The Long Con of Lady Wonder, the Psychic Horse

Imagine a horse. Now imagine if that horse could read your mind. And imagine you paid for this experience. You would be in good company –– even the President of the USA listened to the prophecies of Lady Wonder, the psychic horse. Of course, it was all a long con. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Elizabeth. There, I got a question for you ahead a second.
Of course, you know it's ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
I do, Yeah, I do. Okay, so listen, listen up
here bub Okay. So this is ridiculous in many senses,
but sort of like ridiculously hilarious.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Ridiculous to the touch, ridiculous to the ear.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
All.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Ridiculous. Yeah, okay. So ev P not I'm not talking
about electronic voice phenomenon. I'm not talking about Executive Vice
Press ev as a first name, P is a last initial.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Ok.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
EVP sent us an email I was a person ev P. Yeah,
and she sent it Dear Elizabeth. Nice, so it was
forwarded along to me. It's amazing, okay, cool, And so
here's the title. The subject line Dr Pepper more like
doctor Crime, right, and I was like, tell me more.

(01:06):
And it's not a mashup. It's a mash up between
a listener and being absolutely hilarious and apparently awesome. Yeah, okay,
so let me read this to you. Sorry that the
subject line didn't really make sense. This is the first reason,
Dear Elizabeth, I love this. I'm not writing to you

(01:27):
to alert you of a crime that has happened, but
instead of one that should happen. Here's what's up. The
recipe for Doctor Pepper is a big secret. Only four
living people know the full recipe, and apparently the recipe
is kept in a bank safety deposit box. But not
just one bank. The recipe is in two pieces at

(01:49):
two different banks, in two different safety deposit boxes in Dallas.
So I think you can see where this is going.
That's right, a heist, But how do we pull it off?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Like where your head's at?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
I know, right, here's my fool proof plan. One. Break
into Doctor Pepper HQ and steal the files detailing the
location of the banks.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Good start.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Two decipher the code, which I suspect there will be
in the files. Three heist two banks in Dallas, only
to discover no RECIPEO. Four realize the recipe isn't in Dallas, Texas,
but in Dallastown, Pennsylvania. Five. Hire a crew including an
explosives dude, slash dodet, a getaway driver, and most importantly,

(02:34):
a razzle dazzle expert. Six steal the recipe and then
it's my favorite emoji with the sunglasses. Oh the guy
with sunglasses. Seven, hide in a cave with seemingly limitless
supply of all the necessary ingredients. Eight drink doctor Pepper course,
nine whatever the heck we want. Ten realize nine steps

(02:56):
as a stupid number of steps. Add another step, and
that's it. Signed your rudest rude Dude EVP. Fun fact,
doctor Pepper is not considered a cola or a root beer,
but instead a pepper soda by the FDA. What peppersoda?

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Interesting?

Speaker 3 (03:13):
So I was going to write an entire episode acting
like this was a crime that the rude dude pulled off,
and then also insert in there that, yeah, I was
the razzle dazzler of course, and just kind of like,
oh my gosh, look it's I'm in there. I'm actually
living this, and this is a confession I couldn't I

(03:35):
couldn't beat this. And I feel like you'd figure it
out that this wasn't a real crime. It's just a potential.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Crime only by the time you got to But you know, I.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Have like this strong track record of mashups. But sometimes
you got to take a breath. Sometimes you got to
take a beat and say I want to do something
a little bit different. Sometimes you got to dream about
robbing a bank vault for a doctor Pepper recipe.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Thank you so much, EVP.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Right, she came through.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Oh real one, I know.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
And so I'm just so excited to share this. I've
read it like three times and I just was dying
and I thought it was hysterical and I had to
share this.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Thank you?

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Is that ridiculous?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Certified?

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Certified?

Speaker 2 (04:15):
You know it's also ridiculous? Elizabeth A psychic horse?

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Wait to what now?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
That's it. That's all I'm telling you about this one.
Oh yeah, saddle up, buttercup. This is Ridiculous Crime, a

(04:46):
podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. It's
always ninety nine percent murder free and.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Ridiculous, ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Elizabeth sar got a question for you. Yeah, we've talked
about pet detectives we have, right, that was fun. Do
you remember how Paris Hilton hired a team of pet
detectives to find her lost chihuahua? I do remember that
psychic detective?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
What was your third favorite part of that?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
I like babs, bring them back, bring them back, no
doubt this time. Well, I got another one for you,
another psychic animal story. Okay, yeah, now he ever wondered
what it's like to own a psychic horse. All the time,
I figure you did, I've You've told me your dreams
and the ridiculous crime headquarters.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
I'm out there shoveling muck in the gutters and I'm like,
what would be what would it be like right now
if I owned a psychic horse? And then I don't
I just think about it.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
It's let that idea run through your imagination, through your
thought exercise mental theater. Well, if you ever thought about, maybe,
I don't know, a goat with a gift for prophecy.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
That's another exercise. When I'm pulling up my neighbor's lawn
in the middle of the night and I'm like, what
if I had a prophesizing goat.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
And then she played carrots? Or what about a jackass
with the case of prognostication.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Oh, that's another thing. When I am eating the shingles
off my neighbor's house in the middle of the night,
after I've pulled up another neighbor's line, I was like,
let's talk ghats.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, you're in luck. I got a doozy for you.
I got a jackass. Yeah, I know, but I'm still
I'm not going to limit you. You know, you may
want to talk about goats and jackasses in order.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
And just goats first, that's a jackassy.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well, in case this ever happens again and someone other
than me ask you if you've ever heard a story
of a psychic course. Yes, I wanted you to be
able to.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Say, yeah, I need one in my pockets.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
I didn't want you have to say I'm trying. I'm
trying your language.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
It's really good.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
You ever heard of Beautiful jim Key?

Speaker 3 (06:43):
No?

