After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal - The Man Who Ate Everything

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Listener warning: this episode contains a description of cruelty to animalsOne of the strangest tales to emerge from Napoleonic France was that of Tarrare - the man who ate everything. The stories go that he ate corks, cats, snakes and was even guilty of cannibalism. Is this myth or reality? Anthony is joined by Dr Cat Byres, historian of the Paris Morgue to tell this tale.Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Freddy Chick.You can now watch After Dark on Youtube! www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhitSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Looking for more shady and sinister stories, sign up to History Hit. You can join us to explore the tragic life of the Bronties or discover the chilling story of Burke and Hair. Plus, with your History Hit subscription, you'll unlock hundreds of hours of exclusive documentaries with a brand new release every week exploring everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com forward slash subscribe to start exploring the past. I am going to trace the observation of a polyphage I knew, in whom were found united all types of taste, all degrees of gluttony, and who, passionate for blood, for raw meat and flesh of animals, accommodated himself, if necessary, to any other fodder, provided he could engorge himself.

This is an account left to us about a man named, Tarar, or at least we think that's his name, possibly his nickname. What we do know is that he was an incomparable eater. Snakes, sheep, medical implements, gold watches, cats. By the end, it was said, he even ate human beings and drank the blood of others. To find out the real history behind the myth, we're joined by Dr. Catbyers on this episode of After Dark. Hello and welcome to After Dark. I am Anthony and as you know, Maddie is currently on maternity leave. But while she's away, we are keeping you full.

Ooh, that's very pertinent for today's episode of the grizzliest parts of history. And today I am joined by one of our all-time favorite guests. And we know she's one of yours too because we see the numbers when they come in. Every time that the brilliant Dr. Cat Buyers appears on After Dark, people just lose their minds because she brings the grizzly every single time. It says in my notes, this is your sixth time on the show. That has to be, nobody else has been on six times. That's a bit much, isn't it?

It's like me, Maddie you. Yeah, I'm just waiting in the corridor all the time. Because you let me in. I was going to say to let me in the show, not to die. But also, I mean, whichever happens first. Sure, you know, I'll take my chances. Previous episodes, if you haven't listened to them before, and you should because cats are some of my favorite episodes,

are the Paris Morg. Oh, we're going to just touch on that in a second. The legend of Sony being, what remind me? What was that one again? Oh, God. That's about cannibal. Oh, okay. There's going to be a bit of a pattern here.

My interest are coming out. New York's dark, morgue's dark secrets. Again, incredible. The body in the trunk and New York's wildest murder. Wait, which one was the duck? New York's wildest murder. What was that duck called again? Julia.

I still get messages about Julia. No, I'm glad that her legacies. People send me pictures of ducks now because of you. Well, like, I think this would have been Julia's... No, it's like cartoon ducks. Marred a solvent cartoon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's...

I still maintain she needs her own a procedural TV. Well, you know, and listen, I've been in them. I was going to say it. No reason why she couldn't do it. I saw my French dubbed version of Harry Wilde the other day, and that was a bit of a mind trip. Ooh la la la. I don't think he said to that, actually.

Whoever was, he's very good for I was doing it. Right. Today we are talking about a really, really, really random. history that I actually hadn't heard of before. And now I'm sorry that I have. But Freddie, our producer, has structured this episode as if it were a meal. And that's fitting because the last time I saw you was in far more glamorous surroundings than what we're about to talk about today. We were in Paris. We were. Well, where you live, not to dox you or anything. And we went to a restaurant and Kat, myself and Shane were going and Kat texted me before. And she was like, don't worry if you arrive

before me. And the guy is really rude. He just doesn't like to. And I was like, oh my God, I'm going to like really upset a French, but it was delicious. And we had a very, very lovely night. And also it was so authentic and that's why. Yes. I was like, look, we're going to get a real experience. Just be aware. And he was, but he was lovely.

He wasn't unpleasant at all. You guys didn't cut, you know, you came across very natural in the neighborhood. Shane, don't talk. Because he is no French. I have a little bit. And then just like Kat do all the real hard stuff. So we're going to have another little meal today. And it's going to be far less glamorous than that one was.

But before we head into the. that. There are a few books that I am as excited about in the coming months and, well, just almost a year now, as your forthcoming book. And we're still a little bit out. We're a little bit away. But just give us a little taste of what that's going to look and feel like in almost a year's time. So it's called morgue. Clues in the name. And it is because there were 12 slabs in the morgue in the display room, you can go back and listen to the podcast to get the set up. It's the story of 12 different people who ended up in the morgue and kind of tracing their journeys. And through that, it's essentially a panoramic history of France and Paris in the 19th century

and all these different things, whether it's like the birth of photography and suicide and addiction and that sort of cortisans de m mondean world all through these 12 people. 12 slabs. I mean, this is after dark. Nobody's going to be not interested in that. And we're in France for this history as well. A bit earlier than my usual time. This is more. This is more in my time period, but we're melding. We're melding here. It's absolutely fine. Now, I'm going to ask you this because I genuinely don't know. And I think a lot of our listeners won't know, but we're dealing with a man called, we think, Tarar. Now, I'm going to let you do the proper. French. There you go. She knows what she's doing. There is a world in which that's not his name,

question mark. Yeah. So the records we have of him are minimal, but we do have some. So we will get into, you know, the source material a bit later on. What we know about him from his early days, we think he was born in 1772. So before the revolution, Francis Lomonykey, born near Lyon, which is, oh, it's the city that the body was ended up in in a previous story. All, again, it all blends over. She's tying these things together with body references.

