1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks Part 2

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gaskell, and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and program. I didn't give you many
names and joy a blunder. Hey look, I'm Raisling. I'm

(00:23):
got the bara A long struggle for freedom, it really
is a revolution. On the first of July nineteen sixteen,
Charles van zandt, the twenty five year old sign on
the fairly prominent van's Ant family of Philadelphia, after checking

(00:46):
in with his family at the Angleside Hotel and the
resort town of beach Even on Long Beach Island, had
gone down to the beach to take a pre dinner
tip in the ocean, as was he practice among young
men like himself at the time. While down at the beach,
Charles had found a friendly to play with. However, as
van zand strained further out past the lifelines that the
other bade their stayed within, the dog took a cue

(01:07):
from the other humans and abandoned their game. Charles, however,
would continue calling for his new Ky nine companion, trying
to urge his new pale to come out and keep
playing with them. Charles's shouts there would take on a
distinctly different character when all of a sudden, a lone
shark ripped a chunk out of his left thigh, basically
stripping all the flesh from his hip to his knee
off the bone, and was then due to these wounds

(01:28):
and most especially the damage to his femoral artery, when
combined with the lack of ways to deal with such
massive blood loss and ways to prevent shock, that Charles
van Zandt would die in the office of Robert Frey Ingle,
the current owner and operator of the Ingle Side Hotel,
which the van Zanz had checked into that very afternoon.
Suffice to say, then, this was a shocking death, made
even more so by the accepted scientific understanding that sharks

(01:51):
did not attack people, and they especially did not do
so in temperate waters like those off the Jersey Coast. Indeed,
there had never been an officially die documented case of
a person being attacked by a shark in American history
prior to this. As such, while there was a moment
of panic, especially in Beechaven, it seemingly passed soon after,
especially when Robert free Engel declared that they were installing

(02:13):
heavy still mending around the bathing area to ensure that
no more sharks could come close to shore again, while
elsewhere along the Jersey Shore they were seemingly even less
concern and worry that another shark attack would take place. Indeed,
some had their doubts about the details of the van
Zandt incident, because again everyone knew that sharks simply did
not attack people. The thing is, while shark attacks are

(02:34):
indeed rare, and while we are actually a far greater
threat to their continued existence than they are to us,
shark attacks do still happen, and indeed the Jersey Shore
was about to experience a series of attacks almost unparalleled
in history. Yet, before we resume our investigation on this
series of attacks, first, like always, I want to acknowledge
my sources for this series, which include Michael Capusos Close

(02:57):
to Shore, the terrifying shark attacks of NIS eighteen sixteen,
Richard G. Fernacola's Twelve Days of Terror, a definitive investigation
of the nineteen sixty New Jersey shark attacks, and Thomas B.
Allen's shark attacks there causes an avoidance and like always,
these and any additional sources that I use, like websites,
won't be listed on this podcast. Bluesky and Coofy pages Plus,

(03:19):
for anyone who doesn't feel like skipping through commercials, there
is always an ad free feed available to subscribers at
patreon dot com. Slashes started history, And with all that
being said, let's begin. The July fourth holiday itself would
come and go without any further shark related incidents along
the Jersey Shore, where temperatures hovered around the low eighties
during the daylight hours and the water salty coust were

(03:40):
unusually warm even for that time of year. As a result,
the Jersey Shore resort communities more and less return to
their normal summer rhythms as they focused on catering to
the needs of the middle and upper class visitors who
flocked there. No place, though seemingly able to draw a
higher class of visitor than the resort community of Spring Lake,
New Jersey, located forty five miles north of Beach, even

(04:02):
the site of the first attack. This seaside resort was
dained for the picturesque spring fed Lake that laid three
blocks inland from the ocean. While there were larger, more
commercial resort towns like Wildwood, Belmore and Asbury Park that
attracted large crowds, spring Lake offered a more exclusive experience,
as they catered specifically to high society guests. Spring Length

(04:22):
then presented itself as a little idyllic patch of nature
that was an escape from modern industrialized cities. In doing so,
this little hamlet of Victorian homes and hotels transformed itself
into possibly the most elegant and opulent town on the
East coast. Two of spring Lake's main hotels, which stood
near the beach on Ocean Avenue, the Monmouth and the
Essex and Sussex, were especially grand locations, clearly designed to

(04:45):
service a wealthy and upper class clientel. Among the wealthy
and prominent people who visited spring Lake over the nineteen
sixteen July Fourth weekend were Treachery Secretary William McAdoo, President
Woodrow Wilson's personal secretary Joseph P. Tumultry, the Surge and
General of the New Jersey National Guard, Doctor William Schaffner,
Emma B. Childs, a socialite and widow of publisher George W. Childs,

(05:07):
and New Jersey Governor James Fielder, who hosted the Governor's
Ball in the ballroom of the Essex and Sussex Hotel. Meanwhile,
the President's daughter, Margaret Woodrow Wilson was also in town
to make her singing debut as she performed My Own
Kentucky Home. Among the people who saw to the needs
of these rich and powerful individuals was twenty eight year
old Charles Bruder, the former Swiss Army soldier who was

(05:29):
blonde and muscular, standing just shy a six feet tall,
was a popular figure among the guests of the Essex
in Sussex, where he served as the bell Captain, meaning
he was the head of the bell hops and the
other staff in the hotel. Birder was in general well
known among the visitors to Spring Lake, having worked in
the various hotels around town since he was just eight
years old. A dedicated and hard worker who sent most

(05:51):
of his earnings back to his mother in Lucerne, Switzerland,
which was especially necessary now as his brother could no
longer support their mother since he had been forced to
participate in the ongoing First World War. Also working at
the Essex in Sussex was Henry Nolan, who served as
an elevator runner, meaning he was one of the guys
who operated them for the guests. These two men then
had a habit of after spending their mornings hauling guest

(06:13):
bags to and fro and working off a sweat as
a labored in the summer heat in their hotel uniforms,
of then spending part of their lunch break going down
to the beach, where they could then call off by
going for a swim in the nearby ocean, which is
exactly where they were going at one five in the
afternoon on the sixth of July. It had then been
five days since the shark attack down at Beechaven, and

(06:34):
thus five days without any further incident. As such, it's
highly unlikely that the thought that danger could potentially be
winning in the waters to just off the shore ever
crossed either man's minds. Indeed, as the two men made
their way down to the beach, making first for one
of the bathhouses to change out of their uniforms and
into the appropriate beach attire, the two men were more

(06:55):
focused on the attractive women striding along the boardwalk than
the thought of sharks or shark attack. Really, their main
focus was ultimately on their destination and the cooling swim
in the ocean that awaited them. As the two men
reached the beach, they headed straight for the area where
hotel employees were allowed to swim all the while keeping
clear of the areas that were reserved for guests, although

