illiterate woman from Surrey, claimed to give birth to animal parts and rabbits following a miscarriage
• Local man-midwife John Howard became convinced of the phenomenon and documented the strange births
• The story reached King George I, who sent several royal physicians to investigate
• Medical theory of the time suggested "maternal impression" could explain animal births if a woman was traumatized during pregnancy
• The hoax unraveled when a porter was caught smuggling rabbits into Mary's quarters
• The scandal ruined the reputations of several prominent doctors who had been fooled
Leave a bunny emoji in a hole if you've heard this story before, or if you know of other historical medical hoaxes that are equally bizarre. The most important thing you can do for us is to creep with your little oddballs!
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Toft
- https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1htm1pp/til_of_mary_toft_who_in_1726_became_the_subject/
- https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/files/special/exhibns/month/aug2009.html
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mary-toft-gave-birth-to-rabbits
Shop MI Mystical Forest on Etsy – where spirit meets craftsmanship.
For a limited time, enter code “oddball” at checkout to receive 10% off plus a free pendulum. Or simply Click Here
The Shop's phone lines are open! Give us a call and leave a voicemail (Or two!) with your creepy personal tale/oddity, and it could be featured on a future episode!
616.320.4935
JOIN US ON PATREON: Click Here!
Join the Oddity Shop on Patreon for Day Early Access to Episodes and tons of bonus content!!!
Visit our Website to learn more!
Email Us at: oddityshoppodcast.com
www.OddityShopPodcast.com
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate programs are designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to the partner site.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I want to dance with the mothman at the ID shop,
baked in the moonlight at the IDshop.
Creep through the graveyard tothe ID shop.
The door's always open at theID shop.
(00:29):
Welcome back to the Oddity Shop, you little oddballs.
I'm your curator, cara, with mywonderful best friend, curator
Zachary Curator.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Kara with my wonderful best friend, curator
Zachary, and this is the podcastwhere we tell you creepy, odd,
weird, strange, bizarre storiesfrom around the globe.
Hello, how are you?
I'm great.
How are you?
I am wonderful because, eventhough you're making fun of me
for my TikTok purchase, I'm veryexcited about it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I didn't really make fun of you, I'm just laughing at
you.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I did, okay.
So Saturday night I had a fewtoo many beers and I went on the
TikTok shop and now I have abumper magnet coming that says
stop honking.
I'm crying to the wreck of theEdmund Fitzgerald and it has
Lightfoot's face on it and I'mso excited.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I'm happy for you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
But that's not also the most exciting thing that's
coming for my car, because I gotconfirmed details today that
when I'm on the other side ofthe state next weekend, I can
pick up the Oddity Shop podcastdecals and QR codes for my car.
So I'm going to be looking realofficial.
I'm excited to see them.
I'm excited to see them too.
So thank you, Danny and Missy,for doing that for us and even
(01:40):
though I've offered like 19times, they won't let me pay.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So I appreciate you guys.
Yeah, I want to see how yourslooks, not that I think it's
gonna look bad and I'm gonnadepend.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I'm gonna depend on if I want to put it on mine or
not.
Also, with that being said, ifanybody has any sort of vinyl
needs around the metro, detroitarea, detroit vinyl wrap shout
out to our friends oh also Dannyand Missy, we're waiting.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
What are we doing?
An investigation?
What are we doing?
We?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
gotta figure it out.
Get at us guys.
Let's go, lego, let's go.
Um, okay, you know what I'mwaiting for, though.
Also, we're five weeks aheadwhen we record, so it might be
here by the time this comes out,but I'm so excited for 3i atlas
.
I don't know what it.
It's some sort of interstellarobject that's hurtling towards
(02:26):
our solar system, but it's alsogoing to go past us and Mars,
and I am convinced my dailymanifestations send my little
beep boops to the motherships.
They're coming to be me home.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I'm going Well if I get picked up first, I'll make
them stop and get you.
If you get picked up first,there is no way.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
There is no way in hell.
If the aliens come here,they're getting you before me.
What are you talking?
About I'm obviously the alien'sfavorite.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That is not even true .
I talk about them all the timeand I've seen them before.
I've also seen them no theycame right over my house.
I just I think I was just tooyoung to go and they've passed
you by.
They're like we're looking forthat.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
No, you're younger that's why they like me more,
more fresh idiot.
Oh my god.
All right, we need to figureout our Halloween plans.
It's getting darn close.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I already told you, I took off that whole entire
weekend and I'm just waiting andyou're like it's probably we
probably can't find anything todo now we probably can't find
anything to do now.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
We probably can't find an investigation to go on.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
We probably can't find anything to do now.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I was talking about one specific thing.
There's still plenty we couldfind to do.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
What should we dress up as?
Do you think you and I shoulddress up together on something
you always say?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
no, no, I've never said no.
I've just had other peoplebecause I was dating them.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, right, you're like I'm dressing up with this
person.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
We could do a group.
Should we open it up?
I didn't say a group, I saidyou and me Like a group costume,
like a you and me costume.
Okay, listeners, what should meand Kara be for Halloween?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Here's my only stipulation.
I do like to be somethingthat's like dead and creepy.
I do like to be somethingthat's like dead and creepy or
blood.
You are always dead and creepyto me.
So, thank you, I actually takethat as a compliment very much,
so yes, comment all over whatyou think we should be for
(04:18):
Halloween.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
We'll do a duo, not a group costume.
But yes, oh my god you're right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Whatever, oh, let's open the shop.
Damn it.
Are you ready for a question?
Duo, not a group costume, butyes, oh my.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
God, then we have to find people.
Whatever, let's open the shop,damn it.
Are you ready for a question?
Sure, so you know how youcalled Delilah your child.
Excuse you, how was thatprocess for you?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
First off, she is my child Right, right, right.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So do you believe that you gave birth to her?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Where did?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
she come from.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
She came right out of my little vagina so millennials
have a way of saying that theybirthed their pets children,
excuse me, and when I was a kid,my mom always said that she
wanted puppies, but somehow shegot kids.
So I have a story for all y'allmillennials who think you
(05:04):
birthed your pets Children.
I have the story for you,denise, and how you thought you
could get puppies instead ofhumans.
All right, so we are going.
Hold on.
Can we just be clear To thewoman who may have lived the
millennial dream?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
She birthed puppies.
Hold on, let's be clear.
I don't actually think that Ibirthed Delilah, but Delilah is
so perfectly me and Erin thatit's crazy that I didn't.
And every now and then I do cryover the fact that I took her
away from her mother.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, her mom is probably still looking for her.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
No, I think she was a bad mom.
I met her.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Called CPS right on her.
Okay, oh my God.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Okay, sorry, let's go on.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So in 1726, King George I of England hears about
a strange occurrence.
1726?
, 1726.
We're going way back, okay.
This strange occurrence is of awoman named Mary Toft of
Goldaming, near Surrey, who hadapparently given birth to
(06:08):
several rabbits.
Now, before we go down thisrabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Is that where that came from?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
No, but there's going to be more puns.
I'm sorry.
Let's dive into the story ofwho Mary was.
So Mary Toft was born February21st 1702 in Surrey, england,
about 40 miles from London.
She was born Mary Denyer.
She was poor, she wasilliterate and in fact gold
domain was like one of thepoorest areas there was in
(06:40):
England at the time okay, I justhave to get this out of my
brain.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Abraham Lincoln's wife that he married wasn't her
name Mary Taft.
Was it Mary Taft?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Taft T-O-F-T.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I know, I just had to get it out of my head, or I
would keep thinking about it.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Okay.
So at the age of 18, shemarries Joshua Taft and, as he
did in these times, they quicklyhad two children.
Okay, when she wasn't raisingchildren, she was walking two
hours each way to labor daily ina hop field.
She really didn't live a veryglamorous life by any means.
Okay.
(07:15):
But in 1726, she finds herselfpregnant again, and this was in
August, and she continued to dothe grueling work throughout her
pregnancy, which isn't the bestthing to do for pregnant women
and she suffers a miscarriage.
Prior to the miscarriage, shecomplained about painful
(07:39):
complications.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You probably should have put a warning.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Okay, this does deal very heavily with the notion of
miscarriage, as well aspregnancy and maybe delusion.
If that is sensitive to youmight be a good time to pop out.
Thank you.
(08:07):
She had delivered like severalfleshy lumps, which a lot of
people today believe wasprobably due to the fact that
there was some sort ofmalformation in the placenta.
Okay, this poor, poor woman, Imean, she's just not had a great
life so far no however, andmore bizarrely, about a month
later, on september 27th 17, shedoes go into labor.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Wait, that's weird because today is September 25th.
Very close.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Very close and a lot of people claim that even after
the reported miscarriage shestill looked really pregnant
during this entire time.
So she goes into labor andsomebody called for her neighbor
to help deliver the child.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I'm sorry.
How far along.
Did we know at that point?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, so in August she had the miscarriage
September.
All of a sudden, now she goesinto labor, Okay.
Okay, we don't know how faralong she was, but she was
showing visible signs ofpregnancy.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Poor thing was, but she was showing visible signs of
okay pregnancy, poor thing.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So the neighbor comes over to help deliver the child,
and it was then that theyrealized she was not having a
human child at all.
