Real Ghost Encounters That Made Believers Out of Skeptics | How I Came To Believe In The Paranormal

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For most people to believe in the supernatural, they need
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to live through a convincing ghost story. Plenty of people
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experience supernatural phenomena and become believers in the paranormal, and
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their tales might even make a believer of you. Believers
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and undad spirits share all sorts of real ghost stories
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that might convince people that the supernatural is real. Though
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most specter and poltergeist experiences tend to land somewhere between
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unsettling and utterly terrifying, a few people have ghost stories
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of benign spirits. It appears even the intentions of spirits,
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much like the entities themselves, remain outside the realm of
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human understanding. I'm Darren and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome weirdos.
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I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where
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every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore,
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the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.
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Coming up this hour, people share their own personal tales
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of how they became believers and ghosts and the paranormal.
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If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if
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you're already a member of this Weirdo family, Please take
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a moment and invite someone else to listen. Recommending Weird
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Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to
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keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure
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to visit Weirddarkness dot com, where you can follow me
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on social media, listen to free audiobooks I've narrated, and more.
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That's Weird Darkness dot Com. Now bolt your doors, lock
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your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me
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into the Weird Darkness. Not me, but my mom had one.
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She's been a believer ever since. My grandpa passed away
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on Christmas, his favorite holiday, and after dealing with the shock,
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we started to figure out what to do with his things.
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He was a hardcore hoarder and had barns filled with
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crap that nobody had gone in for probably fifteen years.
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So one night, my mom is sleeping and dreams that
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she woke up to a knock at our back door.
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She goes out and sees my grandpa standing there. Shocked,
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she yells at him that it's two thirty in the morning.
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He tells her that he loves her and that she
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needs to tell my grandma where the money is because quote,
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you always got to tell Memma where the money is,
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she worries unquote. My mom stands there in her dream,
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confused and asks what he's talking about. He goes on
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to say that it's in the barn under all this
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crap on the left hand side. My mom then wakes up,
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thinks it's really strange, but goes and looks in the
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barn anyway, and there it is, right where Grandpa's that.
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It was dozens of coffee cans filled with quarters and
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dollar bills. So weird. I like to think he was
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looking out for my grandma. My friend's aunt and uncle
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live in a one hundred plus year old house and
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a little German neighborhood in our city. They've always sworn
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that they have an elderly female ghost living in their home,
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but most of the family has never seen her, so
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they kind of half believed them, but never completely. Until
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last summer. They were having their kitchen remodeled and had
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some guys doing the floors. While I'm hanging with my friend,
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she gets a call from her aunt. Her aunt, who
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is at work, asks my friend if she could go
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over to the house and check on them, because the
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guys called and said something happened to the house and
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they will not go back in. My friend lives close
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and says, sure, she'll go over and check on them,
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so I go with her because it sounds odd or interesting.
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We go over there and these two redneck guys, one
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older and one young guy, are sitting on the front porch,
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both smoking cigarettes and looking a little shaky. My friend
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walks up, introduces herself and asks them what's up, and
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the old guy nervously says that they were in the
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kitchen ripping up the floor and it got freezing cold
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middle of the summer, mind you, and they both looked
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up to see this old woman standing in the kitchen
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staring at them very disapprovingly. They say she was kind
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of see through and didn't have the bottom half of
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her legs. That's when they freaked out and ran out
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of them house. They tell my friend they will not
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go back in unless somebody from the family is with them.
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The description they gave of the woman was exactly the
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way her aunt and uncle had always described the ghost. Crazy.
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Significant other and I own an old farm for a retirement.
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It's three miles off the blacktop down a winding, tree
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lined dirt road. After rounding a curve, you cross a
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small creek, and there, just above the floodline, sits the
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tiny house, barn, and outbuildings. The house was built before
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nineteen hundred, and the original owners raised eleven children there
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without running water or electricity. There is a spring out back.
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The family owned the property up until the nineteen seventies.
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I was staying there alone shortly after we've purchased the place,
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because my mother, who lived nearby, was fresh out of
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the hospital and I was helping her get back on
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her feet. One afternoon, I rushed into the house to
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get something before running back to mom's I was in
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a terrific hurry and not thinking about anything but the
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task at hand. I rounded a corner into the bedroom
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and was hit with a feeling of a presence. I
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instantly knew someone or something wanted my attention. My heart
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pounded in my ears. I finally said, whoever you are,
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as long as you aren't evil, please show me what
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you have to tell me, but don't scare me. I
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gotta stay here alone. I'll try to help you if
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I can. The image of the back porch step came
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to mind. I'd noticed it right after we closed on
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the property. It was a plain, square stone with beveled edges,
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identical to the Turn of the century headstones in the
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Lonesome Graveyard a mile down the road. Fast forward one week,
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the previous owner stopped by. Before he could sit down,
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I blurted out, is that a tombstone by the back porch?
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The color drained from the previous owner's face and he
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collapsed onto the chair, responding, well, I don't know the
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exact spot, but there is a baby buried in the
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back yard. Seemed the youngest child of the original family,
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The twelfth died at birth or shortly after, and as
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was the tradition in the rural south, the child was
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placed close to the home. The tombstone had always been there,
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nothing carved on it, just flat, and the then owner
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decided it would make a great step and built a
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second door for the tiny back porch. He swore to
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me he had never moved it. We removed the second
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door and are making plans to have the family's name
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and dates that lived here carved on the stone, so
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that when we leave no one makes this mistake again.
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Next to it, I planted daffodils to come up every year,
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the lights coming on and off in the house and
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at the same time in my truck parked outside. It
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stopped and I no longer feel that presence that I
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believe was the baby's mother. She died in a nursing
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home many miles away, and I fear she worried about
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her baby's unmarked grave. More stories of how people came
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to believe in the supernatural and paranormal when Weird Darkness returns,
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I'm Darren Marler. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. Do you
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have a true paranormal story that has happened to you
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or someone you know. You can share it by clicking
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on tell your Story at Weird Darkness dot com and
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I might use it in a future episode. That's Weird
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Darkness dot com and then click on tell your Story.
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We continue now with true stories of how people came
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to believe in ghosts, god, ubblins, and all things strange.
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In macob I moved into a place where the family
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next door and the last tenant of my apartment both
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died in their homes. One night, I was in bed
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and looking at my phone. It suddenly got really cold,
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like walk in freezer cold. I thought that was weird
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for a hot summer night with a subpar air conditioner.
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But I just pulled on some covers and kept reading
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my phone. Then died. All right, that's weird, I thought.
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I went to check my computer, and shortly after browsing there,
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it died too. What the hell? So I was sitting there,
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suddenly aware that I didn't feel alone anymore, With covers
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pulled up to my eyeballs and no phone. I was
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just looking around my room waiting for something to happen.
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The light turned on. Nope. I frantically fumbled from my
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phone and grabbed a bat under my bed because what
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I was going to beat the ghost up? I guess.
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I eventually calmed down enough to remember that people who
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believe in ghosts say that you can ask them to leave.
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I were at the shot. I thought, Hey, so I
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work really early in the morning and I need to sleep.
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You're scaring me, and I'd prefer it if you left. Sorry,
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no hard feelings. No more than five seconds later the
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light went off. I slept in the living room with
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my dog that night. When I was around twelve, my
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family and I moved into a new house. Money was tight,
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so we were renting it. It was a fairly nice
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place and newly built, so I liked the sound of it.
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We arrived to start unpacking. I step inside to check
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the place out, but it just seems off. I tell
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my mom, and she tells me it's because it's a
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fairly new place and to get over it. So I do.
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On the first night, I'm sitting in what was supposed
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to be the dining room playing games on my DS.
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I heard my little brother, who's around six, say, hey, guys.
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When I look over, I see all of the cupboards
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are open. Now, none of us could have reached the
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ones on top because they were way too high. My
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dad was the tallest at the time, when he was
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five foot six. Somehow, my sister manages to convince everyone
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that I'm playing a prank. But I'm freaking out, but
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I somehow managed to convince myself it was just my
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sister trying to get me into trouble. After a few days,
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we all begin to notice other weird things, like shadows
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moving past windows and our puppy barking at one specific
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corner of the house. The shed in the backyard is
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a no goes on for everyone. Even our puppy hates it.
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One Saturday morning, we wake up early while our mom
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is taking our dad to work. He didn't drive. He
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got into an accident when he was eighteen and refused
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to ever drive after that, and my sister and I
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are watching cartoons. Our little brother screams and runs to
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us crying, saying that he saw a witch. When we
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hide in our rooms and tell mom. When she gets back,
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she asks my brother what he saw, and he describes
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a black, shadowy figure, even though it was broad daylight.
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She obviously thinks that it was his imagination, just a kid,
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and she dismisses it. I'm scared to death by all
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these weird things, and I asked my sister if I
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can sleep by her that night. She was doing karate,
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so I felt safe by her and she agrees. But
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that night I wake up early. I look into the
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corner of the room and there it is, just standing
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and staring. It scares the hell out of me, and
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I run to my dad and he lets me sleep
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by him and my mom. After three months, we move out.
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Just a few months ago, Mom and I got to
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talking about that house and she told me that she
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thinks it was haunted. I asked her why, and she
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said something that scared her. She said, I saw a
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black shadow in the corner of your room when you
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were a kid. It was just staring at you. I
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used to hide crosses in your room, thinking it would
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scare it off. After doing some research, Mom found out
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that the owner's husband had died in that house. I
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was about nine or ten. My father had just died
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a few months prior. My mom had left to go
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to work, and I was home with my older sisters,
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and I was feeling particularly happy that day and raced
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around the house, laughing and playing. All of a sudden,
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I heard my mom call my name, so I went
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looking for her. When I got to one side of
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the house, I heard her voice on the opposite end
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of the house, so I ran back. And this went
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on for a few minutes until I remembered seeing her
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leave for work. Suddenly, the voice that was calling me
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became very nasty and creepy sounding. It still resembled my
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mom's voice, but it was different, like two people saying
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my name simultaneously. And then the voice sounded like it
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was in one of the back bedrooms, so I ran
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to it and looked around, and then it called me again,
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but this time it was coming from the closet. As
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I stood in front of the closet, I again remembered
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seeing my mom leave. I started to get scared. That
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was when the voice stopped sounding like my mom and
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sounded downright evil. I don't know why I thought about
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opening the closet door, but I had to see if
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my mom was in there or not. Right when I
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was reaching for the door, another voice told me to
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leave the door alone and go back to the living room.
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I took off, running and crying and told my sisters
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what just happened. They told my mom, and a few
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days later, a woman and a man came and put
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something under our house and around the doorways and told
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me to never answer or listen for that voice again.
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This past summer, my grandmother suddenly passed away from a stroke.
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The day after, I was sitting in my living room
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with my mother when the TV suddenly turned on and
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started blaring Japanese music on YouTube. She was Japanese. We
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checked the source and it turned out that it was
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the laptop connected to the television. It was turned off.
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We were all freaked out, so we checked all of
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00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:15.000
our YouTube account histories and nothing came up. A few
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days later, my brother was looking for videos of her
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to play at the funeral, and he found a video
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00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:22.799
of her looking back and waving. The date stamp on
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the video was the exact date and time as when
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she passed away just a few years earlier. After the funeral,
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all of my house's appliances started breaking down fire alarm, washer, fridge,
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00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:40.519
microwave all Within a few days, we got everything fixed
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up except the microwave, which had to be taken to
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a specific factory for repairs. When my dad drove out there,
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00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:51.000
he realized that the factory was right beside my grandmother's grave.
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Around the same time, my mom, who always drove my
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00:15:54.679 --> 00:15:58.320
grandmother around, started noticing that her car's seatbelt alarm, the
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00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:00.320
one that goes off when you sit on the passenger
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seat without a seat belt, started going off even though
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00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:07.440
my mom was driving alone. I've never been a believer
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in ghosts before, but it oddly gives me a sense
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00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:14.279
of comfort knowing my grandmother could still be with me
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00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:20.879
and I. As a child, I always had bizarre dreams
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00:16:20.919 --> 00:16:23.960
where I had a friend named Michael. He was a
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00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:26.279
young boy a few years older than me, and we
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00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:29.879
always played games and had fun. When I told my parents,
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00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:33.759
they didn't seem to care too much until I described Michael.
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00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:37.559
Unbeknownst to me, he had the same name and appearance
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00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:40.279
as my uncle, who died in a boating accident as
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00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:44.279
a child. His death devastated my grandparents, and so my
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00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:47.559
family never displayed photos of him, and that freaked my
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00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:50.440
mom out. How did I know what he looked like
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or acted like if I'd never met him or even
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seen a picture of him. After a couple of weeks,
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00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:58.919
my family decided to light some candles and prayed in
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an attempt to et exercize him. When I went to
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00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:04.119
bed that night, I had a dream where a very
279
00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:08.599
serious Michael offered me some candy looked like a red jawbreaker.
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He kept insisting over and over that I eat a
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00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:15.359
piece of the candy. Well, seeing him so serious scared
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00:17:15.400 --> 00:17:17.960
me after he'd always been so happy and playful, so
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00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:21.960
I declined his offers. The last thing I remember before
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00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:25.440
waking up was seeing how sad he was, and that
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00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:28.119
was the last time I saw Michael in my dreams.
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When I told my mom. She looked relieved. It told
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00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:35.759
me that that was him trying to take over your body. Well,
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00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:38.319
I once talked about it in about fifteen years, so
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00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:41.240
I'd have to ask my mom about the story again.
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00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:49.640
I was probably seven or eight and my parents were
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00:17:49.640 --> 00:17:53.160
throwing a big summer party for my dad's birthday. All
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00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:56.160
the adults were on the deck or inside, so us kids,
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00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:58.640
maybe eight or so of us between the ages of
294
00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:02.839
five and twelve, to play ghost in the graveyard. Our
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00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:05.400
yard was narrow but very long, with a lot of
296
00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:08.319
grass on the left and a raised deck that spanned
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00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:11.440
the whole right side of the yard. For a short kid,
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00:18:11.480 --> 00:18:14.039
you could easily crouch under and walk around the deck,
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00:18:14.119 --> 00:18:17.440
so it made for some awesome hiding spots. I was
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00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:20.279
at the very back of the yard and hiding next
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00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:22.640
to the shed in the pitch dark. I had a
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00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:25.359
little flashlight, but well, this was my yard, so I
303
00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:27.519
knew every inch of it and was comfortable even in
304
00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:30.000
the dark. I could hear the other kids on the
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00:18:30.039 --> 00:18:32.200
side of the yard that was all grass, but from
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00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:35.359
where I was, I was looking directly at the underside
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00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:37.960
of the deck that went around our above ground pool.