(07:16):
as they were getting changed, Henry did jokingly ask Bruder, quote,
what if I dove under and came up in front
of one of those pretty young ladies with my black
swim tights on, they think I'm a sea monster, or at
least the real mobid Dick. Bruder, however, was serious as
he counted against such a move, not because it wasn't
poor taste with a man dying of a shark attack
a little waist down the shore just five days earlier,

(07:38):
but because such an act would involve invading the guest
bathing area an actor would likely cost the other man
his job. Bruder, in fact, was not only not worried
about shark attacks, but he actively ridiculed all the shark
talk that had popped up in the wake of Charles
van Zandt's death, as, according to Bruder, sharks weren't dangerous,
they were cowardly, easily frightened creatures. Bruder, you see, spoke

(08:01):
from experience after having spent the previous winter working at
the Hotel Green in Pasadena, California, where he spent his
off days swimming in the waters around Catalina Island. It
was here, then, according to Bruder, that he encountered many
a sizeable shark during a swims, sharks that had not
been threatening at all, and indeed, according to Bruter's estimation,
they had been downright timid. And indeed, the sharks at

(08:23):
the Swiss ball Captain encountered in California were likely docile,
angel or leper sharks, creatures that, while they could be
mistaken for the potentially dangerous tiger shark, are known to
not be the least bit aggressive. Now, to be clear,
Bruto was not alone in his dismissal sharks in any
danger they might present, as illustrated during former president tasks
visit to the Seaside Resort on the fourth of July,

(08:46):
you see the three hundred and thirty two pound former
President urn Yale law professor had come to the Essex
and Sussex Ballroom to deliver a speech, which was a
notable event as it was burn those days before radio
and television for much of the America and public to
actually get a chance to hear a president or even
a former one speak. So a respectable crowd gathered in
the hotel that day, only to be left fairly disappointed,

(09:09):
as Taftu did not particularly like giving speeches, gave a
fairly by the book address. The truly notable thing that
happened that day then occurred after the former president was
done speaking and the people who had come to hear
him and filed out of the hotel onto the adjoining boardwalk.
As it was here at this point that someone in
the crowd consult of a number of dark fins in
the ocean just off the coast. Seeing this and assuming

(09:32):
the worsty person let out a cry of sharks. The
other tourists in the crowd then started to panic as
their minds filled with thoughts about the story they had
just read about the young men who had been killed
down in Beechhaven. Local fishermen who were nearby, however, were
quick to try and calm the panic crowd by informing
them that the fins they were seeing weren't shark fins. Instead,

(09:52):
they belonged to porpoises, dolphin like sea mammals that regularly
swam and played off the Jersey coast. Indeed, some longtime
residents was Bring Lake would even assure the visitors that
sharks never attacked people along the Jersey coast, which was
a curious statement given the events down in Beach even
just five days earlier. The thing, whilst they were likely serious,
as they suspected that the whole story of a shark

(10:14):
attack had to have either been cooked up by newspapers
or was simply a tragic drowning that had been misinterpreted
by nervous eyewitnesses. As you can see the despite recent
evidence to the contrary, the long held belief that there
was absolutely nothing to fear when it came to sharks persisted. Indeed,
despite the events of the first of July. Earlier on
in the morning of the six, nineteen year old Robert Dowling,

(10:37):
the well known son of the president of New York
City's investment company, would announce his intention to swim four
miles out of the Atlantic and back again before doing
just that, which honestly was a minor feat for the
young man who just the previous summer had made headlines
for making the forty miles swim around Manhattan Island, which
is to say that the only challenge he would have

(10:57):
been facing that day was that of a potential shark attack,
and thus This was a young man's way of declaring
that there was no such threat, and indeed he would
make a swim without incident. Meanwhile, back in Spring Lake,
Charles Birder and Henry Nolan would finally reach the ocean,
joining some of their fellow workers from the hotel at
about two fifteen that afternoon. Now, for as warm as

(11:17):
the day was, a cool breeze out of the south
was actually keeping the wooters off the coast unusually cool,
thereby ensuring that most of those taking a dip that
afternoon fairly quickly got their fill. Birder, however, stayed out
in the surffall after his friends departed and started heading back. This, though,
wasn't unusual, as this afternoon's swim was probably the favorite
part of Charles Berder's day. Charles Ucy had a reputation

(11:41):
as a fearless swimmer who was often the first in
the wooter and was also the most likely to swim
out well beyond where his fellows would dare to go,
which is very much when he did this after noon,
as Bruder swam out past the lifelines until he was
some one hundred and thirty yards off the shore, likely
in bolden to do so because he tied was so
low at the time. The important thing, though, was, much

(12:02):
like Charles van Zandt before him, Bruder was now all
alone in the surfa waste, distant from all the other
bathers who were much closer to the safety of the beach.
There was, however, nothing at all unusual about this day
until that is. A woman standing near the on duty
lifeguards Chris Anderson and Captain George White let out a
shriek of alarm as she believed that a red canoe

(12:23):
must have capsized out past the swimming area so that
its hull was just visible below the surface, because that
was the only way she could explain the spout of
wheter that had caught her attention, and the red huet
swim specific area of water had taken on past the lifelines,
an explanation that may have made sense and may have
explained the other screaming lifeguards thought they had heard. The

(12:43):
problem was neither Anderson nor White could remember seeing anyone
in a canoe prior to this moment. The thing was,
the woman was right in that the normally bluish witter
was distinctly read in that one spot. It was, and
after the briefest moment of confusion, that the two lifeguards
realized that something was desperately wrong, because if that was
not a canoe, then the only other explanation was it

(13:06):
was seeing an incredibly large amount of blood in the water,
at which point they finally caught sight of the normally
strong swimmer, Charles Bruder, struggling to stay above the waves.
The two lifeguards and wasted no time launching their rescue boat,
which they quickly rode out to where Charles Bruder was
struggling for his life. As the two men got close though,
the scene, if anything, became even more worrisome, as was

(13:28):
obvious from the pallor of Bruder's face than he had
already lost a lot of blood. Indeed, Berder himself, as
he drew close, would inform the two lifeguards exactly what
had happened, as he shouted quote a shark bit me,
bit my legs off a stamen, which was soon proven
true as when Whitehall and Bruder into the boat, he
could not help but know that the thickly belt muscular

(13:48):
man was far letter than he thought he would be.
It was only then as he finally got the bell
captain into the boat that the lifeguard saw the horrifying
sight then. Indeed, both of Charles Bruder's legs had been
torn off just below the knees. With one of the
lifeguards thronging the boat back to shore as fast as
he could, the other ripped his own shirt into strips
so as to fashion tourniquets to try and stem the

(14:10):
mass of blood. Laws Meanwhile, waiting at the shoreline, drawn
by the cries of alarm, were doctor William Trount, a
renowned local physician who worked as the Essex and Sussex
Hotels doctor, and doctor John Cornell, the neighboring Mammoth Hotel's physician.
What neither man knew of the tongue, though, was that
there was little they could do for the beloved Bell Captain,
as his wounds were well beyond what either man had

