1 00:00:06,360 --> 00:01:02,719 Speaker 1: Stephen had long been an avid outdoorsman, hiking, climbing, sleeping 2 00:01:02,799 --> 00:01:07,519 in tents, or even under the stars. Family and friends 3 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,480 had seen him impulsively fill his backpack and had out 4 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:14,599 for a several day journey through all kinds of terrain 5 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:20,680 and in all kinds of weather. But it was on 6 00:01:20,719 --> 00:01:25,159 a cold November evening that even Stephen realized he needed 7 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:29,319 to get himself to shelter. Storm clouds had pressed in, 8 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:33,640 blocking out the sun. The day was drawing to a close, 9 00:01:34,079 --> 00:01:38,120 and the angry winds and rains began to batter Stephen 10 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:43,599 with a ferocity that shocked even an experienced outdoorsmen like him. 11 00:01:44,239 --> 00:01:47,959 With increasing concerns, Stephen could not see the trail that 12 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,719 he had followed deep into those woods, but he knew 13 00:01:51,719 --> 00:01:55,519 he had to keep moving, so, with his clothing soaked, 14 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:59,599 his pack heavy with water, his head barely covered by 15 00:01:59,599 --> 00:02:07,799 a plan he could, he simply started walking For almost 16 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:11,560 an hour. His pace was as deliberate as the torrent 17 00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:16,080 around him, But the exhausted and weather beaten man quickly 18 00:02:16,199 --> 00:02:20,400 became a lucky man. As a small cabin appeared in 19 00:02:20,439 --> 00:02:25,400 the distance, the target in sight, Stephen pushed himself hundreds 20 00:02:25,439 --> 00:02:29,879 of yards through the wet grass, mud, and brush, until 21 00:02:30,159 --> 00:02:34,560 he was standing under the pouring rain at that cabin door. 22 00:02:35,199 --> 00:02:40,159 He knocked feverishly, Hello, is anyone here? I'm a hiker 23 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:43,400 stranded in the weather. Can you give me shelter? Please? 24 00:02:44,039 --> 00:02:44,400 Speaker 2: Hello? 25 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:51,479 Speaker 1: Hello, Yet no one answered. Desperate to get dry and 26 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:55,439 warm and away from the angry skies, Stephen reached down 27 00:02:55,479 --> 00:02:59,599 and he turned the door latch with his shaking fingers, 28 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:08,439 and the door opened. Stephen slowly stepped inside. Hello, he 29 00:03:08,479 --> 00:03:12,759 said again. There was no sound in that dark, wooden house. 30 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:22,319 He crept in further, eyes looking in every direction. Hello. Hello. Strangely, 31 00:03:22,479 --> 00:03:26,719 when he closed the door behind him, the rain suddenly stopped. 32 00:03:28,159 --> 00:03:31,560 Within seconds, it became obvious the house was empty. No 33 00:03:31,599 --> 00:03:32,759 one was there. 34 00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:34,599 Speaker 3: He was both. 35 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: Relieved and uncomfortable. After all, he had just intruded into 36 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:45,000 someone else's private residence, and it was obviously someone's home. 37 00:03:45,599 --> 00:03:49,840 The main room had chairs, a couch, a fireplace, and 38 00:03:50,039 --> 00:03:52,479 in the middle of the main room there was a 39 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:58,120 single small bed. Stephen could see these things so only 40 00:03:58,199 --> 00:04:00,840 because he had a flashlight. That there was no power 41 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:06,680 to this cabin, and then Stephen's narrow beam revealed something else. 42 00:04:07,639 --> 00:04:11,080 All around him. On every wall in that center room 43 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:19,240 were elaborate paintings, dramatic paintings, disturbing paintings. To his left 44 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:23,480 was the portrait of an old farmer, his skin aged, 45 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:28,439 his eyes narrow, his clothing retaining the dirts from the fields. 46 00:04:28,879 --> 00:04:33,439 His left hand held a pitchfork, his rights held a shovel. 47 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:38,680 For reasons that Stephen couldn't decipher, the painter had given 48 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:44,759 this farmer a thin, creepy smile. Next to the farmer 49 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:48,600 was the depiction of a small child, a little girl. 50 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:53,399 She had a rounded face with wide expression, jet black 51 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:57,839 hair that stopped at the neck, pale, smooth skin without 52 00:04:57,879 --> 00:05:02,480 any blemishes, And again there was a similar grin, but 53 00:05:02,639 --> 00:05:06,480 this one was even more disturbing. The girl's thin lips 54 00:05:06,519 --> 00:05:09,839 were drawn well back, as if she had been slipped 55 00:05:09,879 --> 00:05:14,160 from ear to ear. On Stephen's right was the painting 56 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:19,319 of two silhouettes standing side by side. The figures wore 57 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,920 cloaks the color of charcoal, with hoods drawn up over 58 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:29,560 their heads, the faces hidden in shadow. These painted figures 59 00:05:29,639 --> 00:05:34,839 were obviously large men with solid frames and broad shoulders. 60 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:40,199 Both looked like those old depictions of the town executioner. 61 00:05:40,759 --> 00:05:43,759 The figure on the right was rigid with arms down. 62 00:05:44,319 --> 00:05:51,399 The figure on the left was pointing. Finally, Stephen looked 63 00:05:51,439 --> 00:05:55,319 straight ahead and stared at that painting on the wall 64 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:58,959 and this one. There was no single person but five, 65 00:06:00,079 --> 00:06:04,720 their father and three children, dressed in coats and long 66 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:09,120 pants and gloves. Except for the adult woman. She wore 67 00:06:09,199 --> 00:06:14,560 a long skirt which touched the grass. Strangely, all five 68 00:06:14,879 --> 00:06:18,839 had bare feet. The father held a piece of broken 69 00:06:18,959 --> 00:06:22,519 glass in one hand. The mother pointed at the ground. 70 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:28,240 The narrow eyed children were baring their teeth like circling hyenas. 71 00:06:30,879 --> 00:06:36,000 What kind of twisted gallery had Stephen walked into. The 72 00:06:36,079 --> 00:06:41,000 question certainly gave him pause. But this little shack was 73 00:06:41,079 --> 00:06:46,199 also shelter. It was dry and warm and empty, and 74 00:06:46,279 --> 00:06:51,560 the single bed called out to his exhausted body. Stephen 75 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:55,959 took a moment and allowed his breathing to slow. He 76 00:06:56,040 --> 00:07:00,800 removed his soaked clothing, laid the flashlight on the table 77 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:04,920 next to the pillow. He clicked its light off, and 78 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:10,959 then he closed his eyes. He closed his eyes when 79 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:16,639 they should have remained open, because had Stephen allowed himself 80 00:07:16,879 --> 00:07:20,959 just one more moment to recover from his long trek 81 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:24,600 through the stormy woods. If he had cleared his mind 82 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:29,360 and sharpened his wits, if he had taken just one 83 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:34,240 step closer to those walls and used his flashlight to 84 00:07:34,439 --> 00:07:40,480 better examine those disturbing paintings, he would have realized that 85 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:43,199 they weren't paintings. 86 00:07:45,839 --> 00:07:46,600 Speaker 3: They were. 87 00:07:47,879 --> 00:08:01,879 Speaker 4: Windows. 88 00:08:11,319 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 5: February twenty eleven, Auburn, Pennsylvania. The Bretzius family had lived 89 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:21,120 in a quaint farmhouse surrounded by the rolling hills of 90 00:08:21,199 --> 00:08:25,000 Schuylkill County for years when they decided it was time 91 00:08:25,079 --> 00:08:30,360 to properly insulate the walls. Imagine their surprise when they 92 00:08:30,399 --> 00:08:33,759 stripped away the outer walls to discover that a previous 93 00:08:33,799 --> 00:08:37,159 owner had been one step ahead of them. Yet the 94 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:41,200 homeowners from so many decades ago hadn't lined the walls 95 00:08:41,240 --> 00:08:48,559 with fiberglass or even asbestos. Stuffed between the studs were animals, 96 00:08:49,639 --> 00:08:56,159 dead animals wrapped in old newspapers. The Bretzius family also 97 00:08:56,279 --> 00:09:01,200 discovered other strange artifacts and even a variety of cooking spices. 