Chapter 1: What events sparked the 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks?
Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid. This is Morbid, and it's gonna be a cinematic one. Cinematic, you say? We're gonna be talking about shark attacks. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun! Yeah, not just any shark attacks. They're from 1916 and they're famous shark attacks. Really? Jersey Shore ones, in fact. I don't know if I've heard of this.
Do you know that even when I swim in a lake, I'm terrified of getting shark attacked? Oh, yeah. I'm terrified of anything. Sometimes I swim in the pool and I'm like, what if there's a shark in here? And I'm like, what if there's that thing from that episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark in here? I know. That would fuck me up. You know?
Go listen to Laughing in the Dark, by the way, if you want to hear recaps of Are You Afraid of the Dark? There you go. We're not on it, but I'm just saying it's a good podcast. And Mikey's on it. Mikey's on it. And Dave. And Dave. Who made this cinematic. And Brian. And Brian.
Chapter 2: How did the public perception of sharks change after the attacks?
And Eileen. And Eileen. We don't know, but I'm sure she's great. Yeah. But, yeah, so I always think that thing's going to come out. I know. I get that. Is it the Dead Man's Float? Yes. That's the episode. Yep. That was always the one that really scared me, that and... I'm cold. I'm cold. But yeah, so this is going to terrify you for water. I'm scared. Today, just like Jaws did.
We'll talk about Jaws too. We are going to talk about Jaws? Yeah, but before we do that. We have an announcement. We have an announcement, babies. It's kind of like an announcement that's not an announcement. It's like a half announcement. It's like a get ready. Get ready. Just, you know, keep your eyes peeled on the Instas. I think that's really the only social media we have.
Maybe we'll make a TikTok about it. Probably not. We'll think about it. But definitely keep your eye on the Instas. Yeah. And this space in particular, if you're not on the Instas, obviously we'll talk about it on the pod. Yeah. We're going to be announcing something pretty big. Yeah. Maybe something that you can attend. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Maybe you could go to. Maybe you could go to there.
Maybe. I don't know your life. I don't know. Just keep that in mind. Just think about it. Think about it. For the next week or so. Yeah. You know, just keep it in mind. Keep your eyes peeled. Your ears peeled. Keep everything peeled. That sounds gross. Your onions, your potatoes. Peel it all. Peel it all. Peel away. And if you're like my kids, peel your apple as well.
Chapter 3: What were the details of the first attack on Chrissy?
Peel your apple, yeah. You know? No, eat the skin. There's so much fiber in it. I know. I tell them. I tell them. Tell them. Say, TT's fiber-maxing, and you should, too. Two out of three of them will eat the skin of a kiwi, but not the skin of an apple. You're supposed to eat the skin on the kiwi. I know. I was, like, only a few days ago old when I found that out. Yeah, it's really good for you.
Didn't know. I thought you, like, weren't supposed to, in fact. Nah. I mean, it's fuzzy, so it's weird. Yeah. But, you know, eat the skin, guys. Do it. Live your life the way you want to live it. And also... If you're looking for a book to read. Hey, I know somebody who wrote a few books. I'm always going to tell you about it. Always. Always.
The third book in the series, The Butcher Legacy, you can pre-order it. And I think there's still some signed copies left at Barnes & Noble. So if you want those, I don't know if there's any left. But if there is, go grab them. Could be. They might be gone. Hunt it down. Go hunt it down. So go pre-order it. You can go to butcherlegacy.com. Pre-order it wherever you want. Hardcover.
It's going to be great. You can get an e-book.
audiobook news will be coming uh and you know what is crazy some of my favorite authors of all time have given me blurbs that's a cool fucking moment and they've been pretty amazing so it's it's given me a big head i love that and it's just been phenomenal i can't wait i can't wait for you guys to see what authors agreed to do it because i am still speechless it's a big deal yeah it's blowing my mind a little bit
Also, we're on opposite sides of the room today. Yeah. And like, it didn't feel weird until right now. Yeah. We flip-flopped the room a little because we needed to clear the energy a bit. It looks so good in here. I'm so happy with the way that it came out.
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Chapter 4: What happened during the attack on Charles Van Zandt?
