August 5, 2025 • 33 mins
For over 30 years, a man wrapped head to toe in patched leather walked a perfect 365-mile loop through New England. Always clockwise, always every 34 days. Towns left pies on fence posts like offerings. Kids would drop everything to watch him pass. And yet, no one ever really knew who he was, where he came from, or why he walked.
In this episode of Weirder After Dark, we dive into the haunting legend of the Leatherman: a silent drifter who became a local myth in his own lifetime. Was he running from somethingor toward it?
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Every 34 days he stepped out of the trees, a man wrapped in 60
lbs of patched leather, walking a perfect 360 mile loop through
Connecticut and New York. He never spoke, he never stayed.
He just walked for 30 years through blizzards.
He waves through a law that jailed every other Vagabond but
bent itself around him. Who was he, why did he walk, and
(00:22):
why are we still talking about him over 100 years later?
I'm Sean. I'm Kathy.
And I'm Chris. And this is weirder after dark.
(00:44):
Have you heard about the Annabelle doll update?
It is very creepy. So.
So what exactly happened? Because I just know that
somebody on the tour died. They had the Annabelle doll out
on tour just kind of showcasing in as well as other pieces like
haunted property and its main handler who's like working with
the doll and showcasing and going around to all these
events. His name was Dan Rivera.
(01:05):
He's been like, involved with the animal doll for like, years.
And he's currently, or not currently he's dead.
But he was, he was the senior lead investigator for New
England Society for Psychic Research, or Nesper.
Apparently, after one of the most recent shows inside of
Gettysburg, PA, he was just found dead in his hotel room.
As super creepy, does it have any idea why was there?
(01:27):
Right now the police have come out and they're pretty much
they're being like, it's not theanimal doll guys, chill the fuck
out. Like it's not supernatural at
all. That's.
Probably the first thing they should say, right?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
They've pretty much just said, hey, it's all been natural
causes, but the autopsy's not done yet.
It's still pending due to all that going on, but.
How do you detect a paranormal killing?
(01:48):
On an autopsy, my God, could youimagine if it comes out like
like for example, it's acknowledged.
Super sad this guy died. But yes, how do you figure it
out? Like they can't prove to me it's
not paranormal. Exactly.
Yeah. And if you think about it, too,
like it happened in Gettysburg, Yeah, correct.
So we all know Gettysburg has a long history of lots of energy.
(02:08):
Happening. There, Yeah.
So I think that's kind of weird.Yeah, I think that's that's
something to be said. And the Warrens always kept
Annabelle under lock and key andsaid like, don't move it, don't
touch it. And now the doll goes on tour.
Is it normal for the doll to go on tour?
I don't think this is the first time it's this is like a middle
leg of the tour. So it's been on tour for a while
(02:29):
at this point. It's time.
So it's been a minute and I don't know if it's ever been on
tour before though to be. Honest, but how long does it
take for a paranormal energy to attach to someone and kill them?
10 to 14 days, Kathy. I mean, I'm really sorry.
I know, I know this man has a family but seems seems
suspicious. I think anything weird happening
on that tour was going to be attributed to the Annabelle doll
(02:52):
because it's famous saying it's haunted as fucking it's weird.
So anything happening on that tour would have to come back and
be all guessing that it's paranormal, right?
Interestingly enough though, when he was found in the hotel
room, the Annabelle doll was notwith him in the hotel room.
It was back at wherever the event was and locked there.
So I don't. Know but.
It wasn't found holding arsenic in the bathroom like.
(03:15):
He had. Stab wounds on his.
There's like 2 foot doll. Oh my God.
But again, a paranormal energy, does it have to be in the room
or can it? I mean, we hear about entities
attaching themselves to people. Yeah.
But I do question the fact that he had been involved with the
Annabelle doll for so long up tothis point.
(03:35):
Maybe the doll just got pissed off how he answered a question I
don't. Know she's like I'm having a bad
hair day not do this. I will say that there's probably
a good number of individuals outthere that think that Ed and
Lorraine Warren are absolute fucking grifters, and maybe that
is the case as well. Maybe.
A lot of weird shit happens in Connecticut, yeah.
(03:58):
Connecticut is a very strange place.
And Speaking of Connecticut, andso the strange shit going on,
that's actually where this storythat I'm going to share today
takes place. Fun, all right, Yeah.
And it is about the Leatherman Who?
Yes, the Leatherman. That sounds like a really
badass, really nice. I'm expecting someone that's
like wearing other people's skin.
(04:19):
Like, you know, chainsaw mascaratype.
Shit, never heard the story. Yeah, it's not thing to do with
that either. The murder stories are very low
on this one, actually, at 0. So there's going to be no
murder, but still a really interesting New England legend.
You're ready to dive in? Yeah.
Ready. All right, let's do it.
This strange repeating story began in 1857.
(04:39):
A lone figure wrapped in patchedleather is open.
Trousers stitched from the scraps of old shoes would emerge
from the woods or from down the road.
He carried nothing but a matching leather satchel.
Packed with his food, a Bible, and a few tools.
He would walk into the heart of a Connecticut town.
He never stayed long, just enough for a meal, some tobacco,
(04:59):
a cup of coffee or two. He spoke no words, only quiet
grunts, which I imagine like that's that's how I imagine that
in my head. Simple head signals in exchange
for whatever it was that he needed.
The first few times he appeared,I imagine people were uneasy,
curious, maybe even a little afraid of this leather wrapped
traveller who came out of nowhere and before anyone could
(05:20):
ask who he was, he would vanish back into the trees or down the
path. Exactly 34 days later, though,
like clockwork, he would return.And then again, and again and
again, every 34 days for over 30years.
Oh, that's weird. Yeah, you're telling sort of
this. OK this vagrant who's, you know,
(05:41):
not all there wanders in the town.
But then every 34 days, like clockwork, yeah, he's back in
town and. Not.
What's he's doing in town? Town 41 different towns this
would happen. So he had the same pattern.
He would go through every like cycle.
Years. 30 straight years. By the 1880's, the Connecticut,
(06:01):
New York towns on his path knew his rhythm so well they built
their lives around it. Pies and loafs of bread were
left out on fence posts like offerings.
Oh, that's nice. Kids would Sprint from school
rooms to line the dirt roads just to watch him pass.
There are even stories of teachers canceling lessons
altogether. Because really, what could
compete with the side of the Leatherman stepping out of the
(06:22):
trees and coming? I love the vision.
Of that. Like, like I mentioned, like
Professor Chris is just like children, children, what are you
doing? Like leather bad, leather bad.
It is time for physics. You do not pay attention in
school. This is where your life will go.
I'll. Be down to go watch.
(06:43):
Yeah. I mean, what do you guys know
today? Leather man's going to be in
town. Let's go.
Yeah, I'm down. You.
Want to go? You want to go check out like
this guy? Just walk.
Like, was he homeless? A Vagabond?
A vagrant? Well, if he was, he was no
ordinary wanderer. Wanderers don't return every
30-4 days. This is fancying submission.
For. 30 years for 30 years with their life defended on.
In 1879, Connecticut passed a law that turned tramps.
(07:06):
That was the legal word then foranyone without a fixed home into
criminal class. They would get prosecuted,
arrested, kicked out of town. Being homeless was literally
turned into a crime. And yet this man was the
exception. In a state ready to jail anyone
without a home, the Leatherman became the only man the law
refused to touch. He wasn't just a wanderer.
He wasn't just another Vagabond.His presence carried weights and
(07:27):
enough that the law bent itself around him.
When I was a kid the movie Lady and the Tramp always confused me
because I always associate trampwith like a Hussey, you know
like a floozy. So it confused me that the boy
dog was the. Tramp.
He was a vagrant that didn't have a home.
Now. But suddenly I now understand
why they called him a tramp. It's all coming together.
(07:48):
Finally, I am today years old. A lot of what we know about him
comes from old newspaper archives and interviews
collected in The Road Between Heaven and Hell, a documentary
that tracked down the last people who remembered his legend
first hand. And I want to call that out.
We have documented first hand encounters of this legend.
This is a real story. This isn't something that's
fake. So he's like a real person.
(08:10):
But for a living legend, Leatherman left almost nothing
behind when he passed away in a cave in 1889, the coroner could
only guess his age at around 50.Seriously.
That's it. There are no other records, no
confirmed name, nothing. Just yeah, it might have been
50. That's that's what we got.
The record keeping back then. When they searched his cave,
(08:31):
they found a small French prayerbook among his belongings.
