Insane Things That Used To Be Legal

Laws are designed to stop society from descending into turmoil. Yet, so many of today’s laws preventing obviously dangerous situations, once didn’t exist. Like laws against mailing children, selling radioactive toys, or even sibling marriages. Let's uncover the most insane things that used to be 100% legal!

Children Sent Through The Mail

On average, the U.S Postal Service processes around 25 million packages daily! While getting mail delivered is part of our everyday, the U.S Post Office’s Parcel Post only began in January 1913. The service allowed Americans to send and receive all kinds of goods. But it didn’t take long for some people to find a loophole in the system.

Just weeks after the Parcel Post began, Jesse and Mathilda Beagle posted some very important cargo: their 8 month-old baby! Luckily, the child was being sent to his grandmother, who only lived a few miles away. Still, that sounds like a pretty careless call!

Did the mailman just leave the kid in the mailbox? Fortunately, he actually carried baby Beagle to his grandmother! And even better, it cost less than $5! It didn’t take long for the story to hit the headlines, which only led to more parents shipping their kids in the mail!

Most famously, May Pierstorff, a 5 year-old girl, was mailed via train from her home in Idaho to her grandparents’ house some 73 miles away! Even more horrifying, the little girl traveled the whole way in the train’s mail compartment. Thankfully, a year later in 1914, shortly after May’s journey, Postmaster General Albert Burleson officially issued that all human beings were barred from being mailed.

Baby Farming

Baby mail wasn’t the only legal craze that affected infants back in the day. Whether it was poverty, disease, or child labor, Victorian Britain wasn’t the most pleasant place for kids. Yet, none of those compare to baby farming.

Baby farming is where parents handed over their infant or child to a carer in exchange for a fee. Think of it like childcare. Except, instead of paying for your kid to be looked after for a day, you’re paying for them to be looked after for their whole childhood!

To us now, that may seem a little extreme. However, in 19th century Britain, women unable to care for their children due to work commitments, or a lack of money, felt giving their kid to a baby farm would ensure they’d be well-cared for. And, considering that these places would charge upwards of £30, some $3800 in today’s money, per child, you’d like to think those kids were getting pampered.

Sadly, that wasn’t always the case, as nurse’s looking to increase their income would take in more children than they could care for. An undercover investigation of baby-farming in 1870 revealed that tragically, many children sent to baby farms didn’t survive their infancy or worse, had their infancy cut short.

Clearly, something had to change. The ‘Infant Life Protection Act of 1872’, regulated the perilous practice, with carers requiring registration. Then, 15 years later, the Infant Life Protection Act of 1897, went further, empowering authorities to actively seek out baby farms, and remove children to a place of safety. First, mailing children was legal, then baby farms! People really had it out for kids back in the day!

Radioactive Atomic Energy Lab Kit For Kids With Uranium

Today’s parents are pretty obsessed with their children’s safety, there’s not a toy out there without a hazard warning on it! But, in 1950 A.C Gilbert Toy Company released the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab for kids! It may look intriguing at first glance, but this kit included four small jars of uranium! Yes, the incredibly toxic and famously radioactive uranium.

Budding young scientists were encouraged to measure the samples’ radioactivity and observe radioactive decay. Clearly, uranium is not a toy. Inhaling the radioactive substance can cause bone, liver or lung cancer, while ingesting as little as 0.0017 ounces of it can be fatal. This stuff sounds dangerous for scientists, let alone kids! Predictably, just one year after hitting the shelves, the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab was recalled. Not because of safety concerns, though.

The product proved unpopular due to its eyewatering price of around $50, some $600 today, about the same as a new PlayStation 5! The 50’s were a wild time! You’ll be glad to know nowadays there’s no chance of young ones getting their hands on any radioactive playthings. In 1966, the Child Protection Act allowed the U.S Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare to ban the sale of toys that contained hazardous substances.

Radithor: Radioactive Energy Drink

Back in 1925, Bailey Radium Laboratories manufactured a medicinal product, known as Radithor. The drink was advertised as "A Cure for the Living Dead", treating aches, pains, and remedying impotence. What was in this miracle drink? It was distilled water with radium-226 and radium-228, another incredibly dangerous radioactive metal.

The belief at the time was that radium, taken in small doses, infused depleted organs with energy. It was the go-to energy drink among the rich, with more than 400,000 bottles being sold at around $20 a pop. Wealthy golfer and industrialist, Eben Byers was one of the buyers. For two years he downed 2-3 bottles of Radithor every day! But over time he began dropping weight, suffered from crippling headaches, and lost his teeth. Yet somehow, things got even worse.

