Alien Implant | The Magnetic Object Roger Leir Pulled From Tim Cullen's Arm

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The alien abduction case of Tim Cullen in Yuma, Colorado
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is intriguing not only due to the alleged abduction itself,
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but the apparent recovery of an alien implant. Furthermore, in
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the run up to the strange events, Tim appeared to
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predict the encounter through several strange dreams. After initially forgetting
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about the events that summer's evening in nineteen seventy eight,
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a chance injury and subsequent discovery of a strange piece
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of metal in Tim's thumb suddenly brought forth the full
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details of that evening, as well as other memories that
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had remained locked away in his subconscious for two decades.
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While we should indeed take the encounters with a little
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pinch assault, the appearance repeated alien abduction of Tim Cullen
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is one that thrust both himself and the subject of
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alien abduction and alien implants into the national and international spotlight.
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Just what might have happened to Tim during his adult life,
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and if he's received multiple visits from alien entities from
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elsewhere remains unknown. It is certainly an interesting case, though,
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and won very much worth an examination all these decades later.
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I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome weirdos.
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This is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore,
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the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and
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unexplained coming up in this episode. The life of Martha
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Place took a dark turn in eighteen ninety nine. Convicted
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of a brutal murder, Martha faced a horrifying punishment. She
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was about to become the first woman to be executed
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by the electric chair. We'll look at a double murder
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case where real crime collides with reality TV, resulting in
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real life horror. Steve's childhood was marked by inexplicable and
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spine chilling encounters, eerie breathing sounds, a manifestation at his bedside,
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being pushed down the stairs, all without a rational explanation.
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Even moving away wouldn't bring his paranormal tormenting to an end.
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The urban legend of the Licked Hand is a chilling
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tale that has been whispered around campfires and shared at
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sleepovers for generations, tapping into our deepest fears of invasion
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and vulnerability. But this isn't just any ghost story. It's
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a timeless warning about the dangers lurking in the darkness,
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waiting to infiltrate our homes and lives, and it even
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has a bit of truth to it. But first, Tim
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Cullen's life changed forever after a chilling dream in nineteen
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seventy eight. It wasn't long after that he had bizarre
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encounters with UFOs, was abducted by aliens, and found a
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strange piece of metal embedded in his arm. Were these
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encounters real? If so, what secrets lie within the alien
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implant removed from his body? Would begin with that story. Now,
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bultry doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and
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come with me into the weird darkness. Before we turn
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our attention to the alien abduction encounters of Tim Cullen
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and the eventual discovery of the alien implant, we will
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turn our attention to just under two months before the
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incident and a strange and intense dream Tim experienced. Tim
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Cullen's story begins with a bizarre and unsettling dream he
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had during the night of April second, nineteen seventy eight,
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in which he was involved in a horrific traffic accident.
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Despite the very intense nature of the dream, Cullen didn't
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think too much about it. A week later, however, on
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April ninth, he was driving along the highway with his
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friend Can Ruberg, and the dreams suddenly surged back into
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his mind. Only seconds later, the car rolled over multiple times. Ultimately,
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the crash resulted in Tim suffering a broken neck. Ruberg,
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who had come out of the accident largely unhurt, managed
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to free his friend from the vehicle before waving down
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a passing motorist who took the pair to the hospital.
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These events, incidentally, were exactly as Tim's dream had played out.
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It was while he was recovering in hospital that he
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had a second intense and strange dream, this time of
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an encounter with a u FO. He was soon released
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from the hospital, although had to return regularly for medical checkups.
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It was as he was returning home from one of
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these check ups at around eleven p m. On May thirtieth,
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nineteen seventy eight, with his wife, Janet, who was five
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months pregnant at the time, that things would take an
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even stranger twist. As the pair were driving on Highway
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fifty nine, Tim noticed a strange, slightly glowing object that
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passed directly in front of their vehicle. A short distance away,
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the object disappeared temporarily behind a hill before appearing once
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more a moment later. The object continued on its way
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as Tim brought the car to a stop. Then it
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headed toward them, eventually changing their direction, traveling under the
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power and telephone lines, and hovered over a pasture. He
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estimated it was around a hundred feet in length, ten
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feet tall, and approximately twenty feet wide. He would later
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state that the object didn't make any noise and that
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there were two diffused lights that shone at the back
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of it, one of which was yellow and the other
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was red. He and Janet remained where they were and
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simply stared at the bizarre aerial object until it disappeared
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into the distance. After taking a moment to gather themselves,
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the couple went on with their journey. Tim would state
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two decades later he didn't think to look at the
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clock at the time, meaning that it is uncertain if
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there was any missing time during the encounter, although both
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witnesses had no sense of missing time, nor did they
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have any type of memory of being in a strange
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room or craft. That said. Tim also offered that the
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more he thought about it, the more he recalled that
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he did have an odd feeling. At the time that
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he and Janet decided to go on with their journey,
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it didn't really register with him, and he put it
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out of his mind. In fact, twenty years after the encounter,
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many more details came flooding back to Tim. At some
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time during nineteen ninety eight, Tim hit his thumb with
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a hammer while he was at work, eventually going to
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see a doctor as he suspected he dislocated it. He
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visited doctor Mark Hubner at the Yuma Clinic, who proceeded
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to take an X ray of the injured digit. When
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he examined the x rays, though, the doctor asked Tim
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about the piece of metal in his arm. At that
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very moment, a rush of details and realizations came to him. Firstly,
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he had a realization that the object was a solid vehicle,
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potentially from another world. Furthermore, he was now certain that
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they had experienced missing time, which was the reason the
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conversation about deciding to go on with their journey following
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the sighting was so disjointed. Even more remarkable, he had
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sudden memories of further encounters that occurred years later. In
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nineteen eighty. For example, around two years after the initial encounter,
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Tim at almost the same location would encounter almost an
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identical craft. He recalled that two diffused yellow lights appeared
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on the object that then started blinking. At the time,
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he could recall realizing that the same events that had
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happened in nineteen seventy eight were about to unfold again.
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The craft began to approach, but instead of stopping over
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the top of him, it simply moved away, eventually disappearing
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behind a nearby hill. At this point, Tim scrambled back
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inside his car and returned home to Yuma as quickly
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as possible. There was a further encounter a little over
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a decade later in nineteen ninety four, when he, his wife,
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and their three daughters were traveling around forty miles to
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the south of Yuma when they noticed a strange object
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in the distance with a strange strobe light coming from it.
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Tim recalled that the object hovered off the road in
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front of them as he eventually brought his car to
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a stop. All five of them watched the object for
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around five to ten minutes before it finally started in
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motion and disappeared to the north. Of course, as well
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as the memories and details that suddenly came forward in
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Tim's mind was the knowledge of what the strange piece
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of metal in his left forearm actually was, an object
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widely known as an alien implant. Of course, he didn't
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reveal that to doctor Hubner. Instead, he simply returned home
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and began researching as much as he could on the
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subject on the internet. He eventually learned of Roger k
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Lear and disapparent work with alien implants. After making contact
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with Lear, the two men communicated over the next twelve
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months before Tim finally traveled two thousand Oaks in California.
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Lear would remove the alleged alien artifact on February fifth,
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two thousand. The object, which was encased in a strange
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reddish brown membrane and was the shape of a melon seed,
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was around seven centimeters long and four centimeters wide. More Ominously,
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around it were several long preceptors, which Lear discovered had
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been connected to nerve endings in his arm. When Lear
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discovered a metal core to the object, he held a
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magnet to it. Almost immediately, it jumped from the table
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to the magnet that was around half an inch away.
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Although it was not determined what the object was, given
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TIMS encounters with UFOs, it was considered likely it could
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be of extraterrestrial origin. Following the discovery and the reporting
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on it, Cullen began to receive a lot of attention
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from both the media and UFO organizations looking to explore
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his claims, and it was attention that Cullen appeared to
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be rather comfortable with. He was always happy to speak
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of his encounters, and, unlike many other abductees, was more
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than happy for his real name to be used in
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newspaper articles and news stories. The implant was eventually sent
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to a company named Digital Instruments in California for further study. However,
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the results of these studies were largely unclear. Although there
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was little doubt that the implant was certainly very strange.
