True Weird Stuff

Today's True Weird Stuff - Turning The Bones

You know the story of President Abraham Lincoln and his assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. But did you know Honest Abe's body was sent on a two-week funeral procession? 1,600 miles and over 400 stops across 7 states. Things were smooth at first, but once the decay started to set in, his corpse "was not a pleasant sight."

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Today's True Weird Stuff - A Curse on You

Alchemist. Astrologer. Magician. Georg Faust was considered a heretic in medieval Europe, primarily because he practiced black magic and summoned the spirits of the dead. Through legend and literature, Faust was hated by many, not just because of his fraudulent ways, but because of his pact with the devil for knowledge and power; a debt the devil would quickly collect.

Today's True Weird Stuff - A Real Stiff

Elmer McCurdy was an American outlaw who couldn't pull off a smooth heist to save his life. He tried to use his Army training with nitroglycerin to rob banks and trains, often to no avail. After accidentally robbing the wrong train in 1911, a drunken McCurdy met his demise after firing at the deputy sheriffs searching for him. And for the next 65 years, McCurdy's mummified corpse wound up being used as a traveling sideshow attraction known as "The Bandit Who Wouldn't Give Up."

Today's True Weird Stuff - Mammoth Feast (Airdate 5/16/2025)

In 1901, an expedition team in Siberia discovered a nearly perfectly preserved mammoth locked in permafrost for 44,000 years. Various tales of the consumption of mammoth meat have been around for centuries, but none like the Explorers Club's 47th Annual Dinner in 1951. The exclusive meal was rumoured to have included a host of exotic delicacies, including pieces of 250,000-year-old woolly mammoth meat. It wouldn't be until decades later that examinations of a sample of the meat from that legendary dinner would solve the mystery, once and for all.

Today's True Weird Stuff - Jill the Ripper

In 1888, the people of the Whitechapel district of London were terrorized by someone on a ruthless killing spree. Over 100 suspects were named, including a woman named Mary Pearcey. In 1890, Mary was convicted of brutally murdering her lover's partner and child, and Mary was sentenced to death. The brutal nature of the killings would lead to a theory decades later that claimed Mary Pearcey was the was the infamous Jack the Ripper.