White House Hauntings

The White House has a long and storied history, first occupied by John Adams in 1800 and rebuilt after the British burned it down in 1814. Forty-three presidents have called 1600 Pennsylvania Ave home, and according to some reports, some never left. The White House is well known for being haunted by at least a few Presidents, first ladies, and others closely associated with the building. I'm just going to take a look at a few of them. One that takes place on the grounds of the White House is The Rose Garden. Dolly Madison first planted the beautiful garden in the early 1800's and it's been around since, because that's the way Dolly likes it! First Lady Ellen Wilson apparently didn't care for the garden and asked that it be dug up. The workers didn't ever finish the job since they claimed Dolly herself prevented them from hurting her precious garden. Apparently the workers were more scared of Dead Dolly than Ellen Wilson, because the Rose Garden is still here today. Workers inside the White House often speak of the smell of roses present in unusual areas of the building. Perhaps it is a warning to all that live in the White House that Dolly Madison will go full on War of 1812 on you if you mess with her roses.

Family and friends of the First Family stay in various bedrooms on the second floor. Many ghostly encounters have been reported from these rooms. One couple staying at the White House claimed to see a British soldier trying to set fire to their bed. Lyndon Johnson's daughter once claimed she spotted the ghost of Lincoln's son Willie, who had died in the very room she was staying in. Screams heard in the rooms have been attributed to Grover Cleveland's wife, the first woman to give birth in the White House. After renovations in the fifties, ghostly claims had fallen significantly in this area of the house.

The East Room is said to be haunted by Abigail Adam's ghost. When she lived in the White House, she used to do laundry in the East Room, which explains why when people see her ghost, they describe her as having her arms outstretched in front of her, as if holding a laundry basket. Sightings of Abigail were abundant during the Taft administration, but her ghost was also seen by a group of tourists in 2002. The Rose Bedroom is a popular spot to see Andrew Jackson, or at least hear him laugh heartily or swear loudly. Seeing as it's Jackson's old bedroom, it's easy to see why he'd show up here. There's even an infamous cold spot located in the canopy bed Jackson slept in. Perhaps the most famous ghost that wasn't part of the Presidential family is that of David Burns, the man who had to give up his land in 1790 to make room for the White House. Several people, including FDR's valet and a guard from Truman's administration have heard a disembodied voice inside the Yellow Oval Room say simply, "I'm Mr. Burns."

Perhaps the most famous haunting of the White House is by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's ghost is freaking everywhere. Lincoln has been seen in the second floor hallway pacing back and forth. Truman claimed that Lincoln even went as far as to knock on his door. Lincoln has also been seen inside the Yellow Oval Room, which functioned as his personal library room and one of his favorite places to be. He is often times seen staring out the window. He has also been seen inside the East Room, the room in which his body laid in state. The Rose Room, aka Jackson's bedroom, is the site of probably my favorite Lincoln sighting. While visiting the White House, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands woke up to a knocking at her door. She got up and answered it, only to see Abraham Lincoln staring her in the face. Needless to say, she fainted dead away. The most haunted room in the house is probably Lincoln's bedroom. Several Presidents, first ladies, first children, and heads of state have witnessed Lincoln's apparition inside this room. Winston Churchill famously refused to ever sleep in the room again after he came into it after a shower and found the 16th President standing next to the fireplace. Lincoln's ghost, along with a demon cat that supposedly lives in the basement are said to be seen before a national catastrophe or crisis. Sightings were reported right before the stock market crash in 1929 and Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

Now, these are just fun stories, and I don't give credence to any of them. Well, I guess if anyone was going to have unfinished business, it would be Abraham Lincoln, so maybe he is chillin' at the White House.