308
00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:41.240
I heard a noise and looked over to see if
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00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:44.440
anybody was coming from under the deck, and I remember
310
00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:48.279
suddenly freezing in place. From under the deck, this thing
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00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:52.839
came forward. It was all black, just this dense black
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00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:56.240
shadow the size of a huge man. Definitely not a kid,
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00:18:56.559 --> 00:18:59.119
and there was no way an adult could have crawled
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00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:00.960
the whole length of deck to the back of the
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00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:04.519
yard with so little noise. It looked like it was
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00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:08.599
made of smoke, and it moved weirdly, like it was unfolding.
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00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:12.200
I was terrified. All I could do was stare and
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00:19:12.279 --> 00:19:15.480
hear my blood pounding in my ears. I stood up
319
00:19:15.559 --> 00:19:18.200
all the way and it looked massive. The only way
320
00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:20.680
I could describe it was like a silhouette of the Hulk.
321
00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:23.880
I swear it stood for a moment and then walked
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00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:27.200
through the chain link fence into my neighbor's yard and
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then blended into the trees. I started crying, ran for it,
324
00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:35.440
found my best friend Adam and just wailed. He was
325
00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:38.160
so confused and just brought me inside to my mom.
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00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:41.440
I was so scared to go outside for a few
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00:19:41.480 --> 00:19:44.440
months after that, and I never went back under the
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00:19:44.440 --> 00:19:48.680
deck again. We moved from that house when I was eleven,
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00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:52.680
I'm twenty eight now, but I can still clearly see
330
00:19:52.759 --> 00:19:55.559
that thing in my mind. I've seen other things a
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00:19:55.559 --> 00:19:58.920
few times since, but that was the first time, and
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00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:04.599
that was the scariest. We'll continue with our true stories
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00:20:04.599 --> 00:20:33.440
of people finding the paranormal when Weird Darkness returns. I'm
334
00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:36.400
Darren Marler. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. You can stay
335
00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:38.680
up to date on everything about the show. You could
336
00:20:38.680 --> 00:20:41.799
read my weekly horror comedy column Mind of Marler. You
337
00:20:41.799 --> 00:20:43.559
can find out where I'll be traveling in the Weird
338
00:20:43.599 --> 00:20:46.559
Darkness suv and more by signing up for the Weird
339
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.319
Darkness email newsletter. You can sign up for free at
340
00:20:49.319 --> 00:20:53.079
Weirddarkness dot com slash newsletter, and every month I choose
341
00:20:53.119 --> 00:20:56.519
one subscriber at random to win Weird Darkness merchandise like
342
00:20:56.559 --> 00:20:59.440
a T shirt, hoodie, your hat. That's Weird Darkness dot
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00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:04.279
comlah newsletter. We continue now with people telling why they
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00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:10.880
finally came around to believing in the pairanormal. I work
345
00:21:10.920 --> 00:21:14.079
in a house built in the eighteenth century owned by
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00:21:14.119 --> 00:21:16.839
a signer of the Declaration of Independence in fact, and
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00:21:16.920 --> 00:21:20.480
I've had plenty of encounters there. Just yesterday, as I
348
00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:23.000
was walking up to the second floor to turn out lights.
349
00:21:23.319 --> 00:21:26.519
I heard someone's sigh really loud and could feel the
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00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:30.960
breath on my shoulder. I've heard conversations occurring and footsteps
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00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:33.880
while I've been the only one in the house. Doors
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00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:38.839
that are completely shut will open by themselves. Thankfully, everything
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00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:42.920
that I've experienced has been benign, but it's still weird.
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00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:49.240
I've always believed, but living in my first one bedroom
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00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:52.759
apartment confirmed there is paranormal stuff in this world that
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00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:56.640
defies explanation. This is one of many events that took
357
00:21:56.720 --> 00:22:01.559
place there. My boyfriend now husband was sleeping beside me.
358
00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:04.319
My bare feet were sticking out of the blankets, and
359
00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:06.960
something had a hold of my right foot, just under
360
00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:11.960
my big toe, not painfully, just gently holding on. I
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00:22:11.960 --> 00:22:14.960
did not look down. I pulled the covers over my head.
362
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:18.039
Freaked me all the hell out, and lasted a good
363
00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:21.839
five minutes before whatever it was let go. I didn't
364
00:22:21.880 --> 00:22:26.200
say anything to my boyfriend. Two nights later, it happened again.
365
00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:29.839
This time I was dead asleep and the feeling woke
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00:22:29.920 --> 00:22:33.119
me up again. I freaked out, but I looked down
367
00:22:33.160 --> 00:22:36.519
to my feet and nothing was there. It was still
368
00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:39.400
gripping my foot, though, so I whispered, hey, let go
369
00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:42.559
of that please. A few seconds later it let go.
370
00:22:43.880 --> 00:22:46.000
The next day I told my boyfriend, who kind of
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00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:48.640
laughed it off. He said, if it grabs my foot again,
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00:22:49.079 --> 00:22:52.240
wake him up. So a week later, when it got
373
00:22:52.279 --> 00:22:55.039
hold of my foot again, I woke him up. He
374
00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:57.720
looked down and shrugged because he didn't see anything, but
375
00:22:57.759 --> 00:22:59.720
I could tell that he was bugged out a little.
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00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:02.559
A few days later, he woke me up in the
377
00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:06.240
middle of the night, shaking like a leaf. He whispered, honey,
378
00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:14.960
it's got my foot. Someone allegedly killed themselves in our
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00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:18.160
parking lot at work. Ever since they did some major
380
00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:22.279
reconstruction around five years ago, plenty of employees have told
381
00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:26.200
stories about odd or weird things happening to them. We
382
00:23:26.279 --> 00:23:29.160
also believe that the ghost only really messes with or
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00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:32.279
picks on the girls, and the men who allegedly killed
384
00:23:32.319 --> 00:23:34.839
himself and the parking lot did so because of a woman,
385
00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:39.839
and he seems to really enjoy picking on me. Very
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00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:42.559
few of the guys believe any of it, because only
387
00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:46.359
one or two of the guys have experienced anything personally.
388
00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:48.920
I've had things fall right in front of me when
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00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:51.319
they were hanging up and that are heavy or difficult
390
00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:54.759
to move in the first place, we constantly hear footsteps
391
00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:58.519
and knocking, and sometimes when we're cleaning, our cleaning supplies
392
00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:01.839
get knocked over or broke when we're not even near them.
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00:24:02.359 --> 00:24:05.519
One night, I finally proved it to my manager. As
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00:24:05.559 --> 00:24:09.359
I closed, the door behind me kept popping open. It
395
00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:12.720
was terrifying, and my manager, who had a background in construction,
396
00:24:13.160 --> 00:24:17.599
couldn't find anything wrong with the hinges or closures. Furthermore,
397
00:24:17.720 --> 00:24:20.079
when you would touch the door, it felt like somebody
398
00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:23.799
was pushing back. Little kids have come out asking about
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00:24:23.799 --> 00:24:25.920
the man who was in there with them while they played,
400
00:24:26.359 --> 00:24:28.319
or asked me to tell the man to stop pushing
401
00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:31.640
them around. A little girl insisted you could see the
402
00:24:31.680 --> 00:24:34.720
man standing on the ramp, but no one was there
403
00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:37.880
that I could see. My best friend at work, and
404
00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:40.119
I finally decided to go into the room with the
405
00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:43.599
most activity when it was dark. We work in black
406
00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:46.920
lights and turned off all the extra noises and things
407
00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:50.720
that could interfere. We recorded audio, and in the first
408
00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:54.319
one we silently walked through the room while recording and
409
00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:57.319
heard nothing. When you play it back, in the first
410
00:24:57.319 --> 00:25:02.200
three seconds, it sounds like someone whispers the camera. In
411
00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:05.519
another recording, my coworker asked if somebody was in there
412
00:25:05.559 --> 00:25:08.640
to make a knocking noise. It was dead silent for
413
00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:11.799
almost thirty seconds, and then a clear knock came through
414
00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:15.079
one of the walls. For the last recording we did,
415
00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:17.880
my coworker and I stayed together and left her phone
416
00:25:17.960 --> 00:25:22.279
upstairs recording. While we went downstairs with my phone. She
417
00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:23.960
asked if it was the ghost of the man who
418
00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:27.599
killed himself, and there were loud noises from one side
419
00:25:27.640 --> 00:25:30.599
of the room, and we hauled ass leaving her phone
420
00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:34.720
in the empty room recording. We left it there. Twenty
421
00:25:34.759 --> 00:25:37.799
minutes later we retrieved it. We listened back to it
422
00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:41.799
and there were noises like footsteps, feet shuffling, knocking, and
423
00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:44.920
at one point it even sounds like something falling, all
424
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:50.759
during the time when nobody had been in the room.
425
00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:55.480
My father's dad committed suicide in nineteen eighty eight. I
426
00:25:55.519 --> 00:25:57.839
never got to know my grandpa since I was born.
427
00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:00.920
Years later. There was a dream my head that I'll
428
00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:03.960
never forget though. Me and my grandfather were hanging out
429
00:26:04.119 --> 00:26:07.319
getting to know one another, talking, laughing, and I was
430
00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:10.799
so happy to see him. I woke up in tears
431
00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:14.279
and feeling like I was missing something. And the weird
432
00:26:14.359 --> 00:26:17.400
part is I look just like him, even down to
433
00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:20.759
the fact that we are both or were both left handed.
434
00:26:21.720 --> 00:26:23.920
My whole life, I have been longing for him in
435
00:26:23.960 --> 00:26:26.799
that relationship because I feel like I embody him in
436
00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:29.279
some way, and I feel like I'm living the life
437
00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:32.920
he wanted but never had. I felt like he's the
438
00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:36.119
best friend that I never got to know, and I
439
00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:40.559
love him even though we never met in real life.
440
00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:42.839
I feel him in me though, and from what my
441
00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:45.240
dad has told me about him, which wasn't a lot,
442
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:48.000
he could have been somebody I would relate to the
443
00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:54.079
most out of my entire small family. When I was younger,
444
00:26:54.119 --> 00:26:57.440
I had an invisible friend that my family and people
445
00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:01.240
knew about, and I called him Tom for some reason.
446
00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:04.079
Between the ages of six and ten, I could just
447
00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:07.640
imagine what future events might be like for people I knew,
448
00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:12.400
my mom, dad, siblings. Pretty soon, I could tell people
449
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.400
exactly where they would be standing at the same time
450
00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:18.759
the next day. All of this occurred while I played
451
00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:21.680
with my friend Tom, who was always smarter and a
452
00:27:21.720 --> 00:27:24.440
step or two ahead of me. It's hard to explain
453
00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:27.720
looking back on those years. Now though I know that
454
00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:35.160
there was something unnatural about what was happening. My downstairs
455
00:27:35.160 --> 00:27:38.720
neighbor passed away a year or two ago. Freaky detail
456
00:27:38.839 --> 00:27:42.640
is that he and my goldfish had the same name, Corr,
457
00:27:43.079 --> 00:27:46.559
a classic Dutch name. The morning I woke up to
458
00:27:46.599 --> 00:27:50.039
find Cor the fish floating belly up was the same
459
00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:54.799
day my neighbor Core passed away. Kor had this decorative
460
00:27:54.880 --> 00:27:58.440
long sword on his wall. After his passing, his wife
461
00:27:58.480 --> 00:28:00.759
moved out and put the sword in the trash, so
462
00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:02.680
I took it out and hung it on my wall.
463
00:28:03.480 --> 00:28:06.920
From then onward, doors have been opening or closing, and
464
00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:10.279
I hear footsteps at night and I always say thanks
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00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:13.640
Cor if I opened door was closed, which always freaked
466
00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:17.160
out my friends and family. Anyway, weirdest thing is that
467
00:28:17.240 --> 00:28:20.480
Cor liked to turn on the tap in the bathroom sink,
468
00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:24.039
really annoying because I would hear the water, have to
469
00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:26.640
get up, turn the water off, and then go back
470
00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:31.160
to sleep. One night it happened twice. The second time
471
00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:32.799
I had to get out of bed, I was kind
472
00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:35.079
of pissed at Cor, and while walking to the bathroom,
473
00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:37.680
I said, damn it, Cor, I'm cool with you. Messing
474
00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:40.359
with the doors. But this water crap is really annoying.
475
00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:42.559
Please cut it out or I'm gonna have to start
476
00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:46.400
charging your rent. Me talking in the middle of the night,
477
00:28:46.720 --> 00:28:49.400
it woke up my stoner roommate, who asked what was up.
478
00:28:49.880 --> 00:28:53.920
I told him about cor the bro ghost or brost
479
00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:56.279
as I called him, and he just looked at me
480
00:28:56.359 --> 00:28:58.359
and said that when he smoked weed and goes to
481
00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:01.559
sleep Stone, you sleep wi a lot and is probably
482
00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:04.119
the one leaving the tap open and getting a glass
483
00:29:04.119 --> 00:29:10.079
of water in the night. When I was about six
484
00:29:10.200 --> 00:29:11.960
or seven, I had to go to the bathroom in
485
00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:14.640
the middle of class. I went to a really old
486
00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:17.400
elementary school and the bathrooms were in the corner of
487
00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:20.920
the basement, which was terrifying already as a small child.
488
00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:25.160
I walked into the bathroom and the first stall wouldn't open.
489
00:29:25.920 --> 00:29:28.079
I peeked under and there weren't any feet, so I
490
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:30.839
knew nobody was in there. I went into one a
491
00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:33.720
few stalls down, went to the bathroom and left the
492
00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:36.759
stall to wash my hands. When I was washing my hands,
493
00:29:36.759 --> 00:29:40.279
I heard the first stall door rattling behind me. I
494
00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:42.160
looked up in the mirror and there was a really
495
00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:45.799
pale girl behind me. She was probably nine or ten,
496
00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:50.000
all in white, and she said softly, help me. I
497
00:29:50.079 --> 00:29:54.359
turned around instantly, but no one was there. I went
498
00:29:54.400 --> 00:29:56.759
over to the stall door and tried to push it open.
499
00:29:57.400 --> 00:30:00.119
It opened easily, and a bracelet fell to the floor.
500
00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:03.319
I ran out of that bathroom and never went back
501
00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:11.400
in again. Multiple reports of an elderly female around the house,
502
00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:16.359
serious skeptics were turned into believers. One night we began
503
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:19.680
discussing it around the kitchen table. My grandfather, who had
504
00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:22.119
been drinking all night, had a tumbler of vodka in
505
00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:24.559
front of him with some ice cubes in it. He's
506
00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:27.079
not filled it or taken a drink for a few minutes.
507
00:30:27.559 --> 00:30:31.359
When we begin speaking of Francis the ghost, he proclaims
508
00:30:31.359 --> 00:30:34.799
it all to be a bunch of bull loudly. There's
509
00:30:34.839 --> 00:30:38.759
no ghost named Francis here. He didn't quite yell, just
510
00:30:38.920 --> 00:30:44.160
said it with conviction. His glass shattered, not broke, not cracked,
511
00:30:44.599 --> 00:30:47.839
shattered as if it had been slammed down on something.