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It was determined, however, that the membrane around the device
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when it was removed was also discovered on other alleged
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alien implants removed by Lear. Cullen would offer in subsequent
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interviews that this membrane could protect the other worldly device
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from foreign object rejection by the body. He would elaborate
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that understanding this membrane could be a huge medical breakthrough
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for doctors who want to use biological metal or implants
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of other materials, which could ultimately save many lives in
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the future. If there's any truth or accuracy in these claims,
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Cullen could very well be correct. There's so much to
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contemplate with the Tim Cullen alien abduction case. If Cullen
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was a repeat abductee, and just how long did these
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abductions stretch back? Furthermore, although he recalled three separate incidents
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starting in nineteen seventy eight, could there be many more
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encounters that remained buried deep in Tim Cullen's mind. Perhaps
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most intriguing of all, what should we make of the
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strange metallic implants recovered from his left arm? Was this
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device really placed there by aliens? And if so, when
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and for what purpose? Was this implant some kind of
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tracking device allowing these potential alien visitors to locate Tim
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whenever they needed to. Was it feeding some kind of
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data back to those who implanted it. Might it even
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have been able to control Tim's thoughts and feelings, perhaps
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some kind of sleeping mind control technology. Cullen himself would
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offer that he was determined to speak as much as
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he could about his encounters as someone has to put
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a face to the alien stories, which would hopefully result
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in more people who have experienced such events coming forward.
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He would state further that the more people we can
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find with implants, the more evidence we're going to have,
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which would eventually get rid of the stigma surrounding such matters. Ultimately,
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Coulor would assert that the truth needs to come out
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coming up. The urban legend of the Licked Hand is
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a chilling tale that has been whispered around campfires and
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shared at sleepovers for generations, tapping into our deepest fears
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of invasion and vulnerability. But this isn't just any ghost story.
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It's a timeless warning about the dangers lurking in the darkness,
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waiting to infiltrate our homes and lives. And it even
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has a bit of truth to it. Plus, we'll look
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at a double murder case where real crime collides with
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reality TV, resulting in real life horror. But first, the
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life of Martha Place took a dark turn in eighteen
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ninety nine. Convicted of a brutal murder, Martha faced a
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horrifying punishment. She was about to become the first woman
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to be executed by the electric chair. That story is
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up next. What happens when consciousness separates from the body.
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For centuries, people have described the same impossible moment, suddenly
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floating above themselves, watching events unfold from somewhere beyond the
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physical world. I Left my Body. Chilling True Out of
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Body Experiences, written by Linda Grimm and Tom Lyons, collects
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the first hand accounts of ordinary people who lived it.
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Some left their bodies during sleep, others in moments of
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trauma or meditation, or circumstances no one could explain. A
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few weren't sure they'd ever get back in. Some of
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these experiences were peaceful, others were deeply disturbing, but every
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witness remembers the same real lifeation they were no longer
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inside their body. Narrated by Weird Darkness host Darren Marler,
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this collection will leave you questioning what happens when the
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mind slips free of the physical world. I Left my
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Body Chilling True Out of Body Experiences. Find it on
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the audiobooks page at Weirddarkness dot com, or look for
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it on Amazon and Audible. On March twentieth, eighteen ninety nine.
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Officials at Sing Sing Prison in New York had an
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unusual situation on their hands. Before that day, eleven men
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had been executed by electric chair, but they now had
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the first woman in the state's history in the execution chamber,
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a convicted murderer named Martha Place. She's been found guilty
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of the brutal murder of her seventeen year old stepdaughter Ida,
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and while most were satisfied that Martha's sentence matched her crime,
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it posed a problem for those tasked with carrying out
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her sentence. Used to dealing with men who had a
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portion of their head shaved for the electrode, they weren't
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sure how to work around places, long thick hair, or
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how to protect her modesty. While attaching electrodes to her ankles.
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With Martha Place seated in the chair, her executioners wondered
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what to do next. She had been born Martha Garretson
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on September eighteenth, eighteen forty nine, and grew up in Millstone,
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New Jersey. Her life took a dark turn when she
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was twenty three, though, when she was struck in the
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head by a moving sleigh. Her brother later remarked that
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she never fully recovered from her injuries. He was right.
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Her misfortunes soon began to pile up. Though she married
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and had a son, her husband abandoned his family and
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later died. Poverty stricken, Martha was subsequently forced to give
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her only child up for adoption. She eventually found work
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in Brooklyn as a housekeeper for a widow named William Place.
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In time, the two of them mayor and Martha became
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the stepmother to William's young daughter, Ida, But the marriage
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was not a happy one, and it wasn't long before
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the troubled woman became deeply jealous of her stepdaughter. She
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believed that William loved his daughter more than he loved her,
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and her jealousy eventually turned to hate, especially after Ida
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turned into a beautiful young woman. On the morning of
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February seventh, eighteen ninety eight, in argument broke out between
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William and Martha, Ida, of course, took her father's side.
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When William left for work, Martha turned on her stepdaughter.
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Their tension escalated, and then Ida stomped out of the
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room and slammed the door in Martha's face. Martha was
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now enraged. She took a bottle of acid from her
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husband's office, shoved her way into Ida's bedroom, and threw
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the caustic liquid onto her face. She later said that
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she left Ida's room after that, but at the autopsy
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that followed the girl's death, doctors stated that while Ida
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was writhing on her bed in pain, Martha had covered
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her with bedding and smothered her. When Ida went silent,
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Martha went to the cellar, took an ax, and waited
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for her husband to come home. She claimed this was
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self defense, knowing William would attack her when he discovered
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what she had done to his daughter, but whether it
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was or not, she struck him with it when he
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came through the front door. As William stumbled out into
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the street, covered with blood and calling for help, Martha
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fled to the kitchen and tried to kill herself by
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turning on the gas. The police arrived before she could succeed, though,
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and arrested her soon afterward. The sensational trial of Martha
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Place began when she went on trial in July. Journalists
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turned her murder trial into a sensation. They reported every detail,
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spending many column inches describing Martha's face, her expressions at
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her strange reactions, her face is not pleasant, noted one reporter.
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She looks like a woman who has spent most of
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life fretting and worrying. Another described Martha as being stoic
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and having the kind of face that reminds one of
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a rat. It was said that her face didn't change
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during the murder trial except when William testified. Then her
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thin lips parted in a sardonic grin, and she fixed
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her eyes upon him. The jury found Martha guilty a
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first degree murder and sentenced her to death. Her attorney
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reached out to the new governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt,
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in hopes of having her sentence commuted, but Roosevelt refused.
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My sympathies and criminal cases are for the wronged and
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not the wrong doer, he replied. Martha's trial had been
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sensational enough, but her sentence was even more so. The
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electric chair was still a relatively new method of execution.
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Until her sentencing, it had never been used on a
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woman before. Since the electric chair had never been used
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on a woman, Martha was still convinced that Governor Roosevelt
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would give her a last minute reprieve, but he did
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not so. On March twentieth eighteen ninety nine. She put
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on a black dress she'd made herself and made her
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way to the execution room. As she was seated in
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the chair, the executioners finally decided to clip her thick,
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graying hair, just as they would with a man, instead
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of exposing her ankles, though a slit was cut in
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the bottom of her dress so that the electrodes could
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be attached to her ankles. Before the switch was thrown,
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Martha uttered her last words, God help me. Then her
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executioner sent seven hundred and sixty volts of electricity through
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her body. Seconds later, Martha Place was dead at the
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age of forty nine. Have you heard the Humans can Lick?
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To legend the story about your friend's neighbor who had
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someone licked their hand one night and they thought it
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was their dog. This incredibly simple story manages to be
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one of the creepiest urban legends because it speaks directly
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to one of our most basic human fears, someone invading
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our privacy. But this story isn't about someone reading your
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email or swiping your debit card. It's about the main
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character letting their guard down around an unknown person. It's
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about the chaos of the outside world creeping into your home.
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Along with the licked hand being one of those historic
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legends that's still scary, it also manages to feel contemporary.
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That's probably because it's always being retold by people who
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can't help but update something to feel modern to make
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it hit home. You've probably heard this story at a
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sleepover or while sharing stories around the campfire, or maybe
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you've read it while you stayed up late reading creepypastas.
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Whatever the case, some very of this story is likely
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lodged in your brain if you've not heard the story, however,
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it goes something like this. A thirteen year old girl
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was left home alone one night when her parents went
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out for a meal with friends. The parents thought that
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she was too old for a babysitter, so they decided
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she could stay home alone as long as she locked
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all the windows and doors as soon as they left.