I just want to point that action. She's tying the murder threads together. And that isn't a dig at Leon. There's not really a murder association necessarily with it. We don't know much about his upbringing, but he looked, you know, he was a normal size. This is relevant. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's kind of just your average boy. Yes. Pretty average boy, average height. Apparently had unusually soft hair. Oh. You know, so he had a lot of feet. Quite sweaty. That will also come up a bit later.

Isn't it really interesting the things that people, because obviously I would imagine, now, Tommy, if I'm wrong, but I would imagine that this description of his earlier life comes later once he's reached an element of fame. So it's interesting to see how they put these narrative ties in. Yeah, what matters later on. Yeah.

We have a sweaty, soft-haired, Leonese man. Is Leonie's a word? Leonis, yeah. And he is pootling around, and he's from a pretty working-class family, right? Or he's even... We assume. We assume.

And there's a rumour that he's even homeless at some points. Yeah, so basically, as the story goes, he is living with his family. We don't know anything about his parents, but supposedly he's living in the countryside with his family. And he starts to develop quite a big appetite. And it gets to the point where he is eating. I think it's a quarter of a cow a day. Wait, as a teenager. Yeah, when he's like, yeah, as a teen.

A quarter of a cow a day. Cooked. We assume. We assume, but again, again, I don't know. Based on what's coming, that's why I'm asking. Eating. I mean, just full stop. The cow's going in there.

And I think one way or another. And, yeah, after a while, obviously his parents are like, we can't keep funding this two-car-week habit. I mean, cows are expected. Yeah. Like, now, we will touch on this. throughout this episode. There are points at which we don't know

if some of this biography is myth-making, right? Because cows are so expensive. There is often, well, one cow will be the family's commodity, depending on how poor they are. So if we're saying that he's having two cows a week in 1770s in Leon, we're saying that the family must be somewhat comfortable enough to be even able to initially afford to that.

Yeah, or, you know, maybe he's stealing the access to the cows is not being. Also, you know, I can imagine that the cow habit doesn't go on for that long before he gets kicked out. I don't know if it's necessarily like we funded this, your cows for two years. Now we just can't, we're putting our foot down. Got a cow habit. Jesus Christ. So basically, as the story goes, the cow situation becomes untenable.

As it would. As it would. The eating situation in general. And he leaves the family home or gets kicked out. And then he goes and is kind of foraging, is semi-homeless and ends up joining kind of traveling street fare performer people. with this appetite. So obviously, you know, there's a coal tradition, maybe the wrong words.

You know, these kind of street fairs of people doing miraculous acts. And sometimes there'll be, even in the modern day, someone who's a big eater. Yes. Well, I mean, you see it on YouTube and stuff, don't you, or on those like Discovery Channel programs or whatever it is where it's like man versus,

and it's often man versus, actually, in terms of its gender thing. What's interesting about this is that at the end of the 18th century, we have this idea of what bodies should look like really coming to the fore. And we have this idea of grotesquery being attached to bigger bodies and being attached to the idea of fatness. And they are looking at this as a way of moralising.

And so therefore I can, in the context of the time, of course, I'm talking about here now, I can see where this link is coming between appetite, bigness, spectacle. It's this very uncomfortable othering of different types of bodies. And we see it in these fares all the time, right? Like any kind of bodily difference is put on display and mocked and ridiculed, but also that kind of schadenfreude thing of going, well, but it's not me though. Yeah. And I think that's absolutely often an issue with these fairs. In his case, he's just sort of ordinary looking. So he's like an even more extreme in the sense that it's like, He's this sort of skinny lad.

Oh, he's not big yet? No, no, he's never big. He's always a skinny lad. He does get, you know, pretty bloated after he's had like a chunky meal. But no, he's, he's a, he's an average lad. And he's also of average intelligence, average capabilities. There's no suggestion. Apparently, he's quite apathetic, but there's no suggestion that there's anything.

Anything apparently wrong. Yeah, very big mouth. And that will also come up later. Oh, so it's not a weight, a visual weight thing for him and this. It's just a regular, regular sweaty, soft hair. lad. Cruise in the streets eating corks and apples. Okay, well, I was going to say, until you got to that point, that could easily have

described me when I was 16. So this, here's a description of what he was doing. You're most of normal size happening. Right. Yeah, yeah, it's true. No, I've quite a big mouth. Oh, no. Anyway, look, okay, we don't need to get into it.

