On February 10, 2022, Joey “Jiggy” Webb passed away at the age of 51. He was two weeks shy of his 52nd birthday. He leaves behind a granddaughter. Jiggy was a popular paranormal host, and many in the field were surprised by his untimely death.
Jiggy’s mother Donia has kept the community updated via her own YouTube channel. Ms. Donia stated “a mother knows” when she received the call from Jiggy’s girlfriend. Describing Jiggy as always happy and joking, Ms. Donia was candid in recalling her intuition about the cause of death. She “believes his body gave out.” Jiggy had been dealing with medical issues for the past two and a half years. His second surgery related to diverticulitis was unsuccessful. Jiggy’s roommate found him unresponsive and called 911. Paramedics worked to revive Jiggy for 2 hours. The cause of death is a suspected heart attack.
The GoFundMe set up to establish a small legacy gift.
The fate of Paranormal HooD has not been publicly posted. However, viewers/listeners can still access the various videos and podcasts he starred in. Jiggy contributed so much to the field. He will be deeply missed.
While visiting New Orleans a few weeks ago, I finally stopped into the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum. I’ll be writing more blogs about the museum in general and the special collections specifically in the coming weeks. However, one of the collections includes voodoo medicine. One display included High John the Conqueror Root, and I wanted to know more!
Display at the museum
High John is a folk term for root medicine associated with conjuring powers. It goes by several names including: High John, High John de Conker, John the Conqueror Root, and Jalap Root. Usage is complicated. Depending on the practitioner, the root may be carried for luck, financial gain, protection, and depression. It is related to and resembles morning glories and sweet potato vine. It is poisonous. Do not consume!
Ipomoea purga or I. jalapa
Many believe it is the most powerful of the gris gris ingredients. A gris gris (pronounced gri gri) is a voodoo amulet or talisman that is carried. It is usually worn around the neck.
McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy WatersZora Neale Hurston
High John has been popularized in pop culture. Muddy Waters (1913-1983) sang about it in two songs: “Mannish Boy” and “Hoochie Coochie Man.” Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) wrote about a mythical African-America trickster in “High John de Conquer.” High John has been personified and used in religious practices across the world.
To learn more about voodoo in New Orleans, join me on April 27 for a Facebook Live session through Ghost Education 101.
≈ Comments Off on Georgia Vehicular Homicide Penalties Less Than the Cost of a New iPhone
A friend of mine lost her brother, Andy, when a motorist attempted to turn left in front of him. Andy was a motorcyclist. He died on impact. The driver failed to yield and was eventually cited. Unbelievably, the woman who killed him may serve one year (the max) and pay a $1,000 fine. That’s it in Georgia. Andy’s family has started a Change.Org petition for the laws to change in Georgia, and you can help!
I rarely post these types of items; however, this is different. Andy was barely 20 years old. He had his entire life in front of him. Further, some people attempted to blame him all because he was on a motorcycle. According to statistics, people driving cars are more likely to cause an accident when a motorcycle is involved. Yep. You read that correctly.
Roberson and Co. of London’s tubes of Mummy Brown and a color chart.
During the 16th century, a new, transparent paint pigment hit the market. Called Mummy Brown (Caput Mortuum or Egyptian Brown), the pigment quickly became a favorite amongst artists who used it for shadows and flesh tones. The source of the paint wasn’t a real concern. See, the pigment was made from ground up Egyptian mummies—human and feline. If unavailable, corpses of slaves and criminals were ground up.
Roberson & Co. of London made the pigment and sold it in tubes. White pitch and myrrh were combined with the ground up Egyptian mummies. Since the mummies were embalmed, they also contained trace elements of ammonia and fat. Scholars state that the color fell between burnt umber and raw umber on the color scale. Over time, however, the paint cracked and faded. Further, the ammonia and fat affected other pigments. This was a restoration nightmare. You know, in addition to the obvious.
The 19th century Pre Raphaelite artists favored it. Some who were to have purchased a tube included Sir William Beechly, Edward Burne-Jones, and Eugene Delacroix. Once word of the ingredients surfaced some artists discarded. Famed author and nephew of Burne-Jones, Rudyard Kipling retold the story of when Burnes-Jones found out about the ingredients. He supposedly ceremoniously buried his tube in his garden.
L’Interieur d’une Cuisine (1815), Temperantia (1872), The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon (1881-1898), and La Liberté quidant le people (Liberty Leading the People, 1830).
It is difficult to assess whether any of them actually used the paint. Experts believe Mummy Brown was used in L’Interieur d’une Cuisine, (Interior of a Kitchen, 1815) by Martin Drolling. Researchers speculate that Delacroix used Mummy Brown in La Liberté quidant le people (Liberty Leading the People, 1830) and Salone de la Paix at the Hotel de Ville (1854). As for Burne-Jones, researchers believe Temperantia (1872) and The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon (1881-1898) were painted with Mummy Brown.