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Usually she would have objected to being left alone. However,
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her parents had bought her a beautiful German shepherd dog
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just weeks before. The reason for such a gift was
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because the girl had been suffering from nightmares for years.
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Having the dog sleeping in her bedroom helped her feel
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at ease. When her parents left, she went around the house,
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making sure that all the windows and doors were locked
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as per her orders. She found that the basement window
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would not lock, so she locked the door leading into
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the house instead and thought nothing more about it. The
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time was eight pm, and she was to go to
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bed at ten pm. This was enough time to watch
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a film, so she put on one of her favorites,
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then settled down to watch it. The dog came and
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lay by her feet for the length of the film.
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Feeling happy that she had coped well with being alone
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at night, she decided she'd better head up to bed,
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turning off all the lights on her way upstairs. She
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saw nothing unusual in her home. Once upstairs, she brushed
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her teeth and changed into her NightWare. She snuggled under
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her duvet and dropped her hand to the floor to
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feel for her dog. Sure enough, he assured her of
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his presence with a loving lick. She smiled and drifted
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to sleep. In the midst of the night, she was
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woken by a dripping sound. Rolling her eyes, she assumed
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she had not turned the tap off properly in the bathroom.
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Trying to ignore it, she felt for the dog and
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received the lick that she was used to receiving, and
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fell back to sleep. Only about half an hour later,
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she woke again to the dripping and annoyed that it
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kept awaking her. She slumped to the bathroom to turn
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the tap off properly, leaving the light off in order
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to not blind her eyes that were still half asleep.
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She tightened the tap and returned to her room, feeling
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for her dog. She was greeted by the usual lick.
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Tremendously tired, she fell back to sleep and didn't wake
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until her parents returned home. The lights from the car
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shone through her bedroom window, and she was pleased that
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they were hume. One thing shocked her, though the dripping
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sound was still relentlessly going. Worried that perhaps the tap
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had broken, she walked to the bathroom to investigate. Fully,
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she turned on the light this time, and her scream
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pierced the silence. Her parents ran up the stairs to
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investigate her troubled scream, and they just stood staring into
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the bathroom. There was their beautiful dog, skinned and hanging
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in the shower, its blood dripping to the floor. On
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the mirror was the words humans can lick too, my dear,
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The story of someone being tricked by a demented home
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invader isn't some new fangled creepy written by a modern
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young person. It's been around since at least the nineteenth century.
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The first recorded version of the story appeared in eighteen
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seventy one in the Diary of a Victorian Squire by
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Deerman Birchall. Birchall's version isn't as gory, but it's still
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very creepy, saying what are the guests told of a
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clergyman who was aroused in the middle of the night
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by his wife, who said, John, Dear, I am sure
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there was a robber under the bed. I hear him moving.
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Do get up and see. John replied, Oh, it's only
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the Newfoundland dog. I just put my hand out and
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he licked it. Next morning, all the jewelry and many
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other effects had disappeared. In the Diary of Mister Pointner
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from nineteen nineteen, m R. James explores what can happen
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in the Humans Can Lick two scenario when the person
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having their hand licked decides to investigate what's just below
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their bed. Much of the story deals with a man
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named James Denton trying to match curtains to a particularly
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strange type of fabric. When Denton dozes off in his
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rear chair one night, however, he wakes to something truly terrifying. Quote.
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He felt on the back of it, just the slightest
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touch of his surface of hair and stretching it out
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in that direction. He stroked and patted arounded something but
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the feel of it, and still more, the fact that
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instead of a responsive movement, absolute stillness greeted his touch
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made him look over the arm. What he had been
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touching rose to meet him. It was in the attitude
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of one that had crept along the floor on its belly,
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and it was so far as he could collect a
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human figure. After discovering the person crawling along the floor
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of his room, Denton runs as fast as he can,
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and the person gives chase. He barely makes it to
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a secured room with his life intact. A classic campus
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based version of The Licked Hand takes the story to
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college and rewards the main character for not being overly curious.
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In this version, a student gets back to their dorm
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room and for a variety of reasons, they don't turn
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on the lights. In the film Urban Legend, For instance,
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the main character hears her roommate having what sounds like
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an intense sexual encounter and leaves the lights off for privacy.
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In other instances, one roommate stays in to study while
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the other goes out to party. When the latter returns
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to their dorm, they leave the light off so as
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to not disturb their sleeping friend. But while the details
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of the story change, the ending is always the same.
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The morning after, the student wakes to find their roommates
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slain and the phrase aren't you glad you didn't turn
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on the lights written in blood. Something that sticks out
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after reading multiple variations of the Licked Hand is how
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it's one of the few stories that can happen to anyone,
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regardless of gender, race, age, etc. The people affected in
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this story can be teenage babysitters, early twentieth century dandies,
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college students, or old married couples. The reason this piece
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00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:58.200
of contemporary folklore works is because it could apply to
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almost any setting. While it's likely that the story as
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told and retold never actually happened, there have been instances
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of people hiding in homes for hours at a time,
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waiting for the right moment to strike. The most famous
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example of this is the slaying of Marine Hedge by
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Dennis Rader, better known as the BTK Killer, on April
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twenty seventh, nineteen eighty five. Raider severed the phone lines
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for Hedges home, broke into her house, and stuck into
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her bedroom closet. He waited patiently in the closet for
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hours until Hedge came home. He continued hiding until after
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she went to bed. Then Raider exited the closet and
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strangled her. Out Of all the pieces of contemporary folk
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lore that exist, why does this story continue to grow
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and spread. It's not the most outlandish urban legend. That
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00:28:50.160 --> 00:28:51.960
would be the one about the person dressed like a
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clown statue, but it may be the one that hits
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closest to home. According to snopes dot com and their
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breakdown of the Enduring Life legend, they say this legend
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is a hair raising cautionary tale about the dangers of
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living away from home. We fear being vulnerable in an
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unsafe world. The more unsafe we perceive the world around
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us to be, the more tales like this get told.
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Put another way, the story reminds its audience that it
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doesn't matter how safe you think you are, horror might
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still be waiting for you. Quite the sobering realization, especially
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for a younger audience, you may still consider themselves invincible
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or protected from the dangers of the world. According to
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Trevor Blank, a professor at Suny Potsdam who studies modern folklore,
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urban legends like the Licked Hand have so many different
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versions because even at their most outlandish, they feel like
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they could actually happen to us. Commenting on the popularity
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of the slender Man Creepy pasta, Blank states, the story
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provides a platform for youths to test ideas and cultivate,
475
00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:58.720
meaning not just from collecting these stories, but from sharing
476
00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:01.359
them with other people or writing their own versions and
477
00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:04.279
sharing them with other people so they get to experience
478
00:30:04.319 --> 00:30:07.400
the story. They hear the motifs, but often create their
479
00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:10.279
own iterations, which also helps them to kind of flex
480
00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:13.000
their own creative muscles and imagine a darker side of
481
00:30:13.039 --> 00:30:15.279
the world, the side of the world that you are
482
00:30:15.359 --> 00:30:18.079
running away from as a child, but are constantly being
483
00:30:18.119 --> 00:30:21.640
pulled into as you enter adulthood, facing these dark realities
484
00:30:21.640 --> 00:30:26.039
of the world and leaving innocence behind. In other words,
485
00:30:26.519 --> 00:30:29.480
understanding through fiction that the world can be cruel and
486
00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:33.599
harsh helps us better navigate cruelty and harshness when we
487
00:30:33.720 --> 00:30:38.079
ultimately face it. In her thrill List article Spreading Fear,
488
00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:40.920
how the Licked Hand and other scary stories move around
489
00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:46.440
the country, Kelsey McKinney quotes numerous professors, anthropologists, and folklorists
490
00:30:46.519 --> 00:30:49.799
to study the history and importance of urban legends, though
491
00:30:49.839 --> 00:30:53.279
they don't much like that term one. In particular, doctor
492
00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:57.000
Joseph M. Stubbersfield, a research fellow in the Propagation of
493
00:30:57.079 --> 00:31:00.000
Narratives and Cognitive Bias at Durham University in the US
494
00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:03.319
United Kingdom, believes these stories spread as a way to
495
00:31:03.319 --> 00:31:08.119
give our species an evolutionary edge. McKinney writes, doctor Stubbersfield
496
00:31:08.200 --> 00:31:11.319
points to two key characteristics that determine whether a story
497
00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:14.279
spreads far in line. The first is whether it carries
498
00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:19.279
social information to which we are especially susceptible. Greater intelligence
499
00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:22.359
and primates likely evolved because being able to keep track
500
00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:26.519
of complex social relationships in groups gave individuals an advantage,
501
00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:29.680
He says, knowing in the example of the Licked Hand,
502
00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:33.079
that your dog could be a person, or more granularly,
503
00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:35.759
that you should never take your safety for granted could
504
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:41.119
be an evolutionary advantage. A recurring element in most versions
505
00:31:41.160 --> 00:31:45.480
of this story is that the main character experiences terror alone.
