15: Episode 15: Transatlantic Halloween: Coffin Dolls and Headless Horsemen

The Past and Stuff

In this episode Tracey will terrify you all with her Stuff in News, that new footprint evidence that shows that those 10ft tall, 30 mph, huge beaked ‘terror birds’ had another deadly weapon in their arsenal - deadly sharp killer claws. Meanwhile, by our usual neat unplanned synchronicity, Ashley’s Stuff in the News reveals that experts have found that to animals in South Africa the sound of our voices are more terrifying than a lion’s roar. In our pieces of stuff this week we both explore the spooky early nineteenth century, Tracey discusses the mysterious coffin dolls found on Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh and adds her own unique take to the seven other explanations for them, which include a serial killer’s mementoes. Ashley spins off from a discussion of an 1685 Dutch Reformed church bell, in colonial Sleepy Hollow to discuss Washington Irving, author, ambassador, Christmas traditions influencer, and biographer of Washington, Columbus and the Prophet Muhammad.
Tracey’s Stuff in the News
Riley Black, “What made ‘terror birds’ so terrifying? New fossil prints reveal killer claws,” National Geographic, Oct 12, 2023 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/prehistoric-terror-bird-new-fossil-prints-reveal-killer-claws
Wikipedia, “Phorusrhacidae,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae
Ashley’s Stuff in the News:
Muthoni Muchiri, “South Africa’s Kruger National Park Study: Animals Fear Human Voices More than Lions,” BBC News, October 6, 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67023033.
Zanette, Liana Y. et al. “Fear of the Human ‘Super Predator’ Pervades the South African Savanna.’ Current Biology 33 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.08.089.
Tracey’s Piece of Stuff:
Mike Dash, “Edinburgh’s Mysterious Miniature Coffins,” Smithsonian Magazine, April 15, 2013. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/edinburghs-mysterious-miniature-coffins-22371426/
Scottish History and Archaeology, “The Mystery of the Miniature Coffins,” National Museums Scotland https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/scottish-history-and-archaeology/mystery-of-the-miniature-coffins/
The Newsroom, “Buried Secrets of the City Murder Dolls,” December 2nd, 2005. https://www.scotsman.com/news/buried-secrets-of-the-city-murder-dolls-2465728
The Newsroom, “Author claims to have solved Edinburgh coffin-doll mystery,” April 18, 2018 https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/author-claims-to-have-solved-edinburgh-coffin-doll-mystery-1430490
Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned (1919)
Wikipedia, The Radical War, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_War
Wikipedia, Charles Fort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fort

Ashley’s Piece of Stuff:
Amy Tikkanen, “Reformed Church in America,” Encyclopedia Britannica, July 7, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Reformed-Church-in-America.
Hoffman, Daniel G. “Irving’s Use of American Folklore in ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.’” PMLA 68, no. 3 (1953): 425-35.
Molly Fitzpatrick, “The Headless Horseman Industrial Complex: How Sleepy Hollow and the River Towns of New York City Went All In on Halloween,” New York Times, October 11, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/nyregion/halloween-sleepy-hollow-headless-horseman.html.
“Old Dutch Church,” Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns, https://reformedchurchtarrytowns.org/old-dutch-church/.
Henry Steiner, “History of the Village,” Village of Sleepy Hollow, New York, https://www.sleepyhollowny.gov/discover-sleepy-hollow-ny/pages/history-of-the-village.
Also referenced by Ashley: Hurren, Elizabeth. “Dissecting Jack-the-Ripper: An Anatomy of Murder in the Metropolis.” Crime, History & Societies 20, no. 2 (2016): 5-30.