(14:32):
ever seen, especially since they were used to dealing with
modern wounds and jellyfish things. That being said, neither would
have the opportunity to prove otherwise, as the boat wouldn't
even reach the shore before Bruder passed out and it
became obvious that there would be no saving him as
his blood continued to pull in the bottom of the craft. Indeed,
Bruder was so clearly gone by the time the rescue

(14:53):
boat returned to the shore that doctors Trodden Cortnell would
be asked by the hotel's manager to see to the
women who had fainted were vomited upon beholding Bruders mangled corpse,
MEANWHILESSI two hotel doctors did as requested. The twenty five
year old doctor William Schoffler, a member of the Governor's
staff and the surgeon General for the New Jersey National Guard,
who had just happened to be having lunch in the

(15:15):
Essex and Sussex dining room with doctor Trout that afternoon
when they had heard these screams and commotions coming from
the beach, took it upon himself to begin examining the remains.
According to Schaeffler's observations, much of the flesh of Birder's
right leg was gone, in addition to the lower bones
of the leg being severed halfway between the knee and
the ankle. Meanwhile, his lower left leg was similarly devoid

(15:36):
of flesh. However, the bones of his left leg were
severed at a lower point, so really only his left
foot was missing. As for the remaining flesh and muscle
on his left leg, Schaffler would describe it as looking
torn and jagged with shredded ends. Additionally, the doctor would
note that there was another deep circular gash in the
man's left thigh that included a puncture that measured about

(15:56):
quote the size of an apple or fist. For doctor Shaft,
then there was no mistaking it. This man had been
the victim of a large and powerful shark. Meanwhile, the
news of this attack spread rapidly, thanks in no small
part to a wealthy widow and socialite. As you see
these seventy four year old Emma Child's had been sitting
on the balcony of a room looking at the beach

(16:17):
bathers using her theater spectacles when she actually saw the
shark dart suddenly toward Bruder before swimming away, only to
dart back again quote, just as an airplane attacks a zeppelin.
This seemingly wasn't one of the common hit and run
style shark attacks, which was supported by another eyewitness who
claimed that Brooder quote, leaf from the water, with his
right leg gone from above the knee and blood sparting

(16:39):
from the wound. He then fell back into the water
and the shock made another attack, this time severing his
left foot. Now, whether this quite dramatic recounting is accurate
or not, Emma Child's had definitely seen something, and upon
beholding the scene of horror, she meanly rushed back into
her room, where she took a hold of the phone
and got into contact with the hotel switchboard. The socialite

(17:00):
then ordered the operator to not only put her into
contact with her niece, who was currently in the seaside
community of Deal, New Jersey, but to also alert the
other hotels that line the Jersey coast of what had
happened and to order the people to quote get out
of the water. Indeed, within minutes of the attack, the
Essex and Sussex operators had contacted every major hotel along

(17:21):
their stretch of the coast on learning them of the emergency.
In the end, it was only twelve minutes after Bruder
had been attacked before all the waters up and down
the Jersey shore had been cleared of people. As for
Emma Childs herself, she was unable to reach her knees,
and so she had her servants fetch their car so
they could take her as fast as possible to the
Deal beach to put a stop to her knees taking

(17:42):
her traditional afternoon swim. Speaking of people who had been
in the water that day, Robert Dowling, who had earlier
that morning some four miles out into the Atlantic and
back to show that he had no fear of shark attacks,
would soon be made aware of just how close he
came to death that day. Indeed, his path back to
the beach had more or less passed right through the
area where just a short amount of time later Charles

(18:04):
Bruder would be attacked and killed. Dowling then swore he
would never swim in the ocean again, or at least
not do so off the Jersey shore. As for Charles
Burder himself, following his death, there was ample proof as
to just how beloved he was in and around the
shore community. The management of the Essex and Sussex Hotel
where he worked, for example, insists in upon paying for

(18:24):
his funeral, which they initially intended to take place in
his home country of Switzerland, where his mother still lived. However,
Swiss officials insisted that such a funeral would be impossible
at the time due to the ongoing war in Europe
and the inherent Dandrin Cross in the Atlantic thanks to
the aforementioned German U boats regularly sinking ships. So instead,
for the time being at least, Charles Bruder would be

(18:46):
interred in a local Spring Lake cemetery. Yet, even though
they couldn't return her son's remains to his mother, the
community would still send money to her and Lucerne, as
it was widely known that he sent much of his
earnings home to support her. In Charles's co workers alone
reportedly pulled together eight thousand dollars to send to his mother.

(19:34):
Following the original attack on Charles van Santa had occurred
on the first of July, the response in the press
had been muted, in part because it had been seen
as just a random freak occurrence. Such things simply did
not happen, especially not along the Jersey shore. The attitude
in general then was that it wasn't something to really
worry about, simply because it was such an aberration, and

(19:56):
so it was unlikely to happen again, especially not anytime soon.
The attack on Charles Bruder, however, because it was the
second such occurrence, and because it happened in front of
so many tourists, many of whom were importantly quite wealthy,
while it was a different story altogether. Plus there was
also the fact that the vans And attack had happened
down in the southern portion of the state. As such,

(20:17):
it was distant from New York and the most well
to do visitors to the Jersey Shore, while the Brider
attack happened right in the heart of one of the
favorite resorts of the rich and powerful. These while the
New Yorkers, among others, then demanded answers and action in
response to this latest tragedy. As a result, the Bruder
attack even managed to steal attention away from the ongoing
war in Europe, with the Boston Herald, the New York Times,

(20:40):
the Washington Post, and even the San Francisco Chronicle all
running front page stories on the attack, with the New
York Times even managining to get a headline correct for
once as a road quote bather has both things betten
off by a shark on the Jersey Coast. Charles Brider
attacked while bathing at Spring Lake yesterday afternoon, insight of
five hundred people. The New York Carold's retelling of events,

(21:01):
though seemed to be a bit more creative, as it
would claim that Bruder, despite soon going into the shock
and dying before reaching the shore, had still managed to
be quite verbose. As he supposedly told the lifeguard's quote.
He was a big gray fellow and his roughest sandpaper.
I didn't see him until he struck me the first time.
He cut me here in the side, and his belly
was so rough and bruised my face and arms. That

(21:23):
was when I yelled. The first time he stimped my
left leg off there only turned and shot back at me.
That time, I thought he had gone on, but he
bit me just below the knee. He yanked me clear
under before he let go. I had hardly reached the
surface when he came back at me again. That time
he bit me here in the side, an awful blow,
and he shook me like a terrier of shakes on rat.

