Coffee With Jeff

Once upon a time, ships of war were made out of wood. Lumber was no match for cannonballs and explosive devices. Lumber broke easy, burned, and sent deadly splinters in all directions. During the American Civil War, two ships covered with iron, called ironclads, were built. They would meet and battled it out. Today we have the story of the Battle of Hampton Roads Show notes and links: Gordon’s Letter | Coffee With Jeff (coffeewithjeff.com) Battle of Hampton Roads – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Battle of the Ironclads – Mar 09, 1862 (history.com) Hampton Roads | Civil War Trust (civilwar.org) Battle Of Hampton Roads | HistoryNet (historynet.com) Battle of Hampton Roads – Conservapedia (conservapedia.com) The Monitor vs. The CSS Virginia (Merrimack) (youtube.com) The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack by James L. Nelson (goodreads.com) Monitor Boys: The Crew of the Union’s First Ironclad – John V. Quarstein (google.com) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

These days, everyone is having their sex changed. Bruce becoming Caitlyn wasn’t that big of a deal, but back in the early 1950:s, things were different. So different, in fact, that it would require a trip to Denmark for a man to become a woman. Christine Jorgensen was a person who was born a man and was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery. Today I have her story! Show notes and links: Christine Jorgensen – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Christine Jorgensen: 60 years of sex change ops (bbc.com) A Personal Autobiography by Christine Jorgensen (goodreads.com) A Biography of Christine Jorgensen by Richard F. Docter (goodreads.com) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Imagine an old man who does a podcast. He decides to travel down memory lane and talk about the toys of his youth. Will the younger listeners roll their eyes and listen to something else? On today’s show I am going to talk about three toys that were incredibly popular in my day; Ouija Boards, Lego and Mr. Potato Head. I am sure that anyone over the age of 40 has played with some or all of these at one time or another. So, I wish happy holidays and happy New Year to all. I hope all your dreams come true. Show notes and links: Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them – Tim Walsh (google.com) History of the Talking Board (museumoftalkingboards.com) Planchette – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Ouija – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) History of the Ouija Board (Odd History) (youtube.com) Ole Kirk Christiansen – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Lego – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) A brief history of plastics, natural and synthetic (bbc.com) Mr. Potato Head – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) ★ Support this podcas

Once upon a time, an elderly woman with one leg was minding her own business when a group of people bust into the shack she called a home and accused her of being a witch! She is stripped of her clothes and forced to go without sleep for days. This is the first horrible action of Matthew Hopkins, the man known as the Witchfinder General, on the 140th episode of Sunday Morning Coffee with Jeff. Show notes and links: Bloody Britain – The Witchfinder General – TV Documentary (youtube.com) Matthew Hopkins, The Witchfinder General on Vimeo (vimeo.com) This link has no title (archive.org) Journal of the witchfinder general opened up (telegraph.co.uk) The Historical Significance of Matthew Hopkins: England’s ‘Witchfinder General’ (luthercollege.edu) Devil marks, drownings and death: The story of the Witchfinder General in Essex (culture24.org.uk) Money Hungry Witch Hunter – Forgotten Assholes of History (youtube.com) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

A struggling family business came up with a new product, a brushless shaving cream, hoping to turn things around. Still they were on the verge of failure. Then a new marketing gimmick turns things around and gave millions of drivers something to read. Today I have the story of Bruma Shave! And, as a added bonus, the story of the New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) Show notes and links: Burma-Shave – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Kingman Daily Miner – Google News Archive Search (google.com) Burma-Shave Jingles (burma-shave.org) Burma-Shave | AdAge Encyclopedia of Advertising (adage.com) Burma-Shave | AdAge Encyclopedia of Advertising (adage.com) Oliver Chase | Candy Professor (candyprofessor.com) A Brief History of Necco: America’s Original Candy Company (eater.com) History of New England Confectionery Co. – FundingUniverse (fundinguniverse.com) Civil War Soldiers and Conversation Hearts (histsociety.blogspot.com) Necco – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

An insurance salesman goes out on a call from a mysterious man to a location that doesn’t exist. When get gets home, he finds his wife brutally murdered. After a police investigation, he is charged with the crime, found guilty and sentenced to death. Today we have the story of the gruesome murder of Julia Wallace. Show notes and links: The Killing of Julia Wallace by John Gannon (goodreads.com) William Herbert Wallace – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) PD James claims to have solved 1931 cold case murder | Liz Bury | Books (theguardian.com) The Killing of Julia Wallace: An Impossible Murder (theunredacted.com) A Solution to the ‘Perfect Murder’? University of Leicester (le.ac.uk) Steve Binns MBE on the Wallace Murder Case (youtube.com) Julia Wallace murder 1931 – Liverpool City Police (liverpoolcitypolice.co.uk) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

