The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

Thomas Lake Harris channeled the greatest poets in history to produce some of the worst poetry you've ever read... and then those same poets told him he was the new Messiah, who would unite the physical and spiritual worlds and usher in a new cycle of the ages. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/with-fairies-wise/ Key sources for this episode include Adam Morris's American Messiahs: False Prophets...

In 1975, an idealistic Soviet political officer decided it was time to restart the Communist Revolution, and that the best way to do that was by fomenting mutiny on a state-of-the-art anti-submarine destroyer with nuclear capabilities. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/mutiny-on-the-storozhevoy/ Presented by #42, Alex Baumans. Alex is pathologically interested in anything unusual and obscure. He'...

As part of its centennial celebration in 1970 the Museum of Fine Arts Boston acquired a spectacular trove of golden bronze age jewelry... The problem was they had no idea where it came from and showed no interest in finding out. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/all-that-glitters Key sources for this episode include articles published by Cornelius Vermeule III and Emily Vermuele in Horizon and th...

Thanks to a chance meeting on a train James Mellaart stumbled across a treasure trove that challenged everything we knew about ancient Anatolia... only to be left holding the bag when it disappeared under mysterious circumstances. (Or maybe he just made it all up.) https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/not-science-but-vendetta/ Key sources for this episode include Kenneth Pearson and Patricia Connor'...

In 1897 "the Reverend Electrolycist" Prescott Ford Jernegan claimed he could extract gold from seawater for pennies on the dollar. It was a classic something for nothing scam... So why did so many people fall for it? https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/theres-gold-in-them-thar-waves Key sources for this episode include Carl Sifakis's Hoaxes and Scams: A Compendium of Deceptions, Ruses, and Swindles...

Dr. Walter Siegmeister believed we could create a psychic master race by taking off our clothes, moving to the jungle, and consuming only fruit and megadoses of lecithin. And that wasn't even the weirdest thing about him. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/they-came-from-inner-space/ Key sources for this episode include Walter Siegmeister's The Hollow Earth: The Greatest Geographical Discovery in...

Come for the strange, sad, and hate-filled story of the Q Shaman of 1940: Elwood Towner, a.k.a. "Chief Red Cloud," who spoke at Nazi rallies in full Native American ceremonial regalia. Stay to hear #13 gets angry and go off the rails. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/kulopus/ Key sources for this episode include Arnie Bernstein's Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-Am...

In February 1973, French right wingers broke into the grave of of fascist dictator Philippe Pétain and made off with his mortal remains. This is the tragicomic story of what led them to that moment... and what happened afterwards.  https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-marshal-is-missing/ Key sources for this episode include Jean-Yves La Naour's On a volé le Maréchal ; Michel Dumas' La permission...

She was the meandering metropolitan mystery, the famous will-o'-the-wisp of the continent, who fooled police and the public from Abilene to Akron. Who was this mysterious and alluring woman, and why did she love bread so much?  https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/fluffy-raffles-comes-to-town Thanks to the initiates who contributed their voices to this episode, including Dorothy Sibole (#7), Eric Le...

In 1903 Pennsylvania found the recipe for disaster: two of the greatest political cartoonists of the day, and an easily caricatured governor with no sense of humor. Their battle went to some...u unexpected places. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/unhuman-animals Key sources for this episode include... Stephen Piott's "The Right of the Cartoonist: Samuel Pennypacker and the Freedom of the Press,"...

Milton D. Hays had two things: a dream of a railroad linking Pittsburgh to the coal fields of southwestern Pennsylvania, and a lack of ethics that would allow him to realize that dream. This is the story of the Castle Shannon Railway War. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/such-was-railroading Key sources for this episode include contemporary newspaper reports; the Bridgeville Area Historical Soci...

Octavius Valentine Catto was truly a man for all seasons: scholar, activist, politician, baseball star. He could have been the inspiring black leader Reconstruction-era Philadelphia needed... if he hadn't been murdered. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/there-must-come-a-change Key sources for this episode include Daniel Biddle and Murray Dubin's T asting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle fo...

The Tsarevich Dmitry Ivanovich died from an accidental self-inflicted knife wound in 1591... but that didn't stop him from popping up to try and reclaim his throne in 1604. And 1607. And 1611. And 1612. And... https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/samozvantsy Key sources for this episode include Chester S.L. Dunning's Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Romanov Dynasty ; Maureen Pe...