Speaker 2 (06:43):
No, that was the name of my first Irish ska band,
Beautiful jim Key.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Second one was called eighteen people on stage.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, totally, and then that we doubled the number to
thirty six for the Charlie O'sha's Happy Hoppers. You remember that. Anyway,
Beautiful jim Key. He was a horse, actual, he was
a sensation at the turn of the twentieth century, famous
performing horse Elizabeth.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
From the nineteenth to the twentieth or the twentieth.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yes, from the nineteenth to the turn of the twentieth century. Anyway,
this horse, right, it's like I said, sensation. Am I
say like sensation? I mean this performing horse.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
It was claimed he could both read and write. Read
and write Elizabeth. Yeah, literate horse, and I mean this
horse when I say literate. He could quote the Bible
what Yes, specifically, Beautiful jim Key was able to cite
any Bible passages quote where a horse is mentioned, little center.
He was really about the horses.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
In the Bible.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
It's not always about you.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
He wanted to see if there's salvation for a horse
like him. Anyway. He could also do math, right, so
he was known to be able to do basic calculations
up to the number of thirty. Right, Yeah, so that's
hired and I can count. So anyway, how is this possible?
Was this just one super smart, like highly personable horse.
Kind of the real secret He was his keeper, a
man named doctor William Key. Not a real doctor. He

(08:03):
was instead a black man, a formally enslaved person who
became a self taught country veterinarian and thus doctor. He
sold a little patent medicine on the side, you know,
just for some bacon and sip and whiskey. Money and
doctor Key and his horse, beautiful jim Key. They put
on one hell of a show, right. They would travel
the countryside a special box car built to comfortably contain

(08:24):
the talented equine, and it was also intended to be
a rolling billboard for the growing Humane Society for the
Treatment of Animals Your people, Elizabeth. So Doctor Key and
Beautiful jim Key. They would roll into town. They put
on a little show, stamp a few hooves, counted to twenty,
wow the locals, and then advocate for people not to
whip their horses or kick their dogs. I thought you'd

(08:45):
love it, right it this pair. They played the nineteen
oh four Saint Louis World's Fair, and apparently, like everywhere else,
they were a huge hit. And like all the other shows,
Doctor Key urged his audience to treat animals with kindness.
To make his case, he pointed out how he never
had to use a whip on Beautiful jim Key, and
look what he could do.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Look at my boy, Beautiful jim.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Now beautiful old jim Key. He also impressed someone else
in a different audience on a different day, but his
name was the President of the United States, William McKinley.
He was at an exposition in Tennessee, Tennessee, and the
President was wowed by a performance of Doctor Key and
Beautiful jim Key. After the show, President McKinley walks up
to them and exclaims, this is the most astonishing and

(09:27):
entertaining exhibition I have ever witnessed. And the leader of
the free world he noted the use of the influence
of kindness and patience. Yeah, he didn't take note, but
he noticed it.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
Oh, I see that.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
So that's one story of a super smart horse, right,
beautiful Jim Key, inspiring people, spreading kindness in the word
of a humane society.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
Did you know that McKinley wore five inch heels?

Speaker 2 (09:49):
What do you really know?

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Go on?

Speaker 2 (09:54):
So my next story for you is what about a
horse who may or may not have been psychic? Yeah?
You ever heard of Clever Hans?

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Never?

Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yeah? No, it sounds like something you could order off
a menu in Germany at like a Triple X health spa.
I will have the Clever Hans.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
No, it's like a little boy at a candy store
where they sell it out of the barrel and he
figures out a way to drill a hole.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
In the bottom all and they name it candy after him.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, exactly, Candy.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Clever Hans Now the horse born eighteen ninety five. That's
the O. G. Clever Hans right now. By nineteen oh four,
internationally famous Elizabeth the Horse was known around the world.
That same year, nineteen oh four, in a special extra
addition to The New York Times, The Gray Lady published
a profile of the super smart horse, and I quote

(10:41):
in and out of the way part of the German capital,
a horse is now shown which has stirred up the scientific,
military and sporting world of the fatherland. It should be
said at the very outset that the facts in this
article are not drawn from the imagination, but are based
upon true observations and could be verified by Doctor Stute,
Prussian min of Education, by the famous zoologist Professor Mobius,

(11:03):
director of the Prussian Natural History Museum, and by other
eminent scientific and military authorities. You gotta love a news
story that's second sentences. Look, trust me, this all happened.
I swear well.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
They're like, not facts from my feelings, they're actual facts.
It's truthy.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
That's early truthiness, seriously cutting edge early truthiness. Okay, back
to the New York Times. Hans, the Wonderful Stallion is
nine years old and is the property of Heravon Oustin,
a retired school teacher now they're kind, they say school teachers.
Others who knew him called Haravon Oustin an anti social curmudgeon.
Others called him a mystic. But one point was he

(11:42):
was a school teacher. That was true. He got a
check for that one. Now he treated his horse like
one of his most talented pupils. As The Times reported,
the horse has never been used for riding or driving
for over four years. Haravon Oustin has given the animal
systematic instructions, such as he would give to a child.
The industrious pedagogue is the owner of a tenement house

(12:02):
in the northern part of Berlin, and there he lives.
The animal is quartered in a small shed adjoining a
court where he has shown so this retired school teacher, Elizabeth,
He's living in a cheap apartment where he's got his
horse in a shed and he teaches him like he's
a school kid.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
Yeah, God's raising this horse like a guy with smooth hands.
Come on, do some work.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Back to The New York Times, Hans is an expert
in numbers, even being able to figure fractions. He answers
correctly the number of fours in eight in sixteen. In
thirty when asked how many threes there are in seven.
He stamps down his foot twice, and for the fraction once. Then,
when five and nine are written under each other on
the blackboard and he is asked to add the sum,

(12:45):
he answers correctly, how is he doing?

Speaker 4 (12:48):
This?

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Beats me?

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Well. It was said that Hara von Osten might ask
clever Hans, for example, if the eighth day of the
month comes on a Tuesday, what is the date of
the following Friday? I couldn't answer that right after a
moment of time to think, Clever Hans would answer, and
he'd tap one of his hoofs eleven times. Right now.
My question to you, Elizabeth, do you believe this horse
can do math?

Speaker 3 (13:10):
No?

Speaker 2 (13:10):
If you saw a horse do math in front of you,
would you be tempted to think, wait, is that worse
smarter than me?

Speaker 6 (13:16):
No?