The Headless Horseman

The Headless Horseman is one of my favorite supernatural beings to read about, so I decided to finally write about him. If you thought the Headless Horseman was first thought up by Washington Irving, then you'd be wrong. Legends surrounding a Headless Horseman date back to Celtic folklore where the being was called a Dullahan. The Dullahan was an Unseelie fairie who appeared as a headless rider who rode a black horse, usually with its head being carried around under its arms. I know what you're thinking. "Unseelie? Fairie? That sounds a little confusing!" Let me clarify something. While we in America generally associate fairies with beings that are non-threatening and fancy-free, ancient culture and most of the rest of the world associates them with powerful creatures that may or may not want to carry you off into the night. There are two courts that fairies belong to: Seelie and Unseelie. Seelie Court fairies are mischievous creatures, but will often seek out help from humans, warn those who accidentally offend them, and offer favors when kindness is given to them. So, not really dangerous unless you piss them off. Fairies of the Unseelie Court are not so forgiving. They are the creatures you read about that murder people outright, or take them away into the darkness. Not all members of the Unseelie Court are maleavolent, as some can grow attached to certain humans, though it is purely in the sense of a powerful being feeling attached to a pet. So, the Dullahan is a malevolent creature that most likely can't be reasoned with. The creature's black eyes dart about like flies, while the mouth is permanently in a grin, spreading from ear to ear. It would often ride a ghostly carriage with a human spine operating as its whip. When the Dullahan stopped in front of you and called out your name, you perished on the spot. I guess you can think of it more as a personification of Death than anything else. If you've ever seen Darby O'Gill and the Little People, then you've seen an example of the Dullahan. There is no way to protect against a Dullahan except for gold. They hate gold for some reason and will ultimately ride away if you have some on you. Otherwise, don't try to mess with them while they're trying to do their job, or you might get a bucket of blood thrown on you. Sounds pleasant!

In German folklore, the stories of a Headless Horseman is recounted by none other than the Brothers Grimm. The first story is set near Dresden in Eastern Germany. The tale tells of a woman who goes out to the forest to gather acorns. She hears a hunting horn blow once, than again, and when she looks up, she sees a headless horseman on a gray horse in her path. In another German tale, the Headless Horseman, or "wild huntsman" blows his hunting horn to warn the living not to go out hunting the next day, for they will suffer an accident if they do. The Headless Horseman shows up several other times in German folklore, sometimes as a villain, and sometimes as a vengeful spirit, seeking out perpetrators of capital crimes.

In America, the Headless Horseman is a character in a short story by Washington Irving. This version of the Headless Horseman is not a fairie, but a vengeful spirit. In life, the Horseman was a Hessian soldier helping the British fight the colonists in the American Revolutionary War. During the battle of Chatterton Hill, the unnamed Hessian soldier had his head taken off by an American cannonball. His body was buried in a graveyard nearby a church and that was supposed to be the end of it. The town that grew out of that area, called Sleepy Hollow, remembered the tale of the decapitated soldier, and it eventually turned into a legend. The legend went that travelers on the road at night would meet up with the Headless Horseman, an undead creature that was now looking for a replacement head. If you wanted to escape the Horseman, all you had to do was make it past the covered bridge by the church. Going past the bridge apparently put you out of the boundaries of the spirit. We all know the rest of the Irving story. The interesting point is that it is completely ambigious in the end whether there really was a Headless Horseman or not. Could it have been Brom Bones in disguise, or had the Headless Horseman actually spirited Ichabod Crane away. One question I always get from this story is why a Hessian soldier for the Horseman and not a British one? Well, Hessian soldier were contracted mercenaries mostly from Germany, and they were pretty brutal. Brutal, as in they would usually take no prisoners and they scared the living daylights out of the colonists. The Hessian involvement actually helped bring Loyalist over to the Revolutionary side. With a reputation like that, it just makes sense that Irving would make the ghost of the tale a brutal Hessian.

The legend of the Headless Horseman continues to this day, as people have claimed to have seen headless figures on horseback on those chilly Fall nights when no one else is around. Whether it's a vengeful spirit, a bringer of death, or a warning of ill-events, the Headless Horseman always spells out bad news. I think the reason I like the Horseman so much is because we really don't have many spirit stories left over from the early days of our nation. Our folklore doesn't seem to dwell as much on the spirit world as other countries, but I do feel like the Headless Horseman is probably the father of all American ghost stories.

The Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste was just like any boat, except that mostly anyone who sailed on it met an untimely end. I'm pretty sure the ship was made out of wood from trees that came from an Indian burial ground. I mean, what other explanation is there? The Mary Celeste has a tumultuous history, though maybe the ol' girl is just misunderstood. The Mary Celeste, first named Amazon, was made by Joshua Dewis in 1861 at the village of Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia. The Amazon's first captain, Robert Mclellan, contracted pneumonia nine days after taking command and died on the boat's maiden voyage. OK, so not off to a great start. John Nutting Parker, the next captain of the Amazon, struck a small fishing boat and had to take her back to the shipyard for repairs. While at the shipyard, a fire promptly broke out in the middle of the ship. The first trans-Atlantic voyage of the ship ended poorly when the ship collided with another in the English Channel. Then for six years the boat decided to ease up on its poor crew members. It didn't catch on fire or crash for six years, but apparently got bored of being owned by Canadians. The Amazon ran aground in 1867 from a storm and was promptly salvaged and sold to Richard Haines of New York. He then had it transferred to the American registry and its name was changed to the Mary Celeste: the name of pure evil.

The Mary Celeste was now going to be used strictly for trans-Atlantic runs to and from the Adriatic ports. Benjamin Briggs was to the captain of this ship, and he decided that it would be a good idea to take most of his family along with him for a trip to Italy to deliver pure alcohol. His wife Sarah and two-year-old daughter Sophia would accompany him, while his seven-year-old son won the life lottery and got to stay home with his grandma. There were ten people in all sailing on the ship, the other seven being crew members, all capable sailors. Before the Mary Celeste departed, Briggs met with an old sailor friend of his named David Morehouse. Morehouse happened to be captaining a ship, named the Dei Gratia, that was going along the same route as the Mary Celeste. Unfortunately, Morehouse was still waiting for his supplies so he would set sail a few days after the Mary Celeste. It turned out to be around seven to eight days. There had been reports of storms over the Atlantic throughout October, but the Dei Gratia did not experience any of it. After an uneventful month at sea, the Dei Gratia spotted something peculiar off in the distance. The helmsman of the Dei Gratia spotted a ship about five miles in the distance, but there was something off about it. The ship was yawning slightly and the sails looked slightly torn. Once they got closer, they realized the ship was none other than the Mary Celeste.

The Dei Gratia crept ever closer towards the Mary Celeste but kept a distance of 400 yards. The crew noticed that the Mary Celeste was under sail, yet sailing erratically on a starboard tack, and slowly heading to the Strait of Gibraltar. They watched the ship for two hours and determined that the ship was drifting after not seeing anyone at the helm or on deck, though there were no signs of a distress signal. Morehouse thought this very odd since the Mary Celeste should have docked in Italy already. Oliver Deveau, the chief mate, boarded the Mary Celeste and searched the whole ship. There was no one aboard. While he didn't find anyone, he did notice that most of the ship was flooded, with two of the three pumps being dissembled. Though it was mostly full of water, the ship wasn't sinking and was seaworthy. All of the ship's papers were missing save for the captain's logbook. The ship's clock wasn't functioning, the compass was destroyed, while the sextant and marine chronometer were both missing. The only raft the Mary Celeste had was also missing and a rope was found tied to the back of the ship leading into the water. The alcohol cargo was all in good order, though when it was eventually unloaded in Italy they found nine barrels were empty. A six-month supply of uncontaminated food was found aboard along with all of the crew's belongings and valuables, making a piracy raid seem extremely unlikely. It appeared to the crew of the Dei Gratia that the ship had been abandoned in a hurry. They couldn't find any sign of struggle or violence. For whatever reason, the crew of the Mary Celeste left everything and bolted off that ship.

The Dei Gratia and Mary Celeste were sailed to Gibraltar so they could figure out what the hell happened and apportion marine salvage rights. The commission of inquiry set up by the Attorney General of Gibraltar investigated the abandonment of the Mary Celeste for three months while the story gained worldwide attention. Both European and American maritime experts reviewed the ship and basically found nothing. Any sign of supposed foul play was quickly refuted by another expert. In the end, nobody quite knew what happened to the crew. Authorities in Washington, D.C. basically put out an APB saying that if anyone saw someone who matched the description of any of the crew members to contact them immediately. No one ever did.

