The Midnight Train Podcast

Who Was The Somerton Man?

   At 7pm on the evening of November 30,1948, John Lyon and his wife were walking along Somerton Beach, just south of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. They noticed a well dressed man lying on the beach with his head propped up against the sea wall. The man was lying with his legs outstretched and his feet crossed. As the couple passed, they saw him raise his right arm and then it fell to the sand. John said it looked like a "drunken attempt to smoke a cigarette". A half hour later they were walking back the same way and noticed the same man was still there. There he was in his nice suit and polished shoes, an odd way to dress for lounging on the beach. He was still with his left arm laid out on the beach. The couple figured he was asleep, maybe passed out drunk. There were mosquitos buzzing all around his face. John commented to his wife "he must be dead to the world".

 

       The next morning John Lyons would discover how right he was. As he was returning from a morning swim, John noticed a cluster of people gathered around the area where he had seen the drunk man the day before. As he approached the group he saw a man slumped over in much the same position as the man from yesterday. The body was lying there, legs out, feet crossed, cigarette half smoked lying on his collar, but this man was not drunk, he was dead. This was the man John and his wife saw the day before, this was the Somerton Man! 

 

This case endures to this day as one of the greatest mysteries of Australia. No one is sure who the man is, why he ended up dead on the beach, or even how he died. Dr. John Barkley Bennett put the time of death at no earlier than 2 a.m., noted the likely cause of death as heart failure, and added that he suspected poisoning. The contents of the man’s pockets were spread out on a table: tickets from Adelaide to the beach, a pack of chewing gum, some matches, two combs and a pack of Army Club cigarettes containing seven cigarettes of another, more expensive brand called Kensitas. There was no wallet and no cash, and no ID. None of the man’s clothes had any name tags—indeed, in all but one case the maker’s label had been carefully snipped away. One trouser pocket had been neatly repaired with an unusual variety of orange thread. A day later a full autopsy was carried out and revealed some more strange things. It revealed that the corpse’s pupils were “smaller” than normal and “unusual,” that a dribble of saliva had run down the side of the man’s mouth as he lay, and that “he was probably unable to swallow it.” His spleen, meanwhile, “was strikingly large and firm, about three times normal size,” and the liver was distended with congested blood. In his stomach they found his last meal and more blood. He had eaten a pasty, a folded pastry with a savoury filling, typically of seasoned meat and vegetables. The blood in the stomach also suggested poisoning but there was no evidence that the food was the cause of any poisoning. The poisoning theory seemed to concur with the strange behavior the man exhibited on the beach, instead of drunken behavior it could have been the behavior of a man who had been suffering the effects of poisoning. Now, while this theory made sense given the evidence, repeated tests on both his blood and organs by an expert chemist failed to reveal the faintest trace of a poison. “I was astounded that he found nothing,” Dwyer admitted at the inquest. In fact, no cause of death was found. Among all this weirdness, other odd things were noticed. The dead man’s calf muscles were high and very well developed; although in his late 40s, he had the legs of an athlete. His toes, meanwhile, were oddly wedge-shaped. Testimony given by one experts went as follows: 

 

      I have not seen the tendency of calf muscle so pronounced as in this case…. His feet were rather striking, suggesting—this is my own assumption—that he had been in the habit of wearing high-heeled and pointed shoes.

 

Another expert had suggested that given these irregularities that maybe the man was actually a ballet dancer. 

 

Putting all this together made… Well… Zero sense. The coroner was informed by an eminent professor that the only practical solution was that a very rare poison had been used—one that “decomposed very early after death,” leaving no trace. The only poisons capable of this were so dangerous and deadly that the professor would not say their names aloud in open court. (My mind goes to Ricin, a highly potent toxin produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant.) Instead, he passed the coroner a scrap of paper on which he had written the names of two possible candidates: digitalis and strophanthin. The professor suspected the latter. Strophanthin is a rare glycoside derived from the seeds of some African plants. Historically, it was used by a little-known Somali tribe to poison arrows. 

 

At this point everyone was thoroughly and extremely confused. They took a full set of fingerprints and sent them all over Australia and then around the work to try and figure out who this guy was. There were no matches anywhere. They started bringing people with missing relatives into the mortuary to see if anyone recognized the man, no one did. 

 

By January 11, the South Australia police had investigated and dismissed pretty much every lead they had. The investigation was now widened in an attempt to locate any abandoned personal possessions, perhaps left luggage, that might suggest that the dead man had come from out of state. This meant checking every hotel, dry cleaner, lost property office and railway station for miles around. But it did produce results. On the 12th, detectives sent to the main railway station in Adelaide were shown a brown suitcase that had been deposited in the cloakroom there on November 30. The staff could remember nothing about the owner, and the case’s contents were not much more revealing. The case did contain a reel of orange thread identical to that used to repair the dead man’s trousers, but painstaking care had been applied to remove practically every trace of the owner’s identity. The case bore no stickers or markings, and get this, a label had been torn off from one side. The tags were missing from all but three items of the clothing inside; these bore the name “Kean” or “T. Keane,” but it proved impossible to trace anyone of that name, and the police concluded–an Adelaide newspaper reported–that someone “had purposely left them on, knowing that the dead man’s name was not ‘Kean’ or ‘Keane.’ ” So, a subterfuge! Spy games! (I just love that word)

 

The police had brought in another expert, John Cleland, emeritus professor of pathology at the University of Adelaide, to re-examine the corpse and the dead man’s possessions. In April, four months after the discovery of the body, Cleland’s search produced a final piece of evidence—one that would prove to be the most baffling of all. Cleland discovered a small pocket sewn into the waistband of the dead man’s trousers. Previous examiners had missed it, and several accounts of the case have referred to it as a “secret pocket,” but it seems to have been intended to hold a pocket watch. Inside, tightly rolled, was a minute scrap of paper, which, opened up, proved to contain two words, typeset in an elaborate printed script. The phrase read “Tamám Shud.” 

 

Frank Kennedy, the police reporter for the Adelaide Advertiser, recognized the words as Persian, and telephoned the police to suggest they obtain a copy of a book of poetry—the Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam. This work, written in the twelfth century, had become popular in Australia during the war years in a much-loved translation by Edward FitzGerald. It existed in numerous editions, but the usual intricate police enquiries to libraries, publishers and bookshops failed to find one that matched the fancy type. At least it was possible, however, to say that the words “Tamám shud” (or “Taman shud,” as several newspapers misprinted it—a mistake perpetuated ever since) did come from Khayyam’s romantic reflections on life and mortality. They were, in fact, the last words in most English translations— not surprisingly, because the phrase means “It is ended.” Weeeeird!

 

Taken at face value, this new clue suggested that the death might be a case of suicide; in fact, the South Australia police never did turn their “missing person” enquiries into a full-blown murder investigation. But the discovery took them no closer to identifying the dead man, and in the meantime his body had begun to decompose. Arrangements were made for a burial, but—being aware that they were disposing of one of the few pieces of evidence they had—the police first had the corpse embalmed, and a cast taken of the head and upper torso. After that, the body  was buried, sealed under concrete in a plot of dry ground specifically chosen in case it became necessary to exhume it. Oddly enough, As late as 1978, flowers would be found at odd intervals on the grave, but no one could ascertain who had left them there, or why. 

 

In July, a full eight months after the investigation had begun, the search for the right Rubaiyat produced results. On the 23rd, a Glenelg man walked into the Detective Office in Adelaide with a copy of the book and a strange story. Early the previous December, just after the discovery of the unknown body, he had gone for a drive with his brother-in-law in a car he kept parked a few hundred yards from Somerton Beach. The brother-in-law had found a copy of the Rubaiyat lying on the floor by the rear seats. Each man had silently assumed it belonged to the other, and the book had sat in the glove compartment ever since. Alerted by a newspaper article about the search, the two men had gone back to take a closer look. They found that part of the final page had been torn out, together with Khayyam’s final words. They went to the police.

 

Detective Sergeant Lionel Leane took a close look at the book. Almost at once he found a telephone number penciled on the rear cover; using a magnifying glass, he dimly made out the faint impression of some other letters, written in capitals underneath. Finally they had a solid clue!

 

So where did the clue lead them? Well the phone number was unlisted. But have no fear… They traced the number to a nurse who lived near Somerton Beach. The nurse has never been publicly identified. She is only known by the nickname Jestyn. She revealed to investigators that she had indeed given that book to a friend of hers, a man she knew in the war. She also gave them a name, Alfred Boxall.

 

Boom! Mystery solved!!! Right? Well maybe not so much. Detectives felt they had figured out the identity of the dead man. Except for the fact that when they tracked down Alfred Boxall in new south wales… He was still alive. Oh and also, the copy of the book he received from the nurse… He still had it and it was still intact. The gentle probing that the nurse received did yield some intriguing bits of information though; interviewed again, she recalled that some time the previous year—she could not be certain of the date—she had come home to be told by neighbors that an unknown man had called and asked for her. And, confronted with the cast of the dead man’s face, Jestyn seemed “completely taken aback, to the point of giving the appearance she was about to faint,” Leane said. She seemed to recognize the man, yet firmly denied that he was anyone she knew. 

 

That left the faint impression Sergeant Leane had noticed in the Glenelg Rubaiyat. Examined under ultraviolet light, five lines of jumbled letters could be seen, the second of which had been crossed out. The first three were separated from the last two by a pair of straight lines with an ‘x’ written over them. It seemed that they were some sort of code. They sent the message to Naval Intelligence, home to the finest cipher experts in Australia, and allowed the message to be published in the press. This produced a frenzy of amateur codebreaking, almost all of it worthless, and a message from the Navy concluding that the code appeared unbreakable:

 

          “From the manner in which the lines have been represented as being set out in the original, it is evident that the end of each line indicates a break in sense.

 

There is an insufficient number of letters for definite conclusions to be based on analysis, but the indications together with the acceptance of the above breaks in sense indicate, in so far as can be seen, that the letters do not constitute any kind of simple cipher or code.

 

The frequency of the occurrence of letters, whilst inconclusive, corresponds more favourably with the table of frequencies of initial letters of words in English than with any other table; accordingly a reasonable explanation would be that the lines are the initial letters of words of a verse of poetry or such like.”

 

The Australian police never cracked the code or identified the unknown man. The nurse, Jestyn died in 2007, so there's no possibility of ever getting her to reveal why she reacted the way she did when seeing the cast of the man. And when the South Australia coroner published the final results of his investigation in 1958, his report concluded with the admission:

 

I am unable to say who the deceased was… I am unable to say how he died or what was the cause of death.

 

And that's where the case sits

 

And that's it… Thank you guys and good night.

 

Oh wait… You want more? Fine.

 

The information on the initial case and investigation came from a great article on smithsonianmag.com

 

There… Still not enough…ok ok

 

So what about this nurse then. Turns out her actual name is Jessica Thompson and she passed in 2007 as stated earlier. Police had always felt she knew more than she was letting on. Her daughter would later say in an interview that she thought her mother knew the dead man. The reason her message was not released earlier is because she requested a pseudonym as she felt her connection to this case would be embarrassing. Why? Interesting. Some think that her real name is important because it may hold the key to deciphering the code. As stated earlier, her reaction to seeing the cast of the man led many people to think that she definitely knew the man. In a video we found the man who made the bust describes how when Jessica was brought in to see the bust she saw the likeness when a sheet was removed from it and immediately looked down and would not look at the bust again for the rest of the interview. It was during that interview that she gave them the information of Alfred Boxall. So the question remains with Jessica… Did she know the man? If she did know the man, why was she so informed to distance herself from this case? Was she involved in some way?

 

As far as the man himself, there are many theories floating around. One of the most prevailing theories is that he was a spy! We got us some James bond shit going down! Or maybe not. Others say he was involved in the black market as evidence but the clipped labels on his clothing. So he was dealing in babies and knock off clothing on the black market!!! Maybe not.  Well let's look into these theories and see what you guys think. 

 

One man who thinks there is a spy connection is Gordon Cramer, a former British detective with links to former intelligence officers. He says parts of the code match with Morse code letters found in the World War II Radio Operators Manual. He believed micro writing hidden within the letters of the five lines of code appeared to refer to the de Havilland Venom — a British post-war jet, still on the drawing board at the time.

 

He also saw the Somerton Man’s death coinciding with the start of the Cold War and, according to Mr Cramer, the visit to Adelaide of high-ranking British officials and weapons trials at Woomera — the later site of nuclear testing. So this guy thinks that's a link to show he may have been some sort of cold war spy. Other things that people say pointing to him being a spy include the family of our nurse friend telling 60 minutes Jestyn, aka Jessica Thomson may have been a Russian spy! And even crazier… That she may have had a son with the Somerton Man! This theory is further backed by another article we found. Derek Abbott, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Adelaide has spent over a decade studying the case. 

     

        “What makes this kind of go viral is, I think, just all the strange things. It kind of just gives you that creepy shiver down your spine.” 

 

DNA, Abbott said, is a key to solving the mystery. “I’m not so interested in how he died, but giving him his name back is the most important thing.”

 

Abbott also noticed that the man also had two distinctive features: canines next to middle teeth and ears with large upper hollows. After examining the mysterious letters of the code in the late 2000s, Dr. Abbott said, “I kind of fell down the rabbit hole.” In 2009 he tried to track down Mrs. Thomson (our nurse friend) for an interview but found that she had died two years earlier. She had a son who had been a DUN DUN DUNNNN professional ballet dancer, Dr. Abbott learned, and photos showed he had distinctive teeth and ears similar to the Somerton man’s. Oh shit son! Abbott decided to then track down this man but unfortunately he had died mere months before Abbott made his discovery. COINCIDENCE?? He found out that Thomson's son had a daughter of his own… So guess what… He tracked her down. And guess what… SHE was dead… Actually no that's not true she’s still alive. The woman's name was Rachel Egan. Ms. Egan had never heard of the Somerton man, but she agreed to help Dr. Abbott in his effort to name the man who might be her grandfather. Dr. Abbott laid out that scenario: “The Somerton man had Jessica Thomson’s number. He was found dead a five minutes’ walk from her house. Rachel’s dad was only 1 year old at the time, with no father. So you kind of put two and two together — but until it’s absolutely confirmed, you never know.”

 

And Dr. Abbott acknowledged that, if usable DNA was obtained from the exhumed remains, it might in fact show his wife had no link to the Somerton man. “All I can say is there’s lots of twists and turns in this case, and every turn is pretty weird,” he said. 

 

Want another weird twist? Abbott and Egan fell in love and were married in 2010. And yes that part is true. 

 

So, while he himself doesn't necessarily back the spy theory, his life of work could lend credence to said theory. 

 

Several years ago, Ms. Egan had her DNA analyzed, and links were found to people in the United States (including relatives of some guy named Thomas Jefferson… yes, that Thomas Jefferson). More recently, links were also found to the grandparents of the man that Jessica Thomson eventually married. “So my head is spinning,” Dr. Abbott said. “Does that prove she’s not connected now to the Somerton man? Or does that prove that somehow the Somerton man is related to her assumed grandfather? It’s getting all complicated, so complicated that I’m just going to shut up now and let the DNA from the Somerton man speak for itself.”

 

Another strange connection that could lend itself to a spot connection is the remarkable similarities to the Mystery of the Isdal woman. On November 29, 1970, while hiking Isdalen (Ice Valley) near Bergen, Norway, a father and his two daughters witnessed a horrifying sight. Wedged between the rocks of the hiking trail, they discover a badly burnt female body. The labels of her clothes had been cut off and any distinctive marks had been removed as if to make her completely unrecognizable. The front side of her body had been severely burnt and she was found in a boxer’s position, fists clenched. When you look into this case there are many similarities to the Somerton Man that we may just go ahead and cover in a bonus!

 

Again, Thomson's own daughter believed the Somerton Man to be a spy and that her own mother may have also been a spy. She said her mother taught English to migrants and spoke fluent Russian. Jessica had once told her daughter that “someone higher than the police force” also knew the identity of the mysterious man.

 

Another theory is that the Somerton Man was involved in illegal activities involving the black market that sprung up after WWII. People point to the missing labels on the clothes as pointing toward that possibility. Abbott who we discussed earlier had said that this seems a more likely route than the spy route. If he was involved in some sort of black market goings on or something similar, it would definitely explain the urge for someone to go to many lengths to keep his identity a secret. But what would the rest of the clues mean? Was the page or of the book meant to send a message to someone else? Some think the code found may have had something to do with black market shipments or deliveries, or possibly locations. Without solid evidence though this is pretty much all just speculation. 

Many people are also subscribing to the theory that this was just a case of a jilted lover. They believe that the Somerton Man and the nurse were lovers and that they had a child together. After this some people think that Thomson rejected the Somerton Man for some reason and it led to the man taking his own life. This theory seems most plausible but at the same time, why has no one been able to figure out who this man was. It also makes sense in the line of Thomson being embarrassed by being involved in the case and her unwillingness to discuss it with police as she was dating another man at the time of the death who would eventually become her husband. 

 

If you really want to get crazy with the cheese whiz so to speak, there are small groups of people that really are looking at the fringe theories. If you look into the far corners of reddit and other similar sites you'll find the usual theories of time travel and extraterrestrial origins. Those folks are definitely in the small minority but they are out there and most likely started by Mr. Moody. 

 

Ok so where does all the craziness leave us? Well… We don't know. The Somerton man's body was exhumed earlier this year and we haven't been able to find any updates on any sort of DNA analysis, because as we know, these things tend to take some time. In articles as recent as July of this year they are still waiting on results. Part of the problem is that getting quality DNA samples from that old and degraded of a body can sometimes be difficult. So, while there are many theories on who the man was and the circumstances around his death no one knows for sure who he was and what happened. The one person who seemed to have at least some sort of knowledge of the man passed away without ever revealing her secrets. The other difficult thing is that every time a question seems to be answered it only opens up even more questions. Is the code really a code? Was the man a spy? Was the nurse a spy? Was anyone a spy? Was chainsaw involved? Where was he in 1948? As the old tootsie pop commercial used to say… the world may never know! 

Best horror movies of 1948

 

https://www.pickthemovie.com/best-horror-movies-of-1948

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Ep. 112

Haunted

Venues

 

On today's episode we're going on tour!!! That's right Moody and myself are heading back out on the road and this time we're bringing Logan to carry our shit instead of us lugging everyone else's shit! Why are we heading out on tour you ask? Well it's because we are doing a tour of haunted music and theater venues throughout the world! This is an episode we've been wanting to do for a while especially because we've been to quite a few of these places! There's even one in our home town! Like we have at that certain Cleveland venue, we're sure some of our listeners have spent a ton of their time at some of the venues on the list. This is gonna be a fun one for us so hopefully you guys love it too!

First up we've got a big one that will be on every list of haunted venues. The House Of Blues in Chicago. So the history of the building took a bit to find because every search for the house of blues in any city comes up with the main house of blues page but with a little digging we found some info on the building's history. The House of Blues is part of a complex called The Marina City complex. The Marina complex is also known as the Corn cob apparently, and looking at it… You can see why. If you're listening in Chicago and are like "what the fuck, nobody calls it that", will remember our mantra.. Don't blame us, blame the internet… Although we did find that reference in a couple spots. The Marina is a mix of residential condos and commercial buildings built between 1961-1968. The complex consists of two 587-foot, 65-story apartment towers, a 10-story office building which is now a hotel, and a saddle-shaped auditorium building originally used as a cinema. When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. The complex was built as a "city within a city", featuring numerous on-site facilities including a theater, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, stores, restaurants, and, of course, a marina. WLS-TV (ABC Channel 7) transmitted from an antenna atop Marina City until the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) was completed. Marina City was the first post-war urban high-rise residential complex in the United States and is widely credited with beginning the residential renaissance of American inner cities. These days the complex is home to the Hotel Chicago, 10pin bowling lounge, and several restaurants including… You fucking guessed it... Dick's Last Resort bitches!!! Oh and also the complex is home to the house of blues. The house of blues was built in the shell of the cinema which was out of use for quite some time. The story is that the hob is haunted by the spirit of a little girl that died due to an illness. There are many reports of weird things happening. The most circulated story seems to be that of a little boy who was playing with some of his toys toys. As he was playing he stepped away for a moment and when he came back he saw a little girl playing with his toys. She asked him if he'd like to play with her. FUCK THAT SHIT!!!! The little boy screamed and the girl vanished. Oddly enough, I did find a comment on one website from a man named Skyler seeming to corroborate this story. The comment reads as follows: 

 

          " This can not be… no way… I have performed there 2 times. once was in 2013, and there was a boy in the back playing with his cars. a few minutes after he screamed and started to cry. I was feeling bad,, but this can’t be him… also know that in 2015 in march i had another performance and all the lights turned off. This is too creepy."

 

Was this the same boy that the story is referring too? Who knows. We also found several comments from people staying in what we assume is the hotel Chicago as it's in the complex and pretty much right next to the house of blues. There's comment also claim the hotel is haunted. One of the claims says this: 

 

        "It’s haunted!!! I saw a middle aged/older woman (dressed in clothing from a period long ago) in my room when I stayed there in 1999/2000. I woke in the early morning to see a woman staring at me. I went through a rational thought process of it being my female business colleague (who stayed in a separate room) and I thought, oh well she can sleep in the other bed (it was a double room & I was in the bed furthest away from the front door) and then quickly snapped out of it and said to myself she has her own room why would she be in my room, I opened my eyes again and that’s when I could see it was a woman clearly (w/ angry face) staring at me. I then thought this is a stranger/intruder in my room – I laid there with my eyes just open enough to see – she was there staring at me & she still didn’t look happy. I laid there thinking of what to do – I decided I was going to reach and turn the light on and then charge her or run after her when she ran for the door (fortunately, there was a switch right next to the bed). HOWEVER, when I reached for the light and turned it on she was gone. This is what makes this story interesting — I called the front desk and simply asked, ‘had anything significant ever happened at the site of the hotel’ (b/c as the person above points out, its not an old or historic looking building (e.g. PreWar). I asked another question that any tourist could have just asked (I don’t recall what it was right now). She said immediatley, “No, why did you see a ghost?” My response was, yea, I saw a ghost, I’m in my twenties and not some nut job.” I asked if anyone else had ever reported seeing a ghost and she said, “No.” Anyway, when I met up with my colleague, she could tell I was shaken up and I was pretty pale (like “I had seen a host.”). My story has never changed in all this time. I did stay at the hotel 1 other time after (not in the same room) & didn’t see anything – but I slept with the bathroom light on… Scary & Cool experience for sure!"

 

Sounds spooky! 

 

Next on our list of haunted venues we are heading to Milwaukee! Which is actually pronounced meely waukay, which is Algonquin for the good land. Now the Rave is amazing for several reasons: first it's the location of one of Moody's favorite tour stories which also involves Jon and our friend Brad from Voudoux.  2: it's huge and creepy as shit. 3: the pool... The Rave/Eagles Club is a 180,000 square foot, seven-level, live entertainment complex in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The building contains eight independent clubs with capacities ranging from 400 to 3500. The Eagles Ballroom is the building's showpiece, featuring a 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) oval wooden dance floor, originally installed when the building was constructed, in addition to a large, old-fashioned domed ceiling and a stage on one side. Originally a ballroom, it has hosted everything from boxing matches to concerts to ethnic dances. The ballroom head hosted huge acts ranging from Bob Dylan to Green day, from the grateful dead to slayer and of course none other than Lil Pump. 

 

Along with the eagles ballroom, the building houses the Rave hall, The eagles hall, the Rave bar, The Rave craft beer lounge, The penthouse lounge, and the eagles club. 

Since its construction in 1926, the Eagles Club has known several incarnations. Prominently among them, it housed the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, a notable organization whose considerable impacts on America's cultural landscape remain in effect today.

 

In 1939, the idea of using the building for music presentations took hold, reinventing its purpose. The grand ballroom became a popular venue for big band music, such as band leaders Guy Lombardo and Glen Miller and their orchestras. Soon, other types of music, theatre and performing arts also offered shows and concerts in the large, elegant ballroom; from 1939 through the mid-sixties. Comedians like Bob Hope and Red Skeleton did stand-up comedy. In 1959, people who bought a $1.50 ticket to the Winter Dance Party, were treated to the music of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Big Bopper, Dion and the Belmonts, and Richie Valens. This would be the last show for buddy Holly before he died. In 1964, The Eagles Club had its first rock concert, with the Dave Clark Five performing on the ballroom stage. The 1970s brought even more famous groups and people, such as Eric Clapton, Crosby, Stills and Nash and other rising rock stars.When the Athletic Club was closed, a homeless men’s shelter opened up temporarily in the basement area, providing shelter for the destitute which is life-saving during the freezing winter months. By the late 1980s, The Eagles Club was in a state of disrepair and The Eagle Club put it out on the real estate market, after getting it listed on The National Register of Historic Places, in 1986.  In late 1992, the Eagles Club was rescued when it was bought by Wauwatosa businessman Anthony J. Balestrieri and his wife, Marjorie, who performed in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. They began the long process of restoring the historic beauty of the elegant ballroom and interior art, as well as the outside facade. They also restored and renovated other areas turning the building into the multi venue building it is today. 

 

We wanted to include this history because: A. We love the history of places like this and B. It shows how many things this building way used for and how many people have passed through the building. We all know where there tons of history there tends to be ghost stories! 

 

Let's get into the spooky shit! Remember the pool we mentioned earlier… Well at one point a 17 year old boy had a fucking heart attack and died in the pool. Later, at least two more children would die in the pool. This would ultimately cause the closure of the athletic club.  Also the man who ran the homeless shelter was said to be extremely cruel and abusive to the men staying there. 

 

The basement area which is the home of the former men's shelter, is one of the more haunted areas. The shelter manager mentioned earlier is thought to be the reason behind the heavy negative energy felt there. Cold spots are often felt by staff in the late hours after closing. Shadow people have often been reported by staff as well as band members packing up after a show. 

 

Next is the pool area, which we've seen and it's fucking creepy. A little girl is said to roam around the area. People have heard her laughter and have said her presence can bring a sense of dread. Staff have said they have heard shuffling footsteps and have smelled a strong odor of bleach in the pool area. 

 

In the boiler room under the pool, a former employee still hangs and he doesn't like people in his area. "Jack" was once recorded telling a group on a ghost hunt to "get out, get out now" Apparently, you can find a video of this on YouTube, we’ll try and find it to post on our page.

 

The ballroom has had its share of apparitions hanging around during sound checks and after shows when everyone has left. An employee told a story of when he was standing on the floor of The Eagles Ballroom, making sure that the people going to the roof patio didn’t “get lost” and go into the Eagles Ballroom by design.  He said that one of his fellow workers had seen what they thought was a man, standing in one of the second floor boxes located above the Eagles Ballroom. He called security and when they approached this person, he ran down the aisle but disappeared before the staff person that was behind him and the security person cutting off his escape could try to grab him. 

 

One other common theme is people hearing either happy laughing children or sad crying children. Some staff have stated they've seen entities of children playing in groups. 

 

We've been here.. This place is awesome. Also another fun tidbit… not to far away from the Rave is the ambassador hotel. Which of you're up on your serial killers, you know is the place where Jeffrey Dahmer killed his first victim in Milwaukee. Steven Tuomi was Jeffrey Dahmer’s first victim in Milwaukee. Dahmer met Tuomi in September of 1987. At the time, Dahmer was out on probation after molestation charges of a minor. The two men spent the night together drinking heavily and visiting multiple bars. Later that night, they ended up in a room together in the Ambassador, room 507, which is a room some Dahmer historians have requested to stay in. Dahmer killed Toumi while he was in a drunken stupor. Upon waking up to find Tuomi dead, Dahmer put the body in a suitcase and took it to his grandmother’s house where he was living. In the basement, he acted out necrophiliac desires and then dismembered the body. Supposedly when Dahmer awoke to find Tuomi dead, the body was in an awkward position hanging off the side of the bed. Some visitors have reported instances of waking up to discover their partner in a similarly awkward position.

 

Visitors to room 507 have reported a variety of experiences, such as a heaviness to the room that they can’t quite explain. Some people get woken up in the middle of the night by odd circumstances. There's an extra little bit for ya!!!

 

Info on the Hauntings and most of the historical facts on the Rave was taken from an excellent article on hauntedhouses.com

 

Next up we're gonna head across the pond, so to speak. We're heading to London and the famous Royal Albert Hall! This place has a long and rich history behind it. The Royal Albert Hall was built on what was once the Gore estate, at the centre of which stood Gore House. The three acre estate was occupied by political reformer William Wilberforce between 1808-1828 and subsequently occupied between 1836-1849 by the Countess of Blessington and Count D’Orsay.

