The Midnight Train Podcast

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The dark COMEDY podcast about everything mysterious. From unsolved history & true crime to folklore & the supernatural, nothing is off the table. Listener discretion is always advised. All aboard!

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Tuesday Mar 17, 2020

S3E6 Bloody Mary, Mirrors and the REAL Candyman

Tuesday Mar 17, 2020

We’ve all heard about the legend of “Bloody Mary”. She’s the evil bitch that visits your woman once a month, usually when you have vacation plans and turns your girl into a monster for a week or so. Oops… wrong. Wrong story. That’s my fault. Sorry, Ladies.

No! Bloody Mary is a ghost of sorts that is said to appear when you look into a mirror and say her name three times. There are quite a few variations of the story. Some say she tries to drag you into the mirror. Others say that you don’t even need a mirror. You can just go into a dark closet and summon her. Either way, let’s see what we can find on this sinister old bag.

History claims that the ritual was performed by a young woman with a mirror and a candle walking backwards up a flight of darkened stairs, which sounds extremely dangerous. I wouldn’t recommend this while drinking THAT VOUDOUX!. As the tale mentions, it was Bloody Mary, also known as the tormented spirit of Queen Mary I. Her evil soul had been trapped in the mirror for burning over 280 protesters at the stake in the middle ages and she would predict these young ladies futures. As the woman ascends the stairs, backwards mind you, with a candle in one hand and a small mirror in the other, she's hoping to see that Bloody Mary will show her the reflection of her future husband's face. However, if she sees a skull, odds are… that bitch gonna die before she gets married.

As time goes on and people progress, or progressively get dumber, the tale of Bloody Mary changed. It was no longer the evil Queen Mary I. No, this new woman was “Mary Worth” and you no longer had to walk backwards up stairs, with candles, in the dark while looking for your husband’s face. Now, you had to enter a darkened room with a mirror and say one of the following: either “I believe in Mary Worth”, “Bloody Mary” or my favorite “FUCK YOU BITCH I AIN”T AFRAID OF YOU!” I made up that last one, but you should still try it.
Now, the amount of times you need to repeat her name changes from three to thirteen. Which, 13 being a historically evil number kind of makes sense. So, who the fuck was Mary Worth?

There isn’t a ton of information on Mary Worth but what I did find is that during the civil war, in Chicago, there once lived a witch named, you guessed it… “Mary Worth”. Legend has it that she used to live on the old wagon road and would abduct slaves, keeping them in her barn, doing whatever it is that witches do to slaves in that time period. Maybe they were sex slaves. Maybe they were making brooms for the other witches. Or maybe, just maybe… she skinned them alive and used their flesh to keep her youthful appearances. No one really knows…

As it always happens, the locals got fed up with Mary’s bullshit and yoked that sex craved cannibal up by her new broomstick and tied her to a fucking stake. They lit that fucker up and Mary was heard screaming “HOLY SHIT THIS IS HOT!” I’m paraphrasing, of course. Actually, as she was burning, she cursed the villagers and told them that whoever dared to utter her name in a mirror, her spirit would return to wherever they summoned her from to exact her revenge
As the story goes, they buried Mary on her own farm and some decades later, a farmer and his wife had purchased the land where she had been laid to rest, building their home on the very foundation where Mary’s barn once stood, the barn where she once practiced her supposed “black magic”. Not having any fucks to give, the farmer cleared the land to grow oats.

Strange things started happening around their home, especially after the farmer moved a stone from the yard that was suspected of being Mary Worth’s unmarked headstone and put it around his house, as a stepping stone. Dishes began to fall and break by themselves, objects moved on their own and even the farmer's wife had been locked in the barn without any indication how it happened. The farmer began to give a fuck or two and attempted to return the stone to where he had found it, hoping to end the curse. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The house burned to the ground in 1989 and several houses have been burned down since then, whenever someone attempts to build and live on Mary’s land.

So what happens in this version of the tale? Legend says that if you say her name three times in a mirror she’ll appear, take your soul for her own and rip yours to shreds in the process. She’ll leave your soul to burn, just like she was left to burn by the villagers and worst of all, you’ll be subjected to an eternity trapped in the mirror.