James Winchester, the owner of the boat, pondered whether he should sell the boat seeing as it was probably unlucky. His mind was made up after the boat claimed the life of his father, Henry Winchester, who drowned in an accident while bringing the Mary Celeste back to America. He sold the boat at an enormous loss and the boat ended changing hands seventeen times in thirteen years. By the end of it, the boat wasn't looking so good. The last owner, G. C. Parker, who made no profit whatsoever with the boat, decided to wreck the ship purposefully for insurance fraud in the Caribbean Sea in 1885. Though it was run into a reef, the she-devil wouldn't sink so the insurance fraud plan didn't work. Parker then attempted to burn the ship, though even fire wouldn't kill the stupid thing. It did however burn up the Captain's Log, which still had Benjamin Brigg's entries in it. Parker was still found out after making an exorbitant claim on cargo he didn't have and he was promptly arrested. He ended up getting acquitted since the punishment for barratry (purposeful destruction of a vessel) was death and the jury didn't feel he deserved to die. It didn't matter, he died three months later. The Mary Celeste was deemed un-repairable and was allowed to sink deep into the sea. The curse was finally over. Or was it? Yes...yes it was.

There are several theories on what happened to the crew of the Mary Celeste. The most popular theory concerns the nine empty alcohol barrels. While most of the barrels were made out of white oak, the nine that were found to be empty were made out of red oak. Red oak is known to be more porous and thus more likely to emit vapor. This may have caused a buildup of vapor in the hold. Briggs was wary of the alcohol he was hauling and didn't trust the dangerous cargo. Poorly secured barrels might have rubbed together and caused sparks. The thought of this may have been enough for the crew to hastily abandon ship. Historian Conrad Byers believed Captain Briggs had ordered the hold be opened, resulting in a violent rush of fumes and steam. This caused the crew to believe they were in danger of an explosion and they boarded the lifeboat and connected a rope to the end of the ship, waiting until they thought it was safe to board again. A storm or high winds probably caused the lifeboat to become untied to the boat and they drifted in the sea until the entire crew died of starvation or exposure. The only problem with this theory is that the crew of the Dei Gratia found the hold tightly shut and when it was opened there was no smell of alcohol or fumes. The big mystery is still why the nine barrels were empty. Another viable theory was that two of the pumps had broken and the ship was filling with water, causing the crew to prematurely abandon the ship. Other theories included piracy, mutiny, or drunkenness of the crew, but those theories hold no water since there were no valuables taken, no sign of struggle, and Briggs didn't allow crew members to drink. Honestly, no one has any concrete answers as to what happened to the crew. What could have sent the crew off the Mary Celeste in such a hurry? Did the crew survive and land in Europe or Africa somewhere, though didn't come forward? Did aliens abduct the crew and get totally wasted on nine barrels of pure alcohol? My money's on that.

The Houdini Seance

Everybody knows who Houdini is and what he's known for. However, most cannot say they know about the seances his wife held every year for ten years to contact her deceased husband. First let me give you a little background. Houdini made a living out of mystifying people and performing illusions. That being said, he absolutely hated mediums, who did the same exact thing, except in a different way. Mediums had become exceedingly popular in the 1920's mostly due to the first World War. Parents and family members would go to mediums and other spiritualist and try to talk to their dearly departed who had left them while across the ocean. Houdini found mediums to be crooks and givers of false hope, so he did what anyone would do: try to discredit the lot of them! Houdini was pretty well known, so he had to disguise himself. He would go to mediums and pretend to be trying to reach out to a dead loved one, then would totally call them out when they attempted to reach this person he'd just made up. Houdini gained a reputation from this endeavor, which put him at odds with a lot of people. He even offered cash to anyone that could prove that they could contact the dead. Nobody could, and it further cemented Houdini's disbelief in the spirit world.

