 As heard during the podcast, that are not in my voice are placed by third-party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Located between the Texas towns of Denton and Copper Canyon lies an unassuming old bridge that is said to be haunted by a demonic legend. Known as Old Alton Bridge or Goatman's Bridge, the humble wooden pass has earned its creepy moniker due to its unsavory past which includes black magic and murder. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here 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 episode. Over six decades later, the brutal unsolved murders at Lake Bodum continue to haunt Finland and beyond. A man finds his neighbor laying in the snow, frozen solid, yet somehow she survives. I'll tell you the miraculous story of Jean Hilliard. For anyone who's used a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft, it's probably happened to you at least once. You're waiting on your ride to pick you up, you see a car coming your way and you think it's there for you, only to find out a few seconds later that it's not. One college girl had this same experience, only she got into that wrong vehicle and ended up being murdered for her mistake. The history of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is wrapped up in Chicago's wealthiest families having their summer homes there. But even as early as 1912, when people were writing about the city, they said the second most significant thing about the town was the sanitariums. Most are shut down today, but that doesn't mean the souls aren't still living there. Some old documents were found recently that tell the story of the first time in recorded history that someone was struck by a meteor. But first, legend has it that a brutal lynching and a series of satanic rituals transformed Goatman's Bridge in rural Texas into a paranormal hotspot. We begin with that story. 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. Recommending weird darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com where you can find the show on Facebook and Twitter and you can also join the Weird Darkness Weirdos Facebook group. Now, fold your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Rumor has it that the Old Alton Bridge in rural Texas is haunted by a half-goat demon with glowing red eyes and a loud snarl. According to local lore, this demonic presence was brought to the bridge by the ghost of a black goat farmer who was brutally lynched by the Ku Klux Klan there. Some even believe that the bridge is haunted by evil spirits spawned by local occultists who have reportedly performed sacrificial rituals in the woods nearby. Visitors swear that there is something supernatural about the bridge and the structure has consequently been featured in a number of paranormal investigation shows including the popular series Ghost Adventurers. This is the eerie story behind the haunted goat man's bridge. Before the bridge became a magnet for ghost hunters, it was simply known as Old Alton Bridge. The name referred to the nearby town of Alton, which once occupied the area near the goat man's bridge and was supposedly populated by one resident for a time. The quaint area also included the Hickory Creek Baptist Church, the Alton Cemetery, a saloon, and a school. Alton was later abandoned after its county seat was moved to the neighboring town of Denton at the end of the 1850s. Everything was shuttered, leaving only the church and cemetery in place. But the Hickory Creek that cuts through the land made transportation difficult, which led to the construction of a bridge by the King Iron Manufacturing Bridge Company in 1884. Hence, the structure was named Old Alton Bridge since it was built near the Old Settlement. The simple yet sturdy bridge allowed developers to carry horses and automobiles across the river. The bridge now connects present day Denton and the small town of Copper Canyon. Today, the bridge is no longer fit for vehicle crossings, but thrill-seekers still frequent goat man's bridge by foot to explore the legends that emerged after its construction. The Old Alton Bridge's nickname, Goat Man's Bridge, originated from at least two eerie local legends. The first tragic legend claims that a successful African-American goat farmer named Oscar Washburn was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan on the bridge in the 1930s. The story goes that Washburn was lynched by white supremacists when hanged from the edge of Old Alton Bridge. Washburn's body ended up on the ground below the bridge after he was either thrown off by the Klansmen or his body slipped from the noose. But when his killers went down to the water to fetch his body, it disappeared. Some believe that Washburn's spirit returned to the scene of his murder to seek revenge on his killers and has been haunting the bridge ever since. Another version of Washburn's legend posits that it is actually his wife who haunts the old structure. After Washburn's body disappeared, the Klansmen are alleged to have returned to his home and murdered the rest of his family. Another version of the famous Goatman's bridge legend involves a half-goat, half-man entity that guards the bridge and the forest around it. It is said that the so-called Goatman can be summoned by knocking on the bridge three times. Witnesses have reported sightings of a goat-like beast with glowing eyes. Others have claimed to hear sounds like hooves galloping on the bridge behind them and a growling voice ordering them to get off the bridge. There have even been accounts of people