Instead of a human beingdelivered, the neighbor watched
and assisted while mary producedseveral animal parts.
So they, the neighbor, callsmary's mother-in-law and who had
been sort of a sacred spacethis one.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I'm sorry, this is I did get a warning at the top of
the episode that this was grossin the oddity shop.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
This one's a little bit gross, it it just this is
not where I thought grossboogers or something, I don't
know so the neighbor callsmary's mother-in-law and and had
sort of been like an unofficialmidwife in the area, basically
because she mothered 12 childrenshe's probably just available,
yeah um.
So anne was pretty confused bythe delivery.
(09:55):
Deems it appropriate?
Appropriate to involve agentleman named john?
Speaker 1 (10:01):
howard, and who the fuck is he?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
john howard was a guilford base, so he's just a
man.
No, no, no, Actually it's ahyphenated.
He is a man hyphen midwife.
He's a man midwife with 30years of experience in the field
.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Oh, but because he's a man, we need him.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It was just that he was just a very experienced
midwife.
I just love that.
Every article I found calledhim a man midwife.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
So Anne tells him about what has been produced by
Mary's body, and Howardimmediately dismisses it as even
being possible.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I'm sorry.
Can I ask are there like whenwe're saying animal parts, hold
on, please elaborate, I will.
Okay, good.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
So he dismisses the notion that this was possible.
That is until Anne shows himthe parts that had come from
Mary.
If I could have finished thatliteral sentence.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I couldn't stop thinking about what parts.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
John Howard decides to come out the next day to meet
with Mary and examine the parts.
Okay, while he is there, shegoes into labor again.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
First off is Mary.
Okay, at this point, Like whatis she just?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
She's in constant labor, so she appears to give
birth to several more animalparts.
With Mr Howard present, henotes that and this is a quote
delivered three legs of a cat ofa tabby color, one leg of a
rabbit.
The guts were as a cat's and inthem were pieces of backbone of
an eel.
The cat's feet, supposed, wereformed in her imagination from a
(11:27):
cat she was fond of that slepton the bed at night.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Say that imagination part to me again.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
The cat's feet supposed were formed in her
imagination from a cat that shewas fond of that slept on her
bed at night.
We'll get more into this later,but the leading medical
explanation for this of the daywas that if something
traumatized you or you wereinfatuated with when you were
pregnant, you might produce thatinstead of a human.
(11:52):
This is the 1700s, kara.
I wish you guys could see herface.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
She just looks so confused.
Well, I'm not confused, I'mjust thinking about so we're
saying that the cat legs tabbycolor, like we're talking fur
and everything.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
so I'm thinking that this woman is just shoving this
shit up her vagina well, thatwould be a very reasonable
explanation how and then justpushing it out, I don't know
howard decides he must continueto investigate this strange
phenomenon and over the month,recorded that she began to
produce a rabbit's head, morelikes of a cat and in one single
(12:28):
day she gives birth to ninedead baby rabbits.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Okay, is this woman under surveillance?
You just need to hold yourhorses.
I cannot.
You know this, sorry, so Howardis.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
He's just completely entranced by whatever's
happening and he decides thestory needs to be heard because
he needs help investigating it.
Yeah, and more importantly, why, instead of the what is
happening?
So he writes letters to anyoneand everyone.
So he writes to England's mostrevered doctors, top scientists,
as well as the secretary ofKing George.
(13:00):
I Mary kind of becomes a sortof local celebrity due to what's
happening to her and she'smoved from Goldelming to
Guildford Okay, this is whereJohn's business is, okay, and
the strange deliveries just keepcoming.
She just keeps going into labor.
John would respond to thoseinterests.
And now, remember, he is anexperienced man-midwife, right,
(13:21):
so he's seen people give birthbefore.
And he is an experienced manmidwife, right, so he's seen
people give birth before.
And he is completely on boardwith whatever's happening,
baffled.
So he responds to thoseinterested in his letters to
come to Guildford and witnessthe deliveries themselves.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh my God, Did she consent to this?
Oh yes, Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So the king remember, he wrote to the secretary of
the king.
So the king gets really curiousabout this and on November 4th
a member of his court namedHenry Davinant is sent to see
for himself what's happening.
This is basically due becauseHoward won't stop sending
letters.
And this is basically duebecause Howard won't stop
(14:05):
sending letters.
So one of the ones he actuallywrote to Henry that made him
come out and said Sir, since Iwrote to you, I have taken or
delivered the poor woman ofthree more rabbits, all three
half-grown, one of them a dunrabbit.
The last leapt 23 hours in theuterus before it died.
As soon as the 11th rabbit wastaken away, up leapt the twelfth
rabbit which is now leaping.
(14:26):
Leaping just, I think, meansit's in utero.
If you have any curious personthat is pleased to come post,
may see another leap in heruterus and shall take it from
her if he pleases, which shallbe a great satisfaction to the
curious.
If she had been with child.
She has but ten days more to go, so I do not know how many
rabbits may be behind.
(14:46):
I have brought the woman toGuildford for better convenience
.
I am, sir, your humble servantJohn Howard.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Um I.
Is she under surveillance?
Yes, by John Howard, but likefor 24 hours.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Okay, so, Devonant, he comes out, he examines the
samples that Howard hadcollected Because, by the way,
each birth Howard would takewhat was delivered and put them
in jars and keep them for, likefuture studying.
I'm like telling you this islike the original oddity.
I love it.
Davinan, after examining theseand witnessing a birth, returns
(15:25):
to London a full believer andsends a report to the king.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Okay, let me just backtrack for one second.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Okay, so original midwife sees her deliver cat
parts or cat legs, whatever itwas Cat parts and rabbit parts
and a bone of an eel and an eel.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Calls this guy Cool.
Now we have multiple births ofmultiple animals.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Mostly rabbits.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I don't know.
I just I'm not trusting thisguy.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
He convinces, though, this guy who is around the king
.
Okay.
So, king George, I then decidesit's time to send in his
doctors because he's definitelyat this point.
I told you it wasn't my lastpun, curious George.
Okay, jesus Christ.
So he sends two noblemenNathaniel St André, who is a
Swiss surgeon anatomist, andSamuel Molyneux, he is the
(16:16):
Prince of Wales secretary.
They arrive on November 15thand they're immediately taken by
Howard to see Mary Toft.
Within hours she delivers arabbit torso Where's?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
her husband.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
He's busy, but he's around St Andre the surgeon.
The Swiss surgeon sent by theking accounts details of his
examination of the rabbit.
To check if it had breathed air, he placed a piece of its lung
in water to see if it wouldfloat, which it did.
Andre then performed a medicalexamination on Tuft.
(16:47):
He concluded that there is noway these things formed in her
uterus.
However, instead he concludesthat because the uterus can only
produce people, that they musthave been bred in her fallopian
tubes.
Okay, while these two men arethere, she gives birth to
several more rabbits, and theycontinue testing and determine
(17:10):
that it is coming from the tubesand that something supernatural
was taking place causing thebirths.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Do you know, because we keep saying giving birth, are
we saying that she's likehaving contractions the whole?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
giving birth.
Yes, she is going into labor.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And she's been doing this Since September A plethora
of times.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yes, okay.
So upon examination of the 15thdead rabbit, they looked inside
its stomach, which containedhay and grass.
Also, the rabbit seemed to beof different ages.
But St Andre, he, was justthrilled by the possibility that
this could be true, so heexplained things away, reasoning
that the rabbits were delivereddead, and in some cases in
(17:50):
pieces, because of thecontractions of labor.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Because nothing has been living at this point.
No, no, no, it's just all beenpieces Because her contractions
are killing them and cuttingthem into pieces.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Okay, yeah.
So he decides it's time to headback to the king and he takes
one of the pickled rabbits withhim and I did not come up with
the term pickled rabbits, thatwas literally in one of these
articles.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That is disturbing.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
St Andre takes the rabbit back to London and the
story explodes.
Takes the story back, uh, orthe rabbit back to london and
the story explodes.
This is mostly due to himstarting to print pamphlets
about the phenomenon, because heis just fully believing what's
happening are we making moneyoff of this at this point?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
mary toff might be making a little bit of coin okay
, which I'm not saying that's abad thing, because if I'm giving
multiple births in multiplemonths, how give me the coin?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
well.
So she starts to make coinabout this time because the
story explodes and now peoplewant to come and see this.
So the king sends anotherdoctor.
This time it's a German surgeonand his name is Seratius Ehlers
.
He arrives on November 20th andfound her to still be
exhibiting signs of pregnancyenlarged stomach, all sorts of
(19:00):
things, right, like you wouldn'tnormally see a woman who is
pregnant.
He did find it odd, though,that Howard wouldn't let him
help in the deliveries that hewas allowed to witness, but he
was told it was because he was asurgeon and not a man midwife.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So he couldn't even be in the room.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
He could be in the room.
He was allowed to see them, buthe wasn't allowed to assist, so
he couldn't even be in the room.
He could be in the room, he wasallowed to see them, but he
wasn't allowed to assist.
They did let him assist onetime and Mary showed signs of
intense pain.
So like you're doing it wrong,you're not a man midwife, back
off.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
You're not a man wife .
Speaker 2 (19:32):
They did.
