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1:02

podcast that are not in my voice are placed

1:04

by third-party agencies outside of my control and should

1:06

not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself.

1:09

Stories and content in Weird Darkness can

1:11

be disturbing for some listeners and is

1:13

intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion

1:16

is strongly advised. Carl

1:19

Panzrom has been called a one-man

1:21

crime wave and described

1:23

as too evil to live.

1:27

His crime spree spans nearly two

1:29

decades even though he was hanged at

1:31

the age of 38. During

1:34

that time he committed arsons, burglaries

1:37

and more and confessed to more than

1:39

20 murders and the rape

1:41

of as many as 1,000 men

1:43

and boys. His

1:45

plan for grander crimes while

1:48

never realized would have been

1:50

right at home coming from the lips

1:52

of a comic book supervillain. While

1:55

he was sitting on death row in Leavenworth,

1:57

Kansas he wrote a memoir which

1:59

began with a chilling one-sentence

2:01

summary of his dark deeds,

2:04

followed by the simple statement, For

2:07

all these things I am not

2:09

in the least bit sorry. I'm

2:13

Darren Marlar and this is

2:15

Weird Darkness. Welcome

2:25

Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this

2:27

is Weird Darkness. Here

2:30

you'll find stories of the paranormal,

2:32

supernatural, legends, lore,

2:34

the strange and bizarre, crime,

2:38

conspiracy, mysterious, macabre,

2:41

unsolved and unexplained. Coming

2:45

up in this episode, Did

2:47

a Nikola Tesla experiment cause

2:49

the Tunguska blast? Bizarre

2:53

happenings were centered around the Eddyhump.

2:55

The house was reported to be infested

2:57

with supernatural beings of such numbers that

3:00

had never been reported before or since.

3:03

The events were so powerful and strange,

3:05

people came from all over the world

3:07

to witness them. A

3:10

woman's newfound ability to astral project

3:12

has her coming face to face

3:14

with someone she never expected to

3:16

see. The

3:19

Mountain Meadows Massacre has been hailed

3:21

by historians as the most hideous

3:23

example of the human cost exacted

3:26

by religious fanaticism in American history

3:28

until 9-11. Ironically,

3:32

it too occurred on

3:34

September 11th, in 1857. If

3:38

you spend the night amongst the dead in

3:41

a graveyard, don't be surprised

3:43

if something supernatural happens to

3:45

you. An

3:47

old man regrets not obeying his

3:50

wife's dying wish. Over

3:53

200 lobotomies were performed at

3:55

the Rijas Asylum without anesthesia

3:57

or an operating room. Is

4:00

it any wonder why it is now

4:02

considered to be haunted? A

4:05

Vietnam veteran has his first paranormal

4:08

investigation in an Nevada town with

4:10

a population of more dead souls

4:12

than alive. In

4:15

a quiet Virginia cemetery is a

4:17

peculiar tomb that has mystified visitors

4:19

for nearly 200 years.

4:22

Who is buried there? No

4:25

one seems to know. Demons

4:28

hitchhiking, reports of a

4:30

mysterious entity, strange

4:32

suicides, they all have

4:35

been seen and experienced on a

4:37

certain Indian reservation in South Dakota.

4:40

But first, he was described

4:43

as a man too evil to

4:45

live. We'll look at the

4:47

brutal life of crime of Karl Panzram,

4:50

a man some said was the

4:52

personification of rage. We

4:54

begin with that story. If

4:57

you are new here, welcome to the show. While

4:59

you are listening, be sure to

5:02

check out weirddarkness.com for merchandise, my

5:04

newsletter, to enter contests, to connect

5:06

with me on social media. Plus,

5:08

you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page

5:10

if you are struggling with depression or dark thoughts.

5:13

You can find all of that and more at

5:15

weirddarkness.com. Now…

5:19

bolt your doors, lock

5:21

your windows, turn

5:23

off your lights, and

5:25

come with me into the

5:27

Weird Darkness. Panzram

5:45

was one of the most bizarre

5:47

killers in American history. He

5:50

was born in East Grand Forks, Minnesota in 1892 and

5:52

by 1903 he was in the Minnesota State Training

5:58

School. A report school for

6:01

juvenile offenders. While

6:03

there, Panzurum was beaten and

6:05

raped repeatedly in a

6:07

building that the school's occupants called

6:09

the Painting House. In

6:11

1905, Panzurum burned the

6:14

building to the ground, his first

6:16

act of arson, but far

6:18

from his last. By

6:21

the age of fifteen, Carl Panzurum

6:23

had enlisted in the army by lying

6:25

about his age, although

6:27

his military career didn't last

6:29

long. In fact,

6:31

he was dishonorably discharged and

6:34

sentenced to Leavenworth Prison after

6:36

stealing from a supply closet.

6:39

William Howard Taft, then Secretary of

6:41

War, soon to be President of

6:43

the United States, signed

6:45

the order sending Panzurum to prison,

6:48

and Carl Panzurum was a man to

6:50

hold a grudge. When

6:53

he was released from Leavenworth in 1910,

6:55

all the good that may have been

6:58

in me had been kicked and beaten

7:00

out in Panzurum's own words. Panzurum

7:03

had already engaged in a string

7:05

of burglaries and arsons prior to

7:07

his time at Leavenworth. Churches

7:09

were a preferred target. Yet

7:13

life behind bars sharpened Panzurum's

7:15

rage to a fine point,

7:17

and he had grown into a full-size man

7:20

of six feet and roughly

7:22

two hundred pounds. He put

7:24

his massive frame and violent drive to

7:26

work, preying upon, again

7:28

in his own words, the

7:31

weak, the harmless, and the

7:33

unsuspecting. Panzurum

7:36

rode the rails, burglarizing homes,

7:39

burning churches, and committing

7:42

multiple rapes and murders. He

7:45

was regularly arrested by authorities, yet he

7:47

soon found himself back on the streets,

7:50

carrying out a crime wave that tests

7:52

the limits of believability. Indeed

7:55

much of what we know about Panzurum's

7:57

shocking life of crime comes

8:00

from the ban himself, and

8:02

is therefore difficult, if not impossible,

8:04

to corroborate fully. In

8:07

August 1920, Panzram

8:09

found his way to New Haven, Connecticut,

8:12

where, in the course of robbing houses,

8:15

he found himself in the home of

8:17

by then former President William Howard Taft.

8:20

From that house, he stole a fair

8:22

bit of money, and also Taft's personal

8:24

pistol, which Panzram claimed

8:27

was later used in quite a

8:29

few murders. With the

8:31

money he had gotten, Panzram bought a

8:33

yacht, and, according to his later confessions,

8:36

began to lure sailors onto it with

8:38

the promise of work, only

8:40

to rape and murder them out

8:42

at sea, dumping their bodies overboard.

8:46

Eventually, Panzram made his way to

8:48

Angola, where he continued his trail

8:50

of murder, rape, and other crimes.

8:54

He claims to have killed six men

8:56

there and fed them to crocodiles. It

8:59

was also in Angola that, according

9:01

to Panzram's confessions, he raped

9:03

and killed the first of at least three

9:05

young boys. Within

9:08

a few short years, Panzram was back

9:10

in the United States, stealing

9:12

a boat and passing it off as the yacht

9:14

that he had wrecked before leaving the country. By

9:17

1928, when Carl Panzram

9:20

was arrested in connection with a

9:22

Washington, D.C. burglary, he freely

9:24

confessed to the laundry list of crimes

9:26

he claimed to have committed. Authorities

9:29

weren't sure whether to believe the

9:32

man's extravagant testimony, but he

9:34

was sentenced to at least 25 years in

9:36

prison for the burglary. While

9:38

there, he beat the prison laundry

9:41

foreman to death with an iron bar, and

9:43

his sentence was changed from 25 to life

9:45

to a sentence of

9:48

death. The murder

9:50

of the laundry foreman, Robert Warnke,

9:52

was the only murder of which

9:54

Panzram was officially convicted. As

9:57

he sat on death row, Panzram

10:00

refused his right to appeal, and

10:02

when the human rights and anti-death penalty

10:04

advocates offered to intercede, Pansrom

10:06

famously wrote that, "'The only thanks you and

10:08

your kind will ever get from me for

10:10

your efforts on my behalf is that I

10:13

wish you all had one neck and that

10:15

I had my hands on it.'" During

10:18

his last days in prison, Pansrom befriended

10:21

a guard named Henry Lesser, who

10:23

gave Pansrom money for cigarettes and

10:25

paper and writing utensils so that

10:27

Pansrom could record a detailed history

10:29

of his crimes. In

10:32

the astonishing document, Pansrom not only wrote

10:34

the crimes that he had committed, but

10:37

also those he had contemplated, including

10:40

the sabotage and robbery of a train and

10:42

the murder of everyone on board, as

10:45

well as starting a war between the U.S. and

10:47

Britain in order to make money on the stock

10:50

market. "'In my lifetime,

10:52

I have broken every law that has ever

10:54

been made by both man and God,' Pansrom

10:57

wrote. If either had made

10:59

any more, I should very cheerfully have broken

11:02

them also.'" Carl

11:04

Pansrom was hanged in 1930 at

11:07

Leavenworth Penitentiary, where his grave is

11:10

marked only by his

11:12

prison identification number, 31614. As

11:16

he went to the gallows, he reportedly

11:19

spat in the executioner's face, and

11:21

when asked if he had any last words, told

11:23

the man to hurry it up, stating

11:26

that, "'I could kill a dozen

11:28

men while you're screwing around.'" Up

11:41

next! Did a Nikola

11:43

Tesla experiment cause the Tunguska blast?

11:47

Bizarre happenings were centered around the Eddy

11:49

home. The house was reported

11:51

to be infested with supernatural beings

11:54

of such numbers that had never

11:56

been reported before or since. The

11:59

events were so powerful. careful and strange, people

12:01

came from all over the world to

12:03

witness them. These

12:05

stories and more, when Weird Darkness

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June 30, 1908,

15:01

a giant explosion flattened over 800

15:04

square miles of forest near

15:06

the Tunguska River in Siberian

15:08

Russia. The area of

15:10

the blast was extremely remote, but

15:13

the devastation was immense. An

15:15

estimated 80 million trees were

15:18

flattened and whole herds of

15:20

deer wiped out. The

15:22

magnitude of the blast was thousands

15:24

of times greater than the nuclear

15:26

bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and

15:29

its impact was felt as far afield

15:31

as Great Britain. Had

15:33

it occurred just minutes later, it would

15:35

have destroyed the whole of St. Petersburg

15:38

and killed millions of people. Whilst

15:41

it quickly became apparent something momentous

15:43

had happened at Tunguska, the

15:46

area of the blast remained inaccessible until

15:48

the first expedition there in 1927. The

15:53

1927 investigation began nearly a century

15:55

of debate about what caused the

15:58

blast. from

16:01

comets and meteors to expulsions

16:03

of natural gas and even

16:05

mini black holes. One

16:08

of the alternative theories about

16:11

Tunguska revolves around pioneering inventor

16:13

Nikola Tesla. Tesla

16:16

was a scientific genius credited

16:18

with several important innovations in

16:20

electricity, magnetism, and radio. For

16:23

many years he explored ideas for

16:25

the wireless transmission of electricity. In

16:29

1901 he began construction of

16:31

the 57-meter high Wardenclyffe Tower

16:33

in New York. Ostensibly

16:36

for telegraphy he used the tower

16:38

to further his experiments into the

16:40

transmission of electricity. But

16:43

by 1906 his chief

16:45

financial backer, J.P. Morgan, grew

16:48

dissatisfied with Tesla's experiments and

16:50

withdrew funding. Tesla's

16:52

plans were in ruin. He

16:55

became desperate and, according to

16:57

biographers, suffered a nervous breakdown.

