AUDIO EXTRA: The Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876
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Hi, Crime Junkies. I can't believe we're here. Summer is over, which means this is the last Vault episode. Last Crime Junkie Thursday. I've spent the last few weeks kind of laying out how the fan club works and showing you what kind of content you can expect every month when we say that you get a full episode, a mini episode, and bonus content. Well, the last Vault episode I want to share with you is a special one.

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

And I'm Britt. And today we're switching things up a bit. So some of you might remember a little show I used to do called Supernatural. Listen, I love mysteries of all varieties. And that show let me explore some of the most mysterious events in history. Like we did ghosts, we did aliens, conspiracies.

all the things I love talking about. And I gotta admit, I missed telling those stories. So I thought, why not? Like every once in a while, tell those stories here, but like,

a crime junkie style. Because honestly, the thing that I missed when doing Supernatural was getting to kind of spiral on some of the stuff with you, Britt. Because like doing it by yourself, I want to just like talk about it. I would say, and I like can spiral on this stuff because I am a skeptic. I am a believer. I am all the things. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Okay. So this episode actually is one that I have been wanting to talk about forever.

It's about an event that happened almost 150 years ago that briefly brought the attention of the nation to this small Kentucky town as everyone tried to answer the question, what fell out of the sky and why? This is the story of the Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876. ♪

On March 3rd, 1876, in Olympia, Kentucky, it's a clear, sunny day, a slight breeze. One of those early spring days that carries the promise of warmer weather. Midwest fake spring. It's my favorite thing. Yes, precisely. And...

And what's tried and true now was tried and true 150 years before. And it's that if you give us good weather, we are going to flock to the outdoors because Lord only knows when we're going to be getting it back. Like you said, this is like fake winter. Shorts and sandals immediately. I know. I don't know if you saw that like meme where it's like Midwest winter and it's like fall spring, second winter, fall, like second fall spring, third winter. One thousand percent. So for one woman named Rebecca Crouch, it is the perfect day to go get some work done outside.

So she's going about her normal day and sometime between 11 and noon, she's like out there making soap when all of a sudden something starts falling from the sky. And she can't tell what it is at first. And her grandson who's outside with her says it's snowing, but it's definitely not snow. I mean, it's heavier. It's landing on the ground with like literally audible thuds. Plus, it's a clear day. Like, I mean, not a cloud in sight.

Not that it couldn't, like, snow in the middle. Like, honestly, this would be so, like... I'm going to say, like, snow wouldn't surprise me while it's, like, sunny in the 70s. Welcome to the Midwest. I'm sorry.

So whatever this is, one piece of it lands right next to her, making this sharp, like, slapping sound as it hits the ground. And she looks down, staring at whatever just fell out of the sky, and she realizes that what she's looking at is meat. Which, like, can you imagine? And also, like, questions. Raw? Cooked? Steak? Chicken? How big are we talking? It's making a slapping sound on the ground. I know. I, like, can you hear it? I just hear, like, bleh, like,

Like, I can't even do it. Like, I just hear wet. I kind of gagged when you said slapping sound. I know. I know. So here's the deal. None of the pieces are super big. Most are smaller than the size of your hand, which is still to me pretty big. Yeah. But it's raw and it doesn't look like it's been cut with a knife. Like, the way they described it back then, it sounds like it's more like strips that have been ripped from something. And I

I mean, as it's falling, Rebecca can't help but think of her husband and son because they're not home right now. And as she's grappling for some sort of explanation, she briefly wonders if something happened to them and their remains are being brought back to her by some divine act. I mean, again, cut to like the 1800s. I would be terrified. I guess. Yeah. She also wonders with, I'm sure, like I

sense of growing horror if this is foreshadowing for something bigger to come, like some indication from the cosmos of an impending cataclysm. Like, anything's possible. I would kind of think the world is ending if, like, shredded meat was falling from the sky. Yeah. Especially in the 1800s. Yes. Pray to whatever god you believe in and...