In a few minutes, he would eat a basket of apples. Another day, if there were no generous dupes in the crowd willing to buy him the apples, he would swallow pebbles, corks and everything that was presented to him. So this is what is act. It's trade. But it is worth bearing in mind, I think, am I right, and saying that this act is happening sometimes in more formal settings, but sometimes just on the side of the street because they're street performers.

Yeah, I mean, again, we don't have a huge amount of information from this period. But also, it is an act, but he is actually eating everything. So it's not like a regurgitation, because we'll get into this later, but there is like a whole history, a professional regurgitation I have discovered. But no, he's eating it and he's keeping it down. Like, he's hungry. He's a hungry, hungry lad. Is he?

Is that, is that what's? seen to be behind all of this that he is hungry. He's incredibly hungry. I mean, again, it's describing me in so many ways. There comes a point where, and it's worth saying that these accounts that we have of him, most of them, come from a guy called Dr. Percy. So we know at some point this becomes medicalized. Now, he frequently ends up in the Parisian hospital, the Hotel Jude.

Yeah. Talk to me about why he ends up there, what that means for his archive. And what they make of him when he arrives there? Do we know? Well, I mean, they're pretty baffled by his case. I thought, as we will also discover later, he's not the only man with a hungry, hungry appetite. Yeah.

So in the hospital, this is the first time that we assume that he enters into medical records. So when we got this information about him being a normal lad back of the day and all these kind of things that we have from his beginnings, it's because they start writing things down. But yeah, so he, I think, eats some stuff. That he shouldn't. gets in the hospital, people bring him there and he goes in and out. So he's kind of starting to become a medical curiosity

and they're trying to figure out what to do with him. But, you know, he's in and out. He doesn't get kept there, as I remember. And then the revolution comes. Yeah, I was going to say this is on the horizon now because, yes, we're pre-revolution in terms of when he's born. But like, in terms of his coming of age, he's going to be arriving in the 1780s very, very quickly. So we're here now.

We're here. He's registered on the medical thingy here and there, because he's eating shit that he shouldn't be eating. Revolution arrives. He will be expected to partake in some capacity. Well, he joins the army.

He joins the army. Because he's kind of like, you know, they're seeking people. Obviously, the revolution comes in France is then just at war with everybody. Yeah. And he gets his normal rations. Being hungry, man that he is,

he starts trading extra tasks for rations, tries to gather people's rations. They up them. They give him more and more. They give him four times the usual rations, but it's still not enough. And he ends up starving and exhausted. collapses and they take him to a military hospital

where he ends up under observation. And this is when they start really trying to figure out what is going on with Terrar's hunger. Okay. So we've had, let's say that that's our entree now. We've had that kind of like introduction into his life. So now it feels like we're going on to the main course. We have Terrar in places and involved in activities that are going to leave more of a paper trail now,

somewhat more of a paper trail. Yeah. Observation. I feel like he's now being observed. And so we have this and it's discovered or certain doctors, and this comes a bit later, say that he is suffering from a thing called polyphasia. Yes. Am I saying that correctly? Yeah. What is it?

I'm pretty sure this term, like they use the term for the first time with him. Oh, okay. And it's to do with this kind of insatiable appetite. Just about appetite. Yeah. And I think later on they start to try and figure out, and that's like after his lifetime, if it's a thyroid issue or if it's like an amygmia. I don't personally have much medical knowledge so we really know how any of that work.

But there are some interesting things that come up later when they have a chance to really delve into his physicality. And by later you mean autopsy. When they're up, often. Yeah. Spoiler or not, he does die at some point. Yeah, spoiler. He's not still here.

He may die. So he's having these encounters. Are they disgusted by him at this point? Or are they intrigued by him? I mean, we can't know. Probably both. Yeah. I mean, they're definitely, I get an impression of being quite excited and intrigued by him.

So they're like, this is, let's really test this out. Let's see what this guy can do. They set up a meal that would normally feed 15 German laborers, specifically. That is so specific German laborers of all the laborers. And then loads of, you know, meat pies and various things, eats the entire thing. And then falls asleep, which to me feels very realistic. Yeah. We're thinking about things in there.

Some of it feels very, yeah, exactly. Some of it feels a bit out there. They give him a live cat. It's one of those. That also, that's... Now, hold on, is that... We think that's true. Yeah, I think that's true.

They give him a live cat and he consumes it without... You don't know, you weren't there. I think he pulls out of bar. You know, there's some kittens, there's some puppies, there's lizards, there's an eel. I think we might...