98 00:09:01,919 --> 00:09:05,600 Traces of these things had certainly not been found during 99 00:09:05,639 --> 00:09:10,120 the home inspection when the family first moved in. Somehow, 100 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:14,679 for long decades, no one had detected those wrapped and 101 00:09:14,879 --> 00:09:24,720 long mortified carcasses of chickens, rats, dogs, and cats. What 102 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:28,879 the Britziest family had discovered ten years ago was something 103 00:09:29,039 --> 00:09:32,399 obviously well known to those who lived in that house 104 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:36,000 way back in the nineteen forties. They weren't just looking 105 00:09:36,039 --> 00:09:41,120 at dead creatures and exotic spices. They were looking at 106 00:09:41,279 --> 00:09:48,279 Dutch witchcraft. Dutch folk magic stems from the beliefs of 107 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:52,600 early German immigrants who relocated to the Pennsylvania region in 108 00:09:52,639 --> 00:09:58,279 the seventeen hundreds, Broucherreye magic or powaw magic for healing 109 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:04,320 and protection, and xiai magic for curses and revenge. All 110 00:10:04,399 --> 00:10:07,840 of the evidence revealed that the Bretzius home had once 111 00:10:07,919 --> 00:10:12,759 been used for braucherai for the goal of conjuring good 112 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:20,120 for restoration and safety. Braucherai was and remains a form 113 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:23,879 of Christian folk religion and was long embedded into major 114 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:28,960 population centers until as late as the nineteen twenties. Unlike 115 00:10:29,039 --> 00:10:32,960 the term connected to Native American traditions, the German term 116 00:10:33,159 --> 00:10:38,720 powaw borrows from earlier languages like the Proto Algonquin, with 117 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:46,240 pahwewa meaning he who dreams. Indeed, the priests of old 118 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:49,879 were said to have dreams or visions, tapping into the 119 00:10:49,919 --> 00:10:55,000 spirit realm and serving as spirit physicians. This was a 120 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:58,600 kind of light magic which stood in contrast to the 121 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:03,200 dark magic of the And if you hear the root 122 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:07,320 word hex in that term, you are correct in making 123 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:13,000 that connection. Did those early residents of that Pennsylvania house 124 00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:17,960 truly practice boucher eye? Did they incorporate the common elements 125 00:11:18,039 --> 00:11:21,399 known to that culture, ranging as far as the Bible, 126 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:27,240 books of Egyptian secrets and various spell books filled with incantations. 127 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,080 At the very least, we can confirm their belief in 128 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:36,080 ritual animal sacrifice for protections against the forces of darkness. 129 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:40,240 For those who had come before had wrapped so many 130 00:11:40,279 --> 00:11:44,879 carcasses into paper and strategically placed them behind the plaster 131 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:50,279 and slats, And since the nineteen forties, anyone and everyone 132 00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:54,679 who had lived in that house unsuspectingly walked and sat 133 00:11:55,159 --> 00:12:01,559 and slept mere feet from little dead bodies, creatures mortified 134 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:08,000 and mummified, and blockading against any devils outside. The specimens 135 00:12:08,039 --> 00:12:11,440 were collected by the Bretziis family and sent to experts 136 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:16,399 for study. Interestingly, their insurance company declined to pay for 137 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:21,120 any restoration, leaving the family, not only with stripped away walls, 138 00:12:21,519 --> 00:12:25,919 but with a twenty thousand dollars cost to repair them. 139 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,919 In the ten years since those animals were discovered and removed, 140 00:12:30,159 --> 00:12:34,159 there have been no accounts of calamity befalling anyone living 141 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:38,480 in that house. No one has been terribly harmed, no 142 00:12:38,519 --> 00:12:44,840 one has fallen gravely ill, no one has died. Life 143 00:12:44,879 --> 00:12:48,039 seems to be continuing just as it had for the 144 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:55,480 previous seventy five years. Perhaps the magic lives on even 145 00:12:55,679 --> 00:13:15,519 when the guardians are gone. 146 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,200 Speaker 1: For so many of us, it is the most wonderful 147 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:24,679 time of the year, not Christmas. I think Christmas is 148 00:13:24,759 --> 00:13:27,039 kind of lame. I mean, it's okay, but no, no. 149 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:30,840 If you want personality, you want fun, you want danger, 150 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:36,440 you want drama, you want theatrics, you need the Halloween holiday, 151 00:13:36,519 --> 00:13:39,480 and of course this is the annual tradition on this 152 00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:44,720 broadcast our Ghost Stories show. I have really been getting 153 00:13:44,759 --> 00:13:48,519 into the spirit. And yes there's video of my yard 154 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:52,679 display I do want every single year. Natalie just rolls 155 00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:56,399 her eyes. I think she secretly enjoys it, and just 156 00:13:56,840 --> 00:13:59,519 she likes to look like it's a pain in the ass. 157 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:05,960 Oh God, really, why are you talking about next year's 158 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:10,879 Halloween decoration seth It's November, and I try to assure 159 00:14:10,919 --> 00:14:13,799 her Halloween is not a date, it is a way 160 00:14:13,799 --> 00:14:18,840 of life. So it was in December January, February. I'm like, well, 161 00:14:18,879 --> 00:14:21,200 what if we were to do this? Wait a minute, 162 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:23,120 I've got props for that. What if I was to 163 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:26,120 redesign and repaint and refigure and had this and like that, 164 00:14:26,159 --> 00:14:27,840 and what if we were to do this theme? What 165 00:14:27,879 --> 00:14:31,519 do you think Connie? And she just she is a patient, 166 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:35,960 patient woman. In the past, of course, I've done the 167 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,039 Wizard of Oz. We had Dorothy's house and the yellow 168 00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:41,960 brick road and a big ten foot twisting tornado on 169 00:14:42,039 --> 00:14:46,039 a motor I've had skeletons in a rowboat in my 170 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:48,759 front yard and they were rowing the river sticks and 171 00:14:48,799 --> 00:14:50,799 the river was a lit river. I made it out 172 00:14:50,799 --> 00:14:54,480 of just purple motion lights. She can buy him super 173 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:57,080 cheap at Spirit Halloween. I had him in the attic 174 00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:59,440 and you just lay them all out, put a boat on. 175 00:14:59,480 --> 00:15:02,720 It looks like like a river. One year I did 176 00:15:03,519 --> 00:15:05,799 a version of that. Have you seen that Halloween meme? 177 00:15:06,039 --> 00:15:09,840 It was Jason Vorhees, Freddie Krueger, and Michael Myers and 178 00:15:09,879 --> 00:15:12,639 they were sitting at a table, just kind of chilling 179 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:15,000 at this table in the yard, and I had a 180 00:15:15,039 --> 00:15:19,080 banner made and the banner said the teenagers deserved to 181 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:20,440 change our minds. 