(21:44):
But he let go while I was calling. Then suddenly
struck at me again, and this time took off the
other leg. He's a big fellow and awful hungry. Yet,
regardless of the accuracy of Charles Bruder's last words, the
experts who would long claim that sharks would not attack people,
especially not in the temper would along the American East
coast of Bodley, Carolina's now had to deal with this
apparent new reality. As a result, the American Museum in

(22:07):
Manhattan would hold a press conference on the eighth of July.
A trio scientist doctor Frederick Lucas, doctor Robert Murphy, and
doctor John Nichols, men who were accepted as experts on sharks,
then spoke to the press as they had been asked
to investigate potentially the first documented instance of a man
being attacked by a shark in American history. Foremost among
these experts with sixty four year old doctor Frederick Lucas,

(22:30):
the director of the American Museum. Lucas use had an
excellent reputation as both a naturalist and a museum director,
after having transformed natural history museums from places where curiosities
were put on display to places that were designed explicitly
as education centers meant to interest and inform the public. Indeed,
none other than Henry Osborne, the president of the American

(22:51):
Museum and a name you might recognize from my series
on the Fossil Hunters, would describe Lucas as a quote
man of fine personal character, of quaint and persuasive charm,
representative of the finest principles and endowments of the New
England character. Doctor Lucas then was a man who had
dedicated his life to popularizing and bringing science to the masses.
He was then an ambassador of sorts for these sciences,

(23:13):
who look to share his fascination with the people. Now,
you might have noted that at no point haven't described
Lucas as an achtheologist, a scientist who specializes in fishes.
And that's because he wasn't. However, Lucas was fascinated by
sharks and had thus studied them for years, a fact
which had earned him the reputation as being the quote
greatest shark expert of this century according to The New

(23:35):
York Times. The thing is, just a few months earlier,
doctor Lucas had informed the paper that a shark was
physically incapable of severing human limbs, something that, in the
light of the Britter attack, very much seemed to be wrong. Unsurprisingly, then,
given that the accounts of the shark attacks flew in
the face of much of what these experts will lead
to be true, Lucas and his fellow panelists would insist

(23:57):
that they were not yet ready to proclaim for certain
that shark was responsible for these attacks. Indeed, they even
made a point in referring to the fact that no
one in twenty five years had ever come forward to
claim Herman Ulrich's promise reward for evidence of a shark attack. Indeed,
if anything, doctor Lucas was quietly annoyed at having to
deal with something that he will lead to be soil
logical and unlikely as a shark attack taking place off

(24:20):
the Jersey coast. The panic surroundingly supposed shark attacks likely
reminded him of an incident two decades earlier, in November
eighteen ninety six, a time when the publican press were
equally panicked about sea monsters at during mysterious blob washed
up on the Florida shore, a mysterious blob that doctor
Lucas and fellow scientists would quickly determine it being nothing
more than some decayed well blubber. Lucas then was seemingly

(24:43):
just assuring now that this was all much to do
about nothing, because, in his considered opinion quote, no shark
would scan a human leg like I carried for the
jaws are not powerful enough to induce injuries like those
described by Colonel Schaffler. To support this assertion, Lucas would
reference a time when he had watched a twelve foot
long shark attempt to bite a chunk out of a
dead sea lion, a carcass that had notably been dead

(25:06):
for a week, which the doctor insisted should have made
the meat more tender. Yet still the quote shark talgged
and thrashed and made a great to do over each mouthful. Indeed,
based upon his own calculations about the inherent weakness of
a shark's jaws, it would require a thirty foot long
creature to bind through the bones of a man's leg.
Doctor Lucas, then, along with doctor Robert Murphy, the director

(25:28):
of the Brooklyn Museum and avian zoologist who had notably
joined Lucas in his earlier declaration about how unlikely it
was that a shark could bite off a human's limbs,
now look to assure the public that it was highly
unlikely that there would be repeated tacks, even though there
had already been two attacks already. Reporters and pressed the scientists,
asking if there was anything they could say or do

(25:48):
to assure bathers along the Jersey shore that they were safe,
a question which would be filled by fellow panelist doctor
John Nichols, an actual ichthyologist and assistant curator at the
Department of Recent Fishes el Fossils at the American Museum
of Natural History. Nichols, who had found the journal Kopia,
named in honor of Edward Drinker Coope, and who suspected

(26:08):
that a killer whale was actually responsible for the attack
on Brewder, would bring up the still wire mesh fencing
that was being installed at many a resort location along
the shoreline as a fairly reliable form of protection, while
also counseling that it would probably be best not to venture
too far from shore for the time being, at least Meanwhile,
even as this set of experts was seemingly hesitant to

(26:29):
say whether or not a shark was responsible, James Meehan,
the former Commissioner of Fisheries for Philadelphia, reversed course from
his earlier stance that the shark in question was not
a man eater. As you might recall, Meehan had previously
suggested that Charles van Zen had not actually been a target,
as he had likely been attacked by mistake. Indeed, Mehnn
had believed that a small shark, likely actually targeting the

(26:51):
dog fans that had been playing with, was responsible. Now
though Meehan was convinced that not only was to shark
a quote unquote man eater, but that the shark that
had attacked fans and was the same one that had
killed Charles Bruder. In general, though, it seems that even
when the experts agreed that a shark was responsible, there
were also insistent that this was a once in a
lifetime kind of freak occurrence, because again, the accepted truth

(27:14):
was sharks did not attack humans, period, and thus it
was unlikely to happen again anytime soon, despite the fact
that two attacks had just taken place in a matter
of days. Among such experts was a Commissioner of US Fisheries,
Hugh Smith, who would insist that visitors to the Jersey
Shore would be perfectly safe swimming in the ocean as
there would be no further attacks. To back this assertation,

(27:36):
Tom Smith pointed out that thousands of people bathed in
the ocean every year, and before this summer there had
never been a recorded attack. This fact, the Commissioner of
US fisheries declared meant that sharks were not vicious. Indeed,
according to these statistics, sharks had a quote record of
safety that domestic animals like dogs captain horses could not
even match. This confidence that sharks in general were harmless

(27:59):
and would never attack people under normal circumstances even might
explain Mehnds an other's single rogue shark explanation, as by
having a single creature responsible, it could simply be characterized
as an aberration and thus not challenge the accepted beliefs
of the experts. Meanwhile, Hugh Smith, the fishery's commissioner, was
notably still not convinced that a shark was actually responsible

(28:20):
for either death, as he believed it was still possible
that a swordfish could have gone into the bathing area
and been the actual culprit. Swordfish, after all, are very fast,
fairly large fish, capable of growing up to fifteen feet long, plus.
He believed that a swordfish's tall dorsal fin could explain
what the eyewitnesses had seemed prior to and during the attacks,

(28:40):
which is to say that the commissioner put more stock
in the tails of men being run through by swordfish
than tails of men being bitten by sharks, and to
be clear, from a quick search, it seems that while
swordfish may attack people if provoked, such incidents are rare
and I'm not clear if any fatalities have resulted. Meanwhile,
some old fishermen in spring Lit also dismissed the idea