 

After the couple left for Paris in May 1851, the house was opened as the ‘Universal Symposium of All Nations’, a restaurant run by the first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer, who planned to cater for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park.

 

After the exhibition and following the advice of Prince Albert, Gore House and its grounds were bought by the Exhibition’s Royal Commission to create the cultural quarter known as Albertopolis. A complex of public Victorian buildings were developed to house exhibits from the Great Exhibition and to further the study of art, science and industry. On May 20, 1867

7,000 people gathered under a purpose-built marquee to watch Queen Victoria lay the Hall’s red Aberdeen granite foundation stone, which today can be found underneath K stalls, row 11, seat 87 in the main auditorium. The Queen announced that “It is my wish that this Hall should bear his name to whom it will have owed its existence and be called The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences”, as a 21 gun salute was heard from Hyde Park and a trumpet fanfare from HM Life Guards sounded. By December 1870 construction of the Hall had moved on so much that HM Queen Victoria and her daughter Princess Beatrice visited the Hall to listen to the acoustics.

 

Almost three months later, on 25 February 1871, the Hall’s first concert was held to an audience for 7,000 people comprising the workmen and their families, various officials and the invited public. Amateur orchestra, The Wandering Minstrels, played to test the acoustics from all areas of the auditorium. 

 

This place has been running as a venue for 150 years! Again… History breeds ghosts and Hauntings! There's so much history in this building that we are not going to be able to include but please check out the official website for the royal Albert Hall to really drive into the history of this place. You won't be sorry you did. We gave you the beginnings to show how long this place has been around. We're gonna get right into the spooky shit though! 

 

On 13 July 1930 the Spiritualist Association rented the Royal Albert Hall for a seance for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, following the death of the Sherlock author on 7 July.

 

Conan Doyle was a spiritualist and believed in the existence beyond the grave. Upon his death 10,000 people gathered expectantly in the Hall to watch a medium take to the stage, hoping to witness some supernatural activity and hear a message from Conan Doyle from the other side…

 

       Lady Doyle: “Although I have not spoken to Arthur since he passed, I am certain that in his own time and his own way he will send a message to us”

Time Magazine, 21 July 1930

 

Lady Conan Doyle took to the stage alongside members of his family, with a vacant chair on her right reserved for her late husband.Time Magazine, who attended the seance, reports:

 

‘Mrs. Estelle Roberts, clairvoyant, took the stage. She declared five spirits were “pushing” her. She cried out their messages. Persons in the audience confirmed their validity. Suddenly Mrs. Roberts looked at Sir Arthur’s empty chair, cried: “He is here.”

Lady Doyle stood up. The clairvoyant’s eyes moved as though accompanying a person who was approaching her. “He is wearing evening clothes,” she murmured. She inclined her head to listen. A silent moment. Her head jerked up. She stared at Lady Doyle, shivered, ran to the widow, whispered.

Persons nearby could hear: “Sir Arthur told me that one of you went into the hut [on the Doyle estate] this morning. Is that correct?” Lady Doyle, faltering: “Why, yes.” She beamed. Her eyes opened widely.

The clairvoyant to Lady Doyle: “The message is this. Tell Mary [eldest daughter]…’

Time Magazine, 21 July 1930

 

At this the audience rose in a clamor, and the great organ of the Hall began to peal, the noise drowning out the answer of Mrs Roberts.

 

But what was the message delivered to Lady Doyle that night? Did the ghost of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really visit the Royal Albert Hall on that night in 1930?

 

Seances are always fun and definitely work as we found out...yea...right….

 

Here's some more stories taken straight from the RAH website!

 

THE GIRLS

Beneath the Door 6 foyer, in the carpeted basement area, there is one spot where two young women, known as ‘the girls’, briefly appear each  November 2nd a little before 2am, when the building is almost deserted, except for some security staff.

 

Over the years, several staff members reported hearing ‘the girls’ laughing, and seeing their animated and excited silhouettes appear, clothed in the fashion of slightly risqué Victorian ladies (extravagant long dark dresses embellished with lace from neck to bodice, with many ruffles, especially around the sleeves and hem, and their hair styled in cottage-loaf buns with ringlets hanging over their ears). The Duty Security Incident Book indicates that there had been appearances by ‘the girls’ for the three years prior to 1991. They have been seen passing across the foyer space, which is bounded by double doors at each end, leading on one side to the staff canteen (where we still eat today) and on the other to the kitchen corridor, and then disappear. That is why some believe that ‘the girls’ may be responsible for unexplained accidents, tappings and footsteps that occur behind locked doors late at night in the kitchens. Assistants Chefs, who have to clean the kitchen every night after use, often used to hear noises and have been frightened whilst in that area. 

 

FATHER WILLIS

Whenever restoration work is carried out on our organ, its original constructor Henry Willis, fondly nicknamed ‘Father Willis’, returns as a stooped ghost wearing a black skull cap. When the organ was being reconstructed in 1924, workmen saw a little old man walk down the stairs late one afternoon. On returning to their workshop and relating the facts, their foreman asked what the man was wearing. When told that he was donning a black skull cap, the foreman decided it was the ghost of Father Willis, the original builder of the organ, long since dead, who would not approve of the alterations being undertaken. Since then there have been many reports of a sudden cold atmosphere in the area behind the organ.

 

When interviewed in 2018, Michael Broadway, the Hall’s organ custodian was asked if he had ever seen signs of the legendary ghost of Henry Willis. He answered: “I remember the organ builder Clifford Hyatt telling me about this over forty years ago. The tuner […] was making the final visit of the Willis contract before the Harrison & Harrison rebuild in the 1920s. When he got up on to the Great passage board he saw Father Willis there saying ‘They shan’t take my organ from me’. A lovely story, but I haven’t seen him. There are many questions I would ask him and hopefully have his approval of the way I look after this instrument. Perhaps he has no reason to be disturbed.” 

 

THE MAN IN WHITE

During a Jasper Carrott comedy event in May 1990, the Duty Manager was ordered to clear the Middle Choir seats and to post a Steward at either end to avoid anyone entering as it is very distracting for a performer to have people walking across the back of the stage during the show. That’s why a very angry Stage Manager demanded on radio to know why there was someone crossing the stage. The description was of a man dressed in white, walking oddly as if on drugs. The Stewards insisted no one had passed them and on further investigation no one except Jasper Carrott was onstage, but several people had seen the figure cross the stage from left to right.

 

THE VICTORIAN COUPLE

A staff member during the 2000s reported having seen a couple in Victorian clothing walk across the second tier near to Door Six and vanish into a box. As a venue whose history is so closely tied to the Victorian times, this didn’t seem particularly odd (people dress up sometimes…)

 

But in 2011, a Head Steward was finishing off his shift one evening and had made sure that all members of the public had left the second tier. On going downstairs into the auditorium, he noticed a couple sitting in the box so he returned to the second tier but found no one in the box. He assumed they had left while he was on his way back, so once again he returned to the auditorium… Only to see them again. So he went back to the second tier, and that’s when he heard the couple chattering. He assumed they were in the box but on opening the door, there was no one there.

 

There are several more accounts on their website and tons and tons of stories all over the web about experiences at the historical venue. It sounds like it's one crazy place!!!

 

We've got a couple more for you guys. 

   

          Next up is another club we've been too, the Masquerade in Atlanta. The Masquerade features three indoor venues with capacities ranging from 300 to 1000, appropriately named Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.  The Masquerade was founded in 1988 at the historic DuPre Excelsior Mill, a former excelsior mill at 695 North Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. The venue had both indoor and outdoor concert space. It was sold in 2006 and moved in late November 2016 after it was made part of a new mixed-use development called North + Line. The building was designated as historic by the city and all of the original parts will be saved through adaptive reuse. The masquerade had hosted tons of national and local acts from cannibal corpse to the greatest entertainer in history, Weird Al Yankovic.  

 

This night club is said to be visited by the spirits who died in fire and tuberculosis outbreaks long ago, both of which killed several members of the building’s former staff. Apparitions have been seen and unexplained footsteps have been reported.One popular story is that of a large and tall black man who is always seen walking around the nightclub. The staff believes that it is this man who turns the musical amplifiers every night.

 

The staff has also reported hearing footsteps from unidentified sources, as well as cold spots all throughout the building. Horrifying screams can also be heard coming from the back of the stairs even when there is no one there. They believe that the screams come from the young woman who died in a freakish accident in the nightclub. Nowadays, there are rumors that real vampires come to the nightclub and even live there.  Some people believe that this rumor has been spread to promote business as vampires have suddenly become very popular.

 

Next up were heading to Nashville and a place the Moody had been to, but not for music, for the national beard and mustache competition. He did not place unfortunately. The auditorium opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. Its construction was spearheaded by Thomas Ryman, a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats.When Ryman died in 1904, his memorial service was held at the tabernacle. During the service, it was proposed the building be renamed Ryman Auditorium, which was met with the overwhelming approval of the attendees. The building was originally designed to contain a balcony, but a lack of funds delayed its completion. The balcony was eventually built and opened in time for the 1897 gathering of the United Confederate Veterans, with funds provided by members of the group. As a result, the balcony was once called the Confederate Gallery.[5] Upon the completion of the balcony, the Ryman's capacity rose to 6,000. A stage was added in 1901 that reduced the capacity to just over 3,000. Though the building was designed to be a house of worship – a purpose it continued to serve throughout most of its early existence – it was often leased to promoters for nonreligious events in an effort to pay off its debts and remain open. In 1904, Lula C. Naff, a widow and mother who was working as a stenographer, began to book and promote speaking engagements, concerts, boxing matches, and other attractions at the Ryman in her free time.  Naff gained a reputation for battling local censorship groups, who had threatened to ban various performances deemed too risqué. In 1939, Naff won a landmark lawsuit against the Nashville Board of Censors, which was planning to arrest the star of the play Tobacco Road due to its provocative nature. The court declared the law creating the censors to be invalid W.C. Fields, Will Rogers in 1925, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope with Doris Day in '49, Harry Houdini in '24, and John Philip Sousa (among others) performed at the venue over the years, earning the Ryman the nickname, "The Carnegie Hall of the South". The Ryman in its early years also hosted Marian Anderson in 1932, Bill Monroe (from KY) and the Bluegrass Boys in '45, Little Jimmy Dickens in '48, Hank Williams in '49, The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter in 1950, Elvis in '54, Johnny Cash in '56, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in '57, Patsy Cline in '60, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (bluegrass) in '64, and Minnie Pearl in '64. The Grand Ole Opry was first broadcast from the Ryman on June 5, 1943, and originated there every week for nearly 31 years thereafter. Every show sold out, and hundreds of fans were often turned away. During its tenure at Ryman Auditorium, the Opry hosted the biggest country music stars of the day and became a show known around the world. Melding its then-current usage with the building's origins as a house of worship, the Ryman got the nickname "The Mother Church of Country Music", which it still holds to this day. The last Opry show at the Ryman occurred the previous evening, on Friday, March 15. The final shows downtown were emotional. Sarah Cannon, performing as Minnie Pearl, broke character and cried on stage. When the plans for Opryland USA were announced, WSM president Irving Waugh also revealed the company's intent to demolish the Ryman and use its materials to construct a chapel called "The Little Church of Opryland" at the amusement park. Waugh brought in a consultant to evaluate the building, noted theatrical producer Jo Mielziner, who had staged a production at the Ryman in 1935. He concluded that the Ryman was "full of bad workmanship and contains nothing of value as a theater worth restoring." Mielziner suggested the auditorium be razed and replaced with a modern theater. Waugh's plans were met with resounding resistance from the public, including many influential musicians of the time. Members of historic preservation groups argued that WSM, Inc. (and Acuff, by proxy) exaggerated the Ryman's poor condition, saying the company was worried that attachment to the old building would hurt business at the new Opry House. Preservationists leaned on the building's religious history and gained traction for their case as a result. The outcry led to the building being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Following the departure of the Opry, the Ryman sat mostly vacant and deteriorating for nearly 20 years, as the neighborhood surrounding it continued to see the increasing effects of urban decay.  In 1986, as part of the Grand Ole Opry 60th-anniversary celebration, CBS aired a special program that featured some of the Opry's legendary stars performing at the Ryman. While the auditorium was dormant, major motion pictures continued to be filmed on location there, including John Carpenter’s Elvis (1979), Coal Miner's Daughter (1980 – Loretta Lynn Oscar-winning biopic), Sweet Dreams (1985 – story of Patsy Cline), and Clint Eastwood’s Honkytonk Man (1982). A 1979 television special, Dolly & Carol in Nashville, included a segment featuring Dolly Parton performing a gospel medley on the Ryman stage. In 1989, Gaylord Entertainment began work to beautify the Ryman's exterior. The structure of the building was also improved, as the company installed a new roof, replaced broken windows, and repaired broken bricks and wood. In October 1992, executives of Gaylord Entertainment announced plans to renovate the entire building and expand it to create modern amenities for performers and audiences alike, as part of a larger initiative to invest in the city's efforts to revitalize the downtown area. The first performance at the newly renovated Ryman was a broadcast of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion on June 4, 1994. Beginning in November 1999, the Opry was held at Ryman Auditorium for three months, mostly due to the success of the January shows, but partly due to the ongoing construction of Opry Mills shopping mall next door to the Grand Ole Opry House. The Opry has returned to the Ryman for all of its November, December, and January shows every year since then, allowing the production to acknowledge its roots while also taking advantage of a smaller venue during the off-peak season for tourism and freeing the Grand Ole Opry House for special holiday presentations.The Ryman has also served as a gathering place for the memorial services of many prominent country music figures. Tammy Wynette, Chet Atkins, Skeeter Davis, Harlan Howard, Bill Monroe, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Billy Block, George Hamilton IV, Earl Scruggs, and Jim Ed Brown have all been memorialized from the Ryman stage. In 2018, the Ryman was named the most iconic structure in Tennessee by Architectural Digest. And just because….On June 9, 2019, Wu-Tang Clan performed the first pure rap concert ever at the Ryman. The concert was sold out.

 

Again, we like to give history on these places for context and honestly it's just interesting to us so whatever. But this again illustrates the point that many crazy things happened here over the years as many many people have passed through this auditorium… Including Moody.

 

Ok, so let's get to the ghosts and spooky shit. Ryman’s spirit was fine with most performances but would rise if the people onstage were getting a bit risqué. Apparently, he disrupted shows by stomping around the room so loudly that spectators were forced to leave. Famously, the ghost wreaked havoc while the opera Carmen was taking place. Probably because it tells the story of a gypsy temptress. 

 

During the grand ole Opry period, rumors surfaced that the venue was cursed since apparently, most singers that performed there wound up dead. A total of 37 people met their fate in the most gruesome ways, dying from O.D.s, car accidents, fires, or slaughterings. Among the artists believed to have succumbed to the curse are: Stringbean Akeman, Patsy Cline, Texas Ruby, and many more. In a blog post by Virginia Lamkin titled Haunted Ryman Auditorium, the author explains that when the show relocated to the Opryland USA theme park, 14 additional acts died. It is believed that the curse followed because a large portion of the Ryman Auditorium stage was cut out and brought to the new location.

 

The spirit often referred to as “The Grey Man,” is believed to have been one of the Confederate soldiers who frequented the auditorium during post-war gatherings. Some say they’ve witnessed him sitting in the balcony while artists rehearse. He watches the stage steadily but disappears as soon as anyone gets too close.

 

”The lady,” on the other hand, isn’t a spectator; she’s a performer. Believed to be the ghost of Patsy Cline, she has been heard singing by staff. Usually, her performance happens late at night as they prepare to close. Patsy Cline, who died tragically in a plane crash, has also been linked to the Opry Curse. Could the curse not only kill but also trap artists in the venue?

 

Speaking of Opry Curse victims, Hank Williams is said to have been another casualty. The successful singer/songwriter passed away in 1953, after mixing prescription drugs with alcohol. Similar to the other artists haunting the auditorium, Hank’s voice has been heard clear as day by employees. They have also heard his songs being played onstage, without explanation. Along with Patsy, Hank Williams’ soul has lingered in the old venue ever since he passed.

 

The info on the history of the ryman comes mostly from their own website while the stories of the hauntings we found on the website ghostcitytours.com

 

Next up is the Phoenix theater in Petaluma California. The club has been in existence since 1905 and has changed in both structure and purpose, mostly due to severe damage caused by several fires. Petaluma’s Phoenix Theater has been entertaining Sonoma County residents for over 116 years. Hosting everyone from the likes of Harry Houdini to Green Day, the fabled teen center and music venue has a varied and interesting history.

 

The entertainment center opened in 1904 as the Hill Opera House. The structure was designed by San Francisco architect Charles Havens, who also designed Petaluma’s Carlson-Currier Silk Mill in 1892. The Beaux Arts-style theater hosted operas, theatrical performances, high school graduations and music for over 15 years until the early 1920s when it was gutted by fire.

 

In 1925, the venue reopened as the California Theatre playing silent films accompanied by music. A Jan. 24, 1925, Press Democrat article proclaimed the showplace the “largest playhouse in Petaluma and one of the finest theaters of Northern California.” A packed house attended the opening night performance which include a double feature picture show and live entertainment.

 

The theater switched to movies with sound in later years and lost major sections of its roof to a second fire in 1957. Petaluma’s Tocchini family bought the floundering venue in 1967 switching to a program of live music and entertainment.

 

In 1983, the theater was renamed the Phoenix - reflecting its ability to be reborn from the ashes. Tom Gaffey, a young man who had grown up in Petaluma and worked at both the California and the Showcase theaters, was hired as manager, a position he holds to this day. The theater gained unwanted attention after a late-night performance by the band Popsicle Love Sponge performed a questionable act with the body of what was believed to be a dead chicken. The late-night shows ended, but the movies continued for a short time.

 

Today the venue serves as a graffiti-covered teen center and venue for rock, punk, reggae and more. In 1996, it hosted the last show of the Long Beach ska band Sublime as well as rock and punk legends the Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, X, Metallica and Primus. The guiding principle of the Phoenix has always been that it's "everyone's building" and this was formalized in the early 2000's when the Phoenix became a 501(c)3 nonprofit  community center.

 

This place sounds pretty awesome. This following except it's taken directly from their website : 

 

           The Phoenix Theater is open seven days a week, generally from 3pm to 7pm, for drop-in “unstructured” use. Our building interior is large and soulful, with several rooms to accommodate a variety of activities. On a typical afternoon, you’ll find kids playing acoustic music (we’ve got two pianos and a big stage), skateboarding (across the large wooden floor and up one of four quarter-pipe ramps), doing homework in the tutoring room, or sitting in one of the overstuffed sofas: reading, talking with friends, or napping. There’s always a staff member onsite, but the atmosphere is casual. 

 

On top of this they have free music programs from lessons to recording to production to podcasting to band management and everything in between. Also they have many programs for teens in the art community to hone their skills. Not only that they have a teen health center to help inform teens and help them make better, more  conscientious choices regarding their personal health. They also have services for  transitive health and STD help as well. We feel like every town needs a place like this. Especially if it's haunted!!! Speaking of which we found an interview that Gaffney did where he talks about some of his experiences and other things that have happened. The following was taken from petaluma360.com:

 

Gaffey began by talking about his earliest days. “It was my job to close the theater down. By 10:15 it would just be me, and whatever people were watching the movie. Near the end, I’d go up to the projection booth. After the audience exited, I’d turn off the projector, come down onto the stage where the sound equipment was, turn off the amps, check doors, balcony, bathrooms, lock the doors, hit the security alarm, then go out the door by the box office.”

 

On three separate nights, as he was leaving, the box office phone rang.

 

Gaffey explained the building had five phone stations. The light on the box office phone indicated the call was from the projection booth.

 

“I’d have to turn off the alarm and pick up the phone. ‘Hello? Hello? Hello?’ But there was nobody there.

 

“You can’t believe in ghosts when you’re shutting down a theater. You have to check.

 

“Three times I mustered my courage, turned the lights back on and burst into the projection booth. There was no one there.

 

“That was my first experience, when I was an unknown here, a spooky ‘welcome back.’”

 

Gaffey is quick to temper his conversation with “it could have been” and “maybe someone playing pranks.” He keeps an open mind. Ghosts or explainable experiences: it’s for the individual to decide.

 

“Blue lights have been seen floating through the building. There’s the Little Kid: he’d been seen even when I was a kid working down here. And one night, sleeping on stage as a teen, I could hear and feel big footsteps. I never felt afraid.

 

“The big guy has been felt by many over the years,” Gaffey said. “We named him Chris. Big Chris. He’s the only ghost - if there are ghosts here - who’s not from a show business background.” He added that psychics who’ve visited the theater have talked about Chris dating to the livery stable-era and that someone was murdered on this spot, possibly with a knife.

 

But Gaffey continued firmly, “My experiences in this building have been warm and protective. “Chris had the spirit of the Phoenix before it became what it is. Chris may have loved this spot. I think it’s one of the coolest corners in town.” He commented he sensed from the warmth he felt as he was talking that Chris was on stage, observing.

 

Then there’s the Little Kid - a boy. “That’s an interesting one,” Gaffey said. “Again - a psychic had come in. First off, he talked about the guy in the attic [the projection booth], said he seemed to be older, white hair and faded green, almost khaki, clothing; tall, thin with angular knees and elbows.

 

The older man, the psychic told Gaffey, is trying to make good on something wrong he felt he did to a child. The psychic added the old man hadn’t, however, done anything.

 

“I’m wondering,” Gaffey said, “if it’s the little boy. This was the fly area” - the area to the rear of the stage where backdrops hung. “With stuff hanging here and ladder work, maybe the kid was injured. He’s been seen by many. He’s got shaggy hair, maybe less than five feet, wearing shorts or knickers, a wool suit and a cap, from the 1920s.”

 

In the 1990s, a security guard for the thrash metal band GWAR got down off a ladder and asked, “Who’s that little kid back there in the exit?” When no one could find the boy, the guard quit. 

 

There is much more to the interview and we would definitely recommend checking it out!

We've got one one more venue for you guys even though there are a bunch more out there. Some of the more well known and covered places like Bobby Mackey's in Kentucky, The Avalon in Hollywood, Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans, The rapids theater in Niagara falls NY among others we've left off but will definitely be back to cover at a future point as the history and Hauntings in these places is awesome. 

 

So that brings us to our home town of Cleveland Ohio and to the World famous Agora Theater. Now this a place where we've both spent many nights jamming out to some great fucking shows. And yes.. Whether you like it or not… Here comes some history fuckers. 

 

The first Agora in Cleveland, informally referred to as Agora Alpha, opened on February 26, 1966, at 2175 Cornell Road in Little Italy near the campus of Case Western Reserve University. In 1967, the Agora moved to a second building on East 24th Street near the campus of Cleveland State University. Once settled in their new location, the new Agora Ballroom, informally referred to as Agora Beta, played a role in giving exposure to many bands, both from the Cleveland area and abroad. Many artists such as Peter Frampton, Bruce Springsteen, Boston, Grand Funk Railroad, ZZ Top, Kiss and many others received much exposure after playing the Agora.[3] The Agora Ballroom was also the setting of the concert by Paul Simon's character in the opening minutes of the 1980 movie One-Trick Pony. The front facade of the Agora Ballroom was temporarily swapped for the one shown in the movie. It is also one of three locations used to record Todd Rundgren's live album Back to the Bars in 1978.

 

The East 24th Street building also housed Agency Recording Studios, located above the Agora. The onsite recording studio and the close proximity to radio station WMMS allowed for high-quality live concert broadcasts from the Agora. Some of these concerts were later released commercially, including Bruce Springsteen's “The Agora, Cleveland 1978”, the Cars' “Live at the Agora 1978”, Ian Hunter's “You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, Deluxe Edition” and Dwight Twilley Band's “Live From Agora”.

 

The popularity of the club led the Agora to expand during the 1970s and 1980s, opening 12 other clubs in the cities of Columbus, Toledo, Youngstown, Painesville, Akron, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Hallandale, Hartford, and New Haven. However, the Cleveland location is the only one still in existence today.

 

In 1984, the Agora was damaged by a fire and closed.

 

The building currently known as the Agora first opened on March 31, 1913, with an English performance of Aida as the Metropolitan Theatre. It was the brainchild of Max Faetkenheuer, an opera promoter and conductor who had also been involved in the construction of the monumental Hippodrome Theatre on Euclid Avenue five years earlier. The new opera house was well received and did well early on, but later struggled to stay profitable. Among various uses, the Metropolitan was home to a Cleveland's Yiddish theatre troupe in 1927. This brief episode in its history came to an end a few months later in 1928 after the troupe was involved in a bus accident on the way to a performance in Youngstown; the actors were too injured to perform and the venture went bankrupt. By 1932, the venue had turned into a vaudeville/burlesque house called "The Gayety," hosting "hoofers, comics and strippers." The Metropolitan returned to its original use for a short time during the mid-1940s staging comedic musicals, but by the end of the decade stage productions had ceased and the theatre became a full-time movie house. From 1951–78, the theater offices were home to radio stations WHK (1420 AM) and WMMS (100.7 FM); the theater itself was known as the WHK Auditorium. In 1968–69 the theater was known as the Cleveland Grande. In the early 1980s, it briefly re-opened as the New Hippodrome Theatre showing movies. Following the fire which damaged the Agora Ballroom on East 24th Street, club owner Henry LoConti, Sr. decided to move to the 5000 Euclid Avenue location. Following extensive renovations, the new Agora Metropolitan Theater, the third Cleveland venue to bear the Agora name, opened in October 1986. The Agora has two rooms: a 500-person capacity, standing-room-only ballroom with adjoining bar, and an 1800-seat theater.

 

As far as some spooky shit goes, we were able to get some info straight from the source! We spoke with Mike who works at the agora and we got some cool stuff from him. In an email mine related the following information.

 

         "Prior to our merger with AEG Presents, I used to lead our ‘Ghost Tours’ with a group called Black Sheep Paranormal.

 

While I didn’t know what to expect, and I wasn’t exactly familiar with paranormal investigations, that quickly changed working with the group.

 

          One of the members of the Black Sheep Paranormal group was a retired police officer. Pretty easy to say he’s seen some shit, and could be characterized as fearless. Another member told him to check out the men’s room, where we have a utility closest between our sinks and stalls. From past experiences, we usually get some decent activity from that closest. However, nothing occurred this time. After giving up on this spot, the team member decided to use the bathroom. Seconds later, he hears **CLAP, CLAP, CLAP** from behind his neck, and he exited the bathroom about as white as a ghost.

 

Oh man… Good thing he was in the bathroom in case he pissed himself!! This next story is pretty crazy. He talks about "The Cleaning Lady"!

 

          "One of the known spirits at The Agora, who we call “The Cleaning Lady,” as you could have guessed, was responsible for cleaning the venue many decades ago. While I’m not exactly sure what happened to her, she was said to have fallen off our balcony, and died. One night, during an investigation, we were sitting in silence at the top of our balcony on the left hand side. As we sat there, we started to hear sweeping sounds. As the broom sweeps started to happen for a few seconds, all of the sudden, the sound traveled from the left side of the venue, all the way to the right side of the venue. We couldn’t really explain it, but that’s exactly what happened."

 

Wow! That's awesome! This next one would probably freak a lot of people out… but it's definitely cool.

 

        "Another occurrence was when we were up in one of the suite boxes up in the balcony. The venue was blacked out, and from where we were sitting, you could still see the bar area in our lower level. The bar had a mini fridge up against the wall that had lighting in it. We draped it off with a black table cloth, but there was still exposed light coming from the fridge. As we’re sitting there, we see a shadow fading in, and fading out of the light. Almost as if a person was pacing back and forth. We were able to see this because of the light from the fridge. As this shadow figure is pacing back and forth for a good 30 – 60 seconds, one of our team members calls out “if anyone is over by the bar, please make a sound.” And I shit you not, with no hesitation, a stack of plastic cups falls off the bar and onto the ground. That was definitely one of my favorite experiences."

 

Hopefully we get some action like that on our ghost hunt! Mike goes on to say that he actually got to see an apparition as well!

