1916 New Jersey Shark Attacks Part 3

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gaskell, and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and program. I can't give you many
nails and joy a blunder. Look, I'm rasling, I'm got

(00:23):
the barra A long struggle for freedom. It really is
a revolution. The Jersey Shore in nineteen sixteen, with as
many resort towns that cater to the needs of thousands
upon thousands of visitors and see not one but two

(00:46):
fatal shark attacks, incidents that were especially shocking. Is never
before in American history had there been a documented occurrence
of sharks attacking people. Indeed, scientists in the public go
Mike hand fully believe that sharks were not a threat
to people. This then caused a panic. But these short towns,
any businesses that all relied upon the tourist economy, had
responded by seeking to ease their guest fears by encircling

(01:09):
the shoreline with steel netting so as to prevent sharks
from invading their bathing areas, a solution that had seemingly
eased any and all fears, as within a matter of
days of the second shark attack, the shore saw a
record number of visitors. Meanwhile, the residents of the town
of Mattawan, New Jersey, which lay so sixteen miles inland
from the ocean, had never really concerned themselves all that

(01:30):
much with the talk of sharks. It was, after all,
simply nothing that they had to be concerned about. However,
only troth of July, after returning from a morning of fishing,
while crossing a bridge stroullingly shallow muddy Madawan Creek, Old
Sea Captain Thomas Control spotted an odd dark object in
the water, which a bond further examined nation very much
appeared to be a large shark swimming upstream away from

(01:52):
the ocean and towards the town as the captain tried
to raise the alarm, though nobody in Manawan took him seriously.
But most importantly, he also misty group of local boys
who frequently swam in the creek to cool off from
the oppressive summer heat. As a result, the group of
eleven and twelve year old boys dove into the creek
that day, unaware that something might be lurking in there
with him. Among them was young Lester Stillwell, a frail

(02:14):
boy played by quote unquote Fits, which was their name
for epilepsy. On this day, in particular, Lester had somewhat
uncharacteristically floated away from the safety of the doctor the
particularly deep spot in the creek further out. It was
then here, above the deep hole in the creek, that
all of a sudden, without warning, the shark rose out
of the wooter, grabbing a hold of young Lester's arm

(02:35):
before dragging him underneath the surface, doing so all before
the terrified eyes of his friends. And it was then here,
in this moment, that I ended our tail last time,
as the young boy's friends ran out of the water
and into town, naked and mud covered, screaming all the
way that a shark had gotten Lester. Yet, before we
resume this tragic tale, first, like always, I want to

(02:55):
acknowledge my sources for this series, which include Michael Capuso's
close to shore Terrifying Shark attacks of nineteen sixteen, Richard G.
Fernicola's Twelve Days of Terror, A definitive in investigation of
the nineteen sixteen New Jersey shark attacks, and Thomas H.
Allen's shark attacks their causes an avoidance, And like always,
these and any additional sources that I use, like websites,

(03:17):
will be listed on this podcast, Blue Sky and Covey Pages. Plus.
For anyone who doesn't feel like skipping through commercials, there
is always an ad free feed for subscribers at patreon
dot com slash Distorted History. And with all that being said,
let's begin. Even as the boys tore through town naked
and mud covered, screaming at the top of their lungs
at a shark had gotten muster, the boys, much like

(03:38):
Captain Gatrol before them, were not believed. Indeed, as he
ran past Stanley Fisher's dry cleaner, Stanley's only response was
that the town must be going shark crazy now. To
be fair to Fisher, he had been standing behind the
counter as the boys ran past, and thus he had
not actually seen them. Mary Anderson, on the other hand,
the pretty young school teacher that Stanley was courting, had

(03:59):
been close enough to the front window when the commotion
took place to actually see the boys when they ran
down Main Street. As such, she wasn't so sure that
this was a joke or a prank, because, as she
told Stanley, the boys were naked and the expressions on
their faces certainly made it look like they had seen
something terrifying. This then gave Stanley pause. The twenty five
year old Taylor, who was often willing to play baseball

(04:21):
with the young lads when they needed an extra person,
knew the boys well, and so as his mind world,
Stanley considered what the boys had said. His tone then
was suddenly serious as he asked Mary, quote, didn't those
boys say that it was Lester that was attacked by
the shark? Now, to be clear, Stanley still was far
from convinced that the shark had actually swum sixteen miles

(04:42):
of the muddy Mattawan Creek. However, the fact that the
other boys had named Lester in particular had raised alarm
bells in the tailor's head. Well with the young frail
boy's epilepsy, Stanley then figured that something must have actually
happened to spook those boys outside. He just figured that
it more than likely was really to Lester's condition and
not a shark. Still, the fact of the matter was

(05:04):
that more than likely Lester was in danger, and so
he told the eight year old John Smith, who ran Eron's,
for him to tend a store until he returned. As
he six foot one, powerfully built twenty four year old
then started spreading out of his store, Mary called after him,
reminding Stanley of what Captain Control had been saying earlier. Stanley,
though still did not believe all the shark talk. Instead,

(05:25):
his only concern was for Lester's condition, as reportedly called
back quote, Lester's got the fits. If we don't get
to him soon, he'll be finished. As Stanley then erupted
from his store, he happened to encounter Bill Burlow's older cousin,
Red Burlew, and fifty one year old carpenter Arthur Smith,
pausing only long enough to ask both men to come
with him down to the creek. Upon arriving, the first

(05:47):
thing the trio of men noticed was that the normally
money brown wooter now had a distinctly red hue, which
they speculated could have been caused by the boys smacking
his head and cutting himself, or alternatively throwing up some
potentially blood tinged vomit while in the throes of one
of his fits. Regardless of these sources, though, the fact
remained that their main fear at this point had nothing

(06:07):
to do with a shark. Instead, their main focus was
on the fact that something like half an hour had
passed since Lester had reportedly disappeared. The said truth then
was they had little hope of rescuing the boy, and
were instead now bracing themselves to find his body. The
three men then climbed into a small rowboat, from where
they began probing the creek bottom with rods. Meanwhile, as

(06:28):
these men started their search, others began arriving at the creek,
among whom was Ashure Woolly, who brought with him some
chicken fencity a ground from his hardware store Wooly. Then,
with the help of some others, hung the fencing along
a nearby train trestle so as to prevent Lester's body
from being washed away by the current. Then there were
the boys who had been in the creek with Lester,
who gradually returned around this time Stole, shaken and insistent

(06:51):
that a shark had taken their friend. As for Stanley
Read and Arthur Smith, the three men were growing both
more determined and desperate to find Lester. The men then
decided to change into some swimsuits behind some nearby trees
so that they could dive into the creek's muddy waters
themselves and conduct a more thorough searge. As he did,
though fifty one year old Arthur Smith found something in

(07:13):
the money witter moved past him, painfully scraping his abdominal
region as it did. Indeed, this mysterious object actually knocked
the breath out of the carpenter and even managed to
draw blood through his shirt. Stanley, meanwhile, unaware of this incident,
had turned his attention to the deep hole in the
middle of the creek, as it was there that he
had become convinced that Lester's remains had to be So,

(07:35):
the twenty four year old dove down into the hole,
and according to at least some versions of events, he
came up declaring that he had found the boys remains
down there. Stanley then had done it. While he hadn't
been able to save the boy, the least he could
do now was return his remains to his parents. He
would just likely need some assistance in freeing the boy's
body from whatever was keeping it submerged under the water.

