 This episode is dedicated to the men and women of our armed forces and first responders. Whether you are currently serving or have served in the past, you are appreciated. It is because of your courage and sacrifice that we enjoy the freedoms and liberties we hold dear. And I for one, appreciate every single one of you for protecting what many of us take for granted. So thank you. Welcome, Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up this hour, a quick warning, if you happen to have an Amazon A-L-E-X-A device, you might want to turn her off or put her on mute while listening for the next hour or so. We'll be talking about how, when she's not responding to your voice, she might be communicating with the dead. I've seen some mighty pretty puppies and I want one. Those were the last words the mother of eight-year-old Kenneth Beasley would hear from her son. What followed was a disappearance, suspected kidnapping and murder trial that made national news in 1905. Assaulting Ghost, residents of East Jefferson Street disturbed, a thrilling story of the strange persecution of an old Mexican woman. That's what the Arizona Republic newspaper headline read on September 23, 1899 and I have that story to share with you. These stories and more in the next hour. If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to visit WeirdDarkness.com and click on Contact Social to follow Weird Darkness on social media. And also, on the website, you can find the daily Weird Darkness podcast which comes out seven days per week. You can enter contests, find Weird Darkness merchandise and more. You can even send in your own true story of something paranormal that has happened to you or someone you know. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Throughout the history of spirit communication, people have used a wide variety of unique tools and methods to contact the deceased. From automatic riding using planchettes to mediums chatteling the other side during late night seances, we have managed to develop quite the number of alleged ways to speak to the dead. The Ouija Board too is an immensely popular form of attempted communication. In modern times, paranormal investigators have turned to radios and recording devices like so-called ghost boxes to capture electronic voice phenomena. Perhaps there is something else we can add to that list of tools in our supernatural toolbox now. Amazon's Alexa Amazon's plucky virtual assistant inhabits nearly everything they make. Their Echo smart speakers, their TV sticks, their fire tablets. Amazon has sold over a hundred million of these Alexa devices as of January 2019. That means Alexa can be found in many, many households too, in our household, in fact, fielding many, many spoken commands. But here's a question. Can ghosts also speak to Alexa? If we are to believe that they can speak through recording devices and radios, as they allegedly did with Constantin's Rodive in the 1960s, there is no particular reason ghosts can't also speak through modern smart speakers. I'd imagine any spectral transmitting stations are already well equipped to handle such technologies, wouldn't you? After all, Alexa is no stranger to strange things. For example, in 2018 there were several reports of Alexa spontaneously laughing, which Amazon dubbed a simple malfunction, though a creepy one. That said, can everything be explained away as simply a glitch or a misheard command? One Echo user experienced a number of odd activities surrounding their device. On one day in particular, after the passing of their grandmother, they truly began to wonder if spirits beyond were conversing with Alexa. My grandma passed away around that time, they said. A couple of days after her passing, the Echo turned on when I was alone and started playing Mandy by Boston. I'd never heard that song before and had never played it on the Echo. My grandma was the only one who called me Mandy. Is it possible that ghosts might be giving Alexa commands? In another case, a user's recently deceased grandfather may have asked Alexa to play a song. They said, my grandpa passed away a few months back, leaving my grandma to live by herself. She has an Amazon Echo. One night when she was alone getting ready for bed, she heard a song start playing in the living room, in a house that was completely silent. Alexa was playing the song Lucille by Kenny Rogers, the song she shares her name with. The song was my grandparents' favorite song to dance to together. Perhaps it is an odd coincidence, but I stumbled across multiple coincidences then, including those I've just shared, of Echo users hearing very specific songs playing after the passing of a loved one, almost as if their ghosts were trying to send messages through these devices. One Redditor shared an account of an Amazon Dot randomly playing a song that helped them deal with the loss of their father. Another report of a paranormal activity after a recent death also involved Alexa playing a specific song over and over again. Is there anything to the idea that ghosts are reaching out to certain individuals through Alexa and other smart devices? In one final example, an Alexa command seemed a bit more specific. Today, my mom was on her house phone with my grandmother. My mom left her cell phone at work an hour away. While she was talking, her Alexa came on, lit up green and said, Dad wants to talk. Dad wants to talk. And she repeated it again two more times. My grandfather, mom's father, passed away last Christmas. Of course, none of this proves anything supernatural. These are, after all, just anecdotes and sometimes weird things just happen. But consider this. Amazon reportedly employs thousands of people who sift through thousands of Alexa conversations every day to improve its voice recognition. That is a lot of data. Now, if otherworldly entities can communicate through recording devices, including Alexa, just how many of those conversations may have been with ghosts? Is it possible that some Amazon employees have actually listened to EVPs captured by these devices? They would probably never even notice. How about you? Has your smart device, if you have one, ever done anything you would consider unnatural? When Weird Darkness returns, I've seen some mighty pretty puppies and I want one. Those were the last words the mother of 8-year-old Kenneth Beasley would hear from her son. What followed was a disappearance, suspected kidnapping and murder trial that made national news in 1905. That and more coming up. Are you a member of the Darkness Syndicate? The Darkness Syndicate is a private membership where you receive commercial-free episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast and radio show. Behind the scenes, video updates about future projects and events I'm working on. You can share your own opinions on ideas to help me decide upon Weird Darkness contests, events and merchandise. You can download word search puzzles based on episodes of the podcast. You can hear audiobooks I'm narrating before even the publishers or authors get to hear them. You can also hear auditions I've submitted for other voiceover projects and get updates on the progress of those I've been cast in, such as my voice acting roles as Wolverine and J. Jonah Jameson in a couple of Marvel fan series or as Green Lantern, Hal Jordan in a DC fan project. You get all of these benefits and more, starting at only $5 per month. Join the Darkness Syndicate at WeirdDarkness.com slash Syndicate. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Syndicate. Welcome back to Weird Darkness, I'm Darren Marlar. You can get more Weird Darkness seven days a week through the Weird Darkness podcast. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts or visit WeirdDarkness.com slash Listen and you can find a list of all the apps where you can listen to the show. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Listen. In 1905, a family named Beasley lived on a beautiful and prosperous farm just outside the small town of Poplar Branch, Curritor County, South Carolina. They were what used to be called People of Solid Worth. The head of the household, Samuel Beasley, was a state senator and many believed he was destined for higher offices. His wife, Carrie, was admired as a kindly and accomplished woman. The couple had three children, 17-year-old Moran, 8-year-old Kenneth and Ethel, who was four. Kenneth was a handsome, gentle boy who did well at school. Other children liked him, adults loved him. Although the Beasleys were admired and respected in their community, there was one glaring exception to their popularity. If you were to ask Joshua Harrison what he thought of Samuel Beasley, the answer would likely be completely unprintable. Moran was a tall man in his 50s with a formidable beard and a temper to match. He was such a hothead that in his younger days he had twice stood trial for murder, but in both instances he won an acquittal. Harrison supplemented his farming income by selling homemade wine out of his barn. It was said to be very good wine and judging by the frequent routiness disseminating from his unofficial tavern, very potent as well. Many of the locals disapproved of his enterprise and foremost among them was the upright, sober and politically powerful Samuel Beasley. In 1903 he got a bill passed through the state legislature outlawing the sale of wine in Currita County. Harrison unsurprisingly was not pleased. The following year he happened to run into Beasley on the road between their farms and made his wrath known in no uncertain terms. I hear that 1903 legislation was for me, he scowled. If you heard that, Beasley replied calmly, you heard right, for you are the only person in Curritic creating a disturbance and the people petitioned to legislature on the subject. I'll be damned if I don't sell it in spite of them, Harrison retorted. If I can't sell it in gallons, I'll sell it in barrels and the people can come and get it. When they stop me from selling it, they'll be damned sorry for it. After this exchange the two men avoided each other. Life appeared to return to normal. On the morning of February 13, 1905, young Kenneth Beasley dressed, had breakfast and began his walk to school. On his way out the door, the eight-year-old told his mother I have seen some mighty pretty puppies and I want one. Little did she know those were the last words she would ever hear him say. Kenneth's day at school progressed in its usual uneventful fashion. By the time of the noon recess the temperature had warmed enough for Kenneth to not bother donning his overcoat and gloves before going outside to play. At 1 p.m. the school bell rang summoning students for the afternoon session. All the children returned to the classroom except Kenneth. Young Beasley's cousin, Benny Walker, told the teacher that he'd been playing with Kenneth when the bell rang. Instead of heading back to school Kenneth had turned towards the woods behind him saying I'm going back farther. Benny did not see him after that. The truancy of this normally well-behaved boy was deeply puzzling. Even more so when the teacher saw that Kenneth's coat and gloves were still in the cloakroom. If he had planned to run away surely he would have taken them with him, right? The schoolmaster sent another boy, Everett Wright, to go look for Kenneth. He returned with the news that Beasley was nowhere to be found. Then Benny Walker was dispatched to make a more thorough search. Walker scoured the woods, then made his way to a nearby store and asked the proprietor a Mr. Woodhouse if he had seen anything of the missing boy. Woodhouse immediately realized something very strange was going on. He locked up his store and accompanied Walker back to the school where he advised that the school should be dismissed and a more comprehensive inspection made. The older boys were organized into search parties while Woodhouse went to gather neighbors. By 4 p.m. 150 people, all of them hunters familiar with the swampy Timberland were exploring the area. The search spread for miles without a single trace of Kenneth ever being found. The following morning a telegram was sent to Samuel Beasley who was attending the legislative session in Raleigh. He left for home at once. By the next day the search party had doubled in size. Hunting dogs were brought in but the heavy rain and snow prevented them from picking up a trail. That night a rumor emerged that a child had been crying for help from a lumberman's cabin deep in the woods. This cabin was said to be inhabited by a mysterious recluse. However, when searchers arrived at the cabin there was no sign of the hermit or Kenneth. On February 24th the Raleigh News and Observer printed a letter dealing with Kenneth's appearance. Neither the writer or the recipient of this letter were ever identified. It claimed the boy had been kidnapped. There was a strange man seen up about Barco Post Office and two more places by three different men. He was in a buggy drawn by a black mule and had the boy down between his knees but the people saw him before they heard the boy was missing. These men say that they saw the boy was crying and seemed dissatisfied but the man was talking to him rough. The writer pointedly added, Mr. Joshua Harrison went on Tuesday morning and never got back until Sunday. He claimed he had been to Pasquitank. On February 26th the search had been abandoned. It was universally believed that Kenneth had been abducted and the smart money had one chief suspect in mind. That same day Joshua Harrison paid a call at the Beasley Home. It was the first time he and Samuel Beasley had spoken since their altercation over the wine. Harrison was irate over the News and Observer article. It's a batch of lies he told Beasley. I want you to write to the paper and say it was a lie. If your son was kidnapped some of the neighbors did it. Beasley coolly replied that despite what Harrison was clearly implying he had not written that letter and would not bother the newspaper's editors. Harrison left vowing that he could prove where he was when Kenneth disappeared. The Beasley family continued their sad search for the boy. Samuel and his son Moran spent days fruitlessly combing the woods. No clues emerged pointing to Kenneth's possible whereabouts until March when the family received a visit from a Shiloh resident