 

    "Over the years, we’ve heard and seen many things. We’ve had items that turn up missing, seen plenty of white anomalies, and other occurrences. Apparitions are rare, but sounds are usually constant. We’ve heard bangs on our doors, we’ve heard voices, we’ve even heard music; big band music to be specific. The apparition I’ve seen was an unreal experience. We were sitting in the balcony, and we just saw this shadow figure in one of the seats across/behind us. The figure was perfectly human-shaped, but you could see through it. It definitely seemed like it was staring at us the whole time. Sadly, my story telling doesn’t do this moment very much justice.

 

He said that a lot of the investigation stuff was mainly communication based with the spirits. He said they would ask  questions and they frequently got answers. We asked about how the spirits would answer and he told us: 

 

         "Most of the time in our investigations, we used dowsing rods for the questions, and asked them to cross the rods in a ‘yes or no’ type of questioning. They were always responsive in this form. As long as we got it started, we usually were able to keep the questions going. Obviously, noises would happen all the time. I remember one evening just working (no event going on), but we use to have these ‘garage’ type doors for our balcony entry. And for whatever reason, the spirts would not stop banging on them. Like something out of a movie, non-stop banging. That was the same day where my coworker went to use the bathroom, and as she was coming back to the office she heard “There she goes…” in a whisper type voice.

 

Damn! That's some crazy shit! We would like to thank Mike for his time and this incredible stories of the strange stuff that occurs at the agora! Hometown spooky shit is always awesome! 

Top ten horror movie musicals

https://screenrant.com/horror-musicals-best-ever-imdb/

The Necronomicon

In today's episode we are taking a different approach. We are starting off in the realm of fiction and learning about the Necronomicon, a fictitious book made up by a man we've discussed in the past. Then we switch gears and head into the real world, the land of the living, as some say, except we are looking at the land of the dead. We will be discussing a few true life Necronomicon books, or books of the dead. We have some examples of true to life books discussing preparation of the dead, helping them cross over, even what to do and expect when you get to the other side. Without further ado, let's get into this by visiting a previous subject, the one and only magnificently weird… H.P. Lovecraft!

 

     Since we've discussed ol H.P. in a separate episode we are not going to get into the man himself really. If you want to hear our take on Lovecraft, make sure to check out episode 37 from way back in January of 2020. What we are going to look at, however, is the book that he references in 10 separate stories. Those stories include: The Call of The Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror, The Haunter of The Dark, The Thing On The Doorstep, and several others. The book we are talking about is, of course, the mother fuckin’ necronomicon. That's right… The Necronomicon as most of you know it, was made up by Lovecraft himself.  The book became such a part of his stories that Lovecraft wrote a short history of the book itself. That being said, let's see what the history of the book is as written by the creepy genius, himself: 

 

Original title Al Azif—azif being the word used by Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) suppos’d to be the howling of daemons.

     Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sanaá, in Yemen, who is said to have flourished during the period of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia—the Roba el Khaliyeh or “Empty Space” of the ancients—and “Dahna” or “Crimson” desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and unbelievable marvels are told by those who pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years Alhazred dwelt in Damascus, where the Necronomicon (Al Azif) was written, and of his final death or disappearance (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th cent. biographer) to have been seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses. Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have seen fabulous Irem, or City of Pillars, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind. He was only an indifferent Moslem, worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu.

     In A.D. 950 the Azif, which had gained a considerable tho’ surreptitious circulation amongst the philosophers of the age, was secretly translated into Greek by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople under the title Necronomicon. For a century it impelled certain experimenters to terrible attempts, when it was suppressed and burnt by the patriarch Michael. After this it is only heard of furtively, but (1228) Olaus Wormius made a Latin translation later in the Middle Ages, and the Latin text was printed twice—once in the fifteenth century in black-letter (evidently in Germany) and once in the seventeenth (prob. Spanish)—both editions being without identifying marks, and located as to time and place by internal typographical evidence only. The work both Latin and Greek was banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232, shortly after its Latin translation, which called attention to it. The Arabic original was lost as early as Wormius’ time, as indicated by his prefatory note; and no sight of the Greek copy—which was printed in Italy between 1500 and 1550—has been reported since the burning of a certain Salem man’s library in 1692. An English translation made by Dr. Dee was never printed, and exists only in fragments recovered from the original manuscript. Of the Latin texts now existing one (15th cent.) is known to be in the British Museum under lock and key, while another (17th cent.) is in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. A seventeenth-century edition is in the Widener Library at Harvard, and in the library of Miskatonic University at Arkham. Also in the library of the University of Buenos Ayres. Numerous other copies probably exist in secret, and a fifteenth-century one is persistently rumoured to form part of the collection of a celebrated American millionaire. A still vaguer rumour credits the preservation of a sixteenth-century Greek text in the Salem family of Pickman; but if it was so preserved, it vanished with the artist R.U. Pickman, who disappeared early in 1926. The book is rigidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries, and by all branches of organised ecclesiasticism. Reading leads to terrible consequences. It was from rumours of this book (of which relatively few of the general public know) that R.W. Chambers is said to have derived the idea of his early novel The King in Yellow.

 

That was the history of the necronomicon as written by Lovecraft. Lovecraft stated that the name of the book came to him in a dream. Some claim however that Lovecraft was inspired by Robert W. Chambers' collection of stories titled The King In Yellow even though he isn't thought to have read the book until the late 1920s. Another person theorized that the book was derived from Nathanial Hawthorne. When asked about the Necronomicon, Lovecraft always maintained that it was wholly his invention even though The History Of The Necronomicon played as an historical text. 

 

Despite the book showing up in several stories the details of the book were pretty sparse. There were a few passages and words that were attributed to the necronomicon. The book's physical properties are not really talked about but generally it's described as being bound in some sort of leather and with metal clasps. As for the passages attributed to the book, there is a fairly long one that is described in the Dunwich Horror. The passage reads as follows:

 

           Nor is it to be thought...that man is either the oldest or the last of earth's masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They had trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. By Their smell can men sometimes know Them near, but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from man's truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is Them. They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites. Kadath in the cold waste hath known Them, and what man knows Kadath? The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones whereon Their seal is engraven, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. Iä! Shub-Niggurath! As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again.

 

Another is a considerably smaller snippet that is actually found in 2 stories, call of the Cthulhu and the nameless city, which goes as follows :

         That is not dead which can eternal lie.

And with strange aeons even death may die.

 

It is in Call of the Cthulhu that this small couplet is said to be from the Necronomicon.

 

In at least one story, the book was discovered to be disguised as another book. 

 

When asked about the contents Lovecraft once wrote:

 

       "if anyone were to try to write the Necronomicon, it would disappoint all those who have shuddered at cryptic references to it."

 

According to Lovecraft's "History of the Necronomicon", copies of the original Necronomicon were held by only five institutions worldwide:

 

The British Museum

The Bibliothèque nationale de France

Widener Library of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts

The University of Buenos Aires

The library of the fictional Miskatonic University in the also fictitious Arkham, Massachusetts

The Miskatonic University also holds the Latin translation by Olaus Wormius, printed in Spain in the 17th century.

 

Other copies, Lovecraft wrote, were kept by private individuals. Joseph Curwen, as noted, had a copy in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1941). A version is held in Kingsport in "The Festival" (1925). The provenance of the copy read by the narrator of "The Nameless City" is unknown; a version is read by the protagonist in "The Hound" (1924).

 

Although Lovecraft always maintained he created the book, there have always been plenty of people who believed the book to be real. There have been several books published that are supposedly translations of the actual Necronomicon. Interestingly enough the Vatican received calls every year from people that believe the real Necronomicon resides there. There have been hoaxes and others who have added their cards into library files to make it appear as if they have a copy but it is checked out. In Norway, the library of Tromso lists that they have a translated version but it is listed as unavailable. 

 

In 1978 a version of the necronomicon popped up that had been edited by George Hay. Hay was a writer and the founder of the science fiction foundation. The version included an introduction by the paranormal researcher and writer Colin Wilson. Wilson also wrote a story, "The Return of the Lloigor", in which the Voynich manuscript turns out to be a copy of the Necronomicon. Which is a pretty cool idea. The Voynich manuscript will be a bonus we’re going to tackle so make sure you become a Patreon Poopr to get access to that and all of the other amazing bonuses. 

 

Kenneth Grant, the British occultist, disciple of Aleister Crowley, (another future bonus episode topic) and head of the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis, suggested in his 1972 book The Magical Revival that there was an unconscious connection between Crowley and Lovecraft. Grant claimed that the Necronomicon existed as an astral book as part of the Akashic records and could be accessed through ritual magic or in dreams.  The Akashic records are a pretty crazy topic which we will definitely cover one day. In theosophy and anthroposophy, the Akashic records are a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future in terms of all entities and life forms, not just human. They are believed by theosophists to be encoded in a non-physical plane of existence known as the mental plane. There are anecdotal accounts but there is no scientific evidence for the existence of the Akashic records.

 

In 2004, Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred, by Canadian occultist Donald Tyson, was published by Llewellyn Worldwide. The Tyson Necronomicon is generally thought to be closer to Lovecraft's vision than other published versions.[citation needed] Donald Tyson has clearly stated that the Necronomicon is fictional, but that has not prevented his book from being the center of some controversy. Tyson has since published Alhazred, a novelization of the life of the Necronomicon's author. Tyson had also been known to back Grant's thoughts about Crowley, Lovecraft and the Akashic records.

 

l The most famous of these versions of the book is the  “Simon Necronomicon,” named for its pseudo mononymous compiler (widely believed to be occultist Peter Levenda). The book is cobbled together from a mishmash of recontextualized Sumerian and Babylonian texts peppered with added references to fictional deities created by Lovecraft and the orientalist magical system of Aleister Crowley. Simon’s text basically steals the work of pioneering Assyriologists like R.C. Thompson, from whose Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia many of the translations are lifted. In their original context, these texts were incantations against evil spirits and the various ills they caused, not spells for conjuring them. (“Simon” has a tendency to present descriptions of demons’ evil natures in English, but slips back into transliterated Akkadian when the texts begin to call for the spirits to be cast out, leading to an implication that the demons are being invoked rather than exorcised.) These ancient Mesopotamian incantations have come to be considered “satanic” through a centuries-long process of reinterpretation. The Simon Necronomicon reads its ancient sources through a combination of medieval demonology, 19th-century Theosophy, and 20th-century pulp fiction.

 

But despite its clear origins as a hoax, the Simon Necronomicon has been used as evidence in murder trials like that of Rod Ferrell and his so-called “Vampire Clan.” In 1996, Ferrell murdered the parents of one of his friends in a brutal but mundane home invasion. But numerous factors that emerged in media coverage of the crime-- including Ferrell’s self-identification as a vampire and the discovery of a copy of the Simon Necronomicon in his car--led to the murders being reframed as a satanic ritual killing. This information on the Simon Necronomicon comes from an article written by Gabriel McKee for The Institute For The Study of The Ancient World.

 

So that's a basic history of the Lovecraft Necronomicon. Versions of this book have been in storytelling through the ages. Including Moody's favorite movies like… The evil dead series. It also makes an appearance in Jason goes to hell to build the narrative that the Necronomicon was used in some capacity to bring Jason Vohees back. The Necronomicon was again shown in Pumpkinhead 2: Electric Boogaloo. Oh wait… Make that “Blood Wings”, wrong sequel. This version of the necronomicon was shown to be written in sumerian instead of Arabic. 

So what about real life books of the dead? Well, there are some out there. The Egyptian book of the dead is probably the most famous. 

 

The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a collection of spells which enable the soul of the deceased to navigate the afterlife. The famous title was given the work by western scholars; the actual title would translate as The Book of Coming Forth by Day or Spells for Going Forth by Day and a more apt translation to English would be The Egyptian Book of Life. Although the work is often referred to as "the Ancient Egyptian Bible" there is no such thing although the two works share the similarity of being ancient compilations of texts written at different times eventually gathered together in book form. The Book of the Dead was never codified and no two copies of the work are exactly the same. They were created specifically for each individual who could afford to purchase one as a kind of manual to help them after death. The afterlife was considered to be a continuation of life on earth and, after one had passed through various difficulties and judgment in the Hall of Truth, a paradise which was a perfect reflection of one's life on earth. After the soul had been justified in the Hall of Truth it passed on to cross over Lily Lake to rest in the Field of Reeds where one would find everything that one had lost in life and could enjoy it eternally. In order to reach that paradise, however, one needed to know where to go, how to address certain gods, what to say at certain times, and how to comfort oneself in the land of the dead; which is why one would find an afterlife manual extremely useful. 

 

The Book of the Dead originated from concepts depicted in tomb paintings and inscriptions from as early as the Third Dynasty of Egypt (c. 2670 - 2613 BCE). By the 12th Dynasty (1991 - 1802 BCE) these spells, with accompanying illustrations, were written on papyrus and placed in tombs and graves with the dead. Their purpose, as historian Margaret Bunson explains, "was to instruct the deceased on how to overcome the dangers of the afterlife by enabling them to assume the form of several mythical creatures and to give them the passwords necessary for admittance to certain stages of the underworld". They also served, however, to provide the soul with fore-knowledge of what would be expected at every stage. Having a Book of the Dead in one's tomb would be the equivalent of a student in the modern day getting their hands on all the test answers they would ever need in every grade of school. At some point prior to 1600 BCE the different spells had been divided in chapters and, by the time of the New Kingdom (1570 - 1069 BCE), the book was extremely popular. Bunson notes, "These spells and passwords were not part of a ritual but were fashioned for the deceased, to be recited in the afterlife". If someone were sick, and feared they might die, they would go to a scribe and have them write up a book of spells for the afterlife. The scribe would need to know what kind of life the person had lived in order to surmise the type of journey they could expect after death. Prior to the New Kingdom, The Book of the Dead was only available to the royalty and the elite. The popularity of the Osiris Myth in the period of the New Kingdom made people believe the spells were indispensible because Osiris featured so prominently in the soul's judgment in the afterlife.  As more and more people desired their own Book of the Dead, scribes obliged them and the book became just another commodity produced for sale. Bunson writes, "The individual could decide the number of chapters to be included, the types of illustrations, and the quality of the papyrus used. The individual was limited only by his or her financial resources" 

 

   It continued to vary in form and size until c. 650 BCE when it was fixed at 190 uniform spells but, still, people could add or subtract what they wanted to from the text. Other copies of the book continued to be produced with more or less spells depending on what the buyer could afford. The one spell which every copy seems to have had, however, was Spell 125. so what was spell 125 you ask, well we'll tell you. 

 

   Spell 125 is actually pretty cool and it's a story that spans other religious texts in different forms. It is essentially the judging of a person at the gates of the afterlife. In this case it is the judging of the heart of the deceased by the god Osiris in the Hall of Truth. As it was vital that the soul pass the test of the weighing of the heart in order to gain paradise, knowing what to say and how to act before Osiris, Thoth, Anubis, and the Forty-Two Judges was considered the most important information the deceased could arrive with. When a person died, Anubis would guide that person to the Hall of Truth so that they could make the Negative Confession. This was a list of 42 sins the person could honestly say they had never indulged in. Once the Negative Confession was made, Osiris, Thoth, Anubis, and the Forty-Two Judges would confer and, if the confession was accepted, the heart of the deceased was then weighed in the balance against the white feather of Ma'at, the feather of truth. If the heart was found to be lighter than the feather, the soul passed on toward paradise; if the heart was heavier, it was thrown onto the floor where it was devoured by the monster goddess Ammut and the soul would cease to exist. wow… Crazy! The reason that this spell is included in every book is fairly obvious. One needed to know the different gods' names and what they were responsible for but one also needed to know such details as the names of the doors in the room and the floor one needed to walk across; one even needed to know the names of one's own feet. As the soul answered each deity and object with the correct response, they would hear the reply, "You know us; pass by us" and could continue. The spell finished up with a summary of what to wear and even what to offer. It read as follows: "The correct procedure in this Hall of Justice: One shall utter this spell pure and clean and clad in white garments and sandals, painted with black eye-paint and anointed with myrrh. There shall be offered to him meat and poultry, incense, bread, beer, and herbs when you have put this written procedure on a clean floor of ochre overlaid with earth upon which no swine or small cattle have trodden."

 

There were quite a number of slips the soul might make, however, between arrival at the Hall of Truth and the boat ride to paradise. The Book of the Dead includes spells for any kind of circumstance but it does not seem one was guaranteed to survive these twists and turns. Not every detail described above was included in the vision of every era of Egyptian history. In some periods the modifications are minor while, in others, the afterlife is seen as a perilous journey toward a paradise that is only temporary. At some points in the culture the way to paradise was very straightforward after the soul was justified by Osiris while, in others, crocodiles might thwart the soul or bends in the road may prove dangerous or demons might appear to trick or even attack. In these cases, the soul needed spells to survive and reach paradise. Spells included in the book include titles such as "For Repelling A Crocodile Which Comes To Take Away", "For Driving Off A Snake", "For Not Being Eaten By A Snake In The Realm Of The Dead", "For Not Dying Again In The Realm Of The Dead", "For Being Transformed Into A Divine Falcon", "For Being Transformed Into A Lotus""For Being Transformed Into A Phoenix", “For being transformed into more than meets the eye” and so on. The Book of the Dead, as noted, was never used for magical transformations on earth; the spells only worked in the afterlife. The claim that The Book of the Dead was some kind of sorcerer's text is as wrong and unfounded as the comparison with the Bible. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is also nothing like The Tibetan Book of the Dead, although these two works are often equated as well. 

 

The information about the Egyptian book of the dead was taken from a great article on worldhistory.org It's a great resource for anything historical!

 

And speaking of the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, let's see what that's all about! Although in Tibet there is no single text directly referred to as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, this English work is the primary source for Western understandings of Tibetan Buddhist conceptions of death. These understandings have been highly influenced by Western spiritualist movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, resulting in efforts to adapt and synthesize various frameworks of “other” religious traditions, particularly those from Asian societies that are viewed as esoteric or mystical, including tantric or Tibetan Buddhism. Isn’t Tantric sex about having an intense orgasm without having intercourse? It’s also a great band. This has resulted in creative forms of appropriation, reinterpretation, and misrepresentation of Tibetan views and rituals surrounding death, which often neglect the historical and religious realities of the tradition itself. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a prime example of such a process. Despite the lack of a truly existing “book of the dead,” numerous translations, commentaries, and comparative studies on this “book” continue to be produced by both scholars and adherents of the tradition, making it a focal point for the dissemination and transference of Tibetan Buddhism in the West.

 

The set of Tibetan block prints that was the basis for the original publication of the Tibetan Book of the Dead in 1927 by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz (1878–1968) consisted of portions of the collection known in Tibetan as The Great Liberation through Hearing in the Intermediate State or Bardo Thödol (Bar do thos grol chen mo). This work is said to have been authored by Padmasambhava in the 8th century CE, who subsequently had the work buried; it was rediscovered in the 14th century by the treasure revealer (gter ston) Karma Lingpa (Kar ma gling pa; b. c. 1350). However, as a subject for literary and historical inquiry, it is nearly impossible to determine what Tibetan texts should be classified under the Western conceptual rubric of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. This is due partly to the Tibetan tendency to transmit textual traditions through various redactions, which inevitably change the content and order of collected works. Despite this challenge, the few systematic efforts made by scholars of Tibetan and Buddhist studies to investigate Bardo Thödol literature and its associated funerary tradition have been thorough, and the works produced by Bryan Cuevas and Donald Lopez Jr. are particularly noteworthy.

 

The Bardo Thödol is essentially a funerary manual designed to guide an individual toward recognizing the signs of impending death and traversing the intermediate state (bar do) between death and rebirth, and to guide one’s consciousness to a favorable next life. These instructions provide detailed descriptions of visions and other sensory experiences that one encounters when dying and during the post-mortem state. The texts are meant to be read aloud to the deceased by the living to encourage the consciousness to realize the illusory or dreamlike nature of these experiences and thus to attain liberation through this recognition. This presentation is indicative of a complex and intricate conceptual framework built around notions of death, impermanence, and their soteriological propensities within a tantric Buddhist program developed in Tibet over a millennium, particularly within the context of the Nyingma (rNying ma) esoteric tradition known as Dzogchen (rDzogs chen). Tibet and other tantric Buddhist societies throughout the Himalaya have developed a variety of technologies for practically applying Buddhist understandings of death, and so this particular “book” is by no means the only manual utilized during the dying and post-mortem states, nor is it even necessarily included in all Tibetan or Himalayan funerary traditions. Nevertheless, this work has captured the interests of Western societies for the past century and has unofficially become the principal introduction not only to Tibetan death rites but also to Tibetan Buddhism in general for the West. Information in this summary was taken from the Oxford Research Encyclopedia website.  

 

To go along with these, there is also the lesser known Texan book of the dead. This one is followed by a certain group of people in the Americas. There are some interesting passages in it and they read as follows: 

 

you say you want to go to heaven?

Well, I got the plans

Kinda walks like Sasquatch

But it breeds like kubla khan

In original dialect, it's really quite cryptical

 

Following this it says:

 

It's given me powers but kept me low

Many have scorned this

Modern day pharisees fat with espressos

 

Interesting… It continues:

 

you want to know paradise

Do you want to know hell?

Want to drink that cool clear liquor?

Better dig a little deeper in the well 

It goes on to reveal the mantra you need to recite to move on in the afterlife:

 

        Do you want that mantra?

Well, here you go

 

One for the money, two for the show

And a knick knack paddy whack

Give the lord a handicap

Ooh ee ooh ah ah

Twing twang walla walla bing bang

Oh ee ooh ah ah

Twing twang walla walla bing bang, oh yeah

Ooh eee ooh ah ah

B-I-N-G-O

Ooh eee ooh ah ah

E-I-E-I-O

 

It finishes with an emphatic phrase to remind you that on the afterlife, you're not running shots anymore, it reads:

 

"It is written, I have spoken

So put this in your pipe and smoke it"

 

Ok so if you made it through that with us you probably surmised that it was a bunch of hogwash. Texan book of the dead is actually a song by the band clutch but we figured we'd have some fun.  Some think the song has a deeper meaning referring to the ridiculousness of trendy ideas about spirituality and the process of life and death. 

 

https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/necromicon-movies-book-of-the-dead/

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This episode takes us back into the world of true crime since you guys seem to like it so much! As per the usual we are looking at an unusual unsolved murder case. The reason it's unusual is that we have no idea who did it, we have no motive, and we have no idea who the victim is. See, unusual! Could the victim have been one of the casualties of a crazy serial killer? Could she have been an extra in the movie Jaws?  Nobody has the answers to these questions. And as of now the mystery remains as to the identity of The Lady Of The Dunes! 

 

As far as this case is concerned there's not a ton as far the actual murder goes. Given the fact that the victim and the killer are unknown there's not much to go on. But here's what we know.

 

On July 26, 1974, twelve-year-old Leslie Metcalfe was walking with her parents and their friends through the dunes at Race Point Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Their friends’ dog was tagging along with them when it became excited by something and rushed into a stand of pines. Leslie heard the dog barking and ran over to see what was going on. That was when she found the Lady of the Dunes lying face-down with her hands amputated. Leslie could see that the woman was nude and had clothing neatly folded under her head. She ran back to her parents and immediately told them what she saw. Her father went to verify the gruesome scene and, subsequently, notified the park rangers.

 

Another young girl, Sandra Lee, who is now a crime author, claims that she too saw the Lady of the Dunes as she was taking a walk with her dog a couple of days before Leslie found the body. Sandra says she noticed that the lady had a head injury. She could also see what looked like a slash across the woman’s neck. However, Sandra was too afraid to tell anyone about it. Therefore, most people credit Leslie for the discovery of the woman. 

 

When police got to the crime scene, they found the victim lying on one side of a green beach towel. A pair of Wrangler jeans and a blue bandana lay under her head in what appeared to be a makeshift pillow. Where her hands should have been, there were piles of pine needles. The perpetrator had practically decapitated her and pulled out several of her teeth. Detectives theorized that the removal of hands and teeth were efforts to conceal the woman’s identity. One side of her head showed signs of blunt force trauma, which investigators determined was the cause of death. There were also signs of sexual assault. About 15 feet from where the victim’s body lay, there were tire tracks. Leading away from the corpse were two sets of footprints. The estimates for time of death ranged from ten days to three weeks. One promising lead broke early in the investigation. Pathologists realized that the victim in Race Point dunes had high-quality dental work worth thousands of dollars done on her remaining teeth. This dental work, classified as ‘New York style,’ did not come cheaply. The age of the victim was somewhere between 20 and 49. However, a more accurate estimate is 25 to 39. The five-foot six-inch woman had an athletic physique and auburn hair. She may have been asleep at the time of the murder; the blanket under her body was undisturbed. 

 

As far as the investigation goes, it was tough for anyone to make any headway due to the fact that they couldn't identify the victim. Detectives poured over missing persons reports trying to find a match. Others tried to follow the lead of the expensive dental to no avail. Yet another group hunted for a vehicle that could have left the tire tracks at the scene. And while all of this was going on, more police were searching the cringe scene another time but did not come up with anything. Appeals to the public with a sketch of the victim garnered some fresh leads. One woman from Maryland got in touch with detectives regarding her sister that had gone missing. Like the victim, the sister had auburn hair. Both sisters had lost contact with one another when the missing sister moved home to Boston. However, the police never confirmed a match. 

 

Another possibility was that the woman was a female bank robber. Her name was Rory Gene Kesinger. She had been arrested for the attempted murders of two police officers in Pembroke, Massachusetts. She was initially arrested with members of an organized crime group she belonged to.

 

Police are suspicious that Kesinger was killed by members of the group following her escape for their own protection, and if she was, her body would have been disposed of locally. One of those arrested with her in 1973 claimed the rumor of Kesinger's murder was true. 

 

Police considered this a vital lead, and DNA information was collected in the years following. Initial comparison proved inconclusive; a 2002 test eliminated the possible match. Another lead down the drain. 

 

A more recent and interesting theory had been proposed by none other than the son of horror legend Stephen King. In 2015, Joe Hill, king's son, posited a theory that the Lady of the dunes could actually have been an extra in the movie Jaws! He was already very familiar with the case and while watching the movie he noticed something that struck a chord halfway through the movie. One of the extras that appeared for a scene shot in Martha’s Vineyard wore a pair of blue jeans and a bandana. As well as similar clothing, this young woman bore a passing resemblance to the victim. Jaws began filming in May of 1974, just a couple months before the Cape Cod murder. Provincetown is only a few hours from Martha’s Vineyard. Such an idea might seem far-fetched, but at least one FBI agent has postulated that ‘odder ideas have cracked cold cases.’ 

 

Without an identity the police also had no idea who may have murdered the woman. There are a couple interesting leads with major criminal ties. 

 

The first one is Whitey Bulger. Yes, that Whitey Bulger, the mobster! Bulger was a mob boss who led The winter hill gang in Massachusetts. He was also an FBI informant. On December 23, 1994, Bulger fled the Boston area and went into hiding after his former FBI handler, John Connolly, tipped him off about a pending RICO indictment against him. Bulger remained at large for sixteen years. After his 2011 arrest, federal prosecutors tried Bulger for nineteen murders based on the grand jury testimony from Kevin Weeks and other former criminal associates. At one point police learned that Bulger was seen with a woman who resembled the lady of the dunes around the time she was presumed to have been killed. Bulger was also known to remove teeth and haha and fingers of his victims similar to how the Lady was found. Unfortunately Bulger was murdered in prison before a link could be established. 

 

Several serial killers were also looked at as being suspects. One of those was Tony Costa. Tony Costa was suspected in the killings of 8 women while being convicted of 2.  The case gained international attention when district attorney Edmund Dinis, in comments to the media, claimed "The hearts of each girl had been removed from the bodies and were not in the graves…Each body was cut into as many parts as there are joints." Dinis also claimed that there were teeth marks found on the bodies. While he was an early suspect in the case he was eventually eliminated.

 

The second serial killer that's connected to the case is freaking Hadden Clark! If you're not aware of Hadden Clark then you must not be into serial killers. And we know that comes off as an odd statement but… Whatever. As for Clark we could definitely do a whole episode on this dude if we were ever so inclined but we'll give you a summed up account of him taken from parts of his visit as found on murderpedia.com. 

 

             Hadden Irving Clark (born July 31, 1952) is an American murderer and suspected serial killer, currently serving two 30-year sentences at Eastern Correctional Institution in Maryland for the murders of 6-year-old Michelle Dorr in 1986 and 23-year-old Laura Houghteling in 1992. He was also given a 10-year sentence for robbery after stealing from a former landlord.

