Down the rabbit hole

Each shape is one document; open it to go to where we found it. The same graph as a list is below.

Why these records are connected

• 13 copies: the copy detector found the same words in a later document, so it sits in the same row as the account it copies.
• Why these documents are one case. The case matcher joined them because:
  • The Chickasha daily express & The citizen: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quotes overlap; they describe the same details; same place, same month
  • The Chickasha daily express & Aberdeen herald: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place, same month
  • The citizen & Aberdeen herald: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quotes overlap; they describe the same details; same place, same month
  • Daily press & The Fargo forum and daily republican: a person reviewed them and joined them
  • The Fargo forum and daily republican & The Chickasha daily express: a person reviewed them and joined them
  • The Chickasha daily express & The Emmett index: the copy detector found the same text in both; they describe the same details; same place, same month
  • The Emmett index & The citizen: the copy detector found the same text in both; they describe the same details; same place, same month
  • The Emmett index & Aberdeen herald: the copy detector found the same text in both; they describe the same details; same place, same month

Every document, as a list

1. Account 1 14 documents
   • Earliest found Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) Newspaper · Oct 20, 1909
   • Reprint The Richmond Palladium And Sun-Telegram (Richmond, Ind.) Newspaper · Oct 20, 1909
     Image 1 of The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram (Richmond, Ind.), October 20, 1909
   • Reprint The Fargo Forum And Daily Republican (Fargo, N.D.) Newspaper · Oct 21, 1909
     Image 7 of The Fargo forum and daily republican (Fargo, N.D.), October 21, 1909
   • Reprint New Ulm Review (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) Newspaper · Oct 27, 1909
   • Reprint The New Haven Union (New Haven, Conn.) 1895-192? Newspaper · Oct 28, 1909
   • Reprint The Pascoag Herald (Pascoag, R.I.) Newspaper · Oct 29, 1909
   • Reprint Rock Island Argus (Rock Island, Ill.) Newspaper · Oct 29, 1909
   • Reprint Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) Newspaper · Oct 31, 1909
     Image 11 of Daily press (Newport News, Va.), October 31, 1909
   • Reprint Evening Times-Republican (Marshalltown, Iowa) Newspaper · Nov 1, 1909
   • Reprint The Chickasha Daily Express (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) Newspaper · Nov 1, 1909
     Image 2 of The Chickasha daily express (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]), November 1, 1909
   • Reprint Aberdeen Herald (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) Newspaper · Nov 4, 1909
     Image 3 of Aberdeen herald (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.), November 4, 1909
   • Reprint The Citizen (Honesdale, Pa.) Newspaper · Nov 10, 1909
     Image 2 of The citizen (Honesdale, Pa.), November 10, 1909
   • Reprint The Topeka State Journal (Topeka, Kansas) Newspaper · Dec 15, 1909
   • Reprint The Emmett Index (Emmett, Idaho) Newspaper · Dec 16, 1909
     Image 9 of The Emmett index (Emmett, Idaho), December 16, 1909

How to read this

• Time runs left to right by publication date. Very long empty stretches are cut short (the axis shows how many years were skipped); undated documents sit in their own column.
• One row per independent account. A reprint, re-upload or cross-post carries the same text, so it stays in its account's row and never counts as a second witness.
• Earliest found (ringed) is the earliest document we hold for that account. It is not proof of the first telling: an earlier one may exist that we haven't collected.
• Arrows run from a document to a source it names. A dashed shape is a source a document cites that we haven't found yet; its link searches a public archive for it, and a hit there is a lead, not a confirmation.

About the numbers

• Only documents we've collected are counted; retellings elsewhere on the web aren't counted yet.
• Documents are matched by shared text and by the sources they name, by plain rules with no model in the loop. A match can be wrong; tell us.

The deepest rabbit holes →

Where next

• Back to the case
  its summary, sources and discussion
• Back to the map
  opened on this case
• Jersey Devil · Roebling, New Jersey · 1908
  Another trail, same creature: 3 documents · 1 independent account
• Other Flying · Little Rock, Arkansas · 1834
  The next-deepest trail: 14 documents · 1 independent account

Every rabbit hole → · How we tell copies from independent accounts