Chapter 1: What were the initial shark attacks in Matawan Creek?
Hey weirdos, I'm Alina. I'm Ash. And this is Morbid. 🎵 morbidito and guess what what's up girl you better keep your eyes peeled on friday the 13th for so for various reasons because it's a spooky day one and two because if you're on our instagram which like where are you
where are you actually to be honest i i understand if you're not on instagram at all well yeah if you're not on instagram maybe you don't need to go back that is understandable good for you for getting off of it but if you're on our instagram or want to we're going to be announcing something on friday the 13th which is tomorrow when this comes out yep so it's gonna be pretty cool i
And if you're not on Instagram, don't worry. We'll be announcing it on the pod too, just not on Friday the 13th because we don't have an episode out that day. It'll be Monday. Whatever date that is. Jinx. What is it? 13th? 16th? Yep. Yep. Monday the 16th we will announce it on the pod. So, you know, you're going to hear it. You're going to hear it. You're going to see it. You're going to feel it.
You're going to sense it. All the things. Yeah. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be fucking awesome. I'm excited for this announcement. I am very excited for it as well. Can we put trumpets when we announce on the potty oddy?
announcement just put that that's what we'll do perfect uh like you said i won't be doing that he's just staring at us like are you two all right has something gone awry i don't we're kind of silly today i'm not sure why is it what's so is it friday oh we have it it's because we have a new a new setup in this room i
well almost well it's definitely new we're working on it everything is everywhere right now and maybe that's why our energy is so cray cray yeah we're we're moving everything around in the room that stack over there there's just a stack of bins with a bag on top of it and half a couch like damn that's precarious as fuck Do we have workers insurance? I think we do. I don't know. Who knows?
We could be sure. Don't let that fall on your head. It's going to be great. All right. Are we back to talk about shark attacks? We are. And this second one somehow gets even more wild. Okay. There's already been two shark attacks. I'm not sure how you outdo that. I can definitely outdo it. I can outdo it. I believe in you. I'm not saying I don't.
So I said last time that we were going to be moving on to a crick. Oh, yeah. A crick. A shark is in a crick. Isn't a crick a pretty shallow body? Yeah. Wait, is it the same shark? Yeah. No. Yeah. No. I think it is. What even is a crick at the end of the day? It's like a shallow body of water. But does it connect to the ocean? Well, obviously. No. It doesn't.
The shark ubered real quick into the nearest creek. I worked that out on my own, okay? Get out of here. This bitch has been making fun of me today. I think you have been making fun of me. I've been making fun of you too. Actually. I have been making fun of you too. Look at her trying to round up the listeners right now against one of us. I'm not. I am absolutely not. I'm absolutely not.
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Chapter 2: How did the community respond to the shark attacks?
Oh. But they can't linger very long without being significantly harmed. It's not good for them. I didn't even know that they could temporarily do that. Yeah, they can do that. But because of this, the bathers and residents in Matawan had every reason to believe that they were safe that summer where they were.
Even now, so many years later, it's really not well understood how this shark came to find itself in the waters of Matawan Creek that year. Because this is literally a great white. Like, what the fuck? How did it even fit in the creek? That's the thing. The most likely theory is that it had been exploring the coast and followed an inlet into the creek, like, accidentally.
I literally just said inlet. Yeah. But once it got into the eight-foot body of water... Eight feet. Guys, that's just like a pool. Yeah. It became confused and couldn't find its way back out. That's actually really sad. It is sad. That's the thing. This is sad. It is. Of course, people are dying here. It's horrific. That's also sad. There's sadness on both sides. But this is an animal.
It doesn't have like... Like this animal is not killing people because it's like... Fuck you. I'm going to eat you because I'm mad. It's desperate, hungry, scared, and like flipping out. Like just doesn't know where it is, where it's supposed to go. Doesn't have its family. It's crashing out. It's crashing out. I have to say, this great white is crashing out.