(29:01):
of a shark being responsible for these incidents, instead naming swordfish, mackerel,
and even giant sea turtles as being more likely culprits
than a shark. After all, they insisted it didn't make
any sense because there had never been a known shark
attack since the time that Spring Lake had been founded. Meanwhile,
the Coast Guard, who had actually examined Bruder's body and
his wounds, would come to the conclusion that without a down,

(29:23):
a shark had to have been responsible Miss Stow. The
Coastguard Superintendent John Cole, would in the Philadelphia Ledger still
describe sharks as being as timid as rabbits. Indeed, according
to Cole, he used to regularly swim through sculls of
sharks off of kpe May without any worry because of
quote they got too thick or too close, you would
just throw a claim at them. Yet, for all the

(29:45):
authorities making assertations that there was little reason to fear
sharks or fear further attacks. Many a resort along the
Jersey coast were stolen, taking extra precautions to further reassure
their visitors that they wouldn't be safe during their visit,
mainly because they won to do whatever they could to
preserve their economies, which were of course heavily relying upon
summer tourism. So while panic from the attacks at cost

(30:08):
towns up and down the coast a couple of days
of business, the hope was a would be able to
reassure the public so that torres would return and the
summer would be able to proceed as normal. Spearheading these
efforts to reassure the nervous public in spring Lake was
the town's mayor, Oliver hush Brown, who also happened to
be the president of its first national bank and a
stockholder in the Essex and Sussex Hotel, meaning he had

(30:31):
a multitude of reasons to try and put a stop
to all of this talk and worry about sharks. Indeed,
especially did not like that the day following the attack
on Charles Bruder, there are maybe a half dozen people
taking a dip in the ocean, when just the day
before there had been some four to five hundred people
in that same area. Something then had to be done
to assure the public that Jersey Shore of beaches were safe,

(30:53):
regardless of whether or not people actually believe the shark
was responsible for these attacks or not, a feeling held
by resort committee up and down the Jersey coastline to
the end. The Asbury Park Press would declare on the
seventh of July, quote nats and our motor boats to
protect bathers. Believe precaution taken well as your absolute safety
to bathers along north shore Asbury Park bathing grounds all

(31:16):
to be surrounded by wire think repetition most unlikely. It
was hoped then that such precautions would reassure the frightened
public and visitors would once again begin flocking to the shore. Now,
not everyone was so i pressed by the netting that
now surrounded the shore. Nineteen year old Asbury Park lifeguard
Russell Cable, for example, would in an interview admit that

(31:36):
he was not entirely sure how effective the wire netting
might be, although his opinion wasn't the main purpose of
the netting was not to keep out sharks, but to
keep people from swimming out past these swim poles and
the lifelines, as by keeping people in close, it wouldn't
be easier for lifeguards like himself to get people out
of the water should they happen to spot an ominous
fin out in the waves. Ultimately, then, in Cable's estimation,

(31:59):
the whi are fencing was as much as anything else
there to quote soothe the feelings and the faking of
the people of New York, and in that at least,
defencing seemed to be quite effective, as despite the panic
that immediately followed the second death by shark attack, in
a matter of days, people soon began descending upon the
Jersey shore by the thousands. It also wasn't just defensing,

(32:20):
though was seemingly reassuring to these tourists, as groups of
men and motor boats were hired to patrol the wooters
around the resort as well, something which lined up with
the plants made by doctor Schoffler, the man who would
first examine Charles Brewer's remains and who immediately recognized that
a shark had to have been responsible for the terrible
wounds he beheld Almost immediately then, Schaffler, who worked for

(32:40):
the New Jersey National Guard, started formulating plans to organize
patrols of men in boats who were not only dedicated
to protecting swimmers, but who would also be tasked with
hunting dan and killing the shark responsible, as he believed
to be an arranged beast that would continue to haunt
swimmers until it was finally killed to then end. The
men in some of these boats total along behind them

(33:01):
huge pieces of land meat that had been donated by
local butchers to act as bait, while they themselves were
armed with weapons like axes, harpoons, guns, and even rifles,
as prepared to do battle with a deadly man eating foe.
Of course, so groups of armed and panicky men like
always was a bit of a sketchy proposition. For example,
on the eighth of July in Spring Lake, one of

(33:22):
these boats apparently spotted a dorsal fin rising up out
of the waters just beyond the bathing area. Now, it
is entirely possible that this fin was out of a porpoise,
as these dolphin like creatures are far more likely to
hang out near the surface, and sharks who don't need
to come up to get air to breathe, and who
like to attack from stealth. Still, though, as soon as
the fin in question was spotted, shots were fired and

(33:43):
the chase was on the men of these boats, though
never did confirm one way or the other if they
had actually chased off a shark or just framed a
harmless porpoise for no reason. Meanwhile, over in Asbury Park,
Lifeguard Captain Benjamin Everingham would actually spot a due battle
with a twelve foot long shot just outside the swim ropes,
ultimately driving the creature off by striking it repeatedly with

(34:05):
an ore until it swam off into the ocean, using
an ore instead of literally any other weapon in this combat,
primarily because he had not taking his job seriously that day.
As you see, Everingham had, like so many others, dismissed
detail of shark attacks, insisting that it had to have
been a big mac roll or a swordfish. And so
when he was put on duty patrolling the waters just

(34:25):
beyond the lifeline in his boat, Everingham didn't bother taking
a rifle or an axe with him, despite instructions that
he do just that. As a result, the lifeguard captain
was apparently taken wholly by surprise. When roundabout Nooney turned
and saw a gray fin protruding out of the water,
A fin which he could apparently clearly see was attached
to an eight foot long shark that was coming straight

(34:46):
for his boat. Yet before it could crash into his craft,
Everingham grabbed a hold of one of his oars and
then quote struck it to slimy sea monster. Then, after
striking at it several times, the creature turned and swam
away as fast as it could back out the sea.
The news of this apparent close call was alarming, and
so the mayor of Asbury Park, Laughlin Hetrick, responded by

(35:06):
announcing that he was commissioning the crafting of shark hooks
that would then be employed by the crew of his yacht,
the Tuna, which would now be tasked with hunting down
sharks so as to keep them away from Asbury Park. Indeed,
the captain of the Tuna would declare that he and
his crew intended to quote show the monsters of the
deeper mating in this vicinity they are liable to find
the ranks depleted. Similarly, Harold Phillips of the Asbury Park

(35:29):
Fishing Club would declare his intentions to tow the carcasses
of horses and cows out to a remote area about
a quarter mile off of Sandy Hook, where he planned
to lure the sharks in with this bait and then
shoot them with rifles in the quote greatest round up
of sharks ever seen, an idea that was apparently met
with great approval by a number of the other members
of the Fishing Club, who apparently very much wanted to

(35:51):
take part in what Phillips called the quote most exciting
sports shooting, the big game of the sea. Yet, while
Philps and the members of the Fishing Club were busied
talking a big game, Ef Warner, a columnist for Field
and Stream, was apparently hard at work as he was
photographed catching a six foot long, ninety pounds sandbar shark
off a beech haven, a creature that Warner and his