It was the closest thing to a clue about who he might have
been. Maybe that's why he like grunted
and made because maybe he didn'tspeak English.
There's actually a lot of theories that he didn't speak
English and only knew a couple words.
Some other theories I couldn't find anything concrete so I
didn't out of the story, but we'll throw it in.
And said that he could speak fluent French.
That's what I'm thinking, yeah. They had a French was a French
(08:53):
Bible. French prayer book.
Yeah. So that would make this.
Is getting so weird. Yeah, now keep on, keep going,
man. Everything he owned fit into his
small leather satchel. A tin pale, a knife, a small
axe, leather working tools. Outside of the contents of the
satchel, the Leatherman only hadhis coat, his hat, his pants,
and his shoes. Again, all made out of leather
(09:14):
that he patchworked together andit all weighed nearly 60 lbs
that he strapped to his body. Good God.
Whoa whoa whoa. Could you put on a 60 LB
backpack, a rug set and walk 10 miles a day?
That's insane, right? I could, but not to.
Days in a row, man. Yeah, this guy's in great shape.
Right, right. And to take that even further,
imagine the summer heat in a leather suit.
(09:36):
His whole suit would stiffen andcrack, and in the winter it
would freeze and creak as he walked so you could hear him
coming down, because the leathersuit that he.
He's doing this in a Blizzard. He's doing this in the pouring
rain and. He's clearly never stopped the
dates. Yeah, like he's hitting the same
dates that same cycle. Wow.
Yeah, this is this is getting close to an OCD disorder.
The townspeople could literally mark the day on the calendar
(09:59):
that they're to see him again and they would know so.
Crazy. Now, as we're talking about this
leather suit and we're talking about the summer heat, I can
only imagine the unique stench that must have.
Gone. I was thinking that I'm like,
this motherfucker must have really stank.
So when you put all these towns he visited on the date together,
he walked 360 miles. How long it take him to do that?
(10:20):
Every 34 days he'd be back into the same time. 30-4 day loop 3.
170 miles everything. More regular than some girls
cycles, yeah. Yeah.
Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I agree with that.
Yeah, you. Can edit that out but.
Yeah, so 11 * a year he would appear back in every single
town. Wow.
Yeah, this is so strange. It is so strange.
(10:41):
Yeah, like what happens if he like like though?
Like so that mean literally think about it like Jesus
Christ, I walk in the woods and I trip and over route like.
Yeah, you think there's a bad snowstorm.
He shacks up somewhere he'd be off a day, but.
Torrential downpours. No days off, he.
Falls like, hurts his, sprains his ankle.
Yeah, Bill Belichick would love this guy.
People been running back? Yeah, yeah.
(11:02):
And then there were his habits. The Leatherman had two loves,
coffee and tobacco. Stories from half a dozen towns
talk about him stopping just long enough to drink a hot cup
left on the porch or to refill his tin pail he carried.
If you wanted that rare nod of approval from the Leatherman,
you left out coffee. 1 Meridian shopkeeper was quoted as saying
he would never refuse a hot cup of coffee, even if he turned
(11:25):
away everything else we were offering him.
This man right here in New England in first man to run on
Duncans. You went on to start a company
called Dunkin' Donuts. That was like the only joke I
read into that. I was like, that's too good to
turn. Off that was pretty good.
Yeah, all right. It's reported that the only
thing that matched his mileage was his appetite, though.
(11:48):
In Bradford, Connecticut, a grocer reported watching the
leather men eat the following inone sitting A can of sardines, a
loaf of bread, a pound of milk, crackers, 1/4 of a pie, 2 quarts
and two cups of coffee, a gill of Brandy, and a bottle of beer.
Damn, in one city, OK. The sardines really threw me.
Yeah, it is kind of a weird mix,right, man?
(12:08):
She's like, you got crackers, bread, sardines.
Yeah. Only 1/4 of a pie, though.
Disappointing. Disappointing.
Then after eating all of that, allegedly he walked 1/2 mile
down the road and ate a full dinner at the next house.
And it was nothing so impressive.
Leatherman impressive. And the Leatherman's love of
tobacco went just as deep as hislove for coffee and food.
(12:30):
He'd smoke pipes until they burned through, then carve new
ones out of wood and bits of scrap metal he found along the
route. People swore you could smell a
mix of smoke and leather before you ever saw him.
And living in a state that has the Appalachian Trail that rips
right through it, you'll often encounter AT through hikers on
their treks from Georgia to Maine or southbound from Maine
to Georgia. And I just want to confirm that
(12:51):
you can smell them before you see them.
But it ain't campfire smoke. It's fermented trail funk.
Just burned the bag. Yeah.
Everything. Yeah, just.
Burned it all. The Leatherman would accept food
and drink when it was offered, but he never accepted indoor
shelter. Families told stories of begging
him to come from the cold duringthe winter to come inside,
(13:12):
finish his meal that they were offering inside the house, only
for him to shake his head and eat on the porch in silence.
That's strange. So.
Strange, I was also read a couple stories that when he
would come into town, if he needed someplace or shelter, if
he didn't have like a cave, theyoffered him inside the house,
he'd say no. If they offered him the barn, he
would say yes. All right, so never around
(13:32):
people preferring solitude it seems like at least.
He sounded more like a monk thananything else at this point,
right? Kind of in a way.
Yeah, took a vow of silence, refuses and amenities.
Well, I don't know if he had a vow of silence.
I'm leaning more towards he onlyspoke French.
All right, yeah, he did grunt a lot, and apparently he knew a
couple like English words. Indication say thank you.
(13:53):
That's what makes me think that it was just.
Like early in the morning. That's how I ordered my coffee.
Yes, that translates to medium regular hot police.
I loved it. And I want to just imagine, like
saying no to indoor shelter during a New England winter.
That refusal feels stubborn in away, maybe crazy, but I think it
(14:13):
says something about his mental space and his preferences.
This is a man who would rather risk freezing to death than be
in close proximity to human companionship.
Was it trust issues? Had he been previously tricked
or emotionally hurt or scarred Insecurities.
No one truly knows. But what we do know is he
preferred solitude above all else, and coffee and tobacco
were the closest things to comfort that he allowed himself.
(14:34):
To the Leatherman, his world wasa perfect circuit, 365 miles
through western Connecticut and eastern New York, always
clockwise, always 10 miles a day, always consistent.
It went Waterbury, Meridian, Bristol, Danbury, Middleton,
Watertown, Ossing, 34 days and then back again, doing it all
over. And it wasn't just that he
(14:54):
walked the same route, he had tolive it as well.
There were caves scattered alongthe circuit, and those caves
became his home. You can still stand in several
of them today, but back then, they wouldn't have been hidden
in the thick woods of Connecticut in eastern New York.
Because in the late 1800s, Connecticut and New York were
mostly farmland around this area.
The force we see now had been cut back for fields and grazing.
(15:15):
The caves the Leatherman called home would have jutted out of
the hillsides, easy to spot against the open fields.
And that just made me go. He clearly wasn't hiding but
just wanted to be separate from society.
But it also gave him an advantage that he could see what
was coming at him. True.
And he was, he was reading a French book of prayers.
That is it. That's the only book he had.
(15:36):
Only book. So now it's making me think
maybe it's some kind of austerity measure, form of
worship. I'm refusing shelter.
I'm refusing, you know, comforts.
Like almost like a like a penance.
Yeah, like a penance or a admittance.
Giving up things in worship could have been like lunch.
You give up food for the day, oryou give.
Why just repeat the same circle over and over and over again?
(15:58):
Yeah, that part feels more like an OCD disorder than anything
else. So the fact that he could make
it to those towns on the day in any weather.
It makes me think he was like looking for something.
That's a little freaky. Like, I don't know, it seems
like why else would you just keep going back to the same
place over and over and over again?
Sounds like I'm going to tell you guys if you guys stop
talking. Unfortunately, I'm not going to
tell you. Yeah, we're going to be asking
(16:20):
ourselves these questions the entire entire podcast.
Unfortunately, the consistency though made him a ritual and a
of attention. Some families actually marked
his arrival on the calendar. Kids begged their parents to
bake hot biscuits dripping with honey because they were sure
that's what he liked. Other kids told stories that if
you met the leatherman's eyes, you'd have good luck.
Others more negatively said if you met his eyes, you had a bad
(16:42):
luck. It really depended on see that.
Yeah, depending on the sound youwere in.
Some would even follow him kids back to his cave and sit with
him in silence as he ate his food.
During the winter, people remembered seeing him moving
through blizzards. The stitched leather armor
freeze stiff around his body, ice crackling with every step.