506
00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:48.400
Aside from the first known version of the story from
507
00:31:48.440 --> 00:31:52.200
the Diary of a Victorian Squire, every other version requires
508
00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:55.559
the lead character to be alone before the intruder slays
509
00:31:55.599 --> 00:31:59.960
their dog and licks their hand. This isolation is especially
510
00:32:00.119 --> 00:32:03.200
resonant with millennials, who, according to a Forbes article by
511
00:32:03.240 --> 00:32:08.200
Caroline Beaton, spend significantly more time alone than previous generations.
512
00:32:08.680 --> 00:32:11.319
Because of this, a story that reminds individuals to be
513
00:32:11.400 --> 00:32:14.480
wary even when they feel safe can be beneficial to
514
00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:17.240
large groups of people who spend lengthy amounts of time
515
00:32:17.279 --> 00:32:22.400
by themselves. This makes the online availability of these tales important,
516
00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:26.599
especially in their modern day creepy pasta format. If people
517
00:32:26.640 --> 00:32:29.960
no longer gather around campfires to share these spooky stories,
518
00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:48.440
then the internet is the next best platform. Real life
519
00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:53.000
horror is one thing, but when it intersects with reality television,
520
00:32:53.440 --> 00:32:55.799
you got a story you can't help but take notice of.
521
00:32:56.759 --> 00:33:00.240
Imagine the shock and horror when families who want have
522
00:33:00.279 --> 00:33:03.480
opened their homes to television audiences inviting us to peek
523
00:33:03.519 --> 00:33:06.720
through the keyhole of their domestic lives are later thrust
524
00:33:06.759 --> 00:33:10.920
into the grim headlines for tragic reasons. Perhaps the most
525
00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:15.160
jarring example involves the Stockdale family, whose brush with TV
526
00:33:15.319 --> 00:33:19.119
fame took a dark turn. Known for their appearance on
527
00:33:19.160 --> 00:33:21.880
a two thousand and eight episode of Wife Swap, their
528
00:33:21.920 --> 00:33:25.400
story culminated in a grim twenty seventeen incident that left
529
00:33:25.440 --> 00:33:27.920
two family members dead at the hands of one of
530
00:33:27.960 --> 00:33:32.960
their own, Jacob Stockdale. Jacob Stockdale fatally shown his mother
531
00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:37.400
and brother on June fifteenth, twenty seventeen. Both family members
532
00:33:37.440 --> 00:33:40.480
died instantly from their gunshot wounds to the head, and
533
00:33:40.519 --> 00:33:45.000
twenty five year old Jacob intended to then die by suicide. However,
534
00:33:45.079 --> 00:33:49.160
he ultimately survived after emergency responders rushed him to the hospital.
535
00:33:50.279 --> 00:33:53.000
Jacob's two other brothers and father were not home at
536
00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:55.480
the time of the murders, and there exist very few
537
00:33:55.519 --> 00:33:59.599
speculations about why Jacob turned on his family members. While
538
00:33:59.680 --> 00:34:02.920
Jacob was transported to the hospital, the family hoped for
539
00:34:02.960 --> 00:34:06.240
his recovery. The morning of the murders, a nine to
540
00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:08.199
one to one call was made to the local police
541
00:34:08.199 --> 00:34:11.159
department in Beach City, Ohio, when the nine to eleven
542
00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:14.639
operator answered the phone. The caller quickly hung up. This
543
00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:18.119
raised concerns for the department, and officers were dispatched to
544
00:34:18.159 --> 00:34:22.440
the Stockdale home. Upon arrival, officers heard one gunshot and
545
00:34:22.599 --> 00:34:25.760
rushed into the house. They found Jacob near the bodies
546
00:34:25.760 --> 00:34:27.920
of his mother and brother with a wound to his head.
547
00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:31.840
They determined Jacob was the assailant and transported him to
548
00:34:31.880 --> 00:34:36.400
the city hospital. In the early two thousands, reality TV
549
00:34:36.679 --> 00:34:39.239
was on the rise, and the Stockdale family decided to
550
00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:44.000
participate in the experience. The television show Wife Swap was
551
00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:48.000
popular with viewers. Each episode showcased two families with different
552
00:34:48.039 --> 00:34:52.000
philosophies who swapped wives for a week. On the April
553
00:34:52.039 --> 00:34:55.199
twenty third, two thousand and eight episode, the Stockdale family
554
00:34:55.239 --> 00:34:59.800
switched wives with the Tonkovich family. Lori, the Tonkovich matriarch,
555
00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:03.360
was easy going and laid back, which was shockingly different
556
00:35:03.400 --> 00:35:08.079
from Jacob's mom, Kathy. Jacob struggled with his strict upbringing,
557
00:35:08.440 --> 00:35:10.639
telling Laurie that his mom and dad would tell him
558
00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:13.159
that he would burn in hell when Laurie tried to
559
00:35:13.159 --> 00:35:16.440
loosen the rules and have some fun. The Stockdale family
560
00:35:16.440 --> 00:35:19.159
claimed they wanted to protect their four boys from bad
561
00:35:19.199 --> 00:35:24.679
influences and banned them from several activities. Jacob's mother, Kathy,
562
00:35:25.039 --> 00:35:28.519
didn't believe in video games or dating, and her children
563
00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:31.320
had to work hard to earn such privileges as listening
564
00:35:31.400 --> 00:35:35.400
to the radio. Kathy forbade any foul language, and the
565
00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:38.800
siblings were rarely allowed to make their own decisions. The
566
00:35:38.840 --> 00:35:42.320
family was also kept in relative seclusion and didn't often
567
00:35:42.360 --> 00:35:46.559
have contact with the outside world. In October twenty eighteen,
568
00:35:47.079 --> 00:35:50.559
Jacob submitted himself to the Stark County Sheriff's office after
569
00:35:50.599 --> 00:35:53.239
he learned of his indictment by a grand jury. The
570
00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:56.639
arrest brought some closure to the Stockdale family, but Jacob's
571
00:35:56.679 --> 00:36:00.840
trial would not begin until two years later. Jacob pleaded
572
00:36:00.880 --> 00:36:03.800
not guilty by reason of insanity and was placed in
573
00:36:03.880 --> 00:36:07.800
a mental institution for observation. Jacob stayed at the mental
574
00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:12.280
institution until his trial, but struggled to remain confined, attempting
575
00:36:12.280 --> 00:36:16.480
to escape on several occasions. In November twenty nineteen, Jacob
576
00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:19.119
devised a plan to escape the mental hospital where he
577
00:36:19.199 --> 00:36:22.079
was being held. Jacob knew stacks of books would be
578
00:36:22.119 --> 00:36:24.920
transported in and out of the hospital and decided his
579
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:27.559
best plan of action was to flee by hiding behind
580
00:36:27.559 --> 00:36:30.639
the stacks of books as they were being removed. Jacob
581
00:36:30.760 --> 00:36:34.239
was ultimately caught before he could escape the building. A
582
00:36:34.320 --> 00:36:37.320
month later, he attempted escape once again, this time with
583
00:36:37.400 --> 00:36:40.199
a more obvious approach. He tried to blend in with
584
00:36:40.280 --> 00:36:42.920
a group of people leaving the institution, but was quickly
585
00:36:42.960 --> 00:36:46.159
discovered before he could make it out the doors. While
586
00:36:46.239 --> 00:36:50.000
Jacob was under observation at the institution, doctor Archangelo Wood
587
00:36:50.119 --> 00:36:53.400
determined Jacob was clinically saying when he committed the murders.
588
00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:58.280
According to Wood, based on reasonable psychological certainty, Jacob did
589
00:36:58.320 --> 00:37:00.760
not have a severe mental illness when he was charged.
