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.
Leadbelly Part 1: Prodigy
Irena Sendler, the Titanic Engineers, Invisible Hands, and Stubby the War Dog
The Prehistory of Compassion and the Search for Human Happiness
John Robert Fox, Buffalo Soldier
Miep Gies, the Dutch Resistance, and a Girl Who Changed the World
The Elephant Angel of Belfast
A Heroic Goat, an Angry Cat, and a Graveyard Full of Daredevils
The Edmund Fitzgerald
Olympias Part 3: The Rise and Fall of a Legend
Olympias Part 2: Mother of Empire
Olympias Part 1: Witch of Epirus, Mother of Alexander the Great
The First Robot
Why Does Fruitcake Even Exist? Eggnog, Yule Logs, and a Cannibalistic Christmas Troll
The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 5 of 5
The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 4 of 5
The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 3 of 5
Père Lachaise Cemetery: A History of Death in Paris
The Screaming Mummies of Guanajuato and a Horde of Egyptian Cats
The First Monsters
The Lost Voyage of Shackleton: The Edge of Human Endurance Part 2 of 5
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Everything Everywhere Daily