1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:09,640 Understand the thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol, an 2 00:00:09,679 --> 00:00:13,800 idea. The population of atheists in this country is going through the rule, 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:19,920 rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If I tell the truth, 4 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,879 it's because I tell the truth, not because I put my hand on 5 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:28,920 a book and made a wish and working together for a more rational world. 6 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:33,280 Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness. Truth Usian wisdom 7 00:00:33,439 --> 00:00:40,479 will come to you that way. Assume nothing, question everything, and start 8 00:00:40,880 --> 00:02:06,239 thinking. This is the Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews. Don't Alcatraz 9 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:12,639 sell fourteen D. The cell, of course, is empty today. This 10 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:19,159 island prison was closed back in nineteen sixty three. Fourteen D was known as 11 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:27,199 the whole Isolation solitary Confinement. It was one of the loneliest places on earth, 12 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:35,039 except for the unfortunate view those who were not alone, who were locked 13 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:51,800 in that cage with a visitor unwelcome. Just imagine you are an inmate inside 14 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:59,120 those concrete walls. It's Alcatraz. After lights out. The guards have already 15 00:02:59,159 --> 00:03:07,439 gone to sell or bed check the cold bars inclosing the increasingly cold isolation self 16 00:03:07,039 --> 00:03:15,360 fourteen D. You are just another inmate trying to sleep somewhere down the row, 17 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:42,520 and then you hear this. As the story goes, one inmate was 18 00:03:42,599 --> 00:03:47,680 given three years in the hole after trying to escape Rufus McCain. He begged 19 00:03:47,719 --> 00:03:54,520 and pleaded to be housed elsewhere, anywhere but fourteen D. He pleaded and 20 00:03:54,599 --> 00:04:00,919 petitioned the guards every day, please move me to another cell. And yet 21 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:08,840 this isolation chamber would be his prison within the prison for three years, over 22 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:15,319 one hundred and fifty weeks, one thousand days, roughly eight thousand hours of 23 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:26,079 night, with barely a wink of sleep. His only companion beyond the guards 24 00:04:26,519 --> 00:04:40,199 was his unwelcome guest. After those three interminable years, he was finally released 25 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:46,000 from solitary, and the inmates would say Rufus McCain had become a shell of 26 00:04:46,079 --> 00:04:50,040 a man. It was as if he had vacated his mind of everything, 27 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:55,879 just so we wouldn't have to think about what he had seen and heard and 28 00:04:56,079 --> 00:05:02,399 felt, he wouldn't have to endure the horror any And yet horror would continue 29 00:05:02,439 --> 00:05:09,240 to follow McCain. He would soon be killed by another inmate with a painter's 30 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:15,480 blade on the third of December nineteen forty Another monster in the halls of Alcatraz. 31 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:30,639 Why this place, Why this prison? Many believe that it's simply the 32 00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:35,240 nature of human nature. If you're going to house some of the world's most 33 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:42,839 dangerous people, and, according to some reports, further punish all troublemakers with 34 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:47,399 no heat, no running water, no mattresses, and only holes in the 35 00:05:47,519 --> 00:05:54,240 concrete for toilets, there is going to be unrest. The spirit of that 36 00:05:54,399 --> 00:06:00,600 place will never be at peace, the physical and the extra natural world bleeding 37 00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:09,360 into each other. Perhaps this explains the unwonted guest, the ghost, the 38 00:06:09,519 --> 00:06:17,240 creature of fourteen D. Alcatraz today is for tourism, Yet even those who 39 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:25,279 visit say that they hear cell doors close when none are closing. They hear 40 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:31,839 laughing in empty halls, They feel unnatural chills in warm cells, and some 41 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:42,160 say they have heard disembodied screams, torment in isolation, the taunting of demons, 42 00:06:42,319 --> 00:06:49,920 the open mouths and burning eyes of monsters, unknown echoes of those with 43 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:59,920 a life sentence which had become a death sentence within the tiny walls of fourteen 44 00:07:00,120 --> 00:08:03,199 ind it's a long, long road trip through the state of Nevada. You've 45 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:09,360 been staring at the highway's white line for hours and hours until the car begins 46 00:08:09,399 --> 00:08:13,800 to drift. You can't even keep your eyes open. It's been too long, 47 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:18,519 too late. It's time to pull over. You scan the horizon for 48 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:26,920 a motel sign anywhere of the head, and then finally there. It is 49 00:08:26,639 --> 00:08:33,759 an oasis in a tiny town called Tonopah, almost halfway between Las Vegas and 50 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:41,279 Reno. But something is different about the motel sign out front. Filling the 51 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:48,440 top half of that sign is a painting, the painting of a clown. 52 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:58,600 Now it's at this moment that you consider sleeping in your car, but a 53 00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:05,039 hidden force, maybe just curiosity, pushes you toward the entry door and into 54 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:11,039 the lobby. You are greeted by a life sized clown sitting in a chair. 55 00:09:11,879 --> 00:09:18,120 All around it are dozens of other tiny figures in makeup and wigs. 56 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:26,600 The office is filled with painted eyes staring you down. Welcome vacancy. Your 57 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:37,840 room is waiting. This Jestures of horror House was inspired by a man and 58 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:43,559 collector named Clarence Davis. She had accumulated in his life no fewer than one 59 00:09:43,639 --> 00:09:50,240 hundred and fifty clown dolls and statues, and after his death, his children, 60 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,879 Leona and Leroy Davis, wanted to preserve his memory, and so they 61 00:09:54,960 --> 00:10:01,120 built their monuments in that twenty four hundred person town in Nevana. Back in 62 00:10:01,279 --> 00:10:11,480 nineteen eighty five, they built the Clown Motel and oh yes, your room 63 00:10:11,919 --> 00:10:18,000 has clowns, so many clowns. All thirty one rooms feature at least two 64 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:24,600 custom clown art pieces. Rooms one oh eight, one eleven, two ten, 65 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:31,559 and two fourteen. These rooms are said to be haunted. Many believe 66 00:10:31,679 --> 00:10:37,559 that these are spirits who have walked to those rooms from the nearby old Tonopas 67 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:43,000 Cemetery, a grave site populated by so many silver mine workers who burned to 68 00:10:43,159 --> 00:10:50,200 death in the Belmont mine fire of nineteen eleven. They died underground, they 69 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:56,720 were buried underground. But in those white painted, red nosed, big toothed, 70 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:01,600 long fingered statues, the dead can, for just a few moments and 71 00:11:01,679 --> 00:11:09,279 the darkness of night, remember what it was like to be alive. And 72 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:15,039 there you are. You are tucked into bed with lights off, and only 73 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:20,639 the faint glow of the street sign grazing your curtain. That glow faintly reveals 74 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:26,240 the mural on the wall to your left, only three feet separating your bed 75 00:11:26,399 --> 00:11:31,440 from the figure. A clown painted almost to the top of the ceiling, 76 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:39,320 taller than you, red hair, white shirt, yellow suspenders, squinting slits 77 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:46,480 for eyes resting deep within, a narrow head, and a smile that feels 78 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:56,279 like a threat. This clown is holding a red balloon. You turn your 79 00:11:56,360 --> 00:12:01,600 head away. Was that a sound? You cover your eyes and the red 80 00:12:01,639 --> 00:12:09,159 and white pillows. Did something just touch you? You turn on the television 81 00:12:09,279 --> 00:12:15,279 to mask the loud silence. Are the eyes of the painted clown now pointed 82 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:20,320 there? Or there? Or back here? You get up and wash your 83 00:12:20,399 --> 00:12:26,000 face in the sink. What was that in the mirror? You wander back 84 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:31,919 and click off the lamp. The shadows seem different, And then finally you 85 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:39,360 acknowledge your unwelcome guest with words spoken out loud. We're in this together. 