Nothing got in the way of stopping his journey.
In the spring, the same suit would be soaked through with
(17:04):
rain, but again, it didn't matter.
He didn't shorten his route. No matter what hit him, the
circuit never broke. In some towns, the Leatherman
was welcomed so openly, they even repurposed an old nursery
rhyme to welcome him. 1 misty, moisty morning when cloudy was
the weather, I chanced to meet an old man dressed all in
leather, Leatherman. Leatherman, where do you go?
(17:25):
The winds they do whistle the ways laid in snow.
That was beautiful, Sean. Thank you.
Thank you. That really moved me.
Yeah, I'm a poet. So the rest of the world, this
was just a nursery rhyme. But in western Connecticut and
Westchester County, it was a manthey actually saw a month after
month. And what I find so interesting
about that is some people thought this nursery rhyme was
(17:46):
about the Leatherman. Interestingly enough, that
nursery rhyme predated him by 200 years.
Really. Oh.
Yes, that's a little freaky. Kind of.
Now it's. All dressed all in leather, he
heard the nursery rhyme and became.
Exactly. I was like, did he want to
recreate this? Yeah, so that's that's really
strange because it fits him perfectly, right?
Yeah, it does. I just assumed the nursery
rhymes made-up about him coming around.
(18:07):
Yeah, I thought so too when I first read it, but when I
started digging I was like what the fuck?
Like this is weird. Yeah, there's also some
parallels between like the Buddhist monks of Tibet.
They they walk around and beg for food and.
And people are glad to see them.It's good luck.
It's good for your spiritual life to give to them.
Yeah. And they live lives of
austerity. And they refuse to wear clothes.
There's where robes. And I like that point right
(18:29):
there because most of the time people were excited to see him.
It was like once a month that they just saw him.
They helped feed him and keep him on his journey and fueling
and moving forward. This was over 30 years
generationally, like people saw their parents take care of this
person. They they took care of this
person. Like, it's really interesting
when you really start thinking about it.
This is so strange. Yeah.
(18:50):
Well, not everyone met the Leatherman with an open heart
and mind. In New Haven and Fortsville, men
tried to get him drunk to force him to talk.
There are stories that in New Haven they held him down, poured
liquor down his throat. In Fortsville they did the same,
but then threw him into a horse through.
They didn't appreciate the Leatherman's silence and thought
it was suspicious that he wouldn't talk or share stories
(19:11):
about where he was from or what he was doing.
To no one's surprise, after thathe started avoiding town
centers, sticking to the countrylanes inside.
Yeah, no wonder why he didn't want to go inside anybody's
houses. People can be such.
Dicks. That was unfortunate.
That's sad. Here was this great story and
then somebody's got to go be a fucking Dick.
Yeah, and some other places. The Leatherman didn't just
strike curiosity. Some saw him as a warning.
(19:33):
There are stories of mothers pulling children back from the
windows when his shadow passed. I do want to be clear though, He
never hurt anyone. He never even looked people's
way most of the time. But his silence and his armor
made him appear less like a man and more like a monster.
I mean, we've discussed this before in past episodes, but
when people don't understand something, they turn to fear and
then they turn to bigotry. And I think that just falls in
(19:56):
line with history. Yeah, I think that.
Makes sense. You have this guy showing up for
30 years. There's a lot of time for people
to start to make up stories and legends.
And you know, this happened. This happened after he came by
and. Yeah, I was going to say.
And then at what point does likeoh he came through 2 days ago.
And my sheep died. Yeah, my sheep died and Tiny Tim
and fell from the barn loft. And I heard when he went through
(20:18):
this town, the liquor store burnt down.
Exactly. Yeah, I do want to play fair
here. He does sound like he was a
pretty decent dude. Never hurt anyone, was just kind
of doing his thing, living his life.
I do want to share a picture of him though.
Oh, I'm sure he looks like a Wildman.
We have images. They do exist.
And I want to show you all one right here.
This is what he looked like. OK, So I think you can kind of
startling imagine. Yeah, that's startling the first
(20:39):
couple of times you see him walking down the road and.
OK, I might run in terror. Yeah.
Yeah, and there's a big dude, noshot at the Leatherman, but you
look like you murder people. So like I'd be a little
intimidated. Then all of a sudden add in the
context that like every month heshowed.
Up and he didn't. Cause harm and and all sudden it
softens it, right, Right. It's in late 1800s, so it's not
like you have brand new people moving into towns all the time
(21:03):
like you would now. So like you were saying earlier,
it is generational. People know of him.
Do you know what he means? So it's, it's not like who's
this strange man coming? You know, they know who he is.
They they're marking calendar when he's going to come.
But if you didn't know, that would be scary.
Terrifying. In some ways, yeah.
I would not want to run into himalone.
Well, these feelings, these vibes, both positive, mixed,
(21:25):
some negative, continued. As I said, for almost 30 years,
this was just a regular cycle. And then came the Great Blizzard
of 1888, and it hit like the endof the world. 40 inches of snow
in some places, 50 in others. Winds up to 80 miles an hour.
Drifts taller than houses. Trains vanished under white
hills of snow. Telegraph line snaps like
(21:46):
threads. More than 400 people in houses
died in New England and New Yorkover this winter storm.
So for a man living in caves, walking 10 miles a day through
open farmland, it probably should have been his end as
well. But it wasn't.
Yeah. When the storm finally relented
in the town's compared notes, his 34 day loop had only been
(22:07):
delayed by four days. Four days.
This man just whoa. He still has it.
He's still going. This storm called 400 people who
even had homes. And this motherfuckers was like,
no. No, Yeah, I'll keep going.
I. Got my magic leather suit.
This isn't incredible, right? People remembered seeing him
after the storm, moving through snow banks taller than fences,
(22:27):
his leather suit frozen stiff enough to crack when he bent his
arms. However, they did notice
something else. After the storm, he was never
quite the same. He moved slower, his jaw working
strangely when he chewed, a trace of blood sometimes out the
corner of his mouth. His body was starting to
breakdown. Decades of pipe smoke and
chewing tobacco had been eating away at him from the inside.
(22:49):
By the time the Blizzard hit, healready had cancer inside of his
jaw. The timing feels kind of cruel
in a way. Probably just starting to have
like your cancer side effects, tumors inside your mouth, eating
the way at your jaw, and then now you have to survive this
fucking crazy ass once in a lifetime Blizzard.
It feels mean. For another year, though, he
kept walking through spring mud and summer heat through another
(23:10):
New England winter that must have felt longer than anything
else before. The iron discipline of his 34
day loop was still there, but itwas clear that the steps were
slowly starting to catch up to him.
And then on March 24th, 1889, just shy of a year after
surviving the 1888 once in a lifetime storm, they found him
dead in one of his caves. The Leatherman died in 1889, but
(23:32):
the story didn't. For decades he lived on an oral
history. Families pointed out the caves.
Teachers told kids about the manin 60 lbs of leather who walked
a perfect circle and his headstone in Sparta Cemetery had
just two words. The Leatherman.
The stone became a pilgrimage spot.
For more than a century, people of flowers, coins, whispered
stories of the grave, generations of New Englanders
(23:53):
telling the legend of his story.Then in 2011, they dug it up.
Historians and archaeologists hoping for answers, maybe a DNA
match, maybe a clue about his health help, maybe even finally
figuring out what his name was. But what they found was more
interesting than all that. They found nothing.
There was no skull, there was nobones.
Just a few rusty coffin nails inthe soil is all they could find.
(24:14):
It turns out their original wooden coffin that he had been
buried in was buried too close to the road.
Decades of erosion and road workhad chewed away at it and there
was now nothing left. Where did his bones go?
Did they just like eroded away? Just.
Eroded deeper into the OR maybe,or maybe just, I don't know,
I'll go. By the highway.
Yeah. Patrol.
Is done or I guess could it evenlike do bones eventually get
(24:38):
eaten and broken down? Like if there's that much like
chemicals and shit coming off roads.
And salt. I would assume eventually it
would break down, but I I know that how and where they're
buried they could last decades. It's interesting, but equally as
interesting. Back in 1884, a Connecticut
newspaper swore they have finally solved the mystery of
the Leatherman. They printed a front page story
claiming the Leatherman was Frenchman named Jules Bourgeois,
(25:00):
a Leatherman ruined in business who had come to America in shame
and wandered New England out of guilt.
They gave him a tragic back story, a failed romance, a
dramatic fall from grace. People loved it, and they
reprinted it everywhere. It felt like closure.
