Grin and Bear It

Republicans and Democrats each put up their candidates for election to various offices, and the American people vote for who they'd like to represent them. However, other factions have formed over the years to catch those who feel that neither party deserves to represent their interest. From the Green Party to the Working Class Party to the Alliance Party, these splinter groups have become little more than a distraction. They do earn several thousand votes each election, but they don't

amount to much overall. Almost nothing, ever, changes, But one group did want to change things, and they almost did until the Bears moved in. It started when Yale student Jason Sorens wrote an article for a niche political publication. Jason was a libertarian who believed in small government, fiscal conservatism, and free market capitalism with almost no oversight. Sorens fashioned himself something of an activist, and he sought out other

like minded individuals to join him. He was starting a brand new enterprise that would establish a community for people who shared his ideas. His concept was centered on the idea of secession, but rather than separate from the United States, he would force a state to bend to his will.

He called it the Free State Project, and it was started due to sorens frustration with the Libertarian Party, more specifically it's inability need to get any of its candidates elected to office, so he turned to the past for inspiration. Like other extremist leaders who had come before him, Sorens believed that an extreme act of migration was necessary to achieve his goals. He planned on overtaking the politics of a particular states and in turn swaying the country toward libertarianism.

After an unsurprising undemocratic vote, the Free State movement settled on New Hampshire, thanks in large part to its live free or die mentality. A subset of followers formed an off shoot called the Freetown Project and moved into the small town of Grafton. Now Grafton had a modest population of just over eleven people before the Freetowners moved in, a number that jumped up by another two hundred rather quickly.

They saw its low property tax rates and lack of zoning laws as the signs of a perfect libertarian utopia. The freetowners, mostly made up of white males, believed that they were liberating Grafton with their wild new ideas about how the government and run and how budgets should be spent. Instead, locals greeted them with hostility, and that might have been for a good reason. You see, the freetowners had come with yrs, RVs and shipping containers, which became their homes.

One of the leaders of the movement, Larry pen Darvis, had a strange agenda he was dead set on seeing through. It included organ trafficking, old fashioned duels, and the right to organize fights between folks without a home, presumably for entertainment and betting purposes. He also supported what he called consensual cannibalism, something he referred to as a victimless crime. But not everyone shared pen Darvis's views. He eventually left

Grafton for Texas. But the freetowners didn't want a free market system that embodied their libertarian ideologies either. All they wanted was a smaller budget and lower taxes, which went about as you might expect. Grafton suffered dearly after it's yearly one million dollar budget got slashed to about three quarters of that. Violent crime went up, while road repairs went down. Domestic violence spiked, The Senior Citizens Council lost its funding, and town employees could no longer afford to

heat their homes. As some people put it, the town went feral, which probably explains what happened next. Farmers started noticing that livestock was being taken from under their noses. One woman's kittens were snatched and eaten while she was still playing with them on her lawn, and neighbors began getting strange visitors on their porches. These weren't religious preachers

or even girls scouts selling cookies. They were far more menacing. Grafton, New Hampshire, had been invaded by bears, black bears, to be exact, which normally didn't bother people. However, now the animals that had been keeping themselves in the woods were taking over the town. But why well. One theory is that the lack of funding for animal control and bear

proofing garbage cans led to the incursion. Another is that the influx of outsiders encroaching on the bears domains results to them seeking other places to unwind, like swimming pools and decks. Some people even fed the bears, which may have kept them coming back for more. Whatever the cause, the bears did more than rereak havoc on Grafton. They drove the freetowners apart, with many fending for themselves and leaving their neighbors to figure things out on their own.