182 00:15:21,720 --> 00:15:22,639 Speaker 3: That was a big hit. 183 00:15:23,679 --> 00:15:27,639 Speaker 1: And so ever since, my neighbors know me as the 184 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:30,840 Halloween guy, and this is the Halloween house. I feel 185 00:15:30,879 --> 00:15:33,440 like we've got a standard I have to meet every 186 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:36,039 single year. I was out mowing the lawn. One of 187 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:39,879 my neighbors drove by, backed up, rolled down her window 188 00:15:39,919 --> 00:15:41,600 and said, Hey, what are you going to do for 189 00:15:41,679 --> 00:15:44,399 Halloween this year? It's a thing. So now I have 190 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:49,000 a sense of responsibility, you see, And this year is 191 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:53,240 a skeleton rock band, very much an eighties band. I thought, 192 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:56,559 hair band is what we want to do this year. Now, 193 00:15:56,559 --> 00:16:00,679 I just had these cheap skeletons in the attic that 194 00:16:00,759 --> 00:16:05,000 I've had forever. They aren't really meant to articulate like 195 00:16:05,159 --> 00:16:11,279 a band would. But a hero in our audience, and 196 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:15,320 an engineer named Jason Stubbs offered his services. He knew 197 00:16:15,399 --> 00:16:18,240 I had these little motors, these tiny little motors, and 198 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:19,799 he says, oh, I know how to rig it. I 199 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:22,000 know how to make it so that your skeletons will 200 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:26,279 play the guitars. And so as I was doing my 201 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:29,000 Texas speaking tour, he lived in Dallas, and I sort 202 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:32,799 of like, hey, let's meet, and I drop it so surreal. 203 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:36,720 We meet at a coffee shop. I bring a box 204 00:16:36,879 --> 00:16:44,840 of skeleton arms. He's like, thank you. I'm sure anybody 205 00:16:44,879 --> 00:16:47,240 watching it and be like, what the hell's going on 206 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:50,600 over there? He says, Oh, all right, I'll see you 207 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:53,320 when your Texas tour is done, when you're driving back 208 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:56,039 up through the state, we'll meet again and I will 209 00:16:56,039 --> 00:17:00,559 have fully motorized and articulated guitar playing skeleton in arms 210 00:17:00,799 --> 00:17:04,759 for you. And that's exactly what happened. So Jason Stubbs 211 00:17:05,279 --> 00:17:08,200 is responsible for the fact that my band is actually 212 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:11,079 playing instruments. I've got the drummer up on a big 213 00:17:11,119 --> 00:17:15,279 sort of pedestal, using like a child's drum set. It 214 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:19,599 was so cheap, but I wanted something that I could ruin, 215 00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:21,960 just leave it out in the yard. And then there's 216 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:25,960 a disco ball that's not hung from a big post 217 00:17:26,279 --> 00:17:29,039 but from the arm of a ten foot skeleton. So 218 00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:32,039 this disco ball is going to blow light and color 219 00:17:32,079 --> 00:17:35,559 all over everything, and the children will have a dance 220 00:17:35,599 --> 00:17:38,119 floor so that on Halloween they can come by and 221 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:40,559 they can boogie with their parents, and we'll play all 222 00:17:40,599 --> 00:17:44,079 the best Halloween songs, thriller and all that stuff. I 223 00:17:44,279 --> 00:17:49,960 cannot wait. I love the month of Halloween, and I 224 00:17:50,119 --> 00:17:56,400 love ghost stories. I also have a thing for ghost poems, 225 00:17:56,559 --> 00:17:59,559 and I don't know why. I tend to include at 226 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:03,599 least one, if not three, during every broadcast. And I'm 227 00:18:03,599 --> 00:18:06,200 going to read one for you here. It was written 228 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,880 by Thomas Hood back in the early eighteen hundreds. It's 229 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:17,000 called Mary's Ghost, a pathetic ballad. It says twas in 230 00:18:17,079 --> 00:18:19,960 the middle of the night to sleep, young William tried, 231 00:18:20,279 --> 00:18:25,079 when Mary's Ghost came stealing in and stood at his bedside. 232 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:30,200 Oh William, dear, Oh William, dear, My rest eternal ceases 233 00:18:30,599 --> 00:18:36,000 a last, my everlasting piece is broken into pieces. I 234 00:18:36,039 --> 00:18:38,599 thought the last of all my cares would end with 235 00:18:38,759 --> 00:18:42,720 my last minute. But though I went to my long home, 236 00:18:42,839 --> 00:18:47,319 I didn't stay long in it. The body snatchers they 237 00:18:47,359 --> 00:18:50,799 have come and made a snatch at me. It's very hard. 238 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:54,759 Them kind of men won't let a body be You 239 00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:58,960 thought that I was buried deep quite decent like and cherry, 240 00:18:59,319 --> 00:19:02,559 but from her grave and mary bone, they've come and 241 00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:09,680 boned your Mary. So I don't mean to be base. 242 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:14,480 I don't think boned. Meant this in the eighteen hundreds, 243 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:16,920 but they have come, so they boned. You're married in 244 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,799 the halloween sense in this bones never mind. The arm 245 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:24,319 that used to take your arm is took to doctor Weiss, 246 00:19:24,799 --> 00:19:28,400 and both my legs are gone. To walk the hospital 247 00:19:28,519 --> 00:19:31,799 led Geiss. I vowed that you should have my hand, 248 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:35,559 but fate gives us denial. You'll find it there at 249 00:19:35,599 --> 00:19:40,640 doctor Bell's, in spirits and a vial. As for my feet, 250 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:44,200 the little feet you used to call so pretty, there's 251 00:19:44,279 --> 00:19:48,319 one I know in Bedford Row, the others in the city. 252 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:51,880 I can't tell where my head is gone, but doctor 253 00:19:52,039 --> 00:19:56,240 kape Can. As for my trunk, it's all packed up 254 00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,000 to go by Pickford's van. I wish you'd go to 255 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:03,079 mister p and save me such a ride. I don't 256 00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:07,519 half like the outside place they took for my inside 257 00:20:08,359 --> 00:20:11,799 the cock it crows. I must be gone, my William, 258 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:16,119 we must part, but I'll be yours in death, although 259 00:20:16,559 --> 00:20:21,640 Sir Astley has my heart. Don't go weep upon my 260 00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:26,079 grave and think that there I be they haven't left 261 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:34,519 an atom there of my anatomy Mary's Ghost Apathetic Vallad 262 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:35,960 by Thomas Hood. 263 00:20:36,039 --> 00:20:36,880 Speaker 3: That's a fun. 264 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:41,920 Speaker 1: One short break and much more Halloween fun to be 265 00:20:42,039 --> 00:20:43,880 had in just a second. 266 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:57,119 Speaker 3: You're listening to cohost Stories twenty twenty. 267 00:20:56,640 --> 00:21:37,920 Speaker 6: Five Half Hanged Mary, a poem by Margaret Atwood, seven pm. 268 00:21:38,759 --> 00:21:43,400 Rumor was loose in the air, hunting for some mech 269 00:21:43,599 --> 00:21:48,079 to land on. I was milking the cow. The barn 270 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:52,079 door opened to the sunset. I didn't feel the aimed 271 00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:55,960 word hit and go in like a soft bullet. I 272 00:21:56,039 --> 00:22:00,319 didn't feel the smashed flesh closing over it like water 273 00:22:00,559 --> 00:22:06,359 over a thrown stone. I was hanged for living alone, 274 00:22:06,599 --> 00:22:11,559 or having blue eyes and a sunburned skin, tattered skirts, 275 00:22:11,839 --> 00:22:16,200 few buttons, a weedy farm in my own name, and 276 00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:21,960 a sure fire cure for warts, oh yes, and breasts, 277 00:22:22,599 --> 00:22:26,720 and a sweet pear hidden in my body. Whenever there's 278 00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:29,839 talk of demons, these come in handy. 279 00:22:37,519 --> 00:22:38,160 Speaker 7: Nine pm. 280 00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:44,000 Speaker 6: The bonnets came to stare the dark skirts. Also, the 281 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:50,880 upturned faces in between, mouths closed so tight they're lipless. 282 00:22:52,039 --> 00:22:55,319 I can see down into their eye holes and nostrils. 283 00:22:56,119 --> 00:23:00,519 I can see their fear you or my friends. 