She's not about to like sit around and find out what this is. She grabs her grandson, runs into the house to like wait out whatever's happening, hoping that it does end. And it does. Like the meat only falls for like one to two minutes. And by the time it's done, there are these little bits of it laying all over their yard, hanging on nearby fences, caught in bushes. Now, it's not entirely clear how large the area is where the meat fell.

One witness told the New York Herald that the affected area is about 100 yards long and like just over four feet wide. So more of like a strip of an area. But Emma Austin reports for the Louisville Courier-Journal that the space was about as big as a football field.

oh, you know, four feet wide strip, football field, totally the same thing. I know, like so many details have just been like lost to time over the years. So it's like difficult to tell what's what, you know what I mean? And even back then, like how many people actually like got there to measure at the time? They're probably just taking like random people's accounts. And to paint the picture a bit more, the Crouches live on a farm. So they have a fair amount of land for this to have happened on. And not a lot of people around to like account for it other than

Like, the family. Right. And I was thinking, like, I grew up in a pretty rural area. If something happened on our property versus our neighbors, like, our neighbors might not know. Right. Because they lived kind of far away. Right. Now, once the meat is done falling from the sky, Rebecca isn't in any rush to touch it, which, like, same girl. So she waits. And thankfully, her husband and son, they're safe and sound. They come home.

And her husband's name is Alan. When he gets home later that day, he is just as dumbfounded as she is. Obviously, neither of them have ever seen anything like this before. But for some reason, Alan doesn't have quite the same fear of it as Rebecca does. So he spends some time picking up as much of it as he can. But there's no way he can get all of it. And according to what I read in the New York Herald, there is, quote, not less than half a bushel.

Which, did you laugh how I said it like you're supposed to be shocked? Because I know you don't know what a bushel is. I had no idea what a bushel is. I actually do know what a bushel is. I'm a farmer's daughter. Do you really? Yeah. Wait, do you guys still measure in bushels? Mm-hmm. Like grain farmers still measure their yields in bushels. Britt, stop. How did I not know that you knew what a bushel was and that your dad's like measuring things in bushels still? Yeah.

I mean, my first reference for bushels is when our moms used to can peaches together and they would buy like a bushel of peaches. But like my family still measures like their yields every fall in bushels. I wish you could see my face right now. It's like jaw on the floor. I'm like, bushels. A bushel and a peck. What's that? What's that saying? Anyways. Anyways. I love you. A bushel and a peck. A bushel and a peck. And a hug around the neck. This is going to make everyone really happy that we like don't do supernatural as like our full time job. They're like, just get to the story, my friend. Yeah.

Okay, so do you want to tell? I was going to tell everyone what a bushel is, but do you want to tell them? It's about like eight gallons. Right. But like in dry form, it's kind of hard to like convert it that way, I guess. I know. So a half bushel would be like four. Four gallons. Right, right, right. So they've got at least four gallons of meat bits on the ground that he's trying to collect.

And I don't think he's like doing it because he's all that worried about like cleaning it up because I mean, they live on a farm. They've got animals that are like more than happy to nibble away at whatever's left. I,

I don't think I'd want them eating it. Me neither. I mean, most of them end up being okay. So, like, I know the chickens, pigs, cats, like, they were all eating it. They're fine. But the family also has a dog, and it's actually the dog who gets sick after eating the meat. I don't know what happens to the dog. I fully believe he just, like, you know, had the runs, maybe, like, hacked it up a little bit. I fully believe he recovered. And since the dog's the only animal that got sick, it could have been from something else. Well, and, like,

my dog at least probably wouldn't stop eating it if it had like free range of meat lying on the ground. So it could be more like how much the dog ate versus the other animal. I kind of thought that too. Yeah. And without knowing like the severity of the sickness or like when you say the dog got sick, what does that mean? It very well could be when you look at the other animals that were eating it, they might have been eating in much smaller portions than the dog. So I mean, either it gorged itself or it was the amount, whatever. I don't know.