She was only 14. Her mother was one of the biggest stars on Hollywood. One night she grabbed a sharp knife from the kitchen, ran upstairs, coming face to face with mom’s abusive boyfriend. Today we have the story a Lana Turner, her daughter, a gangster, and a future James Bond! Show notes and links: The Elgin Dead – YouTube (youtube.com) Lana Turner – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Johnny Stompanato – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) In a 1958 inquest, killing of Lana Turner’s boyfriend was detailed (latimes.com) Lana Turner ‘let daughter take blame for boyfriend murder’ (dailymail.co.uk) Cheryl Crane, Lana Turner’s Daughter, Tells Her Story of a Harrowing Hollywood Childhood (people.com) Sean Connery, Lana Turner And The Murder Of Johnny Stompanato (birthmoviesdeath.com) Interview with Cheryl Crane on Vimeo (vimeo.com) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The year was 1890. A 49 year old artist and inventor named Louis Le Prince was about to become world famous for his invention. He boarded a train in Dijon France on the way to Paris. He never arrived and no one ever found out what happened. This is the story of Louis Le Prince! Show notes and links: Louis Le Prince – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Louis Le Prince, who shot the world’s first film in Leeds (bbc.com) The mystery of Louis Le Prince, the father of cinematography – National Science and Media Museum blog (scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk) 100 Years Ago, the Father of Movies Disappeared (nytimes.com) BBC Education – Local Heroes Le Prince Biography (archive.org) The Career of L. A. A. Le Prince (nla.gov.au) The Disappearance of Louis Le Prince – True Crime (unexplained-mysteries.com) Louis le Prince Disappearance | The Friends of Roundhay St. John’s Church (roundhayfriends.com) The First Film (2015) – IMDb (imdb.com) Roundhay Garden Scene – Oldest Surviving Film (Louis Le Prince 1888) (youtube.com)

Back in the early days of gasoline-powered automobiles, engines had a problem with knocking. The answer – or so the oil companies thought – was to mix highly toxic lead into the gas! This poison came out through the exhaust and into the air, the very same air that kids breathe … And this went on for over 60 years! Show notes and links: Tetraethyllead – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Octane rating – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Why Lead Used to Be Added To Gasoline (todayifoundout.com) The Secret History of Lead (thenation.com) Lead for Life – the history of leaded gasoline – an excerpt (youtube.com) Regular Unleaded: The CC Patterson Story (youtube.com) Children, Pollution, and Why Scientists Disagree by Colleen F. Moore (goodreads.com) Looney Gas and Lead Poisoning: A Short, Sad History (wired.com) The Most Important Scientist You’ve Never Heard Of (mentalfloss.com) Charles F. Kettering and the 1921 discovery of tetraethyl lead | (environmentalhistory.org) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

On the 20th of December 1900, the lighthouse tender Hesperus approached the Flannan Isles with supplies for the lighthouse. When they approached, they new something was wrong. There were no signs of the three-man crew. The island was search. The men were gone and they were never seen again. This is the story of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse mystery. Show notes and links: Pharos of Alexandria | ancient lighthouse, Alexandria, Egypt (britannica.com) Flannan Isles Lighthouse – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) This link has no title (uslhs.org) Lighthouses@Lighthouse Digest … The Mysterious Disappearance of the Flannan Islands Lighthouse Keepers (lighthousedigest.com) The Great Lighthouse Mystery of Eilean Mor (mysteriousuniverse.org) The mysterious disappearance of the Eilean Mor lighthouse keepers. (historic-uk.com) The Vanishing Lighthousemen of Eilean Mor | Mike Dash (academia.edu) Has mystery of Flannan Isles finally been solved? (sundaypost.com) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