War! The balance of power in the Cola Wars has been shifting for years. In a stunning move, Coke has swept into NASA and is about to send its signature beverage into orbit... but not if the underdogs at Pepsi have anything to say about it... https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-choice-of-the-next-generation/ Key sources for this episode include Charles T. Bourland and Gregory L. Vogt's The Astro...

New Age types keep saying that there are twelve planets. Where does that number come from, and what are these three extra planets supposed to be? (Plus: a detour to the world of ancient astronauts.) https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-number-of-the-stars/ Key sources for this episode include Gottfried de Purucker's Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy and The Fountain-Source of Occultism ; G...

Everybody always asks, "If this is the future, where's my jetpack?" but only Richard Timewell was bold enough to do something about it. And by "do something" I mean "sell jetpacks through the mail." https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/your-eyebrows-will-grow-back/ Presented by #42 (Alex Baumans): Pathologically interested in anything unusual and obscure. Closet goth, armchair general and amateur th...

Helen Duncan was the last person persecuted in Britain for being a witch. Except she wasn't the last, she wasn't a witch, and she wasn't exactly persecuted either... https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/deeply-impressed/ Key sources for this episode include  C.E. Bechhofer Roberts' The Trial of Mrs. Duncan ; Gena Brealey and Kay Hunter's The Two Worlds of Helen Duncan ; Harry Price's Leaves of a Psy...

George Gray Barnard's sculptures have been installed in front of the Pennsylvania State Capitol since 1911... but the story of their creation is a long and tortured one, featuring the strangest act of self-censorship you'll ever see. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/cloud-dongs/ Key sources for this episode include Dan Williams' "George Grey Barnard"; Ingrid Steffensen's "Toward an Iconography o...

The Sanctified Band was driven from their homes on Chincoteague Island, forced to live in floating arks, and persecuted up and down the Eastern Seaboard... and all they really wanted was freedom to worship as they pleased. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/wild-frantics/ Key sources for this episode include Harry J. Collins, Jr. and Floyd L. Hagan, Sr.'s History of Christ's Santified Holy Church...

This week we wrap up our look into Confederate skulduggery with a grab bag of smaller plots: Staging fake peace conferences at Niagara Falls! Robbing banks in Vermont! Burning New York! Kidnapping the vice president!  https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/surprised-and-excited/ (This episode is the third and final part of Rapscallions!, a series about Confederate cloak-and-dagger operations in the fi...

The only thing standing between John Yates Beall and the Confederate prisoners-of-war on Johnson's Island was the USS Michigan... Well, that and a terrible con man and the cowardice of his own men. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/resist-at-your-peril/ (This episode is part two of Rapscallions!, a three-part series about Confederate cloak-and-dagger operations in the final year of the Civil War....

Thomas Henry Hines had a cunning plan to free Confederate prisoners-of-war and break the Northwest off of the Union. All he needed were sixty good men, fifty footsoldiers, and friends on the inside. Too bad none of those groups existed. https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/patience-is-sour/ (This episode is part one of Rapscallions!, a three-part series about Confederate cloak-and-dagger operations...

Legend says Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury (1661-1723) was New York's worst governor: a nepo baby failson; a bully and bigot; a corrupt spendthrift; a sex pest with an ear fetish. Was he really all that awful? And was he actually a transvestite? https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/universally-detested/ Key sources for this episode include Patricia Bonomi's The Lord Cornbury Scandal: The Politics of Rep...

This errata contains corrections, clarifications, and discussion of the following episodes: The Hot House Bound in Mystery and Shadow Exceeding Great The Spirit of Capitalism Made Flesh Suffer Little Children Scarlet Billows A Warning To Future Man 520% Unto Us A Child Is Born Errata #3 Fruitcake Subculture Conspiracy Revisited The Realest Housewife of Beverly Hills The First Battle of the America...

For our milestone episode #100 we contemplate one of the most confounding conundrums of our age... How old is Charo, really? 00:00 Intro 00:32 Banter 02:00 Nothing But A Number 02:32 God I Feel Old 05:09 All That Matters is How Young Your Feel 07:44 I Don't Actually Care 10:28 Sources 10:48 Special Thanks 12:56 Outro Key sources for this episode include Wikipedia and contemporary newspaper reports...