Snakes? Apparently, quite a big appetite for snakes. Now, hold on, I have some things here. Oh, God. So this is later, but this is looking back at this moment of time, when Percy says, I will not give here the disgusting account

of the other means, this filthy polyphage uses to saturate himself before going on to give an account of all the things. And we are glad that he did. Okay, buckle in guys. This is pretty gruesome. Dogs and cats fled at his sight. Drama, as if they guessed the fate he prepared for them. He would be able to drink four bowls of curdled milk, two enormous platters of dough. I mean, I'm a fan of dough. I don't know how enormous were these platters. His cheekbones, oh my God, this is what you were talking about. His cheekbones and eyes became glowing red. Oh my God. He went to digest in a remote corner. That's freaky to me. I don't know. That just sounds like when you've had a really

big meal and you need to go and have a little sit down. No, or does he not mean I'm going to do a poo in the corner? I don't think. I think he would just say that. He's a doctor. Oh, yeah. Because we do that also, well, not to give a lot of future hinting, but you know, the digestion of taro will come up because it's quite complicated digestion system. But I also, the red eyes. I'm like, you've just exaggerated that. Yeah, sure. I mean, unless they were saying, like, you know when you're like rub your eyes or something? You can't believe the sight of all this dough. I love dough so much. Oh, my God. Here's another. These accounts, so this is how he ate the cat. Holding the animal alive by the neck. Oh, no. Please, if you love your cats. Yeah. Holding the animal alive by the neck and paws. Jesus. Tor its belly with his teeth, sucked the blood and soon left nothing but the skeleton. Half an hour later, he rejected the fur in the manner of carnivores and birds of prey. Ah, here. Yeah, it's like kind of coughing it up is what I'm imagining.

Like a fur ball, essentially. That is really bloody, we have heard some disturbing shit on after dark. It's going to get worse. Yeah, that's honestly only the beginning of it. But the military obviously are like, this is, what can we do with this guy? Isn't that so funny? Okay, go on. They were like, what can we do with him with his special, special, special.

skill. Cat eating skills. And they were like, you know what we could do is we could get him to eat a box that's got some documents in it. And if he was searched, they wouldn't know that he had these secret documents in it. A box. A box. And then obviously at some point the box will, you know, come out again.

And then the documents have passed safely through the enemy land. So they're like, he can be a spy. They did a test, made him get a box and documents in it. Documents came out. They were still readable. Wait, the documents come out. Did the box come out? You don't know.

Everything came out. Which end? Where do you think it came out? Well, but he's regurgitating fur. No, no, no, it's coming out. It's coming out the normal way. How does a box come out? I don't know.

I don't know. And again, you know, I'm imagining it's quite a slim box. Doctuments aren't that big. No, true. I'm assuming they're rolled up. It doesn't have to be the biggest box in the world. It sounds to me like his stomach is not working. That is just a straight through pipe.

Well, the digestive juices, I mean, who knows at this point. Can I just comment that we are both two doctors. But there's two doctors in this room and we are not medical doctors. and this show of our limitations of the digestive system and I'm here for it. Unless you want to analyze a social cultural impact of a dead body in Paris up until 1914. I cannot help you with your medical world. Any questions about gays? I can help you there.

In the Georgian period. Yeah, yeah, yeah, really specifically. Okay, so he pooped out a box. Yep. So they're like, sentence I thought I'd never say. Yeah, this is going to work. We'll make him a spy. He says, now a spy.

Except, okay, so they're like, let's do this. And they dress them up as a German peasant and sent him up. And he's in like, Prussian. He's in like the Prussian. Sure. War area Well no France

is very much involved there at that period of time We have the Chevalier Dion trying to negotiate Ocasique Get French gays Yeah because I just said War area

So clearly war is not really My area of expertise Anyway, he goes across into this Yeah, Prussian-Octuride area The problem is

He's not I mean he's not smartest guy in the world He also doesn't speak a word of German So it becomes quite obvious quickly that And he smells quite powerful

And he's quite sweaty And you know So everyone is like Who is this Smelly non-German speaking manner, it seems a little bit suspicious. Starvin. Constantly starving. Yeah, he gets arrested. He gets arrested just for kind of being suspicious.

Yeah. In the context of what's going on, the tensions, political tensions, short. So the locals are like, we're not really sure what's up with this silent, sweaty peasant. No, well, sure. I wouldn't. We'd obviously. It's a lot of suspicious adjectives there. Some of concern and qualities. So then he gets arrested and they realize that he is potentially a soldier. I think they beat him up. He confesses.

And then they lock him to a toilet. And they just wait. This is one of these things with history where you're like, how did they know that he possibly had some kind of message? Oh, he told them. Oh, he told him. Yeah. So they like kind of interrogated him. And then he was like, this is what happened.

Worst spy ever, by the way. First mission. Yeah. Well, they suspected this might happen as in the French did. So he's locked to his toilet. Eventually, the box comes out. God forbid the poor Prussian soldier that had to just wait by. for this thing.