being attacked by the alleged half-goat demon. At least one person who visited the bridge with a friend claimed they heard the growling voice. After the witness ran away, their friend who had remained on Goatman's bridge appeared to be dragged to the edge and thrown into the river by an unknown entity. The bridge's spooky reputation has since attracted amateur sleuths and paranormal investigators alike. Goatman's bridge has been the subject of investigations on popular supernatural shows like Buzzfeed Unsolved, Supernatural, and Ghost Adventurers. The Goatman's Bridge is my least favorite story, said Shelley Tucker, who wrote the book Ghosts of Denton and leads local tours around Denton. People always ask about it, she said. They just gotta know. According to Tucker's research into Denton's local lore, there was no person named Oscar Washburn living in the area around the time of the alleged murder, nor were there any reports of a lynching. But there were likely cases of lynchings that went unreported during the violent era of Jim Crow in the area. There have also been reports of sacrificial rituals performed in the woods nearby, which believers of the supernatural argue is the true cause of the Goatman's appearance. According to one local police officer, nearby pet stores have stopped selling cats because there were so many cats found slaughtered in a ritualistic manner around the area. Haunted or not, the century-old bridge remains a popular sight, even for those who are looking to take some peaceful photographs. The terrifying legend of Goatman's bridge may excite the imagination of out-of-town visitors, but for most locals, the old bridge is just part of the beautiful scenery. When Weird Darkness returns, a man finds his neighbor laying in the snow, frozen solid, yet somehow she survives. But first, over six decades later, the brutal unsolved murders at Lake Bodum continue to haunt Finland. That story is up next on Weird Darkness. 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 and events. You can hear audiobooks I'm narrating before even the publishers or authors get to hear them. You also receive bonus audio of other projects I'm working on outside of Weird Darkness. You get all of these benefits and more starting at only $5 per month. Join the Weird Darkness Syndicate at WeirdDarkness.com slash syndicate. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash syndicate. One fateful summer, four teenagers camped out in a single tent on the shore of Finland's Lake Bodum. Only one would survive the night. If that sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, you're not wrong. In fact, the Lake Bodum murders that occurred in the early morning hours of June 5, 1960 served as the inspiration for the 2016 horror flick Lake Bodum, known simply as Bodum in Finland, which can be found streaming online with English subtitles. The film follows four modern teens who camp at the site of the 1960 murders in an attempt to solve the crime by reconstructing it minute by minute. Naturally, this being a horror movie, they run into some unexpected and grisly surprises. As for the original Quartet who camped at Lake Bodum that June night in 1960, they had no way of knowing what terrifying fate awaited them before daybreak. Here we're sharing everything we know about the shocking murders at Lake Bodum which remain unsolved to this day. On June 4, 1960, four teenagers set up camp on the shore of Lake Bodum, not far from the city of Espu in Finland. That night, however, a simple camping trip turned into a bloodbath. Sometime in the pre-dawn hours between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m., the campers were attacked by an unknown assailant. The bludgeoned and viciously stabbed through the sides of their tent, three of the campers died of their injuries, while a fourth survived with a concussion and a fractured jaw. Nils Wilhelm Gustafson was found lying atop the collapsed tent barefoot and in shock. He reportedly described their attacker as a black shape with bright red eyes. Some people say that it was death itself that came for the kids. Philippe Tafani wrote for Fotostrasse, accompanying a series of photographs of the icy lake. Whoever or whatever the killer was, it left a trail of death and destruction in its wake. Mela or Mellie Bjorkland and Anja Tulike Maki were 15 years old when they accompanied their 18-year-old boyfriends, Nils Wilhelm Gustafson and Seppo Antero Boisman to the shores of Lake Bodum for an innocent camping trip. After an unknown attacker slashed the tent to ribbons and caused fatal injuries to those inside, the remains of Maki and Boisman were found inside the tattered tent. Bjorkland was left lying atop it, undressed from the waist down. She had also suffered more injuries than any of the other victims have they been stabbed multiple times after she was already dead. The only survivor was Nils Gustafson, Bjorkland's boyfriend. He was found atop the tent as well lying next to his murdered sweetheart. When questioned, Gustafson claimed to have no memory of the attacks, safe for that vision of bright red eyes coming for him. The scene of the crime proved perhaps even more mystifying than the murders themselves. In addition to attacking the teens from outside the tent, the killer seemingly made off with a number of unusual items. Not only were the murder weapons never found, or even identified in the case of the unknown object that was used to bludgeon the victims, several other objects were missing. That includes the keys to the teenagers' motorcycles, even