Let him take some of thespecimens, though, back to
London.
However, ehlers was verysuspicious of this, noting that
the animal parts appeared to becut with man-made instruments
and that their stomach contentsand droppings contained hay and
straw.
Nathaniel, St Andre and JohnHoward did not like that this
(19:54):
German surgeon was scrutinizingthem by any means, so Howard
requests that he gets hisspecimens back the very next day
and the king starts to get alittle weirded out here, though,
so he sends St Andre and acolleague back to Mary.
Upon their arrival, howardtells them that she had given
birth to yet two more rabbitsand several more portions of
(20:15):
what appeared to be more of theplacenta.
Now, mary, at this time she'sstarting to look a little bit
ill, and she's suffering fromconstant pain in her abdomen.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Right If we were to believe this is true.
Yeah, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Yeah, so to get ahead of any suspicion because of
what Ehlers is now saying, theydecide to produce more pamphlets
and collect affidavits from allthe witnesses who were getting
to see these births to provewhat was going on.
So now what we know is inGuildford, where Mary is,
they're letting other peoplewitness these deliveries and
(20:51):
then they're taking theirstories and saying here's proof,
people are seeing this happen.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I enjoy that.
We're just making pamphlets tomake a fucking pamphlet Right.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
The story goes bonkers Cara.
It travels not only throughout,like her area in London, it is
basically the entire Englishcountryside.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Okay, I mean, how could it not be, though?
Like, let's get real, this iscrazy.
If we were to believe that thisis true and this poor woman is
not only just given gone tolabor multiple times and given
birth to multiple times in ashort span of time that alone is
wild but then we're also tobelieve that she's producing
mostly rabbits dead ones butthey also have hay in there.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So listen, people stop eating rabbits.
Because they think they'recoming from her well, not
because they think they'recoming from her, but if
something supernatural is goingon and this is old timey england
, it you know, if this is likefrom god, they don't want to if
I eat a rabbit, I might birthmore oh my god, yeah, get
traumatized by one rabbit.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
That's all you do, okay let's be real, this is
actually really funny talkingabout it, but in 17, 12, 26,
that theory isn't really thatstupid.
To think that, like if I eat arabbit, I could then potentially
like birth more or whateverwell they weren't not eating
them because they thought theywould birth them.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
It was almost like an immaculate conception.
They thought maybe becausesomething supernatural.
This was like something fromGod.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Well, that's what I'm saying, too, like that, just
either way, that thought processisn't really that crazy for
that time.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Plus, in the early 1700s was the first time we had
a growing rise in the interestof oddities and monstrosities,
really.
And people, yeah, so this iswhere, like, oddity cabinets
came around.
Yeah, I guess so.
So people were willing to paygood money to see these things
happen.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Birthed rabbits.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So Toft and Howard were making like pretty decent
money.
Now our boy, John Hervey, comesinto play here, and John is the
savior of this story.
He's a political writer and hewrites.
Every creature in town, bothmen and women, have been to see
and feel her.
The perpetual emotions, noisesand rumblings in her belly are
(23:15):
something prodigious.
All the eminent physicians,surgeons and mad midwives in
London are there day and nightto watch her next production.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
This is so fucking disturbing, just that.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Another doctor comes to visit her His name is Sir
Richard Manningham and he's fromUpper Society, london and while
visiting with Mary, she appearsto give birth to a hogsbladder.
How do we know?
It's a hog splatter, I don'tknow.
Okay, but I do know thatManningham was not convinced.
But he was told by St Andre andHoward to just keep quiet on
(23:52):
his beliefs because he could notprove that there was fraud.
And until he could prove therewas fraud, shut the fuck up,
yeah, shut the fuck up.
It seems like at this point StAndre is starting to have some
doubts that this might be a realphenomenon, but he wants to
save his reputation.
Remember, he was like a royaldoctor sent by the king.
So Mary decides she's going togive the explanation for what's
(24:13):
happening, and this I alreadykind of alluded to this, but
this is her explanation.
So Mary Tuff's explanation forher strange birth was that in
April 1726, she had been workingin the field and had been
startled by a rabbit, andanother woman ran after it, but
they couldn't catch it.
They also failed to catchanother rabbit they had chased.
(24:34):
That same night she dreamt shewas in a field with these two
rabbits and they jumped into herlap and she awakened in a sick
fit which lasted till morning.
And from that time, for abovethree months, she had a constant
and strong desire to eatrabbits, but being very poor and
(24:55):
indigent, she couldn't procureany.
Poor and indigent, she couldn'tprocure any.
So in her mind, her brain hadbeen traumatized by an event and
began to produce mostly rabbits.
St Andre takes this and he runswith it.
Okay, he now writes oh, do youhave a comment?
No, just because I believe in alot of things, but I thought
(25:17):
about this episode and I said tomyself, before I even recorded
with you, this is going to bethe first one that Kara is out
right away.
You know who believes, though?
St Andre.
So he writes this is the titleof his new pamphlet A Short
Narrative of an ExtraordinaryDelivery of Rabbits.
In this he writes aboutmaternal impression, which,
(25:40):
according to medical theory, wasa phenomenon that explained the
existence of birthday effectsand congenital disorders.
The theory is that an emotionalstimulus experienced by a
pregnant woman, such as Mary'sdreams and her desire for rabbit
meat, could influence thedevelopment of the fetus.
Also, mental problems such asdepression and schizophrenia
(26:02):
were believed to be amanifestation of similar
feelings for the mother.
So, for instance, a woman whoexperienced great sadness while
pregnant might imprintdepressive tendencies onto the
fetus.
So it's just like imprinting.
So she just thought too muchabout rabbits.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Okay, it's like a tulpa, but okay, here's the
thing.
I think our minds can do waymore than we've even tapped into
, and I know we've talked aboutthis a lot.
I also think that trauma thingsthat we've gone through with
the fact that our minds can doso much, that's a whole other
(26:38):
realm of holy shitness, if youwill.
Whole other realm of holyshitness, if you will.
But I don't think that.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
If I just start dreaming about birthing wiener
dogs, I'm just gonna have to betraumatized by one first.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
It has to be a big emotional response okay, I don't
know, okay, I don't think, if Ijust have a big emotional
response, I'm just going tostart birthing wiener dogs I
really hope so Live ones.
But I just don't think thatthat is going to happen.
And also, that doesn't accountfor the fact that she's also
(27:14):
birthing cat parts and boarbladders or whatever the fuck it
was.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
You're not the only one who's fed up with this,
because the the king, curiousKing George, is also a little
bit fed up.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
He's like no, I'm not curious anymore, I'm just
fucking.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
He needs to know if this is real or a hoax.
Yeah, and he orders St Andre totravel back to Guildford,
collect Mary Toft and bring herto London now.
Hell, yeah, so November 29th.
She's brought to London to abathhouse of all places.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Hold on.
Can I also just put?
I just have to put this in here.
I feel very strongly about thisand I feel very bad for this
woman that she's being treatedas a freak show and just passed
around and just like whatever.
However, I have a sense thather and whatever his name is are
in on this and they're doingthis for some coin.
(28:06):
So if that's the case, get yourcoin, girl, however you want.
But if that's not the case,then I feel awful and it's
disgusting that we're justpassing this woman around and
letting people observe her, give, quote, unquote, birth.
Hold on to those thoughts.
But yes, hello, take her to thekingdom.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
So they do but they take her to a bathhouse, Off
with her head.
She's going to be observed moreclosely and over 10 doctors and
a large crowd gather and theseinvestigations are led by a
doctor named John Douglas.
So, between November 29th andDecember 3rd, there's a lot of
differences in opinion that cameup between the medical men who
(28:41):
are fighting over whether it'sreal or not who were observing
her, Because, you see, Mary wasstill going into labor, but she
was not producing rabbits oranything else.
However, it also became quiteclear that this might be because
she had a bad infection thatwas now causing her fits and she
was going in and out ofconsciousness.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yeah, probably because they were shoving animal
parts up her vagina.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
So it is on this night of December 3rd that the
truth comes out, because aporter is caught trying to sneak
dead rabbits into the bathhouse.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
So you've been right all along, I was right.
I can't even believe it, shehas been, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
So remember John Her hervey, the political writer we
mentioned earlier who wastalking about her.
He writes some more.
He goes what mary toft feltwomen's voices, pain, power in
the body is the name of hisarticle and he writes she gave
birth to no more rabbits andalso seems to have taken quite
ill.
But it was during this timethat a porter was caught
(29:43):
sneaking a rabbit into Toft'sroom.
He explained to Douglas, thedoctor in charge, that Toft's
sister-in-law, margaret Toft,had asked him to obtain the
smallest rabbit he could find.
Toft refused to confess untilManningham, another one of the
doctors, threatened to performsurgery to determine if she had
(30:03):
strange reproductive organs.
On December 7th she came cleanand the confession surprised
very few.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I'm surprised nobody before that point had wanted to
do surgery.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
But it was unfortunately time for St Andre,
who had just published histhrilling True Life Exposé, a
short narrative of extraordinarydelivery of rabbits just days
prior.
Needless to say, his career wasnever quite the same.
So with that, mary does confessto the hoax.
Okay, her husband, you hadasked about him earlier.
(30:36):
Yeah, he had been in on it forsome time.
