# Ghost Stories 2025

An episode of [TheThinkingAtheist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/412308695), 14 Oct 2025, 1 h 02 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/711/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/67831538/podcast832_ghoststories2025.mp3

It's our annual October tradition. A nice distraction, and some spooky fun. Enjoy! Watch the Brown Mansion Ghost Hunt Video Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/thethinkingatheist--3270347/support.

## Transcript

[0:06] Speaker 1: Stephen had long been an avid outdoorsman, hiking, climbing, sleeping
[1:02] Speaker 1: in tents, or even under the stars. Family and friends
[1:07] Speaker 1: had seen him impulsively fill his backpack and had out
[1:11] Speaker 1: for a several day journey through all kinds of terrain
[1:15] Speaker 1: and in all kinds of weather. But it was on
[1:20] Speaker 1: a cold November evening that even Stephen realized he needed
[1:25] Speaker 1: to get himself to shelter. Storm clouds had pressed in,
[1:29] Speaker 1: blocking out the sun. The day was drawing to a close,
[1:34] Speaker 1: and the angry winds and rains began to batter Stephen
[1:38] Speaker 1: with a ferocity that shocked even an experienced outdoorsmen like him.
[1:44] Speaker 1: With increasing concerns, Stephen could not see the trail that
[1:48] Speaker 1: he had followed deep into those woods, but he knew
[1:51] Speaker 1: he had to keep moving, so, with his clothing soaked,
[1:55] Speaker 1: his pack heavy with water, his head barely covered by
[1:59] Speaker 1: a plan he could, he simply started walking For almost
[2:07] Speaker 1: an hour. His pace was as deliberate as the torrent
[2:11] Speaker 1: around him, But the exhausted and weather beaten man quickly
[2:16] Speaker 1: became a lucky man. As a small cabin appeared in
[2:20] Speaker 1: the distance, the target in sight, Stephen pushed himself hundreds
[2:25] Speaker 1: of yards through the wet grass, mud, and brush, until
[2:30] Speaker 1: he was standing under the pouring rain at that cabin door.
[2:35] Speaker 1: He knocked feverishly, Hello, is anyone here? I'm a hiker
[2:40] Speaker 1: stranded in the weather. Can you give me shelter? Please?
[2:44] Speaker 2: Hello?
[2:45] Speaker 1: Hello, Yet no one answered. Desperate to get dry and
[2:51] Speaker 1: warm and away from the angry skies, Stephen reached down
[2:55] Speaker 1: and he turned the door latch with his shaking fingers,
[3:00] Speaker 1: and the door opened. Stephen slowly stepped inside. Hello, he
[3:08] Speaker 1: said again. There was no sound in that dark, wooden house.
[3:13] Speaker 1: He crept in further, eyes looking in every direction. Hello. Hello. Strangely,
[3:22] Speaker 1: when he closed the door behind him, the rain suddenly stopped.
[3:28] Speaker 1: Within seconds, it became obvious the house was empty. No
[3:31] Speaker 1: one was there.
[3:33] Speaker 3: He was both.
[3:34] Speaker 1: Relieved and uncomfortable. After all, he had just intruded into
[3:39] Speaker 1: someone else's private residence, and it was obviously someone's home.
[3:45] Speaker 1: The main room had chairs, a couch, a fireplace, and
[3:50] Speaker 1: in the middle of the main room there was a
[3:52] Speaker 1: single small bed. Stephen could see these things so only
[3:58] Speaker 1: because he had a flashlight. That there was no power
[4:01] Speaker 1: to this cabin, and then Stephen's narrow beam revealed something else.
[4:07] Speaker 1: All around him. On every wall in that center room
[4:11] Speaker 1: were elaborate paintings, dramatic paintings, disturbing paintings. To his left
[4:19] Speaker 1: was the portrait of an old farmer, his skin aged,
[4:23] Speaker 1: his eyes narrow, his clothing retaining the dirts from the fields.
[4:28] Speaker 1: His left hand held a pitchfork, his rights held a shovel.
[4:34] Speaker 1: For reasons that Stephen couldn't decipher, the painter had given
[4:38] Speaker 1: this farmer a thin, creepy smile. Next to the farmer
[4:45] Speaker 1: was the depiction of a small child, a little girl.
[4:49] Speaker 1: She had a rounded face with wide expression, jet black
[4:53] Speaker 1: hair that stopped at the neck, pale, smooth skin without
[4:57] Speaker 1: any blemishes, And again there was a similar grin, but
[5:02] Speaker 1: this one was even more disturbing. The girl's thin lips
[5:06] Speaker 1: were drawn well back, as if she had been slipped
[5:09] Speaker 1: from ear to ear. On Stephen's right was the painting
[5:14] Speaker 1: of two silhouettes standing side by side. The figures wore
[5:19] Speaker 1: cloaks the color of charcoal, with hoods drawn up over
[5:24] Speaker 1: their heads, the faces hidden in shadow. These painted figures
[5:29] Speaker 1: were obviously large men with solid frames and broad shoulders.
[5:35] Speaker 1: Both looked like those old depictions of the town executioner.
[5:40] Speaker 1: The figure on the right was rigid with arms down.
[5:44] Speaker 1: The figure on the left was pointing. Finally, Stephen looked
[5:51] Speaker 1: straight ahead and stared at that painting on the wall
[5:55] Speaker 1: and this one. There was no single person but five,
[6:00] Speaker 1: their father and three children, dressed in coats and long
[6:04] Speaker 1: pants and gloves. Except for the adult woman. She wore
[6:09] Speaker 1: a long skirt which touched the grass. Strangely, all five
[6:14] Speaker 1: had bare feet. The father held a piece of broken
[6:18] Speaker 1: glass in one hand. The mother pointed at the ground.
[6:23] Speaker 1: The narrow eyed children were baring their teeth like circling hyenas.
[6:30] Speaker 1: What kind of twisted gallery had Stephen walked into. The
[6:36] Speaker 1: question certainly gave him pause. But this little shack was
[6:41] Speaker 1: also shelter. It was dry and warm and empty, and
[6:46] Speaker 1: the single bed called out to his exhausted body. Stephen
[6:51] Speaker 1: took a moment and allowed his breathing to slow. He
[6:56] Speaker 1: removed his soaked clothing, laid the flashlight on the table
[7:01] Speaker 1: next to the pillow. He clicked its light off, and
[7:05] Speaker 1: then he closed his eyes. He closed his eyes when
[7:11] Speaker 1: they should have remained open, because had Stephen allowed himself
[7:16] Speaker 1: just one more moment to recover from his long trek
[7:21] Speaker 1: through the stormy woods. If he had cleared his mind
[7:24] Speaker 1: and sharpened his wits, if he had taken just one
[7:29] Speaker 1: step closer to those walls and used his flashlight to
[7:34] Speaker 1: better examine those disturbing paintings, he would have realized that
[7:41] Speaker 1: they weren't paintings.
[7:45] Speaker 3: They were.
[7:47] Speaker 4: Windows.