590
00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:05.400
Wood also found no disease or defects in Jacob and
591
00:37:05.480 --> 00:37:09.119
noted that he was aware of the wrongfulness of his actions.
592
00:37:09.199 --> 00:37:12.519
Due to Woods report, Jacob was deemed able to stand trial.
593
00:37:12.800 --> 00:37:16.800
As would believe to Jacob was capable of understanding court proceedings.
594
00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:20.679
Jacob's trial was slated to begin in early twenty twenty one,
595
00:37:21.159 --> 00:37:24.760
most pushed back due to COVID related delays during his
596
00:37:24.840 --> 00:37:27.760
stay in the institution. Jacob's family asked the judge for
597
00:37:27.880 --> 00:37:32.559
leniency in Jacob's sentencing. Jacob eventually pleaded guilty to the
598
00:37:32.639 --> 00:37:35.320
murders of his mother and brother. He did not receive
599
00:37:35.400 --> 00:37:37.960
the death sentence, but did receive a total of thirty
600
00:37:38.039 --> 00:37:42.400
years behind bars. In Ohio, judge sentenced Jacob to served
601
00:37:42.440 --> 00:37:47.320
two fifteen year sentences consecutively, fifteen years for each death.
602
00:37:48.199 --> 00:37:50.880
While Jacob never shared his motives with the jury or
603
00:37:50.880 --> 00:37:56.840
the media, several theories have circulated. Jacob's wife swap mom, Laurie,
604
00:37:57.039 --> 00:37:59.679
believed a lack of free will may have caused Jacob.
605
00:38:00.920 --> 00:38:03.320
She claims that due to the boy's inability to make
606
00:38:03.320 --> 00:38:06.800
their own decisions, Jacob felt the strict lifestyle catch up
607
00:38:06.840 --> 00:38:12.280
to him. Jacob's mother and brother left behind siblings, children, family,
608
00:38:12.360 --> 00:38:16.559
and friends who adored them. According to Calvin, Jacob's older brother,
609
00:38:16.920 --> 00:38:19.280
their brother James was a catalyst for fun in the
610
00:38:19.320 --> 00:38:23.000
Stockdale family, and their mother was a passionate parent and grandmother.
611
00:38:24.360 --> 00:38:27.880
After Jacob received his sentence, the Stockdale family has stayed
612
00:38:27.880 --> 00:38:31.679
relatively quiet regarding the wife swap murders, and due to
613
00:38:31.719 --> 00:38:36.880
their reclusive lifestyle, updates on the family's healing are scarce. However,
614
00:38:36.920 --> 00:38:39.480
they have stated that they continue to mourn the loss
615
00:38:39.480 --> 00:38:42.519
of their younger brother and their family matriarch as they
616
00:38:42.519 --> 00:38:57.679
attempt to move on from the tragedy when Weird Darkness returns.
617
00:38:58.280 --> 00:39:02.320
Steve's childhood was marked by inexplicable and spine chilling encounters,
618
00:39:02.840 --> 00:39:07.079
eerie breathing sounds, the manifestation at his bedside being pushed
619
00:39:07.119 --> 00:39:11.880
down the stairs, all without a rational explanation. Even moving
620
00:39:11.920 --> 00:39:27.119
away wouldn't bring his paranormal tormenting to an end. You know,
621
00:39:27.159 --> 00:39:29.239
if you're listening to this right now, you're already a
622
00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:31.639
part of the Weirdo family. But there is a deeper,
623
00:39:31.880 --> 00:39:35.880
darker corner of this family, and it's called the Official Weirdos.
624
00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:38.639
For just five bucks a month, Official Weirdos get every
625
00:39:38.679 --> 00:39:42.320
episode of Weird Darkness completely commercial free. They get bonus
626
00:39:42.360 --> 00:39:45.440
episodes every single week that nobody else hears. They get
627
00:39:45.519 --> 00:39:48.159
chapters of the audiobooks I'm narrating, and they hear those
628
00:39:48.280 --> 00:39:51.320
chapters before the authors and publishers I'm narrating them for
629
00:39:51.599 --> 00:39:54.800
really before the people who hired me. Every weeknight, Official
630
00:39:54.800 --> 00:39:57.360
Weirdos and I gather for a live premier chat. We
631
00:39:57.480 --> 00:39:59.840
listen to the new episode drop together and talk of
632
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:02.360
about whatever's on our minds while it plays. It's the
633
00:40:02.360 --> 00:40:04.599
closest thing to sitting in the studio with me. The
634
00:40:04.599 --> 00:40:08.000
official weirdos also get direct access to me through personal messaging,
635
00:40:08.079 --> 00:40:10.920
plus inside news about the show and what I'm working
636
00:40:10.960 --> 00:40:13.280
on that nobody else hears about all of that for
637
00:40:13.440 --> 00:40:15.719
just five bucks a month. And if you want to
638
00:40:15.760 --> 00:40:20.239
go deeper, there are higher tiers loyal weirdos and avowed weirdos,
639
00:40:20.280 --> 00:40:23.360
where free Weird Darkness merchandise starts showing up at your
640
00:40:23.360 --> 00:40:28.360
door every three months. Stickers, mugs, posters, t shirts, tote bags, hoodies.
641
00:40:28.519 --> 00:40:30.760
You'll see everything when you visit the page. If any
642
00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:33.079
of that sounds like you're kind of weird, add to
643
00:40:33.079 --> 00:40:36.920
Weirddarkness dot com slash official and join the family. That's
644
00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:40.920
Weird Darkness dot com slash official. The other official weirdos
645
00:40:41.159 --> 00:40:45.320
are anxious to meet you. I'd insert an evil laugh here,
646
00:40:45.320 --> 00:40:47.280
but I think that'd probably be a bit over the top.
647
00:40:50.719 --> 00:40:53.719
The following story is written in first person so as
648
00:40:53.760 --> 00:40:56.800
to not confuse you. Please know that I'm just narrating
649
00:40:56.840 --> 00:41:01.039
the story. It's written by UFO Insights Marcus Loud. Here
650
00:41:01.199 --> 00:41:09.679
is what he wrote. Like almost all other researchers and
651
00:41:09.719 --> 00:41:13.519
writers of strange and mysterious events. I'm often approached by
652
00:41:13.559 --> 00:41:17.000
people who have themselves experienced the most bizarre happenings and
653
00:41:17.079 --> 00:41:20.199
wish to discuss them. This can be people I already
654
00:41:20.239 --> 00:41:23.679
know who bring up such events during conversation, or simply
655
00:41:23.719 --> 00:41:26.440
someone who reaches out from afar with an email or
656
00:41:26.480 --> 00:41:29.880
a message on social media. And while some people are
657
00:41:29.920 --> 00:41:32.639
happy for you to write about these events, many others
658
00:41:32.679 --> 00:41:35.719
are not so keen and almost shy away from the events.
659
00:41:36.800 --> 00:41:39.159
The following account is one that arrived with me through
660
00:41:39.199 --> 00:41:44.719
a conversation several years ago. Sometime around twenty seventeen, myself
661
00:41:44.760 --> 00:41:47.840
and the person involved, Steve, had bummed into each other
662
00:41:47.880 --> 00:41:50.960
by chance after having worked together at a local newspaper
663
00:41:50.960 --> 00:41:54.639
office several years previously. As I had time to kill,
664
00:41:54.719 --> 00:41:56.760
I accepted his offer to go for a pint in
665
00:41:56.840 --> 00:42:00.280
a nearby pub. After catching up, he suddenly he said
666
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:02.719
to me, you're in all that paranormal stuff, aren't you.
667
00:42:02.800 --> 00:42:06.480
Don't you write about it? I confirmed both of these questions,
668
00:42:06.679 --> 00:42:09.639
which led him to offer his tale. He was happy
669
00:42:09.639 --> 00:42:11.920
for me to write about it if I wished, but
670
00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:14.800
I was not to name them. He made it very
671
00:42:14.800 --> 00:42:17.320
clear that as the events now seemed to have stopped,
672
00:42:17.599 --> 00:42:19.840
he had no desire to investigate them or get to
673
00:42:19.880 --> 00:42:21.960
the bottom of just what was at the center of
674
00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:26.519
what proved to be some unsettling and disturbing encounters. With
675
00:42:26.559 --> 00:42:28.920
that in mind, although the details of the accounts remain
676
00:42:29.039 --> 00:42:32.440
exactly as told to me, every other detail, such as
677
00:42:32.480 --> 00:42:36.039
the locations and certainly the person's name, have all been changed.