512
00:30:48.519 --> 00:30:52.119
That was the last weird occurrence, and no sighting since then.
513
00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:56.160
I'm convinced Francis was unaware of her purgatory like state
514
00:30:56.480 --> 00:30:59.599
and his yell in her presence shook her from that fog,
515
00:31:00.039 --> 00:31:04.680
and she was able to move on. For as long
516
00:31:04.759 --> 00:31:09.759
as I can remember, I've had hypnagogic hallucinations. That being said,
517
00:31:09.799 --> 00:31:13.839
I can distinctly tell where they end and reality begins,
518
00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:17.960
so I've never truly been frightened or disturbed by them,
519
00:31:18.119 --> 00:31:21.960
as I know they are merely hallucinations. A few years ago,
520
00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:24.240
my sister and I were spending the weekend at my
521
00:31:24.359 --> 00:31:27.559
uncle's house in Idaho. While my sister slept in the
522
00:31:27.559 --> 00:31:30.880
living room, I slept in the guest bedroom. I woke
523
00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:34.000
up with my eyes still closed, and I opened them,
524
00:31:34.119 --> 00:31:37.079
looking up at the ceiling. I looked towards the door
525
00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:39.880
beyond my feet, and I saw a man in his
526
00:31:39.960 --> 00:31:43.880
sixties with long gray hair and a bushy beard, dressed
527
00:31:43.960 --> 00:31:48.160
in plaid overalls and a straw cowboy hat. He simply
528
00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:51.160
stood there with a hand on the door handle, staring
529
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:54.759
at me sideways, wide eyed, with a tight lipped grin.
530
00:31:55.880 --> 00:31:59.079
Terrified like never before, I closed my eyes and hollered
531
00:31:59.079 --> 00:32:02.000
for my sister at the time of my lungs. After
532
00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:04.559
a few seconds, I opened my eyes and the man
533
00:32:04.680 --> 00:32:09.200
was gone. I know when I have hypnagoga hallucinations, and
534
00:32:09.240 --> 00:32:17.319
this was nothing of the sort. I was twelve and
535
00:32:17.480 --> 00:32:20.200
woke up in the middle of the night. My door,
536
00:32:20.240 --> 00:32:23.440
which was usually closed at night, was wide open, and
537
00:32:23.480 --> 00:32:27.000
I could feel somebody glaring at me. I looked up
538
00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:30.200
to see a tall man right outside my room, looking
539
00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:33.440
in towards me. He seemed really angry and would just
540
00:32:33.720 --> 00:32:37.599
keep staring. Although my dad was short, I just assumed
541
00:32:37.640 --> 00:32:40.200
it was him because he was the only other male
542
00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:43.160
in our house. I called out and asked him what
543
00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:46.920
was wrong, but there was no response. It only took
544
00:32:46.920 --> 00:32:50.000
me a while to notice that something was seriously wrong,
545
00:32:50.039 --> 00:32:52.319
and I got so scared. I hid under the covers,
546
00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:56.000
praying that the figure would go away. I was crying
547
00:32:56.079 --> 00:32:59.039
and shaking under my blankets when I started to feel
548
00:32:59.079 --> 00:33:02.319
as if he wasn't looking at me anymore. I looked
549
00:33:02.359 --> 00:33:05.200
out from my covers and he was right in my face,
550
00:33:06.200 --> 00:33:09.160
just kidding. The figure was nowhere to be found, so
551
00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:11.680
I ran out of bed, locked the door, and shoved
552
00:33:11.680 --> 00:33:14.799
my chair under the handle. I guess I fell asleep
553
00:33:14.839 --> 00:33:18.000
somehow after that terrifying incident, because I woke up to
554
00:33:18.039 --> 00:33:20.680
my mom pounding on my door screaming for me to
555
00:33:20.759 --> 00:33:24.039
let her in. I was scolded for locking the door
556
00:33:24.119 --> 00:33:28.039
like that. Just to check, I asked my dad why
557
00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:29.960
he was staring at me in the middle of the night.
558
00:33:31.119 --> 00:33:34.680
He had no idea what I was talking about, so
559
00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:37.599
I tried to chalk it up as either my dad's sleepwalking,
560
00:33:37.720 --> 00:33:40.359
which he had never done in his life, or I
561
00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:43.000
was dreaming and somehow locked the door and shoved the
562
00:33:43.079 --> 00:33:46.680
chair up in my sleep, or someone else came into
563
00:33:46.680 --> 00:33:50.720
our house but didn't steal anything. Yet something just told
564
00:33:50.720 --> 00:33:53.640
me that it wasn't any of the above, and I
565
00:33:53.720 --> 00:33:59.960
had an encounter with a ghost. I walked past my
566
00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:03.759
bedroom door wants and the thing slammed shut. No air
567
00:34:03.799 --> 00:34:06.400
conditioning was on, and the doors and windows were closed,
568
00:34:06.440 --> 00:34:10.440
so it wasn't wind. I've walked past it plenty of times,
569
00:34:10.519 --> 00:34:14.360
and my movement never closed it. I was only wearing socks,
570
00:34:14.440 --> 00:34:17.400
so I'm pretty sure i'd know if I accidentally kicked it.
571
00:34:18.280 --> 00:34:27.880
Plus it closed from the inside up. Next, true stories
572
00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:31.880
of people being buried alive and living to tell about it,
573
00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:36.000
the truth behind the movie The Fox Catcher, and a
574
00:34:36.039 --> 00:34:38.880
story from a Weirdo family member. All of this and
575
00:34:38.960 --> 00:35:08.960
more When Weird Darkness returns. Welcome back to Weird Darkness.
576
00:35:09.199 --> 00:35:12.280
I'm Darren Marler. Have you seen the Monster Channel. It
577
00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:16.320
has horror hosts, b horror movies, retro television commercials, and
578
00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:19.639
a whole lot more. You can watch it anytime, absolutely free.
579
00:35:19.800 --> 00:35:23.199
Twenty four seven, three sixty five on the Monster Channel
580
00:35:23.239 --> 00:35:26.440
page at Weird Darkness dot com. That's the Monster Channel
581
00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:43.679
page at weird Darkness dot com. Fair warning, even if
582
00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:48.239
you are not claustrophobic or taphophobic, what follows might have
583
00:35:48.320 --> 00:35:53.199
you squirming. Mistaken for dead, Many people have been entombed prematurely,
584
00:35:53.519 --> 00:35:57.480
only to awaken to a horrifying reality. There are many
585
00:35:57.519 --> 00:36:00.920
tales of people being accidentally buried alive who are discovered
586
00:36:01.039 --> 00:36:04.920
all too late. But fortunately a few did survive the
587
00:36:04.960 --> 00:36:09.320
horrifying ordeal and can now tell us their experience of
588
00:36:09.320 --> 00:36:12.159
how they made it through and found themselves back in
589
00:36:12.199 --> 00:36:17.079
the world of the living, although in some cases just barely.
590
00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:22.000
Nineteen year old Angelo Hayes was believed to have died
591
00:36:22.039 --> 00:36:25.679
in a motorcycle accident in nineteen thirty seven in France.
592
00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:29.239
Hayes was thrown from his bike into a brick wall
593
00:36:29.800 --> 00:36:34.360
head first after a suspicious insurance agent came to inquire
594
00:36:34.440 --> 00:36:37.039
about the policy Hayes' father had taken out on his son.
595
00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:41.519
The teenager was exhumed two days after his burial. He
596
00:36:41.679 --> 00:36:46.280
was still alive, having slipped into a coma as his
597
00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:49.480
body required less oxygen. In this state, Hayes managed to
598
00:36:49.480 --> 00:36:54.159
survive the ordeal. After rehabilitation, Hayes lived to tell the
599
00:36:54.199 --> 00:36:58.159
tale of his live burial. He became a celebrity throughout France,
600
00:36:58.519 --> 00:37:02.320
and also invented a security coffin complete with a radio transmitter,
601
00:37:02.840 --> 00:37:07.760
food locker, library, and chemical toilet, just in case anyone
602
00:37:07.880 --> 00:37:14.559
found themselves in his same predicament. In twenty fifteen, Natalia
603
00:37:14.599 --> 00:37:16.960
Pasternak and a friend were walking in the woods of
604
00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:20.599
Siberia when they were attacked by a bear. She and
605
00:37:20.639 --> 00:37:23.360
her friend fought back, but the huge bear got the
606
00:37:23.360 --> 00:37:27.639
best of Pasternak, mauling her and knocking her unconscious. Her
607
00:37:27.679 --> 00:37:31.199
friend went for help and flagged down police. The bear,
608
00:37:31.400 --> 00:37:35.000
thinking she was dead, buried Pasternak with leaves and dirt.
609
00:37:35.800 --> 00:37:39.119
He apparently planned on eating her. Later, the bear was
610
00:37:39.199 --> 00:37:43.199
killed and Pasternak went through a long recovery. The attack
611
00:37:43.320 --> 00:37:46.239
gave her a new lease on life. She captured a
612
00:37:46.280 --> 00:37:52.760
picture on social media how Beautiful life is. British magician
613
00:37:52.920 --> 00:37:56.239
Anthony Britton was hoping to pull off an amazing feat
614
00:37:56.320 --> 00:38:00.519
like the great Harry Houdini, but instead nearly died after
615
00:38:00.559 --> 00:38:05.039
being buried alive. Britain wore handcuffs and was buried under
616
00:38:05.119 --> 00:38:08.039
loose dirt with the intent of freeing himself from the
617
00:38:08.159 --> 00:38:12.239
six foot grave. Although he spent fourteen months preparing for
618
00:38:12.280 --> 00:38:15.840
the stunt, Britain wasn't prepared for the actual weight of
619
00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:19.239
the dirt, nor the fact that his arm would become trapped.
620
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:23.280
As the time ticked by, his crew became alarmed and
621
00:38:23.360 --> 00:38:27.760
quickly unearthed the magician. I almost died, he said. I
622
00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:31.360
was just seconds away from death. It was scary. The
623
00:38:31.400 --> 00:38:34.599
pressure of the soil was crushing around me. Even when
624
00:38:34.599 --> 00:38:37.079
I found an air pocket. When I exhaled, the soil
625
00:38:37.119 --> 00:38:40.000
around me was crushing me even more. I could feel
626
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:43.119
myself losing consciousness and there was nothing I could do
627
00:38:43.199 --> 00:38:48.760
about it. I was pretty much dying, Britain said. A
628
00:38:48.800 --> 00:38:51.760
woman was visiting the family plot in twenty thirteen in
629
00:38:51.760 --> 00:38:54.400
a small town in Brazil, which she saw a man
630
00:38:54.519 --> 00:38:57.679
clawing his way out of a grave. His head and
631
00:38:57.719 --> 00:39:01.159
hands were free, but he was struggling to pull himself out.
632
00:39:01.480 --> 00:39:03.960
The woman brought rescue workers to free the man, who
633
00:39:03.960 --> 00:39:07.119
turned out to be an employee at city Hall. The
634
00:39:07.199 --> 00:39:11.159
man has no memory of being buried alive, though authorities
635
00:39:11.239 --> 00:39:15.280
said he was badly beaten before being buried. The theory
636
00:39:15.360 --> 00:39:17.679
is that the man's attackers, believing him to be dead,
637
00:39:18.079 --> 00:39:22.119
buried him in the cemetery to expose of his body.
638
00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:26.000
In nineteen sixty eight, Mike Meanie set out to break
639
00:39:26.039 --> 00:39:29.840
the world record for entombment forty five days set by
640
00:39:29.920 --> 00:39:34.159
American digger Odell. Mini allowed himself to be buried in
641
00:39:34.239 --> 00:39:37.920
a coffin with holes for air, access to food and water,
642
00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:42.000
and a telephone. The barman talked to boxer Joe Lewis
643
00:39:42.039 --> 00:39:46.519
while he was underground. After sixty one days, Mini emerged,
644
00:39:46.679 --> 00:39:50.800
weakened but in good health, otherwise sporting sunglasses as the
645
00:39:50.840 --> 00:39:55.559
coffin lid was pulled away. There were many sick and
646
00:39:55.679 --> 00:39:58.960
dying among the Irish during the Potato famine of eighteen
647
00:39:59.079 --> 00:40:02.920
forty five to eight eighteen fifty two. Tom Garran was
648
00:40:02.960 --> 00:40:06.559
mistaken for dead and was buried in a mass grave.
649
00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:10.559
There are varying reports of what actually happened to Garan,
650
00:40:10.920 --> 00:40:13.280
but one account states that when the grave digger hid
651
00:40:13.320 --> 00:40:16.320
his legs with a spade, the boy cried out in pain.
652
00:40:17.199 --> 00:40:21.400
Although the boy survived, he was handicapped for life. Garan
653
00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:24.360
struggled financially as an adult, but was a cheerful person
654
00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:27.760
and somewhat of a poet. He even wrote a poem
655
00:40:27.800 --> 00:40:33.400
to the Irish government asking for new shoes. A young woman,
656
00:40:33.679 --> 00:40:38.079
Philomela Jeanettri, was taken ill with cholera in eighteen sixty seven.
657
00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:41.639
She was believed to have died, was given her last
658
00:40:41.679 --> 00:40:46.239
rites and buried. Six hours later, as the grave diggers
659
00:40:46.239 --> 00:40:50.159
were finishing up, they heard faint knocking from inside. They
660
00:40:50.280 --> 00:40:53.000
quickly dug her up and could see that Jonettri was
661
00:40:53.119 --> 00:40:57.079
still alive. She stayed alive for a day, but then
662
00:40:57.199 --> 00:41:00.559
passed away, either due to her illness or the damage
663
00:41:00.599 --> 00:41:04.639
caused by being buried alive. Her ordeal inspired the poem
664
00:41:05.039 --> 00:41:08.920
The Ceiling by a Long written in March twenty sixteen.
665
00:41:10.280 --> 00:41:14.039
The view swallows me whole from down here it's cold.
666
00:41:14.800 --> 00:41:18.960
I look up into the light, outlining my hands with darkness.
667
00:41:19.480 --> 00:41:23.400
As I reach past my station and my level, and
668
00:41:23.440 --> 00:41:28.559
my class and my knowing into tomorrow, pushing a little further.
669
00:41:29.079 --> 00:41:32.719
The sticky bits of yesterday's dreams clung to my skin.
