The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

07/02/2025

Folks! This is TOMORROW! When will you ever get another chance to hear me live and unedited? Or the story of the Electrolytic Marine Salts Company?

03/02/2025

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 Astronaut's Cookbook; David H. Harland's The Story of the Space Shuttle; Tony Reichart's Space Shuttle: The First 20 Years; numerous patent applications; and contemporary newspaper reports.

28/01/2025

Intelligent Speech 2025 “Deception”, is taking place Saturday, February 8th 2025 9 am Eastern, 6 am Pacific, 2 pm London time. You can attend the event live or catch up […]

16/01/2025

(January 16) in 1795 Carl Christian Rafn is born in Denmark. Rafn is best known for his hypothesis that the Vikings had colonized the New World hundreds of years before other Europeans. Rafin was 100% correct...
..but his specific claims were 100% wrong. He believed that Bristol, RI was the site of Vinland; that the Newport Tower was a Norse-style church; that the Fall River skeleton was Thorvald Eriksson; and that Dighton Rock was covered with runes.

Despite less-than-convincing evidence, the idea was wildly popular in New England. For more than a century Yankee cranks searched vainly for Vinland, and only gave up in the 1960s when actual Viking ruins were discovered in Newfoundland.

(For more fun with fake "Viking relics" in the New World, check out our Westward Huss series: https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/westward-huss-new-england/)

For years, archaeologists have searched in vain for the location of Leif Eriksson's Vinland. They should have just asked the good people of New England.

14/01/2025

(January 14) in 1945, retired burlesque comedian Billy Watson is killed by a gas leak at his home in Lake Como, NJ.

During his career he was famous for two things.

First, for feuding with another comedian over the name "Billy Watson," which led to our Billy being billed as "Original" Billy Watson and the other being billed as "Sliding" Billy Watson. (The irony, of course, is that "Original" Billy Watson was not actually Billy Watson at all. his real name was Isaac Levie and he stole the name from a third comedian!)

The second was his back-up act: "The Beef Trust," a chorus line of obese women. The act appealed to old-timers who prefered a zaftig body type, as well as the finicky fetishists who were quickly becoming burlesque’s primary audience. Watson made bank with the Beef Trust, and eventually retired to manage his real estate investments. He licensed out the rights to the Beef Trust act, which continued to do well until the burlesque circuit finally died.

(This is an extremely condensed version of the episode "The Spirit of Capitalism Made Flesh": https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-spirit-of-capitalism-made-flesh/)

A fun night out at the theater featuring ethnic jokes, slapstick violence, a sappy moral, three tons of feminine pulchritude, and a dead cat.

13/01/2025

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; Govert Schilling's The Hunt for Planet X: New Worlds and the Fate of Pluto; Maureen Temple Richmond's "The Threefold Rulership System in Esoteric Astrology"; Michael Heiser's website sitchiniswrong.com; and the collected works of Zecharia Sitchin.

This week we're promoting our friends the Paranoid Strain, where the Fearful Jesuit and Dana Unicorn explain why so many people believe ridiculous conspiracy theories. https://www.theparanoidstrain.com/

I'll be presenting at the Intelligent Speech conference on February 8, 2025! Register now at https://intelligentspeechonline.com/ and get 10% off with the promo code JACKALOPE!

27/12/2024

(December 27) in 1894 John Blymire is born in York, PA. His family are prosperous farmers and also known to be powerful brauchers, practitioners of the folk magic known locally as pow-wow.

At first it appears John is going to follow in his family's footsteps, but as a teenager he seemingly loses his powers and goes on a quest to regain them. Eventually he comes to believe he has been cursed by a fellow braucher, the reclusive Nelson Rehmeyer.

On November 25, 1928 Blymire and two teenage accomplices call on Rehmeyer, beat him to death, and then try to burn down his the house to cover their tracks. It doesn't work, and they are soon arrested and put on trial for murder.

The resulting trial is an embarrassment to local officials who fear it makes York look backwards and superstitious. All mention of pow-wow and witchcraft is forbidden in the courtroom. The three murderers are convicted and spend years in prison.

Blymire's sentence is commuted in 1953 and he is paroled shortly thereafter. He died in 1972, having never recovered his supposed mystical abilities.

(You can learn more about the whole strange story in our episode "Bound in Mystery and Shadow": https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/bound-in-mystery-and-shadow/)

25/12/2024

(December 25) in 1824 Joseph Morris is born in Burwardsley, Chestershire, England. He becomes an early convert to Mormonism and emigrates to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1853.

Morris's his holier-than-though attitude quickly earns him the nickname "Praying Joe" and an excommunication from the Mormon church. Morris begins preaching that Christ will return on December 31, 1861 to smite the Mormons. Only his followers will be saved.

A small group of Morrisites holes up in Kington Fort to wait out the apocalypse, and settle into an armed standoff with the territorial government. After months of armed conflict they surrender on June 15, 1862... and Morris himself is summarily executed by overzealous Mormon militiamen.

The surviving Morrisites flee the Utah territory spread out over the west, and start their own Mormon splinter groups. Some of which got quite weird indeed.