Speaker 2 (13:16):
See I would. But anyway, clever Hans was a trip
for a plenty of the turn of the centry Germans.
They were like, yo, von Austen, this is mad. Your
horse is smart than my own kinda Now, Eventually, being
that they were all Germans, someone was like, I want
to test the hows.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
So they go out and they get Oscar funchs right.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
P f u n g st okay sure.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
A psychologist Oscar in nineteen oh seven, he Oscar he
investigated clever Hans this cat Oscar, he was as sharp
as like a razor blade ice skate right. I mean,
he didn't just observe and study this horse. He also
observed and studied the.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Trainer, oh see Hair von.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Ousten, And after a period of intense observation Elizabeth, he
determined that the horse was indeed super smart, but not
like I can do trigonometry smart. More like, which is
what people were saying at the time, they believe the
horse could do trigonometry. He was more like, I can
read people super smart. So it turns out the horse
had learned to read subtle cues sent from the trainer.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
That's I was thinking, right.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
The psychologists suspected that the retired school teacher was not
even aware of the cues he was putting out to
the horse, of which was the correct answer. Instead the
cues and like the the clues that he was supplying
the horse, they were involuntary and so yet highly effective
for a smart horse like him. Yeah, here's the deal, Elizabeth.
The horse had been trained to perform by using positive

(14:38):
reinforcement of treats.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
Horse love treats always works.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Clever Hans was a sweet treat junkie, apparently because he
paid attention, super much attention. He was like, ah, what
do I gotta do to get that next treat? So
he studied his trainer's behavior and learned to read his
body language and to guide himself to answer the trainer
in the way that he wanted to hear the answer.
And he watched him. He knew like the lift of
an eyebrow, the you know, the movem of a pinky.
The psychologist funks, he goes, and he wrote a journal

(15:04):
paper about his study of this super smart horse and
this dynamic, which is now called the Clever Hans effect.
Oh really yeah, the story manages to take take a
little bit of a dark and unexpected turn because Haravon
Osten he died in nineteen oh nine, right, and he
leaves behind this super smart horse Clever Hans.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Oh he didn't eat the horse.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
No, but good guess on where this story is going.
What would this brainy stallion do now that harevon Ousten
is gone. Well, of course, some speculators, they purchased the horse, like, oh,
I can turn tricks with this ortor nut trick, I
can turn performances with this horse. Apparently they couldn't make
that work right nearly as well as they thought, and

(15:41):
Clever Hans apparently was just like really focused on haravon
Osten because he's like, I don't want to do tricks
with y'all. So he gets sold from owner to owner
as they keep trying to like, oh, I can make
a turn of this, and nobody can. Time passes. Eventually
it's nineteen sixteen.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Clever Hans gets drafted into the military. Oh Man, the
super smart horse his serfs in World War One. Like
millions of other brave soldiers, he died on the battlefield,
but unlike the millions of other fallen soldiers, Clever Haunts
was turned into dinner to be starving soldiers. That was
the end of the super smart Horse.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Clever something that like he would have like maybe had
some slight scarring in his lungs from gas and I
just developed a thousand yard stare.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
He didn't like to talk about this. Well, let's take
a little break now that I can horse dinner wash
off the horse too fleet And when we're back. I'll
tell you the story of the psychic horse that I
came here to tell you about. Her name, Lady Wonder
the Psychic Horse. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, I got a question for you.

(17:07):
You ready to meet Lady Wonder the Psychic Horse.

Speaker 3 (17:09):
I don't know. I'm a little nervous.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
You're gonna love her.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Now, I'm just curious. What do you imagine when I
say Lady Wonder the Psychic Horse?

Speaker 3 (17:17):
Just like this horse that is just radiating out rays
of happiness? And is Lady Wonder man's splendent and yeah,
kind of like my little pony, but just a little psychedelic.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Kind of like a lady good diva, like long flowing hair,
but on a horse.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
But like a horse like Lady Wonder.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Okay, well, to lay out the basics, Lady Wonder was
a real horse, no trick there.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
I'm gonna be honest. I'm not picturing anything. And there's
just wind whistling between my ears.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
The horse was from Richmond, Virginia, you know where that is.
The local papers they often like to write about her
to remember her, to interview old folks who saw the horse,
and they asked those folks questions, and they write a
new story. There's a lot of news stories in Richmond
about this horse. So turning to one of those local
remembrances from the Richmond Times dispatch date Monday, October eighteenth,

(18:15):
nineteen ninety three. Quote, she was just a horse, of course,
but what a horse? A spelling horse and adding, subtracting, multiplying,
and dividing horse. And as many fervently believed, a mind
reading horse, a horse with a gift of prophecy. She
was Lady the Wonder Horse. Now you gotta love a
new story dedicated to celebrating a local legend. I really

(18:36):
like that. But what but when it's a psychic horse,
it's like turned up to eleven, It's amazing. Lady Wonder
born on February ninth, nineteen twenty four, lived until March nineteenth,
nineteen fifty seven, thirty three years. Elizabeth, did you know
horses lived for thirty three years?

Speaker 3 (18:53):
I did not know.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
I did not know that either.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
I thought, like, the bigger the animal is shorter, the
life no longer.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
The opposite short smaller animals. Think about a small.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Dogs, and the smaller the dog the longer.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Oh, actually, dogs is a bad example, But like, think
of elephants, right, they live longer than squirrels.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
How long the elephants live.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Like human lifetime?

Speaker 4 (19:14):
Life?

Speaker 2 (19:15):
They don't know like turtles where the're getting one hundred
and forty years? And I don't know why I talk numbers.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
With you, so don't do it.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Back to the Richmond Times dismisses for nearly two generations
of Richmond does she was everything from side show amusement
to a messenger of God. The Richmond News Leader carried
the death notice of Richmond's famous mind reading horse, the
city is psychic mayor, atop the front page, as prominently
as if she had been the governor. Oh wow, oh yeah, Elizabeth,

(19:43):
we used to be a country, a country where a
psychic horse got the same respect as the governor of Virginia.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, what where do we go wrong?

Speaker 2 (19:49):
I don't know. But the horse is also a subject
of features and newspapers and magazines outside of Virginia. So yeah.
The now defunct newspaper The New York World once wrote
that quote, this horse can read minds, predict the future,
and converse in Chinese, so that.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Converse che speak its languages.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Oh you died to just wait it's about a curl
yo toes. That was then, right, But this sort of
praise it lasted long past the expiration date of this
psychic horse, because in a news article from nineteen eighty
nine published in the New York Daily News, the writer
recalled meeting Lady Wonder the Psychic Course, and to give
readers a sense of the experience, she compared Lady Wonder
to the psychic Joanne Quigley. You remember her, right, Yeah,

(20:31):
Nancy Reagan psychic noticed the year nineteen eighty nine. That
story broke in nineteen eighty eight, so the news of
a psychic in the Reagan White House was still fresh
in the mind just one short year later, which explains
why she chose to compare Lady Wonder the psychic course
to the psychic who guided the White House.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
But it was actually even wilder than that, because, according
to the writer, she did ask this psychic course and
its trainer owner if it was true that quote Senators, judges,
military officers, high level administration staffers and State Department and
even foreign diplomats end quote all had visited the Virginia
farmland to seek and quote sometimes based their political stance
on wisdom that came right from the horse's mouth end quote. Now, well,

