School of Humans. Oh America, guys, Ugh, the United States of America. It's the land of the Free, the home of the brave, etc.
Etc.
But I would also say that it is a country filled with absolute filth. That's right, you found yourself listening to a podcast about the filthier side of American history.
Hello.
My name's Gabby Watts. I am a podcast producer and the former host of a show called Caidavergals, where we would look at all the weird ways that people had died throughout history. And now I'm bringing you this new show called American Filth. It's gonna be a fun time. It's gonna be silly, it's gonna be ridiculous. We're gonna have some comedic embellishments. But all of this is stuff that happened throughout American history, and I think it's just
as important to celebrate. And you might be thinking to yourself, what is filth? Well, filth can just be anything that you think is discussing immoral.
We're gonna have it all.
We got stories about beast reality, about cannibalism, about in fantaside, about UTIs, about gay orgies, about resurrecting vampires, about a president cheating on his wife, about another president cheating on his wife, about another president cheating on his wife, all the Shenanigans happening in the wild West, sex scandals, alcoholics, love triangles, a group of sisters who had too much hair in my opinion, So let's get into it. This is the first episode of American Filth, So let's just
get right into beast reality. Why don't we Thanks for listening, and here we go. I'm cueing our very aggressive theme song. This is American Filth, and my name is Gabby Watts. Every week I bring you a different filthy story.
From American history.
On this first episode, New Haven and the Pig Men, we're in the seventeenth century in the New Haven Colony. This colony was founded in sixteen thirty eight by a merchant named Theophilis Eaton and pere to Minister John Davenport, but didn't have a royal charter, so it didn't last too long, just until sixteen sixty four when it got eaten up by the Connecticut Colony.
Chomp, chomp, whow. So interesting. I love dates.
The settlers there, most of them were from the Congregation of John Davenport they'd followed him over from England.
To Amsterdam to Boston.
And along with these families, in the early sixteen forties there was also a great migration of sorts, basically from the mid Atlantic colonies up to the northern ones. They are all these unmarried dudes who went up there for work, just left to their own devices. And you know, you never know what a single man left up to his own devices might do. Maybe he'll write a manifesto, maybe he'll say he's the son of God. Maybe he'll commit some buggery. And what is buggery, Well, that is having
sex with animals. It can also refer to butt sex between people, but we're going with the beast reality definition. And that was a big no no in the New Haven Colony and probably everywhere else too, because under the purview of Minister John Davenport, that's a big old sin. And in fact, the colony's initial legal system was quote that the word of God shall be the only rule to be attended unto in ordering the affairs of government
in this plantation. You know, residents in the New Haven Colony, they could be put to death for all sorts of crimes, things like adultery, which blasphemy for being a rude teen. Basically, everyone on TikTok would have been put to death. And they didn't want anyone to commit these sins because they did not wish to invoke God's wrath. Obviously, it's a new colony, they already.
Have a lot of challenges.
Adding God's wrath to the mix would be very inconvenient. And buggery, of course, was among these sins, because as we all know, you know, we all know this God said in Leviticus. Actually I don't know where they quoting God or just what this is, just something you're not It said in Leviticus basically, if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death, and
ye shall slay the beast. And the Puritan leaders in New Haven were so concerned about this sin that even if you didn't do buggery, but just like mentioned it, you could get punished. Even ella welling about beast reality could get you thrown in jail. That happened in sixteen
sixty two. There was this young guy named Jeremiah, and he made a joke about this other dude named Edmund, because what happened was Edmund he'd been praying out in the swamp, because you know, God's ear is extra receptive in the swamp, and he'd been praying for this lady to like him. Back he said, Lord, thou knowest my necessity and can'st supply it? Lord, bend and bow her will and make her sensible to my condition. And apparently he was praying quite loudly in the swamp because Jeremiah
overheard him. And when someone asked what Edmund was praying about, Jeremiah said, it may be his mayor, that God would make her more serviceablel his horse. But unfortunately, being an edged lord comedian like that was frowned upon back then. And the thing is, Edmund's prayer did work. He got
married to the last he was praying about. But then he sued Jeremiah for slander, so the new Haven magistrates put him in jail for a while and then eventually placed him on a ten pound bond because of behavior. But he probably he probably stopped making jokes, So yeah, new Haven was having a bit of a moment. As the late Princeton professor John M. Murrin said, it was a bit of a beast reality panic people were accused of buggery even if they weren't caught in the act.