Now, as you would expect, if gallons or half bushels of meat just randomly rain down from the sky, the crouches don't keep this event to themselves. I mean, I would be telling everyone far and wide about this now. And back then, they didn't have Netflix. So this is hot goss. Yeah. Yeah.

Word spreads around Olympia about what happened on their farm, and there are some mixed reactions. Like, some people are really wary. They view the event through the lens that Rebecca first did, and kind of still does at this point, that there's something otherworldly going on, and it might be a sign of something. Although what that something is, no one offers up any ideas.

Other neighbors are curious. Like, they're not, like, as scared or wary of this. They, like, start coming around wanting to see what this is for themselves. I mean, here's the thing. I get being wary. This is weird as...

But if something like meat just fell from the sky in one little location. Yeah. Oh, I'd be there. I would need to see it for myself. Yeah. I would like I'd be selling tickets to this show. This is like I would for sure. Although I might show up, you might show up. I don't know that we would go quite as far as some of the locals did.

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You see, two local men decide to try and get to the bottom of what this is and where it came from.

By tasting it. Tasting it? They put it in their mouths. Like raw? Yeah. Oh, no, I mean, yeah, I guess they're not cooking it. Yeah. Raw. I'm sorry. No, no. Yeah. No. Well, and let me just clarify, because at least one of the two says that he spit it out because he doesn't feel comfortable swallowing it. That's not making it better for me. I agree. When is this happening? Because you made it sound like this was like a

At least a few days later, has this meat just been like sitting out? I don't know what happens to sky meat when it's not refrigerated or cooked or anything. But I know what happens to earth meat when it just sits out. I don't know either. I don't know. Again, I don't know if this is like some of the stuff that he collected. And I don't know if they had like ice blocks way to keep it. I don't. I have no answers, my friend. I just know that some of them taste that because they're trying to get to the bottom of what it is.

They start to. They have some conclusion. So both of them agree that it tastes something like venison or mutton. Not exactly like either of the two, though. Like they can't quite pinpoint it. And it doesn't exactly look like venison or mutton either. Because in that same New York Herald article, one of the men. I'm sorry. I get so nauseous when I think about this. One of the men says that as he's handling it, there is this, quote,

milky, watery fluid that oozes out of it. I know. I know. He seems to be fine, though. And I don't know if this is the guy that, like, if this is our, like, spitter or swallower. Like, I don't know. But...

He seems to be fine. He doesn't seem to have gotten sick. So milky watery pussy meat, A-OK in 1800. Why would you say that? I don't know, my friend. I'm trying to give you the facts here, OK? Now, there is a local paper that weighs in and claims that the meat is from...

A bear. Based on what exactly? I assume his like own life experiences. Like he doesn't say that he eats it or whatever. It basically sounds like he's looking at it and he's like, yep, I've seen bear meat. That's definitely bear meat. Okay, but why is bear meat specifically falling from the sky? That doesn't explain anything. Well, I mean, the same reason any meat's falling from the sky. We don't know. Like he doesn't offer up any opinion on how it got up in the air, how it rained down on the Crouch's farm.

We don't know. Now, the meat shower, as it has eventually come to be known, remains big news in Olympia in the week following the event. But it doesn't stay local for long. Word is traveling across the country. And a week after the event, an article detailing what happened is published in The New York Times. And once it makes national news, people really start talking and really start theorizing about what could have caused it.

For instance, an article in the Rutland Daily Herald wonders if food raining down from the sky will become somewhat of a normal occurrence, a la Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs or Manna from the Heavens. They even go on to give an example of what a weather forecast might look like in the future based on how it's written. I can't tell if they're joking or being serious. Either way, it made me laugh. So I have a little excerpt, Britt, if you just want to do the honors and read it. Okay. Okay.

For New England, the Middle States, and the Lower Lake region, falling barometer increasing cloudiness with beefsteaks changing to mutton chops in the northern part of these regions during the night. Like, it's a joke, right? I mean, it has to be. Yeah, but okay, here's the thing. Like, this sounds bananas, and this is where I can't tell if it's, like, satire or if, like, everyone's just starting to, like, get nervous. Yeah.