Except there's no record of Jules Bourgeois ever existing
either. Not in France, not in the US,
nowhere. Historians went digging and came
(25:22):
back with nothing. And the best theory?
The paper just made this all up to sell a headline.
There's something almost mythical about this guy and it's
just strange that nobody knew who it was, but everybody knew
him for 30 years, smiled. Right in that nursery rhyme.
Yeah, that nursery rhyme is really weird.
So maybe, maybe he was some sortof a he was from 200 years ago.
(25:44):
I love the idea of seeing a ghost eat a can of sardines, a
loaf of bread, tearing back a bunch of coffee and some Brandy.
Like I love that idea though. Any coffee and smoke?
I guess it's like, how deep do you want to go into the whole
normal path? But there's like theories that
people are doomed to repeat the same thing over and over again.
(26:05):
I've got 2 theories. Paula, Sean, keep going.
Yeah. We're close, we're close.
In the late 90's the legend actually made it into rock
history. Pearl Jam wrote AB side called
Leatherman. Eddie Vedder said he was drawn
to this man who lived completelyoutside the system, never said a
word and still became a full hero.
Vedder called him one of America's first anti heroes, a
man famous not for conquering anything, but for walking a
(26:27):
circle and leaving the rest of us to wonder.
Now, the song itself, if you listen to it, it's kind of like
that perfect folk rock melody. And as a guy I work with says,
you can't ever really understandEddie Vedder.
He just. But I swear his lyrics are deep.
This guy I work with tells me that all the time.
And in some ways they are. And I want to read the lyrics
(26:47):
real quick for one of the versesI've read about a man to whom I
may be related. Leatherman died a long time ago
in the 1880s. Leatherman.
Leatherman, covered with leather, but it wasn't tight
underneath the moon in the woodsat night, making the rounds 10
miles a day. Once a month, they spot him.
Here's what they say. Here he comes.
He's a man of the land. He's Leatherman.
Smile on his face, axe in his pack.
(27:09):
He's a Leatherman. Leatherman, Leatherman.
That's pretty much the story right there.
They summed. They summed it up pretty good.
The moonlight, the woods, the perfect circuit.
A man who never explained himself and somehow left a trail
of legend that outlived him by more than a century.
After his death, the Globe Museum in New York bought the
Leatherman suit and dressed a man in it, sending him through
through the crowd, yelling I am hungry, give me a child to eat.
(27:33):
Real story. Which is just such a shame.
Yeah, because. That's like.
He never did anything like that.Nothing like that at all.
Like. Yeah.
And in fact, the people who actually fed the real Leatherman
were horrified when they heard about this story.
And they actually put on protests and they were loud
enough. I.
Like that? Yeah, that the display was
actually shut down, and unfortunately though, the suit
(27:53):
disappeared and has now lost thetime.
No one knows where it is, but today the Leatherman's Caves
have plaques. Historians like Dan DeLuca have
compiled his story in a book titled The Old Leatherman.
There are documentaries, tours, even a Finnish folk band wrote
an entire song about him. But the thing that keeps him
alive today is the mystery. Why did he walk this circuit?
Why Connecticut in New York? Who was he?
(28:15):
And I honestly think that these are all questions that aren't
going to get any answers and I feel like we might have to walk
this one off. Dad joke 1.
And that's my and that's my story on The Weatherman.
I love this story. It's so interesting.
I mean, part of me wants to say here's a very deep spiritual
man. He took this vow of silence.
(28:38):
He just grunted and pointed at things, and he's on this walk.
And it was inspiring to people. People fed him.
People kind of took care of him.It woke up something good in
people. Think that's a really
interesting take and a really cool take.
There are a couple theories thatI can throw your way if you want
to hear. They don't add up, but one
theory was he participated in Civil War and had some type of
(29:01):
trauma afterwards, and his way of dealing with his trauma was
to go ahead and perform this circuit.
That's not true because he started his circuit in 1857,
which is a couple years before the Civil War even started.
So that's gone through my research I saw that was like
that doesn't even add up or makeany sense.
So that's gone. I do think the newspaper, even
though it was proven that is likely made-up, I do think
(29:22):
that's interesting. There is one additional story
I'll share that I think is goingto add some value.
He did get arrested at one pointand then brought him to an
insane asylum. When they brought him to the
asylum, they did like a check upon him and they basically said,
no, you're all there. He's just has a lot of emotional
trauma. They gave him money and let him
go the next day. And I find that interesting
because if you relive that article that came out in the
(29:43):
early 1880s, it basically said that he was a Frenchman who fell
in love. The father of the person he fell
in love with invited him into like the family company, which
was a leather business. He ended up making a massive
risk and ended up losing all themoney.
And then he couldn't marry the person he fell in love with and
he was banished from the family in the wake of that emotional
(30:04):
trauma travel to the United States.
And this was his way of penance for the mistakes that he made.
And although they say that it can't proven true, I think it's
interesting. I feel like anyone who does
this, there's some type of weight, there's some type of
trauma or or something going on maybe.
He's searching for some, yeah. There's also a somewhere on the
spectrum and OCD disorder feel to this too long before we could
(30:28):
diagnose those things. Yeah, I mean, we can't rule it.
Out. Well, if you're walking 10 miles
a day, every day, and you have £60 worth of leather on,
anything you put in your backpack is going to be
measured. And he had a prayer book that he
carried with him, so that must have had real importance.
It wasn't about his survival. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it must have been incredibly important to him.
(30:48):
So I'm thinking he's a deep spiritual man, right?
Could be, definitely could be. A lot of people were spiritual
back in this day though. Yeah, religious.
So I think the fact that it was French is more significant.
Well, was he French and from France, or was he French
Canadian? And, you know, recently that's
true too. Yeah.
That that's an option as well too, that there's some theories
around. Yeah.
One thing I want to throw out, this isn't like a sham theory,
(31:09):
but maybe he just cracked the fucking code as a homeless guy.
Like clearly there was like a homeless issue in the area,
right? They had those vagrant laws that
came out that pretty much criminalized being homeless and
not having a fixed home. Maybe he just cracked the
fucking code, said I can continue living this life and
living this way if I do this circuit.
Because he pretty much did get an exemption.
He became exempt from this. Being homeless is doable if
(31:30):
you're not in the same spot consistently and you're just
moving. People are more open minded to
helping someone out. Like you're just a visitor
inside the town for that one daya month.
Yeah, it's a lot easier to be like, oh, I'm going to feed this
guy. Or if a town has multiple
different people, you don't go to the same person every single
month for your food. It thus comes a lot more
sustainable, in a way. That that's interesting because
yeah, if you you're just moving through, are you really a
(31:52):
homeless vagrant? If you're not sleeping right
there, are you just a traveler? Yeah, I might be homeless, so I
might be vagrant, but I'm not staying.
I'm moving on to the next town and everybody knows that, so I'm
not getting arrested. Yeah, I'm not putting a huge
weight on the town, right? I'm not, I'm not a, I'm not a
nuisance. So I think that's kind of an
interesting take to them. Maybe he just cracked the
fucking code. Absolutely fascinating story.
(32:14):
I I wish we could find the bones, get some DNA, get, you
know, maybe a name, some origins.
As you know, question, yeah, I'mnot sure.
It'd be interesting to see if there's any kind of like writing
in it or. Well, that's the story of the
Leatherman. Yeah, yeah.
I hope you, you 2 enjoyed it. And gang, we hope you enjoyed it
as well. And if you did, I'll go ahead
and I'll make sure I post some images.
There are images of the caves you slept in that are sprinkled
(32:36):
throughout Connecticut in Eastern New York.
There are several photos of the Leatherman himself.
I'll be sure to post that stuff on Instagram, Facebook and
Reddit. And we'll let that we'll take it
as a reminder that we are building some communities out
there. So if you want to interact with
be Chris or myself or other listeners who are enjoying this
podcast just like you, be sure to check out that Reddit,
Instagram and Facebook page and we look forward to seeing you
(32:58):
there. And remember, we are on the
lookout for your weird New England stores.
Do you have anything haunted aliens?
Do you walk around town for 365 miles in a complete leather
suit, hopefully not made of other skin?
If so, go ahead and send us an e-mail at the gang at
weirderafterdark.com. We want to hear your stories.
We. Don't want to hear from that
guy. Yeah.
Please don't wear other people'sskins.