Speaking of mirrors, let’s discuss some mirror based folklore and legends that have transpired throughout the ages. Why are mirrors linked to so many different superstitions and tales? We know that in Snow White, that shitty bitch the queen would look into her magic mirror and get some updates on the future and seemingly get lied to. Would have been great if she asked “Who’s the fairest of them all?” and the mirror just started laughing and blurted out “Not you, you ol hag!” Anyway.

Being able to use a mirror to foretell the future seems to have been first mentioned in the bible, in 1st Corinthians 13 where it says: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Some people a hell of a lot smarter than I am seem to think that has something to do with a mirror n shit. I dunno. I’m not a doctor.

In 1787, the Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote about standing in front of a mirror, eating an apple with a lit candlestick in order to make a spirit appear. Sounds right. During Halloween in the British Isles, they used to believe that they could look into a mirror and perform a nonverbal ritual to see whom you would marry, in the future. Probably a middle finger or something. There also used to be a superstition that all mirrors had to be turned away or covered if a deceased person were being transported nearby. Some thought it was out of respect, others believed the uncovered mirrors would open a gateway into hell, it’s self. Kind of like how Jeff feels when he enters best buy.

Breaking a mirror, it is said, will bring you 7 years of bad luck. Moody must have destroyed an entire mirror store when he was younger. This superstition goes back to the Romans who thought life renewed every seven years, thus if you broke a mirror, your soul would be fucked for that time period. However, the slaves of early America believed that you could gather the pieces of the broken mirror, and soak them in a south flowing river for 7 hours in order to lift the 7 year curse. Another remedy says that you could grind the shards into a fine powder, eliminating any reflections, what-so-ever and snorting them through a Hundred dollar bill. It’s said you could bury the fragments, as well. Please don’t snort mirror dust, people. That part was a joke.
Many times, a very twisted spirit attaches to the mirror. Many mentally sick people, like psychopaths, have a narcissistic disorder. They spend a lot of time looking at themselves in mirrors. They’re vain, vapid and evil.

Mirrors capture the essence of these people. When an evil person projects that much energy into their image, it’s bound to get locked into the mirror. A link to the spirit is now forged. - ghostly activities.com… thought this was interesting
Mirrors once held a very prominent part of the world of magic. Practitioners of magic would use the mirror for “Scrying”, basically eavesdropping on someone, somewhere else, and for communicating. Catoptromancy, or enoptromancy, was a ritual where mirrors were used to predict the future. In ancient Greece othey would lower a mirror on a thin thread towards a body of water until the edge of the mirror barely touched. They would then gaze into the reflections of both the mirror and the water, predicting the future and that there would be 6 more weeks of winter.

You know what they say about Vampires and Demons, right? They cannot see their reflection in a mirror because mirrors were once considered to be able to show a person’s “real soul”. Well, if you don’t have a soul, you won’t see your reflection. Makes sense. Or does it? I don’t know. Moving on.

According to “Weekinweird.com”, here are a few more superstitions involving mirrors:

• If a new couple first catch sight of each other in a mirror, they will have a happy marriage.
• To see an image of her future husband, a girl was told to eat an apple while sitting in front of a mirror, then brush her hair. While doing so, an image of the man would appear behind her shoulder.
• If you feel sorrowful or troubled while home alone, with no one to talk to and no apparent way to control your depression, stand before a mirror and gaze into your eyes. Your anxiety should disappear.
• Ancient Chinese believed that mirrors frightened away evil spirits who were scared by their own appearance. If the mirror was broken, the protection was lost.
Needless to say, there are a vastly larger number of negative superstitions related to mirrors, including such things as:
• If a mirror falls and breaks by itself, someone in the house will soon die.
• Someone seeing their reflection in a room where someone has recently died, will soon die themselves.
• Actors believe that it is bad luck to see their reflection while looking over the shoulder of another person.
• Ideally, no mirror should be hung so low that it “cuts off” the tallest household member’s head (doing so may cause headaches).
There’s even a curse about a “black mirror” that can assist with “Scrying”, kind of like a crystal ball, that once peering into it can show you your dark future. It’s been known to show a person’s decomposing self and in others, just a complete sense of dread and disdain.

