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Private Notes
A New Jersey man hanged in 1833 whose skin was cut up and made into wallets; people in Tennessee who claim to be descendants of the first American settlers called Melungeons; nuclear bunkers left over from the Cold War era; and a Florida retirement community for former circus sideshow freaks.
Unusual vacation destinations are spotlighted: above-ground tombs and a brief history of voodoo in New Orleans; a million dollar replica (in miniature) of the White House in Clermont, FL; a ventriloquists convention in Las Vegas; and a modern-day side show in a trip to Coney Island.
Unusual means of spiritual enlightenment are profiled: an adobe shrine in California; the Grotto of the Redemption shrine, made partly of geodes, in Iowa; and the Unarius Academy of Science where they're awaiting the arrival of their space "brothers", complete with a model of their headquarters on Uranus.
Mark and Mark visit a pirate museum to learn about Blackbeard and the search for his head; Key West's attempted secession from the union to become the Conch Republic; San Francisco's Joshua Norton, America's only (self-proclaimed) emperor; and the attempt by war hero Smedley Butler to oust F.D.R.
Stories of crime and punishment, including an annual Louisiana reenactment of Bonnie and Clyde's death, an Arizona chain gang where the criminals are forced to wear pink underwear, a Texas town that holds nine state prisons, a Philadelphia jail built by Quakers, and the career of robber and escape artist Willie Sutton.
Examining strange graves and death rituals, including preservation of bodies through cryonics for possible future resurrection.
When it comes to American history, how do you go about separating fact from fiction? Did President Harding really die of a heart attack, or was he murdered? Did Aaron Burr really try to create a separate country in the American Southwest? Did the CIA really spend millions of dollars on psychic research?
Strange houses and the strange people who built them.
