Man Goes Fishing, Catches Bison Skeleton

According to the Associated Press, a man named Charles Ruphard from Owensboro went on a fishing trip but instead wound up hauling home a giant intact bison skeleton.

Ruphard and his wife, Lee, went fishing June 10 and decided to walk along a river bank, which he declined to identify to protect the site. Ruphard told The Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer his wife saw some bones sticking out of the bank about 10 feet from them and realized the bones were large.

"You could see places of bones sticking out for 7 or 8 feet, and we thought this could be interesting," Ruphard said.

William Silvia, a University of Kentucky animal science professor and researcher in the school's College of Agriculture, reviewed photos of the bones, then retrieved them. Silvia said the bones were a bison, and a colleague who is a state parks naturalist believes that the animal is less than 10,000 years old.

Two hundred years ago, Bison were plentiful in Kentucky, but became scarce in these parts around the very early 19th century. There are several efforts to reintroduce them to Kentucky, with herds at Big Bone Lick and Land Between the Lakes (pictured above.)

Kentucky is also home of the nation's largest bison-farming operations, the Kentucky Bison Company in Goshen.

World's Largest Sassafras Tree

Another first for the Commonwealth! Not only do we have dibs on the world's largest skillet, world's largest picnic, and the world's largest baseball bat, but the world's largest sassafras tree can be seen on Frederica Street in Owensboro, KY.

I just found out about this fascinating factoid this very morning; had I known, I would've swung by here and taken photos when I was in Owensboro a couple years ago on a BBQ-tasting jaunt. In the meantime, I found it on Google Maps (images above and below), somewhere in the general vicinity of 87.111857W 37.754455N.


According to Roadside America:

The champion sassafras was threatened by the widening of a highway in 1957. But when the bulldozers came, owner Grace Rash was waiting with her shotgun. She held them off at gunpoint until a call to the governor resulted in the building of a retaining wall to protect the tree.

Now, you may be thinking this isn't a particularly impressive example as trees go, but just know that the sassafras generally reaches only 40 feet tall on average, and this one is over 100 feet tall. It's estimated to be around 250-300 years old.

I also found a blog post by local realtor Vickie McCartney with her own photos of the tree, one of which appears below.


Sassafras is probably best known for the tea made from its roots and bark, and it was also a key ingredient in real root beer. The active ingredient is Safrole, is well known for its medicinal properties but unfortunately banned by the FDA as a mild carcinogen in 1960 and listed as a "drug manufacture precursor" in 2004 by the United Nations.

Why? Apparently Safrole can be used to manufacture the street-drug Ecstacy, which is said to provide light feelings of euphoria, intimacy, calmness, and reduced anxiety and depression. Now, I'm no fan of drugs of any kind - I don't even like taking Tylenol for a headache, and I'm a total lightweight when it comes to sipping our beloved Kentucky bourbon - but why is this stuff banned even for controlled usage by doctors at the same time as far more harmful psychopharmaceutical drugs are legally pushed on people by Big Pharma? I'd rather see people go back to the time-honored hillbilly tradition of drinking sassafras tea than for anyone to ingest any of the evil junk that Pfizer has to offer.

Oh yeah, and as for the carcinogen bit, Wikipedia has this to say:

Safrole is regarded by the U.S. government to be a weak carcinogen in rats. It naturally occurs in a variety of spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper and herbs such as basil. In that role safrole is believed, although not proven, to make a small but measurable contribution to the overall incidence of human cancer, equal to the hazards presented by orange juice (due to limonene) and tomatoes (caffeic acid).

Waterspout in Kentucky?

This puzzling datum is from the New York Times, August 24, 1901.

A waterspout on a creek? Seriously? Is that possible? A waterspout is, by definition, a funnel cloud that connects from a cumuliform cloud to a large body of water, usually the ocean or the Great Lakes.

Dowsing in Kentucky

The art of dowsing, also known colloquially as "water-witching" or "doodlebugging", is an ancient tradition brought to America by its early European settlers. And it's alive and well in Kentucky.

The Tri-state Dowsers are an organization uniting dowsing-rod experimenters across Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. Member Duane Walter was interviewed in the Evansville Courier Press awhile back, and said he's actually rarely been called upon to use his divining gift to find water. Most times, he's asked to help locate unmarked graves.

"I don't encounter mistrust very much, but it happened this one time in Owensboro (Ky.). This church was planning to move their cemetery, and they wanted to make sure all the bodies were accounted for. There were a few people who stood at the window and watched. Didn't want to come outside. Called me a warlock. Didn't scare me off, though. I did the job I was asked to do."

While Walter has a toolbox full of dowsing tools and pendulums, he's just as likely to use a simple "L-rod" that can be fashioned from a coat hanger.