Soon after going through all that, Byers’ lower jaw started to disintegrate. Radium and calcium share similar chemistry. This causes the body to mistake the radioactive substance for calcium, incorporating it into the bones. But while calcium strengthens bone structures, radium weakens them, turning bones to dust.

Tragically, in 1932, after years of guzzling down Radithor, Byers passed away from radium poisoning. That stuff is not to be messed with, and certainly not to be used as a medicine! Six years after Byers passing, the 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act authorized the Food and Drug Administration to oversee and regulate the production, sale and distribution of food, drugs and medicines. This prevented any misbranded radioactive miracle medicines from popping up in stores again.

Texting While Driving

In every single U.S state, it’s illegal to text while driving with the exception of Montana! The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that texting is the most dangerous distraction while driving. Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that’s like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes shut!

Dangerous as driving and texting sounds, it wasn’t until 2007 that the first state criminalized driving while texting. Considering that SMS messages were invented in 1992, that means drivers in the U.S were freely allowed to text as they pleased for 15 years!

And, if you’re somehow convinced that driving while texting should still be legal, a 2015 study revealed that texting bans were associated with a 7% reduction in crash-related hospitalizations. Let’s just hope it isn’t too long before every state puts an end to this laughable legality!

Drunk Driving

If you thought that texting while driving was irresponsible, then what about getting behind the wheel after having a few drinks? A recent study declared that drunk drivers pose a 13 times greater risk than sober ones.

But shocking as it may seem, there was once a time, when people could drive under the influence without facing the wrath of the law. It wasn’t until 1910 that New York became the first state to enact a law against drunk driving, nearly 20 years after motorized vehicles were first sold in the country! But the insanity doesn’t end there!

The first drink driving laws were extremely basic. They didn’t define what intoxicated meant, so it was up to each police officer to determine whether a driver was drunk enough to be breaking the law. On top of that, machines to measure a person’s drunkenness weren’t used until the cunningly-named Drunkometer’s invention in 1938, and then later in the 1950s, the more accurate and easier-to-use Breathalyzer.

Despite those advances, it wasn’t until 2004, that all 50 U.S states introduced a blood alcohol concentration limit, which was capped at 0.08%. For reference, that’s equivalent to about 4 beers. Anyone caught driving under the influence, even below the 0.08% blood alcohol concentration limit can expect to get the book thrown at them. Some states punish first-time offenders with up to 2 years in jail, and fines exceeding $6,000!

Smoking In Airplanes

If you’ve ever gotten on a plane, you’ve probably seen the illuminated "no smoking" sign above your head. It goes without saying that smoking on flights is strictly prohibited nowadays. But that wasn’t always the case. As you can imagine, boarding a long-haul flight while the air is filled with cigarette smoke wouldn’t be pleasant if you weren’t a smoker. It was even worse for flight attendants, who often complained of shortness of breath.

In 1986, a report revealed that secondhand smoking was a health hazard to non-smokers in areas filled with tobacco smoke. If that wasn’t reason enough for a ban, cigarettes also caused plane crashes. Take the Varig Flight 820 of 1973, which crash landed, taking the lives of 123 passengers on-board. The plane’s crash was triggered by a fire, likely caused by a lit cigarette thrown into a lavatory waste bin.

Yet, passengers on U.S flights were still free to puff as they pleased on their way to their destination. It wasn’t until 1988 when a smoking ban was first introduced to flights. Even still, this only prevented people from lighting up on flights in the U.S that were two hours or less.

A study conducted in 1989 revealed more than 80% of 30,000 passengers surveyed wanted to see a permanent extension of the ban. So, in 1990 the smoking ban was extended to all U.S flights of six hours or less. Finally, in 2000, the U.S issued a smoking ban on all flights. With the ban also came strict punishment, as the fine for smoking on a flight can be as steep as $4,000.

Smoking can even escalate to a jailable offense if the person is found to have tampered with a smoke detector, or failed to comply with crew member’s instruction. Yet, any eagle-eyed observers would’ve noticed that many aircraft lavatories contain an ashtray.

Seems strange, considering no smoking’s allowed, doesn’t it? However, ashtrays are located on the doors of all airplane bathrooms, providing a safe place to dispose of a lit cigarette to any law-breakers. Still, ashtray or not, it's advisable against taking a drag on a flight. Otherwise your life could quickly go up in smoke!