And soon enough, the freetown projects simply died off, well, more like it was absorbed. The free state movement that had started it all took control as more and more freetowners opted to live without regulations or rules, and Grafton has shared its town with the libertarians ever since. But you might be wondering when all this occurred. Clearly, a town overrun with anti government cultists seeking political freedom couldn't

happen today. Right Wrong, This didn't happen in the seventeen hundreds, or the eighteen hundreds, or even the nineteen hundreds. The free state project was started in the early two thousands, and it's still going strong twenty years later, although their numbers aren't as high as they had hoped. Apparently, some people find the idea of living in a town full

of potholes and wild animals to be well unbearable. It's no secret that during World War Two, Adolf Hitler turned to some unconventional methods to try and gain an edge against Allied forces. There's potential evidence that the Nazi Party itself was inspired by occult influences. Beginning in the nineteen twenties. Books, movies, and television shows for the past seven decades have speculated as to the efforts Hitler might have gone to in order to create his master race, from mad scientists to

religious artifacts to Satan worship. The Third Reich didn't just rely on tanks and guns to carry out its abhorrent agenda. That attempted to reach over into other worlds and even other dimensions for a leg up. For example, Heinrich Himler, one of the main architects of the Holocaust, was an unflinching zealot who spent much of his time on extracurricular projects to help the Nazis one of which inadvertently ended up as the plot of the third Indiana John's film.

Himmler was on a quest for the Holy Grail, hoping to use it to give himself superpowers. But Hitler and his stooges weren't the only one seeking out supernatural means for success, because across the ocean, in the state of Maryland, a young group of Americans were doing the same thing, with one singular goal to take out the Furor with a little witchcraft. William Seabrook born in Westminster, Maryland in eighteen eighty four, held a number of jobs during his

sixty one years on Earth. He was a journalist and adventurer who wrote about distant cultures. He had served in World War One with the French Army, and most famously, he was an occultist. In fact, he was good friends with the prior addition to our Cabinet of Curiosities Alistair Crowley, who stayed with Seabrook at his Maryland farm in nineteen nineteen. However, in nineteen forty one, the eccentric Mr Seabrook had found

a new cause to get behind. He saw what was going on in Germany with Hitler's forces advancing across Europe and knew something had to be done. This was almost a full year before the Japanese would bomb Pearl Harbor and thrust the country into war. Seabrook, along with a cadre of young hopefuls, gathered at a cabin in the

woods belonging to a man named Charles Tupper. The group had brought with them numerous tools with which to carry out their spells, including tom tom drums, nails, axes, a mannequin and a Nazi uniform, oh and lots of rum. They fit the uniform on the dummy and drew a toothbrush mustache under its nose, giving it a familiar appearance. They had just made an effigy of Adolph Hitler. What followed next was documented by Life magazine, which had tagged

along for what it dubbed as a hexane party. Seabrook and his compatriots were preparing to carry out a massive voodoo in canation on Hitler in order to stop him from across the pond. As Seabrook himself wrote in a newspaper article in n Let the doubters laugh at such things if they want to, I have lived with voodoo priests and felt myself the awfulness of their strange powers. Personally, I want no part of the danger that lies in

such sinister explorations. They propped up their Hitler effigy in a chair as Seabrook coached one of the attendees on how to play the correct rhythm on the drum. Then the hexinge began. Each person took turns hammering nails into the dummies heart, all while clamoring you are Hitler, Hitler, is you the woes that come to you, let it

come to him. There were also death dolls made a fabric that looked like the furor, which the participants shoved pins into throughout the night, before burying them face down in the swamp outside. Hitler, who had been rumored to be paranoid and superstitious, was also said to have believed in black magic. Perhaps all the damage done to the dolls and the mannequin might have given him a headache

or a bit of heartburn, maybe a sore arm. Well, it's doubtful, but Seabrook, Tupper and the others knew that the effects of the incantation wouldn't be felt immediately. They wanted word of their Hex Hitler event to find its way to Europe to inspire others to carry it forward as well. The war continued on for another four years after that, so it's probably safe to say that their

efforts weren't of much use. But buried somewhere in the Maryland Woods are a bunch of pin riddled death dolls that look an awful lot like Adolf Hitler, proof that even though they didn't get any closer to stopping War War two, they did put an end to a lot of their own stress and anxiety that night. Unusual, absolutely, but also more than a little curious. 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,