670
00:41:33.559 --> 00:41:40.559
Broken stems of possibilities, scrape and bleed past more dusty realities, ineffable,
671
00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:53.239
straining my arms until they were sore further still, Thanks
672
00:41:53.239 --> 00:41:56.159
for listening. If you like the show, please tell somebody
673
00:41:56.239 --> 00:41:59.960
about it who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime,
674
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:03.679
time monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do, and tell
675
00:42:03.679 --> 00:42:05.400
them where they can listen to the show so they
676
00:42:05.400 --> 00:42:08.000
can tune in next time. If you missed me part
677
00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:10.039
of tonight's show, or if you'd like to hear it again,
678
00:42:10.119 --> 00:42:13.079
you can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast
679
00:42:13.119 --> 00:42:16.800
app by searching for Weird Darkness. By doing that, you'll
680
00:42:16.800 --> 00:42:19.320
get a copy of tonight's show, the Sudden Death overtime
681
00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:21.639
content that I planned to use tonight but I didn't
682
00:42:21.679 --> 00:42:25.079
have time for, plus daily podcast episodes that come out
683
00:42:25.119 --> 00:42:28.119
seven days per week. Visit Weirddarkness dot com. You can
684
00:42:28.159 --> 00:42:30.760
also follow me on social media, drop me an email,
685
00:42:30.840 --> 00:42:33.679
send me your own true paranormal story, listen to other
686
00:42:33.760 --> 00:42:37.639
podcasts that I host, and more. All stories used tonight
687
00:42:37.719 --> 00:42:40.840
are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you
688
00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:43.000
can find links to the stories of the authors in
689
00:42:43.039 --> 00:42:46.400
the show notes, which I've already posted at weirddarkness dot com.
690
00:42:46.960 --> 00:42:51.559
Weird Darkness is a registered trademark copyright Weird Darkness. And
691
00:42:51.599 --> 00:42:53.760
now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave
692
00:42:53.840 --> 00:42:57.039
you with a little light mark eight verse thirty six.
693
00:42:57.519 --> 00:42:59.440
What good is it for a man to gain the
694
00:42:59.480 --> 00:43:03.760
whole world yet forfeit his soul? And a final thought,
695
00:43:04.320 --> 00:43:07.960
don't worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss
696
00:43:08.199 --> 00:43:13.760
when you don't even try, Jack Canfield, I'm Darren Marler.
697
00:43:14.400 --> 00:44:23.679
Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Located near
698
00:44:23.800 --> 00:44:27.000
Siler City in the forest of Chatham County, North Carolina,
699
00:44:27.400 --> 00:44:31.079
the Notorious Devil's Tramping Ground is a circle of barren
700
00:44:31.199 --> 00:44:37.239
earth that has inspired fearful myths and frightening legends spanning generations,
701
00:44:38.239 --> 00:44:40.599
Believed to be the preferred place for the Lord of
702
00:44:40.679 --> 00:44:45.199
Darkness to walk alone and contemplate humanity's demise, Stories of
703
00:44:45.239 --> 00:44:49.760
the evil energies surrounding the lifeless clearing reach back hundreds
704
00:44:49.760 --> 00:44:53.239
of years, while rumors of the Devil's role in the
705
00:44:53.280 --> 00:44:58.199
location's origin have persisted. For generations. Modern times have brought
706
00:44:58.280 --> 00:45:01.840
more modern theories to the table. Some believe the ground
707
00:45:01.960 --> 00:45:05.239
was cursed by the bloodshed of a Native American conflict.
708
00:45:05.960 --> 00:45:10.159
Others think the patch is the result of extraterrestrial UFO radiation.
709
00:45:11.360 --> 00:45:14.920
More grounded theories proposed the earth remains barren as the
710
00:45:14.960 --> 00:45:18.119
result of unusually high levels of salt in the soil.
711
00:45:19.239 --> 00:45:22.360
Whatever the theory, plenty of people have added to the
712
00:45:22.400 --> 00:45:25.880
area's mythology in recent years. We'll take a look at
713
00:45:25.880 --> 00:45:30.000
some creepy stories and legends about the Devil's Tramping Ground
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00:45:30.320 --> 00:45:34.280
that might have you rethinking your late summer camping plans.
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00:45:35.119 --> 00:45:48.119
I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome Weirdos.
716
00:45:48.320 --> 00:45:51.480
I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness Radio. For
717
00:45:51.639 --> 00:45:56.880
every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore,
718
00:45:57.320 --> 00:46:05.400
the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.
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00:46:06.519 --> 00:46:10.920
Coming up this hour, John George Haig took the plunge
720
00:46:10.960 --> 00:46:13.519
into murder when he knocked out his old boss and
721
00:46:13.679 --> 00:46:18.199
dumped the body into acid, then set out to kill again.
722
00:46:19.719 --> 00:46:23.000
Only two percent of the population can hear it. A persistent,
723
00:46:23.239 --> 00:46:26.960
maddening sound that science has no explanation for, and the
724
00:46:27.079 --> 00:46:32.280
hearers have dubbed it the hum. The Trump family fled
725
00:46:32.360 --> 00:46:35.800
their farm in twenty sixteen, and there's still no explanation
726
00:46:35.960 --> 00:46:39.079
as to why. One police officer calls it the most
727
00:46:39.079 --> 00:46:43.920
bizarre case he has ever seen. But first. In Chatham County,
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00:46:43.960 --> 00:46:46.840
North Carolina, there is a forty foot wide circle in
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00:46:46.840 --> 00:46:52.000
the wilderness where absolutely nothing grows. Some believe Satan himself
730
00:46:52.239 --> 00:46:56.800
is responsible. We begin there. If you're new here, welcome
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00:46:56.840 --> 00:46:58.800
to the show. And if you're already a member of
732
00:46:58.840 --> 00:47:01.599
this weirdo family, please make a moment and invite someone
733
00:47:01.599 --> 00:47:04.440
else to listen in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to
734
00:47:04.480 --> 00:47:06.599
others helps make it possible for me to keep doing
735
00:47:06.599 --> 00:47:09.599
the show. While you're listening, be sure to visit Weirddarkness
736
00:47:09.679 --> 00:47:12.000
dot com, where you can follow me on social media,
737
00:47:12.280 --> 00:47:15.519
listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated, and more. That's
738
00:47:15.639 --> 00:47:21.559
weird Darkness dot Com. Now bulg your doors, lock your windows,
739
00:47:21.960 --> 00:47:25.400
turn off your lights, and come with me into the
740
00:47:25.480 --> 00:47:44.639
weird Darkness. The Devil's Tramping Ground got its name from
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00:47:44.679 --> 00:47:48.639
its lack of living vegetation within a clearly defined circle.
742
00:47:49.639 --> 00:47:54.719
According to the Encyclopedia of North Carolina, normal vegetation surrounds
743
00:47:54.719 --> 00:47:58.039
the circle, but only a wiry grass grows inside it,
744
00:47:58.440 --> 00:48:01.440
and no plant life of any kind can be found
745
00:48:01.480 --> 00:48:06.000
on the path itself. Additionally, locals have been unsuccessful in
746
00:48:06.039 --> 00:48:09.760
trying to transplant that wiry grass to other soils, and
747
00:48:09.880 --> 00:48:14.119
any living vegetation intentionally planted within the Devil's tramping ground
748
00:48:14.679 --> 00:48:19.840
withers soon after. As dictated by local legend, any foreign
749
00:48:19.920 --> 00:48:24.000
object placed inside the circle, and especially within the barren
750
00:48:24.119 --> 00:48:27.760
foot wide path that encompasses it, will disappear from the
751
00:48:27.800 --> 00:48:31.760
area by the next day. A similar claim is presented
752
00:48:31.760 --> 00:48:35.719
by the website North Carolina Ghosts. If an object is
753
00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:38.960
left in the circle before dusk, it will be aggressively
754
00:48:39.119 --> 00:48:43.920
moved outside of the circle by dawn. Even people are
755
00:48:43.960 --> 00:48:47.559
allegedly ejected from the clearing of the night. According to
756
00:48:47.599 --> 00:48:50.679
a legend shared by tumbler user All the Stuff I Like,
757
00:48:51.320 --> 00:48:54.480
Boy Scout troops have tried camping in the circle that
758
00:48:54.559 --> 00:48:57.199
have woken up in their tents a few miles away.
759
00:48:58.199 --> 00:49:00.559
Some guys tried to stay up all night in a
760
00:49:00.599 --> 00:49:04.800
tent on that spot, and leader reported that a soft, soothing,
761
00:49:04.960 --> 00:49:08.880
melodic voice lulled them to sleep, and then they too
762
00:49:09.440 --> 00:49:13.480
woke up a few miles away. The barren circle and
763
00:49:13.519 --> 00:49:16.960
the desolate path that surround it are often attributed to
764
00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:20.599
the devil himself, who allegedly walks the circle at night,
765
00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:27.039
plotting and scheming. The Colorado interviewed locals for insight into
766
00:49:27.079 --> 00:49:30.519
the infamous area, explaining legend has it the circle is
767
00:49:30.559 --> 00:49:34.000
the Devil's playground, believers say, every night, when the clock
768
00:49:34.039 --> 00:49:37.599
strikes twelve, becomes up one path and stomps around in
769
00:49:37.639 --> 00:49:42.039
a circle, eliminating all growth and life, before going back
770
00:49:42.079 --> 00:49:47.519
down a second path. North Carolina ghosts dot Com, a
771
00:49:47.559 --> 00:49:50.360
website devoted to all the local legends of the tar
772
00:49:50.400 --> 00:49:54.320
Heel State, shares in his tramping ground, the devil spends
773
00:49:54.360 --> 00:49:57.400
his nights pacing around and around in a circle and
774
00:49:57.480 --> 00:50:00.760
turning his bitter mind towards ways to bring human souls
775
00:50:00.760 --> 00:50:05.440
to damnation. It's the scorching heat of his cloven hoofprints
776
00:50:05.480 --> 00:50:09.079
that wither the vegetation and has rendered the soil barren.
777
00:50:09.639 --> 00:50:13.039
He angrily brushes aside anything left in his path, his
778
00:50:13.199 --> 00:50:17.079
great strength easily able to toss aside even the heaviest objects.
779
00:50:18.760 --> 00:50:23.280
According to locals, hunting dogs and pets refuse to cross
780
00:50:23.320 --> 00:50:28.239
the circle's path, and many reportedly bark, growl, snarl, and
781
00:50:28.400 --> 00:50:32.320
bare their teeth in the direction of the clearing. According
782
00:50:32.360 --> 00:50:36.280
to North Carolina Ghosts, dogs whimper when they near the circle.
783
00:50:37.119 --> 00:50:39.760
Other animals will dig their heels into the sand and
784
00:50:39.840 --> 00:50:44.679
refuse to be brought into the circle's bounds. Many supernatural
785
00:50:44.719 --> 00:50:48.559
explanations for the tramping ground have been suggested, and many
786
00:50:48.599 --> 00:50:52.280
of them involve the land's rumored importance to Native American
787
00:50:52.320 --> 00:50:56.679
tribes in the area. In Kaila Ambrose's book Ghost Hunting
788
00:50:56.760 --> 00:51:01.039
North Carolina, she recounts local legends claiming that early settlers
789
00:51:01.079 --> 00:51:05.000
believed the Baron Circle was a sacred area belonging to
790
00:51:05.039 --> 00:51:08.840
the local tribes. These tribes allegedly used the site for
791
00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:13.960
ceremonies and rituals. Local lore collected by the website North
792
00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:19.320
Carolina Ghosts presents a similar, yet more unfortunate tale, claiming
793
00:51:19.360 --> 00:51:21.519
that the place was the site of a battle between
794
00:51:21.599 --> 00:51:25.559
two rival tribes, and the blood of the victims soaked
795
00:51:25.599 --> 00:51:29.039
the ground so thoroughly that nothing would ever grow there again.
796
00:51:30.880 --> 00:51:33.639
The Lost Colony of Roanoke has sparked some of the
797
00:51:33.679 --> 00:51:38.480
most famous outlandish and frightening supernatural theories in the history
798
00:51:38.480 --> 00:51:41.159
of the US, and some believe that all of these
799
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can be tied to the Devil's Tramping Ground. The entire
800
00:51:45.360 --> 00:51:49.480
colony of Roanoke Island seemingly disappeared from what is now
801
00:51:49.599 --> 00:51:53.679
North Carolina when the colony's leader, John White, returned to
802
00:51:53.800 --> 00:51:57.599
England for supplies. The only remaining clue was the word
803
00:51:57.880 --> 00:52:03.679
Croa or possibly crowatch hoen, carved into a tree. Some
804
00:52:03.760 --> 00:52:06.840
local legends suggest that a battle fought by two Native
805
00:52:06.880 --> 00:52:09.760
American tribes at the site of the Devil's Tramping Ground
806
00:52:10.280 --> 00:52:13.599
scarred the land, and the losing tribe eventually fled to
807
00:52:13.639 --> 00:52:17.760
the outer banks. There they formed the Croatoan tribe and
808
00:52:17.760 --> 00:52:21.920
befriended the Roanoke Island colonists, who intermarried into the Croatan
809
00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:26.960
tribe to avoid total starvation. In essence, the legend claims
810
00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:29.280
the tramping ground is cursed by the blood of the
811
00:52:29.320 --> 00:52:34.400
tribe's fallen warriors. Given the perfectly circular and lifeless patch
812
00:52:34.440 --> 00:52:37.159
of earth that makes up the Devil's Tramping Ground and
813
00:52:37.239 --> 00:52:41.880
the clearing's supposed similarity to crop circles, modern local legends
814
00:52:41.880 --> 00:52:44.480
have begun suggesting the site could be the result of
815
00:52:44.679 --> 00:52:48.760
visitors from another world. One of the most prominent theories
816
00:52:48.800 --> 00:52:53.559
linking the locale to extraterrestrials addresses the unusual circular pattern
817
00:52:53.599 --> 00:52:57.000
of the barren patch. According to more recent lore, the
818
00:52:57.039 --> 00:53:01.119
location was possibly the site of a superadvanced u which
819
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radiated the land and exterminated the grass. One of the
820
00:53:05.320 --> 00:53:09.079
most remarkable and unusual aspects of the Devil's tramping ground
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00:53:09.559 --> 00:53:13.519
is its unusual geometric shape. The area isn't just a
822
00:53:13.559 --> 00:53:17.920
broad path of barren earth. It's nearly a perfect circle,
823
00:53:18.440 --> 00:53:23.400
measuring between thirty and forty feet in diameter. Perfect circles,
824
00:53:23.679 --> 00:53:28.280
rarely seen in natural formations, are often folklorically connected to
825
00:53:28.320 --> 00:53:33.599
supernatural occurrences. For example, circles of mushrooms are widely known
826
00:53:33.639 --> 00:53:38.599
as ferry rings. Perhaps stranger than the desolate circle itself
827
00:53:38.920 --> 00:53:42.559
is the utterly barren footpath, the one supposedly paced by
828
00:53:42.599 --> 00:53:47.039
the devil himself, that surrounds a slightly less scorched central circle,
829
00:53:47.880 --> 00:53:51.000
one geometrically perfect circle in the middle of the forest.