Because this idea that they should potentially prepare for something like food regularly falling from the sky is bolstered when reports of fish falling from the sky turn up in Indiana. What? Yeah. So in Winchester, Indiana, it's reported that entire fish of various sizes, like between one and four inches, fall out of the sky over a few acres all over town.

And what's wild is that some of the fish were still alive when they fell out of the sky. I have lived in Indiana my entire life. Oh, you haven't heard of fish rain? Yeah. How have I never heard of fish rain in Winchester before? I hadn't either. But unlike meat showers, apparently there are other documented cases of fish falling out of the sky. And it turns out that there are other cases of fish falling out of the sky.

It turns out the explanation for the fish is actually pretty simple. Most people attribute it to hurricanes and tornadoes sucking up water and therefore small fish. Again, we're not talking like a six foot bass or whatever. I don't know if bass gets six feet, but like one to four inches, little fish. Little minnows, yeah. Sucking them up in the sky.

then dropping them when the wind isn't strong enough to hold them up anymore. So sometimes the fish will be carried for miles before falling. Okay, so these other documented cases, when are they from? Like just from back in the 1800s or like recently? This still happens. Like there's, I found stories from as recently as 2023 about fish raining down in Texas and Australia. What? Yeah, even in the Yoro region of Honduras, this is like an annual phenomenon. So like,

Also, by the way, glad I Googled it because I can't imagine being somewhere and all of a sudden a fish falling from the sky. I would full on Rebecca, even though it's not the 1800s. And I'd be like, it's all ending. Everyone take cover. Yeah, for sure. But now, you know, now we all know if a fish falls from the sky, you're good. It's okay. The world isn't ending for that reason. I'm sorry. Still not convinced. Yeah.

Now, there are like some other different explanations for the fish part, like flooding, for instance. But again, the most common one I've seen is water spouts or really strong winds. They pick it up, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So is that what could have happened in Kentucky, except with like a dead animal or carcass or something? Well, so the idea that the wind picked something up and carried it is a popular theory. So again, like we know this happens with fish. Maybe it happened with that. Like it's at least seems kind of logical. Yeah.

But really the theory surrounding what could have gotten picked up, like it starts to get really out of hand. For instance, one of the early ideas is that the meat was human and it came from people who got in a knife fight. Okay, that seems like incredibly specific. How? What? I don't

I don't even know how they got here. Again, like I'm trying to put myself in 1876 or whatever year we're in because like they're saying like two people are in a knife fight. And I don't know if they cut each other up so much. And then like a strong gust of wind comes and just like it makes no sense. It makes no sense. Now, there is another New York Times article that claims that men in Kentucky were always getting into fights and that whirlwinds were really common in that state.

And Rebecca goes on to say that she noticed some whirlwinds earlier that day. So, yeah, I think the theory is that they sliced each other up. Again, I don't know how much two people slice each other up in a knife fight. Well, and like pieces are falling off of them. Well, that's the thing is like, again, for it to be, if we're talking a football field and me, I'm like, both of you need to be like toast. But I don't know if they're just saying like little pieces got cut off and then like picked up by the wind. Okay, back up for a second. You said whirlwinds. Is that like a tornado?

Tornado? Is that what they mean? I don't know. Maybe? To be fair, I will. I should say I know it's not a tornado because I looked up historical tornado records and I couldn't find any record of one. I know. Like, got to be accurate. So maybe it was windy that day. I don't know what Rebecca means by whirlwinds or what the newspaper means by whirlwinds. Who knows? Either way, I don't think it matters. The theory doesn't hold up. And that theory is soon replaced by another.

That the meat is actually frog eggs that got picked up by the wind from a nearby pond and then dropped on the Crouch's farm. Frog eggs? Like what tadpoles come from? How do you how do you confuse that with meat, though? Meat the size of your hand that like slaps when it hits the ground. Yeah. And people like pick up and eat. Yeah. Everyone who actually saw what happened, like saw the meat, saw what fell from the sky. Even those who didn't. I mean, they're quick to like be like, no, thank you for trying. But no, thank you.