 

Family life

Hadden Clark is the second of four children, and was born and raised in Troy, New York. His brother, Bradfield Clark, strangled a woman in California before eating several body parts. Clark's parents were both alcoholics and often fought with each other in front of their children. Clark's mother would dress him in girls' clothes when drunk and addressed him as "Kristen.” His father eventually committed suicide. As a teenager, Clark would torture and kill animals owned by children who bullied him.

 

Clark trained as a chef and served in the United States Navy until he was discharged after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Over the years, he held a number of menial jobs but was mostly homeless. Clark was arrested multiple times for theft and retaliation. He was also arrested for robbery after he vandalized a former landlord's property and stole several items.

 

Murders

On May 31, 1986, Clark was ordered by his brother to move out of his Silver Spring, Maryland home. Michelle Dorr, a six-year-old friend of his niece, came over looking for her. Clark took her up to an upstairs room and stabbed Michelle to death. Clark then drank some of her blood and stuffed her in a duffel bag. He buried her in a park 12 miles away.

 

On October 18, 1992, he killed 23-year-old Laura Houghteling in Bethesda, Maryland. Clark was working as a gardener for Laura's mother Penny when she accused Hadden of stealing tools from her backyard shed. Clark entered the house through the back door and stabbed Laura to death in her bedroom with a kitchen knife and suffocated her with a pillow. He carried her body in a bedsheet through a wooded area and buried her a half-mile away.

 

He left behind a pillow with his fingerprint as he moved the body. He later returned and dressed up in a wig and women's clothes and left through the front door to make people think Laura left the house alive to buy time to clean the scene. Police soon discovered the bloody pillow and linked the print on it to Clark. Clark confessed and led police to Laura's body eight months after the murder.

 

Police later began looking at him for Michelle Dorr's murder after discovering he lived just two houses down from Michelle's father at the time she disappeared. Police later tested his brother's old house for blood and found Michelle's blood in the wooden floorboards of an upstairs bedroom. Clark later led police to her body in January 2000. Clark has confessed to murdering dozens of people starting as a teenager. How does this coincide with our story? In 2004, Clark sent a letter claiming he had killed an unidentified woman in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1974 known as Lady of the Dunes. Clark explained that he had buried evidence from the crime in his grandfather's garden and that he knew the woman's identity but was not going to tell authorities because he claimed they mistreated him. Hadden said of the claim: "I could have told the police what her name was, but after they beat the shit out of me, I wasn't going to tell them shit. ... This murder is still unsolved and what the police are looking for is in my grandfather's garden." Police aren't sure whether there is any merit to this confession but He led police on December 15, 2000 to his grandparents' former property where they discovered a plastic bucket of over 200 pieces of jewelry. Among the items were Laura Houghteling's high school class ring. Clark claims they were "trophies" taken from his victims.  So were any of these trinkets items that belonged to our Lady? We may never know. 

 

The Lady of the Dunes’ body lies at the St. Peter’s Cemetery, except her head, which law enforcement kept for ongoing criminal investigation. The first facial reconstruction using clay came in 1970. Then in 2010, a high tech scan helped to create another model of her face. Her body was exhumed twice. In 1980, forensic investigators took blood samples from her corpse. However, the evidence did not offer any new information about her murder. Then in 2000, they unearthed her again for DNA testing to see if she could be the offspring of Rory Kesinger’s mother. As noted, she was not.

 

     In 2019, District Attorney for the Cape and Islands Michael O’Keefe opened up a new investigation for the Lady of the Dunes. He plans to utilize ‘genetic genealogy,’ which is a method in which criminal investigators use genetic databases to find family members of a perpetrator or victim to solve crimes. Evidently, this method helped detectives find suspects for 28 cases in 2018, including the ‘Golden State Killer,’ Joseph James DeAngelo, after a nearly 50-year-old search.

 

So there you have it, the lady of the dunes. Not only unsolved but we don't even know the identity of the victim. A couple of high profile suspects but nothing more to go on. We may never know who she is or who killed her. People in the area and those close to the case are holding out hope though. 

 

https://www.ranker.com/list/best-massachusetts-horror-movies/ranker-film

Creepy New Zealand

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Boarding the train in Japan we're taking the imaginary bridge and heading to a beautiful island. What island is that you ask? We are heading to a place that has been kicking ass with listener support recently, and as we learned from a listener, they are not all pussies. We are heading to the land of Peter Jackson, Taika Waititi, Sir Edmund Hillary, Ernest Rutherford, who if you're not up on your scientists, was a  physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. Encyclopædia Britannica considers him to be the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday, Jean Batten, a female aviator who made the first solo flight from England to New Zealand, and the list could go on. Since we gave it away in the last description… You've probably guessed it… We're heading to New Zealand! Not only that… Creepy New Zealand!

 

So you know by now how we do it here on our creepy series, we like to give you a history of the location we're at and then drive into all that is creepy about said place! Having said that, let's check out the history of New Zealand. It all started when Bilbo Baggins found a ring. It was the one ring to rule them all… Oh wait.. Sorry… Wrong history… oh ya here we go..

Māori were the first inhabitants of New Zealand or Aotearoa, guided by Kupe the great navigator. When did Maori first arrive in New Zealand? According to Māori, the first explorer to reach New Zealand was Kupe. Using the stars and ocean currents as his navigational guides, he ventured across the Pacific on his waka hourua (voyaging canoe) from his ancestral Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki. It is thought that Kupe made landfall at the Hokianga Harbour in Northland, around 1000 years ago. You will not find Hawaiki on a map, but it is believed Māori came from an island or group of islands in Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. There are distinct similarities between the Māori language and culture and others of Polynesia including the Cook Islands, Hawaii, and Tahiti. More waka hourua followed Kupe over the next few hundred years, landing at various parts of New Zealand. It is believed that Polynesian migration was planned and deliberate, with many waka hourua making return journeys to Hawaiki. Today, Māori are part of an iwi (tribe), a group of people who are descendants of a common ancestor and associated with a certain region or area in New Zealand. Each iwi has their own hapū (sub-tribes). Iwi can trace their entire origins and whakapapa (genealogy) back to certain waka hourua. The seven waka that arrived to Aotearoa were called Tainui, Te Arawa, Mātaatua, Kurahaupō, Tokomaru, Aotea and Tākitimu. Māori were expert hunters, gatherers and growers. They wove fishing nets from harakeke (flax), and carved fish hooks from bone and stone. They hunted native birds, including moa, the world’s largest bird, with a range of ingenious traps and snares.

 

Māori cultivated land and introduced vegetables from Polynesia, including the kūmara (sweet potato) and often cooked hāngi (an earth oven). They also ate native vegetables, roots and berries. Woven baskets were used to carry food, which was often stored in a pātaka — a storehouse raised on stilts.  To protect themselves from being attacked by others, Māori would construct pā (fortified village). Built in strategic locations, pā were cleverly constructed with a series of stockades and trenches protecting the inhabitants from intruders. Today, many historic pā sites can be found throughout the country.

 

Māori warriors were strong and fearless, able to skillfully wield a variety of traditional weapons, including the spear-like taiaha and club-like mere. Today, these weapons may be seen in Māori ceremonies, such as the wero (challenge). You can also find these traditional weapons in museums. While Māori lived throughout the North and South Islands, the Moriori, another Polynesian tribe, lived on the Chatham Islands, nearly 900 kilometres east of Christchurch. Moriori are believed to have migrated to the Chathams from the South Island of New Zealand. In the late 18th century, there were about 2000 Moriori living in the Chathams. However, disease and attacks from Māori saw the numbers of this peace-loving tribe become severely depleted. The last full-blooded Moriori is believed to have died in 1933.The first European to sight New Zealand was Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. He was on an expedition to discover a great Southern continent ‘Great South Land’ that was believed to be rich in minerals. In 1642, while searching for this continent, Tasman sighted a ‘large high-lying land’ off the West Coast of the South Island.

 

Abel Tasman annexed the country for Holland under the name of ‘Staten Landt’ (later changed to ‘New Zealand’ by Dutch mapmakers). Sailing up the country’s West Coast, Tasman’s first contact with Māori was at the top of the South Island in what is now called Golden Bay. Two waka (canoes) full of Māori men sighted Tasman’s boat. Tasman sent out his men in a small boat, but various misunderstandings saw it rammed by one of the waka. In the resulting skirmish, four of Tasman’s men were killed.

 

Tasman never set foot on New Zealand, and after sailing up the West Coast, went on to some Pacific Islands, and then back to Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). His mission to New Zealand was considered unsuccessful by his employers, the Dutch East India Company, Tasman having found ‘no treasures or matters of great profit’. Captain James Cook, sent to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus, was also tasked with the search for the great southern continent thought to exist in the southern seas. Cook’s cabin boy, Young Nick, sighted a piece of land (now called Young Nick’s Head) near Gisborne in 1769. Cook successfully circumnavigated and mapped the country, and led two more expeditions to New Zealand before being killed in Hawaii in 1779. Prior to 1840, it was mainly whalers, sealers, and missionaries who came to New Zealand. These settlers had considerable contact with Māori, especially in coastal areas. Māori and Pākehā (Europeans) traded extensively, and some Europeans lived among Māori. The contribution of guns to Māori intertribal warfare, along with European diseases, led to a steep decline in the Māori population during this time.  Signed in 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi is an agreement between the British Crown and Māori.

 

Around this time, there were 125,000 Māori and about 2000 settlers in New Zealand. Sealers and whalers were the first Europeans settlers, followed by missionaries. Merchants also arrived to trade natural resources such as flax and timber from Māori in exchange for clothing, guns and other products.

 

As more immigrants settled permanently in New Zealand, they weren’t always fair in their dealings with Māori over land. A number of Māori chiefs sought protection from William IV, the King of England, and recognition of their special trade and missionary contacts with Britain. They feared a takeover by nations like France, and wanted to stop the lawlessness of the British people in their country. As British settlement increased, the British Government decided to negotiate a formal agreement with Māori chiefs to become a British Colony. A treaty was drawn up in English then translated into Māori.

 

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on February 6, 1840, at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands. Forty-three Northland Chiefs signed the treaty on that day. Over 500 Māori Chiefs signed it as it was taken around the country during the next eight months. The Treaty had three articles:

 

that the Queen (or king) of Great Britain has the right to rule over New Zealand;

that Māori chiefs would keep their land and their chieftainships, and would agree to sell their land only to the British monarch; and

that all Māori would have the same rights as British subjects.

The second and third articles have caused controversy through the years, mainly because of translation problems. Successive governments believed the Treaty enabled complete sovereignty over Māori, their lands and resources. But Māori believed that they were merely giving permission for the British to use their land. Disputes over ownership followed involving a series of violent conflicts during the 19th century. These became known as the New Zealand Land Wars, and were concentrated around Northland and the southern part of the North Island during the 1840s, and the central North Island in the 1860s. Both sides suffered losses, with the British Crown the eventual victor. Land confiscation and questionable land sales carried on through to the 20th century, until the vast majority of land in New Zealand was owned by settlers and the Crown. Following its signing, many of the rights guaranteed to Māori in the Treaty of Waitangi were ignored. To help rectify this, the Waitangi Tribunal was set up in 1975. It has ruled on a number of claims brought by Māori iwi (tribes) and in many cases, compensation has been granted.

 

While disagreements over the terms of the treaty continue to this day, it is still considered New Zealand’s founding document.

 

The grounds and building where the treaty was signed have been preserved. Today, the Waitangi Historic Reserve is a popular tourist attraction. Here you can explore the museum, watch a cultural performance inside the carved Māori meeting house, and visit the colonial mission house, historic flagstaff, and beautiful waka taua (Māori war canoe). Throughout the 19th and much of the 20th century, the ‘homeland’ of Britain had an enormous influence on New Zealand. Government administration, education, and culture were largely built on British models. New Zealand troops fought, and suffered severe casualties in the Boer War and the two World Wars. As Prime Minister Michael Savage said about England in 1939, ‘where she goes, we go, where she stands, we stand’. After World War II, cultural ties with Great Britain remained strong. However, successive New Zealand governments saw the USA as their major ally and protector. New Zealand signed the joined SEATO (South-East Asia Treaty Organisation) and signed the ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, and United States) Pact. New Zealand troops also fought with US forces during the Korean and Vietnam wars. While New Zealand is still heavily influenced by its colonial heritage, the country now has its own strong sense of identity. While still a member of the British Commonwealth, and maintaining close, friendly relations with the USA, New Zealand now has a far more independent trading and foreign policy. Since the mid 1980s, New Zealand has been a nuclear free zone, with its armed forces primarily focused on peacekeeping in the Pacific region. This history of the country was taken directly from NewZealand.Com. It was the best summation without getting too overblown we could find!  So now with that history of the country down let's get into the creepiness!!

 

First up, a ghost town! 

Now farmland and Bush, Tangarakau once was a thriving community of 1200 people. It's a tiny dot on the map 90 minutes' drive from both Stratford and Taumarunui - so remote that it isn't even on the Forgotten Highway. You must turn off State Highway 43 and drive 6km into bush and rugged farmland to reach all that's left of it, which is almost nothing. There's a campground with cabins and provision for motorhomes, a working farm, the heavily rainforested banks of the Tangarakau River and surrounding hills to explore and plenty of outdoor activities: fossil collecting, kayaking, hunting. The name, which translates as "to fell trees” seems appropriate, for there's nothing but paddocks where a community of 1200 tunnellers and railway workers once thrived. Tangarakau was the epicentre of an epic construction job accomplished with picks, shovels and dynamite - a project which it's said would have cost $9 billion in today's money. Construction of the Stratford-Okahukura railway line began from Stratford in 1901 and took more than three decades to complete. The link was mothballed in 2009, though you can still ride over it in tourist railcarts. For most of its life this railway thrived, with goods trains carrying coal, stock and wool and passenger railcars travelling both ways every day. One feature of visiting Tangarakau on the railcarts is that the railway ballast on this part of the track is full of fossils. For about 10 years, during the height of construction, Tangarakau boasted a drapery store, hairdresser and tobacconist, boot shop, tearooms, confectioner and fruiterer, social rooms, post office and savings bank, police station, a boarding house, resident doctor and dispensary (formed by a co-operative Tangarakau Medical Association), a maternity home, cinema and social hall, lending library and reading room, a well-equipped school, recreation ground and tennis court.

The streets were lit by a power station provided by the Public Works Department.

According to Taranaki's Ghost Town by Derek Morris, men who built the Stratford-Okahukura railway line earned only a few pounds a week. But everyone gave a day's wages to the victims of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. After the line was completed in 1932, the workers drifted away and most buildings were dismantled and removed. During the 1960s, the population dwindled to eight. Now only Bushlands Holiday Park remains.

 

Not far from the ghost town, in the spectacular Tangarakau Gorge, is the grave of pioneer surveyor Joshua Morgan who died in 1893.

Morgan was an extraordinary man - the first European to cross the Urewera Ranges and an eyewitness to the 1886 Tarawera eruption. He spoke fluent Maori and often used English and Maori interchangeably.

Morgan fell ill while surveying the road linking Stratford and Taumarunui and did not survive to see the historic railway line through to completion.

Morgan's tomb has become a place for travellers to pause and reflect on those who built the Stratford-Okahukura railway line. There's not a ton of sightings from this place but there are a few ghost stories. Some have stated that they've seen apparitions wandering the ground. And there are reports of strange noises in the area as well. Some campers at the campground have reported creepy things happening while they've stayed there including odd noises and something messing with their tents andRVs, wildlife or spirits of  the tallest workers that died working hard to complete the railway? 

 

So we started out light to whet your whistles. Let's get into more creepiness!

 

Next up we head to Auckland! There we find the Ewelme cottage, which from what we can tell is considered one of the most haunted places in the area! Built in the 1860s, this charming cottage in Parnell was once home to Reverend Lush and his wife. It also functioned as a bolt-hole during times of tribal conflict in Howick, where Reverend Lush preached. This house has remained largely intact and virtually unchanged in the years since when it was built.

It is a glimpse into what life in New Zealand used to be like!

 

It is also rumoured to be haunted by the spirits of women and children, and in particular by the spirit of a young girl. We found a description of a paranormal investigation done at the house and we're gonna share some of those findings. Rather high EMF levels were detected in a few places within the house. 🖕 They do disclose that some of these reasons were due to wiring in those areas. Upstairs, a couple of the more sensitive members felt rather uneasy and could feel ‘something’ in the child’s bedroom area. One of the sensitives, during an EVP session, picked up that the toy doll, sitting on a small chair in the child’s room, was lovingly named “Georgina”. One photograph, taken outside the house standing on the veranda aimed at a glass window, seemed to show a rather eerie face looking back at the camera through the glass. Also upon reviewing our photographs we noticed a couple of rather odd-shaped shadows which appeared on the wall in the study. These shadows did not appear in other photos taken off the same spot. They managed to debunk one of the shadow photos but the other one could not be replicated or explained. Two members recall doing an EVP session. One of the members had brought along a balancing bird toy as a trigger object. It balanced nearby to where they were sitting and started the session. During the EVP session they noticed that the bird was moving. Unfortunately a video camera wasn’t on it at the time. However, upon reviewing the recorded EVP session from that room, a “kkkkk” sound is heard and immediately after, they are heard then sounding excited about the bird moving. One of our sensitives felt that there was something, (a male) in the downstairs office. She also felt very sad in the upstairs children’s room and thought that maybe there was a little girl up there. The name Isabella came up. Outside of this we've found stories of many people seeing the ghost of a young girl by oak tree in the garden, this is a very common sighting. A further resident had claimed that people have seen a cat running down the hallway and disappearing into the wall! Another visitor claimed they heard whispers when they were in the upstairs of the house, which is also where the paranormal investigators claimed it seemed most likely there was activity. 

 

Nothing like a good old haunted house! 

 

Next up, one of our standby sites… An old railway tunnel! The Otira tunnel to be exact. The Otira Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the Midland Line in the South Island of New Zealand, between Otira and Arthur's Pass. It runs under the Southern Alps from Arthur's Pass to Otira – a length of over 8.5 kilometres (5.3 mi).  The opening of the 8.5-km Ōtira tunnel completed the long-planned transalpine railway between Christchurch and Greymouth. At the time, it was the longest tunnel outside the Alps and the seventh-longest in the world.

 

Work had begun on the ‘Midland’ line 36 years earlier, but the private developers’ grand plans soon came unstuck. The government’s Public Works Department (PWD) took over in 1895 and the West Coast section reached Ōtira by 1900. Tenders for a long tunnel through the Southern Alps to Arthur’s Pass, 737 m above sea level, were called in 1907. Contractors J.H. McLean & Sons began work the following year, but the project was plagued by engineering problems, extreme weather and labour shortages, forcing the PWD to step in again. When the two ends of the tunnel were joined in 1918, the surveyors’ centre lines were less than 30 mm apart, impressive accuracy for the era. Due to the tunnel’s length and steep gradient, electric locomotives were used to haul trains through it until 1997. As with all of the other rail tunnels we've covered, this one has had its share of deaths and accidents associated with it! The onboard commentary tells of a ghost who is sometimes seen on the Old Coach Road. Apparently the male ghost walks with his swag along the road beside the tracks. It is considered that the man was a Scotsman who was one of the workers killed during the construction of the 8.5km Otira Tunnel. He is always seen travelling east on the Old Coach Road and is thought to be trying to get to Littleton so he can catch a ship home. Many people have claimed to see this ghost also in various other spots along the railway.

 

Next up… How about a psychiatric hospital! Kingseat Hospital was a psychiatric hospital that is considered to be one of New Zealand's notorious haunted locations with hundreds of claims of apparitions being reported, as of 2011. The construction of Kingseat Hospital began in 1929 when twenty patients from a nearby mental institution came to the site along with twelve wheelbarrows and ten shovels. Kingseat Hospital was named after a hospital in Aberdeenshire, Scotland following Dr. Gray (the Director-General of the Mental Health Division of the Health Department at the time) returning from an overseas trip, who felt it appropriate to have a sister hospital with the same name in New Zealand. Flower gardens, shrubs and trees were grown in the grounds of Kingseat Hospital, using surplus plants from the Ellerslie Racecourse and Norfolk Island pine seeds from Sir George Grey’s garden on Kawau Island.

 

Kingseat Hospital was in operation from 1932. In 1939, the Public Works Department and Fletcher Construction Company, Ltd. agreed on the construction of a two-storey nurses home at Kingseat Hospital, with the government to provide the steel for the building.

 

The hospital grew throughout the mid-late 1930s and 1940s to such an extent that by the beginning of 1947, there were over eight hundred patients. In 1968, certain nurses at Kingseat Hospital went on strike, which forced the administration to invite unemployed people and volunteers to assist within the hospital grounds with domestic chores.

 

In 1973, a Therapeutic pool was opened by the then-Mayoress of Auckland, Barbara Goodman, four years before the main swimming pool was added to the hospital in 1977. The site celebrated its 50th Anniversary Jubilee in 1982.

 

During the 1970s and 1980s, there were many places attached to psychiatric hospitals in New Zealand where alcoholics were treated for their drinking addictions and Villas 4 and 11 at Kingseat Hospital served this purpose. In 1996, South Auckland Health sold Kingseat Hospital after government decisions to replace ongoing hospitalisation of mentally ill patients with community care and rehabilitation units. This led to the eventual closure of Kingseat Hospital in July 1999, when the final patients were re-located off the complex to a mental health unit in Otara.

 

After the closure of Kingseat Hospital in 1999, the grounds were initially considered as a potential site for a new prison, able to accommodate six hundred inmates. In 2000, legal action was taken against the Tainui tribe for financial issues involving the former hospital. By 2004, more than two-hundred people had come forward to file complaints against the national government for claims of mistreatment and abuse of patients at New Zealand's psychiatric institutions (including Kingseat Hospital) during the 1960s and 1970s. Many of the complainants, who at the time of the incidents were aged between 8 and 16 years old, said that they were heavily over-medicated, unwillingly subjected to electro-shock treatment, and placed in isolation for long periods of time — sometimes for months. A paranormal team found a diary that contained the following: 'There was never enough hands to help the extremely handicapped eat, no medications to avoid being scratched or attacked nurses or kitchen or laundry staff alike-if having to go past the residents to clean up or stop them attacking each other,' the diary read.

 

'We could use the hours between meals to just clean up the dining rooms.. I cried with relief to learn this hospital has closed.'

 

Oof, also the diary claimed more nurses died there than patients. One of the most prolific reports is of the 'Grey Nurse', believed to be the ghost of a former worker who died while the psychiatric hospital was still operational.

 

The property contains abandoned nurse's quarters where the apparition is meant to have been spotted lurking in the shadows. 

 

The nurse is just one of many 'shadows' spotted in the halls, a phenomenon which has been described as having 'always existed and feed[ing] on negative energies and the emotions of fear'.

 Here we have another paranormal team account: 'The EMF meter suddenly went off. We started tracking the field and found we could actually gauge the shape and size of it. It was about the size of a football and was floating about a meter or so off the ground,' he wrote.

 

'At one point it was ‘hovering’ around Kel’s [another team member] head for a couple of minutes, before moving off...As I was measuring the field around Kel, I could feel an icy cold patch all around my hand holding the EMF meter,' he said. The team recorded several unusual incidents, including hearing the name 'Stephen' very clearly when they used a 'spirit box' to communicate with ghosts in the rtold  A family living in one of the villas told the Haunted Auckland team that spirits regularly showed themselves.

 

'They play with the kids. Sometimes we see them, but they don’t bother us at all, it’s all good,' the team were told.

 

Footage shows the paranormal investigators of Haunted Auckland supposedly communicating with a ghost named Alexis Jackson, a nurse who continues to “look after patients” at the hospital. During a visit to a former nurse’s house, another team member claimed to feel “dizzy and nauseous” when she touched a bathtub. Climbing in, she sensed something terrible had happened.

 

“I closed my eyes and saw a bit clearer a picture of a woman being pushed under the water,” she said. “I saw her arms and legs threshing in the bathtub. I could see a hand and arm pushing her under the water drowning her. 

 

staff at Spookers(a haunted house attraction)  have been creeped out by “object manipulation”, and chilly spots. And at the Kingseat villas, there’s been some serious poltergeist activity with reports of shaking cupboard doors, tapping on windows, self-operating toilets and taps, and moving furniture. Voices have been heard, sulphur smelt, and shadowy figures seen. TV show Ghost Hunt features footage of an unplugged dentist chair turning itself on and claims to have captured the shape of a ghost’s face in a shower stall. 

 

Good stuff!

 

Cryptids anyone? Sure thing! How about the Moehau! Moehau also known as Maero, Matau, Tuuhourangi, Taongina or Rapuwai described by the Maori people of New Zealand as being "Terrible creatures, half man, half animal", with a very aggressive temperament, they were only too happy to massacre and eat anyone that strayed into their domain. Early encounters often talk of these creatures exhibiting aggression and throwing rocks to frighten people off. It was these creatures, largely found in the Coromandel Ranges, that were thought to be responsible for the find of a headless, partially devoured body of a prospector in the Martha Mine region in 1882, later further up in the foothills the corpse of a woman was found, it was discovered she had been dragged from the shack in which she lived while the remainder of her family were away, and her neck had been snapped.

 

On the topic of aggressive behavior, Taonginas were greatly feared by the population of the lower Wanganui River as they were said to viciously attack any fishermen who strayed into their territory. This vicious behavior however seems to have abated in more modern encounters as the beasts in most instances flee on sight of  humans.

 

Rapuwai are believed, from legend, to be able to crush any strong Maori warrior with ease employing their large powerful hands. They are said to be tool-producing beasts using wood and stone, the articles crafted are said to resemble those produced by Homo erectus hominids. The Rapuwai are mostly believed to be an evolved orangutan that fled to these uninhabited islands of Polynesia. Meanwhile the Moehau are depicted as being as tall as a man, completely hair covered, with marginally ape-like facial features. The primary difference from human appearance being the extremely long fingers, tipped with sharp talons, capable of tearing apart the toughest prey. Often described as “Manimals”. It is possible that if these man-beasts existed prehistorically they would have been more than capable of bringing down the largest of Moa - Dinornis. The large talons spoken of seem to designate this creature's predatory nature. However, large talons are also found elsewhere in the animal kingdom in animals that rip open rotten logs to acquire nourishment, considering the indigenous Maori used to eat the large nutritious Huhu Grubs; it is not impossible that this beast may also be insectivorous. Matau Giants are described as being ape-like but 3m tall. The Rapuwai are gigantic, slow clumsy creatures that are of a strong muscular stature.

 

These creatures can be categorized as follows, those that are the stature of an ordinary human, the Moehau and Maero and those that are of giant stature the Matau, Tuuhourangi, Matau Giants and the Rapuwai.Many areas of New Zealand are named for these great hairy man beasts, Moehau Mountain, where they are believed to reside and people are cautioned against going up there is one such place. The Moehau are thought to populate both Mount Tongariro and Ruapehu, the Karangahake Gorge, Coromandel Ranges, Martha Mine Region, Waikaremoana – in the Urewera Ranges, The Heaphy River of the Northwest Nelson State Forest Park, Kaikoura Mountains, Fiordland National Park and are believed to be very common in the Haasts Pass area particularly around the Haast River.

 

The Matau Giants inhabit Lake Wakatipu in Central Otago. Toanginas are found in the lower reaches of the Waikato River. Maero are encountered in bush country throughout both the North and South Islands. Rapuwai are said to inhabit the Marlborough Distract and the Milford Sounds area. There is further another as yet unidentified type of man beast that lives in the Cameron Mountains in the South West of the South Island. Footprints are in most instances the main evidence of these creatures, in 1903 footprints larger than a mans were found in the Karangahake Gorge in Coromandel. In 1971 a trail of footprints similar to a mans though extended in appearance was located on snow-covered ground and led into a zone of bush on a hillside by a Park Ranger. 1983 was when a deer hunter chanced upon man-like footprints that could have been no more than an hour old along a riverbank in the Heaphy River area. In 1991 campers in the Cameron Mountains of the South Island elected to abandon their camp after finding unusually large man-beast prints near where they were camping.

 

In 1970 another party of campers had to abandon their camp as a 2m tall man beast assailed them screaming loudly and hurling rocks at the camp.

