Documentary television hosted by Jay Robinson focused on exploring great mysteries around the world, from ghost sightings, alien encounters and everything else in between.
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00:00In France, shortly before the Revolution in 1789,
00:06it was fashionable for sophisticated hosts
00:10to take pleasure in shocking their guests
00:14with a peek at their cabinets of curiosity.
00:19These cabinets often contained gruesome examples
00:24of some monstrous biological rarity.
00:29One man was renowned for his artistry
00:32in displaying these bizarrities.
00:37His name was Honore Fragonard.
00:43We are all familiar with the normal types of museums
00:47found around the world,
00:49but there are occasionally some lesser-known
00:52but very bizarre museums
00:54that seem to exist somewhat beyond the mainstream.
00:59The Fragonard Museum is one amazing example.
01:04Honore Fragonard was an 18th-century French anatomist.
01:09He directed one of France's first veterinary colleges
01:13outside Paris.
01:15His methods of dissection and preservation
01:18were very advanced for his day.
01:25Indeed, Fragonard was a gifted scholar of the human form
01:30in intimate detail,
01:32and although many contemporaries respected him,
01:36others believed he was mad.
01:43Fragonard seemed to take a perverse joy
01:47in his anatomical and biological rarities and mutations.
01:53One could plainly witness the evidence
01:56of a very curious mind,
01:59an artist fascinated by the bizarrities of nature.
02:05To Fragonard's studio came the oddest examples
02:09of pathological animal mutations.
02:12This two-headed cow calf was of great interest,
02:16for it had lived this way for a good time after its birth.
02:21Fragonard's collection provide new testimony
02:25to this era of curiosity.
02:31It seemed that every body part was too precious to waste.
02:37This fetus with fused lower limbs
02:40was called La Sirène, or The Mermaid.
02:47Horses, of course, were very important in the 18th century,
02:51and a large portion of the collection
02:54is dedicated to these creatures.
02:59This preserved foal was a victim of hydroencephalism,
03:05or water on the brain.
03:07This huge globe of calcified minerals
03:11is actually a horse's gallstone,
03:14at over 12 inches in diameter.
03:17Dr. Christophe de Gers is the present-day curator
03:22of the Fragonard Museum.
03:27During the 18th century, anatomy went through a revolution,
03:32a time when great minds approached science.
03:36A massive tapeworm, removed from its fatally affected victim,
03:42is quite a monster to share one's body with.
03:52The parasites fascinate people.
03:55Even today, when researchers disagree about a parasite,
03:59they must come here to find the answer.
04:02Fragonard excelled at one thing in particular,
04:06the sculpting of actual human flesh and bone.
04:10And it was these frightening works of art
04:13that earned him his most bizarre reputation.
04:17Some of these works are almost entirely defleshed,
04:21showing the inner workings of bone, tendon, and sinew.
04:26These strange items he dubbed écorché, or skinless.
04:32He was a formidable artist.
04:35In Man with Mandible, see the twisted ears,
04:39the diverging eyes, the chiseled lips, the menacing look.
04:44It presents an enlarged red heart.
04:47It stands out, an artistic interpretation of anatomy.
04:53Fragonard would elaborately
04:55and almost theatrically pose his creations.
04:59This type of work shows how dramatically
05:02Fragonard tried to combine both art and science.
05:09But at last for science,
05:12Fragonard never wrote about his techniques.
05:15And what we know about his mysteriously effective methods
05:19is only guesswork.
05:21Perhaps the single most bizarre piece
05:25in this quite bizarre collection
05:28is the work known as the Horseman of the Apocalypse.
05:32This straight-backed rider
05:35poses as if holding the reins at a whip
05:38and appears to be frozen in mid-stride,
05:41this unsettling appearance,
05:44almost too shocking to be viewed as art.
05:49The écorché are theatrical pieces, showcasing death.
05:54They exist to shock the public,
05:56as was the purpose of the Cabinets of Curiosity,
06:00in a spirit of challenge of society's principles
06:03prior to the French Revolution.
06:05There is a legend that perhaps the rider of the horse
06:10was indeed a beloved of Fragonard's,
06:13exhumed after death,
06:16and given immortality as an écorché.
06:21These are real bodies,
06:24worked, sculpted, dissected, and mummified.
06:28Flesh, bones, veins, arteries,
06:31injected with wax or plaster.
06:34This is a museum's museum.
06:37Nothing has changed in 100 years.
06:40But Fragonard suffered great challenges and indignities
06:44for following his fervor.
06:46His contemporaries, as well as the head of the school,
06:50had grown afraid of Fragonard.
06:53After nearly 40 years,
06:55he was dismissed from the Veterinary College.
06:59Fragonard went on to create his curiosities
07:02for a select few of the European elite.
07:06Fragonard died in 1799,
07:10on the eve of a new century,
07:13without descendants to watch over his collection.
07:16Fortunately, we are here today
07:20for all to come and see and experience
07:23artistic, scientific,
07:26and certainly beyond bizarre.
07:32As children, most of us have sat around the campfire
07:37or darkened bedroom with our friends,
07:41telling ghost stories.
07:43And these tall tales would gain substance
07:48with each successive account.
07:51An urban myth is a local or even regional legend or story
07:56that over time and retelling
07:59has become nearly accepted as fact.
08:03But there is a fine line between myth and reality,
08:09as you'll soon see.
08:14San Antonio, Texas, is the site of one of America's
08:18most perplexing and mysterious urban myths,
08:22contains the elements of a ghost story
08:25combined with continuing supernatural occurrences.
08:29Our story begins here, where the Villa Main Road
08:34and the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks intersect.