And that is exactly what happened to a man named George Spencer in sixteen forty one. George Spencer was a servant to this guy, mister Browning, and George was one of those single men who was just you know, milling about up to no good. And he had come to New Haven from Boston and had already had a run with the law because he stole some goods at some.
Point, and then in New Haven.
The thing about him is nobody really seemed to like him. He was known, as one record said, for profanity, lying, scoffing, and just having an all around lewd spirit. And one of the worst things about him was that he wasn't into God. He might have even been an atheist gasp in John Davenport's colony. Oh no, According to the gossip, he hadn't been to church in five years, and he would only read scripture and pray when his boss, mister Browning told him he had to. Basically would threaten to
beat him up if he didn't do it. And the other issue about George was people thought he was a real uhgo. He was bald, and he only had one functioning eyeball. The other one was all messed up. People said it was like a pearl, whitish and deformed. Anyway, mister Browning sold one of his lady pigs a sal to his neighbor, John Wakeman, and then that sal that mister Browning had sold gave birth to a litter of piglets. And most of these pigs, I imagine, were excellent pigs,
just normal lass pigs. But the thing is one of the pigs was still born and looked really gross, so gross that people started calling the piglet the monster, which I feel like is really rude because that piglet wasn't even alive. To defend itself, described it like this. It had no hair in the whole body. The skin was tender and of a reddish white color, like a child's. It had but one eye in the middle of the face, like some blemished eye of a man. Bald, you say,
and hm, just one eye that works. Who else do we know has those same physical traits? Why none other than one eyed baldass George Spencer. You guys can see where this is going. The Puritans of Newhaven observed these similarities, and they got to thinking that man looks like that nasty piglet. And then a good wife Wakeman, the wife of the dude who bought the sow from mister Browning. Well, according to the court record, she had a vision from God.
Apparently some hand of God appeared in an impression to her spirit indicating that the sow hadn't been pigging like a regular pig and that George Spencer had been actor in unnatural and abominable filthiness with that sow. Now using that evidence, that the stillborn piglet only had one eye and looked kind of like a child, and that good wife Wakeman got some vibes from God. Obviously, what that means is George took a tumble with this sal and
fathered this piglet. There could be no other explanation. At first, George was.
Like whoa, woa, whoa, whoa.
I did not solely myself with that sal, but everyone was like, sorry, we're gonna have to put you in prison because we are suspicious of your buggery. And also don't you have like in general elude spirit that definitely merits prison time. I wish I lived in this time period. So George got locked up. I imagine he was probably feeling pretty down in the dumps.
Not only was he in prison, he was there because of.
A crime he denied committing where there was really no real evidence. The evidence that they did have was that he looked like a pig that has hurt your feelings a little bit. The only thing George had to accompany his dread of the impending trial was the dulcet tones of a prison guard whipping another prisoner.
Prison sounds cool.
That night, one of the magistrates from New Haven went to the prison to get some more information from George. The magistrate asked, did you commit that abominable filthiness? And George was like, hell no. And then the magistrate asked, but when they showed you that ugly ass stillborn piglet, did you not take notice of something in it?
Like you?