He and his wife, Phyllis, live in a log cabin built in the late 1970s. Their 80-acre farm has been in the family for five generations.

"At first I was skeptical," Phyllis Walter admits, smiling, "but when he went to two cemeteries, and I watched him find some long-forgotten graves, I became a believer."

Dowsing is often attributed not to any special gift of the dowser, but to Ley Lines. This phenomena may indeed aid a dowser at certain points, but I don't think that's the whole of the story. Dowsing seems to work just about anywhere, anytime, not just near alleged Ley Lines or power-points on the Earth's grid. And then there's also Telluric Currents, Morphic Fields, Bruce Cathie's World Grid, Songlines, and the "Dragon Currents" of Feng Shui.

According to a 1978 study by Z.V. Harvalik, dowsers respond to a 60hz electromagnetic field but this response supposedly does not occur if the kidney area or brain are shielded. I would posit that it isn't the kidneys that are involved in the abdomen, but the gut brain, the literal second brain that humans have which was only discovered a few years ago and was unknown in 1978.

Far less credible to me are those are claim to use dowsing rods as ghost detectors. Someone calling themselves Whistling Owl tells a story of entering the haunted Talbott Tavern in Bardstown (see page 194 in your copy of Weird Kentucky) with a divining rod and asking out loud, "are there any ghosts present in this room?". Supposedly the divining rod swung around and pointed behind the dowser, who also claims that when they got home and listened back to a tape recorder left on in the room, a ghostly voice was clearly heard whispering "behind you!"


Famous dowsers in recent history include:

Thomas Charles Lethbridge, who authored many paranormal-themed books, including Ghost and Divining Rod in 1963 and The Power of the Pendulum in 1978.

Uri Geller, whose long career of self-induced paranormal phenomena included dowsing. Despite controversy and accusations of charlatanism by professional skeptics like James Randi (who has been accused of exaggeration, falsification, and charlatanism himself), his powers have been verified to some degree by Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ of the spooky Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International).

Karl Spiesberger, the German mystic best known for his pendulum dowsing, his theories linking it to The Odic Force, and his membership in the mysterious Brotherhood of Saturn.

International Mystery Writers Festival

Every year, the International Mystery Writers Festival is held in, of all places, Owensboro, KY. This year's festival runs from August 12th to the 16th. Their website says:

Mystery lovers worldwide are celebrating the International Mystery Writers' Festival. The Festival presents unique opportunities to discover plays, screenplays, and short stories professionally performed, published, or produced for the first time.

Discovering New Mysteries celebrates the best of new mystery works through an annual competition offering more than $20,000 in prize money. Audience members cast ballots during the festival and select the winners for The Angie Award categories. "The Angies" are named for the legendary Angela Lansbury, Kentucky's First Lady of Mystery 2007.

Among the luminaries who will be in attendance:

William Link - Award-winning writer-producer of TV shows such as Columbo, Murder She Wrote, The Bill Cosby Mysteries, Mannix, Ellery Queen, etc.

Sue Grafton - Louisville's own best-selling mystery chronicler. Grafton's many works include A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, and C is for Cookie. (Okay, I may have hallucinated that last one.)

David Breckman - Hollywood producer, director, and former Saturday Night Live writer, currently writing for the hit television series Monk, starring Tony Shalhoub.

Zev Buffman - The Tony-nominated Broadway veteran actually lives in Owensboro, and is the CEO of River Park Center.

Gary Sandy - Best known for playing Travis on WKRP in Cincinnati, Gary really is from the southern Ohio area and will be attending the Festival to take part in the "Live Radio Theatre" enactments.

Much of Kentucky Still Without Power

Apparently I spoke too soon when I said the current ice storm wasn't quite as bad as the one in 2003. According to the New York Times:

Much of Kentucky remained blanketed in ice Friday as more than 600,000 homes and businesses were still without power after being hit this week by the worst winter storm in memory. Utility officials warned it might take two weeks before all electricity was restored.

Emergency officials in three of the hardest-hit cities — Paducah, Owensboro and Benton — said that utility workers were doing everything they could, but that there simply were too many felled lines, especially in remote areas of the state, to move any faster.

Although the storm left more than 1.2 million people without power as it stretched from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania last Saturday, Kentucky was hit hard Tuesday night and into Wednesday, causing the largest power failure in state history.

And in Time Magazine:

Life has come to a standstill in Kentucky, and it's difficult to imagine just who in the Bluegrass State had the more miserable Super Bowl weekend. For those half-million residents who were still without power Saturday night (and 200,000 who were also reported to be without water), this past weekend involved shuttling between one of the estimated 172 emergency shelters that have been operating across the state since Wednesday.