86 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:46,559 I won't move if you won't. Good night until light. Let me rest 87 00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:54,799 without fright, smile, but don't bite. Be my angel in white. 88 00:12:54,960 --> 00:12:58,879 You know it's interesting to hear from those who stay at the clown Motel. 89 00:13:00,639 --> 00:13:07,159 Some can't and won't remain in their rooms. Others are filled with wonder and 90 00:13:07,279 --> 00:13:13,080 delight and a feeling of welcome. Many ask for one of the themed rooms, 91 00:13:13,519 --> 00:13:18,039 the Friday, the Thirteenth Room, the Halloween Room, the Exorcist Room, 92 00:13:18,279 --> 00:13:24,320 the It Room, and in all of the thirty one rooms, guests 93 00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:31,360 have reported strange things, knocks on the door, voices in adjacent rooms not 94 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:37,440 occupied at the time, waking up to see newly carved scratches upon the wall, 95 00:13:39,080 --> 00:13:45,200 laughing sounds from a spouse or partner, or child or friend still fast 96 00:13:45,279 --> 00:13:58,960 asleep in their bed. Would you could you stay all night at the Cloud 97 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:07,279 Motel with the dolls and mannequins and signs and paintings, and a lobby filled 98 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:13,200 with over two thousand clown figures to greet you. It's not expensive if you 99 00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:18,720 would like to find out. The cheapest room is eighty five dollars. The 100 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:24,120 most expensive is one hundred and fifty. Just remember when you log the number 101 00:14:24,159 --> 00:14:31,960 of guests for your stay, expect one or two more or three or four, 102 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:54,120 and try not to run if you see a frown on your clown and 103 00:14:54,320 --> 00:15:07,759 tike Anish by William Hughes Marns. Yesterday upon the stair, I met a 104 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:13,399 man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. I wish I wish 105 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:20,159 he'd go away. When I came home last night at three, the man 106 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:24,840 was waiting there for me, but when I looked around the hall, I 107 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:31,039 couldn't see him there at all. Go away, Go away. Don't you 108 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:37,679 come back anymore? Go away, go away, and please don't slam the 109 00:15:37,759 --> 00:15:45,879 door. Last night I saw upon the stair a little man who wasn't there. 110 00:15:46,159 --> 00:16:06,480 He wasn't there again today. Oh, how I wish he'd go away. 111 00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:18,159 What I'm about to recount for you is absolutely true, And I'm not 112 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:22,679 saying that to try to build credibility or tension like this is a true story. 113 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:27,159 I mean, this actually happened, but I found it so chilling and 114 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:33,519 so compelling I wanted to include it here. It is the story of nineteen 115 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:38,759 year old Brandon Swanson. The date was May thirteenth, two thousand and eight. 116 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,240 Brandon was now with some friends at a party. They were celebrating the 117 00:16:42,360 --> 00:16:49,360 end of the spring semester at Minnesota West Community and Technical College, and Brandon 118 00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:55,159 had had a few drinks, but his buddy said he was not visibly intoxicated 119 00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:59,440 by the time the party was winding down. This is just before midnight and 120 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:04,119 hopped in his car and began the thirty mile drive home. He still lived 121 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:10,039 with his parents, so that's thirty miles driving on rural Minnesota roads. Call 122 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:15,559 that forty five minutes or an hour long drive to arrive home at one am. 123 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:21,720 But it was two am when his parents, Brian and Annette Swanson, 124 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:26,039 at home asleep in their beds, received a phone call from Brandon. He 125 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:32,240 said he'd driven his Chevy Lumina off the road and into a ditch. He 126 00:17:32,279 --> 00:17:36,519 couldn't get the car out, it was absolutely stuck. He was not injured, 127 00:17:36,599 --> 00:17:38,599 but he was going to need his mom and dad to come pick him 128 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:42,720 up. And so Brian and Annette got in their pick up and they drove 129 00:17:42,799 --> 00:17:48,599 in the middle of the night toward that spot where they estimated Brandon to be. 130 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:52,559 They kept their son on the phone. From time to time, the 131 00:17:52,599 --> 00:17:56,119 call would drop out and he would call them or they would call him to 132 00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:02,720 reconnect. Brandon flashed the headlight trying to signal them to bring them in. 133 00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:07,240 They drove road after road, turn after turn, yet they never saw any 134 00:18:07,359 --> 00:18:14,079 flashing headlights, and finally, after about forty minutes, Brandon got frustrated. 135 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:18,680 He looked off in the distance and saw some tiny lights and he thought those 136 00:18:18,759 --> 00:18:23,599 might be the lights from a town called lynd l y in the lind And 137 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:27,839 he said, I'm going to walk toward Lynde. There's a bar on the 138 00:18:27,839 --> 00:18:32,079 outside of town. I'm going to wait for you in the parking lot of 139 00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:37,000 that bar. Picked me up there. Brandon kept mom and dad on the 140 00:18:37,039 --> 00:18:42,759 cell phone as he walked toward what he thought was the town of lynd And. 141 00:18:42,839 --> 00:18:47,440 It was between two thirty and three in the morning. As he had 142 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:52,119 been on the phone with his parents for forty seven minutes, she was saying 143 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:56,839 something. He all of a sudden interrupted himself with the words, oh shit, 144 00:18:59,559 --> 00:19:04,319 and then went silence. There was no sound of a click or disconnect, 145 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:10,400 only silence, and his parents were saying, Brandon, Brandon, are 146 00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:15,000 you there? Can you hear us say something? But no one said anything. 147 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:22,880 They disconnected that call and dialed him back immediately went to voicemail. His 148 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:27,160 father proceeded to the parking lot of that bar at lynd Brandon was not there. 149 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:32,960 They drove for miles on the roads all around Lynde. Brandon was not 150 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:37,799 there. They eventually did find the car. The Chevy was lodged in a 151 00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:41,880 ditch just off of a road between the towns of Porter and Taunton, but 152 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:52,799 Brandon was not found. Brandon was never found. He was never seen again. 153 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:59,680 Had he mistaken some other kind of distant light for the town of Lynde 154 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:03,559 and somehow wandered into calamity. There was no sign of foul play at the 155 00:20:03,759 --> 00:20:10,599 vehicle. Air surveillance teams eventually brought in. They found nothing. Search dogs 156 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:15,759 led officers roughly three miles away from the ditch to Yellow Medicine River. The 157 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:21,119 river was flowing fast and high after some heavy rains, and it was there 158 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:26,759 that the dogs lost the scent and teams walked up and down the river banks 159 00:20:26,839 --> 00:20:32,279 four miles no sign. Cadaver dogs brought to the region. They searched for 160 00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:38,480 three weeks. Nothing. Brandon Swanson had simply vanished into the rural farmlands and 161 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:45,839 back roads of Minnesota, and it's possible that his remains are out there somewhere. 