17:00

It has been suggested that

17:02

Tesla tried to salvage his

17:04

work at Wardenclyffe and revive

17:06

his fortunes by staging an

17:08

audacious publicity stunt. Tesla

17:11

had become convinced his wireless electricity

17:13

transmitter could be used as a

17:15

weapon, able to transmit an electrical

17:18

wave through the earth of such

17:20

intensity it could destroy a target

17:22

hundreds of miles away. Like

17:25

the rest of America, Tesla was

17:27

gripped by the exploits of Admiral Robert

17:29

Perry and his assault on the North

17:31

Pole. At the time

17:33

of the Tunguska blast in 1908, Perry

17:36

was camped out at Ellesmere Island in

17:38

preparation for his bid to reach the

17:40

pole. Tesla had

17:42

made cryptic remarks about contacting Perry

17:44

somehow and had instructed him

17:47

to watch the tundra for signals.

17:50

What better way for Tesla to demonstrate

17:52

the awesome power of his device to

17:54

the world than to fire a bolt

17:57

of energy toward Ellesmere and rip up

17:59

some oil? or cause a light

18:01

show. Advocates of

18:03

the theory that Tesla was behind the

18:05

Tunguska blast claim his publicity

18:08

stunt went drastically wrong, his

18:11

concentrated wave of electricity overshooting

18:13

its target and instead

18:15

causing the explosion at Tunguska.

18:18

Could Tesla really have been responsible

18:21

for the Tunguska blast? The

18:24

idea of death rays was very prevalent

18:26

around the time of Tunguska. Several

18:29

inventors, notably Harry Grindel Matthews in

18:31

England, claimed to have invented such

18:34

a weapon. In

18:36

1907, there was much speculation in

18:38

the press that the explosion that

18:40

destroyed French battleship Aina in March

18:42

was caused by some kind of

18:44

wireless energy wave, with Tesla's

18:47

name even mentioned in connection with the

18:49

disaster. Tesla himself

18:51

gave rise to much of

18:53

the speculation by repeatedly claiming

18:55

his electricity transmission device could

18:57

be used as a directed

18:59

energy weapon. Writing

19:02

to Liberty magazine, he explained, "...my

19:05

invention requires a large plant, but

19:07

once it is established it will

19:09

be possible to destroy anything, men

19:12

or machines, approaching within a radius of

19:14

200 miles." Tesla

19:17

wrote several letters to the New York Times

19:19

in which he expanded on the potential of

19:22

his invention as a death ray. As

19:25

to projecting wave energy to any

19:27

particular region of the globe, this

19:29

can be done by my devices.

19:31

The spot at which the desired

19:33

effect is to be produced can

19:35

be calculated very closely, assuming the

19:37

accepted terrestrial measurements to be correct.

19:40

Just two months before Tunguska,

19:43

he wrote tellingly, "...this is not a

19:45

dream. Even now wireless

19:47

power plants could be constructed by

19:49

which any region of the globe

19:51

might be rendered uninhabitable without subjecting

19:54

the population of other parts to

19:56

serious danger or inconvenience." Did

19:59

Tesla beset by financial problems and

20:02

desperate for his warden-cliff plant to

20:04

succeed, use it for

20:06

precisely the purpose he described to the New

20:08

York Times? Although

20:11

the prevailing consensus as to the cause

20:13

of the Tunguska blast is the

20:15

explosion of a comet or meteorite in

20:17

the atmosphere above the area, there

20:19

are numerous reasons to doubt this.

20:23

Several eyewitness reports describe unusual

20:25

and prolonged lights in the

20:27

sky, both before and

20:29

for days after the impact, quite

20:31

unlike those to be expected from a

20:33

meteorite or comet. Even

20:36

as far afield as England, the sky

20:38

was lit up for days afterwards. Widespread

20:41

reports of night turning into

20:43

day flooded into the newspapers.

20:47

One correspondent recounted how he was able

20:49

to read a book illuminated purely by

20:51

the night sky. Tesla

20:54

specifically cited the ability of warden-cliff

20:56

to light up the atmosphere on

20:58

several occasions. I have

21:00

planned many details of a plant which would

21:03

be amply sufficient to illuminate the entire ocean

21:05

so that such a disaster as that of

21:07

the Titanic would not be repeated, he said.

21:11

Many of the eyewitnesses also

21:13

describe earthshaking even before the

21:16

explosion. Again, Tesla

21:18

described how his device could shake

21:20

the ground, even boasting on

21:22

one occasion that he could shake the

21:24

Empire State Building to its foundations. The

21:28

meteorite theory is also undermined by

21:30

the fact that no blast crater

21:32

or trace of any meteorite had

21:34

ever been found, despite exhaustive searches.

21:38

If, however, Tesla really could

21:40

transmit a directed energy beam

21:42

through the ground, it

21:45

would leave no traces or crater.

21:48

It has been pointed out that a

21:50

line drawn between Tesla's warden-cliff tower and

21:53

Tunguska passes through the location

21:55

of the supposed target of his energy

21:57

beam, Ellesmere Island. Whilst

22:00

the correlation isn't exact, it

22:03

is an interesting coincidence. Did

22:05

Tesla, intending to shake up the ice

22:07

at Ellesmere, overshoot his target

22:10

and accidentally cause the devastation at

22:12

Tunguska? The

22:14

concept that electricity could be wirelessly

22:17

transmitted over long distance is

22:19

now discounted as pseudoscience by

22:21

most scientists. Whereas

22:24

Tesla did successfully demonstrate short-range

22:26

transmission of electricity, he was

22:28

never able to demonstrate any

22:30

ability to transmit it over

22:32

great distances. Tesla,

22:35

always desperate for an audience for his

22:37

inventions, would have widely advertised the technology

22:39

if he had really perfected it, as

22:41

he claimed. Tesla

22:44

was a very eccentric individual. He

22:46

had visions, claimed to receive

22:49

signals from extraterrestrials, and

22:51

somewhat oddly was in love with

22:53

a pigeon. He

22:55

was also an inveterate self-publicist,

22:57

notorious for making far-fetched and

22:59

exaggerated claims which he could

23:01

not back up. For

23:04

example, he once claimed he could fire an

23:06

energy beam at the moon and disturb its

23:08

surface. There have been

23:10

many attempts to produce the kind of death ray

23:13

proposed by Tesla over the years, but

23:15

no such weapon has ever been produced,

23:18

despite its obvious military application.

23:22

The vast amount of energy Tesla's death

23:24

ray would require to operate, as he

23:26

boasted, would appear to rule it out

23:28

as any kind of viable device. It's

23:32

estimated that to produce the estimated

23:34

10-megaton blast recorded at Tunguska, Woodencliff

23:37

would need to transmit billions of

23:39

watts worth of power, thousands

23:41

of times more than the New York

23:43

Power Grant he relied on was capable

23:46

of producing. On

23:53

October 14, 1874, Colonel Henry Steele

23:55

Olcott, attorney, military instructor, investigator

24:00

during the Civil War and skeptic

24:02

on assignment to root out spiritualist

24:04

fraud in Vermont, met the

24:06

woman who would change his life. Her

24:09

name was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky,

24:12

and she had captured the attention of

24:14

the Western world with her strange mix

24:17

of mysticism and Eastern rituals. Within

24:20

a few short years, she and

24:22

Colonel Olcott would find the

24:24

Theosophical Movement, which still

24:26

exists today. But on

24:28

that day, in Chittenden, Vermont, both Olcott

24:30

and Blavatsky were there to see of

24:33

the stories that were being told about

24:35

the small town, which grew. It

24:38

seems that in 1874 some very strange things were

24:42

happening in Chittenden. The

24:44

bizarre happenings were centered around the home

24:46

of William and Horatio Eddy, two

24:49

middle-aged illiterate brothers and

24:51

their sister Mary. The

24:53

Eddies lived in a house that was

24:55

reported to be infested with supernatural beings

24:58

of such numbers that had never been

25:00

reported before or since. The

25:03

events at that farm were said to

25:05

be so powerful and so strange that

25:07

people from all over the world came to

25:09

witness them. Of

25:12

course, not everyone believed the stories

25:14

before they arrived. One

25:16

of the most skeptical was Henry Olcott,

25:19

who had read about the Eddies in a New

25:21

York newspaper. Intrigued, he

25:23

convinced the New York Tribune to

25:25

send him to Vermont to investigate

25:27

the wild tales. Olcott

25:30

had no interest in the supernatural prior

25:32

to this. Born in New

25:34

Jersey in 1832, he attended

25:36

college in New York City, studying

25:38

agricultural science. While

25:41

still in his early twenties, he received

25:43

international recognition for his work on a

25:45

model farm and for founding a school

25:47

for agricultural students. During

25:50

this same time, he published

25:52

three scientific works. He

25:54

went on to become the farm editor for the

25:56

Tribune. When the Civil

25:59

War broke out, Olcott enlisted in the Union

26:01

Army. He was appointed

26:03

as a special investigator to root out

26:05

corruption and fraud in military arsenals and

26:07

shipyards. He was soon promoted

26:09

to the rank of Colonel and,

26:11

after the war, was even

26:13

part of a three-person panel that investigated

26:16

the assassination of President Lincoln. After

26:19

the war, Holcott studied law

26:21

and became a wealthy and

26:23

successful attorney. He could never explain,

26:25

though, what prompted him to read the article

26:28

about the Eddy Brothers, or

26:30

why he was interested enough to travel to

26:32

Vermont to investigate the claims made about him.

26:35

But, whatever the reason, it

26:37

changed his life. Holcott

26:40

traveled to Vermont with newspaper artist

26:42

Albert Capes. Together, they

26:44

planned to investigate the strange events at

26:46

the Eddy farm, and, if the stories

26:48

were a hoax, they would expose the

26:50

Eddy Brothers in the newspaper as

26:52

nothing but charlatans. His

26:55

first impression of the Eddies was not a favorable

26:57

one. The two distant

27:00

and unfriendly farmers were rough-hewn characters

27:02

with dark hair and eyes, and

27:04

New England accents so thick the New

27:07

York attorney and writer could scarcely understand

27:09

them. The story

27:11

was that they came from a long

27:13

line of psychics, including a distant relative

27:15

that was convicted of witchcraft at Salem

27:18

in 1692. Their grandmother

27:21

had been blessed with the gift

27:23

of second sight, and often

27:25

went into trances, speaking to entities that

27:27

no one else could see. Their

27:30

mother, Julia, had been known for

27:32

frightening her neighbors with predictions and

27:34

visions. Her gifts were

27:36

unwelcome in the Eddy home. Her

27:39

husband, Zepania, was a cruel and

27:41

abusive man. He beat his wife,

27:43

and later, when it was discovered

27:46

that his sons also had strange

27:48

powers, he beat and whipped

27:50

them. As children,

27:52

the Eddies were unable to attend school.