 

1972 and a hunter in the Coromandel ranges watched a naked, hairy man beast about 2m tall work its way through the scrub on the other side of a gully, upon reaching the place the creature had been traversing, footprints were found.  

 

Well we know why Moody's going to New Zealand! 

 

Next up are the kaikoura lights! UFOs or whatever the lame explanation that the "man"  gives us. The now-famous sightings began in the early hours of December 21. Civil Aviation officials later called in the air force due to the number and nature of the UFO reports.

 

Two Safe-Air flights left Woodbourne bound for Christchurch and one sighted lights off the Clarence River just before 2am. On the way back north, the crew were told Wellington Radar was picking up returns from its transmissions in that area, and the crew reported lights again at 4am, making rectangular patterns.

 

The second aircraft left Woodbourne at 3am and also checked out the radar observations, without seeing anything near the river. But radar signals in Wellington appeared to show something tracking the Argosy and at one point the crew saw a bright orb, pear-shaped with a reddish tinge which seemed to be stationary, though the plane's own radar showed it tracking the aircraft. On December 31, another Argosy carrying a film crew saw a cluster of four or five lights near the Kaikoura Peninsula, and a pulsing white light, while Wellington radar had contacts about 21km ahead of them, near the Clarence River.

 

Then there were radar "returns" from behind the aircraft, and a radar "target" where the crew saw a white light off their starboard side.

 

Flying out of Christchurch after 2am, the crew again saw a large white light, which they said aligned with a large radar target.

 

The sightings were filmed by the professional news camera crew filming an item about the earlier incident.

 

In the 2cm-thick file on the Kaikoura sightings, a report by Dr Bruce Maccabee for the NZ UFO Studies Centre, said the incidents were hard to explain through "conventional phenomenon". Conventional phenomena huh… Right… Wanna hear the explanation? Well here ya go… declassified New Zealand Defence Force files released yesterday showed the RNZAF attributed the sightings to "freak propagation" of radio and light waves, an unusually-bright Venus and the lights of a squid fishing fleet, cars and trains. Sounds like a whole lot of bullshit to us. 

 

We'd be remiss if we left out a haunted hotel. So we now take a trip to the Vulcan hotel.  The Vulcan Hotel is a restored and reputedly haunted public house, located on the main street of St Bathans, and is the town's main tourist attraction. Originally called the Ballarat Hotel, it was built in 1882 of mud brick. The building is registered as a Category I historic place by Heritage New Zealand. The building is notable as possibly the country's most famous haunted building. Room 1 of the hotel is reputedly home to the spirit of a young woman, thought by some to be a prostitute known as "the Rose", who was strangled to death in the hotel in the 1880s. The new owner of the building had an encounter with a ghost! Royce Clark has been visiting St Bathans for duck shooting and rugby with mates for more than 40 years, and has been a regular at the hotel. He recalled a story where an electric jug in his room turned on by itself although it wasn't plugged in, one night and he thought it was his buddies needing around but he couldn't find any sort of trickery even after he took it apart the next day. He also talked about hearing strange things during his visit. 

 

Ok so there you have our first installment of creepy New Zealand. There were stone more cool spots including a hospital and prison that we didn't get to this time but we'll for sure be back!

 

7 top new Zealand horror movies

https://worldgeeklynews.com/films/7-great-horror-films-from-new-zealand/

Aokigahara Forest, AKA The Suicide Forest

Today we're taking a trip to Japan. Today's episode may contain some talk that could be hard for some to listen to. We will be discussing suicide in parts of today's episode. While we normally have a pretty lax, “we don't care who we piss off or trigger” kind of attitude, we all agree that mental health and suicide are serious issues and we do not want anyone who may already have some problems to listen to something we are discussing and to make any said problems worse. We joke around and have fun and there will be jokes and fuckery in this episode, BUT, we will not make jokes about suicide or mental health. We will try and find some levity to shake off the darker situations, but will do our best to also be respectful when needed. We say this all the time and this is another great spot for this message, please if you are having any sort of thoughts of suicide and depression please reach out to someone that you can talk to. There are many many excellent resources for those who need them.

 

With that being said, in today's episode we are talking about Japan's Aokigahara Forest, also known as the suicide forest. We are going to go through the history of the forest and we are also going to talk about some of the tales of spirits and monsters in the forest. Also we’ll get into some spooky stories, of course, because that's what we do here! 

 

Due to the high level of stress faced by the Japanese, Japan is seen as one of the top countries with high suicide rates. According to a report by The Guardian, depression, serious illness and debt are among the common reasons one seeks to end their life. 

 

Historically suicide has been viewed differently in Japan than the way we see it now. Most people today will remark how selfish or cowardly suicide is. Japan historically has had the view that suicide was an honorable thing.

 

Back in the feudal era in Japan, committing suicide was seen as an act of honour. Samurai warriors would rather commit suicide, or known as seppuku sometimes referred to as Harakiri (ritual disemboweling) than fall into the hands of their enemy – a way to uphold their honor and dignity. It was also used as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offenses, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. It  was later practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa period (particularly officers near the end of World War II) to restore honor for themselves or for their families. The ceremonial disembowelment, which is usually part of a more elaborate ritual and performed in front of spectators, consists of plunging a short blade like a tantō into the belly and drawing the blade from left to right, slicing the belly open. Some practitioners of seppuku allowed themselves to die slowly, but they usually enlisted the help of a “kaishakunin,” or second, who would lop off their head with a katana as soon as they made their initial cut. The goal was generally not to take the head off in one swing, rather most of the way off on the first swing with the second bringing down a very light cut allowing the head to fall into the hands of the deceased. Among other rituals, the doomed individual often drank sake, they were only allowed a specific number of sips, and composed a short “death poem” before taking up the blade. In each case, it was considered an act of extreme bravery and self-sacrifice that embodied Bushido, the ancient warrior code of the samurai. There was even a female version of seppuku called “jigai,” which involved cutting the throat using a tanto. Japanese Tanto knives (or short swords) are characterized by their dagger-like design. The tanto knife first appeared around the year 900. Seppuku fell out of favor with the decline of the samurai in the late-19th century, but the practice didn’t disappear entirely. Japanese General Nogi Maresuke disemboweled himself in 1912 out of loyalty to the deceased Meiji Emperor, and many troops later chose the sword over surrender during World War II. Perhaps the most famous case in recent history concerns Yukio Mishima, a renowned novelist and Nobel Prize nominee who committed ritual seppuku in 1970 after leading a failed coup against the Japanese government.

On October 25, 1944, the Empire of Japan employed kamikaze bombers for the first time. (Kamikazi bombers were named after the “divine wind” that had destroyed the Mongol fleet in the thirteenth century, thus saving Japan from invasion.) The tactic was part of the ferocious Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, which took place in the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines. Kamikaze strikes against Allied warships continued throughout World War II.

 

Kamikaze pilots deliberately crashed specially made planes directly into enemy warships, which resulted in suicide. It was a desperate policy. Motoharu Okamura, who commanded a kamikaze squadron, remarked that by 1944, “I firmly believe that the only way to swing the war in our favor is to resort to crash-dive attacks with our planes. There is no other way. Provide me with 300 planes and I will turn the tide of war.” In these kamikaze attacks, more than 3,000 Japanese pilots were killed, and there were more than 7,000 casualties among American, Australian, and British personnel. Flight Lieutenant Haruo Araki wrote the following letter to his wife before his last flight: 

             

                Shigeko,

 

Are you well? It is now a month since that day. The happy dream is over. Tomorrow I will dive my plane into an enemy ship. I will cross the river into the other world, taking some Yankees with me. When I look back, I see that I was very cold-hearted to you. After I had been cruel to you, I used to regret it. Please forgive me.

 

When I think of your future, and the long life ahead, it tears at my heart. Please remain steadfast and live happily. After my death, please take care of my father for me.

 

I, who have lived for the eternal principles of justice, will forever protect this nation from the enemies that surround us.

 

Commander of the Air Unit Eternity

 

Haruo Araki

 

WOW!

 

The reason we wanted to include this letter is that last line. He referred to himself as living for the eternal principles of justice. He says he will forever protect his nation from the enemies that surround them. This goes to show that there was still a sense of pride in the fact that you are committing suicide for the cause. It was seen as a strength not a weakness historically. On the other side of the coin, the Allies, steeped in the Judaeo-Christian tradition of the sanctity of life, the apparent willingness of Japanese servicemen like Araki to carry out suicide attacks was profoundly shocking. But then, as scholars of the kamikaze point out, the word suicide in Japanese does not always have the same “immoral connotation” that it has in English. Two versions—jiketsu (self-determination) and jisai (self-judgement)—“suggest an honorable or laudable act done in the public interest.” There is, moreover, no ethical or religious taboo regarding suicide in Japan’s traditional religion of Shintoism.  To surrender, on the other hand, was seen as dishonourable, hence the contempt the Japanese felt for prisoners of war. Japanese soldiers believed that when they fell on the field of battle they would become kami, or gods, and join the nation’s spirits at the Shinto shrine of Yasukuni in Tokyo. Hence the typical farewell from members of the Shimpū (Divine Wind) Special Attack Corps: “I’ll meet you at the Yasukuni Shrine!” 

Nowadays, many have chosen to end their life not for honourable reasons, but mainly because they could not fit into society. In Japan today, suicide is considered a major social issue. In 2017, the country had the seventh highest suicide rate in the OECD, at 14.9 per 100,000 persons, and in 2019 the country had the second highest suicide rate among the G7 developed nations.  The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is “an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives.”, as per their website. Seventy percent of suicides in Japan are male, and it is the leading cause of death in men aged 20–44. After peaking in 2003, suicide rates have been gradually declining, falling to the lowest on record (since 1978) in 2019. Monthly suicide rates in Japan increased by 16% between July and October 2020, due to a number of reasons attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. What is driving these big divide rates?  As of 2020, the leading motive, with 49% of suicides was "Health issues". However because the category for health issues includes both mental (like depression) and physical issues, it is not possible to distinguish between the two. The second most commonly listed motive for suicides was "Financial/Poverty related issues" (e.g., Too much debt, Poverty), which was a motive in 17% of suicides. The third motive is "Household issues" (e.g., disagreements in the family) listed in 15% of suicides.

 

By occupation, 59.3% of suicide victims were in the broad "Not Employed" category, which is not to be confused with the colloquialism "unemployed" (as in those who are seeking but unable to find a job). The "Not Employed" category also includes pensioners, homemakers and others. While the teenage suicide rate in Japan is lower than the OECD country average, teenage suicide rates have been the only category to increase slightly in recent years, despite the significant drop in overall suicide rates over the past decade.

 

Many who decide to commit suicide will chose a place where it is hidden and not easy to be found to spend their last moment. And for the Japanese, Aokigahara Forest is one of the most common locations. It is also known as the world’s second-most common location to commit suicide. The most common location is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California, in the US. Aokigahara is located at the northwest base of the country’s highest mountain, Mount Fuji. Due to its high density of trees, Aokigahara is also known as a Jukai – which simply means a “sea of trees’. The tree cover is so thick that, even at noon, you will hardly find a bright spot in the forest. Aokigahara is also known as Japan’s Demon Forest, and the “perfect place to die”. Many Japanese believe that the forest is haunted and dare not go nearby. This 35-sq km, around 14 sq mile, forest is cold, rocky, and contains some 200 caves, of which a few, such as the Ice Cave and Wind Cave, have been popular among tourists. Because of the rocky area and thick trees, Aokigahara’s surroundings are almost identical, making it the perfect journey for those who are making a one-way trip. For trekkers and hikers, they often carry along plastic tape to mark their way so that they will find the way out again. 

 

Let's find out a bit more about the forest itself, because well, nerd shit. It formed out of a devastating volcanic eruption that occurred in the year 864. Which was ironically, chainsaw's second birthday. The nickname “Sea of Trees" captures the full grandeur of how this wind-swept forest appears from the mountain with its treetops rolling like waves. The trees in the forest do bear an exotic, gnarled appearance because they grew out of hardened lava. Their roots could not penetrate to the usual depth. The flow of the lava left the ground with an uneven surface before hardening, where it is not unusual to see trees partially uprooted, along with gaping holes—cave-like recesses—that have formed in the ground. Aokigahara has been falsely portrayed as a place where navigational compasses go haywire. Needles of magnetic compasses will move if placed directly on the lava, aligning with the rock's natural magnetism, kind of like moody, except the exact opposite, which varies in iron content and strength by location. However, a compass behaves as expected when held at a normal height. The forest has a variety of conifers and broadleaf trees and shrubs. Deeper in the forest there are many aromatic flowering plants. There are also many mosses, liverworts and ferns. Aside from the immense savings of plant life that choke the forest, it is home to plenty of wildlife. Some of the animals you may encounter include the Asian black bear, deer, fox, Japanese mink and Japanese squirrel, boar, and wild rabbit. Also the forest is a great place to see tits! That's right my friends, they have many kinds of tits including willow tits, long tailed tits, and of course the great tits.

 

So why is this such a popular place for people to end their lives? Well as stated earlier it is a very quiet place that offers up dense cover to help conceal things that are going on. Essentially it's peaceful and you can be alone away from prying eyes. Not only that, there was a mystery novel called “Kuroi Jukai” (translated as Black Sea of Trees) written by Seicho Matsumoto in 1960. The novel ends romantically with the lovers committing suicide in the forest, which revitalized the Suicide Forest’s popularity among those who wanted to end their life. Also Wataru Tsurumui’s controversial 1993 bestseller, The Complete Suicide Manual, is a book that describes various modes of suicide and even recommends Aokigahara as the perfect place to die. Apparently this book is also a common find in the forest, usually not too far away from a suicide victim and their belongings. Undoubtedly, the most common method of suicide in the forest is hanging. It's not uncommon for officials to find abandoned cars at the trail heads, empty campsites throughout the forest, strings and ropes left by people who venture off path to help find their way back, and sadly the body's of those who decided to enter the first and never come out. There are signs along the trails urging people to seek help if they are having issues and contemplating suicide. The signs read, “Your life is something precious that was given to you by your parents” and “Think about your parents, siblings, and children once more. Do not be troubled alone.” The signs end with a helpline telephone number, hoping the lost souls who seek to die would call for help. There are people who hike the forest in hopes of finding people and stopping them before it's too late. One man has found over 100 bodies in his time in the forest. With all of this death surrounding it, is it any wonder that there are tales of Hauntings and strange things happening here. There are also stories of demons that inhabit the forest. And with that being said and most of the heavy lifting being done, let's get into what we come here for every week… Creepy shit! 

 

The most common tale of the forest being inhabited by something evil had to do with the Yurei. Yurei are thought to be spirits barred from a peaceful afterlife. Ukiyo-e artist Maruyama Ōkyo created the first known example of the now-traditional yūrei, in his painting The Ghost of Oyuki. Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. The Zenshō-an in Tokyo houses the largest single collection of yūrei paintings which are only shown in August, the traditional month of the spirits. Yurei are seen in white clothing believed to signify the white burial kimono used in Edo period burial rituals. They have long black wild hair. They generally lack legs and feet and the haha typically dangle at the wrists. The arms are usually held stretched out or at the sides stretched out at just the elbow. The Yurei are often accompanied by hitodama, which are floating flames. They can be various colors such as blue, green or purple. So Yurei is actually somewhat of a catch all phrase for ghosts. There are actually different types of Yurei. There's Onryo, which are vengeful ghosts who come back to scene a wrong doing done to them, Goryo, which are spirits of the high class and aristocrats which are also vengeful usually for having been martyred. There are Ubume which are mother ghosts who either died in childbirth or left children behind when they passed, they come back to care for the child and often bring sweets to them. There are several others as well including Funayurei which are the ghosts of those who died at sea and Zashiki-warashi which are the ghosts of children. There are more but you get the point. According to legend, people bring their family members during famine to the forest and leave them to die there, in order to save their food for other family members. Those left in the forest would slowly die due to starvation, turning them into yurei. The belief in yurei continues to today. When a body is found in Aokigahara, forest guardians place it in a room next to the forest before being sent to authorities. Legend has it that if the body is left alone in the room, its yurei move around screaming in the room. Hence, forest guards will play rock-paper-scissors to determine who the unlucky companion to the body is. 

 

Also in Japanese legend, aside from the Yurei, the forest is said to be haunted by demons. So there's that. Demons are always good to have around. So knowing that there are possibly ribs of ghosts and demons hanging around, let's get into some creepy stories from the forest! 

 

During a VICE documentary that takes a tour of the forest, an extremely creepy curse is found. There's a Jack Skellington-like doll with his face cut off, nailed upside down to a tree as a sort of inverted crucifixion. According to the documentary's guide, Azusa Hayano, "They nailed this character upside down as a symbol of contempt for society. No, it's more like a curse. The curse is nailed in." Apparently, it's not that uncommon for visitors to leave a curse on the world they're leaving behind.

 

This next story was written for a Japanese newspaper:

 

Jun 26, 2011

I am walking through Aokigahara Jukai forest, the light rapidly fading on a mid-winter afternoon, when I am stopped dead in my tracks by a blood-curdling scream. The natural reaction would be to run, but the forest floor is a maze of roots and slippery rocks and, truth be told, I am lost in this vast woodland whose name, in part, translates as “Sea of Trees.”

 

Inexplicably, I find myself moving toward the sound, searching for signs of life. Instead, I find death.

 

The source of that scream remains a mystery as, across a clearing, I see what looks like a pile of clothes. But as I approach, it becomes apparent it’s more than just clothes I’ve spotted.

 

In a small hollow, just below a tree, and curled up like a baby on a thick bed of dead leaves, lies a man, his thinning gray hair matted across his balding cranium. His pasty upper torso is shirtless, while his legs are covered only by black long johns — with blue-striped boxers sticking out above the waistband — and a pair of woolly socks.

 

Under his bent legs a pair of slacks, a white shirt and a jacket have been spread out as a cushion at his final resting place. Scattered around are innumerable documents, a briefcase and other remnants of a former life. Nearer to him are items more closely related to his demise: empty packets of prescription pills, beer cans, and bottles of liquor…

 

The article goes on but this is the end of the story for our creepy purposes...

 

The man had been dead for some time so there's no way he could have produced the scream. So where did it come from? A demon or Yurei trying to draw the man in?

 

The destination truth television show filmed an episode in the forest and may have caught a Yurei on camera. A man was hanging out in a spot alone and in a clip on you tube he says that he thought he saw something so he checked the camera. After checking the camera he notices a shape that seems to rise up from the ground. It's white and human-like. It's there for a couple seconds and then send to disappear back into the ground. Now what it was we can't say, it could have been a yurei or honestly it looks just as much like someone dressed in white standing up from behind a bush then crouching back down. Given the forest legend though… We won't rule out ghosts. 

 

We found this next story buried in a message board. There have been many stories of people who have had their guide lines cut while they were exploring the forest. This is an account of one of those incidents. It was written by an anonymous person so take it how you will! 

 

     "While on vacation me and my friend decided to check out the suicide forest. We were told the best thing to do would be to get on a tour and check out the caves as well. We didn't really want to do a touristy thing though. We decided to hike out there ourselves. We read up on dinner things about the area and decided we would bring along a bunch of Paracord to string along so we wouldn't get lost. We got there in the late afternoon and found a trailhead and parked. Immediately we were struck with an eerie feeling and the signs at the beginning of the trail and in various places saying not to commit suicide and get help didn't help. We set off on the trail to check it out. We walked for about 15 minutes and found a spot in the dense forest that we thought would be a good spot to head in. My friend tied the Paracord to a tree a few feet in and we set off. The further we got in the creepier it got. It was very quiet. You couldn't hear animals or birds or other people. There was not much light coming through but we could still see ok. After about an hour of exploring and letting out our line, which actually ended up being two large bundles of Paracord tied together, we decided to head back. We reeling in the line and heading back the way we came. At some point we started to hear a rustling. We thought this was strange cus we hadn't seen any animals but hey .. We're in a forest so who knows. But it soon became evident that something was actually following us! We were both spooked and picked up the pace. The rustling got louder but then whatever it was it seemed to take off ahead of us. We were both somewhat relieved… That is until a few minutes later when we got to a point where the Paracord had been shredded and the shredded end wrapped around a random tree! We couldn't find the other end of the cord and we started to freak out. Then… We heard the rustling again, but we could not see anything. We started to look around for the other end of the cord. As we were looking the rustling seemed to come from all around us. We kept getting more scared and my friend started crying and freaking out about being lost and telling about how we're going to end up dead like the rest of them. The rustling got louder and louder and then all of a sudden… Nothing. No rustling, no noise, nothing. We both stood there looking around. That's when I saw it. I saw a shadowy white figure off a little into the first. I thought I was seeing things at first. I rubbed my eyes and looked again and it was still there. At this point I lost it and started screaming. My friend turned around to see what I was screaming at and saw it too. It started to move towards us. It wasn't walking though it was like… Floating. As it came closer I see that the figure had no bottom half… It was basically a floating torso. You couldn't see the face as whatever it was had long wild hair. My friend started screaming as well and we both started frantically looking for the other end of our line. As the figure came closer we finally found the end of the cord and started moving as fast as we could. The figure continued to follow us, matching our speed. After what seemed like hours of moving as fast as we could through the forest with thing following us we finally came to where we started and could see the main trail. We ran on to the main trail and ran all the way to the car without looking back. Neither of us said a word on the way back to the hotel. To this day we don't talk about it. In my head I truly think that whatever that figure was trying to trap us in that forest. That figure still haunts me"

 

Creepy!!!

 

Locals in the area that reporters have spoken too, classic they have become used to the stories and they are not worried for the most part. Despite these statements there are still reports of locals hearing blood curdling screams at all hours from the forest. Some locals claim to see Nthe Yurei from time to time as well. 

 

There are numerous stories of people that may not have necessarily seen anything but definitely get the heavy sad feeling when they visit as well as the feeling that something or someone is watching them. Then of course there are those with the unfortunate story of coming upon a body which is probably the worst story you can bring home. 

 

By all accounts the forest is a beautiful place to visit and most people have no issues there. Regardless, take heed when exploring and please be respectful to the place that many have lost their lives. 

 

Movies:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?countries=jp&keywords=japanese-horror-film&sort=user_rating&title_type=feature

The Alphabet Murders

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On today's episode we are bringing it back to the world of true crime. If you're a regular listener you know that we don't do much true crime as there are exactly 1,742,657,301 true crime podcasts out there. You'll also know that when we do true crime stuff we like to touch on the unsolved crimes. And if you're not a regular listener you won't know this stuff and what's your problem anyways. All that being said, today we are looking at the alphabet killer or also known as the double Initial killer. There are some weird coincidences and crazy connections in this case so it makes for an interesting one for sure.

 

The alphabet killer is so named for the fact that his/her victims all had names that were double Initial names. So first off let's get into the lives and tragic deaths of the victims. 

 

 The first victim we're going to talk about is Carmen Colon. This one is nuts as people essentially saw her abduction happening and no one did anything to help, but we'll get to that point in a minute. Carmen Colon was only 10 years old when she went missing on November 16, 1971. She was on her way home after running an errand for her grandmother; getting a prescription filled at the local pharmacy. She left the pharmacy empty handed after learning that the prescription was not yet ready. Store owner Jack Corbin remembers Carmen’s hurried last words to him: “I got to go. I got to go.”

 

She was seen by witnesses entering a parked car nearby the pharmacy and was reported missing later that night by her family. 

 

Approximately fifty minutes after Colón exited the pharmacy, scores of motorists driving along Interstate 490 observed the child, naked from the waist down, running from a reversing vehicle believed to be a dark-colored Ford Pinto hatchback, frantically waving her arms and shouting in an attempt to flag down a passing vehicle. At least one of these witnesses observed Colón being submissively led back to this vehicle by her abductor. Police say that more than 100 motorists saw this happening and no one called the police or stopped to try and help this girl. Experts attribute this to a thing known as the bystander effect or genovese syndrome.  The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when there are other people present. First proposed in 1964, much research, mostly in the lab, has focused on increasingly varied factors, such as the number of bystanders, ambiguity, group cohesiveness, and diffusion of responsibility that reinforces mutual denial. The theory was prompted by the murder of Kitty Genovese about which it was wrongly reported that 38 bystanders watched passively. Recent research has focused on "real world" events captured on security cameras, and the coherency and robustness of the effect has come under question. More recent studies also show that this effect can generalize to workplace settings, where subordinates often refrain from informing managers regarding ideas, concerns, and opinions.

 

Whatever the reason, the fact that no one stopped or made a phone call to help these girls sounds pretty ridiculous.

 

It would be two full days before her body was discovered, two teenage boys discovered Colón's partially nude body in a gully not far from Interstate 490, and close to the village of Churchville. This location was approximately 12 miles from where Colón had last been seen alive.  Her coat was found in a culvert 300 feet from her body, but her trousers were only found almost two weeks later, close to a service road where she was last seen attempting to escape her kidnapper.

 

The forensic examiner noted that Carmen suffered a fractured skull, and a broken vertebrae before she was strangled to death. She was also raped, and her body indicated excessive fingernail scratches throughout. The viciousness of the beating and the scratches indicate an incredibly emotionally charged murder. Perhaps an impulsive one, as a result of her attempt at escape, which the other children did not manage to do. 

 

Almost a year and a half later, on April 2, 1973, little red-haired Wanda Walkowicz, 11, disappeared from east Rochester, also when returning home from an errand. She visited a delicatessen to purchase a few groceries, and was seen by the owner of the store walking down a major avenue at 5:15 pm. Wanda was reported missing by her mother three hours later, when she failed to return home.

Wanda Walkowicz

Detectives quickly jumped into action, orchestrating an intensive search to locate the missing child. Approximately 50 police officers searched a wide area around her home, the store where she was last seen and a nearby river where Wanda used to play.

 

While the search was ultimately fruitless, several witnesses saw Wanda struggling to carry the bag of groceries, with three classmates recalling with clarity that they saw her brace the bag against a fence so she could get a better grip, as a brown car drove past her. The same color vehicle that witnesses saw in the Carmen Colon abduction. 

 

After setting up a tip hotline, police received a witness who claimed to have seen the young girl standing next to the passenger door of a large, brown vehicle as she spoke to the driver. Another witness that came forward said they saw a man forcing a young girl matching Wanda’s description into a light-colored Dodge Dart on the day she went missing. The witness who originally gave the partial number plate returned to the police station several days after his original visit. The man had luckily come across the same beige vehicle he had stopped to help but this time he was able to get a full license number. This led police to an unemployed petty criminal living with his family in Lyons, New York.

 

The suspect was a good match for sketches given by witnesses. He had also been the owner of the beige sedan witnesses had reported seeing. Despite this, the suspect claimed he had nothing to do with the murders and that he had an alibi.

 

The man’s alibi was that he was job hunting all day. After checking his account of events telephone records appeared to confirm his story, though it could just as easily been a family member using the phone, and his family also gave him an alibi. Police eventually released the suspect, who has never been named, after he passed a polygraph.

 

Only one day later Wanda’s body was discovered by a police officer in the morning, at the base of a hill alongside the access road to state route 104, in Webster, about seven miles from her hometown of Rochester. The way her body was positioned seemed to indicate that she was likely thrown from a moving vehicle, her small delicate body rolling down the dirty embankment to its final resting place.

 

Just like Carmen, she too was sexually assaulted and strangled. Although unlike Carmen, she was fully clothed, and was strangled by a ligature (thought to be a belt) from behind, whereas Carmen was manually strangled from the front. She also appeared to have been redressed after her death, with the autopsy revealing traces of semen and pubic hair on her body.

 

Interestingly, several strands of white cat fur were found on her clothes, although her family didn’t own a pet with white fur.

 

Only seven months later, on November 26, 1973, another 11-year-old girl went missing. Michelle Maenza failed to return home from school, and was last seen by her classmates walking alone towards a shopping plaza located close to her school, with the intention of getting a purse her mother had left inside a store in the plaza earlier that day.

A little while after she was seen walking to the plaza, a witness saw Michelle sitting in a beige or tan car that was traveling at high speed. The witness noted that Michelle was weeping.

 

Hours later, another motorist saw a man standing by a large beige or tan car with a flat tire, alongside Route 350 in the nearby town of Walworth, holding a girl he believed to be Michelle by the wrist. When the motorist stopped to offer a hand, the man “grabbed the girl and pushed her behind his back”, while also covering his license plate from view. The witness claimed that the man stared at him with an angry, menacing look that compelled the driver to move along, although he did write down a partial license plate.