(07:57):
His companions, however, by this point, were losing interest in
continuing the search. They had been at this for some
time now, and we're exhausted. Plus, Arthur Smith was now
in quite a bit of pain due to whatever it
just happened to him. As for Red, after his latest
dive into the Muddy Creek. Upon surfacing, he had seen
an unusual swirl in the water nearby, which, when combined

(08:18):
with the look of pain on Arthur Smith's face, gave
the young man pause as he, perhaps the first time
that afternoon, began to wonder if there was something more
going on here than a boy tragically suffering a case
of the fits while he was swimming. Arthur and Red
then looked to tap out, as this had long ceased
being a rescue mission. As for Stanley, after seeing the

(08:39):
look on Red's face and likely thinking about Mary Smith,
who was standing along the shoreline, he too seemingly began
to have second thoughts about continuing his efforts, especially since
he knew without a doubt that poor Lester was now dead.
There simply was no hope of saving the boy's life.
Pressing on in that moment then wouldn't really accomplish anything

(09:00):
other than endangering his own life, if for no other
reason than he too was exhausted from the extended search.
So Stanley, who had so much to live or, apparently
decided to call it quits as well. However, before we
could leave the creek, Stanley contsight of Sarah and John Stillwell,
Lester's parents standing a lonely bank of the creek. It
hadn't been all that long before this that Lester's mom

(09:23):
had been surprised when her husband had returned home after
work without their son in tow. His father, though, had
alleviated her fears by telling Sarah that he had let
their boy out of work early with his permission to
go take a swim down in the creek since it
was such a hot day, and since he had done
such a good job at work. Everything it seemed so
fine and normal in that moment, and yet here she

(09:45):
was standing by the creek with tears running down her
face as her husband held her close, saying this. Stanley
apparently couldn't give up without one more try, and so
he took a deep breath and once again plunged into
the money depths of the Mattawan Creek, swimming all the
way down to the bottom of the deep hole, where
Stanley reportedly wrapped his arms around Lester's remains before swimming

(10:06):
to the surface with the boy's corpse in his arms.
Now it's unclear, according to Whinnes's testimony, whether he actually
was able to retrieve Lester's remains or not, but if
he did, the sight of the poor boy's paill dead
body reportedly cause a crowd to gasp and for some
parents to shield the eyes of their children. Yet, regardless
of whether or not Stanley had been successful, the young

(10:28):
tailor now moved into the waste deep water that was
closer to shore. It was in this moment then that,
as Stanley was looking to place his feet on the
muddy creek bed, that the shark that had not left
the area but had been lurking hidden underneath the surface,
unseen in the muddy waters, struck at Stanley's right thigh standon.
Knocked off balance, Stanley cried out, quote, he's got me.

(10:49):
The sharks got me. It was in this moment then
that Stanley, if he had actually managed to retrieve the
young boy's body, was left with no choice but to
let it go as he suddenly found himself and he
fight for his own life. The powerfully belt over six
foot tall man, who had been raised by a family
of sailors, then started lashing out at the beast who
had attacked him, punching and kicking at his foe. It

(11:12):
was then in the same moment that Detective George Smith
from Freehold and Deputy Author Van Buskerk from the Mommouth
County detected his office arrived in a motor boat, having
heard talk of the events unfolding in Matawan. The two
men then looked to maneuver their boat to a place
where they could help the twenty four year old tailor
in his fight against a shark. Doing so, as according
to the men of the boat in Red burlew Stanley

(11:34):
fall like a quote madman against a shark. Indeed, as
Red would later recall, quote, he was fighting desperately to
break away, striking and kicking at it with all his might.
Three or four times during the struggles the shark pulled
him under, but each time he managed to get back
to the surface. He seemed to be holding his own
But at best it was an uneven battle. The shark

(11:56):
was at home in the water and Stanley wasn't. Indeed,
ready had been in the water with Stanley, and the
shark had footed the shore fearing for his own life.
And actually that he could not even regret because it
had not been a conscious choice, as his entire being
and thought in that moment was of the shark pursuing him. Meanwhile,
the two men in the boat hadn't been faced with
that same terror, as they were not actually in the

(12:18):
water with the shark, and so they were free to
try and beat the beast off of Stanley with a boatar. Yet,
for as much of a fight as Stanley and the
others put up on his behalf, the fact of the
matter was that as the battle continued, the twenty four
year old simply continued to lose more and more blood,
as evidence by the spreading circle read around him and
the shark. It wasn't only after a fight that must

(12:39):
have felt like it had lasted for an eternity that
the shark finally let Stanley go, and which point the
twenty four year old Tayler quickly made his way to
the doc to get as far away from the shark
as he could. Yet, even as Stanley stood leaning against
a dock, clutching at his wounded thigh, no one was
willing to risk their own lives to go even a
little waist into the water to aid him and see
to his wounds. Instead, it was left to the men

(13:01):
and the motorboat to throw Stanley a robe. So they
could then pull into safety. When Stanley was finally pulled
free from the creek, the true shocking horror of his
wounded thigh was revealed as blood spurted everywhere, while his
femur was clearly visible thanks to a full ten pounds
of flesh from a thigh now being gone, a wound
that notably even Stanley had not been fully aware of.

(13:22):
But as the adrenaline left his body and he was
able to see his thigh for the first time, he
was soon overwhelmed by pain. As for the people who
had gathered along the creek in response to the news
of poor luster, according to the Mattawan Journal quote, there
was a crowd of two hundred or three hundred people
present at that time, and the sight of mister Fisher
being brought ashore was seconding to state it mildly. Indeed,

(13:43):
women were said to have fainted at the sight of
the fountain like geyser of blood that erupted from the wound. Now,
not all the people along the shore were gawking or
fainting at this site, however, as some took off sprinting
into town looking for a doctor. Bemill during this moment,
as some ran off in the town looking for help,
and Stanley was left laying on the dock moaning in pain.
The chicken wire fence and that had been strung up

(14:04):
along the railroad trestle and the hopes of preventing the
boy's body from being washed out the sea was suddenly
and violently torn away from where it had been secured,
indicating that the shark was now at long last flingy
scene of the crime and looking to return to the ocean. Meanwhile,
in town, they searched for the doctor was not going well.
Some u see had gone straight for Doc Jackson's house,

(14:25):
where he typically saw patients. However, as it turned out,
the doctor was out of town that day, as was
doctor Strawn, who had departed for a physician's meeting in
the Atlantic Highlands. Others meanwhile tried for the helm of
doctor George Reynolds, but he too was not home when
they arrived. Eventually, though, Reynolds would be located and he
would then hurry down to the creek to try and

(14:45):
do what he could. The problem was Doc Reynolds had
by definition, never seen a wound like this before, primarily
because it wasn't all that long before this that the
generally held belief was that sharks simply did not attack people.
Nownolds had to figure out how to deal with a
wound that he would describe as a wide and jagged
laceration measuring some fourteen inches as it spanned from the

(15:07):
area from the young man's hip to just above his knee.
Now a rope had been tied around Stanley's upper thigh
after he had been pulled from the river and the
hopes of stemming the blood loss, but crucially, Stanley's federal
artery had been severed in the attack. Still, Doc Reynolds
would try to bind the wound as best he could,
while also trying to comfort the young tailor, who was

(15:27):
somehow still awake in asking for something to help deal
with the pain, as when the young man asked if
the leg would have to be amputated, the doctor had
told him quote, it's not that bad. Meanwhile, others busied
themselves constructing a makeshift stretcher out of planks, which they
then used to move Stanley from the creek, taking him
up the hill and across the center of town to
the train station, from where he could be taken to

(15:49):
the hospital ten miles away in Long branch, as the
doctor feared that Stanley would not survive the bumpy trip
there by car. As again keep in mind nineteen sixteen
cars didn't have the best shock absorbers and the roads
were dusty and full of potholes. Therefore, with the amount
of blood that Stanley had lost, the doctor feared that
the young man, as strong as he might be, could
not handle such conditions. Meanwhile, as the doctor was at

(16:11):
work doing what he could, mothers from town reportedly took
off running along the shore so as to make sure
that no other children remained in the creek, where they
now knew that, without a doubt, a deadly monster alert.
As keep in mind, before this very moment, many had
likely simply assumed that Lester had drowned due to his condition.
Now though it had been made all too clear that

(16:33):
the boys had been right, as somehow there was a
man eating shark roaming about in their creek. Notably, also
joining the women in these efforts was Captain Control, who
hours earlier had attempted to raise his very same alarm
and had been ignored. With one life already lost in
another hanging on by a thread, he once again set
off in his boat, making his way down the creek,

(16:54):
hoping to make sure that no one else would find
themselves in the path of this deadly creature. Meanwaw's he
larned was being raised at the creek. Back at the
train station, word was not good, as the next train
would not arrive for another two hours. It was at
this point that Harry VanClief, a local engineer, sent more down,
signaling the next train to skip as many stomps as

(17:14):
possible so that it might rush to grievously wounded man
to the Mammath Memorial Hospital in Long Branch and a
desperate attempt to save his life. The twelfth of July

(17:39):
nineteen sixteen was already a day that no one in
Mattawan would ever forget. And yet the horrors of that
day were not over quite yet. As you see, three
quarters of a mile downstream from the Wykoffta, completely oblivious
to the events that happened, there was twelve year old
Joseph Dunn and his older brother, fourteen year old Michael Dunn.
Neither boy was from the Mattawan area, instead hailing from

(18:00):
New York City, where the summer heat was, if anything,
even more unbearable and for some it was even deadly.
The boys and had been looking forward to escaping from
their smaltering New York apartment on one hundred and twenty
eighth Street to head down to their aunt's home in Cliffwood,
New Jersey, with Cliffwood laying just to the north and
east of Madawan and notably sitting pretty much on the
northern bank of the Mattawan Creek. Now, as the boys

