Curator 135

Send us Fan Mail In 1883 a man named Arthur Manby left his home in Lancashire, England and sailed to the United States with a few of his eight siblings. He'd read stories about the untapped resources and wide open spaces that the western frontier had to offer. He had big ideas and needed people to buy into them. Unpaid loans and undelivered promises left him a hated man in his hometown of Tao...

Send us Fan Mail In light of the recent school shooting in Oxford, Michigan. A listener suggested I take a look at the horrific Bath, Michigan bombing massacre of 1927. It was the first and largest school-related rampage killing ever in the United States.  Learn about Andrew Kehoe, his life, and what led him to murder 44 people on that May morning. A series of three blasts forever changed the tiny...

Send us Fan Mail In Detroit, there is a mythological creature known as 'Le Nain Rouge'. Some consider him to be the harbinger of doom and gloom while others believe he is a great protector, warning residents when trouble is on the horizon. Whichever side you stand on, the Nain Rouge has been a part of Michigan folklore dating back to the early 1700's and possibly before.  Let's...

Send us Fan Mail Calumet, Michigan. Copper Country. The land of my ancestors. The home of numerous family reunions that took nine hours to drive to.  With Christmas approaching, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at the tragic events that ended a months long strike by the immigrant miners working for the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail I love sound. It's my favorite of the senses. Well placed sound effects, spoken words, music, things that go bump in the night. How do our ears work? Why do some work differently or not at all? Curator 135 explores some of the strangest sounds that man, animals, nature, underwater, outer space and the unexplained have to offer. From a squeaky toad to icebergs running aground...

Send us Fan Mail Back in 1518 the French city of Strasbourg experienced one of the worst recorded outbreaks of Dance Mania ever witnessed. The Dance Plague or Dance Epidemic struck almost 400 people and may have killed as many as 15 people a day. It lasted well over two months and left everyone puzzled.  Demonic possession? Mold? Mass Hysteria? What caused this to happen and what did Saint Vitus h...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when we die? A question that's been discussed for centuries with no real answers to speak of. Heaven, hell, nothing? Well what about reincarnation?  For a family in England, reincarnation became a serious subject after the loss of 11-year-old Joanna Pollock and her 6-year-old sister Jacqueline. Killed on their way to Sunday school after being hit by a car in 1957...

Send us Fan Mail As October comes to an end, we thought it would be the perfect time to discuss psychiatric hospitals and asylums. The look and feel of a spooky asylum has been the inspiration for some of our favorite horror movies, television shows and books.   Curator 135 has been curious about what happens behind the walls of a mental institution since he was a little kid.  Let's learn abo...

Send us Fan Mail I've always wanted a Viking funeral. Set me in a longboat with a few of my favorite things, give it a good shove and then fire a flaming arrow at me. It turns out that a Viking funeral like that is almost 99% Hollywood.  Join Curator135 as he discusses some of the more unique death rituals from around the globe. Sky burials, jazz festivals, bone turning and more.   Support th...

Send us Fan Mail Although many presidential children have left a mark in one way or another, no one comes close to leaving behind the legacy (good and bad) that Alice Roosevelt Longworth left behind. Learn all about Theodore Roosevelt's sassy, smart and spunky first child, Alice. She was adored by many, treated like royalty and knew she could get away with doing and saying whatever she wanted...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone knows Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell... Tesla, Ford and the Wright Brothers, but there are some amazing inventors and human beings in history who go relatively unmentioned and we need to fix that.  In this episode, Curator135 seeks to find out as much as he can about the great Garrett Morgan, the African American inventor behind more efficient sewing machines, th...

Send us Fan Mail Travel back in time once again with Curator 135 as he takes his trusty Dodge Shadow time machine back to 1887 in search of the Kickapoo Traveling Medicine Show. Find out who liked to hang out in Connecticut around that time as well as the what and why of traveling medicine shows.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail The second part of the 'Arizona Series' takes a look at two different southwestern things my mother and father collected. One was made by a white lady, the other crafted from the hands of Native Americans.  Join Curator 135 as he discusses both Skookum and Kachina dolls.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail After a long summer break, Curator 135 is back with a brand new episode. Episode 20 is the first part of a planned trilogy of Arizona related episodes. We'll talk about some of the dangerous creatures and weather conditions that could potentially harm you. Spiders and Snakes and Centipedes, oh my.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail It's almost 130 years later and we still don't have the answer. Did a charming, church going thirty-two year old murder her father and step-mother? Probably. Maybe?  Listen in as Curator #135 dives into the murders and trial from 1892 and 1893.  Did Lizzie Borden take an ax and give her father forty whacks? Or was she out in the barn, as she claims, eating pears and look...

Send us Fan Mail Back in Episode 6 we briefly discussed a Legend that exists in Norwich, England involving a man named 'Jack Valentine'. Not much is known about this gentleman and so far, Norwich is the only city in the world that he visits. Well, Curator #135 was able to dig up some new information regarding Jack's interesting and somewhat scary past. He may be a nice guy on Valent...

Send us Fan Mail In our second episode devoted to some of the biggest mysteries to come out of Australia, Curator #135 takes a look at the wild story of the Somerton Man. A body found on a beach near Adelaide in 1948. Even wilder than the story itself are some of the theories behind who this man was or what he might have been a part of.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail In the first of two episodes on some of Australia's biggest mysteries, Curator #135 takes a look at the case of the Tromp family and their possible 'shared delusion' road trip. Rational fear? Paranoia? Or Folie à deux? Then we head back to the 1800's and discuss a missing Prussian/German explorer named Ludwig Leichhardt, and his entire missing party. Was it Abo...

Send us Fan Mail Abraham Lincoln's family tree reveals a sad story of lives being cut way too short. The Lincoln family certainly was not very lucky. The man who had it the worst? Robert Lincoln, Abe's first born son... who was the only one out of four kids to make it into adulthood.  Hear Robert's tale of losing a father to an assassination, three brothers to disease and locking hi...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone has heard of the Bermuda Triangle, but how much do you know about the Lake Michigan Triangle? Since the 1600's the third largest Great Lake has experienced thousands of shipwrecks, deaths and missing persons. Some of these events can be explained, some can't. In this episode, Nathan discusses a few of the moments that made believers out of some skeptics.  Suppor...

Send us Fan Mail I've failed at teaching my children the benefit of having a strong work ethic, opting to do the chores myself so they'll be done the way I like them done.  That's what led me to researching the types of horrible, dangerous jobs that kids from four-years-old to sixteen did in previous centuries.  How were people okay with kids spending 12 hours a day in coal mines or...

Send us Fan Mail Warning: The content within this episode may be disturbing to younger listeners. Elmer McCurdy failed miserably at being an outlaw. He made a much bigger impact on people after he died.  Find out how the 31-year-old train robber became a nationwide sensation after being gunned down by sheriffs in a hayshed. From wanted posters to carnival sideshows, this is the crazy life and craz...

Send us Fan Mail In Episode 11, Nathan discusses the current common school drills before taking a look at what things were like in the 1950's under threat of nuclear war. It may have been a scary time but at least they had mascots and fun videos to watch.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail It's reported that nearly 600,000 people are reported missing every year. That's over 1,600 a day. While many of those reports end up cancelled, too many don't and in some cases those loved ones are never heard from again.   Curator #135 was reminded of a missing person's case in his hometown of Livonia, MI in 1994 involving a 4-year-old boy named D'Wan Si...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Curator #135 takes a look at superstitions. Where they come from, which countries have the wackiest ones and why do South Koreans fear ceiling fans... How did the car game of 'Padiddle' lead to his own weird OCD superstition?   Support the show