Futility Closet

In 1935 a shark in an Australian aquarium vomited up a human forearm, a bizarre turn of events that sparked a confused murder investigation. This week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast presents two cases in which a shark supplied key evidence of a human crime. We'll also learn about the Paris Herald's obsession with centigrade temperature, revisit the scary travel writings of Victorian children's author Favell Lee Mortimer, and puzzle over an unavenged killing at a sporting event. Sources for our feature on the shark arm affair: Andrew Tink, Australia 1901-2001: A Narrative History, 2014. Dictionary of Sydney, "Shark Arm murder 1935," accessed March 5, 2015. "Arm-Eating Shark Bares Weird Killing," Pittsburgh Press, July 9, 1935. "Shark Gives Up Clue to Murder," Milwaukee Journal, July 9, 1935. "'Shark Arm' Murder Mystery Still Baffles Australian Police," Toledo Blade, Dec. 14, 1952. The 1799 episode of the Nancy's forged papers appears in (of all places!) Allan McLane Hamilton's 1910 biography The Int