They opened up the box and the document, Tarar had been told it was a very top secret document and they obviously told his captors this. In reality,

it was more of a test document. So they opened it and it wasn't even important because they were sort of just seeing if it worked and then he got a lot of trouble they beat him up, nearly executed him

but then they didn't and then they just kind of kicked him back out again. And he goes back to France then he goes back to France and then he ends up going back to the military hospital

he's like, I can't do this, please. figure out where this appetite has come from. It is so over the top and it is so dramatic. But just something that struck me there and it's probably worth sitting on it just for a second. And we have no answers to this. We can't know they weren't even interested in this at the time. But this poor man actually must have been feeling pretty bloody shit about himself at this moment in time. He clearly has some kind of medical disorder that is being

viewed as an oddity and he's being pushed around left, right and center. He's getting beaten up. he's starving, God love him, stinks to the high heavens. And the reason I'm saying that is because he keeps returning to these hospital institutions. And it's like, that's kind of sad because it's like, give me help. I need some kind of help. And everyone's like, I will send you off to Prush out with a box in your anus and then just see what happens. Is that going to work? Yeah, Grant.

Like, it's, it is sad, isn't it? It's not a great time to be him. And he is probably just really hungry all the time. And, you know, it's not, I can imagine he sort of has a limit as. social life. Yeah. Well, yeah. They're sending them all over the shop.

Yeah. So I think it is. It's a very, it's a sad story in that side of things. You know, he's just got this very difficult condition and he's a medical curiosity. But I do feel like the medical system is trying to help him. Like I think someone with that condition could really have just gone down the permanently a street fare. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kind of freak of nature. Yes. Root. And he is in these military hospitals, which are often as well very good hospitals. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. And he goes back and.

the military hospital and they're really trying to find a cure now. They try lodinam pills. They try loads of hard boiled eggs for some reason. God, it must have been so farty. Oh my God, the smell. I mean, the smell unbearable. Yeah. Yeah.

Sorry, go on. Yeah, I don't even want to think about that to be. But then he really can't be contained. Start sneaking out at night to butcher's shops. And then he gets caught in the hospital morgue. Oh, wait. Yeah. Dead people.

Yeah. Eating them. eating them. Oh, holy Moses. Oh my God, it's grim. Yeah, so that's where we start going. And then a baby goes missing. Oh, no.

In the hospital. There's never any proof that it was him. And I, you know, I'm a Taratruther. I don't think he did it. But obviously, suspicion involves on him. And he is chased away from the hospital at that point. Oh, look, I have some more of Percy's things here. He says that he will go to the slaughterhouse.

and remote places to dispute with dogs and wolves for their vile. Oh, as in like to fight with dogs for their food, not necessarily to eat them. Okay. And then it says, yeah, he would drink the blood of patients who had been bled at the hospitals that he was in. So that's interesting too, right? Because it's sustenance, if you want to look at it like that. But it's not necessarily eating. Now we're drinking.

So it's consuming is what he, and it seems to really be that organs. Orgam... Meaty. Meaty. Exactly. Yeah. Big meaty. Yeah. Carnivore...

Kind of a type thing. Yeah. Big protein eat to us. Yeah, well, sure. Look. He's... Gaines. Yeah.

I'm sure he's lifting loads. And so he's driven out because of this thing. Okay. Now, listen. Yeah. How true is this, Kat? Because it seems remarkable. And it seems like there would be more documentary evidence if all of these things were happening.

You know, this child disappearing. That really puts a spin on things. It seems like there's invent. here how much of it is invented? So it does seem too fantastical to be real, but the doctor Percy was an incredibly well-respected army surgeon. So he was the guy that kind of wrote up the story of what happened originally. And he wrote it up about five years or so after when he says Tara died. So it was also very recent. It's not like one of those things where he wrote up the story and was like, you know, decades and decades later. And we also, weirdly from this period,

have a couple of other people that seem to have had the same eating problem. Go on. Talk to me about them then. So this gives a bit of contextual evidence. Yeah. So I used to be, you know... Where are you going with this? I was going to say, I used to be starving all the time. I used to... Yeah, I don't want to go down there. I used to be a taras skeptic. Okay. And I think I went down far enough down the rabbit hole than I'm a tarot truth there. Yeah, yeah.

Because I read about this guy called Charles Dommerie. Okay. who... Prussian, from modern-day Poland, but did end up, was in the Prussian army and then left it and ended up during the French army

because the Prussians weren't giving him enough food. He apparently once ate 174 cats in a year. Why is everyone needing cats? I mean, they're very accessible. Like, you're saying about the cows and the, you know,

they're getting hold of a cow. And the cats are just around, aren't they, unfortunately? And also was it like one every other day? Yeah. Anyway, we have the records of him because he... was on a French, his naval ship.

He ate the severed leg of a crew member. So that was noted down. And then the boat got... Yeah, it would be like, you'd write that down. You would be like, a bit of a problem with this guy, Charles. Then the boat was captured by the British Army. They ended up in Liverpool. And then he was like brought in, I guess, by like the military medical authorities.

And it was all written down there. And there was testimony from the other soldiers. Did you mind that he ate the leg of live? Yeah. I think it was like, there was something wrong with it and he cut it off. I don't think it was so attached him at that point. No. No, I got that cat.