[8:11] Speaker 5: February twenty eleven, Auburn, Pennsylvania. The Bretzius family had lived
[8:17] Speaker 5: in a quaint farmhouse surrounded by the rolling hills of
[8:21] Speaker 5: Schuylkill County for years when they decided it was time
[8:25] Speaker 5: to properly insulate the walls. Imagine their surprise when they
[8:30] Speaker 5: stripped away the outer walls to discover that a previous
[8:33] Speaker 5: owner had been one step ahead of them. Yet the
[8:37] Speaker 5: homeowners from so many decades ago hadn't lined the walls
[8:41] Speaker 5: with fiberglass or even asbestos. Stuffed between the studs were animals,
[8:49] Speaker 5: dead animals wrapped in old newspapers. The Bretzius family also
[8:56] Speaker 5: discovered other strange artifacts and even a variety of cooking spices.
[9:01] Speaker 5: Traces of these things had certainly not been found during
[9:05] Speaker 5: the home inspection when the family first moved in. Somehow,
[9:10] Speaker 5: for long decades, no one had detected those wrapped and
[9:14] Speaker 5: long mortified carcasses of chickens, rats, dogs, and cats. What
[9:24] Speaker 5: the Britziest family had discovered ten years ago was something
[9:29] Speaker 5: obviously well known to those who lived in that house
[9:32] Speaker 5: way back in the nineteen forties. They weren't just looking
[9:36] Speaker 5: at dead creatures and exotic spices. They were looking at
[9:41] Speaker 5: Dutch witchcraft. Dutch folk magic stems from the beliefs of
[9:48] Speaker 5: early German immigrants who relocated to the Pennsylvania region in
[9:52] Speaker 5: the seventeen hundreds, Broucherreye magic or powaw magic for healing
[9:58] Speaker 5: and protection, and xiai magic for curses and revenge. All
[10:04] Speaker 5: of the evidence revealed that the Bretzius home had once
[10:07] Speaker 5: been used for braucherai for the goal of conjuring good
[10:13] Speaker 5: for restoration and safety. Braucherai was and remains a form
[10:20] Speaker 5: of Christian folk religion and was long embedded into major
[10:23] Speaker 5: population centers until as late as the nineteen twenties. Unlike
[10:29] Speaker 5: the term connected to Native American traditions, the German term
[10:33] Speaker 5: powaw borrows from earlier languages like the Proto Algonquin, with
[10:39] Speaker 5: pahwewa meaning he who dreams. Indeed, the priests of old
[10:46] Speaker 5: were said to have dreams or visions, tapping into the
[10:49] Speaker 5: spirit realm and serving as spirit physicians. This was a
[10:55] Speaker 5: kind of light magic which stood in contrast to the
[10:58] Speaker 5: dark magic of the And if you hear the root
[11:03] Speaker 5: word hex in that term, you are correct in making
[11:07] Speaker 5: that connection. Did those early residents of that Pennsylvania house
[11:13] Speaker 5: truly practice boucher eye? Did they incorporate the common elements
[11:18] Speaker 5: known to that culture, ranging as far as the Bible,
[11:21] Speaker 5: books of Egyptian secrets and various spell books filled with incantations.
[11:28] Speaker 5: At the very least, we can confirm their belief in
[11:31] Speaker 5: ritual animal sacrifice for protections against the forces of darkness.
[11:37] Speaker 5: For those who had come before had wrapped so many
[11:40] Speaker 5: carcasses into paper and strategically placed them behind the plaster
[11:45] Speaker 5: and slats, And since the nineteen forties, anyone and everyone
[11:50] Speaker 5: who had lived in that house unsuspectingly walked and sat
[11:55] Speaker 5: and slept mere feet from little dead bodies, creatures mortified
[12:01] Speaker 5: and mummified, and blockading against any devils outside. The specimens
[12:08] Speaker 5: were collected by the Bretziis family and sent to experts
[12:11] Speaker 5: for study. Interestingly, their insurance company declined to pay for
[12:16] Speaker 5: any restoration, leaving the family, not only with stripped away walls,
[12:21] Speaker 5: but with a twenty thousand dollars cost to repair them.
[12:26] Speaker 5: In the ten years since those animals were discovered and removed,
[12:30] Speaker 5: there have been no accounts of calamity befalling anyone living
[12:34] Speaker 5: in that house. No one has been terribly harmed, no
[12:38] Speaker 5: one has fallen gravely ill, no one has died. Life
[12:44] Speaker 5: seems to be continuing just as it had for the
[12:48] Speaker 5: previous seventy five years. Perhaps the magic lives on even
[12:55] Speaker 5: when the guardians are gone.
[13:17] Speaker 1: For so many of us, it is the most wonderful
[13:20] Speaker 1: time of the year, not Christmas. I think Christmas is
[13:24] Speaker 1: kind of lame. I mean, it's okay, but no, no.
[13:27] Speaker 1: If you want personality, you want fun, you want danger,
[13:31] Speaker 1: you want drama, you want theatrics, you need the Halloween holiday,
[13:36] Speaker 1: and of course this is the annual tradition on this
[13:39] Speaker 1: broadcast our Ghost Stories show. I have really been getting
[13:44] Speaker 1: into the spirit. And yes there's video of my yard
[13:48] Speaker 1: display I do want every single year. Natalie just rolls
[13:52] Speaker 1: her eyes. I think she secretly enjoys it, and just
[13:56] Speaker 1: she likes to look like it's a pain in the ass.
[14:02] Speaker 1: Oh God, really, why are you talking about next year's
[14:05] Speaker 1: Halloween decoration seth It's November, and I try to assure
[14:10] Speaker 1: her Halloween is not a date, it is a way
[14:13] Speaker 1: of life. So it was in December January, February. I'm like, well,
[14:18] Speaker 1: what if we were to do this? Wait a minute,
[14:21] Speaker 1: I've got props for that. What if I was to
[14:23] Speaker 1: redesign and repaint and refigure and had this and like that,
[14:26] Speaker 1: and what if we were to do this theme? What
[14:27] Speaker 1: do you think Connie? And she just she is a patient,
[14:32] Speaker 1: patient woman. In the past, of course, I've done the
[14:35] Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz. We had Dorothy's house and the yellow
[14:39] Speaker 1: brick road and a big ten foot twisting tornado on
[14:42] Speaker 1: a motor I've had skeletons in a rowboat in my
[14:46] Speaker 1: front yard and they were rowing the river sticks and
[14:48] Speaker 1: the river was a lit river. I made it out
[14:50] Speaker 1: of just purple motion lights. She can buy him super
[14:54] Speaker 1: cheap at Spirit Halloween. I had him in the attic
[14:57] Speaker 1: and you just lay them all out, put a boat on.
[14:59] Speaker 1: It looks like like a river. One year I did
[15:03] Speaker 1: a version of that. Have you seen that Halloween meme?
[15:06] Speaker 1: It was Jason Vorhees, Freddie Krueger, and Michael Myers and
[15:09] Speaker 1: they were sitting at a table, just kind of chilling
[15:12] Speaker 1: at this table in the yard, and I had a
[15:15] Speaker 1: banner made and the banner said the teenagers deserved to
[15:19] Speaker 1: change our minds.
