Welcome listeners to another episode of Fast Food Horror. Today we bring you behind
the legend in a creepy fireside chat. We hope you will find it illuminating
and horrifying. Greetings, we're a traveler. I see you've found your way
back to my fire. Warm yourself, rest the spell whilst I tell you
a tale that may illuminate the danger that looks in the woods near here.
It may just save you from losing your head. The time is nigh,
and you'd best feed my words, for what you thought you knew isn't all
to the story you think I'm about to tell. Have you heard of the
Sketch Book. It's been near two centuries ago that it was published in England.
It represented the first widely read work of American literature, a collection of
thirty four essays detailing the author's life in America, his dangerous journey across the
ocean, ship wrecks and storms, life in the New Country and the hospitality
therein the Meaning of Christmas, and an op ed on the mistreatment of Native
Americans, and an account of a lover's triangle in the small town he was
staying in, as well as the mysterious disappearance of one of the players in
Westchester County, New York in the essay entitled The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
I'm sure you know the story by Washington Irving, But did you know all
of the characters are based on real people? And if that is true,
well, let's not jump ahead. Let us review. On one side of
this lover's tug of war was the black Smith, the town hero, a
hard working, well muscled, handsome fellow and a bit of a bully named
Brahm Bones. But our author based him on a very real person, Abram
van Alstein. He really did exist, and he did so during the time
Washington Irving resided in that area. You can even find his tombstone there.
Nikobad himself. The other suitor, the Schoolmaster, a charming and well educated
man who traveled some but lacked shall we say, self confidence, was based
on Jess Merwin, again a real person, a schoolmaster who resided there in
the area during Washington Irving's time. North of Terrytown in Westchester County, and
at the center of this lover's tug of war was a wealthy heiress, Katrina
van Tassel, again based on a real person, a miss Eleanor van Tassel.
Washington Irving just substituted another's first name for hers. Her aunt and her
father, Baltus van Tassel, owned vast orchards and farm lands in the area.
He had built a fortune over his years, and that whom ever married
his daughter would inherit. Now, the wealth wasn't the only reason to pursue
a union and court Eleanor. She was described as being quite beautiful, energetic,
vibrant, with an alluring personality. You know the story, so I
will not bore you with the retelling of the two both vying for her attention.
You can find multiple different sources that verify all three persons existed and resided
and were contemporaries of Washington Irving in the area north of Carrytown. But there
are no third party accounts of what may have transpired that Halloween night, and
it could all have been a product of mister Irving's imagination. But but isn't
it curious He published a book of essays. All are his accounts of life
in America and his travels or his thoughts, and we are to believe that
he included two that are of pure fiction. Two stories of thirty four that
are product of his imagination, amongst thirty two other nonfiction essays. Interesting to
say the least. But is it not more plausible possible that the entire story
is real? And if that is true, the second protagonist is real as
well? Oh, he is real. Indeed, during the American Revolution,
the British employed some thirty thousand Hessian mercenaries professional soldiers soldiers for hire. They
were very good at what they did. They were proficient and efficient in their
business of killing. And during a battle in White Plains, New York,
near October's End, a certain young general of the American Colonists, a General
Washington, executed a hasty retreat from the battlefield. It was during this retreat
he ordered his cannons to fire on the rapidly approaching army to buy them some
time, and unfortunately, for one Hessian soldier, a cannonball connected with his
head, effectively decapitating him. His body was buried at the Old Dutch Church
by none other than the vent Hassel family, who some time earlier was said
to have been shown kindness by a Hessian soldier when they burnt down the family
home. They felt a great debt to him. But ha ha ha ha.
Because they obviously could not identify it was that specific Hessian soldier, they
chose to give him a proper burial Sands's head in case it was. Witnesses
say, or is it just legend that the headless Hessian could be seen rising
from his grave in search of his head or at least a suitable replacement,
every year upon the anniversary of his death. I tell you all this because
the anniversary of his beheading is quickly coming, and he will soon be out
looking for his head or a suitable replacement. So if you hear hook beats
in the wood, advancing like it was being ridden by the devil himself,
run get across the bridge that spans the brook Spirits cannot cross water, else
you end up like our dear Nicoba. Better safe than headless. Happy Halloween rot did