named J.J. Pierce. Pierce had seen Kenneth once three years earlier and just recently on March 5th he thought he saw him again on a Norfolk streetcar. The child was with two young men who had appeared to be drunk. Pierce said that he addressed the boy but he did not answer. Joshua Harrison's daughter Anna Gallup kept a boarding house in Norfolk. Samuel went to Norfolk and asked around and no one claimed to have seen any boy resembling Kenneth. Other rumors and tips came in now and then and Samuel doggedly investigated them all with equally empty results. In September 1906, Beasley attended the opening session of Courta Courthouse's fall term. There he was accosted by T.C. Woodhouse, brother of the shopkeeper. The man had quite an interesting tale to tell. Woodhouse stated that on September 2, Joshua Harrison met him on the road asking for a heart-to-heart talk. I'll tell you what the two talked about when Weird Darkness returns. If you have a true paranormal story that's happened to you or someone you know, you can share it by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. I might use it in a future episode. I'm Darren Marlar and welcome back to Weird Darkness. If you're looking for Weird Darkness merchandise, you can find t-shirts, buttons, hoodies, office supplies, clothes for your kids, stickers, magnets, coffee mugs and everything else with Weird Darkness designs by clicking on Store at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Store. We now continue with the mystery of Kenneth Beasley. Beasley attended the opening session of Courta Courthouse's fall term and there he was accosted by T.C. Woodhouse, brother of the shopkeeper. This man had quite an interesting tale to tell. Woodhouse stated that on September 2, Joshua Harrison had met him on the road, asking for a heart-to-heart talk. This is what happened. Harrison said, Sam Beasley has never offered enough reward when he does the boil show up in as good a condition as he ever was. He then added, it was damned expensive to keep the boy in the way he is being kept. Beasley was stunned. He frantically told Woodhouse to tell Harrison that he would pay any amount of money for Kenneth's return, promising that no questions would be asked and he would not prosecute. A day or two later, Woodhouse told Beasley that Harrison denied having made his earlier remarks and refused to discuss the matter further. Then an A.B. Parker came forward. He told Beasley that a few days after Kenneth's disappearance, he overheard Harrison say that the boy wasn't lost, that he could put his hand on him anytime he wanted him. Parker was asked the obvious question, why had he kept this fascinating news to himself? It was none of my business, he replied. The oddly long-delayed revelations kept coming. A storekeeper named J.L. Turner now said that on the day Kenneth vanished, he had seen Harrison driving a buggy pulled by a black mule containing a boy with his head covered by a tarpaulin. One Millard Morissette claimed to have seen this same buggy, although he could not say he recognized either the man or the boy. A.W.E. Ansel spoke of seeing the mule-drawn buggy with the tarpaulin-covered boy. He could hear the child saying some complaining words and the man speaking to him reassuringly. He was certain the man's voice was that of Joshua Harrison. All these men promised Beasley that they were willing to tell their stories in court under oath. Beasley promptly got a warrant charging Harrison with kidnapping. When he was arrested, Harrison vehemently denied the charge. More productively, he hired a team of excellent lawyers. His counsel wisely obtained a change in venue. Clearly, Harrison's hometown had no great love for him and the trial was set to begin March 14 in Pasquitank County. The trial lasted six days. The previously mentioned witnesses gave their stories. Still more witnesses corroborated their accounts. During the cross-examinations, the defense brought out a vital point. The road in front of the schoolhouse was completely open, lined with houses on one side and the sound on the other. It was a busy road and at the time Kenneth disappeared, the sound was full of fishing boats. Yet nobody in the vicinity claimed to have seen the buggy, the black mule, Joshua Harrison with his distinctive gray beard. How could Harrison have kidnapped the boy in such a public area without anyone noticing? The defense also offered testimony from Harrison's family and neighbors that at the time Kenneth disappeared, the defendant was at his home all day working in his stable yard. Anna Gallup testified that contrary to rumor, Kenneth had never been brought to her boarding house. The prosecution countered this with two witnesses who stated that they had seen Harrison in Norfolk late on the night of February 13. Faced with all of this contradictory witness testimony, the trial essentially hinged on which side was most successful across examination. The jury decided it was the prosecution. On March 19th, they returned a guilty verdict. Harrison's lawyers appealed to the state Supreme Court emphasizing the impossibility of their client having abducted the boy without anyone seeing him. They also pointed out the local prejudice against Harrison. The court denied the appeal and ordered that Harrison be arrested. That same day, as Harrison sat alone in a room of Norfolk's Gladstone Hotel, a city detective entered the lobby. He instructed the bellboy to summon Harrison. Harrison slammed the door in the bellboy's face. A moment later, a gunshot was heard from inside the room. When the bellboy and the detectives broke into the room, they found Harrison lying on the floor, quite dead. Next to him was a note he had written proclaiming his complete innocence. The case was over, if far from resolved. Over the years, Currita County never really stopped wondering just what had happened to Kenneth Beasley. Among these armchair detectives was a solicitor named Hallett Ward. He was good friends with one of Harrison's lawyers, W. M. Bond, and the two often discussed the mystery. The two agreed that the case against Harrison had been extremely weak. Also the people closest to Harrison had argued that while he may have been a hothead and even a vengeful man, he would never have been so depraved as to take out his wrath on an innocent child. In 1934, Ward and his family happened to pass through Currita County. They drove along the sound, stopping for a picnic lunch in front of the building where Kenneth Beasley had once attended school. As they ate, two elderly men walked along the road in front of them. Ward stopped them and introduced himself. He asked if they remembered Harrison's trial. They most certainly did. As they talked, Ward mentioned the recluse in the cabin and lamented the fact that law enforcement had never been able to find the man. The two men commented that the hermit had contact only with Joshua Harrison, from whom he bought wine. He also had kept dogs. Ward suddenly remembered Kenneth's last words to his mother. I've seen some mighty pretty puppies. He and the two men walked along the road where Benny Walker had last seen the boy. As they went deeper into the woods, Ward saw an old rail fence. One of the elderly men pointed to a path on the other side of the fence. That path, he said, led to the hermit's cabin. Ward contemplated this new information, so a path led to the cabin well out of sight of the main road. He formed a theory. Kenneth, he said, went up that path to that house to see those puppies. Harrison entered the gate in front of the house from the connecting road and picked the boy up at the house and drove on by the back road to the back gate and threw it to the sound road and onto Norfolk. Kenneth had no overcoat and it was a bitterly cold day. That night, he contracted pneumonia and soon died in whatever hideaway Harrison had arranged for him. Was Ward's scenario correct, though? Or, as seems more likely, did the anonymous hermit himself use the promise of a puppy to lure Kenneth to his cabin, only to do something unspeakable to the boy? Did he then bury the body somewhere in those woods and flee? Or, on a more hopeful note, could those Carrota County folk who believed that Kenneth Beasley survived to be raised in another place under another name possibly be correct? We will probably never know. The following story, which appeared in the Arizona Republic on September 23, 1899, contains many of the same elements found throughout poltergeist literature. The suggestion that the outbreak was a kind of psychic revenge, the claim that one person was the clear focus of the stones, plus the observation that some of the stones were hot while others were ice cold, are all common themes. Here's the story, exactly as it was printed. Headline. Assaulting Ghost, residents of East Jefferson Street, disturbed, a thrilling story of the strange persecution of old Mexican woman. This is a weird ghost story. But all ghost stories are weird. This one is well authenticated in that, though there have been scores of Phoenix witnesses, the hoax has not been discovered, if there be a hoax. About two weeks ago, a Mexican woman named Yosefa Nunez, who now lives at Seven Street opposite the residence of Mr. Henry E. Kemp, applied to the county authorities for protection against persons who were throwing stones at her. She was not clearly understood, and while an officer visited her house now and then, he supposed that he was looking for an earthly stone thrower whom he could see. But this is the story, until nearly a month ago, Senor Nunez lived near the eastern end of the streetcar line. Another Mexican named Yorcaides, a member of a Protestant church who had lived at her house for some time, was seized with a sickness of which he died. Bully before death, he begged for food and water, which his hostess for some reason did not give him. A night or two after his death, the stone-throwing commenced. Small stones hurled from an invisible source broke the windows of the house or rattled against the outer wall. Now and then, one struck Senor Nunez. Though they landed sharply, they brought no other pain than a scorching sensation. She picked the stones from the ground and found some warm and others almost ice cold. She thought she might avoid this ghostly persecution by changing her residence, so she moved to the place where she now lives. The change brought her no relief, and then she applied to the authorities who did not understand her. The neighbors heard of these strange visitations a week ago, but took no interest in the story until within the last two days. Yesterday, the interest grew so intense that until nine o'clock last night, the hour when the stone-throwing ceases, more than 200 people visited Senor Nunez's home. Some of them saw the flying stones, heard them crash through windows or bang against the side of the house and fall to the ground. Many were picked up and carried off. So at least the stones have substance, though the thrower is disembodied. About five o'clock last night, the old woman was sitting in her house surrounded by not fewer than 40 visitors, American and Mexicans. A scarf or shawl was thrown over her head and she was trembling, mid-telling of the annoyances which were wearing her life out. Suddenly, she put her hand to her jaw and, despairingly, screamed, adios! Among those who were sitting near her were Officer George McClarity and C.S. Scott of the Herald. Officer McClarity saw a stone dropping on the old woman's shoulder and fall thence to the ground. He picked it up and it was warm. He gave it to Mr. Scott who testified to its temperature. Senor Nunez owns a small ranch some distance in the country. She visited it yesterday and she said that on her way home, she was struck by one of these burning stones. Another story is told, though this is not authenticated, that a priest visited her home at her request. When he stopped in front of the house, still sitting in his buggy, he was struck by a stone producing a burning sensation. It rebounded and hit his horse, which sprang forward in terror. End of story After this article, the case went pretty quiet, but there was an interesting follow-up in that same paper nine months later, June 9th, 1899, reading, quote, headline, mysterious stone throwing recalled. The case of the mysterious stone throwing, of which an old Mexican woman was the victim, filled the local newspapers last summer. She lived in a house on East Jefferson Street. The windows of the house were broken by stones hurled by unknown hands and in the presence of many incredulous visitors, rocks fell from the ceiling in the air upon the old woman. It was a puzzling case and though everybody who witnessed the manifestations believed there was a trick, it was never exposed. The old woman and her family moved to a hut in the neighborhood of the park and the matter was almost forgotten. It has recently come to the attention of the authorities that they are still living there in a ghostly sort of way and in an apparently destitute condition. They were visited by District Attorney Flanagan and Constable Joe Bales yesterday and it is probable that some action will be taken about them. I'll be back with more Weird Darkness in just a moment. Coffee It's a necessity. Most of us can't be bothered to even be civil to our families until we've had our first cup of Joe. I can drink coffee all day and often do and now I've chosen an exclusive coffee just for the task, Weird Dark Roast Coffee. I love chocolate, I mean who doesn't, so I specifically asked for a blend with at least a hint of cocoa and Evansville Coffee who roasts each bag to order knocked it out of the park when they sent me a bag to taste test for approval. Weird Dark Roast Coffee has deep notes of cocoa, caramel and a touch of sinister sweetness that makes it great hot or cold. Personally I like to put a little milk in it when I'm drinking it hot but it is amazing black and poured over ice. But now you can drink it too and the only place you can find Weird Dark Roast Coffee is at WeirdDarkness.com. Thanks to the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton, a lot more people know the ins and outs of the Aaron Burr biography. But is that portrayal of Burr's life even accurate? Who was Aaron Burr, really? Burr is primarily known for his deadly duel with Alexander