As for state officials, the weekend involved a rapid reassessment of just how dire the situation had become. Speaking out the day after some local municipalities decried a lack of federal or state emergency relief, Gov. Steve Beshear described the fallout from last week's ice storm as the state's largest-ever natural disaster. He then activated every last member of Kentucky's National Guard, dispatching all 4,600 Guardsman to assist with the statewide crisis.

Most reports of the chaos have focused solely on the numbers: 700,000 Kentuckians thrown into the dark last Tuesday, nearly 200,000 of those concentrated in Louisville alone, with more than a dozen deaths now being investigated.

(First photo: Paducah, KY, swiped from the New York Times. Second photo, Spottsville, KY, swiped from Time.)

Prison Jumpsuit found on I-64

Tonight, a policeman discovered an orange prison jumpsuit discarded alongside Interstate 64. It's believed to have been worn by Charles Ray Locke, who escaped from the Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington on January 17th.

Authorities believe Locke might be heading for Owensboro and are focusing their manhunt in that direction. He was serving a 70 year sentence for robbery and weapons charges, and has an extensive history of auto theft and home invasion. According to the police report:

Charles Ray Locke, D.O.B. 10/03/1955, age 53, white male, 160 pounds, 5'10", He was last seen with brown hair and blue eyes. Locke has a dragon tattoo on back, butterfly/snake tattoo on chest and a spider/Russian emblem on his left arm.

If you have information on Locke, call the Kentucky State Police at 502-227-2221 or 1-800-222-5555.

The Bridges of Kentucky

For those of you who have an unexplainable obsession with bridges - and I know you're out there - the "street view" feature on Google Maps can be quite a handy toy, allowing you to traverse Kentucky's bridges virtually.

Madison-Milton Bridge, Milton, KY

Cumberland River Falls Bridge, Whitley County, KY

Boonesboro Bridge, Boonesboro, KY

Sherman Minton Bridge, Louisville, KY

Clark Bridge, Louisville, KY

Gordon Hill Pike Bridge, Corbin, KY

Paducah Bridge, Paducah, KY

J.R. Miller Blvd Bridge, Owensboro, KY

Lake Barkley US 68 Bridge, Cadiz, KY

Clays Ferry Bridge, Clays Ferry, KY

Ironton-Russell Bridge, Ashland, KY

Roebling Suspension Bridge, Covington, KY


And while Google currently doesn't let us street-view the William H. Natcher Bridge in Daviess County, we do get to go underneath it, at least:

Cold Case File: Hands and Feet Removed

From the Kentucky State Police Cold Case Files:

Cold Case of Unknown White Male - Body found January 7, 1990.

Victim: Unknown white male, 5'6" to 5'7", 125—140 pounds, brown hair, eyes are possibly blue, hands and feet severed and were missing.

Location: 2 1/2 miles Northwest of Philpot, Daviess County, Kentucky.

Unidentified white male homicide victim was found nude, shot six (6) times, hands and feet severed. Victim had been severely beaten, some teeth knocked out. Hands and feet were never located and victim has never been identified.

Detectives are requesting help from the community or anyone who might have information on the Murder of Unknown White Male - 2. Anyone with information can contact the case officers Lt. Pat Isbill, Sgt. Jason Kirk, or Det. Marc Carter with the Kentucky State Police Post 16 Henderson, Kentucky at (270)-826-3312 or e-mail them at Lt. Pat Isbill, Sgt. Jason Kirk, or Det. Marc Carter.

Beulah Annan

Few remember her today, but Kentuckian Beulah Annan made national headlines in the 1920s over her controversial murder trial, for which she was eventually acquitted. Many felt strongly that she was guilty and that justice was not served. Others saw her - and still see her - in a more romanticized “Bonnie and Clyde” way.

In a very short period of years, Beulah went through several men and several misadventures. She married her first husband in Owensboro, KY, then divorced him and moved to Chicago and married auto mechanic Albert Annan. She soon began having an ongong affair with a laundromat worker named Harry Kalstedt, and in April 1924, she shot him to death.

Beulah told multiple versions of her story - that she murdered him in cold blood for no reason; that she murdered him because he was leaving her; that Kalstedt tried to rape her and she shot him in self defense; and that he reached for his gun when she told him she was pregnant, so she grabbed it first and shot first. Whichever version is true, what is common to all versions is her admission that instead of calling for help immediately, she sat around drinking cocktails and watching him bleed to death for two hours while playing a 78 record by Sophie Tucker called “Hula Lou” on automatic repeat the entire time.


Despite her waffling and inconsistencies, she was ultimately acquitted. It was a decision that shocked and outraged many.

