This week on Myths and Legends, we're wrapping up the original story of Pinocchio,

or we'll learn how to get out of those pesky murder charges,

how to best fry up some puppets, and how to use a little-known fact of human development

to become a sleazy millionaire. It's a busy week. Then, on the creature of the week,

it's a sinister frog monster from Japan, or a guy in a wetsuit who's very gassy.

This is Myths and Legends, Episode 112c, Whale Jail.

This is a podcast where I tell stories from mythology and folklore. Some are incredibly

popular stories you think you know, but with surprising origins. Others are stories that

might be new to you, but are definitely worth a listen. Previously on the show, we met Pinocchio,

a terrible little marionette on a redemptive arc after his craftsman dad,

Jepetto, was lost at sea. He lives with the turquoise fairy, his adoptive mom,

who is pledged to turn him into a real boy if he's good. So he tries, and because of that,

he becomes the target of bullying, which led to a group of boys learning him out to a beach,

and then accidentally bludgeoning a boy on the sand, with Pinocchio's textbook,

seeing the boy that they knew just had to be dead, the others took off as the police ran up,

leaving Pinocchio holding his bloody textbook next to the body.

Pinocchio sat on the sand, trembling. One soldier stood over him, while another

inspected the scene of the crime. A bulky mastiff sniffed the sand, then the book.

Now the soldiers were huddling, conferring with one another. It was obvious. The puppet had done it.

He had killed the boy. Just as they came to that conclusion, the wind blew, and took Pinocchio's

cap with it, he pointed it after it wordlessly, knowing it was futile. The soldiers would never let

him go after it. Yet another memory of his father. Gone. You want to go get that?

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