 

Two days later, Michelle’s small, fully clothed body was found lying face down in a ditch on a rural road in Macedon, 15 miles from Rochester. Like the other two girls she had been raped, strangled from behind with a ligature, with her body bearing bountiful evidence indicating excessive blunt force trauma.

 

Like Wanda, there was the presence of white cat fur on her clothing, while leaf samples in her clenched fists matched those in the surrounding area where her body was found, meaning she was likely strangled to death at the location she was discovered. Police also noted the presence of semen, which helped determine that she was raped by only one person. Unlike the other cases, detectives were able to recover a partial palm print from her neck, although so far of little use.

 

Oddly, her stomach contents revealed that she had eaten a hamburger and onion rings approximately one hour before she was murdered. This was corroborated by earlier reports of a girl matching Michelle’s description eating at a nearby fast food joint with a white male with dark hair, aged between 25 and 35, approximately 6 ft tall.

 

Those are the three victims. The search began for suspects almost immediately after the first murder. Next up we'll talk about the suspects in the car. There are some interesting people in this set of suspects.

 

Building on police investigators’ theory that Carmen knew her killer, police strongly consider Carmen’s uncle Miguel Colon as the main suspect. Miguel was Carmen’s father’s brother, and once her parents divorced, he formed a relationship with Carmen’s mother, quickly becoming known as Uncle Miguel.

 

There are several compelling reasons why he is thought to have been her killer:

 

Weeks prior to her murder, Miguel purchased a car that closely resembled the vehicle seen by witnesses reversing down the interstate chasing down Carmen.  When investigators searched his vehicle after the murder, they found that it had been wiped clean both inside and out.

To add to the suspicious nature of the state of his car, the trunk was found to have been washed with an incredibly potent cleaning solution. The dealership that sold him the car confirmed to police that they didn’t wash the car’s trunk with detergent before selling it.

One of Carmen’s dolls was found in his car, which relatives informed police was not unusual considering that she frequently traveled with Miguel.

Merely two days after the death of his niece, Miguel informed his friends that he had to leave the country to Puerto Rico, as he had “done something wrong in Rochester.” He left only four days after Carmen was murdered.

While investigators did travel to Puerto Rico to question Miguel in 1972, local papers leaked this, causing Miguel to flee. He eventually surrendered a few weeks later and was extradited back to Rochester for questioning. Although he didn’t have a credible alibi on the date of Carmen’s murder, and other circumstantial evidence, there was simply no physical evidence at the scene or his vehicle to link him to the murder. And so he was released.

 

Several years later Miguel would commit suicide in 1991 after a domestic violence incident in which he shot his wife and his brother, both of whom survived.

 

Many family members are still vocal about their belief that Miguel is Carmen's killer.

 

Next up a giant piece of shit. Just weeks after the death of the final victim of the Alphabet Murders, Michelle Maenza, a man held a teenager at gunpoint. The girl refused to stop screaming despite his repeated threats so the man decided to flee and go on the hunt for an easier target. The man in question was a Rochester firefighter named Dennis Termini. Termini was a prolific serial offender known as the "Garage Rapist" who is known to have committed a minimum of fourteen rapes of teenage girls and young women between 1971 and 1973. He is also known to have owned a beige vehicle similar in description to the vehicle observed by several eyewitnesses to the abductions. On top of this he lives roughly a block away from where Michelle Maenza was abducted. After he was chased by police from his botched kidnapping he was cornered in his car where he promptly did the world a favor and shit himself in the head. A subsequent forensic examination of Termini's vehicle did reveal traces of white cat fur upon the upholstery.In January 2007, Termini's body was exhumed to obtain a DNA sample for comparison with the semen samples recovered from Walkowicz's body. The results of this test confirmed Termini was not responsible for her murder. Despite this he still remains a plausible suspect in the other abductions. 

 

Another interesting suspect is none other than Kenneth Bianchi. We're going to assume that you guys know who that is but for those who don't, google the hillside stranglers. Before Bianchi headed to Los Angeles and committed the hillside strangler murders he lived in the area of the murders and worked as an ice cream vendor. While he was never charged in the murders he remains a suspect. He was known to drive a car similar to the description given of the car involved in the alphabet murders by witnesses. Bianchi would vehemently deny any involvement in the case. He repeatedly asked investigators to officially clear him as a suspect but they did not.

 

The last suspect we're gonna talk about is a guy they called Crazy Joe. Joseph Naso is a convicted serial killer and serial rapist sentenced to death for the murder of six women in California. His crimes spanned between 1977 to 1994. Naso has been one of those killers who seemed to take pride in his work, so much so that he had a rape diary containing gruesome details of the victim's deaths. And that wasn't all. He had a list better known as 'The List of Ten' of his ten murders that he seemed insanely proud of. While the details of the list were vague for the layman, it was a reminder of his work for Naso. He led a life as a photographer with a penchant for clicking pictures of dead women — especially those he killed and had quite the collection. Naso lived in Sacramento between 1999 and 2003 and finally settled in Reno, Nevada, in 2004. He was arrested in 2010. It was quite the body count he stacked up. Roxenne Roggasch was found dead in 1977 after her body was dumped near Fairfax. She was strangled to death. This was followed by Carmen Colon in 1978. This one is obviously crazy considering that it's the same name of one of the victims in New York.  Pamela Parsons was a waitress who was found murdered in 1993. Three of those four fit the same pattern as New York. Double initials. He drugged, raped and strangled these women before dumping their bodies. He was also convicted in the murder of another double Initial murder of Tracy Tafoya. All of this is pretty similar to what went down in New York. Another victim would be identified from his book, Sarah Dylan. All told six women would be connected to Naso but the other four in his book would never be identified. Naso also had numerous pictures of women in various states of undress all seemingly unconscious, some of which were found to be his murder victims. Not only was Naso linked due to the double initials of his victims and those in the Rochester Alphabet Murders but also because his modus operandi was to offer a lift in his vehicle before murdering his victims, similar to how police believed the Rochester perpetrator enticed his victims. Police were given further hope as Joseph Naso was born in Rochester, New York and lived there for many years, including the time period when the young girls were murdered. Again investigators we're hopeful with this lead but again when the DNA taken from Wanda was tested with crazy Joe it was negative. Due to this he had been largely written off as a suspect but many still think he had something to do with at least one of the murders in New York.

 

DNA was only able to be collected from one victim. And while the suspects mentioned did not match her, it didn't necessarily rule them out on the other ones. Some people think there were separate killers. With a popular opinion being that Miguel killed Carmen Colon and someone else was responsible for the other two. This is another case that has fascinated true crime enthusiasts and confused investigators. We may never get the answers we're looking for but that won't stop people from looking and speculating. 

https://addictedtohorrormovies.com/2017/06/15/the-10-best-horror-movies-of-1995/

Creepy West Virginia

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Ep. 106

Creepy West

Virginia

 

Today's episode takes us to a place that birthed one of your lovely hosts. We're not talking about hell, we're talking about the great state of West Virginia. That's right Jon was put forth into this world from good ol' West Virginia. In fact we're pretty sure Isaiah might be my grandpappy.  For those of you that are from out of the country or from the US and don't know much about West Virginia, we're gonna talk about the history of West Virginia and then get into the creepy! 

 

The area now known as West Virginia was a favorite hunting ground of numerous Native American peoples before the arrival of European settlers. Many ancient earthen mounds constructed by various mound builder cultures survive, especially in the areas of Moundsville, South Charleston, and Romney. The artifacts uncovered in these give evidence of a village society having a tribal trade system culture that practiced the cold working of copper to a limited extent. As of 2009, over 12,500 archaeological sites have been documented in West Virginia. The Adena provided the greatest cultural influence in the state. For practical purposes, the Adena is the Early Woodland period From the years of about 1000 B.C. to about 1 A.D. according to West Virginia University's Dr. Edward V. McMichael. 

 

In 1671, General Abraham Wood, at the direction of Royal Governor William Berkeley of the Virginia Colony, sent the party of Thomas Batts and Robert Fallum into the West Virginia area. During this expedition the pair followed the New River and discovered Kanawha Falls.

 

The Treaty of Albany, 1722, designated the Blue Ridge Mountains as the western boundary of white settlement, and recognized Iroquois rights on the west side of the ridge, including all of West Virginia. The Iroquois made little effort to settle these parts, but nonetheless claimed them as their hunting ground, as did other tribes, notably the Shawnee and Cherokee. Soon after this, white settlers began moving into the Greater Shenandoah-Potomac Valley making up the entire eastern portion of the State and just fucking everything up for everyone one. They found it largely unoccupied, apart from Tuscaroras who had lately moved into the area around Martinsburg, WV, some Shawnee villages in the region around Moorefield, WV and Winchester, VA, and frequent passing bands of "Northern Indians" (Lenape from New Jersey) and "Southern Indians" (Catawba from South Carolina) who were engaged in a bitter long-distance war, using the Valley as a battleground.

 

Orange County, Virginia was formed in 1734. It included all areas west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, constituting all of present West Virginia. However, in 1736 the Iroquois Six Nations protested Virginia's colonization beyond the demarcated Blue Ridge, and a skirmish was fought in 1743. The Iroquois were on the point of threatening all-out war against the Virginia Colony over the "Cohongoruton lands", which would have been destructive and devastating, when Governor Gooch bought out their claim for 400 pounds at the Treaty of Lancaster (1744).

 

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, a growing demand for beaver sent trappers up and down the Kanawha region's tributary creeks by canoe and raft. Trading posts were established at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers at Point Pleasant, West Virginia where, in the mid 1780s, Daniel Boone resided for several years. Likewise, St. Albans, West Virginia, at the confluence of the Kanawha and Coal Rivers, became a point of trade. In the late 18th century, the steel trap increased efficiency, and beaver became scarce. A shift to exporting the state's other natural resources began. Kanawha salt production followed by coal and timber could be seen on the waterways.The logging industry furthered the river shipping industry. A horse-drawn logging "tram" with a special block & tackle for hill-side harvesting was brought into use, allowing expansion of Crooked Creek and the opening of a wooden barrel plant at the creek's mouth. In the 1880s, this tram and other steam machinery were used for collecting timber used as railroad ties in the railway construction along the Kanawha river. Railroad spurs were built throughout West Virginia, connecting mines to the riverboats, barges and coal-tipples.

 

In 1861, as the United States itself became massively divided over slavery, leading to the American Civil War (1861–1865), the western regions of Virginia split with the eastern portion politically, and the two were never reconciled as a single state again. In 1863, the western region was admitted to the Union as a new separate state, initially planned to be called the State of Kanawha, but ultimately named West Virginia.

 

When the First Wheeling Convention met, 425 delegates from 25 counties were present, but a division of sentiment soon arose. Some delegates favored the immediate formation of a new state, while others argued that, as Virginia's secession had not yet been ratified or become effective, such action would constitute revolution against the United States.[16] It was decided that if the ordinance were adopted (of which there was little doubt) another convention including the members-elect of the legislature should meet at Wheeling in June 1861. Even before the American Civil War, counties in northwest Virginia had desired to break away from Virginia to form a new state. However, the federal Constitution did not allow a new state to be created out of an existing state unless the existing state gave its consent. Soon after the Union government declared that the Restored Government was the legitimate government of the Commonwealth, the Restored Government asserted its authority to give such approval. It authorized the creation of the State of Kanawha, consisting of most of the counties that now comprise West Virginia. A little over one month later, Kanawha was renamed West Virginia. The Wheeling Convention, which had taken a recess until August 6, 1861, reassembled on August 20, 1861, and called for a popular vote on the formation of a new state and for a convention to frame a constitution if the vote should be favorable. In the election held on October 24, 1861, 18,408 votes were cast for the new state and only 781 against. At this time, West Virginia had nearly 70,000 qualified voters, and the May 23, 1861 vote to secede had drawn nearly 54,000 voters. At first the Wheeling politicians controlled only a small part of West Virginia. However Federal forces soon drove the Confederates out of most of West Virginia. On May 13, 1862, the state legislature of the reorganized government approved the formation of the new state. An application for admission to the Union was made to Congress. On December 31, 1862, an enabling act was approved by President Lincoln, admitting West Virginia on the condition that a provision for the gradual abolition of slavery be inserted in the Constitution. President Lincoln issued a proclamation admitting the state at the end of 60 days, on June 20, 1863. Meanwhile, officers for the new state were chosen, and Governor Pierpont moved the Restored Government to Alexandria from which he asserted jurisdiction over the counties of Virginia within the Federal lines. 

In recent years, there has been serious talk about the possibility of certain counties in the Eastern Panhandle rejoining the Commonwealth of Virginia. Frustrated by bad economic conditions and what they perceive to be neglect from the Charleston government, this movement has gained at least some momentum. In 2011, West Virginia state delegate Larry Kump sponsored legislation to allow Morgan, Berkeley, and Jefferson counties to rejoin Virginia by popular vote.

 

              

So there's a somewhat abbreviated history of west Virginia and it's formation.  I know it may not seem abbreviated but there's a long history to the area and we wanted to hit the big points to keep our passengers better informed! So with the history of the region told… Let's get into why we are all here… The creepy shit!!!

 

Our first stop on the creepy West Virginia tour starts at a place of much fun and enjoyment, an amusement park! Well, what used to be an amusement park anyway. We are heading to Mercer county and a visit to Lake Shawnee Amusement park.  The southern West Virginia park was abandoned in 1966, after the accidental deaths of two of its young patrons. But it seems Lake Shawnee's haunted history reaches much farther back. Mercer County was home to a Native American tribe until 1783, when a European family's attempt to settle the land sparked a violent turf war. The patriarch of the family was a farmer named Mitchell Clay, according to the Wyoming County Report. While he was out hunting, a band of Native Americans reportedly killed his youngest son, Bartley Clay. A daughter, Tabitha, was knifed to death in the struggle. Eldest son Ezekial was kidnapped and burned at the stake. Mitchell Clay enlisted the help of other white settlers to seek vengeance for his family. After burying his children, he murdered several of the Native Americans. Centuries later, in the 1920s, a businessman named Conley T. Snidow purchased the site of the Clay farm and developed it into an amusement park. He built a swing set, a ferris wheel, a water slide, a dance hall, and a speakeasy. He also added a pond and swimming hole, complete with canoes.A little girl in a pink ruffled dress met her end after climbing into the circling swing set. She was killed after a truck backed into the path of the swing. Another little one, this time a boy, drowned in the amusement park's swimming pond. According to Visit West Virginia, the park's rides were responsible for a total of six deaths. The park eventually shut down, but its structures were left to rot and rust. After 20 years, another businessman approached Lake Shawnee. Gaylord White thought the sleepy meadows seemed ideal for future neighborhoods. But, as construction crews tore into grass and soil, they unearthed bones and Native American artifacts.

 

It turned out the amusement park sat atop an ancient burial ground. And most of the skeletons belonged to children. Archaeologists believe the remains had been there long before settlers moved west. So with that history in mind is it any wonder Lake Shawnee ranks as one of the Travel Channel’s “Most Terrifying Places in America.” ABC goes even further. Their experts declared the property one of the “10 Most Haunted Places in the World.” So what kind of stuff happens here? Well, let's find out. There is no shortage of strange stories coming from visitors like people getting horrible vibes, seeing ghosts, or feeling the presence of evil spirits. Scariest Places on Earth filmed there in 2005. However, none of the psychics would work on the property at night, claiming that the energy was so dark it was making them sick. Swimming is no longer allowed on the property but, of course, there are still those idiots that try it anyways. Many reports day that while attempting to swim it felt as if someone, or something, was trying to pull the people down into the water and drown them. There are tons of reports of seeing the ghost of a little girl playing on the old swings. Most people agree that it must be the ghost of the little girl in the pink dress. There are also reports of people seeing ghostly children playing by the ferris wheel. Some report the sounds of children laughing or Natives chanting. And then there Moody's favorite, the conversion stand food! Well not exactly, there's no conversion stand anymore but people have stated that they can still smell the concession stand foods aroma in the air. Then there are the shadowy figures that many will say they are on the old ferris wheel and swing rides still adorning the park. When the Discovery Channel filmed, Chris White, descendant of Gaylord White, says one of its investigators got stuck in the old ticket booth and went into such a panic she had to go to the hospital in Princeton. “She couldn’t get out and she was yelling for help,” he said.

 

“It was a push door and she was pushing.”

 

White won’t speak of any personal “creepy” Lake Shawnee experiences. He does, however, say his father had an encounter with the little girl who lost her life on the swings 49 years ago.

 

“Dad was on the tractor mowing the field and he kept feeling a weight on his shoulders,” White said. “He didn’t know what it was, so one day he felt the weight and he turned around and the little girl from the swings was there. She was in a ruffled dress and she just appeared. He wasn’t scared, but the only thing he could think of was, ‘Well, if you like this tractor so much, I’m going to give it to you.’

 

“So he got off of it and left it sitting there. It’s still sitting where he left it in the late ‘90s.” 

 

Creepy shit for sure!

 

So where to next you ask? Well, how about the Silver Run Tunnel #19 near Cairo WV. Silver Run Tunnel is located along the North Bend Rail Trail. Before the Civil War, the Rail Trail was–as the name implies–a railroad. According to West Virginia State Parks, the railroad was sold in the ’80s, and construction of the recreation trail as it now began. The trail stretches 72 miles and has 10 tunnels. The tunnel in this legend is also known as Tunnel #19. According to BridgeHunter.com, the tunnel is 1,376 feet long. Locals say that the tunnel is almost permanently damp and foggy. The tunnel is home to the legend of the lady in the white dress. The legend of the lady in the white dress goes that she was a bride who was riding on a train with her groom, and either she was pushed or fell from the train and died.

 

One early account guess as follows: In 1910, a young engineer was making the 169 mile midnight westbound express run along the Baltimore and Ohio tracks starting in Grafton and heading toward Clarksburg and then, Parkersburg. When the engineer came upon the short stretch of railway at the entrance to Tunnel #19, in the light of the moon and headlights, he saw a woman in a pale dress with raven-colored hair and golden slippers walking along the tracks. Horrified he would hit her, he tried desperately to stop the train by throwing the brakes into emergency. He could not stop in time.

 

The engineer would later report to watchmen at the Smithburg Tunnel about 36 miles west that he and the fireman jumped from the train, but a layer of fog on the tracks seemed to swallow up the pale lady. Crazy shit!

 

 “And there’s a saying that goes along with the tunnel. If you watch the trains, and the train slows down, they see the ghost, and the engineer has never seen the white lady before, but if the engineer just barrels on through the tunnel, he has had an experience with the ghost, and he’s not going to take it anymore,” explained Jason Burns, a West Virginia storyteller, “Because the ghost has a habit of standing in the tracks, and when the train stops to check if it has run over somebody, there is no one there. So the engineer gets ticked off that he has stopped his train for this person who is obviously a ghost, and so they would just barrel through the tunnel as fast as they can next time, so they don’t have to worry about it.” In one particular instance, an engineer stopped his train a few times, thinking he might have run over somebody. Like the other engineers, the man decided to go quickly through the tunnel to avoid falling for her trick again.

 

“Well, on the way to the next town, usually there’s people waving at the trains along the tracks anyways at this time period, but he starts noticing that there was an inordinately large amount of people following his train, and some of them are on horseback, and some of them were yelling and waving crazily,” said Burns, “When he finally gets to the town, Proper, and stops his train, there’s this group of people that has literally followed him most of the way down the train tracks, and they’re like, ‘Where is she?’ and he’s like, ‘Where is who?’ and they said, ‘The lady,’ and he was like, ‘What lady?’ and they said, ‘The lady in the white dress,’ and he said, ‘you mean the ghost back in the tunnel?’ They said, ‘No, the ghost that was riding your cow catcher for the past two and a half miles.’ Apparently, the ghost had a sense of humor because she was allegedly sitting on the cowcatcher of the train, and if people were standing by watching the train go past, she was waving at them.”

 

And now for something completely different… Except for not! We're gonna stick with tunnels and head to Dingess tunnel! Dingess is an unincorporated community in Mingo County, West Virginia. The community was named after William Anderson Dingess, a pioneer settler. As of 1894, Dingess contained two hotels, eight boarding houses, four restaurants, four groceries, four sawmills, and a school with two teachers and about 100 students. 133 coal miners lived in Dingess. The community once garnered a reputation for being a lawless land. From 1900 to 1972, approximately seventeen lawmen were shot to death in the area which stretches fifteen miles along Twelve Pole Creek. The Dingess Tunnel was built in 1892 for the Norfolk and Western Railroad, largely by African American and Chinese immigrant workers. Legend has it that residents of Dingess, who didn't take kindly to outsiders, used to hide in the hills just outside the tunnel and shoot any dark skinned passengers aboard the train, according to internet reports. No records were kept but it’s estimated that hundreds of black and Chinese workers died. In addition to the murders, workers also died during construction, and at least two trains collided on the tracks there, causing more deaths. These crimes and accidents still haunt the area and earned the tunnel its terrible nickname: "Bloody Mingo." The dark history of the tunnel loaned itself well to macabre tales told during Halloween. Eventually, the stories grew, and the celebrations turned horrific. Almost as if the area proved once again to be untamable, the youths of the town took to mischief. They would spend Halloween night building bonfires in the middle of the tunnel. With the smoke pouring out, the town itself was virtually blocked off from outside assistance. The tunnel served to keep the residents locked in for the night. From there, the nightmare continued. There would be rocks thrown through windows, buildings and vehicles set on fire, and other acts of damaging mischief. The dirty deeds would carry on throughout the night, but by the following day, things returned to normal. It was like a real life “Purge” movie. In recent years this activity has for the most part gone away, but many of the locals still tell stories of those horrific nights. Sabrina Daniels, known locally as the “Mountain Medium,” and a host of others interested in the paranormal happenings at the tunnel including the “Relate with Nate” television crew, a local news show, hoped to make contact with that energy during a recent investigation at the infamous 3,327-foot tunnel. Countless times they entered in, both on foot and in vehicles, to the dark, dank, stone tube cut through the hill. Countless times they called on the spirits within to make them aware of their presence as they dealt with leaking water and enhanced echoing of even the quietest voice. And, if the evidence is any indication, countless times they were successful.  “I can feel the emotions of the souls here,” Daniels  said while taking a break between one of the many trips in and out of the tunnel on the night of the ghost hunt. “I feel sadness, but I felt peace with them. I didn’t feel any doom or anything, except in the middle (of the tunnel). What I felt there wasn’t anything that has tasted life. There’s a difference there. I’ve always felt the negative energy through the middle.” since things went down that they claim were paranormal. A light flickered, then came on and shut off, seemingly by itself here. Strange audio picked up through the wireless mics there. The sound of a train whistle, although no railroad line is anywhere in the immediate vicinity, echoed through its expanse. Eerie images caught on photos taken within the tunnel’s claustrophobic walls showing what appear to be flames rising up from beneath. What appeared to be shadows of workmen, perhaps even the image of a lantern in what could be construed as the window of a train show up in the far distance. As the crew nears the tunnel’s midsection, all notice an extreme and sudden drop in temperature, a tell-tale sign of the presence of poltergeists, or what the locals refer to as “haints.” So yea another creepy tunnel. I guess it makes sense there are a bunch of creepy haunted tunnels given the fact that there are mountains everywhere in WV.

 

Next up is a bird… It's a plane...it's a uh...UFO? We are talking about the Flatwoods monster! The encounter made the local and national news, scaring a wider swath of people. Then it prompted a U.S. Air Force UFO inquiry, part of a project called Project Blue Book that dispatched a handful of investigators around the country to look into such claims. The May brothers Ed, 13, and Freddie, 12, had been playing in their schoolyard with their 10-year-old friend Tommy Hyer. After noticing a pulsing red light streak across the sky and crash on a nearby farm, the three youngsters ran to grab the Mays boys’ mother, then high-tailed it up that hill to check out where the light had landed. A few other boys, one with a dog, showed up too.

 

They ran back down—in sheer and credible terror. 

 

“Seven Braxton County residents on Saturday reported seeing a 10-foot Frankenstein-like monster in the hills above Flatwoods,” a local newspaper reported afterward. “A National Guard member, [17-year-old] Gene Lemon, was leading the group when he saw what appeared to be a pair of bright eyes in a tree.”

 

Lemon screamed and fell backward, the news account said, “when he saw a 10-foot monster with a blood-red body and a green face that seemed to glow.” It may have had claws for hands. It was hard to tell because of the dense mist. Lemon said he aimed a flashlight in that direction and momentarily saw a tall "man-like figure with a round, red face surrounded by a pointed, hood-like shape". The group said they had smelled a "pungent mist" and some later said they were nauseated. 

 

“Those people were the most scared people I’ve ever seen,” said local newspaper publisher A. Lee Stewart, in that 1952 news story. Stewart himself had marched up that hill with a shotgun after witnesses told what they saw. “People don’t make up that kind of story that quickly,” Stewart said then.

 

According to UFO writer Gray Barker's account, the next day, A. Lee Stewart, Jr. of the Braxton Democrat claimed to discover "skid marks" in the field and an "odd, gummy deposit" which were subsequently attributed by UFO enthusiast groups as evidence of a "saucer" landing.

 

After investigating the case in 2000, Joe Nickell of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry concluded that the bright light in the sky reported by the witnesses on September 12 was most likely a meteor, that the pulsating red light was likely an aircraft navigation/hazard beacon, and that the creature described by witnesses closely resembled an owl. Nickell suggested that witnesses' perceptions were distorted by their heightened state of anxiety. Nickell's conclusions are shared by a number of other investigators, including those of the Air Force. 

 

Fuck that… It was a UFO and an alien. We all know this! In celebration of the legend, the Braxton County Convention and Visitors Bureau built a series of five tall chairs in the shape of the monster to serve as landmarks and visitor attractions. The town of Sutton also houses a museum dedicated to the monster legend and offers promotional merchandise. 

 

Now you're gonna need some place to stay while checking out all these creepy things… So why not a creepy hotel? How about the Glen Ferris Inn? The Glen Ferris Inn began its life in 1839 when Andrew Stockton received a license to operate a "common room" to cater to the stagecoach traffic through the area.  Prior to that year, the site probably contained a home as early as 1810, which at some point partially burned, and was reconstructed as Stockton's Inn.

 

In 1853, the common room expanded into what is now the Glen Ferris Inn.  During the Civil War, soldiers from both sides stayed at the inn, as did two future presidents of the United States.  It is rumored that the home even served as a makeshift Civil War hospital between 1863 and 1865.

 

After the war, aluminum production began in the area, and Union Carbide purchased the inn, expanding it with a 10 room wing in 1929.  Additions were built in the 1960s and again in the 1980s, before a local family purchased the inn from Elkem Metals in 1996. 

 

The inn is thought to be haunted by a ghost of a Confederate soldier with a long beard, nicknamed The Colonel. He is a friendly and playful ghost, known to close doors behind people, make the birdbath water bubbly and frothy, and walk around with audible footsteps. His apparition has been seen from the waist up.

 

In 2018, a young couple stayed several days there and planned to have breakfast with the day manager when they were departing. The manager was told by the desk clerk that the couple departed in haste at 4:30 that morning and left an apology for missing the planned breakfast. The reason?

 

They had awakened in the night and saw a man with a long beard who was wearing what appeared to be a uniform sitting in a chair across the room.

 

Another story we found goes as follows: " I have worked there in the past (2002) and it was one of the experiences that I had that caused me to quit on the spot. I was a waitress in the dining room and it was around 7:30pm. There was no one in the dining area when I first looked but all of a sudden a little boy in a grey civil war type suit was sitting at one of the tables. I walked over to him and asked him if he was waiting for someone and he shook his head no. I asked if I could get him something and he said in almost a whisper "chocolate milk, ma'am" I walked into the kitchen and got his milk, brought it back to the table and he was gone. I asked the cook if he had seen anyone come in and he said that he didn't, so I then went up front and asked the desk clerk if she seen anyone and she said no as well. I realized that it was a ghost kid. I told my manager that I was done, I couldn't deal with ghosts, grabbed my stuff, and high-tailed it out of there as fast as I could."

 

Creepy! Sounds like a place you should check out. Apparently their rolls are fucking fantastic.. So there is that too.