(18:23):
left home that morning to take the tree down the Cliffwood, Joseph,
the younger of the brothers, made sure to tell their
mom not to worry about them, as he promised to
be careful on their trip, by which he likely meant
they would look out for each other on the train
ride and back. After all, the only thing they were
intended to do was go swimming in the Matawan Creek
to stay cold during the day, an activity that they

(18:43):
saw little actual danger in because they never could have
imagined that a man eating shark was lurking in those waters. Now,
the dun boys and their friend's sixteen year old Jerry,
who were hand from Mattawan were none among the boys
who headed down to the Wycoff Doc instead of their
swimming hole was about a mile to the a spot
chosen because on the north side of the creeks at
the New Jersey Cleague Company's Brickyards Docks. This, you see,

(19:06):
was a really good spot for swimming because not only
was the creek here deeper, which meant that it was
good for diving, but the dock itself had a ladder
on it, a feature that made it easier to get
out of the water so was to dive in again. Really,
the only hang up as far as the boys were
concerned was the dock superintendent did not like them swimming
near the landing zone, which meant they had to avoid

(19:27):
his watchful eyes as they crept down to the creek
to their chosen spot. It was and here at this
location that the pair of brothers from New York, Joseph
and Michael Dunn, came to cool off that afternoon with
their local pal Jerry, who ran and to other local
friends that they made during their frequent visits to their aunt.
These boys and had no way of knowing what had
just occurred a half an hour earlier, a little under

(19:48):
a mile away, as they started diving into the muddy
waters of the creek round about four pm, seemingly though
no sooner had the boys swamped to the middle of
their creek than all of a sudden they started to
hear a lot of shouting emotion coming their way. Now
none of the boys could quite make out what was
being shouted, although they did catch at least one word shark,
which was apparently enough as the boys all quickly headed

(20:11):
for the nearby Brickyard dock. Now their two unnamed friends
made it up first, followed then by Michael Dunn and
Jerry Hooverhan. Joseph, though, was last because he had been
the first into the water and thus had gotten further
out than the rest. Plus he was also the youngest
of the group, so it had taken him longer to
reach the dock and it's ladder to safety. Joseph then
was still about ten feet away from the safety when

(20:33):
something quote very rough struck him, scratching his skin. Joseph
would just manage to reach the ladder when the shark,
all of a sudden took a hold of his leg.
The twelve year old then let out a scream as
something I fell like a quote big pair of scissors
pulling at my leg and bringing me under bean While
up on the dock. The brief elation that his friend
Jerry and his brother Michael had felt upon escaping those

(20:54):
dangerous waters quickly vanished when they turned around at this
sound to see the younger boy being pulled deeper into
the creek, although while struggling to keep his head above water,
Joseph then as he struggled for his life, thought that
his entire leg might be gone, as he in that moment,
with the water turning red around him, had no idea
as to the extent of damage he had suffered, because

(21:15):
he did so much as feel pain, as just an
overwhelming terror at this monstrous predator trying to kill and
consume him. Unlike the other victims of this shark, However,
Joseph wasn't alone, as his brother Michael, who had previously
escaped up to the docks, was soon back in the
water with him grabbing in his hand as he tried
to keep Joseph's head above the water, while their friend

(21:35):
Jerry held on to Michael, trying to pull both brothers
back to the docks, where all of a sudden breakyard
Superintendent Robert Thuss appeared to grab a hold of the
boys and assistant help him to pull them free of
the grasp of the shark. Meanwhile, all this was taking place,
coming down the creek was thirty five year old lawyer
Jacob Blufford's, who just happened to have been in a
boat fishing a little ways away when he heard the commotion.

(21:57):
Upon seeing the attack, then Lefferts, who was among the
most prominent men in Manawan, without hesitation, dove into the river,
still fully dressed. The shark, however, had no interest in
letting the boy go, and so it made a final
attempt to keep its prey from escaping by lashing at
it again, and in doing so, it ripped away most
of the flesh below the boy's knee. Indeed, as Joseph

(22:17):
himself would later stayed, quote, I felt my leg going
down the shark's thout. I believe it would have swallowed me. Finally, though,
the combined efforts of the men and boys were enough
to tear poor young Joseph free of the shark's grasp
as he pulled him up to the safety of the dock.
It was then at this moment that Captain Coatrol arrived
on the scene and, thinking quickly, had the grievously wounded

(22:38):
boy carefully placed in his boat. The captain then took
the wounded Joseph and his brother Michael back up stream
with all haste, heading for the Wickoff Doc where he
knew a doctor was seeing to Stanley Fisher. Yet, by
the time Coatroll returned, doctor Reynolds had already left for
the train station with his patient. Luckily, though, doctor Cooley
of nearby Keyport had also rushed to town when word

(22:58):
was put out looking for a doctoress Zita Stanley, working
out of the nearby bag factory. Then doctor Cooley examined
the twelve year old's wounds, which, while horrific to be
held at first glance, were not quite as bad as
the other victims of the shark. As you see wall quote,
the front and side portions of the boy's lower left
leg was cut into ribbons from knee to ankle. There
was good news, as, according to the doctor quote, the

(23:21):
bones were not crushed and the main arteries in the
calf of the leg were not cut, which meant that
Joseph had lost a lot less blood and was thus
more stable than all the others who had a close
encounter with the shark. With this in mind, doctor Cooley
then decided to not wait for a train like doctor
Reynolds was doing with Stanley Fisher, as they were instead
going to risky bopyr car ride to Saint Peter's Hospital,

(23:42):
which lay just ten miles away in New Brunswick, a
choice that doctor Reynolds notably would disagree with. Doctor Cooley, though,
would trust his own judgment and indeed his young Joseph
Dunn was carried into town. A man from nearby, a
keyport which sets at the mouth of the Mattawan Creek,
volunteered his in his nineteen thirteen Buick touring car services
to transport the doctor and the boy to the hospital. Meanwhile,

(24:04):
as the boy was being loaded into the car, one
of the reporters, who had heard about what was happening
in rushed to Mattawan asked a boy what had happened.
The two dunboys then related in brief the events in
the creek. Then, just before they drove off, the reporter
asked Joseph one final question. He wanted to know the
boy's full name, to which d twelve year old responded, quote,

(24:25):
I should say not, you would tell my mother, which
was similar to a response another reporter had gone. When
asking Joseph where he lived, as the boy had replied,
quote in New York City, but I won't tell you
the street. Meanwhile, even as Joseph Dunn was being quickly
whisked away to get medical aid, Stanley Fisher was left
still winning at the train station. Indeed, it wouldn't be
until five oh six, something like two or three hours

(24:47):
since the attack. Then the train finally arrived to take
Stanley to Mammath Memorial Hospital in Long Branch, where the
hope boss his leg would be amputated and his life
would be saved. Now, Stanley, who was at this point
somehow stole conscious, actually made upon a thank you theganductor
when he told them they intended to run the engine
at top speed and the hope of getting him to
the hospital as fast as possible. Indeed, Stanley would arrive

(25:10):
at Mammoth but more a hospital in less than half
an hour, where they hooked him up to an IV
and started doing what they could to treat the wound,
which doctor Field, the surgeon in charge, would remark was
worse than any he had seen while treating men during
the Spanish American Moor. Sadly, though it was already too late,
as Stanley had lost too much blood before ever reaching
the hospital. Stanley, though, was able to get out one

(25:33):
final whispered message that doctor Field leaned into here, as
the twenty four year old reportedly told him that he
had done his duty by finding and retrieving little Lester's body.
Speaking of Lester's remains would not be found until two
days later, when, on the morning of the fourteenth, local
train conductor Harry Vancleeve, during his morning walk along the
Mattawan Creek, contstead of an object nestled in a shallow

(25:55):
part of the creek underneath a railroad trestle, an object that,
upon further exam nation, was the tattered body of Lester Stillwell,
floating face down in the water. Harry would then descend
down unto the creek and retrieve the body, which he would,
after wrapping it in a blanket, carried to the Stillwell home,
returning the boy's remains to his parents, and a move
that is at once both compassionate and understandable, but also

(26:17):
maybe not the best idea, as when Sarah Stillwall saw
Vancliff walking down the dirt road toward their home with
a blanket wrapped object in his arms. She fainted not
once but twice. Meanwhile, at Saint Peter saus but only
news concerning twelve year old Joseph Dunn was about as
good as could be expected. While the muscles of his
calf were severely less rated and the smaller bones of

(26:39):
his ankles appeared almost as if they had been drilled
into his achilles, tenant had not been severed in the attack,
and so the doctors were hopeful that the leg would
not need to be amputated, although Joseph would most certainly
require a skin graft. Additionally, while Joseph had still refused
it telling the officials where to find his mother, they
were still able to locate an informer of what it