[15:21] Speaker 3: That was a big hit.
[15:23] Speaker 1: And so ever since, my neighbors know me as the
[15:27] Speaker 1: Halloween guy, and this is the Halloween house. I feel
[15:30] Speaker 1: like we've got a standard I have to meet every
[15:33] Speaker 1: single year. I was out mowing the lawn. One of
[15:36] Speaker 1: my neighbors drove by, backed up, rolled down her window
[15:39] Speaker 1: and said, Hey, what are you going to do for
[15:41] Speaker 1: Halloween this year? It's a thing. So now I have
[15:44] Speaker 1: a sense of responsibility, you see, And this year is
[15:49] Speaker 1: a skeleton rock band, very much an eighties band. I thought,
[15:53] Speaker 1: hair band is what we want to do this year. Now,
[15:56] Speaker 1: I just had these cheap skeletons in the attic that
[16:00] Speaker 1: I've had forever. They aren't really meant to articulate like
[16:05] Speaker 1: a band would. But a hero in our audience, and
[16:11] Speaker 1: an engineer named Jason Stubbs offered his services. He knew
[16:15] Speaker 1: I had these little motors, these tiny little motors, and
[16:18] Speaker 1: he says, oh, I know how to rig it. I
[16:19] Speaker 1: know how to make it so that your skeletons will
[16:22] Speaker 1: play the guitars. And so as I was doing my
[16:26] Speaker 1: Texas speaking tour, he lived in Dallas, and I sort
[16:29] Speaker 1: of like, hey, let's meet, and I drop it so surreal.
[16:33] Speaker 1: We meet at a coffee shop. I bring a box
[16:36] Speaker 1: of skeleton arms. He's like, thank you. I'm sure anybody
[16:44] Speaker 1: watching it and be like, what the hell's going on
[16:47] Speaker 1: over there? He says, Oh, all right, I'll see you
[16:50] Speaker 1: when your Texas tour is done, when you're driving back
[16:53] Speaker 1: up through the state, we'll meet again and I will
[16:56] Speaker 1: have fully motorized and articulated guitar playing skeleton in arms
[17:00] Speaker 1: for you. And that's exactly what happened. So Jason Stubbs
[17:05] Speaker 1: is responsible for the fact that my band is actually
[17:08] Speaker 1: playing instruments. I've got the drummer up on a big
[17:11] Speaker 1: sort of pedestal, using like a child's drum set. It
[17:15] Speaker 1: was so cheap, but I wanted something that I could ruin,
[17:19] Speaker 1: just leave it out in the yard. And then there's
[17:22] Speaker 1: a disco ball that's not hung from a big post
[17:26] Speaker 1: but from the arm of a ten foot skeleton. So
[17:29] Speaker 1: this disco ball is going to blow light and color
[17:32] Speaker 1: all over everything, and the children will have a dance
[17:35] Speaker 1: floor so that on Halloween they can come by and
[17:38] Speaker 1: they can boogie with their parents, and we'll play all
[17:40] Speaker 1: the best Halloween songs, thriller and all that stuff. I
[17:44] Speaker 1: cannot wait. I love the month of Halloween, and I
[17:50] Speaker 1: love ghost stories. I also have a thing for ghost poems,
[17:56] Speaker 1: and I don't know why. I tend to include at
[17:59] Speaker 1: least one, if not three, during every broadcast. And I'm
[18:03] Speaker 1: going to read one for you here. It was written
[18:06] Speaker 1: by Thomas Hood back in the early eighteen hundreds. It's
[18:09] Speaker 1: called Mary's Ghost, a pathetic ballad. It says twas in
[18:17] Speaker 1: the middle of the night to sleep, young William tried,
[18:20] Speaker 1: when Mary's Ghost came stealing in and stood at his bedside.
[18:25] Speaker 1: Oh William, dear, Oh William, dear, My rest eternal ceases
[18:30] Speaker 1: a last, my everlasting piece is broken into pieces. I
[18:36] Speaker 1: thought the last of all my cares would end with
[18:38] Speaker 1: my last minute. But though I went to my long home,
[18:42] Speaker 1: I didn't stay long in it. The body snatchers they
[18:47] Speaker 1: have come and made a snatch at me. It's very hard.
[18:50] Speaker 1: Them kind of men won't let a body be You
[18:54] Speaker 1: thought that I was buried deep quite decent like and cherry,
[18:59] Speaker 1: but from her grave and mary bone, they've come and
[19:02] Speaker 1: boned your Mary. So I don't mean to be base.
[19:09] Speaker 1: I don't think boned. Meant this in the eighteen hundreds,
[19:14] Speaker 1: but they have come, so they boned. You're married in
[19:17] Speaker 1: the halloween sense in this bones never mind. The arm
[19:20] Speaker 1: that used to take your arm is took to doctor Weiss,
[19:24] Speaker 1: and both my legs are gone. To walk the hospital
[19:28] Speaker 1: led Geiss. I vowed that you should have my hand,
[19:31] Speaker 1: but fate gives us denial. You'll find it there at
[19:35] Speaker 1: doctor Bell's, in spirits and a vial. As for my feet,
[19:40] Speaker 1: the little feet you used to call so pretty, there's
[19:44] Speaker 1: one I know in Bedford Row, the others in the city.
[19:49] Speaker 1: I can't tell where my head is gone, but doctor
[19:52] Speaker 1: kape Can. As for my trunk, it's all packed up
[19:56] Speaker 1: to go by Pickford's van. I wish you'd go to
[20:00] Speaker 1: mister p and save me such a ride. I don't
[20:03] Speaker 1: half like the outside place they took for my inside
[20:08] Speaker 1: the cock it crows. I must be gone, my William,
[20:11] Speaker 1: we must part, but I'll be yours in death, although
[20:16] Speaker 1: Sir Astley has my heart. Don't go weep upon my
[20:21] Speaker 1: grave and think that there I be they haven't left
[20:26] Speaker 1: an atom there of my anatomy Mary's Ghost Apathetic Vallad
[20:34] Speaker 1: by Thomas Hood.
[20:36] Speaker 3: That's a fun.
[20:36] Speaker 1: One short break and much more Halloween fun to be
[20:42] Speaker 1: had in just a second.
[20:52] Speaker 3: You're listening to cohost Stories twenty twenty.
[20:56] Speaker 6: Five Half Hanged Mary, a poem by Margaret Atwood, seven pm.
[21:38] Speaker 6: Rumor was loose in the air, hunting for some mech
[21:43] Speaker 6: to land on. I was milking the cow. The barn
[21:48] Speaker 6: door opened to the sunset. I didn't feel the aimed
[21:52] Speaker 6: word hit and go in like a soft bullet. I
[21:56] Speaker 6: didn't feel the smashed flesh closing over it like water
[22:00] Speaker 6: over a thrown stone. I was hanged for living alone,
[22:06] Speaker 6: or having blue eyes and a sunburned skin, tattered skirts,
[22:11] Speaker 6: few buttons, a weedy farm in my own name, and
[22:16] Speaker 6: a sure fire cure for warts, oh yes, and breasts,
[22:22] Speaker 6: and a sweet pear hidden in my body. Whenever there's
[22:26] Speaker 6: talk of demons, these come in handy.