678
00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:40.639
The strange and mysterious encounters of Steve go back to
679
00:42:40.679 --> 00:42:43.480
when he was very young, sometime around the mid to
680
00:42:43.559 --> 00:42:46.679
late seventies, when he lived with his family his mother, father,
681
00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:50.920
and brother in Newcastle, in the northeast of England. Although
682
00:42:50.920 --> 00:42:54.719
he can't remember precisely when these strange events started, he
683
00:42:54.760 --> 00:42:56.920
does have a clear memory of the first time he
684
00:42:57.000 --> 00:42:59.639
reacted to them, causing his parents to rush into his room.
685
00:43:00.440 --> 00:43:03.079
Steve claimed he was only around three or four years
686
00:43:03.159 --> 00:43:05.400
old at the time and was in his bed going
687
00:43:05.400 --> 00:43:08.760
to sleep. It was dark outside, and given he was
688
00:43:08.800 --> 00:43:11.079
in bed around seven pm, it must have been during
689
00:43:11.079 --> 00:43:14.840
the winter when the encounter took place. On this particular night,
690
00:43:15.039 --> 00:43:17.519
as he lay in the darkened room, the only light
691
00:43:17.599 --> 00:43:19.960
coming from a small glass window at the very top
692
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:22.800
of his bedroom door, he suddenly became aware of a
693
00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:26.840
strange sound. It was faint at first, but was getting
694
00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:30.280
gradually louder, as if whatever the source of this noise
695
00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:33.880
was was getting much closer. In fact, within only seconds,
696
00:43:33.920 --> 00:43:36.320
the sound appeared to be coming from next to his face,
697
00:43:37.079 --> 00:43:40.760
and of more concern, it sounded very much like breathing.
698
00:43:41.599 --> 00:43:45.360
At this revelation, Steve suddenly called out loud for his parents,
699
00:43:45.519 --> 00:43:48.480
screaming their names Mom and Dad over and over again
700
00:43:48.519 --> 00:43:50.719
for what seemed like an age. It was probably no
701
00:43:50.800 --> 00:43:54.000
longer than ten seconds. They each burst into his room,
702
00:43:54.039 --> 00:43:57.559
both frantic as to what was the matter. Steve can't
703
00:43:57.599 --> 00:44:00.480
remember the exact words that spilled from him his mouth,
704
00:44:00.800 --> 00:44:03.039
but he got across quite clearly to his parents that
705
00:44:03.079 --> 00:44:05.960
there was someone in the room and he could hear
706
00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:10.039
them breathing. His parents rushed to his bed, his father
707
00:44:10.119 --> 00:44:13.239
flicking the light on as he did so, Steve recalled
708
00:44:13.280 --> 00:44:16.880
him scanning the room looking for the apparent intruder. There was,
709
00:44:17.159 --> 00:44:21.519
though nobody there. Steve insisted he had heard someone close
710
00:44:21.559 --> 00:44:24.159
to his bed, with the breathing sounds appearing to come
711
00:44:24.239 --> 00:44:27.239
right from next to his head. His mother did her
712
00:44:27.239 --> 00:44:29.760
best to calm him down, insisting that what he had
713
00:44:29.800 --> 00:44:33.760
heard must have been the house settling. His father stated
714
00:44:33.800 --> 00:44:36.639
that she was right. Several minutes later, they urged him
715
00:44:36.639 --> 00:44:39.480
to return back to sleep, offering that they were only
716
00:44:39.519 --> 00:44:43.199
in the next room. Although Steve heard no further sounds
717
00:44:43.280 --> 00:44:46.639
or witnessed anything strange that night, it would be far
718
00:44:46.719 --> 00:44:51.239
from the only such encounter. Steve would hear the strange
719
00:44:51.280 --> 00:44:54.199
breathing type sounds on and off over the next year
720
00:44:54.320 --> 00:44:57.480
or so. For the most part, however, if he simply
721
00:44:57.679 --> 00:45:01.800
ignored them, they ceased, as did the strange presence that
722
00:45:01.840 --> 00:45:06.280
always accompanied the sounds. One particular evening, however, when he
723
00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:10.159
was somewhere between six and seven years old, they didn't stop.
724
00:45:10.719 --> 00:45:15.519
In fact, they progressed into something much more real. As usual,
725
00:45:15.559 --> 00:45:18.599
the sounds had been faint at first, before growing louder
726
00:45:18.639 --> 00:45:21.840
as whatever was behind them approached him. He lay there
727
00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:25.400
silent for several seconds, the breathing sounds appearing to be
728
00:45:25.519 --> 00:45:28.519
right next to his ear, wishing desperately for them to stop.
729
00:45:29.519 --> 00:45:33.960
This time, though they didn't. Not only did the breathing continue,
730
00:45:34.039 --> 00:45:38.239
it began to get all the more intense. Steve continued
731
00:45:38.280 --> 00:45:41.039
to lie as still as he could, shutting his eyes tight,
732
00:45:41.199 --> 00:45:44.400
hoping the act would force the noises to stop. It
733
00:45:44.480 --> 00:45:46.920
was then that he felt a sudden push to the face,
734
00:45:47.199 --> 00:45:49.599
as if someone had pointed their finger right into his
735
00:45:49.719 --> 00:45:53.079
cheek and pushed his face to one side. He immediately
736
00:45:53.079 --> 00:45:56.639
opened his eyes, fully expecting to see someone there, but
737
00:45:56.760 --> 00:46:00.639
he was alone. Then he noticed movement near his bedroom door.
738
00:46:01.360 --> 00:46:03.599
By the time he had turned his attention to the doorway,
739
00:46:03.800 --> 00:46:05.719
all he could see was the head and shoulders of
740
00:46:05.719 --> 00:46:09.079
what appeared to be a man. After a second, they
741
00:46:09.119 --> 00:46:14.039
too disappeared. Rather than call out, he simply remained silent.
742
00:46:14.840 --> 00:46:17.639
He was uncertain if this was through fear or if
743
00:46:17.639 --> 00:46:19.800
it was because he was fairly certain the presence had
744
00:46:19.880 --> 00:46:22.519
vanished and would not return, at least for the rest
745
00:46:22.559 --> 00:46:27.519
of the night. He eventually fell asleep. The incident, however,
746
00:46:27.679 --> 00:46:30.400
was just the first in an escalation of bizarre and
747
00:46:30.440 --> 00:46:33.400
strange events that Steve would find himself in the middle
748
00:46:33.400 --> 00:46:37.840
of over the coming months and years. Several days passed
749
00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:41.559
without incident, perhaps even a week. Then one evening, while
750
00:46:41.559 --> 00:46:44.159
he lay in bed, he noticed the ever more familiar
751
00:46:44.159 --> 00:46:47.519
sound of someone breathing, and as usual, it began to
752
00:46:47.599 --> 00:46:50.880
grow in volume and intensity until he was certain there
753
00:46:50.920 --> 00:46:53.960
was an invisible presence right next to his face. With
754
00:46:54.039 --> 00:46:56.679
the memory of what had happened several nights before fresh
755
00:46:56.719 --> 00:46:59.760
in his mind, he braced himself for an invisible digit
756
00:46:59.800 --> 00:47:03.519
to push at his face any moment. However, this didn't happen,
757
00:47:03.880 --> 00:47:06.960
and for around a minute, the breathing sounds simply continued,
758
00:47:07.360 --> 00:47:10.159
as if there was someone simply knelt by his bed
759
00:47:10.239 --> 00:47:14.320
watching him. Then, as he looked on in horror, the
760
00:47:14.360 --> 00:47:17.679
face and shoulders he had witnessed several nights earlier suddenly
761
00:47:17.719 --> 00:47:20.559
appeared right in front of him. Although it was only
762
00:47:20.639 --> 00:47:23.320
visible for around a second or two, he could see
763
00:47:23.320 --> 00:47:26.840
that the face belonged to a man around fifty years old,
764
00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:30.119
with gray hair and a twisted kind of face. He
765
00:47:30.159 --> 00:47:32.760
could make out some kind of old fashioned suit on
766
00:47:32.840 --> 00:47:36.159
the shoulders, but then it simply faded off into nothingness.