(26:59):
is what happened. As a result, she was at his
bedside the following morning when he awoke, still weakened groggy
from blood loss, to tell her quote, I'm all right, mother,
It didn't hurt me a bit. In the days to come, then,
Joseph would slowly recover physically, although he was obviously still
haunted by what he had experienced. As doctors and nurses
both would observe the boys screaming and thrashing in his sleep,

(27:21):
apparently still reliving those terrifying events in the creek over
and over again. Still, though, the boy would recover and
even leave the hospital with his legs still intact. Indeed,
while he would leave the hospital requiring crutches to get around,
he would eventually be able to walk on his own,
albeit with a limp, which he would also eventually outgrow
for the time being. Though. After being released from the hospital,

(27:44):
Joseph would stay in his aunt's home near Cliffwood near
Madawon out of caution due to the ongoing polio epidemic
that was still ridging in New York City. He would
also miss a semester of school as a result of
his injuries, but he would return to Saint Joseph's academy
the following spring. In the end, and while Joseph Dunn
would bear the scars of this incident for the rest
of his life, his attitude would remain upbeat, as he

(28:06):
was known to say, quote, for other people got killed
by that shark, and I think the least I can
do is feel fortunate that I am able to live
my life. According to The New York Times, following the

(28:41):
shark attacks in Madawan Creek, quote tonight, the whole town
is stirred by a personal feeling, a feeling which makes
men regard the fish as a might a human being
who had taken the lives of a boy and a youth,
and badly, perhaps mortally injured another youngster. Indeed, for some
people on the doc that evening, upon seeing Joseph Dunn
brought in by Captain Patrol, the sight of a third

(29:02):
victim of the shark brought out thoughts of revenge, with
one person reportedly asking Asher Woolly, the owner of the
local hardware store, quote, got any dynamite in that store
of yours? As it turns out, Woolly most certainly had dynamite,
and so a number of people sent off looking for blood.
All their earlier doubts about a shark being in the
creek some sixteen miles away from the ocean had vanished

(29:22):
in the light of recent events, and had been replaced
by the thought that more than one man eating shark
was now residing in their creek. These people then headed
straight for the hardware store, where they bought up every
stick of dynamite in stock, before heading down to the
creek with armfuls of explosives. Meanwhile, in addition to dynamite,
others in town retrieved their various rifles, pistols and shotguns,

(29:43):
which they then took down to the creek ready to
do battle with the shark and save any swimmers they encountered.
It wasn't just firearms either, as the residence of Menawan
also armed themselves with harpoons, axes, pitchforks, garden hose, ice picks,
and hammers. Some of these now armed individuals then climbed
into boats or just headed down to the creek, hoping
to catch up with the shark and exact a pound

(30:05):
of flesh of their own from the creature. Indeed, they
fully plan on killing the quote unquote monster as a
motu trappet within the creek by placing wire netting across
narrow stretchers of the waterway before emptied back out into
the bay. Indeed, by the time night found that day
of blood and tragedy, some fifteen nets have been stretched
across the various parts of the Mattawan Creek. Further feeling

(30:25):
this frenzied activity was the acting Mayor Mattawan, who had
bounding noses printed up that red quote one hundred dollar reward.
The above reward will be paid to the person or
persons killing the shark believed to be in Madawan Creek.
In the event there is more than one shark killed,
a pro rata sum will be paid for killing each shark.
Throughout the remainder of the day and for several to come,

(30:47):
gangs of men standing along on the banks of the
creek would open the fire at any unusual shadow they
thought they saw, believing it might be the shark. Meanwhile,
explosions from dynamite going off in the creek that sent
geysers of money water are up into the could be
heard for miles around. Now they choice to use dynamite
handsome loggie behind it, or at least those employing it
believed there to be as you see the belief among

(31:10):
the local fishermen. While the exposure would likely at least
stun the shark, but the main hope was the explosion
would rupture something within the beast, causing it to float
to the surface. The problem is, sharks don't have a
swimming bladder, and even if they did, I don't know
if that even makes sense. Regardless, there was also the
hope that these explosions might free Lester's body from wherever
it was dropped underneath the water, provided, of course, they

(31:33):
didn't completely destroy his remains in the process. Meanwhile, in
between these explosions, hundreds of armed men would climb into
boats so as to patrol the creek scanny for any
sign of the shark. The thing was, by the time
they started these efforts, the shark can already find the creek,
likely following the tide on its way out. Finally realizing,
it seems that this was done an environment well suited

(31:55):
for a large shark like itself. Indeed, Captain Control was
of the belief that the reason and while the attack
on Joseph Dunn hadn't been more successful, was because he
would have gotten so shallowed. By that point in time,
the shark was having difficulty moving about. The shark then,
after multiple times encountering resistance in its attempts to find sustenance,
and upon finding its movements increasingly restricted with the time

(32:17):
going out, seemingly finally decided to take the hint and
leave the Manawan Creek following the tide. Meanwhile, the day
after these events, the region and the Jersey Shore in
particular would be put in a state of panic by
the news coming out of Mattawan. As you see, even
with the work consuming the continent of Europe, newspapers all
across the United States were suddenly featuring the name of

(32:39):
a sleepy little tent in New Jersey in their headlines
because it had been the sight of an unprecedented series
of shark attacks, three in the span of a single afternoon.
B Mahsi news spread all across the country. Congressmen representing
the various Jersey shore regions were suddenly fudded with demands
for federal aid and intervention so as to do something
about the shark menace, because us the very economies of

(33:01):
these communities were at risk if people were too afreie
to come down to the shore anymore. Pressure was even
being put on President Wilson himself to do something about
this so called shark plague, pressure which he couldn't exactly ignore,
what with this being an election year and all. Plus
Wilson was notably also the former governor of the state
that was currently under siege by sharks, not to mention

(33:22):
the fact that much of his administration was currently summering
in the region. It was impossible then for Wilson to
completely ignore the situation. Therefore, he called for a meeting
with his cabinet so as to discuss what they should
do in response with treachery Secretary William McAdoo, who was
currently summering at Spring Lake, actively encouraging the President to
fully mobilize both the National Marine Fishery Service and the

(33:44):
US Coast Guard so as to deal with this threat. Meanwhile,
the House representatives would appropriate five thousand dollars to assist
in locating and eliminating the shark threat along the Jersey coast,
which was a significant sum in those days. As for
how to specifically deal with the shark threat, Treasury Secretary
McAdoo would hold a conference in Asbury Park with concerned officials,

(34:05):
including multiple officers high up in the US Coast Guard
as well as a number of New Jersey Coast Guard
station keepers. Notably, though, while the public was very clearly
looking for blood, government officials seemingly at least had the
presence of mind to realize that the extermination of sharks
was both in practical and inhumane. Protecting and securing the
shoreline then was seen as a more reasonable and realistic approach.

(34:28):
That being said, The fear was that if weakend or
poorly installed netting were to fail and another attack were
to happen, it would be nigh if possible, to recover
from such a calamity, as there would be no way
to regain public confidence, which in turn could quite possibly
spell the end of the Jersey Shore as a tourist destination, which, again,
as much as anything else, was a driving concern, especially
with the Treasury Secretary involved. So to ensure that such

(34:52):
a scenario would not play out, Coast Guard station keepers
were dispatched with orders to speak with the people in
charge of the local bathing areas up and down the
coast and to inspect the netting that had been installed
to protect these areas, with the Commander Gi Cardon, the
commander of the US Coast Guard, determining that a heavy
mesh wire of at least nine gauge steal should be
used in this netting, while also giving specifications for these

(35:14):
types of post to be installed to support said netting.
Oddly enough, though, despite this project ostensibly being about reassuring
the public about the safety of the Jersey Shore, Commander
Cardon insisted that all these efforts undertaken by his men
be treated as top cigaret and kept from the press. Now,
of course, government officials weren't the only ones who had
plans on how to deal with the shark problem. E

(35:36):
litany of suggestions would then be sent to various officials
on what they thought the solution was. For example, one
individual suggested that they should simply quote take a dummy
and stuff it with the strongest poison possible and dress
it with any guard that would be easy to bite off.
The mayor of Mattawan in particular, was a popular recipient
of such misses. For example, he would receive a letter

(35:57):
from Saint Louis do read quote years ago, I had
a friend in the island of Barbados whose hobby was
shark hunting. Whenever he could secure a dead horse or meal,
he would mutilate the carcass and then have four negroes
tow it out into the bay. Invariably, sharks would attack
the carcass and he would shoot them with a rifle
from the start of a boat. I know the plan
worked in Barbados, and I think it would be worth