 

What creepy place would be complete without a Creepy road! Well West Virginia has route 901. West Virginia Route 901 is a 5.5 mile stretch through farmland in Berkeley County. Formerly known as County Route 3, locals are familiar with this short state highway. However, it has been immortalized in publications like Haunted West Virginia: Ghosts & Strange Phenomena of the Mountain State as a destination full of ghostly activity. The area wasn’t a battle site, but may have been a campsite for soldiers during the Civil War. 

 

    In the recent past a couple was driving Route 901 near Spring Mills Plantation late one evening in October. Near Harlan Run the couple entered a bank of fog and the interior of the car became quite cold. The fog began to take on a greenish hue and suddenly, the car came to a stop; the engine went dead and the headlights shut off. The couple was left in cold, silent darkness.

 

From out of the darkness the couple was stunned to see the form of a bedraggled Confederate soldier appear. He held his back as if he’d been wounded and he appeared to notice the couple as he neared the front of their car. With a thump he laid his hands on the hood and peered pleadingly before collapsing leaving bloody handprints on the car. The husband opened his door and walked to the front of the car to help the pathetic figure who now lay prone in the roadway. When he reached out to the poor soldier the figure disappeared along with the bloody handprints. The couple quickly left vowing never to drive that stretch of road in the dark. Another plus about this road is the fact that the Hammond Mansion is located there. The Hammond Mansion was built between 1838 and 1845, and was home to Dr. Allen C. Hammond and his family.  It was an L-shaped brick federal style building.  It is rumored that another family lived on the property in the 1700s, but was attacked by bears.

 

The Hammonds were among the few Confederate supporters in an area which was largely under Union occupation.  While Dr. Hammond and his sons were off fighting in the War (his son George was with Company B 1st Virginia Confederate Calvary and died during the war), the ladies remained in the home.

 

Legend states that during this time, the ladies shot, sniper-style, several Union soldiers.  As a result, the ladies were captured and locked into the brick, windowless slave shack on the property.  The order was given to get rid of the women, meaning to take them out of the area, but the order was misinterpreted, and indeed, the women were gotten rid of.  Fire was set to the slave shack, killing them all.

 

Also during this era, the home served as a Civil War hospital.  When a typhoid epidemic broke out, victims were sent here, and quarantined on the summer porch.

 

In 1978, a fire gutted the home, leaving little more than a brick shell.  In its state of disrepair, the home became a favorite shelter for the homeless population, and one vagrant did freeze to death in the area of the summer kitchen.

 

It  is this homeless man, and the women who tragically died in the fire, who are said to still roam the grounds of the mansion.

 

The house WAS eventually restored, and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Spring Mills Historic District, listed as for sale.  Also in the district is another haunted location, the Stephens-Hammond Mill at Falling Waters.  It is said that the mill, once used by Gen. Jackson, was home to ghostly lights and sounds coming from the second and third stories of the mill, even though the floors of the upper levels were rotted away.  The mill is now torn down. So there you get a nice little 2 for 1!

 

We're gonna throw some quick hitters in here for ya now! 

 

Screaming Jenny:

Legend,  has it that Jenny, a poor woman with no family, lived in a shed along the B&O Railroad in Harpers Ferry. She barely had enough money to eat, and the shed stayed cold during the winter months. One day in late autumn Jenny was drinking broth over a fire and trying to stay warm. She was so focused on the broth that she didn't notice a spark had flown up from the fire and caught her skirt on fire. Her skin started to burn, she leapt up and threw the rest of the broth onto the flames, but it did little to put it out. She began to run along the train tracks to Harpers Ferry station, trying to find someone to help her, but it wasn’t long until her entire body was alight with fire. Overwhelmed and screaming in pain, she mistakenly rushed onto the tracks, when a train came around the corner and ran her over. To this day, every year on the anniversary of her death, an engineer has rounded the corner to the station and seen a women completely on fire and seems to be hit by the train. When the train stops, there's nobody there! It’s now one of the most haunted places in West Virginia!

 

The Red House is an imposing 2.5 story brick structure located in Eleanor, WV.  The original structure was built around 1840 by the Ruffner family, but there is reason to believe that the house may have actually been built as early as 1825.  The house, with its converted slave quarters and North and South Wings added by the Federal Government during the 1930s, now is home to the Eleanor Town Hall offices.  The right (North) wing, serves as the town hall section, while the left wing (South) serves as the Homestead Room, available for rent for parties, meetings, etc.  The original middle section of the house is being readied for a future museum dedicated to its New Deal Homestead history.

 

The town of Eleanor took possession of the Red House, or Ruffner House as it is commonly called, in January of 2001.  Earliest records from the Eleanor town website say that the structure was home to the Samuel Earl Gibeaut family in the 1890s.  In the 1920s, it was owned by Frank Fitzsimmons, then passed to his brother Chris and family.  While Chris and his family briefly moved out of state, a family of Boldens lived in the Red House.  Chris returned to the home, and then sometime it was acquired by the C.H. King family.  C.H. King and his wife Ruth had a large family and farmed the land.  The King family was living on the property at the time of the New Deal, and the home was acquired by the Federal Government.  In 1946, the government deeded the title over to the Washington Homesteads for use as an administration building, and later, it came into possession of Dr. Lyle Moser.

 

With a long and somewhat incomplete history as to ownership of the house, legends of this structure abound.  One legend states that a slave was murdered on the uppermost staircase landing.  Another legend states that tunnels run from the house to the nearby Kanawha River, as part of an Underground Railroad stop.  To date, evidence of such tunnels has never been found.  However, one legend DOES seem to make itself known to employees and visitors.  That legend is the ghostly overseer, protector, or guardian angel of the Red House.  Employees have dubbed him "Sam," and say that Sam likes to be heard, but not seen.

 

In recent years, however, it appears as if Sam, or perhaps some other resident ghost, DOES like to be seen!  Eleanor citizens walking along the town's sidewalks past dusk have been reporting seeing a man standing in one of the upper windows of the Red House.

 

Next…

 

The Captain's House, located on Juliana Street in Parkersburg's historic district, was built by George Deming, prior to 1860.  George was born in Connecticut in 1806, and was an accomplished Master Mariner.  Shortly before the Civil War, Deming left New England, and took his young family to Parkersburg, where he built at least two homes.

 

This home, sometimes referred to as the "Markey House," is the oldest, and is built in a classic New England style, with a small front yard, and narrow halls and a low ceiling, reminiscent of a ship.

 

Deming passed away in 1861, possibly due to the typhoid epidemic which was sweeping the area.  Deming's young son also passed away sometime during this time period.  Both are buried two blocks from the house in the Riverview Cemetery.  Deming's gravestone has an elaborate ship carving, and along with his birth and death dates bears the claim that he is a direct descendant of Myles Standish.  Unfortunately, the son's stone is too worn to accurately see the dates or name.

 

It is believed that  since Deming was in his 50s at his time of death, yet he had several young children, his wife was probably much younger.  There are no records of any other Deming's in the cemetery, so it is believed that she moved away shortly after the death of her husband and son, and remarried.

 

The Captain's Home has since then acquired a reputation for being haunted.  Rumors abound that subsequent owners have been driven mad while living in the home, which has undergone extensive renovations over the years.  While these rumors seem largely unsubstantiated, the home still has paranormal activity associated with it.  Workers restoring the home reported seeing a child's footprints in the dust in the attic, although no children lived in the home at the time. The dust was cleared, and several months later, the footsteps would reappear, although no children had even set foot in the closed off section.

 

Another strange anomaly seems to be the glow of a fire reflected in the home's windows.  People looking at the window see the reflection of orange flames whipping about, and other weird light anomalies, which are attributed to the Captain's pipe burning.

 

Oddly enough, the Captain isn't confined to his former home.  Residents have seen his apparition in various parts of town, often walking with his head down, and wearing a black overcoat.  He is seen at times in Riverview Cemetery, and some claim, even in the Blennerhassett Hotel.

 

Gotta have a bridge story right? The town of Wheeling, among other attributes, boasts the longest single span stone bridge in the United States.  The famous bridge:  The Main Street Bridge, constructed between 1890 and 1892.  Some sources say that bridge was constructed to replace an earlier bridge, one built in the 1840s.  There isn't much there to confirm this though.

 

In any event, the building or rebuilding in the late 1800s was quite a spectacle for the townspeople.  In an effort to enforce safety, a sign was erected which read "Danger! No one is allowed to loaf on this bridge by order of the Board of Public Works."  Pat Weir, the city's watchman, was giving the task of policing the bridge, and dealt with more than one smart-alec who insisted that they were loafing on their own free will, and not by order of the Board of Public Works, thus, it was okay for them to be there.

 

Whatever diligence was taken to ensure safety unfortunately couldn't prevent at least one fatal accident from occurring.  Dominick Carey, a contractor from the Paige, Carey & Co. of New York apparently fell from the bridge while heavy stones were being moved.  It has been theorized that the scaffolding gave way, and Carey fell into the icy Wheeling Creek, which feeds the Ohio River, being swept away.  

 

Carey's body was never found, but that doesn't mean he was never heard from again...Witnesses say they encounter the apparition of the unlucky contractor on the bridge, as well as another possible spirit. 

 

Allegedly, either the new bridge or the bridge it supposedly replaced, saw another tragic accident.  A gentleman leading a team of horses across the bridge stopped to fix a loosened hitch.  When he dismounted, he spooked his own horses, and they trampled him to death.  Witnesses have reported being approached by a man who asks "Have you seen my horses?"

 

Ok one more for you and we'll wrap this up! This next one is a little church with some cool stories. St. Colman Catholic Church is located about 15 miles away from Hinton, in an area of Irish Mountain named Sullivan's Knob.  Maurice Sullivan was the first settler in the area, purchasing 435 acres of land from the Gwinn Family in 1855.  The following year he was joined by the Quinlan family, and then several other Irish families.  Together, they turned the small, isolated community into a thriving Irish farm settlement.

 

The community  was largely of the Roman Catholic faith, and church services were held in private homes, provided once a month by a traveling preacher from St. Patrick's in Hinton.  The community pushed for a church of their own, and in 1876, Sullivan deeded over 1 acre of land to Bishop Joseph J. Kain for use as a church and a cemetery.  The cemetery unfortunately came first, as in that same year, John Quinlan passed away and was buried on the grounds.

 

The church was built the following year and consisted of a hewn log structure.  The cemetery is unique in that it has a "Lost Souls" corner for unbaptized babies.  The name St. Colman comes from a Gaelic saint, and the church became known as the "little Catholic church on Irish Mountain."

 

The church never did gain its own preacher, and continued to receive services through St. Patrick's in Hinton.  In 1928, the church was refurbished.  Clapboard painted white was erected over the hewed logs.  In 1983 it became a registered historical site.

 

Visitors to the church in recent years have reported unexplained cold spots and cold mists that are actually seen.  Some have reported these cold mists will take an almost human shape, and that sometimes they will stop and pause on pews by visitors, as if sitting beside them. 

 

Paranormal groups have investigated and found numerous things. There are stories of small children's ghosts in the lost souls area of the graveyard. They also report sounds of children crying or laughing. There are stories of objects like balls being moved. Again stories of figures sitting in the pews. Sounds like a cool creepy little place. 

 

So with all those stories you may be wondering why we didn't talk about the more well known haunts like Harpers Ferry or the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic asylum and others like that. Well if you've listened to our other creepy episodes you'll know we like to find less talked about stuff to explore. With the history of this state going back as far as it does and all the strife and hotties of the civil war in the area, it's no wonder there are tons and tons of creepy and supposedly haunted places in west Virginia. We are definitely coming back for seconds here and we actually have a couple of the spots in this state on our actual list of episodes, so we'll definitely be back to West Virginia. 

 

Top ten horror movies set in west Virginia

 

https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=west-virginia

The Union Screaming House

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A story from a Union Screaming House Survivor 

By Steven LaChance, 2004

“Do you believe in ghosts? I used to be like many of you. I was a true skeptic. A true disbeliever. That was me until three years ago. Now I do believe. I wish I didn’t. It would be easier for me to sleep at night. Even now, three years later, I am still woken up in the night by the memory of the screaming man, the child in pain, and the dark ghostly image that turned my world upside down and changed my beliefs forever. I do believe in ghosts.

 

It was in May 2001. I needed desperately to find a place for myself and three children to live in Union, Missouri. Our lease was up at the apartment where we had lived for two years. I was a single father, and I was about to find myself and my children homeless. Like many, I had answered just about every ad in the newspaper for rentals. One evening I received a call from this woman telling me about this house. She said it was a rather large old house that was in very good shape. She invited me to an open house which was to be held that coming Sunday. Sunday rolled around. You can’t imagine the surprise when my daughter and I rolled up in front of this large old white house. We walked in. The smell of cookies baking hit us immediately upon entering through the front door. To our surprise, we were standing in a living room with cherubs surrounding the top of the walls all the way around the room. All of the original woodwork was intact and a large wooden pole ran to the ceiling creating a divider which separated the living room from the family room. The house had two floors with three bedrooms, and a large family kitchen with a mudroom that led to the back door. The upstairs bedrooms had a breezeway that could be accessed from all rooms.

 

The basement had an old butcher’s shower and a fruit cellar. It was more house than we ever imagined for the price and immediately made up our minds that we had to have it. Anyone who has lived in an apartment for two years with three children would understand our desperation. We had to have this house.

 

We spoke with the landlady and she gave me an application to fill out. There were many people there looking at the house so we knew we would have to compete to be its tenants. I handed my application to the landlady. “You understand the responsibility that comes with living in an old house such as this?” she asked. “Oh, yes I understand. It’s beautiful.”, I quickly replied, not really understanding to what I was agreeing to. “Well then I will get back to you,” she quickly retorted and was off to peddle her wares to another of the visiting house hunters. She was a strange old lady and the way she showed the house wasn’t in a real estate type manner. She showed the house as if she were showing a museum. We felt like we were on one of the house tours often given each year for charity.

 

A week went by before the phone rang one evening. It was the strange landlady overly excited to tell me that she had selected me, my daughter and two sons to live in the old house. I was to meet her that following day at a restaurant to settle all of the paperwork and payment. I thought this was a little strange and I was a little disappointed because I couldn’t wait to see the house that would now become our home.  The papers were signed on the following day. That weekend was Memorial weekend and we were all set to move in.

 

It seemed like years before Friday came that week, but we were finally there. Moving day. The move was a normal one and before we knew it all of our belongings were hidden safely inside the old white house. I was removing the last few items from the moving truck when a car slowed down, almost stopping in front of our new home. From the window of the slow-moving car, the passenger said, “Hope you get along okay here,” and then sped up and drove away. “What do you think of that dad,” my puzzled daughter asked. “Friendly neighbors I suppose,” I replied as I shut the sliding door to the truck.

 

The first night in the house went by without fanfare. Maybe because we were so tired from the move or perhaps because the house wanted to draw us in a little closer before beginning its series of attacks and assaults upon me and my family. The next morning started like most any other day. Except I did notice one strange thing about the house. Each of the houses’ interior doors had an old-fashioned hook and eye latch, but not on the inside of each rooms doors to keep someone out. The latches were on the outside of the rooms doors, as if to keep something in. “What is it dad?” my youngest son asked from behind. “Oh nothing,” I replied and went about the business of unpacking our things.

 

The first incident happened in the living room when I was hanging a large picture of two angels. My daughter thought that this would complement the cherubs that surrounded the room. I hung the picture and turned to walk away. Crash! I turned to see that the picture had fallen to the floor. Re-hanging the picture once again, I turned away. Crash! The picture was once again on the floor. Hanging it for a third time, when I started walking away I felt a rush of air and something hit the back of my ankles. “What the hell…?” I turned to see the picture lying at my feet. More determined than ever, I hung the picture again and stated loudly, “Stay there dammit.” I had to laugh because I was alone. Who did I think I was talking to? The kids were playing on the front porch.

 

“Dad come and see this,” my daughter’s voice rang through the front door. I stepped out onto the porch. “Sit down and watch this,” she said excitedly. “Watch what?” I replied. No sooner were the words out of my mouth when my daughter pointed to an old man walking down the sidewalk toward our house. However, when he reached our property line he quickly crossed the street and continued his walk on the opposite sidewalk. “They don’t like walking in front of our house dad. Isn’t that weird?” my daughter, breathless with excitement stated. And right she was. I sat on that porch for a good three hours watching our neighbors cross the street away from our house any time they walked along our street. A couple of times I motioned as if to say hello, but they just dropped their heads and continued on their way at a brisker pace.  “Maybe they are uncomfortable with new neighbors?” I rationalized trying to make sense out of the senseless situation. We went inside for dinner and the rest of the night went normally without incident.

 

Sunday. The kids came home from church excited because we had set aside the whole day to work on our yard. This was a big deal for us because the only outside area our apartment provided was a front balcony. We mowed the grass and cleaned out the leaves from under the porch and in the front yard. Strangely enough, the trees seemed to be shedding their leaves as if it were Fall. Strange tree behavior, I thought, and made a mental note to mention it to the landlady when I talked with her next. I asked my youngest son to go inside and bring out the garden hose from the basement so we could clean off the walkways and wash down the weathered white of the house.

 

A few moments passed when I heard him screaming from inside the house. Running frantically into the house, I found him standing in the kitchen shaking, in the middle of a  puddle of urine. “What’s wrong? What happened?” Looking at me with the scared eyes of a child, he said, “Something chased me up the basement steps.” “What chased you?” I asked, already thinking the overactive imagination of a little boy was at play here. “I don’t know daddy, but it was big.” Me and my other two children checked the basement but found nothing except for the garden hose that had been dropped during his frightened escape. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” I said. Naturally, there was teasing from my other two children about the proverbial basement monster. “Better watch out when you go into the basement because…” The glare of my eye finished my middle boy’s sentence. The rest of Sunday and Monday went without any other incidents and we were so happy those first few days in the house. My daughter was making plans about gardens, decorating, and my boys thought it would be easy to walk to their baseball games because the park was very close. It was a normal, happy time which, unfortunately, did not last for long.

 

Monday came. The last week of school for my kids and a long week of work for me. Each day we would leave the house and return each evening to find every light in the house turned on. I blamed the children for leaving the lights on in the morning. However, on Friday, my daughter and I sent the boys to the car while we toured the house making sure that every light was off. That night we returned home to again find every light burning. When I walked into the house I was a little shaken – there being no logical reason for all of the lights being on other than there was someone in our house. Searching the house in a panic, I found nothing.

“Daddy, it’s cold in here,” my daughter stated from the living room. What was she talking about? Sweat was pouring down my back and across my brow. However, when I stepped into the living room, the temperature dropped a good thirty degrees. That was the first time I felt its presence. I can’t describe it any better than it felt like an electrical current running through my body, bringing tears to my eyes and bumps to my arms. It passed quickly. I remember thinking, “What the hell was that?”  Soon, my daughter stated, “Daddy it’s getting warm in here,” and sure enough the temperature was rising as I watched the thermostat climb. That night my children slept with me – what little sleep I got.

 

Sunday night.  We were sitting in the living room talking. I was getting ready to take a trip the following morning to Indianapolis for work and we were discussing their plans for a stay at Grandma's. The kids had their backs to the living room, for which I am still thankful because the memory of what happened next still haunts my dreams to this day. I noticed it first out of the corner of my eye. A quick glance. Something moving, standing at the kitchen doorway that led into the family room. Not something – someone. I looked toward it again. It was a dark figure of a man, even though there was full light. He was solid in form except there was a moving, churning, dark gray, black smoke or mist that made up his form.

 

I looked down because I was sure I wasn’t seeing this and that my eyes were playing tricks on me. One or two good rationalizations and we could go on with our lives without incident. A few moments passed and I was sure that when I looked up again that it would be gone. But, he was still there and he began to move.

 

Moving into the family room and pausing in the center of the room, his form was still a mass of churning, turning blackness. He stood there for what seemed an eternity, but in actuality, it was only a few moments and then he melted into the air. Gone. I remember the thoughts that were racing through my head. ” I have two choices. We could run out of the house screaming into the night like those crazies you always see in the movies. You know the ones that are always based on fact. Or, the other choice, we could get up quietly, leave the house and figure all of this out.” My hands were shaking uncontrollably. “That’s what we’ll do. We will go quietly, orderly as if nothing was wrong”

 

Standing up on shaky legs, I said in my calmest daddy voice,  “Let’s go get a soda and see grandma.” My youngest was instantly excited at the prospect of a soda before bed and the older two looked at me as if I lost my mind. “Come on guys, it will be fun.” Thank God, my car keys were on the coffee table in front of us. We moved orderly out the front door and I turned to lock the door,  when a loud painful scream of a man came from inside the house. It sounded as if he was screaming in pain, so loud that it could be heard throughout the neighborhood and the dogs began to bark. To hell with orderly, “Get in the car!” I screamed at my children.

 

At a dead run, we headed to the car and to drive to my Mom’s house, which is still a blur to this day. I was in a panic and I knew that we had to get away from the old white house. But before we were away from the neighborhood, my youngest son, in a very scared voice, said, “Daddy the basement monster is standing in the upstairs window.” I looked back and sure enough, the black form was standing in the window watching us leave.

 

That night we stayed at my parents’ house. Early the next day, I gathered my things and left for my business trip. I had a whole week of rationalizations by the time I returned home to pick up my children. Where else were we to go? I had put everything I had saved, and then some, into the move. We had no other choice but to go back to the big old white house. Besides, after a week of talking myself out of the events of that night I was ready to return, so on Friday night we returned to the house. The weekend went by without incident, though we got very little sleep.

 

I was taking another extended weekend to make up to my kids for my week away. On Saturday we explored the big shed at the back of the yard and in it, we found a number of personal belongings that appeared to belong to different people. My parents convinced me that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to call the strange old landlady and ask her some straight forward questions about the house.

 

It was to be one of the most awkward and strangest phone calls of my life. Once I was able to reach her, I carefully chose my words and asked in a normal voice if any of the previous tenants had ever mentioned a ghost. Well of course, she said at first that she could not remember. However, she went on to say that one female tenant had claimed that her dead father came to visit her, but the old woman always thought she was crazy. The landlady said that some of the stuff in the shed had been left behind by the girl, but she couldn’t get her to come pick it up.

 

The other stuff in the shed evidently belonged to a man who had lived there but left in the middle of the night, leaving behind his things. But, no she had never heard of anyone talking about the house being haunted. I asked her how long ago did these people live there? And she said, “Not much more than a year honey, why do you ask?” The phone call wasn’t of much help. And it didn’t calm my fears much, but what else could I do?

 

The rest of the long weekend came and went. I actually had convinced myself that it was just a one-time ordeal because nothing more was happening. That was until Monday night. I was on the phone with my mom. The kids were off playing in my bedroom which was located on the first floor. While on the phone, I began to hear the inside doors rattling. Listening closely, they rattled again and I yelled at the kids to quit playing games. I told my Mom that everything was okay, just the kids playing tricks. They rattled again, this time harder. So, I scolded the children this time louder to behave and stop playing tricks. At this time they rattled louder, but before I could scold them, my daughter’s scared voice cut me off., “Daddy, I’m in here reading and my brothers are asleep.”

 

Now I will try to recreate what happens next to the best of memory. Some of it I remember clearly. Other parts are a blur to this day. Just as soon as I heard my daughter the temperature in the house instantly dropped a good thirty degrees. With it came the feeling of the electrical charge running through my body. Along with its energy a horrible stench that I cannot describe permeated the room. And then, the screaming started – softly at first, but building in momentum. I yelled through the phone to my mother to come help – we were getting out. Then the whole house began to shake and come alive. From above, I could hear something large coming down the stairs. Boom. Boom! BOOM! The screaming of the man over and over. The screaming of my daughter, “Daddy what is happening!” Along with this came the thought that one of my two bedroom doors connected to the stairs. BOOM! BOOM! It was coming down those stairs! I had to get to my children! The whole house was alive with noise. The floor beneath me was shaking as I made my way to the bedroom door.  I felt something behind me and I knew I didn’t want to turnaround to see it! BOOM! SCREAMING!  A new scream mixed into the man’s scream – this one from a child. BOOM! SCREAMS! BOOM! I made it to my bedroom door but it wouldn’t open. By this time I, too, am screaming. Throwing myself against the door it still wouldn’t budge. I continued to throw myself against the door again and again until it finally slammed open.

 

My daughter was in shock by this point. I instructed my middle son to grab his brother and run out the front door and head for the car. BOOM! BOOM! SCREAMS! My daughter won’t move and I finally had to slap her to bring her to life. Finally responding, I grab her and head for the door as I hear the other bedroom door slam open behind us. It was on our trail and I knew I couldn’t let it reach us. The whole house was still shaking and alive with noise and something big on our heels. When we reached the front door and out onto the porch, I slammed the front door behind us. As we got into the car we could still hear the noise coming from the house. I drove away and parked at the top of the street where I could still see the house and wait for my parents to arrive. We could see “it” searching through the house. Searching! Searching for us! It’s blackness moving from room to room methodically.

 

That was our last night in the house. My children never returned. When I returned to get a few of our things on several occasions I never went alone. Everyone I brought into that house with me would also witness something happen. A scream. Whispers. Pounding from the floor above. It was not selective anymore at who it let hear its fury. I remember what the old lady said to me as I turned over the key.  Standing there, the whole side of my arm and torso still bruised from throwing myself against that bedroom door, she said, “Some people are meant to live in an old house like that. And some people aren’t. I never thought you were the old house type.” And I guess she was right.

About a month after moving out of the old house a friend sent me a website address that she wanted me desperately to see. “Put John T. Crowe, Union, Missouri into your search engine,” she said. When I did, the face of a man came onto my screen. The same face that showed up in a picture my brother took in the fruit cellar one afternoon while I was packing for the move. The man was famous. The land itself is famous, with a history dating back to the civil war.

 

About a year ago, someone I know saw a police car race up to that house one night and witnessed a family running out of its front door in their nightclothes.

 

As for the house today – the old lady turned it into a dog kennel this past fall. I guess she ran out of people that could live in an old white house like that one.

 

You see I do believe in ghosts. I still drive past that house every once in a while and when I get enough nerve I look up at the upstairs window and it’s there. Watching. Waiting. Angry. Sometimes its screams still wake me from my sleep, its infectious scream creeping into my dreams, turning them into nightmares. I still don’t sleep very well. In my dreams I see a faceless man standing in that basement washing away blood from his naked blood-covered body. Grunting. Panting. Breathing.

 

The breathing you’d hear when you were alone with it in a room. The breathing you would hear when you knew it was there. Heavy. Labored. Breathing. Yes, I do believe in ghosts. I do believe in ghosts. And maybe you should too?

 

Submitted by Steven LaChance. Updated: March, 2017 who wrote a book about his experiences called The Uninvited. 

 

Ok, so who was this captain John T. Crowe? Well, we found his actual obituary from 1923.

 

Obituary for John Thomas Crowe

from the Republican Tribune, Union, Missouri

April 20, 1923

Captain John T. Crowe died at his house nine miles west of Union Monday night, April 16, 1923, aged 81 years, three months and nineteen days having been born in the home in which he passed away, December 28, 1841.

Captain Crowe belonged to one of the most highly respected families of the county and one that perhaps has been as long connected with the progressive spirit of the county as any of the many prominent families that have left their imprint upon our county’s progress.

Captain or Judge Crowe, as he was sometimes called, belonged to one of the oldest families in the state as well as in the county. His great-grandfather, Godfrey Crowe, was born and raised in Germany and came to Missouri in 1796 and settled in St. Charles county.

Michael Crowe, the grandfather of Captain Crowe was born and reared in St. Charles county. He married a Miss Green, the daughter of Col. Jas. Green, who was born in Virginia and came to Kentucky, where he took part in the Indian troubles and was a close companion of Daniel Boone. When the latter came to Missouri, Colonel Greene came with him and settled in St. Charles county, towards the close of the 18th century. Michael Crowe and his wife came to Franklin county in 1808 and settled near Labaddie. March 1, 1818, he was killed while loading a log on a wagon. The father of Captain John T. Crowe, Martin Luther Greene Crowe, was born August 18, 1818. A few months after the death of his father, he was married to Jane Catherine Jump, daughter of Samuel Jump, July 25, 1838. The father died November 14, 1890 and the mother, February 7, 1891. Martin L. G. Crowe was elected county assessor in 1854. At the expiration of his term as assessor he was elected county judge and in 1859 he became county clerk and served faithfully in that capacity until January 1, 1871.