(21:11):
the trainer was quick to point out that neither President
Reagan nor the first Lady Nancy Reagan ever sought out
the services of Lady Wonder, the psychic horse. She was
coy about who in the White House had because someone
in a prior White House most certainly had listened to
the advice of said psychic. Course, there is yes, the
trainer owner of Lady Wonder, told the reporter from the

(21:31):
New York Daily News that Lady Wonder's advice had reached
the ears of the President. She was certain of it.
As the owner put it, quote indirectly, I know it did. Naturally,
no president of the United States is going to come
down here to Richmond to consult a horse, and they're
not going to invite a horse to the White House. Okay, naturally, right,
But there's more, Elizabeth, as the owner confessed, I know

(21:52):
White House staffers were here, and several times in the
early forties, various military officers addressed some very serious questions
to a horse as to the best time and place
for the Allied invasion of Europe.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
I think we now know late night phone calls to
Lady Wonder.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
She just said that Lady Wonder helped time D Day.
I just love that a psychic course picked the day
and date of D Day. Anyway, eat your heart on,
Ronald Reagan.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
Like, who's going to argue this?

Speaker 2 (22:22):
I know? Okay, enough about the legend. What was Lady
Wonder like as a horse and as a psychic The
horse was owned and trained by the Fondas, Not Henry Peter.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
I was so excited.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Instead, it was Claudia Fonda.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
And her husband, the other Fonda.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
The Fondas had a neighbor named Ivy Stone.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Were they Fonda the horse?

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Oh? There you go, so Ivy Stone, who lived next
door four years. She said the Fondas were an unremarkable couple.
They had no children, and they kept to themselves. She
makes it sound like they're serial killers. They're kind of quiet.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
I never would have suspected them of having a psychic course.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
So Ivy Stone is also a highly quotable eighty eight
year old. She recalled for a curious newspaper writer that
the psychic course Lady Wonder was like, and as Ivy
Stone put it, quote, she wasn't a pretty horse. Nobody
would ever say that just an old, sway backed mayor.
There wasn't anything special about her except nobody. After Ivy

(23:31):
Stone takes a long pause and as if to let
the silence make space for some woo woo. She then
comes back and she recalled how the perplexed neighbors felt
about the psychic course, and I quote, well, it was
just how did she learn her ABC's everybody said, it
seemed like she knew what you were thinking. I remember
that before she'd answered, she looky in the eyes, like

(23:53):
human eyes. I'd say, hey, yeah, right, So what was
up through this rather unattractive browns way back mayor with
psychic powers and a deep penetrating stare. So the Fondas
originally had purchased the horse to work the fields. It
was just meant to be like, just go out there
and plow right, plow horse until it drops right. However,

(24:14):
missus Fonda noticed that her new mayor had this curious
ability to anticipate people what they would do, what they
might say. It was as if the horse knew before
the people did.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
How is the horse expressing this? I think the eyebrows
at the.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
I think it would start to go and like anticipate
what they want to do next. I don't think she's
given them like a wink from you know, like hey
missus Fonda.

Speaker 3 (24:37):
Well know, like someone says something and.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Who brought this clown? So what does this farm woman
do now that she's found out that her horse may
have special powers? No, she taught the cult to master
alphabet blocks like you would a small child.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
It's like when they those people who have dogs and
they have the likes the floor and they can't talk,
which is both phenomenal and terrifying.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Totally out out, out let out.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Yeah, they're like. But then some of them they're like
dad sad, Yes, yeah, gone, and they're like, wait where
is he? Dad? Broken? Dad sad? Like wait where is he?
And then they'll sleep.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
I don't know if you want to know what animals
are thinking at all times. I mean I do like
a dolphin. I think hearing what a dolphin's interior monologue.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Might They're very smart with dogs too, Like there are
some dogs that I feel like they would just mess
with you, you know, and just tell you things that
aren't true.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
I think dolphins would try to pick up You haven't
seen how much they're trying. There's a lot of stories.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
About well dolphins also are like, you have cancer, like, dude, yes.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Of course, I don't know why I'm laughing so hard
that you have cancer, but yes, I.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Have give the collar one on every animal you do,
you have cancer. And then it's all you smell like
a tire fire has nothing to do with the cancer,
like I know you have bad hygiene, like, okay, enough,
and then the dog's all just like purkles. You're like,

(26:17):
oh god, just you know a range of intelligence and animals.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
I really like it. I love where your head up?

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Please proceed?

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Okay, where was I?

Speaker 4 (26:24):
All?

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right? The alphabet block. So teaches the smart horse to
read and uh or at least to tell letters apart,
I shouldn't say teaches it to read. Eventually, Lady wonder
knew all twenty six letters. Okay, right, So then at
age three, she decides, you know what, this is not enough.
I'm just gonna go ahead and let you all know
what I can really do. She makes her first big prediction.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
So she go out to the barn and the letter blocks.
It's like all sea tech astronomy on there.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
No, basically it's not quite but it's it's kind of
like that. Well, In nineteen twenty seven, all of America
was talking about Lady Wonder after the psychic Courus predicted
the outcome of the big heavyweight boxing match of the day,
Jean Tonny versus Jack Dempsey. Now you may not remember
the name Jack Dempsey, but he was the big favorite,
took the underdog to win. Then came the another by

(27:09):
the way, the underdog won, Geane Tunney defeated Jack Dempsy.
So then comes the big run of accurate predictions after
this point. So nineteen twenty nine, Lady Wonder correctly predicted
the Wall Street crash before it occurred. WHOA very next year,
Lady Wonder made national headlines for a second time after
she correctly predicted that FDR would win the nineteen thirty election.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Wait, I can understand like a fifty to fifty chance
of who's going to win this boxing match, and when
she doesn't get it right, they just don't tell anything
exactly did she predict the crash?