(36:11):
assistant managed to bring into the beach after a thirty
five minute fight, at which point they finished it off
by firing three thirty eight caliber shots into its head,
a type of shark which, by the way, does not
have a reputation for attacking people. Meanwhile, on the eighth
of July in Bayo, New Jersey Police Lieutenant Dennis Colehan
would empty his revolver into a shark that he spotted
swimming around the Robin's Reef Yacht Club. Doc. You see,

(36:35):
some children had been bathing in the area when they
had spotted a large, dark something swimming nearby. Friendly children
bolted out of the water as someone on the shore
shouted that it was a shark. Now. While all this
was happening, Lieutenant cool Hand was a little ways away assistantly,
superintendent on the city's watered apartment, was installing an engine
into his motorboat when he heard the commotion and looked

(36:56):
over to see the head of an eight foot long
shark rise up out of the water near the area
where the children had been swimming. Koli Han then rushed over,
revolver in hand, watching as the shark continued to swim
toward the shore. Then, when it was about twenty feet away,
koula Han unloaded his weapon, firing every bullet into the
area where he saw the shark's fin. The creature, though seemingly,

(37:17):
just kept coming as kol a Hand continued firing every
bullet in his gun until finally the shark paused, stopping
its advanced before turning around and swimming back out the sea. Meanwhile,
fishermen up in Rocky Point, New York, slash the shark
to death after they spotted it near the sandbar they
were digging for worms on. Which is all to say
that there were a number of sharks in the water

(37:37):
off the Jersey Shore that summer, and that good old
American fear, paranoia and bloodluss were starting to kick in. Yet,
for all the worries generated by the shark attacks, by
the eleventh of July, just five days after the death
of Charles Bruder and ten days since the death of
Charles van Zand, the Jersey Shore would see record crowds,
while the beaches in New York were similarly packed, as

(37:59):
apparently the insurances provided by local governments and hotels that
their beaches were now safe and protected had paid off.
The Asbury Park Pressed, for example, had run the headline
quote Asbury Park bathing grounds all to be surrounded by
wire as a way of assuring people that it was
safe to get back in the water. In fact, by
the ninth, just three days after Brewder's death, people had

(38:20):
already begun to once again flock to the beaches in
Asbury Park, which had led the Asbury Park Press to
declare that the sharks care was quote practically dead thanks
to these steel wire netting that now encircled the cities
bathing areas. Indeed, even in Spring Lakey side of Charles
Brewders death beach attendants would rebound any matter of days now.

(38:52):
According to the Rogue Shark storyline, the juvenile great Weight
had it this point choice attacked humans along the Jersey coast.
The thing was while the wounds it had inflicted ultimately
resulted in any death of both of its victims, and
has to be noted that in both cases the men
involved had been rescued from the wood and brought the shore,
meaning that the shark could only consume parts of them.

(39:12):
So if the shark was indeed making these attacks because
it was hungry and looking for prey, it likely still
very much was. Indeed, not only are humans not a
normal prey for sharks, but it also has to be
said that man is far from an ideal food stuff
for them as well. This is because people don't have
the thick layers of blubbery fat that is found in
these sea lions and elephant seals that grade whites in particular,

(39:34):
prefer to hunt seemilarly. Though, according to this theory, at
least the shark in question, whether it was unable to
find other sources of food or was lost and apparently
decided to stay in the area to continue looking for
prey near the coastline. Notably, though, for as much attention
as the shore towns were paying to sharks, with their
arm patrols and steel nets protecting their beaches so as
to assuage the fears of visitors, towns that lay for

(39:57):
their inland did not share these same concerns for obvious
reas seasons. As for their residents of such communities, the
sharp problem was not a concern for them unless they
decided to make the trip down to the shore themselves.
For these people, then, the tales of shark attacks were
an idle interest or a topic for a local reverence sermon,
rather than an actual concern for themselves and their community.

(40:17):
This was the case for Madawan, a quiet little town
of twelve hundred residents located about thirty miles north of
Spring Lake and most importantly, sixteen miles inland from the Atlantic. Ochin. Madawan,
in fact, was seemingly air typical early eighteen hundreds American
small town worthy tallest structures were these spires in the churches. Indeed,
Manawan was primarily a farming community that was centered around

(40:38):
a little small town business district, complete with a main
street made out of dirton wood planks that was flanked
by small shops like a dry cleaners, a hardware store,
a barber shop, and a department store. Mattawan then was
the type of town worthy head cup was also the
town barber and where the young twenty four year old
tailor who operated the local dry cleaners was also ready
to join the local kids for a baseball game when however,

(41:00):
they needed an extra man. It was a place where
a Domino's tournament was the height of entertainment in the
talk of the town, and a place where the ladies
baseball team played in full Victorian dresses complete with big,
broad brimmed hats. Madawan notably also had a proud history
as her ancestors had served as colonial privateers during the
Revolutionary War. These fishermen and whaler's turn pirates had then

(41:21):
helped the colonies take on the muddy British Navy, a
history that is important to note for our story because
it meant that this little farming community some sixteen miles inland,
had to in some way be connected to the sea,
with that connection being the Mattawan Creek that was now
primarily used to transport goods like produce and bricks to
markets in New York, while also being frequented by clamdiggers

(41:42):
who searched its money bottom when the tide was low. Now,
the creek itself is a long and narrow winding waterway
consisting of brackish water, meaning it was a mix of
salt and fresh waater that never grew deeper than thirty
feet in depth. Additionally, in many ways it was the
heart of Mattawan, as not only did it support the
law economy by being a method which they used to
transport their goods for sale, but it was also a

(42:04):
link to their past, a remembrance of a bygone age
that was starting to fade in the new century, and
a place where children played during the summer as a group.
The Wycoff Dock, which sat next to a recently closed
down brickyard, was in particular a favorite place for the
children of Mattawan to come and swim. The dock, which
got its steam from the steamer they used to come
to that location to pick up produce and the like.