767
00:47:36.920 --> 00:47:39.000
By the time he refocused on the spot where the
768
00:47:39.039 --> 00:47:42.599
man's face was, the manifestation had disappeared, and at the
769
00:47:42.599 --> 00:47:47.960
same time, the breathing sounds stopped once more. Despite the
770
00:47:48.079 --> 00:47:52.239
terrifying and surreal nature of the events, Steve simply remained
771
00:47:52.280 --> 00:47:56.039
still in his bed. He knew his parents wouldn't believe him,
772
00:47:56.360 --> 00:48:00.239
and so he resisted the urge to call out for them. Instead,
773
00:48:00.519 --> 00:48:03.599
he remained in his bed, simply staring at the ceiling
774
00:48:03.679 --> 00:48:08.039
and contemplating just what was happening to him. Once more,
775
00:48:08.119 --> 00:48:11.360
things settled down for a time, aside from the odd
776
00:48:11.400 --> 00:48:14.480
incident of hearing the breathing sounds over the next few months,
777
00:48:14.719 --> 00:48:18.840
and even then they stopped only seconds after they first began. However,
778
00:48:18.920 --> 00:48:22.480
the unsettling encounters would begin again, and this time they
779
00:48:22.519 --> 00:48:25.440
would be of such an intensity that his parents would
780
00:48:25.480 --> 00:48:29.320
be forced to become involved, and in turn Steve would
781
00:48:29.360 --> 00:48:31.599
have to tell them just what had been happening for
782
00:48:31.679 --> 00:48:35.880
the better part of three years at least. What made
783
00:48:35.880 --> 00:48:39.880
this incident stand out more and certainly take Steve by surprise,
784
00:48:40.440 --> 00:48:43.400
was that it happened in broad daylight as opposed to
785
00:48:43.480 --> 00:48:46.760
the night, and for the first time he would encounter
786
00:48:46.840 --> 00:48:51.800
this mysterious entity outside of his bedroom. It was a Saturday,
787
00:48:52.239 --> 00:48:54.800
and Steve had stayed in bed to around ten am
788
00:48:55.079 --> 00:48:57.480
and then played with his toys for another hour or so.
789
00:48:58.360 --> 00:49:01.159
At around eleven am, he decided to venture downstairs and
790
00:49:01.159 --> 00:49:03.159
ask his mother to make him a slice of cheese
791
00:49:03.159 --> 00:49:06.440
on toast He was not thinking of the strange breathing
792
00:49:06.519 --> 00:49:09.840
sounds or who or what might be behind them, so
793
00:49:09.920 --> 00:49:12.119
when he suddenly heard them as he walked out of
794
00:49:12.199 --> 00:49:15.599
his bedroom, he was all the more shocked. He continued
795
00:49:15.639 --> 00:49:18.239
to move along the landing, and the breathing sounds stayed
796
00:49:18.239 --> 00:49:20.719
with him, as if whatever was making them was right
797
00:49:20.800 --> 00:49:24.360
behind him and following him. Eventually, he came to the
798
00:49:24.400 --> 00:49:27.880
top of the stairs and stopped. He stood there at
799
00:49:27.920 --> 00:49:31.880
the top of the stairs, the breathing sound continuing behind him.
800
00:49:32.320 --> 00:49:36.039
He wasn't sure how long he remained there, perhaps three
801
00:49:36.159 --> 00:49:39.280
or four seconds, the sound of heavy breathing continuing right
802
00:49:39.280 --> 00:49:42.639
over his shoulder. He wasn't sure what to do. Should
803
00:49:42.639 --> 00:49:45.079
he call out to his mother, his father was working
804
00:49:45.079 --> 00:49:48.079
overtime until the afternoon, or should he turn around and
805
00:49:48.119 --> 00:49:50.760
see who was there. Before he could make a decision,
806
00:49:50.920 --> 00:49:53.360
he felt a sudden push right in his back and
807
00:49:53.400 --> 00:49:56.719
found himself toppling down the stairs. Before he could come
808
00:49:56.760 --> 00:49:58.880
to his senses, he was lying at the bottom of
809
00:49:58.920 --> 00:50:01.679
the stairs in the hallway, his legs, arms, and back
810
00:50:01.800 --> 00:50:04.480
all aching from bumps he had sustained on the way down.
811
00:50:05.440 --> 00:50:07.559
As he looked back up to the top of the stairs,
812
00:50:07.920 --> 00:50:10.760
he could see a shadowy figure turn around and walk
813
00:50:10.800 --> 00:50:13.559
away on a sight. The next thing he knew, his
814
00:50:13.599 --> 00:50:15.719
mother had come in from the kitchen, alarmed at what
815
00:50:15.760 --> 00:50:19.119
had happened to her son. His mother was almost screaming,
816
00:50:19.239 --> 00:50:21.639
asking Steve what had happened and if he was okay.
817
00:50:22.519 --> 00:50:24.960
Although it took him a few seconds, he managed to
818
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:28.440
pull himself up from the floor. Despite the harrowing and
819
00:50:28.559 --> 00:50:31.239
surreal nature of the events that had seen him plummet
820
00:50:31.239 --> 00:50:33.880
from the top of the stairs, Steve was not frightened
821
00:50:34.239 --> 00:50:38.239
or even physically hurt. However, he found himself breaking into
822
00:50:38.280 --> 00:50:41.599
floods of tears, which caused his mother to hug him tightly,
823
00:50:41.840 --> 00:50:45.719
repeatedly asking him what was wrong. Before he realized what
824
00:50:45.760 --> 00:50:48.679
he was saying, Steve was telling his mother about the
825
00:50:48.719 --> 00:50:52.360
strange breathing noises, the finger he had felt push his face,
826
00:50:52.880 --> 00:50:55.800
the manifestation of the old man beside his bed and
827
00:50:55.840 --> 00:50:58.639
in his doorway, and that he had felt someone push
828
00:50:58.719 --> 00:51:01.960
him down the stairs after hearing the ominous breathing sounds
829
00:51:02.039 --> 00:51:05.920
only moments before. He also told his mother that he
830
00:51:06.000 --> 00:51:08.840
knew the sounds were real and not simply the house
831
00:51:08.960 --> 00:51:14.079
settling or anything else. Things settled down. Over the coming months,
832
00:51:14.639 --> 00:51:16.880
there were no other incidents at all, and for a
833
00:51:16.920 --> 00:51:21.119
time Steve thought things had finally come to an end. Then,
834
00:51:21.599 --> 00:51:24.320
rather out of the blue, his parents would suddenly make
835
00:51:24.400 --> 00:51:27.719
the decision to move to Yorkshire. Although he and his
836
00:51:27.760 --> 00:51:30.360
brother were told this was because of an opportunity for
837
00:51:30.440 --> 00:51:34.280
better work in a factory near Sheffield, Steve suspected it
838
00:51:34.360 --> 00:51:37.199
was because of the strange events he had suddenly divulged
839
00:51:37.280 --> 00:51:40.519
to his mother. When they arrived in their new surroundings,
840
00:51:40.519 --> 00:51:43.800
a typical three bedroom semi detached property on the outskirts
841
00:51:43.800 --> 00:51:46.679
of Sheffield, it appeared as though the move might have
842
00:51:46.760 --> 00:51:51.840
worked in leaving this most mysterious and mischievous entity behind. However,
843
00:51:52.199 --> 00:51:56.760
only several months after the move, things began again, and
844
00:51:56.920 --> 00:52:00.360
like the last incident in Newcastle, the encounters were more
845
00:52:00.440 --> 00:52:04.079
intense than ever. The first few months in their new
846
00:52:04.079 --> 00:52:06.800
home were without incident, and while he would not speak
847
00:52:06.800 --> 00:52:09.679
with his mother or his father again of the strange encounters,
848
00:52:09.960 --> 00:52:12.920
he would find himself in silent stairs with his mother
849
00:52:13.400 --> 00:52:16.320
as if she were asking him if anything had happened recently,
850
00:52:16.440 --> 00:52:19.599
and his look would tell her that it hadn't. Then,
851
00:52:19.840 --> 00:52:24.719
without warning, one evening things began again. He was somewhere
852
00:52:24.719 --> 00:52:27.480
between eight and nine years old, and he was lying
853
00:52:27.519 --> 00:52:30.400
in his bed at night. On this particular evening. It
854
00:52:30.440 --> 00:52:33.840
was quite late, probably around midnight, after Steve was reading
855
00:52:33.880 --> 00:52:37.480
comics with his flashlight. Now, with his flashlight and comic
856
00:52:37.559 --> 00:52:40.239
on his bedside locker, he suddenly noticed the all too
857
00:52:40.239 --> 00:52:44.000
familiar breathing sound once more. This time, though instead of
858
00:52:44.000 --> 00:52:47.840
getting steadily closer, the sound was right next to him,
859
00:52:48.079 --> 00:52:51.880
and this time he suddenly felt extreme terror, more terror
860
00:52:51.920 --> 00:52:54.280
than he had felt in any previous encounter with this
861
00:52:54.440 --> 00:52:58.239
most mysterious presence. Then, before he knew what was happening,
862
00:52:58.519 --> 00:53:03.480
things turned decidedly dark and terrifying. As he lay listening
863
00:53:03.559 --> 00:53:06.199
to the breathing sounds, waiting to see what would happen,
864
00:53:06.280 --> 00:53:09.159
he felt a sudden heavy weight on the top of him.
