This is a remastered episode — new research, new stories, new folklore. Worth a re-listen.
We pull on a blue silk dress in 1884 Boston and follow the thread back through the strange, unsettling history of secondhand things. From the rag pickers of Victorian London to the smallpox-laced wardrobes of the dead, from The Hands Resist Him to the Crying Boy paintings that wouldn’t burn, from a haunted wine cabinet in Oregon to a green velvet chair no one should have brought home — tonight we’re asking the question every thrifter eventually whispers to themselves: what lived in this thing before I did?
Sources
Thrifting & Victorian secondhand: Lemire, The Business of Everyday Life (2005); Mayhew, London Labour and the
London Poor (1851); Le Zotte, “The Surprisingly Sanitized History of the Thrift Store,” Time (2017).
Mourning culture: Lutz, Relics of Death in Victorian Literature and Culture (Cambridge, 2015).
Folklore traditions: Foster, The Book of Yokai (UC Press, 2015); Nigal, Dybbuk Tales in Jewish Literature.
Hands Resist Him: Bill Stoneham’s artist statements (billstoneham.com); Snopes, “eBay Haunted Painting.”
Crying Boy: The Sun, “Blazing Curse of the Crying Boy” (Sept 4, 1985); David Clarke, Fortean Times investigation.
Dybbuk Box: Mannis’s original 2003 eBay listing; Haxton, The Dibbuk Box (Truman State Press, 2011); LA Times
coverage (July 2004).
Listener folklore: r/ThriftStoreHauls Reddit thread.
Connect with the Show
Got your own haunted thrift story? I want to hear it.
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Stay Curious. Stay Spooky.
Written, researched, and produced by Shauna.