162 00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:51,960 Officials designated a one hundred and forty square mile grid for the search, 163 00:20:52,039 --> 00:20:57,440 but there were some farmers who didn't want outsiders trampling onto their land during planting 164 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:04,119 and harvesting season, and for that reason, there are places that remain unchecked 165 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:10,039 to this day. It was not, and is not suspected that Brandon, 166 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:17,079 for some reason orchestrated his own disappearance, perhaps faking his own death. His 167 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:22,279 parents, extended family, and friends reported no signs of cognitive impairment, mental 168 00:21:22,319 --> 00:21:29,440 illness, or even unhappiness at home. One night, he was simply there, 169 00:21:30,519 --> 00:21:34,599 and then he was gone. It has been a decade and a half 170 00:21:36,319 --> 00:21:41,759 and search teams working with the County Sheriff's Office will still go out today and 171 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:47,680 comb through the fields when harvesting season allows. Every once in a long while, 172 00:21:47,799 --> 00:21:52,440 the tip line will ring. Those tips have not produced anything so far, 173 00:21:52,799 --> 00:21:57,440 and to date, no physical evidence of Brandon has ever been found. 174 00:21:57,559 --> 00:22:03,599 His cell phone, his car keys, remnants of clothing, nothing, absolutely 175 00:22:03,759 --> 00:22:11,880 no trace at all. How and why did Brandon Swanson just vanish in the 176 00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:17,000 middle of the night on the fourteenth of May two thousand and eight. This 177 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:30,799 remains a mystery unsolved, a tragedy unexplained, and a baffling true story. 178 00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:41,640 For just a few minutes here, I want to talk a little bit about 179 00:22:41,839 --> 00:22:48,319 fear. Fear has a name, it has many names, and it's possible 180 00:22:48,519 --> 00:22:53,920 that one of these fears lurks behind your wide eyes and quivering lips. I 181 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:59,319 used to have this recurring dream when I was a teenager. Back then, 182 00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:02,880 I was a night owl, so everybody else, mom and dad and my 183 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,599 sisters would go to bed well before me, and I would stay up. 184 00:23:06,599 --> 00:23:10,880 I was watching television, or on the phone with my girlfriend or whatever, 185 00:23:11,400 --> 00:23:14,799 and finally, when I got tired enough to go to sleep, it was 186 00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:18,680 my job to make sure that the front and the back doors were locked. 187 00:23:19,759 --> 00:23:26,880 Now do you ever have a strange dream and realize in the dream that you 188 00:23:26,039 --> 00:23:32,279 are dreaming? Very often, I think it's this surreal stuff that tips you 189 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:37,200 off. Oh look, there is Taylor Swift and she's singing the Oscar Meyer 190 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:41,119 hot Dog jingle and she's sitting on a luck dragon that has the head of 191 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:45,279 al Pacino. That kind of thing you realize, Okay, I know I'm 192 00:23:45,319 --> 00:23:51,519 in a dream. I realize that this is not real. But that was 193 00:23:51,559 --> 00:23:59,200 not the case with my recurring dream. It felt absolutely authentic. Everything looked 194 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:06,880 and fell like real life. And so there I was, late at night, 195 00:24:07,039 --> 00:24:11,480 my eyes getting so very heavy, and finally after midnight, I decided 196 00:24:11,519 --> 00:24:15,359 it was time to call it a day, and so I got up, 197 00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:19,480 and I did my routine. I went to the front door, and I 198 00:24:19,599 --> 00:24:23,279 tugged on the door to make sure it was latched, and then I turned 199 00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:30,000 the doorknob lock and the dead bolt. And after the front door, I 200 00:24:30,079 --> 00:24:33,039 walked to the back of the house. But when I tugged on the back 201 00:24:33,279 --> 00:24:38,799 door, it had not been latched, and that door swung in toward me 202 00:24:40,079 --> 00:24:45,640 so quickly that it made me jump. And standing in that doorway was a 203 00:24:45,759 --> 00:24:51,400 tall, looming figure cloaked in black. In the dream, I couldn't tell 204 00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:56,440 if it was black fabric or just a person made of shadow. It was 205 00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,160 so bizarre. His face was not covered. I I couldn't see a face, 206 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:04,559 though I couldn't see anything other than darkness. I couldn't even see his 207 00:25:04,759 --> 00:25:11,559 eyes. He just stood there, filling that doorframe with his massive size. 208 00:25:11,839 --> 00:25:15,920 And in that moment, I already knew he was coming inside my house. 209 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:22,559 He was coming after me. And it all happened so fast. It happened 210 00:25:22,559 --> 00:25:26,680 in just a second, surprise and shock and panic, and I would wake 211 00:25:26,799 --> 00:25:33,039 up in that same surprise and shock and panic, and often I couldn't get 212 00:25:33,079 --> 00:25:38,119 back to sleep for a very long time. Did I have a condition called 213 00:25:38,559 --> 00:25:45,680 celeerophobia, the irrational fear of a stranger in my house. I don't think 214 00:25:45,759 --> 00:25:49,960 so. The idea hadn't really occurred to me during the day. It wasn't 215 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,960 something I thought about. But I will tell you this, After the first 216 00:25:53,960 --> 00:26:00,759 two times I had that dream, locking the house in real life caused real 217 00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:04,839 anxiety. Every time I walk toward that back door and tugged on it to 218 00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:11,240 ensure that it was latched, I had a moment where I thought, there's 219 00:26:11,279 --> 00:26:17,200 something on the other side. There are so many phobias in this world. 220 00:26:17,799 --> 00:26:22,839 There is cholera phobia, the fear of clowns. I did an entire ghost 221 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:27,519 story about a clown on the podcast and in my ghost Stories audiobook. Today's 222 00:26:27,519 --> 00:26:34,160 show has already featured the Clown Motel, and it's interesting to note how clowns 223 00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:41,640 have become personal nightmares for so many. I always feel a little bit sad 224 00:26:41,799 --> 00:26:47,720 for legitimate clown characters who only want to bring joy to parties and people, 225 00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:52,119 you know, the party clown people who may not always feel the welcome they 226 00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:59,839 deserve when they show up in a clown costume. Psychology Today says that chulaphobia 227 00:27:00,319 --> 00:27:06,079 is the result of our brains fearing the unpredictable make up on the face, 228 00:27:06,559 --> 00:27:11,279 strange paints on the smiles and cheeks and eyes. These make it difficult for 229 00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:18,319 us to perceive true emotion sincere intent, the silly antics of the clowns seem 230 00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:23,920 so unnatural to us, and so our brains trigger and we become suspicious. 231 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:30,440 It's all a facade. This is an act. There is another agenda. 