Hamilton. Yeah, that was a pretty depressing moment in American history. But that's just scratching the surface of Burr's bummer of a story. There's a lot to this man beyond the Aaron Burr duel. Talk about the final nail in the coffin. The same day Burr died on Staten Island in his cousin's care, his divorce to Eliza Jummel was also finalized. Ouch! Burr's beloved daughter, Theodosia Burr Alston, the only one of his children to survive into adulthood, disappeared at sea at the age of 29, when the scooter Patriot mysteriously vanished without a trace. The whole trunk full of family manuscripts was on the ship as well, meaning Burr lost a part of his family's past and future all at once. No one knows what happened to the Patriot but one of the many upsetting theories is pirates wrecked it and made the surviving passengers walk the plank. Everybody knows about the deadly Hamilton Burr duel. The lesser known act, too, of Burr's sad saga was an attempt to form his own nation out west, maybe even take over Mexico. Despite his best efforts, though, Burr just could not cobble together enough support. His army, so-called, was stocked with fewer than a hundred men, and an attempt to get Britain to back his plan fell flat. The Burr founded Manhattan Company, now known as JP Morgan Chase, in an ongoing effort to profit off distributing drinking water throughout New York City dug a well into contaminated groundwater and accidentally spread cholera to a third of the city in 1832. And this was not just an innocent mistake, either. In 1810, a former director admitted the Manhattan Company knew the water they were putting out was quite literally crappy, full of NYC residents' own evacuations, as well as that of their horses, cows, dogs, cats, and other putrid liquids, so plentifully dispensed. Upon returning to the United States in 1812, after the whole Burr conspiracy debacle, Burr pulled a real scumbag move and started using his mother's maiden name, Edwards, to dodge his many creditors. He also used an alias to get on the ship that got him back home from the UK, Mr. Adolphus Arnott. Fortunately for Burr, the war of 1812 was raging, so he was soon able to stop living a lie and instead just fade into relative obscurity. The one thing that everybody knows about Aaron Burr is that he shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. It's a sad event for a number of reasons, but some historians think that there is an additional level of tragedy. Burr might not have even meant to do it. Joseph J. Ellis, for example, argues Burr didn't have much to gain from actually killing Hamilton and likely just meant to wound him. He did after all hit him near his hip, where most dualists aim if they're trying to superficially wound their opponent. He did not anticipate, Ellis suggests, that his shot would ricochet off Hamilton's rib, hitting his vital organs. His reported shock and surprise after hitting his mark strengthens the case. No one will ever know Burr's true intentions on that day, but if Ellis is correct, Burr's most infamous act may have just been a big, tragic mistake. And when he was 77 years old, Burr married his second wife, Eliza Jumel, at 1833. His intentions, most likely, were not exactly pure. Jumel was one of the richest women in America, and her last husband had died eight months prior after, I swear I'm not making this up, falling on a pitchfork. Jumel was filthy rich, 19 years younger than Burr and obviously vulnerable, mourning her now perforated bow. Burr likely swept in and married Jumel for financial gain as much as anything else. The marriage only lasted three years, but Burr did indeed try to liquidate Jumel's fortune during that short stretch. He never really got to enjoy her fortune and debilitating stroke intervened before he could do too much damage. And he died two years later. the sudden death overtime content with stories I was not able to get to, including the story with the newspaper headline about the assaulting ghost and also a story about Canada's weirdest phone number. Those stories can only be heard in the podcast after the show. You can follow Weird Darkness on social media by visiting the Contact social page on the website. And please tell others about Weird Darkness who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. If you'd like to be a part of the show, you can send in your own paranormal experiences by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. You can also email me anytime at Darren at WeirdDarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes, which I will upload to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show is ended. Aaron Burr's Life Sucked was written by Kellen Perry for Weird History, Ken Alexa Speak with the Dead was written by Rob Schwartz for Stranger Dimensions, and Where Is Kenneth Beasley was posted at Strange Company. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Philippians 2, verse 14, do everything without complaining or arguing. And a final thought, success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. Henry David Thoreau. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. My bride says I'm boring. I like the same stuff, and that's what I stick with, and that includes what I eat. Even for breakfast, I used to opt for a leftover pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers. Did I mention pizza? Anyway, now that I'm trying to lose weight and cut back on the carbs, I've had to make changes for breakfast. Now, instead of a big heavy breakfast, I just grabbed one of my built bars, the best-tasting protein bar on the planet. Built bars satisfy my hunger with up to 19 grams of protein and also satisfy my sugar craving, despite being less than 3 grams of sugar. And at only about 150 calories per bar, if I'm really hungry in the morning, I can grab two of them and still feel good about it. Try replacing your dessert or even a meal like breakfast with a built bar. You won't even know it's not really a candy bar. Visit WeirdDarkness.com slash Built and build a box of your own. Use the promo code WeirdDarkness at checkout and get 10% off your entire purchase. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Built promo code WeirdDarkness. Maybe once in a while grab your CV, head to Sesame Street and tell other drivers how to join this weirdo convoy. Appreciate it. May your break checks be few, your shutter trouble be absent, and your bare bites non-existent. Keep it cool on the stool. This is Spooky Santa, and I'm 10 and on the side. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar, and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved, and unexplained. Coming up in this hour, could the legend of the Pied Piper hint at a real horrific event that befell the town of Hamlin more than 700 years ago? Ever woken up suddenly by a loud blast like a gunshot or slamming door, only to wake up and realize there really was no sound at all that was made? This is known as Exploding Head Syndrome, and if you've experienced it, you've likely not long to live. Or maybe you do. And first, when you hear the name Jigsaw, you'll immediately think of the puppet with the creepy voice of a serial killer who sets up elaborate deaths for his victims in a game only he enjoys. But in 1935, another man's brutal deeds earned him the same nickname, only his story was not Hollywood fiction. These stories coming up in the next hour. If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to visit WeirdDarkness.com and click on Contact Social to follow Weird Darkness on social media. And also on the website, you can find the Daily Weird Darkness podcast, which comes out seven days per week. You can enter contests, find Weird Darkness merchandise, and more. You can even send in your own true story of something paranormal that has happened to you or someone you know. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. It's fair to say that Britain has had a long line of notorious felons, and many of them have by some means secured an ignominious spot in criminal history. Dr. Bhukjar Rustamji Rataji Hakim, better known as Buck Ruxton, is certainly one of them. In the early morning hours of September 15, 1935, Ruxton brutally murdered his common-law wife Isabella Kerr and their housemate, Mary Jane Rodgerson, at their home in Lancaster, England, and then traveled to the Southern Uplands of Scotland to dispose of the remains. The media dubbed him the savage surgeon. The twin murders he committed were together known as the jigsaw murders due to the mutilation Ruxton inflicted upon the bodies of his victims, and the meticulous efforts investigators were forced to take in reassembling and identifying the women who were slain. One of early 20th Century England's most shocking crimes, Ruxton is largely forgotten today outside of Northern England where he did his grisly deeds. Ruxton, who anglicized his birth name, was born in Bombay, India on March 21, 1899. He qualified as a doctor and came to England hoping to ply his trade, initially doing well. Ruxton was popular in the local community, especially with his poorer patients. In a time before England's National Health Service provided medical care free to all, Ruxton often would waive his fees if he felt a patient was too poor to pay. All in all, he was a respected, well-liked professional man. Yet tragically, Ruxton also had a dark side. He was hot-tempered, perpetually jealous, possessive, and sometimes violent. He constantly suspected his common-law wife Isabella of infidelity. The couple fought badly and often, and Isabella had already left him twice. On September 15, 1935, Ruxton's dark impulses turned deadly. Isabella vanished, and so, oddly, did the family's housemaid, Mary Rodgerson. According to Ruxton, Isabella had left him again. He denied knowing anything about Rodgerson's disappearance, though. The police believed he knew far more than he was saying, and they were determined to find out what. A search for the women was mounted, and police discovering Ruxton's jealousy and violent history had him firmly set as the prime suspect. The mystery of the two women's disappearance was soon solved. Susan Haines was out walking near Garden Home Lynn, a river in the Dumfries area of southern Scotland, when she found body parts from two separate people scattered about and wrapped in newspapers. The newspapers used to wrap the remains were the Daily Herald from August 6 and August 31, 1935. The Sunday Chronicle and a special local edition of the Sunday Graphic dated September 15 as well. The graphic pages came from a local slip edition, distributed only in the Morkham and Lancaster area of Lancashire, not far from Ruxton's medical practice. Noticing that the women had vanished on or around September 15, police examined the subscription list and soon found a familiar name, Dr. Buck Ruxton. Questioned, Ruxton denied having been in Scotland at the time. This might have worked if he hadn't accidentally run down a cyclist near the town of Kendall while returning from dumping the body parts. A traffic cop stopped Ruxton in Minthorpe, due south of Kendall, and the officer had noted Ruxton's car description and registration number. Police now had a date, time, car, and driver. Now they needed to conclusively piece together the identity of the bodies. They managed that, using, for the time, highly innovative forensic techniques. The body parts were taken to Edinburgh, where leading pathologist Sir Sidney Smith and a team of experts used forensic entomology to date the age of the maggots on the body parts. This established a window of time between their deaths and discovery. The researchers then superimposed a photo of Isabella over her skull, thereby identifying her in conjunction with dental records. With Kerr and then Rodgersen identified, it wasn't long before they again visited Dr. Ruxton, this time bringing a search warrant and a pair of handcuffs. Ruxton was arrested on October 13 and charged with Mary Rodgersen's murder. A thorough search of Ruxton's home revealed bloodstains and bloodstained medical instruments, evidence strongly suggesting the victims had been killed and dismembered there. Ruxton's flimsy explanation for a recent injury leaving his right hand bandaged didn't help him much either. On November 5, 1935, Ruxton was charged with murdering Isabella Kerr as well. Arrested and charged, Ruxton's trial began March 2, 1936. It was a showcase of fine legal minds and big legal names. Ruxton was defended by Norman Burkett KC, KC being King's Council, a senior barrister, and Phil Kershaw KC. Burkett is still considered one of the finest lawyers of his generation with a well-deserved reputation for winning difficult cases. The prosecution were no less distinguished. Joseph Cooksy Jackson was a KC, as was David Maxwell Fife, later to become Home Secretary, nowadays Minister of Justice. Hartley Shawcross would later be lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials. The presiding judge was Mr. Justice Singleton. With circumstantial evidence so incriminating and forensic evidence so groundbreaking, it was no surprise that Ruxton was convicted of Isabella's murder on March 13, 1936. He is believed to have murdered Rodgerson because she witnessed the crime. The verdict was unpopular locally where Ruxton still remained a popular figure, a petition with over 10,000 signatures went to Home Secretary Sir John Simon. Simon, however, ignored it. Ruxton's petition to the Court of Criminal Appeal was also denied. Unlike the United States, where capital cases drag on for years, English law allowed only a minimum of three Sundays between sentencing and execution. On May 12, 1936, he was taken from the special condemned cell at Strangeway's prison at 8 a.m. Only a short walk separated him from hangman Thomas Pierpont, uncle of Albert Pierpont, and Pierpont's assistant Robert Wilson. The formalities lasted only seconds. As Ruxton reached the gallows, the prison clock started chiming the hour before it finished chiming. He was dead. When Weird Darkness returns, could the legend of the Pied Piper hint at a real, horrific event that befell the town of Hamlin more than 700 years ago? Weird Darkness is now partnering with Paranormality Magazine. Paranormality Magazine is based out of the love for the strange, unexplained and paranormal, as well as a fascination with the people and creators that make the paranormal community what it is. Exploring all 40 subjects, from phantoms to UFOs and every cryptid creature in between, their global team collects stories, conducts interviews and reports on cutting-edge paranormal projects. They also consider contributions from outside writers, researchers and artists. Visit WeirdDarkness.com slash magazine to learn more or subscribe to Paranormality Magazine. