In 1876 a bumbling group of Chicago counterfeiters broke into Abraham Lincoln’s tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Illinois, after formulating a plot to steal the president’s body and use it as leverage to get counterfeiter Benjamin Boyd released from prison. Boyd worked for small-time crime boss Big Jim Kinealy, and Big Jim’s attempted heist would, with the help of a secret service informant, go down in history as an utterly bad idea.
Then we jump ahead a century to explore the snarkiest tomb in history. Roy Bertelli, known as Mr. Accordion, regularly stood atop his own grave, which is a stone’s throw from Lincoln’s, to loudly play his accordion for the sole purpose of being as annoying as possible. After a row with the cemetery management over their attempt to seize his grave plot, Roy spent the rest of his life letting them know they wouldn’t be getting it back, even over his dead body. Come hear why his delightfully cantankerous story earns Mr. Accordion the gold in posthumous snark.
Joe Carstairs Part 3: The Kingdom of Whale Cay
Joe Carstairs Part 2: The Fastest Woman on Water
Joe Carstairs: The Fastest Woman on Water Part 1
The Death of James Dean and the ”Curse” of Little Bastard
Historic Pranks
History’s Happy Little Accidents
The Red Ghost: Lost Camels of the American West
Shackleton Update: ENDURANCE FOUND
On Cheating Death and Inventing the Saxophone
The Real Treasure Island
Stagecoach Mary
Hans Trapp the Christmas Scarecrow
The 1904 Olympic Marathon: History‘s Most Ridiculous Race
When History Falls From the Sky
The Raven
Hulda of Bohemia: The ”Witch‘” of Sleepy Hollow
600 Years of Animals Put on Trial
Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer and the Coelacanth
The Monte Vista Hotel: Where History Meets Lore
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Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
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