When a Final Wish Became a Circus: The Story of the Sunshine Woman

When a Final Wish Became a Circus: The Story of the Sunshine Woman

This week’s story is the bizarre true tale of Leila Davidson Hansell, known as "The Sunshine Woman," and the controversy surrounding her final resting place in Hendersonville, NC.

Leila's final wish upon her death in 1915 was to be buried above ground in a unique mausoleum topped with 147 squares of prism glass, designed to let the sun shine down on her remains. For over two decades, her glass-topped tomb became a must-see tourist attraction, fueled by a 1926 newspaper article that confirmed the skeleton could, indeed, be seen through the glass, contrary to the designer’s adamant denials.

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Avsnitt(603)

The Whiskey Rebellion

The Whiskey Rebellion

In 1794, thousands of federalized militia marched into western Pennsylvania to put down an uprising by American farmers. Their crime? Making whiskey and refusing to pay a federal tax on it.The Whiskey...

22 Aug 29min

Old Dill Asher: The Kentucky Pioneer Who Became a Legend

Old Dill Asher: The Kentucky Pioneer Who Became a Legend

Dillion “Old Dill” Asher was one of the early pioneers of southeastern Kentucky, a frontier soldier and farmer who became the toll keeper at the Cumberland River ford at what’s now Pineville, giving h...

15 Aug 14min

The Frontier's Most Dangerous Woman: The Story of Nancy Hart

The Frontier's Most Dangerous Woman: The Story of Nancy Hart

In 1779, on the Georgia frontier, a group of armed Loyalist soldiers forced their way into Nancy Hart's cabin, demanding a hot meal from a helpless woman and her daughter.Instead, they found themselve...

8 Aug 15min

The Taylor-Mullins Feud: The Road to the Killing Rock

The Taylor-Mullins Feud: The Road to the Killing Rock

The infamous Killing Rock massacre ended with the deaths of a moonshiner and his wife and several of their friends on a mountain along the Virginia-Kentucky border. It began years earlier with a lawsu...

1 Aug 22min

Franklin's Last Battle: Sevier's Attack at Flint Creek

Franklin's Last Battle: Sevier's Attack at Flint Creek

In the winter of 1789, Cherokee war leader John Watts made a daring decision. Instead of returning to the Chickamauga towns as he usually did for the winter, he established a hidden winter camp deep i...

25 Juli 21min

47 Years a Hermit: The Strange Afterlife of William Hewitt

47 Years a Hermit: The Strange Afterlife of William Hewitt

In the late 1780s a man from Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, William Hewitt, crossed the Ohio River seeking to find solitude in the Appalachian wilderness after heartbreak changed his life forever. Livi...

18 Juli 15min

The Untamable Monster Well of 1894: Big Moses

The Untamable Monster Well of 1894: Big Moses

In September 1894, a routine drilling operation on a Tyler County, West Virginia, farm broke into a massive natural gas pocket, unleashing one of the most powerful and uncontrollable wells the world h...

11 Juli 14min

The Devil in the Mountains- The Story of Vincent "Clawhammer" Witcher

The Devil in the Mountains- The Story of Vincent "Clawhammer" Witcher

Vincent “Clawhammer” Witcher became one of the most feared Confederate guerrilla leaders along the Virginia/Kentucky border in the Civil War.  As the leader of what was called “Witcher’s Boys, he oper...

4 Juli 32min

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