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash magazine. And you can get 10% off your subscription if you use the promo code Weird. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash magazine. Promo code Weird. WeirdDarkness.com slash magazine. Promo code Weird. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. Have you seen the Monster Channel? It has horror hosts, B horror movies, retro television commercials and a whole lot more. You can watch it any time, absolutely free, 24-7-365 on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. If you watch enough horror movies, sooner or later you'll hear a character utter a variation on the phrase, every legend has a basis in fact. But whether or not that statement is true, it is a fact that many of our most outlandish fables and fictions are rooted, at least somewhat, in actual history. And that truth often is stranger than fiction. Chances are, most of us have encountered some variation on the fairy tale of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. It's one of many folktales recorded by the brother's grim and has appeared in the writings of Robert Browning and Johann Wolfgang von Geth, not to mention worked its way into popular culture from A Nightmare on Elm Street to Bill Willingham's Fable's tie-in novel Peter and Max to the TV show Lost Girl. Alleged sexual predator R. Kelly has even called himself the Pied Piper of R&B. The story generally goes that the town of Hamlin was plagued by an unusual number of rats and a stranger from out of town wearing multicolored or pied clothes showed up and offered to get rid of the rats in exchange for payment. A stranger then produced a flute or a pipe and began playing a tune, at which time all the rats in town followed him out through the gates of the city and either to a nearby mountain or into the river, depending on which version you encounter. When the town's folk saw how easily the Piper had rid the town of the rats, they regretted the amount of money that they had offered him and reneged on their deal. The Piper vowed revenge and later, according to one brother's grim account, it was June 26th, 1284, and he returned and once more walked through the town playing his pipe. This time all the town's children, 130 of them, according to one of the earliest written accounts of the event, followed him out through the town's east gate and up to the nearby mountain, which in most accounts opened wide to swallow them up and they disappeared, never to be seen again. The details of the story vary with the telling, as these sorts of tales are want to do, and given that the story of the Pied Piper has been retold hundreds of times since 1284, so many in fact that there are two different Wikipedia pages devoted to adaptations of the legend, there are numerous variations, not to mention plenty of disagreement as to the meaning of the Pied Piper figure himself. The tale has been retold by the likes of Robert Browning and Johann Wolfgang von Geth, who also incorporated elements of the Pied Piper story into his famous play, Faust, but it has also found its way into plenty of less renowned art. The Pied Piper himself appears as a character in one of the Shrek sequels, while the legend is recounted in a song by the band Demons and Wizards. Variations of the Pied Piper story have even found their way into anime with the violinist of Hamelin replacing the Piper's flute with a very large violin, and the project, Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, aren't they? Suggesting that the Piper's actually the personification of natural disasters. This highlights one of the many things that we see in various adaptations of the story into other forms, disagreements about as to who the Pied Piper really is, what his motivations are, and what he represents. The recent TV series, Once Upon a Time, for example, posited that the Pied Piper was really Peter Pan and that he was using his magic pipes to lure potential lost boys away from their homes. A great example of this confusion as to the particulars of the story can be found in the seedy, low-rent 1995 horror comedy film Ice Cream Man, starring Clint Howard as the homicidal driver of an ice cream truck. The film makes heavy use of the Pied Piper story with one of the kids who act as the film's protagonists reading a book of the story throughout the film and making frequent allusions to it. In one scene, he is explaining the story to some of the other kids on the playground when an old man who is picking up trash approaches. As our protagonist gets to the part about the Piper luring away the rats, the old man gleefully says, then he got the kids. That's what happens when you don't pay the Piper, the old man later adds. The kids disagree, however, informing him that the children got away. Kids always get away, one of them tells him. Besides an example of varying takes on the specifics of the legend, this is also an example of how the Pied Piper story is entered into our everyday lexicon. To pay the Piper is usually defined as to pay a debt you owe or else face unsavory consequences, and its idiomatic use goes back at least as far as 1831 in the United States. While it has been connected to the longer phrase, who pays the Piper calls the tune, meaning that whoever is footing the bill for something gets to decide how it is done, the idiom pay the Piper is generally linked with the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. In fact, in its advice on how to use the phrase, the website Grammarist actually recounts the legend in brief, stating that the moral of the story was to pay the Piper or keep up your half of the bargain. Grammarist also points out that the phrase usually has a pejorative connotation, pointing out that when it is time to pay the Piper, it is time to accept the consequences of a thoughtless or rash action or to fulfill a responsibility or promise usually after the fulfillment has been delayed already. Both of these meanings probably tie back to the legend of the Pied Piper. Even the words Pied Piper have entered into common usage to mean everything from a charismatic person who attracts followers to a leader who makes irresponsible promises to one who offers strong but delusive enticement, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary entry for Pied Piper meaning. Pied piping is also a phrase used to describe a certain phenomena in linguistics in which some words drag others along with them when moved to the front of a sentence. In this way, the meaning of Pied Piper has gone beyond the original story to become a frequently used metaphor that shows up in common speech every day. We'll have more of this strange but somewhat true story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin when Weird Darkness returns. Paranormal experiences, encountering extraterrestrials, extraordinary states of consciousness, spiritual phenomenon, encounters with non-human entities that can't be explained by science. These stories of what people have come across are ubiquitous here on Weird Darkness, and often those who have had these encounters choose to stay quiet and not even tell close friends or family out of fear of ridicule, and they suffer silently, trying to deal with the internal horror of what they've experienced. If I'm describing you or someone you know, there is now a place you can turn to for professional counseling from experts who, unlike others in their field, are open to the paranormal, supernatural and extraterrestrial experiences of others, and they're not there to explain away your experience but to help you recover from it and move forward with living. I'm referring to the Opus Network. If you want to reach out for help or learn more, look for the Opus Network towards the bottom of the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. Welcome back to Weird Darkness, I'm Darren Marlar. If you like what you're hearing, you'll probably like the audiobooks I have on my website, many of which you can listen to absolutely free. I've got free audiobooks there by Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, Charles Dickens and more. You can listen to all of the free audiobooks I've narrated on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. We continue now with the true tale of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. One thing that every variation seems to agree upon is that the Pied Piper is almost always someone who lures people, usually rats at least since 1559 and then children, but sometimes other individuals depending on the use that the metaphor is being put to. From there, variations are the rule, with some accounts even forgetting the actual meaning of the Pied part of the Pied Piper's name and not depicting him in multicolored clothes at all. The story is a familiar one, but what most of us probably don't know is that it has its feet, at least somewhat, planted in an apparently true event that took place in the real-life town of Hamlin, Germany in 1284. The earliest accounts of the story don't include the rats, which would not show up until around the year 1559, but they do include the Piper dressed in his clothing of many colors. Our first clue about what really happened in the town of Hamlin comes from a stained-glass window that stood in the town's market church until it was destroyed in 1660. Accounts of the stained glass say that it alluded to some tragedy involving children, and a recreation of the window shows the Piper in his colorful clothes and several children dressed in white. The data set by an entry in Hamlin's town Chronicle, which was dated 1384, and said simply and chillingly, it is 100 years since our children left. While there is not enough historical data to ascertain for certain what happened in the town of Hamlin in 1284, there is little doubt that something occurred there which left a heavy mark on the town and on world folklore. Theories advanced over the years include that many of the town's children died of natural causes that year, or possibly drowned in the nearby river or were killed in a landslide, thus explaining the recurring motif of the rats being led into the water or the mountain opening up and swallowing the children. The Piper himself is considered a symbolic figure of death. One other explanation is that the children may have died of the Black Plague, which could be why the rats were later added into the story, though the Black Plague didn't hit Germany until the 1300s, making its arrival probably too late to be the true source of the legend. Other theorists told that the story of the Pied Piper actually refers to a mass emigration or even another children's crusade like the one that may have occurred in 1212. Many individuals have posited that the children may have emigrated or even been sold to places in Eastern Europe, including Transylvania or Poland. Linguist Jürgen Udolf, who has performed research suggesting that surnames from Hamlin may have found their way into modern-day Polish phone books. The modern-day website of the town of Hamlin invokes this interpretation, arguing that the children in the legend were actually citizens of the town who were willing to emigrate. After all, it points out, aren't all inhabitants of a city that cities children. In this version of events the Pied Piper isn't a single person, but instead represents the call of territorial rulers who recruited citizens of the town to resettle in Moravia, East Prussia, Pomerania and other places. Whatever the facts of the story, it's far from forgotten in the town of Hamlin. In the 16th century, when a new gate was built in the wall around the town, it was inscribed with the following legend. In the year 1556, 272 years after the magician led 130 children out of the town, this portal was erected. The Rattenfonger House, or Ratcatcher's House, remains a popular tourist attraction in the town to this day. Built in 1602, the building once bore an inscription about the legend, and today it is a city-owned Pied Piper-themed restaurant. In 2009, the city was home to a festival commemorating the 725th anniversary of whatever strange and unknown disaster gave rise to the legend, and every year the people of Hamlin celebrate Ratcatcher's Day on June 26th. The town also sells rat-themed merchandise in gift shops and online, including an officially licensed Hamlin-themed edition of Monopoly. Today, the town of Hamlin, which is now home to a population of around 56,000, maintains information about the legend of the Pied Piper on its website, and during the summer months, actors perform interpretations of the story in the town square. The road, along which the children supposedly passed on their way out of the east gate, never to be seen again, is called the Bungalow in Strasse, or Street Without Drums. According to an article published in The 40 in Times, it is against the law to play music or dance on the street to this very day. Ever been suddenly awakened from sleep by something that sounds like booming thunder, a shotgun blast, or perhaps a bomb? But when you wake up, you realize there was no apparent external source for the sound? Well, congratulations. You just experienced a rather curious condition known as Exploding Head Syndrome, and you've likely not got long to live. Or do you? Well, you just have to keep listening to the end of this story to find out. Who first documented the bizarre phenomenon isn't precisely known, though Rene Descartes seems to have experienced such, as described by Adrian Ballet in his La Vie de Moschaux de Carr, where he states after Descartes had one of his famous three dreams, he lay awake thinking about the blessing and evils of this world, and then drifted off back to sleep on November 10, 1619. He then had a new dream, in which he believed he heard a sharp and shattering noise, which he took for a clap of thunder. The fright it gave him woke him directly, and after opening