Thanks very much. No, it was, it's one of those things because you're like, well, what if he had like gangrene or something? And this guy's, and I'm sure it's not, because it was probably some kind of an accident that he had on board the ship or whatever. It's not going to be. But like, still you're going to eat somebody's dirty toes. No, but if you're at the point of eating your leg, I don't know how discerning you're being about the quality of it. You're going all the way in. You're absolutely right.

So we had that guy. And then actually it was another guy. it's also weird enough that was around the same time as Terrar. He also was very sweaty and was quote, tall and pleasant, normal looking, like seemed,

just seemed again like a sort of your average guy, apart from the cannibalism. There was also a guy called Jacques de Fales, another Frenchman. He was the one who nearly died swallowing a large eel. Okay. Around a similar period,

he was a quarryman full time, but then his side show was that he was basically like a sideshow attraction. Yeah, no, you'd need a side show if you were a quarryman just to do, And eels, why not? Yeah. Eat nuts, pipes, flowers, eels, a watch, a necklace.

And, yeah, he was alive, you know, for a pretty long time. And there was a lot of witnesses to that guy. I do want to know what it is about eels specifically that nearly kill you that cats don't. Quite long. I get stuck. I feel like you maybe would think that you could eat it in one go. I wouldn't, but surely. One might.

If you were a man with a very large mouth and a very descended esophagus, yeah, I think that's probably it. But they did there was a fondness for the eel. bones, no further to cough up at the end. She always brings the most disgusting to, when she comes to this podcast. By the way, producer Freddie has labelled this section of the story, the frommage, the cheese course. So there you go.

Think about that as you're, think about that the next time you're having a cheese course. Okay, now that we've talked about this idea of some things are true, some things are not, there is some narrative, but at the same time there's contextual evidence for Tarra's story as well as other people that we're encountering here. Let's get to the end of his story. this is what producer Freddie is called the dessert cat. Chocolate moose. God, don't tell us with chocolate moose.

It brings up too many images. So he's forced out of hospital. So we're in 1793 now. Oh, and he does a bit of a disappearing act until 1798. And then he appears in Versailles. He's all over the place. Yeah, so basically after the whole child accusation, he gets basically chased out the hospital for good reason.

Although again, I don't think he did it. I'm just going to defend him there. Where the hell did the child go, though? You don't know. We don't know. No, no, no. I don't want to look too closely because I'm going to defend him in this area. I don't want to slander his name enough.

I don't want to slander anymore for that. So he disappears for a bit and then comes back to a hospital. Four years later, the doctor finds him again. He's ended up at hospital in Versailles. He's got very advanced tuberculosis, actually, at this point. He's not in a great state. He also tells the doctor that he swallowed a silver fork and that it's stuck inside him. And so this also is the point when the doctor is now like, again, making these notes,

following his case, trying to figure out what's wrong with that. But he's also really dying at this point. Yeah, well, when he swallowed a fork. But if that's the case and he swallowed a fork, we're back to this thing of like metallic, mentally, like he's, there's something being, he's being drawn into that kind of bloody metal meat thing. I don't know why. Iron deficiency.

Iron deficiency. I've solved it. Thanks very much, guys. Next time, and after dark, up, like other medical mysteries. No, look at this. He really could be a doctor. Maybe I have a real doctor. Also, I will say on the metal deficiency, I don't think this is why he does it, but there is

modern day great eater in France. Oh, yeah. Or at least in the 20th century, called Michael Lottito. And he ate an entire Cessna plane. What? What? Two years in pieces.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I've never made that noise before my life. I don't know what I just made that noise. Apologies to the audio crew. Jack was eating pipes and nuts and bolts and stuff. So maybe there's something about the metal that's got a taste for it. Jesus, wept.

Okay. So he goes to the doctor. He goes to Percy now. Now we're with Percy. We're back in Percy. We're at hospital in Versailles. Yeah. And he says,

come here to me, Percy. I've eaten a fork. Yeah, I think he's, well, he's dying of tuberculosis. Oh, yeah, that is all right. I think the problem is the fork. And pretty sure Percy's like, pretty sure Percy's like,

tuberculosis and everything you've eaten for the last, like, two decades of your life is the problem. So at that point, he's kind of just slowly, not that slowly dying. And they're kind of just waiting for him to die. So they can autopsy and see what happens. I mean, I think they're taking,

care of him. But I think at this point, they're not going to cure him. And they just sort of waiting to see what happens. You have talked about this idea that he sweated a lot. And at this point now, Percy records that you could not come within 20 paces because the smell was so bad. If you're eating, if it's the morning, it hooked down your toast or your marmite on toast because apparently he had diarrhea of an diarrhea of an insupportable fetidness. Holy moly. There's a lot of words that shouldn't be put together in a sense.

No, it's true. And he dies a couple of months later. Now, okay, so what I want to come to now is this, the autopsy, because what's starting to become very clear is that this medical community that has been surrounding him because he keeps reporting himself for help. And again, that's the really sad part of this. He keeps showing up for help and it just doesn't really happen.

