This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A Production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

The area outside Panama City was sweltering and packed with people.

A train pulled into the depot, discouraging multitudes into the hot station at La Sienega.

Men and women flock to the Ocean House Hotel and the Pacific House Hotel to pay for cheap lodgings,

those that weren't planning to stay, gathered by the station or at the beach.

There was a steamship, the John L. Stevens, waiting to take these people to San Francisco,

that it was currently aground until the tide rolled in that evening.

The situation left many Americans with nothing to do, but sweat and wait.

It was April 15th of 1859.

The California gold rush was at its peak, and in the aftermath of the Mexican-American war, plenty of American colonists were eager to grab California land while it was cheap,

and traveling through Central America was a faster and often less perilous way of going

west compared to the Oregon Trail. However, at this point, the Panama Canal didn't exist,

so it was still a haphazard route, passing through the Republic of New Granada, and as a result, Panama City

got extremely congested. Jack Oliver, an American man, stepped out of the Golden Eagle Saloon

at around 5.30 p.m. He was one of many foreigners who were passing through Panama City

far slower than he would like. He was already very drunk, trailed by several friends in similar states of intoxication.

Along the way, he grabbed a slice of watermelon from a street vendor, which he ate as he

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