In August 1951, residents of the small French village of Pont-Saint-Esprit suddenly started having terrifying hallucinations. Some people imagined lions and tigers were coming to eat them, a man jumped out of a window thinking he was a dragonfly. At least seven people died, over 50 people were taken to the local asylum in straitjackets and hundreds were affected. What caused this mysterious case of mass insanity?THEORIES: The CIA spiked bread with LSD as part of a mind control experiment, ergot poisoning from contaminated rye crops, mercury poisoning from fungicides used to treat grains, werewolves. ALSO: Ali’s dad told her a story about moldy bread curing pneumonia. Maria thinks Jeremy Piven is an excellent businessman.—EMAIL US: Webcrawlerspod@gmail.comLEAVE US A VOICEMAIL: 626-604-6262—FOLLOW US: TwitterInstagramRedditFacebook—To join our Patreon click HERE—MERCH: https://webcrawlerspod.com—Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/webcrawlers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.