27:55

When They did. books flew, desks

27:57

levitated, and rulers inkwells of the

27:59

Eddies. Slight flu about the

28:01

classroom. That

28:03

am I A continued to beat

28:05

his sons trying to make the disturbances

28:08

stop. Instead. They

28:10

grew worse. If they

28:12

went into a trance he would pinch and

28:15

slap them trying to wake them up. but

28:17

it did was work. We

28:19

were bruised until they were black

28:21

and blue. Once on the advice

28:24

of a sympathetic Christian friend, he

28:26

dollars to the boys with boiling

28:28

water. When this didn't

28:30

work, he also allowed his friend

28:32

to drop a restaurant coal and

28:34

to williams hand he hoped to

28:36

exercise his doubles. The. Boy

28:38

number a week and from his trance. But

28:41

he bore a scar on his palm for the rest

28:43

of his wife. On

28:45

able to control the boys, he sold

28:47

them to a traveling showman. Who

28:50

for the next fourteen years took

28:52

them all over America, Canada, and

28:54

Europe. It was a brutal and

28:57

degrading life. As part of their

28:59

performance, audience members were allowed to

29:01

try and awaken the boys from

29:04

their trances. The eddies were locked

29:06

into small wooden boxes to see

29:08

if they could escape. And

29:10

thought that was poured into their mouths to

29:13

see if they could produce spirits voices when

29:15

they were unable to tuck. The

29:18

skeptics poked, prodded and points to

29:20

sleeping brothers leading them start and

29:22

damaged to the rest of their

29:24

lives. On several occasions

29:26

they were even stoned and shot

29:28

at by angry mobs. Pleiades.

29:31

Eventually returned home after the death

29:34

of their father. Along with

29:36

her sister Mary, they turned the family

29:38

farm into a modest give called The

29:40

Green Tavern. It was

29:42

there that all caught first met the

29:44

brothers and it was there that they

29:46

began holding say answers for spiritualists who

29:48

traveled to see them from across the

29:51

country and overseas. During

29:53

all cancers night but the form

29:55

he was witness to an outdoor

29:57

sales. He. was lead through the

29:59

woods with a few other participants to

30:01

a natural cave in a deep ravine.

30:05

Alcott later learned it was called

30:07

Honto's Cave, in honor of

30:09

the Native American spirit who often appeared here.

30:13

Alcott suspiciously investigated the cave but found

30:15

it was little more than a few

30:17

rocks on top of one another forming

30:19

a natural arch. There

30:21

was only one way in or out. He

30:24

determined there was no way that anyone could slip

30:26

in or out of the cave without

30:29

being seen. Horatio

30:31

Eddy acted as the medium for the

30:34

séance. He sat on a

30:36

camp stool under the arch and then

30:38

was draped in a makeshift spirit cabinet

30:41

formed by shawls and branches that had

30:43

been cut from small saplings. As

30:46

Horatio rested there, a gigantic man

30:48

dressed as a Native American emerged

30:50

from the darkness of the cave.

30:53

A few moments later, more spirits appeared

30:55

above the cave entrance and in the

30:57

surrounding rocks. Alcott counted

31:00

ten different spirits at the site.

31:03

The last, the spirit of William

31:05

White, the late editor of a

31:07

spiritualist newspaper, emerged from within Horatio's

31:09

cabinet. He was dressed in

31:11

a black suit and white shirt, was

31:14

supposedly recognizable to some who had read

31:16

the newspaper and recognized his picture from

31:18

it. He vanished at

31:20

the same time the others did. Moments

31:23

later, Horatio appeared from the cabinet and

31:26

signaled that the séance was at an end.

31:29

After the bizarre display was over,

31:31

Alcott and Capes carefully searched the

31:33

cave and the surrounding area for

31:35

footprints of the soft earth. They

31:39

found no footprints. There

31:41

was no trace that anyone had been

31:43

there. Alcott

31:46

was intrigued but not convinced. The

31:48

whole thing would have been too easy to stage,

31:50

he believed. It would be different

31:53

when he could see one of the séances inside

31:55

of the house. The

31:57

Yetis had built a séance room on the second

31:59

floor. floor of the inn. Olcott

32:02

and Capes thoroughly examined it. They

32:05

drew charts and diagrams and took

32:07

numerous measurements, sure that they would

32:09

find false panels, secret

32:11

doors, or hidden passages, but

32:14

found nothing. Determined

32:16

not to give up, Olcott

32:18

hired carpenters and engineers to come and

32:20

search the place, but the

32:22

experts found nothing unusual. The

32:25

walls and floors were as solid as they

32:27

seemed. There was no trickery

32:29

taking place with the structure of the house,

32:32

which made what Olcott witnessed on the

32:34

following nights even stranger.

32:38

Each séance was basically the same.

32:41

On every night of the week, except

32:43

for Sunday, guests and visitors would assemble

32:46

on wooden benches in the séance room.

32:49

A platform which had been assembled there was

32:51

lit only by a kerosene lamp, recessed

32:53

in a barrel. William

32:55

Eddy, who acted as the primary

32:57

medium, mounted the platform and entered

32:59

a small cabinet. A

33:02

few moments later, soft voices began to

33:04

whisper in the distance. Often

33:06

it would be singing, accompanied by

33:09

spectral music. Musical

33:11

instruments came to life and soared

33:13

above the heads of the audience

33:15

members. Disembodied hands appeared, waving and

33:17

touching the spectators, odd lines

33:20

and nights, and unexplained noises appeared and

33:22

felled the air. Then

33:24

the first spirit form emerged from

33:26

the cabinet. They

33:28

came one at a time or in groups,

33:31

numbering as many as twenty or thirty in

33:33

an evening. Some were

33:35

completely visible and seemed solid. Others

33:38

were transparent and ethereal. Regardless,

33:41

they awed the frightened spectators.

33:45

The spirits ranged in size from over six

33:47

feet to very small. It's

33:50

worth noting here that William Eddy was only five

33:52

feet nine inches tall. Most

33:54

of the ghostly apparitions were elderly

33:57

Yankees or Native Americans, but

33:59

many other races and nationalities also

34:01

appeared in traditional Russian, African,

34:04

and Asian garb. Olcott

34:07

could not explain where they had come from.

34:10

He had examined the spirit cabinet and

34:13

platform and had found no trap

34:15

doors nor hidden passages. In

34:17

fact, there was no room in the cabinet

34:19

for anyone other than the medium himself. Olcott

34:23

was familiar with the workings of

34:25

stage magicians and fraudulent mediums, but

34:27

could find none of their tricks present at

34:30

the Eddy House. The

34:33

apparitions not only appeared, but they

34:35

also performed, sang, and chatted with

34:37

the sitters. They produced

34:39

musical instruments, clothing, and scarves.

34:43

In all, nearly every type of

34:45

supernatural phenomena was reported at the

34:47

Eddy Farmhouse. These included

34:49

wrappings, removing physical objects,

34:52

spirit paintings, automatic

34:54

writing, prophecy, speaking

34:56

in tongues, healings, unseen

34:59

voices, levitation, remote

35:02

visions, teleportation, and more.

35:05

And, of course, the full-bodied manifestations

35:07

of which Olcott observed more than

35:09

four hundred during the weeks he

35:11

visited the house. He

35:14

concluded that a show like that which

35:16

he had seen would have required an

35:18

entire company of actors and several trunks

35:21

of costumes. Yet

35:23

Olcott's inspection of the premises revealed

35:25

no place to hide either actors

35:28

or props. The

35:30

idea of stage actors was further dispelled

35:32

by the convincing manner of the spirits.

35:35

One woman spoke in Russian to

35:37

the alleged spirit of her deceased husband.

35:40

A number of other dialects were also How

35:44

is this possible when the Eddies could

35:46

barely read and write and were scarcely

35:48

capable of speaking coherent English themselves? In

35:52

addition, such an elaborate show

35:54

would have cost a fortune to

35:56

produce each night. They would

35:58

have had to pay actors, invest, and

36:00

in costumes and hire someone to create

36:02

the marvels of the spirits. This

36:05

would have been impossible given

36:07

that the brothers were almost penniless. Most

36:10

of the visitors who came to the farm did

36:12

not pay and the rest only gave eight dollars

36:15

per week for room and board at the inn.

36:18

No admission was ever charged for

36:20

the séances. In

36:22

Alcott's mind, fraud would have

36:24

been physically and financially impossible.

36:27

In fact, the whole thing was impossible.

36:31

But it was real. Alcott

36:33

spent ten weeks at the farm. He

36:36

left the place disliking the house, the

36:38

food, the weather, and the Yeti brothers

36:40

themselves, but he also

36:42

left convinced that the two men were

36:44

making contact with the dead. He

36:47

wrote this in the newspaper and then

36:49

wrote a massive book about the Yetis

36:51

called, People from Other Worlds. It

36:54

is filled with precise drawings of

36:56

the apparitions, the farm, the

36:58

house, and even detailed plans of its

37:01

construction, proving that no

37:03

hidden passages existed. He

37:06

also recorded over four hundred different

37:08

supernatural beings and collected hundreds of

37:10

affidavits and scores of eyewitness testimony

37:13

to the amazing events. He

37:16

also reproduced dozens of statements from

37:18

respected tradesmen and carpenters who had

37:20

examined the house for trickery. A

37:23

modern reader would have to look

37:25

very hard to discover anything that

37:27

Alcott did not investigate. Eventually

37:31

the Yetis had a falling out and spent the

37:33

rest of their lives apart. Horatio

37:36

died in 1922, William

37:38

lived to be ninety-nine and died in 1932.

37:40

He never participated in seances

37:44

again. If either

37:46

of the two men had any secrets about the weird

37:49

events at their home they took

37:51

those secrets with them to the grave. What

37:54

really happened at the Yeti farm in

37:56

Chittenden, Vermont? No one

37:58

knows. To read

38:00

this story today, we are first inclined

38:03

to dismiss the events as fanciful tales

38:05

from another time. But

38:07

can we really? Colonel

38:09

Alcott had impeccable credentials for

38:12

investigating fraud, so we

38:14

can't simply dismiss his story out of

38:16

hand. His extensive documentation,

38:18

along with his investigative skills, suggests

38:20

that the events were not part

38:22

of a hoax. Alcott

38:25

remained skeptical and analytical throughout his stay

38:28

at the farm, and

38:30

yet he came away convinced that

38:32

the Eddies had the power to

38:34

contact and communicate with the dead.

38:37

Colonel Alcott came away from

38:39

Chittenden, a believer. The

38:42

once skeptical military investigator was convinced

38:44

that the dead could and

38:47

did communicate with the living. In

38:50

fact, he was so convinced of the reality

38:52

of the spirit world that he left his

38:54

career and his wife and devoted the rest

38:56

of his life to the study of the

38:59

occult and the arcane. He

39:01

founded the Theosophical Society with

39:03

Madame Blavatsky and moved to

39:05

India, where they endeared themselves to the

39:08

countless Hindu worshippers. Alcott

39:10

spoke in temples and open squares

39:12

in India and Sri Lanka, where

39:14

he urged young people and their

39:16

families not to relinquish their traditions

39:18

and to argue against colonialist missionaries.

39:21

He lobbied the English authorities to permit

39:24

a national celebration of Buddha's birthday, during

39:27

which worshippers rallied around an

39:29

international Buddhist flag that Alcott

39:31

helped design. He

39:34

raised money for schools and educational

39:36

programs and wrote a book about

39:38

Buddhism that is still read in Sri Lankan

39:40

classrooms today. Within

39:42

twenty years of Alcott's first visit, the

39:45

number of Buddhist schools in the island

39:47

national grew from four to more than

39:50

two hundred. After

39:52

his awakening at the Eddy farm and

39:54

his introduction to Madame Blavatsky, Alcott

39:56

understood himself to be on the mission

39:58

of a lifetime. It

40:01

was a mission that touched Hindu and

40:03

Buddhist cultures so deeply that Alcott may

40:05

be the single most significant Western figure

40:08

in the modern religious history of the

40:10

East. Decades

40:12

after his arrival there, the Buddhist nation

40:14

of Ceylon enshrined his image on a

40:17

postage stamp and marked his

40:19

death with a national holiday, and

40:21

it started with a seance on

40:24

a ramshackle farm in Vermont. Before

40:27

you choose to believe, it cannot

40:30

be denied that something amazing and

40:32

mysterious occurred in Chittenden, Vermont, and

40:35

on the farm of the Yeti brothers. Although

40:37

what this may have been, we may

40:40

never know for sure. When

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hailed by historians as the most

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hideous example of the human cost

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exacted by religious fanaticism in American

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in the Darkness page at weirddarkness.com. This

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little background, I started astral projecting

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first time it happened was completely spontaneous,

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as were the following two or three

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mind-blowing stuff. I

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I don't know why, but I knew

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exactly what was happening while it happened.