Speaker 2 (27:38):
Oh just wait, Wit, she just.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
All like shaking her head and everybody.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
She just like sell your sigh. So so, so the
fifty to fifty shots a good point because basically that's
a political election, right, It's like, oh, you just picked
one or the other, right, that's like exactly the World Cup,
all right, okay, but she picked the FDR. Lady Wonder
picked FDR to win before he was nominated.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
M hm, well then how did she she just.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Picked him to be the next president? Someone asked, who
was the next president? I'll I'll tell you. Remember the letters.
She's using the letters, right, I'll explain in a second.
But uh so she also picked a Truman to be Dewey,
which is the opposite of that famous newspaper cover at
the beginning of Cheers, Right, she uh one of the people.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
Know you know.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
My future exactly. My favorite of Lady wonders early predictions
has to be when she correctly predicted that the person
who stole the Lindbergh Baby was spoiler alert Bruno Houtman.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
Oh, we'll see you by that story.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Just like with FDR. This was months before this was
an obvious conclusion.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
And she spells out Disney Bruno Houtman.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (28:47):
Now.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
A little while later, Lady Wonder also predicted the fall
of the Fourth Republic of France. Now, people, they sculpted
that one because like they were like, what are you
talking about? Look at the mighty defenses that France built
following World War One, Lady Wonder, It's like, ahha, your
imagine old line. And in nineteen forty, Lady Wonder, she
was even proven correct when the Nazis invaded France easily

(29:08):
skirted the imagine a line and boom, fourth Republic of
France indeed fell.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
And then it's like cut to Lady Wonders, she's wearing
a brain.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
Now, who's wrong? Now? Uh oh, here's one for you, Elizabeth. Okay,
Lady Wonder also accurately predicted a California earthquake, and when
I mean predicted, the psychic course correctly called the time
and the place of the earthquake that was.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
A southern California one.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Right, yeah, the big way, I forget this.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
I'm trying to get the year anyway, it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Matter obviously, and I went a psychic course has this
kind of track record. People get curious, right, Scientists also
start coming around. They offered to test Zianamo entered. Doctor
Thomas Garrett, new York psychiatrist, hes skeptical of the claims
that are being made about the psychic courus. He's like,
show me the horse until Lady Wonder found what had
been misplaced, or rather stolen in his own life. Yes,

(29:54):
Doctor Garrett was still upset, grieving, mind you, that his
beloved dog had died while he was born out of kennel.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Oh god, that's like nightmare number one.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
Yes, Lady Wonder heard about the beloved dog. The psychic
chorus said, that's not the real story. Now, Lady Wonder
tells Doctor Garrett that the kennel had sold the dog
to someone living in Florida. Doctor Garrett listened to the
psychic chorus, then followed up on that one clue and
Elizabeth good news. Though he found his stolen dog. It
was indeed alive and living down in Florida.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
Out of town. How are the Fondas just like the
greatest criminals of all time? He just set up. They kidnapped.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Everything. Yeah, everyone has to come through and get clear.
It's from the Funda, Yeah exactly. Okay, I'm thinking about
moving against the Lindberg's right.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
What day, But the horse is gonna rat on him.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
So this is the craziest one yet you're ready, at
least to me, this is the craziest one. The Hungarian
born photographer and author Leslie Kuhn, who was the co
author of the book Modern Hypnosis Right, once met the
psychic chorus. Now Kun tried to ask a question that
was sure to stump the mind reading horse. Skeptical like
you are right, The author asked, lady wonder what Greek

(31:05):
word was one a letter of the alphabet, two a number,
three a symbol, and four a noun. The second horse
thought about it for a long moment, then she answered
the question with one word omega, which was the course correct,
that's the answer right now. Leslie Kumon wasn't satisfied. He's like, okay,
let's you may have gotten right.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
Let's d.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Give me the drill. So he asked, lady wonder, how
do you say the word five in Hungarian? Though the
horse answered O O T right. I may be pronouncing
that in correct, But which is correct as an answer
if you're spelling it out? Now? The skeptical Hungarian he
could only point out that the second course had forgot
to include the umlau over the Oh that's all he's got.

(31:49):
But still, how is this possible? Elizabeth exphabet did the
horse answer the question? These are all great questions, Elizabeth,
Thank you for asking. The horse had its own special
horsey house that the Fondas had built on their farm.
The special horse gets a special house, right. The horsey
house also was like a question booth, so kind of
like Lucy from the Peanuts cartoon strip. What I'm saying

(32:09):
is the horse worked from home, all right. So yeah,
Missus Fonda had taught her super smart horse to no
her letters. Next, Missus Fonda had had her husband construct
a handmade horse sized typewriter.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Stop, how big is a horse?

Speaker 2 (32:22):
What did I just say, Elizabeth? A horse sized typewriter?

Speaker 3 (32:26):
Saying my question to you? Thank me for asking?

Speaker 6 (32:29):
Thank you?

Speaker 3 (32:29):
So big is a horse sized typewriter? And does the
horse depress the keys with this the nose or the hoof?

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Okay, to answer your questions in order? How big is
a horse? That's how big a horse sized typewriter is?

Speaker 4 (32:42):
Now?

Speaker 2 (32:42):
Second question the nose?

Speaker 3 (32:44):
With the nose?

Speaker 2 (32:46):
So, the handmade horse sized typewriter was built of scrap metal.
It had two rows of English letters. The typewriter keys
were covered in this spongy rubber. Then the horse would
lower its nose onto the typewriter key that would trigger
like a bracket which would release hinge which they would
then make like a tin card with a letter or
a number pop up into view. Then that's how the
horse would answer the lady Lady Wonder would spell out

(33:08):
her answers.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
Okay, wait, so getting ding in my mind, it's like
this crazy steampunk contraption basically, but it's not like a
giant piece of paper.

Speaker 4 (33:17):
Not like.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Letters in front of you.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
So just like it's like one of those remember those
pianos from like for kids from long ago, with the
mouth that would open when you'd play it.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Just one of your dreams. No, I don't. I don't
remember a South toy. I don't remember a piano with
a's like Cessame Street characters or something.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Okay, I didn't make it up. That's what I'm imagining,
but like make it steampunk everything.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
It's a very it is. It's a more like steel
and iron but less. Let's just say, yeah, they weren't
worried about like biological like germs and stuff that there's
no copy lead Elizabeth mostly lead. So the handmade horse
sized typewriter it did.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
I will never get past that.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
It didn't have a numlaou key. So that's why he
couldn't answer that question. But anyway, now, when you have
a psychic course with this sort of accuracy streak, eventually
even notable scientists will be willing to come and investigate
and put their name on a journal paper or two.
So enter a skeptical scientist. They famed doctor jb Ryan
of Duke University. He traveled up to Virginia to study

(34:22):
the psychic course. And Elizabeth, I'm gonna make you wait
for it. No, yes, We're gonna take a little break
and when we get back, I will tell you what
jb Ryan did once he set up shop at the
fond of farm.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Okay, Elizabeth, oh zaren Okay, So there's this giant of

(34:58):
still trying to picture the giant type, Yes, well that
exists today. Can I go look at it at a
roadside attraction?