He was born Jefferson Randolph Smith II in Newnan, Georgia, on November 2, 1860 and he would be known as Soapy, on of the most notorious con men in the old west. From the Shell Game and Three-card Monte to a fake telegraph and investments, if there was a way to take advantage of people, Soapy was involved. Today I tell his story! Show notes and links: Soapy Smith – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Soapy Smith – Bunko Man of the Old West (legendsofamerica.com) Alias Soapy Smith (soapysmith.net) Tombstone Times – THE SURE THING MAN ~ SOAPY SMITH (tombstonetimes.com) Soapy Smith killed in Skagway, Alaska – Jul 08, 1898 (history.com) Soapy Smith: Con Man’s Empire (historynet.com) The Legend Of Soapy Smith (alaskapublic.org) Gold Trails and Ghost Towns – Soapy Smith (youtube.com) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Two story for the price of one! First, the story of Bridget Driscoll, the first pedestrian killed by a automobile, and second, the story of one of the worse animated films ever made, Foodfight! Show notes and links: Pedestrian Safety | Motor Vehicle Safety (cdc.gov) Bridget Driscoll – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) How the UK’s first fatal car accident unfolded (bbc.com) motor car claims its first life, Bridget Driscoll (moneyweek.com) Mary Ward (scientist) – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Irish scientist Mary Ward – the first person in the world to be killed by a car in 1869 (irishpost.co.uk) Henry H. Bliss – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) NYC; Marking Birth Of Death On the Road (nytimes.com) The Long, Strange Odyssey of ‘Foodfight!’ (animationmagazine.net) Foodfight! (2012): The Most Terrifying, Inappropriate Children’s Movie (cinefilesreviews.com) The incredibly strange story of Foodfight (denofgeek.com) Film Tooned Into Products | WIRED (wired.com) Movies That Never Were – Foodfight! – bewarethespaceman.co

On September 12, 1952 in the little village of Flatwoods, West Virginia, a group of seven, two adults and five children, investigated something that had crash or landed on a hill. In the darkness, with only a flashlight that came across something scared them and they never forgot. What was it? Today I tell the tale of the Flatwoods Monster! Show notes and links: Flatwoods monster – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Gray Barker – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) The Flatwoods UFO Monster – CSI (csicop.org) The Flatwoods Monster UFO Case (youtube.com) The Flatwoods Monster – Alien, Ghost, or Cryptid [FULL VIDEO] (youtube.com) Flatwoods Monster | Cryptid Wiki (wikia.com) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Canadian Dr. Gerald Bull had a lifelong dream to build a Super Gun, one that could shoot scientific instrument into outer space. It began in 1961, and for almost 30 years he tried to make his dream come true. In 1990, it looked as if he might actually build it but it was for the wrong people. Show notes and links: Gerald Bull – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) PBS Frontline – Gerald Bull Supergun´s (youtube.com) BBC – Future – The tragic tale of Saddam Hussein’s ‘supergun’ (bbc.com) Space Guns – How We Get To Next (howwegettonext.com) Explore the Harp Supergun – Mysteries of the Abandoned (sciencechannel.com) Gerald Bull’s Downfall • Damn Interesting (damninteresting.com) The Man Behind Iraq’s Supergun (nytimes.com) WHO MURDERED GERALD BULL? – The Washington Post (washingtonpost.com) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Three short tales on today’s show. The first is about a C.I.A. program to use kittens as spying devices. Next the story of Smokey Bear, and we finish that up with a ship the public wanted to call Boaty McBoatface! Show notes and links: Operation Acoustic Kitty • Damn Interesting (damninteresting.com) Acoustic Kitty, an American Spy (theatlantic.com) 4. The Sad Case of Acoustic Kitty – Top 5 Crazy Government Experiments (howstuffworks.com) The CIA Plan to Use Cats as Spies (and the Taxi That Ruined It) (mentalfloss.com) Smokey Bear – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) The Real Smokey Bear Has A New Biography | Smart News (smithsonianmag.com) The story of Smokey Bear (fs.fed.us) Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of British Democracy (theatlantic.com) RRS Sir David Attenborough – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Boaty McBoatface wins poll to name polar research vessel | Environment (theguardian.com) Boaty McBoatface: Man behind name suggestion for £200m research vessel apologises ‘profusely’ (independent.co.uk)