830
00:53:51.239 --> 00:53:56.440
It is uncommon, but two occurring naturally is extremely rare.
831
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Those who originally settled in Chatham County were largely of Scottish,
832
00:54:01.480 --> 00:54:04.760
Irish and German descent. They came from an age in
833
00:54:04.800 --> 00:54:07.440
Europe in which beliefs in the devil and other supernatural
834
00:54:07.480 --> 00:54:11.039
phenomena were very popular. In general, all these entities were
835
00:54:11.199 --> 00:54:16.119
widely feared. King James Fourth, also known as King James I,
836
00:54:16.880 --> 00:54:22.119
even wrote a book in sixteen o three about black magic, witches, demons,
837
00:54:22.159 --> 00:54:26.800
and the Prince of Darkness entitled Damonology. When the devil
838
00:54:26.800 --> 00:54:30.760
fearing Scotch Irish immigrants began settling in the US, especially
839
00:54:30.800 --> 00:54:34.599
in North Carolina, they brought their devout Old World beliefs
840
00:54:34.760 --> 00:54:38.480
with them. This may be one reason why many geographical
841
00:54:38.480 --> 00:54:43.360
oddities and unusual locales, including the tramping ground, soon became
842
00:54:43.400 --> 00:54:48.159
associated with the Dark Lord. As North Carolina Ghosts points out,
843
00:54:48.440 --> 00:54:53.119
North Carolina has a devil's rock, a devil's courthouse, seven
844
00:54:53.199 --> 00:54:59.079
devils kill, devil hills, devil's branch, devil's chimney, devil's nest,
845
00:54:59.639 --> 00:55:04.599
four devil's elbows, two devil's forks, a devil's knob, and
846
00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.440
even the devil's tater patch. The Devil's tramping Ground is
847
00:55:09.480 --> 00:55:12.239
said to be as old as Chatham County itself, which
848
00:55:12.360 --> 00:55:16.039
was founded in seventeen seventy one. The legend of the
849
00:55:16.079 --> 00:55:20.400
devil himself pacing Chatham County's forests was allegedly brought over
850
00:55:20.480 --> 00:55:23.840
by the scotch Irish settlers in the eighteenth century, when
851
00:55:23.920 --> 00:55:29.559
fear of the devil was extremely widespread. Stories, urban legends,
852
00:55:29.559 --> 00:55:33.320
and local lores surrounding the strange appearance and unsettling energy
853
00:55:33.320 --> 00:55:36.239
of the Devil's tramping ground have been recorded for nearly
854
00:55:36.280 --> 00:55:40.639
three centuries. It had been reported by Chatham locals, visitors,
855
00:55:40.639 --> 00:55:44.840
and passers by the mystery of the Devil's tramping Ground
856
00:55:44.880 --> 00:55:48.199
has been known since Chatham County was founded shortly before
857
00:55:48.280 --> 00:55:52.360
the War for Independence. According to North Carolina ghosts, from
858
00:55:52.400 --> 00:55:57.920
generation to generation, the story has been passed down when
859
00:55:57.920 --> 00:56:01.400
the location is linked to the actual deby. One recurring
860
00:56:01.400 --> 00:56:04.159
suggestion claims that no one can ever spend the night
861
00:56:04.360 --> 00:56:07.880
without losing their sanity. This is perhaps due to the
862
00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:11.280
rumor that the devil, when pacing the circle, drops the
863
00:56:11.320 --> 00:56:14.280
illusions with which he disguises himself when he appears to
864
00:56:14.360 --> 00:56:17.559
men in his natural state. The face of this fallen
865
00:56:17.599 --> 00:56:20.400
angel is so horrible that no man can see it,
866
00:56:20.519 --> 00:56:24.920
and remain sane. The lore surrounding the area stresses that
867
00:56:24.960 --> 00:56:27.320
when people have tried to spend the night in the circle,
868
00:56:27.800 --> 00:56:31.360
possibly to disprove the rumor of the devil's pacing, or
869
00:56:31.440 --> 00:56:35.719
alternatively to meet the devil himself, something they see on
870
00:56:35.760 --> 00:56:39.519
their vigils drives them out of their wits, never to recover.
871
00:56:40.960 --> 00:56:44.239
Reporter Ethan fine Silver took two dogs and a brave
872
00:56:44.440 --> 00:56:47.719
female companion along for a camping trip to the Devil's
873
00:56:47.800 --> 00:56:50.679
tramping ground. They set up their tent in the middle
874
00:56:50.719 --> 00:56:53.719
of the circle and spent the night there. None of
875
00:56:53.800 --> 00:56:57.119
us woke up outside the circle. Fine Silver wrote, my
876
00:56:57.239 --> 00:57:00.239
nineteen eighty eight Nissan Sentra didn't stall when I drove
877
00:57:00.239 --> 00:57:05.440
it over the circle. The dogs roamed happily, no cowering. However,
878
00:57:05.559 --> 00:57:09.199
fine Silver admitted that's likely due to power of suggestion
879
00:57:09.440 --> 00:57:14.079
and the prominence of the legend. His adventure wasn't entirely uneventful.
880
00:57:15.039 --> 00:57:17.679
I thought I heard footfalls, he said. They weren't nearly
881
00:57:17.719 --> 00:57:20.639
loud enough to be someone walking around the tent. They
882
00:57:20.679 --> 00:57:24.119
were muffled, sort of ghostly. One of the dogs was
883
00:57:24.239 --> 00:57:28.760
staring out the screen window with a dreamy look. North
884
00:57:28.800 --> 00:57:32.840
Carolina soil scientist Richard Hayes told The Colorado One that
885
00:57:32.880 --> 00:57:35.679
he began testing the soil of the Devil's Tramping Ground
886
00:57:35.800 --> 00:57:38.840
in the mid two thousands. He studied the area under
887
00:57:38.840 --> 00:57:43.000
the hypothesis that there was something inhibiting plant growth. One
888
00:57:43.039 --> 00:57:45.760
of the natural things we find in Chatham County is copper.
889
00:57:46.719 --> 00:57:50.159
According to the report, the results didn't show any copper,
890
00:57:50.559 --> 00:57:53.480
and they didn't prove another of Hayes's theories about high
891
00:57:53.480 --> 00:57:57.800
salt concentration either. He's concluded that he couldn't explain what
892
00:57:58.039 --> 00:58:02.360
was happening at the site. Scientific Hayes later said that
893
00:58:02.400 --> 00:58:06.280
despite higher concentrations of certain minerals inside the circle than
894
00:58:06.320 --> 00:58:09.199
outside of it, none of the readings, none of the
895
00:58:09.280 --> 00:58:14.039
data showed that plants couldn't live there. According to a
896
00:58:14.079 --> 00:58:16.679
sign posted along the path leading up to the circle,
897
00:58:17.079 --> 00:58:20.960
the area is now additionally known as the Chatham County Vortex,
898
00:58:21.440 --> 00:58:26.000
and it's described as a famous energy vortex. A Magdalen
899
00:58:26.119 --> 00:58:29.159
crystal column of energy is anchored to this site. The
900
00:58:29.199 --> 00:58:33.360
sign declares this very high vibrating energy helps to balance
901
00:58:33.360 --> 00:58:38.440
feminine and masculine energies, strengthens harmony, and expands human consciousness.
902
00:58:39.960 --> 00:58:43.880
The philosophy of Magdalene Crystal columns is rooted in the
903
00:58:43.960 --> 00:58:48.039
New Age belief of an invisible network of divine feminine
904
00:58:48.199 --> 00:58:52.320
malay energy surrounding the planet based on the spiritual power
905
00:58:52.360 --> 00:58:55.639
of Mary Magdalen. Personally, I think there's a better chance
906
00:58:55.679 --> 00:58:58.800
of the devil doing it than some weird energy force.
907
00:59:05.840 --> 00:59:09.800
Up next, John George Haig took the plunge into murder
908
00:59:10.079 --> 00:59:12.920
when he knocked out his old boss and dumped the
909
00:59:12.960 --> 00:59:17.239
body into acid and then set out to kill again
910
00:59:18.480 --> 00:59:22.239
but first. Only two percent of the population can hear it,
911
00:59:22.760 --> 00:59:27.360
a persistent maddening sound that science has no explanation for,
912
00:59:28.000 --> 00:59:32.119
and the hearers have dubbed it the hum. That story
913
00:59:32.239 --> 01:00:07.880
is up next on Weird Darkness. Some describe it as
914
01:00:08.280 --> 01:00:12.880
sounding like an engine idling just outside the house. Others
915
01:00:12.920 --> 01:00:16.719
report hearing a low frequency rumble, but almost everyone who
916
01:00:16.719 --> 01:00:20.079
can hear it two percent of the population by some estimates,
917
01:00:20.440 --> 01:00:24.280
agrees on one thing. The hun, as it has been called,
918
01:00:24.760 --> 01:00:28.639
is a persistent, maddening noise for which the scientific world
919
01:00:28.719 --> 01:00:34.320
has no known explanation. Since it was first reported in Bristol, England,
920
01:00:34.320 --> 01:00:38.320
in nineteen seventy, this elusive phenomenon has plagued thousands of
921
01:00:38.320 --> 01:00:42.880
people across the globe, slowly eroding their sanity. One of
922
01:00:42.920 --> 01:00:47.320
them is Steve Colhas, an industrial facilities mechanical engineer living
923
01:00:47.360 --> 01:00:52.760
in Brookfield, Connecticut. In Garrett Harkowicz's short documentary Doom Vibrations,
924
01:00:53.199 --> 01:00:57.400
Colhast describes the noise as your ears are ringing real bad.
925
01:00:57.480 --> 01:00:59.320
If it's a bad day, it feels like your brain
926
01:00:59.400 --> 01:01:04.119
is being squad east. It's nauseating. Colease says his dog, too,
927
01:01:04.280 --> 01:01:07.599
seems to suffer from the noise. Once he started hearing it,
928
01:01:07.840 --> 01:01:13.599
the canine became lethargic and has never recovered. In the film,
929
01:01:13.880 --> 01:01:17.119
Colhase lays out the extensive evidence he is collected on
930
01:01:17.199 --> 01:01:21.480
the unexplained noise pollution. The quest for answers has consumed him.
931
01:01:21.840 --> 01:01:24.800
He estimates that he has spent thirty thousand dollars on
932
01:01:24.880 --> 01:01:29.400
legal fees and equipment related to his independent investigation. The
933
01:01:29.480 --> 01:01:33.159
single through line in all reported cases Colhaes has studied
934
01:01:33.760 --> 01:01:37.440
is that the locations are along high pressure gas pipelines,
935
01:01:38.000 --> 01:01:41.559
or at least in close proximity to them. The phenomenon
936
01:01:41.559 --> 01:01:46.679
has spawned many conspiracy theories. Sufferers known as hummers, have
937
01:01:46.840 --> 01:01:51.239
pointed fingers at sources such as electrical power lines, wireless
938
01:01:51.239 --> 01:01:57.440
communication devices, and low frequency electromagnetic radiation. For decades, doctors
939
01:01:57.480 --> 01:02:01.760
dismissed patient's complaints as tonitis, an auditory problem that affects
940
01:02:01.800 --> 01:02:05.559
fifteen percent of people, but the latest research suggests that
941
01:02:05.639 --> 01:02:09.039
the noise is not a hallucination and that many hummers
942
01:02:09.119 --> 01:02:13.920
do not suffer from impaired hearing. Doctor David Boggley, an
943
01:02:13.960 --> 01:02:18.239
audiologist at Adwin Brooks Hospital in Cambridge, estimates that about
944
01:02:18.239 --> 01:02:21.760
a third of cases can be attributed to environmental causes
945
01:02:22.159 --> 01:02:25.920
such as industrial machinery and a nearby factory, but the
946
01:02:25.960 --> 01:02:30.920
majority of the cases still remain unexplained. Bugley himself believes
947
01:02:30.920 --> 01:02:34.320
that many of his patients suffer from extreme sensitivity to
948
01:02:34.400 --> 01:02:38.519
signals outside the normal range of human hearing. I think
949
01:02:38.559 --> 01:02:42.440
most people view the hum as a fringe belief, Harkowik says,
950
01:02:42.800 --> 01:02:46.119
because it's so subjective. People say they hear something that
951
01:02:46.199 --> 01:02:48.800
most people can't hear. But when you look at the
952
01:02:48.920 --> 01:02:51.519
vast number of people who say they hear it, it's
953
01:02:51.559 --> 01:02:55.400
obvious that there is something going on. So does the
954
01:02:55.400 --> 01:03:00.960
filmmaker subscribe to Coolhes's gas pipeline theory? Some parts are
955
01:03:01.119 --> 01:03:06.159
definitely believable, others less so, Harkowik said. He admits that
956
01:03:06.199 --> 01:03:11.239
some of Colhes's wilder extrapolations veer into conspiracy theory territory.
957
01:03:11.719 --> 01:03:14.159
I don't think we'll ever know for sure, though, he says,
958
01:03:14.360 --> 01:03:17.639
since it would require an extraordinary amount of coordination and
959
01:03:17.760 --> 01:03:21.920
work to prove it. But Harkowick was drawn to Colhes's
960
01:03:21.960 --> 01:03:26.519
story regardless of the relative plausibility of his claims. When
961
01:03:26.559 --> 01:03:29.280
I make something about a person with unusual beliefs, I
962
01:03:29.320 --> 01:03:31.840
no longer go into it thinking what will it be
963
01:03:32.039 --> 01:03:34.880
like if they realize they're wrong, he says. I spend
964
01:03:34.880 --> 01:03:37.440
more time on how they arrived at their beliefs and
965
01:03:37.559 --> 01:03:41.360
what of myself I see in them. In this case,
966
01:03:41.360 --> 01:03:45.599
the filmmaker identified with Cohlhes's obsessive devotion to his project,
967
01:03:46.159 --> 01:03:49.039
despite the fact that it had very little broad appeal.
968
01:03:49.960 --> 01:03:53.320
The response to his research was underwhelming to him, but
969
01:03:53.400 --> 01:03:58.760
the people he has positively impacted keeps him going. Harkowick said,
970
01:03:58.840 --> 01:04:02.119
I often feel the same way about documentary film. I
971
01:04:02.159 --> 01:04:06.400
spend years on a project, inevitably feel underwhelmed by the response,
972
01:04:06.719 --> 01:04:09.840
but ultimately keep working because one or two people email
973
01:04:09.960 --> 01:04:12.519
me to say it meant something to them. I think
974
01:04:12.599 --> 01:04:45.519
most creative people would identify with Steve's story. Welcome back
975
01:04:45.519 --> 01:04:48.440
to Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marler. If you'd like to
976
01:04:48.480 --> 01:04:51.320
display your dark weirdness wherever you go. You can find
977
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your kids, stickers, magnets, coffee bugs, hats, and more in
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the Weird Darkness Store, with dozens of designs to choose
980
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from and a variety of colors to match your style.