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I had no fear. I

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had previously thought that out-of-body or

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astral projection experiences were not real

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or they were bogus stories. Boy,

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was I wrong. Since

45:35

then, I've gotten a tiny bit

45:37

better at control and initiation. However,

45:40

I am not an expert by any means,

45:42

and I wish I could initiate it more

45:45

frequently. Many of my

45:47

experiences have been short and

45:49

sometimes hazy difficulty with vision.

45:52

However, I have had some beautiful, very

45:54

clear and personal experiences that have further

45:57

cemented my belief in the existence of

45:59

this story. existence of life after death.

46:02

The following experiences, I can tell you,

46:05

were very clear, no

46:08

haziness, trouble-seeing, or trouble-hearing.

46:11

This experience took place two

46:13

years ago, in 2016. I

46:16

intentionally went out of body and immediately

46:18

entered what I would describe as some

46:21

type of warehouse. I

46:23

walked down a hall to investigate, turned

46:26

a corner, and saw my mother standing

46:28

there. My mother

46:30

passed away almost seventeen years

46:32

ago in November. I

46:35

have encountered her a few times while out,

46:37

and our interactions are usually brief,

46:39

with lots of hugs and her

46:42

reassurance that she is with me

46:44

and loves me. I am very

46:46

lucky. This time

46:48

I immediately asked her if the voice

46:50

I had heard, it sounded like grumbling

46:52

while exiting my body, was

46:54

George. George is what we nicknamed

46:56

the spirit or ghost in our house that I grew

46:58

up in. I don't know why

47:00

I asked her that. After

47:03

I had asked if it was George,

47:05

she made this mmm sound, as if

47:07

she was debating on telling me. I

47:10

asked again, and she said, Listen,

47:12

pay attention. You need

47:14

to remember fifty-ten. I

47:18

asked what that meant. She replied,

47:20

Just remember fifty-ten. Pay

47:22

attention. Something will happen next

47:24

week and you will know what

47:26

it means. That was it. I

47:29

was back in my body, awake, trying

47:31

to figure out what that meant. It

47:34

nagged at me, so I called my father

47:36

and explained everything. He does

47:38

believe me as far as my AP

47:40

experiences, but has a hard time understanding

47:43

it. I don't blame him. He wondered if maybe

47:45

it had to do with the date of May

47:48

10th, fifty, which would be

47:50

May 5th, the month after taking away

47:52

the zero, and ten, as

47:54

in the tenth day. I

47:57

do understand the confusion as far as

47:59

fifty equaling May but can't explain why

48:01

it was related this way. This

48:03

took place on May 5th or 6th. I thought

48:07

maybe but it seemed too easy, right?

48:10

So after brainstorming on it for a while, I

48:12

figured when the time came I would know what

48:14

50-10 meant. Fast

48:18

forward a few days later. My

48:20

cousin, who I am very close to, we are four

48:22

months apart, called uncontrollably,

48:24

crying, trying to speak.

48:28

Finally, I understand her. She

48:30

was saying, He's gone. He's

48:32

gone. My brother is gone. He's dead. For

48:35

privacy reasons, I will call him

48:38

Ray. Obviously, I

48:40

was shocked. Her brother was 31

48:42

years old. His death was

48:44

sudden and a total surprise. I

48:47

jumped in the car to go to her house to be with her.

48:50

While driving, it hit me. The date was

48:52

May 10th. I called my

48:54

father to deliver the sad news and

48:56

to start rallying the family together. Then

48:59

I said, Dad, it's May

49:01

10th. He said, Oh

49:03

my God, it is. It was true. To this

49:07

day, I am still flabbergasted over this. It's

49:10

hard to imagine my mother giving me a

49:12

piece of information this serious. One

49:14

more thing that happened just prior to her phone

49:17

call. My left ear started

49:19

ringing very loud and high pitched.

49:22

I remembered I stopped what I was doing

49:24

and felt uneasy. I don't

49:26

know if it's connected, but thought it was worth mentioning.

49:30

The only thing I could and can think

49:32

of is that I was given a sort

49:34

of heads up message regarding Ray's death. I

49:37

know it seems too crazy to be true. My

49:39

reasoning is this. Our family

49:41

was not meant to intervene, but to understand

49:44

that family on the other side was expecting

49:46

him. And for some reason it was meant

49:48

to be that thought

49:50

had comforted me since it happened and

49:52

gave me the strength to help with

49:55

the arrangements and support his siblings and

49:57

father Ray's mother, my

49:59

mother's sister. also passed away about

50:01

six years ago. There

50:12

were 120 settlers camped in southern Utah

50:14

on September 7, 1857, the day the

50:16

Mountain Meadows

50:20

Massacre began. Most

50:22

of them were en route from Arkansas

50:24

to California and were assured by

50:26

a friendly Mormon leader that this spot

50:28

in the mountain meadows of Utah would

50:30

be a safe space for them to

50:32

camp. But not

50:34

a single one of them would make

50:36

it out of that field alive. Within

50:40

five days, women and children alike

50:42

would be slaughtered. Only

50:45

a handful had been awake when the

50:47

gunfire began, but the settlers acted fast.

50:50

They arranged their wagons into a protective

50:52

circle against the onslaught which would go

50:54

on for five days. Their

50:57

attackers appeared to be Native Americans, all

50:59

with painted faces. But even

51:01

amidst all of that chaos, a few of

51:03

those doomed settlers got a good look at

51:06

the men trying to kill them. They

51:08

were not hostile Native Americans. They

51:11

were white men. In

51:14

1857, when the Mountain Meadows Massacre

51:16

occurred, Utah and the United

51:18

States were on the brink of war. Utah

51:21

had only been in American territory for

51:23

seven years. Before then it

51:25

had been a part of Mexico, although

51:27

in practice it was ruled by the Church

51:30

of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and

51:32

their President Brigham Young. To

51:35

the U.S. government, Young appeared to

51:37

be a religious dictator of a theocratic

51:39

state, and Young's power over

51:41

his people made them nervous. The

51:44

Mormons of Utah were convinced it would just be

51:46

a matter of time before the

51:48

U.S. invaded them on the grounds

51:50

of religious persecution. Thus,

51:53

when President Buchanan announced that he planned

51:55

to move national troops into Utah to

51:57

monitor the Mormons, the Mormons

52:00

saw this as a hostile invasion. Brigham

52:03

Young urged every Mormon to resist

52:05

the U.S. troops. He

52:07

declared that, I will fight them and I

52:10

will fight all hell. The

52:12

church had been tense against the federal

52:14

government ever since the murder of their

52:16

founder and Mormon prophet Joseph Smith at

52:19

the hands of an Illinois lynch-bob in 1844. Young

52:23

subsequently led his people in an oath

52:25

of vengeance and asked them to

52:28

swear that you and each of you

52:30

do covenant and promise that you will

52:32

pray and never cease to pray to

52:34

Almighty God to avenge the blood of

52:36

the prophets upon this nation. Indeed,

52:40

by the time of the Mountain Meadows

52:42

Massacre, the Mormons were ready for war.

52:46

Meanwhile, a group of families from

52:48

Arkansas headed out west to California.

52:50

They were called the Baker-Fancher party, a group

52:52

of some 140 men, women,

52:54

and children. Some were chasing

52:57

the gold rush, some were visiting family,

52:59

and some were hoping to set up ranches.

53:02

But not one of them expected to

53:04

do any more in Utah other than

53:06

restock at Salt Lake City and pass

53:09

through. Paranoia was

53:11

so thick in Utah in 1857 that

53:14

the Mormons there refused to give the

53:16

party food. At

53:19

the same time, Mormon surveyor and

53:21

Indian agent John D. Lee, together

53:23

with Mormon Apostle George A. Smith,

53:25

met with the Paiute Native Americans and

53:28

warned them against the settlers passing through.

53:31

The two Mormon men told the Native

53:33

Americans that these settlers were dangerous and

53:36

a threat to the Mormons and Native

53:38

tribes alike. Mormons

53:40

then were urged to shore up

53:43

alliances with local Indians, while

53:45

Lee convinced the Baker-Fancher party that a

53:47

large group of Paiutes in their war

53:50

paint and fully equipped for battle were

53:52

near. Isaac

53:54

C. Haight, a leader of several

53:56

Mormon congregations and mayor of Cedar

53:58

City, allegedly ordered Lee to

54:00

send other Indians on the warpath to

54:03

help them kill the emigrants. Together,

54:06

Kate and Lee armed the Paiutes and

54:08

thought that they had thus covered their

54:10

tracks in the upcoming slaughter. On

54:14

September 7, 1857,

54:17

Paiutes and some Mormons dressed as

54:19

Paiutes first attacked. The

54:21

fight lasted five days and the Baker-Fancher

54:23

party began to run out of ammunition,

54:26

water, and food. By

54:28

September 11, the Mormons feared

54:30

that the settlers had realized their

54:33

identity. Two militia men, their faces

54:35

washed clean of paint and plain clothes

54:37

on their bodies, approached the wagons

54:39

with a white flag. John

54:41

D. Lee himself marched with them.

54:44

They were a rescue party, Lee told the

54:47

settlers, here to save them from the vicious

54:49

Paiutes they claimed were behind the attack. They

54:52

said that they had negotiated a truce and

54:54

persuaded the natives to let them escort them

54:57

to safety in Cedar City. The

55:00

Baker-Fancher party fell for it. The

55:02

settlers were separated into three groups of

55:04

men, women, and children. The

55:07

men were almost immediately shot at

55:09

point-blank range. The women and

55:11

children were also met with bullets. The

55:14

Mormons decoyed out and destroyed with the

55:16

exception of the small children who

55:18

were too young to tell tales and

55:21

subsequently left no settlers over the age

55:23

of seven. These

55:25

seventeen surviving children were doled out

55:27

amongst locals along with their possessions.

55:31

A woman in Cedar City would later

55:33

recall the sight of those seventeen children

55:35

as they were dragged into town and

55:37

forced into new homes. Two

55:40

of the children were cruelly mangled and the most

55:42

of them with their parents' blood still wet upon

55:44

their clothes and all of them

55:46

shrieking with terror and grief and anguish. The

55:50

militia hastily buried the dead. Every

55:53

man present was sworn never to tell

55:55

a soul. The

55:58

war the Mormons had so feared between the two. between

56:00

the U.S. troops, never did happen.

