In 1935 a shark in an Australian aquarium vomited up a human forearm, a bizarre turn of events that sparked a confused murder investigation. This week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast presents two cases in which a shark supplied key evidence of a human crime.
We'll also learn about the Paris Herald's obsession with centigrade temperature, revisit the scary travel writings of Victorian children's author Favell Lee Mortimer, and puzzle over an unavenged killing at a sporting event.
Sources for our feature on the shark arm affair:
Andrew Tink, Australia 1901-2001: A Narrative History, 2014.
Dictionary of Sydney, "Shark Arm murder 1935," accessed March 5, 2015.
"Arm-Eating Shark Bares Weird Killing," Pittsburgh Press, July 9, 1935.
"Shark Gives Up Clue to Murder," Milwaukee Journal, July 9, 1935.
"'Shark Arm' Murder Mystery Still Baffles Australian Police," Toledo Blade, Dec. 14, 1952.
The 1799 episode of the Nancy's forged papers appears in (of all places!) Allan McLane Hamilton's 1910 biography The Intimate Life of Alexander Hamilton (Hamilton appeared for the United Insurance Company in the case). It's confirmed in Xavier Maniguet's 2007 book The Jaws of Death: Sharks as Predator, Man as Prey. Apparently both the "shark papers" and the shark's jaws were put on public display afterward and are now in the keeping of the Institute of Jamaica; I gather the case made a sensation at the time but has largely been forgotten.
Sources for our feature on James Gordon Bennett and the "Old Philadelphia Lady":
The International New York Times, "Oct. 5, 1947: Old Philadelphia Lady Said It 6,718 Times," Oct. 14, 2013.
James B. Townsend, "J.Gordon Bennett, Editor by Cable," New York Times, May 19, 1918.
Mark Tungate, Media Monoliths, 2005.
This week's lateral thinking puzzle was submitted by listener Lily Geller, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle).
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