981
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Grab some weirdo merchandise for yourself, or maybe as a
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01:05:08.679 --> 01:05:11.480
gift for the weirdo in your life, by clicking on
983
01:05:11.840 --> 01:05:30.440
store at Weird Darkness dot com. Red wine, ice cream,
984
01:05:30.920 --> 01:05:34.760
a warm bath. These are wonderful ways to unwind after
985
01:05:34.800 --> 01:05:38.199
a long day at work. But as we've seen time
986
01:05:38.280 --> 01:05:42.360
and time again, even the most soothing of activities can
987
01:05:42.400 --> 01:05:47.960
be twisted into terror by a madman's dark imagination. Such
988
01:05:48.039 --> 01:05:51.880
is the grizzly case of John George Hay, a serial
989
01:05:51.960 --> 01:05:55.320
killer from England who used bubble baths of acid to
990
01:05:55.360 --> 01:05:59.360
dispose of his victims. Born in nineteen oh nine to
991
01:05:59.400 --> 01:06:03.199
an ultra religious Plymouth Brethren, family. John George Hay was
992
01:06:03.280 --> 01:06:07.480
raised in Yorkshire, England. His upbringing was strict, to say
993
01:06:07.480 --> 01:06:11.199
the least. His father reportedly constructed a ten foot fence
994
01:06:11.239 --> 01:06:13.840
around their yard as a means of blocking out the neighbors.
995
01:06:14.639 --> 01:06:18.960
With no playmates, young John grew up alone at night,
996
01:06:19.239 --> 01:06:23.360
he was haunted by nightmares. The first signs of trouble
997
01:06:23.400 --> 01:06:26.519
appeared in his early twenties. After a series of odd
998
01:06:26.559 --> 01:06:29.480
office jobs, John was canned on the suspicion that he
999
01:06:29.519 --> 01:06:33.480
had stolen company money. His life took a brief turn
1000
01:06:33.559 --> 01:06:36.280
for the better in nineteen thirty four when he married
1001
01:06:36.280 --> 01:06:40.360
a woman named Betty Hamer, but the marriage fell apart
1002
01:06:40.719 --> 01:06:45.519
soon after John landed himself in jail for fraud. While
1003
01:06:45.519 --> 01:06:48.880
behind bars, Betty gave birth to a baby girl, whom
1004
01:06:48.920 --> 01:06:53.239
she put up for adoption. John's conservative parents refused to
1005
01:06:53.360 --> 01:06:56.719
accept the decision and forever shunned their son from the
1006
01:06:56.760 --> 01:07:02.159
family alone. When released from prison, John moved south to London,
1007
01:07:02.280 --> 01:07:04.840
where he picked up work as a chauffeur for a
1008
01:07:04.840 --> 01:07:09.519
wealthy businessman named William mcswan in nineteen thirty six, yet
1009
01:07:09.519 --> 01:07:13.199
his criminal ways bubbled back up. For the next seven years,
1010
01:07:13.280 --> 01:07:16.239
John was in and out of jail for various crimes.
1011
01:07:17.119 --> 01:07:19.440
It was during this time that he dreamed up the
1012
01:07:19.559 --> 01:07:24.679
perfect murder. How can one kill and then truly get
1013
01:07:24.840 --> 01:07:30.840
rid of the body sulfuric acid? Of course, to test
1014
01:07:30.880 --> 01:07:35.159
his plan, John caught mice and submerged their helpless bodies
1015
01:07:35.199 --> 01:07:38.800
and acid. There he saw it. The critters were gone
1016
01:07:38.880 --> 01:07:43.159
within thirty minutes. In nineteen forty three, John was freshly
1017
01:07:43.199 --> 01:07:46.880
released from prison and reconnected with his old boss, William mcswan.
1018
01:07:47.679 --> 01:07:50.719
William invited the freed convict to dinner at his parents'
1019
01:07:50.719 --> 01:07:57.960
home and celebration. Shortly thereafter, William disappeared. John told William's
1020
01:07:58.039 --> 01:08:00.559
parents that he'd gone into hiding to a Lloyd being
1021
01:08:00.639 --> 01:08:04.960
drafted into World War II, but the truth was far grizzlier.
1022
01:08:05.719 --> 01:08:09.000
John had lured William into his basement, where he cracked
1023
01:08:09.039 --> 01:08:11.920
him on the head, then dumped him into a forty
1024
01:08:11.960 --> 01:08:15.760
gallon barrel of sulfuric acid. Within a couple of days,
1025
01:08:16.199 --> 01:08:21.920
William went from grown man to goop. Afterward, John moved
1026
01:08:21.920 --> 01:08:25.560
into William's estate, claiming the businessman had asked him to
1027
01:08:25.600 --> 01:08:28.960
do so. But with World War II drawing to a close,
1028
01:08:29.319 --> 01:08:33.960
William's parents wondered why their son remained in hiding. They
1029
01:08:33.960 --> 01:08:37.560
soon voiced their suspicions to John. He knew of one
1030
01:08:37.600 --> 01:08:41.239
way to quiet the fussy couple, though, give them an
1031
01:08:41.279 --> 01:08:45.840
acid bath. With the entire mcswan family now out of
1032
01:08:45.880 --> 01:08:50.560
the picture, John began cashing William's pension checks. He sold
1033
01:08:50.600 --> 01:08:53.880
off their belongings for around eight thousand pounds or three
1034
01:08:54.000 --> 01:08:57.319
hundred thousand in today's pounds. With money in hand, the
1035
01:08:57.399 --> 01:09:04.119
killer moved into the Onslow Court Hotel, London's posh Kensington district. Eventually, however,
1036
01:09:04.479 --> 01:09:08.199
the funds ran out, especially after John gambled much of
1037
01:09:08.239 --> 01:09:12.000
it away. While on the hunt for more cash, the
1038
01:09:12.079 --> 01:09:15.159
killer spotted a promising real estate ad in the local paper.
1039
01:09:15.960 --> 01:09:18.920
He traveled to the home of doctor Archibald Henderson and
1040
01:09:19.000 --> 01:09:23.239
his wife Rose, pretending to be an interested buyer. John
1041
01:09:23.359 --> 01:09:27.439
soon struck up a relationship with the affluent couple. In
1042
01:09:27.479 --> 01:09:31.520
February of nineteen forty eight, John convinced his newfound friends
1043
01:09:31.520 --> 01:09:34.000
to take a drive into the country and visit his
1044
01:09:34.119 --> 01:09:39.079
new workshop in West Sussex. Upon arrival, John gunned down
1045
01:09:39.279 --> 01:09:42.560
the Hendersons and dumped their bodies in the baths. He
1046
01:09:42.640 --> 01:09:46.600
then collected their belongings and pawned it off for money. Yes,
1047
01:09:47.239 --> 01:09:50.880
the acid bath murderer had cooked up quite the chilling racket.
1048
01:09:51.600 --> 01:09:55.399
Lower wealthy acquaintances out to his workshop of horrors, send
1049
01:09:55.399 --> 01:09:58.880
them to the vats, then sell off their possessions for cold,
1050
01:09:59.000 --> 01:10:04.760
hard cash. John's next and final victim was Olive durand Deacon,
1051
01:10:05.159 --> 01:10:09.199
a wealthy widow living at the Aonslow Court Hotel of
1052
01:10:09.279 --> 01:10:12.800
all possible things. Miss durand Deacon wanted to meet with
1053
01:10:12.880 --> 01:10:18.159
John to discuss a brilliant new idea artificial fingernails. John
1054
01:10:18.239 --> 01:10:21.640
happily invited her to his West Sussex workshop, where he
1055
01:10:21.680 --> 01:10:24.920
shot her dead and then submerged her body into the acid.
1056
01:10:26.159 --> 01:10:29.560
This time, however, the acid bath murderer failed to cover
1057
01:10:29.600 --> 01:10:33.520
his tracks. Detectives soon connected the missing woman to John
1058
01:10:33.800 --> 01:10:36.960
and began looking into his lengthy record of prior arrests.
1059
01:10:37.720 --> 01:10:41.560
When authorities searched his West Sussex workshop, they found evidence
1060
01:10:41.600 --> 01:10:45.079
of missus Durand's deacon, plus some papers referring to his
1061
01:10:45.239 --> 01:10:49.760
earlier victims. As for the body erasing acid baths, the
1062
01:10:49.800 --> 01:10:52.680
plan was not as fool proof as John thought. The
1063
01:10:52.720 --> 01:10:56.560
pathologist identified three gallstones and a piece of a denture
1064
01:10:56.720 --> 01:11:01.239
amongst the remaining sludge objects that could withstaate a slathering
1065
01:11:01.279 --> 01:11:06.640
of sulfuric acid. Authorities arrested John and charged him with murder.
1066
01:11:07.359 --> 01:11:11.319
He soon confessed to the killings. The man pled insanity,
1067
01:11:11.520 --> 01:11:14.680
claiming he'd been driven mad by a childhood nightmare that
1068
01:11:14.800 --> 01:11:17.920
returned to him as an adult. I saw before me
1069
01:11:18.000 --> 01:11:21.600
a forest of crucifixes, which gradually turned into trees, he
1070
01:11:21.680 --> 01:11:25.159
recounted of the dream. At first, there appeared to be
1071
01:11:25.439 --> 01:11:29.000
dew or rain dripping from the branches, but as I approached,
1072
01:11:29.239 --> 01:11:32.159
I realized it was blood. The whole forest began to
1073
01:11:32.239 --> 01:11:35.359
writhe in the trees, dark and erect to ooze blood.
1074
01:11:36.119 --> 01:11:38.720
A man went from each tree, catching the blood. When
1075
01:11:38.720 --> 01:11:41.680
the cup was full, he approached me. Drink, he said,
1076
01:11:42.159 --> 01:11:46.359
but I was unable to move. The courtroom had little
1077
01:11:46.399 --> 01:11:50.359
interest in John's strange vision. A guilty verdict was handed
1078
01:11:50.399 --> 01:11:54.880
down on all counts. In August nineteen forty nine, John
1079
01:11:54.960 --> 01:11:57.319
George Hay was put to death by one of England's
1080
01:11:57.359 --> 01:12:10.319
longest serving executioners at pierpont Up. Next, the Trump family
1081
01:12:10.479 --> 01:12:14.520
fled their farm in twenty sixteen. There's still no explanation
1082
01:12:14.720 --> 01:12:18.079
as to why, and one police officer calls it the
1083
01:12:18.119 --> 01:12:23.079
most bizarre case he has ever seen. That story. When
1084
01:12:23.159 --> 01:12:57.520
Weird Darkness returns, I'm Daryn Martler. Welcome back to Weird Darkness.
1085
01:12:57.720 --> 01:12:59.479
If you like what you're hearing and you'd like to
1086
01:12:59.520 --> 01:13:02.159
hear even more, you can check out the free audiobooks
1087
01:13:02.199 --> 01:13:05.680
I've narrated at Weirddarkness dot com. I've got free audiobooks
1088
01:13:05.680 --> 01:13:10.560
there by Algernon Blackwood, Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King, HP Lovecraft,
1089
01:13:10.680 --> 01:13:14.000
Charles Dickens, and Moore. In fact, my latest one is
1090
01:13:14.000 --> 01:13:17.359
from Robert Lewis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll
1091
01:13:17.560 --> 01:13:21.600
and Mister Hyde. The entire audiobook absolutely free. You can
1092
01:13:21.640 --> 01:13:39.640
find it on the audiobooks page at Weird Darkness dot com.
1093
01:13:39.880 --> 01:13:43.680
In late August of twenty sixteen, the Trump family of Sylvan,
1094
01:13:43.760 --> 01:13:48.039
Australia abandoned the family berry farm and successful earth moving
1095
01:13:48.079 --> 01:13:53.319
business and went off the grid, albeit briefly. The members
1096
01:13:53.319 --> 01:13:57.000
of the family left their cell phones, passports, and credit
1097
01:13:57.039 --> 01:14:00.840
cards behind, with no explanation or warning that they were
1098
01:14:00.920 --> 01:14:05.279
leaving town. The family, Mark and Jacoba, and their adult
1099
01:14:05.399 --> 01:14:10.399
children Rihanna, Mitchell and Ella drove North. Why did the
1100
01:14:10.439 --> 01:14:14.800
Trump family leave behind all their possessions and why would
1101
01:14:14.800 --> 01:14:17.840
they put on such a bizarre act with everyone they
1102
01:14:17.920 --> 01:14:22.920
came across. Even after the family returned home after nearly
1103
01:14:22.960 --> 01:14:27.079
a week, there were no answers. The media and amateur
1104
01:14:27.119 --> 01:14:32.039
sleuths have speculated about possible reasons, but the speculation remains
1105
01:14:32.239 --> 01:14:37.359
just that, and the family's temporary exodus remains an enigma.
1106
01:14:37.640 --> 01:14:41.359
On August twenty ninth, twenty sixteen, members of the Trump
1107
01:14:41.399 --> 01:14:44.399
family piled into the family car and drove away from
1108
01:14:44.479 --> 01:14:48.840
their berry farm and their successful business, without so much
1109
01:14:48.880 --> 01:14:52.399
as a word to their friends or extended family. The
1110
01:14:52.439 --> 01:14:56.880
family drove nearly one thousand miles across Australia. No one
1111
01:14:56.960 --> 01:14:59.840
realized the family was missing at first, but it was
1112
01:15:00.199 --> 01:15:04.119
and long before the family of five splintered into individual groups,
1113
01:15:04.600 --> 01:15:08.600
their erratic behavior finally drawing attention to the situation at hand.
1114
01:15:09.920 --> 01:15:12.960
When the police were alerted to the family's bizarre disappearance
1115
01:15:13.039 --> 01:15:16.079
by Rhianna and Ella, the first thing they did was
1116
01:15:16.119 --> 01:15:20.119
pay a visit to the tromps abandoned Berry farm. Inside
1117
01:15:20.159 --> 01:15:25.079
the house, the doors were unlocked. Authorities discovered personal possessions
1118
01:15:25.159 --> 01:15:29.880
left conspicuously out in the open. Passports, cell phones, and
1119
01:15:29.920 --> 01:15:33.159
credit cards, the kinds of items most people in the
1120
01:15:33.199 --> 01:15:35.960
modern world would take with them on a road trip.
