During the summer of 1913, almost three years before the famous shark attacks along the Jersey Shore, the nation was shocked when the Asbury Park Press broke a story on Aug. 25.

“A gruesome discovery was made by fishermen at the Barnegat Fish company’s plant at Lavallette this morning when they ripped open an 18-foot man-eating shark that had been caught in one of the nets. In the stomach of the big fish was a man’s foot, with shoe and sock, that had been bitten off just above the ankle.”

The local paper attempted to solve the mystery. Two days later it published “The mystery of the child’s foot found in…