One could say that this great white had the most massive crash out there.
valid this shark did have a crash to be clear it's funny that they should to say the shark is having a crash out it's obviously not funny what happened no i'm not laughing at what happened i think if there's there's neurons firing you guys guys we have to explain everything we say sometimes the girlies who get it get it that's it The girlies who have crashed out. I'll get it.
And babe, I crash out on the weekly. We've all been where the shark is. Yeah. At one part in our lives. That was me earlier this week. Mikey was legit afraid of me. We all were. You were afraid? Here's something you didn't know. Mikey just ripped off his headphones. Can confirm. I don't even know what was wrong with me. I think it was the lunar eclipse. She was scary.
I think at one point I was like, I'm going to kill you all. No, you literally said that at one point. And then we were all just like, no, you said I'm going to kill everybody. And we were like, no, that's not right. And you literally go, I said everybody. And we were all like... I don't feel safe here. I'm not marked safe. I don't know. I was pissed. So, see? Anyways, but I get it.
Yeah, I was probably hungry. We've all been there. Yeah. That's the thing. Yeah, it was great. I need to be clear that when you look at this, obviously the sensational part of it and the horrifying part of it is that people, kids, human beings were terrorized, traumatized, murdered, killed, eaten, harmed in irreparable ways.
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Chapter 3: What happened during the rescue attempts for Lester Stilwell?
Science is so cool. Fucking love science. So it was only when he saw something large and dark moving in the water beneath him that Rennie started putting the pieces together and he swam as fast as he could to shore. Because he wasn't being held onto right now. He scrambled out of the water in a panic. And once he's out of the water, of course, he's like, what the fuck?
Like, he's looking around like, are there pieces of me missing? Like, what's going on? And that's when Rennie and the other boys could see the large scrapes and cuts across his chest. Yeah. And blood was streaming down his chest and stomach. But there were huge, like, lacerations. And despite his panicked state, Rennie explained that something in the water had hit him and cut him.
But his friends, who hadn't seen anything below the surface, they were not sure. They were like, what? Do you mean something just went by and cut you? Like, what? Yeah. To them, it looked like he may have brushed up against something that was jagged, like a jagged branch or something. And his friends were like, are you just exaggerating? Like, are you messing with us? Did you get a cut? Yeah.
Now you're like smearing it all over yourself. And given what happened the next day, it's more than likely that what Renny experienced was an exploratory bump by a shark. So it just like bumped its teeth into him? Basically, it's something that a shark does to assess the size and threat level of potential prey. They don't do it with their mouth. That's an exploratory bite.
But a bump is just with their skin. But their skin is so rough and abrasive, it can cut or tear human skin. Wow. Which is why he was bleeding so much. It like bumped across him because he saw the big shape, like he saw the shark. Right. Once they determined their friend was no longer in danger, the rest of the boys jumped back into the creek. Oh, fuck.
And Rennie is being like, no, like protesting, being like, you got to get back out of the water. In the end, the other boys won out and they stayed in the water while Rennie went the fuck home. Yeah. He's like, nope. Fortunately, everyone did make it out of the creek that day with all of their limbs intact. Was the shark just like lingering in the creek though?
Yes, but others were not going to be so fortunate in that creek. So the next morning, retired sea captain Thomas Cottrell set out for his usual walk along the creek. He had done this every morning for years. And he had heard the story about Rennie's brush with some unknown sea creature the day before. And that morning he stopped and he kind of just like lingered on the edge of the creek.
He's looking at the water and he's like, you know, I just wanted to see if anything unusual was in there. There was a storm that we had talked about in part one the previous days that had kind of stirred up the sea and the water a little bit. And it was still hazy in there, but then he could see what appeared to be a large gray shape moving under the surface.
And having been out to sea more times than he could count, he's a retired sea captain, he immediately recognized that shape as a shark. And he said, a big one. And he said, how the fuck is it in the creek? Exactly. By his estimation, he said it looked to be about nine or ten feet long. Damn. And it was just swimming casually in the creek. Like, it belonged in the creek.