(33:19):
Don't. Do that if you are liking this
shit. No, no, if you are absolutely
loving this shit, the best thingthat you can do for us is go
ahead and leave a five star review right wherever you are
listening to this podcast or that's Apple or Spotify, hit
that five stars and drop a comment.
It would mean the world to us. And don't forget, it always gets
a little weirder after dark. Bye.
Thank you guys.
Every 34 days he stepped out of the trees, a man wrapped in 60
lbs of patched leather, walking a perfect 360 mile loop through
Connecticut and New York. He never spoke, he never stayed.
He just walked for 30 years through blizzards.
He waves through a law that jailed every other Vagabond but
bent itself around him. Who was he, why did he walk, and
(00:22):
why are we still talking about him over 100 years later?
I'm Sean. I'm Kathy.
And I'm Chris. And this is weirder after dark.
(00:44):
Have you heard about the Annabelle doll update?
It is very creepy. So.
So what exactly happened? Because I just know that
somebody on the tour died. They had the Annabelle doll out
on tour just kind of showcasing in as well as other pieces like
haunted property and its main handler who's like working with
the doll and showcasing and going around to all these
events. His name was Dan Rivera.
(01:05):
He's been like, involved with the animal doll for like, years.
And he's currently, or not currently he's dead.
But he was, he was the senior lead investigator for New
England Society for Psychic Research, or Nesper.
Apparently, after one of the most recent shows inside of
Gettysburg, PA, he was just found dead in his hotel room.
As super creepy, does it have any idea why was there?
(01:27):
Right now the police have come out and they're pretty much
they're being like, it's not theanimal doll guys, chill the fuck
out. Like it's not supernatural at
all. That's.
Probably the first thing they should say, right?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
They've pretty much just said, hey, it's all been natural
causes, but the autopsy's not done yet.
It's still pending due to all that going on, but.
How do you detect a paranormal killing?
(01:48):
On an autopsy, my God, could youimagine if it comes out like
like for example, it's acknowledged.
Super sad this guy died. But yes, how do you figure it
out? Like they can't prove to me it's
not paranormal. Exactly.
Yeah. And if you think about it, too,
like it happened in Gettysburg, Yeah, correct.
So we all know Gettysburg has a long history of lots of energy.
(02:08):
Happening. There, Yeah.
So I think that's kind of weird.Yeah, I think that's that's
something to be said. And the Warrens always kept
Annabelle under lock and key andsaid like, don't move it, don't
touch it. And now the doll goes on tour.
Is it normal for the doll to go on tour?
I don't think this is the first time it's this is like a middle
leg of the tour. So it's been on tour for a while
(02:29):
at this point. It's time.
So it's been a minute and I don't know if it's ever been on
tour before though to be. Honest, but how long does it
take for a paranormal energy to attach to someone and kill them?
10 to 14 days, Kathy. I mean, I'm really sorry.
I know, I know this man has a family but seems seems
suspicious. I think anything weird happening
on that tour was going to be attributed to the Annabelle doll
(02:52):
because it's famous saying it's haunted as fucking it's weird.
So anything happening on that tour would have to come back and
be all guessing that it's paranormal, right?
Interestingly enough though, when he was found in the hotel
room, the Annabelle doll was notwith him in the hotel room.
It was back at wherever the event was and locked there.
So I don't. Know but.
It wasn't found holding arsenic in the bathroom like.
(03:15):
He had. Stab wounds on his.
There's like 2 foot doll. Oh my God.
But again, a paranormal energy, does it have to be in the room
or can it? I mean, we hear about entities
attaching themselves to people. Yeah.
But I do question the fact that he had been involved with the
Annabelle doll for so long up tothis point.
(03:35):
Maybe the doll just got pissed off how he answered a question I
don't. Know she's like I'm having a bad
hair day not do this. I will say that there's probably
a good number of individuals outthere that think that Ed and
Lorraine Warren are absolute fucking grifters, and maybe that
is the case as well. Maybe.
A lot of weird shit happens in Connecticut, yeah.
(03:58):
Connecticut is a very strange place.
And Speaking of Connecticut, andso the strange shit going on,
that's actually where this storythat I'm going to share today
takes place. Fun, all right, Yeah.
And it is about the Leatherman Who?
Yes, the Leatherman. That sounds like a really
badass, really nice. I'm expecting someone that's
like wearing other people's skin.
(04:19):
Like, you know, chainsaw mascaratype.
Shit, never heard the story. Yeah, it's not thing to do with
that either. The murder stories are very low
on this one, actually, at 0. So there's going to be no
murder, but still a really interesting New England legend.
You're ready to dive in? Yeah.
Ready. All right, let's do it.
This strange repeating story began in 1857.
(04:39):
A lone figure wrapped in patchedleather is open.
Trousers stitched from the scraps of old shoes would emerge
from the woods or from down the road.
He carried nothing but a matching leather satchel.
Packed with his food, a Bible, and a few tools.
He would walk into the heart of a Connecticut town.
He never stayed long, just enough for a meal, some tobacco,
(04:59):
a cup of coffee or two. He spoke no words, only quiet
grunts, which I imagine like that's that's how I imagine that
in my head. Simple head signals in exchange
for whatever it was that he needed.
The first few times he appeared,I imagine people were uneasy,
curious, maybe even a little afraid of this leather wrapped
traveller who came out of nowhere and before anyone could
(05:20):
ask who he was, he would vanish back into the trees or down the
path. Exactly 34 days later, though,
like clockwork, he would return.And then again, and again and
again, every 34 days for over 30years.
Oh, that's weird. Yeah, you're telling sort of
this. OK this vagrant who's, you know,
(05:41):
not all there wanders in the town.
But then every 34 days, like clockwork, yeah, he's back in
town and. Not.
What's he's doing in town? Town 41 different towns this
would happen. So he had the same pattern.
He would go through every like cycle.
Years. 30 straight years. By the 1880's, the Connecticut,
(06:01):
New York towns on his path knew his rhythm so well they built
their lives around it. Pies and loafs of bread were
left out on fence posts like offerings.
Oh, that's nice. Kids would Sprint from school
rooms to line the dirt roads just to watch him pass.
There are even stories of teachers canceling lessons
altogether. Because really, what could
compete with the side of the Leatherman stepping out of the
(06:22):
trees and coming? I love the vision.
Of that. Like, like I mentioned, like
Professor Chris is just like children, children, what are you
doing? Like leather bad, leather bad.
It is time for physics. You do not pay attention in
school. This is where your life will go.
I'll. Be down to go watch.
(06:43):
Yeah. I mean, what do you guys know
today? Leather man's going to be in
town. Let's go.
Yeah, I'm down. You.
Want to go? You want to go check out like
this guy? Just walk.
Like, was he homeless? A Vagabond?
A vagrant? Well, if he was, he was no
ordinary wanderer. Wanderers don't return every
30-4 days. This is fancying submission.
For. 30 years for 30 years with their life defended on.
In 1879, Connecticut passed a law that turned tramps.
(07:06):
That was the legal word then foranyone without a fixed home into
criminal class. They would get prosecuted,
arrested, kicked out of town. Being homeless was literally
turned into a crime. And yet this man was the
exception. In a state ready to jail anyone
without a home, the Leatherman became the only man the law
refused to touch. He wasn't just a wanderer.
He wasn't just another Vagabond.His presence carried weights and
(07:27):
enough that the law bent itself around him.
When I was a kid the movie Lady and the Tramp always confused me
because I always associate trampwith like a Hussey, you know
like a floozy. So it confused me that the boy
dog was the. Tramp.
He was a vagrant that didn't have a home.
Now. But suddenly I now understand
why they called him a tramp. It's all coming together.
(07:48):
Finally, I am today years old. A lot of what we know about him
comes from old newspaper archives and interviews
collected in The Road Between Heaven and Hell, a documentary
that tracked down the last people who remembered his legend
first hand. And I want to call that out.
We have documented first hand encounters of this legend.
This is a real story. This isn't something that's
fake. So he's like a real person.
(08:10):
But for a living legend, Leatherman left almost nothing
behind when he passed away in a cave in 1889, the coroner could
only guess his age at around 50.Seriously.
That's it. There are no other records, no
confirmed name, nothing. Just yeah, it might have been
50. That's that's what we got.
The record keeping back then. When they searched his cave,
(08:31):
they found a small French prayerbook among his belongings.
It was the closest thing to a clue about who he might have
been. Maybe that's why he like grunted
and made because maybe he didn'tspeak English.
There's actually a lot of theories that he didn't speak
English and only knew a couple words.
Some other theories I couldn't find anything concrete so I
didn't out of the story, but we'll throw it in.