[22:37] Speaker 7: Nine pm.
[22:39] Speaker 6: The bonnets came to stare the dark skirts. Also, the
[22:44] Speaker 6: upturned faces in between, mouths closed so tight they're lipless.
[22:52] Speaker 6: I can see down into their eye holes and nostrils.
[22:56] Speaker 6: I can see their fear you or my friends.
[23:01] Speaker 7: You too.
[23:02] Speaker 6: I cured your baby, missus, and flushed yours out of you,
[23:07] Speaker 6: non wife, to save your life.
[23:11] Speaker 7: Help me down.
[23:13] Speaker 6: You don't dare, I might rub off on you like
[23:19] Speaker 6: soot or gossip, birds of a feather burned together. Though
[23:24] Speaker 6: as a rule, ravens are singular. In a gathering like
[23:29] Speaker 6: this one, the safe place is the background, pretending you
[23:34] Speaker 6: can't dance the safe dance. Pointing a finger, I understand
[23:41] Speaker 6: you can't spare anything. I had a piece of bread,
[23:47] Speaker 6: a shawl against the cold, A good word. Lord knows
[23:51] Speaker 6: there isn't much to go around. You need it all.
[23:59] Speaker 6: Twelve midnight. My throat is taut against the rope, choking
[24:06] Speaker 6: off words and air. I'm reduced to nootted muscle. Blood
[24:12] Speaker 6: bulges in my skull, my clenched teeth hold it in.
[24:16] Speaker 6: I bite down on despair. Death sits on my shoulder
[24:22] Speaker 6: like a crow, waiting for my squeezed beat of a
[24:27] Speaker 6: heart to burst so he can eat my eyes. Or
[24:31] Speaker 6: like a judge muttering about sluts and punishment and licking
[24:35] Speaker 6: his lips, or the crowd their own evil turned inside
[24:40] Speaker 6: out like a glove and me wearing.
[24:42] Speaker 8: It, or like a dark angel, whispering to me to
[24:47] Speaker 8: be easy on myself, to breathe out. Finally, trust me
[24:53] Speaker 8: is as caressing me? Why suffer.
[24:59] Speaker 6: A temptation to sink down into these definitions, to become
[25:04] Speaker 6: a martyr in reverse or food or trash, To give
[25:10] Speaker 6: up my own words for myself, my own refusals, to
[25:15] Speaker 6: give up knowing, to give up pain, to let go.
[25:25] Speaker 6: Three am. Wind seethes in the leaves around me. The
[25:32] Speaker 6: tree exudes night birds. Night birds yell inside my ears
[25:40] Speaker 6: like stabbed hearts. My heart stutters in my fluttering cloth body.
[25:46] Speaker 6: I dangle with strength going out of me. The wind
[25:51] Speaker 6: seethes in my body, tattering the words.
[25:54] Speaker 9: I clench.
[25:55] Speaker 6: My fists hold no talisman or silver disk. My lungs
[26:02] Speaker 6: flail as if drowning. I call on you as witness.
[26:06] Speaker 2: I did no crime.
[26:08] Speaker 6: I was born, I have born, I bear, I will
[26:12] Speaker 6: be born.
[26:13] Speaker 10: This is a crime. I will not acknowledge. Leaves and
[26:18] Speaker 10: wind hold onto me. I will not give it.
[26:48] Speaker 1: Margaret at Wood, Half Hanged Mary is such a profound
[26:53] Speaker 1: and heartbreaking commentary on the witch hunts of old, with
[26:57] Speaker 1: chilling anchos into the cult of today. In so many ways.
[27:02] Speaker 1: The witch hunts are not over. I hesitated including such
[27:07] Speaker 1: a somber story in the broadcast today. Ghost stories is
[27:12] Speaker 1: usually just an innocent series of various legends designed to entertain,
[27:18] Speaker 1: but Atwood's writings have been so profound and as human
[27:23] Speaker 1: history and its deadly witch hunts are a real world
[27:27] Speaker 1: terror that melts the fears of the supernatural into the
[27:31] Speaker 1: consequences of the real And because it's just powerful, I
[27:35] Speaker 1: wanted you to hear it on the broadcast today. Special
[27:39] Speaker 1: thanks out to Sarah Partridge for bringing that reading to life.
[27:45] Speaker 1: Also thanks to Jeffrey Headquist for his narration on magic
[27:50] Speaker 1: in the Walls, which is a true story. That's an
[27:53] Speaker 1: account which was in the headlines ten years ago, with
[27:57] Speaker 1: all the animals that were hidden in the walls of
[28:00] Speaker 1: that house. If you are ever driving the wooded areas
[28:18] Speaker 1: in the very northern parts of Maine, you will find
[28:21] Speaker 1: a stretch of old growth forest that the locals call
[28:26] Speaker 1: Blackwood Hollow. Outsiders think the name comes from the dark
[28:30] Speaker 1: pine trees, but those who grew up in that region
[28:34] Speaker 1: know better. They know it's because of the bell. This
[28:40] Speaker 1: story goes back to eighteen forty seven when settlers went
[28:44] Speaker 1: into the trees with their axes and chopped down the
[28:47] Speaker 1: timber to build a small church in the clearing. They
[28:50] Speaker 1: didn't think twice about stripping that entire region from tall,
[28:55] Speaker 1: branchy trees to splinters and dust. They sung, and they
[29:00] Speaker 1: they celebrated, saying that God had given them dominion over
[29:04] Speaker 1: the woods. The natural belonged to the super natural, and
[29:08] Speaker 1: with that reasoning, they would take dead trees to construct
[29:12] Speaker 1: a house for the living God. Archives still have records
[29:18] Speaker 1: listing the name of that place, Saint Luke's of the Pines,
[29:22] Speaker 1: although no one alive has ever seen that building standing.
[29:27] Speaker 1: The church did not last more than a decade. The
[29:30] Speaker 1: forests remained steeped in mystery, especially knowing the haunted history
[29:36] Speaker 1: of Blackwood Hollow, the story of one Sunday morning when
[29:40] Speaker 1: the residents of that town left their homes for Sunday Church.
[29:44] Speaker 1: They entered the building for service, and they simply vanished.
[29:51] Speaker 1: Sounds of the music in the sermon could be heard
[29:53] Speaker 1: from without, but no one emerged after that day. Not
[29:58] Speaker 1: one person dared want through the entrance and into the church,
[30:03] Speaker 1: and eventually the building would rot away, stone by stone,
[30:07] Speaker 1: beam by beam, until nothing remained except for a few
[30:12] Speaker 1: pieces of wood that somehow survived. Standing up like a
[30:16] Speaker 1: scaffold and hanging from the middle of a skeletal beam
[30:21] Speaker 1: was the church bell. The few who have dared to
[30:24] Speaker 1: enter that region say the bell still hangs there, suspended
[30:29] Speaker 1: on that weathered beam, one that should have collapsed long ago.