232 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:38,400 For twelve percent of the population. Clowns are no laughing matter. Fear of 233 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:45,680 the dark nicktophobia. That's another common one. You ever walk upstairs after turning 234 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:52,319 off all the downstairs lights, and you'll walk those stairs really quickly to make 235 00:27:52,359 --> 00:28:00,519 sure the boogeyman can't catch you. There is a terrifying Ryan Reynolds film released 236 00:28:00,519 --> 00:28:06,240 back in twenty ten. The movie is called Buried. It is a survival 237 00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:11,839 thriller that is very much not the usual comedy fair that we're used to seeing 238 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:19,319 from Ryan Reynolds. The entire movie takes place inside a coffin. Now Natalie 239 00:28:19,319 --> 00:28:25,920 and I rented this movie shortly after it released. I am astounded that she 240 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:29,640 even made it through. After the first ten minutes, she was looking at 241 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,839 me going, I don't think I can do this. I don't think I 242 00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:38,559 can do this, and yet somehow she persevered. Scientists know how the human 243 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:48,440 brain resists notions of prolonged suffering and dying alone. Skelephobia types would hate my 244 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:56,559 Halloween yard display, which is filled with plastic skeletons, Many people recoiling at 245 00:28:56,559 --> 00:29:02,720 the very idea of anything looking dead or dying things. In fact, our 246 00:29:02,839 --> 00:29:08,200 fears of death has a name thanatophobia. I recently found out that there is 247 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:17,119 a clinical name for the fear of Halloween, the October thirty first holiday, 248 00:29:17,799 --> 00:29:23,039 Sowen of phobia. Now, remember that the Celtic New Year was long ago 249 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:30,119 marked by the festival of Sowen, at the celebration of the Harvest. The 250 00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:36,240 Celts believed that this was a time when the supernatural plane and the physical world 251 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:41,839 almost merged together. There was a veil, a very thin veil, between 252 00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:48,480 the living and the ghostly. That veil so thin that the dead could actually 253 00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:55,960 slip into the physical world to walk among the living. Many people would anticipate 254 00:29:56,119 --> 00:30:02,200 this, sometimes fearing this, they would leave gifts or treats for these spirits, 255 00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:07,559 and, as some were mischievous and quite frightening, the goodies might distract 256 00:30:07,599 --> 00:30:12,640 them or appease them and make them go away. Other people disguise themselves in 257 00:30:12,759 --> 00:30:21,960 costumes so that dead relatives might simply walk gone by. Perhaps sauenophobia reflects that 258 00:30:22,119 --> 00:30:27,160 aversion to anything death, or maybe as part of a highly Christian culture, 259 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:36,200 they're nervous about any ancient ritual involving spirits that does not exist in Christian doctrine 260 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:41,160 or tradition. Halloween has long been warned about by the Puritans, steeped in 261 00:30:41,359 --> 00:30:48,039 Satanic panic. My own childhood was filled with horror stories about evil people out 262 00:30:48,079 --> 00:30:56,599 there poisoning Halloween candy and putting razor blades inside apples, and stealing black cats 263 00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:00,920 for the purpose of sacrifice, and even steep killing people, often children, 264 00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:07,240 for the very same reason. It's ironic, then, that the word Halloween 265 00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:12,680 is actually a Catholic invention. About twelve hundred years ago, after the Romans 266 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:18,480 had conquered the Celts, the Catholic Church was not pleased that so many of 267 00:31:18,519 --> 00:31:26,319 the common people were enjoying these pagan festivals. Around six hundred CE, Pope 268 00:31:26,359 --> 00:31:33,160 Gregory the First decided that rather than try to outlaw these godless traditions, the 269 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:41,240 Catholic Church would simply adopt them and modify them to religify them. Pagan ritual 270 00:31:41,319 --> 00:31:48,799 would transform into Catholic ritual, Pagan temples could become Catholic temples. And three 271 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:56,079 hundred years after that, the Church moved its All Saints Day ritual from earlier 272 00:31:56,119 --> 00:32:01,279 in the year to the first of November All Saints' Day, all Souls Day, 273 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:07,079 all Hallows Day, and as such, the day before November one, 274 00:32:07,839 --> 00:32:14,279 which was of course October thirty first, well, that would become All Souls 275 00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:22,359 Eve, All Hallows Eve. Halloween. One theory held by some historians says 276 00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:28,119 that the Middle Ages saw the Church version of trick or treating. It was 277 00:32:28,160 --> 00:32:34,079 called souling, where poor people would collect food and money from neighboring homes in 278 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:39,440 return for prayers for the dead, and yet the true spirits of Halloween would 279 00:32:39,519 --> 00:32:49,359 simply not die. Those pumpkins with candles inside still echoed today that celt symbolism 280 00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,880 of the magic of the sun over the harvest. In Ireland and Scotland, 281 00:32:54,039 --> 00:33:01,200 carved vegetables were made to scare off a trickster named Stingy Jack, and thus 282 00:33:01,359 --> 00:33:07,319 we got the jack O lantern. The colors of black and orange trace way 283 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:15,079 back to that ancient Sowin festival, black representing the death of summer, orange 284 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:22,279 representing the autumn harvest season. Oh, how could anyone be afraid of this 285 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:30,359 wonderful holiday? Today, the second most popular and profitable holiday after Christmas. 286 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:37,440 Apparently many people still are. Perhaps all they need is a smile and a 287 00:33:37,519 --> 00:34:00,400 costume and a candle and a delicious treat to change their petrified perceptions. I 288 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:06,319 hope you feel the spirit of the season on our annual ghost Stories podcast as 289 00:34:06,359 --> 00:34:42,079 we head toward the Halloween holiday. There are more stories to come next. 290 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:51,559 Halloween is upon us. It's ghost Stories twenty twenty three, and we're just 291 00:34:51,599 --> 00:34:54,920 having some fun this week. Thank you so much for listening. And I 292 00:34:54,960 --> 00:34:58,599 hear a lot of people. They send me emails and they're like, when's 293 00:34:58,599 --> 00:35:06,320 ghost stories? We can't wait? And other people are like, Eh, 294 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:08,599 I'll see you later. Whatever, whatever, float your boat. But it's 295 00:35:08,599 --> 00:35:10,840 fun for me. It's fun to be a storyteller in this way. And 296 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:16,119 Halloween's always blast. I've set a high bar in my neighborhood. It's either 297 00:35:16,119 --> 00:35:22,400 a high bar or a low bar for Halloween decorations. And everybody else they've 298 00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:24,880 got the little skull sitting on the porch, and they've got a couple of 299 00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:30,760 hanging bats in the window, and maybe there's an inflatable something a pumpkin in 300 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:37,960 the front yard. Me I go down to Lowe's hardware store and I buy 301 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:45,800 some cheap lumber and silver spray paint, and I make another worldly prison. 302 00:35:45,639 --> 00:35:51,599 Friend of mine bills an electric chair out of old pallide wood, and then 303 00:35:51,639 --> 00:35:53,119 I enhanced it. So he brought me the chair. We brought it over 304 00:35:53,159 --> 00:35:57,800 in his pickup truck and we put it in the yard and I'm like, 305 00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:00,360 well, how can I make this look more elect And so I got these 306 00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:05,559 what do you call the things that go on the end of the curtain rods, 307 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:12,440 finnyl finish, something like finyl or finil, maybe finial, I think, 308 00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:15,639 And it was like six dollars finials, and you just screw them into 309 00:36:15,679 --> 00:36:19,960 the top of the chair. And then I got a little piece of electrical 310 00:36:20,039 --> 00:36:23,599 wire that comes out of a salad bowl. It's a salad bowl that is 311 00:36:23,639 --> 00:36:28,559 the hat for my skeleton. And he's kind of charred looking and he's sitting 312 00:36:28,559 --> 00:36:30,519 in there, but he's waving, so it's kind of a happy electric chair 313 00:36:30,599 --> 00:36:35,760 scene. And then the rest of my crap, all my skeletons and lights. 314 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:37,719 I just sort of showered around it. But I mean it's pretty gaudy. 315 00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:44,199 You can see my house from a block away, so I can't maybe 316 00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:47,320 I'm bringing property values down. I don't really know, but you know, 317 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:51,440 it's just awesome. And of course we get ready for tons of trick or 318 00:36:51,519 --> 00:36:55,679 treaters in this neighborhood, and a couple of friends of mine came up with 319 00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:07,280 an interesting trick or treat tradition. They use the October thirty first holiday to 320 00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:15,400 clear out the pantry in their kitchen. So they go through those shelves and 321 00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:19,760 it's like, oh, this has been in here for two years or whatever. 