284 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:01,599 Speaker 7: You too. 285 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:06,279 Speaker 6: I cured your baby, missus, and flushed yours out of you, 286 00:23:07,039 --> 00:23:10,279 non wife, to save your life. 287 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:11,759 Speaker 7: Help me down. 288 00:23:13,759 --> 00:23:18,799 Speaker 6: You don't dare, I might rub off on you like 289 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:24,279 soot or gossip, birds of a feather burned together. Though 290 00:23:24,279 --> 00:23:29,079 as a rule, ravens are singular. In a gathering like 291 00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:34,039 this one, the safe place is the background, pretending you 292 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:40,359 can't dance the safe dance. Pointing a finger, I understand 293 00:23:41,519 --> 00:23:46,519 you can't spare anything. I had a piece of bread, 294 00:23:47,119 --> 00:23:51,920 a shawl against the cold, A good word. Lord knows 295 00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,279 there isn't much to go around. You need it all. 296 00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:06,119 Twelve midnight. My throat is taut against the rope, choking 297 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:11,920 off words and air. I'm reduced to nootted muscle. Blood 298 00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:15,960 bulges in my skull, my clenched teeth hold it in. 299 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:22,200 I bite down on despair. Death sits on my shoulder 300 00:24:22,319 --> 00:24:26,880 like a crow, waiting for my squeezed beat of a 301 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,880 heart to burst so he can eat my eyes. Or 302 00:24:31,039 --> 00:24:35,799 like a judge muttering about sluts and punishment and licking 303 00:24:35,799 --> 00:24:40,079 his lips, or the crowd their own evil turned inside 304 00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:42,559 out like a glove and me wearing. 305 00:24:42,240 --> 00:24:47,279 Speaker 8: It, or like a dark angel, whispering to me to 306 00:24:47,359 --> 00:24:53,319 be easy on myself, to breathe out. Finally, trust me 307 00:24:53,839 --> 00:24:57,839 is as caressing me? Why suffer. 308 00:24:59,079 --> 00:25:04,480 Speaker 6: A temptation to sink down into these definitions, to become 309 00:25:04,799 --> 00:25:10,359 a martyr in reverse or food or trash, To give 310 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:15,720 up my own words for myself, my own refusals, to 311 00:25:15,799 --> 00:25:20,640 give up knowing, to give up pain, to let go. 312 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:32,319 Three am. Wind seethes in the leaves around me. The 313 00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:39,880 tree exudes night birds. Night birds yell inside my ears 314 00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:45,160 like stabbed hearts. My heart stutters in my fluttering cloth body. 315 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:51,240 I dangle with strength going out of me. The wind 316 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,640 seethes in my body, tattering the words. 317 00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:55,480 Speaker 9: I clench. 318 00:25:55,759 --> 00:26:02,240 Speaker 6: My fists hold no talisman or silver disk. My lungs 319 00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:05,920 flail as if drowning. I call on you as witness. 320 00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:07,759 Speaker 2: I did no crime. 321 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:12,400 Speaker 6: I was born, I have born, I bear, I will 322 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:13,039 be born. 323 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:18,160 Speaker 10: This is a crime. I will not acknowledge. Leaves and 324 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:24,000 wind hold onto me. I will not give it. 325 00:26:48,039 --> 00:26:52,960 Speaker 1: Margaret at Wood, Half Hanged Mary is such a profound 326 00:26:53,039 --> 00:26:57,240 and heartbreaking commentary on the witch hunts of old, with 327 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:02,920 chilling anchos into the cult of today. In so many ways. 328 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:07,759 The witch hunts are not over. I hesitated including such 329 00:27:07,799 --> 00:27:12,000 a somber story in the broadcast today. Ghost stories is 330 00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:17,759 usually just an innocent series of various legends designed to entertain, 331 00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:23,000 but Atwood's writings have been so profound and as human 332 00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:26,799 history and its deadly witch hunts are a real world 333 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:30,960 terror that melts the fears of the supernatural into the 334 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:35,839 consequences of the real And because it's just powerful, I 335 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:39,680 wanted you to hear it on the broadcast today. Special 336 00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:44,359 thanks out to Sarah Partridge for bringing that reading to life. 337 00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:49,920 Also thanks to Jeffrey Headquist for his narration on magic 338 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:53,599 in the Walls, which is a true story. That's an 339 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:57,599 account which was in the headlines ten years ago, with 340 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,880 all the animals that were hidden in the walls of 341 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:18,480 that house. If you are ever driving the wooded areas 342 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:21,880 in the very northern parts of Maine, you will find 343 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:25,720 a stretch of old growth forest that the locals call 344 00:28:26,039 --> 00:28:30,799 Blackwood Hollow. Outsiders think the name comes from the dark 345 00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,480 pine trees, but those who grew up in that region 346 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:40,240 know better. They know it's because of the bell. This 347 00:28:40,279 --> 00:28:44,240 story goes back to eighteen forty seven when settlers went 348 00:28:44,279 --> 00:28:47,160 into the trees with their axes and chopped down the 349 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,920 timber to build a small church in the clearing. They 350 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:55,240 didn't think twice about stripping that entire region from tall, 351 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:59,960 branchy trees to splinters and dust. They sung, and they 352 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:04,079 they celebrated, saying that God had given them dominion over 353 00:29:04,119 --> 00:29:08,799 the woods. The natural belonged to the super natural, and 354 00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,759 with that reasoning, they would take dead trees to construct 355 00:29:12,799 --> 00:29:17,880 a house for the living God. Archives still have records 356 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:22,359 listing the name of that place, Saint Luke's of the Pines, 357 00:29:22,799 --> 00:29:26,400 although no one alive has ever seen that building standing. 358 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:30,799 The church did not last more than a decade. The 359 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:36,039 forests remained steeped in mystery, especially knowing the haunted history 360 00:29:36,079 --> 00:29:40,480 of Blackwood Hollow, the story of one Sunday morning when 361 00:29:40,519 --> 00:29:44,279 the residents of that town left their homes for Sunday Church. 362 00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:50,000 They entered the building for service, and they simply vanished. 363 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,720 Sounds of the music in the sermon could be heard 364 00:29:53,759 --> 00:29:58,119 from without, but no one emerged after that day. Not 365 00:29:58,359 --> 00:30:02,880 one person dared want through the entrance and into the church, 366 00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:07,240 and eventually the building would rot away, stone by stone, 367 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:12,400 beam by beam, until nothing remained except for a few 368 00:30:12,559 --> 00:30:16,240 pieces of wood that somehow survived. Standing up like a 369 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:20,440 scaffold and hanging from the middle of a skeletal beam 370 00:30:21,359 --> 00:30:24,759 was the church bell. The few who have dared to 371 00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:29,480 enter that region say the bell still hangs there, suspended 372 00:30:29,559 --> 00:30:33,920 on that weathered beam, one that should have collapsed long ago. 373 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:38,160 There is no rope or striker inside that bell, And 374 00:30:38,279 --> 00:30:42,079 yet people say they have heard the bell toll, even 375 00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:50,079 on windless nights. The sound is not right. It's muffled, 376 00:30:50,599 --> 00:30:55,039 like iron striking iron underwater. If you stay in that 377 00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:59,720 place long enough, you might even hear language words embedded 378 00:30:59,759 --> 00:31:06,640 within the tolling sound. You might hear a name, You 379 00:31:06,759 --> 00:31:17,640 might even hear your own names. Anyone entering that place 380 00:31:17,759 --> 00:31:21,240 is warned. If you hear a bell, do not move. 381 00:31:21,599 --> 00:31:24,359 If you hear your name in the toll of the bell, 382 00:31:24,599 --> 00:31:28,160 do not reply. And if you are ever tempted to, 383 00:31:28,559 --> 00:31:32,039 for any reason, take an ax and clear the timbers 384 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:38,559 to build a house, a shop, or another church. Stop, immediately, 385 00:31:38,759 --> 00:31:43,759 turn around, run away, and never go to that place again. 