though the motorcycles themselves weren't taken. Gustafson's shoes were found hidden roughly half a mile away from the site of the attack, along with clothes from several of the victims. In what's been widely condemned as a botched investigation, the local police already coming upon a crime scene that was at least six hours cold, failed to cordon off the area. They even enlisted the help of soldiers to find the victim's missing items, leading to further contamination of the crime scene as additional people trampled through it and making certain forensic evidence nearly impossible to obtain. Adding insult to injury, they never found most of the missing items. A group of young bird watchers were the first to notice the collapsed tent the next morning. They also reported seeing a blonde man walking away from the site. However, it wasn't until hours later that police arrived on the scene, summoned by a carpenter who had discovered the bodies. The first major suspect associated with the case was Carl Waldemar Gilstrum, a man who owned and operated a nearby kiosk. In spite of his career choice, Gilstrum was said to hate campers, even going so far as to cut down tents and throw rocks at visitors. According to online sources, some of the witnesses who saw a figure leaving the scene that day later identified the man as Gilstrum. When police questioned him and his wife, however, she said that he had been asleep beside her at the time of the murders. Gilstrum allegedly confessed to the crime several times over the years while in varying states of sobriety. In 1969, Carl Waldemar Gilstrum drowned in Lake Bodum, likely by suicide. Some believe that his guilt over having committed the murders drove him to end his life. However, police have never found any physical evidence linking Gilstrum to the killings and considered him a disturbed individual whose confessions should not be taken seriously. The other major suspect in the investigation was Hans Ostman, a former Nazi who was also rumored to be an ex-KGB operative. Ostman lived near the lake and showed up at a hospital in Helsinki on the morning of June 6th, the day after the murders, wearing clothes covered in red stains and with his fingernails blackened with dirt. Doctors who examined Ostman that morning insisted that the stains on his clothes were blood, but police never examined them. Nor did they seriously pursue Ostman as a suspect at the time, claiming that he had an alibi for the night of the murders. Dr. Horma Paolo, one of the doctors who initially examined Ostman, later wrote multiple books theorizing that he was the murderer, while a former detective claimed that he could also link Ostman to the 1953 murder of teenager Kaleekisari, another infamous unsolved case in Finland. Some sources claimed that Ostman's political connections were the reason that he was never arrested. In 2004, some 44 years after the tragic events at Lake Bodum, police made a surprising arrest. Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson, the only survivor of the Lake Bodum murders. According to the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, new evidence apparently pointed squarely at Gustafsson as the violent perpetrator. That evidence included bloodstain analysis, DNA testing and a surprise witness who waited over 40 years before coming forward. In August of 2005, Gustafsson went to trial, accused of three counts of murder. Prosecutors sought a life sentence against him, claiming that he had killed his girlfriend, Mela or Mellie Bjortland in a jealous rage, then went after the other two teens in order to eliminate witnesses. The prosecution argued that some of Gustafsson's injuries were sustained in a fight with a boysman earlier in the evening, and that the remaining injuries were ones that he had inflicted on himself so as not to arouse suspicion. The defense, on the other hand, argued that the severity of Gustafsson's injuries was far too great for him to have committed the murders that he was accused of, not to mention the inconsistencies in the prosecution's story, such as the half-mile hike each way to hide Gustafsson's shoes or the missing murder weapons and other items that had never been found. Just two months after his trial began, Gustafsson was acquitted. He was awarded damages from the government in recompense for his time in prison and the mental anguish caused by his arrest so many years after the crime. With Gustafsson cleared of the charges and most of the other suspects long dead will probably never know what really happened that dark night at Lake Bodum. Even so, the brutal unsolved mystery continues to haunt the public imagination in Finland and beyond. On the bitterly cold morning of December 20, 1980, in Langby, Minnesota, a man opened his back door to find his 19-year-old neighbor, Jean Hilliard, laying in the snow. She was literally frozen solid from the night before, when temperatures dropped 25 degrees below zero. Apparently, Jean was trying desperately to reach her neighbor for help when her car skidded off the road. When her body was discovered, she was immediately sent to the local hospital where her condition stunned the doctors. One of the nurses said that Jean was so cold it was like reaching into a freezer and that her face was absolutely white, just this ashen, death look. Her temperature was too low to register on thermometers that go down to 88 degrees and her heart was beating about 12 times a minute, less than a fifth its normal rate. Dr. Ryan Kelly said that she was severely frostbitten. None