In 1848, a worker of John Sutter found gold in California. Sutter had reason for wanting to keep the find quiet, but he didn’t count on Samuel Brannan, who was soon running down the street yelling “Gold! Gold on the American River!” Brannan, a former Mormon, businessman and journalist, wasn’t crazy – and had no desire to look for the valuable mineral – but he knew that a mad rush of fortune hunters was his key to fame and fortune. He would become California’s first millionaire, only to die poor and in relative obscurity. Show notes and links: Ann Eliza Corwin Brannan (1823 – 1916) (findagrave.com) Brannan Before the Brooklyn (byu.edu) The Start of the California Gold Rush (1849) (youtube.com) Sam Brannon (1979) – YouTube (youtube.com) Sam Brannan and the Gold Rush: Biography & History – Video & Lesson Transcript (study.com) Sam Brannan (sierrafoothillmagazine.com) Latter-day Scoundrel Sam Brannan | HistoryNet (historynet.com) Samuel Brannan (spartacus-educational.com) HISTRORIANS REPORT (ecv

On August 16, 1942, a blimp carrying two men left the coast of San Francisco to look for, and possibly destroy, enemy submarines. Five hours later, the airship was found, crashed in the middle of a suburban street. The two navy men were gone. To this day, no one knows what became of the two men, leading some to call the mysterious airship… The Ghost Blimp. Show notes and links: Mystery of the Ghost Blimp (historynet.com) Crash of the L-8 (check-six.com) L-class blimp – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) L8: The Ghost Blimp: Did Lt Cody Survive? (ghostblimp.blogspot.com) Aviation History’s Most Infamous One-Way Tickets to Immortality: Steven A. Ruffin: 9780760347928: Amazon.com: Books (amazon.com) Ghost Blimp | Unsolved more Mysteries (unsolved.com) The 1942 Ghost Blimp That Bewildered a California Town (atlasobscura.com) The Mysterious Vanished Crew of the Ghost Blimp (mysteriousuniverse.org) The Ghost Blimp | Oddly Historical (oddlyhistorical.com) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Jersey Devil was a local legend in the Pine Barrens area of New Jersey for over 250 years but during a week in January of 1909 dozens, some say 100s, of sightings cause it to be a national sensation. They say it is a kangaroo-like creature with the head of a goat, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, cloven hooves and a forked tail. And it makes a “blood-curdling scream”. Was it Mother Leeds’s thirteenth child and what did Benjamin Franklin have to do with it? Show notes and links: The Jersey Devil: The Real Story (csicop.org) Jersey Devil – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) The Devil Walks Among Us: The Myth of The Jersey Devil (ancient-origins.net) Impossible Animal of Story & Legend (livescience.com) The Jersey Devil (strangemag.com) Strange Creatures : (The Creatures of Cryptozoology) by Dino Brancato | NOOK Book (eBook) (barnesandnoble.com) The Jersey Devil by James F. McCloy, Ray Miller Jr |, Paperback (barnesandnoble.com) The Jersey Devil (The American Folklife Center,

During the American Civil War, actress Pauline Cushman stopped in the middle of a performance and said to the audience, “Here’s to Jeff Davis and the Southern Confederacy, May the South always maintain her honor and her rights.” She was immediately fired from the theater company and quickly became a celebrity with the Southerners. She started a new career; a spy for the Union Army during the bloodiest war that the United States had ever been involved in! This is her story. Show notes and links: Pauline Cushman – Actress, Spy (biography.com) Pauline Cushman – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) H-Net Reviews (h-net.org) Pauline Cushman – Civil War Women (civilwarwomenblog.com) The Spy of Cumberland – Civil War Saga (civilwarsaga.com) History’s Women (historyswomen.com) Scandalous Women: Pauline Cushman – Union Spy (scandalouswoman.blogspot.com) The real Pauline Cushman – Washington Times (washingtontimes.com) A THRILLING NARRATIVE. – Miss Maj. Pauline Cushman, the Federal Scout and Spy. (nytimes.com) Californ

In the 1970s, nuclear power plants were popping up everywhere in the U.S.A. So quickly, in fact, that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission didn’t have the resources to keep up. One of these plants was Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. On the night of March 28, 1979, lights and alarms began going off like it was The Forth of July in the reactor control room. Something was wrong, and for the next few days, the world waited to see if southern Pennsylvania was going to be a nuclear wasteland! Show notes and links: Three Mile Island accident – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) Three Mile Island: The Inside Story  (si.edu) MELTDOWN AT THREE MILE ISLAND (youtube.com) Three Mile Island: The Inside Story  (si.edu) Three Mile Island Documentary: Nuclear Power’s Promise and Peril | Retro Report | The New York Times (youtube.com) Three mile Island Disaster – Documentary – Part 1 (youtube.com) Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (wikipedia.org) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★