Yeah. But all of a sudden, it just hit me how weird I feel. Yeah. Not in a bad way, just in a like, whoa, a whole new world. Exactly. You know. You know what else was a whole new world? Jersey. Jersey. 1916. Yeah. Yeah, that was a whole different world. There you go. Look at that segue. Look at it. Look at it. So first, this is going to be cinematic. It's going to be gruesome.
It's going to horrify you. Okay. But you know, here we are. It's morbid. It is. It's also going to be a two-parter because holy shit, there's a lot in this one. I mean, this is like... It's far past what a one-parter could do because there's just a lot. I'm scared. And I'm going to give you a lot right up front. Okay. So you don't have to take it.
But let's go back to what we're all thinking about right now. What are we all thinking about when we think of shark attacks? Jaws? Yeah, Jaws. I want to watch Jaws now. So in the opening scene of Steven Spielberg's iconic –
1975 film jaws which my kids want to watch so bad and i've not let them watch it yet not yet uh two teenagers steal glances at one another from across a bonfire before coming together to go for a walk along the beach what could be more romantic i was just gonna say that's romance at its peak well during their walk one of them chrissy decides she wants to go for a late night swim what's more romantic than that
i'm not late night swimming me neither so i'm with i'm not with this boy either because the boy having had too much to drink stumbles and passes out on the beach so romance gone yeah romance absolutely dead chrissy's like you know what i'm going to take my little swim by myself so she goes to take the swim and she stops for a moment she's catching her breath she's looking up at the pretty night sky it's gorgeous beautiful real moment of peace and calm and self-reflection you know
And then she's briefly yanked downward from something beneath her. And this is such an, I can see this scene in my head. Because she has this look in her face where she's, like, confused, scared, but kind of just like a, like a, huh. Like, you can tell. Is this a joke? What the fuck was that?
she's like ashton kutcher and then she is violently dragged through the water her body is whipped back and forth in this completely unnatural motion she's screaming in pain and terror and then she just disappears under the surface and we never see her again bye chrissy that's it bye chrissy the next morning local police find a severed arm on the beach And it is all that's left of Chrissy. Rip.
Damn. What a way to begin a movie. In the 50 years since its release, the production and release of Jaws has definitely become the stuff of legends. You know, an unexpected blockbuster with record profits that introduced the world to one of Hollywood's most highly decorated and widely praised directors, of course, Steven Spielberg. The one, the only.
But we know now pretty unintentionally introduced the world to what would become one of humankind's most feared and fearsome enemies. Yes. Like our arch nemesis, not mine, but hopefully not yours, but what was thought of as our arch nemesis, the shark. The shark.
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Chapter 5: How did the authorities respond to the shark attacks?
a bad yeah and it was shown as something that stalks and kills its human prey with honestly like cunning and like malicious intentions like to say literal intent like intent but in reality shark attacks are so fucking rare guys yeah according to the florida museum of natural history there are less than 100 shark bites bites every year with roughly half being quote unprovoked
Typically, that's the result of the shark mistaking a person for its normal prey. Makes sense. But fear of sharks and fear of shark attacks, it's pretty understandable, of course, because they're so foreign looking to us. You know what I mean? It's also the whole prospect of being eaten alive. And that's the thing that even by mistake, if I can be eaten alive, that's scary.
It's kind of a big deal. It's kind of like hippos are scary as fuck and we should be scared of hippos. But sharks are a totally different situation. Like hippos fucking hate us and they want to hurt us. They want to eat the shit out of us. They want to eat the shit out of you. They are pissed at you for even existing. Sharks are not the same. I'm so sorry. Quick, quick little divergence here.
I was watching TikToks yesterday and this one girl, I think she was in, I forget where she was, but her driver was like, I can cross the river in the car. And she was like, no, you can't. And the driver crossed the river in the car and there was hippos in the water. No. Isn't that horrifying? Hippos will fuck you up. Mm-hmm. Intentionally. In ways you can't understand.
And they will like, they get pissed just by seeing you. Yeah, they scare the shit out of me. And they're fast. And they can run really fast underwater. I don't like, underwater they can? They run really fast underwater. They're like made for that? And they swim fast. Yeah. Oh. Those big old scary bitches can go fast. And they're fast on land. They're scary. Yeah, that's horrifying. Yeah.
