Podcast | True crime & strange corpses from the Pacific Northwest
From floating feet to a body turned to soap, Knute Berger shares three ghastly mysteries that have happened to people after death.
Mary Ann Conklin, also known as “Mother Damnable,” is now buried at Lake View Cemetery in Seattle. (Michael McClinton/Cascade PBS)
The Pacific Northwest has a reputation for the macabre. We’ll never escape the allure of Twin Peaks, for instance, or the terrible crimes of some of the most infamous serial killers in American history.
But some of the weirdest things can happen to corpses after death. Did you know that dead bodies can turn into soap?
Subscribe to Mossback on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or Podbean.
Cascade PBS’s resident historian Knute Berger explored a few lesser-known stories of regional murder and mystery in a recent episode of the Mossback’s Northwest video series, but there is much more left to share.
In this episode of Mossback, Berger joins co-host Stephen Hegg to offer a deeper look at the grim tales of Hallie Illingworth, the “Lady of the Lake” whose body was found in Lake Crescent in 1940; “Mother Damnable,” a storied resident of 19th-century Seattle whose corpse allegedly turned to stone; and a recurring recent phenomenon involving disembodied feet washing up on beaches along the Salish Sea.