his eyes, he perceived many sparkling lights scattered around the room. The same thing had appeared to him at other times. While Descartes seems to have thought these particular dreams on that night were divine in nature, modern physicians think it likely is he simply was one of at least 10% of people and probably more who occasionally experienced the phenomenon of Exploding Head Syndrome. As for the first medical professional to not only document the syndrome, but study it in great detail, we have to fast forward to 1876 and famed American physician Silas Ware Mitchell, today known as the father of medical neurology. For example, in his Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System, especially in women, he describes the experience of one patient, quote. When just falling asleep, he became conscious of something like an aura passing up from his feet. When it reaches his head, he felt what he described as an explosion. It was so violent and so loud that for a time he could not satisfy himself that he was not hurt. The sensation was that of a pistol shot or as of a bursting of something followed by a momentary sense of deadly fear, unquote. In another case, he notes the individual in question when perceiving this aura traveling up his body. If he awakened himself to full consciousness before it reached his head, he could stop the explosive sound from ever occurring. In yet another case, the individual notes, for him, it's not actually a loud explosion but the sound of a ringing bell, and sometimes that of a guitar string, rudely struck and which breaks with a twang. Fascinatingly, Dr. Mitchell even found one single example of a person who experienced the phenomenon not just while drifting off to sleep or while asleep, but also while fully awake. She described, quote, after a slight heat stroke and a new exposure to severe fatigue of body and mind, I experienced a sensation like the explosion of a pistol in my head. I hardly know how otherwise to describe it. A few months later, I began to have what I've always since called my shocks. A peculiar something, which for want of a better name I call electricity, starts from my head, chest, stomach, or bowels and seems to pervade me in a flash, then comes the sense of shock in the head and an uncontrollable shriek. At first, it never came unless my eyes were shut, but for one week, when I was most highly nervous and sleepless, it would come if I was startled by any sudden sound, and then I found that for a short period, I could cause it by touching a spot over my stomach. Of late, these shocks are not always preceded by any length of warning and are in the head alone. They come mostly as I am going to sleep and by straining my eyes to keep them open, I can sometimes prevent the shocks altogether. I should say that there is often some queer sense of chilliness in my head for an hour before the shocks, which is in a general way a warning of what may come. After absence from home and freedom from cares, I have been exempt from these shocks for weeks or months." This condition eventually became known as snapping head syndrome in the early 20th century but didn't receive more serious attention until 1989, when neurologist JMS Pierce examined 50 patients with the condition. In his paper, Clinical Features of the Exploding Head Syndrome, he notes, although some start in childhood, the commonest age of onset remains middle and old age. The pattern of episodes of explosions is variable. Some report two to four attacks followed by prolonged or total remission, others have more frequent attacks, up to seven in one night, for several nights each week and may then remit for several months. A separate study, this one done in 1991, the Exploding Head Syndrome, Polysomnographic Recordings and Therapeutic Suggestions states, five of the six cases who underwent daytime polysomnography slept during parts of the recording in stages one and two. Only two reported attacks of explosions. One patient had two attacks while she was awake and relaxed. In her attacks there was an alerting effect. The other case reported after the recording session that he had experienced an explosion during sleep. According to his EEG, he had not, in fact, slept at all during the recording. Beyond the whole extremely loud exploding or banging sound as alluded to, among the interesting symptoms described by patients includes a bright flash of light and a sensation of inability to breathe for a moment, resulting in the subjects having to very forcibly and consciously start breathing again. As you might imagine this is a rather disconcerting sensation, with some misinterpreting it, their racing heart and sometimes a temporary stabbing pain or bizarre tingling sensation in the head or extremities as perhaps having a stroke or a heart attack. Others interpret the entire thing as maybe being brain tumor based and some even go so far as thinking perhaps they were abducted by aliens or the like and placed back in bed after. The boom and flash of light then presumably being the spaceship rocketing off. So what actually has been causing exploding head syndrome? Losered people, of course. But for those wanting the root cause put forth by those refusing to accept the truth or otherwise pushing the agenda of our lizard overlords, may they reign forever as for Dr. Mitchell way back in the 19th century he strongly connected it with people who were stressed or exhausted. Noting, quote, I have seen a large number of persons who suffer in like fashion from some one of the various forms. The most of these cases are women worn out or tired out and hysterical, whether strong and well-nourished or not. In sturdy men it is rare unless they be excessive users of tobacco, unquote. So what advancements of modern physicians made on tracking down the source of the problem? Well, not much actually in terms of anything definitive, though there is a pretty solid hypothesis as to what generally is going on even if the specifics aren't clear. First, modern physicians agree with Dr. Mitchell that anxiety, stress, and fatigue seem to contribute to triggering it. One study, to pyramid responsive exploding head syndrome looking at the effectiveness of topomerate and anti-convulsant used to treat seizures, did note mother and daughter have similar symptomatology, raising the possibility that EHS may be hereditary, but whether this is actually true has not yet been proven. As for something more specific, the limited studies monitoring the activity of the brain while people are experiencing the phenomenon show a marked spike in neural activity right when explosive or other symptoms are occurring. This seems to happen right when the body is more or less transitioning from wakefulness to sleep, with as one researcher studying the phenomenon, Brian Sharpless of Washington State University describes as like a hiccup in the particular formation, a network in the brain that plays a role in maintaining consciousness and general arousal among other things. Sharpless goes on, we think the neurons responsible for processing sound are all firing at once. The result is then a really loud bang, even though your eardrums didn't actually initiate the neurons firing. Presumably a similar thing is happening for flashes of light and strong smells experienced by others, sometimes in addition to the sound or sometimes by themselves. In essence, this seems to be some sort of a sensory version of the hypnagogic jerk that pretty much everyone is experienced from time to time when transitioning from wakefulness to sleep. As for treatments, going back to 19th century Dr. Mitchell, he avoids recommending leeches and instead recommends rest and reduction of outside anxieties. Fast forwarding over a century and the recommendation remains the same, albeit a bit more specific, things like yoga, relaxing reading, so you know, no politics or social media, a hot bath before bed, relaxing music, listening to the soothing calming sound of Darren Marlar and Weird Darkness as he lulls you to sleep with creepy stories. In a nutshell, all of this is trying to get you to relax before bed and listen to more of my podcasts, just to stroke my ego of course. It's also noted that patients who previously didn't understand what was happening when this occurred and thus often had anxiety about it when falling asleep, tended to have a marked reduction in recurrence simply by learning about the syndrome and that it seems completely harmless other than being a bit startling to endure. As Dr. Sharpless asserts, you can help a lot just by reassuring a person that they're not crazy or experiencing symptoms of a tumor or some other brain disorder. That said, I do feel obliged to point out that just because experiencing Exploding Head Syndrome isn't a marker of being crazy, the fact that you have doesn't actually mean you aren't crazy either. It just means you're not imagining this phenomenon. You could still be crazy or have a brain tumor or be about to die any minute now, but it has nothing to do with Exploding Head Syndrome. As for drug treatments in a 2010 study, the aforementioned quite limited sample study indicated that Topiramate lessened the intensity of EHS events but did not diminish its frequency. The study's authors also noted other helpful drug therapies like Clonesopam, Nefetapine, Flunerazine, and Clomapramnine. That said, even for those drugs that even show signs of being effective, when you actually look into the matter as we did, the data supporting this conclusion is mostly non-existent. Usually, studies looking at just a handful of people for their sample. Given the condition is pretty random as it is, judging whether the medication actually helped or not falls squarely in the age old further research needed camp. On that note, not only is further research needed on every facet of this seemingly quite common phenomenon, even the name has been suggested to need further tweaking, as hearing a loud explosion is just one form of probably the same basic syndrome. Given others experience flashing light or strong smells and the like instead of or in addition to the big noise, thus it is being suggested that a more apt name would be episodic cranial sensory shock, though that doesn't quite have the same ring as exploding head syndrome and certainly wouldn't get as many clicks for those of us trying to spread the word about the condition or try to get more people to listen to our podcast. Are you a business owner or marketing manager? How would you like to share your product or service with our weirdo family of listeners? Whether your business is worldwide, nationwide or local, I would love to tell people about what you have to offer. To get your business heard in Weird Darkness or just get information about advertising in the podcast, visit WeirdDarkness.com slash Advertise. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Advertise. Don't go anywhere weirdos because sudden death over time is up next. Thanks for listening, weirdos. If you missed any part of tonight's radio show or if maybe you'd like to hear it again, you can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast app at WeirdDarkness.com slash Listen. Not only will you hear a copy of tonight's show in podcast form, but you'll also receive daily episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast. I upload episodes seven days per week, sometimes two or three episodes in a single day. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Listen. Or just search for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. Also in tonight's podcast, I will have the sudden death over time content with stories that I was not able to get to tonight because I ran out of time, including a story with the newspaper headline about an assaulting ghost, a story about Canada's weirdest phone number, and the true tale of the mad gasser of Mattoon, which is an amazing story that I have shared in my podcast in the past and I just had to bring it back for the radio show. It's that good of a story. Those stories can only be heard in the podcast after the show tonight. You can follow Weird Darkness on social media, on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other places. Go to the Contact social page on the website and you can find everywhere that I am on social media. And also please, tell others about Weird Darkness who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing this show. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes which I will upload to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show is ended. The real jigsaw was written by Robert Walsh for the lineup. The true story of the Pied Piper was written by Oren Gray for the Portalist, and Exploding Head Syndrome was written by Melissa for Today I Found Out. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Colossians 1 verse 13a, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness. And a final thought, be happy in the moment. That's enough. Each moment is all we need, not more. Mother Teresa, I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. In early September 1944, a string series of events occurred in the small Central Illinois town of Mattoon. According to eyewitnesses, numerous sightings and even physical evidence left behind, the town was under attack by a mysterious man in black who was, for unknown reasons, spraying some sort of paralyzing gas into the windows of unsuspecting residents. Who this man was, what his agenda might have been, and where he vanished to, all remain a mystery to this day. The bizarre events began on the night of August 31st, when a man awakened feeling sick. He questioned his wife about leaving the gas stove on, but when she tried to get out of bed to check, she was unable to move. Later, it was learned that a neighbor experienced the same effects that night. The next night, Mrs. Burt Carney was awakened by a strange sweet smell in her bedroom. When she tried to move, she found herself temporarily paralyzed. Her screams brought neighbors who called the police, but no sign of a gas leak was found. Around midnight, Burt Carney returned home from work, unaware of what had happened earlier that evening. As he turned into the driveway, he spotted a man lurking near the house, dressed all in black, close-fitting clothing, and a black watch cap. He was standing near a window where Carney spotted him and turned to run away. Thinking he was a window paper, Carney gave chase, but lost the man in the darkness. As the events of the two nights became publicly known, panic gripped the town. The newspapers handled the story in wildly sensationalistic manner, and years later would be blamed for creating a hysteria that would be used to explain all of the weird things that happened, but the newspapers could not be blamed for the very real happenings taking place in Mattoon. By the morning of September 5th, the Mattoon Police Department had received reports of four more gas attacks. The details in each of these attacks were eerily similar, even though none of the witnesses had compared notes or had time to check their stories. In each of the cases, the victims complained of a sickeningly sweet odor that caused them to become sick and slightly paralyzed for up to 30 minutes at a time. Late on the night of September 5th, the first real clues in the Mad Gasser case were discovered. They were found at the home of Carl and Bula Cortes, but what the clues actually reveal still remains a mystery. The Cortes returned home late to find a white cloth lying on their porch. Mrs. Cortes picked it up and noticed a strange smell coming from it. She held it up close to her nose and felt immediately nauseated and light-headed. She nearly fainted and her husband had to help her inside. Moments later her lips and face began to swell and her mouth began bleeding. The symptoms lasted almost two hours. The police were called and they took the cloth into evidence. As they searched the property, they also found a skeleton key and an empty tube of lipstick that was found on the porch. They decided the prowler was probably trying to break into the house, but it failed. Apparently, he had dropped his lipstick and a cloth with gas residue on it too. The mystery was just getting deeper by the day. Later that night, the Gasser attacked again, this time spraying gas into an open window. The attacks continued and Mattoon residents began reporting fleeting glimpses of the Gasser, always describing him as a tall, thin man in dark clothes and wearing a tight black cap. More attacks were reported and the harried police force tried to respond to the mysterious crimes that left no clues behind. Eventually, the authorities even summoned two FBI agents from Springfield to look into the case, but their presence did nothing to discourage the strange reports. Panic was widespread and rumors began to circulate that the attacker was an escapee from an insane asylum or a German spy who was testing out some sort of poisonous gas. Armed citizens took to the streets, organizing watches and patrols to thwart any further attacks, but several took place anyway. The gas attacks were becoming more frequent and the attacker was leaving behind evidence like footprints and sliced window screens. A local citizen's vigilance group did manage to arrest one suspect as the Gasser, but after he passed a polygraph test, he was released. Local businessmen announced that they would be holding a mass protest rally on Saturday, September 10th to put more pressure on the already pressured Mattoon police force. Now the Gasser was becoming more than a threat to public safety, he was becoming a political liability and a blot on the public image of the city. The Gasser, apparently not dissuaded by armed vigilantes and newspaper articles, resumed his attacks. The first incident took place at the home of Mrs. Violet Driscoll and her daughter Ramona. They awoke late in the evening to hear someone removing the storm sash on their bedroom window. They hurried out of bed and tried to run outside for help, but the fumes overcame Ramona and she began vomiting. Her mother stated that she saw a man running away from the house. A short time later that night, the Gasser sprayed fumes into the partially opened window of a room where Mrs. Russell Bailey, Catherine Tuzo, Mrs. Genevieve Haskell and Mrs. Haskell's young son were sleeping. At another home, Mrs. Frances Smith, the principal of the Colombian grade school and her sister Maxine, were also overwhelmed with gas and became ill. They began choking as they were awakened and felt partial paralysis in their legs and arms. They also said that as the sweet odor began to fill the room as a thin, blue vapor, they heard a buzzing noise from outside and believed that it was the Gasser's spraying apparatus in operation. By September 10, Mad Gasser Paranoia had peaked. FBI agents were trying to track down the type of gas being used in the attacks and the police force had to divide its time between looking for the Gasser and keeping armed citizens off the streets. Neither law enforcement agency was having much luck. By the following Saturday night, several dozen well-armed farmers from the surrounding area had joined the patrols in Matune. In spite of this, six attacks took place anyway, including three previously mentioned. Another couple, Mr. and Mrs. Stuart B. Scott, returned to their farm on the edge of Matune late in the evening to find the house filled with sweet-smelling gas. This seemed to be the last straw for the Matune authorities. While several gas attacks were reported on the night of September 11, they were all dismissed as false alarms. Newspaper accounts of the affair began to take on a more skeptical tone and despite claims by victims and material evidence left behind, the police began to dismiss new reports of attacks and suggested that local residents were merely imagining things. The Gasser could not be caught and it seemed easier to claim that he never existed at all than to admit that no one could find him. New stories began to appear in the papers where psychology experts opined that the women of Matune had dreamed up the Gasser as a desperate cry for attention as many of their husbands were overseas fighting in the war. This theory ignored the fact that many victims and witnesses were men and that this so-called fantasy was leaving behind evidence of his existence. The Matune police chief issued what he felt was the final statement on the gas attacks on September 12. He stated that large quantities of carbon tetrachloride gas were used at the local Atlas diesel engine company and that this gas must be causing the reported cases of illness and paralysis. It could be carried through the town on the wind and could have left the stains that were found on the rag at one of the homes. As for the mad Gasser himself, well, he was simply a figment of their imaginations. The whole case, he said, was a mistake from beginning to end. Not surprisingly, a spokesman for the Atlas diesel engine plant was quick to deny the allegations that his company had caused the concern in town, maintaining that the only use for that gas in the plant was in their fire extinguishers and any similar gases used there caused no ill effects in the air. Besides that, why hadn't this gas ever caused problems in the city before and how exactly was this gas cutting the window screens on Matune homes before causing nausea and paralysis? The official explanation also failed to explain how so many identical descriptions of the Gasser had been reported to the police. It also neglected to explain how different witnesses managed to report seeing a man of the Gasser's description fleeing the scene of an attack, even when the witness had no idea that an attack had taken place. The last Gasser attack took place on September 13th and while it was the last incident connected to the attacker in Matune, Illinois, it was also possibly the strangest. It occurred at the home of Mrs. Bertha Bench and her son Orville. They described the attacker as being a woman who was dressed in a man's clothing and who sprayed gas into a bedroom window. The next morning, footprints that appeared to have been made by a woman's high-heeled shoes were found in the dirt below the window. After this night, the mad Gasser of Matune was never seen or heard from again. To this day, the identity of the mad Gasser remains a mystery, as does the reason why he chose to wreak havoc in Matune. Stories have suggested that the Matune Gasser was anything from a mad scientist to an ape man, although who knows where that came from, and researchers today have their own theories, some of which are just as wild. Could he have been some sort of extraterrestrial visitor using some sort of paralyzing agent to further a hidden agenda? Could he have been some sort of odd inventor who was testing a new apparatus? Interestingly, I was sent a letter in 2002 from a woman who explained to me that her father grew up in Matune during the time when the gas attacks were taking place. He told her that there had been two sisters living in town at the time who had a brother who was allegedly insane. A number of people in town believed that he was the mad Gasser and so his sisters locked him in the basement until they could find a mental institution to put him in. After they locked him away, her father told her, the gas attacks stopped. Is this possibly the answer to the mystery? Or could the Gasser have been an agent of our own government who came to an obscure Midwestern town to test some military gas that could be used in the war effort? It might be telling that once national attention came to Matune, the authorities began a policy of complete denial and the attacks suddenly ceased. Coincidence? Whoever or whatever he was, the mad Gasser has vanished into time and real or imagined is only a memory in the world of the unknown. Perhaps he was never here at all. Perhaps he was, as Donald M. Johnson wrote in the 1954 issue of the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, simply a shadowy manifestation of some unimaginable unknown. But was he really? How do we explain the sightings of the mad Gasser that were made by people who did not even know the creature was alleged to exist? Or identical sightings from independent witnesses who could not have possibly known that others had just spotted the same figure? Was the Gasser, as some have suggested, a visitor from a dimension outside of our own, thus explaining his ability to appear or disappear at will? Was he a creature so outside the realm of our imaginations that we will never be able to comprehend his motives or understand the reason why he came to Matune? Perhaps this is the solution to the mystery. That this is a mystery that we will never understand. If you think about that long enough, it can make your head hurt. It is a solution that simply causes more questions to be asked. And in keeping with that, here is another. If the rules of physics don't actually apply to a phantom attacker like the mad Gasser and he is capable of traveling from one dimension to another, coming and going without explanation, where might he appear the next time? Think about that one when you turn off the lights and get into bed tonight. The following story, which appeared in the Arizona Republic on September 23, 1899, contains many of the same elements found throughout poltergeist literature. The suggestion that the outbreak was a kind of psychic revenge, the claim that one person was the clear focus of the stones, plus the observation that some of the stones were hot while others were ice cold, are all common themes. Here is the story, exactly as it was printed. Headline. Assaulting Ghost. Residents of East Jefferson Street Disturbed. A thrilling story of the strange persecution of old Mexican woman. This is a weird ghost story. But all ghost stories are weird. This one is well authenticated in that, though there have been scores of Phoenix witnesses, the hoax has not been discovered, if there be a hoax. About two weeks ago, a Mexican woman named Josefa Nunez, who now lives at 7th Street opposite the residence of Mr. Henry E. Kemp, applied to the county authorities for protection against persons who were throwing stones at her. She was not clearly understood, and while an officer visited her house now and then, he supposed that he was looking for an earthly stone-thrower whom he could see. But this is the story, until nearly a month ago, Senor Nunez lived near the eastern end of the streetcar line. Another Mexican named Yorcaides, a member of a Protestant church who had lived at her house for some time, was seized with a sickness of which he died. Only before death, he begged for food and water, which his hostess for some reason did not give him. A night or two after his death, the stone-throwing commenced. Small stones hurled from an invisible source, broke the windows of the house, or rattled against the outer wall. Now and then, Juan struck Senor Nunez. Though they landed sharply, they brought no other pain than a scorching sensation. She picked the stones from the ground and found some warm, and others almost ice-cold. She thought she might avoid this ghostly persecution by changing her residence, so she moved to the place where she now lives. The change brought her no relief, and then she applied to the authorities who did not understand her. The neighbors heard of these strange visitations a week ago, but took no interest in the story until within the last two days. Yesterday, the interest grew so intense that until nine o'clock last night, the hour when the stone-throwing ceases, more than 200 people visited Senor Nunez's home. Some of them saw the flying stones, heard them crash through windows or bang against the side of the house and fall to the ground. Many were picked up and carried off, so at least the stones have substance, though the thrower is disembodied. About five o'clock last night, the old woman was sitting in her house surrounded by not fewer than 40 visitors, American and Mexicans. Escarthor Shaw was thrown over her head and she was trembling, mid-telling of the annoyances which were wearing her life out. Suddenly, she put her hand to her jaw and despairingly screamed, Adios! Among those who were sitting near her were Officer George McClarity and C.S. Scott of the Herald. Officer McClarity saw a stone dropping on the old woman's shoulder and fall thence to the ground. He picked it up and it was warm. He gave it to Mr. Scott who testified to its temperature. Senor Nunez owns a small ranch some distance in the country. She visited it yesterday and she said that on her way home she was struck by one of