Because, you know, to be fair to the medical people, they don't know what's going on. This is very new to them. And they do, I mean, they gave him that whole meal for 15 German labourers. Like, they were trying to defeat the guy. I love that. I love that, that's your God. They gave him a huge meal that one time. Really big dinner.

Years before. Yeah, do we nap? And it should have all been over by then. So he dies. And by the way, he's only what, 20 something at this point? Yeah, he's 26, they think. Like, he leaves home at about 16. This is a 10-year period of this getting worse and worse and worse.

But we get to the point where he's probably his most valuable dead. Yeah. Because then you can really investigate. So what happens post-death? So they managed to do an autopsy. I think it was probably a pretty difficult experience for everyone involved. And they find... Imagine the smell?

It's like putrid, pus-filled, as the description goes. They find that he has an abnormally large esophagus. Okay. And that he can open his mouth so wide. And it's so, like, the esophagus is so wide itself that you can, like, see all the way down. And apparently you can fit a cylinder that's like a foot round. Yeah, we're not mathematicians either. It's fine.

Yeah. A big cylinder. Yeah. You could fit it down there. They didn't find a fork, though. But they were like, he's, like, he has the capacity to eat, like, really big, like eels. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Live canaries, like cats and dogs and everything.

So you can actually physically get them in him. And obviously over time that you develop probably those skills. Yeah, skills indeed. Yes. Put that in your CV. And also like his stomach has the ability to distend. Sure. Like perfection leaders have.

And I think so much food. I think this is where I got the idea initially that he was a bigger man because there is this reporting of swelling, right? But it's, but it then retracts again. So it is just a stomach that is growing to accommodate. and then slipping back into position. It's getting quite wrinkly though. I think he's got like now.

Right, okay, because it keeps growing and falling, growing and falling. Yeah, it's like good fear. And so there is a kind of a physiological reason that they see during the autopsy that isn't it interesting though that they don't find the fork? Because I believe him if he says he ate a fork. Why would he lie about it? He's nothing to lie about. He's even worse things than a fork.

Yeah, but I mean, it probably came out with everything else at some point. He didn't even notice. That says a lot of it. I didn't even notice a fork passing. You can imagine what else was it. in there. It's also one of those things that if he was alive today, he would be on some kind of a medical documentary

where they just do loads of x-rays on his body just on what they find in there. Like, how did that tennis ball get up there kind of a thing? Super size, super skinny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like, you know, Britain's got talent, depending which way he was going with it. The final judgment that Percy passes on Tarar is, he ends his

report with this saying, he had a disease that degrades the one affected by it and makes him descend to the rank of animals. The dehumanising is problematic for us today, isn't it? But they would never have seen it like that in the 18th century. They just would have been... They would have thought two things.

They would have thought grotesque. And then they also would have thought, here's an opportunity to learn. Yeah. Do you think that's fair? I think they would have. And I do think, again, the medical treatment he got and the attention he got would have been very different today.

But I do appreciate that he did get quite a lot of medical attention and care for the period. And then he wasn't in a position with some of the attention. was just farming him out as an attraction. Yeah. So I think considering that he had this condition, he sort of got quite a lot of the part aside from the whole army situation, he did sort of get like quite a lot of support that he would have been able to get for the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yes, it's like.

You know, like obviously it's not great by modern standards. Yeah, of course. But I think he wasn't somebody that was just like, people weren't like throwing rocks at him in the street. There were doctors like Percy, who despite his slightly judgmental comments. was also trying to find a cure. To do something. They did do a fair amount of investigation over many years

trying to figure out what was wrong with her and not just so that they could wait around an autopsy him, but rather because they were like fascinated by the condition and probably did feel quite sorry for him. Yeah. I think he probably did have people.

Yeah. I'm sure that he did elicit some pity and some sympathy. Yeah, I think you're right because generally speaking like if you, okay, you need to fast forward 100 years for this. But like if you think about

the treatment that Joseph Merrick, also known as the elephant man, and we have an episode on him as well, if you think about the treatment that he endured both medically and socially, although at the end he does find a place, it's certainly worse than this. And I mean, I know he's like a visual difference. So it's a visual, physical difference. So that also separates him out. But I understand what you mean about there just seem to be something here where they're trying to do something for him, but it's just not, they just don't have the capability or the knowledge at this particular moment in time. I think even today, this would stump people today.

Yeah, it would. Write in if you're a medical doctor and would have been stumped by this. Tell us if you know more about what's going on here. But it is also really interesting because in terms of the being real or being more of a myth. Yeah, go on. Totally.