Speaker 2 (35:05):
That's a good question.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
I do not know for asking, Thank you for asking.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
I do not know if it still exists. So where
were we?

Speaker 4 (35:13):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (35:13):
That's right, doctor J. B Ryan of Duke University. He
travels up to Virginia to study the psychic course. He
sets up a little science zone, a little cozy science zone.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
Right.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
You know I love a cozy zone.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
I know you do. And so it's in the past year.
Imagine a cozy science zone right. For the next few weeks,
Ryan conducts five hundred tests on Lady Wonder. One of
these tests was to ask the psychic course what was
the cube root of twenty seven? The horse correctly answered three.
When Lady Wonders asked what was the cube root of
seventeen twenty eight? The horse could not answer. Could you, Elizabeth, no,
what's the CUBO say?

Speaker 3 (35:43):
I'm going to cut you off right there.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
I will admit I only happen to know this one
because of number theory. It's a big number of number theory.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
It only happened to know answer numbers.

Speaker 6 (35:50):
I know.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
It sounds so strange, right, I don't know the cube
root of twelve, but I know it because of number theory.
That's how I do math. Anyway, It's twelve. So once
he was satisfied, Ryan published the results of his study
on the side course in the Sober and Serious Journal
of Abnormal and Social Psychology. In his journal paper, Ryan
noted that quote Lady Wonder, it seemed responsive to telepathy
and possesses a degree of psychic power. Huge news, wild

(36:14):
doctor says horses psychic.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
But I'm not seeing this as psychic. I'm seeing this
as like HyperIntelligence and communication. But it's not like what
number am I thinking of?

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Well, because the only way that she would have known
what the how to say five in Hungarian is because
she's reading the mind of a Hungarian standing in front of.

Speaker 3 (36:31):
Her, or she reads Hungarian and gets the paper. Hello.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Good point. So the New York World they published an
article on the psychic corse that was causing all of
Lady Wonders many coast to co sensations of publicity and fame. Right.
But as with any news of the strange, the craze
eventually passes. So despite reaching nationwide fame in the nineteen twenties,
the nineteen thirties, the nineteen forties, Lady Wonder the Psychic
Course gets pushed off the front pages during the war years.

(36:56):
I'd say so she remains a local legend. Folks keep
coming out to see her and ask the Psychic Course
for her advice, including the President's men for advice on
the timing of D Day. Right, But time passes, and then,
like a strange cosmic clockwork, in nineteen fifty two, she's
once again a front page sensation because now the psychic
course has begun to help the police solve crimes. Yes, yeah,

(37:17):
So what if a human being Elizabeth, Well, this is
my question. What if if you have a like a
pet detective, Right, that's a human detective who looks for pets. Sure,
but if you have a pet who's a detective who
looks for lost humans, are they a human detective?

Speaker 3 (37:33):
No, they're a dog detect because a pet detect detective.

Speaker 6 (37:35):
Dog.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
But I'm saying like this, you got a psychic course
looking for humans, he detects humans, a human detective.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
No, he's a he's an animal detective.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Animal. He's saying, by the rules of the logic of
pet detective, he should be a human detective. Anyway, let's
just get into it. Okay, So what do you think
about Lady Wonder? Do you believe she has powers? No,
even after doctor jb Ryans test is a scam. Well,
I have a story for you from a local hood.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
I mean, I want to believe. Oh look at you,
I can Scully.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
So this colorful set of exchanges may change your mind.
Who knows. But I'd like you to meet leon O
story street name, same old story.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Wait, this is no, I'm just playing a street name Leon.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
If you're listening, you can keep that one free a charge. Anyway,
My man Leon's same old story. He was an insurance agent,
so you see my point. Anyway, he's a big believer
in the psychic course. In the late nineteen forties, after
the war, same old story. He comes back from the war.
He's an airman. Right on leave, he thought, what the hell,
why don't I drive out to the fond of Pharma
and see what my psychic course says about my future?

(38:46):
He paid his money. The fond is bring out Lady Wonder,
same old story. He asked his question right as he
tells it, So lady to tell me the name of
the girl I've been dating in Oklahoma. Now. The psychic
course thinks about it for a moment. Then she lowered
her nose and typed out f R A N C
E S. Boom. That was the correct answer, as Sam

(39:07):
Old's story remembered it, That was it, I said, what
the After that, he was convinced, so periodically he'd roll
out to the fond of farm and see what the
Psychic Course I had to say about his future. Now,
when he asked Lady Wonder if he should keep flying.
You know. When he got out of the military, psychic
course told him, I n S you are a n
c E. As in, he should change jobs and become

(39:29):
an insurance salesman.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
Oh, I thought it'd be like buy insurance if you're
gonna be flying all over there.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
You could read it a lot of ways. Well, he
decided I should become an insurance agent, change his careers,
and he loves it. It's as if the horse knew
his future in so sam old story. Now he knows
how this almost sound. He he knows that it's weird
that he takes career advice from a psychic course.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah, that's a little weird.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
And he said, and I quote, I know this sounds crazy,
but I'm not crazy. It was that horse.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
When you have to say I'm not crazy.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
And it was that horse. Now, his brother was a
deputy sheriff and he had a part of manhunt for
some missing kids. So leon Or I liked as I
looked to call him Samuel. Samuel, Sorry he is. He
drives out to you, lady Wonder, and the psychic course
considers his question. He's like, you know, and then the
horse she types out where the missing kids could be
found Lady Wonder was again correct. Leads to a whole

(40:15):
fresh wave of news stories. What more features by journalists
looking to make sense of this super strange story.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
When was she able to slip out and kidnap the kids?