[30:34] Speaker 1: There is no rope or striker inside that bell, And
[30:38] Speaker 1: yet people say they have heard the bell toll, even
[30:42] Speaker 1: on windless nights. The sound is not right. It's muffled,
[30:50] Speaker 1: like iron striking iron underwater. If you stay in that
[30:55] Speaker 1: place long enough, you might even hear language words embedded
[30:59] Speaker 1: within the tolling sound. You might hear a name, You
[31:06] Speaker 1: might even hear your own names. Anyone entering that place
[31:17] Speaker 1: is warned. If you hear a bell, do not move.
[31:21] Speaker 1: If you hear your name in the toll of the bell,
[31:24] Speaker 1: do not reply. And if you are ever tempted to,
[31:28] Speaker 1: for any reason, take an ax and clear the timbers
[31:32] Speaker 1: to build a house, a shop, or another church. Stop, immediately,
[31:38] Speaker 1: turn around, run away, and never go to that place again.
[31:44] Speaker 1: Yet so many are so curious or simply skeptical about
[31:49] Speaker 1: any danger they do not listen, and many pay a
[31:53] Speaker 1: terrible price. There was a hiker found in nineteen sixty two,
[31:59] Speaker 1: barefoot and shivering at the edge of the woods, whispering
[32:03] Speaker 1: the same phrase over and over. I heard my name
[32:08] Speaker 1: in the sound of the bell. I heard my name
[32:11] Speaker 1: in the sound of the bell. In nineteen eighty seven,
[32:15] Speaker 1: two teenagers disappeared after telling their friends they were going
[32:19] Speaker 1: to go and find the old church. Their car was recovered,
[32:24] Speaker 1: doors still open, headlights on, but no trace of the
[32:28] Speaker 1: boys could be found. They remain missing to this day.
[32:33] Speaker 1: Even now, hunters refuse to enter Blackwood Hollow after dark,
[32:38] Speaker 1: and some won't go in at all. They say they've
[32:42] Speaker 1: heard the bell, and it's not just ringing, it is speaking.
[32:50] Speaker 1: Perhaps it is sounding the condemnation of a congregation, those
[32:55] Speaker 1: so presumptuous as to steal from nature so that they
[32:59] Speaker 1: might serve themselves, even as they proclaimed that they were
[33:03] Speaker 1: serving God. Sixty three people sat within the wooden structure,
[33:10] Speaker 1: sat on wooden pews, and rang that iron bell. And
[33:15] Speaker 1: more than one hundred and fifty years later, that bell
[33:20] Speaker 1: hangs suspended under those rickety beams, with no clapper inside,
[33:25] Speaker 1: and yet singing its terrible sound throughout the forest and
[33:32] Speaker 1: into the nightmares of anyone and everyone. Who has taken
[33:36] Speaker 1: for themselves what belongs to the earth. The tolling bell
[33:42] Speaker 1: remains its own kind of life in those woods. You
[33:46] Speaker 1: can hear it in the rustling of the trees. You
[33:49] Speaker 1: can hear it in the thunder with the storms. You
[33:52] Speaker 1: can hear it in the quiet of the day and
[33:54] Speaker 1: the dead silence of night. Beware the bell of black
[33:59] Speaker 1: Wood would hollow, And pray with all of your strength
[34:04] Speaker 1: that it never tolls for you.
[34:08] Speaker 9: M hmmm, sess like a.
[34:33] Speaker 2: Yes, Hello, Hello again?
[35:07] Speaker 7: What do you want?
[35:10] Speaker 3: I want to talk?
[35:12] Speaker 7: You keep calling? Who are you? I'm a friend, You're
[35:17] Speaker 7: not a friend. What's your name? What do you want?
[35:22] Speaker 3: Oh? So many names? So many names?
[35:27] Speaker 7: What names.
[35:30] Speaker 3: You know?
[35:31] Speaker 7: No, I don't know.
[35:35] Speaker 3: Here is a weeper whose name is Death, and with
[35:39] Speaker 3: his single king he leaps the bearded green out of
[35:43] Speaker 3: breath and the flowers that grow in between.
[35:50] Speaker 7: You're the reaper, the grim reaper.
[35:56] Speaker 3: So many names you know?
[35:59] Speaker 7: I don't believe you. You're just a crank. You gets
[36:02] Speaker 7: off on harassing total strangers. And I don't have to
[36:05] Speaker 7: take this here.
[36:07] Speaker 3: Do you keep answering the phone?
[36:10] Speaker 7: The number is different every time.
[36:13] Speaker 3: And when you try increase.
[36:15] Speaker 7: It, the number doesn't exist.
[36:21] Speaker 3: Would you like to tist me? Ask me a question?
[36:27] Speaker 3: Something I should not know, something you keep very close.
[36:33] Speaker 7: Something you want to play games?
[36:39] Speaker 3: Just because something is a game, and it doesn't mean
[36:42] Speaker 3: it isn't true. Just me.
[36:46] Speaker 7: Fine. What was the name of my first dog?
[36:50] Speaker 3: Too easy? But I know you miss little Lucy?
[36:57] Speaker 7: What do I keep in the shoe box at the
[36:59] Speaker 7: top of my closet.
[37:02] Speaker 3: Letters from your grandmother? She died in November.
[37:07] Speaker 7: I have a birthmark which I never show anyone.
[37:10] Speaker 3: Answers, Yes, your left shoulder.
[37:16] Speaker 11: What scares me will is deep water, black girds, open
[37:24] Speaker 11: graves with a widow spider.
[37:28] Speaker 3: That corner of your attic. Yes, do you know when
[37:35] Speaker 3: those things have in common? What in each of them?
[37:42] Speaker 3: There is darkness? Are you afraid of the dark?
[37:51] Speaker 7: I'm afraid of you.
[37:54] Speaker 3: Why I be afraid?
[38:00] Speaker 7: Where are you?
[38:02] Speaker 3: I'm looking into your windows, I'm in the closet, tim
[38:06] Speaker 3: in your dreams. I am the little bumps under your flesh,
[38:11] Speaker 3: the whispers in your ears. You're forever friend.
[38:18] Speaker 7: You're not my friend. I am You're not my friend.
[38:23] Speaker 9: I am.
[38:25] Speaker 3: You just don't know it yet.
[38:30] Speaker 7: I don't understand.
[38:33] Speaker 3: You understand that I am real? Yes, do you understand
[38:41] Speaker 3: that I am always there?
[38:45] Speaker 7: Yes?
[38:46] Speaker 3: You understand that you can't escape?
[38:52] Speaker 7: Yes, you escapes?
[38:57] Speaker 2: Yes.
[39:00] Speaker 3: So take your hand and place it over your heart.
[39:05] Speaker 3: What think of it as another game that happens to
[39:11] Speaker 3: be true? Put your hand over your heart?
[39:17] Speaker 2: Okay, what do you feel.
[39:21] Speaker 7: It's beating?
[39:24] Speaker 3: Why is it beating?
[39:27] Speaker 7: I don't know, it's just beating. It's a heart, That's
[39:30] Speaker 7: what it does.