08:37Dosha Williams is the author of several books
08:40on Texas history and supernatural happenings.
08:44The story in various versions has been told for a long time
08:48that a busload of young school children
08:51were leaving San Antonio late one afternoon
08:54on a very gloomy October afternoon.
09:00The bus driver's route took him down Villa Main Road
09:04to where it intersects with the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks.
09:09Attempting to cross, the driver stalled the bus on the tracks.
09:21Ah!
09:37Oh, my God!
09:47The basic story has variations.
09:50Some claim it was a church bus instead of a school bus.
09:58The story has been set in the 20s, 30s, the 40s and the 50s.
10:07The age of the children in the bus remains a dispute also.
10:13The story goes that ever since the freight train school bus accident,
10:18the spirits of the children who were killed
10:21have clung to this particular spot.
10:24And if a car parks some distance away
10:27and the gears are put into neutral,
10:30and even though it's a slight uphill road,
10:33the car will suddenly start moving
10:36as if unseen little hands are pushing it along
10:39to be sure it will go over the tracks safely and not stall on the tracks
10:43as the school bus did that very tragic October afternoon.
10:47And people often dust the back of their vehicles
10:50with talcum powder or cornstarch or flour,
10:53and what happens, little handprints are imprinted on that flour
10:57or on that talcum powder,
10:59and people actually see these tiny little handprints.
11:04A teacher and her group of students happened by
11:07while our crew was filming the scene.
11:10What do you think is happening then when we're going over the...
11:13There's the hill.
11:15It's not a hill. Where is the hill?
11:17Gravitational force, scientific explanation.
11:19But it's elevated right there. How do we get across that?
11:22I just find it hard to believe that they're going to stay here
11:26on this plane for the longest time
11:28and that there's no record of it whatsoever,
11:30no parents were claiming it.
11:32But they have a mission. They're here on this plane.
11:35Are you talking about the planes of existence?
11:38They have a mission here.
11:40So let me tell you something.
11:42My sister that's into all this psychic and the mind game
11:45and the third eye and all of that stuff,
11:47she really believes in that.
11:49One day when she was coming over the tracks
11:52to also come over the tracks like we just did today,
11:55she was crossing the tracks going that way,
11:58and a limousine was coming this way.
12:01And she saw a little girl pushing the limousine.
12:05She can describe the little girl in detail.
12:08Now, if something that you're imagining,
12:10and she describes it the same way every single time,
12:13how can that be?
12:15The limousine never stopped to pick up this little girl.
12:18Where did the little girl go?
12:20This story is very popular within the city of San Antonio.
12:23I would venture to say if the city this size,
12:26over a million people,
12:2875% of the people that have been here for any length of time
12:32would have some knowledge about what has occurred
12:35down there at this spot in the railroad tracks.
12:37I believe the kids are actually pushing the car over the tracks.
12:40We sat there, we put the car in neutral,
12:43and the car did go over the tracks,
12:45and we believe that it was the spirits of the kids.
12:47I've seen the kids' fingerprints, their hands all over my car
12:51when I put dust on it,
12:53and I do believe it's them that they're pushing the car,
12:56and they're doing it because they don't want that to happen again.
12:59At this time, we haven't seen anything in our police records
13:03to substantiate that this incident ever did occur,
13:06so I guess a logical conclusion that anybody would have
13:09to this particular accident was it never did happen.
13:12Our information here at the library goes back to 1865.
13:17Through the years, I've received numerous phone calls
13:19from historians, the staff, the public, readers,
13:24people who are interested in the bus crash on Cheyne and Villemaine.
13:28Some stories indicate it happened over 60 years ago.
13:32Some people say it happened 40 years ago,
13:35but there's been no evidence from the records
13:38to show that this ever happened.
13:40If the story is not true,
13:43what is the explanation for the nearby neighborhood street names
13:47purported to be those of the children who died in the wreck?
13:54Our crew contacted local expert Roy Williams,
13:58former deputy commander of the Texas Highway Patrol in San Antonio,
14:03with 37 years in law enforcement.
14:07His credentials are well established.
14:11We asked him to help us confirm or deny
14:14the story of the children pushing cars over the railroad tracks.
14:20On exiting his car, Mr Williams checks the elevation
14:24of the road approaching the tracks.
14:27Apparently an uphill climb.
14:30Only after Roy had wiped down the back of his truck
14:34does he apply a liberal coating of talcum powder.
14:39Roy is a born sceptic,
14:41but time and time again the same thing happens.
14:47And just as in the stories we've heard,
14:50the car starts its uphill journey and over the tracks.
15:18The first thing we did on the back of the vehicle here,
15:23we took a clean cloth and cleaned the back of the vehicle off very well
15:28where there wouldn't be any latent prints on the vehicle
15:32before we dusted it.
15:34As we came across the tracks and after the vehicle stopped,
15:38when I got out, I have some very clear prints
15:41on the latent prints on the back that is in the powder.
15:45You definitely have prints on the back of the vehicle.
15:50I have no other choice to believe it
15:53because I know it was clean because I cleaned it
15:57and I looked and there was no prints there.
16:00And immediately when I get out and look,
16:02I'm looking now at these prints where a hand is touched here
16:07and also one over here.
16:09What else can you say?
16:11I have no explanation for it,
16:13but I can definitely say there is prints
16:15that's made on top of the talcum powder that I've just put on.
16:21Is the San Antonio school bus story just another myth
16:26or is there more to it?
16:28Perhaps pushing into the areas of the supernatural
16:32that are currently beyond our comprehension
16:35and even further beyond the limits of the bizarre.