56:03

When the federal troops entered Utah in 1858,

56:07

led by Major James Carlton, there

56:09

was no eruption of violence. But

56:11

there was suspicion on behalf of the troops,

56:14

who found the bones of children littered in

56:16

the mountain meadows. Lee

56:18

himself had told Young that the Paiutes were

56:21

to blame for the massacre, though

56:23

the U.S. troops and Major Carlton

56:25

didn't buy that. The

56:27

Major sent word back to the Congress that the

56:29

Mormons were responsible for the bloodshed of some 120

56:32

men, women, and children. Young

56:35

responded to the accusation by

56:37

Martyrin Lee. Lee

56:40

was convicted and sentenced to death

56:42

by firing squad in 1877. It

56:45

is my fate to die for what I did,

56:47

Lee said, moments before he faced

56:49

the firing squad. But I go

56:52

to my death with a certainty that it cannot

56:54

be worse than my life has been for the

56:56

last nineteen years. The

56:58

mountain meadows massacre has since been

57:00

hailed by historians as the

57:02

most hideous example of the human

57:04

cost exacted by religious fanaticism in American

57:07

history until 9-11 in 2001, exactly 144

57:09

years later to the day. Major

57:11

Carlton ensured

57:18

that those killed in the Meadow

57:20

Mountains massacre were given a proper

57:22

burial. Then, in the

57:24

place where they had been killed, he erected

57:26

a monument. On it was written,

57:29

Vengeance is mine. I

57:31

will repay, saith the Lord. One

57:38

very eerie phantom that is said to

57:41

have long prowled the region of the

57:43

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota

57:46

is a mysterious dark shadow figure

57:48

known to wander about in the

57:50

night on inscrutable errands. Commonly

57:53

called Walking Sam, as

57:56

well as Big Man and Tall

57:58

Man, this entity is said to

58:00

be around seven feet in height, with

58:02

a lanky build, long arms, and

58:05

a face devoid of any facial

58:07

features, although

58:09

descriptions can vary. In

58:12

some cases, the apparition is said

58:14

to have two glowing red eyes.

58:17

In others, he is described as wearing what

58:19

appears to be a cloak or a stovepipe

58:22

hat, while in others,

58:24

still, it is merely an

58:26

amorphous humanoid shadow. One

58:29

weird description of the entity was written

58:31

of in Peter Mathison's 1983 book about

58:34

Pine Ridge called, The Spirit of

58:36

Crazy Horse, in which he

58:39

gives an account by a Lakota medicine man

58:41

thus. There is

58:43

your big man standing there, ever

58:45

waiting, ever present, like the coming of a

58:47

new day. He is both

58:50

spirit and real being, but he

58:52

can also glide through the forest, like

58:54

a moose with big antlers, as though

58:56

the trees weren't there. I

58:59

know him as my brother. I want

59:01

him to touch me, just a touch, a

59:03

blessing, something I could bring

59:05

home to my sons and grandchildren, that

59:08

I was there, that I approached

59:10

him, and he touched me. This

59:13

wandering wraith is speculated to be

59:15

everything from a ghost to

59:18

a demon to some supernatural figure,

59:20

such as a skin walker or

59:22

shadow person, but

59:24

in every case it is described

59:26

as being distinctly evil. Sometimes

59:30

it is seen merely wandering aimlessly

59:32

about, as if searching for something.

59:35

At other times it has been seen

59:37

walking along roads, even

59:39

hitchhiking, and in more

59:41

sinister reports it is said to kidnap

59:43

people to carry them away into the

59:46

night. In every

59:48

case it is seen as a

59:50

menacing, malevolent entity to be avoided.

59:53

One possible account of walking Sam comes

59:55

from a witness who was driving one

59:58

evening just outside of the Eagle Buttes,

1:00:00

South Carolina, when he was

1:00:02

allegedly confronted by two frightening

1:00:04

beings described as being translucent

1:00:07

and with hideous visages. He

1:00:10

would bizarrely describe the entities as,

1:00:12

it was glowing like a real dim light

1:00:14

bulb. You can see through it. Eyes

1:00:18

were sized of human. Really long

1:00:20

nose, long in length. It has a

1:00:22

really big mouth. Its arms were like

1:00:24

sticks. They were parallel to each

1:00:27

other. The two sticks looked like

1:00:29

they were glowing. It was around

1:00:31

four foot tall but its arms stretched.

1:00:34

The other one on the left hand side of the

1:00:36

road had a face like a beast. Horrifying,

1:00:38

ugly, looked wrinkly. Walked like a

1:00:40

squat about the size of a

1:00:43

goat. It was glowing

1:00:45

too, reddish brown. It was wide and

1:00:47

narrow. Even

1:00:50

weirder than this confusing description, one

1:00:52

of the creatures apparently phased into

1:00:55

the witness's car and rode

1:00:57

along with him in the passenger seat

1:00:59

for several miles before vanishing into thin

1:01:01

air. Another report

1:01:03

was from someone who reached out to

1:01:06

me in response to my own experience

1:01:08

with a roving band of strange individuals

1:01:10

who claimed that he had had a

1:01:12

somewhat similar experience, this time in South

1:01:15

Dakota, not far from the

1:01:17

Pine Ridge Reservation in fact. He

1:01:19

claimed that he had been driving along at

1:01:22

night and that he had seen a dark,

1:01:24

hunched over form pacing about at the side

1:01:26

of the road. He seemed

1:01:28

to be hitchhiking. When he

1:01:30

pulled over he had been met with the sight

1:01:32

of a very tall, lanky man dressed

1:01:34

in a cloak and top hat who did not

1:01:37

have a face and who approached the

1:01:39

vehicle to demand to be let in and

1:01:41

given a ride, even banging on the side

1:01:43

of the vehicle. The witness

1:01:45

drove off in a panic and when

1:01:47

he later relayed his experiences to locals,

1:01:50

he was told that this was

1:01:52

Walking Sam, the tall man.

1:01:55

This was indeed the account that spurred me

1:01:57

to look into this to begin with. as

1:02:00

I had never heard of it before. It

1:02:03

seems that in some recent accounts, the

1:02:06

specter has been blamed as appearing to

1:02:08

people in order to encourage them to

1:02:10

commit suicide. In

1:02:12

2009, teenagers on the Pine

1:02:14

Ridge Indian Reservation began to

1:02:16

report of being approached by

1:02:18

a very tall, wraith-like shadowy

1:02:20

figure which they claimed was

1:02:22

Walking Sam and who reportedly

1:02:24

spoke to them and told them to kill

1:02:27

themselves. During these

1:02:29

encounters, the victims claimed that they

1:02:31

had felt mysteriously compelled by the

1:02:33

being's words, as if

1:02:35

some command was worming into their brain

1:02:37

to force them to bend to its

1:02:39

will. Many of

1:02:42

the people of the area truly believe

1:02:44

that this is more than just superstition

1:02:46

and folklore, and that is

1:02:48

literally a real entity that is

1:02:50

on some dark mission. One

1:02:54

tribal elder made a statement during a

1:02:56

tribal council meeting claiming that even the

1:02:58

police knew of this phantom, which blogger

1:03:00

Mike Crowley wrote of thus. The

1:03:04

woman, who was elderly but otherwise

1:03:06

quite lucid, described Walking Sam as

1:03:08

a big man in a tall

1:03:10

hat who has appeared around

1:03:12

the reservation and caused young people to

1:03:14

commit suicides. She said that

1:03:16

Walking Sam has been picked up on the police scanners

1:03:18

but that the police have not been able to protect

1:03:21

the community from him. She described

1:03:23

him as a bad spirit. She

1:03:25

wanted help from Washington with foot

1:03:27

patrols for the tribal communities to

1:03:29

protect them from Walking Sam. If

1:03:33

any of this is true, then it

1:03:35

apparently worked on at least some occasions,

1:03:38

as throughout the years there were more suicides

1:03:41

and in 2013 there

1:03:44

was a spate of five suicides on

1:03:46

the reservation. By 2014,

1:03:48

it was reported that there

1:03:50

were at least 103 official

1:03:53

suicide attempts on the reservation

1:03:55

over a period of several months, although

1:03:58

some claimed it was more like 240,

1:04:01

and nine of these between the ages of 12

1:04:04

and 14 actually succeeded.

1:04:07

Many of these were carried out by hanging,

1:04:10

and eerily it was claimed by

1:04:12

Oglala Sioux tribe vice president Thomas

1:04:14

Porbert that there had been found

1:04:16

nooses hung out in the wilds

1:04:18

near a place called Porcupine, and

1:04:21

that when authorities had gone to remove them, they

1:04:23

had found that a group of teenagers

1:04:26

had congregated there for the purpose of

1:04:28

committing a mass suicide. Of

1:04:30

course, according to them, Walking Sam had

1:04:33

told them to do it. While

1:04:37

many people of the area attribute all

1:04:39

of this to a mysterious phantom interloper,

1:04:42

there are others who see this as just

1:04:44

a vestige of folklore intertwining

1:04:46

with the rampant poverty and drug

1:04:48

abuse seen on the reservation. After

1:04:51

all, this is one of the poorest areas of

1:04:53

the nation, and more than

1:04:56

60 percent living below the poverty line,

1:04:58

and many turning to drugs or alcohol

1:05:00

to try and drown their sorrows. In

1:05:03

addition, much of the

1:05:05

badlands this region encompasses is wholly

1:05:08

unsatisfactory for farming. There

1:05:10

is little clean water, medical care

1:05:12

is poor, and this might

1:05:14

as well be a developing country situated

1:05:16

right in the United States. In

1:05:19

light of this, it seems that the suicide rate

1:05:21

is bound to jump, as people

1:05:23

with no way out make one for

1:05:26

themselves, and indeed the

1:05:28

suicide rate for reservations such as this

1:05:30

are well above the average. In

1:05:33

this sense, perhaps the existence of

1:05:36

Walking Sam may be a

1:05:38

way to explain the reason for all of this

1:05:40

misfortune. Mike Crowley

1:05:42

had said of this, Walking

1:05:44

Sam may be just one such

1:05:46

explanation that resonates among some of

1:05:49

the Lakota for teen suicides. It

1:05:51

shouldn't distract the reader from the fact that

1:05:53

people on the reservations are distraught. Whether

1:05:56

Walking Sam represents Bigfoot, an evil

1:05:58

spirit, or his It's just a

1:06:00

manifestation of the fear that people have about

1:06:02

losing their loved ones to what seems an

1:06:05

incomprehensible type of event. The teen

1:06:07

suicides are real. In

1:06:10

the end, we're left to ponder

1:06:12

just what it is that's going on

1:06:14

here in this sparsely populated stretch of

1:06:16

desolation. What sort

1:06:19

of ancient spirit is stalking these

1:06:21

lands? And does it

1:06:23

have any connection to any phenomena reported

1:06:25

elsewhere? Could this

1:06:27

be skinwalkers? A ghost?

1:06:29

A demon? Or some

1:06:31

other supernatural entity from lore?

1:06:35

Or is this all just native superstitions,

1:06:37

myth, and urban legend? There

1:06:39

is really no way to know, but

1:06:42

the people who have witnessed this dark stranger

1:06:44

certainly seem to be convinced of what they

1:06:47

have seen. Whether

1:06:49

it is all real or not, one

1:06:51

is left to wonder if this

1:06:53

tall man with no face, this

1:06:56

walking Sam, is

1:06:58

really out there wandering the wilderness

1:07:00

of South Dakota, and

1:07:02

if he is, just what he

1:07:05

or it wants. If

1:07:17

you spend the night amongst the dead in

1:07:20

a graveyard, don't be surprised

1:07:22

if something supernatural happens to you.

1:07:25

An old man regrets not obeying

1:07:28

his wife's dying wish. And

1:07:30

over two hundred lobotomies were performed

1:07:33

at the Rijas asylum without

1:07:35

anesthesia or an operating

1:07:37

room. Is it any wonder why

1:07:39

it is now considered to be a

1:07:41

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1:07:43

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What? Goes on in the mind of

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1:09:22

to commit murder? Is there

1:09:24

something that is different? Or is it

1:09:26

simply a switch and gets turned on?

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Murderous. Mines stories of real

1:09:31

life murderers that a steep

1:09:33

the headlines offers a look

1:09:35

into the lives of individuals

1:09:37

who didn't just become killers.

1:09:40

What? Who managed to avoid the

1:09:42

media storm that usually accompanies.