322 00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,960 I mean, nothing past the expiration, I guess. But oh look 323 00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:27,559 it's Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup. We're not going to use that. Here's 324 00:37:27,599 --> 00:37:31,679 some gravy packets, here's some spaghetti noodles, here's all this stuff, and 325 00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:36,920 they grab they literally go through and sort of clear out the pantry. And 326 00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:40,639 then for the trigger treaters, they give them a choice. The kids in 327 00:37:40,679 --> 00:37:45,800 costumes come up, they romp up to the front door, ding dong trigg 328 00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:51,119 or treat and everybody comes out and they have two piles and they say, 329 00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,880 would you like a candy? Right, M and m's kitcat, snickers, 330 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:58,800 whatever, milky way, what's your favorite candy? Mine's peanut M and ms? 331 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:02,039 Okay, have peanut M and M, skit kats whatever, or you 332 00:38:02,079 --> 00:38:08,960 can have something from our pantry pile. And according to my friends, more 333 00:38:09,159 --> 00:38:15,679 kids get stuff out of the pantry pile, skipping the sweets. It's like, 334 00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:22,840 oh, here's a box of maltomeal. Mom. They just put they 335 00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:28,800 put regular food in the bags. Mom, I got a tiny plastic bottle 336 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:34,800 of garlic and onion powder. Kraft macaroni and cheese. Who could say no 337 00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,159 to that? I actually think Kraft mac and cheese would be a great Halloween 338 00:38:38,079 --> 00:38:42,239 trick or treat candy because it's almost, you know, it's kind of a 339 00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:46,840 guilty pleasure. Some child walks up and it's like a bottle of olive oil. 340 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:58,280 Wow, thank you. They say the pantry pile is a big I 341 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:02,440 just think it's funny. I can't imagine, you know, gravy packets over 342 00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:07,840 a KitKat. I can't imagine that, but I just found that a funny 343 00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:13,800 story. Anyway, The rest of our actual ghost stories continue right now. 344 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:31,280 A Girl of Nails and Teeth by Hannah Yang. The girl trims her fingernails, 345 00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:37,440 carefully, dropping each pale crescent into the glass jar in front of her. 346 00:39:37,119 --> 00:39:43,760 Her mother stands next to her, watching, waiting. It's the middle 347 00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:47,440 of summer, and the girl steams and the heat, anxious to finish her 348 00:39:47,519 --> 00:39:52,639 task so she can go outside and play with the other girls in the neighborhood. 349 00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:59,360 She can see them through the window, their shiny bikes prompt up against 350 00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:05,960 the telephone pole, their laughter writing the wind like bird's song. Half her 351 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,320 mind is on the nail scissors, the other half on the laughing girls. 352 00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:15,239 On the third finger of her left hand, she rushes cuts too close to 353 00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:22,559 the quick blood beads up under her nail. The clipping falls to the hardwood 354 00:40:22,599 --> 00:40:29,639 floor with a muted clink and scuttles under the couch. Sorry, she says, 355 00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:35,039 sorry, sorry. Her mother gets down to her hands and knees to 356 00:40:35,119 --> 00:40:39,440 look for it. She is no longer young, and the movement takes visible 357 00:40:39,559 --> 00:40:45,480 effort. You're always so careless, she says, as she crawls. You're 358 00:40:45,519 --> 00:40:51,280 old enough to know better. The girl sits on her chair enduring her mother's 359 00:40:51,440 --> 00:40:57,960 quiet scolding, which ceases only when the lost nail clipping is recovered and dropped 360 00:40:58,079 --> 00:41:05,199 safely in with the other. They have glass jars all around the house of 361 00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:10,639 all different sizes, carefully labeled than stored. Jars of the girl's hair, 362 00:41:12,119 --> 00:41:16,880 collected each time her mother gives her a haircut over the kitchen sink. Jars 363 00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:23,320 of her blood from the phlebotomies her mother conducts once every six weeks, which 364 00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:29,800 are followed by a carton of apple juice to restore the girl's blood sugar level. 365 00:41:30,679 --> 00:41:35,840 Jars of shed skin she's peeled away from the pads of her thumbs that 366 00:41:36,119 --> 00:41:40,880 callouses on her toes, the chapped layers of her lips. A jar of 367 00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:47,320 all her baby teeth except for the one she accidentally swallowed while eating an ear 368 00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:55,559 of corn, after which her mother pulled out the rest with pliers. Her 369 00:41:55,599 --> 00:42:02,480 mother leaves the jars and plane sight to reassure herself of their progress. The 370 00:42:02,519 --> 00:42:07,639 only occasion for which she puts the jars away is when someone comes to visit. 371 00:42:08,519 --> 00:42:14,360 On those days, the girl and her mother pack everything into the pantry, 372 00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:22,159 teeth buried inside sacks of rice, blood concealed behind cans of condensed soup. 373 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:27,920 Only after the jars are safely tucked away do they unlock the front door 374 00:42:28,119 --> 00:42:34,559 and greet their neighbors with close lipped smiles, holding in all the things they 375 00:42:34,679 --> 00:42:40,440 cannot say. Sometimes the other mothers burst into tears in the living room, 376 00:42:40,599 --> 00:42:47,199 mourning what they have not yet lost. The girl stands in the hallway and 377 00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:53,679 watches her mother comfort the other woman with sugar spun lies. Yes, I 378 00:42:53,880 --> 00:43:00,440 feel you, I know what you're going through. We can and to tell 379 00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:05,559 them the truth. Her mother reminds her afterwards, it won't work if someone 380 00:43:05,599 --> 00:43:10,960 else tries the same trick. The girl is too young to understand. She 381 00:43:12,119 --> 00:43:24,039 waves through the window as the other mothers walk away. The simulacrum sits waiting 382 00:43:24,159 --> 00:43:30,760 in the back of the mother's wardrobe, hidden under a spare bedsheet, a 383 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:37,320 life sized doll made of wood and linen and desperation. Faceless and unfinished. 384 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:44,519 It's been sitting there for longer than the girl has been alive. The mother 385 00:43:44,679 --> 00:43:49,719 started building it the day the doctor first told her she was expecting a female 386 00:43:49,960 --> 00:43:54,000 child. The same day she first put her hand on her swollen belly and 387 00:43:54,159 --> 00:44:02,400 felt the baby squirming inside her, a wild thing desperate to live. The 388 00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:08,360 girl has not yet seen the simulacrum. She has only caught glimpses of the 389 00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:15,679 blueprints, which her mother takes out once a year to update the necessary measurements 390 00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:21,000 the size of her feet, the circumference of her skull, the length of 391 00:44:21,079 --> 00:44:28,000 each arm. When the time comes, the mother will finish the simulacrum alone. 