Fast forward to 1926 when Houdini is performing at the Princess Theater in Montreal. A local college student came into Houdini's dressing room and asked him if it was true that he could take any punch. Houdini replied that it was true and was subsequently punch several times in the stomach until he had to tell the student to stop (he usually tensed up his stomach when punched but was sitting down due to a sprained ankle). Houdini performed that night in great pain and was up for several days due to the incident. He finally went to the hospital in Detroit, MI where his next show was and was told that he had appendicitis and that he should have surgery immediately. Houdini apparently also didn't believe in life saving surgery. He performed what was to be his last show in Detroit and fainted several times throughout. He was finally taken to the hospital where he eventually died of peritonitis, secondary to a ruptured appendix. The story doesn't end there, though.

Houdini knew that he was dying and must have done a lot of thinking, because what he decided next was completely out of character. He told his wife, Bess, that if anyone could figure out a way to speak to the living from the afterlife, he could. He gave her a secret message that only she would know and told her to hold a seance every year on the anniversary of his death-which happened to be Halloween-for ten years. After that point she could give up on hearing from him again. Bess honored her husband's peculiar request and held a seance every year for ten years, waiting for that secret message that only she would recognize. Houdini may have been able to get out of a straitjacket with ease, but he couldn't break through the barriers of the afterlife; his wife never received the message. Though Bess gave up on the seances herself, she asked magician Walter B. Gibson to continue the Halloween tradition of trying to contact Houdini's ghost. The tradition lives on today, in fact, with an official seance taking place at The Houdini Museum in Scranton, PA, and countless unofficial seances taking place around the country. To this day, no one has claimed to have spoken to Houdini. One last note: Bess let it slip to the press what the secret message was. Though it was in magician code, it translated to spell out "believe."

The Toledo War and Cabinet counties

This will be a short one, but I wanted to expand a little on the names of counties in my fair state of Michigan. Let's go back to the late 1820's. Michigan was just a territory in the untamed west, but they had their fair share of people, enough to be considered for statehood. On top of wanting to be considered for statehood, Michigan was in dispute with Ohio over the Toledo strip. The Toledo strip was prime real estate, and both Michigan and Ohio were willing to do whatever it took to seize it for themselves. Well, everything but fight each other. Yes, it was a completely bloodless war, though it didn't technically happen until 1835. One of the first things Michigan did to try and curry favor with the federal government to side with them in this dispute was to name a bunch of their land in honor of the current president and his cabinet. The current president just happened to be Andrew Jackson, whose first term started in 1829. The Territorial legislature of Michigan didn't waste any time and already agreed to name ten counties after the battle-hardened general turned POTUS and his cabinet. Here is the list of the counties and who they are named after.

• Jackson County- Named for President Andrew Jackson himself
• Calhoun County- Named for John C. Calhoun, Jackson's first Vice-President
• Van Buren County- Named for Martin Van Buren, Jackson's first Secretary of State and second Vice-President (and future President...duh)
• Livingston County- Named for Edward Livingston, Jackson's second Secretary of State
• Eaton County- Named for John Eaton, Jackson's first Secretary of War
• Cass County- Named for Lewis Cass, Jackson's second Secretary of War (though he was Michigan's Territorial Governor at the time of the naming)
• Ingham County- Named for Samuel D. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury
• Berrien County- Named for John M. Berrien, Attorney General
• Branch County- Named for John Branch, Secretary of the Navy
• Barry County- Named for William T. Barry, Postmaster General

If you take a good look at the map, you can see that most of the counties are located in the very Southern point of Michigan, and South-West Michigan. The ploy honestly didn't work that well. I'm sure Jackson and the others were flattered, but it was for other reasons that Michigan became a state. The Toledo War eventually was won by Ohio when Michigan was given the choice to keep fighting or be given statehood and three-quarters of the Upper Peninsula. Michigan disagreed at first, seeing as the U.P. was mainly Indian territory, but financial strain forced them to give in. Turns out it was the right choice. Not only did Michigan become a state because of it giving up on the Toledo strip, but they ended up gaining valuable resources in copper, iron, and timber. Take that, Ohio! 