[39:32] Speaker 3: And what happens when the beating stops?
[39:38] Speaker 7: I die?
[39:41] Speaker 2: You die?
[39:45] Speaker 7: You're going to kill me.
[39:47] Speaker 3: I am not and I will not on that day.
[39:52] Speaker 3: The one coming for you is time.
[39:58] Speaker 7: Time.
[40:00] Speaker 3: Tell me again, what do you feel.
[40:05] Speaker 7: My heart is beating?
[40:07] Speaker 3: Yes? And you are alive.
[40:13] Speaker 7: I'm alive.
[40:15] Speaker 3: For now, for now, and now you understand? A final
[40:29] Speaker 3: question from a friend. Now that you know that time
[40:35] Speaker 3: is coming and I am waiting, what are you going
[40:41] Speaker 3: to do about it?
[40:46] Speaker 7: Hello? Hello?
[40:53] Speaker 2: Hello, m.
[41:08] Speaker 1: I don't know. Is that a bit too on the
[41:10] Speaker 1: nose for you?
[41:11] Speaker 3: You know?
[41:12] Speaker 1: Carpeid dim sees the moments because the moments are fleeting.
[41:17] Speaker 1: Death may not be the enemy, but death awaits us
[41:21] Speaker 1: all and maybe the real enemy or adversary. Anyways, time
[41:27] Speaker 1: I like it, and I kind of like the message.
[41:30] Speaker 1: Of it, and I hope you did as well. I
[41:33] Speaker 1: may have mentioned a few months ago that I was
[41:36] Speaker 1: invited to participate in a paranormal investigation. Oh, this was
[41:41] Speaker 1: something that I had always wanted to do.
[41:44] Speaker 3: Now.
[41:45] Speaker 1: I love ghost stories, but again I am a skeptic.
[41:48] Speaker 1: I myself have never seen a ghost, so I see
[41:51] Speaker 1: it as enjoyable fiction, a chance to escape, good storytelling.
[41:56] Speaker 1: That's what a ghost story is for me. But I
[41:59] Speaker 1: think also if we are creatures of the evidence, we
[42:02] Speaker 1: can't close our minds completely. We have to go in
[42:05] Speaker 1: and say where is the evidence? And so a friend
[42:10] Speaker 1: named Brandon Brisau does a lot of these. He travels
[42:13] Speaker 1: all around the region and he goes into supposedly haunted
[42:17] Speaker 1: places with his cameras, etc. And this time Brandon and
[42:22] Speaker 1: I were allowed to tag along with the Tulsa, Oklahoma
[42:26] Speaker 1: Paranormal Studies Group or TOPS is how they are known,
[42:30] Speaker 1: and they have a website Tulsa Paranormal dot Com. I
[42:34] Speaker 1: must say these were tremendously kind and gracious people. They
[42:38] Speaker 1: could have said, no, you're not allowed to come. We
[42:41] Speaker 1: know you are non believers in the supernatural and you're
[42:46] Speaker 1: going to come in and either kill the buzz or
[42:48] Speaker 1: you're going to make fun of us, and we guarantee
[42:51] Speaker 1: that it's absolutely not. Why we were there. We wanted
[42:54] Speaker 1: to investigate, and I've always been that guy, you know.
[42:58] Speaker 1: I'll spend the night in the house, I'll go to
[43:01] Speaker 1: the cemetery with a sleeping bag. I'll investigate the haunted mansion.
[43:06] Speaker 1: And the mansion in question this time was the Brown
[43:10] Speaker 1: Mansion in Coffeeville, Kansas, which was built well over one
[43:14] Speaker 1: hundred years ago by a wealthy guy who experienced a
[43:19] Speaker 1: tremendous amount of tragedy and loss of life in his
[43:22] Speaker 1: own family, and as such, it is said that the
[43:26] Speaker 1: mansion is haunted. So Brandon and I arrived there before
[43:30] Speaker 1: anybody else. We were outside in the parking lot. It's
[43:33] Speaker 1: a tourist attraction. You can actually go and tour the
[43:35] Speaker 1: place for its history. It's the kind of place that
[43:38] Speaker 1: has a gift shop downstairs. But also the haunted history
[43:43] Speaker 1: is an attraction for a great many people. So we
[43:46] Speaker 1: were outside did some stand up interviews. I had a
[43:49] Speaker 1: three camera rig, so I shot a bunch of exteriors
[43:52] Speaker 1: and then we went inside and room by room we
[43:57] Speaker 1: looked for evidence of spirits, ghosts, phantoms, something other worldly.
[44:04] Speaker 1: And as the paranormal group was gearing up, I got
[44:09] Speaker 1: to be careful how I say this, But as they
[44:12] Speaker 1: were preparing to go on their own investigation, I noticed
[44:16] Speaker 1: that many of the tools that they were using were
[44:19] Speaker 1: the same things that we have long debunked on this show.
[44:24] Speaker 3: Right.
[44:24] Speaker 1: The EMF meter for electromagnetic frequencies. It has the little
[44:29] Speaker 1: dots on it one through five, and I'm like, well, actually,
[44:32] Speaker 1: you know, you get that thing close to an electrical
[44:35] Speaker 1: chord or something and it's going to go off. They
[44:37] Speaker 1: had the dots, the dots that shoot those little pin
[44:41] Speaker 1: dots all around in case an apparition moves through, you
[44:44] Speaker 1: can see its shape. I actually kind of buy that one.
[44:48] Speaker 1: If something was to move through and it's physical but
[44:51] Speaker 1: not quite physical, like invisible, then you could see the
[44:54] Speaker 1: form of it in the little laser dots. Okay, I'll
[44:58] Speaker 1: give you that one. They had a spear box, and
[45:01] Speaker 1: if you remember the interview that I did I think
[45:04] Speaker 1: a couple of years ago with Kenny Biddle, who is
[45:07] Speaker 1: the chief investigator at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, he
[45:11] Speaker 1: was showing me how these things work. The spirit box
[45:14] Speaker 1: is a frequency scanner so it just goes all the
[45:16] Speaker 1: way up and down the dial, and you hear this
[45:18] Speaker 1: chap and he grabs whatever audio, whatever spoken word, whatever
[45:23] Speaker 1: song lyric might be sung, and then it moves on
[45:26] Speaker 1: after a micro second. And there are pattern seeking people
[45:31] Speaker 1: who will then pick up what they perceive as messages
[45:35] Speaker 1: in the spirit box. But it's just a frequency scanner.
[45:38] Speaker 1: So they had one of those. There were a bunch
[45:41] Speaker 1: of other tools that they used, infrared, temperature sensitive cameras,
[45:45] Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, And so I wasn't smirking, but
[45:50] Speaker 1: I had to resist the temptation to actually sit down
[45:53] Speaker 1: and walk them through what these things are and what
[45:57] Speaker 1: they don't actually do. And they took them selves very
[46:01] Speaker 1: very seriously, but again lovely folk, lovely lovely people who
[46:06] Speaker 1: were so generous to allow us there. I produced a
[46:11] Speaker 1: video of the experience. It does include the history of
[46:15] Speaker 1: the place, the stories of the people, their lives, their deaths,
[46:19] Speaker 1: and the supposed hauntings, what the ghosts are said to do.
