Hunters’ Duel

This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human. Welcome to Aaron Menke's "Captain of Curiosity," a production of iHeart radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Robert refused to give in to fear. Born into slavery in the American South, he always found small ways to rebel. His proudest moment was when he married his wife, Hannah, who was also enslaved. Their marriage wasn't even legally recognized by the state of South Carolina, but they did it anyway. He had also proven himself smart and capable enough at various jobs until he was stationed on a steamship called the planter. The crew was mostly fellow enslaved people, with only three white officers to oversee all of them. It was better than being on a plantation, and then they got to be out on the water and move around, but their overseers were just as hateful and condescending as any white slave owners on land. They hadn't done much sailing over the past year, since the war broke out and the Union blockaded Charleston, trapping the planter and other ships in Charleston Harbor. They could still run supplies back and forth between the peers, but that was about it. As such, Robert started to notice the captain and the other two officers grow lax when it came to military regulations. They weren't supposed to ever leave the enslaved people alone on the ship, but that started to happen more and more regularly. More shocking than that, one night the captain told Robert that he and the other officers were going to town to be with their families for the night, and he left the ship in Robert's care. Well, the war raged on. Every time Robert got word of a Confederate victory, his heart sank. He and his wife now had two small children to care for, but those children were the property of his wife's enslaver. There was nothing keeping that slaver from selling her and the children and sending them off to God knows where. If the Confederates were successful in becoming their own nation, then Robert and his family would continue to be enslaved for the rest of their lives. It wouldn't be a matter of if their family was torn apart, but when? And thinking about this led Robert to desperation. He would rather die than lose his family. He continued to be left in charge of the planter. The captain probably thought that Robert would appreciate the trust. And he did, but not because he cared at all what the man thought of him. In fact, he was going to show the captain that he had made a huge mistake. And so Robert gathered the other enslaved people on board and told them that he wanted to take advantage of the situation. They didn't know how the war would turn out, but they would be fools to just sit back and let it play out without taking advantage of the chaos. He proposed that they steal the ship, pick up their loved ones and escape to the Union blockade where they would turn over the ship and earn their freedom. They put their plan in motion in June of 1862. The crew had no problem sailing from the military pier to a nearby wharf where their friends and family were waiting. Once picked up, there were now 16 escaping enslaved people on board with the women and children hiding below decks. Robert then put on a straw hat that hid his face and had the men raise the Confederate flag above the ship. He then sailed them out into the harbor past the Confederate fort guarding the city. The men on guard yelled down to the ship. Give the Yankees hell to which Robert Cooley replied, aye, aye. And from there, several tense moments passed as they grew closer and closer to the Union ships, they waited as long as they dared to switch the Confederate flag out for a white flag of surrender. But when they finally did, the nearest Union ship called out to them, asking for their names and their intent. Robert gave them his and told them that he wanted their freedom. And this was just the beginning of Robert's incredible story. He went on to captain the planter and use it to help fight the Confederacy before the remainder of the war. And after the war was over, he took the reward money for the ship's capture and used it to buy a mansion in South Carolina and not just any mansion, but the mansion of his original enslaver who had since fled the state. We can only imagine how incredible he must have felt raising his family in the main house where he was born into slavery in a shack in the backyard. In the years that followed, Robert continued to do amazing things, becoming a state senator and doing his best to make South Carolina a safe place for freed and slave folks. Unfortunately, with the rise of the Jim Crow South, a lot of amazing stories like Robert's were deliberately downplayed in the history books, but curious minds have since reclaimed that legacy, bringing his story back to national attention with a monument outside of South Carolina's state house. When he piloted that ship out of Charleston Harbor, Robert Smalls was just trying to create a future for his family. But in doing so, he contributed to the future of all black Americans. It began on a frozen evening in early 1969, a