1:09:45

Inside you will hear about

1:09:47

people like Sunday Times. He.

1:09:49

Sixty five year old mother who

1:09:51

was driven by greed and who

1:09:54

committed multiple murders with her son.

1:09:57

Robert. James Sacrament the N B A

1:09:59

Grand What who murdered three people in

1:10:02

order to continue getting a lap dances

1:10:04

from a stripper that he became infatuated

1:10:06

with? Larry.

1:10:08

Gene Ashbrook who became deluded

1:10:10

into thinking that strangers were

1:10:13

accusing him of murder. When.

1:10:15

He could not take it anymore. He

1:10:17

carried out a massacre at the

1:10:19

Wedgwood Baptist Church. And more.

1:10:23

Each. Story Harper's it's own distinct

1:10:25

narrative and reasoning for the

1:10:27

perpetrators of these heinous crimes.

1:10:30

Along with the background to the case. Their

1:10:33

lives and the aftermath of their

1:10:35

actions. Sometimes.

1:10:37

The truth. Is more appalling

1:10:39

that anything section and provide.

1:10:42

And murderous minds. Proves.

1:10:44

That once again. Murderous.

1:10:47

Mine's Volume One Stories of

1:10:49

real life murderers that escaped

1:10:52

the headlines by Ryan Becker,

1:10:54

Narrated by We're Darkness host

1:10:56

Deron Marler. Hear. A

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free sample or purchase the title

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Weird Darkness. A

1:11:20

spent the night in a graveyard. Well.

1:11:22

Kind of. We. Actually went on

1:11:25

a series of nights, most recently

1:11:27

Halloween. And that time I

1:11:29

went alone. Why? Go to

1:11:31

a glitzy Hollywood induced costume party when you

1:11:34

can celebrate it the old fashioned way with

1:11:36

a good old Doses. A

1:11:38

proper stake out with coffee and

1:11:40

discuss. We were armed with a

1:11:43

torch, digital camera, voice recorder, and

1:11:45

of course our own senses and

1:11:47

judgment. Probably the most important tool

1:11:49

of all, but also the one

1:11:51

most prone to error. Amateurish,

1:11:55

tagged by proper dose tonic standards.

1:11:57

I know, But. You Have To

1:11:59

start. We really

1:12:01

scottish town of true specifically in

1:12:04

all graveyard and church ruins on

1:12:06

the outskirts cold Crosby Kirk Yard.

1:12:09

The dates back to sixteen eighty one,

1:12:11

but an older church apparently stood on

1:12:13

the site as far back as the

1:12:15

Twelve Hundreds. So we're talking really old

1:12:18

here. He was officially closed

1:12:20

and eighteen sixty eight when the town

1:12:22

got a bigger cemetery and the gates

1:12:24

a then lot. Ever since. According

1:12:27

to legend. The roof of

1:12:29

the church blew off during a storm

1:12:31

the same night Robert Burns, Scotland's

1:12:33

National Poet was born in the nearby

1:12:36

town of Ayer. However,

1:12:38

that tail sounds apocryphal an

1:12:40

made up. Was. More interesting

1:12:42

as a poem made about the place

1:12:45

by one John. Alleging

1:12:47

has to be haunted by

1:12:49

Jason species. Would be

1:12:51

ghosts and strange noise. Again,

1:12:53

don't just take my word for it. All.

1:12:56

Of this info can be found online.

1:12:58

This is a real place with a

1:13:00

real history. If. You

1:13:02

know the local area well enough there are a

1:13:04

few ways to get their. The. Most

1:13:06

direct being through the woods. The.

1:13:09

Gate is permanently lot and the

1:13:11

wall more or less insurmountable. Though.

1:13:14

There is away again by standing on a

1:13:16

tree stump around one side and melting part

1:13:18

of the wall. The. Cemetery

1:13:20

at night was a petrifying thought when

1:13:23

I was younger. So. Simply

1:13:25

being there in the dark felt like

1:13:27

something of an achievement. The

1:13:30

hardest part was probably entering and. You're.

1:13:32

Never sure what's over the other side

1:13:35

about wall. I almost

1:13:37

had to remind myself that somewhere

1:13:39

in here was the resting place.

1:13:42

of a one time assassin named

1:13:44

David Hamilton. Know. Most say

1:13:46

it was really his brother who was guilty

1:13:48

and that David was just part of the

1:13:50

plot, but that's a debate for another day.

1:13:54

My photos were fairly spooky and

1:13:56

themselves showing dark trees and ruins

1:13:58

looming up against. Gray sky. Not

1:14:01

to mention the jagged medal of the cemetery

1:14:03

gates. But. There was nothing out

1:14:05

of the ordinary. A few dust

1:14:07

specs? maybe? They'll sit

1:14:10

down My voice recorder and we exited

1:14:12

the graveyard hoping to pick up something

1:14:14

in our absence and returned a half

1:14:16

hour later. Just

1:14:18

as the novelty of all of it was wearing off,

1:14:21

Who. Took a seat on it overturned

1:14:23

gravestone sorry dead person and were

1:14:25

gazing at the stars when a

1:14:27

white street of might teams zooming

1:14:29

past right above us. My

1:14:32

friend thought it might be a shooting star. But.

1:14:34

He seemed much too low and small.

1:14:37

Shooting. Stars Travel and and park. Whereas.

1:14:40

Dislike: Just shot straight by in

1:14:43

a perfect line. Is.

1:14:45

That was weird. It was about

1:14:47

to get even weirder. As

1:14:50

we set out on our way home,

1:14:52

another one of these lights appeared just

1:14:54

over the ruins Church. Zooming.

1:14:56

End of the tree line. It

1:14:59

was lucky I turned my head round at that moment

1:15:01

to catch. And wonder

1:15:03

how many lives there were that we didn't

1:15:05

sit? There. Was no doubting

1:15:07

it does time. It was way too low,

1:15:09

a minuscule to be a shooting star. I

1:15:12

can only describe these. Light

1:15:14

says tiny white balls or

1:15:16

globes which trebled very fast.

1:15:19

Either. It was a ghost, whatever that

1:15:22

might be. Or. I witnessed

1:15:24

a strange light phenomenon, possibly something

1:15:26

similar to what we might now

1:15:28

call. Will have the West's or something

1:15:31

we don't know about. Yeah, Maybe.

1:15:33

These lights worthy spunky is reported

1:15:35

and John Legs poem centuries earlier.

1:15:38

Spunky is an Old Scots word

1:15:40

which basically means a streams light

1:15:42

or glow in. The

1:15:45

following evening, I listened back to the

1:15:48

audio from my voice recorder. All.

1:15:50

Twenty seven minutes of. It. And

1:15:52

I did find something. However, faith.

1:15:56

In between the gentle wind and car

1:15:58

noises is what sounds like a. That.

1:16:01

Bama my three or four footsteps. I

1:16:04

rewound and compared it with my own footsteps

1:16:06

at the start of the recording. And

1:16:09

the sound was practically identical. I

1:16:11

also tried reproducing the taps out by

1:16:14

touching the spring of the phone and

1:16:16

play it back. And

1:16:18

that to sounded quite similar. The.

1:16:21

Whole segment is unique in the whole footage.

1:16:24

Was. It simply another person you might

1:16:26

ask. Well. Although

1:16:28

a main road runs nearby, barely any

1:16:30

one walks this way was specially at

1:16:32

night. It's a bit out of the

1:16:34

way. Type in Crosby

1:16:36

Churchyard on google maps and you'll see

1:16:38

what I mean. And. I

1:16:41

think it's a pretty fair assumption that we

1:16:43

were the only weirdos going into this place

1:16:45

that night. I suppose

1:16:47

the likeliest explanation is an animal.

1:16:50

But. Footsteps sounded too slow and steady

1:16:52

to be a squirrel. A rabbit.

1:16:55

Though. That's just my own personal judgment.

1:16:58

Nothing. Happened on the other nights, but

1:17:00

that still can't diminish our experiences from the

1:17:03

first time. Beginner's.

1:17:05

Luck I suppose. And

1:17:07

fact, the only vaguely paranormal thing we encountered

1:17:09

on the second night. Was

1:17:11

a noise outside my friend's house on the

1:17:13

homework journey. Than the

1:17:16

thought came to me that what we

1:17:18

call the paranormal probably works in a

1:17:20

very funny way or bazaars sounds. Like

1:17:23

fishing. You can go

1:17:25

ten times and only catch something once or

1:17:28

twice. All my

1:17:30

run ins with ghosts so far.

1:17:32

Have that kind of fame? They're

1:17:35

something they're not overly clear or

1:17:37

discernible, but still quite out of

1:17:39

the ordinary. Then in an

1:17:41

instant it's dawn or doesn't show up again.

1:17:44

It's. Not as if you can catch it up close and

1:17:46

take it back to test in a lab. But

1:17:49

you know, there was definitely a weird

1:17:51

element about the experience. I

1:17:54

don't give much credit to feelings

1:17:56

of being watched or have a

1:17:59

presence after all, but you feel

1:18:01

scared of fact about yourself my

1:18:03

your surroundings. But I suppose it's

1:18:05

not a bad thing to say

1:18:07

that at no point in the

1:18:09

investigation was I genuinely frightened or

1:18:11

alarmed. When I even

1:18:14

liked it in their the magical

1:18:16

stillness of it all. If

1:18:19

one thing's for sure, it's that the dead

1:18:21

are less likely to harm you. Them A

1:18:23

living. But. Whether they

1:18:25

are all truly at rest, I

1:18:29

still can't say. The.

1:18:38

Following. Is an old

1:18:40

African American folk tale that, while

1:18:42

probably not true, Is. Entertaining

1:18:45

nonetheless. There.

1:18:47

Was a man who had a farm and a

1:18:49

farm house with a nice big front room. You

1:18:53

live there alone. After his wife

1:18:55

had died. His wife

1:18:57

had loved one thing in this world

1:18:59

more than anything else. And it

1:19:01

wasn't her husband. He. Was a play

1:19:03

the piano sitting in that front room. When

1:19:07

she was alive, she would sit there

1:19:09

every night and hit those keys to

1:19:11

make beautiful music. And when

1:19:13

it came time for her to leave this world. She.

1:19:16

Calls her husband to her bedside

1:19:18

made him promise, but he would

1:19:20

never ever sell by piano or

1:19:22

move it from a house. That's

1:19:25

how much she loved that piano.

1:19:28

So. For years that's with a man.

1:19:30

Did he just let the piano sit

1:19:33

there. For. Team time.

1:19:35

He was getting old and getting tired

1:19:37

of taking care of that big farm

1:19:39

and Edmunds House. He

1:19:41

decided he wanted to settle the house

1:19:43

and move somewhere smaller. So

1:19:46

he started to pack up all of his

1:19:48

things man boobs, furniture around the house, He

1:19:51

had his bed and his sofa and all his

1:19:53

other furniture sitting out on the porch ready to

1:19:55

move away. And then. He.

1:19:57

Went to move that piano. He

1:20:00

hold their piano out onto the porch with

1:20:02

the rest of the furniture. Pull.

1:20:05

Up? Yeah, No. just lifted up its legs

1:20:07

and want right back to where it had

1:20:09

been sitting all those years. The.

1:20:11

Man holding out onto the porch again.

1:20:13

But. The piano gone up again and walked right back

1:20:16

to where it had been before. And

1:20:18

this went on and on. The

1:20:20

piano would not go. Quietly.

1:20:23

Demand got so angry about it he said

1:20:25

he would pay a whole bunch of money

1:20:27

to anyone who could move that piano. There

1:20:30

was an old route woman who lives

1:20:32

nearby. Everybody. Went to room

1:20:34

women in those days to take care

1:20:36

of any kind of unusual problem. This.