(42:26):
Was located at a wide bend in the creek, which
formed a natural cove that was sheltered by a thickt
of trees. Without a municipal pull or easy access to
the beach, which again lay some sixteen miles distant, this area,
along with a handful of other places, then became favorite
spots for the young people of Mattawan to swim and
cool off during those hot, sticky summer days in the

(42:46):
era before air conditioning was a thing, or to be
more precise, it was a favorite place for young boys
to come and swim, as the girls would not swim
near the wycoff Doc as not only were the waters
there especially muddy, but unlike thee on the beaches down
at the shore, the boys who swam here did not
tend to wear the elaborate skin covering swimsuits of the day,
but instead often seemed to have swum in the nude

(43:09):
all in, Although the wycoff Doc offered the adventurous boys
of Mattawan an ideal little swimming spot, as not only
could they leap off the docks into the coal woters,
but there was also a particularly deep spot nearby. There
was a perfect landing spot for high dives and a
place where they boys could show off how deep down
they could dive into the creek's muddy waters. Now, the
eleventh of July was a typical enough summer day in Madamon. Indeed,

(43:31):
as workers in the local bag and basket factories got
off for the day, a group of eleven to twelve
year old boys, some of whom had been among those
working in the factories, gathered in a vacant lot near
the town's nude dry cleaning and tailor shop round about
four point thirty in the afternoon as he looked to
organize a pickup baseball game. Among the kids playing that
day where Charles van Brownt, who worked in the factories,

(43:52):
Johnson Carton, who stocked Charleston, the town's department store, his
slightly older and larger cousin, Rennie Carton, who worked at
his father's law and coal company, and Anthony Bumplin, who
was considered to be the joker of their little squad.
Joining them were Bill Burlew, Jerry Hooverhan Frank Close, eight
year old John smith, Albert O'Hara, and his close friend

(44:12):
Lester Stillwell, who was a bit different from the rest,
as he was frailer and known to occasionally suffer from
what was then known as the fits, which we would
today call tonic clonic epilepsy. On the Stane particular, the
boys did not quite have enough players. Bonesser, trying to
figure out what to do. Bill Burlew's older cousin, George Redburlew,
happened to pass by on his way to Stanley Fisher's

(44:35):
new dry cleaning business. This was an especially auspicious development
as far as he boys were concerned, because the way
they sought they could have quite the game if they
could convince both Redd and Stanley to join them on
opposing teams. Really, the oddest thing about that day might
have been the fact that young Rennie Carton, while swimming
in the creek earlier on, had gone some kind of

(44:55):
abrasion or bruise on his leg after scraping up against
some strange unseen object that he described a sandpaper like Now,
the odd bump and bruise on a young boys typically
not all that unusual, However, what was confusing for young
Rennie was that he knew the swimming area well, and
as far as he knew, there was no submerged object
in the area where he had suffered his injury. It

(45:17):
was that Rennie's belief that he had to have encountered
some kind of monster in the Muney Winners of the
Mattawan Creek. But none of the other boys seemed to
take his tail too seriously, and so the eleventh of
July came and went with not much to note other
than Redd and Stanley indeed often to join the boys
for their baseball game in the empty lot. The following daily,
twelfth of July, then, looked to be much the same

(45:39):
as it started off, hot and humid, with the promise
of temperatures rising up into at least the mid eighties,
like it had for most of the past week. Lester
stillwell then would leaf on that morning to go to
work alongside his father at the Anderson Basket factory in Town,
a place where workers like himself and his father were
paid fifty to seventy five cents for every hundred baskets
they made. Now, this was not an easy job, but

(46:01):
there are more and worse occupations to be had, like
for example, others in Madawan took part in more heavy
labor hauling clay and tiles around, while still others work
with pains and varnishes, breathing in the fumes from those products.
As for Lester, when he left for work that morning,
his especially protective mother because of his epilepsy, told her
boy to make sure he came straight home after work

(46:22):
like she always did. Yet, despite this admonition, when Lester,
his close friend Albert O'Hara, who worked with him at
the basket factory, and their friend Charles van Brunt sat
together to eat and share their bag lunches, the trio
started making plans to go down to the creek to
swim and cool off after work. Lester, though for as
much as he wanted to go, was not sure if
he would be allowed to intone after he checked in

(46:44):
with his mother, to which his buddy Albert teased him
about never swimming in the deep spot anyway, However, seeing
a sound. The weather was especially unbearable that day, with
temperatures rising up to ninety six degrees, and with Lester
finishing one hundred and fifty peach baskets already, his father
decided to let Lester, his youngest boy, leave early at
one forty five that day. Indeed, he even gave Lester

(47:06):
permission to go down to the creek with his friends.
In doing so, though he made sure to counsel his
son to standard the docks, and Casey suffered a bout
of the shakes with his reprieve from work. The boys
wasted no time be lining as straight for the cooling
waters of the Mattawan Creek so as to escape the
unbearable summer heat. Lester, Albert, and Charles were then joined
by their friends Frank Close, Anthony Bumblin, and Johnson Carlton,

(47:29):
who all stripped out of their clothes before diving into
the money waters of the creek, with the waters apparently
being especially money that day, according to Johnson Carton, who
would decades later recall how you couldn't even see your
fingers when you stuck your hand into the creek. As
a result, when the boys undertook a game of tag
among the pylons of the dock, they had no way
of knowing the danger they were in. Indeed, the boys,

(47:51):
unlike the people who were enjoying the cleaner and saltier
waters of the ocean, down at the shore likely had
not a single thought about sharks or shark attacks in
their heads. After all, they were sixteen miles away from
the ocean. They in particular, had no idea about what
Captain Thomas Coatrell had just seen a little while ago
further down the creek. You see, the fifty eight year

(48:12):
old Captain Coatrol was a kind of crusty old seaman
who often spent his mornings fishing down in the nearby
Keyboard Bay, with the creek emptied out into a habit
that he kept up this day, even though he fully
did not expect a very good catch due to the
time generally being low throughout the morning. The quality of
the fishing that day was forgotten when on his way
back to town, Captain Coatrol, about a half an hour

(48:34):
before the boys arrived at the Wycoff Doc, came to
Mattawan's new trolley drawbridge, which crossed over the creek and
was currently being worked on by a quartet of construction workers.
As he arrived, the old sea captain was surprised to
see a group of stormy pestrels perched on the bridge's railing,
as it was odd to see such seabirds so far inland. However,

(48:54):
the next thing that the Captain saw was far more
unusual and way more ominous, as when Control happened to
look down into the creek, his eyes passed over something
for the preevious moment that caused him to pause and
take a second look, because he had just seen a large,
dark shape in the water, one that he initially believed
had to have been a trick of the light or
a result of the heat affecting his mind. However, as

(49:16):
he looked again and truly focused on the water, Captain
Getroll became convinced that what he was seeing was all
too real as he saw what very much looked to
be an eight foot long shark traveling up the creek
along with the tide. Indeed, there was no mistaking that shape. Control,
after all, had years of experienced sailing, and he had
seen that exact silhouette many a time. That, however, did

(49:38):
not make this scene any more believable, because it made
no sense that a large shark was swimming upstream away
from the ocean. Yet, as he Captain turned and looked
to the workmen, it became apparent from the expressions on
their faces that they had seen the exact same thing
that he had. Now. If this was indeed the same
shark that had attacked both Fans and Bruder, this means

(49:59):
it had cont he knew its northward journey eventually originally
northernmost tip of the Jersey Coast, where had the shark
headed east out into the ocean, passing by the southern
coast of Long Island, and would have found an area
that was home to a number of great white sharks
like itself and an accompanying supply of prey that sustained them. Instead,
though it seems that this shark runted the Sandy Hook Peninsula,