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Chapter 4: How did the shark attack Joseph Dunn and what were the circumstances?
And they had only been in the water for like 15 or 20 minutes when one of them, Charlie Van Brunt, saw what he described as, quote, the biggest, blackest fish I had ever seen. That's not a fish, baby. And it was swimming swiftly below the surface in Lester's direction. Just seconds later, they all heard Lester shriek. As the shark grabbed him as it burst from beneath the surface.
Its teeth and underside, they said they could see its belly because it rolled after it got him. Because sharks will do that. They'll literally, like a crocodile almost, will roll to like trap you almost. Yeah, to like drown you essentially. Yeah. Now, and so he's pulling Lester under.
Lester resurfaces a second or two later, but the shark still had him by the arm and was whipping its head back and forth, jerking this like 11-year-old back and forth. The shark went under a second time, taking Lester with it. And this time it's huge tail. They said it was huge. It whacked one of the other boys in the face.
And it knocked him several feet back into like some pylons, like literally sent him flying. Then just as suddenly as it all started, it was over. But Lester was gone. Nowhere to be seen. A large bloom of blood on the surface of the water was the only thing left. And they freak the fuck out. And all five of them scrambled out of the water. And they just ran screaming into town for help.
None of them even got dressed. That's how scared they were. They are literally naked running into town naked. Like covered in their friend's blood, screaming. Can you imagine this? That's like a horror movie. So they're smeared with mud, grass, streaks of blood. They're running into town, screaming shark to anyone who will listen.
And when Rennie Cartan had told his story about being cut by something big in the water, most people didn't really believe him. Right. Just like Thomas. And when, you know, when Thomas raved about the shark in the creek, everyone was like, yeah, I don't know about that. But this time, it was different. This was clearly not a prank.
These boys were genuinely terrified, genuinely traumatized, and screaming about how a shark had not just bit their friend, but had eaten Lester Stilwell. Oh my god. So the constable gathered up a group of, you know, able-bodied men of the day, and they all hurried down to the creek, hoping they would reach him, maybe find him and help him.
But at this point, they figured that the boy had just drowned. Yeah. Now, back in town, all the boys continued telling their story, though at this time, it's weird, because so, like, some of the town was believing of them and obviously ran down to the creek, but some people are still like, are you sure that's what you saw? Like, are you sure he didn't just drown?
Like, you know, like, did something bad happen? Yeah. But finally, when they reached the business of Stanley Fisher, who is a fucking real one. Oh, thank goodness. They found an adult who was willing to listen to them. The fact that it took them a minute is crazy. Fisher had grown up the son of a sea captain, and he had spent more than a little time on the water.
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Chapter 5: What was the reaction of the townspeople to the shark sightings?
We're not done. Okay. While several of the townspeople waited with Stanley Fisher at the train station, word started spreading about these attacks, but not fast enough.
Less than a mile down the creek from the Wyckoff dock where the attacks on Stilwell and Fisher occurred, 12-year-old Joseph Dunn and his 14-year-old brother Michael were swimming in the creek by the brickyards with a friend, Jerry Hauerhan. During the year, they lived in New York City, but that summer they were staying at the Jersey Shore with their mother in Cliffwood, just outside of Matawan.
Now, that afternoon was so hot, like I had said, and they were all eager to get into the creek. None had heard about Renny Carton's encounter with the shark the day before, and they hadn't heard about the attacks that had happened a fucking mile down the creek a half hour earlier yet. Oh, my God. Because it just hadn't got to them yet. So they were just looking for a place to cool off. Right.
Hadn't heard about anything. Now, they race through town down to the brick docks where, again, they jump right into the creek. Had they looked up the creek a ways, they might have seen a large dark shape moving slowly in that direction. Or maybe they would have caught sight of a fin break the surface of the water, maybe giving them some kind of warning. But you're not looking for it.