[46:23] Speaker 1: And then at the end, because I didn't see anything
[46:27] Speaker 1: in the mansion and neither did Brandon, I thought, well,
[46:30] Speaker 1: I can't leave it like this, So for the last
[46:33] Speaker 1: four minutes of my video, I went back and using
[46:37] Speaker 1: special effects and music, I added my own ghosts. I
[46:42] Speaker 1: made the Brown Mansion Haunted. And it's big fun. And
[46:48] Speaker 1: if I'm going to be a man of integrity, and
[46:50] Speaker 1: I say that I added ghosts. I and one of
[46:54] Speaker 1: our listeners, a friend named Nathan Pizar, who knows a
[46:57] Speaker 1: lot more about using Adobe after effects than I do.
[47:01] Speaker 1: He was able to put together the bloody handprints scene.
[47:06] Speaker 1: I fubbled with it for a couple of days. I
[47:08] Speaker 1: couldn't figure out how to get it right. Nathan came
[47:11] Speaker 1: in and save the day. So huge thanks out to
[47:13] Speaker 1: him for those few seconds of genius. And that video
[47:18] Speaker 1: is linked in the description box. It's a ride. It
[47:22] Speaker 1: was something different. It's enjoyable for anybody who enjoys this
[47:26] Speaker 1: time of year. And then at the end, I get
[47:28] Speaker 1: to pull the rug out from underneath everybody and just
[47:31] Speaker 1: crank it up to eleven. So it is called is
[47:34] Speaker 1: the Brown Mansion Haunted? It is linked in the description
[47:38] Speaker 1: box of this podcast. Stand by for the final segment
[47:45] Speaker 1: and the final few ghost stories on the way next.
[48:11] Speaker 1: Over the years, we have talked about various haunted hotels
[48:15] Speaker 1: and homes. The Balliska Axe Murder House, the Queen Anne Hotel,
[48:20] Speaker 1: the Stanley. Right now, I want to tell you about
[48:24] Speaker 1: an apartments building on the northwest corner of seventy second
[48:28] Speaker 1: Street in the upper west side of Manhattan, the Dakota.
[48:33] Speaker 1: Back when the building was conceived, the upper west Side
[48:36] Speaker 1: was mostly undeveloped, but a man named Edward Clark, head
[48:41] Speaker 1: of the sewing machine firm Singer, decided to construct an
[48:45] Speaker 1: apartment building there, with four years of construction finally finished
[48:50] Speaker 1: in October of eighteen eighty four. Ironically, Edward Clark would
[48:55] Speaker 1: die before the project was completed, and that is a
[49:00] Speaker 1: tragedy unto itself, as he had put so much time
[49:03] Speaker 1: and imagination and heart and money into what he wanted
[49:08] Speaker 1: to be a place of perfection. The features of this
[49:14] Speaker 1: apartment building harkened back to the German Renaissance with flares
[49:19] Speaker 1: of French artistry. The design included a large courtyard in
[49:23] Speaker 1: the center, a big arched entrance for horse drawn carriages
[49:28] Speaker 1: to approach. The floors were inlaid with mahogany, oak and cherry.
[49:33] Speaker 1: There were originally sixteen apartments, which doesn't sound like a
[49:38] Speaker 1: lot for a nine story building until you realize that
[49:42] Speaker 1: many of those single apartments had more than a dozen rooms.
[49:46] Speaker 1: Some had as many as twenty rooms in a single apartment,
[49:50] Speaker 1: with fourteen foot ceilings and a unique designed for each
[49:55] Speaker 1: individual unit. The Dakota had so manyies, a gymnasium, a
[50:01] Speaker 1: central kitchen serving all of the residents, a private garden,
[50:06] Speaker 1: tennis court, croquet field. It's no wonder that the Dakota
[50:11] Speaker 1: attracted famous residents from all around the world. Living spaces
[50:18] Speaker 1: so often become dying spaces, don't they, And one hundred
[50:23] Speaker 1: and forty one years after it opened, the Dakota has
[50:26] Speaker 1: certainly proven itself no exception. Tony Award winning actress Judy
[50:32] Speaker 1: Holliday lived in that building until she died of breast
[50:35] Speaker 1: cancer in nineteen sixty five at the age of forty three.
[50:39] Speaker 1: When her apartment was being renovated for the next tenant,
[50:43] Speaker 1: workers were heard whispering about a strange vibe in the room,
[50:47] Speaker 1: cooling temperatures, a chill in the air, and the inescapable
[50:52] Speaker 1: feeling that they were being watched. Both residents and visitors
[50:58] Speaker 1: have reported seeing a little girl walking the hallways. She
[51:03] Speaker 1: is dressed in late nineteenth century clothing, has blonde hair,
[51:08] Speaker 1: and sometimes she bounces a little red ball. Usually she
[51:13] Speaker 1: only waves, but one resident reported that the girl spoke
[51:17] Speaker 1: out loud to her. The girl smiled and said, today
[51:22] Speaker 1: is my birthday. There's allegedly a poltergeist in the basement.
[51:28] Speaker 1: Of course, a poultergeist is a mischievous spirit which causes
[51:32] Speaker 1: physical disturbances, thrown objects, loud noises, and sometimes even tripping
[51:39] Speaker 1: or biting the living. The basement of the Dakota has
[51:43] Speaker 1: seen phenomena typical of a poultergeist, flickering lights and the
[51:48] Speaker 1: moving of heavy furniture. Some believe it is the ghost
[51:53] Speaker 1: of Edward Clark. The few sightings of that spirit describe
[51:57] Speaker 1: a man who looks exactly like Clark, short beard, a
[52:02] Speaker 1: long nose, and wire spectacles. As he himself never got
[52:06] Speaker 1: to take up residence in that building in life, many
[52:10] Speaker 1: wonder if he has made the Dakota his home in death.
[52:17] Speaker 1: I suppose this building will mostly remain known for two
[52:21] Speaker 1: other reasons. The Dakota was featured in one of America's
[52:25] Speaker 1: greatest horror movies. Think of the Dakota the next time
[52:30] Speaker 1: you watch the nineteen sixty eight classic Rosemary's Baby, where
[52:36] Speaker 1: Mia Pharaoh's character Rosemary is impregnated with the devil. Much
[52:42] Speaker 1: more horrifying is a moment in our history books from
[52:46] Speaker 1: just a few decades ago. Some have reported seeing the
[52:51] Speaker 1: ghost of the victim. But we don't have to see
[52:54] Speaker 1: spirits to be haunted. Haunted by the memory of the
[52:59] Speaker 1: killing of a famous resident, which took place under the
[53:03] Speaker 1: apartment archway at approximately ten point fifty pm on the
[53:08] Speaker 1: eighth of December nineteen eighty. In memory and legacy, the
[53:14] Speaker 1: Dakota remains haunted, and you and I are haunted by
[53:19] Speaker 1: the murder of John Lennon.