392 00:44:28,679 --> 00:44:34,239 It will have a perfectly painted face that mirrors the girl's own. It 393 00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:39,360 will have the girl's real blood pumping through its limbs, her real hair stitched 394 00:44:39,559 --> 00:44:46,440 into the pale cloth of its scalp, her real teeth drilled into its gums, 395 00:44:47,159 --> 00:44:53,519 her real fingernail clippings glued onto its fingers, and toes lined up like 396 00:44:53,639 --> 00:45:02,000 the tiles of a mosaic. The mother will leave the simulacrum outside their front 397 00:45:02,039 --> 00:45:07,920 door and wait. Even now, after all her planning, she does not 398 00:45:08,159 --> 00:45:15,199 know for sure if it will work. She will spend the whole night waiting, 399 00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:21,079 her arms wrapped around the girl, her pulse hot and fever quick, 400 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:28,320 listening to the weeping and wailing of the other mothers in the neighborhood who were 401 00:45:28,400 --> 00:46:01,639 not clever enough to save their daughters. This way the mouth Man. Point 402 00:46:01,679 --> 00:46:08,199 Pleasant, West Virginia, nineteen sixty six, two grave diggers working their cemetery 403 00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:13,960 job heard something overhead. They looked up to the sky and saw the black 404 00:46:14,039 --> 00:46:21,119 figure flying ghostly and unnatural. It was ten feet long, with large wings 405 00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:25,559 and red eyes. These men didn't realize it at the moment, but they 406 00:46:25,639 --> 00:46:32,800 were the first people to ever report a sighting of the moth Man. From 407 00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:38,480 that day forward, Point Pleasant would see more encounters. Drivers spotting the creature 408 00:46:38,519 --> 00:46:44,920 at night, hikers reporting a large winged thing sitting high in the trees. 409 00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:50,719 Residents on sidewalks driven back to their homes after being followed by a pair of 410 00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:58,440 red eyes attached to a shadowy outline. The most famous sighting of the Mothman 411 00:46:58,599 --> 00:47:04,599 happened on the fifteenth of December nineteen sixty seven. Locals reported seeing a giant 412 00:47:04,679 --> 00:47:09,519 winged creature flying over the Silver Bridge, a suspension bridge over the Ohio River, 413 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:19,000 the bridge connecting Point Pleasant to Gallip Police, Ohio. Moments later, 414 00:47:19,519 --> 00:47:31,239 the bridge collapsed. Forty six people died. Investigators found a fracture in the 415 00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:37,559 suspension chain, but many still insist the tragedy was the will of the Mothmaan. 416 00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:45,639 In the decades after nineteen sixty seven, witnesses far beyond Virginia have come 417 00:47:45,719 --> 00:47:52,800 forward to say they saw the Mothmaan moments before other terrible events accidents, fires, 418 00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:59,599 massacres, natural disasters, as if this visitor brought calamity in the wake 419 00:47:59,719 --> 00:48:06,559 of a its giant wings. Yet strangely, many see those catastrophes as merely 420 00:48:06,679 --> 00:48:12,880 coincidental to them. The Mothman is merely a visitor from another plane, a 421 00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:22,280 spectator, even a friend. Every third weekend in September, point Pleasant hosts 422 00:48:22,360 --> 00:48:28,719 the Mothman Festival, a celebration of the other worldly cryptid. There are museums 423 00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:35,199 and costumes, music and guided tours, a festival for a thing few people 424 00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:43,159 have seen, but so many embrace to be safe, just in case. 425 00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:49,079 If you ever see two red eyes in a shadow beyond, stop where you 426 00:48:49,199 --> 00:48:54,679 are, turn and run the other way. Within seconds, you may see 427 00:48:54,719 --> 00:49:01,840 a horror upon humans. Is he an agent of destruction or is he just 428 00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:08,119 watching? We do not yet know. We only know that so many say 429 00:49:08,159 --> 00:49:43,199 they've seen the Mothman and witnessed cruel happenings under the span of his wings. 430 00:49:47,679 --> 00:49:55,639 Very often the most terrifying ghostly creatures don't just haunt us. They consume the 431 00:49:55,679 --> 00:50:01,719 things around us. Maybe they eat soul, or animals or our children. 432 00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:12,039 They devour what is vulnerable and precious. The people of Thailand have a ghost 433 00:50:12,239 --> 00:50:19,559 they called the Hungry Ghost. These other worldly creatures were once human beings, 434 00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:24,519 people who took advantage of other people in life. They lied and stole, 435 00:50:24,679 --> 00:50:30,800 and cheated and harmed. They were agents of inhumanity that preyed upon their human 436 00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:36,800 brothers and sisters in this world. In a way, they were charging up 437 00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:42,519 a kind of karma, prospering in the living world, with the after life 438 00:50:42,559 --> 00:50:49,199 oh waiting to make them pay for every misdeed, every lie, every abuse, 439 00:50:49,559 --> 00:50:52,679 every grift. No, they were not going to get away with it. 440 00:50:52,760 --> 00:51:00,400 After all, real world cretans waking up in the spirit world after death 441 00:51:00,599 --> 00:51:07,039 no longer themselves, at least in form. They have become the Hungry Ghost. 442 00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:13,559 If you had lived as one of these terrible people, your after life 443 00:51:13,679 --> 00:51:17,840 form would be specific to the types of wrongs you had committed. If you 444 00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:22,360 were stingy and greedy, you might have one form. If you had physically 445 00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:28,119 harmed as someone, you'd have a different form. And so on. But 446 00:51:28,159 --> 00:51:34,800 the forms all have certain things in common. Long necks, lean bodies with 447 00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:43,440 protruding bellies, gray green or blackened skin, huge hands with spindly fingers. 448 00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:47,800 You're as tall as a palm tree, with a head proportional to that body, 449 00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:53,119 but your mouth would be as tiny as the eye of a needle. 450 00:51:53,920 --> 00:52:00,840 Your inability to eat more than a speck at a time compounds your misery, 451 00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:07,519 as your large stomach simply cannot be filled. You are tortured with hunger, 452 00:52:08,679 --> 00:52:14,039 and as you walk among the trees and the darkness of night, you make 453 00:52:14,079 --> 00:52:20,760 a high pitched wine of a scream, an outward expression of inner pain. 454 00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:29,840 Your roam as a phantom, a monster. You are slithering in the land 455 00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:37,840 of the living, desperate to feed. You are the hungry ghost. It's 456 00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:43,920 interesting that, according to legend, human beings are rarely attacked by these spirits, 457 00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:50,880 the famished phantoms often invisible to the human eye. The hungry ghosts instead 458 00:52:51,000 --> 00:52:54,400 feed on other things as best they can. Of course, they are never 459 00:52:54,599 --> 00:53:01,880 satisfied, and they also hunt offerings, offerings to give to the gods. 460 00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:08,519 They must appease the gods. They must atone for their misdeeds in life by 461 00:53:08,639 --> 00:53:15,239 gathering valuable things wherever they can find them, bringing those items to Buddhist temples, 462 00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:20,880 and then laying down their findings at the feet of the good and the 463 00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:25,840 hopes that they will encounter a merciful priest who will forgive and free them from 464 00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:34,039 their prison. The story of the Hungry Ghost is often told to children to 465 00:53:34,159 --> 00:53:38,559 keep them from misbehaving. Don't be cruel, don't lie, don't cheat, 466 00:53:38,679 --> 00:53:44,519 don't steal, don't harm, because if you do, when you die, 467 00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:50,159 you will be cursed to Rome as a hideous thing, as tall as a 468 00:53:50,199 --> 00:53:58,199 building, with only a constant, horrible hunger at your side. You will 469 00:53:58,320 --> 00:54:06,280 become the hung ghost. You know myself. I find a kind of magic 470 00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:10,320 to this story. Wouldn't it be nice if karma was real? As we 471 00:54:10,400 --> 00:54:15,039 live in a world where so many terrible people get away with it while so 472 00:54:15,159 --> 00:54:22,400 many very good people suffer at their hands. So yes, I fantasize that 473 00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:28,440 these people would be made to pay after death for all the bad things they 474 00:54:28,519 --> 00:54:34,039 had done in life, creatures in their hearts. As living people, they 475 00:54:34,079 --> 00:54:40,719 would become actual creatures, monsters, beasts, tormented spirits after death. Oh 476 00:54:40,840 --> 00:54:46,400 yes, I'm guilty. I would love to see the agents of suffering get 477 00:54:46,440 --> 00:54:53,480 a taste of suffering themselves, until finally they bring themselves before the altar of 478 00:54:53,599 --> 00:55:02,320 the good in humility and penitence, regrets and change. Oh, we can 479 00:55:02,440 --> 00:55:25,280 certainly imagine still to come. Two great ghost stories to climax the broadcast. 