I read someplace when i was younger that if you have a mirror or mirrors that are constantly dirty or foggy that it's a sign they or the house is haunted

Since we’re talking about lore involving mirrors, and with the reboot of this iconic movie coming out soon, we have to mention “Candyman”. The movie is partly based on the legend of Bloody Mary. You stand in front of a mirror, say the name “Candyman” 3 times and he comes out and guts you with his hook. Pleasant. I absolutely love the original but… I don’t want to talk about THAT Candyman. If you scare easily or don’t like to hear about true crime and it’s horrible realization that people can do the most vile things imaginable, perhaps you should turn this episode off, or at least skip ahead. You’ve been warned.
Dean Arnold Corll was born on December 24th, 1939 in Fort Wayne Indiana. His parents moved to Pasadena, TX and divorced shortly after. At a young age, Corll’s mother and stepfather started a candy company called “Pecan Prince” where Corll worked with his younger brother, even while still in school. He was an ok student who didn’t misbehave, was kind of quiet and loved playing the trombone in the brass band.
Graduating in 1958, Corll’s family opened an actual candy shop. He briefly moved away but returned to Houston in 1962 to help his family with the candy business. Shortly after, his mother divorced his stepfather and started her own candy business named “Corll Candy Company” where Dean was appointed vice president until a teenage male employee went to his mother claiming that Corll had made sexual advances at him. Momma fired her oldest boy for being a fuckin creep and he was drafted into the US Army shortly after.
Following his time in the Army, Corll returned home and momma allowed creepy Dean to have his job back. In 1965, the company moved to a different location, right across the street from an Elementary school. Corll would give candy to the kids from the school, paying special attention to the young boys. Of course, the neighborhood started calling him “Candy Man” and his and momma’s candy company would employ young teenage boys as part of their small workforce. Creepy Dean acted even more creepy and provocative toward some of these employees, going as far as putting in a pool table in the back of the candy factory to bring in more young males, as well as the boys working there.
In 1967, 28 year old Corll met 12 year old David Brooks and became friends. THE FUCK! They hung out all of the time and by 1969, Corll was paying young Brooks to allow him to um, do things to his, ya know… nether region... DOUBLE FUCK! I told you guys…This is rough. whew!
Ok. That’s enough of that. Bottom line, Brooks and another kid, Elmer Henly, eventually were convinced to help super fuckin creepy pedophile Corll abduct, torture and murder no less than 28 13-20 year old young men between 1970 and 1973. They would lure the dudes back with hopes of money, drugs and alcohol where super, extra, fucked up and twisted creepy pedophile Corll would sexually assault, torture and kill them. Some of these victims were Brooks and Henly’s fucking FRIENDS!! I fucking hate this guy.
Well, there is some good news in this. On August 8th, 1973, Henly and another buddy of his, who was supposed to be Corll’s next fucking victim, picked up another friend of his, Rhonda Williams, a 15 year old girl who had just been beaten by her drunken piece of shit dad, and henley, his buddy and Rhonda all went back to Corll’s house. Yeah, Corll flipped his psychotic lid when he saw that Henley brought a female to his house and Henley had to explain that she had just gone through some shit and just needed a place to chill. Corll relaxed and allowed them to party at his place until the 3 youngins all passed out.
When they awoke, super fucked up and beyond creepy pedophile Corll had them all tied up, bound and gagged screaming that he couldn’t believe that Henley would bring a chic to his house and how he was going to kill all three of them. He even attempted to force Henley to cut off Rhonda’s clothes and rape her! But…
Henley quickly grabbed Corll’s pistol and told him that he’d gone too far. He pleaded with Corll saying that he couldn’t keep doing it and allowing him kill all of his friends. Corll’s response? “Kill me Wayne”, as he walked closer. “You won’t do it”.
BANG…
One shot to the head but it didn’t penetrate.
Corll walked closer, still.
BANG! BANG!
He hit Corll in the shoulder.
Corll ran away into the hallway where he hit the wall and stumbled over.
Creepy, piece of shit, pedophile, scumbag, shithead Corll died right where he landed. Naked and bloody.
The end of the REAL Candy Man.
I know that I left out quite a bit about this mother fucker but we’re a comedy podcast and the details of this shit is just too fucking dark. There are plenty of true crime podcasts that discuss this piece of shit, in great detail, so you passengers can research that if you’d like. But in all seriousness, FUCK THIS ASSHOLE.