And then George was like, wait, hold on which soal are you talking about? And then the magistrate was like, you know which one? And then at that point George said nothing. So the magistrate continued. He was like, George, let me remind you of the scripture because we all know you don't read it. He that hideth his sin shall not prosper. But he who confesseth and forsaketh his sin, shall find mercy. With that in mind, do you feel sorry that you're denying this thing that is obviously true,
because again that lady had visions about it. And now, according to the court record, it was at this moment that George did confess the magistrate that he had done it, and the magistrate was like, I knew it, ha ha ha, and he departed. He's like, I'm gonna bring back some of my boys tomorrow and get a longer confession. So I'm gonna get all the nasty details, write it down so I can masturbate to it later.
Just kidding. He didn't say that.
Now, the fact that George confessed, some historians have pointed to the fact that this doesn't actually mean he did it, because, as you heard, the magistrate was just like, hey, if you don't confess, you're fucked. If you do, he'll get some mercy, and George was probably the Again that sounds like a pretty good deal. Actually probably also means I
won't get whipped like that other prisoner. So over the next couple of days, the magistrate came back with his other magistrate boys, and that's when George put on a little show and gave his full confession. He said, yes, I did fuck that sal because remember, I'm going to get mercy for saying this. And this is what he
said about the day of the incident. He said, I was at work and the sow came into the stable, and then the temptation and the corruption did work, and I drove the sow into the stye and then committed that filthy ness. He said he was in the stye with the sow for a couple of hours at six o'clock in the evening when the sun was setting.
Wow. How romantic.
Then the magistrates asked how long had the temptation been upon your spirit? And George was like, it had been upon my spirit for about two or three days, and he said he had some workings against it, both from the heinousness of the sin and the loathsomeness of the creature.
He wasn't even attracted to her.
And then they were like, what was it about the pig that affected you? And he said it was the whites in the eye, that's right, the whites in the eye, not the pupils on the iris, but the white stuff. Mm sexy. When he was signing to the magistrates. George also admitted to a variety of other sins. You know, he called the Lord's day Lady's day. He would lie and he just would generally scoff at the ordinances and
ways of the people of God. George then had the prison guard ride up a little bill, a little sign for him to hang, and on it he said he entreated the prayer of the church, and God on his behalf, said he was sorry he had denied his buggery earlier, and supposedly, with tears falling from his eyes, he acknowledged
that Satan had hardened his heart. However, as George sat in his prison cell waiting trial, he began to suspect that even if he received God's mercy, he probably wasn't going to get the mercy of these puritans.
So on March.
Second, sixteen forty one, just about a week after he was put in prison, George Spencer went to trial, and there he denied his confession. Unfortunately for him, though, the court had a bunch of people who said that George had told them that, oh, yeah, I had a sexual rendezvous with that pig. There are these three dudes, all named Will who said that George had mentioned his dallions with the pig to them, and there are two other
men who said George had confessed to them. They had asked him like, how long were you with the sow, and George said, I was with the sow half an hour and it was the most terrible half hour of my life. And they asked, well, if you had no pleasure in it, why were you doing it? And he was like, well, I was driven by the power of the devil. So all these people are confessing and George was just like, fuck, these people, they're lying, they're evil.
My confession was false. Unfortunately, George denying his confession just made the court like him even less. They were like, wow, he did this unnatural and terrible thing, and now he's really showing his lying spirit. So, having heard the accounts and George's general bad attitude, they sentenced George Spencer to death. That's right, it's a capital crime. And not only did they sentence George to death, they also sentenced the sal to death.
Oh.
George's execution was not until April of the following year, sixteen forty two. It was determined that he would hang upon a gallows till he be dead, and the place where they're gonna hang him was to be the farthest part of the field by the sea side. But first the sow was gonna be slain in his sight, being run through with a sword.
He was pretty dramatic. And the reason they killed the sow it wasn't just because of Leviticus, but.