Albert Annan had supported his wife throughout the trial, and nearly bankrupted himself paying her legal fees. And the day after she was freed, she made the announcement that she was leaving him. “He is too slow”, she told the press.

She next fell madly in bed with a boxer with Edward Harlib, whom she married once the divorce from Annan was finalized. Three months later, she divorced Harlib as well, claiming “cruelty” on his part and demanding thousands of dollars in a settlement.

There were a couple other men who crossed Beulah’s erratic path after that, but tuberculosis put an end to her journey. She died in a sanatorium in 1928 and was buried at the Mount Pleasant Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Owensboro.

She was fictionalized as “Roxie Hart” in the play and film Chicago by Maurine Dallas Watkins.

Johnny Depp

Depp, born in Owensboro, KY, is well known for his offbeat and bizarre choices of film roles, and yet somehow he's managed to maintain a career-long hot streak unparalleled in Hollywood, in films such as Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, Ed Wood, Benny and Joon, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Dead Man.

Is the real Depp as weird as his characters? I certainly hope so. Knowing that the man proudly owns a used kleenex that Jack Kerouac once blew his nose on makes me suspect the answer is yes.

The Death of Thomas Mantell

January 7, 1948.

1:15pm : Officials at Godman Air Force Base outside Louisville, KY receive a call from Kentucky State Police regarding UFO sightings in Maysville.

1:35pm : KSP calls Godman Air Force Base again. The UFO has been seen in Owensboro and Irvinton.

1:45pm : The UFO is seen approaching the base. Control tower ascertains that the object is not a weather balloon or a plane. It is described as
gray, metallic, conical, and rotating.

2:30pm : A team of four F-51 fighters planes approach the base. The tower called the flight leader, Captain Thomas Mantell, briefed him of the situation, and asked him to investigate. One F-51 in the flight was running low on fuel and continued on his course while Mantell took his other two planes and went after the UFO. Mantell sights the UFO above him and follows it to 20,000 feet while his men drop back at 15,000. Mantell is nowhere to be seen and doesn't answer the radio.

3:50pm : The control tower loses sight of the UFO.

7:20pm : UFO sightings suddenly occur across the midwest.

3:00am : Captain James F. Duesler is summoned to investigate Mantell's crash site.

Mantell's plane crashed 130 miles away and appears to have belly flopped straight down, which is totally inconsistent with a plane crash of this type. There should have damage to surrounding woods from an angular trajectory, and the nose-heavy weight of the plane should have brought it down nose-first . Although the wings and tail had broken off, the fuselage sustained little damage, and no blood was evident in the cockpit. Mantell's body had already been taken away, but Duesler was allegedly informed by others at the scene that "nowhere on the body had the skin been punctured or penetrated, yet all the bones had been crushed and pulverized."

The Air Force maintained that Mantell must have been chasing Venus and ran out of Oxygen. After it was pointed that Venus was nowhere near that position in the sky at the time, they changed their story and insisted it was a balloon that Mantell was chasing.

Mantell's body was laid to rest in Louisville's Zachary Taylor National Cemetery.

Rainey Bethea

Ever seen a film or read a story where everyone on both sides, both the so-called good guys and the so-called bad guys, are unlikable and unsympathetic?

This is one of those.

A young African-American tobacco farm worker from Owensboro, Bethea was free on parole from a prior theft conviction in 1936 when, it is said, he climbed into a window of an apartment belonging to a 70-year-old woman named Lischia Edwards. Bethea later confessed to raping her, strangling her to death, and robbing her.

It was a peculiarity of Kentucky law in 1936 that unlike other capital crimes which carried a sentence of electrocution in Eddyville, rape carried a sentence of local public hanging. The prosecuting attorney chose not to pursue the more obvious murder charges and only charged Bethea with rape, to insure that he would be publicly executed and an example made of him in Owensboro.

Bethea expressed doubt in court whether Edwards was still alive during the rape, and this was a considerable point of contention during the trial, since at that time there was no law regarding sex with a corpse. Because of this, the prosecution very nearly risked the entire case by pushing for a rape conviction rather than murder.

Bethea’s lawyers called no witnesses and cross-examined no one. According to Bethea, they urged him to plead guilty against his better judgment. A new team of lawyers later tried to call for a new trial, but it was too late. Their request was denied by both the Kentucky Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court.

As so often happened with public hangings, throngs of sightseers and rubberneckers showed up for the spectacle, giving it an ambience not unlike a carnival or a county fair. The current sheriff was female, so there was a perverse excitement in the crowd about getting to see a woman killing a man live onstage. However, she ultimately chickened out and delegated the onerous task of pulling the trap door switch on the gallows to a police officer from Louisville.

There was so much ugliness - on both sides of the law - in this incident that it was directly responsible for the end of public executions in Kentucky.