1:20:39

Old route woman heard that the man was

1:20:41

offering a whole bunch of money to anyone

1:20:43

who could move that piano. And.

1:20:46

She thought that seizure would like a whole

1:20:48

bunch of money. And that a piano?

1:20:50

the mood by itself. Was a mighty

1:20:52

unusual problem. So. She reckoned.

1:20:54

That. She was just the one to take care of

1:20:57

it. So. She went to

1:20:59

the old man and told him that she was

1:21:01

the one to move that piano and that she'd

1:21:03

be dancing and a hell of she couldn't move

1:21:05

it. That. And hold to get

1:21:07

her roots and such and see which he

1:21:09

to do. When. The

1:21:11

root woman came back. Her mother was

1:21:13

walking right behind her, yelling at her.

1:21:16

Her. Daughter told her what she had said about

1:21:18

the dancing and health and that route woman's

1:21:20

mother was going on and on about people

1:21:23

making big promises. I'm saying what they had

1:21:25

hoped would happen to them if they couldn't

1:21:27

keep those promises and how they could come

1:21:29

to regret saying what they had hoped would

1:21:31

happen to them if they couldn't do what

1:21:33

they said they would do. With

1:21:36

that route woman didn't listen to her mother.

1:21:38

She. Took her roots and such and

1:21:40

started trying to move the piano. She.

1:21:43

Got it out onto the porch. But. The

1:21:45

same thing happened again, that piano

1:21:48

got up and started moving. Only.

1:21:50

This time. That. Yeah, no.

1:21:52

was moving fast. So fast

1:21:55

that it's not that route woman down

1:21:57

and killed her. And she died.

1:22:00

And. Now. Everybody says that

1:22:02

they believe. That. She's dancing

1:22:05

in hell. The

1:22:12

Ridges Asylum formerly of App

1:22:14

Lunatic Asylum. Was. A facility

1:22:17

for the mentally Ill opened on

1:22:19

January ninth, Eighteen Seventy Four in

1:22:21

Athens, Ohio. State.

1:22:24

Had recruited Thomas Kirkbride, a founding

1:22:26

member of the Association of Medical

1:22:28

Superintendents of American Institutions for the

1:22:31

Insane. To. Design the facility. He

1:22:34

believed to the cylons should be large.

1:22:36

Self. Sufficient communities and thought it

1:22:38

was therapeutic for patients to be in

1:22:41

a place that resembled a home. The

1:22:44

main building was four storeys high with

1:22:46

two wings. Separating. Patients

1:22:48

by gender. Patients were then

1:22:50

divided into ten different groups

1:22:52

based on their diagnosis. They

1:22:55

also housed patients based on the

1:22:57

severity of their illnesses. The most

1:22:59

violent lived in the farthest wings

1:23:01

of the facility, with those nonviolent

1:23:03

non exhibiting severe symptoms been kept

1:23:06

closer to the center of the

1:23:08

building where they could mingle with

1:23:10

hospital staff. As

1:23:12

the years war on, the facility

1:23:14

began to become overcrowded due to

1:23:16

constant influx of patients being emitted.

1:23:19

By the nineteen fifties, The. Asylum

1:23:22

was over three times it's capacity.

1:23:24

As they housed over two thousand

1:23:26

pieces. Modern. Day

1:23:28

treatment of people with mental illness

1:23:31

still leaves much room for improvement

1:23:33

and looking back. What? Transpired at

1:23:35

the Ridges Asylum. Is

1:23:37

truly terrifying. The

1:23:40

facility close to Nineteen Ninety Three

1:23:42

and is currently run by Ohio

1:23:44

University. Doctor. Walter Freeman

1:23:46

first made a name for himself, treating

1:23:48

patients during World War Two and a

1:23:50

veterans of They Are Hospital. Doctors

1:23:53

they are noted that he and his partner

1:23:55

were treating patients with mental illness. By.

1:23:57

Cutting into the school and slow the

1:24:00

through neural fibers on the blame. Freeman.

1:24:03

Really pushed the boundaries of

1:24:05

practicing ethical medicine. Essentially

1:24:08

having no regard for the patients' ownership

1:24:10

of their own bodies, He.

1:24:12

Advocated for Vi psychiatry to are

1:24:14

not trained and surgery. To

1:24:17

be able to perform the bottom he themselves.

1:24:19

And figured since they were already in

1:24:22

there, they should remove samples of brain

1:24:24

tissue for further testing. This.

1:24:27

Sounds like a serious and

1:24:29

painful procedure. Because. It

1:24:31

absolutely is. Freeman.

1:24:33

Didn't use typical anesthetics for

1:24:35

his lobotomies. He. Used

1:24:38

electroshock. Antonio

1:24:40

Egg Us Money's is credited with creating

1:24:43

them About Me. A. Procedure that

1:24:45

was intended to treat those with mental

1:24:47

illness. Although there are

1:24:49

several ways to perform on the bottom,

1:24:51

me to procedure itself is fairly simple.

1:24:54

You. Have your patient and you're picked. It.

1:24:57

Roger. Pick through your patience. I thought.

1:24:59

The pick would be placed just above

1:25:02

the eyelid an eyeball and hammered into

1:25:04

the skull. From there the

1:25:06

take would be used to summer connections in the

1:25:08

front of the brain. A

1:25:10

nurse of the asylum reported that

1:25:12

the procedure sounded like cloth tearing.

1:25:16

The frontal lobe is typically responsible

1:25:18

for personality. Behavior and

1:25:20

voluntary movement. Making. It

1:25:22

a prime location for correcting what was

1:25:25

seen as undesirable thoughts or behavior during

1:25:27

that time. This

1:25:29

procedure became increasingly popular. And

1:25:32

instead of being used only in severe

1:25:34

cases. From. Obama New was

1:25:36

used to treat lively kids whose

1:25:38

parents just wanted a docile child.

1:25:41

Insomnia. Depression. Patients.

1:25:44

Rarely remembered anything about the

1:25:46

procedure or doctor Walter Fremont,

1:25:48

which is unsurprising given that

1:25:50

they'd been shocked and had

1:25:53

their frontal lobes scrambled. Mental

1:25:56

illnesses can differ vastly from patient

1:25:58

to patient by. It knows ascent

1:26:00

even day to day. Early

1:26:03

health professionals and staff believed they

1:26:05

had cutting edge technology in the

1:26:07

treatment of those in their care.

1:26:10

However, it was rather barbaric.

1:26:13

Bottom Nice shock therapy and

1:26:15

ice water drips. We're all

1:26:17

used on hospitalized patients before

1:26:19

medication became commonplace treatment in

1:26:22

the seventies. The.

1:26:24

Asylum became a dumping ground for family

1:26:26

members who felt like they had nowhere

1:26:28

to turn. While. Some

1:26:30

patients battled Schizophrenia. Others were admitted

1:26:33

due to men applause. Post.

1:26:35

Partum Depression. Tuberculosis.

1:26:38

Or certain disability. Eventually,

1:26:41

the grounds blossomed be facility

1:26:43

grew to include cottages and

1:26:45

amusement hall and even a

1:26:47

farm. Some. Say the

1:26:49

farm at the ridges was self sufficient

1:26:51

and the right. To a

1:26:54

point. To form of the

1:26:56

asylum raised cattle and pigs at an

1:26:58

orchard and a general farm all of

1:27:00

which deed attending to and this is

1:27:02

where the patients came in. He

1:27:05

was believed that physical work with

1:27:07

therapeutic and who can argue that

1:27:09

someone in a mental institution couldn't

1:27:11

benefit from raising animals for slaughter.

1:27:14

Thankfully, by the nineteen fifties, the

1:27:16

Ridges reverted back to outsourcing their

1:27:18

labor. As much like the prison

1:27:20

system, there were complaints over the

1:27:23

use of free labor. Fifty.

1:27:25

Three year old Margaret Schilling was a patient

1:27:28

at the Asylum in Nineteen Seventy Eight. And

1:27:31

by this time to patient population

1:27:33

had drastically decreased. This. Was

1:27:35

largely due to the fact that regular hospitals

1:27:37

had begun to accept patients that would have

1:27:39

been sent to state run the Cylons. As

1:27:43

hospital records are still sealed, not much

1:27:45

is known about Margaret's past for treatments

1:27:47

or why she was even in the

1:27:49

asylum to begin with. At

1:27:52

this time. Certain. Patients were allowed

1:27:54

to move freely within the asylum in the

1:27:56

grounds know they had to be back in

1:27:58

the building and account. For at the end of the

1:28:01

day. This. Policy is what

1:28:03

allowed Margaret to wander off into a

1:28:05

rather isolated part of the building. That

1:28:08

frigid December night, staff members

1:28:10

were unable to find Margaret.

1:28:13

This winter was rather historic, being

1:28:15

one of the coldest on record.

1:28:18

They. Searched the building, The. Attic.

1:28:21

The. Grounds and the Attic again.

1:28:24

They. Call that will for her. She was

1:28:26

gone. Six. Weeks

1:28:28

went by before they found her. Because.

1:28:31

Of the smell. Margaret.

1:28:33

Was found dead in the attic for

1:28:36

naked body was in the middle of

1:28:38

the tongue free floor for clothing neatly

1:28:40

folded and stacked on the windowsill. He

1:28:43

was now January of Nineteen Seventy

1:28:45

Nine. And. Highway Patrol had to

1:28:47

be called out to assist in moving

1:28:49

the body. Strangely

1:28:51

underneath Margaret's body. Was.

1:28:54

A mark. He. Was the

1:28:56

shape of her body and it couldn't

1:28:58

be removed. Workers scrubbed

1:29:00

and scrubbed and couldn't get it

1:29:03

to come out. Some

1:29:05

paranormal investigators and fans of lore

1:29:07

believes the stain to be haunted.

1:29:10

It attracts television shows, journalists and

1:29:12

Breeze and Bypass are some choose

1:29:15

to break in just to be

1:29:17

able to touch Margaret Shillings final

1:29:19

resting place. However,

1:29:21

the case may not be as mysterious

1:29:24

as they want to believe. Some.

1:29:26

Stoppers feel as though Margaret intentionally went

1:29:28

up to the attic to die. This

1:29:32

doesn't explain the duration of time she

1:29:34

was missing, nor does it help clarify

1:29:36

how her body was found in the

1:29:38

same place that had been searched multiple

1:29:40

times before. But. The staying

1:29:43

there is some science behind

1:29:45

that. Some. Graduate students

1:29:47

analyzed Disdain and Two Thousand and Eight

1:29:50

and found that the cause of the

1:29:52

stain was simply the way her body

1:29:54

had begun to decompose combined would be

1:29:56

harsh and toxic. seventies cleaning products used

1:29:59

to sterilize the. The. Essentially,

1:30:01

they unknowingly sealed an imprint of

1:30:04

a deceased patient into the concrete.

1:30:07

There are rumors that Margaret may have

1:30:09

been hearing impaired or perhaps she had

1:30:11

been over medicated. My asylum staff. Most

1:30:14

reasonable possibilities behind why she may not have

1:30:16

been able to respond to the search team

1:30:18

when they tried to find her. It's

1:30:22

heartbreaking know to know the she

1:30:24

died alone in freezing temperatures, away

1:30:26

from her husband and locked away

1:30:28

in an asylum. Perhaps.

1:30:31

Those who hypothesize her death

1:30:33

was intentional. An act

1:30:35

of willful suicide. Would. Prefer

1:30:37

to think she died her own terms rather

1:30:39

than at the hands of a flawed medical

1:30:42

system. It's

1:30:44

not necessarily uncommon for a cemetery

1:30:46

to be nearby church or hospital.