And said that he could speak fluent French.
That's what I'm thinking, yeah. They had a French was a French
(08:53):
Bible. French prayer book.
Yeah. So that would make this.
Is getting so weird. Yeah, now keep on, keep going,
man. Everything he owned fit into his
small leather satchel. A tin pale, a knife, a small
axe, leather working tools. Outside of the contents of the
satchel, the Leatherman only hadhis coat, his hat, his pants,
and his shoes. Again, all made out of leather
(09:14):
that he patchworked together andit all weighed nearly 60 lbs
that he strapped to his body. Good God.
Whoa whoa whoa. Could you put on a 60 LB
backpack, a rug set and walk 10 miles a day?
That's insane, right? I could, but not to.
Days in a row, man. Yeah, this guy's in great shape.
Right, right. And to take that even further,
imagine the summer heat in a leather suit.
(09:36):
His whole suit would stiffen andcrack, and in the winter it
would freeze and creak as he walked so you could hear him
coming down, because the leathersuit that he.
He's doing this in a Blizzard. He's doing this in the pouring
rain and. He's clearly never stopped the
dates. Yeah, like he's hitting the same
dates that same cycle. Wow.
Yeah, this is this is getting close to an OCD disorder.
The townspeople could literally mark the day on the calendar
(09:59):
that they're to see him again and they would know so.
Crazy. Now, as we're talking about this
leather suit and we're talking about the summer heat, I can
only imagine the unique stench that must have.
Gone. I was thinking that I'm like,
this motherfucker must have really stank.
So when you put all these towns he visited on the date together,
he walked 360 miles. How long it take him to do that?
(10:20):
Every 34 days he'd be back into the same time. 30-4 day loop 3.
170 miles everything. More regular than some girls
cycles, yeah. Yeah.
Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I agree with that.
Yeah, you. Can edit that out but.
Yeah, so 11 * a year he would appear back in every single
town. Wow.
Yeah, this is so strange. It is so strange.
(10:41):
Yeah, like what happens if he like like though?
Like so that mean literally think about it like Jesus
Christ, I walk in the woods and I trip and over route like.
Yeah, you think there's a bad snowstorm.
He shacks up somewhere he'd be off a day, but.
Torrential downpours. No days off, he.
Falls like, hurts his, sprains his ankle.
Yeah, Bill Belichick would love this guy.
People been running back? Yeah, yeah.
(11:02):
And then there were his habits. The Leatherman had two loves,
coffee and tobacco. Stories from half a dozen towns
talk about him stopping just long enough to drink a hot cup
left on the porch or to refill his tin pail he carried.
If you wanted that rare nod of approval from the Leatherman,
you left out coffee. 1 Meridian shopkeeper was quoted as saying
he would never refuse a hot cup of coffee, even if he turned
(11:25):
away everything else we were offering him.
This man right here in New England in first man to run on
Duncans. You went on to start a company
called Dunkin' Donuts. That was like the only joke I
read into that. I was like, that's too good to
turn. Off that was pretty good.
Yeah, all right. It's reported that the only
thing that matched his mileage was his appetite, though.
(11:48):
In Bradford, Connecticut, a grocer reported watching the
leather men eat the following inone sitting A can of sardines, a
loaf of bread, a pound of milk, crackers, 1/4 of a pie, 2 quarts
and two cups of coffee, a gill of Brandy, and a bottle of beer.
Damn, in one city, OK. The sardines really threw me.
Yeah, it is kind of a weird mix,right, man?
(12:08):
She's like, you got crackers, bread, sardines.
Yeah. Only 1/4 of a pie, though.
Disappointing. Disappointing.
Then after eating all of that, allegedly he walked 1/2 mile
down the road and ate a full dinner at the next house.
And it was nothing so impressive.
Leatherman impressive. And the Leatherman's love of
tobacco went just as deep as hislove for coffee and food.
(12:30):
He'd smoke pipes until they burned through, then carve new
ones out of wood and bits of scrap metal he found along the
route. People swore you could smell a
mix of smoke and leather before you ever saw him.
And living in a state that has the Appalachian Trail that rips
right through it, you'll often encounter AT through hikers on
their treks from Georgia to Maine or southbound from Maine
to Georgia. And I just want to confirm that
(12:51):
you can smell them before you see them.
But it ain't campfire smoke. It's fermented trail funk.
Just burned the bag. Yeah.
Everything. Yeah, just.
Burned it all. The Leatherman would accept food
and drink when it was offered, but he never accepted indoor
shelter. Families told stories of begging
him to come from the cold duringthe winter to come inside,
(13:12):
finish his meal that they were offering inside the house, only
for him to shake his head and eat on the porch in silence.
That's strange. So.
Strange, I was also read a couple stories that when he
would come into town, if he needed someplace or shelter, if
he didn't have like a cave, theyoffered him inside the house,
he'd say no. If they offered him the barn, he
would say yes. All right, so never around
(13:32):
people preferring solitude it seems like at least.
He sounded more like a monk thananything else at this point,
right? Kind of in a way.
Yeah, took a vow of silence, refuses and amenities.
Well, I don't know if he had a vow of silence.
I'm leaning more towards he onlyspoke French.
All right, yeah, he did grunt a lot, and apparently he knew a
couple like English words. Indication say thank you.
(13:53):
That's what makes me think that it was just.
Like early in the morning. That's how I ordered my coffee.
Yes, that translates to medium regular hot police.
I loved it. And I want to just imagine, like
saying no to indoor shelter during a New England winter.
That refusal feels stubborn in away, maybe crazy, but I think it
(14:13):
says something about his mental space and his preferences.
This is a man who would rather risk freezing to death than be
in close proximity to human companionship.
Was it trust issues? Had he been previously tricked
or emotionally hurt or scarred Insecurities.
No one truly knows. But what we do know is he
preferred solitude above all else, and coffee and tobacco
were the closest things to comfort that he allowed himself.
(14:34):
To the Leatherman, his world wasa perfect circuit, 365 miles
through western Connecticut and eastern New York, always
clockwise, always 10 miles a day, always consistent.
It went Waterbury, Meridian, Bristol, Danbury, Middleton,
Watertown, Ossing, 34 days and then back again, doing it all
over. And it wasn't just that he
(14:54):
walked the same route, he had tolive it as well.
There were caves scattered alongthe circuit, and those caves
became his home. You can still stand in several
of them today, but back then, they wouldn't have been hidden
in the thick woods of Connecticut in eastern New York.
Because in the late 1800s, Connecticut and New York were
mostly farmland around this area.
The force we see now had been cut back for fields and grazing.
(15:15):
The caves the Leatherman called home would have jutted out of
the hillsides, easy to spot against the open fields.
And that just made me go. He clearly wasn't hiding but
just wanted to be separate from society.
But it also gave him an advantage that he could see what
was coming at him. True.
And he was, he was reading a French book of prayers.
That is it. That's the only book he had.
(15:36):
Only book. So now it's making me think
maybe it's some kind of austerity measure, form of
worship. I'm refusing shelter.
I'm refusing, you know, comforts.
Like almost like a like a penance.
Yeah, like a penance or a admittance.
Giving up things in worship could have been like lunch.
You give up food for the day, oryou give.
Why just repeat the same circle over and over and over again?
(15:58):
Yeah, that part feels more like an OCD disorder than anything
else. So the fact that he could make
it to those towns on the day in any weather.
It makes me think he was like looking for something.
That's a little freaky. Like, I don't know, it seems
like why else would you just keep going back to the same
place over and over and over again?
Sounds like I'm going to tell you guys if you guys stop
talking. Unfortunately, I'm not going to
tell you. Yeah, we're going to be asking
(16:20):
ourselves these questions the entire entire podcast.
Unfortunately, the consistency though made him a ritual and a
of attention. Some families actually marked
his arrival on the calendar. Kids begged their parents to
bake hot biscuits dripping with honey because they were sure
that's what he liked. Other kids told stories that if
you met the leatherman's eyes, you'd have good luck.
Others more negatively said if you met his eyes, you had a bad
(16:42):
luck. It really depended on see that.
Yeah, depending on the sound youwere in.
Some would even follow him kids back to his cave and sit with
him in silence as he ate his food.
During the winter, people remembered seeing him moving
through blizzards. The stitched leather armor
freeze stiff around his body, ice crackling with every step.
Nothing got in the way of stopping his journey.
In the spring, the same suit would be soaked through with
(17:04):
rain, but again, it didn't matter.