But sharks, not the same. Those are two examples of things that we look at and we go, holy shit, that thing is so huge and can eat me alive and that's terrifying. One of them wants to. One of them doesn't. Yeah. So, and that's the thing, like, sharks are huge. Like, a lot of them are huge. Yeah, they're real big. They move really fast.
And even an accidental or exploratory bite by a shark can have serious consequences because they're so big and fast. I love the concept of an exploratory bite. Which they, that is a thing with sharks, too. They'll just be like, eh. Maybe. Let me just see. Just a little taste test. I just want to see if you're actually a fish.
And then they take a bite of you and they're like, oh, that wasn't what I wanted. It's like me with a cheese plate.
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Chapter 6: What were the reactions of local businesses to the shark attacks?
I'm like, this one could be good. Nope. Nope. Don't like that one. You know? Now, Jaws not only exploited the understandable and Actually, probably pretty healthy fear of sharks, to be honest. It exacerbated it. Yeah, a lot.
It created a monster out of an ordinary, you know, pretty imposing, though, animal that has existed far longer than we have, leading to stereotypes about sharks, particularly the great white shark, that caused hordes of commercial and casual fishermen to hunt, kill, and display them without regard for their population or their ecological importance. That's really fucked up.
Now, both Spielberg and Benchley, who were like all the people who worked on the film, they did go on to publicly state that they had a lot of regret for how they unintentionally contributed to the overfishing and general demonization of sharks. And they stress that Jaws is a work of fiction and shouldn't be taken as anything else.
That's like, don't be scared that like a dream demon is going to come and stalk your teenagers. Like, it's a... It's fiction. It's a fiction. It's so annoying when people have to explain, like, what should be a pretty widely understood concept. That, like, fiction is fake. Yeah. Yeah.
But the fact is, while it is a work of fiction, there's at least one instance in American history where the stereotypes and fears inspired by Jaws were very reasonable. So these were, like, intentionally angry sharks? These are pretty gnarly. This was called, in the summer of 1916, it was called The Summer of Blood. Fuck. Which is the most metal thing I've ever heard. I've never heard of this.
No, this summer, Americans were waiting on pins and needles to learn whether, you know, their kids were going to be called up to fight in the great war that was unfolding in Europe. But the nation's, you know, our privileged class... They started prepping for long summer vacations at beaches and lakes across the country. Different vibes.
Among them was Dr. Eugene Van Zandt, a widely respected physician who had come of age during the latter half of the 19th century and now was nearing retirement and so liked to spend his summers by taking his entire family to Beach Haven in New Jersey. Nice.
That summer felt very important to Van Zandt, with the American Medical Association calling for, quote, preparedness camps to train American doctors for field service, you know, should the Americans join the fight in Europe. The likelihood that his oldest son, Charles, who was like 23 at the time, would be called in to fight, it was kind of becoming more inevitable with each passing day.
But for the time being, at least, Dr. Van Zandt wanted to make the most of the time they had and enjoy this vacation with his family. Yeah, I totally got that. And they did this a lot. They went there like almost every summer.
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Chapter 7: What theories emerged about the cause of the shark attacks?
Thank you so much. Uh, but that's the only one that's safe. Okay. Um, so they, you know, the dog was just in the water. He was in the water. He had grown up with dogs. So he like instantly bonded with this dog. Yeah.
Uh, and he had seen him on the beach and a family member said it seemed just normal that Charles would just like hook onto this animal and just end up playing with the animal even at like 23, you know? So they were just running around playing together. They were being rambunctious in the water together, splashing, yelling, chasing each other, like adorable.
And in no time, Charles had fully immersed himself in the water and was swimming after the dog, who then in turn would swim after Charles if Charles ran away. So they were like going back and forth chasing each other. They were just having the summer day of their lives.
Now, above the surface of the water, anyone could see the unmistakable signs of play and the sounds of happiness and fun that was happening with Charles and his new furry friend as they were swimming and splashing. But below the surface... from a distance away, the sight and sounds of Charles and the dog would have looked and sounded decidedly different.