1:30:48

But. The Ridges Asylum had a few,

1:30:51

with more than nineteen hundred people

1:30:53

buried on the property. Many.

1:30:56

Of the gravestones, are only marked by

1:30:58

number. And are the final

1:31:00

resting place for Veterans patience and

1:31:02

cadavers used by Ohio University. Oddly,

1:31:06

one graveyard has all the headstones

1:31:08

arranged in a circle. This

1:31:11

is allegedly considered a circle more

1:31:13

power by some witches and those

1:31:15

who practice black magic. Though

1:31:17

some think this was simply a very

1:31:19

misguided prank pulled by the students in

1:31:22

the nineteen twenties. Across

1:31:24

from the Asylum is another cemetery.

1:31:26

Separated by a freak. Several.

1:31:29

Grades are accessible by a bridge and

1:31:32

are said to be home to murderers.

1:31:34

Fearing these spirits are sinister, many

1:31:37

people believe the alleged murderers were

1:31:39

laid to rest there because spirits

1:31:41

can't cross water. Jim

1:31:43

Jack Frock, an alligator was brought

1:31:46

to the grounds by an employee

1:31:48

in the nineteen fifties. He.

1:31:50

Was one of three alligators, but he

1:31:52

was for some reason the most famous.

1:31:55

During. The warmer months. Jack

1:31:57

lived in the fountain on the grounds. What

1:32:00

he was moved to a plastic kiddie pool in

1:32:02

the basement. On has

1:32:04

to wonder about the psychological and

1:32:06

ecological effects of three alligators living

1:32:08

on the grounds of a mental

1:32:10

health treatment institution. As

1:32:13

with any older buildings, many people

1:32:15

believe the Riches Asylum is haunted.

1:32:18

Thanks to folklore and media

1:32:20

representation, mental health institutions are

1:32:22

believed to be dark, evil

1:32:25

places filled with sad and

1:32:27

angry spirits. One

1:32:29

room or tells the tale of

1:32:32

a college did winter into the

1:32:34

grounds after they had closed and

1:32:36

I t Ninety Three. They allegedly

1:32:38

sound Margaret's bodies dame and touched

1:32:40

it which led to being tormented

1:32:42

by ghosts. So much so that

1:32:45

they ended up killing themselves. Although

1:32:48

the Asylum closed and Eighty

1:32:50

Ninety Three, Ohio University took

1:32:52

over the building, they renovated

1:32:55

parts of the facility to

1:32:57

create an art museum, studios

1:32:59

and offices, When.

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1:33:19

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1:33:21

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1:33:24

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1:33:26

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The case manager of a paranormal. The

1:36:00

Gruesome Team in Sacramento, California.

1:36:03

This. Story is about my husband Robert

1:36:05

and his first investigation with the team.

1:36:08

In. Order to understand I have to give you

1:36:10

a little background about my husband. He's.

1:36:13

A Vietnam veteran who was wounded on

1:36:15

his second tour. He. Was

1:36:17

wounded in a running firefight by

1:36:19

three hand grenades. He. Was hit

1:36:21

in both arms, both legs and as a

1:36:23

plate in his head. But. To meet

1:36:26

him you would never know it. He.

1:36:28

Had been pronounced dead at one point. So.

1:36:30

Now likes to tell me that there is no

1:36:32

my to be under the tunnel. Robert.

1:36:35

Is a marine and part of bird force

1:36:37

recon. Just after the tet offensive. He.

1:36:40

Wasn't quite eighteen. He.

1:36:42

Was part of an eight man team and

1:36:44

the only survivor. One.

1:36:46

Wrote a motorcycle into a brick wall.

1:36:48

Another walked into the China Sea. And

1:36:51

the rest died due to Agent Orange.

1:36:54

He. Doesn't speak much of those years. And.

1:36:56

I don't push it. We. Were

1:36:58

going to investigate the Wash You

1:37:00

Club in Virginia City, Nevada, a

1:37:02

ghost town with a population of

1:37:04

more dead than alive souls. He.

1:37:07

Was late at night and we were on the

1:37:09

second floor. These old buildings

1:37:11

have holes that connect many of the

1:37:13

rooms and shorter entryways from the main

1:37:16

hall to the room. We.

1:37:18

Were sitting side by side on folding

1:37:20

chairs watching the main hall. The.

1:37:23

Main hall goes to the ballroom. Suddenly.

1:37:26

Robert asked me. If I had seen

1:37:28

them. Know. I

1:37:30

responded. I hadn't seen anything.

1:37:32

I could hear the agitation in his

1:37:34

voice. This is Amanda does

1:37:36

not Randall easily. But

1:37:39

got up and started toward the hall and going

1:37:41

from room to room. I

1:37:43

saw you he said. Now.

1:37:46

I have become concerned. With. Can

1:37:48

hear it in his voice as he kept

1:37:51

asking from room to roam. Finally,

1:37:53

He asked our friends at they'd seen

1:37:55

some one smell something strange. They

1:37:58

responded they hadn't seen anyone, but they

1:38:00

had smelled something. The. Spell

1:38:02

damp, humid, and a bit like

1:38:05

body odor. You. Must

1:38:07

remember that this was in the beginning

1:38:09

of April and Virginia City was just

1:38:11

above freezing, so body odor would generally

1:38:13

not be a problem. When

1:38:15

I finally got robber to tell me what he had seen.

1:38:18

What? He had seen was his seven guys

1:38:20

going down the hall in two lines just

1:38:22

as they would have when heading to get

1:38:24

their orders. He. Thought they had

1:38:26

com for him. We.

1:38:29

Sat down later and came up with a

1:38:31

more accurate explanation. The. Wash You

1:38:33

Club has been known over the years

1:38:35

for having some not nice spirits. They

1:38:38

were there to protect him. Later.

1:38:41

We got confirmation. When. Robert goes

1:38:43

on investigations. Nothing will happen when he's in

1:38:45

a room. But. Once he leaves,

1:38:47

the activity will amp up. We.

1:38:50

Now have Robert watch the monitors.

1:38:57

See. Polls Episcopal Church Cemetery

1:38:59

and Alexandria, Virginia is home

1:39:02

to a most peculiar grave.

1:39:05

One that there's no name,

1:39:07

only a haunting inscription to

1:39:09

the memory of a female

1:39:11

stranger. The

1:39:13

identity of the soul with rest but

1:39:15

neither headstone remains a mystery. Attracting

1:39:18

visitors and inspiring ghostly tales

1:39:20

since at least Eighteen Thirty

1:39:22

three. The

1:39:25

inscription in it's entirety reads as

1:39:27

follows: To the

1:39:29

memory of a female stranger

1:39:31

whose mortal sufferings terminated on

1:39:33

the fourteenth day of October.

1:39:35

eighteen sixteen aged twenty three

1:39:37

and eight months. This

1:39:39

stone is placed here my her

1:39:41

disconsolate husband in whose arms she

1:39:43

sighed out her latest breath and

1:39:45

who under God did his utmost

1:39:48

even to soothe the cold, dead

1:39:50

ear of death. How

1:39:52

loved how valued once avails the

1:39:54

not to whom related or by

1:39:56

whom the got a heap of

1:39:58

dust alone remain. The V. Is

1:40:01

all thou art an old A proud

1:40:03

shall be. To. Him give

1:40:05

all the profits Witness. That. Though

1:40:07

his name whosoever believe it and him

1:40:10

shall receive remission of sins. Acts

1:40:12

Tenth Chapter: Forty Third verse.

1:40:16

The. Poet It versus are taken

1:40:18

from Alexander Pope's seventeen seventeen poem.

1:40:21

Allergy to the memory of an unfortunate

1:40:23

lady. With. A few alterations,

1:40:26

The first print mention of the grave

1:40:28

of the female stranger appears to be

1:40:30

in a poem published in the Alexandria

1:40:32

Gazette and Eighteen Thirty Four which details

1:40:35

of visit to the To. A

1:40:37

poem was published under the initials As

1:40:40

Deep and later revealed to be the

1:40:42

work a poet Susan Rigby down them

1:40:44

more than of Baltimore, Maryland. Miss.

1:40:47

Morgan also wrote about the grave and

1:40:49

her column for the Philadelphia Sunday Troyer

1:40:52

under the pen name Lucy Seymour. In.

1:40:55

An injury from eighteen? Thirty Six. Morgan

1:40:58

wrote that the stranger had been a

1:41:00

foreign woman of curable face and a

1:41:02

pale complexion. Who. Traveled with

1:41:04

a male companion said to be

1:41:06

her husband the locals doubted. Disclaim:

1:41:09

According to Morgan, the only saw that

1:41:12

the stranger confided in before her passing

1:41:14

was a local pastor. Whose. Name

1:41:16

is also last time. Articles.

1:41:19

About the female stranger continued to

1:41:21

surface throughout the years. Growing

1:41:24

more mysterious with each publication,

1:41:27

In eighteen, Forty eight the Alexandria Gazette

1:41:29

published a letter that claim to the

1:41:31

grave belonged to a woman appeal complex

1:41:33

and who was accompanied by a disreputable

1:41:36

man. A companion gave

1:41:38

his surname as claremont. And.

1:41:40

Pay his bills with fifteen hundred

1:41:42

dollars in counterfeit English currency. And

1:41:46

Eighty Eighty Six version published in

1:41:48

the Hyde Park. Harold added such

1:41:50

dark gothic details as a doctor

1:41:52

sworn to secrecy and a reclusive

1:41:54

husband who kept is why space

1:41:56

hidden behind a veil and forbade

1:41:58

anyone to speak to her. or

1:42:00

attend her funeral. An

1:42:02

account published in the Washington Evening Star

1:42:05

suggested that the female stranger and

1:42:07

her male companion were doomed lovers.

1:42:10

Yet another penned by Colonel Fred Massey in the

1:42:12

Cincinnati Commercial Gazette in 1887 adds that the lovers

1:42:14

were European

1:42:17

nobles who absconded to Alexandria and

1:42:19

that the female stranger died in

1:42:21

her husband's arms with their lips

1:42:23

locked in a final kiss. The

1:42:26

husband buried his partner in secrecy, then

1:42:29

disappeared from town only to return in the dead

1:42:31

of night and exhume her body to

1:42:33

take it with him. While

1:42:35

little in the way of concrete proof, multiple

1:42:38

theories as to the true identity

1:42:40

of the female stranger have circulated.

1:42:43

Some are comic in their outlandishness. One

1:42:46

suggests that the female stranger was

1:42:48

in fact Napoleon Bonaparte in drag,

1:42:51

while others possess a whiff of truth. A

1:42:54

persistent theory claims that the female

1:42:56

stranger is actually Theodosia Burr Alston,

1:42:59

the daughter of Vice President Aaron

1:43:01

Burr, who disappeared at sea some

1:43:03

four years before the recruited death

1:43:05

date of the female stranger. Whoever

1:43:09

she was, if she existed at all,

1:43:11

the female stranger has left a

1:43:13

lasting impression on Alexandria. Tourists

1:43:16

visit her grave to this day.

1:43:19

The stranger's spirit, too, still

1:43:21

lingers. She is said to have

1:43:23

died in room 8 at the

1:43:25

nearby Gadsby's Tavern. Some

1:43:27

claim that her ghost haunts the room in which she

1:43:30

passed and can be seen standing

1:43:32

at the window and gazing out

1:43:34

the glass. Thanks

1:43:46

for listening. If you like the show,

1:43:48

please share it with someone you know

1:43:50

who loves the paranormal or strange stories,

1:43:52

true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like

1:43:55