Henry Schoolcraft

Henry Schoolcraft was an important part of Michigan history, and even United States history, whether you knew it or not. That's right, I'm going a little bit into my local history! Yes, to all my national and international readers who likely number in the thousands, if not millions, I reside in the greatest of all states, Michigan. Why start with Schoolcraft of all people? Well, he's just an interesting character, so deal with it! Schoolcraft, born in Guilderland, New York in 1793 and meant to be a glass maker like his father, decided that he would instead leave for the western frontier. No, he didn't travel out to California, but the modern-day Midwest, which was the western frontier at that time. Schoolcraft was incredibly interested in geology and mineralogy, which logically led to surveying the untamed land. He set off on an expedition with a companion and set off from Potosi, Missouri all the way down to what is now Springfield, Missouri. He then went down through Arkansas, publishing books on the iron-producing potential of Missouri, and the first book detailing exploration of the Ozarks. This was big stuff at that time, and it caught the attention of Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun. Calhoun recommended Schoolcraft to Lewis Cass, the Michigan Territorial Governor. Cass sent Schoolcraft on an expedition to not only explore the wilderness region around Lake Superior, but to find the source of the Mississippi river. While the expedition was successful in exploring the land surrounding Lake Superior, it was not successful in finding the source of the Mississippi, due to low water levels that kept them from traveling further upstream. Schoolcraft would redeem himself twelve years later in 1932 when his expedition was able to travel all the way up to mid-central Minnesota where he finally found the source: Lake Itasca.

Now let's go back about ten years to when Schoolcraft became US Indian agent in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. Indian agents were basically the person that would communicate with the native population on behalf of the government. Schoolcraft was in charge of all tribes in northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, which is not exactly a small amount of land. While stationed in Sault Ste. Marie he met Jane Johnston, the daughter of a Scotch-Irish fur trader and a prominent Ojibwe chief's daughter, Ozhaoscadaywayquay (or Susan Johnston). They soon fell in love and married, eventually having eight children. Jane had a deep knowledge of the Ojibwe language and culture and taught Schoolcraft everything she knew. This would have a lasting impact on Schoolcraft, literature, and Michigan. It was from Jane that we get the basis of the story of Hiawatha. You may recognize that name as being part of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha. Besides inspiring a famous poem, the couple made and distributed what is believed to be the first magazine in Michigan history, The Literary Voyager. Though it only printed for one year, the magazine was distributed to most inhabitants of Sault Ste. Marie, and even people in Detroit, New York, and other eastern cities. Jane often used the pen name Leelinau when she wrote articles about the different aspects of Indian culture.

Schoolcraft became increasingly interested in the stories and lore of the native population, and with his wife's help, wrote them down into a collection. It is through his fascination with native languages and culture that Michigan received names for its counties. Seeing that Schoolcraft had been US Indian Agent, an explorer of the Michigan wilderness, a peace-keeper between the native tribes, part of the legislature for the Territory of Michigan, and Superintendent of Indian Affairs, it was only logical that some parts of Michigan be named in honor of him. The names all sound like native names, but they are in fact made up words he created. He combined Latin and Arabic words and syllables with Native ones and created his own faux Indian names. There are nine counties in Michigan that are made up Indian names. See if you can guess what they are before I reveal them. Feel free to post your guesses in the comment section here or on facebook. I'll let you know what they are a little further down.

Schoolcraft eventually lost his position as US Indian Agent, but was commissioned by Congress to write a comprehensive reference on the American Indian tribes. It was eventually published in six volumes from 1851-1857. Critics loved the research and illustrations by Seth Eastman, but complained that the lack of index and organization made the volumes nearly inaccessible. Funny enough, Congress didn't request another reference guide until 1928. Jane died in 1842 and Schoolcraft later remarried a southern belle who didn't think all that highly of the black population. With the help of her husband, she published a pro-slavery book in response to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Schoolcraft himself became paralyzed in 1848 and dedicated the rest of his life to researching Indians for his comprehensive study. He died in 1864 at the age of 71. Though not all of his contributions should be remembered (pro-slavery lit), Schoolcraft helped explore the vast wilderness of the Midwest United States, kept the peace between warring tribes, and created the first comprehensive history (however unreadable) of the American Indian. Now time to reveal the counties! They were: Tuscola,  Oscoda, Lenawee, Leelanau, Kalkaska, Iosco, Arenac, Allegan, and Alcona. You may recognize Leelanau, as it was his first wife's pen name for The Literary Voyager. Today you can still see his mark on Michigan if you travel to Mackinac Island, where he set up shop for awhile and set up an Indian dormitory. Many of the legends and lore surrounding Mackinac Island can be traced back to Schoolcraft and his wive's research into the native culture. In case you were curious, both Schoolcraft College and Schoolcraft county are named after him. Surprise!