(36:19):
a trial, as it is quite inexpensive. Meanwhile, a man
from Philadelphia, apparently assuming that the shark was tarteting boys,
and Barticular would write the helpful suggestion of creating what
I can only describe as a boy bomb, as he wrote, quote,
would it not be a good idea to make a
dummy out of flash colored clothing and sawdust about the
size of the boy at tanked and attached wires from

(36:40):
a battery that would explode dynamite concealed in the legs
of the dummy. And then there was the resident of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania,
who sent, along with his note a detailed diagram of
another explosive solution to the shark problem, which featured a
ball of meat, a spring loaded float, and some dynamite.
The device and would work, according to the individual, because quote,
when the shark pulls the bait, he pulls up the

(37:01):
spring and makes contact with the electric circuit, which sets
off the dynamite. Then there was a telegram from an
Illinois man who asked the mayor of Mattawan, quote, why
don't you have the US government rounded the available submarines
to haunt that murder and shark use beef bait if necessary.
Also offering their assistance in this matter was a Miami
charter boat captain named Charles Thompson, whose letter had proclaimed

(37:23):
in the b the quote capturer and honor monster of
the deep. According to Captain Thompson, then quote, after reading
the account of the terrible shark tragedy, it occurred to
me that I could be of a great assistance to
you and do a great deal of good to the
community by killing out the monsters for you. As I
have a lifetime of study and business of capturing and
killing sharks, I know I can rid your coat of

(37:45):
the dangerous sharks of your city. Will cooperate with me,
and here then we have our quint. Meanwhile, elsewhere along
the coast, special swimming courses would be offered, promising to
teach bathers how to deal with sharks. While in that
Kellerman Americus leading woman swimmer offered advice in the pages
of the New York Times by encouraging swimmers who saw
a shark coming at them to dive under it, a

(38:07):
move that she insisted would confuse the large fish. So
that quote, as he is coming at you upside down,
you have a chance to get away. That isn't ashore
safety is not too far advice. It seems to be
assuming a lot like that a shark would not just
dive down with you, and that if it did swim
past you, its first instinct would be to swim at
you upside down, or even that such a move would

(38:28):
confuse it somehow. Meanwhile, looking at deally bit more in
the realm of reality, doctor Lucas in the American Museum
of Natural History would call an emergency meeting of his
own with himself, doctor Nichols, fish expert from his museum,
and doctor John Murphy from the Brooklyn Museum, men who
you might recall, had previously expressed their doubts about the
involvement of sharks in the previous to attacks the Longley,

(38:50):
Jersey Shore. As such, in the light of the events
in Mattawana, was seemingly more imperative than ever to get
to the bottom of what was happening. It was at
this point then that supposed shark expert, doctor Lucas, who
was not an atheologist, decided it would be best to
hand the matter over to doctor Nichols, a man who
actually had a degree in atheology. As they discussed his
latest series of events, Nichols largely dismissed the popular theories

(39:13):
of the day like the one. They claimed that the
ongoing war in Europe, and in particular the scourch of
U boats singing ships, had given sharks not only a
taste but a craving for human flesh. After all, some
fifteen thousand sailors over the past two years had lost
their lives at sea, which some suggested meant that there
was suddenly ample opportunities for sharks to get in potentially

(39:33):
develop a taste for human flesh. Nichols, though, would dismiss
such conjectures, and nor did he believe that naval bombings
were driving dangerous European sharks to the shores of America,
although doctor Murphy would suggest that perhaps the war may
have contributed to these incidents because it had reduced ocean crossings,
which had subsequently also reduced the refuse being dumped by

(39:55):
these ships, that these sharks might have been feeding off of.
Sharks end have proud of this easy source of same sustenance,
may have then swum close to the shore in search
of food. Nichols meanwhile, also offered up his own idea
for why more sharks might be appearing along the coast
that summer, when he suggested that al Nino might have
caused Igallstram the shift close to the shore that year,
which he thought might also be a factor. Regardless of

(40:17):
the causo Lucas would send Nichols down to Madawan so
as to again eyewitness testimony as a part of a
fact finding mission. The thing was, for all their talk
about what may or may not be contributing to sharks
come and close it the shore than seemingly ever before,
Nichols continued to suspect that a shark was not in
fact responsible for these attacks. Indeed, he remained convinced that

(40:37):
sharks simply did not attack people. After all, prior to
nineteen sixteen, there had never been any reliably sourced accounts
of shark attacks, and yet now, all of a sudden,
there were three in a single afternoon. It just did
not make sense. Plus, sharks don't just swim up tidal creeks.
As such, Nichols's main suspect continue to be a killer whale.

(40:58):
This theory, however, began to fall apart as he examined
the Matawan Creek in person and started speaking with the
people living alongside it as to begin with, Nichols quickly
realized that the creek itself was too small for a
killer well to navigate. Plasi couldn't find anyone who had
seen anything remotely resembling a well spouting in the creek.
Beman Nichols would time after time speak with people who

(41:20):
had been at the scene of the attacks who claimed
to have seen the shark, which was in stark contrast
to the other attacks, where most of the eyewitnesses had
not been entirely sure what they had seen, because those
attacks had happened when the victims were isolated from the
other people in the area. The attacks in the creek, meanwhile,
had all happened with other people not only around, but
in close vicinity to the individuals who were attacked, and

(41:42):
everyone was seemingly in agreement that they had seen a shark.
Pluster was also the testimony of Captain Gatril and the
men who had been working on the drumbridge, who all
stated that they had seen a large shark swimming off
the creek prior to the attacks. Doctor Nichols said, after
spending time in Matawan, investigating the area and speaking with
the people, began to realize that a shark might have
actually been responsible for these attacks. Indeed, even doctor Lucas

(42:06):
back in the American Museum of Natural History was forced
to admit, after speaking with doctor Nichols, that yes, a
shark or sharks were likely responsible for these attacks. On

(42:48):
the fourteenth of July, even as the people of Madawan
continued to aim their guns at the Matawan Creek while
also suspending rampling hooks, baiting with chunks of land from
railroad trestles in the hopes of capturing the deadly men,
the front page of the Newark Star Eagle would proclaim
quote shark killed at keyboard, human body inside shark terrorsts say,
near scene of tragedy, with the article going on to

(43:11):
tell the story of how a shark had been captured
and cut open, only to find the missing body of
Lester stillwell inside. A false claim. Miss Lester's body was
actually found that very same morning and returned to his
family by trained conductor Harry Van Cleeve. This false and
misleading story, you see, was apparently based largely upon rumors
that e eleven foot long, three hundred pound shark had
been captured at the mouth of the Mattawan Creek, and

(43:33):
the Star Eagle, in their eagerness to break this exciting
news lashed onto these rumors and just ran with it.
The thing was even setting aside the clearly completely made
up part about finding Lester's body, Hundreds of sharks were
being caught and killed along the Jersey coastline at this point,
as a part of a frenzy inspired by a lust
for revenge, a desire to protect people, and the hope

(43:54):
of receiving the multiple monetary rewards on offer for the
capture and killing of sharks, especially if it be proven
that the shark was the one responsible for all the
horror and death. Yet, even outside these offered rewards, some
also saw in this frenzy and panic and opportunity as
if they were able to capture a large shark, any
large shark, they could then put it on display around

(44:15):
the state, because people were now suddenly both terrified and
fascinated by sharks, meaning they would happily line up and
pay to see one up close, regardless of if it
was the actual killer or not. In the midst of
this frenzy, only fifteenth of July, the funerals for Stanley
Fisher and Lester Stillwell would be held jointly, with the
Fisher family only having just returned to Mattawan, after having

(44:36):
been in Minneapolis visiting his sister at the time the
attacks happened. In fact, while they would start heading back
upon being informed of Stanley's death, it wouldn't be until
winning to switch trains in Chicago that the family would
see a newspaper account through which they learned exactly how
their loved one had died. Among Stanley's pauber's that day
were the men who had been in the river with

(44:57):
him that tragic afternoon Read Burlew and Arthur Smith, while
those who carried Lester small Coffin were similarly his friends
who had been with him in the Greek when tragedies struck. Then,
in the days after the funeral, the Fisher family would
be approached by an old friend of Stanley's who happened
to work for London and Lancashire Indemnity. As you see,
by an aunt twist of fate. Just the previous week,

(45:18):
Stanley had sold a new suit to his old friend,
who had taken a job as an insurance salesman. The friend, though,
was going through a rough stretch financially, and so Stanley
had agreed, much to his friend's surprise, to take a
ten thousand dollars life insurance policy as payment for the suit,
a seemingly ridiculous trade at the time, since the strong,
athletic twenty four year old appeared to have a long