of her limbs would bend or move. When a person gets frostbite, it means ice crystals are forming in the cells and in so doing, they destroy many of the cells in the body. After the hands and feet maybe start the initial stage as a frostbite and the core temperature of the body drops, the heart, the lungs, the internal organs of the abdomen, the brain, and when those start to cool, it becomes more and more difficult for them to perform their functions until finally they stop. At that point, the patient would more than likely die. However, two hours later, Jean went into violent convulsions and regained consciousness. Jean seemed to be fine with her mind and body. It was soon clear that nothing would have to be amputated from her and that she would recover. After 49 days in the hospital and in defiance of everything known about frostbite, Jean was released. Since then, she has made an astonishing recovery and has suffered no later ill effects. Jean is now married and a mother with three children. She believes that along with the doctors and nurses, the prayer chain helped to save her life. Samantha Josephson was a 21-year-old senior at the University of South Carolina from New Jersey. She was majoring in political science who planned on becoming a lawyer and practicing international law after graduation. She had already earned a full scholarship to Drexel University School of Law and a partial scholarship to Rutgers Law School. Just three weeks before completing her degree, on March 28, 2019, Samantha spent the night out with friends and called an Uber at 2 a.m. on March 29. She mistook Nathaniel Roland's car for her Uber and entered the vehicle. Roland was a stranger to her but used the misunderstanding to pray on Samantha. Roland used his car's child-proof lock system to trap her in his car. The next day, Samantha's friends noticed she was missing and reported it to police. Surveillance footage shows Samantha waiting for her Uber and then getting into a car. A bolo, or be on the lookout, was issued by police for a black Chevy Impala. Nathaniel Roland was pulled over at 4 a.m. on March 30. The stop was captured on both the officer's dash camera and body camera. Roland got out of the vehicle and fled the scene. He was caught and arrested a few blocks away. The footage also shows the officer searching Roland's car and discovering Samantha Josephson's cell phone. When the officer opened up Roland's trunk, he decided to call for backup before investigating more as there was so much blood. 14 hours after Samantha got into the wrong car, her body was found in a field 65 miles away by turkey hunters. The remote area was near where Nathaniel Roland used to live. Samantha had been stabbed 120 times. The attack on her was so vicious, forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Beaver testified that he struggled to find enough blood to create a blood sample, saying she had just over a tablespoon of blood left in her body. When Roland was arrested, he was not injured at all. Roland's former girlfriend also testified he'd placed a white sheet over his passenger seat where the blood was found the day after the murder and that she saw him cleaning blood off of his vehicle and multi-tool, believed to be the murder weapon with bleach. On July 27, 2021, Nathaniel Roland was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Samantha Josephson. He had no history of violence. Roland's family says he doesn't have a violent bone in his body. For some reason, his defense lawyer also argued that he was a good basketball player. Following the trope, the demand's promising future is more important than the future of the woman the man is victimized. After being convicted, Roland, who did not take the stand to defend himself, stated, I know I'm innocent, but I guess what I know and what I think really doesn't matter. I just wish the state would have done more in finding out who the actual person was instead of being satisfied with detaining me and proving my guilt. The judge, reminding Roland of the avalanche of evidence against him, was not having it. He said he was completely satisfied with the case against Roland and described him as an emotionless killer with a depraved heart. The judge also clarifies that while it must be hard for Roland's parents to accept what their son has done, he is confident that if they thought about it, they could identify signs that Nathaniel Roland was capable of such violence, and perhaps in another universe an intervention could have saved Samantha's life. Samantha's parents were also given the opportunity to read a statement. They urged the judge to keep Roland away from the public for good, saying he is evil, he is a monster, I pray that he feels Samantha's pain. Nathaniel Roland was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. After Samantha's death, her family was instrumental in getting Sammy's law passed in New Jersey, her home state. The law requires that rideshare vehicles be clearly marked with at least two signs and a scannable QR code. The Samantha L. Josephson Ridesharing Safety Act was also created and passed in South Carolina to make rideshare drivers have visible license numbers on the front of their cars. It also criminalizes the act of pretending to be a rideshare driver. Sammy's law is still trying to be passed on a federal level. Her family also started the What's My Name Foundation, a non-profit that awards scholarships and raises awareness about rideshare safety. They produced PSAs with celebrities like Darius Rucker and Bob Saget with basic tips to keep people safe when using rideshare apps. Two months after her death, Samantha Josephson was posthumously awarded her political science degree by the University of South Carolina. Coming up, only slightly less prevalent than the beauty of Wisconsin's Lake Geneva are the grim horrors of its many haunted sanitariums. Plus, some old documents were found recently that tell the story of the first time in recorded history that someone was struck by a meteor. These stories are up next when Weird Darkness returns. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, dark thoughts, or addiction, please visit the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. There, I've gathered numerous resources to find hope and solutions. For those suffering from thoughts of suicide or self-harm, there is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, as well as the Crisis Text Line. Both have trained counselors at all hours to help those in need, and the page even includes text numbers for those in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland. Those struggling with depression can get help through the Seven Cups website and app. And there's information for anyone to read more about what depression truly is and how to identify it through our friends at ifred.org. There are resources for those who battle addictions, be it drugs, alcohol, or self-destructive behavior, along with help for those related to addicts. The page has links to help you find a therapist or counselor to find help for those who have a family member with Alzheimer's or dementia, help for those in a crisis pregnancy, and more. These resources are always there when you or someone you love needs them on the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. The history of Lake Geneva is wrapped up in Chicago's wealthiest families having their summer homes there. But even as early as 1912, when people were writing about the city, they said the second most significant thing about the town was the sanitariums. That's right, Lake Geneva wasn't just a getaway for the jet set. Well, propeller set might be a more appropriate term considering the time period, but this was also known as a place for healing, where the ill could come to get better. And when you think about a sanitarium, you think about some kind of dingy state-run facility with tiny prison-like rooms, hell holes where poor souls are left to rot by uncaring staff. But the Lake Geneva sanitariums were more like country clubs. Instead of thinking of these places like some nightmarish bedlam, though, try this on. Think of a rehab facility that Ben Affleck or Stephen Tyler from Aerosmith would go to. Scenic lake views, green, sprawling grounds, that's what these places were like. They were just as much of a high-class hotel as a hospital. On this property was the Oakwood Springs Retreat and Sanitarium, one of the most famous of the Lake Geneva sanitariums. Opened in May of 1885, Oakwood was the dream of Oscar Augustus King, a groundbreaking physician who was a mixture of psychiatrist and neurologist. King even studied at the University of Vienna in Austria at almost the exact same time as the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Dr. King was a pioneer in the field and he led the Wisconsin Legislature to pass the first bills regulating mental health treatment so that he could build his sanitarium here. These bills turned Wisconsin into the mental health capital of America and no other state had as many sanitariums in the late 19th century as the Badger state. It could also be because Wisconsinites are crazier than most. The sanitarium showcased the most advanced psychological treatment in the world at the time. People paid up to $1,500 a month to stay at Havenwood and that's 19th century dollars so they were getting the best treatment possible, which were certainly becoming more humane than in the past, but still a little medieval. In fact, one of the proudly advertised treatments was hydrotherapy. Now, hydrotherapy doesn't sound that bad. In fact, it sounds like it might just involve hanging out in the hot tub until you feel better, but it wasn't quite that relaxing. Some patients would be wrapped up in towels like a mummy and then soaked in ice cold water. Others would be submerged for days, only let out to use the bathroom. It was cutting edge and better than the lobotomies or electroshock therapy of the 1940s and 50s, but it still wasn't very much fun. However, they also treated some mental illness with marijuana there, so I guess it couldn't have been too bad. Speaking of celebrities, it is a popular rumor that the famous actress Greta Garbo came there for treatment, but that would have been unusual. King died in 1921, Garbo didn't leave Sweden for Hollywood until 1924. Oakwood was on the way out by that point, eventually closing during the Great Depression. As an abandoned building and grounds, by the 1950s people were convinced that the site of Oakwood Springs was haunted. It became a place where local kids would sneak in, run around and scare themselves. After all, it was literally an abandoned and creepy old crazy house. The most popular story was that you could often hear screaming coming from the building, even when there was no one in it. If you've ever played the game Dungeons and Dragons, one of the creators, Gary Guyjax, used to run around the Oakwoods as a boy and was inspired by its spooky abandoned halls when he was later creating the dungeon crawls of his famous game. Now there is a particular hypothesis about hauntings called