these burning stones. Another story is told, though this is not authenticated, that a priest visited her home at her request. When he stopped in front of the house, still sitting in his buggy, he was struck by a stone producing a burning sensation. It rebounded and hit his horse which sprang forward in terror. End of story After this article, the case went pretty quiet, but there was an interesting follow-up in that same paper nine months later, June 9, 1899, reading, quote, headline, Mysterious Stone Throwing Recalled The case of the mysterious stone throwing, of which an old Mexican woman was the victim, filled the local newspapers last summer. She lived in a house on East Jefferson Street. The windows of the house were broken by stones hurled by unknown hands and in the presence of many incredulous visitors, rocks fell from the ceiling and the air upon the old woman. It was a puzzling case and though everybody who witnessed the manifestations believed there was a trick, it was never exposed. The old woman and her family moved to a hut in the neighborhood of the park and the matter was almost forgotten. It has recently come to the attention of the authorities that they are still living there in a ghostly sort of way and in an apparently destitute condition. They were visited by District Attorney Flanagan and Constable Joe Bales yesterday and it is probable that some action will be taken about them. When Weird Darkness returns, no one knew what the phone number was supposed to be for. No one knew the meaning of the bizarre recording they heard when calling the number. No one knew who owned the phone number or what they had done with it or why. It's the strange history behind a seemingly innocent 1-800 number that still has people baffled, especially those looking for improvement on their golf game. That story is up next. There are very few among those with a love for the supernatural who don't also have a passion for Edgar Allen Poe. Poe wasn't simply a melancholy author who wrote about premature burials, sinister black cats and talking ravens. He was much more. If you've ever read a modern mystery or horror novel, you can thank Poe. Poe invented the modern mystery story, mostly invented science fiction and was the first writer to take the horror stories of the Gothic era and set them in modern times, starting a trend that continues today. With a lifelong interest in Poe, Troy Taylor decided to take his own look at the mysterious and macabre writer, his tragic life, unexplained death and lingering hauntings. He invites listeners along to delve into the strange and bizarre world of Edgar Allen Poe, from his early life to his tragic marriage, his insane grief, his dramatically failed career, his links to an unsolved murder and the mystery of what happened to the writer in the five days before his unexplained death. Even more than a century and a half later, no one knows what happened to Poe before he was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland or what killed him. Why did he disappear and then show up in an incoherent state, wearing another man's clothes? Where did he go when he vanished and who was the mysterious Reynolds that Poe whispered about in his dying breath? And perhaps strangest of all, does he haunt the mysterious graveyard where his body is buried? Nevermore, the haunted life and mysterious death of Edgar Allen Poe, written by Troy Taylor, narrated by Darren Marlar. Find a link to the book on the audio book's page at WeirdDarkness.com. If you happen to live in Canada in the 1990s, you may have heard about or maybe even called an unusual phone number. It wasn't unusual just for one reason though. It was unusual for a whole bunch of reasons. For one thing, the phone number which was officially 1-800-465-3847 had a memorable vanity title, 1-800-GULF-TIP. For another, it was advertised via billboards in at least one city in Ontario, a large brightly colored sign featuring a gold ball, a golf club, grass, sky, and huge yellow writing spelling out 1-800-GULF-TIP. But strangest of all was what happened when you actually called the number. You didn't reach a hotline for golf instruction, as you might have expected. Instead, you encountered rather an odd recording. You'd hear a male-sounding voice counting from one to ten, in English, but with an accent of some sort, over and over again, always pausing for a breath between two of the numbers. Exactly which numbers the pause occurred between depends on who you talk to. Though some people remember it being between the five and the six, others between the six and the seven, and still others between the seven and the eight. The recording seemed to be on some sort of loop, but if you let it play long enough, eventually you'd hear a loud screaming tone replace the counting. No one knew what 1-800-GULF-TIP was supposed to be. No one knew the meaning of the recording. No one knew who owned the phone number or what they had done with it or why. Heck, for a long time after the number ceased being available for Canadians to call, no one could even say for sure whether the whole thing actually existed in the first place. It's spoken of on forums and message boards in the kind of tone we reserve for things that we're not certain we're remembering or maybe dreaming. Does anyone remember somebody might say? Did I just make this up? Somebody else says. What the heck was that anyway? Another posted. As it turns out, 1-800-GULF-TIP does have quite the history behind it. A history as strange as the recollections of those who called it way back in the day. There are, as far as I've been able to determine, three parts to the story. But although these three parts were hard enough to tease on their own, even more difficult was figuring out the order in which the parts actually go. I'm fairly certain I've sorted it out, though. So here's the deal with 1-800-GULF-TIP. By the way, don't call it. You don't want to hear what it has now. It's definitely adult-oriented. So buckle up, because the ride ends up being a lot wilder than I even expected it to be. The Canadian years of 1-800-GULF-TIP are the most mysterious, in part because there's very little documentation of this period, and in part because most of what we do know about it is based on people's memories of it. A human memory is, after all, often imperfect. But we can still gain some valuable information about the phone number based on these memories, and even confirm some parts of these recollections, including both its location and its timeframe. According to most people's memories, as recorded on various message boards and other forums across the web, it was common practice among kids and teens to call 1-800-GULF-TIP in order to experience the number's strange recording in three specific cities, St. Catharines, Toronto, and Ottawa, all in Canada. Notably, three cities are located not too far away from each other, and all within the same Canadian province, Ontario. The city that seems to factor most prominently in the history of 1-800-GULF-TIP is St. Catharines, the largest city in the Niagara area of Ontario. It has a population of around 133,000, roughly a third of Niagara's residents. I say St. Catharines is at the centre of the whole thing because that's where the billboard advertising 1-800-GULF-TIP was located in the early 1990s. The question though is about precisely where in St. Catharines the billboard was. According to a four-chan thread from 2017, it was across from the old Bijou Theatre. However, Reddit user OhiGetJokes, who grew up in St. Catharines and has been on the 1-800-GULF-TIP case for some time, described the billboard recently to YouTuber BarelySociable as across from the Lincoln Theatre that had a Bijou arcade in the ground floor. The editor also noted that the building was demolished some time ago, with a Wendy's slash Tim Horton's hybrid having gone up in its place. But then we've got this, you know you're from St. Catharines when, listicle 2, which includes the item, you remember the Bijou arcade in Lincoln Mall? Mall, not theatre. So where was it? The Bijou Theatre? The Lincoln Theatre? The Lincoln Mall? What complicates the situation is the fact that St. Catharines did once have both a Lincoln Theatre and a Bijou Theatre just not located where Lincoln Mall is. Also by theatre, we mean cinema in all cases here. We're talking about movie theaters, not live performance venues. Just, you know, for clarity's sake. The Lincoln Theatre, which was operated by famous players, was located at 386 St. Paul E Street, according to Cinema Treasures. Originally opened on May 16, 1939, it closed in 1980. Its current occupant is an upscale office space called the Lincoln. However, the Google Street View image, History of the Address, which dates back to 2007, tells quite a story. In 2007, the space looked vacant, although the theatre's old marquee bore a message about a soon-to-open vintage store. The store, however, seems never to have materialized. By 2009, it was vacant again, with a 4-rent sign in one of the windows. By 2014, the windows had been boarded up. By 2015, a strange message regarding three judges and a court filing had been posted on the marquee. And by 2018, work on the new Lincoln had begun. The current Street View image, which was captured in July of 2019, shows the completed space. There's also currently a chi-chi-looking restaurant called Dispatch in the building. Meanwhile, I discovered courtesy of a paper published in 2010 on early movie going in Niagara by Paul S. Moore of Ryerson University that the very first picture theatre ever to arrive in St. Catherine's was called The Bijou. Moore cites a 1976 article in the St. Catherine's Area newspaper The Standard by journalist Henry P. Nicholson detailing his early memories of the theatre, which, according to Nicholson, via Moore, was across the street from the standard's offices on Queen Street. It's not there anymore. As Moore puts it, there is no trace of The Bijou except Nicholson's memories. But the information available allows us to take a guess about its former address. The standard offices have been located at 17 Queen Street since 1898. So if The Bijou was across the street, it likely occupied the space currently labeled on Google Maps as 1418 Queen Street. I've been unable to dig up much about the property's history other than the fact that it is zoned for retail but vacant right now. It does look like the sort of space that might once have played host to an old-time cinema. But I actually think these two former theatres are red herrings. You see, there was once a cinema at the Lincoln Mall. Per Big Screen, it was called The Famous Player's Lincoln Mall, which I assume means it was operated by the same company that ran the Lincoln Theatre on St. Paul Street, and its official address was 525 Welland Avenue. If you plug Lincoln Mall St. Catherine's Ontario into Google Maps, it brings you to the Lincoln Value Center, which is in fact a shopping plaza. And if you plug 525 Welland Avenue specifically, it takes you to a Wendy's slash Tim Horton hybrid. There are even a few billboards visible from that Wendy's Tim Horton's location today, which is not the case for either the old Lincoln Theatre or the spot where the Bijou Theatre once stood. As such, I'm fairly confident this is where the 1800 Golf Tip billboard in St. Catherine was located. Despite the discrepancies between recollections, there are enough common threads between them all to support the idea Lincoln, Bijou, a cinema, an arcade, it all comes together at 525 Welland Avenue. Of course, what we don't know is who put the billboard up, or why. We'll talk about that more in a bit, but for now, let's stick with what else we know. Beyond St. Catherine's, knowledge of 1800 Golf Tip has also been placed in Toronto. I found considerably less concrete information about this possible connection, but a tenuous link does exist. It's mentioned in the 4chan thread I mentioned. Also, I managed to dig up a post from a Redditor who vaguely remembered hearing about it in Toronto, and, somewhat hilariously, it's currently listed as the phone number for a possibly defunct punk band based in Toronto on their Facebook page. The band's Facebook page updated their number to 1-800-465-3847 only recently though, September of 2019, so whether it was meant as a nod to the Canadian 1800 Golf Tip oddity remains to be seen. The reason I wonder whether the band is still active, by the way, is due to the fact that their last Facebook post prior to September's phone number change went up in March 2018, nearly two years ago. Do with that what you will. But as tenuous as these links might be, one of them gives us a bit more information about the timeline. Several Redditors in the thread placing the number in Toronto remembered calling it in the late 1980s, so we're not just looking at a number that was available in the 1990s. It was available in both the late 80s and at least the early 90s. But the most significant part of this leg of the story is the part that situates it in Ottawa. The July 29, 1993 edition of the Charlotteon, the student newspaper of Carleton University which is located in Ottawa, included a small box on page 11 listing six things we like, three things we hate, and one thing we just don't care about. Number one on the list, presumably making it one of the six things the students of Carleton liked, was 1800 Golf Tip. No other context was given for the number, but it's likely that the reason it was included in the list is because it was just so weird that one couldn't help but love it. This piece of evidence, by the way, is the thing that I think points most clearly to the Canadian mystery portion of 1800 Golf Tip's history, having occurred first in the timeline. It's the one primary document firmly dating the number's existence that both lines up with what Canadians who called it remember about precisely when it was the thing and fits in with everything that came afterwards. Here's the funny thing, following these early Canadian years, 1800 Golf Tip actually was a golf hotline for a brief period of time. It was based in the United States rather than Canada, however, since both the U.S. and Canada are part of the North American numbering plan for phone numbers and share the same 800 number dataset, we don't really need to solve the problem of how it jumped from one country to the other. All we need to know is that, at some point, the number changed hands, and when it did so, it went from a Canadian owner to a U.S.