(50:20):
turning away from the ocean as it did, this lost
animal simply continued to follow the coastline, eventually finding itself
in the Rereton Bay, from where it would have entered
Keyboard Harbor, where it again followed the coastline, which led
it not back out the sea, but into the narrow
mouth of the Mattawan Creek, which it had likely entered
as the tide was rolling in, meaning that as the

(50:41):
currents of saltwater pushed their way up the creek, the
shark just went along with them. Eventually, though the creek
started to narrow and become shallower, while at the same
time it also became increasingly muddy. The shark then could
have become disoriented and just kept going. Yet, regardless of
how it got there and why did not immediately turn
around to try and escape, the fact of the matter

(51:02):
was a large shark was in the Matawan Creek and
it was currently heading upstream towards areas where children were
known to swim and play. As all this registered in
his brain, Captain Gatrol dropped the fish he had caught
that morning and then spread it as fast as his
old eyes could carry him to the bridge keeper's phone.
Gatrol then rang up the Mulsoft barber shop in Matawan,
which at first glance seems like a strange call to

(51:24):
make in an emergency. However, as I hinted at earlier,
the town's barber, Frank Molsov, was also their chief of
police and possibly even the only policeman in town. The chief, though,
would not take the panic phone call from the old
sea captain seriously, as again, it just made no sense
for a shark, especially a large one, to swim up
the shallow Manawan Creek. Molsof then just assumed that all

(51:46):
the news and panic about shark attacks had caused Katroll
to simply misinterpret what he had seen. Plaster was also
the fact that the Old Sea Captain had a reputation
for being a bit of a tall tail teller and
a jokester. The Chief also wasn't alone in this reaction,
as he number of the patrons in his barbershop had
been able to overhear this conversation and actually started laughing
at the redictlessness of the Old Sea Captain's latest fishtail. Indeed,

(52:10):
as one man reportedly said, quote, you have a better
chance of seeing elf and cool it down there than
a shark captain. Katrell, then, both enraged at being ignored
and terrified of the danger he had just seen. Heading
up river where he knew there was a distinct possibility
children were swimming, took off running for Mattawan to raise
the alarm and hopefully prevent the local boys from swimming

(52:30):
in the creek. As he did so, the captain ran
right past the Wycoff doc. However, when he ran past
the dock, it was mere moments before less than the
other boys arrived. As such, they would not hear the
sea Captain's warning. After just missing the boys, Katroll proceeded
to run down main Street, darting from store to store,
trying to raise the alarm that he had just seen

(52:50):
a large shark swimming in the creek. No one in
the town, though, took the old sea captain's warning seriously,
as again, they were some sixteen miles from the ocean,
and it just make any sense that a shark would
just come cruising all the way up their shallow creek.
Some then thought that the day's extreme heat had gone
to control, while others just thought he was joking. None
then ran down to the creek or the dogs to

(53:12):
get the boys out of the water. Meanwhile, with no
one in town taking his warning seriously, the old man
with heart disease raced back down to the creek, where
he hopped in an old motor boat that he then
took up stream, shouting warnings as he went. The old
Sea Captain, though, had tragically not encountered the people who
most needed to hear his warning, and so Lester and
the others swam in the creek off the Wycoff dock

(53:33):
without a single worry that danger lurked somewhere in those
woods with them as they swam that afternoon, though, Lester's
best friend, Albert O'Hara, happened to feel something that felt
like sandpaper brushed past his leg. Surprised by this, the
boy looked in through the densely muddy waters. He was
able to catch sight of what looked like a huge
fishtail disappearing in the murk round. About the same time

(53:54):
that Albert started to think that perhaps Rennie Carton had
been right that there was some kind of sea monster
in the creek, some of the other boys happened to
spot when they thought to be a quote old black
weather beaten board or a weathered log bobbing along the
surface of the water, something that they didn't really give
much thought to in that moment, especially since everyone's attention
was soon drawn to jokeser Anthony Bumblin, who perched atop

(54:16):
one of the dock's highest pilings, where he proclaimed that
he was going to try and do a backflip mean Mohan. Lester,
who had been teased earlier by Albert about never going
into the deep hole in the creek, had made his
way out to that spot, where he actually managed to
keep himself afloat by laying on his back, a fairly
significant thief for the boy, who was fairler than his companions,
causing him to call out proudly quote, hey fellas, watch

(54:39):
me float. Most of his companions, however, were still focused
on Anthony Boblin and his dared devil antics. Indeed, they
soon broke out into laughter as Boblin lessened gracefully dove
into the creek, creating a huge splash as he hit
the water's surface. Their laughter cut off those he boys
already second splash from behind them, which was accompanied by
a brief kind of yell. As he Boys turned around,

(55:01):
they were then shot to see the dark object from
earlier suddenly surged toward Lester, engulfing the frail boy's body.
It then, understandably took them a moment to realize what
they were seeing, as it wasn't until they saw the
dorsal and tail fin and the water turning red that
they began to process what was happening. The true horror
of the scene then washed over them, as, according to

(55:22):
Johnson Carton, they could actually see Lester's arm in the
shark's mouth as the creature started shaking Lester quote like
a cat shakes of mouths before quote he went underhead first. Meanwhile,
as both the boy and the shark disappeared, Lester's friend,
Albert O'Hara, was struck by the creature's powerful tail, driving
him into one of the peers pilings. Albert, though in

(55:43):
that moment, seemed to care little for his own injuries
as he began shouting quote Lester's gone. As soon as
his friend disappeared beneath the winters of the muddy Creek.
The other boys soon began echoing this cry, intermixed with
shouts of shark as he scattered in all directions, taking
the quickest path out of the water, and a wif
and the beast that had just apparently taken the life

(56:05):
of their friend. The boys then all ran for their lives,
with only Albert apparently pausing briefly to consider what had
just happened. As for the others, some naked and covered
in mud, as not one of them had the presence
of mind in that moment to pause and put their
clothes back on spread it for the fisher bag factory
that sat nearby, while the rest, similarly nude and mud covered,

(56:25):
spreaded for main Street, screaming shark. A shark got lestered
as they went. Yet another life that had been claimed
due to a shark attack in the summer of nineteen sixteen. However,
this one did not occur on the Jersey shore, but
some sixteen miles inland. The thing was, the tragedy of
Mattawuan Creek was only just beginning. However. The rest of
this tale and the story of the hunt for the

(56:46):
culprit will have to for now remain a story for
another time. Thank you for listening to Distorted History. If
you would like to help out, please rate and read
lead podcasts and tell your friends if you think they'll
be interested. If you would like ad free in early episodes,
I set up such a feed over at patreon dot

(57:07):
com slash to started History. By paying ten bucks a month,
you will gain access to the special ad free feed
available on Spotify or likely through your podcast app as
long as it uses an RSS feed. I will continue
to post sources on koffee and Twitter, though, as it's
just a convenient place to go to access that information. Regardless,
once again, thank you for listening, and until next time,

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

24/7 News: The Latest

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks Part 2

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

24/7 News: The Latest

All Episodes

1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks Part 2

Stuff You Should Know