"Greed was the poison he had swallowed. He went first, the others followed. His killer’s face he surely knew. Now try to discover who killed who" -Jacob's epitaph
Jacob Dread or Uncle Jacob is a member of the Dread Family and a man whose tomb is found in the Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World.
Description[]
Biography[]
Jacob Dread was a wealthy and greedy man who was the head of the wealthy Dread family and the husband of Florence Dread (née. McGriffin). He was murdered by his relative Bertie who wished to gain Jacob's inheritance. Bertie went about this by poisoning Jacob with a poison synthesized from his pet serpent.
Following his demise, he was buried outside of the Haunted Mansion which his family likely had some affiliation with. His death marked the beginning of the end for the Dread clan.
History[]
During the testing phase, Jacob's epitaph read as, "Where my fortune was hidden, I never revealed. Though to find it, my relatives wheeled and they dealed. That none of them found it should come as no news. Now in their ghostly whispers, perhaps you’ll find the clues". In this test version, said hidden fortune was placed in an urn right in the open on the Mansion's front lawn.[1]
Appearances[]
The Dread families are presented as busts in front of the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion as part of the 2010 interactive queue installation and work as a mystery game where guests use clues hidden on the busts and epitaphs to solve the mystery of who killed who.
Each member of the family's plaque is decorated with symbols that represent their murder weapon; all but Jacob who died before he had the chance to murder.
Trivia[]
- Depending on the species of the serpent, the poison used to kill Jacob could be:
- A viper's venom which would have caused extreme burning pain to Jacob, followed by his blood coagulating and clotting within his veins and heart, preventing blood-flow. It would have taken a relatively longer amount of time to kill Jacob, during which time he would have suffered from swelling, flesh discolouration, bodily illness, and difficulty breathing.
- A tetrodotoxin which is a neurotoxin created from the skin of Salamanders. This would mean that Jacob would have died by losing control of his nervous system, being paralyzed and his brain losing the ability to make his lungs move causing him to die from a lack of air.
- The only known eel with venom or poison would be the Moray Eel which has poisonous (not venomous, poisonous) mucus in their mouths. The poison intensifies pain and destroys red-blood cells where applies, resulting in a high susceptibility to incidental wounds and illnesses which eventually wears off. Under normal circumstances, it would not be an effective poison for murder as it is not inherently fatal and relies on the victim to have a wound.
- Working within the fish/eel theory it is possible that the venom/poison was an ichthyotoxins which when exposed to Jacob would have caused body spasms, migraines, breathing trouble, and sickness. It would have required that Bertie harvest the toxin from the blood and/or flesh of the serpent which would both explain the serpent's death and fit Bertie's M.O. as a big game hunter. However, once again this toxin is only mildly poisonous to humans and wouldn't be efficient for murder.
- The family has only been referred to as the Dreads in the testing phase of the attraction but it is still used as their official family name.
- Imagineer Pete Carsillo said that he wanted to call them the Dreads so that it could open the door for families other than the Graceys to have lived in the Mansion and that it creates a lot more possibilities.