You asked what he was doing.
He was making multiple trips tothe butcher to get rabbits and
other parts and she had beeninserting the parts inside
herself to make money off of thesensation.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Okay, I'm going to be honest, that's not even the
weirdest part about this story.
The weirdest part is where thefuck did we come up with this
idea and how did we rope inhusband, sister-in-law and then
that one doctor, I would assume?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
John Howard, the man-midwife and St Andre.
What about the regular?
Speaker 1 (31:12):
midwife, the first one.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Oh, that was the mother-in-law or did she do it?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
The mother-in-law, the sister-in-law, everyone's
kind of in on it now,mother-in-law sister-in-law
husband who actually came upwith this and how and why did we
come up with it?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
That's very contested so we'll come back to that in a
minute.
Okay, december 8th, mary makesa final admission and on
December 9th, just before beingsent to Tothill Fields,
bridewell, which is a prison,she is charged on a statute of
King Edward III as a vile cheatand imposter.
(31:43):
Mmm a vile cheat.
During her confession she hadblamed the entire affair on a
range of other participants.
She blamed her mother-in-law,of course.
She blamed John Howard.
She claimed that a travelingwoman told her how to insert
rabbits into her body and howsuch a scheme would ensure that
she would never want as long asshe lived.
Okay, there's a lot.
(32:05):
Every different article I cameacross kind of showed that
somebody else had a hand in, whoconvinced her to do this or
whatnot.
But I did find one that wasvery strongly worded of.
There's a lot of evidence thatshows she was not literate, she
was not a very smart human beingand that she had been
(32:25):
manipulated by the people aroundher to like she almost died.
I mean, she got very ill yeahyou know, I I think there's
definitely some fault on mary'spart, for sure, but I think she
was easily manipulated by thepeople.
I was gonna say because once themoney started coming in when
royal doctors are like oh, thisis real I still just want to
(32:46):
know where this thought camefrom the best we have in that
confession is not a travelingwoman, but I don't know man no,
because why would a travelingwoman just do that and then not
want to take any?
I think this is the husband.
This sounds like husband workto me.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
No, I understand.
I'm not asking like where itcame from, as far as like who
put this into her brain.
I'm asking how the fuck did wecome up with this concept?
Because that's the mostdisturbing part.
Here's what I want you to do,wife.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Wife, sister-in-law, mother-in-law.
We just lost a child.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
I want you to start shoving animals up your vagina.
We're going to pretend likeyou're giving birth to them and
then we're going to essentiallygo viral for it.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah that's pretty much it so.
After so, she's sentenced tofour months in prison, which was
total British style, where shehad a public facing cell so
people could come gawk at herall day and make fun of her.
That's terrible.
She is fined at the time 800British pounds.
Do you want to take a stab?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Nope, I do not.
I want you to tell me.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
It's 150,000 pounds in today's money.
Okay, In American money itwould be $202,000.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
So I don't like when stories like this talk about how
they were illiterate and thingslike that, because that doesn't
necessarily make you dumb.
Now, like you said, you maybewere thinking that she's maybe
easily manipulated, because itdoes sound like she was an
indentured servant who had noformal schooling and was
(34:14):
illiterate.
She was not she didn't have anopportunity to be bright.
Her husband was more educatedand he was a clothier but I I
feel like being educated doesn'tnecessarily make you smart true
, very true okay, and that'swhere I mean, but I just you
have to wonder if she wascoerced well, hold on.
Let me finish, because what Iwas going to say is if you have
(34:35):
a son, sister and mother againsther, I do think that it was
probably three against one andnot one against three,
convincing so the you know thetriangle, if you will, that
makes more sense.
But I don't necessarily thinkit's I don't want to say it's
because this woman was dumb.
I think it's just that you'reprobably number one depressed.
(34:56):
You've gone through amiscarriage, your life is
terrible, probably terrible.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
She was an indentured servant.
It was horrible.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
You've got a lot of just like really negative things
and then if you have threeindividuals that are essentially
your brought on family tellingyou, hey, let's do this because
it's going to be good for A, band C, you try it, it spirals.
Yeah, I can definitely see thatstuff like that happens now,
not to this extent, but likereally weird messed up things
(35:25):
happen as far as like eitherit's like murder, kidnapping,
like just weird things, becauselike, oh yeah, so and so
convinced me because this isn'tthis like it's not hard to
believe that aspect.
I just want to know where theycame up with that we don't know.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
But I have more for you.
It's not, we're not done oh,that's okay.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I was just gonna say it obviously stemmed from her
having miscarriages and then herhaving the aftermath of those
miscarriages.
You know, I think that'splanted something in one of
their little brains.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
So hervey, the political writer.
He he continues on the story,though the rabbit's births
weren't real.
The pain was.
According to Toph's confessions, the ruse relied on an
accomplice placing parts of deadanimals into Toph's vagina
Painful, difficult and dangerous.
Pursing Andre's early reports,toph's rabbits were often
(36:17):
delivered with their sharp nailsintact.
Because these animal remainswere likely hidden in Tuff's
body for up to several weeks,it's astonishing that she didn't
die of an infection.
So the question this leaves mewith is and I think for you too
is why, weeks Hervey, he alsowrites again to explain why.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Oh, hell.
No, I thought we were just.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
She was a young, young, extremely poor woman from
a small town who was taken tolondon, all the time escorted
and watched by titled, landedaristocratic men.
I think she was just playingthe lead role in a performance
orchestrated by other people.
In her confession shereportedly blamed her husband,
her mother-in-law and even thewife of a local organ grinder.
(37:01):
When this all comes out, thepress has a field day.
Any doctor who backed her upwas torn to pieces, their
reputations forever tarnished.
Mary was dragged as well.
She does go on to live a fairlynormal life after this.
Little is known of what comes ofher after this tale, but we do
(37:23):
know she was burned twice by thebishop, or not the bishop, the
parish and the parish, you know,like the church they would
write in the news about like biglife events of people.
So she does, I, and I do notknow how and I'm not trying to
be rude how she wasn't maimedafter this, like ostracized, no,
(37:43):
like bodily maimed, like, oh,she does give birth to another
real human child.
The public record, the parish,noted first child after her
pretended rabbit breeding.
That's just facts.
She does die at the age of 60in 1763.
Oh, that's, that's pretty old,isn't it then?
Yeah, I would say for the 1700s.
(38:03):
And the parish noted her asMary Toft widow.
Slash the imposterous rabbit andthat Kara is the story of Mary
Toft, who gave birth to rabbits,and also the reason why I will
never be able to use the phraserabbit hole again without
thinking of Miss Mary Toft.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
So I'm really, really , really thinking about shoving
rabbits up my vagina right nowand for a week, claws and all
man, and then I don't know how Iwould.
I'm trying to think of alogistic.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
You know, if you have to give her anything, damn.
She must have been a goodactress.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I think I could pretend to give birth, but the
fact that I've got I don't knowlike, because you're not
actually having contractions.
So that's what I'm trying tothink of Like it.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
And also like so it started.
This started in September, sofrom September to November.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Who was shoving these rabbits up there?
She's not shoving rabbits upfor herself.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
No, I think it was her husband.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
They had to have like forceps and then just like
shoving it up there.
Oh man Weeks, though, I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting that part.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I mean, I don't think that they were inside her for
weeks.
I think that meant that she wasdoing this for weeks from
mid-September to middle ofNovember.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
I thought you meant that they were up there for a
week.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
No, she just for several weeks was hiding them in
her.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Okay, that makes me feel so much better, because I
thought she was just shovingrabbits up there and they were
sitting for weeks.
Oh my god, thank you forclarifying.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
I don't know how that makes you feel better.
That just means for weeks shewas putting more and more
rabbits inside of her.
That's fine.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I would rather do that than have it sit up there
for a week.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Oh yeah, no.
Once it starts to decompose, Ifeel like she'd be dead.
She'd be dead.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
That's what I'm saying.
I was like so baffled.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Anyways, for this week's story, we would love an
emoji of a rabbit, a rabbit anda hole.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
There is a hole.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
A rabbit and a hole.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
And the worst part is is you know she didn't actually
keep any of that money becausefor what she was fined man.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Well, she didn't keep that money anyway.
Her husband took that shit.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I think that has to be one of the most like oddity
based oddity shop episodes we'veever had.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
But yeah that I have no more words, I'm sorry, I mean
the warning you gave me waslike this is disgusting and I'm
not disgusted, I'm just likeit's just crazy to me it's wild
that she was able to pull thewool over so many like
well-to-do doctor's eyes.
Is it, though, in the 1700s.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Here's what I think.
I think at first she convincedJohn Howard.
I don't think she everconvinced he just saw the money,
st Andre and the others.
I think they were convinced atfirst and then, once they had
already been too deep into it,they're like oh well, my
reputation's at stake.
Now we have to make otherpeople believe it.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Perhaps yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, reputation is at stake.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Now we have to make other people believe it perhaps,
yeah, yeah, the truth came outwhen the rabbit smuggler got
caught.
What a rabbit snatcher.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Oh no, okay we have to end this all right, so I'm
afraid to even ask for write-insright now.