865
00:53:09.280 --> 00:53:11.760
He could feel a knee pressing onto his leg and
866
00:53:11.800 --> 00:53:14.719
another one pressing down on his stomach, making it difficult
867
00:53:14.760 --> 00:53:17.599
for him to breathe. Of more concern, however, was the
868
00:53:17.639 --> 00:53:20.719
tightening he could feel around his throat, as if a
869
00:53:20.719 --> 00:53:23.800
pair of invisible hands were wrapped around his neck and
870
00:53:23.920 --> 00:53:27.000
was tightening. He attempted to cry out to his parents,
871
00:53:27.079 --> 00:53:30.079
to anyone who might listen and come to his aid. However,
872
00:53:30.239 --> 00:53:33.199
try as he might, the vice like grip prevented him
873
00:53:33.199 --> 00:53:36.000
from doing so. As all this was happening, the sound
874
00:53:36.039 --> 00:53:39.360
of heavy breathing continued, only now it was much more
875
00:53:39.400 --> 00:53:43.000
animated and excited, as if it was enjoying the pain
876
00:53:43.079 --> 00:53:45.840
it was causing him. Steve began to think he was
877
00:53:45.880 --> 00:53:49.760
about to pass out and possibly die. Then, just like that,
878
00:53:50.159 --> 00:53:52.679
the grip was released and the weight on top of
879
00:53:52.760 --> 00:53:56.239
him appeared removed. At the same time, the sound of
880
00:53:56.280 --> 00:53:59.400
heavy breathing began to fade, as if the presence was
881
00:53:59.480 --> 00:54:03.960
disappear into the distance. Then it was no longer audible
882
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:08.320
at all, and the presence was no longer felt. Steve
883
00:54:08.480 --> 00:54:14.159
lay there, contemplating just what had happened. He would have
884
00:54:14.199 --> 00:54:17.320
told his mother of the encounter, but over the coming
885
00:54:17.440 --> 00:54:20.360
months and years, he never encountered the strange events again.
886
00:54:21.119 --> 00:54:23.599
He no longer felt the bizarre presence in his room
887
00:54:23.760 --> 00:54:27.000
and did not hear the sound of strange breathing. It
888
00:54:27.079 --> 00:54:31.320
was as if the presence, whatever it was, suddenly ceased
889
00:54:31.360 --> 00:54:35.639
to exist. Steve, though, would never forget the encounters for
890
00:54:35.679 --> 00:54:39.599
as long as he lived. The encounter of Steve is,
891
00:54:39.639 --> 00:54:42.440
without a doubt, one of the strangest on record, as
892
00:54:42.480 --> 00:54:45.679
well as one of the most unsettling. Just who this
893
00:54:45.800 --> 00:54:49.760
mysterious presence was is not known, nor is it why
894
00:54:49.840 --> 00:54:52.199
it decided to follow the family on their move from
895
00:54:52.239 --> 00:54:56.079
Newcastle to Sheffield. As much of a mystery as why
896
00:54:56.119 --> 00:54:59.480
the encounters suddenly stopped as quickly as they had begun.
897
00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:03.760
Although he remained alert even to the day on which
898
00:55:03.800 --> 00:55:06.400
he told me of the bizarre incidents in case the
899
00:55:06.480 --> 00:55:10.360
encounters began again, he never once heard the strange breathing,
900
00:55:10.719 --> 00:55:13.559
nor did he see or even sense the strange presence,
901
00:55:14.639 --> 00:55:17.199
and while he had contemplated whether he had imagined the
902
00:55:17.239 --> 00:55:20.440
whole thing, he knew that he had not. After the
903
00:55:20.519 --> 00:55:23.639
events suddenly stopped. He never once spoke to his parents
904
00:55:23.639 --> 00:55:26.800
about the strange incident again, both of them had passed
905
00:55:26.840 --> 00:55:28.519
away at the time he told the story to me,
906
00:55:29.320 --> 00:55:32.239
and although he and his brother remain close, Steve is
907
00:55:32.320 --> 00:55:35.199
quite certain that he still remains completely unaware of the
908
00:55:35.239 --> 00:55:38.159
strange encounters that happened under the roofs of the houses
909
00:55:38.199 --> 00:55:42.480
in which he grew up. Whether Steve's brother also experienced
910
00:55:42.519 --> 00:55:46.760
any strange encounters remains unknown. The two brothers have never
911
00:55:46.800 --> 00:55:49.639
spoken about them, so we have to assume that whatever
912
00:55:49.679 --> 00:55:53.400
the entity was, it was Steve who was its main focus.
913
00:55:54.679 --> 00:55:57.199
With that in mind, we might expect to be able
914
00:55:57.239 --> 00:56:00.960
to file this case away as a poltergeisten came due
915
00:56:01.000 --> 00:56:03.400
to the fact that the focus of the strange activity
916
00:56:03.760 --> 00:56:07.719
was a young child, Steve. However, there are many details
917
00:56:08.039 --> 00:56:11.920
synonymous with poltergeist cases that are missing here. Indeed, we
918
00:56:12.039 --> 00:56:14.360
might suspect that this is more of a haunting than
919
00:56:14.400 --> 00:56:17.960
a poultrygeist case, only a haunting of a person rather
920
00:56:18.000 --> 00:56:21.599
than a property or a room. Indeed, due to the
921
00:56:21.639 --> 00:56:24.480
desire of Steve to leave the incidents very much in
922
00:56:24.559 --> 00:56:27.760
the past, it's unlikely that any more information will be
923
00:56:27.760 --> 00:56:31.199
forthcoming in this case, nor will we likely find out
924
00:56:31.280 --> 00:56:34.679
just what entity was behind them. Was it a ghost,
925
00:56:35.440 --> 00:56:38.920
the manifestation of someone who once lived, perhaps even in
926
00:56:38.960 --> 00:56:42.079
the same house in Newcastle, or might it have been
927
00:56:42.159 --> 00:56:45.239
what we would largely recognize as a demon or even
928
00:56:45.280 --> 00:56:49.400
an entity from another realm of existence. One thing is certain,
929
00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:52.840
the case of Steve is one of the strangest and
930
00:56:52.920 --> 00:57:09.679
spine tingling that is now on record. Thanks for listening.
931
00:57:09.880 --> 00:57:12.199
If you like the show. Please share it with someone
932
00:57:12.239 --> 00:57:16.519
you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters,
933
00:57:16.559 --> 00:57:20.360
or unsolved mysteries like you do. All stories on Weird
934
00:57:20.400 --> 00:57:23.760
Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and
935
00:57:23.800 --> 00:57:26.119
you can find links to the stories or the authors
936
00:57:26.239 --> 00:57:30.079
in the show notes. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark
937
00:57:30.440 --> 00:57:33.920
Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of
938
00:57:33.960 --> 00:57:37.679
the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Second
939
00:57:37.760 --> 00:57:42.159
Kings seventeen, verse thirty nine, Rather worship the Lord, your god.
940
00:57:42.440 --> 00:57:44.440
It is he who will deliver you from the hand
941
00:57:44.519 --> 00:57:49.320
of all your enemies. And a final thought, aim at
942
00:57:49.400 --> 00:57:54.280
nothing and you'll hit it every time. I'm Darren Marler.
943
00:57:55.079 --> 00:58:10.960
Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.