386 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:49,279 Yet so many are so curious or simply skeptical about 387 00:31:49,319 --> 00:31:53,400 any danger they do not listen, and many pay a 388 00:31:53,599 --> 00:31:58,640 terrible price. There was a hiker found in nineteen sixty two, 389 00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:03,279 barefoot and shivering at the edge of the woods, whispering 390 00:32:03,359 --> 00:32:07,880 the same phrase over and over. I heard my name 391 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,559 in the sound of the bell. I heard my name 392 00:32:11,799 --> 00:32:15,680 in the sound of the bell. In nineteen eighty seven, 393 00:32:15,799 --> 00:32:19,680 two teenagers disappeared after telling their friends they were going 394 00:32:19,759 --> 00:32:24,000 to go and find the old church. Their car was recovered, 395 00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:28,240 doors still open, headlights on, but no trace of the 396 00:32:28,359 --> 00:32:33,839 boys could be found. They remain missing to this day. 397 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:38,640 Even now, hunters refuse to enter Blackwood Hollow after dark, 398 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:42,160 and some won't go in at all. They say they've 399 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:47,200 heard the bell, and it's not just ringing, it is speaking. 400 00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:55,400 Perhaps it is sounding the condemnation of a congregation, those 401 00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:59,200 so presumptuous as to steal from nature so that they 402 00:32:59,279 --> 00:33:03,799 might serve themselves, even as they proclaimed that they were 403 00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:10,039 serving God. Sixty three people sat within the wooden structure, 404 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:15,720 sat on wooden pews, and rang that iron bell. And 405 00:33:15,839 --> 00:33:19,839 more than one hundred and fifty years later, that bell 406 00:33:20,079 --> 00:33:25,799 hangs suspended under those rickety beams, with no clapper inside, 407 00:33:25,839 --> 00:33:32,119 and yet singing its terrible sound throughout the forest and 408 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:36,839 into the nightmares of anyone and everyone. Who has taken 409 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:42,200 for themselves what belongs to the earth. The tolling bell 410 00:33:42,559 --> 00:33:46,680 remains its own kind of life in those woods. You 411 00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:49,519 can hear it in the rustling of the trees. You 412 00:33:49,519 --> 00:33:52,240 can hear it in the thunder with the storms. You 413 00:33:52,279 --> 00:33:54,839 can hear it in the quiet of the day and 414 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:59,680 the dead silence of night. Beware the bell of black 415 00:33:59,759 --> 00:34:03,960 Wood would hollow, And pray with all of your strength 416 00:34:04,319 --> 00:34:07,400 that it never tolls for you. 417 00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:27,480 Speaker 9: M hmmm, sess like a. 418 00:34:33,440 --> 00:35:06,199 Speaker 2: Yes, Hello, Hello again? 419 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:09,639 Speaker 7: What do you want? 420 00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:11,599 Speaker 3: I want to talk? 421 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:17,840 Speaker 7: You keep calling? Who are you? I'm a friend, You're 422 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:21,079 not a friend. What's your name? What do you want? 423 00:35:22,119 --> 00:35:26,639 Speaker 3: Oh? So many names? So many names? 424 00:35:27,679 --> 00:35:29,239 Speaker 7: What names. 425 00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:30,800 Speaker 3: You know? 426 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:33,000 Speaker 7: No, I don't know. 427 00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:39,320 Speaker 3: Here is a weeper whose name is Death, and with 428 00:35:39,519 --> 00:35:43,559 his single king he leaps the bearded green out of 429 00:35:43,639 --> 00:35:47,079 breath and the flowers that grow in between. 430 00:35:50,079 --> 00:35:53,960 Speaker 7: You're the reaper, the grim reaper. 431 00:35:56,119 --> 00:35:59,239 Speaker 3: So many names you know? 432 00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:02,039 Speaker 7: I don't believe you. You're just a crank. You gets 433 00:36:02,039 --> 00:36:05,400 off on harassing total strangers. And I don't have to 434 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:07,119 take this here. 435 00:36:07,119 --> 00:36:09,480 Speaker 3: Do you keep answering the phone? 436 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:12,199 Speaker 7: The number is different every time. 437 00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:15,800 Speaker 3: And when you try increase. 438 00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:19,440 Speaker 7: It, the number doesn't exist. 439 00:36:21,119 --> 00:36:26,480 Speaker 3: Would you like to tist me? Ask me a question? 440 00:36:27,079 --> 00:36:32,840 Something I should not know, something you keep very close. 441 00:36:33,639 --> 00:36:38,239 Speaker 7: Something you want to play games? 442 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:42,119 Speaker 3: Just because something is a game, and it doesn't mean 443 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,679 it isn't true. Just me. 444 00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:49,320 Speaker 7: Fine. What was the name of my first dog? 445 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:56,559 Speaker 3: Too easy? But I know you miss little Lucy? 446 00:36:57,719 --> 00:36:59,599 Speaker 7: What do I keep in the shoe box at the 447 00:36:59,599 --> 00:37:01,039 top of my closet. 448 00:37:02,119 --> 00:37:06,079 Speaker 3: Letters from your grandmother? She died in November. 449 00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:10,719 Speaker 7: I have a birthmark which I never show anyone. 450 00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:13,440 Speaker 3: Answers, Yes, your left shoulder. 451 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:23,880 Speaker 11: What scares me will is deep water, black girds, open 452 00:37:24,079 --> 00:37:27,039 graves with a widow spider. 453 00:37:28,599 --> 00:37:35,159 Speaker 3: That corner of your attic. Yes, do you know when 454 00:37:35,199 --> 00:37:41,639 those things have in common? What in each of them? 455 00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:49,519 There is darkness? Are you afraid of the dark? 456 00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:53,440 Speaker 7: I'm afraid of you. 457 00:37:54,719 --> 00:37:58,599 Speaker 3: Why I be afraid? 458 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:00,559 Speaker 7: Where are you? 459 00:38:02,159 --> 00:38:06,239 Speaker 3: I'm looking into your windows, I'm in the closet, tim 460 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:10,639 in your dreams. I am the little bumps under your flesh, 461 00:38:11,039 --> 00:38:16,639 the whispers in your ears. You're forever friend. 462 00:38:18,039 --> 00:38:23,039 Speaker 7: You're not my friend. I am You're not my friend. 463 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:25,320 Speaker 9: I am. 464 00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:27,480 Speaker 3: You just don't know it yet. 465 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:32,480 Speaker 7: I don't understand. 466 00:38:33,639 --> 00:38:41,639 Speaker 3: You understand that I am real? Yes, do you understand 467 00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:43,559 that I am always there? 468 00:38:45,440 --> 00:38:45,760 Speaker 7: Yes? 469 00:38:46,559 --> 00:38:50,559 Speaker 3: You understand that you can't escape? 470 00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:55,440 Speaker 7: Yes, you escapes? 471 00:38:57,719 --> 00:38:58,119 Speaker 2: Yes. 472 00:39:00,199 --> 00:39:04,880 Speaker 3: So take your hand and place it over your heart. 473 00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:11,039 What think of it as another game that happens to 474 00:39:11,119 --> 00:39:15,960 be true? Put your hand over your heart? 475 00:39:17,039 --> 00:39:19,840 Speaker 2: Okay, what do you feel. 476 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:23,320 Speaker 7: It's beating? 477 00:39:24,559 --> 00:39:26,280 Speaker 3: Why is it beating? 