(45:38):
life ahead of him when presented with this town. The
Fisher family ultimately decided to use the money from the
life insurance policy to purchase a stained glass window for
the Methodist church that Stanley attended and sang in the
choir of. Now While Stanley and Lester were the less
direct victims of these shark it has to be noted
that the panic that's a round of these incidents would
lead to another death, as on the fourth thirteen, thirty

(46:00):
five year old Samuel Harding, while swimming in the Shrewbury
River in New Jersey, started calling for help. Yet, just
as two or three people were about to leap into
the river to come to the struggling man's aid, someone
else on the shore started shouting that a shark had
gone him. It was then with this and all rescue
efforts were halted, only for it to be revealed some
twenty minutes later when Harding's body was finally retrieved, that

(46:22):
there was not a single wound on it because there
had never been a shark. The man had simply been
drowning and no one had come to his rescue due
to the panic surrounding these shark attacks. Meanwhile, the panic
around the attacks led to others avoiding the water altogether. Indeed,
according to the New York World, quote terror of sharks
keeps a million bathers on shore, while the New York

(46:44):
Times would proclaim that quote bathing has come almost to
a stop along the Jersey coast, reports that very much
seemed to be true, as resorts all long the Jersey
Shore would report something like seventy five percent vacancies, a
situation that many quarter of a million dollars in lost
revenue in a single week for these various establishments. It
was then, with this threat of the short community's economies

(47:05):
crashing completely, that New Jersey Governor James Fielder encouraged the
haunting and killing of sharks en mass, calling upon the
public to take up this task because the legislature would
be required to approve the creation of such a force,
but they weren't currently in session. Plus also believed that
the cost of such an undertaking would be prohibitive, which
brings us back to Captain Katrol, the man who had

(47:26):
first spotted the sharks swimming up the Madwon Creek and
whose attempts to raise the alarm had been ignored, as
he would seemingly bring this sad, tragic tale to an
appropriate conclusion when on the eighteenth of July, six days
since the attacks in Madawan Creek, Katrell was returning from
a fishing trip off of Sandy Hook and his boat,
the Scud, at which point Katroll, along with his son
in law Richard Lee, happened to spot a larger dorsal

(47:49):
fin in the orders of Keyport Bay, just outside the
Madowan Creek. The two men immediately assumed this had to
be the same creature that had so terrified their quiet
little community. They then closed in dung a net over
the shark and tangling it so they could then pull
it in close to the boat, where they proceeded to
beat it to death with a piece of iron they
had laying around. Upon bringing in the seven foot long,

(48:09):
two hundred and thirty pounds shark and sharing the story
of where and how they had killed it, many came
to the same conclusion that they had indeed none other
than doctor John Nichols would send his assistant down to
examine the sharks, suspected that it may perhaps have been
the creature responsible for the attacks. The town of Madawan, meanwhile,
would formally sign off in this conclusion that this was
the shark by warning Coatral their bounty money. Gatrell even

(48:32):
had the shark in question taken to a fish shop
on the Keyboard Bridge, where it was packed in ice
and put on display in a casket like box with
a sign that proclaimed quote terror of Mattawan Creek. Ten
cents a look, And indeed hundreds would come to pay
the ten cents to see it for themselves. That all
being said, though, over the years some have become suspicious
of the Captain's accounting of events. Indeed, some suspect the

(48:55):
shark that Gatrell claimed to have killed near the entrance
of the Madawan Creek was actually the same shark that
had been found dead near an outflow pipe in Mammoth Beach,
as that shark was a specially similar in size and
description to the one that Coatrol claimed to have killed
and subsequently put on display. Indeed, there is at least
one eyewitness report of Coatrol being in Mammoth Beach purchasing

(49:15):
a shark, with the dead shark possibly even being the
same shark that Asbury Park Lifeguard Captain Benjamin Everingham had
fought off with an oar when he spotted it near
the Asbury Park Beach. Now that shark had swum off
after that encounter, but it's possible that it later died
of its wounds watching up near Mammoth Beach, where it
was then sold to Captain Control, who subsequently made off

(49:35):
the story about spotting it in Keyboard Bay and beating
it to death with a piece of iron, a series
of events which are especially interesting because you would think
wounds suffer from being beaten with an ore likely looked
quite a lot like wound suffer from being beat with
a piece of iron. To be clear, though, even though
Coatrol was the only person who was a worthy man
wan bounty money, he was far from alone in killing

(49:56):
a shark and claiming it to be the one few
people you see set off sailing while away from the
sight of the attacks and search for a large shark
they could catch and kill a shark that they could
then bring back, claiming it to be the infamous Madawan killer.
While only giving vague accounts as to where they had
caught it. Among these individuals was one fisherman out of
Long Island who put his supposedly killer shark on display

(50:18):
in a zinc line coffin that he rented from an undertaker,
while a nine foot long theater and twenty five pound
blue shark would be caught in some nets near Long Branch,
only to be subsequently sold to the Long Branch Hotel
to be put on display. Doctor Nichols, meanwhile, following his
visit to Madawan, had changed course and was now convinced
that a shark or sharks was responsible. In fact, he

(50:39):
would even take part in the ongoing shark hunt, as
he would tell the New York American quote, the most
plausible theory seems to me that the troubles from one
or several exotic sharks which are working off the coast,
and we have determined to spend a day or two
looking for it off Rockaway, as that's where he believed
the sharks northerly course would take it next. Doctor Nichols

(50:59):
and Murphy then planned to wait in the narrowest part
of the channel to Watford tiger or great white sharks
as they will leave them to be the most likely
suspects for these attacks. The two scientists saliver would not
find their quarry, quite possibly because the culprit they were
looking for might have already been caught. You see, the
day before the two scientists undertook their expedition, the fourteenth

(51:19):
of July, coincidentally the same day that the Newark Star
Eagle ran the story claiming that the shark had been
captured with Little Lester Stillwall's remained stilen stomach, and the
same day that Lester's body was actually recovered in the
Matawan Creek was also the day when the shark responsible
was potentially killed. It all started when Michael Schleicer, the
forty five year old chief animal trainer for the Barnum

(51:40):
and Bailey Circus and big game hunter who had also
contributed taxi dermy animals for several national museums, including the Smithsonian,
decided he wanted to go with his friend Murphy down
to Mattawan to see in the site where all the
drama had happened for themselves. To do so, the two
men borrowed another friend's eight foot motor boat, setting off
from South Amboy and heading for Rereton Bay, which was
near the side of the Matawan Trauma. As they set off, though,

(52:03):
they suffered a bit of a misshap as Schleiser apparently
broke one of the boats would an oors, which wasn't
a huge deal as the boat had a motor that
they were relying upon for propunction. Everything then was going
fine when as they neared the Sandy Hook Bay, the
two men decided to throw out a drag net, hoping
to catch a few fish that they could then have
for breakfast. The pair that had been towing the net

(52:23):
behind them for some time, when just a few miles
away from their destination, all of a sudden, the boat
lurched backwards, causing their engine to stall. After tumbling to
the deck from the sudden unexpected stop, the two men
started looking around for any explanation. It's at at this
point that Schleiser happened to look into the water behind them,
where he saw a large black tailfin. Upon seeing this,

(52:45):
the animal trader alerted his companion by shutting that they
had gotten a shark, a shark, which by the way,
was about as big as their boat. Indeed, in that moment,
their boat and a scene familiar to any wasceine jaws
suddenly started being pulled backwards by the shark that had
become and stared in their net. The boat, in fact,
was soon moving so fast in the wrong direction that
it was in danger of sinking as his front end

(53:08):
rose high up out of the water while the waves
began crashing over its rear, flooding it. To try and
counter this effect, Schleiser's friend Murphy threw himself into the
front of the boat to try and bounce things out
with his weight. Meanwhile, unable to free itself from this
predicament by racing off in one direction, the powerful shark
that had just taken the boat for a ride started
thrashing about in the net. Yet, other than turning the

(53:30):
water behind the boat into a white froth, the sharks
thrashing didn't accomplish much other than further wrapping itself up
in the netting. The more in the shark thrash, then
the more entangled it became, and in doing so, the
closer it came to the boat. Schleiser then grabbed the
handle of the oor he had broken earlier in the morning,
as it was the closest thing to a weapon that
he could find, and so as the shark came on

(53:51):
suddenly close to the boat, the animal trainer started striking
its head, nose, and gills over and over again with
the broken oar handle, until finally it stopped moving. With
the immediate danger now passed, the two men signal for help,
as their boat small motor was not going to be
able to take them in their equally sized shark any further,
Eventually catching the attention of a larger fishing boat nearby,

(54:12):
they then tied the shark to before being towed in
the shore. Now, while it seemed highly unlikely that out
of all the people actively hunting for sharks, these two
completely unprepared men who would just take a trip down
to Madawan to basically Rubberneck, would be the ones who
catched the beest responsible, there was said to have been
a feeling about this particular shark. Indeed, the fishermen in