1121
01:15:36.479 --> 01:15:39.880
They were all left sitting on the table. The abandoned
1122
01:15:39.880 --> 01:15:44.800
items suggested that Tromps didn't want to be followed. The
1123
01:15:44.840 --> 01:15:47.880
one member of the family who realized something was off
1124
01:15:48.000 --> 01:15:51.720
about his parents was their son, Mitchell, who brought along
1125
01:15:51.760 --> 01:15:56.000
his phone on this impromptu excursion. He realized the family
1126
01:15:56.079 --> 01:15:58.680
was being delusional and that his phone would be the
1127
01:15:58.720 --> 01:16:01.880
one lifeline to civilisation if things were to go south.
1128
01:16:03.119 --> 01:16:05.399
When his parents found out about the phone, they made
1129
01:16:05.479 --> 01:16:08.399
Mitchell throw it out the car window to keep them
1130
01:16:08.439 --> 01:16:12.680
from being electronically tracked. Once that was out of the equation,
1131
01:16:12.800 --> 01:16:17.600
the family was truly cut off from civilization. Five hundred
1132
01:16:17.640 --> 01:16:21.319
miles into the family's thousand mile road trip, Mitchell Trump
1133
01:16:21.359 --> 01:16:24.239
had had enough of the family's shenanigans and left them
1134
01:16:24.279 --> 01:16:28.600
to their own devices. At seven am in Bathurst, west
1135
01:16:28.600 --> 01:16:31.359
of Sydney, he left the group and took a series
1136
01:16:31.399 --> 01:16:36.079
of trains back home. After everyone returned home safe and sound,
1137
01:16:36.520 --> 01:16:39.640
Mitchell expressed regret at leaving his family when he did.
1138
01:16:40.479 --> 01:16:42.560
He told the press he should have helped his family
1139
01:16:42.600 --> 01:16:45.720
as things spiraled out of control, but at the time
1140
01:16:45.800 --> 01:16:49.079
his decision made sense. I thought getting out was the
1141
01:16:49.119 --> 01:16:52.479
best idea for me at the time. In hindsight, I
1142
01:16:52.520 --> 01:16:54.520
should have tried to stay with them and try to
1143
01:16:54.560 --> 01:16:57.600
help them, bring them back around and talk to them more.
1144
01:16:57.600 --> 01:17:01.760
But I got out of the car. No one knew
1145
01:17:01.800 --> 01:17:05.199
the family was missing until Rihanna and Ella Trump cut
1146
01:17:05.239 --> 01:17:08.319
away from their parents while at the Genoleen Caves, a
1147
01:17:08.439 --> 01:17:12.560
popular tourist destination. The two sisters took possession of a
1148
01:17:12.640 --> 01:17:15.760
car and drove to Gulburn, about two hours south of
1149
01:17:15.800 --> 01:17:20.079
their departure point. Once they arrived, the girls reported their
1150
01:17:20.079 --> 01:17:23.560
parents missing, a call that sent the county's authorities on
1151
01:17:23.640 --> 01:17:27.600
a scramble to find the couple. After regrouping at home,
1152
01:17:27.760 --> 01:17:30.359
Mitchell and Ella spoke to the press about their parents
1153
01:17:30.479 --> 01:17:34.119
on behavior, saying that they had never acted this way before,
1154
01:17:34.159 --> 01:17:38.520
but insisting that they weren't dangerous. After Ella and Rihanna
1155
01:17:38.640 --> 01:17:42.479
escaped to Goulbourn, they went their separate ways. Ella drove
1156
01:17:42.520 --> 01:17:45.800
the rest of the way home, while Rihanna, still apparently
1157
01:17:45.800 --> 01:17:49.640
suffering from some form of psychosis, slipped into the back
1158
01:17:49.680 --> 01:17:53.439
of a truck. The driver didn't realize Rihanna was hiding
1159
01:17:53.439 --> 01:17:55.640
in his truck bed until he'd been on the road
1160
01:17:55.680 --> 01:17:58.439
for about an hour. When he tried to speak to her,
1161
01:17:58.720 --> 01:18:02.119
she was in a catatonic state and claimed she didn't
1162
01:18:02.159 --> 01:18:05.600
know who or where she was. It was only after
1163
01:18:05.640 --> 01:18:08.359
she was taken to a psychiatric hospital that she was
1164
01:18:08.399 --> 01:18:13.079
identified as Rihanna Trump. After taking a car in Gulburn,
1165
01:18:13.399 --> 01:18:15.760
Ella had the wheels to make it back home before
1166
01:18:15.800 --> 01:18:19.560
the rest of her siblings. After her arrival, Mitchell got
1167
01:18:19.600 --> 01:18:22.159
back as well, having hopped a few trains in order
1168
01:18:22.199 --> 01:18:25.680
to make it back to the family farm, the police
1169
01:18:25.680 --> 01:18:29.159
were already waiting for the siblings. Ella was charged with
1170
01:18:29.279 --> 01:18:32.279
taking the vehicle while the police continued their search for
1171
01:18:32.319 --> 01:18:36.359
the parents. However, under section thirty three of the Mental
1172
01:18:36.359 --> 01:18:39.520
Health Act of New South Wales, the charges were later
1173
01:18:39.600 --> 01:18:44.000
dropped once their children parted ways. The parents didn't stick
1174
01:18:44.039 --> 01:18:47.119
together for long either. While Jacoba tried to take a
1175
01:18:47.159 --> 01:18:50.960
bus back home, Mark continued to streak of unsettling behavior.
1176
01:18:51.960 --> 01:18:55.439
He began tailgating a young couple who eventually stopped their car.
1177
01:18:56.319 --> 01:18:59.079
Mark responded by getting out of his vehicle, but after
1178
01:18:59.119 --> 01:19:01.399
standing in the middle of the road and staring at
1179
01:19:01.399 --> 01:19:04.279
the couple for a brief time, he suddenly ran into
1180
01:19:04.279 --> 01:19:08.720
the woods. Following his disappearance, Mark was connected with break
1181
01:19:08.840 --> 01:19:12.880
ends at Miller's Cottage, a hotel in Wangarata, and the
1182
01:19:12.920 --> 01:19:17.720
Milliwa General Store. Nothing was taken or damaged, so the
1183
01:19:17.840 --> 01:19:22.680
Wangarata authorities didn't press charges. As Mark Trump was causing
1184
01:19:22.800 --> 01:19:26.560
small scale havoc across the Wangarata area, his wife was
1185
01:19:26.600 --> 01:19:30.119
attempting to travel home. However, she was in too much
1186
01:19:30.119 --> 01:19:32.680
of a state of shock to get further than Yes,
1187
01:19:33.279 --> 01:19:37.159
a little over three hours away from Wangarata. Once she
1188
01:19:37.319 --> 01:19:40.239
arrived in Yes, she tried to book a hotel room,
1189
01:19:40.479 --> 01:19:44.880
but didn't have any way of paying. After exhibiting various
1190
01:19:44.880 --> 01:19:48.119
signs of confusion, she was transported to a hospital by
1191
01:19:48.199 --> 01:19:52.039
one of the locals. The staff immediately recognized who she
1192
01:19:52.319 --> 01:19:55.560
was and called the police. She was checked into a
1193
01:19:55.600 --> 01:20:01.039
psychiatric hospital and placed under observation. The the strangest details
1194
01:20:01.079 --> 01:20:04.520
about the Trump's family's disappearance, and one that lends itself
1195
01:20:04.560 --> 01:20:08.520
to many conspiracy theories, is the surplus of financial documents
1196
01:20:08.520 --> 01:20:12.359
the police found when they searched the family's home. In
1197
01:20:12.399 --> 01:20:15.920
addition to the credit cards, cell phones, and passports, found
1198
01:20:16.000 --> 01:20:20.279
lying around. Authorities discovered stacks of the Trump's financial records.
1199
01:20:20.680 --> 01:20:22.600
From the looks of it, the family had gone through
1200
01:20:22.640 --> 01:20:25.359
their personal records and placed them all around the house
1201
01:20:25.399 --> 01:20:29.840
before taking off. When asked to explain the odd behavior,
1202
01:20:30.119 --> 01:20:34.000
including but not limited to their sudden departure, the Trump
1203
01:20:34.079 --> 01:20:38.000
family didn't have an answer. The family wasn't on drugs,
1204
01:20:38.279 --> 01:20:42.119
and nobody was diagnosed with any mental health issues. The
1205
01:20:42.159 --> 01:20:45.800
police officer who knows the family personally said the Trumps
1206
01:20:45.920 --> 01:20:48.960
weren't in debt, nor were they part of any fringe
1207
01:20:49.039 --> 01:20:54.039
religious groups. After leaving the hospital, Rihanna Trump said stress
1208
01:20:54.039 --> 01:20:56.800
had been building up in the family for years and
1209
01:20:56.920 --> 01:20:59.960
suggested the incident was simply how the tension finally let
1210
01:21:00.079 --> 01:21:04.880
itself out. While the Trumps chalk up their inexplicable, if
1211
01:21:04.960 --> 01:21:09.079
temporary behavior to a build up of stress, online observers
1212
01:21:09.079 --> 01:21:12.960
and other amateur sleuths have come up with other theories
1213
01:21:13.319 --> 01:21:17.800
to explain the family's disappearance. Some people believe the mob
1214
01:21:18.119 --> 01:21:21.960
was in pursuit, primarily owing to the financial statements stacked
1215
01:21:22.039 --> 01:21:24.640
up in the Trump's home, but there's no evidence of
1216
01:21:24.680 --> 01:21:29.920
any involvement with organized crime. Among other suggested possibilities, are
1217
01:21:30.079 --> 01:21:34.520
environmental toxins from the family's farm, although once again the
1218
01:21:34.600 --> 01:21:37.880
details about what those toxins are and what effect they
1219
01:21:37.880 --> 01:21:42.800
may have had remain vague. The Australian media has questioned
1220
01:21:42.840 --> 01:21:47.199
whether carbon monoxide might have been the culprit. The BBC
1221
01:21:47.479 --> 01:21:51.399
reports Mark was increasingly stressed out and growing paranoid that
1222
01:21:51.479 --> 01:21:55.000
someone was after his money. The report went on to
1223
01:21:55.039 --> 01:21:58.479
suggest that his paranoia may have inflicted members of his family,
1224
01:21:59.079 --> 01:22:02.239
leading to a psyche theatric condition known as the foliadu
1225
01:22:02.880 --> 01:22:07.720
or the madness of two. After six days, the family
1226
01:22:07.800 --> 01:22:10.960
was finally brought back together when Mark Tromp was found
1227
01:22:11.079 --> 01:22:15.399
walking near the Wangarata Airport. Police determined he was not
1228
01:22:15.439 --> 01:22:18.000
a threat and released him into the care of his brother,
1229
01:22:18.159 --> 01:22:23.279
a police officer. Mark's strange behavior initially continued on the
1230
01:22:23.359 --> 01:22:26.640
drive home, but he later settled down and even released
1231
01:22:26.640 --> 01:22:30.159
a statement thanking the authorities found him and apologized for
1232
01:22:30.199 --> 01:22:34.520
his actions. An officer in the Sylvan district of Victoria
1233
01:22:34.840 --> 01:22:37.960
called the Tromp disappearance the most bizarre case I've seen
1234
01:22:38.239 --> 01:22:43.000
in thirty years. After being reunited, the family said they
1235
01:22:43.039 --> 01:22:46.039
wanted time to process what they had been through, and
1236
01:22:46.119 --> 01:22:50.199
the inherent weirdness of their disappearance. The family members who
1237
01:22:50.239 --> 01:22:53.079
spoke to the media, especially Mark and his son Mitchell,
1238
01:22:53.520 --> 01:22:56.000
were quick to apologize for the money spent on the
1239
01:22:56.039 --> 01:23:00.000
search and the panic they caused. Mark Trump told the
1240
01:23:00.159 --> 01:23:03.279
Sydney Morning Herald, I'm conscious of the burden these events
1241
01:23:03.279 --> 01:23:06.239
have placed upon our extended family, friends and the community
1242
01:23:06.279 --> 01:23:10.960
resources devoted to our aid without reservation. I apologize for
1243
01:23:11.000 --> 01:23:15.600
the hurt and concern caused by these events. But he
1244
01:23:15.640 --> 01:23:41.760
never did explain what on earth actually happened. This is
1245
01:23:41.760 --> 01:23:44.600
actually a story my dad told me. It happened to
1246
01:23:44.640 --> 01:23:47.159
him when he was a kid. My dad lived in
1247
01:23:47.199 --> 01:23:50.199
a small town in Mexico. He was nine years old
1248
01:23:50.239 --> 01:23:52.680
at the time, and because my grandfather was up here
1249
01:23:52.680 --> 01:23:54.840
in Arizona, he had to get a job to help
1250
01:23:54.880 --> 01:23:58.039
put food on the table. The year was nineteen fifty seven.
1251
01:23:58.880 --> 01:24:01.800
He was walking back home. The distance from the market
1252
01:24:01.840 --> 01:24:05.439
he helped at and his house were approximately about three miles.
1253
01:24:05.680 --> 01:24:08.159
He had to walk through an avocado grove and then
1254
01:24:08.279 --> 01:24:11.079
cross a dirt road to get to his house. It
1255
01:24:11.119 --> 01:24:14.079
was late fall and it got dark pretty early, so
1256
01:24:14.359 --> 01:24:16.439
he was heading home around eight pm and it was
1257
01:24:16.479 --> 01:24:20.000
already very dark. As he made his way through the grove,
1258
01:24:20.199 --> 01:24:23.880
he started feeling pretty uneasy. It was like someone was
1259
01:24:24.039 --> 01:24:27.000
watching him. He felt a bit better when he came
1260
01:24:27.039 --> 01:24:29.960
to the halfway point of the avocado grove. It was
1261
01:24:30.000 --> 01:24:32.000
marked with a post that was lit up with a
1262
01:24:32.079 --> 01:24:36.199
light bulb. It was a dim light, but a light nonetheless.
1263
01:24:36.760 --> 01:24:40.439
Once he walked past it, though, that feeling returned. He
1264
01:24:40.479 --> 01:24:42.840
started whistling to get his mind off the fact that
1265
01:24:42.880 --> 01:24:45.920
he was scared. A few minutes passed and he felt
1266
01:24:45.960 --> 01:24:49.279
like something rubbed up on his leg. There was just
1267
01:24:49.399 --> 01:24:51.199
enough light for him to be able to see it
1268
01:24:51.279 --> 01:24:54.840
was a medium sized dog, at least that's what he
1269
01:24:54.880 --> 01:24:57.479
thought it was. When he came to the side of
1270
01:24:57.479 --> 01:25:00.359
the dirt road, a car happened to be driving past.