Because that was going to be my next question as a way to kind of end this up. Where are we with that? Like, what do you think? Well, there's a lot of mythical qualities, both in the extremity of it all, and in it feels. like something you would tell your kids if they were misbehaving, like Tara's going to come and get you kind of thing. And we'll eat you. Yeah, he'll come and eat you. And also, I don't know if you know

the Shell Silverstein poem, Hungry Mungry. No. It's about a guy who eats his house and then his family and then. Wait. So my mum used to read this to me. Kids both. I do know it. Yes. I'm pretty sure this is where it all, you know, it all clicked in for me because I loved that poem as a kid. But so it makes me think of that as something that, you know, feels really fantastical. But not only do we have the medical testimony, there's no reason for Percy an army. surgeon, his name is on the Architreumph to make this story up. He has a full career. Yeah, he's like, and he's not spending, his career isn't made because he has this kind of like side show guy. It's just a weird side thing that he observed. He's good. He seems, you know,

legit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's much more of a medical doctor than you or I. Well, speak to yourself. I think I've just solved this all mystery, but yeah, sure. Great. And also, because of the fact that our man who ate Assessna a plane, we do have some incredible eaters in the modern day. So I went down a routel of looking at professional regurgitators. Today in today's world? Yeah, yeah. So they weren't keeping it down.

They were, you know, bringing it back up again deliberately. I found a guy called Stevie Star in Scotland, supposedly, can swallow an unsolved Rubik's cube and regurgitate it solves. Oh, no. I can't even do, can you do them? I can't do them any way, never mind inside my stomach with my digestive juices. Now, that's just not true. I don't care.

fair play to you but it's not true. I think it might be an illusion but something's happening but it's not that. But there's a lot, you know, there's a long history

into the present day of people who can eat swords, eat light bulbs, video bulbs. You see that on magicie show type things. Come here to me,

do you ever, you know when you are watching in your rabbit hole thingy, when you're watching these extreme eaters, do you ever watch them and go.

Very specific you. I don't watch that many of them. Thank you very much. You know when you're not writing a book and you're only ever watching you, you for extreme eaters. Do you ever think when they put down the plate of food in somebody in front of somebody, do you ever go, I'm pretty sure I could eat that? 100%. All the time. I'm like,

I'm sure I could eat that. Yeah. I thought I tried. Freddy sent me on the other day and I watched it and it was a full like cooked breakfast and I was very hungry at the time. I was watching it being like, I could do at least a bit of that. Quite a lot of it. Sometimes I'm like, could eat at least all of those hash brown. How extreme is this really? If you get me at the right time. And I've got long enough as well. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the speed is, like, part of the competition. I know, well, for some, some it is, some it isn't.

You know, they're always going into, like, diners in South America and, like, eating these amazing things. And I'm like, that looks delicious. I'll have two. Yeah. What would be your food of choice? Oh, pizza every time. Really? That's my death row.

Oh, and that's quite like, you know, quite hard to eat, a lot of pizza. It's quite car-a-est. You say that. I'd say, I could give it a good old go. Yeah. Pivot, the whole history thing doesn't work out? Can we go a big pizza eater? With that, with that mouth, I think it's normal size. But others disagree from what you've heard in the history circles.

Like, God, actually I've got a really big mouth. I wonder how big is esophagus. Jesus went. Right. Okay. We'll leave that there. Good place to stop. Oh, by the way, you mentioned this.

And I didn't realize it was by A.K. Blakemore before we go. But glutton, the fiction work, is based on this. Yes. I'm going to read this because I love A.K. Blake's great. It's really, really good. I enjoyed it a lot. So it came out, I think, a couple of years. ago. Yeah. I've seen it. I just didn't realize. Yeah. Fantastic cover. And I was already,

you know, at our truth at this point. So I was like, I'm glad he's getting the attention he deserves. Also, I just want to make the point. I've just remembered. Michael Tito, a plane eating man. Yeah. Got an award from the Guinness Book of Records. So he ate the award. Oh. My God. So poetic. Oh, my God. Good man, Michael. It's exactly what you do. You were a big old professional eater. And as we've discovered, I might well be at some future iteration.

Right, listen, I need to get this person out of here because she disgusts me more and more each time that she arrives on. What time is it? No, not quite long yet, thankfully. If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave us a five-star review wherever you get your podcasts. Did you know that we are also on YouTube? So if you are only listening on podcast platforms, go over to our YouTube channel and you can subscribe and watch us there. You can find me at Anthony Delaney History on social. Can they find you, Kat? At Haymorg, girl.

At Haymorg girl, which is as dastardly as it sounds. And Kat's book is coming out in early 2027. Yes. As I say, it is one of the ones I am most looking forward to. I'm so, so excited by us. So we cannot wait for that one. And obviously, we're going to have you back a million times between now and then. And before I go, I should mention another book that I'm really excited about.

This is Maddie's book, of course, hoax, which is coming out on the 7th of May. and I will be chatting to Maddie on the 7th of May at Conway Hall about the new book and all things hoax so if you would like to come along to that please do there will be a link in the show notes if you have any ideas for

God there's a lot of notes this evening isn't there I've got parish notes I feel like a parish priest that's not the first time I said that if you have any ideas for future episodes then please get in touch at After Dark at Historyhead.com Sometimes I forget that but not today listen. Listen I've rambled enough thank you very much for listening for watching

Thank you to Kat as ever. I'm already excited for the next episode, whatever that might be. Always happy to be here. And until next time, happy listening. Goodbye.