-based one. And that's when it became the USA Today PGA of America Golf Tip Hotline for at least one year. On December 1, 1994, USA Today ran an article addressing a fact that probably seemed novel at the time, but which is kind of, well, duh situation now. Sometimes people widely regarded as experts in a given field still seek out teachers from whom to learn even more about that field. In the case of the USA Today article, it was professional golfers with loads of titles and championships under their belts. It turns out that, yes, sometimes even these champs call up other golfers, coaches and trainers to get a few pointers on their game. The article was accompanied by a plug for a hotline that would allow readers to get answers from the experts, a hotline referred to as the USA Today PGA of America Hotline. Quote, Iron shots too often go astray, need to get a grip on your grip, spraying the ball off the tee, three putting far too often, 1-800-GOLF-TIP, 1-800-465-3847. Today, 9am to 9pm Eastern time, TTY-LINE, 1-800-331-1706. As the payphone project found, an article in the Florida newspaper, The Tampa Tribune, dated December 3rd, a few days later, further elaborated on the hotline's origin and purpose. Golfers nationwide can receive golf tips today and Sunday via a toll-free instruction hotline presented by the PGA of America and USA Today. The hotline featuring nearly 100 PGA members is being offered in conjunction for the Tommy Armour PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit New Orleans, called 800 GOLF-TIP. And wouldn't you know it? A bit more digging reveals that USA Today and the PGA, the Professional Golfers Association of America, have collaborated on this golf tips hotline on and off since 1992. But interestingly, the number associated with the hotline has not remained the same that entire time. According to an archived press release from the PGA published in 2011, that year's hotline marked the 10th in a series that dates back to the 1992 PGA Teaching and Coaching Summit. Monty Laurel, then the managing editor for USA Today's Sports Section, said according to the press release, USA Today and the PGA of America have worked together since 1992 on the golf tips hotline, and the collaboration has provided wonderful information for our audience and for golf fans everywhere. Continue, Laurel. Through the hotline, PGA professionals have helped USA Today readers of all skill levels and answered all kinds of questions from swing mechanics to set up to equipment issues to the mental game. Per USA Today, the phone number that year was not 1-800-GOLF-TIP, but rather 1-888-PGA-PLAY. 2011 was also notable for expanding the scope of the hotline beyond just the telephone. In that same press release, then-president of PGA of America, Alan Runowski, called that year's edition the PGA USA Today Gold Tips Hotline 2.0. In addition to the phone number, folks could for the first time use email, Facebook, Twitter and Skype to get in touch with the pros offering their advice, thereby bumping the hotline up to the next level. By 2013, the most recent revival of the hotline I could find, the program had moved entirely online, removing the phone number completely and instead encouraged people to send an email, post a question on our Facebook page, or send us a message via Twitter. The way the hotline worked was simple. Anyone who wanted to get some advice on golf from a bunch of people who really, really know what they are talking about, could call up the number, or in later years get in touch via email or social media, ask a question and get a response from a pro. It generally only operated for a day or two each time it resurfaced. In 1994, for example, it seems to have been a weekend thing, while in 2011 the hotline ran for only a single day, January 27. In 2013, the day the experts were actually on call answering questions was January 24. However, those who wanted to ask something could also send their message in advance via the previously noted online channels. For what it's worth, I did reach out to the PGA of America for confirmation on all of these specifics as well as to inquire about any additional information available about the hotline program. Alas, I did not receive a response prior to publication. But of course, the lack of confirmation here leads directly to the question of what exactly happened to the 1800 golf tip number after its use in the 1994 USA Today PGA of America hotline program. Clearly, USA Today and the PGA of America relinquished the number later on, as evidenced by the fact that the golf hotline number was different by 2011, thus leaving 1800 golf tip free for somebody else to snap up. And that somebody ended up being a company called Mayfair Communications or possibly Primetel Communications. When you call 1800 golf tip now, you don't get the counting recording, nor do you reach the USA Today PGA of America hotline. Instead, you reach an adult hotline, which of course yields the following question, who sets up an adult hotline reached by dialing a number that spells out 1800 golf tip. It seems like an unexpected choice. But don't call the number. I have done it for you. Here is what you hear when you dial the number 1800 golf tip. Come to America's hottest hotline. Guys, hot ladies are waiting to talk to you. Press 1 now. Ladies, to talk to an interesting and exciting guy's free, press 2 to connect free now. Guys, press 1 now. Now. There you go. That's it. And at that point, it hangs up on you. Apparently, if you don't click a button, it either assumes that you called the wrong number or are not of age or something. As YouTube are barely sociable found out in his recent exploration of 1800 golf tip, the number, which as a reminder is actually 1-800-465-3847, it's been owned by Philadelphia based company Mayfair Communications since 1998. Like barely sociable, I followed the trail of 1800 golf tip to Mayfair Communications and then from Mayfair Communications to another company called Primetel Communications. It's tricky to connect the two companies at first. Neither has their own website, although it appears that Mayfair Communications did once. It's just not operational anymore. And information about both companies is scarce. They are, however, both based in Philadelphia, and more notably, both pop up in tandem with some degree of frequency in user posts on various forums dedicated to documenting robocalls, toll-free numbers and phone scams. And here's where things started to get really interesting. You see, Mayfair Communications wasn't bought by Primetel Communications. It is Primetel Communications, or part of it at least, and the person who owns both of these companies owns a lot more than just a couple of 800 number service providers. Primetel Communications is one of several hundred RESP orgs or responsible organizations operating in the United States and Canada. RESP orgs are kind of like the 800 number version of Internet domain registrars. They maintain the registrations for toll-free numbers listed in the SMS800 database, the database of all 800 numbers in North America and their current status. A RESP org can be a long-distance company, reseller and user or an independent that offers an outsourced service, according to the FCC. However, it seems to be a little difficult to actually get a number from Primetel. As one blog post on 800 number availability notes, the company doesn't ever give them up, meaning the company operates as the end user. Indeed, as Barely Sociable noted, Primetel is mostly known these days for amassing tons of toll-free numbers and redirecting them to adult hotlines. These activities actually became quite the news story in 2011, with reports about the whole to-do appearing in a wide range of newspapers and other reputable media outlets. At the time of the reports, Primetel had seemingly been at it for around 13 years, according to records acquired by the Associated Press. That is, the activity dated back to 1998. Sound familiar? But the adult hotlines the 800 numbers acquired by Primetel were not just any adult hotlines. They were adult hotlines connected with one of Primetel's founders. According to a June 2011 report from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Primetel was created by Richard Cohen and Sandra Kessler, working out of Philadelphia in 1995. At the time, Cohen was mostly known for running a huge number of adult businesses, largely under the company name National A1 Advertising Inc. Websites, phone lines, you name it. After Primetel came into being, the company began buying up 800 numbers and redirecting them to adult hotlines that were part of Cohen's network. As of 2011, Primetel controlled 1.7 million numbers, about 25% of all 800 numbers in the United States and Canada. It is perhaps worth noting that Primetel has been accused of violating the Code of Federal Regulations Telecommunications for hoarding numbers and directing them to a single toll-free subscriber. But although a handful of complaints have been brought against them, they have all been thrown out. The FCC hasn't brought any action against them. According to one official that was quoted, although what Primetel is doing might be annoying, it isn't necessarily illegal. The plot thickens, though, or at least it does regarding the ownership of 1-800-GULF-TIP. According to a different earlier report from the Philadelphia Inquirer published in October of 2010, Primetel actually had six resp orgs under its belt at the time. They all tended to be grouped under the single name of Primetel, and the full list isn't even hard to find. The six companies include Primetel itself, USA Broadband, Unlink Telecom, Wirestar Communications, Yorkshire Telecom, and Mayfair Communications. And there we have it. Mayfair is Primetel. Both are run in part by Philadelphia's biggest adult industry player, and 1-800-GULF-TIP is currently part of that empire. To sum everything up, here's the timeline as I currently understand it for 1-800-GULF-TIP. In the late 80s and early 90s, at least one billboard advertising 1-800-GULF-TIP existed in Ontario. When people called the number, they heard a recording of a man counting from 1-10, and the whole thing was weird enough for people to share the number, thus allowing it to spread, urban legend-like, throughout at least three cities in the province and possibly through Canada more broadly. By 1994, USA Today and the PGA of America had acquired 1-800-GULF-TIP for use in their Golf Tips hotline, but because the hotline was not an ongoing thing or even an annual occurrence, they didn't hold onto it or continue to pay for it for any extended length of time. Instead, they relinquished it when they were done using it. Then, in or around 1998, Mayfair Communications slash Primetel acquired the number, not for any particular reason, but simply because it was available. They redirected it to an adult hotline, and there it has stayed ever since. Although exactly what was going on with the number prior to 1994 is still a mystery, I'd argue that the context surrounding it allows us to take a reasonable guess about it. Here's what I think. I think that the number either wasn't owned by anyone at the time or that it was owned by someone who intended to start a golf hotline and never got around to it. In both cases, I think it's likely that the recording of the man counting was simply a placeholder or a test, something to fill the silence and make sure the number still worked. In support of the recording being a telecom's test, we have reports of other 800 numbers playing either the same or a similar recording around the same time most memories place it with one 800 golf tip. Meanwhile, in support of it having belonged to someone who lacked follow-through, we have the billboard. The owner of the number could very well have prematurely taken out billboard advertising for their planned hotline and then failed to actually do anything with the number, leaving the billboard sitting there for years advertising a hotline that didn't exist. But here's something else worth pointing out. 800 numbers can be zoned such that they only reach specific businesses to collars from specific geographic areas. As phone service company Unitel Voice explains, there are a few different kinds of toll-free service providers, one of which rents vanity phone numbers, numbers like 1-800-GOLF-TIP, which are easy to remember and are customizable, to people in specific geographic locations. For example, notes the company's post on toll-free numbers, a dental office in Houston could use and advertise 1-855-DENTIST, and at the same time, a dentist's office in Chicago could use and advertise the exact same business number. Customers who call the phone number from a Houston area code will be routed to the Houston dentist. Customers who call the number from Chicago will be routed to the Chicago-based dentist. That means it's possible for 1-800-GOLF-TIP to lead to different businesses depending on where you're calling from. In the United States, where I'm based, it leads to an adult hotline as I shared with you. In Canada, though, it might lead somewhere else. Heck, it might have led somewhere else in Canada while it was leading to, say, the USA Today PGA of America hotline in the United States. For what it's worth, a 2005 message board post at Tribe Magazine, which is Toronto-centric, by the way, noted that at the time, calling 1-800-GOLF-TIP from Canada yielded an automated message stating, the number you've dialed cannot be reached from your calling area. Given that Primetel slash Mayfair had already acquired the number by that point, it's probably safe to say that they zoned it only in the United States. But I mean, hey, more than a few years have passed since then. If you're Canadian and you want to give 1-800-GOLF-TIP a call and you don't mind incurring whatever fees might be associated with it, let me know what you get. I'm sure we'd all be interested to hear what you find. As for me here in Chicagoland in the U.S., I have no need for an adult hotline. Who loves all things strange and macabre? If you want to listen to the podcast, you can find it at WeirdDarkness.com slash listen.