But then there's my personal favorite theory.

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So my favorite theory is that the meat is of cosmic origin. Ooh, space meat. Space meat.

The theory basically goes that the flesh could have been from animals on another planet that exploded and then their meat rained down to our planet. I mean, points for creativity? Yeah, this was obviously like came at a time before we had a solid understanding of our atmosphere and the way that other planets and potentially even like gravity and like the sun and all of it worked.

But it was actually taken seriously for a while, not because there's really any proof of it, but as an article for The New York Times explains, there's no evidence against it. I mean, to be fair...

but completely different times. Yeah, seriously. What's so funny to me is that, so again, they bring up the fish raining down again because that same New York Times article, they do make like special point to explain that the fish could not come from outer space because, quote, fish, however, need water. And there is no astronomer of reputation who would entertain the hypothesis of cosmic rivers stocked with cosmical fish, end quote. Okay.

Okay, so we definitely have like space cows or deer or sheep or a bear, possibly. Totally, totally plausible. That could have exploded and rained down to Earth. But space fish? Absolutely not. Yes, right. And to be completely transparent, this article in particular was challenging because, I mean...

I'm telling you, it really reads like it's supposed to be a little tongue-in-cheek. Like, for instance, there's one section where it references, like, an unnamed man who was apparently trying to invent something that could control the weather. I can't verify this, but the writer goes on to criticize this inventor guy for the food he's choosing to shoot through the atmosphere. I feel like this is confusing, but just, like, read this excerpt real quick. You'll understand what I mean. Okay, it says, quote,

End quote.

Okay, yeah. I feel like this is very tongue-in-cheek, very satire. That was my first thought, too, but honestly, the vernacular at the time was just so different. A lot of the articles that I had to read for this, like, had very similar phrasing. So, like, I think it's upsetting that I can't tell. So, okay, we've covered a couple of different options, including space meat, but... Space meat. Skeptic in me...

What are the odds that all this was a hoax? So that's a theory, too. There's basically a rumor that circulates that Rebecca wanted to sell the farm, but Alan didn't. So she staged this whole thing to convince him to sell it. But she denies staging it. She says that both she and her husband were in agreement that they would sell the farm. So there's nothing to be gained by staging this. Other than fame. Yeah.

Yes, but like I don't know if there was any way to guarantee it would make national attention, especially back then the way that like information had to travel. And from what I can tell, the Crouches weren't actively going out to reporters. They were kind of just like talking to the reporters that came to them. I can totally get where you're coming from, though, because especially when a lot of the theories are just wild.

That being said, though, not all of the theories are completely off the wall. And there is one that stands out most, could be the most credible, and it's the idea that the meat was from buzzards.

So I was going to say, like, I don't know if you know this. Like, I don't know anymore what you do and do not know. You have these wild factors, like, hidden in your brain. But I'm going to tell you this anyways. Okay. When, I guess when buzzards are startled and they've eaten a lot, they, like, throw up to make themselves lighter so they can get away faster. Like,

That's their way they've evolved to like survive. Okay. So I did not know that. Neither did I. So the theory is that if there were a bunch of buzzards nearby, you know, they're snacking on a dead animal. Then they like go up in the sky and they're like flying together. Something startles them. All of them at once like empty their stomachs. And they do that right over the Crouch's farm, which is why it's like just in this one tiny spot. I just thought someone...

A possible buzzard vomit. I know. It's nasty. Did Rebecca say that there were any, like, birds or flocks of birds in the sky, though? Well, not that I can tell, but buzzards, I guess, fly up really high. And she's making soap. She's looking down, like, and if the buzzards puke and, like, puke and run, right? They're trying to get away faster. And she's trying to, like, grab her grandson to get inside. Maybe she didn't see.

Maybe she didn't even like... Also, I don't know if I look up a little bit like...