It does not have to be deadanimal parts and holes related
listen.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
If any of your relatives have shoved animal
parts up their vagina oranything, let me know this is
how we get canceled.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
What's the weirdest thing grandma's put inside
herself?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
tell us tell me what grandma puts.
We have to go.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Let's close the shop down.
What other people need to do,kara?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
you did this well.
First, let me know if you'veever heard of this story, or if
you have other stories as crazyas this not maybe your stories,
but that you've heard, becausethis is a good one, and I want
to deep dive on others that arelike this uh, yeah, so leave a
bunny in a hole and, um, mostimportant thing you can do for
(42:02):
us is to creep a really littleoddballs.
Goodbye, bye, thank you At theIrish Shop.
(42:28):
The door's always open At theIrish Shop.
I want to dance with the mothman at the ID shop,
baked in the moonlight at the IDshop.
Creep through the graveyard tothe ID shop.
The door's always open at theID shop.
(00:29):
Welcome back to the Oddity Shop, you little oddballs.
I'm your curator, cara, with mywonderful best friend, curator
Zachary Curator.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Kara with my wonderful best friend, curator
Zachary, and this is the podcastwhere we tell you creepy, odd,
weird, strange, bizarre storiesfrom around the globe.
Hello, how are you?
I'm great.
How are you?
I am wonderful because, eventhough you're making fun of me
for my TikTok purchase, I'm veryexcited about it.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I didn't really make fun of you, I'm just laughing at
you.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I did, okay.
So Saturday night I had a fewtoo many beers and I went on the
TikTok shop and now I have abumper magnet coming that says
stop honking.
I'm crying to the wreck of theEdmund Fitzgerald and it has
Lightfoot's face on it and I'mso excited.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I'm happy for you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
But that's not also the most exciting thing that's
coming for my car, because I gotconfirmed details today that
when I'm on the other side ofthe state next weekend, I can
pick up the Oddity Shop podcastdecals and QR codes for my car.
So I'm going to be looking realofficial.
I'm excited to see them.
I'm excited to see them too.
So thank you, Danny and Missy,for doing that for us and even
(01:40):
though I've offered like 19times, they won't let me pay.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So I appreciate you guys.
Yeah, I want to see how yourslooks, not that I think it's
gonna look bad and I'm gonnadepend.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I'm gonna depend on if I want to put it on mine or
not.
Also, with that being said, ifanybody has any sort of vinyl
needs around the metro, detroitarea, detroit vinyl wrap shout
out to our friends oh also Dannyand Missy, we're waiting.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
What are we doing?
An investigation?
What are we doing?
We?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
gotta figure it out.
Get at us guys.
Let's go, lego, let's go.
Um, okay, you know what I'mwaiting for, though.
Also, we're five weeks aheadwhen we record, so it might be
here by the time this comes out,but I'm so excited for 3i atlas
.
I don't know what it.
It's some sort of interstellarobject that's hurtling towards
(02:26):
our solar system, but it's alsogoing to go past us and Mars,
and I am convinced my dailymanifestations send my little
beep boops to the motherships.
They're coming to be me home.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I'm going Well if I get picked up first, I'll make
them stop and get you.
If you get picked up first,there is no way.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
There is no way in hell.
If the aliens come here,they're getting you before me.
What are you talking?
About I'm obviously the alien'sfavorite.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
That is not even true .
I talk about them all the timeand I've seen them before.
I've also seen them no theycame right over my house.
I just I think I was just tooyoung to go and they've passed
you by.
They're like we're looking forthat.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
No, you're younger that's why they like me more,
more fresh idiot.
Oh my god.
All right, we need to figureout our Halloween plans.
It's getting darn close.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I already told you, I took off that whole entire
weekend and I'm just waiting andyou're like it's probably we
probably can't find anything todo now we probably can't find
anything to do now.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
We probably can't find an investigation to go on.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
We probably can't find anything to do now.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I was talking about one specific thing.
There's still plenty we couldfind to do.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
What should we dress up as?
Do you think you and I shoulddress up together on something
you always say?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
no, no, I've never said no.
I've just had other peoplebecause I was dating them.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well, right, you're like I'm dressing up with this
person.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
We could do a group.
Should we open it up?
I didn't say a group, I saidyou and me Like a group costume,
like a you and me costume.
Okay, listeners, what should meand Kara be for Halloween?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Here's my only stipulation.
I do like to be somethingthat's like dead and creepy.
I do like to be somethingthat's like dead and creepy or
blood.
You are always dead and creepyto me.
So, thank you, I actually takethat as a compliment very much,
so yes, comment all over whatyou think we should be for
(04:18):
Halloween.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
We'll do a duo, not a group costume.
But yes, oh my god you're right.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Whatever, oh, let's open the shop.
Damn it.
Are you ready for a question?
Duo, not a group costume, butyes, oh my.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
God, then we have to find people.
Whatever, let's open the shop,damn it.
Are you ready for a question?
Sure, so you know how youcalled Delilah your child.
Excuse you, how was thatprocess for you?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
First off, she is my child Right, right, right.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So do you believe that you gave birth to her?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Where did?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
she come from.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
She came right out of my little vagina so millennials
have a way of saying that theybirthed their pets children,
excuse me, and when I was a kid,my mom always said that she
wanted puppies, but somehow shegot kids.
So I have a story for all y'allmillennials who think you
(05:04):
birthed your pets Children.
I have the story for you,denise, and how you thought you
could get puppies instead ofhumans.
All right, so we are going.
Hold on.
Can we just be clear To thewoman who may have lived the
millennial dream?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
She birthed puppies.
Hold on, let's be clear.
I don't actually think that Ibirthed Delilah, but Delilah is
so perfectly me and Erin thatit's crazy that I didn't.
And every now and then I do cryover the fact that I took her
away from her mother.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, her mom is probably still looking for her.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
No, I think she was a bad mom.
I met her.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Called CPS right on her.
Okay, oh my God.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Okay, sorry, let's go on.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So in 1726, King George I of England hears about
a strange occurrence.
1726?
, 1726.
We're going way back, okay.
This strange occurrence is of awoman named Mary Toft of
Goldaming, near Surrey, who hadapparently given birth to
(06:08):
several rabbits.
Now, before we go down thisrabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Is that where that came from?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
No, but there's going to be more puns.
I'm sorry.
Let's dive into the story ofwho Mary was.
So Mary Toft was born February21st 1702 in Surrey, england,
about 40 miles from London.
She was born Mary Denyer.
She was poor, she wasilliterate and in fact gold
domain was like one of thepoorest areas there was in
(06:40):
England at the time okay, I justhave to get this out of my
brain.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Abraham Lincoln's wife that he married wasn't her
name Mary Taft.
Was it Mary Taft?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Taft T-O-F-T.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I know, I just had to get it out of my head, or I
would keep thinking about it.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Okay.
So at the age of 18, shemarries Joshua Taft and, as he
did in these times, they quicklyhad two children.
Okay, when she wasn't raisingchildren, she was walking two
hours each way to labor daily ina hop field.
She really didn't live a veryglamorous life by any means.
Okay.
(07:15):
But in 1726, she finds herselfpregnant again, and this was in
August, and she continued to dothe grueling work throughout her
pregnancy, which isn't the bestthing to do for pregnant women
and she suffers a miscarriage.
Prior to the miscarriage, shecomplained about painful
(07:39):
complications.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You probably should have put a warning.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Okay, this does deal very heavily with the notion of
miscarriage, as well aspregnancy and maybe delusion.
If that is sensitive to youmight be a good time to pop out.
Thank you.
(08:07):
She had delivered like severalfleshy lumps, which a lot of
people today believe wasprobably due to the fact that
there was some sort ofmalformation in the placenta.
Okay, this poor, poor woman, Imean, she's just not had a great
life so far no however, andmore bizarrely, about a month
later, on september 27th 17, shedoes go into labor.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Wait, that's weird because today is September 25th.
Very close.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Very close and a lot of people claim that even after
the reported miscarriage shestill looked really pregnant
during this entire time.
So she goes into labor andsomebody called for her neighbor
to help deliver the child.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I'm sorry.
How far along.
Did we know at that point?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, so in August she had the miscarriage
September.
All of a sudden, now she goesinto labor, Okay.
Okay, we don't know how faralong she was, but she was
showing visible signs ofpregnancy.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Poor thing was, but she was showing visible signs of
okay pregnancy, poor thing.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So the neighbor comes over to help deliver the child,
and it was then that theyrealized she was not having a
human child at all.
Instead of a human beingdelivered, the neighbor watched
and assisted while mary producedseveral animal parts.
So they, the neighbor, callsmary's mother-in-law and who had
been sort of a sacred spacethis one.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I'm sorry, this is I did get a warning at the top of
the episode that this was grossin the oddity shop.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
This one's a little bit gross, it it just this is
not where I thought grossboogers or something, I don't
know so the neighbor callsmary's mother-in-law and and had
sort of been like an unofficialmidwife in the area, basically
because she mothered 12 childrenshe's probably just available,
yeah um.
So anne was pretty confused bythe delivery.
(09:55):
Deems it appropriate?
Appropriate to involve agentleman named john?
Speaker 1 (10:01):
howard, and who the fuck is he?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
john howard was a guilford base, so he's just a
man.
No, no, no, Actually it's ahyphenated.