middle aged accountant by the name of Thornton was walking home when he decided to cut through the graveyard, a shortcut that quickly became a detour. Into the uncanny. Once a grand Victorian graveyard, Highgate had long ago fallen into disrepair. It's crumbling mausoleums and tombstones were now covered in ivy and graffiti, and the paths were severely overgrown. As Thornton wandered between the crypts and weeping angel statues, he realized that he had gotten lost. A bell clanged in the distance and he started toward the sound, hoping that it would lead him to the gate, but he had barely made it a few steps before the temperature suddenly dropped, a towering figure loomed ahead, human shaped, but draped in shadows and watching him with unblinking intensity. Thornton tried to run, but he was rooted in place and growing rapidly weaker as if the specter was sapping the life from him. And then as suddenly as it appeared, the figure vanished. When Thornton realized that he could move again, he ran and he didn't stop until he stumbled out through the cemetery gates. A few weeks later, an elderly woman reported a near identical experience. Both accounts were reported to the British Psychic and Occult Society, a little known organization run almost entirely by a 24 year old psychic investigator named David Ferrant. Intrigued but skeptical, he visited Highgate himself one night and allegedly glimpsed the same phantom, which he described as a tall gray figure with pinpricks of red light for eyes. Convinced that something supernatural was afoot, Ferrant wrote to the local newspaper asking if anyone else had seen anything strange in Highgate. The responses poured in, detailing one account after another of bizarre paranormal phenomena. The local press picked up the story and then the BBC. Pretty soon, Highgate was the hottest destination in London for ghost hunters, goth teens and aspiring occultists. One of the newcomers was a guy named Sean Manchester, a self-proclaimed bishop and exorcist. He claimed the figure in Highgate was not just a ghost, but a vampire, possibly a medieval Romanian nobleman who had been brought to London in a coffin full of native soil. According to Manchester, recent satanic rituals had reawakened this ancient bloodsucker and only he had the skills and the stakes to deal with it. David Ferrant went on record saying that he thought this theory was ridiculous. He was a firm believer in ghosts, but he drew the line at vampires. Manchester took the criticism personally and pretty soon, their difference of paranormal opinion spiraled into a bitter feud. Ferrant accused Manchester of fabricating his credentials and sensationalizing the story. Manchester accused Ferrant of consorting with black magic and desecrating graves. Both gave increasingly bombastic interviews, each casting himself as the real hero of the Highgate tale, and the other as the deluded or dangerous fraud. And as you'd imagine, their rivalry only fueled the media frenzy, which reached the fever pitch on March 13th of 1970, Friday the 13th, of course. Manchester went on TV to announce that he would track and destroy the vampire that night. As the sun set, hundreds of thrill seekers stormed into the cemetery, climbing over locked gates and wandering the tombs in search of the undead. Unfortunately, Sean Manchester failed to kill the vampire that night. So the cemetery remained haunted. And over the next few months, the story grew even stranger. In August, a headless charred corpse was found near the graveyard. Police suspected the body belonged to someone already buried there, exhumed for some kind of occult ritual. Just a few weeks later, David Ferrant was caught climbing over the cemetery walls with a crucifix and a wooden stake and arrested for trespassing. The charges were eventually dropped, but Manchester used the arrest to connect Ferrant with the burnt body, accusing him of black magic and grave robbery. By 1973, their feud had grown so absurd that the two men agreed to a public duel on Parliament Hill, complete with magical weapons. Fans eagerly awaited a showdown between their two favorite occult celebrities, but the duel was called off at the last minute. No real explanation was given, leaving everyone feeling disappointed. After that, the vampire began to recede into urban legend. But Ferrant and Manchester kept themselves in the spotlight, prolonging the story through their personal war. For decades, they have denounced one another in interviews, rival books and blog posts, and kept the Highgate saga alive long after the cemetery had emptied out. David Ferrant passed away in 2019, and when he did, Sean Manchester posted a surprisingly respectful tribute and then returned to his blog to reaffirm that Ferrant had always been dangerously wrong. Like the creature they had once hunted, their feud refused to stay buried. 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 curiositiespodcast.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 theworldoflore.com. And until next time, stay curious. This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.