[54:04] Speaker 12: My sister Christine and I had just been kids. She
[54:07] Speaker 12: was nine, I was eleven. We lived for many years
[54:11] Speaker 12: on that big Nebraska farm in Cherry County. Inside the
[54:15] Speaker 12: old farmhouse, we spent so much time exploring every dusty
[54:20] Speaker 12: corner of that place, from the downstairs closets to the deepest.
[54:24] Speaker 2: Corner of the attic.
[54:26] Speaker 12: Christina and I loved the shape of the house, the
[54:30] Speaker 12: labyrinth of rooms, the cracking white pain on the outside,
[54:33] Speaker 12: and the lived in chairs and sofas on the inside.
[54:38] Speaker 2: The floors creaked when you walked on them.
[54:40] Speaker 12: The window glass was not quite smooth, making everything beyond
[54:44] Speaker 12: look just a little out of shape. The kitchen countertops
[54:48] Speaker 12: were old ceramic tile, The fixtures seemed like something from
[54:52] Speaker 12: an old hotel. We loved that house, but even more
[54:58] Speaker 12: we loved the ghost that we called Mother. Our real
[55:03] Speaker 12: mother had left us years before, not on purpose. She
[55:07] Speaker 12: left this world. She was taken by something called Typhus,
[55:12] Speaker 12: which we didn't understand. We only understood that she had
[55:15] Speaker 12: gotten very sick, fallen asleep, and stayed asleep. Her name
[55:21] Speaker 12: had been Evelyn, and that's how we referred to her
[55:24] Speaker 12: in memory. We didn't call her mother because that name
[55:29] Speaker 12: was already taken. Mother was the ghost, and she was
[55:33] Speaker 12: the secret. Christina and I kept to ourselves. Whoever she
[55:38] Speaker 12: had been in life, she must have been a wonderful mother.
[55:42] Speaker 12: She took such interest in us. Some mornings, when Christine
[55:46] Speaker 12: and I woke up, we'd both find a cup of
[55:49] Speaker 12: milk on the table next to our bed, each had
[55:52] Speaker 12: been left there by Mother. Also inside our shared bedroom
[55:58] Speaker 12: was the old chair, which I've been in that house
[56:01] Speaker 12: long before we moved into it. In the night, as
[56:05] Speaker 12: we were sleeping, Mother the ghost would scoot the chair
[56:09] Speaker 12: inch by inch out of the corner and to the
[56:12] Speaker 12: center of the room. It was as if she wanted
[56:16] Speaker 12: to watch us, be with us, protect us. After a time,
[56:23] Speaker 12: the chair would then tip on its own and fall
[56:27] Speaker 12: backward to the floor, as if it was a playmate
[56:30] Speaker 12: fainting to make you laugh, and we would laugh and
[56:35] Speaker 12: then playfully. We would scoot the chair back into the
[56:38] Speaker 12: corner every day, just so Mother could move it forward
[56:41] Speaker 12: in the night. There was something comforting about this routine.
[56:47] Speaker 12: Soon Christina and I would see the chair inching forward,
[56:51] Speaker 12: even during the day when we were wide awake. We
[56:54] Speaker 12: might be reading a book, or playing with toys, or
[56:58] Speaker 12: maybe just daydreaming. When we heard the scratching of the
[57:02] Speaker 12: chair's feet on the wooden floor, we weren't afraid of it.
[57:06] Speaker 12: There was no reason to be afraid. It was just
[57:10] Speaker 12: the ghost. It was just mother's chair. Those days were
[57:17] Speaker 12: so long ago, and those events looked so innocent through
[57:22] Speaker 12: the eyes of children. I was an adult of twenty
[57:25] Speaker 12: eight years living a thousand miles away before I committed
[57:29] Speaker 12: myself to learn about the history of the old house
[57:33] Speaker 12: a murder house. I remember browsing the newspaper clipping from
[57:38] Speaker 12: December seventeenth, nineteen nineteen. The columns of the story had
[57:43] Speaker 12: been stamped by a typewriter and printing press from a
[57:47] Speaker 12: century ago, before being imperfectly scanned and neatly tucked into
[57:51] Speaker 12: a library archive. I remember that the captured image of
[57:56] Speaker 12: the ink and paper felt like a time machine, and
[58:01] Speaker 12: I remember mouthing the words of the story as I
[58:04] Speaker 12: read it silently. Murder and Madness come to Cherry County.
[58:10] Speaker 12: A community reels from shock at the discovery of the
[58:13] Speaker 12: body of Agnes Hill, a recent widow and mother of
[58:17] Speaker 12: two daughters, who was found hanging from a rope in
[58:20] Speaker 12: the center of the children's room upstairs. Under her suspended
[58:25] Speaker 12: corpse was the toppled wooden chair which she had stood
[58:28] Speaker 12: upon to secure the noose. In the nearby beds were
[58:32] Speaker 12: her children, both of them murdered with a cup of
[58:36] Speaker 12: poisoned milk. It appears the woman had succumbed to grief
[58:41] Speaker 12: and taken her daughters with her to the grave. Whether
[58:45] Speaker 12: she was acting from spite or twisted sympathy, the true
[58:49] Speaker 12: story of this terrible event may never actually be known.
[58:54] Speaker 12: Memorials for the children will be announced, the farmhouse will
[58:58] Speaker 12: be put up for auction. Isn't it interesting how children
[59:07] Speaker 12: have no say in how they're born or to whom
[59:11] Speaker 12: or where. Even now I can't decide if Christine and
[59:15] Speaker 12: I were lucky, we were unlucky. Our midnight milk never
[59:20] Speaker 12: made us sick, but we slept exactly where Agnes Hill's
[59:25] Speaker 12: daughters had slept, and it would have been oh so
[59:28] Speaker 12: easy to literally drink us to death. I think about
[59:34] Speaker 12: this often. I also think about that wooden chair. If
[59:39] Speaker 12: only we had known why it moved out of the corner,
[59:44] Speaker 12: why it always found the center of the room, and
[59:47] Speaker 12: why it would tip over on its own. My sister
[59:52] Speaker 12: and I spent years in that room, in that murder house.
[59:58] Speaker 12: We were the girls under the gallows, drinking milk brought
[1:00:02] Speaker 12: to us by the ghost we called Mother.
[1:00:20] Speaker 1: Oh there is a lesson, there isn't there. Always raise
[1:00:24] Speaker 1: an eyebrow. Always be skeptical of anyone, especially a guardian
[1:00:29] Speaker 1: who brings you something to drink right before you go
[1:00:34] Speaker 1: to sleep. Again. Thank you to my amazing voice actors
[1:00:41] Speaker 1: for the show today. I mentioned Jeffrey Headquist and Sarah Partridge.
[1:00:46] Speaker 1: Also Aleno Wiss, Daisy May Parsons, and Wolf Williams. Really
[1:00:52] Speaker 1: really talented actors and a great addition to the show.
[1:00:56] Speaker 1: I hope the rest of Your month of October is
[1:00:59] Speaker 1: spooky and safe and amazing and happy Halloween

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