Boneheads

deals aren't always worth the effort, though. The percentage might be too low, or the brand might not be top tier. But sometimes an opportunity comes along that's just too good to pass up. Along the southern edge of Nebraska is a city, though you wouldn't know it by looking at it. Harvard, Kansas, spans less than one square mile and boasts a whopping population of about a thousand people. It was founded when the Burlington and Missouri Railroad laid down tracks there in

eighteen seventy one. Two years later, Harvard was incorporated as a village. It took its name from the prestigious university in Massachusetts, and just like its namesake, it's not without its own list of famous former residents. Ida Bengston was born there in eighteen eighty one and went on to become a groundbreaking bacteriologist. She was also the first woman to work at the U S Public Health Services Hygienic Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health. And who could

forget Paul Revere, No, not that Paul Revere. Paul Revere Dick was the leader of the hit nineteen sixties rock band Paul Revere and the Raiders. He was born in Harvard in nineteen thirty eight. But the city wasn't just home to scientists and rock stars. Families of all kinds raised their children there, business owners open shops, and of course, a place even as small as Harvard needed a police department, although given the size of the town a large prison

was deemed unnecessary. Yet there needed to be a place to hold people in case they broke the law, as rare as that was, and so a small brick jailhouse was built and had a single door on the front and a few small windows on the side to let the light in, but otherwise it was barely bigger than an average sized dorm room. In n three, the town decided to put some of its land up for sale to raise money. A sixteen year old boy named Robert Pinckney, who happened to be the son of a local physician,

was interested in buying a plot for himself. He planned on using it to grow a victory garden to support the war effort. As he was reading through the list, he noticed something strange though someone had included the town jail as one of the properties for sale. Pinckney, ever the good samaritan, tried to warn the city about its mistake. Instead of listening, though the city council laughed him out

of the room. Pinckney figured that if they weren't going to remove it from the listing, then he would buy it for himself, and he did for one dollar and fifty cents. Officials refused to admit their screw up, and Pickney signed the papers. He officially became the owner of the Harvard City jailhouse, and all it had cost him was a buck and a half. The police still went down with business as usual, though, tossing criminals and drunks into the jail when they had to. But Pinckney wasn't

thrilled with his property being used without his permission. Now he was the landlord after all, so with the help of a lawyer, he sued the town for back rent. Harvard agreed, but on the condition that Robert tended the jail as though it was his own home. He was required to pull the weeds, trim the trees on the property, and get rid of the sidewalks or face heavy fines. Pinckney thought it might be easier to just tear the

whole thing down altogether. Harvard couldn't have that happen, though, so they made a deal to buy the jail back from him. There was just one problem. He wasn't old enough to sell it. He'd have to wait until he turned twenty one. So the city did its best to hide its squabble with the budding real estate mogul, but word of Pickney's pettiness got out to the press that even made national news. Suddenly people came crawling out of

the woodwork to buy the jail from him. One person offered him one and fifty dollars for it, while someone else asked to rent it for thirty five dollars a month. But Pickney had a better idea. He put the jailhouse up for auction to raise money for war bonds. One person came forward and bid ten thousand dollars. Well, person isn't quite the right word for him, is he. Charlie McCarthy, who won the jail in the auction, was a dummy, and that's not an insult either. He was a literal dummy,

belonging to the world famous fren triloquist Edgar Bergen. Charlie gave the jail back to Harvard soon after. It's still there too, with a plaque outside that explains its tumultuous history, and no dummy, real or Wooden, ever put it up for sale again. Everyone has something to hide. It might be an illicit relationship, or reckless spending habits, or even something as harmless as a cupcake when they think no

one is looking. Regardless of what it is, it seems like no one is without a skeleton or two in their closets. And just be careful if you start digging, you might not like what you find. Jenny Minton certainly did not. It was August of two eleven and these sixteen year old Oregon native had been clearing out a closet in a local lodge. You see her mother was a member of a social group known as the Daughters of Rebecca, who used the space for their gatherings. Minton

stumbled upon a strange site during her cleaning. It was a coffin. Now. Her first thought was that it had been a prop maybe from an old theatrical performance held at the lodge. But she and her mother, Linda, opened the lid they realized that there was nothing fake about it. Inside the five foot long casket were bones, lots of them too, and they had yellowed and molded. Among the desecrated remains were teeth, a jaw, and even a skull. Jenny and her mom thought they had found something sinister,

so they called the police. I have a skeleton in the closet, Linda told the dispatcher, we all do. The person on the other end of the line said, little did they know that Linda and her daughter actually had found a skeleton in the closet of the watch. A detective arrived to collect the bones for analysis. The police then conducted an investigation of the scene, but no foul play was detected. A similar experience happened to Paul Wallace

in Warrington, Virginia in two thousand one. He'd been fixing the electrical wiring in a brick building when he noticed a small door in one of the walls. Wallace opened it up and pulled out a black box similar to the one Jenny Minton would find ten years later. Inside it was a skeleton and several white candles. Not wanting to disturb a possible crime scene any further, Wallace pushed the box and its contents back behind the door and

alerted the authorities. They executed a search warrant immediately and took custody of the skeleton. Though Warrenton had never experienced such a grizzly discovery before, similar incidents had unfolded in attics and crawl spaces all over the country, and they would continue to do so for years to come. Jim Lushka from Missouri thought that he had snagged a great deal on a couple of prop caskets for his local

theater group. Little did he know that one of them contained real bones that had once belonged to a living human being. But these coffins weren't a serial killers trophy, nor were they the work of a murderous cult. The buildings that the bones have been found in belonged to the fraternal organization known as the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

It was formed in eighteen nineteen by English philanthropist Thomas He had started the order as an offshoot of the original Odd Fellows fraternity, which had gotten it starts in England back in the seventeenth century. Soon after its incorporation, wildly began traveling all over the US to open up lodges and established new chapters. Throughout its history, the Odd Fellows have been linked to secret societies like Freemasons and the Illuminati. In reality, they were nothing like them at all.

Their mission statement claimed that the Odd Fellows visited the sick, relieved the distressed, buried the dead, and educated the orphan. In other words, they helped people wherever they could. However, like those other organizations, Initiation had its own set of rituals and customs. One such ritual involved a new member interacting with the skeleton, literally coming face to face with death, as a reminder to make the most of the life they were given. To do that they had to dedicate

that life to helping others. In recent years, the skeletons have been replaced with plaster fact similes. However, there was a time when an odd Fellow could purchase a real one from a company specializing in their procurement. It's typically those remains that wind up kicking off police searches and investigations.

As lodge as close, the people cleaning them out don't realize the meaning behind the boxes of bones that they find today, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows boasts six hundred thousand members and ten thousand lodges across twenty six countries. There is also a female focused branch known as the Daughters of Rebecca, the organization Jenny and Linda Minton belonged to back in two thousand eleven. Given the number of lodges remaining, it's only a matter of time before someone

unwittingly stumbles upon another skeleton. Everyone meets death eventually, but most people don't expect to meet it inside their closet. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership

with How Stuff Works. I make another Award winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious, Yeah,