He is a man hyphen midwife.
He's a man midwife with 30years of experience in the field
.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Oh, but because he's a man, we need him.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It was just that he was just a very experienced
midwife.
I just love that.
Every article I found calledhim a man midwife.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
So Anne tells him about what has been produced by
Mary's body, and Howardimmediately dismisses it as even
being possible.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I'm sorry.
Can I ask are there like whenwe're saying animal parts, hold
on, please elaborate, I will.
Okay, good.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
So he dismisses the notion that this was possible.
That is until Anne shows himthe parts that had come from
Mary.
If I could have finished thatliteral sentence.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
I couldn't stop thinking about what parts.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
John Howard decides to come out the next day to meet
with Mary and examine the parts.
Okay, while he is there, shegoes into labor again.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
First off is Mary.
Okay, at this point, Like whatis she just?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
She's in constant labor, so she appears to give
birth to several more animalparts.
With Mr Howard present, henotes that and this is a quote
delivered three legs of a cat ofa tabby color, one leg of a
rabbit.
The guts were as a cat's and inthem were pieces of backbone of
an eel.
The cat's feet, supposed, wereformed in her imagination from a
(11:27):
cat she was fond of that slepton the bed at night.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Say that imagination part to me again.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
The cat's feet supposed were formed in her
imagination from a cat that shewas fond of that slept on her
bed at night.
We'll get more into this later,but the leading medical
explanation for this of the daywas that if something
traumatized you or you wereinfatuated with when you were
pregnant, you might produce thatinstead of a human.
(11:52):
This is the 1700s, kara.
I wish you guys could see herface.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
She just looks so confused.
Well, I'm not confused, I'mjust thinking about so we're
saying that the cat legs tabbycolor, like we're talking fur
and everything.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
so I'm thinking that this woman is just shoving this
shit up her vagina well, thatwould be a very reasonable
explanation how and then justpushing it out, I don't know
howard decides he must continueto investigate this strange
phenomenon and over the month,recorded that she began to
produce a rabbit's head, morelikes of a cat and in one single
(12:28):
day she gives birth to ninedead baby rabbits.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Okay, is this woman under surveillance?
You just need to hold yourhorses.
I cannot.
You know this, sorry, so Howardis.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
He's just completely entranced by whatever's
happening and he decides thestory needs to be heard because
he needs help investigating it.
Yeah, and more importantly, why, instead of the what is
happening?
So he writes letters to anyoneand everyone.
So he writes to England's mostrevered doctors, top scientists,
as well as the secretary ofKing George.
(13:00):
I Mary kind of becomes a sortof local celebrity due to what's
happening to her and she'smoved from Goldelming to
Guildford Okay, this is whereJohn's business is, okay, and
the strange deliveries just keepcoming.
She just keeps going into labor.
John would respond to thoseinterests.
And now, remember, he is anexperienced man-midwife, right,
(13:21):
so he's seen people give birthbefore.
And he is an experienced manmidwife, right, so he's seen
people give birth before.
And he is completely on boardwith whatever's happening,
baffled.
So he responds to thoseinterested in his letters to
come to Guildford and witnessthe deliveries themselves.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Oh my God, Did she consent to this?
Oh yes, Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
So the king remember, he wrote to the secretary of
the king.
So the king gets really curiousabout this and on November 4th
a member of his court namedHenry Davinant is sent to see
for himself what's happening.
This is basically due becauseHoward won't stop sending
letters.
And this is basically duebecause Howard won't stop
(14:05):
sending letters.
So one of the ones he actuallywrote to Henry that made him
come out and said Sir, since Iwrote to you, I have taken or
delivered the poor woman ofthree more rabbits, all three
half-grown, one of them a dunrabbit.
The last leapt 23 hours in theuterus before it died.
As soon as the 11th rabbit wastaken away, up leapt the twelfth
rabbit which is now leaping.
(14:26):
Leaping just, I think, meansit's in utero.
If you have any curious personthat is pleased to come post,
may see another leap in heruterus and shall take it from
her if he pleases, which shallbe a great satisfaction to the
curious.
If she had been with child.
She has but ten days more to go, so I do not know how many
rabbits may be behind.
(14:46):
I have brought the woman toGuildford for better convenience
.
I am, sir, your humble servantJohn Howard.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Um I.
Is she under surveillance?
Yes, by John Howard, but likefor 24 hours.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Okay, so, Devonant, he comes out, he examines the
samples that Howard hadcollected Because, by the way,
each birth Howard would takewhat was delivered and put them
in jars and keep them for, likefuture studying.
I'm like telling you this islike the original oddity.
I love it.
Davinan, after examining theseand witnessing a birth, returns
(15:25):
to London a full believer andsends a report to the king.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Okay, let me just backtrack for one second.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Okay, so original midwife sees her deliver cat
parts or cat legs, whatever itwas Cat parts and rabbit parts
and a bone of an eel and an eel.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Calls this guy Cool.
Now we have multiple births ofmultiple animals.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Mostly rabbits.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
I don't know.
I just I'm not trusting thisguy.
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
He convinces, though, this guy who is around the king
.
Okay.
So, king George, I then decidesit's time to send in his
doctors because he's definitelyat this point.
I told you it wasn't my lastpun, curious George.
Okay, jesus Christ.
So he sends two noblemenNathaniel St André, who is a
Swiss surgeon anatomist, andSamuel Molyneux, he is the
(16:16):
Prince of Wales secretary.
They arrive on November 15thand they're immediately taken by
Howard to see Mary Toft.
Within hours she delivers arabbit torso Where's?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
her husband.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
He's busy, but he's around St Andre the surgeon.
The Swiss surgeon sent by theking accounts details of his
examination of the rabbit.
To check if it had breathed air, he placed a piece of its lung
in water to see if it wouldfloat, which it did.
Andre then performed a medicalexamination on Tuft.
(16:47):
He concluded that there is noway these things formed in her
uterus.
However, instead he concludesthat because the uterus can only
produce people, that they musthave been bred in her fallopian
tubes.
Okay, while these two men arethere, she gives birth to
several more rabbits, and theycontinue testing and determine
(17:10):
that it is coming from the tubesand that something supernatural
was taking place causing thebirths.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Do you know, because we keep saying giving birth, are
we saying that she's likehaving contractions the whole?
Speaker 2 (17:22):
giving birth.
Yes, she is going into labor.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
And she's been doing this Since September A plethora
of times.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yes, okay.
So upon examination of the 15thdead rabbit, they looked inside
its stomach, which containedhay and grass.
Also, the rabbit seemed to beof different ages.
But St Andre, he, was justthrilled by the possibility that
this could be true, so heexplained things away, reasoning
that the rabbits were delivereddead, and in some cases in
(17:50):
pieces, because of thecontractions of labor.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Because nothing has been living at this point.
No, no, no, it's just all beenpieces Because her contractions
are killing them and cuttingthem into pieces.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Okay, yeah.
So he decides it's time to headback to the king and he takes
one of the pickled rabbits withhim and I did not come up with
the term pickled rabbits, thatwas literally in one of these
articles.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That is disturbing.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
St Andre takes the rabbit back to London and the
story explodes.
Takes the story back, uh, orthe rabbit back to london and
the story explodes.
This is mostly due to himstarting to print pamphlets
about the phenomenon, because heis just fully believing what's
happening are we making moneyoff of this at this point?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
mary toff might be making a little bit of coin okay
, which I'm not saying that's abad thing, because if I'm giving
multiple births in multiplemonths, how give me the coin?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
well.
So she starts to make coinabout this time because the
story explodes and now peoplewant to come and see this.
So the king sends anotherdoctor.
This time it's a German surgeonand his name is Seratius Ehlers
.
He arrives on November 20th andfound her to still be
exhibiting signs of pregnancyenlarged stomach, all sorts of
(19:00):
things, right, like you wouldn'tnormally see a woman who is
pregnant.
He did find it odd, though,that Howard wouldn't let him
help in the deliveries that hewas allowed to witness, but he
was told it was because he was asurgeon and not a man midwife.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So he couldn't even be in the room.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
He could be in the room.
He was allowed to see them, buthe wasn't allowed to assist, so
he couldn't even be in the room.
He could be in the room, he wasallowed to see them, but he
wasn't allowed to assist.
They did let him assist onetime and Mary showed signs of
intense pain.
So like you're doing it wrong,you're not a man midwife, back
off.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
You're not a man wife .
Speaker 2 (19:32):
They did.
Let him take some of thespecimens, though, back to
London.
However, ehlers was verysuspicious of this, noting that
the animal parts appeared to becut with man-made instruments
and that their stomach contentsand droppings contained hay and
straw.
Nathaniel, St Andre and JohnHoward did not like that this
(19:54):
German surgeon was scrutinizingthem by any means, so Howard
requests that he gets hisspecimens back the very next day
and the king starts to get alittle weirded out here, though,
so he sends St Andre and acolleague back to Mary.
Upon their arrival, howardtells them that she had given
birth to yet two more rabbitsand several more portions of
(20:15):
what appeared to be more of theplacenta.
Now, mary, at this time she'sstarting to look a little bit
ill, and she's suffering fromconstant pain in her abdomen.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Right If we were to believe this is true.