478 00:39:27,199 --> 00:39:30,480 Speaker 7: I don't know, it's just beating. It's a heart, That's 479 00:39:30,519 --> 00:39:31,159 what it does. 480 00:39:32,599 --> 00:39:36,800 Speaker 3: And what happens when the beating stops? 481 00:39:38,519 --> 00:39:41,079 Speaker 7: I die? 482 00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:42,960 Speaker 2: You die? 483 00:39:45,199 --> 00:39:46,360 Speaker 7: You're going to kill me. 484 00:39:47,519 --> 00:39:52,679 Speaker 3: I am not and I will not on that day. 485 00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,400 The one coming for you is time. 486 00:39:58,320 --> 00:39:58,760 Speaker 7: Time. 487 00:40:00,519 --> 00:40:04,159 Speaker 3: Tell me again, what do you feel. 488 00:40:05,480 --> 00:40:07,000 Speaker 7: My heart is beating? 489 00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,960 Speaker 3: Yes? And you are alive. 490 00:40:13,119 --> 00:40:14,440 Speaker 7: I'm alive. 491 00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:29,519 Speaker 3: For now, for now, and now you understand? A final 492 00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:34,920 question from a friend. Now that you know that time 493 00:40:35,039 --> 00:40:41,039 is coming and I am waiting, what are you going 494 00:40:41,159 --> 00:40:42,360 to do about it? 495 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,440 Speaker 7: Hello? Hello? 496 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:58,320 Speaker 2: Hello, m. 497 00:41:08,079 --> 00:41:10,599 Speaker 1: I don't know. Is that a bit too on the 498 00:41:10,639 --> 00:41:11,719 nose for you? 499 00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:11,960 Speaker 3: You know? 500 00:41:12,760 --> 00:41:16,920 Speaker 1: Carpeid dim sees the moments because the moments are fleeting. 501 00:41:17,159 --> 00:41:21,239 Death may not be the enemy, but death awaits us 502 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:26,079 all and maybe the real enemy or adversary. Anyways, time 503 00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:29,920 I like it, and I kind of like the message. 504 00:41:30,039 --> 00:41:33,280 Of it, and I hope you did as well. I 505 00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:35,519 may have mentioned a few months ago that I was 506 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:41,599 invited to participate in a paranormal investigation. Oh, this was 507 00:41:41,639 --> 00:41:44,559 something that I had always wanted to do. 508 00:41:44,719 --> 00:41:45,000 Speaker 3: Now. 509 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,679 Speaker 1: I love ghost stories, but again I am a skeptic. 510 00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:51,840 I myself have never seen a ghost, so I see 511 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:56,639 it as enjoyable fiction, a chance to escape, good storytelling. 512 00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:59,519 That's what a ghost story is for me. But I 513 00:41:59,559 --> 00:42:02,800 think also if we are creatures of the evidence, we 514 00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:05,800 can't close our minds completely. We have to go in 515 00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:09,960 and say where is the evidence? And so a friend 516 00:42:10,039 --> 00:42:13,599 named Brandon Brisau does a lot of these. He travels 517 00:42:13,599 --> 00:42:17,440 all around the region and he goes into supposedly haunted 518 00:42:17,519 --> 00:42:22,559 places with his cameras, etc. And this time Brandon and 519 00:42:22,639 --> 00:42:26,199 I were allowed to tag along with the Tulsa, Oklahoma 520 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:30,559 Paranormal Studies Group or TOPS is how they are known, 521 00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:34,440 and they have a website Tulsa Paranormal dot Com. I 522 00:42:34,519 --> 00:42:38,679 must say these were tremendously kind and gracious people. They 523 00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:41,199 could have said, no, you're not allowed to come. We 524 00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:46,239 know you are non believers in the supernatural and you're 525 00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:48,719 going to come in and either kill the buzz or 526 00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:51,039 you're going to make fun of us, and we guarantee 527 00:42:51,079 --> 00:42:54,440 that it's absolutely not. Why we were there. We wanted 528 00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:58,480 to investigate, and I've always been that guy, you know. 529 00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:01,519 I'll spend the night in the house, I'll go to 530 00:43:01,559 --> 00:43:06,519 the cemetery with a sleeping bag. I'll investigate the haunted mansion. 531 00:43:06,599 --> 00:43:10,119 And the mansion in question this time was the Brown 532 00:43:10,679 --> 00:43:14,880 Mansion in Coffeeville, Kansas, which was built well over one 533 00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:19,199 hundred years ago by a wealthy guy who experienced a 534 00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:22,280 tremendous amount of tragedy and loss of life in his 535 00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:26,079 own family, and as such, it is said that the 536 00:43:26,119 --> 00:43:30,079 mansion is haunted. So Brandon and I arrived there before 537 00:43:30,119 --> 00:43:33,079 anybody else. We were outside in the parking lot. It's 538 00:43:33,119 --> 00:43:35,800 a tourist attraction. You can actually go and tour the 539 00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:38,840 place for its history. It's the kind of place that 540 00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:43,599 has a gift shop downstairs. But also the haunted history 541 00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:46,360 is an attraction for a great many people. So we 542 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:49,760 were outside did some stand up interviews. I had a 543 00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,760 three camera rig, so I shot a bunch of exteriors 544 00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:56,960 and then we went inside and room by room we 545 00:43:57,039 --> 00:44:03,719 looked for evidence of spirits, ghosts, phantoms, something other worldly. 546 00:44:04,639 --> 00:44:09,800 And as the paranormal group was gearing up, I got 547 00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:12,840 to be careful how I say this, But as they 548 00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:16,639 were preparing to go on their own investigation, I noticed 549 00:44:16,679 --> 00:44:19,800 that many of the tools that they were using were 550 00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:24,119 the same things that we have long debunked on this show. 551 00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:24,559 Speaker 3: Right. 552 00:44:24,599 --> 00:44:29,079 Speaker 1: The EMF meter for electromagnetic frequencies. It has the little 553 00:44:29,119 --> 00:44:32,320 dots on it one through five, and I'm like, well, actually, 554 00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,159 you know, you get that thing close to an electrical 555 00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:37,639 chord or something and it's going to go off. They 556 00:44:37,679 --> 00:44:41,119 had the dots, the dots that shoot those little pin 557 00:44:41,199 --> 00:44:44,320 dots all around in case an apparition moves through, you 558 00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:48,159 can see its shape. I actually kind of buy that one. 559 00:44:48,719 --> 00:44:51,320 If something was to move through and it's physical but 560 00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:54,599 not quite physical, like invisible, then you could see the 561 00:44:54,679 --> 00:44:57,960 form of it in the little laser dots. Okay, I'll 562 00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:01,719 give you that one. They had a spear box, and 563 00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:04,119 if you remember the interview that I did I think 564 00:45:04,159 --> 00:45:07,320 a couple of years ago with Kenny Biddle, who is 565 00:45:07,519 --> 00:45:11,400 the chief investigator at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, he 566 00:45:11,559 --> 00:45:14,079 was showing me how these things work. The spirit box 567 00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:16,519 is a frequency scanner so it just goes all the 568 00:45:16,559 --> 00:45:18,280 way up and down the dial, and you hear this 569 00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:23,360 chap and he grabs whatever audio, whatever spoken word, whatever 570 00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:26,519 song lyric might be sung, and then it moves on 571 00:45:26,639 --> 00:45:31,440 after a micro second. And there are pattern seeking people 572 00:45:31,519 --> 00:45:35,119 who will then pick up what they perceive as messages 573 00:45:35,639 --> 00:45:38,639 in the spirit box. But it's just a frequency scanner. 