Production ceased in the 1920-1930s with the last tubes selling in 1964. By that time, Roberson’s stated that interest in using the pigment had wain so much that one mummy could supply 20 years’ worth of tubes. The Egyptian mummy supply had dried up, as well.
There are better substitutes to Mummy Brown. For instance, Daniel Smith sells Bauxite Mummy.
Daniel Smith’s version, sans the ground up mummies.
Tulane University hosted 3 Super Bowl games: IV in 1970, VI in 1972, and IX in 1975. The crowds of 80,000+ people never knew that underneath the bleachers tucked in a storage room were two Egyptian mummies. Theirs was a lurid story.
George Robbins Gliddon (1809-1857) was the former US vice consul in Egypt. He fashioned himself an Egyptologist and assembled the “Gliddon’s Transparent Panorama of the Nile” exhibit that traveled the United States in the mid-1800s. The panorama was a beautifully illustrated painting that measured 900 feet long and 9 feet high. Gliddon was a master salesman and signed up subscribers who funded his traveling show. These subscribers attended mummy unwrapping parties, where Gliddon unwrapped a mummy and displayed any funerary items contained within the coffins.
While in Boston, Gliddon, who prided himself on his ability to translate hieroglyphics, misidentified one of the mummies. He claimed that the mummy contained in the case was a female of noble lineage. He claimed she was a high priestess or of that level. Unfortunately, upon the reveal, the mummy was most certainly a male. His erect penis had been carefully wrapped. Gliddon talked himself out of this uncomfortable situation and planned his exit from the field. He shortened his traveling itinerary, making New Orleans his final stop.
Flyer for Gliddon’s traveling show.
Gliddon arrived in March of 1852. He opened his show at Tulane University. He unwrapped the second mummy, that of a female, at what is now Gallier Hall. When the show closed, Gliddon donated the mummies to Tulane. He attempted to sell the vast panorama, even suggesting it be divided into 50-foot sections; however, it probably didn’t sell. There aren’t any records as to its fate. Thanks to Tulane’s football stadium’s demolition, we now know what happened to the two mummies.
Tulane’s former stadium was a popular venue. The Third Tulane Stadium, as it was known, was built in 1926 with a capacity of 35,000. Four expansions followed with capacity reaching 80,985 in 1955. On July 17, 1976, ZZ Top performed to a raucous audience which led to the university banning all concerts inside the stadium. (The ban remains in effect) The stadium became known as the Sugar Bowl, based on its form as resembling a sugar bowl lid, and the Queen of Southern Stadiums. Professional and college football teams played there up until 1979.
Sections of the stadium were declared unsafe, and demolition commenced on November 18, 1979. Demolition finished in June of 1980. It was during the early stages of demolition that the mummies were discovered ensconced in glass cases sitting above their coffins.
Images of the former Tulane University stadium.
The mummies were displayed initially in a museum at the university’s medical school. Next stop was the museum of natural history in Gibson Hall. That museum closed in 1955, and the mummies were placed into storage, underneath the stadium. Somehow, they ended up at a Charity Hospital museum and then to a physician’s home. (Not sure I would take them home) They were then placed back in storage until their discovery. They were kept in the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library basement until 1979, when they relocated to their final resting place: Dinwiddie Hall in the Department of Anthropology.
Tulane Museum of Anatomy and an image of the male priest.
University professors, along with graduate students, have learned a lot about the mummies. The male’s case had his name inscribed. It is often written as Djed-Thoth-iu-ef-ankh or “Thoth says that he will live.” He was a priest and “overseer of artisans” at the Temple of Amun in Thebes. He suffered from dental decay and spinal issues. He was around 50 when he died and was embalmed.
Initially, Gibbons, among others, believed that the female was Djed-Mut-iu-es-ankh; however, her skull is housed at Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania. At some unknown time, this 13.5-15.5-year-old female was placed inside the other’s case. Even though she is better preserved, little is known about her.
More has been discovered about George Gliddon. Some Edgar Allan Poe scholars have theorized that Gliddon was the inspiration for Doctor Ponnonner in Poe’s satirical short story “Some Words with a Mummy,” first published in April 1945. The main character procured a mummy and plans to unwrap it at his home in front a of few friends in the name of “scientific discovery.” The inept doctor instead revives the mummy they christen Allamistakeo. The story centers around Egyptian mummy mania that captured the imaginations of people in Europe and the United States.