(54:32):
the boat that came to their aid recognized that this
was not like any of the sharks they were used
to seeing in those waters. So, considering that and the
facta was captured in an area not all that far
away from the Mattawan Creek, Schleisser the skilled taxidermists decided
to slice the shark open once they reached the shore.
Yet before he could slice open the shark's stomach and intestines,
a local dentist intervened, suggesting that it might be best

(54:54):
to have a medical professional on hand to examine what
came out. The dentists then departed before bringing back two
doctors from town. With these witnesses now in attendance, Schleiser
opened up the shark's digestive track, finding a variety of
things as he did, with the most interesting things for
all involved being a collection of bone fragments, including a
long straight bone and what was described as a suspicious

(55:16):
fleshy material, which all together felled up about two thirds
of a milk rate. The suspicious fleshy material, in particular,
was a most interest to Schleiser and the doctors, as
they all agreed that it did not come from sharks,
raiz or any other kind of fish they were familiar with. Indeed,
they believe that the flesh was actually human, as a
structure seemed to very much resemble that of human flesh,

(55:39):
while the pale and partially decayed surface of it could
be human skin. Along the same mind set. Doctors believe
that the straying section of bone that came out of
the shark was an eleven inch shin bone of a boy,
while the collection of smaller pieces of bones were identified
as being parts of a human rib. Schweiser then decided
to consult with experts at the American Museum in New
York while also under taking the preservation of the shark himself.

(56:02):
He then had the sharkscorpse, along with the milk created
potential human remains, packed in ice and loaded onto a
scar so who could make the hour long drive back
to the Bronx and his workshop. It was then the
following day, after doctor Nichols returned to the museum after
his own failed haunting expedition, that he encountered a newspaper
report that read quote two men in tiny boat catch
killer shark, beat it to death after shark tangles itself

(56:24):
in driftnet, which again wasn't the most unique story at
the time. However, the most interesting part of this tale
was the account of what they had found inside the
shark's digestive track, namely part of a boy shit in
some fifteen pounds of human remains, as identified by a
pair of physicians on the dock, doctor Nichols and lucasen
began discussing the idea of heading down to the Bronx

(56:45):
Home News office, where the sharks remains were apparently said
to be put on display, during which time a package
arrived at the museum that had been sent by Michael Schleiser,
labeled open at once. Accompanying the package was a note
from Schleiser that described the shark as being quote darked
all blue, with a white belly in the mouth when open,
confitting man's head inside. It has four rows of teeth.

(57:06):
It is seven and a half feet in length and
weighs three hundred and fifty pounds. Most importantly, though, was
the contents of the package, as inside were the bones
that happened retrieved from the shark's digestive track, but notably
contained none of the suspicious fleshy material, as Schleiser had
discarded it due to its foul odor. Upon examining these bones,
doctor Lucas who's early career involved preparing and mounting skeletons,

(57:28):
was confident that they were indeed human bones. The thing
was he identified the long, skinny section of bone as
being a part of a lower human armbone, which was
notably different from what the physicians on the docks had concluded,
as they had asserted that the bone was a part
of a boy shin. Indeed, according to Lucas, the bones
were not from a young boy, but from a robust man.

(57:48):
Doctor lucasen even went so far as to declare that
these remains actually came from a body that had been
dead for some time and thus were not from an
active attack, which leads us to question who do we believe,
as both the physicians and Lucas could have been seeing
what they expected to see. The physicians, after all, would
have known the details of the attack in Madelon and

(58:08):
thus would have been expecting the bones of a young boy. Meanwhile,
doctor Lucas, throughout all this remained skeptical that a shark
was involved, and so he would be more inclined to
find evidence to suggest that shark's attacking people was uncommon.
Regardless of the nineteenth of July, doctor Nichols, Murphy and
Lucas would make the trip down to the Home News
office to join other spectators in getting in a look

(58:30):
at the shark in question as it was put on display.
After expert taxidermist Michael Schleiser finished preparing it. Doctor Nicholson,
after examining the creatures preserved remains, would determine that it
was a juvenile great white, a conclusion that we are
largely left to take his word on, because remains of
this particular shark would subsequently be lost to history, as

(58:50):
shortly after putting the shark on display in the Bronx,
Schleiser would depart upon a two year tour around Asia,
taking the shark's specimen and several of his other prize
taxidermy remains with him. It's unclear then, if the shark
ever made the return trip. In fact, it might have
even become unusable and unrecognizable due to how fash Schleizer
had conducted the attaxidermy, as he might not have taken

(59:10):
the time to properly preserve it and thus at would
have deteriorated. It is then, for this reason, combined with
the disagreement over the providence of the bones and the
fact that he discarded the suspicious fleshy substance without getting
a second opinion, that the debate over the identity of
the sharks dole rages in some circles as some have
their doubts in a great white could have been responsible
for the attacks in Madamon Creek, in particular, with the

(59:33):
behavior swimming up the creek being seen as an indication
that the shark responsible for these attacks was not a
great white but a bull shark, as it is one
of the few shark species that can swim from salt
to fresh water. Bull sharks that are seen as an
especially promising suspect seeing as how they are among the
handful of species that are responsible for the most attacks
on humans, joining with tigers and great whites for that distinction,

(59:56):
with bull sharks off the Nanal coast of South Africa
especially having a habit of attacking people. So ball sharks
have a history of being involved in attacks on humans
and are particularly dangerous because of their ability to survive
in fresh water, which then allows them to swim for
hundreds of miles up rivers where people would never expect
to see them, behavior which certainly seems to line up

(01:00:16):
with the events in the Madamon Creek, as no one
at all expected to see a shark in those waters
so far from the ocean. The thing is, though great
whites are still capable of surviving in brackish waters, at
least for a time. Indeed, since its body would have
to shed salt to try and maintain its balance in
the water, it potentially would have grown even more confused
and desperate, and even more likely to lash out aggressively,

(01:00:38):
because as a green white grew increasingly confused and sluggish,
it would have felt the heightened urgency to feed and
potentially might have also felt threatened by all these splashing
and activity in the relatively small creek. Meanwhile, it's also
been noted that the moon was nearly full at the
time when the attacks in Matawan took place, which is
important to note because it would have meant that the
tide was especially high, meaning that there would have been

(01:01:00):
in a greater than average amount of salty seawater in
the creek, thereby making life easier for a great white
should it have gotten lost and started traveling upstream. That
being said, Scott Davis, who tracts great whites, is said
of the Mattawan events that quote, My perspective is that
great whites would not be able to tolerate a freshwater environment
at all. However, as Richard Fernicola argues in his Bulk

(01:01:20):
twelve days a terror. While bull sharks are the only
large shark that swims for long distances in the freshwater rivers,
as they are known to have swum thousands of miles
of the Amazon and on the Mississippi as far as Illinois,
the Matawan Creek is not truly fresh water. It's brackish
at best, meaning it's a mix of salt and fresh water. Indeed,
those familiar with the creek have noted how surprisingly salty

(01:01:42):
it is, which then does not limit these suspect pull
for the Matawan attacks to just a bull shark alone. Meanwhile,
the fact that multiple individuals were attacked in a short
amount of time in the Madawon Creek is potentially telling
as to the identity of the predator, because while bull
sharks are the most likely candidate to swim into bracket
sure fresh water, they are not known to attack multiple targets.