Radium Girls

No, the Radium Girls are not a new indie band, though that is a pretty good name for one. The Radium Girls were the women who worked for the U.S. Radium Corporation in Orange, New Jersey from 1917 to 1926. The girls worked in a factory whose job it was to paint the glow in the dark faces on watches with a mixture that consisted mostly of radium, which is what supplied the glowing. These radioluminescent watches were huge for the military, so you can imagine that they wanted to churn out as many of these watches as possible. The problem was that nobody told the women that radium was a dangerous element to playing around with. It's literally radioactive! The girls painted the faces on the watches with camel hair brushes, which would fray after a few strokes, so they were encouraged to stick the brushes in their mouths and use their lips and tongues to make the brush pointed again. Mmmmmm, radium. The girls, thinking that the substance was harmless, even painted their nails, faces, and teeth with it. The scientists who concocted the stuff knew better and used safety equipment when handling the paint, but apparently didn't care enough to let the lower end of the factory know about it. This wasn't an isolated incident either; a total of 20,000 women throughout the United States and Canada were hired to paint radium on watches. So, what makes the 70 workers at the Orange, New Jersey plant special? Well, once they found out about the deadly mixture, they sued.

The girls started to get sick, and not just regular sick. Girls started suffering from anemia, bone fractures, and necrosis of the jaw, now known as Radium Jaw (which would be another awesome band name). So, basically their bones in their faces were slowly breaking away, while tumors were developing in the same area (picture of an infected person on the right. That was probably the least disturbing picture I could find). Not pretty. Unfortunately, there is not an accurate number of deaths attributed to the radium poisoning since every factory claimed that the women has syphilis (a popular sexually transmitted disease at the time. And by popular, I don't mean that it was all the rage, I mean that everybody freaking had it) and other illnesses. Unfortunately for the girls, things were sometimes made worse when they were x-ray'd since they were being exposed to even more radiation. Doctors and dentists who looked at the girls consistently kept their findings to themselves, at the urging of U.S. Radium Corporation. One of the girls wasn't going to let the factory get away with all of this, so she decided to try and sue. It took her two years, but she finally found someone who was willing to take on U.S. Radium. A total of five girls joined the suit, called the Radium Girls by the press, and set out to get some sweet, sweet justice. The case was a media extravaganza, much to the chagrin of U.S. Radium. The case was settled in late 1928 without being heard by a jury, with each girl getting $10,000 dollars (a little over $133 thousand now) and $600 annuity per year, as long as they lived, however short that might have been. U.S. Radium must have known that it didn't have a chance with the evidence clearly apparent by looking at the girls.

So, why tell this heartwarming story about factory girls and radium? Well, it's thanks to this little debacle that we have the basic assurance from our employers that we wouldn't become deathly ill just by doing our jobs. It also set the precedent for suing your employer if said assurance isn't followed through. Thanks to this case, standards at factories and other workplace environments drastically improved. From then on, workers at the U.S. Radium factories were instructed in the proper handling of the mixture and were provided with safety equipment. Fun Fact: Radium was still used for glow in the dark watches as late as the 1960's. Scientific research was also launched right after the case settled to find out what the acceptable threshold for radium and radon exposure is. Turns out that radium is way worse for you than radon, seeing as radon's half-life is three days and radium's is over 1,500 years. So, next time you get a crazy disease at work, thank the Radium Girls for their sacrifice and bravery. Oh, and don't ever stick paint in your mouth. That is never a good thing.