They're not going out to the creek expecting a great white shark. But again, their minds are just, it's summer, I'm having fun, I'm cooling off.
Later, it would seem strange to everyone that the boys would have willingly jumped in the water right after a vicious attack, less than a mile away, but Captain Cottrell and the group of small boats still hadn't made it that far down the creek, so there was just no way for them to know.
Now, they had been in the water about a half hour, splashing, wrestling, when a man comes racing towards the shore shouting a warning about sharks and urging them, get out of the water. Now, Jerry and Michael were the first to hear the warning, and they were like, fuck that. They swam right to the ladder, pulled themselves out of the creek.
Joseph had gone swimming to the middle of the creek and couldn't hear what they were shouting. Oh. Still, he could tell that something was wrong, so he started swimming towards the dock. He later recalled. Okay. He later recalled, I was about 10 feet from shore and looked down and saw something dark. I did not see him the first time he hit me. Then he turned around and got my leg. Oh.
Now, this is about an hour out of what happened down the creek, by the way. We're already on another one. I'm like, so listen, Sharky, you're not hungry anymore. As Joseph desperately tried to pull himself in the direction of the shore, the shark pulled in the opposite direction, determined to drag him under.
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Chapter 6: What was the outcome of the search for the shark responsible for the attacks?
By no means did anyone deserve to lose their life. Absolutely not. Or do something that they should have lost their life. Like, you should. Like, honestly, I want everybody to be able to go swimming in the water. But it's not ours. Right. And I just can't. Like, it's a double-edged sword. It really is. Because obviously you want to keep people safe. Yeah. And this was horrific and tragic.
But to yank a, like go looking for it and yank it onto the boat and beat the shit out of it, that just doesn't feel right to me. It's supposed to be where it is. But again, we're also in 1916. Yeah, we didn't have all the knowledge we do now. We're much less educated. We don't know how enough about sharks at this time. But really sad.
But from this point of view, I'm like, you guys are really being assholes. Yeah. And it's like, it's just it's all sad. It's the whole thing is sad. Now, after resting and regaining their composure, they managed to push the shark and the net back into the water, riding the boat and allowing them to haul it back to the docks.
When asked about this experience, he said it was, quote, the hardest fight for life I've ever had. Now, by the time and again. I should say, too, if I'm on a boat and a shark is trying to get on the boat and eat me, yeah, I'm probably going to beat it with an oar to get it out of my boat. But he was trying to catch the shark, so you wouldn't be in that position. That's the thing.
It's not like it just jumped on your boat out of nowhere. Sharks don't just jump on boats. Yeah, like, you're going to defend yourself, obviously. You're not, like, I'm not telling anyone, well, accept your fate and go into it. No, of course not. But, like, the likelihood of the shark just jumping on the boat and being like, I'm going to eat you, no. It's like you pulled him onto the boat.
There's plenty of food in where you are for the shark to eat. Now that by the time Michael and his partner had made it back to shore, many others had returned with various kinds of sharks. That makes me so sad. All convinced they'd caught the so-called man-eater.
As a result, everyone seemed pretty skeptical that this New York taxidermist and amateur hunter had caught the shark that was responsible for the deaths of Van Zandt, Bruder, Stilwell, and Fisher. But when they cut the shark open and revealed the contents of its stomach, they discovered, quote, two bones, one 11 inches long and the other a small fragment.
When they were examined by the medical examiner, it was determined that, quote, the long bone appears to be the shin bone of a boy. Oh. By the time they finished the examination, they also discovered roughly 15 pounds of suspicious fleshy material that was later determined to be human remains. So this was the shark that had done it.
After the remains were removed from the shark's stomach and sent to a pathologist, Michael Schleicher took the shark's body back to his shop in Harlem, New York, where it was stuffed and mounted. Now, although they could never say for sure whether his shark was the one shark that was responsible for all the attacks. Right. There was evidence to support that it was. Yeah.
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