1271
01:25:01.039 --> 01:25:03.319
He looked down when what he thought was a dog
1272
01:25:03.399 --> 01:25:06.880
this whole time let out a blood curdling screech, and
1273
01:25:07.000 --> 01:25:10.840
what he saw terrified him. This thing stood up on
1274
01:25:10.960 --> 01:25:14.039
two legs, It was covered in black hair, and it
1275
01:25:14.159 --> 01:25:17.760
had red eyes. My dad said. He ran as fast
1276
01:25:17.800 --> 01:25:20.560
as his skinny little legs could carry him. He told
1277
01:25:20.600 --> 01:25:24.039
his mother all about it. About a week after he
1278
01:25:24.119 --> 01:25:27.600
experienced that, the local authorities were called to investigate the
1279
01:25:27.600 --> 01:25:31.760
whereabouts of the Avocado Groves owner's daughter. Her body was
1280
01:25:31.800 --> 01:25:34.680
found right where my dad said he walked past the
1281
01:25:34.760 --> 01:25:38.720
light post. She was clutching a rosary, and they determined
1282
01:25:38.920 --> 01:25:43.560
she had died of a fright induced heart attack. Apparently
1283
01:25:43.600 --> 01:25:46.520
this thing sounds like what the indigenous people of Mexico
1284
01:25:46.600 --> 01:25:51.600
called El Nawal. It is a dark entity, a shapeshifter
1285
01:25:51.920 --> 01:26:04.079
that usually appears in the form of a dog. Thanks
1286
01:26:04.079 --> 01:26:06.479
for listening. If you like the show, please tell somebody
1287
01:26:06.520 --> 01:26:11.239
about it who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters,
1288
01:26:11.319 --> 01:26:14.239
or unsolved mysteries like you do, and tell them where
1289
01:26:14.279 --> 01:26:15.960
they can listen to the show so they can tune
1290
01:26:16.000 --> 01:26:18.760
in next weekend. If you missed any part of tonight's show,
1291
01:26:18.920 --> 01:26:20.640
or if you'd like to hear it again, you can
1292
01:26:20.680 --> 01:26:23.640
subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast app by
1293
01:26:23.680 --> 01:26:26.880
searching for Weird Darkness. By doing that, you'll get a
1294
01:26:26.920 --> 01:26:29.920
copy of tonight's show and also the sudden death overtime
1295
01:26:30.000 --> 01:26:32.199
content that I planned to use tonight, but I didn't
1296
01:26:32.199 --> 01:26:36.159
have time for. Tonight's Sudden death overtime is the circumstances
1297
01:26:36.159 --> 01:26:39.600
of wrestling coach John DuPont's bizarre crimes. They were portrayed
1298
01:26:39.600 --> 01:26:43.520
in the critically acclaimed true crime drama film Foxcatcher. Steve
1299
01:26:43.600 --> 01:26:46.800
Carrell was lauded for his performance as John DuPont, and
1300
01:26:46.920 --> 01:26:50.720
the film was nominated for five Academy Awards. But how
1301
01:26:50.840 --> 01:26:54.960
true is the film compared to the actual events? We'll
1302
01:26:54.960 --> 01:26:57.880
look at the real story behind the movie Foxcatcher. That's
1303
01:26:57.880 --> 01:27:00.319
in the podcast version of tonight's show, only in the
1304
01:27:00.319 --> 01:27:03.840
Sudden Death overtime content. Plus, if you subscribe to the podcast,
1305
01:27:03.920 --> 01:27:07.000
you'll get Weird Darkness episodes seven days per week, along
1306
01:27:07.000 --> 01:27:10.000
with episodes of My Mind of Marler, My Murder Noir,
1307
01:27:10.399 --> 01:27:12.720
old time radio shows that I put together, and a
1308
01:27:12.760 --> 01:27:15.640
whole lot more. Visit Weirddarkness dot com. You can also
1309
01:27:15.640 --> 01:27:18.119
follow me on social media, drop me an email, send
1310
01:27:18.119 --> 01:27:21.279
me your own true paranormal story, and more. All stories
1311
01:27:21.439 --> 01:27:24.479
used tonight are purported to be true unless stated otherwise,
1312
01:27:24.520 --> 01:27:26.399
and you can find links to the stories or the
1313
01:27:26.439 --> 01:27:29.000
authors and the show notes which I've already posted at
1314
01:27:29.000 --> 01:27:33.399
Weirddarkness dot com. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark copyright
1315
01:27:33.439 --> 01:27:36.159
Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark,
1316
01:27:36.520 --> 01:27:39.600
I'll leave you with a little light Isaiah forty, verse
1317
01:27:39.640 --> 01:27:42.199
thirty one. But those who hope in the Lord will
1318
01:27:42.239 --> 01:27:45.239
renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.
1319
01:27:45.319 --> 01:27:47.680
They will run and not grow weary. They will walk
1320
01:27:47.880 --> 01:27:51.680
and not be faint. At a final thought, at the
1321
01:27:51.760 --> 01:27:53.720
end of the day, it's not about what you have
1322
01:27:54.000 --> 01:27:57.600
or even what you've accomplished. It's about who you've lifted up,
1323
01:27:57.960 --> 01:28:01.439
who you've made better. It's about what you've given back.
1324
01:28:02.199 --> 01:28:07.520
Denzel Washington, I'm Darren Marler. Thanks for joining me in
1325
01:28:07.600 --> 01:28:40.039
the weird darkness doors. To an outsider, John DuPont looked
1326
01:28:40.199 --> 01:28:42.680
like he had it all. An heir to the DuPont
1327
01:28:42.760 --> 01:28:46.640
chemical and automotive fortune, DuPont was a multi millionaire who
1328
01:28:46.680 --> 01:28:51.840
busied himself by supporting his greatest passion, wrestling. DuPont poured
1329
01:28:51.960 --> 01:28:55.600
hundreds of thousands of dollars into the sport, donating to
1330
01:28:55.720 --> 01:28:59.600
universities and even building a wrestling facility named Foxcatcher on
1331
01:28:59.640 --> 01:29:04.079
his where he coached Olympic hopefuls. The sports enthusiast had
1332
01:29:04.119 --> 01:29:07.479
a life that most would envy. Money to burn, a
1333
01:29:07.479 --> 01:29:11.880
gorgeous home, and fervent admiration from people who appreciated his
1334
01:29:12.039 --> 01:29:17.920
generosity but on January twenty sixth, nineteen ninety six, DuPont
1335
01:29:18.199 --> 01:29:21.159
shocked the world when he murdered his friend and fellow
1336
01:29:21.199 --> 01:29:26.199
wrestling coach Dave Schultz in cold blood. At the time
1337
01:29:26.239 --> 01:29:28.479
of his death, Dave Schultz had been living on the
1338
01:29:28.560 --> 01:29:32.199
DuPont estate for about seven years. DuPont had offered Dave
1339
01:29:32.239 --> 01:29:34.520
an obscene amount of money and a place to live
1340
01:29:34.760 --> 01:29:38.680
rent free if he would help coach Team Foxcatcher, the
1341
01:29:38.720 --> 01:29:42.960
wrestlers that trained at DuPont's private facility. Dave and younger
1342
01:29:42.960 --> 01:29:45.560
brother Mark were the only American brothers to win gold
1343
01:29:45.640 --> 01:29:49.439
medals at both the World Championships and the Olympics, bringing
1344
01:29:49.479 --> 01:29:53.199
a certain amount of prestige to DuPont's team. DuPont and
1345
01:29:53.239 --> 01:29:55.840
Mark had also worked together, but they went their separate
1346
01:29:55.880 --> 01:29:59.359
ways in nineteen eighty eight. Mark later claimed that he
1347
01:29:59.439 --> 01:30:03.880
left because DuPont was unstable and controlling, but Dave couldn't
1348
01:30:03.880 --> 01:30:07.239
pass up such a lucrative offer, even if it was
1349
01:30:07.279 --> 01:30:09.800
for a job that had so annoyed his younger brother.
1350
01:30:10.800 --> 01:30:13.319
It was a decision that would ultimately bring about his
1351
01:30:13.479 --> 01:30:17.479
untimely death and haunt his family for years to come.
1352
01:30:18.680 --> 01:30:22.479
Though DuPont initially bought the elder Schultz's allegiance. The two
1353
01:30:22.520 --> 01:30:26.960
actually became friends, making Dave's later murder all the more shocking.
1354
01:30:28.039 --> 01:30:32.079
On January twenty sixth, nineteen ninety six, DuPont drove up
1355
01:30:32.119 --> 01:30:35.399
to Dave's house and parked in his driveway, with no
1356
01:30:35.520 --> 01:30:37.800
idea of the fate that was in store for him.
1357
01:30:38.079 --> 01:30:41.760
Dave approached the vehicle, DuPont said, you have a problem
1358
01:30:41.800 --> 01:30:43.840
with me, and that he pulled a gun out and
1359
01:30:43.880 --> 01:30:48.359
shot Dave three times at point blank range. Dave's wife
1360
01:30:48.359 --> 01:30:51.640
and DuPont's security guard were present and witnessed the crime.
1361
01:30:52.039 --> 01:30:54.479
Although there was nothing to be done to save Dave.
1362
01:30:55.319 --> 01:30:58.000
Dave died in his wife's arms at the scene at
1363
01:30:58.000 --> 01:31:03.000
the age of thirty six, left behind two children. Jehann
1364
01:31:03.079 --> 01:31:06.279
DuPont fled back to his mansion, where he barricaded himself
1365
01:31:06.279 --> 01:31:09.600
in the homes bomb shelter for two days. The estate
1366
01:31:09.680 --> 01:31:13.079
was quickly surrounded by hundreds of police officers and SWAT
1367
01:31:13.079 --> 01:31:17.319
team members. DuPont refused to leave, despite several back and
1368
01:31:17.359 --> 01:31:20.039
forth phone calls with authorities who tried to persuade him
1369
01:31:20.079 --> 01:31:23.760
to give himself up. Finally, the stand off ended when
1370
01:31:23.760 --> 01:31:26.680
police had the idea to turn John's heating system off.
1371
01:31:27.600 --> 01:31:30.680
Bothered by the cold, DuPont left the house to attempt
1372
01:31:30.720 --> 01:31:33.840
to fix the boiler and was quickly captured by police.
1373
01:31:35.319 --> 01:31:38.439
Why would DuPont kill a friend for no apparent reason
1374
01:31:38.920 --> 01:31:43.119
in front of several witnesses. Authorities have never discovered a
1375
01:31:43.199 --> 01:31:47.560
motive for DuPont's heinous act, making this crime truly mind boggling.
1376
01:31:48.520 --> 01:31:51.239
Many of the people in his life expressed shock at
1377
01:31:51.239 --> 01:31:55.760
this sudden plunge into violence, including Joy Hansen Leutner, a
1378
01:31:55.840 --> 01:31:59.079
triathlete who was close to DuPont. He had helped her
1379
01:31:59.079 --> 01:32:01.279
get through a difficult period in her life, and her
1380
01:32:01.279 --> 01:32:04.920
fiance had even asked DuPont, rather than Leeutner's father, for
1381
01:32:05.000 --> 01:32:08.439
permission to pop the question with my family and friends.
1382
01:32:08.600 --> 01:32:11.399
John gave me a new lease on life. He gave
1383
01:32:11.520 --> 01:32:15.159
more than money. He gave himself emotionally. There's no way
1384
01:32:15.279 --> 01:32:19.960
John in his right mind would have killed Dave. In fact,
1385
01:32:20.079 --> 01:32:23.079
the general consensus is that DuPont was not in his
1386
01:32:23.199 --> 01:32:26.600
right mind and was lightly suffering from mental health issues
1387
01:32:26.600 --> 01:32:30.560
that were never treated. Though his initial insanity defense was
1388
01:32:30.600 --> 01:32:33.920
thrown out in DuPont's nineteen ninety seven trial, the jury
1389
01:32:33.960 --> 01:32:37.680
found the killer guilty but mentally ill, sentencing him to
1390
01:32:37.840 --> 01:32:43.079
thirteen to thirty years of incarceration. Hindsight is twenty twenty.
1391
01:32:43.680 --> 01:32:46.439
Though no one suspected DuPont would be capable of murder,
1392
01:32:46.840 --> 01:32:51.199
he did display erratic behavior for years before Dave Schultz's murder.
1393
01:32:51.880 --> 01:32:54.880
In fact, his lavish donations may have even prompted people
1394
01:32:54.920 --> 01:32:57.760
to turn a blind eye to his deteriorating mental health
1395
01:32:58.119 --> 01:33:02.359
for fear that he would withdraw financial support. Glenn Goodman,
1396
01:33:02.479 --> 01:33:06.000
a former wrestler at Foxcatcher, discussed his guilt over the
1397
01:33:06.039 --> 01:33:08.399
matter and even went so far as to say, I
1398
01:33:08.399 --> 01:33:13.119
feel the whole wrestling community has prostituted ourselves. In the
1399
01:33:13.159 --> 01:33:16.000
weeks and months leading up to the murder that he committed,
1400
01:33:16.359 --> 01:33:20.560
DuPont had placed infrared cameras in his house to detect ghosts,
1401
01:33:20.600 --> 01:33:23.439
and spoke of fears that the walls were moving, that
1402
01:33:23.600 --> 01:33:25.720
Nazis were out to get him, and that he would
1403
01:33:25.720 --> 01:33:28.560
travel back in time through the clock on his treadmill.
1404
01:33:29.600 --> 01:33:32.960
Signs of DuPont's instability may have gone back even farther.
1405
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In nineteen eighty three, he was married for just a
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few short months. In that time, his wife alleged that
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on different occasions he had expressed paranoia that she would
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be kidnapped, pointed a gun at her head, accused her
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of being a Russian spy, and tried to shove her
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in the fireplace. The circumstances of John DuPont's bizarre crime
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were portrayed in the critically acclaimed true crime drama Fox Catcher,
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starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo. They were
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all lauded for their performances as John, Mark and Dave, respectively.
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Directed by Bennett Miller, who also earned accolades for directing
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Capote and Moneyball, the film was nominated for five Oscars.
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While the movie is true to life in most ways,
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it does occasionally depart from real life events. At one point,
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Mark Schultz slammed the film when he realized that some
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scenes could be interpreted as suggestions of a sexual relationship
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between him and DuPont, which he declared was utter fiction. However,
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he later recanted his criticism, calling Fox Catcher a miracle.
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In twenty ten, DuPont died in prison at the age
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of seventy two. He'd been incarcerated for nearly fourteen years.
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Though Dave's murderer was now dead. The Schultz family didn't
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exactly rejoice. Philip Schultz, Dave's father, said, John DuPont died
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for me the day he took my son's life, so
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the fact that he's officially gone is almost a moot point.
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I did forgive the man for what he did. I
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never forgave the act, committed to his passion until the
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day he died. John DuPont was buried in his team
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box Catcher wrestling singlet sid in avertime, Your Darkness