480 00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:47,000 I've got a Noose and a Witch coming up next. It is the season 481 00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:52,280 of the Witch and the Ghost, and the Jack o Lantern and the Black 482 00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:59,800 Cats and the Big bad Spider and the vampire. So much good stuff going 483 00:55:59,840 --> 00:56:04,440 on here in the month of October. As we continue with the final segment 484 00:56:04,639 --> 00:56:40,519 of ghost Stories twenty twenty three, as so many ghostly legends come from stories 485 00:56:40,599 --> 00:56:45,559 about real people in real places, allow me to tell you the story of 486 00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:53,239 Alice Riley, which is also the story of the Hanging Square. January of 487 00:56:53,320 --> 00:56:59,519 seventeen thirty four. There was a poor immigrant named Alice Riley. She arrived 488 00:56:59,519 --> 00:57:04,639 in the American colonies, and she found herself in what would one day become 489 00:57:04,800 --> 00:57:08,880 the town of Savannah, Georgia. Alice had had no money to pay for 490 00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:15,920 the trip overseas, and so she sold herself into indentured servitude and became a 491 00:57:15,079 --> 00:57:22,199 debt slave. She willingly sold her labor to a man named William Wise, 492 00:57:22,599 --> 00:57:28,719 and to pay off her debt, she would work for him for five years. 493 00:57:29,119 --> 00:57:32,960 Yet her master was not a good man. William Wise was oppressive and 494 00:57:34,119 --> 00:57:39,320 petty and cruel. He abused her every day. He insisted that he be 495 00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:45,320 personally groomed, washed and cleaned, and shaved and combed. He enjoyed the 496 00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:52,400 attention that Alice was forced to shower upon him. He enjoyed the master's chair. 497 00:57:52,239 --> 00:57:59,159 He enjoyed his slave, an attendant to his every whim, the object 498 00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:05,239 of his con tempt, the target of his horrible temper. William was a 499 00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:10,199 weak man. He was weak in character and weak in body. Perhaps his 500 00:58:10,280 --> 00:58:15,920 abuse of other people made him feel big and strong. I suppose it was 501 00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:22,559 inevitable that Alice had finally had enough. She reached the end of her tether, 502 00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:27,840 and so she and a fellow servant, a butler named Richard White, 503 00:58:28,360 --> 00:58:32,679 decided that they were going to end their misery. They decided they would end 504 00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:40,079 William Wise. The date was March the first, seventeen thirty four. It 505 00:58:40,159 --> 00:58:46,679 was time for the master's bath. William again stood at the tub with expectation. 506 00:58:47,679 --> 00:58:53,400 Alice filled it with water, but before he could get inside the bath, 507 00:58:53,719 --> 00:58:59,400 Alice and Richard grabbed him by the shoulders and they thrust his head under 508 00:58:59,480 --> 00:59:05,960 the water. William thrashed and splashed, but in his weakness he was helpless. 509 00:59:06,119 --> 00:59:09,119 He could not find the air to breathe. It was a terrible, 510 00:59:09,360 --> 00:59:17,679 violent, cacophonous moment, until all became quiet and the Master lay slumped all 511 00:59:17,840 --> 00:59:25,119 the way down, literally dead in the water. Alison Richard placed his body 512 00:59:25,199 --> 00:59:30,840 upon the bed with a handkerchief around his neck to hide the trauma to his 513 00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:37,440 body. What would happen now? Alice and Richard knew they would have to 514 00:59:37,519 --> 00:59:43,800 flee for their very lives, but soon they were captured and arrested. They 515 00:59:43,840 --> 00:59:50,960 were tried and both were sentenced to death by hanging. When Richard was dropped 516 00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:57,519 from the rope and executed, Alice screamed out, I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. 517 00:59:58,559 --> 01:00:02,559 The colony doctor was brought in to verify, and he did. Alice 518 01:00:02,599 --> 01:00:08,679 had been impregnated by the man she had just murdered. The father would be 519 01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:15,360 her dead master, William Wise. Well, the town wasn't going to kill 520 01:00:15,440 --> 01:00:21,400 a woman with William's child inside of her. She was dragged back to the 521 01:00:21,480 --> 01:00:27,400 jail, and she was allowed to live there for another eight months until when 522 01:00:27,440 --> 01:00:34,800 the baby was finally delivered. Alice Riley again faced the gallows in the middle 523 01:00:34,800 --> 01:00:38,960 of Right Square in pre Savannah, Georgia, with a rope around her throat 524 01:00:39,360 --> 01:00:45,119 and the platform about to fall beneath her feet. Alice shouted curses at the 525 01:00:45,159 --> 01:00:51,119 townspeople who had come to gawk at her. She cursed them, and she 526 01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:58,639 cursed them until this immigrant slave who rose up against her rebuser, was dropped 527 01:00:58,639 --> 01:01:02,679 to the end of the hangar man's rope to send a message to the rest 528 01:01:02,679 --> 01:01:07,960 of the town. Her dead body was left there for three days, hanging 529 01:01:08,440 --> 01:01:15,800 in the breeze. At the end of the third day, Alice's body mysteriously 530 01:01:15,119 --> 01:01:22,599 disappeared. It is said that the newborn baby died mysteriously just a few days 531 01:01:22,639 --> 01:01:30,159 after that. This happened three hundred years ago. Today, Right Square is 532 01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:35,639 known as the Hanging Square, a place where so many others would come to 533 01:01:35,840 --> 01:01:40,679 die with broken necks at the gallows, the place where Alice Riley had died, 534 01:01:42,280 --> 01:01:49,079 the place where she had disappeared, and she has reportedly reappeared from time 535 01:01:49,159 --> 01:01:53,239 to time. People say they have been approached by a distraught woman asking where 536 01:01:53,320 --> 01:01:58,320 is my baby? Have you seen my baby? I've got to find my 537 01:01:58,519 --> 01:02:02,320 baby. Some of these people were so eager to help that they called the 538 01:02:02,400 --> 01:02:10,559 Savannah Police Department. This has apparently happened so very often that veteran officers immediately 539 01:02:10,760 --> 01:02:15,760 know it's Alice. She is said to be dressed in the clothing of her 540 01:02:15,840 --> 01:02:22,159 time, but few people even look twice because of all the popular guided tours 541 01:02:22,199 --> 01:02:29,079 in Savannah, where old and attire is common with tour guides and re enactors. 542 01:02:29,880 --> 01:02:36,440 Alice is both anomaly and anonymous. The red band's scar at the neck 543 01:02:36,559 --> 01:02:43,079 where the rope had once been walking and asking and pleading and crying and wailing. 544 01:02:43,960 --> 01:02:49,719 New mothers are very protective of their own babies when walking right square. 545 01:02:50,159 --> 01:02:55,239 They're nervous that Alice Riley might see their child, and somehow see her own. 546 01:02:57,039 --> 01:03:02,280 She might strip the baby out of their arms disappear the way she disappeared 547 01:03:02,400 --> 01:03:09,119 from that hanging noose three centuries ago. She had drowned her oppressor in the 548 01:03:09,199 --> 01:03:15,440 bathwater. She had paid with her life, and in death she roams those 549 01:03:15,519 --> 01:03:22,719 Savannah streets. Legend says that her ghost has been seen and reported more than 550 01:03:22,880 --> 01:03:28,920 any other ghost in the history of the state of Georgia. Perhaps you can 551 01:03:29,039 --> 01:04:11,880 visit right Squares someday and you can find out for yourself. The old woman's 552 01:04:11,880 --> 01:04:17,280 house was different than the others, older worn down, the paint long gone, 553 01:04:17,960 --> 01:04:25,119 the wood a gray blue, the door midnight black, with no windows. 554 01:04:27,440 --> 01:04:31,840 No one ever arrived or left. No one was ever seen except for 555 01:04:31,920 --> 01:04:38,039 the shadow of the witch in the window. That's what everyone said. She 556 01:04:38,280 --> 01:04:43,800 was the witch in the window. It didn't take much for the neighbors to 557 01:04:43,800 --> 01:04:48,119 whisper about her. Who is she? Why doesn't she ever go outside? 558 01:04:48,400 --> 01:04:55,920 What goes on inside the house? Be careful, something's wrong there, not 559 01:04:56,119 --> 01:05:04,400 natural, not safe, of course, what better place for a children's dare 560 01:05:04,960 --> 01:05:11,360 than the house of a mysterious witch. Samuel, Tim and Michael were all 561 01:05:11,400 --> 01:05:17,440 thirteen classmates in middle school, the best of friends. They'd been worned to 562 01:05:17,440 --> 01:05:23,880 stay clear of the rotting old house. But these were young teenagers, frash 563 01:05:23,960 --> 01:05:30,360 boys, invincible in their youth. One night, from their bikes, they 564 01:05:30,400 --> 01:05:35,679 passed by to see something tied to the door, a string. Above that 565 01:05:35,800 --> 01:05:41,840 string was a large orange balloon, just tethered to the doorknob and drifting in 566 01:05:41,880 --> 01:05:46,760 the light breeze. If not an invitation, it was certainly a temptation and 567 01:05:46,880 --> 01:05:53,960 the perfect opportunity to test one's courage. It was Tim who said it out 568 01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:59,079 loud, go get that balloon, Just take it. Go ahead, I 569 01:05:59,239 --> 01:06:04,000 dare you, Sam and Michael just looked back at him. It was easy 570 01:06:04,039 --> 01:06:09,400 to be bowled on this side of the small picket fence surrounding the weeds and 571 01:06:09,440 --> 01:06:15,760 thorns. Tim persisted, My dad gave me ten dollars. He pulled the 572 01:06:15,800 --> 01:06:19,280 money out of his pocket like a rich man flashing a thousand. I will 573 01:06:19,280 --> 01:06:28,079 give you ten dollars to get that balloon. His friends weren't smiling, they 574 01:06:28,239 --> 01:06:32,880 weren't frowning. Their faces were neutral and blank and a little bit stunned. 