They also at the time believed that if you did some buggery with an animal, that means part of the human stays inside of it, So if anyone was to eat that pig, it would be cannibalism obviously. So indeed the sow was slain with the sword, and then George was escorted up to the gallows, and while he was there, the record says that he began to speak to the youth about him, basically telling them to use him as an example that they shouldn't neglect and despise the means
of grace. George also admitted, because of his atheism that that justified his sentence as righteous. Then they tightened the news around his neck and kicked away the stand, and the core wrecker says, now he was ready to die, and he must go presently to hell. So much for mercy rip George Spencer. Now some ads, we're back, baby.
I think this is kind of a fun tidbit. But in twenty fifteen, George Spencer's case was reviewed by a judge, because that's the important work the criminal justice system should
be doing right now, pardoning a man from sixteen forty one. Anyway, but they found that he was not guilty of any crimes, as it would have been a biological impossibility for him to father that piglet in case you weren't aware of that, we can't have kids with pigs or cows or really any barnyard creature or critter at all, So stop.
Trying, okay.
And the judge of viewing the case also said that it was clear that there was lots of coercion in this confession. And here's the thing that's like pretty crazy about it is that if George Spencer had not confessed, he would have not hanged because technically they needed two witnesses and one of the witnesses was George, and then they said that the other witness was the stillborn pig.
And there's actually another case that's very similar to this, but this time the guy being accused of buggery refused to confess, and so he didn't hang. It also happened in New Haven, just a few years after George Spencer's death. This happened in sixteen forty seven, and the name of the guy hence literally Thomas Hogg. Like Thomas Hogg, Like George Spencer, Thomas Hogg wasn't well liked by.
The people of New Haven.
He was a thief and a liar, but people seemed to specifically not like him because sometimes his dick was out, like he claimed he had this like hernia and his dick, and it made it painful, so sometimes, you know, he just had to pull it out. And like mister Spencer, mister Hogg was accused of fothering some piglets because again, these two pigs that were born, they said that they
looked like him. His employer said it was a sign from God, because one of the pigs was fair and white skin like hog, and the other had a head like a child's in one eye like him, the bigger on the right side. But mister Hogg was like, hmm, I did not have sexual relations with that pig. He denied it, despite people pressuring him into a confession. He was like no, no, no, no, I did not do that. So the governor of the New Haven Colony decided to
conduct an experiment. They needed proof that mister Hog was a hogman inlaid with the lady of pigs.
So this is what they did.
They brought mister Hogg to the barn where the pigs were kept and told him to scratch behind the ear of the sows to see if his touch would arouse them. Who knows if his dick was in or out at this point. Well, he scratched the ear of one pig, and wooie, did she get turned on. According to the reports, there appeared a working of lust and the sow insomuch that she poured out seed before them. I have no idea what that means is I feel like maybe means the pig was squirting.
I don't know.
But then they needed more evidence than just one sow, so they asked mister Hog to scratch behind the ear of another one to see if she would also get aroused.
But unfortunately, she.
Must have not found him very attractive and did not produce any seed.
I guess he should have whipped his I don't know.
Ergo, the results were inconclusive. There is no proof that mister Hogg was a sexy man to these pigs. And since mister Hogg refused to admit to the crime, they couldn't hang him because he had to be his own witness, But because no one really seemed to like him, they did sentence him to hard labor for just being obnoxious
aka lying and stealing and having his dick out. Now, if anything, the stories of Thomas Hogg and George Spencer can teach us that it is very important to be likable, otherwise you might be accused of banging a pig, even if you're not caught in the act. But unfortunately, in New Haven, even being likable is not enough, especially if you are caught getting wiggley with that Pigly.
The last dude we're.
Talking about today, his name is William Potter and he was one of the first people to settle in New Haven. He was part of John Davenport's exclusive and Esteemed congregation and he was a presecs as the landowner who was doing well. He had a wife and a bunch of kids. He was respected a family man.
And this is.
Towards the end of the New Haven colony being its own little colony. This is. In sixteen sixty two, William Potter was about sixty and he had recently been excused from military service because he was quote a.
Weak infirmed man.