Yeah, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Yeah, so to get ahead of any suspicion because of
what Ehlers is now saying, theydecide to produce more pamphlets
and collect affidavits from allthe witnesses who were getting
to see these births to provewhat was going on.
So now what we know is inGuildford, where Mary is,
they're letting other peoplewitness these deliveries and
(20:51):
then they're taking theirstories and saying here's proof,
people are seeing this happen.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I enjoy that.
We're just making pamphlets tomake a fucking pamphlet Right.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
The story goes bonkers Cara.
It travels not only throughout,like her area in London, it is
basically the entire Englishcountryside.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Okay, I mean, how could it not be, though?
Like, let's get real, this iscrazy.
If we were to believe that thisis true and this poor woman is
not only just given gone tolabor multiple times and given
birth to multiple times in ashort span of time that alone is
wild but then we're also tobelieve that she's producing
mostly rabbits dead ones butthey also have hay in there.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So listen, people stop eating rabbits.
Because they think they'recoming from her well, not
because they think they'recoming from her, but if
something supernatural is goingon and this is old timey england
, it you know, if this is likefrom god, they don't want to if
I eat a rabbit, I might birthmore oh my god, yeah, get
traumatized by one rabbit.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
That's all you do, okay let's be real, this is
actually really funny talkingabout it, but in 17, 12, 26,
that theory isn't really thatstupid.
To think that, like if I eat arabbit, I could then potentially
like birth more or whateverwell they weren't not eating
them because they thought theywould birth them.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
It was almost like an immaculate conception.
They thought maybe becausesomething supernatural.
This was like something fromGod.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Well, that's what I'm saying, too, like that, just
either way, that thought processisn't really that crazy for
that time.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Plus, in the early 1700s was the first time we had
a growing rise in the interestof oddities and monstrosities,
really.
And people, yeah, so this iswhere, like, oddity cabinets
came around.
Yeah, I guess so.
So people were willing to paygood money to see these things
happen.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Birthed rabbits.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
So Toft and Howard were making like pretty decent
money.
Now our boy, John Hervey, comesinto play here, and John is the
savior of this story.
He's a political writer and hewrites.
Every creature in town, bothmen and women, have been to see
and feel her.
The perpetual emotions, noisesand rumblings in her belly are
(23:15):
something prodigious.
All the eminent physicians,surgeons and mad midwives in
London are there day and nightto watch her next production.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
This is so fucking disturbing, just that.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Another doctor comes to visit her His name is Sir
Richard Manningham and he's fromUpper Society, london and while
visiting with Mary, she appearsto give birth to a hogsbladder.
How do we know?
It's a hog splatter, I don'tknow.
Okay, but I do know thatManningham was not convinced.
But he was told by St Andre andHoward to just keep quiet on
(23:52):
his beliefs because he could notprove that there was fraud.
And until he could prove therewas fraud, shut the fuck up,
yeah, shut the fuck up.
It seems like at this point StAndre is starting to have some
doubts that this might be a realphenomenon, but he wants to
save his reputation.
Remember, he was like a royaldoctor sent by the king.
So Mary decides she's going togive the explanation for what's
(24:13):
happening, and this I alreadykind of alluded to this, but
this is her explanation.
So Mary Tuff's explanation forher strange birth was that in
April 1726, she had been workingin the field and had been
startled by a rabbit, andanother woman ran after it, but
they couldn't catch it.
They also failed to catchanother rabbit they had chased.
(24:34):
That same night she dreamt shewas in a field with these two
rabbits and they jumped into herlap and she awakened in a sick
fit which lasted till morning.
And from that time, for abovethree months, she had a constant
and strong desire to eatrabbits, but being very poor and
(24:55):
indigent, she couldn't procureany.
Poor and indigent, she couldn'tprocure any.
So in her mind, her brain hadbeen traumatized by an event and
began to produce mostly rabbits.
St Andre takes this and he runswith it.
Okay, he now writes oh, do youhave a comment?
No, just because I believe in alot of things, but I thought
(25:17):
about this episode and I said tomyself, before I even recorded
with you, this is going to bethe first one that Kara is out
right away.
You know who believes, though?
St Andre.
So he writes this is the titleof his new pamphlet A Short
Narrative of an ExtraordinaryDelivery of Rabbits.
In this he writes aboutmaternal impression, which,
(25:40):
according to medical theory, wasa phenomenon that explained the
existence of birthday effectsand congenital disorders.
The theory is that an emotionalstimulus experienced by a
pregnant woman, such as Mary'sdreams and her desire for rabbit
meat, could influence thedevelopment of the fetus.
Also, mental problems such asdepression and schizophrenia
(26:02):
were believed to be amanifestation of similar
feelings for the mother.
So, for instance, a woman whoexperienced great sadness while
pregnant might imprintdepressive tendencies onto the
fetus.
So it's just like imprinting.
So she just thought too muchabout rabbits.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Okay, it's like a tulpa, but okay, here's the
thing.
I think our minds can do waymore than we've even tapped into
, and I know we've talked aboutthis a lot.
I also think that trauma thingsthat we've gone through with
the fact that our minds can doso much, that's a whole other
(26:38):
realm of holy shitness, if youwill.
Whole other realm of holyshitness, if you will.
But I don't think that.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
If I just start dreaming about birthing wiener
dogs, I'm just gonna have to betraumatized by one first.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
It has to be a big emotional response okay, I don't
know, okay, I don't think, if Ijust have a big emotional
response, I'm just going tostart birthing wiener dogs I
really hope so Live ones.
But I just don't think thatthat is going to happen.
And also, that doesn't accountfor the fact that she's also
(27:14):
birthing cat parts and boarbladders or whatever the fuck it
was.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
You're not the only one who's fed up with this,
because the the king, curiousKing George, is also a little
bit fed up.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
He's like no, I'm not curious anymore, I'm just
fucking.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
He needs to know if this is real or a hoax.
Yeah, and he orders St Andre totravel back to Guildford,
collect Mary Toft and bring herto London now.
Hell, yeah, so November 29th.
She's brought to London to abathhouse of all places.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Hold on.
Can I also just put?
I just have to put this in here.
I feel very strongly about thisand I feel very bad for this
woman that she's being treatedas a freak show and just passed
around and just like whatever.
However, I have a sense thather and whatever his name is are
in on this and they're doingthis for some coin.
(28:06):
So if that's the case, get yourcoin, girl, however you want.
But if that's not the case,then I feel awful and it's
disgusting that we're justpassing this woman around and
letting people observe her, give, quote, unquote, birth.
Hold on to those thoughts.
But yes, hello, take her to thekingdom.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
So they do but they take her to a bathhouse, Off
with her head.
She's going to be observed moreclosely and over 10 doctors and
a large crowd gather and theseinvestigations are led by a
doctor named John Douglas.
So, between November 29th andDecember 3rd, there's a lot of
differences in opinion that cameup between the medical men who
(28:41):
are fighting over whether it'sreal or not who were observing
her, Because, you see, Mary wasstill going into labor, but she
was not producing rabbits oranything else.
However, it also became quiteclear that this might be because
she had a bad infection thatwas now causing her fits and she
was going in and out ofconsciousness.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yeah, probably because they were shoving animal
parts up her vagina.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
So it is on this night of December 3rd that the
truth comes out, because aporter is caught trying to sneak
dead rabbits into the bathhouse.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
So you've been right all along, I was right.
I can't even believe it, shehas been, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
So remember John Her hervey, the political writer we
mentioned earlier who wastalking about her.
He writes some more.
He goes what mary toft feltwomen's voices, pain, power in
the body is the name of hisarticle and he writes she gave
birth to no more rabbits andalso seems to have taken quite
ill.
But it was during this timethat a porter was caught
(29:43):
sneaking a rabbit into Toft'sroom.
He explained to Douglas, thedoctor in charge, that Toft's
sister-in-law, margaret Toft,had asked him to obtain the
smallest rabbit he could find.
Toft refused to confess untilManningham, another one of the
doctors, threatened to performsurgery to determine if she had
(30:03):
strange reproductive organs.
On December 7th she came cleanand the confession surprised
very few.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I'm surprised nobody before that point had wanted to
do surgery.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
But it was unfortunately time for St Andre,
who had just published histhrilling True Life Exposé, a
short narrative of extraordinarydelivery of rabbits just days
prior.
Needless to say, his career wasnever quite the same.
So with that, mary does confessto the hoax.
Okay, her husband, you hadasked about him earlier.
(30:36):
Yeah, he had been in on it forsome time.
You asked what he was doing.
He was making multiple trips tothe butcher to get rabbits and
other parts and she had beeninserting the parts inside
herself to make money off of thesensation.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Okay, I'm going to be honest, that's not even the
weirdest part about this story.
The weirdest part is where thefuck did we come up with this
idea and how did we rope inhusband, sister-in-law and then
that one doctor, I would assume?
Speaker 2 (31:07):
John Howard, the man-midwife and St Andre.
What about the regular?
Speaker 1 (31:12):
midwife, the first one.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Oh, that was the mother-in-law or did she do it?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
The mother-in-law, the sister-in-law, everyone's
kind of in on it now,mother-in-law sister-in-law
husband who actually came upwith this and how and why did we
come up with it?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
That's very contested so we'll come back to that in a
minute.
