Our world is full of the unexplainable, History is an open book. All of these, his amazing tales are right there on display just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the cabinet of curiosities. The cities are proof that the sky is the limit, soaring towers, crowded streets, people shuffling from one thing to the next and those miraculous feats. engineering in artistry cities are organic and constantly changing, and yet there anchored in our minds and hearts by their landmarks, Imagine new york without the empire state, building or paris without the eiffel tower. They wouldn't just look different. It would look like they didn't exist at all.

Now. Imagine a city rich in history and culture, home to authors, politicians and titans of industry This one in particular, is located in north west germany a little over one hundred miles from dusseldorf, was founded in the early twelve hundreds and for a very long time was known as the city of linen. In fact, it once produced so much of the fabric that, in the nineteen twenties started issuing linen currency as well as notes made a velvet and silk this. My friends is bielefeld.

it's a city, much like any other. It boasts a university and serves as headquarters for a number of companies, including food plastics, textiles and home appliance manufacturers, bethel institution, a hospital for the mentally ill was built in eighteen, sixty seven and protected patients from nazi forces during war war. To a time when hitler had ordered the executions of all mentally ill people across europe, there is a local theatre, several gothic churches and art museum, a concert hall, a botanical garden and even a football team, and if you ve made it this far, you'll notice something interesting about bielefeld, nothing, even though it citizens might think differently. There's nothing particularly special about bielefeld of east when compared to other cities, just like it around the world, which is what makes one particular claim so bizarre.

You see in the dial up days of the internet, the mid nineties online forums where, where people gathered to gossip joke and talk politics before social media took over our lives in one such forum, a german computer science, student name akim held positive that bielefeld gift s nicht, as with many languages such as sentiment, has multiple meanings. It could mean bielefeld is empty, as in there is nothing to do or sea, but it's the other meaning that went viral long before the idea of going viral was even a thing. Bielefeld, they say, doesn't exist according to occupy held the city's existence was a hoax carried out by a climb down An organisation known as them, and anyone who said otherwise was part of the conspiracy. Of course he knew his claim was real. It was an experiment

As we ve learned from stories of undead monsters and multiple personalities, experiments can take on a life of their own from there. The joke, spiraled into full blown conspiracy theory including references to the illuminati. One good example would be the focus on the number twenty three be le felt city hall sits at twenty three neater wall and its area code, zero, five, seven one, one: zero, zero, zero

adds up to the number twenty three as the concepts of means and online full tell us take off in the mid two thousand. So too did this bizarre theory into, as in fourteen bielefeld mayor pit class and use the conspiracy as a way to increase tourism for the cities. Eight hundredth anniversary german chancellor Angela Merkel, once attended a town hall meeting their later, adding as a joke. If it even exists, bielefeld certainly does exist, but some people still resist the idea. If you claim to have been there or know someone who has you make it labelled as one of them and while some may see this tale as a harmless prank, it's also slightly disturbing one off handed comments can wipe a city off the map.

in our minds, at least it's crazy to think that a joke like this could ever be taken seriously, but it raced around the web for years in eighteen. Ninety nine finally fed up with all the lies and rumours the city decided to issue an official press release in it. They assured everyone that, yes, the city does in fact exist. There was just one small problem with their efforts to dispel the rumours. The date they chose to publish their announcement. Just happened to be the first of April otherwise known as April fool's day, a lifeless body beside a bloody knife. a woman in her living room dangling by her neck from a closed line. A man

slumped over the door of his convertible in his garage. At first glance, some of these deaths might seem like suicides or accidents. Not so there are three of twenty unsolved murders, each with a different motive, but connected by one common thread: a woman, named fanny board in chicago in eighteen. Seventy eight fanny led a trinity, no sheltered, nineteenth century life, her father, the successful farm equipment manufacturer who expected his family to adhere to the strict gender norms of the time men he said, should go to come age and then get jobs to support their wives, who were meant to stay at home with the children band and her brother were homeschooled and both dreamed of attending harvard, however, Her brother was allowed to go, which was disappointing because fanny had dreams of her own the kinds of dreams she couldn't share with anyone.

Else in no way a fulfilling them. While she still lived in her fathers home respecting his wishes. She instead got married at the age of nineteen. The marriage was perfectly fine for awhile, they have three children and fanny seemed satisfied, but deep down, she never forgot about her dreams. Eventually, they prove too powerful to hold back driving her to divorce her husband in order to make them all come true, something that was unheard of at the time. Fanny now in her forties, use the inheritance from her late father and her recently deceased brother to pursue a passion that she'd repressed for far too long murder. Specifically the homicide cases described to her by one of her brothers college classmates. With his help and her newfound wealth, she created a new department at harvard the department of legal, edison. She also help set up a library named in his honour, as well as a curricula

known today as the harvard seminars in homicide investigation. Of course, a fan, did all of this in the nineteen forties, so it should come as no surprise. Is that she was often discouraged from visiting crime scenes. Instead, she decided to create her own. It was the perfect cover real inserting herself into the growing world of murder investigation to better understand how to study and teach it throughout the second half of her life fanny went from housewife to homicidal architect. She carried out elaborate murders, mostly Women who had strayed from the safety of their domestic lies. She then used her crimes to educate others on best practices in analyzing crime, since her technique required the students to employ a geometric search pattern such as a clockwise spiral, when examining the crime scene scanning from one side of the room to the next. In a three hundred sixty degree fashion, students would get an idea of how her murders had been committed.

Despite her grisly actions, fannys work earned her numerous accolades and was even made an honorary captain in the new hampshire state police, making her the first female police captain in the united states. As I said at the getting her crimes remain unsolved. maybe asking yourself if we know who fanny was and what she did Why would her murders still be unsolved today? The answer is a lot more simple than you'd. Imagine they never happened. See while her crimes were based on real cases, they were actually come needed as highly detailed directories Today, there are known as the nut shell studies of unexplained deaths each scene like a room from a grotesque, dollhouse, meticulously researched and re created in order to teach detectives how to look for clues and fanny known throughout law enforcement, as frances

their lee is the pioneer who made it all possible. In fact, eighteen of the twenty that she created are still use today by Marilyn's medical examiners office who also keep solutions hidden from the public. The old king Shea reminds us that the best way to learn is to do. Let's all be grateful that fanny didn't take that piece of advice too far, I hope you enjoy today's guided tour of the cabinet of curiosities subscribe for free on apple pod or law. More about the show by visiting curiosities, podcast dont come the show, was created by me Erin monkey in partnership with how stuff works I may another award, winning show called lore witches upon cast book series and television show, and you can

all about it over at the world of lore dont come and until next time stay curious.