(Learn more about the whole sad story in our episode "Unto Us A Child Is Born": https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/unto-us-a-child-is-born/)

23/12/2024

2025 Keynote Speakers Intelligent Speech brings you an online conference that connects diverse and independent content creators with their audiences. See all speakers Wesley LivesayHost of the History of the Second World War and History of the Great War Podcasts Find out more Otto EnglishHost of the...

23/12/2024

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 theologian. Favorite animals are ducks, octopodes and pigs. You will also find me surprisingly knowledgable about K-Pop girl groups.

Key sources for this episode include contemporary newspaper reports, with some added material from the Secret Projects forum.

I'll be presenting at the Intelligent Speech conference on February 8, 2025! Register now at https://intelligentspeechonline.com/ and get 10% off with the promo code JACKALOPE!

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope is a secret society devoted to sharing strange stories and amazing facts. No topic is off limits -- if it's interesting or entertaining, we'll do an episode about it!

02/12/2024

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 Psychist's Case-Book; Marion Gibson's Witchcraft: A Story in Thirteen Trials; Paul Tabori's Harry Price: The Biography of a Ghost Hunter; Ruth Paley and Simon Fowler's Family Skeletons: Exploring the Lives of Our Disreputable Ancestors; and contemporary newspaper reports.

25/11/2024

(November 25) in 1899 the Franklin Syndicate collapses.

For eighteen months the Syndicate, run by William F. Miller ("the Boy Napoleon of Finance"), has been promising a 10% weekly return on investments . The offer seems too good to be true and thousands of people have taken him up on it.

It was too good to be true: no actual investments were being made, and new deposits were being used to pay the interest owed to existing accounts. Once the number of new investors slows down, the whole scheme collapses overnight.

Miller cuts his losses and flee to Canada. He entrusts his ill-gotten gains to a lawyer, Colonel Robert Ammon, who double-crosses Miller so he can keep everything for himself. The resulting court cases take years to resolve and both men go to prison.

Decades later their exploits inspire young Italian immigrant Carlo Ponzi to refine and perfect the scheme, which now bears his name.

(You can hear the whole sordid story in the episode "520%": https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/520-percent/)

25/11/2024

I suppose I should actually show you what George Gray Barnard's sculpture groups for the Pennsylvania State Capitol actually look like, huh?

https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/a-palace-of-the-arts/

11/11/2024

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 of a State Capitol: The Art and Architecture of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg"; Ruth Hoover Seitz's Pennsylvania's Capitol; Samuel W. Pennypacker's The Desecration and Profanation of the Pennsylvania Capitol; the catalog of Pennsylvania State University's George Grey Barnard: Centenary Exhibition; the proceedings of the Dedication Ceremonies of the Barnard Statues, State Capitol Building, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Oct 4, 1911; and contemporary newspaper reports.

04/11/2024

(November 4) in 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross and Miriam Amanda "Ma" Ferguson are elected to be the first women governors in the United States of America.

There is some debate over which one gets to be the first. Texas says Ferguson is first, because their pollslosed earlier. Wyoming says Ross is first, because she was sworn into office earlier.

Neither campaign was exactly inspiring. Ross was a widow picked as an emergency replacement for her late husband; Ferguson was a proxy for her corrupt husband who was prohibited from holding state office.

Nor was either effective in office.

Still, someone has to be first!

(We told the whole story in the episode "Run the World": https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/run-the-world/)

21/10/2024

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; Kirk Mariner's Once Upon an Island: The Story of Chincoteague; Vinson Synan's The Holiness-Pentecostal Movement in the United States; and contemporary newspaper reports.

This week we're promoting our friends the Apocrypals -- a podcast where two non-believers read through the Bible but try not to be jerks about it. Join comics writers Benito Cereno and Chris Sims as they journey through the Good Book from Acts to Zephaniah, with stops in the Apocrypha along the way.https://apocrypals.libsyn.com

20/10/2024

On This Day (October 20) in 1864, the British "extreme clipper" Sea King stops in Madeira for coaling, where she is sold to the Confederate States of America and transformed into the Confederacy's final commerce raider: the CSS Shenandoah.

For the next year the Shenandoah is the terror of the Seven Seas, capturing dozens of ships and crippling the whaling industry. In one week alone they capture over twenty-five ships in the Arctic Ocean.

Alas most of those prizes are taken after the Confederacy falls, making them illegitimate. The Shenandoah has been just ahead of the news for months, and when it finally catches up to them they have a major freakout.

(We discussed the strange round-the-world voyage of the Shenandoah in the episode "The Sea King." https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-sea-king/)

10/10/2024

On This Day (October 10) in 1774, a militia commanded by Colonel Andrew Lewis defeats an army of Shawnee braves at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers, the site of modern-day Point Pleasant, WV.

The battle rages all day, and Virginians' losses are terrible; some 75 are killed and another 140 are wounded. The Shawnee only lose 40 braves but fail to dislodge the Virginians, who are soon reinforced.

The Battle of Point Pleasant is the only major military action of Lord Dunmore's War, which establishes a fragile peace along the frontier which is then blown up six months later by the start of the American Revolution.

(We discuss Lord Dunmore's War and the Battle of Point Pleasant in "The First Battle of the American Revolution." https://order-of-the-jackalope.com/the-first-battle-of-the-american-revolution/)