He didn't shorten his route. No matter what hit him, the
circuit never broke. In some towns, the Leatherman
was welcomed so openly, they even repurposed an old nursery
rhyme to welcome him. 1 misty, moisty morning when cloudy was
the weather, I chanced to meet an old man dressed all in
leather, Leatherman. Leatherman, where do you go?
(17:25):
The winds they do whistle the ways laid in snow.
That was beautiful, Sean. Thank you.
Thank you. That really moved me.
Yeah, I'm a poet. So the rest of the world, this
was just a nursery rhyme. But in western Connecticut and
Westchester County, it was a manthey actually saw a month after
month. And what I find so interesting
about that is some people thought this nursery rhyme was
(17:46):
about the Leatherman. Interestingly enough, that
nursery rhyme predated him by 200 years.
Really. Oh.
Yes, that's a little freaky. Kind of.
Now it's. All dressed all in leather, he
heard the nursery rhyme and became.
Exactly. I was like, did he want to
recreate this? Yeah, so that's that's really
strange because it fits him perfectly, right?
Yeah, it does. I just assumed the nursery
rhymes made-up about him coming around.
(18:07):
Yeah, I thought so too when I first read it, but when I
started digging I was like what the fuck?
Like this is weird. Yeah, there's also some
parallels between like the Buddhist monks of Tibet.
They they walk around and beg for food and.
And people are glad to see them.It's good luck.
It's good for your spiritual life to give to them.
Yeah. And they live lives of
austerity. And they refuse to wear clothes.
There's where robes. And I like that point right
(18:29):
there because most of the time people were excited to see him.
It was like once a month that they just saw him.
They helped feed him and keep him on his journey and fueling
and moving forward. This was over 30 years
generationally, like people saw their parents take care of this
person. They they took care of this
person. Like, it's really interesting
when you really start thinking about it.
This is so strange. Yeah.
(18:50):
Well, not everyone met the Leatherman with an open heart
and mind. In New Haven and Fortsville, men
tried to get him drunk to force him to talk.
There are stories that in New Haven they held him down, poured
liquor down his throat. In Fortsville they did the same,
but then threw him into a horse through.
They didn't appreciate the Leatherman's silence and thought
it was suspicious that he wouldn't talk or share stories
(19:11):
about where he was from or what he was doing.
To no one's surprise, after thathe started avoiding town
centers, sticking to the countrylanes inside.
Yeah, no wonder why he didn't want to go inside anybody's
houses. People can be such.
Dicks. That was unfortunate.
That's sad. Here was this great story and
then somebody's got to go be a fucking Dick.
Yeah, and some other places. The Leatherman didn't just
strike curiosity. Some saw him as a warning.
(19:33):
There are stories of mothers pulling children back from the
windows when his shadow passed. I do want to be clear though, He
never hurt anyone. He never even looked people's
way most of the time. But his silence and his armor
made him appear less like a man and more like a monster.
I mean, we've discussed this before in past episodes, but
when people don't understand something, they turn to fear and
then they turn to bigotry. And I think that just falls in
(19:56):
line with history. Yeah, I think that.
Makes sense. You have this guy showing up for
30 years. There's a lot of time for people
to start to make up stories and legends.
And you know, this happened. This happened after he came by
and. Yeah, I was going to say.
And then at what point does likeoh he came through 2 days ago.
And my sheep died. Yeah, my sheep died and Tiny Tim
and fell from the barn loft. And I heard when he went through
(20:18):
this town, the liquor store burnt down.
Exactly. Yeah, I do want to play fair
here. He does sound like he was a
pretty decent dude. Never hurt anyone, was just kind
of doing his thing, living his life.
I do want to share a picture of him though.
Oh, I'm sure he looks like a Wildman.
We have images. They do exist.
And I want to show you all one right here.
This is what he looked like. OK, So I think you can kind of
startling imagine. Yeah, that's startling the first
(20:39):
couple of times you see him walking down the road and.
OK, I might run in terror. Yeah.
Yeah, and there's a big dude, noshot at the Leatherman, but you
look like you murder people. So like I'd be a little
intimidated. Then all of a sudden add in the
context that like every month heshowed.
Up and he didn't. Cause harm and and all sudden it
softens it, right, Right. It's in late 1800s, so it's not
like you have brand new people moving into towns all the time
(21:03):
like you would now. So like you were saying earlier,
it is generational. People know of him.
Do you know what he means? So it's, it's not like who's
this strange man coming? You know, they know who he is.
They they're marking calendar when he's going to come.
But if you didn't know, that would be scary.
Terrifying. In some ways, yeah.
I would not want to run into himalone.
Well, these feelings, these vibes, both positive, mixed,
(21:25):
some negative, continued. As I said, for almost 30 years,
this was just a regular cycle. And then came the Great Blizzard
of 1888, and it hit like the endof the world. 40 inches of snow
in some places, 50 in others. Winds up to 80 miles an hour.
Drifts taller than houses. Trains vanished under white
hills of snow. Telegraph line snaps like
(21:46):
threads. More than 400 people in houses
died in New England and New Yorkover this winter storm.
So for a man living in caves, walking 10 miles a day through
open farmland, it probably should have been his end as
well. But it wasn't.
Yeah. When the storm finally relented
in the town's compared notes, his 34 day loop had only been
(22:07):
delayed by four days. Four days.
This man just whoa. He still has it.
He's still going. This storm called 400 people who
even had homes. And this motherfuckers was like,
no. No, Yeah, I'll keep going.
I. Got my magic leather suit.
This isn't incredible, right? People remembered seeing him
after the storm, moving through snow banks taller than fences,
(22:27):
his leather suit frozen stiff enough to crack when he bent his
arms. However, they did notice
something else. After the storm, he was never
quite the same. He moved slower, his jaw working
strangely when he chewed, a trace of blood sometimes out the
corner of his mouth. His body was starting to
breakdown. Decades of pipe smoke and
chewing tobacco had been eating away at him from the inside.
(22:49):
By the time the Blizzard hit, healready had cancer inside of his
jaw. The timing feels kind of cruel
in a way. Probably just starting to have
like your cancer side effects, tumors inside your mouth, eating
the way at your jaw, and then now you have to survive this
fucking crazy ass once in a lifetime Blizzard.
It feels mean. For another year, though, he
kept walking through spring mud and summer heat through another
(23:10):
New England winter that must have felt longer than anything
else before. The iron discipline of his 34
day loop was still there, but itwas clear that the steps were
slowly starting to catch up to him.
And then on March 24th, 1889, just shy of a year after
surviving the 1888 once in a lifetime storm, they found him
dead in one of his caves. The Leatherman died in 1889, but
(23:32):
the story didn't. For decades he lived on an oral
history. Families pointed out the caves.
Teachers told kids about the manin 60 lbs of leather who walked
a perfect circle and his headstone in Sparta Cemetery had
just two words. The Leatherman.
The stone became a pilgrimage spot.
For more than a century, people of flowers, coins, whispered
stories of the grave, generations of New Englanders
(23:53):
telling the legend of his story.Then in 2011, they dug it up.
Historians and archaeologists hoping for answers, maybe a DNA
match, maybe a clue about his health help, maybe even finally
figuring out what his name was. But what they found was more
interesting than all that. They found nothing.
There was no skull, there was nobones.
Just a few rusty coffin nails inthe soil is all they could find.
(24:14):
It turns out their original wooden coffin that he had been
buried in was buried too close to the road.
Decades of erosion and road workhad chewed away at it and there
was now nothing left. Where did his bones go?
Did they just like eroded away? Just.
Eroded deeper into the OR maybe,or maybe just, I don't know,
I'll go. By the highway.
Yeah. Patrol.
Is done or I guess could it evenlike do bones eventually get
(24:38):
eaten and broken down? Like if there's that much like
chemicals and shit coming off roads.
And salt. I would assume eventually it
would break down, but I I know that how and where they're
buried they could last decades. It's interesting, but equally as
interesting. Back in 1884, a Connecticut
newspaper swore they have finally solved the mystery of
the Leatherman. They printed a front page story
claiming the Leatherman was Frenchman named Jules Bourgeois,
(25:00):
a Leatherman ruined in business who had come to America in shame
and wandered New England out of guilt.
They gave him a tragic back story, a failed romance, a
dramatic fall from grace. People loved it, and they
reprinted it everywhere. It felt like closure.
Except there's no record of Jules Bourgeois ever existing
either. Not in France, not in the US,
nowhere. Historians went digging and came
(25:22):
back with nothing. And the best theory?
The paper just made this all up to sell a headline.