Speaker 2 (40:24):
Mis Fonda busy busy now, but rather th Meat is
telling you all about these new feature stories to be covered. Elizabeth,
I'd like to close your eyes and I'd like you
to picture it. You've just arrived at the Fonda Force.
Since there are a few people ahead of you in
mine to see the psychic course. You are there on assignment.
You are a newspaper woman, a hard nosed inkstain gall

(40:46):
with moxy de booth think Jennifer Jason Lea is Amy
Archer and Hudsucker Proxy. Yeah, you've been sent down to Richmond,
Virginia from the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps,
the city with the Empire state of mind. Right, and
let me tell you are not pleased to be gallivanting
with the Hicks and the sticks. Now. You've got a
story to do, right, so you'll get it. By God,
I'll bet my pillets are on it. Now. You swat
away a horse fly and you await your friend. Finally

(41:08):
your turn comes and you step up to the homemade
horsey house. You give Lady Wonder the once over. She
seems legit. It's clearly a real horse. You pay your
one dollar, and then missus Fonda asked that you ride
out your three questions. Your first question, who will when
the Cold War democracy are the reds now? The psychic
chorus thinks for a moment, she winnies, then dutifully uses

(41:29):
her nose to spring the keys of the handmade horse
sized typewriter. Lady Wonder spells out d E m oh
cr a. See why this pleases you, since you live
in a democracy and it being nineteen forty nine, and
you're no fan of Stalin's new little fad called totalitarianism. However,
you'll have to wait a long while to see if
the horses answer Prouve's correct and missus Fonda asked you

(41:51):
to ride out question two. This time you ask not
for a prognostication, but for the horse to read your mind.
Missus Fonda instructs you to ride out both the question,
which she will read aloud to Lady Wonder, and then
the answer, which she will not read aloud to the
psychic course, let's test this full sighted Philly, you think
to yourself as you jot down your mind reading test question. Ms.
Fonda takes your card and then reads aloud, Lady Wonder, this,

(42:14):
Lady report, I would like to know what was the
make of the first cause she ever owned. Now, Lady
Wonder takes a casual step in her handmade horsey home.
Her hoof stamps the floor. This is a tough one.
The psychic horse looks at you, Elizabeth. The horse fixes
her eyes on you, and suddenly you are transfixed. Everything
grows soft and sounds kind of fuzzy. Now it's just

(42:34):
you and Lady Wonder. You don't know how much time
is passing. You're locked in, just you and the psychic Corse.
Then snap, Lady Wonder breaks eye contact. The spell is broken.
The world rushes back into full focus as you see
the psychic chorus lift up her head, then slowly lower it.
Impress the first key. It's the letter F. This is
followed by the letter oh. The psychic Corse spells out f.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Oh r D.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
Elizabeth, you arrived the big city skeptic, a natural born,
a sideshow barker's worst nightmare. But this is impressive. This
is two for two as far as you're concerned, because
you think democracy is gonna wind. And now she's guessed
the make of your car. The psychic course just read
your mind or so what would seem? But really, how
many car makers are there? Now?

Speaker 4 (43:14):
Six?

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Seven? Gonna be a lucky guess. So you have one
more question, missus Fonda asks you what your third one
will be. You have to think a moment. You want
to pull out a real stinka, a mental mickey finn,
a la la palooza of a puzzle for the psychic cost.
You got it. You scribbled something down. It's a trick question.
Miss Fonder reads it. Then ask Lady Wonder who is

(43:35):
really the king of the jungle? Human beings are house cats?
The psychic course listens, it seems to process the question.
Then she presses her nose on a key on the
homemade horse sized typewriter. Just one key up, pops the
word no, no, What do you mean?

Speaker 3 (43:49):
No?

Speaker 4 (43:50):
Key?

Speaker 2 (43:50):
The slipper equine just evaded your third question, you sasked
the psychic chost, look level with me. What have you had?
I just want to know what are we being played
by the house cats? Missus Fonda asked, if you want
your dollar back. You don't, but this is all definitely
going in your story first Keyhole Magazine. Now, as you
walk back to your wide in Bubbly nineteen forty eight,
Chevy bel Air, you have to admit to yourself the
Psychic Course just played you for a dollar. Now. Around

(44:13):
the same time, nineteen fifty two, Lady Wonder one she
enjoyed her largest round of late fame. There was a
child who went missing in Massachusetts. The local District Attorney
happened to be passing through Richmond, decided to seek help
from the local legend, the psychic course who finds a
missing people. The DA asked Lady Wonder about the missing kid,
and then he took seriously the advice of the psychic course,

(44:35):
who told the DA that the missing child could be
found in a place called Pittsfield. The child was found
in a place called Wild's Pit, which was close enough
for the DA to credit the Psychic Course for her assistance.
That successful man hunt led to a flurry of syndicated
news stories across the country. Time, Newsweek, Life Magazine all
sent out profile writers just like you to do a

(44:55):
story on Lady Wonder, which then resulted in a fresh
avalanche of questions and requests from all around America and abroad. Now,
with missus Fonda's help, Lady Wonder answered all the questions
she was sent. Her favorite type of questions were about romance,
career choices, really big into those, mis Fonder. She refused
Elizabeth's answer any request for lucky numbers for the lottery,

(45:15):
nor any questions pertaining to gambling sporting events. Yeah, all right.
So one time a man asked Lady Wonder if his
wife was faithful. The psychic course saw through the question
she was on to him. Instead of answering, Lady Wonder asked,
are you oh see?

Speaker 4 (45:31):
Right?

Speaker 2 (45:31):
So, with all the fresh attention, and since it was
the nineteen fifties, it didn't take long before the movie
and TV producers came calling. They wanted in on Lady Wonder, right,
So they come calling, and Ivy Stone recalled that Missus
Fonda once told her that she would have gone Hollywood
except for one thing. My health wasn't too good.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
Right.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
I think that's a lie. But anyway, Elizabeth, I gotta ask,
having heard all this, do you think Lady Wonder was psychic?

Speaker 3 (45:53):
No?

Speaker 2 (45:54):
So for more data. There was another person who tested
the psychic course. His name was Paul Duke, journalist for
the Associated Press, Right, not just any normal correspondent. He
was also the host of the PBS show Washington Weekend Review.
Oh yeah, right, serious, sober respective member of the press.
He reported that he was quote flabbergasted after Lady Wonder
correctly answered the name of his alma mater like this

(46:17):
college he went to, as well as quote the exact
dollar and cents figure of his weekly paycheck. So this
highly quotable neighbor, Ivy Stone, said that she believed the
horse wasn't psychic, but instead it was Missus Fonda who
was the psychic, and that she channeled her gift through
the horse. Missus Stone said, and I pray I think
she passed it through the horse. That's what I think. No, okay,

(46:39):
But rather than assume a witch used a horse to
distract from her powers, let's consider another possible explanation, one
that flows from Ivy Stone's idea that she passed it
through the horse. Right, not psychic powers, but rather clues
and cues. Remember the clever Hans. Yeah yeah, so you
see when Lady Wonder did her question and answer routine.
Missus Fonda stood next to her, and she held a whip,
one that had a small string attached that dangled down