574 00:45:38,679 --> 00:45:41,039 So they had one of those. There were a bunch 575 00:45:41,079 --> 00:45:45,599 of other tools that they used, infrared, temperature sensitive cameras, 576 00:45:45,719 --> 00:45:50,320 that kind of stuff, And so I wasn't smirking, but 577 00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:53,599 I had to resist the temptation to actually sit down 578 00:45:53,679 --> 00:45:56,960 and walk them through what these things are and what 579 00:45:57,039 --> 00:46:00,840 they don't actually do. And they took them selves very 580 00:46:01,079 --> 00:46:06,880 very seriously, but again lovely folk, lovely lovely people who 581 00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:10,480 were so generous to allow us there. I produced a 582 00:46:11,079 --> 00:46:15,000 video of the experience. It does include the history of 583 00:46:15,039 --> 00:46:19,320 the place, the stories of the people, their lives, their deaths, 584 00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:22,920 and the supposed hauntings, what the ghosts are said to do. 585 00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:27,239 And then at the end, because I didn't see anything 586 00:46:27,679 --> 00:46:30,039 in the mansion and neither did Brandon, I thought, well, 587 00:46:30,039 --> 00:46:33,159 I can't leave it like this, So for the last 588 00:46:33,159 --> 00:46:37,440 four minutes of my video, I went back and using 589 00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:42,519 special effects and music, I added my own ghosts. I 590 00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:48,760 made the Brown Mansion Haunted. And it's big fun. And 591 00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:50,519 if I'm going to be a man of integrity, and 592 00:46:50,559 --> 00:46:54,519 I say that I added ghosts. I and one of 593 00:46:54,519 --> 00:46:57,920 our listeners, a friend named Nathan Pizar, who knows a 594 00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:01,480 lot more about using Adobe after effects than I do. 595 00:47:01,599 --> 00:47:05,440 He was able to put together the bloody handprints scene. 596 00:47:06,119 --> 00:47:08,719 I fubbled with it for a couple of days. I 597 00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:11,119 couldn't figure out how to get it right. Nathan came 598 00:47:11,159 --> 00:47:13,719 in and save the day. So huge thanks out to 599 00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:17,960 him for those few seconds of genius. And that video 600 00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:22,239 is linked in the description box. It's a ride. It 601 00:47:22,360 --> 00:47:26,639 was something different. It's enjoyable for anybody who enjoys this 602 00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:28,920 time of year. And then at the end, I get 603 00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:31,599 to pull the rug out from underneath everybody and just 604 00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:34,760 crank it up to eleven. So it is called is 605 00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:38,760 the Brown Mansion Haunted? It is linked in the description 606 00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:45,039 box of this podcast. Stand by for the final segment 607 00:47:45,639 --> 00:48:09,480 and the final few ghost stories on the way next. 608 00:48:11,239 --> 00:48:15,039 Over the years, we have talked about various haunted hotels 609 00:48:15,320 --> 00:48:20,559 and homes. The Balliska Axe Murder House, the Queen Anne Hotel, 610 00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:24,559 the Stanley. Right now, I want to tell you about 611 00:48:24,599 --> 00:48:28,159 an apartments building on the northwest corner of seventy second 612 00:48:28,159 --> 00:48:32,239 Street in the upper west side of Manhattan, the Dakota. 613 00:48:33,559 --> 00:48:36,679 Back when the building was conceived, the upper west Side 614 00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:41,599 was mostly undeveloped, but a man named Edward Clark, head 615 00:48:41,599 --> 00:48:45,280 of the sewing machine firm Singer, decided to construct an 616 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:50,239 apartment building there, with four years of construction finally finished 617 00:48:50,239 --> 00:48:55,920 in October of eighteen eighty four. Ironically, Edward Clark would 618 00:48:55,960 --> 00:49:00,079 die before the project was completed, and that is a 619 00:49:00,119 --> 00:49:03,760 tragedy unto itself, as he had put so much time 620 00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:08,400 and imagination and heart and money into what he wanted 621 00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:14,039 to be a place of perfection. The features of this 622 00:49:14,159 --> 00:49:19,079 apartment building harkened back to the German Renaissance with flares 623 00:49:19,119 --> 00:49:23,679 of French artistry. The design included a large courtyard in 624 00:49:23,719 --> 00:49:28,199 the center, a big arched entrance for horse drawn carriages 625 00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:33,360 to approach. The floors were inlaid with mahogany, oak and cherry. 626 00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:37,960 There were originally sixteen apartments, which doesn't sound like a 627 00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:41,920 lot for a nine story building until you realize that 628 00:49:42,039 --> 00:49:46,119 many of those single apartments had more than a dozen rooms. 629 00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:50,639 Some had as many as twenty rooms in a single apartment, 630 00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:55,000 with fourteen foot ceilings and a unique designed for each 631 00:49:55,239 --> 00:50:01,719 individual unit. The Dakota had so manyies, a gymnasium, a 632 00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:06,039 central kitchen serving all of the residents, a private garden, 633 00:50:06,320 --> 00:50:11,000 tennis court, croquet field. It's no wonder that the Dakota 634 00:50:11,199 --> 00:50:18,559 attracted famous residents from all around the world. Living spaces 635 00:50:18,639 --> 00:50:23,440 so often become dying spaces, don't they, And one hundred 636 00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:26,880 and forty one years after it opened, the Dakota has 637 00:50:26,920 --> 00:50:32,360 certainly proven itself no exception. Tony Award winning actress Judy 638 00:50:32,519 --> 00:50:35,760 Holliday lived in that building until she died of breast 639 00:50:35,840 --> 00:50:39,679 cancer in nineteen sixty five at the age of forty three. 640 00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:43,280 When her apartment was being renovated for the next tenant, 641 00:50:43,559 --> 00:50:47,360 workers were heard whispering about a strange vibe in the room, 642 00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:52,159 cooling temperatures, a chill in the air, and the inescapable 643 00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:58,480 feeling that they were being watched. Both residents and visitors 644 00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:03,119 have reported seeing a little girl walking the hallways. She 645 00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:07,760 is dressed in late nineteenth century clothing, has blonde hair, 646 00:51:08,239 --> 00:51:13,000 and sometimes she bounces a little red ball. Usually she 647 00:51:13,199 --> 00:51:17,440 only waves, but one resident reported that the girl spoke 648 00:51:17,559 --> 00:51:21,800 out loud to her. The girl smiled and said, today 649 00:51:22,039 --> 00:51:28,079 is my birthday. There's allegedly a poltergeist in the basement. 650 00:51:28,559 --> 00:51:32,719 Of course, a poultergeist is a mischievous spirit which causes 651 00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:39,239 physical disturbances, thrown objects, loud noises, and sometimes even tripping 652 00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:43,440 or biting the living. The basement of the Dakota has 653 00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:48,440 seen phenomena typical of a poultergeist, flickering lights and the 654 00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:52,920 moving of heavy furniture. Some believe it is the ghost 655 00:51:53,079 --> 00:51:57,599 of Edward Clark. The few sightings of that spirit describe 656 00:51:57,639 --> 00:52:01,920 a man who looks exactly like Clark, short beard, a 657 00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:06,760 long nose, and wire spectacles. As he himself never got 658 00:52:06,760 --> 00:52:10,639 to take up residence in that building in life, many 659 00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:14,719 wonder if he has made the Dakota his home in death. 660 00:52:17,079 --> 00:52:21,119 I suppose this building will mostly remain known for two 661 00:52:21,639 --> 00:52:25,639 other reasons. The Dakota was featured in one of America's 662 00:52:25,679 --> 00:52:30,280 greatest horror movies. Think of the Dakota the next time 663 00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:36,159 you watch the nineteen sixty eight classic Rosemary's Baby, where 664 00:52:36,239 --> 00:52:42,639 Mia Pharaoh's character Rosemary is impregnated with the devil. Much 665 00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:46,280 more horrifying is a moment in our history books from 666 00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:51,039 just a few decades ago. Some have reported seeing the 667 00:52:51,119 --> 00:52:54,800 ghost of the victim. But we don't have to see 668 00:52:54,840 --> 00:52:59,519 spirits to be haunted. Haunted by the memory of the 669 00:52:59,639 --> 00:53:03,280 killing of a famous resident, which took place under the 670 00:53:03,360 --> 00:53:08,239 apartment archway at approximately ten point fifty pm on the 671 00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:14,679 eighth of December nineteen eighty. In memory and legacy, the 672 00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:19,480 Dakota remains haunted, and you and I are haunted by 673 00:53:19,559 --> 00:53:23,920 the murder of John Lennon. 