Tourist Trap

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Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history is an open book, All of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Midnight release parties, book-themed Halloween costumes, author tour events, people have always found ways to pay homage to their favorite works of fiction.

Sometimes they even travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to see the place that inspired their favorite works, or in the case of one 18th century protagonist, her untimely death.

In the late 1800s, a family of mourners gathered around a headstone at Trinity Church graveyard in New York City.

A mother wept as her teenage daughter laid a small bundle of flowers on the long gray stone slab that marked the grave.

The stone was already decorated with other small bouquets and cards, gifts from other mourners. The family commented on how nice it was that so many people had come to pay their respects.

In fact, this was the most visited grave at Trinity Church. Well-wishers from all over the country came to visit the burial plot.

Not because the person lying beneath the stone slab was a political hero or an industrial pioneer. No, she was the protagonist of a novel called Charlotte, A Tale of Truth.

The book was written by Susannah Rauson and published in 1791. It was a bit melodramatic, but a tearjerker all the same.

It followed 16-year-old Charlotte Temple, who was seduced by a villainous villainous playboy named Lord Montreville.

He brought her to America, then abandoned her to marry another woman and fight with the British in the Revolutionary War. Penniless and alone, Charlotte soon learned that she was pregnant.

Her father arrived in New York hoping to find and save Charlotte, only to learn that he was too late. She had died shortly after childbirth.
And Americans loved the novel. At the time, the U.S.

was a brand new nation as wide-eyed and vulnerable as Charlotte herself. Something about her ordeal after being betrayed by a powerful Englishman resonated with them.

Charlotte became the best-selling novel in the U.S. for more than 50 years until the release of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852.
Now, here's the kicker.

The author, Susannah Rauson, always said that the book was based on a real person, even though multiple historians in the 1800s disputed that fact.

Then one day in the 1850s, visitors to the Trinity Church in New York City noticed a simple weathered grave in the corner of the churchyard with the name Charlotte Temple etched into the stone.

One of the visitors asked the nearest groundskeeper if the grave belonged to the Charlotte Temple, and the groundskeeper said yes, that it was in fact her tomb.

Word spread like wildfire that the real Charlotte Temple was buried there at Trinity Church, and soon Charlotte's grave became a tourist attraction.

Groundskeepers were peppered with questions about Charlotte, but they knew nothing about her as a person.

At one point, Charlotte's grave was the most popular site in Trinity Church, even more than the graves of founding fathers like Alexander Hamilton and James Monroe.

Charlotte's headstone remained an attraction until the book fell out of popularity in the 20th century, but even today, those who know its history stop by to see the grave while visiting the church.

Except, there's just one problem with Charlotte's grave. In 2008, the Trinity Archives team received permission to lift the stone slab and see if there was a burial vault underneath.

But all they found was packed dirt. So they inserted a scope into the ground to find any remains that might be resting in the plot, and again they came up empty.

Soon the team was able to conclude that nobody, and especially not Charlotte Temple, was buried beneath the gravestone. That probably, that the grave was a hoax.
Which makes sense.

It was first noticed in the 1850s, not long after the current Trinity Church was rebuilt, and it's made from the exact same brownstone as the new building.

One archivist suspects that Charlotte's grave was crafted by one of the stonecutters. Maybe he intended for the gravestone to be a small tribute to the book he loved.

But archivist Catherine Hurwitz has another theory. In the 1840s, tourism as a business was just beginning, and a lot of New York residents were looking to profit from this budding industry.

Hurwitz wonders if the grave was created by someone looking to sell tourism maps with Charlotte's grave listed as an attraction. Given how popular the site became, the hoax clearly worked.

We'll likely never know who planted the fake grave that drew so many unsuspecting fans, but for the time being, Trinity Church intends on keeping the grave where it's at.

It might be a work of fiction, but just like Charlotte Temple, it's a good story worth keeping around.

This episode is sponsored by Capital One. With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One.

If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums, he'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs.

Yep, even on weekends. It's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way.
What's in your wallet? Terms apply, see capital1.com/slash bank, capital One NA member FDIC.

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Today we're traveling back in time to the 1790s in Lyon, France, to a man whose hunger never ceased. In fact, his biology has given rise to one of the most curious medical mysteries in history.

Although his true name is lost to time, the man is now known as Terare.

The name is thought to be a reference to the loud explosions of cannons during military military parades.

Tarare's powerful farts reminded people of this sound, and that was actually one of the less remarkable things about him.

He also had a massive mouth that stretched so far across his face that he didn't even really have lips. This gaping maw led to his stomach, which hung loose around him, except for when he ate.

You see, Tarare was always hungry. He could down an entire barrel of apples, swallowing each one whole and still be ready for more.

He ate as much much meat as he could get his hands on, fighting with dogs for the scraps outside of butcher shops.

He would even eat wood chunks or corks if he couldn't get his hands on any actual food. After he ate, his belly would distend like a balloon and he would fall into a deep sleep.

His entire body would become drenched with sweat and a thick pungent vapor would literally rise up off of him. The smell was so bad that no one could stand to be within 60 feet of the guy.

Once Tarare's horrible meals had finished digesting, he would emit what has been described as a nightmarish diarrhea for several minutes before getting back up and looking for more food.

When the French military got word of this strange man, they decided to press him into service.

They had him swallow a wooden box with secret orders written inside, and then they sent him into Germany to contact French troops there.

This ended up being a terrible idea though, as Tarare didn't speak German, so he was immediately discovered as a spy, captured, and beaten.

The Germans did eventually let him go, realizing he knew very little about his government's plans.

Once back in France, Tarare was traumatized enough by the experience to finally seek help for his medical condition. Doctors were shocked to find that Tarare was truly capable of eating anything.

So they tried giving him the only appetite suppressants that they knew of at the time, which included common things like tobacco and eggs, and some stranger things like opium and various kinds of acid.

None None of these things worked though, and Tarare was slowly becoming a problem around the hospital. Eventually, the rumors became too terrible and he had to flee the hospital.

He was heard from just once more a few years later when he checked into a different hospital with new, worsening symptoms. He became very weak and for once, he couldn't eat at all.

He started to have seemingly endless diarrhea, which continued until he finally passed away. He was just 26 years old.
The autopsy revealed that Tarare's organs were all much larger than normal.

His body cavity was also filled with some kind of putrid substance that kept doctors from being able to explore much further. It was as if he had rotted away much more quickly than a normal corpse.

Today, doctors do acknowledge that Tarare's case is well documented enough to be taken as legitimate history.

Although many of the rumors about the things that he did eat have no evidence to back them up.

The most likely explanation for his condition is some kind of brain disorder that led him to be constantly hungry. All his other characteristics were likely secondary to this.

His massive mouth and stomach possibly stretched over time to accommodate his lifestyle.

And the toxicity that seemed to permeate his body was probably a result of him eating tons of absolutely disgusting things, from rotting animal carcasses to actual feces.

Unlike Tarare's hunger, I'm guessing that everyone's curiosity is probably satiated for the day.

I want you to be thankful the next time you have a a meal and feel full, but I'm probably sure that none of us want to think about this story ever again. Especially while we're eating.

I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts or learn more about the show by visiting CuriositiesPodcast.com.

The show was created by me, Aaron Mankey, in partnership with How Stuff Works. I make another award-winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show.

And you can learn all about it over at theworldoflore.com. And until next time, stay curious.

This episode is sponsored by Capital One. With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One.

If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs.

Yep, even on weekends. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way.
What's in your wallet? Terms apply, see capital1.com/slash bank, capital One NA, member FDIC. This is an iHeart podcast.

Guaranteed human.