Futility Closet

When William Harrison disappeared from Campden, England, in 1660, his servant offered an incredible explanation: that he and his family had murdered him. The events that followed only proved the situation to be even more bizarre. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe "the Campden wonder," an enigma that has eluded explanation for more than 300 years. We'll also consider Vladimir Putin's dog and puzzle over a little girl's benefactor. Intro: In 1921, Pennsylvania surgeon Evan O'Neill Kane removed his own appendix. (Soviet physician Leonid Rogozov did the same 40 years later.) John Cowper Powys once promised to visit Theodore Dreiser "as a spirit or in some other astral form" -- and, according to Dreiser, did so. Sources for our feature on the Campden Wonder: Sir George Clark, ed., The Campden Wonder, 1959. "The Campden Wonder," Arminian Magazine, August 1787, 434. "Judicial Puzzles -- The Campden Wonder," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, July 1860, 54-64. Andrew Lang, Historical