674 00:54:04,239 --> 00:54:07,559 Speaker 12: My sister Christine and I had just been kids. She 675 00:54:07,719 --> 00:54:11,719 was nine, I was eleven. We lived for many years 676 00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:15,000 on that big Nebraska farm in Cherry County. Inside the 677 00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:19,960 old farmhouse, we spent so much time exploring every dusty 678 00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:24,760 corner of that place, from the downstairs closets to the deepest. 679 00:54:24,360 --> 00:54:25,239 Speaker 2: Corner of the attic. 680 00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:29,920 Speaker 12: Christina and I loved the shape of the house, the 681 00:54:30,039 --> 00:54:33,880 labyrinth of rooms, the cracking white pain on the outside, 682 00:54:33,960 --> 00:54:36,960 and the lived in chairs and sofas on the inside. 683 00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:40,280 Speaker 2: The floors creaked when you walked on them. 684 00:54:40,639 --> 00:54:44,320 Speaker 12: The window glass was not quite smooth, making everything beyond 685 00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:48,280 look just a little out of shape. The kitchen countertops 686 00:54:48,320 --> 00:54:52,800 were old ceramic tile, The fixtures seemed like something from 687 00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:57,760 an old hotel. We loved that house, but even more 688 00:54:58,440 --> 00:55:02,960 we loved the ghost that we called Mother. Our real 689 00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:06,599 mother had left us years before, not on purpose. She 690 00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:11,800 left this world. She was taken by something called Typhus, 691 00:55:12,119 --> 00:55:15,719 which we didn't understand. We only understood that she had 692 00:55:15,719 --> 00:55:21,639 gotten very sick, fallen asleep, and stayed asleep. Her name 693 00:55:21,639 --> 00:55:24,960 had been Evelyn, and that's how we referred to her 694 00:55:24,960 --> 00:55:28,960 in memory. We didn't call her mother because that name 695 00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:33,800 was already taken. Mother was the ghost, and she was 696 00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:38,360 the secret. Christina and I kept to ourselves. Whoever she 697 00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:41,280 had been in life, she must have been a wonderful mother. 698 00:55:42,159 --> 00:55:46,760 She took such interest in us. Some mornings, when Christine 699 00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:49,159 and I woke up, we'd both find a cup of 700 00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:52,840 milk on the table next to our bed, each had 701 00:55:52,840 --> 00:55:57,800 been left there by Mother. Also inside our shared bedroom 702 00:55:58,079 --> 00:56:01,039 was the old chair, which I've been in that house 703 00:56:01,159 --> 00:56:05,000 long before we moved into it. In the night, as 704 00:56:05,039 --> 00:56:08,719 we were sleeping, Mother the ghost would scoot the chair 705 00:56:09,079 --> 00:56:12,519 inch by inch out of the corner and to the 706 00:56:12,559 --> 00:56:16,199 center of the room. It was as if she wanted 707 00:56:16,239 --> 00:56:22,920 to watch us, be with us, protect us. After a time, 708 00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:27,159 the chair would then tip on its own and fall 709 00:56:27,199 --> 00:56:30,199 backward to the floor, as if it was a playmate 710 00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:35,599 fainting to make you laugh, and we would laugh and 711 00:56:35,639 --> 00:56:38,519 then playfully. We would scoot the chair back into the 712 00:56:38,559 --> 00:56:41,760 corner every day, just so Mother could move it forward 713 00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:47,639 in the night. There was something comforting about this routine. 714 00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:51,000 Soon Christina and I would see the chair inching forward, 715 00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:54,840 even during the day when we were wide awake. We 716 00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:58,519 might be reading a book, or playing with toys, or 717 00:56:58,559 --> 00:57:01,920 maybe just daydreaming. When we heard the scratching of the 718 00:57:02,000 --> 00:57:06,039 chair's feet on the wooden floor, we weren't afraid of it. 719 00:57:06,920 --> 00:57:10,119 There was no reason to be afraid. It was just 720 00:57:10,320 --> 00:57:17,360 the ghost. It was just mother's chair. Those days were 721 00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:21,960 so long ago, and those events looked so innocent through 722 00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:25,599 the eyes of children. I was an adult of twenty 723 00:57:25,639 --> 00:57:29,480 eight years living a thousand miles away before I committed 724 00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:32,239 myself to learn about the history of the old house 725 00:57:33,440 --> 00:57:38,320 a murder house. I remember browsing the newspaper clipping from 726 00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:43,840 December seventeenth, nineteen nineteen. The columns of the story had 727 00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:46,960 been stamped by a typewriter and printing press from a 728 00:57:47,039 --> 00:57:51,760 century ago, before being imperfectly scanned and neatly tucked into 729 00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:56,400 a library archive. I remember that the captured image of 730 00:57:56,440 --> 00:58:00,599 the ink and paper felt like a time machine, and 731 00:58:01,199 --> 00:58:04,119 I remember mouthing the words of the story as I 732 00:58:04,159 --> 00:58:09,199 read it silently. Murder and Madness come to Cherry County. 733 00:58:10,039 --> 00:58:13,400 A community reels from shock at the discovery of the 734 00:58:13,440 --> 00:58:17,239 body of Agnes Hill, a recent widow and mother of 735 00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:20,239 two daughters, who was found hanging from a rope in 736 00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:24,960 the center of the children's room upstairs. Under her suspended 737 00:58:25,039 --> 00:58:28,400 corpse was the toppled wooden chair which she had stood 738 00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:32,320 upon to secure the noose. In the nearby beds were 739 00:58:32,360 --> 00:58:36,199 her children, both of them murdered with a cup of 740 00:58:36,320 --> 00:58:41,239 poisoned milk. It appears the woman had succumbed to grief 741 00:58:41,440 --> 00:58:45,199 and taken her daughters with her to the grave. Whether 742 00:58:45,239 --> 00:58:49,440 she was acting from spite or twisted sympathy, the true 743 00:58:49,519 --> 00:58:52,880 story of this terrible event may never actually be known. 744 00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:58,559 Memorials for the children will be announced, the farmhouse will 745 00:58:58,559 --> 00:59:07,159 be put up for auction. Isn't it interesting how children 746 00:59:07,280 --> 00:59:11,119 have no say in how they're born or to whom 747 00:59:11,480 --> 00:59:15,719 or where. Even now I can't decide if Christine and 748 00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:20,840 I were lucky, we were unlucky. Our midnight milk never 749 00:59:20,840 --> 00:59:25,320 made us sick, but we slept exactly where Agnes Hill's 750 00:59:25,400 --> 00:59:28,639 daughters had slept, and it would have been oh so 751 00:59:28,840 --> 00:59:33,960 easy to literally drink us to death. I think about 752 00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:39,679 this often. I also think about that wooden chair. If 753 00:59:39,719 --> 00:59:43,159 only we had known why it moved out of the corner, 754 00:59:44,039 --> 00:59:47,800 why it always found the center of the room, and 755 00:59:47,960 --> 00:59:52,360 why it would tip over on its own. My sister 756 00:59:52,440 --> 00:59:57,320 and I spent years in that room, in that murder house. 757 00:59:58,480 --> 01:00:02,719 We were the girls under the gallows, drinking milk brought 758 01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:06,960 to us by the ghost we called Mother. 759 01:00:20,800 --> 01:00:24,719 Speaker 1: Oh there is a lesson, there isn't there. Always raise 760 01:00:24,760 --> 01:00:29,840 an eyebrow. Always be skeptical of anyone, especially a guardian 761 01:00:29,880 --> 01:00:34,519 who brings you something to drink right before you go 762 01:00:34,920 --> 01:00:41,480 to sleep. Again. Thank you to my amazing voice actors 763 01:00:41,519 --> 01:00:46,360 for the show today. I mentioned Jeffrey Headquist and Sarah Partridge. 764 01:00:46,400 --> 01:00:52,679 Also Aleno Wiss, Daisy May Parsons, and Wolf Williams. Really 765 01:00:52,719 --> 01:00:56,119 really talented actors and a great addition to the show. 766 01:00:56,559 --> 01:00:59,119 I hope the rest of Your month of October is 767 01:00:59,280 --> 01:01:04,360 spooky and safe and amazing and happy Halloween