Okay, december 8th, mary makesa final admission and on
December 9th, just before beingsent to Tothill Fields,
bridewell, which is a prison,she is charged on a statute of
King Edward III as a vile cheatand imposter.
(31:43):
Mmm a vile cheat.
During her confession she hadblamed the entire affair on a
range of other participants.
She blamed her mother-in-law,of course.
She blamed John Howard.
She claimed that a travelingwoman told her how to insert
rabbits into her body and howsuch a scheme would ensure that
she would never want as long asshe lived.
Okay, there's a lot.
(32:05):
Every different article I cameacross kind of showed that
somebody else had a hand in, whoconvinced her to do this or
whatnot.
But I did find one that wasvery strongly worded of.
There's a lot of evidence thatshows she was not literate, she
was not a very smart human beingand that she had been
(32:25):
manipulated by the people aroundher to like she almost died.
I mean, she got very ill yeahyou know, I I think there's
definitely some fault on mary'spart, for sure, but I think she
was easily manipulated by thepeople.
I was gonna say because once themoney started coming in when
royal doctors are like oh, thisis real I still just want to
(32:46):
know where this thought camefrom the best we have in that
confession is not a travelingwoman, but I don't know man no,
because why would a travelingwoman just do that and then not
want to take any?
I think this is the husband.
This sounds like husband workto me.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
No, I understand.
I'm not asking like where itcame from, as far as like who
put this into her brain.
I'm asking how the fuck did wecome up with this concept?
Because that's the mostdisturbing part.
Here's what I want you to do,wife.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Wife, sister-in-law, mother-in-law.
We just lost a child.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
I want you to start shoving animals up your vagina.
We're going to pretend likeyou're giving birth to them and
then we're going to essentiallygo viral for it.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah that's pretty much it so.
After so, she's sentenced tofour months in prison, which was
total British style, where shehad a public facing cell so
people could come gawk at herall day and make fun of her.
That's terrible.
She is fined at the time 800British pounds.
Do you want to take a stab?
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Nope, I do not.
I want you to tell me.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
It's 150,000 pounds in today's money.
Okay, In American money itwould be $202,000.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
So I don't like when stories like this talk about how
they were illiterate and thingslike that, because that doesn't
necessarily make you dumb.
Now, like you said, you maybewere thinking that she's maybe
easily manipulated, because itdoes sound like she was an
indentured servant who had noformal schooling and was
(34:14):
illiterate.
She was not she didn't have anopportunity to be bright.
Her husband was more educatedand he was a clothier but I I
feel like being educated doesn'tnecessarily make you smart true
, very true okay, and that'swhere I mean, but I just you
have to wonder if she wascoerced well, hold on.
Let me finish, because what Iwas going to say is if you have
(34:35):
a son, sister and mother againsther, I do think that it was
probably three against one andnot one against three,
convincing so the you know thetriangle, if you will, that
makes more sense.
But I don't necessarily thinkit's I don't want to say it's
because this woman was dumb.
I think it's just that you'reprobably number one depressed.
(34:56):
You've gone through amiscarriage, your life is
terrible, probably terrible.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
She was an indentured servant.
It was horrible.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
You've got a lot of just like really negative things
and then if you have threeindividuals that are essentially
your brought on family tellingyou, hey, let's do this because
it's going to be good for A, band C, you try it, it spirals.
Yeah, I can definitely see thatstuff like that happens now,
not to this extent, but likereally weird messed up things
(35:25):
happen as far as like eitherit's like murder, kidnapping,
like just weird things, becauselike, oh yeah, so and so
convinced me because this isn'tthis like it's not hard to
believe that aspect.
I just want to know where theycame up with that we don't know.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
But I have more for you.
It's not, we're not done oh,that's okay.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I was just gonna say it obviously stemmed from her
having miscarriages and then herhaving the aftermath of those
miscarriages.
You know, I think that'splanted something in one of
their little brains.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
So hervey, the political writer.
He he continues on the story,though the rabbit's births
weren't real.
The pain was.
According to Toph's confessions, the ruse relied on an
accomplice placing parts of deadanimals into Toph's vagina
Painful, difficult and dangerous.
Pursing Andre's early reports,toph's rabbits were often
(36:17):
delivered with their sharp nailsintact.
Because these animal remainswere likely hidden in Tuff's
body for up to several weeks,it's astonishing that she didn't
die of an infection.
So the question this leaves mewith is and I think for you too
is why, weeks Hervey, he alsowrites again to explain why.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Oh, hell.
No, I thought we were just.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
She was a young, young, extremely poor woman from
a small town who was taken tolondon, all the time escorted
and watched by titled, landedaristocratic men.
I think she was just playingthe lead role in a performance
orchestrated by other people.
In her confession shereportedly blamed her husband,
her mother-in-law and even thewife of a local organ grinder.
(37:01):
When this all comes out, thepress has a field day.
Any doctor who backed her upwas torn to pieces, their
reputations forever tarnished.
Mary was dragged as well.
She does go on to live a fairlynormal life after this.
Little is known of what comes ofher after this tale, but we do
(37:23):
know she was burned twice by thebishop, or not the bishop, the
parish and the parish, you know,like the church they would
write in the news about like biglife events of people.
So she does, I, and I do notknow how and I'm not trying to
be rude how she wasn't maimedafter this, like ostracized, no,
(37:43):
like bodily maimed, like, oh,she does give birth to another
real human child.
The public record, the parish,noted first child after her
pretended rabbit breeding.
That's just facts.
She does die at the age of 60in 1763.
Oh, that's, that's pretty old,isn't it then?
Yeah, I would say for the 1700s.
(38:03):
And the parish noted her asMary Toft widow.
Slash the imposterous rabbit andthat Kara is the story of Mary
Toft, who gave birth to rabbits,and also the reason why I will
never be able to use the phraserabbit hole again without
thinking of Miss Mary Toft.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
So I'm really, really , really thinking about shoving
rabbits up my vagina right nowand for a week, claws and all
man, and then I don't know how Iwould.
I'm trying to think of alogistic.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
You know, if you have to give her anything, damn.
She must have been a goodactress.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
I think I could pretend to give birth, but the
fact that I've got I don't knowlike, because you're not
actually having contractions.
So that's what I'm trying tothink of Like it.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
And also like so it started.
This started in September, sofrom September to November.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Who was shoving these rabbits up there?
She's not shoving rabbits upfor herself.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
No, I think it was her husband.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
They had to have like forceps and then just like
shoving it up there.
Oh man Weeks, though, I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting that part.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I mean, I don't think that they were inside her for
weeks.
I think that meant that she wasdoing this for weeks from
mid-September to middle ofNovember.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
I thought you meant that they were up there for a
week.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
No, she just for several weeks was hiding them in
her.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Okay, that makes me feel so much better, because I
thought she was just shovingrabbits up there and they were
sitting for weeks.
Oh my god, thank you forclarifying.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
I don't know how that makes you feel better.
That just means for weeks shewas putting more and more
rabbits inside of her.
That's fine.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I would rather do that than have it sit up there
for a week.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Oh yeah, no.
Once it starts to decompose, Ifeel like she'd be dead.
She'd be dead.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
That's what I'm saying.
I was like so baffled.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Anyways, for this week's story, we would love an
emoji of a rabbit, a rabbit anda hole.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
There is a hole.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
A rabbit and a hole.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
And the worst part is is you know she didn't actually
keep any of that money becausefor what she was fined man.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Well, she didn't keep that money anyway.
Her husband took that shit.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I think that has to be one of the most like oddity
based oddity shop episodes we'veever had.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
But yeah that I have no more words, I'm sorry, I mean
the warning you gave me waslike this is disgusting and I'm
not disgusted, I'm just likeit's just crazy to me it's wild
that she was able to pull thewool over so many like
well-to-do doctor's eyes.
Is it, though, in the 1700s.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Here's what I think.
I think at first she convincedJohn Howard.
I don't think she everconvinced he just saw the money,
st Andre and the others.
I think they were convinced atfirst and then, once they had
already been too deep into it,they're like oh well, my
reputation's at stake.
Now we have to make otherpeople believe it.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Perhaps yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, reputation is at stake.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
Now we have to make other people believe it perhaps,
yeah, yeah, the truth came outwhen the rabbit smuggler got
caught.
What a rabbit snatcher.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Oh no, okay we have to end this all right, so I'm
afraid to even ask for write-insright now.
It does not have to be deadanimal parts and holes related
listen.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
If any of your relatives have shoved animal
parts up their vagina oranything, let me know this is
how we get canceled.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
What's the weirdest thing grandma's put inside
herself?
Speaker 1 (41:31):
tell us tell me what grandma puts.
We have to go.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Let's close the shop down.
What other people need to do,kara?
Speaker 1 (41:38):
you did this well.
First, let me know if you'veever heard of this story, or if
you have other stories as crazyas this not maybe your stories,
but that you've heard, becausethis is a good one, and I want
to deep dive on others that arelike this uh, yeah, so leave a
bunny in a hole and, um, mostimportant thing you can do for
(42:02):
us is to creep a really littleoddballs.
Goodbye, bye, thank you At theIrish Shop.
(42:28):
The door's always open At theIrish Shop.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!