There's something almost mythical about this guy and it's
just strange that nobody knew who it was, but everybody knew
him for 30 years, smiled. Right in that nursery rhyme.
Yeah, that nursery rhyme is really weird.
So maybe, maybe he was some sortof a he was from 200 years ago.
(25:44):
I love the idea of seeing a ghost eat a can of sardines, a
loaf of bread, tearing back a bunch of coffee and some Brandy.
Like I love that idea though. Any coffee and smoke?
I guess it's like, how deep do you want to go into the whole
normal path? But there's like theories that
people are doomed to repeat the same thing over and over again.
(26:05):
I've got 2 theories. Paula, Sean, keep going.
Yeah. We're close, we're close.
In the late 90's the legend actually made it into rock
history. Pearl Jam wrote AB side called
Leatherman. Eddie Vedder said he was drawn
to this man who lived completelyoutside the system, never said a
word and still became a full hero.
Vedder called him one of America's first anti heroes, a
man famous not for conquering anything, but for walking a
(26:27):
circle and leaving the rest of us to wonder.
Now, the song itself, if you listen to it, it's kind of like
that perfect folk rock melody. And as a guy I work with says,
you can't ever really understandEddie Vedder.
He just. But I swear his lyrics are deep.
This guy I work with tells me that all the time.
And in some ways they are. And I want to read the lyrics
(26:47):
real quick for one of the versesI've read about a man to whom I
may be related. Leatherman died a long time ago
in the 1880s. Leatherman.
Leatherman, covered with leather, but it wasn't tight
underneath the moon in the woodsat night, making the rounds 10
miles a day. Once a month, they spot him.
Here's what they say. Here he comes.
He's a man of the land. He's Leatherman.
Smile on his face, axe in his pack.
(27:09):
He's a Leatherman. Leatherman, Leatherman.
That's pretty much the story right there.
They summed. They summed it up pretty good.
The moonlight, the woods, the perfect circuit.
A man who never explained himself and somehow left a trail
of legend that outlived him by more than a century.
After his death, the Globe Museum in New York bought the
Leatherman suit and dressed a man in it, sending him through
through the crowd, yelling I am hungry, give me a child to eat.
(27:33):
Real story. Which is just such a shame.
Yeah, because. That's like.
He never did anything like that.Nothing like that at all.
Like. Yeah.
And in fact, the people who actually fed the real Leatherman
were horrified when they heard about this story.
And they actually put on protests and they were loud
enough. I.
Like that? Yeah, that the display was
actually shut down, and unfortunately though, the suit
(27:53):
disappeared and has now lost thetime.
No one knows where it is, but today the Leatherman's Caves
have plaques. Historians like Dan DeLuca have
compiled his story in a book titled The Old Leatherman.
There are documentaries, tours, even a Finnish folk band wrote
an entire song about him. But the thing that keeps him
alive today is the mystery. Why did he walk this circuit?
Why Connecticut in New York? Who was he?
(28:15):
And I honestly think that these are all questions that aren't
going to get any answers and I feel like we might have to walk
this one off. Dad joke 1.
And that's my and that's my story on The Weatherman.
I love this story. It's so interesting.
I mean, part of me wants to say here's a very deep spiritual
man. He took this vow of silence.
(28:38):
He just grunted and pointed at things, and he's on this walk.
And it was inspiring to people. People fed him.
People kind of took care of him.It woke up something good in
people. Think that's a really
interesting take and a really cool take.
There are a couple theories thatI can throw your way if you want
to hear. They don't add up, but one
theory was he participated in Civil War and had some type of
(29:01):
trauma afterwards, and his way of dealing with his trauma was
to go ahead and perform this circuit.
That's not true because he started his circuit in 1857,
which is a couple years before the Civil War even started.
So that's gone through my research I saw that was like
that doesn't even add up or makeany sense.
So that's gone. I do think the newspaper, even
though it was proven that is likely made-up, I do think
(29:22):
that's interesting. There is one additional story
I'll share that I think is goingto add some value.
He did get arrested at one pointand then brought him to an
insane asylum. When they brought him to the
asylum, they did like a check upon him and they basically said,
no, you're all there. He's just has a lot of emotional
trauma. They gave him money and let him
go the next day. And I find that interesting
because if you relive that article that came out in the
(29:43):
early 1880s, it basically said that he was a Frenchman who fell
in love. The father of the person he fell
in love with invited him into like the family company, which
was a leather business. He ended up making a massive
risk and ended up losing all themoney.
And then he couldn't marry the person he fell in love with and
he was banished from the family in the wake of that emotional
(30:04):
trauma travel to the United States.
And this was his way of penance for the mistakes that he made.
And although they say that it can't proven true, I think it's
interesting. I feel like anyone who does
this, there's some type of weight, there's some type of
trauma or or something going on maybe.
He's searching for some, yeah. There's also a somewhere on the
spectrum and OCD disorder feel to this too long before we could
(30:28):
diagnose those things. Yeah, I mean, we can't rule it.
Out. Well, if you're walking 10 miles
a day, every day, and you have £60 worth of leather on,
anything you put in your backpack is going to be
measured. And he had a prayer book that he
carried with him, so that must have had real importance.
It wasn't about his survival. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it must have been incredibly important to him.
(30:48):
So I'm thinking he's a deep spiritual man, right?
Could be, definitely could be. A lot of people were spiritual
back in this day though. Yeah, religious.
So I think the fact that it was French is more significant.
Well, was he French and from France, or was he French
Canadian? And, you know, recently that's
true too. Yeah.
That that's an option as well too, that there's some theories
around. Yeah.
One thing I want to throw out, this isn't like a sham theory,
(31:09):
but maybe he just cracked the fucking code as a homeless guy.
Like clearly there was like a homeless issue in the area,
right? They had those vagrant laws that
came out that pretty much criminalized being homeless and
not having a fixed home. Maybe he just cracked the
fucking code, said I can continue living this life and
living this way if I do this circuit.
Because he pretty much did get an exemption.
He became exempt from this. Being homeless is doable if
(31:30):
you're not in the same spot consistently and you're just
moving. People are more open minded to
helping someone out. Like you're just a visitor
inside the town for that one daya month.
Yeah, it's a lot easier to be like, oh, I'm going to feed this
guy. Or if a town has multiple
different people, you don't go to the same person every single
month for your food. It thus comes a lot more
sustainable, in a way. That that's interesting because
yeah, if you you're just moving through, are you really a
(31:52):
homeless vagrant? If you're not sleeping right
there, are you just a traveler? Yeah, I might be homeless, so I
might be vagrant, but I'm not staying.
I'm moving on to the next town and everybody knows that, so I'm
not getting arrested. Yeah, I'm not putting a huge
weight on the town, right? I'm not, I'm not a, I'm not a
nuisance. So I think that's kind of an
interesting take to them. Maybe he just cracked the
fucking code. Absolutely fascinating story.
(32:14):
I I wish we could find the bones, get some DNA, get, you
know, maybe a name, some origins.
As you know, question, yeah, I'mnot sure.
It'd be interesting to see if there's any kind of like writing
in it or. Well, that's the story of the
Leatherman. Yeah, yeah.
I hope you, you 2 enjoyed it. And gang, we hope you enjoyed it
as well. And if you did, I'll go ahead
and I'll make sure I post some images.
There are images of the caves you slept in that are sprinkled
(32:36):
throughout Connecticut in Eastern New York.
There are several photos of the Leatherman himself.
I'll be sure to post that stuff on Instagram, Facebook and
Reddit. And we'll let that we'll take it
as a reminder that we are building some communities out
there. So if you want to interact with
be Chris or myself or other listeners who are enjoying this
podcast just like you, be sure to check out that Reddit,
Instagram and Facebook page and we look forward to seeing you
(32:58):
there. And remember, we are on the
lookout for your weird New England stores.
Do you have anything haunted aliens?
Do you walk around town for 365 miles in a complete leather
suit, hopefully not made of other skin?
If so, go ahead and send us an e-mail at the gang at
weirderafterdark.com. We want to hear your stories.
We. Don't want to hear from that
guy. Yeah.
Please don't wear other people'sskins.
(33:19):
Don't. Do that if you are liking this
shit. No, no, if you are absolutely
loving this shit, the best thingthat you can do for us is go
ahead and leave a five star review right wherever you are
listening to this podcast or that's Apple or Spotify, hit
that five stars and drop a comment.
It would mean the world to us. And don't forget, it always gets
a little weirder after dark. Bye.
Thank you guys.
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