575 01:06:34,559 --> 01:06:41,480 Turning toward the balloon. They were obviously wrestling with the dare do it and 576 01:06:41,519 --> 01:06:46,079 you're in the shadow of the witch. Refused to do it, and everyone 577 01:06:46,159 --> 01:06:53,519 will find out that you're a coward. Tim dangled the money like a fisherman 578 01:06:53,639 --> 01:06:58,360 dangling his line, praying that one of them would take the bait, and 579 01:06:58,440 --> 01:07:03,119 after a few uncomfortable minds, his prayer was answered. Michael spoke up. 580 01:07:04,239 --> 01:07:08,920 I'll do it, but I want the money right now. No way you're 581 01:07:08,920 --> 01:07:14,000 going to cheat me if I do it. Tim hadn't been bluffing. He 582 01:07:14,079 --> 01:07:21,119 grinned and paid. Nobody rushed to Michael even as he stood there gathering himself 583 01:07:21,119 --> 01:07:26,000 for the mission. His buddies didn't goad him or push him. They were 584 01:07:26,039 --> 01:07:30,599 happy to wait until he felt ready. And if they were to speak honestly, 585 01:07:31,159 --> 01:07:36,760 even from a distance, they were a little bit afraid. The orange 586 01:07:36,760 --> 01:07:43,639 balloon was no longer moving. The curtain of the upstairs window slowly opened. 587 01:07:44,599 --> 01:07:49,960 The interior room flickered with candles. The shape of a woman filled the square 588 01:07:50,000 --> 01:08:01,719 glass. The boys were hidden behind the shrubs, invisible, invisible thirty seconds, 589 01:08:01,840 --> 01:08:06,000 and then she was gone. All was dark, All was still. 590 01:08:08,360 --> 01:08:12,239 Michael had wrinkled the bill in his hand smashed into a ball. Before he 591 01:08:12,320 --> 01:08:18,039 saw what he'd done, all eyes were on him. Go get the balloon. 592 01:08:20,399 --> 01:08:26,880 Michael wouldn't use the gate. Too rusty, too risky, It would 593 01:08:26,920 --> 01:08:30,479 certainly creak. He climbed the short fence and knelt down in the tall grass. 594 01:08:31,640 --> 01:08:38,560 He gathered himself. Then he slowly moved forward, like a soldier in 595 01:08:38,720 --> 01:08:46,159 battle, crawling enemy territory. He made himself small. He felt himself crawl 596 01:08:47,039 --> 01:08:54,840 forward and forward, an inch at a time. The house loomed larger, 597 01:08:55,800 --> 01:09:04,760 the door crept closer, the balloon got larger. The front left corner of 598 01:09:04,840 --> 01:09:10,880 the house was covered in brush. This was Michael's hiding place before the final 599 01:09:10,920 --> 01:09:16,560 act. Get the balloon, Get the balloon. He set his jaw and 600 01:09:16,640 --> 01:09:21,560 tensed his body and coiled like a spring. The sprint to the door had 601 01:09:21,560 --> 01:09:30,680 to be fast, lightning fast. Get the prize and get away. Breathe, 602 01:09:30,560 --> 01:09:39,600 breathe, breathe, here we go. Five four, three two one. 603 01:09:39,920 --> 01:09:44,880 Michael jolted from his hiding place and screamed toward the porch steps five short 604 01:09:44,920 --> 01:09:48,239 steps that he leapt in one motion. He lunged at the door and grabbed 605 01:09:48,279 --> 01:09:53,359 at the string. It popped into his hand without any resistance at all. 606 01:09:54,079 --> 01:09:58,840 Michael fixed his grasp and boomeranged as fast as a boy could. Run away, 607 01:09:59,119 --> 01:10:05,479 away, away. In the chaos of his retreat, the balloon grazed 608 01:10:05,520 --> 01:10:18,920 his cheek. There was a flash of bright light, then blackness. Michael's 609 01:10:18,960 --> 01:10:26,119 body was frozen in place, paralyzed. He couldn't even feel breath in his 610 01:10:26,239 --> 01:10:34,439 lungs. He was a small statue suspended between worlds slowly all around him. 611 01:10:34,640 --> 01:10:42,520 The black became gray, the gray became green, the green became red, 612 01:10:43,600 --> 01:10:49,159 the red became orange. His muscles and movement returned to him. As he 613 01:10:49,239 --> 01:10:55,199 began to reach out to touch the sinister shade of gold and saffron that enveloped 614 01:10:55,279 --> 01:11:01,119 him. His fingers touched something like rubber, or later plastic or nylon. 615 01:11:01,920 --> 01:11:08,800 It was meshy, elastic, sticky, and thick. He clawed with his 616 01:11:08,800 --> 01:11:13,760 finger nails to hear the sound of hands on a party balloon, but it 617 01:11:13,800 --> 01:11:18,520 would not tear. The more he tried to knife his round prison, the 618 01:11:18,640 --> 01:11:26,439 thicker the sticky orange walls became. Watching all this from outside the fence, 619 01:11:26,640 --> 01:11:32,199 where Samuel and Tim helpless and petrified. They cheered as their friend dashed from 620 01:11:32,199 --> 01:11:38,159 the brush to the door, then screamed as he was immediately swallowed by an 621 01:11:38,199 --> 01:11:44,960 orange floating quicksand the now large balloon, with the shadow of a boy barely 622 01:11:45,079 --> 01:11:55,439 visible inside muffled yells barely audible. Beneath this glowing orb was the tiniest string, 623 01:11:56,399 --> 01:12:03,880 dangling and drifting again in the breeze. The giant balloon just hung there, 624 01:12:04,359 --> 01:12:10,760 still as a grave. The only movement was the flailing shadow of Michael 625 01:12:10,800 --> 01:12:23,920 inside, scraping and clawing and climbing for nothing. Four eyes from two faces 626 01:12:24,000 --> 01:12:30,279 were unable to blink. And then they looked up to that second floor window. 627 01:12:30,119 --> 01:12:35,600 As the curtain again opened, the candles again flickered, and the shadow 628 01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:43,239 of the woman reappeared in the frame. Slowly, her body began to sway 629 01:12:44,600 --> 01:12:50,319 as she moved, The giant orange balloon began to sway left and right, 630 01:12:51,199 --> 01:13:00,000 left and right, back and forth and back and forth. It was an 631 01:13:00,239 --> 01:13:11,279 otherworldly dance until the figure reached forward to unlock the window latch. She raised 632 01:13:11,279 --> 01:13:17,560 the glass. She leaned forward into the warm evening air. She pointed her 633 01:13:17,680 --> 01:13:25,520 long dead corpse of a face at Sam and Tim. Her eyes weren't there 634 01:13:26,279 --> 01:13:32,039 only black sockets of decay. They could see hair like filthy straw, hands 635 01:13:32,079 --> 01:13:42,199 with unnatural fingers. The mythical witch wasn't a myth after all. With the 636 01:13:42,239 --> 01:13:46,199 slightest of motion, the creature in the window held out her open palms. 637 01:13:47,279 --> 01:13:53,720 She paused for a second, then she lifted them up. As she did. 638 01:13:54,239 --> 01:14:00,319 The floating round prison lifted as well. It rose upward and upward, 639 01:14:00,880 --> 01:14:08,119 above the house, over all houses higher and higher, smaller, and smaller. 640 01:14:08,479 --> 01:14:14,279 The boys shaped shadow inside, climbing and clamoring to escape the balloon, 641 01:14:14,479 --> 01:14:29,399 and the shadow rising far out of view, vanishing, vanishing. But wait, 642 01:14:30,039 --> 01:14:40,000 was it? There was it returning, tiny, then bigger, then 643 01:14:40,079 --> 01:14:45,439 bigger. The boys on the ground held their eyes to the horizon as the 644 01:14:45,520 --> 01:14:53,399 round orange things slowed and stopped in the far away sky. It was the 645 01:14:53,439 --> 01:15:02,720 boy, It was the balloon, It was the harvest moon. Samuel and 646 01:15:02,840 --> 01:15:09,840 Tim turned towards the high house window. The shadow pointed toward them until the 647 01:15:09,880 --> 01:15:16,920 boys could see teeth, blunt teeth revealed from separating lips and a wide open 648 01:15:17,119 --> 01:15:24,159 mouth. The face stretched back, as if pulled by some strange gravity, 649 01:15:24,880 --> 01:15:32,000 the Witch's teeth in a hideous grin. The breeze became still, the air 650 01:15:32,399 --> 01:15:39,479 became chilled. The witch raised her hand, and the crone in the frame 651 01:15:39,760 --> 01:15:45,000 spoke aloud. For the first and only time. She said, in a 652 01:15:45,079 --> 01:15:56,399 satisfied voice, enjoy the moonlight, boys, And then she was gone. 653 01:15:56,600 --> 01:16:01,479 Little Michael was gone, in a prison of both light and darkness, of 654 01:16:01,640 --> 01:16:08,319 stretching in symmetry, a balloon with a string that could never be stolen. 655 01:16:10,000 --> 01:16:15,359 No one would find him, no search would reveal him, nobody would see 656 01:16:15,800 --> 01:16:25,600 or know him ever again, except for two teenagers that nobody believed no one 657 01:16:25,680 --> 01:16:32,000 will ever know that their affectionate gaze at the Harvest Moon sees the boy locked 658 01:16:32,079 --> 01:17:06,000 for life in that orange balloon. A masterful telling of that story by one 659 01:17:06,039 --> 01:17:12,439 of three special guest narrators for this project. A huge thanks out to Sarah 660 01:17:12,520 --> 01:17:19,359 Gray, to Grace Bellaston and Connor Brannigan, great storytellers and welcome additions to 661 01:17:19,520 --> 01:17:26,199 Ghost Stories twenty twenty three. Thank you for listening, Happy Halloween, and 662 01:17:26,279 --> 01:17:28,399 we'll do it again next year.