(47:02):
before the horse. As a writer from the New York
Daily News recalled from her visit to meet Lady Wonder,
quote when the horse's swaying head was directly above a
desired vowel or consonant, did Fonda let the string gently
touch the top of Lady Wonder's head the signal to
lower her nose. This observer did notice those strange goings on,
and so did Ryan, who on a second visit, saw

(47:24):
that when Fonda wasn't in the room the quote telepathy
was dead. Of course, come to find out, Elizabeth, Lady Wonder,
the psychic horse was only psychic in the presence of
Missus Fonda. That seems Hella sus right right, okay.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
But this is the first they're pointing this out. She's
got something dangling every single time.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
People are like, well, that's just motivation, trying to keep
her focus right right next to right at the horse.
He house, at the door, if you the window, If
you will now add in to how it was done.
The questioner was asked to write their question and their
answer down. Remember what you did to better focus their
mind and build the psychic bridge with the horse as
a writer also further speculates quote an accomplice peering through

(48:05):
a small knothole in the low ceiling could easily read
the written answer being conveniently held in the concentrating customer's hand.
The rest is just a question of signals between two
human beings.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
Wow, write down the answer.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
I told you had to write down the answer.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Well, some of them did, most of them.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
But that's if they're doing the mind reading trick.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, Now, like I said, that explains all the in
person question and answer sessions. But what about all the
questions sent in from a distance. They can't do that
trick there. And what about all the deep poles like
FDR's election before being nominated, the earthquake in California. Well,
if you consider that Lady Wonder made roughly two hundred
thousand predictions in her lifetime, she was bound to get
some long shots right. It's just a simple math.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
I mean, that's just like we're about the ones that
she gets wrong exactly.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
So was Lady Wonder a psychic course or really just
a good underpaid secretary. So was missus fond of psychic
and the horse just her elaborate stage decoration. I'll leave
that to you to good side, but I do have
one last bit of fun for us. Well this may
be more fun for me than for you, but let's see.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
Is the crime that she was bilking people with the horse?

Speaker 2 (49:10):
The crime is that she was helping find missing people.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
That's a crime.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
They were missing. Oh oh, she helped solve where they
were missing, Elizabeth, she saved people. She found people who
are missing.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
Okay, and also shut it down. This is a long cot.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
I don't want to like bust it out. It's a
long cost.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
Let's just call it. It's a very long com going on.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Okay. So I, like I said, I have a little
bit of fun for you. When Lady Wondered the Psychic
Chorus died, she was still a working horse. In fact,
the Psychic equine was busy nose typing when she sort
of killed over mid answer. You want to know what
she was typing? What her last psychic transmission was the
answer that killed her. So on March nineteenth, nineteen fifty seven,
Lady Wondered the Psychic Chorus was nose, typing out the

(49:50):
answer to a question that I cannot find the question,
but I do know what so I don't know what
was asked. All I know is the answer that she
was typing. She typed out EI S E N W
E R Eisenhower. She typed that into her handmade horse
sized typewriter. Then she suffered a heart attack and keeled over.

(50:10):
She apparently just finished the word. So this is fully Eisenhower. Now,
maybe maybe she was repeating the message that he gave
the world in his farewell address. Like maybe Lady Wonder
was also warning America about the vast influence of the
military industrial complex. I don't know what to say, right, yeah,
but she just typed Eisenhower listened to Ike. Now anyway,
Lady Wonder was thirty three years old at the time

(50:30):
of her passing, same as Jesus. Just putting that out there.
I can't, I can't anyway. Two years later, the owner
of the psychic Courus, miss Claudia Fonda, she also slipped
its mortal coil, taking her and Lady Wonder's secrets with her.
Her husband had preceded her in death. So there you go,
the story of a mystery solving lost person, locating, long
con mind reading, psychic course that charge you a dollar

(50:53):
a con. So what's our ridiculous takeaway here, Elizabeth, Eh,
my ridiculous tagaway That typewriter will live in my head forever.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
And yeah it's a con.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
What are you talking?

Speaker 2 (51:06):
She's milking people for a dollar with a psychic.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
Horse, this entertainment, though.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
She thinks people believe it's really No one for decades,
no one a scientist published in a journal that she
was she had a psychic horse.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
She did psychic she never disproved it.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Well anyway, my ridiculous takeaway, Thank you for asking once again.
This was all a clearly fun grift and long con
by missus Fonda. So bully to her for that she
pulled off of this great long gone wait add some
strange to the world, missus Fonda, I didn't get paid
doing it. Oh big up's miss Fonda. So Elizabeth, ridiculous takeaway. No,

(51:44):
I'm not asking you again now, I already asked you once.
You only get one shot at this, but I will
we offer you this. Yeah you want to hear it?

Speaker 5 (51:49):
Talkback always produced Dave hit it.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Oh my god, I.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
Love get.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
Hey Elizabeth's Aaron.

Speaker 4 (52:05):
It's make from Perth and I just did my orientation
lecture for my Master's of Education fourth degree lucky thod career,
and I'm going to be a primary school teacher and
I feel amazing about it and I wanted to let
you know, so take it sleazy and if you can't

(52:26):
be good, be good at it.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Bye, congratulates.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
I love that. That's amazing. Big round, big round there.
Why are the arsis? You're fantastic.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Yeah, big up to the rsies and congrats in your
new career.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Huge huge.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Always be asking what's next because you don't know and
you can always surprise yourself.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
And I like sharing good news.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
Yeah, same thing, completely good thing.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
We don't get enough of that well.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
As always, if you got some good news, you can
find us online a Ridiculous Crime on the social media
send it our way. We obviously like the good news,
and also we have a website, Ridiculous Crime dot com.
And uh we clearly like your talkback, so please favor
us with the sound of your voice and the emails
if you like at Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.
As always, make it dear Alessabon and uh once again,

(53:09):
thank you all for listening. We'll catch you next.

Speaker 4 (53:11):
Crime.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaron Burnett,
produced and edited by owner of a pside kick course,
Dave Couston. Research is by Marissa, owner of a Sidekick
Horse Brown, and Andrea, owner of a tricyclic course. Song
sharpened here. Our theme song is by Thomas A horse
is a horse, of course, of course Lee and Travis

(53:38):
unless it's the famous mister ed Balls Dutton. The host
wardrobes provided by Bobby five hundred. Executive producers are Ben
Have you ever seen a horse fly? Bowlin and Noel,
But I have seen an elephant fly coach. It was
super sad, no headroom, no trunk space, miserable the whole
way to Cincinnati.

Speaker 6 (53:57):
Brown, Ridicous Crime, Say it one more Time, Ridiqulious Crime.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
from my heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.