I don't know, how fast is it coming down? Maybe she didn't. She didn't register the birds because she's more focused on the meat. There's a thousand reasons she couldn't have seen buzzards, maybe. Could the birds have vomited up that much meat, though? Like, how many buzzards would it take? I mean, if it's over four gallons, that would have to be a pretty big flock. I do not know the science of how many gallons of meat, like, buzzards can hold or how many buzzards it would take. I don't know. I really don't know. Wasn't there any way to test the mystery meat? No.

Stick it under like a microscope or something? So yes, actually. So there are some samples that were collected and sent off for testing by scientists around the country. But even then, when those actual scientists start weighing in, there's a lot of disagreement on what it could be. So some of them were saying it's definitely animal, that they can see muscle and cartilage.

But another man claims it's Nostoc, which is a type of multicellular bacteria that looks kind of like algae and is found in soil or at the bottom of lakes.

But back in the 1800s, people believed Nostoc just kind of floated around in the air and then like puffed up when it rained, which isn't true because it needs a moist environment to survive. But like this guy claims that the mystery meat was just Nostoc that fell down when it rained. But it didn't rain, though. True. It did not rain. So people are quick to point that out. Like, OK, it's definitely not that. OK, with all these theories floating around, can we just land on the fact that it is, in fact, meat, like just meat, not frog eggs, not bacteria? It's meat. Yeah.

Yeah. People do finally seem to come to that consensus when the president of the Newark Scientific Association, this guy named Dr. A. Mead Edwards, he's given a sample. And after testing it, he comes to the conclusion that the sample he has is lung tissue from either a horse or a dog.

or a human baby. How have we circled back to human meat? And how can this guy even tell? I have no clue. There are no details on how he got there. But by that point, pretty much everyone's on board with the idea that vultures are to blame. So they don't think babies, no chopped up men in a knife fight, just the carcasses of some animal that was picked on by some birds.

And that's kind of what everyone agrees to agree on forever. Like eventually the incident fades to local legend. And to this day, the meat shower remains kind of unexplained unless you take their like accepted explanation. Now, I know that there's a sample of the meat that still exists, but nothing that we could test because it's been preserved in formaldehyde for all these years. There's really nothing you can do now on it that would be fruitful. Yeah.

And listen, the most logical explanation is likely what happened. But, you know, I stuck it a little conspiratorial. Especially when you know that things haven't stopped falling from the sky. Not meat so much, but like, Brit, I bring this up to you probably once a month. I'll bring it up to everyone else. We talk about this all the time. It's the birds, isn't it? Yeah, the birds, guys. The birds. In like 2010...

There was, like, a couple of days where birds—I think it was 2010—were, like, falling from the sky. Like, flocks of birds. In, like, different areas, right? In different areas. And we just, like, dropped it out of the sky. And it, like, was barely a blip in the news. Like—

that's not newsworthy? Are you kidding me? Someone made that story go away? And then, like, every couple years, it would happen again, right? Yes. Well, so I Googled this to be like, just to make sure I'm not misremembering anything, in Google, and...

it's still happening like every single year. And there's like this one place, it was in Alabama or Arkansas when I was Googling where it's like almost like at the same time, it's like fish are dead, birds are dead. They tried to say it was fireworks one year, but then the next year there were no fireworks and like something, I think it's like, you know, it could be like

military testing. Again, I'm like the aliens are here, my friend. So, I mean, I'm not going to try and sound too out there. People can stop listening to the show. So even though there's always room for aliens or government conspiracies, you know, when you leave the explanation up to me, it might actually just be vultures. It could just be vultures. Yeah. But I like to think a little bit bigger. The truth is I miss Supernatural too much to just leave it at that mini episode.

So I'm bringing it back. I bought the show from Spotify and Supernatural is now an AudioChuck original, baby. We got a new logo, new branding. Go follow the show because new episodes are right around the corner. We're going to start releasing new episodes of Supernatural September 6th of this year. So just a couple of days, you guys. Go follow. Go listen to the back catalog.

And I'll see you in the Supernatural feed as well. Crime Junkie is an Audiochuck production. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

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