(01:02:03):
The same, though, is not true of tiger sharks and
great whites, who are known to attack multiple targets within
a short amount of time. Another factor to consider when
trying to discern the entity of the shark responsible are
the eyewinners accounts of the first attack of Charles van
zandt This included Alexander Oz the lifeguard brought him into
shore as some of these accounts suggest that the shark

(01:02:24):
had remained attached to van Zand's leg until the water
became too shallow, as this unusual behavior potentially points to
a great white, as you see a similar scene played
out in nineteen sixty six in New South Wales when
a thirteen year old boy was bitten by a shark that,
despite the boy repeatedly punching and kicking it and a
surfer striking it with their board, would remain attached to

(01:02:44):
the boy's leg until after he was brought to shore,
where it was eventually forced to let go, with the
shark involved in this incident eventually being identified as a
female juvenile great white. Another crucial point of evidence of
the wound suffered by the victims of these attacks. For example,
according to Richard Fernarcola, the description of Charles bruders wounds
are similar to those of shark attacks off of Africa's

(01:03:07):
Natal Coast, attacks which typically involve bull sharks. The thing is,
since the wounds appear to be both clean cut and
terror type wounds, they aren't really definitive and identifying the
culprit one way or the other. Meanwhile, the wounds of
the Matawan victims seem to rule out great whites because
the teeth in both the upper and lower jaws of
great whites are triangl're and heavily serrated, which does not

(01:03:27):
appear to match up with the wounds that suggest the
presence of both serrated and smooth sided teeth. The thing is, though,
even this is not definitive, as only adult greate whites
have all serrated teeth, and even that doesn't seem to
always be one hundred percent true. Meanwhile, juvenile grade whites
like the one called by Schlicer, have both serrated and
smooth teeth. Indeed, the wide placing of great white teeth

(01:03:49):
potentially might explain the quote unquote dull knife grooves that
were seen in Stanley Fisher's thigh. In fact, educated measurements
based upon the picture of Schlicer's catch, as well as
the animal trainer and taxidermist description of his catch, Fernicula
believes that the wounds could have been inflected by that
very juvenile green white plusters. Also, the fact that great whites,

(01:04:09):
while not exactly numerous or common off the New Jersey
slash New York Coast are still more likely to be
found there than the other primary suspect, bull sharks, which
on one hand suggest that great whites might be the
most likely suspects. However, that certainly does not preclude bull sharks,
as the attacks of nineteen sixteen were an extremely rare occurrence,
which could potentially be explained by the also exceedingly rare

(01:04:31):
appearance of bull sharks in the region. Yet, regardless of
want the species of shark was, be it bull or
great white, the most popular retelling all of these attacks
focuses on a singular rogue shark being responsible, with rogue
being a label that is applied to predators that seem
to get a taste for human flesh and start hunting
humans exclusively, a phenomenon famously seen in the Tsavo man Eaters,

(01:04:54):
a pair of lines who haunted and killed workers constructing
the Kenya Uganda Railway in eighteen ninety eight. Sharks have
also supposedly displayed this type of behavior as well, as
they attack a series of victims over the span of
months before the presumably guilty shark is caught and found
with human flesh. In its stomach. The thing is, experts
are not so sharp rogue sharks are actually a thing

(01:05:15):
or not, as accounts of such animals tend to be suspect. Indeed,
some question whether or not a singular shark was responsible
for all five attacks in nineteen sixteen, whether these were
just a series of unconnected attacks committed by different sharks
of the obvious exception of the three attacks in Madamont
Creek than obviously all involved the same shark. After all,
people did attest to seeing more sharks at summer than

(01:05:37):
at any other time, which could potentially simply be the
result of people, due to the attacks, suddenly being hyper
vigilant for sharks. People then might have seen more sharks
in the summer of nineteen sixteen because they are now
actively looking for them. That being said, Edwin Thorne of
the New York Zoological Society would report that he captured
or cited more female sedbar sharks along the Great South

(01:05:58):
Bay of Long Island that summer than any other time
during a seventeen year study, which certainly does add merit
to the other accounts of increased shark sightings. Now we
don't really know for sure what might have been responsible
for the sudden optic in the number of sharks around
the Jersey Shore, but environmental conditions seemed to be the
most logical explanation, as there had been record breaking temperatures

(01:06:19):
in the region on land, but maybe not in the water.
As you see during at least the Bruder attack, the
wood was noted to have been unusually cold. This is
notable because while most sharks are cold blooded, the largest
car never shark, the great white, is warm blooded. Indeed,
these creatures that are roughly equal in size to a
full grown rhino, seem to be more prone to attack

(01:06:40):
when the wooters are cooler. You then potentially had a
situation where you had waters that were especially tapped into
great whites. At the same time you had a heat
wave that drove an unusually large amount of people into
those same waters, thereby drastically increasing the chances that these
two species would cross pass and tragedy would result. Bima.
Also potentially explaining the sudden influx of sharks was the

(01:07:02):
fact that nineteen sixteen was one of the earliest years
that human refuse was being pumped into the waters off
the Jersey Shore. Refuse that notably would have increased during
the summer thanks to the sizable tourist population. This refuse
and would have drawn smaller creatures to the area, which
in turn would influence the rest of the food chain,
as larger and larger creatures would then follow their plague

(01:07:22):
closer in toward the shore. Also potentially playing a similar
role to this refuse were the commercial fishermen who weremor
headed often just disposed to fish guts in various other
unused fish parts in the water on their way back
to shore, thereby essentially chomming the waters of the Jersey coast.
Than If that wasn't enough, commercial fishermen in general might
have also contributed to this issue by overfishing a type

(01:07:45):
of fish called the man hayden, which is important because
men hayden are a stable part of the died of
many larger fish, and so with the man hayden population
at a twenty five year low, many larger fish would
have been forced to go searching for other sources of food,
search that might have brought them close to the shore,
which in turn would have necessitated they were larger predators
like sharks following suit. Additionally, these factors also might have

(01:08:08):
combined with stuff like bombing practice and was taking place
in Kye Poweris, North Carolina in preparation for the country
potentially getting involved in the First World War, with these
bombing practices potentially driving danger sharks northward, just like some
much speculated that the naval warfare in Europe had driven
sharks across the ocean. That all being said, I completely
understand the appeal of the singular rogue shark story, as

(01:08:30):
it honestly is a more comforting version of events because
it was simply one weird shark displaying highly unusual behavior.
There was then less to worry about if just a
singular shark was responsible, because if this one shark could
be caught and killed, there would be little reason of fear,
and thus there would be no long term effect on
the shore economy, which helps to explain why this was

(01:08:51):
a story that newspapers started pushing from pretty early on. Plus,
there is also the fact that it's simply a good story,
as instead of a series of completely un connected events,
you have a narrative of the singular sharks swimming up
the coast, occasionally attacking people as it goes due to
some weird twist of fader genetics. Then it set it
on this course. I mean, there's a reason mon the

(01:09:12):
story of the Tsavo man eating Lines got turned into
a movie. It's a fascinating story in part because lines
don't typically hunt people, and especially don't do so exclusively.
Yet these two particular predators, due potentially to a disease
known as render pest devastating the buffalo population, or due
to dental injuries, it would have made it more difficult
to impossible to haunt and consume their normal prey, opted

(01:09:35):
to target humans as a war plentiful and easier to hunt. Indeed,
it's this idea of a singular predator suddenly designed to
turn its attention to hunt people than is the reason
why Jaws was such a compelling tale and why it
became a blockbuster movie, as it's far less interesting if,
rather than a singular antagonist shark that can be haunted
down and dealt within a climatic clash, the story is

(01:09:56):
instead about a series of tragic incidents involving different sharks.
The thing is that might be what actually happened, as
while it is possible for a shark to cover the
distance between these attacks in the time between these incidents,
meaning that there is nothing to say that a singular
shark is not responsible. At the same time, he also
can't say in any definitive way that a singular shark

(01:10:17):
was involved. For example, the first two incidents and involved
men who were alone out beyond these swimming lines, which
meant they were tempting targets for any shark who was
in the area, not just a singular rogue. Plus, as
I pointed out, their dark swimsuits might have made them
appear more likely typical prey sharks tend to hunt. And
there's also the fact that Charles van zans case he

(01:10:38):
had been playing with a dog prior to the attack,
something which statistically seems to make shark attacks more likely. Meanwhile,
the boys swimming in the Madwan Creek, even though they
didn't have the typical dark swimsuits of the day, still
were likely sporting strong tang lines from their other favorite
afternoon activity of playing baseball, which is notable because such
distinct differences in shade are known to attract the attention

(01:11:00):
of sharks. Ploster's also the possibility that, since they were
in such a relatively confined area and were creating a
lot of splashing, the shark might have simply felt threatened
and lashed out defensively. As such, with the exception of
the mattawuanattacks, these incidents might not have had anything to
do with one another. They may have simply been a
series of unfortunate and unconnected accidents. Yet at the same

(01:11:22):
time we also can say definitively that a singular shark
wasn't responsible for myself. The idea that it was just
a series of wholly unconnected incidents does make a kind
of sense. However, in no way doesn't make it true,
as we will never know for sure one way or
the other. But nevertheless, that is the end of our
story of the nineteen sixteen New Jersey shark attacks. Joined

(01:11:44):
me next time as I cover the story of the
Christiana Riot, where residents of a refuge for escape slaves
in Pennsylvania faught back against a group of slave catchers,
a notable if often forgotten incident in the run up
to the Civil War. However, like always, that will have
to for another now remain a story for another time.

(01:12:07):
Thank you for listening to Distorted History. If you would
like to help out, please rate and review the podcasts
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if you would like ad free in early episodes, I
set up such a feed over at patreon dot com
slash Distorted History. By paying ten bucks a month, you
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on Spotify or likely through your podcast app as long

(01:12:28):
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,

(01:13:04):
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