To Mr. And Mrs. M. L. G. Crowe, six children were born: two died in infancy, one son, Samuel, died in 1886 at the age of almost 30 years, Mrs. William Leiser, the only daughter, died in Montana a few years ago and one son. George Crowe is at present living in Nogales, Arizona.

When the father took charge of the county clerk’s office in 1859, his son, John T., although only 18 years old, immediately became his father’s assistant and main reliance and remained to the office until President Lincoln’s first call for 75,000 men to serve three months. John Crowe was one of the first to respond to his country’s call. At the end of three month’s service, he returned to Union and enlisted in Co. E, 26th regiment of Missouri volunteers infantry. This company was organized in the southern part of the county in December 1861. It was recruited by Robert C. Crowell, who desired and expected to be captain. At the election of officers, however, John T. Crowe, who was just twenty years old, was almost unanimously elected captain. But owing partly to his youth, but more largely to the loyalty to his older friend, positively declined any office in his company whatever. He accepted, however, the position as adjutant for the regiment. He took this because he realized what all others knew, that owing to his office experience and education he was better fitted for the place than anyone in the regiment. He was appointed 2nd lieutenant of the company June 26, 1862 and six months later was transferred to company I and promoted to first lieutenant, August 22, 1862. He became captain of the company June 23, 1863 and remained at the head of his company until the expiration of his enlistment, which was December 25, 1864. He lacked three days of being 24 years of age and was one of the youngest captains in the service.

Soon after its organization the regiment joined the expedition under General Pope against New Madrid and as an officer Captain Crowe took part in the following military activities: Battles of Tipton, Farmington, Corinth, Iuka, Port Gibson, Missionary Ridge and in Sherman’s famous march to the sea and through the Carolinas.

The late Judge Ryers, who made a study of the army reports told that the official records of Captain Crowe were among the very best of any in the state. When he reached Union after the expiration of his enlistment he was commissioned adjutant to the second military district of Missouri. When the war was over he came back to Union and resumed his duties in the office of the county clerk and continued to relieve his aged father of as much of the work as he could. He retired from his duties as deputy when his father’s term expired, December 31, 1870.

In 1868 he was admitted to the bar of Franklin county but did not enter the regular practice of law. In 1872 he was elected sheriff over John R. Roberson. He was reelected in 1874 and in 1876 he was elected probate judge over H. R. Sweet and served until January 1, 1881 when he was appointed deputy internal revenue collector at a much larger remuneration than he had received as probate judge. He served as deputy revenue collector until the election of Cleveland when he retired to the old homestead and where he has made his home practically ever since. He was elected as representative in the legislature in 1890 and served the county faithfully in the 36th general assembly. He was by nature a great lover of agricultural pursuits and sold all his real estate in Union and lived the remainder of his life on his farm which was well fitted with modern conveniences.

On January 16, 1860, John T. Crowe married Minerva M. Breckenridge, a daughter of Asa Breckenridge, a most highly respected citizen and relative of the famous Breckenridge family of Kentucky. To this union four children were born, Asa B., a prominent merchant of Sullivan; Martin Luther, who was killed in a railroad accident October 17, 1890; Maude, the wife of R. L. Allen, a banker of Farmington; and Nellie, the wife of Lilburn W. Brown, with whom the father made his home on the old homestead. Mrs. Crowe died in July, 1874. On March 9, 1877, Mr. Crowe was again married, this time to Miss Sarah E. Hendricks, a member of an old and honored family. To this union three children were born; Addie, the wife of Fred Lyford, a civil engineer living in Iowa; and John and Howard Crowe, prominent business men of Southwest Missouri. The second wife died September 18, 1895. In addition to the six children above enumerated captain Crowe is survived by one brother, George Crowe, of Nogales, Arizona, who arrived at the bedside just four hours before his brother died. He also leaves sixteen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Captain Crowe had been a prominent Mason since early manhood. He was a member of some three or four old soldiers’ organizations and always attended their meetings as long as he was able to do so with comfort. Captain John T. Crowe was a patriot in the fullest sense of the word and proved it by his facing the enemies of this country in the most trying circumstances. He was always courteous and amiable in society and was always a gentleman. But above and beyond all he left a family that are each and all an honor to themselves, their country and the communities in which they live. No man could leave a greater or nobler heritage to posterity.

 

Paranormal groups and the Catholic Church were called in to investigate the home. Historically, the home was supposedly built on the remains of a slave quarters cabin from the pre-Civil War era. Within five hundred feet of the home was an older cemetery, while across the street in a separate home, a violent ax murder once took place.

 

Paranormal groups have documented dozens of EVPs and photographs of the activity in the home. Such documentation has not come without a price, while some investigators have been bitten or scratched. The Catholic Church issued a rare 156-page report on the home claiming it was indeed manifested with a strong demonic presence.

 

The Screaming House was built in 1932 and was placed upon the actual spot which once held the slave quarters. In all historical documents, you will not find one incident where the Captain admittedly was a slave owner. The slaves were always listed as belonging to his wife Minerva who came to Union, Missouri with her family from Kentucky. There is talk of Minerva having improper relations with at least one of her male slaves which may have led to her death and the deaths of all of the young male slaves on the property. One of the sources of this atrocity was an actual member and heir of the Captain himself. Captain Crowe sold his land in Union, Missouri to A.J. Saey who later became the first Governor of Oklahoma. Captain Crowe moved to Beaufort, Missouri where he spent the rest of his years.  Below you will see the grave sites of the Captain and his beautiful wife.

 

Standing on the hillside overlooking Union City Park is a huge Nursing Home. In its day this building was used as a Civil War Hospital and was also used after the war as the County Poor House. It is a well known fact among Union residents that if you don’t know where one of your ancestors is buried they are most likely buried in one of the mass graves in the city park. One of these mass graves is not far from the Screaming House.

 

In 1974, a replaying of a modern Lizzy Borden case took place almost directly across from the Screaming House on the next street over. A woman took an ax and killed her husband. Once she had completed her dirty deed, she took a gun and committed suicide. You might be thinking that a woman using a gun to commit suicide is uncommon, but not in Union, Missouri. Several women have ended their lives at the end of a gun. Another house across from the Screaming House a man committed suicide in front of his young nephew with a gun. So all in all there is plenty of  reason for the Screaming House to be haunted. It seems the land on and surrounding the house is just bad. If you speak to some of the residents of the town who will talk about the haunting. They will tell you that you get an awful feeling from the home and some claim to even get physically ill when they are near it. Others will tell you that not only the house is haunted but the entire neighborhood as well.

 

It seems that Union, Missouri is rife with axe murders.

 

From Sue Blessing at emissouri.com

 

“A story from an 1875 issue of The Record first alerted me to this murder, as the woman accused of the crime was then being housed in the jail at Union. I was particularly drawn to the case because the account stated the perpetrator was the widow of Capt. William Eads, whose steamboats had plied the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in an earlier era.

 

William Eads Sr., and William Eads Jr. were both riverboat captains. It is possible she could have been married to the younger Eads, who died in 1863 at age 27, but this is mostly speculation.

 

However, the case was an interesting one so I began searching for more information. I’ll start at the beginning, drawing on at least a dozen resources. The murder was said to have taken place on April 1, 1872. At the time, Mrs. Eads was living on a farm in Jefferson County with a hired man by the name of Joe Howard, two children she had adopted, Louis Merrill Taylor, age 6, and his sister, Mary Josephine Taylor, age 13. Also living in the home was Charles Eads, a young man she had raised and apparently given her surname to. Whether she had any children of her own is not known.

 

According to an 1875 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mrs. Eads was very abusive to the young children, often cuffing them about. One day, two or three eggs were missing and she accused young Louis of taking them. He denied having done it and told Mrs. Eads the dog was the guilty culprit. Not believing the boy, Mrs. Eads became enraged. She picked up an axe handle and struck the child over the head. He fell to the floor dead. Howard and young Eads came into the house and, after seeing what had happened, volunteered to bury the body.

 

Mary Josephine had been churning butter in the next room, but had seen the killing. She ran away and hid. She was found and threatened with instant death if she ever told anyone. As was the case with several aspects of this story, there are two versions as to what happened to Mary Josephine. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch version, she was sent to live with her Uncle Eldridge who lived 3 miles northwest of Camden Point in Platte County.

 

The Record told a different story. Not wanting to kill Mary Josephine, Mrs. Eads came up with the idea of sending her off into the wilderness and leaving her to starve to death. Eads and Howard put the child on a bareback mule and took her 40 miles from the scene of the murder and left her in the woods far from civilization. In the meantime, Mrs. Eads left her farm home.

 

After much suffering, Mary Josephine found her way to a house but, because she feared for her life, did not tell the whole story. She asked for help and said she wanted to go to the home of her Uncle Eldridge, who lived in Platte County.

 

The plot thickens. Mary Josephine’s Uncle Eldridge had no respect for Mrs. Eads because she had been caught in a conspiracy to have her parents done away with so she could get her hands on their fortune. Mary Josephine opened up to her uncle and told him everything. Both Mary Josephine and her uncle kept their own counsel until the day young Mary Josephine spotted Charles Eads in Platte County. She told her story to the authorities and Eads was soon arrested. Her uncle believed Eads had come to Platte County with the intention to do him harm.

 

While jailed, Eads wrote a letter to Mrs. Rebecca Boltinghouse, 2620 Papin St., St. Louis. The Platte County sheriff at once suspected that Mrs. Boltinghouse might be Mrs. Eads. He contacted the St. Louis chief of police and it was determined that his suspicions were right. Mrs. Eads, age 40-plus, had been living as the mistress of Frank Boltinghouse, a 24-year-old brakeman on the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

 

Mrs. Eads was arrested. Frank Boltinghouse came to the jail to see her and they had a good cry together. They decided to get married and the ceremony was performed in the police captain’s office. Mrs. Eads, who had been living with Boltinghouse since November 1874, was expecting a baby.

 

Both Mrs. Eads-Boltinghouse and Charles Eads were jailed in Union for a time because an affidavit alleged the crime had taken place in Franklin County. The scene of the crime, however, was Jefferson County, and they were eventually sent to Potosi for trial. She was charged with killing young Taylor and Eads was charged with assisting her in concealing the body.

 

A change of a venue took the case to St. Francois County where Mrs. Eads-Boltinghouse was found guilty of murder in the second degree and sentenced to 20 years in the penitentiary. Due to a defect in the charge on which she was tried, the judgment was arrested and both Eads-Boltinghouse and Eads were remanded back to Jefferson County to wait for the grand jury to act on the case. In the January 1877 term, Mrs. Eads-Boltinghouse was again indicted, but Charles Eads was released. A second change of a venue resulted in the murder trial being moved to Iron County where she was tried and found guilty of murder in the second degree. She was sentenced to serve 10 years in the penitentiary.

 

According to a list of prisoners published in the Warden’s Report, Rose B. R. Boltinghouse, white, born in Ohio, entered the penitentiary on Nov. 23, 1881. The 1888 Goodspeed history gives her complete name as Rosabelle Rebecca Boltinghouse.”

 

So, what the hell is going on in Union, Missouri? Axe murdering women… a creepy captain that just won’t go away. Whatever it is that’s haunting the area, it’s a pretty amazing story and we want to know what you think! Is this house just someone’s overactive imagination or is the Captain still lingering about, attempting to wash the blood from his hands, screaming and moaning, warning anyone that will listen.

 

(MOVIES INTRO)

 

Top Ten Movies About Haunted House Attractions

 

10 Awesome Horror Movies About Haunted House Attractions – Halloween Year-Round (wordpress.com) 

The Rendlesham Forest Incident with Jeff Butchko

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Ep. 104

The Rendlesham

Forest Incident

 

Tonight we talk about what is perhaps the most well documented ufo sighting, and depending on who you talk to, one of the best examples that aliens have been to earth! Hot damn! Not only is it well documented, the credibility of those involved, with a few exceptions which have weeded out, is pretty much as good as it gets. Not only that, but... it wasn't just a couple of people that witnessed part of this event. At least 80 people saw it, first hand, and that doesn't include people from the town and area surrounding where this incident took place. We're of course talking about the one, the only, the Rendlesham forest incident!!

 

    Most of our story and info today comes from an amazing book we found called Encounter in Rendlesham Forest written by Nick Pope with assistance from two of the main players in the incident, John Burroughs and Jim Penniston, both retired from the United States air force. Nick Pope actually worked for the British ministry of defense investigating UFOs, alien abductions, crop circles and more. So, basically Moody’s dream job.

 

So, the Rendlesham forest incident was actually composed of two, count em two, sightings in just a couple of days span. We’ll discuss both incidents and then talk about theories and such. So let's dive into it.

 

The Rendlesham area was home to two military bases, Bentwater and Woodbridge. The two bases were separated by roughly 300-400 yards of forest… The, you guessed it, Rendlesham forest. The forest itself was pretty thick and dense. Both bases were run by the US. Both bases were speculated to house nuclear weapons. It was never confirmed or denied. Many people believe that's the reason for this UFO visit. Nuclear power seeking aliens! Amazing. Also it gives even more credibility to those involved being that they were in charge of a pile of nukes. Or were they?

 

On the night of December 26 1980, John Burroughs, who was an airman first class, saw strange red and blue lights on Rendlesham forest outside of the gates of the base  while patrolling the east gate of the Woodbridge base. At first Burroughs thought the lights may have been a civilian aircraft that crashed. He began the prices of running the report through the proper channels to investigate the lights. First he reported to staff sergeant Bud Stefans, who then ran it too sergeant Crash McCabe, who in turn got a hold of sergeant John Coffey, who then ran it up to the on duty flight chief which was staff sergeant Jim Penniston. 

 

At this point Penniston decided to head out and check out the situation himself. He headed out to the east gate with his driver Edward Cabansag. As they arrived at the east gate, Bud Stefans would make a strange remark. He said "it didn't crash… It landed." White this was going on they had the control tower check around with their radar and also contact other air force bases in the area as well as Heathrow airport to see if they saw anything. Turns out about 15 minutes before the lights were seen, a "bogey" was seen on radar but disappeared as it got directly over Woodbridge. Penniston, Burroughs, and another dude named master sergeant Chandler headed into the forest while Cabansag hung bag. As they got closer to the lights all of their radios began to malfunction. It was as if something was trying to interfere with the radio signal. In order to trust messages back to the base, Chandler went back to the Jeep while Penniston and Burroughs pressed on. As they walked further into the forest they described a change in the air as they drew closer to the lights. They said it felt like the air was charged with electricity and the hairs on the back of their necks and arms stood up. After this they said it became hard to walk, as if they were wading through deep water. They finally made it to the source of the light in a small clearing. They say there was a sudden explosion of bright light except that it was completely silent. Both men hit the deck and waited for a minute to be sure it was safe. When the men stood up they saw something unbelievable. Penniston claims they were looking at a small triangular craft roughly 9 ft tall by 9ft wide resting on tripod-like legs. He said the way it looked was similar to our lunar lander. On the side of the craft he says there were a bunch of blue lights while a white light was on top. The craft was completely silent. Penniston decided to approach closer. He described the area around the craft as a "bubble field". As he entered the field he claims that all of the ambient noise in the area ceased. He described it like the air was dead. The static charge he had felt earlier was even stronger. He claimed to turn and yell to Burroughs but Burroughs was just standing and staring at the object. Penniston said he thought he was going to die. In his head he thought this object a weapon. He didn't know if his radio was working so he decided to pull out his notebook and start documenting the incident that way. As he got nearer to the object he said he saw strange symbols on the side of the craft. They appeared to be etched into the side of the craft. Penniston said the symbols were not recognizable. He said at best there was a passing resemblance to Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

 

     Being a real man's man, Penniston then decided it would be a great idea to touch the object. He said that it was smooth like running your hand over glass but the symbols were rough like sandpaper. He then claims that as he touched the symbols the lights became blindingly bright and when he took his hand back the light went back to normal. After this Penniston stood there and just tried to document the situation as much as he could in his notebook.

 

After a bit the craft began to lift off the ground. Penniston said everything seemed to move in slow motion. After a few minutes the craft made it over the top of the trees. After clearing the trees it silently flew away at what was described as an impossible speed. Literally…Penniston wrote in his notebook "speed-impossible". 

 

So you may be asking yourself… What about Burroughs… What the hell was with him? Well, despite standing only about ten feet from Penniston his recollection of the event was completely different. Burroughs maintains he saw something. He claims that after the silent explosion of light and he hit the deck, he saw no craft whatsoever. He said he saw a red oval sun like object in the field. He also claims that unlike the up close encounter that Penniston had, his encounter lasted only seconds. Oddly enough this was his official statement. In his original statement taken roughly 72 hours after the incident occurred, he had included a speech of a craft that looked very similar to Pennistons sketches from his encounters. Since people will point to this as a sign that this was definitely a real event and that his official statement was cleaned up a bit to try and cover up the true nature of what happened. 

 

At this point both men agreed that after the initial silent light explosion they saw a light rise into the sky and headed ready over the coast. After the craft took off the two men noticed something else. Although this was the middle of winter and the ground was essentially frozen, they were able to see three indentations on the ground. This told them that something extremely heavy had been there. On top of that the indentations created an almost perfect equilateral triangle, claimed Penniston. As they looked around more they noticed that there were many broken branches on the trees around the clearing where the supposed craft had landed. These branches were broken from low on the trees all the way to the tops!

 

When they returned to the Jeep to meet up with Cabansag and Chandler, the two men would find out something else that's pretty crazy. The two men figured they were gone for five or ten minutes out of radio contact. In all actuality they were out of radio contact for a whopping 45 minutes!  What's more, not only was there lost time, the two men's watching were running 45 minutes slow, it's like time stopped for them during the incident.  Cabansag and Chandler had been in contact with the base checking in, which was even more proof the men had been gone much longer than they thought.

 

On top of all this they found that others had seen something crazy as well. We'll talk about the things they might actually have seen later when talking about possible explanations! 

 

That night there was another incident reported. Two other men reported seeing lights in the forest as well. They claim that when they went to check it out a bright light engulfed them and their jeep stalled out. They could not get the Jeep to start again. 

 

The USAF was obligated to call British authorities to report that they had gone off base to investigate the incident. So instead of informing the military they called the local police for some reason. The police in their official report that upon receiving the call they had found a place where it appears that a craft had landed. 

 

As one would expect the next day the men involved were getting quite the ribbing from everyone else. At this point another major player would enter the picture. That morning Colonel Charles Halt reported for duty at 5am. The aforementioned Sergeant Crash McCabe, when asked by Halt what was going on, said "Penniston and Burroughs were out chasing UFOs all night. Halt recommended that they use the term unexplained lights instead of UFO so that things would not get out of hand. Immediately paperwork concerning the night's escapades were pulled and classified as secret. This included indecent and complaint reports as well as security blotters. The off thing about this is that normally this would have to go through Colonel Halt, but he was not made aware of any of this when it happened. They were pulled by base commander Ted Conrad. 

 

Major Edward Drury thought that the entire thing was just a Christmas prank, but after talking to Penniston and Burroughs, and getting more of the story, as well as hearing about the bogey on the radar, he decided to investigate a bit. He took some guys with him and went and took some pictures and checked out the site. They kind of figured this would be the end of the whole situation but in actuality it was only the end of the first of the two incidents!

 

The next day on the 27th, there was a combat support group awards ceremony scheduled for the evening at the on base bar called Woody's. That night during the festivities lieutenant Bruce England who was on duty came in and grabbed Colonel Halt, pulled him aside and told him that the UFO had returned.  Halt decided that he would check this out for himself. He gathered a team of men that were still sober and called in sergeant Monroe Neville's and Master sergeant Bobby Ball to join the group. Halt had the men grab some floodlights. But mysteriously the floodlights were not working. Now while it must be said that some of the portable flood lights were out of gas, not all of them were. The ones that had gas and by all accounts should work were simply just… Not. At this point Halt took his team to the original landing site instead of where the men were setting up the lights and where the new sighting was. While all of this was going down Halt was recording everything with his portable tape recorder. They used Geiger counters on the area to see if they could detect any kind of radioactivity in the original landing area. While they did find a little bit of a spike in the reading it was definitely not a significant sign regardless of what some people would have you believe. Another issue is that they were actually using the wrong type of Geiger counter to get the readings they got. Now you can hear this on the 18 minutes of recordings that were made available to the public. 

 

Also in the recordings you can hear the point when the men again see a strange light. One man refers to how there's light that is there and gone then returns again. The men sound legitimately dumbfounded by what they are witnessing. Halt behind to describe what is going on on the tape. The last roughly 4 minutes of audio available is this prob of the encounter. Halt at one point describes the light as shooting a break of lights to the ground, which you can hear on the recordings. Later, according to Halt's memo, three star-like lights were seen in the sky, two to the north and one to the south, about 10 degrees above the horizon. Halt said that the brightest of these hovered for two to three hours and seemed to beam down a stream of light from time to time. The other strange thing about Halt's recordings is that while only 18 minutes of recordings were made available Halt supposedly had around 4 hours or more of recordings from that night which he claims will probably never be released for us to hear. 

 

Not really knowing what to do with all of this the Halt sent a memo to the Ministry of Defense and tried to get the British involved but they were not having it. The memo can be found online and we will post a picture of. Halt claims that the U.S got rid of the copy her head sent to the higher ups as they deemed the incident did not warrant further investigation. 

 

So what the fuck happened in Rendlesham forest. Well it depends on who you want to believe. There's a ton of skeptics obviously, then there's guys like Moody who are fully on board for the UFO theory. This incident is rude with theories, detractors, conspiracies, people who claim they were the ones perpetrating the hoax… It's kind of crazy. Let's look at some of the theories on what happened and what the skeptics say. 

 

   There's one story that we can put to rest for you right off the top. In December 2018, David Clarke, a British UFO researcher, reported a claim that the incident was a set-up by the SAS as a revenge plot on the USAF. According to this story, in August 1980, the SAS parachuted into RAF Woodbridge to test the security at the nuclear site. The USAF had recently upgraded their radar and detected the black parachutes of the SAS men as they descended to the base. The SAS troops were interrogated and beaten up, with the ultimate insult that they were called "unidentified aliens". To enact their revenge, the SAS "gave" the USAF their own version of an alien event; "....as December approached, lights and coloured flares were rigged in the woods. Black helium balloons were also coupled to remote-controlled kites to carry suspended materials into the sky, activated by radio-controls." However, Clarke's investigation concluded that the story was itself a hoax. This story still gets tossed around in some circles even though there is absolutely nothing to back it up.

 

  That's were several locations that claimed they had a hand in the hoax. One man claims he rigged an old cop car with  lights and sound equipment and drove around in the forest to essentially fuck with people. No evidence of this was ever proven. Another man that local people described as "a character" claims that he was driving his truck around with a load of manure in the back and what the men saw that night was… Wait for it…. Burning shit. Also no evidence of this being true was found. As far as these two cases go… We would like to think that if you're approaching this case, that either way you believe, real or fake, you would at least agree that these airmen would be able to tell if it was a car driving around or burning manure In the back of a truck! 

 

Speaking of knowing the difference between things… Some skeptics like to blame this whole incident on a lighthouse. Y day that the strange lights were actually the beacon from a lighthouse on the coast. Now we can concede that on the second night, some of those guys probably mistook the lighthouse beacon for something more. In the Halt recording you can hear someone say that he sees a light, then a short time later it's gone, then a short time later it's back. The intervals actually live up with the revolving time of the lighthouse beacon. So at that moment in time yes it's likely that those men saw the lighthouse beacon but the lighthouse didn't account for the rest of the witnessed phenomena. 

 

As far as the lights in the sky that Halt said they watch in the sky…the skeptics say nothing more than stars. The bright lights off in the distance are often blamed on stars when talking to people looking to disprove the incident. But what of the beams of light coming from the stars? According to many it was atmospheric distortion causing it to merely look like a beam of light coming from a craft. As far as the scientific basis of these arguments, we can't speak to that. While they sound good we don't know. Could be plausible explanations for sure. But again it feels like a high ranking long serving airman  would be able to tell the difference between a star and a strange light.

 

Another explanation often offered for the lights seen the first night is the debris from a Russian satellite falling to earth. This is confirmed to actually have taken place on the night Penniston and Burroughs had their experience. This could definitely explain lights in the sky but how did it explain the craft they saw and the speed and maneuverability of what they reportedly saw.  Granted that's if you believe the men. Also that same night there was some meteoric activity which some point to what the men saw in the sky. This activity was also confirmed to have been actually taking place at the time. 

 

So while these explanations all seem like possibilities to explain perhaps some of what was seen, they don't really explain everything. 

 

Then there's the  cover up talk. Many of the witnesses have conflicting statements. The statements they made the night of the first incident are different from the official statements the government has on file. Burroughs' original statement included a sketch of a craft that very closely resembled what Penniston also sketched and described. Only problem is in his official statement he claimed to see no craft, only the ball of light. Edward Cabansag, who was there with the other gentleman that night, would later claim that his official statement wasn’t actually his. He said that as he was waiting to give his statement officials came to him with an already prepared statement that he was persuaded to sign. He claims he never even read the statement. Then there are the missing reports and paperwork the next morning when Halt had arrived. Why did they take them so quickly and mark them as secret without him being informed as he was usually a part of that sort of thing on the base? Were they trying to hide something or, as some would say, prevent embarrassment. Another odd thing is that Penniston and Burroughs have been fighting to get health records released for years. They have been blocked at every turn. We have a picture of one request sent to then president Barack Obama, asking for the records to please be turned over to the men. Why will they not let these men have these medical records? We could go into some of these things in much more detail but for now we just want to get these things in here without making a 4 hour episode. Maybe a bonus will get into all of these little side quests. 

 

As the years went by both men have stood by their stories. Some say that Pennistons story had become inconsistent throughout the years. And while some things may be a little different from here to there the bulk is consistent according to most. A couple of things about Penniston. Penniston usually refers to what he allegedly encountered as being ‘a craft of unknown origin’ but has specifically and repeatedly denied that it was extraterrestrial. So where was it from? After undergoing regression hypnosis in September 1994 he seems to have become convinced that it was a craft from tens of thousands of years in the Earth’s future. According to what Penniston told the hypnotist, it contained our distant descendants returning to obtain genetic material to keep their ailing species alive: ‘They are time travellers. They are us,’ he said. There's Jon's favorite theory! Another thing is his binary code. He had filled many many pages in his notebook with binary code that he claimed was being sent to him telepathically. Penniston claims to know nothing about binary code. And from what we've read, they were supposedly able to date the pages and writings to the right time frame as people claimed that he wrote this much later in his notebook as a hoax to further his story. The crazy thing is when he finally had the binary decoded it did reveal a message. It is supposedly as follows :

 

EXPLORATION OF HUMANITY unclear 8100

 

52 0942532 N 13131269 W

 

CONTINUOUS FOR PLANETARY ADVANC(E)

 

FOURTH COO(R)DINATE CONTINUOUS unclear

 

BEFORE

 

16 763177 or 26 763177 N 89 117768 W

 

34 800272 N 111 843567 W

 

29 977836 N 31 131649 E

 

14 701505 S 75 167043 W

 

P

 

37 110195 N 25 372281 E

 

EYES OF YOUR EYES

 

ORIGIN 52 0942532 N 13131269 W

 

ORIGIN YEAR 8100

 

So where are these coordinates? 

 They are as follows: Caracol, Belize) (Sedona, Arizona) (Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt) (Nazca Lines in Peru) (Tai Shan Qu, China) (Portara at Temple of Apollo in Naxos, Greece) (Hy Brasil)

 

 Brasil, also known as Hy-Brasil or several other variants, is a phantom island said to lie in the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland. Irish myths described it as cloaked in mist except for one day every seven years, when it becomes visible but still cannot be reached. So what does it all mean? Well if you're up on ancient aliens theory these sites hold some water… If you are not a believer then it doesn't matter that much but still very compelling. The origin year 8100, did that mean this craft was from the future? 

 

To this day there is no shortage of people constantly calling Penniston a liar and trying to poke holes in his stories and pointing out any type of inconsistency they can. That is all to be expected. You can dig deep into this incident and find support for whatever side you believe in. We wanted to present the facts as told by the men who lived it. Whether they were lying, saw something and extrapolated things from there, or truly had an extraterrestrial experience isn't ours to say. None of us were there so we'll never truly know. But given the amount of people that witnessed something that night and who since of these people were out measures for a very compelling tale.