Tragedy did not escape Gliddon in real life. He abandoned his research in Egyptology and shifted, instead, to proving polygenism, the belief that each race came from a distinct, individual source. (It is racist conjecture and shunned by science and scientific communities) Gliddon was in Panama in 1857 where he contracted Yellow Fever. He died before reaching the age of 50.
Ultimately, the Tulane mummies are more interesting. While visiting the university, I will attempt to visit them. I’ll post images if I am successful.
The Waverly Hills Historical Society thanked the Louisville Metro Police. On January 26, the Louisville Metro Police responded to an unusual call. Someone reported that an actual corpse was being used in the Waverly Hills Sanatorium displays. The police went out to see what was going on. Upon arrival, the police were assured by the people who run Waverly Hills that all of the props were just that: props. Not one dead body was found!
Waverly Hills Sanatorium was an infamous TB hospital that closed in 1961.
The police got a tour and a chance to chat up the folks before heading back out on patrol. The Waverly Hills Sanatorium Facebook page posted a sincere thanks, which piqued everyone’s interest. Here is what they posted:
≈ Comments Off on The Great Potoo, Mother Nature’s Incredibly Spooky Bird
A great potoo with its mouth open.
Yes, the strange bird of epic memes is real. It is the great potoo, a nocturnal large-mouthed, large-eyed bird that emits the creepiest of moans.
The great potoo is a fascinating bird. It sits in camouflage for extended periods of time, which makes it difficult to spot. Young birds learn to sit quietly alongside their parents for hours. Even though their eyes are closed, they sense movement with their “magic eyes.” Despite the resemblance, they are not related to owls. They are closely aligned with frogmouths and nightjars. The seven species are located throughout Central America and Bolivia and Brazil.
Their large mouths scoop up insects and small birds. They’re called “monstrous nightbirds’; however, they’re kind of cool.
They appear in an Amazonian folktale.
In Ecuador, the Shuar people tell the story of a married man and wife who have a disagreement. The wife, Aóho, failed to make a satisfying dinner with the pumpkins. Her husband ran away in anger. He began to climb with Aóho following. She fell to the earth, scattering her pumpkins. Upon impact, she turned into a potoo. The husband turned into the moon. Every night when the moon appears in the sky, Aóho calls “aishirű, aishirű” (translated as “my husband, my husband”). Her calls can be heard throughout the night.
Britain’s oldest public house (pub), Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, formerly titled as The Fighting Cocks Public House, has temporarily closed its doors. News spread with the owners Mitchells & Butlers stating that new management is being sought. However, here is the question I want answered: Is it haunted?
According to Guinness World Records, the pub was listed as the oldest public house in Great Britain up until 2000, when the record was classified inactive as it was impossible to verify. There are several pubs across the country that claim to be the oldest. Therefore, an asterisks may need to clarify that Ye Olde Fighting Cocks is one of a handful of old—incredibly old—pubs in Britain.
The pub’s website boasts that the alehouse was operating since 793 AD, although there aren’t any records to support this claim. The current building is octagonal in shape and dates to the 11th century. It was an old pigeon house, hence the name (see below). However, there have been several names over the centuries.
It was originally called The Round House. In 1756, the name changed to The Three Pigeons, with records verify with it operating as a public house. During the 1800, the name changed to The Fighting Cocks, as cock fighting was held on the premises.
St. Albans Abbey, now known as St. Albans Cathedral, was located nearby. Rumors of secret tunnels where monks visited the pub for liquid refreshment are not supported; however, they make for great stories of possible hauntings.
There isn’t much online discussing hauntings here. Maybe there is a presumption that it would; end of discussion. But I want to hear the stories and view the evidence.
Paul Adams’ book Haunted St Albans broaches the issue. He writes that men dressed as monks have been seen at the pub. He questioned the encounters since they are fairly recent beginning in 2001, when there should be centuries of stories for a location that old. Bar staff told of a procession of monks coming from the cellar to take seats at a table. The men were only visible from the knees up and disappeared soon thereafter. There are more stories of objects moving around when no one is watching. It would be incredible if the owners permitted a few paranormal investigations prior to the new management taking over. Some ground penetrating radar would not be remiss. I would love to see the tunnels.
Ye Olde Fighting Cocks may or may not be haunted. Hopefully with the owners reaffirming that the pub will continue, there may be opportunities for investigations, which are quite profitable.
The sad part of this tale is that so many pubs in Great Britain are closing. Financial issues are the main reason for the closures. The pandemic kneecapped an already tight market. People are opting to patron bars and restaurants or drink at home, rather than go to a pub. That puzzles me. One of the things inherently British are the pub quiz nights and hearty food, with a side of haunting footsteps.
The Haunted Librarian 
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