the Stone Tape Theory. It's the idea that ghosts and hauntings are like tape recordings, and that electrical mental impressions released during emotional or traumatic events can somehow be stored in rocks or walls and then will replay under certain conditions. That's how old records work. You scrape a needle over a vinyl groove and you can hear the Beatles. Could the same thing be happening under natural circumstances? People who are mentally ill are often under severe trauma, even if it's in their own heads. It's real pain to them. It doesn't mean the energy is dark or evil a lot of times, but could that energy have been saved in its surroundings to be played back every so often when the conditions are perfectly right? Well, probably not at the Oakwood. The sanitarium was eventually raised in 1959. Havenwood apartments was built over the property, but that has not stopped reports of weird sounds, footsteps and yes, screams coming from the property. If these hauntings were just grooves in the walls, the walls aren't there anymore. The patients at Dr. King's sanitarium can sometimes still be heard in the halls of Havenwood over a hundred years later. Hopefully after death, they have been able to find some of the peace that they were denied in life. But with restless supernatural screams, it sounds like they still have a ways to go. Is it possible to be killed by a meteorite? Yes, of course it is, but until now it has been difficult to find convincing evidence of such an event actually taking place in historical records. While examining several old documents, researchers say they have uncovered the first solid evidence of someone being killed by a meteorite. The incident took place on August 22, 1888 in what is now Iraq. Our planet experiences falls of meteorites with different air bursts and ground impact risk. Some of the meteors can survive after the atmospheric passage and fall into the ground. Although there are claims that people were hit and killed by meteorites in history, the historical records do not prove this fact so far. This issue might be due to the fact that either the manuscript was written in a language other than English or there is not enough interest in historical records. To the best of our knowledge, according to the document that was found, we show the first proof of an event ever that a meteorite hit and killed a man and left paralyzed another on August 22, 1888 in Suleymanaya, Iraq, based on three manuscripts written in Ottoman Turkish that were extracted from the general directorate of state archives of the presidency of the Republic of Turkey. This event was also reported to Abdul Hamid II, the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire by the governor of Suleymanaya. These findings suggest other historical records might still exist that describe other events that caused deaths and injuries by meteorites, according to researchers who wrote the study and published it in the journal Meteoritex and Planetary Science. The results of the study are based on three documents written by local authorities. Each and every one of these old papers written in Ottoman Turkish describe the same event. The language is very difficult to translate, which can explain why these historical records have gone unnoticed for so long. As Ottoman Turkish researcher Eleazar Bernbaum wrote in a 1967 paper, the language is unique for how long it took scholars to transliterate the outmoded alphabet. Turkey switched to the Roman alphabet in the 1920s. It was the literary vehicle of one of the world's greatest empires, an empire which was literate in the three greatest literary languages of the Islamic world, Bernbaum explained. The accounts describe how a meteor struck a pyramid-shaped hill in Suleymanaya, or modern Iraq, creating an airburst. Some of the meteor fragments destroyed the crops, ruined hundreds of square miles of forest, and killed two men. Material evidence of the meteor has not been found, but some rocks from the impact site were reportedly sent to Ottoman authorities. While investigating this incident, researchers say they have also encountered documents stating that some meteorite samples were delivered to what is now the Archaeology Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Based on the study documentation, scientists think there is enough proof to claim this was the first historical account of someone being killed by space debris. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darren at WeirdDarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. And you can find the show on Facebook and Twitter, including the show's Weirdo's Facebook group, on the contact social page at WeirdDarkness.com. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, click on Tell Your Story. 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. The haunting of Goat Man's Bridge was by Natasha Ishak for all that is interesting. The Lake Boat of Murders was written by Orrin Gray for the lineup. The hibernating woman is from Animalian.com. An uber mistake is by Chrissy Stockton for Thought Catalog. The Lake Geneva Sanitariums is from American Ghost Walks. And hit by a meteor is by Jan Bartek for Ancient Pages. Again, you can find a link to all of those stories in the show notes. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. 1 John 4 verse 1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. And a final thought. Start every day with a new hope. Leave bad memories behind and have faith for a better tomorrow. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.