Guns Allowed On Planes

Shocking as smoking on a plane may seem today, airlines once permitted something far more dangerous on their flights: guns! You don't need to be an aviation expert to conclude that being stuck on a plane over 30,000 feet in the air, while some passengers are in possession of firearms doesn’t sound like the safest idea.

Mind-blowing as it seems, there were once no laws in place to prevent people from boarding planes with guns. Predictably, chaos ensued. The first aerial hijacking within the U.S occurred in May 1961, when a man carrying a knife and gun demanded the flight be diverted to Cuba. In the next few months, 4 more planes were hijacked by armed passengers.

By the end of the year, it was finally illegal to carry an accessible concealed weapon aboard an aircraft. Yet, despite the law change, the aerial hijackings continued. From 1968-1972, over 130 planes were hijacked in the U.S alone.

It wasn’t until the 1974 Air Transportation Security Act, that airports authorized and required screening for passengers to detect if they were carrying weapons. As you’ll know, with the long security lines at airports today, that screening is still in place. In the US, if anyone does manage to board a plane without an authorized gun, they can expect to spend up to 10 years in jail, along with a fine as steep as $250,000!

A Pinch of Kaboom

Dynamite is dangerous. This stuff contains nitroglycerin, an explosive liquid, which is wrapped up in a cylindrical cartridge. Considering that one stick of dynamite can blast a tree stump from the ground, you shouldn’t be anywhere near this stuff unless you know how it works. Even more terrifyingly, dynamite is known to "sweat". When that happens the nitroglycerin leaches out and crystalizes, meaning even a gentle touch can detonate it.

But despite the dangers, people in the U.S were able to just buy sticks of dynamite from their local hardware store in the 50’s and 60’s, and there was no age limit on purchasing it either! It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the general public having easy access to explosives isn’t the smartest idea. Especially considering violent protests were rife during this period. And predictably, dynamite became the tool of choice for radicals.

Eventually, in 1970, The Organized Crime Control Act implemented federal control over the transport, import, distribution and storage of explosives, like dynamite. The act required explosive manufacturers, importers and dealers to obtain a federal license. That meant you couldn’t just walk into your local store and pick up eggs, bread and a stick of dynamite anymore.

Methamphetamine

You don’t need me to tell you that narcotics are bad! If you do, you have some real holes in your education. But just like dynamite, some of these substances were once readily available for people to buy in their local stores. For example, methamphetamine, or bad ice, as we’ll call it, was first synthesized by a Japanese chemist in 1893. By 1932, Americans were able to buy the bad ice to treat nasal congestion and asthma.

However, with this came some euphoric and energizing side-effects, which became addictive and incredibly detrimental to many. Shockingly, it wasn’t until 1970, nearly 40 years after it became popular in the U.S, that bad ice was finally recognized as a really awful substance, and outlawed.

American Immigration Laws

With a population of 330 million and counting, the U.S is the 3rd largest country in the world. But it wasn’t always like this. After gaining independence from Britain in 1776, America had empty lands to settle. So, they encouraged open immigration. In fact, the first version of the Constitution allowed foreigners to legally move to the U.S with almost no obstacles. You could practically walk across the border, set up a home for yourself, and that was that.

But as you probably know, this lax law towards immigration didn’t last forever. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act became the first law restricting open immigration into the U.S, providing a 10-year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the country. The next major change came with the Immigration Act of 1924. This law established quotas that severely limited immigration from outside Western Hemisphere countries.

Then, in 1996, Congress passed the Illegal immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. This resulted in the hiring of more Border Patrol workers and harsher penalties for those illegally immigrating, including fines up to $250 and 6 months in prison. Quite a far cry from those open immigration laws from the previous centuries.

As a result of people still wanting to migrate to the U.S in spite of these laws, illegal immigration has rapidly risen. In 1995, there were 5.7 million illegal immigrants in the country. But this figure more than doubled in 2007, hitting close to 12 million!

At the time of the last official estimate from the U.S Census Bureau back in 2022, the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S had dropped down to just under 11 million. But, while the Census Bureau hasn’t yet released estimates for the years since, there were record number of migrants at U.S borders in 2022 and 2023, so some experts believe that number has likely shot up once again! That’s one law that hasn’t quite gone to plan!