But one day, one of his teenage sons was just out about on their farm, probably just minding his own business, when he came across a horrible site. His daddy, the Venerable William Potter, was screwing one of their soals talk about childhood trauma. After the sun saw this, he went to his mom and was like, Mom, I just saw something real bad.
Dad was out there, balls deep and a piggy.
By the way, that is not a direct quote, but I'm just saying if you had that news and you told your mom about it, you'd probably expect them to be like, holy hell, that's crazy. But instead, his mom, Francis Potter, said to her son, Yeah, your dad does that sometimes. What what okay? Apparently Francis Potter had also stumbled upon her husband's indiscretions.
Specifically, about ten years prior, she had.
Caught him doing a doggie style with a doggie technically in the official record their bitch, and he had implored her not to tell the authorities. William even hanged the bitch, hoping that would undo his sins.
And release him from the temptation. But now, in.
Sixteen sixty two, the son and the mom they decided, for reasons unknown exactly, they decided that they would confront William Potter and officially turn him into the authorities. And they knew this accusation would likely lead him to the gallows. But you know, they probably didn't want to be awashed with his sins. You know, I hate when that happens,
when you get washed with other people's sins. So, according to the court record, the mom and son approached William and they said, hey, we saw what you did, and we know you did it. And then William, he quote stood in a stupid way making denial of what was testified. But then his wife was like, hey, remember that if you are guilty, God would bring it forth to light. Ak even if you don't say anything, God will tell
on you. He's a big old snitch. And indeed, after the son and mom informed one of the magistrates, William Potter did confess Joila God hath brought it from his own mouth. So William goes to the court room in May sixteen sixty two, and he told the magistrates that the first time he had had these terrible temptations was when he was about eleven years old. But then the
temptations followed him to New England. When he first arrived in the New Haven Colony, he started working on one of the magistrates' farms, and while he was at work, he did a little moomoo play with a cow. Now there's this other dude who was also caught doing buggery with a cow at some point, and his accuser called it the devil's milking. So William had done some devil's milking for sure by right after he had apparently committed
that act. That was around the same time that ugly ass George Spencer had been hanged, and William Potter was startled and did not wish to meet the same bait, so he tried to resist all the temptations, and yet the lust followed him to his own farm, and he said that the day his son discovered him, he had no heart to speak to him, but was affected with tears.
Boo who boo who.
William Potter said that after he had confessed to his wife and son, he and his wife walked about their farm and William actually pointed out all of the animals he had banged. There were some sows, a year old heifer, a two year old heifer, a cow, three sheep, his late man, and of course the bitch he had already hanged. The magistrate conferred, they read William Potter the law, and they decided there really could be no other decision than death.
So William Potter was condemned to hang in the gallows until dead, and again all the animals would also be slain, and officially he and the animals were executed on June sixth, sixteen sixty two.
What an episode.
Really have learned a lot about New Haven about bestiality. Obviously, Now, people don't get executed for.
Beastiality in some states. You know, it's a felony.
Some states is a misdemeanor, and technically it's there is no law against it in New Mexico and West Virginia.
So what But if.
Any men felt personally victimized during this episode because all the cases involved dudes.
Being executed, don't worry.
In the seventeenth century women were also being executed, mostly for witchcraft. Just a little thing to remember about seventeenth century colonial America. Witchcraft is for the Women and Beastiality Who Is for the boys. American Filth is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcast. It's hosted by me, Gabby Watts. I wrote this episode. I sound designed it. That's why it sounds so amazing. Thank you so much.
The theme song was by me and Jesse Niswanger. The executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Elsie Crowley, and Brandon Barr. You can follow along with the show at American Filth Pod on Instagram. Please follow, like, subscribe, leave a review about the pod. Help us get the algorithm going. I would really appreciate it even if it's a terrible review.
But if it's a terrible review, just try and make it really funny.
Okay, So guys, okays, Next time, bangy.
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