In fact, to an animal expertly attuned to signals of distress from potential prey, the noise and disturbance caused by Charles and the dog were exactly the type of chaos that would draw in a hungry shark." So swimming several miles from the shore, this lone great white would certainly have received these signals being emitted by Charles and the dog. And it would have turned into sound waves.
And then he would take those sound waves and he would follow them back to their point of origin. That's so fucking scary. It's crazy how they're literally just designed to hunt. That is what is fascinating about sharks. Very fascinating. They're literally designed for this. And it's not like they just hear it. It's like sound waves. Right. And they can track those sound waves. Right. Like, what?
From below and several yards away, Charles would have appeared to the shark as a large, dark shape. Yeah. Which is precisely the kind of prey the great white was accustomed to eating and hadn't been able to eat. And better yet, at least from the shark's perspective, his vigorous splashing indicated distress. Yeah.
Which meant the shark wasn't going to have to expend a lot of energy to get this prey either. Right. Also, according to ichthyologist George Burgess, it is widely accepted as fact that swimming with dogs is far more likely to attract the attention of a shark. Really? I never have heard that before. So Burgess says the irregular swimming actions of animals are extremely attractive to sharks.
The front paws, doggy paddling, creating a maximum splash, and the rear legs, bicycle pedaling, four rapidly moving legs make a blending motion at the surface, and it couldn't be a whole lot more attractive to a shark. Interesting.
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Chapter 8: What can we learn about shark behavior from these attacks?
But for whatever reason, the dog suddenly turned and started swimming back towards the shore. That's actually very interesting, too. I think that's so interesting. You have to wonder if he said something. Yeah. His dogs are so in tune. Yeah, and if he was trying to kind of tell him, like, why don't you follow me, bud? Yeah, like we're getting too far.
Like, we've been following each other, just follow me back here. Right. Oh, dogs. Yeah. We don't deserve them. When he realized his companion, his furry companion, had abandoned him, Charles turned and called out to the dog. But by then, the dog had reached the shore and was going up on the beach. Wow, that's actually, yeah, I'm very interested by that.
So Charles' sisters would remember that moment for the rest of their lives. They watched as their brother accepted that, you know, he wasn't going to play with his dog anymore. And he decided, okay, I'm going to head back to the beach too. So the dog did give him a signal of some kind. I don't think he got a distress signal, but... Yeah. Clearly.
But I think he could signal something in his brain told him because we are so connected to dogs. I feel like I agree that it's like I wonder if he was like, I'm going to follow him. Yeah. Go back. Then one of the other bystanders noticed something else in the water. A dark fin had appeared behind Charles, who was now swimming steadily towards the shore. This always sounds like fiction.
Like whenever you hear about a shark attack and people are like, we saw the fin. It's like. But that's exactly what happens. Oh my God. And someone among the crowd shouted, watch out. But Charles was too far out to hear them. And even if he had, there was little he could have done. That's the thing. Watch out. Like what are you going to do?
Once a great white has decided to attack, it moves with incredible speed and it bites with 4,000 pounds of force. Wow. Jaws full of sharp, jagged teeth that are designed for tearing and ripping. Now, the cries from the beach grew louder, but I don't think Charles could really hear them. His head was going from side to side and dipping below the surface as he was swimming.
According to many researchers, as the shark got close to Charles, it would have received the final indication that what it was tracking was indeed prey. It would hear the thumping of Charles's heart as he swam. That is diabolical. Doesn't that just send a fucking chill down your spine? That is dia-fucking-bolical. This is like in the sinking of the Indianapolis. With the plates.
With the plates that they could pick it up over the sonar. Just the clinking of a plate together. Hunting in general and just the different... Yeah. Or just, like, things that were, like, predisposed with. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. Like, it's just so crazy. Evolution is insane. It's not. Like, it really is. You just can't conceive of this kind of shit. And it's fascinating to me. It is.
I mean, you could... I could just do a hundred different episodes of this podcast on like predators. Yeah. And maybe we should because it's really, really interesting. We could start a new series. Like a predator series. The show in and of itself is about predators. Yeah, exactly. Like animal predators.
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