Polygamy

For some, one marriage just isn’t enough. Let me introduce you to Orson Pratt. Back in the mid-18th century, Pratt married not once, not twice, but as many as 10 times! The practice of marrying multiple spouses at once is called polygamy. Pratt was a polygynist, the most common form of polygamy, which involves a male being married to multiple wives at the same time. It may sound strange now, but in the 19th century this was heavily practiced by some Mormons.

Pratt argued that polygyny was a result of divine revelation from God. He believed that the puzzling practice was perfectly legal, as he was protected under the U.S Constitution as a religious freedom. That all changed in 1882, however, with the passing of the Edmunds Act, which declared polygamy a felony. The Human Rights Committee argued that it violated the dignity of women, as it doesn’t honor equal treatment within a marriage.

As such, anyone who practiced polygamy in the US was punished with up to 5 years in prison. Despite that, polygyny isn’t illegal everywhere in the world today. In fact, polygynous marriages are still perfectly legal in some 58 countries today, with most of these being Muslim-majority countries in Africa and Asia. For other men out there, you’re probably going to have to stick to one wife for life!

Incest

It's clear that sibling marriage, or incest, is wrong. Because siblings share DNA, incestuous couples, or couples significantly related to one another, are more likely to produce offspring with serious genetic birth defects and genetic disorders. But surprisingly, the taboo against this hasn’t always been as strong as it is today.

Born back around 1340 BCE, The famous Egyptian Pharoh Tutankhamun is actually believed to be the child of an incestuous union. Regrettably, he decided to keep up the creepiness by marrying his half-sister. Later down the line, from 300-30 BCE, rulers from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, including Cleopatra, engaged in full-sibling marriage.

Marriages and births between relatives prevented the influx of external powers and maintained their family rule, but this became less popular power play as time passed. Today, most countries have completely outlawed incest, except 22, including Argentina, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, and many more.

Sibling marriage on the other hand is outlawed almost everywhere, except in Sweden. Half brothers and sisters can legally marry here, but these people still share 25% of their DNA! But even recent rulers like the UK’s Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were related, both descendants of Queen Victoria, and as first cousins, shared some 12.5% of their DNA. So, no marrying siblings, but the line worldwide seems to be drawn at first cousins.

Trial By Combat: Marital Duels

The Middle Ages were a weird time, but the most bizarre aspect of life back then was trial by combat. This involved two parties fighting, or dueling, in a single combat, with the winner of the fight being proclaimed to be in the right. To make things even more bizarre, an unusual variant of trial by combat, known as the marital duel sprung up. This involved a husband and wife settling their differences with physical combat.

To compensate for the man’s greater strength, his wife was armed with a rock wrapped in cloth. The husband meanwhile, was put in a hole in the ground with one hand tied behind his back. Comical as it sounds, marital duels were no joke. It’s said that if the woman won, the man was executed, while if the man won, the woman was buried alive.

Thankfully, marital duels have been a thing of the past since the 1200s. The same can’t be said for trial by combat, though. In 1817, one strange case shook London. Abraham Thornton, a man accused of a heinous crime, demanded a trial by combat! Despite no-one claiming trial by combat in the U.K since 1638, no-one had actually thought to make it illegal.

As a result, Thornton wasn’t breaking any laws by challenging the accuser. Unfortunately the accuser was small and scrawny, so he unsurprisingly refused the challenge. With no-one to stand against him, Thornton, who was likely guilty, escaped punishment for one crime by threatening another. Thankfully, two years later, British lawmakers came to their senses, outlawing trial by combat.

Justifiable Crime Of Passion In Texas

Surprisingly, there are some cases in the modern world where homicide wouldn’t be a crime. In the U.S, like most countries, homicide is justifiable if it’s committed in self-defense to prevent a serious crime, like armed robbery. However, one U.S state had a law that really loosened the boundaries over homicide. In 1856, it was legal in Texas for a husband to take the life of another man if he caught, or thought he’d caught, him canoodling with his wife.

But a wife was never legally allowed to take the life of a woman she caught cheating with her husband. This laughable law even allowed husbands to eliminate would-be adulterers if they heard squeaking bed springs, or found their wife in nightclothes and the man without shoes.

Somehow, this law stood for over 100 years, before finally being repealed in 1973. Nowadays Texas, like the rest of the U.S, has criminalized these ‘love killings’. Anyone who commits such a crime can expect as many as 20 years in prison, and a possible fine up to $10,000. So, next time you hear some suspiciously squeaky bed-springs from the bedroom, try not to completely lose your cool!

If you were amazed at the insane things that used to be legal, you might want to read about weird laws that still exist. Thanks for reading!